n years' rest upon the
completion of only one of his ponderous octavos; and the wonder is the
greater, that London wrought in his later years under all the
disadvantages of appeals from rapacious creditors and the infirmities of
a broken constitution. Crippled, palsied, fevered, for a long period of
years, he still wrought on with a persistence that would have broken
many a strong man down, and only yielded at last to a bronchial
affection which grappled him at his work.

This author massed together an amount of information upon the subjects
of which he treated that is quite unmatched in the whole annals of
agricultural literature. Columella, Heresbach, Worlidge, and even the
writers of the "Geoponica," dwindle into insignificance in the
comparison. He is not, indeed, always absolutely accurate on historical
points;[33] but in all essentials his books are so complete as to have
made them standard works up to a time long subsequent to their issue.

* * * * *

No notice of the agricultural literature of the early part of this
century would be at all complete without mention of the Magazines and
Society "Transactions," in which alone some of the best and most
scientific cultivators communicated their experience or suggestions to
the public. Loudon was himself the editor of the "Gardener's Magazine";
and the earlier Transactions of the Horticultural Society are enriched
by the papers of such men as Knight, Van Mons, Sir Joseph Banks, Rev.
William Herbert, Messrs. Dickson, Haworth, Wedgwood, and others. The
works of individual authors lost ground in comparison with such an array
of reports from scientific observers, and from that time forth
periodical literature has become the standard teacher in what relates to
good culture. I do not know what extent of good the newly instituted
Agricultural Colleges of this country may effect; but I feel quite safe
in saying that our agricultural journals will prove always the most
effective teachers of the great mass of the farming-population. The
London Horticultural Society at an early day established the Chiswick
Gardens, and these, managed under the advice of the Society's Directors,
have not only afforded an accurate gauge of British progress in
horticulture, but they have furnished to the humblest cultivator who has
strolled through their inclosures practical lessons in the craft of
gardening, renewed from month to month and from year to year. It is