The late Horticultural Exhibitions mark progress in almost every department At the New York Agricultural Fair, the Horticultural Society was on hand and made a fine display of fruits and flowers - Ellwanger & Barry taking the first prizes for everything competed for They exhibited 500 varieties of pears, apples, and plums, and 300 of pears alone; Messrs. Hooker were also well represented, as were W. S. Carpenter, A. P. Saul & Co,, W. L. Ferris, John Be Wolf, E. A. Stevens, W. A. Darling, Prof Mapes, and J. Buchanan, of Astoria. Mrs. Fidelia B. Durfee, of Fall River, Mass., had the finest display of hothouse grapes, - and many competed for American varieties; the prizes were numerous. Both here, and at the Brooklyn exhibition, inconvenience was experienced from the unpropitious character of the weather, and the same may be said of the Philadelphia display, rain falling nearly the whole time. Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of the Herald, exhibited pumpkins weighing 175 pounds, and seems to be welcomed to the region of horticulture in which his interest seems to increase, taking premiums also for other articles.

At Brooklyn and Philadelphia, Ellwanger & Barry again carried the day; at the former Mr. John Ellis's grapes got the award, and at the latter Edward Yarnall exhibited as fine bunches as have been seen. The floral exhibition at South Hall, New York, was enlivened by a representation of Miss Flora McFlimsey, whose externals were flowers, for the display of which her hoops made a most convenient clothes-line, and her "owner and maker," Mr. Wm. Fitzpatrick, showed his originality; roses, dahlias, verbenas, and marry-golds, as a wag called them, never danced together so merrily.

Our table is covered with "reports," premium lists and awards; these have appeared in the local papers, and our space would be entirely filled were we to attempt to copy them; the Horticulturist is now so largely circulated from Canada to California, that we have been led to doubt the necessity of extensively reporting many local premiums, believing that our readers in each place have read them before our monthly issue reaches their respective homes, and that our space can be more profitably filled with matter that is not found in the local issues; for instance, a reader in Montreal or Quebec cares little, in fact, would probably not read the names of the Messrs. Jones or Smiths who took a premium in California, and the numerous readers in the Southern States would scarcely appreciate the fact that Mr. Robinson had a premium in Saco, Maine. Where there is value and novelty in fruit, new modes of cuitiva. tion, etc. etc., the reader may expect to hear in these pages all about it; but a monthly journal that would undertake to chronicle all the successful efforts that are annually made, would find no space for discussion, or in fact anything else.

We make these remarks in reply to the many applications received to report from various State and Comity exhibitions that are already well reported at home; wife these requests we should be greatly disposed to comply, for each has its distinct interest to the individual exhibitors, but our limited space forbids; we have visited personally many displays, have sympathized with the exhibitors, and would be most happy .if we thought a thorough record of each was appropriate reading for a monthly journal it would certainly be the easiest mode of filling our pages, but who would read it except those who have read it before! We are in search of information from every quarter, but have serious doubts of the propriety of making our record up of premium lists and names of plants and flowers already known to all.

The Agricultural Fairs are now over. They have excited unusual interest, and have been well attended and profitable; especially those held near the great cities. This feature of having the sympathies of the town's people is to be noted, for it helps to convert a set of non-producers into active farmers. Many an impetus to country life is received at these exhibitions, the increasing appetite for which is a wholesome symptom. We sincerely wish we had more ample space to record the active doings of Agriculturists and Horticulturists throughout the land.

A new Fruit-Growers' Society has been inaugurated in Lancaster, Penn., which we are glad to record. No county that we know has greater capabilities than Lancaster, and none of equal wealth has more neglected the growth of the finer fruits. The object of this Society will be the " collection and dissemination of the observations, experiments and skill of our best pomologists; the diseases and insects injurious to fruit and fruit-trees, and their remedies; quality of soil and modes of culture; the best varieties to cultivate, etc., etc.

The meeting at once proceeded to organize itself into a society, and elected the following gentlemen to fill the several offices until the annual meeting: President - J. K. Eshleman; Vice-Presidents - Edward Jessop, Jonathan C. Baldwin, and J. Jay Libhart; Recording Secretary - Thomas M. Harvey; Corresponding Secretary - Chas. Dingee; Treasurer - J. B. Garber.

The remainder of the session was profitably spent in discussing the subject of trenching; the diseases of the grape prevalent in eastern Pennsylvania, pear blight, and cracking of the fruit; best varieties of the pear to cultivate on quince stock; curculio and black-knot in the plum-tree, etc., etc.

This is what is wanted, and we augur the best results from so good a beginning. Is there any reason why this Society should not be as useful as that at Rochester, diffusing a general taste, and soon indoctrinating this great county with a love of the orchard and garden, in which, we regret to say it, there is great room for improvement.

"The Gardens of England." By E. Adveno Brooke. Dedicated to the Dutchess of Sutherland. London: T. McClean, 26 Haymarket. - There are some books so very expensive that they seldom find their way to the conductors of the press, and consequently they remain unknown to a large mass of even the reading public. This brings us naturally to the topic which is getting to be gradually exploded, that the gift of a book demands the return of a complimentary notice. Nothing that an editor can do is more unjust to his readers, provided he does not read the book, or praises as a matter of course. The press teems with worthless works, and periodicals assist by their notice in the dissemination of trash; the best books do not require puffing in order to get purchasers; readers of education distinguish between the good and the bad, and we are constantly reminded of the folly of those editors who fall into the error of endeavoring to make the poor take the place of good literature. Nevertheless there still prevails the practice of giving a quid pro quo with some poverty-stricken periodicals, to whom even a poor book has the appearance of bread and butter; they never see the good works, and do not care even to read those to which they give a certain kind of notoriety.

This course is a great injury to our literature, and misleads the bookseller, who learns to think it is no matter what sort of books he publishes since all receive equal laudation.

"The Gardens of England" is sold for about forty dollars; it is the most gorgeously colored and most attractive work that has appeared on the subject, conveying to the eye the beautiful gardens strewed with vases, statues, noble fountains, ribbon gardens, rock work, covered ways made by hedges, and all the beauties of the English style of gardening. Printed by chromo-lttbography, often with as much as fourteen colors, the groupings having the tint of an Italian sky. The pictures of Elvaston Castle grounds with their wonderful evergreens, will attract the planter and lover of ornamentation perhaps more than the ornate pleasure grounds of the Marquis of Westminster or the Dutchess of Sutherland. The extent to which gardening is carried abroad, the expense incurred, and the care required to keep flower gardens as neat as the neatest parlor, is exhibited in the several pictures with admirable effect. No place of much cost is complete without water; lakes, fountains, the former though shallow, and the latter superb, are procured by pumping with steam engines. The Earl of Carlisle's place, Castle Howard, has two engines of thirty horse-power each, to supply these luxuries, and 80,000 plants are required every year to fill the acres of flower gardens.

Sometimes a gentleman of moderate income fills his lake by means of a hand-pump; we have even seen a gardener exhibit this fact with great glee, saying that "with the new well " they had less labor than formerly. The overflow from the Queen's grand lake, Virginia water, so large as to have a miniature frigate upon it mauned by real sailors, is about as great as the discharge from two city hydrants! The climate allows of water being exposed in these artificial lakes without its becoming offensive, just as it might do in our northern climates.

We have prepared a few wood-cuts for an early future number of the Horticulturist to exhibit the manner in which trees are cut, by what is called topiary work, into various forms by a not difficult process. These figures, in living wood and leaves, are becoming again the fashion in highly artificial grounds; meantime we recommend all who can get a peep at "The Gardens of England " to do so without delay.