The Farm Journal notes: "Germantown, where the editor of the Gardener's Monthly resides, a suburb of Philadelphia, is admitted to be one of the most beautiful towns in the country. It contains almost numberless charming residences, and nearly every place has a front and side yard, more or less extensive. But just now the town is fearfully disfigured by the practice, almost universal, of spreading manure upon every grass plot, so that Germantown presents the appearance of a vast collection of cow-yards, lacking only the cows to make the picture complete in its ugliness. It is a pity people will not learn to use concentrated fertilizers to enrich their lawn and door-yards".