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HORTICULTUEIST

AND

JOUMAL OF EUIIAL AET AND EURAL TASTE,

DEVOTED TO

HORTICULTURE, LANDSCAPE GARDENING, RURAL ARCHITECTURE, BOTANY,
POMOLOGY. ENTOMOLOGY, RURAL ECONOMY, &.c.

Edited By A. J. DOWNING,

AUTHOR OF ''LANDSCAPE GARDEXING," " DKSIGNS FOR COTTAGE RESIDENCES," "FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES

OF AMERICA," KTC, ETC.

Vol. II.— July 1847- June 1848.

ALBANY:
PUBLISHED BY LUTHER TUCKER.

BOSTON — JOSEPH BRECK AND CO., NO. 51 NORTH MARKET-STREET.

NEW-YORK — M. H. NEWM.\N AND CO., 199 BROADWAY.

PHILADELPHIA — GEO- B. ZIEBER AND CO.

THE

JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

JULY, 1847.

No. 1.

The multiplication of Horticultural So-
cieties is taking place so rapidly of late, in
various parts of the country, as to lead one
to reflect somewhat on their influence, and
that of the art they foster, upon the char-
acter of our people.

Most persons, no doubt, look upon them
as performing a work of some usefulness
and elegance, by prom.oting the culture of
fruits and floAVers, and introducing to all
parts of the country the finer species of ve-
getable productions. In other words, they
are thought to add very considerably to the
amount of physical gratifications which eve-
ry American citizen endeavors, and has a
right to endeavor, to assemble around him.

Granting all the foregoing, we are in-
clined to claim also, for horticultural pur-
suits, a political and moral influence vastly
more significant and important than the
mere gratification of the senses. We
think, then, in a few words, that Horticul-
ture and its kindred arts, tend strongly to
fix the habits, and elevate the character of
our whole rural population.

One does not need to be much of a phi-
losopher to remark that one of the most
striking of our national traits, is the spirit
OF unrest. It is the grand energetic ele-
ment which leads us to clear vast forests,

and settle new States, with a rapidity un-
paralleled in the world's history ; the spirit,
possessed with which, our yet comparative-
ly scanty people do not find elbow-room
enough in a territory already in their pos-
session, and vast enough to hold the great-
est of ancient empires ; Avhich drives the
emigrant's wagon across vast sandy deserts
to California, and over Rocky Mountains
to Oregon and the Pacific ; which builds
up a great State like Ohio in 30 years, so
populous, civilized and productive, that the
bare recital of its growth sounds like a
genuine miracle to European ears ; and
which overruns and takes possession of a
whole empire, like that of Mexico, while
the cabinets of old monarchies are debating
whether or not it is necessary to interfere
and restore the balance of power in the
new world as in the old.

This is the grand and exciting side of
the picture. Turn it in another light, and
study it, and the effect is by no means so
agreeable to the reflective mind. The
spirit of unrest, followed into the bosom of
society, makes of man a feverish being, in
whose Tantalus' cup repose is the unattaina-
ble drop. Unable to take root anywhere, he
leads, socially and physically, the uncertain
life of a tree transplanted from place to

10

INFLUENCE OF HORTICULTURE.

place, and shifted to a different soil every
season.

It has been shrewdly said that what qua-
lities we do not possess, are always in our
mouths. Our countrymen, it seems to us,
are fonder of no one Anglo-Saxon word
than the term settle* It was the great ob-
ject of our forefathers to find a proper spot
to settle. Every year, large numbers of
our population from the older States, go
west to settle ; while those already west,
pidl up, with a kind of desperate joy, their
yet new-set stakes, and go farther west to
settle again. So truly national is the word,
that all the business of the country, from
State debts to the products of a " truck
farm," are not satisfactorily adjusted till
they are " settled ;" and no sooner is a pas-
senger fairly on board one of our river
steamers, than he is politely and emphati-
cally invited by a sable representative of
its executive power, to " call at the cap-
tain's office and settle /"

Yet, as a people, we are never settled.
It is one of the first points that strikes a
citizen of the old world, where something
of the dignity of repose, as well as the va-
lue of action, enters into their ideal of life.
De Tocqueville says, in speaking of our
national trait ;

" At first sight, there is something sur-
prising in this strange unrest of so many
happy men, restless in the midst of abun-
dance. The spectacle itself is, however,
as old as the world. The novelty is to see
a ivhole people furnish an exemplification
of it.

" In the United States a man builds a
house to spend his latter years in, and sells
it before the roof is on ; he brings a field
into tillage, and leaves other men to gather

* Anglo-Saxon sath-lian, from ihe verb settan, to set, to
cease from moiiou, to fix a dwelling place, lo repose, etc.

the crops ; he embraces a profession, and
gives it up ; he settles in a place, which
he soon after leaves, in order to carry his
changeable longings elsewhere. If his
private affairs leave him any leisure, he
instantly plunges into the vortex of poli-
tics ; and if at the end of a year of unre-
mitting labor, he finds he has a few days
vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him
over the vast extent of the United States,
and he will travel fifteen hundred miles in
a few days, to shake oflf his happiness."

Much as we admire the energy of our
people, we value no less the love of order,
the obedience to law, the security and re-
pose of society, the love of home, and
the partiality to localities endeared by birth
or association, of which it is in some de-
gree the antagonist. And we are therefore
deeply convinced that whatever tends, with-
out checking due energy of character, but
to develop along Avith it certain virtues
that will keep it within due bounds, may
be looked upon as a boon to the nation.

Now the difference between the son of
Ishmael, who lives in tents, and that man
who has the strongest attachment to the
home of his fathers, is, in the beginning,
one mainly of outward circumstances. He
whose sole property is a tent and a camel,
whose ties to one spot are no stronger than
the cords which confine his habitation to
the sandy floor of the desert, who can
break up his encampment at an hour's no-
tice, and choose a new and equally agree-
able site, fifty miles distant, the next day —
such a person is very little likely to become
much more strongly attached to any one
spot of earth than another.

The condition of a western emigrant is
not greatly dissimilar. That long covered
wagon, which is the Noah's ark of his
preservation, is also the concrete essence
of house and home to him. He emigrates,

INFLUENCE OF HORTICULTURE.

11

he " squats," he " locates," hut hefore he
can be fairlj' said to have a fixed home, the
spirit of unrest besets him ; he sells his
" diggins " to some less adventurous pio-
neer, and tackling the wagon of the wil-
derness, migrates once more.

It must not be supposed, large as is the
infusion of restlessness in our people, that
there are not also large exceptions to the
general rule. Else there would never be
growing villages and prosperous towns.
Nay, it cannot be overlooked by a careful
observer, that the tendency " to settle " is
slowly but gradually on the increase, and
that there is, in all the older portions of the
country, growing evidence that the Anglo-
Saxon love of home is gradually develop-
ing itself out of the Anglo-American love
of change.

It is not difficult to see how strongly hor-
ticulture contributes to the development of
local attachments. In it lies the most pow-
erful philtre that civilized man has yet
found to charm him to one spot of earth.
It transforms what is only a tame meadow
and a bleak aspect, into an Eden of interest
and delights. It makes all the difference
between " Araby the blest," and a pine
barren. It gives a bit of soil, too insignifi-
cant to find a place in the geography of the
earth's surface, such an importance in the
eyes of its possessor, that he finds it more
attractive than countless acres of unknown
and unexplored " territory." In other
words, it contains the mind and soul of the
man, materialized in many of the fairest
and richest forms of nature, so that he
looks upon it as tearing himself up, root and
branch, to ask him to move a mile to the
right or the left. Do we need to say more,
to prove that it is the panacea that really
" settles " mankind ?

It is not therefore, without much plea-
surable emotion, that we have had notice

lately of the formation of five new Horti-
cultural societies, the last at St. Louis, and
most of them west of the Alleghanies.
Whoever lives to see the end of the next
cycle of our race, will see the great valleys
of the west, the garden of the world, and
we watch with interest the first develop-
ment, in the midst of the busy fermenta-
tion of its active masses, of that beautiful
and quiet spirit, of the joint culture of the
earth and the heart, that is destined to give
a tone to the future character of its untold
millions.

The increased love of home and the gar-
den, in the older States, is a matter of every
day remark ; and it is not a little curious,
that just in proportion to the intelligence
and settled character of its population, is
the amount of interest manifested in horti-
culture. Thus, the three most settled of
the original States, we suppose to be Mas-
sachusetts, New-York and Penns3dvania ;
and in these States horticulture is more
eagerly pursued than in any others. The
first named State has now seven horticultu-
ral societies ; the second, seven ; the third
three. Following out the comparison in
the cities, we should say that Boston had
the most settled population, Philadelphia
the next, and New- York the least so of any
city in the Union ; and it is well known
that the horticultural society of Boston is
at this moment the most energetic one in
the country, and that it is stimulated by the
interest excited by societies in all its neigh-
boring towns. The Philadelphia society is
exceedingly prosperous ; while in New-
York, we regret to say, that the numerous
efforts that have been made to establish
firmly a society of this kind have not, up to
this time, resulted in any success whatever.
Its mighty tide of people is as yet too much
possessed with the spirit of business and
of unrest.

12

SCIENCE OF GARDENING.

REMARKS ON THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING— No. TL
BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I.

Earths and Soils, — 'In our first article,*
introductory to the series, an attempt was
made to show that gardening was an art of
far higher pretensions than those persons
can admit it to be, who look only to the
routine of the mechanical operations which
attend it. And also, by referring to the
mighty agents which are constantly exert-
ed in effecting the development and pro-
gress of every plant, from the humblest
moss to the largest tree, we hoped to make
it evident that it ought to be treated and
studied as a science, which can never be
duly appreciated until its principles be
taught in seminaries, or in classes attached
to horticultural societies, by men of talent
and sound practical knowledge.

Earths and soils being essential to the
growth of plants, and, to a certain extent,
familiarly known to every one, claim our
first attention ; yet it must be confessed,
that to attain a perfect understanding of
their structure and components, would de-
mand a profundity of chemical knowledge
which few can hope to acquire. The stu-
dent must not therefore, be perplexed by
any attempt to enter into the mysteries of
science, consequently we restrict ourselves
to the pointing out of Avhat ought to be,
and may be known, The great object we
desire to accomplish, must be left to time
and circumstances.

The very term earth, involves a tissue of
errors and misconceptions, which are the
sources of many of the failures that profes-
sional men, in common with amateurs, are
subj ected to. Loam is a word in the mouth
of every one ; we meet with it on every

* Vol. I., p. 505.

horticultural page ; but who understands
it ? Agricultural chemists have felt the
importance of the difficulty, and have writ-
ten and lectured on the subject of analysis
of soils, yet their labors have not been duly
appreciated.

By this term analysis, is to be understood
the dissolution, disseverment, or entire sep-
aration of parts, under powerful chemical
agency ; and therefore, we at once perceive
how difficult it is for those who are not
familiar with the processes of the laborato-
ry, to investigate satisfactorily the proper-
ties of earths and soils. Yet we unhesi-
tatingly affirm, that a complete understand-
ing of their agency in the process of culti-
vation, cannot be had, without the assist-
ance of analytic chemistry ; therefore, we
claim that this branch of science ought to
become a part of horticultural education.
So far, we have gained a point ; for if it be
true that a soil, in order to be properly ap-
plied to a plant, should be thoroughly
known, then the science of analysis should
be taught to the youth of the rising gene-
ration, whose aim it is to keep pace with
the intelligence of the age.

But though we claim this admission, we
are conscious that in the present state of
knowledge, any attempt to elucidate the di-
rect processes of analysis would be embar-
rassing ; therefore, we propose to adopt a
more simple order of investigation, by
which we hope to remove difficulties, and
to instruct any one to acquire, with some
degree of precision and certainty, the esti-
mated componency of an earth, and its ap-
plicability to the operations of horticulture.

In the first number of the Journal of the

SCIENCE OF GARDENING.

13

Royal Agricultural Society of England, is
a prize essay on soils, by the Rev. Mr.
Rhara. This gentleman, perceiving the
difficulties attendant upon a regular analy-
sis by chemical agents, devised and pro-
pounded a mechanical process, which pos-
sesses high merit. It has been honorably
noticed in several periodicals, but, able as
it is, the processes described are too elabo-
rate for ordinary practice. Something more
simple will answer better.

The three chief earths, which will be
found in almost every good garden, are
loam, heath earth (erroneously termed peat,)
and leaf mould. Sand of every kind is in
constant requisition ; that is, pure silver, or
glass-house sand, which needs no investi-
gation, for it is little else than flint in a
state of minute division, and therefore not
susceptible of decomposition.

Loam is the staple of the land ; it occurs
abundantly, but varies extremely in its tex-
ture and quality. That kind which is pro-
pitious to every operation of the garden and
floriculture, is soft, and smooth or unctuous,
but so little liable to adhere or clo.d, that if
a handful of it be tightly compressed, when
just so moist as to be in a fit condition for
potting, and be suffered to fall from the
hand, it will break on the ground into fine
particles. Such a loam will remain firm,
yet open, in a garden pot, without cracking
into fissures or detaching itself from the
sides. It is composed of pure clay, very
fine sand, iron in a condition resembling
ochre, and generally a small proportion of
chalk. In naming pure clay (alumina,) Ave
do not mean clay in the common sense of
the term, because the stiffest and most bind-
ing clays of the field contain a very large
proportion of sand. But to prove the ex-
istence of the above named earths, recourse
must be had to chemistry ; yet as it is not
our present object so to do, our investiga-

tion must be confined to texture only ; there-
fore, whenever it is intended to compare
two kinds of loam, the gardener should pos-
sess himself of a sort he knows to be good,
approaching in quality to that above de-
scribed, and by submitting it to the follow-
ing simple operations two or three succes-
sive times, in order to prevent error in ear-
ly practice, a standard will be obtained by
which to judge of the value and applicabi-
lity of any loam that is found elsewhere.
The instruments of analysis will consist of a
pair of scales, sufficiently accurate to detect
a single grain, a set of troy weights, three
or four jugs or tall narrow glasses with lips,
a strainer with fine holes, a small hair sieve,
another of gauze, a glass funnel, a few
folded pieces of white filtering paper, a
small Wedgwood mortar with a lip and pes-
tle, and two or three tumblers. These will
form a very ample set of utensils ; though,
with the scales, two small jugs, the mortar,
and a few cups, all may be done th^it is ne-
cessarj'.

Process : — Collect a specimen of the loam
to be examined, dry it in the sun, and re-
move any stones or pieces of wood that
may be among it. Then weigh an ounce
or half an ounce, troy or apothecary's
weight — the first 480 grains, the latter 240.
Rub the earth in the mortar, so as to detach
the gritty sand, and separate that by the
sieve. Weigh the grit, and note the weight
in grains : again weigh the fine siftings ac-
curately, and make up any loss by a little
more fine earth : then dry it in a saucer at
a heat of about 250 degrees. Weigh it
while hot, and the loss will show the quan-
tity of moisture which the soil retains natu-
rally, however dry it may appear. This
moisture it will attract again by being ex-
posed to the atmosphere.

Return the fine earth to the mortar, and
rub it with water, gradually added, till a

14

bCIENCE OF GARDENING.

separation of parts be apparent ; then pour
off the floating matter, and repeat the rub-
bing and washing with fresh water, till no-
thing but sand remain in the mortar : dry
this sand by placing the mortar on a grate
or stove. In the meantime all the waters
being collected together in one jug or glass,
will gradually deposit the fine particles, and
the liquor will exhibit more or less color,
resulting from vegetable or other manuring
substances contained in the earth.

This earth and water should next be well
mixed, and after standing quiet for a mi-
nute or two, be poured into another vessel
slowly and cautiously, because some sand
will pass from the mortar, and this must be
separated by repeated washings.

This second process will separate the fine
matter of the soil, and the sediment can
readily be collected by pouring off the wa-
ter that appears quite clear, and then the
remainder with the sediment, either into a
plate or a paper filter previously weighed
and placed in a funnel. In either case, the
few particles remaining in the jug must be
removed by a little more water, and added
to the rest, or be wiped off with a piece of
dry linen accurately weighed beforehand.
The earthy sediment is to be first dried by
slow evaporation, and then by a heat equal
to that which was employed in the first in-
stance. All the dried products are to be
weighed, and when three experiments of
the kind have been completed, the operator
may reach his conclusions. Thus, of 240
grains, 120 may be of i\ie fine ear^ As, which
we call clay, as they contain all the alumi-
na of the soil ; 20 grains of coarse sand,
separated by sifting, and 90 grains oi fine
sand, left by the several washings. Some
loss there undoubtedly is, and 10 grains is
not too great an allowance in 240.

By this investigation, it is evident we do

not detect the chalk, iron, or pure clay ; nor
can we hope to do so, without chemical
agency ; but the discovery has been made,
how to compare one soil with another, and we
can now form some idea of the errors and
failures which attend a vague and random
use of terms, and no longer take it for
granted that the loam of a Flushing nurse-
ry is identical with one so called in Ohio.

But there is also vegetable nutritive mat-
ter in all loams, and a portion of this is so-
luble in water : the actual weight of it may
be ascertained by taking a fourth parcel of
the dried, powdered loam, and keeping it
at a full red heat till there remain no black
color in the earth after becoming cold ; the
loss of weight will then show the quantity
of vegetable fibre (or of the substance now
called humus,) which the loam contained j
and thus its fertilizing qualities will be
more readily estimated. It is astonishing
to what extent sand may exist in a loam,
and yet leave it hard bound after watering ;
a sharp, harsh, gravelly grit may form three
parts of four of a loam that then remains
quite intractable ; therefore we advise the
gardener to attend strictly to the texture of
the sand which, in the best loams, is finer
than silver sand ; upon this ingredient de-
pends the softness of the loam, and its fit-
ness for the purposes of pot culture. If
equal parts of this fine earth and heath soil
be required for a certain tribe of plants, a
gardener who has only a stiff and rigid
loam at command, must only use one-third
or less of it, otherwise he must fail in keep-
ing his plants in health.

Of leaf mould and manure, we must
speak in another article. Sand — pure sand
— requires no analysis ; but pit sand should
be washed. Heath soils differ exceedingly,
yet all contain iron. They only require the
operation of fire to ascertain their relative

EFFECTS OF LOCUSTS ON TREES.

15

value. Each specimen should be dried,
weighed, and burned in a crucible, or iron
ladle, till nothing but sand remain; the

loss of weight will then show how much
vegetable matter each parcel contained.
Wm. W. Valk, M. D.

EFFECTS OF THE SEVENTEEN YEAR LOCUST ON THE ROOTS OF TREES.

BY J. A. K., ALBANY.

Mb. Downing — In the proceedings of the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia, of Nov. and Dec, 1846, are reported
some remarks by Miss Morkis, in relation
to the larvae of the locust ( Cicada septem-
decim) preying upon the roots of fruit trees.
As relating to the article in the November
number of the Horticulturist, upon " Eeno-
vating an ' outcast ' pear tree," you may
deem them sufficiently interesting and im-
portant to lay before the readers of your
valuable journal.

Before copying the remarks of Miss M.,
allow me to make some suggestions respect-
ing the experiment of ' J. B. W.' detailed
in the number of the ' Horticulturist' refer-
red to.

Cutting off a portion of the roots of an
old tree, in order to restore it to healthful
vigor and fruitfulness, may be justified by
reasons which I do not understand, but I
confess the practice appears to me quite un-
natural. This of course has .no reference
to dead or much injured roots. To ampu-
tate such, is reasonable enough ; but to cut
off all the roots, indiscriminately, at a given
distance from the tree, is the point except-
ed to.

The rationale of ' J. B. W/s ' experi-
ment, as given, is, that the tree had ex-
hausted the proper elements from the soil,
in consequence of which the fruit failed.
These elements were restored, by the fresh
earth mixed with the scoriae, charcoal, and
potash.

Miss Morris, as you will perceive, gives
another and different explanation. She
supposes the larvcB of the Cicada to have
been the real cause of disease, and in cut-
ting off the roots, they were removed, and
the trees then left free ' to take advantage
of the congenial soil placed around them.'

Assuming the first, as the true cause of
the evil, I would suggest, that the remedy
was very imperfectly applied — the renova-
ted soil being merely presented at the ex-
tremities of the roots ; whereas they should
have been entirely uncovered and the new
soil covered over them.

Also the practice of 'J. B. W.' was not
adapted to the larva theory. For there is
no reason to suppose the larvce occupied the
extremities of the roots any more than the
inner portions ; and particularly too, if Miss
M.'s inference be true, that ' the grubs ne-
ver leave the roots they first fasten on,' and
therefore cutting off the extremities would
not remove the evil.

Nor do I think the result of the experi-
ment in question, affords even presumptive
evidence, that the plan adopted was the
best. Only two bushels from one tree, and
four from the other, the third year after the
remedy was applied, and that from full
grown trees. Now, I have faith to believe,
that if your excellent correspondent, ' J. B.
W.,' had omitted the procrustean operation
upon the roots, and had simply removed the
old soil and substituted the new, as already
suggested, and as his trees were probably

16

EFFECTS OF LOCUSTS ON TREES,

suffering in part from the Cicada, if he had
scraped the roots while uncovered, and
brushed them over with the soft soap, to
destroy the larva, not omitting the outside
process of ' heading back the top,' scraping
the bark, &c., that the third year would
have affbrded him three times six bushels
from the two trees.

But I beg pardon for keeping you so long
from the article of Miss Morkis. Here it
is, verbatim et literatim :

" I have for a number of years, believed
that the failure of fruit on trees over twen-
ty years old, was mainly owing to the rava-
ges of the larvae of the Cicada septemdeci?n,
though entomologists have heretofore con-
sidered them harmless, or nearly so, believ-
ing that the principal injury caused by them
was received on the branches of the trees
when depositing their eggs. But from the
fact of their burrowing into the earth the
moment of their escape from the eggs, and
their living, as all acknowledgCj on the sap
of the roots of plants, I was led to think
that the constant drain of sap required to
nourish so many thousands of grubs, of
from a quarter of an inch to an inch in
lengthj must be more than a tree could live
through) and yield good fruit. . I was con-
firmed in this opinion, by an experiment
made by J. B. W., New* York, and publish-
ed in the November number of the Horti-
culturist, page 227i The method prescribed
to renovate an outcast, is to dig a trench
four feet wide and twenty inches deep,
around the tree, leaving a ball of earth six
feet in diameter, and then to fill the trench
with rich earth and compost. The author
states that the experiment succeeded, and
that in three years the tree was in a flour-
ishing condition and yielded fine fruit. The
writer attributes the change to the new and
rich soil with which he supplied the tree.
I argue, that on cutting off the larvae of the

Cicada, which he did when he cut off* so
large a portion of the roots, he removed the
real disease, and the tree was then in a
condition to take advantage of the congenial
soil placed around it ; and new life was
given to roots and branches. Under this
impression, I superintended a similar expe-
riment on a pear tree that had been declin-
ing for years, without any apparent cause,
and agreeably to my expectations, I found
the larv(B of the Cicada in countless num-
bers clinging to the roots of the tree, with
their suckers piercing the bark, and so deep
and firmly placed, that they remained hang-
ing for half an hour after being removed
from the earth. From a root a yard long,
and about an inch in diameter, I gathered
twenty-three larvse j they were of various
sizes, from a quarter of an inch to an inch
in length. They were on all the roots that
grew deeper than six inches below the sur-
face. The roots were unhealthy, and bore
the appearance of external injury from
small punctures. On removing the outer
coat of bark, this appearance increased,
leaving no doubt as to the cause of the dis-
ease.

" The larves were enclosed in a compact
cell of earth, with no outlet except that in
immediate contact with the root, and as
there were no galleries or holes leading
from these cells, I infer that the grubs ne-
ver leave the roots they first fasten on ;
which may account for the great difference
of size : the small ones being starved spe-
cimens of the same brood ; though I am in-
clined to believe that there are two species,
differing sufficiently in size to account for
the discrepancy in the size of the larvas
now found. I noticed this difference in
1817, and again in 1834 : the note of the
smaller variety, or species, is much shriller
than that of the larger, and will never be
mistaken when noticed.

EFFECTS OF LOCUSTS ON TREES.

17

The Cicada is too well known to need a
description here ; I will therefore only no-
tice its habits, as they have fallen under my
own observation, and make a few extracts
from an article published in the National
Gazette, and written b}^ my brother, Mr.
Thomas W. Morris, in 1834.

The eggs require forty-two days to
mature in the branches of the tree ; they
then burst the shell and appear, a minute
but active fac simile of the parent in the
larva state, except the absence of the wing
cases ; they require but a few moments to
stretch their limbs and prepare for labor,
before they unloose their hold on the twigs
on which they had been deposited, and fall
to the ground, where they immediately dis-
appear in search of food in the roots of the
tree. If the eggs that are about to hatch,
be placed over a glass jar filled with earth,
the young grubs will, in a few hours after
their escape from the eggs, be seen at the
bottom of the jar, endeavoring to force
their way still deeper. When first hatch-
ed, they are quite white, but soon change
to yellowish brown. They exist in sepa-
rate tribes, occupying different sections of
country; making their appearance in dif-
ferent years, but invariably after the same
interval of time. For a year or two before
the arrival of the main body, a few scat-
tered individuals are generally found,

Mr. Morris thus describes them, as no-
ticed by him at various times and places :

" In November, 1812, I found a large
number of locust grubs under an old apple
tree, between two and three feet below the

I surface, having every appearance of such
as now issue from the ground, and nearly
of the same size. On the 27th of June,
1815, 1 saw a portion of one of their count-
less tribes west of the Alleghany moun-
tains, extending from the summit of the
Chestnut ridge into the State of Ohio, be-
yond Steubenville ; occupying every shrub
and tree, except the pines, and the walnut,
hickory, and some of the same family. On
my return in the latter end of the following
month, not an individual of the m)Tiads
which had occupied that space, was to be
seen ; the tops of the forests, for upwards
of a hundred miles, appeared as if scorch-
ed by fire. In 1832, just seventeen years
after, I noticed a newspaper paragraph,
which slated that the locust had appeared
in that neighborhood in large numbers.

The northern parts of Pennsylvania and
New-Jersey were visited by them in 1826,
Avhen I had another opportunity of seeing
this extraordinary insect. On my way from
Easton, through New-Jersey to Milford, in
Pike county, Pennsylvania, I fell in with a
very numerous body ; how far they extend-
ed, I was unable to learn, but they did not
disappear from my route until after passing
through a large part of Pike county, a dis-
tance by the road, of more than sixty miles
from the place where I saw them on the
23d of May. Trees and shrubs are neces-
sary as places of deposit for their eggs ;
consequently, though numerous in the State
House Square, none were to be found in
Washington Square, which, in 1817, Avas
destitute of trees," j. a. k.

The Loudon pension. — The British govern- I on his country by his writings on rural sub-
ment has given a life pension of £500 to Meets — a pension quite as worthily bestow-
the widow of the late John Loudon, in con- ed as those on warriors, novelists, and po-
sideration of the great benefits conferred ) liticians.
3

18

THREE FINE WESTERN APPLES.

DESCRIPTION OF THREE FINE "WESTERN APPLES.
BY H. P. BYRAM, KENTUCKY.

Fig. 1. Pryor' s Red Api

[We are indebted to Mr.
Byram, an intelligent Ken-
tucky cultivator, for the fol-
lowing descriptions of three
celebrated western varieties
of the apple, which we have
not previously seen correct-
ly described. — Ed.]

I. Pryok's Red. — No ap-
ple commands a higher
price, or more ready sale, in
the market of New-Orleans
than Pryor's (sometimes
called Prior's) Red. Pro-
bably one-third of all the
apple trees sold at nurseries
helow Cincinnati, are of this
variety ; and it has hitherto

been difUcult to supply the
demand for it.

In form, this apple va-
ries more than many oth-
ers. The outline which I
send you, is from a fruit of
the average shape and me-
dium size. It is often
larger. Skin brownish-
yellow, slightly russetted,
tinged with red, and rather
indistinctly striped to with-
in about an inch of the
stalk, where it is marked
with clear brownish russet.
Flesh yellowish- white, of
a fine, rich, and peculiar
flavor, sub-acid, rather dry,
and very tender (resemb-

Fig, 2. Rattle's Jannett Apjile.

DESIGN FOR A RURAL COTTAGE

PLAN OF THE PRINCIPAL FLOOR.

[HorlicuItUTist, July, 1847.]

DESIGN FOR A RURAL COTTAGE.

19

ling in texture and flavor some pears that I
have eaten, more than an apple.) Calyx
small, stalk usually about three-fourths of
an inch long. Ripe from December to Feb-
ruary.

The tree is smooth, of upright, regular
growth, and bears abundant crops. While
in the nursery it produces but few branches,
and these are irregularly distributed ; the
bark is then smooth, reddish, and dotted
over with Avhite specks, not unlike the stem
of a young cherry tree.

II. Raule's Jannett. — A very productive
and highly popular orchard fruit, of the
Ohio valley. It keeps remarkably well, is
in eating from December to June.* It is
about medium size ; skin smooth, striped
with red, darker on the side next the sun,
upon a yellow ground inclining to green
near the stem ; surface partially covered with
patches of small black dots. Calyx closed,
stem half inch long. Flesh yellowish, firm,
tender, juicy, rather acid, of a mild, agree-
able flavor.

The tree grows with a spreading head,

and a clean and smooth trunk. It possesses
the remarkable peculiarity of putting forth
its leaves and blossoms nearly two weeks
later than any other apple. Hence in the
fickle climate of the south and west, it es-
capes the effects of the late frosts, which
renders it a very certain bearer.

III. Yellow or striped Jannett. — Tree
identical with the foregoing, and also very
largely cultivated. Fruit more red, and
more generally covered with the black
spots. It tapers less towards the e)-e. Flesh
of a deeper red, rather tough, and less
juicy, but higher flavored than the Raule's
Jannett, and is considered inferior to the
latter.

I met with a highly intelligent gentleman
yesterday, formerly from Virginia, who
stated to me that the Raule's Jannett was
raised a seedling by one Caleb Raules (with
whom he was acquainted,) of Amherst coun-
ty, Va., near the Blue Ridge, and from the
location he attributes its habit of putting

out so late in the season.

H. P. Byram.

Brandenburgh, Meade Co , Ey., 1817.

DESIGN FOR A RURAI. COTTAGE.

The design [see Frontispiece] offered in
this number, is for a cottage of very mode-
rate dimensions, in the English rural style.
It is of course intended for a small family,
and its merits are compactness of accom-
modation in the plan, and picturesque eflfect
in the exterior.

The ground plan of the principal floor,
fig. 4, shows a vestibule or hall, 12 by 14
feet, containing the staircase, and which,
from its form and size, makes in itself a
pretty little ante-room,

* The writer 1ms kept them firm and sound until the 4th of
August, but with the loss of much of their flavor.

This hall opens into the two principal
rooms of the cottage, viz., the parlor an4
the living-room, each 16 ft. b\' 18 ft. The
size and good effect of the parlor is increas-
ed by a pretty large bay or projecting win-
dow, outside of which is a veranda seat,
At the opposite end of the house, a small
corresponding addition, one story in height,
contains the store-room and pantry — both
opening into the living or dining room.
This cottage is supposed to have a base-
ment story, to which interior access is ob-
tained by stairs descending under those in
the hall. It contains a kitchen under the

20

CULTURE OF GERANIUMS.

living-room, store-room under the hall, and
cellars under the parlor.

The second story contains four bed-rooms.
This cottage would haA'^e the best effect if
built of brick and cement. It may also be
constructed verj'^ cheaply, and with very ex-
cellent effect, of the large unburnt brick
now coming into use in many parts of the

country, as its wide projecting roof is well
calculated to protect walls of the latter kind
against damage by the weather.

The roof itself is to be covered with
shingles of nearly uniform size, and cut
lozenge form, so as to form diamond figures
when laid, an easy and striking mode of giv-
ing an ornamental character to a wooden roof.

HINTS ON THE CULTURE OF GERANIUMS.'

BY PELARGONIUM, OF PHILADELPHIA.

I HAVE thought that a few popular hints on
the cultivation of ihe Pelargonium, at this
season of the year, will be acceptable to
some of the numerous readers of the Horti-
culturist, from one who has long cultivated
it as his favorite flower, with good success.
The Pelargonium is not only the gayest or-
nament of the conservatories of the wealthy,
at the same time, but it is no less a favorite
flower in the cottage window, and Avhere
carefully grown, is scarcely surpassed in its
masses of green verdure and clusters of
flowers of the richest colors.

I have repeatedly felt regret, when called
upon by ladies, to look at their " gerani-
ums," at seeing plants with three or four
long shoots, at the top a few leaves and or-
dinary' flowers ; and this has been the re-
ward perhaps of one or two years of care
and patience ; when at the same time those
who have the convenience, might have, with
very trifling care and expense, from the
first of April to July, plenty of flowers for
bouquets, and at the same time display par-
lor windows decorated with the finest plants.

One of the first points for the beginner
to settle is the choice of sorts : the twen-

* Strictly Pelargoniums— the division of this class of plants
popularly kiiuwa us Geraniums.

ty-five named varieties below are distinct
ones, of excellent colors, reasonable in
price, and can be obtained of any respecta-
ble nurser}Tnan : Grand Duke, Lenoxii, A-
rabella, Coronation, Jewess, Bridesmaid,
Climax, Jubilee, Matilda, Conservative,
Comte de Paris, Hebe, Nymph, Beauty of
Ware, Flash, Lord Aucland, Miss Percival,
Eliza, King, Rising Sun, Shrubland Scar-
let, Sylph, Witch, Sidonia, Louis Quatorze,
The amateur will of course require a small
greenhouse to grow the plants in. The
best place for it will be under a wall or
building that has a full exposure to the
south and east, so that the plants may have
the light and sun as early as possible in the
morning. A green-house of the small di-
mensions necessary' to grow an excellent
private collection of these plants may, in
such a place, be put up, if A'ery plainly
built, at a trifling cost. I will suppose it to
be twenty feet long, twelve broad, at the
back part ten feet high, at the front five
feet, inside measure. In a house of these
dimensions, there would be room for a stage
having six steps, each step fourteen inches
broad, the highest being four feet from the
glass, and the rest descending so that each

CULTURE OF GERANIUMS.

21

is eight inches below the other. The walk
should be three feet broad, and a small
front level stage over the flue should be two
feet broad ; this stage being two feet from
the glass, would be a convenient place for
a few calceolarias, cinerarias, or other plants
that require the same treatment as the Pe-
largoniums. In propagating the various
varieties, it will be found that a spent hot-
bed is the best place in which to plant the
cuttings. They may be taken from the old
plants anv time during the months of April
or May. After planting them in the soil of
the old hotbed, they should be well water-
ed and kept shaded during the day. As
soon as they are avcU rooted, which will be
in a few weeks, pot them into four inch
pots, in sandy loam, place them on the front
stage. The most important point now is,
the pinchiyig off the ends of the shoots, so
that the plants will make plenty of side
shoots. This attended to, gives fine round
bushy heads ; neglected, gives lean, starved
trees. Water the plants only moderately
in winter. In March, when the plants be-
gin to grow, pot them into six inch pots, in
rough rich loam — that made of old pasture
sods, well rotted, is the best. In May take
the young shoots off for cuttings, treating
them as I have already mentioned. When-
ever you observe any tendency to long, un-
sightly branches, correct it by pinching off
the ends of the shoots, so that the plants
will be bushy. The plants in the pots
should be allowed to remain in the open air
all the summer, in a somewhat shaded as-

pect, and not plunged in the ground, but
set upon a floor two or three inches thick of
coal ashes. They should be put into win-
ter quarters before the season of the first
frost. During the winter keep the house
moderately cool, and the plants rather dor-
mant. About the first of March, begin to
keep your house warmer during the night,
giving plenty of air everj- favorable day.
When the plants begin to grow finely, put
them into eight inch pots, with plenty of
drainage at the bottom (bits of charcoal are
the best drainage ;) and the plants, if well
grown, will require no tying up to stakes,
but the lowest branches will fall gently on
every side, half concealing the pot, and
forming rich bushy masses of green leaves-
Plants in this condition maj'^ be allowed to
bloom all the buds they will form.

The house once a week should be fumi-
gated with tobacco, to destroy the green
fly. Syringing over the leaves in tlie morn-
ing, will greatly add to the health and lux-
uriance of the whole collection.

Those who do not possess a green-house
of any sort, may, with the aid of a couple
of hot-bed lights and frames in which to
strike the cuttings, and by following the
simple hints I have thrown out, grow a suf-
ficiency of specimens, much more compact
and robust than are usually seen, to adorn
the parlor, plant stage, or the windows of
any well lighted apartments, hee fromfroft
and not too loarm.

Yours, Pelargonium.

Philadelphia, 1847.

Peach Crop. — It would be an interesting
statement to know how often the peach
crop fails, on the most favorable sites, in
different parts of the country. The opinion
of H. N. Langworthy, a very successful

peach raiser of Rochester, as stated in the
Genesee Farmer, is, that there is not an en-
tire failure oftener than once in ten years,
in Western New- York, or between Lewis-
ton and Sodus bay, on Lake Ontario.

22

NOTES ON THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION.

NOTES ON THE STRAV7BERRY QUESTION.

BY N. LONGWORTH, CINCINNATI, OHIO.

Dear Sir — The strawberry question at
this time gives me little trouble, as the
strawberry committee of our Horticultural
Society have the subject in charge, and
they all have botanical knowledge, joined
to personal attention to the cultivation of
the fruit ; and they will have ample oppor-
tunity the present season, thoroughly to
sift the last strong hold of the learned bo-
tanists, that " there is a third class of
plants, having all the blossoms perfect in
both male and female organs, and bearing
a full crop of perfect fruit ; and that pis-
tillate plants become staminate by run-
ning," [No ; that some perfect blossomed
sorts have a tendency to vary into barren
forms. — Ed.] Among these, are ranked
the Boston Pine, Downton, Swainstone
Seedling, Keen's Seedling, Ross' Phoenix,
Buist's Seedling, Emperor, Myatt's Pine,
Wilmot's Superb, British Queen, Grove
End Scarlet, Burr's old Seedling, and ma-
ny others. Keen and Wilmot made for-
tunes by their seedlings, yet not one of the
whole class, is possessed of any value with
us, further than as an impregnator. A per-
fect plant, except of the White and Al-
pines, I never expect to see. I have this
season, thoroughly tested this strong hold.
I obtained the Swainstone and Ross' Phoe-
nix from you. Neither of them will, in
an average of years, under any cultivation,
produce perfect fruit, on one-third of the
blossoms, and a large portion will be en-
tirely defective in female organs, and en-
tirely barren. The fruit of the Swainstone,
as far as it bears, is of the largest size. A
plant is occasionally produced, with blos-
soms on the same stem, wholly defective

in male organs, and the residue more or
less perfect in both organs. In cultivation,
I have seen one only, the Duke of Kent,
that bears a full crop. The fruit of this
plant is small.

A seedling may be produced, of this
character, from the seed of a large fruited
variety, of great value, and I Avould re-
commend persons to turn their attention to
the subject. Eberliri's Seedlings (a new
western sort,) is of this character. Such a
plant could not be called a perfect plant ;
yet it might produce a full crop of fruit, as
the pistillates would be impregnated by
their staminate neighbors, on the same or
adjoining stem. The great advantage
would be, that in planting staminates with
pistillates, the former increase so rapidly,
having no fruit to bear, that they soon
crowd the pistillates out of the bed.

About the true character of the straAvber-
ry plant, we shall no longer dispute ; and
our only surprise will be, that our horticul-
turists could have raised seedlings, and
have cultivated them for years, for sale,
and be totally ignorant of the true charac-
ter of their own progeny. Our intelligent
friend Buist, of Philadelphia, required
but a single season, after his attention was
drawn to the subject, fully to understand
and admit my propositions. I name this, that
those who still want faith may be led to seek
the truth. One cause, why you at the east
are so slow of belief, is, that you are sel-
dom willing to be instructed from the back-
woods. Yet here is the very place where
you should look for new discoveries in ag-
riculture and horticulture. You are slow
in changing long settled opinions. You

NOTES ON THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION.

23

rely on books, more than personal observa- 1
tion. In these benighted regions, as few
of us can read, we are compelled to rely
on observation, and consequently form new
opinions, and may possibly occasionally get
the start of book learning. Linn-^us told
you, " the blossom of the strawberry plant
is alwaj's perfect, in both male and female
organs, and occasional failures in blossoms
to bear fruit, are the consequence of a late
frost." Botanists have never given the sub-
ject personal observation, and have repeat-
ed the same doctrine. Most of those Avho
attend to the cultivation, have no botanical
knowledge. Finding their plants become
barren, they neglect them. And so wed-
ded are many to old theories, that even
where they raise seedlings for sale, they
cannot be made to believe, that pistillates
would not, in a thousand years, produce a
single perfect fruit, if separated from all
others ; and that siaminates Avill not, in an
average of years, bear one-third of a crop.
The rage now is for new fruits and flowers,
and our horticultural societies will be of
little value, till they promptly examine all
new plants, and report on their character
and value. It would, to the community, be
a great saving of time and labor. The
course of our societies is the reverse of
this. " A hasty plate " of new seedling
strawberries is sent them. They "hasti-
ly" report, not only on their size and quali-
ty, but their bearing character. True,
they occasionally make small mistakes.
Persons in sending Jaques' and Mottier's
seedlings to one of your societies, omitted
to send any sugar. They were " hastily "
reported sour and worthless. Not satisfied
with this cut-throat decision, Mr. Jaques
sent a second plate, and added sugar ; and
they were reported as " first rate." Mot-
tier was in the backwoods, and had not
time to send sugar, and the doom of his

seedling is sealed. Yet his seedling is of
superior flavor, being from the old Hudson,
and not readily distinguished from it.
Fifty years ago, scarcely any other was
known in New-York and Philadelphia ;
and in flavor, where sugar is plenty, it has
no superior. It has always been consider-
ed the best market strawberry. One of
our nurserj'men lately imported for sale,
one of your perfect eastern seedlings, that
will not average one-fourth of a crop of
perfect fruit. I expostulated with him. His
reply was, " I know it is Avorthless, but my
customers will have it, as it is vouched for
by eastern horticultural societies."

We shall soon know what improve-
ment, if any, can be made in raising new
varieties of strawberries from seed. Some
of our intelligent horticulturists are exten-
sively engaged in it, as a matter of amuse-
ment. But little has, in my opinion, been
done, either in Europe or America, with
the exception of Hovey's Seedling. This,
thus far, stands unrivalled for size. A new
seedling, raised in this city, by Mr. Tay-
lor, as far as I can judge from a single
season, ranks next to it. It is purely pis-
tillate, though supposed by him to be per-
fect. One of my tenants, Mr. Avoy, a garde-
ner of long experience, has upwards of one
thousand seedlings, principally from seed
of the largest fruited staminates ; a portion
of which are now in fruit. Their present
location is in poor soil. They promise to
rival the Hovey in size. Yearly, large
sums are expended in importing and ex-
tending the cultivation of new fruits. We
yearly import new seedling strawberries
from England, that are highly praised and
extensively spread through the country,
that prove to be of no value. We are
then told, they do not suit our climate.
They should be scarce in any climate.
Would it not be advisable for every horti-

24

NOTES ON THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION.

cultural society, to have a fruit committee,
whose duty it should be to examine all new
fruits, and report on their quality and bear-
ing character ?

I have said that the English staminate
strawberries, (or rather what are erroneous-
ly called perfect plants,) are of no value in
the United States, except as impregnators
to pistillates. I say this, in complaisance
to our English gardeners, who now admit
their staminates are bad bearers in Ameri-
ca, but contend that in England all the
blossoms were perfect in both organs. In
this, they mistake. In the cool climate of
England, staminates may bear better than
with us. But what confirms me in my
opinion is, that some English gardeners
east, who forced the Keen seedling about
Boston, assured me that, with them, it bore
a full crop. They will not know what a
full crop means, till they visit the strawber-
ry grounds of Mr. Culbertson, and in a
favorable season, see him pick one hundred
and twenty bushels in a single day. Mrs.
LouDERBACK, who sells large quantities of
the fruit, and also preserves it, observed to
me, that she saw more strawberries in a
single day, for sale in Cincinnati, than she
saw in Philadelphia during a season. That
she there, for the largest size for preserv-
ing, paid fifty cents per quart. It is never
safe to speak of the bearing character of
what you term perfect plants, from a single
year's experience, as the blossoms throw
out the pistils some seasons much better
than usual. For it is in pistils they are
defective. Never in stamens.

You may, within the next five years, ex-
pect a great reduction in the price of New-
ark cider, turneps and green corn, (the
rudiments of a good deal of champagne
sold in this country.) By that time, there
will be numerous establishments in our
city for the manufacture of champagne

wine, from the juice of the grape. And it
will possess a high character, and command
a high price, if we can overcome the im-
pression, that no part of the United States
is a wine region, and do not follow eastern
examples, and also manufacture from cider,
turneps and green corn. The cultivation
of the grape, is rapidly extending in this
vicinity ; and our German vine dressers
must exert all their care and skill. If they
do not, from present appearances, some of
our American grape growers will surpass
them in the quantity of wine made to the
acre, and its quality.

Yours, with regard,

N. LONGWORTH.

Cincinnati, 0., May 29, 1847.

Mr. Longworth's letter is interesting to
us, mainly because it is more definite than
usual, about the classes of strawberries.

He says, " the English staminate straw-
berries, (or rather those erroneously called
perfect plants,) are of no value in the Uni-
ted States, except as impregnators to pis-
tillates." Leaving out the English White
and Red Woods, and the Alpines, which, we
believe, our correspondent admits to bear
perfect blossoms, this divides all other
strawberries into two classes, viz : those
bearing purely pistillate blossoms, such as
Hovey^s seedling, (as generally known,)
Black Prince, Hudson, etc. ; and those with
staminate blossoms, i. e., containing sta-
mens, more or less abundant, as well as
pistils.

What we have hitherto meant, when
using the term staminate, is a strawberry
blossom in which the stamens chiefly are
developed, and the pistils only imperfectly.
And we have called those blossoms perfect,
in which the normal proportion of pistils
and stamens is preserved, such as the Duke
of Kent, Early Scarlet, Alpines, English
Woods, etc. We used these terms, because

NOTES ON THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION.

25

experience has taught us that at least all
these sorts are permanent in the habit of
bearing blossoms of the same character,
and good crops of fruit.

Besides this, we are pretty well satis-
fied, from careful observation, (and not
from theory,) that many of those kinds of
Pine strawberry, (such as Keen's Seedling,
Ross^ Phcefiix, etc.,) originally bearing blos-
soms perfect in their proportion of stamens
and pistils, are more or less liable to be-
come unproductive by running out, or varj^-
ing from their original form. Still more
recent examination of the subject, leads us
to think that this variation usually consists
in the pistils becoming abortive or imper-
fect.

This tendency to variation renders these
stamen and pistil bearing varieties (stami-
nates of Mr. Longworth,) much less cer-
tainly to be depended on for a crop than
those varieties, the blossoms of which bear
only pistils — pistillate sorts.

So far, Mr. Longworth and ourselves dif-
fer so little, that the difference is of no prac-
tical value.

When, however, he says that no stami-
nate sorts, as for example, Keen^s Seedling,
i?05s' Fh(B?iix, Swainsto7ie's, etc., will ever
bear good crops, we must be allowed to dis-
sent, because we, as well as thousands of
other cultivators, have often seen very fine
crops of these varieties.

Mr. Longworth says truly, that Keen,
and other noted English market growers of
the strawberry, have made fortunes by
these sorts. Everyone knows that "Keen's
Seedling," (a fine old variety that in our
climate is not so productive as abroad, be-
cause the pistillate portion of its blossoms

often becomes abortive,) has held its place in
Great Britain at the head of all strawber-
ries for general culture, for the last fifteen
years. It is as evident, as that 2 and 2
are 4, that the English, who are by no
means novices in gardening, would not cul-
tivate for market, year after year, sorts that
do not bear one-third of a crop ; and that a
" barren staminate" sort, like Keen^s Seed-
ling, would not hold the first rank against
dozens of new sorts raised and dissemina-
ted every year, if it had not productiveness
among its characteristic qualities.

On the other hand, and this is the real
pith of the matter, when Mr. Longworth
says that pistillate varieties of the Pine
strawberry, properly cultivated, yield far
larger and more certain crops than any
others, he is undoubtedly quite correct.
This is the great practical turning point of
the Cincinnati mode of strawberry culture,
made public by Mr. Longworth. It is not
that the English growers, or staminate sorts,
do not produce good crops, but that the Cin-
cinnati growers, and their mode of choosing
only pistillate softs, (with a small proportion
of stamen bearing plants near by,) always
give enormous crops — far exceeding any
hitherto grown. The fact that the market
of Cincinnati was last year supplied with
about four thousand bushels of strawberries,
at an average of six cents a quart* — the
largest and cheapest supply known in any
city in the world, is the best evidence of
the extraordinary result of their mode of
rejecting all but pistillate sorts — with a
small admixture of the staminates to fer-
tilize them. — Ed.

* We learn that it is judged the total amount offerea in
that market Uiis year Hill exceed 6,000 bushels.'

26

TWO NEW APPLES.

DESCRIPTIONS OF TWO FINE NEW AMERICAN APPLES.

The number of native apples of good qua-
lity and local reputation, is increasing so
rapidly, from the very great adaptation of
our climate and soil to this fruit, and from
the great number of seedling trees that
have been planted in orchards in all parts,
that the result is one almost perplexing to
the collector.

With the large variety of apples of high
excellence, already in cultivation, it is the
duty of pomologists to exercise a more
than usually severe scrutiny, and judge
from a high criterion, in admitting into
general cultivation more new sorts. How-
ever valuable certain varieties may bfe es-
teemed by those not familiar with the best,
it is evident, that at the present moment,
we want no more new apples of second
quality. All candidates for the critical fa-
vor of the pomologist, and the general ac-
ceptance of the cultivator, ought to possess
the aggregate of qualities that belongs
to fruits of the first class
only.

Among the great number
of new sorts that have come
under our notice, within the
last two years, 'we have found
very few indeed, so fully en-
titled to high praise as the
two varieties we are now
about to describe.

I. THE McCLELLAN APPLE.

Martin Apple, af some.

A beautiful and most ex-
cellent dessert apple, a native
of Woodstock, Connecticut.
It is remarkable for its beau*
tiful and regular form, its

fair and smooth skin, the delicacy and ex-
cellence of its flavor. Compared with ma-
ny of the finest dessert apples, it will be
found superior to most of them, and wor-
thy of a place, therefore, in every small
collection ; while its regular and great pro-
ductiveness also renders it highly valuable
as an orchard apple.

Fruit of medium size, unusually regular
and round in shape. Skin very smooth,
nearly covered with stripes and marblings
of lively red, on a bright straw-colored
ground. Stalk short, and rather slender,
not very deeply planted in a very smooth,
round cavity. Calyx short, nearly closed,
set in a basin of moderate depth, and very
slightly plaited. Seeds small. Flesh white,
fine-grained, very tender and juicy, with
an exceedingly sprightly, mild and agree-
able flavor — scarcely sub-acid. Season
December to March.

This fine native fruit was first presented

Fig- 5. Tlte McCkttan Apple,

TWO NEW APPLES.

27

to our notice, a couple of years ago, by the
Rev. H. S. Ramsdell, of Thompson, Con-
necticut, an enthusiastic cultivator of fruit.
We also received specimens again last au-
tumn, which we kept till March. Mr.
Ramsdell informs us that the original tree,
now dead, stood upon a farm in Wood-
stock, Ct., in the midst of a " cider or-
chard," all seedling trees. This orchard
was planted about 70 years ago, but it is
now uncertain by whom, as the property
changed owners several times. One of
the owners, Mr. John Martin, about thirty
years since, presented grafts of the apple
in question to his neighbor. Major John
McClellan. With these grafts, the latter
immediately produced a young tree which
has been in constant bearing twenty years,
and is the oldest tree of the kind now in
existence. Very soon after Mr. Maktin
presented the variety, as something worthy
of cultivation, to Major McClellan, he sold
the farm on which the original tree stood,
and it was cut down
by the purchaser.

" Major McClel-
lan," as Mr. Rams-
dell informs us,
considers this varie-
ty as good a bearer
as the Rhode Island
Greening and Hox-
hury Russet. Indeed
in his soil " it has
borne good crops in
seasons when these
varieties have fail-
ed. I have also
carefully watched it
for the last few
years, and find that
it gives crops of fine

fruit when the usual apple crop is exceed-
ingly small. Major McClellan has a
number of small trees, each of which bore
from one-half a bushel to a bushel last
year, which proves that it also comes early
into a productive state. The fruit is now
known and much sought after here, as the
' McClellan Apple,' and taking into ac-
count its beauty, size, flavor and produc-
tiveness, I do not know its equal among
apples of the same season. The trees in
the nursery are of moderate growth."

II. THE IIAWLEY apple.

A remarkably fine autumn apple, a na-
tive of Columbia county, N. Y. ; large,
handsome, productive, and among the finest
flavored autumn varieties that we have yet
tasted. It perhaps more nearly resembles
in flavor that fine old apple, the genuine
" Fall Pippin," than any other, though
quite distinct in appearance, and more pro-
ductive in the orchard.

Fruit large, roundish, and varying in out-

Fis. 0. The HawUy Apple.

28

ARBORICULTURAL GOSSIP.

line in diffbrent specimens, from a slightly
flattened form to one somewhat conical.
Its surface is smooth^ and slightly oily ;
the core is large and hollow, in which the
seeds rattle. The skin is pale yellowish-
green at first, becoming pale golden yellow
at maturity, and sprinkled with a few scat-
tered brown dots. Stalk slender, from
three-fourths to an inch long, planted in a
deep and wide cavity, (from which often
extends a faint mark or line each w^ay,
halving the fruit,) Calyx rather small,
partly closed, set in a slightly plaited ba-
sin of moderate depth. Flesh yellowish-
white, fine-grained, tender, with a rich
sub-acid flavor. Season, October and No-
vember. The tree is of moderate growth
in the nursery, but in the orchard forms a
well shaped, spreading head, and bears
good crops annually.

Gen. E. W, Leavenworth, of Syracuse,
N. Y., had the kindness, last autumn, to
make us acquainted with this valuable
fruit, which is now rapidly becoming a fa-
vorite in this State. In a letter from him,
now before us, he gives the following au-
thentic account of its origin :

" The history of this tree, is substantial-
ly as follows :

"Matthew Hawley removed from Old
Milford, in Connecticut, to New-Canaan, in

Columbia county, New-York, nearly a cen-
tury ago. As usual, at that time, with
emigrating settlers, he took with him ap-
ple seeds, from which he raised and planted
an orchard of seedling trees on his farm,
in Canaan. Among them, was the tree in
question. The farm afterwards passed to
his son Daniel, and is now owned by Tho-
mas Hawley, the son of Daniel Hawley.
The fruit early attracted the attention of
amateurs, and for forty years past, it has
been more or less propagated, both there
and elsewhere.

" It is now cultivated near Canaan Four
Corners, by Messrs. Thomas Hawley, Ed-
win B. Williams, Jas. Hamilton, and va-
rious others, as well as by several orchard-
ists in Onondaga and Cayuga counties.
The original tree has been dead some ten
or twelve years.

" I am informed that the trees grow large
and strong, and bear abundant crops every
year.

" A person named Douse, lived on a farm
near Mr. Hawley's, some forty years since,
and had one or more of these trees on his
farm, taken from the Hawley tree. Hence
the name of Douse, or Dow's apple, which
it bears in some places.
Your ob't servant,

E. W. Leavenworth."

ARBORICULTURAIi GOSSIP.

BY J. JAY SMITH. PHILADELPHIA.

I AM delighted to see influences from the
most influential quarter — a journal with the
circulation of the Horticulturist — brought
to bear on the tree-planting taste of the
country at large. I know that just now al-
most the whole country is alive with or-

chard and fruit garden planting — and that
fruit trees are the theme that occupy the
great mass of horticultural readers. This,
however, is only the necessary first step,
and the extensive collection and planting of
all fine and rare ornamental trees, Cedars

ARBORICULTCJRAL GOSSIP.

29

of Lebanon, Araucarias, and the like, will
as surely follow as the blossom follows the
bud.

With all our trul}'^ fine sylvan scenery,
there are none of your readers, who have
not seen the thing for themselves, that
know how properly to rate the enjoyment
of those collections of fine ornamental trees
which the English make at their country
places, under the name of Arboretums.
It is for a country residence, what a muse-
um, or rich collection in natural history or
art, is for a town house ; a source of inte-
rest perpetual and unvarying. Many a
person (and there are, I am sorry to say,
such in all countries,) to whom trees are
only trees — that is, green things in the
landscape, in which they perceive little dis-
tinction— are immediately struck and inte-
rested in a country place by an arboretum —
that is, a collection of trees properly ar-
ranged on a large lawn, each genus, with
all its varieties, near each other, so as to
show oft^ their contrasts and individualities
to the highest advantage. Such a park or
lawn soon seizes upon the mind and attracts
it ; almost insensibly one is led to compare
forms and developments ; and very quickly
he who knew little and cared less about
trees, finds himself acquiring the acquain-
tance of the most distinguished botanical
families !

I know very well that my impatient
countrymen, ever berating time for the
slowness (!) with which his wheel revolves,
plant Paulownias, Ailanthus and Silver
poplars, that grow ten feet in a year (and
are pigmies, after all,) more willingly than
Cedars of Lebanon, that grow only a foot
in a season, and become giants at last.
But the number of patient ones will only
increase with the gross number of planters.
In the mean time, those who begin first will

be the first to lay the foundation for great
results.

We know little of the matter of arbori-
cultural taste in the United States. In
England it is carried to a perfect passion.
Not only entire collections are made in cer-
tain places, but, in many places, particular
genera of trees are chosen, and every
known species of interest being assembled,
one sees the whole beauty of that class of
vegetable forms, more thoroughly than in
any other spot in the world. And again,
every planter will not have space for a
world's park-collection, but may be able to
exhibit a single family of trees, or one ge-
nus at least, in all their beauty and per-
fection. Thus we see in England Thorne-
ries — collections of all the known kinds of
Hawthorns ; Pinetums-asserahlages of every
procurable member of the pi7ie family, etc.

Perhaps the most celebrated Pinetiim in
the world, as you know, is that at Drop-
more, a few miles from Windsor Castle,
the seat of the late Lord Grenville, by
whom it was commenced — the design hav-
ing been pursued to this day by his enthu-
siastic widow, Lady Grenville. It was
one of the places which, with my own pen-
chant for trees, I most desired to see, and
therefore one that I did not fail to visit,
when I was in that country, in 1845.

It would be quite impossible for me to
give your readers, in my present brief
space, any correct idea of the very extraor-
dinary wealth of Lady Grenville's place
in trees. There are, in the first place,
grand and gigantic beeches and oaks, seve-
ral hundred years old, huge, gnarled, and
picturesque to the highest degree. Then
there is a great double avenue of immense
Cedars of Lebanon, such as almost lift a
genuine tree-lover ofl!' his feet, with their
majesty and beauty.

30

ARBORICULTURAL GOSSIP.

But the Pinetum at Dropmore, is the glo-
ry of the place. It contains one or more
specimens, in groups, of every cone-bear-
ing tree that will endure the climate of
Great Britain — one, on the whole, more
favorable to the fir and pine tribe, than any
other in the Avorld. I send you a list of all
the species of trees in this Pinetum [which
we regret to be obliged to omit for want of
room — Ed.] amounting to about 170 dis-
tinct species. Of course, among them are
the Araucaria imbricata and Deodar cedar,
the two largest specimens in Europe. The
great Douglass Pine, of California, which
grows in Western America to the height of
300 feet, has here already reached 45 feet.
It is one of the most striking and beautiful
vegetable productions I ever gazed upon.

The site of this Pinetum was, I was told,
originally an old wet moor. It is now the
site of a perfectly fairy garden, and the
most superb lawns.

We have but little idea in this country of
the perfection of the English gardening —
and I may say, especially tree cultiire. I
saw, while at Dropmore, something in this
way, that both amused and instructed me.
One or two of the trees in the Pinetum were
perhaps a little less luxuriant than the rest,
though by no means unhealthy. But it
was playing the laggard, and the gardener,
who had caught it napping, was bringing it
to reason by a little extra feeding.

His proceeding was a good deal after
this fashion : Finding out in exactly what
direction each large root radiated from the
pfiain centre, he carried out the radiating
line on the surface of the ground, say
thirty or forty feet from the trunk, on all
sides. Beginning at the outer ends of
these lines — shooting out like the spokes of
a wheel, 40 feet from the tree — he opened
trenches three feet deep towards the tree,
till he reached the spot where he met the

ends of the young roots. This course Avas
pursued all round the tree, at spaces of a
few feet apart — or wherever it was seen
that a set of roots extended. These trench-
es were soon cleared of the common soil,
and filled with rich compost and " maiden
loam." This, 1 was told, and I could not
doubt it for a moment, would soon bring
the tardy tree to a state of luxuriance quite
equal to that of any of its neighbors. But
how many persons in this country would
have dreamed of laying down whole canals
and feeders of nourishment for the roots of
a favorite ornamental tree ! Yet if luxu-
riance is beautiful, and rapid growth de-
sirable, the trouble is not thrown away.

But a word about home arboriculture.
There are in the environs of this city, as I
have had the pleasure of pointing out to
yuu, many instances of good taste and zeal
in the planting of rare and fine trees, that
are worthy of being seen and chronicled.
I must send you, from time to time, as I
have leisure to measure them, the accurate
dimensions of some of the most striking
trees now existing about Philadelphia. At
present I can only give you the following,
wb.ich have been measured very recently,
and' especially to show your readers what
has been done at home.

ViRGiLiA. {Cladastrus tinctoria, Torrey
& Gray.) There is a very noble specimen
of the Kentucky Virgilia (V. lutea of the
old botanists,) in the grounds of Mrs.
Price, near Germantown. Its height is 46
ft. 8 in. Its stem measures 6 ft. 7 in. in
girth at the ground, and 4 ft. 1 in. at six
feet above the ground.

Tree Box. {Buxus arborescens.) The
great Tree Box on Judge Peters' place,
about three miles from this city, measures
33 ft. 6 in. in height, and is 5 ft. 4 in. in
girth at six inches from the ground. It
there forks into four limbs, the largest of

THE NEW JAPAN LILIES.

31

which, at eighteen inches from the ground,
is 3 ft. 1 in. in circumference. This is
the largest box tree I have ever heard of.
In the same grounds is the Washington
Chestnut. This celebrated tree is of the
large fruited variety, planted by Washing-
ton. Its dimensions are, height 52 ft. 4
in. ; circumference 10 ft. 1 in. A Beach
tree near by, one of the finest and most
graceful ones I ever saw, measures 87 ft.
6 in. in height, and 7 ft. 2 in. in girth.

Magnolia grandiflora. — A specimen of
this fine evergreen, now growing in the

grounds of Laurel Hill cemetry, where it
was removed from the McArran's garden,
measures 17 ft. 4 in. in height ; 13 inches
in circumference at the ground.

More accounts of our fine arboricultural
specimens in my next.

Yours, very truly,

J. Jay Smith.

P. S. My Virgilia trees are this day in
superb bloom. Why is this most beautiful
hardy western tree so rare ? [Why, in-
deed ? We know nothing of the kind
more charming than this fine tree. — Ed.]

THE NEW JAPAN LrLIBS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The Lily, from time immemorial, has been
the theme of the poet, and the subject of
sweet allusions by men of taste and learn-
ing ; frequently and beautifully is it refer-
red to in the Scriptures, for its exquisite
fragrance and loveliness, and for magnifi'
cence, Divine authority has declared " that
Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed
like one of these."

It is not my purpose, at present, to in-
quire whether the species or variety thus
sublimely spoken of, was the Lily of the
Valley, belonging to the genus Convalla-
ria, as some have supposed ; the Lilium
candidum, of Pliny, or the splendid tribe
with which this chapter is introduced to
the notice of your readers.

Of the many remarkable plants import-
ed into Europe, within the last half centu-
ry, few can claim such a pre-eminence for
beauty, as the Lilies discovered by Dr. Von
SiEBOLD, during his researches in Japan, in
the years 1831 to 1833 ; and it is no exag-
geration to state, that none have since been

introduced, more deservedly popular, or
more highly attractive.

Dr. Von Siebold informs us, in his Flora
Japonica, that he brought with him, from
Japan, more than twenty kinds of Lilies,
the most conspicuous of which, however,
are the Lilium s'peciosuvi, (sometimes called
rubrum,) the L. lancifolium albu?n, and the
L. lancifolium punctatum, or roseum. All
these have reflexed petals, and may be
briefly described as follows :

LILIUM SPECIOSUM.

Shoivy Crimson Japan Lily.

Flower, ground color, clear rose, shading
to white, covered with numerous small pro-
jections of bright crimson, and Avhich gives
it the appearance, as Dr. Lindley remarks,
of being " all rugged, with rubies and gar-
nets and crystal points ;" a plant of two to
three feet in height.

LILIUM LANCIFOLIUM ALBUM.
White Lance-leaved Lili/t

Flower, pure virgin white, crested with
the same peculiar projections as the former
species, but these are without color, and

32

THE NEW JAPAN LILIES.

Pig. 7. L

which may be compared to frost work and
snowy stalactites ; grows to the height of
three or four feet.

LILIUM LANCIFOLIUM PUNCTATUM, OR ROSEUM.

Spotted Lance-leaved Lily.

Flower large, white ; the petals studded
with pale rose or blush projections, and
beautifully spotted Avith rose-color. The
plant is of more robust habit than either
of the sorts named above, often attaining
to the height of four or five feet.

The virgin whiteness of the album, the
roseate leopard-like spotting of the functa-
turn, and the jewel-like brilliancy of the
speciosum, all redolent with the fragrance
of Arabian spices, will ever render these,
objects of especial favor and admiration,
and place them among the very choicest
plants of the conservatory or flower garden.

Hybrids -—The strong development of

iiitii speciosum.

the stamens and pistils of the Lily tribe,
almost directly invites the skill of the cul-
tivator to cross impregnations- A multi-
tude of seedlings have been produced in
this way, from these Japan Lilies. In my
own collection, I have now about 150 in
bud, from which it is hoped some good and
distinct varieties may be obtained. Of the
seedlings that have already bloomed, those
raised from L. speciosum^ fertilized by Z,.
L. album, and from L. L. album, by L.
speciosum, have been almost identical in
character with the former red species, va-
rying only in the petals displaying a clear-
er delineation of the white. All efforts to
interbreed these sorts with Lilium candi-
dum, (common white Lilj',) L. tigrinum,
L. Philadelphicuin, L. superbum, and Z.
Cariadenre, have proved abortive.

THE NEW JAPAN LILIES.

33

Soil. — In cultivating these new Lilies,
the following soil will be found thoroughly
adapted : Two parts from an old hot-bed,
composed of leaves and horse manure, at
least two years old ; one part rotten sods,
or any good mellow loam ; one part sandy
peat ; [if not sandy, it will be well to add
a little sand.]

Potting and shifting the bulbs. — About
the middle of January, these will com-
mence vegetating, Avhen they should be
potted in small pots, repotting or shifting
them to a larger size, every two months,
or as often as the pots are filled with roots
— always remembering that perfect drain-
age, and plenty of it, are indispensable to
success.

PropagatioTi. — By seeds, which are ob-
tained in abundance in this climate, if the
pistils are fertilized. These should be
sown as soon as ripe, in shallow pans, in
which they may remain for one or two
years ; they should then be transferred to
six inch pots, four to six bulbs around the
edges of the same — and finally, singly, in
pots for floAvering,

By offsetts and by young bulbs. — These
are formed at the crown of the old bulb,
and also at the axils of the leaves. Their
growth is accelerated by the placing of
pieces of peat around the stem.

By scales, from the outside of the bulb,
potted in peat and sand, and subjected to
a slight heat ; these do not vegetate rapid-
ly, but eventually make good bulbs, and
those scales may be divided longitudinally
into two or three parts, with the knife,
each one of which will form at the bottom
a new plant.

Hardiness and adaptation to the open
ground. — That the Japan Lilies and their
offspring, may become tenants of our gar-
dens, and sufficiently hardy to endure our
climate, is much to be desired. The scar-

5

city and high price of these have, until re-
cently, been a hindrance to much experi-
ence in this respect. I can, however, state
some facts, Avhich give great reason to ex-
pect that they or their hybrids will prove
so. Soon after the introduction of the L.
spedosum, a bulb stood the winter perfectly
well, protected only by a pot, in the garden
of a gentleman in this city — and I learn
that one of the same sort has, for two or
three years, remained uninjured in a gar-
den in the city of New-York. My own
experience is quite encouraging. Eighteen
bulbs were planted in the open ground last
November, in a bed of Tree Pasonias, be-
tween the rows ; these were covered with
four inches of peat, and when the ground
closed up, about the same depth of sea-
weed was added to the covering ; every
bulb is alive, and now making a vigorous
growth. It is sufficiently evident, that if
the Japan Lilies prove hardy, their culture
in the open ground, and in a deep rich bor-
der, will be of the easiest description.

General treatmenl. — I am now supposing
the course of in-door culture. The dor-
mant bulbs having been potted, they should
be placed in a forcing pit, with a little
gentle heat, removing them as near to the
light as possible, as soon as the leaves be-
gin to unfold themselves ; water must be
given sparingly during the first period of
growth, or until new roots have been form-
ed ; after which, it may be administered
plentifully whenever the surface of the soil
becomes dry, remembering the good old
rule, that the supply of water must always
be in proportion to the supply of solar
light.

A flue in the green-house will do very
well, provided the pots are kept constantly
moist. In the early stages of their growth,
a warm, humid atmosphere is particularly
favorable to a vigorous start j this will be

34

THE NEW JAPAN LILIES.

seen by the mesh of white roots emitted on
the surface of the soil, and which, with
those below, are the greedy recipients of
any reasonable quantity of richness that
may be administered in the form of liquid
manure or guano ; under these influences
and judicious shiftings of the bulbs to
larger pots, the luxuriance is truly asto-
nishing, strong bulbs throwing up thick,
robust stems of three to four feet, covered
with a dense white bloom, alike significant
of the adaptation of the soil and tempera-
ture in which they delight to revel.

When the floAver buds are developed,
the Lilies should be removed to the tem-
perature of the green-house, the nearer the
light the better. The bloom being past,
the plants should be watered more sparing-
I3', and when a disposition for dormancy is
evinced, by the waning yellow foliage, this
may be entirely dispensed with — the stalks
cut down, the pots removed to the potting
bed, or a place where they are dry or pro-
tected against frost, there to remain until
the appropriate season for recommencing
operations. In this state of rest, the bulbs
should not be taken out of the pots, but it
is well to examine them once a month, and
if very dry, to give them a careful water-
ing. Of the ultimate hardiness and adap-
tation of the Japan Lilies and their off-
spring to our gardens, I intend to satisfy
myself, by experiments, the ensuing year.
Yours, M. P. Wilder.

JSosion, June 10, 1647.

Remarks. — We are greatly indebted to
Col. Wilder, for the foregoing excellent
practical notes, which he has given our
readers, regarding the Japan Lilies — per-
haps the finest of all the present floral no-
velties of the day.

Col. Wilder has, we believe, the largest
collection of these Lilies in the country,
having not only been among the first to in-
troduce them, but also equally successful
in their cultivation. We had the pleasure
of seeing some of the cross-bred seedlings
raised by him, at an exhibition of the Mas-
sachusetts Society, which were, if possible,
more beautiful than any of the original
species ; and we anticipate, among those of
his own production, now about to bloom for
the first time, some A'arieties of great deli-
cacy and brilliancy.

We understand that the Japan Lilies
produce seed more freely in the United
States than in European gardens. It is
also not a little remarkable, as we believe
there is no parallel to it in Europe, that all
the hybrids produced by Col. Wilder, that
have yet flowered, have a strong resem-
blance to the rarest and finest species —
Lilium speciosum.

We have only to add our testimony,
from experience here last winter, that these
Lilies have proved hardy in the open bor-
der, Avith a slight covering of earth only ;
and there can scarcely be a doubt that they
will soon take their place among the love-
liest ornaments of the parterre. — Ed.

Invigorating Fruit Trees. — The papers
often contain notices of the advantages of
applying ashes, charcoal, lime, &c., to fruit
trees, to increase their growth ; these are
often beneficial in moderate quantities, and
occasionally eminently so in certain condi-

tions of the tree or soil ; but the treatment
which is most strikingly beneficial, and in
the greatest number of cases, is to make
the soil deep and rich, and to keep it clean
and mellow, by constant cultivation. Hence
the selection of stony ground is bad policy.

THE CLOTH OF GOLD ROSE.

35

THE CLOTH OF GOLD ROSE.

BY THE ASSISTANT BOTANIST TO THE U. S. EXPLORING EXPEDITION, WASHINGTON.

In several numbers of the Horticulturist, I
have noticed that strictures against, and on
the other hand, somewhat fav'orable re-
marks, have been made on this Eose, by
different individuals ; but your intelligent
correspondent, Dr. Valk, in the last num-
ber, page 574, has endeavored to fix its po-
sition or standing among Roses, by defining
its character ; and I must confess that the
greater portion of his observations are at
variance with my own, as also that of seve-
ral Rose-growers in this section of the
countrj'.

I would remark, that my observations
extend as far back as October, 1845, at
which time I came in possession of a small
plant of it, about six inches high ; this, the
following May, was planted in the open
ground in an exposed situation, free from
any erection, the soil a stiff' yellow loam,
well incorporated with charcoal dust and
wood ashes. 'Ry September, many shoots
to the height of six feet, had been made ;
at this time, some of the lateral ones pro-
duced from one to two flowers, but not more
than eight or ten on the plant altogether.
My protection for Roses during the winter,
consisting of a light covering of Cedar
branches, not intended to resist the cold,
but rather to prevent sudden thawings of
the shoots taking place. This plant, with
two others, budded in the autumn of 1845
on seedling Noisette stocks, had last au-
tumn made shoots from eight to ten feet
high ; many of these half inch in diame-
ter near the base. These plants, in No-
vember and October, produced from ten to
fifteen flowers each — the color, at this sea-
son, nearly equal to Harrisonii, or one
shade deeper than w-hat they now are.

The points of these long shoots, I tongued
and laid down in the usual way, on the 23d
of September, in a prepared vegetable
compost ; and being well rooted by the 15th
of November, the layers were potted in
eight inch pots, (the plants being now three
feet high ;) these were placed in a cold pit
during the winter, and this spring (in April)
they were garlanded Avith their large yel-
low flowers, from the top down to the pot,
many of them having six to eight of their
flowers expanded at one time, and were the
admiration of all who beheld them.

The slight cover already noticed, was
removed from the three old plants towards
the close of March ; the tender shoots made
late in autumn, were then shortened back
a few inches ; no other pruning being
deemed necessary or proper. The strong
shoots were then tied to stakes seven feet
high, which the plants now entirely over-
top. Like all other Roses here, the first
growth made, was injured by frost, but in-
dependent of that mishap, these plants
have had, since the 25th of last month, a
succession of fine flowers, from ten to
twelve in number, constantly in bloom,
each blossom having a diameter from three
to four inches, w^ith from three to five of
such flowers in a cluster.

S. D. Morton, Esq., of Petersburg, Vir-
ginia, a few weeks ago, had a plant of the
Cloth of Gold, with from forty to fifty flow-
ers on it at one time ; and Mr. Wm. Cam-
mack, florist of this city, exposed for sale
in market early in March, small plants of
it, with from three to five full expanded
flowers. A great number of small plants
were also brought from Baltimore this
spring, and sold at auction here, bringing

36

THE CLOTH OF GOLD ROSE.

very high prices ; in fact, it cannot, as yet,
be propagated in sufficient quantities to
supply the demand.

Having given my observations, as regards
the growth of this Rose here, and its pro-
lific qualities as a bloomer, it may not be
out of place to say something definite as
to the form and color of its flowers, &c. &c.

Cloth of Gold Rose, {Noisette chroma-
tella.) Plant of luxuriant growth, making
shoots from six to eight feet the first year,
if grown in rich heavy soil ; flowers well
in pots, particularly if the plants be layers
of the previous autumn, and gently forced
towards spring ; foliage large and spread-
ing ; leaflets ovate lanceolate, slightly acu-
minate, coreaceous, finely serrated, glossy
above, glaucous beneath, three and a half
inches long, by two broad, of a dark green
tint ; costa and petiole beset with strong re-
flexed spines, as is also the stem ; flowers
large, three inches in diameter, (I have of-
ten seen them four,) very double, petals
firm, particularly the two outer rows, which
are of a round form, guarding the interior
ones well ; these are smaller, more pointed,
3. little reflexed at the apex, becoming more
irregular in their arrangement towards the
centre of the flower, lasting long ; not so
fugacious as Noisette solfaierre; color, a fine
rich yellow, about one shade lighter than
Harrisonii ; blooms freely in early summer,
and late autumn ; frequently transient flow-
ers between these periods ; equally as har-
dy as Noisettes Lamarque and Solfaterre ;
bears forcing well, but the color of the flow-
ers, in that case, is not so deep as when
grown in the open air. This variety is well

adapted for training against trellis work, or
as a standard in the border or lawn.

The Cloth of Gold, delights in a rich,
loamy soil, and with us, a very slight pro-
tection during the winter. The knife should
be used sparingly ; I believe, indeed, that
this instrument has, in two ways, been the
greatest enemy this Rose has had to con-
tend against : first, in the hands of the un-
skilful pruner, and that of the propagator,
cutting it into inches to make plants to sup-
ply demands, and turn in the dollar, and
then in sharpening the edge of his pen to
let the world know how injudicious he had
been in the maiming of his favorite.
Something farther should be added, re-
specting a deficiency of that rare virtue —
patience ; a little of which, moderately ex-
ercised, along with good culture, will, I he-
sitate not to say, place the character of the
Cloth of Gold Rose in as high a niche, if
not higher, in the estimation of its most
sanguine admirers and disappointed suitors,
than it stood when first introduced into this
country. Wm. D. Brackenridge.

[From all parts of the souths where it
appears to grow with the greatest luxuri-
ance, we have accounts of the great beauty
of this Rose ; and we publish, among our
Domestic Notices this month, a very favor-
able account of it from an intelligent ama-
teur in Virginia, Avhich also corroborates
Mr. Brackenridge's interesting remarks.
There is no doubt, therefore, that this vari-
ety requires a strong soil to develop its
true color, and time and space enough to
attain considerable size, in order to exhibit
itself in perfection. — Ed.]

HINTS TO YOUNG ARCHITECTS.

37

REVIEWS.

Hints to Young Architects ; together with a
model specification, etc. By George Wight-
wick, Architect, London. .And Hints to Per-
sons ABOUT building IN THE CoUNTRV, by A.

J. Downing. New- York : Wiley & Putnam.

1 vol. 8vo. $1.25.
This is a reprint of a valuable recent Eng-
lish work, with very considerable Ameri-
can additions. Of the latter, written by
ourselves, we leave the public to form their
own opinions, merely premising that they
consist mainly of certain practical hints,
addressed to persons about building in the
country, and comprised under the following
heads : Where to build : What to build :

How TO BUILD.

Of that portion of the work which is the
production of Mr. Wightwick, an English
architectural writer of reputation, we may
be allowed to speak more fully.

It consists, in the first place, of a section
addressed to young architects, and abound-
ing with some of the most valuable sug-
gestions that have yet come under our no-
tice, relating both to the great and little
matters of their profession, from the mo-
ment when they first take the drawing pen-
cil in hand, to the time when they are sup-
posed to be able to undertake and execute
designs in the best style of their art.

These suggestions are by no means writ-
ten in the cold and formal style of those
professional lectures, not unfrequently be-
stowed on novices in the arts and sciences ;
but in a familiar and spirited manner, cal-
culated to seize and fi.x the attention, and
to influence directly the practical skill and
studies of the pupil. We give, as an illus-
tration, the following paragraph, addressed
to the young practitioner :

We would impress upon the young; aspirant to
architectural honors, our repetition ol' the respon-

sibilities wliich will attach to him from the first
hour of his unaided practice. It may be some time
before he will be enabled to purchase assistance ;
and, durinj^ that state of individual probation, he
will have — if he have employment — duties relatively
more arduous and more harassing, than when com-
missions shall thereafter pour upon him to the hoped-
for advancement of his fame and fortune. He must
be for a time " grand master." assistant surveyor,
and drudgery clerk, of his own establishment : at
once designer artistical, constructor practical, co-
pying draughtsman, measurer, valuer, and more — •
with which we would not frighten him. He must
cultivate resolution on the ground of knowledge,
endurance on that of patience, and modesty on The
full assurance, that, when he shall have practised
to the last day of his occupation, lie will have learn-
ed the more to know how much he has yet to learn.
His profession is a noble one. based "on palpable
science, and beautified by the poetry of art. It is
most gratifying in respect to the society to which it
may lead, and the rank it may confer. It is more
especially so in regard to the pride which an archi-
tect can not but feel in contemplating the material
and enduring majesty of the structures he may have
to raise. Paintings must be sought in the gallery j
statues may indeed preside in the open square ; but
it is architecture only which towers into the sky —
alike commanding, far or near ; and combining the
graces of form, proportion, and decoration, with
picturesque charm and massive grandeur.

That an architect should be a man full
of inventive genius, is the first of requisi-
tions ; but it is no less imperative that he
should combine the utmost practical fore-
sight and sagacity, touching the importance
of all the minor details of his art. To en-
joy the beautiful to the utmost, human na-
ture should be kept on a platform as eleva-
ted as possible above the little miseries of
life ; and there are few men who would
feel compensated, in domestic architecture,
for internal discomforts and inconveniences
that war Avith their everyday comfort, by
the faultless proportions of a classic colon-
nade, or the picturesque intricacy of towers
and battlements. Our author wisely en-
deavors, therefore, to impress this point
upon the young architect :

Everybody is always in a hurry to have every-
thing done. His patron will take six months to
think of what he desires to have accomplished in as

38

HINTS TO YOUNG ARCHITECTS.

many hours. When the commission arrives, im-
mediate work will be required — not preparatory
study : and if there be not a ready foresight to
pierce through all contingencies, the j)rogressive and
ultimate perplexity will be proportionally bewilder-
ing. To anticipate possible objections is greater
policy in an architect than to give immediate an-
swer to requirement. Of all professions, his is the
one most subjecting its professor to meddling inter-
ference, and a thoughtless disregard of trouble ta-
ken and obedience unrequited.
" Double, double.
Toil and trouble,"

is indeed the chant of the sister Fates who are hos-
tile to an architect's peace. The graces of the por-
tico, the beauties of decoration and proportion, the
triumph over a hundred contending desiderata, shall
be all fcrgotten in my lady's passion for — a house-
maid's closet ! It avuileth not as an excuse that you
can put it underthe back stairs. "It should have been
thought upon before. An architect ! and not think
of a housemaid's closet ! It ought not to be an extra."
''Extra!" Fearful word ! The builder's aim, and
the architect's dread ! Let our young friend think
of it betimes; and let him bear in mind, that the
best guard against the overwhelming censure which
follows it, is to habituate the mind to a foresight,
which, during a study of the nearest and most im-
portant things, should penetrate into the most re-
mote and trifling. All the grand principles of de-
sign, convenience, and enduring strength, may have
been perfectly answered by the most artistical abi-
lity, by ingenious arrangement, and constructive
skill ; but, if chimneys smoke, gutters leak, or
drains choke ; if windows prove not in all trials
weather-tight ; if all the little conveniences of the
former house be not added to all the larger ones of
the present ; if a shelf, a cupboard, or a rail and
pins be omitted where custom might expect to find
them ; if the whims of old servants be not consider-
ed, or the carelessness of new ones anticipated ; if,
in short, the genius of a Michael Angelo be not fol-
lowed close up with the care of a cabinet-maker,
the architect will yet have a toil of vexation to en-
counter which may make him almost repent the
choice of his profession.

We shall begin our practical Hints with some re-
marks in reference to plans, or internal arrange-
ment, as affecting elevations, roofs, and chimneys.

The young architect too frequently concentrates
his attention on those portions of his plan which
concern one or more particular facades. Thus, he is
careful of his entrance front, and his lawn elevation,
as those alone which will be visible to a stranger
approaching from the lodge, or walking in front of
the sitting-room windows ; and no sooner is the
building roofed in, than he discovers that the " re-
turn fronts" are provokingly more generally visible
to the public eye from without the boundary of the
premises than the others which have had his too
exclusive care. One of his " architectural" eleva-
tions is seen in continuous connexion with a surface
of unstudied masonry, the respective parts of which
neither harmonize in position nor in decoration : or,
at the best, he exhibits a display of blank architec-
ture, the falseness of which is proved by certain

prominent necessities which will not be either con-
cealed or modified. The offices and other inferior
appendages to the mansion cling to it, and proclaim
themselves with all the humiliating impertinence
(or rather 7)crtinence) of poor relations bent on the
declaration of their consanguinity. The idea of
" planting them out," which originally existed in
the mind of the designer, stil! exists in his mind
only. The trees he requires will take at least fifty
years to grow ; and, even then, winter will in its
turn disrobe them of tlieir foliage to leave display-
ed an obstinate range of architectural poverty.
Evergreens will never grow high enough. The
whole thing must remain as it is — a handsome
countenance with an ugly profUe — a beggar in a
velvet waistcoat, and no coat to cover his sides.

This oversight is still more commonly committed
in town houses and street architecture. Nothing
is more frequent among builders and young archi-
tects than the exhibition of a mere mask, which
only deceives while the spectator is directly oppo-
site on the other side of the street, or so far as there
may be houses of equal height continuing on either
hand. Otherwise, directly the front is passed, the
blank masonry or naked gables of the returns show
themselves like the mere party-walls in the trans-
verse section of an unfinished range ; and these, be
it remembered, are often seen for a much greater
length of time than is given, in passing, to the main
front, since we may have them before us during the
whole of our progress along a street of half a mile
extent. Perhaps only a portion of the return ends
may be seen above the roofs of the lower houses
adjoining : but it is not the less necessary to con-
tinue along this portion the architectural character
of the front. In the many instances which occur of
houses rising successively one above the other on
the side of an ascending street, too much care can
not be taken to give a finished perspective eflTect.
The means will readily suggest themselves to any
one who is competent to take professional rank ;
and to such only do we now address ourselves.
Architecture, as we have before said in the first
section of our Hints, has a peculiar privilege among
the arts in commanding observation from the dis-
tance, and no town or range of buildings will ever
have an imposing, or even a tidy appearance, while
it shows itself to be composed of independent frag-
ments jostling one against another. The beggarly
habit of carrying a cornice or parapet, with dressed
doors, windows, pilasters, &c., along a twenty feet
front, leaving in barn-like nakedness a thirty or
forty-feet end, is an abomination which even the
most vulgar country builder should eschew. Infi-
nitely better that the whole should be consistent in
the absolute perfection of nudity.

In the second place, a considerable por-
tion of the work is occupied with a model
specification. Every one who has indulged
in " the cares of building," well knows the
importance of " specifications." They are
at once the Dictio7iarij and the Revised

HINTS TO YOUNG ARCHITECTS.

39

Statutes of the architect, builder, and own-
er. Upon their completeness, in the hands
of faithful artisans, depends in a great de-
gree, the whole good understanding and
perfection of the edifice. When we men-
tion first, that scarcely in any two buildings
are the specifications precisely the same ;
and second, that nine out of ten of our pro-
fessional architects are destitute of any
regular formulas by which their specifica-
tions can be brought with certainty to a
state of the greatest possible completeness,
the practical value of this portion of the
work before us, must be evident at once.

These specifications are given much in
detail, and are pretty thoroughly illustrated
by cuts, conveying a definite idea of the
parts themselves. We extract a couple of
pages relating to carpentry and mason work,
to show the value of the work :

The gables of to be capped with a (plain)

(moulded) coping of stone of the sectional

mm

See Note p. 96.

form and scantling shown by detailed drawings, in
lengths of not less than ' ", (back-notched for hori-
zontal beddings,) and with springing stones and
apex-saddle stones cut of the solid, as also shown

(The spring-
ing stones to be
supported by
cut flush cor-
bels, of the
face and pro-
file shown by
drawings j)
or

(The spring-
ing stones to
have a return
face, supported
by corbels of
the face & pro-
file shown by J

drawings) (the ~

said corbels to cornice
he ol' stone, serv-
ing to stop the
eaves cornice or
gutter.)

Portico.

The plinth under

the columns of the

portico to be formed

of top and side casing

of stone, of

the sectional form

and scantling, and

vertical jointings,'

shown in drawings,

properly bedded on

the (brick, or rubble) basement and core. The

sub-plinth bonded into the said core, having its

bonding stones under the axes of columns. (Page

95.) ^

Frame and fix an 1\ inch bead flush and square
trap door, in proper rebated frame, for ascent into
the roof where shown on plans, with hinges and
fastenings.

Inch

white pine

Memel deal
gutter cornice to be
fixed to the eaves of
the roof, hav-
ing both a fixed and a
falling bottom, with
moulding on the
front, as drawing,
and of the dimensions there figured.

Or,

(same as

before; adding) the
same to project from
the face of wall as
shown, and to have
a boarded sofllit of
inch deal, ploughed
and tongued joints.

Or,

(same as

Nos. 247 and 248; ad-
ding) also deal canti-
levers, cut, moulded,
and framed at inter-
vals of ' " apart,
into an inch Memel
deal fascia board,
having moulding to
correspond.

Cornice to eaves
to be formed of Me-
mel deal, framed,
glued, blocked, and
moulded as drawing,
with cut modiilions
at intervals of in-
ches apart; and a
gutter of the clear
dimensions shown in
section, and having
a falling bottom to
be formed behind the upper mouldings of the cor-
nice.

40

HINTS TO YOUNG ARCHITECTS.

Cornice to eaves to be formed of
Memeldcal, framed, glued, block-
ed, and moulded as drawinir, with
rain-v.-ater gutter, of the clear di-
mensions figured, and having a
falling bottom formed in the upper
part/ {Page 122.)

Every observer who is conversant with
the state of architecture in the United
States, at the present moment, must be pro-
foundly sensible that we are in the midst of
a new era in the art. Cities, towns, and
villages are not only being built as rapidly,
or more rapidly, than they have been at any
previous periods of our history, but there is
a large class of professional architects
springing up in various parts of the coun-
try, and there is, at the same time, a grow-
ing attention and interest felt in the sub-
ject, by our whole intelligent population.
Hundreds of persons, in various parts of
the countr}% "who, ten years ago, were igno-
rant that domestic architecture could as-
sume any other variety than the two oppo-
site extremes of a Dutch barn and a Greek
temple, are now alive to all the beauties of
the various classical and picturesque styles.

It is in the artistical cultivation of the
more intelligent class of our landed propri-
etors, that we place our hopes of the final
prevalence of sound principles of taste in
architecture and other fine arts in America.
While we rate, as highly as any other in-
dividual, the great value of the highest
professional talent, we also attach the great-
est importance to a general cultivation of
the mind of the country at large, in the
principles of beauty and utility in these arts.
This Avill at once raise the standard of the
works demanded — whether it be houses,
books, pictures, etc. ; and it will prevent the
public from being imposed upon by the many
pretenders, and quack-architects, that will

always be more or less common in a coun-
try like ours, where the demand for labor
and talent is always greater than the sup-
ply.

We offer this work, then, to the public
generally, or at least all that part of it who
build houses — as one which will greatly as-
sist them, in no inconsiderable degree, in
attaining that kind of knowledge which
must be of eminent practical value to them
in all operations that demand the skill and
labor of the architect, builder, or mechanic.
It will enable them to build more correctly,
more cheaply, more satisfactorily, and more
agreeably, than any person, deficient in
this kind of information, possibly could do ;
since half the difficulty of doing a?iy thing
will vanish, when we know how it should be
done.

To young architects, and indeed to most
of those already well versed in their pro-
fessions, we need scarcely commend this
work as an invaluable assistant to their
daily labors. A single glance at its pages
will show them that we have not over-rated
its merits in this respect,

A Dictionary of Modern Gardening ; by Geo.

W. Johnson. Edited, with numerous additions,

by David Landreth. Philadelphia : Lea &

Blanchard. 1847. 12mo.pp. 635.

A VERY useful compendium of all the chief

points of interest in horticulture, arranged

in that old and most accessible of forms —

an alphabetical one.

Mr. Johnson has not attempted, in this
volume, so far as we have examined it, to
add much to the already existing stock of
ideas before the public, but to array them
in a concise and simple manner, so as to
afford the requisite information on a given
topic in a small space. Nearly all the lead-
ing authors of the day have been laid un-
der contribution, to make up the different
paragraphs ; and the result is a very good

DICTIONARY OF MODERN GARDENING.

41

digest of the theory and practice of the day
in England.

The present American edition has been
brought out under the editorial care of that
most respectable and excellent cultivator,
David Landreth, of Philadelphia. We
extract the following paragraph, explaining
the character of the reprint, from the pub-
lisher's preface :

" The ordinary form in cases of reprint, with ad-
ditions aiul explanatory notes, has been departed
from in this instance, with a desire to preserve the
book from tiie awkward aspect which it would ne-
cessarily present, if every addition by the American
Editor had been included within brackets, or printed
in varied type.

" This edition has been greatly altered from the
original. Manj' articles, of little interest to Ameri-
cans, have been curtailed, or wholly omitted, and
much new matter, with numerous illustrations, add-
ed ; yet the present Editor freely admits, and has
desired the publishers to state, that he has only fol-
lowed in the path so admirably marked out by Mr.
Johnson, to whom the chief merit of the work be-
longs."

Our own judgment differs from that .of
the publishers, in this respect. By follow-
ing the usual mode of designating the ad-
ditions of the American editor by brackets,
one is at no loss to know on whose autlior-
itj' — whether, for example, that of Mr.
Johnson or Mr. Landreth — any given
statement is made. We cannot but think
this an important matter, since, even in this
expurgated edition, we find many direc-
tions for culture given, which do not pro-
perly apply to our climate, yet regarding
which, as the matter stands, one is left to
conjecture whether they are from the pen
of the English or American editor.

Mr. Landreth's additions, (as we sup-
pose them to be,) are most conspicuous in
the articles on the diflferent fruit trees. The
selections, though small, are generally
good, and the descriptions of some of the
varieties are accompanied by outlines, part
of Avhich, we observe, are taken from our
work on Fruits. We notice the following
6

error, (perhaps some accidental transposi-
tion of the printers,) in the account of the
Gloria Mundi apple :

" Gloria Mundi : sjmonyms Monstrous
Pippin, Coxe ; Golden Ball, Kenrick. Coxe
says this imposing apple originated on Long
Island. Downing supposes it came origi-
nally from Maine," etc. p. 49.

By turning to our Fruits and Truit Trees,
the i-eader will see that we by no means
consider the Golden Ball sjTionymous with
the Gloria Mtmdi. The fruits are widely
diflerent. The latter ripens from October
to January, and the former from December
to March. In our description of the Golden
Ball, we state : " This is a favorite apple
in the State of Maine, where it is probably
a native." In the account of the Gloria
Mundi, we state : " It is not a little curious
that the origin of this apple is claimed for
Red Hook, (on the Hudson,) for Long Isl-
and, and Baltimore."

We find that Mr. Johnson has as great
faith in the virtues of common salt, upon
vegetable growth and health, as ourselves.
The following paragraph, relating to its
effects upon plants suffering from the dis-
ease known as the honey dew, (and Avhich
first appeared in his Principles of Garden-
ing,) will interest our readers :

" The various successful applications of liquids to
plants, in order to prevent the occurrence of the
honey-dew and similar diseases, would seem to in-
dicate that a morbid state of the sap is the chief
cause of the honey-dew, for otherwise it would be
difficult to explain the reason why the use of a solu-
tion of common salt in water api)licd to the soil in
which a plant is growing, can prevent a disease
caused by insects. But ii" we admit that the irre-
gular action of the sap is the cause of the disorder,
Then we can understand that a portion of salt intro-
duced into the juices of the plant would naturally
have a tendency to correct or vary any morbid ten-
dency, either correcting the too rapid secretion of
sap, stimulating it in promoting its regular forma-
tion, or preserving its lluidity. And that by such a
treatment the honey-dew may be entirely prevented,
I have myself often witnessed in my o\yn garden,
when experimentalizing with totally different ob-
jects. Thus I have seen plants of various kinds,

42

FOREIGN NOTICES.

which have been trented with a weak solution of
common salt ami water, totally escape the honey-
tlew, where trees of the same kind growinir in the
same plot of ground not so treated, have been ma-
terially injured by its ravaijes. I think, however,
that the solution which has been sometimes employ-
ed for this purpose is much too strong for watering
plants. I have always preferred a weak liquid,
and I am of opinion, that one ounce of salt (chlo-
ride ol sodium) to a gallon of M'ater, is quite power-
ful enough for the intended purpose. I am in doubt
as to the correctness of Knight's opinion, as to the
mere water having any material influence in the
composition of such a remedy, since I have noticed
that standard finit trees, around which, at a dis-
tance of six or eight feet from the stem, I had de-
posited at a depth of twelve inches a quantity of
salt to promote the general health and fruitfulness
of the tree, according to the manner former!}' adopt-
ed to some extent in the cider countries for the ap-
ple orchards, that these escaped the honey-dew
which infected adjacent trees, just as well as those
which had been watered with salt and water."

^oth the theoretical and practical horti-
culturist will find this Dictionary an inte-
resting book, and worthy of a place among
those for daily reference.

Illusthations of Medical Botany : consisting
of colored figures of the plants, affording the
■most important articles of the Materia Medica,
and descriptive letter press. By Joseth Carson,
M. D. Philadelphia : Robert P. Smith, 144
Chestnut-street. No. 1. 4to. p. 28.

We announced this Avork as in preparation

some months ago, and we have now the
first part lying before us. Its chief design
is to furnish faithful portraits, of the size
and color of nature, of all the most impor-
tant plants of the Materia Medica. The
plates are characteristically drawn on stone,
and neatly and faithfully colored. They
are accompanied by concise botanical de-
scriptions, and a brief statement of the pe-
culiar medical qualities of each species.
The author observes : " As the design of the
work is simply to present the botanical his-
tory of the Materia Medica, and not a com-
plete account of it, with the exception of
indicating the modes of operation peculiar
to each stibstance, all therapeutical and
pharmaceutical details appertaining to it,
have been omitted. The works especially
written with the view of unfolding them
are full, and easy of access."

When we reflect how many students,
physicians, and dealers in medicine in this
country, are ignorant of the living appear-
ance of the vegetable remedies which they
employ, we cannot but believe that a work
of this kind is well timed, and will be
found exceedingly useful.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Rhubarb Tartine. — The enclosed recipe for
making what I call, for want of a better name,
" Rhubarb Tartine," will, I think, be of some use
to cottagers and others, as a cheap mode of using
Rhubarb, and especially to those who find pastry
unwholesome. Take as many Rhubarb stalks as
will fill a baking dish, and lay them in water for
ten minutes ; then grease a dish for baking, and
put in the bottom of it some bread cut in slices
about a quarter of an inch thick, toasted and soaked
a few minutes in some boiling water poured into a
plate, with two table spoonfuls of moist sugar in it.
Cut the Rhubarb into pieces an inch long, and fill
the dish ; then put some slices of toasted bread,
soaked as before, to cover the top, and bake it about
an hour and a half, or till well done. If the toast
be cut from the bread after being toasted it will be
the nicer. — G. Cooper. Gard. Chron.

AsPArtAGUs. — I venture to call attention to a
practice which prevails so almost universally as to
fill me with astonishment, and at the same time
make me feel some hesitation in applying to it the
terms ridiculous and absurd. The practice to which
I allude was forced particularly on my attention in
passing through Covent Garden market, on Satur-
day last, when of all the beautiful Asparagus ex-
posed for sale, every bundle that I saw was white
to within an inch of the top ; whereas had it been
allowed to grow higher above the ground, it might
have been not only edible but delicious.

I am quite at a loss to account for the prevalence
of the custom of earthing up the plants so high for
the mefe purpose of blanching the stem. I have,
for several years, been in the habit of cutting a
large quantity of Asparagus, and my practice has
been this: Some time between the second M^eek in

FOREIGN NOTICES.

43

April and the 1st of May, (I speak of tlie south-
western counties,) the beds are raked oil" so as to
leave not more than two inches of light mould above
the crowns of the roots, and none is cut until live or
six inches above the "ground , and I never remember
a person to whom this practice was new, partakintr
of tlie produce, who did not remark on its exceed-
infjly nne flavor and delicious quiilit)'. By this
means a great quantity of edible matter is gained,
and that certainly without the sacririce of any deli-
cacy or fineness of flavor. Moreover, to an un-
prejudiced eye, a dish of green Asparagus is at
least eipial in appearance to one of white. I make
no doubt that if one of the Covent Garden dealers
was to start with a lot of green •' Grass," all who
ventured to taste it would contiiuie to frequent his
stall in preference to any other. In conclusion let
me ask, whether any real advantage accrues from
the use of the saw called an Asparagus-knife, over
one of ordinary make, with a blade of .sufficient
length 1 — 0. Gard. Chron.

Root-Pruned Pear Trees. — As I was one of
the first who called your attention to the root prun-
ing of Pear trees, for the purpose of making them
bear early, I was glad to And, on a visit to Saw-
bridgeworth nursery the other daj', that Mr. Rivers
has carried out, with the most complete success,
his management of the Pear, so as to produce early
fruitfulncss. and yet the most vigorous and healthy
growth. I should say that you will scarcely find
one tree in a hundred of his vast nursery of Pears
(coveting, I can not recollect liow many acres,)
which is not covered with bloom. The trees are 3
to 4 feet high, trained conicall}', and, with few ex-
ceptions, all grafted on Quince stocks. In addition
to the dwarfing ellect of this stock, he finds many
of the best kinds of Pears, which are worthles.s on
Pear stocks, produce excellently flavored fruit on
the Quince. There are, however, some kinds which
he finds it impossible to cultivate on this stock, and
therefore, in order to avail hiiuself of the advanta-
ges of the stock, he first grafts on it a common Pear,
and then grafts or buds the reluctant or refractory
variety on the Pear ; and by this mode of double
working, he procures a good Iwaring tree, with all
the advantage of the Quince root. Five years ago I
had small Pear trees, with bloom buds in November,
which bore a good crop in the following year ; and
any one who had laid in a stock of these little coni-
cal trees last autumn, might have this season had
an orchard of Pears ia full bearing, always pre-
suming that we do not have such a May to destroy
our fruit as we had last season. It is astonishing
what a collection of these trees may be contained
in a small space ; from 5 to 6 feet apart, in rows
running north and south, is quite space sufficient.
I feel satisfied that not half suflicient attention is
paid to tills fruit for our desserts ; a ver\' little care,
and a judicious selection of sorts, would ensure them
daily from the end of July till Miiy. I found two
sorts in Mr. Rivers' fruit-house both in excellent
order — the Fortune, an admirable Pear, and the Ne
plus Meuris, and I dare say these will be equally
good a month hence. I think ho '.old mc he had
nearly 9U0 kinds, of course very many of which are

worthless, but there are many which ho has not yet
proved, and again, although his grounds afford a
great variety of soil and aspect, yet as it is known
tliat climate, aspect, and soil, have a strong influ-
ence on the excellence of the fruit, we are still in
want of information from your various correspon-
dents on this subject. There are many kinds which
produce finer looking fruit on walls, which, how-
ever, are much surpassed in flavor by the smaller
fruits, as on espaliers or on conical-shaped standards.
I have adopted a suggestion of Mr. Rivers' in plant-
ing a conical trained standard near the wall between
my Peach trees, and find the fruit of the tender va-
rieties better flavored than what is grown against
the wall ; and these trees take up litilc or no wall.
Mr. Rivers finds the trees grafted on Quince stocks
flourish better when the whole of the stock is cover-
ed with earth (he grafting at about <i inches from
the ground) as the stock is apt to get hard and
hide-bound, especiall}' when the graft is oi a kind
of vigorous growth. He has planted several on
mounds of earth, tonguiiig the stock to encourage
the throwing out of small roots, and he proposes ia
the autumn to replant them, cutting away the bot-
tom strong roots, and then obtaining little else than
a mass of fine fibrous roots for the support of his
tree, which will make fruitfulncss certain. When
this matter was first discussed, that is, a systematic
course of root-pruning, for we all admitted that it
was occasionally done before, the objectors cried out
that no good fruit would be produced, that the fruit
like the trees would be stunted and without flavor
and gritty. I can report that the fruit on my root-
pruned trees has been finer than that produced on
old trees which were left in their natural slate ; but
these pruned trees must be duly attended to, ma-
nured, and must be mulched in a dry summer. —
Dodman. P. S. I forgot to mention that at Saw-
bridgeworth, Mr. Rivers is making a large collec-
tion of Plums, having nearly 150 kinds, many ob-
tained from Germany as well as America. I think
it important to obtain some of the hardy German
kinds, which are so much used in cooking", both of
the earliest and the latest sorts. Gard. Chroii.

BliLLiNG Insects on the Vine. — In a review of
a new Traite sur les Vins de la France, by Batii.-
LiAT, in the Gardener's Chronicle, we find the fol-
lowing highly interesting account of a successful
mode of destroying insects, infesting the Grape
Vine :

In the first part of his treatise, the author has
given some account of the insects which are most
injurious to the Vine in France, viz., Pyralis, or
Ver de la Vigne ; a species of Tinea, or leigne de
la Vigne ; and the altise or pucevette, a coleopte-
rous insect of the genus Chrysomela. Of these,
the first mentioned is the most formidable, extend-
ing its ravages over great tracts of country-, and
occasioning enormous losses in the vineyards, espe-
cially in the southern provinces. In the depart-
ments of the Saone and Loire, and of the Rhine, for
example, the loss occasioned by it in lU years has
been computed at 34,030,000 francs, and this, says
Mr. B., is by no means an exaggerated estimate.
In the department of the Lower Charcnte, between

44

FOREIGN NOTICES.

the years 1S15 and 183S, it was found to destroy to
the vahio of 922,000 /rancs, and in the Eastern Py-
renees the average annual waste which it occasions
is reckoned to be not less than 14,000 hectolitres.
Such being the case, it became an object of impor-
tance to discover the means of protecting the Vines
from these destructive attacks ; and in the year
1837, a distinguished entomologist (M. Audouin)
was commissioned by the government to investi-
gate the subject. He examined the insect in all its
phases and transformations, and, after trying with-
out success to extirpate it by caustic and poisonous
applications, recommended collecting and desti'oy-
ing the eggs before the development of the cater-
pillars, which takes place in the beginning of Au-
gust. This method, however, is too troublesome
to bo generally employed ; and the same may be
said of the plan of covering each stock v.'ith an
empty cask, and fumigating with sulphur. Corro-
sive washes, and the application of glutinous sub-
stances to the bark, proved of little avail, as the in-
sect commences its devastations in the form of a
minute caterpillar, which has the power of sus-
pending itself by a slender thread from the edges of
the leaves, and of thus transporting itself from one
leaf to another; and the dusting of the buds with
quick-lime and arsenic, which was recommended by
some, only killed the leaves, and therefore did more
harm than good. None ol these measures being-
found efficacious, a wine-grower of Romaneche, M.
Raclet, bethought himself of the expedient of as-
sailing the insect in the form of chrysalid in the fis-
sures of the bark where it lodges, during the winter
months, by pouring boiling water over the stocks,
and the experiment was attended with perfect suc-
cess. For this purpose, Mr. R. employed a vessel
of tinned iron, with a small spout, holding a litre,
or full quart, and covered with list or cloth ; and,
having filled it with boiling-water, he emptied the
contents over the stocks, beginning at the top, and
avoiding the young shoots and buds. By this pro-
cess the vitality of the chrysalid is destroj'ed, and
that without injury to the plant. A deputation from
the Agricultural Society of Macon, to whom M.
Raclet had communicated his invention, was sent
to verify the results, and certified, that by the above
(♦escribed operation the insects were killed ; and
that the Vines which had been so treated were
more vigorous, and yielded a larger produce than
those in the neighborhood, where the insects had
been allowed to remain undisturbed. Twelve hun-
dred stocks, covering eight ares, or a fifth of an
English acre, gave three hectolitres of wine, while
the produce of six hectares, or nearly fifteen Eng-
lish acres of contiguous vineyard, was only twelve
hectolitres. M. Raclet calculates that three per-
sons may go over with the hot water, sixteen ares,
or about 2,400 stocks in the course of a day.

French Wine Making. — The gentleman to
whom I brought the letter was not himself a pro-
prietor of vineyards at Hermitage, but was request-
ed to introduce me to some person having a vine-
yard there. On waiting upon him this morning, I
found a letter prepared for me, addressed to Messrs.
Richard and Sons, who are eminent wine merchants

and bankers in Tournon, a town on tlie opposite
side of the Rhone to Tain, and joined to it by a
suspension bridge. On receiving this letter, I hired
a vehicle to carry myself and my baggage to Tain,
which is a small town, situated on the left bank of
the Rhone, on the plain which lies immediately be-
tween the hill called Hermitage and the river. On
presenting my letter, and explaining in general
terms the object of my visit, I entered into conver-
sation with Mr. Richard, senior, relative to the
wines of Hermitage. The greatest part of the finest
growth is sent to Bourdeaux to mix with the first
growths of claret. Messrs. Richard are themselves
proprietors of part of the hill of Hermitage, but not
of that part which yields the finest wines. They
are also wine merchants ; but like the Messrs. Du-
rand, of Perpignan, they sell it only on the grand
scale. One of the sons, who manages this depart-
ment, conducted me over the cellars. The press is
more complete than any I have ever seen ; the
screw is of iron, and from the closeness of the
worm, must be of immense power. It is raised in
the centre of a square trough, about seven feet in
diameter. The female screw is covered by a hori-
zontal wooden wheel, the spokes of which project
over the sides of the trough, and are finislied off so
as to afford a convenient handle for the workmen.
At the height of a foot from the bottom of the
trough, on the outside, there is a circular stage
projecting from its sides for the workmen when
filling the press, and turning the wheel. The sides
of the trough only rise to the height of this stage.
The grapes, without any previous treading, are
built up in the trough to the height of the screw,
and when the latter is turned, the viust* flows from
spouts which issue from the bottom of the trough at
each side. When the sides of the mass which may
have been pressed out so far as to escape from the
action of the press, have been cut off with an instru-
ment resembling a hay-knife, and the press has been
raised so as to receive this additional quantit\', and
again put in operation, the process is complete ;
not a drop oi mvst remains in the marc, as the mass
of skins and stalks is called. The marc is disposed
of, and employed to produce a bad brandy ; for this
purpose it is soaked in water to extract any sac-
charine matter which may remain, and the fluid
which it yields, when again pressed, is fermented
and distilled. To my astonisment, Mr. Richard
informed me, that Ijy one charge of this press they
could obtain 40 casks of wine of about 50 gallons
each. As the must flows from the press, it is con-
veyed to the casks, where it is suffered to ferment
from five days to a month, according to the strength
of fermentation, the casks being always kept full
to permit the scum to escape. When the first fer-
mentation is decidedly finished, the wine is drawn
off into a clean cask, which has been previously
sulphured. This is the whole process of making
the white wines of Hermitage. They are more or
less sweet according to the proportions of sweet
and dry grapes which have been united in producing"
them, for they are all made from two varieties, the
Marsan, yielding a mJist which by itself, would give

* Fresh unfermented grape juice.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

45

a sweet wine, and the Roxtsette, a mitst, which by
itself would yield a dry wine.

The white wine of Hermitage, even after having
undersjone the complete fermentation above deseriii-
ed, still retains a disposition to effervesce when put
into bottle. It is said to be, without (piestion, the
finest white wine of France, and will keep 100
years, improving as it pets older ; and when very
old, acquiring a similarity to the white wines of
Spain.

For fermenting the red wines, Messrs. Richard
have two vats, each capable of containing 16,000
gallons. Every day as the grapes are brought from
the vineyard, they are trodden in troughs, and then
emptied into the vats ; and while the vats arc lilling,
a man gets into them once a day to tread down the
surface. The object of this is to prevent the sur-
face from becoming sour by exposure to the air,
and to render the fermentation as equal as possible
through the whole mass. When it becomes too
deep for a man to tread it to the bottom, he sus-
pends himself by the middle from a plank across
the vat. The duration of the fermentation is very
uncertain, depending upon the state of the weather,
and the ripeness of the grapes- Messrs Richard
ferment the finest grapes in one vat, and those of
an inferior quality in the other. I tasted the wine
of both vats of the large vintage ; the first was
made of the best grapes, which were also gathered
in dry and warm weather ; the second quality was
made from the inferior grapes, and from others
which had been gathered during rain and cold
weather. The fermentation of the first was over
in five days, and its present value is 300 francs the
cask ol~2I0 litres, (that is, about as many bottles ;)
the other continued fermenting in the vat for twenty
days, and its present value is onl}' 80 francs for the
same quantity.

The finest clarets of Bourdeaux are mixed with
a portion of the finest red wine of Hermitage, and
four-fifths of the quantity of the latter which is pro-
duced are thus employed. The wines are raclfed
oflfthe lees in spring and sulphured. A very small
piece of sulphured match is burnt in tiie casks intend-
ed for the white wine; the red wine requires a greater
portion. These matches are purchased from persons
who make a business in preparing them. They are
slips of paper, about one inch and a half broad, and
■when coated on both sides with sulphur, are about
the thickness of a sixpence. A piece of one inch
and a half scjuare, is sufficient for a cask of white
wine containing 50 gallons. Busby'' s Visit to the
Vineyards of France and Spain.

Fa-tee Gardens near Canton. — Here then I
beheld a specimen of the far-famed system of Chi-
nese gardening, about which we have read so much
in European authors : I will, therefore, describe
them somewhat fully. The plants are principally
kept in large pots arranged in rows along the sides
of narrow paved walks, with the houses of the gar-
deners at the entrance through which the visitors
pass to the gardens. There are about a dozen of
these gardens, more or less extensive, according to
the business or wealth of the proprietor ; but they
are generally smaller than the smallest of our Lon-

don nurseries. They have also stock grounds,
where the different plants are planted out in the
ground, and were the first process of dwarfing their
celebrated trees is put in operation. These con-
tain large collections of Camellias, Azaleas, Oran-
ges, Roses, and various other well known plants,
which arc purchased bj' the Chinese when in fiow-
er. The most striking plant in autumn or winter,
is the curious fingered Citron, which the Chinese ga-
ther and place in their dwcllincrs or on their altars.
It is n\uch admired both for its strange form and also
for its perfume. The Mandarin Orange is also much
grown at Fa-tee, where the plants are kept in a
dwarf state, and flower and fruit most profusely,
producing large flat, dark, rcd-skinncd fruit. The
Chinese have a great variety of j)lants belono-in"-
to the Orange tribe ; and of one, which they call
the Cum.quat, a small oval-fruited variety, they
make a most excellent preserve. The Murraya
exotica, Aglaia odorata, Ixoras, and Lagerstroe-
mias, are very ornamental here in autumn.

But it is of course in spring that the ]■ a-tee gar-
dens possess the greatest attractions. The}"^ are
then gay with the Tree Paeony, Azaleas, Camellias,
Roses and various otiier plants. The Azaleas are
splendid, and reminded me of the exhibitions of the
garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, but
the Fa-tee exhibitions were on a much larger scale.
Every garden was one mass of bloom, andlhe differ-
ent colours of red, white, and purple blended toire-
ther, had a most beautiful and imposing effect. The
principal kinds grown were Azalea indica, indica
alba, phcenicia, lateritia, variegata, and the j-el-
low Azalea sinensis. I may mention, in passing,
that I found the latter plant wild on the Ning-po
hills, so that there is no doubt of its being a genu-
ine Chinese species. The air at this season, around
Fa-tce, is j)erfumed with the sweet flowers of Olea
fragrans and the Magnolia fuscata, both of which
are grown extensively in these gardens. Uwarf
trees, as may be supposed, occupy a principal sta-
tion ; they are trained into the most grotesque and
curious forms. The plants which stand next to
dwarf trees in importance with the Chinese are cer-
tainly Chrysanthemums, which they manage ex-
tremely well, perhaps better than they do any other
plant. So high do these plants stand in the favor
of the Chinese gardener, that he will cultivate
them extensively even against the wishes of his
employer; and, in many instances, rather leave
his situation than give up "the growth of his favorite
flower. I was told, that the late Mr. Beale used
to say, that he grew Chrysanthemums in his gar-
den for no other purpose than to please his garden-
er, not having any taste for this particular flower
himself.

Tree Paeonies are not natives of the south of
China, but are brought down in large quantities
every year, about the month of January, from the
northern provinces. They flower soon after they
arrive, and are rapidly bought up by the Chinese
to ornament their houses, after which they are
thrown away, as they do not thrive well so far
south as Canton or Macao, and will not flower a
second season. They are sold according to tliB
number of flower buds they may have upon them,

46

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

many of them fetchinsr rather high prices. For- 1
tuners Three Years in China.

Begonia fuchsioides. Fuchsia-like Becoiiia,
or Elephant's Ear. Stove Perennial. (Begoniads.)
Ocana Mountains of New Grenada. — A most love-
ly new Begonia, deteeted l)y Mr. Purdie, during
his mission" for the Royal Gardens at Kew. It is
easily propagated by euttings, grows rapidly, bears
small but copious foliage, and is a plant to which
he particularly requested our attention, on account
of the copious, elegant, drooping red flowers, at
tirst sight resembling tiiose of a Fuschsia ; and be-
cause ft is much eaten to allay thirst by the Arrie-
ros (mule drivers) of the country. He also ob-
serves that the globular buds, (meaning, probably,
the buds of the fertile blossoms, which are globular)
contain a fluid, which, together with the acid of
the flowers, proves highly grateful in the dry sea-
son and where tliere are no rivers. It has bloomed
durinir the autumn months with Mr. Veitch of Ex-
eter "who has one plant three feet high, loaded
with flowers. Our plants are now beginning to
flower. It is singular that, as far as they have yet
blossomed, the plants have proved only male-flow-
ered, except the tall one of Mr. Veitch, which hns
one cluster of female flowers at the top. Botani-
cal Magazine.

Fuel in Paris. — It is quite cold to-day, and I
have been obliged to have a Are ; I therefore pur-
chased two francs' worth of wood. There is a
marchand de bois across the street, who occupies
not a spacious wood-yard, as you would probably
imasrine, but a small shop, and that shop, small as
it is^is large enough to stow many thousand francs'

wortli of this precious article. They would no
more think of exposing it to the depredations of tlie
needy and unprincipled, in tlie open air, than a sil-
ver-smith with us, would ])il<! up his wares in a
yard ; why, while the marchand de bois was look-
ing away, some scoundrel might fill his pockets
and be off. For two frnncs I got twenty-three sticks,
sliort sticks, ratlicr small ; and for two sous each I
purchased two bundles of kindlings in fairots. It is,
I believe, about a franc and a half for fifty pounds.
When a fellow was going to buy a foot, they hardly
thousht him sane, and inquired if he would pay
on the sjjot. The shop of the marchand de bois is
decorated outside with paintings of piles of wood
in perspective, presenting a perfect El Dorado,
like the piles of gold in the broker's windows, only
less real ; they sell also charbon de terre and char-
bon de bois. They also sell (tt will make you
lau2'h to hear) small pine cones, four for a sous,
for fuel. In the winter they burn English coal,
which is dear too, mixed with wood. The forests
in France are mostly consumed, and great com-
plaints are made of the high duty on English coal.

astonished his barber by telling liim he had

burnt up while camping out many thousand francs'
worth of wood in one night ! Their manner of saw-
ing wood expresses the value they put upon it ;
instead of subjecting it to the rude contact of a
saw-horse, they hold it carefully in their hands, and
rub it up and down the saw ; The sawdust is of
course carefully preserved ; tliey would as soon
waste gold dust. A good deal mi^'ht be said on
the influence which the scarcity of fuel has had on
the French character, driving them to the cafe
and the sjiectacle, from the fireside. — Paris Cor res.
i Salem Gazette.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Paulownia Imperialis. — There are few things
in the vegetable worhl that more eflectually illus-
trates the skill of the hand which formed them, than
the flower buds of this tree. Growing through the
suumier with a rajiidiiy and luxuriance unsurpass-
ed by any hardy tree known in this climate, it be-
gins to consolidate its juices as the winter ap-
proaches, and to form of its own resources, a beauti-
ful little dwelling for its infant flower, and the germ
destined to perpetuate its existence. The seeds
being fairly established, each in its little cell, and
surmounted by the steeple-like style, tlie four sta-
mens are delicately folded about them, and covered
with a texture like fretted mother of pearl. The
whole is then surrounded by a delicate moss cover-
ed tissue, resembling very much the beautiful Irost
work that covers the leaves of the ice plant, and
the interior surface of which is like finely polished
silver. Th'.s is then covered by a thick cellular tis-
sue, lined with this same delicate frost work, and
protected on the outside by a tough rind, resembling
through a powerful microscope, the external cover-

ing of the cocoanut, and admirablv adapted to pro-
tect the bud from cold and from every external in-
jury. The bud is rather oval, about three-eighths
of an inch in diameter one way and five-eighths the
other. When the spring opens, the bud begins to
swell, the outer covering bursts at the apex ; the
mossy lining of the outside, and the mossy covering
of the inside, separate and present at this stage a,
beautiful frost-like appearance. The delicate co-
vering of the inside now begins to slide apart the
four layers which crown its apex, and the flower
opens its blue point to the light of day. The warm
spring sun now soon expands the entire flower and
exhibits the colour of a light purple, slightly shaded
with blue. In form it is somewhat like a Foxglove,
between the Gloxinia and the Bignonia radicansj
and the specimen before me measures two and five-
eighths inches from the base of the calyx to the top
of the petals. This calyx is us thick as heavy buck-
skin, and, as before remarked, is most admirably
adapted to protect the flower-bud from intense cold.
The flowers are produced in racemes at the extre-

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

47

mities of tho branches, and will probably continue
in bloom a lon;^ time, as seme buds have scarcelj'
swelled while others are fully expanded. The fra-
grance is very slight and not unpleasant.

I have watched with no little interest the forma-
tion of the bud and the expansion of the flower on the
tree in our grounds, and am quite of tlie opinion that
the Paulownia, with its very rapid growth, its per-
fect symmetry, its entire hardiness and its racemes
of beautiful flowers, is a very valuable and highly
ornamental acquisition to the list of hardy deciduous
trees. ^. B. Farsons. Flushing, 5 mo. 20, 1847.

[This is the first specimen of the PJTulownia, so
far as we have heard, to flower in the United
States. — Ed.]

buds and roses upon it. In colour, it is a light sul-
phur— lighter probably, by several shades, than if it
liad been grown in the open air. F. Petersburs,
Va., May 1, 1847.

AZ.A.I.EA SINENSIS, HARDY. — You are acquainted '
with that downy plant the Azalea sinensis; its ;
habits you are aware, are not dissimilar to the
American Pontic — the hardy and shrubby variety
so ormamental in pleasure grounds ; the flowers of
the sinensis, however, are of a much more intense
or brilliant orange than any of ours, and are really
splendid, on which account and being an exotic, it
has been, so far as I have observed, treated as an
indoor shrub. From some remarks I heard a friend
make last autumn on Azalea culture, I was de-
termined to try it out ; and although my specimen
plant was transplanted into one of the flower beds.
out of a pot, in November, and, to make the experi-
ment thorough, lett totally unprotected, it is now,
May 20, fast breaking into leaf, even at the extreme
tip of the longest branch, and showing some half
dozen flowering heads, with a strong shoot coming
up from the roots. The circumstance of this fine
shrub being hard\', greatly enhances its value as an
outdoor shrub. Too little attention is paid to the
culture of hardy Azaleas ; many of them have been
hybridized by Mr. Landreth, of Philadelphia,
with complete success. I have one called radi-
cans, sent me by G. Winter, Esq. of Flushing,
whose flowers almost vie with the beautiful sinensis,
and add greatly to the gaiety of the garden in this,
the " rosy time o' the year." I am yours very
truly. G. C. Thorburn. .Astoria, Long-Island.

Ci.OTii OF Gold Rose. — Though this rose, when
first introduced into the country, bore a high reputa-
tion, and was sought after with avidity, yet it ap-
pears to have been received with faint praise by
those who have succeeded in flowering it- No enco-
mium however, that has ever been passed upon it,
could have been exaggerated. It is indeed the
queen of roses. In the bud, and until it is half ex-
panded, it is impossible to conceive of an object
more exquisite. It is the appropriate type of girl-
hood, in all its loveliness and purity. Nor indeed is
it less perfect when fully blown. Not only in form,
but in size, is it entitled to pre-eminence over the
most admireVl of the tribe. S. D. Morton of this
place has succeeded in developing its beauties in a
manner to make it the admiration of all beholders.
Twelve months atjo he turned out a small plant in
his grape-house, the soil of which had been trenched
and enriched to the depth of two feet. During the
summer it made a luxuriant growth . extending itself
fully eight feet ; an<l at this time it has about forty

Large Native Pear tree.— We learn from Mr.
Jno. Owen, Cambridire, Mass., that the original
Harvard pear tree is yet standina in Cambridge.
The trunk at 4 feet above the sround measures' 4
feet 2 inches in circumference. It is growing in a
clay soil.

Protection against late Frosts. — One of the
mo.st vexatious impediments to the successful culti-
vation of Iruit that the cultivator has to contend
against in many districts of our country, is the lia-
bility to partial or complete ruin to the blossoms or
young fruit by late spring frost. This disaster may
be prevented by smoke, as is known to many ; but
the ease and safety of the application is nol'appre-
ciated as it should be ; and to call attention to it is
the object of this communication. In the winter or
spring previous to the season of fruit blossoms, I
procure a wagon load of sawdust or refuse tan bark
from the tannery, a part of which I place under
cover that it may become dry, and the rest I leave
exposed to the weather. At the season of exposure,
if the weatiier gives indications of danger, and the
temperature is nearly or quite down to the freezing
point, at one or two o'clock in the morninjr, I take
two or three shovelsful of the drv bark or sawdust,
and lay it on the ground ; into this I put a coal of
fire ; then, on this place halloa bushel or more of the
wet bark or sawdust, and a smoke will quicklv rise
that will prevent the accumulation of frost for
.some distance around. Two men wUl make twenty
or thirty of these fires in nearly as many minutes,
which will be sufficient to protect a fruit garden of
an acre in extent. If there is a slicht current of air,
I place the tires on the \s ind ward side of the garden,
if not, they are so arranged as to give security to
those trees which have blossomed most fully. At
the season when J'ruit trees are in flower, frost rare-
ly condenses on vegetation until late in the night,
and if the fires arc going by two o'clock in the morn-
ing, it will be soon enough, and more fuel will not
be needed, as it would be, should they beset at an
earlier part of the night.

Smoke, however annoying and vexatious under
certain circumstances, may be turned to good ac-
count in the matter referred to. Artificial means
are often resorted to, to retanl the blossoming of
fruit trees until a late period in the season, in order
that the danger from frost may bo lessened. The
latter method aflbrds but partial safety at certain
and considerable expense, which is worse than lost
should no frost occur ; because as much time as the
flowers are kept back, the fruit will be delaved in
ripening, ard many of the best varieties cannot, in
northern latitudes, mature, unless they have every
day of the short summer. Smoke, of course, would
be much more available in the fruit garden than in
the orchard. But even in the latter, one hundredth
part of the loss occasioned by a severe late frost
would be more than suflicient to defray all the ex-
pense of protection by warm vapor or smoke in the
way I have pointed out, and which I have thorough-

48

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

ly tested here. Yours. C. S. Newport, N. Y.,
June n, 1847.

[We should think the foregoing an admirable sug-
westion, and worthy of extensive trial in interior
districts. — Ed.]

Fresh Peaches I^f Winter. — Early in April we
had the pleasure of receiving from Samuel Wyman,
Esq. of Baltimore, two tin cans, hermetically sealed,
holding about two quarts each, bearing the follow-
ing printed label :

'• Fresh Peaches, put up in the natural state,
without sugar, and suitable for a dessert, to be eaten
with susrar and cream, etc. Warranted to keep
12 months in any climate. Put up by Edward
Wright, 16 Hill street, Baltimore."

Mr. Wyman informs us that ihese peaches, which
were of larsre size, were grown by himself; that he
has made repeated trials of this, Mr. Wright\s
mode of preserving, with the details of which he is
imacquainted ; and adds, " I feel constrained to say
that this process of preserving, whatever it may be.
maintains the natural taste and flavor of the fresh
fruit, in a degree far superior to any other with
which I am acquainted."

On opening the cans, we found the peaches /laZuetf,
and apparently lying in their own juice. When cut
up with sugar, they are as nearly as possible like
the fresh fmit in appearance and flavor, and to our
own palate infinitely more delicious than any "pre-
served " fruit, as the term is usually applied — that
is, to fruit " embalmed in sugar," and which retains
1 o le of the freshness of the natural state.

The process we should imagine to be a simple
one and is no doubt much the same as that employ-
ed by the French in preserving truflles, etc., though
we think the specimens much more completely pre-
served than the so-called fresh fruit which we have
seen sent from France.

We understand quite a business is carried on in
this preserved fruit in Baltimore. The secret would,
if as easily carried into practice as we should sup-
pose, be worth a good deal to the country at large.

New-York Horticulturai, Show. — We are
gratified to be able to announce that the American
Agricultural Association has established a se-
ries of Horticultural Exhibitions for the present
year in the city of New- York. While this number
is going to press, the June exhibition is in prepara-
rauouj^and there is, we learn, promise of a fine dis-
play of fruits and flowers. The circular of the As-
sociation, embracing the list of Premmras for the
autumnal exhibition, we now lay before our readers.
We are glad to perceive that this Society, the offi-
cers of which aie among our most zealous and in-
fluential citizens, has taken the cause vigorously in
hand, and we trust, under its good management,
that extensive influence may be brought to bear
which the metropolis of the country ought to have
exercised long ago in this matter.

American Agricultural Association, New-
York. — Premium List for the Horticultural Exhi-
bition on the 15th and 16th September next :

BOUQUETS.
Premiums to be awarded by a committee of Ladies.

For the best pair of Parlor Bouquets, $.'3

" second best, 2

" best pair of Hand Bouquuts. 3

" second best, , 2

" best Ba.sket of Flowers, ' 3

" second best, 2

FLOWERS .
JuDfiEs — Messr;. N. J. Becar, Brooklyn ; Edgar Hicks,
Brooklyn ; T. M. Carpenter. New- York ; Dr. Wm. \V. Valk,
Flushing; Peter B. Mead, New- York.
DAHLIAS.

For the best twelve varieties — self-colored, 5

" second best do. do. 3

" best six varieties — parli-colored, 5

" second best do. do 3

" largest and finest display, 5

" best Seedling — seh"-colored, 5

" best Seedling — parti-cokred, 5

" best display of Cut Flowers, 5

" second l)esl do. 3

GREENHOU.se PLANTS.

For the best twelve, 5

VEGETABLES.
Judges. — Messrs. Goiiverneur Morris, Westchester; Fran-
cis Briell, .Tersey City : J. W. Cudlipp and D. Holden, Bloom-
ingdale; James Malhewson, Morrisania.

For the best peck of Potatoes, 2

" second best do 1

'■ best peck of Sweet Potatoes, raised within thirty

miles souih of fs^ew York, 2

" second best — same limitation, I

" be.st 2.5 Onions, 2

" best G heads of Cabbage, 2

" second best G do 1

" best 6 heads of Red Cabbage, 2

" best 12 Blood Beets, 2

'• best 12 Carrots, 2

" best 6 heads of Endive— blanched, 2

" best 6 heads of Cardoon, 2

" best 0 stalks of Celery — blanched, 3

" second best (i do do. 2

" best 12 roots of Salsify, 2

" best pair of Egg Plants, 2

" second best do. I

" best half- peck Tomatoes, 2

" best 12 pods of Okra, 2

" best 12 Parsnips, 2

" best 12 Tnrnips, 2

" best 3 heads Broccoli 2

" best 2 heads of Cauliflower, 3

" best display of Vegetables, 5

FRUITS.
Judges.— Messrs. Wm. T. McConn, New- York; Charles
Downing, Newburgh ; J. Hayes, Newark ; William Kelly,
Rhniebeck ; R. B. Parsons, Flushing.

GRAPES raised in the open air.

For the best .3 bunches, black, any foreign varieties, 5

" second best, 3

" best 3 liuuches white, any foreign varieties, 5

" second best, • 3

" best 6 bunches, Isabella, 2

" second best, 1

" best 6 bunches Catawba, 2

" second best, 1

" best 6 bunches any other native variety, 2

Raised under glass without artificial heat.

For the best 4 bunches, black, any varieties,.. •• 5

" second best, 3

" best 4 bunches, white, any varieties, 5

" second best, 3

Raised under glass with artificial heat.

For the best 4 bunches, black, any varieties, 3

" second best, 2

" best 4 bunches, white, any varieties, 3

" second best, 2

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

49

APPLES.

For the best 12 Auiuini), one or more sorts, -

" second best do. '

" best 12 Winter do. ■-

" second best do. ^

" finest and greatest display — named, ^

" second best do. do ^

" best Seedling never before exliibiled, o

PEARS.

For the best 12 Autumn, one or more sorts, 3

" second best do. ^

" best 12 Winter do. 3

" second best do. ~

" largest and finest collection — named, 5

" second best do. ^

" best Seedling, never belbre exhibited, 5

PEACHES.

For the best 12 freestones, one or more sorts, 2

" second best do. 1

" best 12 clingstones do. 2

" second best do. 1

" largest and finest collection — named, 5

For the second best and finest collection — named, 3

" best Seedling never before exhibited, 3

PLUMS.

For the best two dozen, one or more sorts, 3

" second best, 2

" largest and finest collection — named, 5

" second best, do. 3

" best Seedling never before exhibited, 5

QUINCES.— For the best twelve, 2

" second best, do 1

WATERMELONS.— For the best pair, 2

" second best, 1

MUSKMELONS.— For the best three, 2

" second best, 1

CRANBERRIES.— For the best two quarts, cultivated... 2

^. B. — Persons desirous of becoming members
of, the Association are informed that the entrance
charo;e is $5, and that, by payinjj^ this sum to any
member of the Executive Committee, on the day of
exhibition, their names will be brought before the
Association at once, and if not elected the money
will be returned to them.

Strangers bringing choice plants, &c., to the city
from a distance, are notified that they will be taken
care of by Mr. James HoGfi, 562 Broadway, oppo-
site the rooms of the Association.

Per.sons intending to exhibit flowers, fruits, or
vegetables, are particularly requested to notify Mr.
Hogg, by mail or otherwise, in order that arrange-
ments m^y be made for the proper exhibition of
their specimens.

Officers of the Association. — Hon. Luthek
Bkavish, President; Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen,
James Lenox, Esq., James Boorman, Esq., A. H.
Stevens, M. D., Thomas A. Emmet, Esq., Hugh
Maxwell, Esq., Stephen Whitney, Esq., Shepherd
Knapp, Esq., Hon. William T. McCoun, Cyrus
Mason, D. D., W. A. Seely, J. S. Livingston, Esqs.,
Vice Presidents ; A. P. Halsey, Esq., Treasurer;
Andrew H. Green, Esq., Cor. Secretary ; R. Ogden
Doremus, Esq., Rec. Secretary; Luther Bradish,Th.
Frelinghuysen, James Lenox, R. L. Pell, <Ch'n.,)
Col. Edward Clark, Wm. Coventry H. Waddell,
Archibald Russell, Shepherd Knapp, R.K. Delafield,
D. P. Gardner, (Sec'y.) Executive Committee.

them from decav. The gates which were erected
at Constantinople, in the time of Constantine, were
of cypress, and stood eleven hundred years. (Sir
H. Davy.)

The alburnum or sap wood of the birch tree, con-
tains so much sugar and mucilage that it is some-
times used for bread in the north of Europe. (Sir
H. Davy.)

The larger and thicker the leaves ol a seedling,
and the more expanded the blossoms, the better the
fruit will be. Never select short leaved trees.
{Sir H- Davy.)

The epidermis of hollow phnits (canes, rattans,
rye, &.c.) contains siliceous earth. The rattan has
so much silex or flint, that it will give out sparks
when struck with steel. (Sir H. Davy.)

The hexagonal form of the cells of the bee arises
from a mechanical law, (the form which pliable hol-
low cylinders take when pressed together) and not
from the instinct of the bee. Solitary bees make
their cells uniformly circwZar. (Dr. IVolhiston.)

More rain falls in New England than in old Eng-
land, where the showers are more frequent, but not
so heavy. (Dr. Dwight.)

The hills of New England are moist to their top.s.
Water is obtained by digging at less depths than in
adjoining vales. (Dr. Dwight.)

A peculiar caterpillar is made to spin lace veils,
thus : a paste of leaves of which the worm is fond,
is spread upon a flat surface, and by drawing with
oil the figure to be left open. The caterpillar is
placed at the bottom of the inclined plane, ami eats
the paste, spinning as he ascends. A yard square
of the lace weighs only 4 5 grains, Troy. (Bab-
bage.)

Seaweed taken from a depth of 205 feet was ol a
green colour, showing how small a portion of solar
light is requisite for the effect. (Humboldt.)

Of all the plants of the globe, none produces such
a mass of nutriment in so small a space as the Ba-
nana. It produces in less than a year from the
planting, fruit, the bunches of which weigh often 88
pounds. (Humboldt.)

The value of the manure annually applied to the
land in Great Britain, exceeds in amount the for
eign commerce of the whole empire. (Dr. Ure.)

As meat and clothing come from animals,
the great inquiry in agriculture is, wliat crops will
least exhaust the soil and sustain the largest num
ber of animals. (Dan. Webster.)

NoTABiLtA — By Evelyn. — The aromatic oils of
plants keep ofT insects that would otherwise destroy
the parts of fructification, and the aroinatic oils of
woods (cedar, cypress, rosewood, &c.) preserve

7

Strawberry Blossoms. — Mr. Howard and my-
self examined Hovcy's Seedling yesterday in my gul-
den, and found the flowers perleet, the stamens In-
ing more fully developed than in any other variety,
except Stoddard's Alpine, with the exception of
half a dozen pistillate plants, on which no stamens
could be perceived. My plants came from Mr. Ho
VEY last year, 1846. Res. yours. Luther Thicker.
Albany, May 2\, 1847.

[Our neighbor, H. W. Sargeant. Esq., of Wo-
denethe, also lately showed us a bed of plants of
this sort, which were sold him by Mr. Hovey him-
self in 1845, as the genuine fruitful sort. These
plants bear what are usually termed staminate
blossoms. Mr. Hovey has stat< d in an article on
this subject, that his seedling is and always has been

50

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

a pistillate sort. This, indeed, appears to be the
settled form which the variety commonly presents ;
yet how are we to account for the variation from it
which appears in these stamen bearing plants just
referred to, and which were received so directly and
recently from the originator himself? Are there
two Hovey's Seedlings, or does the sort vary ? — Ed.]

Salt for the Quince Tree. — Sir, I perceive
you recommend salt for the plum and other fruit
trees. I can also inform you, from continual expe-
rience, that this substance is equally of advantage
to the quince tree.

When I first came to this section of the state,
twelve years since, I found, on the premises I pur-
chased, half a dozen fair looking quince trees, but
which I understood had never borne any fruit. On
inquiry, I learned that the quince tree did not bear
well in my neighborhood, and that my neighbors
thought it useless to plant this fruit tree.

In making a drain from my kitchen, it so happen-
ed that it emptied its contents near the roots of one
of the quince trees mentioned. This tree, the sea-
son after, came into bearing, and as a good deal of
brine had been emptied into this drain, I supposed
the sale might have produced its fruitful state.

Acting on this supposition, I commenced applying
salt early in the spring to the other quince trees at
the rate of three quarts per annum to the surface of
the ground under each tree, the trunks of which
were then about as large as a man's wrist. They
came into bearing the following season, and have
given me constant and good crops every year since.
My neighbors, who had never previously succeeded
in growing quinces, have adopted my plan, and now
find no difficulty ; and I have myself planted more
young trees, which are now beginning to bear well.
Your obt. servant. Oneida Co. ilf ay, 1347.

How TO Plant Strawberries. — Dear Sir : I
have read with a good deal of attention the articles
on the Strawberry Question, and am glad to find
that at last all agree in one point, and, I suppose,
to cultivators the root of the matter, viz. that we
must choose pistillate sorts to have permanent beds
and large crops of the finest fruit.

But since, as is said, the staminates outgrow the
pistillates, and are likely, before long, when the
two are planted in mixed beds, to crowd the latter
out, I would be obliged to you for your opinion, in
brief, about the best mode of planting the two clas-
ses; also a memorandum of the three or four kinds
whose character is so established that there need
be no hesitation about planting them. Yours, with
respect. j1 Constant Reader. Philadelphia, June,

1847. .,, ,

[Answer.— The annexed arrangement will show
our correspondent a very simple and etTectual mode
of growing the finest strawberries, with the cer-
tainty of a large cro-p. In this * represents pistil-
late plants, occupying beds four feet wide ; t repre-
sents staminate plants, occupying intermediate
strips or beds one foot wide. Between the strip of
staminates and the bed of pistillates, it will be seen
that a walk intervenes on either side. This eflec-
tually prevents any intermixture of the runners —
always supposing, as would of course be the case.

that the walks are kept free and clean. In this
case the beds are supposed to be planted with four
rows, and the plants to be kept in this form by cut-
ting off the runners every season. Following this
plan, and manuring between the rows every spring,
the beds will continue in fine order for several
years.

pistillate, slam

. pistillate, stam.

pistillate.

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Among the best pistillate strawberries that have
as yet come under our notice for the wide beds, are
the Black Prince, Hoveifs Seedling, Hudson, Wil-
ley, Bishop's Orange, etc. The best stamen bear-
ing sorts for the intermediate strips, are Large
Early Scarlet, Virginia Scarlet, Duke of Kent,
etc. These have perfect blossoms, and will always
give a good crop of themselves, as M'ell as abun-
dantly fertilize the whole adjoining beds of pistil-
lates.

Besides these, some of the strips may be occu-
pied by the larger staminates, such as Swainstone
Seedling, Myatt's Eliza, Ross' Phanix, Myatt's
Deptford Pine, etc., which will, in suitable soils
where their flowers are perfect, not only fertilize
the pistillates in the four feet beds, but bear crops
of very large berries themselves.

Apple Borer. — One of the greatest pests to the
grower of the whole apple tree tribe, including
thorn, quince, mountain ash, etc., is the insect
known as the Apple-tree Borer (Saperda bivittata.)
The perfect insect which appears here early in June,
and flies at night, is a brown and white striped bee-
tle, about half an inch long. This beetle deposits
its eggs in the bark of the trees most frequently
near the ground, or in the fork of the branches. The
egg hatches, becomes a white grub, which perfo-
rates the trunk in all directions, and often destroys,
it, when the insects are numerous, as completely as
if it were divided by a saw.

The first indication that gives notice to the com-
mon observer, of the presence of this borer, is the
appearance of numerous small round holes in the
bark of the trunk, looking as if the tree had been
perforated by buckshot.

This insect is a diffieult one to combat successful-
ly. In some parts of New-England, where it has
been allowed to multiply at its own pleasure, it has
destroyed whole orchards.

DOMESTIC NOTICES

61

We have studied its habits with some care thi
season, and offer the following suggestions as worthy
the attention of those whose trees are attacked by
iU

1st. Examine all trees liable to be attacked by
this borer eariy in the spring, certainly before the
first of May, in order, if possible, to destroy the
larva before it comes out of the trunks in beetle
form. This should be done, as far as possible, by
plugging up the holes with pieces of soft pine soak-
ed in very strong tobacco water.*

2d. Before the time for the beetle to emerge from
the tree, i. e. from the middle of May to the first
of June in this region, wash the whole trunk of the
tree from the surface of the ground beyond the fork
of the principal branches, with a mixture of soft
soap and tobacco water, made of the consistency
of thick paint.

We have found, when this is brushed over the
stems of the trees, it is for a long time so offensive
to the insect that it will not deposit its eggs in the
bark beneath it.

These two precautions, thoroughly put in prac-
tice, will, we trust, be found sufficient to put a stop
to the ravages of the Apple Borer.

Death of S. G. Perkins. — Since the publication
of our last number, we learn with regret the death
of one of our most highly valued correspondents,
Samuel G. Perkins, Esq. He died at his country
seat at Brookline near Boston, the scene of his
zealous horticultural labors and enjoyments for
many years, at a ripe old age. We never remem-
ber to have met with an amateur, and rarely with
a professional cultivator, whose knowledge of fruit
trees, and whose successful treatment of them ex-
ceeded that of Mr. Perkins. The few last years
of his life were overshadowed by a partial loss of
his sight ; but even this could not wean him from
the pleasures of his garden ; and we remember
with what interest he showed us, during our last
visit at Brookline, peculiarities of growth in certain
trees in his fine gardens, which would have escaped
the notice of common observers, but to which he
was profoundly conscious, through almost as much
of the sense of feeling as that of sight.

The most excellent practical papers which have
appeared in our columns, were chiefly dictated to
an amanuensis. Our readers, no less than ourselves,
will regret the loss to the gardening world of one
so thoroughly versed in the practical knowledge of
our favorite art.

PoTATOE Blight an Atmospheric Disease. —
After all the investigations made for ascertaining
the cause of disease in potatoes, we have yet no-
thing conclusive. In 1844, in many parts of Ver-
mont, the crop of potatoes was almost a total fail-
ure. In this immediate vicinit)', the disease was
hardly known. In 1845, in places which suffered
in 1844, the disease had partially passed off", while
in this vicinity there was almost a total loss. In
1846, not a single instance of the disease in this
vicinity has come to my knowledge. In the winter
of 1845-6, I had carried from my cellar as many as
one hundred and fifty bushels of diseased potatoes,

• Made by staeping common tobacco, or the stalks of the
same, in water.

and sptead on about ten square rods in my garden,
among young fruit trees — soil a secondary forma-
tion oi coarse gravel, about two hundred and fifty
feet above, and one- mile from Lake Champlain,
where the previous season potatoes had been plant-
ed and all rotted. In the spring of 1846, as many
as fifty bushels more were spaded in the same
trround. About ten bushels of sound and partially
decayed potatoes were sorted from the last, when
the whole mass of rotten potatoes was covered
in the soil. Potatoes not totally decayed, grew
so as nearly to cover the ground. They were
cultivated, grew well, produced a good crop,
were dug at the usual time, and put on the bottom
of my cellar. More than one hundred bushels were
put over them. They were taken out last month,
and no symptom of disease could be detected among
them. No maimre or any other matter was ap-
plied either to the soil or potatoes, before or after
gatiierin<r. Chauiicey Goodrich. Burlington, Vt.
June, 1847.

[\Ve would call the attention of some of the Eng-
lish speculators on the potato disease, to the fore-
going curious facts. — Ed.]

Worcester County (Mass.) Horticultural
Society. — This society held its annual meeting a
few days since, at which the following gentlemen
were unanimously elected its officers for the ensu-
ing year :

Isaac Davis, President ; Isaac Southgate, Wil-
liam Workman, Asa H. Waters, Vice-President;
George Jaques, Rec. Sec. ; John Milton Earle,
Cor. Sec; Frederic W. Paine, Treasurer ; Antho-
ny Chase, Librarian ; F.W. Paine, George Jaques,
Edmund F. Dixie, Committee of ^Arrangements.

The Society propose to have four exhibitions thia
year, one in July, one in August, one in September,
and one in October.

Their new and beautiful Hall, in the Waldo
Block, will afford spacious accommodation for the
rich displaj-s of fruits and flowers, which the in-
creasing interest and improving taste of the horti-
culturists of the count)" can so easily furnish for
the entertainment of their friends. Worcester
Telegraph.

St. Louis Hort. Society. — To A. J. Downing,
Esq. : I presume you have alread}- observed that
we have formed a horticultural society in St. Louis,
and that you are among the honorary members
thereof elected. I take pleasure in stating that
the Society has begun its existence under very fa-
vorable auspices, and that prosperity and useful-
ness seem to be promised to it in a high degree.

Amid many doubts and misgivings, a first exhi-
bition of flowers and vegetables was made on the
first of May. The show far exceeded the most
sanguine expectations of its projectors and of the
community, and was visited by a very respectable
number of our citizens. One of our largest public
halls was well lined on all sides by a handsome
and various collection of green-house plants, and
the tables exhibited some beautiful bouquets and
cut flowers. Tulips, Tree Paeonies, etc., and good
samples of early vegetables. I sent you one of our
daily newspapers containing the reports of some of
our committees. The result has encouraged us

52

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

very much, niul we have resolved upon another ex-
hibition in September, when we antieipate a consi-
derable increase in the number of contributors.
Our Society as yet meets but monthly, and at each
meeting new members are added. Among the to-
pics particularly interesting to us in this vicinity,
now before the society for discussion, arc "The
Pear Blight, its causes and remedies ;" "The Cur-
culio, how are its ravaj^es to be prevented V etc.

Our Society is the fii'st movement of the kind
west of the Mississippi ; and we are happy in be-
lieving that it is likely to succeed ab initio.

The following is a list of the officers ; Thomas
Allen, President ; Gen. William Milburn, 1st Vice
President ; Capt. Lewis Bissell, 2d Vice President;
J. B. Crockett, 3(f Vice President ; John C. Bre-
dell. Treasurer ; Edward Hazen, Cor' Sec; A. B.
Chambers, Rec. Sec; Judge W. C. Carr, Chairman
of Council ; and there are five standing commit-
tees. Yours. .4 Subscriber. St. Louis, Mo., May,
1847.

Albany and Rensselaer Horticultural So-
ciety.— At a meeting of gentlemen from Albany
and Rensselaer counties, held at the State Agricul-
tural Hall, on Monday, the 21st June, the meeting
was organized by calling Joel Rathbone, Esq.,
of Albany, to the chair, and Stephen E. Warren,
Esq., of"Ti-oy, was appointed Secretary.

The objects of the meeting were stated by Her-
man Wendell, M. D., and remarks in relation to
the propriety and expediency of organizing a Hor-
ticultural Society for the counties of Albany and
Rensselaer, were made by Dr. Wendell, B. P.
Johnson and J. J. Viele.

On motion of Dr. Wendell, a committee of
five were appointed to propose a constitution and
by-laws for a Horticultural Society, to be called
the Albany and Rensselaer Horticultural Society.

The committee retired ; and on their return re-
ported through their chairman a constitution and
by-laws, for the consideration of the meeting —
which after discussion and amendment, were unani-
mously adopted.

Gen. Viele. from the committee to nominate
officers, reported the names of the following per-
sons who were iinanhnously elected : —

President— JOEL RATHBONE, Albany.

Vice-Presidents — Henry Vail, Troy; Herman
Wendell, M. D., Albany; Alexander Walsh,
Lansingburgh ; V. P. Douw, Greenbush.

Secretary — B. P. Johnson, Albany.

Treasurer— A. E. Brown, Albany.

Managers — George B. Warren, Troy ; J. McD.
Mclntyre, Albany ; Albert Richards, West-Troy ;
S. E. Warren, Troy ; E. P. Prentice, Albany ; C.
F. Crosby, Watervliet ; James Wilson, Albany ;
Wm. Newcomb, Pittstown ; Wm. Walsh, Albany.

Dr. Herman Wendell, S. E. Warren and J.
McD. Mclntyre were appointed a committee to
prepare and report a premium list for the year
1847.

Cultivation of the Cranberry. — Sullivln
Bates of Bellingham, Mass., has issued a circular
in relation to the cultivation of the Cranberry, from
which we gather the follcv/ing :

He states, that he has ascertained that there arc
three varieties of the Cranberry. Of these he
thinks there is only one, which he calls the " Bell,"
that is adapted to a dry soil. He thus describes
this variety : "The berry grows much in the form
of an egg ; it is inclined to grow, in a wild state,
on the borders of Cranberry bogs, spreading its
way to upland soils. It is much larger than the
other kinds in its wild state."

He advises, that persons engaging in the cultiva-
tion of the article, should commence with the
"Bell" variety; and he says, " by commencing
with those which have been cultivated, or natural-
ized to a dry soil, they will much sooner accom-
plish their object, and with much less trouble and
expense, as the plants multiply and increase abun-
dantly." He states that from one or two thousand
plants enough may be obtained in two or three years
to plant "acres."

His directions for cultivation are, to select a
moist soil, not liable to bake. Loamy soils, which
are moderately dry, and contain a mixture of sand,
he states, are well adapted to grow the Cranberry.
He directs to prepare the soil " the same as for
sowing grain, by plowing, harrowing and making
it even, then mark it out in drills eighteen or twen-
ty inches apart, putting the plants in the drills five
or six inches apart ; hoe them slightly at first, till
the roots become clinched, and afterwards no other
cultivation is needed. The plants may be expected
to run together and cover the whole soil in two or
three years."

Under cultivation, the yield of the Cranberry is
stated to be " from 150 to 400 bushels per acre ; its
fruit is two or three times as large as the wild, and
of a superior flavor; it readily keeps sound from the
harvest of one year to that of the next. The fruit is
generally gathered in September, with wire-tooth
rakes, made for the purpose ; one man generally
gathering from thirty to forty bushels per day, with
the aid of a boy to pick up the scattering fruit.

The roots may be planted either in spring or fall.
Spring planting may be done from the time the
ground can be worked till the tenth of Ma}' ; fall
planting may be done in October and November.

Mr. Bates has plants for sale, at the rate of
eight dollars per thousand for quantities less than
one thousand, and seven dollars per thousand in
larger quantities.

Mr. B. G. Boswell, of Philadelphia, observes,
in regard to shipping cranberries, that they should
first " be run over aplatform slightly inclined. The
rotten or bruised fruit," it is said, " will not run
off, but stick going down the platform, and are
scraped off and thrown away. The perfect fruit
is then put into tight barrels, and when headed up
filled with water, and in this manner the}' arrive in
Europe in pei-fect order, and have frequently sold
in foreign ports at twenty dollars per barrel ." S. H.

Position of Flower Beds. — It often happens
that two different flower beds may be equally well
managed, and flourish alike, yet one may be amass
of brilliancy, while the other exhibits little or no
beauty. There are many flowers which always
face the light or the sun ; consequently the beds
should be so placed that the spectator in the walk

PENNSYLVANIA HORT. SOCIETY.

53

or window, should look them full in the face. That
is, the strongest light and the position of the spec-
tator should always he on the same side of the bed.
This will be found narticularly necessary with the
pansy or tri-colored violet, and some other of the
smaller flowering plants.

Best Sites for Fruit Gardens. — Edson Hark-
ness,of Peoria, 111., who has had much experience
in fruit raising, makes the following statement in
relation to the culture of the peach and grape,
(which are partially tender,) which will be found
to contain valuable information to western fruit
cultivators, and which fully accords with experience
elsewhere. " The peach and grape flourish best
upon our highest lands, and upon a thin soil ; and
it does not seem expedient to cultivate these fruits
extensively on any other. The beautiful gently
swelling hills, called mounds, which are found in-
terspersed all over our prairie country, are, so far
as tried, peculiarly adapted to the culture of the
peach and the vine. The exemption of the mounds
from frost, after tegetation starts in the spring,
gives them a great advantage over lower situations.
During the last ten years, the wild grapes upon
our highest lands have not been injured by frost,

while in the low lands or hollows, they have been
destroyed nearly every alternate year. And when
the peach trees are injured by the winter in every
other situation, those on the mounds escape." T.

Successful Transplanting. — A Michigan cor-
respondent of the Genesee Farmer says, " In the
fall of 1S45, and spring of 1846, I planted three
hundred fruit trees of the various kinds, and have
not lost one out of that number, notwithstanding
the drouth so severe here last summer. Some of
the apple trees have grown three feet ; and peaches
generally two feet, and some four to six feet. I set
them on a piece of rich new land ; dug the holes
from three and a half to four feet in diameter, and
from eighteen to twenty-four inches deep, filled
them up with rich muck and black sand and loam.
The earth that was thrown out of the bottom was
not thrown back " All such good treatment can
scarcely ever fail of similar success. No planter
should ever expect to lose a single tree ; and he
need not if he treats all properly. Every tree that
dies by removal, does so from abuse and bad treat-
ment. Avoid such treatment, and all will live as
a matter of course. T.

PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The monthly meeting was held as usual on Tuesday even-
ing, June 1-5. 1847. The President in ihe chair.

Several tables ot" fine plants were shown on the occasion,
and very beautiful baskets of cut flowers, also a number of
well grown vegetables in great variety, and fruits. Of the lat-
ter, there were dishes of delicious Strawberries and Cherries,
and also specimens of Apples in perfect preservation, of which
several were fall varieties; their fine condition was efl'ected
by means of Kephart's patent fruit and vegetable preserver,ilie
secret of which is, by means of ice to maintain a uniform
temperature, so near the freezing point as to arrest the rotting
a» well as the ripening process, without danger o{ freezing
them. They were presented by Messrs. Flack, Thompson,
and Brothers.

The following premiums were awarded :

At the intermediate meeting, June 1, for the best two quarts
of strawberries to John Austin, gardener to Isaac B. Baxter ;
for the next best strawberries, to Patrick Gallagher, gardener
to Miss Gratz.

On tlie present occasion : By the Committee on Plants and
Flowers. — For the best twelve Rocket Larkspurs, to Anthony
Felten. For the best hothouse plants, to Archibald Hender-
son, gardener to T. W. Smith. For the second best ditto, to
William Hall, gardener to C. Cope. For the best greenhouse
plants to Archibald Henderson. For Ihe second best ditto, to
ine same. For the most interesting collection of plants in
pots, to Benjamin Gullis, gardener to Jacob Snider jr. For
the second best ditto, to Archdjald Henderson. For the third
best ditto, to Robert Kilvington. For the fourth best ditto, to
Patrick Gallagher. For the best indigenous plants, to Archi-
bald Henderson. For the best basket of cut flowers, and for
the second best basket, to Robert Kilvington ; and special pre-
miums of one dollar each for bouquets to William Hall, gar-
dener to C. Cope, Patrick Gallagher, gardener to Miss Gratz,
and to A. Henderson.

By the Committee on Fruits — who report thai they have
examined and tasted of those apples which have been pre-
served by the vegetable and fruit preserver, invented by Mr.
Kephart, comprising five varieties, viz. Cider, Bellefleur, Fa-
vorite. GermdiJtown, and Newtown Pippin, and deposited by
Flack, Thompson & Bro , and recommend a premium of three
dollars. And for the best strawberries they recommend a pre-
mium of two dollars to Andrew Paltoii, gardener to Mrs.
Kohne. For the second best, called '■ Buist's Prize," one dol-
lar to Robert Buist. For the best cherries, three pounds, to
Andrew Paltou ; and for the second best cherries, to Jno. Aus-
tin, gardener to Isaac B. Baxter.

By the Committee on Vegetables — For the most interesting
display, to Jno. Austin, gardener to Isaac B. Baxter. For the
second best display, to Anthony Felten. For the third best
display, to Patrick Gallagher, gardener to Miss Gratz. For
the best artichokes, six in number, to Andrew Patton, garde-
ner to Mrs. Kohne. And a special premium of one dollar for
a fine displ.iy of Cucumbers and Tomatoes, exhibited by V\'m.
Hall, gardener to Caleb Cope.

The Treasurer presented his semi-annual statement of ac-
counts, which was read and reterred.

The Committee to superintend exhibitions reported a vacan-
cy in their number, which the president filled by appointing
Dr James H. Bradford.

A communication to the Secretary, from Messrs. Elwaiiger
and Barry of Ruchesler, N. Y., was read, describing the Nor-
thern Spy Apple, and declining the premium awarded at the
last meeting, and presenting it as a donation to the Society.

The Corresponding Secretary reported a communication
from Mr. A. H. Ernst, near Cincimiati, Ohio, in reply to his,
announcing Mr. Ernst's election to honorary and correspond-
ing membership, which was read

Tno3 P. James.

Secretary.

64

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

Exhibition of Saturday , May 15, 1847.

GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS —The opening of the hall to
the public for the season, was postponed from the first of the
mouth to this day on account of the unusual backwardness of
the season. In the bloom of Apricots, Cherries, and other
trees, we notice three weeks difference between this and last
year, and in HyacmUis )iearlythe same. A season so cold and
unpropitious, gave but little promise to the public of a great
display of flowers, but in this, no doubt, all who witnessed the
exhibition were happily disappointed. It was one of the best
displays of choice plants ever witnes.sed in the hall, perhaps
the best. The Society are greatly indebted to the amateurs
and other cuhivators, who so liberally contributed their plant*
for the occasion.

From M. F. Wilder. President of the Society, a grand dis-
play of green-house plants in pots — one very large Azalea
indica variegata; two smaller do.; Azalea nudiflora ornata,
recently imported from Germany, hardy vaneiy, (very fine;)
twenty plants of seedling Azaleas, all different, some of them
very fine striped varieties; ihirty Calceolaria seedlings, all
distinct, very beautiful, of every color and tint; twelve very
fine Cineraria seedlings; six Petunia seedlings: one Persian
Yellow Rose ; two Moss do.; White Unique Mo.ss, (new;)
Bourbon. Madame Angelina, new, singular color and high
scent • Erica ventrieosa superba ; two Er.ca odorata, whue,
fra"Tant; two Epiphyllum Jenkinsonii; one Cactus flagelli-
formis; one Camellia Ciiquetti; and one Clematis azurea
■Tandiflora, fine. Cut flowers — Cameliias, Duchesse d'Or-
feans Pralti, Fimbriala, caiididissima, cruciata, alba plena,
and two new seedlings; iiojes, Noisette, Lamarque, Bour-
bon, PaulJoseph, C. Beauhariiais, B. Gouvaiu Si Cyr, B. Ed-
ward Desfosses, B. Madame Desprez, Tea, Julie Mansais, T.
Devoniensis, T. Eugene J ourvani. Hybrid perpetual, Uuc d'-
Alencou, (new,) H.P. Melanie Cornu, and Noi.^elte Solfatare
in great quantity ; also two new varieties of Perpetual Car-
nations.

From Joseph Breck 4' Co., a great variety of Hyacinths,
Narcissus. Crown Imperials, and other hardy tlowers.

From William Mellar, twelve plants of splendid Seedling
Calceolarias ; eight do. Pelargoniums ; one Fuchsia venus
victrix; also a great variety of cut tiowers, including Pelar-
goniums. Verbenas, Cal eularias, Roses, &c.

From T. H. Perkins, by William Quant, six plants of beau-
tiful Seedling Cinerarias ; eight large do. of Double Crimson
Stocks, very fine ; twelve do. Pelargoniums, viz: Ophelia,
Matdda, Sylph, Speculum mundi, Alarm, Eady Daro, Lilac
Perfection, Rienzi, &c A magnificent specimen of Stephan-
otus floribundus, very fragrant, and the first plant ever ex-
hibited in the rooms. Six ilo Fuchsias, viz : Defiance, Chau-
verii. Smith's Victoria, Williamsonii, Epsii, Paragon ; Cactus
Mayfly; and fine plant of Gloxinia. Also fine cut flowers,
including Stephanolus, Roses, Pelargoniums, Gloxinias, Cal-
ceolarias, &c.

From Juhn A- Lowell, by Thomas Willott, a var.ety of cu-
rious and rare plants; among them that singular production
6f nature, the Nepenthes distillatoria, or Pitcher plant , Cat-
tleya intermedia; very beautiful ; Maxillaria aiomatica; Ja-
tropca paiiduraefolia; Russellia juncea, a splendid plant; and
Tabermontana coronaria.

From Azel Bowditch,one Orange tree, with fruit and flow-
ers ; twelve plants of Cal.eolarias ; one Moss tree Rose ; two
while Ivy leafed Geraniums ; two pyramidal bouquets, and
five flat do. ; also cut flowers in variety.

From Nahiim Stetson, South Bridgewater, one fine plant of
Cytisus raceraosus, and fine specimens of Madam Desprez
Rose.

From John Hovey, one plant of Euphorbia splendens.

From John L. Gardner, by J Thomas, nine varieties of
Seedling Verbenas ; Sweet Peas ; one ornamental moss vase
and pedestal, with five bouquets of flowers; also two parlor
bouquets in moss vases, and one large flat bouquet composed
of choice flowers, very beautiful.

From James Nugent, cut flowers. Calceolarias, Cinerarias,
Roses, Verbenas, &c , Sec, in great variety.

From J- L. L. F. Warren, two parlor and eight hand bou-
quets ; twenty-six species of Cactus, some of them very cu-
rious.

From J. N. Mandel, one bouquet.

From A. C. Fernall, Revere place, one fine plant of Ivy
leafed Geranium, beautifully trained.

From O. H. Mathers, a great variety of cut flowers, includ-
ing Lupinus Hartwegii, Roses, Calceolarias, Cinerarias. Abu-
lilon, \vilhmany fine specimens of beautiful plants.

From WiUia)n B. Richards, cut flowers.

From Hovel/ Sf Co., six plan's of Pelargoniums, new vari-
eties ; smd one Hydrangea japoiiica, new and beautiful.

AAVARD OF PREMIUMS.

Calceolarias. — 1st prize to' William MeKar, $3; 2d do. to
Mr. Bowdilch, S2.

Hyacinths. — 1st prize to Mr. Breck, $o.

Bouquet, large. — A prize lo John Thotnas, $2.

Six HAND iBouQUETS. — 1st prize to Mv. Bowditch, $2; 2d
do. to J. L. L. F. Warren, SI.

The Judges recommend a grituity of $5 to John Thomas,
for his beautiful design and two moss vases of flowers.

Pelargoniums. — l>t premium on Class II, to Wm. Quant,
$6 ; 2d do. to Wm. Mellar, $4.

Cinerarias. — 1st premium to Wm. Quant, $3.

Fuchsias. — 1st premium to Wm. Quant, $6.

Various Sorts. — Best display, not less than 12 plants, 1st
premium to Wm. Quant, S3; 2d do to A. Bowditch, S5.

Cut Flowers — 1st premium to Wm. Quant, $3, 2d do. to
James Nugent, S9.

Gratuities. — To BT. P. Wilder, President of the Society,
for his splendid display of greenhouse plants, SS. To Thomas
Willott, for plants from John A. Lowell, S5. To Henry Reed,
gardener to Nahum Stelson, for Cytisus racemosus, $3.

FRUITS. — On the opening of our hall to day, for the pre-
sent season, John Fisk Allen. Esq., of Salem, presented
twelve varieties of ripe grapes, dished up in his usual fine style,
viz. Early Black July, Miller's Burgundy, Early White of the
French and Pitmaslon white cluster (the.se four are the ear-
liest grapes, and the Pilmaston the earliest and the best of
these.) Zinfiiidal Ferral, Black Hamburg, White Chasselas,
Cha-sselas de Bar-Sur-Aube, Aleppo, VVhite and Grizzly
Frontiguan ; also Black Figs of St. Michael.

Vegetables. — From O. H. Mather, by Thomas Needham,
a variety of Cucumbers, among which were the Manchester
and Weeden's Prize.

From Orr N. Toivne, a brace of cucumbers.

J, Fisk Allen exliibited Tomatoes, April 24-and May 1.

Saturday, May 22, 1847.

FLOWERS. -From M. P. Wilder, President of the Society,
12 plants of his fine new seedling Calceolarias, spoiled and
variegated, very beautitul ; three varieties of Ericas in full
bloom; cut flowers, includiug fine specimens of Camellias,
among w.iich we noticed a fine new seedling of regular for-
maiioii, color light pink, slighily striped with while, which
promises well, also Henry Favre, Sarah Frost, Double White
and other varieties. Roses : Tea, Princess Adelaide, new,
very large pale yellow, high scented ; Noisette Solfatare iu
quantity ; this variety proves to be an abundant bloomer un-
der proper treatment as we have witnessed ; we are uiformed
that the gardener cut 100 Rose buds from one plant on May
morning ; also Bourbon and Hybrid perpetual Roses, and
specimens of forced Ghent Azaleas.

From Lncinda Spaulding, South Reading, a fine plant of
Caelum extensus, in full bloom.

From A. Bowditch, two round pjTamids, six hand, and one
large flat vase or mantel bouquets. Ten rot plants, viz : one
seedling picotee Pink, Prairie Rose, Lechenaultia formosa,
Petunia, Erica ventricosa superba, Sedum var Fuchsias,
and two (.Jactus. Also cut flowers, principally Roses.

From S. R. Johnson, fine specimens of Pyrus japonica.

From R. M. Copeland, very fine Hyaiinths and Cactus.

From Joseph Breck (f Co., Hyacinths in great variety; five
varieties of Phlox subulata ; Phlox decurabens and stoloni-
fera, Pulmonaria virginica, Iris pumila and cristata, Pansies

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY.

55

in variety ; Paeonia tenuifolia and hybrida; Primula polyan-
thus and vera ; While Swan, and other early double Tulips.
Crown Imperial, double and single red, yellow, &c. Cyno-
glossum oinplialoide* ; Funiaria formosa and other hardy her-
baceous and bulbous Howe ruig plants. Also, double and s;ii-
gle Peach blossoms, Crub Apple, Pear and other fruit flow-
ers. These were introduced not only for their beauty, but
also to show ihe extreme lateness of the season in compari-
son with the last. On the 5th of May, 1846, the apple trees
were in lull bloom, now the buds are only beginning' to show
their colour The blossoms of the Pear are not yet fully de-
veloped, while the Peach, Cherry, and Plum are in perfection.

From J- W. Mandel, two bouquets; cut flowers, compris-
ing Pelargoniunn, Heliotrope, Verbenas, Roses, &c.

From O. H. Mathers, by Thomas Needham, fine cut flow-
ers, nicluding Verbenas, Pelarsoniums, Cinerarias, Lupines,
Phlox Drummondii, Abutilon, Acacia, Cytisas, Keiniedia ra-
cemosa, Primulas, &c., &c.

From J. L. L. F. Warren, two Fuchsias and one plant of
Burchelia speciosa, rare and beautiful ; and one Calistemon
splendens. Also, one table and six hand bouquets.

From T. H. Perkins, by William Quant, a magnificent plant
of Stephanotus floribundus, one of (.'ineraria, two Fuchsias,
three geraniums, and one large mantel bouquet.

From Hovey if Co , fine Paiisies.

From J. L. Gardner, by J. Thomas, six fine plants of Ver-
bena, entered too late for premium. Also a fine display of
cut flowers, including sweet peas in great variety, fine seed-
ling Pelargoniums, S^emophylla insigiiis graudiflora, Calceo-
larias, Nasturtiums, &c.

AWARD OF PREMIUMS.

For the best large Mantel bouquet, 1st premium to Azel
Bowditch, *'2 ; 2d do. to Wm. Quant, $1.

For the best six Pot Plants, Isl premium to Wm. Quant, $2 ;
2d do. to Azel Bowdilcli, SI.

The Committee award a gratuity of five dollars lo Wm.
Quant, for a splendid plant of Stephanotus floribvuidus. Also,
to R. M Copeland, a gratuity of three dollars for a fijie display
of beautiful Hyacinths

FRUIT.S. — Mr. Allen, of Salem, made a fine display of his
splendid Grapes — viz: Ferral, Black Hamburgh, Zinfindal,
early Black July, Griazly Frontignaii, Pitmasion white clus-
ter, and white Chasselas. Also, Black and White Figs of
St. Michael, Azores. The Pitmaston while cluster, is a small
round berry, and when fully ripe of a fine yellow colour ; it
is the earliest Grape, and will ripen in from ten to twenty
days less time than the Chasselas or sweet water. It is a
very desirable variety.

Vegetables. — From T- H. Perkins, by Wm. Quant, some

fine Asparagus.

Saturday, May 29, 1847.

FLOWERS.— From Messrs. Winski}i. flowering shrubs,
including fine specimens of rare Spiraeas, Purple Beech,
Azaleas, Pyrus Japonica, Wistaria, double flowering Peach,
with a great variety of other cut flowers

From Wm. Mellar, Tulips in variety. Pelargoniums, Ver-
benas, Pansies, Iberis, &c. Also, fine seedling Polyanthus.

From E- M- Richards, Tulips in variety, Trillium pictum,
Dodecatheon, and other cut flowers.

From Miss Russell, a basket of flowers tastefully arranged ;
Wistarias, &.c.

From J. L. Gardner, by J. Thomas, three plants of Verbe-
nas, one Tropaeolum minor, seedling Calceolaria, and Pelar-
gonium Matilda ; one beautiful .Moss Vase and flowers, and
forty varieties of Tulips.

From J. L. L F. Warren, eight pot plants, viz : Rho<loden-
dron, var. Euphorbia splendens, Justicia carnea, Justicia
calytricha, two double Chinese Primroses, and two do. rose
colored ; al.so, six flat bouquets, five round do. ; a fine display
of RhodiHleiidrons and other cut flowers.

From Peler Ivory, Tulips.

From Edward Window, fine Tulips.

From Parker Barnes, fine Pansies in variety; seedling Ver-
bena, ever- blooming Pinks, and Azalea Gled.stanesii, a fine
variety, white striped with scarlet.

From Lucinda Spaulding, South Reading, a plant of
Cactus.

From Azel Bowditch, seven hand bouquets, six pot plants,
and cut flowers in variety.

From Augvsius Aspinwali, a splendid display of Roses.

From Samuel Walker, fine Tulips.

From W. B. Riclutrds, fine Tulips, Polemonium Mexica-
num, and other cut flowers ; one fine bouquet, aiid a quantity
of the Lilv of the Valley

From Eben'r Wight, Tulips in great variety.

From Joseph Breck S( Co , 200 fine Tulips, four varieties of
PcEonies, Uodccatheon Meadia, two varieties ; a beautiful
new Aquilegia, (A. jucunda,) Iberis Tenoreana, fine peren-
nial; Wistaria sinensis; Pulmonaria Virginica, Lychnis
floscuculi. Phlox stolonifera and divaricata; variegated
Mountain Ash ; shrubs and cut flowers in variety.

From James Nugent, fine Tulips, Pelargoniums, Rosea,
Verbenas, and a variety of cut flowers.

From Hovey If Co., fine Pansies, and two bouquets.

AAVARD OF PREMIU.MS.

The Judges on Tulips, Pansies. Pot Plants and BouqueU,
Messrs. Quant, Richards and Duttim, awarded as follows:

Tllips. — For the best thirty distinct varieties, a premium
of $8 to Joseph Breck if Co. ; for the second best thirty varie-
ties, the 2d premium of S6 to Samuel Walker.

Pansies — For the best twelve distinct varieties, a premium
of S4 to Messrs. Hovey If Co., by J. H. Burns; for the 2d
best twelve varieties, a premium of 8-3 to Joseph Breck if
Co. ; and a gratuity of $2 to Parker Barnes, for a pan of fine
varieties

Pot Plants —For the best six Pot Plants, a premium of
$2 to J. L. Gardner ; for the second best do., SI to J. L. L.
F. Warren. The Judges award to J. L. Gardner, by Jolui
Thomas, a gratuity of $2, for a moss vase with flowers.

Bouquets- For the best six hand bouquets, a premium of
S2 to Azel Boiodilch ; for the second best do., $l to J. L. L.
F. Warren.

FRUITS.— By Mr. John Fisk AlUn, Salem, Grapes, viz :
Chasselas Bar- .Sur-Aube, Black Hamburg', White Froutig-
nan, Sweetwater, Zinfindal Aleppo, Grizzly Fromignan.
Also, While Figs.

VEGETABLES —From O. H. Mather, by Thomas Need-
ham, fine Cucumbers, var. Black Spine.

From T. H. Perkins, by AVm. Quant, Asparagus and Black
Spine Cucumbers.

Saturday, June 5, 1847.

FLOWERS— From M. P. Wilvkr. President of the So-
ciety, a rich collection of rare cut flowers, viz : fine Cactse in
variety; two new spotted seedling Calceolarias, and a variety
of others t>om his collection ; Camellias, var. Alba plena and
Prattii ; Fuchsias, Salterii major. Paragon, Bowdin, Brook-
manii, Chauverii, and robusta ; six or eight varieties of ele-
gant Cinerarias; Petunias, Eliza, Contributor, Tunandra,
and a fine plant of Hebe, well grown and in perfection ; six
varieties of Lilacs, viz : Duche.ss d' Orleans, De Nemours,
Charles X., Prince Nolgcr, double Purple, and a dark red.

From Messrs. Winship, a fine, round, pyramidal bouquet,
and a great variety of cut flowers, as follows : Ranunculus
repeiis ; Veronica gentianoides; Arundo striata; .Syringa
laciniata ; Bay-leaf AVillow; Pyrus spuria; Azalea nudiflo-
ra, Poniica, and others; Podalyria Australis; Kerria Japo-
nica ; Calycanthus floridus ; ^^isculus fiava niid pallida ; Ul-
mus crispa ; Spartium scoparium ; Spirera, hypericifolia, ob-
longifolia, Ijevigata, ulmifolia, flexuvsa, daurica. Siberica,
Reevesii, trilobata, chanioedri folia and lol. variegata ; Cratae-
gus flore pi. and rubra; Mespilus graudiflora; Pteonies in
variety; Lonicera, Caucasica, Tartarica, albiflora Xylosteum;
Viburnum lanlago ; Amsonia latifolia; Balsamiia odorala ;
Ribes alpina: Iris, Germanica, purpurea, liirida vel surdida,
pallida, Virginica, Florentina albida; Ilex crispa; Sedum ;
Trollius Europeus; Vinca major; Hemerocallis flava; As-
clepias viiicetoxicum ; Corydalis formosa, tec. This collec-
tion occupied the whole of one of the large round stands,
and attracted much attention, from the good taste displayed
in the arrangement.

From Joseph Breck !f Co , fine specimens of Castillcja coc-
cinea, a beautii'ul indigenous flower; a branch of Wistaria
sinensis, with more than fifty racemes of its elegant flowers
drooping in the most gracetul manner. The" plant from
which this was taken, was grown in the open air without the
least protection, and made a growth, last seu.«on, of twenty-
two feet in one direction. Tulips, in great variety and per-
fection, including some very superb double varieties ; Paeo-
nia arborea Bank.sii, and a variety of herbaceous sorts ; Iris

56

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY.

in variety ; Pansies ; Lychnis floscuculi ; Fritillaria Persica ;
Dodecaiheon Meadia; Hesperis matronalis ; Phloxes, Iberis,
and a variety of other herbaceous plants. Also, Persian
Lilac, Red and White Tartarian Iloneysuckle, variegated
Mountain Ash, ice. This was one of the largest collections
in the Hall, and attracted univer-:al attention, from tlie many
rare and perfect specimens it contained.

From Augustus Aspintcall, a fine display of Perpetual and
otlier Roses.

From Father Barnes, ever-flowering Pinks and fine Pan-
sies.

From Ebenezer Wight, Tulips in variety.

From T,H. Perkins, by Wm. Quant, six pot plant?, viz :
Fuchsia, paragon, Victoria, Epsii, WiUiamsonii, (a seedling,)
and Pelargonium Victory. Also, a splendid pjTamidal bou-
quet. The pot plants were fine, and remarkably well-grown
specimens.

From A. Bowditch, eight hand bouquets.

From J. L h. F. Warren, six hand and one pyramidal
bouquets ; Pceonia arborea Banksii, and papaveracea ; Dai-
sies, Narcissus, Dodecatheon two varieties, Tartarian Ho-
neysuckles, &c.

From O. H. Mather; cut flowers in variety, including fine
Pelargoniums, Roses, Abutilon, Phlox Drummondii, Cinera-
rias, CoUinsias, Verbenas, &c.

From Wm: Ke7irick, by Miss Russell, one large oval bou-
quet, composed of a great variety of flowers; also, cut flow-
ers, including Wistarias, Preonia arborea Banksii, Kerria
Japonica, variegated Horse Chestnut, Purple Beech, &c.

From W}7i. B. Richards, one large bouquet, Polemonium
Mexicanum, Lilv of the Valley, &c.

From Johti Hovey, two bouquets, and Pceonia arborea
Banksii, &c.

From J. L. Gardner, by J. Tliomas, eight pot plants, viz:
six Pelargoniums, one seedling Cineraria, and seedling Ver-
benas. Also, one superb uioss vase and bouquet, and large
bouquet for vase.

From JaiTus Nugent, cut flowers in variety, including fine
Pelargoniums, Verbenas, Ro.ses, fine Gladiolus, &c.

From E. M. Richards, cut flowers, viz : Iris, Tulips, Dode-
catheon, Lychnis flo.scuculi, &c.

From J. IF. Mandel, one large flat bouquet.

AWARD OF PREMIUMS.
For the best large bouquet, a premium to Wm. Quant, of

$2.

For the second best large bouquet, a premium to the
Messrs. Winship, of fil.

To Azel Bou'ditch, for the best six hand bouquets, a premi-
um of $2.

To J. L. L. F. Warren, for the second best six hand bou-
quets, a premium of .$1,

For a design, a moss Vase ■wixh flowers, a premium to J.
Thomas, of S2.

For the second best do., to Miss Russell, a premium of $1.

For the best six pot plants, to Wm. Quant, a premium of
$2.

For the second best six do., to J. Thomas, a premium of
$1.

FRUITS.— The Grapes presented tliis day by John Fisk
Allen, Esq., of Salem, were very fine. We noticed among
theih, extra fine specimens of the Zinfindal, as also fine
bunches of the Black Hamburg, White Chasselas, Aleppo,
and Grizzly Froniignan. Mr. Allen also exhibited a box of
fine ripe May Duke Cherries, Black Figs, and Bergainot
Limes.

A dish of sweet Apples, by A. Moore.

W E. Carter, of Cambridge, presented some Hubbardslon
Nonsuch Apples.

VEGETABLES.— From O. H. Mather, by Thos. Needham,
I a brace of Cucumbers, and some very fine Lettuce.

THE

JOUPiNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

AUGUST, 1847.

No. 2.

A FEW MILES east of Boston, boldly jutting
into the Atlantic, lies the celebrated pro-
montory of Nahant. Nature has made it
remarkable for the grandeur and bleakness
of its position. It is a headland of an hun-
dred acres, more or less, sprinkled with a
light turf, and girded about with bold
cliffs of rock, against which the sea dashes
with infinite grandeur and majesty. No
tree anciently deigned to raise its head
against the rude breezes that blow here in
wintetj as if tempest-driven by Boreas him-
self; and that, even in summer, make, of
Nahant, with its many cottages and hotels, a
refrigerator, for the preservation of the dis-
solving souls and bodies of the exhausted
population of Boston, in the months of July
and August.

At the present moment, the interest-
ing feature at Nahant, after the Ocean
itself, is, strange to say, one of the most
remarkable gardens in existence. We
mean the grounds of the private residence
of Frederic Tudor, Esq., a gentleman well
known in the four quarters of the world, as
the originator of the present successful mode
of shipping ice to the most distant tropical
countries ; and, we may here add, for the
remarkable manner in which he has again
Vol. n. 8

triumphed over nature, by transforming
some acres of her bleakest and most sterile
soil into a spot of luxuriant verdure, fruit-
fulness and beauty.

To appreciate the difficulties with which
this gentleman had to contend, or, as we
might more properly say, which stimulated
all his efforts, we must recall to mind that,
frequently, in high winds, the salt spray
drives over the whole of Nahant ; that, un-
til Mr. Tudor began his improvements, not
even a bush grew naturally on the whole
of its area, and that the east winds, which
blow from the Atlantic in the spring, are
sufficient to render all gardening possibili-
ties in the usual way nearly as chimerical
as cultivating the volcanoes of the moon.

Mr. Tudor's residence there now, is a cu-
rious and striking illustration of the triumph
of art over nature, and as it involves some
points that we think most instructive to hor-
ticulturists, we trust he will pardon us for
drawing the attention of our readers to it
at the present time. Our first visit to his
grounds was made in July, 184-5, one of the
driest and most unfavorable seasons for the
growth of trees and plants that we remem-
ber. But at that time, perhaps, the best
possible one to test the merits of the mode

5S

MR. TUDOR'S GARDEN AT NAHANT.

of cultivation adopted, we found Yt. Tu- I there by tall trellis fences of the fame Idnr^,

dor's garden in a more flourishing condition
than any one of the celebrated places about
Boston. The average growth of the thrif-
tiest standard fruit trees about Boston, at
that time, was little more than six inches to
a foot. In this Nahant garden it was two
feet, and we measured shoots on some of
the standard trees three feet in length. By
far the largest and finest cherries Ave tasted
that season, were from trees growing there,
and there was an apparent health and vigor
about every species Avithin its boundary,
which would have been creditable anywhere,
but Avhich at Nahant, and in a season so
unfavorable, quite astonished us.

all of which help to increase the shelter,
while some of those in the interior serve as
frames for training trees upon.

The effect of this double or triple barrier
of high paling is marvellous. Although
like a common paling, apparently open and
permitting the wind free passage, yet in
practice it is found entirely to rob the gales
of their violence, and their saltness. To
use Mr. Tudok's words, " it completely sifts
the air." After great storms, when the
outer barrier will be found covered with a
coating of salt, the foliage in the garden is
entirely uninjured. It acts, in short, like a
rustic veil, that admits just so much of the

The two strong points in this gentleman's air, and in such a manner as most to pro-

gardening operations at Nahant, appear to
us to be the following : First, the employ-
ment of screens to break the force of the
wind, producing thereby an artificial climate;
and second, the thorough preparation of the
soil by trenching and manuring.

Of course, even the idea of a place wor-
thy of the name of a garden in this bald,
sea-girt cape, was out of the question, un-
less some mode of overcoming the violence
of the gales and the bad effects of the salt
spray, could be devised. The plan Mr.
Tudor has adopted is, we believe, original
with him, and is at once extremely simple,
and perfectly effective.

It consists merely of two, or at most three
parallel rows of high open fences, made of
rough slats or palings, nailed in the com-
mon vertical manner, about three inches
wide, and a space of a couple of inches left
between them. These paling fences are
about sixteen feet high, and usually form a
double row, (on the most exposed side a tri-
ple row,) round the whole garden. The
distance between that on the outer boundary
and the next interior one is about four feet.
The garden is also intersected here and

mote the growth of the trees, while it breaks
and wards off all the deleterious influences
of a genuine ocean breeze — so pernicious
to tender leaves and shoots.

Again, regarding the luxuriant growth,
which surprised us in a place naturally a
sterile gravel, we were greatly struck with
the additional argument which it furnished
us with in support of our favorite theory of
the value of trenching in this climate. Mr.
Tudor has, at incredible labor, trenched and
manured the soil of his garden three feet
deep. The consequence of this is, thai, al-
though it is mainly of a light porous texture,
yet the depth to which it has been stirred and
cultivated, renders it proof against the ef-
fects of drouth. In the hottest and driest
seasons, the growth here is luxuriant, and
no better proof can be desired of the great
value of thoroughly trenching, as the first
and indispensable foundation of all good
culture, even in thin and poor soils.

It is worthy of record, among the results
of Mr. Tudor's culture, that, two years af-
ter the principal plantation of his fruit trees
was made, he carried oft^the second prize for
pears, at the annual exhibition of the Mas-

TWO NEW AMERICAN CHERRIES.

59

srchusetts Horticultural Society, among
dozens of zealous competitors, and A^ith the
fruit most carefully grown in that vicinity.

We have observed ako, and noted as in-
dicative of no small degree of practical
skill, that in various quarters of the garden
are standard trees, apples and pears espe-
cially, that have been transplanted from Eos-
ton, with large heads and trunks, six or
eight inches in diameter, and are now in a
state of complete luxuriance and fruiiful-
ness.

There are, of course, but few individuals
who have the desire and the means thus to
weave a spell of freshness and beauty over
a spot which nature has created so stern and
bald ; perhaps there are still fewer who
would have the courage to plan and carry
out improvements of this kind, to the attain-
ment of so beautiful a result, in the very
teeth of the elements. But there are many

who may learn something valuable from
Mr. TcJDOi's labor in the cause of Horti-
culture. There are, for example, hundreds
along the sea coasts, to whom gardening of
any sort is nearly impossible, from the in-
jurious effects cf breezes loaded with salt
water. There are, again, many beautiful
sites that we could name on the shores of
some of our great inland lakes, and the
number is every day increasing, sites where
the soil is deep and excellent, and the skies
warm and bright, but the violence of the
vernal and autumnal winds is such, that
the better culture of the orchard and gar-
den makes little progress.

In all such sites, Mr. Tudor's Nahant
screens for sifting the air, will at once ob-
viate all the difficulty, temper the wind to
the tender buds, and make for the spot a
soft climate in a naturally harsh and bleak
aspect.

TWO NEW AMERICAN CHERRIES.

BY F. R. ELLIOT, CLEVELAND, OHIO.

Dear Sir — I have the pleasure of forward-
ing to you outlines and descriptions of two
seedling cherries, originated by Professor
KiRTLAND of this place. They have borne
very excellent crops (ox two seasons past,
and we have compared them with all the
leading foreign and native sorts, and cannot
but rank them among the best. We have,
among the seedlings, viany equal to Black
Heart ; but as we do not consider a new va-
riety, merely equal to that fruit, as one any
longer worthy of attention, we shall say no-
thing of such seedlings. From about two
hundred seedling trees, we find about thirty
which, in the quality of their fruit, will
not, we think, rank below Black Heart.
Out of these thirty, we think, taking Elton

as a standard, we shall
find seven or eight that
are truly superior. For
the present, I will offer
to the attention of your
readers onU^ the two
following, both raised
by Professor Kirtland,
from the seeds of the
Bigarreau.

I, THE ROCKPORT BIGAR.
REAU.

Fruit large, round
heart-shaped ; colour,
when fully ripe, a most
F?. s. i}or/i7,„r^S/:r«rr<;ai, beautiful light, clear,
deep red, shaded into a delicate pale amber-

60

THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING.

coloured ground, with occasional spots like
the Napoleon Bigarreau, but not so nume-
rous. Flesh of a rather yellowish tinge,
firm, juicy and sweet, with a rich flavor, su-
perior, we think, to any variety in cultiva-
tion. It ripens, at least, two weeks earlier
than the Napoleon Bigarreau. Pit, oblong-
oval. Tree of strong upright growth.

II. THE CLEVKLAND BIGARREAU.

This excellent
fruit has the merit
of being among the
first of its class to
ripen. It is at full
maturity with the
Black Tartarian,
while its parent, the
Old Bigarreau, ri-
pens nearly two
weeks later.

Fruit of the lar-
gest size, conside-
rably like that of
the Bigarreau ; re-
gular in form, rOUn- pj^ 9. Cleveland Bigarnan.

ded heart-shaped, marked by a broad deep
suture half-way round. Colour, bright, clear,
delicate red, on amber-yellow ground. Stalk
tolerably stout, about an inch and a half
long, curved. Flesh, pale yellowish white,
firm, juicy, sweet, with the rich flavor of the
Elton. Pit, small.

You will observe, that I send you this ac-
count, fully conceding that, although the
list of fine cherries is, perhaps, less extend-
ed than that of any other like valuable fruit,
it is hardly worth while to notice any new
ones, and certainly not to cultivate them,
unless they possess superior qualities. It
is questioned by some of us in this section
of Ohio, whether a seedling of our own,
alike valuable, with any foreign variety, is
not more valuable as being more hardy for
cultivation here. This, as well as the fact
that the two varieties just described are of
earlier maturity than the standard sorts
which they most resemble, seem to me to
render them well worthy of the attention of
the pomologist. Very truly yours,

F. R. Elliott.

Lake Erie Nursery, Clevelind, Ohio, Jioie 29, 1847.

REMARKS ON THS SCIENCE OF GARDENING— No. 3.

BY DR. WM. W. VALK; FLUSHING, L. I.

In our No. 1, upon this interesting subject,
"we stated, at the conclusion of the article,
that "but for our instrumentality," some of
your readers might never, perhaps, obtain
the benefit to be derived from viewing the
matter properly, or, at least, so far as it
has been elucidated in the writings of Eng-
lish horticulturists. By Mr. Paxton, or
some one of the numerous and able writers
in his magazine, gardening as a science has
been most interestingly discussed, and it is
from this source we derive the materials of

our serial communications, and claim for
them no more merit than may be accorded
to the modifications of the ideas and lan-
guage of other authors, and their adaptation
to the American reader. We so stated at
first, and here repeat it.

The reading public have long been tutor-
ed in error, by those who have been con-
sidered physiological authorities : this is a
sweeping and bold assertion ; but we are
led to make it by the perusal of a work by
a scientific German- — Lielig^s Organic Che-

THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING.

61

mistrxj. Appearing a few years ago, it
created no little sensation, and very possibly
may effect an entire revolution in the study
of vegetable physiology. As an analytic
chemist, the author ranks inferior to none ;
and the views he takes of the chemical pro-
cesses engaged in the nutrition of vegeta-
bles are so striking, that it becomes impera-
tive to direct our attention to them in the
course of these articles, in order to exhibit
truths which have not been heretofore no-
ticed. A few leading paragraphs will be
extracted, and such comments appended as
may be required to render more lucid the
admirable views of the author.

To understand the culture of a plant, the
elements which constitute, or exist in its
structure, must be known ; therefore the
first part of Liebig's work is "devoted to the
examination of the matters which supply
the nutriment of plants, and of the changes
which these matters undergo in the living
organism." Subject to the operation of the
vital principle of a plant, which must never
be lost sight of, it becomes an object of the
greatest moment to determine what the or-
gans of a vegetable (that is, its tissue or
structure,) and the fluids they contain, are
composed of; for if thesehe ascertained, the
gardener is prepared to supply it with those
substances which can be converted into nu-
tritive aliment ; whereas, if he be ignorant
of these leading points, (and how many gar-
deners know any thing about them ?) he is
just as likely to poison his plants, as to pro-
mote their healthy development ; for " the
food which can serve for the production of
all the organs of a plant, must necessarily
contain all its elements."

" The substances," says Liebig, "which
constitute the principal mass of every vege-
table, are compounds of carbon, with oxy-
gen and hydrogen in the proper relative
proportions to form water. Woody fibre.

starch, sugar and gum, for example, are
such compounds of carbon with the elements
of water. In another class of substances
containing carbon as an element, oxygen
and hydrogen are again present, but the
proportion of oxygen is giealer than would
be required for producing water by union
with the hydrogen. The numerous o?ga7/2c
acids met with m plants, belong, with few
exceptions, to this class. A third class of
vegetable compounds contain carbon and
hydrogen, but vo oxygen, or less of that ele-
ment than would convert the hydrogen to
water. These may be regarded as com-
pounds of carbon. with the elements of wa-
ter and an excess of hydrogen. Such are
the volatile and fixed oils, Avax, and the
resins. Many of them have acid charac-
ters. The juices of all vegetables con-
tain organic acids, generally combined with
the inorganic bases or metallic oxides ; for
these exist in every plant, and may be de-
tected in its ashes. JSitiogen is an element
of vegetable albumen and gluten ; it is a
centient of the acids, and of what are term-
ed the ' indifferent substances ' of plants, as
well as of those peculiar vegetable compounds
which possess all the properties of metallic
oxides, and are known as ' organic bases.'
It follows, from the facts thus far detailed,
that the development of a plant requires the
presence — first, of substances containing
carbon and nitrogen, and capable of yield-
ing these elements to the growing organism.
Secondly of water and its elements ; and
lastly, of a soil to furnish the inorganic mat-
ters, which are likewise essential to vege-
table life."

The ■'intelligent reader will at once re-
cognize in this quotation, the leading prin-
ciples of vegetable culture ; the main facts
are not new, nor are they doubted by any
philosophic observer j but they have been
misunda stood and misapplied, as shall be

62

THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING.

made to appear in due time. It has been
and will be our desire to avoid all dark and
mysterious terms — terms strictly profession-
al ; but as those who allude to scienc^, must,
to a certain extent, employ its phraseology,
words have been cited, which are in the
mouths of numbers, and arc to be heard
every day, though in point of fact, they are
very little understood, and much less appre-
ciated.

In order to convey some idea cf the ex-
press meaning of these terms, a few words
may be said upon each of the vegetable
constituents above noticed, though not strict-
ly in the order in which they occur.

Cnrbon. This substance enters largely in-
to the composition cf all vegetable products.
The word implies coal, or charcoal, and is
most readily interpreted by referring to the
charcoal of wood — that substance which re-
mains after its slow combustion, particular-
ly in those close iron retorts which are used
in the manufacture of pyroligneous acid. Its
quantity is very great, though various, and
may be stated as approaching to a little less
than half the entire weight of the dried
wood.

0.r.yge>\ as far as we know any thing of
it, is an air or gas : — it is that vital princi-
ple of the atmosphere which sustains res-
piration, light and flame ; and exists inva-
riably, at every stason, in the proportion of
21 parts of every 100 of air, by measure.

Nilrogtn is that inert portion of air re-
maining afcer the removal of the oxygen ;
it constitutes the bulk of the atmosphere,
and amounts in volume to 79 parts of every
100. It is not respirable, cannot support
flame, and is fatal to life ; its presence be-
ing easily shown by placing a lighted taper
under a bell-glass, the rim of which is im-
mersed in water to preclude the access of
air. As the taper burns, the water will
rise in the glass, and when the flame is ex-

tinguished, (which it soon will be,) the fluid
will leave its mark at a point that will prove
one-siuth of the air to have been removed.
The experiment is not accurate, though very
near the truth.

Hydiogen is the basis of water ; it exists
throughout nature wherever that fluid, or
moisture derived from it, exists. Separated
from water, it is revealed as a gas, the
lightest of all things that have appreciable
weight. It unites with oxygen in the pro-
portions by weight of 1 to 8, and by mea-
sure, of 2 hydrogen to 1 oxygen. If the
smallest electrical spark be passed into the
mixture thus proportionally blended, these
aerial elements explode violently wilh a
flash of light, and watery vapor is produced.
So, if a stream of galvanism be passed
through water, the two gases of that fluid
are again developed in the above menticn-
ed proportions.

The phenomena attending this electriza-
tion of water are perfectly astounding, nor
can any adequate idea be formed of them,
without referring to the " New Researches
on Electricity," by Professor Faraday of
the Royal Institution. " One grain of wa-
ter," he says, " will require an electric cur-
rent to be continued for three minutes and
three-quarters of time to eflect its decom-
position, in quantity sufficient to retain a
platina wire yi-^- of an inch in thickness, of
any length, red hot, in contact with the air."
This quantity is equal to " 800,000 charges
of a Leyden battery, charged by thirty turns
of a very large and powerful plate electric
machine." " The chemical action of a grain
of water upon four grains of zinc, can evolve
electricity equal to that of a powerful thun-
der storm." These passages are sufficient to
convey " an almost overwhelming idea of
the extraordinary quantity or degree of elec-
tric power which naturally belongs to the
particles of matter.

ON GROWING QUINCES.

63

The electrical elements of vegetables and
plants have thus been slightly glanced at,
not with any view to introduce discussion,
but to render it manifest that horticulture
can never be duly understood or correctly
applied, until its principles be determined.
In common with agriculture, it must be sci-
entifically investigated by professors duly
qualified to analyse and instruct ; and the
world is deeply indebted to Justus Liebig,
for he has distinctly proved, that cultivators
are wandering in the dark, though means
are at command, were they duly applied, to
remove difficulties and obviate perplexities,
by the establishment of positive facts.

The practical gardener, if he duly appre-
ciate the quotation and remarks, will see at
a glance the reason of his embarrassments
and failures ; he will also be sensible of the
wondrous mechanism he superintends ; he
will perceive that, from the four elements
described, all the specific fluids of his plants,
their chemical and medicinal principles,
their sapid and odorous qualities are derived,
and, therefore, if a plant do not meet with
its proper aliment, or rather, if it be expos-
ed to agents which disturb the natural as-
similations, a morbid action must be induced
and disease certainly follow. But again,
plants must be duly supplied with inorganic
substances, all such not being the products
of vital organization, viz., earths, metals,
potassa and soda. As these will be alluded
to more particularly hereafter, it will now

be sufficient to observe, that theyar^ deriv-
ed chiefly from the soil, and therefore in the
culture of the floral department, and of all
plants in pots, the gardener is peculiarly
liable to commit error, and incur vexatious
contingencies.

Vegetable physiologists, seeing the im-
possibility of introducing any solid sub-
stances through the porous system of the
roots, have been tempted to refer to larbonic
acid, dissolved in or united with the sap, as
the prime source of vegetable nutriment ;
and, following up this view, agriculturists
have adopted the modern theoretic notions
respecting humus and humic acid. We are
mere infants in experiment, and what we
know, may be comprised within a nutshell.
But we have now arrived at a period of re-
search and experiments, when we may as-
sume a direction better calculated to lead
to precise results. Heretofore we have seen
them conducted upon detached parts of
plants — mere mutilations. " Can the laws
of life be investigated in an organized be-
ing, which is diseased or dying 1" We
think not. " Is not the observation of a
wood or a meadow infinitely better adapted
to decide so simple a question, than all the
trivial expiri/iitiits under a glass globe ? " —
Liebig.

The question is full of meaning, and can
only be solved by diligent and careful re-
search. Wn. W. Valk, m. d.

Flushing. L. /., July, 1S47.

THS "WHOLE SECRET OP GROWING QUINCES.
BY AN OLD ORCHARDIST.

Sir — I will comply with your request to
write down for the benefit of your readers
my practice in cultivating the Quince tree.
The commendations you are pleased to he-

me to suppose that I may have struck out
a mode better than is generally known or
practised.

If so, " it ought," as you say, " to be a

stow on my plantation of this fruit tree, leads secret no longer." Indeed, I have had too

64

ON GROWING QUINCES.

many valuable hints from the pages of your
journal, not to be willing to add my mite,
should it be in my power, to the general
stock of information.

I will begin, then, by saying that the
great difference, which you have yourself
noticed, between the growth and yield of
my quince trees, and that of cultivators
commonly, is, not that I have discovered
a new mode of raising this valuable fruit.
It is rather that I adtivate my trees well,
and most persons do not cultivate them at all.

This sounds like a broad statement. But
it is true. I have a neighbor who rides hor-
ticulture like a real hobby. His garden
and orchard are filled with the hundreds of
new pears, and other prodigies of the nur-
series. I must do him the justice to say,
that he grows these well. He told me last
week that he had three hundred and forty
sorts of pears in his collection ! But, would
you believe it 1 the only Quinces he has,
are three trees, half starved, and thrust
into an obscure quarter of his grounds,
where they have neither been manured nor
dug around, I dare say, for years ! And thus
he sends to me every year for some of my
"handsome quinces," under the plea, that
his soil does not suit them.

Believe me, the Quince tree is a great suf-
ferer from the common delusion that it is a
hush that wants a damp and shady place ;
that it will not grow in a dry soil ; and that
it does not need any manure.

My theory and practice are based on the
very opposites of these three propositions.
My plantations, as you saw, are on a high
and dry soil, in an open sunny exposure,
and in ground kept thoroughly enriched.

I have arrived at this plan of culture by
easy stages. Indeed, I have, at the present
time, some rows of Quinces, indifferently
planted in the first place, in soil neither
deepened nor duly manured beforehand. Of

course, they bear only about half the crop
of my later plantation, that has been bet-
ter treated from the beginning.

The course I have now settled upon,
which I may say has been attended with
perfect success, is as follows : Premising
that the Quince will grow on any Foil that
will give good corn or potatoes, the first
maxim is, that it should be well prepared
before planting. This is done by the aid
of that great earth regenerator, the subsoil
plough. Two or three weeks, if possible,
before the planting season, the land where
the quince orchard is to be set, should be
broken up by a team of horses and a good
plough, set so as to turn a clean furrow.
Following this team comes the subsoil
plough, drawn by a powerful pair of oxen.
This breaks up and stirs the soil twice the
usual depth. Most persons spread a coat
of manure before plowing. It is my prac-
tice to have it scattered along in the bottom
of each furrow, from a light cart, which fol-
lows the subsoil plough. This places it at
the bottom of my soil, which, as it is a
loamy one, is the best place for it ; because
it enriches the poorest layer, and being al-
ways damp, it is, I conceive, always more
soluble, and ready for the roots to take up,
than when mixed with the top soil.

The soil, thoroughly plowed and prepar-
ed, planting may cortimence. I prefer the
spring, but I have often been equally suc-
cessful in the autumn. But in either case,
by all means, " take time by the forelock."
Not later than the first of November, or the
tenth of April, for the latiti^de of New-York
may, I think, be safely given as sound ad-
vice.

Dig your holes twice as large as the
roots of the trees, and eighteen inches deep.
Have, if possible, half a barrel full of good
compost, (stable manure and bog earth well
mixed for three months previously,) for

ON GROWING QUINCES.

65

each tree. Shorten in the branches, (one-
half of the last year's growth,) before you
set the trees, and give the roots a good
drenching with water before you cover them
entirely with soil. Press the earth mode-
•rately about the roots, and leave the soil
round the stem concave like a saucer, to
catch the showers. In this way, if you lose
one plant in a hundred, it will be an excep-
tion to my usual good luck.

In orchard plantation, I would recom-
mend the Quince tree to be put out in rows :
the trees to be ten feet apart, and the rows
to be twelve feet apart. This will be near
enough in good soil, deep, and prepared as I
have just described. You will be able to
gather a good crop of fruit from such a plan-
tation three years after it is made ; and if
it is well treated, it will continue in a pro-
ductive state for thirty years. Such quin-
ces as I have grown in this Avay will always
command two cents a piece in the New-
York market, when those carelessly grown,
are not worth half that sum ; and I doubt
if there is any much more certain and profi-
table orchard crop than the quince, I ought
^<o observe that for many years open spaces
in the ground occupied by the quince or-
chard, may be cropped with potatoes, sugar
beets and the like, with profit and advan-
tage to the trees themselves.

The annual treatment which I give my
quince plantations, is, as nearly as possible,
as follows : I prune my trees in the autumn,
just after the fall of the leaf. This pruning
consists in cutting out as little as possible,
mainly old or decayed wood, or any branches
that make the head too thick or unsightly.

In November, I fork in around the roots
of each tree, five or six shovelfuls of fresh
stable manure. This dissolves in part by
the autumn rains, and fills the soil with so-
luble matter ready for the first absorption
by the young fibres in spring.
Vol. II. 9

When the spring opens, I have the ground
ploughed between the rows, and lightly
stirred beneath the trees. Directly after
this, I give the whole a broadcast spread of
salt, at the rate of ten bushels to the acre,
or just a light coat sufficient to half con-
ceal the ground under each tree. The
cheapest and best salt for this purpose, is
the refuse salt of the packing houses, to be
had in all large cities where meat is packed
for exportation.

I observe that one of your correspondents
in Oneida county, has recommended salt
for this tree in the last number of your
journal. It is a good thing — I may say, the
best thing for this fruit. I have used it
now for five years, A^ery plentifully, and can
say with much confidence, that it is the
sine qua non for the Quince tree. Deep
green foliage, thrifty growth, and large fair
fruit, have, with me, invariably followed its
judicious application. The Quince and the
Plum will bear more of it than any other
fruit tree ; and provided there is sufficient
strength in the soil — that is, provided ma-
nure is also given — it may be used every
year with decided advantage. I have
found by experience, two things : first, that
necessary as manure is to the Quince tree,
yet common manure without salt will not
give the very finest quinces ; and second,
that a poor soil will not bear heavy doses
of salt without injury to vegetation.

Every tree has its insect. The only one
worth notice, that infests the Quince, is a
little rascal, a sort of Scolytus, I believe^
that kills the ends of ihe branches. The
egg is deposited about midsummer. The
next spring, the little grub which succeeds
it^ eats through to the pith of the branch,
and cuts away the sap- vessels just at the
time — midsummer — when the/ are most
wanted. Of course, the shoot above the
insect withers and turns black. If this is

66

THE ENGLISH RURAL COTTAGE.

*' let alone," it will spread over your whole
plantation. If, on the contrary, you give a
little attention to it — say a few minutes
every day, from the first day in June, that
the dying shoots begin to show themselves,
cutting off the limb six inches below where
it is blackened, and burning up the trim-
mings immediately, you will gradually get
rid of the whole brood.

If there is anything in this rather prolix

account that is worth making public, it is
at your service. I am, sir, your obedient
servant. An Old Orchardist.

Neiv- york, July, 1847.

[Our correspondent's article is one of the
most valuable that we have published, and
speaks for itself. For the good results that
follow the mode of cultivation which he
has detailed, we can vouch most confident-
ly.-ED.]

ON THE ENGLISH RURAL COTTAGE.

All the world has agreed, that there is no-
thing more perfect of its kind than the rural
architecture of the English. The cottages
of that country are as widely difl^erent in
effect from those of any other, as the Anglo-
saxon race differs from all else — civilized
or barbarous.

What this difference consists in, there
are, perhaps, few who take the trouble to
analyze. Many persons suppose it to lie in
pointed gables and high roofs. Still these
were not originally English, but were bor-
rowed from Flanders. Yet the Flemish
cottages have little or none of the peculiar
beauty which charms us in those of England.

Others have imagined that it is something
especially becoming in the features of the
English landscape itself. Yet this can hard-
ly be true, since we have seen faithful co-
pies of the English cottage, built in equally
picturesque scenery, in this country, with-
out producing upon the mind the same im-
pression as the original edifice.

The secret charm of the English cottage
lies, we imagine, in its home expression and
its rurality. These crowd the mind of the
beholder at once with the most agreeable
associations, and superadd to the idea of a
habitation, and a tasteful piece of architec-
ture, all the endearments and enjoyments

of home, and all delights of rural beauty
and repose.

The English cottage, even of the hum-
blest class, is surrounded by trees, embow-
ered with vines and climbers, and hedged
about with shrubs, to a degree quite un-
known in any other country. The love of
trees and flowers is an universal passion in
that country, and man, woman and child,
among the cottagers, take an especial in-
terest in the green adornments of their
home. Slips and roots find their way from
the pleasure grounds of the nobleman's
mansion to the humble garden of the cot-
tage ; and there is a personal and indivi-
dual care bestowed upon them, even by
those who have scarcely any other of the
refinements of life, that neither the people
of the continent, nor of this country have,
as yet, any positive share of.

The effect of all this taste is to spread a
beautiful drapery about the rural cottages
of England, that renders what would other-
wise be little more than rude cabins, little
gems of rural and picturesque beauty. In-
deed, strip most of the loveliest cottages of
England of their sylvan and floral enrich-
ments, and they would absolutely lose their
whole power of charming. What, among
the French, the nice sense of the becoming

MANAGEMENT OF PEARS.

67

and tasteful in dress, is to the human form
divine, that among their garden-loving neigh-
bors, the English, is the national feeling of
the adaptation of rural decoration to country
houses and cottages.

Our Frontispiece gives a view of an
English cottage, which may be taken in il-
lustration of our remarks. It represents a
new Dairy Cottage, in the grounds of
Arundel Castle, a very short time after its
completion, and before sufficient time had
elapsed to enable those who are to care for
it, to weave about it all the witchery of the
"flower and the leaf." Nothing can well
be simpler than its plain stone walls. It is
true, they have a certain definite architec-
tural form, but there is an almost total ab-

sence of the tracery, carvings and enrich-
ments, which many, adopting the style in
this country, consider so necessary to a beau-
tiful effect. Look at this cottage, (the real
one, we mean,) four or five years hence,
and you would scarcely know it. Ivy and
clambering roses, and bright blossoming
creepers, will then have decorated it, and
given it a finish more fascinating than the
carving of the carpenter, or the chiselling
of the stone-cutter. And, better than all,
with the embellishment comes the feeling
that it symbolizes the taste and the habits
of the dwellers within the cottage, and that
where there is so much rustic love of beauty
and home pleasures, there must also be
something of purity and happiness.

REMARKS ON THE MANAGEMENT OP PEAR TREES.

BY THOMAS RIVERS, SAWBRIDGEAVORTH, ENGLAND.

[We quote from the last number of the
Gardener's Chronicle, the following inter-
esting article on the management of the
Pear. The author, Mr. Rivers, is not only
one of the most skilful and correct of
all the English nurserymen, but is also a
careful observer of facts in the art of cul-
ture.

Our readers will bear in mind the great
difference in favor of American fruit-grow-
ers, as regards climate, for the standard cul-
ture of the pear. Our advantage, in bright-
er and warmer skies, makes it easy for us
in many parts of the country', to grow most
varieties to the highest perfection, when
grafted on pear stocks, and raised in the
common way, as standards. In all sites,
where, from unfavorable soil or climate, it
is at all difficult thus to raise fine pears on
pear stocks, a remedy will usually be found
in the employment of quince stocks.

We have had opportunities of learning
very recently, that in situations on the sea-
coast, as well as others very far south — bor-
dering on the Gulf of Mexico, the pear on
the quince stock always thrives decidedly
better than on its own root.

This does not prevent us from thinking,
that, for orchard culture, where the pear
thrives as it does in the interior of this
state, pear stocks are much to be preferred.

There are a few sorts, however, such as
Beurre Diel, Duchess of Angouleme, etc.,
which are almost invariably so much high-
er flavored on quince stocks, that they should
only be grown in the latter way. Mr. Ri-
vers' notes of the qualities of the different
sorts, grown on the quince stock, are interest-
ing, and we would be glad to collect from
our correspondents in various parts of the
Union, memoranda touching the .same sub-
ject in this country : i. e. what varieties of

68

MANAGEMENT OF PEARS.

pear, of second rate quality on pear stocks,
are found to be first rate on quince stocks ?
We have made notes on this subject our-
selves, but need additional data from the
experience of others.^ — Ed.]

I feel that it is a duty I owe to your cor-
respondents and the gardening world gene-
rally, to notice the letter of a " Constant
Reader," in No. 21. It will, perhaps, be
the better mode to take his questions and
remarks serialim : He says, " I have been
for years much interested in the proper
stock for fruit trees ; my impression is, that
the Pear cannot be produced in its highest
state of perfection (whatever the mode of
treatment or the stock used) on any other
stock save the pear stock." To this I can
answer most positively, that the very finest
Pears I have ever seen or tasted, have been
produced on pear trees grafted on the quince.
I use no stocks but the pear and the quince j
the former for orchard trees, or for those
who prefer the pear stock ; the latter solely
for garden trees, principally to form prolific
pyramidal trees, for which they are unri-
valled both in beauty and fertility. I fear
"Constant Reader " has also been constant
to his home ; has never seen or tasted the
magnificent pears in some of the fruit gar-
dens near Paris ? has he never seen the pear
trees in the Potagerie at Versailles ? or
tasted the fruit from them ? (Mind, trees
there are nearly all grafted on the quince.)
If he has not done this, he has yet some-
thing to see and taste. I repeat, that I use
only the pear and the quince as stocks, and
I find the pear stock submit as kindly to
root-pruning (or even more so,) as the
quince. I can illustrate the good effects of
root-pruning very forcibly in my specimen
orchard, and at any time your correspondent
may see and believ.e ; however, I must tell
my tale, and then p^iDceed.

About thirty years ago, my father plant-
ed some roivs of pear trees in a portion of
the nursery, then a recent purchase ; these
were all common sorts of pears, standards,
grafted as usual on the pear stock. They
grew most luxuriantly for some eight or ten
years, \vhen their leaves began to change
from their usually vivid green to a light

yellow ; in a year or two, this yellow tint
increased till their foliage was really of a
bright straw colour ; the trees, soon after,
all died, so that at the end of fifteen years
not a tree was left in this portion of the
nursery, the subsoil of which, I must add,
is hard white clay, full of chalk stones ;
this peculiar soil occupies a very small space,
not more than a quarter of an acre, as the
neighboring soil is a tender sandy loam.

When I came to years of thinking, the
untimely fate of these pear trees was often
present to my mind, for I remembered so
A^vidly, Avith what pleasure I had filled my
pockets from them ; I, at that time, also
found, that to be able to know any thing
about pears, I must have a specimen tree
of every kind that I cultivated. No other
but this " pestilent spot " of earth happened
to be just the place most eligible as a site
for my specimen ground. What could I do ?
I did not then think of root-pruning, but I
thought I should find some way or other to
avert the untimely fate of my trees ; I
therefore planted them in the usual way,
digging the holes about two feet in depth,
and mixing some manure and compost with
the earth taken from the holes, but leaving
the hard clayey subsoil below, to the depth
of two feet, untouched^ I watched my trees
narrowly after four or five years, as I then
expected to see traces of the effects of the clay
soil upon them. I think some eight years must
have passed and gone before their foliage
turned yellow. My first thought said remove
them to a different site and soil ; second
thought, take them up, and give them some
fresh compost ; they will last a few years,
and you can then find a good place for them ;
third thought, if you can renovate them for
a few years, by takipg them up and replant-
ing, why not do this periodically, so as to
keep your trees healthy ; the site is good,
make the soil equally so ; fourth thought,
what occasion is there to remove the tree ?
cut its principal roots, leave those that are
fibrous : arid so I becarne a pruner of roots.
Now for effects, and "A Constant Reader "
must recollect, that any day the Eastern
Counties rail will carry him either to Har-
loAV pr Sawbridgeworth, each equally con-
venient, for a few shillings, to see with his
own eyes all that I state.

In my specimen ground are several stand-

MANAGEMENT OF PEARS.

69

ard pear trees, from eight to ten years old ;
these terminate long rows of standards, left
to grow as nature dictates, both root and
branch, except occasional thinnings of their
heads. These, it must be recollected, are
among my root-pruned specimen trees, a
great number of which are from twelve to
fifteen years old. They have had their
roots pruned three times within these eight
years, the last time in December, 1844.
They are now full of health and foliage
and fruit ; in fact, all that I can wish them
to be. The standard trees, with roots un-
pruned, have their leaves yellow, and are,
I fear, hastening to death.

I now proceed to give a list of such sorts
of pears that, on my soil, are decidedly
higher in flavor when grafted on the quince,
and not (as your correspondent almost ludi-
crously says, "partaking of the flavor of
the quince.") Pray, have you or Mr.
Thompson ever ate a quince-flavored pear ?
i. e. a pear having such a flavor from being
grafted on the quince, (as I well know there
are many pears with a very odd flavor.)
Does the Ribstone Pippin taste of the Crab
because it is grafted upon it ? Does the
Peach acquire the flavor of the Mussel plum
.because it is budded upon it ? Does the
Greengage ever taste sour and austere ?
and yet it is almost invariably grafted upon
the common Wild Plum, which is uneata-
ble, from its peculiar astringent acidity. I
do hope, for the credit of your paper, that
your correspondent is not your " Constant
Reader." To return to my list, I must first
premise that every sort of pear is, as far as
my experience at present goes, improved by
being worked upon the quince ; but the fol-
lowing, in List I., are remarkable for grow-
ing freely on the quince, in most soils,
without being double worked, bearing large
fruit, of the highest flavor :

UST r.

J.

Beurre

d'Amanlis •

13

Crnssanne.

2.

"

Ananas.

11.

Doyeinie gris.

3.

"

d'Aremberg.

15

Doyenne whi e.

4.

(1

de Capiaumont.

l(i

Duclicsse d'AngouIeme.

5.

"

Did.

17.

Dnchesse d'Orlean.s.

6.

<(

Easier.

18.

Forelle or Trout Pear.

7.

Bon Clireiieii, Williams'.

19.

Forlunee (Parmentier).

8.

Chaiinioiitelle.

20.

Franc Real. Summer.

t».

Citron des Curmes.

21.

Glout Morceau.

10.

Colmar.

2-2.

Gratioli of Jersey.

11.

Coltnar

d'Aremberg.

23.

Jargonelle.

12,

Comte de Lamy.

24.

King Edward's.

25. Ix>uise Boiuie de Jersey.

20. Na|)oleon.

27. Passe Colmar.

2S. Poire Clienille.

2'J. Princess Royal (Groom.)

30. St. Denis.

31. St. Germain

:ii. Van Mons' Leon le Clerc.
3.3. Vicar ot" Wnikfield.
I34. Wilhelniina.

D'.Amanlis according to most French authors; D'Amalis
according to llorticuUural Catalogue of Fruits.

There are many other sorts that I feel al-
most assured, will do equally well on the
quince stock as the above. I forbear to add
them till I am fully convinced by proving
them.

No. 3. Of this I ate my best specimens
about the middle of last April ; they were
vinous, juicy and delicious, from plants on
the quince. Specimens from plants on the
pear stock, kept only till the end of Febru-
ary.

No. 5. This pear seldom ripens well from
trees on the pear stock ; on the quince, the
fruit are larger, more handsome, of perfect
flavor, and they invariably ripen well.

No. 6. On the pear stock here, (it must
be borne in mind, that I am always refer-
ring to trees in the open quarters, not wall
trees,) this is a most crab-like pear, bear-
ing but very seldom, and never ripening :
on the quince it bears well, is of high fla-
vor, and always ripens in April and May ;
it is, however, inclined to be gritty at the
core, and this at present is the only pear I
have found to be so from the quince stock.

No. 19. This is a perfect crab from trees
on the pear stock ; from the quince it is very
melting and juicy, and really a good small
late pear. I ate my last and only specimen
this day. May 26.

No. 21. Grows freely here on the pear
stock, and blooms freely, yet seldom bears
any clear fruit ; they are generally full of
spots, and often do not ripen at all kindly.
On the quince stock it bears clear handsome
fruit, Avhich invariably ripen, and are very
highly flavored.

No. 23. On my finest soil here, a tender
loam six feet in depth, subsoil sand, this
sort always cankers, and very seldom pro-
duces any good fruit ; in short, it is a very
shy bearer when on the pear stock ; on the
quince it grows freely, and bears most abun-
dantly ; fruit fine and clear, and of high
flavor.

No. 25. This, of all the pears I know, is
most benefitted by working on the quince.
My specimen tree, on a pear stock, now
twelve years old, has scarcely borne a dozen
good clear fruit, and some standards of near.

10

MANAGEMENT OF PEARS.

ly twenty years' growth canker at the tips
of their shoots, and their fruit is in most
seasons, spotted and misshapen. On the
quince how different ! I have trees, from
three to five years old, full of fruit, and
these have hitherto every season heen large,
remarkably high coloured, beautiful and of
the highest flavor. " Constant Reader "
will, I think, see that I have some confi-
dence in the Quince stock, when I state
that I have a young plantation of this va-
riety, on the quince, of 1500 trees, which I
hope to make up in the autumn to 3000 ;
these are to bear to supply the London mar-
ket. At the expense of being thought a
little egotistical, I must tell him that I am
not only a pear-tree grower, but also a pear
grower ; Providence has kindly blessed me
with fifty acres of good land, on which
roses and pears, and I know not what, seem
to be " very happy ;" this is a favorite
phrase with one of our best gardeners, who
when he sees a tree in fine order, or one the
contrary, designates them " happy and un-
happy trees."

No. 27 bears here on the pear stock a tre-
mendous quantity of fruit ; these are often
inclined to speck, and they seldom ripen
well in the fruit room. On the quince stock
the fruit are clear, always ripen well, and
are of the highest flavor. I have, as above,
given my remarks on a few well known and
preferable sorts ; they may be applied, with
slight modifications, to all the varieties in
List L

LIST II.

Pears that require double working, be-
fore they will succeed on the quince ; this
is merely grafting or budding some free-
growing sort of pear on the quince, and
then regrafting the graft the following sea-
son with the "refractory sort," to use the
expression of your friend " Dodman."

1 . Bergamot, Autumn.

2. " Gaiisell's.

3. Beurre Bosc.
4 " Ranee.
5. Broom Park.
G. Brougham.

7. Crassaiie. Althorp.

8. " Wiiuer.

9. Dunmore.

10. Hacoii's Incomparable.
U. Inconimc, Van Mons. 175.

12. Jean de Witte.
1.3. Marie Louise.

14. Monarch, Knight's

15. Nelis, Winter.

16. Ne plus Meuri.s.

17. Sai^it Marc.

18. Seckel.

19. SulTolk Thorn.

20. Thompson's.

21. Urbaniste.

No. 3 is exceedingly " refractory," and
I am not quite sure that it will live and

flourish for any lengthened period, although
double worked on very thrifty stocks. In
some soils this fine pear does not ripen well
on standards ; it is therefore very desirable
to get it to do well on the quince, as it will,
I have no doubt, bear when the tree is
young ; at present it is, while young, a shy
bearer.

No. 4. My standards of this sort on the
pear stock, too often bear misshapen fruit,
inclined to speck and crack, and in some
seasons, not ripening well on the quince.
Its fruit is clear, fine, and remarkably high
flavored.

No. IL I notice this Pear, as I remarked
a short time since one of your correspon-
dents inquired of you its origin, Avhich you
could not give. I received it Avith several
other sorts, from M. Van Mons, about eigh-
teen years ago. I understood him at the
time, that they were seedlings not then
named ; this is a very hardy and excellent
late pear, about the size of Beurre d'Arem-
berg, but larger, first-rate in quality as a
melting pear, and fit for the table from Feb-
ruary to April. The sorts then received
were placed in the nursery catalogue, as
"Inconnue, Van Mons," and numbered.
They all still stand under the same name,
with different numbers attached.

The sorts I use to form a stock on the
Quince for regrafting, are Beurre d'Aman-
lis. Jargonelle d'Automne, Fondante de
Brest. These all form the most luxuriant
stocks. Grafting on the quince often fails.
I have known eighteen out of twenty to
succeed in sume seasons, and the same num-
ber to fail in others. It is an uncertain
mode ; budding is preferable. For double
working you may always graft, that is, if you
prefer it, or if your buds fail. Grafts suc-
ceed perfectly on the shoot of the pear pro-
duced from the quince stock the preceding
season. I earth up my trees to encourage
them to root close up to the junction of the
graft with the stock, but not with the view
of making the graft root. I wish to avoid
this, as the effect of the quince stock is then
lost. If you wish for cultivated pears on
their own roots, there is much time and la-
bor lost by this mode ; for any variety of
pear may be layered, and good plants ob-
tained in about two seasons. And now for

COE'S TRANSPARENT CHERRY.

71

the last paragraph of your " constant "
friend. Can we always find " soil and loca-
lity in every respect suitable " to the growth
of foreign varieties of pears ? Is not our
method of placing them against walls and
espalier rails, etc., "unnatural?" The peach
tree, which, in the United States, in a na-
tural state, bears such enormous crops, bears
here at least equally fine fruit, but in most
" unnatural " places. My root-pruned pear
trees, many of them, I have purposely made
to contend against nature; in a soil that is na-
turally death to them, I make them flourish.
To use the oft-quoted sentence, "A man
that can make a blade of grass to grow,''
etc., is a benefactor to his race, and if lean,
by precept and example, enable the nume-
rous occupiers of small gardens to grow
pears and apples for their dessert nine
months in the year, and plums and cherries
during the summer, shall I not also be a
benefactor in an humble way ? I hope so.
Allow me to advise your correspondent to
visit the horticultural gardens at Chiswick ;
he may there see pear trees of some twen-

ty-five years' growth on the quince stock,
with roots protruding from the stock close
to its junction with the graft. Pictures of
health and fertility, they have borne many
bushels of fruit, and yet I have never heard
the Fellows of the Horticultural Society
complain that they tasted like quinces. Some
fine trees of about the same age on the
quince, are also in the border. These were
all removed about two years since, and of
course their roots were pruned ; on them
may therefore be seen the effects of root-
pruning.

I will conclude with the words of " Dod-
man :" " a very little care and judicious se-
lection of sorts would insure them (pears)
daily, from the end of July till May. I
may add, that any garden ten yards square,
or even less, will, with the quince stock for
pears, the Paradise stock for apples, the
Cerasus Mahaleb as a stock for cherries,
judicious root pruning and surface culture,
supply a very ample dessert of delicious
fruits. Thomas Kivers.

Saxvbridgeivorth, Herts., June 5, 1847.

COE'S TRANSPARENT CHERRY.

Having heard, for the last two years, very
high eulogiums passed upon this new seed-
ling cherry, raised in the interior of Con-
necticut, we procured, through the kindness
of a friend and neighbor, who made a spe-
cial visit to the original tree in June, when
the fruit was in perfection, specimens in a
perfect state of maturity.

We are, therefore, able to give an accu-
rate outline and description of this new va-
riety, and to assure our readers, at the same
time, that it is undoubtedly, with the ex-
ception of Downer's Late, the finest Ameri-
can Cherry that we have yet tasted.

Its merits appear to be, first, earliness —
the season of its maturity being just before
that of the Black Tartarian ; second, unu-
sual beauty of appearance and delicacy of

flavor ; third, great hardiness and produc-
tiveness.

The growth of the tree, and the flavor
of the fruit, place it in the class of Heart
cherries ; but the fruit is, in appearance,
something between Belle de Choisy and
Downer's Late — rather larger than either,
and with much of the beautiful semi-trans-
lucent appearance of the former. It is
more thrifty and productive than the Belle
de Choisy, and we learn from those who
have observed the original tree in bearing
for several years, that its fruit continues
ripening gradually for a rather longer pe-
riod than is usual with other varieties. The
tree is of thrifty upright growth, and forms
a head much like that of Downer's Late.

The name was given it by Mr. Curtis

72]

SIX RARE HERBACEOUS PLANTS.

CoE, of Middletown, Connecticut, who
planted the seed from which it sprung, and
in whose garden the original tree stands.
As Mr. CoE never parted with any trees or
grafts of this variety until last year, he is
still chiefly its possessor ; but as he has now
a large quantity of thrifty young trees in
his grounds, we presume it will soon get
into the hands of nurserymen generally, and
be offered at a moderate price. It is un-
doubtedly a most valuable acquisition, and
will, we think, take its place among the ten
finest cherries known.

Fruit, of medium size, remarkably round
and regular in form, considerably resem-
bling that of a duke cherry. Skin thin,
wax-like, of a very delicate, pale amber,
nearly covered with pale cornelian red in
the sun, and marked with delicate pale
spots or blotches, which give it an unique
appearance. Stalk rather short, set in a

Fig. 11. Cob's Transparent Cherry.

depression of moderate depth. Flesh very
tender, melting and juicy, with a delicate
but sweet and excellent flavor. Ripens
early in June, between Early White Heart
and Black Tartarian.

HALF A DOZEN RARE HERBACEOUS PLANTS.

BY AN AMATEUR, NEW- YORK.

Ms.. Downing — I see but little space in the
Horticulturist devoted to hardy popular bor-
der flowers — perennials that require less
care than any other flowering plants, and
that are not inferior to any in beauty and
real value in the parterre.

I send you notes of six sorts cultivated
among many others in my collection, which
though not all new, are yet quite rare in
most gardens, and deserve to be much more
widely known than they are at present.

I. GLANDULAR COLUMBINE.

Aquilegia gland ulosa.

This unique and beautiful new Colum-
bine stood out all last winter without pro-
tection, and bloomed finely this season. Its
flowers are large, parti-colored blue and
white, and at a distance, do not look much

unlike those of the old blue and white Pas-
sion Flower. It is a decided acquisition,
and will no doubt prove a very hardy and
permanent border flower.

II. VAN HOUTTE'S PHLOX.
Phlox Van Houttii.

This variety, quite recently sent out by
M. Van Houtte, the celebrated nursery-
man at Ghent, is a very striking and beau-
tiful species, and eclipses every thing else
in this favorite old genus. Its flowers are
white, distinctly and boldly striped with
bright purple, forming one of the prettiest
examples of floral variegation that I know.
The plant grows with ease in any good
flower border, and produces large and fine
panicles of blossoms in June and July.
Planted in beds, and the shoots pegged

SIX RARE HERBACEOUS PLANTS.

73

Fig. 12. Van HoMte's Phlox.

down, it has a lively and beautiful effect,
and continues flowering for two or three
months,

III. SIEBOLDT'S SEDUM.

{SeduTTt Sieboldtii.)

One of the many pretty plants brought
by Dr. Von Sieboldt, from Japan. It is
quite dwarfish rn habit, forming a neat lit-
tle bush-like plant, with stems all radiating
from one centre, and thick pale silvery
gray leaves ; perfectly hardy, and will grow
from any little bit stuck into the soil. Its
bright pink clusters of flowers appear in
Vol. tt. 10

October, at the end of every shoot, and last
till the frosts of November destroy every-
thing besides it. It gives quite a cheerful
appearance to the garden, when nearly all
else is frosted and dreary.

IV. CORONET LYCHNIS.

(Lychnis Coronata.)

Although this species was brought from
China, by Touknefort, seventy years ago,
still it is very seldom seen in our gardens.
Certainly it is the most beautiful of all
Lychnises. Its large blossoms are of the
finest pure orange color, and I have some in
bloom in my garden, while 1 write, that are
of the size of a half-dollar. I believe there
is a notion prevalent still, that it is a green-
house plant, as I see it occasionally feebly
grown in pots. I find it perfectly hardy,
with the trifling care of turning an empty
flower pot over the roots in November to
keep out excess of wet in winter. In deep
soil, and a rather shady border, it will grow
near two feet high, and bloom most of the
summer.

V. LARGE PODDED EVENING PRIMROSE.

{CEnothera macrocarpa.)

This is, to my taste, the finest of all the
CEnotheras. The flowers are very large,
and are produced for a long time in suc-
cession. Besides this, the plant has a
good habit ; the stems being prostrate, it
forms an excellent bed or mass, and is quite
ornamental. Though sen American plant,
it is very seldom to- be found in our collec-
tions, while the inferior species are seen in
every garden.

LONG-FLOWERED LILY.

(Lilium loiigiflorum.*)

Remarkable for the size and beauty of its
pure white flowers, which are twice as long
as those of the common white Lily, though
the plant only grows from one to two feet
high. It should be replanted every two or
three years, as it forms its new bulbs upon

* L- Japonicum, of some.

74

EFFECTS OF FROST ON TREES.

the top of the old one, so that a root origi-
nally planted four inches deep, gradually
approaches the surface till it is almost bare.
Owing to this, it is often destroyed by the
winter. To make sure against this, the
better way is to protect it by throwing a
couple of shovelfuls of soil over the root in
the autumn, and removing in the spring.

I obtained all the foregoing species from
Mr. Hogg, of New-York, who pays especial
attention to the culture of this class of
plants.*

Yours, respectfully.

An Amateur.

New-York, July 9, 1&17.

* [Mr. Hogg's collection of herbaceous plants is one of the
largest and best in the country. — Ed.]

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SEVERE FROST ON TREES.

Translated for this Journal, by Dr. A. GERALD HULL, Newburgh, N. Y.

Since the establishment of the Royal Soci-
ety of Horticulture, at Paris, there have
been received and published many facts ex-
hibiting the disastrous effects of intense
cold on vegetation ; but these have not been
explained by the Society, or, rather, have
been attributed, according to the generally
received opinion, to an unusual dilatation
of the tissues dependent on the congelation
of the liquids contained in these same tis-
sues, on the principle that a piece of ice oc-
cupies a greater space than the liquid which
forms it. This view of the subject compels
us to admit that there are some tissues
much more dilatable than others ; other-
wise we could not explain why the common
House-Leek, a very watery plant that grows
on our thatched cottages, resists the most
vigorous winters, while other plants, of a
less succulent tissue, perish. We believe,
and with much reason, that the physical
constitution of every vegetable is such that
it can sustain a given amount of cold, but
that there is no mode of discovering, a pri-
ori, this property in the tissue. Experience
alone can teach us.

M. Charles Morren, Professor of Bota-
ny in the University of Liege, having made
observations on the effects of the winter of
1837-8, and relying on the one base, that

sap is not pure water, and on the other, that
water, which is not pure, does not freeze as
readily as that which is pure, has reached
conclusions which are calculated to modify
the manner of estimating the cause of de-
struction to plants during severe winters.

M. Morren, having presented his con-
clusions, under the form of ten aphorisms, I
transcribe them here, as they were publish-
ed in the Echo du Monde Savant, on the
27th of March, 1839.

1. No organ of plants is rent by the ac-
tion of cold, except in a few rare cases,
where the cavities of the cellular tissue
yield to the effect of the dilatation of the
liquid.

2. The organs contained in the cells or
vessels,* do not undergo any change ; the
fecula, perhaps, excepted under some cir-
cumstances, when changed into sugar,
doubtless through the agency of an acid,
derived from the decomposition of the or-
ganic parts.

3. The intercellular passages (les bifori-
nes,) do not cease, after freezing, to eject
their raphides, (minute crystals found in.
certain living plants — Trans.) and thus it
is probable that this movement is not due
to a vital contractility.

* Come rendochrome, !e nucleus, le fibre, la fecula, les
raphides, et les crisieaux.

EFFECTS OF FROST ON TREES.

4. The action of freezing affects each in-
dividual organ in such a manner that there
are as many separate pieces of ice as there
are aquiferous organs. Every one of these
organs thence undergoes a dilatation which,
in the mean time, never proceeds to the
extent of fracture.

5. This dilatation depends, in a great
measure, on the separation of air contained
in the water. Thus, frozen water, which
burst an iron cannon of a finger's thick-
ness, according to the experience of Biot,
and shattered the copper globe of the philo-
sophers of Florence, by a force of 27,720
pounds, produces no fracture of a vegetable
cell, formed by a membrane of immeasura-
ble delicacy.

6. The system of Dr. Hauy, which main-
tains that water, in a state of congelation,
kills plants, because it compresses their col-
lars and attacks their roots, ought to be rej ect-
ed ; also his hypothesis that, during freezing,
the fibres are contracted, and the organs
rent by the dilatation of the sap,

7. It is to be inferred, since the sap, pro-
per juice, fluid of the cells, and, finally, all
the menstrua which are found in the organs
of plants, are not formed of pure and liquid
water, that vegetables, on that account, resist
congelation within certain limits, as the ex-
periments of Blagden have demonstrated
that the materials v\'hich affect the purity of
the water, allow the liquid to attain uncon-
gealed, a degree of cold otherwise sufficient
to freeze it.

8. The extrication of air from water dur-
ing the process of freezing, exerts the most
hurtful influence on the life of plants ; it
introduces air into organs which are not de-
signed to elaborate it ; and this separation
of air is the first advance toward the de-
composition of the sap and the materials it
precipitates, so that during a thaw a chemi-
cal action begins by killing the plant.

9, The distention, thus developed by the
contents of the cells and aquiferous organs,
eliminates the air on thawing, and, because
the air is not controlled by the liquid, throws
a large quantity of the latter into the air
cavities and vessels ; so that the apparatus
designed to contain liquids, contains water
and air, while that naturally intended as a
vehicle for air conveys water. The physi-
ological relations are changed, and the or-
ganization cannot sustain such mutations
with impunity.

10. Thus, if frozen plants be not depriv-
ed of life, by the decomposition of their
juices, the loss of excitability or chemical
disturbance of all their parts, they are de-
stroyed by the perversion alone of their
functions.

[We publish the foregoing as an interest-
ing contribution to this obscure part of ve-
getable physiology, to which the French
and Germans have paid more attention than
the English. In this country, where cer-
tain disastrous forms of winter-blight are
prevalent among fruit trees, the whole na-
ture and eflfects of congelation become high-
ly interesting.

There appear to us, however, to be objec-
tions to some of M. Morren's aphorisms,
which we are able, at the present moment,
only to indicate, with the hope of returning
to the subject more fully hereafter.

In the first place, the usual opinion that
the injurious effects of freezing on trees is
a mechanical one, bursting the sap-vessels,
etc., owes its weight to every-day observa-
tions. Everyone familiar with country life
in the Northern States, knows, for instance,
that severe cold has the effect occasionally
of rending the entire trunks of large trees
with a loud noise like the report of a can-
non. It scarcely seems possible that this
could take place without also " rending the
organs" of the trees.

76

MANAGEMENT OF MANURE.

In the second place, if the sole injury to
plants, of severe freezing, were that of ex-
tricating the air, which indeed always takes
place in the act of freezing, all plants ex-
posed to a greater degree of frost than their
structure naturally enables them to bear,
would as inevitably die as the freezing took
place. But this, it is well known, is not
the fact. On the contrary, a given plant,
that will not bear, under ordinary circum-
stances, to be exposed to a temperature
even a few degrees below the freezing
point, may be subjected to a temperature
within a few degrees of zero, provided it is
frozen gradually, and kept in the dark, and
very gradually thawed. Does not this go
to prove that it is rather to the mechanical
disturbance, distention, fracture, etc., caus-
ed in the sap vessels by sudden freezing
and thawing, than by any chemical change
brought about by the expulsion of the air
from the juices of the plant in freezing,
that we must attribute fatal effects — since
this separation of air must necessarily occur

whenever freezing takes place, whether ice
crystals are formed slowly or rapidly ?

That half-hardy plants, however, that ap-
pear partially injured at first, do often die
from the chemical change effected in their
juices by frost, can scarcely be denied.
But this does not appear to us to be the
only way, or indeed the usual one, by
which the death of trees is caused by frost.

M. Morren's aphorism that the less wa-
tery, or,"" in other words, the more elaborated
is the sap of plants, the less liable are they
to be injured by freezing, is one that is not
only well established, but most interesting
practically to cultivators : since it teaches
them to prevent, in half-hardy trees, (either
by planting them on high and dry soil, or
otherwise checking over-luxuriance by root-
pruning,) all growth late in the season.
Early growth, well elaborated juices, and
thoroughly ripened wood, are the best safe-
guards yet known, against the injurious ef-
fects of freezing, on particularly tender
trees. — Ed.]

<♦•»>■

HO"W TO MANAQE THE MANURE HEAP.
BY PROFESSOR LINDLEY, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

No one, who has been watching the pro-
gress of agriculture for the last few years,
can for a moment dispute the importance of
the foreign substances, which, like nitrate of
soda and guano, have been introduced into
husbandry, But admitting to the fullest
extent, the value of these materials ; admit-
ing, too, the utility of some of the artificial
manures compounded for sale ; we must
observe, that it is most absurd for the culti-
vator to put himself to the expense of pur-
chasing them until he has utterly exhaust-
ed all the means which his farm affords
him, for nothing, of increasing the fertility

of his land. Such substances should be
employed in aid of ordinary manure, not
instead of it. The art of farming and mar-
ket-gardening consists, or should consist, in
obtaining the greatest possible amount of
food at the smallest possible expense.

Now, it must be obvious, that those ma-
nuring substances which are necessarily
produced on a farm, are the least expensive
of all things ; to the careful collection and
preparation of them should the good hus-
bandman turn his attention in the first in-
stance ; and when all the resources of skill
are exhausted upon that preparation, it is

MANAGEMENT OF MANURE.

77

time to look abroad for assistance. Farm
yard manure is, therefore, the first object
of improvement ; and it is to this great end
that our remarks upon manures have of
late been directed. The man who wastes
his farm-yard manure and buys other
things, can only be compared to him who
should leave his wheat upon the ground,
and buys rice or maize to make good his
prodigality. We assert, without fear of
contradiction, that the farmer does, in the
great majority of cases, commit a folly
equivalent to this ; not indeed, intentional-
ly, but from not knowing better.

It is not, however, merely because of its
cheapness, that farm-yard manure is the
best of all substances for enriching land,
but because it contains such a great variety
of substances, among which each crop finds
that which it most requires, and in the fit-
test state for becoming its food. " Fortu-
nately," says Dr. Daubeny, in one of his
excellent agricultural discourses, " we are
provided, in the dung of animals, with a
species of manure of which the land can
never be said to tire, for this simple reason,
that it contains Avithin itself not 07ie alone,
but all the ingredients which plants require
for their nutrition ; and what is perhaps of
equal importance, existing too, in that pre-
cise condition in which they are most read-
ily taken in and assimilated." No wonder
then, that the Royal Agricultural Society
of England should have made the subject
of farm-yard manure the subject of one of
their prizes, and that we should in the
meantime be turning our feeble efforts in
the same direction.

It must be evident, to those who have
considered the subject, that the great points
to attend to are, firstly, to reduce the ani-
mal and vegetable matter of manure to a
decayed state ; and secondly, to keep every- 1

thing that results from this decay, whether
fluid or solid, or invisible, after it has been
obtained. It is of no use to catch the hare,
if you do not hold her. The farmer lets
his stock trample straw and manure to-
gether in the yard, and by degrees it be-
comes partially rotten ; it is then thrown
into heaps, and allowed to ferment ; and
then it is used. The market gardener
carts the long stable-litter from town,
throws it into a heap, lets it ferment, and
then applies it to his land. In both these
cases, rain and other fluids wash away one»
part, which runs to waste ; the fermentation
drives off another, which disappears in the
air ; and what is left is, at the most, about
half as good as it should be. This cannot
be the way to manage manure.

What should be done, is something like
this : every husbandman should have a
place for preparing manure. It should be
a trench or ditch, large in proportion to the
quantity of manure to be prepared. The
bottom and sides should be made firm with
clay or any other material that will prevent
a waste of the water used in preparing the
manure. This trench should fall towards
one end ; and at that end a hole should be
made, (which we will call A,) and well
puddled or lined with clay, so as to hold
water, into which all the liquid matter that
runs from the manure should drain. By
the side of the trench should be a pump
and well, which might be so contrived as
to throw water in a stream all over the
manure, when necessary. All things be-
ing ready, a quantity of raw manure, con-
sisting as usual, of straw and all sorts of
impurities, should be placed in a layer at
the bottom of the trench, well watered, and
trampled down ; by this means it will be
enabled to decay faster than if it was dry,
for the mass will begin to heat ; what wa-

78

MANAGEMENT OF MANURE.

ter the straw cannot suck up, will run into
the hole A, out of which it should afterwards
be drawn, and poured again over the heap.
At the same time that the layer of raw manure
is placed on the floor of the trench, there
should be scattered among it a quantity of
gypsum (plaster of Paris,) if that can be
had cheap, or else some powdered green
vitriol ; then the fluid which drains away
will consist of those ingredients or their
elements, water, etc. The object of add-
ing such substances, is to prevent the loss
of ammonia, an invaluable substance, which
flies away from manure, if you let it alone,
but which either the gypsum or the green
vitriol holds fast, and keeps with them-
selves in the manure. Gypsum (plaster of
Paris) is, in many places, the cheapest ma-
terial ; but the wholesale price of green vit-
riol is not more than five shillings per one
hundred weight in the London market ;
and probably the material called sail-cake,
and now worth about three shillings and
six-pence per one hundred weight, would
answer the same purpose.

When there is a fresh supply of raw ma-
nure ready, it should be placed in a layer
over the first, mixed with gypsum or green
vitriol, or some other "fixer," and well
trampled down ; then let it be thoroughly
watered with the fluid in the hole A, if
there is enough there ; or with water from
the pump, if what has drained into A is not
sufficient. Water or drainings should be
constantly added to these heaps, for it is of
the first importance that the manure should
be kept continually moist, in order to has-
ten its decay. In this manner the manure
heap may be increased from time to time,
as raw manure accumulates, until it is too
high to be conveniently raised farther, or
to allow of water or drainings being easily
poured over it. By degrees the whole

mass will become a soft pasty substance ;
and when in that condition, will be fit to
put upon the land, or to lie by till wanted.
In the latter case, however, care must be
taken not to allow any of its " goodness"
to be wasted out of it again ; and reservoirs
should be formed at the edge of it, to re-
ceive what does run from it, which should
be poured over it again, or carried and used
elsewhere.

If this plan were merely speculative, we
should have nevertheless thought it worth
proposing ; but it is, in fact, the result of
experience. It is essentially the same as
that practiced by Mr. Schattenmann, and
seems to us the best method of managing
the dung-hill that has been yet proposed.
It has the great merit of saving everything,
of wasting nothing, and of causing no other
additional expense than that of the pur-
chase of the gypsum, (which would proba-
bly be bought without being thus applied,)
or of a boy occasionally to attend to the
watering the dung-hills. Although we
entertain no sort of doubt of the extreme
importance of attending to these sugges-
tions, and of the ample return they will
make for any expense connected with them,
we shall be quite satisfied if any of our
readers will try them first in a small way,
and then ascertain for themselves the rela-
tive effect per load of common farm-yard
manure, and manure prepared in this more
careful manner.

[We will only add to the foregoing most
practical and useful suggestions, that, in our
climate, with its great extremes of heat and
moisture, it is still better if there is a cover-
ing— a rough open shed, or the like, over
the manure heap.

Where there is abundance of peat or dry
black bog earth at hand, it may be used
instead of gypsum, etc., as a " fixer " for

EXPERIENCE WITH GUANO.

79

the ammonia. Instead of a sprinkling, it
may be applied with the manure in layers of
equal, or even double thickness. Saturated
with the liquid and the volatile portions of
the manure, and its vegetable matter de-
composed by the fermentation of the mass,

it becomes at least equal in value to the
farm-yard manure itself, as commonly used;
and thus affords, to many persons, the
means of doubling or trebling the bulk and
value of their manure heap at trifling cost.
—Ed.]

MY EXPERIENCES WITH GUANO.
BY A RETIRED CITIZEN, BALTIMORE.

Dear Sir : Do not suppose that I am about
to come forward with another certificate of
the unparalleled virtues of the " great fer-
tilizer." I am not in the employ of any of
the speculators in the article. I have no
desire to tell a large story, and appear be-
fore the world as having made the richest
soil in the world out of a dry sand hill by
top-dressings of the excrement of sea birds.
No, indeed. I am a disappointed man ; I
have tried to make my garden rich, and I
have made myself poor indeed, in vegeta-
bles !

I know very well what you will say :
" You did not understand the matter. You
put it on at the wrong time. You used
too much. You should have been more
cautious." This is all very fine, and may
be very true. But pray, how was I to
know just how much to apply to every sort
of crop ? The farming newspapers, the
circulars of the dealers, all spoke of it as
containing the very elements of life, nutri-
tion itself, for plants of every possible
growth. " Ammonia and the phosphates "
(I have got as deep as that into the chemi-
cals) " are the food of plants ;" and guano, I
learned, is rich in ammonia and the phos-
phates.

You must know, then, that this is the
very first season of my dabbling in the soil.

The by-gone part of my life has been
chiefly spent among brick walls and flag-
stones. If the result of my experiences
for the first five months, (I began this
spring,) should lead you to think that /am
rather green — so-so verdant — I beg to as-
sure you that my garden is not so. There
are melancholly gaps in all my beds. My
transplanted trees have most of them as-
sumed the appearance of what my neigh-
bor, a botanist who dries plants, keeps in
his "hortus siccus^ And — but I will
transcribe from my diary.

April 2d, planted four beds of beets, (a.)
Had the ground covered with a tolerable
sprinkling of guano. This was well dug
under, and sowed with " Early Turnep,
Blood Beet " and "Early Scarcity." Plant-
ed, also, a long bed {b) of White Onions.
" Onions like a very rich soil." Have giv-
en this patch accordingly another lio-ht
coat of guano over the surface, while rakino-
the bed ; and then planted in drills.

{Mem. — Only about one-fourth of the
beets in the beds {a) came up, and these
very slowly. Afterwards, my man "John"
planted some of the same seed in another
part of the garden, of which, I firmly be-
lieve, every one grew. Onions in (b) still
worse, not one in fifty seeds grew, and these
gradually died out as if burnt. Have sowed

80

EXPERIENCE WITH GUANO.

this same bed over three times, the last
time all went well. Suppose the guano
has spent its virtues a little in the soil.]

April 10th. Soaked some peas twelve
hours in guano water, in order to try how
much start it would give them ; planted
them in rows, and put in at the same time
every other row without soaking.

[Mem. — Very few of the "soaked," vege-
tated. About one in four or five grew
finally ; of those let alone, all grew and bore
well.]

April 12th. Transplanted some toma-
toes and egg plants to-day. Not meaning
to over-do the thing this time, I gave the
lightest possible sprinkling of the " pulver-
ized Peruvian " to the hills, where I put
them out, and turned it in well with the
trowel before transplanting them.

[These struggled hard ; but two-thirds
of them finally gave up the ghost. On
asking my neighbor Smith since, if toma-
toes are not hard to transplant, he smiled
and said, "it is as easy for them to grow
as it is for a Yankee to whittle." It must
have been that admirable fertilizer, thought
I, though I said nothing to my neighbor
Smith.]

April 15th. Planted Lima beans. Here
I think is something that will certainly
stand fire. Here is a seed that will be
able to take up " ammonia and the phos-
phates," and turn them into " greens "
without delay. Accordingly, I have plant-
ed one-half my hills of Limas with a tole-
rable dusting of the fertilizer right under
the seeds — intending that as soon as they
began to "send out circulars," they shall
feel the stimulus that I have given them.

[Mem. — Sorry to be obliged to say that
only a few, a very few, of these beans have
sprouted. To be sure, such as have sprout-
ed, look green and thrifty. What can be

the matter of the rest^ I dont well see, un-
less they had an over-dose. On digging
up those that would'nt come up, I found
them quite rotten. The other half that I
planted with common manure in the hills,
camp up in a few days, every bean of them,
and have done finely.]

April 19th. Made a rosery, and being
a little nervous about " ammonia," used
some old barn-yard manure. Thought,
however, that I would not give up without
a fair trial, and put out a half dozen roots
of the " Four seasons " Rose, with a cou-
ple of handfuls of guano mingled with the
soil. [The weather set in pretty dry for a
fortnight after, and these half a dozen of
plants, though they are still green, have
not started a leaf yet ! The others have
grown pretty well, and many of them have
given me some handsome well-blown
roses.]

I will not trouble you with farther ex-
tracts, as on turning over the leaves, I find
during the months of April and May, pret-
ty much the same running account. I dont
know, indeed, as I have in " all my trials"
succeeded with a single experiment, except
with my grass-plot. This I gave a good
top-dressing very early in April, and it has
been extraordinarily green and luxuriant
ever since. Indeed, as it was not scat-
tered over it very evenly at first, it
made spots and streaks of green so mark-
edly visible, that I was obliged to go over
the neglected parts again, to make the
whole one uniform pattern.

I have pretty much struck a balance Avith
guano in my own mind. It may all be
very well for those who know how to use
it, but I am decidedly of opinion that it is
dangerous for beginners like me to meddle
with. It has put back some of my "truck,"
and quite destroyed others, and I find on

THE HYDRAULIC RAM.

81

looking into my neighbors' gardens, who
have not had a pound of it, that their crops
are all sound and regular, and their advice
tc me is to stick to the old-fashioned ma-
nure.

What I think ought to be done in a jour-
nal so much read and referred to, as I sup-
pose yours is, is to say a few words to let
those who are ignorant, and have had no
practice like myself, know something about
guano besides its "wonderful virtues."
Let them know, for instance, that it is
absolute poison to seeds, if sown along with
them, and to roots of everything trans-
planted that it comes in contact with. My
own opinion is, that unless " homeopathic
doses " of it are administered to most
plants, that it burns them up in a dry time
like a conflagration. There has been
enough said in its favor. Let the "sufferer
by fire," now be heard. I am, dear sir;
yours, with respect, J. S.

Baltimore, July 12, 1847.

P. S. My darkey "John," says he
" berry glad massa got sick of de pottecary
manure; worse dan ole Scotch snuff."

Remarks. — Our correspondent's experi-
ence is indeed melancholy, but not more
so than that of many others, both farmers
and gardeners, whose experiments we saw

the first season after the introduction of
guano. It was then applied "liberally,"
in proportion to what the cultivator felt
that he could afford to put upon his land, or
what he hoped to get from it. The conse-
quence was that we saw whole fields of
potatoes and onions half destroyed by it.

The truth is, guano can never be applied
safely alone, or in a pure state. It should
be mixed with a much larger bulk of earth
than is generally supposed necessary, to
render it safe to apply it directly to any
plants, and we think almost its whole
value in this climate is lost, if the season is
not a ?noist one.

There is no form in which guano is ap-
plied with results so uniformly good, as in
a liquid form. One pound to ten gallons
of water is a sufficient quantity, and the
effects of a frequently repeated watering
with this, are surprisingly beneficial, as
our correspondent has with his mode of
operation, found them to be injurious.
Hence, those whose use of guano has been
confined chiefly to green-house plants, or a
few choice trees and shrubs, which they
have regularly watered with it, are as loud
in its praise, as those who have used it
mainly in field crops, and perhaps with the
disadvantage of dry seasons^ are lukeAvarm.
—Ed.

THE HYDRAULIC RAM.

We have lately had our attention drawn to
that most valuable self-acting water ma-
chine, called the Hydraulic Ram ; and as
it is comparatively little known in the
United States, we think some account of it
cannot but interest many of our readers.

The three conditions most essential to
the growth of vegetation, as every one
knows, are light, heat and water. There
Vol. ii. 11

is no scarcity, in most parts of the United
States, of warmth and sunshine, during the
growing season. But there is often very
serious difficulty in producing many gar-
den crops, and maintaining ornamental
grounds in the highest condition, from the
drvness of our climate in midsummer.
Any means, therefore, of avoiding the mis-
chievous effects of summer drouth will,-

82

THE HYDRAULIC HAM.

we think, be hailed as a real blessing to
the Horticulturist. Such a desideratum,
for many localities, is the Hydraulic Earn.
Wherever a small constant stream of water,
or even a spring with a very moderate re-
gular overflow, can be found, within any
moderate distance of the grounds to be irri-
gated, a plentiful supply of water may be
furnished without any farther cost or ex-
penditure of power than what is involved
in the purchase and erection of the machine
itself. A stream or spring in a deep val-
ley, or a brook at two or three hundred feet
distant, may thus be made to force itself
up-hill to any desired point, where a pond,
cistern or reservoir maybe found most con-
venient.

From such reservoir the water may be
led to any lower part of the grounds — a
complete irrigation maintained wherever it
is needful. Thus, lawns may be kept as
fresh as emerald, and beds of vegetables
and flowering plants grown with a luxuri-
ance and perfection rarely seen in our cli-
mate.

Where the source affords an abundant
supply of water, fountains may be kept pla}^-
ing by the same means, and it is surprising
how much beauty and value may be con-
ferred on pleasure grounds by the addition
of as much water as will be supplied by a
good Hydraulic Earn fed by a small but un-
failing rivulet of water.

The construction of the Hydraulic Eam
is at once simple and ingenious. We ex-
tract the following highly interesting de-
tailed account of the invention, from Eio-
bank's Hydraulics :

Every person accustomed to draw water
from pipes that are supplied from very ele-
vated sources, must have observed, when
the cocks or discharging orifices are sud-
denly closed, a jar or tremor communicated
to the pipes, and a snapping sound like
that from smart blows of a hammer. These

effects are produced by blows which the
ends of the pipes receive from the water ;
the liquid particles in contact with the plug
of a cock, when it is turned to stop the dis-
charge, being forcibly driven up against it
by those constituting the moving mass be-
hind. The philosophical instrument named
a v;ater hammer illustrates this fact. The
effect is much the same as if a solid rod
moved with the same velocity as the water
through the tube until its progress was
stopped in the same manner, except that
its momentum would be concentrated on
that point of the pipe against which it
struck, whereas with the liquid rod the mo-
mentum Avould be communicated equally
to, and might be transmitted from any part
of, the lower end of the tube ; hence it of-
ten occurs that the ends of such pipes, when
made of lead, are swelled greatly beyond
their original dimensions. We have seen
some 3-4 of an inch bore, become enlarged
to 1 1-4 inches before they were ruptured.
At a hospital in Bristol, England, a plumb-
er was employed to convey \vater through
a leaden pipe from a cistern in one of the
upper stories to the kitchen below, and it
happened that the lower end of the tube
was burst nearly every time the cock was
used. After several attempts to remedy
the evil, it was determined to solder one
end of a smaller pipe immediately behind
the cock, and to coxxy the other end to as
high a level as the water in the cistern ;
and now it was found that on shutting the
cock the pipe did not burst as before, but a
jet of considerable height was forced from
the upper end of this new pipe : it there-
fore became necessary to increase its height
to prevent the water escaping from it — up-
on which it was continued to the top of the
hospital, being twice the height of the sup-
plying cistern, but where to the great sur-
prise of those who constructed the work,
some water still issued : a cistern Avas
therefore placed to receive this water,
which was found very convenient, since it
was thus raised to the highest floors of the
building without any extra labor. Here
circumstances led the workmen to the con-
struction of a water-ram without knowing
that such a machine had been previously
devised.

THE HYDRAULIC RAM.

83

The first person who is known to have
raised water by a ram, designed for the
purpose, was Mr. Whitehurst, a watchma-
ker of Derby, in England. He erected a
machine similar to the one represented by
the next figure, in 1772. A description of
it was forwarded by him to the Royal Society,
and published in vol. Iv., of their Transac-
tions.

poses, may serve to raise a portion of their
contents to a higher level ; an object that
does not appear to have been previously
attempted, or even thought of. The de-
vice also exhibits another mode, besides
that by pressure engines, of deriving mo-
tive force from liquids thus drawn, and con-
sequently opens another way by which the
immense power expended in raising water

Fig. 13. Whitehurst^ s Water-Ravi.

A, represents the spring or reservoir, the
surface of the water in which was of about
the same level as the bottom of the cistern
B. The main pipe from A to the cock at
the end of C, was nearly six hundred feet
in length, and one and a half inches bore.
The cock was sixteen feet below A, and
furnished water for the kitchen offices, &c.
When it was opened the liquid column in
A C was put in motion, and acquired the
velocity due to a fall of sixteen feet ; and
as soon as the cock was shut, the momen-
tum of this long column opened the valve,
upon which part of the water rushed into
the air-vessel and up the vertical pipe into
B. This eflfect took place every time the
cock was used, and as water was drawn
from it at short intervals for household pur-
poses, " from morning till night — all the
days in the year," an abundance was
raised into B, without any exertion or ex-
pense.

Such was the first water-ram. As an
original device, it is highly honorable to
the sagacity and ingenuity of its author ;
and the introduction of an air vessel, with-
out which all apparatus of the kind could
never be made durable, strengthens his
claims upon our regard. In this machine
he has shown that the mere act of drawing
water from long tubes for ordinary pur-

for the supply of cities, may again be given
out with the liquid from the lateral pipes.
Notwithstanding the advantages derived
from such an apparatus, under circumstances
similar to those indicated by the figure, it
does not appear to have elicited the atten-
tion of engineers, nor does Whitehurst him-
self seem to have been aware of its adapta-
tion as a substitute for forcing pumps, in
locations where the water drawn from the
cock was not required, or could not be used.
Had he pursued the subject, it is probable
the idea of opening and closing the cock
(by means of the water that escaped) with
some such apparatus as figured in No. 160,
would have occurred to him, and then his
machine being made self-acting, Avould
have been applicable in a thousand loca-
tions. But these additions were not made,
and the consequence was, that the inven-
tion was neglected, and but for the one
next to be described, it would most likely
have passed into oblivion, like the steam
machines of Branca, Kircher, and Decaus,
till called forth by the application of the
same principle in more recent devices.

Whenever we peruse accounts of the la-
bors of ingenious men, in search of new
discoveries in science or the arts, sympathy
leads us to rejoice at their success and to
ffrieve at their failure : like the readers of

84

THE HYDRAULIC RAM.

a well written novel who enter into the
vieAvs, feelings and hopes of the hero ; re-
alize his disappointments, partake of his
pleasures, and become interested in his
fate ; hence something like regret comes
over us, when an industrious experimenter,
led by his researches to the verge of an
important discovery, is, by some circum-
stance diverted (perhaps temporarily) from
it ; and a more fortunate or more sagacious
rival steps in and bears off the prize from
his grasp — a prize, which a few steps more
AA^ould have put him in possession of.
Thus Whitehurst with the water-ram, like
Papin with the steam-engine, discontinued
his researches at the most interesting point
— at the very turning of the tide that would
have carried him to the goal ; and hence
the fruit of both their labors has contribut-

but the momentum of the water it is cm-
ployed to elevate. Like the organization
of animal life, and the mechanism by which
the blood circulates, the pulsations of this
admirable machine incessantly continue
day and night, for months and years ; while
nothing but a deficiency of the liquid, or
defects in the apparatus can induce it to
stop. It is, compared to Whitehurst's, what
the steam-engine of Watt is to that of Sa-
vary or Newcomen.

Fig. 14. Dlontgolfier^s Ram.

Fig. 15. The Same.

ed but to enhance the glory of their suc-
cessors.

The Bllier hydraiilique of Montgolfier
was invented in 1796. (Its author was a
French paper maker, and the same gentle-
man who, in conjunction with his brother,
invented balloons in 17S2.) Although it is
on the principle of Whitehurst's machine,
its invention is believed to have been en-
tirely independent of the latter. But if it
were even admitted that Montgolfier was
acquainted with what Whitehurst had done,
still he has, by his improvements, made the
ram entirely his own. He found it a com-
paratively useless device, and he rendered
it one of the most efficient — it was neglect-
ed or forgotten, and he not only revived it,
but gave it a permanent place among hy-
draulic machines, and actually made it the
most interesting of them all. It was, pre-
vious to this time, but an embryo ; when,
like another Prometheus, he not only
Avrought it into shape and beauty, but im-
parted to it, as it were, a principle of life,
that rendered its movements self-acting ;
for it requires neither the attendance of
man, nor anything else, to keep it in play,

Fig. 14 represents a simple form of
Alontgolfier'sram. The motive column de-
scends from a spring or brook A through
the pipe B, near the end of which an air
chamber D, and rising main F, are attach-
ed to it as shown in the cut. At the ex-
treme end of B, the orifice is opened and
closed by a valve E, instead of the cock in
fig. 13. This valve opens downwards
and may either be a spherical one as in fig.

14, or a common spindle one as in fig.

15. It is the play of this valve that ren-
ders the machine self-acting. To accom-
plish this, the valve is made of, or loaded
with, such a weight as just to open when
the water in B is at rest ; i. e. it must be so
heavy as to overcome the pressure against
its under side when closed, as represented
at fig. 15. Now suppose this valve open
as in fig. 14, the water flowing through B
soon acquires an additional force that car-
ries up the valve against its seat ; then, as
in shutting the cock of Whitehurst's ma-
chine, a portion of the water will enter and
rise in F, the valve of the air chamber pre-
venting its return. When this has taken
place, the water in B has been brought to

THE HYDRAULIC RAM.

85

rest, and as in that slate its pressure is in-
sufficient to sustain the weight of the valve,
E opens ; (descends) the water in B is
again put in motion, and again it closes E
as before, when another portion is driven
into the air vessel and pipe F ; and thus
the operation is continued, as long as the
spring afibrds a sufficient supply and the
apparatus remains in order.

The surface of the water in the spring or
source should always be kept at the same ele-
vation, so that its pressure against the valve
E may always be uniform — otherwise the
weight of E would have to be altered as
the surface of the spring rose and fell.

This beautiful machine may be adapted
to numerous locations in every countr}'.
When the perpendicular fall from the spring
to the A'alve E is but a few feet, and the
Avater is required to be raised to a conside-
rable height through F, then, the length of
the ram or pipe B, must be increased, and
to such an extent that the Avater in it is not
forced back into the spring when E closes,
which Avill always be the case if B is not of
sufficient length. Mr. Millington, Avho
erected several in England, justly observes
that a very insignificant pressing column
is capable of raising a very high ascending
one, so that a sufficient fall of water may
be obtained in almost every running brook,
by damming the upper end to produce the
reservoir, and carrying the pipe down the
natural channel of the stream until a suffi-
cient -fall is obtained. In this way a ram
has been made to raise one hundred hogs-
heads of water in twenty-four hours, to a
perpendicular height of one hundred and
thirty-four feet, by a fall of only four feet
and a half. M. Fischer of SchafThausen,
constructed a water-ram in the form of a
beautiful antique altar, nearly in the style
of that of Esculapius, as represented in A-a-
rious engravings. A basin about six inches
in depth, and from eighteen to twenty inches
in diameter, received the v.-ater that formed
the motive column. This water flowed
through pipes three inches in diameter
that descended in a spiral form into the
base of the altar ; on the valve opening a
third of the Avater escaped, and the rest
Avas forced up to a castle seA'eral hundred
feet above the level of the Rhine.

A long tube laid along the edge of a ra-
pid river, as the Niagara above the falls, or
the Mississippi, might thus be used instead
of pumps, Avater-Avheels, steam-engines and
horses, to raise the Avater over the highest
banks and supply inland towns, howeA-er
elevated their location might be ; and there
is scarcely a farmer in the land but AA'ho
might, in the absence of other sources, fur-
nish his dAvelling and barns AA'ith Avater in
the same Avay, from a brook, creek, rivulet
or pond.

If a ram of large dimensions, and made
like fig. 14, be used to raise Avater to a
great eleA^ation, it Avould be subject to an
inconvenience that Avould soon destroA' the
beneficial efTecis of the air chamber. When
speaking of the air A^essels of fire-engines,
in the third book, Ave observed that if air
be subjected to great pressure in contact
Avith Avater, it in time becomes incorporated
Avith or absorbed by the latter. As might
be supposed, the same thing occurs in wa-
ter-rams ; as these, Avhen used, are inces-
santly at Avork both day and night. To
remedy this, Montgolfier ingeniously adapt-
ed a very small A'alve (opening iuAvards) to
the pipe beneath the air chamber, and
Avhich Avas opened and shut by the ordinary
action of the machine. Thus, Avhen the
floAv of the Avater through B is suddenly
stopped by the A'alve E, a partial vacuum
is produced immediately beloAV the air
chamber by the recoil of the AA'ater, at
Avhich instant the small valve opens and a
portion of the air enters and supplies that
AA'hich the Avater absorbs. Sometimes this
sniftvig vah-e, as it has been named, is
adapted to another chamber immediately
beloAV that Avhich forms the reservoir of air,
as at B in fig. 15. In small rams a suf-
ficient supply is found to enter at the A'alve
E.

Although air chambers or vessels are not,
strictly speaking, constituent elements of
Avater-rams, they are indispensable to the
permanent operation of these machines.
Without them, the pipes Avould soon be rup-
tured by the violent concussion consequent
on the sudden stoppage of the efflux of the
motive column. They perform a similar
part to that of the bags of avooI, &c., Avhich
the ancients, Avhen besieged, interposed be-

86

THE HYDRAULIC RAM.

Fig. 16. Montgolfiir's Water Ram.

tween their walls and the battering rams of
the besiegers, in order to break the force of
the blows.

The ram has also been used in a few
cases to raise water by atmospheric pres-
sure from a lower level, so as to discharge
it at the same level with the motive column
or even higher*

The device by which Montgolfier made
the ram self-acting, is one of the neatest
imaginable. It is unique : there never was
anything like it in practical hydraulics, or
in the whole range of the arts ; and its
simplicity is equal to its novelty, and use-
ful effects. Perhaps it may be said that he
only added a valve to Whitehurst's ma-
chine : be it so — but that simple valve in-
stantly changed, as by magic, the whole
character of the apparatus — like the mere
change of the cap, which transformed the
Leech Hakim into Saladin.* And the emo-

* Walter Scott's Tales of the Crusaders.

tions of Coeur de Lion, upon finding his
great adversary had beerf his physician in
disguise, Avere not more exquisite than
those, which an admirer of this department
of philosophy experiences, when he con-
templates for the first time the metamor- .
phosis of the English machine by the
French Savan. The name of Montgolfier
will justl}^ be associated with this admirable
machine in future ages. When all politi-
cal and ecclesiastical crusaders are forgot-
ten, and the memories of all who have
hewed a passage to notoriety merely by the
sword, will be detested — the name of its in-
ventor will be embalmed in the recollec-
tions of an admiring posterity.

Montgolfier's water-ram is now manufac-
tured in this country, by Mr. H. M. Bir-
KENBiRNE, 17 South Eighth-Street, Philadel-
phia. Fig. 16 represents the exterior of the
apparatus.

TRANS. OF N. Y. S. AG. SOCIETY.

87

We find it is used and much approved
now, in some parts of Pennsylvania, for
supplying farm-houses, factories, gardens,
etc. Its comparatively trifling cost, (not
more, in many cases, than that of a well
and pump,) as well as its simplicity and ef-
fectiveness, must soon make it extensively
known to the public.

This machine is now manufactured in
Philadelphia, of all sizes, to suit the sup-
ply of water at hand. By giving the man-
ufacturer the amount of water which the
brook or spring yields, as an overflow per
minute, the head or fall that may be pro-
cured, and the height and distance to which
it is desired to convey the water, the proper
ram and pipes can be sent to any part of the
country.

Mr. BiRKENBiRNE has one of these rams,
which raises water sixty-five feet, with six-
teen inches fall. A supply of half a gallon
of water per minute, is sufficient to drive

the smallest sized ram, while the largest
jnade at Philadelphia, requires fifty gallons
per minute. Our readers may learn the
proportionate cost, when we inform them
that a ram calculated to fit a spring with an
overflow of six gallons per minute, Avhere
a fall of five feet can be obtained, and which
will raise twelve hogsheads of water daily
to an elevation fifty feet high, would cost in
Philadelphia but eighteen dollars.

The fact that the hydraulic ram is self-
acting, and that it works with an amount
of water power infinitely less than any
other machine, must, we think, as soon
as its construction is known, bring it into
general use, in this country. There are
many places within our knowledge, where
the economy it would effect, in giving
an abundant supply of water to all parts
of the country-house and grounds, would
be equal to double its cost in a single
year.

REVIEWS.

Transactions of the New- York State Agri-
cultural Society. Vol. VI. 1846. Albany.
C. Van Benthuysen & Co., Public Printers.
The Transactions of our State Agricultural
Society, are printed at the expense of the
State, and distributed largely by the mem-
bers of the Legislature. Five hundred co-
pies are also placed at the disposal of the
State Society itself; five hundred in the
hands of the American Institute, New-
York ; and forty copies are given to each
county society, for distribution among its
members. In this way, the work is placed
gratuitously within the reach of all our citi-
zens really interested in the progress of
agriculture.

The present volume, compiled under the
direction of B. P. Johnson, Esq., the pre-

sent Secretary, comprises 716 pages. Be-
sides the actual business reports of the So-
ciety, the reader will find a variety of very
interesting essays, by many of the most in-
telligent farmers and agricultural writers
in the State. Among these, we may espe-
cially point out those of Mr. Randall, on
the management of merino sheep ; Mr.
NoTT, on the wool trade ; Mr. Geddes, on
flank roads; Mr. Howard, on Galloway
cattle ; Mr. Pell, on the use of lime, and
on soiling ; Dr. Fitch, on the Hessian fly ;
Mr. Stevens, on the Canada thistle, etc.

There are two articles which commend
themselves more especially to our notice :
one, the report of the committee on Fruits,
and the other, the communication of N.

88

TRANS. OF N. Y. S. AG. SOCIETY.

LoNGWORTii, Esq., of Cincinnati, on Vine-
yards.

The Fruit Committee, at the desire of the
Society, and considering " the apple orchard
an item of national wealth," undertook,
several months previously to the annual
meeting, to collect and digest opinions ne-
cessary to enable them to recommend a se-
lect list of thirty varieties of apples. They
have accordingly published in their report
a selection as follows :

" Early Harvest, Early Strawberry, Large
Yellow Bough, Early Joe, and William's
Favorite, all of which are summer apples."
" Fall Pippin, Golden Sweet, Graven-
stein, Jersey Sweeting, Porter, Rambo, De-
troit Red, Bellebonne, for autumn use.

"Baldwin, Yellow Bellefleur, Hubbards-
ton Nonsuch, Jonathan, Newtown Pippin,
Northern Spy, Blue Pearmain, Rhode Isl-
and Greening, American Golden Russet,
Roxbury Russet, Swaar, Ladies' Sweeting,
Tallman Sweeting, Esopus Spitzenbergh,
Vandervere, Waxen Apple, Westfield Seek-
nofurther, for winter use and exportation."
We extract also the following :
" Any variety of apple, to be worthy of
extensive cultivation, should be, as nearly
as possible, perfect of its kind. Some are
quite so. A positively good apple should
possess the following qualifications :

" 1st. The wood of the tree should be
hardy and vigorous in its growth, spread-
ing in its shape, graceful in its appearance,
and an abundant and annual bearer.

" 2d. The fruit should be uniformly dis-
tributed over the tree, not in clusters, but
with a strong stem holding it firmly to the
limb, and not subject to fall in ordinary
high winds.

" 3d. The size should, as near as may
be, range from medium, to moderately
large ; such usually combining higher fla-
vor and sounder quality, than the quite

small, or the extraordinarily large varieties.
A very small apple is apt to be astringent ;
a very large one coarse and spongy. The
flesh of a perfect apple should be solid,
heavy, juicy and brittle [crisp ?]. It should
be, also, brisk in its flavor, which should
always be agreeable, whether that flavor
be tart, sub-acid, or sweet.

" 4th. Its shape should be fair, [and we
would add, regular,] of agreeable appear-
ance, small in the core, and delicate in the
skin.

" Such qualities constitute a perfect ap-
ple ; and the varieties we have chosen, in
the names reported for consideration, most-
ly possess these qualities in an eminent de-
gree."

All the apples in the committee's list but
two, are, we observe, American varieties.
They state, indeed, that they consider the
favorite region of this fruit " lies between
40*-' and 44*^ north ; between these ranges
flourish probably the best specimens the
world has ever produced."

Mr. Longworth's article, though written
with but little method, contains a great deal
of valuable practical information. To this
gentleman's perseverance, we owe the fact
that the Ohio river is at the present mo-
ment dotted with some hundreds of thriv-
ing and productive vineyards, yielding a
wholesome light wine, strongly resembling
Rhenish, and manufactured mainly of the
pure juice of one of our native grapes — the
Catawba- There are those who listen with
incredulity to the statements of the profit of
wine making in this country, and with doubt
and distrust at the wisdom of the produc-
tion of wine itself. We are not of the
number. We are confident that vineyards,
in the warmer portions of the middle
states, will eventually become a profitable
investment of the land ; and that an abun-
dance of pure, cheap, light wines, will ab-

TRAKS. OF N. Y. S. AG. SOCIETY.

89

solutely tend to diminish the existing in-
temperance of the country.

We would be glad to copy Mr. Long-
worth's article entire, but want of space
obliges us to make the following concise
abstract of its contents.

Mr. LoxGwoRTH repeats, what almost ev-
ery practical cultivator knows, but what no
foreigner, and but few others, who have not
tried it for themselves, will believe, viz. :
that it is entirely useless to attempt to make
vineyards of the foreign varieties of the
vine. His own experiments of this kind
have been made at different times, with
10,000 vines from France, and 5,000 from
Madeira — comprising all the most celebrat-
ed sorts from the extreme northern parts of
France and Germany, as well as those from
the warmer wine districts. '• I went to the
expense," says he, " of trenching soil on a
side hill, placing a layer of stone and gra-
vel at the bottom, with a drain to carry off
the water, and put in a compost of rich soil
and sand three feet deep, and planted on it
a great variety of these foreign wine grapes.
All failed : and not a single plant is left in
my vineyards." We may add, that the
same results attended the experiments of
M. LouBAT, and M. Paumentier, skilful
French vig7ierons, who made very extensive
plantations of French grapes on Long Isl-
and.

After this, it is clear enough that it is
on native grapes alone that Americans must
rely for vineyards. Among all the na-
tive sorts, Mr. Longworth prefers the Ca-
tawba, as being most productive, and as
making much the best wine, an opinion in
which, both from some experiments of our
own, and from samples sent us by this gen-
tleman, we fully coincide. The Isabella is
only fit for making sweet wine, while the
Catawba makes both hock and sparkling
champagne of excellent quality. The Al-

VoL. n.

12

ezander's, or Schuylkill Mvscadel, {Cape
grape of some,) makes a good dry wine,
resembling Teneriffe. Mr. L. considers it
one of the surest bearers. The Missouri,
he says, bids fair to be a valuable wine
grape, and the Hcrlemont would be very
valuable, both for the table and for wine, if
it were less subject to rot. The Isabella
ripens unequally at Cincinnati, and is liable
to decay on the vines.

The sites which Mr. Longworth prefers,
are the tops and sides of the steep hills on
the Ohio, the soil of which is fertile. The
north sides being the richest, and the sea-
son at Cincinnati being sufficiently warm,
fully to ripen the grape there, he prefers
the north side to the south. He prepares
the land by terracing, where it is so steep
as to require it — the terraces being held up
by ridges of sod. The soil is then trench-
ed from eighteen inches to two feet deep,
care being taken not to throw up more than
three or four inches of the subsoil, where
the latter is stiff loam or clay. If the
ground is not so steep as to wash, deep
plowing alone is sufficient.

In planting the vines where the ground
is level, he arranges them in rows five or
six feet apart, the plants being four and a
half feet apart in the rows.

The Ohio vineyards are mostly started
with cuttings, planted early in the spring.
These are set two in each hill, inserted so
that the tops approach within two or three
inches, though they are widely separated at
the lower ends. Two are put in, so as to
provide for failures, and one is thus easily
removed, without disturbing the other —
should both grow.

The second year after the cutting is
planted, (really the first year of growth,)
the plant is headed down to two or three
buds ; these are examined as soon as they
begin to shoot out, and all but the strong-

90

TRANS. OF N. Y. S. AGR. SOCIETY.

est are rubbed off'. Little other attention is
given this season, except breaking or pinch-
ing off, towards the close of summer, the
three or four lower lateral shoots, (second
groAvth.)

The following spring, the vines are head-
ed down to four buds. The two strongest
of these are permitted to grow, and all the
laterals that start out of them, from the
ground to three or four feet high, are pinch-
ed off:

The next year, (the third of growth,) a
small crop of fruit is expected. The strong-
est branch is now pruned from two to three
feet long, according to the growth of the
plant, to prepare it for bearing. The other
branch is cut back lower, so as to leave but
five buds, three only of which, the most
vigorous, are allowed to grow — the laterals
being taken out as they appear.*

The next year, the whale bearing wood
of the previous season is cut out, leaving
none of the two year old wood. The other
shoots are allowed to bear this year, while
new shoots are brought up from the base of
the shoot, cut out,, to replace the bearing
ones next season. In this way — the re-
neioal mode — the fruit-spurs are always
pushed out from young canes, and all the
shoots come out within a foot or eighteen
inches of the ground — the vines being
trained, as in the greater part of Europe,
on single poles, five or six feet high.

In making wine, the grapes are gathered
as soon as fully ripe, it being found that
over-maturity, though it adds saccharine
matter, injures the flavor and aroma of the
wine. If red wine is desired, the grapes
are mashed and partially fermented before
pressing: if a light wine, then they are
crushed and pressed at once. Mr. Lonr-
woRTH has no faith in the doctrine, current

* " In breaking out the lateral shoots, it should not be done
till after the wood begins to ripen. ]f tioiie too soon, it forces
out the fnijt buds o( the neii year."

abroad, that in the quality of wine all de-
pends on soil and exposure, so that the pro-
duct of one man's vineyard is worth a dol-
lar a bottle, while that of his neighbor is
comparatively valueless. With us the qua-
lity depends chiefly on the care and atten-
tion of the manufacturer. Wine requires
much greater skill and care in the manu-
facture, than cheese or butter, yet one ten-
ant, on a given farm, will make butter of a
superior quality, whilst that made perhaps
by his successor, on the same farm, and
with the same facilities, is scarcely fit for
use, and will not command half price in
the market. In Europe, it is a standing
proverb, that " a poor man cannot make
good wine." He is compelled to sell his
wine when new, and cannot devote the ne-
cessary attention, and wait till it attains
sufficient age to bring out its character.

The Ohio wines command a ready sale
in Cincinnati, at prices from SI to $1.50
per gallon. Mr. Longworth gives it as the
result of thirty years experience, that the
average full crop per acre there is 200 gal-
lons. His vintage last year was 300 bar-
rels, less by 200 barrels than was antici-
pated, owing to a partial failure in the crop.
Formerly he used to add, before fermenta-
tion, from six to ten ounces of sugar to the
gallon of juice, of the Catawba grape. But
the practice now, when the grapes are well
ripened, is, to add neither sugar nor spirit.
Mr. Longworth's success in vineyard
culture, is partly owing to his sagacity and
generosity in employing poor, hardworking
German families, familiar with the culture
of the grape, but having no means. Mr.
L. started these poor emigrants, by furnish-
ing the land, the grape cuttings, and the
small outfit necessary in the beginning. In
return, he receives half the wine, at the
press, and half the amount of any fruit
sold. Most of his tenants have occupied

FOREIGN NOTICES.

91

their little vineyards from ten to twenty-five
years, and are " contented and happy, if not
rich." One of them, who works harder
than any of the others, and keeps his fami-
ly at work, and devotes most of his time to
the vineyard, made from his wine last year
$1,400.

" The day is not distant," says Mr. Long-
worth, " when the banks of the Ohio will
rival the banks of the Rhine, in the quality
and quantity of the wine produced. Our
German emigrants are the people who will
accomplish it. Our hills, suitable for wine,
are of little value for other cultivation.
Give a German ten acres of this land, and,
if he has a wife and children, he will live

in great luxury. He will never want for
his two greatest of all luxuries, wine and
sour-crout. His children, however small,
not only aid him in the cultivation, but his
wife, during the summer and fall, does the
greater part of the labor in the vineyard.
The poor vine-dressers in German}', are
seldom so rich as to own a horse, and there-
fore over-estimate their value. Yet, great-
ly as the}' value the acquisition of a broken-
down pony in this country, it does not les-
sen their estimation of the great value of
their wives in the vineyards. A very honest
Dutch tenant of mine, who was so unfortu-
nate as to lose his wife, observed to me, 'he
might just as well have lost his horse !' "

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Horticultural Satire. — M. Alphonse Karr.
one of the most racy and piquant of the Frcncli
writes of the day, lias printed the following jcii d'
esprit, aimed at certain classes of devotees in gene,
ral science no less than horticiilinre, who, by conli-
nuailj' fixing their attention iijion the minuliie of
their favorite pursuits, seem to lose the capacity for
enjoying or untlerstandinir all else that is interesting
in the universe. We translate from the Journal
d'Jlgriculture pratique.

Soci tJ ties Amateurs dcs Concombres. — A new
horticultural society is about bcins formed in Eng-
land. The members of this society have remarked
that the mmd of man is too narrow to embrace a
sufficient admiration of the worlcs of t'le Creator ;
they have observed that many have already had an
instinct of this truth ; that horticulturists, for exam-
ple, have no estimation of insects ; that entomolo-
gists pride themselves upon being almost ignorant
that there are flowers ; that among horticulturists
themselves, some love nothing but tidips ; and that
anmng amateurs there are some who have no regard
for any tulips but those with white grounds, and in-
deed among tulips with white grounds only value
those varieties which form a part of their own col-
lection. In this way, by consecrating their whole
life and all their faculties to the study and the ad-
miration of a single flower, they are able at last
sufficiently to admire and appreciate it !

The new society in question aims to upply this
division of mental labor to vegetables. It will de-
vote itself to Cucumbers, and will take the title of
the •' Sorinty of Cucumbers," in the hope of induc-
ing other new societies to consecrate themselves to
other species of vegetables. Alphonse Karr-

I Floral Embellishments for Farm-houses. —
Talk not to me of the suburban residences, with
their windows decorated with geraniums and heaths,
with lij'acinths and irises. I would also have the win-
dows of our farm houses adorned with flowers, not in
rusty tin measures, and old black glazed spoutless
tenpots, and glass bottles with their necks broken
oil', but in whole and handsome flower pots, or
neatly painted wooden boxes, for they really cost
little or nothing. I would have the piazzas or
porches trellised with vines, even with scarlet run-
ners, if nothing else could be had. I would have
the door-yard tilled with flowers and shrubbery, and
the roadside lined with trees — here a clump, and
there a single line, mingling the varieties as nature
mingles them, cultivating them for fruit, and culti-
vating them also for ornament and beauty ; but this
is all. you will tell me, for mere appearance sake.
Well, I will reply, is appearance nothing? Do you
think nothing of appearance when you choose your
wives, and nothing of your own appearance when
you wish them to confirm the election ? But why
should the pleasure of sight be so lijrhtly esteemed !
Why should they be spoken of in language of dis-
dain or indifTerence ? Are they not as rational, as
respectable, as valuable as abundant, and as inno-
cent as the other senses ? Arc they not, indeed, the
very elements of some of the most refined pleasures
of the mind and heart ? Has God given us the sense
of sight, so wonderful, so capacious, so infinitely
varied in its resources and objects, for no purpose ?
Is appear nee noth.ntr, even though it be the win-
dow of a farm-house ? What is more studied than
appearance throughout the work of the Creator?
What object is there in nature, from the highest to

92

FOREIGN NOTICES.

the ki\YCst, animate or inanimate, SM'imminfj in the
sea, or in tiie air, or the siirl'ace olthe earth or hii-
ricd beneath it, wliicli is not, upon examination,
Ibiiiid to be as beautiful as il' it were finished for no
other purpose than to be looked at? Take the shell
that lies at the bottom of the oeean, the bird that
bathes his winijs in heaven's purest lipht, the flow-
ers that carpet the earth with their varied splendor,
the rjlitterinji stars that liffht up the deep arches of
the skies with an eternal glory — take the combina-
tion of the countless elements of beauty, when the
morning slowly lifts uji the veil of night, and as at
the dawn of the creation, reveals the glories of the
visible world ; or when spring breathes upon the
earth, and recals the dead to life, and myriads and
myriads of forms of new things come forth at her
voice — take the descending sun as he reclines upon
his western throne, and wraps around him the gor-
geous robe of unrivalled majesty — take the perfec-
tion of beauty as sei n in a nearer but more trans-
cendant form in man himself, in his symmetrical sta-
ture, in his well turned limbs, in the web of unmelted
softness and texture which covers him, in the tints
of his complexion, in the grace of his movements,
in the melody of his voice, in the eloquence of the
eye. pouring out the fires of genius, or radiant with
the charms of the aflfections that speak so power-
fully to the soul — and will, then, men say that ap-
pearance is nothing, and that the pleasures of the
sight are not to he valued and cultivated ? I say,
that appearance is always to be regarded, and that
we cannot render our homes too beautiful and at-
tractive. Home is the paradise of human life, and
poor and wretched, indeed, must that creature be
who, looking roimd the habitable world, cannot
point to one nook of earth, and say, " There is my
home?" Our first object should be to make our
homes as convenient and comfort- ble as we can
make them, and our second object should be to render
them, to an equal extent, tasteful and elegant.
London Garden, and Florist.

Analogies in Animals and Plants. — The
functions of animals and plants are in a like degree
analogous. Animals take in their food by the agen-
cy of the mouth, and prepare it for digestion either
by various degrees of mastication, or by attrition,
as in the gizzards of birds. In this they difl'er from
plants ; but these have a sufficient compensation,
inasmuch as that they imbibe their food in a fluid
form, liquid or aeriform, and consequently in a state
already of the finest possible division. Animal and
vegetable remains are their common food, and salts
of various kinds are their condiments and stimidants;
plants having this advantage over animals, that as
they absorb only the soluble and finer parts of their
nutriments, and their absorbing organs have the
power of rejecting that which is offensive, they
have no offensive matters to separate, such as aj»-
pear in the excrements of animals.

In the animal stomach, the lood uadergoes an ex-
tensive change, being reduced to a pulp of greater
specific gravity, and being altered entirely both in
taste and odor. In the sap vessels of plants, which
may be truly considered as their primary organ of
digestion, their f^od or sap undergoes a change pre-
cisely similar ; its colour and flavor are altered, and
its specific gravity increased.

From its stomach, the animal's food passes into
the intestines, is there subjected to the action of the
bile, and the chyle or nutritive portion separated
from that which isexcrcmentitious. In its passage
through the intestines, the chyle is ahsorlied by the
lacteal vessels, and conveyed into the blood ; and
these mingled liquids are propelled by the heart in-
to the lungs; to be there exposed to the action of
the air. The vital litiuid now changes its purple
hue to a florid red, loses a portion of its carbon and
watery particles, the former combining with the
oxygen of the atmospheric air in the lungs, and
being breathed forth in the form of carbonic acid
gas. As plants take in as food no gross unneeded
ingredients, it is obvious that no process like the bi-
liary operation is retjuired in their course of diges-
tion But in them the food or sap, proceeding at
once along the branches, is poured into the leaves,
which are the very lungs of the vegetable world.
Here, as is the blood, its colour i« changed, and
oxygen emitted from il during the light hours of the
tW'ent3'-four ; but carbonic acid is breathed forth dur-
ing the night, and at all periods, a considerable
amount of watery vapor is emitted.

From the lungs, by the agency of the heart, the
blood is propelled through the arteries over the
whole animal frame, supplying nourishment and
warmth to all the parts, and where, by those being
abstracted, it is again converted into purple or ve-
nous blood, and is returned by the veins to undergo
a repetition of those changes already noted as be-
ing efTccted in the lungs. In plants, the sap, after
exposure to the action of the air in their leaves, is
returned by another set of vessels, situated in the
bark, ministering to the growth and support of the
whole plant. It is true, that only under certain
circumstances, detailed in another chapter, is heat
evolved daring the processes of vegetation ; but the
circulation of the sap in plants, beyond all doubt,
enables them to resist the frosts, the most intense
and prolonged, we find the interior of trees remain
unfrozen ; and under the meridian sun of the tropics,
the sap of the palm and all other trees retains a tem-
perate coolness. This power to resist extremely
elevated and depressed temperatures ig characteris-
tic of all animated nature.

Such is the close similarit}' in the digestive and
circulatory processes characterising the members
of the two great kingdoms of organised nature, a
resemblance which obtains in all the other functions
enjoyed by them in common. During respiration,
the air inhaled by animals through the mouth and
nostrils, proceeds immediately to the lungs, and
acts upon the blood ; in plants, the air inhaled by
their leaves operates instantaneously upon the sap.
The changes M'hich occur have been detailed in pre-
vious pages, and there it has been shown, that as
oxygen is the vital air of animals, so that gas and
carbonic acid gas are equally essential to plants.
If animals be placed in a situation where they in-
hale pure oxygen, their functions are highly excited
and increased in rajiidity ; but it is an exhilaration
speedily terminating in exhaustion and death, if the
inhalation be continued for a protracted time. So
plants will flourish with an increased vigor in atmos-
phere containing one-twelfth of carhonic acid, but
even this brings on premature decay ; and if it ex-

FOREIGN NOTICES.

93

ceeds tliat proportion, destruction is still more ra-
pidly induced. Diirinn; slcc]), animals exhale less
carbonic acid than diirintr their waking hours, so
plan;s emit a much diminished amount of oxvy:en
durinu the night. Johnson's Principles of Gar-
dening.

To DESTROY E.\RWIGS ON THE Dahlia. — In light
soils the lirst scourge ol the Dahlia is the earwig ;
this insect increases by myriads, and is verj' load,
not of the roots, but of the young shoots and flow-
ers of the Dahlia. In vain I used sulphur, tobacco,
soot, etc. ; every morning the earwigs smrounded
the new shoots, and in a few moments all were
devoured. I then had collars or bands of tin
made, (the use of zinc would be less expensive,)
about one inch and three-quarters in breadth, and
large enough to form an opening of about the same
diameter. I Siuik these bands in the ground around
the Dahlias, to the depth of about a quarter of an
inch, (we know that the earwig does not penetrate
very deep below the soil ;) I then rubbed the out-
side of the bands with tlie sediment or refuse of
lamp oil. This method was perfectly successful ;
the next day and the fullowing days, I saw the ear-
wigs checked by the bands, where the oil with
which they were gorged, had fastened them, and I
was thus freed from these voracious insects. Re-
vue Horticole.

Grfen Vegetables for Winter use. — It may
be well to notice, at this season, a method of pre-
serving green peas, string and shell beans, vegeta-
bles in such general use.

The green peas, etc., are first placed in a copper
vessel (or common tin stew-pan) with an ounce of
sugar to a quart of peas, exposing them to a gentle
heat, stirring them constantly until the sugar is all
taken up ; they are then placed on a sieve reversed,
and put into a spent oven after the bread is with-
drawn, where they remain until peifectly dry, v^hen
they are put into paper bags, and kept free from
damp.

Another method consists in throwing them into
boiling water, afterwards into cold water, and then
drying them in the same way, as directed above.
This last iTiethod applies also to beans ; always ob-
serving that string beans, before being placed in
boiling water, should have the stringy parts remov-
ed, and be cut in two. Before the vegetables, thus
prepared, are used, they should be soaked for seve-
ral hiiurs in lukewarm water. Revue Horticole.

Culture of the Pine Tribe. — " The Duke of
Bedford took a warm interest in planting. The
EvergFcen Drive at Woburn was planted by him
with various kinds of Pine and Fir, selected with
the assistance of Philip Miller, and thinned by his
own care. Indeed, on this last point, an anecdote
has been related characteristic of his disposition.
In the year 1743, the Duke planted the large
plantation in Woburn park known by the name of
Evergreens,' to commemorate the birth of his
daughter, afterwards Caroline, Duchess of Marl-
borough. The space was something more than
100 acres, and was before that tune a rabbit-war-
ren, producing nothing but a few blades of grass,

with the heath or ling indigenous to the soil, and
wiliiout a single tree upon it. In the course of a
few years, the Duke perceived that the plantation
rcquued thinning, in order to admit a free circula-
tion of air, and give health and vigor to the youn<'
trees. He accordingly gave instructions to his frar-
dener, and directed hun as to the mode and extent
of the thinnins; reciuircd. The gardener paused and
hesitated, and at length said, ' Your Grace must
pardon mc if I lumibiy remonstrate against your
orders ; but I cannot possibly do what you desire :
it would at once destroy- the young ])lantation, and
moreover, it would be seriously injurious lo my re-
putation as a planter.' The Dui^e replied, 'Do as
I desire you, and I will take care of your rej)uta-
tion.' The plantation was consequently thimied ac-
cording to hi.s instru(-tio;is, and the Duke caused a
board to be fixed in the plantation facing the road,
on which was inscribed 'This plantation has been
thinned by John Duke of Bedford, contrary to the
advice and opinion of his gardener.' Of tlie plan-
tation so formed, Mr. Forbes, the present gardener
of Woburn Abbey, says in the pretace to the Pine-
tum Woburnense, privately printed, 'In the Woburn
Evergreen plantation, formed in 1743, and which
consists principally of the Coniferous tribe, many
beautiful feathered specimens, with majestic stems,
may be seen. They maj- be pronounced as unequal-
led by any other plantation in the kingdom ; parti-
cularly the Pinus pinaster, strobus, sylvestris, ri'>-i-
da, cembra, Abies pectinata, and the Cedrus Liba-
ni ; which may be chiellv attributed to the judicious
thinning applied to that plantation when in a 30un"'
state.' I may, perhaps, be excused for inserting
another paragraph on the same subject, from the
introduction written by my father : — ' The culture
of the family of the Conilerce may be said to be al-
most in its infancy in this country. The numerous
species of Pines introduced into Europe from dis-
tant climes, from the Himalayan range of mountains,
and other parts of India, has given a new zest to
those who take pleasure in bringing forward and
cultivating hitherto unknown productions of the ve-
getable world ; and, without going into an inquiry
respecting the commercial advantages to be derived
from the knowledge which we are yearlv, (I may
almost say daily,) acquiring of the growth and value
and properties of trees, I will content mvself with
observing that the genus Piiuis is probably entitled
to wonder and admiration beyond all others ; and
that at no distant period, we ma}' see tiie Abies (Ce-
drus) deodara, the Abies douglasii. and others of si-
milar grandeur, naturalised and flourishin<j amon<T
the Cedars of Lebanon, in our British forests.'"
Correspondence of John, Fourth Duke of Bedford,
with an Introduction by Lord John Russvll, kol. 1,
Introduction, pp. liii — Ivi.

The Or.a.nge Tree. — The following analysis of
the ashes of the Orange tree, taken from the report
in the London Literary Gazette, of the meeting of
the Chemical Society on the fifth April, l'^47, may
possibly be interesting to some of vour readers : —
"Analysis of the ashes of the Orange tree (Citrus
aurantitim,") by Messrs. T. H Rownev, ."»nd H.
How. The materials employed in this examination
were supplied by M. Da Camera, of the island of

94

FOREIGN NOTICES.

St. Michael's. After describitifr the methods of
preparini the ash, and the routine of analysis, the
authors sum up with the following results :

Root.

Stem

',c;ivcs.
13 73

Fruit. jSeed.

Percentage of Ash

4-IS

15 4.-i
4 5-2

49-39
6-91
1 -OJ
Il>

13 47
5-7^
1 75

a 7

3-94 3-30

Poia<h,

Soda

II 6

3-ir,

55 1:
C-3'
0-57
0-'25

17-0"
4-fi4
1 -22

IG 51
103

56-3-'
5-7-2
0-.5-2
6-63

3 '27

4 43
4-83

33-4-2 40--2-^
11 4-2i 0-9-2

Lime

Masfuesia.

21 -sa

8-06
0-46
3-87
11-07
3-74
0-44

18-97
S 74
(1-S!I

Clilorkle of sodium, . . .

Pli05plior.e acid,

Sulp'iuric acid,

0 82
23-24

5-10

1 13

100-00

100- Oil

too 00

100 00

100-00

These results eonfirin the observations of Saus-
sure. that tlie Itrue t amount of mineral consti-
tuents is deposited in those p-irts of the plant in
which the proc3ss of assimilation appears to be
most active. In the ashes of the root, tiie stem,
and the leaves, the joint amount of the lime and
magnesia exceeds the rest of the mineral consti-
tuents. In the fruit and seed, the alkalies are pre-
valent. Am I correct in believing that such analy-
ses show the gardener the proper compost to use ?
— Citron.

(Test the value of this analysis by the applica-
tion of phosphates, e. g- cow-dung, or superphos-
phate of lime.) Gard. Cliron.

The Chocolate Tree and its Uses. — What
is generally called Cocoa, is merely the berries o*"
Theobi-oma Cacao, pounded and drank either -with I article of diet, as it may be literally termed meat

yellow, smooth, clear and thin. When arrived at
Its full growth, and before it is rip?, it is gathered
and eaten like any other fruit, the taste beintr sub-
acid. Chocolate, so called, and so prized both in
the Spanish Continent and in the West Indies, never
readies Great Britain except as a contraband arti-
cle, being, like nearly all colonial manufactured
articles, prohibited by the Custom-lionse laws.
What is generally drank under that name, is sim-
ply the Cocoa boiled in milk, gruel or even water,
and is as much like the Spanish or West India Cho-
colate, as vinegar is to Burgundy. It is, without
any exception, of all domestic drinks, the most ali-
mentary ; and the Spaniards esteem it so necessary
to the health and support of the body, that it is con-
sidered the severest punishment to withhold it,
even froin criminals ; nay, to be unable to procure
Chocolate, is deemed the greatest misfortune in
life ! Yet notwithstanding this estimation in which
it is held, the quantity made in the neighborhood of
Carthagena is insufficient for the demands (f the
populatit n, and is so hi2;hlv priced, that none is ex-
ported but as presents! The signs by which good
Chocolate or Cocoa is known arc these : — It should
dissolve entirely in water, and be without sediment;
it should be oily and yet melt in the mouth ; and if
genuine and carefully prepared, should deposit no
grits or grounds. That made in the West Indies,
and in some parts of Cuba, is dark ; but that manu-
factured in Jamaica is of a bright brick color, ow-
ing to the greater quantity of arnatto which is used
in the preparation, and which, I think, gives it a
richer and more agreeable flavor. In an economi-
cal point of view, Chocolate is a ver}"- important

water or milk, or with both. Chocolate is a com-
pound drink, and is manufactured chiefly from the
kernels of this plant, whose natural habitat would
seem to be Guayquil, in South America, though it
flourishes in great perfection in the West Indies.
It grows also sponta leously and luxuriantly on the
banks of the Magdalena. Mr. Scomhurgk, in his
recent expedition into the interior of British Guia-
na, found the country abounding in Cocoa, "which
the Indians were most anxious to secure, as the
pulpy arillus surrounding the seed has an agreeable
vinous taste. Singular to say, however, they ap-
peared perfectly ignorant of the qualities of the
seed, which possesses the most delightful aroma.
Mr. Scomhurgk states, that they evinced the great-
est astonishment when they beheld him and Mr.
Goodall collecting these seeds and using them as
Chocolate, which was the most delicious they had
ever tasted." The heio-ht of the Cocoa shrub is
from eighteen to twenty feet ; the leaf is between
four and six inches long, and its breadth three or
four, very smooth, and terminating in a point like
that of the Orange tree, but differing from it in co-
lour ; of a dull green, without gloss, and not so
thickly set upon the branches. The blossom is
first white, then reddish, and contains the rudiments
of the kernels or berries. When fully developed,
the pericarp or seed vessel is a pod which grows
not only from the branches, but the stem of the
tree, and is from six to seven inches in length, and
shaped like a cucumber. Its colour is green when
growing, like that of the leaf; but when ripe, is

and drink ; and were our half starved artizans,
over-wrought factory children, and rickety milline-
ry girls, induced to drink it, instead of the innutri-
tions and unwholesome beveras-e called Tea, its
nutritive qualities would soon develop themselves
in tiieir iinproved looks and more robust constitu-
tion. The price, too, is in its favor. Cocoa being
tenpence per pound ; while the cheapest black tea,
such as even the Chinese bengar would despise,
drank by milliners, washerwomen, and the poorer
class in the Metropolis', is four shillings a pound, or
310 per cent dearer, while it is deeidedly injurious
to health. The headsof the naval and military me-
dical departments in England have been so impress-
ed with the wholesomeness and superior nutriment
of Cocoa, that they have judiciously directed that
it shall be served out twice or thrice a week to re-
giments of the line, and to the seamen on board of
her Miijesty's ships, and this wise regulation has
evinced its salutary efl^ects in the improved health
and condition of the men. Indeed this has been
most satisfactorily established in Jamaica among
the troops ; and a remarkable fact corroborating
this statement is, that by returns to the Horse-
Guards, it is shown that only one death took place
at Newcastle Barracks, in that island, out of a
force of seven himdred men, for the quarter ending
." eptember 30, 1^42 ; and that the same may be
asserted for other regiments in the West Indies,
and of the seamen in her Majesty's ships on the
coast.
But the excellent qualities of Chocolate were

FOREIGN NOTICES.

95

known not only to tlie IMcxicans and Peruvians,
from whom, as a matter of course, the Spaniards
acquired a knowledire of its properties ; but Euro-
pean nations also ackiio\vledj:ed its virtues. Tiie
Portunjuese, French, Germans and Dutch, consider-
ed it an exceeduiirly valualile article of diet, and
Holfuian looked upon it both as a food and a medi-
cine. In ids monograph, entitled '" lotus Choco-
late," he recommends it in all diseases of aeneral
weakness, macies, low spirits, and in hypochondri-
acal complaints, and what since his time have been
termed nervous diseases. As one example of the
good eliects of Cocoa, he adduces the case of Car-
dinal iiicholien, who was cured cf eremacausis, or
a general wasting away of the body, by drinking
chocolate. Liebm and other chemists have demon-
strated beyond question, that no part of an organ
wliich possesses motion and life is destitute of ni-
trogen : — "All parts of the animal body which have
a decided shape, which form parts of organs, con-
tain nitrogen ; and the chief ingredients of the
blood contain 17 per cent, of nitrogen, and no part
of an organ less tlian 17 per cent. It follows, there-
fore, that nitrogen is that principle of the body,
wiiich being in the greatest quantity, and pervading
all tissues, is that most frequently wasted, and most
frequently in need of renewal. Thi- must be ad-
mitted. It follows, then, that those substances
which possess this principle in the greatest quanti-
ty in a given bulk, are those which must be best
calculated to renew that which has been lost or
wasted by the operations of the body. Now Caf-
feine, the principle of Coflee, and Theobromine,
the principle of I'heobroma Cacao, are the m.ist
highly nitrogenised products in nature, as the fol-
lowing analysis will show: Cafl'eine, according to
Pfalf and Liebig, contains,

Carbon 49 77

Hylrogen, ."i-SS

Nilroj-eii .■ 28-73

O.xyseii, 16 12

Theobromine, according to Woskreseusky, contains

Carbuu 47 21

Hydrogen, 4 .'33

Nilrogeii, 35-38

O^cygen, 12-80

— Dr. Biniis, in Symmonds' Colonial Magazine,
(abridged.)

The House of Shakespeare. — The present
proprietors of the place of our great poet's birth,
are, it appears, compelled to sell it, by the terms
of the will of a former owner. The house is a free-
hold and is valued at about 2,000 pounds. This
valuation has been founded on the numher of visi-
tors In 1S46 it was calculated that 3,000 people
had visited the house, though not more than 2 5o0
had er-lered their names in the book kept for the
p irposc. The house will be sold by auction in the
course of the summer, and one or two enthusiastic
Americans have already arrived, determined to see
what dollars can accomplish in taking it away.
The timliers, it is said, are all sound, and it would
be no dilficult matter to set it on wheels and make
an exhibition of it. Every Englishman, however,
must hope that no sue!) desecration awaits it.
Wholly irre>peetive of Shakespeare, as one of the
few existing examples of an English yeoman's resi-
dence, of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it deserves
to be retained among us. London Chronicle.

Sale of Milton's House. — On Tuesday, Ber-
kin Manor House, which is remarkable for having
at one time been the residence of Milton, was put
up for sale at the auction mart. It is situated in
the rural village of Horton, Bucks, near the church,
in which tiie remains of the poet's mother were de-
posited, and is about five miles from Windsor Castle
and Slough. The estate comprised, besides the
house, about 15 acres of rich orchard and meadow
land. The sum of 2,700 pounds was the highest
otter for it, which was below the reserved price.
Ibid.

To MAKE SouR-KROUT. — Select sound, solid cab-
bages, slice them across, and place the slices in a
barrel, in layers about four inches high ; over each
layer, strew a handlul of salt, and some caraway
seeds. Press the whole down very tightly ; and
when the barrel is full, place a very heavy weisht
upon the end. After standing a week, — more or
less according to the temperature — the mass will
begin to ferment ; and when the fermentation is
over the barrel should be headed up. There is no
vinegar used in the preparation. Sour-krout is con-
sidered to be an excellent anti-scorbutie, and is
used as such on board ships, in long voyages.
Gard. Chron.

Culture of Asparagus i>f Germ.\ny — Num-
bers 21, 21, and 22, of the Chronicle, the last I
have received, contain sundry articles on the cul-
ture of Asparagus, by which it appears that in
your country the preference is given to Asparagus
which is suffered to grow some inches above the
ground and which consequently acquires a green
color by atmosj)herical influence. You consider
this mode of culture preferable for two reasons: first,
because the eatable part of such Asparagus is lar-
ger; secondly, because it has a finer flavor.

Living in a part of Germany where the culture
of Asparagus is very common, I hope the following
remarks, though from a foreigner, will not be un-
welcome. Asparagus which has obtained a green
color by its being ex posed to the air, will neither be
grown nor eaten here, and, strange enough, exactly
for the same reasons which have been alleged by
you for growincr it above ground. However, we do
not avail ourselves of artificial means, as sup-
posed by you, such as tubes of earthenware or me-
tal, and still our Asparagus, if well managed, is
white and eatable almost the whole length.

The manner of growing it is as follow s. It is ne-
ver planted otherwise than in a deep, light and san-
dy soil, which has been trenched to a depth of three
feet, well drained and well manured. A thick lay-
er of horse-dung is put t)n the bottom of the trench
and mixed with the soil. Strong loamy or clayey
soil is decidedly disadvantageous to the growth of
this vegetable. It will not thrive in it, does not be-
come tender, and will very often become brown
spotted, which the common people here call iron-
mould (Cipuniala,) especially if drainage has been
neglected.

We take plants of two or three years' growth ac-
cording to their vigor, and usually plant them in fur-
rows, which arc made at 2 feet distance, and from
1| to 14 feet deep. The distance between the
plants is likewise 2 feet. In these furrows the

96

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

plants are permitted to frrow uncovered from the
month ofMart-h or April, the usual and best time Cor
plantinfT, till the hcpinninpr or middle of November;
at all events before severe fiost is coming' on. The
soil, which has b^ en taken out of the furrows and
heaj)ed up at the sides, is then put in, and the beds
are completely levelled. The plants have had
time during tlie summer to establish themselves suf-
ficiently.

Next sprinrr tlie younji shoots will make their
appearance above "ground, and if every tliinp has
been duly attended to; if strong and healthy plants
have been selected, and if, besides, water has been
given during a dry season, not a single one ought
to fail. Some people begin to cut the strongest
shoots in the third year, but a better result will be
obtained by leaving them undisturbed till the fourth
summer, only giving them every spring, in Februa-
ry or March, a good di'essing of cow-dung. Ma-
nure is ihe most essential requisite for growing
fine and tender Asparagus The shoots are cut at
sunrise and late in the evening, at a length of not
more than 9 inches, cutting them with a long knife
under ground as soon as the top of the shoot is lift-
ins the soil. Asparagus will always havethe finest
taste if eaten immediately after having been gath-
ered, but ought never to be kept longer than one
day, and should be covered meanwhile with light
earth, sand, or some other material of this descrip-
tion. It is a very bad practice, lately in use with
our market-gardeners, to immerge tlie Asparagus
immediately after cutting in a tub with water,
leaving it in the water till they bring it to market.
By this practice the finer flavor is altogether lost,
and the cooks should be warned against doing the
same.

Wherever manure is not a very expensive article,
the culture of the Asparagus pays \\ell, since the
lightest and most sandy land, where nothing else can
be grown with advantage, can easily be adapted to
its culture, and will yield a rent for a long series of
years. Besides, the Siune lands can be made use of
for carrots and other vegetables, when the time for
cutting is over. Living myself some hundred steps
from the Baltic, and having read different accounts
of the famous Asparagus culture at the sea coast,
near San Sebastian, in Spain, I have last year made
the experiment to grow it in pure sea sand con-
taining no hmnus or vegetable matter whatever. It

only received a moderate supply of manure, and has
even not been watered during the last hot summer;
nevertheless, it is growing this year so well, that
I might have cut a tolerable quantity of shoots as
big as a lady's finger, if I would be foolish enough
to do so.

The price of Asparagus with us varies from four
to seven or eight schillings, or English pence, per
pound, the former being the general price from the
moment the weather begins to become warm. Ma-
ny thousand pounds are sent by the steamers to
Sweden and other foreign countries, since the Lu-
bcck Asparagus is well renowned. Though I ne-
ver had the advantage of seeins your fine country,
and therefore cannot be a judge of your green As-
paragus, I have several times eaten green Aspara-
gus in Italy and France, but I dare confess merely
for want of belter. However, there is no quarref-
ling as to matters of taste As far as regards ten-
derness, I am at a loss to understand how Aspara-
gus can improve by being exposed to the drying in-
fluence of air, wind, and sunshine. It may become
more aromatic, though I doubt it. but it vtill certain-
ly require a greater exertiorr in being masticated.

Some persons assert that another kind of Aspa-
ragus is cultivated in some parts of the south of
Germany, which always appears green on the ta-
ble, though white shoots are equally eaten. I have
hitherto not been able to procure any authentic infor-
mation about its existence, and am inclined to think
that only the manner of culture will produce the
difl'crence. An English Giant Asparagus has late-
ly been ottered by some nurserymen, likewise hith-
erto not cultivated by myself. Different sorts may
require a different treatment.

The season for Asparagus is at present on the
decline. However I have requested a friend at
Lubeck to send you with this letter, a sample of our
market Asparagus, grown and sold in the common
way. and 1 beg you to give it a fair trial, not over-
looking that it will have been cut almost a week
when arriving with you. — Heinr. Behrens, Proprie-
tor of the ^ea Bath, Travemunde, near Lubeck,
June 7.

[We are much indebted to our kind correspondent
for this communication and the Asparagus, which
was excellent in quality, and weighed 6 lbs. per 100
without waste. We shall advert to it shortly.] —
\_Gard. Chron.'\

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

A Picture of the West. — Dear Sir : I have
been looking over the first eight numbers of your
journal, lately received from Albany in one pack-
age ; and be assured, this is one of the best treats
enjoyed during a residence of eleven years upon the
prairies. While perusing the pages of this beauti-
ful work, I no longer feel myself an isolated being,
far out upon the borders of the cultivated portions
of our land, but in the midst of highly gifted and
refined minds, sensibly alive to the best interests of

our common country. It has been my lot, from
childhood, to live upon the frontier, removed in a
measure from the refinements in horticulture which
result from a combination of wealth, intelligence,
and a well regulated taste. Still, I claim kindred
with all who love this pursuit; and, although I
may be regarded as a " poor relation," none will,
I trust, disown me on that account.

A number of your correspondents have set up
claims to their own particular locality, as among

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

97

tlic most fiivorite spots for the production of good
fruit. This was to be expected.

" Such is the patriot's boast, wliere'er we roam,
His first, best country, ever is at home."
My purpose, however, is not to find fault witii
the pretensions of others, but to put in a very mo-
dest claim in behalf of the valley of the Illinois, as
a fruit growing region. Not, perhaps, equal to the
classic Hudson or the shores of Erie, but as having
some claims to attention. You may not be aware
that the Illinois river is the centre of the great Wes-
tern basin. Although she is now the humble tri-
butary of the Mississippi, there is no doubt of the
fact tliat she once enjoyed the honor of conveying
the waters of the great northern lakes to the ocean.
The waters of the northern lakes, which were for a
long period discharged through the Illinois, have
cut out a deeper and wider valley than either the
Mississippi or Missouri, where those rivers pass
through the same geological structure. It is true
they all come together on the same level near St.
Louis ; but from this point upwards, the Mississippi
and Missouri are rapid streams, whereas the Illi-
nois for two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth
is almost as near a level as the Hudson from New-
York to Albany. To illustrate more plainly what
I mean, it may be remarked that the waters of the
Illinois at Hencpin are at least one hundred feet
loM-er than those of the Mississippi at the mouth of
Rock river, which is nearly opposite. This deep
cut of the Illinois, which never could have taken
place without the aid of the waters of the great
lakes, has disclosed and made accessible one of the
largest and best coal fields in the world. Besides,
it gives the country upon its borders a more tho-
rough drainage than is generally foimd in the
west.

The table lands of this region, which are gene-
rally about two hundred and fifty feet higher than
the river, and comprise at least three-fourths of the
whole countiy, are more exempt from late spring
frosts than any other district with which I am ac-
quainted. There has not been, during the last
eleven years, a late spring frost hard enough to in-
jure the apple or the peach upon our high lands.
In the vallies we frequently suffer from this cause,
as they do every where else, except in the vicinity
of large bodies of water. But in the high open
prairies the winds come in contact with the surface
of the ground and keep back vegetation until the
■whole atmosphere becomes warm — after which,
we seldom or never have frost in the spring. The
buds of the grape vine, which are as tender as any
other vegetable, have never been injured in the
least upon our high lands during the last eleven
years. And our cultivated vines, since they com-
menced bearing five years ago, have annually ma-
tured their fruit. Can our friends on the south
shore of Lake Erie or on the Hudson say as much ?
The growth of trees upon our rich, dry, warm
soil, exceeds anything of the kind to be found else-
where, and the wonder is that the winter does not
kill them. The cool, searching winds of autumn,
however, seem to ripen the young wood so well,
that we seldom suffer by what you have very ap-
propriately termed the "frozen sap blight." I
have seen a few cases of this disease, and have al-

VoL. II. 13

ways believed that the first freeze of autumn did all
the' mischief. At least it has never occurred with
us, except in those seasons, (1812-3 and 1845-6,)
when the chaiiiie from a high to a low temperature
was very sudden. We could hardly say that we
had an autumn in 1842 — for summer continued un-
til winter commenced. Tender varieties of the ap-
ple are sometimes injured by the bursting of the
Lark near the ground upon the first autumnal frost.
Bat these disorders oidy occur where ovor-generous
cultivation is practiced, and in the main our fruit
trees are thus far remarkabi}' healthy. The peach,
however, is quite uncertain in its bearing where the
trees flourish well — not from spring frosts, but from
the too great development of the fruit buds in au-
tumn. If the germs of the i)each remain alive un-
til mid-winter, we are sure of a crop.

This part of the country has not been settled long
enough to produce much fruit, but it would be hard
to find a district where a greater number of beauti-
ful young orchards could be seen than in Peoria
county. With a few exceptions, our orchards are
all grafted fruit of the first quality ; and it has
been admitted by all who have had an opportunity
of making the comparison, that in size, beauty and
flavor, our fruits far exceed anything of the kind to
be found "down east." We, therefore, look for-
ward with confidence to the jieriod, not distant,
when all will acknowledge that we have the best
fruit district in the United States. Yours, truly.
Edson Harkness. Fruit Farm, Peoria Co., III.

[It is one of the best proofs of the great general
fertility and adaptation of our country to horticultural
pursuits, this hearty championship for each favorite
locality which our corresj)ondents (not to mention
ourselves) exhibit in their articles from so many
dilferent points of the compass. We sincerely hope
to see these natural advantages, great as they are,
all thoroughly put to the trial by the most skilful
and scientific cultivation. — Ed.]

New Seedling CHERRY.^-Dcar Sir : Accom-
panying this note I forward to you a few cherries,
part of the produce of a tree, the seed of which I
planted seven years since. I have concluded to
call it Wendell's Mottled Bigarreau Cherry — it be-
ing of true Bigarreau character and beautifully
mottled — as you will perceive, The stones which
I planted were from the fruit of the large white Bi*
garreau grown in a garden of this city, which has
a collection of the finer cherries in it. The tree is
of upright growth, quite thrifty, and an early bear-
er, as this is the third season it has fruited ; the
first year it bore three cherries, last year about half
a dozen, and this year it has borne about a quart.
I also send you a branch of the tree, with the foli*
age. The fruit was exhibited at the first ex-
hibition of our new Horticultural Society— the Al-
bany and Rensselaer — on the 3d inst. At the same
exhibition I also presented another seedling cher-<
ry of my own raising, of Bigarreau character, and
very fine flavor, but of size and appearance, inferior
to the one I send you ; I call it the Carnation Bi-
garreau, as it is of a carnation colour. I have pre-
sented specimens of it to Mr. Howard, of the Cul-
tivator, who will probably notice it in that journal.
Yours, very truly. Herman Wendell. Albany.

9S

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

[This ajipcars to lie a valuable fruit on account
of its ripening rather later than the other varieties
of its class. It is of large size, regular obtuse
heart-shaped, dark purplish red, becoming nearly
black at full maturity, and mottled with small dark
streaks or points. Suture marked with a dark line
half way round. Stalk of moderate length, set in
a round and regular depression. Flesii firm, crisp,
well flavored, and the pits small. Kipens about
the season of Downer's Red. — Ed.]

Albany AND Rensselaer Hort. Society. — The
first exhibition of this new society, (remarkable for
the variety of the products shown,) took place at
the Geological Rooms, Albany, on the 3d of Jily.

Mr. James Wilson received the premium for the
best twenty-five hardy roses, and for the best and
greatest variety of roses. Mr. Wilson also exhibit-
ed a fine collee'tion of Dahlias. The collection of
roses shown by Dr. Wendell, of Albany, and Mr.
Vail, of Troy, were also very fine ones ; as well
as the large collection of herbaceous and annual
flowers shown by Mr. Newcomb.

The premium for the largest variety and best
cherries, was awarded to Dr. Wendell. The
first premium for straM-berries was given to Mr.
Jas. WiLSON,for specimens of the Swainstone Seed-
ling shown by him, which were considered by the
committee, as finer flavored, though not so large,
as those of Hovey's seedling, shown by different
members. Mr. Prentice, of Albany, exhibited
the finest collection of vegetables.

The Genesee Valley Hort. Society — The
report of this society, June exhibition, held at
Rochester, on the 23d of that month, indicates a fine
show. About one hundred and fifty varieties of the
finest roses were exhibited, with names, including
many of the best Hybrid perpetuals. Moss, Hybrid
Chinas, etc. A charming emulation among the
lady members of the societ}-, appears to have filled
the tables with a great profusion of the choicest
flowers, both exotic and indigenous. We noticed
with pleasure, that one lady, Miss Rogers, present-
ed sixty-six species of native plants in bloom.

Utica Horticultural Society. — The exhibi-
tion of the 29th of June, was an excellent one.
The strawberries shown were unusually fine, and
among the varieties that attracted most attention,
were Hovey's Seedling, Black Prince, Swainstone's
Seedling, Bishop's Orange, Baynes' Extra Early,
White Pine, etc. Among these, some berries of
Hovey's Seedling, shown by Mr. Wm. Walcott,
were the largest, measuring four and three-quarter
inches in circumference. This gentleman also ex-
hibited very large and fine specimens of Black Prince
and Swainstone's Seedling strawberries. The show
of roses was large and fine. The largest contribu-
tors being Mr. Childs, who showed seventy sorts,
Mr. BoYCE sixty-one sorts, and Mr. Wm. Tracy
forty sorts, Mrs. Perkins, Mr. Hastings and Mr.
Williams, also exhibited very large and beautiful
collections.

to " fight the rose bugs," a hopeless task you'll say,
but r evertheless rendered important by their extra-
ordinary ravages ; they have been more numerous
in the vicinity of Philadelphia this year than we
have ever known them. But my philosophical
neighbor was for once foiled. His operations were
in this wise. His man Ponipey and himself rose
early to enjoy a savage pleasure in concjuering their
hitherto invincible enemy ; Pomp rolled up his
sleeves for slaughter, while my friend pulled on a
pair of gloves. To it they both went, and in an
hour or two, or ere the tuneful breakfast bell had
called neighbor W. to his matutinal repast, a buck-
et full of these coleoptera had been bagged. " Now,"
says Pomp. " massa, 'spose I scald 'em." " Oh,
no," says Philosophy ; " I'll teach them to trespass
on my manor, the varmint !" So he went to his la-
boratory and brought out some ounces of chloride of
lime, which dissolved, was poured over the active
mass ; they were then buried, and Pomp spanked
his spade over the grave, as a thing done. Philoso-
phy slept well that night, and in the morning was
horrified to find all his enemies airing their wings in
the sun, having had a resurrection, which astonish-
ed my friend, but did not Pomp, who still thinks
scalding water would have been better. Yours.
Jean Jacques. Philadelphia, July loth, 1847.

The Rose Bugs and a Philosopher. — One of
my very good neighbors, and one of the best inform-
ed men of my acquaintance, this summer undertook

Burr's Seedling Strawberries. — We have the
most flattering accounts of the new Ohio stra\yber-
ries, raised by Mr. Burr, of Columbus, O. We
give, therefore, the following report regarding
them, from the Columbus Hort. Society. The
fruit committee of the Cincinnati society have also
reported in detail upon these new sorts, which they
have pronounced " remarkably fine." As we un-
derstand Mr. Burr is able to supply plants of the
diflerent sorts, we trust our cultivators will give
them a trial in New-England and the Middle States.
—Ed.

Report on Burr's Seedling Strawberries, by the
committee of the Columbus Horticultural Society. —
The committee having visited Mr. Burr's garden,
at several times during the blossoming and fruiting
of his Strawberries, take pleasure in stating to the
public, that their observations the present season,
have fully confirmed the high opinion expressed by
this society the past year, respecting the character
of Burr's Seedling strawberries ; and as most of
the old standard varieties were exhibited by Mr.
Burr, growing side by side with these, the com-
mittee had full opportunity for comparing them ;
and they do not hesitate to declare that in their
opinion, several of his seedlings are superior in all
respects to any other varieties in cultivation — at
least for the climate and soil of this region.

The following named varieties are deemed wor-
thy of particular commendation. Several of them
were noticed in the report of last year, and have
fully maintained the high character then awarded
them :

1. Ohio Mammoth. — Fruit very large, averaging
larger size than any other strawberries known ;
shape rather long, conical and somewhat angular ;
colour light red, flavor sweet and excellent ; foli-
age large and plants vigorous, hardy, and pi-oduc-
tive ; flowers perfect, or staminate. Produced
from Burr's old Seedling and Hovev's.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

99

2. Nciv Pine. — Fruit large, colour pale red, fla-
vor hi<ibly aromatic, swci't and delicious, very early
and uiicoiauioiily productive ; plants vigorous and
perfectly bardy ; llowers pistillate — believed to be
the best strawberry cultivated. — From Bmr's and
Hovey's.

3. Rival Hudson. — Fruit of a dark and shining
red colour, resembling the Hudson of Cincinnati,
except that the fruit and stem are longer ; flavor
very rich and excellent ; plants hardy and very pro-
ductive— a very handsome and excellent variety for
market, or domestic use — flowers pistillate. Pro-
duced by the old Hudson and Burr's.

4. Columbus. — Fruit large, nearly round, of a
beautiful dark colour and rich sweet flavor ; plants
uncommonly prolific and quite hardj- — flowers pis-
tillate.— From Hovey's and Burr's.

5. Scioto. — Fruit of large size, colour light sear-
let, flavor rich, sweet and delicious ; plants very
productive, vigorous and hardy — jiistillate.

6. Scarlet Melting. — Fruit rather long, with a
neck, colour bright red or scarlet, flavor excellent,
flesh very tender, (melting readily in a dish with
sugar,) consequently not suitable for transporting
to market, though delicious for the table ; plants
very productive, of rapid and vigorous growth and
hardy — pistillate.

7. Profusion. — Fruit medium size or small, flavor
rich and sweet ; plants hardy and a prodigious
bearer — 200 perfect berries having been counted on
a single plant — pistillate.

8. Late Prolific. — Fruit of good size, largest ber-
ries measuring over three inches — flavor rich and
excellent. A very valuable variety, owing to its
lateness of ripening — being full ten days later than
most other varieties — and its great productiveness
— 35 quarts of the berries were picked from a bed
six feet by twenty ; which is eipial to two and a
(juarter bushels to the rod — plants uncommonly
vigorous and hardy — pistillate.

9. Burros old Seedling, — (staminate,) maintains
its high reputation, in this legion, for productive-
ness and excellent flavor — and is found to be the
best variety for planting contiguous to the pistillate
varieties to ensure their productiveness.

B. Latham, 1

M. B. Bateham,
S. Medary,
John Miller, )

lOhio Cultivator.

Committee.

Prizes for New Fruits. — The Cincinnati Hor-
ticultural Society, at the suggestion of N. Long-
worth, E.sq.. have offered two prizes of $100 each,
for a new American seedling raspberry and straw-
berry, which, after thorough trial, shall prove su-
perior to any now in cultivation. Mr. L. offers to
pay one half of the premiums.

DtJBois' Early Golden Apricot. — This is a
seedling variety, originated by our neighbor, Mr.
Charles Dubois, of Fishkill Landing, N. Y. It
has attracted our attention for two or three years
past, and as it appears well worthy of something
more than a local reputation, we have procured
specimens from the original tree, and now publish
a correct description of this new variety.

Though this apricot is of small size, and simply
good flavor, it has two qualities which will, we
think, render it j)Oi»ular among fruit cultivators.
The first is its great productiveness in all seasons ;
and the second, its comparative exemption to the
attack of the curculio.

We may give a pretty correct idea of the produc-
tiveness of the Early Golden Apricot by saying
that the crop of fruit borne by the original tree
(which is growing in common loamy soil without
preparation) has been sold in the New- York market
for the last three years at prices varying from S4
to §16 per bushel. In 1844 the crop of this tree
brought $45 ; in 1845, $50, and last year it was
sold for $90. The fruit is very fair in appearance,
and bears carriage to market M^ell.

Mr. Dubois, who is a pretty extensive orehardist,
finds that in seasons when the fruit of the Moor-park,
one of the best and surest sorts, nearly all drops
before maturity, stung by the curculio — that cl the
Early Golden hangs in rich clusters on every limb.
With him, indeed, this sort, among the apricots, ap-
pears to be avoided by this insect, in the same way
that the common Damson does among plums — pro-
babiy from the thickness or some other peculiarity
of the skin.

We can not lut think, therefore, that in all parts
of the countr}^ where the sorts of apricots already
in cultivation fail because stung by the ciuculio,
this variety will be likely to give abundant crops.
The tree, probably from being a native seedling, is
also more thrifty and hardy than most other sorts.

Mr. Dubois has propagated quite a stock of
young trees, and will, in the autumn, supply orders
at a very moderate price.

Dubois' Early Golden Apricot. — Fruit small,
about 1^ inch in diameter, roundish-oval, with the
suture narrow but well marked, but extends only
half way round. Skin smooth, uniform pale orange.
Flesh orange, moderately juicy and sweet, with a
very good flavor, separates from the stone. The
latter is oval, ver}' little compressed, kernel sweet.
Ripens from the 10th to the 15th of July, ten days
before the Moorpark.

Rose-Slugs. — Dear sir — My garden has been
terribly infested, this season, with a small green
insect, a species of slug, about half an inch long,
and very slender, which fixes itself on the under
side of rose leaves and eats up all the foliage,
so that at last the mere skeleton of the leaf which
remains looks quite brown and seared. Can you
give your readers any remedy for this depreda-
tor ? Your friend. ^ Constant Reader.

[Yes, it is by no means difficult to dcstro)' the
rose-slug. Take either strong soap-suds or tobac-
co-water ; we prefer the latter, which should be of
a light brown colour ; as soon as the slugs make
their appearance on your rose-bushes, take a large
syringe and shower the whole plant, bein<r par-
ticularly careful to throw it on the under sides of
the leaves. This will kill the whole brood on any
one bush, almost immediately — and the next morn-
ing you can wash off" the leaves with some clean
water from the rose of a watering-pot. If this is
pursued with all your rose bushes, as soon as the
slug makes his appearance on them, you will easily

100

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

get rill of it. If allowoJ to run his course ami de-
posit his eggs, you will probably have an increased
number the next season, that will perhaps devour
every rose-leaf in the garden. — Ed.]

Queries on Sea-Coast Culture. — Dear sir —
The preparation of several of tiic valuable articles
of the Horticulturist, appears to have been suggest-
ed to you by particular inquiries of correspondents.
I therefore presume to ask if the culture of the
quince is not of sufficient general interest to make
a subject worthy of a little sj)ace in your columns ?
lu the island of Rhode-Island, quinces are plant-
ed closely, in the most exposed situations, for
screens against the salt-air ; and in this way they
are said to vield very good crops of fine fruit. On
the coast generally an exposure to the sea is
thought to be an advantage, I believe, and it is
usual to select low, damp situations near the shore,
as the best place for this fruit. Some think they
do better if the sod is not broken over the roots.
You state in the " Fruits of America,^' and also in
a late number of the Horticulturist, that the com-
mon practice is erroneous- Do you condemn the
choice of low or damp ground, or wish simply to
inculcate the necessity of liberal attention, manur-
ing and cultivation? [Especially the latter.:— Ed,]
It is said that apple orchards do not succeed
on the sea shore, aiid that fruit trees generally do
not thrive. I think this is not always the case,
however, and as I intend to ,'_et an orchard, next
autumn, on a hill contiguous and exposed to the
sea, I should be glad to get any information or ad-
vice about it, and I think it would be valued by
many of your subscribers on the coast. Are not
some varieties, (the Roxbury Russet for one,) bet-
ter adapted to the sea shore than others? [The
Roxbury Russet, Baldwin, Yellow Bcllefleur and R.
I. Greening are best adapted to the sea shore. —
Ed.] What shade and ornamental trees and shrubs
are best suited to grounds subject to the influence
of the sea ? I have seen the leaves of trees and of
weeds shrivelled and black as if frost bitten, after
being wet with spray in a gale. Salt-manure,
(sea-weed, &c.) has been found an injurious applir
cation to apple trees, at a distance from the shore.
With much respect, your ob't scrv't. F. L. Olm-
sted. Sachem's Head, Guilford, Ct.,June29th, 1847.
[We refer our correspondent to the artic'.e on the
culture of the quince, in this number, and also to
the notice in the leader, on Mr. Tudor's successful
mode of protecting all kinds of trees and plants
against the injurious efiects of sea winds. — Ed.]

The Pear-Tree Blight at the West. — If my
ob.servations are correct, I have witnessed the fol-
lowing facts, touching blight :

1. Seedling pear treses die of blight the first sum-
mer, precluding the idea that freezing could be
the cause, nor had I ever seen any thing like in-
sect blight on my premises.

2. A pear tree budded, and started soon after,
the same season, usually dies with all the ap-
pearance of blight — making, as I suppose, a clear
case of frozen sap blight, as frost overtakes the
tree in the midst of its growth.

3. A pear tree, very thrifty and vigorous, if

barked in the least by a single tree, in the last half
of the season of its growth, frequently dies with
leaves on, and just as if blighted.

4. I have seen blight pass in a streak through
an orchard, and for which I could account only by
supposing it had been caused by a cold current of
air, or by insects brought in by a current of air,
but no insects could be discovered.

5. The most frequent cause of blight seems to
me to be warm wet weather, succeeded by very
dry weather.

To these I may add :

6. Our friend, D. Thomas, observed much blight
to follow a severe frost in the spring of 1845.

From all which, as heretofore, I hold blight may
proceed from different injuries, when the sap of
the tree is in a particular condition, and that con-
dition I believe to be a kind of plethora, or over-
fullness. In the human system, a small injury, it
is said, may produce locls-jaw ; and interruptions
in the circulation of the blood frequently produce
sudden death.

As remedies for blight, Rev. C. Springer pro-
poses thin land : yourself mounds and root priming.
I believe a well drained soil, never deficient in
moisture, such as is frequently afforded by river
banks, will be likely to succeed. Yours. Eli
Nichol. Walhanding, 0., July 3d, 1847.

Variation in the Peach Tree. — In the gar-
den of Mr. Willis in this city, is a tree, which he
planted as a peach tree, and which actually bore
peaches last summer, now inW of nectarines. There
is no perceptible diflbrence between this tree and
the peach trees on each side of it, which are well
filled with their natural fruit.

Downing, in his " Fruits and Fruit Trees," says
the nectarine " appears to be only a distinct acci-
dental variety of the peach, and this is rendered
quite certain, since there are several well known
examples on record of both peaches and nectarines
having been produced on the same branch. The
Boston nectarine originated from a peach stone."

The Boston nectarine, to which reference is made
above, is cultivated in the garden of Samuel G.
Perkins, Esq., of Brookline, and its origin is thus
described by him : " This fruit I obtained from Mr.
T. Lewis, of Boston, in whose yard it was pro-
duced from tiic kernel of a peach stone, as he and
his mother both informed me ; they, at the time it
first Ijore fruit, never having seen a nectarine. Mr.
Lewis, as the tree came forward, always supposed
it would produce what is called a peach ; but on
seeing, when it first appeared, this beautiful fruit,
with a smooth skin, was impatient to know what
it was, and carried it to the late Mr. S. Pomeroy,
who was then the leading cultivator of fruits in this
region. Mr. Pomeroy brought it to me, for al-
though he knew it to be a nectarine, he had never
seen any so large, and as I had the Red Roman in
perfection, he wished to compare it.

" I immediately obtained buds from the tree for
Mr. Pomeroy and Mr. Preble, as well as myself.
All these failed, mine alone being preserved. The
original tree from which they were taken, was un-
fortunately soon after destroyed.

" With regarxl to the original tree found in Mr.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

101

Lewis' yard, I have no doubt that it was really
the product of a peach stone ; for we all kno ,v
very well tliat such instances are on record, and
that a nectarine is nothinjr more than a smooth skin-
ned peach ; the stone of a downy peach may pro-
duce occasionally a peach without down."

There was no perceptible difference between the
blossoms of the tree in Mr. Willis' garden, and the
peach trees by the side of it ; and there was no sus-
picion that it was otlier than a common peach tree,
until the fruit began to form. The fruit is now as
large as a ripe damson and of a similar shape ;
skin pale green, with a deep violet red cheek — and
resembling the Downton Nectarine. — Portland Ad-
vertiser.

[We recommend the foregoing to the attention
of our incredulous Cincinnati friend. — Ed.]

Variation IN Stawberrt Blossoms. — With my
limited experience in the culture of strawberries, I
shall not venture to take any part in discussing the
strawberry question. But as that has happened to
me which I have not seen noticed, so far as I recol-
lect, b)' any writer, I will just state the fact, which,
should you think it worth the while, you may con-
trive to verify another season.

I had this spring some Hovey's seedlings (re-
ceived from S. Walker, Boston,) which came out
in a feeble state. The first trusses of flowers
thrown out by them were decidedly staminate,
more so than those of the Early Scarlet. I had
some seedlings near by that were as decidedly pis-
tillate as I ever saw a Hovey, but produced full
trusses of perfect berries, and must, therefore, ac-
cording to the theory, have been fructified by the
Hoveys. Afterwards, when the Hoveys became
stronger, some of them threw out trusses of deci-
dedly pistillate blossoms — that is, some of the iden-
tical plants that at first produced staminate ones.

I think there can be no mistake about these facts,
for my surprise at the appearance of the strongly
staminate blossoms, led me to watch the plants
critically. Very respectfully yours. E. C. Tracy.
Windsor, Vt. July 6th, 1847,

Ginseng — Panax quinquefolium. — As this root
commands a very high price, in China, where it
formerly (before American innovation) sold for its
weight in gold, it can without doubt be made a
very profitable article to American commerce in
our increasing intercourse with that mighty em-
pire. The roots, in their wild state, arc usually
small, but by cultivation they may be increased to
three or four times the ordinary size. The plant
will flourish in almost any ordinary soil, and exacts
only the simplest culture.

As the Chinese are so fastidious, and at the same
time so limited in their wants, in corisequence of
the immense fertility and unceasing industry of its
intelligent population, we have as yet been enabled
to furnish them with but few articles that are in
preat request by them, and it is, therefore, highly
important tiiat we should enlarge the quantities of
such as they actually desire, as a means of com-
manding the balance of trade, and thereby lessen
the drain of specie or of its equivalent, ^/n. R.
Prince. Flvshing, July 12, 1847.

Notes on Strawberries. — The Black Prince
strawberrj' succeeds admirably here. The fruit, in
my estimation, is superior to Hovey's seedling. It
is very highly esteemed by others who have seen
it. The vines are very hardy and productive, and
the berries are so beautiful as to render the variety
very desirable to cultivate for the market.

Stoddard's Seedling has much disappointed us.
It turns out to be the Alpine. Many cultivators
have also been much disappointed in Hovey's seed-
ling. Numerous beds were set out last season, with
expectations of large crops. Nine-tentlis of the
plants were unproductive. Mr. Comstock, of this
place, procured his plants direct from Hovey,
most of which were staminate. Col. Wilder ex-
amined a bed of them in the garden of Stephen H.
SiMiTH, and gave the opinion that the staminate
plants were not Hovey's seedling. When a bed
first came in blossom, I examined some of these
plants in my own garden, and found a difference in
the shape of the leaves, between the staminates and
pistillates. The leaves ol the latter were rounder,
and upon the under side of different shade of green ;
afterwards the difference became less perceptible.
Yours, &c. L. C. Eaton. Providence, R. /., July
8, 1847.

Preserving Scarlet Geraniums. — Nothing is
more showy in the flower gardens during the whole
summer and autumn, than beds or masses of the
large scarlet blooming geraniums, of which the Old
Horse-Shoe Geranium is the original t3'pe — and such
of the new sorts as Tom Thumb, etc., the latest and
most brilliant edition. As there are, however,
many who would be glad to cultivate them who
have no greenhouse in which to keep the roots, I
will mention, for the benefit of such, a very sim-
ple method which 1 pursue with excellent success.

As soon as the October frosts have touched the
foliage, I dig up my scarlet geranium plants, and set
the roots on the floor of my cellar. Here they re-
main for a week or two. I then hang them %ip,
wherever it is convenient, in the cellar, either the
dry roots or with the little ball of earth which may
have adhered to them. Here they remain (the
cellar not admitting frost) quite sound and dormant
till spring, when my beds are again ready for them .
So far from injuring them, I think they bloom
rather finer after a winter of complete rest, than
when they have been kept in the greenhouse. X.
Y. Z. Boston, July, 1847.

Rose-Bugs. — This insect is more troublesome to
us than any other, or I may say than all others put
together. In fact, so great have been its numbers
alfthc past month, that if we are to have the like
many seasons, I shall feel like giving up my garden
to them and " backing out," leaving the little ras-
cals in full possession. This year they are not
content, so numberless are they, with devouring
all my roses : I might be willing enough to com-
pound for this mischief. But they have literally
eaten up all my cherries, and then have dcvourecl,
or cut off from the trees, the greater part of all my
young half grown apricots and nectarines. I find
that the lighter the soil, (mine is very sandy), the
more do the rose-bugs abound. In gardens on

102

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY.

loamy or clayey soils they are but little known. Is
there no relief? Very truly. A Jcrseyjnan. July
5th, 1847.

[The rose-bug is more numerous in gardens
where the soil is sandy, because the insect has its
winter quarters in the ground, and the lighter and
warmer the soil the greater the certainty of every
one coming out alive when the summer commences.

This is one of the most difficult of all insects to
subdue, when it is much multiplied — since it defies
tobacco-water, smoke, salt, and all that either
drives away or destroys most other insects. In-
deed, nothing but hot ivater or fire seems to put an
end to it. Hand-picking and burning them up is
the best and surest remedy, when the}' are not nu-
merous, and arc confined, for example, to a few
flowering plants — roses and the like. But this is
out of the question when they take entire possession
of large trees, etc., as noticed by " A Jerseyman."
Since the young rose-bugs pass the winter in the
ground, perhaps below \\\& reach of frost, in the
shape of grubs, and rise to the surface in a pupa
state, early in June, it appears to us that they may,
where they exist in great numbers, perhaps, be
more successfully attacked just before they emerge
from the earth, than afterwards. They must then
be in a more tender state than when in the full

grown stage, with wings. As they near]}' all rise
to the surface of the ground and emerge about the
same time — viz. that of the opening of the damask
rose, we would suggest the application to the soil,
under all the trees or bushes where they were most
abundant the year previousl}", of boiling water.
This, if poured on the ground just at the right time,
would, we suppose, be likely to kill myriads of
them at once, and the proper moment might be
ascertained by noticing the very first appearance
of the insect, and examining the soil at the same
time. — Ed.]

Rapid Growing Trees. — I am anxious to plant
a considerable belt of trees, both for efl'ect and
shelter. I wish to select those of the quickest
growth — but I wish to avoid such as, though of
rapid growth, have the troublesome habit of throw-
ing up suckers — like the Ailanthus and Silver Mele.
Will you please to assist me, by a word or two of
advice in your journal ? Respectfully. /. Smith.
Philadelphia. [We recommend the Silver Maple
{Jlcer dasycarpon,) the Cork Elm (Ulmus tube-
rosa.) the Ash-leaved Maple (Negundo fraxini-
folia,) and the Weeping Elm (Ulirws americana.)
These make both wood and thick masses of foliage
very rapidly, and are among the most ornamental
of all rapid-growing trees. — Ed.]

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Exhibition of Saturday, June 12, 1S47.

FLOWERS— From M. P. Wilder, Piesideiu of the So-
ciety, flue new iKirJy Ghent Azaleas, including Buckinghamii,
diainhiflora, regina, etc.; wliite Camellias; Brugsmansia
Knightii, formerly Datura; Calceolarias, Petunias, Spiraeas,
Tree PiEOuies. Lilacs, Cinerarias, Roses, and cut flowers in
variety, embracing many beautiful specimens.

From Captain Sweeilin, of the ship Augustine Heard, from
Valparaiso, by Capl. F. W. Macoudray, a Cactus from the
Araucaria mouuiauis in Chili. This was a noble specimen of
this tribe of plants, measuring nearly five feet in circumfer-
ence, and very formidable from the immense number of its
thorns. From its form, and for want of the proper name, the
Commitiee clu-jstened it the Ottoman.

From J. E. Teschemacher, a plant of Ismene calathina, or
white Peruvian Wedding flower, very fragrant; plants of
Echinocactus ottonis and E. mammiUarioides, a seedling t'rom
Vera Cruz, (curious) ; also a fine plant of E Eyriesii, with
three blooms of its elegant, long tubular white flowers, and
nine buds.

From Joseph Breck If Co., twelve species of Iris: amcena,
variegata, florentina. germanica, pallida, siberica, flavesceus,
squalens, etc , including susiana, one of the most beautiful
and admired of this tribe ; Pa^onia arborea, Banksii, sibirica,
paradoxa, officinalis, varieties of rosea and albicans ; Lupi-
uus polyphyllus, blue and white ; Ilyacinthus plumosus, Aqui-
legias in variety, Pansies, Lychnis, Hesperis, Sophoras, etc.

From Augustus Aspinwall. Roses in great variety.

From T. H. Perkins, by W. Quant, five plants of Pelargo-
niums, and two Vinca herbacea, var purpurea and alba.

From James Nugent, Asclepias cinerea, three Calceolarias,
Erica ventricosa superba, and a fine campanula, also cut
flowers.

From Wm. Mdlar, three bouquets, Pelargoniums in variety,
PtBonies, Roses, Amaryllis, Iris, and other cut flowers.

From O. H. Mather, a great variety of cut flowers, includ-
ing Roses. Pelargoniums, Phlox drummondii. Cacti, Cinera-
rias, Abutilon, Stocks, Verbenas, &c.

From Mr. Bradford, a bouquet composed of indigenous
flowers.

From Samuel Walker, fine Ranunculus in great variety, but
past their perfection ; Poeonias and Irises in variety ; Haw-

thorn, double white and scarlet, grand flowering and o!hei
varieties; Aquilegias, Lychnis, Hemerocallis, Hyaciiuhus
plumosus, Pansies, fine specimens of Dictamnus fraxinella,
var. alba and other cut flowers.

From E. M Richards, six varieties of Iris, Lupinus poly-
phyllas, Sophora.

From J. L L. F. Warren, Paeonia arborea banksii, P. glo-
bosa Cassoretti, papaveracea, Becalinii. rubra plena, and other
varieties ; a fine display of Rhododendrons, Lupiims poly-
pliyllus, Plilox drummondii, vtir. alba; five flat hand bouquets
and four round ditto.

From J- L. Gardner, by J. Thomas, one large pyramidal
bouquet, and one large design.

From Parker Barnes, one fine plant of Petunia Hebe, Bo-
ronia viminea, and Alslroemeria pelegrina.

From WiUia/n Eenrick, by iVIiss Russell, one large bouquet,
Pajonias in var , Purple Beech, Laburnum, Snowballs, and
other cut flowers.

From Messrs. Winship, a fine collection of plants, occupy-
ing one circular stand, including a fine show of Azalea.?,
Haw thorns, Spirceas, Iris, Chionaiuhus virginicus, Calycan-
thus floridus, Mespilus prostratus, Loniceras, PEsonias, etc. ;
and also two flat bouquets.

From John Hoveij, two flat bouquets and a variety of cut
flowers.

From Hovey ^ Co.. six hand, and two circular table bou-
quets ; also nine varieties of beautiful Azaleas.

AWARD OF PREMIUMS.

0.\ Pot Pl.ints.— Alex Mc Lenuan, E. Augustus Story,
and J. Breck, judges.

First premium for best six plants, to Wm.Quant, $2; second
ditto to A. Bowditch, SI-
GN Hardy Azaleas, Hawthorns, &c.— H W. Dutton,
Wm. Quant, and R. M. Copeland, judges.

For the best display of hardy Azaleas, first premium to the
Messrs. Winship, S3.

For the second best display, the second premium to Messrs.
HoKey §• Co., S2.

For the best display of Hawthorns, first premium to the
Messrs. Winship, S3.

For the second best ditto, to S. Walker, $2.

For the best design, a moss vase, (dissimilar to former ones

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY.

103

shown.) with flowers, to /. L Gardner, by J. Thomas, a pre-
miuin of S2.

For the second best design, to Miss Russell, SI.

For a vase bouquet, to J. Thomas, a premium of S2

For tlie best table and mantel bouquet, to Messrs. Hovey
(( Co., S-'-

For the second best do. do., to Messrs. Winship, SI.

For the best six hand bouquets, to Azell Bowdilch, S'2.

For the second best six do., to Messrs. Hovei/ If Co., $1.

GRATUITIES.

The Flower Committee award the following gratuities, viz.

To Samuel Walker, for a display of Ranunculus, $3.

To J. L. L. F. Warren, for six hand bouquets, §1. For
this and a previous display of Rhododendrons, S3

To J. E. Teschemacker, for a plant of Ismeue calatliina,
and plants of Echinocacius, spec. Ottouis, mammillarioides,
(a seedling;) and Eyriesii. S3.

FRUITS. — Mr. Allen, of Salem, presented six varieties of
Grapes, full ripe ; also Figs and Mayduke cherries.

VEGETABLES— From O. H. Mather, by Thomas Need-
ham, siring beans and a brace of Cucumbers.

From A. D. Williams, Lettuce, Rhubarb, and a brace of
Cucumbers.

From A. Robertson, New-Bedford, by V\'ra. Brims, Rhu-
barb.

From J. L. L. F. Warren, by John Cadness, Giant and Vic-
toria Rhubarb.

Saturday, June 19, 1847.

FLOWERS.— From M. P. Wilder. President of the So-
ciety, fine plants of Fuchsia, viz. Empress, a fine new varie-
ty, with blush white sepals, and purplish pink corolla, large
flower, one of the best varieties; Lady of the Lake, blush
sepals, crimson corolla, fine ; Vesta, flesh-colored sepals,
crimson and scarlet corolla ; also Venus Victrix and Frostii ;
two Calceolarias, new spotted seedlings; Gladiolus Colvillii;
also, PiEonias, Whiteleji, Humei, and Richardsonii. '

From J. L. L F. Warren, Rhododendrons in var., Paeonia
officinalis. Phlox suaveolens and maculata, Philadelphus gran-
dittorus, PlumI ago Zeylanica, Bouvardia triphylla, Myosotis
arvensiS; Harrison and Scotch Roses. Papaver orienlalis, Pole-
monium. Passiflora fragrans. Clematis integrifolia,Caprifolium
Douglasii, Daisies, Pinks, etc. Also, eight flat and five hand
bouquets.

From Samuel Walker, a seedling Phlox, from maculata,
with larger corolla, and more compact head or panicle, an
improvement upon the old variety. A fine specimen of Lych-
nis viscaria, very rare double variety; new crimson Bour-
salt Rose; Spiraea filipendula plena, etc.

From Augustus Aspinwall, Hardy Perpetual and other Ro-
ses in great variety.

From A. Bowdilch, Roses, Pa!onia Whilleji, Hemerocallis
flava, Polemoiiiurn i fEruleum, var alba, Valeriana Phu and
other cut flowers. Several pot plants, viz. Five Fuschias,
one Russelia juucea and one Pelargonium, also seven hand
bouquets.

From E. M Richards, Lupinus polyphyllus, Papaver orien-
lalis, Hemerocallis flava, Iris in var. ; Dictamnus fraxinellp,
two var , Preonies, Sarracenia purpurea, a curious indigenous
plant, Areihusa bulbosa, a beautiful orchideous native flower,
Loniceras in var., with other cut flowers in variety.

From Joseph Breck §■ Co , numerous cut flowers filling seven
stands ; including a great variety of hardy Roses, Loniceras
in var., Papaver orienialis, Iris in var., Dictamnus fraxiiiella,
two var., Hemerocallis flava, Paeonia Whitleji and Pottsii,
Tradescantia virginica, var. alba and plena. Delphinium Bar-
lowii and sinensis. Campanula pulchella, Spiraia filipendula
plena, Lupinus polyphyllus Baplisia, two var.. Phlox macula-
ta, Pansies, Aquilegias, Vtrouica spicata, Valerian, Lychnis,
etc.

FTomWilliam Kenrick, by Miss Russell, one large flat, and
one pyramidal bouquet, and cut flowers in var.

From James Nugent, a fine show of cut flowers, including
Pelargoniums, Roses, fine specimens of Gladiolus blandus.
Cactus, Verbena.^, and other green-house plants in variety.

From S R. Johnson, Pasonia Whitleji, fine specimens, and
Acacia rosea.

From W B Richards, one large bouquet, and fine specimen
of Rocket Candytuft.

From Wm. Mellar, one large circular, and two small flat
bouquets ; also cut flowers in variety, including seedling Pe-

largoniums, Iris, Pansies, end seedling scarlet Trumpet Ho-
neysuckle, etc.

From Hovey (f Co., one pyramidal bouquet, and six hand do.
aNo a plant of Hydrangea japonica, a flower of great mag-
nificence and beauty

From J. L. Gardiner, by J. Thomas, eight pot plants, viz.
four Pelargoniums, and four Calceolarias ; also a fine design,
or two-sided semi-circular bouquet upon a moss covered
stand, one side composed of Dahlias, Roses, etc., the other of
choice green-house plants. Also a moss vase, with a bouquet
of indigenous and other flowers.

From Mr. Croicninshield, by John Quant, eighteen plants of
fine Pelargoniums.

From O. H Mather, a great vaiiety of cut flowers from
the green-house, embrachig many fine specimens of Cactus,
Calceolarias, Cinerarias and Pelargoniums ; among the latter
was a fine seeding; Clematis grandiflora, Roses, Plilox Drum-
mondii, var. al a, very fine, &c. &c.

From Messrs. Winship, a great variety of shrubby and her-
baceous flowers, filling the two circular and three side stands,
among which was a fine display of hardy Azaleas, Scotch,
Harrison and other Roses, Paeonias, Spirsas, Iris, Rose Aca-
cia, Loniceras, etc., etc.; also two large flat bouquets.

AWARD OF PREMIUMS.

The Flower Committee, Messrs. Quant, Richards, and Dut-
ton, judges, award as loUows :

For the best six pot plants, first piemium to J. L. Gardiner,
by J. Thomas, S2.

For the second best six do., second premium to Mr. Croicn-
inshield, by Joim Quant, SI-

A gratuity to Messrs. Hovey ^ Co., for a rare specimen of
Hydrangea japonica, in bloom, S3.

For the best six hand bouquets, to Messrs. Hovey ^ Co., S2.

For the second best do. do., to J. L. L F. Warren, Si.

A gratuity to Azell Boicditch, for hand bouquets, SI.

For a de.«ign, a stand with an oval bouquet with two faces
or fronts, one composed of green-house fluweis. the other of
flowers of open culture, a premium to John Thomas, of S2.

For a moss vase filled with 40 varieties of beautiful indige-
nous and other flowers, a gratuity to John Thmnas. of S'2.

For the best large bouquet, to Wm. Mellar, a premium of
$2.

For the second best do. do., to W. B Richards, SI.

For a pair of mantel bouquets, a premium to the Messrs.
Winship, of S2.

FRUITS — Peaches ftdly ripe, viz. Cooledge's Favorite,
very fine, by Mr. O. Jihnson of Lynn ; also specimens by Mr.
AUen of Salem.

Grapes, six varieties by Mr. AUen ; also, Hunt's Early
Tawny Nectarine, and Black Figs.

Cherries, by Mr. AVen, viz Mayduke, Elton, fine and Black
Tartarian.

Lemons, by M.'s. L. Spaulding of South Reading.

Strawberries by John Hill, four boxes ol Early Virginia.

VEGETABLES.— From Messrs. Winship, Victoria Rhu-
barb, twelve stalks, weight 12^ pounds. Water Cresses.

From B. V. French, Giant Rhubarb, six stalks, weight 7
pounds; Victoria Rhubarb, twelve stalks, weight 15 pounds.

From T. H. Perkins, by William Quant, Victoria Rhubarb.

From Hazen Hazeltine, Somerville, by John Martui, new
Potatoes, first of the season.

Saturdaxj, June 26, 1847.
FLOWERS.— From AI. P. Wili.eu, President of the So-
ciety, a great variety of Hardy and Green-house Roses and
cut flowers, not in competition with other amateurs. We
noticed among the P;eonias some varieties which were quite
novel ; the central part of one variety (Duchess de iV^emours,)
is composed of numerous fine pale yellow petals, with a row
of broad blush white exterior ones. We have heard of a yel-
low variety of Pxonia in Europe, and doubted its existence,
but from the appearance of this variety we can no longer
doubt. The variety Sulphurea has some resemblance to
Whitleji, but instead of being a pure white, has a sulphur
tint ; the other new varieties exhibited were prolifera trico-
lor, triumphans, grandiflora carnea, plenissima variegata, and
Hericartiana; also the old varieties, Whitleji, Rcevesii, Pott-
sii, Richardsonii, Humei, and fragrans. Mr W. also exhi-
bited plants of the Gladolus Wilhelnms, bright scarlet with
white stripe, and G. Lisetle, with large Orange flower, and
pink white stripe, both of them very beautiful. Also fine sjie-
ciniens of Spiiasa aruncus and japonica.

104

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY.

From Wm. Mellar, fine double Pinks, Roses, Pelargoniums,
etc. ; also iwo bouqurts.

Fiom J. L. Gardner, by J. Thomas, eight pot plants, viz.
Miltonia spectabilis, a l)pautiful, rare epiphyte plant, a native
of Bengal ; Epicleudrnm spec-, a curious orchitleous plant
troiu Mexico; three Pelargoniums, two Fuch.*ias, and one
seedling Calceolaria Also a globe bouquet or design.

From W. B. Richards, three bouquets, and specimens of Ibe-
ris coronaria.

From O. H. Mather, a great variety of beautiful green-
house and hardy plants, including roses, Verbenas, Pelargo-
niums, Cytissus racemosus, Pinks, Lupins, Stock-^, Alsiroeme-
ria, Salvia patens, Phlox Van Houttii and Drummondii, var
alba, Petunia in variety, tVc

From Messrs. Wiiiship, one pair of mantel bouquets, fine
specimens of Virgilea lutea, a great variety of hardy and
other roses, and other cut flowers, in variety, including a fine
dis[;iay of hardy Azaleas, of which these gentlemen have
maJe a beautiful show for four weeks in succession.

From Wm- Ke7irick. by Miss Russel, one large design or
bouquet, composed of a great variety of flowers ; also a
large number of vases filled with fine specimens of Paeonies
and other flowers.

From Joseph Breck ^ Co., a great variety of Roses, Paeonies
and herbaceous plants.

From E. Wight, Roses.

From E. M- Richards, Roses and other cut flowers in great
variety.

From Augustus Aspinivall, a beautiful collection of fine
Roses.

From Capt. Macondray, fine Roses.

From Samufl Downer, Jr., large branches of Boursalt and
Hybrid perpetual Roses.

From J . L. LF. Warren, one p\ramidal and eight hand
bouquets. Also Roses in great variety, Poeonies and other cut
flowers; six pot plants, viz. wo Fuchsias paragon, one Ani
gozanthus coccineus, Lilium thuubergianuin, one SoUya he-
terophylla and one Mahernia odorala.

From A. Boivdiieh, Roses, Pasonies, Sweet Williams and
other cut flowers. Also, six hand bouquets.

From S Walker, PcBonies and herbaceous plants in great
variety

From Hovey If Co-, one large flat bouquet or design ; two
pyramidal do., imd six hand do. Also Roses in great variety.
AWARD OF PREMIUMS.

On Roses — William Quant, J. Thomas and S. Walker,
Judges

Class No. I. Hardy Roses. — For the best thirty varieties,
to J. Breck §• Co., the first premium of $8.

To Hovey Sf Co., second do., $6.

To J. L L. F. Warren, third do., $4.

To J. Breck ^ Co , for the best display, $3.

Class No. II. For the best twelve varieties, to Messrs.
Winship, the fir.st premium of $5.

To A. Bowditck, second premium of S3,

Class No. III. Hardy Perpetuals — For the best ten flow-
ers, to ,/. Breck §• Co., first premium of $5.

To A. Aspinivall, second do., $4.

To J. Breck ^ Co, best display, $3.

On PEONIES, Pinks, Pot Plants and Bouqitets. — H. W.
Button, E. A. Story, and Thomas Needham, Judges.

Pceonies. — For tlie best twelve flowers, having regard to
the number of varieties, to Messrs. Breck ^ Co., $5.

For the second best do. do., to S Walker, S3.

For the best display, to Messrs Breck Sf Co., $3.

Pinks — First and second premiums were not awarded, as
there were no competitors within the rule.

For the best display, to Wm. Mell r, S2.

A gratuity to Messrs. Breck ^ Co., for fine specimens, $2.

Pot P/(in(s— For the best six pot plants, to J. L. L. F. War-
ren, a premium of $2.

For the second best do. do., to J. Thomas, $1,

Designs- — For the best, to Hovey Sf Co., $2.

For the second best, lo Mi.ss Russell, $1.

A gratuity to J. Thomas, $1.

Bouquets.— For the best pair of mantel bouquets, to the
Messrs Winship, S2.

For the best Pyramidal bouquet, the Messrs. Hovey, $2.

For the second best, to J. L. L. F. Warren, $1.

For the best six hand bouquets, to J. L L. F. Warren, $2.

For the second best do do., to Azell Boioditch, $1.

The committee awHrd a gratuity of $5, to M. P. Wilder, for

fine display of new Paeonies.

FRUITS. — On no former occasion did our weekly exhibi-
tion present more to admire. If we turn aside for a moment
lo pay our court and respect to our lovely Flora, seated up-
on her rose-scented couch, our excuse must be that we found
her tete-S tete with our beloved Pomona. They were both
so gaily dressed, in the newest summer fashion, for the occa-
sion, that to have passed by without a renewal of our allegi-
ance, would have subjected us to the charge of lacking in
courtesy — that our gallantry was on the wane — and that we
were guilt- of treason in not giving "aid and comfort" to
her " unrivalled charms.-'

Flora, surrounded by her thousand handmaids, introduced
us to the generous Pomona, It is our humble duty to de-
scribe what we saw at her court ; and although it is almost
as difficult to perform, as it is pleasant to contemplate, where
so many things wgth rich '" beyond compare," we shall pro-
ceed to our task by stating that the tables were strewed with
Grapes, Peaches, Nectarines, Figs, Plums and Strawberries,
viz:

Strawberries, var- Princess Alice Maude and Hovey's Bos-
ton Piue, by the President of tlie Society.

Grapes, var. Black Hamburg, Grizzly Frontignan Golden
Chasselas, and Muscat of Alexandria, from the grapery of
Hon. T. H- Perkins, by A\'m Quant.

Johti Fisk Allen, of Salem, exhibited twenty-two varieties
of Grapes; among them we noticed Tottenham Park Muscat,
Wilmot's new Black Hamburg, (fine,) Austrian Muscat,
(new,) Purple JMuscat, (new,) Zinfendal, (fine,) Muscat of
Alexandria, (fine.) The Grapes by Mr. Allen, were tasted
by the Committee : they were ripe in great perfection.

The Siiciety"s first premium of ten dollars was awarded to
Mr. Allen, and the second premium to Mr. Quant.

A ArpinwaS, of Brookline, presented a basket of extra fine
Strawberries, var Hovey's Seedling.

By N- Stetson, of Bridgewater, very fine specimens of Bos-
ton Pine and Jenny's Seedling Strawberries-
Two boxes of Early Virginia Strawberries, by Otis John-
son, of Lynn.

S. Downer, jr., of Dorchester, exhibited Hovey's Seedling,
Ross's Phcenix, Early Virginia, Wiley's Seedling, and Wood
Strawberries.

By Johi Duncklee, Hovey's Seedling Strawberries.

By Isaac Fuy, Fay's Seedlhig Strawberries.

By Josiah Richardson, Cambridge, Richardson's Seedling ;
also, Hovey's Seedling, and Boston Pine Strawberries.

A Seedling Strawberry, by Charles F. Putnam, Salem ;
branches and fruit large, appearance good ; represented to be
a great bearer ; pistillate.

By James M- Richardson, from the garden of Capt. Lee, a
seedling Strawberry —large, but the specimens were not high-
ly flavored ; probably not fully ripe.

Azell Bowd itch presented "Stoddard's Seedling " Strawber-
ries. They were poor specimens of the "Wood."

By J. L. L. F. Warren, of Brighton, seven varieties of
Strawberries, viz : British Queen, Prince Albert, Hovey's
Seedling, Willey's do., Mottier's do., Early Virginia and Al-
phie.

By Messrs. Hovey, Boston Pine Strawberries.

By Joh?i Owen of Cambridge, Wood, Red and White, and
also a seedling Strawberry

Mr. Cole, presented an Apple for a name.

By J- F. Allen, of Salem, Figs, Plums and Nectarines.

Peaches — by Mr Bowdiich, of Roxbury, and O. Johnson,
of Lynn.

Several of the seedling Strawberries presented were large,
and of fine appearance ; but to enable the Committee to
judge of their respective merits, the specimens should have
been fully ripe. And in addition to this, it is iiighly important
to learn whether the plants will bear a full crop of large sized
fruit. Of the merits of such new varieties as may be pre-
sented, the Committee will form and give an opinion when
they have tasted the fruit fully ripe, and have examined and
found the variety to be truly " a t'ruitful vine."

VEGETABLES-— From Josiah Lovett, 2d, thirteen stalks
of Giant and Victoria Rhubarb, weighing 21 lbs.; some of
the stalks measuring 43 inches.

From O. H. Mather, by Thomas Needham, some fine Cu.
cumbers.

From T. H. Perkins, by Wm. Quant, some fine Palestine
Lettuce.

From Mrs. Pratt, by A. McLennan, Royal Cape Lettuce.

JOUENAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

SEPTEMBER, 1S47.

No. 3.

We beg leave to inform such of our read-
ers as may be interested, that we have late-
ly had the honor of a personal interview
with the distinguished deities that preside
over the garden and the orchard, Flotia and
Pomona.

The time was a soft balmy August night ;
the scene was a • leafy nook in our own
grounds, where, after the toils of the day,
we were enjoying the dolce far nie7ite of a
hammock, and wondering at the necessity
of anything fairer or diviner than rural na-
ture, and such moonlight as then filled the
vaulted heaven, bathed the tufted fore-
ground of trees, the distant purple hills,
and

" Tipt with silver all the fruit tree tops."

It was a scene for an artist ; j'et, as we
do not write for the Court Journal, we must
be pardoned for any little omission in the cos-
tumes or equipages of the divinities them-
selves. Indeed, we Avere so thoroughly cap-
tivated with the immortal candor and fresh-
ness of the goddesses, that we find many
of the accessories have escaped our memo-
ry. Pomona's breath, however, when she
spoke, filled the air with the odor of ripe
apricots, and she held in her left hand a
fruit, which we immediately recognised as
one of the golden apples of the Hesperides,
Vol. II. 14

(of which she knew any gardener upon earth
would give his right hand for a slip,) and
which in the course of our interview, she
acknowledged Avas the only sort in the my-
thological gardens which excels the New-
town Pippin. Her lips had the dewy fresh-
ness of the ruddiest strawberries raised by
Mr. Longworth's favorite old Cincinnati
market woman ; and there was a bright
sparkle in her eye, that assured us there is
no trouble with the curculio in the celestial
orchards.

But if we Avere charmed with the ruddy
beauty of Pomona, we were still more fas-
cinated by the ideal freshness and grace of
Floka. She wore on her head a kind of
fanciful crown of roses, which were not only
dewy moss roses, of the loveliest shades
imaginable, but the colours themselves
changed every moment, as she turned her
head, in a manner that struck us quite
speechless with admiration, The goddess
observing this, very graciously remarked
that these roses were the true perpetuah,
since they not only really bloomed always^
but when plucked, they retained their bril-
liancy and freshness forever. Her girdle
was woven in a kind of green and silver
pattern of jasmine leaves and starry blos-
soms, but of a species far more lovely thari

106

A TALK WITH FLORA AND POMONA.

any in Mr. Paxton's Magazine. She held
a bouquet in her hand, composed of sweet-
scented camellias, and violets as dark as
sapphire, which she said her gardener had
brought from the new planet Neptune ;
and unique and fragrant blossoms continu-
ally dropped from her robe, as she walked
about, or raised her arms in gestures grace-
ful as the swinging of a garland wooed by
the west Avind.

After some stammering on our own part,
about the honor conferred on an humble
mortal like ourselves — rare visits of the
goddesses to earth, etc., they, understand-
ing, probably, what Mr. Beecher calls our
" amiable fondness for the Hudson," oblig-
ingly put us at our ease, by paying us some
compliments on the scenery of the High-
lands, as seen at that moment from our gar-
den seat, comparing the broad river, radiant
Avith the chaste light of the moon, to some
favorite lake owned by the immortals, of
whose name, we are sorry to say, we are
at this moment entirely oblivious.

Our readers will not, of course, expect
us to repeat all that passed during this en-
chanting interview. But, as we are obliged
to own that the visit was not altogether on
our own behalf, or rather that the turn of
the discourse held by our immortal guests
showed that it was chiefly intended to be
laid before the readers of the Horticultu-
rist, we lose no time in putting the latter
en Tapport.

Pomona opened the discourse by a few
graceful remarks, touching the gratifica-
tion it gave them that the moderns, down
to the present generation, had piously re-
cognized her guardian rights and those
of her sister Flora, even while those
of many of the other Olympians, such as
Jupiter, Pan, Vulcan, and the like, Avere
nearly forgotten. The Avonderful fondness
for fruits and floAvers, growing up in the

Avestern world, had, she declared, not escap-
ed her eye, and it received her warmest
approbation. She said something that we do
not quite remember, in the style of that
good old phrase, of " making the Avilderness
blossom like the rose," and declared that
Flora intended to festoon every cottage in
America Avith double Michigan roses. Wis-
tarias, and SAveet-scented vines. For her
own part, she said, her people Avere busy
enough in their invisible superintendence
of the orchard planting now going on at such
a gigantic rate in America, especially in the
Western Slates. Such Avas the fever in
some of those districts, to get large planta-
tions of fruit, that she could not, for the
life of her, induce men to pause long
enough to select their ground or the proper
sorts of fruit to be planted. As a last re-
sort, to keep them a little in check, she was
obliged, against her better feelings, to al-
low the blight to cut off part of an orchard
noAV and then. OtherAvise the Avhole coun-
try would be filled up Avith poor miserable
odds and ends from Europe- — " Beurr^s and
Bergamots, with more sound in their French
names, than flaA^or under their skins."

These last words, we confess, startled us
so much, that Ave opened our eyes rather
AAadely, and called upon the name of Dr.
Van Mons, the great Belgian — spoke of the
gratitude of the pomological Avorld, etc. To
our surprise, Pomona declared that she had
her doubts about the Belgian professor — she
said he Avas a very crotchetty man, and al-
though he had devoted his life to her service,
yet he had such strange whims and caprices
about improving fruits by a regular system
of degeneration or running them out, that
she could make nothing of him. " Depend
upon it," she said, " many of his sorts are
Avorthless, — most of them have sickly con-
stitutions, and," she added, Avith some em-
phasis, snapping her fingers as she spoke.

A TALK WITH FLORA AND POMONA.

107

*' I would not give one sound healthy seed-
ling pear, springing up under natural cul-
ture in your American soil, for all that Dr.
Van Mons ever raised !" [We beg our
readers to understand that these were Po-
mona's words and not ours.] She gave us,
after this, very special charge to impress it
upon her devotees in the United States, not
to be too much smitten with the love of new
names, and great collections. It gave her
more satisfaction to see the orchards and
fruit room of one of her liege subjects teem-
ing with the abundance of the few sorts of
real golden merit, than to see whole acres
of new varieties that have no other value
than that of novelty. She said too, that it
was truly amazing how this passion for col-
lecting fruits — a genuine monomania —
grew upon a poor mortal, when he was once
attacked by it ; so that indeed, if he could
not add every season, at least fifty new
sorts from the continent, with some such
outlandish names, (which she said she
would never recognise,) as Beurre bleu d^ete
nouveau de Scrowsywowsy, etc., he would
positively hang himself in a fit of the blues !
Pomona further drew our attention in
some sly remarks, that were half earnest
and half satire, to the figure that many
of these "Belgian pericarps " cut at those
handsome levees, which her votaries among
us hold in the shape of the great Sep-
tember exhibitions. She said it was re-
ally droll to see, at such shows as those
of our two large cities, where there was
a profusion of ripe and luscious fruit, that
she would have been proud of in her own
celestial orchards — to see there intermin-
gled some hundred or so mean looking, hard
green pears, that never had ripened, or ne-
ver did, would, or could ripen, so as to be
palatable to any but a New-Zealander.
" Do solicit my friends there, for the sake
of my feelings," said she, " to give the gen-

tlemen who take such pleasure in exhibit-
ing this degenerate foreign squad, a sepa-
rate ' green room ' for themselves." To
this remark we smiled and bowed low,
though we would not venture to carry out
her suggestion for the world.

We had a delightful little chat with
Flora, about some new plants which she
told us grew in certain unknown passes in
the Eocky Mountains, and mountainous
parts of Mexico, that Avill prove quite hardy
with us, and which neither Mr. Fortune
nor the London Horticultural Society know
any thing about. But she finally informed
us, that her real object in making herself
visible on the earth at present, with Madam
Pomona, Avas to beg us to enter her formal
and decided protest against the style of de-
corations called after her name, and which
had, for several years past, made the other-
wise brilliant autumnal horticultural
SHOWS in our quarter of the globe, so disa-
greeable an offering to her. " To call the
monstrous formations, which, under the
name of temples, stars, tripods and obelisks
— great bizarre masses of flowers, plastered
on wooden frames — to call these after her
name, ' Floral designs,' was," she said,
'' even more than the temper of a goddess
could bear." If those who make them, are
sincerely her devoted admirers, as they pro-
fess to be, she begged us to say to them, that,
unless they had designs upon her flow of
youth and spirits, that had hitherto been eter-
nal, she trusted they would hereafter desist.

We hereupon ventured to offer some apo-
logy for the offending parties, by saying,
they were mostly the work of the " bone
and sinew" of the gardening profession,
men with blunt fingers but earnest souls,
who worked for days upon what they fan-
cied was a worthy offering to be laid upon
her altars. She smiled, and said the in-
tention was accepted, but not its results,

108

A TALK WITH FLORA AND POMONA.

and hinted something about the same labor
being performed under the direction of the
more tasteful eye of ladies, who should in-
vent and arrange, while the fingers of ho-
nest toil wrought the ruder outline only.

Floka then hinted to us, how much more
beautiful flowers were when arranged in the
simplest forms, and said when combined or
moulded into shapes or devices, nothing
more elaborate or artificial than a vase-form
is really pleasing. Baskets, moss-covered,
and flower-woven, she said, were thought
elegant enough for Paradise itself. There
are not only baskets, continued she, that are
beautiful lying down, and showing inside a
rich mosaic of flowers — each basket, large or
small, devoted perhaps, to some one choice
flower in its many varieties ; but baskets
qn the tops of mossy pedestals, bearing
tasteful emblems hiterwoA'en on their sides ;
and baskets hanging from ceilings, or high
festooned arches — in which case they dis-
play in the most graceful and becoming
manner, all manner of drooping and twin-
ing plants, the latter stealing out of the
nest or body of the basket, and waving to
and fro in the air they perfume. " Then
there is the garlmid,^^ continued our fair
guest ; " it is quite amazing, that since the
days of those clever and harmonious people,
the Greeks, no one seems to know anything
of the beauty of the garland. Now in fact
nothing is more beautiful or becoming
than flowers woven into tasteful garlands
or chaplets. The form a circle — that em-

blem of eternity, so full of dread and mys-
tery to you mortals — and the size is one that
may be carried in the hand or hung up, and
it always looks lovely. Believe me, nothing
is prettier in my eyes, Avhich, young as they
look, have had many thousands of your
years of experience, than a fresh green
garland woven with bright roses."

As she said this, she seized a somewhat
common basket that lay near us, and passing
her delicate fingers over it, as she plucked
a few flowers from the surrounding plants,
she held it, a picture of magical verdure
and blossoms, aloft in the air over our heads,
while on her arm she hung a garland as
exquisitely formed and proportioned as if
cut in marble, with, at the same time, all
the airiness which only flowers can have.
The effect was ravishing ! simplicity, deli-
cacy, gracefulness and perfume. The god-
dess rnoved around us with an air and in an
attitude compared with which the glories
of Titian and Eaphael seem tame and cold,
and as the basket was again passing over
our head, we were just reaching out our
hand to detain the lovely vision, when, un-
luckily, the parti-colored dog that guards
our demesne, broke into a loud bark ; Po-
mona hastily seized her golden apple ;
Flora dropped our basket, (which fell to
the ground in its wonted garb of plain wil-
low,)— and both vanished into the dusky
gloom of the night shadows; at that mo-
ment, suddenly rising up in our hammock,
we found we had been— dreaming.

The CtTRCULio. — We recommended, in the
last volume of the Horticulturist, that the
ground be thrown up in trenches and ridges
late in autumn, around plum trees, that the
curculios might be thus frozen. J. J. Tho-
mas, "Wayne county, tried this last autumn,
but has this year found it unsuccessful.
He states, that David Thomas of Cayuga

county, has saved fine crops of apricots ami
plums the past and present season, by fol-
lowing up the practice which he originated,
of jarring them down on Avhite sheets, and
then destroying them, and also allowing the
pigs free access under the trees, so that
they may devour all the punctured fruit,
which they do pretty effectually.

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

109

POMOLOGICAI. NOTES.

BY THE LATE SAMUEL G. PERKLXS, BOSTON.

[We noticed, in our July number, the death
of our venerable and respected correspon-
dent, S. G. Perkins, Esq. Since that time,
we have received from his amanuensis, Mr.
Rhoades, two articles dictated by Mr. Pek-
KiNs before his death, and laid aside for
publication in the Horticulturist. One of
these follows ; the other shall appear in our
next ; and it is with no little regret, we
must then close this series of valuable pa-
pers, no less remarkable for their real prac-
tical value, than for the fact that they were
the last ebbing of a gardening zeal warm-
ly kept up till ripe fourscore. — Ed.]

There is a notion prevalent with many cul-
tivators of fruits, that the cankered state of
many of the old pears is owing to their
approaching extinction, in consequence of
the death of the original or parent tree from
which^the first scions for grafting were taken;
they believing that the progeny of fruit trees,
called " Wildings," never outlived the ori-
ginal stock, or, if they did live, were never
thrifty growers.

This is what they call " running out," as
they consider the St. Michael, the St, Ger-
main, the Virgoulouse, the Winter Colmar,
the Winter Good Christian [Bon Chretien,]
the Summer Good Christian, the Brown
Beurro, and many other kinds.

The same idea attaches to some of the
old favorite apples, such as the Golden Pip-
pin, the Pearmain, and other sorts, the cul-
tivation of which has been neglected many
years from the prevailing prejudice. This
opinion has been abroad for near five and
twenty years, and, I think, grew out of some
observations of Mr. Knight, late President
of the London Horticultural Society, who
speaks of the Golden Pippin of Great Bri-

tain as going to decay ; and says he consi-
ders it run out, and that it cannot be culti-
vated any longer. But, if my memory
serves me correctly, for it is many years
since I read his works, he attributes it to a
very different cause. He says, if I am not
mistaken, that every fruit carries within it-
self the limitation of its own existence, and
that he presumes the Golden Pippin has
arrived at that limit, because he has tried
to perpetxiate the kind by grafting with
scions, apparently vigorous and healthy, into
young and thrifty apple stocks without efl^ect,
the grafts invariably becoming mouldy
and shrivelled. This, or something like
this, I think, is the assertion of Mr. Knight,
whose skill and experience in the cultiva-
tion of fruits is, as I believe, acknowledged
by all who know him. This proposition ap-
pears to me a safe and natural one ; for
every organized material substance what-,
ever carries within itself the limitation of
its own existence — every thing must, I pre*
sume, perish — the spirit alone survives.

But is it true that any of these fruits have
terminated their existence ? The St. Mi-
chael, the St. Germain, the Brown Beurre,
the Virgoulouse, etc., are all growing now
in certain places in Boston, as strong, as
handsome, as free from blight, and as good
in degree, as they ever were since they
were first planted there by the French Hu-
guenots, who introduced all the good pears
for ^yhich this city has so long been cele-
brated.*

* Our Boston frieinls, who t'.iink tlieir old favorite, the Doy.
enne or St. Michael [known in New- York as the Virgalieu,]
"run out," should examine the gardens and orchards about
Syracuse, Rochester, Oswego, etc., in this State. If we are
not greatly mistaken, they will be furpri.sed before a long
time with so abundant a supply, via the Wusiern Railroad, of
this delicious old pear, from \\ eslern New-York, of such size
and coiriple.\ioii, as \\i\\ make iheni all turn potno-resurrection-
isia.

110

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

The various opinions among your corres-
pondents, relative to the origin and names
of pears, induces me to say a few words on
this subject, which long experience and ac-
quaintance with the fruits of Europe of fifty
or sixty years ago, may perhaps justify.

The French Huguenots, who settled in
and about Boston, in the early part of the
last century, were many of them men of
wealth for that period, and they purchased
house lots of considerable extent in the
town of Boston, and in the towns in its
neighborhood, which they stocked with the
best fruits of their native land. This fact
is not only matter of history, but within my
day ; for I can look back, and recollect dis-
tinctly the many gardens that were furnish-
ed with the largest trees of the finest fruits,
that were common thi'oughout the town even
as late as the years 1810, or even 1815,
after which the mcreased population cover-
ed the gardens, and most of the trees, with
their luxuriant fruits, soon disappeared.
There are a few solitary trees of the old
fruits of a hundred years standing, and
more left in yards, which continue to pro-
duce the finest St. Michaels, St. Germains,
Brown Beurr^s, Virgalouse, Winter Col-
mars, Winter Good Christians, Easter Ber-
gamots, Messire Jeans, etc., as fine as they
did fifty or sixty years ago ; but of those
only one old fruit garden is left, that I re-
collect, and that is the one belonging to the
late S. P. Gardner, Esq., in Summer street.
Here these fine fruits are all raised in per-
fection, on trees probably more than a cen-
tury old, under their proper and appropriate
names.

The great variety of new kinds of pears
brought into existence by Professor Van
MoNs, and others who followed his system
of propagation, and the careless manner
that gentlemen from the several parts of
Europe, where they were raised, sent them

abroad under false or incorrect names, has
caused much disorder in the nomenclature
of these fruits. From the Horticultural So-
ciety of London, I received, about twenty-
five years ago, twenty-four kinds of various
degrees of merit, which they were good
enough to send, me as a present, with some
plums, and twelve or fourteen kinds of
strawberries. As this was at an early pe-
riod in the cultivation of the Van Mons
fruits, and little was known either of their
quality or their names, as finally established
by that extraordinary man, great mistakes
were made, and very bad fruits, with high
sounding names, and many very fine fruits
with incorrect names, came into my hands,
and were cultivated by me, and by others
whom I had invited to come to my garden
for scions. Even to the present day, there
is a confusion and misapplication of the
names of the Belgian pears, that leads to
continual errors and great inconvenience.
The Napoleon was sent out by that Society
under the name of the Archduke Charles,
and by some it is still so called. This fruit
is now well known as an excellent early
winter pear. The Passe Madeleine was
sent to me as a first rate early winter fruit,
and the Duchesse de Berri and the Belle de
Bruxelles, with many others, as pears of the
first order; but when brought to bearing,
after several years, they proved to be worth-
less, although beautiful to the eye. These
disappointments are to be sure, A'ery useful
lessons, which are much needed in gardens,
where constant losses and disappointments
occur.

But the mistakes in the names of fruits
are not confined to the Belgian pears. Many
of the fruits of the olden time are also mis-
named, and propagated under names not
known in the countries whence they came
or originated. Such is the fact with the
Black Hamburgh Grape, the true name of

THE PETUNIA.

Ill

which in Hamburgh, whence it was import-
ted into England, is the Franckindal. The
peach, so long known in England as the
Koval George, is the Grosse Migtwnne of
France, from which country it was carried
to Great Britain. [Our correspondent is,
we think, in the wrong here ; these two
sorts are essentially distinct even in their
blossoms, one being large and the other
small. — Ed.] The same fact applies to the
peach, called in this country "Morris's Early
Red Rareripe ;" that excellent fruit is, I
think, also the Grosse Mignonne of France.
The evil arises from the fact, that people
finding a good fruit of any kind in their
own ground, not knowing its proper name,
call it, or allow others to call it, by their
name. This is not only natural, but una-
voidable. I have noticed this for manj' years,
and have done all in ij^y power, without ef-
fect, to correct the evil. It is not among the
uninformed alone that this habit exists, but
men who are at the head of the profession,
as cultivators of fruits, run into the same

errors. Mr. Knight, President of the Hor-
ticultural Society of London, sent a number
of fruits to the late John Lowell, Esq.,
under mistaken names, some of which Mr,
Lowell sent to me ; as they have fruited,
I have been able to correct these mistakes.
One of these fruits was called the Worms-
ley Grange, the name of one of Mr.
Knight's estates ; but the pear is evidently
the Echassery of Duhamel, a fruit known
in France one hundred years ago.

If, therefore, old fruits, long kno%\Ti to
the world, were frequently misnamed, it is
in no wise surprising that new kinds, un-
known before, should be misnamed, and
that their qualities should be unknown for
several years after they were brought into
existence.

Many of the names under which the pears
were sent me by the Horticultural Society
of London, are, I believe, extinct ; at least
I have never met with them in any cata-
logue of pears now considered as worth
raisingr, s. g. p.

<^o»»

THE PETUNIA AND ITS CULTURE.

BY AN AMATEUR, NEW- YORK.

The Petunia, with the success of a good-
natured merry friend in society, has found
its way into almost every garden. When
Ave take into account, that there is not a day
or hour, from the first moment in May or
June, that its blossoms begin to unfold, till
the cold November frosts absolutely kill it,
that it is not literally covered with blos-
soms, it must be allowed to deserve the
place in the garden which it has acquired,
though its sweet and somewhat pleasant
fragrance is not admired by all, and though
it has little beauty of foliage to recommend it.
The two species of Petunia, from which
all the fine sorts now coming into cultiva-

tion are raised, came originally- from Brazil.
The old White Petunia, P. 7iactyginiflora,
a coarse sort now rejected from most gar-
dens, was introduced from Brazil in 1823.
The old Purple Petunia, P. violacea, was
brought from Buenos Ayres in 1830.

The English and American gardeners
have lately devoted some pains to the im-
provement of Petunias by crossing these
two sorts, and raising hybrids between them.
The result already has been the production
of a number of new varieties, which com-
pletely eclipse the old ones, and are really
beautiful ornaments to the parterre. There
are now not only plain whites, and rich pur-

112

THE PETUNIA.

pies, but all the intermediate shades, as well
as many beautifully pencilled or variegated,
and others with dark tubed or throated co-
rollas.

Among the latest and finest new varieties
that are cultivated in this country, are the
following : Hebe, Nixenii, Beauts parfait,
Competitor, Gem,Timandraand Lady Alice
Peel.

Fig. 17. The Hebe Petunia.

Among these, Hebe, fig. 17, is, to my own
taste, one of the most beautiful. This va-
riety is, in its ground, colour delicate pale
lilac, superbly pencilled and marked with
rich purple, and with a rich dark rosy pur-
ple throat. The plant is one of the finest
in its habit, making a broad and spreading
plant, bearing hundreds of blossoms, every
shoot being laden with flowers. It is cer-
tainly an ornament to any parterre.

The others are also fine sorts. Lady Alice
Peel is smaller in its flowers than most
others, and of a delicate violet purple with
a pale centre.

It is the easiest thing in the world to cul-
tiA-^ate a Petunia. The more common sorts

are propagated from seeds, and once esta-
blished in the flower garden, they sow them-
selves, and would fill the beds if allowed to
do so. The finest sorts are propagated by
cuttings, which root freely if taken off" at
any time from June tu September, and
planted under a hand-glass, or in a shaded
hot»bed covered with a light.

To preserve them for the ensuing spring,
cuttings should be taken off" early in Sep-
tember, and planted in small pots filled
with good rich sandy compost. Here they
will soon strike root, when they may be
potted off' singly, watered and gradually
hardened to the air. During the winter,
they may be kept in any common sitting
room or greenhouse. They are ready for
planting out in the open border again as
soon as all danger of frost is over, say about
the middle of May.

The Petunia never produces so striking
an efl^ect as when planted in small masses
or groups by itself — each mass being com-
posed of a single variety. The plants then
spread themselves pleasingly over the sur-
face of the ground in a manner perfectly
natural to the genus, and the whole surface
is one mass of rich bloom.

The criterion of beauty for the Petunia,
among the florists, is a flower as nearly
round as possible, smooth-edged, free from
serratures, and not indented at the divisions;
colour bright and distinct ; and if variega-
ted, the contrast to be decided, and the veins,
stripes or blotches, well defined.

The name Petunia is derived from the
original Brazilian one, Petun.

To those who have but little space, and
wish something always in bloom- — to those
who wish to give a gay appearance to the
flower garden — to those who wfsh a good
deal of effect with as little trouble as pos-
sible, we commend the finer varieties of the
' Petunia. Yours, sincerely. An Amateuk.

REMARKS ON HYBRIDISING.

113

REMARKS ON HYBRIDISING PLANTS-

BY PROF. LINDLEV, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

[We reprint the following interesting re-
marks on originating new varieties of plants
by means of hybridising, from the pen of
Dr. LiNDLEY, in answer to various queries
on this subject, which we have received
from correspondents in various parts of the
country. The subject is, in this country,
perhaps most interesting in its application
to the production of new varieties of fruit ;
since, by its means the skilful cultivator
may, almost with certainty, produce a new
variety combining novel and desirable qua-
lities— as for example, the flavor of the
Seckel pear with the size of the Bartlett,
and other like combinations, which ages
might not give us by the accidental improve-
ment resulting from sowing seeds at ran-
dom.

We shall return to this subject soon, with
some remarks of our own.— Ed.]

Among the manj^ contrivances by which
man has succeeded in converting the wild
productions of untamed nature into bodies
better adapted to his artificial wants, nothing
has produced more past advantage, or pro-
mises more future profit, than hybridising.
We shall not refer in this place to what has
been done in the animal kingdom, but con-
fine the attention of the reader to its efiects
Upon vegetation.

The practice is regarded as one of very
recent date ; and so it is, as an artificial pro-
cess, applied by rule to definite purposes.
But he must be a bold man who dares to
assign to it historical limits ; on the contrary
it may be supposed to date from the Crea-
tion— or rather, it is in a manner certain
that it does. The presence of winds or in-
sects must necessarily, from the beginning,
have produced effects upon plants, which
resulted in hybrid productions.

Hybridising is effected by applying to the
stigma of one plant the pollen of some
Vol. II. 15

other ; the end of which is the generation
of a form, participating more or less in the
attributes of both its parents. Nature, in
her wildest state, opposes no insurmounta-
ble difficulties in the way of this operation.
Insects, bepowdered with the pollen of orte
plant, plunge into the recesses of another,
and thus efiectually destroy the purity of
races. The natural brush on the body of a
bee will convey the subtil powder, as well
as the trim camel's hair pencil of the arti-
ficial operator.

It is contended, indeed, that this cannot
be ; because if it were so, all species must,
in the lapse of ages, be confounded in one
inextricable chaos. But, in the first place,
this supposition is of little force, till it is
shown that that which is easily done artifi-
cially, cannot possibly take place naturally ;
and secondly, it must be proved that the
wild races of plants actually do remain in
all their original purity. No botanist would,
we suspect, venture upon such an argument
as that. The genera Salix, Eubus, Rosa,
and Carex, would make the stoutest advo-
cate of original purity pause before he'
threw himself into the lists. Nobody, in
fact, can possibly doubt that Avild hj-brids
exist, are common, and are, perhaps, much
more frequent than we think for. We will
not stop to quote notorious and. proved in-
stances of this, because we regard the fact
as being beyond all dispute.

Let us not, however, infer from this that
no natural obstacles are opposed to the in-
discriminate mixture of races in plants ; on
the contrary, there are barriers which can-
not be overleaped. By some mysterious
agency, there is a complete bar to all inter-
mixture of plants not closely related to each
other. An Elm may certainly mix with an
Elm, and perhaps with a Nettle-tree, but
not with an Oak. A Peach may, perad-
venture, cross a Plum, but not an Apple.
These obstacles are, doubtless, connected
with the molecular constitution of plants,
the precise nature of which we have no
means of examining. Another obstacle

114

REMARKS ON HYBRIDISING.

consists in the obvious fact, that the pollen
of a flower has a better opportunity of fall-
ing upon the stigma that belongs to it, than
pollen brought from any distance ; and we
know that if pollen has once taken effect,
no after application of other pollen can
change the result. In fact, the natural hy-
bridising of wild plants will generally take
place when, owing to some accidental cause,
the proper stamens of the flower prove de-
fective.

But there is a still more effectual obsta-
cle to the confusion of races by natural hy-
bridising. Although we conceive that the
'production of hybrid plants naturally is of
more common occurrence than may be sup-
posed, it must be remembered that the pre-
servation of them is quite an artificial pro-
cess. A hybrid tree springs up ; it has no
means of multiplying itself, except by seed.
That seed has no stable constitution, but has
a tendency to return towards the condition of
one of its parents ; in this way the hybrid
disappears, while the parents remain ; or it
may be, and often is, barren ; and then it
remains as a solitary, childless individual.
Again, a hybrid herb appears ; it is exposed
to the same obstacles as the tree in the way
of perpetuation. It is barren ; its seeds of
themselves tend towards the original stock,
which is recovered in a generation or two ;
or they are at once fertilised by the pollen
of one of the hybrid parents, when the ten-
dency to a return to its original stock is in-
creased tenfold in strength. It is not, there-
fore, likely that natural hybrids will often
be long perpetuated, although they may be
frequently produced.

We mention these things by way of vin-
dicating the hybridisers, who have been ac-
cused of attempting to subvert the whole
order of Nature, by monstrous practices. It
is clear that they only imitate the practices
of Nature. It is equally clear, too, that the
occasional formation of natural hybrids is
intended as a manifestation to man of one
of the sources of power with which he is
so largely provided. His reason is to be
called upon to turn to profitable account that
which, in savage nature, leads to no result.

Be this as it may, the practice of hybri-
dising is, as the politicians say, a great fact,
opposition to which would be fruitless, if it
were desirable. People have found out how

much is to be gained by it, and they cannot
be checked in its application by the sighs
of botanists over the dreaded advent of a
chaos of species. All that botanists, afflicted
with the heynionophohia can do, is to aban-
don gardens, and seek for solace in uncul-
tivated lands.

Hitherto the operation of hybridising has
been mainly confined to gardens. But see
what advantages have come of it there.
What were our roses in 1789, when the first
China Rose reached England ? and what
are they now ? The China Rose hybridises
so freely with almost every other, that there
is hardly an ancient species to which it has
not lent some part of its rich foliage, gay
colours and abundant blooming. Can any-
thing be more striking than the effect of hy-
bridising upon Pelargoniums, Heaths, Glo-
xinias, Verbenas and Gladioli ? By this
process we have given to the hardy pears
of the north, all the richness and delicacy
of those of the south ; to watery grapes the
perfume of the Muscat; to the pale-faced
but hardy Rhododendrons of Caucasus and
America, the rich and glowing colours of
their tender brethren of India ; to the gau-
dy Azalea of Pontus, the crimson of the
small-flowered fragrant species of the Uni-
ted States.

Such striking consequences of the very
first operations in hybridising, have excited
a universal desire to vary and extend them.
Everybody now, who cares for his garden,
asks himself, in the first place, what he can
do to get new seedlings ; and to hybridising
he looks exclusively for assistance. If a
fine new species of an ancient family ap-
pears, its good points, as a " brood plant,"
(forgive the innovation,) are among the first
things discussed ; and its valueis much de-
termined by its fitness for hybridising. Nor
is it to be wondered at. Hybridising is a
game of chance played between man and
plants. It is in some respects a matter of
hazard ; and we all know how much more
excitement is produced by uncertain than by
certain results. What increases the charm
of the game is, that although the end of it
may be doubtful, yet a good player can
judge of the issue with tolerable confidence,
and that skill and judgment have in this
case all their customary value.

Though hA'bridising has already led to

REMARKS ON HYBRIDISING.

115

important results, they are probably nothing
compared to what may be expected to come
of it. We anticipate, through its assist-
ance, a change in the whole face of culti-
vated plants, and we shall be much sur-
prised if even a few years do not bring us
acquainted with races of trees, esculents,
corn and forage plants, of at least as much
importance in their waj', as those which have
alread)'' appeared among fruits and flowers ;
all that is wanted is to call attention to the
subject, and to point out what the principles
are which the experimenter has to bear in
mind.

The effect is produced by applying the
pollen of one flower to the stigma of ano-
ther. The pollen indicates the male parent,
the stigma the female. In performing the
operation, it is necessary to use these pre-
cautions : The female flower must be de-
prived of her stamens before they burst,
and disperse their pollen ; and as soon as
the stigma is glutinous enough to hold it
fast, the pollen must be applied with care.
Should this care not be taken, the stigma is
very likely to be inoculated with the pollen
of her own or some other flower, and then
the pollen which it is intended to use will not
take ; for it must always be borne in mind
that a stigma once inoculated cannot be ino-
culated again. From want of these precau-
tions, people are continually fancying they
have obtained hj'brids, when they have only
gained natural seedlings. At least half the
specimens of so called hybrids, sent to us
for examination, are not hybridised at all.
When the Dean of Manchester, who is the
greatest of all authorities in this matter,
wishes to obtain a cross, he always endea-
vors to force the female parent before others
of its kind blow, so as to be insured against
accidental inoculation from pollen floating
in the air. Want of attention to these mi-
nutiae has led to some singular errors on the
part of a very ingenious correspondent, who
fancied he had obtained seedlings between
Crinum, Ismene, Buphane, Calostemma,
etc., while he had only raised the usual
seedlings.

It is hard to say within what limits the
operation may be successfully practised.
The general rule is, that plants only, which
are very nearly related, are able to inocu-
late each other. But there may be excep-

tions to this. At least we know that very
near connexions have, or seem to have, a
great aversion for one another. For example
a Raspberry and a Strawberry are first cou-
sins, yet they appear to have no mind for an
alliance. A Gooseberry, Currant, and Black
Currant, are still nearer to each other, and
their repugnance seems invincible ; at least
nobody has yet found means to hybridise
them with each other, though many have
attempted it. On the other hand, Heaths,
different as they are from each other, inter-
mingle freely; Cereus speciosissimus is
readily inoculated by the night flowering
Cereus ; and even the creeping Cereus has
been crossed with the former ; the Rhodo-
dendron will fertilize the Azalea ; and
strangest of all, the Red Cedar has on se-
veral occasions been found to inoculate the
American Arbor Vit«, the issue from which
is that curious whipcord-branched plant,
called in the gardens Thuja filiformis. This
singular shrub was so produced for the first
time in Messrs. Loddiges' nursery at Hack-
ne}^, and has since been obtained in the
same manner at Paris. These facts open
a very wide field for inquiry, and are espe-
cially valuable as affording evidence that
the limits of hybridising are far from being
narrow.

In the midst of many experiments con-
ducted without exactness, from which no
safe conclusion can be drawn, there are
some which, in the hands of such men as
the Dean of Manchester, seem to justify
the important inference, that as a general
rule, the properties of the male parent will
be most conspicuous in the hybrid. For
example, Mr. Herbert crossed the long-yel-
low-cupped common Daffodil, with the small
red-edge-cupped Poet's Daffodil ; and the
seeds of the common Daffodil furnished a
bulb with most of the attributes of the Poet's
Narcissus. The same gentleman also ob-
tained out of a capsule of Rhododendron
ponticum, inoculated by Azalea pontica,
seedlings which had entirely the habit of
the latter or male parent.

In like manner, the arborescent crimson-
flowered Rhododendron atlaclerense was
raised from the seed of the dwarf pallid R.
catawbiense hybridised by the arborescent
crimson R. arboreum ; and when the com-
mon scarlet Azalea, with its crimson flowers

116

REMARKS ON HYBRIDISING.

^nd narrow leaves, was inoculated at High-
clere by Azalea pontica, Mr. Gower found
that its seeds produced plants much more
like the male than the female parent. Ex-
ceptions, or apparent exceptions to this, do
no doubt exist, and hybrids could be found,
who are either half-way between their father
jind mother, or more like the mother than
the father ; but as far as any means of judg-
ing at present exist, these Avould seem to
be the exception and not the rule ; and
therefore the greater influence of the male
may be taken as a tolerably safe guide in
all experiments upon this interesting art.

Some of the actual results of hybridising
have already been pointed out ; others will
suggest themselves to any one acquainted
with gardening. Let us now consider what
further may be hoped for.

What further 1 Why, we have only
stepped over the border, and the whole field
of hybridising lies widely spread before us ;
jts boundaries are lost in the horizon, and
we shall find them still receding as we ad-
vance.

In directing attention to this part of the
subject, we do not here propose to include
the plants cultivated by the farmer, but to
confine ourselves strictly to garden plants.
What agricultural applications hybridising
may have, will be found hereafter in the
other department of our Journal.

The ends which it is hoped to gain by
all operations directed towards improving
the races of plants, are many. To increase
the size of flolvers, to improve their colour,
to approximate their form to some assumed
standard of perfection, to enlarge the foliage
as in esculents, to render tender plants har-
dy, to make barren races fertile, to improve
their flavor, by changing acidity or auste-
rity into sugary matter, to exchange early
for late varieties, are all results that have
been gained by hybridising, and which,
therefore, maybe gained again. We propose
to consider each of these points separately.

How far the size of Jloioers may be thus
increased, can be judged of from the Eose,
the Dahlia, the Fuchsia, Pansy, Pelargo-
nium, and Cactus. All these plants are, in
their wild state, small-flowered ; cultivation
alone has increased them greatly, but cross-
ing has rapidly carried it further. By ino-

culating the common Heartsease with the
large-flowered Pansy of the Altai moun-
tains, a degree of vigor was infused into
the former, which we could not have hoped
to obtain by any other means. In other
cases, as in that of the Dahlia, by observing
the first symptoms of a tendency to enlarge
in the natural seedlings, and then crossing
the best of them, the tendency has received
an immediate impulse,which has by degrees
brought about the enormous flowers we are
all familiar with. The flowers of Cereus
speciosissimus were inoculated with the pol-
len of Cereus grandiflorus by Messrs. Davis
& Co., of Wavertree ; and the imviediaie
result was a seedling from C. speciosissi-
mus, whose flowers were ten inches in dia-
meter. In prosecuting this branch of im-
provement, care should be taken to select
the finest possible flowers on both the father's
and mother's side, and to render them un-
naturally large by destroying all their neigh-
bors. The plants, too, should be in the
most robust health ; for we may be sure
that no point of constitutional vigor is to be
neglected in the parents, when a general
and permanent increase of it is desired in
their ofispring. It is moreover conformable
to the experience of the late Mr. Andrew
Knight, that even the plumpest seeds are
more likely to bring a fine seedling than the
weaker.

Among the commoner plants to which at-
tention might be drawn under this head,
are not merely those which, like the Verbe-
na, the Petunia and the Cactus, are already
in the florist's hands, but others that have
yet gained little attention. Take the Cle-
matis, for example : our wild Traveller's
Joy is unknown in gardens, although it has
a fine foliage, and a great vigor of growth.
Why not cross it with C. florida or viticel-
la, or even flammula ? Clematis viticella
is a bad grower, but has beautiful blossoms ;
it, too, may be certainly improved by some of
the finer species. Then, again, the Minorca
Clematis, with its fine speckled blossoms,
is tender, and flowers very late ; what would
be the effect of an intermixture of it and
C. montana, which is so hardy and flowers
so early ? What a noble plant, too, is C.
azurea to work with ! It must not, how-
ever, be crossed with any of the red spe-

REMARKS ON HYBRIDISING.

117

cies, for reasons that will be explained
hereafter. Can anything be more worthy
of attention than this charming genus,
\\ hich nobody seems to have thought
about ? To those whose leisure enables
them to prosecute such an inquiry, we may
state that in all probability the species of
Clematis will cross most readily in the fol-
lowing order, viz. — 1. C.JlamviuIa, vitalba,
and cyliiidrica ; 2. C.Jlorida, azurea, viti-
cella, balearica and montana ; but there is
no apparent reason why they should not all
also intermix, in skilful and patient hands.

Another important race of climbers are
the Honeysuckles. The flowers of our com-
mon Honeysuckle are little more than an
inch long ; but those of the beautiful Tus-
can species ( Ca'prifolium etruscum) are twice
as large, and in the Caprifolium longiflorum
of China the blossoms are full three inches
in length. Here are the best opportunities
for an improvement of one of our most fa-
vorite plants.

Nor do we regard the case of the common
Jasmine as hopeless. It is true that it does
not produce its berries with us ; but if it
were kept under glass, and artificially fer-
tilized, it probably would do so. Why not
intermix it with the beautiful species from
the Azores. It would, in all probability,
give its hardiness to that plant, and receive
in return a finer foliage and more abundant
bloom ; or, at least, it would hardly refuse
to mingle with the Catalonian Jasmine,
which is so like it, and then our cottages
might be covered with plants as beautiful
as those of Barcelona and Italy.

The Laurustinus is another plant entirely
neglected by the growers of new plants,
and yet there is no reason why its flowers
should not become as large as those of the
Guelders Rose — itself an artificial produc-
tion. What would be the efl^ect of inocu-
lating the finest of the varieties of the Vi-
burnum opulus, the parent of the Guelders

Rose, with the Laurustinus ? Either we
should expect an evergreen Snowball tree,
or a Snowball Laurustinus ; or, at least, a
considerable enlargement of the floAvers of
the latter ; or may be the issue would be a
hardier Laurustinus than we had before.
But that is beside the present question,
which we confine to an enlargement of the
blossom.

The double Japan and Chinese Cherries
{Cerasvs japoiiica and siitensis,) among the
finest of our spring shrubs, would be infi-
nitely improved if the size of the common
Cherry could be communicated to them ;
and there is no apparent reason against it.
And in like manner, the little Dwarf Al-
mond [Amygdalus nana,) not now much
grown, though a very pretty bush, might,
and most likely would, be readily improved
by a mixture with the common Almond,
or still better with that magnificent variety
called in the gardens Amygdalus macro-
carpa.

If we turn from shrubs to herbaceous
plants, there is the same abundance of ma-
terials on which to work. Why not at-
tempt to mix Tropceohim brachyceras or
canariense with the common Nasturtium ?
or the beautiful Hypericum coris with H.
androssemum, or H. erectum with calyci-
num ? or the annual Larkspurs with Del-
phinium grandiflorum ? or the whole race
of Dianthus, including the Indian Pinks
and Sweet Williams, with the Cloves and
Carnations ? or the gay Sea Lavenders with
such plants as Statice arborea and Dickin-
sonii? or finally our wild Buttercups with
the gaudy Ranunculus of the florists ?

In all these suggestions there is nothing
in the least contrary to probability ; the
plants that are adverted to are all of com-
mon occurrence, and easy for any one to
operate upon — indeed they have been se-
lected for that reason ; and they ofTer an
abundant reward to skill and patience.

American Elm. — This tree, Ulmus ameri-
cana, is much admired for its combination
of the graceful and magnificent. Trees
taken from the woods are difficult to trans-
plant successfully ; the best are raised from

seed. Such will usually outgrow those
from the woods. A gentleman near Alba-
ny, who plants many from seed, has had
them twenty-one inches in circumference,
when only eleven years old.

118

OKRA AND SOUPS.

OKRA, AND THE SCIENCE OF SOUPS.

There are two vegetables which we have
borrowed from the West Indies and the
Tropics, that are really great acquisitions
to the domestic economy of all classes. We
mean the Tomato and the Okra.

The Tomato, which, fifteen years ago,
was chiefly cultivated in the gardens of the
curious, and was scarcely considered edible
to a northern palate, has now become the
tenant of every garden, and is used in some
form, either raw, cooked, or preserved, in
salads, sauces, and stews, or even dried like
figs, by almost every man, woman and child
in thecommunity. It is, indeed, one of the
most valuable and wholesome of vegetables,
and the appetite for it which now universally
prevails, is but another proof of how much
stronger are acquired tastes than natural
-ones, since we think it may be safely said
that the first morsel of Tomato is not re-
lished by one person in a hundred.

The Okra is another vegetable which,
though it has now been cultivated and high-
ly prized in all our more southern cities for
years, and is appreciated as it deserves by
those who have made its acquaintance at
the north, is still far from being a well
known or common A^egetable in northern
gardens.

It is a West Indian plant, and is familiar-
ly known there and in New-Orleans, as
Gumbo. It is the Hibiscus esculentus of bo-
tanists, and belongs to the same family as
the Mallow, Althea, etc., a group of plants
remarkable for its absence of all deleterious
properties, and indeed for its wholesome
mucilaginous qualities.

The culture of the Gumbo is perfectly
simple and easy in all parts of the Union
where Indian Corn and Lima Beans flou-
rish. About the middle of May, a piece

of warm and rich soil should be prepared,
and the seeds sowed in drills two to three
feet apart. They may be sowed four or
five inches apart in the drills, and finally
thinned out to single plants at double that
distance. In good soils, the plants will grow
from three to five feet high, and produce
flowers and pods from midsummer till frost.
The flowers are not much unlike those of the
African Hibiscus, but they are twice as
large, and the whole plant is prettier than
many of the novelties allowed a place in
the flower garden.
The esculent part is
the pod, used when
about from two to
three inches long, fig.
18. Its most popular
use in the West In-
dies and at the South,
is as an ingredient in
soups, to which it not
only gives nice con-
sistency and agreea-
ble flavor,but renders
it more wholesome
and digestible.
When used in soups,
the pod is cut into
bits about a quarter
of an inch long, and
a handful of these is
sufiicient for soup for
a dozen persons. The
pods when tender, of
the size just mention-
ed, are also stewed
and served up with butter, and if preferred
a little nutmeg, which is a very agreeable
dish.

The Okra or Gumbo is considered an ex-

Thc Okra.

OKRA AND SOUPS.

119

cellent addition to almost any kind of meat
soups, but there are some soups especially
dignified as Gumbo Soups at the south, both
from their admitted excellence, and their
containing a liberal supply of the Okra.
From among them, we have selected the
following — a favorite New-Orleans potage
— the recipe of which, apropos of Okra — we
present to our readers as producing one of
the most capital soups in the world :

Gumbo Soup. — Take a fowl of good size,
cut it up, season it with salt and pepper,
and dredge it with flour. Take the soup
kettle, and put in it a table spoonful of but-
ter, one of lard, and one of onions chopped
fine. Next fry the fowl till well browned,
and add four quarts of boiling water.* The
pot should now, being well covered, be al-
lowed to simmer for a couple of hours.
Then put in twenty or thirty oysters, a
handful of chopped okra or gumbo, and a
very little thyme, and let it simmer for a
half an hour longer. Just before serving it
up, add about half a table spoonful oi feelee
powder. t This soup is usually eaten with
the addition of a little cayenne pepper, and
is delicious.

To those of our readers who may be in-
clined to marvel at our attention to soups,
we must beg to bring forward as our illus-
trious prototypes, Gen. Scott, M. Soyer,
and Baron Liebig.

Gen. Scott has shown to the country,
that with enemies both in the front and
rear, there is yet time for a man of genius
to take — hastily to be sure — his plate of
soup. M. SoYER, the artiste of the Reform
Club House, went out to Ireland, and esta-
blished his claim to the gratitude of philan-
thropic posterity by his model soup-kitchen,
by which thousands of starving sons of Erin

* We give the receipt as il is used, but think it better if
cold water were added. .

t Feelee powder is made of the leaves of gassafras, dried in
the shade, and then pulverised very finely. It gives an exqui-
site flavor to this soup.

are supplied with nourishing food at an in-
credibly small expense. And finally, Baron
Liebig, the world-renowned chemist, has
just written a letter to Mr. Everett, in
which he unfolds the whole philosophy of
soup-making, and indeed of cooking meats
generally. As there is really sound prac-
tical " information for the million " in his
remarks, as well as some chemical novelty,
we shall venture to extract a large portion
of his letter for the benefit of our readers.*

" If you leach finely chopped meat with
cold water, you procure a red fluid, and a
white residue. The latter is the actual
muscular fibre, and the solution contains,
besides the above named bodies, a conside-
rable quantity of albumen, that may be se-
parated as coagulum by heating the fluid
to boiling.

" I have found that the residue (the mus-
cular fibre) either for itself, or boiled with
water, is tasteless, and that the water in
which the fibre has been boiled derives no
taste. The fibre, by boiling, becomes hard
and altogether unpalatable.

" All the ingredients having odor and
taste, may of course be abstracted with
cold water. They are contained in the
flesh-fluid of slaughtered animals.

" You will not wonder, my most respect-
ed sir, if I now turn to receipts for the kit-
chen.

" It follows from the above, that one can
make for himself the best and strongest
broth {Fleisch-briihe, Bouillon de via?ide,) if,
e. g. a pound of finely chopped (minced)
beef with a pound (pint) of cold water be
carefully mixed, and then slowly heated to
boiling, and the fluid separated from the
solid parts by pressing through clean cloth.
This broth, with the usual condiments
(broiled onions, vegetables, salt, etc.) added,

• For the remainder, see SiUhnan's Journal of Science, July
1847.

120

OKRA AND SOUPS.

will furnish a dish beyond the criticism of
the most fastidious gourmand.

" Longer boiling will not necessarily make
the extract stronger^ If the broth be slow-
ly evaporated over a water bath, it will be-
come brown, and assume a fine taste like
broiled meat. If evaporated (by exceeding
gentle heat) to dryness, it yields a brown
mass, of which upon a journey, for exam-
ple, half an ounce would convert a pint of
water into the strongest broth* By boiling
a piece of meat in the water, a separation
of the solution from the insoluble ingredi-
ents takes place. The soluble ingredients
go into the extract — the broth — the soup.
Among these, besides those bodies mention-
ed above, are the alkaline phosphates.
The thoroughly boiled meat contains no al-
kaline phosphates.

" Now as these latter salts are necessary
for the formation of blood, it is clear that
the fully boiled* meat, by the loss of them,
loses its capacity to become either blood,
or through blood to become flesh ; it loses
its nutriment lohen eate?i without the juices
— the extract.

"In this extract the materials for the
formation of albumen and fibrin are both
wanting. Alo7ie, also, it is not nourishing.
2%e 7nethod of roasting is obviously the best
to ?nakefesh the most nutritious. But as
the extract — the broth — contains all the in-
gredients of the acid gastric juice, it may,
perhaps, be the best agent to aid the pro-
cess of digestion in cases of dyspepsia.

"Finally, I have found that the brine
which forms in the salting of meat,, contains
all the ingredients of the flesh-fluid. The
composition of salted meat is essentially
different from that of fresh meat, — inas-
much as phosphoric acid, lactic acid, and
the salts of these acids — together with cre-
atine and creatinine are abstracted by being

* By lliis term, it is intended to convey the idea of boiled
lill no further change occurs, or nothing is extracted.

packed down in salt. The salted meat be-
comes partly reduced, by this process, to a
mere supporter of respiration.* This may
be a source of scrofula, where by eating
salt meat, the replacement of the wasted
organism is but imperfectly eifected — where
it loses its constitution without regaining it
from the food,

" The temperature in the interior of a
piece of meat to be boiled ur roasted, rare-
ly exceeds 212° Fahrenheit. The meat is
done and palatable when it has been expo-
sed to a temperature of 144° F., but it is
in this condition red, like blood. The
blood-red places — the undone portions —
were subjected at the highest to a tempe-
rature of only 140° F. At 158° to 162° F.
all these places disappear. At 212° F. the
fibre breaks up, and becomes harder. The
crusty property of the meat in chewing, de-
pends upon the quantity of albumen, which
in a coagulated condition, permeates the
fibre. The flesh of old animals is deficient
in albumen.

" If a piece of meat be put in cold water,
and this is heated to boiling, and boiled till
it is ' done,' it will become harder, and have
less taste, than if the same piece had been
thrown into water already boiling. In the
first case, the matters grateful to the smell
and taste, go into the extract- — the soup ; in
the second, the albumen of the meat coagu-
lates from the surface inward, and envelops
the interior with a layer which is imperme-
able to water. In. the latter case the soup
will be indifferent, but the meat delicious."
The pith of the foregoing " facts in phy-
siological chemistry," for the domestic eco-
nomist, we take to be concisely as follows :
1. Soup should always be made by put-
ting the meat in cold water, and simmering
not boiling it.

* LiEBio divides food into two kinds. One serves in the for-
mation of tissues ; the other goes to sustain animal heat— as
sugar and fat, The latter sitpporta respiration.

AMERICAN GRAPES.

121

2. Meat thoroughly boiled in this way,
itself loses all, or nearly all, its nutritious
qualities, which pass into the soup or ex-
tract. But eaten along with the soup, both
are rendered more nourishing.

3. Soup, properly made in this way, as-
sists the digestive organs.

4. Roasting is, of all modes of cooking
meat, that which presents it in the most
nutritious form.

5. Boiled meat is far the most nutritious
and palatable, when it is cooked by putting
it into boiling water.

6. Too great use of salted meat has a
tendency to waste and impair the bodily
frame.

If M. SoYER were to travel through the

United States, he would tell our country
hotel keepers, that to make good soup, they
must use cold water — simmer, and not boil
— and always make it a day before it is
wanted, so that all fatty excess can be taken
off after it is cooled. This gives the pure,
clear, nourishing broths of the French kit-
chen, instead of the washy mixtures often
seen under the name of soups.

To come back to the Okra, we may ob-
serve in conclusion, that it is easily preserv-
ed for use during the whole year, by cutting
the pods into narrow rings or sections, and
drying them. At the south, they are seen
hanging on strings at the doors of the cot-
tages, much in the same way that dried ap-
ples are in many parts of New-England.

NOTES ON AMERICAN GRAPES.

BY W., ALBANY.

Dear Sir — I observe that neither in the
agricultural journals nor in the Horticultu-
rist, has anything been said which may be
taken as a guide by persons at the north,
wishing to select the most desirable native
grapes for their gardens,

I speak now more especially with respect
to the comparative hardi?iess and productive-
ness of the different varieties to be found
in commercial gardens ; for it must be ob-
served that, as most of the sorts cultivated
are southern in their origin, they are not en-
tirely hardy so far north as the latitude of
this city,

I should be glad, therefore, to contribute
something towards this needed information,
hoping that others, in different sections, may
offer you also the results of their experience.

I will begin by saying, that the Isabella
and Catawba are the two native sorts which
succeed best here under all circumstances.
Vol. II. 16

The Isabella is the hardiest, and will usually
ripen a full crop in almost any situation. The
Catawba also ripens fine crops in tri shel-
tered yards of the city, but cannot be de-
pended upon for doing so as far north as
this, except in warm aspects — such as the
south side of buildings, etc.

There is a variety of the Isabella known
as the Clinton grape* which is said to have
originated in the town of this name in this
state, which is much hardier and earlier
than the Isabella ; and though it is not, per-
haps, worthy of much attention farther
south, where the Isabella alwa3-s ripens
well, it is considered a valuable varietj^ here.

Though the Isabella and Catawba are
treated as hardy here, and will stand our
winters usually, I have found that they bear
better crops when the vines are covered at
the approach of winter,

* Will some friend send us some specimens of the fruit and
leaves of this variety, and some account of its origin ?— Ed.

122

AMERICAN GRAPES.

Bland's Virginia grape is found too ten-
der and too late in its maturity for the cli-
mate of Albany.

I am sorry to be obliged to add, that
judging from the experience of two winters,
the Ohio, or Cigar-Fox Grape, will also be
found too tender for us. It has been twice
killed to the ground in a garden in the sub-
urbs of this city.

I have found that the hardiness and pro-
ductiveness of the native grapes in the
heavy clay soil of my garden, are greatly
augmented by digging trenches, like drains,
three or four feet broad, and three feet
deep, when making borders to plant the
grapes. These trenches should be filled
about a foot deep with small stones, and
then with a layer of bones upon the top, if
they can be had. ' Upon these fill up with
good rich soil. The drainage (the drains
should have a fall and outlet,) will keep the
roots dry, and the vines will stand the win-
ter's cold better, and ripen their fruits ear-
lier as my own experience has satisfied me.

It appears to me that the improvement of
the northern species of grapes found in the
woods, would be well worthy the attention
of horticulturists. The common summer
and fox grapes, though they are so pulpy
and rough as to be unpalatable, may they
not be improved by taking them into the
garden ? We might then have perfectly
hardy grapes, even for the latitude of Que-
bec. Pray suggest this to your experiment-
ing readers, and believe me your friend.

W.

Albany, August, 1817.

P. S. What is the character of Norton's
Seedlins ?

Remauks. — Although Albany is scarcely
a degree and a half of latitude north of us,
we have found, as our correspondent states,

that its climate is much more severe upon
plants than this part of the Hudson.

The Isabella and Catawba are both per-
fectly hardy here, and the latter, in open
situations, never fails to ripen a fine crop.
The same remark applies to the Bland
grape, which, however, is one of the latest
varieties. The Ohio proves quite hardy
and productive here, and though the fruit is
small, the bunches are large, and the fla-
vor is agreeable. Norton's Seedling is har-
dy, and may be a good wine grape, but it
is harsh and unpalatable to the taste.

The experiment of cultivating our nor-
thern wild fox grapes, with a view to im-
proving the quality of their fruit, has al-
ready been fully tried by the late Prof.
GiMBREDE of West Point. That gentleman,
full of zeal in vine culture, collected, fifteen
years ago, every known variety from our
woods, and cultivated them in his garden,
manuring, stimulating and pruning them
with great care, in the hope of changing
and ameliorating their character. The ex-
periment was, as might have been expected,
a failure, although the fruit was greatly in-
creased in size, some of the sorts of fox
grape being larger in the berry than the
largest Black Hamburghs, yet the flavor and
original rough taste of the species remain-
ed unchanged, and the fruit was, in fact, as
unpalatable as at first.

To improve wild grapes of the woods,
the seeds must be planted ; and when the
seedlings come into bearing, by selecting
such as show a tendency to vary from the
wild state in leaf and fruit, and sow^ing their
seeds, it is probable that new and improved
varieties would soon be produced. This
result, however, would be much more cer-
tainly and speedily attained, if the wild
vine blossoms were crossed or hybridized
with some of the best foreign sorts. — Ed.

FIVE NEW OHIO CHERRIES.

123

FIVE NEW OHIO CHERRIES.

BY F. R. ELLIOT, CLEVELAND.

[Mr. Elliot has left with us, for publica-
tion, the following descriptions of the new
seedling cherries originated by Dr. Kiht-
LAND, the most successful amateur cultiva-
tor in northern Ohio. They are accompanied
by faithful outlines, made from average spe-
cimens of the fruit ; and both descriptions
and outlines are the result of two seasons'
observations of the varieties in a bearing
state.

Dr. Kirtland's collection embraces most
of the finest old European sorts, and from
his critical observation, and the fact that the
following new sorts have been selected by
himself and Mr. Elliot from a great num-
ber of seedlings of considerable merit, Ave
may be safely allowed to anticipate, that
they will prove an important addition to our
list of valuable standard. cheiTies. It will
be observed, that among these are sorts re-
markable for very early and late maturity.
—Ed.]

Fig. 19. Ohio Beauty.

1. Ohio Beauty.
A heart cherry. This
is really a most
beautiful fruit. It
is as large as Napo-
poleon Bigarreau,
tvith the superiori-
ty of being tender-
fleshed, and ripen-
ing ten days earlier.
Fruit large, oval,
flattened, heart-
shape. Colour,dark
red. on a pale red
ground, somewhat
marbled. Stalk long

open cavity. Flesh white, very tender,
delicate, juicy, with a fine flavor. Pit small,
oval, roundish-oblong, with a sharp edge
round its centre. [No. 7 of Dr. Kirtland's
private catalogue.] Ripe about the fifth of
June.

2. The Doctor. This fine new sort is
one of the earliest of cherries, and one of
the best. It very much resembles the Ame-
rican Heart, but ripens two weeks earlier

1 J inches, rather stout and set in a deep

Fig. 20. The Doctor.

than that cherry. The tree is spreading,
of moderate growth, the leaves narrow,
bears in clusters and is very productive. A
Heart cherry. Fruit as large as American
Heart. Form roundish heart-shape. Su-
ture extends quite round the fruit. Colour
light yellow and red, beautifully blended
and mottled. Stalk an inch and a half long,
neither slender nor stout, set in a round re-
gular cavity. Flesh white, juicy, tender,
sweet, and of a delightful flavor. Ripe first
of June. [No. 22, Dr. K.'s Catalogue.]

3. Kirtland's Mary. A high flavored
fruit, as large as the Napoleon Bigarreau, ri-

11

FIVE NEW OHIO CHERRIES.

pening with the Elton,
more hardy and easy
of cuhure than the
Jatter is with us here,
and equal in other
respects. Abigarreau
cherry. I luit large,
roundish-heart shape,
very regular. Colour
light and dark red,
deeply marbled on a
yellow ground — the
dark red preponderat-
ing. Stalk an inch
and a quarter to an

Fig. 21. Kirlland's Mary, jnch and a half loUg,

slightly curved, moderately stout. Flesh
light yellow, half tender, rich, juicy, sweet
and high flavored. Ripens in medium sea-
sons with the Elton. [No. 17, Dr. K.'s
Catalogue.]

4. Elliot's Favorite. This cherry is
certainly as beautiful
as the celebrated Belle
de Choisy, and it is lar-
ger, equally delicate in
flavor and texture. The
tree resembles the
American Heart, and
is a strong grower. It
ripens a few days later
than the latter variety.
A Heart cherry. Size
medium, form round,
very regular, slightly
compressed. Stalk of
medium length, from
Fig. 22. Elliot's Favorite, an inch and half to two
inches, inserted in a regular even cavity.
Colour a pale amber yellow, with a bright

carmine-red cheek marbled. Flesh pale
amber colour, transparent, tender, exceed-
ingly delicate, juicy and sweet, with a fine
high flavor. Pit small, angular, smooth
and regular on the surface. [No. 3 of Dr.
K.'s Catalogue.]

5. Late Bigarreau. This must prove
a valuable late variety, since it is as large

Fig. 23. Late Bigarreau.

as the Bi garreau, and as late as Downer^s
Late. In character it embraces the Bigar-
reau and r>ownto7i, partaking apparently of
each. The stalk is inseited like the Down-
ton, while it is broad like the Bigarreau.
Fruit large, obtuse heart-shape. Colour a
rich yellow ground, with a bright red cheek,
or frequently the red covering nearly the
whole surface ; occasionally it is blotched
or mottled. Stalk pretty uniformly an inch
and a half long, inserted in a deep, open,
regular cavity. Flesh yellowish, firm,
juicy, rich, and of agreeable flavor. Pit
rather small, quite round, surface pretty
smooth and regular. [No. 1 of Dr. K.'s
Catalogue.] F. R. Elliot.

Cleveland, Ohio, Avg. 1847.

SCIENCE OF GARDENING.

12^

REMARKS ON GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.— No. 4.
BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I.

" It is quite evident," says Liebig, " that the
quantities of carbonic acid and oxj'gen in
the atmosphere, which remain unchanged
by lapse of time, must stand in some fixed
relation to one another ; a cause must exist,
which prevents the increase of carbonic
acid, by removing that which is constantly
forming ; and there must be some means
of replacing the oxygen which is remov-
ed from the air by the processes of com-
bustion and putrefaction, as well as by the
respiration of animals. Both these causes
are united in the process of vegetable life."

Carbonic acid, or fixed aerial acid, is the
inevitable product of combustion and respi-
ration ; and the atmosphere is the recipient
of the gas so produced. Any one may con-
vince himself that it is always present, by
exposing a little pure fresh burnt lime, or
a glass of strong and clear lime water, to
the air, for a few days. Neither of these
would hiss, (effervesce,) were a drop or two
of any acid applied to it ; but after being
so exposed to the air for some time, the
lime would be converted to carbonate of
lime, and the lime water would lose its pel-
lucidity (clearness,) and be covered with an
insoluble brittle scale. Both would efl^er-
vesce with the extrication of frothy air-
bubbles ; and these changes are produced
by the attraction exerted by the pure lime
upon the carbonic acid of the atmosphere,
which causes a union of the two, and the
formation of that neutral salt of lime, com-
monly known by the term, chalk. If an
estimate is wanted of the actual quantity
of this acid contained in the air, let us again
turn to Liebig.

" The air contains in maxnno, ti^Ho « of

carbonic acid, and yVAVo of oxygen gas.
A man consumes in one year 166,075 cubic
feet of oxygen gas, (or 4-5,000 cubic inches
in one day, according to Lavoisier, Seguin,
and Davy ;) a thousand million of men must
accordingly consume 166 billion cubic feet
in one year ; this is equal to yoV o ^^ ^^^
quantity which is contained in the air in
the form of carbonic acid. The carbonic
acid would thus be doubled in a thousand
years, and man alone would exhaust all the
oxygen, and convert it into carbonic acid,
in three hundred and three times as many
years. The consumption by animals and
the process of combustion is not introduced
into the calculation."

There is not, perhaps, in the whole econo-
my of wonder-displaying nature, a fact more
conclusive, more simple, and yet more as-
tounding, than the one which the foregoing
extract reveals. For if some agency were
not unceasingly at work to withdraw that
volume of poisonous gas, which every act
of combustion and respiration pours into
the air, the whole would inevitably be con-
verted into a pestilential vapor. Nitrogen
is destructive of breathing life, and of it
we have seen that no less than four-fifths
of the entire atmosphere consists ; the re-
maining fifth of oxygen is the sole meliora-
tor — and of it every breath we inspire con-
sumes a portion. Then, " how does it hap-
pen that the proportion of oxygen in the at-
mosphere is thus invariably the same? Car-
bon and the elements of water form the prin-
ciple constituents of vegetables ; the quanti-
ty of substances which do not possess this
composition being in very small proportion.
It is therefore certain, that plants must pos-

126

SCIENCE OF GARDENING.

sess the power of decomposing carbonic
acid, since they appropriate its carbon for
their own use. The formation of their
principal component substances must neces-
sarily be attended with the separation of the
carbon of the carbonic acid from the oxy-
gen, which must he returned to the atmos-
phere ; whilst the carbon enters into combi-
nation with water or its elements. The at-
mosphere must thus receive a volume of
oxygen for every similar volume of carbonic
acid which has been decomposed."

Thus reasons Liebig ; yet upon this great
miracle of nature he advances no novel
idea ; he only brings us back to the obser-
vations of Sennebier, Dr. Priestly, De
Saussure, and others ; but his modes of
proof, his deductions from calculation, are
his own. That many have doubted the
grand facts which he has confirmed, is as
true as it is lamentable ; for there is not in
all creation one other traceable agency, by
Avhich the destructive increase of carbonic
acid could be prevented, if we deny it to
vegetable vitality! •" The life of plants is
closely connected with that of animals, in a
most simple manner, and for a wise and
sublime purpose. The presence of a rich
and luxurious vegetation may be conceived
without the concurrence of animal life ; but
the existence of animals is undoubtedly de-
pendent upon the life and development of
plants."

Plants not only afford the n5.eans of nutri-
tion for the growth and continuance of ani-
mal organization, but they likewise furnish
that which is essential for the support of the
important vital process of respiration ; for
besides separating all noxious matters from
the atmosphere, they are an inexhaustible
source of pure oxygen, which supplies the
loss the air is constantly sustaining. Ani-
mals, on the other hand, expire carbon,
which plants inspire ; and thus the compo-

sition of the medium in which both ex-
ist, namely the atmosphere, is maintained
constantly unchanged.

This beautiful reciprocity speaks volumes:
it sets aside that weak appeal to the agency
of humus, which has of late years been so
imperiously urged. The presence of ma-
nuring matter in the soil, and the important
changes which it operates, have doubtless
tended to blind us to the more important
agency of the atmosphere ; but Avhy decay-
ing vegetable matter, whose decomposition
is effect^d by the agency of the air and
moisture, should be identified with the ar-
tificial himius of the laboratory, is a myste-
ry. If such be the results of the applica-
tion of chemistry to the theory of agricul-
ture, we are free to confess, that we should
prefer the ignorant routine of our forefa-
thers. They pay a poor compliment to sci-
ence, who thus misapply its discoveries.

As applied to the nutriment of vegeta-
tables, Dr. Liebjg has thus far been follow*-
ed in his leading principles of chemical
philosophy ; his last great proposition being
this — that plants derive their nutriment
chiefly y?-07w the atmosphere ; during and by
which process they purify the air, absorbing
that gas which would otherwise so accumu-
late as to become destructive to animal
life.

The hypothesis is startling, because it
overturns all our ideas previously entertain-
ed, respecting the source and channels of
the nutrimental sap. It remains then to in-
vestigate a little more minutely the agency
of manures, and to discover, if it be possi-
ble, the effects which they produce upon
plants in the different stages of their growth.
By the term manure, we wish it to be un-
derstood that we mean every substance which
is decomposable i?i soils, and capable of be-
ing resolved into the elements of water,
{oxijgen and hydroge?:,) of carbonic acid,

SCIENCE OF GARDENING.

127

{oxygen a7id charcoal or carbon,) and of am-
monia, {hydrogen and nitrogen.)

We make no allusion to manure in its
limited sense, as applied agriculturally, but
look at it broadly in its most simple, as well
as most complicated form ; and therefore,
to make a commencement, we refer to that
most feeble of all substances employed by
the gardener, usually styled -peat, and for-
merly called bog earth. This black-greyish
or brown soil consists chiefly of white sili-
ceous sand, mixed with varying portions of
fern, bog moss, (sphagnum,) heath leaves,
rushes, or similar matter, in a condition of
progressive decay. It is seldom used fresh,
but usually laid up in heaps to mellow, for
woe be to him who shall touch it in its
pristine state. Buried in the darkness of
ages, swamped with water, and of a buty-
raceous compact texture, it is incapable of
affording support to any plant but the mise-
rable herbage upon its surface. Yet this
crude earth is a mine of manure, and by the
operation of air, light, and atmospheric elec-
tricity, it is meliorated, and becomes qua-
lified to support all the hair-rooted tribes
which are now so ornamental in our best
gardens. To one ignorant of chemical
principles, and who shall use it fresh, the
consequences are inevitable; " it burns eve-
ry root it touches," — the plant dies*

This " burning," which is a Avord in com-
mon use, is false in application, though its
effects are apparent. Plant an Azalea in
fresh peat, and in a few days, the points,
then half the leaA'es, become brown, the
shrub ceases to grow, the leaves fall, and
it perishes. But keep this same soil during
two seasons exposed to the weather, turning
it occasionally, and the same species which
would perish in it while fresh, now grow,
and thrive luxuriantly. To what then is
this "burning" attributable? To the ef-
fects of gaseous developments, produced by

progressive decomposition of the redundant
vegetable matter. In farm-yard dung, am-
vioniacal gas is copiously extricated, but in
peat or heath soil, some neutral salt of iron
exists, (the sulphate probably,) which is
gradually decomposed, loses its acid, and
becomes an innocuous oxide.
[ But this is a digression, though one
which involves many curious phenomena —
it is our object to show, that simple as is
this heath soil, an Azalea, a Rhododendron,
an Erica, or Andromeda, may grow in a pot
of it for years, and never exhaust it of any
portion of its " humus " or black vegetable
matter. If any discemable alteration takes
place, the tint becomes darker, as if finely
powdered charcoal had been added to it.
True, the plant will require fresh aliment
and more space, but not because the soil is
exhausted. The vegetable adds to the soil,
or rather ejects into it foecal and excremen-
titious substances, which consequently can-
not be taken up a second time with impu-
nity into its organic tissue.

It is every day becoming more and more
apparent, that soils are changed by cropping,

hut never exhausted. The earths proper

alumine, sand, lime and oxide of iron

may be taken up, to a very small extent, in
a state of solution in water, but they retain
their qualities in the mass, the soluble salts
of the soil — potassa, soda, and their sul-
phates, nitrates and muriates, or ammonia
and its salts — these are the substances
which vanish, and must be renewed by ma-
nures. We, therefore, urge upon our hor-
ticultural friends, to examine strictly all the
earths they employ before they plant in
them, and at every shifting. By thus in-
vestigating, a person may soon satisfy him-
self, that a soil becomes replete with speci-
fic odors, that its texture is changed, and its
nutrimental power deteriorated, as respects
the individzial plant, while it becomes ex-

128

EVERGREEN HEDGES.

tremely congenial to another of dissimilar j tering and solidification — and therefore that
habit ; but that in every case the soil rather ! the hurmis has not diminished in any degree
acquires depth and intensity of tint than | by the absorbent powers of the roots,
the contrary — that it loses little in bulk, ! Wm. W. Valk, m. d.

which little may be safely referred to wa- 1 Flushing, l. /., Aug. e, 1847.

THE BEST EVERGREEN HEDGE.

BY ROBERT NELSOX, OF NEAyBURVPORT, MASS.

The first settlers of the United States, after
having cut down the forests, surrounded
their fields with rail fences, as the easiest
and cheapest way of enclosing them. Turn-
ing up their soil, and clearing it from rocks,
they considered it a good plan to build stone
walls, as cheap but equally imperfect. These
require continual repairs, and instead of
protecting the fields from cattle and plun-
dering bipeds, they rather seem to invite all
such to cross the fields and pull them down.
Made in a more durable way, they are very
expensive, and even the best of them, such
as are to be seen on Indian Hill, near New-
bur^'port, look like a small imitation of the
Chinese wall, or some fortification construct-
ed by the " outer barbarians ;" and still
there are persons, (who would believe it ?)
that will say, " if you want a live fence,
then build a good stone wall, and then you
may plant a hedge close to it." Such men,
I am sure, never had any idea of a well
trimmed hedge.

Though the taste for improvement and
embellishment is coming: on with ffiant
paces, the more intelligent people begin to
abandon this barbarous mode, and it is now
the question which plant is the most suita-
ble. For the southern states the Osage
Orange is highly recommended ; for the
eastern states the Buckthorn {Rhatnnus ca-
thartiais,) and among the deciduous shrubs
it may be the best ; but there is another

plant, an evergreen, perfectly hardy, and of
the easiest culture, which I cannot too
strongly recommend to your readers. I
mean the Norway Spruce, {Pi7ius ahies,
Linn.)

For an ornamental evergreen hedge, the
Arbor Yitge, nvja occidentalis, has been re-
cently brought into use, and may be seen in
high perfection in Mr. Downixg's grounds
at Newburgh ; but though it forms a beau-
tiful thick screen, yet it is not strong and
close enough to make a hedge that will
be a thorough defence against man and
beast.

The Norway Spruce, highly useful for
the gardener as well as for the farmer, for
protection as well as for ornament, is a na-
tive of Norway and Sweden, and was in-
troduced into England in the middle of the
sixteenth century. In its native countr}*, it
may be seen growing in the roughest and
wildest places, on gravelly soil as well as
on peat ground ; on deep sand as well as on
the most barren rocks. Indeed, if it can
only find a small cleft to strike its roots ;
and although some English authors consi-
der it only fit for a " sheltered situation,"
it may be seen exposed to all the storms
that rage on the western coast of Norway
between the sixtieth and seventieth degrees
of north latitude, often atttaining a height
of 150 feet : thus its hardiness cannot be
doubted for any part of the eastern states.

EVERGREEN HEDGES.

li.'9

This tree, in Denmark, in a climate much
like that of Boston, is often used for hedges.
I have seen them there from five to fifty
years old ; and I have planted and managed
several thousands of yards of it as hedge.

No evergreen bears trimming better than
the Norway Spruce. It may be cut into
any shape, and after a few years' trimming
it presents a strong green wall of great
power of resistance.

I am, therefore, quite confident, that it
will prove a first-rate and beautiful hedge
plant for New-England.

Raising Plants.- — This tree is only raised
from seed, which, when sown in drills early
in spring, in light sandy soil, soon vegetate,
but as the young plants carr}' the seed on
the top of the fruit leaves, they are apt to
be destroyed by birds, and will want protec-
tion for some time. The easiest way to do
this, is to cover the seed bed with some
brushwood. As the plants in the first sum-
mer have but tender roots, the powerful
sun and drouth of America will undoubted-
ly scorch them, and it is, therefore, always
advisable to sow them in a shady situation.
The second spring they ought to be trans-
planted to six inches distance from each
other, in order to form nice stocky plants,
and thus better fit for a hedge. This is
seldom performed in the commercial nurse-
ries, where they commonly remain in the
seed bed for several years, in order to save
space and trouble, but these plants are much
inferior to the first mentioned.

Planting. — When two or three years old,
and having attained a height of about from
one to two feet, the seedlings are to be :
transplanted where they are wanted for a |
hedge. It will be remembered, that manure
is almost death to the Non\-ay Spruce, i
which is most fond of sandy, or still better, j
gravelly soil, and I have known hedges of
this tree to grow most admirably, when I
Vol. 11. 17

planted on sunk fences. Where the soil is
verj- rich, it would be well to dig the trench
: pretty deep, and fill it with small rocks to
j the depth of six inches. The transplanting
! should be done in spring, and it need not be
ven,- early ; even the middle of May is of-
ten not too late, unless we should have a
I verj- forward season. Transplant with as
'■ large a ball of earth as possible, or else be
: careful to get all the roots, and not to
let them drj- ; press the ground about the
' roots, but not too firmly ; water directly
and plentifully, which v.ill settle the ground
I best around the roots ; and afterwards occa-
: sionally in a dr}' season, till they begin to
■■ grow. If wanted for an ornamental hedge
I in a garden, to grow only about four feet
high, the plants ought to be set out from
nine to twelve inches apart ; but when the
hedge is wished to grow six or seven feet
high, they must be planted one foot apart.
For an outside hedge, as a protection
against cattle, or for subdivisions in the
fields, where they are desired to give shel-
I ter against high winds, I would advise the
• choice of plants two feet high, and that they
, be planted two feet apart. As soon as the
j hedge is set, it will be necessary to protect
it with a few rails for a couple of years.

Finally, I must mention, that, if the
hedge is to be planted on a verj- windy,
rude and exposed situation, it will be of no
use to take seedlings from a sheltered place
in a nurser}'. Such a hedge will never do
well, unless raised from seed on that very
place, and afterwards thinned out ; and if
this could not be done, the seedlings must
be raised in a similar open situation, expo-
sed to any change of weather ; and pro-
bably this may be the reason why the Eng-
lish authors incorrectly think the Norway
Spruce not perfectly hardy when exposed
to high winds.

Although many gardeners and nursery-

1,30

EVERGREEN HEDGES-

men recommend the planting of hedges in
double rows, still, for several reasons, I most
decidedly prefer to plant only single rows.

Trimvting. — A good hedge ought never
to be trimmed in anyother way than in a co-
nical shape; Nature teaches us best, and a
very little observation, I think, shows plain-
ly that this is the natural way. It may be
considered tasteless and absurd, to trim a
hedge in a square form, in point of beauty,
or, still worse, broad at the top and narrow
at the bottom ; but when we reflect that the
growth of the bottom of the hedge is
checked and stifled by allowing it to be
broadest at the top, reasun should teach us
to abandon that mode on the ground of un-
fitness.

As soon as planted, stretch a line, and
with a hedge shear trim both sides in a con-
venient conical form, leaving the top till the
hedge almost has attained the desired
height.

A well trimmed hedge in a small garden,
four feet high ought never to be broader at
the bottom than twelve inches, and should
slope to the top in a very acute angle. For
each foot higher it may be allowed to grow
two or three inches broader at the bottom,
and in that proportion at any height. In
this way only, every shoot will enjoy the
full benefit of air, light and moisture, and
by this simple and natural method, you
willj in a short time, form a hedge such as
I have often seen, as green and close from
bottom to top, that even a sparrow could not
without difficulty pass through it.

A hedge, until it has attained the desira-
ble size, may be trimmed at least twice in
a summer, with a hedge shears ; afterwards
it can be much easier, more quickly, and
as well done, with a sharp sickle or hook.
EoBEUT Nelson.

Indian Hill, near Xeivburt/port, Aug. M, 1S47.

[The remarks of our Danish correspon-
dent are worthy of attention. The vigor,
hardiness and rapid growth of the Norway
Spruce appear to us well calculated to ren-
der it a capital evergreen hedge plant.
Mr. Nelson assures us, that he has seen
them shorn into " strong walls of verdure,"
and we know there are few trees so admi-
rably adapted to form thick screens for shel-
ter in windy or exposed situations. AYhen
of small size, they are very easily trans-
planted. The Norway Spruce, though it
be found in most of our nurseries, is not
yet grown in sufficient abundance to be of-
fered cheaply as a hedge plant, being in
demand principally as an ornamental tree.
But in the English nurseries, such as that
of Skirving of Liverpool, Kiveks of Saw-
bridgeworth, etc., where it is extensively
grown for timber plantations, it may be
purchased in any quantity — the plants one
to two feet high — for about thirty shillings,
(say seven to eight dollars) per thousand.

Autumn is much the best season for im-
porting evergreens, and we recommend
some of our leading nurserymen to import
a large stock of the Norway Spruce, of
small size, grow it one season here, and
offer it for hedges at a moderate rate.— Ed.]

Teees in Grass Ground. — An exchange
says, that when trees grow in grass ground,
it is well to remove the sod in the fall two
or three feet round the tree, and then apply
half a wheelbarrow load of manure ; the
winter rains and snows will wash the

strength of the manure to the roots. Scatter
the manure under the tree in the spring,
and add leached ashes. This will have a
tendency to keep down the weeds and
grass ; but as when they grow, they will
groAv strongly,the spade must be kept in use

STEPHANOTIS FLORIBUNDA.

131

A FINE NE"W SUMMER CLIMBER— THE MANY-FLOWERED STEPHANOTIS.

The annexed engraving represents a portion
of a shoot, shoAving the leaves and flowers
of the new Madagascar climber, Stephano-
tis fiorihunda, which is, at the present mo-
ment, looked upon by amateurs as the great-
est acquisition among the floral novelties of
the season. " Beautiful in the extreme,
and possessing a most delicious fragrance,
this fine climbing plant," says the last Lon-
don Horticultural Magazine, " is admired
by all who know it. Its beauty is derived
from the contrast presented between the
pearly whiteness of its profuse and hand-
somely formed blossoms, and the deep green
hue of its ample and enduring leaves ; and
this beauty, supported as it is, by a most
exquisite fragrance, gives it an indisputa-
ble claim to the high estimation in which it
is held."

Mr. Paxto>% in his Magazine of Botany,
remarks, that it is next to impossible to
overrate its merits, they are so essentially
sterling. Besides having a most elegant
climbing habit, it bears dark shining foliage,
of a pleasing order, and from the axils of
this, the delicate creamy white blossoms are
protruded in large umbels. The texture of
the flowers being very firm, they last a con-
siderable time, and their odor is exceedino--
ly delicious.

The Stephanotis being a native of Mada?
gascar, of course loves a high temperature,
Indeed, the English look upon it essential-
ly as a stove or hot-house plant. " One
drawback alone," says the editor of the jour-
nal first quoted, " is attached to its high re-
commendations ; it is a tropical plant, and
must be cultivated in a hot-house."

We are very happy to be able to assure
our American readers, that we have, at this
moment a fine plant of the Stephanotis,

which has been growing in the open border
since the middle of May, trained on a frame
about eight feet high, which it now fully
covers, and that it has been adorned with
its charming white blossoms for the last two
months.

Although, therefore, there is no doubt
that it will grow with perhaps still greater
luxuriance in a hot-house, we have no hesi-
tation in claiming, for the open ground in
this climate, this fine plant as a decided ac-
quisition to the class of beautiful summer
climbers, among which we already number
the Maurandias, the Calampetis,the Cobeas,
etc., all rapid growing tropical plants, which
when propagated in midsummer or early
autumn by cuttings, and the latter kept
through the winter in a common green-house
and planted after all danger of frost is over,
will clamber over trellises, light summer-
frames, columns or arches, and cover them
with wreaths of foliage and blossoms, from
midsummer till late autumn.*

The Stephanotis belongs to the natural
order Asdepiadacece, to which the several
well known species of Asclepias, and the
Hoyas or Wax-plants also belong. It has
the milky juice of many of the individuals
of this order, but the flowers are larger than
is common in the group of plants compos-
ing it. The leaves are elliptical, opposite,
rather glossy and thick; the umbels or clus-
ters of flowers, are borne on a peduncle or
stalk, which springs out of the main stem,
from between the bases of the leaf stalks.
The flowers are salver-shaped, with the top
divided into five segments, and with a cy-
lindrical tube, which is swollen at its base.

* AVe first s;iw this plant in high perfeciion, bearing many
thousands of lilossoms. last season at the fine residence of
.'^, HowLAM). Ejq , near Greenhurgh, Westchester ci'Uniy,
N. V. li was tranied under the roof of a vinery, where it
grew in great luxuriance. From cuttings kiudly preseuted
us by .Mr. HowxA!»r, we raised several plants very readily.

32

STEPIIANOTIS FLORIBUNDA.

Fig. 24. The Many-floivered Stephanotis.

This plant, we find, is propagated with
facility, by making cuttings of the ends of
the flowering shoots, and planting them in
pots of sandy loam, and covering them with a
bell-glass, or placing them under a common
hot-bed frame, in a shaded situation. When
wanted for trellises, etc., in the open bor-
der, the cuttings should be planted at any
time from July to the middle of September,

so as to allow them to make roots before
winter. We find that such well-rooted cut-
tings may, if kept moderately dry, be pre-
served in a common green-house through
the winter.

When planted in the open border, the
soil should be made rich and deep. If it is
rather moist, and the situation is one rather
warm, and fully exposed, the growth of the
plant will be the more luxuriant.

As the Stephanotis is a twining plant, when
once fairly growing at the foot of fitting
supports, it will generally take care of it-
self; in our hot midsummer Aveather, it
grows quite rapidly. Though yet rare, and
seen in only a few choice collections, its
beauty of habit, leaf and blossom, added to
its perfume, will no doubt soon introduce it
to the notice of lovers of fine plants.*

Keeping Curkants and Gooseberries. —
The Prairie Farmer says, that they have,
for several years, practised the following
mode, by which the " green fruit " maybe
kept for any length of time, as good as
when first taken from the bushes : "Pick
them when fully grown, let them be dried

from any dew or rain, and put them into
glass bottles, cork the bottles tight, and
cover the corks with sealing wax; then
cover the bottles partially Avith sand or earth
in the cellar."

* We observe that Messrs. Thorburn & Co. of New-
York, are exhibiting pretty specimens of Stephanotis flori-
bunda, in pots, grown at their garden at Astoria, L. I.

PLANTING STRAWBERRIES.

133

HOW TO PLANT STRAWBERRIES.

BY A SUBURBAN GROWER, BOSTON.

This is the time for making new strawberry
plantations. Although on the whole I pre-
fer the month of April ; yet, as it is not al-
ways so convenient at that bus)^ season,
August planting is often resorted to, and is,
especially with the aid of showery weather,
a very good time for setting new beds. In
fact, I have generally been fortunate with
new set beds as late as the tenth of Sep-
tember ; always premising that when plan-
tations are made after the first of August,
the beds should be covered with straw at
the approach of winter.

It seems to me, that the main point in
raising the best strawberries, is the condi-
tion of the soil in which they are to grow.
Now no one is a more ready subscriber to
the importance of trenching, for all plants,
than the writer. The roots of the straw-
berry will run deep in deep soil, and the
crops will be abundant and fine just in pro-
portion to the extension of the roots, and
consequent health and vigor of the plants.

But the manner of trenching which I
practise, and ask leave to recommend, is
not the common mode. I think, from ex-
perience, that in a light mellow soil, like
my own, it is superior to the common mode,
and therefore must be allowed to say that
it is worthy of the attention of any one
about planting strawberries.

It may, as compared with trenching in
the common way, be called half-trenching ;
and it is performed in this wise. Having
marked off the plat of ground which is to
be prepared, make a trench on one side of
it, by taking off the soil one spade deep
along the whole side, and about three feet
wide. Carry this in a wheelbarrow and
empty it on the opposite side of the plat,

where the trenching is to end. Then cover
the earth in the bottom of the trench with a
heavy coat of fresh manure or strong com-
post, and dig the manure under at once.
Next begin at the rear of the trench, dig
and throw the top soil of the next three
feet over on the top of the under layer three
feet broad just manured and dug. This
will leave three feet width more of new
under layer exposed, which manure and dig
as before — pursuing this till the whole sur-
face is half-trenched in this way.

This half-trenching doubles the depth of
the soil, and invites ihe roots to run down
into the enriched under-layer, while it does
not in any way deteriorate the condition of
the surface of the ground, as is often the
case in many soils where whole trenching
is executed, and the bottom spit is turned
up and left upon the top.

The plan of growing strawberries which
I prefer, is that of the alternate strips, de-
scribed very plainly in your Fruits and
Fruit Trees, p. 522. I like it best, because
it costs me the least amount of care and la-
bor, and gives me large crops of fruit. I
plant the strips three feet wide, and leave
a space of three feet between. As I allow
the plants to cover and take entire posses-
sion of the three feet strip allotted to them,
I both get a larger crop, and at less labor of
weeding, etc., than can be had when the
plants are shorn of runners. As soon as
the planted strips have given me one full
crop, I dress the open strip, and allow the
runners to take full possession of it. This
done I spread a coat of compost and ashes
over the old strip of plants, turn them under
with the spade, and allow it to lie fallow for
a vear, to take its turn afterwards again.

134

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

By half-trenching the ground before
planting out strawberries, as I have just ex-
plained, I find that my crop of strawberries
is certain in years when those in untrenched
ground prove a partial failure, and that
moreover the berries are uniformly larger
and higher flavored.

The kinds of Strawberry which I culti-
vate and approve most are, 1st. Large Ear-
ly Scarlet, as valuable for its earliness and
excellence ; 2. Hoveifs Seedling, among
the best of the large berries : 3, Boston
Pine, an excellent fruit; and 4. the Old
English Red Wood, one of the greatest
bearers, and most delicate flavored, and
which bears much later than any other.

Notwithstanding what your correspondent,
Mr. LoNGWORTH, and others say to the dis-
credit of staminate varieties, I know from
jexperience, that sonae staminate sorts, and

among them the Boston Pine, bear excel-
lent crops with the culture I have pointed
out. It is probable enough that in a rough
way and left to itself, it may not yield so
heavily as pistillate sorts will with the same
neglect ; but as I have, with half-trenching,
raised a better crop of it than some of my
neighbors have of Hovey's Seedling, and
as I prefer the flavor of the Boston Pine, I
shall not give it up on account of the pre-
sent clamor against strawberry plants that
bear stamens.

I find that pistillate sorts, like Hovey's
Seedling, when planted in alternate strips
with the Large Early 3carlet, are always
well fertilized without any admixture of
staminates in the same strips with them-
selves. I am very respectfully yours, etc.
A Suburban Grower.

Boston, Aug. 2, 1817.

ON TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

BY ANDREW SAUL, HIGHLAND NURSERIES, NEWBURGH.

Which js the best season of the ye^r for
transplanting evergreens ? is a question, al-
most dajly debated, and as there are some
persons who have succeeded in getting ever-
greens to live, when transplanted at this
season (August,) who previously failed in
spring planting, they arrive at the conclusion
that August is the best season for trans-
planting evergreens.

While we are perfectly satisfied that
evergreens can be transplanted \n August,
or indeed at almost any other season of the
year so as to live and thrive after\yardSj yet
experience has satisfied us that the spring
is, all things considered, the best season for
performing that operation in this climate,

In the first place, in many evergreens,
the young wood and foliage is in a more

immature state, and it requires great care
to preserve their respiratory organs, which
are always in more active operation in the
warm summer months, than in the cooler
spring months, after being transplanted, by
shading, watering, etc. And in the next
place rains are less prevalent in August than
April, while from the great evaporation
going on in the high temperature of mid-
surnmer, wioisture in a hundred-fold more
is required.

The fact of a person succeeding in mak-
ing a tree live by moving it in August,
when he had previously failed to make the
same kind of tree live by transplanting it
in April, does not prove the former to be
the better season for transplanting. Gene-
rally persons transplanting ii> spring bestow

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

135

no more pains on evergreens than on the j
hardiest forest tree ; while persons under- I
taking to transplant evergreens in summer, j
(say August,) bestow unusual care : in the
first place they have them taken up with all
the care possible, and have them planted in
the same manner, and they also pay unu-
sual attention to the after treatment in
shading, watering, etc., should the season
require it.

We speak of the month of April, that
month being the season at which the growth
in evergreens commences in this latitude.
Farther south, March would correspond,
and farther north May. This point, how-
ever, is most important : that evergreens
are moved with the most success in the
northern half of the Union, when lifted
just at the moment their buds are beginning
to swell, of in other words, just as vegeta-
tion has commenced. If taken before this
time, while the tree is quite dormant, suc-
cess is not so certain, for evergreen trees
do not possess the same vital energy to com-
mence pushing out new shoots after being
disturbed by removal, that deciduous trees
do. On this account many experienced
planters prefer delaying the transplanting
of evergreens till they have fairly started
into growth — say of half an inch to an inch
at the ends of the shoots. And we must
confess that we have had excellent success
in removing thenl as late as May, and when
they were considerably advanced.

We are satisfied that the same amount of

care bestowed in transplanting a given num-
ber of evergreens in April, about the time
they first show symptoms of being excited
into growth, and just before the buds are
developed, that is bestowed upon a like
number of trees moved in August, that in
nineteen cases out of twenty, success will
be greater at the former season of the year,
than at the latter. We cannot but think an
evergreen tree in April, is in a better con-
dition to be moved, than it possibly can be
in August, when, instead of the earth being
moist, it is hot and dry; the probabilities of
a damp atmosphere, after transplanting, are
much greater, too, in spring than midsum-
mer. Every planter is well aware that
upon the favorable continuance of cloudy
weather even more than rain itself, depends
the emission of roots by newly moved ever-
greens.

Transplanting in winter, with frozen balls
of earth, is a well known and very capital
mode of moving large specimens of ever-
greens. It requires time and patience and
the co-operation of several hands and a sled
with a pair of horses or cattle, etc. ; but as
trees skilfully removed in this way, suffer
but very little by the removal, and as they
may be made to produce considerable ef-
fect immediately, it is a mode deserving the
attention of all ornamental planters. Sir
Henry Stewakt's advice of choosing trees
that stood naturally in an exposed or open site^
if attended to,- will greatly add to the cer*
tainty of rapid growth. A. Saul.

Rhubarb or Pie Plant Poisonous. — We
have noticed several instances mentioned in
our exchange papers, of individuals being
dangerously taken sick after having eaten
the leaves of the Rhubarb plant cooked as
greens. A late English paper also gives

a case where severe sickness was incurred
by eating tarts made of the swelling buds.
The presence of oxalic acid, which is a
strong poison, in the leaves, is said to be
the cause. No part of this plant, therefore,
should be used but the stems of the leaves.

136

CULTURE OF THE GRAPE.

REVIEWS.

The Culture of the Grape : embracing direc-
tions for the treatment of the Vine in the Northern
States of America, iri the open air and under
glass structures, with and without artificial heat.
By J. FisK Allen. Boston. 8vo. pamphlet,
55 pages. Price 37g cts.
Here is a modest unpretending pamphlet,
which we look upon as a most valuable con-
tribution to our stock of knowledge on the
subject of grape culture.

When a person writes a pampldet on a
subject that might have been extended to
a whole volume ; when he bears in mind
that his subject is one of purely practical
importance, and accordingly conveys his
ideas in the simplest and plainest terms ;
when, in short, the whole performance
shows that he writes solely because he feels
that he has something valuable to commu-
nicate, we are inclined to look upon his
pages with far more respect and attention
than upon those, much more common, of
the author ambitious of making a hook at
all hazards.

The culture of the grape under glass may
be said to be one of the nicest points in
horticultural practice. Not, indeed, that it
is difficult or mj^sterious when once under-
stood. On the contrary, there is no crop
of fruit produced in America with so much
certainty, so uniformly fine, as are the ^ons
of delicious foreign grapes borne every year
in certain well known vineries about Bos-
ton. But the phrase, " when once under-
stood," means something in the culture of
the foreign grape ; for it is almost the only
fruit of the temperate zone that exacts an
artificial climate in the United States. Both
observation and experience are demanded,
to insure uniform success; and there are
many cultivators just commencing in this
country, who, in the absence of both, will

gladly avail themselves of Mr. Allen's as
here presented.

This gentleman's success in the produc-
tion of the finest fruit is almost a proverb at
Boston, where are our best growers of the
grape. He has not only carefully examin-
ed the vine culture abroad, but he has ex-
perimented perhaps more extensively than
any American, at his residence at Salem,
Mass., with all the different modes of cul-
ture, and with a great variety of glass
structures. He has collected and proved all
the most celebrated kinds of foreign grapes,
often, as we know, importing a rare kind
from four or five different sources before
getting the genuine variety. In this way,
Mr. Allen has introduced, proved and dis-
seminated with liberality, several valua-
ble sorts, previously unknown in our collec-
tions, and for which pomologists owe him
many thanks.

The following prefatory remarks show
the aim of the essay before us :

"The attempt has been made to give
plain rules, which may be easily understood,
and the practical operation of which can be
carried out with as little labor as the culti-
vation of the grape, under glass, will per-
mit.

" The following directions are intended
for those who may desire to cultivate this
fruit for their own pleasure or convenience,
who do not wish to incur the expense of a
regularly educated gardener, and who have
felt the want of a concise and simple expla-
nation of the process, and the rules by
which these operations of forcing and grow-
ing grapes, under glass structures, can be
carried out.

" The treatment recommended is such as
has been found to be the best, after many

AGRICULTURAL BOTANY.

137

years' experience in its cultivation ; during
which time, the different systems of pruning
have all been tried, and many of the vine-
yards in France and on the Rhine, in Italy
and other countries, have been visited, and
and the manner of pruning, the varieties of
soil, and the amount of fruit which a vine
is permitted to ripen, have been examined
and ascertained.

" The disadvantages we labor under in
this countr\', in forcing fruit, from the ex-
treme coldnesss of the weather in winter,
are counterbalanced, in some degree, by
the superior brilliancy of the sun, and con-
sequent dryness of the atmosphere at the
time of ripening, which give a flavor to the
fruit such as it can rarely be made to attain
in the moist, dull and cloudy weather of
England."

Mr. Allen's pamphlet, it will be remem-
bered, is intended chiefly for the use of
those having" viyieries. His directions for
for the culture of grapes out of doors are
very brief, and of comparatively little mo-
ment. But he treats of the culture of grapes
under glass sj-stematically, and though with
brevity and conciseness throughout, yet in
a way best calculated to instruct the novice
in vine culture. The construction of the
grapery, the preparation of the border, and
planting the vines, are first explained ; then
the routine of pruning and management in
the cold-house, (or vinery without fire-heats,)
is considered; this is followed by the details
of a forcing vinery, then that of a retarding
house, and the work closes with an expla-
nation, with cuts, of different modes of
pruning and training the vine.

" For a cold house," Mr. Allen recom-
mends the following selection of varieties :

Black Hamburgh,
Rose, or Kcd Chasselas,
Chasselas de Bar sur Aube,
White Froiitigiian,
Grizzly Frontigiiaii,
Pjlmasiou While Cluster,

Golden Chasselas,
White Gascoipne,
Royal Muscaniue,
Wilmoi's New Black liar
burgh.

" For a forcing house :"
Vol. II.

Black Hamburgh,
Rose, or Red Chasselas,
Chasselas de Bar sur Aube,
While FrontiL'iiaii,
Grizzly Froiitigiiaii,
Black Froiitigiian,
Pilmasloii White Cluster,

Golden Chasselas,
White Gnscoigne,
Royal Muscadine,
Wilmot's New Black Ham-
burgh,
Muscat of Alexandria,
Ziufiiidal.

Brief descriptions are given of forty or
fifty other varieties cultivated by Mr. Allen.

The author's mode of preventing mildew
is to strew sulphur early in July, over the
floor of the house, at the rate of one pound
to every twenty square feet. This may be
repeated twice every summer. The sulphur
is by no means allowed to touch the fruit,
but if necessary the vines are syringed at
evening, and ihe foliage dusted with it.

As Ave predict that this timely little trea-
tise on the grape Avill speedily be in the
hands of ever}' cultivator of the foreign vine
in the country, we will not do more at pre-
sent than cordially recommend it as well
worthy their attention.

Agricultural Botany : ^n ennmeralion arid
description of useful plants and weeds, which
vierit thenotice, or require the attention of Ameri-
can Agriculturists. By William Darlington,
M.D. Philadelphia, J. W. Mcore ; New-York,
Newinan &. Co. 12mo. 270 pp.
Dk. Darlington, already well known as a
botanist, has, in this compact little volume,
endeavored to widen the interest, and give
a higher meaning to the life of the farmer,
by adding to his knowledge of that portion
of the vegetable kingdom which comes un-
der his observation every day of his life. It
should, to a reflecting mind, appear singu-
lar that most farmers pass their whole lives
in comparative ignorance of the names and
properties of half the trees and plants that
surround them ; yet we fear, such would
prove to be the lamentable fact to a curious
investigator.

Dr. Darlington considers some rational
knowledge of the vast and multiform vege-
table creation around indispensable to a
rightly instructed people. He has, there-
fore, dedicated this volume to the young

18

138

LIEBIG'S CHEMISTRY.

farmers of the United States. " I address
myself," he observes, to the youthful and
aspiring agriculturists of the country, who
seek to elevate their noble profession to its
first rank among human pursuits ; and who
feel that the exercise of intellect, as well
as of muscle, is indispensable to the ac-
complishment of their purpose."

This volume of Agricultural Botany may
be considered a pocket manual for the far-
mer, who desires to make himself acquaint-
ed with all the principal trees, shrubs, cul-
tivated plants, wild plants and weeds, with-
in his usual range. The author declares
it as his intention, in this work, not to de-
scribe all the plants that an accomplished
agriculturist would wish to know, but to
" include those only of which no intelligent
farmer would willingly be ignorant."

The arrangement of the work is accord-
ing to the natural system. It differs mainly
from other botanical manuals, in having,
besides the scientific description of each
plant, some remarks of a popular character
relating to its habits, mode of culture, its
introduction if naturalized, or perhaps the
means of subduing it if a troublesome weed,
all of which is written with the sagacity,
spirit and observation, which we should
have expected from the author.

Chemistry in its applications to Agriculture and
Physiology, bj' Justus Liebig, M. D., F. R. S.,
Edited ^t/LyonPlayfair, Ph. D., and Dr. Wm.
Gregory. From the/ourth London edition, re-
vised and enlarged. New- York. Wiley and
Putnam. 12mo. 401 pp. 75 cts., or bound in
muslin $1.
It is quite unnecessary that we should enter
into any laudatory criticism of this remark-
able work, which has made for its learned
and scientific author so wide a reputation.
It is sufficient to say that its publication
commenced a new era in scientific agricul-
ture, begot a whole series of volumes on

rural chemistry, which are, for the most
part, indifferent imitations, and is at the
present moment the text book of almost
every zealous experimenter in the culture
of the soil. Success so great, in any walk,
always excites open opposition, and not un-
frequently violent detraction from those of
the old rank and file, who find themselves
eclipsed by the glories of the new leader.
Liebig and his views have accordingly been
assailed, both in Germany and England,
with no little severity. While these attacks
have not in the least weakened the author
or his works in popular favor, they have,
very properly had an influence upon some
points of doctrine originally advanced by
the distinguished Professor at Giessen.
The following remarks, from the preface of
the present volume, will therefore be read
with interest :

" Many views and principles which I had
endeavored to develop in reference to nu-
trition, and especially to the cultivation of
vegetables, were strongly opposed, imme-
diately on the first appearance of this work.
I could not, however, resolve to make any
material change in the immediately suc-
ceeding edition, because I did not consider
the scientific investigation of the important
questions at issue as completed, and because
I thought that I ought to trust the decision
of them to experience alone.

" Many of the objections were founded
on a want of mutual understanding ; others
related to positions and assertions having
no connexion with the peculiar objects
of the book. I have set these aside by the
omission of all passages thus called in ques-
tion.

"In the three years which have elapsed
between this edition and the first, I have
not neglected any opportunity of subjecting
to a rigorous and careful examination the
principles which I had developed of the

FOREIGN NOTICES.

139

nutritive properties of plants, and their ap-
plication to agriculture. I have endeavored
to make myself acquainted with the condi-
tion of practical farming, and with what it
requires, by a journey through the agricul-
tural districts of England and Scotland ;
and during this interval a long series of ex-
periments were carried on in the laboratory
of this place, with the sole object of giving
a firmer basis to my exposition of the causes
of the advantageous results attending the
practice of rotation of crops, and also of ef-
fectually banishing all doubts concerning
their accuracy.

" In my ' Chemistry in its application to
Physiology and Pathology,' I have subject-
ed the process of nutrition of the animal
organism to a stricter investigation ; and I
am now, for the first time since the com-
pletion of these labors, in a situation to give
a simple and determinate expression to my
view of the origin of animal excrements.

and of the cause of their beneficial efl^ects
on the growth of all vegetables.

" Now that the conditions which render
the soil productive and capable of afllbrding
support to plants, are ascertained, it cannot
V/ell be denied, that from chemistry alone
further progress in agriculture is to be ex-
pected."

The present volume is not only conside-
rably revised and amended, so as to bring it
down to the latest period of chemical pro-
gress, but it contains also an appendix exhi-
biting the analysis of a large number of dif-
ferent plants and soils, adding very mate-
rially to its value.

Messrs. Wiley and Putnam have publish-
ed the work in so convenient, excellent and
cheap a form, that no intelligent landholder
in the country, who desires to know some-
thing of the mysteries of growth, nutrition
and decay of the vegetable kingdom, has
! the least apology for not possessing it.

FOREIGN NOTICES,

Italian Horticulture. — Palermo, A-pril 8. —
After the many evidences of carelessness, neglect,
and idleness, which the gardens, as well as many
of the cultivated grounds, about Naples, affoided,
it was a great reiief to come here, where if lull ad-
vantage is not taken of the facilities afforded by the
climate, some gardens at least show taste, care,
and industry ; and the richly cultivated vale of Pa-
lermo, as well as the five basins round the bay of
Castellammare, would give a most favorable idea
of the state of agriculture in Sicily to the stranger
who saw nothing but this neighborhood. The cli-
mate is particularly favorable; the thermometer ne-
ver descends quite to the freezing point ; the great
heats of summer are somewhat modified by the nor-
thern exposure, the sea-breezes, and the high hills
which cl.jse the vale to the south. Drought is what
they suffer most from, but there are many springs
and small streams in the hills, and they have inhe-
rited from the Moors not only the art of irrigation,
but also several important aqueducts and water
channels, constructed for the purpose by that indus-
trious race. The soil is of itself not rich, and often
of very little depth. The rock is all calcareous,
but the earth generally very stiff, and, with the hot
sun, bakes almost like brick. However, where
there is water, vegetation is most luxuriant, and the

Orange especially thrives in such situations, whilst
the drier parts are equally well suited to the growth
of the Olive, the Sumach, and the Indian Fig ; the
latter shrub, if so one may call the singularly shaped
masses formed by the Opuntia, is one of the most
productive crops of the country, and often covers
the lower parts of the warmer declivities of the
hills, or intersects the hot fiats at their foot, with a
network of thick rows, giving, with the Agaves ia
the hedges, a singular character to the views. The
plants vary from two or three to eight or ten feet
high, or seldom more. There are two varieties al-
most equally common, the one covered with prickles,
the other generally, but not always, almost entirely
without ; they do not appear to differ in any other
respect ; there are also varieties in the color of the
fruit. The buds arc in some places now beginning
to appea-, thickly studding the extreme articula-
tion of the plant, and when the fruit is fully formed,
it is said to be so abundant as completely to conceal
the articulation on which it grows. It is always
eaten raw ; tastes a good deal like the common
Fig, but with less flavor ; it is, however, more nu-
tritious, and forms, indeed, in many parts of Sicily,
for two or three months, the sole food of the lower
orders. It is not exported excepting to Naples.
The Sumach {Rhus coriaria,) is another very

140

FOREIGN NOTICES.

productive article, and cultivated to a great extent.
It has the advantage of thriving in the most arid,
burnt up situations, cannot bear wet, and requires
little labor beyond the digging the ground once or
twice in the year to keep it from being choked by
weeds. It is now beginning to shoot, having been
pruned down to six inches or a foot from the ground.
It grows up every year to the height of three or
four feet, and %vhen in full foliage, the leaves and
young shoots are gathered and dried for use. The
produce is partly consumed in the local tanneries,
partly exported. The Olive trees form an impor-
tant feature in the landscape, and at once indicate
the extent of the dry parts of the valleys. But in-
dividually they are not fine, apparently from bad
pruning and want of care. The Oranges and Le-
mons, on the contrary, in all parts of the vale where
there is irrigation, are very luxuriant ; and looking
down from the heights of Monreale, for instance,
nothing can exceed the rich look of the Orange
grounds, forming a deep green mass, sometimes of
miles in extent, here and there tinged with gold
where the fruit is still on the trees, and the effect
of the whole is improved by the Walnut trees, (as
yet leafless.) projecting here and there far above
the general level.

The great exportation of the fruit is for North
America, from whence there are often eighteen or
twenty vessels at once loading with them in the
harbor. The Palermetan Oranges in general are
good, much better than the Neapolitan, but often
inferior to the Maltese and Balearic ones. I have
here for thp first time eaten good mandarines, about
the size of a fine common Orange, but having a
considerable yacuity between the rind and the en-
docarp. They are very sweet and good flavored,
and the cells separate so easily that they are very
agreeable to eat, but will not bear exportation.
The Vines here are cultivated more in the French
than in the Italian manner — pruned short and tied
to stakes, and a good deal of care is taken in the
working the ground. The result is, the common
wines are fit for drinking, which they scarcely ever
are in Italy. The Caroub (Ceratonia siliqua) is
not much planted in this neighborhood, though it
thrives well and produces abundantly ; but in some
places on the south coast, there are villages which
make it almost their sole revenue, and export it in
great quantities. Mulberries for silk are scarce and
much neglected, though the situation appears well
suited to them, and I am told, that endeavors are
now making to extend and improve their cultivation,
and the rearing of the silkworm. There are a good
many fruit trees, chiefly Figs, Walnuts, Almonds,
and Peaches, and a very iew Pistachio nuts. I
have not observed the Jiijube ; the Date trees are
very few, and can only be planted for ornament, for
although it flowers freely, and never freezes, yet the
fruit does not come to perfection. Forest trees are
only to be met with in ornamental plantations, for
the hills around the vale have long been deprived of
their primitive woods, and it is with great difficulty
that an evergreen Oak or a Quercus pubescens may
here and there be found as a shrub among the rocks.
The flowering Ash (Fraxinus ornus) which is in-
digenous, may sometimes be seen, and is here and
there cultivated for manna, but not much in this

immediate neighborhood, though in other parts of
the island it is said to be sometimes an article of
importance. With all this arboreous and frutescent
cultivation, and the numerous kitclien gardens in
the vicinity of the town, little room is left in the
vale of Palermo (containing certainly above fifty
square miles) for meadows or for grain ; indeed,
what are called meadows are scarcely entitled to
the name. They are usually a weedy lookins mass,
chiefly Lotus oniithopodioides, edulis and biflorus, a
few Medicagos, Vetches, and other Leguminosa;,
intermixed with a very few Graminea', and a num-
ber of miscellaneous plants, very beautiful to the
eye now that their herbage is green, when not com-
pletely hid by the mass of bright-colored flowers,
but which a day or two's sirocco is enough to wither
up. and are at the best but of small produce. The
best pastures where horses and cattle are reared
are in the interior, and towards the south of the
island. The grain of the vale of Palermo is chiefly
in small patches, scattered over the lower parts,
and extending up the .sides of the hills up to the
very tops, either on the northern sides or where
the soil lies deep, in many places in acclivities so
steep that they must be entirely cultivated by hand,
and where the soil would never remain without ter-
racing, were this part of island exposed to the tor-
rents of rain which deluge the eastern portion in
the season of storms. There are, however, some
broad valleys in this part of Sicily entirely occupied
by arable land ; we crossed one between Alcamo
and Segestha, where the crops looked clean and
healthy ; the chief kinds cultivated are Wheat and
Barley, with a little Rye and Oats, Beans in great
quantities, a few Peas and Lentils, large fields of
Lupins, but they are chiefly as in Catalonia, sown
on the fallows to be ploughed in. They grow to
the height of three or four feet, but are very little
used as fodder (for which they are chiefly cultiva-
ted at Naples.) They, as well as the Peas and
Beans, are frequently infested by the Orobanche
pruinosa, called by the Sicilians Lupa,a very hand-
some sweet-scented species, growing as tall as the
Lupin, which it generally kills. It is precisely the
same as in Catalonia and Roussillon, where Lapey-
rouse first described it. Flax is grown to a great
extent in all the valleys, and there are more green
crops raised for forage than in those parts of Italy
I have seen, especially the Hedysarum coronarium
now coming into flower, giving to the sides of some
hills a beautiful crimson hue, whilst others are
tinged with the rich orange of the Lotus biflorus.
Kitchen garden culture in the vale of Palermo is
very good, and the mode of irrigation is the same
as in Roussillon and Catalonia, probably in both
countries handed down from the Moors. The ve-
getables now selling are chiefly artichokes in im-
mense quantities, which the lower orders buy ready
boiled in the streets. Endive and Cos Lettuce, Cab?
bages, chiefly a kind of Turnip-rooted, not exactly
the Kohl-rabi, but one with the lower part of the
petioles and stalk thickened like Celery or Finoc-
chio ; this Cabbage, as well as Lettuces, is much
eaten by the people in the streets raw ; Finocchio
is also still plentiful ; and Beans and Peas are al-
ready abundant ; what we have oaten of the two
latter have been generally fine and gopd ; the low-

FOREIGN NOTICES.

141

er orders usually eat them ripe and roasted, and of
course those now sellinir arc last year's. The
Broad Beans sellinfj ready roasted in the streets are
as larije as our finest Windsor Beans. French
Beanslire much grown, hut are still very younsT ;
Potatoes have also, within the last few years, been
much cultivated, and eaten by the peasantry. From
all I can hear, the disease, which has spread more
or less over the greater part of Italy, has not
reached Sicily, at least not to sufficient extent to at-
tract notice, but the Potatoes we have eaten have
not been good. Gardener's Chron.

Giant Sea-weed. — " There is one marine pr(t-
duction, which from its importance is worthy of a
particular history. It is the kelp or Fucus gigaii-
tens of Solander. This plant grows on every rock
from low-water mark to a great depth, both on the
outer coast and within the channels. I believe, du-
ring the voyage of the Adventure and the Beagle,
not one rock near the surface was discovered, which
was not buoyed by this floating weed. The good
service it thus aflords to vessels navigating near the
stormy land is evident, and it certainly has saved
many a one from being wrecked. I know^ few
tl.ings more surprising than to see this p'ant grow-
ing and flourishing amidst those great breakers of
the Western Ocean, which no mass of rock, let it
be ever so hard, can long resist. The stem is round,
slimy and smooth, and seldom has a diameter of
so much as an inch, A few taken together, are
sufficiently strong to support the weight of the
large loose stones to which, in the inland cannels,
they grow attached; and some of these stones are
so heavy, that, when drawn to the surface, they can
scarcely be lifted into a boat by one person.

" Captain Cook, in his second voyage, says, that
at Kerguelen Land, ' some of this weed is of a
most enormous length, though the stem is not much
thicker than a man's thumb. I have mentioned,
that upon some of the shoals on which it grows, we
did not strike ground with a line of twenty-four fa-
thoms. The depth of water, therefore, must have
been greater. And as this weed does not grow in
a perpendicular direction, but makes a very acute
angle with the bottom, and much of it afterwards
spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I
am well warranted to say that some of it grows to
the length of sixty fathoms and upwards.' Cer-
tainly, at the Falkland Islands, and about Terra
del Fuego, extensive beds frequently spring up from
ten and fifteen fathom water. I do not suppose the
stem of any other plant attains so great a length
as 360 feet, as stated by Captain Cook. The geo-
graphical range is very considerable; it is found
from the extreme southern islets near Cape Horn,
as far nortli, on the eastern coast (accorduig to in-
formation given me by Mr. Stokes) as lat. 43° —
and on the western it was tolerably abundant, but
far from luxuriant, at Chiloe, in lat. 42°. It may
possibly extend a little further northward, but is
soon succeeded by difl!'erent species. We thus have
a range of 15° in latitude; and as Cook, who must
have been well actpiainted with the species, found
it at Kerguelen Land, no less than 140° in longi-
tude.

" The number of living creatures, of all orders.

whose existence intimately depends on that of kelp,
is wonderful. A great volume might be written,
describing the inhabitants of one of these beds of
sea-weeds. Almost every leaf, excepting those
that float on the surface, is sc thickly incrusted with
corallines as to be of a white color. We find ex-
quisitely delicate structures, some inhabited by
simple hydro-like jjolypi, others by mor^ or;.'imi/.ed
kinds, and beaatiful compound Aseida?. On the flat
surfaces of the loaves, various patelliform shells,
Trochi, uncovered molluscs, and some bivalves are
attached. Innumerable Crustacea frequent every
part of the plant. On shaking the great entanirled
roots, a pile of small fish, sheils, cuttle-fish, crabs
of all orders, sea-eggs, star-fish, beautiful Holu-
thurias (some taking the external form of the nudi-
branch molluscs,) Planaria2, and crawling ncreid-
ous animals, of a multitude of forms, all fall out
together.

" I can only compare these great aquatic forests
of the southern atmosphere with the terrestrial
ones in the intertropical regions. Yet, if the latter
should be destroyed in any country, I do not believe
nearly so many species of animals would perish, as,
under similar circumstances, would happen with
the kelp. Amidst the leaves of this plant, numer-
ous species of fish live, wliich nowhere else would
find food or shelter; with their destruction, the many
cormorants, divers, and other fishing birds, the
otters, seals, and porpoises, would soon perish also;
and lastly the Fuegian savage, the miserable lord
of this miserable land, would redouble his cannibal
feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease to
exist." — Darwin's Journal of the Voyage of the
Beagle.

Great Mexican Cacti. — There are three spe-
cimens of Cereus senilis, from Real de Morte, in
the Royal gardens at Kew, near London, which
measure J2 feet, 16 feet, and IS^ feet in height.
Since small plants of this species are known to be
from twenty to twenty-five years old, and since the
growth o*" these plants in Mexico is exceedingly
slow, there is good reason for believing that these
monster specimens are some hundreds (perhaps a
thousand) years old.

The Flower show at Cambridge. — The late
London papers are full of the ceremonies of the
visit of the Queen to Cambridge, and the installa-
tion of Prince Albert as Chancellor of the Univer-
sity. Among other entertainments on the occasion,
was a brilliant horticultural exhibition in the grounds
of one of the colleges, the following brief notice of
which we copy from the Illustrated London Neics.

" The flower show, in the beautiful grounds of
Downing College, was a delightful relief to the in-
door ceremonies.

About nine spacious tents were erected in difTer-
ent j)arts of the grounds, within wliich the flowers
and j)lants were arranged; military bands played
for the entertainment of the company; seats were
placed beneath the trees for those who were dis-
posed to seek temporary repose or shelter from the
rays of the sun; and many who could not obtain
seats, stretched themselves on the grass, forming,
as they were seen from various points, Watteau-

142

FOREIGN NOTICES.

like "roups. A portion of the grounds, extending
tVom"the lodge shrubbery to the Royal tent, had
been r.aiied otl' for the exclusive aecommodation of
her Majesty and suite. The rest of the grounds
were at the disposal of the visitors. Five thousand
tickets had been distributed. The whole were
eao-erly bought up, and vast numbers were disap-
pomted. The spacious and picturesque enclosure,
resembling the grounds of a baronial mansion, was
crowded tliroushout the fete. Her Majesty and
the Prince was'^reeeived at the lodge by the Mas-
ter of Downing, and entered the grounds by the
southern facade. The Queen and the Prince then
proceeded to the royal tent, which was most geor-
geously decorated with gold and crimson. After
partaking of some refreshment, the royal visitors,
attended^'by Mr. Ashton, secretary to the Horticul-
tural Society, visited each tent, in which flowers
were displayed. The pressure was, at this time,
very great ; the Duke of Wellington got into the
middle of the crowd before he was recognized, and
was much inconvenienced. After remaining in the
grounds about three quarters of an liour, and ac-
cepting a beautiful buoquet from Mrs. Ashton,
her Majesty, Prince AUiert. and the whole of their
suite, withdrew into the house of the Master of
Downing College, when the Queen was pleased to
express^her gratification at what she had seen.
The royal painty then left for the Fitz- William Mu-
seum, and afterwards attended the banquet, at half
past six o'clock, at the great liallin Trinity College."

Enormous Pear.— M. Calle, of Brionne. has
drawn our attention to a print of the Belle Ange-
vine Pear, a variety, * the extraordinary size of
which has already attracted the attention of hor-
ticulturists. M. Calle has produced on one of his
trees a specimen which, in its dimensions, fully
equal any of those we have heretofore cited. This
fruit weighed 2 lbs. 15 oz. avordupois; and mea-
sures more than 13 inches in circumference by
nearlv 8 inches in \ieig\\t. — Revue Horticole.

Malaga Raisin Vineyards.— At day-break this
morning, a gentleman, who u Mr. Kirkpatrick re-
quested to s4iow me his vineyard, and explain the
process of preserving grapes, waited upon me, and
we set out immediately. Our road lay along the
shore to the eastward, the vineyard of Don Salva-
dor Solier lying in that direction, at the distance of
about 14 miles" In the immediate vicinity of Mala-
ga, the country is extremely rugged, but every
patch v.-here it was possible to thrust in a plant
was under cultivation. The rocks consisted of rug-
ged masses of limestone, alternating with the same
kind of slaty schist I had previously observed on the
road from Antequera. For the first two leagues,
there were few vineyards, chielly owing to the rug-
gedness of the country, which would not admit of
cultivation. Beyond that distance almost every hill
was covered with vines, the produce of which is all
converted into raisins. The grapes are all of the
large white Muscatel- the Muscatel Gordo of
Roxas Clemente. This grape, my companion in-
formed me, does not succeed in the interior, and,
therefore, all the Muscatel raisins are made with-
* rit for cooking onl. . — Ed. Hobt.

in two leagues of the coast. The Lexia rai.sins,
which are used for pudtlings, &c., are made in the
interior. We arrived at the country house of Don
Salvador at nine o'clock, and, after a substantial
breakfast, sallied out to examine the vines. Six or
seven workmen were employed in preparing the
ground for planting, within a short distance of the
house They did not trench the wnoie of the
ground, but dug out square holes, about two feet
in diameter and not more than 20 inches in depth.
The distance of the centres of these holes from
each other is seven feet, and this is the distance
at which the vines on the hills round Malaga seem
invariably to be planted. The vineyard I was ex-
amining, as well as all those in its vicinity, con-
sisted of a series of steep hills. The soil every-
where was a decomposed slate, mixed with abun-
dance of gravel of the same substance. On the
higher part of the ground, this soil appeared rather
hard and required great labor to break it up, but
once broken up it is loose forever; so much so that
it slides away from under the feet even where there
is only a slight slope. There is no difference made
in the distance at which the vines are planted, be-
tween the hills and the valleys; although in many
places on the former, the shoots scarcely extend
more than 10 or 12 inches, while in the valle)-s they
extend to the length of as many feet. They never,
under any circumstances, manure these vineyards;
they say it would give more wood but would not
add to the quantity of the fruit. The branches are
pruned closer to the stock than those of any vines I
ever saw; nothing but the half-formed buds, at the
junction of the old and new wood, being left to pro-
duce the wood of the succeeding year. I could not
find an instance where the spur had been left long
enough to include the first full-formed bud, which
is generally from half an inch to an inch from the
junction. The number of shoots seemed almost un-
limited; I counted from ten to twenty-two; there
was scarcely any vine had fewer than 10, and they
generally had from 12 to 15. The stock was close
to the ground, and not the slighest elibrt made to
raise the shoots, or support them from the ground.
Almost every bunch would, therefore, lie on the
ground; and were the soil of a less gravelly descrip-
tion, the greater part would, without doubt, be lost.
After the pruning they dig over the ground and lay
bare the stock, in order to scrape ofi'the barbe, or
small thread-like roots which are near the surface.
As scarcely any grass or herb vegetates among
these vines, and the soil is always sufficiently loose,
it is evident that they require little digging or
cleaning. We went out to visit a peasant, a neigh-
bor of Don Salvador's. He said four or five very
fine vines might yield raisins enough to fill a box
which contains an arroba of 25 lbs.; but throughout
the country it would require, on an average, nine or
ten. The grapes lose about two-thirds of their
weight in drying; this would, therefore, give a pro-
duce of 7 or 8 lbs. of grapes to each vine — a calcu-
lation which I should think must include a much
greater proportion of stinted vines than of luxuriant
ones; for the majority of those in Don Salvador's
vineyard would, I have no doubt, yield double that
quantity. Including, however, those vines which
arc visible at the tops even of the highest hills, the

FOREIGN iNOTICES.

143

calculation is likely cnoufih to be correct. The
crapes, when dried, are worth double what they
would yield made into wine, unless spoiled by the
rain.

They usually commence gathering the grapes
about the middle of August, choosing only such
bunches as are ripe. They return alter a week or
two to make another selection, and so on lor a third
and I'ourth time. A place is always reserved in the
vineyard, free from plants, on which to spread the
grapes when giuhered; and they choose a spot
where the soil is of the darkest color, in order to its
keeping the full force of the sun's rays during the
day, and retaining the heat during the night. The
bunches are spread out separately on the ground,
and never allowed to press upon each other : ac-
cording to Don Salvador, they are only once turr.ed
over. At the end of 15 days they are, in general,
sufficiently dry. This season was mere unfortunate
for the early commencement of the rains, than any
season for many years, and the crop was remarkably
fine. It is Don Salvador's intention in future years,
to have wooden toldos, or awnings, prepared to
shelter the grapes, while drying, against the rains,
and also to cover them during the night- He says
that the drying of the grapes is so much retarded
by their being exposed to the dews during the night,
that when he has the means of covering them at
night, he expects they will be dried in half the time
usual at present. Before the bunches are spread
out, the small grapes are picked out, as well as any
which may happen to be injured; the small grapes
are dried separately. I saw a heap of them in Don
Salvador's house, which had the appearance of very
large currants. When the grapes are turned, any
spoiled ones are, or ought to be picked out; they
have no particular rule for judging when they are
sufficiently dry — it is learnt by experience. When
they happen to get rain while drying, the stalks
become black or rusty looking, instead of being of
a bright light brown. According to Don Salvador,
the district which produces the Muscatel grape ex-
tends only two leagues farther east; that is, not
more than three leagues in all, along the coast, and
two leagues inwards. He says the value of the
land planted with it is about 3,000 rials, or 150
Spanish dollars per fanega. — Busby's Vineyards of
France and ISpain.

Italian Flowers. — I have been taking a series
of beautiful rides in the Campagna. I wish very
much to preserve, if possible, some record of the
various features of that vast, wonderful plain, —
but words multiplied to weariness can hardly ex-
press one tithe of the loveliness and sublimity that
the eye sweeps over in a minute on that enchanted
ground; and first, we come upon some point of it
where it spreads out before us a wide, flat expanse,
hazy and unbroken as a summer sea, over whose
level surface whole companies of larks trill, and
twitter, and twinkle, with a perfect chorus of jubi-
lant song, of which our lonely field singer gives not
the faintest conception. It is very curious, by-the-
by, the fuller life to which all things seem ripened
by this southern climate. Not only do the larks
appear in perfect cohorts over these sunny plains,
and sing with a loud clearness, unequalled , certain-
ly by our solitary bird; but the same sort of differ.

ence manifests itself in Jlowcrs common to both
countries. The daisies here have a wide awake de-
termined air, which would made Burns' address to
them absolutely ironical; their buds are of the deep-
est crimson, their flowers are of the most unhesita-
ting white, with little stilf-necked stalks, and faces
all turned up to the sky with a degree of self-pos-
session quite astonishing in a mere daisy. The
China roses have all a much deeper color, and
stronger perfume than with us. I saw one to-day;
a bird sitting under some fresh taper polished green
leaves, beneath which a single ray of the sun darted
upon a passionate-colored crimsoned flower, that
sat beneath its canopy, in an atmosphere of living
light, and glowed in a sunshine all to itself, like a
jewel; I never saw such a magical effect of color
in my life. Then too, the violets here could never,
even by the most courteous device of poetry, have
been celebrated for their modesty; from fresh vig-
orous tufts of veined leaves they shoot long slender
stalks, with deep colored red-purple blossoms, in
absolute sheaves — not low down — not nestling in
the shade — not shrinking into moss and retire-
ment; but looking, as every thing here seems to do,
towards the sun, and opening their sweet bosoms
to the warm air, that at noon in our little terrace
garden was full of their perfume. — Mrs. Butler's
Year of Consolation.

A Peruvian Paradise. — The favorite residence
of the Incas was at Yucay, about four leagues dis-
tance from the capital. In this delicious valley,
locked up within the friendly arms of the Sierra,
which .sheltered it from the rude breezes of the east,
and refreshed by gushing fountains and streams of
running water, they built the most beautiful of their
palaces. Here, when wearied with the dust and toil
of the city, they loved to retreat and solace them-
selves with the society of their favorite concubines
— w^andering amidst groves and airy gardens that
shed around their soft intoxicating odors, and lulled
the senses to voluptuous repose. Here, too, they
loved to indulge in the luxury of their baths, re-
plenished by streams of crystal water which were
conducted through subterraneous silver channels
into basins of gold. The spacious gardens were
stocked with numerous varieties of plants and flow-
ers, that grew without eflort in this temperate re-
gion of the tropics; while parterres of more extra-
ordinary kind were planted by their side, glowing
with the various forms of vegetable life skillfully
imitated in gold and silver. Among them the In-
dian corn, the most beautiful of American grains, is
particularly commemorated; and the curious work-
manship is noticed, with which the golden ear was
half disclosed amidst the broad leaves of silver, and
the light tassel of the same material that floated
gracefully from its top. If this dazzling picture
staggers the faith of the reader, he may reflect that
the Peruvian mountains teemed with gold; that the
natives understood the art of working the mines to
a considerable extent; that none of the ore, as we
shall see hereafter, was converted into coin; and
that the whole of it passed into the hands of the
sovereign for his own exclusive benefit, whether for
purposes of utility or ornament. Certain it is that
no fact is better attested by the conquerors them-
selves, who had ample means of information and no

144

FOREIGN NOTICES.

motive for misstatement. The Ifnlian poets, in
their corseous pictures of the gardens of Alcina
and Morgana, came nearer to the truth than they
imagined. — Prescott's Hist, of the Conquest of Peru.

The Tea-Plant in India. — We learn from the
Calcutta Gazette, that the edbrtsof Dr. W. Jame-
son, superintendent of the botanic gardens in the
northwest provinces of India, to introduce and ex-
tend the cultivation of the tea-plant have been high-
ly successful. The lea brokers in England have,
moreover, pronounced the Indian tea equal to China
tea of a superior class, possessing the flavor of the
orange-pekoe, but more than its usual strength,
and in other respects resembling that imported un-
der the name of ning-yong. The tea tree in Kema-
oon is not only identical with the China plant, and
as capable of being made into as fine a description
of tea, but the climate and soil in Kemaoon are as
suited to the favorable growth of the shrub as the
finest of the Chinese localities; and, moreover, the
tea is as highly prized in the districts in which it has
been raised as it is in England. One hundred and
seventy-three seers of it were recently sold at Al-
morah, and produced from four to five rupees the
seer, a price equal to tlie best foreign tea sold in
Calcutta. According to the calculation of Dr. Ja-
meson, the price for which it can be raised is so low
as to aflford the greatest encouragement for the
application of capital: he estimates that if cul-
tivated on a sufficiently large scale, the prime cost
in Calcutta, including every expense, would be lit-
tle more than eight annas a seer, or one-eighth of
the present price. Supposing the cost of cultiva-
tion to be double what is here estimated, a suffi-
cient amount of profit would still be left. The ca-
pacity of the provinces of Kemaoon and Gurhwall
for the enlarged production of the article, does not
moreover appear to be limited to particular locali-
ties. Accoi'ding to the latest report that has been
furnished, 176 acres were under cultivation, con-
taining not fewer then '322.579 plants. The crop
is thriving in different places over four degrees of
latitude, and three degrees of longitude; and 100,-
000 acres are available in the Dhoon alone for the
purposes of tea cultivation. At a maund an acre,
they would yield 7,600,000 lbs., which is equal to
one-sixth the entire consumption of England. — Lon-
don Hort. Mag-

Exposing Greenhouse Plants in Summer. —
Many green-house plants, and especially the more
delicate kinds, often suflTer much injury from expo-
sure to the sun's rays in summer. When so exposed
without the benefit of shelter of any kind, the soil is
apt to become so thoroughly dried, that it is with
difficulty again wetted, and hence the scorched and
stunted looking growth which may sometimes be
seen on such plants in the summer season. The
injury in most cases arises not from exposing the
stem and branches of the plants, but from exposing
the pot in which it is growing; the sun's rays act-
ing on the sides of the pots, in conjunction with the
evaporation constantly going on, soon deprive.* the
soil of its moisture; and as all the tender roots are
usually more or less in contact with the inner sur-

face of the pot, their injury is inevitable. It is no
uncommon thing to see the soil so much dried as to
shrink (piite away from the pot, and in this case
the roots cannot avoid being more or less injured.
Under such<;irc;umstances, too, the water which is
supplied sinks down as fast as it is poured on, and
fails, for a long time at least, to moisten the inte-
rior of the soil. Then again, the necessity for con-
stant watering caused by this exposure, is an evi-
dent wrste of time. When plants are turned out-
doors (and also when kept in-doors) their roots
ought to be sheltered by some means from the in-
fluences alluded to; plunging the pots in some open
porous material will answer the end as well as any-
thing; and of the substances that maybe employed,
moss, coal ashes, rough peat, saw-dust, or fine
charcoal are among the best that can be employed.
It is desirable, also, to afibrd the entire plants a
very thin shade during the intense sun heat of sum-
mer, but the lighter the material employed the bet-
ter.— Ibid.

Bulbous Plants. — To check the growth of the
foliage of bulbous plants is very decidedly injurious
to them. After they have done flowering, it should
be an object to stimulate the leaves to make strong
and vigorous growth; and this should be done un-
der the influence of strong bright light, and continu-
ed till they show s3^mptoms of having passed their
maturity; this is generally indicated by their turn-
ing yellowish, and decaying at the tips- Moisture
— both at the root, and in the atmosphere — is then
to be reduci d gradually until they are brought to a
state of rest. It is, therefore, an erroneous though
a common practice to cut off the foliage of hardy
bulbs as soon as their bloom is faded, or even at
any subsequent period, w-hile that foliage is in a
growing state; and it is also hurtful, though some-
times necessary, to take them up and remove them
to another place, unless this can be done without
greatly disturbing their roots. — Ibid.

Hothouse Fires. — Great waste of fuel is often
the result of the ordinary mode of managing hot-
house fires. Much of the smoke, for instance,
which is in itself a nuisance, is also a waste, for
the gases which thus pass away are capable of
combustion, and thus of increasing the amount of
heat which is developed. Whenever pure coals '^r
coals blended with cinders are employed in furnaces,
it will be found to be a palliative of this nuisance to
push forward towards the neck of the flue the bulk
of the red-hot fuel, previous to mending the fire,
and to deposit the fresh fuel in front of the glowing
mass. The gas, which is liberated and forms smoke,
is thus made to pass directly over the hottest part
of the fire, and to a great extent becomes ignited.
The bulk of red-hot cinders should be considerable
before the ash pit doors or dampers are resorted to,
and then, particularly at " damping up " for the
night, small cinders and moist ashes should alone
be employed; on no account pure coals. A writei-
in the Pharmaceutical Times states, that a scien-
tific chemical remedy for the smoke nuisance offers
itself, by introducing a cast iron tube from a boiler,
to convey a column of steam to be dispersed by a

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

145

rose nozzle over the surface of the ookinfr coal.
New combinations thus take place, which affect the
entire combustion of the inflammable i^ases. and
where it has been applied the disappearance of the
column of black smoke has immediately followed its
application. — Ibid.

Select Plants for Bedding in Flower Gar-
dens.— Campanula carpatica alba. The true
white-flowered variety of this species has been un-
til recently, a rare plant in our gardens (having
been generally substituted by an indifferent pale-
coloured one,) and though still comparatively rare,
it will, ere long, take its place as one of the best
white-flowered plants for the flower-garden, afford-
insr an excellent contrast to its original type in the
blue-flowered one. It is dwarf, and compact, pro-
ducing numerous white .open, bell-shaped blossoms,
upwards of an inch in diameter, and blooming for
a considerable period during July, August, and
September. It is specially adapted for planting en
masse in beds or parterres, and equally suitable fur
a hea\y edging to borders or beds of evergreen
shrubs. It is the most readily multiplied by divi-
sion from the roots, being otherwise slow of in-
crease by cuttings. This species, in common with
many others allied, secretes a viscid milk-like fluid,
from which I infer that its culture in pots or vases
will require a porous material, of which loam
should predominate, with one-third dry ferment-
ed manure, or dry unfermented leaf-mould, with a
sixth part of pounded brick, potsherds, or similar
material.

2. Calandrinia umbellata. One of the most
brilliant little plants ever introduced, of a compact
decumbent habit, with a greyish furred aspect, and
in the absence of the last feature, would readily

be taken for a linear-leaved species of Thrift-
Though its ordinary extent of growth seldom ex-
ceeds a .span, it is richly adorned with terminal
clusters of violet crimson, salver-shaped blossoms,
upwards of an inch in diameter ; and whilst it is
equal to the finest kinds of Portulaccas in beauty,
it possesses beyond them a feature essential to
every good plant, in being perennial in its duration.
It was introduced by Messrs. Veitch of Exeter
about two years ago, and though now found in all
general collections, it is by no means plentiful.

Nothing can surpass its elfect, en viasse, in a
small parterre, or for single effect upon rockwork,
or a partially raised mound upon ordinar}' borders.

Wherever plants arc esteemed as " Nature's jew-
els," this should always be found within the cas-
ket.

3. JlnagaUis ccerulea compacta. This is the
the most valuable blue-flowered variety, and is
known in the nursery collections as A. grandiflora
cterulea and A. grandiflora compacta. In growth
it is nearly a counterpart of the original small
narrow-leaved A. grandifloi-a, but in the present
kind assuming a darker green aspect, more dense
and compact in its habit, and much more profuse in
its bloom, which is of a rich ultramarine blue. It
possesses none of the excessive vigor of the stronger
varieties. For bedding it is an invaluable kind, and
under skilful management, by accumulating and
duly restricting its growth previous to its summer
bloom, would form a beautiful edging for marginal
eti'ect. It is al&o a very ornamental object by its
diversified eflfect on limestone rock-work, and forms
a lovely contrast for portable specimens in pots or
vaf^es, in company with the fine white variety of
Lobelia erinus compacta. Gard. Chron.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

The Strawberry Question. — Mr. Editor : The
error into which I conceive you have been led, in
supposing that Hovey's Seedling was originally a
perfect plant, and has in a great measure become
pistillate by cultivation, is easily explained. You
have been cultivating the Boston Pine, another
seedling of Mr. Hovey, as his old Seedling. Mr.
Hovey cultivated his Seedling for sale, among other
varieties, most of which were staminates, and found
it a certain bearer. It was in great demand, and
sent by him to all parts of the Union. Where cul-
tivated by itself, it proved entirel}' barren, and
complaints reached him from all quarters. Unable
to account for this barrenness, ho sent his Boston
Pine, as the Seedling, believing it a perfect plant,
in its place. He sent it to yourself, Mr. Curtis,
Mr. Buist and others. Mr. Buist sold both at
the same time, as the same plant, having so under-
stood Mr. Hovey, and the Boston as the original
perfect, at the highest price. The Boston Tine is
not perfect, but more or less defective in pistils.
and ranking as a bearer scarcely equal to the Ross

Vol. II. 19

Pha?nix and Swainstone. Mr. Downing could be
easily deceived in its bearing qualities, as he at the
same time claimed for the Ross Phoenix and Swain-
stone the same character. It is singular, indeed,
that Mr. Hovey should still claim for his Boston,
that it is a large fruited, perfect plant. I discover
that Mr. Prince advertises a new variety, of the
same character. Mr. Prince sells them at $5 per
dozen, yet will not send a single plant for me to
Mr. \Vilder or Mr. Jackson, notwithstanding I have
offered $500 for such a plant. I claim that there is
no such plant ; that cultivation never changes the
original character of the plant. Once defective in
stamens or pistils, always so. Once partially per-
fect only in both, always so, though more produc-
tive some seasons than others. When Professor
Lindley shall have progressed so far, as to admit
the existence of staminate and pistillate plants,
and that the latter only are worthy of cultivation, it
will be time enough to consult his articles. I claim
to be strictly correct in all the princijiles I have
advanced, notwithstanding the " numerous e;rors

146

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

and contradictions" discovered l)y Mr. Hovey in
my articles. When he sliall have devoted the same
attention to the character of the phxnt lor a single
season, that I have every season for thirty years, he
will not be twelve years in discovering that a seed-
ling of his is wholly defective in male organs. To
do this, he must, from the time vegetation starts in
the spring, till the fruit season is over, be among
his beds from daylight till breakfast time, and for
a greater or less number of hours through the day,
and not cease to visit them daily till the season is
over ; and do most of the planting, thinning out,
and weeding himself.

As an evidence that Hovey's Seedling was ori-
ginally perfect, and still partially so, Mr. Downing
states that Mr. Tucker and Mr. Sargeant had beds
of Hovey's Seedling perfect, that were obtained
from Mr. Hovey himself. It will lie found that
these were the Boston Pine. The only surprise is,
that a person could ibr one moment be in doubt, as
the Boston plant bears no resemblance to Hovey's
justly celebrated Seedling. As soon as English cul-
tivators obtain a little practical knowledge, Hovey's
Seedling will supersede their famous British Queen,
Wilmot's Superb, Swainstone and Keene seedlings,
and all these be used merely as impregnators, even
by the great Professor Lindley himself. But " great
bodies move slow." Principles established by Lin-
riEeus are not easily overthrown, by new doctrines
learned from an ignorant market woman. Yours.
JSf. Longworth. Cincinnati, July 8, 1S47.

P. S. Mr. Hovey readily discovers my '" nume-
rous errors and contradictions," yet he was years,
after his attention was drawn to the subject, disco-
vering the defect of his Seedling in stamens. The
children of my tenants, who cultivate the straw-
berry for sale, would, on the first view of his Seed-
ling in blossom, at the distance of twenty feet, tell
him it could l>ear no fruit without a husband.

Remarks. The power of a clairvoyant in seeing
things hidden from the orlts of common mortals, is
outdone by our correspondent, who puts on his spec-
tacles of discovery, and looking from the Queen
city of the West across the Alleghanies, is able to
decide, past even the shadow of a doubt, the true
name and character of a disputed strawberry plant
in our garden on the Hudson I

What Mr. Hovey may have sent to Mr. Buist and
others, as his Seedling strawberry, we know not ;
but of this we arc certain, that our plants referred
to by Mr. Longworth, are not Boston Fines. The
latter sort we have from three sources, and received
them in full Idoom this season from the President
of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and
can state with the utmost certainty, that there is
no i-esemblance whatever to the variety we have
previously alluded to. as perfect or staminate-blos-
somed Hovey's Seedling, either in their liowers or
fruit. The fruit, leaf, and blossom of the Boston
Pine are totally distinct from those of Hovey's Seed-
ling, and could never be mistaken for it by any per-
son who had seen the two sorts ; while the fruit of
the variety we have cultivated as a starainate Ho-
vey's Seedlins, strongly reseml)les that of the com-
mon pistillate Hovey in form, .size and flavor.

Mr. Tucker, to whose note, p. 49, Mr. Longworth

alludes, has sent us the following reply to Mr. L.'s
remarks, dated Albany, July 23d :

" I observe that Mr. Longworth comes to the
conclusion that the plants alluded to in my note in
the Horticulturist, as received from Mr. Hovey, are,
really the Boston Pine, and not Hovey's Seedling.
But it so happens, that I received from Mr. Hovey
at the same time, 100 Hovey's Seedling and 12
Boston Pine strawberries. Now the plants sent me
are very distinct varieties, and I have no reason to
doubt their being true to their names. Those sent
as the Boston Pine are large plants — the foot-
stalks and leaves being considerably larger than
those sent as Hovey's Seedling. The fruit also
was larger, and there was much less of it. An-
other mark of diflbrence is, that the Pine sends
out very few runners compared with the Seedling.
Mr. Longworth's conclusion in my case, therefore,
cannot be correct."

Mr. Longworth is correct in saying that Mr. Ho-
vey has only lately arrived at any definite knowledge
of the character of his own Seedling. Mr. Beecher
indeed took the trouble to write a long article (which
we reprinted, p. 274 of our last volume) showing
that Mr. H.'s opinions on the character of the
strawberry were not entitled to the least considera-
tion, and varied every year. Thus, in 1843, in his
November number, he wrote, " there is no necessi-
ty of making any distinction in regard to the sexual
character of the plants when forming new beds."

In 1844, he repeated, " there is no such thing as
male and female plants."

But when his new sort, the Boston Pine, came
out, he suddenly changed his views, and the follow-
ing are his words : " Let the causes be what they
may, it is sufficient for all practical purposes to
know that the most abundant crops can be produced
by planting some sort abounding in staminate flow-
ers, in the vicinity of those which do not possess
them."

Mr. Hovey's ground now is that Hovey's Seedling
is the best strawberry in the world ; that it is, and
always was imperfect or pistillate, and therefore
requires to be fertilized by a staminate sort. In the
last number of his journal, he says, advising those
about making new strawberry beds, " our plan is
to set ten rows of Hovey's Seedling, and then ten
rows of Boston Pine : both are equally productive,
and one fertilizes the other."

The advice is good, and to the good qualities of
the strawberries themselves, we have continually
borne testimony. But it is worthy of attention that
.Hovey's Seedling was quite perfect, and bore admi-
rably ; that there was no need of any distinction
in regard to the sexual character, until just at the
moment when the new seedling, the Boston Pine,
was ready for dissemination !

Treatment of Trees carried to cold Lati-
tudes.— As a preference is given to the transmis-
sion of trees from the Atlantic nurseries to the re-
mote Western States during the autumn, and as it
often happens that they arrive at their destination
after the ground has become frozen, a few simple
suggestions may be deemed appropriate.

da the arrival of trees after the ground is frozen,

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

147

the best course is to bury them horizontally in a tiry
cellar, by making a hole two to three leet dix'p,
and placin'j; the trees therein with layers of sandy
loam or other light soil between each layer of trees.
Tlie earth siiould be made fine so as to fill in com-
pactly. They may thus be well preserved till
spring, and if the frost has allecteil the trees in any
way, it will be abstracted. Another course is to
diii a trench in the cellar sufficiently large to con-
tain the roots, and to heel the trees therein (as it
is termed,) covering the roots well with fine earth,
so that it may penetrate among tiie fibres, and
leave no vacant spaces. Positive attention must be
paid to the point that the cellar he a perfectly dry
one, for if the earth becomes sodden during the win-
ter, it will greatly injure, if not kill tlie roots.
When trees are received before the ground is frozen,
but which are designed for spring planting, or are
intended for spring sale, the following course will
be found every way appropriate : Select a spot of
ground that is perfectly dry, that is, one whose tex-
ture admits of a free filtration, and dig a space
sulficientlj' large to the depth of four feet ; place
the trees therein horizontally, with layers of the
same light mould or sand between them, filling in
all compactly until within two feet of the surface,
then fill up the balance entirely with earth- There
will then be two feet of soil through which the
frost will have to penetrate before it can reach the
trees, which will be a sutHeient i)rotection in almost
any case. In very severe latitudes, however, like
Vermont, Maine, New-Hampshire, and the British
Provinces, the depth may be increased another foot,
but should a partial degree of frost reach the
trees, it would not materially atfect them. The
trees thus secured will, when taken out in the
spring, possess all the fresiuiess of newly trans-
planted ones, and being on the s])ot at the very
opening of spring, can be placed in their respective
positious at the very earliestperiod of removal with
every prospect of success. William R. Prince.
Linncean Nurseries, Flushing, L. I., Aug. 6, 1847.

Power's Large Crab. — Some years since, while
visiting a few of the many choice fruit-gardens be-
tween New-York and Albany, we met with a new
Siberian Crab,, raised by a fruit cultivator at Hud-
son, Mr. Power, which, from its size and beauty,
we considered (juito a desirable acquisition to this
class of aj)ples.

The tree resembles the large red Siberian Crab,
and is an abundant bearer. The fruit is ])rodueed
in clusters, presenting when ripe a most attractive
appearance, and is about six inches in circumfer-
ence, somewhat flattened and regulailVj formed.
Skin greenish yellow, with a beautifully colored
cheek, and its whole surface highly polished. Stalk
short, basin slightly depressed, calyx closed. It
will be tit for preserving, etc., in the course of next
month.

Regarding it as worthy of cultivation, we have,
under the name of Poiver's Large Sib' riaii Crab,
disseminated it to some considerable extent. R. i>.
Parsons. Flushing, L. 1., Slh mo., IS-17.

Raul's Genneting Apple. — This is the apple I
ent you last fall under the appellation of the Rock-

remain or Ncverfail, which you said was "unknown
to you." It is extensively ctdtivated in Ohio, and
was introduced into this State b}' the late Governor
Worthington. When a member of Congress, he fre-
quently bought the apple of a Quaker who attended
the market, and taking a liking to it, he procured
of the P'riend a few scions, which he sent in a let-
ter to Mr. Haynes, a nurseryman near Chilicothe.
From this source it has extciii!r«l. AVe have seen
it growing, in various directions, from the Ohio
river near Wheeling, to the neighborhood of Cm-
cinnati.

That the Rockremain of Ohio, is identical with
Raul's Genneting of Kentucky, as described by our
friend B\'ram, in your number of this month, 1 will
vouch. Several Kentucky gentlemen, who have
visited my house at different times, and ate of my
Rockremain fruit, have, without hesitancy, pro-
nounced it the Gennelino" of their State, and so de-
scribed the habits of the tree that there can be no
mistake in the matter.

The tree with me is but a moderate grower, but
a profuse bearer. When full, the ajiplcs hang in
clusters like sirapes. They were loadeil down last
year, and have a tolerable crop this year. Putting
out buds and blossoms in the sprir.g, some two
weeks later than other trees, enables them at inter-
vals of some ten or twenty years to make a splen-
did hit at bearing, though most seasons llic frost
serves them as it does the balance of the orcliard.

The ap])le is juic)'. tender, delicate, and although
good for cookiuLT and tolerable lor eatinir, tlu'ough
the winter, is not in its perfection until March and
April. And then it is hard to beat. We gave botii
the green Newtown Pippin and the Rockremain, last
spring, to some fifty persons, and requested them
to say which they preferred. Three out of four
gave the decided preference to the latter. It is a
much better keeper that the Pippin, though it is not
so large, nor does it retain its llavor, in jierfection,
so long. The Pi])pin is much more acnd. The
fruit, with us, is not so much elongated, on one
side, as the cut in your July number, but there is
not more dilfc'rence in the cut and our Iruit, than
there is in the shape of apples on diHercnc trees of
of the Newtown Pippin in our orchard.

We have tlnnight, for some time, the celebrity
this apple has, with many people, entitles it to a
place in your valuable book of "Fruits," and witli
this vie .V we forwarded you a specimen la.^t fall.
Whether the 'W'orthington luune, or the Kentucky
name, should be the standard, your judgment wifl
enable you to determine. We will nuike this sug-
gestion, however, that Genneting is a nause com-
mon to a raunb(M' of a|i])les, while Rockrenuiin (sug-
gested probably by the durable ([ualily of the fruit,)
is not known in the list of aj)j)les. The term " Ncv-
erfail," has been added from its bearing qualities.
Yours, &e. C. Springer. Meadow Farm, O.

Forced (Jrapes. — We have had for sale hero, at
the coni'ccl loner's for three weeks past, very line
Black lianibuigh grapes, raised under grass and
slightly forced, whieh at tirst .sold for one dollar the
pciund, but have fallen witliin two davs to seventy-
live cents. A good crop from Andalusia, (the seat
of the late Mr. Biddle,) is luidorstood to be nearly

148

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

readv for the market, some of which will no doubt
be sent to New- York, and several amateurs have
pood prospects; a few of these will no doubt sell
their surplus, so that a small supply will this year
be found among us at about tifty cents the pound,
and the supply Vill continue probably all Septem-
ber, with Cliasselas, Sweet water, Muscat of Al-
exandria, and a few others.

It is an interesting question to be solved by the
information obtained from as many quarters as pos-
sible, and to be obtained from some of j'our corres-
pondents, at what price this delicious fruit would
be profitable to cultivate under glass. It would be
desirable to know this, both for iorced fruit and that
which had merely the protection of glass. All our
cities have yet to be supplied, and it will probably
turn out that with care and economy, and with a
goor understanding of the whole routine of culture,
it may prove on a large scale a capital business.
Let all who can give results, by weighing ail they
pick from their glass houses, inform the editor of
the quantity they produce and the cost, recollecting
that a grapery does not afford constant occupation
to a gardener, but that a man hired by the month
can also attend to a good kitchen and flower gar-
den, or with an assistant, can do much besides even
attending a very considerable grapery. It does not
require much time in fall and winter, &c. &c. /.
J. S. Philadelphia, Aug. 9th, 1847.

The Great Annual Fair, of the N. Y. State
Agricultural Soeiet}', will be held at Saratoga
Springs on the 15th, Ifith and 17th of September.

Massachusetts Horticultural Society. —
The nineteenth annual exhibition will beheld at the
Society's Hall, Boston, on Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday, September 22d, 23d and 24th.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society,
will hold its nineteenth annual exhibition on the
15th, 16th and 17th of September, in the Philadel-
phia Museum, corner of Ninth and George streets,
and will oecupj' the two grand saloons of that build-
ing. The committee solicit contributions in fruits,
plants, flowers, and culinary vegetables. Articles
from a distance may be sent by Adams & Co. 's Ex-
press, and the Society will cheerfully defray the
cost of transportation. The same may be address-
ed to D. Landretli's seed warehouse, 65 Chesnut st.,
or Thomas P. James, 212 Market street, Phila-
delphia.

American Agricultural Association. Hor-
ticultural Exhibition. — This society, to avoid con-
flicting with the State Fair, wall hold its autumnal
exhibition of fruits and flowers at the Lyceum build-
ing, 561 Broadway, on the 8th and 9th of Septem-
ber. It is expected that this will be a more bril-
liant show of fruits and flowers than has been seen
in New- York for many years.

Montreal Hort. Society. — We have been fa-
vored by the Rev. Mr. Villeneuve, one of the
Vice-Presidents of this Society, with a copy of the
proceedings connected with its formation, together
with its list of premiums to be awarded at its au-
tumnal show, to be held on the 8th of Sept. The
institution is under the patronage of his excellency

the Earl of Elgin and Kilcardin ; the Hon Mr. Jus-
tice Day, President, whose address, at the meeting
held for orgas.iziiig the Society, we have read with
interest.

New Haven County Horticultural Society.
— The seventeenth annual exhibition of this spirited
Society will take place at tiie State House, New
Haven, on the 28tli, 29th and ;Wth of September. An
address will be delivered before the Society on the
afternoon of Wednesday, the second day; and we
are requested to say that delegates from other So-
cieties, on making themselves known at the place
of exhibition, will be cordially received by a com-
mittee ap]iointed for the purpose.

OCf- A Horticultural Society has been organized
at Springfield, Mass., and the following officers ap-
pointed : — Wm. B. Calhoun, President; Timothy
W. Carter, J. B. Bridgeman, Henry Vose, Vice-
Presidents ; B. K. Bliss, Secretary and Treasurer;
Rufus Whittier, D. M. Bryant, Richard Bliss, Hen-
ry Brewer, Jr., Lucius Harthan, Directors.

Hovey's Fruits. — I have carefully examined the
new periodical of Mr. Hovey, with colored plates of
fruit, reviewed by you in p. 568 of the Horticultur-
ist, and am surprised that you have spoken so favor-
ably of it, and commended it to the public favor. I
suspect that there must have been a copy of it spe-
cially prepared for your eye, as those I have seen
disappoint many here. The coloring is poor, and
the portraits or likenesses quite bad. Baldwin apple
for instance, is painted a bright scarlet, when every
one knows the fruit itself is of a purplish red. I am
quite confident too that no cultivator would recog-
nize the Glout Morceau pear from the plate given
ofit.

Among other great things promised in the pros-
pectus, was " sketches of the habit of the tree."
Without wishing to be hypor-critieal, I call upon
any one knowing the growth of the Baldwin ap-
ple to look at the " sketch of the habit" of that
sort, given at the beginning of the description on
page 11. It looks more like a sketch of the habit
of a lean asparagus stalk !

If the future numbers evince no more pomologi-
cal discrimination than the first, the work will be
of little value. Yours. W. Philadelphia, Aug.
Wth, 1847.

The Dutch Elm, (Ulmus suberosa.) — This is, as
many of our readers are aware, one of the most
vigorous and rapid growing of all the fine genus of
trees to which it belongs. It is distinguished from
other foreign species by its corky bark. Though
the tree is not so graceful and elegant in shape as
our American weeping Elm, it forms a large, up-
right, and dark massy head of foliage, and few trees
serve better to form rapidly, thick screen pantations,
to hide unsightly objects, or produce rich masses of
verdure, than the Dutch Elm.

We have also observed the present season, that
trees of the Dutch Elm, standing in the streets of a
village, among other native elms, were entirely un-
touched by caterpillar, and other insects which prey
upon the latter. If this exemption is constant, it
will render the Dutch Elm particularly valuable as
a town shade tree.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

149

Summer crops of Peas. — Those of your readers
who are fond of a succession of this tine vegetable,
and have found dilTiculty in obtainini,' such during
the drier parts of the summer, may be pleased to
learn that they may be successful if they will plant
tnera in shallow trenches, in the same way as they
are usually prepared for celery — the trench-
es should, however, only be five or six inches deep.
These trenches catch a supply of moisture during
showers and retain it, .so that, as I have found, tlie
rows of peas grown in them, are green and luxuri-
ant, when on the flat surface adjoining they fail en-
tirely. IV. II. Philadelphia, ^lugust, 1847.

'Strawberries. — Although pressed by avoca-
tions, I cannot allow the mistaken statement of Mr.
HovEY, as published in the last number of his mag-
azine, to pass unnoticed. He has just reason to be
proud of Hovey's Seedling for its great size and
beauty, although so deficient in flavor, without de-
tracting from other varieties. He says that at the
Flushing exhibition, Hovey's Seedling; " received
the prize for three quarts, in competition with up-
wards of 30 other varieties ;" whereas the truth is,
that no other kind whatever was offered in competi-
tion for the three quart preminm, the 30 varieties
being exhibited in small quantities of a pint or less
as a collection, and a premium was awarded to
them. The case was similar at the exhibition in
New- York, where a premium was also awarded.
Having above 60 estimable varieties, more than 20
of which would be pronounced superior to the Hovey
■wheve flavor was considered, we had necessarily
to send' but a small quantity of each in our show
cases; but there never has been seen in Europe or
America so splendid a collection as we exhibited.
The great venders of Strawberries in the New- York
market, stated, the present season, that they could
not sell the Hovey Seedling, jintil their stock of the
Crimson Cone was exhausted. What will be said
when the Primate, Primordian, Charlotte, Eber-
lein, and other choice varieties, are sent in quanti-
ties to our markets. We solicit friend Hovey to
pay a visit to Flushing, and not keep his eye so
askance, for we are all co-laborers in a common
cause. Wm. R. Prime. Flushing, August, 1847.

Favorite Roses. — Dear Sir: Perhaps it may be
interesting to some of your readers to know the
opinion of an amateur cultivator on the subject of
roses. I find that no question is asked more fre-
quently than " What are your favorite roses, as I
see you cultivate a large collection?" Now it is
perhaps a little dilficult to select, but there are a
lew sorts that are such established favorites with
me, that I will not hesitate to name them. First,
then, among the Bourbons, — Souvenir de Malmai-
son, always large, finely formed, and of a most
delicate and lovely shell color, — Paul Joseph, rich
crimson, a tint rare in summer roses, and for its
otto perfume an old variety. Gen. Dabourg. —
Among the Noisettes, I will mention only one, in-
dispensable in all collections — Aimee Vibert — al-
ways in bloom, and its clusters of the purest white;
it makes a charming bed when it is planted in a
mass, and the shoots pegsed to the surface as they
grow. Among the Tea Roses it is difficult to de-

cide, as there is so much beauty and perfume — but
on tlie whole, I think there are few sorts that .surpass
Devoniensis. Yrom an jlmatuer. New-York, jIu-
gust, 1847.

Albany and Rensselaer Hort. Society. —
The second exhibition of this Society was held at
the Court-House in Troy on the 24th of July : —
Greatest variety of Green-house plants — Premium
to L. Menand, Watervliet. Dr. H. Wendell exhi-
bited the greatest variety of P/i/oxi's — 16 fine new
varieties. Greatest variety of Dahlias — Premium
to W. Newcomb, Pitlstown, Mdio presented 76
kinds. Floral ornammts — First premium to Mrs.
D. T. Vail, Troy ; second premium to Joel Rath-
bone, Albany. Hand Bouquets — First premium to
Dr. H. Wendell, Albany. Vase Bouquets — One of-
fered by Mrs. Chas. H. Merritt, highly commended.

Currants, best flavored and finest -First premi-
um to J. W. Haydock, Greenbush, for the kind call-
ed "white grape;" second premium to Jas. Wil-
son, Albany, for " Knight's sweet." Gooseberries,
best specimens and finest flavored — First premium
to S. E. Warren, Troy, for " Lord Creve;" second
premium to Henry Vail, Troy, for " Green Wal-
nut." Raspberries, best specimen and finest flavor
— First premium to Henry Vail, Troy, for " Fran-
conia;" second to V. P. Douw, Greenbush, for
"Red Antwerp."

Vegetables. Best Beets — Premium to E. P.
Prentice, Albanj'. String Beans — Premium to Dr.
H. Wendell, Albany. Cucumbers, (open culture.) —
Premium to V. P. Douw, Greenbush. Roman Cu-
cumbers— Special premium, V. P. Douw. Squash-
es, best summer — Premium to Joel Rathbone, Alba-
ny. Tomatoes — First premium, V. P. Douw; se-
cond, E. P. Prentice. Egg-plants — Sample by E.
P. Prentice, highly commetided. A winter Squash
of the growth of 1846, in great perfection, was pre-
sented by James Montgomery, Troy. A variety of
vegetables, fruits, flowers, garden tools, &c., very
tastefully arranged by Alex. Walsh, Esq., of Lan-
singburgh, attracted much attention, and for which
a special premium of $2 was awarded. The show
of currants, Sec, was specially fine.

The third exhibition was held at Troy on the 22d
of August. " The disjtlay of apples and plums, in-
deed of all the fruits of the season," savs the Troy
Whig, "was worthy of all praise. The floral ex-
hibition was no less meritorious. In Dahlias, As-
ters, and Verbenas, we have seldom seen more per-
fect specimens or a greater variety. Water mel-
ons, of a size which we could not have believed they
would attain in this latitude so early in the season;
nutmeg melons of the most orthodox shape, with
every variety of the melon familj', were there in
profusion, with mammoth egg j)lants, squashes,"
&c. &e. ....

The Christiana Melon. — The seeds which you
obligingly sent me of Capt. Lovett's new meion,
have done well and yielded me a fine crop. Plant-
ed at the same time with the netted citron and nut-
meg melons, they ripened ten days earlier. Al-
though I do not consider it quite e([ual in flavor to
these two varieties, still it is an excellent sort, and
its early maturity renders it particularly valuable.
T. B. New- York, Jug. 3d, 1847.

150

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY.

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIEJTY.

Exhibition of Saturday, July 3, 1847.

FLOWERS.— From M. P. Wilder, Picsideut ot" the So-
ciely, leu pots of new Gladioli, viz ; Due d'Orleaiis, Lehma-
nii, Oliristiauus No. 1, insignis, Wilhelnms, Spcershill, pyra-
midalis, Dohreii, Pawlonia, and Queen Victoria ; llie vaneues
are all tine, some of iheni exquisitely beautiful. Cut flowers
in great variety, including fine Roses, among vvhioli were no-
ticed Princess Clementine (a new wliite.) Alba Felicile, J,a
Vestale, Madame Hardy, Kean, Blanche Fleur, La Reine,
Mrs. Elliot, Louis Buonaparte, Earl Talbot, Marquise Borella,
&c. ice. Also, new scarlet Geraniums, viz: Prince Albert,
Cyrus, Queen, Shrubland suptrb, Bnglnon Hero, Gen. Tom
Thumb, and Goliaii. Also, Cacti, Duetzi, and other cut
flowers

From Hovey ^ Co., one large circular bouquet, two very
fine large liat do., and six hand do,; also, a great variety of
fine Roses, and other cut flowers.

From John Kenrich, a tine flower of Magnolia maerophylla.
Why is not this beautiful tree more generally cultivated ;

From J. E. Tescheinacker, a pianl of Hceniantlius lenuifo-
lius, a rare and very beautiful flower, introduced to Rio Ja-
neiro from Africa.

From Joseph Breclc (f Co., one large circular bouquet;
Prairie and other Roses ; Phiks ; Liliuin martagon alba, pur-
purea and punctata; Ldiura umbellatuni ; Campanula media,
four varieties; C. persieilolia, three varieties; C. longata; Phlox
Van Houttii. raicanthra speciosa. and suaveolens ; Persian Iris
ill variety; Digitalis in variety ; Delphhiiums ; Pasonies; Dian-
thus barbaratus in variety; Duetza scabra; Clematis alpina,
&c. &.C.

From Augustus As2>inu-aU, a great variety of Roses.

From B. V. Freack, Roses in great variety.

From William Kenrich, by Miss Russell, one large bou-
quet, and a basket of flowers, with a great variety of cut
flowers, including Pceonies, &c.

From O. H. Mathers, cut flovvers in great variety, including
fine specimens of Phlox Van Houtlii, and other varieties ;
Verbenas, Roses, Pelargoniums, and other green liouse
flowers.

From S. Walker, a great display of Prairie Roses, of diflfer-
ent varieties ; Uueizia scabra, Spirea aruncus, and japoiiica,
Delphinium, Clematis alpina, and oihcr cut flowers.

From Parker Barnes, line specimens of double dwarf Rock-
et Larkspur, Digitalis, Campanula media in var., Pentsiemoii
digitalis ; Duetzia scabra. Cactus .Speciosissimus ; Dianthus
barbatus, fine sorts including a double var.; Verbenas, Roses,
Ipomopsis picta. Petunia Hebe and other fine sorts, Perpe-
tual Pinks, Scabiosa airopurpurea, &c. Also, one hand
boquet.

From A. Boivdilch, six fine hand bouquets.

From Wm. Mellar, six varieties of Dahlias ; Pinks, Pelar-
goniums, and other cut flowers. Also, two bouquets.

From J. L L. F. Warren, ten pots plants, viz: Crassida
spec, Rondeletia speciosa, Erica veiitricosa superba. Calceo-
laria, Gardenia radicans, Mammilaria scopa alba, and Wildi-
ana, Echinocactus spec.. Euphorbia maliformis and Ixora
rosea; one round vase bouquet, one flat ditto., six flat hand
do., and two round hand do. Also a fine display of Prau-ie
Roses, and cut flowers in great variety.

From Messrs. Wiiiship, a fine show of Prairie Roses,
White Azalea shrubs and herbaceous plants in great variety.
Also, two mantel bouquets.

AWARD OF PREMIUMS

For the best six baud bouquets, to Messrs. Hovey S, Co., $2.
For the second best do. do., to Azell Boirditch, $\.

For the best pair flat mantel bouquets, to Hover/ S; Co.,
$■2. For the second best do. do., to the Messrs Winship,
$1.

For the best round bouquet, to Messrs. Hovey §■ Co., $2.
For the second best, do. to J. L. L. F. Warren, !S1.

For the best Pot Plants to J L. L. F. Warren, S2.

On Prairie Roses.— James Nugent, R. M. Copekind and
J. Breck, judges.

For the best display, a premium to Samuel Walker, of $4.

For the '2il best to Messrs. Winship, S3.

The committee recommend a gratuity of $5, to Marshall

P. Wilier, for his 10 new varieties of Gladioli. Also, a gra-
tuity of .$.3 to J. E. Tesclieiiuidier, for a fine plant of Haeman-
thus tenuuolius.

FRUITS. — The beautiful specimens of Strawberries pre-
sented to-day were placed upon the tables with great skill and
good tasie. As a whole it was the best display of this fruit
that we ever saw.

Of an exhibition where all was so admirably done, we trust
we may be permitted to state that this is as it should be, and as
it always ouglu to he. Tiie arrangement of tlie fruit in the
dishes, jireseiiied on this and on lormer occasions by Otis
Jclinson, Esq. has appeared to us as worthy ol' imitation.
Fruits, like flowers, may be much improved m appearance
by a judicious arrangement, so as to show the ■'.sunny side."
The " British Queen " and " Princess Alice Maude " were
made more " illustrious^^ in the respective dishes of the Pre-
sident of the Society, and J. L. L. F. Warren, by the grace-
ful manner in which the berries were displayed. Hovey's
Seedling, by O. Johnson, Hovey's Seedling and Boston Pine,
by Messrs. Hovey; Richardson's Seedlings. Nos. 1, 2.3, 4
and 5, Hovey's Seedling, Swaiiistone's Seedling and Bo.ston
Pine, by Josiah Uicliardson ; five baskets of Fay's Seedling,
and one basket of Hovey's Seedling, by Isaac Fay, may be
classed among the specimens as having been arranged and
exhibited to great advantage. They were truly beautiful
specimens.

After a trial ot two seasons, the Committee again place
.lenney's seedling among the best. It is a very hign flavored
strawberry when fully ripe.

Josiah Ricliardson' s seedlings, numbers tivo and^^re, pos-
sess considerable merit.

Lsaac Fay''s seedling. The berries were large and hand-
some, but they lack the essential qualities of a good straw-
berry, viz : delicious flavor.

The basket of " Swainstone's seedling" Strawberry, pre-
sented to the Committee by Josiah Richardson, (used by them
as a test) were very rich. I\Ir. Richardson will please ac-
cept the thanks of the Committee for his generous supply.

The cherries, Blacic Tartarian and Elton, by John Fisk Al-
len, of Salem, nicely arranged in a small dish,— (one almost
wliite and tlie other black) produced a charming etfeet. As
sjiecimens they were truly beautiful

In the coUection of the President of the Society we noticed
a iitw berries of the seedling Strawberry "Lezzia Randolph,"
raised by W. D. BritiMe, M. D. of Philadelphia. AVe were
pleased with its appearance. Another season we hope to test
its essential qualities. The President also presented beauti-
ful specimens of Jenney's seedling and Princess Alice
Maude.

Otis Johnson, of Lynn, Hovey's seedling Strawberries and
beautiful specimens of Cooledge's Favorite Peaches.
W. T. C. Morton, M. D. Hovey's Seedling.

Cyrus Curtis, Roxbury, — Strawberries ?

E. Bowcn, Lynn, Early White Heart Cherries ?

J. L. L. F. Warren, Brighton, Early White Heart Cher-
ries, (.') and Swain.stone's Seedling, Jenney's Seedling, Prince
Albert, Stoddard Pine, Brhisli Queen, AVhitewood, (beauti-
ful specimens,) and Hovey's Seedling Strawberries.

John Fisk Allen, of Salem, five varieties of Grapes; Figs ;
and three varieties of Peaches, viz: Royal George, (fine.)
Grosse Mignonne of New-Jersey? (small,) and Hoffman's
Favorite.

Samuel Dountcr, jr., of Dorchester, Cooledge's Favorite
Peaches, and fine specimens of Hovey's Seedling Strawber-
ries.

Seedling Wood Strawberries, by Samuel Walker, of
Roxbury.

Exhibition of Saturday, July 10, 1S47.

FLOWERS.— From M. P. AVilder, President of the So-
ciety, new Phloxes, viz : Anias Chauverii, white, with rosy
purple eye, after the style of Oeil de Lynx, very fine ; Au-
guste, and delecta; Prairie Roses, Queen, Baltimore Belle
and Pcrpetua] Pink, Blush Moss, crislata. Noisette, Solfataire,
in quantity, and other varieties.

From Messrs. Winship, a pair of fine mantel bouquets .

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY,

151

Prairie Roses, Perpetual Pink, Balliinore Belle, and lir.rdy
Roses in variely ; also, a {rreai variety of herliacuous and
slirul)by dowering plants, occupying one circular and a num-
ber of side stands.

••'roni O. H. Mathers, by Thomas Needham, a fine plant of
Buddlea Lindleyana ; also a great variety of cut llowers,
intluding Pelargoniums, Roses, numerous and fine specimens
of Phlox" Van lioutlii and 1 icolor ; P. Drummoudii, var. al a,
&iC.; Verbenas, Stocks, Delphiniums, &c.

From ^. Bowdiick, seven hand bouquets.

From Jawiei iVifgewt, Pelargoniums, Iberis, Roses, Verbe-
nas, Campanula media plena, and other cut flowers.

From Parkir Barnes, Seedli;:g Pinks.

FtomWiUiam Kenrick, by ;\Ii.ss Russell, one large and four
small bouquets, and cut flowers in variety.

From Joseph Breck ^ Co , Lilium cundidum, umbellatum
and Martagon, var. alba, purpurea and punctata; Digitalis in
variety; English Iris do. ; Campanula in variety; Delphinium
grandiflorum, double and single, many varieties , D. Bario-
wii, sinensis, and elalum in variety ; Picotee Pinks ; Penste-
nion purpurea ; Spiraea palinata, lobata and ulmaria ; Dian-
Ihus burliatus and chmensis in variety.

From Augustus AsiiuiwaU, Roses in great variety.

From Win. MelUxr, a great variety of Dahlias, viz : Mar-
chioness of Ormond, INIadame Chanviere, Evequede Bayeux,
Thompson's Vivid, Caleb Cope, Primrose, Countess of Liver-
pool, Columbine, Judy, Madatne Villabois, Fairy Queen,
Dowager Lady Cooper, &c ; also, two large bouquets ; Moss
and oiiier roses, Verbenas, Delphiniums, Perpetual Pinks, and
other ciu flowers.

From J. L. Gardner, by J. Thomas, seven pots of Thun-
bergia, well grown and beautil'ul, three varieties, Orange,
Bud" and White ; one large design and bouquet, and one round
bouquet.

From J.L. L- F. Warren, six pot plants, viz. Tamus Ele-
phantipes, (elephant's foot ) a curious plant; Gardenia radi-
caus; Anigozanthus coccineus ; SoUya heterophylla ; Mam-
marillasp.; and Echinocactus sp.; tiie last with a beautiful
tubular blush pink flower. Also, six flat hand bouquets, and
one round do.; Prairie Roses; white Water Lilies; and cut
flowers in great variety.

From Messrs. iforey ^ Co , very fine Picotee and Carna-
tion Pinks, among which were the following, viz : Dui;e of
Newcastle, Princess Victoria, Lady Peel, Lady Campbell,
Chillwall Beauty, Meteor, Victoria, and some new seedlings.
Also, ten kinds of Prairie Roses, viz : Queen of the Prairie,
Perpetual Pink, Superba, Eva Corinne, Anne Maria, Miss
Gunnell, Pride of Washington, Pallida, Jane, and Triumph-
ant. Also, two large flat bouquets, two beautil'ul double-fa-
ced flat hand do., and ;wo round hand do. One plant of
Acliimenes patens, a new variely.

AWARD OF PREMIUIMS.

For the best six liand bouquets, a premium to AzrJl Boiv-
ditch, of )6-2. For the -InA best do., to J. L L. F. Warren, ifl.

For the best pair of Mantel bouquets lo the Messrs. Witi-
ship. $a.

To J. Thomas, for a design, §2.

For the best round Pyramidal bouquet, the Messrs. Hoveij,
$■2. For the 2d best do. do., to J. Thomas, $1.

Gratuities.— To J. Thomas, for seven plants of Thunber-
gia, !i!i2.

To O. H. Mathers, by Thomas Needham, tor a plant o/
Buddlea Lindleyana, !!?1.

To J. L- L. F. Warren, for a Cactus in bloom, $1.

FRUITS.— By the President, Cherries, Black Eagle, (juicy
and rich.) While Bigarreau.

Otis Johnson, Cherries, Bigarreau Coideurde Chair. AVhite
Bigarreau, Black Tartarian, Sjiarliawk's Money, (sweet and
delicate flavor.) Peaches, Coolidge's Favorite, (beautil\illy
colored ) Strawberries, British Queen, Prhicess Alice JNIaude,
Prince Albert.

Josiali Richardson, Cherries, Black Tartarian ; Strawber-
ries, Hovey's Seedling, Deptford Piiie, Prince Albert, Ricli-
ard-ion's Seedling, numbers two and five — which fully sus-
tained tlie opinion expressed in the report made last week.

Parker Barnes, Cherries, White Bigarreau.

J. Fisk Allen, Figs and seven varieties of Grapes."

F. W. Macondraij, Peaches, Cooledge's Favorite, (richly
colored.)

Josifih Lovctt, Strawberries, Prolific Hautbois, {pecidiar
agreeable flavor,) Hovey's Seedling.

J. L. L- F. Warren, Strawberries, Alpine, Red and
White.

Isaac Fay, Strawberries, four baskets — Fay's Seedling,
(large and well colored.) The committee made a furlhor tri-
al of Mr. Fay's Seedling, and cannot pass any liigiier com-
mendution than that expressed in a previous report,

Horey if Co., Buisl's Prize, pleasant acidulous flavor, Dept-
ford Pine, Myalt"s New Iluutbois, (of a peculiar rich tiavor,)
Princess Alice Maude, Hovey's Seedling.

J. Owen, Strawberries, Wood, Red and White.

Tliu Coniniitiee liave again to express their obligations to
the Presi'leiit, Messrs. Josiah Richardson, Otis Johnson, Josiah
Lovett, Isaac Fay, and Hovey if Co., for a liberal supply of
Cherries and Strawberries lo test their qualities— Hovey's
Seedling was used as a test.

Saturdmj, July 17, 1847.

FLOWERS.— From M. P. Wilder, President of the So-
ciel)", four pots of seedling Japan Lilies from L. speciosum
crossed with L. lancitblium album. These, like all the seed-
lings which Mr. W has bloomed, are almost iuenlical with
the fir.st named species.

From J. Breck ^ Co., fine Pinks, Delphiniums, Spiraeas and
otlier cut flowers in great variely.

From Messrs. Winsliip, two fine specimens off Yucca fila-
menlosa and gloriosa, a variety of double Hollyhocks, Car-
nations, Picotee Pinks and other Herbaceous flowers, inclu-
ding a fine display of variegated shrubs, among which were
Ulmus variegata, erispa, viminalis, cornubiensis, Belula laci-
niata pendula, and a pair of mantel bouquets.

From jY(i//»«i Stetson, Dahlias.

From J. L. L. F. Warren, Pinks, with other cut flowers,
and ten bouquets of different shapes.

From Mr Kenrick, by Miss Russell, three bouquets.

From James Nugent, Dahlias and bouquets.

From Horey ^ Co., nine bouquets of various forms, inclu-
ding one flat double-faced hand do.; Pol plants; large Lilium
lancilblium album, specio.sum and punctatum.

These lillies are of surp,issing beauty; Messrs. H. have been
very successl'ul in blooming them. The first was a very
large and thrifty plant, havmg no less than six stalks and 24
flowers and bu<ls, while the single hloom on the last named
was pre-eminently deserving of the ephhet, pertect The pot
plants exhibited by these gentlemen were indeed all very fine,
and many of ihem entirely new. Among them were three
species of Achimenes, picta. grandiflora and patens ; Nultalia
grandiflora. Fuchsia Nymph and Plalycodon grandiflorum.
Also, ten varieties Cainalioiis and Picotees, about SU blooms.

From Will. Metlar, two bouquets, and a great variety of cut
flowers. Dahlias, etc.

From J. L. Gardner, by J. Thomas, eight pot plants, Achi-
menes, Thunbergia, and Gardinia florida. Also, a bingular
oreliideaceuus plant, Dendrobium spec with flowers of a pale
straw color.

From S. R Johnson, fine Pinks.

From Parker Barnes, seedling Pinks, Gladiolus gandaven-
sis, etc.

From A Boiuditch, six bouquets, and pot plants.

From D. V- Chaptium, Cambridgeport, fine China Pinks,
well arranged.

From 2'. H. Perkins, by William Quant ; one fine double
bouquet for large vase.

From Wm. B. Richards, Dahlias, vars. Caleb Cope, Vivid,

From Hugh Fraser, Esq., Charleston, S. C, by J. L. Tuck-
er, a sheaf of Rice, of the present year's crop, in a fine con-
dition, the heads large, tlie kernels well matured, which attract-
ed much atlenlion from its novt Ity.

AWARD OF PREMRTMS.

On Bouquets axu Pot Plaxts. — For the best six hand
bouquets, lo Hovey If Co., S2. 2d best do. to A. Bowditch,
SI. And a gratuity for six do. lo J. Nugent, SI.

For the best pair of mantel bouquets, to the Messrs.
Winship, $2. 2d best do., to Hovey If Co., $1.

For the best huge oval bouquet, to W711. Quan, $2. 2d
besldo., to Horey ^ Co., i|l.

For the best six pot plants, lo John Thomas, S2. And a
gratuity to Horey Sf Co., $5.

Carnations and picotees. — First premium lo Hovey Sf Co.,
for the best 10, :*;•>■ 2d do. to S K. Johnson, for 2d best do.
$1. Also, ST to Hovey if Co., for the best display, and a gra-
tuity to Parker Barnes of S3, for fine Seedlings.

152

PENNSYLVANIA HORT. SOCIETY.

Double Hollyhocks. A premium of $2 to Messrs. Win-
ship, for tlie best display.

KRUITS— The cherries exhibited to-day— Cherries ! the
very name calls us back half a century —to boyhood— to the
charming poetry of Slietistone :

" See cherries here, ere cherries yet abound,

#**■**#**

Scattering like blooming maid, their glances round,"
— to the "cries of London" and our own "cries for cher-
ries'-— to our anxiety to get a glance of the London barrow-
woman, with

" Her hair loose curled, the rest tuck'd up between
Her neatly frill'd mob-cap, was scarcely seen ;
A black chip-hat peculiarly her own,
And ribbon putf'd around the small flat crown
Pinn'd to her head dress, gave her blooming face
A jaunty openness and winning grace."
Such was her dress, as she passed through the slreelts and
cried

" Round and sound,
Two pence a pound,
Cherries 1 raie, ripe cherries."

" Cherries a ha'penny a stick !
Come and pick ; come and pick
Cherries I big as plums I
Who comes ? wliocomes?"
In those days there were " white hearts" and " real black
hearts,"

But no " Black Tartarians" from Lynn,
By Otis Johnson ; in truth " as big as plums,"
Nor " Downer's red," nor " Downing's red cheek"
To please ihe taste or charm the " fancy,"
Nor Salem's witch — •' Sweet Montmorency."
This exhibition of Cherries will be the last of the present
season, witli the exception, probably, of the Sweet Montmo-
rency, and a lew very late varieties.

The specimens of the " Black Eagle," furnished by the
Hon. B. V. French, of Braintree, were made the standard to
test the relative merits of the cherries presented on this occa-
sion, to the Committee. Although many of the other varieties
rank deservedly high in the estimation of the horticulturist,
yet no cherry, in the opinion of the Committee, is of higher or
better flavor than the Black Eagle.
" Downer's Late" is also a cherry of great excellence.

Its sweet and luscious flavor should obtain for it, as it richly
deserves, "a place in every fi-arden."

A seedling cherry (probably from the Black Eagle,) by the
Messrs. Hyde, of Newton, fully sustains the opinion expres-
sed by the committee last season

Capt. J. S. aleeper, of Roxburv, presented a seedling Cher-
ry of good size, but not fully ripe; it has somewhat the flavor
i)i Downer's Lale, from which it probably originated. Ano-
ther season, when the iruit is quite matured, we should like
to try other specimens.

Wm. Quant, presented a seedling Cherry, raised by Mr.
Harback, of Brookline. The fruit is large, flesh firm, coarse
and deficient in flavor.

Fine specimens of the Black Tartarian (extra large,) Flo-
rence, Napoleon Bigarreau, Black Heart, and (?) by

Otis Johnson, of Lynn.

A large box of Downer's Late, by S. Walker, Roxbury.

Several boxes of fine specimens of Cherries, by Josiah
Richardson, of Cambridge.

Three boxes of Clierries. by Capt. Geo. Walsh.

Dr. John C. Warren, of Boston, presented specimens of a
red apple (past eating,) also two fine pears of last year''s
growth. The pears were in fine order and of pleas^ant flavor;
the mode of keeping, as also the name of the variety, were un-
known to the Committee, who would like to receive further
information on this subject.

Currants— fine specimens of White and also;Red Dutch, by
5. A. Walker, Brookline; Anso7i Derler, Roxbury; Josiah
Richardson, Cambridge, and IV. ^ R. Williams.

Figs, large and fine, but not ripe, by N. Stetson, Esq., of
Bridge water.

Grapes — by John Fisk Allen, Salem, very fine specimens
of ten varieties of Grapes, some extra fine berries of Wil-
moi's Black Hamburgh and a splendid bunch of White Nice
crowned his d isplay.

Melon — A high flavored specimen by Mr. Wm. Quant,
from the garden of Hon. T. H. Perkins.

Mulberries— By the Messrs. Winship, Brighton, variety
Canton or Alpine, (very large )

Peaches — Four dishes (fine) by Capt. Macondry, of Dor-
Chester, and one dish by Jolin F- Allen, of Salem.

Raspberries — Franconia, Fastolff, Victoria (new.) and
white Thimbleberries, from the garden of J. L. L. F. Warren,
Brighton. Extra fine specimens of the Fastolfl" by the Messrs.
Hovey of Cambridge. By Vice President Cheever litwhall,
fine specimens of Knevett's Giant.

.'strawberries — Fine White Alpine by J. L. L. F. Warren,
Brighton.

PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The stated meeting of this Society was held as usual on
Tuesday evening, August 17, 1347. The President in the
chair. The most interesting objects in this evening's display,
were the splendid Grapes from the President's grapery, and
from the garden of the institution of the " Sislers of the Sa-
cred Heart," near Andalusia. There were other fine fruits
shown — Nectarines by Mr. Carpenter's gardener, German-
town, and by John Sherwood, Andalusia; also beautiful
Plums, Pears and Apples. The vegetables shown by A.
P'ulton, Isaac B. Baxter, and Miss Graiz, betoken a favorable
season lor ihe culinary supply.
j^Prt!raiums were awarded em follows : —

By the Committee on Plants and Flowers.— For the best
three named specimens of hot-house plants; for the second
best ditto ; and'for the best three named specimens of green-
house plants, each to Archibald Henderson, gardener to Thos.
W. Smith. For the best indigenous plants, and the best bou-
quet, to Robert Kilvington. For the second best bouquet, to
A. Henderson. For the best basket of cut flowers, to An-
drew Uryburgh. For the second best to Peter Raabe ; and a
special premium of two dollars to Alex. Parker, for plants in
pots ; and others of one dollar each, for bouquets, to A. Hen-
derson, Patrick Gallagher and Ben Daniels, gardener to C.
Cope.

By the Committee on Fruits.— For the best Grapes of black
variety, (Black Hamburg.) to W. Westcott, gardener to the
institution of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. For the second
best, (Black Hamburg,) to Ben Daniels, gardener to C. Cope.
For the best white (Frontignac,) to W. Westcott. For the
second best (Sweet water,) to B. Daniels. For the best
Nectarines (Temple,) to Wm. Sinton, gardener to Geo. W.
Carpenter. (For the second best (Downton,) to John Sher-
wood, For the best Plums, (Bolmar's,) to Isaac B. Baxter.

For the second best (Bolmar's,) to Edwin Meredith. For the
best Pears, to Patrick Gallagher, gardener to Mi* Gratz. For
the second best, to Thomas Machran, gardener to Sam'l R.
Simmons. For the best Apples, (Ladies' blush,) to John
Perkins, Moorestown, N. J. For the second best Apples, to
P Gallagher. And a special premium of one dollar for a jar
of Figs preserved in spirits. The Committee noticed with
great pleasure, the quantity and variety of Grapes displayed
on this occasion, an encouraging evidence of the growing in-
terest in this deparlment.

By the Committee on Vegetables.— For the best and most
interesting display of Vegetables, to Anthony Felten. For the
second most interesting, lo Jno. Austin, gardener to Isaai- B.
Baxter. For the third most interesting, to Patrick Gallagher.
And a special premium of one dollar to John Austin, gardener
to I. B Baxter, for a fine display of Red Cabbage. '

The Corresponding Secretary reported letters from other So-
cieties reciprocating invitations to visit autumnal exhibitions
by delegations, which were read.

On moiion, ordered, that a committee of five be appointed
to take into consideration, with power to act, the selection of
a proper person to collect Horticultural and other objects in
Mexico, as a favorable opportunity is now afforded ; also that
the sum of five hundred dollars be appropriated to carry out
that desirable object.

The names of the members composing delegations, to visit
the autumnal exhibitions of other societies, were announced.

The Secretary reported that Dr. Wm. Darlington, of West-
chester, had presented to the Society a copy of his recent work
on Botany tor Farmers. On moiion of Library Committee,
ordered, that the thanks of the society be tendered to the donor.

Members elected. — Wm. H. Adams, Alex. Dandurand, and
Thomas Duchar. THO. P. JAMES, Rec. Sec.

JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AOT) RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

OCTOBER, 1847.

No. 4.

There are few persons, among what may
be called the travelling class, who know the
beauty of the finest American country seats.
Many are ignorant of the very existence of
those rural gems that embroider the land-
scape here and there, in the older and weal-
thier parts of the country. Held in the re-
tirement of private life, thej' are rarely vi-
sited, except by those who enjoy the friend-
ship of their possessors. The annual tour-
ist by the railroad and steamboat, who
moves through wood and meadow and riv-
er and hill, with the celerity of a rocket,
and then fancies he knows the country, is
in a state of total ignorance of their many
attractions ; and those whose taste has not
led them to seek this species of pleasure,
are equally unconscious of the landscape-
gardening beauties that are developing
themselves every day, with the advancing
prosperity of the country.

It has been our good fortune to know a
great number of the finest of these delight-
ful residences, to revel in their beauties,
and occasionally to chronicle their charms.
If we have not sooner spoken at large of
Montgomery Place, second as it is to no
seat in America, for its combination of at-
tractions, it has been rather that Ave were
silent — like a devout gazer at the mar- 1
Vm TT on

vellous beauty of the Apollcn — from excess
of enjoyment, than from not deeply feeling
all its varied mysteries of pleasure-grounds
and lawns, wood and water.

Montgomery Place is one of the superb
old seats belonging to the Livingston fami-
ly, and situated in that part of Dutchess
county bordering on the Hudson. About
one hundred miles from New-York, the
swift river steamers reach this part of the
river in six hours ; and the guest, who
leaves the noisy din of the town in the
early morning, finds himself, at a little past
noon, plunged amid all the seclusion and
quiet of its leafy groves.

And this accessible perfect seclusion is,
perhaps, one of the most captivating fea-
tures in the life of the country gentleman,
whose lot is cast on this part of the Hudson.
For twenty miles here, on the eastern shore,
the banks are nearly a continuous succes-
sion of fine seats. The landings are by no
means towns, or large villages, Avith the
busy air of trade, but quiet stopping places,
serving the convenience of the neighboring
residents. Surrounded by extensive plea-
sure grounds, fine woods or parks, even the
adjoining estates are often concealed from
that part of the grounds around the house,
and but for the broad Hudson, which forms

154

A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE.

the grand feature in all these varied land-
scapes— the Hudson always so full of life in
its numberless bright sails and steamers —
one might fancy himself a thousand miles
from all crowded and busy haunts of men.
Around Montgomeky Place, indeed, this
air of quiet and seclusion lurks more be-
witchingly than in any other seat whose
hospitality we have enjoyed. Whether
the charm lies in the deep and mysterious
wood, full of the echo of water spirits, that
forms the northern boundary, or whether
it grows out of a profound feeling of com-
pleteness and perfection in foregrounds of
old trees, and distances of calm serene moun-
tains, we have not been able to divine ; but
certain it is that there is a spell in the very
air, which is fatal to the energies of a great
speculation. It is not, we are sure, the
spot for a man to plan campaigns of con-
quest, and we doubt even whether the scho-
lar, whose ambition it is

" To scorn delights,
And live laborious days,"

would not find something in the air of this
demesne, so soothing as to dampen the fire
of his great purposes, and dispose him to
believe that there is more dignity in repose,
than merit in action-
There is not wanting something of the
charm of historical association here. The
estate derives its name from Gen. Montgo-
meky, the hero and martyr of Quebec,
(whose portrait, among other fine family
pictures, adorns the walls of the mansion.)
Mrs. Montgomery, after his lamented death
on the heights of Abraham, resided here
during the remainder of her life. At her
death, she bequeathed it to her brother, the
Hon. Edward Livingston, our late minis-
ter to France. Here this distinguished di-
plomatist and jurist passed, in elegant re-
tirement, the leisure intervals of a life
largely devoted to the service of the state,

and here still reside his family, whose
greatest pleasure seems to be to add, if pos-
sible, every year, some admirable improve-
ment, or elicit some new charm of its ex-
traordinary natural beauty.

The age of Montgomery Place heigh-
tens its interest in no ordinary degree. Its
richness of foliage, both in natural wood
and planted trees, is one of its marked fea-
tures. Indeed, so great is the variety and
intricacy of scenery, caused by the leafy
woods, thickets and bosquets, that one may
pass days and even weeks here, and not
thoroughly explore all its fine points —

" Milles arbres, de ces lieux ondoyante parure
Charme de I'odorat, de gout et des regards,
Elegamment groupes, negligemment epars,
Se fuyaient, s'approchaient, quelquefois a la vue
Ouvraient dans la lointain un sc^ne iraprevue ;
Ou, tombant jusqu'a terre,et recourbant leurs bras
Venaient d'un doux obstacle embarrasser leurs

pas ;
Ou pendaient sur leur tSte en festons de verdure,
Et de fleurs, en passant, semaientleur chevelure.
Dirai-je ces forets d'arbustes, d'arbrisseaux,
Entrela^ant en voute, en alcove, en berceaux,
Leurs bras voluptueux, et leurs tiges fleuries?"
About four hundred acres comprise the
estate called Montgomery Place, a very
large part of which is devoted to pleasure
grounds and ornamental purposes. The
ever varied surface affords the finest scope
for the numerous roads, drives, and walks,
with which it abounds. Even its natural
boundaries are admirable. On the west is
the Hudson, broken by islands into an out-
line unusually varied and picturesque. On
the north, it is separated from Blitiiewood,
the adjoining seat, by a wooded valley, in
the depths of which runs a broad stream,
rich in waterfalls. On the south is a rich
oak wood, in the centre of which is a private
drive. On the east it touches the post road.
Here is the entrance gate, and from it leads
a long and stately avenue of trees, like the
approach to an old French chateau. Half-

A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE.

155

way up its length, the lines of planted trees
give place to a tall wood, and this again is
succeeded by the lawn, which opens in all
its stately dignity, with increased effect,
after the deeper shadows of this vestibule-
like wood. The eye is now caught at once
by the fine specimens of Hemlock, Lime,
Ash and Fir, whose proud heads and large
trunks form the finest possible accessories
to a large and spacious mansion, which is
one of the best specimens of our manor
houses. Built many years ago, in the most
substantial manner, the edifice has been
retouched and somewhat enlarged within a
few years, and is at present both commo-
dious, and architectural in character.

Without going into any details of the in-
terior, we may call attention to the unique
effect of the pavilion, thirt}' feet wide, which
forms the north wing of this house. It opens
from the library and drawing-room by low
windows. Its ribbed roof is supported by a
tasteful series of columns and arches, in
the style of an Italian arcade. As it is on
the north side of the dwelling, its position
is always cool in summer ; and this coolness
is still farther increased by the abundant
shade of tall old trees, whose heads cast a
pleasant gloom, while their tall trunks allow
the eye to feast on the rich landscape spread
around it. (See Frontispiece.)

To attempt to describe the scenery, which
bewitches the eye, as it wanders over the
wide expanse to the west from this pavilion,
would be but an idle effort to make words
express what even the pencil of the painter
often fails to copy. As a foreground, ima-
gine a large lawn waving in undulations
of soft verdure, varied with fine groups,
and margined with rich belts of foliage.
Its base is washed by the river, which is
here a broad sheet of water lying like a
long lake beneath the eye. Wooded banks
stretch along its margin. Its bosom is

studded with islands, which are set like
emeralds on its pale blue bosom. On the
opposite shores, more than a mile distant,
is seen a rich mingling of woods and corn-
fields. But the crowning glory of the land-
scape is the background of mountains. The
Kaalskills, as seen from this part of the
Hudson, are, it seems to us, more beautiful
than any mountain scenery in the middle
States. It is not merely that their outline
is bold, and that the summit of Roundtop,
rising 3000 feet above the surrounding
country, gives an air of more grandeur than
is usually seen, even in the Highlands ;
but it is the colour which renders the
Kaatskills so captivating a feature in the
landscape here. Never harsh or cold, like
some of our finest hills, nature seems to de-
light in casting a veil of the softest azure
over these mountains — immortalized by
the historian of Rip Van Winkle. Morn-
ning and noon, the shade only varies from
softer to deeper blue. But the hour of sun-
set is the magical time for the fantasies of
the colour-genii of these mountains. Seen
at this period, from the terrace or the pavi-
lion of Montgomery Place, the eye is filled
with wonder at the various dyes that bathe
the receding hills — the most distant of
which are twenty or thirty miles away.
Azure, purple, violet, pale grayish-lilac, and
the dim hazy hue of the most distant cloud-
rift, are all seen, distinct, yet blending magi-
cally into each other in these receding hills.
It is a spectacle of rare beauty, and he who
loves tones of colour, soft and dreamy as
one of the mystical airs of a German maes-
tro, should see the sunset fade into twi-
light from the seats on tt.is part of the
Hudson.

THE MORNING WALK.

Leaving the terrace on the western front,
the steps of the visitor, exploring Montgo-
mery Place, are naturally directed towards

156

A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE.

the river bank, A path on the left of the
broad lawn leads one to the fanciful rustic-
gabled seat, among a growth of locusts at
the bottom of the slope. Here commences
a long walk, which is the favorite morning
ramble of guests. Deeply shaded, winding
along the thickly wooded bank, with the
refreshing sound of the tide-waves gently
dashing against the rocky shores below, or
expending themselves on the beach of gray
gravel, it curves along the bank for a great
distance. Sometimes overhanging cliffs,
crested with pines, frown darkly over it ; i
sometimes thick tufts of fern and mossy-
carpeted rocks border it, while at various
points, vistas or long reaches of the beautiful
river scenery burst upon the eye. Half-way ,
along this morning ramble, a rustic seat,
placed on a bold little plateau, at the base ;
of a large tree, eighty feet above the water, |
and fenced about with a rustic barrier, in-
vites you to linger and gaze at the fascinat- !
ing river landscape here presented. It em- j
braces the distant mountains, a sylvan fore- !
ground, and the broad river stretching away 1
for miles, sprinkled with white sails. The j
cmip-d'cBil is heightened by its being seen i
through a dark framework of thick I'^aves j
and branches, which open here just suffi-
ciently to show as much as the eye can
enjoy or revel in, without change of posi-
tion.

A little farther on, we reach a flight of
rocky steps, leading up to the border of the
lawn. At the top of these is a rustic seat
with a thatched canopy, curiously built
round the trunk of an aged pine.

Passing these steps, the morning walk j
begins to descend more rapidly toward the
river. At the distance of some hundred !
yards, we fiiid ourselves on the river shore,
and on a pretty jutting point of land stands
a little rustic pavilion, from which a much
lower and wider view of the landscape is ;

again enjoyed. Here you find a boat
ready for an excursion, if the spirit leads
you to reverse the scener}-, and behold the
the leafy banks from the water.

THE WILDERNESS.

Leaving the morning walk, we enter at
once into " The "VS^ilderness." This is a
large and long wooded valley. It is broad,
and much varied in surface, swelling into
deep ravines, and spreading into wide hol-
lows. In its lowest depths runs a large
stream of water, that has, in portions, all
the volume and swiftness of a mountain
torrent. But the peculiarity of "The "Wil-
derness," is in the depth and massiveness
of its foliage. It is covered with the na-
tive growth of trees, thick, dark and sha-
dowy, so that once plunged in its recesses,
you can easily imagine yourself in the
depths of an old forest, far away from the
haunts of civilization. Here and there,
rich thickets of the Kalmia or native Laurel
clothe the surface of the ground, and form
the richest underwood.

But the Wilderness is by no means sav-
age in the aspect of its beauty; on the
contrary, here as elsewhere in this demesne,
are evidences, in every improvement, of a
fine appreciation of the natural charms of
the locality. The whole of this richly
wooded valley is threaded with walks, in-
geniously and naturally conducted so as to
penetrate to all the most interesting points ;
while a great variety of rustic seats, formed
beneath the trees, in deep secluded thickets,
by the side of the swift rushing stream, or
on some inviting eminence, enables one
fully to enjoj- them.

There are a couple of miles of these
walks, and from the depth and thickness of
the wood, and the varied surface of the
ground, their intricacy is such that only the
family, or those ver\- familiar with their
course, are at all able to follow them all with

A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE.

157

Fig. 26. Rustic Seat.

any thing like positive certaint}- as to their
destination. Though we have threaded
them several seasons, yet our late visit to
Montgomer}- Place found us giving oar- !
selves up to the pleasing perplexity of
choosing one at random, and trusting to a
lucky guess to bring us out of the wood at ;
the desired point, j

Not long after leaving the rustic pavilion,
on descending by one of the paths that di-
verges to the left, we reach a charming lit-
tle covered resting place, in the form of a
rustic porch. The roof is prettily thatched
with thick green moss. Nestling under a
dark canopy of evergreens in the shelter of
a rock)- fern-covered bank, an hour or two
may be whiled away within it, almost uncon-
scious of the passage of time.

THE CATARACT.

But the stranger who enters the depths
of this dusky wood by this route, is not long
inclined to remain here. His imagination
is excited b)' the not very distant sound of
waterfalls.

"Above, below, aerial murmurs swell,
From hanging wood, brown heath and bushy dell;
A thousand pushing rills that shun the liffht,
Stealing like music on the ear of night.**

He takes another path, passes by an airj'
looking rustic bridge, and plunging for a
moment into the thicket, emerges again in
full view of the first cataract. Coming
from the solemn depths of the wood, he is
astonished at the noise and volume of the
stream, which here rushes in wild foam and
confusion over a rocky fall, forty feet in
depth. Ascending a flight of steps made
in the precipitous banks of the stream, we
have another view, which is scarcely less
spirited and picturesque.

This waterfall, beautiful at all seasons,
would alone be considered a sufficient at-
traction to give notoriety to a rural locali-
ty in most country neighborhoods. But as
if nature had intended to lavish her gifts
here, she has, in the course of this valley,
given two other cataracts. These are all
striking enough to be worthy of the pencil
of the artist, and they make this valley a
feast of wonders to the lovers of the pic-
turesque.

There is a secret charm which binds us
to these haunts of the water spirits. The
spot is filled with the music of the falling
water. Its echoes pervade the air, and be-
get a kind of dreamy revery. The memo-
ry of the world's toil gradually becomes
fainter and fainter, under the spell of the
soothing monotone ; until at last one begins
to doubt the existence of towns and cities,
full of busy fellow beings, and to fancy the
true happiness of life lies in a more simple
existence, where man, the dreamy silence of
thick forests, the lulling tones of babbling
brooks, and the whole heart of nature,
make one sensation, full of quiet harmony
and joy.

THE LAKE.

That shadoAv}- path, that steals away so
enticingly from the neighborhood of the
cataract, leads to a spot of equal, though a
difierent kind of loveliness. Leavinsr the

158

A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE.

Fi;?. 27. The Lake.

border of the stream, and following it
past one or two distracting- points, where
other paths, starting out at various angles,
seem provokingly to tempt one away from
the neighborhood of the water, we sudden-
ly behold, with a feeling of delight. The
Lake.

Nothing can have a more charming ef-
fect than this natural mirror in the bosom
of the valley. It is a fine expansion of
the same stream, which farther down forms
the large cataract. Here it sleeps, as lazi-
ly and glassily as if quite incapable of
aught but reflecting the beauty of the
blue sky, and the snowy clouds, that float
over it. On two sides, it is overhung and
deeply shaded by the bowery thickets of the
surrounding wilderness ; on the third is a
peninsula, fringed with the graceful willow,
and rendered more attractive by a rustic
temple; while the fourth side is more sun-
ny and open, and permits a peep at the
distant azure mountain tops.

This part of the grounds is seen to the
most advantage, either toward evening, or
in moonlight. Then the effect of contrast
in light and shadow is most striking, and
the seclusion and beauty of the spot are

more fully enjoyed than at any other hour.
Then you will most certainly be tempted to
leave the curious rustic seat, with its roof
wrapped round with a rude entablature like
Pluto's crown; and you will take a seat in
Psyche's boat, on whose prow is poised a
giant butterfly, that looks so mysteriously
down into the depths below as to impress
you with a belief that it is the metempsy-
chosis of the spirit of the place, guarding
against all unhallowed violation of its puri-
ty and solitude.

The peninsula, on the north of the lake,
is carpeted with the dry leaves of the thick
cedars that cover it, and form so umbrage-
ous a resting place that the sky over it seems
absolutely dusky at noon day. On its nor-
thern bank is a rude sofa, formed entirely
of stone. Here you linger again, to wonder
afresh at the novelty and beauty of the
second cascade. The stream here emerges
from a dark thicket, falls about twenty feet,
and then rushes away on the side of the pe-
ninsula opposite the lake. Although only
separated by a short walk and the mass of
cedars on the promontory, from the lake
itself, yet one cannot be seen from the other ;
and the lake, so full of the very spirit of

A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE.

159

Fig. 28. Th

repose, is a perfect opposite to this foaming,
noisy little waterfall.

Farther up the stream, is another cas-
cade, hut leaving that for the present, let
us now select a path leading, as near as
we can judge, in the direction of the open
pleasure grounds near the house. Winding
along the sides of the valley, and stretch-
ing for a good distance across its broadest
part, all the while so deeply immersed,
however, in its umbrageous shelter, as
scarcely to see the sun, or indeed to feel
very certain of our whereabouts, we emerge
in the neighborhood of the Conservatory.

This is a large, isolated, glazed structure,
designed by Mr. Catherwood, to add to
the scenic effect of the pleasure grounds.
On its northern side are, in summer,
arranged the more delicate green-house
plants ; and in front are groups of large
Oranges, Lemons, Citrons, Cape Jasmines,
Eugenias, etc., in tubs — plants remarkable
for their size and beauty. Passing under
neat and tasteful archways of wirework.

e Comtrvatory

covered with rare climbers, we enter what
is properly

THE FLOWER GARDEN.

How different a scene from the deep se-
questered shadows of the Wilderness !
Here all is gay and smiling. Bright par-
terres of brilliant flowers bask in the full
daylight, and rich masses of colour seem
to revel in the sunshine. The walks are
fancifully laid out, so as to form a tasteful
whole ; the beds are surrounded by low
edgings of turf or box, and the whole looks
like some rich oriental pattern or carpet of
embroidery. In the centre of the garden
stands a large vase of the Warwick pat-
tern ; others occup}^ the centres of par-
terres in the midst of its two main divi-
sions, and at either end is a fanciful light
summer-house, or pavilion, of Moresque
character. The whole garden is surround-
ed and shut out from the lawn, by a belt
of shrubberj', and above and behind this,
rises, like a noble framework, the back-
ground of trees of the lawn and the Wil-

160

A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE.

derness. If there is any prettier flower-
garden scene than this ensemble in the coun-
try, we have not yet had the good fortune
to behold it.

It must be an industrious sight-seer who
could accomplish more than we have here
indicated of the beauties of this residence,
in a day. Indeed there is enough of exer-
cise for the bod}', and enjoyment for the
senses in it, for a week. But another morn-
ing may be most agreeably passed in a por-
tion of the estate quite apart from that
which has met the eye from any point yet
examined. This is

THE DRIVE.

On the southern boundary is an oak
wood of about fifty acres. It is totally dif-
ferent in character from the Wilderness on
the north, and is a nearly level or slightly
undulating surface, well covered with fine
Oak, Chestnut, and other timber trees.
Through it is laid out the Drive ; a sylvan
route as agreeable for exercise in the car-
riage, or on horseback, as the "Wilderness,"
or the " Morning Walk," is for a ramble on
foot. It adds no small additional charm to a
country place in the eyes of many persons,
this secluded and perfectly private drive,
entirely within its own limits.

Though Montgomery Place itself is old,
yet a spirit ever new directs the improve-
ments carried on within it. Among those more

worthy of note, we gladly mention an arho-
retum, just commenced on a fine site in the
pleasure grounds, set apart and thoroughly
prepared for the purpose. Here a scientific
arrangement of all the most beautiful hardy
trees and shrubs, will interest the student,
who looks upon the vegetable kingdom with
a more curious eye than the ordinary ob-
server.

The whole extent of the private roads
and walks, within the precincts of Montgo-
mery Place, is between ^ue and six miles.
The remarkably natural beauty which it
embraces, has been elicited and heightened
everywhere, in a tasteful and judicious man-
ner. There are numberless lessons here for
the landscape gardener ; there are an hun-
dred points that will delight the artist ; there
are meditative walks and a thousand sugges-
tive aspects of nature for the poet ; and ihe
man of the world, engaged in a feverish
pursuit of its gold and its glitter, may here
taste something of the beauty and refine-
ment of rural life in its highest aspect, and
be able afterwards underslandingly to wish
that

"One fair asylum from the world he knew,
One chosen seat, that charms with various view.
Who boasts of more, (believe the serious strain,)
Sighs for a home, and sighs, alas ! in vain.
Thro' each he roves, the tenant of a day.
And with the swallow wings the year away."

Rogers.

Starting buds too soon. — A correspondent
in the Genesee Farmer thinks he has made
a discovery, by the accidental breaking ofl^
of the stock just above the inserted bud,
which caused the bud to grow immediately.
He will probably discover next spring that
the winter has totally killed the shoot, if it
is a peach, apricot or nectarine ; and by the
end of another summer, that he has gained
nothing in growth, if hardy like the apple.

a few inches growth this 3'ear, rather stunt-
ing than accelerating the growth.

Profits of Fruit. — P. Barky, of the Gen-
esee Farmer, says, that when in the gar-
den of Geo. Hoadley, Esq. of Cleveland,
the present season, the crop of a single
cherry tree was sold for $]0. The tree
was eleven years old, and not larger than
seven year planted trees at Rochester.

THE AZALEA.

161

THE CULTIVATION AND PROPAGATION OF AZALEAS.

BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I.

Dear Sir — In the June number of ^^ Flore
des Serves et des Jar dins de V Europe,''''
(which as usual contains ten exquisite
plates,) there is an admirable article by M.
Louis Van Houtte, the editor, with the
above title. As I think it cannot fail to be
interesting to your numerous readers, I send
you a translation. It is not always easy to
give the exact sense in rendering horticul-
tural subjects, and to this cause must be at-
tributed such peculiarities of expression as
the reader may notice.

Azaleas, regarded as ornamental plants,
like Ehododendrons, Camellias, and even
as Roses, have acquired no little horticultu-
ral importance. Therefore, I believe ama-
teurs will be pleased to have me enter into
the relative details of the method of cul-
tivation which is best suited to them.

Soil. — They succeed best in a light com-
post, rich in humus, formed of a mixture
of equal parts of leaf-mould, well rotted,
and sandy heath-earth. This compost is
renewed as often as the growth of the
plants appear to demand it.

Potting. — Usually they are planted in well
drained pots, to avoid the stagnation of the
rain, or the watering, which occurrence is fa-
tal to the health of Azaleas. Pots with
straight sides, present a natural obstacle to
this stagnation ; the delicate root fibres have
more freedom, and are less obnoxious to
dampness ; on the other hand, the pots must
be changed when the fibres collect at the
bottom.

Exposure. — The green-house should face
the east or south, though the north is bet-
ter ; and it ought to be perfectly airy.

Putting out. — In the beginning of June,
or when the spring has fairly opened, all the
VOL. II. 21

Azaleas are put out, placing them behind a
live hedge in steps, (or shelves,) and facing
the morning sun. The pots are plunged,
and a piece of tile or slate placed beneath
them, to prevent the entrance of earth-
worms. Here they are freely watered over-
head and at the roots (in the evening) dur-
ing hot weather, and while they continue
growing. When growth has ceased, the
supply of water is diminished ; the soil is
then to be kept only damp, and if the wea-
ther is wet, all watering must be withheld,
at the time of housing them.

Their summer quarters should be as warm
and light as possible, without exposure to
the direct rays of the sun. On the other
hand, too much shade causes them to grow
weak, and to form very hw flower buds.
The essential point is to give them a just
medium between shade and sunshine.

Putting them in. — Towards the last of
September or beginning of October, Aza-
leas must be huused. The nights are then
chilly and the white frosts dangerous.
While the weather is fine, they should be
cut into a proper shape, having already had
time to form new shoots and flower buds.
When removed from the ground, the pots
should be washed, (neatness is the charm
of green-houses,) and the plants arranged
in the most convenient manner on the stag-
ing of the house.

Warmth. — The best method is by the
thermosiphon, (a peculiar mode of heating
by hot water,) but the fire should not be
ignited until the thermometer indicates 0 of
Reaumur (the freezing point.) Azaleas are
not injured by cold at 2 R., and even — 2,
but a relative heat that will set the sap in
motion is highly injurious, and causes them

162

THE AZALEA.

to be weak and etiolated. Heat is not re-
quired except it be to remove dampness,
resulting from the atmosphere, (as fogs,
long rains, or to dissipate a slight frost,
carefully regulating the temperature, that
it goes not above 38 or 40 degrees Fahren-
heit ; more heat wovxld be detrimental.
When the weather allows, the sashes and
doors of the house should be opened, par-
ticularly when the sun shines, an occurrence
very rare in our climate (Belgium) during
the winter. This should be especially at-
tended to when there is no frost.

Pruning. — After Azaleas have made
their growth, they should be tied up neatly
to give a better effect to their flowers. Cut
off all flaring branches just at the old wood.
It is at this period that a general repotting
is recommended, to secure a proper refresh-
ing of the roots. The application of a gene-
rous and new soil invigorates the radicles,
the plants soon cover themselves with fresh
leaves and a profusion of flower buds, re-
compensing for the care which has been
given them.

Some Azaleas are naturally dwarf, there-
fore these bear very little pruning ; such are
ji. indica lateritia, variegata, gledstanesii,
and they require a little more heat than the
others. In consequence of this, keep them
in a warm green-house, or give them the
warmest places in a cold one.

Diseases of Azaleas. — In vegetable life,
there are but few other diseases than caries
(rottenness of the roots,) chlorosis (jaundice.)
and the languor immediately preceding
death. The first and second are caused by
an excess of water either from rain or ar-
tificially. If the disease has not progressed
too far, the remedy will be found in a re-
moval of the cause producing it, and by a
partial or entire repotting, then keeping the
plants in the shade or under a frame. An
excess of dryjiess becomes a prominent cause

of languor, and is in many cases difficult
to remove. Here water must be used with
the greatest caution, for it is almost sure to
kill. If the dry state has been prolonged,
repot the plant in fresh earth, cut it in mo-
derately, and keep it from the influence of
the external atmosphere. Kept too warm.
Azaleas are attacked by the Red Spider,
(Acarus,) which will soon increase and kill
the plant by exhausting its juices, if the
leaves are not washed with care, from time
to time, and frequently syringed, an opera-
tion indispensable, and alike applicable to
plants in perfect health.

Azaleas in Rooms. — It is not at all sur-
prising that plants with such splendid and
brilliant flowers, should have gained access
to salons and palaces. But these golden
ceilings, (lambris dorts) are fatal to them,
if the master's eye is not vigilant in con-
tinuing the habitual cares of the gardener !
Therefore the rooms should be aired as
much as possible through the day ; at all
events, the Azaleas should be placed near
the windows, and carefully watered so as
to preserve their foliage and flowers fresh.
As soon as the amateur perceives the least
ailment in the Azaleas which decorate his
rooms, although the flowering be not done,
he should, from interest, as well as for the
preservation of his plants, send them to
the common physician, (medecin ordinaire,)
that is to say the gardener.

Such are, grosse mode, the general cares,
required for the preservation and raising of
Azaleas. The places of exposure and rela-
tive difference of climate, must necessarily
be regulated by the changes of tempera-
ture, still based upon the suggestions of my
experience and that of most practical culti-
vators. These modifications are, of course,
appreciable to the sagacity and vigilance of
amateurs, where the climate is different
from that of Belgium or the north of France

THE AZALEA.

163

THE PROPAGATION OF AZALEAS.

The instruction which I have presumed
to offer on the subject of the Azaleas of
India, for the benefit of young amateurs,
(and only for them I write, not pretending
to dictate to accomplished cultivators,)
would not be at all complete, if I omitted
the subjects of increase or propagation
which best suits these plants. I shall be
as brief as the nature of the subject per-
mits, so as to be understood.

Grafting. — The modes of grafting most
practised with Azaleas, are branch grafting,
termed a cheval, en fenie, or en placage.
They are also grafted, but more rarely, en
approche, by approach, or par copulation,
(inarching,) the most frequently en herbe.
(These terms may be thus translated, a che-
val, saddle grafting ; en ftnte, cleft graft-
ing ; en placage, veneer grafting ; en ap-
proche, by approach ; en herbe, herbaceous
grafting, or when the wood is green.) The
operation may be performed at any season,
but the most favorable time is the latter
part of May or beginning of June. The
young shoots must have attained a certain
maturity, a circumstance depending entire-
ly on the temperature applied during the
winter, whether cold or warm, and which
necessarily advances or retards their growth.
The grafted plants should be placed in a
green-house, or under frames, whichever is
preferred, and covered with a bell-glass,
on slight hot-beds, or they may be kept very
close until the perfect union of the parts,
nor must any air be given them, until full
vegetation is perceived.

The stocks best adapted to receive the
grafts of the finest varieties, are in prefe-
rence to other kinds, the Azalea indica phe-
nicea, or the wild stock of the Azaleas of
India, and if these cannot be had, the Jiho-
dodendron ponticum. 1 shall briefly give a
description of the difl!erent methods of graft-

ing practised. The grafting knife should
be perfectly clean and sharp.

Grafting a cheval. — The graft is cut at
its base in a prolonged acute angle. The
stock cut at the head, receives the same
angle in the opposite direction, that is an
acute angle projecting.

Grafting enfente. — The graft is cut thin
on both sides, at an acute angle, or length-
ened wedge ; the head of the stock is sim-
ply notched vertically (with dexterity and
very slightly,) to receive the wedge of the
graft.

Grafting en placage. — The graft and
stock are notched vertically and squarely,
each receiving equal notches, to permit
them to join completely. This mode is to
be preferred.

Inarching or Grafting par copulation, —
The end of the stock is cut slopihg, that of
the graft the same, very even, and in such
a manner that the two portions will accu-
rately fit one another.

Grafting en approche. — On the stock a
vertical cut is made more or less deep, with
a notch also of some depth, and a part of
the head is cut off", so as to carry the sap
into the graft. This is cut in the same
manner precisely, quite as deep, but leav-
ing the notch jutting out, so that the two
parts can be perfectly joined. This method
is but seldom used, because of its inconve-
nience, as it is necessary for the two plants
to be side by side until union is effected,
after which the two plants are separated by
cutting off the stock.

Such are, in a few words, the difl^erent
methods of increasing Azaleas by grafting.
I may add, that the stock can be large with-
out inconvenience, indeed this is usually
the case ; the different cuts should be made
with great care and neatness, without be-
ing frayed, [sans iraillures,) their surfaces
very equal, so that they may be exactly ap-

164

THE AZALEA.

plied to each other, and the wood and bark
of the two portions be in perfect contact.

2. Cuttings. — Before the growth has
completely ceased, that is near the end of
June, the young shoots of the Azaleas are
cut off about three inches in length, and
well furnished with leaves ; these make
the cuttings. Some pans with large gravel
at the bottom, and filled evenly with sandy
heath-earth finely sifted, are to be in readi-
ness for them. The end of each cutting is
divided just at the base of a leaf-bud, and
planted in quincunx, putting them in with
a planting stick about three-fourths of an
inch long, pressing the soil around them
firmly with the end of the finger.

Thus planted, the pans are placed in a
moderate hot-bed in the green-house, or bet-
ter still, under a frame, and covering them
with a bell-glass. I have used with advan-
tage for my Azalea cuttings, small wooden
boxes about two feet long, one foot wide,
and five inches deep, (six including the bot-
tom board,) which is pierced with holes for
the drainage. I put at the bottom flint
stones three-quarters of an inch in depth
for drainage, and on these two inches of
well sifted heath-earth. I then plant my
cuttings, and cover the box v^dth a plate of
glass. This method, which I believe to
have originated in my establishment, seems
to me preferable to bell-glasses, because
the small drops of water, caused by the ex-
halations of the cuttings, fix themselves on
the glass, and fall back perpendicularly,
thus moistening the earth equally, without
running in furrows, as under bell-glasses,
which soon decomposes the soil into a kind
of mud. It will be sufficient to open the
glass once a day, to avoid an excess of
dampness, likely to be produced by these
drops of water.

Potting them. off. — As soon as the cuttings
are well rooted, which you may know by

their vegetation, prepare to pot them. Each
cutting is planted separately in a small pot,
in good heath-earth, simply sifted. They
are then placed in a spent hot-bed, under a
frame, which is better than bell-glasses, un-
til they become a little more developed ;
then commence giving them air little by
little, until they can bear it fully, repot
them in larger pots, give plenty of air for
six or eight months, after which treat them
as old plants.

3. Ring and Commov. Layering. — I should
not omit these two modes of increase, which
are well known, but which are very little
practised in propagating Azaleas. As it
may be agreeable, however to the amateur
to employ them, the operations are thus
executed.

The first method is by raising to the
height of the branches which are to be
layered, small pots with a slit in the side,
(to facilitate the introduction of the bran-
ches ;) the opening is then closed with a
small piece of glass cut to fit ; the pots
filled with heath-earth, and fixed securely,
attaching them to their supports with small
wire. Before this is done, however, a small
ring of bark is cut from the branches, a lit-
tle below the point where it enters the pot.

This operation is performed either in the
open air or in the green-house, being care-
ful to keep the soil in the pots a little damp.
Three months will usually suffice to root
the layers.

The second method requires the Azaleas
to be planted in the open ground or under
a shady frame, inclining the stem towards
the soil. Handle the branches carefully
and lightly so as not to break them, and
bend them down at an acute angle. The
part which is to be fixed in the soil is then
cut horizontally and vertically, which per-
mits its bending easily. It is then fixed in
the earth with a small forked stick, and the

THE AZALEA.

165

earth covered with a light layer of moss to
keep up a proper degree of moisture. This
method is much more expeditious than the
former.

4. Increase by Seed. — At the commence-
ment of autumn the seeds of Azaleas are
fully ripe. They are then gathered, and
subsequently sown in January or February.
Fill some small pans, well drained, with
finely sifted heath-earth, and press it light-
ly on the surface. The fine seeds are then
sown evenly, without any other covering
than a light coat of fine sand. Thus fixed,
the pans are covered with glasses to keep
in a little constant humidity, and placed on
a hotbed under a frame, or in a cold or tem-
perate green-house, in the shade, and as
near the glass as possible.

The seeds quickly vegetate. As soon as
the young plants have made one or two
leaves (besides the seed leaves,) they must
be transferred to other pans, leaving between
them sufficient space for their further de-
velopment. Give them a little heat to has-
ten and strengthen their shoots. Then as
soon as they are four or five inches high,
pot them singly in pots proportioned to their
size. Continue the same temperature, giv-
ing a little air occasionally, so that they
may become gradually accustomed to it,
and then treat them as old plants.

Artificial Fecundation, or Hybridization.
— By budding, grafting, and the two last
methods of increase which I have just de-
scribed, you propagate purely and simply the
varieties or species which you possess. But
then this handsome species would remain
stationary, and soon its sameness would
tire the most zealous amateur, if two other
methods did not produce immense results,
by creating a new and pleasing taste, quite
natural for such elegant plants.

These are, by the seed and artificial fe-
cundation, called also hybridization. I have
already described the first, and will say a
few words about the second.

Artificial fecundation or hybridization
should only be practised between handsome
varieties or species opposed in colour and
form, to procure an intermediate progeny,
or sometimes diametrically opposite. It re-
quires sagacity, calculation and a sufficient
knowledge of the subject, so as not to fail,
or to create insignificant varieties, inferior
to their parents. Thus you willingly cross
the varieties with white flowers, with those
that are red, the variegated with the one
coloured, ice.

It is well known that artificial fecunda-
tion consists in the application of the pol-
len of one variety to the pistil of another.
The precise moment is chosen of the open-
ing of the anthers ; cut away the whole
flower, or only the female anthers, and rub
them lightly on the top of the pistil (stigma)
of that which has been cut, in such a man-
ner that it may be perfectly daubed (bar-
bouillee) with antheral powder. Before this
operation another preparatory to it should
be accomplished. It consists in cutting oflT
the stamens at the moment the flowers ex-
pand, and before the opening of the anthers.
AVithout this precaution, the fecundation
would not succeed, or would not be perfect
because of the admixture of the pollen.

It is in thus crossine: the Azaleas of India,
properly so called, with others, or with Rho-
dodendrons, that we obtain those elegant
varieties which have been so much admired,
and which constitute the principal decora-
tion of our green-houses in the spring of the
year.

Wm. W. Valk, m. d.

Flushing, L I., Aug. 1847.

166

CULTURE OF THE PEACH TREE.

CULTURE OFTHB PEACH TREE.

BY A PENNSYLVANIAN.

Mr. Downing — As I deem the results of
experiments in horticulture of more gene-
ral interest than the promulgation of theo-
ries, I venture to send you some brief notes
of my experience in the cultivation of the
Peach tree.

In your most valuable standard work on
Fruits, you have, I think, proved very plain-
ly that the disease of the Peach tree, called
the Yellows, is caused by bad cultivation in
a light or poor soil. I am very well con-
vinced that other maladies to which this
fruit tree, is subject are the result of the
same causes. It is the common and popu-
lar belief, that the Peach tree should al-
ways be planted in a light sandy soil ; nay,
that a thin sandy loam is the best for it. I
suppose this opinion has arisen from the cir-
cumstance of the low price at which many
tracts of land in New-Jersey, Delaware,
and Maryland, can be turned into peach
orchards, and that too profitably.

But it is well known, that there peach
orchards are short-lived. From three to
five years is their average duration, and
most planters do not expect to get more
than one or two crops of fruit from their
trees. They then give them up as diseased
or worn out, and plant new orchards.

It is well known, also, that such is not
the natural duration of the Peach tree ; that
in the deep soil of the Ohio the trees bear
and grow well from ten to twenty years ;
and the natural existence of the Peach tree
in our climate, is at least a dozen years of
fruitfulness.

What I gathered some years ago from
this reasoning is, that we make a mistake
in this part of the Union, when we plant
orchards with the expectation of raising

the fiyiest fruit, or healthy long-lived trees
on light thin soil.

It is my own belief, based on some little
observation and practice, that no soil will
grow the best peaches, i. e. the largest and
finest flavored — except it is good wheat
land.

I have some land in this county of the
character usually selected for Peach or-
chards, and I have grown a limited orchard
for many years past, Avith the usual success,
viz., tolerable fruit and short-lived trees.
About eight years ago, after visiting a
neighbor in the upper part of New-Jersey,
where the soil is good strong wheat land, I
determined to change my plan of raising
them altogether. I considered that we mis-
took the nature of this fruit tree ; that it
really requires more generous culture.

Choosing a tolerably good field on my
farm, I set about preparing it for an orchard.
This was in October. It was on a fair san-
dy loam, rather light, on a subsoil of gra-
velly loam.

My idea was to deepen and enrich the soil
of this field before planting the trees. It
is not, I believe, considered well to subsoil
where the underlayer is gravel. But I
made the experiment nevertheless, as it was,
I thought, my only chance for decided suc-
cess.

The trees in this orchard were to be
planted sixteen feet apart. As labor and
manure were both of consequence to me,
1 determined to make my first experiment
by subsoiling only half the area to be set
out with trees.

This I did by plowing and thoroughly
subsoiling straight strips across the whole
field, eight feet wide. The subsoil plough

A HINT TO PLANT GROWERS.

167

followed after the common plough, and had
two yoke of cattle to draw it. By this
means I loosened and stirred up the gra-
velly substratum to the depth of sixteen
inches ; it became, also, considerably min-
gled with the top soil. The land was in
tolerably good order, but I had it dressed
with a strong lime compost, (lime and peat,)
just before the subsoiling was begun.

The remaining strips of the field were
simply plowed in the common way, and the
whole harrowed together.

I then planted the rows of trees, as near-
ly as I could, in lines running through the
middle of the subsoiled strips. This gave
them a prepared surface four feet wide on
each side, and sixteen feet in the row from
tree to tree.

The trees grew more vigorously the first
season after transplanting, than I ever saw
any do before. Here and there as I saw a
sickly looking one, during this and the next
two years, I immediately took it out, and
filled its place with another of healthy
growth.

The result of my experiment has been
most satisfactory. The orchard is in excel-
lent health and a good bearing state, though
it has been in bearing now to the sixth

year. The flavor of the peaches raised in
it, is much finer than I have er,er raised other-
wise in the same soil. And a small orchard
set a year since on a joining farm, in a soil
quite like my own, but planted in the or-
dinary way — that is on thin light soil, un-
prepared, bore its two crops of fruit, then
failed, and had to be rooted out.

There is no doubt but my success would
have been more complete if I had subsoiled
the whole of the land. This I could not
afford to do at the time, but those having
capital would of course do so. I remarked
during the first three years, when I raised
root crops in my orchard, that the growth of
the crops was a great deal finer, and the
yield nearly a third more on the strips that
were prepared or subsoiled, than on those
that were only surface ploughed.

Your readers may draw their own con-
clusions. I will add, before finishing my
letter, that after some little practice, I am
strongly in favor of the mode of shortening
in the Peach, which you have so strongly-
urged upon all cultivators of this fruit. It
appears to me to be a great improvement
upon all other modes of pruning the peach
tree. Your friend. S.

Bucks Co., Pa., Sept., 1847.

A HINT TO PLANT GRO"WERS.

BY A CONSTANT READER.

Dear Sir — I wish to send you a few lines
concerning a mode of growing plants in
pots, that I am induced to think of the very
first importance. It may be known and
practised by some of your readers in other
parts of the country • but as those to whom
I have mentioned it here are entirely un-
acquainted with it, and as, with me, they
agree that it is a great thing in green-house
cultivation, I leave it to your own judgment

to make it known to those of your readers
interested in exotics.

What I allude to is the use of roasted
turf in the soil used for all green-house
plants. It is, you know, the custom of
many plant-growers to screen or sift all
their compost for pots, thereby making it
all of one uniform size ; and no little
pains is taken to mix the different kinds of
soils so as to obtain just what is deemed es-

168

A HINT TO PLANT GROWERS.

sential to the different tribes. I have my-
self been in the habit of following this prac-
tice for several years past, but I can assure
you that since I have taken up the roasted
turf, I find all my plants to thrive so
well upon it, that I have abandoned the
mixed compost system entirely. All that I
use now is roasted turf and good fresh
loamy soil, or roasted turf, loamy soil and a
little peat, when heaths, etc., are to be
grown.

After putting some potsherds in the bot-
tom, for drainage, I fill up the pot one third
with the rough pieces of roasted turf, brok-
en as large as eggs. The remainder of the
pot is filled with equal parts of loamy soil,
and bits of the turf, the latter chopped up
or crumbled rather coarsely. I find on turn-
ing out a plant that has been growing for
several months in this way, that the bits of
roasted turf in the bottom are a mass of
vigorous fibres, from which I gather that
this substance is full of nutrition for plants.
It gives the foliage a very rich dark-green
colour ; Cape Jasmines, Camellias, Or-
anges and Lemons, and all plants whose
foliage is apt to turn yellow without any
apparent cause, grow with rich deep green
leaves, when potted with the roasted turf.

The use of this material is not original
with me, as I first obtained a knowledge of
it from Rivers' Rose Amateur^s Guide, in
which he recommends it for growing Roses
in pots, in the following terms : "I have
used with much success turf roasted on a
sheet of iron, placed in temporary brick
work, under which a moderate fire is kept :
about an hour's roasting is sufficient."

My way of roasting it is very simple. I
cut sods of the usual thickness, from an
old common or lane, where the turf is good.
I have a plate of old cast iron, about three
feet square, which I obtained from a foun-
dry in the city. This makes the top of my

furnace, and the sides of it are a couple of
brick walls, eight inches wide, laid up with-
out mortar, say two and a half feet high.
Upon these temporary walls, which make
the sides of the furnace, I lay the iron
plate. The whole thing is put up in twen-
ty minutes, in any convenient spot out of
doors, and the materials are taken down
and laid away as readily till next wanted,
when the operation is over. The fire is
made of any refuse brush or faggots that
the garden may afford. The operation of
roasting is nothing more than charring the
under side of the turf, and a pretty good
heap of turf can be charred in a day ; after
which, what is not used at once should be
laid by under cover till wanted.

It is impossible for me to overrate the
good eflfects of the roasted turf ; and I hope
you will call the attention of your numerous
readers to it, for I am confident that they
will be much gratified and pleased with a
trial of its virtues. If you wish it, you are
at liberty to use any of the foregoing re-
marks. Truly, etc.

A Constant Reader.

Philadelphia, Au^. 27, 1847.

Remarks. — We have no doubt of the
most excellent results from the use of the
roasted turf. The charred roots and grass
not only act beneficially in condensing with-
in their pores gaseous combinations, serving
directly as food for plants, but the soil it-
self, when subjected to high temperature,
becomes altered in character, is rendered
capable of absorbing aeriform food for
plants, which renders it more fertile than
before. The well known practice of burn-
ning clay soils, is based upon this principle.

We have been in the habit, for three or
four years past, of using the freshly charred
refuse of the garden — a mixture of green
and dry weeds, bits of wood, roots of trees,
etc., to mingle with the soil in transplant-

MEMORANDA ON PEARS.

169

ing favorite trees, and find it attended with
very satisfactory results.

We have no doubt that the charred turf
is increased in value by being cut from
strong loamy or clayey, instead of sandy

soil, on account of the more beneficial ac- combinations which it has formed. — Ed

tion of heat on soils containing a good deal
of alumina ; and also that it is most power-
ful in its effects, when used directly after it
has been roasted, and before it loses, by
the action of moisture, any of the gaseous

MEMORANDA ON PSARS.
BY THE LATE SAMUEL G. PERKINS, BOSTON.

I SEE by your horticultural journal, that you
invite discussion on the comparative merits
of different kinds of fruit, particularly pears,
as the best mode of settling or establishing
a useful and correct nomenclature.

The question has frequently been asked
me by gentlemen who are beginning to cul-
tivate fruits, " Which is the best pear ?"
and as there is no such thing as answering
this question directly, I have answered that
I could not tell, as it depended on so many
circumstances of which I could not be sup-
posed to have any knowledge.

In the first place, there are Summer, Au-
tumn, and Winter pears, and each season
calls for fruit of totally different properties.
Then there are as many different tastes al-
most, as there are men ; some like a sweet,
luscious and aromatic fruit, as the Seckel ;
others like better the spirited, delicate and
delicious flavor of the St. Ghislain. Then
you have many that prefer the Gansel's (or
Brocas) Bergamot, and other pears of that
rich delicious flavor, without being too
sweet or too spirited. The White Doyenne
[or St. Michael] has always been a decided
favorite with many when in perfection, and
the Louise bonne de Jersey is esteemed in-
ferior to none of the autumn fruits.

But the pear most esteemed in our mar-
ket is, I believe, (when you speak of sum-
mer and autumn fruits,) the pear commonly
Vol. II. 22

known as the Bartlett. This pear, a wild-
ing of 1770, in Berkshire, Great Britain,
was sent or brought from England to this
country by Mr. James Carter, in 1796 or
1797, for his partner, Mr. T. Brewer, who
planted it in his grounds at Roxbury, under
the name of the Williams' Bon Chretien,
or properly. Good Christian, by which name
it was then and is now known in England,
where it is rated as second quality at Chis-
wick, as appears by the Catalogue of their
gardener, Mr. Thompson. Here it got the
name of Bartlett from the present owner
of the Brewer estate, w^ho, not knowing its
proper name, allowed it to be called by his
own. In France it is known as the Wil-
liams Pear {Poire Guillmime) where I think
it is rated still lower than in England. Now
many cultivators and fruit loving gentlemen
esteem this pear above all others, and as it
sells very high in the market, those who
raise fruit to sell may well esteem it highly.
But some gentlemen who esteem fruit in
proportion as it suits their palate, are prone
to consider it of inferior quality ; although
it is very large, and very handsome, and
very juicy. But they say it tastes like
rotten fruit. Suppose it be true, that it
has slightly the taste of an incipient state
of decay, is it to be condemned entirely on
that account ? The Medlar, which is one
of the apple and pear tribe, was formerly

no

MEMORANDA ON PEARS.

raised in England in considerable quanti-
ties, but was never eaten until rutted under
ground. Is it not then assuming too much
to put a fruit down merely because it has
a rotten flavor ? AVho shall decide upon
this question, where tastes vary as much in
regard to the flavor of the fruit as it does
as to the human countenance ?

The best pear must depend on the use to
which you mean to apply it ; if for your
own eating, that which suits your own pa-
late most exactly, is the best ; if for profit,
that which will bring the most money in the
market, is to be preferred.

In some places, fruit that is in an incipient
state of decay is preferred to that which is
sound, as may be seen by the following fact :

In the autumn of 1843, I was at Honfleur
in France, in the neighborhood of which
place, I saw several women mounted on
donkeys, going, as they told me, to market
with fruit. On being asked, what kind ?
Pears, was the answer. What kind of
pears ? The Messire Jean, was the reply.
As this pear was a great favorite with me,
when I was able to bite through its hard
sides, (for it is the extreme and the perfec-
tion of the breaking pears, as the Brown
Beurre is the extreme and the perfection
of the soft-flesh or buttery pears.) I gave
the woman a small piece of money, and
asked the amount in pears. With this re-
quest she complied, by giving me a number
of these fruit, which I found were all rot-
ten. On asking her in an angry tone, why
she gave me a parcel of worthless, rotten
fruit, she laughed in my face, and said,
" You joke, I believe," and told me I must
be a green one, indeed, not to know that
this pear was always rotted before it was
eaten. " The pears," said she, " are in per-
fection, and if you are so ignorant as not to
know what is good, it is no fault of mine,
so good morning to you," and off she drove.

leaving me to swallow the imposition as I
considered it, or the joke as she did, or the
pears themselves, as I thought best.

But we have a great variety out of which
a selection may be made, to gratify every
taste, some of which varieties we will now
enumerate.

Those pears that are considered as sum-
mer pears, are Madeleine, Harvard, Jargo-
nelle, Green Chisel, Muscat Robert, Blan-
quet a longue queue, Franc Real d'ete, se-
veral of the Bergamots, such as the Red
and the Summer ; also the Catharines, or
Rousselets, or what are commonly called
the Summer Caten or Catern, and the
Rousseline. Many of these are esteemed
and valuable fruits, when raised for the use
of the cultivator and his family. If I were
called upon to select six of the finest sum-
mer pears for a private garden in the coun-
try, I should name the Madeleine, the Har-
vard, the Jargonelle, Summer Franc Real,
and Red Bergamot.

Among the autumn Pears, there are, be-
sides those above mentioned, the Dix, a
wilding of Boston, inferior to none other,
if all its valuable properties be considered.
In appearance, form, flesh and size, toge-
ther with its fine texture and delicate fla-
vor, it resembles the St. Germain, and is,
as an autumn pear, what the St. Germain,
when in perfection, is as a winter pear, the
most valuable species with which we are
acquainted.

The Brown Beurre is another pear, per-
fecting in October, of superior merit, but
it does not last long enough to give it the
value of the Dix.

The Beurre, Diel [on quince stocks] is
another pear of distinguished merit, if it
be properly treated, and kept till it be en-
tirely ripe, and will be more and more es-
teemed as it is more known.

The Marie Louise and Josephine, are

MEMORANDA ON PEARS.

171

both excellent, as are the Verte Longue,
the Capiaumont, the Sylvanche Vert, the
Urhanist and Duchesee d'Angouleme.

But the autumn pear, under the name
of Van Mons' Leon le Clerc, which has late-
ly been brought into notice, has a great re-
putation in England, whence it was import-
ed a few years since. I have had this fruit
in bearing two or three years, and have
found it very good, but not equal to the ac-
count given of it by Mr. Loudon in his Hor-
ticultural Journal. I prefer the Dix pear to
it, although the Dix is not so large or so
handsome ; but it continues in eating longer,
and when well ripened, has, to my taste, a
better or more agreeable flavor.

Besides the above, there are several other
kinds of autumn pears that deserve atten-
tion, such as the Beurre Portugal, the Figue
d' Amiens, the Beurre Bronz.', the Vicar of
Winkfield, Wilkinson, and others of equal
value.

And, among autumn Pears, were I to se-
lect, I should name the Dix, the St. Ghis-
lain, Gansel's Bergamot, Beurre Diel, Sec-
kel, Marie Louise, White Doyenne (or St.
Michael,) Isambert, Louise bonne de Jer-
sey, Duchesse d'Angouleme, Van Mons'
Leon le Clerc, and Urbaniste.

As regards the winter Pears, the Napo-
leon and Passe Colmar may be considered
as belonging to this class, although they
sometimes ripen in November, but may be
kept till late in December with proper care.
These are both excellent fruits.

Among the new or Belgian Pears, that
ripen later in winter, those mostly esteemed
are the Winter Nelis, the Glout Morceau,
Beurre d'Aremberg, and Easter Beurre.

Although the St. Germain, the Virgou-
louse, the Winter Colmar, and Chaumon-
tel, are no longer cultivated in the open
country near the sea-board, yet they still
may be, and are raised in towns, as in Bos-

ton, in perfection, and may be in other ci"
ties, where they find that protection which
the open country does not afford them in
New England. Of these, the most valua-
ble is the St. Germain, which fruit possesses
more of the useful and valuable qualities
which we require, than any other of the
winter sorts ; as it begins to ripen in Janu-
ary, and continues, if properly taken care
of, into March and April, while it possesses
the excellent texture of the buttery sorts,
and is among the finest flavored of the pear
tribe. [The St. Germain ripens fine crops
here, and still finer in the interior of the
State of New-York.— Ed.]

But as I have said before, this decides
nothing ; for my taste may and would per-
haps, be condemned by well informed gar-
deners. In fact, on this subject of taste in
the flavor of fruits, I have long since be-
come convinced, that no one can judge for
all others, as I once had a practical evidence
of its extraordinary deviation from what I
had thought an established rule.

Being in Boston market in the autumn,
I vvas, with several other persons, looking
over some baskets of peaches and pears at
one of the fruit and vegetable stalls. Pre-
sently a sailor entered, and the fruiterer of-
fered him a choice of his fine fruit, by call-
his attention to his fine water melons and
musk melons, and apples and pears, peaches
and plums, of which he had an abundant
supply. But Jack turned up his nose at all
these, and fixing his eye upon a green cu-
cumber, he exclaimed, " None of tlie.se for
me, a cucumber for my money I" and ap-
plying the action to the word he seized
upon one of them, and clapping the bitter
end into his mouth, he ate away upon it till
the tears ran out of his eyes, and he was
almost suffocated by the hasty and greedy
manner that he swallowed it. The bystan-
ders looked at him with astonishment, ex-

172

IS FERTILIZATION NECESSARY?

pecting to see him choke ; at length, how-
ever, he cleared his throat sufficiently to
give utterance to his words, when looking
at a man who stood before him, watching

his delighted and distorted countenance, he
exclaimed, "If you will believe me, sir, it
is the first 1 have tasted this year ! "*

S. G. p.

IS FERTILIZATION NECESSAHY ?

BY SENEX, NEW-YORK.

A. J. Downing, Esq. — Bear Sir : I perceive
in the controversy respecting the strawber-
ry, it is considered by both parties, that
perfect stamens and pistils are necessary to
the production of fruit. If by the fruit,
however, we understand simply the fleshy
receptacle in which the seed, (whici: is
really the fruit) is imbedded, I cannot con-
ceive what the development of the sex-
ual organs of the plant has to do with its
formation.

The size of all fleshy fruits depends upon
a monstrous development of the receptacle,
as in the strawberry, or a similar develop-
ment of the cellular tissue, by which the
seeds are surrounded, as in the apple ; and
there is no doubt that this development
causes the sexual organs of the plant to be-
come sterile. In many vegetables, also,
the monstrous development of the tissue of
the stem, root or leaves, can only be ob-
tained by preventing them bearing seed ;
and every horticulturist will perceive, upon
a moment's reflection, that very many of
his highly prized productions are obtained,
directly or indirectly, in this way.

I have no doubt you have eaten many ex-
cellent fruits in which you may have ob-
served that there were no seeds, and yet the
fruit was fully developed : for instance, the
Pine Apple, the Banana, the Bread-fruit,
the Pear, Apple, Cherry, Plum, Peach and
Barberry ; indeed nearly all our cultivated
fruits produce seeds but very sparinglj^,
and very often not at all. From the above

you will see that good and perfect fruit can
be obtained without impregnation, and simi-
lar instances are to be found in the animal
kingdom ; thus hens lay eggs without im-
pregnation, which are equally as large and
good for domestic purposes as those which
are impregnated ; and also capons, and in-
deed all our domestic animals, become lar-
ger when castrated, as there is then a great-
er development of their cellular tissue, etc.
I think, if cultivators will reflect on the
above hints, they will find that their failures
in obtaining good crops are owing to some
other causes than the absence of stamens
and pistils, and are to be found in the un-
suitableness of the soil, manures, climate,
or the like. As to their being dioecious,
that is sheer nonsense ; there is not a dioe-
cious plant in the order EosaceaB, to which
the Strawberry belongs. The genus Clif-
fortia, which is dioecious, was once placed
in the order, in the tribe Sanguisorbea ; but
this tribe is now, I believe, made a separate
order. Writers should be careful to use
words in their strict sense ; and if the word
dioecious were thus used, it would meari that
Hovey's Seedling strawberry bore flowers

* We should rather incline to call this an instance of the
sailor's coarse appetite, than his taste Indeed, no word is so
much misapplied as the latter. W'e consider a taste, by which
we mean a. nice sense cf discrimination, as the result of good
natural organization, joined to a familiar acqtiaintance with a
great variety of the different objects on which the taste is to
be exercised. Tlius no man could be said to have a fine
taste in pictures, who had never seen any thing better than the
daubs of a village sign painter To go lower, we believe
M. SoYER would not give a person credit for any taste in
cookery, who had never eaten anything except "plain boiled
and roasted ;" and we should cerlanily deny any one the
right to claim a taste in fruits who does not know by heart,
at least all the finest standard varieties — Ed.

TWENTY-FIVE PEARS.

173

which on one plant were furnished with
female organs, and on another plant with
male organs ; so that even were that doc-
trine true, there would be no need of intro-
ducing other varieties in order to make them
fruitful, and also that there were two Ho-
vey's Seedlings raised, one female, and one
male, an evident absurdity ; so that the
question resolves itself into this, that the
plant, having lost its sexual organs through
excessive cultivation, a different mode is
likely to restore them ; but as I have already
stated, I cannot conceive that they are ne-
cessary to what, in horticultural parlance,
is called the fruit. Senex.

New-York, Aug. 25, 1847.

Kemarks. — That there are instances of
fruit being borne without the aid of the
stamens, is undoubtedly true ; but for the
most part these are exceptions to the gene-
ral law. Even in the case of seedless ap-
ples and other fruits, it is necessary that the
pistils be fertilized by the pollen, in order
that the fleshy receptacle which we call the
fruit, should swell and arrive at maturity.

In the case of the strawberry, there have
been so many experiments made lately,
that we are no longer in the dark as to the
facts regarding it. It has been carefully
proved, that certain sorts, called, from their
deficiency in stamens, pistillate, as the
Hudson, for example, will not, if planted
entirely separate from all contact with other

varieties, called slaminate, from their hav-
ing the stamens fully developed, set one
berry to a dozen blossoms ; while the same
pistillate sorts, if planted along side of sta-
minate ones, set nearly every blossom, and
bear large crops of fruit. This has been
tried repeatedlj', till it is impossible to
doubt its truth.

On the other hand, it is perfectly true,
as Senex states, that the strawberry is not a
dioecious plant ; and that this so called sta-
minate.and pistillate form, is only an ano-
malous state of the plant, origin ated or af-
terwards produced in certain varieties by
cultivation. Thus, in some soils, certain
sorts called staminate, such as Keen's
Seedling, Ross' Phoenix, etc., bear most
abundant crops, because they have the
normal proportions of pistils, while in others
they are almost barren, because the pistils
are not well developed, and the flower does
not set any fruit. Such sorts, therefore,
vary, and cannot fully be depended on. As
it is now ascertained, the most certain mode
of growing large crops, is to plant large
beds of pistillates alternate with small beds
of staminates, in order that the latter may
always fertilise the former, since the stami-
nates, though they frequently vary, and fail
to produce pistils, yet always produce sta-
mens. Most persons are now adopting this
as the shortest and surest mode of producing
large and constant crops in this climate. Ed.

REMARKS ON TWENTY-FIVE PEARS.

BY J. L., PHILADELPHIA.

As there is a good deal of diversity in the
opinions respecting many new fruits, in va-
rious parts of the country, owing to differ-
ences of soil and climate, we take the liber-
ty of printing the following extract from a
letter received from a gentleman in Penn-

sylvania, whose opinion is of value, and who
has paid a good deal of attention to the
culture of fruits. His soil, we may pre-
mise, is a good sandy loam. — Ed.

As I know you wish to collect infor-
mation about the success or failure of dif-

174

TWENTY-FIVE PEARS.

ferent new fruits, in various parts of the
country, I add a few hasty notes of my ex-
perience with twenty-five sorts of pears in
my collection. The trees were planted in
1S37, and have been in bearing several
years.

Beurre Bosc. This capital fruit cannot
be overpraised. As it always bears with
moderation, the fruit is always of good size,
the appearance handsome, the quality most
excellent. As a September pear, I pre-
fer it to all others received from Eu-
rope within the last twenty years.

Beukre RoMAiN. A pretty good
pear, and an excellent bearer. The
fruit is always fine, but its flavor not
quite first rate.

Cabot. Bears immense crops, and
is a handsome Brown Beurr^-like pear.
But it rots so quickly at the core
after it approaches maturity, that it is
of little value.

BoN Chretien Fondante. A most
variable fruit — sometimes juicy, melt-
ing and delicious, at others worthless.
Cannot be depended on with me.

Dearborn's Seedling. Perhaps the
finest of all early pears. Flavor ex-
cellent ; without a single faulty speci-
men on a tree ; and the tree itself an
exceeding and most regular bearer.
It appears to me this variety is not
generally estimated as it deserves. In
my experience, it proves the finest of
all early pears.

Golden Beurre of Bilboa. This
remarkably fine fruit ripens here at the last
of August. I think it worthy of all com-
mendation. It is so uniformly handsome,
of a beautiful pale gold colour, and the
skin always marked with a russetty patch
or escutcheon, round the stalk. It bears well
with me, both on pear and quince stocks,
and the flavor is delicious. It is seldom

seen in this neighborhood; but it deserves
to be a general favorite. [We concur in
this opinion, and annex an outline of this
excellent fruit. — Ed.]

Princess of Orange. Sometimes excel-
lent, but not to be depended on, except on
pear stocks, and not of first-rate flavor then.

Washington. A good and handsome
native pear, and when well cultivated, very
beautiful.

Fig. 29. Golden Beurre of Bilboa.

Beurre Diel. Always large and pro-
ductive, but the flavor can only be depended
on when it is grafted on quince bottom. On
pears, especially if the tree is young, it is
frequently pithy and tasteless. The same
remarks will apply to the Duchess of Angou-
Ume.

Comprette. Not a large fruit, nor a very

TWENTY. FIVE PEARS.

177

abundant bearer, but the flavor always su-
gary and good.

Heathcot. I have noticed your remarks
on the good qualities of this fruit, in the
last volume of the Horticulturist. It de-
serves all you say. The tree is thrifty and
free from blight. The fruit is among the
best of the autumn pears.

FoNDANTE d'Automne. It is a pity that
this delicious pear is not higher coloured,
or more attractive in appearance. It is the
only pear that I know, which rivals the
Seckel in honied aromatic flavor.

Chelmsford. A large, coarse fruit, yel-
low, with a red cheek, only fit for cooking.

St. Ghislaix. This excellent fruit is a
little too variable — some seasons delicious,
others pithy.

Gray Doyenne. Among the very best
pears in the world ! Always good, rather
later, and always fairer than the White
Doyenn^ or Butter pear.

Capiaumont. As prolific as a Boston
Russet apple, and therefore profitable for
the orchardist ; but too apt to be astringent
to suit the palate of a good judge of fruit.

Louise bonne de Jersey. Always bears
large crops of handsome, juicy, refreshing
pears. This pear, for September, may be
likened to the Bartlett for August ; i. e. it
always gives satisfaction by its productive-
ness and good quality.

AsTON Town. A poor fruit ; it may-
please an English palate, but its small size
and indifferent flavor are not relished here.

Belle et Bonne. Large, but of a poor
flavor, and on the whole not worthy of cul-
tivation.

Marie Louise. Very fine, as almost
every pear grower knows. The tree, how-
ever, wants a rich deep soil.

Hericart. Flavor very poor ; a sort
quite unworthy of general culiivation.

Petre. This is a ver)' favorite fruit of
mine. It has much of the delicious quali-
ties of that old favorite, the Butter pear
(Doyenne.)

Van Mons' Leon le Clerc. This varie-
ty has now borne two years a very few spe-
cimens only. The fruit is large, fair and
handsome, and the flavor very good. It
will, from the vigor of the tree, and its fine
size, undoubtedly be a popular fruit.

Stevens' Genesee. A very excellent
American pear, with all the productiveness
and vigor of our native sorts. The fruit
grows large, and I consider it a standard
sort.

Urbaniste. a delicious fruit. Persons
who have small gardens, ought, however,
to grow it on quince bottoms, as on pear
stocks, it takes eight or ten years before it
becomes productive. Your friend.

J. L.

POMOLOGICAL REFORM.

Oitr readers do not require to be told that
the all-engrossing subject, which, at the
present moment, occupies the minds of hor-
ticulturists generoUy, in the United States,
is the cultivation of the finest ha-Tdy fruits.
The orchardist, within convenient distance
of markets, considers it the best investment
of capital applied to land ; and the amateur

finds in the collection and cultivation of
all the choicest sorts, both an agreeable and
interesting occupation, and a means of con-
ferring a real benefit on the district of coun-
try in which he resides ; while the more
humble private grower, with limited space,
finds in the produce of his half dozen select
trees, almost as much to delight and inte-

176

POMOLOGICAL REFORM.

rest him, as the celebrated Reyboldts of
Delaware find in their thousand acre peach
orchard.

With this great and increasing attention
to the cultivation of fruit, comes also the
continual production of new varieties. Many
of these spring up accidentally from seed ;
others are the product of seeds gathered
from choice varieties, and planted with a
view to improved sorts ; and a few are the
result of hybridising, pursued by the more
scientific gardeners and experimentalists.

Of course a large proportion of these new
seedlings are either of too indifferent quali-
ty to be worth notice, or they are second-
rate ; or they are inferior, or only equal to
many sorts already in cultivation.

With the well known partiality of parents
for their own offspring, it is common enough
to see the originators of these second or
third-rate seedlings pressing them upon
public attention as fruits of the finest quali-
ty— unsurpassed and unsurpassable ; and
having, as they conceive, an undoubted
right to pass final judgment on their merits,
they confidently ask the public to buy and
plant these new sorts, which, when fairly
proved, often turn out of little or no value,
or decidedly inferior to those already in
cultivation.*

Confident as we are, that the United
States will produce many, as it has already
produced a few, new varieties of fruit equal
to any in the world, and superior to any for
our soil and climate, it is becoming highly
necessary that some system should be adopt-
ed which will protect the public against a
flood of new varieties of little or no value.

Such a safeguard can only be found, by
taking the judgment of a new variety, the
describing and recommending of the same,

* We have almost daily proofs of this ; and while we
write, we have just received a sample of fruits of a "new seed-
ling pear." highly praised, but which, on examination, proves
to be a well known old sort that we have known for twenty
years, and which no person who had ever seen it once, could
afterwards mistake I

out of the hands of all but nomologists of ac-
knowledged acquaintance with all the stan-
dard sorts, or the fruit committees of horti-
cultural societies well qualified for the pur-
pose.

Whatever may be the natural fondness
of a cultivator for good fruit, observation
will soon convince any one acquainted with
the matter, that no person is competent to
judge of the relative qualities of a new va-
riety, but one who is already conversant
with all those leading sorts of acknowledg-
ed character which exist in the best collec-
tions in the country. Ignorant of these, the
novice often rates a fruit as of first rate
quality, which a moment's examination, by
an experienced judge of fruits, determines
to be of second quality, and inferior to a
large number already known. A natural
pride prompts the novice, who believes he
has produced something of value to the
public, to give it his name, and distribute
it extensively among horticulturists and pro-
pagators of fruit. Hence we see catalogues
needlessly swelled with the names of do-
zens of new fruits, not one third of which
upon trial ever prove at all worthy of cul-
tivation.

The only remedy lies in restricting the
right to describe, name, and publish, a new
fruit, to competent pomologists, in the same
way that the right to describe and name
a newly discovered plant is confined to bo-
tanists only, insects to entomologists, birds
to ornithologists, etc., etc.*

By adopting this course, and establishing
some standard by which a new fruit must be
measured, with fixed rules governing the
nomenclature, and description of fruits, po-
mologists and fruit committees will have
something definite to guide them; the pub-
lic will have some guarantee for the value

* Of course the originator of a new variety which proves
of real merit, should retain his right to suggest the na^ne for
the variety, which the pomologist describing it, if it were a
proper and significant one, would be bound to adopt.

POMOLOGICAL REFORM.

177

of new sorts brought into notice ; and po-
mology will soon assume the character of
fi science.

Along with this new order of things for
Xh.e future, something must also be done to
prevent continual perplexity and confusion
with regard to the past. That all pomolo-
gical works of the last thirty years have
not been written with the accuracy that has
characterised other branches of natural his-
tory, is greatly to be deplored. To attempt,
however, to remodel every thing that has
been done, to alter names extensively, and
to reconstruct the old with the same method
as we may do the new, would be a vain and
hopeless task. It would only make confu-
sion worse confounded.

The best that can be done with the pomo-
logy of the past, is to select the latest and
most authentic work on either side of the
Atlantic, and establish these as the stand-
ard for the names of all fruits already
known and described. By doing this, we
shall at least secure uniformity, and some-
thing like stability in the names of the old
varieties.

The London Horticultural Society^s Cata-
logue will, we think, by general consent,
be chosen as the standard Eu7-opea7i autho-
rity. The great and extraordinary facili-
ties enjoyed in that garden, and unceasing
devotion there to the subject, for many years
past, have given this work, though it is not
without defects, a higher character, in many
respects, than any other of foreign origin.

In all matters relating to American fruits,
some American work, of well established
reputation, must also be taken as the stand-
ard.

With the past thus to be settled by re-
ference to recognized authorities, as stand-
ards, and all action in the future controlled
by judicious established rules, we may hope
that this most interesting branch of horti-
VoL. II. 23

culture, of so much general importance to
the country, will be relieved of the embar-
rassments that have so long surrounded it.
Impressed, as we are, wiih the importance
of this subject, we have addressed a circular
to several of our leading horticultural socie-
ties, in various parts of the country, asking
their attention to it, and suggesting such
rules as we believe, would, in a great de-
gree, cover the ground. We learn already,
that the matter will be likely speedily to
receive favorable attention, and we hope to
publish such Pomological Rules as shall be
adopted, in the next number of the Horti-
culturist.

This subject is attracting the attention
of many intelligent horticulturists in various
parts of the country. The following re-
marks on the new seedling Ohio strawber-
ries, by Mr. Beecher, are from the Wes-
tern Farmer and Gardener :

" We are about to have an immense in-
crease of seedlings. The process of origi-
nation is not difficult. Many amateurs are
already sending forth dozens of kinds. Are
these experiments conducted with any spe-
cial aim ? What are the faults of the old
kinds ? Are the new sorts bred with refe-
rence to certain desiderata ? The mere
fact that a kind is new, and large, and
good, does not entitle it to a name, and a
price of five dollars a dozen plants. There
is no special merit in raising very good
sorts. No straicberry ought to go forth, 2171-
less i7i sovte respect it is decidedly better than
established kinds.

Our attention has been more especially
directed to this matter, by the recent report
of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society,
upon seven seedlings of Mr. Burr's, Colum-
bus, Ohio. We should have been glad to
have had the report more explicit upon two
points, and if any of the gentlemen on the
committee will yet give us the information,
we shall feel obliged to him.

First. Do the committee state on their
own knowledge, the habits of the kinds men- "
tioned ? Or, is it stated upon the testimo--
ny of Mr. Burr, that one "bears well;')

178

THE IDA GREEN GAGE.

another, "a full bearer ;" "a profuse bearer."
Without doubt, Mr. Burr's statement would
satisfy any man, that any one of his seed-
lings was a profuse bearer — su far as his
experience had gone. But if they have been
cultivated as yet in but one place, if only
under Mr. Burr's management, then it
ought to appear, in any report, to what ex-
tenl they have been proved. As it is, the
greatest number of readers will understand
Messrs. Longworth, Ernst, Hoffner, etc., as
stating on their own personal knowledge,
and after a proper trial, that these plants
have, as a general character, the habit of
"profuse" bearing, "abundant" bearing,
" good " bearing, etc.

The second matter on which we lack in-
formation, is the comparative merits of
these candidates. Are they all better than
any now cultivated ? Is each better in
some one respect ? Are they more hardy,
more prolific, larger in fruit, higher flavor-
ed or colored ? Is there good reason, aside
from their new7iess, why they should sup-
plant old sorts in our gardens, or share
" bed and board " with them ?

It is not enough that a society should re-
port simply with their eye upon a lot of fruit.
As the report is meant for the community,
it ought to be carefully considered what ef-
fect a given report will probably have upon
the community. Did the Cincinnati Horti-

cultural Society design to say to cultiva-
tors— "These seven seedlings of Mr. Burr's
have been thoroughly tested, and are found
worthy of general cultivation ;" or did they
only mean to say — "In so far as we have
been able to judge from the mere inspection
of the/rwz7, we are pleased with Mr. Burr's
seven seedlings, and recommend that they
be further tried, until their full habit and
worth be ascertained."

It is our impression, that the latter report
was all that was warranted by the facts ;
but the first one is certainly the one which,
in effect, has been made.

We do not make these remarks to preju-
dice Mr, Burr; or because we think his
seedlings less than excellent. The fact is,
that we know very little about them. We
are told that they are excellent : so is the
Hudson, Early Virginia, Hovey, etc., etc.
Are these as good 1 Are they better ? Do
they supply any deficiency in old sorts 1 Do
they bear later, or earlier, or better, or larger
fruit, or in what respect do they claim ad-
mission among standard strawberries ?

The difficulty of raising apples and pears,
will put some kind of limit to their increase.
But if the fever once rises for originating
small fruits, whose term of maturity is short
— a year or two — we shall be deluged with
novelties, unless there be distinct terms of
admission.

THE IDA GREEN GAGE.

The upper half of the Hudson river has,
very deservedly, a high reputation for its
plums. The heavy soil is peculiarly adapt-
ed to the growth and productiveness of this
fruit, and there is scarcely a season when
the fruit gardens and orchards, about Hud-
son, Albany, Troy, (and we may include
Schenectady,) do not offter a fine display of
this excellent fruit.

The plum at the head of this article has
considerable local reputation, as being a
fine seedling fruit. Knowing our desire to
examine specimens, Mr. Reagles, of Sche-
nectady, a nurseryman, who ranks it ve

high, and has already propagated it to some
extent, has very obligingly sent us speci-
mens obtained from the original tree on
Mount Ida, near Troy, N. Y., accompanied
by the following note :

" Schenectady, N. Y-, Sept. 7.

" Dear Sir — I send you, by express, spe-
cimens of the new seedling plum, called the
Ida Gage, taken from the original tree now
growing on Mount Ida, (Troy.) I am not
aware yet to whom it owes its origin, but
will endeavor to ascertain and inform you.*

* We presume tliis tree is a seedling of Mr. Heartt's, in
wliose eXLcllenl frujl garden, on Mount Ida, we saw a num-
ber of seedlings resembling ihe green gage, some few years
ago. — En.

THE IDA GREEN GAGE.

179

" Regarding the qualities of the green
gage, I have but to say, that it is equal to
the green gage in flavor, superior to it in
size and beauty, resembling a handsome
red-cheeked nectarine, to recommend it to
fruit-growers as worthy of a place in the
smallest garden. I do not think I exagger-
ate its merits, taking every thing into con-
sideration, when I say there is no plum ex-
tant superior to it. It is exquisitely beau-
tiful, exceedingly luscious in flavor, produc-
tive, and hardy. You will, however, be
best able to judge of its merits, and describe
it, as I send you ripe specimens. Kespect-
fully yours, " C. Reagles, Jk.

" A. J. Downing, Esq."

We are not willing to give any fruit so
high a rank as our correspondent does the
present one, without seeing it several sea-
sons. We will, however, say that this is
a most excellent seedling of the green gage,
very strongly resembling it in flavor, and
general appearance ; with the distinctive
characteristics of larger size, a longer stalk,
and a purplish red cheek, instead of the
few streaks or dots of purple on the sunny
side of the Green Gage.

It appears to be a distinct sub-variety of
the Green Gage, and if, as we are inclined
to think likely from all we hear of it, it
turns out to be uniformly larger and more
productive, it will certainly take a high
rank among plums.

As it is unquestionably the finest seedling
fruit among a considerable number that we

have examined this year, we shall describe
it, and let another season's experience set-
tle its exact merits. In the mean time, we
think there can be little doubt, that it will
prove a decided acquisition.

Fig. 30. The Ida Green Gage.

Ida Green Gage.* Fruit roundish,
strongly resembling the Green Gage in ge-
neral appearance, but one-third larger. Su-
ture very faintly marked half round. Skin
of the colour of the Green Gage, but the
sunny side washed with purplish red. Stalk
nearly an inch long, rather slender, insert-
ed in a very slight depression. Flesh
greenish amber, very melting and juicy,
separating freely from the stone, and of the
sprightly luscious flavor of the old Green
Gage. Stone small. It ripens about the
same time with the Green Gage, or a few
days later. Branches smooth, and the
growth of the tree much like that of the
Green Gage.

Liquid Manure. — The papers occasionally
contain accounts of interesting and success-
ful experiments with liquid manure. It is
indeed very valuable ; but we believe, says
Mr. J. J. Thomas, that a large share of the
advantages result from the simple watering
which the plants thus obtain. The manure
itself should not, by any means, have all the

credit, as we very well know from expe-
rience, that a single irrigation of garden
plants has increased their growth to an ex-
tent hardly to be expected from the most
copious manuring.

* We propose to call this " Ida Green Gage," instead of
simply '' Ida Gage," to show its character; and that il is a
sub-variety, and not in all respects an entirely disihict sort.

180

RISE AND FALL OF SAP.

POPULAR ERRORS ABOUT THE "RISE AND FALL " OF SAP.

BY PROP. LINDLEY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

What a curious hallucination is that which
supposes the sap of trees to fall, or set-
tle, in the winter into the roots ! One
would have thought that the notorious diffi-
culty of cramming a quart of water into a
pint measure, might have suggested the im-
probability of such a phenomenon. For it
certainly does require a very large amount
of credulity to believe that the fluids of the
trunk and head of a tree, can by any natu-
ral force of compression, be compelled to
enter so narrow a lodging as the root. The
idea, however, has established itself in. some
persons' minds, and, we presume, in con-
nection with that other old vulgar error, that
the sap is in rapid motion in the spring
time, in the roots of a tree, before it begins
to flow in the branches. These whimsies
took their origin in days when the world was
contented to accept assertions upon trust,
and when hypotheses and vain imaginings
formed the debased paper currency of sci-
ence. But now men have found out the
value of a golden standard, both for money
and for knowledge ; they call for facts be-
fore theories ; and the result, already, is a
wonderful disturbance in the crowded ranks
of scientific as well as historical legends.

We shall assume the word sap to signify
the fluids, of whatever nature, which are
contained in the interior of a tree. In the
spring, the sap runs out of the trunk when
it is wounded ; in the summer, autumn, and
winter, it does not, unless exceptionally,
make its appearance. But in truth the sap
is always in motion, at all seasons, and un-
der all circumstances except in the presence
of intense cold. The difference is, that
there is a great deal of it in the spring, and
much less at other seasons.

When a tree falls to rest at the ap-
proach of winter, its leaves have carried ofi
so much more fluid than the roots have been
able to supply, that the whole of the inte-
rior is in a state of comparative dryness;
and a large portion of that sap which once
was fluid, has become solid, in consequence
of the various chemical changes it has un-
dergone. Between simple evaporation on
the one hand, and chemical solidification on
the other, the sap is, in the autumn, so
much diminished in quantity as to be no
longer discoverable by mere incisions. The
power that a plant may possess of resisting
cold, is in proportion to the completeness of
this drying process.

When the leaves have fallen off, the tree
is no longer subject to much loss of fluid by
perspiration, nor to extensive chemical
changes by assimilation, for the leaves are
the principal organs of perspiration and as-
similation. But the absorbing power of the
roots is not arrested ; they, on the contrary,
go on sucking fluid from the soil, and driv-
ing it upwards into the system. The effect
of this is, that after some months of such
an action, that loss of fluid which the tree
had sustained in autumn by its leaves, is
made good, and the whole plant is distend-
ed with watery particles. This is a most
wise provision, in order to insure abundant
food to the new-born leaves and branches,
when warmth and light stimulate them into
growth.

During all the winter period, the sap ap-
pears indeed to be at rest, for the re-filling
process is a very gradual one. But M. Biot,
many years ago, proved, by an ingenious
apparatus, that the rate of motion of the
sap may be measured at all seasons; and

RISE AND FALL OF SAP.

Itfl

he ascertained it to be in a state of consid-
erable activity in mid-winter. Among other
things he found that frost had considerable
influence upon the direction in which the
sap moves. In mild weather, the sap was
constantly rising ; but when frost was ex-
perienced, the sap flowed back again — a
phenomenon which he referred to the con-
tracting power of cold on the vessels of the
trunk and branches, the effect of which was
to force the sap downwards into the roots
lying in a warmer medium ; then, again,
when the frost reached the roots themselves,
and began acting on them, the sap was
forced back into the trunk ; but as soon as
a thaw came on, and the ground recovered
its heat, the roots, out of which a part of
the sap had been forced upwards, were
again filled by the fluids above them, and the
sap was forced to fall. A large Poplar tree,
in the latter state, having been cut across
at the ground line, the surface of the stump
was found to be dry, but the end of the
trunk itself dripped with sap. Sap, then,
is always in motion ; and if it ever settles
to the root in a visible manner, that is owing
to temporary causes, the removal of which
causes its instant re-ascent.

As to the idea that the bleeding of a tree
begins first at the root, and, in connection
with this supposition, that what is called
the rise of the sap is the cause of the ex-
pansion of buds, and leaves, and branches,
nothing can well be more destitute of any
real foundation. If in the spring, when the
buds are just swelling, a tree is cut across
at the ground line, no bleeding will take
place, neither will the sap flow for some
distance upwards ; but among the branches
the bleeding will be found to have com-

menced. Let A B represent the trunk and
branches of a tree ; let inci-
sions be made at c, d, e,f;
the sap will run at c first,
then at d, next at e, and last
at /, next the roots. This
was observed some years ago
by Mr. Thompson, at that
time the Duke of Pokt-
land's gardener, who tho't
he had discovered that the
sap of trees descends in the
spring, instead of ascending ;
a strange speculation enough
it must be confessed. The
fact is, that the sap is driven
into accelerated motion, first
at the extremities of a tree,
because it is there that light
^ and warmth first tell upon

^'°-^^- the excitable buds. The

moment the buds are excited, they begin to
suck sap from the parts with which they are
in contact ; to supply the waste so produced
the adjacent sap pushes upwards ; as the
expansion of the leaves proceeds, the de-
mands upon the sap near them become great-
er • a quicker motion still is necessary on
the part of the sap to make good the loss ;
and thus from above downward is that per-
ceptible flow of the fluids of trees, which
we call bleeding, effected.

The well known fact of trees sprouting
in the spring, although felled in the autumn,
proves that the sap had not at that time
quitted the trunk to take refuge in the roots.
Such a common occurrence should put peo-
ple on their guard against falling into the
vulgar errors on this subject.

182

PEARS ON QUINCE AND ASH STOCKS.

PEARS ON QUINCE AND MOUNTAIN ASH STOCKS.

BY JOHN M. IVES, SALEM, MASS.

Having grov/n several varieties of Pears
for ten years past upon Qnince root, and
more recently upon the Mountain Ash and
the English White Thorn, I have thought
mv experience might he of some benefit to
those who are cultivating this fruit, in this
section particularly ; and as your excellent
periodical is circulated largely among us,
I have ventured to forward the following
desultory remarks.

Your English correspondent, Mr. Rivers,
says of that fine pear, the Beurre Bosc, —
" it is exceedingly refractory,'' and that he
is " not sure that it will live and flourish for
any lengthened period, although double-
worked on very thrifty stocks."

I have grow,n this Pear upon the Quince
root for many years, and find it to grow lux-
uriantly, but it is shy in its bearing; but on
the contrary when double-worked, as I now
have it, upon the Martin Sec pear to bear
equally with the Bartlett. I have counted
thirteen fine large specimens upon a single
shoot of thirty-six inches long. The Blood-
good double-worked does not answer, it being
a poor grower, the fruit small, but colored
upon one side. This variety, when grown
upon its own stock, is decidedly the best
early pear in my collection, and I cannot
divine why it is not more highly prized by
the cultivators around Boston. I have un-
derstood that the specimens exhibited at
the Rooms of the Horticultural Society,
have been below what you would denomi-
nate medium ; this will probably account
for the dissent your correspondent, Mr.
Newhall, of Dorchester, made to your
Pomoiogical Gossip, in calling it first-rate or
quality. A cultivator from Plymouth, on
his return from Boston, was surprised to find

the specimens of the Bloodgood upon my
trees so much larger than those he had just
seen at the Horticultural Rooms. The fruit
this year averaged smaller than those of the
two previous seasons.

I have the Fonda^ite d' Automne (Belle
Lucrative) grown upon the Mountain Ash,
budded three years since, near the ground,
which is very dwarfish, having as fine spe-
cimens in a cluster, of this truly delicious
pear, as any upon my standard trees. The
Bloodgood, Seckel, Bartlett, and Bezi de la
Motte, worked upon the Mountain Ash, do
not as yet promise much, the first named
sort being the only one that has made any
growth this season. The Seckel, which I
have tried in various ways, upon the Apple,
as recommended by our friend, Mr. Eknst,
of Cincinnati, is a failure ;* the grafts prom-
ised well for the first season, and then either
died out, or came to a dead stand; I have,
to be sure, a few small button-looking pears
upon a sickly graft, which was placed upon
a most thrifty stock of the Sop-saviiie or
Sops-of-Wine Apple. I budded several va-
rieties of the pear upon the English White
Thorn; many of these have a fine two years
growth — among them the Bosc and Flem-
ish Beauty — the former of which you know
has not the reputation of being a good
grower upon the Pear or Quince root.

Among the varieties of Pears fruited this
season, I find the Long Green of Coxe, Gol-
den Beurre of Bilboa, Fondante d' Automne,
Andrews, Louise bonne de Jersey, Washing-
ton, Bezi d'Montigny, Buerre d'Amaulis,
Winter Nelis, Lewis, Buffum, Flemish Beau-
ty, Gushing, Heathcote, and Bon Chretien

* This is the result of a number of experiments in various
parts of the country. — Ed.

SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL.

183

Fondante, entirely free ixora blight or crack-
ing; while the Buerre Did, Dix, Bosc, and
the old Pound Pear, have, in my garden,
more or less blasted.

The Bosc is, however, perfectly fair when
double-worked as named above. There is
one pear which I think has been much un-
derrated; I refer to the Buffum, a native fruit
of Rhode Island. This is one of the most
profitable market pears we possess ; it is a
great grower and 'prodigious bearer; the fruit
medium size, and when ripened in the house
handsomely colored ; and although we

should not consider it as first-rate in quality,

it is yet a pleasant fruit, and highly prized

by many here, as well as in its native State.

Yours very truly, John M. Ives.

Salejn, Mass., Sept. 13, 1847.

P. S. Most Pears average larger upon

the Quince than upon the Pear stock — the

Bloodgood seems to be an exception, and

1 from its growing larger in my soil, which is

' a light sandy loam, made retentive by the

application of leached ashes and clay, than

in the strong soil around Boston, it undoubt-

i edly requires a warm and light one.

REVIEWS.

THE American Journal of Science and Arts :
conducted by Professors B. Silliman, and B.
SiLLiMAN. JR. and James H. Dana. Second Se-
ries, No. 11, September, 1847 : New-Haven.
Silliman's Journal is one of the few peri-
odicals of which an American maybe proud.
Established so long ago as 1818, it has ever
since so steadilj' held its place, and shed the
light of science over our hemisphere, that
among the countless meteor lights of peri-
odical literature which have flashed up and
expired within the last quarter of a century,
it appears like a fixed star.

The elder Silliman alone established this
most useful Journal, and gave it the high
character, both at home and abroad, which it
still enjoys. The new series before us, in
its editorship, combines with the advantage
of his matured knowledge and experience,
that of the genius and energy of his son,
and the well known abilities of Mr. Dana.
Among its contributors, are all those in
any way remarkable among the scientific
writers of the country. Its plan embraces
the whole circle of the Physical Sciences,
and their application to the arts, and while
it is therefore indispensable to the savan,
the student of nature, the engineer, or the

mechanician, its pages also offer much that
is exceedingly interesting to the general
reader.

Our object in taking up this serial at the
present moment, is to notice a very inter-
esting address before the last meeting of
the British Association for the advancement
of Science, held at Oxford, which it contains.

This is the inaugural address, delivered
by the new President, Sir R. H. Inglis, at
the commencement of the session. As it
embraces a survey of the progress of science
generally during the past year, every part
of it is highly interesting, and we would
gladly transfer it to our columns, but its
length forbids us from so doing.

We shall, however, select some of the
most interesting passages. First among
these, for the eyes of our readers, are the
following remarks on the progress of Bo-
tanical Science, and the reference to the re-
cent discoveries regarding the phenomena
of fecundation in plants, is worthy of par-
ticular attention.

I proceed now to notice the science of Botany ;
which, aided in these days by the microscope, and
by chemistry, as to the structure, functions and
uses of the living plant, and as to the analogies in

184

SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL.

the vegetable world in its fossil state, presents one
of the most interestin<T subjects of inquiry to the
student and to the general observer.

Systematic botany is constantly receiving addi-
tions to the number of species.

In England, with respect to living plants, for the
greater part of the accession to the plants in culti-
vation during the preceding year, we are indebted
to Mr. Fortune, the Horticultural Society's collec-
tor in China, who has recently published an account
of his mission; and we are not less indebted to those
who, as collectors and correspondents in various
parts of the world, communicate the results of
their labors to the Royal Botanic Gardens atKew.
Tiiat establishment, under the direction of my
friend, Sir William Jackson Hooker, has unques-
tionably become the first botanic garden in Europe.
I use this expression on the authority of another
friend whom I have had the privilege of knowing
for forty years, whom Humboldt described as le
premier Botanisfe de VEuroiipe, accurate, saga-
cious, and profound, and whose knowledge is only
equalled by his modesty. After this, it is not for
your sakes but my own, that I name Robert Brown;
may I add, in passing, the expression of every
one's wish that he would deposit more of his
knowledge in print.

Before 1 quit the subject of the great institution
at Kew, I ought to mention as one of the latest
accessions to it, a cactus weighing a ton, as stated
by Sir W. J. Hooker, in his report laid before Par-
liament ; who adds, that the collection of that
most singular family, so recently made familiar to
las, (he refers to the collection at Kew,) " is now
unrivalled in Europe."

With respect to new species of plants received
only in the state of specimens for the herbarium,
they have been in part obtained irom China, South
America and New Zealand ; but chiefly from Aus-
tralia. The late expedition into the interior, or at
least further into the interior of that great conti-
nent than in any other direction had hitherto been
made — expeditions so creditable to the enterprise,
perseverance, and intelligence of their conductors ;
have, however, been but little productive, so far as
we at present know, in the department of botany.
The animal productions of New Holland, so won-
derful in their forms and structures, have long
formed the most remarkable characteristic of its
vast region ; nor is its botany without distinctions
of much interest, though as yet but very imper-
fectly explored. It may be said, however, in re-
ference to the results of these later expeditions,
which have penetrated further inland, that they
have not brought to our knowledge any peculiari-
ties in the vegetable kingdom so various and so
striking as those which exist near the coasts, and
which are sutticient to distinguish New Holland and
the Australian colonies from the other regions of
the world.

In the diffusion of the riches of the vegetable
world, steam navigation has obviously been a most
favorable auxiliary; so that, " even cuttings of
plants" are now " actually sent successfully to Cal-
cutta, Ceylon, &c." In speaking of the exports
from Kew, it is not unfitting to add, that '' between
four and five thousand plants of the famous Tussac

grass have been dispersed from the Royal Gardens
at Kew during the past year."

The increase in the number of visitors to that
most flourishing establishment is some evidence at
least of an increase of a taste for the development
of science, and probably of that increase of the love
of science, which it is one of the objects of the
British Association to encourage in all classes.

In 1841, the number of visitors was 9,174 ; but
they arc nearlv doubling every year. In 1844, they
were 15,114 ; 'in 1845. 28, 139 ; in 1846, 46,573.

In vegetable physiology, microscopic observers
have of late been much occupied in investigating
the phenomena of fecundation, and especially as to
the mode of action of the pollen.

On this subject botanists are still divided. Seve-
ral experienced observers adopt the theory lately
advanced and ingeniously supported by Prof. Schlei-
den, of Berlin ; while others of great eminence
deny the correctness on M'hich this theory is foun-
ded. Among these, the celebrated microscopic ob-
server. Prof. Amici, of Florence, very recently in
an essay — communicated to the scientific meeting
held in 1846 at Genoa — has endeavored by a mi-
nute examination of several species of Orchis, to
prove the existence of the essential part of the em-
bryo anterior to the application of the pollen, which,
according to him, acts as the specific stimulus to
its development.

This view receives great support from some sin-
gular exceptions to the general law of fecundation.

Of these, the most striking occurs in a New
Holland shrub, which has been cultivated several
years in the Botanic Garden at Kew ; and which,
though producing female flowers only, has constant-
ly ripened seeds from which plants have been raised
perfectly resembling the parent : — while yet there
is no suspicion either of the presence of male flow-
ers in the same plant, or of minute stamina in the
femaleflower itself, nor of fecundation by any re-
lated plant cultivated along with it.

This plant has been figured and described in a
recent volume of the Linnean Society's ' Transac-
tions,' under the name of Ccelebogyne illicifolia, by
Mr. J. Smith, the intelligent curator of the Kew
Garden, by whom, indeed, this remarkable fact was
first noticed. It is not the least curious part of the
history of the Ccelebogyne, that male flowers have
lately been discovered in New Holland, unquestion-
ably of the same species.

Prof. Gasparini, of Naples, has more recently
communicated to the scientific meeting held in that
city in 1845, his observations and experiments on
the cultivated fig, which, though entirely destitute
of male flowers, produced seeds having a perfectly
developed embryo, independent of fecundation ;
access to the pollen of the wild fig, generally sup-
posed to be carried by insects, being, in his experi-
ments, prevented by the early and complete shut-
ting up of the only channel in the fig by which it
could be introduced.

An elaborate memoir has very recently appeared
in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, by the
late Mr. W. Griffiths, " on the Structure and Affi-
nities of Plants Parasitical on Roots." These
singular productions have been regarded by several
distinguished botanists as forming one natural class

SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL.

185

■which the}' have called Rhizanthea. Mr. Griffiths,
on the other hand, who was eminently qualilied,
both as a systematic and physiological botanist, to
judge of such a question, has adaj)ted the opposite
view taken by other observers, namely, that these
plants really belong to several distinct, and not even
nearly related, families ; the points of internal
structure and external ajipearance, which they have
in common, arising from the peculiar mode in which
they receive their nourishment.

There is no stronger or more deeph" root-
ed popular belief, than that of the effect of
the moon upon the changes of the weather.
The most careful experiments have been
made lately, to ascertain whether there is
any ground for believing the moon's attrac-
tion to act upon the atmosphere. These
have resulted in establishing, beyond a
doubt, the existence of tides in the air, as
well as in the water, which surround the
earth.

The doctrine of the influence of the moon and of
the sun on the tides was no sooner established, than
it became eminently probable that an influence ex-
erted so strongly upon a fluid so heavy as water,
could not but have the lighter and all but imponde-
rable fluid of air under its grasp. I speak not of
the influence attributed to the moon in the popular
language and belief of nations ancient and modern
— of Western Europe and of Central Asia, in re-
spect to disease ; but of the direct and measurable
influence of the moon and of the sun in respect to
the air. It is now clear, as the result of the obser-
vations at St. Helena by my friend Col. Sabine, that
as on the waters, so on the atmosphere, there is a
corresponding influence exerted by the same causes.
There are tides in the air as in tiie sea ; the extent
is of course determinable only by the most careful
observations with the most delicate instruments ;
since the minuteness of the effect, both in itself and
in comparison with the disturbances which are oc-
casioned in the equilibrium of the atmosphere from
other causes, must always present great difficulty
in the way of ascertaining the truth — and had, in
fact, till Col. Sabine's researches, prevented any
decisive testimony of the fact being obtained by
direct observation. But the hourly observations of
the barometer made for some years past at the Mete-
orological and Magnetical Observatory at St. Hele-
na, have now placed beyond a doubt the existence of
a lunar atmospheric tide. It a])pears that in each day
the barometer at St. Helena stands, on an average,
four thousandths of an inch higher at the two ])e-
riods when the moon is on the meridian above or
below the pole, than when she is .six hours distant
from the meridian on either side ; the progression
between the maximum and minimum being more-
over continuous and uninterrupled : — thus furnishing
a new element in the attainment of physical truth ;
and, to quote the expression of a distinguished for-
eigner now present, which he uttered in my own

Vol. II. 24

house when the subject was mentioned, " we are
thus making astronomical observations with the
barometer" — that is, we are reasoning from the po-
sition of the mercury in a barometer, which we can
touch, as to the position of the heavenly bodies
which, unseen by us, are induencing its visible fall
and rise. " It is no exaggeration to sa)'," and here
I use the words of my friend, the Rev. Dr. Robin-
son,— " that we could even, if our satellite were
incapable of reflecting light, have determined its
existence, nay. more, have approximated to its ec-
centricity and period."

I am unwilling to quit this subject without ex-
pressing my deep sense of the services rendered to
science by the patient, laborious, unobtrusive obser-
vation and researches of my eminent friend, Col.
Sabine, in meteorology, and above all, magnetism,
in connection with diff'erent and very distant points
of the earth : researches undertaken, some of them,
before public attention was so generally called to
the subject as it has been in later years — (since the
Britisii Association urged the importance of such
investigation upon the government at home ;) and
undertaken at great sacrifice of domestic comfort,
and at the risk of life, not in the ordinary duties of
his noble profession, but in the pursuit of science
for its own sake — science, one year at the North
Pole, and the next, I think, in Sierra Leone. The
reputation thus acquired does not come quickly, but
it comes surely; and will survive permanently; and
the reputation of the individual adds to the reputa-
tion of his country.

The following remarks on Astronomy, al-
luding to the greatest discovery of the age,
will be read with interest by all :

I begin with Astronomy. — The progress of as-
tronomy during the past year has been distinguished
by a discovery the most remarkable, perhaps, ever
made as the result of pure intellect exercised be-
fore observation, — and determining without obser-
vation the existence and force of a planet ; which
existence and which force were subsequently veri-
fied by observation. It had previously been con-
sidered as the great trial and triumph of dynamical
science, to determine the disturbances caused by
the mutual action of " the stars in their courses,"
even when their position and their orbits were fully
known ; but it has been resen'cd for these days to
reverse the process, and to investigate from the dis-
cordance actually observed, the existence and the
place of the wondrous stranger which has been si-
lently, since its creation, exerting this mysterious
power. It was reserved for these days to track the
path and to measure the force which the Creator
had given to this hitherto unknown orb among the
myriads of the air.

I am aware that Lalande, more than fifty years
ago, on two nights — which, if he had pursued the
object then first discovered, would have been well
distinguished from the rest of the year, and would
have added new glory to his own name — did ob-
serve what is now fully ascertained to have been
the planet Nept\mc ; but though Uranus had just
been added to those bright orbs which to mortal
eves for more than two thonsand years have been

186

SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL.

known to circle our sun, Lalande was observinpr
before Piazzi, Olbers, and Ilardintr, had added Ce-
res, Pallas, Juno and Vesta to tiiat number, and
before by those discoveries it was proved, not only
that the planets round the sun had passed the mys-
tic number of seven — since Herschel had confuted
that ancient belief— but that others mij^ht also re-
main to reward the patient labors of other obser-
vers. He therefore distrusted his own eves ; and
preferred to believe that he had been riiistaken,
rather than that the existence and force of a new
planet had been reserved for the discovery of this
latter aire. What his eyes saw, but what his judg-
ment failed to discriminate and apply, has since
become a recognizi d fact in science.

I will not presume to measure the claims of the
two illustrious names of Leverrier and Adams ; of
him, who, in midnifjht workings and watchings,
discovered the truth in our own country, and of the
hardly happier philosopher who was permitted and
enabled to be the first, after equal workings and
watchings, to proclaim the great reality which his
science had prepared and assured him to expect.
I will trust myself with only two observations : the
one, my earnest hope that the rivalry not merely of
the illustrious Leverrier and of my illustrious coun-
tryman, Adams, but of the two great nations which
they represent, France and England, respectively,
may always be confined to pursuits in which victory
is without woe, and to studies which enlarge and
elevate the mind, and which, if rightly directed,
may produce alike glory to God and good to man-
kind : and the other, my equal hope, that for those
(some of whom I trust may now hear me) who
employ the same scientific training, and the same
laborious industry which have marked the research-
es of Leverrier and Adams, there may still remain
similar triumphs in the yet unpenetrated regions of
space ; and that — unlike the greater son of a great
father — they may not have to mourn that there are
no more worlds to be conquered.

It is a remarkable fact, that the seeing of the
planet Neptune was eflfected as suddenly at Berlin
by means of one of the star-maps which has pro-
ceeded from an association of astronomers chiefly
Germans ; such maps forming in themselves a suffi-
cient illustration of the value of such associations
as our own, by which the labor and the expense —
too great, perhaps, for any one individual— are sup-
plied by the combined exertions of many kindred
followers of science.

It is another result of the circulation of these
star-maps, that a new visitor, a comet, can hardly
be within the range of a telescope for a few hours,
v/ithout his presence being discovered and announced
through Europe. Those comets which have been
of larger apparent dimensions, or which have con-
tinued longer within view, have, in consequence, for
more than two thousand years, been observed with
more or less accuracy; their orbits have been cal-
culated ; and the return of some has been deter-
mined with a precision which in past ages exer-
cised the wonder of nations ; — but now, improved
maps of the heavens, and improved instruments, by
which the strangers who pass along those heavens
are observed, carry knowledge where conjecture
lately dared not to penetrate. It is not that more

comets exist, as has sometimes been said, but more
are observed.

An Englishman — a subject of this United King-
dom— cannot refer to the enlarged means of astro-
nomical observation enjoyed by the present age,
without some allusion to the noble Earl, Lord Rosse,
one of the Vice Presidents of this day, who, him-
self educated amongst us here in Oxford, has de-
voted large means and untiring labor to the com-
pletion of the most wonderful telescope which sci-
ence, art, and wealth have ever yet combined to
perfect ; and which the Dean of Ely — a man wor-
thy to praise the work — pronounced to be a rare
combination of mechanical, chemical, and mathe-
matical skill and knowledge. Its actual operations
have been suspended by a cause not less honorable
to Lord Rosse in another character, than the con-
ception and early progress of his great instrument
were to him as a man of science. They hu.vebeen
retarded, so far as he himself is concerned by the
more immediate and, I will say, higher duties
which, as a magistrate, as a landow^ner, and as a
Christian gentleman, he owed, and has lieen pay-
ing to his neighbors, his tenantry, and his country,
during the late awfid visitation which has afflicted
Ireland. Yet perhaps my noble friend will permit
me to say, that while we not only do not blame him
— we even praise him cordially for having devoted
his time, his mind, and his wealth to those claims
which could not be postponed, since they afl'ected
the lives of those who in God's providence surroun-
ded him — there were, and there are otiicrs, two at
least in his own country, and one his most illustr ous
friend, Dr Robinson, (but I speak without any
communication on the subject from that great ob-
server and greater philosopher,) who might have
carried on the series of observations which this won-
derful telescope alone can effect, and might thus
have secured for his own division of the empire,
the discovery of the planet Neptune.

The Catalogues of Lacaille and the Histoire Ce-
leste are now before the world ; and with the Cata-
logue of our Association, constitute a series of
most important gifts conferred on astronomy. I
have already said that I will not presume to mea-
sure the relative merits of two eminent individuals ;
it is as little within my power to measure the value
of such gifts to science. That value can be duly
appreciated by none but the great masters of this,
the greatest of sciences ; but I may be permitted
to add, that here, also, come into beneficial action,
the powers and uses of such an association, which,
rising above the mere calculations of pecuniary
profit, provides for the few who only are capable of
extracting the just benefit from such works, those
materials of advancing knowledge which are be-
yond the reach of individuals.

While the telescope is busy exploring the
heavens with such astonishing results, the
microscope is no less successfully employed
in making new revelations regarding the
wonderful laws of the Creator in our own
bodies, and those of almost every substance

SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL.

187

on the globe. The remarks on the Physio-
logical Discoveries of Ehrenberg and others,
at the close of the following extract, are the
strongest illustrations of this :

In physiolo<Ty, the most remarkable of the disco-
veries, or rather improvements of previous discove-
ries, which the past year has seen, is, perhaps, tiiat
connected with the labors of the distinguished Tus-
can philosopher, Matteucci ; who, on several former
occasions, has co-operated with the Association in
the sections devoted to the advancement of the phy-
sical and physiological sciences. I refer in this in-
stance to his experiments on the generation of elec-
tric currents by muscular contraction in the living
body. This subject he has continued to pursue ;
and, by the happy combination of the rigorous mr -
thods of physical experiment with the ordinary
course of physiological research. Prof. Matteucci
has fully established the important fact of the exis-
tence of an electrical current — feeble, indeed, and
such as could only be made manifest by his own de-
licate galvanoscope — between the deep and the su-
perficial parts of a muscle. Such electric currents
pervade every muscle in every species of animal
which has been the subject of experiment ; and may
therefore, be inferred to be a general phenomena of
living bodies. Even after life has been extinguish-
ed by violence, these currents continue for a short
time ; but they cease more speedily in the muscles
of the warm-blooded than in those of the cold-
blooded animals. The Association will find his own
exposition of the physiological action of the electric
current in his work, " Lec^ons sur les Phenomenes
Physiques des Corps Vivants," 1847.

The delicate experiments of Matteucci on the
Torpedo, agree with those made by our own Fara-
day (whom 1 may call doubly our own in this
place, where he is a Doctor of our University) upon
the Gymnotus clectricus, in proving that the shocks
communicated by those fishes are due to electric
currents generated by peculiar electric organs,
which owe their most immediate and powerful sti-
mulus to the action of the nerves. In both species
of fishes the electricity generated by the action of
their peculiar organized flatteries — besides its be-
numbing and stunning effects on living animals —
renders the needle magnetic, decomposes chemical
compounds, emits the spark, and, in short, exercises
all the other known powers of the ordinary elec-
tricity developed in inorganic matter, or by the ar-
tificial apparatus of the laboratory.

Etherization, a kindred subject, — one to which
deep and natural importance is attached, — may not
unfitly follow the mention of Prof. Matteucci's in-
vestigations.

It IS the subject of the influence of the vapor of
ether on the human frame — a discovery of the last
year, and one the value of which in diminishing hu-
man pain has been experienced in countless instan-
ces, in every variety of disease, and especially dur-
ing the perlormance of trying and often agonizinir
operations. Several experiments on the tracts and
nerve roots appropiated respectively to the func-
tions of sensation and volition, have been resumed
and repeated in connexion with this new agency on

the nervous S3'stem. Messrs. Flourens and Longet
have shown that the sensatorial functions are first
affected, and are completely, though temporarily,
suspended under the operation of the vapor of ether;
then the mental or cerebral powers ; and finally,
the motor and excito-motor forces are abrogated.
It would seem that the stimulus of ether applied
so largely or continuously as to produce that cH'ert
is hill of danger — and that weak constitutions are
sometimes unable to rally and recover from it ; but
that when the influence is allowed to extend no fur-
ther than to the suspension of sensation, the recov-
ery is, as a general rule, complete. It is this re-
markable property of ether, which has led to its
recent application with such success as may well
lead us to thank God, who. in his providence, has
directed the eminent physicians and surgeons
amongst our brethren in the United States to make
this discovery ; a discovery which will long place
the name of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, its author,
among the benefactors of our common nature.

At the same time, much careful observation on
the modus operandi of this most singular agent,
seems still requisite, before a general, systematic,
safe, and successful application of it can be esta-
blished for the relief of suffering humanity. So
great, however, is the number of well-recorded in-
stances of its having saved the patient from the
pain of a surgical operation without any ill efiect
in reference to his subsequent recovery, as to make
the subject of the influence of the vapor of ether
upon the nervous system, and the modification of
that influence on diflerent temperaments, one emi-
nently deserving the attention of the physiological
section of tiie British Association.

With regard to the functions of the primary divi-
sion and parts of the brain itself, there has been of
late a happy tendency to substitute observations on
the modifications of those parts in the series of the
lower animals in the place of experimental mutila-
tions on a single species, in reference to the ad-
vancement of cerebral physiology. Experiment is,
no doubt, in some instances, indispensable : but we
ought ever to rejoice when the same end is attain-
ed by comparative anatomy rather than by ex
perimental vivisections ; and every true philosopher
will concur with my most eminent friend, Profes-
sor Owen, in his doubt, (I quote his own words,)
"whether nature ever answers so truly when put
to the torture, as she does when speaking voluntari-
ly through her own ex})erimcnts, if we may so call
the ablation and addition of parts which compara-
tive anatomy offers to our contemplation." — Owen's
Hunterian Lecture, Vertebrata, p. 187.

I was always struck with that passage in the
" Life of Sir. W. Jones," in which that great man,
who united so many claims to the admiration of
mankind, declined to accept the ofJ'er of a friend
to collect, and in collecting to put to death, a num-
ber of insects in the eastern islands, to be transmit-
ted to Calcutta. He did not, of course, deny the
value and importance, and, in one sense, the ne-
cessity, of forming such collections ; but he limited
the right of possessing them to those who could
use them ; and he would not have one of those, the
wonders of God's animal world, put to death for
the mere gratification of his own unscientific cu-

188

SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL.

riosity. He quotes the lines of Ferdusi, for which
Saadi invokes a blessing on his spirit, and the last
of which contains all my own morality in respect to
the lower animals :

' O spare yon emmet, rich in hoarded grain,
He hves witli pleasure, and he dies with pain.'

I am aware that the doctrine assumed in the first
line of the coujilet, in reference to a particular in-
sect, is denied by some naturalists ; and that the
fact assumed in the last line, in reference to the
lower animals, is denied by others. Whatever be
the truth as to the first point, I have no more doubt
than I have of my own existence, that some of the
lower animals feel severe pain : and even if the
words of our immortal Shakspeare as to the cor-
poral sufferance of the beetle trod upon be not lite-
rally accurate — yet who is entitled to affirm the
contrary ? This, I think, is clear, that the child
who is indulged in mutilating or killing an insect
for his own pleasure, has learnt the first lesson of
inhumanity to his own species.

In no department of the science of organised
bodies, has the progress been greater or more as-
sured than in that which relates to the microscopic
structure of the constituent tissues of animal bo-
dies, both in their healthy and in their morbid
states ; and this progress is specially marked in
this country during the period which has elapsed
since the communication to the British Association
by Professor Owen, of his researches into the inti-
mate structure of recent and fossil teeth.

The result of these researches having demonstra-
ted the constancy of well-defined and clearly ap-
preciable characters in the dental tissues of each
species of animal, (by which characters such spe-
cies could be determined in many instances, by the
examination of a fragment of a tooth,) other ob-
servers have been stimulated to pursue the same
minute inquiries into the diversities of structure of
the tissues of other organs. Such inquiries, for ex-
ample, have been most ably and successfully pur-
sued by Dr. Carpenter, in reference to the micros-
copic structure of recent and fossil shells ; and the
anatomist, the naturalist, and the palceontologist,
are alike indebted to the zeal and the skill of that
eminent physiologist ; while, in another sense, all
are indebted to the British Association for aiding
and stimulating his iuquiries, and for tlie illustra-
tions with which the publication of Dr. Carpenter's
Report has been accompanied in the transactions
of the Association.

The hairs of the different mammalian animals
offer to the microscopical anatomist a field of ob-
servation as richly and remarkably developed as the
teeth, which formed the subject ol Professor Owen's
communication in 183S, and as the external cover-
ings of the testaceous molusca, which formed the
subject of Dr. Carpenter's communication in J846.

The structure of the softer tis.sues of tlie animal
frame has not been less successfully investigated by
microscopic observers. One of the most extraor-
dinary, perhaps, of the recent discoveries by the
microscope, is that which is due chiefly to Purkinge
and Valentin, and which in this country have
been well established by Dr> Sharpey, relative to
the important part in the motion of fluids on inler^ ,

nal substances, performed by the vibratile action of
myriads of extremely minute hairs or cilia which
beset those surfaces. These ciliary movements for
example, raise the mucus of the windpipe to the
throat against gravity. They have been detected
in the ventricles of the brain, as well as many other
parts.

Microscopic anatomy has been chiefly indebted
to Ehrenberg, Remak, and Dr. Martin Barry, for
the ex})osition of the ultimate structure of the ner-
vous and cerebral fibres.

Exact knowledge of the nature of the retina, or
the vitreous and crystalline humors, and of other
delicate constituents of the organ of vision — the most
wonderful of all the organs with which God has
entrusted man — has been remarkably advanced by
tlie skilful use of the improved microscopes of the
present day. I rejoice that, among the proposed
arrangements of the Association at its present
meeting, one evening, Tuesday the 29th. will be
specially devoted to an exhibition of microscopic
objects. The beautiful discoveries of Sir David
Brewster, (whom, in this Association, we must al-
ways mention as one of our earliest friends and
patrons, three times one of our Vice-Presidents,)
have been carefully confirmed ; and many interest-
ing varieties have been noticed in the structure of
the crystalline lens of the eyes of different species
of animals.

The most brilliant result, perhaps, of microsco-
pic anatomical research has been the actual obser-
vation of the transit of the blood from the arteries
to the veins ; the last fact required — if, indeed, such
an expression be allowable — for the lull proof of
Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood.
Malpighi first observed the transit in the large ca-
pillaries of the frog's w^eb. It has since been ob-
served in most other tissues, and in many other ani-
mals.

No part of the animal body has been the subject
of more, or of more successful, researches than
tlie blood itself. The forms and dimensions and
diversities of structure characteristic of the colored
discs, corpuscles, or blood globules, as they were
once termed, in the difiesent classes, orders and ge-
nera of animals, have been described, and for the
most part accurately depicted ; and through the
concurrence of numerous observers, the anatomical
knowledge of these minute particles, invisible to
the naked eye, has become as exact and precise as
the knowledge of the blood vessels themselves, or
of any other of the grosser and more conspicuous
systems of organs ; and has added, — when we con-
sider how easily the action is deranged, by how
many causes it may be diseased or stopped — anoth-
er to the many proofs that we are fearfully as
well as wonderfully made. In surveying how our
frame is formed, how sustained, how revived by
sleep, one of the most wondrous of all the inci-
dents of our nature, what sufl'ering is produced by
any pressure on the lungs, and yet how uncon-
sciously we breathe a million times in health for
one in sickness — I cannot but feel that our heaven-
ly Father gave another proof of His essentia] cha-
racter, when, in answer to the prayer of Moses,
''Shew me thy glory," God answered, ''I will
cause all my goodness to pass before thee."

SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL.

189

It has often been said, that it is one of
the happiest circumstances for progress in
this country, that there are few or none of
the strongly entrenched old prejudices to
contend with among us, that so continually
stand in the way of all new inventions
abroad. The magnetic telegraph is at the
present moment a proof of this. Although
the principle is well understood in England,
at the present moment, and the fact of its
daily use over hundreds of miles in the
United States, is a matter of public noto-
riety, there is as yet not a single extended
line of telegraphic communication by this
means in Great Britain ; and it will be ob-
served that the President of the British As-
sociation, in his remarks on this subject, is
obliged to draw his illustrations from this
side of the Atlantic :

The extension of the means of communication by
the Electric Telegraph is yearly fucilitating in-
tercourse, almost as rapid as liplit or as thought,
between distant portions of England, and between
distant provinces in the vast empire of our Queen.

The last pamphlet which I had in my hand before
leaving home yesterday, was a report presented to
the Legislative Council and Assembly of New
Brunswick, relative to a project ibr constructing
a railway, and with it a line of electro-magnetic
telegraph, from Halifax to Quebec.

Distance is time ; and when by steam, whether
on water or on land, personal communication is fa-
cilitated, and when armies can be transported with-
out fatigue in as many hours as days were formerly
required, and when orders are conveyed from one
extremity of an empire to another almost like a
flash of lightning, the facility of governing a large
state becomes almost equal to the facility of go-
verning the smallest. I remember, many years
ago, in the Scotsmaii, an ingenious and able article
showing how England could be governed as easy as
Attica under Pericles ; and I believe the same con-
clusion was deduced by William Cobbett from the
same illustration.

The system is daily extending. It was, how-
ever, in the United States of America that it was
tirst adopted on a great scale, by Prof. Morse in
1844 ; and it is there that it is now already devel-
oped most extensively. Lines for above 1,300 miles
are in action, and connect those States with her Ma-
jesty's Canadian Provinces ; and it is in a course of
development so raj)id, that, in the words of the re-
port of Mr. Wilkinson, to my distinguished triend,
his Excellency SirW. E.Colebrooke, the governor of
New Brunswick, to which I have just adverted,
■•^ No schedule of telegraphic lines can now be re-

lied upon for a month in succession, as hundreds of
miles may be added in that space of time. So easy
of attainment does such a result appear to be, and
so lively is the interest felt in its accomplishment,
that it is scarcely doubtful that the whole of the
populous parts of the United States will, within
two or three years, be covered with a telegraphic
network like a spider's web, suspending its jirinci-
pal threads upon important points along the sea-
board of the Atlantic on one side, and upon smiilar
points along the lake frontier on the other." I am
indebted to the same report for another fact, which
I think the Association will regard with equal in-
terest. "The conhdence in tiie etficiencv of tele-
graphic communication has now become so estab-
lished, that the most important commercial trans-
actions daily transpire, by its means, between cor-
respondents several hundred miles apart. Ocular
evidence of this was aliorded me by a communica-
tion a few minutes old, between a merchant in
Toronto and his correspondent in New- York, dis-
tant about six hundred and thirty-two miles." I
am anxious to call your attention to the advantages
which other classes also may experience from this
mode of communication, as I tind it in the same
report. When the Hibernia steamer arrived in
Boston, in January. 1S47, with the news of the
scarcity in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts
of Europe, and with heavy orders for agricultural
produce, the farmers in the interior of the state of
New-York, informed of the state of things by the
magnetic telegraph, were thronging the streets of
Albany with innumerable team loads of grain al-
most as quickly after the arrival of the steamer at
Boston as the news of that arrival could ordinarily
have reached them. I may add, that, irrespective-
ly of all its advantages to the general community,
the system appears to give already a fair return of
interest to individuals or companies who have in-
vested their capital in its application.

The larger number of the members of this Asso-
ciation have probably already seen in London an
exhibition of a patent telegraph, which prints al-
phabetical letters as it works. Mr. Brett, one of
the proprietors, obligingly showed it to me ; and
stated that he hoped to carry it into effect on the
greatest scale ever yet imagined on the American
continent. Prof. Morse, however, does not ac-
knowledge that this system is susceptible of equal-
ity with his telegraphic alphabet for the purpose of
rapid communication ; and he conceives that there
is an increased risk of derangement in the mechan-
ism employed.

I cannot refer to the extent of the lines of the
electric telegraph in America without an increased
feeling of regret that in our own country this great
discovery has been so inadequately adopted. So
far, at least, as the capital is concerned, the two
greatest of our railway companies have not, I be-
lieve, yet carried the electric telegraph further from
London than to Watford and Slough : an enterprise
measured in the United States by hundreds of miles
being measured by less than scores in England.

In England, incieed, we have learnt the value of
the electric telegraph as a means of police in more
than one remarkable case : as a measure of govern-

190

FOREIGN NOTICES.

ment it is not less important ; — from the illustration
which I have drawn from America, it is equally
useful in commerce ; but as a measure almost of
social intercourse in the discharire of public busi-
ness, it is not without its uses also. The da\' be-
fore yesterday I had an opportunity of examining
the telegraph in the lobby of the House of Com-
mons, by which communications are made to and

from some distant committee-room. As a speci-
men of the information conveyed from the House is
the following : — " Committee has permission to sit
until five o'clock ;" and among the questions sent
down from the committee are the following : —
" What is before the House?'' "Who is speak-

ing'

How long before the House divides ?"

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Propagation of Plants for next Season. —
The summer garden is now in its glory, and amply
repays its possessor for all his expense, labor, and
care. Verbenas, Petunias, and other creeping
plants, nearly cover the beds ; Pelargoniums. Sal-
vias, and Fuchsias have assumed their deep and
rich tints, and Dahlias rule over the whole in pro-
fuse magnificence. The amateur begins to take
breath for awhile, and basks in the paradise himself
has created. Weeds are now less luxuriant, and
lawns appear to repose in their rich green, some-
times, indeed, too much embrowned by the summer
suns. From the present time to the middle of
September, this beauty will rather increase than
diminish, and the labor demanded will be less than
at earlier seasons of the year.

But we must intrude upon this state of repose by
the note of warning, and remind the amateur, that
if he wishes a repetition of the scene before him
next year, he must propagate at once. Many
plants should now be well rooted — .such as Wall-
flowers, Pinks, and Carnations ; biennials should be
sown, and Roses budded. But it is to the propa-
gation of exotic plants, requiring the management
of a frame, that I now call attention, and would
advise the following mode of treatment : — First, let
a gentle hot-bed be made. If you have a spent
Melon or Cucumber bed, that will do, if the old
dung is mixed, to the depth of a foot, with leaves
and"mowings of Grass. You may either insert
your cuttings in the mould, in the frame, or in pots.
The latter plan is preferable on many accounts ;
the cuttings strike easily against the sides of the
pots, and they can be moved more readily. Indeed
many things will be best left together in the strik-
ing pots until the spring, and consequently they
should be grown in a vehicle which can easily be
removed. The soil should be fine, yet porous, hav-
ing a good portion of sand mixed with it.

'As a general rule, the cuttings should be wood of
this year's growth, having consistency and strength
at the part to be inserted in the ground. Pelargo-
niums strike without any difficulty, and will scarce-
ly fail under the most ordinary management ; other
plants are more difficult, yielding more easily to
damp, wind, &c. Let every cutting be taken oflT
at a joint, and inserted firmly into the soil. If the
soil is moist, water need not be applied, except in
small portions. It often happens that an excess of
water causes a cutting to perish. Skill is shown in
keeping the leaves from drooping ; for if they do so
to any extent they seldom recover their crispness ;
and every gardener knows that a cutting with half-

withered leaves has little chance. Place the pots
in the frame as soon as they are filled, and keep
them close for a few hours. Attentively watch
them ; pick ofi' dead leaves, and maintain a gentle
heat. By treatment of this kind, and by remem-
bering the different habits of the woody and the suc-
culent varieties, you will accomplish your purpose,
and be independent of nurserymen and friends
another year. Do not be afraid of having too many;
but cut wherever you can withoui injuring the
beauty of your beds. Some are sure to die, and by
misfortune many may. Provide an abundance, and
then you will be able to do to others as you are
often glad they should do to you — give some away.
In looking over the propagating department of
the garden at Putteridge, belonging to Col. Sow-
erby, I was surprised to find that under the hot suns
of May, thousands of cuttings just put in did not
flag in the least, although they had no shade but
the glass. Mr. Fish informed me that this was ac-
complished by keeping the plants a sufficient dis-
tance from the glass. By this simple arrangement
the light becomes diff'used before it reaches the
plants ; whereas, if the glass were too near, they
would require shading, or be parched up. With
these hints, added to his own experience and obser-
vation, it is hoped the reader will secure for him-
self another season of as great beauty and abund-
ance as I presume he is enjoying at the present
time. — H. B. Gardener's Chronicle.

Mildew in the Peach Tree. — Without saying
anything for or against the curative effects of Cha-
momile, I may state a circumstance or two which
have come under my notice. When in Ireland, some
years back,on calling on Mr. Christie, then garden-
er to the Duke of Leinster, at Carton, he pointed
out two peach trees, on an east aspect, which he
said for years had been infested with mildew ; but,
at the suggestion of a friend, he had planted cha-
momile at the base of the wall on which they were
trained. At the time I saw them, the trees were
as clean as they could be. While at Soham, the
Rev. J. Calthrop, of Isleham, an enthusiastic ama-
teur gardener, related an instance to me of a friend
who had cleared his peach trees of mildew in the
same manner. It is but justice to say, Mr. Cal-
throp had but little faith in the chamomile, though
he could vouch for the disappearance of the disease
from his friend's garden. For my own part, to use
a familiar phrase, I have always regarded it as an
old woman's story, — but I " tell the tale as 'twas
told to me." W. P. Ayres, Ibid.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

191

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Raising Magnolias from Seed — Dear Sir:
In the May number of the Horticulturist, you gave
us a very interesting article on the Chinese Magno-
lia, and in speaking of one in your garden, of which
you gave us a portrait, you remark that it last year
gave you quite a crop of fine large seeds, from
which you hope to raise many plants. Now this is
to inquire whether the various kinds of Magnolias,
and particularity the American sorts, can be success-
fully cultivated from the seed, and, if so, what is
the process ? By giving this information through
the columns of the Horticulturist, I have no doubt
you will gratify many of your readers, who have
been as unfortunate as myself.

I have sown the seed of several of the American
sorts, particularly M. acuminata and M. macro-
phylla, in both the fall and spring, and they have
invariably failed, and I have never yet been able to
raise a single tree from the seed ; and my attempts
wiih the Mountain Ash {Sorbus aucuparia,) by
seed has been equally unsuccessful, never suc-
ceeding in a single instance.

Any information that will enable us to cultivate
those beautiful trees successfully from the seed,
will, I dare say, be grati lying to many of your read-
ers, and will be peculiarly so to your very humble
servant. A Subscriber. Burlington, Iowa, Aug.
bth, 1847.

[Remarks. — All the Magnolias which produce
seeds may be raised in this way, and we have this
year succeeded in growing quite a nimber of young
plants of the Chinese species alluded to. But
the young seedlings are very tender and impatient
of sun and w'lnA uhen just vegetating, and hence,
though occasionally seedlings may be raised suc-
cessfully in the open ground, yet it is so uncertain
that experienced cultivators consider it a waste of
the seeds to sow them there.

A certain mode of raising Magnolias of all kinds
from the seeds, is as follows : Gather the seeds as
soon as ripe. About the middle of October make
some boxes of rough boards, about six inches deep,
two feet wide, and three feet long. Fill these box-
es to within one inch of the top with good rich sandy
loam, and if a third leaf-mould (the rich soil in old
woods) is added to it it, is still better. Then plant
the seeds about two inches apart, and cover them
with an inch of soil — this will fill the box to a level
with its top, and when the whole is gently pressed
down, watered and allowed to settle, it will be de-
pressed from one to two inches. This will allow
space for the necessary supply of water.

The winter quarters of these boxes of seeds may
be a cellar, if there is no danger of rats. But where
many seedlings are grown in this way, it is usual
to place a rough board frame, like a common hot-
bed frame, in any sheltered position. Set the box-
es in this, sinking them in the soil to a level with
their tops. At the approach of winter cover them
six inches deep with very dry leaves that fall from
the trees, and cover the frame with the lights, or,
if glass is not at hand, boards will do instead. The

latter should be removed once or twice in winter in
mild rainy weather for a day or two.

When the s[)ring opens, first uncover the frames,
and afterwards remove the leaves. The boxes
should now be regularly watered, and about the
middle of May the seeds will begin to vegetate.
As soon as this is perceived, take them out of the
frame and place them in a situation, airy, but also
shaded from all but the morning and evening sun.
The shade should be that on the north side of a
fence or building, and not that of trees. Here the
boxes must remain all summer, being regularly wa-
tered every evening. In this way a fine crop of
seedlings may be grown, with scarcely the failure
of a single good seed.

In autumn, place the boxes in the cold frame, and
treat them precisely as before. The next spring
the young seedlings, which will be found to have
made fine large roots, may be transplanted into the
nursery rows. The soil should be deep, and if rather
damp and full of vegetable matter, the growth will
be the more luxuriant.

If " A Subscriber " will pour boiling water upon
the berries of the Mountain Ash, let it stand for a
couple of hours, and then rub out the seeds before
planting them, he will be more successful. All the
seeds planted (as they should be) in autumn, are
much more certain to vegetate in the spring, if the
surface of the ground over the drills or beds is cov-
ered a couple of inches deep with some light sub-
stance, such as old tan, black bog earth, or leaves.
This both keeps the soil about the seeds in an uni-
formstate of moisture, and prevents the surface from
becoming so hard by the action of the spring rains
and winds that the germinating plants cannot burst
through it. — Ed.]

Mulching. — I have this season found by experi-
ence the value of mulching transplanted trees, as
recommended in the Fruits and Fruit Trees of
America. I planted about 150 trees in an orchard
in very good but rather dry soil. They were all
planted with equal care, but about one-third of them
I mulched — i. e. covered the surface of the ground
after planting with 6 inches of litter. They all
started alike. Among those not mulched, I have
lost 15, while there has not been a single death
among those mulched. Probably they would all
have grown had the month of July been cool and
moist; but when the hot weather came, many of
those not mulched dried ort". I consider, from ob-
servation this season, that mulching is preferable to
watering. Yours. B. Hudson, N. Y., Aug. 5th,
1847.

The Chinese Pear-tree, (Pyrus sinensis.) —
This, which in point of foliage we consider the most
ornamental of all fruit trees, appears to be rare
and little known in this country. It is perfectly
hardy, and well deserves a place in all ornamental
plantations, though its fruit is of no value. Its
leaves are two or three times the size of those of
the common pear tree, broader, glossy on the up-

192

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

per surface, and havinc: somewhat the appearance
of those of an evergreen hiurel or inarjnolia. Its
blossoms, white, tinted with pink, appear in April.
The fruit is apple-sliaped, warted and critt}'. It
is a native of Cliina; where its local name is Sha-
lee. It is also called in some English gardens, the
sand pear, or snow pear.

There is a handsome specimen of this tree at
Netherwood, the interesting seat of James Lenox,
Esq., Dutchess county, N. Y. It is about 20 feet
hiirh, with an elliptical head, and its broad shining
foliage renders it a striking object in the pleasure
grounds.

Food and Climate of the Mammoth. — It has,
for some time past, been a subject of speculation
among naturalists, how the mammoth, whose struc-
ture and inferred habits considerably resemble those
of the elephant, could have lived in a climate so far
north as his remains are now found.

CuviER, and other naturalists, proposed as a so-
lution of the difficulty, the theory of sudden revolu-
tion on the earth's surface, which changed what
was previously a hot zone of climate into one of
low temperature, where this immense quadruped
was no longer able to exist.

Prof. Owen, in his British FossH Mammalia,
has, however, we think, conclusively proved that
the mammoth was an animal quite differently or-
ganized from the existing species of elephants, and
entirely fitted to endure a northern winter. The
evidence upon which this conclusion is based, is not
that drawn from an examination of the skeleton,
which would never have satisfactorily demonstrated
it ; but from the inspection of the entire mammoth
found at the mouth of the river Lena, in a complete
state of preservation, imbedded in the icy clifls and
frozen soil of that coast. This carcass was so per-
fect that not only was all the flesh on the bones, in
every part, and the brain perfect, but the skin was
covered with hair, and there was a long mane on
the neck. The skin was about half an inch thick,
and when stripped from the carcass, weighed so
much that ten men found it diificult to carry it a
short distance.

The fact that the skin of this gigantic animal
was well clothed with hair, and a more careful ex-
amination of perfect specimens of its teeth, has led
Prof. Owen to the conclusion that the mammoth
was as perfectly fitted as the reindeer and the
moose to exist in high northern latitudes.

The greater complexity and dense coating of
enamel in the teeth of the mammoth, as compared
with those of the elephant, justify us, he thinks, in
believing that the former fed not only on the foliage
of trees, but that the branches of the same formed
a large part of his sustenance. He must have
been able to masticate perfectly, while his hairy
coat fitted him for the temperature of a northern
winter. ....

Richard's Pear. — Last spring we received from
Syracuse, New- York, scions of a pear under this
name, which was represented as a new seedling
fruit of very high merit, surpassing in the estima-
tion of some persons there, the Onondaga Pear.
Jas. R. Lawrence, Esq., of that city has just fa-
vored us with a fine basket of specimens of this

variety. In his letter which accompanies them, he
remarks that the variety is not known to any one
there ; that it is highly esteemed by all who have
seen it, and that he is desirous of ascertaining if it
is new to us.

We were quite surprised, on opening the basket,
to find the Richards' pear was our old and familiar
acquaintance, the Summer Bon Chretien. There was
no mistaking its peculiarly swollen sides, or its ho-
nied sweet flavor. It scarcely looks well to rechristen
this ancient and venerable pear, which is supposed
to be the Regalia of Valerius Cordus ; which is so
well known in every country in Europe, and which is
described in every pomologieal work of note for the
last century and a half! Near the sea-board it has
become ratlier unproductive, and we are glad to find
by the specimens we received from Syracuse, that, as
we should have supposed, in the fine climate and soil
of the interior, this most ancient of pears is still
in perfection. But even with the large bonus of re-
generation in Western New- York, it must not be
allowed to gratify the " Richards" family by drop-
ping its time-honored name of Summer Bon Chre-
tien.

Champagne on the Ohio. — By a letter just re-
ceived from our friend N. Longworth, Esq., Cin-
cinnati, we learn that, by the assistance of an expe-
rienced vigneron from Europe, he has made from the
last season's vintage of Catawba grapes, 6,000 bot-
tles of champagne, which promises to be of supe-
rior quality, and will be fit for use next year.

Strawberries. — The September number of your
interesting periodical contains a communication
from Wm. R. Prince, professedly for the purpose
of correcting an alleged mis-statement of Mr. Ho-
VEY, in the August numbei of his Magazine, M'ith
respect to the exhibition of the Long Island Horti-
cultural Society in June last ; Mr. Hovey having
stated that at such exhibition " Hovey's Seedling
received the premium for three quarts, in competi-
tion with upwards of thirty other varieties," where-
as Mr. Prince alleges, that " no other kind what-
ever was offered in competition for the three quart
premium, the thirty varieties being exhibited in
small quantities of a pint or less as a collection, and
a premium was awarded to them;" further — " that
the case was similar at the exhibition in New-
York, where a premium was also awarded." Now,
I would ask, why was no other variety offered in
competition for the three quart premium ? It is
not to be supposed possible that Mr. Prince, who
claims to be the " Proprietor of the Nurseries at
Flushing," which are understood to be very exten-
sive, and have enjoyed some celebrity, (though un-
til the ajipearance of his advertisement in the two
last nmnbers of the Horticulturist, and in other
Journals, it was not known that he had become the
proprietor of the whole of them ; and who states, in
the communication referred to, that " he has above
sixty estimable varieties, more than twenty of
which would be pronounced superior to the Hovey,
where flavor was considered." and in his Catalogue,
issued three years since, that " the plants occupy
an acre of ground ;" I repeat that it cannot be con-
ceived possible, with such an immense collection,

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

193

cultivated per catalogue for years, that Mr. Prince
could not on one day, gather three quarts of any
one variety to offer in competition, especially of the
"Crimson Cone,'' which, as appears per catalogue
of 1844, he has cultivated for more than three
years, is so plentiful as to have become a market
fruit ; and per his statement, so far superior to the
Seedling, tliat " the great venders in the New-
York market could not sell the latter until the stock
of the former was exhausted ;" and the inference
is irresistible, that he could not produce any variety
to compete with Hovey's Seedling in tiie three im-
portant essentials of flavor, size, and beauty; har-
dihood and productiveness, other necessary quali-
ties to constitute '' the best" strawberry, the judges
could not pass upon from the mere inspection of
the fruit, and which Hovey's Seedling are well
known to possess in an eminent degree. Mr.
Prixce admits the great size and beauty of the
Seedling, but states it to be " deficient in flavor ;"
that he possesses more than twenty varieties superi-
or to it in the latter quality ; and wishes it to be in-
ferred, that the quantity required of one variety (3
quarts) alone prevented him from entering into
competition for that premium. Aeain, I ask,
whether at each of the exhibitions referred to by
Mr. Prince, a specific premium was not offered
for the best single variety in a considerably less
quantity than three quarts — even a half pint? — and
w^hether he obtained such premium ? The man
who exhibits " so splendid a collection" (of straw-
berries) as " has never been seen in Europe or
America," should be able to put down all comj)eti-
tors by something more to the purpose than his
own panygeric Primate, Primordiaa, Charlotte,
Kberlein, ^c, (Mr. Prince's Seedlings.) should
ere this have gained many premiums, for their mer-
its are such, according to Mr. Prince's testimony,
as to defy all attempts at exceling them. In in-
quiring '• what will be said when those varieties
will be sent in quantities to our markets," Mr. P.
assumes what may never happen, as perhaps some
of them may not be sulficiently prolific to be profi-
table to the market gardener, and others too defi-
cient in flavor to be popular with consumers. It is
true Mr. Prince was awarded the premium for the
largest collection, seedlings in endless varictj' being
easily raised ; but which are mostly not worth pro-
pagating, and not one out of a thousand eciual ex-
isti g varieties. The number o/yariefies exhibited,
therefore, is of little consequence, farther than ma-
king a display ; the important question to the pub-
lic IS, the quality of the fruit, a material compo-
nent part of which, as Mr. Prince himself insists,
isy/at'or; which, however, cannot well be deter-
mined, if the " show cases" containing the fruit are
kept locked, so that the judges even cannot have
access to apply the re(iuisite test, perhaps because
it was feared tasting might not prove satisfactory,
and the appearance ol' the fruit might sell the plants.
If the vaunted new seedlings arc so superior, it is
surprising that Mr. Prince has not submitted them
specifically to the judgment, and obtained a report
of some Horticultural Society, as is usual. Hovey's
Seedling is certainly not as liigh flavored as some
other varieties ; but taking into consideration its
great size, beauty, and uncommon productiveness,

Vol. II. 25

if properly cultivated, I esteem it upon the whole
the best variety now known for general culture ;
and being " well known throughout the length and
breadth of the land," and its high reputation well
established, there is no occasion for Mr. Hovey's
incessant blowing of the trumpet of its fame with
every modulation, so that its friends are surfeited
with its praise ; and the rebuke administered to him
by Mr. Prince is not amiss — for however valuable
" Hovey's Secdliuir," Mr. H. has himself proclaimed
that at least OAie oMer variety (and there possibly
maybe more) possesses " very desirable qualities;"
and some other than the '' Boston Pine" may be
equally suitable for fertilizing his Seedling. It is
manifestly unjust, both to the publishers and their pa-
trons, for commercial gardeners to use the columns
of a horticultural periodical as an advertising me-
dium, thereby depriving the former of the compen-
sation to which they are entitled for the insertion of
such advertisements in disguise in their appropriate
place, and the latter of the instruction they would
derive from the insertion of valuable matter in the
space thus given to subserve the purposes of an in-
dividual, and in which those who pay for such space,
have little or no interest. Wm. W. Valk. Flushing,
^'epi. 9, 1847.

iXectarine vs. Peach — Mr. Downing : Your
" Cincinnati friend" has, as you requested, noticed
the miracle at Portland, endorsed by you. [see Au-
gust number] where a tree that produced perfect
peaches the last year, was this year covered with a
full crop of perfect nectarines. Prodigious ! We
have greater wonders here : — A gentleman of hiffh
standing two weeks since presented some fine plums
to our Horticultural Society, which he assured them
came from an apricot stone, planted in the first in-
stance in a flower pot. I planted, twelve years
since, in a small flower pot, three apricot stones,
sent me from Mexico, in a triangular form ; first
cracking the stones. In their place came three
forest trees, which I was assured were not natives
in this latitude. On reading your note, 1 wrote to
Portland to learn the /acts in your case. The gen-
tleman "planted four or five trees, purchased as
peaC'i trees, against a brick wall. He had no
knowledge of the nectarine, and presumes there
was not one grown in the city. The year before
last, one of the trees adjoining the one which
changed to a a nectarine, bore five peaches of
good size and quality. Last year the tree which
now has nectarines, bore two peaches of rich
flavor, and was the only tree that bore fruit in his
garden last year. He found them on the ground,
directly under the tree, and as he was in the habit
of examining his trees daily, and several times a
(lay, the peaches could not have been long upon the
ground. They had cscajied his observation on the
tree, and beli ves they were hid by the thick foliage.
That they came from the tree, he then and now be-
lieves. All are now in fruit, and all peaches, but
the one tree." This evidence is about as strong
circumstantial ev'u'.ence as you have for believing
the Boston nectarine was produced from a peach
stone. The evidence in these cases, you must ad-
mit, is not as strong as in the case of my forest
trees from the apricot stone, or the plutU; from an
apricot in Kentucky, opposite this city. The stone

194

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

was carefully planted in a flower pot, in Kentucky, i
and watched till it bore fruit. I require you to be- ]
lieve both these chann;es. When assured of your
faith, I will believe your Portland witchcraft, as
soon as I believe in the two miracles I have related,
but not before. Had the transformation taken p ace
in Salem, no one could have doubted, as greater
wonders transpired there whilst they were still "in
the woods." Your Cincinnati Friend. Cincin-
nati, August 25, 1847.

p. S. There are things about Boston as hard to
believe. — They there have two varieties of Seedling
Strawberries — the one " average 63 inches in cir-
cumference, and the other 4, under ordinary culti-
vation." There can be no doubt of the fact, for it
is stated in their Horticultural paper, and the
strawberry committee, by their silence, endorse it.
Their climate and soil must be more congenial to
this fruit than ours, for with us the fruit will not
average the half of that size. Does it with you?
It seems strange to mc that this fruit should sell so
high, and be so scarce in Boston, when so well
suited to the climate ! I discover, by a late publi-
cation, that three of their gardeners, who bring the
greatest supply to their market, did not sell more
bushels in a year, than one of our gardeners does in
a day. Whilst they ihere command 20 cents per
quart, they are sold here for 5 cents.

The Nectarine only a sub-variety. — Dear
Sir : In a lot of Seedling Peaches which fruited the
past season, /rom .fioncs planted by myself , I had
one tree which produced nectarines. Mr. Long-
woRTH, of Cincinnati, must not be so faithless !
Yours, John M. Ives. Salem, Mass., Sept. 13, 1847.

[Remarks. — Our ''Cincinnati friend" will see by
the above note from Mr. Ives, that the " miracle"
has also occurred in Salem! If he will now turn
to the Bon Jardinier, the standard French work on
Horticulture, he will see that there is no such dis-
tinct fruit as nectarine recognized by the authors
(if that work, who are the first practical and theo-
retical gardenersin France. In describing PeucAes
in that work, there are simply two classifications
made, viz : Peches duretevses, (downy peaches —
what we call peaches,) and Peches losses (smooth
peaches — what we call nectarines.) — Ed.]

Protecting tender Roses. — In your first vol-
ume the subject of protecting tender Roses in win-
ter was alluded to, but the very best method yet re-
sorted to has not been published, so far kh I know,
in any periodical or book. It is practiced with
wonderful success in this neighborhood, where there
are many rose fanciers, especially among the ladies.
Its extreme simplicity and economy strongly re-
commend it. For even the most tender lea roses it
is perfect. Collect a number of cedar boughs, and
stick them round the bushes, drawing them togeth-
er into a cone at top, and slightly tying them there.
The rose does not want protection from cold in our
climate, but the tender kinds must be shielded from
sleet and snow, and the cedars do this effectual 1}'.
This information may save thousands of plants, and
cultivators, instead of planting small ones every
spring, may acquire large bushes. I have seen the

top of a considerable cedar tree cut down, and
placed over a tender running rose with perfect suc-
cess. /. J. Smith. Germantown, near Phila-
delphia, Sept. 6. 1847.

Melons in a clay soil. — Although there is so
little difficulty in growing melons in New Jersey
and Long Island, that the market gardeners raise
them in fields by wagon loads, for the markets of
New-York and Philadelphia, yet it is quite a diflfer-
ent matter in many parts of New England. More
especially is this the case in portions of it, where
the soil is rather cold and clayey, as happens to be
the fact in my own garden.

This year, for the first time, I have succeeded in
getting a most abundant and most excellent crop of
that high flavored and delicious musk melon, the
" Citron ;" and as I am sure there are others in
the northern part of the Union who would be glad
to arrive at tlie same result, I hasten to make
known my mode for their benefit.

In the first place, as the melon loves a light and
sandy soil, and mine is clayey and heavy, I begin
by opening a trench in a suitable part of the gar-
den, say fifty feet long, and three feet wide. To
this trench I brought two cart loads of sand, and
two cart loads of manure. These I mixed with the
soil, and trenched the whole space of the size I
have named about twenty inches deep — leaving it
light and friable. This was done about the first of
May.

I then sowed the melon seeds in a single drill
along the centre of the trenched slip. In order to
give them a little additional shelter, bring them
forward rather earlier, and protect them from the
ravaeesof the striped bug. I covered them, as soon
as planted, with a rough frame, made of four pieces
of board, six inches high. The frame is made like
a box without a top and bottom, and it is a foot
wide; the length of the board say twelve feet, and is
covered on the top with millinet, or any cheap cotton
stuff— if of the latter it is oiled. This, I find, gives
protection enough to bring forward the melons
thiee weeks earlier than if planted without pro-
tection ; and if the boxes are laid away about the
1st of June, when they are no longer needed, they
will last several years.

I have now (August 2d) a plentiful supply for
my family from one row of the dimensions named,
in soil, too, where [ had not previously been able
to get melons usually before the last of this month,
and the crc^p a very precarious one then. Yours,
Northampton, Mass., August 2d, 1847.

AmmoniacalLiq.uor for Manure. — Will some
one of your chemical correspondents inform a plain
unlettered farmer, where he can find ' gas ammo-
niacal liquor," or a substitute for it? Landreth in
his edition of Johnson's Dictionary of Gardening,
directs, under the aiticle "Weeds" & peck (?) of
salt and a gallon of the above, added to a barrow
load ol weeds, and the whole immediately (?) be-
comes a saponaceous mass. It appears strange to
me that Mr. Landreth, knowing, as he must know,
that gas ammoniacal liquor is not to be had by one
farmer in a thousand in this country, had not ex-

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

195

plained or proposed a substitute. In England,
where the whole island is li<i;hted with ^as, ^rtts
liquor can be obtained readily, I suppose. Ji Sub-
scriber. New- Bedford, Sept. I, 1847.

P. S. It would appear to me that the manure
made from a barrow of weeds and a peck of salt,
would destroy vesetation entirely by the etfeet of
such a quantity of salt — Would it not ? What
would be the value of the manure obtained in this
way, compared with the cost of salt at 25 cts. per
bushel, and a gallon of gas liquor? Perhaps you
can suggest some cheaper substitute, or way of ob-
taining the same result.

[We think, on examining the article in the work
referred to, that it is the English editor's, and not
Mr. Landreth's direction ; but owing to the plan
adopted by the publishers of the American edition,
it is impossible to tell who is the author of many ar-
ticles, or parts of articles, contained in it.

Ammoniacal liquor can oidy be had at the gas
works, in the large cities where ffas is manufactur-
ed. It is a powerful manure, and requires to be di-
luted with five or six times its own bulk of water,
before using it on grass or other growing crops. It
may be transported to any distance in barrels.

A peck of salt and a gallon of this liquor (the
latter diluted,) would be sufficient (or four barrow-
fuls of weeds, which would then, after decomposi-
tion, make a strong manure. If our correspondent
will mix his weeds and salt with barnyard manure,
and water the heap with urine instead of the gas-
liquor, as recommended by Prof. Lindley in our
August number, he will find it a process far more
economical, and the result equally satisfactory. Ed.]

Early Joe Apple. — This is certainly a capital
summer apple. We saw it repeatedly last season,
and we again received specimens the first week in
September from Messrs. Elwanger & B.arry, Ro-
chester, in fine order ; the fruit beautiful in appear-
ance, and the flavor that of the most delicate des-
sert apple. Messrs. E. & B. remarked, in a note
accompanying them and some other varieties,
" these specimens of Early Joe were picked from
an old tree so loaded that you could hardly see a
branch or leaf."

The flesh of this variety is peculiarly marked
with reddish stains ; the form rather flat, beauti-
fully striped with purplish-red on a pale ground. It
is yet apparently little known out of Western New-
York, hut it must soon find its way into general
cultivation.

A New Remedy for the Curculio. — Sir: I
made one of those accidental discoveries this sea-
son, which often prove more valuable than the re-
sults of a carefully conducted series of experi-
ments.

This is no less than a preventive to the attacks
of that most unconquerable enemy to all smooth
stone fruit — the Curculio.

I have long been so troubled with this insect, that
I have considered the plum tree of little value to
me.

This season, wishing to stimulate a couple of
old plum trees, which stood among others ui my

fruit garden, I directed my gardener to place round
each tree a couple of barrowfuls of fresh horse
manure from the stable. This was accordingly
laid on the surface of the ground, and as work was
rather pressing at the time, it was suflered, though
ratiier strong in ammonia, to lie thus for a fort-
night. I think it was put about the trees just as
the fruit began to swell, and before it became as
large as peas. The result is, that these two trees
are bearing a good crop of fruit, while every other
plum tree in my garden has, as usual, been stung,
and dropped all its fruit. There were no punc-
tures, or scarcely any, to be found on the fruits of
these two trees.

I understand from this, that the pungent fumes
of the fresh stable manure, are so offensive to the
curculio, that it avoids the trees under which it is
placed. If thi-, on repetition, proves to be the
case, we have, I think, a weapon against the depre-
dator ; for though the efl'ect of the application is
not the most agreeable one in a neat fruit or kit-
chen garden, yet no one would hesitate to resort
to it, annually, if the curculio can be driven away
by such means. Yours. A Subscriber. Phila-
delphia, Aug. 10, 1847.

[This is interesting, and we have some corrobo-
rative evidence. This season bemg one when in-
sects of all kinds are unusually abundant, we have
ourselves suffered somewhat from the attacks of the
curculio, though not to such an extent as to prevent
our having a moderate crop of plums, apricots,
etc. But we observed some time ago, with some
surprise, that upon a couple of large nectarine
trees, growing directly against a fence which shuts
in our stable yard, not a single fruit was punctured
by the curculio, though other nectarine trees, sixty
or eighty feet distant, did not escape. We attri-
buted it at the time to the fumes from the litter
thrown daily into the yard. Since our correspon-
dent's experience, which is more direct, would ap-
pear to confirm the opinion, it will, as he suggests,
be well to make a more extensive trial of the effect
of a direct application next season. — Ed.]

Coloured Edition of Fruits. — The coloured
edition of your work on Fruits, so anxiously looked
for, is slow in making its appearance. When docs
it come out ? Please answer in the Horticulturist,
for the benefit of others as well as myself. Res-
pectfully yours. C. S. Wilson. Utica, N. Y. Sept.
11, 1847.

[The delay is caused by our desire to have the
plates executed as perfectly as possible. With
this view we sent them to Paris to be coloured
there. On receiving them, we found that although
in the main beautifully executed, yet a few varie-
ties were so indifferently coloured, that we could
not consent to mar the work by inserting them.
These were, therefore, obliged to be sent again to
be retouched. Hence the great delay ; but we hope
to be able to announce the issue of the work com-
plete in a few weeks more. — Ed.]

Bees. — Will some of your correspondents, who
have had experience in the matter, give me some
practical information on the following subjects: —

196

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

1st. What are tlie best hives for keeping bees in 1
2d. Is an apiury be'.ter placed in tiie mid.st of a
parden, or in liirm-like fields surrounded by woods?
Yours, A Constant Reader.

Commercial Gardening at the South. — We
publish the following letter entire, (contrary to our
usual practice with correspondence so complimen-
tary to ourselves.) that those of our readers inte-
rested may judge of the spirit which leads the wri-
ter to encourage horticulture at the South, where
we are obliged to say there has for a long time been
a most extraordinary apathy on all branches of
tasteful rural improvement, considering the wealth
and intelligence of many of the southern people.

Within the past year, we have received several
private letters of similar tenor, regarding the want
of several large nursery establishments at the
south, conducted in a thorough and vigorous man-
ner. Undoubtedly there are thousands of persons
there who would buy and plant the finest fruit and
ornamental trees, if they were more acquainted
with their value and beauty ; and this kind of know-
ledge is in no way better promoted, than by the
presence of extensive nurseries in their midst. As
we have no interest in any nursery establishments
here, we trust some of our readers who are, and
who may be inclined to enter into Mr. Fish's views,
will correspond with him on the subject. — Ed.

A. J. Downing, Esq. — Dear Sir : Being a great
friend and ardent admirer of horticulture in general,
I have read your works upon the " Fruits and Fruit
Trees of America," and "Rural Architecture and
Landscape Gardening," with the highest interest
and pleasure. I am happy in the conviction that
the lethargy which has so long possessed us of the
south, in these matters, is now being thrown off. A
spirit of improvement is rapidly gaining ground in
our midst, and horticulture and all its kindred arts,
60 Ions neglected, are beginning lo receive that
consideration which they so justly deserve. Suffer
me to say, sir, that such works as yours, of which I
have just spoken, have done more to arouse this
spirit, to excite this consideration, than all other in-
fluences together. Believing this, and at the same
time, being deeply impressed with the great influ-
ence which Horticulture and its kindred arts and
graces, must exercise in increasing the happiness
as well as prosperity of man, I carmot with with-
hold my humble tribute of thanks for the publica-
tion of vour highly valuable books. Although a
stranger, I have been anxious to add my humble
testimony to the high consideration and attention
which these works are now receiving even at
the south ; and to the happy reformation which
they are mainly instrumental m working, in a part
of our great country, which till recently had great-
ly neglected the interesting subjects of which they
so fully and ably treat.

However, I do not know, sir, that I should have
intruded this communication upon you, but from the
desire to speak of one other matter, and, if possible,
to solict your aid. I have mentioned the spirit of
improvement — the great interest in Horticulture,
&c., which you have mainly aided to excite ; but
this spirit — this interest, receives a great cheek
from the fact that there «vre no extensive Nurseries

and commercial gardens at the south, or at least
accessible to us. from which we can procure such
Fruits, Flowers, Shrubbery, &.C., as may be desired.
This is unquestionably felt as a sore inconvenience.
Many at the south are deterred from sending to the
north for their things, because the cost of transpor-
tation, and other expenses connected therewith,
especially when the orders are not large, would
be very considerable. Besides, there is a danger
of being imposed upon by nurserymen and garden-
ers, where orders are sent to them to be filled — and
again, there is great danger that the precious pack-
age of good things, being long on the way, may be
received in a very unsound condition. I am well
aware, our people are generally much averse to
sending orders for fruits, flowers, &c., and would
invariably patronise home gardens and nurseries if
we had them here. It is truly strange to me, sir,
that some of your enterprising nurserymen or gar-
deners, at thf north, have not long since come to
the south and established gardens and nurseries, or
that some ol' your establishments, north, have not
got up branch nurseries here. This is a matter of
which I have thought not a little, and I am anxious
to see an extensive garden and nursery in Georgia;
and I would suggest Macon, the place of my resi-
dence, as possessing altogether more advantages
in this respect than any other city or town in the
State. It is therelbre for the establishment at this
place of an extensive nursery, &c., that I would re-
spectfully solicit your aid and influence, if you could
in any way give it without inconvenience or trouble
to yourself. It is needless for me to say that such
an establishment at a central, accessible place at
the south, would give a great impetus to Horticul-
ture, he. I suggest Macon as a highly advanta-
geous location for a garden, nur^erj-, &.C., because
we have here a genial climate, and almost every
variety of soil. Any kind of soil or situation can
be had in our suburbs, and at very low prices.
Macon is also a very central place at the south, and
very accessible. We have long lines of radroads
running in various directions, and other lines still to
be constructed ; besides we have a river navigable
for six or eight months of the year. These rail-
roads make us, and will make us, very accessible
to every part of Georgia, North and South Caroli-
na, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi,
and Florida. Fruit trees, flowers, shrubbery, &c.,
could and would be sent, not only to the cities, but
to every part of the State.

It may be urged that nurseries and gardens
should be near large cities. It is true, we have but
a population of about 7,000 in Macon, but we have
a good deal of wealth here, and the demand lor
fruits, flowers, &c., would be considerable. But
communicating as we do, with every part of the
Southern country, and having a direct trade with a
large part (and the wealthiest part) of Georgia,
the great demand would come from these various
parts and sections of the South.

It would require but little capital, very little, to
establish a nursery, &c. here, as the ground would
cost but little ; and il' the nurseryman did not wish
to purchase, he could find numbers, as owners of
the soil, who would be glad to furnish the land, and
put it in as stock, in an establishment of the kind.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

197

So convinced am I of the success of a nursery
h3re. that I would most gladly render to any expe-
rienced and competent person any aid in my power.
There is not the least doubt that an experienced and
honest commercial gardner woidd meet with the
highest success to enira-re in his business among us.
I have mentioned some of the advantages; we are
also connected with Savannah, Charleston, and
other cities of the South. I will mention the fact
(which is of course known to you) that all the va-
rieties of fruits succeed very well at the South gen-
erally. Though some sorts do better in some ()arts
of our country than in others. I will also remark
that on account of our southern climate, vegetation
grows so rapidly that the nurseryman would be
rewarded for his labor in grafting, budding, &c., in
half the time that is required at the North. Trees
grafted and budded, would be large enough for
market the second year, and many even the first
year.

I have taken the liberty to trouble you vith this
long communication, as I know you are deeply in-
terested in these matters. You may not now be
connected with a nursery, (I learn that you are
not,) but will you do me the favor, sir, to hand this
communication to some one who might be induced
to come South, or to make such disposition of it, as
might best secure the object I desire ; that is,
the establishment of a nursery at Macon. Per-
haps some of the many establishments of the kind
at the North, might be influenced to start a branch
of their business here.

I would be most happy to correspond with any
one, seeking further information on this subject.
Should any person desire to know the precise na-
ture of the different kinds of soil, or the price of
land, or any other facts, I will cheerfully commu-
cate this, or any other information.

As erroneous opinions often j)revail at the North,
with regard to the health of the South ; I would
here take occasion to say, that Macon is remarka-
ble for health. They need not fear fevers, or any
other Southern diseases here.

In conclusion, I beg to say, that I have made
this communication much longer than was intended.
Nothing but an ardent desire to see Horticulture
more prosperous at the South, would have induced
me to j)eii it. And knowing that there was no
gentlemen in our whole Union who felt a greater
interest in these matters, or who could take a more
intelligent view of the suggestions I here oHer,
than yourself, I have concluded, though a stranger,
to intrude this upon your patience.

If, sir, you can give any direction to this, which
may further the objects of the writer, you will cer-
tainly confer a lasting favor upon your obedient
servant, Geo. W. Fish. Macon, Geo., Sevt. 10.
1847.

New-York HoRTictJLTURAi. Exhibition. — We
were present at the show of the American Agricul-
tural Association in Broadway on the Slh of Sep-
tember. The exhibition was a very respectable one
for a Societyyet in its infancy, comj)ared with those
of Piiiladelphia and Boston ; but it lias not as yet by
any means gathered all the horticultural strength
of the metropolis and its surroundings.

Among the articles more especially worthy of

notice, were the unrivalled Newtown pippins oT
Pelham farm : the Dahlias of Dunlap &. Carmanj
the Hoses of Boll &. Mantel ; the charming bas-
ket bouquets of S. T. Jones ; and some exceeding-
ly beautiful and large specimens of Donyer's Vic-
toria Plum, raised under glass, from Mr. Halsey,
of Astoria. The collection of fruits was not large j
but the vinery graj)es, from various contributors,
were exceedingly good specimens. We have not
been furnished with a report by the recording sec-
retary in time for this number, but will notice it in
our next. ....

New- York State Ag. Society. — Horticultural
Department. — The preparations for the Horticultu-
ral exhibition at Saratoga, were superior, beautil'ul
as they have heretofore been, to those of any former
Fair, and reflected high credit upon the good taste
of Dr. ThojMPson, under whose direction the erec-
tions were made. The exhibition, except perhaps
in Flowers, was not equal to some previous ones.
Expecting to have received the report of the com-
mittees, we did not take the notes necessarv to
enable us to do justice to the contributors, and must
therefore refer to these reports, which we shall
publish next month.

The Rockingham Hort. Society held its first
exhibition at Portsmouth, N. H., on the 15th Sep-
tember. Though this Society had been but a fort-
night in existence, the show was large, and wave
evidence of far more attention to HorticultuTe in
that vicinity than had been supposed to exist. The
show of Fruits was particularly fine. In the eve-
ning an address was delivered by Rev. Dr. Bur-
roughs, which is spoken of in the highest terms.

Utica Horticultural Exhibition. — This ex-
hibition took place on the 7th Sept. at Mechanic's
Hall. The report of the committee on vcretables
notices with great satisfaction the growin!! interest
manifested in this department of Horticulture as
evinced by the fine display of vegetables at the ex-
hibition. In the discharge of the special duty as-
signed them, they reported, and the Society awar-
ded, various premiums on Fruit, Vegetables and
Flowers. Premiums were awarded on Plums to
Messrs. J. R. Warner and C. S. Wilson • Pears,
J. C. Hastings, of Clinton; Apples, T. H. Hub-
bard ; Peaches, Mrs. Cyrus Clurk ; Melons, C. E.
Goodrich ; Grapes. S. D. Childs ; also for Peaches
to Messrs. A. Munson, L. Lawrence, J. A ander-
heyden, and W. Mervin ; Apples. W. D. Walcott
Yorkville ; and Plums, N. Devcreaux. To Charles'
Spratt, on Egg Plants and Sweet Corn. To the
Lunatic Asylum, on Lima Beans ; W. A. Richard,
son, on Tomatoes ; Richard Harter, on Potatoes •
and Charles Spratt and George S. Dana, on the
best lot of Vegetables. For Flowers, premiums
were awarded to Mrs. Anson Thomas, Mrs. S. D.
Childs, F. W. Boice, Mrs. W. Tracy, Airs. W. D.
Walcott. C. D. Balis, and Mr. Howard. We do
not undertake to condense the comments of the re-
port, upon the several varieties. It is perhaps
enough to say that where all deserved so well the
committee, in discriminating, have praised, and
doubtless justly praised, the whole. In conclusion
we would remark that these exhibitions attract

198

ALBANY AND RENSSEDAER HORT. SOCIETY.

great interest, and are certainly advancing the Hor-
ticultural prospects of this part of the State. Utica
Observer. ....

Exhibition of the Horticultural Society of
Montreal. — The lirst annual exhibition of this
Society took place on the 7th of September. The
Montreal Gazette speaks of it as a " splendid ex-
hibition, which in some points would have been cred-
itable to any of the older established societies of
either England or America." This is certainly
gratilying information to receive in regard to the
condition of Horticulture in a region wiiich many

look upon as too cold and ungenial for the success-
ful culture of I'ruils. Premiums were awarded for
Plums, Peaches, Pears, Grapes, growji botii under
glass and in open culture ; Melons of the Minorca,
Cantaloupe, and otlier varieties; also for many kinds
of flowers, bouquets, and many floral designs.
There appears to have been an excellent show of
vegetables, including nearly all of the usual culi-
nary kinds, as well as the new and rarer sorts.
Premiums were also given on birds, including
pigeons, canaries, &,c., of which there was a large
display.

ALBANY AND RENSSELAER HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The first annual exhibition of this Society took place on the
lull of iSeptejiiber, at the State Geological Rooms, Slate-
slreel.Albaiiy, and was every thnig that its most ardent friends
could wish.

It is not yet six months since the Society was formed ; and
of course no opportuniiy has been afforded for nicreasiiig
the varieties, or extending the culiivation of the various ar-
ticles exhibited, and yet the show of fruit, flowers, and vege-
tables, astonished and delighted every beholder. A more
beaulilul, a more extensive horticultural exhibition has sel-
dom or ever been witnessed in this Stale.

The undersigned congralulales the friends and supporters
of the Suciety upon Ihe entire success of this their first annual
exhibition ; and trusts, that this encouraging and satisfactory
result will induce them to farther and continued exertions,
for the prosperity and welfare of the Soceiy.

Joel Katubone, President.

FRUIT.S. — The committee on Fruits report that there were
exhibited by R. H. Vail of Ida Farm, Troy, eleven varieties of
Apple!', viz., Holland Pippin, Ea.ly Tart Bough, Heart's Pip-
pin Jersey Sweeting, Early Sweet Bough, Spitzenbergh, R.
I. Greening, Dominie, Vandervere, Swaar, and one variety
not named. Three varieties of Pears— Barllett, Beurre Rails,
and CaliUac. Seven varieties of Plutns — Coe's Golden Drop,
p'lushing Gage, Reine Claude, Yellow Egg, Imperial Gage,
Yellow Gage, and a seedhiig of a fair cliaracier. One var-
iety of Peach — Red Magdalen Three varieties of Grapes —
Isabella, Wiune, and a native blue variety

By D Benson of Albany : Pears — Beurre Diel. Plums —
Washington Bolmar, Royal Purple and Nectarine ; and a
very fine seedling Peach.

By Wm Newcomb : Watennelons — three varieties. Musk
melons — three varieties

Bi E. P. Prentice, Mount Hope, Albany: Peaches —very
beautiful specimens of Bergen Yellow. Musk and Water
Melons— one, variety of each.

By John Gott, Albany : Peaches — a limb bearing thirty beau-
tiful peaches not named. Plums — Green Gage, and a .seed-
Ihig.

By .Stephen E. Warren, Troy : Seven varieties of Peaches
— Noblesse, Royal George, Patroon, Sweeiwaler, Lemon
Cling, Red Magdalen, and a seedling. Three varieties of
Nectarines— Pcrkim' Seedling, Red Roman, and one not la-
belled

By Bradford R. Wood, Albany : Five varieties of Plums —
Red Magnum Bonum, Sweet Gage. Green Gage, Washing-
ton, and Bolmar. Peaches — beautiful Rareripe.

By Wm. Buswell, Troy : Peac/iei— Coolidge's Favorite.
Plums — Washington, and a Seedling

By D. B. Kirtland : Apples — Hawthornden. Musk Melons—
Netted.

By. J. Mc D. McTntyre, Albany : Plutns— Bgg. Apples —
one variety not named

By Dr. Jas McNaughton, Albany : PeacAes— Rareripe and
Morris White, very fine.

By V. P. Douw, Greenbush : Pears— Beurre Diel. Plums
— Royal Blue, a seedling Green, and a seedling Yellow
Grapes — Mdler's Burgundy. Water Melons — Black Spanish,
Joppa, Rio Janeiro and Mountain Spanish. Musk 3Ielons —
Netted.

By Joel Rathbone, Kenwood, Albany connty : Plutns —

Green Gage, and Blue Gage. Peaches— Royal George,
."Sweetwater and Morris While. Pears — Seckel. Grapes —
Calawba and Isabella. Nectarines — Newington. Watet Me-
lons— Ri'Ck Nutmeg, and Large Long Island.

By Isaac Delusion, Albany : Twenty-seven varieties of
Plums — Bleecker Gage, Yellow Gage, Denision's Superb,
Reine Claude, Columbia, Albany Beauty, Eleanor, Yellow
Egg, Lawrence's Favorite, Chancellor Gage, Deniston's Red,
Bleecker's Red. Blue Gage, Buel's Favcirite, Green Gage,
Washington Bolmar, Mirabelle, and ten seedlings not named.

By Amos Briggs, ScaghticoUe, Rensselaer counly : Six-
leeii varieties of Plums — Necianiie, ('range, Orleans, Prince's
Yellow Gage, Reine Claude, Coe's Golden Drop, Blue Gage,
French Red Gage, Imperial Gage, Wasliinglon Bolmar, Yel-
low Gage, Purple Magnum Bonum, and four seedlings of fine
appearance, but not ol' first quality. Pears — Bartletl, Seckel,
and one vdriety not named. Apples — one variety not labelled.

By Jas. Wilson, Albany: Six varieties of Ptars — Althorpe
Crassanne, Doyenne Gris. Do>einie Whiie, Beurre Capiau-
mont, Henry tlie Fourtli and Lewis. Apples — Reiiielte Van
Moiis. P/i/ws— Bleecker's Red, St. Cailianne, Wheat and
Judson. Currants— May's Victoria.

By John I ay lor, Albany : Apjiles — two varieties not label-
led. Grapes — Sweetwater and French Cluster.

By James Coales : Plums — Red Magnum Bonum, and
Quackenbush. Apples — Alexander. Water Melotis — two va-
rieties

By L Menand : Strawberries — White Alpine.

By J. K. Paige, Albany : .Sjx varieties of Pears — Seckel,
Barilelt, and four varieties not named Peaches — five varie-
ties. Grajies — sixteen varieties. Pluttis — tliiiteen varieties.
Water Melons — Valparaiso.

By Dr A March, Albany : Plutns — Very beautiful speci-
mens of Red Magnum Bonum and Yellow Egg.

By Dr. Herman Wendell, Albany : Nineteen varieties of
Pears— Duchess d'Aiigouleme, Seckel. Ganseli's Beigamot,
Napoleon, Beurre Knox, Muscadine, Easter Beune, Beurre
Uiel, Bartletl, Doyenne White, Leon le Clerc of Van Mons,
Compte de Lamy, Fulton, Summer St Germain, Chaunion-
telle, Duchess de Mars, iind three varieties unnamed. Tweii-
ly varieties of Ap/lns — Newtown Pippin. Green, Rambo,
Baldwin, Esopus Spiizenbersh, Yellow Newtown Pippin,
Male Carle, Lady Apple, Gloria Muiidi or Ox *pple. Graven-
slein. Lemon Pippin. Golden Sweet, Fall Pippin, Vandervere,
Rhode Island Greening. Hawthornden, Ribston Pippin, Seek-
no-further, Siberian Crab, and two varieties not named.
Twenty-five varieties of Plutns — Coe's Golden Drop, Coe's
Late Red, Yellow Egg, Red Magnum Bonum. White Perdri-
gon. Virgin. Peters' Large Yellow, Prune d'Agen, White
JVIagnum Bonum, Lombard, or Bleecker's Red, Long Scar-
let, Catherine Plum, American Wl eat Plum, Bleecker's
Gage, Schuyler's Gage, Washington Bolmar, Yellow Gage,
Blue Gage, Nectarine, Reine Claude, Prince's Imperial Gage,
Holland Plum, two English varieties, labels lost, and one
seedling from the Lombard, resembling that variety. Grapes
— Golden Chasselas, Bland's Virginia and Isabella. Necta-
rines— Red Roman. Six varieties of Peaches — Early Anne,
Ear y Tillotson. Emperor of Russia, and three seedlings.
Water Melons — Black Spanish and Valparaiso. 3Iusk Melons
— Beechwood, Sweet Ispahan, Christiana, Green Citron, and
early yellow Canteloup.

By J. Towasend, Albany : Apples — five varieties not named.

ALBANY AND RENSSELAER HORT. SOC.

199

AWARD OF PREMIUMS.

The Committee h;ive awarded the premiums as follows :
Apples — For the best exhibition, to Dr. Herman Wendell of
Albany, ii?3
For the second best exhibition, to Henry Vail, of Ida
Farm, Troy. ¥-i
Pears — For the best exhibition, to Dr Herman Wendell of
Albany. S3
For the second best exhibition, to James Wilson of Alba-
ny, m
Plums — For the best exhibition, to Isaac Deniston, of Alba-
ny. «3.
For the second best exhibition, to Dr. Herman Wendall,
of Albany, $'2
Peaches— Vor the best exhibition to Stephen E. Warren, of
Troy, $3.
For ihe second best exhibition, to John Keyes Paige, of
Albany, *'2.
Gropes— For the best exhibition of native grapes, to Henry
V il, of Troy, $3.
For the best specimens and greatest variety of foreign
grapes, to John K. Paige, of Albany, $3.
Nectarines — For the best exhibition, to Stephen E. Warren,

of Troy, ¥3.
Water Melons— For the best specimens, to V. P. Douw, of
of Greenhush, $2.
For the second best specimens, to Joel Rathbone, of
Kenwood. Albany, SI-
Musk Melons— For the best specimens, to Dr. Herman Wen-
dell, of Alban>'. $2.
For the second best specimens, to V. P. Douw of Green-
bush, $1
The Committee beg leave to notice favorably, and as the
best specimens of the particular varieties named, some Coe's
Golden Drop and Nectarine Plums, exhibited by Mr. Amos
Krigssof Schaghlieoke ; and some very large and beautiful
Bergen Yellow Peaches, exhibited by E. P. Prentice of Ml
Hope, Albany couniy ; als" a few beautiful specimens of Ap-
ple.*, Peaches, Plums, and a very beiiuiit'ul new seedling
Pear, called the Sterling Pear, exhibited by Messrs. Wilson,
Thorburn and Teller, from their nursery,

V. P. Dnuw, Greenhush, Wm. Buswell Troy,
David Be.nson, Albany, Committee.

FLORAL DESIGNS, VASE BOUQUETS, Ac— The
Coinmillee on Floral Designs. Bouquets, &c,, report that there
were presented fur exhibition more than twenty designs, bou-
quets, etc , nearly all of which were very beautiful, and re-
flected great credit for skill and taste on the part of the exhi-
bitors.

Mr, Dingwall of Watervliet, exhibited a beautiful design in
candelabrum form, five feet high, composed of clioice and
rare flowers, surmounted with a very elegant bouquet of
green-house flowers, to which the Committee awarded the
first premium of $3,

Mr, Henry Vail, of Troy, exhibited an elegantly arranged
design, three feet high, of antique form, composed of choice
flowers, to which they have awarded the second premium of
$-2

Mr, Joel Rathbone, of Kenwood, exhibited a beautiful
Egypiian design, four feet high, composed of choice Dahlias,
Roses, Verbenas, and other flowers, arranged with great
skill and good taste,

Mrs, D, T. Vail, of Ida Farm, exhibited a design in pyra-
midal form, composed of beautiful flowers, with a cypress
vine gracefully twined around its base, and arranged with ex-
quisite taste throughout.

Mrs Charles H. Merrit, of Troy, exhibited a floral temple,
its columns and entablature covered with green moss, its base
studded with delicate flowers on a moss ground, and the apex
of Its roof surmoumed by a beautifully arranged bouquet of
rare flowers.

Dr. Herman Wendell exhibited, not for competition, a de-
sign in pyramidal form, four feel high, composed of choice
flowers of numerous varieties,

L. Menand exhibited a very splendid oval shaped floral or-
nament for a dinner table, arranged in u china basket with
great taste and skill, composed of the choicest and rarest
green-house flowers, such asSlephanotus floribundus. Ericas,
Crassulas, Drosinas, Fuchsias, Heliotropes, Geraniums, etc,
to which the Committee awarded a premium of $3,

Mr, Dingwall exhibited a pair of beautifully arranged va*e
bouquets, composed of choice flowers, to which the premium
is awarded of $3.

Mr. Wilson exhibited a pair of vase bouquets arranged with
taste and skill,

Mr, Wilson exhibited a pair of flat mantel bouquets, ar-
ranged tasietully with choice flowers, to which the premium
is awarded of S'"2.

Mrs. Charles H. Merrit, exhibited a basket bouquet, most
beautifully arranged with rare flowers, its body and handle
covered with moss, studded with rare and delicate flowers,
to winch the premium is awarded of ^2.

Mrs Merntt also exiiibiled a beaulil'ul basket bouquet, with-
out a handle, arranged with skill and taste.

Mr, WiKson, an exquisitely designed pair of bouquets, one
flat and one round, composed of the choicest and rarest flow-
ers, and arranged with consummate skill, to which the first
premium is awarded of $2.

Mr. Menand also presented a beautifully arranged pfir,
designed with his usual pure ta.>le and great skill, to which
the second premium is awarded of $1.

Herman Wendell, Abel French,
Wm, Newcomb, Committee.

GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS AND FLOWERS,— The
Commiltee on Green-house Plants and Flowers, report that
there was exhibited by L, Menand the following named green-
house plants in pots — all of very beautiful appearance, and
indicating great skill in their culture, viz: — Ericas: muliiflo-
ra, transpareiis, clarida, umbfllala, gracilis, cruenia, and
phylicoides ; Rochea falcala, and Pliysiaiithus all a.

By James Wilson — Seventy varieties of Dahlias for the
display premium, twelve varieties for the 12 dissimilar bloom
premiums, and one variety for the specimen bloom prf-mium;
six varieties of Noisette Roses, ter; varieties of Perpetual Ro-
ses, fifteen varieties of Bourbon Roses, twenly-four varieties
of Verbenas, several Seedling Verbenas, splendid double
German Asters and Seedling Phloxes. Mr. W. not having
handed 'u a list of the names of his flowers, the committee
cannot leport them, under the rule, more in extenso.

By Dr. Herman W'eiidell — Twenty -two varieties of Dah-
lias, viz: — Admiral Stopford, Orb, Sylph, Striata, Lees'
Bloomsbury, Cleopatra. Arethusa, Oakley's Surprise, Madam
Walmer, Pontiac, Oddity, Duke of York, La Tour D'Au-
vergne, Madame Chauverii, Nigra et Alba, Sir Stuart Rich-
ardson, Harlequin, Bragg's Antagonist, Viscount Ressigneur,
Dowager Lady Cooper, and Illuminator, Twenty-five varie-
ties of Verbenas, including six seedlings ; also, Lusette, Pol-
kii, Eclipse, Caroline, Dove-eye, Roseum, Rosy-cluster,
Monk's Purple, Dwarf White, and others of newer varieties.
Eighteen varieties of new and beautiful Phloxes, most of them
never exhibited before this society, viz : — Charles, Rosea
superba, Nymphcea alba, Auguste, Grandissima nova. Prin-
cess Marianne, Decussata alba, Mazeppa, Fleur de Marie,
Almerine, Breckii, Lawrencii, Eclipse, Dodonoea, Anais
Chauviere, Norfolkii. and two Seedlings. Eight varieties of
Roses, viz ; — Dr, Rogers, Ilermosa, Gen'l, Dubourgh, Ma-
dam Laftay, Prince Alberi, Old Tea, Calveriia, and LaReme.
Also a beautiful collection of Phlox Drunimondii, arranged
on a ground of Rose Geranium,

By Henry Vail, of Troy— Twelve varieties of new and
beautiful Dahlias, Mr V did not hand a list to committee.

By J Dingwall — Thirty-four varieties of Verbenas, twenty-
five varieties of choice and beautiful Dahlias, a large collec-
tion of beautiful German Asters, tastefully arranged in a tray,
and tweniy-five varieties of Seedling Verbenas, several of
which were very fine, Mr, D. has not rendered a complete
list to the society.

By Wm, Newcomb, of Pittstown — Seventy-three varieties
of Dahlias, viz: — Cinderella. Golden Souvenir, Lutea Speci-
osa, Arethusa, Ithuriel, Great Mogul. Illuminator. Standard
of Perfection. Hero of Slonehenge, Antler, Marchioness of
Ormond, Sir Stuart Richardson, Eugenia, Mark Antony, Al-
ice Hawthorne, Duke of York, Great Western, Desdemona,
Beeswing, Cleopatra, Conslantia, Theodore, Sir Henry Flet-
cher, Lord Lyndhurst, Viscount Ressigneur, Favoriie, Mar-
shal Soult, Prince of Orange, Charles l'2th, Harden's Bride,
Bridesmaid, Lutea Graiidiflora, Maroon, Argo, Exquisite,
Essex, Triumph, Dowager Lady Cooper, Crowbridge's Per-
fection, Hero of Tippecanoe, iSlcKensie's Perfection, Mrs.
Wilkinson, L'Magnificent, Scarlet Perfection, Lord Liver-
pool, Rose Unique, Rose Superior, Striata. Mrs. Rushton,
Mrs. Shelly, Unique, Admiral Stopford, Blaiidina, Indian
Queen, Widnall's Queen. Miss Jones, Antagonist, Primrose,
Alba Purpurea, Prince Albert, Mary, Conductor, Conserva-
tive, Sir R, Sale, Grandis, Julia; and Seedlings, Clarence,
Mrs, Newcomb, William, Annette, Eliza, Simon, and Presi-
dent Polk, And the following varieties of annual ajtd other

200

ALBANY AND RENSSELAER HORT, SOCIETY.

clasi flowers, viz: — Twelve varieties of Verbenas, Pink and
While Alusk Plant, Pink and White Lavalera, Feverfew,
Scliizanlhus. several vases nf Tageles, Erysimum penuTskia-
niim, twenty varieties of Zinneas, variety Kupluirhia, 4 vari-
eties of Petunias, Phlox UrummonJii, While and Guld Eter-
nal Flower, Silenes in varieties, Reseda oilorata, Delpliiiiium,
Double Balsams, Ageratiim, Didiscus cerulea; Coreopsis,
Scabious, Calceolarias, Cypress Vnie, Escholtzias, Portulaca,
Lathyrus odorata, Tropeolum, Dolichos purpurea, Mathio-
la annua, Centaurea americana, Heliaiilhus, 2 varieties, Ana-
gallis iiidica, Mesem^iryanthetnum chrystalinum, Coix
lachryma, Hibiscus al'ricanus, Glaucium luteum, Godelia,
Globe amaranthus — two varieties — Adonis minata. Celosia
cristata and lutea, Uianthus aiinuus. Clarkea, '2 varieties ;
Commelina, Cellestris, Delphinium pereii. Thymus pyramidalis,
Lonicera, Southernwood, Siiowbeny, Mock Sensitive, and a
very beauiit'ul exhibiiion of Quilled and Duiible German As-
lers, arranged in guod taste on a moss ground, in heart siiape.

PREMIUMS. — The committee have awarded the premi-
ums as follows :

For the best exhibition of greenhouse plants to L.

Menand of Watervliet $3 00

For the best exhibition of Dahlias to James Wilson of

Albany 3 00

For the 12 best dissimilar blooms to James Wilson of

Albany, 2 00

For the 2d best 12 dissimilar blooms to Henry Vail of

Troy, 1 on

For the l-est six varieties of Roses to James Wilson,. 2 00
For the 2d best six varieties of Roses to Dr. Herman

Wendell 1 00

For the best six varieties of Phloxes to Dr. Herman

Wendell 2 00

For the 2d best six varieties of Phloxes to James Wil-
son, 1 00

For the best seedling Phlox lo James Wilson, 100

For the best display of German Asters to Mr. New-
comb of Pittstown, 2 00

For the 2d best display of German As'ers to James

Wilson, 1 00

For the most extensive and best exhibition of Verbe-
nas to J. Dingwall ..f Watervliet, 2 00

For the 2d most extensive and best exhibition of Ver-
benas to James Wilson, 1 00

For the best seedling Verbena, J. Dingwall, 1 00

For 12 seedling Dahlias, discretionary premium to Mr.

Newcomb 2 00

This being the time to award premiums for the season,
the committee award for the best and most exten-
sive exhibitions of Annual, Biennial and Perennial

flowers during the season, to Mr. Newcomb 3 00

For the best and greatest display of Phloxes durmg the

season to Dr. Herman Wendell, 2 00

The committee beg leave to notice with commendation a
large and beautiful exhibition of new and rare, as well as
splendid. Dahlias sent to the exhibition by J. M. Thorburn &
Co., New- York, for which they return the thanks of the soci-
ety to Messrs. T. & Co.

Wm. Newcomb, Chabman,
JosKPH Caldwell,
John Dingwall,
Wm. Buttercase,

Committee.

VEGETABLES. — The committee on vegetables report
that there were exhibited by E. P. Prentice, of Mount Hope
near Albany— Sweet Corn, Carrots, Parsnips, Beets, Salsify,
Egg Plants, Red Cabbage, White Cabbage, Lima Beans,
Strmg Beans,six varieties of Tomatoes, four varieties of Rhu-

I barb. Yellow Marrow Squashes, Summer Garden Crookneck
.'^quashes, and Red Pep|)ers.

By Joel [laihbone, of Kenwood near Albany — Dwarf Early
York Cabbage. Drumhead Cabbage, Bh'od Beets, White
Carrots. Yellow Altrnigham Carrots, Early Purple Carrots,
Early Horn Carrots, Long Orange Carrots, Curled Savoy
Cabbage, Egg Toinatoes, Yellow Tomatoes, small red and
laige red Tomatoes, Lima Beans. Dutch Marrow Peas, Okra,
Case Knife Beans, Marrow Squash, White Manchester Solid
Celery, Sugar Beels,Suge, Mint,(Sweet Mnrjorum, Purple Egg
Plants, Salsily, Parsnips. Sweet Corn and four varieties of
Onions.

By J. Roeslie, of Albany — White Onions, Red Onions,
Yellow Onions, White Strap Leaf Turnips, White, Black and
Yellow Radishes, Bergen Cabbage, sweet Winter Parsnips,
Pot-herbs, Peach Tomatoes, Yellow Tomatoes, Red Toma-
lose. Grape Tomatoes, Sweet Corn, and beautiful white large
Giant Celery.

By John Townsend of Albany — Two varieties of Squashes,
two varieties of Carrots, Corn, While Onions, Turnip Beets,
Red Cabbage, and Nutmeg Squashes.

By Wm. Newcomb of Pittstown — Twelve Bassano Beets,
Blood Beets, Sugar Beets, Salsit'y Roots, Blood Carrots, Al.
inngham Carrots, White Spined Parsnips, Red, White and
Silver Skin Onions, six clusters of Martinias, eight varieties
of Squashes, viz : Summer Yellow, Summer .Scallop, Valpa-
raiso, MamniOth, Sugar, Croi kiieck. Yellow Mammoth, and
Acorn Squashes ; Long Cucumbers, Sweet Corn, Ohio Corn,
Pop Corn.

By Dr. Herman Wendell of Albany — Altringham Carrots,
Red, White, and Yellow Onions, Parsnips, Nine varieties of
Potatoes, viz: Onderdonk's Seedling. Long Pink Eye, Early
June, Shaw's Early, Mercers, Carter's, StafTold Hall, Meri-
nos, and Ro.ss' Early; Turnip Beets, Blood Beets, Drumhead
Cabbages, Martin's Crooknecked Squashes, Martinias and
Seymour's White .Solid Celery.

By V. P. Douw of Greenbush — Blood Beets, Orarge Car-
rots,Parsnips, Red Tomatoes, .Salsify, Brocoli, Marrow Squash,
Celery, Drumhead Cabbage, Egg Plants, Butter Beans, Lima
lieans. Refugee Beans, White Onions, and Asparagus Beans.

By Heniy Vail of Troy- While Solid Celery, Salsity,
Blood Beets, and four varieties of Egg Plants.

By Dr. Fairfield of Troy — Delusion Squash, kept since Oc-
tober, 1846.

PREMIUMS. — The committee have awarded the premi-
ums as follows :
For the best six Squashes, to E. P. Prentice, of Mount

Hope, $2 00

For the best 12 Blood Be«ts, lo V. P, Douw, of Green-
bush 2 00

For the best 12 Carrots, to Joel Raihbone, Kenwood,

near Albany, 2 00

For the best 1 2 Parsnips lo E. P. Prentice 2 00

For the best 12 roots of Salsify, to Henry Vail, of Ida

Farm, Troy, 2 00

For the best pair of Egg Plants, to Joel Rathbone, ... 2 00
For the best 6 heads ot Cabbage, lo Herman Wendell,

Albany, 2 00

For the best 6 heads of Red Cabbage, lo E. P. Pren-
tice, 2 00

For the best 3 heads of Brocoli, to V. P Douw, 2 00

For the best half peck of Tomatoes, to Joel Rathbone, 2 00
For the be.st 6 heads of Celery, to T. Roeslie, of Albany 2 00
For the best half dozen Martinias, to Wm. Newcomb,

of Pittstown 2 00

For the best display of Vegetables, lo E. P. Prentice, . 3 00

D. B. KlRTLAND,

Robert Harper,
John Sixiane,
Albany, Sept, 11th, 1S47. Committee.

VIEW OF THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

[Hon : i\ov. 1847.]

»„ ^ -w "^ ^ v'' .^^ -^v

JOUENAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

NOVEMBER, 1847.

No. 5.

Now THAT THE SEASON of the present is
nearly over, now that spring with its fresh-
ness of promise, summer with its luxury of
development, and autumn with its fulfilment
of fruitfulness, have all laid their joys and
benefits at our feet, we naturally pause for
a moment to see what is to be done in the
rural plans of the futui-e.

The PLANTING SEASON is at hand. Our
correspondence with all parts of the coun-
try informs us, that at no previous time has
the improvement of private grounds been
so active as at present. New and tasteful
residences are everywhere being built. New
gardens are being laid out. New orchards
of large extent are rapidly being planted.
In short, the horticultural zeal of the coun-
try is not only awake — it is brimfull of en-
ergy and activity.

Private enterprise being thus in a fair
way to take care of itself, we feel that the
most obvious duty is to endeavor to arouse
a corresponding spirit in certain rural im-
provements of a more public nature.

We therefore return again to a subject
which we dwelt upon at some length last
spring — the planting of shade trees in the
streets of our rural towns and villages.

Pleasure and profit are certain, sooner or
later, to awaken a large portion of our
Vol. II. 26

countrymen to the advantages of improv-
ing their own private grounds. But we
find that it is only under two conditions that
many public improvements are carried on.
The first, is when nearly the whole of the
population enjoy the advantages of edu-
cation, as in New-England. The second, is
when a few of the more spirited and intel-
ligent of the citizens move the rest by tak-
ing the burden in the beginning upon their
own shoulders by setting the example them-
selves, and by most zealously urging all
others to follow.

The villages of New-England, looking
at their sylvan charms, are as beautiful as
any in the world. Their architecture is
simple and unpretending — often, indeed,
meagre and unworthy of notice. The
houses are surrounded by enclosures full of
trees and shrubs, with space enough to afford
comfort, and ornament enough to denote
taste. But the main street of the villatre is
an avenue of Elms, positively delightful to
behold. Always wide, the over-arching
boughs form an aisle more grand and beau-
tiful than that of any old gothic cathedral.
Not content, indeed, with one avenue, some
of these villages have, in their wide, single
street, three lines of trees, forming a double
avenue, of which any grand old palace

202

ON PLANTING SHADE TREES.

abroad, might well be proud. Would that
those of our readers, whose souls are callous
to the charms of the lights and shadows that
bedeck these bewitching rural towns and
villages, would forthwith set out on a pil-
grimage to such places as Northampton,
Springfield, New-Haven, Pittsfield, Stock-
bridge, Woodbury, and the like.

When we contrast with these lovely rest-
ing places for the eye, embowered in
avenues of Elms, gracefully drooping
like fountains of falling water, or Sugar
Maples swelling and towering up like finely
formed aatique vases — some of the uncared
for towns and villages in our own state,
we are almost forced to believe that the
famous common schools of New-England
teach the assthetics of art, and that the
beauty of shade trees is the care of espe-
cial professorships. Homer and Virgil, Cice-
ro, Manlius, and Tully, shades of the great
Greeks and Romans ! — our citizens have
named towns after you, but the places that
bear your names scarcely hold leafy trees
enough to renew the fading laurels round
your heads ! — while the direct descend-
ants of stern Puritans, who had a holy
horror of things ornamental, who cropped
their hair, and made penalties for indulgen-
ces in fine linen, live in villages oversha-
dowed by the very spirit of rural elegance !
It is neither from a want of means, or
want of time, or any ignorance of what is
essential to the beauty of body or of mind,
that we see this neglect of the public be-
comingness. There are numbers of houses
in all these villages, that boast their pianos,
while the last Paris fashions are worn in the
parlors, and the freshest periodical literature
of both sides of the Atlantic fills the centre
tables. But while the comfort and good looks
of the individual are sufficiently cared for,
the comfort and good looks of the town are
sadly neglected. Our education here stops

short of New-England. We are slow to
feel that the character of the inhabitants
is always, in some degree, indicated by the
appearance of the town. It is, unluckily,
no one's especial business to ornament the
streets. No one feels it a reproach to him-
self, that verdure and beauty do not hang
like rich curtains, over the street in which
he lives. And thus a whole village or town
goes on from year to year, in a shameless
state of public nudity and neglect, because
no one feels it his particular duty to persuade
his neighbors to join him in making the
town in which he lives, a gem of rural
beauty, instead of a sorry collection of un-
interesting houses.

It is the frequent apology of intelligent
persons who live in such places, and are
more alive to this glaring defect than the
majority, that it is impossible for them to
do any thing alone, and their neighbors
care nothing about it.

One of the finest refutations of this kind
of delusion, exists in New-Haven. All over
the Union, this town is known as the " City
of Elms," The stranger always pauses,
and bears tribute to the taste of its inhabi-
tants, while he walks beneath the grateful
shade of its lofty rows of trees. Yet a
large part of the finest of these trees were
planted, and the whole of the spirit which
they have inspired, was awakened by one
person — Mr. Hillhouse. He lived long
enough to see fair and lofty aisles of ver-
dure, where, before, were only rows of brick
or wooden houses; and, we doubt not, he
enjoyed a purer satisfaction, than many
great conquerors who have died with the
honors of capturing kingdoms, and demo-
lishing a hundred cities.

Let no person, therefore, delay planting
shade trees himself, or persuading hisneigh-
bors to do the same. Wherever a village
contains half a dozen persons zealous in

ON PLANTING SHADE TREES.

203

this excellent work of adorning the country
at large, let them form a society and make
proselytes of those who are slow to be
moved otherwise. A public spirited man
in Boston does a great service to the commu-
ity, and earns the thanks of his country-
men, by giving fifty thousand dollars to
endow a professorship in a college ; let the
public spirited man of the more humble vil-
lage in the interior, also establish his claim
to public gratitude, by planting fifty trees
annually, along its public streets, in quar-
ters where there is the least ability or the
least taste to be awakened in this way, or
where the poverty of the houses most needs
something to hide them, and give an aspect
of shelter and beauty. Hundreds of public
meetings are called, on subjects not half so
important to the welfare of the place as
this, whose object would be to direct the
attention of all the householders to the na-
kedness of their estates, in the eyes of
those who most love our country, and would
see her rural towns and village homes made
as attractive and pleasant as they are free
and prosperous.

We pointed out, in a former article, the
principle that should guide those who are
about to select trees for streets of rural towns
— that of choosing that tree which the soil of

the place will bring to the highest perfection.
There are two trees, however, which are so
eminently adapted to this purpose in the
northern states, that they may be univer-
sally employed. These are the American
Weeping Elm and the Silver Maple. They
have, to recommend them, in the first place,
great rapidity of growth ; in the second
place, the graceful forms which they as-
sume ; in the third place, abundance of
fine foliage ; and lastly, the capacity of
adapting themselves to almost every soil
where trees will thrive at all.

These two trees have broad and spread-
ing heads, fit for wide streets and avenues.
That fine tree, the Dutch Elm, of exceed-
ingly rapid growth and thick dark-green
foliage, makes a narrower and more upright
head than our native sort, and, as well as
the Sugar Maple may be planted in streets
and avenues, where there is but little room
for the expansion of wide spreading tops.

No town, where any of these trees are
extensively planted, can be otherwise than
agreeable to the eye, whatever may be its
situation, or the style of its dwellings. To
villages prettily built, they will give a cha-
racter of positive beauty that will both add
tvO the value of property, and increase the
comfort and patriotism of the inhabitants.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SEVERE FROSTS ON TREES.

BY E. NICHOLS, WALHONDING, OHIO.

Sir — In volume 2, page 74, is the opinion
of M. MoRREN, and your comments dis-
senting from his aphorisms on this subject.
He contends the injury thus done to trees
is chemical ; you suggest it is often mechani-
cal, bursting the sap-vessels, etc. As to the
form or mode of chemical action, by elimi-
nation of the air on thawing, as maintained

by M. MoRREN, I give no opinion ; but that
the inj ury is chemical and not mechanical, in
a majority of cases, seems to me highly
probable. Your principal fact, the cold
rending the entire trunks of trees with a loud
noise, seems to me rather against than for
your position, for this rending does not even
injure the health of the tree; on the con-

204

EFFECTS OF FROST ON TREES.

trary, it grows over and the tree continues
to prosper an indefinite period. Among fruit
trees I have witnessed this particularly in a
cherry tree, and every woodsman knows it to
be true of forest trees ; there being, in many
situations, but few great oaks, which on be-
ing sawed or split, do not show frost cracks.
Again the alburnum, chiefly the smaller
branches and one year's shoots, suffer prin-
cipally by freezing, where death is induced ;
and these from their more porous, softer
and tougher character, would bear mecha-
nical distension much better than the hard-
er and more brittle heart-wood, which rends
with the report of a cannon, forcing, it is
true, the thin covering of sap-wood on large
trees, (a)

That the injury is chemical, seems to me
apparent from the fact, as you have well
observed, on frozen-sap blight, that the sap
is always discoloured, where freezing pro-
duces vegetable death ; and in fact the
whole substance of those parts of the tree
injured, immediately on thawing, show this
discoloration ; for example, if what we
usually call the roots of a tree, (or what
some botanists term underground branches,)
are exposed to an atmosphere below the
freezing point, it will be found that the ex-
tremities of the roots, taken from a consi-
derable depth, will perish from the slightest
freezing, while the upper portions, more
used to cold and less porous, will remain
uncolored and alive ; but if the freezing be
increased, the roots perish to the neck of
the tree, showing that the soft and porous
parts, least likely to be injured by simple
mechanical distention, is the first to yield up
vegetable life to the frost.

Again, there is a striking resemblance
in the frozen and destroyed sap, to the ef-
fect produced by freezing on several kinds
of ink, dyes, etc., in which I presume no
one will doubt the injury is chemical.

So too in the action of frost on the potato ;
its juices are evidently chemically vitiated,
not its substance mechanically destroyed ;
for even when grated, the potato will re-
tain its vitality for sometime in water, but
loses it instantly on being frozen and
thawed. Other vegetables, as the apple,
and turnip and beet, will bear more frost,
but intense freezing destroys most of them.
Nor does this destruction seem to depend
on the quantity of aqueous matter in the
vegetable, liable to distention by the frost ;
for the potato, the driest of the four vege-
tables named, yields its life to the least
freezing; and the beet less juicy than the
turnip or apple, next ; and the turnip stands
more than either. So it is with trees : one
variety, equally succulent, will bear more
frost than another ; as for example, the oak
will withstand more than the pear, and the
pear more than the tender exotic, which
demonstrates that it is not the quantity of
the water, but the definite composition of
the sap of each kind, that renders it more
or less liable to destruction by frost, and
proves that the destruction is not of the
woody vessels, which would readily yield
to the mechanical power of frost in all,
but to the chemical dissolution of the sap.(i)
The sap loses its proper character, as does
the ink, the dye, the potato, the beet ; and
instead of nourishing the tree, poisons,
and is as unfit for its use as is the potato,
after freezinsf, for the use of man. Indeed
the part of the tree undergoing this change
dies as suddenly as a man would, if the
whole blood of his system were converted
into hog-wash or swill.

But it will be asked, if it is not the ex-
pansion of water by freezing, that bursts the
sap-vessels, why is it that it is always the
trees that are growing and succulent, or the
limbs that are in that condition, that are
destroyed by frost ? It is only trees in a

EFFECTS OF FROST ON TREES.

205

growing state that are charged with the
cambium or elaborated sap, containing the
elements of a new lnyex or stratum of wood.
So soon as this deposit is fairly made, the
tree quickly ceases to grow, and the little
sap in circulation contains comparatively
little more than water. In the latter part
of the month of June, I have seen the an-
nual concentric layer deposited in due form,
but yet in a soft, almost semi-fluid, state,
adhering imperfectly to the old wood, and
readily separated from both wood and bark.
The work of after growth for the season,
is to'consolidate and perfect this layer. This
done, the sap, highly charged with living
woody matter, ceases to flow ; and it is only
this unconsolidated living matter that is
highly susceptible to the chemical action of
frost. Except its protection by the bark,
it may well be supposed to be more tender
and susceptible, than the most delicate ex-
panded leaf of spring.

This theory of M. Morren also makes
the true cause of the summer blight of pear
trees, more probable than any thing I have
seen, by an easy transition. It is well
known that on the living organism of plants
and animals, heat and cold seem to pro-
duce very similar injuries. It is equally
well known that the pear is a native of
countries not subject to the extremes of
heat or cold felt here. Suppose then the
tree is rapidly growing, and its new albur-
num is in the semi-fluid state of which I
have spoken, and suppose one of our unu-
sual hot days, or singularly cold nights, in
either case, is it unreasonable to suppose,
that chemical decomposition occurs in the
charged sap, and death is induced ? In
the laboratory great changes are produced
by a change of temperature, and it is rea-
sonable the like occurs in the laboratory of
nature. If something of this kind was not
intended, I am not aivare what Kenrick and

others have meant in referring blight to a
stroke of the sun.

In the human system, we know chemical
action often overpowers the vital action
in the stomach, and the fermentation of de-
composition prevents digestion. And rea-
soning from analogy, it may well be con-
cluded, that when the tree is fully charged
with cambium or vital sap, full of the ele-
ments of wood, and there comes an unusu-
ally cold night or hot day, or dry or wet
time, or there happens to the tree any other
accident, which weakens the vital action,
chemical action will take place, and a rapid
decomposition of the true sap ensue, ren-
dering that which should have formed wood
poison to the tree. It follows, therefore,
that the way to prevent blight, is to keep
the tree in good health, and as far as pos-
sible to prevent excesses of all kinds — es-
pecially excess in manure, and in moisture,
and cultivation ; andthat regularity should
be practised, and every operation well
timed.

If a tree hitherto neglected, be power-
fully manured at midsummer, and especial-
ly if it be trimmed at the same time, death
may be expected. So of extra cultivation,
commenced after midsummer. Some soils
naturally produce great irregularities in the
growth of trees. This I know to be the
case with the rich limestone hills in the
northeast part of Ohio, where pear tree blight
is very common, and where it evidently
often occurs in the summer, and frequently
does not extend below the growth of the
season. That it does originate in the sum-
mer, is clearly proved by the facts related
by Lemuel Powell in No. 7 of the third
volume of the Ohio Cultivator, at page 52.
Mr. Powell moved part of a lot of pear
trees of the same age and condition, win-
tered alike, in the spring, from Jefferson
county to Meigs county. Those removed

206

EFFECTS OF FROST ON TREES.

lived and flourished ; those unremoved died
that summer of blight. This limestone soil
on which the pear blights, so far as I have
seen it examined, is fertile on the top, and
a very close solid clay for some four feet
under. This clay becomes so dry in the
latter part of the season, that in many
places it cracks, and makes fissures of from
one-fourth to an inch wide. The cause of
the blight seems to be, the moisture kept to
the surface by the clay, induces rapid growth
in the fore part of the season; and when dry
hot weather sets in, the upper fertile stra-
tum dries, and suddenly withholds the pro-
per nourishment ; or in the fall the mois-
ture is retained, when early autumnal rains
occur, and late growth is caused, and the
frozen-sap blight follows. The remedy, I
suppose, is to cut through the clay, and
make a connection of friable soil with the
under strata, which is generally porous,
and from the great depth at which I have
seen roots growing, I judge when once
through the upper strata, roots flourish well;
but as I intend to have it tried at Loydsville
the coming year, I may hereafter give a
better opinion on the subject. E. Nichols.

Walhonding, Ohio, Sept. 1. 1S47.

Remarks. — (a) Our correspondent mis-
takes our view. M. Morren's first apho-
rism is, that no organ of plants is rent by
the action of cold, except in a few rare
cases, when the cavities of the cellular tis-
sue yield to the effect of the dilatation of
the liquid. Our remark was intended to
call attention to the common and well

known instances of the rending of the
trunks of trees in the northern states, the
result, as we believe, of the expansion of
sap vessels by freezing. We are very well
aware that death does not usually ensue
when this happens to perfectly hardtj trees,
but it does when the tree is rather tender.

{h) Why certain trees are hardy in their
nature, and others tender, physiologists
have as yet been able to give no explana-
tion, other than a particular constitution
adapted to the climate they naturally inha-
bit. A potato, which is a tropical root, re-
tains this delicacy of constitution, and there-
fore freezes much more quickly than an
apple or a beet, both of which are natives
of cold climates, and have constitutional
or vital capacity of resisting frost. The
trunk of the mahogany tree is one of the
firmest, closest, and least sappy known, yet
this tree will not bear the least exposure to
a northern winter, while the poplar and the
willow, counted among the softest wooded
trees, full of juices, will bear the winters
even of the frigid zones.

The important fact that we intended to
convey in the note referred to by our cor-
respondent, is that of two given trees of the
same species, only partially hardy, or which
are liable to injury in winter, that which
had thoroughly elaborated its juices by an
early growth well matured, is, as experience
has repeatedly proved, in a much better
condition to resist the action of frost, than
another which has made a late growth, and
is more or less replete with watery fluid or
crude sap. — Ed.

Varieties of Pears. — T. Rivers, of the
celebrated Sawbridgeworth nursery, Eng-
land, has about nine hundred varieties of
the pear under trial. Robert JVIanning, of

Salem, Massachusetts, had about eight hun-
dred. Probably not forty of all these are
fully first rate, or worthy of extensive cul-
tivation.

DESTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF FORESTS.

207

THE DESTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF AMERICAN FORESTS.

BY J. W. DAWSOX, PICTOU, NOVA SlOTIA*

The changes produced by the agency of
civilized man, in the condition of the earth's
surface, and the numbers and distribution
of its living inhabitants, though not of great
importance when compared with those which
result from the unceasing operation of na-
tural causes, are interesting to the natural-
ist, as they illustrate the vicissitudes which
many parts of the earth's surface have ex-
perienced in ancient times, the extent to
which plants and animals can accommodate
themselves to changes of circumstances,
and the natural compensations which have
been provided for the destruction or dimi-
nution of particular species. Inquiry into
such changes is also of importance as a
means of dispelling the mystery which fre-
quently envelopes the succession of orga-
nized beings in circumstances of physical
change ; a mystery which has induced some
naturalists to recur to the doctrine of spon-
taneous generation and the transmutation
of species, for explanations of phenomena
which if properly examined, would have
been found to result from some of the most
ordinary causes of the maintenance and
distribution of animal and vegetable life.

In North America, and especial!}' in those
parts of it forming the United States and
British Provinces, such changes have oc-
curred with great rapidity, converting, in a
few years, uninhabited forests into coun-
tries having the aspect of regions long in-
habited by civilized men. The forests have
been destroyed, their living inhabitants ex-
tirpated, or obliged to adopt new modes of
life, new animals and plants introduced and
naturalized ; and indeed, a revolution effect-
ed in all the departments of organized na-
ture, in the lapse of a single generation.
To notice a few of these changes, with re-
ference more especially to the destruction
and partial reproduction of forests, is my
present object. The facts which I propose
to state have been collected principally in
the province of Nova Scotia.

In their natural state, Nova Scotia and

* From the Edinburgh New Philosopliical Journal.

the neighboring provinces were covered
with dense woods, extending from the
shores to the summits of the hills. These
woods did not form detached groves, but
constituted a nearly continuous sheet of fo-
liage, the individual trees composing which
were so closely placed as to prevent them
from assuming full and rounded forms, and
to oblige them to assume tall and slender
shapes, that each might obtain air and
light. The only exceptions to this are cer-
tain rich and usually light soils, where the
forest is sometimes more open, and hills
too rock}' to support a covering of trees.
When viewed from the summit of a hill,
the forest presents a continuous undulatino-
surface of a more or less dark colour and
uneven form, in proportion to the prevalence
of the deep colours and uneven outlines of
the evergreen coniferas, or of the lighter
tints and rounded contours of the deciduous
trees ; and these two classes are usually ar-
ranged in belts or irregular patches, contain-
ing mixtures of trees corresponding to the
fertility and dryness of the soil. In o-eneral
the deciduous or hardwood trees prevail on
intervale ground, fertile uplands, and the
flanks and summits of slaty and trappean
hills ; while swamps, the less fertile and
lightest upland soils, and granitic hills, are
chiefly occupied by coniferous trees.

The forest trees spring from a bed of
black vegetable mould, whose surface is
rendered uneven by the little hillocks of
earth and stones thrown up by windfalls ;
and which, though usually named Cra-
dle hills, are in reality the graves of de-
parted members of the forest, whose
trunks have mouldered into the mossy soil.
These cradle hills are most numerous in
thin soils ; and are chiefly produced by the
coniferous trees, and especially by the hem-
lock spruce. There is usually little under-
wood in the original forest ; mosses, lyco-
podia, ferns, and a few herbaceous flower-
ing plants, however, flourish beneath the
shade of the woods.

The woods perish by the axe and by fire,

208

DESTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF FORESTS.

either purposel}' applied for iheir destruc-
tion or accidental. Forest fires have not
been confined to the period of European
occupation. The traditions of the Indians
tell of extensive ancient conflagrations ;
and it is believed that some of the aborigi-
nal names of places in Nova Scotia origi-
nated in these events. In later times, how-
ever, fires have been more numerous and
destructive. In clearing land, the trees
when cut down are always burned, and,
that this may be efl^ected as completely as
possible, the driest weather is frequently
selected ; although the fire then is much
more likely to spread into the surrounding
woods. It frequently happens that the
woods contain large quantities of dry bran-
ches and tops of trees, left by cutters of
timber and firewood, who rarely consider
any part of the tree except the trunk worthy
of their attention. Even without this pre-
paration, however, the woods may, in dry
weather, be easily inflamed ; for although
the trunks and foliage of growing trees are
not very combustible, the mossy vegetable
soil, much resembling peat, burns easily
and rapidly. Upon this mossy soil depends,
in a great measure, the propagation of fires,
the only exception being when the burning
of groves of the resinous coniferous trees
is assisted by winds, causing the flame to
stream through their tops more rapidly than
it can pass along the ground. In such
cases some of the grandest appearances
ever shown by forest fires, occur. The
fire, spreading for a time along the ground,
suddenly rushes up the tall resinous trees
with a loud crashing report, and streams
far beyond their summits, in columns and
streamers of lurid flame. It frequently
happens, however, that in wet or swampy
ground, where the fire cannot spread around
their roots, even the resinous trees refuse to
burn; and thus swampy tracts are compara-
tively secure from fire. In addition to the
causes of the progress of fires above refer-
red to, it is probable that at a certain state
of the growth of the forests, when the
trees have attained to great ages, and are
beginning to decay, they are more readily
destroyed by accidental conflagrations. In
this condition the trees are often much moss
grown, and have much dead and dry wood;
and it is possible that we should regard

fires arising from natural or accidental
causes, as the ordinary and natural agents
for the removal of such worn-out forests.

Where circumstances are favorable to
their progress, forest fires may extend over
great areas. The great fire which occurred
in 1825, in the neighborhood of the Mira-
michi river, in New-Brunswick, devastated
a region one hundred miles in length and
fifty miles in breadth. One hundred and
sixty persons, and more than eight hundred
cattle, besides innumerable wild animals,
are said to have perished in this conflagra-
tion. In this case, a remarkably dry sum-
mer, a light soil easily affected by drought,
and a forest composed of full-grown pine
trees, concurred with other causes in
producing a conflagration of unusual ex-
tent.

When the fire has passed through a por-
tion of forest, if this consist principally of
hardwood trees, they are usually merely
scorched — to such a degree, however, as in
most cases to cause their death ; some trees,
such as birches, probably from the more in-
flammable nature of their outer bark, being
more easily killed than others. Where the
woods consist of softwood or coniferous
trees, the fire often leaves nothing but bare
trunks and branches, or at most a little fo-
liage, scorched to a rusty brown colour. In
either case, a vast quantity of wood remains
unconsumed, and soon becomes sufficiently
dry to furnish food for a new conflagration ;
so that the same portion of forest is liable
to be repeatedly burned, until it becomes a
bare and desolate " barren," with only a few
charred and wasted trunks towering above
the blackened surface. This has been the
fate of large districts in Nova Scotia and
the neighboring colonies ; and as these
burned tracts could not be immediately oc-
cupied for agricultural purposes, and are
diminished in value by the loss of their
timber, they have been left to the unaided
efforts of nature to restore their original
verdure. Before proceeding to consider
more particularly the mode in which this
restoration is effected, and the appearances
by which it is accompanied, I may quote
from an article in a colonial periodical, the
views of Mr. Titus Smith, Secretary of the
Board of Agriculture of Nova Scotia, on
this subject. These views, as the results

DESTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF FORESTS.

209

of lon^ and careful observation, are entitled
to much respect.

"If an acre or two be cut down in the
midst of a forest, and then neglected, it will
soon be occupied by a growth similar to that
which was cut down ; but when all the tim-
ber, on tracts of great size, is killed by
fires, except certain parts of swamps, a very
different growth springs up ; at first a great
number of herbs and shrubs, which did not
grow on the land when covered by living
wood. The turfy coat, filled with the de-
caying fibres of the roots of the trees and
plants of the forest, now all killed by the
fire, becomes a kind of hot-bed, and seeds
which had lain dormant for centuries, spring
up and flourish in the mellow soil. On the
most barren portions, the blueberry appears
almost every where ; great fields of red
raspberries and fire-weed or French willow,
spring up along the edges of the beech and
hemlock land, and abundance of red-berried
elder and wild red-cherry appear soon after ;
but in a few years, the raspberries and
most of the herbage disappear, and are fol-
lowed by a growth of firs, white and yellow
birch, and poplar. When a succession of
fires has occurred, small shrubs occupy the
barren, the kalmia or sheep-poison being
the most abundant ; and, in the course of
ten or twelve years form so much turf, that
a thicket of small alder begins to grow,
under the shelter of which fir, spruce, hac-
metac (larch), and white birch spring up.
When the ground is thoroughly shaded by
a thicket twenty feet high, the species which
originally occupied the ground begin to pre-
vail, and suffocate the wood which shelter-
ed it ; and within sixty years, the land will
generally be covered with a young growth
of the same kind that it produced of old."
Assuming the above statements to be a cor-
rect summary of the principal modes in
which forests are reproduced, we may pro-
ceed to consider them more in detail.

1st. Where the wood is merely cut down
and not burned, the same description of
wood is immediately reproduced, and this
may be easily accounted for. The soil con-
tains abundance of the seeds of these trees,
there are even numerous young plants rea-
dy to take the place of those which have
been destroyed ; and if the trees have been

Vol. II. 27

cut in winter, their stumps produce youn^
shoots. Even in cases of this kind, how-
ever, a number of shrubs and herbaceous
plants, not formerly growing in the place,
spring up ; the cause of this may be more
properly noticed when describing cases of
another kind. This simplest mode of the
destruction of a forest, may assume another
aspect. If the original wood have been of
kinds requiring a fertile soil, such as maple
or beech, and if this wood be removed for
example, for firewood, it may happen that
the quantity of inorganic matter thus re-
moved from the soil may incapacitate it, at
least for a long time, from producing the
same description of timber. In this case,
some species requiring a less fertile soil may
occupy the ground. For this reason, forests
of beech growing on light soils, when re-
moved for firewood, are sometimes succeed-
ed by spruce and fir. I have observed in-
stances of this kind, both in Nova Scotia
and Prince Edward Island.

2dly. When the trees are burned, with-
out the destruction of the whole of the ve-
getable soil, the woods are reproduced by a
more complicated process, which may occu-
py a number of years. In its first stage,
the burned ground bears a luxuriant crop
of herbs and shrubs, which, if it be fertile
and not of very great extent, may nearly
cover its surface in the summer succeeding
the fire. This first growth may comprise a
considerable variety of species, which we
may divide into three groups. The first of
these consists of herbaceous plants, which
have their roots so deeply buried in the soil
as to escape the effects of the fire. Of this
kind is a small species of Trillium, whose
tubers are deeply imbedded in the black
mould of the woods, and whose flowers may
sometimes be seen thickly sprinkled over
the black surface of woodland very recent-
ly burned. Some species of ferns, also in
this way occasionally survive forest fires.
A second group is composed of plants whose
seeds are readily transported by the wind.
Of this kind is the species of Epilobium,
known in Nova Scotia as the fire-Aveed or
French willow, whose feathered seeds are
admirably adapted for flying to great dis-
tances, and which often covers large tracts
of burned ground so completely, that its

210

DESTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF FORESTS,

purple flowers communicate their own colour
to the whole surface, when viewed from a
distance. This plant appears to prefer the
less fertile soils, and the name of fire-weed
has been given to it, in consequence of its
occupying these when their wood has been
destroyed by fire. Various species of Soli-
daga and Aster, and other composite plants,
and Ferns, Lycopodia, and Mosses, are
also among the first occupants of burned
ground, and their presence may be explain-
ed in the same way with that of Epilobium ;
their seeds and sporules being easily scat-
tered over the surface of the barren by
wind. A third group of species, found
abundantly on burned ground, consists of
plants bearing edible fruits. The seeds of
these are scattered over the barren by birds
which feed on the fruits, and finding a rich
and congenial soil, soon bear abundantly,
and attract more birds, bringing with them
the seeds of other species. In this way, it
sometimes happens that a patch of burned
ground, only a few acres in extent, may, in
a few years, contain specimens of nearly
all the "fruit-bearing shrubs and herbs indi-
genous in the country. Among the most
common plants, which overspread the burn-
ed ground in this manner, are the raspber-
ry, which, in good soils, is one of the first
to make its appearance ; two species of Vac-
cinium, called in Nova Scotia, blueberries ;
the tea-berry wintergreen {Gualthena pro-
cumbens) ; the pigeon berry [Cormis cana-
densis) ; and the wild strawberry. It is not
denied that some plants may be found in
recently burned districts, whose presence
may not be explicable on the above modes ;
but no person acquainted with the facts,
can deny that all the plants which appear,
in any considerable quantity, within a few
years after the occurrence of a fire, may
readily be included in the groups which
have been mentioned. By the simple
means which have been described, a cloth-
ing of vegetation is speedily furnished to
the burned district ; the unsightliness of its
appearance is thus removed, abundant sup-
plies of food are furnished to a great varie-
ty of animals, and the fertility of the soil
is preserved, until anew forest has time to
overspread it.

With the smaller plants that first cover

a burned district, great numbers of seedling
trees spring up, and these, though for a few
years not very conspicuous, eventually over-
top, and, if numerous, suffocate the hum-
bler vegetation. Many of these j'oung trees
are of the species which composed the ori-
ginal wood, but the majority are usually
difl^erent from the former occupants of the
soil. The original forest may have consist-
ed of white or red pine ; black, white or
hemlock spruce; maple, beech, black or
yellow birch, or other trees of large dimen-
sions, and capable of attaining to a great
age. The " second growth " which suc-
ceeds these, usually consists of poplar,
white or poplar birch, wild cherry, balsam
fir, scrub pine, alder, and other trees of
small stature, and usually of rapid growth,
which, in good soils, prepare the Avay for
the larger forest trees, and occupy perma-
nently, only the less fertile soils. A few
examples will show the contrast which thus
appears between the primeval forest, and
that which succeeds it after a fiie. Near
the town of Pictou, woods chiefly consisting
of beech, maple and hemlock, have been
succeeded by white birch and firs. A small
clearing in woods of maple and beech in
New Annan, which, thirty years ago, was
under cultivation, is now thickly covered
with poplars thirty feet in height. In
Prince Edward Island, fine hardwood forests
have been succeeded by fir and spruce.
The pine woods of Miramichi, destroyed
by the great fire above referred to, have
been followed by a second growth, princi-
pally composed of white birch, poplar, and
wild cherry. When I visited this place, a
few years since, the second growth had at-
tained to nearly half the height of the dead
trunks of the ancient pines, which were
still standing in great numbers.

As already stated, the second growth al-
most always includes many trees similar
to those which preceded it, and when the
smaller trees have attained their full height,
these and other trees capable of attaining a
greater magnitude, overtop them and final-
ly cause their death. The forest has then
attained its last stage, that of perfect reno-
vation. The cause of the last part of the
process evidently is, that in an old forest,
trees of the largest size and longest life have

DESTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF FORESTS.

211

a tendency to prevail, to the exclusion of
others. For reasons which will be after-
wards stated, this last stage is rarely attain-
ed by the burned forests, in countries be-
ginning to be occupied by civilized man.

In accounting for the presence of the
seeds necessary for the production of the
second growth, we may refer to the same
causes which supply the seeds of the smaller
plants appearing immediately after the fire.
The seeds of many forest trees, especially
the poplar, the birch, and the firs and spruces
are furnished with ample means for their
conveyance through the air. The cottony
pappus of the poplar seems especially to
adapt it for this purpose. The seeds of
the wild cherry, another species of frequent
occurrence in woods of the second growth,
are dispersed by birds which are fond of
the fruit ; the same remark applies to some
other fruit-bearing species of less frequent
occurrence. When the seeds that are dis-
persed in these ways fall in the growing
woods, they cannot vegetate, but when they
are deposited on the comparatively bare
surface of a barren, they readily grow ; and
if the soil be suited to them, the young
plants increase in size with great rapi-
dity.

It is possible, however, that the seeds of
the trees of the second growth may be al-
ready in the soil. It has been already stat-
ed, that deeply buried tubers sometimes
escape the effects of fire, and, in the same
manner, seeds imbedded in the vegetable
mould, or buried in cradle hills, may retain
their vitality, and being supplied by the
ashes that cover the ground, with alkaline
solutions well fitted to promote their vege-
tation, may spring up before a supply of
seed could be furnished from any extraneous
source. It is even probable that many of
the old forests may already have passed
through a rotation similar to that above de-
tailed, and that the seeds deposited by for-
mer preparatory growths may retain their
vitality, and be called into life by the favo-
rable conditions existing after a fire. This
is a point, however, requiring for its esta-
blishment a series of experiments which I
have not yet been able to undertake.

If, as already suggested, forest fires in
the uncultivated state of the country, be a
provision for removing old and decayed

forests, then such changes as those above
detailed, must have an important use in the
economy of nature, since by their means
difierent portions of the country would suc-
ceed each other in assuming the state of
" barrens," producing an abundance of
herbs and wild fruits suitable for the suste-
nance of animals which could not subsist
in the old forests ; and these gradually be-
coming wooded, would keep up a succession
of young and vigorous forests.

Sdiy. The progress of restoration may be
interrupted by successive fires. These are
most likely to occur soon after the first burn-
ing, but may happen at any subsequent
stage. The resources of nature are not,
however, easily exhausted. When fires
pass through young woods, some trees al-
ways escape ; and so long as any vegetable
soil remains, young plants continue to
spring up, though not so plentifully as at
first. Repeated fires, however, greatly im-
poverish the soil, since the most valuable
part of the ashes is readily removed by
rains, and the vegetable mould is entirely
consumed. In this case, if the ground be
not of great natural fertility, it becomes in-
capable of supporting a vigorous crop of
young trees. It is then permanently occu-
pied by shrubs and herbaceous plants ; at
least these remain in exclusive possession
of the soil for a long period. In this
state the burned ground is usually consid-
ered a permanent barren ; a name which
does not, however, well express its charac-
ter, for though it may appear bleak and
desolate when viewed from a distance, it is
a perfect garden of flowering and fruit-bear-
ing plants, and of beautiful mosses and
lichens. There are few persons born in
the American colonies, who cannot recall
the memory of happy youthful days spent
in gathering flowers and berries in the burnt
barrens. Most of the plants already refer-
red to as appearing soon after fires, conti-
nue to grow in these more permanent bar-
rens. In addition to these, however, a
great variety of other plants gradually ap-
pear, especially the Kalinia august) folia; or
sheep laurel, which often becomes the pre-
dominant plant over large tracts. Cattle
straying into barrens deposit the seeds of
cultivated plants, as the grasses and clo-
vers, as well as many exotic weeds, which

212

DESTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF FORESTS.

often grow as luxuriantly as any of the na-
tive plants.

Lastly. When the ground is permanently
occupied for agricultural purposes, the repro-
duction of the forest is of course entirely pre-
vented. In this case, the greater number of
the smaller plants found in the barrens disap-
pear. Some species of the Solidago and As-
ter, and the Canada thistle, as well as a few
smaller plants, remain in the fields, and some-
times become troublesome weeds. The most
injurious weeds found in the cultivated
ground, are not, however, native plants, but
foreign species, which have been introduced
with the cultivated grains and grasses ; the
ox-eyed daisy or white weed, and the crows-
foot or buttercup, are two of the most abun-
dant of these.

When a district has undergone the last
change, when the sombre woods and the
shad,e-loving plants that grow beneath them,
have given place to open fields, clothed
with cultivated plants, the metamorphosis
which has taken place extends in its effects
to the indigenous animals ; and in this de-
partment, its effects are nearly as conspi-
cuous and important as in relation to vege-
tation. Some wild animals are incapable
of accommodating themselves to the change
of circumstances ; others at once adapt
themselves to new modes of life, and in-
crease greatly in numbers. It was before
stated, that the barrens, when clothed with
shrubs, young trees and herbaceous plants,
were in a condition highly favorable to the
support of wild animals ; and perhaps there
are few species which could not subsist
more easily in a country at least partially
in this state. For this reason, the transi-
tion of a country from the forest state to
that of burned barrens, is temporarily favo-
rable to many species, which disappear be-
fore the progress of cultivation ; and this
would be more evident than it is, if Euro-
pean colonization did not tend to produce a
more destructive warfare against such spe-
cies than could be carried on by the abori-
gines. The ruffed grouse, a truly woodland
bird, becomes, when unmolested, more nu-
merous on the margins of barrens and clear-
ings, than in other parts of the woods. The
hare multiplies exceedingly in young second
growths of birch. The wild pigeon has its

favorite resort in the barrens during a great
part of the summer. The moose and cari-
boo, in summer, find better supplies of food
in second growth and barrens than in the
old forests. The large quantities of decay-
ing wood, left by fires and woodcutters, af-
ford more abundant means of subsistence
to the tribe of woodpeckers. Many of the
fly-catchers, warblers, thrushes and spar-
rows, greatly prefer the barrens to most
other places. Carnivorous birds and qua-
drupeds are found in such places in num-
bers proportioned to the supplies of food
which they afford. The number of instan-
ces of this kind might be increased to a
great extent if necessary ; enough, has,
however, been stated to illustrate the fact.
Nearly all the animals above noticed,
and many others, disappear when the coun-
try becomes cultivated. There are, how-
ever, other species which increase in num-
bers, and at once adapt themselves to the
new conditions introduced by man. The
robin {Tardus migratorius) resorts to and
derives its subsistence from the fields, and
greatly multiplies, though much persecuted
by sportsmen. The Fringilla nivalis, a
summer bird in Nova Scotia, becomes very
familiar, building in out-houses, and fre-
quenting barns in search of food. The
song sparrow and Savannah finch, swarm
in the cultivated ground. The yellow-bird
[Sylvia cBstiva) becomes very familiar, of-
ten building in gardens. The golden-
winged woodpecker resorts to the cultivated
fields, picking grubs and worms from the
ground. The cliff-swallow exchanges the
faces of rocks for the eaves of barns and
houses ; and the barn and chimney-SAval-
lows are every where ready to avail them-
selves of the accommodation afforded by
buildings. The acadian or little owl makes
its abode in barns during winter. The
bob-lincoln, the king-bird, the waxwing or
cherry bird, and the humming bird, are
among the species which profit by the pro-
gress of cultivation. The larger quadru-
peds disappear, but the fox and ermine still
prowl about the cultivated grounds, and the
field-mouse {Arvicola pe?msylvanica,) which
is very abundant in some parts of the woods,
is equally so in the fields. Many insects
are vastly increased in numbers, in conse-

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

213

quence of the clearing of the forests. Of
this kind are the grasshoppers and locusts,
which, in dry seasons, are very destructive
to grass and grain ; the frog-spittle insects
(Ctrcopis,) of which several species are
found in the fields and gardens, and are
very injurious to vegetation; and the lepi-
doptera, nearly the whole of which find
greater abundance of food, and more favo-
rable conditions in the burned barrens and
cultivated fields, than in the orrowingr woods.
It may be remarked in general, that there

is no animal, frequenting in Europe the
cultivated grounds, and either beneficial or
noxious to man, which has not, in the indi-
genous species of America, an exact repre-
sentative, filling its place in the economy
of nature, and often in a natural, historical
point of view, closely related to it. This re-
sults from a general sameness of arrange-
ment in the system of nature in the old and
new world ; and if studied in its details,
would form a subject of great interest to the
zoologist and physical geographer.

REMARKS ON GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.— No. 5.

BY DR. \VM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I

Having adduced the authority of Liebig, to
show that the humus of the soil is not taken
up by the roots of plants as nutriment, and
suggested to the gardener some of the
means and experiments by which he may
bring the accuracy of the theory to the test,
we propose to dismiss the subject, and, at
the same time, to lay aside and altogether
repudiate the term humus as applied to the
garden, leaving the agriculturist to retain it
or not, at his pleasure. It matters little
what is said or thought of a subject which
the mind cannot understand ; and as the
horticulturist avails himself of substances
little used on the farm, our remarks shall
be confined to them exclusively.

What then is manure, and how does it
operate on the produce of the garden ? The
questions are by no means easily answered,
and they apply in a two-fold direction. Eve-
ry one versed in general horticulture must
be perfectly aware that the same soil, the
same enrichment, (or " dress " of whatever
kind it may be,) will operate very different-
ly upon plants in the open ground, and
when confined in pots. Take, for instance,
that staple of the garden, virgin loam, and
let us refer to the evidence, on this point,
of Mr. James Main in the British Farmers'
Magazine, April 1841, p. 93. He says ;

" Newly reclaimed lands, whether from
old pasture, fallen woods, or commons, or
fresh loam dug from pits, are all, for a few
years, exceedingly productive, without as-
sistance from manure or other treatment,
save digging or ploughing. This virtue of
maiden soil, be it what it may, is at last
dissipated by repeated cropping ; and then
the land must be refreshed with a dress-
ing of some kind of manure. I have never
read or heard of any trial having been
made by chemists to analyze maiden earth,
with a view of ascertaining what that par-
ticular quality is that proves so exciting and
beneficial to vegetation. Its effects are well
known to all cultivators. Trenching and
trench plowing are the ordinary means for
gaining upon the surface an additional stra-
tum of virgin earth ; and the good effects
which follow sooner or later, are sometimes
attributed to the true cause, namely, the
addition of new, untired earth, though, by
others, it is said to be owing to the increas-
ed depth of the staple." The new stratum
is undoubtedly the exciting agent, and elu-
cidating his argument by agricultural data,
Mr. Main then asks, " What is that property
of maiden earth, which z/;Aena<'Va^e6? proves
so exciting and nutritive to the roots of
plants ? It cannot be humus, that is decay-

214

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

ed vegetable matter, unless very ancient
indeed, and deposited contemporaneously
with the chalk formations ; for I have found
it reposing un chalk in considerable masses,
which seemed to have felt no disturbance
since the deluge, and in situations where
no enriching fluid could be received, and
yet for the sustentation of plants, whether
native or exotic, it is invaluable. It would
be well, if by chemical analysis, any light
could be thrown on the matter. Perhaps
it may be some simple body, which can be ar-
tificially collected, and applied with less
trouble and equal effect, as more ponderous
materials."

If any of our readers can retrace the as-
tonishing effects of a loam raised by the
spade in trenching from a depth of nearly
two feet, and which had evidently lain undis-
turbed for centuries, upon a crop of any of
the cabbage tribe, he will be satisfied with
the truth of Mr. Main's remarks.

On such a loam, yellow or brown-orange
in colour, void of any traceable fibre, and
to a demonstration free from a particle of
any substance that could bear the name of
manure, potatoes, cabbages, broccoli, and
the like, will thrive with a rapidity, verdure
and luxuriance, that nothing can excel.
What then, we inquire, chemically, has
been, and is the exciting agent ? Such a
loam is composed chiefly of insoluble sand,
of perhaps one-fourth of alumine, or the
matter of pure clay, of oxide of iron, (the
colouring material,) and generally of a
small percentage of chalk (carbonate of
lime.) Now any or all of these, however
varying in their proportions, are little solu-
ble in water ; but the loam so constituted,
if Liebig's authority be proof, invariably
contains a proportion of vegetable alkali,
potassa, of which substance, wherever it be
found in the vegetable organization, it is the
sole source and parent. Here then, Mr.

Main's most valuable suggestion is realised;
for a body, though not absolutely simple, a
chemical agent is discovered, which being
extremely soluble, is most energetic and
potential in its effects upon the vegetable
fluids. We are, therefore, justified in con-
cluding that to potassa may be ascribed
those luxuriant results which are the sub-
ject of inquiry.

But such a loam, however invaluable to
vegetable culture, producing that flavor
and purity which can never be obtained
from manure in any form, will not avail in
pot culture ; it is altogether too binding and
intractable. The principle, nevertheless,
remains in full force, therefore the judicious
gardener has recourse to the turf taken off
the purest loam of a common or grass pas-
ture ; this he lays up in mass, turns, incor-
porates, and finally uses with its fibrous re-
mains. Hence he obtains the best soil in
a form and temperament that will give
freedom to the progress of the roots, and
yet has not lost one particle of those salts
which play so important a part in the eco-
nomy of vegetation.

But does his soil become paler during a
course of culture ? Does it in any way pre-
sent signs of impoverishment ? Certainly
not ; it acquires depth of tint, it gains humiis,
and, after a time, the colour is darkened by
several shades, proving that carbon has been
deposited — not abstracted. Yet new soil is
soon required ; and again a prudent addi-
tion of fresh turf, and frequently assisted
by the whitest sand, will renew the energy
of vegetation, and, simultaneously, all the
corresponding phenomena. We have now,
though conscious of much ignorance of those
wondrous causes which are ever varying
their " ceaseless change," presented our
readers with matter for deep reflection, and,
we dare hope, for profitable inquiry and ex-
periment.

SELECT LIST OF FRUITS.

215

The next great natural agent, to the con-
sideration of which our remarks are natu-
rally led, is water. In importance, perhaps,
it ought to hold the precedence, though
treated numerically as second to earth. Its
composition and agency may induce others
to arrive at the same conclusion. Few per-
sons, in this age of reading, consider water
as a simple element; every chemist knows
it to be a compound, consisting of the two
great elementary principles, hydrogen and
oxygeyi, two parts of the first, one of the se-
cond, and both estimated by their volume
or measure. But the question now arises,
what are hydrogen and oxygen ? The re-
ply is simple, (yet expressive of ignorance :)
— they are the constituent elements of that
fluid which might be regarded as the first
of created things — water.

The sublime experiments of Professor
Faraday have shown that this all impor-

tant fluid is the standard measure of elec-
trical developments. His " Experimental
Researches into Electricity " should be read
with deep attention by all who would under-
stand this most interesting subject. The
electrical hypothesis of water, may now be
regarded as clearly proved ; consequently,
it may be viewed as the grand agent of all
terrestrial meteorology ; as the depository
and medium of that elementary fire or es-
sence, which, through the primary agency
of solar light, is the vital, stimulating prin-
ciple of vegetable development and growth,
and coincidentally, as the instrument by
which all manuring substances are brought
into a condition to furnish the liquid aliment
that is absorbed by the roots of a plant, and
which we term sap.

We shall continue this subject in the
next number. Wm. W. Valk.

Flushing, L. /., Oct. 1847.

A SELECT LIST OF UNIMPEACHABLY GOOD FRUITS.

An unknown correspondent, in Pittsburgh,
writes us as follows: — "I am just in the
midst of the improvement of a new place.
My house is finished, my garden laid out,
and now I am sitting at my table, up to my
elbows in nursery catalogues — some of them
almost books in size ; and, shall I confess it,
I am rather puzzled than aided in making
a selection for my fruit garden. Among
so many 'splendid,' ' first rate,' ' delicious'
varieties, how am I to choose the few that I
really want ? Especially does this become
difFicult, when I look into the thing a little
more closely, and observe that Mr. A. of
Long Island casts a cloud of doubt over
what Mr. B. of Western New-York consi-
ders of the highest excellence ! In this di-
lemma, may not I, and other readers of
your journal, (and undoubtedly there are

many in my position,) look to you for a lit-
tle impartial advice ? Tell those, for exam-
ple, who, like myself, don't wish to go into
the fruit growing business, but merely to
stock a small fruit garden with choice fruit,
and choice fruit only, what sorts we may
plant that will be sure to give us the worth
of our money, and not to disappoint us,
whatever may be our soil, in other words,
unimpeachable sorts. This may be difficult,
but it is to you we naturally apply in our
difficulties of this nature."

Our correspondent asks for a selection not
easily made, when he requires a list of
fruits of the first " quality, whatever may
be the soil." To give such a list requires
a great deal of observation, and large ac-
cumulation of facts in fruit culture, from
all parts of the country. The favorite fruit

216

SELECT LIST OF FRUITS.

of one section is not unfrequently found al-
together rejected in another; and several
of the most celebrated fruits in the world
demand soil of a certain composition and
certain depth, or they are of no value.
Where these soils are found, they are, on
the other hand, priceless.

Still it would be wrong to say, that som.e-
thing cannot be done for the guidance of
those who are in the dilemma of our Pitts-
burgh correspondent ; and since he has ap-
pealed to us for assistance, we will give him
a brief select list of fruits that are, in our
opinion, " unimpeachably good in all
soils."

We do not, by this, intend to have it un-
derstood, that we think any list can be pre-
pared that will, in fact, be "unimpeachable"
— for fruit cultivators have their whims and
hobbies like other men, and the complete
success of particular sorts in their own soil,
is a more powerful argument in their favor,
to their minds, than the eulogies of a thou-
sand other fruit-growers. But there are a
few fruits which have won a large vote, by
their uJiiformity of character — a uniformity
based upon excellence, hardiness, and pro-
ductiveness— that we think may be safely
commended to those who wish to plant only
a small collection, and do not desire to run
the risk of having indifferent sorts in their
garden or orchard.

Our list of Apples would include the fol-
lowing : Early Harvest, Early Strawberry,
Williams' Favorite, Gravetistein, Porter,
Baldwin, Ladies' Sweeting, Rhode Island
Greening, Roxhury Russet.

The list of Pears would embrace the fol-
lowing: Bartlett, Beiirre Bosc, Dix, Fon-
dante d' Automne, Gray Doyenne, Louise
bonne de Jersey, Seckel, Beurre d''Aremberg,
Winter Nelis.

The list of Plums as follows : Bleecker^s
Gage, Gee's Golden Drop, Diapree Rouge,

Green Gage, Jefferson, Lawrence's Favorite,
Smith's Orleans, Purple Favorite,

The list of Cherries as follows : Bau-
mann's May, Black Tartarian, Black Ea-
gle, Downer's Late, Downton, Bigarreau,
Elton, May Duke.

The list of Peaches as follows : Early
York, George IV., Grosse Mignonne, Coo-
lidge's Favorite, Bergen's Yellow, Royal
George, Old Mixon Freestone, Large White
Cling.

Of Apricots the following : Moorpark,
Breda.

Of Nectarines the following : Elruge,
Early Violet.

This selection is small, and the practised
eye will detect the omission of many of our
favorite varieties. For example, among
Apples, the Newtown Pippin, and the Fall
Pippi7i, are both, in their season, fruits of
unrivalled excellence. Yet, though they
succeed well in many parts of the country,
and in some districts are the source of large
profits, in others they fail almost entirely,
from a want of adaptation in the soil. If
the list were intended only for our corres-
pondent at Pittsburgh, we should also re-
commend the White Doyenne Pear; but
this finest of fruits, since it fails in so many
places on the sea-board, can be no longer
counted among the miimpeachables ; and so
with several others.

Again, there are some new fruits, of such
remarkable excellence, that they eclipse, in
our estimation, most of those in these select
lists. But as they have not yet been tested
extensively in various parts of the country,
it is impossible to pronounce positively on
their adaptation to general culture. Among
these are the Oiwndaga and Van Moris'
Leon le Clerc Pears, the Early Joe and Nor-
thern Spy Apples, etc., of hardy and vigo-
rous habit; there can, however, be little
doubt, that experience will hereafter give

HINTS ON TRANSPLANTING.

217

them as foremost a place for uniform har-
diness and productiveness as for hic^h and
delicious flavor.

It would be easy to swell our select list
to double its size. But then we should have

had partial doubts as to some points regard-
ing several sorts to be named. As it stands
now, it may be considered as vouched for
by the most intelligent cultivators in various
sections of the country, besides our own.

HINTS TO THOSE TRANSPLANTING TRESS.

We have great satisfaction in observing
that the old system of crowding the roots
of trees into holes of the smallest possible
size, is abandoned by every intelligent
planter in the country ; that the public ge-
nerall}'' begin to understand, that plants re-
quire food as imperiously as animals ; and
that in proportion as a soil is poor, thin,
heavy, or impenetrable to the delicate fibres
or spongioles which mainly collect nourish-
ment from the soil, is it necessary to dig
large and deep spaces for the roots of trees,
and supply the soil with manure or rich
composts.

There are, however, still one or two
points in the practice of transplanting, that
are by no means thoroughly understood,
and upon which some of the best cultiva-
tors are not fully agreed.

One of these is, whether the head or
branches of a transplanted tree should he
pruned at the time of plaiiting .«'

Theoretically, it is undoubtedly true, that
pruning is unnecessary and even improper,
since there is naturally an exact balance or
proportion between the amount of roots and
branches of a healthy tree.

In Lindlei/s Theory of Horticulture,
touching this point, the author remarks : —
" The great point to attain in the first in-
stance, [in a transplanted tree] is the reno-
vation of the roots, and that will happen
only in proportion to the healthy action of
the leaves and buds ; if, therefore, the
VOL. II. 28

branches of a plant are removed by a prun-
ing knife, a great obstacle is opposed to
this renovation; but if they remain, new
roots will be formed in proportion to their
healthy action. The danger to be feared is,
that the perspiration of the leaves may be
so great, as to exhaust the system of its
fluid contents faster than the roots can re-
store them, and in careless transplanting,
this may doubtless happen ; in such cases,
it is certainly requisite that some part of the
branches should be pruned away ; but no
more should be taken off' than the exigency
of the case obviousl}^ requires ; and if the
operation has been well performed there will
be no necessity whatever."

This is sound theory, and we confess that
we have so much I'espect for the natural
symmetry of branches belonging to a Avell
shaped tree, that we are alwaj-s inclined to
lean to the side of the largest protection
and the least mutilation.

But practice has also its laws — its laws
based on circumstances not always fore-
seen by theory — and laws so imperative as
not to be neglected without serious loss or
damage.

Tile question that practice immediately
propounds to theory, in tlie business of
transplanting, is how many roots mav be
lost in taking trees out of the ground, with-
out demanding a rigid pruning of the
branches ?

The only case of transplanting which

218

HINTS ON TRANSPLANTING.

can be considered perfect — that is to say,
in which the natural balance of roots and
branches is completely preserved, is when
a plant in a pot is transplanted with its
ball of roots entire. In this instance, since
not a root is lost, the plant suffers no check,
and hence this kind of transplanting may
be performed successfully at any season.
But every one familiar with the transplant-
ing of trees and shrubs, as it is, and must
be ordinarily performed, verj^ well knows
that it is difficult or impossible to preserve
all the roots — and that, except in the case
of favorite specimens, removed with espe-
cial care, a very considerable portion of the
delicate fibres most essential to the supply
of nourishment is lost.

Such being the case, (even in what is
considered in this country, careful trans-
planting,) how much should the branches
of the tree be reduced to keep up the ba-
lance ?

A good deal of attention to this subject
within a few years, has forced us to believe,
against our earlier opinion, that a pretty
severe shortening back of the head of a
tree, is most decidedly beneficial, in all
cases, except where the tree is so young
that it has suffered no loss of roots in
removal, or where the operation of lak-
ing it up has been performed with such ex-
traordinary care as to preserve the balance
of roots and branches.

There are also other circumstances be-
sides the disturbance of the natural propor-
tion of these parts of a tree, which have a
decided influence on its success and vigo-
rous growth after being transplanted.

The most important of these is the mois-
ture of the climate. As it is well known
that slips or cuttings of many trees and
shrubs, will take root readily in a moist
season, or in a damp situation, which almost
entirely fail in a dry one, so the facility

with which transplanted trees take root and
recover their normal condition of growth,
is far greater in a moist climate than in a
dry one. Hence, it is evident, at a glance,
that, in a country as moist as Great Britain,
transplanting is much more easily perform-
ed, and trees will much more rapidly reco-
ver from the shock of removal, than in a
country where there is more solar heat, and
a less frequent and copious supply of rains.

This accounts, no doubt, for the very
strongly marked difference in the practice
of England and the Continent, in trans-
planting trees. While in the former coun-
try, trees, and trees of large size, are most
frequently removed with their heads entire,
or nearly so, in France and Germany it has
long been the practice (commended too by
by such able physiologists as De Candolle
and Thouin,) to head back the tops of
transplanted trees, in the severest manner,
before planting them.

In a dry climate, and under the influence
of bright sunshine, it is much more neces-
sary to reduce the branches equally with
the roots, since the perspiration of the
leaves in the latter case is double that in a
moist climate. Indeed, not only do the
buds and leaves perspire, but the whole of
the bark of the younger branches suffers a
loss of fluids through its pores in a dry
atmosphere.

Hence, as it is evident from theory alone,
when these circumstances are all considered,
it is only by reducing the head that Ave can
prevent this excessive drain upon the fluids
collected by the roots of the newly moved
tree, which, if too great, must prove fatal to
its life.*

For the last two seasons, an orchardist on
the Hudson, who is a pretty extensive plan-

* It is owing to this disproportion, that many trees in this
country, which start into leaf, and grow very well till July,
die when the greater perspiration of the leaves takes place in
that month.

HINTS ON TRANSPLANTING.

219

ter of trees, has conducted some experi-
ments, suggested by us, with a view to ar-
rive at some satisfactory conclusions upon
this subject, based upon practical data.

In 1846, he planted, in an orchard upon
good mellow wheat soil, ISO apple trees.
They were received from the nursery in the
usual condition — that is, with the roots in
fair order' — but of course, like all nursery
trees, somewhat shortened by the spade in
digging.

They were all carefully planted in well
prepared holes. Before planting, one-half
of their number had their tops shortened
back, so as to leave only one bud of the
previous season's wood. The others were
planted in the usual way, with their heads
entire. The season was, on the Avhole,
quite favorable. Of the ninety trees that
had their heads pruned at the time of plant-
ing, only two died, and they nearly all made
fine shoots — many of the latter, eighteen
inches long. Of those that were planted
with their heads entire, eight died ; and
though the rest started into healthy foliage,
yet some of them lost the ends of their
branches, few or none of them made shoots
exceeding six inches in length, and not one
of them had the deep green and luxuriant
appearance at the end of the season, which
the other half of the orchard presented.
This, the second year's growth, is scarcely
less markedly in favor of the pruned trees.
They have now, not only larger and finer
heads than those left untouched, but their
heads are decidedly better shaped, and they
are more luxuriant and promising in their
general aspect.

The second experiment was tried this
spring, on a small orchard of 78 peach trees.
The trees were of pretty large size, being
three years old from the bud. The site is
a warm dry southern slope of a hill. One
half the trees were headed back so much

as to reduce their whole heads one-half,
taking ofT the better part of two years'
growth : the remainder were planted with-
out any reduction of the top.

The season being drier than the last, the
difference is more strongly in favor of the
pruned trees than in the first experiment.
Only one tree died of the thirty-nine that
were so severely headed back, and the re-
maining thirty-eight have made fine bushy
heads of new shoots. Twelve died of the
thirty-nine not pruned, and of the remain-
der many have lost parts or the whole of
the upper portion of their branches.

It would appear, from these experiments,
that by pruning off a part of the head of a
transplanted tree, not only is the natural
balance restored, and too great a drain
~upon the roots prevented, but that a stimu-
lus is given to the vital action, which re-
sults in the production of stronger and
more luxuriant shoots than would other-
wise have been produced. All the juices
of the plant are necessarily expended in
the growth of a few buds, instead of many
— and a few strong and healthy shoots
start out, instead of many feeble ones. The
advantage holds good for more than one
season, for as the sap flows more freely
through the large sap-vessels of a thrifty
shoot, than through the small and com-
pressed sap-vessels of a feeble shoot, it fol-
lows, that the pruned tree, with its luxu-
riant young growth, will be in a much bet-
ter condition to conduct the circulation of
the juices which impel the growth of the
plant in the coming spring, than the other,
which has only short and stunted branches.

We have had a good illustration of this
effect of pruning upon the vital action of a
newly planted tree, in our own garden the
present season. In removing an Osage
Orange tree, about twelve feet high, with
the trunk of the thickness of a man's arm,

220

HINTS ON TRANSPLANTING.

we determined, in order to improve the
shape of the head, to reduce the branches
very considerably on one side only. Those
on the opposite side were left at their full
length. Tiie tree expanded its leaves late,
but upon the portion headed back, they ex-
panded much earlier than on the remaining
part. About the first of July, young shoots
were pushed forth on all the pruned bran-
ches— while the unpruned branches began
to show symptoms of failing entirely, by
the shrivelling of the bark, and pale-yellow-
ish color of the leaves. We then headed
back these branches also. The good effect
was almost immediately felt. The perspir-
ing system of the tree was reduced to an
equality with the absorbing, and all the
fluids taken up by the roots were directed
to the growth and nutriment of a few buds,
instead of a great number. The tree is
now covered all over with a thrifty growth
of young wood — though the shoots are, of
course, by no means so long as they would
have been, had the shortening back been
applied to the whole top in the beginning.
Looking at these practical demonstra-
tions (with others that we have not room to
detail at present,) we are obliged to say,
that we must recommend, for this climate,
the Continental rather than the English
mode in transplanting. We think, in all
cases, where the roots of the trees are large,
and they have not been removed with un-
usual care, or where they are small and
have lost a portion of their roots in the re-
moval, a corresponding part of the branches
should also be pruned away before replant-

ing them. In small trees, it will usually
be quite sufficient to shorten back half the
current year's growth ; in larger trees dou-
ble that quantity may be cut off with ad-
vantage ; and in particular cases, where
but half the roots, owing to carelessness
or bad management, have been obtained,
half the top should also be cut off, to pre-
serve the balance, and thereby the life of
the tree.

In pruning trees during transplanting, a
judicious pruner will not dock, or cut off
the top with an absence of all care or res-
pect of natural form, as if he had brought
them to a guillotine, but he will shorten
the branches equally on all sides, so as to
preserve the native proportion of the head
— or rather, so that when the new branches
begin to grow, they may speedily be able
to reproduce the natural symmetry again.

The only trees that must, we think, be
excepted from these remarks, are ever-
greens, and especially resinous evergreens,
or the Pine and Fir tribe. They suffer so
much less by perspiration of the leaves on
transplanting than deciduous trees, owing
to the much smaller surface of foliage,
which they present, and the fewer pores
in the leaves themselves, that a reduction
of the branches is by no means necessary
or proper in most cases. When we add to
this, that the leading shoot once destroyed,
is seldom replaced by evergreen trees,
without a loss of the entire symmetry of
the tree, it will be seen that they require
treatment entirely different, in some res-
pects, from the deciduous trees.

The Baldwin Apple. — A correspondent
says this fine apple does well in Western
New-York, which has a climate much simi-

lar to that of Massachusetts ; but at Cleve-
land, Ohio, it suffers from specks of black
or dry rot, like those in the Fennock.

ON PRESERVING GRAPES.

221

ON PRBSERVIl^G grapes for "WINTER USB.

BY W, WILLIAMS, NEW-YORK.

Dear Sir — The Isabella and Catawba grape
vines are among' the most valuable fruit
trees known to Americans ; for I am inclin-
ed to doubt greatly, if any other tree will
bear so large and so regular a crop as they
do, in all soils and in all sections of the
country, except the upper part of New-Eng-
land, where the climate is too cold for them.

They have been multiplied within the
last ten years so much, in some of the At-
lantic States, that there is now hardly a
farmer's garden without one or more of
these vines. In many farmers' dooryards
I have noticed, with much pleasure, the
Isabella grape, trained over a trellis in
front of the kitchen or dairy, so as to make
a cheap or very ornamental kind of veran-
dah, such as you may see in Italy.

There are but few, however, of those
who raise this prolific grape, who are aware
how much the season in which ripe grapes
are fit for the table, may be prolonged by a
little care and management. Indeed, for
my own part, I consider the ease with
which these two grapes may be kept for
winter use to be one of the strongest re-
commendations to their culture.

I will, if you will allow me, detail two
modes of preserving these native grapes,
that I have, for three years past, practised
with success. They are, no doubt, fami-
liar to many of your readers, but as I very
seldom meet with this pleasant fruit at any
of my neighbors' houses in winter, I con-
clude that it will also be new to many
others.

At my farm, a few miles from the city, I
have an ice-house well constructed, which
keeps a supply of ice through the whole
year. In this I practise one mode of pre-

serving grapes. This mode is applied to
those which I wish for more immediate use,
say from the season of frosts till near
Christmas.

I have, in this ice-house, a series of open
shelves, made of thin and narrow strips of
pine, so as to form slender lattices. As
soon as there is danger of a frost which
might injure the grape, (in general early
in October,) I have the grapes for this pur-
pose carefully picked, and laid in single
layers on these lattice shelves in the ice-
house. There the temperature is so low
and regular, that no perceptible change
takes place for a long time, and I am there-
fore, able to supply my table every day
with grapes, as fresh, to all appearance, as
when picked, for a month or six weeks af-
ter they are usually to be had in market.

The second mode is calculated to pre-
serve them for a longer time. By its means,
I usually have a good supply from Christ-
mas to March, and have once or twice kept
them quite sound till April.

It is very simple. The grapes should be
gathered a little before full maturity — say
the last of September here. A fine windv
day should be chosen, and the fruit sliould
be picked and packed away, quite dry, as
upon this depends their keeping well. You
should be provided with a proper number
of small boxes, holding about a peck each,
grape jars, or champagne baskets — the lat-
ter answer the purpose well, if lined loose-
ly with paper before using them. I put a
layer of cotton in the bottom, and then a
layer of grapes, and so alternately till the
box is full ; I then cover with a layer of
cotton, and fasten the cover down with
nails or otherwise.

222

THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS.

I do not find it best to endeavor to exclude
the air entirely. Decay takes place sooner
when that is done. For the same reason I
have found it better to choose small boxes,
such as may be opened every week, as
wanted for use, rather than larger ones.

As it is considered by my family no mean
addition to the dessert, these grapes in abun-
dance in winter, I have no doubt there are
numerous readers of the Horticulturist who
will put this simple process of preserving
them into practice. I ought to add, before
closing my letter, that the boxes should be
kept in a dry airy place, free from frost.
Your obedient, W.Williams.

New- York, Oct. 11, 1847.

[We will add a single practical sugges-
tion to the foregoing remarks. Our corres-
pondent does not state in what for?n the
cotton is to be employed. We have been
in the habit of preserving these native
grapes much in the same way, for winter
use, ifor ten or fifteen years past, and we
find that the prepared sheets of the cotton
wadding, to be found in all dry-goods shops,
are much preferable for the purpose to the
cotton batting generally employed. The
former is equally soft, and its glazed sur-
face prevents the fibres of cotton from ad-
hering to the grapes, which is always the
case when the later is used. — Ed.]

THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS.

BY MR. GLENNY.*

The soil in which the Hyacinth is so suc-
cessfully grown in Holland is doubtless,
the alluvial soil of the place, but much is
done by dressing it. Naturally, a grey,
sandy and not very rich earth, it requires
then twice its bulk of manure, which is
three-fourths cow dung, and one fourth ve-
getable mould. In England, the nearest
we can get to perfection, in the way of
compost is rotted turfs, not cut more than
three inches thick originally, and allowed
to lay in heaps till the vegetable parts have
become mould ; this should be rubbed
through a coarse sieve that would let a
marble through, and as it falls through on
the heap, some one ought to be on the
watch to detect the wireworm or grub, for
they show very plainly as the earth falls
through on the heap, and runs down the
sides. One half of this compost, and the
other half made up of two parts cow dung,
and one part clean, well-washed sand, will
grow the Hyacinth as well as they are
grown in Holland [The common white
sand of the sea-shore, is much the best for
bulb composts. — Ed.] The compost must

* From the London Horticultural Magazine.

be well mixed, and should lay together all
the warm months, in a: situation where it
can have all the sun, and be turned over
several times.

Preparation of the Bed. — In September
dig out a space four feetjinSvidth, and as
long as the number of bulbs to be planted
in one bed require, reckoning that fourteen
grow in every foot of length, namely two
cross rows of seven in a row. Let the
depth be two feet, and the place well drain-
ed. At the bottom, put three inches' thick-
ness of cow dung, or horse dung rotted into
mould or thoroughly decomposed ; the dung
from an old melon or cucumber bed will
answer; upon this put the compost from the
heap already described, and fill it up three
inches above the surface of the ordinary
ground, for the compost will subside ; tow-
ards the end of the month, it will have sunk
a good deal, and more must be put on, so
as to make it quite level with the surface
of the other ground.

Arrangement of the Bulbs. — To make a
bed look to the best advantage, you must
choose such bulbs as will all blow in one
season, that is to say, at one time, for no -

THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS.

22S

thing looks worse or more completely mars
ihe effect of a bed, than to have some
blooming, and others not showing colour in
the early season, and some decayed, while
the others are in flower when it is later.
The colour should be diversified according
to arrangement, and it would be well to
get all the varieties of the same length or
near it. The arrangement that would be
most effective is that described below ; it
is impossible to give a better contrast in
each row, or from row to row. It is also
desirable to limit the varieties to one of each
colour, that is to say, the dark blue only one
sort, the light blue only one sort, and so on,
each colour being represented by only one
kind. The subjoined is the arrangement
proposed :

dark red while

light red

dark
blue

light red

while

^ '.dark red

white

light red

white

dark red

>•«»- 1 K

dark red

white

dark red

light
blue

dark
blue

yellow

light
blue

dark red

light
blue

yellow

lighi red

dark
blue

yellow

light
blue

yellow

dark
blue

white

light red

dark

blue

yellow

dark

blue

light red

The same may be repeated as often as
the length of the bed requires. Experience
may enable a person in time to improve
greatly upon the first appearance, by adopt-
ing more than one variety of each colour,
but it is better not to attempt it at first.
The compost being quite level with the
other part of the garden, the bulbs are to
be placed six inches apart every Avay, and
the best way to mark the place is to strain
a line down the centre of the bed, and draw
a slight drill or make a mark by merely
pressing the line to the soil, by drawing the
back of the rake along it ; then stretch it
in the same way six inches off, and by the
repeating this, making the seven long
marks. The cross marks may be made by
pressing a straight rod in the soil slightly
at six inches apart all the way down. On
the points where the lines cross each other
place the bulbs, and press them gently into
the soil, so that they may not move when
you cover them up ; when they are all
placed, put in some pegs at the different

Fig. 32. The Double Hyacinth.

parts of the bed, the tops standing six in-
ches above the base of the bulbs, and make
up the soil to that height all over the bed.
By rights, the bed should be boarded round
with a six inch rim to fix on, for then the
compost to cover in with would be so easily
regulated. Have hoops or irons across the
bed, to enable you to cover them against
frost and heavy falls of snow or hail, and
it is worth while to have a stage over them,
and a cloth like those for tulips and car-
nations.

Management i/p to Bloomhig time. — The
only necessary attention now is, to protect
them against bad weather through the win-
ter months ; and for this purpose litter of
any kind will answer all November, De-
cember and January. In February or
March, according to the season, they will
be above ground, and then the mats or
cloths must be used ; because the bloom
buds, if affected no other way, will be
greatly stunted in size by frost, [In this
climate the spring opens much later, and
there is little or no danger of injury to the

224

THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS.

buds after they appear. — Ed.] As the
blooms begin to show colour, they must be
shaded from the violent heat of the sun and
from strong winds ; it may be necessary to
place sticks, and tie up the stems of the
taller kinds, but they cannot be too dwarf
for beds. As the bloom advances they
must be shaded from the sun, for it would
materially shorten the period of their flow-
ering if they were exposed to its scorching
rays.

Jlfter Blooming. — The whole of the cov-
ering should be removed as soon as the
perfection of the bloom has gone, and the
plants must have the benefit of all the rain
and air till the leaves turn yellow. They
may then be taken up in as many baskets
as there are sorts, and as a simple mode of
doing it, perhaps the best way would be to
take up one sort at a time, because there
can then be no mistake ; the kinds all
form lines in particular directions, and the
roots are so large, that there is no danger
of missing any, like tulips, which occasion-
ally elude our vigilance, however careful
we may be. The bulbs should be taken to
a shady place under cover, and be laid out
to dry off, and remain there until the foliage
is completely dead, after which they should
be trimmed, that is, the stalks and leaves
should be cut close, and the fibres pulled
off, and the offsets taken away ; they may
then be put away for the season of rest.

Treatment of Offsets. — Prepare beds simi-
lar to those for blooming the finer bulbs,
and plant the offsets in the same number
of rows, but thej^ may be three inches in-
stead of six inches apart, one of the
ways, whether across or lengthways is im-
material in respect of the bulbs, but proba-
bly it is best to have them close in the
cross rows, instead of the long ones, on ac-
count of their being easier kept clear of
weeds. Plant them so as to be four or five
inches covered. When they are up, any
that show bloom should be deprived of all
the buds but one or two at the top of the
truss or spike ; one is enough if you can
ensure it, though two are left until it is seen
that the top one will stand. These beds
need not have any protection beyond a little
litter of some kind loosely laid upon the
top. When the foliage has decayed down,
the bulbs may be taken up as the matured

ones are, and the whole sorted ; the larger
ones to be put in six inches apart instead of
three ; they are to be replanted and treated
similarly each year, until they arrive at the
size which is marketable, and this may be
generally told by the size of the spike,
which ;should be reduced to a single top
pip, season after season, until it will come
sufficiently large to look well with the ma-
tured bulbs. The object of depriving the
spike of all its buds but one, is to throw the
strength that would be divided among the
flowers into the bulb itself.

Monthly Operations. — January. — The
bulbs being in the ground, and requiring
nothing but protection from hard frosts,
should be covered with litter of some kind,
\^Old tan bark or dry leaves will answer. —
Ed.]

February. — A continuation of protection
being all that is required, the litter need not
be removed until the plants are breaking
through the surface.

March. — The beds may now haA^e the
sun, and all the air, if there be no frost ;
but must have the litter replaced on doubt-
ful evenings, lest a frost should come on in
the night. As soon as they are well up,
the earth should be stirred between the
roots, the compost being well crumbled,
and laid close round the stems.

April. — The flowers will be developing
themselves rapidly, if the spring has been
mild, and the past winter genial. Before
the flowers are opened, Avarm showers will
be beneficial ; afterwards they would only
damage the bloom. The main roots will
continue in bloom a long time, if carefully
shaded. The offset bnds must be looked
to, and the pips reduced on each spike to
one or two of the top ones ; so also must
seedlings that are beginning to flower.
Younger seedlings, as well as the beds ge-
nerally, must be carefully weeded.

Maij. — When the bloom has passed the
perfection, sufficiently to be no longer ap-
preciated for show, the coverings must be
taken off, but until then the sun should
never be allowed to shine on the open flow-
ers. An arid sun and moderate rain are,
however desirable for the perfecting of the
bulbs. Keep every thing clear of Aveeds.
Mark any seedlings that are likely to be
useful as additions to the present varieties.

THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS.

225

Ju7ie. — This month the foliage will in
general decay enough to allow of the bulbs
to be taken up and placed in the shade to
dry ; those, however, which are seeding,
will not be so far advanced, they will keep
growing until the seed is almost ripe ; of
course there must be exceptions in favor of
such plants. We have seen nearly every
flower in a bed seed, and the plants keep
growing till a late period; but if seed is
not desired, the pips of bloom should be
picked off as soon as the cloth is removed,
or the other coverings taken away.

July. — This month they will have dried
sufficiently to be deprived of their decayed
foliage and stems, and be placed in bags.
Seeds may be gathered of such as are
standing out, and the bulbs taken up as
soon afterwards as the leaves die down.

Augiis.t. — Turn out all the compost from
the beds, and lay it in ridges on each side,
to be turned over occasionally to sweeten.

September. — Examine your bulbs, and
sort them for planting. Never plant a
doubtful one in the best bed, as it is obvious
that in an arrangement so uniform, a missed
bloom or a decayed plant would be a great
eyesore.

OctoJier. — Plant the best bed and all out
beds and offset beds ; if there be any rea-
son for keeping bulbs out of the ground, a
month is no object, but this month is the
best ; from this time all the beds, especial-
ly seedlings, and beds of seed, must, at
any cost be kept clear of weeds.

Noveviber. — Plant whatever may have
been kept out of ground till now, and sow
seed if not done already. Cover the seed-
lings and small offset beds with litter.

December. — Repeat the November treat-
ment all through.

Properties of the Hyacinth. — Some of
these are already appreciated a little, but
none sufficiently distinct. There are a ievf
of the present varieties which have long
spikes of flowers, and those very compact
— both of which are desirable — but they.
for the most part, have very ill-shaped pips.
There are others which have very prettily
formed pips, of a great size, but they are
far apart on the spike, and some hang awk-
wardly ; and those who exhibit the flower,
know but little as to what caprice is to de-
VoL. II. 29

cide their fate ; but as the time when the
flower can be seen forced has arrived, and
the period for showing in pots is approach-
ing, we take the opportunity of defining a
little the properties which should be esteem-
ed ; as nearly all the points have been at-
tained in different flowers, there is every
reason to hope, that as soon as we persevere
in raising seedlings in this country, and
force the Dutch to follow the example, we
shall make rapid advances toward obtainino-
several properties in the same flower. We
commence with the pip.

Each pip or flower should be round, and
not ragged. The petals should be broad,
thick, blunt at the ends, not pointed, and
reflex enough to throw up the centre well.
The footstalk should be strong, and hold the
flower out stiffin a vertical position, that is
facing the spectator, and by no means weak,
to allow the pip to hang with the face slop-
ing toward the ground. The lootstalks
should also be of a length, to make the pips
touch each other and no more. The pips
should be large, for unless the pips be
large, they cannot touch each other with-
out verj' short foot stalks, and the flowers
would be so close to the stem, that the truss
itself would be no size. Double flowers
should have the rows of petals above each
other very regularly imbricated, so as to
throw up the centre. The outer petals,
therefore, of a double flower, need not re-
flex, and should not reflex as much as a
single one, because the centre is raised by
the second and third rows of petals.

The spike should be bold, round, com-
pact, and pjTamidal, with a number of
flowers at the bottom, gradually diminish-
ing to a single flower at the top. The
flower stem should be very strong and up-
right, and no part of it should be seen from
the lowest flowers to the top, in consequence
of the closeness of the pips to each other.

The colours should be bright, clear, and
dense, whatever the shade ; and any better
approach to scarlet, blue or yellow, than
those shades we now possess, would be
highly esteemed ; flowers with dark eyes,
very clear outsides, and those with striped
petals, would be held to be better than
selfs in general, but would give no point
against form.

226

THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS.

THE NARCISSUS.
The Narcissus is one of the most lovely of
our spring flowers. The perfume is more
powerful than that of most other flowers ;
and if there are too many in a room, it will
affect any weakly person. It appears a pow-
erful narcotic, and will give even robust
persons a slight headache. The varieties
most esteemed are those which bloom in
large clusters. Both the yellow and white
are esteemed, and many thousands are an-
nually imported from Holland, and are
grown as well in the common borders as in
pots and glasses. They make a pretty dis-
play among the early spring flowers, and
there are many different varieties which
group well. The best possible effect can
be produced by them in wildernesses, in
large rough borders, clumps and geometri-
cal gardens. The soil in which they suc-
ceed best is rich and light, but they will
grow in any thing, from sand to stiffs clay.
In light rich soil the bulbs do not deterio-
rate, and the offsets may be grown up to
maturity very soon, and they may be raised
from seed without any difficulty. But the
culture is so like that of the Hj^acinth, that
we need only repeat the directions in full,
if we desired to go into details.

There is a difference between the mode
of growing for the sake of stock, and grow-
ing for bloom. Those who grow for stock
should take up the bulbs every season, and
remove the offsets, to be planted out till
they come to maturity ; and even these are
taken up every year, and kept out of ground
some time to rest, and then planted again
at the proper season, sufficiently far apart
to enable them to swell and become good
round bulbs. On the other hand, those
who wise merely for quantity of bloom, let
them remain in their borders or beds three
years. There is then quite as much in-
crease, but the roots, from being close to-
gether, and not having room to swell, be-
come unsightly, and would not, in a gene-
ral way, do for market ; for the greater por-
tion of those imported or brought to market
in spring are for blooming in glasses, which
expose the entire bulb ; and if not hand-
some, for this purpose they would be un-
saleable. The varieties which bloom with
handsome trusses of many flowers, are

commonly called Polyanthus Narcissus ;
but there are many that flower with a sin-
gle bloom, others with two or three. The
colours simply vary from yellow to white,
some being yellow with a deeper coloured
cup, almost orange colour; others are white
with yellow cups; some are double, others
single ; some pure white — indeed one is
called the paper white, and exceedingly
pretty it is. Upon the whole, the numerous
varieties of the Narcissus form a beautiful
group, and will bloom in any way that the
ordinary spring bulbs will flower. For this
reason we have placed it among them in
the following paper on the many ways of
flowering the spring bulbs, such as Hya-
cinths, Crocuses, Tulips, and others, which
will do Avell under the same treatment.

Properties of the Narcissus. — The
great variety of this beautiful spring flower
would almost seem to defy us to lay down
general rules, yet there is no more difficulty
in imagining what would be the most beau-
tiful, than there is in any other of the nu-
merous families for which we have already
provided models of perfection.

It is very true that some Narcissus have
only a single flower, others a large bunch
— some are white, others yellow — some
have narrow petals, others broad — but all
are pointed. The only varieties, however,
calculated for florists or show flowers, are
those which have bunches or heads of flow-
ers, and a few necessary qualities would
render them beautiful objects.

First. The flowers should be circular
and large.

Second. They should expand flat, and the
cup which is in the centre should stand out
well.

Third. The petals should be thick,
smooth, firm, free from notch or roughness
on the edges, and have no points.

Fourth. The bunch of flowers should not
consist of less than seven ; the footstalks
should be of such length as to allow the flow-
ers to touch each other at the edge, and
present an even, though rounding or dome-
like surface, with one bloom in the middle,
the other six forming a circle round it.

Fifth. The stem should be firm, strong,
elastic, and not more than ten inches in
length. The leaves should be short, broad

THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS.

227

and bright. And there must not be more
than one flower stem to a show flower.

Sixth. If the variety be white, it should
be pure ; and the yellow cup should be
bright. If the variety be yellow, it can-
not be too bright.

Double fluwers, and Narcissus of nume-
rous kinds, with only one or two flowers
in a sheath, will not be considered subjects
of exhibition, except in collections of forced
flowers.

General Re7narks on the Hyacinth, the Nar-
cissus, and Bulbs in general.

There is so much similarity in the ma-
nagement required for the Hyacinth and
Narcissus, that they ought almost to be
coupled, as are Carnations and Picotees.
As there is not the diversity of colour in
the Narcissus, that we have in the Hya-
cinth, there is no temptation to grow them
in beds ; in all other respects, whether from
seed, from offsets, or in growing matured
imported bulbs, the management is the
same. But we have left a large field un-
touched as regards the different modes of
growing the Hyacinth, and confined our-
selves to the out-of-door treatment ; and re-
served what we have to say of forcing and
house-growing for bulbs in general, such as
the early kinds of Tulips, the Narcissus,
the Hyacinth, the Crocus, and other sub-
jects, that we may treat them all alike.

Of the many ways in which a bulb may
be grown, the most common are the follow-
ing : — in ivater, in pots of mould, in wet
sand, and in moss. All of these are well
in their way, but for elegance give us moss ;
for ease, water ; for a make-shift, sand ;
and for the sake of the bulbs themselves,
pots of mould.

In Water. — Fill up the glasses till the
bottom of the bulb will touch it, and con-
stantly fill up the glass as the bulb absorbs
it. The custom of putting them in the
dark has become very prevalent ; but ex-
periments which have been tried, purpose-
ly to test the advantage derived from this
plan, give no indication of its superiority.
The Narcissus, Hyacinth, Crocus, and early
Tulip, all grow well in water ; and some
that we have seen placed in a strong light
from the first, have proved as strong and
perfect as a similar number placed three or

four weeks in the dark. The notion enter-
tained is, that the roots should be developed
before the growth of the foliage begins ;
and that in the dark, the roots grow, but
the foliage does not advance materially.
We have not found this to be the case, al-
though we have, until the present season,
acted upon the suggestion. River water or
rain water is far better than water from a
well, and we have changed it every three
weeks, though filling it up as it is absorbed
by the roots will do. We have invariably
objected to putting anything in the water,
although we have seen it done by many,
for we have never seen anything gained
in colour, strength, or size of flowers.

In wet sand. — This has no other recom-
mendation than the saving of trouble, as
compared with water, among those persons
who fancied it necessary to be always
changing it; and we feel quite convinced
that the plants do not grow so strong in it
as they do in water or mould. It has one
advantage — its weight, which tends to
steady the glasses or vases in which the
flowers are bloomed. It is indeed easy to
conceive, that where a vessel is filled with
sand, which contains no nourishing quali-
ties whatever, the plant may exhaust the
fertilizing qualities of the water soon, be-
cause these must necessarily be a very
small quantity; and although it may be
filled up as often as necessary, and be kept
full, all the nourishing properties in a
small quantity must be much less than if
the whole bulk were water. There is, how-
ever, so much in the bulb itself, that the
flower and leaves will develop themselves
with a very little assistance. Nevertheless,
there is a vast difl'erencc in the strength of
a plant fully nourished, and one starved by
a limited supply.

In wet Moss. — This medium, properly
prepared, and in a proper vessel, will be
found both effective and pretty. Suppose
it to be a flower pot — the hole at the bot-
tom should be stopped ; but the wet moss
enables us to grow bulbs in almost any
shaped utensil ; a punch bowl, a salad bowl,
a deep dish, basin, or jar, will do. A little
sand at the bottom, and the moss pressed
down level with the ctlge, will be sufficient ;
the bulbs are then placed on the surface,
and rather pressed in than otherwise. If

'il28

THE HYACINTH AND NARCISSUS.

the vessel be large enough to hold half a
dozen or a dozen things, the centre may be
a Narcissus, round this six Hyacinths, round
the Hyacinths a row of early Van Thol
Tulips, and outside of all a row of Cro-
cuses, of the three different colours ; or, as
the Tulips are inclined to yellow, perhaps
blue and white alternately will do better.
The moss is to be wetted well, and fine
green picked moss should be piled up all
over the bulbs, which may be completely
hidden by it. This might be done in a
large punch or salad bowl, or round dish,
or glass milk pan. Smaller vessels may be
used with single bulbs, or with two or
three or more. The moss in which they
are placed, should be pressed down, and
need not be of the finest colour ; but that
put at top, forming a rounding surface, and
covering the bulbs, ought to be of the best
colour, and the handsomest that could be
picked ; for the moss is of itself a pretty
object, even before the bulbs throw up their
green foliage. Those who prefer to see
the bulbs, may merely put some of the best
moss between them, and not enough to
cover them.

In Pots. — It is the practice to pot bulbs
close to or above the surface, to place them
all under a heap of ashes, or sawdust, or
sand, to be taken out as they are wanted
for forcing. It is far better to obtain the
pots made on purpose, twice the height of
an ordinary pot, and to put the bulb on the
soil with the pot only half-filled ; then fill
the pot so that a good three or four inches
of compost is above the bulb : these may
be plunged in the open ground, and cover-
ed with litter. The plant begins growing
directly ; and Avhen required for forcing,
from time to time, they only want to be
placed in heat a little earlier, to make al-
lowance for the time they are coming
through the earth ; and all the later ones,
instead of having three or four inches of
yellow foliage, which has been drawn up
through the ashes or sawdust, or other me-
dium in which they have been buried, will
be found hardly through the compost, or, if
through, by no means drawn up. This ap-
plies to all the hardy bulbs, that are capa-
ble of being grown in pots. The soil
should be the same as has been recommend-

ed for beds ; and the only care required is
that of supplying water, so that the soil
should never be dry ; but as there is real
nourishment in the soil, it must not be sa-
turated with water always ; on the contrary,
the treatment should be much the same as
other potted plants, such as Geraniums,
which ought to be kept moist, but never
wet. The pots should always be kept in a
strong light, and until the flowers show co-
lour, may have as much sun as possible, and
air in mild weather, unless they are in
forcing heat, which, of course, renders this
improper. For forcing, the bulbs may be
potted as early as September, and may be
placed in heat at once ; and from that time,
till the end of December, they may be pot-
ted with pretty nearly as good success ; but
some bulbs are weakened by keeping out
till that time, and others, even of the same
varieties, may be picked out that stand very
well. We prefer, on every account, pot-
ting early, and plunging the pots to their
rims in the ordinary ground, merely cover-
ing with litter, to keep off the frost in case
of a severe one. From this situation, they
can be taken to force, as they are likely to
be wanted ; and they make far more hand-
some plants when so treated, than they do
when buried in any thing ; and the two or
three inches growth is above instead of un-
der the surface.

It onl}^ remains for us to name a few of
the best and cheapest for the different pur-
poses, always premising that every kind
will grow well in pots, but that some do
better than others in glasses.

Hyacinths. — For Glasses or pots — early :
Waterloo, d. red ; Groot Voorst, d. pale
flesh colour ; Due de Normandy, d. blue;
Alamode, d. blue ; Passe Tout, d. blue ;
Alamode, d. white; Nannette, d. white;
Grand Vainqueur, s. white ; Paix d'Amiens,
s. pink ; L'Amie de Coeur, s. purple. Later:
Panorama, d. red; Mignon de Dryf hout, d,
blue ; Lord Wellington, d. blue ; Kroon
Von Indien, d. dark blue : Pasquin, d. light
blue ; Anna Maria, d. white ; Virgo, d.
white, violet eye ; Orondates, s. light blue ;
La Balaine, s. flesh colour.

For pots only — early : Charlotte Mari-
anne, d. red ; Madame Zoutman, d. rose ;
Aimable Rosetta, d. flesh colour; Vulcan,

DOES THE BERBERRY CAUSE BLIGHT ?

229

5. light blue ; La Deesse, d. white ; Miss
Kitty, d. white, red eye. Later: Robin
Hood, d. dark blue ; Globe Terrestre, d.
liijht blue ; Susannah Elizabeth, d. blue ;
Don Gratuit, d. white ; Oq;, Koi de Basan,
d. white ; Sultan Achmet, d. white ; Bo-
quette d'Orang-e, d. yellow ; Louise d'Or,
d. yellow ; Voltaire, s. white ; St. Clair, s.
red ; Grand Vidette, s. light blue ; Prince
of Waterloo, d. Avhite.

Narcissus. — For pots or glasses : Grand
Monarque, white and yellow cups ; Czar de
Moscovi, white and yellow ; Grand Primo,
white and orange; Bazelman Major, white

and yellow ; Soleil d'Or, yellow and orange;
New Yellow Primo, yellow ; Double Ro-
man, yellow and white ; Paper White, pure
white. — Jonquills, yellow, double and single.
Early Tulips. — Smgle: Clarimond, two
varieties, rose and white ; Van Thol, red
and yellow ; New Yellow Van Thol ; Kei-
zer's Kroon, scarlet and yellow ; Paragon
Constant, rose and white ; Gold Standard,
gold colour and red. Double: Van Thol,
red and yellow ; Tournesol, scarlet and yel-
low ; La Candeur, white ; Bonaparte, dark
violet ; Crown Imperial, red and white ;
Double Yellow,

DOES THE BERBERRY CAUSE BLIGHT IN GRAIN ?

TRANSLATED FROM THE REVUE HORTICOLE.

There is a popular belief, in some parts of
New-England, that the common Berberrj'
{Berheris vulgaris) is the cause of a pecu-
liar blight, not unfrequently found in grain
fields in its neighborhood. Naturalists who
have investigated this subject, have satis-
fied themselves that there is no foundation
for this belief, as the grain blight is an en-
tirely distinct species of fungus from that
which grows upon the Berberry. The fol-
lowing remarks, by M. Pepin, from a late
number of the Revue Horticole, throw
some additional light on the subject.

The Berberry bush makes a good hedge,
and we would suggest to New-England
farmers to plant it along the roadsides, and
trim it in hedge form, instead of rooting it
out as an enemy to profitable agriculture.
There are few native shrubs more ornamen-
tal than the Berberry, when at this season
of the year it is laden with its numerous
clusters of bright red berries ; and it grows
with ease in the poorest soil. On the es-
tate of Horace Gray, Esq., at Nonantum
Hill, near Boston, there is a Berberry hedge,
which has been properly trimmed for three
or four years, and is now a capital living

fence. The following is a translation of
M. Pepin's remarks. — Ed.

The wet spring, and the frequent changes
of temperature that we experienced at the
commencement of the year 1846, did much
injury to the development and formation of
different grains, such as Avheat, rye, barley,
maize, oats, etc., which suffered much more
from the rot and smut than usual.

There are some cultivators who are not
sufficiently aware that this injury is owing
to the presence of parasitical fungi, which
develop themselves in grain, and which de-
velop themselves with more intensity when
the early spring is damp, and the tempera-
ture of the nights very cold ; these atmos-
pheric causes contribute much to the forma-
tion of mildew, and of the fungi peculiar
to these plants.

There are also many cultivators who at-
tribute this disease to the presence of
Berberry hedges, planted near the fields of
wheat and other grain for fences. But this
has been proved not to be the case : bota-
nists and physiologists have clearly demon-
strated that the fungus which grows on the

230

AN EXPERIMENT IN TRANSPLANTING.

Berberry, would not live upon grain, and
that, in short, it is not the same disease.
The same observation applies to the Savin
tree, to which is attributed the sad effects
of the disease of fruit trees, and particu-
larly of the Pear tree. To dispel this idea,
that the Berberry produced the mildew of
grain, M. le President Seguier affirms, as
a proof of the contrary, that he has on one
of his farms, a field of grain surrounded
by a hedge of Berberry, nearly 600 feet in
length, and that the grain of this field was
never affected by mildew, during the four-
teen years that the hedge remained.

In the Royal School of Alfort, several
experiments were made in 1815 and 1816,
of which the result was to place beyond
a doubt the impossibility of this injurious
influence. I have seen these experiments
repeated many times, in large parks, where
Berberry bushes of very large size were
growing, near which grain was cultivated,
and if the disease was now and then dis-
covered in it, it was always independent
of this elegant shrub, to which, in some
districts, it is to be regretted that such un-
fortunate effects are attributed.

Pepin.

AN EXPERIMENT IN TRANSPLANTING.

BY O. L., BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

We received the following communication
after our article in the present number, on
transplanting, was in type. The experiment
detailed was an interesting one, and serves
as an additional illustration of the advan-
tages of pruning transplanted trees, which
we have there pointed out. — Ed.

Dear Sir — I take the liberty of sending
you the following account of an experiment
in Horticulture, which, I think, may throw
some light on the interesting question of
pruning.

On Thursday, May 20th, of this year, a
fine plant of Lagerstroimia indica, common-
ly called " Crape Myrtle," about eight or
nine feet in height, and about fifteen or
twenty feet in circumference, around the
extreme branches, was taken up from a
warm spot in the city of Baltimore, grow-
in a private garden in a sheltered situation,
with a view to its removal to my country
seat. It was in full vigor and growth, the
branches covered with young and healthy
leaves, and the circulation going on unin-

terruptedly. The weather had been unu-
sually dry, no rain having fallen for some
weeks previously. The tree was carefully
taken up, endeavoring to preserve as much
as possible of the soil around the roots, but
without any of the previous preparation of
digging trenches, watering, etc., as recom-
mended by Mr. Perkins, for transplanting
trees in summer. The number of your
journal containing his article, indeed, was
not at hand, and the process as described
by him and executed so successfully, did
not occur to me. I made the attempt at a
venture, and with scarcely a hope of suc-
cess.

On lifting the tree to place it in the cart,
most of the soil fell away from the roots in
a loose powder, owing, doubtless, to the
long preceding drouth. In this condition a
piece of Russian bass mat was wrapped
around the exposed roots, and the tree trans-
ported a distance of two miles, one man
driving the cart, another holding by the
stem of the tree, to prevent its being blown
over by the wind.

AN EXPERIMENT IN TRANSPLANTING.

231

It was placed in a hole in the lawn, pre-
viously prepared for it, and a small quan-
tity of rich loam and well rotted manure
mingled with the soil, and the whole nicely
filled in around the roots ; the tree was
staked, and the leaves subsequently well
sprinkled over every evening from the rose
of a watering pot. This was continued for
about three weeks, the leaves, in the mean
while, drooping more and more upon the
tree, becoming flaccid and shrivelled, ex-
changing their former healthy green for a
yellowish sickly hue, and the whole ap-
pearance of the plant indicating a total fail-
ure. My gardener gave up the tree for
lost, and discontinued watering it. We
neglected it for about a week, during which
time, its speedy death appeared still more
certain.

Being particularly anxious to preserve
the tree, as I had never seen it in flower, I
determined upon an experiment, which re-
flection induced me to believe might possi-
bly save it. The mental process, and the
conclusion to which it brought me, were
something as follows : The leaves upon this
tree still remain, not one of them having
fallen, nor has any single branch of it died
outright ; in other words, there is no local,
circumscribed disease. On indenting the
bark with the finger nail, its bright green
colour sufficiently indicates that the circu-
lation still goes on. This healthy appear-
ance, however, of the inner bark, is less
evident, the more nearly we approach the
extremities of the branches, and most dis-
tinct near the base of the trunk. The ex-
treme branches, with their leaves, look de-
cidedly the worst ; that is, those most re-
mote from the central supply of sap. These
facts naturally suggested the conclusion,
that the roots still continue to take up a
certain portion of nourishment from the
ground, but that this circulating fluid, for

some reason, fails to perform its office ; fails
to undergo those changes in the leaf, which
are essential to the life and health of the
plant.

On seeking for the cause of this failure,
I attributed it to an excess of leaf — a dispro-
portion between the extent of surface ex-
posed to the sunlight, (every inch of that
surface, too, making the same demand up-
on the supply of sap,) and the diminished
supply of sap itself, occasioned by a num-
ber of the spongioles, or rootlets, having
been removed during the operation of trans-
planting. Several considerations tended to
confirm this view. In removing the plant,
the roots necessarily suffered severely, their
absorbent extremities were mutilated, so
that they are incapable of furnishing the
same amount of nutritive fluid to the body
and leaves of the tree, which they previ-
ously did with ease, while the demand for
that supply, the top of the tree being entire,
continues unabated. The leaves again
profit reciprocally, by the important func-
tion which they perform — it is as necessary
to their health that that function should re-
main uninterfered with, as to the health of
any other portion of the vegetable struc-
ture. Any deranging cause shows itself at
once, in their altered appearance. When,
from any general disease, a tree is about
to die, the leaves usually present the ear-
liest symptoms. When, in the autumn, the
capillary tubes become impervious, from
the deposition of organized matter, the
leaves fall. Again, we know, that in trans-
planting at the proper seasons, a tree is
more likely to survive, if judiciously prun-
ed, before placed in its new situation, and
probably for the same reason which I have
given above, that the proportion between
its absorbent and exhalent organs is kept
within due bounds. Pruning in midsum-
mer, when the sap is in full flow, speedily

232

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

develops new leaf buds, immediately be-
low the part removed, which grow more
rapidly than the original branch.
E^These reflections suggested the remedy to
be applied — by removing a large portion of
the foliage which now fulfils its office so
imperfectly. By adapting, in this manner,
the capacity of the instrument to the labor
demanded of it, I conceived that the object
might be acomplished. I directed the gar-
dener, therefore, to cut away unsparingly
all the upper portion of the head, leaving but
a few branches here and there. This was
done on June 26th, and the very next day I
felt convinced, from the fresh, firm, erect
aspect of the few leaves which had been

left, that the tree would survive. Some
refreshing rains about this time fortunately
assisted the progress of the cure, and I had
the satisfaction of beholding the plant, dur-
ing the past summer, studded with its large
and fragrant pink racemes, the admiration
of all visitors, to whom, as you. may ima-
gine, I enjoyed the pleasure of relating the
experiment.

As it may serve to illustrate the true
principles of pruning, or, perhaps, suggest
a practice which may be found useful in
some cases, I take the liberty of transmit-
ing it to you, agreeably to your request to
amateurs, through the columns of your
Horticulturist. Your obt. s'v't, 0. L.

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES AT PARIS.

BY L. B. PARSONS, FLUSHING, L. I.

It was on one of the most clear and beau-
tiful days, which an early spring can boast,
that, crossing the Pont d'Austerlitz, we ex-
changed the glittering showof thePaysages
and the bustling crowds of the Boulevards,
for the quiet beauty and fresh verdure of
the Jardin des Plantes. Passing through
avenues of large Linden trees, trimmed,
and presenting the appearance of beauti-
ful green arches, we wound our somewhat
devious path among the shrubs and flowers,
the well pruned hedges and noble forest
trees, that contribute to make up the tout
enseynhle of one of the most interesting ob-
jects in the vicinity of Paris. The con-
trast was indeed striking ; we had just left
the crowded streets and confusion of the
city, and suddenly found ourselves in the
midst of quietness. Nature was here in
her most varied form, and although we did
not quite like her clipped and distorted ap-
pearance, yet there was sufficient untrim-

med beauty and varied objects of interest
to occupy many days very pleasantl}'-.

This garden was founded by Louis XIIL,
and its prosperity much advanced by the
efforts of Tournefort, Jussieu, and other
eminent men. To Buffbn, however, it owes
its present perfect state, who was appointed
its superintendent in 1739. He gathered
around him many eminent naturalists, and
devoted himself zealously to the interests
of the Garden. Owing to the popular be-
lief, that it was used for the culture of me-
dicinal plants, it escaped the destructive
excesses of the French Eevolution, but was
much neglected until Bonaparte's accession
to power, when it received a fresh impulse.
By a special agreement, it was protected
from injury when the allied armies entered
Paris in 1815, and since that period it has
been continually advancing in prosperity,
under the fostering care of the government.
It is -under the control of the Minister of

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PL ANTES.

233

Fig. 33,

the Interior, from whom, or his subordi-
nates, we found it necessary to obtain tic-
kets of admission to the green-houses and
galleries. The gardea itself is open to all.
It is, perhaps, one of the most useful insti-
tutions in France, affording unusual facili-
ties to the student of natural science. It
includes very complete collections in the
various departments of Ornithology, Ento-
mology, Zoology, Mineralogy, Botany, Con-
chology. Ichthyology, and Geology. There
is a fine gallery of Comparative Anatomy,
and its anatomical collection is unsurpassed,
excepting by that at Florence, which is,
perhaps, the most perfect existing. The
Menagerie is very extensive, the Botanic
Garden is very well arranged, and the
houses for exotic plants are large, but
not equal to many we saAV in England.
There is, also, an excellent library of Na-
tural History, and an amphitheatre with
Vol. II. 30

^Oi"'-'"^'"

Entrance Avenue.

laboratory and apparatus for public lec-
tures on every branch of natural science.
These lectures are all gratuitous, and are
continued for more than half the year. It
is one of the most agreeable features of all
these French establishments of instruction,
that they are open to all, free of charge.
There is nothing of the kind in England,
or in this country, and yet if one tenth
of the sum expended in the Florida and
Mexican wars, had been appropriated to
these purposes, it would be difficult to
estimate too highly the advantages that
would accrue to all classes in this country.

Of the appearance of the garden, we
can perhaps give the reader a better con-
ception by describing its details, as they
appeared to us in passing through its ave-
nues and winding paths.

On entering the gate at the eastern or
Seine end, the eye rests at once upon the

234

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

long avenues of noble Linden trees, of
which we have before spoken, and whose
branches are so skilfully trimmed, as to
present to the observer beneath a beauti-
fully arched canopy of living green. In
the distance, at the other extremities of
these two fine avenues, is seen the cabinet
of Natural History. On the left, and along
the southern side of the garden, are fine
specimens of forest trees of various kinds,
the Coniferge being arranged separately.
Immediately in front, and extending the
whole length of the garden, are the
beds of small plants, arranged botanically,
and containing nearly all the known hardy
plants for medicinal or domestic use. There
is also a sunken space, surrounded by a
railing, which presents, at the proper sea-
son, a gorgeous display of flowering shrubs.
To the right of these, is a range of inclo-
sures, forming part of the School of Bota-
ny, and containing a complete botanical
collection — some 12,000 species — for the
use of students of this branch of natural
science. Beyond these, in the same range,
are spacious buildings for the geological,
mineralogical, and botanical collections.
Farther west, is an enclosed space, contain-
ing a pomological garden and hotbeds.
Behind these, stands a long range of con-
servatories, the form and contents of which
we may detail hereafter. Between two of
these is a broad walk, leading to two arti-
ficial elevations, one of which is planted
with specimens of every known variety of
the Coniferse. The other is called the la-
byrinth, from its winding path, bordered
by close hedges, some six or seven feet
high, and ascending to the top where the
visitor is glad to rest in a comfortable pa-
vilion with seats. From this point is a
very extensive view of the whole garden
and the city and country adjacent, and
from this point was made the drawing for

our engraving, (see frontispiece.) On this
mound, near the top, is a granite column, on
a pedestal of various minerals — a monument
to the memory of Daubenton.

Just beneath the labyrinth is a very fine
Cedar of Lebanon, apparently older than
any we saw in England. It was presented
by Collinson to Jussieu in 1734, and now
measures about ten feet in circumference,
at seven feet from the ground. Near this
is an enclosed space containing a lecture
room, the botanical gallery and a residence
for the Professors. The lecture room is
said to hold some twelve hundred persons,
while nearly double that number attend
some of the various lectures delivered there.
Near these buildings is the commencement
of the menagerie, which to many visiters is
the most attractive part of the garden. The
wild beasts are kept in a large building, and
are arranged advantageously in dens, with
strong bars of iron. They are fed regularly
at a certain hour, when there may gene-
rally be seen a crowd collected to view the
performance. The tame animals are kept
in little parks or enclosures, one of which is
devoted to each species, and a suitable
house or shelter provided for each. In one
place will be found camels, zebras and other
tropical animals, while in another our North
American bison, and various animals from
the north of Europe and Asia luxuriate in
the comparative freedom which is granted
them. The bison, however, the elephant,
and the giraffe, are kept much of the time
in a large high building, called the rotunda,
erected especially for their accommodation.
The aviary, or rather volerie, contains many
varieties of the eagle and vulture, and there
are also some very beautiful pheasants, with
ostriches, cassowaries, aquatic birds, &c.
A crowd is generally collected about the
paved pits in which are kept the bears.
Each of these is provided with a cell, and

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

235

^^r_

^

"fM-

Fig. 35. The first Green-Hnuse erected in the Garden.

a stake in the pit on which they exhibit i den is a stone building, with an immense
their clumsy feats of climbing. The most wire cage in front. In this is kept the si-
attractive spot, however, in the whole gar- 1 mian tribe, commonly called monkeys, and

236

WASHINGTON'S LETTERS.

on a fine day they are all out of their cells,
leaping and frisking^ about the cage, here
one hanging by his tail, there another by
one leg, and another, of more sedate tem-
perament, sitting with his hands folded in
all possible gravity, while in a corner will
be seen a couple affectionately saluting each
other in Kamskatkan style. But the most
amusing part of the scene to me was to wit-
ness the delight of the juvenile lookers on,
at every antic of these strange caricatures
of humanity. The little fellows would
fairly scream and caper with delight, and
when one more active monkey than the
rest would suddenly box his neighbor's ear,
or with a nut shell hit another on the nose,
their joy could scarcely be contained within

bounds. There is no forced mirth in chil-
dren, and their ringing laughter was al-
ways sufficient to draw me to the monkeys
and their play grounds.

This is one of the best arranged zoologi-
cal collections existing, and offers unusual
facilities for studying the natures and ha-
bits of animals. They are alloAved so much
liberty, and are so comfortably cared for in
every respect, that the student has many op-
portunities of seeing them under the most
favorable circumstances. There is also a
gallery containing a very extensive collec-
tion of dead animals, of which, with the
various other galleries, we must reserve a
description until another number.

L. B- Paksoks.

REVIEW.

Letters on Agricvltvre, from His Excellency
George Washington, to Arthur Young and
Sir John Sinclair, etc. Edited by Franklin
Knight, Washington, 1847. Published by the
Editor. New- York, Baker &. Scribner. 1 vol.
quarto, with plates, 198 pp.
For a long time, the halo of Washington's
civil and military glory has kept out of
view his extraordinary talent in other di-
rections. Mankind, too, are so reluctant
to allow great men the meed of greatness,
in more than one sphere of action, that
there has, we think, always been a national
want of faith regarding the pre-eminence
as an agriculturist, to which Washington
is most undeniably entitled.

We are inclined to think that, consider-
ing the great disadvantages of the time in
which he lived, he was one of the wisest,
most successful, and most scientific farmers
that America has ever yet produced.

Washington, as it is well known, was a
very large landed proprietor. Before the
Revolution, he was one of the most exten-
sive tobacco planters in Virginia. His

crops of this staple, he shipped in his own
name, to Liverpool or Bristol, loading the
vessels that came up the Potomac, either
at Mount Vernon, or some other convenient
point. In return, he imported from his
agents abroad, improved agricultural im-
plements,and all the better kind of clothing,
implements and stores needed in the do-
mestic economy of his estate. During the
Revolution, although necessarily absent
from Mount Vernon, he endeavored to car-
ry out his plans by frequent and minute
directions to his manager there.

No sooner had the war closed, than
Washington immediately retired to his
beloved Mount Vernon, and was soon deep-
ly immersed in the cares and pleasures of
the life of an extensive landed proprietor.
But it was by no means a life of indolent
repose, though upon an estate large enough
to secure him in the possession of every
comfort. The very first year after the war,
he directed his attention and his energies
to the improvement of the mode of farming

WASHINGTON'S LETTERS.

237

then in A^ogue in the whole of that part of
the country.

He quickly remarked, that the system of
the tobacco planters was fast exhausting the
lands, and rendering them of little or no va-
lue. He entered into correspondence with
the most distinguished scientific agricultu-
rists in Great Britain, studied the ablest trea-
tises then extant abroad on that subject, and
immediately carried into practice the most
valuable principles which he could draw
from the soundest theory and practice then
known. At a time when the planters were
thinkingof abandoning their worn-out lands,
Washington began a new and most excellent
system of rotation of crops, based on a care-
ful examination of the qualities of the soils
on his estate, and by substituting grains,
grass, and root crops, for tobacco, he soon
restored the soil to good condition, and
found his income materially increasing,
while his neighbors who pursued the old
system, were daily growing poorer.

Nothing was more remarkable, among
the trials of this great man's character,
and nothing contributed more to his suc-
cess in all he undertook, than the complete
manner in which he first mastered his sub-
ject, and the exact method in which he af-
terwards marked out and pursued his
plans.

In farming, this was evinced in the tho-
roughly systematic course of culture which
he adopted on his Mount Vernon estate.
This estate consisted of about 8000 acres,
of which over 2000 acres, divided into
five farms, were under cultivation. On his
map of this estate, every field was number-
ed, and in his accompanying agricultural
field book, the crops were assigned to each
field for several years in advance. So well
had he studied the nature of the soils, that
with slight subdivisions and experimental
deviations, this scientific system of rotation

was pursued with great success, from about
1785 to the close of his life.

After about four years — the most agree-
able, doubtless, of his whole life — passed
at Mount Vernon, in its improved condition,
he was again called, by the spontaneous
voice of one people to the Presidency.
Much has been said and written about the
reluctance of Cincinnatus to leave his farm,
and return to the service of the Roman
Republic ; but the sources for regret in his
position must have been small, compared
to those which Washington felt, when he
left Mount Vernon on this occasion. The
farm of Cincinnatus, which has been ren-
dered famous in classical history, was an
hereditary allotment of four acres, and its
cultivation was part of the daily toil of his
own hands. Mount Vernon, on the other
hand, was one of the largest and loveliest
estates in America ; it stood amid the rich
landscape beauty of the Potomac, its beau-
tiful lawns running down to the river, its
serpentine walks of shrubbery, its fruit and
flower garden, planted by its master's own
hands,* and its broad acres rendered pro-
ductive by an intelligent and comprehensive
system of agriculture of his own construc-
tion— think, oh ye who have never thus taken
root in the soil, how hard it must have been
for Washington the Farmer, to surrender
again, even to the flattering wish of a
whole nation, the life that he so much lov-
ed, for the hard yoke of what he felt to be
the most difficult public service !

It is the best proof of how thoroughly
devoted by natural taste was Washington
to agriculture, that instead of leaving
Mount Vernon to the charge of the excellent

* AVashixoton's residence exhibited ever}' mark of the
cultivated and refined country peiuleman. He appears to
liave had considerable ta-le in ornamental gardening ; he de-
corated his pleasure grounds with uiuch effect ; and his diary
shows that he collected und plained a variety of rare trees
and shrubs with liis own hands, and watched their growth
with the greatest interest. He employed skilful gardener*,
and pruning was one of liis lavorile exercises.

238

WASHINGTON'S LETTERS.

agent whom he had well grounded in his
own system of practice, and who could no
doubt have continued that practice with
success, he never lost sight for a moment
amid all the pressing cares of public life,
of his rural home, or his favorite occupation.
We can scarcely give a better idea of the
man and his system, than by the following
extract, touching this very portion of his life,
from Sparks' admirable biography :

" With his chief manager at Mount Ver-
non, he left full and minute directions in
writing, and exacted from him a weekly
report, in which were registered the tran-
sactions of each day on all the farms,
such as the number of laborers employed,
their health or sickness, the kind and
quantity of work executed, the progress in
planting, sowing or harvesting the fields,
the appearance of the crops at various sta-
ges of their growth, the effects of the wea-
ther on them, and the condition of the
horses, cattle and other live stock. By
these details, he was made perfectly ac-
quainted with all that was done, and could
give his orders with almost as much preci-
sion as if he had been on the spot. Once
a week, regularly, and sometimes twice, he
wrote to the manager, remarking on his
report of the preceding week, and giving
new directions. These letters frequently
extended to two or three sheets, and were
always written with his own hand. Such
was his laborious exactness, that the letter
he sent away was usually transcribed from
a rough draft, and a press copy was taken
of the transcript, which was carefully filed
away with the manager's report, for his
future inspection. In this habit, he perse-
vered with unabated diligence, through the
whole eight years of his Presidency, ex-
cept during the short visits he occasionally
made to Mount Vernon, at the close of the

sessions of Congress, when his presence
could be dispensed with at the seat of gov-
ernment. He, moreover, maintained a
large correspondence on Agriculture with
gentlemen in Europe and America. His
letters to Sir John Sinclair, Arthur Young
and Dr. Anderson, have been published,
and are well known. Indeed his thoughts
never seemed to flow more freely, 7ior his -pen
move more easily, than when he was writing on
Agriculture, extolling it as a most attractive
•pursuit, and describing the pleasure he de-
rived from it, and its superior claims not
only on the practical economist, but 07i the
statesman and philanthropist ^

The volume before us, which Mr. Knight
has given to the public, in a very handsome
quarto form, consists mainly of the corres-
pondence referred to in the preceding quo-
tation. The letters to Sir John Sinclair
are rendered more interesting by their be-
ing facsimiles, showing the fine bold hand-
writing of their illustrious author. Besides
there is some very interesting collateral
correspondence by Jefferson, Peters, and
others, throwing additional light on the hus-
bandry of that period. Engraved portraits
of General and Mrs. Washington, views
of the mansion at Mount Vernon, a map of
the farms, etc., render the volume more
complete and elegant.

It is not as conveying instruction to the
intelligent agriculturist of the present day,
that we commend this work ; for the art and
science of farming have made extraordinary
progress since this early era in the history
of our country. But it is as revealing a
most interesting and little known portion
of Washington's life and character, in
which his own tastes were more peculiarly
gratified, and in which he was no less suc-
cessful, than in any other phase of his won-
derfully great and pure life.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

239

DOMESTIC NOTICES,

The Best BtriLDiNG Materials. — Will you be
so good as to sjive us your opinion as to the most
proper materials for a dwelling house, where all
are equally convenient — whether brick, stone, or
wood : 1st. With regard to health : 2d. Cheap-
ness : 3d. Facility and propriety of ornament,
with creepers, trees, &c.: 4th. Durability, Yours,
E. Nichols, Walhonding, Ohio,

Answer. — We repeat here, in reply to our corres-
pondent, the following remarks, written by us, and
published in the American edition of " Hints to
Young Architects :"

" Of what materials to build, is one of the first
questions to be settled, when the site of the house
has been determined upon. In some parts of the
country, indeed, the abundance and cheapness of
one material, and the scarceness and high cost of
others, renders it imperative upon the majority to
employ th-^t which is most easily obtained. A
large part of the United States is still in this con-
dition, with regard to wood, which, especially in
the new States, is still so abundant as to be much
the cheapest building material. When it is neces-
sary to build of wood, our advice is, always to
choose a style which is rather light, than heavy — in
other words, one in which the style and materials
are in keeping with each other. It is as false
taste to erect a wooden building in a massive and
hea\'y style, which originated in the use of stone,
as it would be senseless to build a mock fortifica-
tion, intended to stand a real siege, whose walls
and battlements are of thin pine boards.

" In the atlantie States, however, a large por-
tion of the better class of houbes, erected within
the last five years, are of rough hard brick, cov-
ered on the exterior with a coat of cement. This
afTords, on the whole, perhaps, the warmest and
dryest house in winter, and the coolest in summer,
that can be built. The art of stucco-work, or ce-
ment plastering the exterior of the walls, formerly
badly performed, is now becoming well understood,
and when well done, (and more especially when
protected by a projecting roof,) it will last, without
repair, for twenty or thirty years. On this account
it is greatly to be preferred to wood, which re-
quires painting every third or fourth year, to pre-
serve it from decay. Any pleasing, neutral, stone
tint may be given to stucco, and thus all the eflect
of handsome dressed stone obtained, at one-fourth
its cost. There is no doubt that, from its many
advantages, brick and stucco is destined to become
the prevalent mode of building the better class of
country houses.

" Where stone of an agreeable color can be ob-
tained, we do not hesitate to give the preference to
it. It makes the most solid, substantial, and endu-
ring house, and there is, perhaps, a look of perma-
nence about a fine stone mansion, which no other
material ever has. But one would decidedly pre-
fer brick and stucco, for a cottage or dwelling of
moderate size, to stone of a cold or gloomy color,
such as dark blue limestone, or dark granite. The
expression of a cottage or villa of moderate size,

in the country, should, by all means, be that of
cheerfulness ; and, when built of a dark stone, it
can scarcely fail to be the opposite. Only in a
larofe mansion do we think dark stone can be hap-
pily employed for a dwelling house, since there it
often adds to the grandeur and dignit}' of effect. —
Some of our li{?liter freestones, like that of Trinity
Church, New-York, and that so much used in Cin-
cinnati, are beautiful building materials, which
cannot be too much or too frequently used.

'* There is a strong prejudice, we find, in the
eastern States, against stone houses, which we
think entirely erroneous, and which retards the
progress of domestic architecture ; for it is undoubt-
edly true, that this art advances in proportion as
the materials employed possess solidit}* and per-
manence. This prejudice has arisen from the bad
manner in which the old stone houses of that part
of the country were all constructed. There were
two errors in their construction ; 1st. The founda-
tion M-alls were often laid in damp or springy soil,
with common lime mortar : 2d. The interior walls
were plastered on the solid walls of the house,
without _/irriHg. Now it is impossible, that a house
built in this way, should be dry. The moisture of
the soil is absorbed by the foundation walls, and is
carried up, by capillary attraction, often as high
as the second story, and the dampness which the
outer walls absorb in long storms, passes through,
more or less, to the walls of the i-ooms. To pre-
vent the former evil, it is only necessary to lay the
foundation walls with a mortar composed of ce-
ment, or water lime, and sand, instead of the com-
mon lime and sand — this effectually prevents all
dampness being absorbed or conducted up from the
soil itself. To prevent all dampness finding its
way from the outside to the inner walls of the rooms,
what is technically called " firring oflV that is,
making a hollow space between the lathing and
the outer walls, is a most effectual and simple
remedy."

To the foregoing we will here add, that the health
of a dwelling depends almost entirely on the dryness
of the walls, and the foregoing will show how
stone or brick walls may be rendered perfectly dry
at all seasons.

As regards '' facility and propriety of ornament
with creepers, See," that is a question which re-
lates more to the style than the materials of a
dwelling. The more rural styles, such as the
English cottage, the Swiss, and the Bracketted
Italian, allow, and indeed almost require the sup-
port of the richest accessories of climliing plants,
and all the intricacies of trees and shrubbery. The
more highly finished classical modes, on the other
hand, may be surrounded by trees, but are seldom
improved by any portions of the edifices themselves
being hidden by vines and creepers.

Stune walls, or brick walls, (the latter of course
painted with some soft agreeable color,) are much
better adapted to the growth of such plants as the
Ivy, Virginia Creeper, &,c., than any others, since
wooden structures are more liable to be injured by

240

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

the growth of creepers upon them, than those built
of solid materials.

Large Chestnuts. — We are indebted to D. Tom-
LiNso.v, Esq., of Schenectady, for a sample of some
native Chestnuts, of very larjre size, which we have
planted, in the hope of producing still larger vari-
eties. Our native nuts have hitherto been kept
entirely without the pale of horticultural improve-
ment. There is no doubt whatever, that the size
of our Hickorynuts, Chestnuts, Butternuts, &c.,
may be doubled, and their flavor greatly improved,
by selecting and planting the largest and finest
seeds of such native specimens as are most re-
markable for their qualities ; and certainly fruits
so valuable in their wild state, are worthy of some
attention by the arboriculturist, and the originator
of new fruits.

Strawberries. — Dear Sir : — The writer of the
article on this subject in your last, (Wm. W. Valk,)
has never inspected my strawberry grounds, and
there is no other garden in which my rarest varie-
ties can be found. I will therefore simply add to
my previous remarks, that the two Secretaries of
the Long Island Horticultural Society, who are
highly respectable and honorable men, have very
frequently overlooked, with me, the various new
and estimable varieties of Strawberries, and if my
communications are not invariably correct, I
call upon them to controvert me. I have no wish
(unless in responding to attacks,) to trespass on the
patience of your readers, except^when I have some-
thing interesting to communicate. Wm. R- Prince,
Flushing, L. J., Oct. 15, 1847.

Queries on Hedges. — In your editorial for the
June number of the Horticulturist, you recommend
the Cedar of Lebanon, as being worthy of cultiva-
tion in this part of the United States. In an orna-
mental point of view, it no doubt possesses all the
merits you claim for it, but I wish to inquire if it
also has the everlasting property of our common
Red Cedar — in short, whether its timber would
make posts as durable as those of the Red Cedar,
(Juniperus virginiana.)

If it possesses this important requisite, I should
suppose it would be worthy of cultivation for its
tmiber alone, as its large growth would supply the
important desideratum (wanting in the Red Cedar)
of furnishing logs large enough to make timber
suitable for any purpose. (a)

A word about hedges. In this vicinity, the Red
Cedar grows naturally, and from its tiiiek habit of
growth, branching out near the ground, and the
stitfness of its timber, I have thought that it might
be successfully used for hedges. Have you any
experience on the subject ? The only thing I should
fear would be, that it would be browsed by cattle,
or would the peculiar pungent taste of its foliage
prevent this? (6)

After reading your " Chapter on Hedges," I last
spring procured from the east 1000 Buckthorn
plants, seedlings of one year's growth. The hedge
was planted alter your direction, and the plants
have grown remarkably, some of them being now
two feet high, though cut off within an inch of the

ground at the time of planting. But as yet they
are by no means in good condition to go into battle,
being totally without armour of any description. —
Not a thorn, prickle, nor point of any kind, has yet
made its appearance. Will age increase their fe-
rocity, as it does that of some animals ? and if so,
how long before I may expect them to begin to
show fight ? It is said that the medical properties
of this plant, will prevent mice from eating its
bark. Will the same cause prevent cattle from
browsing its foliage ? (c) Yours. .^ Subscriber
in Ontario Co. Sept. 29, 1847.

(a) Though the timber of the Cedar of Lebanon
was very highly esteemed by the ancients, it does
not possess the durability of the American Red
Cedar.

(6) There are miles of Red Cedar hedges on
Long Island, and in some parts of Pennsylvania.
The farmers there make a rude hedge by plashing,
or interweaving it, and it is very permanent. But
it is only when regularly sheared, or trimmed, like
the thorn, that the Red Cedar makes a satisfactory
hedge. There is a fine example of this in the nur-
sery of Mr. Jas. Wilson, near Albany, where a
specimen of the Red Cedar hedge may be seen, as
nearly perfect as any thing of the kind well can
be.

(c) The thorns of the Buckthorn are produced
at the end of the shoots, and are not much devel-
oped till the hedge has three or four years of
growth, when they arp sufficiently numerous ; trim-
ming the hedge increases their number and protect-
ive qualities every year.

Cattle will not browse upon either the Buckthorn
or the Red Cedar. — Ed.

CiNCHONiA, OR Peruvian Bark. — The prepara-
tion of this bark, sulphate of quinia, is used more ex-
tensively in the various grades of intermittent fevers,
in the west, than all other remedies, and it is a
most costly one, and often difficult to procure. —
Can quinia not be obtained from some shrub or
plant native to this country, and at less expense ?
A shrub here called wahhoo, I know not its botanic
name, is the best known substitute for quinia. It
has an unusually thick liber, of great strength, and
seems to be equally effective in the same diseases,
and requiring less dose, than of Peruvian bark, but
greater than of quinia. The next best substitute
is Boneset, {Eupatorium perfoliatum.) It seems
to me highly probable one of these, or some other
native plant, would supply this highly important
article in abundance. Are there not among your
readers scientific gentlemen, who for the good of
their country and the relief of the sufl'ering, or the
love of gain, can be induced to experiment on this
matter? E. N. Walhonding, Ohio.

Pomological Notes from Rhode-Island. —
Yesterday I sent you the Wescott pear. There
were sent four specimens of this fruit exhibited at
our annual shows, all of which were slightly too
ripe, so that its quality could not be so fairly tested
by them as desired. I fend you a description and
outline of the Abbott Seedling. I regret that we
could not furnish you a specimen of the fruit, but
we had not a single one to spare. These two va-
rieties are, in our opinion, of first rate excellence,

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

241

and surpassed by but few, ripening at or near the
same period. I also send you specimens of the
Esten apple, which we believe to be worthy of cul-
tivation.* Its flavor is so mild and agreeable as to
lead to some ditference of opinion whether it should
be called a sweet or acid fruit. The following is a
description of the

Trescott Pear. — Originated on the farm of Niles
Trescott, in Cranston, R. I. Fruit medium size,
roundish obovate, in some specimens a little flat-
tened laterally ; surface even ; skin pale green
when fully grown, becoming a light orange yel-
low as it ripens, covered with minute gray dots,
with occasional cinnamon russet blotches ; stem
from an inch and a half to two inches long, slen-
der, bent, and inserted by a fleshy nob in a very
slight depression ; calyx large, open, and placed in
a slightly plated basin. Flesh white, very fine
grained, melting, juicy, with a pleasant saccharine
flavor. It ripens from the middle to the last of
September.

Abbott Pear. — Originated in Prondence, R. I.,
from seed planted by Mrs. Thomas Abbott. Fruit
medium size, oblong obovate, resembling in form
the Washington pear ; surface even ; skin smooth,
dark green, with a reddish brown cheek, changing
as the fruit matures to a bright scarlet ; stem about
an inch in length, moderatel}' stout and slightl}'
curved, inserted in a very slight depression ; calyx
small, closed, and placed in a shallow basin ; flesh
melting, sprightly and very saccharine. It ripens
from the middle to the last of September.

Esten Apple. — Presumed to have originated in
Burrilville, R. I., on the farm of Judge Esten.
Fruit large, oblong, tapering roundly to the eye,
and slightly ribbed ; skin smooth, of a lemon color,
with an occasional blush, dotted with large green
and red dots ; the stem slender, an inch in length,
inserted in a very deep cavity ; calyx closed, plated,
and set in a shallow basin ; flesh white, fine grained,
mild, with a pleasant champagne flavor. It ripens
from October to January.

The tree is extremely vigorous and very produc-
tive, with light brown smooth shoots.

L. C. EATON,
Chairman of the Committee upon Fruits,
R, I- Horticultural Society.

Providence, Oct. 1st, 1847.

The Druid Hill Peach. — This fine late fruit
was originated by L. N. Rogers, Esq., of Druid
Hill, near Baltimore, and was first described and
made known in our Fruits and Fruit Trees. Mr.
Rogers also sent us buds of this variety, which
were propagated and disseminated in various parts
of the country.

From the fact that the trees grown from these
buds bore leaves with globose glands and not with
reniform glands, as stated in our published descrip-
tion, we entertained doubts of the correctness of
the sort. Our description was prepared from fruit
and leaves sent us when we first named the variety,
" from the original tree." And subsequently, when
we communicated our doubts of the correctness of

* [By some accident these specimeiis had not reached us
when we sent tliis to press. — Ed ]

VOL. II. 31

the .sort sent us under this name, to Mr. Rogers,
he sent us leaves for comparison. In both those
cases the leaves bore large well marked reniform
glands. On soliciting buds again this season, froii)
trees of the genuine sort, we received from Mrj.
Rogers the same variety originally sent us, viz.
that with globose glands. And having called Mr.
R.'s attention particularly to this fact, he ascer-
tained that leaves had been sent us by mistake from
trees in an adjoining row, but that the buds were
of the true sort.

In this state of doubt we naturally looked for the
ripening of some fruit on one of the trees here, of
the stock in our possession, with no little anxiety.

We are glad to be able to say, on examining and
tasting four specimens (one of them measuring nine
inches in circumference) that the buds and trees
we received from Mr. Rogers with globose glands
are all the true Druid Hill peach. And a very
delicious, high flavored fruit it is — certainly one of
the very finest of late freestones. The description
in our work is perfectly correct, in all respects ex-
cept that the leaves have globose glands — and cor-
respondents to whom we sent it will be glad to
know that they have not lost a couple of seasons in
cultivating this most excellent variety.

Bottling Insects. — We have 'seen in the
nursery of Mr. S. Pond, of Cambridgeport, the
plan adopted with success which was recommend-
ed in the Cultivator of June 6th. In many trees
common glass bottles were hung in the trees, and
filled to their necks with sweetened water, and it
proved to be an excellent and convenient mode of
destroying insects, &c., for the bottles were gener-
ally well filled with various kinds of insects, such
as beetles, millers, wasps, hornets, bees, bugs,
flies, and various other varmints of divers sorts, si-
zes, ages, colors, &c.

Enough would be caught in a few days to furnish
an entomologist of common industry with subjects
for investigation during a long life. This mode of
destruction is so easy and sure, that if generally
pursued, it must rid the world of many depredators
so as to greatly reduce their numbers. Mr. P. ob-
serves that since he practiced this plan, flies and
other in.sects have become more scarce about the
house.

We noticed one important fact in regard to these
bottles. Those that were of dark colored glass had
no insects in them, while the clear transparent bot-
tles were nearly full. Sometimes bottles bcome
so full in a lew days, that it is necessary to empty
them.

Mr. Ives catches a great many in his garden by
hanging pitchers up in trees, filled about half or
two thirds full of sweetened water. When hung
tipright the insects do not get in ; but wlicn hung
by the handle, about at an angle of 45 degrees the
plan is successful. Boston Cultivator.

A New Cherry. — My neighbor, Zera Burr,
well known for his fine collection of fruits, has ori-
ginated a cherry, which is, in my estimation, quite
superior to most of the kinds now under cultivation.
Unlike many new kinds, it is essentially distinct in

242

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

and is in season a little after several
of the best are leaving us. We
Lave comparetl it with most of
the well established varieties,
and without hesitation put it in
the same class with tlie Elton,
Bii^arreau, Black Eagle, etc.
It is the handsomest growing
tree in my collection.

Seeds of the China Bigar-
reau, and Black Heart, were
sown several years since, and
this is the product of one of
them. It bears a considerable
resemblance to the former. It
has borne for three years, and
its brilliant appearance on the
tree is very attractive.

Fruit large, obtuse heart-
shaped ; suture line distinct.
Skin thin, white, pellucid in the
shade, beautifully spotted with
carmine dots, gradually deep-
eninjr into brilliant red on the
the sunny side, with marblings
of darker red ; and speckled

with numerous lighter spot»

Fig. 3C. Burr's Seerfiing. when fully ripe. Stalk slender,
about two inches in len^rth, in a broad and shallow
cavity. Flesh white, tender, and juicy, with a sweet,
lively and delicate flavor. Ripe this season about
the first of 7th mo. (July.j Growth remarkably
stout and vigorous. It is a Bigarreau.* W. R.
Smith. Macedon, Oct. 1847.

Notes ov Strawberries. — Mr. Downing : I was
gratified to discover in your number for the present
month, an artiele on the strawberr}-, from one who
claims to be so experienced a horticulturist as Mr.
Prince. But my disappointment was great, on
reading his article, to find it abounding in errors.
They cast a shade of doubt over those parts of his
artiele, of which I had no knowledge. He says
the Eberlin strawberry is pistillate. This is a
new western seedling, of which he can know noth-
ing. This is the first season it has been distribu-
ted, as far as I am informed, and of its size and
bearing quality, we are yet unable to speak. One
thing is certain, it is not pistillate. At first view,
it would be pronounced a common staminate. But
on a close examination, it will be found to possess
the peculiar character of the JUuke of Kent — that
of having a few blossoms purely pistillate, and
wholly defective in stamens, on the same stems
with .Staminate, and perfect flowers. This pecu-
liar character, may make it a valuable variety to
cultivate with pistillates. The Hudson, he repre-
sents as staminate and pistillate, and very produc-
tive. Mr. BuisT, Mr. Carr, and other horticultu-
rists about Philadelphia, will be surprised at this.
They have cultivated it for more than half of a
century, in that vicinity, more extensively than all
other kinds united ; and now say, that it is entirely

* [If the flesh is under il can not be a Bigarreau We trusl
Mr. bMirii w.ll send gpecirneng to tlie fruil cuimruttee of 8<»iue
leading .sucieiy, aiKJ ii> us. next seasou, tljut iU merits may be
auttieutically spoken of. — lio ]

defective in stamens. The Iowa he represents as
productive. We profess to know more of this
plant, than any eastern horticulturist, as it is a
wild plant of the west. It is among the finest of
the staminates, but will, under the best cultivation
not average one-fifth of a crop of perfect fruit. —
The Jlice Maude, Buist Prize, and Boston Pine,
he represents as yieldmg a fair crop. We have
given them a fair trial, and do not find them to
equal the Iowa. The Duke of Kent, in imitation
of some English writer, he pronounces worthless.
I observe a celebrated horticulturist in New- York
city, gives it a different character. We agree
with him in opinion. It has the peculiar charac-
ter of bearing perfect, and staminate and pistillate
blossoms on the same stem. The fruit is small,
but of fine quality. Is a good bearer, and comes
in earh'. It can easily be distinguished by the stem
and leaf from all the valuable pistillate varieties,
and is on this account the most valuable to plant
for impregnation.

He pronounces the Ross Pfuenix and Swainston^s
Seedling, barren and worthless. I cannot agree
with you that they are full bearers, or will even
average one fourth of a crop of perfect fruit; but I cer-
tainly deem them as good bearers as his lowa,Alic€
Mawle, Primate, Prince Albert, and Unique ; the
three latter of which he particularly represents as
perfect bloomers, producing abundant crops oi
large perfect fruit. I shall believe he Las spoken
hastily, until he claims, and proves himself entitled
to the [iremium of $500, which I saw offered for
such a plant. If entitled to the character Le gives
them, they would be an object of great interest, and
you cannot do your subscribers a greater favor,
than by favoring them with your experience. We
have found no English staminate, that will average
one-fourth of a crop of large and perfect fruit ; not
even excepting their celebrated Keen's Seedling
and British Queen ; and are not without hope that
English horticulturists will give light^on the sub-
ject. A Subscriber. Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 15,
1847.

HouGHTo.v's Gooseberry. — Dear Sir — I have
been expecting a private opportunity to forward
you, ere this, a box of Goo.seberries, of the best
variety I have ever seen. It is so desirable a sort,
that I could not well refrain from forwarding a
sample, as I now do, by express. I regret that
the specimens are only the gleanings of four bush-
es, my whole stock of this kind. This Gooseberry
is a seedling, called here Houghton's. It, I have
no doubt, was raised from seed from our native
Gooseberry. Its leaf, as you will perceive by the
enclosed shoot, bears evidence of this origin. This
is the only Gooseberry cultivated, that does not
mildew under any circumstances. The cultivators
in Lynn, Mass., where this fruit originated, have
grown it for three or four years, and their testimony
accords with my assertion. The growth is exceed-
ingly thrifty, making long pendant shoots, similar
to an English variety called " Crown Bob." I
have nineteen table varieties, received four years
since from Cunningham & Sons, Liverpool, and for
my taste, Houghton's Seedling surpasses them all,
notwithstanding the fruit is not so large as the Eu-
ropean varieties. Most of the fruit I now send

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

243

you, wero taken from shoots grown within one inch
of the soil. I have picked at least ten quarts of
fruit from four bushes, whicii were layers two years
since.

I think that the Hovghton's Seedling will sup-
plant almost every foreifrn variety from our soil.
The lonjT shoots which spring from the bottom of
the stock, often take root themselves. It will be a
fine variety for training, as it makes long shoots,
and fruits prodigiously, even to the extreme end of
the previous year's growth. Yours very truly, in
haste. John M. Ives. Salem Jlug. 15, 1S47.

[If this is a seedling from an indigenous Goose-
berry, as it appears to be, and one which, being
entirely adapted to our climate — never mildews, it
deserves attention. We regret the berries were
heated before they reached us, so that we could
not judge of their flavor. — Ed.]

Horticultural Society of the Valley of
THE Genesee. — Report of the Committee on Flow-
ers.— Having spent the short time allowed them in
their examination of the various specimens present-
ed, they were agreed as to those who had presented
the greatest variety of choice flowers, and also
those who had arranged them with the greatest
taste ; but as many of those choice collections
were not made up of annuals, and as they were
bound to make their report in accordance with the
published regulations, it was more dilficult to ar-
rive at satisfactory conclusions.

By the fourth article of the regulations, it is di-
rected that " all articles entered for competition
shall be labelled with their name and the name of
their producer, and no specimen incorrectly named
shall be entitled to any premium."

Again, by the fifth article of the regulations, it
is directed " Nurserymen are to compete in a
class by themselves, except for floral ornaments
and green-house plants, and diplomas shall be
awarded the successful competitors with the above
exceptions."

Ladies' List, for the best Display of Annuals
during the season. — Mrs. S. G. Crane, of Roches-
ter, presented eighty-three varieties of annuals —
first premium.

Mrs. BIythe, of Rochester, presented fifty-three
varieties, all correctly named . As these were done
up and exhibited with taste, we consider her enti-
tled to the second premium.

Mrs. L. C. Fitch presented her list, thirty-one
names, yet these were mostly generic, including
many varieties.

Mrs. J. W. Bissell presented one hundred and
thirty-six varieties of annuals, twenty varieties of
perennial Phlox, and twenty varieties of other per-
ennial flowers, arranged in pyramids and bouquets
with much taste.

Mrs G. Elwanger presented one hundred and
twenty .three varieties of choice annuals, together
with many perennials.

Miss Hooker presented fifty-five varieties of an-
nuals all beautifully arranged.

Mrs. John Williams presented thirty varieties of
Dahlias, all of the choicest varieties, which were
so arranged as to call forth the admiration of all
who examined them. We doubt whether there

was ever a finer display of this beautiful flower in
Western New-York, and the collection did much
toward giving character to the fair,

Mrs. Lewis exhibited thirty varieties of Dahlias,
all very fijie, but her collection lacked a few of re-
cent introduction, which were included in Mrs.
Williams' collection, but they were tastefully ar-
ranired, iind did honor to llie donor.

Messrs. Elwanger & Barry presented sevent)'-
two most splendid varieties of Dahlias, including all
the leading varieties, many of which surpassed in
richness of colour any ever before exhibited at our
previous meetings. They also presented a large
assortment of Roses, all of the choicest varieties.
We were not furnished with tiie number or their
names, which was perhaps owing to the short time
allowed to the committee for their examination.

Wm. King ])resentcd thirty-three varieties of
Dahlias which was one of the choiceat collections
at the fair. His collection of Dahlias, and his floral
ornaments were much admired. There are few of
our fl.orists who cultivate with more taste than Mr.
King. Mrs. King presented some fine bou(iuets and
cut flowers, many of which were very beautiful.

Miss S. Shaw presented five bouquets of cut
flowers, tastefully arranged.

Miss L. J. Whitney, one hundred and forty-two
varieties of annuals, not named.

Mrs. Chappell, two pyramids.

Miss M. T. Uttley. Mrs. J. W. Johnson. Mrs. J.
F. Bush, Miss A. Fitch, N. W. Whitby, J. P. Fo<rg,
Miss S. R. Gould, Mrs. llapelje, Mrs. H. N. Lang-
worthy, Mrs. B. F. Smith, Mrs. I. Belden, fine va-
rieties, but no list.

Mrs. Billings, a splendid artificial bouquet.

Mrs. Louis Chapin, two splendid shell bouquets.

Mrs. Billings, ii .splendid collection of Pansies.

L. Wethercll, one hundred and fifty species of
wild flowers.

A splendid case of wax flowers was exhibited
without a name.

Wm. King, a splendid collection of green-house
plants ; Messrs. Elwanger and Barry, a fine dis-
play of green-house plants ; but as these were for
the season, the committee did not decide upon them.

Premiums. — The Committee awarded the follow-
ing premiums :

Native Flowers. — L. Wetlierell, one hundred and
fifty species, first iiremium, $8.

Ladies' List — 'Innvals. — Mrs. S. G. Crane, first
best display during the sea.son, $15.

Mrs. E. K. Riytiie, second best display during
the season, $10.

Decorations — Messrs. Elwanger & Barry, first
best floral ornament, $5.

Wm. King, second best do., $3.

Mrs. Billings, third best do., $1.

Bouquets. — Miss L. J. Whitney, first best table
boui]uets, $3.

Mrs. Wm. King, second best do., $2.

Mrs. J. W. Bissell. third best do., $1.

Miss S. Shaw, first Ii(!st hand bouquets, $3.

Miss Hooker, second best, $2.

Mrs. Wm. King, third best, §1.

Mrs. Billings, Pan.sies,$I.

Discretionary Premiums. — Miss L. J. Whitney,
for the best display of flowers without list, $15.

244

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Mrs. L. C. Fitch, for thirty-one species not in-
cluding varieties, $5.

31rs. E . Atkinson, Mrs. R. Sterling,
Mrs. M. Wright, F. Brown, J. H.
Watts, N. Goodsell, Committee.
Report of the Committee on Fruits. — The follow-
ing list of fruits entered for competition or exhibi-
tion, is pretty nearly correct, although in conse-
quence of some misunderstanding about the time
we were to make our examination, some collections
were presented too late, and were thus deprived of
premiums, to which they might have been entitled,
had they arrived at an earlier hour.

N. Hay ward, thirty-four varieties of Apples,
three of Peaches, one of Quinces, one of Grapes.
These were very line specimens, and received two
of the premiums ofl'ered by the Agricultural Socie-
ty-
Freeman Clark, twenty-six varieties of Apples.

A good collection, but not named.

Samuel Briggs, forty varieties of Apples, eight
of Pears.

R. H. Brown, ten Varieties of Apples, three of
Grapes .

H. N. Lang worthy, twelve varieties of Apples,
five of Peaches, one of Grapes, three of Pears.

Wm. Shephard, twenty- two varieties of Apples,
four of Peaches.

H. Hooker, twenty-one varieties of Apples, two
of Peaches, three of Grapes.

T. B. Hamilton, Isabella Grapes.

I. Belden. Isabella Grapes, and two varieties of
Siberian Crab.

J. Frazer, three varieties of Apples, very perfect
specimens.

Mrs. J. L. D. Mathies, Isabella Grapes.

E. K. Blythe. the same.

P. W. Van Alstyne, one plate Peaches.

P. Kearney, one basket Quinces.

G. W. Burbank, the same.

G. W. Currier, Isabella Grapes, and Summer Bon
Chretien Pears, very large.

D. Bowen, one plate JPeaches, and one basket of
Quinces.

R. Damon, one plate of Apples.

N. N. Treat, the same.

M. Morton, the same.

J. H. Thompson, one plate of Apples — Peck's
Pleasant.

M. B. Seward, one plate of Apples — Hawley.

M. Chapin, two varieties of pears.

Z. Cornell, by Z. O. Nelson, a large basket of
Miller's Burgundy Grapes.

L. A. Ward, sixteen varieties of Pears.

J. H. Watts, two varieties of Pears.

P. Rosecrantz, one plate Peaches.
^ H. Bush, two plates of Peaches, and two Grapes.

H. P. Norton, two plates Peaches, three of Ap-
ples, and one of Pears.

C. F. Crosman, one plate Grapes, and one of
Plums.

J. C. Campbell, Violet Nectarines.

J. H. Watts, Black Hamburgh and St. Peter's
Grapes, grown under glass at Boston.

Nurserymen. — Elwanger and Barry, Mount
Hope Garden and Nurseries, forty-seven varieties
of Apples, forty-two of Pears, nineteen of Peaches,

three of Crab Apples, Spanish Chestnuts and Ma-
deira nuts.

Powis and Goodsell, Monroe Nurseries, nineteen
varieties of Apples, and three of Peaches.

Samuel Moulson, Rochester Nursery, fifteen va-
rieties A]))dcs.

Bissell, Hooker and Sloane, Commercial Nurse-
ry, twenty-four varieties of Apples, and three of
Peaches.

Hall Colby, seven varieties of Apples, among
which were the St. Lawrence and Red Canada,
very handsome specimens ; and four varieties of
Peaches and one of Grapes.

W. B. Wilcox, three varieties of Apples.

Premiums awarded. — Apples. — Greatest variety
and best grown, H. Hooker.

Second best ditto, S. Briggs.

Third ditto, W. Shepardl

Best fall Apple, the St. Lawrence, H. N. Lang-
worthy.

Second best ditto, the Hawley, M. B. Seward.

Pears. — First premium, L. A. Ward.

Second premium, W. Shepard.

Grapes. — Greatest number of varieties, R. C.
Brown.

Best dozen bunches. T. B. Hamilton.

Best single bunch, Mrs. Mathies.

Second best ditto, G. W. Currier.

Quinces. — Best dozen, P. Kearney.

Watermelons. — Imperial, J, Donallen.

Second, Spanish, H, N. Langworthy.

Muskmelons. — Best, J. Donallen.

Nurserymen. — Best display of Apples, Pears,
and Peaches, Elwanger and Barry, a Diploma.

The Dyer Apple presented by Messrs. Elwanger
and Barry, merited more attention than most of the
Autumn Apples, being a variety lately introduced
here, certainly equal to any autumn apple in fine
flavor and richness, and superior to most of the ap-
ples presented.

S. Moulson, S. Miller ^ J. W. Bissell,
Conunittee.

Worcester (Mass.) Horticultural Socie-
ty.— The annual exhibition of this Society, was
held at Worcester, on the 23d of September. Of
the Reports, we have received only the one on
Fruits, by Mr. S. H. Colton, from which it ap-
pears that the show of Fruits was very extensive,
the number of contributions amounting to 134.
We give the following extracts from the Report :

" It cannot but be gratifying to all who take any
interest in horticultural pursuits, to witness the
constant and rapidly increasing collections of val-
uable fruits in our midst ; evincing good proof of
skillful cultivation, and correct taste and good
judgment, in selecting those varieties which are
best suited to our soil and climate. No further ev-
idence of this need be adduced, than a comparison
of the exhibition which has just taken place, with
those of former years. With a very few excep-
tions, all the fruit exhibited this year, was grown
in this county ; while heretofore, our show has
been in part made up by contributions from culti-
vators abroad.

Although, owing to their scarcity, the show of
Apples was not quite equal to some former exhi-

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

245

bitions, and fears of a failure in that department
were entertained by some, yet, taken altofjctlier,
the show of fruit this year, far exceeded that of
any former season ; and probably a better collec-
tion of all the fruits of the season, was never be-
fore exhibited in New Enj^land.

The Committee regretted that the time of hold-
injT the exliibition was fixed for so short a period ;
as no doubt many persons who would be j^lad to
attend it, could not coHveniently do so durin? the
short time it was open. It is hoped that iwodays,
at least, will hereafter be devoted to that purpose.

But, altiiouoli the exhibition was open to the
public only one day and two evenings, yet nearly
three thousand persons visited it ; evincing pretty
conclusive evidence of the interest our community
feel in the subject.

Notwithstanding the hall was constantly thronged
with visitors, and many hundreds of samples of
beautiful and temj)ting fruit, within reach of every
one, yet all seemed to feel and act as if it was
placed there to be examined with the ej'e only.
No instance of pilfering, and but little unnecessary
handling the fruit was known to occur. The Com-
mittee think it speaks well for our community, and
they take pleasure in making this statement, being
so widely dilferent from the custom in some places,
where the fruit has to be put beyond reach to ensure
its safety from being purloined."

As no premiums are awarded by the Society (al-
though it is to be hoped its funds will soon warrant
it,) the committee are happily excused from ex-
ptressing much opinion upon the respective merits
of the fruits exhibited ; and they have, therefore,
particularized but very few. It was no doubt ap-
parent to all, that there seemed to be more uniform-
ity than usual .in the size and appearance of the
varieties shown ^ and, with a few exceptions, no
person exhibited samples much superior to those
presented by others , nearly all were fair, and of
handsome appearance.

But few new seedling varieties of fruit were of-
fered for exhibition, which are worthy of particular
notice. A tine seedling peach, of a light delicate
colour and good flavor, raised by L. Cheney of
Southbridge ; and a good and handsome yellow va-
riety, raised by D. D. Prescott of West Boylston,
the Committee judged were of first quality, and
worthy of general culture. Several kinds of native
grapes were exhibited, but the committee did not
discover that they possessed sutlicient merit to war-
rant their recommending them, excepting the va-
riety called the " Fitchburg," shown by S. H. Col-
ton of Worcester, and the " Blaekstone." by Hiram
Wing of Northbridge, both of which are good and
desirable sorts.

It is much to be regretted that more attention is
not paid by cultivators to ascertaining the true
name of all their varieties of fruit exhibited ; and
although there has been some improvement in this
particular from former years, yet many fanciful
and outlandish names are often retained year af-
ter year, notwithstanding the true one may have
b&en before given.

In conclusion, the committee cannot but express
the hope that there may be no relaxation in the ef-
fort to maintain our present high reputation as a

fruit growing communit}'. Probably in no part of
the country is the climate and soil better adapted
than ours to raising in perfection all the uselul and
valuable varieties ; and with a reasonable care of
our trees, we are usually rewarded with a bountiful
crop of good fruit. ....

St. Louis Horticultural Society — Fall Ex-
hibition-— The Society met pursuant to adjourn-
ment, at tiie Laclede Saloon, on Wednesdav, the
].5tliday of Se|)tember, at 10 A.M. Thomas Al-
len, President, in the Chair.

The large saloon was well filled with a choice
variety of rare and excellent products, from con-
tributors residing in Missouri and Illinois. The
exhibition of Fruits was large, varied, and hiirhly
interesting. The specimens of Ajjples, Peaches,
Pears, Quinces, and Grapes, evinced a high state
of culture, and commendable attention on the part
of the cultivators, in the improvement of their
fruits, by the selection of the best and choicest va-
rieties, and thase most adapted to stand, and im-
prove, in this soil and climate. The exhibition of
Vegetables was al.so large and varied, and proved
beyond cavil, the fact, that with proper cultivation
and attention, the soil and climate of this section is
capable of producing to an unusual size, whilst the
flavor is preserved, and thenutritiousness increased.
The exhibition of Flowers and Plants, although not
so large as at the last exhibition, was rich in varie-
ty and rareness.

Report on Fruits. — The Committee on Fruits,
having carefully examined all the diflerent parcels
and varieties of fruits exhibited for inspection, pro-
ceed to make and submit the following award of
prizes, and accompanying remarks :

1st Prize of a Siher Cup, worth $10, for the
greatest and best variety of Fruits, awarded to
Capt. Lewis Bissell, who exhibited sixty-three va-
rieties of grafted Apples, many of them very fine ;
twenty-nine varieties of Pears, most of them good
varieties and fair fruit ; two varieties of Quinces;
four varieties of Peaches ; one of Grapes, and one
of Damsons, all good fruit. Among the varieties
of apples are the Iloxbury Russet, Golden Pippin,
White Belle Flower, Rhode Island Greening,
Green Newtown Pippin, Rambo, Romanite, York
Pippin, Newark Pippin, Jenneting, Esojius Spit-
zenburg, Golden Russet, Ortly Pippin, Jonathan,
Green Pippin, Late Queen, Taylor's Pippin, Bald-
win, and many others of fine varieties and excel-
lent fruit.

2d Prize, a Silver Cream Ladle, worth $3, for
the second best variety of Fruits, awarded to Tho-
mas Allen, Esq., who exhibited three varieties of
Grapes, the Catawba, the Isabella, and a native
grape ^ ten varieties of Pcac/ics; the Heath Peach,
the White Cling, the Large White Cling, (a seed-
ling,) Apricot Peach, a Large Yellow Peach, a fine
free stone called Crystal Spring Peach, two good
free stone peaches, names not known, and several
otiier good varieties, included in his catalogue,
herewith submitted, making the ten varieties above
mentioned, mostly very fine and fair fruit. Two
varieties of Pears ; three varieties of Quinces;
and twenty-three varieties of Apples, among which
are the Golden Pippin, Fall Pippin, Newtown Pip-
pin, the Spotted, Newark and Long Pippin, two

246

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

varieties of Spitzenburg, Rambo, Romanite, Rhode
Island Greonintj, Yellow Belle Flower, Jonathan,
Hiiji-lies' Crab, and many others, making in all the
twenty-tliree varieties, mostly sjood.

3d Prize, a Silver Cream Ladle, worth $4, tor
the greatest and best variety of Peaches, awarded
to Thomas Allen, Esq., who exhibited ten varieties
of fine peaches, as described above.

4th Prize, a Silver Fruit Knife, worth $2, for the
second best variety of Peaches, awarded to Mr.
A. A. Hillard, of Illinois, who exhibited eight va-
rieties of Peaches ; the Old Mixon Cling, Mon-
strous Pompon, Morris, Atwood's White Heath,
Black Hawk, latest of all, Mexican, and Catha-
rine, all fine fruit.

5th Prize, a Pair of Silver Butter Knives, worth
$4, for the greatest and best variety of Pears,
awarded to Capt. Lewis Bissell, who exhibited
twenty-nine varieties of Pears, mostly very fine
fruit ; among them are the Bartlet, Napoleon,
Seckel, Pound Pear, Beurre de Aremburg, Cuis-
ses Madame. Summer Bergamot, and many others,
making the twenty-nine varieties.

6th Prize, a Silver Fruit Knife, worth $2, for
the second best variety of Pears, awarded to Mr.
E. Mallinkrodt, who exhibited fifteen varieties.
The Beurre Belgique, Saint Johns, Beurre Napo-
leon, February pear, Beurre Diel, Cinnamon pear,
German Sugar pear, Beurre d'hiver. Spice pear,
Beurre Blanc, Bergamotte d'hiver, Bergamotte d'-
Automne, Rouge Saint Poire, Beurre Poire Jaune,
all fine fruit.

7th Prize, a pair of Silver Butter Knives, $4,
for the greatest and best variety of nipples, award-
ed to Geo. W. Sullivan, who exhibited twenty-
eight varieties, among which are the Pound Pippin,
Golden Pippin, Newark Pippin, Spice Pippin, Long
Green Pippin, Newark King, Belle Flower, Prior's
Red Jenneting, Codling, French Jennett, Priestly,
Hughes' Crab, Maiden's Blush, Late Queen, and
many other excellent varieties, and the fruit very
fine.

8th Prize, a Silver Fruit Knife, $2, for the sec-
ond best variety of nipples, awarded to Captain
H. M. Shreve, who exhibited fifty varieties, among
which are the New- York Gloria Mundi, Danver's
Sweeting, Holland Pippin. Newtown Pippin, Ort-
ley, Peck's Pleasant, Red Winter Pennock, Golden
Russet, Jersey Black, Belle Flower. Christmas
Pi|)pin, Pryor's Red, Padley's Pippin, Long Green,
Golden Pippin, Rhode Island Greening, and many
others as per Captain Shreve's catalogue, many of
them are fine fruit, making the fifty varieties.

9th Piize, for the greatest and best variety of
Grapes, a set of Silver Tea Spoons, $6, to Mr.
Francis Zurstrassen, who exhibited three varieties
of grapes, the Isabella. Catawba and Burgundy,
all very fine, and the bunches large, full and bright,
and the fruit finely flavored.

10th Prize, for the second best variety of Grapes,
a Silver Cream Ladle, $2, awarded to Dr. Reuben
Knox, who exhibited two varieties of grapes, the
Catawba and Cape Grape, both good specimens of
their kind, the fruit being fine and full.

11th Prize, for the greatest and best variety of
Quinces, Silver Sugar Tongs, $3, awarded to Thos.
Allen, Esq., who exhibited three varieties, the Ap-

ple Shaped, the Pear Shaped, and the Portugal, all
fine specimens, large and fair.

12th Prize, for the greatest and best variety of
Melons, a pair of Silver Mustard Spoons, $2, to
Mr. Wm. Sigerson & Brothers, for a lot of fine
Water Melons and Cantelopes, which looked ex-
ceedingly well, and proved most agreeable to the
taste, upon an impartial trial.

The Society is indebted to several gentlemen, for
specimens of fruit sent in for exhibition, not claim-
ing premiums, who are entitled to our thanks.

The thanks of the Society are due to Mr. James
Mitchell, of Belleville, Illinois, for the exhibition
of a new Pear, of superior quality, raised by him
from the seed, and named Mitchell's Russet. This
Pear resembles the Seckel, in quality, shape and
color, but it is of larger size.

The President brought to the notice of the Com-
mittee, several specimens of new fruit, which ho
had received from Judge Robert Wash, near the
close of the exhibition. One of them, called the
Christy Apple, is described as being ])articularly
worthy of the notice of the Society. Among them
was a small Pear, of good quality, raised by P.
Chouteau, Sr., and the Cahokia Butter Pear, be-
lieved to be unexcelled by any of its kind.

The Committee noticed upon the tables some
very handsome specimens of the " Ohio," or " Se-
gar Box" Grape, as it is now called in eastern
publications. It was intimated to the Committee,
that St. Louis may possibly claim the paternity of
this grape ; that the vine whence many cuttings
have been distributed, is of long standing in this
city, and early in possession of the Catholic mis-
sionaries.

The Committee may be allowed to express their
gratification with the variety and excellence of the
fruits exhibited, and with the new facts and fruits
which have been brought to notice. Nor did they
fail to observe, with pleasing astonishment, the
enormous size of several new fruits, and that also
to which many old varieties attain under the genial
influences of our soil and climate. There can be
no question of the adaptation and capacity of our
soil and climate to the production of fruit of first
rate qualities, and a plentiful supply of it, not only
for home consumption, but for an extensive foreign
market.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

The Committee on Flowers, &c., consisting of
Dr. Gempp, Salisbury and McDonald, made the
following award of premiums :

The Committee award to Mr. Florant M. Me-
line, for the greatest and best variety of Green
House Plants, the premium offered by the Society,
viz I a pair of silver butter knives.

The Committee award to Mr. Gert Goebel, for
the second best variety of Green House Plants, the
premium oflfered by the Society, viz : a silver sugar
tongs.

The Committee award to Nicholas Riehl, for the
best Parlor Bouquet, the premium offered by the
Society, viz : a silver cream spoon.

The Committee award to Capt. Lewis Bissell,
for the best Hand Bouquet, the premium off'eredby
the Society, viz : a pair of silver salt spoons.

This Committee have been preparing a more full

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

217

report on the character, variety and beauty of the
Flowers ami Plants exhibited, but have not furn-
ished it to us in time for this publication.

The Committee on \'e<j;ctables, consistinjT of C.
Semple, Dr. R. F. Barrett, and B. Martin, throu<:h
their chair. nan, Mr. Semple, made the following
report : [Which w-e are obliiifed to omit.]

After the distribution of premiums, the Presi-
dent, Mr. Allen, addressed the meeting in a brief
but impressive manner ; explaining its objects and
purposes, and forcibly illustrating the beneficial ef-
fects anticipated from its success. His remarks
were listened to with proround attention, and re-
ceived with applause.

After the articles exhibited had been disposed of,
for the benefit of the Society, in which the crowd
seemed each to vie the one with the other in mani-
festing his appreciation of the useful and beautiful,
the Society adjourned. A. B. Chambers, Sec'y.

Buffalo Horticultural Society. — The com-
mittee on Flowers and Flowering Plants, beg leave
to offer the following report : —

The September Exhibition just closed, being the
last of our Fairs, in extenso, for the season, it may
not be amiss to take a retrospective glance of the
floral season of labors, or rather pleasures, we are
closing. And first, we would remark some pecu-
liarities of the season, which may be admitted, has
been rather an uimsually short one. April and
May, and indeed much of June, was cold and un-
genial, although the Tulip show on the 27ih of May
(our first Exhibition) was regarded as a rich and
beautiful display. The sun's rays had not warmed
into active life the Floral Kingdom generally — the
beauteous Queen, when seen, had the tinge of palor
upon her cheek, nor was the strong and healthy
green and majesty of mien visible until the latter
part of June, from whence our season has been
line. A clear unclouded sky, with an occasional
refreshing rain, tarried with us through July and
August, bringing rapidly into bloom a rich profu-
sion of flowers. The Jlphides, generally so dcstrue^
tive to Roses at this period, have been less trouble-
some than is usual, and our Roses generally have
had fine blooms. This delightful class of plants
have astonishingly multi|dicd with us. Ere thi.s
society became existant, three years since, the
common garden or June Roses, with very rare ex-
ceptions, were the only Roses known here. The
present season, however, has demonstrated that
we are not behind our suburban friends in this beau-
tiful class of plants : all, or nearly all the leading
Perpetual, 2'ea, Bengal, Noisette and Bourbon
Roses that have attained celebrity either in this
country or Europe, have bloomed with us. The
Pelargoniums, too, which at the same period were
confined to some dozen of the old varieties, have
been displaced by a magnificent collection of over
fifty entire new ones, embracing every colour and
shade, forming as rich and gorgeous a display of
intrinsic beauty during their blooming season (from
May until August,) as can be well imagined. The
modest but ever charming, and ever blooming Ver-
bena, has been generally cultivated amongst us,
and has this season been multiplied to over fifty
varieties, together with some new seedlings of ac-

knowledged merit. The Fuchsia may also be re-
garded as a n(;w plant with us. Three years since,
the " Ladies Ear Dro])," Fuchsia Onagrarice, bear-
ing a pretty little pendant flower, of two or three
varieties, were greatly admired, but these have
now disappeared giving place to the more recent
splendid iiybrids, of which there arc some fifty va-
rieties among u,s. The flowers being increased
four-fold in size, and of the most beautiful varieties
and shades of colour — Paragon, Exoniensis, Ma-
jestica, Coccinea-rosea, &c., &c., are truly magni-
ficent. One of the most gorgeous of our Autumn
flowers, " The Dahlia," has this season been more
particularly introducc<l to our Society, and the mag-
nificent collection of Mr. B. Hodge has drawn forth
an universal admiration. There have been about
sixty varieties bloomed ; and would that most time
honored sire, Mr. John Frost with his linty locks,
but delay his visits to us for a few weeks longer,
we may yet anticipate a rare treat. The Dahlia
might well be denominated the Kinir of Garden
flowers, and the Rose his lovely Queen, but what
a progeny of little royalties are there in the rapid-
ly accumulating splendors of the parterre. The
Chrysanthemums are not yet in bloom, being Octo-
ber to December flowers ; and from the truly rich
varieties wp have amongst us, all originating from
the splendid collection of Mr. B. Coe, and the large
stock of Camellias that have this season found their
way hither, we have yet the material for another
Exhibition, should our Executive Committee deem
it wise.

In taking a summary of the five monthly Exhibi-
tions of the season, we find enumerated as shown,
some forty varieties of Tulips, fifty varieties of car-
nations, one hundred and fifty varieties of Roses,
thirty varieties of Pansies, over thirty varieties of
Fuschias, and over sixty varieties of Dahlias, with
some several hundred green-house or pot plants,
embracing all the choice specimens of Cactus,
Achimenes, Calceolarias, Azaleas, Pelargoniums,
Nereum Splendens, Penstemons, Rhododendrons,
Roses, Yuccas, Magnolias, &c. And of Annuals
a most gorgeous display, embracing a great many
that have never before bloomed in this part of the
country. These results of the progress of our in-
fant Society are truly gratifying to your committee,
as evidencing a rapid, discriminating taste and skill
in Floriculture, alike creditable to ourselves and to
the city generally, and may be taken as an earnest
of our future eflbrts for the propagation of this truly
delightful and social refining, rationale of intelli-
ligent society. To our Monthly Committee of Ar-
rangements, both senior and junior, embracing du-
ring the season some one hundred and twenty ladies,
are we especially indebted for their assiduous and
ever tasteful labors, in the decorations of the Hall,
in the arrangement of the bouquets, and their ready
and smiling acquiescence of the duties devolving
upon them ; and indeed it were but frank to ac-
knowledge thut to the Ladies of this Society belong
largely the honors it has received, and the success
that has accompanied it from its very existence.

At the close of the Fair, the President, Mr. L.
F. Allen, delivered a highly instructive and vale-
dictory address, giving a retrospective sketch of
the progress and well being of the Society since its

248

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

organization ; he having been its only President,
and declining a farther re-election. The address
was attcntivel}' listened to, and at the close was
warmly and afl'eetionatcly responded to. The Vice-
President being in the chair, the following resolu-
tions were adopted :

Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be ten-
dered to our President, Mr. L. F. Allen, for the
highly instructive and spirited Address we have
just heard, and that we still farther tender our
most cordial thanks for the untiring and unabated
zeal Ik- has manifested for our welfare, and the
sagacity displayed in leading us through the first
three years of our existence, to what we trust, will
be a firm guarantee of future usefulness. And,
that a copy of the address be granted the Society
for publication.

After some pertinent remarks relative to, and
seconding the resolutions adopted by the Erie Co.
Agricultural Society, urging the claims of this city
to be the place for holding the State Agricultural
Fair for 1848, it was Resolved,

That this Society appoint a Committee of eleven
to confer with the citizens and other Committees.
in relation to having the State Fair for 1848, held
at the city of Buffalo.

The following gentlemen were elected said Com-
mittee .

Lewis Eaton, Col. B, Hodge, Cha's Taintor, R.
H. Haywood, Asa Hart, J. R. Lee, W. R. Cop-
pock, J. H. Coleman, N. H. Gardner, T. R. Cou-
lon, L. Hodges.

Col. B. Hodge nominated the following names
for honorary membership of this Society : —

A. J. Downing, Esq., Newburgh, N. Y. ; Nicho-
las Longworth, Esq., Cincinnati, Ohio ; David Tho-
mas, Esq., Aurora ; Luther Tucker, Esq., Albany ;
Col. H. H. Coit, Euclid, Ohio; who were unani-
mously elected.

The contributions M'ere as follows :

Mrs. L. H. Pratt — Cut flowers, Dahlias, beau-
tiful Cockscomb, Sweet Pea, Globe Amaranthus,
&c.

Mrs. W. R. Coppock — two bouquets of green
house flowers, &.C., also, two baskets of cut flowers
for decorations, &c., composed of Dahlias, seven
varieties, (2d rate only) with double and quilled
asters, &c., &c.

Miss Hariet J. Arms — A very pretty wreath of
verbenas.

Mrs. R. McPherson — Cut flowers Phlox Drum-
mondii, Zinneas, &.c.

Mrs. L. Eaton — Bouquet composed of Petunias
very fine, Balsams, sweet Pea, Phlox, very good.
Dahlias, nine varieties ; several of these were fine
flowers.

Miss Caroline Putnam — A tasteful bouquet of
Dahlias, French Marigold, and several varieties of
prairie flowers, very pretty.

Miss Hannah Hart — A beautiful wreath of Dah-
lias, also a bouquet of Dahlias, fourteen varieties,
the most of those were very fine.

Mrs. E. H. Easterbrooks — Bouquet of fine Dah-
lias, &c.

Mrs. Chas. Howland — Two bouquets composed
of Dahlias, eight varieties, very fine, Passion flower,

Cerulia, Zinneas, Pelargoniums, Henierocallis. &c.,
very tastefully made up

Mrs. Chas. Taintor — Two baskets of miscella-
neous cut flowers.

Mrs. H. W. Rogers — Two bouquets of Dahlias,
eight varieties, tastefully made up.

Mrs. H. Pratt — Two bouquets, composed of
choice Dahlias, Roses, Geraniums, two varieties,
Althea frutex, &c.

Gen. H. B. Potter — A pan of rich and fine
Dahlias, nine varieties.

Mr. W. Webb — Eight bouquets, tastefully made,
composed of Roses in variety. Verbenas, Fuchsias,
Penstemon, Passiflora elata, very beautiful. Car-
nations, Salvia patens and fulgens, Heliotrope,
Calceolarias, Mignioncttc, Globe Amaranthus,
also two baskets of Dahlias, and a large collection
of very rich annuals. Mr. Webb's annuals are
particularl}' beautiful.

Mr. R. H. Haywood exhibited the flower of the
Hercules Club ; this tree from some cause has not
of late generally flowered with us.

Miss Mary Davis — Buffalo Nursery — Four hand
bouquets, composed of rich and choice Dahlias in
variety, Roses, verbenas, several varieties of Phlox,
the Stapelia flower. Begonias, Heliotropes, Zinneas,
Fuchsias, &c. The bouquets were very tastefully
made up.

Mr. B. Hodge— Buffalo Nursery — A case of
splendid Dahlias, containing forty varieties, also a
very tasteful pyramid of Dahlias, embracing in the
whole some 60 varieties.

These Dahlias we have before mentioned as be-
ing worthy of admiration, and did the constitution
and by-laws of our society grant premiums, we
should certainly award Col. Hodge the first one ;
we would, however, desire the Executive Commit-
tee to award to Col. Hodge, as a token of this so-
ciety's approbation for his enterprise in procuring
and cultivating this stock of Dahlias, a Diploma.

Mrs. E. Tyler — A large floral ornament on a
square frame, groundwork beautiful moss, in the
centre a large heart well formed, and worked with
German Asters, Verbenas, White Phlox, Candy
Tuft, Arbutilon Striata, &c., the whole surmounted
by a rich border of fine Dahlias. The design was
deserving of high approbation.

Mr. E. Tyler — Fifteen choice and very tasteful
bouquets, eomposed of Roses of fine variety, and
also Arbutilons, Fuchsias, Phlox Drummondii, Dah-
lias, &c., &c.

Mr. Tyler also exhibited a large case of Dahlias,
many of which were very fine.

Green-House Plants. — Miss Hannah Hart — Spe-
cies of Cactus, name not known.

Mr. E. Tyler — North-street — Six pots of fine
Fuchsias, varieties Exoniensis, Paragon, Duke of
Wellington, a fine specimen of Russelia Juncea, in
flower, Ficus Elasticus, Roses, Mad. Despres, Ag-
rippina. White Cyclamen, a very fine, and remarka-
bly thrifty orange tree, in full bearing.

The show of green-house plants was by far the
fewest of the season, the day being verj^ windy,
and with all very cold, prevented those having
blooms to risk them.

W. R. COPPOCK, Chairman.

7 S C "v

<6

;^c

V

JOURNAL OF RUKAL ART AID RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

DECEMBER, 1847.

No. 6.

How TO CHOOSE THE SITE FOR A COUNTRY

HOUSE, is a subject now occupying the
thoughts of many of our countrymen, and
therefore is not undeserving a few words
from us at the present moment.

The greater part of those who build
country seats in the United States, are citi-
zens Avho retire from the active pursuits of
town to enjoy, in the most rational way pos-
sible, the fortunes accumulated there — that
is [to say, in the creation of beautiful and
agreeable rural homes.

Whatever may be the natural taste of
this class, their avocations have not permit-
ted them to become familiar with the diffi-
culties to be encountered in making a nno
place, or the most successful way of accom-
plishing all that they propose to themselves.
Hence, we not unfrequently see a very com-
plete house surrounded, for years, by very
unfinished and meagre grounds. Weary
with the labor and expense of levelling
earth, opening roads and walks, and cloth-
ing a naked place with new plantations, all
of which he finds far less easily accom-
plished than building brick walls in the
city, the once sanguine improver often
abates his energy, and loses his interest in
the embellishment of his grounds, before his
plans are half perfected.

Vol. II. 32

All this arises from a general disposition
to underrate the difficulty and cost of mak-
ing plantations, and laying the groundwork
of a complete country residence. Land-
scape gardening, where all its elements're-
quire to be newly arranged, where the sce-
nery of a place requires to be almost whol-
ly created, is by no means either a cheap or
a rapid process. Labor and patience must
be added to taste, time and money, before a
bare site can be turned into smooth lawns
and complete pleasure grounds.

The best advice which the most expe-
rienced landscape gardener can give an
American about to select ground for a coun-
ry residence, is, therefore, to choose a site
where there is natural loood, and wliere na-
ture offers the greatest number of good fea-
tures ready for a basis upon which to com-
mence improvements.

We have, already, so often descanted on
the superiority of trees and lawns to all
other features of ornamental places united,
that our readers are not, we trust, slow to
side with us in a thorough appreciation of
their charms.

Hence, when a site for a country place is
to be selected, (after health and good neio-h-
borhood,) the first points are, if possible, to
secure a position where there is some exist-

250

HOW TO CHOOSE A SITE FOR A COUNTRY SEAT.

ing wood, and where the ground is so dis-
posed as to offer a natural surface for a fine
lawn. These two points secured, half the
battle is fought, for the framework or back-
ground of foliage being read)'' grown, im-
mediate shelter, shade, and effect is given
as soon as the house is erected ; and a sur-
face well shaped for a lawn, (or one which
requires but trifling alterations,) once ob-
tained, all the labor and cost of grading is
avoided, and a single season's thorough pre-
paration gives you velvet to walk about
upon.

Some of our readers, no doubt, will say
this is excellent advice, but unfortunately
not easily followed. So many are forced
to build on a bare site, and " begin at the
beginning."

This is no doubt occasionally true, but in
nine cases out of ten, in this country, our
own observation has convinced us that the
choice of a poor location is the result of lo-
cal prejudice, or want of knowledge of the
subject, rather than of necessity.

How frequently do we see men paying
larg^ prices for indifferent sites, when at a
distance of half a mile there are one or
more positions on which nature has lavished
treasures of wood and water, and spread out
undulating surfaces, which seem absolutely
to court the finishing touches of the rural ar-
tist. Place a dwelling in such a site, and
it appropriates all nature's handiwork to it-
self in a moment. The masses of trees
are easily broken into groups that have im-
mediately the effect of old plantations, and
all the minor details of shrubbery, walks,
and flower and fruit gardens, fall gracefully
and becomingly into their proper positions.
Sheltered and screened, and brought into
harmony with the landscape, these finishing
touches serve in turn to enhance the beauty
and value of the original trees themselves.
We by no means wish to deter those who

have an abundance of means, taste, enthu-
siasm and patience, from undertaking the
creation of entire new scenery in their
country residences. There are few sources
of satisfaction more genuine and lasting
than that of walking through extensive
groves and plantations, all reared by one's
own hands — to look on a landscape which
one has transformed into leafy hills and
wood embowered slopes. We scarcely
remember more real delight evinced by any
youthful devotee of our favorite art, in all
the fervor of his first enthusiasm, than has
been expressed to us by one of our venera-
ble Ex-Presidents, now in a ripe old age,
when showing us, at various times, fine old
forest trees, oaks, hickories, etc., which
have been watched by him in their entire
cycle of development, from the naked seeds
deposited in the soil by his own hands, to
their now furrowed trunks and umbrageous
heads !

But it must be confessed, that it is throw-
ing away a large part of one's life — and
that too, more especially, when the cup of
country pleasures is not brought to the lips
till one's meridian is well nigh past — to
take the whole business of making a land-
scape from the invisible carbon and oxygen
waiting in soil and atmosphere, to be turned
by the slow alchemy of ten or twenty sum-
mers' growth into groves of weeping elms,
and groups of overshadowing-oaks !

Those, therefore, who wish to start with
the advantage of a good patrimony from
nature, will prefer to examine what mother
Earth has to ofter them in her choicest nooks,
before they determine on taking hold of
some meagre scene, where the woodman's
axe and the ploughman's furrow have long
ago obliterated all the original beauty of
the landscape. If a place cannot be found
well wooded, perhaps a fringe of wood or
a background of forest foliage can be taken

HOW TO CHOOSE A SITE FOR A COUNTRY SEAT.

251

ndvantage of. These will give shelter, and
serve as a groundwork to help on the ef-
fects of the ornamental planter. We have
seen a cottage or villa site dignified, and
rendered attractive forever, by the posses-
sion of even three or four fine trees of the
original growth, judiciously preserved, and
taken as the nucleus of a whole series of
belts and minor plantations.

There is another most striking advantage
in the possession of considerable wooded
surface, properly located, in a country resi-
dence. This is the seclusion and privacy
of the walks or drives, which such bits of
woodland afford. Walks, in open lawn, or
even amid belts of shrubbery, are never
felt to have that seclusion and comparative
solitude which belong to the wilder aspect
of woodland scenes. And no contrast is
more agreeable than that from the open
sunny brightness of the lawn and pleasure
grounds, to the retirement and quiet of a
woodland walk.

Again, it is no small matter of considera-
tion to many persons settling in the country,
the production of picturesque effect, the
working out a realm of beauty of their own,
without any serious inroads into their in-
comes. One's private walks and parterres,
unluckil}', cannot be had at the cost of one's
daily bread and butter — though the Beauti-
ful overtops the useful, as stars outshine far-
thing candles. But the difference of cost
between keeping up a long series of walks,
in a place mainly composed of flower garden,
shrubbery and pleasure grounds, compared
with another, where there are merely lawns
and sylvan scenery, is like that between
maintaining a chancery suit, or keeping on
pleasant terms with your best friend or fa-
vorite country neighbor. Open walks must
be scrupulously neat, and broad sunshine
and rich soil make weeds grow, faster than
a new city in the best " western diggins,"

and your gardener has no sooner put the
series of walks in perfect order, than he
looks over his shoulder, and beholds the
enemy is there, to be conquered over again.
On the other hand, woodland walks are
swept and repaired in the spring, and like
some of those gifted individuals, " born
neat,"' they require no more attention than
the rainbow, to remain fresh and bright till
the autumn leaves begin to drop again.

Our citizen reader, therefore, who wishes
to enjoy his country seat as an elegant syl-
van retreat, with the greatest amount of
beauty and enjoyment, and the smallest
care and expenditure, will choose a place
naturally well wooded, or where open
glades, and bits of lawn, alternate with
masses or groups, and, it may be, with
extensive tracts of well grown wood. A
house once erected on such a site, the whole
can very easilj' be turned into a charming
labyrinth of beautiful and secluded drives
and walks. And as our improver cultivates
his eye and his taste, nature will certainly
give him fresh hints ; she will tell him how
by opening a glade here, and piercing a thick-
et there, by making underwood occasional-
ly give place to soft turf, so as to show fine
trunks to the greatest advantage, and there-
by bringing into more complete contrast some
wilder and more picturesque dell, all the na-
tural charms of a place may be heightened
into a beauty far more impressive and signi-
ficant than they originally possessed.

Why man's perception of the Beautiful
seems clouded over in most uncultivated
natures, and is only brought out by a cer-
tain process of refining and mental culture,
as the lapidary brings out, by polishing, all
the rich play of colours in a stone that one
passes by as a common pebble, we leave to
the metaphysicians to explain. Certain it
is, that we see, occasionally, lamentable
proofs of the fact in the treatment of na-

252

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

ture's best features, by her untutored chil-
dren. More than one instance do we call
to mind, of settlers, in districts of country
where there are masses and great woods of
trees, that the druids would have worshipped
for their grandeur, sweeping them all down
mercilessly with their axes, and then planting
Avith the supremest satisfaction, a straight
line of paltry saplings before their doors !
It is like exchanging a neighborhood of
proud and benevolent yeomanry, honest and
free as the soil they spring from, for a file
of sentinels or gens d\irmes, that watch
over one's out-goings and incomings, like a
chief of police !

Most happily for our country, and its
beautiful rural scenery, this spirit of des-
truction, under the rapid development of
taste that is taking place among us, is very
fast disappearing. "Woodman, spare that
tree," is the choral sentiment that should
be instilled and taught at the agricultural
schools, and re-echoed by all the agricultu-
ral and horticultural societies in the land.
If we have neither old castles nor old asso-
ciations, we have at least, here and there,
old trees that can teach us lessons of anti-

quity, not less instructive and poetical than
the ruins of a past age.

Our first hint, therefore, to persons about
choosing a site for a country place, is, in all
possible cases, to look for a situation where
there is some natural wood. With this for
the warp — strong, rich, and permanent —
you may embroider upon it all the gold
threads of fruit and floral embellishment
with an effect equally rapid and successful.
Every thing done upon such a groundwork
will tell at once ; and since there is no end to
the delightful task of perfecting a country
place, so long as there are thirty thousand
species of plants known, and at least thirty
millions of varied combinations of landscape
scenery possible, we think there is little fear
that the possessor of a country place will
not find enough to employ his time, mind,
and purse, if he really loves the subject,
even though he find himself in possession
of the fee-simple of a pretty number of
acres of fine wood.

But we have already exhausted our pre-
sent limits, and must leave the discussion
of other points to be observed in choosing a
country place, until a future number.

REMARKS ON GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.— No. 6.

BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I.

We concluded our No. 5, by observing that
" water was the instrument by which all ma-
nuring substances are brought into a condi-
tion to furnish the liquid aliment that is
absorbed by the roots of a plant, and which
we term sap."

It is quite certain, that in dry ground,
whatever be its condition as respects ma-
nure or vegetable earth, no plant can con-
tinue to thrive. For this reason, persons
might be apt to suppose, that water dis-
solves the manure, and conveys it in the

state of a liquid to the roots ; and such, or
something very like it, was the received
opinion of early cultivators. But good soil,
that which is fit for the purposes of nutri-
tion, will not dissolve ; it will not yield co-
louring matter to water. Therefore, we
conclude that the plant, under the stimulus
of solar light, (which also operates on the
ground, and is absorbed — not extinguished,)
decoviposes the water that exists in the soil,
and thus induces an electric current, which
in its turn decomposes the manure, and

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

253

converts it into primary raw sap. What
this sap may be, it is probable we shall ne-
ver be able to determine with precision ;
but the suggestion may be ventured, that
the elements of water are thus developed,
which combine instantly, in the form of the
purest water, depositing the carbon in the
soil. We do not mean to say that all the
carbon of the manure, or vegetable earth,
is deposited ; a portion may be, and very
probably is, dissolved at the moment of the
extrication of both, by an equivalent por-
tion of hydrogen ; but what we assert is
this — that water does not act as a direct
solvent of manure, no such thing as dis-
solved liquid manure being taken up, nutri-
mentally, by the roots ; and that sap, be it
simply aqueous, or a compound of water
and some hydro-carbon, is the secondary
result of an electrolytic process, nearly al-
lied to galvanism.

If the views expressed be correct, there
will be no difficulty in accounting for the
darker hue assumed by ground under crop,
for the carbon being deposited, remains in
it.

In the Journal of the Royal Agricultural
Society, page 250, Dr. Daubeny, in a lec-
ture on manures, believes with Liebig, that
humus, " during the whole period of its
decay, until it has reached that ultimate
point at which it ceases to be soluble, and
has become a kind of ca-piit mortuum, goes
on continually disengaging carbonic acid ;
so that the roots of plants fixed in humus
of this quality, are surrounded by an at-
mosphere of the gas in question, which is
therefore held in solution by the water
taken up by them as sap." But the
proof is here wanting that carbonic acid is
so dissolved. Is it not far more likely that,
if this aerial acid be produced, it passes at
once into the atmosphere, and thence is
taken into the vegetable organization by

the leaves, to be converted into specific
fluids and woody fibre ?

Water certainly does act as a solvent, but
not of vegetable mould ; as rain, it conveys
into the earth, with every shower, a certain
quantity of ammonia, which is a saline sub-
stance of extreme utility in vegetation. On
this subject, Liebig thus expresses himself:
" Any one may satisfy himself of the pre-
sence of ammonia in rain, by simply adding
a little sulphuric acid to a quantity of rain-
water, and evaporating this nearly to dr)'-
ness in a clean porcelain basin. The am-
monia remains in the residue in combina-
tion with the acid, and may be detected by
a little powdered lime, which separates the
ammonia, and thus renders its peculiar pun-
gent smell sensible. The sensation which
is perceived upon moistening the hand with
rain-water, so different from that produced
by distilled water, and to which the term
softness is vulgarly applied, is also due to
the carbonate of ammonia contained in the
former."

" The ammonia which is removed from
the atmosphere by rain and other causes,
is as constantly replaced by the putrefaction
of animal and vegetable substances." " It
is worthy of observation, that the ammonia
contained in rain and snow water, possesses
an offensive smell of perspiration and ani-
mal excrements — a fact which leaves no
doubt respecting its origin." To how many
gardeners and horticulturists is this fact fa-
miliar ?

We shall have occasion to say more of
ammonia, when we consider the products of
vegetables ; it will suffice now to remark,
that nature has herein provided a corrector
of what would, like atmospheric carbonic
acid, become a deadly nuisance, and, by
bringing down ammonia with the rain, con-
verts it into a solvent of vegetable manure,
fitted for laboration by the vital principle.

254

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

This ammonia, and also the potassa in
loams, and other saline substances, are ac-
tually dissolved by water, and thus duly
conveyed by the absorbents of the roots in-
to the organism.

Rain-water collected in cisterns lined
with cement, becomes rather hard, because
some of its ammonia is abstracted, a defect
easily remedied by the addition of a small
quantity of this salt to such water. Com-
mon hard water from wells contains calca-
reous matter dissolved by an excess of car-
bonic acid. By exposure to the air, some
of this acid escapes, carbonate of lime,
(chalk) is deposited, and the water is im-
proved ; but for horticultural purposes, no-
thing can be compared to the water from
rain, which flows through pastures into a
pond which has a clay bottom. It is soft,
replete with every soluble matter adapted
to the nourishment of plants, and far pre-
ferable to any that can be obtained from
artificial confined depositories. Possessing
a natural fluid of so excellent a quality, the
gardener will have no occasion to trouble
himself with manure-water or any other of-
fensive compounds, the results of which,
to say the best of them, are ever doubtful,
and certainly, in very many instances, posi-
tively pernicious or fatal.

Air. Atmospheric air must at least be con-
sidered as important to vegetable life, though
not so vitally essential to plants as to ani-
mals ; for in fact its direct operation has not
yet been clearly made out. To investigate
the agency of the atmosphere with any de-
gree of satisfaction, its composition must be
properly understood. Chemically speaking,
one hundred volumes of air consists of
twenty-one volumes of oxygen gas, and
seventy-nine volumes of nitrogen gas, not
in chemical union, but simply mixed. It
also contains varying proportions of aqueous

vapor and carbonic acid. Oxygen gas pos-
sesses an extensive range of affinity, and it
is obvious, that were it alone to constitute
our atmosphere, and left unchecked to exert
its powerful efiects, all nature would soon
be one scene of universal destruction. It
is on this account that nitrogen is present
in so large proportion. Possessing no dis-
position to unite with oxygen, it is peculiar-
ly adapted for this purpose, and exerts no
action upon the processes proceeding on the
earth.

The aqueous vapor and carbonic acid gas
materially modify the properties of the air.
The former falls upon the earth as rain,
and brings with it any soluble matter which
it meets with in its descent ; the latter per-
forms a most important part in the process
of vegetable nutrition.

Carbonic acid, water, and avimonia are
the final products of the decay of animal
and vegetable matter. In an isolated con-
dition, they usually exist in the form of
gas. Hence, on their formation, they must
escape into the atmosphere. But ammonia
has not hitherto been enumerated among
the constituents of the air, although, ac-
cording to our view, (Liebig) it can never
be absent. The reason of this is, that it
exists in extremely minute quantity in the
amount of air usually subjected to experi-
ment ; it has consequently escaped detec-
tion. But rain which falls through a large
extent of air, carries down in solution all
that remains in suspension in it. Now am-
monia always exists in rain water, and
from this fact we must conclude that it is
invariably present in the atmosphere.

Such are the principal constituents of the
air, from which plants derive their nourish-
ment, and of which more will be said in
our next.

Wm. W. Valk, m. d.

Flushing, L. I., Nov. 1847.

PEAR SEEDLINGS.

255

HOW TO RAISE PEAR SEEDLINGS.

BV ROBERT NELSON, OF NEWBUUYPOUT, MASS.

The United States of America will, no
doubt, soon take the highest rank among
the fruit growing countries. Soil and cli-
mate are, in no other part of the world, bet-
ter adapted to all different kinds of fruit ;
the annually increasing number of horticul-
tural societies, which in a praiseworthy
manner distribute premiums, and excellent
works in all branches of gardening, daily
improve the knowledge and taste of the
horticultural public.

Many persons, hitherto unacquainted with
the culture of trees, are now going into the
orchard and nursery business, attracted by
the facility in raising apples and peaches.
But there is a general want of and demand
for pears.

Every nurseryman knows the difficulty in
keeping the pear seedlings through the first
winter, particularly in New-England, where
the severe frost commonly throws the feeble
seedlings out of the ground, and destroys
them.

In order to prevent this evil, man}- nur-
serymen mix pear and apple seeds together,
that ihe curled apple roots may twine them-
selves around the tap roots of the pears,
and thus keep them in their places in the
ground ; other persons put the pear seed-
lings into a cellar, or protect them some
other way, but not with the best success.

A large part of the labor of many gar-
deners and nurserymen is, I think, worse
than thrown away, owing to their want of
scientific knowledge in botany and garden-
ing. Every thing in the vegetable king-
dom is governed by fixed laws, and in order
to be successful in the cultivation of plants.
we must study their laws, instead of pro-
ceeding at random. The volume of nature

is spread open before us, and serves to in-
vite us to continual observation and deduc-
tion for practical uses.

Many persons, I am sure, when in win-
ter walking through a forest, will have no-
ticed, that where dry leaves are occasional-
ly placed in a thick layer, the frost has but
very little influence on the ground, if any
at all. To those nurserymen who have
raised their pear seedlings in the common
way, and are anxious for keeping them
through the winter, I must strongl}^ recom-
mend to cover them with dry leaves, say
about one foot thick, and to throw some
brushwood over, to prevent the same from
being blown away. There is not the least
doubt, but that this protection will answer
for pear seedlings, as I often have seen
beds of Gladiolus cardinalis, Fuchsia coc-
ci/iea, and other tender roots, by this means
sufficiently protected against very severe
frost. And even if the frost should reach
the roots, the leaves will prevent the des-
tructive influence of any sudden change of
weather, and keep out the sun, which is of
the greatest importance.

Weary with the difficulties that seem to
stand in the way in raising pear seedlings,
most American nurserymen import them
from England or France.

After being transplanted, the pear seed-
lings will do very well, (if it is performed
in spring,) and the next winter will not in-
jure them. What is the reason? I need
hardly mention as the reason, that they, af-
ter having lost their tap-root, are forced to
push out lateral roots, and are not afterwards
liable to the same injury by frost. And
why wait until the second year to perform
this operation ?

•Joi>

PEAR SEEDLINGS.

As the great object is, to make them
branoh out tLeir roots as soon as possible,
several European nurserymen recommend
" tapping." This operation is to be done
when the seedlings have attained a height
of four or six inches, by two men with
sharp spades, put in at the same time on
both sides of the row, in a sloping direction,
in order to cut ofl' the tap root ; but as it
could not well be done before the summer
is rather advanced, and even then seldom
can be done properly, the season is too
short for the seedUngs to push out branch-
ing roots, strong enough to stand the follow-
ing winter.

Having been a professional gardener and
nurseryman in the north of Europe for near-
ly thirty years, I hope that my experience
may be acceptable to many persons engaged
in this business.

For several years, I succeeded in raising
pears in a very simple way. I sowed the
seed in the fall, as soon as gathered, in a
garden bed. distributing them pretty thick-
ly. The plants will easily come up in the
spring, and as soon as they get four leaves,
I take them up, cut ofl' the tap root, and
transplant them into beds or nursery rows
of good soil, where the yoimg plants soon
will make lateral roots, and start nicely.
1 am not very particular as to exact length
in cutting ofl' the tap root, as I commonly
take a dozen of plants or more in my hand,
and cut ofl" the roots at once at half leugth.

Bv thus increasing the number of mouths
or feeders of the plants, they will grow ex-
cellently well. The branching roots now,
having the whole summer before them, will
be sufiiciently strong to stand the winter,
even tritkout protection^ and in the next
summer, the second, they will be fit for
budding.

Although this summer was unfavorable
to the growth of pear seedUugs, still all
the neiirhboriug nurserymen, who have

seen my seedlings, have declared, that they
" never saw siich branching roots on setdlings
from iast spring, even on the very best raised
apple seedlings, and that their being thrown
out by the frost irould be almost impossible J*
I have no doubt, that some old fashioned
nurserymen will object, ^that this treatment
is too violent for such feeble plants ; but
the result for several years has proved its
practical value. " It is too much trouble,"
I hear some enemy of new inventions re-
ply. It is some labor undoubtedly, but
not hah" as much as to lift them out in the
fall, keep them in the cellar through the
winter, and plant them out again next
spring. That is certainly too much trou-
ble, and that will check the plants much
more than their being tapped and trans-
planted when ver}' young. In my method
ihey are left undisturbed after their first
transplanting, which is much easier per-
formed than most persons may think, and of
course they will continue their growth much
better. Eobekt Nelson.

[Mr. Kelson's articles are always accep-
table, since they are the result of sound
theory and practice combined ; and we com-
mend the foregoing to those who have here-
tofore failed in rearing young pear stocks —
the most precarious and diliicult of all seed-
ling fruit trees.

To grow them with success in the com-
mon mode, a very deep soil, inclining to
dampness rather than dryness, is indispen-
sable. ^Ve have no doubt that the mode of
forcing them to producejibrous roots in abutt-
dance thefrst season, which our correspon-
dent recommends, which is new to us, by
giving them greater firmness in the wood,
and making them more dependent on the
good surface soil than the tap-rooted seed-
lings are, will enable many cultivators to
do successfully, what they have hitherto
failed to do at all. — Ed.]

THE ACCLIMATATION OF PLANTS.

257

THE ACCLIMATATION OF PLANTS.

BY TUE EDITOR OF THE LONDON HORTICULTL'BAL MAGAZINE.

Johnson, in his" Principles of Gardening,"
treats tliis subject as seriously as if there
were anythin^^ in it but a chimera ; as if the
constitution of a plant could be permanent-
ly altered ; and after all, it is these great
theorists who mislead themselves first, and
their followers afterwards. In this case,
there is no new fact adduced. The old
humdrum tale about Aucuba japonica and
Pa/jiiia moutan having been stove plants,
removed first to the green-house, and then
out of doors, is of course resorted to as a
presumed confirmation of the doctrine of
the acclimatation of plants, as if it were
fact instead of fiction.

So far as these illusions of great men
induce experiment, they are not without
their good effects. Mr. Johnson's error lies
in presuming that the mere fact of a plant
from a hot country being grown in the open
air, is indicative or proof of a change of the
plant or of its constitution, whereas it is
nothing more than the proof of its qualities
of endurance. He says, "Every plant has
a peculiar temperature, without which its
functions cease, but the majority of them
luxuriate most in a climate of which the
extreme temperatures do not much exceed
32 degrees and 90 degrees. No seed will
vegetate, no sap will circulate at a tempe-
rature at or below the freezing point of wa-
ter, yet the juices of the plant are not con-
gealed at a temperature far more depressed;
and I know of no other more satisfactory
proof, that, like a cold blooded animal — the
frog and the leech for example, it becomes
torpid, though life is not extinct, unless ex-
cited by a genial temperature." Something
very much bordering on our notions, which
are founded on practice, may be found in
Mr. Johnson's reasoning, but his conclu-
sions are altogether opposed to us. He
says, " no cultivation will render plants,
natives of the torrid zone, capable of bear-
ing the rigor of our winters, although their
offspring reared from seed may be rendered
much more hardy than their parents."

We quite agree with this, because we
have shown and proved over and over again
Vol. II. 33

that cultivation will not change the powers
of endurance either for heat or cold ; but
the steps which Mr. Johnson and other wri-
ters on acclimatation recommend, are per-
fectly right and proper to be taken, not as
they allege, to acclimatise the plant, but to
prove what it will endure.

If the British oak were cultivated in a

stove, [hot-house of high temperature] it

would no more be a stove plant for that

: operation, tlian a dog would be a horse for

j being kept in a stable ; but an oak brought

up in a stove, must not be planted out from

I the stove to the open ground in rnid-winter,

because the sudden check might kill it, and

in all probability would kill it, though it is

able to endure intense frost when properly

! managed. Therefore, all plants to be grown

in the open air, ought to be raised in the

I open air, or if necessarily grown first in a

I stove, should be gradually, instead of sud-

I denly brought to lower temperature.

Whoever can afford to lose plants, should
j try the experiment of their open air culture,
j because we may be growing in stoves and
] green-houses many subjects that would
' stand in the open ground in our winters.
j As Mr. Johnson very properly observes,
j " When a new plant arrives from tropical
latitudes, it is desirable to use every pre-
caution to avoid its loss ; but so soon as it
has been propagated from, and the danger
of such loss is removed, from that moment
ought experiments to commence ;" but in-
stead of saying, " to ascertain whether its
acclimatization is aitainahle^'' which he
does, he ought to say, to try what are its
powers of enduring cold, because that and
that only can have to be tried ; it is worse
than nonsense to talk of any change in the
powers of the plant being attained. It is
quite right to gradually bring the plant to
its proper trial, and not to do any thing
suddenly, because, as we have shown, the
oak itself might be reared in a stove and
grow there, and would be killed, if changed
from thence to out of door growth in mid-
winter. The nature of the plant is not
changed ; but it is the same with plants as

258

ACCLIMATATION OF PLANTS.

with animals — remove them from 90 de-
grees to 30 degrees in the same hour, and
mischief must ensue.

The hardening off", as it is called, of all
plants raised in heat, for planting in the
open air, is quite requisite on all occasions,
from the common annuals to dahlias. All
are in practice submitted to the same pro-
cess : first, by admitting more air than
usual ; then by removal to a cooler situa-
tion ; lastly, perhaps to a cold frame which
will merely keep out frost ; although these
things are to be planted out in our warm
spring months, as the temperature is in-
creasing instead of declining.

The reasoning of Mr. Johnson is good,
and his advice is good, for on account of
the much greater facility for cultivating
hardy plants, the more we have capable of
enduring our winters the better. " Hence,"
says the author of the " Principles of Gar-
dening," " hence it is very desirable that
an extended series of experiments should
be instituted, to ascertain decisively whe-
ther many of our present green-house and
stove plants could not endure exposure to
our winters, if but slightly or not at all pro-
tected. It may be laid down as a rule, that
all Japan plants will do so on the southern
coast counties of England, but it remains
unascertained to what degree of northern
latitude in our island this genial poiver of
eiidurance extends.'''' This last remark is in
character with a practical man, for in truth
that is the only inquiry to conduct : no pos-
sibility of changing the power of endurance
exists ; all we have to do, is to see what
power the plant has, and there ends our
task ; we can then assign the plant to its
proper station. Mr. Johnson says, "We all
know the larch was once kept in a green-
house, and within these few months, such
South American plants, as TropoRolum pen-
to.phyllwn and Gesnera douglasii, have been
found to survive our winters in our garden
borders. Very true, ; but the larch was no
more a green-house plant for that fact, nor
does the mere fact of surviving our winters
in our garden borders in Scotland and Suf-
folk, or in Herefordshire, prove a jot towards
the two plants being hardy. We remem-
ber very well seeing Tacsonia pinnatistipu-
la flowering on TAvickenham Common, in

front of a cottage, by the side of Tropmolum
aduncum, in the middle of January, yet the
former is a tender plant, whatever the lat-
ter may be ; but the winter accommodated
itself to the plant, not the plant to the win-
ter.

A registering thermometer alone can set-
tle the question, as to how much frost the
plant endures, or whether it endures any,
and the thermometer ought not merely to
be out of doors in the open air, but it should
hang where the plant is ; for we have seen
the dahlia in full flower in one place, and
cut down to the ground in aiiother, not one
hundred yards oft'. And then again it has
to be considered whether a sudden change
has not done more towards killing a plant,
than the intensity of the frost ; for it must
be admitted that rapid changes from heat
to cold, and vice versa, do more mischief in
our winters than the actual cold would, if it
came gradually and went gradually. We
think nothing of the mere fact of plants
once considered tender, being found hardy,

Mr. Johnson says : " Another fact is, that
many tropical plants, of every order and
species, have been found to require much
less heat, both during the day and during
the night, than gardeners of a previous cen-
tury believed. Other plants than those al-
ready noticed have passed from the tropics
to our parterres, and even to those of high-
er northern latitudes. The horse-chestnut
is a native of the tropics, but it endures un-
injured the stern elements of Sweden. Au-
cuba japo/iica, PcEonia moutan, we all re-
member to have passed from the stove to
the green-house, and now they are in our
open gardens."

All this is very true, but it does not show
that the nature of the plants, or their pow-
ers of endurance have changed one degree,
or even a shade of one. It is said further
on : " Then, again, there is no doubt that
all the Coniferas of Mexico, which flourish
there at an elevation of more than 8,000
feet above the sea coast, will survive our
winters in the open air. Among them' are,
Pimis llaveana, Pinus teocote, Piims patula,
Pinvs hartwegii, Cupressus thwifera, Juni-
periis flaccida, Abies religiosa, and some
others."

Perhaps the learned author will some of

ACCLIMATATION OF PLANTS.

259

these days condescend to enlighten us rather
more upon this subject, and inform us how
there could be any doubt. The i'mus lla-
veaiia, teocote, patula, and hartwegii, are
known hardy plants, and were introduced
from Mexico as such, and we should like to
know how they could be other than hardy
from a climate like that experienced at the
top of a mountain 8,000 feet high.

The Coniferce of Mexico require no ac-
climatising, as it is called. There can be
no doubt that they have to endure greater
hardships on the mountains of Mexico, than
they do in our ordinary winters ; but this
has nothing to do with the question of ac-
climatation. We have all through main-
tained that it is impossible to alter in any
plant its powers of endurance. The only
way properly to ascertain a plant's powers
of endurance, is to gradually change its
temperature, until it is placed in the open
ground ; and to select several positions,
even those of different circumstances, as
north, south, east and west aspects, with a
registering thermometer at each place.

77ie co?iditio?is most favorable to a plant
arc those which involve the hast change, and
that change the most gradual. It mil often
bejound, that when there is no protection^ a
plant under a south wall, or a south-west,
well perish, while one in a rwrthernor north-
eastern exposure loill survive ; the one never
being so greatly excited as the other, is con-
stqaently never subject to such great changes,
and hence its e?idura?ice. The plant placed
in the coldest aspect, having iw sun to act
upon its frozen juices, gradually thaivs ;
while that which is subject to the immediate
operation of a hot sun, which frequently suc-
ceeds a frost, is often very suddenly acted
upon* But there are circumstances under
which plants may succeed better than they
generally do, and among them there are
certain conditions that can be supplied : for
instance, gravelly bottom, good drainage,
poor compost, shelter fi|om the northeast
winds, are all favorable to a plant that is
susceptible of injury from cold ; not that
these circumstances alter the plant, but they
change the nature of what it has to bear.
The gravelly bottom is always warmer, the

* We have italicised this passage as containing the pilh
of all practical knowledge ia Ihe treatmeut of half hardy
planu. — Ed. Hoai.

good drainage always tends to the same
end, the poor soil keeps the plant from
growing too rapidly, and the shelter is of
the greatest consequence ; but if, notwith-
standing all these circumstances the winter
is severe enough to overcome them, the
half hardy plant that would go through
some winters will perish. It will bear no
more hardship, after all that can be done
for it, than it would have borne without so
much coaxing, because all that has been
done only changed the hardships it had to
go through, and not the constitution of the
plant itself.

But let us now consider how far, accord-
ing to Mr. Johnson's notions, the offspring
of tropical plants raised from seed may be
rendered much more hardy than their pa-
rents. Now we deny that a seedling can
be rendered more hardy than the parents ;
although we do admit that seedlings 7}iay
be more hardy than their parents. Our
opinions are founded on this one fact • —
Among plants known to be tender, the
dahlia, potato, and some other subjects,
something has been done in the way of
seedlings, and in a batch of man}', some
will be found affected with the frost more
than others. Among broccoli, cauliflowers,
and some other subjects, it is known that
the seedlings will in some cases differ from
the parent — some will endure the winter
better, some come earlier, some stand bet-
ter ; in short, it is not at all uncommon to
see a visible change in many of the plants.
The new varieties of peas, cabbages, cau-
liflowers, broccoli, turnips, melons, cucum-
bers, and all kinds of fruit, have been ob-
tained from seed, and the constant varia-
tions to be found in seedlings from a known
parent, show us distinctly that it is fair to
hope, that in a limited degree there may be
a progeny somewhat more hardy than the
parent.

We were once going through an immense
piece of broccoli, after the extreme hard win-
ter so oftencalled Murphy's,when on or about
the 11th of January, there was the hardest
frost known in England. It was as diffi-
cult to find a bit of vegetable alive as if
every thing had been burned up. On this
occasion, there were, among a wreck of
thousands of plants, which were rotten and

260

ACCLIMATATIOX OF PLANTS.

perished and putrid, two or three plants as
strong and healthy as if there had been no
frost ; we remarked at the time they were
valuable exceptions totlie desolation around,
and that their seed would pay more than
the Avhole crop would have done. All that
we could get out of the gardener was, that the
family must have those three heads, and he
could not save them ; and so it was, the i'ami-
ly, or some part of it, had noticed them, and
ordered them to be cut for dinner. The gar-
dener would have lost an excellent sort, or
rather three excellent sorts, for one was
completely sprouting, one a rather dark,
and the other a white head. Here was evi-
dently hardier offspring than the rest of the
seedlings appeared to be, and we can hard-
ly doubt that in every description of plant,
it is possible to obtain plants hardier than
the parent, though not very commonly so
■without hybridizing, as it is called, that is,
impregnating or fertilizing a hardy kind of
plant with one of the tender, and so produc-
ing hardy plants W'ith the principal charac-
ters of the tender one. At all events, there
is no denying, that if seed be saved as care-
fully as possible, and seedlings raised from
it, there will be found differences in the
seedlings in foliage, in habit, in hardiness
and in other properties that render the
plants more valuable ; while, on the other
hand, there will be discovered many much
worse than the original.

So long therefore as variation is to be
found in seedlings, as compared with the
parent plant, so long there must be allowed
a possibility for some to be more hardy than
their parents ; but we maintain, that prac-
tically there cannot be an alteration made
in the power of a plant to endure heat or
cold. The same plant that has been tried
down to the lowest degree of cold that it
can bear, will, by gradual increase of tem-
perature, be made to bear as much heat as
ever it did; and by the same gradual plan
of lowering the temperature, it may be
brought back again to bear all it ever did
bear of cold.

Nobody can dispute the ill effects of sud-
den transition from heat to cold, and vice
versa ; but it applies alike to all plants,
hardy, half hardy, tender, and tropical. The

sturdy oak Avould be victimised as readily
as the delicate orchidaceous plant, by the
sudden change of temperature, and its na-
ture would be nevertheless as little changed
as if it had remained in its native forest.

We admit, however, that the constitution
of a plant may be injured, that is, that a
plant may be got into an unhealthy state,
and by no means sooner than by sudden
change of temperature ; that it may, in fact,
be so damaged as not to be recovered, but
to linger on in ill health a considerable pe-
riod, and perhaps eventually to die ; but
this does not make it a tender plant, it only
renders it a sickly one. We have seen the
constitution of a plant damaged by exces-
sive propagation, and with great difficulty,
some of the progeny by cuttings recovered,
but we have seen others that never recov-
ered, and their cuttings and layers continued
the same sickly, weakly character that dis-
tinguished the parent ; but still the fact had
nothing to do with the powers of the plant
to endure cold or heat. A plant, whether
tender or hardy, may be healthy, and it is
on healthy subjects alone that we can place
any reliance in the trial of what a plant can
bear.

The question of acclimatizing plants,
therefore, is only tenable if we put another
construction on the word, and instead of
using it as meaning the making a plant murt
hardy than it naturally is, use it in the
sense of pioving how hardy a plant natu-
rally is, for such is all we can do.

The first Aucubajaponica that ever reach-
ed this countr}', would have stood out of
doors just as well as the last ; all that
had to be avoided was sudden change, and
which no plant will bear. Every day ex-
perience shows us, that sudden alteration
of temperature is mischievous. If we want
to force a rose or an American plant, we
dare not take it into a hot stove at once,
for they would fail ; but first in a cold pit,
then in a green house, next in a moderate-
ly warmed pit, and lastly in the stove, they
will do just as we wish them to do, and ac-
cording as we hasten them, so do they
come earlier ; but when they are in flower,
if they are brought suddenly into the cold,
they would irrecoverably fade, so that we

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

2G1

are equally called upon to reduce the tern- ! much cold as ever, so that we reduce their
perature gradually; nevertheless tlie rose [ temperature by degrees. So much for ac-
and the American plant will stand just as I climatizing.

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LANCSCAPE GARDENING.

In a number, per last steamer, of the Chro-
nicle and Agricultural Gazette, the first
English horticultural periodical of the day,
edited by Professor Lindley, we find the
following article, which we copy, not for
the purpose of calling attention to the com-
mendation bestowed on one of our works,
but to throw a little light on the nature of
the criticism itself:

John Bull looks at brother Jonathan
with a strange compound of feelings. He
dislikes him as a rival ; he loves him, and
is proud of him, as being, after all, of his
own flesh and blood. iiut whenever, in
science, art, or literature, Jonathan treads
rather sharply on the heels of John, the
said John bellows out must lustily.

Of all the Arts in the Universe which
were likely to be the ground of competition
between progenitor and descendant. Land-
scape Gardening would, in this case, seem
to be the last. And yet, our American bre-
thren, so far from being behind iis in skill,
tnihusuisin or execution, seem to be taking
the lead most decidedly. Whatever books
our own Landscape Gardeners have put
forth, have been few and far between ; un-
til the time of Repton, they have rarely
been practical treatises : and the volume
which contains the whole of his publications
is rather a combination of separate essays,
than an elaborate and comprehensive trea-
tise on the whole subject — laying down
great principles — setting forth needful de-
tails— and alfounding in illustrations from
his own experience. But the date of his
last work, as originally published, is not
more recent than July, 1816. Between
that time and this, Landscape Gardening
has languished so greviously that no publi-
cation of any eminence has appeared.

There is now lying before us a thick oc-
tavo volume of about 500 pages, entitled

" A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of
Landscape Gardening, adapted to North
America." It is by "A. J. Downing, author
of 'Designs for Cottage Residences,' etc."*
The volume itself is beautifully got up. It
is full of admirably executed illustrations —
representing very numerous landscape gar-
dening and architectural effects. It had
reached its second edition in 1844, although
an expensive work : a consummation which
a similar treatise published in England bv
an English landscape gardener, could
scarcely have hoped to reach. It is a sin-
gular composition altogether. There is
much error in the reading of the past ;
there is a slavish admiration of the late
Mr. Loudon, who, whatever his merits in
other respects, was not only a very crotch-
etty man, but peculiarly so whenever he at-
tempted an approach to Landscape Garden-
ing ; and yet as might be expected from a
man of any talent, engaged in la3-ing out
beauties in scenery so singular, and even
sometimes wild, there is a vigor of thought
and a homely strength of expression, com-
bined with a correctness of taste, which
would put to shame many a professing
landscape gardener of the present day.

As to his "Historical Sketches," of the
science in this country, the less said the
better. It is done clumsily, and abounds
in errors as to fact. It is when "his foot is
on his native heather," that he shakes ofl!'
every such encumbrance, and speaks out
plainly and well. At present we shall no-
tice nothing more than what we may term
his ground plan — the outline of his princi-
ples. These are summed up at the close
of his chapter " On the Beauties and Prin-
ciples of the Art ;" — " In this brief abstract
of the nature of imitation in Landscape
Gardening, and the kinds of beauty which
it is possible to produce by means of the
art, we have endeavored to elucidate its

• Wiley and Puuiam, New- York and London, 1844.

262

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

leading principles clearly to the reader.
These grand principles we shall here suc-
cinctly recapitulate, premising that a fami-
liarity with them is of the very first im-
portance in the successful practice of this
elegant art, viz. : —

"1. TuE Imitation of the Beauty of
Expression derived from a refined percep-
tion of the sentiment of Nature.

" 2. The Recognition of Art, founded
on the immutability of the true, as well as
the beautiful.

" 3. And the production of Unity, Har-
mony AND Variety, in order to render com-
plete and continuous, our enjoyment of any
artistical work."

In admiring these great principles, how-
ever, we must not forget that the applica-
tion of them must necessarily be very dif-
ferent here and in America. Here the
Landscape Gardener has almost entirely to
create. There — when a villa or a mansion
is erected near the banks of some magnifi-
cent river, or on the skirts of some equally
noble forest — surrounded by native plants
and flowers, which you admire as you tread
the rich green sward — the first skill to be
shown is not in Creation — but in Removal,
in clearing away superfluous objects, and
so making the views on all sides marked
by Unity, Harmony and Variety. The
two processes are obviously opposed to each
other — as opposed as are destruction and
creation. But it is equally obvious that the
task of the English landscape gardener is
in the same proportion more arduous than
that of the American ; while it is manifest
he must have to wait during a far longer time
for the development and maturity of the
plans which his taste has designed. In
other respects, however — so far as original
taste is concerned. Englishman and Ameri-
can, although starting from different points,
ought to arrive at the same goal.

So much for the present. Details will
come forth hereafter. And then, most ex-
cellent John Bull, you will see that this is
no time to fold your arms, and loll in your
chair, as if the race had been won, and the
prize already yours. You have not gained
the victory, nor the prize. Your affection-
ate brother Jonathan is as active as his own
vigorous youth, and the sight of magnificent

scenery around can make him. He is day
by day forming many a home scene of
mingled grace and splendor, while you are
content to place yourself entirely in the
hands of professing landscape gardeners ;
and lazily permit them to surround your
mansions with scenes and views as ugly as
their own taste is false.

We confess the praise bestowed on our
Landscape Gardening, and the rank given it
by the author of this article, have startled
us as much as it would do to hear that the
French nation had suddenly discovered and
admitted that the English are a civilized
people, and do not wholly live upon ros-lif
ait naturel !

Dr. Lindley, undeniably the most distin-
guished botanical and horticultural writer
in Great-Britain, is no less remarkable for
his high toryism, and the " cold shoulder "
which he always turns to America. We
are not sure, indeed, he will ever forgive
" the colonies " for breaking with the mo-
ther country, and declaring themselves free
and independent ; and we are quite confi-
dent, from the tone of certain little replies
to correspondents, etc., in the Chronicle, that
often, when Dr. Lindley thinks of us,
" Disdain and scorn
Ride sparkling in his eyes."

We are glad to see, by this article, that
little by little we are earning better opi-
nions from our transatlantic brother — and
we assure him, if he will only leave the
University of London, and his herculean
scientific labors for a short time, and come
over and pay us a visit, we will show him
some results that will disabuse his mind of
a score of lingering prejudices. He can-
not but be gratified to examine a country
where eighty per cent, of the whole popu-
lation is devoted to agriculture ; where the
total amount of agricultural produce for the
present year will exceed seven hundred onil-
lio?is of dollars in value ; where the pro-

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

263

gress in rural architecture and rural taste,
has been more rapid within the last five
years than in any country in Europe, (Eng-
land hardly excepted,) in fifty ; and where
his own Theory of Horticulture is better
known and far more widely circulated than
in Great Britain. We do not state these
facts in the spirit of boasting, but because
we know sturdy, honest John Bull will not
respect JoNATiiAN till he finds he is respect-
able.

Our friend, the late Mr. Loudon, was.
Dr. LiNDLEY tells us, a " crotchetty man."
Yes, his crotchets, that found little favor in
the eyes of the latter, were these — that he
was no church-and-state man ; that he be-
lieved in the largest liberty of opinion ;
and that he was an ardent and unflinching
advocate of the rights of the laboring clas-
ses. In all his works we see most strongly
marked his desire to raise the British work-
ing man, so long degraded by the sway of
caste, to his proper and natural position.
To this end, he not only designed and pub-
lished plans of cottages and grounds cal-
culated to improve the social, phj^sical and
moral condition of the working class, but he
held up to public censure those in high
places, who forced their dependants to live
in houses more comfortless than those of
their domestic animals ; while he commen-
ded in his periodicals those who respected
the natural rights of man, and understood
the moral obligations attached to the pos-
session of large wealth.

Mr. Loudon's taste was by no means
perfect in landscape gardening or architec-
ture. (It would be difficult to say whose

is.) We have expressly stated in our Land-
scape Gardening that, " as an artist he is
deficient in imagination," but we consider
him as being the most philosophical writer
on the subject that any country has pro-
duced. He never suggested an improve-
ment in grounds without giving a good and
sufficient reason for it, and he did more to
popularise and disseminate general ideas
of correct taste, than any other writer
whatever. Indeed, his works are so well
known and appreciated in America, that
this explanation seems almost superfluous.

That our " Historical Sketches " of land-
scape gardening in Britain, are not satis-
factory, in the eyes of Dr. Lindley, we re-
gret. Luckily for our reputation, it is the
portion of our work which has no claim to
originality, and as it was entirely compiled
from standard English works, the " errors
as to fact " must be sent elsewhere for cor-
rection.

Dr. Lindley intimates truly, that English
works on Landscape Gardening rarely or
never reach a second edition. We are
glad to be able to say that a third edition
of our volume will soon be put to press, al-
though the last edition was one of double
the usual number. We state this, not as a
proof of the merits of the work, which
abounded with defects in the first edition,
and is not free from them in the second,
but as the best possible illustration that
there is already a much larger class in the
United States, alive to the importance and
value of rural beauty and rural improve-
ment than exists at the present time in
England.

Large Peaches. — The Ohio Cultivator
speaks of a seedling from the Lemon Cling,
a very handsome, red, yellow-fleshed peach,
the fruit of which measured more than a

foot in circumference. One weighed four-
teen ounces, and four together weighed two
pounds fourteen ounces. This, though not
the largest ever raised, is unusually large.

264

COLLECTIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY.

COLLECTIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY.

BY J. JAY SMITH, PHILADELPHIA.

"Who loves a garden," says Cowper,
" loves a green-house too," and those who
admire truly the beauties of a garden, are
apt to love the feathered songsters who
cheer them in spring and autumn. Under
this impression, your readers will probably
be interested to learn of a Collection of
Birds, just acquired by the Academy of
Natural Sciences in this city, the history of
which is highly interesting.

Dr. Thomas B. Wilson, a native of this
citv, has lately purchased the celebrated
collection of birds called, the " Rivoli Col-
lection," made by the Duke of Rivoli, the
son of Marshal Massena, in Paris. He
first purchased a part of the Duke's mu-
seum, amounting to eleven thousand speci-
mens ; a second purchase brought over two
thousand five hundred. He has since pro-
cured the "Australian Collection," made
by a, scientific Englishman, who is writing
a great work on the ornithology of that
strange and interesting country, and to make
the series complete, he has just received
the collections of Leyden and one from
Lyons. Altogether, he has thus assembled
twenty thousand specimens, without count-
ing a single duplicate, of which two thou-
sand have been discarded.

With extraordinary liberality. Dr. Wil-
son has deposited the whole in the Acade-
my, and has, in the handsomest manner,
given a large sum to increase the size of
the room, and to make suitable, nay elegant
cases for their reception. Charles Lucien
Bonaparte, the ornithologist, pronounces
the Academy's collection, the greatest and
most complete in the world, and Dr. Gray
may well have asserted, in a late lecture in
Boston, that Philadelphia is now the Mecca

of science, to which pilgrimages must be
made by the student of nature.

These birds have cost Dr. Wilson twenty
thousand dollars ; in addition, his donations
for building and cases, have amounted to
sixteen thousand vaoxe. But his liberality does
not stop here ; every vessel from Europe
brings to the Academy the best, rarest and
most costly works on science, that can be
procured ; so that the sum of fifty thousand
dollars may safely be set down as the aggre-
gate of his donations. Here, you might rea-
sonably suppose the catalogue to stop ; but
he also maintains two young and enthu-
siastic naturalists to take charge of these
valuable treasures.

We, in Philadelphia, do not boast as
much as some of our neighbors, but an at-
tentive observer cannot fail to congratulate
our city and the country generally on the
spirit and taste which governs the members
of the Academy. They previously possess-
ed De Schweinitz's and other celebrated
collections of dried plants, and Dr. S. G.
Morton's unrivalled musee of comparative
anatomy, which includes the greatest num-
ber and variety of specimens of the human
head of any other in the world, together
with other curiosities, books, minerals, etc.,
etc, of extreme value. I ought to add that
the rooms containing all these things, are
open to the public twice a week without
charge. Yours. J. Jay Smith.

Philadelphia, Oct. 27, 1847.

[We have lately had an opportunity of
examining this magnificent and unrivalled
collection of birds, of the beauty, interest,
and variety of which, language would fail
to convey the least impression to the gene-
ral reader. We hope none of our readers

NOTES ON CUBRANTS, RASPBERRIES, ETC.

265

who love the study of nature, will fail to i various kingdoms, to be found within the
examine, whenever they have the opportu- walls of the Academy of Sciences in Phila-
nity, the extraordinary representation of her ] delphia. — Ed,]

NOTES ON CURRANTS, RASPBERRIES, &c.
BY WM. R. PRINCE, FLUSHING, L. J.

In the Gardener's Journal, (English,) an ar-
ticle has recently appeared, suggesting that
improvements might be made in the Cur-
rant, the Kaspberry, and even in the Goose-
berry, by seminal reproduction. The edi-
tor also quotes from the " Midland Florist,"
an article written by Mr. Tomlinson. If
these two articles referred to, furnish a fair
criterion as to what has as yet been done in
England, in regard to the Currant, viz. that
seeds of the finest varieties have been saved
the present season, destined for next spring's
sowing, I have to state in behalf of our
own country, that we are in the advance. I
have plants a year old, of the leading varie-
ties of which he speaks, and also of some
equal to the largest he enumerates, which
he does not possess, and probably knows
not of, as they are not enumerated in the
latest Catalogue of the London Horticultu-
ral Society, nor in any other English publi-
cation. One of them is a white variety,
with larger fruit than any red one that has
come under my observation ; and another
is a white variety, second only to it in size,
and very remarkable for its mild and plea-
sant flavor.

About five years ago, I took the pains to
obtain a few plants of every variety of
Currant and Raspberry in Europe, by what-
ever name called, and they have been for
three years in bearing. Mr. Knight's im-
provement of the Currant was but trivial,
because he selected an inferior variety to
begin icith, and he appears to have been
totally ignorant of the existence of the
Vol. ii. 34

very superior varieties, then much cultiva-
ted in some parts of Europe. I have milder
varieties than his '• Sweet Currant," that
had existed in Europe for more than fifty
years previous to the commencement of his
seminal operations.

In our own improvement of the Currant,
(and of the Gooseberry also,) I trust that
the several native species will receive me-
rited attention. Mr. Tomlinson, in his re-
ference to May's Victoria Currant, speaks
of it as having been extolled to him, and
" as a fine sort to save seeds from." Such
is not the case. When, about four years
ago, I read the announcement, that May's
Victoria Currant had been exhibited by
him, before the London Horticultural So-
ciety, the berries measuring half an inch
in diameter, I immediately purchased a
£1 sterling note, and enclosed it to him,
asking him to send its value in plants to a
friend in London, who forthwith transmit-
ted them to me. I have since purchased
about 150 plants, 18 of which I planted
out for myself. All the plants sent to me
have been so small, that I have not had a
fair crop of fruit until the present season.
I am totally disappoirited in regard to it.
The fruit is no larger than the old Eed
Dutch, with which it is perhaps identical,
or a seedling, with no essential variation
from that old kind. The fruit which mea-
sured a half inch in diameter, must have
been enlarged by the same process as is
practised with gooseberries ; which is by
first stimulating the plants by powerful ma-

£63

NOTES ON CURRANTS, RASPBERRIES, ETC.

nurcs, and then pruning them with great
attention, and allowing but a moderate
number of berries to remain upon each
plant. This practice is very generally
adopted in England, by growers of fruit
for premiums ; but it does not form a fair
test of the real merit of the variety. It
may be well to say, that the largest varie-
ties I have fruited, are the White and Red
Provence, French Large White, Cerise de
Toiux's, or Cherry Currant, and the Bangup
and Naples, the two last being black varieties.
In regard to the Raspberry, we may also
say tliat our pomologists have not been idle.
Dr. Brinckle of Philadelphia, the well
knov/n originator of a number of highly
estimable varieties of the Strawberry, and
the only person who has positively hybri-
dised the Scarlet and Hautbois families,
has presented to our view the Cushing and
several other beautiful and estimable varie-
ties of the Raspberry, some of which are
of a color previously unknown to this class
of fruits. On my own part, I have also
done something. I have above fifty seed-
lings of the Fastolff which have produced
monstrous fruit the present season ; a dozen
or more seedlings of Knevet's Giant, which
from analogy, I presume was the parent of
the Fastolff; a large improved seedling va-
riety of the common Red Market Raspber-
ry ; and numerous seedlings, partly hybri-
dised, of the White American, Ohio Month-
ly, Fraaconia, and Red and White Ant-
werp varieties. I added to my collection
every estimable European variety before
commencing operations, deeming it the pro-
per course in this, as in every other Ameri-
can pursuit, to adopt the climax of Euro-
pean attainment as the starting point for
American development. I have saved the
seeds Avith my own hands, during the pre-
sent season, of every estimable variety, for
further progress.

As Avith the Grape, so with the Raspber-
ry, the God of nature planted but one edi-
ble species on the eastern hemisphere,
whereas numerous species are scattered far
and wide, on the American soil, from Que-
bec to Virginia.

When a schoolboy, studying the French
language at Montreal, I well remember how
oft in my rambles I found on the roadsides
a profusion of delicious raspberries, and of
a species yet utterly unknown in this sec-
tion of our Union, save a few plants I che-
rish in my grounds, for " auld lang syne."
Again, when rambling over the wilds of the
Catskill, I found, in a state of native luxu-
riance, three varieties with which I had
been familiar from childhood, in the gardens
of my father and grandfather. One of these
was the identical " Common Red," now so
extensively cultivated for market ; the se-
cond was the " Black Cap," and the third
was the " American White." It is a pecu-
liar characteristic of the Catskill varieties,
and of the " Ohio Monthly," (which are all
of the same species,*) that they never suck-
er, but propagate themselves by throwing
down to the earth the extreme ends of the
long shoots, which strike root, and form
each a new plant, after which they detach
themselves entirely. There is in Pennsyl-
vania and perhaps farther south, a distinct
species, [Rubus pemisylvanicus,) producing
large fruit about the size of the Franconia,
and similar in color, being a very dark red.
This invariably produces a second crop in
October. [According to Torrey and Gray
R. pennsylvanicus, so named, is only the
common Red Raspberry. — Ed.] In Virgi-
nia also, one or morespecies [varieties ?]

* Mr. Pbinxe falls into error, in saying these are all the
same species. The " Common Red " Raspberry is Rubus
strigosus. (Mx.) entirely distinct in foliage, fruit, and habit of
growth, etc., from the common " Black Cap,'" Riibvs occiden-
tals. (Linn.) The '' Ohio Monthly," or Ohio Everbearing,
is merely a variety of tlie latter, but one which in strong and
damp soils, we think valuable. With ns it produces fruit
abundantly till the frosts of November stop its growth.— Ed

RESTORATION OF APPLE TREES.

267

are found distinct from all others. Blessed
then as our country is by the profuse hand
of nature, shall Americans confine them-
selves simply to the improvement of exotic
species, and neglect those presented to us
on our own soil, and which are of much our common country,
greater hardihood. I trust not, but anxious-

ly hope to witness the same zeal displayed
in regard to one as to the other, that we
may, in the result of our labors, be enabled
to boast improvements as numerous and
wide spread as are the glorious regions of

W. R. Pkince.

HO"W TO RESTORE THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF OLD APPLE TREES-

BY H. W. ROCKWELL, UTICA, N.Y.

A. J. Downing, Esq. — I do not recollect of
having seen any very valuable results re-
corded in the Horticulturist, concerning the
root pruning of the apple. I have, how-
ever, tested the experiment, with a little
variation from the directions laid down in
the article of your correspondent, " How to
renovate an outcast," and have had the satis-
faction of seeing my most sanguine anti-
cipations more than realized.

The experiment was performed upon
three trees standing in my grounds, none
of which were less than thirty years old.
One of these trees, an old fashioned [New-
town] Pippin, and a great favorite, had
borne moderately ; the other two made out
between them, to " get up " about a dozen
apples a year, just to let me know, I pre-
sume, that they " could do it," but were
perfectly indifferent how it was done.

I, last summer, undertook the renovation
of these trees. For this purpose, I opened
between them trenches, say ten feet in
length, two feet in depth, and about eight
feet equidistant from tree to tree. The
roots which were encountered in this ope-
ration, were, of course, all cut off, the
trenches filled with well rotted manure, and
closed. I finished by giving each of the

trees about a peck of charcoal mixed with
the same quantity of ashes, and now for
the result. I have this year gathered from
the " two outcasts " just mentioned, instead
of my annual dividend of a dozen apples,
from six to eight bushels apiece of as hand-
some fruit as you ever saw, with about the
same proportion from the third, which has
always been a moderate bearer. I believe
the experiment has succeeded as perfectly
as if each tree had been completely indr-
cled by a trench, as directed in the plan for
the renovation of the pear tree. It certain-
ly is easier to be put in practice where root
pruning is to be done on a large scale.
Yours. H. W. Rockwell.

We commend the foregoing to the pos-
sessors of unfruitful old apple orchards.
Such are not unfrequently seen, where the
barrenness of the tree arises solely from
their having exhausted all the elements (^
fertility in the soil. Forced to emit a set
of new roots, and supplied with abundant
nourishment, the trees quickly regain their
former fruitfulness. The result of Mr.
Rockwell's experiment proves that for the
labor expended, the orchardist is abundant-
ly remunerated. — Ed.

268

VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS.

NOTES ON VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS.

BY D. TOMLINSON, SCHENECTADY.

It was formerly the general practice of far-
mers to cut off the tops of their Indian corn
stalks, so soon as the corn was glazed. It
is yet done by the majority of corn plant-
ers, although it has been proved by a wri-
ter in the Cultivator, that the loss of weight
in the corn produced by cutting off' the tops
before the corn becomes fully ripe, is great-
er than the value of the tops of the stalks.
This practice is continued, probably from
Avant of faith in the proposition ; and want
of faith exists, because vegetable physiolo-
gy is not generally understood by farmers.
If it were understood and believed, that
the leaves performed the part in plants that
lungs do in animals, by exposing the crude
Sap to the atmosphere, parting with oxygen
and secreting carbon, and returning the
fluid thus improved, back to the whole sys-
tem of the tree, thereby nourishing and per-
fecting the seeds, as well as the trunks,
then the growers of vegetables would un-
derstand the reason why the tops of corn-
stalks are and must be useful in ripening
the grain or seeds. This being the fact,
the same reasoning is applicable to other
vegetables. Fruit trees ripen their fruit
under the action of the same laws. If the
leaves which act as lungs, are taken off" the
trees, they must put out new leaves soon,
or both the fruit and tree suffers, and if re-
peated must perish. I have known per-
sons to take off' the leaves from grape vines,
to expose the grapes to the sun, in order to
ripen them more perfectly, and add to their
sweetness. This has also proved to be an
error ; as the grapes thereby remained un-
ripe, sour and worthless. A neighbor of
mine took off" all the leaves from his grape
vines, last year, with a view to ripen and

improve the grapes, and the vines appeared
naked last spring till late, as if dead, and
did not expand their foliage fully till sum-
mer. They yielded no fruit this season.

As both the wood and fruit of trees are
nourished and matured by the returning
sap, after it is digested or elaborated by the
leaves or lungs, so it is presumed, that it is
through this law, that when a variety of
scions are engrafted on one trunk, they pro-
duce fruit like the stock from which they
were taken. If it were not so, and that the
proper nourishment was from the roots only,
it would follow that the trunk would pro-
duce its own natural fruit on the various
scions grafted on it, although they were of
a variety of other sorts.

A friend of ours in the'country, near this,
a few days ago, gave us several apples,
which Were on the one side yellow and
sweet, on the other side green and acid.
They were produced by dividing and in-
serting in the stock, half of a bud from a
Tallman Sweeting apple tree, for the sweet,
and half of a bud split, from a Rhode Island
Greening tree, for the acid. The fruit
partakes of both kinds in each apple.* This
we found to be the fact in eating them.

* This prodigy, of an apple "half sweet and half sour,"
is not very uncommon ; we have twice found it in various
parts of the country. But the explanation of the matter given
and repeated above, is, we believe entirely fallacious. In the
first place, it would, we think, be impossible to split two
buds and unite them so as to secure a union and the growth
of both ; and in the second place, if they did grow, each side
corresponding to each half of the bud, would produce its
proper fruit. To prove this, it is only necessary to take
from a pear tree a circle of bark, and replace it by another
circle of the bark of the quince. An union will take place,
and after a {e\v year's growth, if the tree is cut down, and
the trunk examined, it will be found that the fibres of wood
underneath the circle of quince bark are quince and noipear.
Hence if a bud could be divided, and made to unite with a
portion of another bud, each side would be as distinct in its
bark, buds, leaves and fruits, as two separate grafts.

We do not see why a fruit half sweet and sour should ex-
cite any more surprise than that every day miracle of a
flower half red and half white, which may be seen in the
common Four-o'clock, and several other plants. — Ed.

TWO TREES WORTH PLANTING.

269

The numberless instances, where even a
slight knowledge of vegetable physiology
•-laay be brought to bear advantageously on
agriculture and horticulture, prove that an
agricultural college would be most impor-
tant to all cultivators, by improving them
in the useful knowledge of this and other
sciences, which, when understood, would be
of great importance and profit to them and
the whole community. It is much to be
hoped that our Legislature will pass a law
to establish such a college. Most respect-
fully, David Tomlinson.

Scheneetady, Oct. 17, 18-17.

Our correspondent's views of the im-
portance of the leaves of plants to their
growth and the proper maturation of their
fruits and seeds, are correct and forcible.

That an Agricultural School, endowed
on a basis liberal and broad enough to com-
mand the best practical and theoretical talent

to be found, would be of incalculable bene-
fit to this great state, so large a part of
whose population live by the culture of the
soil, no reasonable man, who gives the sub-
ject careful consideration, can for a mo-
ment doubt. But, unless this high cha-
racter be stamped upon such an institution,
it were better not to attempt it ; for that
kind of college which we hear some legis-
lators advocating, and which would be filled
with third-rate soi-disant men of science
and third-rate practical farmers, as teachers
would only disgust clever sons of farmers
with what would be termed a scientific edu
cation. An agricultural school, like a bank
should be tested by its working well, theo
retically and practically,and therefore, none
but sound scientific teachers, who under-
stand and are capable of carrying out what
they teach, ought to find a place in such an
institution in the present state of our wants.
—Ed.

TWO TREES WORTH PLANTING.

There are two trees, great favorites of
ours, natives of this country, and easily
obtained in most of the nurseries, which are
not half so generally known, admired and
planted as they deserve to be. We mean
the OvERCUP Oak {Quercus macrocarpa,) and
the Ash-leaved Negundo {Negundofraxi-
nifolium.*)

The Overcup Oak, though sometimes
seen growing wild in the Atlantic States,
and even as far north as Stockbridge, Mass.,
abounds most plentifully in Tennessee and
Kentucky. Its great recommendations are,
1st. Its rapid growth, being, in ornamental
plantations, one of the most luxuriant of
hard-wooded trees ; 2d. The fine size of its
foliage, which is two or three times as large

* Ash-Ieaved Maple {Acer negundo) of the old botanists.

as that of most other Oaks — often, indeed,
fifteen or sixteen inches long, and of a fine
dark green, forming on full grown trees
very rich heads of foliage ; and 3d, its very
large and handsome acorns, curiously tufted
or fringed at the edges of the cup.

This oak is also remarkable, when young,
for the corky appearance of its bark, in
which it differs from other oaks, and resem-
bles the Gum tree and the Cork-bark Elm.

As the Overcup Oak grows rapidly while
young, and as it is beautiful with its fine
long leaves, in every stage of its growth,
we trust it will command the attention of
all our readers who are planting forest
trees remarkable for beauty or rarity.
When full grown, it makes a noble tree of
sixty feet in height, with a well shaped

270

TWO TREES WORTH PLANTING.

Fig. 39. Tht Orercup Oak.

USE OF WATER IN TRANSPLANTING.

271

spreading head. Our cut, fig. 39, repre-
sents the form of the leaf about half the
natural size, and that of the acom, of full
size.

The AsH-LEAVED Negundo is, perhaps,
the more familiar to our readers, of the two
under consideration, still it is by no means
a ^common tree in our pleasure grounds,
though we may safely say, that it deserves
a place in every plantation of even a dozen
of trees.

Its peculiar merits may be presented to
the novice as follows : it is perfectly hardy,
since, though mainly a southern tree, it
grows wild even as far north as Canada ;
it is of exceedingly rapid growth, takes
root almost at once after being transplant-
ed, makes a thick head of foliage very
speedily ; and attains a height of forty or
fifty feet in good soil, in the short space of
twelve to eighteen years ; its foliage is of a
peculiar lively, light green, which gives it
a striking and marked appearance among

other trees ; while its long racemes of pale
green seeds, which hang all summer on the
tree, and the peculiar pea-green bark of the
young wood, are all features of novelty and
interest to the arboriculturist.

When we add to this, that it is one of
the first trees to put on its tender green dra-
pery in the spring, that it will grow in any
soil, and, that if planted out singly, there
are few trees that show such a fine broad
fluttering head of foliage, with a compara-
tively small trunk, we think it must be ad-
mitted that the Negundo well deserves to
be the familiar of those casting about for
species to adorn their ornamental grounds.

The leaves of the Negundo are in ?Arees,
like those of the Ash, which gives it the
specific name it bears. Unlike many of the
rapid growing trees — the Abele, Ailanthus,
etc., — the Negundo rarely or never produ-
ces suckers to disfigure the lawn or walks,
where it is planted.

ON THE USE OF WATER IN TRANSPLANTING TREES.
BY GEORGE BARTLETT, SMITHFIELD, R. I.

This is a practice which is condemned by
many gardening writers ; but is their ob-
jection founded on careful experiment ; or
has the subject, like so many others, been
prejudged ? Experience and reflection have
given me a high opinion of the use of wa-
ter in transplanting trees, and I will give
you a brief description of my method, which
you may take for what it is worth.

After preparing the border for the tree, I
take out sufficient earth to give the roots
room to lie in their natural position. This
earth is finely pulverised. One man now
holds the tree in a perpendicular position,
with its roots in the hole, while another
pours two pailsfuU of water into the hole,

and a third slowly sifts the fine soil into
the water, being at the same time careful
to fill the outsides of the hole so as to keep
the water about the tree.

This process leaves the roots exactly in
the position which they occupied before re-
moval, and it makes the earth settle about
them in the most perfect manner. If the
soil is fine, and if it is sifted into the wa-
ter slowly, it is deposited on every side,
and every part of the roots, filling all of the
holes and interstices, coming in contact
with the smallest fibre, and covering the
surface with perfect uniformity, like the
deposits of gold in galvanic gilding.

Trees set in this manner, maintain their

272

SUBURBAN COTTAGES.

upright position much better than trees set
by the ordinary method. If you take hold
of a tree immediately after it is set, in the
way I have described, you can pull it over
very easily, but after it has stood a few
hours, it feels as if it had grown in its netv
position.

Finally, I am confident, from practice,
that the trees are more certain to live and

grow vigorously when water is used in this
way, while they are being planted. After
losing a great number of trees, I adopted
this plan of transplanting, and have since
set about five hundred, out of which I have
lost about a dozen, and I think most of
these were dead when they were removed.
George Bartlett.

SmithfieU, R. I., Oct. 7, 1847.

RURAL ARCHITECTURE— SUBURBAN COTTAGES.

While there is a very great improvement
visible in the better class of country houses,
we observe that the dwellings of many of
our villages — houses of moderate or small
size, and of a suburban character — that is
to say, with a little yard or area of ground
about them — retain very much the old ste-
reotyped form.

In a tour, we made recently through
some of the most thriving and prosperous
parts of New England, we were much
struck by the almost exclusive employment
of the rectangular wooden cottage, smaller
or larger, represented in our frontispiece,
fig 37. Passing over the Western railroad,
to Boston, village after village is composed
almost wholly of this kind of cottage, so
that by the external physiognomy of the
dwellings themselves, it is difficult for a
stranger to detect characteristic features by
which to fix any one of the smaller places
in his memory. It would be easy to criti-
cise the style of this cottage externally —
for though the effect produced is meagre,
yet the employment of cornices and pilas-
ters sufficiently indicates that there is an at-
tempt to produce something agreeable to
the eye. Instead of pointing out defects
one by one, we prefer to offer a very rough
sketch of a mode of varying the exterior
of a suburban or village house of this kind,

without altering its shape or accommoda-
tion— both of which may, no doubt, also be
greatly improved. (Especially do we ob-
ject to the too great number of windows in
a house of this moderate dimension.)

In fig. 38, we have shown how, at pre-
cisely the same expense, this kind of dwell-
ing may be erected so as to be^in more
correct taste architecturally, and afTord at
the same time more comfort to its inmates.

It appears to us, that in designing a build-
ing, a great deal of the success attained
will depend on a correspondence between
the style chosen and the material employed.
That is to say, for stone or brick, a heavy
style — and for wood, a light style, should
be chosen.

Now the cornice and pediment, with'the
angular antceox imbedded pilaster, employ-
ed in what we might call the New-England
cottage, properly express stone, as they are
forms which originated in the use of that
material. But the projecting roof, sup-
ported on light brackets, naturally grows
out of the employment of wood, a lighter
and more easily wrought material.

This projecting roof gives as much cha-
racter and expression to a rectangular wood-
en cottage, as can possibly be given in any
consistent and simple way. Besides, by
I shading, during a part of the day, the upper

DESIGN FOR A SUBURBAN VILLA

GROUND PLAN.

I Hon: JaJi., 11348.]

FTC 37. THE NEW ENGLAND SUBURBAN DWELLING.

FIG. 38. DESIGN FOH IMPROVING THE SAME.

iron : I)e<- IP4* i

RULES OF POMOLOGY.

273

story, it renders the rooms of that story
more agreeable in the summer season, and
protects it somewhat from the violence of
storms in inclement weather.

We have added a piazza or veranda to
this house, of the simplest and least expen-
sive form, both as giving importance to, and
sheltering the front door, and as adding
greatly to the beauty and significance of
the house as a dwelling. A house in which
the front door is bare, is not always easily
distinguished from an office or any place of
business. The piazza at once designates it
as a dwelling house.

The vertical boarding* represented in
fig. 38, we prefer greatly to the siding,
which is in almost universal use in New-
England. It has an expression of more
firmness and durability than the thin siding,
and really is much more lasting, warm and
efTective, as a protection against the wea-
ther. This slender " clapboarding " gives
a wooden building a character, perhaps the

farthest possible from that of the perma-
nence and substantiality most befitting a
dwelling house.

The taste that dictates white paint, with
bright green blinds, still holds supreme
swa}^ over the exterior of the New-England
cottage. How much more agreeable to the
eye would all these new villages be, if they
were toned down, a few shades only, by the
admixture of a very little gray, drab, or
fawn colour, when these dwellings are be-
ing painted. We would not destroy their
bright and cheerful appearance — but we
would in this way banish the glare and
rawness that is, in some of the villages of
most recent and rapid growth, really harsh
to one's eyes.

As we remarked, that among the best
houses, even in those villages, neutral tints
begin to be employed, we hail it as the har-
binger of a more enlightened taste in this
respect, that will soon pervade the public
generally.

THE RULES OP AMERICAN POMOLOGY.

In a late number, we called the attention of
all persons interested in the production,
cultivation, and propagation of good fruit,
to the imperative necessity of some reform
in the matter of naming, describing and in-
troducing new varieties to public attention.
We endeavored to point out the perplexi-
ty and confusion which had already arisen,
and which in the future was likely to be
multiplied indefinitely, from the manner in
which fruits of little or no merit are brought
forward, named and disseminated, to the
manifest injury of the public, and the com-
plete subversion of every thing like scien-

* Explained in our Cottage Residences, and the first volume
of the Horticulturiit.

tific precision or correctness in Pomology
itself.

We announce, therefore, with no little
satisfaction, that three of our leading hor-
ticultural societies — those of Massachti-
SETTS, Pennsylvania and Cincinnati —
have, since our last number, unanimously
adopted a series of Rules for American
Pomology.

These rules, framed very nearly in ac-
cordance with the hints thrown out in the
article on Pomological Reform, in our Octo-
ber nun. -'T, are calculated to stamp a cha-
racter of scientific precision and accuracy
on the nomenclature and description of
fruits, which will make Pomology rank, as

Vol. II.

35

274

RULES OF POMOLOGY.

it should, among other branches of Natural
History, and secure the cultivator and pro-
pagator of fruits, against hundreds of indif-
ferent kinds continually palmed upon the
public, as of the first quality, by persons
whose knowledge of the subject is fre-
quently not sufficient to render them com-
petent judges of the real merits of a new
variety.

This is the first movement made on either
side of the Atlantic towards fixed laws in
nomenclature. Every one conversant with
the subject, knows what a rank wilderness
fruit catalogues had become before the Lon-
don Horticultural Society undertook, some
years ago, the herculean labor of collecting
and proving all varieties then known. Now
that so much has been done in reducing
thousands of synonyms to a few standard
names, horticultural progress demands
something more. It demands that there
shall be some qualification fixed, without
possessing which no new fruit shall be
deemed worthy of a name ; that before it
can be considered named, it shall be accu-
rately described and published ; and that,
to guard as far as possible against errors
in judgment, fruits shall be described and
named only by persons rendered competent
by experience and knowledge of the sub-
ject.

We learn from the Fruit Committee of the
Massachusetts Society, who have been es-
pecially active in bringing about this re-
form, that a number of the most important
societies besides, in various parts of the
country, have also taken the matter in
hand, and are about adopting these rules.
We trust, for the sake of uniformity, and
in order to give the measure the broad ba-
sis of utility which it deserves, that every
Horticultural Society in the Union will im-
mediately adopt this new code. By doing
this, and by selecting for its fruit commit-

tee only skilful pomologists, they will be
able to carry them completely into execu-
tion, and thus give at once high character
to this branch of horticulture, which the
great advantages of the United States, both
as a fruit growing and fruit originating
country, so earnestly demands.
The following are the

RULES OF AMERICAN POMOLOGY.*

I. No new seedling fruit shall be entitled
to a name, or to pomological recommenda-
tion, which is not at least equal if not supe-
rior to any similar varieties of the first
rank already known ; or which, if only of
second rate flavor, is so decidedly superior
in vigor, hardiness, or productiveness, to va-
rieties of the same character already known,
as to render it well worthy of cultivation.

II. The originator, first grower, or he
who first makes known a new native varie-
ty of merit, shall be entitled to suggest a
name for such variety, which name, if a
suitable one, (i. e. coming within the rules
of nomenclature,) shall be adopted by the
writer describing the fruit for the first time.
But if the name proposed is inappropriate, or
does not come within the rules, then the
describer shall be at liberty to give a
name.

III. No new native fruit shall be consid-
ered, as named until the same has been ac-
curately described, in pomological terms,
by some competent person conversant with
existing varieties, some pomologist of repu-
tation, or the standing fruit committee of
some established horticultural society.

IV. The description shall embrace the
following particulars : 1st. The form and
exterior colour, the texture and colour of
the flesh, and the flavor of the fruit, with
the addition in stone fruits, of the size of

* We reprint the Rules as passed in Boston and Cincinnati-
There is a slight variation in one or two instances in the
the phraseology, as passed at Philadelphia, entirely unimpor-
tant.— Ed.

RULES OF POMOLOGY.

275

the stone, adherence or non-adherence of
the flesh, form of the suture, and the hol-
low at the stem ; and in kernel fruits, of
the size of the core and seeds, the length,
position and insertion of the stalk, and form
of the eye ; in peaches, the form of the
leaf glands and size of blossoms ; in grapes,
the form of the bunches ; and in strawber-
ries, the character of the blossoms, whether
staminate or pistillate : and also where there
is any marked character in the foliage,
growth of the young wood, or bearing tree,
the same shall be given.

V. The name of the new variety shall
not be considered as established, until the
description shall have been published in at
least one Horticultural or one Agricultural
Journal, having the largest circulation in the
country, or some Pomological work of large
circulation and acknowledged standard cha-
racter.

VI. In giving names to newly originated
varieties, all harsh, vulgar, or inelegant
names shall be avoided, such as " Sheep-
nose," "Hogpen," etc.

VII. No new names shall be given,
which consist of more than two words, ex-
cepting only when the originator's name is
added. [Thus all unnecessarily long titles,
such as "New Large Black Bigarreau,"
"Beurre Gris d'Hiver Nouveau," will be
avoided,]

VIII. Characteristic names, or those in
some way descriptive of the qualities, ori-
gin, or habit of fruit or tree, shall be pre-
ferred. Theyjmay be either characteristic

of intrinsic properties, as " Golden Sweet-
ing," Downer's Late," etc; or of local ori-
gin, as " Newtown Pippin," " Hudson
Gage;" of the season of ripening, as " Early
Scarlet," "Frost Gage;" of the form and
colour, as "Golden Drop," "Blue Pear-
main ;" or which commemorate a particular
era, place, or person, as " Tippecanoe,"
"La Grange," "Baldwin," or any other
titles which may be significantly applied.

IX. All superfluous terms shall be avoid-
ed : thus instead of " Thompson's Seedling
Beurre," it is better to say " Thompson's
Beurre," or simply " Thompson Pear."

X. Before giving a name to a new fruit,
its qualities should be decided by at least
two seasons' experience.

XI. When two persons have named or
described a new native fruit, then the name
and description first published, if accord-
ing to the rules herein indicated, shall have
the priority.

XII. No person introducing new fruits
from abroad, shall be allowed to rechristen
the same, or give them his own name ; but
the same should be submitted to some com-
petent pomologist to ascertain the true
name.

XIII. In deciding the names of fruits al-
ready known and described, the latest edi-
tion of the " Catalogue of the London Hor-
ticultural Society " shall be considered the
standard European authority ; and the latest
edition of Downing's " Fruita and Fruit
Trees of America" the standard American
authority.

Transplanting Trees. — Some sensible advice
is pivcn in " Maunde's Botanic Garden and Fruit-
ist," for September, respectin<f the preparation of
fruit and other trees for transplanting. It is there
recommended that, at the end uf August, a trench
should be cut hallway round the tree, cutting ofl", of
course, the extremities of the roots. At the end
of September, the trench to bo continued all round
the tree, and the whole left open. This process,
says the author, will jiroducc an early cessation
of growth, and consequently a more perfect matu-

ration of the wood, in tender trees, together with
plenty of fresh fibres, by which the tree, when
transplanted in November, will be speedily esta-
blislicd. Here the performance of tlio o})cration,
by degrees, prevents tlie shock generally given by
transplanting, at the same time as a<khlional ac-
tive tibrous roots are ]>rodueed to meet the circum-
stances. In the removal of trees or slirubs, parti-
cularly if rather large, this is doubtless a very judi-
cious mode of proceeding. — Gardener's Chroiv-
cle.

276

CULTURE OF SEA-KALE.

CULTURE OF THE SEA-KALE.

BY D., LONDON.

There is no vegetable which we are more
desirous of seeing in general cultivation,
and which is less common in this country
than the Sea-Kale. The following sensible
practical directions for growing it, from the
Gardener's Chronicle of Oct. 16, are there-
fore transferred at once to our columns —
Ed. Hort.

The time is now not far distant when
gardeners will begin to turn their attention
to their Sea-kale beds, with a view to win-
ter-forcing ; many will even be preparing to
have a cutting ready for Christmas. If a
gentleman give orders to this effect, they
must be obeyed ; but it appears almost an
improvident extravagance to consume the
vegetable so early in the season, while
there is such an abundance and variety of
others still remaining in the garden ; one
in particular, (celery, if stewed,) quite sup-
plying its place upon the table. The time
when Sea-kale comes in most acceptably
is during March and the beginning of
April, when we are tired of winter greens,
and have forgotten the taste of Cauliflow-
ers. By growing it on the following plan,
it may then be had at less expense and
trouble, and of far finer quality, than that
produced by any method of forcing ; and
no one who gives it a fair trial, will after-
wards relinquish it for main crops, although
he may still choose to force a certain quan-
tity for earlier supplies.

The Seakale bed is to be planted, in
March in straight rows, five feet asunder;
the plants in each row to be eighteen inches
apart. It is, of course, understood that the
ground be thoroughly trenched and manur-
ed as usual. Something, but not much, is
gained by obtaining year old plants from
the nursery, instead of sowing the seed in
the rows, there to remain. By the firstjme-
thod, you have a larger cutting the ensuing
spring ; but you may cut from your seed-
ling plants, which will have sufl'ered no
check by removal, and will grow with cor-
responding vigor.

Some time in December, not too soon,
when the footstalks of the leaves have fair-
ly separated themselves from the crown of
the plants, heap over each about a quarter
of a peck of sea sand or wood ashes ; if
not to be had any light unmanured soil will
do. Then earthup the plants from a trench
dug along the space between the rows, ex-
actly as if you were earthing up celery,
only that no leaves appear above the top of
the mound. The earth should be heaped
up till it is about two feet above the crowns
of the plants, and then flatted down with
the back of the spade, and the whole made
very smooth and neat. The long trench
between the rows of Sea-kale will act as a
drain during the dead time of winter. In
the spring, when the shoots begin to push,
large cracks will be seen in the bank of
mould, and a trial may be made with a
trowel, as soon as they are supposed to be
sufficiently advanced for cutting.

The Seakale thus obtained is larger,
more succulent, and more delicately flavor-
ed than that blanched under pots. In one
case the growing shoot is constantly in con-
tact with the damp mould, and absorbs
moisture instead of parting with it. In the
other the kale is subject to all the influen-
ces of air, though excluded from those of
light, from which, however, it is only pro-
tected by a porous, imperfectly closed ves-
sel. All the expense of pots and manure
for forcing is saved ; and the only objection
to the adoption of this plan in all cases, is,
that the crop comes in too much at once.
But by havmg rows of Kale in different
exposures, a difference of at least ten days
may be made ; and a few plants at the
foot of a south wall, earthed up from the
border, and merely so covered with mould
that it slopes against the wall, will afford a
very early gathering.

No second cutting should be attempted ;
not so much for fear of weakening the
plants, as because the weak shoots thus
obtained are comparatively worthless. The
earth should be levelled into the trenches,
exposing the crowns of the plant, and by

CULTURE OF SEA-KALE.

277

introducing some rank manure, there will
be plenty of time for a crop of Cauliflow-
ers (in single line) before the increasing
loaves of the Seakale require their removal.
A caution should be given to avoid a
mode of culture highly approved by many
who grow or sell, but do not themselves eat
Sea-kale. Instead of protecting and blanch-
ing the shoots by a covering of sweet earth,
they overwhelm their beds with barrowfuls
of leaves collected in autumn (oak leaves
are most in vogue,) and just shovel them
on one side when the crop is fit for the
knife. This plan has not a single advan-
tage over the earthing system, except in-
dulging the laziness of the cultivator ; for
any decrepid old woman could sprinkle a
few apronfuls of leaves over her garden,
but the other requires an able-bodied man
to do it properly. The plants are not a day
forwarder,unless the leaves heat very much;
and then the characteristic of the method
is fully evidenced. If the oak leaves were
gathered perfectly dry, and remained so
during the whole winter, if no grass or
weeds were ever intermingled with them,
all might be well. But the leaves are
damp, there is some green rubbish among
them, and consequently a slight fermenta-
tation takes place, slight putrefaction fol-
lows, and the produce grown beneath,
which delights the eye like a beautiful
branch carved in ivory, disgusts the taste
by a flavor as nauseous as it is undoubtedly
unwholesome. I have seen Sea-kale of this
kind produced at table that was quite un-
eatable. No wonder we now and then
meet with people who have tried it only
' once, and do not like it.

This valuable esculent, so easy of culti-
vation, requiring no peculiar advantages of
soil, climate or situation, well deserves to
be more extensively propagated. Those
who form their judgment from the estima-
tion in which it is held in and about Lon-
don, are little aware how far it is from be-

ing general in the remoter districts of Great
Britain. It is admirably adapted by its har-
diness to such countries as Canada, Norway
and Sweden, Northern Russia, etc., where,
if earthed up before the frost came, it
would lie dormant under the thick snow,
and be ready on the return of spring to put
forth its delicious shoots. It is also fitted
for those northern insular situations where
the temperature never rises above a mode-
rate degree, and where the rains of sum-
mer and the constant damps of winter
would rot our more tender vegetables.

To Cook Sea-kale. — After being well
washed, tie it in small bundles for the con-
venience of taking up, and drop it into a
saucepan of boiling water, in which a little
salt, according to taste, has been dissolved.
Keep it boiling. In about twenty-five mi-
nutes it will be done enough, which may be
known by trying it with a fork. Sir Hum-
phrey Davy tells us that the reason why
vegetables and fish should be plunged in
boiling salt and water is, that this solution
boils at a higher temperature than plain
water, and that the sudden scalding fixes
the albumen, mucilage, and other nutritive
parts of the viand, instead of their being
macerated and sodden, and so partly lost in
lukewarm water. The most economical
mode of serving Sea-kale is to lay it in a
vegetable dish with a strainer at the bot-
tom, and to send up in a small tureen any
sauce that may be desired at the same
time. The usual way is to lay it on sip-
pets of toasted bread, and pour over it some
white sauce or melted butter made with
milk instead of water. But if the toast is
not intended to be eaten, but only to serve
as a draining cushion to the vegetable, and
then cast out to pigs, or, in a town, proba-
bly to the kennel or dust-hole, such a waste-
ful proceeding is, to say the least, culpable,
while so many of our fellow-creatures are
perishing for want of a like morsel.

London, 1S47. D-

Prof. Leibig at Home. — If " republics are un-
grateful," some of the European governments are
not. The followin<r, which wc cpiote I'rom one of
Mr. Horsford's foreign letters to the Cultivator ,
shows that the distinguished chemist — now Baron
LiEBiG — is appreciated at home.

" The little farm, called Ltibig Heights, com-
mands a fine view of Giessen and its surrounding
points. Near this little farm the forest director is
now laying out a net-work of walks through a

grove of several hundred acres of pines. The ex-
penditures arc made by the city — a tribute of res-
pect to the genius whose farm has made this little
town known throughout the world. There can be
no objection to my mentioning here, that the gov-
ernment of Hcssia pays all the expenses of postage,
and all tiie cost of transport of matters connected
with fhemislry that would otherwise fall upon
Prof. Leibig.

278

TRANSACTIONS OF THE MASS. HORT. SOCIETY.

REVIEW.

Transactions of the Massachusetts Horti-
cultural Society. Volume I., Part 1, large
octavo. [34 pages and 28 pages of Proceedings.]
Boston. Published for the Society, by W. D.
Ticknor &. Co.
We announced early last spring, the pros-
pectus of this work, and are happy to find
the first part now before us.

The Committee of Publication apologises
for the delay, in issuing the work so long
after the time fixed for its appearance.
" This delay has arisen from an anxious de-
sire to have plates in a style of excellence
much superior to that of those which now
accompany it. After infinite trouble and
disappointment, the Committee feel satis-
fied that the process of chromolithing, in its
present state, is not adapted for a work of
the character which it is determined to
stamp on the Transactions of the Massachu-
setts Horticultural Society, or to give even
a faint idea of the beautiful drawings made
by their artist, Mr. W. Shakp. While,
therefore, the Committee regrets extremely
that it is obliged to issue the present num-
ber with chromolithed plates, it has resolv-
ed not only that the plates of the future
numbers shall appear in a very difierent
style, but that, if possible, those of this first
number shall be reproduced in a uniform
manner."

These are fine plates, richly coloured,
and more carefully executed than those in
Mr. Hovey's serial, though, as the Com-
mittee so honestly and frankly state, not
with that fidelity to nature, and delicacy
of tint, which characterise the best English
and French coloured plates, done by hand.
This defect, however, we are glad to see,
will be remedied hereafter.

The plates consist of the two almost per-
fect seedling Camellias raised by the Pre-

sident of the Society, the Van Afons Leon h
Clerc pear, and the William'' s Favorite and
Baldwin apples.

The letter press comprises excellent de-
scriptions of these flowers and fruits, a pre-
face by the Corresponding Secretary, an
article on the Character, History and Culture
of the Pear, by Gen. Dearborn, one on the
Superiority of Native Varieties of Fruits,
by A. J. DoAVNiNG, and twenty-eight pages
of the proceedings of the Society.

The letter press is most admirably exe-
cuted on fine heavy paper, with unimpeach-
able type and margins ; and we congratu-
late the Society, certainly the most ener-
getic and vigorous in its management in
the country, on having fairly commenced
so promising a series of Transactions,
which cannot but increase ver}^ largely its
sphere of usefulness.

From Mr. Teschemacher's prefatory re-
marks, we quote the following paragraphs :

" Independent of the pleasure enjoyed
by the sight of them, it will not be difficult
to show, that, like Fruit and Vegetables,
Flowers may be considered as articles of
considerable trade, and are, therefore, of
importance in a commercial point of view.
Civilization bids us mingle the ornamental
with the useful ; and the pleasures of the
eye, though not so indispensable, are of
a much more refined nature than those of
the mouth. There is no reason Avhy the
overflowings of wealth may not pour forth
a grateful and refreshing stream into the
lap of floricultural industry, as well as into
that of the ornamental branches of the in-
dustry of the loom, or into that of the de-
corative arts of sculpture and painting ;
none why the drawing rooms of the weal-
thy should not be rendered attractive by

TRANSACTIONS OF THE MASS. HORT. SOCIETY.

279

elegant flowers, as well as by rich flowing
drapery, or by the choicest productions of
the chisel or the pencil. And as the taste
for horticulture advances, few will be found
without the desire to see their habitations
environed with the ornaments of the forest;
with some of the vast multitude of elegant
shrubs and climbers, or with perennial and
annual flowers, a gay assemblage of which
so highly enhances and increases the plea-
sures of the spring, summer, and autumn —
' What were life without a Rose ? '

" This feeling will be well understood
by those already interested in the culture
of flowers ; others may rest assured, ihat
examples are exceedingly rare, of men
once engaged in Floriculture ever giving
it up but with their latest breath.

"A pretty strong proof, however, of the
commercial value of these floricultural pur-
suits is aflbrded in the instance of the two
exquisite seedling Camellias, the figures of
which adorn the pages of this first volume
of the Society's Transactions. They were
obtained in the conservatories of the Pre-
sident, M. P. Wilder, Esq., by the persever-
ing application of the scientific principles of
hybridization laid down by Herbert. He
sold his stock of these two seedlings to J.
L. L. F. Warren, for one thousand dollars,
and Mr. Warren has since nearly tripled
this original price for them in Europe, Nor
need this remain a solitary instance, for
there is, perhaps, no climate in the world
so admirably adapted to produce perfection
in seed as this, consequently nothing is
wanting but industrj', care and ingenuity in
the selection and cultivation of flowers to
enable us to produce the finest displays of
what are termed florist's flowers. To the
President for these Camellias, and to Mr.
Feast of Baltimore, for Roses, have been
decreed the highest rewards of the Society.

These will, no doubt, prove strong incen-
tives to this pursuit.

" Although the description and delinea-
tion of our native fruits and flowers will
be the most prominent features of the Tran-
sactions, it is hoped that the Society will
soon be enabled to offer such premiums for
papers, to be inserted in their volumes, as
will ensure communications on the best
methods of cultivating various vegetables.
There are many delicious esculents, which
are by no means common, and some yet to
be introduced. The fine curled endive de-
licately blanched, and the Scotch kail, do
not yet decorate our autumnal markets.
Experiments of the writer have shown that
they can be cultivated here in perfection,
with the greatest ease ; the same may be
said of the beautiful large Coss lettuce.
Sea-kale is almost unknown, yet it is raised
for sale in large quantities in other coun-
tries, where it is considered delicious and
very wholesome, and when the taste is
once acquired, it will, no doubt, become a
favorite vegetable. The " Couve tronchu-
da,"* a very large cabbage, the whole of
which, but particularly the stalk of the leaf,
is of a much finer flavor than asparagus, is
nearly unknown. These enumerations
might be extended to some length, but it is
not necessary in a preface."

Gf,n. Dearborn's article on the Character
and History of the Pear, is, like every thing
from his pen, ingenious and learned. He
goes back to the earliest mention of this
fruit by Syrian and Greek writers, and pur-
sues its history down to the present time.

We would very gladly reprint this arti-
cle entire, but its length (nearly 12 pages)
will not permit us to do so. The following
paragraph will show the rank which he
gives the Pear, in which we believe nine-

* Tliis is the Portusal Coiftage described in tlie Horticultu-
rist for Jan., 1847.— Ed.

280

TRANSACTIONS OF THE MASS. HORT. SOCIETY-

tenths of the Massachusetts Society will
join him :

" Among all the fruits which are pro-
duced upon the earth, the highest position
has been given to the Ma7igostan, which is
indigenous to Java, and other islands in the
Indian Archipelago ; the second has been
assigned to the Pine- Apple, the third to the
Orange, the fourth to the Peach, the fifth
to the Grape, and the sixth to the Pear ;
but as all these, except the three last, are
natives of, and can only be reared within
the tropics, and as the grape can be raised
in the open air in a very small portion, if in
any, of the United States, the Pear takes
the second station. And if the long pe-
riod of nearly ten months, during which
the numerous most admired varieties are
most successively matured for our tables, is
taken into consideration, with the diversi-
ty of graceful forms, beauty of color, agree-
able aroma and delicious flavor of many of
them, which rival, if they do not surpass,
the peach in those qualities, it may, with
propriety, be placed at the head of the list
of fruits, in all the states where the orange
cannot be cultivated."

We think we cannot better demonstrate
the energy and wisdom with which the
Massachusetts Society pursues its laudable
objects, than by recapitulating from the
proceedings of January, 1847, the follow-
ing handsome list of prizes offered, to elicit
native horticultural productions of the high-
est merit — than which there is nothing

within the scope of such an institution cal-
culated to be of such universal advantage
to the country at large.

PROSPECTIVE PREMIUMS

Ofl^ered by the Massachusetts Horticul-
tural Society, for objects to be originated
subsequent to A. D. 1846, which shall,
after a trial of five years, be deemed equal
or superior in quality and other characteris-
tics, to any now extant :

For the best seedling Pear, the Society's Gold Medal, value SGO

" " Apple, the Society's Gold Medal, 60

" " Hardy Grape, the Soc.'s Gold Medal, 60

" " Plum, the Appletoii Gold iNIedal, 40

" " Cherry, the Lowell Gold Medal, 40

" " Strawberry, the Lyman Plate, 50

" " Raspberry, the Lyman Plate, 40

" " Hardy Rose, the Society's Gold Medal,60

" " Camellia, the Society's Gold Medal, 60

'■ " Azalea indica, the Lowell Gold Medal, 40

" " Tree Pa;onia,the Appleion Gold Medal, 40

" " Herbaceous Pseonia, Lowell Gold do. 40

" " Potato, the Society's Gold Medal, 60

Who cannot see in the future, behind
this list of prizes, a long train of fine new
fruits and flowers, brought into existence by
the spirit engendered by this love of horti-
culture, and this emulation among its devo-
tees ? Productions, that once made^known
by such a Society, after the^ue years'' trial,
will be propagated endlessly until they en-
rich every garden in the land. With such
a view of the benefits, stated in their sim-
plest form, and saying nothing of the mo-
rale of this refined culture of the soil, it is
impossible not to find great cause of gratu-
lation in the prosperous existence and career
of such institutions as the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society.

Pelargonium: ltjcia rosea. — This variety is, in
its habit and appearance, much like one of the class
called "scarlet" pelarfj^oniums. It is a very com-
pact growing plant, with short jointed stems, and
good sized leaves, of a soft velvety character. The
flower stems are strong, and grow erect, so that
the trusses of bloom are brought well above the
foliage ; the colour of the flowers is a most deli-
cate soft pink, or peach blossom, with a lovely
white eye — altogether a distinct colour among pe-

largoniums. It is a gem for the flower garden, be-
ing not only perfectly distinct, but also superlative-
ly beautiful. Sometimes, when kept in pots, and
not very freely grown, we have observed it to pro-
duce but small trusses of blooin, but this improves
when it is growing freely in the open garden. Pro-
bably, however, it may in time be improved on ; in
the mean time, it may chiefly be valued for its no-
vel colour. — London Hort. Mas.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

281

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Hyacinths in pots and glasses. — The cultiva-
tion of tiie Hyacinth has been so fulij'^ explained in
previous numbers, that we find nothing to add to
th(! advice which has been given, except one thin^',
and that is never to use cold water. When the
bulbs arc first placed in the neighborhood of the
water, let it be lukewarm ; whenever fresh water
is added, whenever it is changed, let it stijl be luke-
warm .

Those who have not studied the effect of this
kind of management, will hardly believe how great
the difference is between the same sort of hyacinth
drenched from time to time with ice-cold water,
fresh from the pump or cistern, and that which is
nursed with tepid water. The etfect is rendered
still more beneficial, if four drops of a saturated
solution of sulphate of ammonia are added to every
pint of water. This is equally the case, whether
the bulbs are in glasses of water or pots of earth.
Under ordinary management, the roots are chilled
every time that water is applied. The Scythians
are said to have thrown their children into their
rivers, even although frozen, as soon as they were
born ; and this practice is applied by ninety-nine
people in a hundred to their hyacinths. They may
depend upon it, that whatever may have been the
case with Scythian children, oriental hj'acinths can-
not bear it. Each application of cold water to their
roots gives them a check, and each check tends to
diminish their capacity of flowering well.

It is doubtless true, that hyacinths in the open
border llower very well without warm water ; but
then we are to remember that the roots of the bulbs
formed in the ground are hardy, and have never
been accustomed to warmth ; but in a sittmg room
the roots are born in warmth, nursed tenderly, and
quite in a different condition from those which are
formed out of doors. The rot in hyacinth bulbs is
not unfrequently caused by the neglect of this prin-
ciple ; already in a languishing state, from some
original debility, such bulbs require more warmth
tlian usual, and receive less. The lender tissue,
chilled by the icy fluid that bathes it, dies and putri-
fies. It assumes the condition of the potato mur-
rain. Had warmth, the great stimulant of all vi-
tality, been applied, the tissue, tender as it was,
would have been excited into action, and soon would
have revived under its genial influence.

The best proof of this is the fact that a hyacinth
bulb, in a state of rapid putrefaction, while kept in
contact with the cold water of a hyacinth glass in a
dwelling house, entirely renewed its vitality when
removed to a warm situation. The annexed cut
[omitted] represents a case of this sort: — In this
instance the decay had eaten completel}' through
the base of the scales into the very heart of the hya-
cinth, which was literally putrid. The foul sUmy
matter was wiped off, and the bulb was placed, its
base upwards, on a layer of warm sand, covering
the bottom of an earthen pan. The sand was mois-
tened with water of the temperature of eighty de-
grees, or thereabouts; a bell-glass was placed over
the bulb, with its edges pressed into the sand ; and

VOL. u. 36

the apparatus was placed on a shelf near a north
window, about four feet above an Arnott stove in
constant action. From time to time warm water
was given by pouring it upon the sand between the
edge of the earthen pan and the side of the bell-
glass. Decay was immediately arrested ; for
some time the bulb remained dormant ; but by de-
grees health}' granulations made their appearance,
displacing the decayed matter ; and in a few weeks
a fine crop of young bulbs sprouted forth on the
surface of the scales, and on the edges of the healed
up sores.

This result, which was extremely curious, was
entirely owing to the stimulus exercised by warmth
upon the flagging vitality of the bulb. Had not the
warmth been applied, the whole of the plant would
soon have passed into a state of irremediable de-
composition. Nothing could have been more inte-
resting than to watch, day by day, the organic
forces of the dying plant exercising their plastic
power in the development of tiny scales out of the
fleshy tissue of the hyacinth ; to see those scales
arrange themselves in the form of miniature bulbs,
one sprouting out of the bosom of the other, but
still nestling close within it ; and at last to behold
a new brood of tiny hyacinths crowding the space,
which so lately was the seat of corruption and
death. It was a verification of the fable of the
dragon's teeth.

Another thing that warmth will do, is to compel
the unwilling hyacinth to form roots. How often
does it happen that the bulb, when placed over wa-
ter, pushes forth leaves, without roots. If this is
allowed to go on, the plant becomes top-heavy,
and tumbles out of the glass ; or if that is prevent-
ed, still it flowers badly. Whenever this is re-
marked, additional warmth should be applied. A
convenient way of proceeding is this. When a
hyacinth bulb shows no sign of putting forth roots
at the same time that its bud begins to swell, fill
the glass with milk-warm water, to within an inch
of the bulb; wrap up the whole in warm flannel,
and station the glass thus prepared in a warm clo-
set. This operation will not need repetition, for in
general roots will come out in three or four days
afterwards. As soon as the roots are a quarter of
an inch long, add as much warm water as will
just touch the tips of the roots, and again leave the
plant still wrapped in flannel, till the roots are half
an inch long. When that is the case, danger is
over ; the flannel may be removed, the bulb cx|)osed
to light, and no other care is requisite, than that of
still guarding against cold water. Lindley.

Eight Conservatory Climbers. — 1. Combre-
turn purpureum, or, as it is now called, Poivrea
coccinca, a half shrubby plant, with oval leaves,
and branching spikes of scarlet flowers, with con-
spicuous stamens ; it will flower all the simimer
by stojiping the strongest shoots occasionally.
2. Echitcs-- suberecta, a beautiful yellow flowering
[)Uint, wliicii has generally been grown in the stove,
but will answer well for the conservatory by spur-
pruning, like the vine ; it is a very stiong grower.

282

FOREIGN NOTICES.

3. Ipoincea horsfallite , a splendid plant, with deep-
ly lobed leaves, and bunches of crimson blossoms ;
should have a warm close position. 4. Mandevilla
suavcolens, a very free grower, with hairy oval
leaves, and bunches of white deliciously fragrant
flowers. 5. Passifloraracemosa, a splendid crim-
son passion flower, which will flower freely nearly
the whole year ; does best grafted upon one of the
hardier sorts. 6. Plumbago capensis, an easily
grown plant, with long slender stems, bluntish
leaves, and good sized bunches of pale blue flowers;
may be had in bloom from April to November, by
cutting back some of the strongest shoots in sum-
mer. 7. Stephanotis floribunda, a beautiful ever-
green plant, with dark green, shining, blunt oval
leaves, and bunches of white deliciously scented
blossoms ; it is a splendid thing when planted out
in a conservatory border, and grows very fast.
8. Tecoma jasminoides, a very free flowerer upon
the young wood from July to the end of October ;
it has much divided leaves, and bunches of white
flowers, with a crimson centre. — London Hort.

Mag.

Manure- WATER for Pot Plants. — Many — in-
deed most — plants grown in pots may, at particu-
lar periods of the growth, be advantageously treat-
ed with liquid manure ; these periods are chiefly
during the time of making vigorous growth, and of
blooming. Inexperienced persons, however, are
liable to do material injury from using it too strong
or too often ; or they fall into the other extreme,
and derive no benefit from the application. A very
useful liquid manure for pot plants may be made by
putting the following ingredients into a hogshead
of rain water : — two pecks of sheep or deer dung,
one peck of soot, and two quarts of Potter's guano;
these ingredients are first to be well mixed up to
the consistence of paste, with boiling water, and
then mixed with cold water. Stir the mixture fre-
quently for a day or two, and then throw in a quart
of quicklime ; when the liquid has become clear it
is fit for use. For all strong growing plants this
may be used daily, or every other day — applying it
diluted with about one-third of clear water. For
heaths, and similar delicate rooted plants, and even
for orchids, it will prove beneficial, but to these
should not be given oftener than once a week. As
before observed, it is only to be used — at least by
the inexperienced — during the periods of growth
and blooming — Lond. Hart. Mag.

Colored Glass for Hot-houses. — It has been
found that plants growing in stove houses often
sufi'er from the scorching influence of the solar rays,
and great expense is frequently incurred in fixing
blinds to cut oS" this destructive calorific influence.
From the enormous size of the new Palm-house at
Kew, it would be almost impracticable to adopt
any system of shades which should be effective —
this building being 363 feet in length, 100 feet wide,
and 63 feet high. It was therefore thought desira-
ble to ascertain if it would be possible to cut o9"
these scorching rays by the use of a tinted glass,
which should not be objectionable in its appearance,
and the question was, at the recommendation of
Sir William Hooker and Dr. Lindley, submitted by
the Commissioners of Weeds, &,c., to Mr. Hunt.

The object was to select a glass which should not
permit those heat rays, which are the most active
in scorchinor the leaves of plants to permeate it.
By a series of experiments made with the colored
juices of the Palms themselves, it was ascertained
that the rayswliich destroyed their colour, belonged
to a class situated at that end of the prismatic
spectrum which exhibited the utmost calorific pow-
er, and just beyond the limits of the visible red ray.
A number of specimens of glass, variously manu-
factured, were submitted to examination, and it
was at length ascertained that glass tinted green,
apjieared likely to effect the object most readily.
Some of the green glasses which were examined,
obstructed nearly all the heat rays ; but tliis was
not desired, and from their dark colour, these were
objectionable, as stopping the passage of a consi-
derable quantity of light, which was essential to
the healthful growth of the plants. Many speci-
mens were manulactured purposely for the experi-
ments by Messrs. Chance of Birmingham, accord-
ing to given directions, and it is mainly due to the
interest taken by these gentlemen that the deside-
ratum has been arrived at. Every sample of glass
was submitted to three distinct sets of experiments.
1st. To ascertain by measuring ofT the coloured rays
of tlie spectrum, its transparency to luminous in-
fluence. 2d. To ascertain the amount of obstruc-
tion oflfered to the passage of the chemical rays.
3d. To measure the amount of heat radiation which
permeated each specimen. The chemical changes
were tried upon chloride of silver, and on papers
stained with the green coloring matter of the leaves
of the Palms themselves. The calorific influence
was ascertained by a method employed by Sir John
Herschel, in his experiments on solar radiation.
Tissue paper stretched on a frame, was smoked on
one side by holding it over a smoky flame, and then
while the spectrum was thrown upon it, tlie other
surface was washed with strong sulphuric ether.
By tlie evaporation of the ether, the points of calo-
rific action were most easily obtained . as these dried
off in well defined circles long before the other
parts presented any appearance of dryness. By
these means it was not difficult, with care, to as-
certain exactly the conditions of the glass, as to its
transparency to light, heat, and chemical agency
(actinism.) The glass thus chosen is of a very
pale yellow green colour, the colour being given by
oxide of copper, and is so transparent that scarce-
ly ani' light is intercepted. In examining the spec-
tral rays through it, it is found that the yellow is
slightly diminished in intensity, and that the ex-
tent of the red ray is affected in a small degree,
the lower edge of the ordinary red ray being out oflf
by it. It does not appear to act in any way upon
the chemical principle, as spectral impressions ob-
tained upon chloride of silver are the same in ex-
tent and character as those procured by the action
of the rays which have passed ordinary white glass.
This glass has, however, a very remarkable ac-
tion upon the non-luminous heat-rays, the least re-
frangible calorific rays. It prevents the permeation
of all that class of heat raj's which exist below and
in the point fixed by Sir William Herschel, Sir H.
Englefield, and Sir J. Herschel, as the point of
maximum calorific action. As it is to this class of

FOREIGN NOTICES.

283

rays that the scorching influence is due, there is
every reason to conclude that the use of this sjlass
will be etlcetive in protectinij the plants, and, at
the same time, as it is unobjectionable in point of
colour, and transparent to that principle which is
necessary for the development of those parts of the
plant which depend on external chemical excita-
tion, it is only partially so to the heat rays, and it is
opaque to those only which are the most injurious.
The absence of the oxide of mantranese, common-
ly employed in ail sheet i^lass, is insisted on, it bav-
intr been found that glass, into the composition of
which manganese enters, will, after exposure for
some time to intense sunlight, assume a pinky hue,
and any tint of this character would completely
destroy the peculiar properties for which this glass
is chosen. Meiloni, in his investigations on radiant
heat, discovered that a peculiar green glass, manu-
factured in Italy, obstructed nearly all the calorific
rays ; we may, therefore, conclude that the glass
chosen is of a similar character to that employed
by the Italian philosopher. The tint of colour is
not very different from that of the old crown glass ;
and many practical men state that they find their
plants flourish much better under this kind of glass
than under the whitest sheet glass commonly em-
ployed.— Gardeners' Chronicle.

HOLKAM, THE SeAT OF THE EaRL OF LEICES-
TER.— This magnificent place has been hitherto
known to the public chiefly for its agriculture, and
the princely hospitality of its owners. Men of all
countries have been here to learn the arts of rear-
ing the best breeds of cattle, and of turning the
soil to the best account ; and no one doubts that the
examples here given have been the means of stimu-
lating many throughout the world to carry out simi-
lar improvements. There is, however, an addi-
tional lesson very legibly displayed here, which pro-
prietors would do well to attend to — I mean its fo-
resting. Trees anywhere, in good land even, are
trmmphs ; they are looked upon as such in rich
sheltered valleys, on slopes with mountains at their
back ; but to have them of commanding stature, in
defiance of every obstruction, soil, situation, climate
(a biting sea air in this instance,) is an achieve-
ment which ought at least to be noted and com-
mended to all who have lands similarly situated.
Tlie late Sir Fowell Buxton took the hint, and not
the least of his legacies was a series of thriving
plantations stretched along the side of the German
Ocean at Runton and Trimmingham.

Holkham, "on an open, barren estate, was
planned, planted, built, decorated and inhabited in
the middle of the eigliteenth century." Such is the
record over the entrance door into the hall. Ceres
and Sylvanus have now their temples here ; and it
would be difficult indeed to find an estate over
■which cornfields and woodlands are moie judiciously
interspersed. The sale of the timber alone real-
izes about £^1300 yearly.

The chief object of this notice is to draw the at-
tention of land proprietors who have poor lands
near the sea, to a grand feature at this scat, caus-
ed by the introduction of the Evergreen Oak (Quer-
cus ilex.) It is here, as a timber tree, magnificent
beyond example in this country, and in the greatest

profusion. Its appearance in the Holkham woods,
proves two things : 1st. that the tree is well suited
to dry exposed soils within the influence of the sea
air, as has been frequently stated in the Chronicle ;
and 2dly, that on chalk bottoms it is entitled to a
place beside the Beech. In the Obelisk wood here,
a great part of wliich is on chalk, it is in several
instances intermixed with the common English
Oak, which it surpasses both in height and bulk,
growing luxuriantly after the latter has ceased to
thrive.

Of the Evergreen Oak as an ornamental object,
especially in autumn and throughout winter, it is
unnecessary to speak. The only hindrance to its
more general cultivation is its high price, and the
uncertainty of its growing when transplanted. I
am happy to say that Mr. Gorrie, the forester here,
has the merit of obviating the latter objection, and
with it the former will, no doubt, be considerably
modified. He transplants the seedlings about mid-
summer, a plan which has turned out to be com-
pletely_successful. Following his recommendation,
I had "several hundred put into small pots in the
latter part of June, and I now find that they are
not only all alive, but have made a second growth.
Those who are in the practice of raising seedling
Ilexes, will have observed that they complete their
first firowth in June, and that towards the end of
the month the buds assume the appearance of ma-
turity, the leaves becoming rigid and glossy, and
that the whole plant is apparently prepared for
winter. A few weeks elapse, and it is observed
that they commence to shoot with renewed vigor,
making in some instances about six inches of ad-
ditional wood. It is during the interval of rest,
therefore, that the plants should be removed. It is
of course necessary to shade them from sunshine,
and to water them copiously for a week or so after
being transplanted.

All who visit this seat, and are interested in this
tree, had better ask particularly for the Ilexes in
the Obelisk wood ; for after walking forty miles, a
few j'ears since, for the purpose of seeing the best
trees, those only on the lawn in front of the house
were shown to me. They are certainly fine, spread-
ing, park-like objects ; but the others are majestic
and forest-like, and almost justify the extravagant
language of Pliny, when writing of the species as
it grew about Rome. One tree in this district
measures fifteen feet in circumference at a foot
from the ground ; another is eight feet four inches,
in circumference, has twenty-eight feet of a clear
bole, and is seventy feet high : a third is nine lectin
circumference, has a clean bole of twenty feet, and
is seventy-five feet high : another is twelve feet in
circumference and covers a space of twenty-two
yards in diameter.

The usual approach to this seat, on the Faken-
ham road, is skirted with thriving young trees of
the Araucaiia and Cedrus deodara, which in a few
years more will be large enough to confer a strik-
ing and graceful ellect. A considerable number of
the latter has been raised from seed by Mr. Gorrie,
and it is intended to plant them on an extensive
scale, both as ornamental objects and forest trees.
The Araucaria grows here without the slightest
protection during winter ; and it will bo interettiiig

2S4

FOREIGN NOTICES.

to those who are about to plant within the influence
of the sea. to know that they may safely include
the Laurustiniis as a shrub whieli will succeed well
in such places. Here it is used in some instances
as a hedire y)lant, and in this capacity, it stood
throughout the last severe winter without bein^ in-
jured.

Tiie whole sylvan picture at this seat forms a
profitable stud}'. The lesson is, this <>reat wood-
land, its beauty, the shelter it gives to bleak lands,
and the splendid revenue derived from it. may bo
repeated elsewiiere through diligence and perse-
verance. Nature is the same to all without distinc-
tion ; and if we find her in any instance wearing a
richer or more valuable garb than she displays over
other lands similarly circumstanced, it is only be-
cause her favors have been in that instance sought
in a more liberal spirit. Draining, subsoiling and
manuring", are amongst the petitioners whom she
always answers. — G., in Gard. Chron.

What Green Tea is ? — Mr. Fortune's Wan-
derings in China has reached a second edition, as
it deserved. The present issue contains some im-
portant additions relating to tea, the chapter on
that subject having been rewritten, and much ex-
tended. Mr. Fortune is of opinion, that in China,
the home consumption of tea may be estimated at
eighteen hundred millions of pounds, and states,
that in addition about ninety-five millions of pounds
are exported.

Among other useful matter, we are glad to find
Mr. Warrington's valuable and interesting paper
on the chemical analysis of tea, reprinted from the
" Memoirs of the Chemical Society," where it only
meets the eye of chemists. This gentleman has
not only removed the w^hole of the colouring mat-
ter, or glazing, from green tea, but be has been
able to analyze the matter removed, and to prove
it, by chemical evidence, to consist of Prussian blue
and gypsum principally. So that in fact the drink-
ers of green tea, as it comes to the English market,
indulge in a beverage of Chinese paint, and might
imitate the mixture by dissolving Prussian blue and
plaster of Paris in hot water. The Chinese them-
selves do not drink this painted tea ; they only sell
it! — Lond. Chron.

Crops in France. — Paris, ith .August, 1847. —
The appearance of the Potato cro))s in this neigh-
borhood is everything that could be wished, the
vegetation is everywhere luxuriant, and promises
an abundant harvest, scarcely any signs of disease
have appeared, and even where seen so modified as
to cause little or no alarm; at any other time it
would have passed altogether unnoticed ; in fact,
there was but very littletast season, compared with
1845, and now it is almost unknown, — I speak of
the present moment, and the cultivation round Pa-
ris. My own observation leads me to believe that
there has been a very considerable increase of
ground planted this year ; this was to be expected
from the high price tliey fetched in the autumn and
winter, the probable increased consumption in con-
sequence of the high price of provisions and the
many purposes to which they are applied in France;
the enormous rise in the price of bread since the
autumn was another inducement to plant as largely

as possible ; the result has justified the experiment ;
the yield of the early sorts is fully equal, if not
more than an average ; at the present time the very
best new potatoes are selling at about Is., 6d. the
English bushel, while bread is lOd. the four pound
loaf; whereas, in the early part of the winter, they
were selling at 3s. and 4s., and bread was then 9d..
a diflerence so considerable as cannot fail to have
elfect in still further reducing the price of the main
stair of life. The markets are abundantly sup-
plied with both round and kidneys of good quality ;
it is doubtful if they|ever were finer. I have not seen
a single diseased Potato in the markets, although
I have been on the constant look out ; in most of
the country markets they are equally good. As to
the late kinds, I have, from time to time, carefully
examined the growing crops, and assert, without
fear of contradiction, that they are as fine as it is
possible to desire, and that, at the time I write,
there is no appearance of disease, or scarcelv none;
the loliage is everywhere green and luxuriant, a
tainted leaf is rarely found, certainly not more than
are usually seen from the eflects of thrips and other
invisible insects. I am in almost daily intercourse
with persons from different parts of France, who
fiom their position, are well acquainted with the
subject, and the general belief is, that there has
been, and is, but very little disease this year, that
it is not upon the increase, and almost entirely con-
fined to damp and cold soils, and entailed by plant-
ing diseased tubers. I think it is the universal
opinion here that the crops of Potatoes throughout
France are — 1. But very little affected by disease ;

2. That there will be more than an average yield ;

3. That there has been a far greater quantity
planted than usual.

So far the prospects are cheering ; and should it
please Providence to continue the fine weather for
another six weeks, all hearts will have cause of
thankfulness ; for almost every species of vegetable
production is equally abundant. The Wheat har-
vest is over in the south, and commenced in the
north, and was never known finer. The Minister
of Commerce has just made publicly known, by
ofEcial returns, that there is more than an average,
and the present splendid weather will permit it to
be housed in good condition. As to the fruit crops,
they are absolutely superabundant ; the quantity of
Apples, Pears, Grapes, Apricots, and Plums, are
incredible; the trees are falling under them. The
vintage will be abundant and of first-rate quality ;
the early Black Grapes are now changing color in
Paris, and will, no doubt, be in the markets by the
middle of the month. Good Apricots have been
selling at 3 and 4 francs (2s. and 6d. and 3s.) per
100 ; fine green figs are now sold in the streets at
less than id. each ; it was the same with the earlier
fruits, such as Strawberries, Cherries, Raspberries,
Gooseberries, and Currants. During last month
fine May Duke Cherries were often sold at ^d. and
Id per lb., and Currants at Id. and l^d per pint.
Gardener's Chronicle.

Saving Seeds. — It has often occurred to me, that
sufficient care has not been exercised in saving
seeds of vegetables from the finest parts of the
crop. If we breed live stock of whatever kind, we
invariably select the parents from the best of o u

FOREIGN NOTICES.

285

flock or stud. So with regard to flowers, no one
would sow seed from inferior flowers, but would
select I'roni the best specimens ; and it is by follow-
in'^ up this system, even without more crossing than
is performed by nature and the bees, that great
improvements have been made. Thinking tlie
same ell'ects would accrue from a more careful se-
lection of culinary seeds, and that a much greater
degree of productiveness might be attained, about
three years ago I began an experiment with Long-
pod Beans. I carefully selected the finest and full-
est pods for seed, taking none with fewer than five
beans in each. Next year I had a good sprinkling
of pods with six seeds in each ; these were saved
for seed. The following year there were many six
seeded pods, and some with seven. Following up
the same plan, I find this season many more six
and seven seeded pods, and some with eight seeds!
There are still a few plants which produce five-
seeded pods ; and it is worthy of remark, that the
five-seeded plants have seldom a six-seeded pod
upon them, but all fives; on the contrary a six-seed-
ed plant generally has nearly all the pods bearing
six beans or more. As the seed-saving season is
now at hand, perhaps these hints may induce others
to adopt the plan. If the same thing were adopted
with our grain crops, by selecting a few of the
largest and best filled ears to save as seed, I have
little doubt more productive varieties might be
procured. Lusor,in Gard. Chron.

CtTi.TURE OF THE ViNE. — Much has been writ-
ten on the tieatmcnt of the Vine, and yet we may
read every day of shrivelling, shanking, rust, red
spider, and similar complaints, without possessing
any certain cure for these etils which occur repeat-
edly. That a good border is an essential requisite
in the production of good grapes, I think every
body will admit, but at the same time I maintain
that air is equally essential in maturing and color-
ing the crop. In forming a new border, I should
recommend the soil to be excavated to the depth of
three feet; not more ; but the wider the border is
the better ; twenty feet is not too wide. There
should be a drain in front, and the border should
slope well to it. I would bottom with rough sand-
stone, or some material that would secure perfect
drainage ; and I would cover the latter with thin
turf or peat, to prevent it from being choked up.
As compost I would recommend one-fourth old
mortar, bone.? and charcoal — the bones and charcoal
to be broken, but not too small ; one-fourth decom-
posed tree leaves, and the remaining half the top-
spit of a good old pasture or common, which should
at least have lain in a heap for twelve or eighteen
months, and frequently turned and exposed as
much as possible to frost. The whole being
well incorporated, proceed to fill in the border,
tak.ng care to tread as little as possible. Rather
allow the soil to settle of itself, which will render
the border more porous. For planting the begin-
ning of May is, perhaps, the best time. Plant one
vine immediately under each rafter, a position in
which more light is admitted to the foliage. I re-
member seeing vines belonging to the Right Hon.
the Speaker, which reached the top of an eighteen
feet rafter the same season. In this case the vines

were planted in the beginning of May. The bor-
der being n(jw made, and the vines planted, I will
give some account of their management.

1 believe that houses after houses of grapes are
ruined by keeping them too hot at night, and not
giving them sufiicicnt air during the day time. Mr.
Mitchell, of Kemptown, Brighton, who is celebra-
ted as a grape grower, ascribes his success entire-
ly to extensive airing, and low temperature at
night — forty to forty-five degrees is not too low for
night temperature, which might be even a little
lower. Abundance of air should be given as early
as possible in the morning, to dry up all moisture,
thereby preventing scalding and burning — evils so
often complained of. Water and li(phd manure are
also necessary in vine culture. In hot dry weather,
water every other day. The border beinfr porous,
will allow the water to pass through readily, and
will carry the surface heat down to the roots. This
should be discontinued when the grapes beain ro
colour, and at that time discontinue moisture inside;
for the stalks of the berries are apt to become black
if much moisture reaches them after that time. I
do not hold with syringing vines after they have
broken ; the\' obtain sufficient moisture otherwise,
provided the flues or pipes are frequently sprinkled.
To show that air is the grand secret in grape grow-
ing, I will cite an instance. I once visited a friend
who had the care of a large establi.shraent. With
feelings of pride, he showed me a house of grapes
eighty feet in length which was really a grand
sight. The}' were chiefly Muscats which had set
beautifully. The house was oppressively hot, the
thermometer in front registering eighty decrees
and conseiiuently at top the house must have been
much hotter ; 1 pointed this out to him, but he
shook his head and gravely assured me the contra-
rv wouhl not do, having a cold wet border to con-
tend with. But mark the sequel. 1 paid him ano-
ther visit afterwards, when ttie Grapes were ripe ;
the berries were not larger than marrowfat peas ;
scarcely a bunch but what was shanked ; and ge-
nerally speaking, only the shoulders had ripened,
while in a small house in which Pelargoniums and
other plants had been kept, and which had been
conserjuenily well aired, the bunches were large,
avcrafiing one and a half to two pounds each. On
inquiry, I was told it was the border that had j)ro-
duced the difference ; but I could see nothing dif-
ferent trom the other in that. In fact my friend
had hoodwinked his judgment in order to retain his
prejudice, a circumstance of too common occur-
rence. Once more then let me impress on all the
necessity oi fjiving air in abundance. This advice
is no wild theory, but the result of long experience
and careful nOservation. Finally it is to be hoped,
that when Poiuiaise becomes better known, anil its
merits appreciated, we shall hear no more of many
complaints which attend the present system of vino
trrowinuf. Jl. li.in Gardener's Chron.

Earthing up Potatoes. — I have long had doubts
relative to earthuig uj) potatoes being a beneficial
practice, and I am now convinced that it is detri-
mental. The vaiiely employed in mj- experiments
is the pink kidneys- All the sets were planted at
the same time, (the first week in April,) in rows

286

FOREIGN NOTICES.

two feet apart, and eighteen inches in the rows,
and taken up this day '(Sept. 24,) and weighed.
The average of all my experiments gives exaetly
an increase of one-fourth in favor of not earthing
up ; but some of the plots gave still more, viz., as
42 lbs. is to 31 2 lbs. The experiment has been
made on a sixteenth of an acre of good deep loam,
with a cool moist subsoil. G. W. Johnson.

Heliotropum voltairianum. — M. Thibaut, hor-
ticulteur, rue St. Maur 45, Paris, advertises a
magnificent new variety of Heliotrope, under the
above name. "Its leaves are of a dark green ;
its flowers are very fragrant, of a deep bluish-
violet colour, (white in the interior.) The panicles
are enormous ; planted in the open border in May,
the clusters of blossoms measure from four to six
inches in diameter."

Raising Thorns from Sked. — In a paper read
some time ago, by one of the most intelligent Scotch
horticulturists, Mr. Mc Nab, giving an account of
a tour in North America, we find the following
practical remarks on raising hedges from our na-
tive thorns, which we reprint as follows : —

" He was agreeably surprised to see such a vari-
ety of native Hawthorns, being convinced of their
fitness for forming hedges, so very much wanted in
this country, and which many of the inhabitants
expressed a great desire to have, instead of the
unsightly snake fences which at present separate
the fields. But apparently they never thought that
the indigenous thorns would answer for this pur-
pose, as they talked of importing haws and white
thorns from Britain. Mr. McNab gave instructions
to those individuals with whom he had an opportu-
nity of conversing upon the subject, so that they
may raise thorns for themselves, as an abundant
supply of seeds may be annually procured at no
great distance from each settlement. As these in-
structions may be interesting to others, we here re-
peat them : ' The fruit should be gathered about
the end of October, care being taken to keep the
seeds of the luxuriant growing sorts separate from
those of the d warier kinds. A pit should be pre-
pared about one foot and a half deep, into which
the fruit is to be put with a mixture of earth and
sand. It should be turned several times during the
following season, and if dry a little water may be
added ; one or two inches of soil being a suiiicient
covering to insure the decomposition of the pulp.
During the succeeding October, a piece of ground
should be prepared, and the seed sown as it is taken
from the pit, pretty thick, in drills about a foot dis-
tant from each other, or in beds three feet wide.
In the succeeding spring the plants will begin to
appear ; at which time, and throughout the season
they must be kept clear of weeds. If properly at-
tended to, the seedlings will attain a height of from
six to twelve inches the first year. The following
spring, the strongest plants may be either trans-
planteil into drills, or placed where they are intend-
ed to remain as a permanent fence. The smaller

ones should be left in the seed drills or beds for an-
other year, when they may be treated in the same
manner. In forming a live fence, the ground ought
to be prepared as soon as the snow disappears; by
making a trench about two feet broad, and a spade
in depth. Along the centre of this trench, the
young plants should be put about six or eignt in-
ches apart, and afterwards well watered, and firm-
ly trodden in. Care should be taken to protect tiie
young plants from cattle, and to keep them clear
of weeds. The second year after planting, the
the thorns should be headed down to within six or
ten inches of the ground, and each year afterwards
switched on both sides to a centre ridge, so as to pro-
duce the shape usually termed sow-backed ; hedges
trained in this form, being less liable to be destroy-
ed by snow resting upon them, than when cut flat
at the top.' If the method here recommended be
properly attended to, Mr. McNab has not the least
hesitation in saying, that an excellent hedge of na-
tive thorns may be acquired five or six years after
planting. At several places he saw the indigenous
thorns employed as a fence ; at least they had been
planted with that intention, and had attained a con-
siderable height, but from want of pro])er attention,
to pruning and weeding, they were so slender that
easy access might be obtained between each stem.
From such instances of mismanagement, an erro-
neous opinion seems generally to prevail, that hedges
will not succeed in America. ' But,' he very pro-
perly remarked, ' if newly planted hedges in Bri-
tain were equally neglected, there can be no doubt
that they would soon degenerate, and become no
better than those which I observed in the United
States and Canada.' "

Large Fruited Monthly Raspberry. — I beg
to send you some Raspberry canes cut olF near the
ground and placed in pots. The variety is, I think,
one of the most valuable introductions we have late-
ly been favored with in that class of fruits. It is,
1 believe of Continental origin, and may be called
the ■' Large Fruited Monthly Raspberry;" it con-
tinues to bear from the end of August all through
September, October, and if the frost is not very se-
vere (it does not mind a slight frost) till the end of
November. The late heavy rains have injured its
flavor slightly; before they visited us it was quite
equal in flavor, as you will observe it is in size, to
Raspberries in July. To ensure a very abundant
crop in autumn, all the canes should be cut down
in spring close to the ground, but a good autumnal
crop may be obtained, as well as a crop in summer,
by leaving only one cane, cut in the usual maimer,
to each root, cutting the others down closely lor the
autumnal crop. My plants are now covered with
fruit in all its stages, and many lateral shoots are
just coming into bloom, so that if grown in large
pots and placed under glass. Raspberries may be
gathered in December. — [The canes submitted for
inspection were healthy and fine, and loaded with
fruit, wiiich was, however, unfortunately spoiled by
travelling.] — Gard. Chron.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

287

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Pomology in Philadelphia. — Pa^sin<T a few
hours in Philadelpliia lately, we made a hasty visit
to our correspomlent Dr. W. D. Brinckle, who is
already known to horticulturists as one of the most
zealous of amateur cultivators.

Dr. JBuinckle's penchant, as we were aware, is
the production of Seedling varieties of fruit. Hith-
erto he has been experimenting largely upon the
Strawherry and Raspberry, but he has now turned
his attention to the Pear, Apple, and other fruit
trees.

His residence is one of the fine houses in Chest-
nut-st., forming part of the block known as Girard
Square. Of course, therefore, his gardening ope-
rations are mainly confined to the small space com-
prised in a deep yard of a town house. We con-
less that when we saw the collection of Seedling
fruits assembled there, in various stages of growth,
hundreds within that narrow space, and all most
systematically arranged — many that had already
given surprising results, and a raidtitude of others
that promised well — we found abundant proof how
easy it is to bring great results out of small means,
and how profitless to the country are thousands of
gardens, of the largest size. I'he limited aiea be-
fore us, only a few hundred square feet, contained
a promise of dozens of new varieties of fruit that
may be of priceless value hereafter to every one
leading a rural life.

Dr. i3RiNCKLE's plan embraces both hybridising
and raising accidental varieties from seeds of the
finest known sorts. In order not to lose time, and to
be able perfectly to control the fertilization of jilants
under experiment. Dr. B. has been in the habit of
having a large number ot strawberries, raspberries,
etc., in pots. These continue their growth, bloom,
are crossed artificially, produce fruit, and the seed
is sown, in an apartment in the u])per part of his
house during the whole winter : thus enabling Dr
B. to carry on his scientific experiments throughout
the year. In Raspberries he has been particularly
successful. The C'ushing, already made known to
the public, is a variety of merit; IJut one which has
fruited for the first time this season — a fine strong
plant, eight feet high, with many side shoots, and
which, we understood from a friend who is a capital
judge, was quite a pomonal wonder in its way, bids
fair to eclipse all his other Seedlings. This is a
true yellow sort, much larger and liner than the
■white [misnamed yellow] Antwerp, verj' produc-
tive, and of excellent fiavor. Dr. Brinckle showed
us a faithful drawing of this new Raspberry, which
he proposes to call Col. Wlder, after the distin-
guishcil President of the Massachusetts Society.
We hope to be able to give a drawing and descrip-
tion of this fruit in an early number of this journ<il.
When the various new specimens of trees and
plants have been tested, tho;«e worthy of jjreserva-
tion are removed to a farm some miles distant from
the city. Altogether we left Dr. Brinckle, and
his singularly rich and singularly limited grounds,

with the feeling that he is doing as much or more
in originating new fruits, in a strictly scientific
way, than any other person in the country.

Hovey's Fruits. — Mr. Hovey, of Boston, is
publishing a work on Fruits, with colored plates, of
which we took occasion to speak in favorable terms
in reviewing it, in our last volume. In our Septem-
ber nu liber a correspondent in Philadelphia, who
signed himself '' W.," pointed out certain defects in
the work in question, and complained of the disap-
pointment which he and others found in the execu-
tion of the work. As, on examining the work more
critically, we found his criticisms jjerfectly just,
there was no reason whj- we should withhold his
communication.

Mr. HovEY, in the last number of his Magazine,
eomp.'ains that our correspondent's criticism was
dictated by malice ! and that, though dated Phila-
delphia, the stjle of the criticism denotes that it
was written by some one who does not live " many
miles" from Boston.

We observe that our ci-devant friend, Mr. H.,
makes all the fruits he describes " rich, sugary and
delicious," and keeps the '' sub-acid" for his edito-
rials. We assure him, very seriously, that our cor-
respondent is not one of his neighbors, but a deni-
zen of the cit}' of brotherly love. And since he will
have it that any one, in this country, who complains
[as if it was not an editor's dutj' to stand fire] must
be prompted by malice, we must call his attention,
against our better feelings, to the following extract
from a review of his '' Fruits of ^imrica" [we
wonder how he can sleep o' nights when he thmks
of that title!] by Robert Thompson, of the Lon-
don Horticultural Society's Garden, who certainly
must be considered as good and as impartial a judge
as any in England :

" The descriptions are very good ; the let-
ter press is got up in a superior manner. But we
cannot say so much of the plates. The colorii;gof
these is decidedly bad. For instance — in the Beui're
d'Aremberg, the yellow employed is not the proper
tint of the fruit ; but such as it is, it is also used for
tinging the leaves. T he fruit of the Glout Morccau
has a red, which naturally it does not possess. Judg-
ing from the specimen before us, chromolithing will
not answer for fruits. False coloring tends to mislead
— a plain representation is far preferable. — Gard-
ner's Lhron., London, July 31.

Errata. — In our last number, in Mr. Eaton's
account of the Wcscott pear, for " Trescott" read
Wescott; for" Niles' Trescott" read iV'j/es' Wescott.

Onondaga Pe.\r. — Specimens of this variety, re-
ceived by usi'rom Syracuse this season, though large
and hanilsome, were by no means equal in llavor to
those which we had lastyear, and we have the same
account of specimens sent to Boston. But as we

288

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

ormed our judgment on a srreat number of speci-
mens (uniformly fine in flavor) from several locali-
ties in Western New- York last season — and as we
are assured that the samples produced this year
had not their usual hisfh flavor, we still entertain
the opinion that the Onondaga will be found a vari-
ety of the first class in all respects.

It will be remembered that in some accounts of
the history of this handsome pear in our last volume,
its origin was apparently traced to Farmington,
Conn. A correspondent in Norfolk, Conn., Mr.
Battelle, has been investigating this matter with
considerable care, and thinks it is not the pear now
known there, and considered identical by Mr. Case
and others. We will endeavor to pubish his re-
marks in our next.

Gray's Botany of the Northern States. —
We had the pleasure of looking over the proof
sheets of this work while at the residence of Prof.
Gray, Cambridge, Mass., last month. It will ful-
fil the most sanguine hopes of his botanical friends.
Admirable in arrangement, clear and perspicuous
in style, ''.nd with the characteristic specific traits
italicised so as to enable the student to catch the
likeness of a species at a glance, this volume will
at once become the indispensable manual of every
botanist in the country.

The work was announced to be nearly ready last
spring ; but Professor Gray's determination lo
render it as perfect as possible has, even with month
after month of constant labor bestowed on it, de-
layed it to the present time. In about a month
more, however, we learn it will be issued complete
from the press.

Camellfas by the Thousand. — Philadelphia
has long been noted as the focus of the whole Union
for exotic culture. There is still no one of our ci-
ties wliere green-house plants are grown in such
profusion as here. The house of Buist stands at
the head of exotic commercial gardens, whether
for rare and new plants, or for the immense varie-
ty which it comprises. McKenz[e's city range is
replete with all the more saleable species of the
hardier green-house genera, such as may very pro-
perly be called window or house plants ; and there
are a dozen other commercial establishments around
the city, where a great trade is carried on in the
more popular exotics.

But we were astonished a short time .since, on
looking hastily through the premises of Mr. John
Sherwood, on the Schuylkill side of Philadelphia,
to see what a business is made of the growing of
the Camellia alone, by this energetic gardener,
There are several large green-houses, of the sim-
plest construction, devoted entirely to this plant,
and we saw it there in all stages of growth. The
largest quantity of good saleable plants, two and
three years worked, and well stocked with fiower
buds, tliat we have ever seen together, are to be
found here, and particularly of the most esteemed
standard varieties — the Old Double White (the ?ic
77/MS !///rffl of the genus) in the greatest quantity,
and all the other leading sorts in uiuisual abundance.
Twenty thousand CaineUlas, as wc were assured
there were in Mr. Sherwood's premises, and mostly
ready for sale, is a sight worth looking at in its way.

The large scale on which the culture of this plant
is pursued here, enables purchasers to find plants
in Philadelphia, at half or a fourth of the prices
demanded five years ago ; and our readers who are
about filling their private conservatories will no
doubt be glad to know . where this queen of winter
flowers is to be found as •' plenty as blackberries."

The HYDRAULtc Ram. — Since we drew atten-
tion to this ingenious andeffi3etive hydraulic machine
for raising water, nearly all the agricultural jour-
nals have spoken of it at length ; at the American
Institute, New- York, the Franklin Institute, Phi-
ladelphia, and several other fairs, it has been exhi-
bited in full operation ; and the public are now
somewhat acquainted with its merits.

In a recent visit to several farms and country
seats in Chester and Montgomery counties, Penn-
sylvania, we saw the hydraulic Ram in operation,
and in some places where it had been in use for
some time. It is considered there an almost indis-
pensable appendage to a good farm or country scat,
supplying the house, dairy, outbuildings, etc., with
abundance of water at a cost very trifling compar-
ed with the benefits received. What struck us
most was the insignificant stream of water, and
the small fall requisite to work the Ram. A spring
the overflow of which will fill an inch and a half
pipe, is sufficient to force water to a distance of se-
veral hundred feet and a height of fifty or sixty
feet. There is scarcely a country place of twenty
acres, where a perpetual rivulet or spring of water
may not be found sufiieiently near the house to af-
ford an abundance of water either for useful or or-
namental purposes, with the aid of this very sim-
ple little machine, which is of iron, and works in
such a way as very seldom to require attention or
repairs. ■--.

Hyacinths in Glasses. — Dear Sir: Will you,
in your next number of the Horticulturist, inform a
subscriber what is best to be done with the bulbs
which have been flowering in glasses through the
winter. Should the leaves and roots be removed ?
Should they be placed away in that condition ; or
what is necessary in order to preserve them in a
healthy state, for use another season? A lady,
who expends both time and money in the cultiva-
tion of both Hyacinths and Narcissus, etc., is inva-
riably disappointed by finding what has been grown
in water one year, so wilted and shrunken in the
autumn as to be quite useless and spoilt, will be
greatly indebted for some information upon the sub-
ject. New- York, Nov. 18, 1847.

Remarks. — Hyacinths that have bloomed in
glasses are so much weakened that they are of lit-
tle value. By preserving every leaf and root entire,
however, and planting the bulbs when the bloom is
over, in good soil in the open border, they will ge-
nerally recover again in two years so as to be fit
for blooming again.

If our correspondent wishes to preserve her
roots, she must bloom them in pots of good earth
instead of water. We may add while on this sub-
ject, that the growth of bulbs in glasses, which ap-
])ear tardy in ]iutting out leaves, will be promoted
by filling the glasses with warm instead of cold
water. — f^D.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

289

PoMOLOGiCAL NoTES. — Sir : A^reeaVjly to yom
request, last year, I now forward the Pomme Roy-
ale apple, known with us for an l.undred years,
judging from tlie appearance of some of our old
trees. It is, without doubt, of French origin, and
brought to Rhode-Island, with many other kinds of
choice fruit, after the revocation of the edict of
Nantes. During the Revolution, a great number
of Rhode Island gentlemen removed to Connecticut.
and purchased farms, taking with them all the
choicest kinds of fiuit — among them were a num-
ber of my connexions. I have a tree in bearing
from Woodstock, under the name of Pomme Roije,
which is identical with the kind here known by the
same name, and this is the apple sent to the Mas-
sachusetts Horticultural Society, and b)' them re-
named Dyer. One of the specimens sent is from a
tree of Dyer's. Within one week from the time
Mr. Dj'cr sent the specimens to Boston, and as a
new seedling variet}', he found the same apple in
my orchard, under the name 1 now apply to it, but
has never corrected the error, as in duty bound.

I also send you specimens of the White Seek-no-
further — the trees came from Long Island. This
is one of the best apples grown, when in perfection,
but very unprofitable, is not a good bearer, and
with us not one in twenty is perfectly shaped ; it
keeps not longer than January ; the tree has droop-
ing branches, without fruit spurs, very large leaves,
and bears its fruit on the extremity of the long-
naked branches. I have received from Connecticut
the Winter Pomme Roye, with a descri]Hion of the
tree, and am fully persuaded that it is the same as
my White Si ek- no-further In the form of the
trees, my White Seek-nofurther and my Pomme
Royule very much resemble eacii other.

I shall forward to you other specimens of fruit in
their season. I am very respectfully your obedient
servant. Stephen H. Smith. Smithfietd, R. I. Sept.
1847.

We print the foregoing from a letter received
some time since from the President ot" the Rhode-
Island Horticultural Society, since it contains some
important information relative to two or three New
England apples, the names of wiiich have been
confounded together, and of which we have had
some dilliculty in obtaining true accounts. We
mean the sorts known as Pound Royal, Pomme
Ro'.ale and Dyr.

From information and specimens sent us from
Connecticut, when we prepared our work on Fruits,
we supposed the Pomme Royale and Pound Royal
to be the same fruits, and accordingly gave them as
synonyms. But on examining the sjiecimens re-
ceived from Mr. Smith, and from half a dozen
other sources, this autumn, we perceive that wc
were in error. The fruit described in our work is
the Pound Royal, a winter apple — while the P ym me
Royale is an autumn fruit very distinct, andjof great
excellence. Tiiis error shall be corrected in the
next edition of our work, and those having the; pre-
sent edition will please erase Pomme Royale, p. 124,
and insert Pound Royal as the name of the fruit
there described. — Ed.

The Monstrous Pompone Cling. — We have
received from James Dougall, Esq., Amherst-

VoL. II. 37

burg, Canada West, specimens of tliat fine old
French Cling, the Paviede Pompone, which grows
with him in great perfection. They were very
large, and of excellent flavor, and more finely co-
lored than the Heath Cling, though ripening about
tlie same season. In the first edition of our work
on Fruits, we underrated this magnificent late
cling-stone Peach, which we now find in warm
deep soils, is finer in this country than in France.
In the last edition of our work, we have, therefore,
corrected our error, and spoken of it as it deserves,

Old Nonsuch, or Red Canada Apple. — We be-
lieve it is not generally known in Western New-
York, that the very fine winter apple known as the
Canada Red, or Red Canada, is an old variety,
known in New Enirhind, and especially around Bos-
ton, as the Old Nonsuch, for 30 or 40 years past.
The apple, as grown at Rochester, is so much im-
proved in size and appearance by the genial soil of
Western New- York, that it would hardly be recog-
nized b}' a Massachusetts orchardist, but having
our doubts on this subject, last winter we obtained
specimens of the Old Xonsuch from B. V. French,
Esq. of Boston, and found them identical with the
Red Canada. After this, Mr. Elliot, of Cleve-
land, sent us the Old Nonsuch of Massachusetts
grown in his soil, which corresponded precisely in
size and color, as well as form and flavor, with the
Rochesier Red Canadas. Au reste, we have, the
past summer, compared the wood, leaves and
growth (quite peculiar) of the Red Canada with
those of the Old Nonsuch, (which latter we have
growinir under our eye from five different sources,)
and find the two sorts entirely identical.

It is singular that the history of this " Old Non-
such" is involved in so much obscurity. It is not
known whether it is a native or foreign apple —
thouirh it is certain it is not the Nonsuch of present
Ensrlish authors. We have it bj' this name from
the Flushinir nurseiy of Bloodgood, twenty }-ears
ago. and it is very well known in all the old orch-
ards of Massachusetts. In New-England, it is
rated as an ayple of first qunlity — though rather
an indiff'erent bearer ; but in Western New- York,
it is not only large and very high-colored, but quite
productive— altogether an apple of the first class.

A Charming Fall Flower. — One of the pret-
tiest things to be found in the flower-garden in Oc-
tober and November, is the charming little Sedum.
sieboldii, lately introduced from Japan. It forms the
most symmetrical tuft of pale silvery foliage and
lovelj' pink blossoms imaginable in the autumn — a
well established plant bearing fifty or sixty rounded
corymbs of ficiwers. Although a tender looking
plant, it is one of the hardiest of all the herbiiceous
division, and blooms almost into December, in spite
of the most severe frosts. We observed it lately,
in several green-houses about New- York, grown in
pots, and kept under glass in winter, a care which
it does not at all recjuire, for Japan is, in climate, so
nearly lil<e our own, that a large portion of its ve-
getation is perfectly hardy here.

This Sedum, like the rest of the genus, is very
easily propagated ; any bit of the stem taking root
as a cutting ; and it would mvke a pretty edging to
walks in tlie flower garden.

290

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

TuEATMENT OF " HousE Plants." — A " city
correspondent" asks " a few hints rcffarding the
treatment of green-house phints, wlien kept in par-
lors,csi)eeially where anthracite coal lires are kept."

We answer as follows :

1. It' possible have the pots ive'l drained, and
this is best eifeeted, when the plants are shifted,
by iilling the pot one-fifth deep with bits of char-
coal.

2d. Never water a plant while the soil appears
wet. If the roots cannot take up the moisture as it
is given tiaiiy, you must give less, or your plants
will suiier. Water abundantly when the plants are
in a growing state — very sparingly when vegeta-
tion is dormant.

3d. Ill rooms heated by anthiacite the pores of
the leaves get stopped with tine dust. It is a great
promoter of health and luxuriance to cleanse the
foliage thoroughly once a week by syringing it with
tepid water. While doing this turn the pot on its
side, so that the earth may not receive too much
water.

4tb. Give as much lisht as possible. A rather
low temperature, if uniform, is better than one too
high, since it gives healthier foliage, and stronger
flowers. ....

A Horticultural Society's Garden in Ame-
rica.— We learn, by a letter from A. H. Ernst,
Esq., of Cincinnati, that negotiations are on foot
between the Cincinnati Hoiticultural Society and
and Mr. Hoffner of that place, for the transfer to
the society, on very liberal terms, of the fine coun-
try residence of Mr. H., to be used as a public hor-
ticultural and experimental garden by the Society.
The place is about four miles from the city, com-
prises fifteen acres of ground capitally stocked with
a great number of trees and plants, with good
buildings, a green-house, etc., upon the premises.
Mr. Hoffner has, for a considerable time, been a
most industrious amateur collector, and his place,
therefore, is already a fine nucleus upon which to
form such a garden as the Society ought to esta-
blish.

This is very agreeable intelligence. Not one of
our horticultural societies has a garden, though the
value of such an establishment, if it were properly
managed and supported, would be very great. But
in no part of the country would this advantage be
so great as at Cincinnati — for that city, being the
gardening centre of the whole Mississippi and Ohio
Valleys — a country still full of undeveloped resour-
ces and destined to become amazingl}' productive
in its gardens and orchards — a public experimental
garden would at once be the place for investigating
all doubtful points, testing foreign and native fruits,
and disseminating these products, and that know-
ledge which can only be acquired by experience,
through the whole of the west.

We sincerely hope, therefore, that the Society
may be able to achieve this desideratum, and com-
mence with a carefully systematized plan of ope-
rations. ....

Pear-tree Blight — We have suffered but lit-
tle from th'' fire-blight in the pear tree this sum-
mer. Observation of the character of the two
past seasons has confirmed me in the opinion that

the sun has more to do with producing this disease
than either winter or insects. Hence I am a be-
liever in the benefit of your recommendation of
whitewash to throw off the rays of the sun. Res-
pectfully. j1. H. Ernst. Cincinnati, Nov. 5, 1847.
[The whitewash should be put on at this season ;
it should be applied warm, with a little glue o r
sizing, (say a gill to a pailful) mixed with it, to
prevent its being -washed oil' by the rain. — Ed.]

Orituary — The late Mr. Shaw. — We have
received the following obituary notice of the late
Mr. Shaw, from a friend in New-York, who knew
him long and well, which deserves a place in our
columns. Mr. Shaw was one of the pioneer horti-
culturists in New-York, and was well known for his
zeal and industry in the cause, by all its devotees
there. His first garden, at the corner of Prince
and McDougall streets, (referred to below,) was,
fifteen or twenty years ago, perhaps, the most per-
fect specimen of practical skill in the art in Ame-
rica. We well remember the magnificent apricots,
gooseberries and carnations, which we saw there,
at that time, and which we have never since seen
surpassed.

Mr. Shaw imported many rare and valuable va-
rieties of fruit, and dissemminated them at a time
when there were very few persons in this country,
comparatively, who maintained a correspondence
for this purpose with European cultivators. The
oldest tree of the Holland Bigurreau, one of the
largest and most beautiful of cherries in the coun-
try, which is now growing' in our neighborhood, was
introduced from France b}' this horticulturist. — Ed.

William Shaw, Esq., who recently died at As-
toria, L. I., at the advanced age of 77, was, for a
number of years, one of our most active and effi-
cient horticulturists. He came over from Ireland
in early life, and was for many years an importing
merchant in New- York: having experienced rever-
ses in business, he compromised, had a liberal dis-
charge, resumed again, and by industry and the
smiles of Providence, was so far successful as to
liquidate the remaining claims — conduct as hono-
rable as praiseworthy.

On retiring from the pursuits of commerce, he
devoted the last thirty years of his life to the de-
lightful pursuits of Horticulture. Doubtless many
oi' your readers well remember his beautiful garden
of fruits and flowers at the corner of McDougall
and Prince-streets. Mr. Shaw was one of the
earliest and most zealous cultivators of the Isabella
Grape. The writer can testify to their great size
and beauty on his ample and well stocked trellises,
and to the uniform kindness and attention every
one received, whom the reputation of his well kept
grounds, occupying nearly an entire square in the
(then) suburban part of the city, led to visit them.
There he also successfully cultivated many of the
best foreign grapes in the open air, and the necta-
rine, apricot and peach also, in a manner rarely
equalled in America. His espalier apricots and
nectarines were in their season a surprising show of
luscious beauty. The advance of the city upward,
compelled him to leave his pleasant location, and
retreat to the neighborhood of Astoria, near by to

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

291

Hurljate, selectinjr with his usual frood taste some
five acres on a talded eminence, overlooking tiiat
" tremeniioiis whirlpool, the Pot " There, in a
short time, a little paradise sprunir up under his
hands — a neat Grecian villa, hed«^ed with tlie Chi-
nese Arhor Vita?, the ornamental <rroiiiids adorned
with tiie Weeping Larch, Hemlock, Sjjruce and a
great variety of rare ornamental trees and shrubs.

The Abies were his favorites ; in their culture he
excelled, and his success had its intlucnce in decor-
ating with this fine family of evergreens this part of
Long Island for many miles round. Mr. Shaw's gar-
den was always a kind of museum lioth arborieultu-
ral and pomological — and many clever lessons in
gardening have been silently taught by his success-
ful and tasteful example there.

Mr. Shaw was a profound lover of the eountry,
and one of his especial injunctions to Ids family was
to inter him in a pleasant spot he had himself se-
lected in the village churchyard, hard by his re-
sidence. He did not like the thought, of lying,
even after death, in the family vault in town ; but
like the delicate minded Wilson, the ornitholo<rist,
he wished "to be buried where the birds wouhl
sinii, and the spring flowers bloom over his grave"
— which re([uest was scrupulously carried into
effect at 3 P. M., Oct. 31, 1847. Yours truly. A
Subscriber. New-York, Nov. 10, 1847.

The " Ida " Green Gage. — Dear Sir : I have
just received the October lumnber of the Horticul-
turist, and the remarks on the " Ida Green Gage ''
Plum by Mr. Reagles caught my attention. It is
no seedling of this country ; it is nothing more than
the true Green Gage itself. The location on which
this Plum grows, is favorable to the development
of the fine qualities of this best of all plums. I
say best of all plums, as I question if any of the
plums equal it in richness.

This plum, as I have learned, was imported
from France by Chancellor Livingston, and was
obtained from his place — this is the history of it, by
the late Judge Buel.

I would advise young beginners in growing fruit,
to be a little more careful about christening every
good plum that they may happen to find, as a new
seedling ; and also to take the old Scotchman's
advice to his son, "Jock, if you would only hold
your tongue, folks might think you were a pretty
clever fellow."

I have propagated and sold the above plum for
ten years past, as the true Green Gage or Reine
Claude, and in all my intercourse with A. P.
Heartt, Esq., the late proprietor of the garden on
Ida Hill, where the trees grow, (as there are a
number of them,) I never heard him even suggest
that it was a seedling. Yours respectfully, jas.
Wilson. Albany, Oct. 5, 1847.

[When the fruit was sent to us, wc thought it
most probably a Green Gage, though we knew that
several persons in Troy, familiar with fruit, consi-.
dered it distinct. Still we remarked, in describ-
ing it, that it. was at all events, nothing ujore than
a s!i6-var!f<i/of the (j-reeUj Gage. Whut Mr. Wil-
son ^ay9, fonified|by the' opinions of otlieis familiar
yii\,\i the^ ^"^9 wtlji ' pi t)ij,e , tr^fj. tf^''<^f^ Jip. dqub,^ that

this variety is only the old Green Gasc modified by
culture ill a very tavorable soil. — Ed.]

U.vwi.e's Jannett Apple. — In the last number
of the Horticulturist. Mr. C. Springer, after re-
marking that the Gonneling deserves a place in
your work on fruits, leaves it to you to give it a
name, ho indirectly preferring the name o\' Rockre-
main to Janneting, as the latter name is applied
to several fruits.

There are some two or three apples slightly re-
sembling each other, which are called Gcniiets.
There is, however, but one fruit generally known
to cultivators as the Jiawle's Jannett. It is perhaps
the best winter a))])le in the west — the Newton
Pippin not excepted. I am confident that I have
heard its name mentioned thousands of times, and
I never before heard that of Ruckremain offered ;
and to substitute that for Rawle's Jannett would bo
a little like turning upside down all the best orch-
ards of the west, especially those of Kentucky.
What great and good apple is there, whose name
has not been borrowed by two or three aspiring in-
feriors ?

The desideratum of the day is to correct the
great confusion existing in pomology, and this cer-
tainly is not effected by chan<ring names, for you
will not and cannot bury an old name universally
received, by brinsing forth anew one. To western
readers, an author would only be likely to make
himself ridiculous, by attempting to change the
name of a fruit which with them has been an uni-
versal favorite under one nanu for so many years.
I would suggest that it retain the name under
which it was described by Mr. Bvram. Yours re-
spectfully. Geo. H. Yeamar. Mason County,
Kentucky, Sept. 12, 1S47.

[It should be the iiim of every pomological wri-
ter, in describing and publishing for the first time a
fruit which is extensively known in certain parts of
the country, to adopt the title, if there are several,
by which it is most generally known, provided there
is no positive impropriety in so doing. jNIr. Spui.ng-
er was not, we presume, aware of the universali-
ty of the name "Ruwlc's Jannett " at the west, and
since it was first ilescribed and published by Mr.
Byram under that title, it should retain it. Fortu-
nately the " Rules of Pomoloiiy," now adopted by
the leading Horticultural Societies, will hereafter
settle and govern all these points. — Ed.]

Horticulture at Buffalo. — We have had a
fine display at our horticultural fair this season.
Our tables have been laden with Pomona's richest
treasures. (Jrapcs, peaches, apples, pears, apri-
cots, plums, quinces, &c. have vied with each other
in the attractions of size, bloom and color. The
season has been one of friiitfulness, the blossoms set
well, and many trees which arc usually shy hearers
have proved productive. The curculio.lias .b^QU;
less destructive, its hahJts are., becoming belt ei^.,
known, luid i>aluti>ry measuren adopted to rvndel:.lt^
inelfeclual init^ deprediitions., Asa.wholc thg.pLuw
crop has been an ahuiidant Que. .The eiilerpfi^.©
that has been luunil'cst diuing the existence pf owr
sogiety, in procuring ;U1. now as well as thp oljl
c|i.ojc9_ yarietjf? of Ijruit, js now bcgiuninjjf..tQ be

292

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

visible, by the display of the fruit itself; and how-
ever commendable the enterprise is, we would not
base our encomiums so much upon the (juantity as
upon the quality of specimens. The anxious desire
to possess every thiufr that is new in the shape of
fruit trees, because they are so, is not legitimately
the great object to be sought for in the results of
our horticultural labors, but rather a judicious and ] truly your ob't.
proper selection of those which have been tested in i 10, 1847
their various qualities and found adapted to our lo-
calities And again, we all know there are many
fruits that possess an excellence in one locality that
is lost by removal to another ; and as friend D.
Thomas pithily observes, " three degrees of latitude
may produce more than three degrees of flavor."
Amongst the apples were the Northern Spy, Swaar,
St. Lawrence, Uoxbury Russet, Detroit Red, Ca-
bashear, Seek-no-further, Rhode-Island Greening,
&c. ; and of pears, the Seckel, Glout Morceau, ^te-
vens' Genesee, Summer Virgalieu, White Doyenne,
Onondaga, Beurre d'Aremburg, Maria Louisa,
Duchess D'Angouleme and Bartlett. These are
standard sorts for this locality ; truly fine in all
respects, and sure bearers. Of peaches we fail, as
compared with the New- Jersey growers ; our soils

is manifest in the agrieultnral and horticultural s o
cieties of our own and the adjacent counties, in
urging the claims of tniscity to be the place of hold-
ing the State Agricultural Fair for 1848. Nume-
rous resolutions have been adopted, and committees
appointed to farther this object, which wc trust will
be favorably received bv our eastern friends. Very
W. R. Coppock. Buffalo, Oct.

Strawberries. — I noticed an article signed by

" A Subscriber," and dated " Nashville," in your
last number. I greatly regret that friend Long-
worth, so noted for his open manliness, should
have attacked me from a masked battery. Being
oppressed with the execution of a mass of nursery
orders, besides the extensive correspondence of the
present period, I can not at this time do justice to
Mr. LoNGWORTH or myself in any responsive com-
ments ; but sir, I design to take up the " Straw-
berry Question" once more in December, and to
combine very many important items, that I think I
shall finish the subject ; and although I am desirous
at all times, from feelings of personal respect, to
shun collision with the '' Hercules'' of Cincinnati on

are not warm enough, and our late frosts endanger , any subject, I shall not refrain, when discussing this
a sureness of crop ; yet, notwithstanding, we have j matter, to point out several errors into which he
many fine peaches. Crawford's Melacoton,_bolh ^ has inadvertently fallen, including those of his last

early and late. Red Cheek Melacoton, Red Rare.
ripe, George the Fourth, are, perhaps, among the
choicest of those tliat flourish with us. In grape
culture much is also doing. All the hardier kinds

communication, now referred to. Yours very resp.
IVm. R. Prince. Flushing, Nov. 12, 1847.

The Rules of Pomology. — Dear Sir : I am

are pretty generally cultivated ; and several vine- j happy to be able to inform you, that at a regular

ries are in the course of building, for the culture of i meeting of oar Society last evening, the report of

■ ■ ' . ■ .• ■ • • ' the Fruit Committee, embodying a series of rules

the more rich, but more tender foreign varieties,
-which, in a season or two, will render us entirely
independent of foreign importation. The quince
culture has undergone a radical change ; the error
that predominated, in giving the quince shady and
out of the way places, under the fence, &e.. with
poorness of soil, is now well nigh exploded. The
noble specimens that have been exhibited by our
enterprising amateur, L. Eaton, Esq., measuring
15 inches in circumference, are the result of strong
feeding, open position, and well tilled borders.
The sci-apings of the poultry-house have increased
his stock nearly fifty i)er cent in size. These re-
sults of the progress of our infant society are truly
gratifying to us, as evidencing a rapidly discrimi-
natinjx taste and skill in horticulture, creditable to
our citizens senerally, and may be taken as an
earnestof our future eHbrtsin this delightful pursuit.
I hope you will allow me to say, that it is to the
excellent horticultural and agricultural works of
our country, (and tirst among these I must number
the Horticulturist, Fruit and Fruit Trees, &.C., Cot-
tage Residences, &c.) that we owe much of the
impulse towards rural improvement now evinced
here. An intelligent friend from New-York, whom
I drove through and about the city lately, remark-
ed, " Downing seems to be well known to you all
here. Your cottage designs — your mode of paint-
ing— your gardening, all bespeak a familiarity with
his works." And there are many here not personally
known to you, who, nevertheless, almost claim you
as a friend, and delight to converse with you through
he columns of the Horticulturist. Great interest

to fix the nomenclature of fruits, was, after consi-
derable discussion, adopted by the Society in a bo-
dy, with great unanimity and much enthusiasm. I
enclose the printed report of the committee. Yours,
./i Member of the Horticultural Society. Phila-
delphia, Nov. 17, 1847.

[We reprint this report, as though the rules are
essentially the same as passed at Boston aad Cin-
cinnati, there is a slight difference in the phraseo-
logy.]

Report of the Committee of the Pennsylvania Hor-
ticultural Society for establishing the names of
Fruits.

The Committee for establishing the names of
Fruit, beg leave to report :

That, in the discharge of the duties of their ap-
pointment, during the past year, they trust they
have been in some measure, instrumental in diffus-
ing a more correct knowledge of the true names of
the various specimens of fruit, which have been ex-
hibited at the meetings of the Society. They have
had, however, difliculties to contend with, chiefly
growing out of the confusion which exists in pomo-
logical nomenclature. Several names, not unfre-
quently, have been given to the same fruit, and at
times the Committee has been at a loss to determine
which should have the pre-eminence. That all em-
barrasment ,in regard to this matter, may be avoided ,
some standard authority, for the names of fruit, should
be recognized by the Society. It is also important
that a uniform set of rules should be adopted by
the leading Horticultural Societies, for naming new

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

293

varieties which may hereafter be formed. This lie-
comcs the more necessary, as the attention of Po-
molotrists is, at this time, particularly directed to
the formation of new kinds. In order that the exi-
gencies both of the past and future may be met,
believintr, as we do, that the action of this Society
■will receive a cordial response from the prominent
Horticultural Societies of the country, the Commit-
tee, after due deliberation, recommend the adop-
tion of the accompanying; Pomolo^ical Rules.
The Rules of Jlmerican Pomology.

1. No new seediin<T fruit shall hereafter be enti-
tled to a name, or to pomological recommendation,
which is not equal to any similar varieties of the
first rank already known ; or which, if only of second
rate flavor, is so decidedly superior in vifror, hardi-
ness or productiveness, to varieties of the same cha-
racter already known, as to render it well worthy
of cultivation.

2. The originator, first grower, or he who first
makes known a new native variety of merit, shall
be entitled to suggest a name for such variety;
which name, if a suitable one, (i. e. coming within
the rules of nomenclature,) shall be adopted by the
writer describing the fruit for the first time. But
if the name proposed is inappropriate, or does not
come within the rules, then the describer shall be
at liberty to give a name.

3. No new native IVuit shall be considered as
named, until the same has been acuratcly described,
in pomological terms, by some competent person,
conversant with existing varieties, some pomologist
of reputation, or the fruit committee of some es-
tablished Horticultural Society.

4. The description shall embrace the following
particulars : The size, form, color, flavor, and time
of ripening of the fruit; the texture and color of the
flesh; with the addition, in stone fruits, of the size
of the stone, adherence or non-adherence of the
flesh, form of the suture, and the hollow of the stem ;
and in kernel-fruits, a description of the core and
seeds; the size, position, and insertion of the stalk,
and form of the eye; in peaches, the form of the
leaf-glands, and size of the blossoms; in grapes, the
form of the bunches; and in strawberries, the cha-
racter of the blossoms, whether staminate or pis-
tillate. And where there is any marked character
in the foliage, growth of the young wood, or bear-
ing tree, or any peculiar characteristic feature
whatever, the same shall be given.

5. The name of the new variety shall not be con-

sidered as established, until the description shall
have been published in at least one Horticultural or
Aizricullurai Journal, or Pomological work, of large
circulation, anl acknowledged character.

(i. In giving names to newly originated varieties,'
all harsh, vulgar, or inelegant names shall be avoid-
ed— such as "Sheep-nose," " Hog-pen," &c.

7. No new names shall be given, which consist of
more than two words, excepting only where the
originator's name is added. Thus all unnecessarily
long titles will be avoided, such as " New large
black Bigarreau," " Beurre grisd'Hiver Nouveau."

8. Characteristic names, or those in some way
descriptive of the qualities, origin, or habit of the
fruit or tree shall be preferred. They ma\' be in
reference to intrinsic properties, as " Golden Sweet-
ing," " Sans Pcpins ;" to local origin, as " New-
town Pippin." " Hudson Gage ;" to the season of
ripening, as " Early Scarlet." " Frost Gage ;" to
the form and color, as " Verte Longue," " Blue
Pearraain ;" or co'mmemorative of a particular era,
place, or person, as "' Tippecanoe," " La Grange,"
" Baldwin."

9. All superfluous terms shall be avoided : thus,
instead of " Thompson's Seedling Beurre," it is
better to say " Thompson's Beurre," or simply
" Thompson."

10. Before giving a name to a new fruit, its
qualities should be decided by at least two season's
experience.

11. When two persons have named or described
a new native fruit, then the name and description
first published, if according to the rules herein in-
dicated, shall have the priority.

12. No person introducing new fruits from abroad,
shall be allowed to re-christen them, or give them
his own name.

13. In deciding the names of fruits already known
and described, until otherwise agreed upon, the
latest edition of the " Catalogue of the London
Horticultural Society," shall be considered the
Standard European authority ; and Downinsj's
" Fruit and Fruit Trees of America," the Standard
American authority.

Errata. — In the present number, p. 274, Rules
of jlmerican Pomology, Art. IV. for " The form,
exterior colour," etc., read " The size, form, and
exterior colour, the texture and colour of the flesh,
and the flavor and time of ripening of thejruit,"
etc.

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

NINETEENTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION.

This exhibition took place at ihe Society's Hall, School-st.,
on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Sept. '2-2d, S3d, and
24th, 1847. The Comtniuee of Arran(jemeuts eiilrusied with
its managemeiil, respeclfuUy submit tlieir Report. Tlie Exhi-
bition, as a whole, was a very good one, but difTereut in its
general features from all former ones. There was a deficien-
cy of plants in pots, from the Green House auJ Conservato-
ry, which always adds to displays of this kind, and to its
general beauty and characteristic efTect. Whether this is
wiug 10 a waut of encouragement in the way of preiniuins,

or other causes, is not known. The Committee hope for a"
improvement in this department at lulure anniversaries. Th^
Dahlias and Asters were excellent, and the former quite nu-
merous in new var'clies and in the pert'ectiou of their blooms.
The other cut flowers and small bouquets were not as abun-
dant as at many of the weekly exhibitions. The large bou-
quets for the Marble and Bradlee Vases by Mes.srs. Ilovey
& Co., Nugent and Warren, were very showy, and well
made with fine (lowers and evergreens. The large moss and
llower designs by i\Ir. Quant, Mr. Thomas. Mr. Walker, and
a floral bower by Mr. McNeil, with a fountain and gold fish,
were chaste and pretty. The wreathes by Messrs. Quant,
Walker, and Bowdiich, were beautiful and well made. The

294

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY.

flower baskets by Miss Russell, and the designs composed of
our beautiful native grasses, by Miss Bowker and Mrs. ,Spar-
rell, and a moss vase ornamented witli the acorn and snow-
drop, by " Faiuiy Forrester," were chaste, and attracted mitch
attention. The variety of vegetables was not numerous, but
nearly all the specimens were good. Mr. Cole presented
tliirty distinct varieties of potatoes, fifteen of which were
seedhngs, which entitle that gentleman to a particular no-
tice in the vegetable report. The display of fruits was de-
cidedly the best and most abundant in specimens ever made
by the Society. The apples were fair, of good size, well
colored, and fine in flavor. The variety of Peaches and
Quinces was small, and all but one or two of the samples
quite ordinary. There were some excellent specimens of
plums. In grapes the varieties were more numerous, and the
quality more delicious and better matured than on any former
occasion.

Mr. Needham was the successful competitor; his Canon
Hall Muscats were larger in buuch and berry, than any ever
before shown. Mr. Allen had the largest number of speci-
mens, all of which were fine. The Wilmot's Black Ham-
burgh, by Messrs. Hovey, were extra fine and well ripened,
and the collections of Messrs. Young, Donald, and Towne,
were very good.

The great feature of the exhibition was the array of pears,
which was undoubtedly the most valuable ever made in this
country. The majority of the specimens were rather above
their average in size, fair, highly colored, well marked in fea-
ture, and of good quality, -^bout fifty new varieties of pears
have been I'ruited for the first time in this country, and it is
believed that many of them will prove to be valuable acquisi-
tions, and will hereafter take rank in classes numbers one
and two. The new varieties were mostly in the large col-
lections of Col. Wilder, Mr. Manning, and Hovey & Co. The
contributions of fruits particularly worthy of special refer-
ence, were those from the Pomological (jardens of Mr Man-
ning, Salem, who had two hundred and fifly-five varieties of
pears ; Col. Wilder, one hundred and sixty : Hovey & Co.,
seventy, more than half of which were new; J. Lovett 2d,
about eighty; .Samuel Walker, sixty; Otis Johnson, Lynn,
sixty ; Winships, lirighton, forty ; Mr. Allen, Salem, grapes,
pears, peaches, and figs ; Mr. Warren, Brighton, grapes, ap-
ples, and pears; .1. Stickney. peaches, pears, and apples; B.
V. French, Braintree, sixty-six varieties of apples; Cheever
Newhall, pears; E M. Richards, Dedham, apples; F. W.
Macondray, pears; S. Pond, extra fine Williams' Bon Chre-
tien pears ; E. Wight, Dedham, apples ; J. M. Ives, Salem,
pears; R, Crooker, Roxbury, in par'icular. extra fine Van
Mons Leon le Clerc pears; Horace Gray, by J. Donald, a
collection of well grown grapes; H. Vandine, pears, and
extra fine Coe's Golden Drop Plum ; J. Owen, Cambridge,
peaches and apples ; J. French, pears ; N. Stetsou, Bridge-
water, fine seedling peaches, and extra fine Crawford's late ;
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, pears and apples; W.
Stearns, Salem, pears; A. D. Williams & Sons, pears and
apples. A remark was made that our nurserymen and ama-
teurs were bestowing too much time and money on the cul-
tivation of the pear to the neglect of the apple. Whether
this be true or otherwise, the Committee must leave for the
future to decide.

There were four large baskets of rich assorted fruits worthy
of particular mention : One from Otis Johnson, containing
grapes, peaches, pears, nectarines, plums, apples, &c.; one
from Col.T. H. Perkins, by Wm. Quant, with grapes, peaches,
and pears; one from A. Bowditch, with grapes in variety;
and another from Capt. Macondry, with grapes, peaches,
pears, and apples. These were prominent objects upon the
centre tables, and elicited much attention from the beautiful
arrangements of the various specimens.

The Society was honored by the attendance of Delegates
fram the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Philadelpnia j

American Institute, New-York; New- York State Agricultu-
ral .Society; Worcester Hort. .Society; New Haven county Hort.
Society; Rhode Island Hort. Society; Long Island Hort.
Society; Pomological Society, New Haven; Albany and
Rensselaer Horticultural Society, and a volunteer delegate
from our own Berkshire. These several delegates were duly
honored and cared for by the Vice Presidents of the Society.
This anniversary has been particularly profitable, as well in
the interchange of civilities, as in imparling and receiving
much information on stibjeets of horticulture and pomology,
and in the severe tests which many varieties of fruits have
been put to before large and intelligent boards of scientific
men. Our numerous meelings were thus made instructive
as well as pleasant and agreeable in friendlv reciprocities.

The weather during the exhibition was favorable, and the
hall filled most of the time to its utmost capacity of accommo-
dation, by delighted audiences. It has now been provedto a
demonstration, that the hall is not of competent size to contain
near all the specimens oflered for exhibition ; and the Com-
mittee owe an apology to several for whom space could not
be made for their valuable collections, and which remained
unpacked, and were not shown. Tne Committee name this
at the pre.sent time in the hope that measures will be taken,
at an early day, to secure Faneuil Hall, or some other large
building, for the exhibition of 1348.

The Committee trust that the awards of the judges will be
satisfactory, and that the premiums have been be.-towed upon
those justly entitled to receive them.

For the Committee, Henry W. Dutton, Chairman.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of the Mass. Hort. Society, was held
at its Hall, on the 2d of October, when the following gentle-
men were elected officers of the Society for the year lte48:

President— Marshall P. Wilder.

Vice-Presidents — B. V. French, Cheever Newhall, E. M.
Richards, J S. Cabot.

Treasurer — Samuel AValker.

Corresponding Secretary — J. E. Teschemaeher.

Recording Secretary — E. C. R. Walker

Professor of Botany and Vegetable Physiology — John Lewis
Russell, A. M.

Professor of Entomology — T. W. Harris, M D.

Professor of Horticultural Chemis'ry — E. N. Horsford.

Committee on Fruits — Samuel Walker, Chairman; P. B.
Hovey, Jr.. Otis Johnson, David Haggerston, J. S. Cabot,
Eben Wight, F. W. Macondry.

Committee on Plants and Flowers — Joseph Breck, Chair-
man ; H. W. Dutton, W. E. Carter. Alex McLellaii, F. A.
Story, William Quant, William B. Richards.

Committee on Vegetables — A. D. Williams, Jr., Chairman;
W. R. Kingsbury, A. D. Williams, Josiah Newhall, James
Nugent, Azell Bowditch, E. C. R. Walker.

Committee on the Library — C K. Dillaway, Chairman ; R.
M. Copeland, Joseph Breck, W. B. Richards.

Committee on Synonyms of Fruit — M P. Wilder, Chair-
man; B V. French, C. M. Hovey, J. S. Cabot, the Chairman
of the Fruit Committee.

Executive Cowmirteg— The President, Chairman ; the Trea-
surer, A Aspinwidl, E. M. Richards, Otis Johnson.

Coftitnittee for Establishing Premiums — The Chairman of
the Committee on Fruits, Chairman; the Chairman of the
Committee on Flowers, the Chairman of the Committee
on Vegetables, C. M. Hovey, David Haggerston.

Finance Committee — Josiah Stickney, Chairman, Joseph
Balch, F. W. Macondry.

Committee of Publication — J. E. Teschemaeher, Chairman;
C. K. Dillaway, Eben. Wight, Recording .Secretary, Chairman
of the Committee on Fruits, the Chairman of the Committee
on Flowers, the Chairman of the Committee on Vegetables.

■ fi,uVMU\.i.v\ 1o Xi.'ir 3iiJ iii Ilismaginiioaua'io Jujssv a Oj yiiv;

PENNSYLVANIA HORT. SOCIETY,

295

PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAIi SOCIETY.

REPORTS OF THE COMMITTEES AT THE
NINETEENTH EXHIBITION,

Held \bth, 16th, and \lth September, 1847.

The Committee tor awarding Premiums on Grapes, report
the following, viz ;

Grapes— «a<( re — For the best Isabella, six bunches, to
David Ferguson— 2d, to Susan J. Smitu— 3d, to H. F. Felix
& Co., Reading, Pa.

For the be^sl Catawba, six lunches, to Samuel Smith — 2d,
to Heiiry N Johnson — 3d, to Wm. Johns.

For tlie best Elsniboiough, six bunches, to T. Hilliard — 2d,
to J. B. Smith — 3d. to L. Crat't — best <'I" another variety of
Ohio Grape, to R. Buist.

Foreis'i, under glass: — For the best named collection, to
Wm. Sinton, gardener to George \V. Carpenter — 2d, to R. S.
Field, Princeton, N.J.

For the best Hamburg, tour bunches, to Jno. Dougherty —
2d, to D. Ferguson.

For the best Frankinthal, four bunches, to Wm. Simon, gar-
dener to Geo. W^. Carpenter.

P'or the best Chasselas, four bunches, to T. Hilliard.

For the best While Muscat, of Alexandria, four bunches,
to D. Ferguson— 2d, to .Stewart &. Bales.

For the best ^Vliite Frontignac, lour bunches, to R. S.
Field, Princeton, N J.

For the best of another variety, AA'hite Syrian, to William
W'estcott — 2d, to .loshna Lon^streth

Foreign, in lite opni air. — For tne best named collection to
Edwin xMiddleton — 2d, to Isaac B liaxtcr — 3d, to J. Comfort,

For the best of black variety. Black Hamburg, to Peter
Shuster — 2d, to ri. J. Henderson — 3d, Frankenthal, to J. B.
Smith.

For the best of a white varieiy. White Frontignac, to P.
Kane, gardener to R. Price — 2d. Golden Chasselas, to A. C.
Hyei— 3d, Sweet Water, to D O. Tatum.

All of winch is respectfully submitted. E. W. Keyser, P
K. GoRGAs, Framli.\ Peale, Committee

The Committee on Stone Fruits, respectfully report that
they have awarded premiums as follows, viz :

Peaches. — For the be-st. one bushel, of Heath, to J. O.
Grover — 2d, Seedling, free, to J. E. Scott— 3d, Oldmixon, to
Isaac B. Baxter.

For the best, one peck, Crawford's late Melecotone, to Chas.
"Van Sciver — 2d. Seedling, Yellow Free, to J. G. Hoffman —
3d, Rodman Cling, to Mr. Reeves.

For the best two doz. Crawford's late Melecotone; to Allen
Jones— 2d, Yellow Free, to J. Tyson.

Nectarines. — For the best one dozen, Yellow, to John
Sherwood— 2d. EIruao, to Dr. W. D. Hartman.

Pi.uMs — For the best two dozen, to John Anspach — 2d, to
Thos. Maghran. gardener to S. R. Simmons— 3d, Yellow
Magnum Bonum, to T. L. Bonsall.

And special premiums o( one dollar each, for Peaches, to
J. D. Burling. J. Ilunier Sterling, W. Johns, Mrs. Physick,
James Harrison, and Samuel Caley.

Respectfully submitted. Tiio.mas M'Euex, Chas. P. Hayes,
J. II. Bradford, Committee.

The Comm ittee on Pears and Melons, respectfully report
thatt'iey have awarded the tollowmg premiums:

Pears. — For the best and most numerous named varieties,
to J. Ruiter, West Chester— 2d, lo J. B. Smith— 3d, to Thos.
Hancock — 4th, toSam'l R. Simmons.

For the best Seckel. half peck, to John B. Smith — 2d, to
■\Villiam Graham— 3d, to E. B. Grubb.

FortI.e best Doyenne blaiic, or butter, one peck, to John
B. Smith— 2d, to C. Stephen Smith— 3d, to D. Landreth &,
Fulton.

For th» best of another variety, half a dozen, to Isaac B.
Baxter— 2d. to R. Buist.

For the best half peck of a different varieiy, to John B.
Smith— 2d. to Col. R. Carr.

For t fine collection of Pears, a special premium of $1 to
S. Maupay— do. to Jacob Snider— do to Lemuel Brackett—
do. to Jonathan Tyson.

Mklo.ns— For the best, three in number, to Woodburn
Mulford. Salem co., N. J.— 2d, to E. B. Grubb.

For fine Melons, a special premium of Sfl to Patrick Galla-
gher, g-irdener to Miss Gratz.

NVater Mklo.ns. — For the best Spanish, three in num-
ber, to Wm. Brown— 2d, lo Patrick Gallagher— 3d , lo Thos.
Hancock.

For best of another variety, to Joseph C. Zaiie — 2d, to
George B. Roessler- .3d, to Isaiah Toy.

For fine Water Melons, a special premium of $1 to Thos.
Hancock — do. to E. Starr.

By joint aciioii of the Fruit Committees, a special premium
of $5 was awarded lo Mes.srs. Flack, Thompson & Brother,
proprietors of Kephart's Fruit Preserver. By means of this
invaliiahlo invention, specimens of 24 varieties of Pears, Ap-
ples, Peaches, and other kinds of Fruits, which could not
otherwise have been exhibited, were placed on the tables.
Among these varieties were Apples of ]5'46 — the Moyamen-
sing Pear, the Washington, Pennsylvania, Pelre, Chapman,
Lodge, and Leech's Kmgsessing; the last being a new Seed-
ling Pear of great merit.

A most beautiful and highly interesting collection of Pears
and Apples, (enibracing 2S) varieties,) was presented by the
delegation Irom the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, to a
member of the Committee, by whom they were deposited in
the Hall of Exhibition. These specimens were fine and of
the choicest and rarest kinds. And the Committee mo.st cor-
dially tender the thanks of the Society to the gentlemen from
Boston, for their valuable contribution.

Wm. D Brinckle, Geo. Zantzinger, James Bisset Com-
mittee. '

The Committee for awarding premiums on Apples and
Quinces, beg leave most respectfully to report that they have
awarded the following :

Apples.— For the best and most numerous named varie-
ties, to Geo. B. Deacon, Burlington, N. J, — 2d, to John Per-
kins, Moorestown, N. J.

For the best one bushel, to Benj. Stiles — 2d, to John Perkias
— 3d, to John Perkins.

For the best one peck, to George B. Howard— 2d, to John
Perkins

Quinces — For the best half peck, to James Harrison 2d

to Thomas Newbold— .3d, lo Dr. Geo. Uhler. *

A1.SO, a special premium of $2 to Dr. R. T. Underhi'l of
Crotoii Point, New- York, for the finest Quinces exhibited
having been entered too lale for competition.

Peter jMal-ke.nsie, Wm. S. Vaux, Geo. B. Deacon, Com-
mittee.

The Committee on Vegetables beg leave to report the fol-
lowing list of premiums awarded at the Nineteenth Exhibi-
tion :

Potatoes.— For the best, one bushel, to Patrick Galiairher
gardener to Miss Gratz— 2d, to Anthony Felten — 3d, to" Pal-
rick McDonald, Miss Gratz's farmer — 4th, to Isaac Stiles

5th, to .Samuel Cooper.

For the best Seedling to John Perkins, gardener to C.J
Duval.

For the best Sweet, one bushel, to Ralph Hunt— 2d, to
Wm. Brown.

Beets — For the best, one dozen, to Patrick Gallagher — 2d,
to Samuel Cooper.

Carrots. — For the best, two dozen, to David Smith — ad,
to J. J. Jennings.

Salsift. — For the best two dozen, to David Smith — 2d, to
Thos Hancock.

Onions — For the best four dozen to John Austin, gardener
to I. B. Baxter— 2d, to Anthony Felten.

Cabbaok.- For the best six heads, to Jno. Riley, gardener
to the Insane Ilo.spilal— 2d, to Anthony Felten- 3d, to Jacob
Eiigleman.

For the best Red Dutch, to Jacob Engleman— 2d, lo J. J.
Jennings.

Lettuce. — For the best, to Jacob Engleman— 2d, to A.
Felten.

Endive. — For the best blanched plants, to John Austin — 2d,
to J. J. Jennings.

Chard —For the best, six plants, to Patrick Gallagher— 2d,
lo A. Patton, I\Irs. Kohne's gardener.

Cari oon. — For tlie best blanched, six heads, to A. Felten —
2d. lo Samuel Cooper.

296

PENNSYLVANIA HORT. SOCIETY.

Celert — For the best blanched, six heads, to Samuel
Cooper — 2d, to B. Daniels, gardenerto C. Cope.

Clleriac. — For the best six plants, to Dr. E. J. Rivinus,
W. Chester.

Egg Plants — For the best, six fruit, to George Luzenby —
2d, to Samuel Cooper — 3d, to Robert HL-nery, gardener to G.
Blight.

Tomatoes. — For the best, one peck, to Jacob Engleman —
2d, to Patrick Gallagher — 3d, to J. Jones, gardener to George
J. helper.

1mi:/n Cor.n (for table use). — For the best, three dozen, to
A. Felten — 2d, to John Perkins.

PcMPKiNS. — For the best, two largest, to Thoma.s Field —
2d. to Samuel Cooper.

Peas (gree)O.— For the best and largest quantity, to T. Han-
cock—ad, to Robt. Kilvington.

Vegetable.*.— For the best display to Anthony Felten— 2d,
to Samll Cooper— .3d, to Jno. Austin, 1. B. Baxter's gardener-
4th, to John Perkins, C.J. Duval's gardener — 5th, to J. Jones,
G. J. l.eiper's gardener.

Honey. — For the best display, to J. Foulke— 2d, to F. Par-
kerson — 3d, to Edwni Middlelon.

The Committee have taken favorable notice of the following,
viz : several stalks of Buckwheat, a fine sample of six acres
on the farm of Com. Stewart, upwards of four feel inheiglit.

Potatoes. — Front Joseph A. Burroughs, N J , Saranel Olt,
Joseph Clemei;t. Wm. Parry, N. J., D. R Harper. Jacob
Engleman, and SeeJIing by David Ruddaek ; also a speci-
men from Tubers, brought from the mountains of Peru, said
to be fine — grown on tlie farm of F>aiicis King.

TuMAioEs — From Dav.d Ruddack. Thomas Field, and
Cliailes Hutchinson. Sugar Pumpkin, from Atithony Felten

Valparaiso Squash, from Tliomas Field. Sugar Beets, from
James S. Peters Suholynius hi-panjcus, a fine specimeu,
from Isaac B. Baxter. Honey, from Daniel Trites.

Egyptian Corn, from the garden of Gen Patters.m, the seed
of winch was iibtaiiied from a luummy 2,000 years old. A
stalk of corn 1.5 feet liigli. from the garden of J. G.Wlielan. A
new variety of Kgg Plant, I'roni C. J. Duval, Germantown. A
fine display of Vegetables, from JMiss Gralz, among whicli
was a new variety of Sugar Pumpkin, a new variety of Egg
Plant and Cuoumliers.

collections of Vegetables, by John Riley, from Insane Hos-
pital, Geo. B. Howatd, Delaware county, and Caleb Cope

All of which is respectfully submitted. Isaac B Baxter,
EuwiN Merehith, William Johns, Hrnry A- Dreer, Pe-
ter RaabE; Commutee.

To the President and members of the Pennsylvania Horticul-
tvral Society:— The Committee appointed to award the Socie-
ty's premiums for Flowers, Designs, etc., at its Nineteeth An-
nual Exliibhion, held on the loth, 16ih, and 17th Septemher,
1847. beg leave respectfully to make the following report, viz:

Dahlias. — For llie be.st 20 blooms, named varieties, to Ger-
hard schmitz— 2d. to do — American Seedling, parli-colored,
to do, — Self-colored, lo do

Roses. — For the best display, six named varieties, to A.
Dryburgh.

RvsseUia Jiincea — For the best specimen in flower, in a
pot, to B. Daniels, gardener to C Cope.

Manetlia Glabra. — For the best specimen in flower, in a pot,
to B Daniels, gardener to C. Cope.

Hoya Cariwsa. — For tlie best .specimen to Robt Kilvinglon.

Verbena. — For the best specimen in flower, to Henry Cooper.

Verbenas. — For the l)e~l three varieties in pots, to Henry
Cooper — 2d. to do.

Ferns. — For the best display, in pots, to Robt. Kilvington.

Petunias. — For the best, two specimens, in pots, to B. Gul-
liss. gardener to J. Snider, jr ,E^q.

Ackimenes. — For the best display, to AVm. Sinton, gardener
to G. VV. Carpenter, Esq.

Grchidem.— For the best display, to James Bisset, gardener
to James Dundas, Esq.

Designs formed of cut Floivers.— For the best and most ap.
propriate. lo A. Dryburgh, lor his representation of a monu-
ment. Sir Waller Scott's— 2d, to P Gallagher, gardener to
Miss Gratz, for a beautiful Harp- 3d. to A. Henderson, gar-
dener to T. W. Smith. Esq., for a handsome Floral Temple-

4th, to Alex. Caie, gardener to Mrs. Camae, for a representa-
tion of a Flower Garden — ijlh, to A. Henderson, gardener to
T. W. Smith, Esq., for a design of a Rural Fountain— 6lli. to
do., for a Rural Temple — 7ih. to I'eter Raabe, for a beautiful
'I'riuiuphal Arcli — Slli, to Joseph Cook, for a Rfiral Summer
Arbor— 9lh, to Wm. Manpay, for a Floral Design — 10th, to.
John Sherwood, lor a pretty Arbor festooned with Grapes —
lltli. to Jos. Cooke, for a very pretty Centre Table.

Bouquets for the Centre Tulile. — I'"or the best and most ap-
proved, and for the second best and most approved, none pre-
sented.

For the third best and most approved, to P. Carolan, gar-
dener to Samuel Welsh, Esq. — 4th, to B. Daniels, gardener
to C. Cope.

For the best of indigenous Flowers, to Jno. Mcintosh, gar-
dener to R. Kilvhigton — 2d, to R. Henery. gaidener to Geo.
Blight, Esq.

For the best basket of Flo'wers, to Mrs. Peter Mackenzie —
2d, to B. Daniels, g.irdener to C. Cope — 3d, lo P. Carolan,
gardener lo S. AVelsh.

Wreatlis. — For the best pair, for festooning, to A. Hender-
son, gardener to T. W. Smith — 2d, lo do.

Your committee have lo notice, and they do so with un-
feigned pleasure, many Designs and Bouquets of cut Flowers
contributed from tlie friends of the Society, from far and
near — the names of tlie respective donors will appear in the
Recording Secretary's general report; they cannot, how-
ever, refrain from noticing particularly those from West
Chester, and to which they have given special premiums. It
would be impossible to award premiums lo all the Floral ob-
jects exhibUed — your Committee havr, therefore, upon this
occasion, endeavored lo distriluite to tlie most deserving, and
trust thai llieir decisions will be duly appreciated. They re-
commend the follow.ng premiums to be awarded as special
ones by the Society, viz :

Fifteen dollars to Peter Raabe, for a beautiful Design in
imitation of rock-work, covered with mot.s and appropriate
piaiiLs — surmounted by the Ameri,-an Eagle, bearing the fol-
lowing scroll in his beak — " Tlie Horlicultuial Society's lOlh
Exhiliilion." This unique design was placed in me front of
the room appropriated for Plants, and added very much lo the
enclianling Coup d'cgil on entering this splendid floral saloon.

Five dollars lo A. Henderson, gardenerto Thos. W. Smith,
Esq., for a Floral Chair and Canopy.

Three dollars lo i\lrs. G. M. Hoopes, West Chester, for a
basket of indigenous Flowers, containing upwards of 70
species, beanlilully and taslefnily arranged.

Two dollars to Miss Annie E. Townsend, West Chester,
for a liaskel of indigenous Flowers, beautifully arranged,
and which added very much to the enchanling scene of iliat
portion of the room to which it was allotted.

Four dollars to .Mr. Davis Garrelt, of West Chester, for a
handsome Floral Arch, which added to the scenic effect of
the grove on the gallery.

Two dollars lo Miss Rebecca L. Reid, West Chester, for a
preliy model of Flora's Cottage.

Three dollars to John Dougherty, Laurel Hill, for a hand-
some Floral Flag.

Two dollars to Mrs. Newberry A. Smith, for two very
beautiful basket Bouquets.

Three dollars so Joseph Cook, for a very neat and pretty
Heraldric Design, formed of cut flowers.

Two dollars lo Mrs. A- Henderson, for a beaulifal basket
Bouquet.

Three dollars to R. Henery. gardener to George Blight,
Esq., for a very pretty design of a Harp.

Three dollars to A. Henderson, gardener to T. W. Smith,
Esq.. for a pair of pretty Vases.

Two dollars lo A. Henderson, gardener to do., for a Floral
Centre Table.

In clqsing iheir report, your commitlee lieg leave to offer
their warmest thanks lo the Ladies who so kindly alleiided to
the arranging of llie Cul Flowers, &c.. thereby adding, very
materially, by their la.ste, to the general exliibilion.

All of which IS re.speclfuUy submitted. Tiios. C. Percival,
W. H. DiLLiNr.HAM, R. Price, Gavin Watso>-, Rob't Bur-
well. Commiltee.

THE

JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

JANUARY, 184S.

No. 7.

The Culture of the Soil may be viewed
in two very different aspects. In one, it is
a mean and ignorant employment. It is a
moral servitude, which man is condemned
to pay to fields perpetually doomed to
bear thorns and thistles. It is an unmean-
ing routine of planting and sowing, to earn
bread enough to satisfy the hunger and
cover the nakedness of the race. And it is
performed in this light, by the servants of
the soil, in a routine as simple, and with a
spirit scarcely more intelligent than that of
the beasts which draw the plough that tears
open the bosom of a hard and ungenial
earth !

What is the other aspect in which agri-
culture may be viewed? Very different in-
deed. It is an employment at once the
most natural, noble and independent that
can engage the energies of man. It brings
the whole earth into subjection. It trans-
forms unproductive tracts into fruitful fields
and gardens. It raises man out of the un-
certain and wild life of the fisher and hunter,
into that where all the best institutions of
society have their birth. It is the mother
of all the arts, all the commerce, and all the
industrial employments that maintain the
civilization of the world. It is full of the
most profound physical wonders, and in-
VoL. n. 38

volves an insight into the whole history of
the planet, and the hidden laws that go-
vern that most common and palpable, and
yet most wonderful and incomprehensible
substance — matter! There has never yet
lived one who has been philosopher enough
to penetrate farther than the outer ves-
tibules of its great temples of truth; and
there are mj^steries enough yet unexplain-
ed in that every day miracle, the growth
of an acorn, to excite for ages the atten-
tion and admiration of the most profound
worshipper of God's works.

Fortunately for us and for our age, too
much light has already dawned upon us
to allow intelligent men ever to relapse
into any such degrading view of the aim and
rights of the cultivator as that first present-
ed. We have too generally ascertained the
value of science, imperfect as it still is,
applied to farming and gardening, to be
contented any more to go back to that con-
dition of things when a crooked tree was
used for a plough, and nuts and wild ber-
ries were sufficient to satisfy the rude ap-
petite of man. The natural sciences have
lately opened new revelations to us of the
hidden problems of growth, nutrition and
decay, in the vegetable and animal king-
doms. Secrets have been laid bare that

298

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANURING ORCHARDS.

give us a new key to power, in our attempts
to gain the mastery over matter, and we
are continually on the alert to verify and
put in practice our newly acquired know-
ledge, or to add in every possihle way to
the old stock. Men are no longer contented
to reap short crops from worn out soil.
They look for scientific means of renovating
it. They would make the earth do its ut-
most. Agriculture is thus losing its old
character of being merely physical drudge-
ry, and is rapidly becoming a science, full
of profound interest, as well as a grand
practical art, which, Atlas-like, bears the
burden of the world on its back.

It is not to be denied that chemistry is
the great railroad which has lately been
opened, graded and partially set in opera-
tion, to facilitate progress through that wide
and comparatively unexplored territory —
scientific cultivation : chemistry, which has
scrutinised and analysed till she has made
many things, formerly doubtful and hidden,
as clear as noon-day. And it is by watch-
ing her movements closely, by testing her
theories by practice, by seizing every valu-
able suggestion, and working out her pro-
blems patiently and fairly, that the cultiva-
tor is mainly to hope for progress in the
future.

No one who applies his reasoning powers
to the subject will fail to see, also, how
many interesting points are yet in obscurity;
how many important facts are only just be-
ginning to dawn upon the patient investi-
gator ; how much is yet to be learned only
by repeated experiments ; and how many
fail who expect to get immediate replies
from nature, to questions whose satisfac-
tory solution must depend upon a variety
of preliminary knowledge, only to be ga-
thered slowly and patiently, by those who
are unceasing in their devotion to her
teachings.

There are no means of calculating how
much chemistry has done for agriculture
within the last ten years. We say this, not
in the sanguine spirit of one who reads a
volume on agricultural chemistry for the first
time, and imagines that by the applica-
tion of a few salts he can directly change
barren fields into fertile bottoms, and raise
100 bushels of corn where 20 grew before.
But we say it after no little observation of
the results of experimental farming — full
of failures and errors, with only occasional
examples of brilliant success — as it is.

There are numbers of readers who, see-
ing the partial operations of nature laid
bare, imagine that the whole secret of as-
similation is discovered, and by taking too
short a route to the end in view, they de-
stroy all. They may be likened to those
intellectual sluggards who are captivated by
certain easy roads to learning, the gates of
which are kept by those who teach every
branch of human wisdom in six lessons I
This gallop into the futurity of laborious
effort, generally produces a giddiness that
is almost equivalent to the obliteration of
all one's power of discernment. And though
one may, now, by the aid of magnetism,
" put a girdle round the earth" in less than
" forty minutes," there are still conditions
of nature that imperiously demand time
and space.

Granting, therefore, that there are hun-
dreds who have failed in their experiments
with agricultural chemistry, still we con-
tend that there are a few of the more skil-
ful and thorough experimenters who have
been eminently successful ; and whose suc-
cess will gradually form the basis of a new
and improved system of agriculture.

More than this, the attention which has
been drawn to the value of careful and in-
telligent culture, is producing indirectly the
most valuable results. Twenty years ago

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANURING ORCHARDS.

299

not one person in ten thousand, cultivating
the land, among us, thought of any other
means of enriching it than that of supply-
ing it with barn-yard manure. At the pre-
sent moment there is not an intelligent
farmer in the country who is not conversant
with the economy and value of muck, ashes,
lime, marl, bones and a number of less im-
portant fertilizers. In all the older and
less fertile parts of the country, where
manure is no longer cheap, the use of these
fertilizers has enabled agriculturists of
limited means to keep their land in high
condition, and add thirty per cent, to their
crops. And any one who will take the
trouble to examine into the matter in our
principal cities, will find that fifty articles,
in the aggregate of enormous value for
manure to the farmer and gardener, which
were until lately entirely thrown away, are
now preserved, are articles of commerce,
and are all turned to the utmost account as
food for the crops.

We have been led into this train of
thought by observing that after the great
staple of the agriculturist — bread stuffs and
the grasses — have had that first attention at
the hands of the chemist which they so
eminently deserve, some investigation is
now going on for the benefit of the horti-
culturist, and the orchardist, of which it is
our duty to keep our readers informed.
We allude to the analyses which have been
made of the composition of the inorganic
parts of vegetables, and more especially of
some of the fruit trees whose culture is be-
coming an object of so much importance to
this country.

We think no one at all familiar with
modern chemistry or scientific agriculture,
can for a moment deny the value of specific
manures. It is the great platform upon
which the scientific culture of the present
day stands, and which raises it so high

above the old empirical routine of the last
century. But in order to be able to make
practical application, with any tolerable
chance of success, of the doctrine of special
manures, we must have before us careful
analyses of the composition of the plants
we propose to cultivate. Science has proved
to us that there are substances which are of
universal value as food for plants ; but it is
now no less certain that, as the composition
of different plants, and even different species
of plants, differs very widely, so must cer-
tain substances essential to the growth of
the plant be present in the soil, or that
growth is feeble and imperfect.

A little observation will satisfy any care-
ful inquirer, that but little is yet practically
known of the proper mode of 'manuring or-
chards, and rendering them uniformly pro-
ductive. To say that in almost every neigh-
borhood, orchards will be found which bear
large crops of fine fruit, while others not
half a mile off, produce only small crops ;
that in one part of the country a given kind
of fruit is always large and fair, and in
another it is always spotted and defective ;
that barn-yard manure seems to produce
but little effect in remedying these evils ;
that orchards often nearly cease bearing
while yet the trees are in full maturity,
and by no means in a worn out or dying
condition : to say all this, is only to repeat
what every experienced cultivator of or-
chards is familiar with, but for which few
or no practical cultivators have the expla-
nation ready.

We have seen a heavy application of
common manure made to apple trees, which
were in this inexplicable condition of bear-
ing no sound fruit, without producing any
good effects. The trees grew more luxu-
riantly, but the fruit was still knotty and
inferior. In this state of things, the baffled
practical man, very properly attributes it to

300

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANURING ORCHARDS.

some inherent defect in the soil, and looks
to the chemist for aid.

We are glad to be able to say, this aid
is forthcoming. Many valuable analyses
of the ashes of trees and plants, have been
made lately at Giessen, and maj'- be found
in the appendix to the last edition of Lie-
big's Agricultural Chemistry * And still
more recently, Dr. Emmons of Albany, well
known by his labors in the cause of scien-
tific agriculture,! has devoted considerable
time and attention to ascertaining the ele-
ments which enter into the composition of
the i7wrga7iic -parts of trees.

The result of this investigation we con-
sider of the highest importance to the fruit
cultivator and the orchardist. In fact,
though still imperfect, it clears up many
difficult points, and gives us some basis for
a more philosophical system of manuring
orchards than has yet prevailed.

The importance of the gaseous and more
soluble manures — ammonia, nitrogen, etc.,
to the whole vegetable kingdom, has long
been pretty thoroughly appreciated. The
old-fashioned, practical man, dating from
Noah's time, who stands by his well-rotted
barn-yard compost, and the new-school
disciple, who uses guano and liquid ma-
nures, are both ready witnesses to prove the
universal and vital importance of these ani-
mal fertilizers, — manures that accelerate
the growth and give volume and bulk to
every part of a tree or plant.

But the value and importance of the
heavier and more insoluble earthy elements
have often been disputed, and, though ably
demonstrated of late, there are still com-
paratively few who understand their ap-
plication, or who have any clear and defi-
nite ideas of their value in the economy of
vegetable structure.

* Published by Wiley & Putnam, New- York,
t See his quarto vol. on the Agriculture of Neiv-York, lately
published, and forming part of The State survey.

To get at the exact quantities of these
ingredients, which enter into the composi-
tion of plants, it is necessary to analyse
their ashes.

It is not our purpose, at the present mo-
ment, to go beyond the limits of the or-
chard. We shall therefore confine our-
selves to the most important elements which
make up the wood and bark of the apple,
the pear, and the grape vine.

According to Dr. Emmons's analysis, in
100 parts of the ashes of the sap-ivood of
the apple tree, there are three elements that
greatly preponderate, as follows : 16 parts
potash, 17 parts phosphate of lime, and 18
parts Zme. In the hark of this tree, there
are 4 parts potash and 51 parts lime.

100 parts of the ashes of the sap-wood of
the pear tree, show 22 parts of potash, 27
parts of phosphate of lime, and 12 parts of
lime ; the bark giving 6 parts of potash, 6
parts of phosphate, and 30 parts of lime.

The analysis of the common wild grape
vine, shows 20 parts o{ potash, 15 parts phos-
phate of lime, and 17 parts lime to every 100
parts ; the bark giving 1 part potash, 5 parts
phosphate of li^ne, and 39 parts of lime.

Now, no intelligent cultivator can examine
these results (which we have given thus in
the rough* to simplify the matter,) without
being conscious at a glance, that this large
necessity existing in these fruit trees for
potash, phosphate of lime, and lime, is not at
all provided for by the common system of

* The following are Dr. Emmons's exact analyses :

ASU OF TH£ PEAB.

Sap-wood. Bark.

Potash, 22.25 6.20

Soda 1.84

Chlorine, 0.31 1.70

Sulphuric acid, 0.50 1.80

Phosphate of lime, 27.22 6.50

Phosphate of peroxide of iron, 0.31

Carbonic acid, 27.69 37.29

Lime, 12.64 30.36

Magnesia, 3.00 9.40

Silex, 0.30 0.40

Coal, 0.17 0.65

Organic matter, 4.02 4.20

100.25 98.30

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANURING ORCHARDS.

301

manuring orchards. Hence, in certain soils
where a part or all of these elements natu-
rally exist, we see both the finest fruit and
extraordinary productiveness in the or-
chards. In other soils, well suited perhaps
for many other crops, orchards languish
and are found unprofitable.

More than this, Dr. Emmons has pointed
out what is perhaps known to few of our
readers, that these inorganic substances
form, as it were, the skeleton or bones of
all vegetables as they do more tangibly
in animals. The bones of animals are
lime — in the form of phosphate and carbon-
ate— and the frailer net-work skeleton of
trunk, leaves and fibres in plants, is formed
of precisely the same substance. The bark,
the A'^eins and nerves of the leaves, the skin
of fruit, are all formed upon a frame-work
of this organized salt of lime, which, in the
growth of the plant, is taken up from the
soil, and circulates freely to the outer ex-
tremities of the tree or plant in all direc-
tions.

As these elements, which we have named

ASH OF TUS APPLE.

Sap-wood. Bark.

Potash, 16.1!) 4.930

Soda, 3.U 3.285

Chloride of sodium, 0.42 0.540

Sulphate of lime, 0.05 0.037

Phosphate of peroicide of iron, 0.80 0.375

Phosphate of lime, 17. .50 2.425

Phosphate of magnesia, 0 .20

Carbonic acid, 29.10 44.8.30

Lime, 18.63 51.578

Magnesia, 8.40 0.150

Silica 0.85 0.200

Soluble silica, 0.8O 0.400

Organic mutter, 4.60 2.100

lOU.OJ 109.450

COMMON WILD GBAFB VINE.

Wood. Bark.

Potash, 20.84 1.77

Soda, 2 06 0 27

Chlorhie, 0.02 0.40

Sulphuric acid 0.23 trace.

Phosphate of lime, 15.40 5.04

Phosphate of peroxide of iron, 1 .20 5.04

Carbonic acid, 34.^3 32.22

Lime, 17.33 39.32

Magnesia, 4.40 0.80

Silex, 2.80 14.00

Soluble silica, 0.00 O.SO

Coal aJid organic matter, 2 . 20 1 . 70

100.21 100.86

as forming so large a part of the ashes of
plants, are found in animal manures, the
latter are quite sufficient in soils where
they are not naturally deficient. But, on
the other hand, where the soil is wanting
in lime, potash, and phosphate of lime, com-
mon manures will not and do not answer
the purpose. Experience has abundantly
proved the latter position ; and science has
at length pointed out the cause of the
failure.

The remedy is simple enough. Lime,
potash and bones (which latter abound in
the phosphate,) are cheap materials, easily
obtained in any part of the country. If
they are not at hand, common wood ashes,
which contains all of them, is an easy sub-
stitute, and one which may be used in
much larger quantities than it is commonly
applied, with the most decided benefit to all
fruit trees.

The more scientific cultivator of fruit will
not fail, however, to observe that there is a
very marked difference in the proportion of
these inorganic matters in the ashes of the
trees under our notice. Thus, potash and
phosphate of lime enter much more largely
into the composition of the pear than they do
in that of the apple tree ; while lime is much
more abundant in the apple than in the pear;
the ashes of the bark of the apple tree
being more tha7i half livie. Potash and
lime are also found to be the predominant
elements of the inorganic structure of the
grape vine.

Hence potash and bone dust will be the
principal substances to nourish the struc-
ture of the pear tree ; lime, the principal
substance for the apple ; and 'potash for the
grape vine ; though each of the others are
also highly essential.

Since these salts of lime penetrate to the
remotest extremities of the tree ; since, in-
deed, they are the foundation upon wliiah

302

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANURING ORCHARDS.

a healthy structure of all the other parts
must rest, it appears to us a rational deduc-
tion that upon their presence, in sufficient
quantity, must depend largely the general
healthy condition of the leaves and fruit.
Hence, it is not unlikely that certain dis-
eases of fruit, knt)wn as the bitter rot in ap-
ples, the mildew in grapes, and " cracking"
in pears, known and confined to certain dis-
tricts of the country, may arise from a defi-
ciency of these inorganic elements in the
soil of those districts, (not overlooking sul-
phate of iron, so marked in its effect on the
health of foliage.) Careful experiment will
determine this ; and if such should prove
to be the case, one of the greatest obstacles
to universal orchard culture will be easily
removed.*

What we have here endeavored to con-
vey of the importance of certain specific
manures for fruit trees, is by no means all
theory. We could already give numerous
practical illustrations to fortify it. Two
will perhaps suffice for the present.

The greatest orchard in America, most
undeniably, is that at Pelham farm, on the
Hudson. How many barrels of apples are
raised there annually, we are not informed.
But we do know, first, that the crop this
season, numbered several thousand barrels of
Newtown pippins, of a size, flavor and beau-
ty that we never saw surpassed ; and second,
that the Pelham Newtown pippins are as
well known in Covent garden market, Lon-
don, as a Bank of England note, and can
as readily be turned into cash, with the

* It will be remembered that, in our work on Fruits, we
opposed tlie theory that all the old pears, liable \o crack along
the sea coast, and in some other sections of the country, were
" worn out." We attributed their apparent decline to unfa-
vorable s.iil, injudicious culture and ungenial climate. A
good deal of observation since those views were published,
has convinced us thai " cracking" in the pear is to be attri-
buted more to an exhaustion, or a want of, certain necessary
elements in the soil, than to any other cause. Age lias little
or nothing to do with it, since Van JMon^s Leon Le Clerc, one
of the newest and most vigorous of pears, has cracked in
some soils for the past two years around Boston, though per-
fecily fair in other soils there, aud in the interior.

highest premium over any other goods and
chattels of the like description. Now the
great secret of the orchard culture at the
Pelham farm, is the abundant use of lime.
Not that high culture and plenty of other
necessary food are wanting ; but that lime is
the great basis of large crops and smooth,
high flavored fruit.

Again, the greatest difficulty in fruit cul-
ture in America, is to grow the foreign
grape in the open air. It is not heat nor
fertility that is wanting, for one section or
another of the country can give both these in
perfection ; but in all sections the fruit mil-
dews, and is, on the whole, nearly worthless.
An intelligent cultivator, living in a warm
and genial corner of Canada West, (bor-
dering on the western part of Lake Erie,)
had been more than usually successful for
several seasons in maturing several varie-
ties of foreign grapes in the open air. At
length they began to fail — even upon the
young vines, and the mildew made its ap-
pearance to render nearly the whole crop
worthless. Last season, this gentleman,
following a hint in this journal, gave one
of his grape borders a heavy dressing of wood
ashes. These ashes contained, of course,
both the potash and the lime, so necessary
to the grape. He had the satisfaction of
raising, this season, a crop of fair and ex-
cellent grapes, (of which we had occular
proof,) from this border, while the other
vines of the same age (and treated, other-
wise, in the same way,) bore only mildewed
and worthless fruit. We consider both
these instances excellent illustrations of the
value of specific manures.

We promise to return to this subject
again. In the mean time it may not be
useless to caution some of our readers
against pursuing the wholesale course with
specifics which all quack doctors are so fond
of recommending — i. e., "if a thing is

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

303

good, you cannot give too much." A tree
is not all bones, and therefore something
must be considered besides its anatomical
structure — important as that may be. The
good, old-fashioned, substantial nourish-
ment must not be withheld, and a suita-

ble ration from the compost or manure
heap, as usual, will by no means prevent
our orchards being benefitted all the more
by the substances of which they have es-
pecial need, in certain portions of their
organization.

REMARKS ON GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.— No. 7.
BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I.

Air. — Prof. Liebig has undoubtedly put
forth some astounding disclosures respecting
certain atmospherical phenomena, which,
were they not familiar to most reflecting
minds, would be regarded with surprise and
awe. On one point he thus expresses him-
self:— "Although the absolute quantity of
oxygen contained in the atmosphere, appears
very great when represented by numbers,
yet it is not inexhaustible. One man con-
sumes by respiration about forty-five Hessian
cubic feet (nearly twenty-five English,) of
oxygen in twenty-four hours ; and a small
town like Giessen, with about 7000 inha-
bitants, extracts yearly from the air, by the
wood employed as fuel, more than 1000
millions of cubic feet of this gas." Every
act of respiration, of combustion, and of
fermentation, develops carbonic acid, which
passes into, and blends with the atmos-
pheric volume ; but this gas will be further
noticed at some future time.

We have said that the atmospheric gases
are only mixed — not chemically united ; and
as this proposition has been satisfactorily
demonstrated by Dr. Dalton and other
chemists, the conclusion is both reasonable
and correct, that the atmosphere is not a
chemical compound in the ordinary accep-
tation of that term. It now remains to in-
quire what agency it exerts upon vegetable

life ? In order, however, to afford scope for
reflection, let us refer to the Gardeners*
Magazitie (English) for 1S34, vol. x. page
207. There, is an article by Mr. N. B.
Ward, " 0?i groioing Ferns and other "plants
in glass cases, in the midst of the smoke of
London." This gentleman thus writes: —
" I was accidentally led, about four or five
years ago, to make some experiments on
the growth of ferns, &c., in closely glazed
vessels, from the following circumstances :
I had buried the chrysalis of a sphinx in
some moist mould in a large bottle, covered
with a lid. The insect attained its perfect
form in about a month, when I observed one
or two minute specks of vegetation upon the
surface of the mould. Curious to observe
the development of plants in so confined a
situation, I placed the bottle outside one of
my windows with a northern aspect : the
plants proved to be one of Poa annua, and
one of Nephrodium {Asplemum, Swz.) Jilix
mas. In this situation they lived for more
than three years; during which time no
fresh water was given them, nor was the
lid removed. The fern produced four or
five new fronds every year ; and the Poa
flowered the second year, but did not ripen
its seeds. Both plants ultimately perished
from the admission of rain water, in conse-
quence of the rusting of the lid." Thus

304

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

excluded from all air, did Mr. Ward suc-
ceed in growing not only " more than sixty
species of fern," (these are enumerated) but
he also grew Avith the like success, Oxalis
acetosella. Anemone nemorosa, Dentaria bul-
bifera, and a great many more.

" The ferns, &c., may be placed in boxes
of any size or shape, furnished with glazed
sides and a glazed lid. The bottom of the
box should be filled with nearly equal por-
tions of bog-moss, vegetable mould, and
sand ; and the ferns, after planting, should
be most copiously watered, and the super-
fluous water allowed to drain off through
a plug-hole in the bottom of the box ; the
plug is then to be put in tight, the lid put
on, and no farther care is requisite than
that of keeping the box in the light. In
this way plants will grow for years without
any fresh supply of water.''''

In 1842, after Mr. Ward's plants had
been thus grown for eight years, the collec-
tion was inspected by Mr. Paxton. It
then consisted of glass cases, in the win-
dows facing the south, the enclosed atmos-
phere of which is sometimes raised by so-
lar heat to 100° ; also, " of a close sort of
fossil green-house at the back of the house,
glazed with puttied laps, which resembles
a kind of damp grotto. The external sur-
face of the lights was quite disfigured with
the soot which abounds in the atmosphere ;
yet in this gloomy and extremely damp
erection, ferns of all climates flourish in
verdant health; and not only ferns, but
Thunbergia, Begonia, Fuchsias, and other
plants, which are the ornaments of our
stoves and green-houses. In the cases, no
air can enter but what passes through the
mould; and yet, some Orchidaceae and
tropical plants thrive and even bloom, al-
though neither air has been admitted for
seven years, nor any water given for more
than five months."

Now such facts as these are worth a host
of theories, and afford proof beyond all con-
troversy, that the free admission of air is
not indispensably necessary to healthy or
even luxuriant vegetation. During the
whole of last summer, we grew a collection
of plants in a " Ward's case," 4 feet long,
2 feet 6 inches wide, and 3 feet high. The
bottom of the case is 6 inches deep, and
lined with zinc ; it stands on castors, and
resembles a miniature conservatory. Our
plants are in pots, and these are the
names :■ — Alona ccelestis, Ahelia florihunda,
Statice Wildenovii, Berheris trifoliata, Po-
inciana Gilliesii, Jasminum afline, jJzalea
ovata, Echiveria rosea, Cereus crenatus, Po-
lypodeum aureum (fern), Platyceium aid-
come (fern), Maxillaria aromatica (orchid),
Camellia de la Peine, and a iew others.
These all flourished from April to October
without air or water, except what they re-
ceived when put in; and although the
habits of the plants are by no means the
same, each seemed to be as much " at
home" as could be desired. By accident,
the top of the case was badly broken, the
plants were removed to the green-house
and treated as usual ; since which time,
though all are in good order, yet they want
that clean and thrifty appearance so mani-
fest while they were in the case. For the
cultivation of plants in the parlor and draw-
ing-room, these cases are admirably well
adapted ; and if made with taste as they
should be for such uses, and filled with
carefully selected specimens, they would
soon become fashionable and very much
sought after.

Air doubtless promotes the fecundity and
maturation of plants ; it checks luxuriant
growth, favors the development of the flo-
ral organs, promotes evaporation, and car-
ries off" moisture rapidly; but if we seek in
it the supply of nutrimental matter, we

PROFITS OF FRUIT CULTURE.

305

shall possibly be disappointed. It is to the
carbonic acid, and the aqueous vapor held
in solution, that we must refer : the first
acts directly upon the foliage ; the second
indirectly, in the form of rain, or dewey
moisture — agencies forming no part of the
subject now treated of. Whatever tends
to decompose air by the abstraction of oxy-
gen deteriorates it, as we have seen ; but
is there any reason to suppose that plants
decompose air ? If they do not, then is air
to be regarded only as a vehicle or medium
to receive and transmit gaseous matters.

This view of the subject is very materi-
ally elucidated by Mr. Ward's experiment.
Air so impure as that of many parts of
London, is deadly to vegetation ; butthat
which penetrates through the soil in Mr.
W.'s cases, or the almost sealed glazing of
his fernery, is purified by filtration, and the
plants are as verdant as in their natural
habitats. Do not these facts prove that we
are too liberal in our applications of air ;
and would not the major part of our tender
plants thrive equally well with closed glass-
es, and even with puttied laps ? Moisture
would be more regularly maintained and
distributed : the most brilliant light would
be better supported, and vegetation be con-
sequently far more luxuriant. A fig tree

in full foliage has been removed from a
stove to the open air, and within twelve
hours had not a single living leaf upon it.
Air checks but does not harden ; it ripens
the wood, and therefore promotes bloom :
hence its great use to pelargoniums, heaths,
and man}' hard-wooded plants. But it is
prejudicial to luxuriant growth, and there-
fore should not be permitted to enter any
house in the form of a current, and espe-
cially as it is a known fact that plants sup-
port uninjured a much higher as well as
lower temperature in close situations. To
ascertain the true agency of air in plant
growing, experiments should be widely in-
stituted ; for, after what we have seen, it
becomes an important question whether, as
a general thing, we are not at infinite pains
to ventilate our plant-houses, with no other
or better result than incurring much trouble
without any sort of advantage.

Wm. W. Valk, m. d.

Flushing, L. I., Nov. 1S47.

[Our correspondent does not, we suppose,
deny the superior growth and luxuriance of
plants in houses heated in the " Polmaise"
mode, now so popular in England, in which
a stream of warm air is continually intro-
duced, over those heated in the old way
with little ventilation. Ed.]

PROFITS OF FRUIT CULTURE.

BY B. G. BOSWELL, PHILADELHHIA.

Having seen in a late number of the Hor-
ticulturist, an account of a cherry tree that
produced ten dollars worth of fruit in one
season, permit me to give a chapter of facts
on fruits, most of which are within my own
personal knowledge.

C. A. Cable, of Cleveland, has an or-
chard of an hundred cherry trees, now 22
Vol. II. 39

years old. In the year 1845, his crop sold
for upwards of one thousand dollars. Mr.
C. manages his orchard better than any
other person in the Union, so far as my
knowledge extends. The trees are planted
out twenty-five feet apart, the ground kept
properly enriched and cultivated, but no
crop is put in.

306

PROFITS OF FRUIT CULTURE.

Elisha Swain, of Darby, near Philadel-
phia, has the remains of a cherry orchard,
numbering seventy trees, mostly of the
Mayduke variety. In the height of the
season, his sales amount to upwards of
eighty dollars per day. Mr. S., to ensure
a good crop every season, digs in a horse-
cart load of manure to each tree in autumn.

Hill Pennell, of Darby, has twenty ap-
ple trees, of the Early Redstreak and Early
Queen varieties, that stand on half an acre
of ground. In 1S46 these trees produced
three hundred bushels of fruit that sold in
Philadelphia market for 75 cents per bushel,
or two hundred and twenty-five dollars for
the crop.

Mr. Pennell has a grape vine of the
Raccoon [Fox grape] variety, that covers
the tops of fourteen apple trees. It has
never been pruned, but produces seventy-
five bushels of grapes yearly, that sell for
one dollar per bushel. The apple trees
produce good crops of fruit, and under the
trees is produced a crop of grass ; thus
making three crops from one lot of ground.

James Laws, of Philadelphia, has a
Washington plum tree, that produces six
bushels of fruit yearly, that would sell in
market for ten dollars per bushel. Five of
the above plums weigh a pound.

Mr. Laws has a small vineyard of Isa-
bella and Catawba grapes, near Chester,
sixteen miles below Philadelphia, three-
eighths of an acre of which came into bear-
ing in 1845. The sales amounted to three
hundred dollars at eight cents per pound,
or at the rate of eight hundred dollars per
acre from vines only four years old.

BpaNTON Darlington, of West^ Chester,
Pa., has a Catawba grape vine, that produ-
ces ten bushels of grapes yearly. This
crop is worth forty dollars at market price.

Jacob Steinnentz, of Philadelphia, has a
Blue Gage plum tree, that produces ten

bushels of fruit in a season, worth in mar-
ket, thirty dollars.

My friend, Ellwood Hakvey. Chadds-
ford. Pa., the present season gathered thir-
teen quarts of gooseberries from one plant.

A gardener near Philadelphia, has two
rows of goosebery plants, one hundred and
fifty feet long. One afternoon, he gather-
ed with his own hands, six bushels of fruit,
and the next morning sold them in Phila-
delphia market for twenty-four dollars.

A gentleman of Philadelphia having two
apricot trees, that produced more fruit than
his family could consume, concluded to send
the balance to market, and expend the mo-
ney it would bring in purchasing wood for
the poor.

Judge Line, of Carlisle, Pa., has had
two Syrian apricot trees that have produced
five bushels to each tree in a season. In
the Philadelphia market, they would have
commanded one hundred and twenty dol-
lars, in the New-York market one hundred
and forty dollars.

Hugh Hatch, of Camden, N. J., has four
Tewksbury Winter Blush apple trees, that
in 1846 produced one hundred and forty
market baskets of apples. Without any
extra care, ninety baskes of these were on
hand late in the spring of 1847, when they
readily sold at one dollar per basket.

The following facts relative to fruit grow-
ing near the North river, I have never seen
published. Three years ago, Mr. Chaeles
Downing, of Newburgh, N. Y., informed
me that a fruit-grower of his acquaintance
in Fishkill Landing, N. Y., had gathered
fifteen barrels of Lady apples from one
tree, and sold them in New-York for forty-
five dollars. The same gentleman you
speak of, in your Fruits and Fruit Trees of
America, as having sent to New-York, six-
teen hundred bushels of plums in one sea-
son, has sent to New-York apricots and re-

THE DELIGHTS OF GARDENING.

307

ceived fourteen dollars per bushel for them.
The above gentleman has often said, that
his plum ."trees, which are set out about
the buildings, and take up but little room,
pay him more profit than the whole of his
valuable farm of two hundred acres. Ano-
ther fruit-grower in your neighborhood, has
sent four hundred bushels of Frost Gage
plums, to market in one season, and receiv-
ed twelve hundred dollars for them.

Yet with all these facts before us, there
is no full supply of any kind of fruit in the
Philadelphia market, except peaches. Many

farmers and gardeners neglect setting out
fruit trees from a natural negligence ; others
dislike to pay fifty cents for a fine plum
tree ; others again are afraid that every
body will go to fruit-growing, and bring
down the price to almost nothing. But we
would ask, if there is any more danger of
every body commencing on a large scale
the culture of fruit, than there is that every
body will commence the raising of onions,
or the making of razor strops, or the culti-
vation of roses ? Yours, etc.

B. G. BOSWELL.

THE DELIGHTS OP GARDENING, BY LAMARTINE.
TRANSLATED BY CHARLES KING, NEW- YORK.

There are many of our readers tvho think,
doubtless, that they know by heart all the
delights of the garden. To such we com-
mend the following address. Certainly
they cannot read it without feeling that
much of the beauty and interest which lie
hidden in this devotion to natural pursuits,
were never fully revealed, until illumined
by the imagination and the heart of La-

MARTINE.

We owe the first sight of this fine pro-
duction to Charles King, Esq., who has
kindly translated it also for our readers, and
prefaced it by the following note : —

The charm of flowers, and of the gardener's call-
ing, has rarely been more touchingly or eloquently
expressed and illustrated, than in the following
address by a distinguished poet, historian and states-
man of France, M. de Lamartine.

It was delivered recently at Macon, at the annual
exhibition and meeting of the Horticultural Society
of Saone and Loire, from which department M. de
Lamartine is a member of the Chamber of De-
puties.

Where so much depends, as in an address so
poetical and imaginative as this, upon the style and
diction of the orator, a translation can but feebly

render the charm of the original. With this al-
lowance, it may be hoped the readers of the Horti-
culturist will not regret the space devoted to this
address. CHARLES KING.

New- York, Kov.lG, 1847.

Gentlemen — It belongs particularly, indeed
in my judgment it should belong exclusive-
ly, to those masters of the Art whom you
have just heard — to those magistrates of
nature — it should above all belong to the
learned and venerable Dean of Agriculture
(M. Jard), who, just now in referring to
me, has transferred to me as a public man
the sentiments of affectionate regard with
which he honors me in private life — to such
men it peculiarly belongs to entertain you
about the useful and attractive science of
gardening, of which the fruits and the
flowers but now refreshed our senses in
another enclosure. Nevertheless since it
has been cast upon me as the national re-
presentative of all this population, to address
you, after they have spoken, I will make
the attempt. But what shall I say, that
every one of you does not know a thousand
times better than myself?

Of all those scientific nomenclatures
which designate your annual exhibitions,
of all those plants which flourish and fruc-

308

THE DELIGHTS OF GARDENING.

tify beneath your hands, I only know our
vme, that common stock, the tree of life,
which sustains us, enriches us, which has
borne us all in this region as so many
bunches of men (Smiles and applause). No:
I repeat it to my shame, I know horticulture
only by its enjoyments, its fine flowers, its
agreeable odors, its sensualities ; I know it
only by that unreflecting attraction, natural
and instinctive, which has led men at all
times, and especially men of thought and
of feeling, poets, writers, philosophers,
warriors — even courtiers themselves — to
delight in the sight, the contemplation and
the repose of gardens ; to escape thither
from the noise of the crowd, the gaze of the
multitude, the tumults of the forum ; to shut
themselves up under the shade of some
climbing shrub, within the sound of some
running spring, there to study the pheno-
mena, to listen, with the ear on the ground,
to the almost inaudible palpitations of the
earth, the murmurs of vegetable life, the
circulation of the sap in the branches ; and
to perceive springing within their own bo-
soms, those thoughts, those inspirations,
now pious, nov/ amorous, now philosophical
and anon heroic, which pass under the name
of the ge?ims of solitude ; or again to come
thither in the midday or the evening of life,
to recover strength in that moral weariness
which at certain periods enervates men of
action, as bodily fatigues sometimes over-
take you in the heat, or at the close of the
day, and compel you to repose yourself
beneath a tree you have been trimming,
upon the bed you have been digging (Ap-
plause).

It is this natural taste, this sacred relation-
ship between man and a little plot of ground
more particularly appropriated, fenced in,
cultivated, planted, sown, watered, and
harvested by the hand of the gardener,
which, in all times, have made the story of
the garden a part of the story of the nation,
and also given it a place in the reveries as
to the future life, or the theogony of peoples.
Examine all theogonies, all religions, all
history, even all fable, and not one among
them all that does not assign man in his
origin to an Eden, that is, a garden : there
is not one that, after death, does not conduct
him to an Elysium ; not one that does not

mingle the idea of a garden abounding in
living waters and in fruits, with the images
and reveries of primitive felicity on Earth,
of a happy hereafter in Heaven. What
does all this prove, gentlemen ? That the
imagination of man, in all its variuus dreams
of a paradise, has been unable to devise any
thing more charming than a terrestrial or a
celestial garden, with living waters, shades,
flowers, fruits, a green sod, trees, a propi-
tious sky, serene stars — a reciprocal friend-
ship, so to speak, between man and the soil.
So true is it, too, that in his most delicious
reveries, man has been able to invent no-
thing more perfect than nature. A spot in
the sunshine, protected from evil-doers,
embellished by vegetation, animated by the
birds of heaven and animals the friends of
man, made sacred by the work of his hands,
and made holy by the presence of the
Creator ; the habitation of the family, the
abode of love, of friendship, as it has been
for a successson of immortal generations.
In such an abode it is that Human Nature
has always placed Happiness ; and is it not
there you persevere in seeking it ? In seek-
ing it, not always perfect and unchangeable
as in our dreams, but in seeking it at least
in those brief and imperfect glimpses which
it has pleased God to permit us now and
then to obtain in this Avorld below ?

You do well, very well, to seek it there :
for if your pursuit is the happiest of pursuits,
your science is in fact the least chimerical,
the least uncertain, the least disappointing,
the surest of all our sciences.

Yes : for over and above all other con-
siderations which should bind the horticul-
turist to his art, there is one which has often
struck me, and doubtless has often struck
you all, and it is that of all the arts, of all
the sciences I should say, yours is the one
that most truly deserves that name, which
least misleads those who cultivate it, which
least puzzles the brain with the chimeras of
systems, and which carries man and con-
fines him most forcibly to the Truth, by its
details of application ; and why so ? You
all know why. Because your science is
wholly experimental and practical ; it leaves
nothing to speculation, to hypothesis, to
conjecture, to the chances of the imagina-
tion : there are no metaphysics of the soil ;

THE DELIGHTS OF GARDENING.

309

there are no chimeras in vegetation : rigor-
ous, attentive, daily observation is your
learning. Happily for you, you have not,
like us who deal with the world of thought,
of history, of politics and other departments
of human knowledge ; you have not to do
with the uncertainties of the human mind,
with the mania of systems, with the pas-
sions, the reveries, the prejudices, some-
times with the wild fancies of schools, of
sects, which render every thing obscure,
which lead men on for centuries in error or
in doubt, to those late awakenings, or some-
times to the brink of those abj-sses, where
man stumbles in the paths of false know-
ledge, and only gathers himself up again to
run after some fresher delusion. No : your
pursuit gives no play to such errors, or to
such repentance ; and again why? Because
in your science, you always, as it were, will
have your hand upon Nature, and upon her
laws, visible, palpable, mysterious indeed,
but )'et evident : j'ou work, so to speak, side
by side with God ! You are but co-operators
with the divine laws of vegetation. But
divine laws bend not to our vain caprices.

God, in his changeless works, heeds not
our chimeras. Nature has no complaisance
for our false systems. She is sovereign and
absolute as her author. She resists our
foolish attempts ; she overthrows — some-
times rudely enough — our illusions. She
seconds our efforts, aids them, and rewards
them abundantly if directed in the right
sense ; but if we make a mistake, or attempt
to force her, to compel her out of her course,
she at once asserts her power, and blasts
our labors with sterility, by the wasting
away and the death of every thing we have
attempted to effect in opposition to her laws,
and in her despite. We others may with
impunity make mistakes, and for ages at a
lime, in history, in philosophy, in religious
and in social systems, even in astronomy.
We may devise on these heads the most
absurd chimeras, and impose them upon the
world for a long time as truth. That can-
not you do, gardeners and agriculturists.
Your longest error cannot outlast a single
season (Applause), the period of a crop, one
spring, one year at most. Such is the term
of your error ; for it is the term of your
experiments. That once past, Nature pre-

vails, sets you right. She reveals her will
to you, that you may make haste to conform
your labors to it. You interrogate her un-
ceasingly, respectfully, experimentally; and
she alwa\'s makes true and prompt replies.
You register those replies in your memoirs,
in your books, in your manuals ; and from
this intercepted dialogue between man that
questions, and Nature that replies, j-ou form
those catechisms of the farmer and the
gardener, which become the science of
vegetation (Applause).

Thus it is through these elementary
books, and these congresses of cultivators
of nature, such as this now assembled, that
your science is deep-rooted, extended, im-
proved and wide-spread. Thus it has been
since Pliny, who made a catalogue of all
the plants within the Roman empire ; since
Charlemagne, who, in his Capitularies,
which were in some sort his charter or con-
stitution, particularized the sorts and the
number of vegetables he wished cultivated;
since Cato, the most severe of statesmen,
requiring that each Roman citizen, however
poor he might be, should cultivate some
flowers in his plot, in order (hat the ele-
gance of such culture should contribute
elegance and refinement to the manners of
the people ; for though he aimed at correct-
ing the excessive luxuriousness of the Re-
public, he desired no suviptitarrj law in ve-
getation— down to the various maritime and
plant-seeking expeditions of the Crusaders,
the Dutch, the English, to gather, one by
one, from all parts of the globe, those ninety-
eight vegetables or flowers, with which
your kitchen garden or flower beds are now
enamelled — the art of gardening, rudely
sketched by the Romans ; greatly extended
and carried almost to marvellous perfection
by the Chinese ; taking, in England, the
character and proportions of an aristocratic
luxury ; depreciated and belittled in Hol-
land, down almost to the 'adoration of a
tulip ; elevated in Italy to the dignity of a
splendid art, associated with statuary, sculp-
ture and architecture ; rendered useful in
France by its alliance with the higher walks
of agriculture, of which it is the pathfinder
— has finally, thanks to your efforts, reached
in various parts of Europe the condition of
a National Industry, giving employment to

310

THE DELIGHTS OP GARDENING.

millions of men, nnd the aliment of a com-
merce in fruits and flowers worth millions
of money.

Thus it is, and I pray you to consider it,
gentlemen, that gardening, which hereto-
fore was only a sort of amusement or do-
mestic luxury, an adornment of the soil, has
become nowadays a new and magnificent
object of commerce. At a time when labor
fails for man, more than man fails for labor ;
at a time when to invent a new industry, is
to invent wealth, occupation, wages, life
itself for numberless workmen — is not this
a view fitted to impress the statesman, to
touch an intelligent minister of agriculture
and of commerce ? Do not, gentlemen,
suppose this is mere hyperbole — exaggera-
tion. I am just returned from the South,
and have seen on the shores of the Medi-
terranean a very considerable coasting trade
in flowers ! Tuscany and Genoa exported
to the amount of several millions of money,
from their flower beds. And one art gives
rise to another. After the art of successfully
cultivating flowers, has come that of gather-
ing and assorting them according to their
shades, odors, colors. This art has made
such progress at Genoa, for instance, has
been so studied there, that they can com-
bine, intertwine, plait, and, as it were, so
weave together roses, pinks, dahlias, tulips
and ranunculuses, that the bouquets pre-
pared to decorate tables on gala days —
bouquets often of a j^ard in circumference,
resemble Turkey carpets, vegetable stuffs,
odorous velvets, mosaics of plants. There
are there, vegetable weavers of flowers, who
turn out their perfumed fabrics ; the flower
girls, there as at Athens, form a class apart.
The bouquets which you admire, you inhale
at the fetes of Toulon, Marseilles, Bour-
deaux, and even of Paris, are woven at
Genoa or at Florence. Hence the gardening
of luxury becomes each day more and more
a regular business. Go on and render it
more perfect, and it will one day become a
fine art ; a school of painting, of which the
pallet will be the gardeii.

But whatever be the value in the eyes of
the economist, of gardening industry, let us
frankly admit, gentlemen, that therein does
not lie the principal and eternal charm of
the Garden. No : that which in all time

has rendered this pursuit so fascinating to
man, and especially to the man of sensibi-
lity, the student, the poet, the man of let-
ters, the sage, the author, the philosopher,
and even the warrior, is the near and inti-
mate relation into which it brings us with
nature ; the charm resulting from the study
of her phenomena ; the pious contemplation
of the wonders of vegetation ; those per-
petually renewed delights in beholding the
universal life, that dumb intelligence, sa-
cred and wonderful, through all vegetable
creation ; those indefinite limits between
vegetable and animal life, which seem to
combine all organic beings in a mysterious
unity, in despite of their diversities and
apparent separation : it is this conviction
of the divinity of nature, that has made me
sometimes even tax myself with pantheism.
Yet I am not a pantheist, gentlemen. No,
I am not like the child, who, seeing for the
first time a form in a mirror, takes the mir-
ror and the form for one, and stretches out
his hand to grasp the image. Nature, to
my eyes as to yours, is the magnificent
mirror, infinite, immense, in which the
Creator is reflected. But Nature is to me
so real, so intelligent, so divine, that I
readily understand, and without difficulty
excuse, him who might accuse me of con-
founding her with her God.

Yes, gentlemen, it is seductions such as
these, which, in all time, have fixed the souls
of men of reflection on the spectacle of the
germination, flowering, and fructification of
the plants of the garden. Shall I cite Pytha-
goras, who inculcated it upon his disciples
as a precept of wisdom, to worship Echo
in her rural haunts ; SciPio, at Linterna ;
Diocletian, renouncing the empire of the
world for the cultivation of lettuce in his
garden at Salona ; Horace, at Tibur ; Ci-
cero, at Tusculuvi, or beneath his orange
trees at Gaeta ; Pliny, describing for pos-
terity the plan of his alleys bordered with
box, and giving a list of his fancifully
trimmed trees and vegetable statues ; old
Homer, recalling without doubt his own
paternal garden plot, in the description he
gives of the little fenced-in spot of Laertes,
shaded and overarched by his thirteen pear
trees ; Petrarch at Vaucluse, or on the hill
o{ Arqua ; Theocritus, beneath his Sicilian

THE DELIGHTS OF GARDENING.

311

chestnuts ; Gessner, under his Zurich pines;
Mde. DE Sevigne, in her garden of Roches,
or in her park at Livry, rendering her gar-
dener immortal by a touching line, worth
of itself a mausoleum, in one of her letters
— " Old Paul my gardener is dead, and the
trees are all sad inconsequence": and, nearer
to our time, Montesquieu, in the spacious
alleys of his chateau of Labrede, evoking
the shadows of dead empires and the spirit
of their laws, like Maciiiavel before him,
and greater than he, in his rustic hermitage
of Safi Miniato on the Tuscan hills ; A''ol-
TAiRE, alternating between Delices and
Ferney, comprehending Lake Leman and
the Italian Alps in the horizon of his gar-
den ; BuFFON at Mo7ibard, knowing how,
like Pliny in Rome, to enjoy, among the
magnificent living specimens in his park,
the magnificence of the nature which he
described ; finally, Rousseau, whom I was
near forgetting, he who desired that his
remains might repose beneath a poplar on
an islet, in the midst of the last garden ?
Ah ! that man, born to a laborious station,
and brought up almost in a servile state,
felt, doubtless, more intensely than another,
the retirements and the consolations of soli-
tude. How often in my early youth, in the
first fever of the imagination and the soul
for renowned names and genius ; how often
have I gone alone, or in company with a
friend whom I lost by the wayside, to visit
his loved Charmettes ; that small house,
that narrow garden, hidden in a ravine
rather than a valley of the hills of Cham-
berry, but shaded by the beautiful chestnuts
of Savoy! How many hours, how many
whole days have I not spent beneath that
little arbor of vines in which he so much
delighted, in thinking of him, in living his
life over again in imagination, in watching
the last rays of the fading day make their
way through the vine leaves already died
with the yellow hues of autumn ; as if
hoping still to find there the most sensitive,
the most eloquent worshipper and observer
of nature, of the vegetable creation, and of
God ! (Applause interrupts the orator). I
should not stop, gentlemen, if I were to
name all the illustrious men who have as-
sociated themselves with their gardens. In
truth one might almost rewrite the history

of all men of great genius, by that of the
rural retreats where they have dwelt, and
which they loved and rendered illustrious
by their associations. So literally is man
allied to Earth, whether at his birth, during
life, or in the grave ; and thus truly does
nature reassert her place in the lives of
those who would have been the farthest
removed from her, and the least accessible
to the simple and pure enjoyments springing
from the cultivation of the soil (Applause).
And believe not, gentlemen, that those
enjoyments are reserved for the mighty of
the earth, to the real owners of riches, or of
gardens of celebrity like those of Versailles
or the Tuilleries ; of which, in all time,
governments have made presents to the
people, in order to excite in them admiration
of the power which creates such wonders,
in compelling the waters, the trees and the
flowers to take their places, like complaisant
courtiers, around their palaces. No : there
is no need of wealth, of magnificence, of
extended domain, to enjoy all that God has
hidden of happiness in the culture or spec-
tacle of vegetable life. These are pleasures,
which it is not given to fortune to appro-
priate and monopolize. Nature is never
aristocratic : she has not endowed the poor
with other perceptions than the rich, of
natural delights ; nor the idler, than the
laboring man. However vast or hoAvever
contracted the space devoted by man to this
pursuit, his soul can only receive the same
amount of delight and gratification from its
pleasures. The human soul is thus con-
stituted, because it is infinite. Yes : the
human soul is endowed with such a faculty
of extension or contraction, that it can over-
flow the universe, and, like Alexander, find
it too narrow for its desires ; or it can con-
centrate, and as it were fold itself up upon
a mere spot of earth, and exclaim with the
sage of Tibur, from his half acre sowed with
mallows and watered by a little streamlet,
" This little spot of earth is all the world to
me ! " Be assured that there was as much
real delight, enjoyment, sensibility and ten-
derness in the soul of Rousseau, watching
the last rays of the setting sun from beneath
the foliage of his little vine-covered arbor
at Charmette, as in the soul of Buflbn be-
holding the rising sun break forth in his

312

THE DELIGHTS OF GARDENING.

glory above the lofty cedars of his park of
Montbard! Be assured that the owner of
thousands of acres, planted, laid out in
walks and irrigated as gardens, on the hill-
sides of England, of Scotland, or in the
environs of Paris, has no feeling of nature
more delicious, more overflowing, more
pious, than you, when, on Sunday, you take
your rest in your little enclosure, at the foot
of some blossoming tree that your hands
have grafted, near your two or three bee-
hives humming in the sunshine, on the
borders of the bed where you have laid down
the spade, to be resumed to-morrow.

And who more than myself has felt this
delight ? For if you understood Latin as
well as you understand the universal lan-
guage of the vegetable world, I could ex-
claim in your midst, with the shepherd in
Virgil, '■'■ Et in Arcadia ego ;^^ which may
be rendered, I too am a garde?ie7: Yes : I
too had, for the cradle of my young days, a
little country garden, fenced in with a dry
stone wall, on one of the arid and sombre
hills which you may, from this spot, per-
ceive in the distant horizon. There was
no large extent (the more than moderate
mediocrity of my father's fortune permitted
it not), no majestic shade, no spouting
waters, no rare flowers, nor precocious fruits
nor plants of luxury : there were some
narrow walks, covered with a reddish sand,
bordered by wild pinks, and violets and
primroses surrounded the beds where grew
the vegetables which supported the family.
Well : there it was, and not in the gardens
of Italy, or of the great landowners of
France, of Germany, of England, that I
enjoyed the earliest and the most intense
gratifications which nature can bestow upon
the sensitive and imaginative being of a
child or a young man. I now dwell amid
more extensive and more artistically laid
out gardens ; but I have retained my pre-
dilections for the first one. I preserve it
carefidly in its original poverty, of shade,
of water, of flowers and of fruits ! Ah !
when I can rescue some rare moments of
liberty and of solitude from the engrossing
claims of public duty or literary pursuits,
to commune alone with myself, it is to that
garden I fly to pass them. (Emotion in the
audience.) Yes, gentlemen, you will par-

don these details of the intimacy of private
life : they are not out of place here. We
are all fellow citizens, friends ; all of the
same fibre, the same flesh ! Let us for a
moment have in common but one soul, as
we have but one country. Yes : it is in
this humble enclosure, long since made
desolate and empty by death ; it is in these
walks overrun with weeds, with moss, with
the wild violets straying from their borders ;
it is under these old trunks, exhausted al-
most of their sap, but not of their memories ;
it is upon this unraked sand, that I still, as
it were, watch for the footfall of my mo-
ther, my sisters, of former friends, of old
family servants ; and that, as the sun is
setting, I go and seat myself against the
fence facing the house, each year more and
more concealed beneath the climbing ivy —
plunged in reverie, amidst the hum of in-
sects, the faint disturbance of the lizards
of the old wall, that seem to me like old
tenants of the garden, with which I am al-
most tempted to fancy sometimes I might
hold communication about the days that
are past. (General and prolonged signs of
emotion.)'

Gentlemen, it was these first pleasures of
man at his entrance upon life ; these early
habits, this young enthusiasm of contempla-
tion, those first tender emotions in life, in
the rustic abode, the home of the family of
which now the hearth is cold and extinct,
that early gave me, for gardens and the
simple and intelligent men who cultivate
them, that predilection which brings me
back so naturally and so agreeably to these
annual meetings with you. The spade, the
hoe, the rake, the watering pot, even the
simple flower-pot in the window of the
poorest laborer, are inseparably bound up
in my heart with these recollections of my
young life in the country, in the midst of
the labors and occupations of a rustic abode
and a modest garden. Excuse me, then, if
I have spoken as one without knowledge.
You are practical gardeners, by the labor
of your hands, by study, by science : I am
only one through my sensibilities and tender
memories.

(The speaker then, turning to the gentle-
men seated around the stand, said ) : And.
now, gentlemen, let us depart each to his

WINE-MAKING IN THE WEST.

313

own labors. Go you, encouraged by the
earnest sympathy of your neighbors and
fellow countrymen ; by the unanimous and
touching interest manifested by the crowd,
which, more successfully than any scenic
representation, has filled this theatre ; by
that interest of the heart, which woman by
her presence here evinces. Go forth to
cultivate your fruits, your flowers, your
vegetables, the marvels of scientific culture,
in your laboratories under the noonday sun.
For my part, I retire to cultivate in that old
and desolate garden of my father, of which
I was just speaking to you, that which a
poor laborer in the domain of mind culti-
vates, often more exhausted with fatigue
than you : study, letters, books, philosophy,
history, politics ; the art of governing men,
of improving societ)'', of ameliorating the
condition of the people — to cause liberty
and civilization to produce yet more mature
and perfect fruits (Applause). But I return
there, above all, to cultivate the memory cf
those persons and those things there loved
and lost ; those tender recollections of the
past ; those living, yet bleeding traces of
a life more than half run. . . . (The speaker
paused as if seeking some expression, or as
if deliberating mentally with himself). I
hesitate, gentlemen : I do hesitate. Ought

I to go on ? (Another pause). No : I will
say no more. There is a diffidence in all
profound emotions. We must not lay bare
the inmost soul : there are tears which are
only to be shed in the silence and the se
crecy of the heart ! . . . . I go, then, to seek
again in that home of my childhood, attrac-
tions more powerful for me, for us all, than
the mo.st exquisite and odorous exhibitions
at your meetings ; the perfume of our re-
collections, the odor of the past, the vo-
luptuousness of that melancholy which is
the autumnal flower of human life ! All,
all these are for us, emanations, as it were,
from the Earth : a far-ofl' perception, a fore-
taste of those Elysiums and those Edens,
of those everlasting gardens, where we all
hope to meet again in bliss, those whom
we loved and parted from in tears ! . . All,
all these which make the man who is true
to nature, at whatever distance, in whatever
lowliness or in however exalted station for-
tune may have placed him, long to return
and finish his days on the spot which gave
him birth, and to find at last his grave in
the garden which was his cradle !

(When the speaker ceased, there was no
applause ; but a deep, solemn, and tender
impression seemed to reign throughout the
audience.)

"WINE-MAKING IN THE VTEST ;
WITH ANSWERS BY N. LONGAVORTH, TO VARIOUS QUERIES BY C. W. ELLIOTT, CINCI?s-NATI.

Those who read for entertainment, will do
well to pass to the latter part of this article,
which contains Mr. Longworth's own ac-
count of some of the most interesting mat-
ters connected with vine-growing in the
vicinity of Cincinnati.

I will first write a brief account of the
usual methods here, of preparing the ground
and planting a vineyard. The soil should
be well broken up, to the depth of eighteen
or twenty inches. This is usually done, in
this neighborhood, with the spade; which
is, however, expensive. A common practice
is to put all the top soil at the bottom : this
VOL. II. 40

does not seem to me to be so well as to
mix the top and bottom, in digging or deep
ploughing.

Cuttings, or vines of one or two years
grow^th, are then planted, in the spring or
fall, in rows five feet apart, and standing
four feet from each other in the row : these
are cut down during thejirst three years, to
two eyes or buds, only one of which is al-
lowed to make a shoot. In the thi7-d year,
the vines may be allowed to bear a few
bunches of grapes, if the roots are strong.
The vines, after the third year, are pruned
away, about the first of March, to one shoot

314

WINE-MAKING IN THE WEST.

about six feet long, which produces the crop
(which shoot is always bowed or bent, to
check the circulation) : in old and strong
vines, two of these shoots are left. Care
should be taken that. a spire with two or
three eyes is left, near the ground, to supply
bearing wood for the next year, the bearing
wood of this year being then cut away :
thus a succession of new and vigorous wood
is secured.

During the summer, the vines are thinned
of superfluous branches and suckers two or
three times. Many of the German vine-
dressers here cut off the surface roots, in
order to force the vine to draw its subsistence
from below the influence of drouths ; for-
getting, perhaps, that it is sometimes de-
sirable to be above that of the flooding rains.
Physiologically this practice must be in-
jurious. It is believed by many here (of
whom I am one), that the strong growing
native vines will do better if allowed more
room and more wood. The vineyards are
cultivated, during the spring and first part
of summer, with the plough and cultivator,
and kept clean from weeds. Many persons
crop the ground with cabbages, &c. : when
this is done, the manure must be given
much sooner and more plentifully, as a
bearing vineyard requires much food.

The grape crop suffers principally from
these two things, the spring frosts and the
summer rot. In a climate like this, where
the summer is long and the sun powerful,
planting on the iwrthern slopes is some
protection from the frosts, as the vines do
not break their buds quite so soon. The
" rot " is the great evil, and, for the past
three years, has been more destructive than
for any previous three years. It is possible
that this may proceed from one of three
causes : the loss of some ingredient in the
soil, say potash ; the sting of some insect.

like the curculio ; or the excess of rain,
with or without great heat. As to the first
conjecture, it is hardly possible, as the new
vineyards have rotted nearly or quite as
badly as the old. As to the second, the
only fact bearing upon it is the discovery in
the must, by Mr. Myers (spoken of by Mr.
Longworth), of a large number of mucitic
worms. As to the third, the rot, for the
past three years, has followed excessive
rains in July and August. Dr. Flagg, two
years since, found a small part of a vineyard
where the rot was very slight : this had
not been worked after the spring, and the
ground was in such a state that most of the
rains passed off on the surface. Vines
planted in rows eight feet apart, in one in-
stance, were found to be affected by rot but
very slightly. Vines growing on trellises,
higher from the ground and with more
wood, in one case this year, held their fruit
much better than the common vineyard
plants. The subject has been but little
investigated, and therefore all can speculate.
The varieties now used, are the Catawba
and the Alexander's, known here as the
" Cape " (or Schuylkill Muscatel) : the for-
mer makes a white, and the latter usually
a red wine. The Isabella is inferior to
either of these for Avine-making, and rots
badly. The Ohio, Lenoir and Missouri,
are not used for wine-making ; though quite
the best [native] wine which I have seen
(and which was really excellent), was made
from the Missouri. The care necessary be-
fore pressing the grape, is to pick out the
unripe and decaying berries ; the bunches,
of course, being fully ripe before being
gathered. The juice should be carefully
strained (if through flannel, the better) into
sweet casks ; and after the first strong fer-
mentation, the casks should be closed, and
left to ferment slowly in a cool cellar until

WINE-MAKING IN THE WEST.

315

spring, when the wine is usually fit for
bottling. No sugar or brandy is now added
to the best wine.

When the juice is well strained and
cleared from must, there is saccharine mat-
ter enough to supply alcohol, say from 7 to
11 per cent.; which is equal to the best
Rhine wines. The ordinary quality of wines
made here, does in no way compare with the
good Rhine wines ; though a small quantity
made with great care by Dr. Flagg, some
years since, was said, by good judges, to be
their equal. I drank last year of a bottle
of the champaigne made under the direction
of Mr. LoNGWOKTH, which seemed equal to
what is called " first quality" of champaigne
from abroad. He expects this year to make
10,000 bottles.

The price at which the wine is sold, va-
ries from one dollar to one dollar and a half
the gallon. It is mostly drank here, before
being bottled, by our large German popula-
tion, who, if not ' natives,' do what can be
done with patience and industry to raise and
consume the native wine.

It appears from a Report (made by Dr.
Flagg) published in the Cincinnati Horti-
cultural Society''s Transactions, that in the
year 1S45, (which Avas not a favorable one,)
there were made, from 114 acres of vine-
yards, 23,219 gallons of wine — about 200
gallons to the acre. In successful years,
the yield is from 500 to 600 gallons the
acre. At the present time, something over
300 acres in this county alone, are under
cultivation as vinej'ards. So far, vine cul-
tivation has surely been a profitable one.

The following is a table, furnished by
Mr. W. Resor, of this place, from memo-
randa kept by his father through nine years.
The expense of cultivation previous to first
crop, also of press and casks, are not added.

ESTIMATE.

2300 vines, at 0 cents $133 00

2300 poles, at 2 cents 40 00

1000 do. replaced, at 2 cents . 20 00
'rrenchinn ground and planting. . SO 00

Manurini; last fall 30 00

2 months work each year, 'J years, 225 00

Extra work in making; wine 150 00

Interest on investment before crop, 15 00

S704 00
CR. By 4300 gallons wine, at 75 cts. 32:29 50

$2525 50

The following answers, by i\Ir. Long-
worth, to various queries which I submitted
10 him, contain a good deal of valuable
practical information, which I submit to
your readers. C. W. Elliott.

Ciiuinnati, Nov. 29, 1S47.

1 Q. When did you commence your wine
vineyards ?

A. It is twenty-five years since I planted
my first vineyard, on Baldface creek, four
miles below the city, under the charge of a
German of the name of Amen. He had a
lease for ten years, and, the tenth year,
made, by the sale of his half of the wine,
800 dollars. He went on the land without
a dollar, and devoted more time to cabbage
and sourcrout than his grapes, as they
j'ielded an immediate profit which was all
his own. The 800 dollars ruined the old
man. He moved to the center of the State,
bought a farm, and planted a vineyard. His
grapes were killed by the frost ; and he
returned, about five years since, nearly
pennyless, and began a new vineyard on a
small piece of land adjoining his old one.
It was not till I had fully tested the experi-
ment at this vineyard, that I increased my
vineyards, and now have between 90 and
100 acres in grapes.

2 Q. With what grapes did you com-
mence ?

A. At the commencement, I planted
largely with the " Cape " grape, (Alexan-
der's, or Schuylkill Muscatel,) as this was
the only grape found to succeed at Vevay.
They fermented its juice on the skins, and
made from it a rough, hard wine. I pressed

316

WINE-MAKING IN THE WEST.

the grapes as soon as gathered, and made
from it a wine resembling the Teneriffe.

I also tried the Isabella extensively, but
soon ceased to cultivate it. It ripened and
rotted badly, and made an indifferent wine ;
unless where from 24 to 32 ounces of sugar
were added to the gallon, when it made a
delicious sweet wine.

I obtained the Catawba soon after, from
Major Adltjivi ; and, on its acquaintance,
soon rooted out the Cape and Isabella. The
Cape seldom rots, and is a sure bearer.

The Mammoth Catawba was a single
plant, discovered in the center of my first
vineyard. Of its origin I know nothing,
and have never heard of it at any other
place. I subsequently cultivated the Mis-
souri, Herbemont, Madeira, Lenoir, Ohio,
and some others, and tested their bearing
character and value as wine grapes.

3 Q. The French and Madeira vines,
were they tender or worthless ?

A. Of foreign grapes, I imported several
thousand of all the best wine grapes of
Madeira, France and Germany. My last
importation was 22 varieties (say 5000
plants) from the mountains of Jura, where
the vine region suddenly ends. I gave
them the best southern exposure on sides of
hills, and expended 200 dollars on \ of an
acre of ground, on a sidehill with a southern
exposure, in my garden. I took out the
natural soil to the depth of three feet ; laid
a layer of gravel in the bottom, two inches
thick, and over it a laj^er of thin paving
stone, and filled it up with rich earth with
a portion of sand added, and a drain to
carry off the rain from the bottom. They
grew slowly, were subject to mildew, and,
though covered in winter, would not succeed
in our climate ; and not a solitary plant of
them is left in my garden or vineyard,
except one plant of the Meimier (Miller's
Burgundy).

In the South, foreign grapes have not
succeeded much better. Messrs. Herbe-
mont, M'Call and Guignard, all intelligent
men, tried them extensively in South Ca-
rolina, and wrote me they did not suit their
climate. These gentlemen are entitled to
great praise for their exertions, in testing
the quality of grapes for wine. I corres-

ponded with them for years. I believe Mr.
GuiGXARD is the only survivor. At that
time, we added sugar to our must. In that
latitude, I should have supposed the grape
would have had more of the saccharine
principle, than in ours. To my surprise,
Mr. M'Call wrote me that he put 30 ounces
to the gallon ; and in one case, where he
put 265^ ounces, found it not sufficient.
Messrs. Guignard and Herbemont used
less, but more than was customary here ;
and Mr. Herbemont complained to me that
his wine often turned to vinegar.

The Ohio grape I tried for wine one year,
and did not admire it. I was equally un-
successful with the LeTwir. I made from
it a white wine. It is said to make a good
red wine. The Missouri makes a good
wine, resembling Madeira. I follow the
custom in Madeira, and add brandy to this
wine.

Many contend that the Lenoir and Her-
bemont are the same. My tenant, S. W.
Wratton, who has cultivated them both
extensively for ten years, has this opinion.
Their fruit much resembles each other.
The Herhevwnt I prefer. The Le?wir is of
more vigorous growth. The Herbemont has
a different colored wood : its wood is dark-
colored ; the Lenoir, light-colored, with a
light blue cast. The terminal leaves of the
Herbemont have a red or brownish cast ;
the Lenoir, green. Both are hardy, and
subject to rot : both are fine table grapes,
and the Herbemont makes a fine wine.

The Missouri is, for the table, about equal
to the Miller^s Burgundy, which it resem-
bles. The Ohio is a fine table grape. All
are hardj', and free from the hard pulp
common to most of our native grapes. The
Lenoir is generally more compact in the
bunch, than either of the others. The Ohio
bears the largest bunch of grapes : it re-
quires to have the bearing wood left long,
and a plenty of sun and air.

4 Q. Can you give the origin of the Ohio
and other native grapes ?

jf. The origin of the Catawba, Herbe-
mont, Ohio, Lenoir and Missouri, will soon
be an object of interest. Strange as it may
appear, no certain account can be obtained
of either. The Catawba was found by Mr.

WINE-MAKING IN THE WEST.

317

Adlum, in the garden of a German near
Washington city ; where obtained from, he
knew not. It is certainly a native ; and it
is said that one exactly similar was found
near a town in Pennsylvania, which they
named after the town : the name I do not
recollect. The leaf, the stem, the aroma,
proves it of the Fox family. I have had
native grapes sent me from different points,
almost exactly similar ; but the wood is of
less luxuriant growth, the bunches and fruit
not quite as large, and not as abundant
leaves. AVhere seedlings are raised from
this grape, they evince a disposition, not to
improve, but to go back to the type — the
parent Fox. We have raised some white
grapes from the seed. I have seen no seed-
lings equal to the parent.

It appears Mr. Adlum had a proper ap-
preciation of the value of the Catawba grape.
In a letter to me, he remarks, " In bringing
this grape into public notice, I have ren-
dered my country a greater service, than I
would have done, had I paid the national
debt." I concur in his opinion.

The Lerioir, Mr. Guigxard wrote me, was
a native grape of Sumner county, in South
Carolina. Mr. Herbejiont thought that the
Lenoir was believed not to be a native of
Carolina, but to have been raised from a
seed of a foreign grape, by a person of the
name of Lenoir, near Statesbury, South
Carolina.

The Herbemont was originally supposed
by M'Call, Herbejiont and Guignard, to
be a native of South Carolina, from its hardy
character, and the resemblance of the plant
to some of their wild grapes. They were
compelled to abandon this belief, and to
consider it a foreign grape of the Pineaii
[Burgjindy] family. For the grape was
first got from the garden of Gen. Huger of
South Carolina, where it was called an
English grape, and was said to have been
imported about the year 1797. Mr. M'Call
assured me that he imported the same grape
from Madeira ; and a French gentlemen,
who imported what he supposed different
grapes from France, declared the\' were all
the Herbemont. This I doubt : a common
observer would pronounce the Herbemont,
Lenoir and Ohio, all the same grape, judging
merely from the size of the berries.

The Ohio grape cuttings were sent me in
a segar-box ; by whom, or where from, I
could never learn. Mr. Affleck, of Wash-
ington, Mississippi, writes me it is identical
with their Jack grape, which he says was
raised from the seed of a foreign grape, by
a Spaniard or Portuguese of the name of
Jack. Another correspondent writes me,
its proper name is the Jaquish grape, from
having been raised by a person of that name
from seed. I received two plants of the
same grape from Biloxi, Mississippi, where
it is cultivated as a native grape ; but the
gentleman from whom I got it, says it is not
the Jack grape. I hope soon to have the
Jack grape, and be able to settle this point.
The Ohio grape is of no value in the neigh-
borhood of Eoston. [It also proves inferior
to the Elsingbnrgk here, Ed.] It does not
even succeed well out of our city : the rea-
son I know not. Mr. Prosselet, a French
gentleman of Natchez, imported vines from
France, Avhich he states were identical with
their Jack grape.

The Missouri I got from the elder Prince,
as a native of Missouri, more than twenty-
five years since. His son recently sent to
me for cuttings of it. Here it is a delicate
grower. In Newark, New-Jersey, in a poor
soil, it grows very luxuriantly, and bears
well, and is hardy.

5 Q. How much champaigne wine did
you make last spring? What addition is
made to the pure juice ? How much will
you make next spring ? At what price will
it be sold, and when offered for sale ?

A. I made about 6000 bottles last spring.
The best of loaf sugar is the only article
added to the wine. Where we make a drj'
sparkling wine, no addition is made. The
wine is better, for having a portion of old
wine added to the new. Another objection
to making it wholly of new wine is, it is
apt to break the bottle. It requires expe-
rience, to know what quantity of old wine
can be safely added. We shall be com-
pelled to throw '2000 bottles back into the
cask, as too much old wine was added ; and
the consequence is, the wine has not suffi-
cient life. Last season, the early promise
of an abundant crop of grapes was truly
flattering ; but the rot came, and our vine-

318

WINE-MAKING IN THE WEST.

yards did not average one-fifth of a crop. I
expect to make 10,000 bottles next spring.

I saw it stated by a correspondent in the
National Intelligencer, that there were
"several manufactories in Cincinnati, for
the manufacture of champaigne wine, in
charge of Frenchmen, obtained from
France." This is an error. Mr. Millek
had some champaigne wine made at his
house in the vicinity of the town, last sea-
son, by one of our Germans. It vas made,
and drank in a few weeks after working.
It was not calculated for keeping, or sending
to a foreign market, though much admired
by those who drank it. In a few weeks it
formed a sediment, and in a iaw months
lost all its life. He commenced the manu-
facture late in the spring, at the time when
my wine cooper deemed it too late to con-
tinue the manufacture ; and used fire heat,
to bring it into its effervescing state. My
manufacturer keeps it in a cold arched cel-
lar, and continues for near a year to draw
off the sediment, and does not deem it fit
for use till it has been a year in the bottle.
The same German, this summer, commenced
making, for Mr. Miller, 40,000 bottles ;
got in a passion, and left the whole on the
cellar floor. This wine was in great demand
at our coffee houses.

Mr. Miller has a fine vineyard, and un-
derstands the cultivation of the grape, and
the manufacture of natural wine from them.
Mr. Selves, this season, employed an Eng-
lishman to manufacture champaigne wine
for him, for sale at his coffee house, who
for years was engaged in the same business
in London. It is fit for use in a few weeks
after bottled, and is deemed a fine cham-
paigne by our wine drinkers.

My wine cooper is a Frenchman, bred to
the business (as he says) in Champaigne ;
and who, for the last few years, has resided
in the city of New-York, and been ex-
clusively engaged in the resuscitation of
imported champaigne, by the importing
houses. His skill is yet to be proved.

One thing is certain : If a pleasant
champaigne can be made from our Catawba
grape in two or three weeks, a good one
can be made, by a skilful wine cooper, after
a year's attention to the bottles. Whether
the one I now have is skilful, time will

decide. The person I obtained from France
in 1845, was drowned in the Ohio a few
days after his arrival.

My own impression is, that in skilful
hands, our Catawba will make a wine, su-
perior in aroma and flavor to the best French
champaigne imported ; or that manufactured
in London, from perry ; or, in New-Jersej^,
from cider, or green corn. The aroma of
the Catawba grape continues in the wine, in
all its stages. Our Germans did not at first
like this peculiar muscadine aroma and
flavor, but now give our dry Catawba wines
a decided preference over the wines of
Germany. In the fermentation of most
wines, the aroma of the fruit is lost in the
fermentation of the must, and a new flavor
given : often an artificial one is designedly
added ; and so fond do we become of par-
ticular flavors, from long habit, that many
of our winebibbers are delighted with the
skin-taste acquired by the wine by being
carried in foetid goatskins.

My wines will be ready for use in the
spring, and for sending abroad in March.
It would soon lose its good name, should it
ever obtain one, if sold below the price of
imported French champaigne. We judge
of the value of an article from its cost. Mr.
Miller and Mr. Selves sell their wine at
twelve dollars per dozen (bottles returned),
and, at this price, have found a ready sale.
If my wine does not compare with the best
imported, after giving the manufacture a
fair trial, I shall discontinue it. Persons
having it for sale, will be instructed to pay
back the money on return of the wine, after
the person has tried it, if dissatisfied ; or if
any bottles in a basket be found not good,
to return the price for all that do not prove
of the first qualit3\ I calculate all will be
good, or none ; but a chance cork, though
rarely, may destroy the wine.

I made the first champaigne five years
since. It was in part produced by chance,
and induced me to erect a building for its
manufacture, and to send to France for a
manufacturer. I shall be content if we can
always make as fine a wine by design, as
was then made by accident.

6 Q. What, in your opinion, is the cause
of the rot in the grape ?

DISEASED PEACH TREE.

319

A. The general answer to this question
will be, much rain in the heat of summer.
I believe this, as much as I believe the
bliglit in the pear tree is occasioned by the
atmosphere. For the first century after the
pear tree was common in the United States,
we had no blight ; yet we then had similar
weather, to what we have had since the
blight made its appearance. It is of late
years, only, that the rot has been so de-
structive among our grapes. For years, the
blight has given us but little trouble, and
the yellows in the peach trees has disap-
peared. One thing is certain, if we had
little or no rain, after the grapes are fairly
forward, we should see but liitle of the rot.
Certain it is, it is continued rains, followed

by a hot sun, that causes us to look out for
the appearance of the rot. If an insect be
the cause, may not rain and a hot sun bring
them to life ?

I will name a circumstance at the vintage
of 1846, at my vineyard, under the charge
of Mr. MvERS, a skilful vinedresser, which
he pointed out to me. He expected to make
2000 gallons of wine : the rot came, and
he made 35 gallons only. He noticed no
worms in his grapes or about them. As
soon as the vmst was deposited in the tub,
he saw a white scum over it. He took it
off, and in quantity it was more than one
quart. He found it to consist of white
worms, so small as scarcely to be discerned
by the naked eye. N. Longworth.

EXPERIMENT ON A DISEASED PEACH TREE.

BY T. A. S., SYRACUSE, N. Y.

In the fall of 1844, Judge G. L. of this vil-
lage procured a few peach trees from New-
Jersey, which were planted in his garden
the spring following. During the seasons
of 1845, '46 they grew well, and all ap-
peared equally healthy. Last spring they
came finely into bloom and leaf; but one
of the number, soon after the fruit had set,
manifested derangement in some of its vital
functions ; the leaves becoming yellow and
drooping — presenting an appearance more
indicative of the autumnal than the vernal
season. The change was somewhat sud-
den ; and the malady, whatever it was, ap-
peared to be making rapid strides. Nurse-
rymen, amateurs and others, were called in
to examine the tree, some of whom pro-
nounced it to be affected with the " yel-
lows," and recommended its exterpation
lest the other trees might imbibe the con-
tagion.

At this stage, the tree was passed over to
my hands for " experiment." The report
of M. Brongniart on the action of the salts

of 2Vo?z on vegetation, (contained in your
journal for April last,) suggested the use of
that metal in some form. As the readiest
means, resort was had to the oxide ; a small
furnace near by furnishing this material in
abundance from the filings of the finishing
room, which having been thrown out and
exposed to the action of the atmosphere, had
become a mass of red rust.

The earth was removed from the tree
(about the trunk) down to the main roots,
over a circle about a foot in diameter, and
a peck measure or more of this oxidized
mass placed around the tree and immedi-
ately in contact with the roots thus exposed.
A pail of water was then poured over the
material, and the earth replaced.

About the 4th or 5th day after the ap-
plication, a perceptible change had taken
place along the main arteries of the leaves,
which had assumed a deep, healthful green,
the partial and distinct change giving to the
foliage a singularly variegated appearance.
I From this period the alteration was marked

320

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

and rapid, till at the end of ten or twelve
days the tree had apparently quite assumed
its natural or normal condition. On exa-
mination, however, it was found that the
young fruit had become injured, and had
remained nearly stationary in size, present-
ing much the appearance of the cast fruit
of the peach, of a lifeless texture and drab
colour. The tree, however, retained its fruit
during the season, though its growth was
scarcely perceptible from week to week
until after the middle of September, when
the stoning process had probably become
partially perfected ; after which period the
fruit swelled off somewhat rapidly until the
latter part of October, when it was checked
by the frost ; some few specimens became
slightly coloured, but all immature and
worthless. The tree, however, had made
a fair growth of wood for the season, ap-
pears well stocked with fruit buds, and re-
tained its foliage some weeks longer, and
in a fresher condition, than other peach
trees planted in the same grounds.

I send you the foregoing facts, to be
made such use of as you may think proper.
Perhaps they may suggest a remedy for
the " yellows" in the peach tree — a malady
with which T am unacquainted, unless this
case has afforded an instance of it. Your

large experience and more extensive know-
ledge on such subjects may be able to as-
certain the nature of the disease, and the
effect or action of the remedy applied.

Yours, &c., T. A. S.

Syracuse, N. Y., Dec. 6, 1847.

[We are obliged to T. A. S. for the fore-
going account of his experiment. It is in-
teresting, as corroborating M. Gris' views
of the beneficial action of iron on the health
of diseased foliage. We have ourselves
repeated this season some of M. Gris' ex-
periments with sulphate of iron (copperas)
with excellent results ; and there is little
doubt that almost all diseases of the foliage
(including the " yellows" in the peach,) if
taken at an early stage, may be cured by
its use — following the proportions laid down
by that writer in our last volume, p. 471.

Our correspondent administered a pretty
large dose of oxide of iron to his patient ;
though from its being kept in a small cir-
cle near the trunk it does not appear to
have produced, as yet, any bad effects.
The fruit was probably injured past reco-
very by the diseased state of the sap before
he made his application of iron. We shall
be glad to have any accounts from T. A. S.
or others of further experiments. Ed.]

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES AT PARIS — NO. II.

BY S. D. PARSONS, FLUSHING, L. I.

Warned by our failure at the previous visit
to obtain admission to the greenhouses and
conservatories of the garden, we took the
precaution to send a note to M. Mirbel, the
Professor of Culture, who politely sent us
a ticket of admission to every part of the
establishment.

Our route now took us by the flower

market, and numerous small shops, where
bouquets of varied beauty and price greet
the eye. Entering the garden, we first
visited the Orangerie, which was now most-
ly filled with large specimens of greenhouse
plants. The light was admitted only by
upright sashes in front, and by occasional
skylights in the roof. We noticed here a

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

321

Vol. II.

&MOR I'M. »>%IL,^ MIQI

Fig. 40. — InUrior View of a Hot-house in the Jarditi des Flanlea.

41

522

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

very large and beautiful specimen of AraiL-
caria excelsa, plants of the Banksia 'prcB-
morsa or New-Holland orange, Palme de
Sidle, a Pinus longifolia 10 feet high,
Araucaria brasilieiisis 12 feet, Araucaria
imbricata 30 feet, Eugeiiia myrtifolia from
New-Holland, 3Ietrosideros Jloribunda, Pi-
nus casuarina, an Orange tree 20 feet high,
with a trunk 6 inches in diameter ; with a
variety of Acacias and other plants. The
hoxes and pots were kept very clean, but
there was not that systematic mode of ar-
rangement which might have been expected.

We next visited the hothouse for tropical
plants, which is about 50 feet high. Here
were some fine specimens of the Banana,
the Brownia grandiceps (a large variety of
Palms,) Arenga saccharifera 30 feet high,
Gastnnia palmata (a plant from the East
Indies, with a curious hand-shaped leaf,)
Areca rubra with leaves 6 feet long, a
Cactus 40 feet high, and Bambusa arundi-
Twsa 45 feet high.

Immediately opposite this house, and on
the other side of a main walk, was another
house of the same form, in which we no-
ticed the Begorda incarnata with a beautiful
flower. Begonia vmricata. Arum cordifoUum,
Acacia arborea, TernstroBinia, very large
Camellias, and the Klemia hawortii, a very
curious plant. Immediately over these, and
in a sort of gallery, was a collection of
smaller plants, among which we noticed the
Begonia peponifolia from Mexico, bearing
clusters of white flowers, with a glossy leaf
22 inches in diameter.

These houses were both warmed with hot
water, and, although containing many rare
plants, did not present at that season a very
splendid appearance. In one of them was
a statue of a woman, pouring, from a pitcher
in her hand, a constant stream of water into
a basin below, which furnished a supply of
tempered water for the plants. Both houses

were of an imposing style of architecture,
totally differing from any horticultural
buildings we saw elsewhere.

The library and galleries next claimed
our attention. The former is composed of
works on every branch of natural history,
to the number of some 30,000. The most
interesting of its contents, are the manu-
scripts, with original designs and beautiful
paintings of fruit and flowers upon vellum.
These number some 6000, and are valued
at two millions of francs. Among the pro-
fessors attached to the library in the latter
part of the 18th century, were the brothers
Eedoute. One of these, known for his
works on the Lily and the Eose, was a very
beautiful and correct painter of flowers.
This idea of having a painter for the most
beautiful flowers and curious plants of the
field and garden, belonged to Gaston of
Orleans, the proprietor of the garden of
Blois, and the first prince of the blood who
pursued horticulture with the zeal of a sa-
vant, and with royal expenditure. In his
garden, the office of painter was made quite
as important as that of gardener in chief.
His painter of flowers was named Egbert,
a laborious and exact artist, whose collec-
tion of paintings on vellum was bought by
Colbert for the King, on the death of
Gaston in 1660. In the steps of Egbert
followed Vanspjsndonck, unequalled in
coloring, but often wanting exactness. Ee-
doute's paintings seem to combine the ex-
cellencies of both the others, escaping their
faults. He is said to have studied plants as
a surgeon studies the nerves, tendons and
arteries of a human body ; and nearly all
his time was spent in the garden in sum-
mer, and in the greenhouse in winter. His
lectures are said to have been crowded with
all the beauty and grace of Paris, who came
to learn some of the simple mysteries which
surround the formation of a perfect flower.

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

323

Fig. 41. — Outside View of the Hot-houses in the Jardin des Plantes.

When lecturing upon this great branch of
natural history, of which he was the Titian
and the Raphael, he is said to have been
very eloquent, and to have displayed in
glowing colors every detail in the delicate
anatomy of plants.

To the labors of Redoute are thus owing
a large part of the valuable collection of
paintings in the library of the Garden of
Plants. The Museum of Natural History,
with all its galleries, is perhaps the most
complete existing, and open to the public
with a liberality which might well be copied

by other nations. The most rare and va-
luable specimens, and very complete cata-
logues, are at the disposal of the visiter or
student, of wliatever nation he may be ;
and many of our own countrymen have been
indebted to French liberality, for advantages
which could not be obtained at home.

There is not a little truth in the boasting
remarks of a French writer, that " it is
France that is great and generous. She
knows not that narrow egotism which locks
up useless wealth, and which denies the
the light to those who come to read at her

324

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

lamp. She comprehends the true fraternity
of nations, and perceives that science is
neither to be restrained by man nor limited
to empires. Here, in the dominions of na-
ture, she looks at the rights and needs of
humanity together, and deems it a crime to
deny a free communication of those treasures
of science which may prove useful to the
human race."

The Gallery of Zoology occupies a build-
ing nearly 100 feet in length, and three
stories high. The third story contains the
collection of mammalia, about 1500 speci-
mens. The second contains the birds, of
which there are nearly 6000 specimens, all
beautifully prepared, and presenting a bril-
liant show of graceful shapes and gorgeous
plumage. An ornithologist would here lose
all recollection of the external world. On
the first floor is perhaps the richest collection
of reptiles existing, mostly preserved in
spirits of wine, and including tortoises, frogs,
&c. : of these there are nearly 2000 speci-
mens. The collection of fishes comprises
about 5000 specimens, either preserved in
spirits of wine, or their skins dried, stuffed
and varnished. By this last mode the co-
lors are retained remarkably well, and give
a better opportunity for inspection than
when preserved in spirits of wine. When
residing in the tropics some few years ago,
we Avere frequently struck with admiration
of the brilliant and gorgeous colors of the
fishes of that region. A friend, some time
after our return, kindly sent us a collection
of the finest, prepared in this manner, with
their skins dried and stuffed ; and they are
now in perfect condition.

The entomological collection numbers
about 25,000 specimens; and there is a
very beautiful collection of shells, corals,
sponges, &c.

The whole number of specimens in this
building is said to be 150,000; and the

arrangement is very perfect, exhibiting every
stage of animal organization from the sponge
to man.

The Cabinet of Comparative Anatomy
occupies another building, and was prepared
and arranged under the direction of Cuvier.
In one room are skeletons of various marine
mammalia ; in another are skeletons of the
human frame, mummies, dwarfs, skulls, &c.
In another are detached bones, for the pur-
pose of study ; and others contain every
variety of animal organization, bones, mus-
cles, &c. A collection of brains and eyes
is contained in phials, as also the bones of
the ears of all animals. In a glass case,
we noticed a model in wax, of the hen ;
exhibiting the several stages of formation
of the egg, and the internal organs. In one
room is a collection of skulls and casts of
distinguished characters, very attractive to
the phrenologist. There are hundreds of
other things which want of time and space
will not permit us to mention here, but
which were highly interesting.

The largest and finest building is devoted
to the galleries of mineralogy and geology,
and the botanical collection. It is nearly
500 feet long, 40 wide, and two stories
high, Tesembling in appearance a large
cathedral. Here we found fragments of
mountains, specimens of various soils, mi-
nerals taken from the lowest parts of the
earth, specimens of the various strata, and
mammiferous fossil remains. On specimens
of rocks are shown the gigantic footsteps of
animals which no longer exist, and other
objects of interest, which present to an in-
telligent mind not merely a resting place
for the eye, or a pleasant occupation for an
idle hour, but indubitable evidence that,
amid all our knowledge of the past, and the
vast progress in science and art which the
last few years have seen, man is still but
on the threshold of knowledge ; and the

A VISIT TO THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.

325

little that he is permitted to see, is but to
convince him of his own ignorance, and the
minute detail and inconceivable vastness of
the creation.

The Botanical Gallery is verj'' interesting,
and contains some 350,000 dried specimens.
Those from New-Holland, the Cape, India,
Egypt, &c,, are arranged by themselves ;
as are also those of Michaux, De CandoUe,
Humboldt, Tournefort and others. In one
part is a very large collection of every va-
riety of wood, with specimens of the roots,
bark, epidermis, &c. There is a large col-
lection of fruits preserved in spirits of wine,
and another of fruits from all climates in
wax and plaster : these last were well exe-
cuted and colored, and to us exceedingly
interesting. There is a large collection of
seeds, drugs, and fossil plants. The woods,
fruits and grains number some 4500 speci-
mens.

Many of the specimens in these various
galleries have been collected during the
present century, but a large portion of them
existed previous to the Revolution. Amid
the insanity which then seemed to charac-
terise the French people, and their absolute
hatred of every thing bearing the scent of
royalty, it is somewhat remarkable that the
Jardin du Roi, as it was then called, should
have escaped destruction. The people wished
to have, however, entire control of it, but
were opposed by Bernardin de St.Pierre,
who was then director of the garden. To
their threats, he replied that it had been
confided to him by the King, and he would
be faithful to his trust. The people returned
that they were the rulers, and that nothing
should prevent their enjoying their own
trees, plucking their own flowers, eating
their own fruit, and roasting their own
pheasants and partridges. This was rea-
soning unanswerable; Bernardin de St.
Pierre replied by inviting the citizens of

the faubourg to mount guard in the garden,
with musket and bayonet. To reward his
zeal, his office was suppressed, and he was
obliged to retire from the city. That he
escaped the guillotine, and the garden de-
struction, was surprising, but was owing,
doubtless, to one of those impulses of the
mob, which induced them to save the beau-
tiful lindens at Lyons. The story goes that
they were about cutting down these lindens,
when there appeared before the proconsuls
an old woman of the city, who stated to
these levellers, how, for the last fifty years,
she had daily walked under the shade of
those old trees ; that they had seen her
birthday, and she did not wish to see them
die. They listened favorably to the old
woman, and granted her petition, and thus
were saved some of the finest old lindens
that can be found in France.

There were few things in our rambles
through Europe, that afforded us more plea-
sure than our visits to the Jardin desPlantes,
and promenades through its shaded ave-
nues, and among flowers from every climate.

It is not only here that the French go-
vernment has shown its zeal for horticulture,
but it has also botanical and experimental
gardens at Montpelier, Toulon and Algiers,
to which plants from every quarter of the
world are sent for acclimatation. It may
safely be assumed that this plan is of in-
calculable benefit to their agricultural in-
dustry, and that similar establishments
would be of vast benefit to our own country,
extended as is its agriculture be3'ond that
of any other nation.

We need here two large botanic gardens,
one at the North, and one in Florida. Into
the latter could be introduced all plants or
products that promise to be useful, and, after
being acclimated there, could, if their na-
ture would permit, be sent to the Northern
Garden, and by the side of other products

326

LEECH'S KINGSESSING PEAR.

from more temperate climates, exhibit their
adaptation — if there exist any — to the
development of the industry and wealth of
our people. It is doubtless within the me-
mory of many, that the cotton plant was
scarcely known in this country, and its in-
troduction or general cultivation deemed
the wild project of some enthusiast ; yet
what is cotton now, less than one of our
most important staples, and an article the
growth of which we almost entirely mono-
polize. Such has been the wealth we have
derived from one foreign plant. Are there
no others that can be profitably cultivated
here ? Part of our country is within the
tropics ; and the banana, with other tropical
fruits, can be ripened in Florida. Is it well

ascertained that the tea plant, the coffee
tree, the cocoa, the various spices, the
caoutchouc, the Manilla hemp, and various
other articles of eastern produce, cannot be
also profitably cultivated in our Southern
States ? This is a prolific subject, and pages
might be written to prove the great benefit
to be derived from gardens of acclimatation.
It is scarcely adapted, however, to the li-
mits of an article like this ; and we can
only express our hope that Congress will
not delay to act in this matter, and to give
our agricultural and horticultural industry a
measure of the benefits and encouragements
which are bestowed upon it by all the prin-
cipal European powers. S. B. P.

Flushing, Dec. 7, 1847.

LEECH'S KINGSESSING PEAR.

BY DR. W. D. BRINCKLE, PHILADELPHIA.

This fine new pear is a natural seedling,
which sprung up in the family burial ground
of Mr. Isaac Leech, in Kingsessing town-
ship, about four miles from Philadelphia.
The tree is about fifteen years old, and has
been in bearing four or five years. I did
not become aware of its existence until this
summer ; and as it was nameless, I gave
to it the name at the head of this article, in
honor of the township where it originated,
and the owner of the ground on which it
grew. From the close resemblance of the
fruit to that of the Chapman, it is probably
a seedling of that variety, or of its parent
the Petre. It is larger, however, than ei-
ther of those kinds ; and from the former,
it differs essentially in being very buttery.
The original trees of the Chairman and
Petre are less than a mile from the King-
sessing.

The tree is somewhat thorny, and of up-
right and vigorous growth. The wood on

the young thrifty shoots, is of a light yel-
lowish green, becoming brownish olive,
sprinkled with numerous gray dots ; leaf
rather large, of a bright shining green, with
superficial curvilinear serratures ; petiole
long, and of a pale yellowish colour, as is
also the midrib.

Fruit three inches long, and two and a
half in breadth ; form obovate, and some-
times obtuse pyriform ; colour sea-green,
covered with patches of dark green ; stem
one inch long, rather stout and somewhat
fleshy at its lower termination, which is
inserted usually into a flat surface, and
sometimes into a slight depression ; calyx
small, in a very shallow basin ; flesh rich,
buttery, and delicately flavored. Ripe, last
of August. W. D. B.

Phladelpkia, Nov. 18, 1847;

[We are gratified to publish, for the first
time, the foregoing account of a fine new
Pennsylvania Pear.

LEECH'S KINGSESSING PEAR.

327

Fig. 42. — LeeMs Kingsessing Pear,

This is the first fruit named and described
since the adoption of the Rules of American
Pomology, by our leading Horticultural
Societies. The Fruit Committee of the
Pennsylvania Society (see report in last
No. p. 295,) having decided that it is " a
new seedling pear of high merit ; " and

Dr. Bkinckle, who is a competent pomolo-
gist, having described it as a rich and ex-
cellent variety, cultivators may consider it
a sort worthy of trial in all parts of the
country. Our own opinion has already been
strongly given in favor of native varieties of
the Pear. Ed.]

328

FIRE BLIGHT IN PEAR TREES.

DESIGN FOR A SUBURBAN VILLA

Our Frontispiece represents the elevation
and plan of a suburban villa of moderate
size, in the Gothic style. It is a design by
E. B. Lamb, Esq., an English rural architect
of ability, which we borrow with slight mo-
difications from Mr. Loudon's Sjipplement.

In the plan of the principal floor, fig. a,
is the porch ; b, the hall ; c, c, corridor ; d,
lobby to staircase ; c, staircase ; /, dining
room ; g, drawing room ; h, library ; k,
open arcade ; I, landing and steps down to
the grounds ; m, m, areas ; «, 7i, sunk story,
or sloped ground, (concealed by belts of
shrubs,) to give light to the basement. The
entrance front is at a, the side of the build-
ing opposite to that shown in the elevation.
The kitchen and other ofiices are in the
basement ; and the second, or chamber
story, contains six bedrooms.

The simple elegance and symmetrical
proportions of this design, will please most
persons at a glance. It appears to us that
the arrangement of the central portion of the
ground plan might be improved ; and we
think both exterior and interior effect would
be increased by removing the chimneys
and fireplaces from the outside walls, and
placing them on the inside walls of the two
largest rooms / and g ; that is to say, on
the sides of the rooms exactly opposite where

they now stand. This would be retaining
all the heat of the flues in the body of the
house ; and it would bring out the two
stacks of chimneys at the top or ridge of the
roof, which now emerge rather awkwardly
at its eaves or lowest portion.

A villa in this style, as we have before
remarked, should never be built of wood,
but always of stone, brick painted some
agreeable neutral tint, or rough brick and
cement. The general character of the
building is by no means ornate ; and the
ornament, where it appears, is properly
introduced ; that is to say, by raising the
character of important features, such as
doors and windows. The tracery in the
windows is florid and handsome ; and this
and the mullions should be of carved wood,
painted and sanded to resemble stone. The
effect of the design would be less rich, but
we think not less satisfactory, if window
heads of the same form, and a less ornate
pattern of tracery, were introduced.

The general appearance of the opposite
or entrance front of this villa, is much like
that of the front shown in the elevation
here given ; except that instead of the ar-
cade, the porch would be the prominent
feature of the first story.

ON THE FIRE BLIGHT IN PEAR TREES.

BY A. H. ERNST, CINCINNATI, O.

Dear Sir — The numerous theories and
speculations on the Fire Blight in the Pear
tree, and its mode of operating, have so of-
ten been brought before the public, some-
times by our ablest and closest observers in

luctance I enter the field of controversy.
This I do rather as a duty than a choice,
and it is with due respect for the views and
opinions of those who have travelled in the
path of this mysterious agent to discover a

horticultural economy, that it is with re- 1 remedy, that I dissent from their views.

FIRE BLIGHT IN PEAR TREES.

329

The most prominent and generally re-
ceived of these theories are, first, " The
Insect Blight ;" second, " The Fiozen Sap
Blight:'

The first was brought to notice by the
Hon. John Lowell, of Boston, in 1836, by
the supposed discovery of the mischievous
insect. {Fruits and Fruit Trees of Ameri-
ca, page 322.) The second by yourself,
(Ibid, page 324,) Rev. H. W. Beecher, and
others.

To the first of these views, a ready assent
was yielded, out of respect to the high
source from which it emanated. It thus
for a time became the popular doctrine.
On more mature reflection and observa-
tion, it is, however, evident that the " Sco-
lytus pyri:^ which he saw on the diseased
limbs of the trees, were attracted there by
the existence of the disease, and were not
its cause. This idea ih, therefore, mostly
abandoned, and the second, " The Wrozen
Sap Blight" theory, adopted. This, to a
limited extent, explains the evil fully. But
it is by no means the principal agent in the
work of destruction. Its appearances are
so very fully described in your Book of
Fruits, page 324, that it is unnecessary to
repeat it here.

There never was a more favorable year
to test its correctness — one which forebode
more destruction to the Pear tree, than the
last. It will be remembered that the latter
part of the summer of last year (1846) was
peculiar for its continued invigorating show-
ers, which set vegetation in active motion
after it had almost come to a stand by a
previous drouth. Moisture and growth
continued until late in the fall, when it was
suddenly brought to a check by freezing
weather, so severe that the tops of the
young Peach trees in the nursery were fro-
zen, and many Cherry trees altogether de-
stroyed. This was also the case with ccr-
voL. 11. 42

tain kinds of Pears in the nursery, as, for ex-
ample, the Washington and the Blood good ;
of these I had each a row of fine stout
trees, rebudded high on other sorts, and
which had made fine growth and good
heads. The bodies of these were almost
ail frozen to the ground, without seeming
to have affected the tops, in most of them.
While other sorts, such as the Columbia,
Golden Beurre of Bilbao, Bartlett, dec,
similarly treated and situated, alongside of
the former, were unharmed. And yet
there has been less Blight this summer than
for many years. I have lost but one tree,
with the exception of those above referred
to, this summer, and that was from the ef-
fects of a previous year's injury, with
which it still struggled.

On the supposition that the frost theory be
the theory, how shall we account for its ab-
sence, under such favorable circumstances
for its operation ? There is no doubt that
when late luxuriant growth, with the sap
vessels full and extended, and an immature
wood, is overtaken in this condition, by sud-
den freezing, it will have the effect of
bursting the sap vessels and destroying the
vitality of the immature wood ; the effect of
which may either be instant death to the
whole tree, or mortality in part, just in pro-
portion to its maturity and ability to resist
the frost. And this w'ill fully explain why
its destructive effects are sometimes carried
into the next summer. And, indeed, that
at times, by a powerful effort of vegetation,
it succeeds in apparently overcoming the
mischief and throwing it off, still, however,
leaving the tree an impaired constitution,
with which to struggle out a brief exist-
ence.

It seems to me, then, we must look to a
different agent as the cause, for what may
be with us properly called the " J^ire
Blight:* This I apprehend we shall find

330

FIRE BLIGHT IN PEAR TREES.

ia the rays of the sun, as hinted at by
CoxE, in his book on Fruits. All observa-
tion and experience goes to show that the
month of June is the period of the year most
prolific in the Blight. The reason of this
is very obvious. It is the period when vege-
tation is in its most rapid and luxuriant
growth. It is then, Avhen nature seems
fairly to have aroused from its slumbers,
and to be in the full career of growth, that
this growth is most tender and susceptible
of injury. It is too, at this time, that the
sun, as ascending to its meridian power,
sends forth, between the showers, its strong-
est and most powerful rays. These are
brought to bear with all their force, not
unfrequently aided by the shower — drops
of water suspended in the tree, forming so
many lenses to operate on the sap in the
tender branches, the effect of which is to
scald the sap, burst their vessels, and pro-
duce precisely the same results that a
scorching fire would, if applied to the limb.
This, of course, produces instant death on
that part of the branch or tree where the
rays are brought to bear, and, of necessity,
all above that point ; and it will as certain-
ly carry death below with the returning
vitiated sap, (if the affected part be of con-
siderable size) if this is not immediately
amputated below the injury, or to where
the vitiated sap has extended in its down-
ward course.

It may be asked, if the sun theory be true,
How is it that there has been so little
Blight the past summer ? This is owing to
two causes ; the first, no doubt, from a re-
duced material to operate on, previous sum-
mers having destroyed many of those most
easily affected. I presume it is in vege-
table as in animal life, some systems are
more susceptible to the attacks of certain
diseases than others. When death has
removed all the former, although the cause

may continue to exist, it becomes inopera-
tive for the want of material.

But the principal reason is, the remark-
ably and uniformly cool and mild state of
the weather during the whole of the sum-
mer. The rays of the sun being much
less powerful than is usual in this climate.
This fact alone is sufScient to prove the
agency of the sun in producing the Fire
Blight. I have not at my command a re-
cord of the temperature of the last three
or four summers, so destructive to the Pear
tree, but I will venture to assert that it will
be found, on examination, when this stood
highest the Fire Blight prevailed most. I
mean, of course, in the early part of sum-
mer, when vegetation is most active. It is
true, the Fire Blight prevails more or less
all over our country. It is also true that it
decreases as we advance n^rth, until it is
scarcely known. I am credibly informed
that along our northern border, especially
in the neighborhood of Detroit, there are
Pear trees as old as the first settlement of
the country, of a hundred years planting or
more. I have myself seen in northern dis-
tricts, large collections of Pear trees where
its ravages had never been felt. When we
look at the immense collections of this fine
fruit about Boston and Salem, the extent
of their varieties, the success with which
they are fruited, and continue to flourish in
the highest perfection, we cannot but feel
that the same cause or causes do not ex-
ist there for the destruction of this tree.
There are some sorts introduced into our
region which are constantly cut off by this
destroyer. Out of more than two hundred
sorts that I have imported and grafted on
standards, within the last fifteen years, I
have not succeeded in fruiting more than
thirty or forty, and can not now number
over one hundred sorts of this first grafting.
The following query may here also arise

FIRE BLIGHT IN PEAR TREES.

331

in the minds of some — If it is the effect of
the su7i, how is it that so little has been
known of it till within the last few years ?
This query is readily answered, by the fact
that it is only within a few years that much
attention has been paid to the introduction
of considerable collections of this fruit, and
as I have already remarked, without mate-
rials there can be no action. This, too,
forms one of the strongest arguments in
favor of my position. I do not however
design to take up your time with argu-
ments, but to submit the facts stated, to your
consideration, and that of your readers,
hoping that thereby more light may be
elicited regarding this discouraging mal-
ady.

If the position I have assumed be cor-
rect, the remedies that suggest themselves
are simple and within our reach. The first
and most important, is the selection of a
class of fine Pears, the growth and organi-
zation of whose wood is of a compact tex-
ture and slow of growth. Such are found
to be least affected by the Blight. As, for
example, the Seckel ; of this I have scarcely
known a tree destroyed. The second, is to
select for our plantations the most northern
aspect that can be commanded. The north-
ern slopes of hills — the northern sides of
buildings — the northern sides of fences, for
espaliers, etc. If proper attention is paid
to these suggestions, I feel confident we
shall have less occasion to lament our dis-
appointed expectations, and as a reward for
our labors, we shall enjoy this fine fruit in
perfection. And there certainly is no coun-
try in the world where the Pear can be
more perfectly and easily grown, than this,
if our trees are exempted from the destruc-
tive Blight.

I remain, respectfully yours,

A. H. Ernst.

Spring Gardtn, ntar Cincinnati, 0., Dec. 1. 1847.

Remarks. — We are obliged to Mr. Ernst
for the foregoing interesting contribution
to this still somewhat difficult subject. We
have no doubt of his correctness in arguing
that the "fire blight" is frequently caused
by the heat of the sun in the early summer —
that is to say, certain forms of the blight,
and perhaps that most common inOhio.

We are equally confident that in por-
tions of the Western States, and in New-
York, severe frost, under certain circum-
stances, is equally productive of this dis-
ease. And we are yet fully of opinion that
the apple, pear and quince, are, in the ends
of their shoots, liable to sudden blight and
death from the attacks of an insect.

Another point is also entirely certain.
Whether we examine the effects of the
blight in the pear tree as caused by the
heat of the sun's rays, or by frosts, we are
irresistibly led to the conclusion that the
bark of the pear tree is viore tender than
that of any other hardy fruit tree ; and that
many varieties, of foreign origin, are more
delicate in this respect, than others of in-
digenous growth.

Hence, as our correspondent remarks, it is
not unusual to find old trees of verj' large
size, in various parts of the country, which
have never been in the slightest degree af-
fected by any form of blight.

It is evident, that if the more delicate
kinds of pears are to be cultivated exten-
sively in districts liable to the blight, either
the bark must be protected from the action
of the elements, or the constitutional sus-
ceptibility to injury must be changed, if
possible, by some mode of culture not yet
satisfactorily ascertained.

Me. Ernst states that this season has
been rather less marked by blight than
usual, in Ohio. It has, likewise, scarcely
made its appearance with us, but we learn
from friends about Albany, that its ravages

332

ON RAISING PEAR STOCKS.

have been unusually extensive and fatal
there. It will perhaps tend to corroborate
Mr. Eenst's theory, if we add, that we learn

that the worst month, July, in that city,
was marked by slight showers and very hot
sunshine. — Ed.

ON RAISING PEAR STOCKS,

BY JAMES WILSON, ALBANY, N. Y.

Dear Sir — I was glad to see in the Decem-
ber number of the Horticulturist, Mr. Nel-
son's article on raising pear stocks from
seed. If he has found a way by which we
can supply ourselves with pear stocks, with-
out being under the necessity of importing
them, I for one will subscribe my quota to-
ward awarding him some token of the ob-
ligations of nurseymen, for his important
discovery.

If the throwing out by the frost the first
winter, was the only difficulty we had to
contend with here, that could be easily obvi-
ated, as the taking of them up in the fall,
and laying them in by the heels deep, in
some dry, sheltered place, or in a cellar,
and planting them out in the spring, would
not occupy much more time than taking up
and transplanting them when the seedlings
have four leaves. If dry, warm weather
should prevail at the time when the seed-
lings are in a fit state to transplant, it
would be rather difficult to succeed on a
large scale. A few might be managed
very well, as they may be planted in the
morning or evening, and immediately wa-
tered and shaded from the sun for a few
days, till they begin to strike root.

But we have a worse enemy to contend
with than Jack Frost, and I believe the
same evil prevails all along the Hudson
valley, from New-York even to Vermont,
and also about Boston. It is a leaf blight,
that strikes the young seedlings generally

about the end of August or first part of
September. The beds of seedlings will
ppear to look fine and promising, and all
at once the leaves, in spots of the bed, will
begin to have brown spots on them. In a
few days the leaves will begin to fall off,
and the disease will, frequently in a few
days, spread over the whole bed or beds.
When once this blight gets fairly hold of
the seedlings, my opinton is that they may
as well be dug under at once, as nothing
can then save them. They will often, if
the autumn proves fine, make an efibrt to-
ward a second growth, but it is a fruitless
effort, as they will most invariably die the
first winter, under any treatment ; and those
that may survive the winter, will seldom,
if ever, do any good. If we can keep our
pear seedling stocks growing the first season,
till the leaves fall by the frost, they then are
safe.

If Mr. Nelson's plan will insure a grow-
ing, healthy condition of the leaves, etc.,
till the frost takes them, the discovery is
just what is wanted.

Perhaps by taking extra care in prepar-
ing the soil, by deep digging and extra ma-
nuring, we may be able to obtain this de-
sirable end.

Last year my pear stocks were a good
deal blighted ; this year, very little. I
have been in the habit of sowing in the
fall. This year I have laid my pear seeds
in sand, with the intention of not sowing

THE ROSE.

333

them until spring. I propose to prepare my
ground with extra care, and not to sow them
too soon, and try what effect this course
will have. I have also found Avhere the
plants stood thinly, that they were less lia-
ble to take the blight. My experience, al-
so, goes to coroborate your opinion, that the
soil must be deep, and inclined to damp-
ness, to insure success, under the most fa-
vorable culture.

Yours, respectfully,

Jas. Wilson.

Albany, December 3, 1847.

We trust Mr. Wilson, who is a thorough
practical cultivator, will try Mr. Nelson's

mode, and give us a report. We have ex-
amined the leaf-blight of which he writes,
and which is in many places fatal to seed-
ling pears the first year. Mr. W. does not
undervalue the importance of maintaining
the healthy functions of the leaf in grow-
ing these seedlings, and we suggest to him
and other nurserymen, in order to remedy
this evil, to water the seedlings, as soon as
the first symptoms of a decline in the fo-
liage is visible, with the solution of sul-
phate of iron {copperas) recommended by
M. Gris, (vol. 1 : p. 471.) This substance
certainly has the most decided and bene-
ficial action on the health of foliage, and it
seems not improbable that it may complete-
ly prevent the disease in question. Ed.

REVIEW.

The Rose : its History, Poetry, Culture and Clas-
sification. By S. B. Parsons. 1 vol. 8vo. 280
pages. New-York, Wiley & Putnam.
Among the many stories of Roses in the
East, is that of the philosopher Zeb, related
by Madame de Latour. " There was at
Amadan, in Persia, an academy with the
following rules : Its members must think
much, write a little, and be as silent as
possible. The learned Zeb, celebrated
titroughout all the East, hearing that there
was a vacancy in the academy, endeavored
to obtain it, but arrived, unfortunately, too
late. The academy was annoyed, because
it had given to power what belonged to
merit ; and the president, not knowing how
to express a refusal without mortifying the
assembly, caused a cup to be brought, which
he filled so full of water, that a single drop
more would have made it run over. The
wise philosopher understood, by that em-
blem, that no place remained for him, and
was retiring sadly, when he perceived a

rose petal at his feet. At that sight he took
courage, seized the petal, and placed it so
delicately on the water, that not a single
drop escaped. At this ingenious allusion to
the rules of the academy, the whole as-
sembly clapped their hands, and the philo-
sopher was admitted as a member."

Mr. Parsons has been more ingenious
and successful than the Persian philosopher.
If there is any single subject in Horticulture,
which, more than any other, had apparently
been written and re-written about till there
was not room left for a syllable more to be
said, it is that of the Rose. English, French,
German, and other continental writers, had
written and engraved, sung and painted the
Rose, until it appeared that the topic was
quite exhausted. There are also two Ame-
rican treatises, specially devoted to this
favorite flower. We therefore took up Mr.
Parsons's volume, with the feeling that he
must be a bold man, to go over this well

334

THE ROSE.

beaten track, with the hope and courage
necessary to fill well a large octavo volume.
But the Rose, like the female loveliness of
which poets always delight to make it the
emblem, is an inexhaustible subject. All
the novelties of the botanist and the florist,
all the gorgeous and rare flowers of the
tropics, all the bright and lovely gems of
eastern mandarin's gardens, and all the
curious and brilliant blossoming plants of
Mexico, have not been able for a moment
to shake the six thousand years constancy
of mankind to this queen of flowers. Nay,
as if to prove the vainness of even the at-
tempt to weaken the faith of her subjects,
by bringing forward the novelties of strange
lands, the Queen of flowers reproduces her-
self every year in a hundred new forms —
new varieties, if possible, ten times more
lovely, more deliciously fragrant, more
perfect in form, and more refined in colour
than of old ; so that her wondering devotees
are forced, almost in spite of themselves, to
bid adieu to the familiar types — the "old
roses," dear to the memory and the heart —
and cultivate the new ones, so captivating
are they to all the senses.

An examination of Mr. Pabsons's work
has convinced us that he has been highly
successful in the labor he undertook — evi-
dently a labor of love. He has not laid a
mere rose-leaf in the brimful cup : he has
actually placed a whole bouquet in this vase
so filled by his predecessors and contempo-
raries, whose previous contents seem to
nourish and vivify it.

The volume before us looks at the Rose
in every aspect. Its history, from the time
of the "Ancient Coptic manuscripts," down
to the present day, with all the fables, my-
thological, scriptural and allegorical, that
belong to it ; all the anecdotes of its magical
charms and its wonderful influence, whether
as the symbol of friendship between mighty

princes, or the badge of rival factions in
cruel and bloody wars ; all the details of
its luxurious use among the ancients, and
the scent of the perfumes distilled from it,
of the value of thousands at the present day ;
and every thing touching its medical pro-
perties, and its employment in ceremonies
and festivals. Then there are more than
sixty pages of the " Poetry of the Rose ;" a
collection of all the admirable odes, poems,
sonnets, and lays of the numerous bards,
who have delighted to lay the homage of
the muse at the feet of this favorite of na-
ture. After this, we have a chapter on the
" General culture of the rose ;" and others
on " Soil and planting," " Pruning and
training," "Potting and forcing, propaga-
tion, multiplication by seed, and hybrid-
izing : " the whole concluding with both a
botanical and a garden classification, in
which the finest varieties are described.

Altogether this may be considered the
most agreeable and complete work on the
Rose, in the English language. The author
has not only collected and arranged all of
most interest and value that has hitherto
been written on this subject, but he has
interwoven through the volume a good deal
of interesting information, drawn from his
own experience and observation, which has
not before been given to the public. The
volume is not simply a practical treatise for
the rose cultivator, but a pleasant contribu-
tion to the library of the scholar, or the
book-table of the lady's boudoir.

It is not a little curious to see how much
more extravagant are the oriental nations
in their fondness for roses, than ourselves ;
though one might reasonably conclude, from
an examination of the immense catalogues
of some of our nurserymen, that we were
almost beset with a rosc-viania. We quote
the following paragraph from page 139 :

" The Rose is to this day also extensively

THE ROSE.

335

cultivated in India, and for commercial
purposes, perhaps in greater abundance than
is now known in any other country. Bishop
Heber states that ' Ghazepoor is celebrated
throughout India, for the wholesomeness of
its air, and the beauty and extent of its rose
gardens.' The rose fields, which occupy
many hundred acres in the neighborhood,
are described as, at the proper season, ex-
tremely beautiful. They are cultivated for
distillation, and for making ' altar of roses.'
He states, also, that ' many roses were
growing in the garden of the Palace of
Delhi, and the fountain pipes were carved
with images of roses.' Another writer
describes in glowing colours the beauty of
Ghazepoor — the Gul-istan (rose-beds) of
Bengal. ' In the spring of the year, an
extent of many miles round the town pre-
sents to the eye a continual garden of roses,
than which nothing can be more beautiful
and fragrant. The sight is perfectly daz-
zling ; the plain, as far as the eye can reach,
extending in the same bespangled carpet of
red and green. The breezes, too, are loaded
with the sweet odor, which is wafted far
across the river Ganges.' "

On looking over the " Garden classifica-
tion," we are pleased to see that, in most
instances, Mr. Paksons's descriptions cor-
respond exactly with our own notions. The
following character given to the finest of
the Bourbon roses, (the class destined, we

think, to give most satisfaction in this lati-
tude,) we fully coincide with :

" Souvenir de Mahnaison is altogether
[all its merits considered] the most perfect
and superb rose of this or any other class.
It was originated by Beluze, a Frenchman.
Its flowers are cupped, and of very perfect
form, very double, and with thick velvety
petals : they are of the largest size, often
four to five inches in diameter, and their
colour a delicate blush, with a rich tint of
cream. Its large and very luxuriant foliage,
compact habit, and flowers of exceeding
beauty, render this the very finest rose
known." p. 250.

The volume contains colored plates of
two of the new Roses which have elicited
most admiration within the last tliree years,
La Reine and Chromatella.

We pluck, from the wreath of poetical
gems, which the author has collected to-
gether in this volume, the following, by that
sweet English songstress, Mrs. Hemans :

A THOUGHT OF THE ROSE.

How much of memory dwells within thy bloom,
Rose 1 ever \veariiif» beauty for ihy dower !
The bridal day — the festival — the tomb, —
Thou hast thy part in eajh, thou stateliest flower:
Therefore with thy soft breath come floating by
A thousand images of love and grief —
Dreams, filled with tokens of mortality;
Deep thoughts of all things beautit'ul and brief.
Not such thy spells o'er those that hailed thee first,
ill the clear light of Eden's gulden day I
Tiiere thy rich leaves to crimson glory burst,
Liiik'd with no dim remembrance of decay.
Rose I for the banquet gathered, and the bier I
Rose 1 colored now by human hope or pain ;
Surely when death is not, nor change, nor fear.
Yet may we meet lliee, joy's own flower, again.

The Apple Crop. — The inequality of the
apple crop in different regions of country,
the past season, is remarkable. In central
Ohio, in the valley of the Hudson, and on
the seaboard, the fruit has been more or
less cut off"; while in a large part of western
New-York, it has not been so great for
several years. A correspondent on Long
Island states that in an orchard of twelve
acres, he did not obtain half a bushel.
Another correspondent in East-Greenwich

Sfives the foUowinfj account of the singular
circumstances attending its destruction m
that part of Rhode-Island : " We had the
most meagre prospect of apples I have known
for years : the rosebugs in myriads attacked
the scattering fruits while not larger than a
nut, and from ten to twenty might be seen
upon a single fruit. They prevailed chiefly
on the seaboard ; and fortunately a west
wind drove them into the sea in quantities,
forming a winrow on shore for miles." T.

336

FOREIGN NOTICES.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Glimpses at English Cottntrt Places. — [From
a very interesting letter received since our last num-
ber, Irom a friend who has lately none abroad to en-
joy, amon<T other things, the perfection of European
parks and gardens, (and that too with abundant pre-
paration for this species of enjoyment,) we extract
the following portions, which cannot fail to interest
our readers. Ed.T

I went out to Skirving's nursery, about three
miles from Liverpool. He is a tenant of the Earl
of Derby, whose place, " Knowsley Hall," is a few
miles from there. Mr. Skirving has a nursery of
100 acres. There are forty miles of hedges — and
such hedges and such walks — bordered bj- Rhodo-
dendron, Laurel, Portugal Laurel, and every spe-
cies of evergreen shrub. The whole nursery is laid
out in squares — of perhaps 50 to 100 feet square,
surrounded by privet, thorn, laurel, beech or hollj'
hedge, eight feet high, for protection of the plants
within the hedges. I saw few deciduous trees ;
everything was evergreen. He has sixty-eight va-
rieties of evergreen trees that will stand the climate
of Ensland. He showed me one patch oi Arauca-
ria (Chili pine,)* containing £2000 worth. This
is the great tree here now ; they are planting the
avenues in the parks with them. I have as yet only
seen specimens at Eaton Hall eight feet high ; and
I infinitely prefer the Deodar Cedar ; one of the lat-
ter at Eaton Hall, about ten feet high, is most ex-
quisite. Mr. Skirving had just sent off to the
Earl of Hardwick, £400 worth of Araucarias and
Deodars at only half a crown, 2s. 6d. sterling,
a piece ; something different from our orders to
nurserymen. Skirving's house, formerly Walton
manor, is 500 years old, and is completely covered
with i\"s^ cut out for the windows, and abounding in
hundreds of birds — singing and chattering so that
you can hardly hear j'ourself talk. The birds are
infinitely more numerous and tamer here than in
America. There are beds and beds of Rhododen-
drons of every colour and all sizes, from 4 shillings
per 100 to £10 a piece. So there were thousands of
all the beautiful evergreen plants, which will scarce-
ly thrive with us, and therefore most tantalizing.
As I said before, I saw hardly any deciduous trees ;
and on expressing to him my wonder, he said the
taste now was all for evergreens ; and that the new
parks were all evergreen trees and shrubs — so that
in winter, when the proprietors chiefly reside there,
the appearance may be the same as in summer.
Lord Harrington is even cutting down his decidu-
ous trees and planting evergreens in avenues. One
of these — an avenue of Araucarias — is seven miles
long, one hundred feet broad, and the trees fifty
feet apart : imagine the splendor one hundred years
hence ! Another of Deodars is three miles long.

[From our correspondent's account of Eton
Hall, the seat of the Marquis of Westminster, we
extract the following :]

The income of the Marquis of Westminster is
£416,000 per annum. He does not fancy Eton

[* For a description of this tree, see vol 1, p. 540. En]

Hall, and has been for two years altering the house
and grounds ; and the alterations will require two
years more. We entered this estate by Grosvenor
Lodge, a beautiful castellated building, and drove
in a straight line eiijht miles, through an avenue of
Hollies, Portugal Laurels, and our red dogwood —
only about six or eight feet high — backed by trees
perhaps twenty or thirty feet. This looked so new
from the small size of the border, that I was disap-
pointed. Passing another lodge, almost hidden in
ivy, we drove through the park to the Hall. The
latter was discoloured and moss grown, and the
steps to the grand entrance grass grown. Hun-
dreds of workmen were about the house and on the
lawn, cutting up the latter in all directions, and
converting what was lawn into terraces — taking
up trees.

The whole of the space between the house and
river — some twelve acres — is to be terraced ; and
each terrace is to be thrown into arabesques of
flowers, vases, statues, etc. At an immense ex-
pense, all the trees remaining are to be trimmed
and cut in the old st^'le. In fact, it is to be a revi-
val of the old geometric school in gardening on the
side of the estate towards Wales. All the new
evergreens are being planted at a great rate. I
saw them planting some Araucarias. The hole
for a tree three feet high was ten feet across and
four feet deep. At the bottom were placed ten
inches of stone as a drain ; and the tree was plant-
ed in prepared soil on a hill, two feet at least above
the level. The gardens — pleasure and vegetable —
are sixty acres ; the kitchen garden being seven
acres. There is a great deal of wall ; the gardens
being in squares of, say an acre each. The glass
houses were not better or more numerous than Col.
Perkins' (near Boston,) and the grapes were cer-
tainly inferior to those I left at home, in size of
bunch. There were a great many handsome or-
chidaceous plants, and an astonishing number of
pine pits — perhaps 400 feet — filled with pine apples
in every stage of forwardness. The pleasure-
grounds consist chiefly of walks, bordered with
Rhododendrons and all their evergreen plants^
which, though beautiful as specimens, are uninte-
resting from sameness. One of the finest things on
the estate is the bridge across the Dee — 150 feet
span, in a single arch, all iron, and exceedingly
light and elegant, wrought in beautiful scrolls and
arabesques. This, we were told, cost £15,000.
It is this sort of thing that astonishes the Ameri-
cans ! There was one superb view from the west
front towards one of the Welsh mountains ; as high,
perhaps, as Round Top (of the Catskills,) seen at
the end of an avenue three miles long and one hun-
dred feet broad, with very fine oaks on either side.

Eton Hall being comparatively new, I did not
expect to see it so dark, moss-grown and stained.
I fancied a light Portland stone tint ; whereas, it
is a sort of blackish brown, in streaks. They did
not admit us, as they were tearing portions down
for alterations. Yours, S. Chester, England, Oct.
30, 1S47.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

337

Sea-side Plawtino. — It is jrenerally allowed that
it is a f^reat diirieulty to fret trees and shrubs to
grow, much less flourish, on many parts of the sea
coast, so as to alFord anj' dccrree of interest and sa-
tisfaction. But while we admit the dilFieulty, I am
persuaded, with attention and care, their ijrowth
may be greatl}' promoted, as I propose to show
from two cases that have come under my observa-
tion ; one on the eastern, and the other on the
western coast. The difliculty arises, it is thouj^ht,
from the injurious efTects of the sea spray fallin:^
upon the trees : this, in my opinion, is very doubt-
ful. About ten years ago I was enjjaged to fix the
site of a marine villa on the eastern coast, and to
lay out the grounds. The ground is in general flat,
with little variation. Between the edilice and the
sea there is a space of about 160 yards ; the flat
extends about 120 yards to a point about 100 feet
above the level of the sea ; the rest forms a steep
bank sloping rapidly down to the sands. The na-
ture of the ground is very stiflf, with a clay bottom,
but well drained. Among others I arranged a
plantation of trees and shrubs from the house down
to the sands. It was planted in the usual way with
trees from three to four years old, set about 4 feet
apart. Two years after planting, half the trees at
least were dead, and the rest had scarcely made
any progress at all. The whole was replanted
very thickly; the trees not being more than from
one to two feet apart. I visited the place about
three years afterwards, and found the better half
living, but very little improved. The young shoots
were mostly dead and the rest dying ; but on my
visit to the spot a few w-eeks ago, I found from the
shelter the trees had afforded each other bv being
thickly planted, many of them had attained the
height of twelve feet ; such, for instance, as the
Wych Elm, Willow, Sycamore, common Ash, and
a solitary Occidental Plane which was well shel-
tered by other trees, the whole having made shoots
this year from two to three feet long. The Tur-
key Oak, Larch, Lime, Mountain Ash, Horse
Chestnut and Laburnum, had attained the height
of from eight to ten feet. The Spruce and Balm
of Gilead Firs were healthy, and making fine
shoots. Such of the shrubs, also, both deciduous
and evergreen, a'' had survived, are now thriving
well ; a manliest proof that the mischief the plants
had previously su.siained was more to be attributed
to their exposure to the unbroken north and north-
east winds than to the sea spray; for I found some
of the trees, although within ten yards of the reach
of the tide, growing very freely on some parts of
the sloping bank, wherever the soil was moderately
free, and they not so fully exposed to the violence
of the winds ; and at the same distance from the
sea I observed Strawberries really flourishing, which
I was informed had been planted five years, and had
produced abundantly. I may also mention, as cor.
rolnjrative of my opinion, that the trees on the bank
sloping down to the sea at Scarborough are thriving
remarkably well wherever they are at all sheltered
from sweeping winds. Since, then, it is evident
that shelter is of the utmost importance to young
plantations on the sea-coast, I would recommend
in the first place the ground to be very thickly
planted, as stated above, keeping the black Spruce,

Vol. n. 43

i Sycamore, Wych Elm, common Elder, and Willow
; on the bleak side ; and in the next place, in the
most exposed parts, I would have poles (not pleas-
ing objects, but expedient) fixed firmly in the
j ground, and interwoven with good hay or straw
ropes, three or four inches apart ; and in other
, parts, such as inner climips or plantinL's, the usual
j hurdles made of h.azel or other coppice rods, would
j be found vory serviceable. These were extensively
j used at a new place on the western coast, about
: half a mile from the sea, in a situation a good deal
1 exposed to the west wind. Protected in this way,
trees and shrubs in general succeeded well ; and
when the hurdles, &c., were removed in the spring
of the second and third year afterwards, they ap-
peared to sustain no injury. I would just observe,
in conclusion, that great caution must be observed
in thinning plantations in such localities. It is best
to commence by lopping off the branches of those
trees that are to be ultimately removed ; then in a
year or two to remove them altogether. This me-
thod would prevent the adopted plants from being
too suddenly exposed, and would gradually inuie
tliem to greater severities. This plan has been
adopted on the eastern coast, and after allowing
the trees to alToi'd protection through the approach-
ing winter, they will next spring be removed alto-
gether. Joshua Major. — Gardeners^ Chronicle.

Brussels HoRTtcrLTURAL Show, Oct. 1. — I
now come to the fruit rooms ; here there were up-
wards of 80 exhibitors, among whom were the Due
de Brabante, Comte de Flandres, and Princess
Charlotte. I had been led to expect a large collec-
tion of fruit ; Flanders has the reputation of being
par excellence the land of Pears ; in it have been
raised more and better varieties than in all the rest
of Europe put together; I was not disappointed,
for certainly finer specimens, as regarded size and
form, it would be difficult to produce. I have, it is
true, seen both in England and France as fine sin-
gle specimens, but here you met them in almost
every collection. That of M. De Bavay. of the
Royal Nursery, Yilvorde, contained about 20u kinds
of Pears. Apples, Plums, and Peaches. The col-
lection of M. De Rasse, of Tournay, contained near-
ly 100 kinds of Pears, in which were also fine spe-
cimens; and in the collection of M. Desbuck, of
Louvain, were also some very fine fruit, but he bad
also several very small, which gave it an uneven
appearance. The exhibition from M. Louis, of
Heverle, contained very fine and large fruit, more
especially of Duchesse d'Angouleme, Doyenne,
Beurrc d'Hiver, Calebasse bosc, Napoleon, Belle
de Bruxelles, and Beurre d'Aremberg Pears. In
that of JVI. Millet, of Ixelles, were some verv large
Pears, and some enormous Apples. M. Weytz,
gardener to the Prince de Ligne, sent a small lot.
containing, however, some very fine fruit. La So-
ciete de Pomone d'Antoing also contributed about
100 varieties ; and M. Cotlignon furnished 115 va-
rieties of Pears, and the like number of different
Apples, some of which were very superior, though
not at all equal to those of M. Bavay. M. Rum-
mens had a small but very fine collection of Pears
and some very large Melons ; that of M. Joly con-
tained enormous fruit of Duchesse d'Angouleme,

338

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Belle de Bruxelles, Beurr6 gris, Calebasse Lose,
Bezi de Chaumontel. and Bon Chretien d'Espagne.
I also noticed some very handsome Pears in that of
M. Meys. As it is impossible to name all the finest
varieties, I will pass on to the seedling Pears and
Apples exhibited by M. Bivort, of Geest, Saint Re-
my, in which were Beurrc Kennes (Bivort,) a very
handsome large fruit ; No. 2794, very large; Doc-
teur Capron, No. 2820, Marie Louise Nouvelle
(Van Mons,) and a splendid fruit numbered 1011.
Among the seedling Apples the following particu-
larly attracted my attention: — Nos. 3, 702!), 7003,
bright yellow, 7007, red, and 7023, a Ijeaulifui
golden red, M. Ouvelx, of Huy, had also a col-
fection of seedling Apples, in which were some very
handsome specimens, but as they were not num-
bered I am unable to send any particulars. The
Grapes were not ripe, and quite unfit for exhibition.
The Pines were exhibited growing, and had no-
thing whatever remarkable about them. Among
the Pears, one, Triomphe de Hasselt,was jiartieu-
larly conspicuous, from its enormous size and shape;
it must have been at least six inches long, colour
brownish green, and bell shaped; I only saw it
exhibited by one person, M. Vandievoet. — Foreign
Cor. Gardeners' Chronicle.

Horticultural Exhibitions in France. — It
has been a very common, long established custom,
to utter pompous phrases about horticulture; we
shall, therefore, take good care to repeat none
here. We shall not even repeat what so many
others have said before us — that horticulture is the
most delightful of sciences; but we wish to remark
that the art of cultivation is, at present,very much the
fashion. This is a peculiarity which is wortiiy of note;
for among the ancients, and particularly the Ro-
mans, it was at those simple and rude epochs when
the arts, luxury, and the corruptions of riches had
not yet influenced the age, that the cultivation of
the earth was chiefly held in honor.

With us, it seems that our tastes and inclinations
have pursued an inverse course to that remarked
among the Romans. It was not, certainly, among
our simple, and even rude ancestors, when France
was deprived of all the advantages and resources
of luxury, of art and civilization, that the culture of
the soil was the most esteemed: on the contrary,
the haughty proprietors occupied themselves very
little with the amelioration of the soil, or with the
introduction of new, economical species of plants,
etc.; they left this duty to their serfs, upon whom
they bestowed very little respect. Civilization
made little change in this state of things ; it did not
overcome the fatal, feudal prejudices against culti-
vators of the soil generally.

Now, that we have passed through these various
stages, and that all the advantages of civilization,
all the effects of luxury, and perhaps, also, corrup-
tion, which often follows it, have destroyed in us
the simplicity of our ancestors, our tastes are be-
coming pastoral and rural. Our homes resound
with the echo of agricultural labor — we are all cul-
tivators. Now, great landholders themselves ma-
nage their estates, (or, direct the cultivation of
their own lands;) they belong to agricultural socie-
ties, to which they bring the results of their expe-

rience, and receive, in return, the experience of
others, and the new discoveries by which they
profit. Happy exchange — happy enlightenment —
which contributes eminently to the progress of sci-
ence, to the prosperity of the country, and to the
well-being of society. In pursuing this task, the
horticultural societies have a noble position to fill.
It is from them, indeed, that we may hope for the
introduction into our culture, of new species of im-
proved qualities, as well for the food of man and of
animals, as for their value in the arts, medicine, etc.
The importance of these associations of horticul-
ture is fully appreciated at the present da}'; and
we see in almost all the principal cities of France,
that horticultural societies are formed, under the
patronage of illustrious men, and under the auspi-
ces of noble ladies, who wish to contribute to the
progress of science by distributing medals of en-
couragement to those horticulturists who have dis-
tinguished themselves either by their labors, or by
the introduction of new plants for ornament or uti-
litv. — Revue Horticole.

Medal to M. Gris. — At the annual exhibition
of the Royal Horticultural Society of Paris, a re-
port was made by the vice president, M. Payen,
on the use of sulphate of iron in curing the chlo-
rotic diseases of plants (yellow and sickly foliage,
etc.,) and a silver medal was awarded to M.
EusEBE Gris, the young and learned chemist, who
has devoted several years of study to this important
subject. — Revue Horticole.

The Chateau des Fleurs. — A new hall, or
structure of large size and great beauty, devoted
to the exhibition and sale of flowers daily, has lately
been opened at Paris, which is said to eclipse any-
thing of the kind before attempted. Delicious mu-
sic, turf enamelled with blossoms, large groups
and masses of plants and trees, and the greatest
profusion of flowers make up the effect of this luxu-
rious establishment.

At a leading show, held in the Chateau on the
12th of September, Dahlias and China Asters dis-
puted the palm lor variety and beauty. There
were 2000 pots of China Asters grouped in masses,
and all the world admired the varied colours, their
form, and size of the blossoms. The finest collec-
tions of Heaths, Fuchsias, Pansies, and other plants,
made up the brilliant exhibition.

Chinese Agricultural Population. — There
are few sights more pleasing than a Chinese family
in the interior, engaged in gathering the tea leaves,
or indeed in any of their other agricultural pur-
suits. There is the old man, patriarch-like, di-
recting his descendants, many of whom are in their
youth and prime, while others are in their child-
hood, in the labors of the field. He stands in the
midst of them, bowed down with age. But to the
honor of the Chinese, as a nation, he is always
looked up to by all with pride and affection, and
his old age and grey hairs are honored, revered
and loved. When, after the labors of the day are
over, they return to their humble and happy homes,
their fare consists principally of rice, fish and vege-
tables, which they enjoy with great zest, and are

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

339

happy and contented. I really believe that there
is no country in the world, where the agricultural
population are better off than they are in the north
of China. Labir with them is a pleasure, for its
fruits are eaten by themselves, and the rod of the
oppressor is unfelt and unknown.

I was one day travelling amongst the hills in the
interior of the island of Amoy, in places where I
suppose no Englishman had ever been before. The
day was tine, and the whole of the agricultural la-
borers were at work in the tields. When they first
saw me, they seemed much excited, and from their
gestures and language, I was almost inclined to
think them hostile. From every hill and valley,
they cried, " Wyloe-san- pan-fokie ," that is, " Be
off to your boat, friend ;" but on former occasions
I had always found that the best plan was to put
a bold face on the matter, and walk in amongst
them, and then try to get them into good humor.
In this instance the plan succeeded admirably ; we
were in a few minutes excellent friends, the boys
were running in all directions gathering plants for
my specimen box, and the old men were offering
me their bamboo pipes to smoke. As I got a little
nearer to the village, however, their suspicions
seemed to return, and they evidently would have
been better pleased had I either remained where I
was, or gone back again ; this procedure did not
suit my plans, and though they tried very hard to
induce me to " wyloe" to my " san-pan," it was of
no use. They then pointed to the heavens, which
were very black at the time, and told me it would
soon be a thunderstorm — but even this did not suc-

ceed. As a last resource, when they found I was
not to be turned out of my way, some of the little
ones were sent on before to apprise the villagers of
my ajjproach, and when I reached the village every
living tiling, down even to the dogs and pigs, were
out to have a peep at the " Fokie." I soon put
them all, the do<rs excepted, (which have the true
national antipathy to foreigners.) in the best possi-
ble humor, and at last they seemed in no hurry to
get rid of me. One of the most respectable amongst
them, seemingly the head man of the village, brought
me some cakes and tea, which he politely oHered
me. I thanked him, and began to eat. The hun-
dreds who now surrounded me were perfectly de-
lighted ; " He eats and drinks like ourselves,"
said one. " Look," said two or three behind me,
who had been examining the back part of my head,
" look here, the stranger lias no tail !" and then
the whole crowd, women and children included,
had to come round me to see if it was really a fact
that I had no tail. One of them, rather a dandy
in his way, with a noble tail of his own plaited with
silk, now came forward, and taking off a kind of
cloth which the natives wear here as a turban, and
allowing his tail to fall gracefully over his shoul-
ders, said to me in the most triumphant manner,
"Look at that ! " I acknowledged that it was
very fine, and promised if he would allow me to
cut it off, I would wear it for his sake. He seem-
ed very much disgusted at the idea of such a loss,
and the others had a good laugh at him. Fortune- s
Three Years in China.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Whitewash versits Pear Blight — Dear Sir :
In the Horticulturist for December, I observe a note
from Mr. A. H. Ernst, of Cincinnati, who says
that he has made up his mind that sun has more ef-
fect in causing the pear tree blight than either frost
or insects, and joins with you in recommending as
a preventive of such effect, the application of lime
wash to the trunks and large limbs of trees, in or-
der to reflect the sun's rays from them. As the
lime wash was first recommended by you in the
autumn of last year, and as it was probably applied
by many persons in accordance with such recom-
mendation, 1 wish to inquire, have you received
information from which you infer that its applica-
tion has prevented the blight in situations where it
prevailed before the use of the lime, and where, in
all probability, it would have appeared but for such
application ?

I have lost during the last summer, fifteen trees,
(and some of the large branches from about as
many more,) from the blight — not the scolylus, or
insect blight, which attacks the extremities of the
branch, from which many of my small trees have
been injured, but from the disease which first makes
its appearance on the trunk or large limbs of the
tree. They all blossomed, and were in perfect
health, apparently, previous to June. Some were
thrifty and had made much new wood last year;

others, on the contrary, had made but little wood ;
to all of them the lime was applied as recommend-
ed by you. Previous to this season, I never lost n.
tree from this disease, and never had but one tree
at all affected by it. From this, I do not wish you
to infer that I mean to give it as my opinion that
the lime was the cause of the disease ; but it is
certainly very evident, from the above facts, that it
did not prevent it. If the sun causes the blight,
and if the lime has the effect you expect from it, why
were my trees alfccted after its application ? Yours
very truly. Herman WendeU. Albany, Dec. 10,
1847.

[Remarks. — Wc have, as Dr. Wendell sup-
poses, received accounts from several of our read-
ers, who made a trial of the whitewash on their
pear trees last autumn. But the experiments were
not considered by them or us as satisfactory, be-
cause simple lime-wash only being used in all cases
reported to us. (exce|)tone, where a little salt was
added to the lime.) the lime was washed off from
all the smaller limbs by rain storms before the win-
ter was half gone. Hence, it was impossible, in
such cases, to expect any beneficial results from
it ; and we recommended this autumn the addition
of a little sizi'ig to prevent its being washed off the
smaller limbs.
J Dr. Wendill does not inform us whether the

uo

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

whitewash applied in the autumn remained on his
trees during the wholo winter. That would bo
necessary to enable us to judge whether it had a
fair trial, supposing his trees to have suflered by
frozen sap blight. 11" Mr. Ernst's view is correct,
they may have been injured solely by sun blight;
and in this ease, the whitewash, to act as a preven-
tive, ought to have been renewed in the spring.

Since Mr. Ernst's article has been in type, we
have received the Septembtr number of the Revue
Horticolc, from Paris. The following extract from
an article which it contains on the culture of the
apple, by M. Bravy, is highly interesting, as re-
lating directly to this subject ; and as exhibiting a
singular coincidence of opinion on opposite sides of
the Atlantic ; for Mr. Ernst could not have seen
this article when his own views were written, and
we do not suppose M. Bravy had seen ours re-
garding the use of whitewash, though written a
year or more ago :

'■ The apple, like the pear, is very subject to
canker {chancre,) a disease which, as I have al-
ready remarked, is produced by the impoverish-
ment of the soil, and the excess of moisture, or of
drouth. Besides these causes, I am convinced
that the too powerful rays of a burning sun {des
coup dc soldi trop ardents,) occurring immediately
after a shower or cloudy weather, and striking the
stem or branches still wet, often produces, in young
trees, the dessication of some portions of the bark,
or dry canker. What proves this, is the fact that
these appearances show themselves almost always
on the south side of the stem, and more especially
the south-south-west side; or in common phrase,
' towards the two o'clock sun.' A very efficient
means of protecting the trees is to coat them, in
the spring, with a layer of whitewash. This ope-
ration, very simple and unexpensive, has additional
advantages ; it prevents the growth of moss and
lichens on the bark, and destroys or drives away
the insects which harbor there. I cannot too
strongly recommend its use."

The foregoing paragraph comprises Mr. Ernst's
theory of the bligiit, and our proposed remedy. We

firoposed it, theoretically, a year before the pub-
ication of M. Bravy's article ; but he speaks of
it as something whose practical value is well known
to him ; and he is considered one of the leading
French horticulturists.

A word or two more touching the value of
■whitewash. The editors of the American Journal
of Agriculture, Albany, in an article on this sub-
ject (July, 1847,) made the following remarks :

" We dissent from the author of this theory
fmeaning us,] in regard to the proposed remedy,
viz., a coating of whitewash. This seems to have
been proposed from a misapprehension of the nature
of the coating itself; for, in fact, so far as the coat-
ing operates at all, it must promote, rather than
retard, the freezing of the sap. An earthy mate-
rial, of the nature of whitewash, is a better con-
ductor of heat than the porous and partially dry
cuticle itself."

Now, fortunately, the effect of whitewash is a
matter not involved in much obscurity, and easily
tested by experiment. It is, we believe, the point
most fullv conceded, that whether in winter or

summer, it is the «wn's rays which cause the blight;
in winter, by sudden thawing after frost, as we
stated ; in summer by the intensity of its rays, as
Messrs. Ernst & Bravy have pointed out. Hence,
what is wanted would appear to be a protection
against the sun's rays. For it is the sudden thaw-
ing in winter, and not the freezing, as the Ameri-
can Journal supposes, which does the mischief.

Common sense, as well as philoso[ihy, tells us
that dark colours exposed to the sun absorb most
heat, while white reflects most. Hence, it very
naturally follows that the bark of the pear tree,
being brown, is capable of being heated by the
sun's rays much more rapidly and completely than
if it were white. To settle this point more pre-
cisely, before sitting down to write these remarks,
we took two thermometers (Fahrenheit's,) agreeing
perfectly. The day (19th Dee.) is very bright,
but mild, with two inches of snow on the ground.
To the bulb of one of the thermometers we gave a
thick coating of whitewash and allowed it to be-
come dry; the other was left as usual.

After being exposed for an hour to the full sun-
shine, the naked thermometer indicated 97° — the
thermometer with the whitewashed bulb only 79°.
This clearly shows a difference in favor of the
whitewash, as a protector against the sun's rays,
of 18°. When we consider that the colour of bark
is dark, and therefore, it absorbs more heat propor.
tionately than the clear glass or bright mercury of
the naked thermometer, it is plain enough that,
even in a winter's day, a coating of whitewash
must have the effect of preventing the temperature
of the bark, exposed to full sunshme, from rising as
high as it would do by 20 degrees or more. Ed.]

A New Grafting Tool. — I herewith send you,
for inspection, anew horticultural implement, which
I call the Horizontal Stock-Splitter. Having long
felt, in my own practice, the need of some improve-
ment in the mode of splitting stocks for cleft-graft-
ing, I last winter set myself to the task, and with
the aid of a common blacksmith produced, in a few
days, the article before you. It was extensively
used the past spring in my own orchards and nurse-
ries, and answered admirably the purpose for which
it was intended. Its execution is easy, rapid, and
altogether satisfactory. The stock is opened with
a smooth, clean and uniform cut through the bark
and wood, with little or no splitting, and to just
the desired depth, (desiderata hardly to be secured
by the use of the knife and chisel,) and of course a
more perfect cleft is presented for the reception of
the scion, and one which holds the scion more firmly
than those produced by any former method.
?»■' To rooi-grafting, where the roots are of the
larger size, it is particularly well adapted, as at
least a dozen stocks can be cleft by it per minute,
and the work performed in the very nicest manner.
It was for this use alone that the implement was
originally designed ; but by variously modifying its
form and size, it could obviously be applied to a
great variety, not only of horticultural but also of
domestic and mechanical purposes — the power of
tlie lever and knife combined being very great,
and the working of the implement, when laid in a
horizontal position, very easy and rapid.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

341

If, after havinjr fairly examined its merits, you
think it worth while to have a drawinf^ of it pre-
pared for the Horticulturist, you will please to do
so, for the benelit of any gentleman who may choose
tc give it a trial. Vours truly, Asahtl Foote.
Williamstown, Mass., Oct-, 1847.

[This appears to be an excellent labor-saving
machine for those who wish to perform cleft-graft-
ing— the usual mode — cither extensively, or very

Fig. A^.— Footers Stock Splitter.

nicely. A groove (sheathed with leather,) a, re-
ceives the stock, and a very slight application of
force to the handle of the lever, acting upon the
small wheel b, brings down the blade c, which
performs its work with neatness and celerity. The
implement is 18 inches long, including the handles ;
the latter being of wood, and may be easily made
from the drawing ; Mr. Foote generously placing
his invention at the service of the public. Ed.]

Clinton Grape. — A native grape has been cul-
tivated for several years in the western part of
New- York, under this name, specimens of which
have been sent us lately by J. W. Bissell, Esq.,
of Rochester, with the following account :

I send you a few bunches of the " Clinton" grape.
This variety is very hardy, ripens before the Isa-
bella, is a good bearer, and also keeps better than
the variety just named. The vine from which the
cuttings were taken, was found by L. B. Lang-
worthy, Esq., growing in the garden f>f Mr. Pee-
bles, on the Hudson, above Waterford ; and as
there were several other varieties in the same gar-
den it is probably some old variety, though it has
never been recognised here as such. The name it
now bears was given b\' Mr. Langworthy. Yours
respectfully. J. W. B. Rochester, Nov. 27, 1847.

This appears to be a wild grape, or the seedling
of a wild grape, quite distinct from the Isabella.
The bunches sent us are not shouldered, of mode-
rate size, and somewhat compact ; (the berries set
on shorter footstalks than those of the Isabella.)
The berries are nearly round, or much less oval
than those of the Isabella, and about two-thirds the
size of the latter ; colour black, with a thin blue
bloom. Flesh somewhat pulpy, sweet and juicy,
but with a somewhat rough and harsh after-flavor.

The Clinton grape is not equal to the Isabella
for the table, thougti better than some other native
sorts now in cultivation. In its adaptation to a
northern climate, lies, we understand, its principal
value; as it will flourish where the Isabella is
found quite tender. We should judge it likely to
prove a valuable wine grape ; and it may produce
a strong, rough wine, hko Port.

To Prevent Mildew in Grapes and Goose-
berries— Dear Sir : In accordance with your re-
quest, I now give you the result of my experiment
in applying wood ashes to foreign grapes (or pre-
vention of mildew.

My principal vine border is about 300 feet long,
15 feet wide, and contains upwards of 300 vines Tn
a bearing state, all foreign varieiics.

I gave about two-thirds of this border a liberal
supply of wood ashes late last fall, after the vines
were covered for the winter, by spreading it on the
surface of the ground; the other third received
none.

The part of the border on which the ashes were
applied was almost completely free from mildew,
while the other part was very much injured by it ;
so much so, that the fruit was nearly destroyed :
as, owing to the coldness and wetness of last sea-
son here, grapes generally have been more injured
by mildew than for some years back.

My vines have been greatly injured for the last
two years by a small saltatory insect, which I be-
lieve to be the Thrips ; they a're in immense num-
bers, and prey upon the leaves, commencing with
those nearest the ground, which turn brown, wither
and fall off before the fruit gets ripe. Can you
suggest any plan to destroy them ?

As far as my experience goes, I find the foreign
grape succeeds best in an open airy exposure, if on
the top of a slight rising ground, so much the bet-
ter ; as anything that prevents a free circulation of
air, such as board fences or walls, has a tendency
to cause mildew. The soil does not require to be
deep, but should be thoroughly drained. My soil
is a strong clayey loam ; and I find those planted
on the thinnest and clayeyest part succeed best. Of
course, they will require to be well and regularly
manured wherever planted.

I have found the above mode of planting a com-
plete preventive for the mildew on gooseberries,
also. For several j^ears, when mine were planted
in my garden, which is enclosed with a high board
fence, the fruit of all kinds was so badly mildewed
that none ripened. As a last resort, I removed
them to an open place on a slight rising ground';
and since then, for the last lour years, there has
not been a trace of mildew on them.

I have a number of the best kinds, including
Woodward's White Smith, Wellington's Glory,
Crown Bob, Lion. Ocean, &,c. &c.; but I find the
Warrington Red to be decidedly the best of any for
cultivation in this country, as it also was by far the
best kind cultivated in England ; it grows with me
considerably larger than I ever saw it there. The
fruit should be left on the bush till it gets quite red ;
this caution is necessary, as it is later of ripening
than the generality of kinds, and by many would
be considered ripe when only slightly coloured, as
it is then very sweet and good. It hangs longer
without spoiling, or cracking with wet weather,
than any other kind ; and though not one of the
largest, it is considerably above medium size. I
have raised quite a number of kinds from seeds,
several of which have turned out very good; some
are larger than any of my named kinds, and are
finer flavored than any except the Warrington.

I have planted some superior wild kinds beside

342

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

the others, and mean to try and raise hybrids, as,
also, to see what diHercnce cultivation will make
on the fruit. Yours truly. James Dougall. Rose-
bank, near jimherstburg, Canada West-

Climate of Part of Canada West. — With
regard to the effect the proximity of the ^rrcat lakes
has in amelioratinnf the climate, I fear my observa-
tions have not been sufficiently accurate to trive
much interest. I, however, think that the climate
here is as mild as it is considerably farther south on
the sea-board ; as I have, several times, left New-
York city after the Dahlias had been destroyed by
frost there, and on reachino; here found them unin-
jured. The thermometer seldom falls very low in
winter, and we have very little snow. We are,
however, often subject to late spring frosts which
do considerable injury, and which 1 think are caused
partly by the large quantities of floating ice in the
upper lakes at that season of the year.

On examination, I find the first fall frosts in the
last three years, were on Oct. 15th, 1845, Oct.
22d, 1846, and Oct. 14th, 1847; and the latest
spring frosts in the same years were on May 8th,
1845, April 15th, 1846, and April 18th, 1847. On
29th May, 1845, there was also a severe frost ; but
it w'as occasioned by a most destructive hail storm,
the stones of which were from two to three inches
in diameter, and covered the ground to the depth
of a couple of inches.

The coldest days in the winter months of these
years were,
1845, Jan. 31st, 10°; Feb. 6th, 8°.

1845 and '46, Dee. 18th and 19th, —1°; Jan. 22d,
4°; Feb. 26th,— 1°.

1846 and '47, Dec. 15th, 17°; Jan. 8th, —3°; Feb.
23d, 5°; March 12th, 14°.

We are much troubled with some kinds of birds
in this part, which, as far as I can see. confer little
or no benefit to compensate for the loss of nearly
all our fruit ; as they only make their appearance
in the gardens when the fruit begins ripening, and
leave as soon as it is over. The worst are the
American Robin, Cedar Bird, Scarlet Tanag^,
and Louisiana Tanager ; of these, the last is deci-
dedly the most troublesome, as nothing that I can
try — nets, sheets, &c., can keep them from the
fruit. They are very fond of gooseberries ; and
though I covered some bushes with nets, and others
with sheets, they would creep under them and eat
every berry on the bushes. As to cherries, we
never get any ripe.

I am convinced my peach crop was much injured
last season by the Orchard Oriole. When the trees
w-ere in blossom, I noticed several of these birds fly-
ing from flower to flower, and inserting their bill
in each one on the tree, nearly. At first, I thought
they were eatciiing insects ; but on closer examina-
tion I found it was the nectareous juice that they
were sucking, as ever}' flower they had been at had
the corolla slit open to the bottom ; while, on exa-
mining some branches that they had not been at, no
insects could be discoveied in the flowers. None
of the flowers that were slit perfected their fruit ;
nearly all dropped off; a few set and produced de-
formed fruit, while the only ones that produced
good fruit were the few they had missed. Should

these birds make their appearance next year, I in-
tend giving them a warm reception.

I intended, to enable you to judge better the na-
ture of our climate, to have gtven you the time of
ripening of diflercnl kinds of fruit here; but I find
I have forgot to do so at the proper place, and as
my letter is already far too long, I will not trespass
on the patience of your readers further at present.
Yours truly. James Dougall. Rosebank, near
Amhcrstburg, Canada West, 6th Dec, 1847.

Removing Budded Peach Tbees. — I have about
seven hundred peach trees of ray own raising. Last
fall I had them budded with choice varieties, and
lost about 15 per cent, of the buds ; these I have
again budded this fall. I am very anxious to set
them out in their places next spring ; and should
be much obliged if you would inform me, through
3'our journal, if I can remove those trees, which I
budded this fall, with any hope of not losing the
buds. I am, very respectfully, yours, etc. F.C.B.

[Yes, without losing one of the buds, if the re-
moval is carefully done. Everything, of course,
depends upon the care exercised not to rub off the
bud which is to form the future tree. They should
be headed down to within a couple of inches of the
bud, before removal, or directly before planting
them. We have seen hundreds of peach trees
moved " in the bnd," as nurserymen say, into good
soil, and the buds make heads three or four feet
high the same season.]

William Penn Chrysanthemum. — We saw,
last month, in the fine conservatory of N. J. Becar,
Esq., Brooklyn, N. Y., a new antl remarkably fine
Chrysanthemum, received, under this name, from
Philadelphia. It appeared to us one of the most
perfectly formed flowers of the genus we had ever
seen : each blossom very full double, symmetrically
shaped, and almost globular in form. The color is
white ; and it is. on the whole, much superior to
any of the new European varieties of this old au-
tumnal favorite, which have reached this country
lately. Will some of our readers in Philadelphia
give us an account of its origin ?

Nurserymen's Convention. — A convention of
nurserymen and fruit-growers was held at Colum-
bus, Ohio, the first week in October, with the laud-
able purpose of comparing fruits from different
sections of the State, correcting errors in names of
fruits, establishing a correct standard of nomencla-
ture lor the varieties in general cultivation, etc etc.
Our correspondent, Mr. Springer, was appointed
chairman, and Messrs. Elliott of Cleveland, and
Bateham of Columbus, secretaries. The conven-
tion commenced the session, by "unanimously
voting that the ' Fruits and Fruit-trees of America'
be the standard work from which the names of fruits
be determined." A large number of fruits, especial-
ly of apples, was, we understand, exhibited — and
much confusion in nomenclature discovered, and the
true names determined. Mr. Elliott has, we
learn, undertaken the labor of preparing a report
of the proceedings, which we shall look for with
interest.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

343

The Season. — The past autumn, and the early
jiart of winter, have been unusually tine and mild
with us. With the exception of three days of severe
frost, at the close of October, the season has been
sir^ularlv genial and warm, and the atmosphere
remarkalilv clear and brisht.

On the 2dih of November, we had in our grounds
pansies, niijrnonette, sweet alyssum, and some other

Slants still bloominfr finely. As late as the 12th of
•ecember, the weather was so mild, tliat vegetation
■was kept up in all late-growin<i plants ; and we
observed that a few blossoms of the Mezereum, one
of the first vernal shrubs, excited by the spring-like
warmth, began to make their appearance.

New-Haven Pomological Society. — A number
of gentlemen in New-Haven, devoted to the culture
of fruits, formed themselves, some time ago. into a
society under this name ; and, we have no doubt,
in connexion with the zealous Horticultural Society
of that city, will accomplish much towards that
end, which now occupies so prominently so many
horticulturists — the collection of fine fruits, and the
attainment of something like accuracy in pomology.
Meetings are held weekly at the houses of the dif-
ferent members, where specimens are exhibited, etc.

If societies of this kind, in different parts of the
country, would carry on a system of exchanges in
the products of the fruit garden and orchard, pecu-
liar to their districts, a great deal of useful informa-
tion might be accumulated and disseminated.

To DESTROY Cockroaches. — If your correspon-
dents will try the following simple plan, I will
warrant them that every beetle and cockroach will
shortly disappear, and that the kitchen will not
again be inl'ested. Add about a teaspoonful of
powdered arsenic to about a table-spoonful of
mashed boiled potatoes ; rub and mix them well
together, and then crumble about a third of it, every
night at bedtime, about the kitchen hearth : it will
all be eaten up, or nearly so, by the following
morning. The creature is very i"')nd of potatoes,
and, devouring them greedily, crawls again into its
hole and perishes. I had occasion to have some
alterations made in the kitchen stove, six months
after I pursued this plan, and found hundreds of
wings and dried mummies of tlefunct cockroaches.
Their disappearance was not attended with the
slightest percei)tible smell ; and though five years
have elaj)scd, not one has again been seen in my
kitchen. In putting it into practice, any remaining
crumbs should be swept up the next morninsr. —
F. H. Horner, M. D. [ We have tried the fore-
going, and found it perfectly elfectual. Ed.]

The Flower Trad?:. — Some of your readers,
who are " plain farmers," are, no doubt, in the
habit of putting down flowers as '' idle things, of
little profit." Now I have been this morning making
a little tour around among the^ principal florists ;
for I love to look at their treasures in the various
pits, greenhouses and hothouses, that cluster thick-
ly around the outskirts of a city like this. I will
not weary you with the detail of all that I saw, nor
even the names of the florists themselves, who
appear to me to multiply every year as rapidly as
their choicest cuttings, " struck in sand under bell-

glasses." Messrs. ThorburnSc Co., Dunlap, and
Hogg, are still, however, the great purveyors of
this kind of luxury ; though there are many others
who grow plants, in a wholesale way, more exten-
sively than they — such, for example, as Mantel,
Bali., Monk, &c.

The great points kept in view by the city florists,
are, growing a great quantity of the most popular
flowers in pots, for the market sales in spring ; and
growing flowers for winter bouquets. The bouquet
business is one of no small moment, and I am
pleased to see it is every day increasing. I look
upon it as a mark of the refinement of our people ;
for what gift can be more universally acceptable,
more refined, or more touched with sentiment, than
a fresh bouiiuet of lovely flowers? Truly our citi-
zens think not. Not a ball can be given, that do-
zens of bouquets are not immediately wanted. The
young gallant who makes his first timid ofrerin<T,
goes to IJuNLAP for his bouquet of roses and violets ;
and the millionaire who wishes to delight and asto-
nish Madame, sends to Thorburx for his rich ar-
rangement of camellias. Opera-goers also provide
themselves with wreaths and huge bouquets, to re-
ward the successful prima donna ; and tlie chamber
of the valetudinarian is brightened by a daily offer-
ing from the hands of true friends. So that, as you
see, every body is forced either by love, friendship,
or vanity, to employ the beautiful language of
flowers !

Well, you may suppose there must be a somewhere
to produce all this wealth of Flora. If yo\i go to
Thorburn's, (his garden, at Astoria, I mean,)
you will find quite a forest of camellias. At Man-
tel's, I saw immense beds of sweet-scented violets
and primroses, covered with glass, and in full
bloom; while long cheap glazed structures, in all the
florists' gardens, are filled with heliotropes, dwarf
cape jasmines, stevias, ro.ses, daphnes, heaths, and
fifiy other plants to supply the winter demand.
One ol the leading florists told me that he sold
$2500 worth of bouquets last winter ! When I say
that there arc, of one grade and another, at least
fifty florists who devote themselves to this branch
of gardening in and about New- York, you will see
how much of a tax is most cheerfullv paid in our
metropolis, for the enjoyment of beautiful floweis.
What we need, to complete the thin<T, is a Flower
Market, like that of Paris, where all the products
may be seen assembled together in one brilliant
coup-d'ceil. Rus in Urbe. New- York, Dec. 1847.

Value of Lvorgamc Manures. — We quote the
following from one of Mr Horskord's interesting
letters to the jllbani/ Cultivator. It was written
from Giessen — Mr. H. being enixaged in chemical
studies under Liebig ; and its significance will be
the better understood by those who have perused
the leading article in this number. Ed.]

" In the spring preceding my arrival at Giessen,
Professor Liebig planted some grape scions un-
der the windows of the laboratory. He fed them,
if I may use the expression, upon the ashes of the
graj)e vine, — or upon the proper inorganic food of
the erapc, as shown by analysis of its ashes. The
growth has been enom.ous; and several of the vines
boro large clusters of grapes in the course of the

344

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

season. Indeed, I know not but all, as my atten-
tion was particularly drawn to them only since the
fruit has been gathered. The soil, otherwise, is
little better than a pavement — a kind of fine gravel,
in which scarcely anythinji takes root. I was
shown pots of wheat, in different stages of their
growth, that had been fed variously — some upon
the inorganic matters they needed — others had
merely shared the tribute of the general soil. The
result in numbers I don't yet know, but in appear-
ance, no one could be at a loss what might be ex-
pected." — .

The RtTLES of American Pomology. — We are
much gratified to perceive the strong interest mani-
fested, in various parts of the country, in that good
work of progress — the adoption of these rules —
which we announced last month. Just as this num-
is going to press, we learn that the following socie-
ties have also adopted substantially the same rules,
viz : The Horticultural Societv of Albany, the
New- Haven Horticultural Society, and the
PoMOLOGicAL SociETY of New-Haven. There can
now scarcely be a doubt but they will soon be adopt-
ed by the horticultural societies in all parts of the
country, ....

The Deodar Cedar. — I think this beautiful
evergreen tree, from the high mountains of India,
described by you in the first volume of the Horti-
culturist (p. 17,) will prove a very fine addition to
our hardy evergreens. I have had two specimens
planted out, which have been fully exposed the last
two winters, without the least injury ; while young
cedars of Lebanon have been slightly discolored oi
browned in their foliage by frost. With me it also
grows as rapidly again as the cedar of Lebanon,
and, at least, in a young state, is a more graceful
and elegant tree. X. Y, Z. N. York, Dec. 6, 1847,

Ashmore Apple. — A specimen of this fruit is
here, from Mr. J. Wood of Jefferson couniy. It is
the most beautiful apple I have ever seen. It is

about the size of the Red Astrachan : the surface
is glossy, smooth ; and the color a rich crimson red,
shaded into pale red, and from that into a pale yel-
lowish white. It is also fine for eating ; and from
what I have now seen of it, I am decidedly of opi-
nion that it will be much sought after as soon as it
becomes known. F. R.Elliott, Cleveland Herald.

Ernestine de Barents Rose. — This is one of
the new French roses, and is indeed a beautiful
little flower, very regularly cupped, very double,
and in shape much resembling a fine double ranun-
culus. Its size is scarcely larger than a quarter
dollar, and its color is a bright pink. With its
delicate, small, dark foliage, good habit, perfect
hardiness, and abundant blooming qualities, it forms
one of the most desirable little floral gems we know,
— Parsons on the Rose.

Strange Phenomenon. — A few rods north of
the Armory on the hill, is a deep hollow or dingle,
down the bank of which the waste dirt of the shops
has from time to time for a long period been thrown.
This mass of rubbish, some weeks since, took fire
spontaneously, and has been constantly burning
since, notwithstanding the late powerful and lieaAy
rains. The Eagle Company, No. 1, Capt. Tower,
determined to try its skill with the devouring ele-
ment. After throwing on to the burning pile vast
quantities of A-ater, which seemed to have the effect
to concentrate the heat rather than to quench it. it
burst forth from the uppermost point, ejecting fire,
steam and smoke, to a considerable height, giving
us a beautiful miniature vo'canic eruption. On the
bank, immediately over the burning pile, is a mag-
nificent elm. This burning mass seems to have
embraced the roots of the tree, warming it into
summer life, expanding its buds almost to bursting,
and in all probability will soon cover it with a beau-
tiful foliage. — Springfield (Mass.) Republican,

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

October I6th, 1847.

President Marshall P. Wilder in llie chair.

The foUowiiig gemlemeii were elected members of the So-
ciety: I,i/e— .lames H. Welch, Boston. Siibsrription—So]on
Dike, Stoneham; I. H.Bacon and Robert B.icon, Medford;
Amherst A. Frazar, Boston: John Donald, Brighton

October i:^d, 1847 —President Marshall P. Wildkr in the
chair. The Committee o{ Publication submitted the following

The Committee of Publication of the Massachusetts Honi-
cultural .Society feels itself obliged to apologise for the delay
which has taken place in the issue of the first number of the
" Transactions," the sheets of which have long been ready.

This delay has arisen from an anxious desire to have plates
in a style of excellence much superior to that of those which
now accompany it. , ^ •

After infinite trouble and disappointment, the Committee
feels satified that the process of Chromolithing, in its present
state, is not adapted o a work of the character which it is
determined to stamp on the Transactlcns of the Massachu-
setts Horticultural Society, or to give even a faint idea of llie
drawings made by their artist, Mr. William Sharp.

While, therefore, the Committee regrets, extremely, that it
is obliged to issue the present number with Chiomolithed
plates, it has resolved not only that the plates of the future
numbers shall appear in a very different style, but that if pos-
sible, those of the first number shall be reproduced in a uni-
form manner.

Voted, Tliat the report of the Committee of Publication be
accepted.

October 30lh, 1847. — President Marshall P. W^ildkr in the
chair. The Committee on Fruits submitted, for adoption by
the Society, the following Rules of Pomology:

[These Rules w^ere published in the Dec. number of the
Horticulturist, page 274 ]

Voted, That the foregoing Rules be adopted hy the Society.

Nov.lSih, 1847— President Marshall P Wilder in the
chair. The following gentlemen were elected members of
the Society; Edward N. Perkins, Brookline; George R Mi-
not and S. M Weld, Roxbury; Nathaniel Hooper, Edward
King and Horace Gray, Boston ; Daniel Chaplin, Cambridge ;
Alex Pope and Benj. Ilemmenway, Dorchester ; James Hill,
SomerviUe. Adjourned.

» T H £ \.

JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AM) RURAL TASTE.

Vol. IL

FEBRUARY, 1848.

No. 8.

A VERY LITTLE OBSERVATION wiU convince
any one that, in the United States, a new
era, in Domestic Architecture, is already-
commenced. A few years ago, and all our
houses, with rare exceptions, were built
upon the most meagre plan. A shelter
from the inclemencies of the weather; space
enough in which to eat, drink and sleep ;
perhaps some excellence of mechanical
workmanship in the details ; these were the
characteristic features of the great mass of
our dwelling-houses — and especially coun-
try houses — a few years ago.

A dwelling-house, for a civilized man,
built with no higher aspirations than these,
we look upon with the same feelings that
inspire us when we behold the Indian, who
guards himself against heat and cold bj^that
primitive, and, as he considers it, sufficient
costume — a blanket. An unmeaning pile
of wood, or stone, serves as a shelter to the
bodily frame of man ; it does the same for
the brute animals that serve him ; the blan-
ket covers the skin of the savage from the
harshness of the elements, as the thick
shaggy coat protects the beasts he hunts
in the forest. But these are only mani-
festations of the grosser wants of life ; and
the mind of the civilized and cultivated
man as naturally manifests itself in fitting.
Vol. II. 44

appropriate, and beautiful forms of habita-
tion and costume, as it does in fine and lofty
written thought and uttered speech.

Hence, as society advances beyond that
condition, in which the primary wants of
human nature are satisfied, we naturally find
that literature and the arts flourish. Along
with great orators and inspired poets, come
fine architecture, and tasteful grounds and
gardens.

Let us congratulate ourselves that the
new era is fairly commenced in the United
States. We by no means wish to be
understood, that all our citizens have fairly
passed the barrier that separates utter
indifference, or puerile fancy, from good
taste. There are, and will be, for a long
time, a large proportion of houses built
without any definite principles of construc-
tion, except those of the most downright
necessity. But, on the other hand, we are
glad to perceive a very considerable sprink-
ling over the whole country — from the Mis-
sissippi to the Kennebec — of liouses built
in such a manner, as to prove, at the first
glance, that the ideal of their owners has
risen above the platform of mere animal
wants : that they perceive the intellectual
superiority of a beautiful design over a
meaningless and uncouth form ; and that a

346

ON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF GOOD HOUSES.

house is to them no longer a comfortable
shelter merely, but an expression of the in-
telligent life of man, in a state of society
where the soul, the intellect, and the heart,
are all awake, and all educated.

There are, perhaps, few persons who have
examined fully the effects of a general dif-
fusion of good taste, of well being, and a
love of order and proportion, upon the com-
munity at large. There are, no doubt, some
who look upon fine houses as fostering the
pride of the few, and the envy and discon-
tent of the many; and — in some transatlantic
countries, where wealth and its avenues are
closed to all but a few — not without reason.
But, in this country, where integrity and
industry are almost always rewarded by
more than the means of subsistence, we
have firm faith in the moral effects of the
fine arts. We believe in the bettering in-
fluence of beautiful cottages and country
houses — in the improvement of human na-
ture necessarily resulting to all classes, from
the possession of lovely gardens and fruit-
ful orchards.

We do not know how we can present any
argument of this matter, if it requires one,
so good as one of that long-ago distinguish-
ed man — Dr. Dwight. He is describing, in
his Travels in Ainerica, the influence of
good architecture, as evinced in its effects
on the manners and character of the inhabi-
tants in a town in New-England :

" There is a kind of symmetry in the
thoughts, feelings, and efforts of the human
mind. Its taste, intelligence, affections,
and conduct, are so intimately related, that
no preconcertion can prevent them from
being mutually causes and effects. The
first thing powerfully operated upon, and,
in its turn, proportionately operative, is the
taste. The perception of beauty and de-
formity, of refinement and grossness, of de-
cency and vulgarity, of propriety and inde-

corum, is the first thing which influences
man to attempt an escape from a grovelling,
brutish character ; a character in ivhich mo-
rality is chilled, or absolutely frozen. In
most persons, this perception is awakened
by what may be called the exterior of so-
ciety, particularly by the mode of building.
Uncouth, mean, ragged, dirty houses, con-
stituting the body of any town, will regu-
larly be accompanied by coarse, grovelling
manners. The dress, the furniture, the
mode of living, and the manners, will all
correspond with the appearance of the
buildings, and will universally be, in every
such case, of a vulgar and debased nature.
On the inhabitants of such a town, it will
be difficult, if not impossible, to work a
conviction that intelligence is either neces-
sary or useful. Generally, they will regard
both learning and science only with con-
tempt. Of morals, except in the coarsest
form, and that which has the least influence
on the heart, they will scarcely have any
apprehensions. The rights enforced by
municipal law, they may be compelled to
respect, and the corresponding duties they
may be necessitated to perform ; but the
rights and obligations which lie beyond the
reach of magistracy, in which the chief du-
ties of morality are found, and from which
the chief enjoyments of society spring, will
scarcely gain even their passing notice.
They may pay their debts, but they will
neglect almost every thing of value in the
education of their children.

" The very fact, that men see good hou-
ses built around them, will, more than al-
most anything else, awaken in them a sense
of superiority in those by whom such hou-
ses are inhabited. The same sense is de-
rived, in the same manner, from handsome
dress, furniture, and equipage. The sense
of beauty is necessarily accompanied by a
perception of the superiority which it pos-

ON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF GOOD HOUSES.

347

sesses over deformit}'; and is instinctively
felt to confer this superiority on those who
can call it their own, over those who cannot.

" This, I apprehend, is the manner in
which coarse society is first started towards
improvement ; for no objects, but those
which are sensible, can make any consi-
derable impression on coarse minds."

The first motive which leads men to build
good houses is, no doubt, that of increasing
largely their own comfort and happiness.
But it is easy to see that, in this country,
where so many are able to achieve a home
for themselves, he who gives to the public
a more beautiful and tasteful model of a
habitation than his neighbors, is a benefac-
tor to the cause of morality, good order, and
the improvement of society where he lives.
To place before men reasonable objects of
ambition, and to dignify and exalt their
aims, cannot but be laudable in the sight
of all. And in a country where it is con-
fessedly neither for the benefit of the
community at large, nor that of the suc-
ceeding generation, to amass and transmit
great fortunes, we would encourage a taste
for beautiful and appropriate architecture,
as a means of promoting public virtue and
the general good.

We have said beautiful and appropriate
architecture — not without desiring that all
our readers should feel the value of this
latter qualification as fully as we do. Among
the many strivings after architectural beau-
ty, which we see daily made by our coun-
trymen, there are, of course, some failures,
and only now and then examples of perfect
success. But the rock on which all novices

split — and especially all men who have
thought little of the subject, and who are
satisfied with a feeble imitation of some
great example from other countries — this
dangerous rock is want, of fitness, or pro-
prictij. Almost the first principle, certainly
the grand principle, which an apostle of ar-
chitectural progress ought to preach in
America, is, " keep in mind propriety."
Do not build your dwelling-houses like tem-
ples, churches, or cathedrals. Let them be,
characteristically, dwelling-houses. And
more than this; always let their individu-
ality of purpose be fairly avowed ; let the
cottage be a cottage — the farm-house a
farm-house — the villa a villa, and the man-
sion a mansion. Do not attempt to build a
dwelling upon your farm after the fashion of
the town-house of your friend, the city mer-
chant; do not attempt to give the modest
little cottage the ambitious air of the ornate
villa. Be assured that there is, if you will
search for it, a peculiar beauty that belongs
to each of these classes of dwellings that
heightens and adorns it almost magically;
while, if it borrows the ornaments of the
other, it is only debased and falsified in
character and expression. The most ex-
pensive and elaborate structure, overlaid
with costly ornaments, will fail to give a
ray of pleasure to the mind of real taste, if
it is not appropriate to the purpose in view,
or the means or position of its occupant ;
while the simple farm-house, rustically and
tastefully adorned, and ministering beauty
to hearts that answer to the spirit of the
beautiful, will weave a spell in the memory
not easily forgotten.

Malaga Raisins. — These are all made by
merely drying the large white Muscatel
grape, without the addition of any ingredi-
ent. They are all raised within two leagues

of the southern Spanish coast, and do not
succeed further inland. The Lexia raisins,
used for puddings, arc, however, produced
in the interior.

348

CULTURE OF PARLOR PLANTS.

CULTURE OF PARLOR PLANTS— CAMELLIAS AND AZALEAS.

BY J. B. W., NEW- YORK.

As I see by occasional queries, in your jour-
nal, that there are some — perhaps many —
of your fair readers desirous of gaining in-
formation on the care and culture of those
green-house plants, kept in parlors, I will
venture to offer, now and then, through
your columns, the result of some experi-
ence in this kind of culture for fifteen years
past.

The two finest genera of plants, usually
cultivated in dwelling-rooms, are, unques-
tionably, the Camellia and the Azalea.
Both of these plants are remarkable for the
great beauty of their flowers ; and taken
together, they furnish a bloom for the par-
lor from December to May. The Camel-
lias are in their perfection in the first part
of the winter — the Chinese Azaleas in the
last part. The first are not more remarka-
ble for the size, symmetry and richness of
their flowers, than are the last for the deli-
cacy, elegance and profusion of their blos-
soms. Take these two plants, in all their
variety, and they would alone fill a very
large conservatory. A few select varieties
of each are, of course, all that room can be
found for in the parlor; but when their
merits are all told, they certainly deserve a
preference over all other plants for this
purpose. I shall, therefore, devote a few
words to-day to the care and culture of
these plants only.

I should say, in the beginning, that the
greatest evils the Camellia has to contend
with in parlor culture, are — first, in the
changes from heat to cold ; and second, in
a dry and dusty atmosphere. The Camel-
lia will bear a great deal of cold without
injury; but it very quickly suffers if there

is a rapid change in the temperature of a
room. It ought, therefore, to have a posi-
tion as much guarded as possible against
these changes ; and in a cold climate, per-
haps this is more effectually attained by a
double window, hung casement-like, so that
the inner one may be opened in the day
time and closed at night ; or kept closed al-
together in extremely cold Aveather. (Dou-
ble glazing has the effect of decomposing
the light, and is therefore not so good in
strong day-light or sunshine.)

When the blooming season approaches, a
a room where Camellias are kept should, in
its temperature, be as nearly uniform as
possible. It ought not to sink below 50°
of Fahrenheit's thermometer. The plants
should be regularly watered every day ;
but no more water should be given than
the roots are able to take up ; and this may
be easily ascertained by looking to see the
state of the top soil. If this is positively
wet, you may feel quite certain that not a
drop more water ought to be given while it
remains so. You will, therefore, omit wa-
tering for one or two days, as the case may
be. When the plant gets fairly in a bloom-
ing condition — that is, when several flowers
are beginning to expand, you may water
once a week with guano water ; made by
infusing a pound of guano in ten gallons of
water. This will give additional size and
strength to the blossoms. After the flow-
ers drop, and just as the plant begins grow-
ing, you may use this guano water three
times a week. Everything for the next year
depends on the growth of the Camellia at
this time ; for its whole growth for the nex
twelve months is completed in about three

ON THE PRACTICAL USE OF LEAVES.

349

weeks ; and whether you are to have a fine
setting of bloom-buds for the next winter,
and fine shoots and foliage, depends alto-
gether on the advantages of light and food
which your plants have during these cri-
tical three weeks named. The advantage
of guano water in making fine foliage and
fine bloom-buds, is now abundantly proved
by experiment ; there being but few of our
best practical growers of the Camellia who
do not use it at that season.

The breathing pores in the leaf of the
Camellia are rather small, and therefore
easilj^ choked up with the dust from a
grate. Hence, it is well to wash off the
leaves with a syringe once in eight or ten
days. T have, for a couple of years, fol-
lowed this mode with the best results. I
wrap the pot round about with a bit of
coarse cloth, to prevent the soil from being
displaced, and from getting over-wetted. I
then set the plant down sideways in a bath-
tub, and give it a gentle shoiver-bath of luke
warm water. S^Tinging with a common
hand syringe is equally good, but not so
rapidly performed. I am quite satisfied,
from experience, that a shower-bath is as

salutary and necessary to a house plant as
to a sedentary man.

The Chinese Azaleas are so easy of cul-
ture, and they are so hardy, that they will
bloom quite well in a room where " Jack
Frost" occasionally enters ; and regular wa-
tering is almost all they need in the com-
mon routine. The main point in growing
them, is to watch them well when they are
making the spring growth ; (for, like the
Camellia, everything of the next year's
thrift and bloom is settled then ;) and not
let them, at that time, lack water and a
little liquid manure every other day.

The best soil for the Camellia is made
by mixing one-half turfy loam, one-third
well rotted manure, (from an old hot-bed,)
and the rest leaf mould from the woods.
For Azaleas, equal quantities of turfy loam,
well decomposed dung, and peat earth. I
ought perhaps to add, for the novice, that
"turfy loam" is gotten by laying up sods
from a good piece of old meadow, or pas-
ture, in a heap to heat and rot.

I will say something of other parlor plants
hereafter. Yours respectfully. J. B. W.

iYew-lVt, Dec. 9Ui, 1847.

ON THE PRACTICAL USE OF LEAVES.

BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

There are two facts in the functions of the
leaf, which are worth consideration on ac-
count of their practical bearings. The food
of plants is, for the most part, taken in so-
lution, through its roots. Various mine-
rals— silex, lime, alumina, magnesia, potas-
sa — are passed into the tree in a dissolved
state. The sap passes to the leaf, the su-
perfluous water is given off, but not the sub-
stances lohich it held in solution. These, in
part, are distributed through the plant, and.

in part, remain as a deposit in the cells of
the leaf. Gradually the leaf chokes up, its
functions are impeded, and finally entirely
stopped. When the leaf drops, it contains
a large per cent, of mineral matter. An
autumnal or old leaf yields, upon analysis,
a very much larger proportion of earthy
matter than a vernal leaf, which, being yet
young, has not received within its cells any
considerable deposit. It will be found, also,
that the leaves contain a very much higher

350

ON THE PRACTICAL USE OF LEAVES.

per cent, of mineral matter than the wood of
the trunk. The dried leaves of the Elm
contain more than eleven per cent, of ashes,
(earthy matter,) while the wood contains
less than two per cent.; those of the Wil-
low, more than eight per cent., while the
wood has only 0.45 ; those of the Beech
6.69, the wood only 0.36 ; those of the (Eu-
ropean) Oak 4.05, the wood only 0.21; those
of the Pitch Pine 3.15, the wood only 0.25
per cent.*

It is very plain from these facts that, in
forests, the mineral ingredients of the soil
perform a sort oi circulation ; entering the
root, they are deposited in the leaf; then,
with it, fall to the earth, and by its decay,
they are restored to the soil, again to travel
their circuit. Forest soils, therefore, in-
stead of being impoverished by the growth
of trees, receive back annually the greatest
proportion of those mineral elements neces-
sary to the tree, and besides, much organ-
ized matter received into the plant from
the atmosphere ; soils therefore are gaining
instead of losing. If the owner of parks or
groves, for neatness sake, or to obtain leaves
for other purposes, gathers the annual har-
vest of leaves, he will, in time, take away
great quantities of mineral matter, by which
the soil, ultimately, will be impoverished,
unless it is restored by manures.

Leaf manure has always been held in
high esteem by gardeners. But many re-
gard it as a purely vegetable substance;
whereas, it is the best mineral manure that
can be applied to the soil. What are call-
ed vegetable loams, (not peat soils, made
up principally of decomposed roots,) contain
large quantities of earthy matter, being
mineral-vegetable," rather than vegetable
soils.

Every gardener should know, that the

* See Dr. Gray's Botanic Text Book, an admirable work,
which every liorliculturisi sliould own and study.

best manure for any plant, is the decomposed
leaves and substance of its own species.
This fact will suggest the proper course
with reference to the leaves, tops, vines,
haulm, and other vegetable refuse of the
garden.

The other fact connected with the Leaf,
is its function of exhalation. The greatest
proportion of crude sap which ascends the
trunk, upon reaching the leaf, is given forth
again to the atmosphere, by means of a
particularly beautiful economy. The quan-
tity of moisture produced by a plant is hard-
ly dreamed of by those who have not special-
ly informed themselves. The experiments
of Hales have been often quoted. A sun-
flower, three and a half feet high, present-
ing a surface of 5.616 square inches expos-
ed to the sun, was found to perspire at the
rate of twenty to thirty ounces avoirdupois,
every twelve hours, or seventeen times more
than a man. A vine with 12 square feet,
exhaled at the rate of five or six ounces
a day. A seedling apple tree, with twelve
square feet of foliage, lost nine ounces a
day.*

These are experiments upon very small
plants. The vast amount of surface pre-
sented by a large tree must give off im-
mense quantities of moisture. The practi-
cal bearings of this fact of vegetable exha-
lation are not a few. Wet forest-lands, by
being cleared of timber, become dry; and
streams, fed from sxich sources, become al-
most extinct, as civilization encroaches on
wild woods. The excessive dampness of
crowded gardens is not singular, and still
less is it strange that dwellings covered
with vines, whose windows are choked
with shrubs, and whose roof is overhung
with branches of trees, should be intolera-
bly damp ; and when the good housewife is
scrubbing, scouring and brushing, and, ne-

* I<indley's Horticulture, p. 42-44. Gray's Botany, p. 131.

ON THE IMPKOVEMENT OF SMALL FRUITS.

351

verthcless, marvelling that her house is so
infested with mould, she hardly suspects
that lier troubles would be more easily re-
moved by the axe or saw, than by all her
cloths and brushes. A house should never
be closely surrounded with shrubs. A free
circulation of air should be maintained all
about it, and shade trees so disposed as to

leave large openings for the light and sun
to enter. The unusual rains of the current
season have produced so great a dampness
in our residences, that no one can fail to
have noticed its effect, both on the health
of the occupants, and upon the beauty and
good condition of their household substance.
— Western Farmer and Gardener.

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF SMALL FRUITS.

BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, N. Y.

This is the title of an interesting paper, at
page 506 of the LoJidon Horticultural Ma-
gazine for November, 1847, therein copied
from the Gardeners^ Journal, another Eng-
lish periodical of considerable merit. We
also have in the Horticulturist for Decem-
ber, page 26-5, a very promising statement,
in the shape of " Notes on Currants, Rasp-
berries, &c.," by a writer whose enthusiasm
is boundless ; yet our hopes are somewhat
checked by a very natural feeling of regret,
that anticipations may be less than realized,
inasmuch as the author's constant " oppres-
sion" of business, is more than likely to in-
terfere with that personal attention, so es-
sential to the process of raising better fruit
than we have already.

No reflecting man at all doubts that a
vast field is open for improvement, in the
size and quality of what are termed the
small fruits. A great deal has already been
accomplished, but not enough to be satisfied
with ; for the present generation is as rest-
less of change in horticulture as in every-
thing else : it will have the best, if at all
attainable. The rage for novelties, whether
in fruits or flowers, is of a decidedly epi-
demic character ; if a thing is nnv, no mat-
ter what are its qualities, amateurs are de-
sirous of possessing it, and not unfrequently

when they have got it, and tested its merits
by personal observation, every hope but
ends in the severest disappointment ; and
the discovery is made, when too late, that
it is one thing to grow and sell, quite ano-
ther to purchase, on the strength of puffs in
advertisements or catalogues, even though
the latter may have reached the 36th edi-
tion.

The writer of the article in the Garde7i-
ers' Journal asks — "what can be done for
the Strawberry, the Raspberry, the Goose-
berry, and the Currant ? " He has yet to
learn what has been done, and does not
dream of the operations that have been go-
ing on in " our own country." He is not
aware, that on this side of the Atlantic a
Nursery exists, " whose accuracy is posi-
tive ;" so positive indeed that a fruit, de-
scribed in the Catalogue of 184-5, as ^"^ first in
flavor and quality," is, in 1847, set down as
^^ loorthlessy We can tell Mr. Tomlinson
that he is likely to come out second best in
his efforts to improve the Currant ; for zoe
take " the climax of European attainment as
the starting point for American develop-
ment." There are Currants growing (seed-
lings, we presume,) in " a nursery" in this
village, " equal to the largest he (Mr. T.)
enumerates, which he does not possess, and

352

ON THE IMPROVEJMENT OF SMALL FRUITS.

probably knows not of." No matter where
they caine from, or how they were pro-
duced ; here they are, and the public will
be able to judge of their qualities in the
course of time, if they do not change their
character too soon.

What has been done for the Strawberry?
A great deal in England and upon the con-
tinent; but, as toe always start from the
" climax'" of attainment by our transatlantic
brethren, it follows that more has been done
here than there. At all events, those who
raise seedlings to sell, say so ; and as their
statements are, perhaps, altogether disinte-
rested, we shall have to believe them. We
have seen the time when it was all " silly
twattle" to talk about male and female
strawberry plants ; but these days have de-
parted, and seedlings innumerable are now
raised by artificial{l) fecundation. There
are several excellent varieties of the Straw-
berry in cultivation, quite good enough for
most people : still, we want better ; and
seeedlings are increasing at a wonderful
rate — all named too — and " excellent" in
qualit}'. Nothing is easier than to originate
tens of thousands of plants from the seed ;
but, " are these experiments conducted with
any special aim ? Are the new sorts bred
with reference to certain desiderata ?" Does
the experimenter look to certain results,
based upon his efTorts at impregnation, in
crossing varieties ? Are the seedlings of-
fered to the public, really hybrids ?

Impregnation is not a process so easily
accomplished as some persons would have
us think. It requires calculation, sagaci-
ty, delicate manipulation, and a sufficient
knowledge of the subject, so as not to fail,
or to create insignificant varieties.

If the small fruits have been, and are to
be improved, there must be some specific
objects presented to the mind for accom-
plishment. What these objects were, with

the growers, wc have no means of judging ;
nor do we know what they are. A gentle-
man in a western state has raised " choice
varieties of new seedling Strawberries, con-
fidently recommended to the public as su-
perior to any heretofore cultivated." By
what process did he raise them ? From
what varieties did they originate ? Was
the seed produced by hybridization by the
hand ? Or was it not impregnated at all ?
or only by the bees ? For aught we know,
these seedlings may have been only acci-
dental ; or, perhaps, the seed of choice va-
rieties may have been saved and sown,
with a view to the selection of improved
sorts. Another grower's varieties are " in-
comparably superior to any others, and no-
where else obtainable." Truly, says the
editor of the Horticulturist, parents are
partial to their own offspring ; " second and
third-rate seedlings are pressed upon public
attention as fruits of the finest quality —
unsurpassed and unsurpassable. The pub-
lic are asked to buy and plant these neto
sorts, which, when fairly proved, turn out
to be of no value, or decidedly inferior to
those already in cultivation." Where is the
improvemoit in cases like these ? Where
the benefit, but to the pockets of those who
sell?

It is admitted that for size, productiveness
and great beautij, no Strawberry on this con-
tinent is superior to Honey's Seedling. It is
altogether the best adapted for general cul-
ture ; and, if with its other qualities we
could say it had the requisite flavor, it
would stand without a rival. The improve-
ment here, would be to supply what was
wanting by a cross with such varieties as
possessed high fia cor ; and not a few such
are cultivated. An attempt of this kind re-
quires some patience and care. The prin-
ciple is obvious, and of general application
with other different sorts ; nor is there a

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF SMALL FRUITS.

353

doubt but tliat the most gratifying success
would ultimately reward the labors of the
cultivator. Mr. A. says his seedlings are
superior to any heretofore cultivated ; so
says Mr. B., and so says everybody else
who has raised seedlings. But is it so ?
Are all the seedling Strawberries, which
have been so liberally eulogized by the
raisers of them, better than any now grown ?
Are they as good ? " Is there good reason,
aside from their neumess, why they should
supplant old sorts in our gardens?" In
what respect do they claim admission among
standard Strawberries ? These queries of
Mr. Beecher are pertinent. We know that
" the fever for originating small fruits" has
set in, in many quarters ; and we " shall be
deluged with novelties," of which nine-
tenths will be no better, if so good, as their
predecessors.

Do those gentlemen, who raise and ad-
vertise their seedling fruits, mean to say
that they are hybrids, — true crosses of esti-
mable varieties, with a view of securing
the valuable properties of both ? We have
said already, that impregnation is not the
easy process some imagine it to be. To ap-
ply the pollen of one flower to the stigma of
another, appears simple enough ; but, sim-
ple as it is, a few precautions are absolutely
necessary. Whether it be " silly twattle"
or not, we assert the pollen to be the male
parent — the stigma, the /emaZe. " The fe-
male flower must be deprived of her sta-
mens, before they burst and disperse their
pollen ; and as soon as the stigma is gluti-
nous enough to hold it fast, the pollen must
be applied with care. Should this care not
be taken, the stigma is very likely to be in-
oculated with the pollen of her own, or some
other flower, and then the pollen which it is
intended to use will not take ; for it is to
be borne in mind, that a stigma once inocu-
lated cannot be inoculated again. From
VOL. II. 45

want of these precautions, people are con-
tinually fancying they have obtained hy-
brids, when they have only gained natxiral
seedlings." This is the process of hybri-
dizing where improved Jlowers are sought
after; and the principle is the same in eve-
ry attempt to obtain a new and valuable
fruit. It is making progress at a snail's
pace to save seeds " with one's own hands,"
though they be " of every estimable varie-
ty," unless they have heen judiciously and
carefully impregnated, to the end that the
good shall become better. The improve-
ment must be looked for with a reasonable
degree of certainty, and not left to be the
result of the merest chance, which it must
necessarily be in selecting one or two natu-
ral seedlings from, perhaps, ten or twenty
thousand.

The Hovey's Seedling \ac\i.s flavor ; how
shall this quality be imparted to it ? It is
a pistillate plant, and must be impregnated
by some other (staminate,) to produce its
fruit. Proceed thus: plant one dozen Ho-
vey's (fine strong plants,) in a frame — four
rows — three in a row. Between these set
out three or four equally fine plants, of
Alice Maude, Swainstone, or any other va-
riety having size and flavor to recommend
it. Grow these plants with due care, and
when the lights are off" or open, protect them
from any intermixture from other sorts by a
covering of gauze ; thus excluding bees or
other insects. When the fruit on the Ho-
vey's, is fully ripe, gather it and wash out
the seeds; plant them at the proper time,
keep them distinct from all others, grow
them as carefully as possible, and look for
the result. A proceeding like this is but
the index to all others, excepting that in
some cases, the fertilization must be artifi-
cially effected between different varieties;
otherwise they will impregnate themselves,
and thus defeat the object contemplated.

354

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF SMALL FRUITS.

Of course, every precaution will be exer-
cised to ensure success ; and our labors are
frequently rewarded by the production of
varieties every way better than their pa-
rents. Hybrids generally partake most
strongly of the parent furnishiiig the pol-
len; it is, therefore, of very great conse-
quence to make the selection with this fact
strongly impressed upon the mind.

What can be done for the Raspberry?
This is rather a difficult question to an-
swer ; for, among the large list of sorts cul-
tivated, there are qualities to be found pret-
ty nearly suited to various tastes. The
writer in the Gardeners'' Journal does not
think that as much improvement is to be
looked for with this fruit as with the others.
In size, appearance, and flavor, the Fastolff,
Franconia and Antwerp^, when well grown,
are as good as Raspberries need be. Whe-
ther or not " the God of Nature planted but
one edible species in the eastern hemis-
phere," is not here a matter of any conse-
quence; the cultivators of Europe have done
their part in improving what they had ; and
our best varieties, at present, are of foreign
growth. True, there are some American
varieties said to be " beautiful and estima-
ble," and of a peculiar colour ; but they are
not better than those specified — perhaps not
so good. Something very promising may
be anticipated by those who read, that a
Long Island nurseryman has " numerous
seedlings, partly hybridized, of the Ameri-
can White, Ohio Monthly, Franconia, and
Red and White Antwerp varieties." It
would be interesting to know how this par-
tial hybridization was effected, and whether
or not there was a definite object sought for
in the experiment.

In two particulars, the Raspberry can cer-
tainly be very much improved, viz., in the
solidity or firmness of the berry, and late-
ness of bearing. The season of this fruit

with the finest kinds, is much too short;
and when fully ripe, they do not bear car*
riage as well as some others not quite as
much esteemed. Very interesting products
might be reasonably anticipated, from fer-
tilizing the Antwerps, Fastolff" and Franco-
nia, with the English double bearing Red,
and the true Alpine. Important results are
far more likely to follow when artificial
means are resorted to, than when the seed
is planted without it ; and the grower relies
altogether on the chances of his seedling
lottery. He may obtain a prize ; but it is
a thousand to one that he does not.

What can be done for the Gooseberry?
If the question were, what has been done
in America, we should be obliged to say —
nothing. In England, this fruit is far more
esteemed and extensively grown than with
us. An improvement would certainly be,
to impart high flavor to the larger sorts.
Quality is as much a desideratum as size,
and much more of a recommendation with
amateurs generally. New forms, lateness
of maturity, and increased size, would all
be regarded as improvements; and "these
results are only waiting the well directed
efforts of some zealous individual to meet a
full realization." In many of our gardens
this fruit mildews badly ; the causes — poor
soil, and a want of uniform moisture at the
root. The remedies are obvious.

What can be done for the Currant ? Why
cannot these be grown as large as grapes,
and as sweet, too ? These properties would
indeed be improvements, and give to the
fruit a character it has never yet possessed.
The largest varieties at present cultivated
with us, will bear no comparison with even
the smallest grapes ; and their flavor is
more or less acid. The Gondouin Red,
Cherry Red, Haughton Castle, and Goliah,
are new varieties, not imported that we
know of, and not of an established charac

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF SMALL FRUITS.

355

er in England. We have grown the Ce-
rise de Touri's one season, but cannot yet
speak of it with confidence. It is figured
in the " A?inales De More et de Pomo?ie,^^
for February, 1844, and if correctly repre-
sented, is the largest Currant known. This
variety, with the Provence's, and the Large
French Whitej would make excellent breed-
ers ; and Currants as large as " small mar-
bles" may yet be produced.

Now if amateurs, gardeners and nursery-
men, will but give the matter of the im-
provement of small fruits their earnest and
well directed attention, results of the most
gratifying character would soon be pro-
duced. " Many persons are deterred from
experiments of this kind, under the impres-
sion that it is a work of magnitude. This
is, to a great extent, erroneous. The idea
has indeed gone forth, and seems to be
widely dispersed, that the per-centage of
improvement among seedling plants is in-
finitessimally small, and that a very large
number must be grown to ofTer even a re-
mote chance of success ; but this idea, doubt-
less, oioes its origin to the too comraon prac-
tice of saving seeds promiscuously, without
regard to impregnation. From such a pro-
geny, little indeed viay he expected : it is a
waste of time and labor to act thus, with the
view of originating improved varieties of any
kind of fruit ; and one carefully fertilized
seed is worth a hundred so obtained. If,
however, the thing be attempted on princi-
ple, it becomes an easy task ; and not only
is the labor lightened, but the chances of a
satisfactory result are at the same time
greatly increased. Suppose one hundred
gardeners were each to fertilize one Straw-
berry blossom, according to their own ideas
of what blending of varieties would consti-
tute an improvement ; the trouble of doing
so would be so trifling as not to be worthy
of mention, while it is probable that even

the first results would be important. But
in these matters we must not be satisfied
with first results ; a second or third cross of
the hybrid with the male parent, (if the lat-
ter be well chosen,) would most likely re-
sult in considerable further improvement."
" The practice under consideration may,
however, be perverted. The perversion we
refer to, is that of naming and distributing
seedling fruits that really do not possess any
property superior to those of older and well
known kinds. This must always be de-
precated. If those who raise seedlmg fruits
do not know their true worth, they should
submit them to competent judges. The
probability of varieties, perhaps good in
themselves, but not better than the older
sorts, being passed off as possessing superior
properties, is so great, that every raiser of
seedling fruits should set his face against
the practice. Our fruit lists are already
encumbered with too many such — all not a
jot better, and many actually worse, than
those whose place they would occup}-. In
cases where varieties are obtained that re-
ally do possess superior, though slightly im-
proved properties, it would be better to re-
tain such as breeders, than to propagate and
sell them for general cultivation. The hor-
ticultural world need not be troubled with
results iintil something decidedly good and
distinct has beenobtai7ied.'^ We go further,
and say — that these novelties should never
be sold, or in anyway disseminated, unless
proved to be better than the best varieties
now cultivated. A nurseryman has justly
remarked, in his Catalogue for 1847, that
" nothing can he more silly than for each one
who raises a seedling Strawberry, to forth-
with annmcnce it as ' superior to all others,
Sfc.'' when they have seen but few of the best
varieties.'''' We fear, however, that silly
though it be, some nurserj-men have done
the very thing so judiciously condemned.

356

NEW OR RARE FRUITS.

These things have no good tendency ; on
the contrary, they are only productive of
evil.

Experimental hybridization is best con-
ducted on a limited scale. One case of
cross-breeding, carefully wrought out, on
correct principles, is more pregnant with
really useful and valuable consequences
than a thousand promiscuous ones, or a
hundred carelessly prosecuted, while, of
course, the labor and trouble attending the
experiments, becomes lessened in propor-
tion.

Thus reasons an able writer. We have
italicised a few remarks to give them force,
and somewhat altered the phraseology of a
line or two. What has been done for the
small fruits, and what may be done by our
gardeners and amateurs, time will show;
and, it will also show, that a large majority
of the so called magnificent and incompara-
bly superior varieties — so styled by the au-
thors of their origin — are not worth grow-
ing.

Wm. W. Valk, m. d.

Flushing, L. I., December 30, 1847.

NEW OR RARE FRUITS.

I. THE MELON APPLE.

Among all the new dessert ap-
ples that have been originated
in this country, within the last
few years, and the number is
not small, we consider two va-
rieties, which have been intro-
duced to public notice from Ro-
chester, N.Y., as especially de-
serving the attention of all cul-
tivators. The first of these is
the Northern Spy, with which
our readers are already famil-
iar ; the second is the Melon.
Both have added to usual good
qualities, one characteristic ex-
cellence in great perfection, viz., exceeding
freshness of flavor, juiciness, and crispness.
The Northern! Spy is universally popular,
where it is known, as a late winter, or
spring fruit ; and the Melon apple deserves
to be held in equally high estimation as

* This fruit was first noticed by Mr. Barry, in the Cultiva-
tor as Norton's Melon. It is also called, by some cultivators,
the Watermelon apple ; but the latter name is applied to ano-
ther variety.

Fig. a.— The Melon Apple.

one of the most delicious and valuable of
early winter fruits.

Specimens of Melon apple were sent us
this autumn by Wm. R. Smith, of Mace-
don, N. Y., who is familiar with all the
finest standard apples grown in this coun-
try. In a subsequent letter, Mr. Smith
says, in reply to our high commenda-

NEW OR RARE FRUITS.

357

tions of it — " It is difficult to form a cor-
rect judgment of a fruit from a few spe-
cimens. You need to be domiciled in its
company for a month or more, to give time
for the novelty to wear off", and to ascertain
whether first impressions are permanent.
We have been using this fine apple for
some time ; and, among a large variety of
first rate kinds, we place this at the head
of the list of early winter apples."

The oldest known trees of the Melon ap-
ple, are in the old Chapin orchard, East
Bloomfield, N. Y. Oliver Chapin, jr., has
informed our correspondent just quoted,
that his father used to say, that " the kind
was brought from Salisbury, Connecticut."
But, we understand, there is no fruit of this
kind known in Connecticut;
and from certain strong traits
of resemblance between this
and the Northern Spy apple,
which originated in the Cha-
pin orchard, we suspect that
they are both seedlings from
the same source.

The following is a correct
description of the Melon ap-
ple :

Fruit of medium or large
size, roundish-flattened, pret-
ty regularly formed, surface
shining, but a little uneven.
Skin fair — the gound colour
of a pale yellowish white,
prettily marked with broken
streaks of pale purple in the
shade, and striped thickly
with rich dark purple on the sunny side.
Stalk about three-fourths of an inch lono-,
rather slender, inserted in a wide round
cavity, which is marked with greenish rus-
set. Calyx closed, set in a deep basin,
which is wide, finely plaited at the bottom.
Flesh white, fine grained, at once crisp and

tender, and exceedingly juicy, (somewhat
like a watermelon in these respects,) and
with a remarkably refreshing, sprightly and
delicious flavor — a fine mingling of sweet
and acid. Core rather close ; seeds rather
small, broad and black. Season, October
to December.

Altogether, we regard this fruit, in point
of form, size, beauty, and refreshing deli-
cious flavor, as one of the first dessert ap-
ples. Amateurs may, we presume, procure
trees of Mr. Smith, of Macedon, or El-
WANGER & Barry, of Rochester, N. Y.

II. THE TOMPKINS APPLE.

A large, handsome and productive au-
tumn apple ; superior in flavor to the

Fig. 45. — The Tompkins Apple.

Porter, and nearly equal in this respect to
the Fall Pippin. It is, we learn, a native
of Tompkins county, in this state, and is
well known in Ithaca, whence it was first in-
troduced to our notice by Mr. Chas. Hamil-
ton, nurseryman, of Canterbury, Orange
county. New- York. We commend it, with

358

NOTICES OF NEW OR RARE PLANTS

confidence, to the notice of amateurs and
collectors of good fruit.

Fruit large, oblong, rather angular,
and slightly ribbed near the eye. Skin
smooth, golden yellow at maturity, with
numerous scattered gray dots. Stalk
short, rather slender, planted in a cavity
which is deep and rather narrow. Ca-
lyx small, closed, set in a deep, plaited
basin. Core large, hollow, in which the
small seeds rattle when the fruit is sha-
ken. Flesh white, tender, of a lively,
agreeable and rather rich sub-acid flavor.
October and November.

in. THE BEURRE d'aNJOU PEAR.

A noble fruit, we believe of French
origin. We gave a brief description of
it in our work on Fruits, and remarked,
that though placed as, perhaps, synony-
mous with the Brown Beurre by Thomp-
son, it had been proved, in this country, to
be quite distinct.

To the President of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society, we owe the first in-
troduction of this fruit to American gar-
dens. It has borne, in his collection, now
for five years. We have, ourselves, tasted
specimens three years successively; and
can agree with Col. Wilder in considering

Fig. 46. — The Beurre ifAnjou Pear.

it one of the very finest new autumn pears
that has yet been received from European
collections. Its large size, productiveness,
and the fair appearance, and delicious fla-
vor of the fruit, cannot fail to make it wor-
thy of a trial, even in small and select col-
lections of fruit, in all parts of the country.
It is in perfection in October and Novem-
ber ; and the fruit keeps well.

NOTICES OF NEW OR RARE PLANTS.

FROM THE FOREIGN PERIODICALS.

The gardening'world is certainly indebted
to Mr. Robert Fortune, the collector of the
London Horticultural Society, for some of
the most valuable acquisitions. First in
universal value, among all the plants
brought out by him from China, we may
rank some hardy shrubs, which, having
been distributed by the Horticultural So-

ciety, are now to be seen among the finest
novelties of the shrubbery in England, and
are just beginning to find their way to the
United States. Of these the three follow-
ing shrubs may be particularly recommend-
ed to the attention of our readers, as likely
to prove exceedingly ornamental, and quite
hardy in the latitude of New- York.

NOTICES OF NEW OR RARE PLANTS.

359

Viburnum macrocephalum. Great clus-
tered Siwioball. We find a description of
this species, accompanied by a large plate,
in Van Houtte's Flore des Serves. It was

Fig. 47 — Clriat Clustered Snow-baU.

found growing in the gardens about Chu-
san, China, where it forms a shrub or tree
20 feet high. It flowers every year in
May — producing its enormous clusters,
which equal those of the old garden Snow-
hall, or " Guelder Rose," in purity of co-
lour, and far eclipses them in size and
beauty. Each blossom is more than an
inch across, and the clusters measure 8 or
10 inches in diameter. The leaves are re-
gularly oval, with short petioles, and are
about 3 inches long. It flourishes in the
open border in the same soil as the com-
mon Snowball, and M. Van Houtte con-
siders it one of the most beautiful additions
lately made to the shrubbery.
Forsythia viRiDissiiMA. The Deep-green

Forsythia. This very ornamental shrub is
a great favorite with the Chinese, and is
found in all the gardens of the rich in the
north of China. Mr. Fortune describes it
as growing 8 or 10 feet high in that part of
the Empire, forming a compact, deep-green,
deciduous shrub, with long, opposite leaves,
which emit a slight balsamic odour, and
from their smoothness and rich, deep tint,
are very handsome. It is remarkable in
autumn for the number of large, promi-
nent buds, which are scattered along the
young shoots produced the summer before.
Early in spring these buds, which are
flower-buds, gradually unfold themselves,
and present a profusion of bright yellow
blossoms all over the shrub, which is high-
ly ornamental. These golden flowers con-
trast happily with the rich crimson of the
Pyrus japmiica, as they bloom at the same
time. It is easily propagated by cuttings
or layers, and is a free growing plant in the
open border.

Weigela rosea. The Rose-colored Wei-
gela. This exquisite shrub is one of IVlr.
Fortune's prizes from the Mandarin's gar-
den. We are very desirous to prove it in
the United States, as we are confident, from
its growing in the north of China, that it
will prove quite hardy here. It has bloom-
ed in the garden of the London Horticultu-
ral Society, and they have published a
plate in their Transactions, (of which the
accompanying cut is a diminished copy.)
This plate represents it as bearing nume-
rous clusters of lovely flowers, each blos-
som more than an inch in diameter, pure
white within, and deep rose-colour with-
out.

" When I first discovered this beautiful
plant," says Mr. Fortune, " it was grow-
ing in a Mandarin's garden, on the island
of Chusan, and literally loaded with its
fine rose-coloured flowers, which hung in

360

NOTICES OF NEW OR RARE PLANTS.

Fig. 48. — The Rose-coloured Weigela.

graceful bunches from the axils of the
leaves and the ends of the branches.
Every one saw and admired the beautiful
Weigela. I immediately marked it as one
of the finest plants of northern China, and
determined to send plants of it home in
every ship, until I should hear of its safe
arrival.

" It forms a neat bush, not unlike a Sy-
ringa (PhiladelpJu/s) in habit, deciduous in
winter, and flowering in the months of April
and May. One great recommendation to
it is, that it is a plant of the easiest culti-
vation. Cuttings strike readily any time
during the winter and spring months, with
ordinary attention, and the plant itself
grows well in any common garden soil. It
should be grown in this country, as it is in
China, not tied up in that formal, unnatural
way in which we frequently see plants
brought to our exhibitions, but a main stem
or two chosen for leaders, which, in their
turn, throw out branches from their sides,
and then, when the plant comes into bloom,
the branches, which are loaded with beau-

tiful flowers, hang down in graceful and
natural festoons."*

DiELYTRA si'ECTABiLis. S/iowy Fumitory.
This plant is, beyond all comparison, the
handsomest of the natural order Fume-
worts. It does not appear to have been in-
troduced into England in a living state,
until Mr. FoKTUNE brought it home from
China.

When well-grown, its stems are 1^ foot
high, and have three or four axillary ra-
cemes of beautiful flowers, each raceme
being from 4 to 6 inches long. The flowers
are full an inch long, and nearly | wide,
with two saccate petals, of a delicate rose
colour, and the intervening ones white,
with a purple tip.

This is one of the plants of which the
Chinese Mandarins are so passionately fond,
and which they cultivate with so much
pride in their little fairy-like gardens. Its
Chinese name is Hon-pak-Moutan-wha, or
" red and white Flower of Moutan." The
Chinese botanists do not draw the cha-
racters of their genera from the flowers
like ourselves, but from the habit of the
plant. In this the leaves are disposed like
those of the Tree Pa^ony, {P. Mouta?i) and
the colours of the flowers are red and
white. The Dielytraspectabilis, more near-
ly resembles, in growth and culture, the
well-known herbaceous plant, D.formosa,
than any other species, but is a much more
beautiful ornament to the flower garden.

As Mr. Fortune informs us that this
charming plant grows as far north as the
frontiers of Siberia, there can be no doubt
that it will prove perfectly hardy in North
America.

Campanula nobilis. The Nolle Cam-
panula. Judging from the plate of this

* We trust that these tliree free-growing and very orna-
inem;il Chinese shubs, the Forsythia, Viburnum and Weigela,
will soon be propagated and offered for sale by our leading
nurserymen. V\' e observe that they are now to be had of
the London commercial gardeners, at three shillings sterling
each. — Ed.

NOTICES OF NEW OR RARE PLANTS.

361

fine new Chinese species, in the Flore des Serres, it is one
of the most beautiful of Campanulas. The flowers are 3
inches long, of a lively violet-purple on the outside, and pale
purple or nearly white, within. The stem and leaves are
hairy, and in general aspect this new Campanula somewhat
resembles the Canterbury-bell, though in its larger habit, (the
flower-stalks growing 3 feet high) and the form and colour
of its blossoms, as well as in its perennial habit, it is very
distinct.

M. Van Houtte expects this Campanula to prove quite
hardy, and informs us that it is easily cultivated, and propa-
gates itself easily by seeds.

DiPLADENiA SPLENDENS. Sple7idid Dipladenia. Perhaps
there is hardly a family of stove climbing plants more splen-
did than the Echites, when well-grown ; indeed, whether the
plants are skilfully cultivated or not, the floAvers, when they
are produced, are in most cases grand and striking. The
Dipladenias form a group of species which botanists have
found it convenient to detach from the extensive family of
Echites : several of them are popular plants at the present
day, among which are the species whose name heads these
remarks, (and which is — not well — repre-
sented in the engraving,) D crassinoda,
a good deal like it, but perhaps a better
species on the whole for cultural purposes ;
and D. atropurpurea, which, with the same
habit of growth, has flowers of a rich deep
purplish tint.

Vol. II. 46

Fig. 49. — SpUntlid Dipladenia.

Our present subject may be popularly
described as follows : — Stem shrubby, vigo-
rous, and growing to a considerable length,
smooth, and round. Leaves nearly stalk-
less, wavy, somewhat leathery, elliptic-ac-
cuminate, with a heart-shaped base, from

362

NOTICES OF NEW OR RARE PLANTS.

four to eight inches long, and from one and
a half to three inches broad ; they are pu-
bescent, especially on the under side, and
the veining is prominent. Flowers very
showy, in axillary four to six-flowered ra-
cemes, longer than the leaves ; the tube of
the corolla is about an inch and a half long,
with a large spreading limb of five round-
ish, rose-coloured lobes, each having a small
oblique point ; these blossoms are produced
in the summer months.

The species is a native of the Organ
mountains of Brazil, from whence it ap-
pears to have been first obtained for our
gardens by Mr. Lobb, the botanical collec-
tor to Messrs. Veitch, of Exeter : it was
introduced about 1841. It belongs to the
natural order Apocynacece.

In cultivation, this species of Dipladenia,
in common with the others, requires stove
temperature, and a moist atmosphere when
making its growth ; it is, moreover, much
benefited by mild bottom heat, that is, heat
applied to its roots. Being a strong grower,
plenty of pot-room must be allowed to ob-
tain a good plant, but the pots must be
thoroughly drained ; a compost of equal
parts turfy loam and peat, opened if neces-
sary by the addition of sand, will be a pro-
per medium for its roots. If grown in a
pot, spiral training round a pillar-trellis is
most suitable ; or should any devotee of
flat, shield, or peacock's-tail trellises, be-
come possessed of the plant under notice,
if he will but attempt to train it over one
or other of these forms — it may help to
lead him to a better taste in this respect.
It may be increased by cuttings, planted in
sand and placed in a mild hotbed, where
they may be kept moderately close until
rooted. [Hort. Mag.]

PiEONiA MouTAN piCTA. The Painted
Tree P(Bony. A new variety of the Tree
Pseony, sent from China in 1844, by Mr.

Fortune. Leaves dull bluish-green, not
veined or tinged with purple ; in breadth, less
than some varieties : flower, the size of P.
Moutan rosea, and with something of its
appearance, but more semi-double : petals
with a rose-colored ground, streaked, stain-
ed and veined with rich deep rose, towards
the edges, especially in the inside ; rather
ragged at the points, something in the man-
ner of Parrot Tulips. It appears to be as
hardy as P. Moutan rosea, and to require a
rich sandy-loam to grow in, but protection
is advisable in spring. It will be increased
by grafting on the roots of PcEonia albijlora,
or by dividing the old plants when large
enough, and in a dormant state. It is very
handsome. [^Journal of the London Hort. Soc]

HoLLBtiLLiA AccuMiNATA. This is a new
evergreen twining plant, from the East In-
dies, with quite the habit of H. latifolia,
from which it differs, in having very taper-
pointed leaflets, racemes whose stalks are
much shorter than the leaf-stalks, and pur-
plish flowers, not half the size : like that
plant, it is deliciously fragrant. Hitherto,
only male flowers have been produced.

It has been treated as a hardy green-house
climbing plant, but it is probably hardy. It
grows freely in a mixture of sandy-loam
and rough peat, and is increased by cut-
tings. Its sweet-scented flowers, resembling
those of the orange in perfume, and nearly
evergreen foliage, make it a very desirable
plant, either in the green-house or the open
air. {^Journal Hort. <Soc.]

Thibaudia pulcherrima. Beautiful Thi-
baudia. This superb green-house plant,
figured in the Flore des Serres for July,
1847, is well calculated to excite the admi-
ration of all lovers of showy and half-hardy
exotics. It is a vigorous growing shrub,
with large and thick lanceolate leaves,
and pale, smooth branches, which, at the
flowering season, are thickly loaded or

Fig. 1.

Fig. 4. Fig 3

DESIGNS FOR RUSTIC BUILDINGS.

[Hon: Feb., 1848.]

HINTS AND DESIGNS FOR RUSTIC WORK.

563

studded with clusters of beautitul bell-
shaped flowers. Each of these flowers is
an inch long, richl}' variegated and marked
with crimson and pale green. The inter-
nal structure of the flower is both elegant
and curious.

This plant comes from Northern India.
Van Houtte informs us that, planted out
in a Camellia house, this plant, with him,
two years planted, began to bloom in De-
cember, and furnished a succession of blos-
soms until the middle of April. " Planted
out in the border of a conservatory, the
Thibaudia will be one of its principal orna-
ments, both by the great number and the
elegantly varied colour of its flowers."

LiEBiGiA spEciosA. Elegant Liehigia.
This most elegant new plant, from Java,
has been named in honour of Baron Lie-
big, the great chemist. It is a new ge-
nus— to the ordinary observer, something
between a Gloxinia and a Pentstemon. The
flowers are parti-coloured, pure white, ex-
quisitely marked with deep blue, on the up-
per part of the corolla. The leaves are
large, oblong, accuminate : the plant grows

quite erect, with a branching stem, and its
handsome habit, and the great number of
blossoms which it bears, in fascicles, at
every joint, render it a very attractive ob-
ject. It grows freely in rich soil, with the
same culture as Gesneras and Gloxinias,
and blooms during a considerable part of
the season. We hope soon to hear of its
introduction into the United States,

Cereus grandiflorus maynardi. May-
nard's Cereus. A very fine new hybrid
Cereus, raised in England, which we find
figured in Paxtoii's Magazine. It is a true
cross, obtained by fertilizing the pistil of
Cereus speciosissifna, with the pollen of C.
grandijlorus, the Night-blooming Cereus.
The properties of the two parents are strik-
ingly embodied in the offspring — for jMay-
nard's Cereus has the roundish stem and
peculiar habit of growth of the Night-
blooming Cereus, with the rich colour of
its mother plant. Unlike the Night-bloom-
ing Cereus, and like C. spedosissivms, the
flowers last several days ; and they are
produced in all the abundance which dis-
tinguishes the latter variety. The diame-
ter of the flowers is nine or ten inches.

HINTS AND DESIGNS FOR RUSTIC BUILDINGS.

It must be a very highly finished scene,
and a garden where all the details are in
a ver}' decided and ornate style of art, in
which marble temples, statues, or even high-
ly finished pavilions and summer-houses,
may be introduced with harmony and pro-
priety.

Hence, it is only in the first class of coun-
try residences, where the mansion or vil-
la, and all its accessories, are in a high style
of art, that classically embellished struc-
tures, or sculptural ornaments enter, with
good taste, into the decoration of the gar-
den or landscape scenery.

But the more humble and simple cottage
grounds, the rural walks of (We fernie ornec,
and the modest garden of the suburban
amateur, have also their ornamental ob-
jects and rural buildings — in their place,
as charming and spirited as the more ariis-
tical embellishments which surround the
palladian villa.

These are the seats, bowers, grottoes
and arbors, of rustic work — than which
nothing can be more easily and economically
constructed, nor can add more to the rural
or picturesque expression of the scene.

Those simple buildings, often construct-

364

HINTS AND DESIGNS FOR RUSTIC WORK.

ed only of a few logs and twisted limbs of
trees, are in good keeping with the simplest
or the grandest forms of nature. However
wild the scene, wherever the foot-path of
the rambler is seen, there the rustic seat is
never obtrusive or unmeaning — in the quiet
nooks of the garden, amid its flowers and
shrubbery, the rustic-covered arbor, partly
rlothed with climbing plants, is an object
of beauty. The terminus of a long walk,
otherwise unmeaning, is in no way more
easily rendered satisfactory and agreeable,
than by a picturesque place of repose ; and
the charms of a commanding hill, where
the eye wanders over a grand panorama,
is rarely so happily improved, as by being
crowned with a rustic pavilion, which seems
as the shelter and resting place of modern
Gilpins, " in search of the picturesque."

The construction of ornamental rustic
buildings is so easy, that any workman, ac-
customed to the use of the saw and ham-
mer, may, with a little practice, soon be-
come a " master builder." The chief merit
of these structures lies, of course, in the
design or plan. As a contribution to the
stock of ideas of the novice in rustic work,
we have offered a few sketches in our
Frontispiece of this month — all of which
may be improved upon by the adept in rus-
tic buildings.

Fig. 1, is a design for a Rustic Well-
house ; Fig. 2, is an octagonal Rustic Pa-
vilion for an eminence ; Fig. 3, is a Rustic
Arbor for a nook in the shrubbery ; and
Fig. 4, is a Rustic Alcove, to be placed at
the end of a garden walk.

Two or three practical hints here, may
be found of service to the beginner. Most
rustic work is quite perishable, when fully
exposed to the action of the weather, and
particularly to storms, in this climate. But
if all buildings of this kind are protected
by a close roof, that projects on all sides

from one to three feet, this rustic work will
endure for many years in a perfect condi-
tion.

When rustic work is necessarily exposed
to the weather, as in the case of open seats,
bridges, and the like, the bark should be
stripped from the branches composing it,
and a couple of coats of bark-coloured paint
applied to the surface of the limbs. What
is still better, is to construct exposed pieces
of rustic work of trunks and branches of
the Red Cedar, {Juniperus virginica) a tree
very common in the valley of the Hudson,
and some other parts of the country. This,
either with or without the bark, will en-
dure rnany years.

The favorite mode of covering rustic
buildings in England, is to thatch them with
straw, (as represented in Figs. 2 and 4.)
This, if neatly done, has a good effect.
Another very picturesque roof, is made by
overlaying a common roof of matched floor-
plank, with pieces of oak or hemlock bark,
as shown in Fig. 3. The rustic well-house ,
Fig. 1, is roofed with shingles, the lower
ends of which are pointed before laying
them on, so as to form a diamond pattern.

The " dead wall," or interior portion
of rustic buildings, is usually ornamented
or finished by a sort of mosaic work, form-
ed of small, strait poles, with the bark on ;
these poles are halved, and then nailed on
a ground work of rough boards, with the
bark side out. If poles of different species
of trees, with strongly contrasting barks,
such as the white and black birch, are cho-
sen, and a little taste employed, a very
pretty effect may be given to this kind of
rustic inlaid work.

Another very complete mode of finishing
the interior of a rustic building, is to line
it throughout with the fine soft evergreen
moss, to be found in thick woods. For this
purpose, narrow, slender, strait poles or

ON THE BLIGHTS OF THE PEAR TREE

365

shoots are chosen ; one of these is nailed on
the ground work, a line or layer of the moss
closely laid upon it, and one end rammed
beneath it, the other projecting out beyond
it ; then another rod is nailed down above
this, and again a layer of moss. This is
repeated till the surface to be covered is
completed. The whole appears thickly tuft-
ed with moss, which is shorn to an even

surface, and 'being held in its place by the
rods, it makes a very pretty and unique
drapery for the walls.

In a country with the long winters of the
Northern States, there are frequently leisure
hours, when rustic work may form an agree-
able occupation and amusement for the gar-
dener; and we leave the subject, with these
few hints, in his own hands.

ON THE BLIGHTS OF THE PEAR TREE.

BY T. W. HARRIS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

It seems to have been taken for granted,
by many persons, that the pear tree is sub-
ject only to one kind of blight. Hence
have arisen the conflicting theories and
speculations that have been published on
this subject. Having no theory to main-
tain, and no speculations to offer, but such
as are founded on facts. I propose to show
that insect-blight is a disease distinct from
fire'hlight oxidi frozen sap-blight.

By the term visect-hlight , as here used,
must be understood the sudden withering
of the leaves, and the death of the limbs of
the pear tree in summer, occasioned by the
internal attacks of one or more of the in-
sects, called Scolytus Pyri by Professor
Peck. This kind of blight is common in
New-England ; but it does not appear to
exist, or to have been observed, in the
western states, where, however, blights of
the pear tree, somewhat similar in pro-
gress, and equally fatal in termination, pre-
vail more or less every year. Blights,
which are not the result of insect attacks,
inasmuch as insects have never been de-
tected in the blighted limbs, occasionally
affect pear trees in New-England. Some
of my own trees have been thereby de-
stroyed ; and the most careful examination

has failed to disclose any trace of insect
depredation in them. On the other hand,
numerous opportunities for seeing the ef-
fects of insect blight, and of dissecting spe-
cimens of Scolytus Pyri from the blighted
limbs, enable me to declare confidently that
the diseases are specifically distinct from
each other ; as much so as small-pox and
measles. It is not my purpose to discuss
the question, whether fire-blight and frozen
sap-blight, or winter-blight, be identical;
the contrast between them and insect-blight
being what is now to be attempted.

The effects of insect-blight begin to ap-
pear in June, and continue through July;
but the foundation of the disease may be
traced to the operations of the parent insect
during the previous summer. If all the
limbs that were killed by insect-blight in
the summer of 1847, could have been exa-
mined during the latter part of the summer
of 1846, there would have been found in-
sects in them, in the larva or grub state,
eating their way from the buds, where the
eggs were deposited, inwards, through the
bark and sap wood. These insects continu-
ed the work of destruction till the following
spring, when they were transformed to bee-
tles, and finally came forth from their bur-

366

ON THE BLIGHTS OF THE PEAR TREE.

rows. The insects, therefore, preceded
the appearance of the disease nearly a
twelvemonth ; from which follows the in-
■evitable conclusion, that the hlight of the
limbs was the natural consequence of their
previous attacks.

To suppose that the female Scolytus Py-
ri, by anticipation, deposits her eggs only
on those limbs which are to become affected
by fire-blight, or by frozen sap-blight, is un-
warrantable ; because none of these insects
have been found in limbs that have perished
by these kinds of blight, and consequently
none could have existed in them during the
previous summer. Hence, it follows that
these blights are not caused by the attacks
of Scolytus Pyri.

Observation sufficiently proves that this
insect attacks young and thrifty trees, ex-
hibiting no visible signs of disease or de-
cay. As the young Scolytus is found in
limbs that were apparently in a thrifty state
during the previous summer, the parent in-
sect, though not indued with the power to
foresee frozen sap-blight during the follow-
ing winter, or fire-blight the next summer,
must have had some instinctive perception
of the nature and actual condition of the
tree on which she deposited her eggs ; and,
in performing this act, she would not have
been left to blind chance. As the Scolytus
lays her eggs on sound and thrifty limbs, it
follows that she does so from choice ; and,
hence, it is fair to conclude that she would
not voluntarily lay her eggs on unhealthy
or diseased limbs, so long as she could find
those that were healthy. Therefore, the
opinion is untenable that the insects, found
within the diseased limbs of the pear tree,
are not the cause of the disease, but that
they are attracted thither by the previous
existence of the disease.

It should be remembered that the Scoly-
tus Pyri requires a year, or thereabouts,

to complete its transformations. In those
limbs that perished by insect-blight in the
summer of 1847, the seeds of the fatal dis-
ease were sown by the parent Scolytus, in
the summer of 1846. Those limbs that
perished by fire-blight during the last sum-
mer, according to the theory of Mr, Cox
and Mr. Ernst, must have been sun-struck
during the same summer. Those limbs
that perished by frozen sap-blight, accord-
ing to the theory of Mr. Beecher, had their
death blow dealt to them during the previ-
ous winter. If the theories advanced by
the above named gentlemen be correct, as
to the time of attack, the specific difference
in these three cases of disease is obvious.
The occurrence of the insects in lirnbs de-
stroyed by fire-blight, or frozen sap-blight,
would be an exception to the natural order
of things. But, even on the unproven
and unnatural supposition that insect-blight
might, for a time, coexist with other blights,
it is evident that the attack of the insects
must have preceded the disease. Insect-
blight, therefore, differs essentially and spe-
cifically from fire-blight and frozen sap-
blight, in origin and duration.

" What can we reason but from what we know."

Had the history of the Scolytus Pyri been
well known and duly considered, the blight
produced by the attacks of the insect would
never have been mistaken for fire-blight, or
frozen sap-blight. The mistake has arisen
from taking too much for granted, and
from not considering the possibility or pro-
bability that diseases, having some symp-
toms in common, and alike ending fatally,
might be really and essentially distinct
from each other.

It may not be generally known that ap-
ple, apricot and plum trees are attacked by
the Scolytus Pyri, though less frequently
than pear trees. In the latter part of May,

ON THE CULTUHE OF TALL OR CLIMBING ROSES.

367

1843, a piece of the limb of an apple tree,
affected by the iScolijtus, was brought to
me for examination. It was twenty-eight
inches in length, and three quarters of an
inch in diameter at the lower end. Its
surface bore the marks of twenty buds —
thirteen of which were perforated by the
insects; and, from the burrows within, I
took twelve of the blight-beetles in a living
state; the thirteenth having previously been
cut out. In July, 1844, 1 took one of these
beetles on a plum tree ; and, in August fol-
lowing, I found a large number of them in
some pieces of a blighted branch of the
apricot.

To check the increase of this kind of in-
sect-blight, it is not enough to cut off the
infected limbs. The insects contained in
these limbs must be destroyed ; for, if they
are suffered to make their escape, they will
certainly continue to propagate the disease.
To make sure of the destruction of the in-

sects, every limb affected by them should
be cut off and immediately burned, as soon
as the existence of the disease is discovered.
I am, dear sir, yours very truly,

Thaddeus Wm. Harris.

Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 7, 1843.

[There is no vegetable malady in which
the cultivator of fruit trees, in America, is
so much interested at present as the pear
tree blight. To wage successful war against
it, nothing is so important as to have a clear
and distinct idea of the different forms of
the disease, and their origin.

The foregoing remarks, from Dr. Harris,
whose able work on our "Insects Injurious
to Vegetation," has established his reputa-
tion, not merely as a scientific entomolo-
gist, but one who labors to render science
directly applicable to the dail)^ requisitions
of the cultivator of the soil, are most ac-
ceptable at the present moment. Ed.]

ON THE CULTURE OF TALL OR CLIMBING ROSES.]
BY MR. A, FORSYTH, ALTON TOWERS, ENGLAND.*

If we wish to convey correct ideas of plants,
we must adhere to botanical descriptions,
and not to terms used in common conversa-
tion ; for we find the term tree used in
speaking of ligneous, herbaceous, and even
annual plants. We have tree-paeony, tree-
violet, and even tree-mignonette : no won-
der, then, that we should have tree-roses.

The standard rose is generally termed a
tree-rose ; and; before we go further with
the subject, it may be necessary to state,
that " when the branches are perennial,
and supported upon a trunk, a tree is said
to be formed. "t

If I recollect rightlj', Loudon has some-
where set the boundary mark for a tree at
from " four to six inches diameter, with a sin-
gle bole or stem." Now there are rose-plants
here with stems 6 inches in diameter ; still

• From the Journal of the London Hort. Society,
t Luulley':! Introd uction tu Botany.

these dimensions do not constitute them rose-
trees ; for the common laurel will attain a
diameter of six feet, and form an enormous
head, yet the normal form of the laurel, as
well as that of the rose, is decidedly a
shrub ; and accordingly in botanical works
we find them constantly so named. The
largest rose-plant to be met with, scarcely
amounts to the character of a small tree,
{arhiiscidvs) by any reasonable stretch of
courtesy. But I am reminded' to get rose-
plants with the appearance at least, and with
the size of head of a tree, (arbor) aye, even
of such a tree as the princely cedar, so
graphically portrayed by Exekiel in his vi-
sion of the fall of the kings of Egypt and
Assyria ; and if the fall of such a tree be
terrible to behold, surely its standing clad
with roses, would be majestic and goodly
fair to see.

368

ON THE CULTURE OF TALL OR CLIMBING ROSES.

The rose is unquestionably the most po-
pular flower known, and its geographical
range embraces, according to Loudon, (Arb.
Brit.) Europe, and the temperate regions of
Asia, Africa, and America: in all these it
is said to be found wild, but not in Austra-
lia. Now I have it from an eye-witness,*
that in the wilds of Australia the rose is
seen in abundance, in the form of sweet-
briar ; it seems, therefore, to be as univer-
sally distributed as it is universally admired.
From the language of holy writ it is clear
that the rose was held in high esteem in the
days of King Solomon ; for if we compare
the sentence, "I am the rose of Sharon,"
as rendered by King James' translators,
Avith the same sentence in the Douay ver-
sion of the Bible, " I am the flower of the
field," and add the sentence, " I was exalt-
ed as a rose-plant in Jericho," (Eccles.
xxiv. 18) we may conclude that in the val-
ley of the Jordan there were fields of roses,
and that the rose was there held in such
favour as bordered on veneration, and this
8000 years before our day. In Geramb's
Pilgrimage to Palestine in 1831, we find
the following passages : — " The plain of
Sharon which I traversed, so extolled in
Scripture, was enamelled with flowers," —
" Rama, nearly on the borders of the plain
of Sharon, is in a delightful situation," —
" The weather was brilliant, and reminded
me of the beautiful spring days of Italy ;"
and farther on he adds, that in climbing the
hills of Judea, " where there is not a trace
of a road or of a plant save a few olive
trees and some oaks, and these look as if
scathed with the lightning; the eye, sad-
dened with the sterility of the soil, needed
some relief, and he turned from this scene
of rocks piled one upon another, to look
back at that beautiful plain of Sharon and
the sea which bounds it." We may now
see the force of the phrase in the inspired
song, "I am the rose of Sharon;" for if
Sharon be thus lovely in ruin and under
oppression, and after earthquakes, plagues,
and plunderings, surely its rosy morn and
its palmy day must have been glorious.

The Romans are said to have rioted
among roses, and throughout Christen-
dom the rose has constantly been cultivated
around the dwellings of both rich and poor.

* Bishop Wilson, o: Ilobart Town.

We read glowing descriptions of " Syria,
land of roses,'''' yet we find, from the clear-
est evidence, that England boasts many a
splendid rose, unknown and unsurpassed in
Syria. The materials are in our own hands,
and therefore there is no reasonable cause
to hinder us from realizing fields of roses,
aye, and trees of roses large as our wishes.
I need not say that this cannot be accom-
plished if we are to confine our ideas of a
rose-tree to the tuft of tiny rose-twigs on
a dog-rose stem tied to an iron poker or a
square stick, whose outline (especially in
winter) resembles that of a besom, with the
handle in the earth and the brush-part in
the air.

Let no one imagine that I wish to speak
slightingly of the ordinary culture of roses.
I only wish to push the subject far beyond
its present limits, to carry roses into fresh
pastures, and unite them to living stakes or
props, as " vines are wedded to their elms"
in Portugal and Spain.

The ivy, standing in its own strength, is
but a sorry shrub, and when unassisted with
props, or unattended with culture, it only
creeps and clambers, a lowly, uninteresting
evergreen, forming a monotonous mass of
dense and dingy foliage, draining the earth
of moisture and nourishment, and thereby
starving outright every vegetable in its vi-
cinity which it had failed to choke wdth its
fleece of leaves ; yet we find the ivy, as at
Wrotham Park, for example, standing on
the lawn supported by its own stem, and
forming a fine globular head. There are
ivy trees here 30 feet high, with a conical
outline like that of the Arbor vitas. These
examples may show how the outlines and
habits of plants maybe altered by subject-
ing them to a particular mode of treatment
in the training and propping. The honey-
suckle, unassisted, is little to be admired in
its squat and shapeless mass ; yet every
one will bear witness to its charms when
seen in bloom entwined on tree or bower.
A mountain ash in the grounds here has
held up to admiration a plant of the honey-
suckle high and wide for many years, A
tall spruce fir propped for a long time an-
other honeysuckle close to the above-men-
tioned specimen. I mention this evergreen
tree with its honeysuckle to prove that

ON THE CULTURE OF TALL OR CLIMBL^G ROSES.

369

climbers or twiners will live and flower
among- the spray of evergreen trees ; and
further, to show that this is not a new com-
bination, I need only quote the couplet,

" Not a pine in my trrove is there seen
But a woodbine entwines it around."

Cottam and Hallen's cast-iron rose-stake
may be regarded as perhaps the most orna-
mental and economical dead prop in use.
This elegant stake I quote here, that I may
compare its cost with the price of those I
am about to introduce, and likewise that
we may continue its services to prop the
tiny growing roses worked upon other rose-
stems, in order to bring them near the eye,
so that ladies may closely examine the rose
without stooping, and without being tempt-
ed to pluck it ; for of all the casualties to be
guarded against, that of not leaving the
rose upon its stem until the flower has fa-
ded is the most important. The price of
this stake, six feet long, and strong in pro-
portion to its length, is said to be Is. GJd.
(Encyclopaedia of Gardening.) The square
heavy heart-of-oak stake, if sufficiently
strong to be durable, and well painted, will
cost little less than the iron one above quo-
ted. The drawbacks to dead props are,
first, the necessity for continual painting,
then rust in the iron under ground, and rot
in wood at the surface of the ground, the
too slender form of the iron stake, and the
unnatural square form of the wooden one,
so much at variance with the nicely-ba-
lanced and symmetrical proportions of live
timber, whose wooden trunks are never
square like our wooden rose-prop, neither
are they so fine draion as the fashionable
form of a standard rose with an iron prop.

The mountain-ash, when growing as a
tree, is admirably suited to prop a climbing
rose. Its foliage is pinnate, and not to be
easily distinguished from the foliage of the
rose ; the colour of its trunk and that of the
stem of the rose are the same ashy grey;
in size, it is decidedly a small-growing
tree ; in habit it is stifl^ and formal, with
spray full of antlers or little hooks, all tend-
ing upwards, just as if Dame Nature had
made a tree of pegs to hang her rosy man-
tle on. Now the price of these living props,
three feet high, is three for a penny, and
six feet high, only a penny each. Good

Vol. ii. 47

plants of mountain-ash were delivered here,
carriage paid, this season, at 25s. per 1000,
three feet high, and larger sizes at ]d. each,
as I have stated. Now, lest any one should
imagine that I think of filling up a flower-
garden with mountain-ash trees, I must
heg leave to state, that where there is room
for the rose-trees that I propose, there will
be no lack of space for the stakes or props,
for they will be within the rose-trees.
These rose-trees were never intended for
small gardens, and scarcely for large ones:
they are the gigantic materials for fields of
flowers high and wide, of long and deep
avenues, the foreground figures fair and
fragrant in the glades and dells of park
scenery, where rides and drives invite.
The bramble is another brother of the rose
family, and this, as well as the mountain-
ash, rambles at large by ravine and crag,
growing freely in any reasonable situation,
and in spots where neither grazing nor til-
lage can be carried on. Surel}-, then, we
may reasonably hope to establish a climb-
ing rose in a localitj^ where two brothers of
the same family already flourish.

The rose and its prop must be planted
young in well-prepared earth ; for, be it re-
membered, they will just grow and flower
in proportion as the^ are fed, and therefore
such a spread of foliage as is here expected
requires something like a vine-border to
give the necessary supplies of food, &c.

I do not write to please those parties who
know so little of rose culture as to imagine
that roses will not climb very high trees and
flower freely. The Rosa arvensis climbs to
the top of an arbor vitte in the grounds here
20 or 30 feet, and its long and gracefully
bending shoots maybe seen dangling from
the branches of high trees in the woods here
and elsewhere. Loudon mentions (Arb.
Brit., p. 790) Eastwell Park, Pains Hill,
Claremont, Pepperharrow, Spring Grove,
and Fonthill, where simila^r specimens may
be seen of Rosa arvensis, and particularly
the Ayrshire and the evergreen roses, pro-
ducing a fine effect, flowering, and even
forming festoons among high trees. I need
scarcely add, that in length and strength of
vine many of the cultivated roses equal and
even surpass the wild rose. I have seen
climbing roses against a wall here and at

370

ON THE CULTURE OF TALL OR CLIMBING ROSES

other places make shoots 20 feet long in a
couple of seasons, and flower profusely ;
therefore, if the Rosa arvensis and its varie-
ties climb trees of their own accord, surely
art might train the twigs of other climbing
roses in a track where nature unassisted
prompts them to run. There is no plant of
easier culture than the climbing rose : for
all roses grow freely from cuttings, and
thrive well in the common corn-land of the
country, and even in places and soils where
corn would scarcely be produced. They
never fail running and flowering every
year ; and this running propensity, or, in
other words, this truly desirable quick habit
of growth, has hitherto caused this section
of the rose family to be excluded from col-
lections, or, if not excluded, to be unmerci-
fully cut in, in order to keep them in
bounds, which cutting, owing to the pecu-
liar habits of this section of roses, amounts
to nothing less than cutting off their heads;
for if they are cut at all, the head or flow-
ering part, being at the tip, is sure to be
sacrificed, whether the cutting be only an
inch or a pole in length. The climbing
roses should either have a building to climb
on, as a ruin, a bower, a wall, a trellis, &c.,
or. failing these, they may readily and
cheaply be accommodated with a tree to
climb for the small outlay of one penny.
This arrangement is not confined to the
culture of climbing roses only, but should
extend to the culture of climbers of all
kinds ; for at the present time climbers
cannot be grown in gardens, from sheer
want of anything to climb upon. The
grape-vine family, nearly all hardy, but sel-
dom grown, produces the most beautiful
foliage imaginable as a climber ; but, alas !
for lack of the prop, we lose the service of
the vine. In an economical point of view
the vine is worthy of a place with a tall yew
hedge to back it, and, thus situated, some-
thing more than leaves would repay the
planter. Any one who has eaten grapes
cooked, even when not fully ripe, will al-
low that they are superior to any other tart-
fruit, and, as they would come in late in
autumn, could not fail to find a welcome at
table when our native fruits were ripe or
dead. The white bryony formed an object
of the greatest beauty, growing up the face
of a tall clipped yew hedge at Caenwood,

in the kitchen-garden. This plant attached
itself by its tendrils to the hedge ; and, as
it belongs to Cucurbits, it gives an admira-
ble lesson to cucumber growers, for it form-
ed a perfect fan, with rays nine feet long,
loithout the aid of man. The cucumber is
a plant adapted by nature for a similar
situation; for its beautiful tendrils tell that
they were never made to crawl, but to
climb. But I need not go farther than to
the pea for an example of the value of living
props: hundreds of persons would grow peas
if they had sticks to prjp them with. I saw
a neighbor with a row of peas well sticked
with a couple of rows of living beans, which
by a special blunder had been sowed after
the peas were covered with the soil.

The cultivation of climbers is a field too
great to be entered upon here, and yet too
important to be passed over in silence. I
have therefore thrown out these hints in
passing, and leave it to the lovers and ad-
mirers of this class of plants to carry it out,
resting assured that the scarlet trumpets of
that splendid climber, the trumpet-flowering
honeysuckle, alone will proclaim by their
few and feeble specimens the truth of what
I am endeavouring to show, namely, that
for want of a prop we lose the services of
the most beautiful plants that could adorn
a garden, ay, and the services too of valua-
ble esculents. But to return to the rose.
The umbrella form of trellis is well suited
to show to advantage certain kinds of roses.
Now the dwarf or weeping elm, engrafted
on the common elm, forms an elegant head
of this form ; and, as these artificial drocp-
ing-headed trees are monsters, and grow
slowly, they may be kept in dressed ground
in small compass for many years. The one
which I have before me has been four years
planted; and one or tvvo others, about ten
years planted, have yetbut very small heads.
I may here mention that the young shoots
of the elm resemble an immense pinnate
leaf, and thus the leaf of the rose harmoni-
ses better with the foliage of the elm than I
was led to expect before I made the com-
parison with the rose and elm twigs united.

The weeping ash makes an admirable
trellis for a climbing, or rather a trailing
rose, and having pinnate leaves, the harmo-
ny of the foliage with that of the roee is
complete. Nothing but a figure drawn ac-

ox THE CULTURE OF TALL OR CLIMBING ROSES.

371

curatelv to a scale can give an idea of the f
excellent habit of this tree, standing as it {
dues on a clean single stem, and forming a |
globular head witli a fine bold outline,
which maj' be varied by pruning lo form an
umbrella or semi-globular head, or may be
allowed to feather down to the ground, and
form an egg-shaped tent.

Every weeping tree gives the idea of be-
ing depressed, and its very name " weep-
ing" implies a lack of comfort ; therefore it
should not be alone, but have a partner,
whose rosy face should look upward, and at
the same time look light and cheerful. To
intertwine a weeping ash with roses would
seem to mingle joy with its weeping, and
make a striking contrast, since it could not
fail to excite surprise to see a tree that usu-
ally hangs its head, and never shows a
flower, come forth at last arrayed in such a
bloom.

Various devices have been resorted to to
hide the unsightly shank or stem of the
standard rose, with more or less effect. I
have sowed sweet peas around some, and
planted other climbing plants round others,
and have succeeded very well sometimes
with such twiners as the ipomcEas, &c.,
forming a cone of elegant flowers, and
making the rose-stake serviceable to sup-
port a succession of flowers after the roses
had faded. Still these creatures of a day,
the ipomceas, &c., deserted me in my utmost
need, for the least foul weather made them
useless ; and if they grew freely, they would
not stop at any reasonable length, and, being
so delicate when young, the smallest acci-
dent was sufficient to make a blank. The
want of evergreens inaflower-garden in win-
ter has long been felt, and, in short, to obtain
a succession of beautiful living objects is the
aim of every gardener in planting a garden.

Now in this garden there exists, whether
by design or accident I know not, a thicket

of tall yew-trees, and in front of these some
very tall rhododendrons, and drawn up be-
tween the yews and the rhododendrons
there stands a fine rose-bush, and, after the
rhododendrons have flowered and faded,
the rose blooms in the face of this " dismal
grove of sable yew." And it is to this con-
trast of bright rose-colour against dark green
that I wnild invite notice : it sets off the
rose to the greatest advantage, and always
attracts attention, it being altogether un-
looked for from such a sombre subject as
the yew to wear a blush or other rosy hue
upon its sullen face. Now, although the
common yew-tree be well adapted to sup-
port a climbing or other rose, from its pa-
tiently enduring to be clipped or pruned into
anj^ reasonable or even unreasonable form, I
would prefer the Irish yew, and make the
head of the rose stand high enough to bloom
above the yew. It is the ordinary system
that nature follows to elevate the panicle
or cluster of flowers of a plant above the
foliage. By this combination we get rid
of the unsightly rose-stake, by effectually
hiding it in the thick foliage of the yew,
and, instead of a leafless rose, with a long
grey switch of a stem tied to round iron or
square tree all the winter, we have an ele-
gant evergreen tree, admirably suited to the
stiff formal lines of geometrical flower-gar-
dens ; and surely a crown of roses, if pro-
perly worn, would set off to advantage the
staid and sober virtues of the upright yew,
neither would it derogate from its dignity
thus to become handmaid to the queen of
flowers.

The Robinia pseud-acacia, or common
yellow locust-tree, having beautiful pinnate
foliage, will make an admirable rose-tree ;
and the apple and pear-trees, beautiful and
rosy in themselves both in flower and in
fruit, in certain situations might be em-
ployed with excellent effect to prop roses.

Cultivation of Cranberries. — The Ohio
Cultivator says that most of the experiments
tried in that state, in the cultivation of cran-
berries, have not been attended with much
success. Several cultivators have tried
them on wet black muck, similar to their

natural soil ; but the plants grow but little,
and the grass and weeds soon get the mas-
tery. The Yarmouth Register (Massachu-
setts) thinks that damp, barren sands is the
only soil on which cranberries can be grown
successfully.

372

THE MYSTERIES OF THE POULTRY YARD.

THE MYSTERIES OF THE POULTRY YARD.'

[If among " rural arts," that somewhat
difficult one of raising turkeys may be reck-
oned, then have we been unmindful of the
interests of a certain class of our readers.
To make amends, we serve them up to-day
a piquant and complete article, by one
who looks at the basse-coicr with the eye of
a philosopher. — Ed.]

If we call to mind the many and valuable ac-
quisitions from both the animal and vegetable
kingdom which have been made subservient to the
use of man within comparatively a very recent pe-
riod, it is not too much to believe that others, of
nearly or quite equal value, still remain to reward
the labor and pains of a persevering search. There is
the whole of central Africa, central Australia, great
part of China and northern India (which have already
afforded us so much) and innumerable half-explored
or unexplored islands, all waiting to be ransacked
for our benefit. And without depending upon those
distant regions, we know not yet what we may
find at home; seeing that the delicious Seakale —
an esculent wdiose merits are yet unknown to many
a family of competent means living in retirement
— has only within the last few years sprung up
under our very feet; and the Capercali, by an easy
importation, has been rescued from extinction in
Great Britain.

Amongst the living tributaries to the luxury of
man, the turkey is an example of the results yet to
be expected from the exploring spirit of our day.
It is the most recent, and, except the hen and the
goose, the most valuable of our domesticated birds.
We may, indeed, call it quite a ne<(r introduction;
for what, after all, is a period of 300 years, com-
pared with the time during which man has had do-
minion over the earth and its brute inhabitants ?
The obscurity which hangs over the transmission of
the turkey from America, and which there is little
chance of clearing away, except by industrious fer-
reting amongst old family records and memoran-
dum books, shows that those who brought it to the
old world had no idea of the value of what they
were importing; but probably regarded it like any
other remarkable production of nature — a macaw
or a tortoise. The young would be distributed
among friends with the same leeling that golden
pheasants and such like are with us; these again
■would thrive and increase, and the nation would
suddenly find itself in the possession of a race, not
of pleasing pets, but of valuable, prolific, and hardy
stock of poultry. Such I take to be the history of
the turkey in England ; and the Zoological and
Ornithological Societies may hereafter find that
some creature that was disregarded, or underval-
ued, or even yet unobtained, will prove unexpect-

*From the London Agricultural Gazette.

edly domestic and profitable (it may be the Cere-
opsis, some of the Indian Polyplectrons, or the ele-
gant Honduras turkey ;) to further which great
object of their association they cannot do better
than communicate spare specimens, on the most
liberal and encouraging terms, to such persons as
they believe competent fairly to test their value.

The varieties of the domesticated turkey are not
very distinct. The most so is the Norfolk ; the
others may all be swept into what is called the
Cambridge breed (thus including the t)ustard and
Dutch copper-colored breeds,) which, however, is
as much cultivated in Norfolk as the old local stock,
and birds of which kind often pass for true Nor-
folks, because thej' have been procured from that
county. The real Norfolk turkey is more hardy,
but less ornamental than the others, and of smaller
size. It is entirely black, except the red skin about
the head, and a brownish tip to the feathers of the
tail and some of those of the back. This gives the
bird a rusty appearance, like an old piece of well-
worn cotton velvet. The Cambridge sort, when
black, have a beautifully shining blueish tinge, like
a well-polished boot. The chicks of the Norfolks
are black, with occasionally white patches about
the head; those of the Cambridge variety are mot-
tled all over with brownish grey, and are of taller
and slenderer proportions. The white individuals
of either variety are accidental ; this color is scarcely
permanent in their offspring; they are tender, not
pleasing to every eye, and altogether not to be re-
commended. The plumage of the Cambridge
breed varies very much ; sometimes it is entirely
made up of shades of reddish brown and grey, when
it is called the bustard breed ; sometimes of grey,
black, and white, but frequently it approaches very
nearly to what we see figured as the wild bird. In
the '' Naturalist's Library," the hen of the wild
turkey, copied from Audubon, is represented with
a hairy tuft like that of the cock hanging from her
breast. I have not seen this in the tame variety.
A hen in my possession that will be four years old
next spring (184S) has no symptom of its appear-
ance. The reason why the turkeys seen in our
poultry yards do not vie in splendour of plumage
with their untamed brethren is that we do not let
them live long enough. A creature that does not
attain its full growth till its fifth or sixth )'ear, we
kill at latest in the second, to the evident deterio-
ration of our stock. But let three or four well se-
lected Cambridge turkeys be retained to their real-
ly adult state, and well fed meanwhile, and they
will quite recompense their keeper by their beauty
in full plumage, by their glancing hues of gilded
green and purple, their lovely shades of brown,
bronze and black, and the pearly lustre that radi-
ates from their polished feathers. In default of
wild specimens, birds like these are sought to com-
plete collections of stuffed birds.

The demand for such large birds among the
fowl-dealers, and the temptation to fat them before
they arrive at this stage, are so great, that few

THE MYSTERIES OF THE POULTRY YARD.

373

farmer's wives can resist sending their 18 or 20 lb.
" stag" • to market, while a young cock of the
year, they think, will answer every purpose next
spring as well. Some even deem it an extrava-
gance to keep a turkey-cock at all, if they have not
more than two hens, which they would send on a
visit^of a day or two to a neighbor who has a male
bird. The time when the hens require this change
of air in spring ma}' be known bj' their lying down
on the ground, as if they were unwell, doing so im-
mediately again, if taken up and made to walk on,
■which apparent languor is accompanied by a lack-
a-daisical love-sick expression of countenance.
Last Christmas we ate or gave away all our tur-
keys (including a magnificent stag, whose image
haunts us still) except one hen. The above men-
tioned plan was necessarily adopted, and the re-
sult was from 1 1 eggs, 8 chicks so strong as almost
to rear themselves.

When the hen has once selected a spot for her
nest, she will continue to lay there till the time of
incubation, so that the eggs may be brought home
from day to day, there being no need of a nest egg,
as with the common fowl. She will lay from 15 to
20 eggs, more or less. Her determination to sit
will be known by her constantly remaining on the
nest, though empt}'; and as it is seldom in a posi-
tion sufficiently secure against the weather or pil-
ferers, a nest should be prepared for her by placing
some straw, with her eggs, on the floor of a conve-
nient out-house. She should then be brought home
and gently and kindly placed upon it. It is a most
pleasing sight to witness the satisfaction with
which the bird takes to her long-lost eggs, turning
them about, placing them with her bill in the most
suitable positions, packing the straw tightly around
and under them, and finally sinking upon them with
the quiet joy of anticipated maternity.

Thirteen eggs are enough to give her ; a large
hen might cover more ; but a few strong, well-
hatched chicks are better than a large brood of
weaklins'S; that have been delayed in the shell, per-
haps 12 hours over the time, from insufficient
warmth. At the end of a week it is usual to add
two or three fowl's eggs, '" to teach the young tur-
keys to peck." The plan is not a bad one ; the
activity of the chickens does stir up some emulation
in their larger brethren ; the eggs take but little
room in the nest ; and at the end of the summer
you have two or three very fine fowls, all the
plumper for the extra diet they have shared with
the little turkeys.

Some ladies believe it necessary to turn the eggs
once a day; but the hen does that herself many
times a day. If the eggs are marked and you no-
tice their position when she leaves the nest, you
will never find them arranged in the same order.
A person who obtained 99 chicks from 100 eggs,
took the great trouble to turn every e^g every day
with her own hand, during the whole time of incu-
bation. The result ap;?ears favorable ; but, in fact,
only amounts to this, that such officiousness did no
harm with such a good, patient, quiet creature as
the sitting turkey is, but it would probably have
worried and annoyed any other bird into addling

• In Norfolk, turkey-cocks are called slags from their se-
cond year upwards.

her whole clutch. We will at once reject, as ut-
terly absurd and unnatural, all directions to im-
merse or " try" the eggs in a pail of water, hot or
cold.

In four weeks the little birds will be hatched ;
and then, how are they to be reared ? Some books
tell you to plunge them in cold water, to strengthen
them : those that survive will certainly be hardy
birds.* Others say, " make them swallow a whole
pepper-corn;" which is as if we were to cram a
London Pippin down the throat of a new-born
babe. Others, again, say, " give them a little ale.
beer or wine." We know unhappily that some mo-
thers are wicked enough to give their infants gin,
and we know the conseipiences.

Give them nothing ; do nothing to them ; let
them be in the nest under the shelter of their mo-
ther's wings, at least eight or ten hours ; if hatched
in the afternoon till the following morning. Then
place her on the grass, in the sun, under a roomy
coop. If the weather be fine she may be stationed
where you choose by a long piece of flannel list tied
round one leg, and fastened to a stump or a stone.
But the boarded coop saves her ever- watchful anx-
iety from the dread of enemies above and behind —
the carrion-crow, the hawk, the rat, the weasel ;
and also protects herself — she will protect her
young — from the sudden showers of summer. OiTer
at first a few crumbs of bread ; the little ones, for
some hours, will be in no hurry to eat; but when
they do begin, supply them constantly and abun-
dantly with chopped egg, shreds of meat and fat,
curd, boiled rice mixed vt'ith cress, lettuce, and the
green of onions. Melted mutton suet poured over
barley-meal, and cut up when cold; also bullock's
liver boiled and minced, are excellent things. The
quantity consumed costs nothing ; the attention to
supply it is everything.

The young of the turkey afford a remarkable in-
stance of hereditary and transmitted habits. From
having been tended for many generations with so
much care, they appear naturallv to expect it al-
most as soon as they are released from the shell.
We are told that young pointers, the descendants
of well-educated dogs, will point at the scent of
game without any previous training ; and so tur-
key chicks seem to wait for the attention of man
before they can have any experience of the value or
nature of those attentions. Food which they would
refuse from a platter, they will peck greedily from

* Sir J. S. Sebright exposes the folly of endeavoring to
make young creatures robu>t by undue exposure to cold and
hardship, an experiment which some men and women are
cruel enougli to iry upon their own olTspring. Air and exer-
cise increase the strengih of any grownig animal, but cold
and hunger only dwarf ajid weaken. We see robust chil-
dren in extremely poor families, not because they are poor,
bui because if the)' were not robust, they would not be alive
at all. Sir John, in his •• Treatise on improving the Breeds of
Domestic Animals," pp.15, i(>, says, " In cold and barren
countries no animals can live to ihe age of maturity but those
that have strong constitutions; the weak and the unhealthy do
not live to propagate their infirmities, as is too ofien the case
with our domestic animals. To this I attribute the peculiar
hardiness of the horses, cattle, and slieep, bred in mountain-
ous countries, more than to their having been inured to the
severity of the climate ; for our domestic animals do not be-
come more hardy by being exposed, wlien young to cold and
hunger; aniinal< so treated will not, wlien arrived at the age
of maturity, endure so much hardship as those who have
been better kept in their infant st;ite."

374

THE MYSTERIES OF THE POULTRY YARD.

the palm of a hand ; a crumb which would he dis-
dained if seen accidentally on the irround, will he
relished from the tip of a linfrer. The proverb that
" the master's eye fattens the horse," is applicable
to them not in a metaphorical, but in a literal
sense ; lor they certainly take their food with a bet-
ter appetite if their keeper stays to distribute it,
and see them cat it, than if he merely set it down
and left them to help themselves.

I believe this to be the case with more domesti-
cated animals than we are aware of, and appears
natural enouf^h if we remember how much more
we enjoy a meal in the society of those we love and
resjiect, than if we partook of it in indifferent or
disa<ireeable company.

However, there can be no doubt that young tur-
keys pampered and spoiled for about three hundred
generations, have at length acquired an innate dis-
position to relv on the care of man. Sir Humphrey
Davy, in his " Salmonia," believes that a Hkc he-
reditary instinct is engendered even in fishes, be-
lieving that the trout, fee, in unfrequented rivers,
arc more unsuspicious of aitificial flies than those
in the streams of Great Britain " This," he says,
" may be fancy, yet 1 have referred it to a kind of
hereditary disposition, which has been formed and
transmitted from their progenitors."

At any rate, it is neither a dream nor a guess
■with voung turkey-chicks, to which we will now
return. A sitting of wild turkey's eggs does not
often fall into tiie hands of an American game-
keeper, if such a person there be, but I am afraid
he would iind his brood more shy and troublesome
than the shyest of partridges or pheasants.

The turkeys, then, are hatched, and we are rear-
ing them. Abundant food for the mother and her
young, constant attention to their wants, are the
grand desiderata. An open glado in a grove, with
long grass, and shrubs here and there, is the best
possible location. A great deal is said about clear
and fresh water for fowls ; but I have observed that
if left to their own choice, they will be as content
and healthy with the rinsings of the scullery, or the
muddiest pool, as with the purest spring. The
long grass will afibrd them cover from the birds of
prey ; the hen will herself drive off four-footed ene-
mies with great courage. I have been amused
with the fury with which a mother turkey has pur-
.sued a squirrel, till it took refuge in the branches
overhead; what instinctive fear urged her I know
not. Insects, too. will abound in such a situation.
When the little creatures are three or four days
old, they will watch each fly that alights on a
neighboring flower, fix it with mesmeric intensity,
and by slow approach often succeed in their final
rush." But in the best position you can station
them, forget them not for one hour in the day. If
you do, the little turkeys will for a time loudly yelp
'" Ricordati di me," "O then remember me," in
notes less melodious than those of a prima donna,
and then they will be sulky and silent. When you
at length bring their delayed meal, some will eat,
some will not. Those that will not, can only be
saved by a method at all other times unjustifiable ;
namely, by cramming; but it must be done most
gently. The soft crumb of bread rolled into minia-
ture sausages, should be introduced till their crops

are full. For drink, many would give wine, I ad-
vise milk. The bird wants material, not stimulant.
It has been actually wire-drawn. It has grown all
the hours you have nejrlected it. without any thing
to grow from. Like a young plant in the fine
spring season, it will and must grow ; but it iias no
roots in the fertile earth to obtain incessant nour-
isiiment. The roots which supply its growth are
in its stomach, which it is your office to replenish.
Prevention is better than cure. Such a case
ought never to occur in a well-cared for poultry-
yard.

When two hens hatch at or near the same time,
the two broods may be given to one mother, and the
other hen turned out to range. If kept from the
sound and sight of her little ones for a few days,
she will not pine like the common hen, but will
shortly recommence laying, and so produce a later
hatch that will be very acceptable the following
February and March. Sometimes tw^o hens will
choose to sit and lay in the same nest, like the wild
birds mentioned by Audubon ; but it is better not
permitted. They will not quarrel, but alternately
steal each other's eggs, and run the chance of ad-
dling all. A frequent practice is to hatch spare
turkeys' eggs under common hens. This answers
well in fine dry summers, but not in wet cold sea-
sons. The tiirke3'-poults require to be brooded
much longer than chickens ; the poor hen will be
seen vainly endeavouring to shelter and warm
young turkeys nearly as big as herself, till she gives
up the task in despair, and leaves them to shift for
themselves. It is better to transfer the chicks as
soon as hatched to a turkey, and give the hen some
fowl's eggs to go on with another three weeks.
The improved and less rambling disposition of tur-
keys that have been reared bj' a hen is, unfortu-
nately, all imagination, notwithstanding what
Cobbett has so beautifully written on the subject.
The instinct of the turkey is no more altered by
this mode of education than the migrations of the
cuckoo are checked by its being brought up by
hidge-sparrow. The only way to keep turkeys
from rambling, is to feed them well and regularly
at home.

The time when the turkey hen may be allowed
full liberty with her brood, depends so much on
season, situation, &c., that it must be left to the
exercise of the keeper's judgment. A safe rule
may be fixed at the season called •' shooting the
red," a '' disease," as some compilers are pleased
to term it ; being about as much a disease as when
the eldest son of the turkey's master and mistress
shoots his beard. When young turkeys approach
the size of a partridge, or before, the granular
fleshy excrescences on the head and neck begin to
appear; soon after, the whole plumage, particular-
ly the tail feathers, start into rapid growth, and the
'' disease" is only to be counteracted by liberal
nourishment. If let loose at this time they will ob-
tain much by foraging, and still be thankful for all
you choose to give them. Caraway seeds, as a
tonic, are a great secret with some professional
people. They will doubtless be beneficial, if added
to plenty of barley, boiled potatoes, chopped vege-
tables, and refuse meat. And now is the time that
turkeys begin to be troublesome and voracious.

REVIEW.

37i

What can you expect else from a creature that is
to prow Irom the size ol a lark to 12 t)r 14 lbs. in
eight or nine months ? " Corn sacks, cotlers for
oats, barn-swallowers, ill nci<rhbnrs to Peasen,"
are epithets deservedly earned. Tiiey will jump
into the potato jrround, scratch the ridires on one
5.ido, eat every jrrub wireworm, or beetle that they
find, and every hall'-fjrown potato. From thence
they vi-ill proceed to (he Swedes; before the bulbs
are lormed they will strip the jrreen from tlie
leaves, thereby checking the subsequent jrrowth of
the root. At a subsequent period lliey will do the
same to tiie white turnips, and here and tliere take
a piece out of the turnip itself. They are seldom
large enough before harvest to make so much ha-
voc among the standing corn, as cocks and hens
and guinea-fowl, or they have not yet acquired the
taste for it ; but when the young wheat comes up
in October and November, they will exhibit their
graminivorous propensities, to the great disadvan-
tage of the farmer. The farmer's wife sees them
not, says nothing, but at Christmas boasts of the
■large amount of her turkey money. One great me-
rit in old birds (besides their ornamental value,
vhich is our special recommendation) is that in sit-
uations where nuts, acorns, and mast are to be had,
they will lead oil their- brood to these, and compar-
atively (that is all) abstain from ravaging other
crops. It is, therefore, not fair for a small occu-
pier to be overstocked with turkeys (as is too often
the case, and with other things also,) and then to
let them loose, like so many harpies, to devastate
and plunder their neighbour's fields.

Soon after Michaelmas, it will be time to think
of fatting a portion of them. Some families re-
quire turkeys very early in the season ; but they
are like every other immature production, inferior
in quality. To eat turkey poults is a wasteful
piece of luxury ; those who order them are occa-
sionally deceived by a small hen of the previous
year. In the Roman markets hen turkeys sell for
a bajocco (halfpenny) a
pound more than the
cock, and there are tur-
key butchers, of whom
you may buy the half or
a quarter of a bird. A
hen will be five or six -
weeks in fatting, a large stag two months or long-
er, to bring him to his full weight. The best diet

is barley-meal mixed with water, given in troughs
(see fig.,) that have a Hat board over them, to keep
dirt trom falling in. A turnip with the leaves
attached, or a hearted cabbage, may now and then
be thrown down to amuse them. Some use plain
oats, but barley-meal is preferable, acting more
quickly. Cramming is unnecessary, thougli it may
hasten the process. Wlien they have arrived at
the desired degree of fatness, those which are not
wanted for immediate use must have no more food
given them than is just sufficient to keep them in
that state, otherwise the llesii will become red and
inflamed, and of course less palatable and whole-
some. The turkey differs from the rest of our
poultry in being fit for the table after its youth is
past. Very few of the large turkeys that are
brought to market are less than IS months oUI ;
many are double that age. Nor are they the
worse, provided the lady of the house be informed
of the circumstance, and so enabled to leave a due
interim between the killing and the cooking.

The hen turkey, contrary to the statements of
some writers, does now and then erect her tail and
strut like the male, and that, too, without any di-
minution of her feminine virtues. Tiie manners of
the cock are not prepossessing ; he is vain, ungal-
lant, careless of his young, a bully, though not al-
ways a coward, the most selfish creature in the
poultry-yard, except the musk-drake, sometimes
also apt to be seized with odd fancies that render
him useless. Their supposed antipathy to the co-
lour of red or scarlet, I believe to be an unfounded
prejudice. They display less individual attach-
ment to man than most other poultry, though they
have equa.ly, or more, thrown themselves on the
protection of the race of mankind. They are call-
ed stupid, but mark the intelligence and amiability
displayed by every look and action of a hen with
her young. And yet little real alteration of her
former manner is apparent. The strut that seemed
foolishly pompous now strikes us as justly proud
and cautious; the eye in which only allectation was
apparent now glances with anxiety and beams
with tenderness. The discordant voice has now an
object in its call, and may be heard almost to whis-
per in subilued notes of gentle aflfection. Thus
even, in the poor bird that we rear, admire and
kill, a higher charm and elevation is added by the
exercise of those holy affections which the benefi.
cent Creator of all has given us for our comfort. — D.

REVIEW.

A Discourse, delivered at the Plyinotith Church,
Brooklyn, N. Y. ; by Hknhy Ward Beecher.
New-York : published by Cady &. Burgess, 60
John street.

Rarely have we perused a pamphlet witli
greater intellectual or moral gratification,
than this — a Thanksgiving Discourse — by
that able and eloquent man, Mr. Beecher.

It is a discourse which every patriot
should read, for it will exhibit to him tlte
true greatness of his country : which every
farmer should read, for it will cause him to
thank Heaven for the lot in which his life
is cast; and which every American should
read, that he may learn the value of the

376

REVIEW.

national blessings that surround, and the
danger of the national evils that threaten
him.

Mr. Beecher's genius, appears to us to be
in the clearness and the breadth of his vi-
sion, as a man and a teacher. Looking at
humanity and the age, his glance is neither
disturbed by the cloud of ancient dogmas
that rises from the past and overshadows
our horizon, nor the bright and captivating
gleams of new light that irradiate and beck-
on us forward to the future. He is not on-
ly a profound thinker, and a most earnest
and zealous expounder of truth, but a man
of his time — who utters the thoughts, and
interprets the language, of the great strug-
gling heart of the nineteenth century ; and
especially of the Anglo-American race,
boldly and significantly; — and this, too,
while so many are fondly endeavouring to
maintain an appearance of life, in ideas
whose vitality has long since departed, or
to galvanize into a premature existence new
ones, for which neither our people or the
lime is ready.

In the discourse before us, Mr. Beecher
discusses the blessings which flow from our
condition, our institutions, and our volun-
tary exertions as a people. It is neither our
purpose, nor the province of this Journal,
to pursue him in all the different divisions
of his subject, though we heartily commend
them to perusal. But one of these topics,
the value of our agricultural position, is so
admirably treated, and so pertinent to our
readers, that we are confident they will all
thank us for reprinting it in these pages :

We do not enough reflect how much of
our prosperity arises from the possession
of such and so much Soil.

It is difficult for the imagination to con-
ceive of its extent, its variety, and its ca-
pacity. Books may detail its bounds, and
travellers recite its wonders ; but it is not
until the eye has beheld, and the feet,

through many a parallel, have traversed
woodland and prairie, hill-country and river-
vale, stretching for thousands of miles, that
one begins to feel the magnitude of our ter-
ritory. So far does it reach toward the pole
that summer smiles faintly and but briefly
upon its northern limit ; while its southern
limit, pushing toward the tropics, is seldom
cooled bj'' winter frosts. So far is the east re-
moved from the west, that they have neither
morning nor evening together ; and their
harbors look out upon different oceans, upon
opposite sides of the globe.*

A pure religion and liberal civil institu-
tions, would have done much for us ; but
it has been the accident of an abundant soil
which has given them so fair a field. Men
have found room to move as religious liber-
ty inspired them, without lifting or fighting
a thousand superimposed customs. Reli-
gion and liberal influences, in Europe, have
been like winds upon ships embayed or
threading narrow channels ; which, though
they urged them forward, drove them at
every furlong toward shoals or rocks of old
customs and laws. But we have had the
broad ocean. Let us examine more in de-
tail the influence of ample soil upon na-
tional character and prosperity.

There is no pursuit which more directly

* If a million of people should annually pour in-
to the single State of Indiana, for fifteen j'eais, the
soil could sustain them. I shall be thought extra-
vagant by those on'y who have not reflected, when
I say, that, if not a Icernel of grain were raised in
any other Slate in the Union, Indiana, if put to its
full capacity, could easily supply every one. At
twenty bushels to the acre, Indiana might yield, if
wholly tilled, an annual crop of 500,000,000 bushels
of wheat. If Illinois were to yield only Indian
corn, at the rate of fifty bushels per acre, her an-
nual crop of Maize might become 1,920,000,000
bushels! These two States alftne might annually
supply twenty millions of people, respectively,
with twenty-live bushels of wheat per head, and
nearly one hundred bushels of corn. It is manifest,
that tliis supply is so greatly above the want, that
it might be reduced in favor of all other i)rodue'S,
needeil for the sustenance and comfort of men and
beasts. The absolute capacity of an acre of soil
has never yet been tested. The nearest approxi-
mation has been made under the allotment system
of Great Britain, the soil being cultivated entirely
by the spade. From some estimates founded upon
the results of that system, it is not wide of the truth
to say that Indiana, upon her 23,000,000 acres, could
sustain a population of 90,000,000! That it would be
desirable to crowd the soil so near to its extreme
capacity is far from being proved, except as the
less of two evils, as amidst the redundant popula-
tion of Europe.

REVIEW.

377

conduces to health, industry, sobriety, tem-
perance, personal independence, and politi-
cal stability, than husbandry. Since the
world began, the soil has been the mother
and nurse of sound and healthy-hearted
men ; and cities are only saved from phy-
sical degeneracy, by large annual drafts
from the rural population.

The effects of sound health and of par-
ticular occupations upon morals, is great.
Pursuits which thrive by competition, sharp-
en men's wits, and give force to enterprise ;
but too often, at the expense of simplicit}^,
truthfulness, and sensitiveness to honor and
integrity.

More than anywhere else, men are train-
ed on the soil to industry, self-reliance, and
enterprise, without paying for prosperity by
their morals. While the farm underlays
all commercial and manufacturing interests,
and by its products maintains all other
forms of industry, yet, after all, its best
crop is the men it yields.

In other pursuits men may be men. Other
avocations enlarge the understanding, task
the ingenuity, grind off the roughness of
nature, and give polish and beauty. But
there is not another department of society
which enables so many men to live as inde-
pendent principals. In almost all other pur-
suits men are, as employers and employed,
woven into the fabric, so that no thread can
be separated without violence to the whole.
The mechanic, honorable and useful, is af-
filiated to others for livelihood, and to some
extent must fluctuate with them. The
clothier cannot eat his fabrics, nor the car-
penter wear his structures, nor the mason
sleep upon his brick and mortar, nor the
smith feed hungry mouths from his anvil.
These are all grouped together in interde-
pendence. Thej' are not the separate trees
of the forest, each growing by its own root ;
but they are those trees felled, squared,
morticed and fitted together.

The husbandman alone can find in his
province the elements of living — food, rai-
ment, shelter, and the raw material for almost
every physical want. Other processes aug-
ment the value of these rude elements.
But if worse comes to worst, the farmer
can best live within himself. The disas-
ters of speculation ; the flux and reflux of
VOL. II. 48

commerce ; the sharp competition of traf-
fickers ; the feverish ambition, and the un-
wholesome public morals — courage with-
out conscience, and seldom conscience with
courage, enterprise without scruple, plau-
sible avarice, sleek and greed}^ dishonesties,
circumspect deceits, religion in form and
depravity in fact — these are not the off-
spring of the soil, but of the street, the ex-
change, the shop, the office, and the store.*

Any land that has a large proportion of
its citizens upon the soil, will not, in emer-
gency, lack sturdy men. Nor will their in-
fluence stop within themselves ; for, as an
ice-mountain cools the sea and air for many
a league around it, so a vast substratum
of temperate, healthy-minded, industrious
men, will send up a powerful though im-
perceptible influence into all the superin-
cumbent classes of societ}'.

The effect upon the character of being a
subordinate or a principal is great. In a
sense of responsibility, in taxation of intel-
lect, in providence, in making provision for
others ; in short, in developing the man, by
putting him upon his own foundation, and
both tempting and compelling him to work
by his own head, his own hands ; — to be
fertile in invention, to provide means for
the execution of plans ; to forecast, arrange,
and discriminate for himself, — in all these
respects, what other vocation has such pow-
er as that of husbandry ?

Europeans, naturally, on hearing of the
looseness and casual lawlessness of new
settlements; of riots or brutal rencounters ;
of immense excitements in political cam-
paigns, believe, either that we must soon

* It may be, that, in a better state of lhing:s than
now exists, a sejiarate estate may not be deemed so
great a good as it now is; or interdepemlence be
subject to such or so many ills. But whatever union
may be desirable, it should be the union of inde-
pendent men; nor should it ever destroy their in-
dividuality, or self-reliance, or self-develoi)ment.
It is union of strength that begets strength, not the
grouping of imbecile depenilence. While it is the
duty of the strong to bear with the weak, it is the
duty of the community to multiply the number of
its strong and to diminish the number of its weak.
What problem a future day and crowded popula-
tion may have to solve, we know not. But in our
day it is manifest that men would be made or saved,
if our cities could be swept with a besom, and hun-
dreds of thousands of lilly hands made acquainted
with the plow, ami thousands of necessitous ex-
pectants dispossessed of a mean shame for honest
labor and self-earned livelihood.

378

REVIEW.

come under coercive restraint, or go to
pieces. The prediction would be true of
any other people. It would be true of us
if so large a portion of our new population
were not independent land-holders. They
are not like European peasants, trained to
work under the direction of other minds,
and made dizzy the moment they are left
to their own ; but are trained from boyhood
to act under the guidance of their own judg-
ment, without easing themselves by leaning
upon others. Excitement may make them
drunk for a night, but reason and repent-
ance come with the morning. That very
freedom which provokes to irregular action,
also limits its evils. A freshet only inun-
dates the level country, in which rivers have
a wide vale on either hand; but rends and
tears with irrepressible force when pent up
in narrow limits. It is not the loss of popu-
lar equilibrium that is dangerous, but the
want of elasticit}^ to recover it again. A
marble column, if bent by the tornado,
falls; the tree, springs back again. When
was there ever such a blow dealt upon a
people, as we have received from the com-
mercial embarrassments of the last ten
years ? Trade almost ceased. In many
portions of the land money was unknown
and barter was universal. There was sale for
almost nothing that the soil produced ; the
plow rusted, the fat ox, unyoked, wrought
no more, nor went bellowing to any market,
where nothing could be had for beef, bone,
hide, or tallow. It was during such a pros-
tration (as tornadoes are engendered in
barren and parched deserts,) that the po-
litical contests of singular power and ex-
citement were bred which swept over the
land. Close upon this, as if evoked from
the vast and gloomy cave of storms, came
stalking the gaunt and hideous spectre of
Repudiation. Its brood came too, stay laws,
bankrupt laws, valuation laws. What a
condiiion was this. In our vast agricultu-
ral basin were poured together the thou-
sands and millions of discordant, hetero-
geneous emigrants from every quarter of
the globe. Before they had taken root, in
the midst of half-cleared farms, upon vil-
lages of log-cabins, came in one storm,
commercial disasters, political convulsions,
state and personal bankruptcies. What

has been the issue ? A night of horrid
storms has shut in upon a gallant ship, and
the last light disclosed her amid dangerous
currents and sinuous channels. We wait
for morning, sure that she has gone to
pieces. The storm has lulled, the sun comes
up clearly ; we hasten to the shore to find
the masts, spars, and drowned mariners;
when lo ! there she rides before our eyes,
some sails rent, some spars gone, but victo-
rious over the storm, and seeking with full
canvas the now open harbor.

Out of all these fierce dangers our ru-
ral population have come forth, more in-
dustrious, more circumspect of debt, more
frugal, more independent and self-sustain-
ed.

The exuberance and abundance of our
soil makes personal want, to any extent, a
result of gross criminality, and public suf-
fering from poverty almost impossible.

So vast is our territory — stretching thro'
so many zones — that never is there a simi-
lar season common to all. If the winter is
rigorous in New-England, it is often mild
on the Mississippi. If drouth parches the
farms of the North, the streams of the South
are often overflowing with prodigal wa-
ters. In smaller territories, as in Great Bri-
tain, a season which dries up the resources
of one portion, cripples all. But with us,
the mischiefs of the worst season are par-
tial ; there is a good season in some part
of our domain ; and the abundance of other
latitudes in our own land, flows in by ready
commerce to relieve the want.

Nor is it a matter unworthy of regard
that soil, climate, and the habits of our
people, multiply the varieties of product
on every farm, beyond what is elsewhere
known. In Ireland vast masses of people
lived upon one esculent, and that the cheap-
est. If any crisis occurred, being already
at the bottom of the scale, there was no
room for change. When a plague smote
the potato-field, there was nothing left ;
there was nothing so cheap ; nothing so
abundant as the potato ; no poorer food be-
low it ; no place of temporary retreat ; no-
thing but the abyss of starvation.

But if our wheat fails, how many grains
stand ready to compensate. There are six
or eight staple articles leloio wheat (which

FOREIGN NOTICES.

379

is the universal edible,) fiom one to another
of which we can retreat if disaster falls up-
on our harvest fields. In short, the abund-
ance of soil puis the average distance be-
tween ordinary plenty and want at so many
degrees, that famine is a thing hardly pos-
sible in America. Indeed, we are to the
world what Sicily was to Italy ; what Egypt
was to Canaan.

No words can ever convey a measure of
this blessing to our understanding. We
have never felt famine ; never seen wast-
ing men and pining children, in supplicat-
ing agony for a morsel of bread to expel
from the stomach the torments of hunger.
We have never wandered on the beach to
search for bitter roots, nor parted the spoils
of the forest with the swine. Because we
have always had abundance, it seems no
peculiar blessing more than the air which
we breathe, the water that we drink. But,
oh, of what value is one poor gasp to a dy-

ing man I How precious one drop of wa-
ter in a burning desert !

If we except one or two small territories,
the United States is the only place on earth
where all, down to the very bottom of so-
ciety, are JuUy fed and well clothed. We
are to remember that our abundance is not
extraordinary; contrariwise, it must annu-
ally increase. As more land is reduced to
tillage, as every part of it is better culti-
vated, as science more thoroughly directs
the farmer's hand, and new instruments of
agriculture are invented, the harvests must
wave broader and heavier, the scythe and the
sickle grow brighter in the long labor, and
the barn and granary, overcharged, refuse to
hoard the immoderate abundance of the soil.

The world is to be fed at our hands.
And famine shall be borne away, as a bird
of prey upon a mighty wind, when the songs
and shouts of our harvest-fields shall roll
over the abodes of foreign wretchedness.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Chinese Agriculturc— Much has been writ-
in praise of Chinese Agriculture. No doubt they
have been diligent cultivators of the soil from a re-
mote period ; and some centuries ago, when their
agricultural and gardening operations were view-
ed by Europeans, they appeared to be superior
to much that was practiced in the West. But
like all their other habits and arts, agriculture has
been, and still continues stationary amongst the
Chinese ; while in Europe, and in Britain especial-
ly, it has made great advances. The consequence
is, that Chinese agriculture, as compared to British,
is now far behind. It evidently appears a mistaken
notion, too, which we have all along adopted, that
every acre and inch of land in China is under a
state of high cultivation. It is true that the level
plains and hills of moderate height, are all under
cultivation, and especially so in the neighborhood of
cities. But Mr. Fortune, in his botanical excur-
sions, roamed for many miles over mountains and
ravines that were still in a state of nature ; some
of the hills were perfectly bare and rocky, and des-
titute of all vegetation ; and others were covered
■with wild plants and brushwood. The houses of
the peasantry and small farmers were also of a
very mean description, built of mud and stones,
with mud floors and very few domestic convenien-
ces. The agricultural implements are of the sim-
plest kind, and not in the very best condition ; in
short, every thing betraying a state of matters
somewhat similar to what prevailed in Scotland
some fifty years ago, when agriculture had not ge-
nerally attained that perfection to which it has now

arrived with us. The generally fertile soil, how-
ever, the favorable climate, and the really indus-
trious habits of the people, are all conducive to an
abundant production of the fruits of the earth 'over
the whole extent of the country.

Rice is the staple production in all the valleys
of the warmer southern provinces. As it forms a
chief article of food among the Chinese, its culti-
vation is extensive. In the south, two crops of
this grain are raised in the hot months, besides a
crop of some more hardy vegetable in winter. The
ground is prepared in spring for the first crop of
rice, as soon as the winter grain crops are removed
from the fields. The plough, which is commonly
drawn by a buffalo or bullock, is a rude instrument,
but light, and perhaps more suited to the kind of
work than the British plough, which has been tried
and found too heavy and unmanageable. .A.s the
land is always flooded with water before it is
plowed, this process consists in turning up a layer
of mud and water six or eight inches deep, which
lies on a solid floor of hard stiff clay. The plough
never goes deeper than this mud and water, so that
the ploughman and his bullock, in wading through
the Held, find a solid footing at this depth below the
surface. The water buffalo, generally employed
at the south, is well adapted for this'work, as he
delights to wallow amongst the mud, and is often
found swimminii and amusing himself in the canals
on the sides of the rice fields. But it must be an
unhealthy operation for the poor laborer, who, ne-
vertheless, pursues it cheerl'ully, and apparently
happy. After the plough comes a harrow, without

380

FOREIGN NOTICES.

long teeth like oiivs. The laborer stands upon the
top of it, and its use is to break down and pulverise
the surface of the muddy soil, and to press in the
manure. Previously to the preparation of the
fields, the rice seed is sown thickly in small patches
of highlj' manured frround, and the young plants in
these seed beds are ready for transplanting when
the fields are in a fit state to receive them. Some-
times, especially in the south, the seeds are pre-
viously steeped in liquid manure. The seedling
plants are carefully dug up from the bed, and re-
moved to the fields. The fields are now smooth
and overflowed with water to the depth of three
inches. The operation of planting is performed
with great rapidity. A laborer takes a quantity of
plants under his left arm, and drops them in bun-
dles over the land about to be planted, as he knows
almost to a plant what number will be required.
These bundles are then taken up in succession. A
dozen plants are selected at a time, and plunged by
the hand into the muddy soil. The water, when
the hand is drawn up. immediately rushes into the
hole, and carries with it a portion of soil to cover
the roots, and the seedlings are thus planted and
covered in without further trouble. In the south,
the first crop is fit to cut by the end of June or the
beginning of July. Before it is quite ripe, another
crop of seedlings is raised in the beds or corners of
the fields, and is ready for transplanting as soon as
the ground has been ploughed up and prepared for
their reception. This second crop is ready for cut-
ting in November. In the north, where the sum-
mer is shorter, a different plan is followed. The
farmers here plant a second crop two or three weeks
after the first, in alternate rows. The first plant-
ing takes place about the middle of May, and the
crop is reaped about the beginning of August. Af-
ter the early crop is removed, the ground is stirred
up and manured, and the second crop comes to
maturity about the middle of November. In the
Shanghai district, the summers are too short to get
two crops of rice, but an autumn crop of vegeta-
bles is not unfrequent. Rain falls in great abun-
dance during the change of the monsoon in May, and
the Chinese are very expert at irrigation , so that dur-
ing the growth of the rice, the fields are flooded with
water. The terraced bases and sides of the hills
are supplied with water by mountain streams, and
the valleys by canals, the water being raised by a
simple but very effective water wheel. The moun-
tain terraces, which rise one above another like the
steps of a stair, are so constructed both for facili-
tating the process of irrigation, and for preventing
the mountain torrents from washing down the soil.
North British Review.

Nanking Cotton-growing. — The Chinese or
Nanking Cotton plant — the Gossypium herbaceum
of botanists, and the Mie wha of the northern Chi-
nese— is a branching annual, growing from one to
three feet in height, according to the richness of
the soil, and flowering from August to October.
The flowers are of a dingy yellow colour, and re-
main expanded only for a few hours. They are
followed by the seed pod which swells rapidly, and
when ripe, the outer coating bursts, and exposes
the pure white cotton, in which the seeds of the

plant lie imbedded. The yellow cotton, from which
the beautiful Nanking cloth is made, is called
" Tze-mie-xoha" and difl^ers little, except in color,
from the other variety. The latter is chiefly culti-
vated in level ground, around Shanghai, in a strong
rich loamy soil, capable of yielding immense crops
year after year, although it receives but a small
portion of manure. Early in spring, the cotton
grounds are ploughed up, and manured with a rich
mud dug from the drains and ditches. In the end
of April or beginning of May, the cotton seed is
sown, generally in broadcast, and trodden by the
feet of laborers into the soil. The spring rains
now commence, and the vegetation of the cotton
makes rapid progress. During the summer months,
the plants are carefully thinned and hoed. Much
now depends on the season. If dry, the plants are
stinted ; but if refreshing rains fall, the crop proves
a good one. The cotton plant produces its flowers
in succession, from August to the end of October,
and even in mild seasons, during November. As a
succession of pods burst every day, it is necessary
to have them gathered with great regularity, other-
wise they fall upon the ground, and are spoiled.
Little bands of the Chinese are now seen in the af-
ternoon in every field, gathering the ripe cotton,
and carrying it home to the houses of the farmers.
As the farms are generally small, they are worked
ttlmost entirely by the farmer and his family, con-
sisting sometimes of three or even four generations,
including the old grey-haired grandfather, or great-
grandfather, who has seen the crops of fourscore
years gathered into his barns. Every member of
such group has a certain degree of interest in his
employment. The harvest is their own, and the
more productive it is, the greater number of com-
forts they will be able to afford. In such a delicate
article as cotton, much of the success of the crop
depends upon a dry and mild autumn ; for wet and
cold are both inimical to it. When the cotton crop
is brought from the field, it is spread out to dry, and
then it undergoes a process to separate the seeds,
which is done by passing it through a machine with
two rollers. It is then put into bags, which, slung
across a bamboo stick, are thus carried into the
towns on the shoulders of the farmers, and dispos
ed of to the cotton merchant. Every family re-
tains a portion of the produce for its own use, and
this the female members clean, spin and weave at
home. The spinning-wheel and the hand-loom,
both once so common in this country, are still in
use in China, and to be seen in every village in the
cotton districts. The cotton stalks are used as
fuel, the refuse as manure, and the cleared fields
are immediately planted with clover, beans or
other vegetables for a second crop. Ibid.

To DESTROY MoLES. — I recently met with an
eflieacious mode of destroying moles. The direc-
tions I am about to give appeared in the form of a
letter, in the " Sportsman's Magazine," a very cre-
ditable London periodical. The letter is short, so
I quote it entire : —

" Sir — A correspondent of yours, some weeks
since, put a query on this subject, which I have not
seen answered, and perhaps you will find a corner
for the following. I will answer for its efficacy.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

381

" Take a quantity of fresh [earth] worms, put |
them into a wooden box, with a small quantity of
carbonate of barytcs in powder, and let them re-
main for an hour or two: then find out the runs
where the moles leave the fences for the land, lay [
in every run five or six worms, and continue doing I
so as Ions as the worms are carried away by the
moles. I was infested with moles before I used
this remedy, which was about fifteen years since,
but have never been injured since, by giving a little
attention to them in the spring."

I cfimmiinicated the above remedy to an English
friend, and he has written to me, confirming its
entire efficacy. — Richardson's Pests of the Farm.

To PROTECT Trees against Hares and Rab-
bits.— For years I have suffered by the destruction
committed by these vermin among my apple trees:
unless painted every year with train oil and hogs'
lard, mixed over the fire to tiie consistence of paste,
many thousands of my trees would have been de-
stroyed. The above I have found the only efficient
composition, after many trials of others recom-
mended. The oil is injurious to trees, but the lard
neutralizes its bad effect, and appears to prevent
its penetrating tlie bark ; still, the trouble of hav-
ing "20,000 apple trees painted with a brush by boys,
was very great; and I felt much pleased when vi-
siting Mr. Dillistone last autumn, to learn from
him that sundry pieces of rags tied to sticks, which
I observed in his nursery, and about which I was
inquiring, were sulphured rags, which had protect-
ed his trees from hares and rabbits, all the prece-
ding winter. I must confess, however, that I felt
incredulous, observing at the same time that, sur-
rounded as I am by preserves, if they would pro-
tect my trees, I should feel perfectly convinced of
their efficac}'. In November last, I purchased a
quantity of sulphur, collected sundry pieces of rags,
which were cut into slips nine inches by six ; these
were put into cleft sticks (about two feet in length,)
dipped into the melted sulphur, and the sticks with
their miniature flags stuck into the earth so as to
stand about eighteen inches out of the ground , round
the quarters of apple trees, about three 3'ards apart.
Now for the result. We have had much sharp
weather, in which hares and rabbits are generally
very destructive, but not a single tree has been
touched in those quarters surrounded by my flags
of sulphur. Some straggling unprotected trees
have been completely gnawed round, and in parti-
cular one solitary row of apple trees, which was
forgotten, was entirely destroyed. I have, there-
fore, strong hopes that I shall never more have oc-
casion to smear my trees with oil and grease, and
other compositions, all of which are, to a certain
degree, injurious; for oil, even when mixed with
lard, often forms a coat over the buds on the young
shoots, and prevents their breaking kindly. I have,
in bygone years, destroyed in my nursery more
than three hundred hares and rabbits in one sea-
son. I have reason to be grateful for such a simple
and efficacious mode of protection from their rava-
ges.— T. Rivers, Sawbndgeworth.

Dr. Hooker's Botanical Mission to India. —
The increased and increasing patronage which the

government of this country affords to science, is a
subject of high satisfaction to all naturalists. This
patronage is peculiarly evinced in the liberality
with which the treasures contained in the British
Museum, and those in the Royal Garden at Kew,
are rendered available to the public good. In con-
nection with the latter establishment, we have to
announce that one of the most enthusiastic votaries
of Botany, whose name stands at the head of the
present article, has just quitted this country to
further its interests. Dr. Hooker, having brought
his " Flora Antarctica," part of the results of a
previous voyage, to a close, has been appointed
by Her Majesty's Government to investiirate the
vegetable productions of India, and especially of
the Himmalaya mountains; and as a treaty is now
in progress of negotiation between the British pow-
ers in Hindostan and the Chinese, with reference
to the boundaries of Thibet, it is possible even the
latter interesting region may be visited by Dr.
Hooker in the course of his journey. The most
important assistance, in exploring the botany of
northern India, is promised to our traveller by His
Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie,
and by the Court of Directors of the Honorable-
East-India Company. After spending about twelve
months in this undertakinir, Dr. Hooker's instruc-
tions are to return in 1849 to Calcutta, and thence
proceed to Singapore and Borneo. At the latter
island, the valuable aid of His Excellency, Mr.
Brooke, and the protection afforded by H. M. ship
Meander, (commanded by the Hon. Capt. Keppel,
to which ship Dr. Hooker will be attached as su-
pernumerary medical officer,) will enable Dr.
Hooker to fulfil the designs of the enlightened First
Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Auckland, who directs
that he shall pursue his botanical researches and
draw up a report on the vegetable productions of
the British settlement of Labuan, and such parts
of Borneo as can be safely explored. It is espe-
cially his object to ascend, if possible, the great
mountain of Keeny Baloo, supposed to be 14,000 ft.
in height. Dr. Hooker embarked at Portsmouth
on the 11th of November, in H. M. steam frigate
Sidon, which conveys Lord Dalhousie to Alexan-
dria, en route, for Calcutta, and he may be expect-
ed to arrive there towards the end of December.
Two or three months will probably be devoted to
investigating the plains of Bengal, and particularly
the fossil vegetable remains in the coal formation
at Bui d wan; and then Dr. Hooker will journey
northward, perhaps to Sikkim, but his exact route
must considerably depend on circumstances which
it is impossible yet to foresee. — London Journal of
Botany.

Pears on Qitince Stocks. — We have lately heard
a little on this subject, but I imagine before long we
shall hear a great deal more; my own information,
you will perceive, is very limited, and my object is
merely to draw attention to the subject. I shall
also have to name Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth,
several times, so that I may appear to some to be
a commission agent of his; but I beg to say, al-
though I have been in his garden, I have never seen
him in my life, and I much fear he would not em-
ploy me as his advocate, if he needed one.

382

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Before speaking of these beautiful little trees, I
would call to your mind the very injurious effert
produced upon the soil of hundreds of gardens, both
small and great, by the shade of large old Pear
trees ; in fact, in many instances the ground is ren-
dered almost useless.

Pears are generally many years before they pro-
duce fruit, and in small gardens they are unsightly,
from being vastly disproportioned to the inclosure,
and if any attempt be made at reducing them in
size, their productiveness is sure to be destroyed,
so that a small garden inclosed by walls is better
without standard Pear trees. Under these circum-
stances the owner is deprived of the most valuable
of all dessert fruits, for although the Peach and
Nectarine may bs higher-flavored, they can only
be had for a small part of the year, but the Pear
may be enjoyed all the year round.

Apples are also undesirable in small gardens, but
they may be bought reasonably; but the fine sorts
of winter Pears can only be obtained in large towns
at large prices. If, therefore, a mode can be shown
by which a large quantity of the very finest Pears
can be produced from trees which, instead of being
unsightly and injurious, are not only harmless, but
extremely ornamental, a benefit of a very high or-
der is obtained.

If any one doubts whether this can be done, let
him send to Mr. Rivers for a few of his root-pruned,
Quince-grafted, pyramidal Pear trees, and request
him also to send his directions for the mode of ma-
naging their roots, as everything depends on this
being done with judgment, and I will venture to
say that he will be so pleased that next year he will
procure as many trees of different kinds as he has
room for in his garden.

These little trees are exceedingly tractable and
manageable, and the process is so simple, that al-
though every tree may require somewhat different
treatment, yet there will be found no difficulty in
deciding upon each case, and the pruning of a hun-
dred of such Pear trees would be only an amuse-
ment for a lady, with a small pair of nippers, and
the root-pruning under her directions might occupy
a laborer half a day in November. The treatment
is as follows: — Having procured the trees, and if
for trial I would leave the choice to Mr. Rivers,
plant them up to the insertion of the graft, mulch
them, and water diligently from April, until they
are thoroughly established, and afterwards in dry
weather. I can say from experience, the fruit will
be found as fine, as large, and as good-flavored as
from a tree of 10 years' standing in the same ground.

In July, if any shoot grows longer than is con-
sistent with symmetry, shorten it with the nippers
or the thumb and finger to its proper limit, and if it
produces a fresh shoot where shortened, cut that
shoot back in October about the eighth of an inch
beyond the place from whence the summer shoot
sprung ; but if several shoots have required shorten-
ing, and have also produced summer shoots, and
not many blossom-buds have been developed, then
the tree requires root-pruning.

It is not a good practice, as recommended by
some, to leave all the terminal shoots to draw the
superabundant sap from the blossom-buds, because
being left growing they also greatly strengthen the

roots and enlarge the stem of the tree ; whereas, if
root pruning be duly attended to, there will be no
danger in shortening all the shoots in July.

If the tree makes only a kw inches of wood, and
the terminal buds are blossom-buds, they are not to
be shortened, nor are the roots to be pruned. If the
tree is not symmetrical, and requires a shoot or two
to balance it, make a deep notch over any dormant
eye, and it will break next spring.

In shortening any shoot, consider whether you
would like the new shoot to be right or left of the
pruned shoot, and cut to an eye accordingly; but if
the tree is pretty well balanced, any shoot that is
shortened should have the last eye downwards,
which has a tendency to check luxuriance by inclin-
ing the growth from the perpendicular line. Aim
eventually to make your tree about 6 feet high, or
7 feet at the utmost limit, and from 2 feet to 2k
feet wide at the broadest part, which will be at 1^
foot to 2 feet from the ground in a well proportion-
ed tree, although the branches will begin to grow
within 6 inches of the ground ; from the broadest
part it should taper regularly to the top.

As soon as this point of growth is attained, root-
prune more severely than before, causing the tree
to produce nothing but blossom-buds ; it will thus
become a full-grown, full-bearing, Lilliputian or
miniature pear tree for a century. Is this true?
If so, how beautiful and how profitable ! If false,
let reasons be given why it cannot be effected. It
is said it may be done in France, but not in the
moist climate of England ; but if I can get a tree 3
feet high, and in six or eight months from the
nursery, to produce a full crop of fruit of full size
and excellent flavour, merely by transplanting or
root-pruning, why not at 6 or 7 feet ? because a
tree once brought to a full bearing condition, the
habit may be perpetuated, provided the means
which produced this habit be continued.

I have lately seen a row of Pears on Quince
stocks of 16 to 20 years' growth, grafted low, and
another row grafted standard height ; in both cases
the branches are drawn down almost to the ground,
but ever since they were planted there has been
open warfare between them and thepruner, the tree
constantly shooting upwards or naturally, the gar-
dener saying — No, you must grow downwards or
unnaturally, and so cutting ofl"the upright growths
in winter, not daring to do this in summer ; this
luxuriant growth being thus far indulged, causes
proportionate vigor in the roots and a great in-
crease in the size of the trunk ; there are conse-
quently roots and a trunk adapted to a tree of 25
or 30 feet high, whereas the poor tortured thing is
never suffered to rise above 7, presenting the un-
sightly appearance of a kind of Brobdignag dwarf
or stump, instead of the Lillipuiian I wish to intro-
duce to your notice and protection.

That these Brobdignags bear fruit I do not deny,
but that they bear as fine fruit as a tree with a stem
proportioned to its head, and with roots proportion-
ed to both, and growing in a natural form, and
with the features of a full-grown tree, requiring
little or no pruning, I do certainly disbelieve ; and
I can safely affirm I had finer fruit from my Lilli-
putians than I couhl find on the Brobdignags —
J^. Y. in Gardner's Chronicle.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Rural Architecture — Architects' Terms. —
We are glad to perceive among the advertisements
of this number, that of one of our first architects,
Alexander J. Davis, Esq., giving details of terms
for various professional services. We know very
■well, from personal ohservation, that a large num-
ber of country gentlemen, possessed of more or less
taste for fine buildings, are deterred from calling in
professional talent to their assistance by vague no-
tions of the great expense of such services, etc.
Many a dwelling just escapes being beautiful in its
proportions and correct in its details, by this mis-
taken economy. A comparatively small sum, paid
at the commencement, to an architect of ability,
ensures permanent satisfaction to the proprietor of
a tasteful house, and gives to the whole community
an agreeable object instead of an ill looking and
clumsy one. We very well know that the majority
of mankind conceive they have certain good ideas
in domestic architecture — in ''building a house of
their own" — not excelled by those in the possession
of others. A single trial, and the perplexities of
building without proper plan or advice is, however,
generally sufficient to undeceive them on this point,
and to prove to them that architecture is not an art
intuitively understood by all men.

Mr. Davis has had very extensive experience in
his profession. The University of New-York, and
the capitols of several of our states, are examples
of his ability in public buildingsj while some of the
most elegant villas and cottages in the country (for
example those of Col. Rathbone, Albany, S. B.
Warren, Esq., Troy, Mr. Harold of Bridgport,
S. E. Lyon. Esq., of Westchester, and many oth-
ers,) are well known examples of his talent in do-
mestic architecture. For invention, and scientific
knowledge of his art, we do not know his superior
in this country, and we recommend gentlemen
about to build to visit his rooms at the Merchants'
Exchange, New- York. '1 hey will find there a great
variety of original designs for cottages and villas,
and Mr. Davis, we are glad to be able to say, is,
aside from business, as truly desirous as ourselves
to contribute to a general diffusion of good taste
and correct ideas in the beautiful art which he
practices.

Wine-making in the West — Corrections. —
Our proof-reader found great difficulty in some
parts of the MSS. of Mr. Longworth's interest-
ing notes on " Wine-making in the West," in our
last number, and Mr. L. has sent us some correc-
tions which ho desires to make, and some addition-
al information, as follows :

"At p. 316 — for Herbemonts, Madeira, read Her-
bemont's Madeira. At p. 317 — first paragraph —
for " not as abundant leaves," read " not as abun-
dant bearers:" p. 318, for "a few weeks after
working," read " a few weeks after making:" same
paragraph, " 40,000 bottles," should be " 4,000:"
p. 319 reads, " for years the blight has given us

but little trouble." If so written [it is, Ed.] I
have certainly said what I did not intend. What
I should have said, is this, that the rot had given
us no serious trouble till the last few years.

There are some points in which I diflfer from
Mr. Elliott's remarks. In preparing the ground
he objects to " putting all the top-soil at the bot-
tom," and deems it better to mix it. I hold the
contrary. Say you trench IS inches deep, and have
14 inches of rich soil on the top, and a clay bottom;
I throw the rich surface soil below, and have the
4 inches of clay on the top. The object is to pre-
vent the roots growing within four inches of the
surface. In Europe they yearly cut off all the roots
near the surface, for, if allowed to remain, the
lower roots become stationary, and do not grow,
and in dry weather the upper roots suffering, the
grapes shrivel.

In my vineyard the plough or cultivator is seldom
used, the vines being planted too close to permit it.
No vegetaliles are planted between the vines after
the second year.

For the manufacture of pure Champagne, the
juice, or must, should be taken from the press, and
it is not fit for market till it has been operated upon
for seventeen months, and if three or lour years old
the better. It is a tedious business, and the break-
age of bottles in the coolest cellars is enough in
some seasons to ruin a Jerseyman. The house in
which I now manufacture it, was built with an
arched cellar, expressly for the purpose. I find
the building, though 40 ft. by 50, and two stories
high, not large enough, and if my manufacturer
succeeds, I shall build one of double the size, and
a cellar two stories deep next fall. Yours with re-
gard. N. Longworth. Cincinnati, Jan. 9, 1848.

Greenhouse Plants in Pits. — There are doubt-
less many of your readers, like myself, who would
like to keep Salvias, Petunias, scarlet Geraniums,
and many other tender plants, through the winter,
in order to " bed-them-out" and enliven the flower
garden in summer with their gay and perpetual
bloom, and who have no green-house to effect this
object.

Such persons may be glad to know, from one who
has tried it, that a pit is the thing for their purpose.
It may either be of good stout plank, or of brick
laid up eight inches thick. Mine is of the cheapest
and simplest kind, being made like a common hot-
bed frame, only there are strong posts at the cor-
ners and intervals, and inch and a half plank
for the sides. It is 12 feet long and 4 feet wide,
and 3 feet deep. The front edge is just level with
the surface, or a little above it, and the back edge
is about 4 inches higher. This is for the top or
outside lights — for the pit must have double sash-
es— the lower tier of sashes is 4 inches below the
upper.

The outside of this is lined with tan about 2 fee
deep and up to the level of the upper sashes. Whc ^

384

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

the weather is mild, and entirely without frost, I
open the sashes and admit li^ht and air, but for the
frreater part of the time, and always in cold weath-
er I keep both tiers of sashes close and well cover-
ed'with a layer of 12 inches of rye straw. This, I
find, lieeps out the cold eHcctaally — and as the
spriiif; advances, I frradually open and enure my
plants to the li?ht and air.

They are all in the finest order in April, and when
planted out for summer growth, from being kept
dormant all winter, grow more luxuriantly, and
flower better than those kept in the green-house
with fire heat. ...

I ou^ht to add that, if the soil where the pit is
made be wet, or retentive of moisture, there should
be a slight drain made from it. The bottom should
be covered with coal ashes, or sand, on w'hich to
place the pots. When they are first put in in Oct.
they should have as much air as possible when the
weather is not positively frosty, to harden them.
Yours, An Jmateur. New-York, Jan. 4th.

Flowering Hawthorns. — Why do we so sel-
dom see the many fine varieties of this lovely shrub
in our gardens and shrubberies ? Surely nothing is
more pure and beautiful among shrubs than the
Double White Hawthorn, with clusters of blossoms
like miniature double white roses— or the single and
double pink, or the double crimson. A little pru-
ning—better still, pinching off the ends of young
sjjoojs — will give the hawthorn when planted out
singly — it is naturally of a rambling habit — a nea.t
and even an elegant lorm. It is one of the pretti-
est small trees for a lawn in pUces of moderate
size. Yours, Jn Amateur. New-York, Jan. 4th.

The best Manure for Fruit-Trees. — I have
read with the deepest interest the leading article
" on the philosophy of manuring orchards," in the
last number. It has given me a great deal of new
light, and I am satisfied that it will lead to experi-
m'ents and trials in the hands of skilful and atten-
tive cultivators that will greatly benefit all orchard-
ists and fruit growers. ' But 1 have but littte time
for my garden, and only snatch, now and then, an
hour for my fruit trees from other avocations. Will
you have the kindness, therefore, to say in a few
words, what mixture or compost of manures you
consider safest and best for aU fruit trees ?

Cincinnati, 0., Jan. 1848. Yours, E.

[Answer. — The best compost for " all fruit
trees" (without endeavoring to suit thi specific
wants of each particular fruit,) is a compost of
peat or swamp-muck . reduced, or rendered availa-
ble to plants, by unleached wood ashes. The peat
should if possibe be dug and carted out in winter-
though it will answer if dug in the spring. As
earl}"in the spring as is convenient, mix thorough-
ly the wood ashes with the peat, in the proportion
of five bushels of good hard wood a.shes to one
wagon load of peat. Let the heap lie a week,
turii it over to incorporate more thoroughly, and in
two or three weeks it will be fit for use. This com-
post, or manure, contains largely lime, pota.sh,
phosphate, and vegetable matter, the elements
most necessary to the growth and health of fruit

trees generally — and all in a state ready for food
for these trees.]

Queries from the West. — Is the Tree Pceony
a proper out-door plant ? — that is, does it thrive and
flower well, and does it withstand our winters when
thus treated, and what is the best method of culti-
vating and propagating it'?(a)

The Noisette, Bourbon and Hybrid Perpetual
Roses I have introduced into my garden lately, all
proved fine, and every thing that could be wished,
with but one exception, although most of them did
not flow^er much after August : the Lamarque Noi-
sette, however, I must except, for it has proved
thus far quite worthless. There were many buds
on it. but they would all blast and drop off just be-
fore opening, so that I could not get a single bloom
from it. It may not be genuine, but the buds seem-
ed to be of the color named in the catalogues, so far
as I could judge. The Cloth of Gold, and Solfa-
tare, were especially fine — the first is considerably
the largest, and Solfatare has the most vigorous
habit ; otherwise they are ver\' similar. (6)

Among the finest of the others I received, I
would mention the Marquis Bocella, Duchess of
Sutherland, Mrs. Elliot, Prince Albert, and Sou-
venir De La Maimaison.

I should like very much to hear more about the
Rose-bugs, whether they are not very destructive
to roses at the east, and especially among the old
nurseries and gardens about New- York city. They
are not just here as yet, but I have seen thousands
of them not a hundred miles distant; and when I
see and hear of their ravages in some localities both
east and west, I am almost tempted to despair of
cultivating roses extensively.

Will you please tell us how it is with them where
they have been known so long — whether they are
not vei-y numerous and destructive — and if so, how
they are kept down ?(c)

Have there been any Native American Grapes
discovered, which are superior to the Isabella and
Catawba for this latitude, or any better Raspber-
ries than the red and white Antwerp, or are there
any as good that are hardy ; or any better variety
of Currant, of the difi'erent colors, than the red and
white Dutch, (which, by the way, so far as I have
tried them, are not a whit different from the largest
of those commonly and generally cultivated,) and
the Black English? If so, will you please name
and describe them ? I find, annually, almost any
quantity of new names, with high recommends in
the catalogues, but I cannot hear any thing further
about them. Very respectfully, j'ours, &c. F.K.
Phcenix. Delavan, Wisconsin, Dec. 1847.

Answers. — The Tree Paeon)' is one of the finest
of hardy shrubs, and bears the winter here without
the slightest protection. In the coldest parts of
the Union, it may, perhaps, need the protection of
a few branches of evergreen thrown over it in win-
ter. It grows freely in any good rich garden soil
— and its magnificent flowers, some of them with
a circumference as great as a man's hat, are pro-
duced with the greatest regularity and abundance
in May. It is propagated by sucker layers, or by
grafting the young wood in July on bits of tubers

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

385

of the common Prrnny — tlic grafts bein<j placed un-
der glass fill tlii'v li:ive united. The latter is tlie
most rn]iirl nifxl'' known.

(b) Tiic Lamarqiie Rose will rarely produce fine
flowers wliile the plant is youn;; — but as it gets
older, and the flower buds e. uie on spurs or side-
shoots of (Id wood, they are uniformly tine and
bloom well. Hence the plant should he trained
hiffh and the long shoots protected in winter.

(c) So far as our observation extends, this insect
is only troublesome in districts where light, sandy
soil abounds. In such soil they find winter waters
so genial, that they multiply to an incredible extent.
In loamy or heavier soils, they are seldom trouble-
some. It is certainly one of the most difficult in-
sects to destroy. And when it abounds greatly,
perhaps the only effectual way of destroying it, is
to watch closely at the time of their exit from the
soil — about the 1st of June — pour boiling water
over the soil at the roots of the trees and rose bushes
where they rise.

{(1) No better hardy native grapes than the Isa-
bella and Catawba have yet been originated. It is
the desideratum of the day — and many are enga-
ged in endeavoring to produce new varieties of
merit.

(£) There is no better Raspberry yet known than
the t7-ue Red Antwerp — the Faslolff is as large
and very handsome, but not quite so firm in texture.
Knevelt's Giant is quite hardy — large and fine.
The large White and Red Uutch are yet on the
whole, the best currants — thoiigli May's Victoria
really bears larger clusters of berries. The true
Red and White Dutch are nearly twice the size of
the common red and white currants of country gar-
dens. We have grown them side by side in the
same soil.

Peartree Blight. — Mr. Ernst, in his article
on pear blight in the last number, says " the idea
is mostly abandoned that any form of blight is caus-
ed by insects," and that in lieu of that idea the fro-
zen-sap theory is adojited, which to a limited ex-
lent explains the evil, and also intimates that his
theory of the summer-sun's rays scalding the sap, is
the other cause of what he calls the fire blight."

With his opinion " that insects do not cause any
form of blight," I beg leave to difler, and in sup-
port of ray views illustrate by cases — which, if not
satisfactory to him, may prove interesting and eli-
cit opinions from others.

Case 1st. — A Bergamot d'Esperin pear tree,
one year from the bud, on quince roots, imported
into Boston for me by a friend, from the interior of
P'rance, and planted out late in the spring of 1847,
not the least indications of frost being seen after-
wards, appeared in perfectly healthy condition,
and grew from the leading bud of the stem. After
the new wood had attained to a growth of seven
or eight inches, the extremity of the stem with its
leaves suddenly turned black. After two inches
had become afiected, I amputated at a point one
inch below the discoloration. The remainder of
the stem contmued fresh and green for several
days, when the disease reappeared. I repeated
the amputation as before, and again the disease
showed itself, when I concluded to abandon it to
Vol. II. 49

nature ; the stem died down to an inch or two
above the bud's insertion, where a complete line of
demarkation formed, and with the dead wood on, a
dormant bud bursted, and a new stem of six inches
grew before autumn.

Case 2nd. — A CJmar d'^remburgh, two years
from the bud, on quince roots, imported from Mr.
Rivers, arrived and was set out quite late, not the
slightest appearance of frost being seen afterwards;
came out in full leaf, foliage indicating perfect
health. No new wood appeared until about the
middle of July, when a vigorous and healthy shoot
grew from the leadinu' stem. After it luid grown
to a length of six inches the extremity turned black
as in the first case, and in less than a week the
whole tree was killed. This tree was of pj-ramidal
form, well branched, about four feet high, and pro-
tected from the sun by large trees and bushes.

Case 3d. — A Colviar d'^remburgh, grafted on
my own grounds on pear stock, in 1S46 ; taken
from the nursery bed and set out as a standard tho
same autumn. This tree was about four iVet iiigh,
stout, healtliv and well branched, but made no new
growth until after the middle of July, when the
leading bud started. After it had made a growth
of about five inches, I noticed the same peculiar ap-
peai-ance of discoloration of leaf and wood first
commencing, when I immediately amputated the
whole of the new growth, which saved the tree, for
soon after a dormant bud adjoining the base of the
amputated limb, burst forth and made a shoot of
three inches before autumn.

Case 4th. — A Bartlet. on pear roots, six years
from the bud. bearing fruit and in perfect health,
sent out new wood from its whole top. After the
new shoots had attained their growth and were
mostly over six inches long, I noticed the same
symptoms of disease appearing in the extremities,
as in the other cases, and amputated the whole
length of the new wood, as the disease showed it-
self. This invariably put a stop to it. This tree
was not attacked until early in September, about
which time we had several cold mornings, the
mercury going as low as 38". On one of these
mornings, quite early, and before the sun had
warmed the air, I noticed a limb, the extremi-
ty of which appeared affected, and ainputated it,
when I discovered its whole end and about one-
fourth of un inch of its length covered with a scaly
looking insect, in shape resembling sowbugs, but
of a brown color and quite small. They ajipeared
to be chilled by the cold air, for the moment they
were brougiit to the full rays of the sun tliev skip-
ped offlike fleas. The wood from whicii they were
taken was ju^t bcgiiming to .show symptoms of
the disease, and when cut in two emitted its pecul-
iarly nauseous aroma. The trunk of this tree
shows no symptom of the other form of blight,
and appears now in perfect health. In several
other of my standard trees, limbs were afleoted
and treated similarly, all of which appear now in
health. As the Bartlet was tiie last tree adi^cted,
and the limb on which I <liscovered tlic vermin tiie
last one amj)utated, I had no opportunity of contin-
uing my observations.

The above cases, with numerous others which
came under my observation last summer, sufficient-

386

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

ly indicate to me the cause of this species of blight.
Frozen sap it could not have been, as two of the
trees were imported and set out in the spring, after
all frosts were over, and the new wood was inva-
riably first attacked. The sun's rays could not
have induced the disease, for if so all the limbs of a
particular tree would probably have been affected
at one time, and the Bartlet was not affected until
September, when the sun's rays have comparative-
ly little power, and its limbs attacked at different
times. But does not the discovery of the vermin
settle it conclusively ? It does to my mind. And
the remedy is as certainly indicated — that is, am-
putation with a clean knife several inches below
any appearance of discoloration. I say with a
clean knife, because I am certain from observa-
tion that the small quantity of diseased sap which
adheres to the blade is sufficient to poison a healthy
limb.

As to the theory of frozen sap blight, and sun-
blight, for the other and by far the most serious
blight of the pear tree — that which first makes its
appearance on the body of the large branches and
the trunk of the trees — I do not as yet intend to ex-
press myself. I only wish at present to propound
a question or two for response from yourself and
Mr. Ernst.

If frozen or scalded sap causes this form of
blight, why is that as a general rule, bearing trees,
or those of bearing age, are the only ones attacked ?
That this is so, experience has abundantly proved.
I have now growing over two hundred and twenty
varieties of the pear, and probably more than five
hundred trees, full four-fifths of which are young
and have not yet borne. I have never known a
case of this species of blight attacking a tree which
had not blossomed or borne fruit. Ought not the
bark of the young tree to be more sensitive to such
influences than the mature and hardened bark of
older trees ? I am perfectly well aware that the
outer bark of young trees is often, as it were,
burned by the winter sun, but this is not blight ;
for it is always seen in early spring and with pro-
per care, that is, excision of theinjured bark and a
coating of shellac over the wound, seldom or ever ma-
terially injures the tree. That it may be understood
what I mean by blight, allow me to describe it as it
appeared among my trees at Albany last summer.
In its first stage the outer bark of a large limb or
trunk of a bearing tree showed separate or contin-
uous patches of a dark brownish colour, with rais-
ed or circumscribed edges, presenting precisely the
appearance of an erysipelatous inflammation in the
human subject. If cut into there was an abundant
exudation of viscid and nauseous sap, emitting a
peculiar odour. In a few hours this stage of the
disease passed, when the bark became shrunken
and assumed a much darker color, verging to black.
If discovered in a limb during the first stage, am-
putation at the junction of the limb and trunk check-
ed it in some cases, but if the trunk was attacked
we left it to nature. In most cases the tree was
completely killed in a short time, but in some a
lineof demarkation formed a few inches above the
ground, when new buds bursted and threw out limbs.
At that stage I amputated near the new bud and
covered the wound with shellac. Those trunks ap-

pear now to be in a healthy state. The disease
made its appearance in June and continued to show
itself throughout the summer and autumn. Trees
of many varieties were attacked — those native to
the country as often as those of foreign origin. Mr.
E. excepts Seckels from the disease in Ohio, but I
cannot do this for Albany, as they appeared to suf-
fer equally with other varieties. Last winter was an
unusually mild one for this climate ; peach trees,
which are generally injured, were not winter-killed
in the least. From this fact you can draw your
own inferences. Yours, very truly, Hervian Wen-
dell. Albany, January \Qth, 1848.

Remarks. — We stated, in commenting on Mr.
Ernst's excellent article in our last, that we differ-
ed with him with respect to insect blight, we believ-
ing insects to be a fertile cause of one form of
blight in some portions of the country. The able
article (see page 3i-5) of Dr. Harris, of Harvard
University, one of the most skilful and accurate ob-
servers in the country, reaffirms and settles this
point.

It is perhaps well enough to repeat here that,
from various sources of information, we are inclin-
ed to believe that the insect blight is much more
prevalent in the sea-coast states than in the west-
ern states.

Dr. Wendei.i. is no doubt quite correct in sup-
posing the pear blight, which was last year so de-
structive to this tree about Albany, to have been
partly owing to insects. After perusing Professor
Harris's contrasts of the characters of the differ-
ent forms of blight, he will no doubt be able to
judge more accurately how far insects must be held
accountable for the disease in his trees.

We are still, however, strongly inclined to be-
lieve that frozen sap was the cause of blight in
some of the large trees in his grounds. " A mild
winter" — that is, a winter with sudden and great
fluctuations of temperature — in a climate like that
of Albany, is perhaps more fatal to a tender-barked
tree than one of uniform low temperature. Take
the present season for example. The winter here
has been one so mild that there has scarcely been a
week that the transplanting of large trees might
not have been carried on — the ground being only
frozen two or three inches. Yet at Albany, on the
12th or 13th of January, the mercury sunk as low
as 22deg. below the zero of Fahrenheit. This was
perhaps followed by bright weather, and in trees
exposed fully to this great alternation of frost and
sun, we think frozen sap blight would be very like-
ly to occur.

We have seen himdreds of young pear trees, two
years old, killed nearly to the ground with frozen
sap blight. But with the more active vital powers
possessed by them, they more easily recover from
its effects, when the diseased parts are amputated,
than older trees.

Our own observation leads us to coincide with
Mr. Ernst in considering the Seckel usually al-
most exempt from the blight. But when a disease
occurs in a neighborhood, in a more than usually ma-
lignant form, individuals usually exempt often fall
victims to it — and this, we think, accounts for the
exception stated by him, to the general sound health
of the Seckel pear tree.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

387

Dr. Wendell also informs us that he has this
winter piotectcd with straw bunds many of his
most valuable yount^ trees, and we iiope he will
give ns in due time the result of this experunent

In conclusion we repeat that we now believe the
pear blij^ht lobe caiised in three ways, viz: by
insects — by alternate freezing and thawing in win-
ter— and by tlie sun's rays in summer. The inge-
nuity of all good cultivators must be tasked to in-
vent simple preventives and remedies for these va-
rious forms of a disease which this tree, cultivated
with so much ease in some parts of this country,
suffers so greatly from in others. Ed.

Notes of Raspberries. — In your Dec. number,
page 266, you have corrected two supposed errors
in mj' article, but in both cases you labor under
misconceptions. You have a common red rasp-
berry at Newburgh, which is the Jiubus strigosus,
a native growing abundantly in your vicinity, and
which propagates itself by suckers ; but the com-
mon red raspberry, long enumerated as such in the
catalogues, and grown in immense numbers for
market around New York, and especially on this
Island, where acres on acres are to be found, and
which constitutes 19-20ths of all the supplies of
the city of New York, not only for the table but
for raspberry brandy, is a totally distinct species,
[Will Mr. Prince tell us what species it is ? Ed.]
having no affinity to the RuLus strigosus, but pos-
sessing the characteristics named in my last article,
and it is allied to no other in habit but the com-
mon black cap, (Rubus occidentalis.) to which it is
so similar in growth as scarcely to be distinguisha-
ble when the fruit is not on the plant. Its
shoots are perhaps of not quite so deep a red, and
rather Jess spiny. The fruit is red and larger than
the black cap. It is the same variety that is still
called •' English red" in some catalogues, and was
generally so called until I exposed the error about
15 years ago. This inexcusable misapplication of
title had sprung into existence when our States
were colonies, and were in the habit of receiving
the fine varieties of exotic fruits from England
alone, and when the silly idea prevailed of Euro-
pean superiority in the vegetable kingdom, which
some were even weak enough to apply to the ani-
mal kingdom also. Our best native grapes, the
Bland and others, were then termed *' English ;"
the Persian Walnut or Madeira nut was called
" English Walnut," and so of other fruits. Even
the Isabella Grape, when first brought prominently
before the public, was claimed by a French writer,
(whose article was published in the American
Farmer) as an old and familiar acquaintance from
some part of France.

I'he '' Common Red" Raspberry of this Island,
which is a native of the Catskill mountains, is not
adverted to by Torrey and Gray, which would in-
dicate that they deemed it a variety only, and as I
have already stated it is allied to none other than
to " Rubus occidentalis.'' The " Rubus Pennsyl-
vanicus" spoken of by me, is not the " Rubus Penn-
sylvanicus" referred to by Torrey and Gray, but a
totally distinct species, which they appear to have
omitted to notice. It has doubtless escaped their
attention on account of its being so rarely met with.

I never have yet seen the true Rubus Pennsylvani-
cus, but at one garden besides my own. The Ca-
nadian Raspberry referred to, is also a distinct spe-
cies wideiy diffcM'ent in its habit, and very distinct
in the flavor of its fruit from all others. It seems
also to have been omitted by Torrey and Gray.
Among my seedlings, I have two plants which are
hybrids between the Fastoiffand Ohio Everbearing.
They are of remarkable character, having all the
vigor of growth and color of the wood of the for-
mer, but singularly enough, they possess the Ame-
rican propensity to throw down the ends of the
branches and form new plants therefrom. They
withstood the last winter unprotected, and are left
exposed the present one.

While discussing as to the Raspberry, I will ex-
plain a point but little understood concerning the
" Red Antwerp" variety. Many suppose, from its
title, that it is of Belgian origin, and consequently
very hardy, whereas in fact it is a native of the
Island of Malta. The great object to be attained
in our attempts at seminal improvements, is the
production of varieties equal or superior to the
largest and finest kno%vn, and at the same time so
perfectly hardy as to endure our severest winters.

The most hard}' of the European varieties, are
the Franeonia, Knevetfs Giant, Fastolff, the Black
hybrid (of Rivers,) and the German Black. The
White and Red Antwerp require to be somewhat
protected by binding in straw, or covering with
earth, and in very severe winters it would be bet-
ter if the others were protected also, as it preserves
every part of the canes in a perfect state, and it in
reality exacts very little extra labor. — IVm. R.
Prince. Flushing, L. I. Dec. 13, 1S47.

Wm. Penn Chrysanthemum. — I observe a que-
ry in the last No. of the Horticulturist, respecting
origin of the " Wm. Penn Chrysanthemum."'

This favorite Chrysanthemum originated with
Mr. Robert Kilvington, one of our most enthu-
siastic gardeners. It was exhibited for the first
time, before the Pennsylvania Horticultural Socie-
ty, at the stated meeting of November 16, 1841,
and received, as it justly merited, the premium for
the best American Seedling. The committee re-
mark in their award on the occasion, " that this
prize Seedling Chrysanthemum is decidedly the
finest variety ever presented to this society, of a
beautiful Rununcul us form, and pale shaded pink
color." In all our Chrysanthemum shows, this va-
riety enters into every collection and is considered
one of the choicest. Very respectfully, j'ours, &cc.
Tho. P. James. Philadelphia, Jan. 14.

Notes on Dowjning's " Coloured Fruits and
Fruit Trees." — Among the various admirable fea-
tures of man's inner constitution, there are few pro-
ductive of more pleasure than the power of associa-
tion ; that faculty by which a picture, a word or a
tone, will bring before the mind, with life-like re-
ality, scenes, persons and things, entirely uncon-
nected with present circumstances.

The exercise of this faculty has just been called
into requisition ; as, seated by u glowing fire, and
with a strong impression of cold and dreariness
without, we have turned over these highl}' finished

588

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

eriCTravinos. Tlieir accordance with nature, and i
their faithful colouring, awaken many a vision of
earl}' summer, with its bud, and bloom, and fresh
vejTetation ; of summer evening winds, and the lus-
cious flavor of eherrii's, plums nnd jieaches, whose
fair proportions and rich colours are here presented
so temptingl}'; of

'• Our clear and pleasant autumn time,"

which brin<rs its share of palatial delicacies, in the
shape of rich and spicy pears and apples, whose
beauty might well rival those ol Hcsperides.

And, with our thoughts of these fruits, and their
seasons, are mingled recollections of so much quiet
enjoyment, in watching the progressive advance of
vegetation, and the change of fruit from day to
day, until it reaches perfection of growth and ripe-
ness, that we readily express our obligations to the
author for these engravings, and only wish there
were more of them.

We very much doubt whether, in any country,
the culture of fruit is pursued with as much ardor,
or critical discernment of its distinctive qualities, as
in this country.

In the vicinity of Boston, there seems almost a
pear-mania; which, fostered by the Horticultural
Society, is establishing in this country the culture
of many excellent varieties of that line fruit. The
pomolosrieal knowledge of some of the members of
that society is here of pr.ictical benefit ; and Cu-
viER, in the Parisian Halls of Comparative Anato-
my, scarcely described with more enthusiasm the
structure and habits of the subject before him, than
our friend, the secretary, comments in the society's
committee-room upon the delicacy and flavor of a
favorite pear. In Circinnati the mania, if it may
be so called, has centered upon the strawberry;
and the various discussions upon its characteristics
bid fair to equal a dispute concerning the difference
between ille dixit and dixit ille. Amid this gene-
i-al interest in fruits, these engravings will, doubt-
less, be welcomed and valued by all amateurs.
They number more than seventy, and include many
of the most esteemed and choicest varieties. The
Early Harvest is an excellent representation of one
of our finest early apples. The Gravenstein is
finely touched ; and the little Lady Jlpple has all
the beauty which has long made it a favorite orna-
ment for the table. The Baldwiii we thought ra-
ther too red ; but the Yellow Bellfiower is exceed-
ingly true to nature. Our favorite Esopus Spitzen-
berg is also there ; but we miss the world celebrat-
ed Newtown Pippin — the very best of our Long-
Island fruits. The Moorpark Apricot is well done,
and is deservedly praised.

Among the cherries, we noticed a good portrait
of the Black Tartarian, and that fine sub-acid
cherry — Carnation. American Amber, the child of
this town, is well coloured, but we think is rather
smaller than that fruit. This is, however, a safe
fault, and evinces an absence of any desire to exag-
gerate.

Among the plums, Jefferson is really beautiful ;
and our fine native plums — Columbia and Law-
rence's Favorite are veiy correct. Coe^s Golden
Drop and Smith's Orleans are also well portrayed.
Among the pears, we may especially notice the

high flavored Seckel, Bix, and a life-like represen-
tation of Bartlett. Buffum is very good ; and
Fret'k of Wurtemberg is very true to life — stand-
ing out very boldl}- from the paper.

Beurre d'Aremberg and Flemish Beauty are su-
perbly executed ; and their russet spots and dashes
are touched with a high degree of artistic skill.
The author's locality must have changed the colour
of the Bloodgood ; for his representation is quite
green. Here, in its native soil, it has a decided
russet. [No ; the error in colour is one of the ar-
tist's, and is, we believe, found on]}' in a few copies.
The original drawing was a fine russet yellow. Ed.]

Among the peaches, the Royal George is colour-
ed with much skill ; and we should like to see more
engravings of this finest class of our American fruits.

We can, perhaps, more readily appreciate the
excellence of these engravings, from some experi-
ence of our own, of the great difficulty of obtaining
good artists to colour them, either here or abroad.
To be executed well, they should be coloured en-
tirely by hand ; and are constantly liable to incor-
rectness, unless under the actual supervision of a
competent judge of fruits, 'i'he drawings are very
good ; and the arrangement of light and shadow
impart to them quite a tasteful appearance. We
think these engravings will tend to increase horti-
cultural taste; and we truly hope their success may
be such as to induce the author to give the public
another series, to contain other highly esteemed
varieties. S.JB. Parsons. Flushing, L. I., Jan.,
1S48.

Nevebfail, or Rawl's Jannet Apple. — Mr.
Downing — I see, in your December number, a set
of '' Rules for American Pomology;" said to be
adopted by the leading horticultural societies of the
country. If tliese rules are to govern us in naming
fruit, neither our Kentucky friends, nor mj'self, can
be gratified with regard to our favorite names for
the apple which stands at the head of this article.
For one of these rules says : — '' When two persons
have named, or described a new variety of fruit,
then the name and description first publislied, if
according to the rules herein indicated, shall have
the priority." Now, Mr. Andrew Hampton, an old
nurseryman, near Richmond, la., has described, in
the " Western Farmer and Gardener," published at
Cincinnati, O., forty-one varieties of apples, which
he had cultivated. In the 1st number of vol. iii., p.
14, published Nov., 1841. he has the following de-
scription of the apple under consideration :

''39. Neverfail. — Midling size; form round,
somewhat long, lessening towards the crown ; co-
lour red and yellow striped ; the flesh is tender,
juicy and well flavored. It keeps equal with the
Newtown Pippin or Winesap. They are near two
weeks behind roramon apple trees, in the spring,
putting out leaves and blossoms ; not considered
among the best bearers ; but sometimes, when all
other apples have been killed by the early frosts,
this has been well loaded with fruit."

As we conceive this description to be in accord-
ance with the rules above referred to, and as it was
published some six years in advance of any other,
in a horticultural paper of the largest circulation in
the west, Nevekfail is henceforth to be the name

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

3S9

of this fruit ; and Rockremain and Raid's Gennet-
ing will have to give place.

The only objection I have to the above descrip-
tion, is that part which says, it is not " considered
among the best bearers." Tiiis may all be true, in
Mr. Hampton's soil and situation ; but with us, it
is a profuse bearer. It bears such loads as to be
rather an objection to it than otherwise ; as it ren-
ders much of the fruit under size, and hanging in
such clusters permits the insects to borough among
the branches, and by biting it renders considerable
of the frnit knotty and imperfect. Owing to these
facts, I at one time did not consider tlie Neverfail
Worth cultivation, and actually cut down several
trees. But since I have discovered its power to re-
sist tiie rot, which has, of late years, attacked the
apples of this country, I have changed my opinion.
And, as it regards the " universality" of the name
to which you refer, in j'our last, I will pledge my-
self that this ajiple is called, in the west, Kockre-
main, or Neverfail. by ten nurserymen and orchard-
ists to one that calls it Rawl's Geiinding. Yours,

&.C. C. Springer. Meadow Farm, Ohio, Dec. 29lh,
1S47.

Rkmarks. — If our correspondent will examine
the " Rules of American Pomology," he will Hnd
that the description of this fruit, given in the West-
ern Farmer, is not properly* a description ; it is only
a frafrment of a drscription. According to Art.
in, of the Rules, " no new native fruit shall be con-
sidered named, until it is accurately described in
Pomological terms," etc.; and Art. iv specities the
points which must be raonlioned, in order to consti-
tute such description.

Mr. Hampton's sketch of tliis fruit does not come
within these rules ; and he evidently only intended
it as a sketch, and not a full description.

The '' Rules of American Pomology" are not
intended to govern the past, but the future ; and
strictly can onlj- be said to apply to any period an-
tecedent to their adoption. We confidently look,
however, to their preventing much confusion, and
the adojition of many indiflerent fruits hereafter.
Ed.

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

A staled meeting of ihe Society was held Saturday. January
1st, 1848.

President Wilder in tlie chair. The President read the
records olthe la-l meeting.

The (.'hairiiiiiti ol" the Executive Committee submitted the
list of Premiums for llie present season, and,

(Jn motion ofC. M. Hovey, it whs reconnnitted, iu order to
make some alteratimis in tlie rules and regulations

The tollowiiig gentlenioii were elected a Committee of Ar-
rangements fur tlie Aiimial Exhibition, to be held on the2IUli,
21st, and 22d of r^eptember next :

Joseph Breck. Chairman ; .Samuel Walker, Aaron D- Wil-
liams, jr.. F. W. Macondray, Otis Johnson. Joseph ^. Cabot,
Josiaii Lovett, John Fisk Allen, David Haggerston, P. B. Ho-
vey, jr., Ebenezer Wight, William Qiiaiit, Parker Barnes.

Abel JMoore, Concord, Wm Bogle, Melrose, were elected
members of the Society. —

An adjourned meeting of the .Society was held Jan. 8th, ISJS.

President Wilder in tlie chair.

The Finance Committee submitted the following report :

The Coniniitlee of Finance, having examined the accounts
of the Treasurer, rrspecUuUy siibnm llie enclo.«ed staienieiiis
of Keceipts, Expenditures and Inveslmenls of the Society;
from which, it appears that the Receipts have been seven lliou-
sand six hundred and thirty-three dollars and sixty-seven cents,
including the balance of fif'iy-nine dollars and fifty-eight cens!
in the Treasurer's hands at the coinmencement of the year,
as per statement marked A. That the expenditures and in-
vestments during the year have been seven thousand five
hundred and eighty -six dollars and thirty-five cents, as per
Slate nient B-

That the real estate and personal property of the Society, as
valued in the schedule annexed, inarked C. amounts to forty-
five thousand and niiiely-three dollars and fillv cents.
JOSIAH STICKiVEY,
JO.sEPH BALCH,

Commitlee.

Statement A. — Receipts from Jan. \sl to Dec. 3lst. 1847.

Balance in the Treasury Jan. 1 S39 53

Casti of Geo. Bond, Esq., Treasurer of

Mount Auburn, 3,233 41

Rent and taxes of store, 1 ,090

of hall, 350

Donation by Josiah Biadlee, Esq., 500

Admission fee and assessments, 1,356

E.\hibilion— weekly, S)8? 83

" aiuiual, 5t)0 b6

749 69

Dividends, 294 99

§7, 633 67
Statement B. — Er^ienditures.

Paid — Investment of Bradlee fund, $500

Insurance for 1647 and 1S48, 115

" Premium.*, 1,241

" Railroad stock, 2,458 50

" Taxes, 180

" Library, 141

" Interest, 7.50

•' Door-keeper pnd care of hall, .... 444 72

" On acct. of Tran.sactions, 4.50

" J. B. Hancock, 160 75

•' Repairs, 233 13

" Printing and advertising 409 73

" Diplomas, 43 50

" Gas, .54

" iVTiscellaneous expense.*, 399 99

" Balance in the hamUof the Trea-
surer Dec. 31st, ls47, 47 35

$7,633 67
Schedule C. — Schedule of the properli/ o/the Massachusetts Hor-
ticullural Society.
TTorticultural Hall. School-st , valued at.. S.36,000

Three chandeliers in said hall, 390

Two marble vases 5)5

Two Bradlee vases, 150

Glass and otlier ware, 900

Library, 1,300

I urnilure and safe, 300

Appletoii fund, 1,000

Lvmau •• 1,000

Bradlee " 500

22 share's Boston and Worcester Railroad

stock— at cost 2,459 50

945,093 50

390

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The only debt of the Society known to the Committee is a
note, secured by mortgage on the real estate, for fifteen thou-
sand dollars, dated 18th May, 1844, payable in five years, with
interest at ihf rate of five per cent, per annum — half yearl>;
but It is understood that there are claims against the Society
for unliquidated accounts, for premiums awarded but not paid,
printing, dies for medals, alterations of the Hall, painting, &c.
&c , amounting to about $2000.

They also reported that a certificate of the Bradlee fund,
invested in the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Com-
pany, had been passed to the Treasurer.

Tlie Presideni, in behalf of the committee appointed to reck-
on with the treasurer of Mt. Auburn Cemetery, reported, that
the committee had received thirty-five hundred dollars of Geo.
W. Bond, Esq., treasurer of said association; and that a fur-
ther sum might be expected at the final auduingof the ac-
counts on the third Monday of this month — a day agreed upon
for thai purpose.

Voted, That the Committee of Finance be requested to in-
vest, in such manner as they may deem best, two thousand dol-
lars, to be added to the appropriation for paying ofl" the mort-
gage on the Society's Hall.

The Executive Committee reported the list of Prizes to be
awarded the present year, with a revised code of regulations,
which was accepted.

Tne Chairman of the Library Committee, C. M. Hovey,
submitted the annual report, which was accepted and placed
in the hands of the Executive Committee to fill up the appro-
priation with such an amount as the funds of the Society will
warrant.

Voted, That the Committee of Publication be requested to
have the reports of the several committees, awarding premi-
ums for 1847, printed for the use of the memberS; and laid upon
ihe table at tlie next meeting.

Adjourned to first Saturday in February.

Premium List for 1848.
PROSPECTIVE PREMIUMS.
For objects to be originated subsequent to A. D. 1846, and
which, after a trial of five years, shall be deemed equal, or su-
perior, in quality, and other characteristics, to any now ex-
tant.
For the best Seedlhig Pear, the Society's large Gold

Medal, valued at $60 00

For the best Seedling Apple, the Society's large Gold

Medal, valued at 60 00

For the best Seedling Hardy Grape, the Society's large

Gold Medal, valued at 60 00

For the best Seedluig Plum, the Appleton Gold Medal, 40 00
" " Cherry, the Lowell Gold Medal, 40 00

" " Strawberry, the Lyman Plate,. 50 00

" " Raspberry, the Bradlee Plate,.. 40 00

" " Hardy Rose, the Society's large

Gold Medal, 60 00

For the best Seedling Camellia Japonica, the Socie-
ty's large Gold Medal, 60 00

For the best Seedling Azalea Indica, the Lowell Gold

Medal, 40 00

For the best Seedlhig Tree PEeonia, the Appleton

Gold Medal, 40 00

For the best Seedling Herbaceous Pseoiiia, the Low-
ell Gold Medal, 40 00

For the best Seedling Potato, the Society's large Gold
Medal 60 00

SPECIAL PRIZE LIST OF FRUITS.

To be awarded in the year 18'18, viz : Twenty Prizes of Five

Dollars Each.
2 prizes two best varieties and specimens of Summer Apples.
2 " " " Autumn Apples.

2 " " " Winter Apples.

2 " " " Summer Pears.

2 " " " Autumn Pears.

2 " " " Winter Pears.

3 prizes best varieties of Cherries.

2 " " Plums.

3 " " Peaches.

The specimens presented for the above prizes, shall con-
sist of not less than three specimens of each variety of Ap-
ples, Pears and Peaches ; not less than one dozen Plums, and
two dozen Cherries ; all of which shall be at the disposal of
(he Committee on Fruits.

PREMIUMS FOR FRUITS.

For the best and most interesting exhibition of Fruits, during

the season, the Lowell Mi^dal or Plate, valued at . . $25 00

For the next best, the Bradlee Plate, valued at 15 00

To be awarded at the Annual Exhibition in September.
Apples. — For the best twelve varieties, of twelve spe-
cimens each, the Society's Plate, valued at 25 00

For the 2d best do. the Appleton Silver Gill Medal, 10 00

For the 3d best do 5 00

Pears. — For the best twelve varieties, of twelve speci-
mens each, the Lyman Plate, valued at 25 00

For the 2d best do. the Lowell Silver Gilt Medal,. . 10 00

For the 3d best do 5 00

Grapes.— For the best five varieties, two bunches each,

the Lyman Plate, valued at 15 00

For the best three varieties, two bunches each, the

Bradlee Plate, valued at 10 00

For the best two varieties, two bunches each, 7 00

For the best one variety, two bunches, 5 00

Assorted Fruit. — For the best basket of Fruit, of

various kinds, 10 00

For the next best do., 7 00

For the next best do., 5 00

For the best dish of Apples, not less than twelve

specimens of one variety, 6 00

For the 2d best do., 4 00

For the best dish of Pears, not less than twelve spe-
cimens of one variety, 6 00

For the next best do., 4 00

Assorted fruits in baskets shall not be entitled to any other
than the premium for such.

[C/^ The above premiums to be awarded on the first day of
the Exhibition.

PREMIUMS DURING THE SEASON.

Apples. — For the best Summer Apples, on or before

the 1st September, 6 00

For the next best do , 4 00

For the best Fall Apples, on or before the 1st Dec, 6 00

For the next best do., 4 00

For the best Winter Apples, on or before the 3d Sa-
turday in December, 6 00

For the next best do , 4 00

Pears. — For the best collection of new Pears, not ex-
hibited before this year, the Society's Silver Gilt

Medal, 15 00

For the next best, 10 00

For the best Summer Pears, on or before the 1st

September, 6 00

For the next best do , 4 00

For the best Fall Pears, on or before the 1st Dec.,. 6 00

For the next best do., 4 00

For the best Winter Pears, on or before the 3d Sa-
turday in December, 10 00

For the next best do , 6 00

Cherries. — For the best specimen, not less than two

quarts, 6 00

For the 2d best do 4 00

Peaches. — For the best specimens grown under glass,

previous to July 15, 6 00

For the 2d best do 4 00

For the best specimen grown in open culture, 6 00

For the 2d best do., 4 00

Nectarines — For the best specimen of Nectarines, 6 00

For the 2d best do., 4 00

Quinces. — For the best specimens of the best kind of

Quinces, 5 00

For the 2d best do., 3 00

Plums. — For the best Plums, of the best flavor, not less

than two quarts, 6 00

For the next best do., 3 00

Gooseberries. — For the best flavored and finest spe-
cimens, two boxes, 5 00

For the 2d best do., 3 00

Currants. — For the best flavored and finest speci-
mens, two boxes, 5 00

For the 2d best do., 3 CO

Raspberries. — For the best specimens of Raspber-
ries, not less than two boxes, 5 00

For the 2d best do., 3 00

Blackberries. — For the best specimens of Blackber-
ries, not less than two boxes, 5 00

For the 2d best do., 3 00

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

391

Stbawbbrries. — For Ihe best specimens of Slraw-

berrifs, not less ihan two boxes, $6 00

For the "id best do., 4 00

For ihe 3d best do., 3 00

MuSKMELON. — For the best Muskmelon, 5 00

For the 'Jd best do. 3 00

Figs. — For ilie best specimen of Fig.s, 5 00

For the ai best do., 3 00

Grapes — For the best specimens and the best varie-
ties of Grapes, grown under glass previous to

July Is=t, 10 00

For the 2d best do., 7 00

For the best specimens and varieties of Grapes,

grown under glass subsequently '.o July Jst, 10 00

For the 2d best do., 7 00

Grapes, (JVative.) — For the best specimen and variety

of Native Grapes, 5 00

For the 2il besi do , 3 00

(^7=" The Committee on Fruit will hold a session to award
the premiums on Summer Apples and Pears, oa the first Sa-
turday in ."September.

On Autumn and Winter Apples and Pears, on the third Sa-
turday ill December.

All graluuies fur Seedlings, will be equal to the highest
prize awarded to that variety of fruit.

PREMIUMS FOR PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND
DESIGNS.
Display of Green-house Plants, in pots. Through the Season.
For the best display of Green house Plants, m pots,
through Ihe season, the Appleton Gold Medal,

valued at 40 00

For the 2d best display of do., the Society's Silver

Gill Medal, valued at 15 00

Provided, however, that whatever amount may be awarded
during the season, for the exhibition of Pot Plants, to the per-
son who shall be entitled to said medals, shall be deemed as
coiistiiuiiog a part of their value.

Display of Green- house Plants in Pots.

To be exhiliited at the opening of the Hall, on the first Sa-
turday in May:
Pelargoniums. — Class I — For the best six new and

rare varieties, grown in eight inch pots, 6 00

For the 2d best do , 4 00

Class II. — For the best six varieties of any sort,

grown in large pots, 6 00

For the 2d best do., 4 00

Roses. — For the best six varieties of Tea, Bourbon,

Noisette, or Bengal, 0 00

For the 2.1 best do., 4 00

Cut Flowers —For the best display, 3 00

For the 2d best do., 2 00

Fuchsias. — For the best six varieties, 6 00

For the 2d best do., 4 00

Cactus. — For the best six varieties, 3 00

For the 2d best do., 2 00

Calceolarias — For the best six varieties, 3 00

For the at best do., 2 00

Cinerarias. — For the best six varieties, 3 00

For the 2d best do 2 00

Heaths — For the best varieties, 3 00

For the 2d best do. , o 00

Various Sorts. — For the best display of various sorts

of Green-hou^e Plaiils, not less than twelve pots, 8 00

For the 2d best display, 5 00

Htaci.vths — To be awarded 2d Saturday in May,

For the be.st display, not less than twenty varieties, 95 00

For the 2d best do 3 oo

Tulips. — To be awarded the 3d Saturday in May.

For the best thirty distinct varieties, , , '. 8 00

For the 2d best do., 6 00

For the 3d best do., 3 00

Pansies. — To be awarded the 4tli Sattirday in May,

For the best twelve distinct varieties, 4 00

For the 2d best do , 3 on

For the :id best do., 2 00

IlAW-TiionNs. — To be awarded 4th Saturday in May,

For the best display, 3 00

For the 2d best do.,' 2 00

Hardy Azaleas. — To be awarded 4th Sat, in May.

For the best display, 3 00

For the 2d best do 2 00

Sheubby P,s:o.\ies.— To be awarded 4th Sat. in May.

For the best six varieties, 5 00

For the 2d best do., §4 (X)

For the best display, 3 oo

Herbaceous P.bo.mes, — To be awarded 2(iSat. June,
For the best twelve flowers, having regard to ilie

number of varieties, 5 00

For the 2d best do., 4 00

For the best display, 3 00

PiKKs. — To be awarded 3<1 Saturday in June

For the best six dislinoi varieties, 4 oO

For the 2d best do , 3 qq

For the best display. ,,', 2 00

Hardy Roses — To be awarded 3d Saturday in June,

Class I. — For the best thirty distinct varieties, 8 00

For the 2d best do , g 00

For the 3d best do., 4 qq

F'or the best display, 3 qq

Class II. -For the best twelve distinct varieties, . 5 00

For the 2d best do. , 3 qq

For the 3d lie,st do., 2 00

Class III, — Hardy Pekpetual Roses, — For the

best ten varieties, 5 00

For the 2d best do., 3 (X)

F'or the besi display 3 00

Prairie Roses.— For the best display, not less tlian

four varieties 4 qo

For the 2d best do , ." '.'.'.... 3 00

Carnation and Picotee Pinks, — To be awarded 3d
Saturday in July,

For the best ten varieties, 5 qo

For the 2d be>t do., \\[[ 4 qo

For the best display, 3 qq

M.- GNoLiAs.— For the best display through the season, 3 00

For the 2d best do., 2 00

Hardy Rhododendrons —For the best display of the

r- *^\""o'y u- • • V 3 00

For the 2n best do 2 00

Double Ho .lyhocks. —To be awarded 3d Sat, in Jiily

For tlie best display, 3 oo

For the 2d best do., '.'.'.'.'. 2 00

For the 3d best do '.'.,'...'. I 00

Doublk Balsams.— To be awa'-ded 3d Sat ia Aug.

For the best display, 300

For the 2d best do., .'.'.'.",'.'.' .'.'.' 2 00

For the 3d best do., .'....'.'....'.','.* 1 00

Phloxes.— To be iiwarded 3d Saturday in August,

For the best ten distinct varieties, g 00

For the 2d best do., _'."_' 4 qo

For the 3d best do., ',',,'.,, 3 00

German Asters — To be awarded 2d Sat in Sept,

For the best display, 4 qo

For the 2d best do. , ' . . ] 3 ( q

For the 3d best do., .'..'.".'..'.".'.' 2 00

BOUQUETS, WREATHS, DESIGNS, &c.
Premiums to be aivarded at the Annual Exhibition.

Vase Bouquets,— For the best pair suitable for ihe

Brad lee Vases, the Bradlee Plate, valued at $10 00

For the 2d best do., g 00

For the best pair for the Society's marble Vases,. , 10 00

For the 2d best do,, g oO

Parlor Bouquets,— For the best pair suitable for llie

parlor, p oO

For the 2d best do,, g 00

For the 3d best do , ,5 oo

For the 4th best do., 3 oo

Pot Plants —For the best display of not less than

twenty Pot Plants, 12 00

For the 2d best do., 10 00

For the .3d best do., g 00

For the 4th best do., 5 00

Coxcomb —For the best six pots, 3 00

For the 2d best do o 00

Dalsams. — For the best six pots, 3 00

For the 2d best do 2 00

Dahlias. — To be awarded 4ih .Saturday in ?ept.

Division A. — Primier Prize. — For the best 12 dissimi-
lar blooms, the Society's Silver Medal, 5 00

Specimen Bloom. — For tlie best flower, 3 00

Va'ious Colors. — For the best yellow, buff, or orange;
purple or maroon ; crim.«on or claret ; very dark;
white; edged or lipped; scarlet; pink or rose, a

premium of $1.00 each 8 00

Division B.— Class I.— For the best twenty-four dis-

similar blooms, g OO

392

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

For the 9d best do. do

Class II.— For the Ijest eighteen dissimilar bioonis,. .

For 1 he 2d best do. do.,

Cass III. — For the best twelve dissimilar blooms,. . .

For the 2d best do. do

JlEKBACKOus-l'ERENNlAl-s.For the best display through
the siasuM. the Society's Silver Medal,

For the Sd best do

For the 3d best do.,

An.nuals.— For the best display through the seasoji,
the Society's Silver Medal

For the 2d best display,

For the 3d best do ,

Camellias —To be awarded 2d Saturday in Feb.

For the best twelve varieties of cut flowers, with

foliage,

For the 2d best do ,

Chinese Primkose — To be awarded 2d Sat in Fel).

For the best six varieties in pols

For the 2d best do. do

Green- H 'Use Azaleas —To be awarded 2d Saturday
in March

For the best six varieties in pots,

For the 2d best do. do.,

Shrubby Plants.— For the best display, durnig the

For lliK 2d best do. do.,.
For the 3d best do. do., .

PREMIUMS TO BE AWARDED AT WEEKLY
HIBITIONS.

For the best six Pot Plants, of dilTerent varieties,

For the 2d best do.,

For the best largo Bouquet lor vases or parlor, com-
posed of flowers gracefully an aiiged,

For the 2d best do

For the best pair of Bouquets, of any description,

For the 2d best do.,

PRE.MiUMS FOR VEGETABLES.
Asi'aragus- Fortlie earliest and best, not less than

three bunches,

For the 2d best do.,

Beets— For the best (pure bloou beet,) during the

season, not less than twelve roots,

Brococli— For the best three heads,

Beans.— For the best and earliest peck of siring Beans,
For the best and earliest Lima Beans, not le.ss than

two quarts

For the best and earliest variety of shell Beans,

Cucumbers —For the best pair under glass, previous

to the fiist Saturday of June,

For the 2d best do ,

For the best and earliest, of open culture,.

Cauliflowers.- For the best and largest, dttring the

season, not less than three heads,

For the 2d best do.,

Corn.— For the best and earliest sweet Corn, not less

than twelve ears

For the 2d best do.,

Cabbage— For the best diumhead Cabbage, during

tlie sea.son, not less than three heads,

For the 2d best do.,

For the best Savoy Cabbage, during the season, not

less than three heads,

For the 2d be.st do.,

Egg Plants -The best display, during the season,. .

For the 2d best do. , •

Lettuce.— For the best six heads, before the first Sa-
turday in .luly,

For the 2d best do ,

Potatoes.— For the best new seedling, of superior

qualitv. for the table,

For the "best and earliest peck, previous to Aug I,

For the 2d best do.,

Ptas — For the best and earliest peck in June,

Rhubarb.— For the largest and best, previous to the
first Saturday in July, not less than twelve stalks,

For the 2d best do.,

Squashes —For the best pure Canada Squashes, not

less than six in number

For the greatest variety exhibited, during the season,

Tomatoes.— For the best and earliest, not less than

one dozen,

S5 00
(i 00

4 00

5 00
3 00

5 00
4 00
3 00

5 00
4 00
3 00

8 00
5 00

3 00
2 00

6 00
4 00

5 00
4 00
3 00

EX-

2 00
1 00

2 00

1 00

2 00
1 00

5 00
3 00

3 00
5 00
3 00

3 00
3 00

5 00
3 00
3 00

5 00
3 00

3 00
2 00

5 00
3 00

3 00

2 00

3 00
2 00

3 00
2 00

10 00
3 00

2 00

3 00

5 00
3 00

3 00
5 00

5 00

Vegetables — For the be.st display and greatest va-
riety at the weeklv exhibitions, during theseason, $5 00

For the 2d best do., .' 3 00

For the best display and greatest variety at the an-
nual exhibition 10 00

For the 2d best do 0 00

For any new variety of Vegetables suitable fur the
table, and worthy of cultivation, other than seed-
ling potatoes, 5 00

Celeri'. — For the best and largest blanched, not less

than six roots, 5 00

For the 2d best do., 3 00

Carrots.- For the be>t exhibited, 2 00

RULES AND REGULATIONS.

1. All Fruits, F'lowers and Vegetables, offered for Prizss,
are to be the growth of the competitors.

2. Articles exhiliited for Prizes must be placed in the Stands
by 11 o'clock, A.M

3. Contributors of Fruits for exhibition, or premium, are re-
quested to present the same in dishes or baskets of the Socie-
ty, or in suitable baskets or boxes of their own.

4. After the articles are arranged, they will be under the
exclusive charge of the Committees, and not even the owners,
will have liberty to re^nove, or totich them until the exhibition
is closed, when they will be delivered as the contributors may
direct.

5. No Flower, Fruit or Vegetable, will be entitled to a
prize unless it possesses points of superiority; and the Com-
mittees have the discretionary power of withholding Prizes if
in their opjiiion the articles exhibited do not merit them.

6 Plants in Pots to be entitled to Prizes must give evidence
of skilful culture, in the profusion of bloom, and the beauty,
symmetry, and vigor of the specimens.

7 Successful competitors will be expected to furnish re-
marks on their mode of cultivation, if peculiar ; and candi-
dates for the Fruit Prizes will be required to present speci-
mens for trial.

8. Premiums can only be awarded to exhibitors who have
complied with the published Rules and Regulations.

9. No article for which a premium has been once awarded,
can receive another during tiie season, with exception of such
Fruits as are included in the '" Special Prize List."

10 The Committees are autliorized to award Extra Prizes
for any new or rare Fruits. Flowers, Vegetables, Plants, or
Designs of merit, and for which no Premium has been offered.

II. The Fruit Committees in making their avi'ards, will
consider the flavor, beauty, and size of the specimens: and
each of these properties as compared with a fair standard of
the variety.

12 In deciding on the merits of a Fruit or Vegetable, its
value for general cultivation will be taken into account; but
superior specimens of any good variety will not be excluded
Irom Prizes, even though they may not flourish in all situa-
tions.

13- When specimens are presented for a name, the exhibitor
is requested to communicate all the information he po.ssesses,
as to the origin., and the local appellation.

14 It will be the duty of the Committees to exclvde frotn
Exhibition all inferior specinuns Also, all such Designs as in
their opinion evince an incorrect taste.

15. The Committees have power to change the time of ex.
hibition, for any article, if an early or a late season renders
such change necessary, giving seasonabls notice thereof to
the Society.

16. Any person to whom a Prize has been awarded, whe-
ther in money, medals or plate, may receive either of like va-
luation, at his option ; all premium, not applied for within one
year from the time of award, shall revert to the Society for its
own use and benefit.

17. Ill order to afford the Committees an opportunity to
examine and report on the articles exhibited, no other person
can be admitteil to, or remain in, the Hall, between the hours
of eleven and a half and twelve, on the days of exhibition.

18 The Society earnestly invites the co-operation and com-
petition of cultivators. The Prizes are <pen to all. and the
Society is instituted for the benefit of all

[1C7=" The foregoing Schedule of Prizes, having received the
approval of the Executive Committee, and the Regulations
confirmed by a vote of the Society, is now published as the
List of Premiums for the current year.

MARSHALL P. WILDER,

E. C. R. Walker, President.

Rf,cording Secretary.

THB

H^T^^j^ >A (} c^

^^"

V-V^o?

.lOU.RNAL OF RURAL ART ATO RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

MARCH, 1848.

No. 9.

If there is any one thing on which the use-
fulness, the true greatness, and the perma-
nence, of a free government depends more
than another, it is Education.

Hence, it is not without satisfaction that
we look upon our free schools, whose rudi-
mentary education is afforded to so many
at very small rates, or often entirely without
charge. It is not Avithout pleasure that we
perceive new colleges springing up, as large
cities multiply, and the population increas-
es ; it is most gratifying to see, in the older
portions of the country, men of wealth and
intelligence founding new professorships,
and bequeathing the best of legacies to
their successors — the means of acquiring
knowledge easily and cheaply.

There is much to keep alive this train of
thought, in the very means of acquiring edu-
cation. The fertile invention of our age,
and its teachers, seems to be especially de-
voted to removing all possible obstacles, and
throwing all possible light on the once dif-
ficult and toilsome paths to the temple of
science. Class-books, text-books, essays
and treatises, written in clearer terms, and
illustrated with a more captivating style,
rob learning of half its terrors to the begin-
ner, and fairly allure those who do not come
Vol. ii. 60

willingly into the charmed circle of edu-
cated minds.

All this is truly excellent. This broad
basis of education, which is laid in the hearts
of our people, which the states publicly
maintain, which private munificence fosters,
to which even men in foreign lands delight
to contribute, must be cherished by every
American as the key-stone of his liberty; it
must be rendered still firmer and broader, to
meet the growing strength and the growing
dangers of the country; it must be adapted
to the character of our people, — different
and distinct as we believe that character to
be from that of all other nations; and, above
all, without teaching creeds or doctrines, it
must be pervaded by a profound and genu-
ine moral feeling, more central, and more
vital, than that of anj' narrow sectarian-
ism.

Well, will any of our readers believe that
this train of thought has grown out of our
having just seen a most shabby and forbid-
ding looking school-house ! Truly, yes !
and, as in an old picture of Rembrandt's, the
stronger the lights, the darker also the sha-
dows, we are obliged to confess that, with so
much to be proud of in our system of common
schools, there is nothing so beggarly and

394

A CHAPTER ON SCHOOL-HOUSES.

disgraceful as the externals of our country
school-houses themselves.

A traveller through the Union, is at once
struck with the general appearance of com-
fort in the houses of our rural population.
But, by the way-sides, here and there, he
observes a small, one-story edifice, built of
wood or stone in the most meagre mode, —
dingy in aspect, and dilapidated in condi-
tion. It is placed in the barest and most
forbidding site in the whole country round.
If you fail to recognize it by these marks,
you can easily make it out by the broken
fences, and tumble-down stone walls, that
surround it ; by the absence of all trees,
and by a general expression of melancholy,
as if every lover of good order and beauty
in the neighborhood had abandoned it to
the genius of desolation.

This condition of things is almost univer-
sal. It must, therefore, be founded in some
deep rooted prejudices, or some mistaken
idea of the importance of the subject.

That the wretched condition of country
school-houses is owing to a general license of
vphat the phrenologists would call the organs
of destructiveness in boys, we are well aware.
But it is in giving this license that the great
error of teachers and superintendents of
schools lies. There is, also, God be thank-
ed, a principle of order and a love of beauty
implanted in every human mind ; and the
degree to Avhich it may be cultivated in
children is quite unknown to those who
start leaving such a principle wholly out of
sight. To be convinced of this, it is only
necessary to inquire, and it will be found that
in the homes of many of the pupils of the
forlorn looking school-house, the utmost
propriety, order, and method reign. Nay,
even withiii the school-house itself, " hea-
ven's first law" is obeyed, perhaps to the
very letter. But to look at the exterior, it
would appear that the " abbot of unreason,"

and not the " school-master," was " abroad."
The truth seems to be simply this. The
school-master does not himself appreciate
the beautiful in rural objects ; and, content
with doing what he conceives his duty to
the heads of his pupils, while they are
within the school-house, he abandons its ex-
ternals to the juvenile "reign of terror."

Nothing is so convincing on these sub-
jects as example. We saw, last summer,
in Dutchess Co. , N. Y., a/ree school, erected
to fulfil more perfectly the mission of an or-
dinary district school-house, which had been
buili by a gentleman, whose taste and bene-
volence seems like sunshine to warm and ir-
radiate his whole neighborhood. It was a
building simple enough, after all. A project-
ing roof, with slightly ornamented brackets,
a pretty porch, neat chimney tops ; its color a
soft neutral tint ; these were its leading fea-
tures. But a single glance at it told, in a mo-
ment, that the evil spirit had been cast out, and
the good spirit had taken its place. The ut-
most neatness and cleanliness appeared in
every part. Beautiful vines and creepers
climbed upon the walls, and hung in fes-
toons over the windows. Groups of trees,
and flowering shrubs, were thriving within
its enclosure. A bit of neat lawn surround-
ed the building, and was evidently an ob-
ject of care and respect with the pupils
themselves. Altogether, it was a picture
of a common district school which, compared
with that we before described, and which
one every day sees, was a foretaste of the
millenium. If any stubborn pedagogue
doubts it, let him come to us, and we will
direct him on a pilgrimage to this Mecca,
which is only eight miles from us.

It appears to us that a great error has
taken deep root in the minds of most pa-
rents and teachers, regarding the influence
of order and beauty on the youthful mind.
Ah ! it is precisely at that age — in youth —

A CHAPTER ON SCHOOL-HOUSES.

395

when the heart is most sensitive, when the
feelings are most keenly alive, than at any
other; it is precisely at that age that the
soul opens itself most to visions of beauty
— that the least measure of harmony — the
most simple notions of the graceful and
symmetrical — fill it with joy. The few
yards square, in which the child is permitted
to realize his own vague ideal of a garden
— does it not fill his heart more completely
than the great Versailles of monarchs that
of the mature man ? Do we not forever re-
member with what transports of delight we
have first seen the grand old trees, the
beautiful garden, the favorite landscape
from the hill-top, of our childhood ? What
after pictures, however grand — however
magnificent — however perfect to the more
educated eye, are ever able to efface these
first daguerreotypes, printed on the fresh
pages of the youthful soul ?

It is rather because teachers misunder-
stand the nature of man, and more especi-
ally of boyhood, that we see so much to de-
plore in the exteriors of the houses in which
they are taught. They forget, that in hu-
man natures there are not only intellects to
acquire knowledge, but also hearts to feel
and senses to enjoy life. They forget that
all culture is one-sided and short-sighted,
which does not aim to develop human na-
ture, completely, fully.

We have an ideal picture, that refreshes
our imagination, of common school-houses,
scattered all over our wide country; not wild
bedlams, which seem to the traveller plague
spots on the fair country landscape ; but little
nests of verdure and beauty; embryo arcadi-
as, that beget tastes for lovely gardens, neat
houses, and well cultivated lan4s ; spots of
recreation, that are play-grounds for the
memory, for many long years after all else
of childhood is crowded out and effaced
forever.

Let some of our readers who have an in-
fluence in this matter, try to work a little
reform in their own districts. Suppose, in
the first place, the school-house itself is ren-
dered agreeable to the eye. Suppose a
miniature park of elms and maples is plant-
ed about it. Suppose a strip of ground is
set apart for little gardens to be given as
premiums to the successful pupils ; and
which they are only to hold so long as both
they and their gardens are kept up to the
topmost standard. Suppose the trees are
considered to be the property and under the
protection of certain chiefs of the classes.
And suppose, that, besides all this little ar-
rangement for the growth of a love of order
and beauty in the youthful heart and mind,
there is an ample plaj'-ground provided for
the expenditure of youthful activity; where
wild sports and gymnastics may be indulged
to the utmost delight of their senses, and
the utmost benefit of their constitutions. Is
this Utopian ? Does any wise reader think
it is not worthier of the consideration of the
state, than fifty of the projects which will
this year come before it ?

For ourselves, we have perfect faith in
the future. We believe in the millenium
of schoolboys. And we believe that our
countrymen, as soon as they comprehend
fully the value and importance of external
objects on the mind — on the heart — on the
manners — on the life of all human beings
— will not be slow to concentrate all beau-
tiful, good, and ennobling influences around
that primary nursery of the intellect and
sensations — the district school.

There is a strong illustration of our gene-
ral acknowledgment of this influence of the
beautiful, to be found, at the present mo-
ment, in this country more than in any other.
We ullude to our Rural Cemeteries, and our
Irisane Asylinns. It is somewhat curious,
but no less true, that no country seats, no

396

REMARKS ON SOME OF THE NEW PEARS.

parks or pleasure-grounds, in America, are
laid out with more care, adorned with more
taste, filled with more lovely flowers, shrubs
and trees, than some of our principal ceme-
teries and asylums. Is it not surprising
that only when touched with sorrow, we, as
a people, most seek the gentle and refining in-
fluence of nature ? Ah ! many a man, whose
life was hard and stony, reposes, after death,
in those cemeteries beneath a turf covered
with violets and roses ; but for him, it is too
late ! Mau}^ a fine intellect, overtasked and
Avrecked in the too ardent pursuit of power or
wealth, is fondly courted back to reason, and
more quiet joys, by the dusky, cool walks
of the asylum, where peace and rural beau-

ty do not refuse to dwell. But, alas, too
often their mission is fruitless !

How much better, to distil these " gentle
dews of heaven" into the young heart, to
implant, even in the schoolboy days, a love
of trees ; of flowers ; of gardens ; of the
country; of home; — of all those pure and
simple pleasures, which are, in the after life
— even if they exist only in the memory —
a blessed panacea, amid the dryness and
dustiness of so many of the paths of life
— politics — commerce — the professions —
and all other busy, engrossing occupations,
whose cares become, else, almost a fever in
the veins of our ardent, enterprising peo-
ple.

REMARKS ON SOME OF THE NEW PEARS.

BY SAMUEL WALKER, BOSTON.

[The following notes on Pears will be pe-
rused with much interest by many of our
readers. Mr. Walker is looked upon as
one of the Chancellors of the Court of Po-
mona in New-England, — from his long ex-
perience as a cultivator, his excellent judg-
ment, and his position as chairman of the
Fruit Committee of the Mass. Horticultural
Society. Ed.]

A. J. Downing, Esq. — Sir : The frequent
inquiries made by cultivators of fruit, as to
the merit of many of the new and other
varieties of Pears, which have been fruited
in this region during the past season, induce
me to oflfer a few remarks for publication in
the Horticulturist, as the result of my own
experience.

As a whole, I think the new kinds of
pears have been greatly over-rated, or the
specimens presented have been but very
"untoward" representations of many va-

rieties, bearing great and high-sounding
names.

The past season may have been unfa-
vorable to the production of fine sized and
high flavored specimens of some of the new
varieties ; but it should be remarked of the
kinds known asjirst rate, such for example
as the Seckel and Louise honne de Jersey,
that the season never renders them worth-
less. I shall, therefore, assume the posi-
tion, that w^hen a well grown and fully
ripened specimen of any new varietjr shall,
at the first trial, prove indifferent or third
rate, it is not to be expected that it will
ever attain the ranlc of a first rate fruit ;
such kinds I consider as not worthy of cul-
tivation, and shall therefore not notice them
in this communication.

But I know some will say, why do you not
give us an account of all — the good — the
indifferent — the bad, that we may avoid the
worthless? I would suggest to my fruit

REMARKS ON SOME OF THE NEW PEARS.

397

growing friends, that they should examine
the description and title of all the varieties
of fruit trees they wish to purchase, as they
would examine the boundaries and title to
a valuable estate. If they believe them-
selves incompetent judges in these matters,
then they should take counsel of some one,
on whose judgment they can rely with con-
fidence.

During the past season there have been
placed, upon the tables of the Massachu-
setts Horticultural Society, upwards of fifty
varieties of pears, which have not been pre-
viously exhibited in their hall. Among the
leading contributors were Col. Wilder, pre-
sident of the society, Messrs. Manning of
Salem, Hovey of Boston, and several others.
Many of the kinds were small and worth-
less. We hazard the opinion, that not
more than five per cent, of all the new im-
ported varieties of pears will be found wor-
thy of extensive cultivation.

The following are among the new, or
comparatively new, varieties of pears, which
have been exhibited at the Boston shows
during the season of 1847, viz :

Hanna's. — This pear was found in the
garden of Mr. Hanna, of Boston, some
years ago ; it resembles the Gushing in
shape, and the White Doyenne in flavor ;
it is first rate. Season, September.

RosTiEZER. — Introduced into this country
by the late Mr. Robert Manning ; the fruit
is small, juicy and high flavored; it de-
serves a place in every garden.

Tyson. — Originated near Philadelphia;
a pear of great merit.

Andrews. — A native, probably of Dor-
chester, Mass.; it may be classed with the
best.

Heathcot. — This delicious pear origi-
nated in the vicinity of Boston. Good speci-
mens, fully ripe, are nearly if not quite equal
to the White Doyenne in its palmy days.

Paradise d'Automne. — An imported va-
riety; it is very much like the Beurre Bosc.
It is, in all respects, a first rate pear.

Beurre d'Anjou. — Imported from Eu-
rope by Col. Wilder, president of the Mas-
sachusetts Horticultural Society. This pear
is nearly first size, handsome, juicy, deli-
cious ; it has no superiors, and very few
equals.

CoLMAR d'Aremberg. — Specimens large
and very handsome ; it rots at the core ;
flesh coarse ; flavor astringent and some-
what bitter. Col. Wilder has fruited this
variety, under other names, for some two
or three years. Our opinion at present is,
that it will prove unworthy of cultivation
as a table fruit in this country, notwith-
standing its reputation as a fine pear in
Europe.

Eyewood. — A seedling, raised by Mr.
Knight of England. Specimens rather
small; flesh tender; juice sub-acid, and
high flavored. Well worthy of cultivation.
October.

Lawrence. — Originated in Long-Island.
This variety may safely be added to every
collection. November — February.

VicoMPTE de Spoelberch. — The speci-
mens of this variety are generally small;
but when highly and well cultivated, as
they have been by Messrs. Hovey, of Bos-
ton, they are nearly second size ; flavor
delicious. It is truly a first rate variety.
November.

Eschasserie. — This old pear is placed
upon this list as deserving of extensive
cultivation; flavor good, juicy, ripens well,
and is in eating from January to May.

Pratt. — This variety has the reputation
in Rhode Island as being a fine pear. From
the specimens exhibited, we have been led
to the same conclusion. It is fully second
rate in size, handsome, tender and delicious.
September.

398

PEACHES BEST ADAPTED TO NEW-ENGLAND.

Onondaga. — Large and handsome ; juicy,
but not high flavored. After frequent trials
of specimens from various sources, it falls
below our standard of a first rate pear.
October and November. [This opinion is
based upon specimens of the past autumn
only. We have already stated that this
fruit fell below its standard value during
the past season; we trust it will redeem its
character in 184S. Ed.]

Knight's Seedling. — A native of Rhode
Island ; large, handsome, delicious. The
fruit should be gathered before it is ripe.
It will, probably, prove to be a pear of the
first quality. September.

Monarch (Knight's). — This pear is repre-
sented in the Catalogue of the London Hor-
ticultural Society as of great merit — the
verij best of Mr. Knight's seedlings ; the
specimens hitherto shown as the Monarch,
have been unworthy of cultivation. The
last (making in all four kinds,) was a spe-
cimen presented by Hon. J. S. Cabot, of
Salem, from trees imported by Messrs. Ho-

VEY & Co., Boston; this also proved to be
a worthless variety. Scions of the Monarch,
from the London Horticultural Society's
Garden, and from other fruit bearing trees
in England, have been received by the pre-
sident of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society. We also have five trees of this
variety, from as many sources, and also a
promise of scions (this month) from a fruit
bearing tree, in one of the best private gar-
dens in the vicinity of London, with a de-
scription of the fruit. Hence, we trust the
true Monarch will (we fully believe it is
already in the hands of many cultivators in
this country,) find its way into our gardens,
and prove worthy of the reputation it has in
Europe.

I have omitted to notice several new na-
tive seedling pears, which have claimed
my attention the past season. I may, pro-
bably, describe some of them another sea-
son, when their qualities shall have been
more fully developed. Your friend,

Samuel Walker.

Roxbury, Mass., Jan. lith, 1848.

NOTES ON PEACHES, WITH A SELECT LIST BEST ADAPTED TO N. ENGLAND.

BY ROBERT MANNING, SALEM, MASS.

[We have great pleasure in presenting the
following notes to our readers. They are
the result of many years experience of fa-
ther and son, in Mr. Manning's widely
known " Pomological Garden." Ed.]

Although the apple and pear, from being
in eating in their different varieties almost
throughout the year, are more valuable than
the peach, which does not offer the same
extent of season, I do not hesitate to express
a decided preference for the flavor of the
peach above any other fruit ; and I firmly
believe that, with proper attention to the

I cultivation of the trees and selection of the
best varieties, the peaches of New-England
are unsurpassable.

I have, in the specimen grounds of the
Pomological Garden, nearly 150 kinds of
peaches ; and the subjoined list is composed
of those which, out of 70 that have fruited,
appeared best adapted to this climate. I
begin with a list of ten varieties, arranged
in the order of their ripening, which, after
several years experience, I have found to
unite in the highest degree the qualities of
beauty, size and flavor in the fruit ; and pro-
ductiveness, vigor and hardiness in the tree.

PEACHES BEST ADAPTED TO NEW-ENGLAND.

399

1. Early York. — The true Early York
I consider at the head of all early peaches,
and deserving the popularity which it has
obtained. It may be known by its gland-
less leaves, large flowers, and fruit inclin-
ing to oval, with a small point at the apex
which is never sunken. The tree is vigor-
ous and productive ; and for a variety with-
out glands, remarkably free from mildew.
Ripe here in the latter part of August.
The Large Early York, of New-Jersey, I
have found less productive, and no more
vigorous than the true kind.

2. Walter's Early. — Ripens the latter
part of August and first of September, im-
mediately succeeding the Early York. Fruit
very fine and juicy; in shape globular, often
a little flattened. Leaves globose, flowers
small.

3. George the Fourth. — Although this
variety is only moderately productive, it
should by no means be omitted ; being for
delicacy of flavor unequalled by any other
peach. At maturity during the first part of
September. The tree makes a large round
spreading head. Leaves globose. Flowers
small.

4. Morris's Red Rareripe. — This varie-
ty is so similar, in general appearance, to
many others of the same season, as to have
occasioned some confusion. It is, indeed,
difficult to name any characteristics which
shall at once distinguish it from all others.
I believe it possesses all the qualities ne-
cessary to give it a place in the first rank.
Season the early part of September. Leaves
globose. Flowers small.

5. Crawford's Early. — Of the finest
flavor among the yellow fleshed peaches,
and well known as unsurpassed for size
and magnificent appearance. Ripe from
the 10th to the 15th of September. Leaves
globose. Flowers small.

6. Nivette. — Taking into consideration

ell the qualities, especially the flavor of this
old French peach, which has been in culti-
vation since the time of Monsieur de la
Quintiney, it has yet to encounter its supe-
rior among the modern sorts. In season
about the 20th of September. Tree of up-
right growth. Leaves globose. Flowers
small.

7. Bergen's Yellow. — Is to my taste the
finest flavored of all yellow fleshed peaches,
as well as one of the handsomest. Shape
rather irregular oval, compressed on the
sides. Tree very vigorous, and foliage of
the most luxuriant description ; bright glos-
sy green, crumpled, and the midrib con-
tracted; giving to the leaf a curled appear-
ance. Ripe the latter part of September.
Leaves with reniform glands. Flowers
small.

8. Late Admirable. — I have never been
disappointed of a good crop of large, hand-
some and delicious peaches from this tree,
even in the most unfavorable seasons when
all others have failed. Last of September
and first of October. Leaves globose.
Flowers small.

9. Oldmixon Clingstone. — No collection
of peaches is complete without one good jui-
cy Clingstone ; and I have no hesitation in
pronouncing the Oldmixon the best of the
half dozen Clingstones which I cultivate.
Last of September and first of October.
Leaves globose. Flowers small.

10. Cbawford's Late Melacoton. —
Among the late peaches, unrivalled for
every good quality. Last of September
and first part of October. Leaves globose.
Flowers small.

These ten kinds, I consider '^ loiimpeach-
able."

If required to select o?ie variety, combin-
ing in the greatest degree all desirable
qualities, I should choose the Craw^ford's
Early.

400

PEACHES BEST ADAPTED TO NEW-ENGLAND.

For two trees, my choice would be Eak-
LY YoEK and Crawford's Early.

For the best six, Early York, Wal-
ter's Early, Crawford's Early, Nivette,
Bergen's Yellow and Crawford's Late.

If a greater variety be desired than is de-
scribed above, it can be made by additions
from those noticed below ; many of which
are of great excellence, though not equal to
those alread^r mentioned.

11. The Apricot Peach. — Yellow, with
sometimes a tinge of red or a few red spots,
and much resembling an Apricot in exter-
nal appearance. Juicy, and of fine fla-
vor. Of medium season. Leaves reniform.
Flowers large.

12. Cooledge's Favorite. — This fine
peach, otherwise first rate, I have found a
little inclined to rot. It is rather early.
Leaves globose. Flowers small.

13. Cole's Early Red. — Productive, and
would be a good kind for market, but is in-
jured by being sometimes a little dry. Ripe
immediately after the Early York. Leaves
globose. Flowers small.

14. Carey's Mammoth Cling. — A good
variety, which I received from Mr. T. Han-
cock, of Burlington, N. J. Rather oval in
shape ; of good size, though not so large as
its name would seem to indicate. Flesh
white and well flavored. Ripe the last of
September and first of October. Leaves
globose. Flowers small.

15. Clinton. — Of good flavor, productive
and very large — a good variety for market
— in general appearance, and the depres-
sion of the summit resembling the Grosse
Mignonne, but larger. Tree of spreading,
irregular growth. Ripe the first half of Sep-
tember. Leaves globose. Flowers large.

16. Grosse Mignonne. — This fine flavor-
ed peach I have found a little inclined to
rot ; but to counterbalance this, it is a hardy
variety, and will often produce a crop of fruit

in an unfavorable season when others fail.
On the whole, I consider it, though a de-
sirable sort, surpassed by some of our native
peaches. It is easily known by its rather
grayish appearance, summit always depress-
ed, and small stone. Growth of the tree
more upright than that of any other peach.
From the 10th to the 15th of September.
I believe it is this variety which has been
cultivated in New-England as the Royal
George. Leaves globose. Flowers large.

17. Hasting's Rareripe. — I do not find
this capital peach described in any pomo-
logical work, and am not informed of its
origin. It was received here from Mr. J.
A. KJENRicK of Newton, Mass., and I pre-
sume it is a native of that vicinity. Above
medium size, form round, often a little flat-
tened ; yellowish white in the shade, hav-
ing a purplish red cheek on the sunny side,
shaded o^ with specks of the same colour.
Productive, juicy and of delicious flavor.
Middle of September. Leaves globose.
Flowers small.

18. Jose Sweet. — Received from Mr. S.
Lybian of Manchester, Conn. A peach of
remarkably delicious flavor, but not very
attractive exterior; being colored of a green-
ish white, with a dull red cheek. In gene-
ral appearance, it is much like the Wash-
ington. Last of September and first of Oc-
tober. Leaves globose. Flowers small.

19. Morris's White. — Like the prece-
ding, less beautiful than good. Middle to
the last of September. Leaves reniform.
Flowers small.

20. Jacques, or Jaquish. — Very large ;
skin very downy, dull orange, with a dull
red cheek. Of good flavor, productive and
profitable for market, as it may always be
depended on for a good crop. Last of Sep-
tember. Leaves reniform. Flowers small.

21. President. — A well known variety,
productive and profitable. In shape rather

PEACHES BEST ADAPTED TO NEW-ENGLAND.

401

oval. Last of September. Leaves globose.
Flowers small.

22. Green Rakeripe. — Productive, and
of fine flavor. Size medium. Ripe the
middle of September. Leaves globose.
Flowers small.

23. Red Cheek Melacoton. — As a sure
and regular bearer, this well known peach
is not excelled by any of the numerous
seedlings raised from it, though some may
surpass it in size and beauty. Last of Sep-
tember and first of October. Leaves glo-
bose. Flowers small.

24. Strawberry. — A good early varie-
ty, not above the second size, but first rate
in flavor. Last of August and first of Sep-
tember. Leaves reniform. Flowers small.

25. Washington. — Of fine flavor, and
tolerably productive. Last of September.
Leaves globose. Flowers small.

26. Columbia. — This singular peach,
when in perfection, presents a rich and
beautiful appearance, and is of delicious
flavor. When cut open, the fruit often
shows a streak of red next to the skin.
The tree being only a moderate bearer, in-
variably exhibits a healthy and vigorous
appearance. Last of September and first
of October. Leaves reniform. Flowers
small.

27. Lemon Clingstone. — Well known
by its oval shape and projecting mamelon.
In flavor, second only to the Oldmixon
Cling. Last of September and first of Oc-
tober. Leaves reniform. Flowers small.

28. Kenrick's Heath. — A very strongly
marked variety, which, though not of the
finest flavor, is desirable for its size and
productiveness. Flesh red at the stone,

which is long and large. Last of Septem-
ber. Leaves reniform. Flowers small.
[Third rate here. Ed.]

29. English Swaesh. — Not a good bear-
er, but very delicious. Ripe from the 10th
to the 15th of September. Leaves globose.
Flowers small.

30. Weld's Freestone. — Large, round-
ish oval, greenish white with some red,
productive and of good flavor. From the
first to the middle of October. In a late or
unfavorable season, it will not always ri-
pen ; but is then excellent for preserving.
Leaves reniform. Flowers small.

In selecting the first ten kinds, I have
had in view those best adapted for a gar-
den; but by substituting the Calebs Early
and Jacques in the places of George the
Fourth and Nivette, the list would be com-
posed of the best kinds for the orchard and
market.

If it is thought desirable to extend the
peach season by the addition of an earlier
kind than the Early York, I would recom-
mend the Early Siveetwater, which is very
sweet and juicy, but not a good bearer ;
and the tree is neither hardy nor vigorous.
A variet}' possessing all the good qualities
of the Early York, but earlier, is still a de-
sideratum.

Among my specimen trees are many va-
rieties imported from England, which have
much disappointed my expectations. They
are not remarkable for fine flavor, while
they are greatly deficient in beauty; and as
a whole, much inferior to the seedlings
raised in this country. Yours respectfully.
Robert Manning.

Salem, Mats., February, 1S43.

VOL. II.

51

402

ON GROWING PLANTS IN WARD'S CASES.

""WARD'S CASES"— THE BEST MODE OF GROWING PLANTS IN ROOMS.

BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FI-U.SHING, L. I.

In our communication for the Horticulturist
for January, the growing of plants, in what
are called " Ward''s Cases,'''' was alluded to
in terms of approval, and the remark fol-
lowed, that " for the cultivation of plants in
the parlor and drawing-room, these cases
are admirably adapted ; and if made with
taste, as they should be for such uses, and
filled with carefully selected specimens,
they would soon become fashionable and
very much sought after." Your corres-
pondent, E. G., of Bridgewater, Mass., has,
in the note you have sent me, been pleased
to notice our remarks with interest, and,
writing you on the subject, desires to know
how the cases are constructed ? What kind
of plants may be most successfully grown
in them? Will the plants bloom as freely
in the cases as out of them? And whether
or not a door is necessary, "so that some of
the pots may be exchanged from time to
time, to give variety ?"

With great pleasure we now reply to
these queries, and shall give your readers
all the knowledge we have, both acquired
from the experience of others and the re-
sults of our oAvn. How are the cases con-
structed ? We may best answer this in a
comprehensive waj'' by saying — have them
made of any size and pattern you please,
plain or ornamental, of wood, brass, iron,
zinc, or bronze. There is no rule to go by;
the owner is to consult his fancy, and keep
in view the position he intends the cases to
occupy. But we must be more specific to
be better understood, and give a brief de-
scription of the case we have, and a draw-
ing of one also. Our case is made of black
walnut ; it is four feet long, two and a half
feet wide, and three feet in height to the

top of the roof. It is perfectly plain, and
as light as possible, consistent with the re-
quisite strength. The bottom of the case is
in the form of a box six inches deep ; at
each corner an upright piece is framed in,^
and between these, other pieces like the
sash of a window. The roof is made in the
same manner, with a ridge piece, and a
double pitch of about twenty-five degrees.
For putting in or taking out the plants, our
roof lifts off" entirely, having a pin and sock-
et at the four corners ; but it is just as con-
venient to place a door Avhere it is wanted
when the case is made. The bottom and
sides of our case are lined with zinc ; and
there are eight holes in it to allow superflu-
ous water to drain off. It stands on brass
castors; but it would have been better to
have had it made with legs, sufficiently
long to bring the case up to the bottom, or
sill of the window : our case stands on a
table. The glass used is clear and strong,
and puttied on the inside. From this de-
scription, a case just like ours maybe easily
constructed ; but in order to make the mat-
ter as plain as possible, we give a drawing
of it, Fig. 50. If a more elegant and orna-
mental structure is desired, the pattern, Fig.
51, is just the thing. This, executed in
bronze or gilt copper, would be beautiful ;
and the glass used should be " plate glass"
in single pieces for the sides, ends, and the
top. Varying the shape and style to suit
the taste of the parties who have one or
more ^'■Ward^s Cases^' made, they can be
large or small, plain or elaborately elegant,
as they may desire. For putting in or
taking out the plants, a door must be made
where most convenient, and sufficiently
large to do so with the most perfect facility.

ON GROWING PLANTS IN WARD'S CASES.

403

Fig. 50.— Ward's Cass

We have thus answered the query — how
are the cases constructed, and proceed to the
second question — what kmd of plants may
be most successfully grown in them ? We
do not know that we can better answer this
question, than by giving an extract from a
letter, written to Dr. Lindley by Dr. Har-
ris, of Dumfries, a devoted horticulturist,
and a very successful grower of plants in
these " miniature green-houses."

" I am convinced they will come more
and more into general use, the better their
capabilities are developed. The best guide
to find out what may be done by them, is to
know what has already been done. I am
therefore induced to send you some account
of mine ; reserving a more particular de-
scription to some future time. I have, at
present, in bud and in bloom, Caltleya For-
besii, C. Loddegesii, Gloxinia maxima alba.
Gloxinia speciosa — two plants, Achimenes
coccinea, A. longiflora, Thunbergia alata,
white and pink double Oleanders, Cattleya
crispa, Cypripedium insigne, Dendrohimii
ciiculatum, Leptotes bicolor, Brassia Lan-
ccana^ Oncidium jiexuosum , O.papilio, Max-
illaria stapelioides, Starihopea grandijlora,
Ccelogyne fimbriata, Oncidium viperinum,
Dendrobmm specios7im, D. cupreum, D.fim-
Iriatum, D. piilckellum, Alaxillaria Harris-

Fig. 5l.— \Vard^s Case.

soni(B, Crinum longifolium. Gloxinia rubra,
Gesneria elongata, Lalia anceps, Stephano-
tis floribundus, Hoya carnosa, Cypripedium
venustum, jEceocladus maculata, and a
Galeandra. So congenial does the atmos-
phere appear to be, that most of the plants
are growing vigorously. Gloxinia leaves
take root in three weeks, and form tubers
the size of a pea in six. Portulacca Thel-
lusonii and Petunia magna rosea rooted in
a fortnight. You will see by the above list
that my box is not a little elegant drawing-
room ornament ; it stands six feet high, is
four feet broad, and two feet wide; has a
door at one end, two shelves inside, and as
many hooks at the top as possible for sus-
pending the Orchidacece. During the sum-
mer, the temperature has never been below
65°, Fah.; and two hours sunshine raises it
to 90°. The window in which it stands
looks S.S. W." In addition to the above. Dr.
Lindley thus replies to a correspondent's
inquiries : "^«i/ plants will succeed in these
contrivances (Ward's Cases) under good
management, provided they do not grow
too large. Everything depends on a correct
appreciation of their principle. Some ig-
norant persons fancy they must be air-tight,

404

ON GROWING PLANTS IN WARD'S CASES.

which is both absurd and impossible. We
have seen growing in these cases Linnaea
borealis, Primroses, Ferns, Geraniums,
Dentarias, Mimulus moschatus. Fuchsias,
Cacti, Mosses, Camellias, all sorts of Alpine
plants, Crocusses, Hyacinths, Azaleas, Win-
ter Aconites, and many more."

To these remarks of Drs. Lindley and
Harris, we would add, that roses, small or-
ange trees, or any other plants of suitable
size, may be successfully and beautifully
grown, kept free from dust, and in an at-
mosphere uniformly moist and congenial to
vegetable development. Those who can
procure Mr. Ward's pamphlet* should do
so. It contains all the information that can
be given, and is written in a plain, intelli-
gible style. Exclusion of the air was not
the object aimed at by Mr. Ward in his ad-
mirable contrivance. He could not have
effected this in any other way, than by
hermetically sealing every chink and crack.
What he wanted was uniform moisture, a
still atmosphere, and exclusion of dust and
soot ; these ends he has secured.

In the case described by Dr. Harris, the
greater number of the plants were Orchi-
deca. These we have italicized, and con-
sider them well worthy the attention of our
amateur gardeners ; not only for their sin-
gularity, but also for their exquisite beauty
and the sweet odor of their flowers. They
are easily grown in pots, baskets, shells, or
on rough blocks of wood ; in this last form,
they are very interesting and thrive admi-
rably.

Will the plants bloom as freely and fully
in the cases as elsewhere ? Yes, quite as
much, if not more so ; and the beauty of
the flowers is greatly heightened by the
clean and healthy looking foliage. To put
in or take out the plants, a door is necessa-

* On the Growih of PUinls in Closely glazrd Cases; by N.
B Ward. Bvo. 1842. Wiley & Putnam inny have il.

ry, and may be placed wherever most con-
venient.

To your correspondent's inquiries we have
now replied, and given drawings by which
he or any one else can have a plain or very
handsome Ward's Case constructed. As
E. G. says, — "it is the very article needed
in our parlors and sitting-rooms, to take the
place of the pots and other vessels by which
our windows are now encumbered and sul-
lied."

There are, however, says Dr. Lindley,
some difficulties in the way of growing
plants in close moist cases, which amateurs
unacquainted with the nature of vegetable
life are unable to overcome ; but which a
sensible gardener, who does not belong to
the " drowsy" school, would easily remove.
Among these difficulties, the principal one
is the adjustment of the amount of moisture
to which the plants are exposed in the ca-
ses; also to the surrounding heat, and to
their own proper nature. Another is the
prevention of dew upon the inside of the
glass, by which the interior is frequently
entirely hidden. These are practical em-
barrassments that must be met by the skill
and ingenuity of cultivators. As each plant
which is put in a Ward's Case requires, or
can bear, a greater or less amount of mois-
ture, the regulation of the quantity of this
agent becomes highly important to their
health and vigor. Intelligence and reflec-
tion must lend their aid in guarding against
an excess or deficiency; and this can only
be eflfectuahy accomplished by careful ob-
servation and close watching. As to the
deposit of devvr upon the inside, we may re-
mark, that since this is owing to the out-
side of the case being colder than the air
that it surrounds, the only course to take is
either to warm the external air by some
means, or to open the door in the case for a
short time ; and as the latter is the more

ON GROWING PLANTS IN WARD'S CASES.

405

Fig. 52. — Longitudinal Section, showing the Plant:/ growing in

Glass

easy, and is quite efficient, it Avill be the
more generally adopted. Opening the door
is an advantage to the plants, if not con-
tinued too long.

Supposing the case to be ready for use,
introduce the plants according to their size,
ihe tallest in the centre, the least in height
surrounding them. Regulate the distances
between the pots, so that no plant touches
its companion, and fill up between with
fresh green moss from the woods. This
arrangement will exercise the amateur's
taste and skill, and give a finish to the in-
terior of his cases quite refreshing to the
eye. When all this is done, give the whole
a good watering, over the leaves as well as
the soil, allow the superfluous water to drain
oH', wipe the inside of the glass perfectly

the Soil, and sinjiended J'tovi the B'oss Rod under the Top of the
Case.

dry, and close the door. The case will now
be placed at the window selected for it, and
once a week alternately, each side turned
to the light. At first, the moisture rising
from the moss and soil will become pretty
j freely deposited on the glass inside ; but
I this can always be removed by opeimig the
door for a half hour or less. To some ex-
tent, this deposit of dew will be constantly
taking place ; but as the way of removing
it is easy, it can bear no weight as an ob-
stacle to the successful management of the
cases. The only 7eal difficulty is in the
regulation of the amount of moisture to
which the plants are always subjected; not
unfrequently the atmosphere within the case
being at or near the point of saturation.
To guard against an excess of this potent

406

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

agent, both for good and evil, the amateur
or gardener must be vigilant. Let the plants
be looked after every day, dead leaves re-
moved, and by the regulator (the door) in-
crease or diminish the moisture by shutting
close, or opening more or less, for a longer
or shorter time.

When the plants are put in, see that they
are clean and free from insects ; for these
increase rapidly within the case, and then
it is not so handy to get at them.

How often shall the plants be watered ?
No rule can be laid down for this operation
as to time, for it is regulated by circum-
stances. If the case is seldom opened, and
then only for a few minutes, once a month
will be sufficient. As long as the plants
appear thriving, and none of them exhibit
signs of flagging for want of water, so long
may its application be withheld ; whether
it be one, two, three or six months since
they received any. Always use rahi ivater,
of mild temperature ; no other is fit for
plants in pots.

It will perhaps be as well to say here,
that when Mr. Ward first constructed his
cases, the plants grown in them were not in
pots, but planted in the soil which filled the
bottom of the case ; and such is the plan
now with many persons who use them. It

is not, however, a proper one for the draw-
ing-room ; the pots are much better, as in
this way, they " can be exchanged from
time to time to give variet}'," as E. G. sug-
gests.

In conclusion, we recommend to all parties
interested, a trial of this method of grow-
ing plants. If managed properly, they can-
not fail to afford the highest pleasure ; and
the cases being ornamental, add materially
to the beauty and finish of the apartment.
Wm. W. Valk, m. d.

Flushing, L. I., Janvary 28, 184S.

\^Ward^s Cases have been, for the last
few years, quite popular among cultivators
of plants in cities abroad. It is surprising,
to those who have not seen them, with what
facility and elegance a small collection of
plants, even of species which are the most
difficult to cultivate in the impure atmos-
phere of large towns, are grown in these
closely-glazed cases. For the windows of
the drawing-room, one of these cases is, as
our correspondent points out, beautifully
adapted. We add to his illustrations ano-
ther from London's Magazine, Fig. 52,
showing a collection of rare exotics, grow-
ing in the case. Ed.]

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

BY THE LEADING HORTICULTURISTS OF MAINE.

A, J. Downing, Esq. — With the view of
publishing in your Horticulturist, a cata-
logue of fruits, for the use and guidance of
all who are planting, or who design to plant
orchards at the north, I have long been
searching for such lists as will present ex-
clusively the names of all the hardy fruits,
which are known by experience to thrive
on this continent in the region north of lati-

tude 43°. This includes almost the whole
of the British dominions, all the state of
Maine, and nearly all of New-Hampshire
and Vermont, and a portion of New-York.
For this purpose, I have addressed a cir-
cular to a few experienced cultivators, and
to others who have bestowed much atten-
tion upon the subject, asking for their opi-
nions, based upon their own experience and

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

407

observation. They are gentlemen in whom
the utmost confidence may be placed. Hen-
ry Corse, Esq., of Montreal, and Joseph
PiNNEo, Esq., of Hanover, N. H., are well
known. The Hon. Ephradi Goodale, of
Orrington, Judge Pond, of Bucksport, and
Gen. Herrick, of Hampden, Me., have been
cultivators in this vicinity for nearly 40 years.
The others are younger men ; but they have
given much attention to the subject.

I herewith forward you a copy of my cir-
cular and their several answers, which you
are at liberty to make such use of as you
may think will be most beneficial to the
public. It is very desirable that we should
have as much light as possible on a subject
of so much importance, and one which is
fortunately attracting very general atten-
tion, at least in this section of Maine. I
therefore hope, that, as several fine orchards
and nurseries have lately been commenced
in this vicinity, their proprietors will here-
after favor the public with pomological
communications in publications which cir-
culate in this northern section, in order that
the example of their laudable enterprise,
and the results of their experience, may be
extensively known, properl}'' appreciated and
practically improved. Some evidence of an
increasing interest in one branch of the sub-
ject maybe found in the fact, that the num-
ber of imported gooseberry plants which
have been set in the gardens of Bangor
and vicinity within two years past, is at
least fifty fold greater than the whole num-
ber previously planted. Perhaps the same
may be said also of plum trees. It is be-
lieved that a still greater supply will be re-
quisite to meet the demand for the coming
spring ; and large orders have accordingly
been sent to England, for the choicest goose-
berry plants to be delivered here before the
time for planting. It has been the great
error of early settlers generally, in all our

states, to waste their time and labor in
raising natural fruit trees of almost worth-
less kinds, instead of improving them by
the best varieties of grafts. It may be said
they did their best, at a period when nei-
ther the requisite knowledge nor the best
varieties of trees were easily accessible.
Let us, then, do our best also, but not like-
wise ; for neither of these excuses can
be pleaded in our day and generation.
Horticultural societies and publications
have accumulated and distributed a large
amount of knowledge, which has already
planted the nursery, set the grafts, and ma-
tured the orchard ; thereby rendering ac-
cessible to all, through the increased facili-
ties of communication, and the easy trans-
portation of the present time, both the know-
ledge and the ready means of easy improve-
ment.

In Bangor and vicinity, trade and lumber-
ing have so completely engrossed the atten-
tion of the earl}^ settlers, that, until within
a few years, the cultivation both of natural
and grafted fruit has been, with rare excep-
tions, entirely neglected. Indeed, it has
been a common opinion that our climate is
wholly unsuitable for fruit cultivation. But
on this point experience has, of late, efl!ect-
ed a complete revolution of public senti-
ment. Many experiments have been tried,
and the results are so satisfactory that nu-
merous individuals on the Penobscot river
are inspired with the same enthusiasm on
the subject that prevails in Boston and the
vicinity. We may, therefore, reasonably
expect, (and, notwithstanding the errone-
ous ideas which have generally prevailed
in regard to "Down East," we confidently
predict,) that in a very few j-ears, the fruit
grown in Maine will be found equal to any
other, not even excepting that of Massachu-
setts or of New-York, particularly for ex-
port at ion.

408

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH. 'T

The first inquiry here is, what will best
suit our soil and climate ; second, the fla-
vor of the fruit, or its value for the kitchen ;
third, its productiveness ; fourth, the health
and thriftiness of the tree.

The Jefferson Plum, among other fruits,
has fruited Avith me for two years past. It
is highly valuable on this river, proves to
be productive, and justifies all you say of it
in your work on "Fruits and Fruit Trees."
I think it has no superior in the plum cata-
logue.

The selections made by my correspond-
ents would, as you are aware, be essentially
varied were the}' to select for other portions
of the United States. When other new
varieties shall have shown fruit, and been
fully proved and tried, we shall be able to
select a more perfect catalogue of hardy
trees and plants for the north ; and I trust
that our march of improvement will be
rapidly onward. Respectfully yours.

Henry Little.

Bangor, Maine, Jan. id, 1S48.

CIRCULAR.

Bangor, Dec. 20, 1847.

If " time is money," it may be said that
economy in the use of time and means is
money. Endeavoring to practice upon this
principle, I have for several years been at
considerable pains to introduce to the peo-
ple, in this part of the state of Maine, the
choicest varieties of such fruits as facts and
experience have indicated to be best suited
to our soil and climate. Knowing that
much still remains to be done, I would
avail myself of such additional experience
as those engaged in cultivating fruits can
furnish me. My object now, is to ascertain
Avhat fruits are best adapted to the soil and
climate of Maine, New-Hampshire, Ver-
mont, the northern part of New-York, New-
Brunswick and the Canadas. Also, to in-
quire in what kind of soil your orchard or

nursery is planted. Our Bangor soil is a
gravelly and clayey loam ; the clay often
preponderating.

If you were restricted to only three ap-
ple trees, what varieties would you select
for your location ?

If restricted to six trees, what varieties ?

If restricted to twelve trees, what varie-
ties ?

What number of sweet apple trees would
you plant to the hundred ?

Pear, plum and cherry trees, and goose-
berry plants, the same questions through-
out except the last.

Have you cultivated (unprotected) with
success any one or more varieties of the
peach, quince, grape, or other valuable fruits
not here enumerated, that will stand the ri-
gors of our climate ? If so, please name
them, and the varieties.

Do 3^ou cultivate the White Dutch Cur-
rant, Myatt's Victoria, Downing's Colossal
and Wilmot's Early Red Rhubarb? If so,
what is your estimate of each of them ?
What three varieties of strawberries do you
consider best for our climate ? Respect-
fully yours. Hekry Little.

Col. Little has sent us the replies to the
foregoing circular, embodying a considera-
ble amount of valuable information for the
northern fruit grower. We would very
cheerfully print these answers entire, did
they not require more space than we have
at our disposal for a subject which, though
largely important at the north, is less inte-
resting to our numerous readers in other
parts of the Union. We shall, therefore,
be obliged to content our readers by pre-
senting an epitome of the experience and
opinions of the gentlemen who have replied
to Col. Little's circular.

One of the veteran cultivators of Maine
is the Hon. Ephraim Goodale, of Orring-

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

409

ton. For more than forty years his atten-
tion has been largely directed to the collec-
tion and testing of hardy orchard fruits on
the Penobscot river. His letter is very
brief, and relates chiefly to the apple. We
give it nearly entire :

" This climate will not permit us to grow
southern fruits; but we can supply all sea-
sons easily with good apples, as well as
many of the best pears, plums, gooseberries
and currants. There is no doubt, also, that
more experience will enable us to cultivate
successfully many fine cherries, grapes,
peaches, etc.

" I shall, however, confine myself at the
present moment, to apples; as I consider
them, for Maine, worth all the other fruits.
You inquire, 'if restricted to three varieties,
which would I select ? ' I answer —

" Williams^ Favorite, Ribston Pippin,
and Roxhury Russet. But as the limit is
almost too small, even for a very small col-
lection, I should wish to add the Porter and
the Gravenstein, to keep up the succession
and afford a constant supply. These five I
would recommend as the smallest collection
to be planted on our Penobscot river. If
six were desired, I would add to the list the
Early, or Sweet Bough. For twelve varie-
ties, I would say —

Early Harvest, Maiden's Blush,

Williams' Favorite, Gravenstein,

Sops of Wine, ['Bel's^ Garden Sweet,

Early,' as known here.] Ribston Pippin,

Sweet Bough, Johnan Sweeting,

Porter, Roxbury Russet.
Golden (or Or.) Sweet,

" This will furnish a supply through the
whole season ; and as they have been tho-
roughly proved here, their merits can be
depended on. There are many new varie-
ties not yet fully proved, which may, pro-
bably, excel some of the above.

" The proportion of sweet apples in an
orchard of one hundred trees, depends on
Vol. II. 52

the location and intentions of the grower.
Some men would plant fifty, others only
five. When deprived of a good market,
and when it is desirable to fatten stock with
this fruit, I would recommend a large pro-
portion of sweet apples."

The following interesting notes, in reply
to the circular, are from a very intelligent
cultivator of our acquaintance, Mr. S. L.
GooDALE, Saco, Maine:

" 1 would recommend the following, as
the best apples for Maine culture :

" Best Three. Williams' Favorite, (sum-
mer,) Graceyistein, (autumn,) Baldwin, win-
ter.)

"If the Baldwin can be grafted on healthy
grown trees it does well; but young trees
from the nursery are tender.

'* For the best six, add to the above,
Rhode-Isla7id Greeni?ig, Ydloio Bellflowery
and Ribston Pippin.

" My selection of twelve, would be com-
posed as follows :

Ribston Pippin,
Fameuse,
Yellow Bell/lower,
Baldwin,

Danvers' Winter Sweet,
Rhode-Island Greening, Roxbury Russet.

" For the best three pears — Dearborn's
Seedling, (simimer,) Flemish Beauty, (au-
tumn,) Vicar oj Winkfield, (winter.)

" For the six best — add Fulto?i, Gushing
and Belle Lucrative.

"For the twelve best — add Frederick of
Wurtemhurg, Dix, Heathcot, McLaughlin,
Golden Beurre of Bilboa, and Beurre Bosc;
and for cooking only. Black Pear of Wor-
cester.

"Plums — best three — Jefferson, Princess
Imperial Gage, Purple Gage.

"For the best six — add Washington, Di-
aprie Rouge and Coe's Golden Drop.

"For the best twelve — add Green Gage,

Early Bough,
William's Favorite,
Porter,
Gravenstein,
Golden Sweet,

410

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

Yellow Gage, Lombard, McLav.ghlin, Red
Gage, BrevoorVs Purple.

" The only cherries which prove hardy
Qwdi good wiih. me are the Downton, Downer's
Late, Elton, Black Eagle and May Duke.

" MyatVs Victoria and Early Red (Wil-
mot's) Rhubarb, wie very fine. The others
I do not cultivate.

"The only good grapes (and these are
native ones,) which are perfectly hardy, are
the Limingto7i White Grape and Buckmin-
ster's Cream Coloured. Others may be cul-
tivated to advantage in our state, with a
protection of evergreens in winter,

" The White Dutch Currant is very pro-
ductive, perfectly hardy, and of the best
quality.

" The best strawberry is Hovey's Seed-
ling, and it should be cultivated in alternate
strips with Early Virginia, also good and
earlier, but not so large. Bed and White
Wood Strawberries are good, though small,
and do not need lo be planted near others;
none of them need any other protection
than the winter's snow.

" Mclutyre's Seedling Peach is one of the
hardiest, though rather lale in ripening.
It originated in this county, as did also the
Limington Grape.

"The following list of Gooseberries will
give a succession of good fruit of different
colours, viz : Crown Bob, Whitesmith, Ear-
ly Green Hairy, Red Champagne, Green
Walnut, Roaring Lion, Heart of Oak, Jolly
Printer, White Lion, Warrington, Golden
Drop, B. Atlas.

"The Orange and Pear-shaped Quinces
are hardy, but, with me, are liable to a sort
of fungus, similar to the Black Knot of
Plums, but more fatal ; it attacks both fruit
and limbs. Is there any remedy for it ?

" You will notice that I omit the Bartlett
Pear, and do not place the Green Oage
Plum in the highest rank, to say nothing of

lesser deviations from prevailing opinions
elsewhere. I will give the reasons : Of
the Bartlelt, I have raised and purchased
from various sources more than 500 trees ;
and of these, not one-tenth are alive, and
very few promise to become profitable.
Either the soil, climate, exposure or some-
thing else, does not suit them. In some
cases, it seems to be a want of correspond-
ence between the scion and stock. In one
tree, of about 15 feet high, scions were in-
serted which grew finely several years ; but
one spring the trunk and roots were found
to be entirely black and dead, though the
scions still looked well, and some, which
were cut, grew well in other stocks the same
season. Another tree, of same size, partially
grafted, soon became covered with blotches
of canker, and lingered two or three years
more. In some ie\Y instances it has done
well. The true Green Gage is of slow
growth, (unless grafted high,) tardy in bear-
ing ; then bearing light crops, is in perfec-
tion but a few days, and is very liable to
crack. For quality, though none are bet-
ter, it is equalled by the Jefferson, when both
are in perfection. It is impossible to give
a very small list of names which should be
first rate in all cases, owing to the difference
produced by soil, exposition, &c.; for in-
stance, the Williams^ Favorite Apple needs
a strong, deep and rich soil to develop its
true quality, while the Bellfloiver needs a
warm light one ; and so of others. Great
advantage may be taken by suitably adapt-
ing different varieties to such soils as suit
them ; and there is here much yet to be
ascertained by experiment and interchange
of the results of cultivation. Respectfully
yours. S. L. Goodale."

The following lists are offered by Messrs.
Elijah Beckwith & Albert Noyes of Ban-
gor, Me.:

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

411

"Of Apples. For the three best — JVil-
liains^ Favorite, Gracenstein, and Rhode-
Island Greening.

"For six, add — Yellcio Bough, Faineuse,
and Da7ivers^ JVi/iter Sweet.

"And for twelve, add — Ribsto?i Pippin,
Baldwin, Golden Ball, Red Astrachan, Ear-
ly Harvest, and Golde?i Sweeting.

"Of Cherries. For the three best — Black
Heart, May Duke, and Kentish.

"For six, add — Black Eagle, Downton,
and Doto7ier's Late.

" Of Pears. For the three best — Dear-
born's Seedling, McLaughlin, and Black
Worcester.

'• For six, add — Bartlett, Belle Lucrative,
[Fondante d'Automne,] and Winter Nelis.

" For twelve, add — Louise Boniie de Jer-
sey, 2 Vicar of Winkjield, Beurre d' Arem-
berg, Seckel, and Beurre Base.

" Of Plums. For the three best — Jeffer-
son, McLaughlin, and Lombard.

" For six, add — Imperial Gage, Bleecker^s
Gage, and Washington.

"For nine, add — Purple Gage, Imperial
Ottoman, and Greeii Gage.

" Of Gooseberries, the following sorts : —
Crown Boh, Red Champagrie, Yellow Cham-
pagne, Red Warrington, White Lion, White
Smith, and Sulphur."

Messrs. Beckwith & Noyes remark, "in
selecting the Ehode-Island Greening Apple,
Black Worcester Pear, Lombard Plum, and
Kentish Cherry, in selections so small as
those here made, their value for uniform
productiveness and for cooking — indispensa-
ble qualities with us — have been consider-
ed."

The next response is from Col. L. Cut-
ler, of Dexter, Maine; dated January 10th,
1848 ; from which we quote as follows : —

" I know that it is a prevalent opinion,
that our climate is unsuited to the raising
of good fruit, particularly the pear. This

is a great mistake, although there are some
kinds of pear anu apple which require a
warmer climate ; there are enough, those
among the verj' best known, which will
flourish as well with us as in the world, and
certainly plums. Currants and gooseber-
ries will not do better anywhere.

"I do not mean, by the foregoing re-
marks, that of fruit, any kind can be raised
in perfection without proper attention ; the
want of this care and the want of know-
ledge, or the dishonesty of nurserymen, I
believe have been the cause of most of the
failures which have been attributed to the
cold climate. First, then, most men, when
transplanting trees, instead of preparing
deep and broad holes, well filled with good
earth for these trees, dig a hole in the clay
or gravel, (as the case may be,) just suffi-
cient to crowd in the roots of the tree, and
cover with the same material ; thus, by
their first act either killing the tree, or so
injuring it that it never becomes a healthy
and vigorous tree. The practice of nurse-
rymen of engrafting upon bad and un-
healthy stocks — the graft of the pear upon
the quince, the thorn or wild pear instead
of good stocks, and the palming off' incor-
rect varieties for good ones — have been,
and are now vexatious cause of failure and
loss, even where great care has been taken
in transplanting and cultivating the tree,
and are practices which should be punished
like any other swindling. If the evils above
named could be obviated, I think we should
hear little complaint against the climate, so
far as raising fruit is concerned. I have
never tried the quince ; but my opinion is,
that it does require a warmer latitude than
ours to flourish. The Red and White Dutch
Currants I raise ; and I consider the com-
mon currant as unworthy of cultivation,
compared with them.

" I have several varieties of gooseberry,

412

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

some of which approach so near to each
other that it is difficult, perhaps, to say
which is best. I have the following, all of
which flourish well, viz : Farrow'' s Roar-
ing Lion, Keeri's Seedling, Melling^s Croivn
Boh, Miss Bold, Red Warrington, Early Sul-
phur, Yellow Champagne, Massey^s Heart
of Oak, Parkinsoti's Laurel, Woodward's
Whitesmith.

" When it is considered how easy it is
to multiply gooseberries and currants to
any desirable extent by cuttings, it p?ems
strange that any one, with a small garden,
should neglect their cultivation.

" I will answer your other inquiries ac-
cording to my own notions, which may be
very different from those of an experienced
fruit grower. If I were restricted to three
apple trees, I should take the following:
Mho de- Island Greening, Canada Reinette,
and Ladies^ Sweeting.

" If to six, I would add — The Ribston
Pippin, Gravenstein, and Early Harvest.

" To increase the number, I should add —
Red jlstrachan, Williams'' Favorite, Porter,
Court of Wyck, Danver's Wi?iter Sweet, and
the Jonathan.

" As to the Pears, I consider the Blood-
good, Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Seckel, and
Passe Colmar, as among the best pears ;
and, judging from the thrift of my trees,
have no doubt they will stand our climate.

"Plums, for three trees — Green Gage,
Imperial Gage, and Jefferson.

" For six, I would add — The Washington,
Yellow Egg, and Smith's Orleans.

" In speaking of the foregoing trees, I
can speak from my own experience so far
as their growth is concerned ; as I have
them all, and all in a thrifty condition.

L. Cutler."

The following lists we extract from the
reply of W. Goodale, of S. Orrington, Me.:

"Apples. For the three best — Sops oj
Wine, American Golden Russet, Ribston
Pi-ppin.

" For six, add — Porter, Gravenstein, and
Queen's Pocket, [for cooking.]

" And for twelve, add — Williams'' Favor-
ite, Early Bough, Roxbury Russet, Mai-
den's Blush, R. I. Greening, and Garden
Sweet, (as known here ; probably a local
name.)"

This list he gives with confidence, as the
result of twenty years with each variety.

" Regarding pears," he observes, " we
have had about fifty kinds in bearing.
Many of them proved too tender for our
northern climate, while others prove quite
hardy. All things considered, we find the
following six varieties the most profitable
for cultivation with us, viz : Frederick of
Wurtem,berg, Chelmsford, Harvard, Belle
Lucrative, Beurre de Ranz, and English
Jargonelle.

" All these produce good crops. The
Vicar of Winkfield, Avhich will no doubt
prove quite hardy, has not fruited with me.
I have, in my garden, fifty of the most noted
kinds of plums ; and, though with less con-
fidence, I give you a list of the best of
these, as well as some other fruits."

The following are the selections of the
other fruits :

" Plums. For the three best — Jefferso7t,
Green Gage, and McLaughlin.

"For six, add — \ ashington. Imperial
Gage, and. Purple Gage.

" For twelve, add — Lombard, Bleecker^s
Gage, Sniith's Orleans, Red Gage, Imperial
Ottoman, and Magnum Bonum, (for pre-
serving.)

" Gooseberries. For the three best —
Crown Bob, Whitesmith, and Red War-
rington.

" For six, add — Parkinson's Laurel, Red
Champagne, and Yellovj Champagne.

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

413

"For twelve, add — Green Wahmt, KcerCs
Seedling, Cheshire Lass, Heart of Oak, Ri-
flemati, and Welling toii^s Glory. ^^

White and Red Dutch Currants, as well
as gooseberries, as we learn from this gen-
tleman, thrive and bear abundantly with
him.

Gen. Herrick, of Hampden, furnishes the
following list of twelve apples, which he
considers the best :

" Early Harvest, Sops of Wine, (or BeWs
Early,) Fameuse, Porter, Wine, Szveet Gold-
en Russet, Stveet Bough, Honey Pink, (a lo-
cal fruit,) Killam Hill, Baldwiii, Nonesuch,
and Su-aar, or Mammoth Green Pippin.
(Not, probably, the true Swaar.)"

Gen. H. remarks that, as market varieties,
he would substitute the Porter for the Fa-
meuse, and the Nonesuch and Swaar for the
Early Harvest and Sops of Wine. His at-
tempt to cultivate the peach and quince, in
the common culture of the open garden,
have been entirely unsuccessful ; the trees
being too tender for the climate. He has
tried sixteen varieties of grapes. All re-
quire protection, and none but the Sweet
Water ripens fruit well ; and the latter de-
mands a good deal of care.

Isabella, Catawba and Schuylkill, (Alex-
ander's,) require, usually, a longer season
than that of his district, though they have
borne high flavored fruit with him. They
need to be covered in winter ; and they
make so large a quantity of wood in sum-
mer that it is too troublesome to lay them
down and take them up again.* The Vic-
toria Rhubarb is cultivated by this gentle-
man, and proves there, as everj'where,
greatly superior to the common sort.

We have, next, from Hanover, N. H., a
letter, written by a gentleman well known

• This is easily overcome by giving the vines Ilie annual
prnning before laying them down. Autumnal pruning the
vine is, on some accounts, preferable to spring or winter
pruning. Ed.

in New-Hampshire for his devotion to hor-
ticulture. With the exception of some pre-
fatory remarks, (in which he speaks of the
apathy regarding the more refined kinds of
cultivation always felt in a comparatively
new country, and the very decided change
for the better now so apparent in the gra-
nite state,) we must lay nearly the whole
of this letter before our readers.

" For ten years past, I have travelled
through various sections of the country, and
have been a close observer of various mat-
ters and things pertaining to fruit growing
and tree raising, and have collected nearly
1000 varieties of fruit, which have been
propagated in a specimen orchard and the
vicinity.

"Many of these varieties proving nearly
worthless for our climate, it has led me, for
five or six years past, to select the hardiest
and most productive varieties, and to look
up new choice native varieties for propaga-
tion, whose habits are congenial to a short
summer and a severe winter. These ope-
rations have been a school to me, in which
I have learnt many valuable things; but
the tuition comes too high, leaving me mi-
nus, at least $1000, for want of the proper
information to start upon.

"And now, sir, if I can aid you, or any of
your kindred spirits in your undertaking, or
benefit the citizens of Bangor, and the com-
munity at large, I am w'illing to give the
results of my experience. In Massachu-
setts, all that is necessary to ensure success
in raising and maturing a crop of fruit trees,
in almost any soil or location, is a liberal
share of manure and good attendance.
Here, it is not so. They may have both,
and the sooner be destroyed by a bad win-
ter.

" On my clayey ground, my Baldwins,
R. I. Greenings, and other late young va-
rieties, were killed close to the ground the

414

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

second and third winters. This was occa-
sioned by early frost, preceded by very
warm weather, bursting the bark near the
ground, and turning the sap of the tree
brown. While the Shropshire, Summer
Harvey, Red Astrachan, Blue and Sweet
Pearmain, Latham, and some native varie-
ties, with the Crabs, stood unmolested.

" On my alluvial soil, I have succeeded
but little better with the Baldwin. On the
hill land I have had but little trouble in
raising nearly all the desirable varieties of
the apple, pear, plum and cherry. But
while my trees have been killed the worst
in the valley, on my clay, and alluvial soil,
and near the river; others engaged in the
business, have succeeded the best on some
low ground, near some large pond or lake,
and that, too, sixty miles north of me.
Nearly all our valleys and low grounds in
New-Hampshire and Vermont, which are
contiguous to streams, are more unfavo-
rable for the raising of most kinds of
fruit and fruit trees, than are the hills,
while the banks of a lake or large pond
prove favorable. Such as Champlain, Mem-
phremagog, Winnipiseoge, and some large
ponds. Will you or some one give me
your views on what makes the difference ?
Were it the ocean, instead of ponds and
lakes, we should readily say it was the
humid atmosphere during winter. It has
proved to be a great object here, to select
our choicest native fruits for cultivation,
still there are many varieties, from a more
favored clime that are among our very best
fruits, after being acclimated, and some be-
fore ; such as the Early Harvest, Porter,
Baldwin, Northern Spy, 20 ounce apple,
Crier [?] Sweet, Gravenstein, &c., with
some pears, and nearly all the varieties of
plums.

" The first Baldwins I raised here were
as green as grass, with not a tinge of red

on them till March. Now, they are very
red, bear as well, are of a higher flavor,
keep a month or two longer, and are deci-
dedly a more valuable apple than in Mas-
sachusetts. The Northern Spy makes a
strong growth, and comes through the win-
ter well, and promises to make a most va-
luable variety for a northern climate.

" As to your question, ' were I restricted
to three trees, what varieties would I select
for my location V I hardly know what to
say to you. Had you said twenty-five, it
would have been an easy task. But I will
answer it as it is. Still, I am conscious
that I shall not meet the views of every
fruit grower.

"Apples. Three best — Shropshire, Sha-
ker's Pippin, and Baldwin.

"For the six best — Early Harvest, Wil-
liams' Favorite, Porter, Shaker's Pippin,
Jewet's Red, and Baldwin.

" For the twelve best — Early Harvest,
E. Sweet Bough, Summer Harvey, Porter,
Gravenstein, Jewet's Red, Dexter, Danver's
W. Sweet, R. I. Greening, Baldwin, Real
Nonesuch,* and Northern Spy.

"For the extreme north, or unfavorable
locations, I would recommend the Red As-
trachan, Shropshire, Summer Harvey, Tay-
lor's Spice, Shakers' Pippin, Buel Sweet,
Pound Sweet, Sweet Pearmain, Blue Pear-
main, Morey's Melon Apple, Latham, Dex-
ter, Punch Bowl, and Latham Pippin, (late
keeping.)

" In selecting the number of varieties, I
might add half as many more ; between
which and those named, there would be
but little choice.

" In my selection, I have had reference
mainly to their superior value for extensive
cultivation, when considered in all their
habits. They are all great bearers.

" As to ' how many sweet apple trees to

* This is the " Canada Red" of western New- York. Ed.

SELECT FRUITS FOR THE NORTH.

415

a hundred set in an orchard,' I would have
at least twenty-five ; and were I to raise
apples entirely for feeding out, as well as
for domestic use, I would have two-thirds
sweet, and for this reason : They are worth
as much as potatoes for hogs, sheep, cattle
and horses, and as easily raised ; and as
the potato crop is cut short by the rot, it
makes it far more important that sweet ap-
ples should be estimated as a substitute.
Let every permanent fence on the farm and
road side be lined with productive sweet
apple trees, and even then [until orchards
are abundant,] it will be, as a friend of
mine once said, who had 120 sweet apple
trees of one variety. 1 said to him, — why
do you have so many trees of a kind ?
' They are my Hog Sweetings ; and I set
them on purpose to feed my hogs.' I said,
— well, how do your hogs like them ? ' Do
not know; they have never got any of
them. yet, and I am afraid they never will.'

" Pears, I have not cultivated so exten-
sively, having tried only about twenty va-
rieties of a more southern clime ; a part of
which, together with a few choice northern
varieties, I have cultivated with good suc-
cess.

"Three best — Bloodgood, Udal, Doy-
enne, or Old St. Michael.

" Six best — Bloodgood, Udal's Seedling,
Udal, Sweet Bell, St. Michael, and Winter
Nelis.

" Twelve best— Bloodgood, Udal's Seed-
ling, Dearborn's Seedling, Sweet Bell, Buf-
fum, St. Michael, Louise Bonne de Jersey,
Fulton, Vicar of Winkfield, Prince's St.
Germain, and Winter Nelis.

" Plums. I have cultivated over fifty va-
rieties of the plum, mostly on the wild or
Canada plum stock, which makes the hardi-
est and most productive tree for this cli-
mate ; and when grafted or budded close
to the ground, grows large and handsome.

Most varieties of the plum have succeeded
perfectly well here, and large crops were
raised the past season. Three best — Early
Orleans, Prince's Imperial Gage, and Pur-
ple Gage.

" Six best — Early Orleans, Duane's Pur-
ple, Blue Dwarf Gage, Green Gage, Lom-
bard, and Black Damson.

" Twelve best — Royal Native, Duane's
Purple, Washington, Smith's Orleans, Blue
Dwarf Gage, Imperial Gage, Green Gage,
Purple Gage, Columbia, Jeff'erson, Orange,
Lombard, and Black Darnson.

" Cherries. The Kentish or Pie Cherry,
(called here the Tame, in distinction to the
wild cherry,) is the main cherry in this re-
gion, and by far the most hardy and pro-
ductive ; it produces the same from seed,
and is nearly as good for us as any of the
Heart, Bigarreau, or Duke Cherries, that can
be raised here. I have tried some dozen
varieties, and find the Black Heart, Black
Tartarian, H3'de's Native, Downer's Late,
May Duke, &c., succeed tolerably well.
Still, we do not get a crop of fruit oftener
than once in three or four years. The
others make a rapid growth, and set full for
fruit; but the buds are spoiled by the se-
verity of the winter, or a late frost in the
spring.

" Gooseberries and currants, I have not,
as yet, cultivated extensively ; but they are
all perfectly hardy. I have some of the
Red, Green and White English Gooseber-
ries, and a few valuable varieties selected
from our swamps.

" I have the large Red and White Dutch,
and the Black Currants.

" The White Dutch succeeds well, and
in some respects is preferable to the Red.

"Grapes are raised in this region, in fa-
vorable locations, with open culture. The
Isabella, and White Sweet Water, have
been as much cultivated as any varieties,

416

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

but they are too late for our short summers;
and much has been done of late to raise
and seek out new native varieties, that are
earlier and hardier, and that will stand the
severity of our climate, unprotected. Many
valuable varieties are already produced. I
have, as yet, cultivated but few of them ;
but am now making a selection.

" The varieties of Rhubarb you mention,
I have not, as yet, cultivated.

" Strawberries, I have cultivated but lit-
tle. Still, any desirable variety will flourish
well here.

"I have given you my selections, and
could give you a reason for all my prefer-
ences, but it would occupy too much time.
I am well aware that I have already tres-
passed on your patience ; and the only apo-
logy I have to make, is the deep interest I
ever take in this subject, I am respectfully
yours. Joseph Pinneo."

Hanover, N. H., Jan. 28, 1848.

We will observe, in conclusion, that our
northern readers owe Col. Little many
thanks for the interesting information which
he has elicited from the most experienced
cultivators of our coldest states. Notwith-
standing the apparent difficulties in the
way of the fruit grower in that portion of
the Union, it is evident that orchards, of
the finest hardy fruits, will soon cover the
hill sides there. A great deal of disap-
pointment will be avoided, in the future,

by novices in the culture of the garden, by
a comparison of the different lists given,
from which they will see directly the sorts
which experience has proved, and which
experience only can prove, to be best suited
to the climate.

It is quite a remarkable fact, which we
have gathered from previous conversations
with Col. Little, and other Maine horti-
culturists, that, while many fruits which
attain great perfection here, fail entirely
there ; others, of English origin, which fall
far below their foreign reputation with us,
fully maintain it in the state of Maine. As
illustrations, we may mention the Rihston
Pippin Apple, only second rate (all points
considered,) in the middle states, yet, which
reaches the highest perfection on the Pe-
nobscot river ; and has all those qualities
of high flavor, crispness, and good keeping,
which render it so popular in Great Britain.
Gooseberries, too, of the finest Lancashire
varieties, the culture of which is often so
unsatisfactory here, grow to enormous size,
and attain the highest flavor, without mil-
dew, and with the least possible care, about
Bangor.

We observe, among the most popular
fruits, two excellent native varieties which
originated in Maine, — the McLaughlin
Plum and the McLaughlin Pear. Both
these kinds we know very well ; and they
are truly excellent fruits, worthy of general
cultivation.

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

BY LEVI BARTLETT, WARNER, N. H.

In the September number of your Horticul-
turist, is an article on " Transplanting Ever-
greens," by one of your correspondents.
From some little experience in transplant-
ing, I am Ifed to believe, with the writer.

that the spring is the best time to trans- [ woods

plant evergreens, under proper conditions,
in connexion with Sir Henry Stewart's
advice, of " choosing trees that stood natu-
rally in an exposed or open site,''^ when
evergreens are to be taken from the

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

417

The conditions I allude to are, first, to
have the holes dug sufficiently large, and
the excavated soil from the holes well pul-
verized, and nicely piled by the sides of
ihein ; secondly, after the frost is out of the
ground, whether March or April, (Februa-
ry for further south,) choose a day for taking
up the trees which will be succeeded by a
cold freezing night ; commence by cutting
with a sharp spade a suitable distance from
the trees, so as to lift them with a ball of
soil attached to the roots, proportioned, to
the size of the trees ; after, leave them
through the night, the trees lying upon the
ground, so as to expose the ball of earth to
the action of the frost. Early next day,
with wagon or other stntable conveyance,
lift the trees, and transport before the fro-
zen earth thaws. Throw in the holes suf-
ficient of the excavated soil to bring the
trees to the right depth; after the trees are
placed, fill up with the soil, and dash on a
few buckets of water to fill up all intersti-
ces about the roots ; and, believe me, the
trees will scarcely at all feel the removal,
and will grow nearly as well as if they had
remained in their native localities. I ought
to add, — provided you do not remove with
the knife, or saw, too many of their " ne-
ther limbs ;" as severe pruning of this kind
is pretty certain death to evergreens.

You will perceive this method possesses
many advantages over that of cutting, or
digging up trees in the coldest winter
months, when the ground is frozen as hard
as a rock.

Last spring, several persons in the vil-
lage near where I reside, at much expense
of time and labor, transplanted from their

native localities a large number of beautiful
Fir trees into their door yards, and about
their grounds ; some of them sixteen feet
high. I saw the trees as they were brought
into the village on wagons. Many of the
large roots were cut ofl!' to the length of
eighteen inches from the base of the trees ;
and all the roots were as bare of soil as the
limbs were. I remarked to the persons
engaged in transplanting the trees, that
they were laboring in vain ; and, instead
of planting them in their grounds, they had
better throw them on the brush heap.
They thought otherwise. Their door yards
presented a fine appearance till about mid-
summer, when a sad change came over the
symmetrical Firs. Every tree, except one,
died before autumn. These men will never
again be caught ti'ansplanting evergreen
trees, until they can obtain more correct
notions about the art.

Last spring 1 transplanted quite a num-
ber of Hemlock, Spruce, Fir, Larch, White
and Norway Pines, from six to ten feet
high. They were all taken up with a ball
of earth about the roots, but not frozen.
They have flourished the past summer ea>
actly in proportion to the quantity of soil
attached to the roots. The Norway Pines,
about a dozen in number, grew on a drier
and more gravelly soil than the others ; and
by the jolting of the wagon, most of the
soil dropped from their roots, and only two
of the number lived through the summer.
Had I taken the course recommended in
this paper, I have no doubt every tree
would have lived. Yours, &c.

Levi Bartlett.

Warner, N. H., January 2G, 1848.

VOL. II.

53

418

THE ARAUCARIA OR CHILI PINE.

Fig 53 — Araiicana imbncata.
THE ARAUCARIA OR CHILI PINE.

[We quote the following notice of the
striking new evergreen tree, so much the
rage at present in England, (see vol. 1,
page 541,) from the London Horticultural
Magazine. From the experience of the
last two seasons, there is every reason to
believe that this tree will prove hardy in
the latitude of New-York. Ed.]

Aratjcaria, {Jussieu,) is derived from
Araucos, a name applied to the natives in
those districts of Chili where the tree is in-
digenous.

Araucaria imbricata, Pavon (imbricate-
leaved Araucaria, or Chili Pine). — Leaves
generally eight together, ovate lance-shaped,
thickened .at the base, stiff, straight, with
persistent mucros. Cones globular at the
end of the branches, about the size of a
man's head ; scales beautifully imbricated.

A very remarkable evergreen tree, of
magnificent dimensions, almost the only
one to be met with in those districts where
it is indigenous. It is a high tree, from 80

to 100 feet, with a trunk like a pillar.
Standing closely together in the forest, the
trees are generally devoid of branches to
the height of fifty or sixty feet : the top is
in the shape of a depressed cone, the side-
branches proceeding from the trunk in a
horizontal direction, and ascending slightly
at the tips. Over those branches the leaves
are thickly set like scales, which give an
appearance of rich embossed work. From
the thick coating of leaves which pervades
the whole outline of the tree, an idea of
extreme brittleness is conveyed to the mind.
The wood, however, was successfully used
in ship-building in 1780 by Don Francisco
Dendariarena.

This plant is a native of the mountainous
parts of Chili, in South America, particu-
larly in that division occupied by the tribes
of original inhabitants called Araucos, from
whom the tree derives its name ; and from
the fact that the climate where it thrives
has accommodated itself so wonderfully to
European productions, a hope may be held
out that the Araucaria may in this country

VINEYARDS OF THE OHIO.

419

prove a valuable acquisition to the arbori-
culturist. The largest forests of this tree
are on the elevated parts of Naguelbuta and
Caramavida, which Pa von describes as "of-
fering to the view, in general, a rocky soil,
though in parts it is wet and boggy, on ac-
count of the abundance of rain and snow
which falls in these regions, similar to many
provinces in Spain," Poeppig, a traveller
in the Peruvian Andes, states, that "the
Araucaria forest of Antuco is the most
northerly that is known in Chili ; so that
the northern boundary of this king of all
the extra-tropical American trees may be
estimated at thirty-six degrees south lati-
tude. The extreme southern limit is not
so clearly ascertained ; which is not sur-
prising, when we consider how little, com-
paratively, is known of Western Patagonia:
it seems probable, however, that it does not
stretch far beyond latitude forty-six degrees.
Between Antuco and Valdivia this tree only
grows among the Andes, and, as the Indi-
ans assert, solely on their western declivi-
ties, and nowhere lower than from 1500
feet to 2000 feet below the snow line, up to
which they frequently reach. Farther to
the south, the Araucaria appears at a lower
elevation ; and in the country of the Cun-
cos, and about Osorno, is said to occur on
mountains of a very moderate altitude, near
the sea. The Corcovado, a mountain that
rises opposite Chiloe, is said to be studded,
from its foot to the snow line, with large
groups of these beautiful trees.

The wood, as grown in the Andes, is of
a yellowish white colour, veiny, and of close

texture ; and is said to have been used in
ship-building. The tree produces a whitish
resin, used extensively by the natives in the
cure of Avounds and contusions. The fruit
may be said to form the regular harvest of
several of the original tribes, and it is eaten
by them in a raw state, and after being
boiled and roasted.

The tree is particularly ornamental, and
no plant can be used with greater effect in
distinguishing particular spots of country
appropriated to art. It should be on every
gentleman's lawn : it is both elegant and
unique ; and if sheltered during frosty
weather, so as to keep off that rustiness of
colour which a free exposure to the seasons
brings with it, it will well repay the trouble
in spring time.

With regard to what is the best mode of
propagating this tree, there is but one opi-
nion— raising from seeds. Bottom heat is
invariably recommended ; and the seeds
should be inserted to the depth of about an
inch and a quarter, in large boxes or pans
filled with free loamy soil, which should on no
account be allowed to get dry. When two
years old, they should be transplanted into
nursery lines, in a warm sheltered situation
in the open ground, carefully guarding
them from excess of moisture, and, in frosty
weather, from excess of cold. Those raised
in hot-houses, green-houses, &c., certainly
look better ; but when planted in their final
situation, in exposed places, the former soon
take the lead. Planted by the sea side in
Norfolk, they have made shoots about a
foot in length in one season.

THE VINEYARDS OF THE OHIO.

BY A. H. ERNST, CINCINx\A.TI.

In writing upon the Vine, it is impossible to
forget the many associations of antiquity
which are inseperably connected with it. In
sacred history, these are especially interest-
ing. In all time, has the vine, and the en-
joyment of its fruit, been regarded as a bless-
ing especially adapted to the health, com-
fort and luxurv of man. " And Judah and

Israel dwelt safely, every man under his
own vine and under his own fig tree."

The vine seems to have been given to
man in a more perfect state than most other
fruits; for though many of the fine varieties
are the result of patient cultivation, the fin-
est wild grapes of either Syria of America
are truly delicious, when compared with

420

THE VINEYARDS OF OHIO.

wild crabs or wild peaches. Its culture and
enjoyment, in the earliest ages of the world,
were considered synonymous with the pros-
perity and happiness of man : " and they
shall build houses and inhabit them, and they
shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of
ihem."

Though the world has grown old, the pa-
ternal love of vineyards has not in the least
diminished in the heart of man. We are
just as busy, at least in this part of the new
world, with planting vineyards as were Noah
and his immediate descendants ; and I may,
therefore, I trust, be pardoned for giving
some detail of the early history of this
branch of agriculture in the valley of the
Ohio.

If we take a retrospective glance of fifty
or sixty years — a period the scenes of which
are perfectly within the recollection of some
yet on the active stage of life — when the
unexplored wilds of the Ohio — the now in-
deed beautiful Ohio — were penetrated by a
few hardy adventurers, seeking to better
their condition, with but little to cheer them
in their dreary course, but encountering, at
every step, the shrieks of wild beasts, and
their but little less ferocious companion, the
Red Man, we shall have some data from
which to start. The great abundance of
the wild grape, found indigenous in the for-
est, and the luxuriancy of their growth,
towering and spreading over the tops of the
tallest trees, abundantly loaded with fruit,
justifies the idea that the better and finer
sorts would flourish here also. How or from
whence these were to be obtained, or what
sorts would prove adapted to the soil and
climate, would remain a matter of slow in-
quiry and experiment. This must, of ne-
cessity, mainly depend on emigrants, in af-
ter time, from vine-growing districts, without
a knowledge of the soil and climate, bring-
ing with them old and valued sorts, and

applying their old and accustomed modes
of cultivation. These emigrants brought
with them a strong natural prejudice against
native sorts, and a different mode of treat-
ment. Before success could attend them,
old prejudices and predilections must be
abandoned, and a new practice, and native
sorts sought to occupy the place of old friends
unsuited to their new locations. These were
hard struggles, which required time to bring
to a successful issue.

Early attention was drawn to the subject,
and efforts were attended with more or less
success. None of these were, however, of
much importance, until about the year 1796
or 7, when John James Dufour, a zealous
Swiss, came to Lexington, Ky. Having
previously looked up all the vine cultivators
east and west, the smallest of them not es-
caping his notice. He succeeded in form-
ing a joint stock company, for the purpose
of extensive operations. The first difficulty
presenting itself, was a want of plants.
These were at much cost, collected partly
about Philadelphia, New- York and Balti-
more, with some he had brought from Swit-
zerland, to the amount in all, of thirty-five
sorts, all foreign varieties. Most of these
were brought to fruiting, and some speci-
mens of wine were produced. '• This was
drank by the stock-holders," 1 presume with
much satisfaction. Unfortunately, howev-
er, these vines soon after perished with the
mildew and other diseases to which the Eu-
ropean sorts were found subject, except a
ievf stocks of two sorts, the Madeira and
Cape. This was so discouraging, that af-
ter a few years efforts to increase the stock
of these, the former, in the mean time, shar-
ing the fate of the rest, the project was
abandoned, and the little band dispersed.
Afterwards joining themselves to a small
colony of their countrymen, who had com-
menced a settlement on the banks of the

THE VINEYARDS OF OHIO.

421

Ohio, in the then territory of Indiana, some
fifty miles below Cincinnati, where they
had commenced the cultivation of the vine
in 1802. This location was afterwards nam-
ed Switzerland, and the town Vevay, in
honor of their fatherland. Here, uniting
their force, and adding their dear-bought
experience, they commenced vigorous and
successful operations with the Cape grape,
[Alexander's or Schuylkill MuscadelL] As
there is some doubt and dispute about the
origin of this grape, I will here add Du-
four's account of it. Ho says he procured
it of one Legoux, residing at Spring Mill,
near Philadelphia, who informed him that
he imported it from the Cape of Good Hope.
There, he supposes, it must have been car-
ried by the Dutch settlers, and thinks it
hence a European grape.* Be this, how-
ever, as it may, importance must always at-
tach itself to it as the foundation of a suc-
cessful effort to cultivate the grape in the
valley of the Ohio, for the manufacture of
wine. Time will show whether for good
or evil, to the morals of our people.
j^'^Here these indefatigable strangers per-
severed in their efforts, and produced, for
many years, a dark red wine, too harsh and
astringent, however, to receive general fa-
vor, which confined its use mostly to the
German and French population. Its harsh-
ness was probably owing to the age at which
most of the cultivators found themselves
obliged to sell their product. Bottled sam-
ples of it have been kept until it had at-
tained an age of some years, which were
pronounced, by good judges, to resemble
and equal fine Burgundj'', showing what it
is capable of making, with care and age.
The average yield, per acre, in their early
operations, was 180 gallons, and the mar-
ket price S2. This price, however, was
greatly reduced by importation of French

• It is unquestionably an American grape. — Ed.

wines, so that they have been driven out of
the market, and their operations abandoned.
The fruit of their vineyards not possessing
the rich and pleasant flavor to recommend
it to public favor for the table.

Experience conclusively showed that it is
the native sorts on which reliance must be
placed ; as the foreign sorts, with no excep-
tions, (unless the Cape be such,) have pro-
ved a failure, and disappointed all expecta-
tions. Although the culture of the vine was
j-et in its infancy, sufficient had been done
to prove beyond dispute, that the soil and cli-
mate of this valley are well adapted to the
grape ; and all that was necessary to com-
plete success, was some suitable native sort.
This had not been lost sight of, while the
suspension at Vevay tended to develop and
to make room for a more varied and diffused
system of cultivation, with different and
better sorts. Of these, the Catawba has
taken and maintained the lead. So suc-
cessful and profitable has its culture proved,
that I shall not be above the truth to set
down the number of acres now covered with
it in this vicinity, at four hundred. Of
course it will be understood that only a part
of these have come into fruiting. With all
this quantity under cultivation, such is the
desire for wine-making and its profits, that
few markets where there is any pretension
to cultivate the vine, are more deficient in
the supply of the fruit than ours, at the high
price of three to five dollars per bushel.
The reasons assigned for this, are, that the
bushel of good fruit will yield, on an ave-
rage, four gallons of wine, and this readily
commands from one to one dollar fifty cents
per gallon from the press. It should be borne
in mind, that the extension of the Ohio vine-
yards, thus far, has been limited only by
the supply of plants. From this, (as the
plants are now multiplied with great facili-
ty and at low prices,) should their product

4 22

THE BEST SOIL FOR PEAR SEEDLINGS.

continue to meet a demand, its future ex-
tension may be inferred. However, I prom-
ised to confine my remarks to its infantile
struggles into existence. My purpose in
this article is answered, in having shown
that every man may indeed set under his own
vine, (if not his fig tree,) in our highly fa-

vored valley, and enjoy the luxury not only
of its shade, but the greater one of an abun-
dance of fine rich fruit, with none to molest
or make him afraid.

Very respectfully,

A. H. Ernst.

Spring Garden, Cincinnati, Feb. 1, 1848.

THE BEST SOIL FOR PEAR SEEDLINGS.

BY H. P. BYRAM, LOUISVILLE, KY.

Dear Sir : — I have read the communica-
tions in the December and January numbers
of the Horticulturist, " On raising Pear
Stocks," with much interest. The disease
described by Mr. James Wilson, of Albany,
appears to prevail in most parts of our coun-
try, and the cause seems to be as mysteri-
ous as that of the " Potatoe rot^ I observ-
ed it extensively in various parts of the Un-
ion, in the years of 1845 and 6. How long
it has prevailed I know not ; or whether the
same locations w\iQxe it once appears are ever
after entirely exempt, I am not informed.

With the hope of throwing some light on
the subject, I will give you the result of my
observations for the last two years.

In the spring of 1846, I planted several
quarts of pear seeds in my nursery, at Bran-
denburg, Ky., in a dry, loamy soil, of but
moderate fertility. The trees were well
cultivated until the 23d of June, (when I left
home for the season,) after which they re-
ceived but little attention. At this period
the plants were from 6 to 24 inches high.
At the end of the season they measured
from 1 to 6 feet high.

Last spring I repeated the experiment in
the same nurserj", upon similar soil; but
owing to incessant rains, (the seeds having
vegetated in the sand,) I was compelled to
have them planted before the ground was
in a suitable conditition to work. Hence

but a small portion of them came up. Th e
early part of the season was extremely dry,
the trees, however, proved equally healthy
with the former crop, though not receiving
as thorough cultivation, they are but about
half the size. At the same time I planted
several quarts of seed in our nursery near
this city, upon level land, naturally good,
though somewhat worn. Texture, deep
sandy loam. These, under my own obser-
vation, received extraordinary cultivation.
The season here being much more favora-
ble, as to showers, than at Brandenburg.
Notwithstanding, in August they were at-
tacked, in spots, by the blight, as described
by Mr. Wilson, and ultiit^ately, the entire
lot was wholly denuded of foliage. Our
pear grafts also suffered in like manner,
while those in Brandenburg, the first sea-
son, made a growth of from 3 to 7 feet high.
My apple grafts, in that location, also far
exceed in luxuriance, any that I have seen
in other soils, presenting a clean, smooth
stem, and healthy foliage, by which the va-
rieties, either in summer or winter, are more
distinctly marked than is common in other
grounds.

Now, sir, premising that you have pointed
out the cause and remedy for the disease
alluded to in your article on " The Philoso-
phy of Manuring Orchards,''^ in your Jan.
no., where you say, " In this state of things,

ARE THE OLD PEAKS EXTINCT ?

423

the baffled practical man, very properly at-
tributes it to so?ne itiherent defect in the soil,
and looks to the Chemist for aid," I here-
with send you the analysis of the virgin soil
of the Brandenburg Nursery. That upon
which the stocks and grafts grew, has been
in cultivation, perhaps twenty years, and
lately with the application of good dressings
of stable manure and ashes.

Analysis by Chas. Whittlesey,
" Color, dark yellow — no gravel, easily
pulverized, all passes the sieve.

Carbonate of lime, 3.10

Oxide of iron, 4.21

Vegetable matter,* 3.53

Water, (not expelled,) ... 2.13

Sand and Clay, 86.50

Loss,. 43

100.00"
Is it not possible that in growing pear
seedlings as thickly as is the custom, that
some important element of the soil is ex-
hausted before the close of the season ?
Very respectfully yours, &c.,

H. P. Byram.

[Remarks. — This h a valuable statement.
The analysis of the soil, in Mr. Byram's
Brandenburg grounds, shows at a glanre,
why the pear and apple succeed so well there.
It contains a large proportion of lime, and a
large proportion of oxide of iro?i. He is al-
so in the habit of using ashes as manure.

The lime is most essential to the growth
of the apple and pear tree, and if our views
are correct, (see vol. 1, p. 318,) iron is also
essential to give health to the foliage. To
the presence of the latter, in the Branden-
burg soil, we are inclined to attribute the ab-
sence of the leaf blight, so troublesome at
Louisville and many other parts of the coun-
try.

Wood Ashes, leached, is probably safest;
is certainly one of the very best manures for
the pear tree, as it contains both lime and
phosphate. To prevent the leaf blight, in
raising seedlings, we again repeat our re-
commendation to water with weak copperas-
water, or to mix the cinders of the black-
smith-shop with the soil of the seed-bed —
say at the rate of a bushel of cinders to a
bed ten feet by four. — Ed.]

ARE THE OLD PEARS EXTINCT?

BY J. J. THOMAS, MACEDON, N. Y.

[Some of our Boston friends are still unwil-
ling to abandon the idea, that many of the
finest old varieties of fruits have run out,
and are no longer worthy of cultivation.
Thus we find, in the first number of the
Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticul-
tural Society, Gen, Dearborn speaks of them
in the following terms, in his learned arti-
cle on the pear :

" From some inexplicable cause, the St.
Germain, St. Michael, (Doyenne or Virga-

* In procuring this specimen of soil, I mingleil a portion from
near tlie subsoil, which leaves in the analysis a smaller portion
of vegetable matter than would be found otherwise.

lieu,) Brown Beurre, Messire Jean, and
several others of the best old varieties of
pears, have either disappeared, or are so
deteriorated as to be no longer worthy of
cultivation. This lamentable decadence,
however, is not confined to this country,
but is experienced in France, the probable
birth-place of most of the pears, bearing
the highest reputation, formerly known in
the gardens and orchards of both England
and the United States."

It would appear from the above, that it is
taken for granted that such pears as the

424

ARE THE OLD PEARS EXTINCT?

St. Michael {White Doyenne or Virgalieu,)
are considered, in their decadence, no long-
er of any value to the cultivator. We have,
for sometime, endeavored to combat this
opinion, since we are familiar with abun-
dant examples to the contrary. We have
just received a letter from Mr. Thomas,
so well known as a horticultural writer,
from which we take the liberty of pre-
senting some further evidence on this sub-
ject.]

I furnish, for the Horticulturist, a few
facts, relative to the condition of the White
Doyenne or Virgalieu pear, in western
New-York. Having been familiar with
this pear for more than twenty-five years,
and with its uniform excellence, health and
productiveness, I had never taken the trou-
ble to remember any particular facts upon
the subject; supposing that, however worth-
less it might prove in some localities, its
vigor and fruitfulness in most places would
never be questioned. I have, therefore,
been compelled to apply to some of my
friends for additional facts of a tangible na-
ture, to demonstrate what I had before
taken for granted.

So far as my own experience extends,
I may state that, during many years past,
this pear has generally been regarded as
incomparablij the best, for all qualities taken
together, throughout central and western
New-York. During my business of raising
trees for dissemination, I have had more
inquiries for this variety than for all others
put together. Many of the most enterpris-
ing cultivators are planting large orchards,
when they can obtain them from the nurse-
ries, which are inadequate to supply the
increasing demands. The old bearing trees
with which I have been familiar, have re-
gularly produced several bushels annually,
and I have never seen a single specimen
that did not possess the fine rich flavor, and

delicious melting qualities, so conspicuous
in this excellent variety.

A few particular instances, taken very
much at random, may serve to exhibit defi-
nitely the productiveness of the tree. P.
Bahry, of Rochester, informs me, on the
authority of H. N. Langworthy, that a tree,
measuring about eight inches in diameter,
produced annually Jive to seven bushels of
fruit, which sold for $2.50 to S3 per bush-
el. He also states that H. Colby, near that
city, has a tree upwards of twenty years
old, which produces annually (not under the
most favorable circumstances,) two to three
barrels of fruit, which he usually sells for
about %S per barrel.

Oliver Phelps, of Canandaigua, states
that a tree upon his grounds, which was bud-
ded twenty years ago, has for the last six
or eight years borne from four to seven
bushels of uniformly fair and good sized
fruit. Charles Seymour, of the same vil-
lage, informs that he has four bearing trees,
one of them forty years old, the others
twenty-five and fifteen years old ; and that,
although he is not in the practice of mea-
suring the crop, " they are uniformly hea-
vily loaded with fruit, and seldom fail to be
large and perfectly fair." Ralph Chapin,
also of that village, has a tree, at least
twenty-five years old, in good bearing con-
dition, which, for the last eight years, has
borne from three to seven bushels annually.
A tree, belonging to one of my near neigh-
bors, usually produces several bushels year-
ly; the heaviest crop it has borne being
eleven lushels. I have given these instan-
ces just as they came to hand, without se-
lecting the most remarkable merely ; and
I could easily increase the number ten fold.
Of some of the finest trees which I noticed
the past season, I have had no opportunity
of ascertaining the products. In most in-
stances, the trees have grown in soil of

ARE THE OLD PEARS EXTINCT f

425

medium fertility, and with little or no cul-
tivation. It is scarcely necessary to add,
that the highly respectable individuals who
have kindly furnished me statements, are
most of them thoroughly conversant with
our finest varieties, and that there cannot
be any doubt that the trees they possess
are the veritable White Doyenne, almost
universally known in western New-York as
the " Virgalieu." Nearly all agree in the
opinion, that it is remarkably free from at-
tacks of the blight.

The lowest price I have heard of, is
$1.50 per bushel upon the tree. Ten dol-
lars per barrel in New-York city, has been
common for some years past. Judge Phelps
writes, in addition to the facts already quo-
ted,— "I have been credibly informed by
persons dealing in them, that they have sold
in Albany and New-York from $10 to $12
per barrel, of two and a half bushels, I
saw them sold in October, 1843, in Fulton
market. New- York, by the peck, at the rate
of $6 per bushel." P. Barry also states, —
" The pedlers of our city collect them from
every part of the country within fifty or
sixty miles, ripen them gradually in their
houses, and sell them during October and
November at two to six cents each." A.
Thorp, of Syracuse, informs me that at that
place, where this pear flourishes admirably,
the usual price is $3 per bushel.

In answer to an inquiry, David Tho-
mas of Aurora, Cayuga county, writes, —
'* My trees of this variety are among the
most hardy and productive. Edwin B.
Morgan told me yesterday that his had
done finely, while all his other pear trees
had been injured by blight. Several gen-
tlemen with whom I conversed, laughed
scornfully at the idea, that any one should
think the Virgalieu was not one of the very
best, most productive, and most hardy va-
rieties ; it was so very ridiculous ! From
Vol. u. 64

three trees, at C. C. Young's, (at Aurora,)
$39 were obtained from their fruit in the
autumn of 1846." J. J. Thojias.

Macedoiiy'id mo., 12, 1843.

We may add to the foregoing evidences
of the productiveness and value of this finest
of old pears, the following : We know very
well a large fruit grower and fruit dealer in
western New-York, Avho sent to the New-
York market in the past two seasons nearly
two thousand dollars worth of this variety of
fruit, — so beautiful and fair as to command
the very highest price.

Instances of the great productiveness of
the Doyenne are quite common in this state.
We received very fine specimens of this
pear last autumn, from J. C. Hastings, Esq.,
of Clinton, N. Y., with the following state-
ment: — "This fruit was raised by my fa-
ther. Dr. Seth Hastings, of this place. I
give you the following account of the tree
which grew it. He sold five and a half
barrels from the tree this season, and had
from one and a half bushels to three pecks
that fell from the tree, and were bruised,
rendering them unfit to pick and send off.
The five and a half barrels were sold for
$9 per barrel at home ; and, with what fell
from the tree, he estimated the whole pro-
duce of the tree at over $50. You can de-
pend on this statement as correct in every
particular; and I think it would be difficult
to find many pear trees more productive."

With this kind of evidence, (and the same
is true of the Brown Beurre and other old
pears,) that, as Mr. Thomas says truly, may
be multiplied in western New- York ten
fold, we think it can no longer be said, with
any show of correctness, that these fruits
are " run out j" that they are in their de-
cadence ; that they are unworthy of culti-
vation.

What, then, is the explanation of the ab-

426

SPECIAL MANURES FOR FRUIT TREES.

solute failure of such fine old pears as the
Doyenn^ 1 — for we grant it is an absolute
failure, in many of the long settled parts of
the country, and more especially in high
sandy soils. What is the secret of the
great productiveness, great beauty, and
high flavor of this pear in some districts of
the country — as in western New-York ?

Our answer, a few years ago, to the first
question, was defective soil and climate.
Our views are now, with more observation,
modified ; and we think the difficulty lies
almost wholly in the soil. In all those pla-
ces where the Doyenne and other old pears
once succeeded, they will succeed again, if
the necessary elements, which have been
exhausted, are again restored to the soil.
These elements are chiefly lime and potash ;
(perhaps a little iron — say in the form of
blacksmith's cinders.) Theory — the analy-

sis of the ashes of the tree proves this ;
experience, by direct experiment, (see ar-
ticles on " Renovating Outcasts," in pre-
vious pages,) has also demonstrated its
truth.

Western and central New- York — what is
known especially as the great Avheat grow-
ing district — are remarkable for their lime-
stone soils. It is there, the apple and the
pear thrive so admirably ; it is there that
the " old and degenerate varieties" have all
the bloom, freshness and lusciousness of
their pristine days.

Will, therefore, our friends, more familiar
with old, light and long cultivated soils, in-
stead of heaping the sins of old age on the
devoted heads of the " outcasts," give them
plentiful dressings of lime and ashes, and
bring them back to the paths of fruitful ness
and honor ? Ed.

SPECIAL MANURES FOR FRUIT TREES.

We find an interest in special manures
for fruit trees, springing up in all parts of
the country. The following extract from a
letter received lately, is only one from a-
mong many of similar character, which have
come to us, all asking for more detailed
instruction:

Washington City, Jan. 22d, 1S4S.

Dear Sir : — The information contained
in the leading article of your Horticultu-
rist for this month, (January) is worth ten
years subscription to that work, to any per-
son that has an apple orchard. Since read-
ing it, I have, for my own satisfaction, made
inquiries with regard to apple trees, of sun-
dry gentlemen residing in the western coun-
try, all of whom agree in remarking that
apples are invariably the best and most abun-
dant in limestone portions of that country.
Can you not, sir, in your next number, (or

at farthest, in the March number, give to
new beginners, like myself, some inkling
as to the quantity of the requisite materials
to be applied to apple and pear trees, and to
grape vines.

Two and a half years ago I purchased
some land, one and a quarter miles from,
and in full view of the capitol of the United
States. There was upon it, when I pur-
chased, a small orchard of peach and apple
trees. The soil is, I think, sufficiently rich.
The peach trees, now ten years old, are
thrifty, and bear large quantities of fair and
fine flavored fruit. The apple trees bear
scarcely at all, and the fruit they produce
is small and worthless. The trees grow
very well.

Very respectfully and truly yours,

Dan. Gold.

A. J. Downing, Esq.

SPECIAL MANURES FOR FRUIT TREES,

427

For old apple orchards, upon soil deficient I autumn, at the rate of half a peck to a
in lime, we would recommend a top-dress- tree.*

ingof lime — for the first time — of 200 bush-
els to the acre. This will, usually, if the
land is in good condition, bring the trees
into good bearing condition again. In some
soils, the effects will be immediate, and in
others it will require one or two seasons for
the lime to produce its effect.*

For middle sized bearing trees, a peck of
air-slaked lime to each tree, is sufficient. It
is, perhaps, best applied in the autumn, but
it will answer very well in the spring.
Scatter it evenly over the surface of the
ground, as far as the roots extend. It may
be ploughed or hoed under slightly, or left
upon the surface, as it will find its way
downwards in the soil.

To keep an apple orchard in the fruit-
bearbig condition, in a soil not calcareous,
and not naturally congenial to the tree, it
should be dressed with lime, and with ashes,
every alternate autumn, and manured every
other spring. The same quantity of spent
ashes as of lime, may be used for each
tree.

For the pear tree, we prefer the follow-
ing compost. Take a wagon load of peat,
or black, swamp earth — dissolve 20 lbs. of
potash in water, and water the peat tho-
roughly with the liquid. Let it lie a couple
of days, and it is fit for use. Or, for the
same quantity of peat, use one-third of a
load of leached wood ashes, (or ten bushels
of fresh ashes,) mixing the whole, and let-
ting it lie a fortnight before using it. Give
each middle sized bearing pear ixee, ^bushel
of this compost annually; a newly planted
young tree, half a peck, and others in this
proportion. If this compost is applied in the
spring, the trees may also have a top-dress-
ing of bone dust, if easily obtained, in the

• Oyster-shell lime is ihe very best — some others contain
too much magnesia — but, perhaps, only a few.

The same compost, and the same quanti-
ties, will answer admirably for the grape
vine. But as the grape is a strong-feeder,
and likes more lime than the pear, we
would give it, besides an autumnal coat of
lime, at the rate of from 50 to 100 bushels
to the acre, applied along with any manure
or compost most easily obtained.

For the plum tree, in light soils, (there
is little or no difficulty in growing it in clay
soils,) we would recommend a compost,
made as follows : To two wagon loads of
strong loam, or yellow clay, add a bushel
of cheap salt and four bushels of lime.
Mix the whole thoroughly ; suffering it to
lie at least a fortnight. Apply this as a top
layer or top dressing to the soil directly un-
der plum trees, (spreading it over the sur-
face as far as the branches extend,) at the
rate of two bushels to a middle sized bearing
tree, or half a peck to a young, newly
planted tree.

As a general compost for fruit trees, we
repeat, that nothing is equal to that formed
of ashes and -peat ; [for directions, see page
884.] These materials are easily obtained
in all parts of the country, and they contain
the elements most essential in the organ-
ic and inorganic structure of fruit trees.
Where peat is not at hand, use wood ashes
alone, at the rate of half a bushel of leach-
ed ashes to each middle sized bearing fruit
tree. But as ashes furnish only the mine-
ral or inorganic elements of food, the usual
supply of ordinary manure must not be
withheld, unless the soil is already suffi-
ciently rich.

• All fruit trees are much benefitted by phosphate of lime
(i. e bone dust;) but the pear especially. Where bone dust
cannot be had, bones ihemsclves may be dug in about the
roots, and allowed lo decompose gradually. Four fifths of al!
the bones from the kitchen are thrown away, in the country.
If these were saved, and put at the bottom of the holes, when
planting pear trees, they would furnish a most enduring gup-
ply of phosphate to llie roots.

428

THE FLOWERS PERSONIFIED.

Our readers will not consider these hints
as scientific formulas for manuring these
several fruit trees. They are only rough
recipes for most easily making composts,
to supply the elements which science has
demonstrated to be most essential to the
growth, health and productiveness of some
of our leading fruits. We give them, to
enable those who, like our correspondent,
are beginners, to feed their orchards and
fruit gardens with appropriate food, without
the danger of destroying their trees. To

give positive directions for special maTiures,
it would be necessary to have an analysis
of each particular tree, as well as each par-
ticular soil, on which it is to be grown.
But since we now know what their general
organization requires, we can furnish to
soils naturally deficient the wanting ele-
ments. The trees themselves, — this being
done, will speedily take up the necessary
food and assimilate it ; giving us back a
reward in healthy growth, and abundant
and excellent crops.

REVIEW.

The Flowers Personified — being a translation
of " Les Fleurs Jlnimees ;" by N. Cleveland,
Esq. Illustrated with steel engravings, beauti-
fully coloured. (Nos. 1 to 14, 8vo. Price 25
cents each.) New- York : published by R. Martin,
170 Broadway. 1847.

Here is one of the prettiest fancies, most

charmingly carried out, that ever entered

the imagination of a writer of tasteful and

entertaining books.

The ancients have long ago told us, that
on certain great occasions, mortals were
changed by the gods into flowers ; but it
has been reserved for one of the most bril-
liant and witty of modern French writers —
M. Kake, to write the history of the new
myths, to tell us how the flowers have been
transformed into mortals, and the whole
story of their joys and sorrows.

We cannot better unravel this piquant
idea, or convey to our readers a notion of
the delicate and graceful style in which the
work is written, than by quoting the fol-
lowing introductory remarks :

"Learned antiquaries have ascertained
and plainly described the spot where the
earthly paradise was situated. We know
with what trees those celestial grounds were
planted, and what countries adjoined them

on the north, the south, the east, and the
west. Thanks to these researches, the to-
pography of Eden would appear to advan-
tage in the charts of the Land Registry, or
among the files of the Recorder of Deeds.

" No philosopher has busied himself in
determining exactly the geographical site
of the place occupied by the Flower Fairy.
We are left, in this respect to mere con-
jecture. Some place it in the kingdom of
Cashmere ; others say it is southeast from
Delhi. While some think it is on the table
land of the Himalaya, others suppose it to
be situated in the centre of the island of
Java ; in the midst of some vast forest,
which, by its labarynthine and prolific ve-
getation, protects it from unseasonable vi-
sits, and from the research of exploring
travellers.

" We alone are acquainted with the route
to the Flower Land ; but a solemn oath for-
bids us to reveal it. The newspapers would
get there as soon as we could; and God
only knows to what condition they would
soon bring that unhappy country, which as
yet has experienced no revolution, but the
one which we are about to describe.

THE FLOWERS PERSONIFIED.

429

*' If the reader would accompany us
thither, he must suffer his eyes to be band-
aged. "We must also examine his pockets;
lest, like Tom Thumb, he scatter seeds on
his way, to identify his path. Now we
have commenced our journey, and the band-
age may drop as soon as we arrive.

" Do )'ou not feel around your brows a
softer and sweeter air than you ever breath-
ed before ? Do you not perceive, in spite
of the obscurity which veils your sight, a
light more brilliant, and penetrating, and
delightful, even than that which shines on
your native land ? It is because our jour-
ney is accomplished. We are now in the
domains of the Flower Fairy.

" Here is a garden where the productions
of every zone and clime are \mited, and
live together in friendly brotherhood. The
brilliant tropical flower is seen by the side
of the violet, the aloe near the periwinkle.
Palm trees spread their fan- like leaves
above a grove of acacias, whose white flow-
ers are faintly tinged with red. Jasmines
and pomegranates mingle their silver stars
and their crimson glow. The rose, the
pink, the lily, and a thousand flowers which
arrest the eye, but which we need not name
here, mingle in harmonious groups, or form
beautiful arabesques. All these flowers live,
breathe, and converse, as they interchange
odors.

" Round the feet of the trees, shrubs,
and plants, countless little rills flow, wildly
meandering. The water runs over dia-
monds, whose light flickers and plays, as it
comes reflected with tints of gold, of azure,
and of opal. Here butterflies of every shape
and hue, shun and chase each other in their
mingled flight. Now they float — now
wheel — now alight — and now rise, with
wings of amethyst, of onyx, of turquoise,
and of sapphire. There is not a bird in the
garden ; yet you seem to be enveloped by

a universal harmony, as in one of those
concerts which we hear in our dreams ;
and this is the breeze which sighs, mur-
murs, plays, and sings some melody to eve-
ry flower.

" The palace of the fairy is not unworthy
of this wondrous place. A genius, who is
her friend, has collected those threads of
silver and of gold, which, in the mornings
of early spring, float from plant to plant.
These he has braided, interwoven, and
formed into graceful festoons. The whole
palace is composed of thi3 charming fila-
gree. Rose leaves form the roof, while the
blue bird-weed fills the interstices of the
light trellis, which extends like a curtain
round the fairy, who, indeed, is seldom at
home : occupied, as she is, in visiting her
flowers, and watching their happiness.

"Does anyone think that a flower can
never be unhappy? It would seem to be
impossible ; and j'et nothing is more cer-
tain. One fairy found this by her own ex-
perience.

"One fine spring evening, as the Flower
Fairy was gently rocking in her hammock
of interwoven convolvuli, idly thinking of
these other mysterious flowers, which we
call stars, suddenly she thought she heard
a distant rustling — a confused noise. * It
is the sylphs,' thought she, ' who come to
woo the flowers ;' and she relapsed into her
revery. Rut soon the sounds became loud-
er, and the golden sand resounded under
steps more and more distinct. The fairy-
sat erect, and beheld approaching a long
succession of flowers. They were of all
ages, and of every rank. Full-blown Ro-
ses, already on their decline ; these walked
surrounded by their young families of buds.
All distinctions were overlooked. The aris-
tocratic Tulip gave her arm to the vulgar
and plebeian Pink. The Geranium, proud
as a financier, walked side by side with the

430

THE FLOWERS PERSONIFIED.

tender Anemone ; and the haughty Ama-
ryllis listened, without much disdain, to the
rather vulgar conversation of the Bladder-
nut tree. As it often happens in well ar-
ranged societies, at times of great emer-
gency, a forced reconciliation had taken
place among the flowers.

" Lilies, with their brows encircled by but-
terflies, and Bellflowers, with glow-worms
shining like living lanthorns among their
petals, lighted the procession ; which was
brought up, in a somewhat disorderly man-
ner b}'' a careless troop of Daisies.

" The procession drew up in good order
before the palace of the astonished fairy,
and an eloquent Hellebore, stepping from
the ranks, thus addressed her:

" ' Your Majesty —

" ' The flowers here present, beg you to ac-
cept their homage, and to lend a favorable
ear to their humble complaint. For thou-
sands of years we have supplied mankind
with their themes of comparison ; we alone
have given them all their metaphors ; in-
deed, without us, poetry could not exist.
Men lend to us their virtues and their vices ;
their good and their bad qualities ; and it is
time that we should have some experience
of what these are. We are tired of this
flower-life. We wish for permission to as-
sume the human form, and to judge, for
ourselves, whether that which they say
above,ofour character, is agreeable to truth.'
"A murmur of approbation followed this
speech. The fairy could not believe the
testimony of her own eyes and ears.

" ' What,' said she, ' do you wish to change
your existence, so like that of the gods, for
the miserable life which men lead ? What
is there wanting to make you happy? Have
you not for your adornment diamonds of
dew? — conversations with the zephyrs for
your entertainment?- — and the kisses of
butterflies to make you dream of love ? '

" ' The dews make me take cold,' said,
with a yawn, the Belle de Nuit.

" ' The songs of the Zephyr tire me to
death,' said a Rose. 'He has repeated the
same thing for these thousand years. The
poets of an academy must surely be more
amusing.'

" ' What care I,' murmured a sentimental
Periwinkle, ' for the caresses of the butter-
fly, since he never participates in the en-
joyment? The Butterfly is the very sym-
bol of selfishness. He would not know his
own mother; and his children, in their
turn, would not recognize him. How can
he have learned anything of love ? He has
neither a past nor a future ; he remembers
nothing, and is himself forgotten. Men
alone know how to love.'

" The fairy turned upon the Periwinkle
a mournful look, which seemed to say —
' And thou, too, ! ' She felt that her efforts
to put down the rebellion would be una-
vailing ; still, she resolved to make one
more attempt.

" ' Once upon the earth,' said she to her
revolted subjects, 'hoiv do you intend to
live ? '

" ' I shall be an author,' said the Wild
Rose.'

" ' And I a shepherdess,' added the Corn-
poppy.

" ' I shall come out as a marriage-maker,
— I as a schoolmaster, — I as a teacher of
the piano, — I as a trinket vender, — and I
as a fortune teller,' exclaimed, altogether,
the Orange flower, the Thistle, the Hy-
drangea, the Iris, and the Dais}''.

"The Larkspur talked of his debut at
the opera ; and the Rose vowed that when
she should have become a duchess, she
would have the satisfaction of crowning
rosicres* without number.

" Many flowers were there which had al-

* Young maidens who have won the prize of goodness.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

431

ready lived, and which declared that life
among men was very comfortable and
agreeable. Narcissus and Adonis had been
the secret instigators of this revolt ; espe-
cially Narcissus, who longed to know how
a beautiful youth would look in a Venetian
mirror.

" The Flower Fairy remained for a while
plunged in thought. She then addressed
the rebels in a sad, but decided voice :

" ' Go, deluded flowers ; let it be as you
propose. Ascend upon the earth, and try
human life. Ere long you will come back
to me.'

"The history of these flowers, which
were changed to women, you will find in
this volume. We have collected these ad-
ventures wherever we could find them ;
traversing all lands, and questioning all
classes of people, but keeping no record of
dates or epochs. The flowers have lived,
to a certain extent, everywhere. You may
have been acquainted with some of them,
and not suspected it. It is very unfortu-
nate that they have not thought fit to make
more disclosures, or to write their own

memoirs. This would have relieved us
from much trouble — would have saved us
many, many steps, and, more than all, many
mistakes.

" In concluding this introduction, we must
inform you that the fairy did not grant the
desired permission, without silently resolv-
ing that she would be revenged. The next
morning her garden was a desert. One
flower alone remained — the solitar}' Heath-
plant — which blooms perpetually.

" Symbol of undying love I she well knew
that for her there was no place on earth."

The fertile invention of Grandville has,
in the illustration, presented the flowers
embodied in female guise with singular fe-
licity oi form and expression. And the lit-
tle stories of their lives — some unhappy be-
cause they preserved faithfully their ori-
ginal characters, and others because they
endeavored to change them — is full of a
delicate and touching moral. To such of
our fair readers as do not already possess
this ingenious and agreeable work, we beg
leave to recommend it as one of the most
attractive literary novelties of the season.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Gardening in Sweden. — In the neighborhood
of Stockholm, the grounds attached to the Royal
Academy are several of them very fine, and all laid
open to the public, and places of much resort on
Sundays and holidays. Those I have seen are
Drottningsholm, the largest, about five or six miles
from the town ; and, in the immediate vicinity, Ro-
sendal, Haga, Carlsberg, now the Military Aca-
demy; andUriesdal, now the Invalid Hospital. All
have the advantage of lake scenery, and the drive
round them, w-inding amongst wooded rocks, rich
corn-fields and meadows, country seats and gar-
dens, is one of the most enjoyable I know. In
making this tour, we visited the horticultural estab-
lishments here, and, first, the garden of the Hor-
ticultural Society, situated partly within the town,
in the northern suburb. It contains eight or ten
acres, and is under the management of Mr. Miiller,
the head gardener, now absent. There is a con-
siderable collection here, but many of the things
rather too botanical, and from the way in which it

is kept, it does not look as if so much importance
were attached to it as one would have thought.
The Society numbers 2000 members, at an annual
subscription of three dollars banco (about 5s).
Three exhibitions are held in May, July, and Au-
gust, which are said to be very well attended, and
where medals are awarded as prizes, and, what is
not very horticultural, the garden is used occasion-
I ally on summer evenings for those out-of-door con-
j certs, which the Swedes as well as the Germans
1 are so fond of. A much better kept and more in-
I teresting garden is that of the Bergian Gardener's
School, as it is called, under the management of
Mr. Lundstrom, and the superintendence of the
Academy of Sciences. This establishment was
founded originally by the botanist and traveller
Bergius, and attached to the Academy of Sciences
as a school of instruction for gardeners. The ar-
rangement now made is that the academy lets the
ground (for a considerable rent) to Mr. Lundstrom,
who is allowed to cultivate it as a nursery garden

432

FOREIGN NOTICES.

under certain restrictions and supervision as to va-
riety of cultivatioHj order, and neatness, &c,, and
who undertakes to instruct in practical gardening
a certain number of pupils (usually about a dozen,)
to whom the academy has lectures delivered in a
building erected for the purpose, containing also a
residence for the lecturer. Mr. Lundstrom, as
gardener, has also a very agreeable residence in
the garden The present lecturer and superintend-
ent, on the part of the academy, is Professor Wiks-
trom. Mr. I^undstrom is the great nursery and
seedsman of Stockholm ; has realised a considerable
fortune ; is a knight of the order of Wasa, and pos-
sessor of a landed estate and country seat. The
garden (that is to say the part cultivated as a
nursery,) contains about seven tonners, a measure,
I believe, larger than our acre, and is in excellent
cultivation, containing a great variety of trees,
shrubs, ornamental as well as economical, and
kitchen-garden plants all in very neat beds or rows,
and all labelled. The establishment is said to turn
out very good gardeners.

The Agricultural Academy's experimental gar-
den is also within a couple of miles of Stockholm,
and appears to be very well conducted under the
immediate management of the gardener, Mr. Stin-
berg, and the superintendence and inspection of
Professor Wahlberg, who, unfortunately for me, is
now absent on an excursion in Scania. A conside-
rable variety of corn, as well as of grasses, and
other forage roots, &c., are here cultivated in larger
or smaller patches, according to the particular ob-
ject in view. By repeated experiments, and com-
parative cultivation, the gardener finds the Festuca
arundinacea, Schreb- (F. littorea, Wahlenb.) the
best of all grasses, at least for all Swedish soils,
and certainly a field of it in this garden looked re-
markably well — tall-growing, but with a great deal
of foliage, and the whole field was very regular and
thick, and cattle are said to be very fond of it.

I have, as usual, made inquiries here about po-
tatoes, which are very much cultivated in Sweden.
The disease last year made considerable ravages in
Scania, where it was as bad as in Denmark ; but
northward it was much less prevalent, and in this
neighborhood I am assured that there was no da-
mage done of any consequence. About Upsala, Pro-
fessor Fries observed it, and has written a pam-
phlet on the subject. He, though a mycologist, is
entirely on the side of those who consider the lungus
as a result, not the cause of the disease. Nothing
has as yet appeared of the disease this year in any
part of Sweden, as far as I can learn.

On the subject of vegetables, an excellent one
much eaten here, but which we never get in Eng-
land, is the Pois sabre, or Pois sans parchemin, of
which the young pods are eaten stewed. They are
very sweet, and entirely without any stringiness,
even when raw. For. Cor. Gardeners^ Chron.

Brazilian Preparation of India-Rubber. —
At 10 o'clock we stopped at an Anatto plantation,
awaiting the tide, and here we saw the manufacture
of rubber. The man of the house returned from
the forest about noon, bringing in nearly two gal-
lons of milk, which he had been engaged since day-
light in collecting from 120 trees that had been

tapped upon the previous morning. This quantity
ol milk, he said, would suffice for 10 pair of shoes,
and when he himself attended to the trees he could
collect the same quantity every morning for several
months. But his girls could only collect from 70
trees. The Seringa trees do not usually grow
thickly, and such a number may require a circuit of
several miles. In making the shoes, two girls
were the artistes, in a little thatched hut which
had no opening but the door. From an inverted
water-jar, the bottom of which had been broken
out for the purpose, issued a column of dense white
smoke, from the burning of a species of Palm-nut,
and which so filled the hut that we could scarcely
see the inmates. The lasts used were of wood ex-
ported from the United States, and were smeared
with clay to prevent adhesion. In the leg of each
was a long stick serving as a handle. The last
was dipped into the milk and immediately held over
the smoke, which, without much discolouring, dried
the surface at once. It was then re-dipped, and
the process was repeated a dozen times until the
shoe was of sufficient thickness, care being taken
to give a greater number of coatings to the bottom.
The whole operation, from the smearing of the last
to placing the finished shoe in the sun, required less
than five minutes. The shoe was now of a slightly
more yellowish hue than the liquid milk, but in the
course of a few hours it became of a reddish brown.
After an exposure of 24 hours, it is figured as we
see upon the imported shoes. This is done by the
girls with small sticks of hard wood, or the needle-
like spines of some of the Palms. Stamping has
been tried, but without success. The shoe is now
cut from the last and is ready for sale, bringing a
price of from ten to fifteen vintens, or cents, per
pair. It is a long time before they assume the
black hue. Brought to the city, they are assorted,
the best being laid aside for exportation as shoes,
the others as waste rubber. The proper designa-
tion for this latter, in which are included bottles,
sheets, and any other form excepting selected
shoes, is boracha, and this is shipped in bulk.
There are a number of persons in the city who
make a business of filling shoes with rice chaff and
hay previous to their being packed in boxes. They
are generally fashioned into better shape by being
stretched upon lasts after they arrive at their final
destination. By far the greater part of the rubber
exported from Para goes to the United States, the
European consumption being comparatively very
small. Voyage up the Amazon.

The Seven Ash Trees of Tewin. — Upwards
of 50,000 persons have, during the last five years,
visited the tomb of Lady Ann Grimston, m the
churchyard of Tewin, Hertfordshire, which displays
one of the most extraordinary freaks in which it is
proverbial that Nature delights. The masonry of
the tomb — once firmly set and bound together with
iron pins — is now disjointed and displaced, not by
time or decay, but by the irrepressible growth of
trees never planted by human hands. The ap-
pearance which the tomb presents is most singular.
Within, and interlacing the iron railing surrounding
the tomb, are seven ash trees connected at the root,
and three sycamores also connected at the root.

i?«i^^^>

^^t^

DESIGN FOE A RURAL OHaECH.

[Hon: March, X848.]

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

433

These troes, in their gradual but unccasinir daily
jjrowth, for more than a century, have heaved up
the stonework of the tomb, Ibrcinu it outward for
some distance, and entwined round the iron rail-
ings, wiiiuli, in some places, are so completely em-
bedded in trunks of the trees that they seem to
form part of them. The trees', at their base, also
pass tlirouirh and clasp the stone-work, as thoui^h
it were a mass of earth. It is conjectured — and on
no other supposition can these marvellous appear-
ances be accounted for — that, at a period antece-
d(mt to the erection of the tomb, the seeds of the
now full grown trees must have been deposited in
the vault beneath ; und that, there srerminating,
they have since forced their way towards the
light, silently and gradually displacing the masonry
above ; and then embracing and supporting the
tomb they had disturbed with their spreading
branches. The superstitious credulity of the neigh-
boring peasantry of the last generation was natu-
rally excited by appearances so unusual, and they
have handed down a legend to their sons, in which
it is sought to account for the phenomenon. The
story is a simple one : — It is said that Lady Anne
was an unbeliever, and that she was wont to say
that, " if the Sacred Book was true, seven ash trees

would grow out of her tomb.'' The result evident"
ly (as in many similar cases) gave rise to the le'
gend. In these days, however, we require no such
solution of appearances, wliich, however unusual,
we are content to roL^ard as beautiful illustrations
of natural laws. The followinir inscription is still
legible on the tomb: "Here lyeth interred the
body of the Jiiglit Hon. Laily Ann Grimston, wife
of Sir Samuel Grifnston, Bart., of Gorhambury,
Herts, daughter of the late Right Hon. Earl of
Thanet,who departed this life Nov. 22, 1713, in
the 60th year of her age." Morning Post.

A Simple, Che.\p and Effectual Mode or

KEEPING AWAY BiRDS FROT.I FrUITS, SeEDS, ScC.

Take a stick, a little bent at fop, get two trianjrular
bits of tin, bore a hole in the narrow end of each,
and suspend them with cord or worsted, 8cc.; fix
them so that they touch each other at the lower
part. If the stick is not too stid", so much the bet-
ter ; it is very seldom they are still ; they keep up
a perpetual tinkling, being so light that even the
stillest air can move them. The plan is not new,
but I have never seen it mentioned in print. R. Ji.
C. K. Gardeners^ Chronicle.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

DESIGN FOR A RURAL CHURCH.

[see frontispiece.]

We have no intention, at the present moment, of
entering upon tiie subject of church architecture.
It requires volumes, and is quite too vast and too
elaborate to be treated of in any superKcial way.
We may, however, remark in passing, how surpris-
ingly the church architecture of our cities has been
improved within the last ten years. Improved, in-
deed, seems scarcely the word — created, would ex-
press the fact more fully. New- York and Brook-
lyn are especially rich in new churches, built of the
finest marble or hewn stone, and designed, many of
them, in a noble and pure style.

Our rural churches are, however, in most parts
of the country, sadly behind in taste and meritori-
ous design. Heav)', rectangular wooden buildings,
either ill proportioned and unmeaning, or crowned
with steejiles or towers, exhibiting the oddest pos-
sible combination of architectural orders, deform a
great part of the middle and eastern states.

This is to be regretted. Certainly there is noth-
ing built by man's hands, which, if properly design-
ed, and properly kept, confers so much of dignity,
poetry and interest on a rural landscape, as a beau-
tiful country church — of sober, quiet colour — embo-
somed in trees, and speaking volumes at a glance, of
the religious feelings, the peaceful and rciined hab-
its of the inhabitants around it.

Though we would not eontino the architecture of
rural churches within narrow limits, we feel very
deeply the superiority of the gothic style for such
editices. All its associations, all its history, belong
so much more truly to the christian faith, than do
those of any other style of building, that the devo-

VOL. II. 55

tional feeling seems to spring up more naturally
and easily within its walls than in anv other,

The besetting sin of builders of country churches,
is that of copying the fine churches of tow ns. This
is a great mistake. It is rarely that sufTicient
means is found in a country congregation to build
more than a modest edifice. If, with these limited
means, an imitation of a town cathedral is attempt-
ed, it always proves a mclanchol}' failure. It wants
the perfection, the completeness, the richness of
the city church ; it could not, of course, attain these;
it wants the simplicity, greatness, and truthfulness,
of a rural church, which it could have attained.

The frontispiece shows a view of an English
country church, (which we borrow from the London
News,) newly erected, in South Milford, Yorkshire.
It is only one form from among a grerxt variety, all
of the same general style, of what might be called
rural church gothic, and of which the English are
especially fond. It is of moderate dimensions, the
whole outside length being ninety feet : inside, the
nave measuring 57 feet long, by 27 feet wide. The
interior height is 37 feet. The roof is high-pitched,
showing in the interior, the carved open timber-
work. The windows are glazed with stained glass.
The seats accommodate three hundred persons,
(without galleries,) and the cost of the whole build-
ing is only £1500, (about $7,500.)

If we contrast the beautiful and harmonious efTect,
so entirely in keejiing with the country, of this spe-
cies of rural church, and the very moderate price at
which it is produced, with the unsatisfactory and
incongruous efleet of many of our wooden Greek
temple houses of worship, every where to be seen,
costing two or three tliousand dollars more, we

434

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

thiuk it is not difficult to say which style ought to
be generally preferred.

Stone, it appears to us, when at all to be obtain-
ed, ought always to be the material of a church. It
has an appearance of permanence, and it permits
those delightful accompaniments, the ivy and other
vines, which at once partially conceal and greatly
heighten the beauty of a rural church ; while they
bring it into keeping with the verdure and freshness
of the whole country around.

Three or four churches, in this simple, rural goth-
ic mode, have been built on the Hudson, and in Mas-
sachusetts, within the last two years, and have giv-
en great satisfaction. We hope to see them be-
come more frequent in all parts of the country.

ROSES WHICH ARE ROSES.

BY R. BUIST, PHILADELPHIA.

The favorite roses of the day are those which are
ever-blooming. No garden is too .small, no pleasure
grounds are too large, to be able to dispense with
ever-blooming roses — abounding, as they now do,
with the greatest variety of colors, the most perfect
floral forms, and the most exquisite odors.

Hundreds, almost thousands, of new varieties have
been produced within the last ten years, especially
in France, where whole nurseries are devoted to
the culture of roses. Still it must be confessed that
a great many of those sent out under new names,
by one cultivator, are very slightly different from
others previously originated by another, and a col-
lector -who orders hundreds of sorts, under new and
striking names, is disappointed in finding so few
really distinct — so very few really of the first char-
acter.

It is not an easy matter, even to tlie most expe-
rienced cultivator, to make small selections, com-
prising " gems of the first water." But still a good
deal may be accomplished, and a comparison of dif-
ferent opinions will gradually establish all points.
Since it is part of the province of our journal to
gather and disseminate this knowledge, most useful
ty the uninitiated, we have asked Mr. Buist, one
of the most accomplished florists in America, to
give us his opinion, which he has obligingly done in
the following letter. — Ed,

Dear Sir : — In j'ours of the 20th ult. , you request
me to furnish j'ou with the names of half a dozen
each of the best Bengal, Tea, Bourbon, and Hybrid
Perpetual Roses. The following is the result, after
carefully considering colour, habit, perpetuity of
bloom, and certainty of perfection, admitting that
being limited to so few of each family, that as many
more might be selected of equal merit.

I. Bengal — 6 best sorts.

Arch Due Charles, color, changeable crimson.
Cramiose Superieur,

or ^grippina,
Lady Warrrender, pure white.
Madam Breon, rose.
Vesuvius, dark crimson.

ViRGINALE, blush.

II. Tea — 6 best sorts
Adam, pale rose.
Devoniensis, creamy blush.
Madam Bravt, pale blush.
Madam Desprky, ptire white.

bright crimson.

Triomphe of Luxemburg, changeable salmon
or rose.

Vicomtesse Dejages, changeable pale salmon.
III. BoiKBON — 6 best sorts.

DupETiT Thouars, changeable crimson.

Henry Clay (Boll's) bright red.

Leveson Gower, Jlcsh colour.

Madam Nerard, waxy blush.

Souchet, dark crimson.

Souvenir de la Malmaison, pale blush.
Hybrid Perpetuals.

Arice, satiny rose.

Lady Alice Peel, bright rose.

Lane, crimson.

La Reine, lilac rose.

Madam Damemk, dark crimson.

Yolande D'Arago.v, blush.

You will observe that I have not regarded rarity
or catalogue celebrity. Merely rare roses are fre-
quently more beautiful in name than charming in
flower ; for instance, the Madame laPrincesse Ad-
elaide is far inferior to the Devoniensis. Yours most
respectfully, R. Buist, Philadelphia, Feb. 17, 1848.

A. J. Downing, Esq.

Queries — Selection of Fruit. — To the Edi-
tor— I have had but little experience in the pro-
pagation or cultivation of fruit trees, but am becom-
ing more deeply interested daily. Our section of
this county affords but very indifferent apples, and
our pears, plums, cherries, peaches. &c., do not de-
serve the name of selections — they are rather acci-
dents, and there are but few of such. I have been
greatly benefitted and enlightened by the queries
which have been put and answered, in the pages of
'• the Horticulturist," and, if it would not be asking
too much, I should be glad to have answers froin
thyself, or some one or more of thy intelligent cor-
respondents, to the following queries, viz :

1st. In the no. for Dec. 1846, there is an able arti-
cle on " Root Grafting," by "F. K. Phcenix." He
speaks of having had no experience in grafting the
pear and plum on their own roots, and boxing, but
says, " I have often root grafted them in the spring,
and with the best success." How, on bits of roots
and planting them out at once in the nursery rows ?
What are its advantages? And what are the ad-
vantages of F. K. r.'s method of splice or tongue
grafting and waxing? I have a friend who root-
grafts 50,000 apples annually, in the simple cleft-
graft manner, and without wax, and with good suc-
cess, and this is certainly more speedy, (a)

2d. In the May number there is an interesting
article from Robert Nelson, on " autumn grafting
and spring budding." In spring budding, should
the top of the stock be cut off at the time of the in-
sertion of the bud, or after the bud has fairly start-
ed to grow? [Cut off the top at the time of bud-
ding.— Ed.]

3d. In the number for August there is a very
valuable article on " growing quinces," by " An old
Orchardist," but he seemed to leave us in the dark
relative to his mode of propagating the tree, previ-
ously to transplanting to the orchard. Should they
be raised from the seed — from cuttings — from seed-
lings— budded or grafted? If from cuttings, what
j would be suitable for that purpose ? — suckers from

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

435

old trees — slips from younjj ones, or is it necessary
to cut tlicm from the current 3-ear's pfrowth of bear-
ing trees ? What is ihe aft it treatment, and how
soon will they befit to tninsplant? (b.)

4th. How is Quince-seed cleaned ; and what is
the best method of preservinfr that, and the other
leading fruit seeds, durinjr the winter? (c.)

5th. Where a nursery soil has a tendenry to
" bake," is it not better to plant these seeds in the
spring, rather ttian in the autumn? ('/.)

6th. What are nine of the most profitable ap-
ples for MARKET culture — three each, for the sum-
mer, autumn and winter seasons, and having in view
hardiness, vigor, and productiveness ?

7th. Do. of pears ?

8th. Do. of plums, early, medium, late?

9th. Do. of cherries, early, medium, late ?

lOth. Do. peaches, early, medhim, late?

I will not trespass further at present, but sub-
scribe myself, respectfully thine. J. F. East
Fallowfield, Chester co., Pa., Feb. 10, 1848.

Answer. — (a.) The advantage of splice graft-
ing over the cleft mode, is greater certainty of suc-
cess, since the parts of the stock and scion are
brought more perfectly into contact. This is much
more apparent in grafting aiore grounrf than 6e/ow.
Indeed, many persons dispense altogether with
grafting-wax or clay, when the graft is buried be-
low the surface, though it must be confessed that, if
the season is dry. the grafts often fail without it.

(6.) Quinces are usually raised from seed, and
from cuttings. The apple and pear quince usually
produce the same from seed, and perhaps the most
vigorous and long lived plants are raised in this
way. Cuttings may be made of the previous sea-
son's wood, whenever thrifty, healthy shoots can
be found. Those taken from upright shoots of the
luxuriant yoiina trees, will make the healthiest and
best plants. Plant the cuttings in the spring, in a
cool, shady, north border, where they will soon
strike root, and be ready to transplant the next
spring. Cut out the buds that go below the sur-
face, as shown in our work on Fruits, p. 27.

(c.) Quince seed is cleaned by allowing the mass
of pulp or cores, first to lie for several days togeth-
er, till it becomes soft, then rubbing it in water and
passing the pulpy part throuirh a sieve, leaving the
seeds behind. The best mode of preserving that
and other fruit seeds through the winter, is in shal-
low boxes of damp sand, placed in a cool cellar.

(d.) Clayey soil, that is liable to '■ bake," is
hardly suitable for raising seedlings, without a plen-
tiful admixture of sand in the soil of the seed beds.
If a compost of peat and ashes is used for enriching
such soil, it will prove better than common manure,
produce less weeds, and keeps the soil light. When
seeds are planted in the open seedbeds in autumn,
the beds should be covered during winter, with
leaves, straw or peat, to prevent the seeds being
thrown out by the frost. Spring planting enables
you to avoid this, but it requires as mncli or more
care to jirepare and plant the seeds in boxes, so
that the latter, though by far the most certain mode,
is only employed by cultivators generally, for the
more select kinds of the seeds.

(d ) It is exceedingly dilTicult to give such lists.
Every state, almost every district, has peculiarities

of soil and climate, which make particular sorts val-
uable there, that are only considered second rate in
other localities. Still we will endeavor, knowing
something of Chester co. Pa., to s'lve selections of

a few PROFITABLE .MARKET FRUITS. aS folloWS :

1st. Selection of apples. — Early Harvest, Large
Yellow Bough, William's Favorite, (summer ;) Por-
ter, Gravenstein, Holla' d Pippin, (autumn;) Rhodo
Island Greening, Yellow liclle-flower, Roxbury
Russet, (winter.)

2d. Selection of Pears. — Bartlett, Dearborn's
seedling, Andrews, (early ;) Washington, Heath-
cot, Louise Bonne of Jersey, (medium ;) ^'an Mon's
Leon le Clerc, Vicar of Winkfield, D'Aremberg,
(late.)

3d. Selection of Plums. — Cherry, True Peach.
Prince's Yellow Gage, (earlj- ;) Jefferson, Smith's
Orleans, Lombard, (medium ;) Coe's Golden Drop,
Autumn gajp, Coe's Late Red. (late.)

4th. Selection of Cherries. — Baumann's May,
May Duke, Black Tartarian, (early;) Downion,
Bigarreau, Black Eagle, (medium;) Downer's late,
Plumstone Morello, Sweet Moutmorency, (laie.)

5th. Selection of Peaches. — True Earl\- York,
Crawford's Early, Yellow Rareripe, (early;)
George IV. Bellegarde, Morris' Red Rareripe,
(medium ;) Crawford's Late, Rodman's Cling,
Heath Cling, (late.)

Extreme Cold Day at the North. — Dear Sir;
Thus far thi.s winter, we have had very little snow,
with unusually mild weather, except on the morn-
ing of the 1 ith January, when our thermometers
ranged from 21 to 24 degrees below zero. Of course,
the fruit buds of the peach, apricot, and other ten-
der fruits, are killed. To show that severe cold is
the cause of the injury, I have examined (since the
hard frost) some branches, trimmed from .'lur peach
trees about the middle of November, and lying un-
der the trees, the buds of which were sound, having
been protected by about lour inches of snow — the
buds on the trees from which they were cut are all
dead. Our nurserymen complain that their Peach
plum and Columbia plum trees are badly frost-bit-
ten ; also some kinds of pear — hartlett, Columbia,
Hericart, Sfc. One of them tells me that his oldest
plantation of jiears, which do not receive the szin in
winter till after the middle of the day, have never
been frost-biiten. while those in his newer planta-
tion, which have the morning sun. were much in-
jured last winter as well as this. He thinks sudden
thawing is the cause of the blight in his trees.
Yours truly, Charles H. Tomlinson. Schenectady,
2lst January, I84S.

[See a very interesting article, by Mr. Bartlett,
in our last vol. (p. 549) on the elFccts of low tempe-
rature on vegetation. Mr. B. states that the blos-
som buds of the peach are killed when the mercury
in Fahrenheit's thermometer falls to 14° below zero.
—Ed.]

Ohio Nurserymen and Fruit Growers' Con-
vention.— We have received an interesting pamph-
let, of 4ii pages, illustrated with several outlines of
fruits, being the proceedings of the convention, held
at Columbus, O.. last September, and now just pub-
lished. We shall notice it more (ully in our next.

436

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Rules of American Pomology — It is gratify-
injT to learn that these rules are being adopted b)'
the leading horticultural societies over the whole
Union. They cannot but be most essentia.'ly bene-
ficial in regulating the nomenclature of fruits, de-
termining the real merits of new varieties, and es-
tablishing uniformity in names. The following so-
cieties have already adopted these rules: — The Hor-
ticultural Society of Massachusetts, of Penn-
sylvania, of Cincinnati, of Ni;w Haven, of St.
Louis, the Albany and Rensselaer SocietYj
and the New Haven Pom 'logical Society.

We have also just received a note from the Sec-
retary of the New York State Agricultural
Society, informing us that that society had adopted
substantially the same rules, omitting the last arti-
ticle — rendered unnecessary by the fact that the so-
ciety, in March, 1847, passed a special rule, ma-
king our work on Fruit Trees, the standard author-
ity of the society.

As there were several errors in the copy of those
rules first published, we reprint them again, from a
corrected copy, furnished us by the committee of
the Ma-s. Society, in order that other societies dis-
posed to adopt them hereafter, may have them in
a correct form. [Want of room compe's the prin-
ter to postpone the rules 'till next month.]

" Gen. Hand Plum." — Why is this plum so lit-
tle cultivated? It certainly is meritorious. It has
fruited in our town several seasons — is a fair, large
yellow plum, and, to us, appears superior to many
others cultivated. Can it bean old variety, deserv-
ing of cultivation, and yet passed by? I see it no-
ticed in only one printed catalogue, out of a dozen,
in my possession, (Prince's, and there priced 75
cents.) I believe it is of American origin. It was
introduced into our county by Mr. Sam'l Carpen-
ter, nurseryman, who received it through Dr.
Hand, of Pennsylvania, I believe. I received a
tree of it, also, from Hon. Jas. Matthews. I can
furnish a few scions of it if desired.

Permit me to bring to your knowledge, a necta-
rine, which was first brought to my notice by Hon.
James Matthews, of Coshocton, O., from wliom I
received a tree in bud, last spring. Mr. Ma( thews,
in a communication to me, says, "Baker's seed-
ling," a nectarine, which bore fruit in 1847 for the
first time, is an early and a splendid fruit, supposed
to have come from the seed of a peach planted by
Mr. Baker. 1 hope Mr. M. or Mr. Humrickhouse
will furnish you with a correct description of the
fruit. Respectfully yours, &e. ji. Fahnestock.
Lancaster, Ohio, Jan. 21, ]'^48.

[We have procured the '' Gen. Hand plum," twice
from Maryland, of Messrs. Ctrse k Sinclair, Bal-
timore, who have cultivated it for some time, but
we have never yet seen it in fruit. Messrs. C. &. S.
were unable to give us its history, and it is little
known generally, though it has a high reputation
in Maryland. Will our correspondent send us spe-
cimens of the fruit and leaves the ensuing season ?
—Ed.]

Fire-Blight at Cincinnati. — Your valuable
magazine for this month, is just come to hand. In
it, your correspondent. Dr. Wendell, of Albany,

in taking exceptions to some of my views of the
causes of the lire-blight in the pear tree, remarks,
" I only wish, at present, to propound a question or
two. for response from yourself and Mr. Ernst. On-
ly for this, and so ne errors into which I think Dr.
Harris has been led, in the application of his Insect
theory, I should not again presume on your patience.
In reply to Dr. Wendell, " if frozen or scalded sap
causes this form of blight, why is it. that, as a gen-
eral rule, bearing trees, or those of bearing age,
are the only ones attacked?" I have <m]y to point
to his own exj)erience, in the case of the Bergumot
d'Esperin, and the Coiviar d'Aremburgh, which
were destroyed the next year after budding, as
proof against this idea. And that my exertions for
twenty years, have not enabled me to fruit more
than one variety to eight or ten, from this cause. It
is a very common thing for seedling pear trees,
grafts and buds, of the same year, to be cut down
with the blight. I presume that this is not the ef-
fect of a previous winter's frost, or the efl'ectof Dr.
Harris' Scolylus P'jri.

I make no objection to Dr. Hahris' establishing
the fact, if it be one, that the Scolytus Pyri does
injuriously affect, and perhaps destroy the pear
trees. But I object to calling its ravages the Fire
Blight. I am not aware that any one entertains
the idea, (Icertainly do not,) or'' supposes that the
female Scolytus Pyri, by anticipation, deposites her
eggs only on those limbs which are to become af-
fected by fire-blight, or frozen sap blight." My
knowledge on these subjects being purely the result
of practical observation, and not scient ific research,
it is probable that I may have fallen into an error, as
to the Scolytus Pyri, oritshabits. One thing, howev-
er, I cannot be much mistaken in ; that of a strong
similarity in vegetable and animal substances to at-
tract insects, when in a state of corruption, or at
death, and that it hence is not safe to charge on all
such as may be found there, the sin of the mischief.

The Dr. says, "Having no theory to maintain,
and no speculations to offer but such as are founded
on foct, I i>ropose to show that insect blight is a
disease distinct from tire blight and frozen sap
blight." I wish the Dr. had been more distinct and
clear on this point. The difficulty is to define where
the insect blight ends, and the others may justly be
charged with the mischief.

" How can we reason but from what we know."
He further remarks, " It should be remembered that
the Scolytus Pyri requires a year, or thereabouts, to
complete its trar.sformation," and thinks '' it may
not be generall)' known that apple, apricot and
plum trees are attacked by the Scolytus Pyri."
Here in the M'cst, we find not only the apple, apri-
cot and plum trees, but the quince, and at times oth-
er trees are attacked by something that bears a
strong resemblance to some of the forms of the
blights I have seen in the pear tree. This, howev-
er, never jiroves fatal to more than the ends or a por-
tion of the branch in which it appears. I am inclined
to believe this may be the eiiects of the Scolytus
Pyri — that from this cause it has been confounded
with the fire blight, and that here is the true divid-
ing ridge. I do not wish to be understood as assert-
ing the fact, but I suggest it for inquiry. And al-
so, if this rriay not be the extent of its mischievous

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

437

operations on the pear tree. Those interested in
lliis inquiry will unite with nie in thankinjr the Dr.
lor lliis intelligent description of the Scolytus Pyri's
operations, and the time it is in perfecting. It fixes
a point from which future investigations can and
will be made. It, too, yields the long disputed
point that there are other causes of malignant blight.
And as it *' requires a year, or therealiouts, to com-
plete its transformation," its work of destruction is,
of course, proportionally slow, and not so instanta-
neous as the unscientific inquirers had been led to
believe. Not meaning to tire your patience, or
again advert to the subject, unless I can reason from
wiiat I know. I remain very respectfully, yours,
.4. H. Ernst. Cincinnati, O., Feb. lUh. 1848.

At BANv AND Rf.nsse;.ai;r Horticultural So-
ciety.— The Society met at the agricultural rooms,
Albany, Feb. 11th, 1848, pursuant to notice. P.
V. Duow, one of the vice-presidents in the chair.
Dr. Herman Wendell, from the committee chosen
at the last meeting, to propose a premium list for
1S4.S, reported a list, which was adopted, and which
will be published hereafter. After various amend-
ments were made to the rules, and notices of in-
tended alterations to the constitution given, the fol-
lowing gentlemen were appointed by the chair, to
rejjort a list of oliicers and committees for 1848, to
the Society, at the Maj- meeting: — E. P. Prentice,
D. Thomas Vail, V. P. Douw, Herman Wendell,
Wm. liuswcll, Wm. Newcomb, and Amos Briggs.

The committee on fruits reported that there was
exhibited by Dr. J. P. Beekman, of Kinderhook,
Columbia county, beautiful specimens of Newtown
Pi|)])in and Svvaar A|iples.

By Thomas M. Burt, of Kinderhook, fine Esopus
Spitzenburgh and Swaar Apples.

By Henry Snyder, of Kinderhook, nurseryman,
very beautiful Roxbury Russets. Vandervere, Lady
Apples, and seedling winter Pears.

By Peter Kingman, of Kinderhook, Bristol Ap-
ples, a ver\' good and beautiful sweet apple.

By Albert Martin, per Amos Briggs, of Schagh-
tieoke, Rensselaer co., Blue Pearmain and Swaar
Apples.

By Joseph Mosher, per Amos Briggs, Scalloped
or German Gilliflower Apples.

By Roswell S. Brown, per Amos Briggs, West
field Seek-no-further Apples.

By Julius Rhoades, Albany, Northern Spy Ap
pies, from the Chapin orchard, in Ontario county.

By E. C. Frost, of Catharine, Chemunsico., Win
ter King Apples, a very beautiful, as well as valu
able late winter fruit.

By Dr. Herman Wendell, Albany, Newtown Pip
pin, and Male Carle, or Pomme de Charles Apples
Inconnue of Van Mons, Easter Beurre, and Prince';
St. Germain Pears.

By Wm. Newcomb, of Pittstown, Roxbury Rus
s'^ts, Westfield Seek-.No-Further, Rhode Island
Greening, Blue Pearmain, Fall Greening, Black
Gilliflower, Pound Sweet, Esopus Spitzenburgh,
Red Gilliflower, and two seedlings.
The committee have awarded the premium

on Winter Pears, to Dr. Herman Wendell, 3 00
The first premium on Winter Apples, to Wm.

Newcomb, of Pittstown, 3 00

Com.

The second, on Winter Apples, to Dr. Her-
man Wendell 2 00

The committee beg leave to recommend that the
thanks of the Society be tendered to Dr. J. P. Beek-
man, T. M. Burt, Henry Snyder, and Peter King-
man, of Columbia county, and also E. C. Frost, of
Chemung county, and to the gentlemen from Schagh-
ticoke, for their contributions to tlie exhibition.
V. P. Douw, )

Feb. lUh, 1848. Wm. Buswell, 5

The committee on Floral Designs, Bouquets,
&c., reported that there were exhibitcdjby the pres-
ident of the society, Col. Rathbone, three beautiful
bouquets, composed of choice green house flowers,
and arranged witli good taste, by his gardener. John
Sloan, to whom the\' awarded the premium of $2.

The committee regret that the extreme cold
weather, the mercury being below 0, prevented a
greater display.

Herman Wendell, 'i

D. Thom.as Vail, V Com.

Feb. 11, 1848. J. McD. McLntyre, )

The committee on Green House Flowers, report-
ed that there was exhibited by Jas. Wilson, of Al-
bany, the following display of very beautiful Came-
lia Japonicas, viz : Queen Victoria, Chandlerii,
Doncklarii, Saccoi Magnifique, Sesanqua Rosea,
Amabilis, Candidissima, Henri Favre, Prattii, Sa-
rah Frost, Marchioness of Exeter, Double White,
Carnea, Carswelliana, Picturata. Shcrwoodii, Rose
Plomo, " Gunnelliana," Tricolor, Imbricata, Will-
lira IV, Double Striped and Elata; Ericas, I3owei-
ana, and Transparens; Eschynanthus Grandiflora,
Poinsettia Pulcherimum, twenty varieties beautiful
Pansies, Chinese Primroses, &c.

The committee awarded the premium of $3, for
the best six varieties exhibited, to .Mr. Wilson; the
varieties were Fimbriate. Carswelliana, Sarah Frost.
Gunnelliana, Imbricata, and Candidissima. They
also awarded the premium of $2 for the second best
six varieties, to Mr. Wilson ; the varieties are Hen-
ri Favre, Amabilis, Double White, Saccoi Magnif-
ique, William IV, and Queen Victoria. They
awarded to Mr. AVilson, a premium of S2, for his
beautiful display' of Pansies

Wm. Newcomb, ) _,
Albany, Fcb.U, 1848. L. Menand. \ ^°^-

The committee on Discretionary Premiums, re-
ported that there was exhibited by Col. Rathbone,
three bunches of Asparagus, evincing great skill
in his gardener, John Sloan, to whom they have
awarded a premium of two dollars.

J. McD. McIntyre, i
D. Thomas Vail, > Com.
Feb. 11, 1848. Herman Wendell, )
The several reports were accepted, and the So-
ciety adjourned. Signed,

B. P. Johnson, Scc''y.

Buffalo Horticultural Society. — At the
Annual Meeting of the Bulfalo Horticultural Socie-
ty, held Feb. 9, 1848, the President, Lewis F. Al-
len, in the chair, on motion, it was

Resolved, That the Society proceed to the elec-
tion of officers for the ensuing year.

The president, Lewis F. Allen, declined bcin<T a

438

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

candidate for re-election ; the Secretary, C. F. S.
Thomas, also declined being a candidate for re-elec-
tion, whereupon,

W. R. CoppocK.was unanimously elected Presi-
dent, and the following Vice Presidents :
Lewis Eaton, C. F. S. Thomas,

Orlando Allen, Abncr Bryant,

H. B. Potter, Joseph Dart,

Dr. G. F. Pratt, Wm. W. Mann,
Robert M'Pherson.
Treasurer — John R. Lee.
Corresponding Secrttary — Benj. Hodge.
Recording Secretary — William Coleman.

STANDING COMMITTEES.

Flowers and Flowering Plants- — W. R. Cop-
pock, C. F. S. Thomas, and Elijah Ford.

Fruits. — Lewis Eaton, C. Taintor, Lewis F.
Allen.

Vegetables. — H. W. Rogers, TV. W. Mann, and
H. A. Parsons.

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be ex-
tended to AV. R. Coppock, for the able manner in
which he has reported the proceedings of this Soci-
ety for the last year.

Resolved, That the members of this Society be
entitled to receive from the store of L. S. Reynolds,
20 lbs. of Guano each, upon presenting a member's
ticket for 1848.

Resolved, That the thanks of this Society are
cordially tendered to our late President, Lewis F.
Allen, for the able, impartial and energetic manner
in which he has discharged the duties of his office
during the last three years — and that it is with
pleasure we indulge the hope of his efficient co-op-
eration with us in the government of the Society for
raan)^ years to come.

Ward's Cases. — In the January number, I notice
some accounts of growing plants in ''Ward's Cases,"
by your able correspondent. Dr. Wm. W. Valk.
Now what I wish is, some more definite account of
said case, its form and construction, and especially
what kind of plants may be most successfully grown
in it ; and whether they will bloom as freely and
fully in it as elsr where. With our plants in the
parlor we are all more or less troubled with the
aphis, red spider and dust, so that before winter is
half gone, many lose their plants altogether, and
those which survive look like Pharaoh's lean kine.
If the Rose, Pelargonium, Camellia, Orange, &c.,
will flourish and bloom in such a case, and if it can
be constructed with a door, so that some of the pots
can be exchanged from time to time, to give varie-
ty, it seems to be the very article needed in our
parlors and sitting-rooms, to take the place of the
pots and other vessels, i>y which our windows are
now encumbered and sullied. Some further infor-
mation on this subject would gratify an amateur of
flowers. With due respect, yours, &c. E. G.
Bridgewater, Mass., Jan. 7. 1848.

[We forwarded the above to Dr. Valk, and E.
G. will find a full response in previous pages of
this number.]

Bloody Hickory Nuts. — We have been favored
by Mr. Newlin, of Fishkill Landing, N. Y., with
specimens of some remarkably large and fair native

walnuts, or hickory nuts, from a tree growing on his
premises. These nuts are nearly three times as
large as those of the common shell-bark hickory,
rather flattened, and with a large and excellent
kernel. Altogether, it is one of the finest distinct
natural varieties of our American walnuts that we
have yet seen, and deserves to be propagated by
spring-budding.

These nuts are not only large and excellent; they
are also distinguished by a characteristic as striking
as it is peculiar. About one-third of the nuts produc-
ed every year by this tree have fcfrne/s deeply stained
ivith red throughout. These " bloody nuts," as they
are called, have a flavor which is good, though quite
diflferent from that of the common sort, or the oth-
ers of natural color, borne upon the same tree. So
remarkable a tree, of course, has \Xslegend; it would
be a neighborhood unusually destitute of faith or
imagination, where there is not enough of the mar-
vellous for this. According to veritable history,
then, an Indian, one of the "^Wappingers," the
tribe of this region, was made to expiate some of
his real or supposed sins done in the body, by hang-
ing, on this hickory-nut, which, since that day,
(does "old Hickory" revolt at capital punishment?)
the tree has borne, every year, a part of its crop of
bloody nuts. The tree is a large and fine one.

Pruning Unhealthy Evergreens. — Will you
have the goodness to inform a subscriber, in your
next number of the Horticulturist, whether the
shortening-in system of pruning, which you recom-
mend for peach trees, would be equally beneficial
in thickening the branches and increasing the foli-
age of evergreens.

I have two or three of the common pine and
hemlock, some fifteen or eighteen feet high, which
begin to look a little like the skeleton peach tree
in your book ; the interior and under branches
dying, and the foliajre meagre and thin.

The soil is natural to the hemlock ; trees of that
kind, of three feet diameter, having formerly been
cut and taken from almost the very spot where
the young ones now stand. I would take almost
any pains to see them flourishing — the branches
and foliage thick and green ; and therefore ask ad-
vice from experience. Would it do. just to cut oflT
a little of the tops? ^ Novice. Auburn, N. Y.,
February 1th, 1848.

[Evergreens will bear shortening-in, if it is done
gradually and moderately. But, we suspect that
our correspondent's trees are suffering for want of
proper food in the soil. If so, and he will top-dress
the ground under his trees, as far as the roots ex-
tend, with wood ashes, at the rate of a bushel to a
tree, we think they will recover their verdure and
health rapidly. The ashes of hemlock or pine, of-
ten to be had where timber land is being cleared
and burnt over, would be the best. Ed.]

Replanting the Rose. — The Rose, even in the
best soils, should be taken up every three or four
years, and have its roots shortened and pruned : a
portion of the soil in which it grew should also be
removed, and mixed with the soil before described,
[a strong rich loam, mixed one-fourth with decora-

MASSACHUSETTS HORT. SOCIETY.

439

posed stable manure.] Where the soil is poor, they
should be taken up every other year, and replanted,
after renewing the soil as above, or digging it with
plenty ol" manure.

Van Mons states, that, in Belgium, the plants
are uniiformly taken up at the end of eight years,

and placed in fresh soil ; or they are thrown away,
and young plants substituted in their place. This
substitution of young plants is, perhaps, the most
certain mode of ensuring a continual supply of strong
healthy wood and well-formed flowers. — Parsons
on the Rose.

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAIj SOCIETY.

Exhibition of Saturday, January 8, 1848.

FLOWERiJ. — A Seedling Camellia, of greal beauty, from
Noel J. Bec-ar, Esq-, corresponding member, Brooklyn, New-
York.

Description — A vigorous plant of fine habit ; young wood,
clear amber brown; fobage strong, frequently large ; leaves
two anU a half broad, by lliree inches long; roundish oval,
lial, coarsely dentaled, accuininale, recurved at the point;
petiole very short ; bud quite plump and round, slightly point-
ed ; calycinal scales, green, pubescent; flower large, three
and a half to four inches in diameter, thick, with very circu-
lar and perfect outline; petals bold, numerous, arranged with
greal regularity and symmetry from the circumferei.ee to the
centre; colour, clear rose, precisely the shade of C. elegans.
Flowers of this variety, which had sported, were also exhi-
bited, most beautifully spiitled and mottled with white, bear-
ing, in this respect, a close affinity to one of its parents, the
0. Donkalarii, produced from C Colvillii, fertilized by C.
Doukalarii. Joseph Breck.

Chairman of the Flower Committee.

Exhibition of Saturday , February 12, 1848.

FLOWERS.— From M. P. AVilder, president of the society
a fine collection of Camellia Japonicas, embracing thirty. three
varieties; among them were five seedlings, very good, but
not to be compared with his fine seedlings figured in the Hor-
ticultural Transactions.

Among the new varieties were C. Teutonia; deep flesh co-
lour, striped with red; a remarkable fine variety; C Col-
lelii, spotted with while; C. Nitida, resembling a variegated
bloom of C. Imbiicata ; C. Peregrina, curiously mottled and
striped ; C. Campomolondina, &c. Among the old sorts. C.
Donkalarii, C. Ochroleuca, C. Duchesse d"Orleans, Henri Fa-
vre. Old White. &c. Also, Abuiion Venosum; fine specimens
of Cliorizema Varium, and a long branch of Seedling Acca-
cia, from A. Spectabilis, not varying much from it, except ii
being more vigorous.

From Warren's Garden, by John Cadnes.'S, twelve fine va-
rieties of Camellias, viz : C Lowii, Exiniia. Mrs. Abby Wild-
er, Ochroleuca, Alba Plena, Imhricata, Grunelii, Candidissi-
ma, Henri Favre, Elegans, Middlemist and Leana .Superba.
Also, six plants of Primula Sinensis Plena, and one single do.,
well erown ; and one plant each of Borronia Anemuneflora
and Piiinata.

From Col. T. H. Perkins, by William Quant, ten fine plants
of Primula ^^inellsi3.

From Hovey tc Co., sixteen varieties of Camellias, viz: C.
Imbricuia, Myrtifolia, Henri Fuvre, Elegans, Delicatissima,

Feastii, Floyii, Tricolor, Donkalarii, Corallina, Ochroleuca,
Decora, &,c. Also, fine Seedling Azaleas.

Award of Premiums on Primulas. — Joseph Breck, C M.
Hovey and A Bowdiicli, judges. As neither the competitors
had the requisite number of varieties to receive a premium,
and as the plants of each were finely grown, the judges re-
commend a gratuity of $3 each, to John Cadness and William
Quant.

Award oj Premiums on Camellia Japonicas — Joseph Breck,
William Quant and Thomas iNeedhani, judges. For the best
twelve varieties, the first premium to John Cadness,. ... SS po
For tlie 2d best do , the 2d premium to \Vm. Quant,. . . 5 00
The judges recommend a gratuity to M. P. Wilder, of. . 8 00

Joseph Breck,
Chairman of llie Fiowtr Committee.

A business meeting was held February 5th, 1S4S. — Presi-
dent Wilder in the Chair.

The committee appointed to examine the accounts of the
Ml. Auburn Cemetery, reported, that they had attended to iho
duty a-signed them, and had received Irom Geo. W. Bond,
Esq., of said association, a lurlher sum of SU95.09, making a
total of S4495.09. as the society's proportion for the year 1847;
which amount ha.s been passed over to the Treasurer.

The committee also renewed the demand for the society'g
proportion of receipts /or private interments, which was, as
usual, demurred to. Marshall P. Wilder,

For the Committee.

Cheever Newhall, as chairman of the Committe on Medals,
reported lliat he had received 50 silver medals, valued at $5
each.

Voted. That they he delivered to the Trea.surer, who is au-
thorised to have them appropriately engraved.

Voted, That the Committee on Medals be authorised to pro-
cure all such medals as may be required.

The President, as chairman of the Executive Committee,
reported, on the invilation of the Natural History Society,
that this society remove their library lo said society's room —
that it IS inexpedient, and that the Secretary be requested to
advise the Natural History Society accordingly.

Tiie Executive Committee also reported, that they advise
filling up the blank sum in the report of the committee on tho
library, with $100.

Voted, That the chairman of the Committee on Medals have
charge of all medals, and deliver them to the Treasurer, as
they may be wanted.

Daniel Leach, Roxbury, Edward Burns, Brighton, Edward
J. Rand and Dan. L. Sraalley, Needham, were elected sub-
scription members. E. C. R. Walker,

Recording Stcrctary.

440

PENNSYLVANIA HORT. SOCIETY.

PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The stated meeliiifr of the society occurred on the evening
of ISlh January, ISJS. Tlie Presiclenl in the Chair.

Tlie display was not extensive, owinfj to a change in the
weather during the day to cold, hazarding an exposure of
greenhouse plants. Yet, there was one collection the more
credital.le to the comrihutor, Mr. Koherl Kilvington, wliich
consisted of Azaleas, Camellias Hoses, etc. The Presi-
dent's gardener presented a handsome collection of cut Ca-
mellias, houqnets and a haskei of cui flowers; al.so, several
bunches of asparagus and heads of lettuce Other bouquets
were shown by Andrew Dryburgli, R- Kilvington, James
Bisset and Uavid Fergusson, gardener to Jos. Ripka, who
also exlubited cut specimens of tlie Ro=e Souvenir de la INIal-
maison, and Rhododendron Ciinninghanni. Tiiere was an in
teresting disp'ay of cultivated cranberries, fmm Nantucket,
and a goodly collection ot vegetables by Anthony Felten.

The folldwnig are the reports of the committees : —

Tlie comiiiittee on plants and llowers reported having
awarded premiums, viz: For the best basket of cut flowers,
to Andrew Dryburgii ; for the Sd Ije.sl basket, to Robert Kil-
vington- For tiie be^t bouquet, to David Fergusson. garden-
er to Joseph Ripha, iManayunk; for the 2d best bouquet, B
Daniels, giinlcuerto C- Cope ; for the best collection of plains
in pois- to Rbeii Kilvington. A special premium of two dol-
lars, fnr a beautiful collection of cut Camellias, to B. Dan-
iels. The committee called the attention of tlie society to a
very beautiful specimen of the rose, named Souveinr de la
IMalmaisoii, exhibited by D- Fergusson, gardener to J Ripka,
Maiiayunk.

The committee on fruits report, that their attention has been
called to a quantity of cranberries, of upland growth, from
the island of Nantucket, raised by J. G Gardner of that
place ; beautit'ul in appearance, and well worthy the notice
of amateurs; a numlier of the plants are sent ahnig for sale,
and which are said to be easy of cultivation, and luxuriant
bearers. Your coinmiltee respectfully recommend a premium
of three dollars for the same ; which was approved of.

The committee on vegetables reported llial they had award-
ed the following premiums : For the best and most interest-
ing display, by market gardeners, and the '2d best do , to An-
thony Felten , and a special premium of two dollars to B.
Daniels, gardener to C.'Cope, for a fine specimen of aspara-
gus and lettuce.

An otract of a letter to a member of the society, from
Capl. Chas. Naylor, dated 'National Palace. Mexico, Dec
3, 1S47," was read, slating that he had made a collection of
seeds for the society, and was preparing a large collection of
plants, which he deterred forwarding to a more favorable sea-
son ; and that he would be pleased to receive inslruciions
from the society, as to what would be most desirable from
Mexico. On motion,

O/dered, That the communication be referred to the com-
mittee on the distribution of seeds, etc.

Tlie Corresponding Secretary reported replies from the fol-
lowing recently elected honorary members, viz : Hon. D. K.
EsTE, Cincinnati, Ohio; Dr. J W.Thomson, "Wilmington,
Delawaie; Sam'l Walker, Boson, Ma.s.>achusetls; Chee-
VER Newhall, Boston, Massachusetts, and J. S. Cabot, Sa-
lem, Massachusetts. Also, a communication from A. H.
Ernst, hon. member of Cincinnati, in relation to an inter-
change of grafts of fruit trees, and the correction of the names
of fruits forwarded by him, to which the Corresponding Se-
cretary was requested to reply.

The President appointed the following standing committees
for the ensuing year, viz :

Committee fir Establishing the Names of Fruits —Dr. Wm.
D. Brinckle, Thomas Hancock, Elhanau W. Keyser, James
D Fulton, and Dr. Thos. McEwen.

Committee far Establishing Premiums .—Thoma.s Hancock,
Dr. Wm. D Brinckle, Tho. C Percival, Andrew Dryburgh,
and Isaac B. Baxter.

Co7nmittee on Neu' Plants, etc. — John B. Smith, Dr. James
H. Bradford, Tho. I. James, Dr. A. L. EUwyn, and Joseph D.
Spayd.

Library Committee — Robert Bui.st, Tho I. James, Dr. Tho.
McEwen, Wm. McGuigan, and James Bisset.

Coinmiitee on Finance. — Isaac Elliott, Joan R. Brinckle,
and VCm. F. Jones.

Committee fur the Disiribiition of Seeds, etc. — Tho. 0. Perci-
val, J. Snider, jr., and John Rutherford, jr.

Committee to Superintend Exhibitions. — .Tohn Sherwood,
Chairman; John R. Baker, Isaac B. Baxter, H. B. Blanch-
ard. Dr. I. H. Bradford, Dr. W D. Brinckle, Robert Burwell,
Alexander Caie, Wm Chalmers, George B. Deacon, Wm.
H. Dillingham, Henry A Dreer, A. Dryburgh, Richard Fet-
ters, Peter K. Gorgas. C. P. Hayes, Wm. Johns, Wm. F.
Jones, E. W. Keyser, R. Kilvington, N. Knowles, P. Mac-
kenzie, Dr. Tho. McEwen, E. Meredith, J. E. Mitchell. T.
C. Percival. Rich. Price, I'eler Raabe, James Ritcbic. John
Rutherford, jr , Sam'l R Simmons, C. S. Smith, W. S. Vaux,
Dr Gavin W^atson. and Geo. Zanizinger.

Members elected to Honorary Membership. — Nicholas Long-
woith. Cincinnati, Ohio; Stephen H. Smitli and Levi C. Ea-
ton, Providence, R. I. Adjourned. Tho. P. James,

Recording Secretary.

Annual 3Ieeting— The niinual meeting was organized by
calling Mr. E. W. Keyser to the Chair, and appointing Chas.
P. Hayes secretary. On motion, it was resolved to proceed
to the election of ofTicers for the ensuing year; whereupon,
the following gentlemen were duly elected :

President.— Ca^eb Cope.

Vice-Presidents. — Gen. R. Patterson, David Landreth.
James Dundas and Joshua Lonqstreth.

Treasurer. — John Thomas.

Corresponding Secretary —Thomas C. Percival.

Recording Secretary. — Thomas P. James.

The stated meeting for February was held in the Chinese
saloon, on Tuesday evening the 15th. The President in the
Chair. The display consisted of several tables of Camellias,
Azaleas, and Cinerarias; beautiful specimens of cut Camel-
lias and bouquets. Of vegetables, there was a fine show;
among which were asparagus, sea kale, bleached rhubarb
and lettuce.

Premiums were awarded for the following : For the best
six named varieties of Camellias, to B. Daniels, gardener to 0.
Cope. For the best six regularly shaped cut Camellias, and
for the best six do. of other forms, to James Ritchie. For the
best six Primula Sinensis, to B. Daniels. For the most inte-
resting collection of plants in pots, to James Ritchie ; for the
second most interesting colleelioii. to B. Daniels. For the
best bouquet of cut flowers, to Andrew Dryburgh ; for the 2d
best do., to Peter Raabe. For the best basket of cut flow-
ers, to B.Daniels. A special premium of two dollars to B.
Daniels, for a very fine collection of Seedling Cinerarias, ex-
hibited three months in advance of the schedule. The com-
mittee called the attention of the society to a specimen of
the .Mistletoe ; the first, (although indigenous,) they believe,
shown belbre the society, presented by R. Kilvington.

For the best display of vegetables, shown by market gar-
deners, and the second best do , to Anthony Felton. For the
best display of vegetables, by an amateur gardener, to B.Dan-
iels, gardener to Caleb Cope. The committee notice a fine
display of lettuce from Caleb Cope's.

The Corresponding Secretary read a communication, re-
ceived from B. P. Johnson, Secretary of the New- York State
Agricultural Society, explanatory of the reception of our
delegates at the fair at Saratoga.

Memhers Elected.— Yi'is\a.x Morri«, L. C. Madeira, and
Thompson Newkirk. Tho. P- James,

Recording Secretary.

^o.'s-i^^^^^'y:^^-^, j5

.lOUMAL OF RURAL ART AM) RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

APRIL, 1848.

No. 10.

The Kitchen Garden is at once the most
humble and the most useful department of
horticulture. It can no more be allowed to
stand still than the sun himself. Luckily,
(or unluckily,) man must eat; and, omni-
verous as he is, he must gather food from
both the animal and the vegetable kingdom.

Now there a^e, we trust, few of our
readers who need an argument to prove
what a wide difference is very often found
between vegetables grown in different gar-
dens ; how truly the products of one shall
be small, tough and fibrous, and those of
another, large, tender and succulent. Some-
times the former defects are owing to bad
culture, but more frequently to unsuitable
soil. It is to this latter condition of things
that we turn, with the hope of saying some-
thing which, if not new, shall at least be
somewhat useful, and to the point.

Nothing, in an}' temperate cliipate, is
easier than the general cultivation of vege-
tables in most parts of the United States.
With our summer sun, equal in heat
and brilliancy to that of the equator, we
can grow the beans of Lima, the melons
of the Mediterranean, the tomatoes and
egg-plants of South America, without hot-
beds, and wiih such ease and profusion that it
fills a newly arrived English or French gar-
voL. II. 66

dener with the most unqualified astonish-
ment. Hence, in all good soils, with a
smaller amount of labor than is elsewhere
bestowed in the same latitudes, our vege-
tables are produced in the most prodigal
abundance.

But now fur the exceptions. Every man
cannot " locate" himself in precisely that
position where the best soil is to be found.
Circumstances, on the contrary, often force
us to build houses, and make kitchen gar-
dens, where Dame Nature evidently never
contemplated such a thing ; where, in fact,
instead of the rich, deep accumulations of
fertile soil, that she frequently offers us in
this country, she has only given us the
" short commons" allowance o( sand or claij.

The two kinds of kitchen gardens among
us, which most demand skill and intelligent
labor, are those which are naturally too
sandy or too clayey. It is not difficult, at a
glance, to see how these might be, and
ought to be treated to improve them great-
ly. But we have observed — such is the
force of habit — that nine-tenths of those
who have gardens of this description, go on
in the same manner as their neighbors
who have the best soil, — manuring and
cultivating precisely in the ordinary ivay,
and then grumbling in quite a different

442

A FEW WORDS ON THE KITCHEN GARDEN.

mode about short crops, and poor vegeta-
tles, instead of setting about remedying
the evil in good earnest.

The natural remedy for a heavy clay soil
in a kitchen garden, is to mix sand with it.
This acts like a charm upon the stubborn
alumina, and, allowing the atmospheric in-
fluences to penetrate where they were for-
merly shut out, gives a stimulus, or rather
an opportunity, to vegetable growth, which
quickly produces its result in the quantity
and quality of the crops.

But it not unfrequently happens that sand
is not to be had abundantly and cheaply
enough to enable the proprietor of moderate
means to effect this beneficial change. In
this case, we propose to the kitchen gar-
dener to achieve his object by another
mode, equally efficient, and so easy and
cheap as to be within the reach of almost
every one.

This is, to alter the texture of too heavy
soils, \)Y burning a portion of the clay.

Very few of our practical gardeners seem
to be aware of two important facts. First,
that clay, when once burnt, never regains
its power of cohesion, but always remains
in a pulverised state ; and therefore is just
as useful, mechanically, in making a heavy
soil light, as sand itself. Second, that burnt
clay, by its power of attracting from the at-
amosphere those gases, which are the food of
vegetabl)^&s really a most excellent manure
itself. Hence, in any clayey kitchen gar-
den, where brush, faggots, or refuse fuel of
any description can be had, there is no rea-
son why its cold compact soil should not be
turned at once, by this process of burning
the clay, into one comparatively light, warm
and productive.*

* A simple mode of burning: clay in the kitchen g'arden is
the following: j\l;ike a circle eight or ten feet in diameter,
by raising a wall of sods a couple of feet liign. Place a few
large sticks loosely crosswise in the bottom, and upon those
pile faggots or brush, and set fire to the whole. As soon as
it is well lighted, commence throwing on lumps of clay, put-

The difficulty which stands in the way
of the kitchen gardener, who has to contend
with a very light and too sandy soil, is its
want of capacity for retaining moisture,
and the consequent failure of the summer
crops.

In some instances, this is very easily
remedied. We mean in those cases where
a loam or heavier subsoil lies helotv the sur-
face. Trenching, or subsoil-ploughing, by
bringing up a part of the alumina from be-
low, and mixing it with the sand of the sur-
face soil, remedies the defect very speedi-
ly. But, where the subsoil is no better than
the top, or perhaps even worse, there are
but two modes of overcoming this bad con-
stitution of the soil. One of those, is to
grasp the difficulty at once by applying a
coat of clay to the surface of the soil, and
mixing it with the soil as you would ma-
nure ; the other, (a less expensive and more
gradual process,) is to manure the kitchen
garden every year with compost, in which
clay or strong loam forms a large propor-
tion.

It may seem, to many persons, quite out
of the question to attempt to ameliorate
sandy soils by adding clay. But it is sur-
prising how small a quantity of clay, tho-
roughly intermingled with the loosest sandy
soil, will- give it a different texture, and con-
vert it into a good loam. And even in

ting on as much at a time as may be without quite smothering
the fire. As soon as the fire breaks through a little., add more
brush, and then cover with more clay, till the heap is raised
as high as it can be conveniently managed. After lying till
the whole is cold, or nearly so, the heap should be broken
down and any remaining lumps pulverised, and the whole
spread over the surface and well dug in

'■ As an example." says Loudon, " of the strong clayey soil
of a garden having been improved by burning, we may refer
to that of Willersly Castle, near Mattock, which the gardener
there, Mr. SiafTord, has rendered equal in friability and fer-
tility to any garden soil in the country. • When I first came
to this place,' says Mr. Stafford. ■ the garden was. for the most
part, a strong clay, and that within nine inches of the surface ;
even the most common article would not live on it; no wea-
ther appeared to suit it; at one time being covered by water ;
at another time rendered impenetrable by being too dry.
Having previously witnessed the good effects of burning
clods, I commenced the process, and produced, in a few days,
a composition three feet deep, and equal, if not superior, to
any soil in the country.' " — Suburban Horticulturist-

A FEW WORDS ON THE KITCHEN GARDEN.

443

sandy districts, there are often valleys and
low places, quite near the kitchen garden,
where a good stock of clay lies, (perhaps
quite unsuspected,) ready for uses of this
kind.

In the Journal of the Agricultural Society
of England, a case is quoted (vol ii., p. 67,)
where the soil was a luhite sand, varying in
depth from one to four feet ; it was so sterile
that no crops could ever be grown upon it
to profit. By giving it a top-dressing of
clay, at the rate of 150 cubic yards to the
acre, the whole surface of the farm so treat-
ed was improved to the depth of ten or
twelve inches, so as to give excellent crops.
Since a soil, once rendered more tena-
cious in this wa}', never loses this tenacity,
the improvement of the kitchen garden,
where economy is necessary, might be car-
ried on gradually, by taking one or two
compartments in hand every year; thus, in
a gradual manner, bringing the whole sur-
face to the desired condition.

A great deal may also be done, as we
have just suggested, by a judicious system
of manuring very sandy soils. It is the
common practice to enrich these soils pre-
cisely like all others; that is, with the
lighter and more heating kinds of manures ;
stable dung, for example. Nothing could
be more injudicious. Every particle of
animal manure used in too light a soil ought,
for the kitchen garden, to be composted, for
some time previously, with eight or ten times
its bulk of strong loam or clay. In this way,
that change in the soil, so much to be de-
sired, is brought about; and the whole mass
of clay-compost, made in this way, is really
equal in value, for such sandy soils, to the
same bulk of common stable manure.

Whatever the soil of a kitchen garden,
our experience has taught us that it should
be deep. It is impossible that the steady and
uniform moisture at the roots, indispensa-

ble to the continuous growth of many crops,
during the summer months, can be main-
tained in a soil which is only 07ie spade deep.
Hence, we would trench or subsoil-plough
all kitchen gardens, (taking care, first, that
they are well drained,) whether sandy or
clayey in texture. We know that many
persons, judging from theory rather than
practice, cannot see the value of deepening
soils already too porous. But we have seen
its advantages strongly marked in more
than one instance, and therefore recommend
it with confidence. It is only necessary to
examine light soils, trenched and untrench-
ed, to be convinced of this. The roots in
the former penetrate and gather nourish-
ment from twice the cubic area that they do
in the former; and they are not half so
easily affected by the atmospheric changes
of temperature.

Old gardens, that have been long culti-
vated, are greatly improved by trenching
and reversing the strata of soil. The inor-
ganic elements, or mineral food, of plants
often become so much exhausted, in long
cultivated kitchen gardens, that only infe-
rior crops can be raised, even with abun-
dant supplies of animal manures. By turn-
ing up the virgin loam of the subsoil, and
exposing it to the action of the atmosphere,
its gradual decomposition takes place, and
fresh supplies of lime, potash, etc., are af-
forded for the vigorous growth of plants.

We have only room for a single hint
more, touching the kitchen garden. This
is, to recommend the annual use of salt, in
moderate quantities, sown broadcast over
the whole garden early in the spring, and
more especially on those quarters of it where
vegetables are to be planted which are most
liable to the attacks of insects that harbor in
the earth. We are satisfied that salt,
spread in this way, before vegetation has
commenced, or the earth is broken up for

444

VITALITY AND LONGEVITY OF FRUIT TREES.

sowing seeds, at the rate of ten bushels per
acre, is one of the best possible applications
to the soil.

It destroj's insects, acts specifically on
the strength of the stems, and healthy co-
lour of the foliage of plants, assists porous

soils in collecting and retaining moisture,
and is an admirable stimulant to the growth
of many vegetables. In all the atlantic
states, where it is easily and cheaply pro-
cured, it ought, therefore, to form an annual
top-dressing for the whole kitchen garden.

ON THE PRINCIPLES OF VITALITY AND LONGEVITY IN FRUIT TREES.

BY PROFESSOR TURNER, ILLINOIS COLLEGE.

The following is one of the most origin-
al and interesting articles that we have had
the pleasure of laying before our readers.
We shall be glad to receive the remainder
of our correspondent's views which he pro-
mises us in time for next month, and will
delay any comments until we have his
theory complete before us. — Ed.

Mr. Downing — Dear Sir : — I have read
with much interest, the various discussions
on fruit trees and their diseases, in the
several numbers of the Horticulturist. I have
delayed the correspondence which I some-
time since promised, partly for want of time,
and partly in order to avail myself of the ad-
vantage of a tour through northern Illinois
and Iowa, to examine nurseries and converse
with practical nurserymen and fruit-growers,
so as either to confirm my theory by facts, or
reject it. The result is, that my views, de-
rived, 1st. from the necessary laws of vege-
table physiology, and 2d, from the results of
some ten years experimenting on those
principles in my own garden and grounds,
have been entirely confirmed, by the expe-
rience of intelligent practical observers with
whom I have conversed, that I am willing
to suggest them for the serious considera-
tion of the editor and readers of the Horti-
culturist. I may, indeed, still be in the
wrong ; but if so, how shall I become right
unless through the light illuminated by the

editor and able correspondents of the Hor-
ticulturist. Meantime your readers will al-
low me to write with the positiveness of one
fully convinced in his own mind, even
though those convictions may rest on a frail
foundation.

My great object will be to prove that the
jacknife and handsaw of the nurseryman,
are by far the greatest enemies of all fruit
trees in this part of the west, and the produ-
cers of more hereditary and annual diseases
among our fruit trees than all other causes
combined. Their mischief is, of course,
effected, first, by their use in grafting, and
second, by their use in pruning.

In order to set this matter in its true light,
it will be necessary to advert to the true

FRINCIPLE OF VITALITY and LONGEVITY in all

trees, and to the effects of soil and sun on
hereditary diseases and diseased growth.
1. Principles of vitality and longevi-
ty.— After all that has been said on the sub-
ject, I cannot resist the impression that the
essential elements of the highest degree of
both vital power and ot longevity, are
placed by nature in the seed, and the seed
alone. It alone of all other parts of the
tree, contains within itself, in the highest
degree of perfection, all parts of the em-
bryo tree, trunk, roots and top ; and these,
when produced from a healthy seed, have
both a vital power and a capacity for Ion-

VITALITY AND LONGEVITY OF FRUIT TREES.

445

gevity which can never be produced from
any other source. By vitality and vital
power, I mean tendency to a vigorous and
healthy growth, and by power or capacity
of longevity, I mean tendency to a protrac-
ted continuance of that healthful growth
through the longest series of years of which
the tree is, in its own nature, capable of liv-
ing.

The facts which might be adduced in
proof of this position, are quite too nume-
rous and too well known to need specifica-
tion.

The highest power of vitality in a tree it-
self, produced from the seed, is, usually, at
least, the neck of the tree, as some physi-
ologists have called it, or precisely that
point where the seed lies when it begins to
throw its top upward and its root downward.
At this point the tree manifests its vital
power by throwing up vigorous suckers or
shoots whenever its life is endangered a-
bove ground, and often from unknown caus-
es. So much does the vital power of this
part of the tree exceed all other parts, that it
is a fact well known to root grafters in the
west, that one inch of root near this point
is as effective for their purpose as twice that
length of root remote from this vital point.
Hence, too, suckers torn from old trees near
this point, manifest a constant tendency to
prolong a lacerated and diseased vitality by
throwing out roots and throwing up suckers
all around it. It is, in fact, an effort of na-
ture to heal a mortal wound, analagous to
the fabled story of the serpent's heads of
old.

The vital power of the seedling tree di-
minishes as you recede from this point, both
in distance and in growth — both upwards
and downwards, and probably its power of
longevity too. That is, one inch of root, or
a single bud, taken from an old tree, in
which the original vital force of the seed is

expanded into long roots and thousands of
buds, have each less vital power and less
capacit}'- of longevity than the same length
of root and the same kind of bud taken
from a young tree, the original vital force
of whose seed has been expanded only in a
few buds and a few roots ; and the more
intimate their connection with this vital
point, the neck of the tree, the greater the
vital power, and vice versa. This, in case
of the root, is determined mainly by simple
distance, and in case of the top, by distance
combined with vigor of yearly growth.
That any other part of a tree could be forced
to exhibit the same laws and the same pow-
er of vitality and longevity as the seed does,
I cannot believe.

An eminent writer has recently attempted
to prove that the bud is as perfect an organ
of reproduction as the seed, and that it has
in itself all the appropriate elements and
organic forces and powers of the seed itself
— indeed that it is nothing but a seed " pre-
pared for one set of circumstances," while
the real seed differs from it only by being
prepared for different circumstances. Now
what proof is there of all this ? Why, sim-
ply, that a bud can, by art, be made to grow
and form a tree. But has it ever been
proved that it can, under any circumstan-
ces, be made to exhibit the same power of
either vitality or longevity as a seed from
the same tree ? By analagous principles of
art, a slip from a man's forehead may be
turned down and made to grow into a nose :
and yet foreheads are not noses prepared
for a " peculiar set of circumstances," nor
yet nature's seed for noses ; and if all noses
were thus produced by art, it is probable
that diseased noses would soon become as
common as diseased trees now are. Facts
are abundant to prove that the proper natu-
ral vital force and power of longevity of a
given tree is not found in any bud or scion,

446

VITALITY AND LONGEVITY OF FRUIT TREES.

or in any other part of the tree, whatever,
but that special part prepared by nature for
the express purpose of continuing the vital-
ity and longevity of the species. And there
are,~also, enough facts to suggest, at least,
that this original vital force in the seed dif-
fuses itself with the growth of the tree in the
manner above indicated, and to render this
view worthy of the careful observation and
attention of all naturalists and practical
fruit growers. For if these principles be
correct, it follows, of course, that every time
a seedling tree is divided or mutilated,
either in top or root, its natural life is also,
all other things being equal, proportionally
divided, mutilated or shortened. On these
principles, if the top of a tree be wholly cut
off, a sprout from the root or neck can pos-
sess only a part of the natural vital force or
longevity appropriate to that tree : and al-
though obvious considerations will make
the new shoot grow more vigorously for a
time, it will finally die sooner than the ori-
ginal unharmed tree would have done in its
place. But if we take nothing but a scion
or a piece of root, or a single bud from a
tree, we have only a small part of the ori-
ginal vital force of the seed ; and this state
is, at this moment, full of facts from
one end to the other, to show that the ac-
tual longevity is, in all such cases, greatly
diminished. The principle here maintain-
ed is, that every time the seedling tree is di-
vided, whether in root or top, its natural lon-
gevity and appropriate vital force, derived
from the seed, is proportionally divided, ab-
stracted and shortened ; and we fully believe
that some of the worst forms of hereditary,
and also of annual diseases, flow from a suc-
cession of such mutilations through a series
of generations, or are produced by an effort
of nature to resist and repair this interfe-
rence with her natural processes, as we
shall hereafter show.

In view of these positions, two things should
be remembered : first, that there are trees,
vines and shrubs, the natural vital force of
whose roots, necks or trunks produced from
seed, is so great, that they for ages con-
tinue to throw up shoots, and thus continue
their natural life to so great a length of
time, that even if the same general law
holds in reference to them, it can never
probably be ascertained, or if ascertained,
would be of no practical importance. When
a shrub, or vine, or tree, has the power of
continuing its natural life, or of unfolding
the vital force of the original seed by shoots,
layers, or otherwise, through hundreds and
thousands of years, two things are true :
one generation of men do not live long
enough to ascertain whether the seedlings of
such plants will outlive the cuttings or lay-
ers taken from them, though in all proba-
bility they would ; and second, the short-
ened and mutilated life is long enough for
all practical purposes at least, whatever may
be true in theory. It is not only difficult
but useless to study the laws of longevity
of such plants, as for example are the grape,
currant, and many of our forest trees and
shrubs. But when the natural life of a val-
uable seed does not exceed fifty or a hun-
dred years, it becomes of the highest im-
portance to the cultivator to ascertain the
laws and principles upon which that life is
necessarily diminished and shortened, espe-
cially if such shortening is liable to be great,
and also attended by incurable hereditary
and chronic diseases throughout the entire
life of many of the thus mutilated trees.

Suppose, for example, the natural life of
the apple seedling one hundred years. Sup-
pose that the most careful grafting or bud-
ding into an entire seedling stock still di-
minishes the natural life to seventy-five
years on an average : this, considering the
importance of the supposed change, is tole

VITALITY AND LONGEVITY OF FRUIT TREES.

447

rable. But suppose that by a further mu-
tilation and division of a seedling root into
some twenty pieces, the natural vital pow-
er of the original seed is divided into as
many parts, giving an average longevity of
only twenty years, or even far less than
that ; this, surely, is intolerable ; and yet
this intolerable condition of things is the real
condition of one half the best apples, and
almost all the best pears in this state. A
good judge could tell how an orchard fifteen
years old, in this state, was propagated and
grafted, simply by riding past it. Trees
made from buds alone, will die out in large
quantities the first five years — those made
of slips of root two or three inches long,
will be generall}^ gone in fifteen or twenty
years, while those put upon larger pieces,
or upon the tap-root of a seedling, or
upon a sprout from the neck of a vigorous
tree, will rarely live over twent3^-five years.
Multitudes of apple trees in this vicinity,
Avhich have been mutilated and grafted on
sprouts and pieces of roots, through several
generations of trees, have come into the same
state that most of our pears, so treated, have
already attained, viz : a condition of either
hereditary or chronic disease, which expos-
es them to perish suddenlj?", just as the pear
does, even when ten or twelve inches
through, by what is called the " sun-blight,"
" frozen sap-blight," &c., &c., and if the same
processes of grafting should be continued as
long upon the apple as they have been upon
the pear, I cannot doubt that it will become
as difficult to make our grafted apples live
to twenty j^ears of age, as it is now to make
our pears live that length of time.

So far as facts have been made public, I
should suppose that the practical results of
this mutilation in grafting, were developing
their true nature more rapidly here than in
any other part of the Union, or at least far

more strikingly : and this, too, would be
naturally expected; for in a soil so exces-
sively rich as this, all trees come to matu-
rity and decay more rapidlj' than on a poor
soil. This is true of almost all our forest
trees. Moreover a rich soil operates to has-
ten the development of chronic and hered-
itary diseases in trees, by the same law
that high living tends to the same result in
the human family. It seems to be a law of
universal nature, that plethora and surfeit
tend sometimes to produce, that is, to origi-
nate disease, while it always tends to has-
ten the development of all diseased ten-
dencies, while a barely sufficient diet often
postpones the fatal hour both in the animal
and vegetable world. Starvation also,
doubtless, produces the same results as ple-
thora. Hence wrong management and dis-
eased tendencies may be expected to show
their final result soonest on the richest and
on the poorest soils — that is where there is
the greatest and the smallest amount of the
appropriate food for a given plant.

In addition to the above considerations re-
specting the vitality of seeds and the effect
of soil, &c., it ought not to be forgotten that
nature has appointed a certain equilibrium
between the root and the top, and also be-
tween the length of the trunk and the top,
which cannot be disturbed with impunity.
There are certain laws, also, connecting the
shape of the top with that of the root, of the
greatest importance to the nurseryman — all
of which are more or less disturbed and
thwarted by the existing absurd modes of
grafting and pruning. In my next paper I
shall attempt to apply the above principles
to the well known blight in the pear and the
cherry, in the west, and the present wretch-
ed condition of many of our apple orchards.

Eespectfully yours, J. B. Turner.

lUinois CoUege, Feb. 14, 1848.

448

SOUTHERN FRUIT.

NOTES ON SOUTHERN FRUIT.

BY ROB'T CHISHOLM, BEAUFORT, S. G.

Dear Sir : — Not seeing de-
scribed in your work on
fruils, several that I have,
and others that are cultiva-
ted in this neighborhood, 1
have thought some account
of them might prove accept-
able to you.

I must first mention tvi^o
or three figs, which are cul-
tivated here, and the merits
of which are not, perhaps,
known to you. The first of
these, I cannot give you the
name of with positive cer-
tainty, but I believe it is the
Alicante. It is a most abun-
dant bearer, commencing to
ripen its fruit about the 10th
to 15th of July, seven to ten
days earlier than the white
or lemon fig, and continu-
ing, in strong clay lands, to
bear abundantl)?^, until a hea-
vy black frost, which usually
happens here about the mid-
dle of November. I send you a double out-
line of the fig. The larger outline is the
form of the fruit of the first crop, but the
inner, dotted outline is about the normal
form of of the fruit generally.

I had three trees of tolerable size of this
variety, bearing, for two summers, imme-
diately under ^my eye,' and gathered the
fruit almost every morning myself, and ne-
ver had any doubt about its being a purple
fig while some of my friends, who have
trees from the same source, pronounced it a
brown one ; but you may see by the shape
that it is purple. This variety and the Ce-
lestial, which is as remakable for its small-

Fig. 54.— r/ie Alicante Fig-

ness as this is for the largeness of its size,
are certainly the two very best figs that I
have eaten.

The Celestial comes to us from New Or-
leans, where it is es-
teemed the best fig they
have. It is brown, and
the skin so thin that when
fully ripened, which is
indicated by its shrivel-
ling, and hanging dowri,
it can be eaten without i
being peeled. The tree
grows rather slowly, and
neither bears very early Fig. 55.—ceiestiai Fig.

SOUTHERN FRUIT.

449

nor very abundantly ; while the Alicante
grows also slowly, but in conseqence of
bearing both very early and abundantly.
Both these varieties might, I think, very
well h§ raised further north, in tubs and
boxes. I imported a number of varieties
from Italy, but saved only one, which proved
an acquisition. The fruit is a white varie-
ty, small, and looks almost as if made of
wax.

The fig is propagated generally by cut-
tings, which very seldom fail when set in
good ground, and at the proper season. This
is either in February or August. Cuttings
set in August will frequently bear the next
spring. It is a common belief among us,
that cuttings will bear fruit quicker than a
tree that is transplanted, but I cannot say
whether or not this is the case. The cul-
tivation of the fig is very simple, and con-
sists in merely pruning for shape, and then
taking away all suckers, and giving a libe-
ral supply of manure every year, to which
some salt may very profitably be added.

I have two trees of the Corosol of the An-
tilles, a fruit, said by C. Bailly, in his Man-
uel du Jardinier, to be superior to the pine
apple. I have had one specimen upon said
tree for the past two summers, but unluck-
ily my fowls devoured them.

I have have had, for half a dozen years,
the Fig Kaki, or Japan Persimmon, but as
the female tree did not appear to thrive
where it was, I removed and lost it, but I
have sent to Paris for others. I find the
Jujube tree getting to be a nuisance in my
garden, it suckers so freely. I mean to try
hedging with it, as it is more thorny than
the Osage orange.

My orange crop, owing to bad seasons,
has almost entirely failed the last two
years.

There is a very rough-skinned, but not
acid-juiced, variety of the lemon, very com-
voL. II. 57

mon in Beaufort, being much more hardy
than the lemon of commerce, but the fruit
is of much less value. The Myrtle-leaved
orange is also quite common, and is more
hardy than either the sweet or sour oranges.
Also, two kinds of "Forbidden Fruit," the
one nearly as large as the oldest India Shad
dock, its flesh of a greenish yellow ; the
other about the size of the sweet orange.
The large variety I have, and it has proved
more hardy than the common orange, hav-
ing, under severe frosts, shed only the
leaves proper, and not the winged footstalks.
The smaller variety is common in Beaufort.
The Shaddock, with pink-colored flesh,
grows also here. The rind or peel of thisi
and that of the large Forbidden Fruit, is in
much demand in Beaufort, where it is pret-
tily carved, and then preserved as sweet-
meats for presents, [We have seen speci-
mens of this — certainly the most delicate
and fanciful of all preserves. — Ed.] A clay
sub-soil seems to suit the orange much bet-
ter than a sandy one. My oranges here, in
many seasons, have been of good size, and
quite sweet, while those in Beaufort, on a
sandy soil, were small, green and quite
sour.

I have three or four hundred olive trees,
most of which are bearing, though they are
yet small. They were procured from the
neighborhood of Florence. They have not
been touched by frosts of previous seasons,
though in some cases, so cold that the
leaves of almost all the orange family were
killed.

The summers of 1846-47, have been un-
favorable for fruits of all kinds, especially
that of '47, for it began to rain about the
middle of May, and continued, with very
few intervals, until nearly the middle of
September. I did not have a single peach
fit for eating, and my apples were imper-
fect. Yet some of my pear trees bore abun-

450

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

dant crops of fine fruit. Muscat Robert
"bore for the first time, and was loaded. My
English Jargonelle^ (upon the quince stock)
a tree of seven inches diameter at a foot
from the ground, bore fruit large and per-
fect of its kind, and fine if not first rate.
They were in eating from the middle to the
26th of July. Golden Beiirre of Bilhoa, ri-
pened with me on the 24th of August.

My St. Gerwam trees (two standards and
one dwarf) were loaded with large and perfect
fruit, (I send you an outline of one of them
in this letter.) I will not say that this was
the average size, but I had several larger,
and one that weighed 1 lb. 1 oz. This, of
which I send you the outline, weighed a-
bout one pound. [The outline shows a St.
Germain of common size, 11 inches in cir-
cumference the smallest way, and 5 1-2 inch-
es in diameter the longest way. — Ed.] They
began to drop from the tree early in Octo-
ber, and have been in eating up to January.
The variety, ever since it began to bear,
three or four years since, has never failed
to bear regularly and abundantly, and keeps
later than any late sort I have 3^et fruited.
The winter Bonchretien has borne cracked
and imperfect fruit the past summer, for the
first time since it commenced fruiting with

me. I think the fruit rather better than
the St. Germain — both are in eating at the
same season.

I have one hundred varieties of pears ;
many of them I have collected from various
sources abroad, and have, as yet, seen no
description of a part of them. I expect a
large number to come into bearing the com-
ing season, if it is a favorable one. I would
be glad to send you samples for comparison
with the same fruits in your climate.

We are not so much behind the age in
the cultivation of fruits as one would be led
to suppose, from not seeing any South Car-
olinian quoted among the Pomologists in
your book, though we are much more so
than we ought to be. However, a change
is rapidly taking place, and we are becom-
ing better farmers, better gardeners, and
better planters. A taste for Horticulture is
very much on the increase.
I am with respect,

Your ob'd't servant,

Rob't Chisholm.

Palmetto Hall, near Bean/cm, S. €., Feb. 1848.

[We shall be glad to hear again from our
correspondent, who is one of the most zeal-
ous devotees of horticulture among south-
ern planters. — Ed.]

REMARKS ON GARDENING AS A SCIENCE— NO. 8.

BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I.

Light. — In our last article, the question was
asked, at its conclusion — "whether, as a
general thing, we are not at infinite pains
to ventilate our plant houses, with no other
or better result than incurring much trouble
without any sort of advantage ? " The edi-
tor correctly supposes that we do not " de-
ny the superior growth and luxuriance of
plants in houses heated in the ' Polmaise'
mode." We simply question the necessity

or utility of ventilation, as usually practiced.
Light is an agent of wonderful power in
its efiects upon vegetable life ; but it is not
our purpose to investigate this most myste-
rious principle, beyond the influence exert-
ed by it upon the organic structure and de-
velopments of plants. By Sir Isaac New-
ton, and the late Sir Wm. Heeschell, ma-
ny interesting experiments were made to
prove the divisibility or decomposition of

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

451

a ray of solar light. They, and others snico
their time, not only succeeded in proving
this, but also made it apparent that different
heating powers were possessed by the ray
when so divided. It will not be out of the
way to notice these briefly.

When a sunbeam is made to pass through
a triangular piece of polished glass, called
a prism, an oblong image, termed a spec-
trum, is produced, which displays on a white
screen seven primitive colours, — red, or-
^^S^i yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
The white sunbeam, as everybody knows,
produces a sensation of heat on the hand ;
yet it communicates no degree of warmth
to a piece of glass through which it passes,
as, for instance, a burning glass. But, de-
compose the ray, and it at once exhibits
very different degrees of heat ; thus, — " on
applying a delicate thermometer, it is seen
that the blue ray scarcely affects it at all ;
in the green it rises, and in the red shows
an increase of several degrees. Assuming
the heating power of the violet ray at 16°,
that of the green is 26°, of the red 55^; but
beyond the red ray, and the limits of the
visible spectrum, the increase of tempera-
ture is still greater."

These phenomena, though inconclusive,
are nevertheless interesting ; and they have
been rendered more so by the recent obser-
vations of Dr. Horner, of Hull ; for these
have made it probable that glass of differ-
ent colours may be of use to the gardener
in effecting different objects ; thus, blue
glass is supposed to favor the first principles
of growth, and to assist the germination of
seeds, and, by inference, the protrusion of
roots from cuttings ; while the red, or heat-
ing colour, and the brilliant illuminating
yellow, are more favorable to the processes
of maturation.

The unity of creation, the universality of
light, seem to require, and indeed, prove.

that one simple, vivifying principle is, and
has been in active operation from the com-
mencement of time. Professor Playfair
once observed — '• If we consider how many
different laws seem to regulate the action
of impulse, cohesion, elasticity, chemical
affinity, crystallization, heat, light, magnet-
ism, electricity, galvanism, the existence of
a principle more general than these, and con-
necting all of them with that of gravitation^
appears highly •probable^''

Such was the almost prophetic sugges-
tion of this philosopher. That the globe
was " cavei'Tious, replete with light, shining
with intense splendor,''^ was the presumption
of a Leslie. But if, as we believe the fact
to be, solar light is the only ethereal es-
sence or matter which pervades all nature,
no such cavernous central magazine of it is
required ; nor need we perplex our minds
about the source of effulgence, for the glo-
rious sun stands revealed to all ; and the
life and activity of creation depend ixpon
his beams. View it in any way we please,
the command — " let there be light,'" was the
language of power ; the fiat gave life to all
created things, and there is not one act of
progress or increase, of respiration, decom-
position, motion, electrical or chemical ac-
tion, that is not, and ever has been, depend-
ant on it for its commencement, continua-
tion, and completion. Let those who doubt
consider the wonderful orb, whose beams
have been poured upon the planetary sys-
tem throughout time ; let them, with phi-
losophic eyes, view the mighty phenome-
na of development and increase that are
manifestly the result of his power, and they
will find themselves constrained either to
admit that light is absorbed by the bodies
upon which it strikes, or that it becomes
extinguished and lost ; the latter conclusion
would be subversive of the analogy of all
nature.

452

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

But if the beams of light be absorbed,
they must of necessity be masked or con-
cealed, till excited by some powerful agent
which disturbs the natural equilibrium; and
such disturbance is happening every day
and hour, in every act of abrasion, percus-
sion, motion, chemical action, and so forth.

The source of light is the sun, whence
its difTusion is universal. That mighty
orb, being the fountain of pure ethereal
light, electrises all bodies, (primary or se-
condary,) and produces a condition in such
bodies which causes them to attract each
other, and to be attracted themselves, uni-
versally and interchangeably.

We may not be able to withdraw the veil
of mystery; but the experiments of Profes-
sor Faraday are quite conclusive of the
fact, that a stupendous quantity of electri-
city combines with the elements of matter,
and gives them form and consistence; it
retains them in their natural condition and
order. This electricity is derived from the
sun; and, as all light comes from that
source, it becomes the^rs^ grand connective
principle.

Light, we have said, pervades, imbues,
influences all things. True, we do not per-
ceive it in a drop of water ; yet water con-
tains the elements of tremendous combus-
tion. Flint does not manifest light, neither
does steel ; yet who doubts their excitabi-
lity by percussion.? Hydrogen gas, the
lightest of all known airs, is invisible ; yet
let a stream of it be forced through a fine
aperture upon a bit of spongy platinum, the
cold metal will become heated and ignite
the gas. A piece of glass, and a small
square of black silk, are both inert and cold
bodies ; yet rub them together, they exhibit
sparks of ethereal light. A little white su-
gar, mixed with powdered chlorate of po-
tass, will burst into flame on applying a
drop of sulphuric acid. On the same prin-

ciple, our lucifer matches act as excitable
media of masked electrical light.

As the principle of solar electric light be-
comes better understood, the theory of la-
tent heat will be forgotten. Philosophers
are advancing on the road ; but, like the
world, they cling to old prejudices. For
what Davy and.Faraday have effected and
improved, we may be thankful ; but we are
far from the simplicity of science.

Light, as applied to plants endowed with
vitality, is an active principle ; they drink
it in, and colour is imparted to their foliage
and flowers ; but it is a mistake to imagine
that the direct ray is always essential ; for
diffused light acts perfectly well on many
vegetables; and even in a dark cellar, a
rhubarb plant exhibits gorgeous tints of red
and yellow. The air itself is replete with
lights, and this medium cannot be excluded.

Inert vegetable matters, void of life, as
straw, haulm, dry wood, are vehicles of
this mighty principle, which require only a
spark, or even friction duly applied, to raise
it into activity. They there burst into rapid
combustion, and produce substances, the
existence of which could be no more sus-
pected by the ignorant, than was the light
which blazed from a dark mass of lamp-
black, excited to spontaneous combustion
(as it is improperly termed,) by electro-
chemical agency.

Light, it appears, is to vegetables the
stimulus of the vital principle ; its operation
during the day effects the elaboration of
the elements of water and carbon, producing
the specific essences of the individual spe-
cies. It is the chief agent of maturation,
as well as of colour; its absence during
night, and in winter, produces torpor ; and
repose is as essential to plants as to animals.
Plants, made the subject of experiment, are
always placed in artificial situations ; there-
fore, we cannot trace the direct agency of

GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.

453

light with precision ; still, from the observa-
tion of natural phenomena, we may reasona-
bly conclude, that every material altera-
tion or change in their fluids is chemical ;
if chemical, it must be electrical; and if
electrical, we are inevitably led to the pri-
mary fountain of light. Thus all is har-
mony, and all referable tO'one great princi-
ple— the sun !

Electricity has been thus prominently al-
luded to as an agent of unsuspected, yet
wonderful power in vegetable organization
and growth. " All decompositions and new
combinations, all changes of condition, from
the solid to the liquid, from the liquid to the
gaseous, from this latter back again to the
liquid, and so forth, are invariably and ne-
cessarily attended with a disturbance of the
general electric repose." But the garden-
er starts in amazement, and exclaims, —
" What have I to do with electricity or
electric disturbances? " The question may
be fairly asked, because he sees nothing
which can convince the eye; but wfhen the
mind contemplates the fact, that every act
of friction and percussion induces a chemi-
cal action, however slight, which reveals a
corresponding quantity of electricity, then
the gardener will perceive, that in every
one of his operations by the spade, fork,
garden-trowel, — his mixing soils, manures,
composts, potting, re-dressing, or even stir-
ring the surface of his pots, — he disturbs
the condition of his ground, brings fresh
matters and substances into contact, and
thus promotes the decomposition of water,
and of hydro-carbonous materials, and pro-
duces an equivalent stream of electricity,
which conveys the nutritive, newly formed
fluids, into the absorbent vessels of the roots.

The really intelligent man will not con-
demn what at first he may not fully under-
stand ; the rather will he desire to know
more, although, to him, the subject requires
the plainest elucidation. We would have
gardeners thinking men, something better
than mere diggers of the ground :

" Strength may wield the ponderous spade.

May turn the clod, and wheel the coraposl horae ;
But elegance, chief grace the garden shows,
And most attractive, is the fair result of thought.^'

The horticulturist should know that eve-
ry portion of soil contains decomposable sub-
stances, which contain the elements of v:a-
ter, (oxygen and hydrogen,) in the propor-
tions to form water, united with a determi-
nate quantity of carbon, (the base of char-
coal.) These elements are held together
by definite quantities of the electric princi-
ple, the source of which is the sun. In
culture, this electricity becomes disturbed,
and the particles deranged ; they change
their position, and become re-united under
various solid, liquid, and gaseous forms, —
all and each again combined with appro-
priate, equivalent proportions of the all per-
vading ethereal fluid. We may not, cer-
tainly, be able to ascertain minutioe, or even
to acquire the credence of doubters ; but
certain it is — so much has been demon-
strated by experiment — that there can be
no hesitation to challenge the whole world
of antagonists to disprove it, or afibrd a ra-
tional ground for disbelief. The light has
dawned upon our ignorance, and darkness
is giving place to the luminous facts which
are revealed. The " royal road of scienti-
fic discovery" is before all who will travel
it ; and he is but a laggard who fears to
take the journey. Wm. W. Valk.

Flushing, L. I., Jan. 7, 184S.

454

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

BY A FRUIT GROWER AT WORCESTER, MASS.

[The following notes, though anonymous,
are, as we can assure our readers, from
one of the most careful and judicious culti-
vators in New-England. Ed.]

There are a few varieties of pears, among
a considerable number that I have had the
opportunity of testing, of the merits of which
I think some cultivators, at least, are not
well informed. I offer the results of my
experience, in relation to them, for what it
is worth. If my views are correct, it may
be of advantage to some one ; if not, it may
open the way for those who have had better
means of judging, to correct my errors.

Beukre d'Amalis. — A large, handsome,
and very good pear. It has been called first
rate. I should call it good second rate ; but
it has so many good qualities as to make it
valuable, especially for market cultivation.
The tree is a good grower, and a remarka-
bly free bearer on alternate years, and has
the recommendation — no small one, by the
way — of perfecting its fruit, however full
it may bear. It is very juicy and good fla-
vored, and is much improved by ripening
in the house. It comes immediately be-
fore the Bartlett.

RosTiEZER. — The best summer pear I
have yet seen, — superior even to Dear-
born's Seedling. The tree makes a clean,
strong and beautiful growth. Wood dark
olive, nearly as dark as the Rousselet de
Rheims. Foliage large. It gives promise
of being an early and free bearer. Fruit
finely formed, fair and handsome, a little
under medium size, very juicy, with a fine
aromatic flavor. It ripens here the latter
part of August, between the Bloodgood and
Dearborn's Seedling.

Doyenne Botjssouck. — After four years
acquaintance with this pear, I consider it
decidedly one of the greatest of our recent
acquisitions in pomology. Tree of tolera-
bly vigorous growth, and a great and con-
stant bearer. Fruit large ; in form, consi-
derably resembling the White Doyenne or
St. Michael, light green, becoming a bright
lemon yellow, sometimes with a slightly
red cheek. Surface somewhat uneven, like
the Duchesse d'Angouleme. Flesh rather
coarse, but very juicy, buttery and good fla-
vored. Specimens have been repeatedly
shown at our horticultural exhibition, where
they were generally supposed to be the St.
Michael, brought to extra size by high cul-
tivation. In quality, it approximates very
near that kind, but is distinguished from it
by its more uneven surface, its stouter stem,
rather coarser grain, and greater size. The
leaf is broader, with a shorter petiole. This
tree was imported from France by Wm.
Kenrick, in 1841.

Glout Morceau. — My pears of this va-
riety, the last season, were magnificent in
size, and delicious in quality. I think it a
much superior pear to the Beurre d'Arem-
berg, with which the French seem to have
confounded it. The only objection ever
made to it has been its tendency, sometimes,
not to perfect itself. This, I think, is owing
either to deficient cultivation or to indulg-
ing it in its strong propensity to overbear.
Giving this objection all the weight it is
entitled to, it is still a most valuable kind,
well worth some extra pains to bring it to
perfection. This, I think, may be done by
generous treatment, especially by the use
of bone dtist about the roots, and by removing

NOTES ON PROPAGATING BY CUTTINGS.

455

the poorer half of the fruit in seasons when
it bears most freely. Quince stocks are
rather preferable to pear, for this kind,

SuRPAssE ViRGALiEU. — I am Surprised that
this variety is not more known and culti-
vated than it appears to be. It is one of
the most uniformly productive kinds, and
comes into bearing very young. It is of
medium size, buttery, high flavored and
excellent. It should be in every good col-
lection.

Paradise d'Automne. — This has been
said to resemble the Beurre Bosc, and some
have even expressed doubts whether they
were not identical. The only resemblance
I have been able to find, more than exists
between other good varieties, is, that they
are both russet fruits, and both of the very
first quality. They differ considerably in
form ; the Paradise is more sprightly than
the Bosc, with a different flavor. The Bosc
is but moderately vigorous in its growth,
while the Paradise is one of the most thrifty
and strong growing of all pears. It promi-
ses also to be very productive.

St. Ghislain. — This deserves a higher

reputation than it has attained. It has
been said to be somewhat variable, and not
of uniformly good quality. I apprehend
this is owing to its being allowed to hang
too long upon the tree. When seasonably
gathered and ripened in the house, I have
found it to be uniformly fine. It is a beau-
ful grower, upright and handsome in form,
and a free bearer. But it does not bear so
early as many other kinds, and rnay, con-
sequently, be expected to endure longer.

Lawrence. — I have fruited this pear one
season, and am much pleased with it. It
is destined to be a standard variety, nearl}-,
if not quite, equal in qualit}^ to the old St.
Germain, and of a much more vigorous
character.

Peach Plum. — This plum has been
known in this vicinity some twenty years
or more. It is very early, ripening some-
times in July, larger than the Washington,
and very handsome. It sells readily in
Boston market for 75 cents a dozen. The
quality is very good. It is not a good
bearer.

Worcester, Mass., March, 1848.

NOTES ON PROPAGATING BY CUTTINGS.

BY PROFESSOR LINDLEY.

What is required when cuttings of plants
are to be struck, is a due adjustment of
heat, light, and moisture. The first stimu-
lates the vital process ; the second causes
the formation of matter, out of which roots
and leaves are to be organized ; the third is
at once a vehicle for the food required by
the cutting, and a part of it. The great
difficulty is to know how to adjust these
agents.

If the heat is too high, organs are formed
faster than they can be solidified ; if too low
decay comes on before the reproductive

forces can be put in action. When light is
too powerful, the fluid contents of the cut-
ting are lost faster than they can be sup-
plied ; when too feeble, there is not a suffi-
ciently quick formation of organisable mat-
ter to construct the new roots and leaves with.
If water is deficient, the cutting is starved ;
if over abundant, it rots.

It is, then, the adjustment of these vary-
ing forces to the peculiar nature of the cut-
ting to be acted upon, that constitutes the
art of propagation. It is this which theory
cannot supply, but which depends upon skill

456

NOTES ON PROrAGATING BY CUTTINGS.

and experience. If any part of the operations
of cultivation can be called empirical it is this.
And yet the operator is not without rules to
guide him in this adjustment; the misfor-
tune is, that they are too general.

The softer a cutting, the quicker must be
the excitement and application of the forma-
tive process, the more light, the smaller the
quantity of water. The more hard and
woody a cutting, the slower will be the op-
eration, the more feeble the light, the great-
er the quantity of water. If these condi-
tions of new growth can but be preserved,
all cuttings of all plants may be converted
into new individuals.

The great enemies of the propagator,
says Mr. Neumann, are rotting and drj'ing;
for this reason cuttings are preserved in the
midst of a temperature and humidity al-
ways equal, the evaporation of the soil is
hindered, and the perspiration of the cut-
tings is prevented.

Heat, light and moisture being thus
shown to be the agents to whose assistance
Ave must look for success, and by whose
mismanagement the hopes of the gardener
are ruined, it is of the first importance to
determine how each can be best and most
efficiently controlled.

And first of heat.

We know that plants are distributed over
all parts of the habitable globe ; that in
neighboring countries the species are near-
ly alike, that distant countries are clothed
with vegetation of entirely different kinds,
and that the distinction in the vegetation is
in proportion to the distance of the countries
from each other. There is not, perhaps, a
dozen species in Normandy that do not grow
wild on this side of the Channel ; there is
not a dozen species common to England and
Bengal. Species, in fact, are in general
limited by similarity of temperature, and
cannot exist beyond such limits. One of the

first considerations for the propagator, there-
fore, is what amount of heat is natural to a
species during its season of growth. With
less than that it is hopeless to make cuttings
grow. It is only when plants strike freely
that the natural amount of heat is sufficient;
in general they require more. The amount
of heat found in their natural climate may
be enough for them to grow in ; but a great-
er degree of excitement, by means of a
higher temperature, will be demanded by
them to strike root in, when cut up into the
fragments called cuttings. A Willow cut-
ting stuck into the open ground will strike
root, but it does so much faster and more
vigorously if placed in a hotbed. A White-
thorn cutting in the open ground will not
root at all ; in a warm propagating house, it
will do so readily : and to reverse the il-
lustration, cuttings of tropical plants, which
naturally enjoy a very high temperature,
will perish if it is reduced, and will only
put forth roots when it is raised consider-
ably above their natural standard. Thus
Mr. Neumann mentions that Nutmegs, Gua-
iacum. Mangoes, &c., will not succeed un-
less in a temperature of about 100° Fah.
That degree of heat, again, would be fatal
to green-house plants.

But it is not the temperature of the at-
mosphere that requires to be maintained
above that to which plants are naturally
subject : it is the soil that must be warmed.
The first object is to obtain roots; those or-
gans once formed, leaves will follow. The
vital action which causes the production of
roots is, in the first instance, local ; roots are
produced by the development of the cellu-
lar matter of the underground part ; that
cellular matter requires to be stimulated by
unusual warmth; but the necessary stimu-
lus cannot be communicated by a heated
atmosphere : it is the warmth of the soil in
which the cellular matter lies buried that

THE CULTIVATION OF THE FILBERT.

457

most be secured. Unusual warmth of the
air would have the effect of stimulating the
buds, and would cause a premature appear-
ance of leaves, which would be anything
rather than conducive to the success of a
cutting. If soil were to be kept at 33°, and
the air at 84°, leaves would form, but no
roots would be emitted under ground, how-
ever skilful the operator; and then, unless
roots were thrown out above ground the
cuttings would speedily exhaust themselves.
On the other hand, if the soil were kept at
84°, and the air at 33°, leaves would cer-
tainly be formed as soon as the roots had
struck out, although in a pinched and shiv-
ering condition.

A proper degree of bottom-heat, then, is
the first point for consideration, for all other
processes are subservient to that fundamen-
tal requisite ; and the rule is, that it should
always be higher by several degrees than that
to which plants are naturally subject. Un-
fortunately, we have very little evidence to
show what that is ; but a rough estimate of
it may be formed by regarding it to equal
the mean temperature of the summer : hence
the great value of good meteorological ob-
servations to gardeners. Suppose, for ex-
ample, that it is required to strike a cut-
ting of some plant from Algiers, and that

the mean temperature of the summer there
were 70° — which is, we believe, about the
truth — the safe course for the gardener to
take would be, to plunge his cutting in soil
warmed up to 75°.

It is very much to be regretted that no
one should have as yet compiled a set of
meteorological tables for the use of garden-
ers. They would be invaluable ; and we
live in hope that some public body will, ere
long, take up the subject. Scattered through
books, there is a vast quanty of evidence
which, although imperfect, is of great val-
ue, but nobody knows where to look for it
when it is wanted. If such a work were
once compiled, evidence would quickly ac-
cumulate, for inquirers would learn what
to observe. With that evidence, gardening
would assume more and more the condition
of a science ; for there is no doubt a correct
knowledge of the heat, light, and moisture
of different climates is, next after the laws
of vegetable physiology, the surest guide to
successful cultivation. — Gardener^s Chron.

[Amateurs who find it difficult to propa-
gate certain stubborn kinds of hardy trees
and shrubs, may obviate the difficulty by
planting them at this season, in a hot-bed,
properly shaded and ventilated, instead of a
common shaded border. — Ed.]

THE CULTIVATION OF THE FILBERT.

[FROM THE LONDON HORT. IMAGAi:iNE ]

[Filberts are grown with ease in any suita-
ble soil in the northern states ; and we com-
mend to such of our readers as wish to at-
tempt their cultivation, the following ex-
cellent advice. Ed.]

It is not generally known, except to pro-
fessional gardeners— or, if known, the know-
ledge is seldom acted on — that a filbert tree
VOL. II. 58

may be rendered productive in almost as
small a space as is occupied by an ordinary
gooseberry or currant bush. In fact, un-
der favorable circumstances, the produce
of these neat bushes is astonishing. We
propose, therefore, to explain this mode of
cultivating the filbert ; and in doing so shall
avail ourselves of some excellent directions

458

THE CULTIVATION OF THE FILBERT.

by the Rev. W. Williamson, publislied in
one of the early volumes of the Transac-
tions of the Horticultural Society.

The first consideration in making a plan-
tation, is to select a proper soil ; for if that
be not congenial to the constitution of the
plants, we cannot expect any great success.
The soil in which the filbert is found to
flourish best, is a hazel loam of some depth,
with a dry subsoil. If the subsoil be too
retentive of moisture, the trees are apt to
run too much to wood, without throwing
out those short twigs upon which the fruit
is generally produced. In that part of Kent
which is famous for the cultivation of the
filbert, the soil is loam upon a dry sandy
rock. It may be taken as a general rule,
that soil which is proper for the growth of
hops, is also congenial to the filbert.

The filbert requires a considerable quan-
tity of manure ; the grounds in Kent are
dressed every year, or at least once in two
years. Every kind of manure is beneficial;
but old woollen rags are found to produce
the greatest effect.

There are four methods of raising the
plants ; by suckers, layers, grafting, and
sowing the nuts. Each may be practiced
according to the peculiar object of the culti-
vator ; but the best method is by suckers ;
they come sooner into bearing, and make
stronger plants than either layers or grafts.
They are taken from the parent plant gene-
rally in the autumn, and planted in nursery
beds, (being first shortened to ten or twelve
inches,) where they remain three or four
years. They are slightly pruned every
year, in order to form strong lateral shoots,
the number of which varies from four to
six. The most free growing plants are ob-
tained by sowing the nuts ; but they are so
long in coming to a productive state, and
are, besides, so much inclined to degene-
rate into inferior varieties, that this method

should not be resorted to in making a per-
manent plantation. The plants raised by
layering and grafting are of more humble
growth, and therefore better adapted for
sinall gardens where economy of space is
made an object.

The method of pruning the filbert being
different from that of every other tree, and
not generally practiced, a particular expla-
nation of it will be necessary. Mr. Wil-
liamson has done this so clearly, that we
cannot do better than quote his words,
which follow : Before any one can possi-
bly prune a tree with propriety, it is neces-
sary that he perfectly understand the mode
of its fructification. The fruit of the vine is
produced only upon shoots of the preceding
year ; cherries are grown chiefly upon short
spurs emitted from the sides of the larger
branches; if, therefore, the last year's shoots
of the vine, or the spurs of the cherry tree,
are destroyed, there can be no fruit. Now,
in some respects, the filbert is similar in its
fructification to both these trees ; the bear-
ing branches being always those of the pre-
ceding year, similar to the vine, and these
branches, if the tree be properly pruned,
might with great propriety be called spurs,
allowing for the difference between the fil-
bert and the cherry; these short twigs or
spurs are not more than a few inches long,
every bud of which, in a good year, produ-
ces fruit. The great object of the follow-
ing method of pruning is to cause the trees
to throw out these spurs in great abundance ;
and Avhen they are got to a proper bearing
state, more than sufficient will be produced.
But though it is the usual practice to plant
the suckers in nursery beds, I would advise
every one to plant them where they are to
remain, whether they are intended for a
garden or a larger plantation : and after
being suffered to grow without restraint for
three or four years, to cut them down within

THE CULTIVATION OF THE FILBERT.

459

a few inches of the ground. From the re-
maining part, if the trees are well rooted in
the soil, five or six strong shoots will be
produced. Whichever method is practiced,
the subsequent treatment of the trees will
be exactly the same. In the second year
after cutting down, these shoots are short-
ened ; generally one-third is taken off. If
very weak, I would advise that the trees be
quite cut down a second time, as in the pre-
vious spring : but it would be much better
not to cut them down until the trees give
evident tokens of their being able to pro-
duce shoots of sufficient strength. When
they are thus shortened, that they may ap-
pear regular, let a small hoop be placed
within the branches, to which the shoots
are to be fastened at equal distances ; by
this practice, two considerable advantages
will be gained; the trees will grow more
regular, and the middle will be kept hol-
low, so as to admit the influence of the sun
and air ; but this, in a large plantation,
would be almost impossible, nor indeed is
it necessary, though in private gardens,
where regularity and neatness are almost
essential, it ought to be practiced. In the
third year, a shoot will spring from each
bud; these must be suffered to grow till the
following autumn, or fourth year, when they
are to be cut off close to the original stem,
and the leading shoot of the last year short-
ened two-thirds. In the fifth year several
small shoots will arise from the base of the
side branches which were cut off the pre-
ceding year; these are produced from small
buds, and would not have been emitted, had
not the branch on which they were situated
been shortened, the whole nourishment be-
ing carried to the upper part of the branch.
It is from these shoots that fruit is to be ex-
pected. These productive shoots will in
a few years become very numerous, and
many of them must be taken off, particu-

larly the strongest, in order to encourage
the production of the smaller ones; for those
of the former year become so exhausted,
that they generally decay ; but whether de-
caj'ed or not, they are always cut out by the
pruner, and a fresh supply must therefore
be provided, to produce the fruit in the suc-
ceeding year. The leading shoot is every
year to be shortened two-thirds, or more,
should the tree be weak, and the whole
height of the branches must not be suffered
to exceed six feet. Every shoot that is left
to produce fruit, should also be tipped,
which prevents the tree being exhausted in
making wood at the end of the branch.

The filbert is a moncecious plant, and con-
sequently produces the male and female
blossoms separately on the same tree ; the
slender scarlet filaments which are seen is-
suing from the end of the buds early in the
spring, are the female, or productive blos-
soms; the barren, or male blossoms, are
formed on long cylindrical catkins, which
fall off as soon as they have performed their
office ; in pruning, care must be taken to
leave a due supply of these to fructify the
female blossoms, or our previous trouble
will be entirely useless ; this may be done
without difficulty, for they are perfectly vi-
sible at the time of the pruning.

The method of pruning above detailed
might in a few words be called a system of
spurring, by which bearing shoots are pro-
duced which otherwise would have had no
existence. It frequently happens that a
strong shoot springs from the root ; and
should any of the first year's or leading
branches be decayed, or become unproduc-
tive of bearing wood, it will be advisable
to cut that entirely away, and suffer the
new shoot to supply its place, which after-
wards is to be treated in the same manner
as is recommended for the others. Old
trees are easily induced to bear in this matt-

460

THE CULTIVATION OF THE FILBERT.

ner, by selecting a sufficient number of the \
main branches, and then cutting the side
shoots offnearly close, excepting any should
be so situated as not to interfere with the
others, and there should be no main branch
directed to that particular part. It will,
however, be two or three years before the
full effect will be produced.

But though this method of cultivation has
long been celebrated, yet it does not appear
to me so particularly successful as to de-
serve the encomiums which have been be-
stowed upon it ; for though thirty hundred
weight per acre have been grown in parti-
cular grounds, and in particular years, yet
twenty hundred weight is considered a
large crop, and rather more than half that
quantity may be called a more usual one ;
and even then, the crop totally fails three
years out of five ; so that the annual ave-
rage quantity cannot be reckoned at more
than five hundred weight per acre.

When I reflected upon the reason of the
failure happening so often as three years
out of five, it occurred to me, that possibly
it might arise from the excessive produc-
tiveness of the other two, the whole nou-
rishment of the trees being expended in the
production of the fruit ; and that, conse-
quently, they might be unable properly to
mature the blossom for the following year.
We know that peach and nectarine trees
may be so pruned, as to force them to bear
a superabundant quantity of fruit in some
one year ; but we find that a regular crop
in succession is thereby prevented, and
that too for several years. In order to en-
sure fruit every year, I have usually left a
large proportion of those shoots, which,
from their strength, I suspected would not
be so productive of blossom buds, as the
shorter ones ; leaving them more in a state
of nature than is commonly done ; not
pruning them so closely as to weaken the

trees by excessive bearing, nor leaving
them so entirely to their natural growth, as
to cause their annual productiveness to be
destroyed by a superfluity of wood. These
shoots, in the spring of the year, I have
usually shortened to a blossom bud, for the
reason before given. The great art of
pruning is to produce the greatest quantity
of fruit without injury to the crop of the
succeeding year, which, in my opinion, is
not done by the Kentish method. But by
observing the rule which I have laid down,
though the trees do not perhaps bear so
great a weight in any one year, as by the
method before detailed ; yet the crops in
the whole certainly are not less ; with this
great advantage both to the public and pri-
vate grower, that a moderate but regular
crop is ensured in every successive year.
I think that by this plan the average weight
in the whole will be greater. In the year
1819, which was a very productive one,
I grew two hundred weight of filberts,
(weighed when gathered,) upon fifty-seven
trees, the greater part of which were not
above six years old, (reckoning from the
time of their being cut down,) and growing
upon three hundred and sixty square yards
of ground ; which is after the rate of twen-
ty-seven hundred weight per acre, and upon
part of the ground ten more trees are now
planted, which, if they had come to a
bearing state, would have increased the
quantity to more than is considered as
an extraordinary crop, besides having
grown upon the older trees a moderate but
regular quantity for several years preced-
ing.

When the trees are grown on this plan,
it is necessary, in order to strengthen the
tree as much as possible, to eradicate the
suckers from the root ; this is effected by
exposing the roots, to a moderaie distance
from the stem, to the frosts of winter, and

CULTURE OF VINES IN POTS.

461

the necessary excavation is in the spring
filled with manure.

As filberts are several years in coming to
perfection, it is usual to plant hops, standard
apples, and cherries, among them, and when
they come to a bearing state, the hops are
destroyed, and the fruit trees suffered to
remain. The ground is then planted with

gooseberries, currants, &c., and an under
crop of vegetables is likewise frequently
obtained. If this were not practiced, the
crop of filberts alone, except in particular
years, would not defray the expense. The
distance at which filberts are planted must
depend upon their being mixed with other
fruit.

CULTURE OF VINES IN POTS.

BY JAjMES DOUGALL, CANADA WEST.

In the Horticultural Eegister for 1831, '32
and '33, conducted by Messrs. Paxton and
Harrison, I find a number of articles on the
culture of vines in pots, by George Staf-
ford, gardener at Willersley Castle, Der-
byshire, who appears to be the first person
who brought this mode of culture to perfec-
tion.

As I have not seen any articles on this
subject in the Horticulturist, and as few of
your readers, probably, have seen the ori-
ginal ones, I have thought that it might be
interesting to them, to have the several
communications condensed into one short
article.

1 think this mode of culture deserving of
a fair trial in this country, as many persons,
who would not feel able to build a vinery,
might, in my opinion, grow vines in pots to
great perfection, under common hot-bed
sashes.

Mr. Paxton (an authority none will
doubt,) says — " Mr. Stafford is a practical
gardener of the first order, and one of the
best grape growers we are acquainted with ;
he furnishes Mr. Arkwright's table with
grapes nearly all the year round, and that,
in superabundance. His plan of treating
them in pots, is deserving the attention of
every person who has a hot-house, or is like-

ly to erect one ; for it is an astonishing fact,
that he can produce nearly as great a weight
of fruit as the weight of the soil in which
the plant grows ; this has repeatedly come
under our own observation ; we can, there-
fore, speak of the surprising crops he pro-
duces in this way, equally as well swelled,
and much better flavored, than when trained
up the rafters. Indeed, the best swelled
and best coloured bunches of the Grizley
Frontignac, we ever saw, were grown in a
pot by Mr. StaflJbrd. Although he recom-
mends the smaller and more delicate sorts,
he sometimes cultivates the larger; and
these are equally well grown and beautiful.
We saw on one of his plants in pots, two
years old, 37 bunches, all well swelled and
ripe ; and he has, at this present time, some
of his plants nearly as prolific."

Mr. Stafford used pots 13 inches wide
at top, half that width at bottom, and 15
inches deep. The compost was merely a
light vegetable soil, composed of decayed
refuse of the garden. He advises growing
the kinds naturally prolific, such as Black
and White Cluster, Black and White Mus-
cadine, While Sweetwater, White, Red, and
Grizley Frontignac, Black Hamburgh, and
Black Const antia.

He examined the vines as often as twice

462

CULTURE OF VINES IN POTS.

a day, and gave water whenever requisite ;
as a strong, healthy, young vine will re-
quire much more water than a weak one.
He never used liquid manure, except in a
diluted stale, and then seldom.

In one of his communications he says —
" I took in May, by way of experiment, 6
small plants, which I turned out of two-
quart pots, and potted them in the size al-
ready described. I then cut them down
to three eyes, and placed them in the front
of the vinery. I trained one shoot up the
middle of each light, to the length of five
feet ; and during the summer paid particu-
lar attention in assisting them with the
three principal elements, viz., air, water,
and light. After they had grown to the
length of five feet and their extremities
were stopped, they made efibrls to grow
again; however, I kept them constantly
stopped : this caused the sap to enter the
auxiliary shoots, or those produced at the
base of each leaf on the main stem, which
were allowed to grow, occasionally stopping
them through the season. Indeed, I gave
them the same treatment as vines in houses
generally receive. In autumn, the plants
were placed in the open air, and the roots
protected from frost."

" On the 2d of January, these 6 plants
were placed in a house of about the tempe-
rature of 60 degrees Fah., when in a short
time they broke, showing fruit at every eye,
some two, three, or even four bunches each,
being on an average of about 40 bunches
on each plant, or 240 collectively; and
what is more surprising, the shoots are
what every person acquainted with vines
would term weak, — being, in fact, little
thicker than a good quill, towards the base
of the stem, and not more than twice that
thickness at their extremities.

" A great portion of the fertility may be
attributed to the proper supply of water.

For this purpose, a feeder is kept under
each pot; as I am confident every plant so
situated is benefitted by capillary attrac-
tion.

" Whoever attempts to propagate the vine
by cuttings, should make choice of such
shoots as are on the most productive part of
the vine ; otherwise, the plants will be un-
productive ; for a person may collect either
fruitful or unfruitful cuttings from the same
plant."

Fig. 56. — A Black Hamburgh Vine grown in a Pot-

"Vines in pots will grow in a common
hot-bed frame with good success, I have
little doubt, provided the plants are proper-
ly prepared. I have now, March 18th, nine
pots with small plants, the whole of which
could be placed in a common three light
frame. The average number of bunches
is 40 on each vine ; in all, 360 perfectly
good bunches. By a judicious arrangement
of their stems, and attending to the supply

VALUABLE NEW VEGETABLES.

463

of water and air, and a regular heat by
linings, they will no doubt bear good crops.
The Black Hamburgh would do for this pur-
pose ; but owing to the dimensions of the
leaves, it is not so suitable as some others."

" I have now plants making as strong
wood as any on the rafters, which have been
subjected to pot culture for the last twelve
years. The plan more to be recommend-
ed, is to give each plant an alternate year
of preparation.

" I do not shift bearing plants every year,
and never re-pot a plant as long as it is in-
clined to produce fruit. When it fails, I
cut it down, reducing the root to a ball of
about nine inches in diameter, and put it
deep in the same pot. My vines have usu-
ally from eighteen to twenty-four buds in
the length of five feet."

ThoucrhMr. Stafford directs that the vines

should be placed in the vinery during the
preparatory stages of growth, there is no
doubt but in this climate they would per-
fect their growth, and fully ripen their
wood, for the two years previous to fruit-
ing, in the open air, b}^ protecting the pots
with moss from the drying effects of the
sun and wind.

The growth of the vines in pots could also
easily be retarded till the sashes from the
hot-beds could be spared, which would be
about the first of May, when they could be
used to cover the vines without the use of
any artificial heat ; while for early forcing,
I think vines in pots would be more suita-
ble than those planted in the border. I
intend trying the culture of the vine this
way, and will give you an account of the
result. James Dougall.

Eosebank, near Amherstburg, C. W., Feb. 18, 1848.

VALUABLE NEW VEGETABLES.

Fkom among the numerous new vegetables
which make their appearance in the cata-
logues of the seedsmen, we are able to
recommend strongly, from experimental
knowledge, or personal observation of their
value, the following, as well worthy of cul-
tivation by every one who values the pro-
ducts of the kitchen garden.

Walcheren Cauliflower. — This new
German cauliflower is a great acquisition ;
being more vigorous, hardy, and better
adapted to our climate, than any of the old
varieties that we have cultivated. The
heads are large, and the flavor is most ex-
cellent. There are two varieties ; the Ear-
ly Walcheren and the Late Walcheren. The
seeds of the latter, when this vegetable is
wanted for winter use, should be planted in
May, and the plants transplanted in June,

for future growth. We have had a supply
of this truly delicious vegetable for our ta-
ble all the past wi?iter. Our mode was
this : We made a plantation of the Late
Walcheren in good soil, about the middle
of June. These plants grew and attained
nearly their full size, but did not come into
flower at the approach of severe frost. As
soon as this period arrived — about the first
of November — we had them all taken up,
with a little earth about the roots of each,
and removed to the cellar of an outbuild-
ing, which was free from frost. There
they were replanted, by barely covering the
roots with earth, — the larger part of their
leaves being left on the plants. In the
course of a fortnight, the strongest ones
formed fine flower-heads ; and, gradually,
the others all blossomed and became fit for

464

VALUABLE NEW VEGETABLES.

the table; and certainly, no vegetable in
winter can be compared with them.*

It may be remarked, that any late cau-
liflower may be treated in this way ; but
we have never found any to flower so uni-
formly, or to have so delicate and succulent
a flavor in winter as the Walcheren.

The Early and Late Walcheren Broc-
coli are also very superior, hardy new va-
rieties of this excellent and too little culti-
vated vegetable. They may be grown in
soils where the cauliflower does not suc-
ceed.

The Portugal Cabbage, — {Couve tron-
chuda,) noticed in our first volume, is one of
the most delicious of all the cabbage tribe.
It is, as yet, scarcely known or cultivated
in this country, but needs only to be seen
and tasted to become universally popular.
Even the stout leaf-stalks, when boiled, are
nearly as good as sea-kale. But the heart
is the part chiefly used ; and cooked in the
same way, is nearly or quite as delicate as
the best cauliflower, having none of the
coarseness and strong flavor of the cabbage
tribe. It may, like the cabbage, be grown
as an early or a late vegetable ; but it is
most valuable when sown in May, and kept
for use during the autumn and winter.
There are two varieties; one large, and the
other dwarf. The former, (the only one,
we believe, yet introduced,) grows large,
and the plants should be set three or four
feet apart. The latter takes much less
space, and is said to be superior in flavor.

Bassano Beet. — Certainly the earliest,
sweetest, most tender and delicate of all
beets. We have cultivated it for three or
four years ; and last year, planted it for
trial in the same soil with half a dozen of
the most noted early varieties, and found it
to exceed, in earliness and flavor, all others.
The root is oval, (long-turnip rooted,) in

• The cellar was aired freely on all fine, mild days.

colour a pale red, and it is fit for use
ten days sooner than the Early Blood
Beet.

Turtle Soup Bean. — We received for
trial, last spring, a package of dwarf beans,
bearing this name, from Messrs. Thorbxtrn
& Co., New-York. It proved to be the
best snap, or string-bean that we have yet
cultivated — as a general crop for family
use. Its superiority over the ordinary bush-
beans consists in the tenderness and excel-
lent flavor of its pods, and the long time
which they continue fit for use, — certainly
three times as long as those of the common
dwarf beans. Where only one variety of
dwarf bean is cultivated, we would recom-
mend this variety as decidedly preferable
to the old sorts ; and it bears abundant
crops on dry soils, where several others fail.
It is said to have its name from the supe-
rior flavor of the ripened beans in soup.
We have not used them in this way, and
cannot therefore speak on this point.

Waite's Queen of Dwarf Pea. — This
is, just now, the favorite very early pea in
England ; and we observe that it is adver-
tised by the leading seedsmen in this coun-
try. From a small quantity, grown last
season, we should think it likely to prove
deserving of its foreign reputation.

The Cedo Nulli Pea is still our favor-
ite, as the best and earliest dwarf pea yet
well known and proved in this country.
It bears abundant crops, requires very little
space, is fit for gathering several days be-
fore the Early Frame, and is of excellent
quality.

Darling's Early Sweet Corn. — Those
who know, experimentally, how superior
the sweet corn is in a green state to all
others, for table use, will be glad to know
that this variety, (originated by the late
Judge Darling of Conn.,) will enable them
to have it upon their tables long before the

PROFITS OF FRUIT GROWING.

465

common sweet corn is fit to pluck. It is,
indeed, one of the very earliest kinds of
maize, and should be cultivated in every
kitchen garden.

Some of our readers will be glad to learn
where these seeds may be had genuine.
The Portugal cabbage is, we believe, for

sale by Breck & Co., seedsmen, Boston;
the early sweet com at the Agricultural
Warehouse, 10 Green-street, Albany, and
the other vegetables at Thorburn & Co.'s,
New-York ; and they may also, no doubt,
be obtained of various other seedsmen in
the larger cities.

PROFITS OF FRUIT GROWING— NO. 2.

BY B. G. BOSWELL, PHILADELPHIA.

When so many farmers are complaining of
small profits, we think it proper to say a
little more on the profits of fruit growing.

Charles Dubois, of Fishkill landing,
Dutchess county, N. Y., has taken thirty-
three dollars for the fruit grown on one
Frost Gage Plum Tree in one season ; and
last season received ninety dollars for the
crop of apricots from one tree.

A lady of Kensington, Pa., has received
seventy dollars in a season from one apri-
cot tree.

A gardener, near Boston, has produced
eight thousand quarts of strawberries to the
acre, and received twenty cents per quart
for them, — thus realising sixteen hundred
dollars per acre.

An acre of raspberries on Long Island
has produced nine hundred dollars worth
of fruit in a season. The expense of culti-
vating, picking the fruit, and taking it to
market was one hundred and fifty-seven
dollars, — leaving a handsome nett profit of
seven hundred and forty-three dollars; a
larger sum than thousands of farmers re-
alise from a farm of an hundred acres.

Mr. Zieber of Reading, Pa., has made
forty-two gallons of pure grape juice wine
from one Isabella vine in a season, worth,
when one year old, one dollar and fifty
cents per gallon — or sixty-three dollars;
Vol. II. 59

being the interest on one thousand and
fifty dollars.

An apple orchard of one acre, principally
of the Rhode Island Greening, in Wayne
county, N. Y., produced two hundred bar-
rels of selected fruit in 1847. Another or-
chard, of three and one-half acres, produced
six hundred and fifty barrels. Althouo-h

the fruit was sold at extremely low prices

being so far in the interior of New- York

yet the nett proceeds were one hundred
dollars per acre. In the vicinity of Phila-
delphia, such a crop of fruit would have
paid a nett profit of three hundred dollars
per acre.

John G. Gardner of Nantucket, Mass.,
has produced the cultivated cranberry three
hundred and twenty bushels to the acre,
and found ready sale at four dollars per
bushel; thus realising twelve hundred and
eighty dollars per acre.

Many persons will say — " Well, large
profits may be obtained on a small scale
but nothing can be done on a large scale."
We happen, just now, to think of some
large operations in fruit culture. Major
Revbold, of Delaware, together with his
sons and sons-in-law, own a number of
farms, and have about a thousand acres in
peach orchards. They think nothing of
sending five thousand baskets of peaches

466

THE CULTURE OF THE CHINESE PRIMROSE.

to market per day, for some weeks, and are
supposed to have realised, last season, forty
thousand dollars clear of all expenses.

EoBERT L. Pell of Pelham, Ulster coun-
ty, N. Y., is known to have raised, for seve-
ral years past, four thousand barrels of
Newtown Pippin Apples per year ; and
what he chooses to sell in New- York city,
will always command six dollars per barrel.
Those he sends to London have sometimes
sold [at retail] as high as twenty-one dol-
lars per barrel. Last season Mr. Pell's
crop was ten thousand barrels.* Suppose,
for argument's sake, that one-third of this
amount is swallowed up in expenses, there
is still left the handsome sum of forty thou-
sand dollars.

Dr. R. T. Underhill, of New-York, has
a vineyard of twenty acres of Isabella and
Catawba grape vines at Croton Point, on
the Hudson river. It is a well known fact,
that some thousands of baskets of grapes,

from this vineyard, are annually sent to
New- York, and find ready sale at nine dol-
lars per hundred pounds.

The doctor says there ought to be started
a hundred vineyards immediately as large
at his ; and we coincide with him. New-
York city, with Brooklyn and Williams-
burg, is half as large as Paris ; and in this
latter city, ten million pounds of table
grapes are consumed yearly.

You will, I think, be surprised to hear
that many wealthy farmers, near Philadel-
phia, buy their apples yearly, — this year, at
one dollar per bushel; and this, too, when
they acknowledge that feeding cattle and
raising grain does not pay more than three
per cent, on the capital invested in farm-
ing. Some of them mean well ; they have
intended to plant out trees every year for
the last twenty years !

B. G. BOSWELL.

Philadelphia, Feb. 14, 1848.

THE CULTURE OP THE CHINESE PRIMROSE.

BY S. B., NEAR PHILADELPHIA.

A FEW REMARKS, upon the cultivation of
one of the most desirably popular and free
flowering winter plants, — one, too, so ea-
sily cultivated by all who have a taste for
flowers, and a window that lets in the least
rays of the sun, will, perhaps, be accepta-
ble to many of your readers, as this is the
time to prepare for next winter's blooming.
The Primula sinensis, or Chinese Prim-
roses, are window or parlor plants of easy
culture; and, when properly attended, the
pink and white varieties afford a constant

[* We know the apple crop at the Pelham farm, last sea-
son, was an enormously large one; but we presume our cor-
respondent's estimate of that crop is only an estimate, and not
a precisely ascertained amount. We endeavored to obtain
an exact account of the product of this really great orchard
for 1847, but without success. Ed.]

succession of flowers from the 1st of De-
cember to the 1st of April. If the cultiva-
tor has a few plants to begin with, he would
do well to choose two plants of each varie-
ty, and place them where they will receive
the free benefit of the sun, so that they may
ripen their seed early and well. In choos-
ing such plants to save your seed from, take
those whose flowers are nearly semi-double,
with thick and regularly shaped petals ;
and it would be better never to cut the
flowers of the seed plants, as the seed
saved from the first flowers is the best. I
need not say that selecting the seed care-
fully, from fine blossoms and of the best
varieties, is a matter of great consequence ;

THE CULTURE OF THE CHINESE PRIMROSE.

467

as it is as much trouble to grow a bad seed-
ling variety as a good one. During the
months of April and May the seed plants
will be gradually ripening their seed ; and
and it is a good plan to look over the plants
each day when the pods appear ripe, so
that they maj' be gathered just before
bursting. About the first of July sow your
seeds in a seed pan [broad, flat flower pot,]
well drained. A little moss should be
placed in the drainage, and the remainder
of the pan filled with light sandy soil, well
sifted ; place the pan where it will be
shaded during the middle of the day. In
two weeks your seedlings will make their
appearance. When large enough to take
hold of them, prick the young plants into
other pans one inch apart. As soon as the
plants appear to be well established and
rooted, put them singly into three inch pots;
putting them, as soon as they begin to grow,
out of doors, in a partially shaded place,
where they may remain until the pots ap-
pear to be well filled with roots. Then get
some five inch pots. Let the hole in the
bottom be well drained Avith broken crocks
or pieces of charcoal. The best soil for the
plants to grow in, is a light rich sandy loam.
In potting, do not set the plants deep, but
keep them well up in the pots, so that the
water will drain well off' the stems ; as,
otherwise, they are apt to damp off'.

About the beginning of October, take in

some of your plants for early blooming,
leaving the others out ; for they take no
harm from a slight frost. As soon as the
weather is severe, place the plants that
you wish for late blooming in a frame or
cold room, where they will require little
protection except from sharp frost. When
your early blooming plants are past their
prime, let the late ones take their place,
always remembering to set aside some of
your choicest plants, to save seed from for
the ensuing winter's blooming. My rea-
sons for recommending one year old plants
in preference to older ones are these : that
they require less trouble, bloom more free-
ly, and are much stronger and finer than
old plants, (unless you pot the latter into
larger pots than is convenient for window
culture.) By following these few simple
hints, any lady may have her parlor win-
dows constantly gay, during the winter
months, with one of the prettiest and most
satisfactory of all winter blooming plants,
at little expense or trouble. Respectfully,
your constant reader. S. B.

Near Philadelphia, Feb. 24, 1S43.

[The Fringed Chinese Primroses, of more
recent introduction than those with plain
flowers, are exceedingly pretty, grow easily
from seed, as our correspondent has pointed
out, and are well worthy the attention of
those who wish a few perpetual blooming,
parlor flowers. Ed,]

The Fruits of Scripture. — General Dear-
born, formerly president of the Masssa-
chusetts Horticultural Society, makes the
following statement in the Transactions of
that Society : — " Although so many trees,
shrubs, and herbaceous plants, are men-
tioned in the Old and New Testaments,
neither the pear nor apple is named ; for

it has been conclusively established by
Dr. Harris, in his Natural History of the
Bible, that the tree and fruit described by
Joel, and in the books of the Canticles,
Proverbs, and Leviticus, was the citron,
and not the apple, as the Hebrew word
has been rendered in the English trans-
lations."

468

SPECIAL MANURE FOR PEAR TREES.

SPECIAL MANURE FOR PEAR TREES.

BY L. WYMAN, Jr., WEST CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Dear Sir : — I have used and recommend-
ed the compost you speak of in the March
number of the Horticulturist, in your arti-
cle on " Special Manures for Fruit Trees,"
as a manure for the pear tree in particular.
I have usually added to the compost, say in
measure, one peck of fine iron filings, or
one peck and a half of crude turnings of
iron, to each load of peat, or muck, and in
that proportion for a larger or smaller quan-
tity; and have always noticed the most fa-
vorable result.

Two years since I applied this compost
to a large pear tree which stood in a damp
loamy soil, but which had not borne any
fruit of consequence, for six or seven years
in succession, although it grew rapidly in
size, and sent out a large number of fine
healthy shoots. The owner of the tree
proposed engrafting some other kind of
scions upon the stock, it being a fine va-
riety (the Andrews.) I recommended "one
year's patience." He then said — "What
would you do with it ? " I replied — " I
would attempt to remove it, or give it a
better soil, and one more adapted to its
wants." He remarked — " Very well, take
it under your charge ; I will spare it this
year."

After examining the soil very carefully,
I found, as before remarked, a clayey loam,
quite damp, and the tree growing in a lone
situation. I caused nearly all the earth to
be removed from the roots of the tree, and
the turf taken ofT in a circle of seven feet
diameter, leaving the tree in the middle of
a pan, caused by the removal of the sod and
earth. I then applied a sufficient quantity
of compost to fill the hole full, the whole
new soil rising a little around the body of

the tree. The quantity of muck used was
one quarter less, in this instance, as I be-
lieved the tree required not so large a
quantity of muck as one would growing in
a higher location, but rather more sand. I
used sand. My compost was formed as
follows : three parts of muck to one part of
sand, and a proportionate quantity of potash
water ;* and iron filings, one peck and one-
half to the load. The tall or leading shoots
of the tree were shortened, the tree well
scraped and trimmed, &c. The result of
this application was a full crop of pears,
and the tree making, the same year, a good
growth of wood, every way healthy; the
fruit, two barrels and one-half, grew fair
and ripened well; and the tree has ever
since borne a good crop, and continues to
grow vigorously. This is, to my own mind,
a sufficient test of the utility and value of
the compost you recommend in your widely
extended and truly valuable work.

Two years ago I had occasion to remove
a Jargonelle Pear Tree which' had borne
fruit, and which was seven inches in di-
ameter. Having previously prepared a hole
for the same, of sufficient size and depth, I
lifted the pear tree from its original situa-
tion by digging a trench five feet from the
body of the tree, and of sufficient depth to
enable me to cut off very smoothly all the
roots of the same, leaving a large ball of
earth remaining attached to the tree. Then,
by means of levers, the tree was raised ea-
sily and carefully, and removed to its new
location and secured, and the hole filled up
with the composition recommended by you
in your article on " Special Manures for

* See page 427. Ed.

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

469

Fruit Trees," with the addition of the iron
filings only. The tree was removed early
in the month of April, and ripened, the same
year, some forty fine pears, and grew well.
The next season it bore nearly as many
pears as it ever bore in one year previous
to its removal ; and this year, 1848, it will
doubtless bear and ripen a larger quantity
of pears than it ever has in any previous
season.

Salt, as an article of manure for the
•plum tree, I have long known to be valua-
ble, and have used to considerable extent.
I shall give you, this fall, the result of se-

veral experiments which I am making with
salt, charcoal, &c.; for I believe a little
more practical knowledge only is wanted,
by many of our agriculturists, to place the
plum, the pear, and the peach, in all their
varieties and richness, within the pale of
every kitchen garden. Yours truly.

L. Wyman, Je.

West Cambridge, Mass., April, 1848.

[The foregoing is precisely to the point,
and is also exactly the kind of evidence that
we are most desirous of placing before our
readers on this important subject. Ed.]

ON TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

BY T. A. S., SYRACUSE, N Y.

The mode of transplanting evergreens, re-
commended in your last number, by Mr.
Bartlett, resembles, somewhat, one adopt-
ed by myself a few years since, and which
was attended with similar favorable results.
Mr. Bartlett, however, like his predeces-
sor, Mr. Thomas, has failed to give the
principle on which his practice is founded,
which gives to the subject the appearance
of a successful experiment merely. By your
leave I will supply that omission, and state
the results of my experience, with the cau-
ses of both success and failure. My modus
operandi, too, differs a little from that of
Mr. B.; but that little leaves the process
independent of the coincidence o{ a. freezing
night, and the operator at liberty to perform
his work when it suits his convenience, in
the proper season for transplanting.

The difficulty in removing evergreens
lies in the extreme delicacy of their roots,
and the fatal injury they are liable to re-
ceive from exposure to the sun and air. It
is stated by Loudon, that by the exposure

of their roots, the extremities of their fibres,
the spongioles become closed ; and, unlike
deciduous trees, when once closed, they never
again expand, or perform their proper func-
tions. That evergreen, therefore, whose
roots have been exposed but for a short
time to the rays of the sun, or even to the
atmosphere, is deprived of its means of
taking up nutriment ; and however well
planted and tended afterwards, its death is
certain. It may survive for a time, exist-
ing on its present supply of aliment and
a small portion, perhaps, drawn from the
atmosphere through its leaves and the pores
of the branches and body, but the result is
inevitable. This theory, or principle, seems
abundantly sustained by my own observa-
tion and experience.

In the fall of 1844, I wished to plant
about 160 feet of hedge, of the White Ce-
dar. A trench was dug 20 inches in width
and depth, and filled half way with the soil
removed, mixed with an equal portion of
that from which the cedars were to be

470

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

taken, (swamp muck,) with a like admix-
ture for filling in. The trees were then
taken up, care being had to preserve the
roots entire, as far as practicable, and free
from bruises. They were set in a body,
with the roots on the ground, as fast as
taken up, and removed for planting the fol-
lowing morning, which was completed in
the course of the day. The weather was
thought favorable, it being cloudy, though
attended with a dry wind. In this manner,
and under such circumstances, two-thirds
of my hedge was planted, great care being
taken in the setting of the trees. The
hedge appeared very fine ; and already I
began to experience an anticipated triumph
over some of my friends whose observation
or experience led them to believe that ever-
greens could not be removed successfully
from their native forests. My triumph,
however, was of short duration. Before
further planting, the suggestion by Mr.
Loudon, above referred to, came under my
observation. I saw at once my labor lost ;
that my beautiful hedge was doomed to
speedy death. But the suggestion also
came as a revelation. I understood the
failure in ninety-nine cases in a hundred,
of those who had attempted to adorn their
grounds with these beautiful denizens of
the wilderness, and who predicted no bet-
ter result to attend my efforts.

Before proceeding to complete the work,
after some reflection I adopted a mode
alike, in one respect, to that recommended
by Mr. Bartlett. A well tempered spade
was ground to a fine edge, both to facilitate
the process of severing the roots and sur-
rounding substances, and for the purpose
also of making a clean cut, and avoiding
any bruise or fracture of the roots severed ;
in digging, taking care also to incline the
handle of the spade towards the tree, so
that the chipped side of the cut should be

on the portion excised. With a firm pres-
sure of the foot, the spade was readily
driven home; and after making the circuit
of the tree, it was lifted out with the ball
of earth attached, which, from the adhesive
nature of the peaty soil, held by the undis-
turbed roots at the base of the tree, was
sufficiently firm for removal the distance
required. In this manner were the trees
procured for the completion of the hedge.
The results proved the correctness of the
principle, and the mode, the adaptation of
means to a given end.

Of the portion first planted, not one-third
survived the ensuing summer ; and these
in a condition to become the prey, probably,
of the winter and summer following. Of
the last planting, consisting of nearly 200
trees, every one came through the season
well, although the summer of 184-5 was a
trying one for newly planted trees. The
fall of 1845, the portion first planted was
taken up and replanted in the manner sub-
sequently adopted ; and the hedge is now
all in a healthy condition.

The same season I transplanted about 75
fir trees. As these were obtained from the
vicinity of Oriskany, Oneida county, some
40 or 50 miles distant from Syracuse, two
or three days were required to transplant
them from their old to their new homes.
Trees, too, of a larger size were required,
as they were designed to be planted singly,
or as standards, which would also require a
corresponding ball of earth attached. From
the increased weight, together with distance
of transportation and extra handling, this
ball was liable to be shaken ofi"; to prevent
which, a sufficiently " cold freezing night, ''^
at a proper season for transplanting, fall or
spring, might hardly be expected, nor often
occur. At least, I did not wait for one ;
but, provided with a quantity of old mat-
ting, sacking, canvass, &fc., with a ball of

.>^^

SMALL OOTTAGE.

^ • ' " ' -■-^^-^-^-^

35
FIRST FLOOR

ATTIC FLOOR.

[Horticulturist: April, 1848]

DESIGN FOR A SMALL COTTAGE.

471

cord of proper size and strength, I took the
cars one fine morning in November, and
before noon was among the subjects for
remoral. The firs were cut and lifted in
the manner practiced on the cedars. A
piece of canvass of proper size was spread,
and the tree with the ball attached placed
in its centre, and the corners and sides
drawn up snugly and fastened around the
body at the base of the trunk with one end
of the cord. The oord was then passed
over and around the ball, and covering in
different directions till the whole was made
snug and firm. In this manner the desired
number of trees were selected and bagged.
A little water was then thrown on the balls,
to keep them moist and render the soil
more adhesive ; when they were loaded on
a wood car and taken to Syracuse, over not,
then, the smoothest railroad in the world.
The day following, some of them, and oth-
ers not under several days, were planted.
Of the number removed, six only were lost ;
and these nearly, or quite, all from defects
in the disposition and situation of the roots,
which could not be detected while covered

with the earth taken up with them. The
size of the trees was from 7 to 10 feet, and
one nearly 14, in height. I have had oc-
casion to remove some of these trees since,
and found that they were bountifully sup-
plied with fibrous roots, thrown out at the
extremities of the stumps of roots cut off* in
taking up originally ; the stumps them-
selves being sound to the very end, and
healing over.

The process recommended by Mr. Tho-
mas is, probably, the only safe one for very
large trees ; but requires too much and un-
necessary labor for those of ordinary size
for transplanting. The mode given by Mr.
Bartlett would, doubtless, prove efl'ectual,
but needs a little too nice an adjustment of
time and circumstances. If my own shall
be deemed to have any advantages over
theirs, or to encourage and facilitate the
transplanting of our varied and beautiful
native evergreens, (the principle and mode
of removal is applicable to them all,) it is
at your and your readers' service.

T. A. S.

Syracuse, March 1?, 1848.

DESIGN FOR A SMALL COTTAGE.

Our Frontispiece shows an original de-
sign for a small cottage, in the simple, and
yet somewhat ornamental style, which we
think best adapted for the purpose when
wood is the material to be employed in
building.

The roof projects two feet, showing the
ends of the rafters as brackets. The exte-
rior is covered with the vertical weather-
boarding, described in detail in vol. i, page
109. For a cottage of this class, we would
be content with unplaned plank, the joints
covered with the necessary strip or fillet,
and the whole well painted and sanded.

A glance at the plan of the first floor,
will show that its accommodation is very
compactly arranged. By placing all the
flues in one stack, no heat is lost in win-
ter ; and by cutting off" the corners of the
two principal rooms, convenient closets are
afforded. As, in a house of this class, the
kitchen is usually the room most constantly
occupied by the family, there is no objec-
tion to the entrance to the stairs being
placed within it.

The plan of the second floor shows
four good bed-rooms, which, with the best
bed-room on the first floor, makes five

472

GRAY'S MANUAL OF BOTANY.

sleeping apartments. This would enable
a family, consisting of a number of per-
sons, to live comfortably in a house of this
size.

In portions of the country where timber
is abundant, this cottage may be built at a
cost of from $400 to $600. In this neigh-
borhood, it is estimated to cost $750.

REVIEWS.

A Manual of the Botany of the Northern
Stat hS,/ro 7/1 New-England to Wisconsin, and
south to Ohio and Pennsylvania, inclusive, ar-
ranged according to the Natural System ; with an
introduction, containing a reduction of the gene-
ra to the Linncean artificial classes and orders,
outlines of the elements of botany, a glossary,
etc.; by Asa Gray, M. D., Prol'essor of Natural
History in Harvard University. 12mo, 710 pa-
ges. Boston and Cambridge : James Monroe &
Co.. 1848. ($2 : to schools and academies $1.50.)
There are many persons who look upon
botany as a kind of mysterious puzzle, to
render trees and plants— things simple and
beautiful in themselves — strange, complex,
and " scientific." Consequently, they have
a horror of it ; and they live a whole life-
time, with the greatest possible desire to
know something of that wide realm of
beauty and interest — the vegetable king-
dom,—and die almost entirely ignorant

of it.

Their prejudice is one as reasonable as

that of a wayward child, who would fore-
go all the pleasure and profit of knowledge
because of the, to him, unmeaning drudge-
ry of acquiring the alphabet. For, after
all, the forbidding part of botany is but the
necessary alphabet, which science has con-
trived to enable men intelligibly to classi-
fy, arrange, and methodise a part of na-
ture's works, in order that we may read
and understand her better; just as the al-
phabet, and the rudimentary lessons which
follow it, are only the necessary stepping-
stones to enable us to stand high enough to
hold converse with the otherwise sealed
domain of written thoughts.

And is it not worth a few days labor, —
this science, which enables us to under-
stand not only the history, the names, the
associations, and the virtues of all plants,
but also the curious relations, the admira-
ble laws which govern their structure, and
the wonderful part which they bear in the
economy of the universe ? Is it not worth
while to become familiar with a study
which, wherever our steps may lead us,
from high, cold mountain tops, crusted over
with only mosses and lichens, to deep, warm
tropical valleys, where the luxuriance of ve-
getable forms almost bewilder the senses,
still furnishes us with new subjects for con-
sideration ; a study that often makes a field-
path, or a ramble by the way-side, that is
dull and mean in the eyes of the unlearned,
rich in interest and beauty to him Avho finds
a botanical gem under his feet, that fills
his soul with delight. Truly has it been
said, that more than half the world is stone-
blind. Ennui consumes them, and life is
dull and vapid ! They have no more no-
tion of the wealth of interest that covers
and embroiders this dull earth which they
despise, than they have of the true motions
of the binary stars !

Seriously, there is no thinking person
whose home is in the country, and who
loves nature, — much to be pitied are those
who live in the country and not love her, —
who would not find a great and unfailing
resource in this beautiful science. The
difference between knowing plants and trees
as a naturalist knows them, or as they are

GRAY'S MANUAL OF BOTANY.

473

known by the uneducated, is not unlike the
difference between a familiar acquaintance
with every individual of a large collection
of agreeable people, or knowing, perhaps,
the names merely of a few strangers in the
crowd. The country, the fields, the forests,
the mountains, have a positively different,
and altogether new meaning, to him who
sees, not only the general grandeur and
beauty of the landscape, but, also, studies
with delight every detail of fern, shrub or
forest tree, in the foreground.

Suppose, for example, two persons clam-
bering the breezy hill-side of a valley, in
the northern states, in the month of June.
They both see, here and there, large groups
and masses of a striking shrub, with glossy
evergreen leaves, and large clusters of white
or pale flesh-coloured blossoms. To one
of these persons, this shrub is only " Lau-
rel ; a sort of piseit thing — dreadful hard
wood." To the other, it is the Kalmia la-
tifolia, — the broad leaved, or Mountain Lau-
rel ; not, indeed, the tree laurel of the an-
cient poets, — but borrowing the title from a
slight resemblance in its unfading foliage.
It commemorates the memory of Peter
Kalm, the pupil of Linn.eus, who visited
this countr}'^ a century ago ; and who could
not, in his letters to his great master, suffi-
ciently express his delight at seeing an
hundred acres of it, blossoming like a giant's
garden in the new world's wilderness. Its
delicate blossom, shaped like a miniature
parasol, is full of curious and beautiful points
of structure. Then, as it belongs to the
same natural family as the Iihodode7idron,
he recalls the reputed poisonous qualities
of the ko7iey of some of the tribe. He re-
members the story told by Xenophon, of
the army of the 10,000 Greeks in their re-
treat, vast numbers of whom lay about the
ground for hours in their camp as if dead,
simply from eating the Rhododendron honey.
VOL. II. 60

And this, and fifty other curious little inte-
resting facts, pass through his mind ; and
he makes the circuit of the world, while he
rests for a moment in his ramble, upon the
associations that hang about a bit of moun-
tain laurel.

Every intelligent farmer's son and daugh-
ter ought to be somewhat familiar with na-
tural history; not only for the profit and
pleasure which they themselves would de-
rive from it , not only that it enlarges the
mind, and gives the student a better know-
ledge of the great purposes of the creation ;
but because they are the proper and natural
guardians and keepers of nature's secrets.
To people who live in towns, belong the mys-
teries of great cities; mysteries, too, from
which one does not always learn to find the
heart lighter, or one's trust in human na-
ture stronger. But to country people belong
the mysteries of the rural life, the language
and habits of birds and insects, the antique
geological secrets of the hills and moun-
tains, the inexhaustible lore of the woods,
forests, and fields ; and, we are bound to
add, that these are mysteries that exercise
a benign influence on the mind, that calm
the excited, restless soul of man, and make
the heart swell with love to the good God,
and all his creatures.

These studies are also the proper acoom-
plishments of the countrj'. They are not
only the solid underlayers of fields of pro-
found thought which, closely pursued, might
occupy man forever; but they furnish, in
the hands of those who live in the country
and are familiar with them, frequent and
agreeable topics of conversation. Thev are
a natural offset to the news of society which
our guests bring us from town ; they furnish
us an exchange fresher and better than
their own coin, with which we can pay back
these " dwellers in cities, and sitters upon
many divans."

474

GRAY'S MANUAL OF BOTANY.

There is, we may say, en passant^ an er-
ror, into which smatterevs in science not
unfreqiiently fall, that beginners ought to
guard against. This is pedantry ; a fond-
ness for display of one's knowledge by in-
troducing, on every possible occasion, hard
technical names, worse than "sounding
brass" in the ears of the majority of listen-
ers. This is an insufferable piece of bad
taste, to say the least of it ; not a whit
more pardonable than that of the shoolmas-
ter, who astonishes his rustic neighbors
with those hard words, of an indefinite num-
ber of syllables, which he had made espe-
cial search after in his dictionary. He who
possesses knowledge on any subject not
shared by those about him, will always find
a demand made for it when it is needed ;
and then it will be the better appreciated
and understood, from its not being intru-
ded at inappropriate seasons. Only a
very young botanist, therefore, will cry
out Hypericum perforatum, whenever he
passes through a field filled with Johns-
wort !

We must not forget, in this rambling sort
of gossip which flows from our pen, the work
before us, or its merits. To those who
know Prof. Gray, it is almost needless to
say anything. To those who do not, we
may remark, that he is both, one of the
most profound botanists, and one of the
most acute botanical writers of the age, in
any country. This work, therefore, which
has cost him much labor and study, (for it
is a book full o^ facts, which must be, and
have been, verified step by step,) is, we are
not surprised to find, the most co'mplete
Manual of Botany of the northern United
States ever published. Its purpose is to
enable the student to ascertain the name
of, or identify any and every plant to be
found growing wild from the northeast-
ern boundary to Wisconsin, and south to

Maryland; to learn its natural family, its
habit of growth, and something of its
history. It is what the Germans signi-
ficantly call a "hand-book;" one that
the student may carry under his arm into
the fields, and, with a little practice,
very quickly find out the name of any
new plant or tree that is unknown to
him.

In order to render this process as easy as
possible, the author has endeavored to
avoid, in his descriptions, the use of tech-
nical words whenever those in common use
would apply ; he has, by italicising the
leading traits in the description of a species,
enabled us, much more readily than before,
to distinguish it from such other species as
most nearly resemble it ; and he has ar-
ranged all those species most nearly alike
into defyiite groups or sections, to simplify
the task of analysis.

We would very gladly, if our space al-
lowed us, give examples of this excellent
treatment of the subject from the work it-
self. But we feel that this is quite unne-
cessary ; for the work is one of such supe^
rior character that it will directly become
the standard manual of the northern states.
Dr. Gray says, in the preface, that it is in-
tended chiefly "for the use of students and
practical botanists." We hope there are
thousands among our own readers, especial-
ly young persons, who are yet neither stu-
dents nor practical botanists, but who will
speedily become so, — and, after familiaris-
ing themselves with some good elementary
work,* will make this " New Botany of the
Northern States" their intimate companion,
till they know something of the " secret his-
tory" of every plant that grows or blos-
soms within twenty miles of their country
home.

* Such as Gray's Botanical Text-hook, Lindley's School Bo-
tany, LindUy's Ladies' Botany, etc

FOREIGN NOTICES.

475

Thk Family Kitchen Gardener — containing
plain and accurate descriptions of all the differ-
ent species and varieties of culinary vegetables,
and the best mode of cultivating them, in the gar-
den or under glass, etc.; by Robert Buist, of
Philadelphia. New-York : published by J. C.
Riker. 12mo., 216 pages. 1847.

This is a cheap duodecimo volume, the
purpose of which is very well explained by
the title page.

It is a little work, with scarcely a super-
fluous word, but well stored instead with
plain, sensible directions on the cultivation
and care of the kitchen garden. The au-
thor writes as an intelligent writer should,
who knows by heart, and by long practice,
all that he wishes to impart to his readers ;

and the book is, therefore, very naturally,
one that Ave can recommend with great
confidence as second in usefulness to none
of its kind yet published in this country.
Those who are not adepts in kitchen
gardening, and wish to add to their stock
of knowledge ; those who are beginners,
and wish to learn everything, and those
who are so little familiar as still to need a
prompter to tell the what, and when, and
how to plant, that their tables may have a
supply of all those good, nutritious, whole-
some vegetables that go to make up the
daily catalogue of a good dinner, will find
Buisfs Family Kitclmi Gardener as useful
and as indispensable as the almanac itself.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Foreign Notices of New Fruits. — Mr. Tho-
mas Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, Herts., is, as ma-
ny of our readers are aware, an English nursery-
man, who devotes himself more intently to collect-
ing and propagating fine and rare fruits than, per-
haps, any other in Great Britain. The late Sup-
plement to his Catalogue of Fruits, which we have
before us, contains a number of interesting remarks
on new or rare varieties, which we extract for the
benefit of those of our readers who may not have
seen that pamphlet.

We believe nearly all of those foreign varieties
named, are now in the country, or have been im-
ported this spring, by various amateurs and con^
mercial growers in the United States ; though, per-
haps, very few of them will be offered for sale until
the next autumn.

It will be seen that there are several of our
American fruits noticed ; among others, the Jeffer-
son Plum. We are glad to find this most delicious
variety maintains, in England, the high reputation
which we have always claimed for it. It will be
seen, by comparison, that many fruits ripen a month
or more later in the cool, humid climate of England
than in the middle states.

Pears. — In a recent tour in Belgium I was ena-
bled, by a special introduction, to see the garden
of (I lament to say the late,) Major Espercn. This
gentleman devoted many years of his life to the
raising of new fruits from seed, more particularly
pears. He succeeded in giving to the gardening

world some very valuable late pears. Most of these
are enumerated in my Catalogue ; but I am now
enabled to recommend them with the greatest con-
fidence, having seen the parent trees in full bearing
this present autumn. The first in my note-book is—

Belle aprcs Noel; or Belle de Noel (Esperen).
This is a full sized pear, about the size of the Brown
Beurre ; melting and high flavored, ripening, ac-
cording to circumstances of soil and season, from
December to the end of January ; the tree very
hardy, and a good bearer, 5s.*

Bergamotte d'Esperen. A pear of medium size,
inclining to the shape of the Bergamot pear ; melt-
ing, high flavored, and in perfection from March to
the end of April ; tree robust, hardy, and a good
bearer, 3s. 6d.

Beurre Bretonneau (Esperen). A new sort, not
in my Catalogue ; fruit oval, full sized, melting and
high flavored ; colour green, spotted with brown ;
in perfection from January to March ; tree robust,
hardy, and a great bearer, 10s. Gd.f

Bezi d'Esperen. Fruit full sized, slightly turbi-
nated, melting, and of good flavor ; in season from
December to the end of January ; tree of not very
vigorous growth, but a good bearer, 3s. 6d.

Elise d'Heyst (Esperen) . Fruit of medium size,
melting and high flavored ; in season from March
to the cad of April, and even till the middle of May,
if kept in a cool fruit room. This pear requires a
warm and generous soil ; in cold soils it is often not
first rate, 3s. 6d.

Fondante do Malines (Esperen). Fruit of medi-

* Those at 5s. each [.Sterling;— about ?1 25 : Ed] will be
gtijipliecl as dwarfs or pyramidal trees on the pear stock, or
on ihe quince at that price; those at .3s. 6d. as dwarfs or py-
ramidal trees, on the pear stock only, at that price. .Strong py-
ramidal trees on the quince, oi' these sorts, are 5s. each.

t Oh the pear stock only.

476

FOREIGN NOTICES.

urn size, meltintj and good ; season from January
to February ; tree very fertile and vigorous, 3s. 6d.

Josephine de Malines (Esperen). This is, I be-
lieve, a seedling from the Passe Colmar, which it
much resembles in habit ; fruit rather smaller than
those of Passe Colmar ; green or greenish yellow
when ripe, melting and excellent; season from
March to May. Like all very late pears, this re-
quires a warm and rather light soil when on the
pear stock ; it seems to do well on quince, and will
doubtless ripen in cold soils, and situations unfa-
vorable to it on the pear stock. The parent tree
of this variety, when I saw it, formed a beautiful
pyramid, 12 feet high, and covered with fruit, 5s.

Napoleon d'Hiver (Esperen). Fruit large, tur-
binated, melting ; season January to February ; tree
very robust, hardy, and a great bearer. The pa-
rent tree of this variety, apparently some ten or
twelve years old. was loaded with fine fruit, 5s.

Soldat d'Esperen, or Soldat Laboureur (Esperen).
Fruit large and turbinated, only half melting, but
high flavored and excellent , season from January
to February ; tree very robust, and a great bearer.
I was much delighted with the beauty of the parent
tree of this variety ; it formed a handsome pyra-
mid, on which its larsje fruit hung at regular dis-
tances, almost as if placed there by the hand of
the cultivator, 3s. 6d.

Orpheline, or Soldat Laboureur of the French, is
a totally different pear to the above. It is, in ni}'
opinion, a variety of the Beurre d'Aremberg, and
has, indeed, been disseminated very largely under
that name ; but the Beurre d'Aremberg which I
received from the Horticultural Society, some fif-
teen years since, although of the same race, seems
different. I have paid close attention to these va-
rieties these three years past, and find the latter to
produce numerous thorns, both in my specinen tree
and in all the young trees. The fruit, also, al-
though much like the former, and of the same fla-
vor, is smaller ; the trees are so dissimilar in habit
as to be distinguished by the most casual observer.
On the Orpheline or Soldat Laboureur, not a thorn
is ever to be seen, and the trees are more robust in
their growth ; both succeed admirably on the quince
stock. At present I am induced to think them dis-
tinct, and to consider the latter as a superior vari-
ety, although Mr. Thompson, of the Horticultural
Society, is inclined to differ from me. I found, also,
in Belgium, two varieties of this pear — one known
as Beurre d'Aremberg, or Beurre Desehamps, and
the other as Orpheline d'Enghien ; neither of these
were the Glout Morceau, known universally in
France as Beurre d'Aremberg.

Susette de Bavay (Esperen). Fruit of medium
size, knobby and irregular in shape, something like
the Ne plus Meuris ; flesh melting, high flavored
and excellent ; season from March to May ; a pear
of the highest excellence ; tree very vigorous and
very fertile. This variety in particular deserves a
place in every collection, 3s. 6d.

All the above will succeed well in the South of
England, and in warm situations in the Midland
Counties, as pyramids or espaliers ; but in the
North, it will be advisable to give them a south-
west or south-east wall.

Triomphe de Jodoigne. This pear was raised a

short time since by M. Bouvier (since deceased,)
a great pear amateur at Jodoigne, in Belgium i^^it
is one of the very largest of our melting pears, as
large, or even larger, than the Beurre Diel ; flesh
melting and excellent, without the musky flavor
peculiar to that varietj' ; season December ; tree
astonishingly vigorous and robust, 5s.

In addition to the foregoing, there are two other
varieties of late pears well worthy of attention;
they are not exactly new, but are really good va-
rieties.

Beurre gris d'Hiver nouveau. In shape much
like the Easter Beurre, and equal to it in .size. This
is a most abundant bearer, as a pvramid on the
quince, flesh meltins and high flavored, and ripens
from the end of December to the end of January,
or later.

Crassane d'Hiver (Brunont or Bruneau). This
is far superior to the Winter Crassane of the late
Mr. Knight, both in size and flavor, being a melt-
ing pear of first rate quality ; it bears freely as a
pyramid on the quince, ripening in January and
February, and in some seasons will keep till
March.

A few directions for summer pruning pyramidal
pear trees will not, perhaps, here be out of place.
I gathered some experience during my tour in Bel-
gium and France, which I feel happy to impart. I
have, in the -'Miniature Fruit Garden," given di-
rections to shorten all the shoots of pyramidal
pear trees towards the end of summer ; if root
pruning is closely attended to, I am still inclined to
consider it best to do so ; but if the trees are suf-
fered to grow naturally, a modification of the pinch-
ing .system of Monsieur Cappe. as given in the Gar-
dener's Chronicle, No. 28, 1847, may be followed
with advantage.

To follow this method, close attention must be
paid to the trees early in June, and every shoot on
the horizontal branches, except the leading shoot
on each branch, must be pinched off to within three
or four buds of its base, the foreright shoot on each
branch must be left to exhaust the tree of its super-
I abundant sap. In Belgium, I observed all these
foreright shoots on the trees towards the end of Au-
-gust, and I was told that they were left to exhaust
^he tree of its sap, and were not removed till the
winter pruning, when they were shortened to with-
in four or five buds. I am inclined, however, to
think that it would be an improvement to shorten
them towards the end of August, as the buds would
then swell and prepare themselves to form, in the
following season, bloom buds. The leading shoot
of the tree may also then be shortened ; this gives
pyramidal trees a dressed and cultivated appear-
ance, and exposes the fruit to the full influence of
the sun and air. I must say, however, that I pre-
fer root pruning to pruning of the shoots, and the
trees of Monsieur Cappe, in the Jardin des Plantes,
at Paris, confirmed me in this opinion ; these trees
are not, strictly speaking, pyramidal trees ; they
are rather conical trees, with very broad bases, re-
quiring much more room than pyramids. No trees
can be more beautiful as to the equal distribution
of their branches, but they are sadly lacking in a
tendency to fruitfulness. 1 think I write the truth
when I say, that in this fruitful season not more

FOREIGN NOTICES.

477

than half tho trees had fruit upon them, and this
after many years of careful cultivation ; and I was
informed by a friend living near the spot, that this
was the first year they iiad borne any quantity of
fruit. It is indeed a joke among the French jxar-
deners, probably dictated by a little envy, that the
trees of M. Cappe are '' exceedingly productive —
in leaves and shoots ! "

On the Continent root pruning is not known or
thought of, and if broached it would probably be
excessively ridiculed ; but the trees of M. Cappe,
with their over luxuriance, I have no doubt would
be much benefitted by it, in spite of the dry soil and
climate of Paris. I was informed that all his trees
were on the pear stock, which will account for their
vigorous growth.

The quenouille, or tying down system, is now
quite out of fashion in France, and in truth it does
look very liarbarous and unnatural ; the trees train-
ed in this manner in tiie Potagerie, at Versailles,
are mostly on quince stocks ; they are from twenty
to forty years old, and are very productive, but very
ugly ; all the shoots from the horizontal and de-
pressed branches had been cropped ofl" apparently
in July, as Monsieur Puteau, the director, is, I be-
lieve, adverse to the pinching system of M. Cappe.
I did not observe a single quenouille in Belgium,
all were pyramids, even in the gardens of the cot-
tagers ; and in general, these were very beautiful
and productive trees. In many cases, w^hen on the
pear stock they were too luxuriant, and required
root pruning, but this I could not make the garden-
ers comprehend.

If the article in the Gardener's Chronicle, No.
28, 1847, is read attentively, it will be seen that M.
Cappe is constantly at war with the heads of his
trees ; his pinched shoots will often break again
and again, and give him much trouble. I closely
examined some of his trees, of sorts which I knew
to be, under ordinary management, shy bearers,
and found them, to use the language of my note
book, " entirely bare of fruit and I'ruit buds ;" this
was towards the end of last August.

The pinching system of M. Cappe, without root
pruning, is, therefore, objectionable for small gar-
dens, on account of the trees requiring much room,
and becoming difficult to manage from their great
size and height ; for many of his trees are more
than 15 feet high. The leading shoots of the hori-
zontal branches of his trees are often left in the
winter pruning nearly one foot in length ; I ob-
served tins on the trees of Bcurre Did, De Cure,
Beurre Ranee, Sec. &c., so that the tree soon spread
over a considerable surface ; a tree of Louise Bon-
ne, however, was most beautiful and compact ; also
a tree of Beurre d'Amanlis, which was covered
■with fruit and fruit buds. Sans Pepin was bare of
fruit, but a most regular and beautiful tree. It ap-
pears to me that the pinching system, coupled with
root pruning, will be all that can be desired in j)car
culture.

For large gardens, the broad based conical trees,
on the pinching system of M. Cappe, with triennial
or quartennial root pruning, will be found advan-
tageous; for smaller gardens, the more closely
pruned pyramidal or cypre>s-like trees, with bien-
nial or annual root pruning, are sure to be annual

sources of pleasure, as they will bo always within
the reach of the amateur pruner, who can thus give
his trees an occasional pinch without inconveni-
ence.

Cherries. — The culture of the cherry on the
Cerasus Mahaleb has been so successful here the
past season, that I am induced further to recom-
mend it. With nets over my small bushes, I kept
most of the finer varieties till August ; the wasps
then committed such ravages that I was obliged to
gather nearly all; but, for tlic sake of experiment}
I covered some trees of the Murello and Late Duke
Cherries with cheap muslin. This preserved the
fruit in perfection till the end of September. Cher-
ries may now be made part of our desserts from
May, commencing with the Cerise InduUe, till late
in October. There are some new early cherries of
great merit, particularly one called Belle d'Or-
leans, ripeninu early in June, large, sweet and ex-
cellent ; of this I have not yet propagated any
plants, as it bore fruit last summer for the first
time. I may here mention that in rich soiLs Dwarf
Cherries on the Cerasus Mahaleb grow with ex-
treme vigor for three or four years ; in such cases
they should be annually root pruned, they will then
soon become compact, fertile bushes. I will now
notice a few sorts that fruited here the past sum-
mer, and of which I tasted and noted their quali-
ties.

Bigarreau de Hildersheim. I ate the fruit of this
variety, preserved under muslin, September li' ; its
flesh was firm, good and sweet, and would have
(as I have written in my note book) '" remained
good till the end of the month."

Cerise Indulle, or Early May, is a small sub-acid
cherry, agreeable and valuable for its extreme ear-
liness, as it ripens in some seasons towards the end
of May ; it succeeds admirably on the Mahaleb
stock, and is very valuable for forcing in pots^
forming a small, compact bush.

Downer's Late Red. This is an American vari-
ety, sweet and good, and ripens from eight to ten
days after the May Duke.

Louis Philippe. A ciierr)' much like the Kent-
ish, but sweet and verj' refreshing. A great bear-
er, and forms a pretty fertile bush.

The Madison Bigarreau is an American variet)' ;
flesh soft, rich and juicy. It is an excellent bear-
er on the Mahaleb, and in season just before the
Bigarreau.

Reine Hortense, Monstreuse de Bavay, Belle de
Bavay, 16 a la Livre, Belle de Petit Brie — for, like
most valuable varieties of fruits, it has numerous
synoyms — is a first rate variety ; very large, and
apparently a hybrid between the May Duke and
Kentish ; flesh soft, very juicy, sweet and refresh-
ing ; ripening about a fortnight after the I\Iay Duke,
and may be kept on the tree under a muslin
cover till late in August.

Tardive de Mons, or Merveille de Septembre, is
one of the latest cherries known ; fruit rather small,
flesh very firm, rather dry, and very sweet. I ga-
thered the fruit from my specimen tree the 20th of
this jircsent month (October ;) they were perfectly
sound.

Currants. — A few years since, Mr. May, of
Lecming-lane, near Ripon, Yorkshire, advr^rtised

478

FOREIGN NOTICES.

a currant nnder the name of •'•' May's Victoria ;"
■which, I believe, he procured from the gardens at
Raby Castle : this has recently been described as
the ••■Raby Castle Currant.'" In a visit to the
north, a short time since, I was informed that this
currant has been long known in the neisrhborhood
of Hexham and Newcastle as the " Houghton Cas-
tle Currant :" and that it was sent from that dis-
trict some years since to the gardens at Raby Cas-
tle. This is undoubtedly the same as the Goliath ;
it has. therefore, at the present time four names.
It is an excellent late currant.

Prtms. — Among the novelties in this family the
following have fruited here abundantly from pyra-
midal trees in the open quarters :

Bleecker's Scarlet, or L#ombard, an American
variety, one of the hardiest and most prolific sorts I
have yet seen ; fruit large, and of a purplish red : ripe
September 16ih ; not quite first rate, but very good.

De Montfort. This is much like Royale Hative,
but larger : ripe middle of August ; exceedingly
rich and good.

Imperiale de Milan. Fruit large, oval, and of a
deep purple ; ripe October I2th ; juicy, sugary, and
excellent.

Denniston's Superb. An American plum, very
hardy and robust in its habit, and one of the great-
est bearers we have : fruit jrreen, about the size of
the Green Gage, but slightly oval; a good plum,
but not equal to the Green Gage in flavor ; it is,
however, valuable on account of its great produc-
tiveness, aad also because it ripens from a -week to
ten days before the Green Gage.

Isabella. Fruit large, red, handsome, and very
good : ripe the middle of September : flesh parts
freely from the stone.

Jefferson. I ate my fruit of this fine plum, pre-
served on the tree in a muslin bag, O^ tober I2th,
from a dwarf in the open ground : nothing can be
imagined more delicious : the moment it was bit-
ten the juice jwured out : flavor rich and refreshing,
not too lusciious, as is often the case with a Green
Gage ; colour golden yellow, spotted with brown ;
in size nearly equal to Coe"s Golden Drop, from
which I should say it was raised, as the trees close- ,
ly resemble it in their leaves and shoots. |

Mamelonne. This is a plum raised by M. Sa-
geret. a crardener^ near Paris ; it is almost gro-
tesque in its shape ; instead of being depressed at
the stalk, as most round plums are, it has a small
nipple-like protuberance, and some of its fruit are i
irregularly knobbed : it is of the Green Gage family
and much like it in flavor, parting freely from the
stone and ripening ten or twelve days before it ; ,
colour green, densely spotted with red. j

Peach Plum. This is a large red plum, very
handsome, good, and a great bearer ; it ripened
here about the middle of August. .

Purple Favorite. An American plum, ripe Sep- ;
tember ]2th : purple, large, and very handsome,
roundish, in shape like La Royale ; a very excel-
lent and hardy variety. !

Quetsche, St Martin's. One of our best and I
hardiest late plums. I gathered my fruit October j
20th : colour pale yellow, spotted with brown: in
flavor it slightly resembles the Green Gage : very I

; juicv and good ; shape oval ; about equal in size to
the Imperatrice, or perhaps a little larger.

Red Gage. An American plum, rather small,
red, ripe beginning of September, agreeable.

Reine Claude de Bavay. I saw the parent tree,
a standard of this very fine plum, in the garden of
the late Major Esperen at Malines, towards the end
of last August, It is apparently about fifteen years
old ; it was covered with fine fruit ; they were in-
deed more numerous than the leaves. I ate of fruit
produced here on a dwarf standard, preserved un-
der muslin, October 12th, perfectly fresh and un-
shrivelled ; shape roundish oval : colour greenish
yellow, spotted with red ; flesh rather firmer than
that of Jefl^erson, but juicy, sugary, rich, and ex-
cellent : size between the Green Gage and Wash-
ington ; indeed it much resembles the latter in shape;
it has rotmdish shining leaves and smooth shoots,
very much resembling the "Washington, only that
the former are smaller and the latter more slender,
and is doubtless a hybrid between that and the
Green Gage. To this plum hangs a not very agree-
able tale. In 1S43 I received it from France, and
in the autumn of 1S45, having a report from a friend
on the Continent of its great excellence, I adver-
tised plants of it for sale. Not having enough, I
bought 100 from a most honorable nurseryman in
France. "When they arrived I felt some doubts,
owing to their having prominent pointed buds.
Before I sold any, I wrote to him expressing my
doubts. In reply, I received an invoice from a
nurseryman at Ghent, dated 1843, in which some
plants were charged to him at a high price as Reine
Claude de Bavay. As this person at Ghent had
stated that he alone had received this plum from
Major Esperen, my scruples were quieted ; but
when some plants I had left unsold came into leaf,
in the spring of 1S46. I fouad they were Coe's
Golden Drop. In the autumn of 1846. feeling very
anxious that mv friends should have the true sort,
and then beginning to doubt even those I had first
received from France, I wrote to ^Ir. Tan Houtte,
of Ghent, for 100 of the true sort, to replace those
which I had sent out incorrect in 1845. I sent these
to my friends with the fullest conviction they were
correct, as Mr. Van Houtte assured me they were ;
and as Malines is so short a distance from Ghent,
I cnnclnded that they must be. My chagrin may
therefore be imagined when these plants, and grafts
from them, came into leaf, in the spring of 1847, to
find them, to all appearance, nothing but our old
Green Gage, differing in leaves and shoots from
those I received first from France, (the true sort,)
which, as I have before stated, much resembles the
Washington in habit. Mr. Low. of Clapton, also
advertised plants of Reine Claude de Bavay in the
auttmin of 1S45 or spring of 1846. I bought some
plants to ascertain if they were correct, i. e., if
they resembled in habit what I considered to be the
true sort, with broad shining leaves. These proved
to be the Green Gage ; consequently, I am led to
assume that all those sold by Mr. Low were the
same. There are, therefore, in France, Belgium
and England, three* varieties of plums bearing the

* I shonld think very probably there are four or five ; for I
saw a bed of {riants in a nursery in Ghent under the name,
which contained four or five sons.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

479

name of Reine Claude de Bavay, viz.. the Green
Gage, Coe's Golden Drop, and the true sort. The
uncertainty respecting this plum gave me great an-
noyance last summer, and I determined upon a
journev to Malines to see the parent tree when in
fruit. When I arrived at Malines I found Major
Esperen recently deceased, and I much feared that
my attempt to get a view of the tree would be
friiitless. I obtained, however, through the kind-
ness of Mr. Van Houtte, an introduction to Ma-
dame Esperen, who seemed to take pleasure in
pointing out to me the numerous proofs of the hor-
ticultural skill of her departed husband. I may
here mention, merely to show how superiorly the
Belgians and French manage their fruit trees in the
open quarters (I cannot give them equal credit for
wall trees,) that two small gardens here, not more
than one rood each, contained some hundreds of
pyramidal pears, pliuns and apples, nearly all per-
fect specimens, and covered with fruit. To return
to our plum. I found, on inquiry of Mr. Van
Houtte, that he had bought all the plants he had
sold ; in fact, he said, that having no nursery for
hardy trees, it was his custom to buy all plants of
that description. He was exceedingly loth to be-
lieve that he had been cheated ; indeed, I think
that even now he scarcely believes it, for he thinks
that we cannot judge by their leaves or shoots if a
fruit tree is correct to name. I can only say that I
am able to distinguish all the popular sorts of plums,
pears and cherries, by their leaves and shoots ; and
I am not alone in this, for every active foreman of
the fruit tree department in large nurseries can do
the same. To use a mild expression for cheating,
Mr. Van Houtte has been victimised, has uncon-
sciously victimised myself and others ; and I have
served some of my friends in like manner.

I must now beg those friends to whom I sent a
tree last planting season, to replace the suspected
one sent the year before, to oblige me with a line.
I will then send them a plant of my own grafting,
true, and nothing else but true. I have fortu-
nately sold to many friends the sort I first received,
which is true, and kept a list of those to whom I
sent the trees that I bought, so that the error can
and shall be corrected.

The October Green Gage, Reine Claude d'Octo-
bre, is so much like Reine Claude Tardive as not
to be worth keeping distinct ; this is a rather small
round plum, exactly like the Green Gage in colour
and shape ; flesh melting and rich, with the Green
Gage flavor, but not quite so juicy ; colour green,
spotted with red ; flesh parts freely from the stone.
I ate my fruit October 22d, and found them excel-
lent ; it is perfectly hardy, and its fruit may be pre-
served on the tree, if the season is not very wet, till
November.

Rivers' Early No. 1. I mention this plum only
because it has invariably proved excellent, and on
account of my hanng given it a name ; it will, in
future, be called " Rivers' Early Favorite ;" its
shoots are downy, it ripens a trifle earlier than the
following, and in flavor is, I think, a little sape-
rior.

Rivers' Early No. 2. This is the hardiest and
most prolitic of all our early plums ; in fact, it al-
ways bears a crop ; I purpose to call it ''Rivers'

Early Prolific." In Covent Garden market, in July
last, the fruit sold readily at 7s. per sieve, contain-
ing about half a boshel. The shoots of this are
smooth although it was raised, like the preced-
ing, from Precoce de Tours, which has downy
shoots ; it may be called the Market Gardener's
Plum, par excellence, on accoant of its great pro-
ductiveness.

Yellow Magnum Bonum. This is an American
plum of extreme hardiness, very large, oval, good,
but not quite first rate ; its flesh clings to the stone.
My fruit were ripe September 7 ; it seems to bear
much more freely, as a standard or pyramid, than
our old white Magnum Bonum.

Raspberries. — The Perpetual Raspberry in my
soil has not succeeded in bearing an autumnal crop.
In the low, moist situation I saw it occupying in
Sulfolk it succeeded admirably ; but a new variety
I introduced last season from the Continent will en-
tirely supersede all our autumnal bearing raspber-
ries ; this is called the Leirge-Fruited Monthly
Raspberry. I have at this moment, October 25, a
bed of these raspberries covered with fruit nearly as
large as the Red Antwerp, and on the same plants
are green fruit and abundance of blossoms ; these
were planted in March, and each cane cut down
close to the ground ; owing to this I had no summer
crop, but the young canes commenced bearing to-
wards the end of August, and have ever since been
covered with fruit. From every bud a lateral shoot
is produced, which in succession give their fruit,
and the plant soon assumes a conical shape : or per-
haps it will be better described by saying that it is
like a small spruce fir, with regular tiers of fruit-
bearing branches. To obtain a summer as well as
an autumnal crop, the canes, all but one, may be
cut down close to the ground ; this single cane will
produce a crop in July, and those cut down will
produce abundantly in autumn. I regret to say that
my limited stock will not, I fear, allow me to send
out plants this season.

I have an idea that potted plants, well attended
to, by giving them liqmd manure, might, by having
them placed under glass with a gentle heat, b«
made to give their fruit till late in December.

Van Hoctte's New Phloxes. — Among the ma-
ny gay flowers which, at present, add so much to
the ornament of our gardens, the Phloxes are espe-
cially worthy of note, for their pretty clusters or
panicles of the most brilliantly shaded blossoms.
These charming plants begin to blooui at a time
when flowers are yet rare in the garden ; thus, in
the spring we have the dwarf kinds, such as P.
verna, procumbent, subulata, setacea, amoena, which
make beautiful borders ; while in July and Septem-
ber there are the taller varieties, which display, in
the midst of the flower beds, the brilliant corol-
las.

M. Van HorTTE, of Ghent, to whom we owe
the beautiful variety which bears his name, (Phlox
Van Houtii,) has succeeded in raising four other
fine kmds. They are — 1st, Phlox "Standard of
Perfection," with bi-coloured flowers, of white and
cobalt blue, and arranged in magnificent pyramids ;
2d, p. Goethe, of a pure white, dashed with ash-
coloured lilac; 3d, P. Reine LouUe, pure white.

480

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

regularly and neatly striped with delicate asbes-of-
rose colour ; 4th, — this, in allusion, no doubt, to the
subtle and delicate esprit of our "reat diploinatist,
M. Van Houtte has named P. Talleyrand, a va-
riety to which it is impossible to assign any fixed
character ; the flowers are shaded in white and
rose ; sometimes striped, dashed, &c., on the same
stem. These four new varieties will, ere long, en-
rich our already fine collections, for which we are,
in a great measure, indebted to the skilful Belgian
horticulturist. — Revue Horticole.

Marguerite d'Anjou Rose. — In giving, last
year, in the October number of this journal, a de-
scription of the Glorie d'Angers rose, obtained by
M. BoYAU, horticulturist, I said that we should
have, this year, another variety not less remarka-
ble. And this opinion has been confirmed by all
horticultural amateurs who have seen the Margue-
rite d'Anjou rose ; sister to the Glorie d' Angers,
and ofi'spring of Edward Jesse. Of three kinds

raised from seed, two proved to be roses of the first
merit.

This new rose is a hybrid perpetual (remontante.)
but seems, nevertheless, to bear some analogy to the
lie de Bourbon roses. It is very fragrant, of a good
habit, very double, and the petals finely imbricated,
(overlaid.) It is nearly two inches in diameter.
The colouring is brilliant, — a fine satinj'-rose colour ;
the outer leaves are of a fine shade of gray (gris
de lin) on the surface, and become white on the
lower part of the petal. The divisions of the calyx
are lightly furnished with thorns, and are some-
times leafy. The ovary is conical at the base, and
slightly swelled. The branches are quite vigorous,
and almost without thorns ; the leaves abundant,
and of a bright green. Tire whole forms a fine
well shaped bush. It blooms abundantly, is per-
petual, and the flowers are disposed in threes and
fives on the same stem or bunch.

It will be offered for sale on the first of Novem-
ber next. Baptiste Desportes. Angers, in Revue
Horticole.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

RiTLES OF American Pomology — as adopted by
the Horticultural Societies of Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Alba-
ny AND Rensselaer, New-Haven, and by the
Ohio State Fruit Committee, and the New-
Haven PoMOi.oGiCAL Society.
[ We re-publish the following corrected copy of
these rules, which were intended to follow our re-
marks in the March No., p. 436, but were crowded
out. Ed.]

1. No new Seedling Fruit shall be entitled to a
name, or to pomological recommendation, which is
not at least equal to any similar varieties of the first
rank already known ; or which, if only of second
rate flavor, is so decidedly superior in vigor, hardi-
ness, or productiveness, to varieties of the same
character already known, as to render it well w^or-
thy of cultivation.

2. The originator, first grower, or he who first
makes known a new Native variety of merit, shall
be entitled to suggest a name for such variety ;
which name, if a suitable one, (i. e., coming within
the rules of nomenclature,) shall be adopted by the
writer describing the fruit for the first time. But
if the name proposed is inappropriate, or does not
come within the rules, then the describer shall be
at liberty to give a name.

3. No new Native Fruit shall be considered as
named until the same has been accurately described,
in pomological terms, by some competent person
conversant with existing varieties ; some Pomolo-
gist of reputation, or the Standing Fruit Commit-
tee of some established Horticultural Societ}'.

4. The description shall embrace the following
particulars : — The size, form, and exterior colour :
the texture and colour of the flesh ; the flavor and
time of ripening of the fruit, with the addition, in
Stone Fruits, of the size of the stone, adherence or

non-adherence of the flesh, form of the suture, and
the hollow at the stem ; and in Kernel Fruits, of
the size of the core and seeds, the length, position,
and insertion of the stalk, and form of the eye. In
Peaches, the form of the leaf glands, and size of
blossoms. In Grapes, the form of the bunches ;
and in Strawberries, the character of the blossoms,
whether staminate or pistillate : and also where
there is any marked character in the foliage,
growth of the young wood, or bearing tree, the
same shall be given.

5. The name of the new variety shall not be con-
sidered as established until the description shall
have been published in at least one horticultural
or one agricultural journal, or some pomological
work of large circulation and acknowledged stand-
ard character.

6. In giving names to newly originated varieties,
all harsh, vulgar, or inelegant names shall be avoid-
ed, such as " Sheepnose," " Hogpen," &c.

7. No new names shall be given, which consist
of more than two words, excepting only when the
originator's name is added. [Thus all unnecessa-
rily long titles, such as " New Large Black Bigar-
reau," " Beurre gris d'hiver nouveau," will be
avoided.]

8. Characteristic names, or those in some way
descripiive of the qualities, origin, or habit of fruit
or tree, shall be preferred. They may be either
of intrinsic properties, as " Golden Sweeting,"
"Downer's Late," &c.; or of local origin, as
'• Newtown Pippin." '' Hudson Gage j" of the sea-
son of ripening, as " Early Scarlet," "Frost Gage ;"
of the form and colour, as " Golden Drop," " Blue
Pearmain ;" or which commemorate a particular
era, place, or person, as " Tippecanoe," " La
Grange," "Baldwin," or any other titles which
may be significantly applied.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

481

9. Before giving a name to a new fruit, its qua-
lities should be decided by at least two season's ex-
perience ; and no new fruit can be safely recom-
mended for general cultivation, until the same has
been tested and found valuable in more than one
locality.

JO. When two persons have named or described
a new native fruit, then the name and description
tirst published, if according to the rules herein in-
dicated, shall have the priority.

11. No person introducing new fruits from abroad,
shall be allowed to rechristen the same, or give them
his own name ; but shall submit the same to some
competent pomologist to ascertain the true name

12. In deciding the names of fruits already de-
scribed, the " Catalogue of the London Horticultu-
ral Society,'"' shall be considered the standard Eu-
ropean authority; and Downing's " Fruits and Fruit
Trees of America," the standard American autho-
rit}'. . • • •

Purchase of Mt. Vernon. — We have received
from our correspondent, Wm. D. Brackenbridge,
Esq., of Washington, a circular entitled — "Docu-
ments relating to the proposed purchase of Mount
Vernon by the citizens of the United States, in order
that they may at all times have a legal and indis-
putable right to visit the grounds, mansion and tomb
of Washington."

Mount V^ernon is a spot endeared by associations,
the most sacred and the most profound to the heart
of every American. Up to this time, it has remain-
ed in the possession of the Washington family, and
is now the property of JNIrs. Jane C. Washing-
ton. It remains very much in the same condition,
as respects buildings, trees, and grounds, as when
left by its tirst distinguished possessor ; but the
grounds and the buildings have long shown eviden-
ces of decay and dilapidation, greatly to be deplor-
ed. It is, therefore, most strongly to be desired,
that this estate should become public property ;
that it should be restored to, and kept in the best
condition ; that, in short, it should forever remain
a monument — at once the most touching, and the
most beautiful cf all monuments, to the memory of
the great and good man, whose private feelings and
domestic sympathies — wherever his public duties
called him — were always centered in this, his be-
loved Mount Vernon.

From this circular, we gather that a correspond-
ence has been carried on netween the present pos-
sessor of Mount Vernon and the Hon. Mr. Dallas,
and a number of distinguished senators ; the result
of whicli, is that the estate is offered to the public
for $100,000 in U. S. six per cent, stock. In order
to carry out the plan based upon this, the following
Memorial is being circulated, to petition Congress
to appropriate the necessary sum :

•' Memorial of American Citi-

zens, praying that Mount Vernon may become
the property of the United States, in order that the
Mansio.v and favorite Grounds of Washington,
with the TO-MB containing his sacred Remains,
may be kept in a suitable and proper state of pre-
servation, and no longer left subject to the uncer-
tainties and imnsiexs, o{ private estatt s ; and that
they and their posterity may have a legal and in-
disputed right to visit, without restraint, that place,

Nou 11. 61

hallowed, as it is, by every patriotic association and
emotion that enchain the hearts of Americans.

'To the honorable the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives of the United States of .America in Con-
gress -Assembled.

'■ Your memorialists, citizens of the United States,
living in the full enjoyment of the priceless liberties,
mainly achieved by the indefatigable and unrequited
services of Washington, respectfully represent ; that
it is their fervent wish and sincere desire to see,
without further delay, the requisite appropriation
made, and the necessary measures taken, by your
honorable bodies, to purchase 'one hundred and
fifty acres of Mount Vernon, lying between paral-
lel lines, and extending from the Potomac river to
the Alexandria road, so as to include the buildings,
grounds and tomb of Washington, agreeably to the
terras specified in a letter from John A. Washing-
ton, Esq., to Hon. G. M. Dallas, vice president
of the United States, Hon. Jno. W. Davis, late
speaker of the United States House of Representa-
tives, Hon. Reverdy Johnson, Hon. J. T. More-
head, United States senators, and others, dated at
Mount Vernon, December 22, 1846, and naming
the sura of one hundred thousand dollars in U. st
six per cent, stock, as the satisfaction for which
said invaluable premises will be transferred to the
General Government by the present proprietress,
Mrs. Jane C. Washington.

"Your memorialists further represent, that in
common with their fellow citizens, they entertain
the most profound reverence and veneration for eve-
rything connected with the memory of the ' Sa-
viour of America ;' and that by consummating the
aforesaid purchase, the slanderous charge, accusing
republics of being invariably ungrateful, will be re^
futed, and a small instalment made towards liqui-
dating a portion of the debt of gratitude due to
his memory irom the favored citizens of this coun-
try.

"They therefore request that action may be
promptly taken to carry out and consummate the
object set forth in this memorial, that they and their
descendants may enjoy the right and privilege of
visiting, unrestrictedly, the venerated Grounds,
Mansion, and Sepulchre of Washington, which,
at present, are liable to the various casualties, un-
certainties and transfers attendant upon all private
property in the absence of laws of entailment and
primogeniture.

" All which is respectfully submitted."

We hope this movement will be entered into by
all good patriots throughout the country. There
is no spot in the world which will hold so high a
place in the affections of after ages as Mount Ver-
non ; consecrated by the moral labors, the serene
enjoyments, the life, the death, and the grave of
Washington.

Our correspondent informs us, that if the plan is
carried out, it is proposed to make in the park at
Mount Vernon a complete collection of American
trees. This would increase the interest of the
grounds. The great point, it appears to us, how-
ever, would be to restore, maintain, and carry out,
as far as possible, the condition of the estate as
planned end desired by its great owner.

482

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Magnesian Lime Injurious, etc. — I have been
a deeply interested reader of thy journal, and have
studied, with partieular interest, those articles on
manures in the late numbers, particularly the lead-
er in the January nnmljer, and the one on " Special
Manures for Fruit Trees," in the last. But where
is the point of safety, to a learner, when the mas-
ters in fruit culture disac^ree ? A few days since I
had the pleasure of a talk with the intelligent pre-
sident of our horticultural society, Jonathan Bald-
win ; in tiie course of which, he remarked, " what-
ever you do, don't lime your apple orchard ; for it
is certain death to your prospect of fruit ;" and, to
fortify his declaration, lie referred to several or-
chards which had been ruined byihe use of lime.

I believe he spoke without making any exceptions
to the bad effects of lime ; still, he may have over-
looked one fact, which possibly will reconcile all
apparent differences, for explanations of which, has
been the chief motive of my writing. His farm is
a fine productive one in the " Great Valley ;" soil,
a rich, deep, mellow loam, ovei'laying immense beds
of limestone, of tjuality , if I mistake not, very highly
impregnated with magnesia. In regard to magne-
sia, it abounds in the lime of some portions of this
valley, while in other portions very little can be
detected. These considerations suggest two in-
quiries, viz. :

1st. How are the mass of us, unscientific farm-
ers, to decide where it will do to apply lime to or-
chards, when we are told that its application does
so much for the apple on the " Pelham farm" and
other localities, — while it works destruction in other
situations ?

2d. Why is magnesian lime, or lime highly
charged with it, less adapted to the wants of the
apple, than lime less marked with its presence?

I am much obliged for thy answers to some of
my queries in the last number, and thought them
very satisfactory ; since which, however, I have had
opposite counsel on one point. I have just received
a letter from a distinguished cultivator of New-
York state, of whom I had also made the inquiry;
and his counsel is, not to remove the stock until the
bud has taken, in "spring budding." [By cutting
off the stock, we did not mean to cut it close down
to the inserted bud. Cut it one or two buds above :
leaving those buds to help draw up the sap till
the new bud has taken. Ed.]

One or two matters further. I have been not a lit-
tle surprised, that in thy " Fruits and Fruit Trees"
no notice has been taken of several varieties of the
apple, widely disseminated in this state ; or that
some of our pomologists have not brought them to
the notice of the readers of the Horticulturist.

There are the Knowle, Early Redstreak, and
Caleb apples, highly valued here, either because
they are good eariy varieties, or there is nothing
better to contrast them with.

The Gibbons S mathehouse , an autumn apple, as
popular in the eastern counties of this state as the
Porter seems to be in New-England. Then, there
is Smith's Cider, a popular market, winter fruit ;
the Tulpehacken, or Pound apple, large and fine,
much resembling the Fallawater both in tree and
fruit ; the Indian apple and Betsey's Fancy, (or
White Vandevere,) both highly productive and

great keeping varieties. These last, although de-
cidedly fine, are as yet but little disseminated.

J. Baldwin informed me, that so fine were some
specimen Smathehouse considered, which he exhi-
bited last autumn at the horticultural meeting in
Philadelphia, that they were boxed up and sent to
some of the friends in Boston for their opinion and
judgment. [Shall be glad to receive specimens of
these fruits. Ed.]

I am delighted with thy leading article in the
last number on " School-Houses." It has more
than a surface significancy ; which an inattentive
or careless reading might not detect. It is pro-
foundly philosophical, and instils a loftiness of senti-
ment which, if lived out practically, would make our
country, in truth, a land of liberty. Thine respect-
fully. J. F. Chester co., Pa., March \2th, 1848.

Remarks — Mr. Baldwin's opinion, so adverse
to the almost universal testimony of those who
have used lime for apple orchards, is easily ex-
plained, if he or his neighbors have been in the
habit of employing viagnesian-Wme upon their land.

This, as we have ourselves found by experiment,
is decidedly injurious to many kinds of vegetation.
The reason is supposed to he this : When a lime-
stone, containing much magnesia, is burned, the
lime, very speedily after exposure, loses its caustic
property, and becomes a carbonate, in which state
it is a beneficial manure. But magnesia does not
readily become a carbonate, and retains its caustic
quality for a Ions time, (absorbing carbonic acid
very slowly ;) and is thus injurious to vegetation,
when it is mixed and applied with lime, which it-
self is completely air-slaked (i. e., carbonate of
lime,) and beneficial.

It wnll be remembered, that in our last we re-
commended oyster-shell lime, as always pure, and
cautioned our readers against magriesia. Most of
our limestones contain very little magnesia, and are
excellent manures, — but there are exceptions ; as
some of the Trenton limestone, in this state, has
been analyzed, and found to contain 24 per cent, of
magnesia. This would be highly injurious to or-
chards.

As most of our states have been geologically sur-
veyed, the analyses of the different limestones will
be found in their geological reports ; and if a farmer
is about to use a lime, which has not been tried and
found serviceable as manure, it would be well for
him to ascertain by reference to such reports if the
lime is free from magnesia ; (that is, does not con-
tain more than 6 or 8 per cent.) As a common
test, we may mention that magnesian limestones
feel soft to the touch, will not scratch glass readily,
dissolve slowly in acids, and leave a creamy solu-
tion.

As confirmatory of Mr. Pell's practice in liming
highly, to grow so successfully that rather difficult
apple — the Newtown Pippin, we may quote the fol-
lowing note, sent us by Prof. Kirkland of Cleve-
land, one of the first pomologists in the west :

" Newtown Pifpin. — Trees thrive well only on
very rich soil, containing lime. On soils destitute
of lime, a bushel or two should be spread over the
ground under the tree ; and some animal manure
should be added. It will well repay the expense
and trouble.''

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

483

Newark Cider Orchards. — We leain from a
fruit grower, who Las just been in tlie neijxhbor-
hood of Newark, N.J. , once so celebrated for its
large production of the tinest cider, that many of
the orchards of their favorite apple, the Harrison,
have almost entirely failed to yield good fruit with-
in the last few years. The trees are yet apparent-
ly healthy, but they bear but small crops ; and the
apples are small, knotty and imperfect. He also
observed, that it was the opinion of many orchard-
ists there that this variety was on the decline.

We believe the cause of the late unproductive-
ness of these Harrison orchards is very easily ex-
plained. The trees, mostly planted in a light soil
that has long been cultivated, have exhausted so
much of the lime and potash from the soil where
they are growing, that there is no longei enough
of these substances in the soil to supply the neces-
sary materials for the production of large crops of
fairfiuit as heretofore. If the orchardists there
will give their orchards a heavy top-dressing of
pure lime and ashes, we think they will find them
speedily returning to a sound and productive state.
Those who doubt may first try the experiment on a
small scale immediately, by applying a bushel of
pure lime and a bushel of leached ashes to every
full grown bearing tree, — spreading over an area
of surface as large as the branches cover, and dig-
ging it under the surface two or three inches.
These extensive orchards have hitherto been a
source of large income to the proprietors ; and it
is, doubtless, only their soil, and not the sort of ap-
ples cultivated, which has "run out."

Transactions of the Ohio Fruit Conten-
tion.— This is an interestins; pamphlet of 46 pages,
giving a detailed account of the nurserymen and
fruit growers' convention, held at Columbus in
September last.

This convention assembled chiefly for the sake of
comparing fruits from different portions of the state,
ascertaining the correct names of many miscalled
varieties, making known Viiluable new fruits, and
adding, as far as possible, to the stock of know-
ledge on this subject. Mr. C Springer, of Musk-
ingum, was called to preside, and Messrs. I-.lliott
of Cleveland, and Bateham of Columbus, appoint-
ed secretaries. The sitting commenced by their
passing the following resolution :

Resolved, Tliat in classifying the various fruits
brought to this convention, we adopt the book.
known as the " Fruits and Fruit Trees of America.
by A. J. Downing ;" and that we recommend to
cultivators the adoption of this authority as the
best hitherto pubiishcd.

The report, drawn up, we believe, by Mr. El-
liott, is full of mteresling pomological facts, —
especially, however, of local value ; and is illus-
trated by several outlines of the new fruits present-
ed. Apples formed the larger part of the exhibi-
tion; and their merits are chiefly discussed in this
report. We select a few details, which will inte-
rest our readers generally.

" Summer Rose Apple. Mr. Elliot regarded it as
the apple, if only one summer apple was to be had,
and that no private garden should be without it.
It is a long time in eating."

" Belmont, Waxen or Late."' Considerable tes-
timony is given to prove that Dr. Kirtland was in
errur in considering this fruit as the Waxen apple
of Coxe. (See our work — Waxen Apple.) On the
other hand, in a copy of our Fruits, sent us lately
by Professor K., we find the following note on this
fruit : — " After all that has been jjublishcd by Mr.
Springer, we believe our statement, as to the ori-
gin of this fruit, to have been correct. It was
Nes>by's statement, made lo Judge Ci nrad about
the year 1806. That it is the Waxen apple, was a
suggestion of Coxe's father to me in 1824, while I
was in Burlington, N. J." After this decided dif-
ference of O(uiiion, tlie two fruits must be compared ;
and there will, perhaps, be an opportunity of bring-
ing them together the coming season. We may
add, regarding its merits, t!ie following from this
report: — "the unanimous expression of all the
convention was such as to class this a variety to be
desired in every collection ; being, in all sections,
first rate."

" Newtown Pippin. Messrs. Latham, Wood, and
others remarked, that 'this variety was fine on a
limestone clav soil ; but on sandy soil, poor.' Mr.
Elliott remarked, that it was always inferior on
sandy soil, and good in a rich deep clay soil. To
have perfect success with it, lime, in a soluble state,
is wanted, so that the roots can take if up."

'• Putnam Russet. A large number of specimens
of .this fruit, and aiso of the Roxhury Russet, were
exhibited and compared, and various letters read
regarding the origin of the variety, &c.; and ' there
was not a dissenting voice,' that this fruit and the
Koxbury llusset are identical ;" (as w^e stated our
opinion to be, on first comparing the two a year
ago.)

Priestly vs. Bartlett Apple. Mr. Elliott is
under some error regarding this latter name, in
quoting us as authority ; as we are not acquainted
with any apple bearing the latter title. Perhaps it
is a typogra|)hical error.

Baldwin. It is quite remarkable that this ap-
ple, so hardy, productive and popular here and in
New-England should, upon the Reserve lands of
Ohio, fail from the " bitter rot."

Rawles' Jannet. '' Is highly productive, and is
becoming very popular along the valley of the
Ohio." Mr. Allen, of Ky., thinks it " unsuited to
the north, as it requires the longest season of a
southern climate to mature fully."

Nonsuch, (Old Nonsuch, of Mass., Red Cana-
da, of western N. Y.) " It is much grown in coun-
ties near Cleveland ; is one of the most valuable of
apples, — large, fair, handsome, juicy, riih, tender,
great kecjier, good bearer ; decidedly among the
very best of apples."

Among the new apples described, and highly re-
coromendcd, are the following: Early Pennock,
Willow, Springer's Seedling, Well's Apple, Red
Ashmore. Western Spy, Phillip's Sweeting, and
Pryor's Late Red.

The convention closed by forming a State Fruit
Committee, to meet annually, and by adopting the
Rules of American Pomology, as passed by the
Massachusetts and other horticultural societies.

Altogether, this first convention has evidently
been productive of much good in Ohio ; and there are

484

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

many interesting pomological facts in this report i
which we have not space to notice, bat recommend
the pamphlet (which may be had at the ofiice of
the Ohio Cultivator,) to the notice of pomologists,.
and especially to western fruit growers.

Horticultural Dinner at Buffalo. — The
president of the Buffalo Horticultural Society, Wm.
K. CoPPocK, Esq., entertained a large party of hor-
ticulturists, from various portions of the state, at
his residence in Buti'alo on the 1st of March. After
dinner, the guests resolved themselves into a kind
of ho?ne pomological convention, and sat in judg-
ment upon the various productions of the garden,
which were brought from various localities for that
purpose. About seventy varieties of apples — many
of them of the best standard varieties — were exlii-
bited, tasted, and their popularity tested by a vote.
Messrs. Elwanger & Barry, of Rochester, pre-
sented 27 varieties. Mr. Watts, of Rochester, 15
varieties, and several others a smaller number of
sorts. " The Esopus Spitzenburgh" was — as we
learn by the Western Literary Messenger, by a
preliminary vote, unanimously decided, taking into
consideration all its qualities, the ne plus ultra oi
apples ; and as the specimens approximated in ex-
cellence to that variety, they stood, in the judg-
ment of the company. Among those rated " No.
l,"we find Baldwin, Newtown Pippin, Swaar, Van-
devere, Northern Spy, Golden Russet, Roxbury
Russet, Herefordshire Pearmain, Pomme Gris, Yel-
low Belleflower, Westlield Seek-no-further, Pow-
nal Spitzenburgh, and Rhode-Island Greening, (the
latter it was remarked, "does not always hold, in
western New- York, the colour and high flavor of
the land of its origin." Still, it is a very popular
apple, and passed as No. 1 by a bare majority.)
A very fine new apple, classed No. 1, was pre-
sented by Mr. Eaton, and called the Eaton apple.

Specimens of the Buffalo seedling Pinkeye pota-
toes, from the originator. Rev. N. S. Smith, of
Buffalo, " were served up at dinner, and found to
be unsurpassed in quality."

L. F. Allen, Esq., president of the State Agri-
cultural Society, presented some excellent "Stil-
ton" cheese, made by Mr. H. Parsons, of Canada
West.

Altogether, Professor Coppock's horticultural
dinner was, we learn, a most agreeable one ; and
serves, amon^ other indicaticns, to show how the
gardening imefe^t is making progress in western
New- York/

HoRTictrLTURE IN ALABAMA. — Nothing gives
one a more definite idea of the extent and variety
of soil and climate of our Union than a comparison,
at this season of the year, ot accounts of the season
in difTerent parts of the country. For example, we
have to-day received letters from Maine and New-
Hampshire speaking of snow, and two feet of frost
in the ground there, -while the following extract
from the letter of a zealous amateur in Mobile,
dated March lOth, speaks of a crop of young peas,
and shoots 8 or 10 inches long already.

" I think the climate and soil here will do very
■well for pears, on either pear or quince stocks. I
have about 500 young trees planted, embracing

nearly all the finest varieties ; over 200 of them are
on quince stocks ; these latter show, at this time,
a fine new growth of from 8 to 10 inches, and some
of the trees have young pears upon them, now go-
ing on finely. I suppose this sounds strangely to
northern ears, where I presume all fruit trees still
have the look of drear winter.

'' I have in my young orchards about S60 plum
trees, 160 cherry. 100 apricots, and about 1400
peach and nectarine trees, besides some of all the
other fruit trees ; and I am resolved to give them
a fair trial. I have also about 250 apple trees,
among which are 12 of " Early Joe's ;" these lat-
ter I had from Elwanger &, Barry of Rochester,
N. Y., with 100 pears on quince stocks ; and every
tree is living and doing well.

" I have some doubts regarding the success of
plums, cherries, and apricots here. The northern
peach trees do very well here ; and, although they
are transferred to this warm climate, some of their
northern habits stick very closely to them. They
bloom at least from two to three weeks later every
spring than our native peach trees, which almost
entirely preserves them from the spring frosts *
Your friend, R. H. Mobile, Ala., March 10, 1848.

Horticulture in Missouri. — The St. Louis
Horticultural Society, judging from reports of its
meetings which reach us, is already exerting an
admirable influence in that state. The report of
the premiums for 1848, made at the meeting of
Jan. 8th, and of the proceedings at that time, is
iiighly creditable to the society. The culture of
vineyards, and the production of excellent light
wines, appears fast becoming a matter of impor-
tance there as well as at Cincinnati. Three speci-
mens of " Catawba wine" were exhibited at the
meeting. Specim' ns of wine were presented by
Mr. Mallinkrodt, made from both Ohio and the
Catawba grapes : " the wine of the Ohio grape
resembled Claret, — that from the Catawba, the
best Hock." We observe that the society offers,
this year, a premium of $30 for the best gallon of
native wine, and $20 for the second best ; evidence
to be given that not less than a barrel of the same
quality has been produced.

A very spirited address was made by President
Thomas Allen, Esq., from which we quote the
following interesting extract ; premising the growth
of the finest vegetables at St. Louis, especially
melons, etc., almost without cultivation, surpasses
what is produced in England with the greatest
skill of the gardener, and with a lavish outlay of
money :

" I'here are very few vegetables or melons, de-
sirable for the table, which do not succeed well
here, in the natural unexhausted soil, with even
the most ordinary cultivation. The soil, however,
would be a rare exception to the general character
of the surface of the globe, did it not require, at
length, a return of some of the elements we take
from it. Vegetable physiology and chemistry, with
the light of the M'onderful discoveries made, of late,

* An interesting fact, which we beg our correspondent in
Ohio, who doubls the influence of one climate on varieties
having their origin in anothei, to make a note of. Ed.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

4 So

in those branches of science, will enable us to de-
termine what those elements are. and how to ap-
ply them ; so that, when the necessity arises, we
mav, perhaps, be able to feed and fatten, as it
■were, our vefretables as we do our cattle. But, at
the present, our vefietable family does not seem to
require the especial attention of associated eflbrt ;
and some of our members would, probably, be in-
clined to deride an otfer of a general premium list
for vegetables, as being nearly as supererogatory as
offering a reward for spontaneous productions.
Among such productions, there would seem to be
no demand for a horticultural society ; as such in-
stitutions thrive most vigorously where nature is
the most reluctant. Amid the polders of Flanders,
the highlands of Scotland, or the bleak coasts of
Massachusetts, we have conspicuous examples.

" There are subjects enough, however, even in
this prolific country, to occupy our attention, de-
manding investigation and experiment, and worthy
of discussion. Highly favored as we are, yet we
are not sufficiently so to be afforded any excuse for
indolence. Horticulture, in its highest sense, de-
mands more knowledge than simple agriculture.
We have to deal with a greater variety of objects
and elements, and in a more minute degree ; and
it would be reprehensible in us to remain behihid
the great improvements, and ignorant of the won-
derful discoveries, which are exciting the attention
of the world. There are good reasons, therefore,
for both mental and physical industry. Fruits will
not urow spontaneously, or without care. And if
there are those who are of a contrary opinion, and.
carelessly thrusting their trees in the ground, think
thev have nothing more to do but to pluck their
fruit, as it ripens, they will return from their con-
templated harvest some day, convinced of their
mistake. They will find their apple trees and
quinces cankered and bored — their pear trees blight-
ed— their heart cherries all dead — their peaeh trees
eaten by worms — their plums, apricots and necta-
rines all fallen before they were ripe — their goose-
berries mildewed — their grapes rotted on the vine.
Then they will wonder what can be the causes, and
■what the preventives, of all these disastrous results ;
and will, perhaps, inquire, whether they know any-
thing about them up at the horticultural society ?
And such inquiries it is proper for us to be prepared
to answer. We should prosecute our experiments
and investigations, and continue our discussions,
until we are thus prepared. Let the experiments
g& on in the field, and discussion at our monthly
meetings. Let us aim at the highest degree of
perfection. Discarding and uprooting all the mean-
er sorts, let us have none but the best. Let us cull
the old orchards, plant new ones, plant vineyards,
make wine, and adorn our gardens and lawns with
the noblest products of the forest, and with the
choicest shrubbery and flowers ; so that it may be
said of us, as of Pomona,

' None tauplit the trees a nobler race to bear.
Or more improved the vegetable care'

'* We have not to look to the old world, nor to
the older states, exclusively. Some of the products
of our own woods and prairies are among their fa-
vorite objects of domeslic culture. The best wine

grapes, for American cultivation, it seems likely to
be acknowledged, are derived from the native wilds
of our country. Some favorite plums, always re-
sisting the curculio, and always full bearers, are
also indigenous here. We live upon the borders of
vast botanical fields, yet almost unexplored. It
may be ours, therefore, to discover and introduce
new and valuable sort:-. New and superior varie-
ties will continue to come into existence bj' hybri-
dizing and planting. And we shall ultimately set-
tle upon ample varieties that are best suited to our
soil and climate. A list of these varieties ought to
be commenced by our fruit committee, and enlarued
as experience may justify. And individuals should
be invited to bring to our notice any new fruit of
respectable '(uality, found springing from seed ca-
sually dropped, or discovered in the forests.

"Thus carrying forward our action into all the
various ramifications of horticultural art> we shall
be most acceptably and usefully fulfilling the object
of our institution. We shall see, gradually, a new
and more rerined taste excited, which shall have an
ameliorating and domesticating effect upon the
hearts of those who imbibe it ; exhibiting itself in
attachment to contented homes und moral habits ;
in discrimination between beautiful plants and ordi-
nary weeds ; between choice fruit and the meaner
sorts ; betv\ een ugly shade trees, and those of beau-
tiful forms and cleanly habits ; between dwellings
of mere bricks and mortar, bleak and desolate, and
those which show at once, by their sites and their
embellishments, that they are the abodes of the re-
fined and the happy. We shall thus contribute to
the ultimate beauty, health and happiness of our
city, by encouraging the reservation of public
squares, and the planting of suitable trees for shade
and ornament ; by improving the markets ; by in-
ducing a taste for rural architecture and decoration
in the suburbs ; and even the public cemeteries, in-
stead of being merely the cold, repulsive and desert-
ed abodes of the den d. shall invite us to their > paths
of pleasantness and peace,' where sweet memories
of the departed shall l)e mingled with the songs of
birds and the perfumes of flowers.

" In these agreeable pursuits, lending our small
contributions to promote the general happiness, we
are also working out for ourselves the reward of con-
tented homes, serene tempers, healthy bodies, long
lives, and public respect. We are moored in that
haven to which all men, at one time or other of
their lives, seem instinctively to long for, and to
which warriors and politicians, satiated with ho-
nors, and professional men and merchants, cloyed
with wealth, or tired and sick of more bu.sy scenes,
would all fain retire. Let us, therefore, not only
be contented, but glory in that mode of life, which
has been 'the inclination of kings and the choice of
philosophers,' and rejoice, that ours is that

' place,
Chosen by the .Sov'reipn Planter, when he fram'd
All things for Man's deligliuul use.' "

The Pear Blight at Albany. — In your com-
ments on my letter, in the last Horticulturist, treat-
ing of the pear tree blight, you refer me to Dr. Har-
ris' article on insect-blight, to enable me more ac-
curately to judge how far insects must be held ac-

486

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

countable for the blioht in iiij' trees. I think I am
pretty well acquainted with the habits and customs
of the Scolytus pyri, and I know pretty well, too,
how much of the disease to give them credit for ;
and I am certainly not a little surprised that you
should have given me that reference, with my four
cases before you. To combat Mr. Ernst's position,
that " the idea is mostly abandoned that any form
of blight is caused by insects," I did not choose to
refer him to the ravages of the Scolytus p)'ri) for
you had done that in the December number ; but I
undertook to inform him, and others, that there was
another insect at work , destroying our trees, and I
referred to the lour cases to prove it. That I dis-
covered the insects on the Jiartlett limb only, is
true ! but from evidence satisfactory to my mind, —
as the peculiar appearance which the disease indu-
ces being apparent on the small end of the hmb
on which the vermin were — the presence of the nau-
seous odor which the blight affected limbs always
have — when the end of the stem was cut off, and the
same odor being very strong when the vermin were
crushed between the fingers — I am convinced that
that species of vermin stung, and injected a poison
into the tender young wood of all the cases noted.
Those cases, in my opinion, could no more have
been caused by Scolytus pyri, (which lays its eggs
one year, and the effects of which — after its trans-
formation into grubs and beetles — is not seen until
the next,) than by either frozen or scalded sap ; for
you must remember, that it was on the extreme end
of the new shoots that the disease was tirst seen.
It may be asked — if the species of insect, noticed on
the Bartlett branch, poisoned the three first trees
noted, why were the vermin not seen on those trees ?
To this I would reply, — the small size and the shy
habit of the animal is probably one reason ; and ano-
ther,— being unsuspicious of such cause, the trees
were not examined very early, in the cool of the
morning, when they migl'.t have been found chilled,
as they were on the Bartlett tree.

To my mind. you do not satisfactorily answer the
question, of — "why is it that trees of a bearing age,
as a general rule, are the only ones affected by the
disease, which tirst shows itself on the body of a
large branch, or the trunk of a tree ?" You say,
that " a mild winter, with sudden changes, is more
fatal to a tender-barked tree than one of uniform low
temperature." That, I will not dispute ; but to my
mind, it does not account for the peculiar effect of
this disease on the older, in preference to the young-
er trees ; for adjoining, and indiscriminately mixed
among the large diseased trees, were small ones —
ten to one — not at all affected by any other disease
than that caused by the insect alluded to above.
The fact, too, that you have seen hundreds of young
two year old trees killed down to the ground by
what you denominate frozen sap-blight, does not, to
me, any more satisfactorily account for it. I am
quite well aware, as I informed you in my last, —
for I have had numerous cases, — that the young
trees are frequently, as it were, burned black by the
effect of a hot sun on the frozen bark, — but this is
not the blight alluded to ; this effect is noticed at
the time ; that peculiar disease never, until the tree
is in leaf, as far as my observation goes. Again,
the bark of the young tree, when injured, never puts

on the peculiar appearance that the diseased bark
of the older tree does ; the bark of the young tree
appears black and shrunken immediately ; but that
of the older one goes through regular stages of dis-
ease.

You say that your observation leads you to coin-
cide with Mr. Ernst in excepting the Seckel, usu-
ally, from its attacks. I certainly hope that the
public generally may be able, from experience, to
arrive at the same conclusion ! You account for the
appearance of the disease in my Seckels, by saying
that — " When a disease occurs in a neighborhood,
in a more than usually malignant form, individuals
usually exempt often fail victims to it." Unless
you wish us to consider that you intend to be under-
stood as referring this disease to a malignant cause,
that axiom will not apply ; for if the cause, without
being malignant, was so severe as to injure and kill
trees not usually liable to its attacks, would it not,
in all probability, have attacked all that were usu-
ally liable to it also ? But such was not the fact.
Blood goods, Easter Beurres. Duchesse d'Angou-
lemes, and many other varieties, were killed or ma-
terially injured, while trees of the same varieties,
under similar circumstances, in the same rows, only
fifteen feet apart, were not at all injured. Secktls
were no more exempt with me than any other va-
rieties ; and I perceive, by a late Genesee Farmer,
that Mr. Barry, its horticultural editor, has had
like experience. I am certainly sorry that we can-
not except Seckels here from the disease ! And I
only mention the fact to guard growers of the pear ;
for should they, without abundant proof, take it for
granted that this variety is exempt from the disease,
and go to planting extensively, they might by-and-
by suffer loss therefrom.

The fact is, that this particular form of blight —
that which first appears on the trunk or body of a
large branch — is of a character so peculiar that I do
not intend, without further observation, to commit
myself to any particular theory for its cause. None
of those heretofore advanced are satisfactory to my
mind. We can, as yet, only treat the disease as
we do epidemics when they come upon us " unseen
and unheard ;" but we may, by experimenting with
limewash or other innocent articles, sooner or later,
learn what will prevent its recurrence, (if it is not
a malignant epidemic disease,) and consequently
infer the cause of it. Yours very truly. Herman
Wendell. Albany, February 4, 1848.

P. S. March 6th, 1848.— The only reply which I
consider necessary to make to that part of Mr.
Ernst's letter, in the last Horticulturist, alluding
to my cases, is to refer him to the above article, in
which he will perceive, that I attribute the cause of
the injury to the two trees mentioned by him, viz.,
the Bergamot d'Espereu and the Colmar d'Arem-
berg, to the sting of the vermin there described,
and the injection by them of poisonous matter into
the tender extremities of the new branches, and
not to attacks of the Scolytus pyri. H. W.

Remarks. — Dr. Wendell's observations and opi-
nions, on this subject, are so totally different from
our own, that we are unwilling to comment any fur-
ther upon them. We print his letter above verba-
tim ; and since we have lately stated repeatedly
our own views on this disease, we leave the matter

DOMESTIC NOTICES,

487

before the public. Cultivators of experience will
always test opinions, whether <fiven by our corre-
spondents or ourselves, by their own experience and
observation ; and on such an unsettled question as
tde pear blii^ht, there will naturally bo some disa-
greement. Ed. ....

The Orchardists' Saw. — I notice, in the Janu-
ary number of the Horticulturist, a description of a
new frrafting tool. I have myself been planning
some improvement, of a similar kind, and am now
having made for me an article which I propose to
call " The Orchardists' Saw."

Fig. 57.— Tlie Orchardists^ Saw.
This saw is to be used for pruning, and more es-
pecially for engrafting. The saw-blade is about
one foot long. A, represents a thin curved edge
for cutting open the stock, instead of splitting it, as
is usually practiced. B, is the place for striking
with a hammer, when driving the cutting edge,
A, into the stock. C. is the handle of the saw,
made entirely of iron. D, is the wedge for holding
open the stock when inserting a scion. E, a nar-
rower wedge for small stocks. F, a hook to hansr
the saw upon a limb of the tree. The wedges, D
and E, may b^ driven with a hammer by striking
on the inside of the handle C. at C or H.

It will be perceived that the additions to this saw
for engrafting do not in the least interfere with its
use for pruning. The curved cutting edge, A, is
much better adapted to our wants than any kind of
splitter, whatever, can be ; as it vv'ill make a clean
smooth cut, through bark and stock, without any
bruise or slivers. Indeed, my orchardists' saw seems
to me to be " the identical thing ;" and, as you say
of Mr. Foote's stock-splitler, 1 "generously place
the invention at the service of the public." Truly
yours. Geo. Jaques. Worcester, Mass., January
10th, 1848.

Osage Orange, Bitckthorn, &c. — There are
two or three practical matters on which a few hints
would be very acceptable to me, and perhaps to
some more of your readers.

Is the Osage Orange found sufficiently hardy to
endure the winter in most situations, as a hedge
plant, as far north as forty degrees?

what is the best season and manner of sowing
the seed of the Osage Orange and the Buckthorn?
Also, on raising seedling roses for stocks and
the proper season for budding them. Yours re-
spectfully. ^ Subscriber. Washington, 0., Feb.
23, 1848.

Answer. — It is impossible to speak definitely re-
specting the hardiness of any plant, as measured
by degrees of latitude ; for the altitude of the coun-
try, the forests, lakes, &c., greatly modify the tem-
perature of particular localities.

But we can give our readers a safer guide, by
comparing the hardiness of one plant by that of
another generally known and cultivated. We say,.

then, the Osage Orange will be found perfectly
hardy as a hedge plant, and make a most efficient
hedge, too. wherever the Isabella grape grows and
matures its fruit well in the open air. We say, as
a hedge plant, because experience has shown that
any tree, somewhat tender, becomes much more
hardy when it is forctrl to make short-wood, and to
assume the dwarfish liabit of a hedge.

Both the Osage Orange and the Buckthorn may
be sown in the spring or autumn. In the former,
soak the seed ir. hot water twenty minutes before
planting them. They are both as easily grown as
peas, and may be sown and raised the first vear in
drills, very much in the same way. Very full and
complete directions for raising hedges of both these
plants, beginning at the seed bed, will be found in
the February No. of the Horticulturist for 1847.

The seeds of roses should be gathered in the fall,
washed clean, and kept in boxes o( damp sand in a
cellar till spring. They must then be sown in rich
light soil. They are budded in July. Ed.

Annual Vines. — Some of your readers who want
to cover trellises rapidly, or conceal unsightly ob-
jects, may be glad to know what are the best an-
nual vines for this purpose. Certainly one of the
very best is the Blue Cobea, (Cobea -scandens,)
which may be had of most of the fiorists, in the
spring, m small pots. Planted in any good, rich
soil, this climber will often grow 30 or 40 feet in a
season, making quite a displav of foliage, and
bearing an abundance of large, purplish blossoms,
much like those of the Canterbury oel. Next, is
that old favorite, the Balsam Pear. The seeds
may be had at the seed-shops ; and if [ilanted three
or lour inches apart, in good soil, about the middle
of April, a large trellis, 15 or more feet high, may
be covered by midsummer; and in the autumn
there are few things more curious or ornamental
than the singular fruit of this vine, which bursts
open of itself when ripe, and displays a rich orange
centre.

The scarlet flowered morning glory, with neat
foliage aud small bright blossoms, like those of the
Cypress vine, is the prettiest of all the convolvulus
tribe that are easily grown from seeds. I ought
not to forget the Purple Maurandia (iM. Barclay-
ana.) a perennial vine that may be had at the
green-houses ; and which, put out in the border
with a little frame to wiiich to attach its tendrils,
will be loaded with its fine, rich, purple, foxglove-
like blossoms every day in the growing season.
There is a species, also, with pink blossoms, {M.
Inphospermum,) more viirorous in its habit ; " Sweet
Peas," everybody is familiar with. Round a cotta-
ger's house, I like nothing so well as to see the
hop-vine running over a rustic arbor ; and the pret-
tiest and gayest of cottage annual vines is the scar-
let-runner, (bean,) which gives at once pretty ef-
fect and plenty of good food. Ipomea Learii ; this
large, deep blue convolvulus has now become com-
mon enough to be alJbrdcd cheaply at this season
in the year in pots ; and there are few climbing
plants which equal it in splendor, every morning,
iVom midsummer to November. It grows in rich
soil amazingly fast, ^n Amateur Florist. New-
York, March, 1848.

488

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Salvia Patens. — This Salvia, with large flowers
of the finest ultramarine blue perhaps to be found
in the vegetable kingdom, is a very line plant for
budding-out, to form a mass of colour in the flower
garden. By pegging down the shoots as they grow,
the dwarfish compaet habit will be attained, so ne-
cessary to good effect in flower gardens arranged
in this way. Yours, ^7i Amateur Florist. New-
York, March, ISiS.

Culture of the Blue Commelina — {Comme-
Una celestris.) — This is one of the loveliest of all
blue flowers : and I am surprised, considering its
easy culture, that it is not more frequently seen in
our flower gardens.

It is properly a tuberous perennial, — each plant
with a cluster of tubers like those of the dahlia in
miniature. These tubers are as easily preserved
as those of the dahlia; and when the roots get
large, the plants put out in May ia the open border,
and'^ produce an uninterrupted series of flowers the
whole summer and autnmn.

The Commelina is so easily raised from seeds,
(which may be had of all our leading seedsmen,)
that any person may soon get a good stock of it.
Besides, if sown pretty early, say the middle of
April, in a warm border, it comes into bloom like
an annual the same summer. It may then be ta-
ken up at the commencement of frost, and the roots
put away in a box or pot of sand, or coal ashes, and
placed under the green-house stage, or in a cellar
free from frost. loid.

The Gladiolus.— This is one of the finest bulbs
in the world for the open border in this country.
The common Gladiolus, or •' sword lily," (G. com-
munis,) with purple flowers, and the green striped,
or Parrot Gladiolus, (G. psittacina,) are well known
hardy border flowers. But the finer new hybrid spe-
cies and varieties, so well known in Belgium, (where
they cultivate above 40 sorts,) are very seldom seen
in the United States, except in the gardens of the
largest collectors.

They are well worthy of more attention. The
roots of these new sorts are very easily preserved
through the winter in a cellar or green-house ; and
nothing can well be more gay, brilliant or delicate
than the colours of many of the finer sorts,— G.
cardinahs, gardavensis, roseus, etc, with all the
shades of flesh colour, rose, pink, deep scarlet and
purple, in their long spikes of blossoms. They also
come into bloom at midsummer, when there are,
comparatively, few flowers in our borders. Good,
rich, sandy loam, and an open exposure, will, in
this climate, grow them to our great satisfaction.
Ibid.

Hard/ AND Showy Annuals. — A correspondent
in Maryland desires a list of hardy and showy an-

nuals ''that will grow with little care, and pro-
duce a gay efTect in the flower garden."

We recommend the following species : Collinsia
bicolor, Collinsia grandiflora, Phlox Drummondii,
Nemophila insignis. Erysimum Peroffskianum, Hi-
biscus jlfricauus, Schlzanthus pinnatus. Coreopsis
tinctoria, Bartonia aurea, Portulacca splendens
and Thcllusonii, Malope grandifloru. Convolvulus
minor, Gillia tricolor, Eutoca viscida, Iberis urn-
bellata, Abjssum maratimum. To these may be
added the fine Double German Asters, Double Bal-
sams and Double Dwarf Rockets, to be had of most
of the seedsmen.

Martynia Fragrans. — This is a new annu-
al, well worthy of cultivation. We received some
seeds lately from a friend, with the following ac-
count of its growth. Ed.

It is considered very difficult to raise this annu-
al in England ; but here, in our genial sunshine, it
grew to a most prodigious size. A young friend in
London sent me, last March, a few seeds. Know-
ing it required active heat in starting, I sowed the
few seeds in a pot about St Patrick's day, and kept
them in the dahlia propagating house, in a tempe-
rature of about 80°. In about two weeks one seed
came forward, (and the only one ;) this " lone star"
I steadily watched and helped along, with a couple
of shiftings into pots, until by the 10th of May it
was a strong showy plant. At this time I turned
it into the ground, in a rich warm spot, and never
did I before see such rapidity of growth, especially
in spreading; it sent out lateral hra.nches Jive feet
in length, but never attained more than three feet
in height. The whole habit is very robust ; the
foliage thick, but more soft and velvety than M.
proboscydea, and flowering, in immense profusion,
from the middle of July till stopped by frost in Oc-
tober. No other Martynea can compare with this
fine variety ; the flowers are larger than the Glox-
inia, which they indeed much resemble, only that
they are thickly set on a spike, and are of a delicate
rosy lilac, blotched and shaded with bright crimson,
with an agreeable odor. I consider it one of the
greatest acquisitions to our annuals, which are sel-
dom of any size, and for the most part, of late, the
novelties have been of a trifling character. This is
a gigantic addition. I have raised from this one
plant a fair quantity of seed, which I have sent to
Messrs. Thorburn it Co., in John-street. I forgot
to say that the seed capsules for a month be-
fore ripening add much to the appearance of the
plant. When this plant becomes more plentiful, I
have no doubt the green pods will make a pickle
quite equal to the M. proboscydea capsules, which
are much used for that purpose by many good house-
wives. Yours, T. Astoria, Long-Island.

THE. NORWAY SPRITCE FIR.

Full-grown tree al Sludley, 132 ft. hi?h ; diam nf the trunk, OJ ft. ; ami v( llie lieml,
30 ft. [Scale 1 in. to 2! ft.]

[flort: May, It4-'.]

THE

JOUKNAL OF RURAL ART AM) RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

MAY, 1848.

No. 11.

•' What is the reason," said an intelli-
gent European horticulturist to us lately,
" that the Americans employ so few ever-
greens in their ornamental plantations ?
Abroad, they are the trees most sought
after, most highly prized, and most valued
in landscape gardening ; and that, too, in
countries where the winters are compara-
tively mild and short. Here, in the north-
ern United States, where this season is both
long and severe, and where you have, in
your forests, the finest evergreens, they are
only sparingly introduced into lawns or
pleasure grounds."

Our friend is right. There is a lamenta-
ble poverty of evergreens in the grounds of
many country places in this country. Our
plantations are mostly deciduous; and while
there are thousands of persons who plant, in
the country, such trashy trees (chiefly fit for
towns,) as the ailanthus, there is not one
planter in an hundred but contents him-
self with a few fir trees, as the sole re-
presentatives of the grand and rich foliaged
family of evergreens.

They forget that, as summer dies, ever-
greens form the richest back-ground to the
kaleidescope colouring of the changing au-
tumn leaves ; that in winter, they rob the
chilly frost-king of his sternest terrors ; that
VOL. 11. 62

in spring, the)- give a southern and verdant
character to the landscape in the first sunny
day, when not even the earliest poplar or
willow has burst its buds.

More than this, — to look at the useful as
well as the picturesque, they are the body
guards — the grenadiers — the outworks and
fortifications — which properly defend the
house and grounds from the cold winds, and
the driving storms, that sweep pitilessly over
unprotected places in many parts of the
country. Well grown belts of evergreens —
pines and firs, which

■' ill conic forms arise,

And ■with a pointed spear divide the skies,"

have, in their congregated strength, a pow-
er of shelter and protection that no inexpe-
rienced person can possibly understand,
without actual experience and the evi-
dence of his own senses. Many a place,
almost uninhabitable from the rude blasts of
wind that sweep over it, has been rendered
comparatively calm and sheltered ; many a
garden, so exposed that the cultivation of
tendev trees and plants was almost impos-
sible, has been rendered mild and genial in
its climate by the growth of a close shelter,
composed of masses and groups of ever-
green trees.

Compared with England, — that country

490

A WORD IN FAVOR OF EVERGREENS.

whose parks and pleasure grounds are al-
most wholly evergreen, because her climate
is so Avonderfully congenial to their culture
that dozens of species grow with the great-
est luxuriance there, which neither France,
Germany, nor the northern United States
will produce ; we say. compared with Eng-
land, the variety of evergreens which it is
possible for us to cultivate is quite limited.
Still, though the variety is less, the general
effect that may be produced is the same ;
and there is no apology for our neglecting,
at least, the treasures that lie at our very
gates, and by our road-sides — the fine in-
digenous trees of our country. These
are within every one's reach ; and even
these, if pioperly introduced, would give
a perpetual richness and beauty to our
ornamental grojnds, of which they are
at this time, with partia. exceptions, al-
most destitute.

As we are addressing ourselves, now,
chiefly to beginners, or those who have
hitherto neglected this branch of arboricul-
ture, we may commence by mentioning,
at the outset, four evergreen trees worthy
of attention — indeed, of almost universal
attention, in our ornamental plantations.
Those are the Hemlock, the l\ hlte Pine,
the Norivay Spruce and the Balsa?:! Fir.

We place the Hemlock (Abies canaden-
sis) first, as we consider it, beyond all ques-
tion, the most graceful and beautiful e^^er-
green tree commonly grown in this coun-
try. In its wild haunts, by the side of som^
steep mountain, or on the dark wooded
banks of some deep valley, it is most often
a grand and picturesque tree ; when, as
in some parts of the northern states, it
covers countless acres of wild forest land, it
becomes gloomy and monotonous. Hence,
there are few of our readers, unfamiliar as
they are with it but in these phases, who
have the least idea of its striking beauty

when grown alone, in a smooth lawn, its
branches extending freely on all sides, and
sweeping the ground, its loose spray and
full feathery foliage floating freely in the
air, and its proportions full of the finest
symmetry and harmony. For airy grace-
fulness, and the absence of that stiffness
more or less prevalent in most evergreens,
we must be allowed, therefore, to claim the
first place for the Hemluck, as a tree for the
lawn or park.

Unfortunately, the Hemlock has the re-
putation of being a difficult tree to trans-
plant ; and though we have seen a thou-
sand of them removed with scarcely the loss
of half a dozen plants, yet we are bound to
confess, that, with the ordinary rude hand-
ling of the common gardener, it is often
impatient of removal. The truth is, all
evergreens are far more tender in their
roots than deciduous trees. They will not
bear that exposure to the sun and air, even
for a short period, which seems to have
little effect upon most deciduous trees.
Once fairly dried and shrivelled, their
roots are slow to regain their former vi-
tal power, and the plant in consequence
dies.

This point vi'ell understood and guarded
against, the Hemlock is by no means a
difficult tree to remove from the nurse-
ries.* When taken from the woods, it is
best done with a frozen ball of earth in
wiriter ; or, if the soil is sufficiently tena-
cious, with a damp ball in the spring, as
has lately been recommended by one of our
correspondents.

Of all the well known Pines, we give
the preference to our native White Pine,
{Pi7ius strobus,) for ornamental purposes.
The soft and agreeable hue of its pliant fo-

* In the I nrseries this, and other evergreens, over four feet,
should be regularly root runed ; i. e., the longest rows short-
ened with a spade every yax. Treated thus, there is no diffi-
culty whatever in reinoing trees of ten or twelve feet high.

A WORD IN FAVOR OF EVERGREENS.

491

liage, the excellent form of the tree, and its
adaptation to a great variet}' of soils and
sites, are all recommendations not easil}'
overlooked.

Besides, it bears transplanting particu-
larly well ; and is, on this account also,
more generally seen than any other spe-
cies in our ornamental plantations. But
its especial merit, as an ornamental tree, is
the perpetually fine, rich, lively green of its
foliage. In the northern states, many ever-
greens loose their bright colour in mid-
winter, owing to the severity of the cold ;
and though they regain it quickly in the
first mild days of spring, yet this temporary
dinginess, at the season when verdure is
rarest and most prized, is, undeniably, a
great defect. Both the Hemlock and the
White Pine are exceptions. Even in the
greatest depression of the thermometer,
known to our neighbors on the " dispu-
ted boundary" line, we believe the ver-
dure of these trees is the same fine un-
changing green. Again, this thin summer
growth is of such a soft and lively colour
that they are, (unlike some of the other
pines, the Red Cedar, etc.,) as pleasant to
look upon, even in June, as any fresh and
full foliaged deciduous tree, rejoicing in all
its full breadth of new summer robes. We
place the White Pine, therefore, among
the first in the regards of the ornamental

planter.

Perhaps the most popular foreign ever-
green in this country is the Norway Spruce,
(Abies excelsa.) In fact, it is so useful and
valuable a tree, that it is destined to be-
come much more popular still. So hardy,
that it is used as a nurse plant, to break off
the wind in exposed sites, and shelter more
tender trees in young plantations ; so rea-
dily adapting itself to any site, that it thrives
upon all soils, from light sand, or dry gravel,
to deep moist loam or clay ; so accommo-

dating in its habits, that it will grow under
the shade of other trees, or in the most ex-
posed positions ; there is no planter of new
places, or improver of old ones, who will not
find it necessary to call it in to his assis-
tance. Then, again, the variety of purpo-
ses for which this tree may be used is so
indefinite. Certainly, there are few trees
more strikingly picturesque than a fine Nor-
way Spruce, 40 or 50 years old, towering
up from a base of thick branches which
droop and fall to the very lawn, and hang
off in those depending curves which make
it such a favorite with artists. (See our
FRONTISPIECE, from Loadon^s Arboretum.)
Any one who wishes occular demonstration
of the truth of this, will do well to daguer-
reotype in his mind, (for certainly, once seen,
he can never forget them,) the fine speci-
mens on the lawn at the seat of Col. Per-
kins, near Boston ; or two or three, still
larger, and almost equally well developed,
in the old Linnjean Garden of Mr. Win-
ter, at Flushing, Long Island.

The Norway Spruce, abroad, is thought
to grow rapidly only on soils somewhat
damp. But this is not the case in Ameri-
ca. We saw, lately, a young plantation of
them of 10 or 12 years growth, in the ground
of Capt. Forbes of Milton Hill, near Bos-
ton, on very high and dry gravelly soil,
many of which made leading shoots, last
season, of three or four feet. Their growth
may be greatly promoted, as indeed may
that of all evergreens, by a liberal top-
dressing of ashes, applied early every spring
or autumn.

Little seems to be known in the United
States, as yet, of the great value of the Nor-
way Spruce for hedges. Our intelligent
correspondent, Mr. Nelson, has described
his experience with it abroad, and pointed
out its capital points for this purpose, and
the mode of growing it, in a previous page

492

A WORD IN FAVOR OF EVERGREENS.

of this journal, (p. 128.)* We have no
doubt whatever, that it will soon become
the favorite plant for evergreen hedges, as
the Buckthorn and Osage Orange are al-
read}'' for deciduous hedges in this country.
So hardy as to grow everywhere, so strong
and bearing the shears so well as to form
an almost impenetrable wall of foliage, it is
precisely adapted to thousands of situations
in the northern half of the Union, where an
unfailing shelter, screen and barrier are
wanted at all seasons.^

The Balsam Fir, [Picea balsamea,) or, as
it is often called, the Balm of Gilead Fir, is
a neat, dark green evergreen tree, perhaps
more generally employed for small grounds
and plantations than any other by our gar-
deners. In truth, it is better adapted to
small gardens, yards, or narrow lawns,
than for landscape gardening on a large
scale, as its beauty is of a formal kind ;
and though the tree often grows to thirty or

• This plaut may be had from six inches to two feet high
at the English nurseries, at such extremely low prices per
1000 that our nurserymen can well atTord t'> import and grow
ii a year or two in their grounds, and sell it wholesale for
hedges, at rates that will place it in the reach of all planters
Autumn is the safest season to import it from England ; as, if
packed dry and shipped at that season, not ten plants in a thou-
sand will die on the passage. We hope in a couple of years
it will be obtainable, ni large quantities, m every large nur-
sery in America. We observe that Elwanger & Barry, at
Rochester, advertise it at the present time as a hedge plant.

t " No tree," says the Arboretum Britlanicuin, "is better
adapted than this tor planting in narrow strips for shelter or
seclusion : because, though the trees in the interior of the strip
may become naked below, yet those from the outside will re-
tain their branches from the ground upwards, and effectually
prevent the eye from seeing throug-h the screen. The tenden-
cy of the tree to preserve its lower branches renders it an ex-
cellent protection to game ; and lor this purpose, and also for
the sake of its verdure during winter, when planted among
deciduous trees and cut down to within five or six feet of the
ground, it affords a very good and very beautiful under-
growth. The Norway Spruce bears the shears ; and as it is
of rapid growth, it makes excellent hedges for shelter in nur-
sery gardens. Such hedges are not unfrequent in Swhzer-
land, and also in Carpathia, and some parts of Baden and Ba-
varia. In 1844, there were spruce hedges in some gentle-
men's grounds in the neighborhood of iVIoscow, between 30
feet and 40 feet high. At the Whim (near Edinburgh,) a
Norway Spruce hedge was planted in 1823 with plants 10
feet high, put in 3 feet apart. The whole were cut down to
5 feet, and afterwards trimmed in a regular conical shape
The hedge, thus formed, was first cut on .Ian. 2t>, the year
after planting ; and m the plmits were fonnd to sustain no in-
jury, about the end of that month has been chosen for cutting
it every year since. Every portion of this hedge is beautiful
and green ; and the annual growths are very short, giving the
surface of this hedge a fine healthy appearance." [This is an
excellent illustration of the capacity of this tree for being
sheared ; but good hedges are more easily and better formed
by using plants about 18 inches or 2 feet high. Ed.)

forty feet, its appearance is never more
pleasing than when it is from ten to fifteen
or twenty feet high. The dark green hue
of its foliage, which is pretty constant at all
seasons, and the comparative ease with
which it is transplanted, will always com-
mend it to the ornamental improver. But
as a full grown tree, it is not to be com-
pared for a moment, to any one of the tree
species of evergreens that we have already
noticed ; since it becomes stiff and formal
as it grows old, instead of graceful or pic-
turesque, like the Hemlock, White Pine,
or Norway Spruce. Its chief value is for
shrubberies, small gardens, or courtyards, in
a formal or regular style. The facility of
obtaining it, added to the excellent colour
of its foliage, and the great hardiness of the
plant, induce us to give it a place among
the four evergreens worthy of the universal
attention of our ornamental planters.

The Arbor Vita, so useful for hedges and
screens, is, we find, so rapidly becoming
popular among our planters that it needs
little further commendation.

Among the foreign evergreens worthy of
attention, are the Chili Pine, {Araucaria,)
the Cedar of Lebanon and the Deodar Ce-
dar,— three very noble trees, already de-
scribed in previous pages, and worthy of at-
tention in the highest degree. The two
first have stood the past winter well, in our
own grounds, and are likely to prove quite
hardy here.

For a rapid growing, bold, and picturesque
evergreen, the Austrian Pine, {Pinus Aus-
triaca,) is well deserving of attention. We
find it remarkably hardy, adapting itself to
all soils, (though said to grow naturally in
Austria on the lightest sands,) A specimen
here, grew nearly three feet last season ;
and its bold, stifle foliage is sufficiently
marked to arrest the attention among all
other evergreens.

REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES.

493

The Swiss Stone Pine, {Finns cembra,)
we find also perfectly hardy in this latitude.
This tree produces an eatable kernel, and
though of comparatively slow 2:rowth, is
certainly one of the most interesting of the
pine family. The Italian Stone Pine, and
the Pinaster, are also beautiful trees for the
climate of Philadelphia. The grand and
lofty pines of California, the largest and
loftiest evergreen trees in the world, are
not yet to be found, except as small speci-
mens here and there in the gardens of cu-
rious collectors in the United States. But
we hope, with our continually increasing
intercourse with western America, fresh
seeds will be procured by our nurserymen,
and grown abundantly for sale. The great
Californian Silver Fir, {Picea grandis,)
grows 200 feet high, with cones 6 inches
long, and fine silvery foliage ; and the no-
ble Silver Fir, {P. nohilis,) is scarcely less
striking. "I spent three weeks," says Doug-
lass, the botanical traveller, " in a forest
composed of this tree, and, day by day,
could not cease to admire it." Both these
fine fir trees grow in Northern California,
\>rhere they cover vast tracts of land, and,
along with other species of pine, form grand
and majestic features in the landscape of
that country. The English have been be-
fore us in introducing these natives of our
western shores ; for we find them, though
at high prices, now offered for sale in most
of the large nurseries in Great Britain.

The most beautiful evergreen tree in
America, and, perhaps, — when foliage,
flowers and perfume are considered, — in the
world, is the Magnolia grandijlora of our
southern. states. There, where it grows in
the deep alluvial soil of some river valley,
to the height of 70 or 80 feet, clothed with
its large, thick, deep green, glossy leaves,
like those of a gigantic Laurel, covered in
the season of its bloom with large, pure
white blossoms, that perfume the whole
woods about it with their delicious odor ;
certainly, it presents a spectacle of unrival-
led sylvan beauty. Much to be deplored
is it, that north of New-York it will not
bear the rigor of the winters, and that
we are denied the pleasure of seeing it
grow freely in the open air. At Philadel-
phia, it is quite hardy ; and in the Bartram
Garden, at Landreth's, and in various
private grounds near that city, there are
fine specimens 20 or 30 feet high, grow-
ing without protection and blooming every
year.

Wherever the climate will permit the
culture of this superb evergreen, the orna-
mental planter would be unpardonable, in
our eyes, not to possess it in considerable
abundance. There is a variety of it, origi-
nated from seed by the English, called
the Exmouth Magnolia, [M. g. exominsis,)
Avhich is rather hardier, and a much more
abundant bloomer than the original spe-
cies.

REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES.

BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I.

We pray the reader to keep cool, for both
of us would rather eat strawberries than
write about them ; yet, as the strawberry
question is not entirely settled, to the satis-
faction of horticulturists generally and ama-

teurs in particular, and we have no idea
that the subject is as easily finished as some
persons imagine, and, withal, even experi-
enced cultivators are continually " falling
into error," (out of which their friends are

494

REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES.

most willing to keep them,) we naturally
have a desire to "light our taper," which,
though it he dim, may still cast one ray into
the midst of darkness, as a beacon to the
traveller through the mists and mazes of
an ever changing labyrinth of words — vox
et prcRteria nihil.

What is the strawberry question ? It is,
whether or not any varieties of the plant
are dmcious ? In other words, are there male
and female plants of the same variety ?
These are the questions.

For the past two or three years, the mat-
ter has been freely discussed in books and
periodicals, both horticultural and agricul-
tural. It should be, therefore, settled, if
possible, because it has an important bear-
ing on the culture and improvement of an
estimable fruit, and has led to the commis-
sion of great mistakes, by more than one
nurseryman who had thousands of plants to
dispose of.

A distinguished practical horticulturist, of
Cincinnati, who has made the cultivation
of the strawberry quite a hobby, and writ-
ten a good deal upon the subject in dispute,
strenuously maintains, that in many varie-
ties there are perfectly distinct male and
female plants. He speaks from ample ex-
perience, and supports his assertions by an
appeal to facts, — all coming under his own
personal observation. This is testimony of
a very decided character.

Another gentleman, equally distinguish-
ed in horticulture, but not so practical as a
strawberry grower, states — that the plants
in their natural habits are hermaphrodite ;
i. e., they bear perfect flowers, with both
male and female organs in the same flower,
(as is always the case with the Alpine and
European wood varieties,) and therefore
every flower gives a perfect fruit ; but, that
the large growing strawberries, including
our wild scarlets, the pines, and many other

varieties raised from them, have a strong
tendency, ichen ailtivated in a rich soil, to
vary from the natural state, being deficient
either in stamens, (male organs,) or pistils,
(female organs ;) and hence, according to
the deficiency, are called male and female
plants ; and further adds, that this imper-
fect state originates from over luxuriance,
brought about by cultivation. Here are
statements quite as positive as those pre-
ceding them.

The late venerable and eminently prac-
tical proprietor of the " Linnsean Botanic
Garden," published in 1828, a " Short Trea-
tise on Horticulture." It is the j at her who
speaks — not the son. At page 72, he thus
writes : — " As beds of strawberries want re-
newing every two or three years, it will be
necessary, in forming the new beds, to se-
lect plants in the proportion of ni^ie heaiing
-plants, (pistillate ones,) to one barren, (sta-
minate ;) and in order to do this with cer-
tainty, it will be best to mark them when
in fruit." This extract expressly recogni-
zes the distinction contended for by many,
of male and female plants. He also adds,
that the English red Hautbois, and the Pme
apple, are very apt to he overrun with male
plants ; beds of them, without proper atten-
tion, will become almost totally unproduc-
tive. These are the words of experience.
In September, 1845, a correspondent of the
Agriculturist, referring to a communication
on this subject in a previous number, bold-
ly confirms the Cincinnati theory, ''which
fully accords with the vieivs of the late Wm.
Prince, as well as with his (the writer's) own
experience.'''' From the deep reflection and
sound judgment of the late Wm. Prince, we
think his opinion entitled to great weight ;
and the present opinion of the Agricultu-
rist's correspondent may be worth conside-
ration, though his experience must have
been very short, and his opinion, though so

REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES.

495

Strongly expressed, very recenthj adopted ;
for upon referring to page 6 of a Catalogue
for 1944, '45, we read as follows. — " The
silly tioattle about male and female (straw-
berry) plants is calculated to grossly deceive
the 'public, loho cannot do worse than adopt
any course i7i accordatice with the si/ggestions
arising from such ignorance^ These two
opinions, published by the same individual
in the same year, are as contradictory as
they well can be ; nor can the least weight
be attached to such puerile vacillations,
though in 1847 the writer goes back to the
correct opinion of his father, that it is indis-
pensably necessary to accompany the pistil-
late varieties with about one-tenth of some
staminate, to render them invariably pro-
ductive. " This course was recommended
in our (no, not our, the late Wm. Prince's)
Treatise onHorticulture, published inl82S."
It must cause the reader to smile, when put-
ting such opinions in contrast. They form
the climax of an extremely treacherous me-
mory. Quene Deus vult perdere, 4*c.

Conflicting opinions have been expressed
in the Boston "Magazine of Horticulture"
by correspondents ; and the editor thereof
has undoubtedly changed his mind, with
respect to the character of his (Hovey's)
Seedling. In 1838, a communication ap-
peared in the May number of the Magazine
of Horticulture, wherein it is stated that
there are separate fertile and barren plants ;
that in some plants the pistils are so few as
to be scarcely visible, and in others no sta-
mens are to be seen ; and, that when the
plants bear staminate flowers only, they are
of course barren ; when pistillate only, they
are prolific. The recommendation was ad-
ded, that for an abundant yield of fruit, one
plant in eight or ten should be staminate,
for the purpose of impregnating the pistil-
late or fertile ones ; for if the latter only
were grown, they would not bear at all.

From such practical directions the inference
is obvious, that the writer recognized the
existence of separate male and female blos-
soms ; and also, that the one staminate
plant should be of the same variety as the
eight or ten pistillates ; thereby conceding
that there may be both staminate, {male,)
and pistillate, (female,) plants of the same
variety. That so?ne varieties of the straw-
berry are of this character, there can be no
doubt, although a writer in the Horticultu-
rist for October, 1847, (Senex,) asserts that
there is not a dioecious plant in the whole
order. He terms the doctrine " sheer non-
sense," and says that the word dioecious
should be used, in its strict sense ; it would
then mean, that Hovey's Seedling bore fe-
male (pistillate) flowers on one plant, and
male (staminate) on another plant, — "an
evident absurdity." Absurd and nonsensi-
cal as he asserts it to be, however, Mr.
Tracy of Windsor, Vt., states (Horticultu-
rist for August, 1847,) that he has grown
Hovey's Seedling "decidedly staminate,
and as decidedly pistillate." He was sur-
prised, but there was "no mistake about
the facts." To the same effect is the testi-
mony of Mr. Allen of Winchester, Va., in
Hovey's Magazine for August, 1843.

In Nov., 1843, Mr. Hovey thus expressed
himself: — " We believe it is now the gene-
rally received opinion of all intelligent cul-
tivators, that there is no necessity of mak-
ing any distinction in regard to the sexual
character of the plants when forming new
beds. The idea of male and female flow-
ers, first originated, we believe, by Mr.
Longworth, of Ohio, is now considered as
exploded ; at least, so far as we have been
able to learn, since the subject was agita-
ted in our pages of last season, (1842,) as
well as fiom our own experience." Cultiva-
tion alone, says he, creates sterile or fertile
plants ; nor is there the least necessity of

496

REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES.

cultivating any one strawberry near ano-
ther to ensure fertility. Such was Mr. Ho-
vey's opinion in 1843.

In February, 1844, Mr. Huntsman's views
were published in Hovey's Magazine. This
gentleman had observed the plant closely,
and regarded it as anomalous in its dioe-
cious character. Some varieties were per-
fect in both male and female organs ; some
perfect in male organs only, and some pos-
sessed, complete, only the rudiments of the
fruit. The first are good bearers, though
the fruit is small ; the second are not wor-
thy general cultivation ; and the third are
best of all, on account of great productive-
ness. Mr. Huntsman's conclusions are, that
one or more varieties of pistillate plants
will not fruit unless impregnated by sta-
viiriate plants, while others under favor-
able circumstances will. What the favor-
able circumstances are, he does not in-
form us.

Without any very material difference,
Messrs. Bayne and Coit hold the same
opinions, as also Mr. James. See Hovey's
Magazine, November, 1843, and March,
1844. To the same effect is the testimony
of Mr. Garber, in August, 1844, and Mr.
Jackson, in November. All of them assent
to the male ^w A. female theory; they have
practically demonstrated it ; and the latter
gentleman does not consider Hovey's Seed-
ling worth groivi7ig without a few male
plants to fertilize it.

In 1846, Mr. Hovey's views were some-
what modified from his expressed senti-
ments in 1843. He had cultivated the
strawberry for twenty years, yet had not,
until now, discovered that some sorts had a
tendency to barrenness tvhe?i growing away
from other kinds, and that these should be
fertilized by staminate (male) plants. This
course would give a certain crop, regardless
of " soil, climate, cultivation, injudicious

selection of plants, or a normal defect in the
organization of the flowers resulting in a
deficiency of pollen." Three years before
this, there was not the least necessity to
grow any one strawberry near another to
ensure fertility ; now — there was a neces-
sity for so doing. Experience had taught
Mr. HovEY in 1843, that there was no ne-
cessity for making any distinction of sexual
character when forming new buds. Expe-
rience taught him, in 1846, that the one
essential thing to produce fruit on his own
seedling, was the planting of perfect flow-
ering kinds in near proximity.

So much for opinions, and nothing would
be easier than to multiply them ; but to
what good end shall they be recorded ? con-
flicting, as they do, with /ac/5 known long
since to professed botanists. Not a dioe-
cious plant in the whole order — Eosaceoe ?
This is the opinion of Senex, in the Horti-
culturist, and he has termed it sheer non
sense to say the contrary. But Don, Dr.
LiNDLEY, and a host of others, record the
fact, that " the old Hautbois strawberry
bears the male and female flowers on differ-
ent roots.'''' Does not this make it dioecious
in a strict sense ? If not, will some one,
well learned in botanical science, tell us
what the word dioscious means? It may
be altogether " silly twattle" to call things
by their right names, and the very perfec-
tion of learning to be " all things by turns,
and nothing long ;" but that there are male
and female strawberry plants, is as certain
as that two and two make four. In 1843,
a correspondent wrote to Dr. Lindley a let-
ter of inquiry on this very subject. The
Dr. thus replied: — "Those flowers which
have the stamens large, and the pistils
small, are males ; when the pistil is large
and prominent, and the stamens dwarfish,
they are females ; when the two are equally
balanced, they are hermaphrodite." Such

REMARKS ON STRAWBERRIES.

497

is the Doctor's precise language, and it is
by no means obscure.

Let the reader pause and reflect on the
statements made by all who have intended
to set this matter in its true light, and he
will perceive how wide of the mark most
of them have come. Instead of clearing
up difficulties, and looking only to the facts
of the case, each has mounted his hobby,
and not a few have been sadly thrown.
What is experience worth when it contra-
dicts itself ? If words mean anything, and
are used in their proper sense, there need
be no misunderstanding as to their sijjnifica-
tion.

The strawberry belongs to the order Ico-
sandria Monogynia, of Linnceus, the Rosa-
ceos of Jussieu. The stamens numerous.
In this genus, w^hat is called the fruit, is a
fleshy receptacle or polyphore, with carpels
(or seeds) appended to it. Mowers herma-
phrodite. They are naturally so. Of this
character, is — 1, Fragaria vesca, with its
varieties, sylcestris and semperjlorens, mi-
nor, hortensis, e/lagellis, multiplex, botryfor-
mis, and muricata. These varieties em-
brace the Red, White, American, and Da-
nish Alpi7ie Strawberry, the Red and White
fVood, Red and White Busk Alpine, Fra-
zier de Montreuil, &c.; 2, F. calycina ; 3,
jF, collina, and varieties; and 4, F. plata-
Tioides, with red petals. Here we have the
type specific, and no cultivation or richness
of soil will change it. In some of these va-
rieties, too, there are peculiarities worth
noticing. In var. botryformis, the stamens
are transformed into flowers ; and in var.
muricata, the petals are wanting. A few
sub-varieties of hortensis have black fruit.

But there are other species, and a great
many varieties, which, varying in the de-
velopment of their sexual organization, must
be termed diacious. We say varying in
their sexual development, because the flow-

voL. II. 63

ers are usually dicrcious ; one or two spe-
i cies only have the flowers hermaphrodite.
I A definition of them, as a class, would read
I thus: — Carpels few, immersed in little pits
: in the receptacle. Stamens few. Flowers
[ usually dioecious from abortion. The spe-
cies are — 1, /"". majaufea, (hermaphrodite
flowers ;) 2, F. breslingea ; and 3, F. ela-
tior. There are two or three varieties of
the first, six or seven of the second, and
ten or twelve of the third. The Hautbois
species and varieties are here included,
(varieties of F. elatior,) and although they
are the most variable of all strawberries,
they still retain a general character from
which they do not naturally depart. In all
the sorts of Hautbois there exist prolific and
sterile plants; these last have very long
stamens ; they are true males. In the va-
riety frasier framboise, [European Wood
Strawberries,] the flowers are always dioe-
cious. In the Hudson's Bay, the flowers
are larger than any of the others ; the sta-
mens long, and permanent round the base
of the fruit, even to its full maturity. This
variety must not be confounded with a va-
riety of the scarlets of the same name.

We now come to the species F. virgini-
ana, embracing, as varieties, all the scar-
lets, and the, so termed, black strawber-
ries. The flowers are always dioecious
from abortion; styles very long, receptacle
very tumid. The varieties of the scarlets
are very numerous, though but a few can
be estimated as first rate sorts. The Down-
ton and Elton are among the black varie-
ties.

The species F. grandiflora, embraces all
the, so called, pme strawberries, the frasier
ana/ms of the French. The flowers always
dioecious from abortion. Among the varie-
ties we find the Keen's Seedling and the
old Carolina pine, with about twenty oth-
ers. Turner^s pine is a variety.

498

THE BEST MODE OF PRUNING THE PEACH.

F. chilensis forms another species. It is
a native of South. America, in Chili and
Peru, and west coast of North America.
Flowers always dioecious from imperfect de-
velopment. There are eig-ht or ten varie-
ties, but none of them are worth cultivation;
all are tender, bad bearers, and of indiffer-
ent quality.

We have still, as species, the F. bona-
riensis, F. canadensis, F. sundaica, and F.
morwphylla. The first may with propriety
be referred to F. grandifiora ; it is a native
of Monte-Video and Buenos Ayres. Of the
varieties of the other three but little is
known ; the F. monophylla has hermaphro-
dite flowers ; it is the Frasier de Versailles
of the French, and a worthless sort. If a
classification were attempted, based upon
the development of the floral organs, it
might be thus stated :

The Alpines and Wood Strawberry, —
always hermaphrodite.

The Scarlets and Black Strawberries,
F. grandifiora and varieties, F. chilensis
and varieties, — ahoays dioecious from abor-
tion.

The Hautbois and varieties, and what is

called the Green Strawberry, — usually dict-
cious from abortion.

If this arrangement does not meet the
views of all, let a better be substituted;
for something of the kind has become the
more necessary, as a consequence of the
confusion now existing in relation to the
strawberry question, but about which, to
our mind, there is no question at all. There
are male and female strawberry plants, and
of the same variety, too, though friend Ho-
VEY emphatically says — twI and we can
tell him, also, that there are kinds which
will displace his seedling, though he may
never yet have seen them.

Our views have now been given on the
strawberry question; and, to our mind, it
presents no difficulty, if disputants will but
bear in mind that the dioecious character of
some species, and of all varieties, is the re-
sult of accident rather than of fixed laws.
The fiowers proving abortive, failing to
reach maturity in the developments neces-
sary to perfect them, creates the necessity
for sexual distinction, and, whether or not
we know the reason, does not change the
fact. Wm. W. Valk, m. d.

THE BEST MODE OP PRUNING THE PEACH.

BY A JERSEYMAN.

Mr. Downing — It seems to me that the pro-
mulgation of the improved mode of pruning,
called the " shortening-in'^ mode, in the
•' Fruits and Fruit Trees of America," is
one of the greatest benefits yet conferred
on the thousands of cultivators of this best
of all our fruits — the Peach.

I believe you state that this mode has
long been known and practiced in Europe,
and that the peach tree is hence a great
deal longer lived there than in the United

States. Be this as it may, I am sure that
it was previously little known or practiced
on standard trees in this country ; that the
great benefits that would result from it were
beforehand quite unknown to the majority
of our peach growers.

It is, indeed, the only scientific mode of
pruning this tree ; for the common way of
thinning out the branches, practiced with
little care or skill on most of our fruit trees,
is particularly unsuited to this. No better

THE BEST MODE OF PRUNING THE PEACH.

499

proof of this fact can be desired than one
which 1 have every day before my own
eyes. In my neighbor's grounds is a quan-
tity of peach trees, six years old, which
have never been pruned at all, except to
thin out a few branches, which have borne
two heavy crops, and already have that ex-
hausted and lean appearance, indicative of
feebleness and old age. The fruit which
they bore last year was small, and com-
paratively flavorless. In my own garden I
have a small plantation of peach trees, set
at the same time as my neighbor's, but pre-
senting a very different appearance indeed.
They have been pruned for the past three
years on the skortening-in mode. They
have borne every year good crops of the
largest and most delicious fruit to be found
within my knowledge, — the crop regularly
distributed over the branches. The trees
are in most capital health ; foliage deep
green, and their shape, from the system of
pruning adopted, round, bushy and symme-
trical. Altogether, I am very proud of the
effect of this mode of pruning upon my
trees ; and I assure you that many persons,
who have come here to examine them, have
gone away firmly resolved to "do likewise."
There cannot be a doubt that the peach
tree exhausts itself, and is short lived in
many soils, especially in those that are not
deep and rich, by excessive over bearing.
It is one of the great merits of the shorten-
ing-in mode, that by taking off a portion of
the ends of every bearing shoot — that is to
say, the young growth of the previous
year — it effectually prevents this evil; since
if you shorten-back the branch one-half, you
necessarily take off one-half of the blossom
buds, and diminish the probable crop of fruit
one-half. This is treating the peach tree
very nearly as it needs to be treated ; for if
one-half of the blossoms are thus taken off,
it leaves the tree provided with just so

many as it can carry regularly, every year,
without exhausting itself; and the fruit that
is left is much larger, and a great deal more
delicious than if the tree goes unpruned,
and bears a full crop. This I have twice
satisfied myself of by direct experiment, on
trees side by side, of the same variety ; and
you could scarcely credit the improved qua-
lity of the pruned tree, without camparing
them.

One of my acquaintances, who is an in-
telligent orchardist, and grows peaches for
market on a large scale, now makes his
trees branch out, or form their heads quite
low, and shortens-them-in with a pair of
large hedge-shear:' ,{\.\\e blade two feet long,)
fastened on long handles. In this way it
is but a short job to prune a whole orchard.

I have used wood ashes as a manure for
peach trees with the greatest benefit. It
gives them a particularly healthy and
sound look; that is, without becoming gross,
or over-luxuriant, they make a moderate
growth of good plump shoots, have very
healthy foliage, bear high coloured and well
ripened crops.

I use wood ashes, either leached or un-
leached. The former is, if quite fresh,
about three times as strong as the latter ;
and, therefore, while half a peck of un-
leached is sufficient, usually, for a young
tree just beginning to bear, I have found
half a bushel not too much of the leached
ashes. It ought to be spread over the sur-
face, and dug in a few inches only. Pro-
bably the best time of applying it is in
October ; but I have also found it to an.
swer admirably as late as June, — very soon,
if the season is a rainy one, changing the
common colour of the leaves to a deep eme-
rald hue.

I have so high an opinion of the good
effect of ashes, that, (agreeing with you,
that the yellows is only disease, caused by

500

RAISING VEGETABLES IN OLD GARDEN SOIL.

bad treatment and exhaustion.) I feel al-
most certain that the shortening-in mode
of pruning, and the use of ashes, will drive
this malady out of the countr}', if cultiva-
tors can be brought to estimate properl}'
their joint value.

It is, no doubt, best to prune the peach

tree early; but, as I have seen no bad ef
fects whatever from shortening-in as late
as the middle of May, I advise such of your
readers as may not have performed that
operation already, on their peach trees, to
take knife in hand and sally forth immedi-
ately. Yours. A Jerseyman.

TO RAISE GOOD VEGETABLES IN OLD GARDEN SOIL.

BY A CONSTANT READER, NEW-YORK.

Dear Sir : I presume there are many per-
sons, like myself, who have in their posses-
sion old kitchen gardens, in which, although
the soil is rich, and appears in excellent
condition, yet it is extremely difficult to
get good crops of certain A^egetables. I
suppose this is owing to the long time that
the soil has been under cultivation; for I
have noticed, in my travels in the western
states, that in many of those parts every
species of our garden vegetables grows as-
tonishingly well there, and to such a size,
and in such abundance, as almost surpasses
belief. The cultivation required there is
scarcely worth the name. They just turn
over the soil, deposit the seeds, and dress
the plants out once, and a most abundant
supply is the result.

This is, no doubt, owing to the perfectly
new soil, unexhausted of its fertility, and
naturally abounding with vegetable sub-
stances, ready to be converted into food for
plants.

Now in our old gardens, on the sea-board,
certain kinds of vegetables, as beets and
potatoes, are easily grown year after year
in the same soil, and give us regular and
good crops. But there are also some sorts,
like the bush bean, the cauliflower, etc.,
which are brought to perfection with a great

deal of trouble, and are almost always un-
satisfactory crops.

I take it, that this is owing to the long
continued culture of the soil; and that there
is something in new soil quite different
from manure that these plants require, and
will not grow without.

Probably a little experiment, which I
have made in my garden for two or three
years past, will serve to exemplify this.
Taking this view of the matter, — that cer-
tain vegetables wanted a fresher soil than
that of an old kitchen garden, I thought I
would, perhaps, be able to supply it by
bringing up some of the subsoil, which had
never seen the light, and mixing it with the
old soil of my garden. As I did not care
to go to the expense of trenching my whole
kitchen garden upon an uncertainty, I made
my first experiment by trenching a plat of
it, upon which I intended to plant hush
beans. This I did directly before planting,
I had the ground dug to the depth of two
spades and a half, (say about two feet,) and
the old soil of the top well intermingled with
the subsoil throughout. I had a fair coat
of stable manure spread over the soil be-
fore the trenching commenced, which, of
course, was incorporated with the whole.
I judged this necessary, as the subsoil is a

ANNUAL ROOT. CUTTING.

501

gravelly loam, of a poor and hungry qua-
lity. When the plat was finished, the soil
had an appearance of poverty by no means
prepossessing. But I planted my beans,
and had the satisfaction of seeing them
grow vigorously and produce most abundant
crops. The difference, indeed, between the
product on this piece of trenched ground
and another patch of beans in the old soil
of my garden, the same season, was in fa-
vor of the trenched soW fifty to one.

This was three years ago ; and I have
had excellent crops on this quarter ever
since. Two years ago, encouraged b}' the j
success of the foregoing experiment, I pre- j
pared my cauliflower quarter in the same
way, with equally good results. Almost {

every plant, put out in this renovated soil,
headed well; whereas, before that, not more
than half or a third would usually form
flower heads at all.

As many persons cannot well afford to
trench their whole kitchen garden at once,
and may not be aware of the good effects
of trenching a small part of it at a time,
pray oblige them and me by publishing
this, to show them its good results.

Yours. A Constant Reader.

P. S. I think, from comparison with ex-
periments of the same kind, made by a
neighbor, that the good efl!ect is somewhat
increased by trenching in the fall, rather
than the spring, though I have found the
latter time a good one.

ANNUAL ROOT- CUTTING OP CERTAIN FRUIT-BEARING PLANTS.

BY R. ERRINGTOiX.*

It certainly appears at first sight a bold re-
commendation, to advise cutting away those
valuable organs destined by Nature to ac-
quire sustenance for the vegetable struc-
ture. When, however, the reasons are
carefully examined, it will, I think, be per-
ceived, that such a practice under certain
circumstances must be productive of deci-
ded benefit; more especially with regard
to flavor in the fruit. Some distinction
should be here drawn, in order to throw
light on the matter, between those fruit-
bearing shrubs or trees which produce their
fruit chiefly on the young shoots of the pre-
ceding year, and those which produce prin-
cipally from what the gardener terms
" spurs." In casting a glance over fruit-
bearing trees or plants in general, it will
be obvious that with few and trifling ex-
ceptions. Nature has in this respect mark-
ed out two classes in broad and well defined
characters.

In order to convey a ready idea of these
two classes to those who are not practically

• From the Journal of the London Horticultural Society.

engaged in gardening, I would adduce the
following, viz : —

Fruits bearing chiefly on the spur :
The apricot ;

The red and white currant ;
The plum ; and

Fruits bearing chiefly on the youngwood :

The gooseberry ;

The vine ;

The black currant ;

The raspberry.
These will suffice to throw light on the mat-
ter in hand.

The first thing I would observe is, that
from the circumstance of the spurs being for
the most part situated on or near to the
main stems, any undue extension of the
young shoots above and around must of
necessity produce such an amount of shade
in the neighborhood of the spurs as cannot
do otherwise than end in barrenness. The
chances of light, in fact, to the home spurs
of a gross red currant bush are about as
great as to those of a tuft of fern in a dense
wood. Who can wonder, then, at such

602

ANNUAL ROOT-CUTTING.

bushes becoming gradually denuded of
spurs, or at their bearing badly coloured
and worse flavored fruit?

As to the other class, the blossoms being
formed on the annual shoots, are in pre-
cisely the situation most congenial as to
light, and will also bear high cultivation
much better than the former.

With regard to annual root-cutting, I
must here observe, that the necessity for
it will not arise on poor and unmanured
soils ; it is chiefly in our kitchen gardens,
where, from a long course of tillage, ac-
companied by very frequent manurings,
the soil has become what is commonly
termed effete ; by which we understand,
that the mechanical texture is altered, part-
ly through the decomposition of vegetable
fibre, and partly, I believe, through the loss
of inorganic constituents.

To give an instance ; let us examine the
common red currant. This it is well known
has a greater tendency to produce what is
termed " watery wood" than the white.
Now on rich soils it will sometimes pro-
duce shoots of two feet in length during
the first three weeks in June : the rapidity,
in fact, with which such growth is made,
might not inaptly be termed propulsion.

Now what is the consequence ? The
fruit, with the various tufts of leaves by
which it is accompanied, is thrown into the
most intense shade ; and in proportion to
the extreme grossness of the bush will the
berries be found of a diminutive size and
destitute of flavor. Nor does the evil end
here, for the blossom spurs, intended to
produce succeeding crops, and which need
the fertilising agencies of light more than
the fruit, are hereby rendered barren, or
totally destroyed. And hence it is no un-
common thing in garden^ to see huge cur-
rant bushes, showing signs of great age and
vigor, destitute of fruit, with the exception
of a mere tuft at the extremity.

Again, with regard to the strawberry;
how frequently do we meet with exceed-
ingly gross beds or plantations bearing lit-
tle ifruit, yet possessing enormous leaves !
If much manure is dug into the soil at
planting time, and the plants are placed too
thick, this is sure to happen. It may not
the first season, but will assuredly take
place as soon as the plants crowd each other.

We find the cultivation of this valuable
fruit very much improved within the last
twenty years ; and why ? because prior to
that, the importance of light Avas so much
underrated. Few persons think of planting
them thickly in beds at this period : and we
shall find that the farther they are planted
apart the finer will the produce be. The
finest Keen's Seedlings I ever saw were
four feet apart between the rows, and three
feet between each plant. Each plant form-
ed a huge isolated mound ; and the quan-
tity and size of the fruit were indeed most
extraordinary. I have also seen the prolific
hautboy thus treated, with a similar amount
of success. This I confess astonished me
more at that period than the Keen's ; for in
my younger days we were taught in the
neighborhood of London, that the hautboy
would only succeed in beds. Nor is this
grossness, with thick planting, inimical to
their bearing properties alone; deteriora-
tion of flavor is a sure consequence. The
ripening period of the strawberry — the
month of Julj' — is very often a cloudy and
wet period ; and I have frequently known
in crowded and luxuriant plantations of
strawberries from fifty to seventy per cent,
of the fruit actually rot on the ground. In
such periods what an advantage thin plant-
ing possesses ! If bright skies intervene
the latter readily become dry, Avhilst the
former will scarcely receive benefit. If
strawberries are planted on good loamy
soils, well trenched, with little or no ma-
nure, they will be found very different in
character to those on light and highly ma-
nured soils ; the whole plant will be more
compact, the leaves smaller in circumfe-
rence, yet thicker, and the plant will more-
over endure periods of drouth much better.

Having now pointed out the evil effects
of grossness, as tending to barrenness and
loss of flavor, I come to the point from which
I set out, viz., to recommend what I have
practiced for years under such circumstan-
ces, and I think I may say always succeed-
ed with, or at least it has always produced
the result I anticipated. Let it not, how-
ever, be supposed for a moment that I ad-
vocate so foolish and prodigal a system as
first to over-excite fruit-bearing trees by ma-
nures, and then to cut away their roots : by
no means ; I merely suggest a mode of

DESIGN FOR A SMALL FLOWER GARDEN.

503

treatment for pampered subjects which it is
not deemed expedient to destroy offhand.

The root-cutting I recommend for the cur-
rc.nt is practiced at the extremities of the
fibres, and is a matter of great simplicity.
A line is stretched parallel with the row, at
about thirty inches from the stems (if strong
bushes,) and the line " chopped out." The
line being removed, a trench is opened at
one end, and a deep spit dug out, nearly to
the bottom of the roots, and placed aside,
similar to the manner of making a celery
trench. All roots on the farther side of the
line, from the tree, are cut entirely away,
and the trench merely filled again with the
ordinary soil of the garden, which lies close
at hand, and for which the excavated soil is
substituted. This operation should be per-
formed as soon as the leaves are fallen, in
order that the bush may commence a series
of fresh roots, to meet the demands of the
coming spring. Now although I advocate
cutting the extremities, I never dig over the
surface roots of my bushes ; these remain
untouched, and even receive a top-dressing,
when necessary, of half decayed tree leaves,
more in order to coax the roots to the sur-
face than for the sake of manuring.

In cutting the strawberries, my practice
is to trim away all superfluous runners in
the end of August ; by which means the
principal leaves of the mother plant dis-
lodge themselves and separate, and thereby
expose a much greater amount of surface to
the light to ripen the bud for the ensuing
crop. About the middle of October, a slight
dressing of half rotten manure, chiefly leaf
soil, is scattered over the surface of the
ground ; and the centre, between each two
rows, merely one spit in width, is deeply
dug ; cutting of course all roots that lie
within such boundary. I have always found
this course to produce precisely the effects
that might reasonably be anticipated, viz.,
a temporary reduction of grossness in the
foliage whilst the new leaves are forming
in the ensuing spring; with an acquisition
of fresh young fibres by the time the great-
est demand is made on the energies of the
plant, viz., the swelling period of the fruit.
Indeed, such good results have I ever found
to follow this practice, that I am of opi-
nion that a plot of strawberries may be
kept in a tolerable prosperity for many
years by thus annually digging and manur-
ing.

DESIGN FOR A SMALL FLOVTER GARDEN.

The old geometric flower gardens, laid
out with long beds, bordered with box, and
separated by stiff gravel walks, are fast
giving place to those more tasteful combi-
nations of masses of gay, perpetual flowering
plants, arranged upon turf, in the arabesque
or English style.

In the former, you have a miscellaneous
collection of plants, of all sizes and habits
of growth, only a small part of which are
seen in bloom at one time ; while at almost
all seasons naked stalks of plants, and bare
dry soil of borders, appear here and there,
almost in spite of the best eflfurts of the gar-
dener, to disfigure and mar the general ele-
gance of the scene.

In the latter, you have always the rich
setting of the soft green turf, (which, of
course, mown once a fortnight, is short and
velvet-like;) and contrasting and enhanced
in effect by this, are seen the beds of dwarf-
ish plants, grown in masses, so as to give
breadth and brilliancy of effect ; these be-
ing composed only of plants almost perpetu-
ally in bloom, unite to form a floral picture,
when well managed, as beautiful as the art
of gardening will permit.

The following little plan of a flower
garden, of this kind, on a small scale, is
adopted from one of the designs of our late
friend, Mr. Loudon. It is supposed to be
formed in a plot of smooth level lawn, and

504

DESIGN FOR A SMALL FLOWER GARDEN.

Fig. 58.— A Small Arabesque Flcrwer Garden.

to be surrounded by a boundary walk, which
may, or may not, be backed by a belt of
evergreens and flowering shrubs. In the
former case, it would make a complete lit-
tle scene by itself in a portion of the gar-
den or grounds.

In designs of this kind, of course, a good
deal of the beauty depends on the arabesque
beds being filled with plants of dwarfish
habit, so as to enable the eye to seize the
elegant effect of the whole group of beds at
once. In order to attain this, any roses,
or other plants, inclined to grow above eight
or ten inches in height, should be pegged
down; that is, the shoots bent down to the
surface and confined there as fast as they
grow. In this way the whole bed will be
filled with foliage, and no part of the sur-

face of the soil will be visible ; a sine qua
non in this mode of management.

In making a selection of plants for this
little garden, we have supposed the four
largest beds to be filled with ever blooming
roses. These are, in our opinien, the gems
of all flower gardens in this climate ; and
as the finest sorts, originated within the last
ten years, (which may now be had at most
of the nurseries,) are unsurpassed in beauty
of form, colour and fragrance, by any other
flowers whatever, we think them far more
indispensable in a small flower garden than
the choicest perennials.

The centre of this garden, 2, is supposed
to be occupied by a vase, or a fountain.
The arabesque beds are then appropriated
as follows :

PLUM, APRICOT AND NECTARINE.

505

w3. The finest Scarlet Verbenas.

B. Bourbon Roses.

C. Hebe Petunias.

D. Bengal Roses.

E. The finest "White Verbenas.

F. Tea Roses.

G. The finest large Purple Petunias.
H. Noisette Roses.

To give additional variety and effect we
would sow, every spring, the seeds of the
following annuals, of dwarf growth, be-
tween the roses in the four largest beds, so
as to completely cover the surface of the
same, viz :

B. With Portulaccas, purple, scarlet and white.

D. With Sweet Alyssura.

F. With Nemophila insignis and Mignonette.

H. With Convolvulus minor.
This little design would, though com-
posed of such limited materials, have at all
times a gay and charming effect. It will
not be too late to carry it into execution
even when this number appears ; and if the
beds are pretty thickly planted, (the roses
turned out of pots,) its effect will begin to
be enjoyed in a few weeks, and the whole
will be in full beauty during the latter part
of the summer, and the entire autumn.

HOW TO MAKE THE PLUM,. APRICOT AND NECTARINE HOLD THEIR FRUIT.

BY A PENNSYLVANIA SUBSCRIBER.

[The following mode of treating the plum,
and other stone fruit trees, is not entirely
new to us, as we have had similar success-
ful accounts of trials on a smaller scale,
from other portions of the country, and think
very favorably of the plan adopted by our
correspondent. Ed.]

I believe there are many parts of the
courftry where the finer stone fruits, the
plum, the apricot and the nectarine, are
of little value, because they seldom mature
a good crop of fruit. At least, this is the
case in the mellow sandy soil which I cul-
tivate, and in many parts of New- Jersey
and Pennsylvania.

The trees grow as finely as any one could
wish, blossom abundantly, and set good
crops of fruit ; but such is the power of the
wily little eneny, the curculio, which stings
the young fruit just after the blossom falls,
that often not one in a thou?and escapes,
and the poor fruit cultivator has the morti-
fication of seeing a handsome crop all tum-
ble to the ground before they, the plums,
are two-thirds grown.

Vol. n. 64

Looking upon this as a very great and
serious evil, I want to lay before you my
practice, which I have fully satisfied myself
of the value of, in raising good crops every
year of these stone fruits, where, in the
common garden or orchard, they are a com-
plete failure.

About ten years ago my attention was
drawn to a plum tree in my neighborhood,
which was rather celebrated as the only one
that bore large crops of beautiful plums for
several miles round. It stood behind the
garden of a farmer, and just between two
large hog pens. I might say, indeed, in
the midst of a pen ; as there was hardly a
space of two feet between the pens in which
the tree grew. Well, this tree, as I have
said, was loaded with the finest imaginable
fruit, and the curculio did not appear to at-
tack it in the least, while no other plum
trees, on the premises, bore any crops of
fruit except the common preserving damson.

Drawing the inference, that the swine
destroyed or drove away the curculio, I im-
mediately set about putting the informa-

«a6

I'LUM, APRICOT AND NECTARINE.

tion so derived into practice. I had already
a few plum trees standing near my farm
buildings, and I immediately planted others
there, so as to make a small orchard of that
spot, entirely devoted to plum trees ; add-
ing, by wray of experiment, a few apricots
and nectarines. I ought to say that I had
hitherto failed, if possible, even more com-
pletely with these two latter beautiful fruits
than with the plum.

In this small orchard of stone fruit trees,
comprising, altogether, perhaps thirty trees,
at fifteen feet apart, as soon as the trees
came into a bearing state, I directly turned
my hogs. I took the precaution, (by the
by, a most necessary one, every year,) to
have the trunks of the trees closely boarded
round, about three feet high, to prevent the
hogs from barking them, as they certainly
would. The first year the trees set only a
tolerable crop ; some of the curculio marks
being visible on the fruit. But the second
year I had a fine crop, and every year since,
without a single exception, I have been able
lo gather a good crop of very fine plums.
The apricots and nectarines have borne
equally well, though sometimes the fruit of
the latter tree has shrivelled from some
cause unknown to me.

To be more definite, I ought to add that
I have found it best to allow the hogs to
" have the run" of the orchard for stone
fruit all the year, with the exception of
about two or three months. I shut them
out as soon as the fruit is fully grown, and
begins to turn colour, and approach matu-
rity. This enables me to put the orchard
in something like a visitable condition for
any of my family who themselves wish to
gather fine and luscious plums, apricots and
nectarines. I keep the hogs out until the
latest ripening plums and nectarines are
past, when they are again allowed free
i«ange of it. In order to accomplish this

exactly to my mind, I have my hog pen
proper on one side of the orchard, with two
doors ; one door leading into the orchard,
and the other into a small enclosure or yard,
which they have the run of only when they
are shut out of their regular quarters — the
orchard.

As I understand it, the hogs in the out-
set devour all the plums, &c., that drop
from the trees in June and July, (as all the
insect punctured ones infallibly do.) In
this way, they effectually prevent the in-
crease of this insect ; since, if the fruit is
allowed to remain on the ground, the young
maggots soon leave it and go into the
ground, where they stay till the time comes
round for them to rise out of it to sting the
fruit again. By continually rooting in the
soil, the hogs not only keep it mellow,
and, in the main, free from weeds, but
they destroy any grubs of insects that still
remain in it ; while the manure they fur-
nish to the trees appears to be very much
adapted to promote their growth, and keep
them in good health.

I cannot, of course, undertake to say that
in a crowded neighborhood, much infested
with the curculio, this mode would com-
pletely answer the purpose of securing a
good crop, because it is well known that
this insect is somewhat migratory, though
I think it never flies far. But I can say
that at my place, some miles distant in the
country, where, however, all the farmers
round cultivate the plum unsuccessfully, I
have had very full success by following the
mode pointed out.

I have observed, in a previous number
of your journal, that both a correspondent
and yourself recommend depositing a pile
of fresh stable manure round the trunks of
plum trees, just before they come into
blossom, or soon after, in order to prevent
the insects from attacking the fruit by the

THE LARGE FLOWERED TECOMA.

507

odor which rises from the manure. It has j for the time it is occupied by them, quite
struck me since, that something; of the same an atmosphere of their own, which the
effect may follow from making a swine delicate nerves of the curculio may not be

yard of a small stone fruit orchard. I find
that a dozen hogs, kept in a space large
enough for twenty or thirty trees, give it,

able to bear. Respectfully thy friend.
A Pennsylvania Subscriber.

PhOadtfplhia, 4fA mo., 1843.

THE LARGE FLOWERED TECOMA.

One of the most showy and magnificent of
all our climbing shrubs, is the Large-
flowered Tecoma, [Tecoma grandifiora,] a
native of China and Japan, but now to be
found in many gardens in this country.

This plant closely resembles, in its foli-
age and manner of growth, the well known
Trumpet flower or Trumpet creeper, [Te
coma radicans,*] a native of the southern
states, whose large clusters of reddish-or-
ange coloured, trumpet shaped flowers are
produced in profusion ail the latter part of
the summer.

But the Tecoma grandifiora is a much
more showy and beautiful plant than the
old species. In the growth of tlie wood, it
is rather more slender, and the leaves more
coarsely serrated than those of B. radicans.
The vine has the same habit of attaching
itself firmly to a wall, or building of stone,
brick, or wood, or to the trunk of a tree
within its reach, by the numerous small air-
rootlets which it sends out from the inner
side of its young shoots.

In the blossoms of the Tecoma grandifio-
ra, however, lies its peculiar beauty. These
are produced, in a great profusion of clus-
ters, in July and August, so as to give the
whole plant an exceedingly gay and lively
appearance. They are not long and tubu-

• Bignonia radicans, oC LiNjj^us and the older botanisls.
Jdssiei; has very properly Reparaled ihe old genus, Bignonia,
into two ; gi'/mg ihe nnm« Tecoma t» the two sjpeoiei for-
merly known as B. radicans and B. grandijio'a.

lar, like those of the common trumpet flow-
er, but somewhat cup-shaped, and about a
third larger than is represented in the an-
nexed cut. The colour is beautifully va-
ried ; the outside being a rich pure orange
colour, and the inside a rich orange-scarlet,
marked with brighter streaks. These gav
clusters open their blossoms in succession,
so as to keep up a brilliant appearance for
a long time ; and we are acquainted with
no climbing shrub, except the Chinese Wis-
taria, which at all vies in elegance or bril-
liancy of effect, in the garden or pleasure
ground, with this, during the season of
its bloom. Last season we counted over
three hundred in bloom, at once, upon a
plant in our neighborhood ; and the same
profusive display continued for a fortnight
or more.

The Tecoma grandifiora may be grown
with perfect ease wherever the old Trum-
pet flower ( T. radicans) thrives. North of
this it will, perhaps, require a little protec-
tion in winter, such as a laj^er of straw tied
over the larger shoots, or some branches of
evergreens laid against them at the ap-
proach of winter. A northern site will
also be found the better one at the north
wherever there is doubt of its hardiness ;
since the temperature will, in such a site,
be more uniform and less injurious than in
a southern aspect. Wherever the Isabella
grape ripens, this handsome climbing shrub

508

THE LARGE FLOWERED TECOMA.

will be easily cultivated in almost any situ-
ation. If there are any fears of its hardi-
ness it may be protected, as we have point-
ed out, for a couple of years, till the wood
gets strong and well hardened.

Any dry, light, well drained soil suits
this climber. It should be made mode-

Fig. 59. — The Large Flowered Tecoma.

against a wall, it will cover a space 12 or
14 feet square in two or three seasons. It
is well worthy the attention of those who
are looking for climbers of a permanent
kind, to cover unsightly walks or close fen-
ces, or to render garden buildings of any
kind more ornamental, by a rich canopy of

rately rich ; and in such soil, when planted [ foliage and blossoms

THE BEST HARDY SHRUBS.

509

SELECTION OF THE BEST HARDY SHRUBS.

BY AN AMATEUR, NEW-YORK.

I SEND you, for beginners, a selection of
choice shrubs, that will grow in almost any
good garden soil in the northern states, and
require little care. The nursery catalogues
contain double the number of species that
follow, but there is always a choice ; and,
as the young planter is often puzzled to
choose from mere names, perhaps the fol-
lowing selection, with brief descriptions ap-
pended to each, may prove an assistance.
It is the result of many years attention to
ornamental gardening. I ought, also, to
mention that when beautiful effect, alone, is
the point aimed at, it is often better to hold
on to fine old species of flowering shrubs
than to take new ones, that are prized mere-
ly on account of their novelty.

What is chiefly wanted in the shrubbery,
it appears to me, is either fine foliage, or
good habit of growth, or beautiful bloom.
Where all these can be found combined in
one shrub, that shrub may be considered as
perfect. But such shrubs are rare ; and
we must often be content with fine foliage
with indifl'ferent flowers, or fine flowers^with
indifferent foliage. For general effect, pijr-
haps the latter class of shrubs are the most
to be prized, — since the flowers last but a
short time, while the beauty of the foliage
is a source of every day pleasure.

For the sake of convenience, I shall ar-
range my shrubs in classes according to
their height, as follows : —

I. Shrubs from 2 to ^ feet high.

Mezereum, {Daphne mezereum.) Almost
the first flowering shrub that blossoms in
the spring, (coming out even before the
crocus ;) its charming little pink blossoms
thickly scattered along the branches, ren-

der it highly interesting in every garden.
There is a white blossomed variety, and
also another {D. m. autumnale,) which blooms
in the autumn.

Japan Quince, {Cydonia japonica.) This
is one of the finest of early shrubs. The
original species, (commonly known as Py-
rus japonica,) has a profusion of flowers, of
such a brilliant red that it is called "Fai-
rie's fire" in some parts of England. They
appear early in April or early in May. The
white Japan Quince has, properly, blush-
coloured flowers, quite like those of the ap-
ple tree.

Oak-leaved Hydrangea, ( Hydrangea
quercifolia.) One of the handsomest of all
small shrubs, both in foliage and flower.
The blossoms are white, and remain in
bloom for two months. The leaves are
large, and, in figure, are like those of the
oak. This plant is, I think, from Florida ;
yet it bears a northern winter of lO'^ below-
zero without injury. The common green-
house hydrangea, {H. kortensia,) is one of
the most magnificent of flowering shrubs,
and maybe cultivated in the open air about
New-York with very slight protection. It
is naturally a swamp plant ; and if planted
by the side of a pond, in the shelter of thick
evergreens, will stand our winters without
any protection, and bloom superbly. In
common garden soil, its stems should be
thinned out, bent down, and covered with
sandy soil at the approach of winter. In
this way I have known a single plant to at-
tain a circumference of 20 feet, and pro-
duce more than a hundred bunches of blos-
soms in a season.

Jersey Tea, ( Cearwthus americanus.) This

510

THE BEST HARDY SHRUBS.

little dwarf native shrub is so pretty and
delicate in its white blossoms that it is well
worthy of a place in the shrubbery border.
Flowers in June.

Persian Lilacs, {Syringa persica.) Far
more delicate and pretty than the common
lilacs, both in leaf and blossom. The
bunches of flowers are frequently a foot
long, and weigh down the terminal slender
shoots so as to give the plant a very grace-
ful appearance. The white and the fur-
ple — both beautiful. The cut-leaned lilac
has interesting and delicate foliage. May.

Feagkant Clethra, {Clethra almifolia.)
Numerous spikes of rich spicy-scented,
white blossoms, produced in midsummer,
give this shrub its principal charm — next
to that of being easily cultivated.

Missouri Currant, {Ribes aureuni.) One
of the most popular of sweet scented shrubs.
Its golden yellow flowers have a charming
fragrance, and it grows freely in every soil.

Crimson Currant, {Ribes sanguineum.)
With foliage somewhat like that of the
black currant, and pretty racemes of large
crimson blossoms j this is a very neat spring
flowering shrub. Unfortunately, it is not
entirely hardy in northern gardens, but re-
quires protection in winter. There is a
double crimson and a lahite variety — both
beautiful. May.

Garland Deutzia, {Deutzia scabra.) Un-
questionably one of the best of all the new
shrubs. Its numerous white flowers are
not unlike those of the orange, though the
general habit of the plant is that of the
syringo, to which it is related. Everybody
should cultivate it ; and it grows so freely
from cuttings that they may easily do so.
May and June.

Swamp Buttonwood, {Cephalanthus oc-
cidentalis.) Though, to our taste, one of
the richest native shTubs, this is very sel-
dom seen in our gardens. It is easily trans-

planted from its native sites, and grows
well in the shrubbery. Its foliage is ex-
cellent ; in form and colour, and its white
flowers, agreeable. August.

Double Dwarf Almond. So well known
as to need no description, and universally
admired. May.

St. Peter's Wreath, {Spirea hyperici-
folia.) This most delicate and pretty
wreath-like spirea is one of the hardiest of
shrubs ; and though its branches are slen-
der, and its foliage too small to produce
much effect in the shrubbery, yet its nu-
merous white flowers render it attractive
while in bloom. May.

Siberian Pea Tree, {Carragana cham-
lagre.) A shrub with large, yellow, pea-
shaped flowers, quite ornamental at the lat-
ter end of May or the beginning of June.

Upright or Shrub Honeysuckles, {Lo-
nicera tartarica.) There are few shrubs
indeed, where foliage, habit, and flower are
counted, so entirely satisfactory as these.
They grow into neat, close, well shaped
bushes, with full foliage, and of a good
colour, all through the season. In spring,
their neat little blossoms are sprinkled pro-
fusely over the whole shrub, and from mid-
summer to autumn they are ornamented by
numerous crimson berries. There are two
colours with white and with pink blossoms,
both equally pretty and desirable, even in
the smallest collection of shrubs. May.

Tree P^ony, {Pceony TnouLan.) Magni-
ficent, truly, in their flowers, are the Chi-
nese tree Pasonias, (often as large as a
man's head;) easily cuhivated, quite hardy,
and among the noblest low shrubs of the
whole catalogue. There are now a number
of fine sorts, — double white, double rose,
&c. &c.; the old double Banksii, perhaps,
the finest of all still. Even the single pop-
py-jiowered one, (P. papaveracea,) is a most
interesting and beautiful shrub. A good

THE BEST HARDY SHRUBS.

611

warm, deep, sandy loam, suits them best ;
and while the plants are young, let the
earth be hilled up about them at the ap-
proach of winter. May is the season of
their bloom.

Sweet Scented Shrub, {Calycarthus flo-
ridas.) Remarkable for its brown flowers,
(a colour rather rare among flowers,) and
for the delicious pine-apple perfume which
they give out ; a few plants scenting a whole
garden. May and June.

II. Shrubs from 4 to 8 feet high.
DwAKF HoRSE-CHESTNUT, {Pavia macro-
stachya.) This is a great favorite of mine.
Planted alone, it forms a neat, small, round-
ed bush, of excellent foliage all the sum-
mer ; and, in July, its numerous long spikes
of white blossoms are truly beautiful. It is
not half so much planted as it deserves to
be.

Virginia Fringe Tree, ( Chionanthus vir-
ginica.) Among the most refined and at-
tractive of flowering shrubs are the White
Fringe trees of Virginia and Carolina, which
are quite hardy farther north than New-
York. The flowers, which appear early in
June, in great profusion all over the branch-
es, look like tissue paper fringe, most ex-
quisitely cut, and contrast, in their snowy
whiteness, admirably with the dark green
foliage. There are two sorts ; the broad,
and the narroio-leaved. I think the latter
grows best in our gardens ; and its foliage
is, also, of a richer and darker green. A
little leaf mould or well rotted peat earth,
mixed in the soil in which they are planted,
improves their growth.

Rose Acacia, {Robiyiia hispida.) An old
favorite in our gardens, with rich, fine,
deep-pink, locust-like blossoms, appearing
in May and June. It is a fine shrub, and
deserves well of the ornamental planter.

Syringa, {Philaddphus.) All the Spin-
gas are highly ornamental in their thick fo-

liage and abundant white blossoms. There
is a variety of the common sjTinga, with
double, (really, semi-double,) flowers, rather
prettier than the type, and equally sweet.
The Carolina syringa, (P. grandiforus,) is
the most showy species, with very large
flowers, blooming two or three weeks later
than the common syringa, and therefore
very desirable, though the flowers are not
fragrant. The variegated-leaved variety is
one of the best of all those shrubs with
parti-coloured foliage. May and June.

Privet, {Ligustrum vulgare.) Common
as the privet is, still it is one of the most
valuable things for general shrubbery plant-
ing. Its white flowers are pretty, and its
foliage, which hangs on till December, is
thick and of a good colour. It will grow
in any situation, — open, or under trees, etc.
It will, therefore, be found valuable for
thickening-up shrubby plantations, conceal-
ing unsightly banks, and many other pur-
poses. No plant is more easily grown from
cuttings. July.

Altheas, [Hybiscus syriacus.) In mid-
summer, when most shrubs are done bloom-
ing, the altheas are in full beaut)'; and they
then give a gay appearance to pleasure
grounds for a long time. The sort with
double variegated flowers is, perhaps, the
finest, though there are a great number of
various shades worthy of cultivation. All
seem quite hardy, and grow with great ease
in all soils, except the double ichite, which
is usually quite tender north of NeAv-York.
August and September.

Indigo Shuvb, {Amorpha fruticosa.) The
lively, rich, purple flowers of this plant, re-
lieved by gold coloured stamens, render it
quite ornamental in its blooming season.
It is rather ugly in its habit of growth, and
needs a little pruning and shortening-in at
midsummer to correct this. June.

Chinese Purple Magnolia, {Magitalia

512

THE BEST HARDY SHRUBS.

obovata.) A fine shrub, with large white
and purple blossoms. When the plant is a
few years old, it maintains a succession of
bloom for several months. It needs a shel-
tered border north of New-York. May to
July.

Swamp Magnolia, {M. glauca.) A na-
tive of New-Jersey, and one of the very
finest of shrubs for the garden, — with neat
laurel-like leaves, and exquisitely formed
and scented white blossoms. Sandy loam,
mixed with a little leaf soil from the woods,
suits it best ; and it accommodates itself to
dry soil. July.

Burning Bush, or Spindle Tree, {Euony-
mus.) Excellent shrubs for massing and
general planting in the shrubbery. Their
flowers are inconspicuous ; but their berries
are highly ornamental in autumn. The
finest species, both in foliage and fruit, is
the broad leaved, (£. latifolius.) The white
and red-berried have a pretty effect when
planted near each other.

Double Sloe, {Prunus spinosa pleno.)
This is exceedingly pretty, in its numerous
small, double white flowers, which appear
in May. It is a variety of the English wild
plum or sloe.

Early White Viburnum, {Viburnum
lantanoides.) A native of the Catskill
mountains, and a capital hardy shrub. The
foliage is large, broad and showy, from the
earliest to the latest season ; and the clus-
ters of white blossoms are neat in appear-
ance. It makes a fine, large, rounded bush.
May.

English Fly Honeysuckle, {Lonicera
xylosteum.) This is one of the shrub-ho-
neysuckles, and makes a good compact
growth. Its pale green foliage contrasts
well with those of other shrubs ; and its
straw-coloured blossoms are pleasing in ef-
fect. May and June.

Weeping Cherry, {Cerasus semperflo-

rens.) A charming little tree, with leaves
like those of a myrtle, and delicate branch-
es, as pendant as those of a weeping wil-
low. It bears fiowers or fruit all the sum-
mer.

III. Shrubs from 8 to 12 feet high.

Chinese White Magnolia, {M. conspi-
cua.) No doubt this must be admitted to
be the most superb of all the large shrubs
of our gardens. It is perfectly hardy ; and
a full grown plant will produce thousands
of its large, pure white, and fragrant flow-
ers. As it blooms very early in the season,
it should be planted near the house, with a
few evergreens to back it. April.

Soulange's Magnolia, (M. soulangiana,)
Flowers larger than the above, opening a
week or ten days later, and equally beauti-
ful, though of a pale purple without, and
white within. It is also quite hardy; and
both sorts should be found in every col-
lection. They grow freely in any good soil,
but should be transplanted quite small. May.

Flowering Hawthorns, {Crategus oxy-
cantha, var.) I am sorry to see these truly
beautiful shrubs so seldom in our gardens
and pleasure grounds. Their flowers are
exquisitely beautiful; those of the double
varieties like miniature roses, and their fo-
liage is neat and agreeable to the eye.
The double white is the greatest favorite ;
but the double pink and single scarlet are
equally attractive. May.

Double Flowering Cherry, {Cerasus
vulgaris, flore pleno.) This is the most
striking and beautiful of all flowering fruit
trees, and deserves a place in every garden.
In the shrubbery, it should be worked on
the Mahaleb stock to dwarf its growth, or
root-pruned every year to answer the same

end.

The double flowering peach and the double
flowering apple, are also highly ornamen-
tal for the shrubbery ; their flowers as beau-

THE BEST HARDY SHRUBS.

513

tiful as those of many roses. All these
double-bloomed fruit trees flower in April
and May.

Common Dogwood, {Comics fiorida.)
Though this is plentifully seen in our
woods, it well deserves to be more fre-
quently introduced into shrubberies. Its
flowers and foliage are both excellent ; and
the effect of its rich, purplish, autumnal
leaf-tint, among other shrubs, is very strik-
ing in autumn. May.

Snowdrop or Silver Bell Tree, {Hale-
sia tetraptera.) A large shrub, highly or-
namental when clad, in spring, with its
myriads of silvery bells. The finest spe-
cies is H. diptera. It is rather scarce in
the nurseries, but has much larger flowers,
and of a purer white, than the other. May.

Cornelian Cherry, {Cornus mascula.)
The bright yellow flowers of this shrub
make the garden gay, sometimes as early
as March. Its numerous cherry-like fruit,
of the colour of cornelian, are also orna-
mental ; and its foliage is thick, and of a
good dark geen colour.

Flowering Ash, {Onms eicropcus.) This
small tree bears a great abundance of pan-
icles of charming white flowers, in clusters,
at the ends of the branches, like those of
the lilac, and is highly ornamental. June.

Scarlet Horse-chestnut, {^sculus ru-
hricunda.) Unquestionably the finest of all
horse-chestnuts, and one of the most orna-
mental of all small trees. The flowers are
of a rich crimson, and the plant, when

grafted, begins to bloom when only 3 or 4
feet high. There are very fine specimens
of this tree in Philadelphia ; and I cannot
well understand why it has not been propa-
gated and planted more generally. It is
very rarely seen in our gardens.

Venetian Fringe Tree, {Rhus cotiniis.)
This popular shrub has a dozen names, one
uf the most expressive of which, is that of
the French — arbre d perruke, (wig-tree.)
From July to October it is covered with the
purplish or brown abortive seed plumes,
which render it a highly interesting object
in the shrubbery. It is very hardy and
grows in all soils.

Laburnums, {Cytissus lahurjmm.) The
Laburnum or Golden chain, is an old favor-
ite ; and its numerous pendant clusters of
pea-shaped blossoms make it a very orna-
mental object in May. C. alpiiius, the
Scotch laburnum, is rather hardier and finer
than the common sort. The oak-leaved
and purple laburnums are also both pretty
varieties.

Judas Tree, {Cercis canadensis.) This
is the " red-bud" of the western states ;
and a very pretty spring flowering tree it
is. Shortening-in the ends of its branches
ever year, like those of the peach tree, im-
proves its foliage and flowers. May.

Japan Koelreuteria, {K. japonica.) This
is a striking shrub of thrifty growth and
good foliage. Its blossoms are yellow, and
are succeeded by inflated pods of singular
structure. July. An Amateur.

Uses of the Apple. — In the Transactions
of the New-York State Agricultural Socie-
ty, the Apple Committee speak as follows :
" Aside from its edible uses to man, the ap-
ple is an important and economical food for
most kinds of farm stock. Milch cows thrive
upon it, when fed in moderate quantities,
VOL. n. 65

and it adds to the quantity and quality of
their milk. It is also an excellent food in
making beef. Horses eat it readily ; for
them it is a succulent and healthy food.
Sheep, swine, and geese, will fatten alto-
gether on good apples ; and for all kinds of
poultry they are nutritious food."

614

CULTIVATION OF THE ONION.

AN ESSAY OIT THE CULTr/ATION OF THE Ol-flON.

BY JOHN W. PROCTOR, DANVERS, MASS.

[We are indebted for the following sensi-
ble and practical paper, to a pamphlet pub-
lished by the Essex Agricultural Society,
Mass. Ed.]

The culture of onions has increased so
much, within a few years, in this vicinity,
that it has become one of the staple pro-
ducts of the couaty. In the town of Dan-
vers, more money is realized from the sale
of the onion, than in any other product of
the soil. Products of so much value, and
commanding so much attention, are fit sub-
jects of inquiry; and if there be any facts
relating to their cultivation not generally
known, it may be useful to have them
brought forward.

In making these inquiries, our attention
has been directed almost entirely to practi-
cal cultivators, without reference to scien-
tific treatises. Our intention being to tell
their story, as near as possible, in their own
way.

We shall treat of the subject in the fol-
lowing order :

1. The preparation of the land.

2. The manure best adapted to promote
the growth.

3. The raising and planting of the seed.

4. The care necessary to be applied
while growing.

5. The blights and injuries to which the
crop may be liable.

6. The time and manner of harvesting.
1. As to the preparation of the land.
Differing from most other crops, the onion

grows well on the same land for an indefi-
nite number of years. Instances of contin-
ued appropriation of the same pieces of land
to the growing of onions, for te7i, fifteen,
tioenty, and even thirty ye^M, have come to
our knowledge. It is the opinion of many
that the crop is better, after the land has
been thus used a few years, than at first.
Whether this arises from any influence of
the crop upon the soil, or is the effect of
continued dressing of manures, we have no

means of determining. This is certain, that
the qualities of the soil necessary for the
production of good crops are not exhausted
by continued cultivation.

Rarely, if ever, have we known the onion
sowed upon the turf when first turned over.
It is usual to subdue and pulverize the soil,
by the cultivation of corn, or some other
crop. Not unfrequently the first year with
corn, the second with carrots, and after-
wards with onions. It is important, before
the seed is sown, that the surface be mel-
low, finely pulverized, and clear of stones
or other impediments, to the free and un-
obstructed use of the machine for this
purpose. The finer and more uniformly
mellow the surface is made, the better.
Shallow plowing, say from four to six inches
deep, is usually practiced. Once plowing
only in the spring, and frequent harrowings,
are practiced. Before the plowing, the
dressing is usually spread upon the surface
of the field, so as to be covered or inter-
mixed in the furrow. The mingling and
subdivision of it, is effected by the use of
the harrow.

Whether it would not be advantageous
occasionally, to stir the land to the full
depth of the soil, is a point on Avhich there
is a difference of opinion ; most of the cul-
tivators inclining to the use of shallow
plowing only. There are some facts tend-
ing to show, that occasional deep stirring of
the soil does no harm to the onion crop, but
on the contrary is decidedly beneficial. As
for instance, onions do better where carrots
have grown the year preceding, than after
any other crop. The carrot necessarily
starts the soil to the depth of ten or twelve
inches. Possibly there may be some other
influence upon the soil from the plant itself.
Our belief is, that the thorough and deep
stirring of it, is the principal preparatory
benefit.

2. The manure best adapted to promote
the growth.

Any strong manure, well rotted and finely

CULTIVATION OF THE ONION.

515

subdivided will answer. But the general
innpression seems to be, that manure from
stables, where the horses are freely fed with
grain, is the best ; and that it should be at
least one year old, because it will nut be
sufficientlv rotten in a less time. All agree
that the dressing for the land should be kept
near the surface, well mi.xed, and as fine as
possible. Though we have seen the pre-
sent year a very superior growth of onions,
where green manure from the barnyard was
applied in the spring ; but particular pains
were taken to subdivide and intermingle it
with the soil ; and to bush-harrow the land
so thoroughly, that very little manure was
exposed upon the surface.

Muscle-bed is frequently used upon onion
land. A portion of this is deemed by some
almost indispensable. We have known the
continued use for half a dozen years in suc-
cession, even without other manures, with a
continuation of fair crops ; but the general
impression is, that it will not do to repeat
the application of muscle-bed many years in
succession. The effect being to harden the
land, and make too much of a crust about
the surface. Without question, the effect
of the muscle-bed is congenial to the growth
of the onion, giving those who live in the
vicinity of rivers where it is found, a spe-
cial advantage over those who are remote
from it.

Leached ashes are also a valuable manure
in the cultivation of the onion ; more so
when leached than before. All kinds of
ashes are advantageously applied on onion
land.

Compost mamtre made of meadow mud
and droppings from the cattle, we have
known advantageously applied on onion
fields; but we have many doubts as to this
being the best application of this kind of
manure. A more lively and quickly opera- :
ling manure is better for the onion ; one
that will give them an early start, and ad- i
vance them as fast as possible, in the first j
part of the season. The utmost vigilance |
and activity is used by our cultivators in i
getting their land ready, at an early period
of the season, for the reception of the seed. I
It is the first field labor of the spring. The j
use of compost manure will depend much i
upon the constituents of the soil with which j

it is mixed. If the soil be a sandy loam,
with a porous subsoil, the compost will do
tolerably well ; but if it be a black soil, with
a clayey subsoil, such as are most of the
lands where onions are raised in this vici-
nity, stable manure, or muscle-bed, or
leached ashe?, or a mixture of these, will be
a better application. The quantity ordinarily
applied annually is from four to five cords to
the acre. Whatever is applied should be
generously applied. It will be vain to ex-
pect full crops of onions, without full manu-
ring. When the manure is collected, it is
benefited much by a free application of
elbow grease in its preparation. The culti-
vator of the onion must work early and late,
and in good eirnest. Nothing short of for-
cible and persevering labor will answer.
No man who is afraid of soiling his hands or
the knees of his troiosers wiU do to engage
in this business. Close v.-ork at the proper
time, is the only sure guaranty of a good
crop.

3, The raising and planting of the seed.

In relation to the onion, as well as all
other vegetables, much care is necessar}* in
the selection of the plants for seed, and the
cultivation of the seed. By the application
of this care, the character of the article
raised may be modified almost at pleasure.
Until within a few years the /laf o?iio?i, hol-
low about the stem, has been preferred.
The thinner the handsomer. But it is now
understood, that the round, thick, plump on-
io7i, is preferable in many respects. It is
thought to yield better, and weigh heavier.
It is found to have a decided preference in
the market, commanding ten per cent more
in price. By selecting those of most desi-
rable form, which ripen the earliest, and
carefully setting them for seed, where they
will not be exposed to the impregnation of
the baser sorts, the quality has been mate-
rially changed and improved. These pe-
culiarities in the onion were first noticed in
this vicinity by JMr. Daniel Buxton. He
was careful to select in the field before the
crop was gathered, such onions as he pre-
ferred, and to preserve them for seed.

By so doing, the seed which he raised
soon acquired a character superior to any
other. Many of those who had been accus-
tomed to raise their own seed in the ordi-

516

CULTIVATION OF THE ONION.

nary way, laid it aside, and purchased seed
raised by Mr. Buxton, and found their
account in so doing. There are three vari-
eties of the onion raised in this vicinity —
the Silver-skm, the Red, and the White
onion. The Silver-skin is the predominant
species, and more cultivated than all others.
The Red is preferred by some — sells better
in some foreign markets, but does not yield
so abundantly. The White onion yields as
well as either of the others, is milder and
preferable for immediate use ; it will not
keep as well, and is not fit for exportation ;
which is the principal use made of our
onions.

The common drill machine is used for
the distribution of the seed. This admits
of regulation, so as to scatter it more or
less thick ; and in this there is room for the
application of sound judgment. The usual
quantity sown is about three pounds to an
acre. As a general rule, we should say,
one pound of good seed was the proper
quantity for a quarter of an acre of land of
good quality well prepared. It is desirable
to have the seed planted as thick as they
will grow fairly, both to secure a full crop,
and prevent the onion growing too large.
Onions from one to two inches in diameter
being preferred to those of a larger size.
The skilful cultivator carefully looks after
all these incidents relating to his crop.

4. The care necessary to be applied while
growing.

Much of the success of the crop depends
on this care. At first the plant is extremely
tender, and requires to be handled with
much caution. Any derangement of the
fibres or roots of the young plant, is attend-
ed with prejudicial consequences. Much
attention is necessary to prevent weeds
gaining the ascendancy ; and in eradicat-
ing the weeds. Want of due care in this
is often the cause of failure of a crop. We
have known the present season, a highly
promising crop to be injured twenty per
cent, at least, by permitting the weeds to
remain unnoticed one week too Io7ig. This
is especially true when there has been a
want of due care in preventing the scatter-
ing of the seeds of the weeds on the land
in the years preceding. Care should be
taken, both that no weeds shall ripen their

Fig. 60. — Onion Hoe.

seed upon the land, and that no weed seed
shall be found in the manure. In this re-
spect, warm stable manure, muscle bed, and
ashes, have a decided superiority over all
other manures. Perhaps there is no plant
more liable to be injured by weeds than
the onion. The fibres it sends out are very
numerous, minute and tender: any frac-
ture of any of these, necessarily impairs the
perfection of the plant. When the land is
in the proper condition, two careful weed-
ings are ail that may be necessary. , The
rest of the stirring of the ground that may
be required to promote the growth, can be
done with the Onion Hoe, (Fig. 60,) an in-
strument specially constructed for the pur-
pose, moving on wheels, and adapted to
the width of the rows. It is calculated to
pass between the rows of onions — being
either drawn or pushed. The wheels cover
a space of about one foot in width, and the
length of the cutting blade is also about a
foot. The length of the handle is about
five and a half feet. The usual distance
between the rows is fourteen inches, and as
the hoe takes a breadth of twelve inches, it
cuts over all the ground, excepting a strip
of two inches along each row. The cost of
the hoe varies from $1.25 to S1.50. It
was invented by Mr. Joseph Bushby, of
Danvers, an intelligent and successful cul-
tivator of garden vegetables, about 25 years
since ; and was used by himself and neigh-
bors only for about ten years. It has now
come into general use, and saves much of
hack-aching labor. The distance between
the rows can be varied according to the
quality and condition of the soil. Keeping
the ground well stirred, loose, and free of
weeds, greatly facilitates the bottoming of
the onion. There is no plant that will bet-
ter reward dilligent care in the cultivation.

CINCINNATI STRAWBERRY REPORT.

517

The entire difference between a bountiful
crop and no crop at all, often depends on this.
The old maxim ''a stitch in time saves nine,"
applies with great force in raising onions.

5. The blights and injuries to which the
crop may be subject.

So far as we have observed, this crop is
as certain as any other that is cultivated.
We know that onions will not grow without
a reasonable proportion of heat and moist-
ure ; but we have rarely, if ever known, an
entire failure of the crop, where due dili-
gence has been used. There are occasion-
ally blights, the causes of which we have
not learned. The more prominent will be
noticed.

Sometimes Ave have seen the plant cov-
ered with a small insect or louse, that gives
the top a white or light colored aspect,
and stops and stints the growth. These
make their appearance about the time the
bottoming commences. We have heard
their appearance charged to the use of mus-
cle-bed ; but whether they are limited to
land on which muscle-bed has been used,

we cannot say. We think not. We think
they are natural associates of the plant.
The effect of them is to diminish the quati-
tity, but not materially injure the quality
of the vegetable.

The crop is sometimes injured by a hlue
iiuncld that gathers on the tops, occasioned
by fogs, or an excess of moisture from fre-
quent and long continued rains.

There is a worm or maggot, occasionally
found upon the onion plant, in the early
stages of its growth, causing it to turn yel-
loio and die. This insect will be found in
the bulb, originating from eggs laid upon
the leaves, by a small ash colored fly, the
scientific name of which is said to be An-
Ihomyia cejyarum, (See Transactions of the
N. Y. State Ag. Society for 1843, page
135.) It comes to maturity in less than a
month, so that there may be several gene-
rations in the course of the season. Their
appearance in this vicinity is rare. Pulve-
rized charcoal and fire have been found the
most effectual remedies, against the ravages
of this class of depredators.

REVIEW.

The Cincinnati Strawberry Report. — This is
a pamphlet of 16 pages ; being the report made
by the committee of the Cincinnati Horticultural
Society, mostly practical cultivators, (Dr. Ward-
er, chairman,) to whom the sexual character of
the strawberry was referred for investigation last
season.
The pith of the report is contained in the
following extract :

" After carefully collecting and review-
ing the facts which they have observed and
recorded, the committee present the follow-
ing conclusions, or 'postulates, which have
been deduced from their united observa-
tions : —

" 1. That there are many different varie-
ties of the strawberry which are character-
ized in part by the foliage, pubescence,
mode of growth, and fruit ; and also by
their inflorescence.

"2. That the varieties of inflorescence,
(the most important to the cultivator,) con-
sist in the greater or less development of
the stamens and pistils, respectively ; upon
which are based our terms and classifica-
tion— ^ staminate' and 'pistillate:' or, more
familiarly with the mass of cultivators, male
a.nd female.

"3. That these classes are permanent
aberrations from what the great Linnaeus
considered the normal condition of this ge-
nus of plants, as of its natural family Ro-
sace ^e.

" 4. That nearly all botanists (and among
them our most enlightened modern writers,)
have overlooked the important error of Lin-
naeus, and have simply copied after him in
their descriptions of the strawberry, without
verifying for themselves; while a plain,

518

CINCINNATI STRAWBERRY REPORT.

unlettered market gardener, but a practical
observing- man, discovered* the important
fact, that, while in some plants the flowers
are apparently perfect in both sets of or-
gans, one set is really defective, to a great-
er or less extent ; and in others, the flowers
which we style pistillate, have the stamens
so imperfectly developed as entirely to elude
a casual observation, and only to be disco-
vered to a critical observer ; and then, in
most instances, found to be wholly abortive.

" 5. That no pistillate plant will bear a
perfect fruit if kept entirely apart from
staminate varieties.

" 6. That no staminate plants, which we
have yet seen, can be depended upon by
the cultivator as heavy bearers ; though,
from some unknown causes, the pistils may
be so well developed as to be followed by
a good crop, in some years, and in some
situations.

" 7. That there is no such thing known
to us as a perfect flowered strawberry plant,
in which the blossoms will all be 2inifornily
so well provided with both sets of organs
as to be followed by perfect fruit every
year.

" 8. That the only method of producing
this delicious fruit, with anj'' degree of cer-
tainty as to the result, is that now adopted
by our intelligent cultivators, namely, — to
set out plants of both the sexual classes;
the relative proportions of which to be de-
termined by experience, selecting such pis-
tillate kinds as may prove of good size and
flavor, and only so many staminates as may
be necessary for impregnation.

" 9. That the runners from a strawberry
plant are as integral portions of itself, as the
branches and buds of a tree ; and therefore
we may always propagate any variety by

* We say discovered, because we are unable to learn that
Mr. AasiGUsT ever heard of Mr. Keese, or Mr. Duchesne,
or that he was at all in the way of reading anything upon the
subject.

this means, with as much certainty as we
perpetuate any variety of apple or other fruit
by grafting or inoculating."

The foregoing, we say, is the pith of the
report, and is already familiar to the coun-
try at large, both by the numerous articles
published on the subject by Mr. Longworth,
and others, and still more by the now wide-
ly extended reputation of the most abun-
dant and excellent crops of strawberries,
with which the Cincinnati market is annu-
ally supplied, by following this course of
culture.

We have already stated in this journal,
that whatever may have been our doubts,
originally, as to the practical results of the
Cincinnati mode, tliRt is, in planting mainl}''
pistillate sorts, with only about a fourth
staminates to fertilize them, we have, after
a fair trial, no longer any doubts upon the
subject.

It is, we believe, m this cliviate, the only
mode which can he depended on for obtain-
ing every season a heavy crop of the large-
fruited strawberries. We have, therefore,
recommended it repeatedly of late in this
journal, and have just re-written that por-
tion of the eighth edition of our work on
Fruits, in which a contrary ground was
taken ; adding, also, to the description of
the varieties in that work the characters- —
pistillate, or staminate, — to designate their
habits to the cultivator.

We say, in this climate ; for it should be
added, that though the Cincinnati mode re-
pudiates many of the large pine strawber-
ries, such as Keen's Seedling, as plants not
to be relied upon for regular crops, yet they
very wisely add — " that from some unknown
causes, the pistils may he so well developed as
to give a good crop, some years, and in some
situations.'"

Now this is perfectly true ; and it also
explains what seems to be the stumbling

CINCINNATI STRAWBERRY REPORT.

519

block in the way of the Cincinnati commit-
tee ; we mean the marvel, why great au-
thorities and botanists abroad have been so
slow to discover, or practice upon the value
of the abnormal sexual character of many
varieties of this plant. Granting that a va-
riety once pistillate is always pistillate, and
one staminate always staminate, it does not
follow that somewhere, many, or perhaps
all good staminate varieties, for "some un-
known causes," do not bear good crops.
These unknown causes we take to be suita-
ble soil a7id climate for the developme7it of the
pistils in the staminate sorts. In Eng-
land, the damp climate and high culture fa-
vor this development ; consequently, such a
strawberry as KeeiCs Seedling maintains its
place as the first variety for a good crop all
over Great Britain for 20 years. (That it
certainly would not do this if it did not bear
well, practical men will admit without dis-
pute.) In this country, the hot and dry
climate renders Keen''s Seedling, and most
other staminate sorts, uncertain bearers,
and thence often quite worthless, because
the pistils are usually not well developed.

But there are soils and situations in the
United States so favorable that staminate
sorts do bear very heavy crops. Thus, we
have once seen a heavier crop of large
fruit on Swains toners Seedling, [stamiiiate,)
than ever upon Hovey's Seedling, [pistil-
late ;) and several cultivators in this state
have been equally successful with Ross'
Phanix.

The difficulty is that the staminates "caw-
?iot be depended on." Sometimes they bear
well — sometimes not ; as the season proves
hot or cool, and the soil is more or less well
adapted. In England, we think they can
be relied on. Hence the necessity, here, of
the resort to the Cincinnati mode of de-
pending upon the pistillates, (such as Hud-
son, Hovey's Seedling, &c.,) which, when

fertilized by a small proportion of stami-
nates, always bear heavy crops ; and hence
the great value, for America, of the Cin-
cinnati discovery.

We are, therefore, very glad to see the
whole matter put in so intelligible and de-
finite a shape as it has been by this com-
mittee, in the 9 articles of faith which we
have just quoted.

There are two or three points of little
consequence that we will notice in the re-
port. In article 7, the committee say there
is no '^perfect flowered strawberry plant."
In order to leave no doubt, however, what
is meant by this hated word (we can scarce-
ly write it without imagining a frown on
Mr. Longworth's brow I) they add — "in
which the blossoms will all be u?iiformly
so well provided with both sets of organs
as to be followed by perfect fruit every
year."

Quite right ; we agree fully with the
committee. But is this the definition of a
perfect (that is, an ordinary fruitful her-
maphrodite) flower, as would be understood
generally by botanists and gardeners ? The
apple, for instance, is a Rosaceous plant, be-
longs to the same family, and the blossom
has the same natural structure as the straw-
berry. Now we think no one will deny
that the apple bears a perfect flower, al-
though, from various causes, all the blos-
soms may not set perfect fruit every year.

Again, leaving the acknowledged sta?ni-
nates and pistillates out of the question,
there is still a small class of strawberries,
well known in our gardens as the " Wood
Strawberries'" of Europe [English Red-wood,
White-wood, Src.,) with small leaves, and
small erect blossoms, which have, in the
general sense, perfect flowers ; that is, with
the normal proportion of stamens and pis-
tils, constant in their habit, (like those of
the apple and pear,) and which always, in

520

FOREIGN NOTICES.

good soil, with ordinary culture, produce
good crops of fruit.

These strawberries, from their compara-
tively small size, do not usually enter into
competition with the larger Pine strawber-
ries ; but we believe there is a practical
cultivator in our neighborhood who will
undertake to grow from a bed of them, of
a given size, as many quarts in a season as
any grower in Cincinnati can do with the
best pistillate variety. They are evidently
little grown in Cincinnati, as we find them
scarcely mentioned in this report. Although
they are certainly not 'perfect flowered sorts,
in the sense defined by the committee, (has
any Rosaceous plant such flowers ?) yet we
think they might have been ranked as such.

For ourselves, we place these sorts be-
low the pistillates for heavy crops and fine
large fruit ; but from their permanent cha-
racter, easy culture, and long succession of
fruit, they are largely esteemed in this part
of the country.

The La Grange (or Lafayette,) straw-
berry, noticed in this report, is, as we have
proved, synonymous with the Prolific, or
Musk Ilautlois, as the committee suggest.

The " Hudson" strawberry, as noticed in
this report, and as generally known at Cin-
cinnati, is, we imagine, not the genuine
Hudson, so long known in the Philadelphia
and New-York markets. We suspected this
from the exception which Mr. Longworth
made to our description of this variety ; but
the fact that it is in this report compared in
colour to Willey and Hovey^s Seedling, and
that we have fruited the Willey from Cin-
cinnati, which is widely difl^erent from the
true Hudson, (though, as we learn from Cin-
cinnati growers, not readily distinguished
from their "Hudson" there;) all this leads
us to suppose that the true Hudson is not
cultivated about that city. Ours is the true
" Hudson's Bay," accurately described and
figured in the London Hort. Transactions,
vol. vi., p. 159 ; in Lindley's Guide to the
Orchard, Princess Poviological Manual, and
our Fruits and Fruit Trees ; very dark co-
lour, firm flesh and acid flavor, with a neck.

Mr, Ernst has just sent us plants of the
Hudson of Cincinnati, and we shall, there-
fore, soon be able to compare this with the
sort known by that name east of the AUe-
ghanies.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Pulque — the Mexican Drink. — [We extract
the following account of the manufacture of the fa-
vorite Mexican drink, from Buxton's Adventures in
Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, lately published
in London.

The American Aloe, {Agave Jlmericana) from
from which it is made, is the " century plant" so
well known in all our green-houses. — Ed.]

" In the city of Mexico alone, the consunaption of
pulqui amounts to the enormous quantity of 1 1 mil-
lions of gallons per annum, and a considerable reve-
nue from its sale is derived by government. The
plant attains maturity in a period varying from 8 to
14 years, when it nowers ; and it is during the
stage of inflorescence only that the saccharine juice
is extracted. The central stem, which encloses the
incipient flower, is then cut off near the bottom, and
a cavity or basin is discovered, over which the sur-
rounding leaves are drawn close and tied. Into
this reservoir the juice distils, which otherwise

would have risen to nourish and support the flower.
It is removed three or four times during twenty-four
hours, yielding a quantity of liquor varying from a
quart to one-half gallon. The juice is extracted by
means of a syphon made of a species of gourd called
acojote. one end of which is placed in the liquor,
the other in the mouth of a person, who, by suction,
draws up the fluid into the pipe, and it is deposited
in the bowls he has with him for that purpose. It
is then placed in earthen jars, and a little old
pulque — inadre de pulque — is added, when it soon
ferments, and is immediately ready for use. The
fermentation occupies two or three days, and when it
ceases, the pulque is in fine order. Old pulque has
a slightly unpleasant odor, which heathens have
likened to the smell of putrid meat ; but when fresh,
is brisk and sparkling, and the most cooling, re-
freshing, and delicious drink ever was invented for
thirsty mortal : and when gliding down the dust-
dried throat of a way-worn traveller, who feels the

FOREIGN NOTICES.

521

{grateful liquor distilling through his veins, is indeed
the " licor divino," which Mexicans assert is pre-
ferred by the angels in heaven to ruby wine."

Great M>i:xiCAN Cypress Trf.es — Far more in-
teresting th: n the apocryphal tradition of the Indian
palace, or the viceroy's castle, is the magniticent
prove of cypress (deciduous cypress, Taxidium
distichum) which outlives all the puny structures
of man, and, still (1846) in the prime of strength
and beauty, looks with contempt on the ruined
structures of generation after generation which
have passed away. One of these noble trees is up-
wards of seventeen yards, or 50 odd feet, in girth,
and is the most picturesque, and at the same time,
nobly proportioned tree, it is possible to conceive.
It rises into the sky, a perfect pyramid of foliage,
and from its sweeping branches hang pendulous,
graceful festoons of a mossy parasite. There are
many others of equal height among the Chepulte-
pec grove, but this one, which I believe is called
Montezuma's cypress, stands more isolated, and is
therelore more conspicuously grand. From the
summit of the hill, to which a path winds through a
labyrinth of shrubs, a fine view of the valley and
city of Mexico is obtained, and of the surrounding
mountains and volcanic peaks. Buxton's Mexico.

To Promote the Growth of Trees. — What-
ever mode of planting trees may have been adopted,
the following means will greatly promote their
growth.

Scrub the bark of the trunk and principal branch-
es with a wet brush, (dipped in soap suds,) until
there remains neither moss nor dt-ail bark. Repeat
this operation several times in a season, but espe-
cially in the months of April and November. In
this way the perspiration of the tree is aided, and
the bark is everywhere put in the best condition to
absorb moisture, and the whole tree becomes more
susceptible to the beneficial influences of the atmos-
phere.

It is especially fruit trees that this cleaning will
most benefit.

As trees absorb the humidity of the air by all
parts of their surface, it is particularly in a hot and
dry season that this process is recommended, as it
then puts them in a state to profit by the least rain,
or even by the dew. Insects which are especially
fond of trees whose bark is rough and diseased, are
much less likely to attack those which have been
freed from all dead and useless parts. When there-
fore the brush is not sullicient to completely render
the bark smooth, it should first be carefully scraped
with a knife, and alterwards well washed and
scoured with the brush.

To be convinced of the utility of this mode of
treatment, it is only necessary to compare the rapid
growth of a tree so treated, with its neighbors left
to nature. Pfaelzische {German) Garlenzeitung,

To Restore Sickly or Jawndiced Azaleas
AND OTHER Planth. — The following further appli-
cation of M. Gius' important discovery in restoring
the health of plants with yellow and sickly foliage,
noticed at length in our last, is well worthy of at-
tention. Lemon and Capo Jasijiine plants^ 4» well

VOL. II. 66

as sickly fruit trees, may be restored in the same
manner. — Ed.]

In the Revue Horticole of the ]5th of October, is
an excellent article on the culture of Azaleas, over
the well known signature of M. Van Houtte. Will
you allow me to submit to your readers some obser-
vations on this subject ?

M. Van Houtte recommends, forAzaleas suffer-
ing from chlorosis, (yellow sickly state of foliage,)
and in a languid state, the same treatment employ-
ed by all practitioners, namely, repotting, sheltered
and shaded position, under a frame, &c., &c.

During the vacation, I was at Chatillon-sur-
Seine : M. Leclerc, post-master and member of
the committee of agriculture, begged me to submit
to a regimen of iron, seven or eight Azaleas, which,
in spite of the treatment recommended above, had
been for two or three months, in a decidedly jaun-
diced and sutfering state. Two or three of them
were dying. On the first of September, at a tem-
perature of 20°, the plants in question were im-
mersed, leaves and branches, in a solution of sul-
phate of iron, (common copperas,) half a dram to
a quart of water, or loz. to fifteen gallons, and
withdrawn after several seconds, being entirely and
uniformly wet. Eight days after a decided ameli-
oration was perceptible. The operation was then
repeated, a small quantity of a stronger solution of
iron being spread on the earth in tlie pots.

Under the influence of this double absorption, ex-
ternal and internal, the Azaleas, after fifteen or
twenty days, would not have been recognized for
the same plants ; not only had they regained their
green and healthy appearance, but at the extremi-
ties of several branches, young green leaves were
observed, with all the signs of a vigorous growth.

The same experience occurred at the same timo
and place, with equal success, on some Calceola-
rias, which had been in an equally sickly, pale and
dying condition.

I doubt if any other method would give as rapid,
and perceptible results, obtained with so litte trou-
ble and expense. This medical practice is so sim-
ple that the most humble gardener's apprentice
could easiiy become enough of a doctor, to apply
it. It is merely necessary to keep strictly to the
doses indicated ; to use the solution of iron immedi-
ately after the copperas has dissolved, that is to
say, before it is ati'ected by a deposit of rust, and to
operate witli the temperature sulficicntly hi<rh.
Below 12° or 14°, (60° or 65° Fahrenheit,) the°ef-
fects arc much less sensible, sometimes not-7p6stip-
tible. They would be still more rematkable and
immediate, if the temperature were still bigher.
If the sun, however, should be very hot, it would
be advisable to try the experiment a little in the
shade.

Finally, these experiments with sulphate of iron,
which have occupied me since 1840, have been pur-
sued for three years at the Museum of Natural
History, in Paris, under the benevolent auspices of
the professors of botany and culture. This new
treatment has been applied to a number of indivi-
dual plants belonging to the most diflerent natural
families, some in the open air, some in the orangery,
some in the hot-house ; — and the results obtained
daily, leave no doubt of the specific action of talt

522

FOREIGN NOTICES.

of iron on jaundiced vegetation, {Morose vege- 1 ticultural Society at Chisvvick, which are now more

tale.) EusEBE Gris, Revue Horticole.

Pears on Quince Stocks. — I must refer your
correspondent " Abdalonymus"tomy reply to" Con-
stant Reader," civen at p. 372, 1847; he will there
find the results of my experience, which will spare
my pen, but I feel that I ought to firmly contradict
his assertion — " It is a fact that few sorts of pears
will grow immediately on quince stocks." I can
give him a list of more than 200 sorts that grow
freely without double working. The Virgoleuse
Pear is very inferior to other sorts, the names of
which I have given in the letter above referred to
for double working ; for walls or espaliers they are
not "useless;" let " Abdalonymus" go to Mr.
Thompson at the Chiswick Gardens, and ask him
to show him the fine trees in the west wall there,
some 25 years old, and looking as if they would
live for a century. Some of our finest old varieties
of pear, such as the, Crassane and Colmar, most
certainly require a wall to bring them to perfec-
tion, as is also the case in the northern departments
of France and in Belgium ; but our best new varie-
ties give the very finest fruit from pyramidal trees
on the quince stock.

It is not a fact "that pears are far more liable
to canker upon quince stocks than upon their own ;"
quite the contrary, as I can prove to " Abdalony-
mous " if he will come and see me. Very many
sorts that canker and are unfruitful here, when
grafted on the pear stock are fruitful and healthy
in the highest degree when worked on the quince.
I will here venture to repeat what I have before
written in your pages, that the " Louise Bonne, of
Jersey," grafted on the pear here, and growing in
a light sandy loam, seldom or never bears clean
fruit ; they are always spotted and diseased, and
its shoots are often cankered and unhealthy. I
have this month taken ofi' the heads, for the pur-
pose of regrafting some fine trees 15 years old, on
this account) and have just finished a plantation of
2000 trees of this sort on the quince to grow fruit
for Covent Garden market, only because it does so
well. Your correspondent does not give any ac-
count of his experience ; his letter seems to me all
empty assertion.

Pears upon quince stocks do not " require seve-
ral years before they come into a bearing state ;"
they often bear the second year from the bud or
graft, and the third year they will bear abundant-
ly. I am not at all surprised at your correspond-
ent being " completely" bafiled ; he has not perse-
vered as I have. The fruit from pyramidal trees
on the quince occasionally root-pruned is not " small
and deficient in juice ;" the finest flavored pears I
have ever tasted in this country and in France have
been the produce of trees of this description ; there
is always much more piquancy of flavor than in
pears from walls. I can state rather a stubborn
fact in support of this ; I sent last October some
sieves of Louise Bonne of Jersey to Covent Garden
market. My salesman reported to me that " they
■were the best ho had ever seen or tasted."

Now, as to duration, "to die in a few years"
will not be the fate of trees worked on the quince ;
witness the healthy trees in the gardens of the Hor-

than 20 years old. I have seen trees on the conti-
nent more than 40 years old equally healthy. Sure-
ly this is enough of duration lor any garden trees,
and for any man of moderate wishes.

I half suspect that I know " Abdalonymus," and
that some years since he was an unsuccessful cul-
tivator of the pear on quince stocks, owing to his
employing the common pear-shaped quince, raised
from layers, which is a most unfit stock. He does
not perliaps know that there are four or five varieties
nf the quince, and that he used the very worst sort
for a stock. He sold his trees, and I should think
suffered in reputation. This, I fear, has made him
crotchety and envious. I regret to observe this,
and shall feci much pleasure in pointing out to him
the different varieties of the quince, and in particu-
lar that which is most favorable to the pear. By
the way, an error that the Portugal quince is alone
the proper stock for the pear has been extensively
propagated ; this, I think, has its origin in the as-
sertion of Comte Lelieur, in his " Pomone Fran-
caise ;" he there mentions it as being the best
stock, but in describing it he jrives the description
of the Angers quince, a variety with small and
pointed leaves, which strikes readil}' from cuttings.
The true Portugal quince has broad downy leaves,
and does not strike freely from cuttings ; neither
does the pear succeed well grafted upon it ; it is
rarely seen in the French nurseries, and never em-
ployed as a stock.

I have above spoken of the freedom from canker
of many sorts of pears when grafted on the quince.
So much is this the case, that only the other day,
when looking over some very healthy free-growing
root-pruned trees, I was almost vain enough to
think that I had discovered both the carse and the
remedy for that perplexing disease. On one side
were some pear trees (not root-pruned) grafted on
their own stocks, which after having grown freely
for several years had commenced to canker ; the
disease indeed seemed to be making rapid progress.
On the other side were some root-pruned pear
trees, of the same age, on quince stocks, full of
bloom buds and health ; not a spot or speck of
canker to be seen on them. One of my laborers
was present ; I bid him dig around the first named
pear trees, so that I could see their roots. I found
them all making their way almost perpendicularly
downwards, through a sandy loam into a calcare-
ous sand, and in some places into a stifl', reddish,
tender clay. They were evidently ge'ting out of
the influence of the sun and air ; the consequence
is disease in the branches.

I turned to ray root-pruned trees on the quince
stocks, uncovered their roots, and closely examined
them. Every root and fibre was near the surface,
ready to receive the benefits of surface dressings in
winter, liquid manure in summer, and the influen-
ces of sun and air. The consequence is health and
fertility. These are, I trust, facts worthy the con-
sideration of the physiologist.

A few words more about pyramidal pear trees on
the quince stock and I have done. In the " good
old times" it was customary in planting common
gardens to stick in dwarf trees here and jthere, ei-
ther Willow-like one year old grafts or bushy trees

FOREIGN NOTICES.

523

two or three years cut in ; if vij^orous jrrowinsj sorts
these soon <jrevv into lari^e sin-eiulintr trees, shading'
a large space orsmunil. II', on the contrary, they
were delicate and rather tender, their shoots in a
few years conimenced to canker, and presently the
trees would be a mass of disease. Now pyramidal
pear trees on the quince stock, and apples on the
paradise stock, must not be stuck in in tliis manu'^r ;
they should be planted — and planted well, and have
summer pinching and winter root-pruning if inclined
to grow too vigorously ; surface dressing in autumn
and liquid manure in summer will also be found
highly advantageous. In short, they require cul-
ture; in deep, rich, fertile soils, this surface dress-
ing and li()uid manuring may be dispensed with, but
in thin, drj' and light soils it is quite indispensable.
more particularly in thin soils resting on chalk ; in
such soils, even with the best culture, success will
not always attend the efforts of the cultivator ; but
I must honestly confess r.hat I have not yet seen
any failure. The following sorts of pears, I am
inclined to think, will succeed on the quince, even
on the most unfavorable soils ; they are planted
here in stiff, dark, adhesive clays — in light, calca-
reous, reddish sand — in sandy loam, and in a stiff,
red loam (such is the great variety of soils in my
nursery,) in all they succeed admirably, and give
abundance of fruit of large size and fine flavor :
Beurre Ananas, Beurre d'Amanlis, Beurre d'Arem-
berg and its congener Soldat Laboureur or Orphe-
line d'Enghien, Beurre Capiaumont, Beurre Diel,
Beurre Easter, Beurre Langelier, Bon Chretien
(William's.) Chaumontelle, Citron des Carmes,
Colmar, Crassane, Deliee de Hardenpont, D03'-
enne d'cte. Doyenne (white,) Duchesse d'Angou-
letne,Fortunce (Parmentier,) Glout Morceau,Gra-
tioli of Jersey, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Napoleon,
Passe Colmar, Saint Germain, Van Mons Leon le
Clerc. Vicar of Winkfield, Wilhelmine, &c.

I must confess that I take great pleasure in the
culture of pyramidal trees — they are so productive,
so " gardenesque," so come-at-able, their fruit is so
easily gathered, the progress of the trees in all their
stages of growth is so under the eye of the cultiva-
tor that I feel assured it must make rapid progress,
in spite of such cavillers as '' Abdalonyinus" and
*■ Constant Reader." — Thomas Rivers. [Mr. Ri-
vers is perfectly right. Ed.] Gard. Chronicle.

It is a well-known fact that the Diseases of
Plants, like those of animals, are occasionally epi-
demic, prevailing over the vegetation of large dis-
tricts ; and the question has often been asked — Are
they contagious or infectiont? — Are they propa-
gated by matter engendered in one individual and
communicated to another? We siiall endeavor to
answer these ([ucstions ; and we think that the con-
clusion must be arrived at, from the evidence be-
fore us. that the diseases of plants may be, like
those of animals, produced by contagion.

Amonirst animals, diseases are engendered by
the application of organic matter in three forms :
1st, that of animals, as in the case of the itch-mite,
rot-worm, and the various forms of epi/.oa and en-
tozoa ; 2d, that of vegetables, as in the fungi of
scald-head, the confervaj of impetigo, and other
cutaneous diseases ; 3J, that of orgauic cells, whicli

do not give evidences of the possession of a specific
animal or vegetable life, as in the case of small-pox,
measles, scarlet fever, typhus fever, &c.; and it is
these diseases which arc most frequently epidemic.
The same agents are caiiable of producing dis-
eases in vegetables. Tlic attacks of the aphis, the
scolytus, and other insects, are well known as pro-
ducing extensive destruction of herbs and trees over
large districts ; and the most frequent pestilences
that desolate the cultivated plants of our fields are
produced by various forms of fungi. The agency
of fungi is so great in producing blights, that some
writers have heen inclined to attribute all the dis-
eases of the vegetable kingdom, not produced by
insects, to this cause ; and the peculiar characters
which the cells of plants assume under disease have
been named as though they were so many species
of fungi. We arc indebted to Unger, a German
botanist, for having pointed out this error, and the
real source of the sujjposed forms of fungi. There
is not, however, any doubt that the greater number
of the mostdestructive pests of our fields — as those
known by the names of smut, brand, mildew, rust,
&c. — are produced by the introduction of the seeds
of fungi into the tissues of the affected plants.
With the history and nature of these, we are hap-
py to say we shall be able to make the readers of
the Gardeners^ Chronicle acquainted, through the
able pen of the Rev. Mr. Berkley.

These cryptogamic diseases of plants must be
regarded as contagious, since they are produced by
the contact of one portion of organic matter with
another. But the diseased cells of a vegetable are
capable of communicating their diseased action to
healthy cells, just as tl.e cells from an animal af-
fected with small-pox are capable of giving that
disease to another. If a healthy plant of Cactus
be inoculated with some of the fluid from a plant
affected with moist gangrene, diseased action will
immediately commence, and extend more or less
rapidly according to the condition of the plant thus
inoculated ; and this is tiic case witii some other
forms of vegetable disease. The kind of action
thus established is analogous to that which occurs
when a small quantity of ferment is introduced into
a saccharine fluid, the consequence being the im-
partation of a new character to the particles of the
fluid, and an entire change in the relation of its
chemical constituents. In order that diseases may
be thus produced, it is not ncctssary that the con-
tagious matter be conveyed from one plant to ano-
ther in a tangible form, but the diseased cells may
be conveyed through the medium of the air, in the
same way as the sporules of fungi which produce
blights.

In treating of contagious diseases or those pro-
duced by animals and plants, most writers have
paid almost exclusive attention to the agent pro-
ducing the disease, not taking into consideration
the condition of the plant attacked. In human be-
ings it is well known that only a small proportion of
persons exposed to the influence of contagion will
take the disease that it is calciflateil to produce.
Tiiere is, in fact, in both animals and plants a cor-
dition of the tissues of the individual, brought on by
circumstances, which favors the production of dis-
ease, and it is alono in our power over this condi-

524

FOREIGN NOTICES.

tion that we can expect to control the visitation
and destruction of epidemic diseases. That such a
condition of plants exists is, we think, proved by the
fact that epidemic diseases arising from the attacks
of insects and fungi do not occur in the same dis-
. tricts in following years, although there can be no
doubt that there are more of the seeds of disease,
as the ova of insects, the seeds of fungi, &c., in the
vicinity of crops, in the year following an attack of
the disease, than in years either previous or subse-
quent to the attack. We think, then, that there is
reason to conclude that there are constantly in the
atmosphere germs which are capable of producing
disease in a plant, provided the plant gets into a
condition to be attacked.

The circumstances that would produce such a
condition of a plant as to render it liable to the de-
velopment of epidemic diseases, are of a general
nature. The state of the atmosphere in relation to
moisture, the prevalence of unseasonable, hot or
cold weather, the amount of light, and probably the
electrical condition of the air and earth, are the
circumstances which act on plants generally, and
■which may produce a state in which insects, fungi,
or organic germs, may generate disease.

A more limited cause of predisposition to conta-
tious disease is the natural decay of a plant or parts
of a plant. Thus we find that the leaves are more
exposed to the attacks of fungi just before the fall
than at any other time. The trunk and branches
of a tree become most frequently gangrenous when
they have attained maturity. Soft fruits — as ap-
ples, pears, oranges, melons, grapes, &c., are more
exposed to the attacks of disease the riper they get.
Ripe fruit is already entering into a state of decay,
and this process is hastened by the introduction of
the seeds of fungi or the cells of diseased tissue.

Can the epidemic diseases of plants be averted ?
We think in some cases they may, and in others
very much mitigated. We cannot control the sun
and the wind, nor prevent electrical accumulations
and escapes ; but we may act in anticipation of
their influence, and, if we cannot altogether pre-
vent the occurrence of epidemic diseases among
plants, we may do much to prevent their destruc-
tive consequences. Plants which have the most
perfect health will always withstand depressing
or exciting influences best, and the most carefully
cultivatedfarms and gardens will always be those
which, in the long run, will suffer least from blights
of any kind. It is not our object here to point out
the means of keeping plants in a healthy state ; but
we would say to farmers and gardeners — take all
care that your plants are healthy ; be careful of
stimulating them with heat, light, water, or ma-
nures ; be equally careful of depriving them of
a sufficient quantity of these things ; and guard
against poisoning them by noxious gases or impro-
per manures. The influence of particular varieties
of plants, and the age of them, in producing dis-
ease, we shall discuss in a separate article. L. E.

Gard. Chronicle.

Burnt Clay a Good Manure. — It has been
the custom here for some years, in spring, when
the operations of pruning, &c., are ended, instead
of suffering the rough branches to lie about, pre-
senting an untidy appearance, to collect them in a

heap, and build a wall of turf round them in a semi-
circular form about three feet high. They are then
set fire to, and when about half burnt down, such
weeds and other rubbish as collect in exery gar-
den, and will not readily decompose, are thrown
on the top, and earth is gradually cast up as the
fire breaks through.

During the first two or three days no ordinary
care is requisite to keep the pile on fire ; but after
this, if the fire is not ailoM'cd to break through and
thus expend itself, it will certainly spread through
tbewhoJe heap, and almost any amount of soil may
be burnt by still adding to the top. The soil we
burn is the stiflTest loam that can be found within
our limits, and is rather of a clayey nature ; also
turf from the sides of ditches and ponds, in itself
naturally sour and full of rank weeds.

The clay thus burnt has been found beneficial in
every instance. In black garden mould, where
peach trees were disposed to sucker and canker,
despite of animal manures and drainage, two or
three annual dressings of burnt earth appear so to
have altered the soil that they now grow cleafi,
vigorous and healthy, are free from suckers, and
produce roots completely matted with fibre. The
like success has attended its application to other
fruit trees.

During the summer of 1842, six beds of tea-
scented roses growing in an alluvial loam (the ad-
jacent fields are of the same soil, and grow large
crops of wheat and potatoes, but the particles of
soil run together after rain, and present a smooth
cemented surface) were manured with the follow-
ing substances, viz. — 1, bone-dust ; 2, burnt earth ;
3. nitrate of soda ; 4, guano ; 5, pigeon dung ; and
6, decomposed stable manure. The guano pro-
duced the earliest visible effects, causing a vigor-
ous growth, which continued through the season ;
the flowers, however, were not so abundant, and
the shoots did not ripen well, and were consequently
much cut with the frost. The bed manured with
burnt earth next forced itself into notice ; the plants
kept up a steadier rate of growth, producing abun-
dance of clean, well formed blossoms ; the wood
ripened well, and sustained no injurj' during win-
ter. The results of the other manures were not
remarkable — acting as gentle stimulants, the ni-
trate of soda and bone-dust least visibly so — al-
though they were applied in the quantities usually
recommended by the venders.

From the fact of the beds of roses being all
planted at the same date, and their progress being
carefully watched, I would suggest the application
of burnt earth as an excellent manure for roses in
adhesive soils, as well as for fruit trees where dis-
posed to canker. Whether it acted by furthering
drainage, or by opening the soil to the fertilizing
influences of the atmosphere, or by fixing the am-
monia conveyed to the soil by rain, I do not pretend
to say, but its value is sufficiently apparent. I be-
lieve it is considered that the vegetable matter con-
tained in soils is destroyed by the act of burning ;
and I do not think the remains of the materials
used in combustion could exercise any extended in-
fluence, as the quantity compared with the earth
burned is so small, and the earth comes from the
heap burnt red and hard, and a great portion quite

FOREIGN NOTICES.

525

free from the remains of the substances used in ig-
nition. Gard. Chronicle.

Burnt Clay. — I can fully confirm the state-
ment of Mr. W. Paul, of Cheshunt, which appear-
ed in the last week's Gardeners' Chronicle, as to
the good ellbcts produced in gardens, where the .soil
is stronu, by the use of burnt clay or marl mixed
with the ashes of vegetables and the charred
branches of trees. I have had for some time past
several of these burning heaps in the environs of
my garden, which produce us in succession a very
valuable manure ; they are easily kept in a state
of combustion, and all the care they require is, to
cover and surround them occai^ionally with fresh
clay or marl, that they may not burst out into an
open flame. My gardener sowed two beds of onion
seeds of the Globe, James' Keeping, and Strasburg
sorts, mixed together, about the 10th of March
last, with 1 lb. of seed to each bed. The beds
were each of them 18 yards by 12 yards, and one
of them was manured with good stable dung ; the
other by this mixture of burnt clay and vegetable
ashes. The produce of the first did not exceed five
bushels of an inferior size, the greater part having
been destroyed by the larva of the onion fly ; whilst
that of the latter was 20 bushels of onions, as large
as those imported from Portugal. Another re-
markable circumstunce is, that the former have not
ke[)t well ; but the latter are as sound as possible,
not a single bulb in the strings showing the least
appearance of decay. The same burnt mixture has
been applied with equal success in my fruit garden.
I had observed a great decrease in my crop of apri-
cots for several years past, and upon a careful in-
vestigation as to the cause, my gardener and I
agreed that it must be owing to the tenacity of the
border ; we therefore had the old soil removed, and
a quantity of this burnt mixture with a little, fresh
loam substituted for ir. My gardener planted the
border so renewed with runners of Keen's Seedling,
in rows ; they became stronrj plants by June, when
they flowered and produced an abundant crop, and
all my apricot trees were covered during the sum-
mer with well ripened fruit. I am so fully persua-
ded of the excellence of this kind of manure, that I
intend to adopt it generally on my farm. It will
there have a double ativantaffc ; for I shall be ena-
bled to save the farm yard dung for composts, and
I shall have the gratification of seeing my hedges
neatly trimmed and my ditches well cleared out.
Our stiflT soils will be also rendered more friable,
and will not suffer as they now do from the reten-
tion of wet on the surface. Oswald Mosely. Rol-
leston Hall, near Burton-on-Trent. Ibid.

Durability of Oak cut in Winter. — We have
a saying in Surry, that the sap of winter fallen oak
ia as hard as the heart of that which is thrown in
in the spring. There may be a little exaggeration
in this saying, but it serves to show the common
impression of the comparative durability. ^. C. P.
Ibid.

Budding and Inarching the Vine. — Wishing
to increase the number of Muscats of Alexandria
and Cannon Hall Grapes, I cut down a few vines ;
one-half of thera was budded, and the other was

inarched. To test the merit of each method fairly,
both buddinsj and inarching were done at one peri-
od. The result is, that by the former method,
bearing wood has been produced nearly double the
strength of that by the latter. In budding, the fol-
lowing is the method I pursued : — The old vines
were cut down in the autumn of 1842. They were
laid in March, 1S43 ; as soon as they had made
shoots a few inches Ions, two were selected on each
vine, and all the others were taken off. These were
tied in, and laterals were pinched regularly off
them until May. Tiie young shoots were then about
two-thirds up the rafters, and nearly full grown in
thickness at the base, but not ripened or turned
brown. At that period the buds taken from young
shoots with leaves not larger than two inches in
diameter, were put on ; the wood was left in the
buds ; they were inserted in the usual way, and
tied firmly with a piece of matting. In the course
of ten days or a fortniirht they were united, the
mattins was undone, and the shoots were cut down
to the buds ; all shoots below the buds were taken
off as they made their appearance. After this was
done they grew away very strong and rapidly.
Some of the buds showed fruit, but this was pinched
off. The leaves attached to the buds never flaa-
eed. W. G. Ibid.

Geranium Leaves for Wounds. — The leaves
of the pelargonium are, as everybody knows, strong-
ly scented ; some smell of rose, others of lemons,
apples, etc.; there are also other sorts which,
when bruised, have a nauseous and rather disa-
greeable odor. All the species and varieties of
this genus contain a large quantity of essential oil.
which is usually fatty. There are several sorts of
geraniums, which are cultivated in the open air in
the south of France, and particularly at Nice, for
the purpose of extracting the oil, which is sold to
the perfumers. The leaves of all pelargoniums
have also the property of quickly healing cuts, pla-
ces where the skin has been rubbed off, and other
sores of that kind. You take a leaf or more of the
pelargonium, which you bruise on a piece of linen ;
you then apply it to the sore place, and it often
happens that one leaf is sufficient to heal the
wound. It sticks closely to the surrounding' skin,
helps to close the flesh, and heals the wound in a
short time. I have often tried this method, and
found it quite successful ; and others, to whom I
have recommended it, have given an equally favora-
ble report. The Pelargonium zonule, [common
horse-shoe geranium,] one of the oldest green-house
plants, is much more efiicacious than others of the
same kind ; its shining fleshy leaves render it far
preferable to those which are ribbed and downy.
Revue Horticole. ....

The Ripening of Fruits. — A prize having been
offered in the year 1821, by the French Academy
of Sciences, for a proper elucidation of this impor-
tant and highly interesting subject, three papers
were received ; one of which written by M. Berard
of Montpelier, gained the prize, and was after-
wards published in the ^nnales de Chimie. M.
Berard's memoir is exceedingly long and turbid ;
the following summary of usefnl facts is, thereiore,
presented to the reader.

526

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Fruits do not act on the air in the same manner
as leaves do : the results of the action of the former
(both in liii'ht and darkness) are at every instant of
their formation and j^rowth, to suffer a loss of car-
bon ; which, combining with the oxygen of the at-
mosphere, forms carbonic acid. The loss of car.
boll is essential to the ripening of the fruit ; for, if
the latter be placed in an atmosphere deprived of
oxygen, the function of throwing out carbon will
become suspended, the ripening stopped, and if the
fruit remain attached to the tree or plant, it will
dry up and die.

Fruits which are enclosed in shells, however,
may and do ripen ; for the membranes which form
the husk are naturally permeable to the air : in-
deed, the communication between the external and
internal air is so free, that both have always been"
found to be of uniform composition ; that is, when
analysed, the atmosphere within the shell has fur-
nished the same relative quantities of oxygen and
nitrorjen as the air which we breathe.

When fruits separated from the tree (even though
capable of completing their own ripening) are
placed in atmospheres or media deprived of oxy-
gen, they will not ripen ; the power of ripening,
however, in such case, is only suspended, and may
be induced to act, or be re-established, by placing
the fruit in an atmosphere capable of taking carbon
from it. If the fruit, however, remain too long in
the deoxygenated situation, it will have lost the
power of ripening : even though it preserve nearly
the same external appearance.

From these facts the inference is plain, but high-
ly important, viz : that most fruits and especially
those which do not require to remain long on their
parent trees, may be preserved for a considerable
time ; and thus their utility and the pleasure which
they afford be prolonged. The most simple process
consists in forming a paste of lime, sulphate of iron
and water, placing the same at the bottoms of
glass or stone bottles, or jars ; and then introdu-
cing the fruit pulled a few days before it would
otherwise have become ripe. Such fruits, howe-
ver, are to be kept from the bottoms of the bottles
or other ves.sels, and as much as possible from each
other: at the same time care must be taken to
close the bottle or jar with proper corks and ce-
ment, either with or without bladders or tin covers,
according to circumstances. Persons at all ac-
quainted with chemistry, will perceive that fruits
thus placed, are situate in an atmosphere entirely
freed from oxygen, (which has been absorbed by
the paste,) and, consequently, that they may be
preserved for a longer or shorter space of time,
according to their nature : Peaches, Apricots,
Prunes, and several species of plums, from twenty
days to a month ; Pears and Apples for full three
months. If either of these fruits be withdrawn
from their confinement, after their respective peri-
ods, and be exposed to the air, they will ripen ex-
tremely well ; but if these periods be much exceed-
ed, they will undergo partial alteration and will
not ripen at all.

It is well known that when ripe fruit is long
exposed to the air, it will rot and decay ; in such
cases the fruit first changes the oxygen of the sur-
rounding air into carbonic acid gas, and then the

same gas is evolved from its own substance in a
large quantity. Indeed, the presence of oxygen
gas is necessary to tiie rotting or decay of fruits ;
for, when it is absent, a different change takes
place. When the fruit cannot ripen except on the
tree, its ripening is not caused by any chemical
change of its substance, whilst si ill green; but by
the change or addition of neiv substances furnished
to it by the capillary vessels of its parent stem ; and
it is a remarkable and well ascertained fact, that
when fruits appear to have lost the acid taste and
qualities which they possessed in their unripe state,
it is because that taste is hidden by the large quan-
tity of sugar which they receive during the process
of ripening:

In those fruits which ripen after separation from
the tree, likewise, the quantity of sugar is found
considerably to increase : in such cases, however,
it must be formed at the expense of the substances
previously com/'osing the fruit. Gum, lignin, and
water, are the only substances present ; the propor-
tions of which diminish during the process : it is,
i therefore, natural for us to conclude, that it is
those portions of these substances which have dis-
appeared, that have been converted into sugar ;
and as the lignin contains the greatest quantity of
carbon, we must conclude that it is from it, the ox-
ygen takes ihe carbon in order to form carbonic
acid — a change so essential in the ripening of fruits.

It is difficult to suppose that in those fruits which
ripen early on the tree, all the sugar shovXA be sent
into the fruit from the plant : it is much more pro-
bable that the substance of the fruit acts upon the
air — or vice versa — and thereby forms sugar, like
those fruits which have been separated from their
parent stems ; but not in sufficiently large (juantity
to render them identical in quality. In such cases,
it is necessary that recourse should be had to the
tree itself, to complete the process of ripening.

In conclusion, it remains to be stated, that the
alteration which the lignin undergoes during the
process of ripening, or saccharification, continues
during the decay of the fruit, under any circumstan-
ces. During the process of decay, the lignin be-
comes brown, and its decomposition, as well as
that of the gum and the water, occasions the form-
ation of comparatively large volumes of carbonic
acid gas. The sugar also, (if any exist.) becomes
decomposed at this time ; and, to its disappearance^
in a great measure, is to be attributed the peculiar
taste of decayed or rotten fruits. The sugar, du-
ring its decomposition, likewise, doubtless gives
rise to the formation of carbonic acid ; a great part
of which, combining with the hydrogen evolved
from the decomposing water, forms carburetted hy-
drogen, which is the main source of that ill or mi-
asmatic taste and smell, so characteristic of veget-
table putridity. The Gardener.

The Last of the Superlatives. — The follow-
ing unique description of the new Dahlia, sent out
this season by the Metropolitan Union of Florists,
London, (taken from their circular,) is the best spe-
cimen of floral grandiloquence that we have yet
seen. Certainly Holland, in the days of the tulip-
mania, produced nothingmore exaltee. Fortunate-
ly, buyers in England are able to look to the opin-

FOREIGN NOTICES.

527

Jon of the horticultural societies, gardening jour-
nals, and the number of prizes that a new variety
has gained at tlie shows, as better guides in these
matters — and judging from these there is little
doubt that this is really a very fine new sort. — Ed.
Thk Goldkn Fleece, (Union.) — Golden nan-
keen buff, tinted with orange. A flower of so
much rarity and beauty, matchless petal, perfect
svmmetry, producing blooms 4:1 inches in diameter,
unusually double and in circles closely rising above
each other, whereby the edges only are visible,
which gives it a revolving appearance ; full con-
stant centre, and well up ; the color is so bright
and enchanting, it would exhaust the power of any
adjectives to promote the idea, and no pencil can
do justice to its hue. It may be likened to sunset,
when the orb of day reflects upon the verge of the
clouds the memory and image of its departing glory.
Mr. Salter, an eminent French cultivator, pronoun-
ced it to be urdns;e glace, which, from its metallic
lustre, might be termed or en Jlamme, and, having
seen it growing, will confirm its superior habit of
plant and bloom, which latter is alike erect, con-
stant, and profuse. The stock is very limited.
No discount. Plants, 10s. 6d.; ground roots, 5
guineas. ....

Figs. — With regard to these, I hes to offer a few
remarks on what I have observed and put success-
fully into practice. The year 1818 was remarka-
ble for abundance of figs, on account of its long
duration of heat and drought. Happening to call
during that year at the Duke of Richmond's Gar-
dens, Goodwood, near Chichester, in August, I
was much pleased, and at that time ([uite aston-
ished, to see a row of very large standard Fig trees
loaded with the greatest abundance of fruit, both
ripe and unripe, in the highest possible perfection.
The soil there is shallow, on a bed of chalk. I
likewise observed during the same year abundance
of Figs in many of the cottagers' gardens in Sus-
sex, produced on standards that were growing in
the same kind of shallow soil, and where the bottom
was nothing but chalk. Figs appeared to be no
luxury in tliat quarter. In Kent I have observed
good Figs and very fruitful trees on a similar bot-
tom. At the late Lord Audley's Gardens, Belve-
dere, Erith, I have observed the most abundant
crops of fruit, raised for several years in succession
in the highest state of perfection, where the soil is
shallow and dry, and where the subsoil is nothing
but a rock or bed of pebbly gravel, called there
pea-gravel ; after a heavy rain, scarcely a particle
of earth was there to bo seen on the surface. I
have long observed that shallow dry soils are the
best for producing good crops of P'igs, and where
the trees have been planted without much care, and
allowed to grow without much pruning or nailing,
which does not at all suit the Fig. Such places as
stable-yards, farm buildings, in any dry corner,
amongst stones, chalk, brick-bats, or lime-rubbish,
where they are well trodden or paved about the
trees, are the places to see fine crops of good Fiijs.
Trees in such situations have a number of joints in
the length of one inch of yoimg wood. Over-luxu-
riant trees never bear abundant crops. The wood
of a Fig tree that is long jointed, jiithy, and soft,
does not produce Figs in perfection. The growth

of the Fig requires to be checked, if fruit is want-
ed. In preparing for growing Figs, instead of
trenching the ground, I should recommend merely
forming a flooring under them with concrete, brick-
bats, stone, chalk, gravel, lime-rubbish, or with
whatever is most convenient to be had, it the bot-
tom is not natur.'illy chalky, rocky, or gravelly.
Those that are troubled with over-luxuriant Fig
trees might practice the following method, whicu
I have myself done with good success : — Cut a
trench, three or four feet wide, in front ol the
trees, (if against the wall, or all round them, if
they are standards,) below all roots, which should
be cut clean off as the trench is dug, then fill up
with any of the above materials that can be pro-
cured, ])ouring a quantity of grout amongst it as
the filling up proceeds, or the roots will soon get
through it ; otherwise, build a wall, as recommend-
ed by Mr. Errington. Figs require to be planted
high, and the depth of soil about them should not
be more than one foot. If the season is very dry
when they are ripening their fruit, tlie trees will be
much benefitted by giving them a trood soaking of
water, as that is the time when they will be bene-
fitted by water. Observer. Gard. Chron.

Garden Walks. — Permit me to remind your
readers of the following plan for making garden
walks, which has now been published by you so
long as to have been forgotten by many. Procure
a quantity of road sand, or similar powdery mate-
rial (finely sifted lime rubbish will do.) and let it
be thoroughly dried, so that it feels like dust when
handled. Also sift out of the cinders of the dwell-
ing-house, &.C., the finer parts, and let them also
be made perfectly dry. Mix these carefully, two
parts road sand to one of ashes. In a dry place on
a dry day, spread a quantity of the mixture as a
bricklayer spreads his lime, with a hollow in the
middle. Into this hollow pour some coal-tar boil-
ing hot ; incorporate the whole with a shovel, as if
making mortar, and when a thick paste spread it
three or four inches thick over the ground laid out
for the walk. The ground should be previously
beaten as level as possible. Powder it all over
with dry and rather coarse sand, alter which a few
passages of the roller will press it level. Leave it
for a few days to harden, after which the walk is
fit for use, and will last for very many years. The
The composition must be made and laid down in
very dry weather. As it appears to bo quite hard
and impervious to water, it might probablv be used
advantageously in cattle boxes, dung pits, and farm
yards, to prevent the liquid part of the manure es-
caping, and would serve as an answer to the ques-
tion once asked in your columns — "What is the
best and cheapest flooring for a pigsty." Garden-
ers' Chronicle. ....

Directions for Cucumber Growing for the
Market. — My seed pit is built of solid 4-inch brick
work laid in cement : it holds 200 4-inch pots, and
has two lights ; but of course the size should be in
proportion to the demand. The laps of the ulnss
are all puttied, and painted with anti-corrosive
paint, which is cheaper and lasts much longer than
any other paint; no putty is employed, except in
the bedding of the squares, they are merely paint-

528

FOREIGN NOTICES.

ed, and no drip ever enters the pit. The pit is bot-
tomed with a few rough boards, and over these
about 3 inches in depth of mould is put, on which to
set the pots level. The dung is applied fresh from
the stable-yard, making a very substantial lining
about two and a half feet in width at the bottom.

As soon as the pit has become sufficiently heat-
ed, the seed is put into a pan of water, in which it
is allowed to steep for 24 hours ; after which it is
jown in pans of two inches deep, in dai-k coloured
mould of a light natm-e, fresh from a pasture which
has been under grass for many years. As soon as
the plants are up and the seed leaves separated,
they are potted off into 4-inch pots, using the same
mould as before with a bit of turf for drainage.
Two plants are put into each pot, placing the
plants in the pit east and west, and no water is
given for three or four days, in order to prevent
the tender stems from damping off. Air is given
day and night both back and front, and the heat is
kept up at night to 65° and by day to 70°. The
plants are shifted right round every three or four
days, and ihey are watered when required with
soft tepid water.

As the plants only remain in the nursery bed for
about three weeks, the large pits should be prepar-
ed for their reception by the expiration of that time.
This is effected by lime washing their insides, hunt-
ing out all woodliee, and by covering the pipes
which traverse the middle of each pit at the bottom
for bottom heat with a layer of oak faggots ; put-
ting some rough dung or straw over the sticks to
keep the mould from mixing with the faggots.
The mould, rough from the fields, is put in, so as
to form a ridge in the centre of the pit to the depth
of at least 16 inches, leaving the top of the mould
about 2 feet from the trellis. The fire is lighted at
least six days before the plants are put out ; there
being four dozen lights to one tire, and consequent-
ly much cold water and mould to heat. As soon
as the mould is heated through, the plants are
planted out immediately under the centre of each
light, inserting them in the mould up to the seed
leaf- and placing a stick to each plant reaching the
trellis. The latter is formed by a strong stick un-
der each rafter, and by hazel rods about 4 feet
long, placed 5 or 6 inches apart. As soon as the
plants reach the trellis their heads are nipped off.
Saddles on the pipes made of zinc are kept full of
water, and the plants are frequently watered with
diluted dung water in a tepid state. Plenty of air
is given, and the heat is kept up by day to 70°, and
by night to 65°. The shoot is pinched off at the
fruit, and not at the joint above the fruit, as is the
practice with many, and by this mode the frame
does not get so full of useless vines. Keep the male
blossoms cleared off at all times, and after the
plants come into hard bearing every encouragement
must be given them, administering manure water
freely. V>e have 100 lights, which require a great
deal of tepid water up to the middle of June.

Our plants are generally in September just as
healthy as ever, even after cutting three times a
week all the summer, and then ripening the seed.
We have cut on the 15th of April out of 48 lights
70 cucumbers at one cutting, averaging in length
from 12 to 16 inches j and in April this year I cut

320 altogether. The quantity of water used during
bright sunshine with the plants in full bearing, is
about four gallons a week to each light, and this is
always applied by sprinkling eveiy day over head, at
half past three, or about that time, and then of course
the lights are shut down close. The water used is
diluted manure water, obtainedin the following man-
ner : Water is thrown upon the fresh dung from the
stables, and a tank being at hand, the water drains
off and carries in solution the strength of the dung.
I mix one gallon of this with three of water that
has been exposed to the sun. I never in the height
of summer water with cold water, for I am persua-
ded that half the diseases in cucumbers arise from
watering with cold water from tanks not sufficient-
ly open to the sun and air.

The admission of air is also a matter of para-
mount importance. I never give air at the front of
the pits for this reason, that the moment you admit
air in front and back a dry hot current is produced,
which in cucumber growing above all things should
be avoided ; but if air is given at the back only, a
circulation of healed air something after that under
the Polmaise system will be maintained. And be
it remembered, the older your plants the stronger
heat they require. Shading is of course necessary
in the first instance, until the plants gather suffi-
cient strength, but it is only half starved, diseased,
and badly rooted plants that require shading all the
summer. To preserve them from woodliee, keep
four or five toads in each pit, and after the plants
have reached the trelli^c s ; the young woodliee
among the leaves may be caught by placing small
pots full of hay on a ledge under each light. These
I examine every day, and by this means find that
the woodliee are very much reduced in number. I
have paid six shillings a dozen for toads, which
shows the value I place upon these commonly de-
spised but really useful animals.

I have bought all the new cucumbers advertised,
but I may, without fear of contradiction, say that I
have never found one so early and so productive as
my Black Spine. I have now had it in my posses-
sion upwards of fifteen years ; it took prizes at Ip-
swich in 1831, where it obtained first and second
prizes at the same show. In 1834 it took the first
prize at Chiswick, and in 1836 the first at Barnet.
And since then for seven years past it has been the
best at the first shows of the Royal South London
Fioricultural Society.

In conclusion, to grow cucumbers fine and hand-
some they must be grown upon trellises ; the plants
will bear better, continue to produce for a much
greater length of time, and they will also in this
way grow more robust and healthy, a circumstance
no doubt due to the great circulation of air which
plays constantly around them. — Journal London
Hort. Society. ....

Quince Marmalade. — Let the fruit hang on the
tree till one falls to the ground ; then gather the
crop. Pare, quarter, and core them ; but scrupu-
lously save every pip. The pips of quinces abound
in mucilage, as may be perceived by taking one into
the mouth and chewing it, when it will make the
lips stick together as a piece of gum arable would.
Put the quinces with the pips into a stew-pan, with
a sufficiency of lump sugar, and just enough water

FOREIGN NOTICES.

529

al the bottom to keep them from burnin":. As the
suofar dissolves and the liquor boils, continuo stir-
ring the whole muss. Wiien the IVuit becomes ten-
der, break and mash it well with a spoon. In about
an hour from the commencement of the operation, it
will be cooked enoujrh. It may then bo turned out in-
to preserve jars ; a portion should be put into shapes,
to be used at dessert in the same way as Bullace
and Damson cheese. The next morninj^ it oui^lit
to be perfectly stiff and gelatinous, from the stronf^
mucila<»e of the pips havinjr been thoroughly incor-
porated with the whole mass. The quantity of su-
ffur used may be rather less than is necessary for
other preserves. If tied down the usual way it will
keep i^ood for a lonjr time. The medicinal qualities
of this preparation are applicable to those cases in
which mucilage is administered internally ; and a
pot of quince marmalade would be as agreeable a
prescription to a dysuretic patient, as a dish of
roasted onions or a dose of linseed jelly.

Everybody whose garden or orchard is above the
very smallest size ouglit to iiave at least one (juince
tree, particularly if it contain any low moist corner.
To such a situation they may be removed at a con-
siderhble size ; their cost at the nursery is trilling,
and many a useless shrub, such as the Snowberr\',
or the Privet, might advantageously be uprooted to
make way for them. Few low-growing standards
are more ornamental. In a small space tliey ex-
hibit all the members and proportions of a full sized
tree ; something like the Chinese Koo-shoo, or ar-
tiriciaily dwarfed Oaks, Hornbeams, &c., that are
grown in pots ; there is the old looking trunk, the
pendant and grotescjuely contorted branches ; there
is the scattered foliage, like the natural day, dark
one-half and light the other; in the spring there
arc large, delicate blossoms, and in tiie autumn
drooping fruit. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

Se.\kale. — The Seakale-bed is to be planted in
March, in straight rows five feet asunder ; the
plants in each row to be 18 inches apart. It is, of
course, understood that the ground be thoroughly
trenched and manured as usual. Something, but
not much, is gained by obtaining year-old plants
from the nursery, instead of sowing the seed in the
rows, there to remain. By the first method, vou
have a larger cutting the ensuing spring ; but you
mavcut from your seedling plants, which will have
suffered no check by removal, and will grow with
corresponding vigour.

Some time in December, not too soon, when the
foot-stalks of the leaves have fairly separated them-
selves from the crown of the plants, heap over each
about a quarter of a peck of sea-sand or wood ash-
es : if not to bo had, any light unmanured soil will
do. Then earth up the plants from a trench dug
along the space between the rows, exactly as if you
were earthing up celery, only that no leaves appear
above the top of the mound. Tlie earth should be
heaped up till it is about two feet above the crowns
of the plants, and then flatted down with the back
of the spade, and the whole made very smooth and
neat. The long trench between the rows of Sea-
kale will act as a drain during the dead time of
winter. In the spring, when the shoots begin to
push, large cracks will be seen in the bank of

Vol. 11. 67

mould, and a trial may be made with a trowel, as
soon as they are supposed to be sufficiently ad-
vanced for cutting.

The Seakale thus obtained is lavger, more suc-
culent, and more delicately flavored than that
blanched under pots. In one case the growing
shoot is constantly in contact witli the damp mould,
and absorbs moisture instead of parting with it. In
the other, the Kale is subject to all the influences
of air, though excluded from those ol light, from
which, however, it is only protected by a porous,
imperfectly closed vessel. All the expense of pots
and manure for forcing is saved ; and the only ob-
jection to the adoption of this plan in all cases, is,
that the crop comes in too much al once. But by
having rows of Kale in different e.xposures, a dif-
ference of at least ten days may be made ; and a
few plants at the foot of a south wall, earthed up
from the border, and merely so covered with mould
that it slopes against the wall, will afford a very
early gathering.

No second cutting should be attempted ; not so
much for fear of weakening the plants, as because
the weak slioots thus obtained are comparatively
worthless. The earth should be levelled into the
trenches, exposing the crowns of the plants, and
by introducing some rank manure there will i>e
plenty of time for a crop of cauliflowers (in single
line) before the increasing leaves of the Seakale
require their removal.

This valuable esculent, so easy of cultivation, re-
quiring no peculiar advantages of soil, climate, or
situation, well deserves to be more extensively pro-
pagated. Those who form their judgment from
the estimation in which it is hold in and about Lon-
don, are little aware how far it is from being gene-
ral in the remoter districts of Great Britain. It is
admirably adapted by its hardiness to such coun-
tries as Canada, Norway and Sweden, Northern
Russia, &.C., where if earthed up4)eforc the frost
came, it would lie dormant under' the thick snow,
and be ready on the return of spring to put forth its
delicious shoots. It is also fitted for those northern
insular situations where the temperature never rises
above a moderate degree, and where the rains of
summer and the constant damps of winter would
rot our more tender vegetables. The introduction
of a bed of Seakale into a colony or island where it
had hitherto been unknown, would be an additional
proof of th(! usefulness of the Gardeners' Chronicle.

To Cook Seakale. — After being well washed, lie
it in small bundles for the convenience of taking up,
and drop it into a saucepan of boiling water, in
which a little salt, according to taste, has been dis-
solved. Keep it boilinir- In about 25 minutes it
will be done enough, which may be known by try-
ing it with a fork. Sir Humphrey Davy tells us
that the reason why vegetables and fish should be
plunged in boiling .salt and water is, that this solu-
tion boils at a higher temperature than plain wa-
ter, and that the sutlden scalding fixes the albumen,
mucilage, and other nutritive parts of the viand, in-
stead of their being macerated and sodden, and so
partly lost in luke-warm water. The most econo-
mical mode of serving Seakale is to lay it in a ve-
getable di-sh with a strainer at the bottom, and to
.send up in a small tureen any sauce that may bs

530

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

desired at the same time. Tlie usual way is to
lay it on sippets of toasted bread, and pour over it
some white sauce, or melted butter made with milk
instead of water. But if the toast is not intended
to be eaten, but only to serve as a draining cusliion
to the vegetable, and then cast out to pigs, or, in a
town, probably to the kennel or dust-hole, such a
wasteful proceeding is, to say the least, culpable,
w4iile so many of our fellow-creatures are perishing
for want of a like morsel. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

Hint to Ornabiental Planters. — The ques-
tion has often occurred to me, as it probably has to
many others, why do artificial plantations never
have the appearance of natural woods ? The prin-
cipal cause appears to me obvious and simple, and
one easily removed. It is this : that planters inva-
riably make the great mistake of filling up their
plantations to the very extremities with trees as
thick as they can stand together. The consequence
is, that though they may take a pleasing outline for
their boundary fence, yet that outline remains stiff

and hard, consisting of trees of nearly xmiform
height and age; and when viewed at a distance,
the plantation looks as if its edges had been clipped
by the gardener's shears, a defect which the growth
of a hundred years often fails to oiiliterate. Now
let the observer turn his eyes on any natural wood ;
there everything is quite different, he will find no
precise definite outline ; on the contrary, the skirts
of such a wood almost always consist of widely
scattered trees of various growth and age, forming
groups with many vacancies and intervals bare of
trees running up between them. This it is that
gives that pleasing variety which offers so strong a
contrast to the productions of the landscape gar-
dener. If, then, the above observations are well
founded, the planter may easily avoid the defect of
which I complain, which often makes a plantation
rather an eyesore than an ornament. Let him only
imitate nature, by fringing his plantations with
widely scattered trees, interspersed among numer-
ous vacancies and intervals, as above described, and
I feel confident of the good result. — Gard. Chron.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

The Genesee Farmer. — Among the first on our
exchange list is this truly valuable agricultural
journal, published at Rochester, N. Y., and con-
ducted by Dr. Lee, in its agricultural, and Mr. Ear-
RY in its horticultural departments.

Dr. Lee is widely and favorably known by his
earnest devotion to the cause of agricultural chcm-
istrij. Both by lectures and editorially, has he la-
bored for a long time most zealously to awaken
farmers to the inaportance of the science of chemist-
ry, and to render that science plain and comprehen-
sible to all persons engaged in agricultural pur-
suits.

It is not, perhaps, too much to say that the Gene-
see Farmer has done more for the benefit of gricul-
ture, in this particular department, than any other
agricultural journal in the Union. The horticultu-
ral department is managed, in the main, with ex-
cellent practical knowledge, as well as spirit and
taste. We are heartily glad, therefore, to learn
that its influence is gradually extending itself in
every direction.

In the leader of the April number, we perceive
Dr. Lee has entirely misunderstood the editor of
this journal, and our personal views in writing the
articles on the Philosophy of Manuring Orchards,
which has attracted some little attention in various
parts of the Union. Certainly, nothing was farther
from our wishes than to appear to claim any ori-
ginality in bringing forward the now well known
chemical theory regarding special manures. It is
not a department to which we have particularly de-
voted ourselves, as Dr. Lee and others have done,
though we have always felt bound not to let lead-
ers, like himself, get wholly beyond our more limit-
ed vision. On the contrary, we not only gave es-
pecial credit to Dr. Emmons, of Albany, for his

most valuable researches into this subject, but pub-
lished, in a note, his exact analyses.

We did this in the sjiirit of " honor to whom ho-
nor is due," and always wish to follow this maxim.
Strictly, however, we were not bound to do so ; for
Liebig and other writers had already made the
theory of special manures widely known, and there
was no need of any reference to authorities. The
following remark, from one of the most distinguish-
ed men of science in England, is to the point on this
subject : —

'• Discoveries, when once communicated to the
world, become public property ; they are thrown
into the common stock for mutual benefit ; and it is
only in the case of debatable opinions, or of any re-
cent or unconfirmed observations, that it really inte-
rests the world that authorities should be quoted
at all."

Still, we did consider Dr. Emmons as highly de-
serving of especial thanks of horticulturists, for di-
recting his attention to the analysis of fruit trees;
and it was with the design of drawing the attention
of the horticultural public generally to this subject,
that we took it up precisely at the season of the
year when it was most applicable, and treated it as
we did. Though we had no hope of throwing as
much sunshine on the garden and orchard as Dr.
Lee has done on the farm, we hoped to clear away
a little of the ground-fog, and trust our contempo-
rary will, on consideration, take what he calls our
" waking up" with his wonted amiability.

PoMOLOGiCAL RuLES. — To the list of Horticultu-
ral Societies which have adopted the Rules of Po-
mology in our last number, we are now able to add
the Rhode Island Horticultural Society, and
the Detroit (Mich.) Horticultural Society.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

531

The adoption of those rules so <Toncrally tbroiiGrh-
out the country cannot but be attended with the
most beneficial results to poreoloL'ieal science, by
•rivinu it more detinitcness in the luture, and to
point irrowers and nurseiymen, by ^uardinir in some
measure against the introduction, every j-ear, of a
lorn; list oT new names and new varieties, totally
unworthy of cultivation.

We observe that one or two of the a[rricultural
journals have mistaken the spirit and intention
which actuated those who originated these rules.
It is a Lrrcat error to suppose that they intended to
force tiic horticultural community to adopt any set
of rules, or to govern or oblige them to act within
certain limits. Far from it. These rules orioina-
tcd in certain cfying defects in the system of na-
ming and adopting new varieties hitherto that pre-
vailed in our oldest societies, by which any person,
even if totally and confessedly ignorant of existing
varieties of fruit, and therefore necessarily unable to
decide whether a seedling of his own might be bet-
ter than any sort hitherto known, or inferiour to 20
other second rate sorts — whether such a person
should be able to give his seedling to tiie public
with a high sounding name, or whether it should
first be submitted to the fruit committee of some
Horticultural Society, or some competent pomolo-
gist to decide upon its merits. Tliis is so mani-
festly for the public protection and the public good,
that there cannot be a dissenting opinion in the
mind of any reasoning being.

A few of the leading societies having determined
to adopt these rules, we brought the matter before
the public in our columns, and requested all the
Societies in the country to adopt them, and thus
make what was originally intended as a local mat-
ter, one of general benefit. Neither the Massachu-
setts, Pennsylvania, or Cincinnati Society had the
slightest wish or desire, as the journals we have
alluded to have supposed, to force a code of pomo-
logical laws upon the country- They furnished us
their rules for publication, leaving other societies,
and the horticultural public generally, to adopt
them or not at their own pleasure.*

We are heartily glad that almost all the leading
horticultural societies have now adopted these
rules, for we look npon it as a new era in pomolo-
gy. We are tolerably conversant with pomology
abroad, and so far as we can learn, it is the first
set of pomologicul rules yet adopted, and published.
in any country. That there is great need of some
rules of this kind on the continent of Europe, no
one, conversant with the confusion of nomenclature
in the pomological works of France and Germany,
no one, conversant with the practice of some nurse-
rymen of those countries, of sending out a single

* We owe the Massficliusetts Society an apolocry <or puh-
lishin)^ the rules incorrectly the first time tliey appeared in our
columns — having, m the haste of sending tliem to press, taken
an nncorrecied proof of the original draft, instead of the cor-
rected copy as actually passed, and as published last month.
The rule restricting the publication of new varieties to one
or two journals '• of the largest circulation," originally in-
tended only to simplify the search for '.he recoids of original
descriptions, was actually passed without the latter clause
as likely to be ounsidered exclusive by journals not coming
within the limit, though perhaps the beiieht to the community
would have been clear enough.

fruit under several diflTerent names, thus injuring
and deceiving purchasers, can doubt for a moment.
We hope to sec pomology, under the wholesome
influence of the American Rules, take the shape of
a more definite and precise science. He who rais-
es a new fruit of merit, will then the more easily
place it before the jiublie and reap his reward ;
while others will not find it so easy to palm oft'
upon the community second or third rate varieties
as sorts of superlative excellence.

Apple Trkf, Borer — to prevent its attacks.
This insect (Saj>erda bivittata,) is fast becoming
the most serious pest of the orehardist, in some
parts of the middle and eastern states. Perfora-
ting the trunk in every direction, it soon destroys
its whole structure ; and while be, who is unac-
quainted with its habits, only perceives in the bark
a few holes, as if made with a common awl, the
insect has, perhaps, made a " powder-post" of the
whole tree.

It is a very difficult insect to combat ; but May
is the month to make war npon it, since at the
close of the montii, or early in June, it makes its
exit from the tree, and sets about depositing eggs
in a score of new branches or trunks, to perforate
them in like manner. Hence, it is evident, that by
destroying every borer, if it were possible, before
he emerges from the tree, we shall destroy the
whole brood.

There are two points to be aimed at : one, to de-
stroy all that can be reached before they emerge
from the tree; the other, to prevent their laying
their eggs in the bark of certain other trees.

We are inclined to believe that one of the best
modes of doing this, is to be provided with a mix-
ture, composed of soft-soap, tobacco water, and
flower of sulphur, made by adding a pint of the sul-
phur and as much strong tobacco water to a gallon
of soft-soap as will bring the whole to the consis-
tency of paint. With a small syringe, fthat may be
had for a shilling at an apothecary's,) the aperture
of which will about match the hole of the borer,
inject this liquid into every hole that can be found
till the hole is lilled.

Then, with a stout brush, wash the trunk (re-
moving the soil a little at its base first,) tborough-
ly with the mixture. All the larger branches
should also be washed thoroughly, so as to leave no
part of the bark uncovered

We ascertained last year, by experiment, that
the borer, in its winged state, when seeking for trees
in the bark of which to lay its eggs, itnmediately
left all that had been washed in this way — even
though the coating had been on for several weeks.

This insect usually chooses the collar of the tree,
near the surface of the ground, in wliicli to lay its
eggs, though, when abundant, it also takes other
parts of the trunk, and csiieoially the forks of the
branches near the trunk. By coating all these
parts, we shall perhaps be able to prevent its de-
stroying the tree ; and while, by the injection of
the liquid into its holes, (if this proves effectual,) or
by the old mode of thrusting wires into the holes,
the parent stock must be as much diminished as
possible before the insects are ready to come out
m a perfect state.

532

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Not only the apple tree, but also the mountain
ash, the quince, and the hawthorn, suffer greatly
by this insect. If no pains are taken to diminish
its numbers, it will become a serious obstacle to
the cultivation of these trees.

Black-Knots in Plum Trees. — The only suc-
cessful way of getting rid of the " black-knots" that
we have ever known, is that of cutting off every
branch or part of a branch covered by this excres-
ence and burning it ; and this should he done before
the middle of May. But it occasionally happens
that a wart or spot will burst out on the very body
of the tree, or upon some large and important
branch, to lop off which is to destroy the whole tree,
or its head. To amputate the wart itself is not
sufficient ; for its poison is diffused through the sap
in the surrounding parts, and, like a cancer, is sure
to break out again very soon.

Last spring we made an experiment upon six
trees in the garden of a neighbor, which were some-
what infested with knots, as follows : All the knots
at or near the ends of the limbs were entirely de-
stroyed by taking off the branches a foot or more
below the wart itself. The few that remained
were upon the trunk, or on the main branches near
the trunk. These were all carefully and deeply cut
out down to the sound healthy wood. Three of the
trees then had the wounds washed directly with a
solution of copperas water, (made by dissolving 2
drachms of copperas in a quart of water.) The
wounds on the other three trees were left untouched.

At the present time those wounds to which the
copperas water was applied look quite healthy, and
are healing over rapidly ; no indication of a return
of the knots being visible around or near them.

The wounds on the remaining three trees left
unwashed are healing more slowly, and in more
than half the cases, small warts have again made
tkeir appearance on the edges of the wound, — in
two instances completely covering it in one season.

The discoveries of M. Gris, relative to the effect
of copperas on sulphate of iron, as a specific upon
diseased conditions of the sap and leaves, (publish-
ed in our last volume,) induced us to make this ex-
periment. Though it is too early to pronounce an
opinion, the indications of success are encouraging,
and we suggest a renewal of the experiment to
others.

Persian Yellow Rose — This is truly a charm-
ing addition to our collection of roses, large as the
latter is. Indeed we should say that the smallest
collection is scarcely complete without it. It is far
superior to the Harrison in the form and shape of
the flower, much more double, and a fine, clear,
distinct, yellow in its color. It also blooms very
freely. It was introduced from Persia to Eng-
land, by Sir Henry Willock, and presented to the
Horticultural Society of London in 183S. It has
now found its way to this country, and is for sale
by most of the rose growers.

Detroit Horticultural Society. — We have
received from T. H. Hinchman, Esq., secretary of
this society, a report of its proceedings. The so-
ciety was organized March 6, 1846. Last year
monthly meetings were held from May to October j

and these exhibitions have already awakened a
lively interest in the neighborhood of Detroit, and
the influence of the society will no douht soon be
seen throughout that new state. At the May ex-
hibition, one hundred and fifty varieties of tulips
were shown. Plums, cherries, pears, etc., and
also the Isabella and Catawba grapes thrive well
in that part of Michican ; and the products of the
kitchen garden, (including melons,) are unusually
excellent, large and abundant.

" At the last meeting of the society," says the
secretary, " the Rules of American Pomology, as
published in the Horticulturist, were adopted. The
society, in the coniused state of nomenclature, had
already felt the want of such rules."

The New Dahlias. — The English Dahlia grow-
ers are not content with ''perfection" — or what
appeared perfection a few years ago — in this gay-
est of summer and autumn flowers. Acres and
acres of ground are devoted to the production of
extraordinary new seedlings, and the arts of hy-
bridizing and careful selection of seeds are brougiit
into play every year, to produce some still greater
novelty of form and colour.

Among the prize sorts of last season, we notice
" fancy varieties," the flowers of which are yellow,
tipped with white, dark maroon, tipped with light
pink, primrose tipped with bright red, 6w^ tipped
with white, etc. The most highly esteemed of the
new plum-colored sorts are perhaps Nell Granger,
Queen of England, War Eagle, Shylock, and the
much talked of, new, gold-coloured English seed-
ling— Toison d'or or Golden Fleece.

The greatest Dahlia growers in America are
Messrs. Thorburn & Co., of New-York. The
soil of their garden at Astoria is particularly well
adapted to this plant, and the effect of their enor-
mous parterre, last autumn, when we saw it there
in full bloom, was truly magnificent. From the
lead which they have taken in the culture of the
Dahlia (we have heard that their sales in the
months of May & June, 1846, were over 6000
plants) , they are enabled to search the choicest col-
lections of England and the continent, every year,
for all the finest prize seedlings, without regard to
cost. These new sorts, which are often procured
at the cost of several pounds sterling per root, are
imported in winter, propagated largely in early
spring, and offered for sale in May of the same
season they are imported, at greatly reduced pri-
ces.

The introduction of the new "fancy Dahlias,"
exquisitely variegated, striped, and tipped with
various bright colors as they are, forms a new era
in the culture of this popular Mexican flower, and
those who, three or four years ago, supposed they
had exhausted all its novelty and interest, may
now begin afresh, with the new varieties, with
more zest and satisfaction than before.

Gas Liquor. — Gas liquor, as the ammoniacal
water of the gasworks is called, is a powerful ma-
nure. Mixed with water, in the proportion of
three parts gas liquor to twenty parts water, it has
been used for watering grass in the garden of the
Horticultural Society of London, and one rod so

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

533

watered has produced eighty pounds of grass,
while that left to itself produced only twenty
pounds.

A friond in New- York informs us that he watered
ft pear tree two years ago with diluted gas liquor,
(about six gallons gas liquor to 20 gallons water,)
so as to thoroughly souk the soil about the roots
two or throe times in the course of the summer.
The tree was an '' outcast" Doyenne, and had
borne none but cracked jicars for years. Last sea-
son it bore a crop of tine smooth iVuit. Those who
repeat this must be carcl'ul not to use the gas liquor
too strong.

Hybridizing the Grape. — I am very desirous
of crossing our native grape with the best foreign i
sorts, but I do not very well see how it can be done,
as the two do not come into bloom at the same
time. Will it do to keep the pollen of one till the |
other is in a tit state, or will it injure pollen to car- j
ry it some distance ? /. W.. Haltimore, Ap. 1848. i

[Pollen may be kept for months without the least
injury, if sealed up in a dry pliial.or wrapped up in
sheet lead. If our friend wishes to fertilize the na-
tive grapes in the open ground, before the foreign
varieties out of doors are in bloom, he can do it by
procuring pollen from some vinery of foreign
grapes in his i.eighborhood, the blossoms of which
are fully expanded. It will not injure pollen in the
lea>t, to carry it a thousand miles. — Ed.]

Trees for the Sea Coast.— Pray give me, if
you can. the names of two or three forest trees that
will grow quii ■ on the sea coast, where most of the
commonly phuited trees fail ? It must of course
be something that will stand sea wind and salt
spray. Yours, A Cape May Reader.

[The two hardiest trees for such positions are
the Balm-of-Gilead poplar and tlio common Bat-
tonwood or Sycamore. The oriental plane tree, to
be had in the nurseries, is very slightly different
from our common liuttonwood, and is not attacked
by the Sycamore disi ase. The bust shrub for the
sea-side is the Sea Buckthorn, ^Hippophea Epam-
noides. — Ed.] ....

Bauk-bound Trees. — Dear Sir — Can you or
any of your correspondents inform me how to treat
trees that have become bark-bound — i. e. the bark
on the trunk close and rigid, refusing to swell kind-
ly and in proportion to the growth of the upper part
of the tree ? I have a number of trees in this con-
dition, by which the trunks become mossy, and the
vigor of the tree impaired. Yours, &e., B. C,
Pittsburgh, Pa.. Ap. 2, 1848.

[Scrape the bark with a dull knife, and then
scrub and wash it thoroughly with strong soap
suds. In most cases a repetition of this washing
twice or thrice in the season, will remedy the dilli-
culty. If, however, the case is a stubborn one,
bind straw round the trunk, after washing it, and
let it remain the whole season. — Ed.]

AiMEE Vibert Rose. — I have seen no notice of
this very fine variety in your pages. I prefer it to
every other Noisette. Its (lowers are pure white
(the buds tinged with pink before expanding), and
are produced in continual succession all the season,
not tew and far between like some other Noisettes.

I have a whole bed of it, and there is not a daydu-
ring the summer or fall that I cannot cut half a
dozen bociuets of this variety alone. It is also
quite hardy, and the foliage is of a tine deep green,
the plant neat and compact in its growth. Pray
recommend it. J. B. S., Phila., Ap. 10, 1848.

[This we do most willingly, as it is not at all
overpraised by our correspondent. — Ed.

Liquid Shellac for Wounds ik Tref:^. — This
is at once tlie neatest and most perfect of all appli-
cations to the wounds of fruit trees, that we have
ever used, and we are glad to tind it coming into
popular use. We first made it generally known in
our work on fruits, p. 3 , and we have not heard of
its being tried in a single instance when it did not
give entire satisfaction. Ihe followin<r is an ex-
tract from a letter received lately, bearing testimo-
ny in its favor : —

" After trying half a dozen compositions

or plaisters, highly commended in books or jour-
nals, for keeping the air from wounds in fruit trees
I perused your work and saw the recipe for making
liquid gum shellac for this jnupose. I immediate-
ly made a quart bottle full , by dissolvins a shil-
ling's worth of gum shellac in a quart of alcohol,
and as soon as it was ready for use, I applied it
largely in my orchard pruning. It is really a most
complete thing for the purpose, as it entirely shuts
out the air, and preserves the wood in a healthy,
sound state, so that the bark commences healing
over it at once. When you are trimming an or-
chard, and it is requisite to take ofT occasionally a
pretty stout branch, something to cover the wound
is very important — because if left bare a black de-
cayed spot soon begins, which is the first step to-
wards the rotting and decay of the whole trunk.
The superiority of the liquid shellac consists in the
thinness of the layer put on, the tenacity with
which it adheres in all weathers, and the neatness
of its appearance Then, too, it is always ready
when wanted, and if, by gradual evaporation, it
should need a little thinning in the bottle, a little
alcohol is added. In order to have it always
ready, I got a tolerably wide mouthed bottle, and,
boring a hole through the cork, passed the handle
of a small brush through the cork at such a point
that, when the cork is pres.sed in, the brush is near
the bottom of the bottle. The cork and handle are
then all of one piece, as it were, and while the li-
quid is prevented from drying up, the brush is
always ready and in good order.

I now use the liquid shellac even for the small
wounds made upon pear and peach trees, shrubs,
etc., by cutting oH' branches of the size of your
thumb. I find they heal over much more rapidly
and smoothly than when left bare." Yours, truly,
J. S., Phila., April, 1J(48.

Fruit Growing at the South. — Dear Sir : —
I see in almost every number, more or less from
your gifted correspondents on the subject of fruit-
culture at the North and West, and also many tests
of fruits suitable for those climates ; but nobody
says a word about what can be done in the " Sunny
South," in the way of raising the dilferent varieties
of fine fruits. This is to be regretted the more, as we

534

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

" Southern folks," who have been used to cultivating
little else but corn and cotton, know but very little
indeed, in regard to the proper management of fruit
trees, except perhaps the peach. And even the
peach tree is left generally to take its own course,
and to live or die, whichever is most convenient.

I have long wished to see something from your-
self or correspondents, on the foregoing subject,
from southern horticulturists of experience.

Many in this section, feel anxious to raise the
fine kinds of plums, cherries, apricots, and pears,
but they fear that the climate will not answer.
Plums, apricots and cherries seem disposed to shed
or drop all their blossoms just as the young fruit is
forming, without the attack of any insect whatever.
My apricot trees have just finished dropping their
very last blossoms, to my very great disappoint-
ment- Now cannot you, or some of your experi-
enced contributors, plainly point out the cause of
this failure in the incipiency of the above named
fruits, and tell how to apply a sure remedy?
Whoever does so, certainly will be long remember-
ed by us, as a pomological benefactor of the South.

I reside in latitude 30,41 — my soil is a sandy, ve-
ry friable loam, with a subsoil of sand and and clay;
the soil, unassisted by manure, is poor, but produ-
ces well with a moderate application of manure.
Peaches do very well indeed, and apples pretty
well, and I have no doubt but pears will do well,
and why plums, apricots, and cherries will not do
well, is something that I feel particularly anxious
to know. Your friend, Robert Harwell. Mobile,
March 15, 1848.

Aberdken Beehive Strawberry. — In a late
number of the Horticultural Magazine, (English,)

Mr. Mathewson of Aberdeen, Scotland, advertises
a new strawberry, which he calls the '•'Aberdeen
Beehive." Of its merits we know nothing ; but if
an opinion may be formed of what it is, or is likely
to bo, fron; the testimony of an experienced culti-
vator, no strawberry at present grown in Europe
or America can equal it.

In Mons. Van Hotjtte'.-4 " Flares des Serres et
den Jardins de PEurope," for October, 1847, it is
thus spoken of: — "It far surpasses every other
known variety ; being worth as much as 20 of them
together. Each plant throws out from 50 to 120
clusters of fruit, which resemble a beehive, and so
coming to maturity that you may gather 15 to 30
ripe berries at any one time. A single plant has
borne, in the same season, 334 berries. For for-
cing, it is admirably adapted ; and a dozen plants
thus cultivated have yielded together 5600 straw-
berries. The extraordinary quality and beautiful
appearance of the fruit, cannot be appreciated ex-
cept by those who have seen and tasted them.
Each berry is round, and measures 3^ inches in cir-
cumference ; they are of a brilliant scarlet, which
relieves the bea itiful green of the leaves ; the fla-
vor hifrh ; the perfume delicious. As the colour
of the flesh is the same internally as externally,
they will make handsome preserves."

If this description be not exaggerated, here is a
strawberry worth growing. But one nursery firm
has imported it, that we know of, — Messrs. Winter
k Co., of this village. W7n. W. Valk. Flushing,
L. I., January 7, 1848.

Errratum. — In Mr. Manning's article on
peaches, p. 401, for Green Rareripe read Yellow
Rareripe.

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

A business meeting was held March 4lh, 1S48, president
Wilder, in the chair.

Francis Dana, Roxbury, was elected a subscription mem
ber of the society.

At a meeting of the society, held April 1st, the following
gentlemen were proposed for membership.

£'/«— George W. Warren, Boston, by the president.

Subscription — Wm. S. WiUon, by Joseph Breck.

Voted, Thai the thanks of the societyJje presented to the
New- York Agricultural Society for copies of their transac-
tions.

A package of Onion seed was received from Charles W. Da-
buey, Esq., of Fayal, and it was

Voted, That the thanks of the society be presented to Chas.
W Dabuey, Esq., of Fayal, an honorary member of the so-
ciety, for his donation of a package of onion seed, and that
the seed be placed in the hands of llie committee on vegeta-
bles for distribution.

The Committee on Finance submitted the following report :

The Committee on Finance, in accordance v/ith a vote of
the society, authorising them to mvest not exceeding ttvo tliou-
iand dollars, as a fun'l toward meeting the mortgage on Hor-
ticuhural Hall, beg leave to report.

That they have purchased 15 shares of old stock in the Old
Colony Railroad, at 93 1-4 per cent of, say $1398,75, that the

same has been paid for by the treasurer, and the certificate cf
said slock has been received by him.

The committee, in view of the present state of the trea.«ury,
and the right the society will have to take their pro rata share
of the new stock in the Worcester railroad, if created, and for
which a bill is now pending in the Legislature, would advise
no further investment at present.

The same committee to whom was referred the letting of
the society's store and cellar under their hall, have allended
to that duty and respectfully report : That they have conclud-
ed a contract with Mr. Bovvdnch, the present occupant, to re-
new and continue his present lease for the space of two
years, the price and terras in all respects to be the same, atid
recommend that a vote be passed, authorising the president to
confirm and carry out said agreement.

All which is respecifuUy sdbraitted.

JosiAH .Stickxet,
Joseph Balcu.

Voted, That the report of the committee on finance be ac-
cepted, and that the president be authorised to make a re-
newal of the lease.

Voted, That the president and recording .secretaiy be a
committee to provide tickeis ibr members and the public for
the coming season, and that the terms of admission be the
same as last year. E. C. R- Walker, Hec. Sec.

PENNSYLVANIA HORT. SOCIETY.

535

PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The Mated meeting of this society was hcUl on Tuesday
evening, March 21, 1*1?, tlie president in the cliair. 'J'lia dU-
play was very fine and interesting, consisting- of a number o{
lables of choice plants in flower, and vegt-tablej luiusus.! at
ihid season. The presideiil's gardener exhibited beauliful
Rhododendrons, Acacia, Azaleas, Camellias, Oncidiums and
other plants, and handsome bouquets ; also, of tbrecd vegeta-
bles, blaiiclied sea- kale, blanched Rhubarb, Asparagus, heads
of lettuce, new potatoes, k.'diiey la-aiis in pod, and remarka-
bly large black spined and Turkey cucumbers. Mr. Buist
presented a fine collection of plants, among which were a
handsome seedling RiioJodendrou of merit. Ericas, Camellias.
Brugmansia, Jusiicia, with many other plants, altogether a
creditable disj)lay. Andrew Dryburgh exhibited a table of
choice and well grown Camellias, Azaleas, Roses, etc. Ben-
jamin Gulliss, a table of Azaleas. Amarylli, Mahernia, Roses,
etc. Peter Raabe, a small but select collection. John Sher-
wood, a good seedling Camellia Robert Kilvingtoii, an in-
teresting coUeciion of indigenou-s plain*, in flower, Aquilegia,
Obolaria, Saxifraga, Geranium, Mitella, Tiarella, Hydra.?tis,
Housionia, Cardamine, with a number of ferns. Jolin J. Smith,
a remarkably good specimen of the Mistletoe, growing in a
small branch of a white oak. James Ritchie, cut specimens
of Camellias of select varieties, and two large collections of
vegetables by Anlhouy Felten, and lettuce and radishes by
AVm. Johns.

Premiums were awarded as follow : By the committee on
plants and flowers, l"or the best specimen of a Rhododendron
in a pot, and for the second best specimen, to B. Oaiiieis. gar-
de:ier to Caleb Cope ; for the best seedling Rhododendron, to
Robert Buist ; for the best three Azaleas, for the best grown
and finest flowered hothouse plants, and for the best grown
and finest flowered green hou.se p|laiits, to B. Daniels ; for the
best and most interesting colleclioii of plants In pots, to An-
drew Dryburgh ; fur the second best, ditto, to Benjamin Gul-
liss ; for the third best, dillo, to B. Daniels ; for the best dis-
play of indigen us plants, to Robert Kilviiiglon ; tor the best
bouquet and best basket of cut flowers, to B. Daniels ; for
the second best bouquet, to Robert Kilvinglon ; for the second
best basket of cut flowers, to Andrew Dryburgh. And special
premiums for Paiisies, of two dollars, lo Chalmers and Mc
Donald, Camden, N. J., and of twn dollars, to Peter Raabe,
for a handsome collection of plants, and another of one dol-
lar, to James Ritchie, for a collection of cut Camellias.

By the committee on vegetables, for the best and most inte-
resting display by market gardeners, and lor the second best,
diito, to Anthony Felten ; for the best and most interesting
display by amateur gardeners to B. Daniels, gardener to Cideb
Cope; for the second best, ditto, to Wm Johns And a special
premium of two dollars, for a very fine display of black spill-
ed and Turkey cucumbers, to B Daniels.

The correspcmding secretary reported that the president of
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society had presented a copy
of the first number of the Transactions of that society.

On motion, ordered that the thanks of tlio society be ten-
dered for so acceptable a gift.

Members eUeted.—Rnhen Dunk, John Cassin, Samnel C.
Wilmer and Samuel W. Budd.

On motion, adjourned. Tho. P. James, Recording Secritary.

Monthly meeting, Tuesday, April IS. IS-IS, the president
in the chair. There was a general allendnnce of members
on the occasion, who appeared to be gratified with the exhi-
bition. Among ihc many interesting objects presented might

be noticed a table of choice varieties of everblooming Roses,
and a very handsome plant — theSpircEa Reevesiaiia, a recent-
ly mtroduced species, and for the first time shown before tlie
society, will prove an acquisition. Another collection of se-
lect and mostly new kinds of Rose* and Punsies, were shown
by Chalmers and McDonald, Camden, N.J. A table of re-
markably fine Peliirgonia, by Robert Bmst. James Bisset,
gardener lo James Duiidas. exhibited fine specimens of liot-
bouse plants, Pelargonia and Polyanthi. B. Daniels, garden-
er to the president, green house pUnLs, Pelargonia and Hya-
cinths. Benjamin Gulliss exhibited a collection of plants in
pots, of fine growih. Robert Kilvingtoii, as usual, had a dis-
play of iiilerestiiig "natives" in pois, and a handsome bouquet
of the same Dr. A W. Mitchell, presented a beautiful clus-
ter of the flowers of Cattleya labiata

Of fruits, the president's gardener exhibited a dish of grapes
of the T'kay and Sweet Water Varieties, also some straw-
berries and Raspberries. James Bisset, bunches ol the black
Hamburgh grape.

Of vegetables, B. Daniels presented a rich display, all new
and cut during the day, consisting of cucumbers, asparagus,
potatoes, peas, cauliflowers, rhubarb, squashes, kidney beans,
tomatoes, sea-kale, lettuce, radishes, spinach and capsicums.

Anthony Felten. two very full tables of fine specimens.

Premiums were awunled as follow :

For the best ten pelargonia, in pots, to Robert Buist ; for
the second best, ditto' to James Bi.«sei, gardener to James
Dunda«; for the third best^ ditto, to B. Daniels, gardener to
Caleb Cope ; for Ilie best ten ever-blooming Roses, lo Chal-
mers & McDonald, Camden, N. J.; for the second best, ditto,
to John Sherwood; for the third best, ditto, lo Chalmers Jt
McDonald; for the best six Hyacinths, to B Daniels ; for
the best six Pansies, to Chalmers ;uid McDonald ; for the sec-
ond best Pansies, to .Matthew .Mills; for the best six Polyan-
thus, to James Bisset ; for the best hot house plants, to Jas.
Bisset ; for the best green house plants, to B. Daniels ; (or the
most interesting collection of plants in pots, to Benjamin Gul-
liss ; for the best display of indigenous plants in pois, to Rob-
ert Kilvingtoii; for the best bouquet, to B. Daniels; for the
second best, to Miss Gratz's gardener; for the best basket of
flowers, to B. Daniels; for the best indigenous bouquet, lo
Robert Kilvinglon.

The committee on fruit, awarded special premiums of three
dollars each, lo Ben. Daniels, gardener to ' '. Cope, for while
Tokay and Sweet Waier Grapes, and to James Bisset, gar-
dener n Jas. Dundas, for black Hamburgh grap.es.

The committee on vegetables awarded premiums — for the
best cucumbers, two in number, to B. Daniels ; for the second
best, ditto, to Ainhony Felten ; lor the best cauliflowers,
three heads, ti> Anthony Felten ; for the best sea-kale, six
plants, to B. Daniels ; for the best asparagus, to Isaac B. Bax-
ter ; for Ihe second best asparagus, to B. Daniels; for the best
rhubarb, to A. Felten ; for the most interesting di.-^play of
vegetables, by market gardeners, to A. Felten; for the sec-
ond best, ditto, to the same j for the best display by amateur
gardeners, lo B. Daniels.

The secretary reported a communication from Mr. C. M .
Hovey, Boston, accompanying which were scions of desirable
pears and apples, a present lo members of the society, which
he had delivered to the committee lor distribution, and were
accordingly disseminated. On motion, ordered that the thanks
of the society be tendered to Mr. Hovey for the present.

Members elected —Geo. Wainwright. Joseph Mevius and
Jacob Mevius.

On motion, adjourned. Tho. P. James, Ree. Sec.

536

NEW. YORK STATE AG. SOCIETY.

NBW-YORK STATU AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.

We copy the List of Premiums to be awarded on Fruits,
Flowers, &c., at this Sociciy's Annual Exhibition, to be held
at BuSalo, on the 12th, 13th and 14lh days of September next.
APPLES.

For the frreatest and best variety of sjood table apples, 3 of
each variety, named and labelled, grown by exhibitor. Diplo-
ma and $10. For the 2.1 best, .f. 5. For the 3d best, Trans.

For the best 1'2 varieties of table apples, $.5. For the 2d
best. Trans, and $2.

For the best six winter varieties, $3. For the 2d best,
Trans, and -f 2.

For the best fall seedling apple, for all purposes, with de-
scription of tree, history of its origin, &.C ,— one dozen speci-
mens to be exhibited, $5. For the 2d best, $2.
PEARS.

For the greatest number of varieties of good pears, named
and labelled. Diploma and $10. For the 2d best, $5. For
the 3d best. Trans.

For the best collection of first rate autumn pears, named
and labelled. Dip. and $.5. For the 2d best, Trans, and $2.

For tiie largest and be*t enlleclioii of winter pears, named
and labelled. Dip. and $.5. For the 2d best. Trans, and $2

For the best collection of newly indroduced pears, with a
description, &c.. Dip. and SK).

PEACHES.

For the best 12 varieties, labelled. Dip. and $.5. For the 2d
best, $2.

For the best 6 varieties, labelled, $3. For the 2d best, S2.

For the best 12 peaches, $2. For the 2d best. Trans.

For the best seedling variety, 0 specimens, $3. For the 2d
best, $2.

PLUMS.

For the best collection of plums, 6 spe(jimens each variety.
Dip. and $5. For the 2d best, $3

For the best 6 varieties of good plums, 6 specimens each,
$3. For the 2d best, S2.

For the best 12 plums, choice variety, $2. For the 2d best.
Trans.

For the best seedling plum, with description. Dip and $2.
For the 2d best, $5.

NECTARINES AND APRICOTS.

For the best and greatest number of good varieties. 6 speci-
mens each, labelled, S3. For the 2d best. $2.

For the best 12 specimens of any good variety, !5'2. For
the 2d best, Trans.

QUINCES.

For the best 12 quinces of any variety, $3. For the -Jd best,
$2. For the 3d best, Trans.

GRAPES.

For the best and most extensive collection of good native
grapes, grown in open air, %5. For the 2d best, $2.

For the best 3 varieties of native or foreign grapes, growti
under glass, 3 bunches to be shown, $^. For the 2d best, $2.

For Itie best dish of native grapes. Trans.
WATERIVIEI-ONS.

For the best 6 specimens of any variety, $3. F(.r the 2d
best, $2.

MUSKMELONS.

For the best 6 specimens of any variety, $3. For the 2d
best, $2.

CR.ANBERRIES.

Best peck of domestic culture, $3. For the 2d best, $5.

To be accompunied with a full description of the manner
of cultivation, na'nre of soil, $c.

Any premiums may be witliheld in the discretion of the com-
mittee, iftlie samples exhibited are not worthy of a premium.

The fruit exhibited for which premiums are awarded, to be
at the disposal of the committee.

12 volumes of Downing, common edition, and 12 of Tho-
mas' Fruit Cull., will he awarded by the committee, in their
discretion, for choice fruits not enumerated.

Seedling Apples, to be awarded at winter meeting —
For the best new seedling variety of winter apples, of deci-
dedly superior quality, and valuable for exportation. — one
dozen specimens to be exhibited, together with a history of its
origin, description of the growth, character and habits of the
tree, and the growing of ihe fruit— such fruit to be adjudged
by the committee as of the first character for orchard purpo-
ses. Diploma and $10. For the 2d best, $5.

The. above new seedling variety to be sent to B. P. Johnson,
Secretary, Agricultural Rooms, Albany, before the 15th of
January, 1849, for examination.

FLOWERS — PROFESSIONAL LIST.

Greatest variety and quantity of flowers, $5.

Dahlias.
Greatest variety, $5. Best 24 dissimilar blooms, S3.

Roses.
Greatest variety, $5. Best 24 dissimilar blooms, $3.

Phloxes.
Best 10 varieties, $3. Best seedling, $2.

Verbenas-
Greatest variety and number, $3. Best 12 varieties, $2.
Best seedling, $2

German Asters.
Best Collection, $2.

Pansies.
Best and greatest variety. $3. Best 24 varieties, $2.

AM.iTEl'R LIST.

Greatest variety and quantity of flowers. Silver Medal

Dahlias.
Greatest variet)'. Silver Medal. Best twelve dissimilar
blooms, $3.

Roses.
Greatest variety. Silver Medal. Best twelve dissimilar
blooms, $3.

Phloxes.
Best 6 varieties, $3. Best seedling, $2.

Verbenas.
Greatest variety, $3. Best 12 varieties. $2. Best seed-
ling. $2.

German Asters.
Best collection, $3.

Pansies.
Best and greatest variety, $3. Best 12 varieties, $2.

GENERAL LIST — Open to all Competitors.
Best coUeclion of green-house plants, owned by one person,
Silver Medal.
Best tioral design. Silver Medal. Second best, $3.
Best floruLPrnament, Silver Medal. Second best, $3.
Best hand bou .net, '• flat," $3. Second best, f2. Third
best, Wash. Let.

Best hand bouquet, "round," $3. Second best, $2. Third
be.st. Wash. Let.

Best aiid largest basket bouquet with handle, $3. Second
best, $2.

For the most beautifully arranged basket of flowers. Dip.
Best floral exhibition of any Horticultural Society, Gold
Medal.

VEGETABLES.

12 best stalks celery, $3

6 best heada cauliflower, 3

6 best heads broccoli, 3

12 best white table turnips, 3

12 best carrois, 3

12 best table beets, 3

12 best parsnips, 3

12 best onions, 3

3 best heads of cabbage, 3

12 best tomatoes, 3

2 best purple egg plants, 3

12 best sweet potalnes 3

Best half peck Lima beans, 3

Best half peck Windsor beans, 3

Best bunch double parsley, 3

Three best squashes, 3

Largest pumpkin, 3

12 best ears seed corn, 3

Best half peck table potatoes, .... 3

Second best 3

Best seedling potato, 3

For the best and greatest variety of seedling potatoes

of approved varieties, 10

Best aiid greatest variety of vegetables raised by exhi-
bitor, 10

Discretionary premiums will be awarded on choice garden
products not above enumerated.

THB

iOUPiNAL OF RURAL ART AM) RURAL TASTE.

Vol. II.

JUNE, 1S43.

No. 12.

At this moment, when the old world's mo-
narchical institutions are fast falling to pie-
ces, it is interesting to look at home, at the
prosperous and happj' condition of our new-
world republic.

Abroad, the sovereign springs from a
privileged class, and holds his position by
the force of the army. His state and go-
vernment are supported by hea\y taxes,
wrung from the laboring classes, often en-
tirely without their consent. At home, the
people are the sovereign power. The safe-
ty of their government lies in their own in-
telligence ; and the taxes paid for the main-
tenance of public order, or to create public
works, fall with no heavy or unequal press-
ure, but are wisely and justly distributed
throughout all classes of society.

In the United States, the industrial class-
es are the true sovereigns. Idleness is a con-
dition so unrecognized and unrespected with
us, that the few professing it find themselves
immediately thrown out of the great ma-
chine of active life which constitutes Ame-
rican society. Hence, an idle man is a cy-
pher. Work he must, either with his head,
his hands or his capital ; work, in some mode
or other, or he is a dethroned sovereign. The
practical and busy spirit of our people repu-
diates him, and he is of no more absolute

consequence than the poor fugitive king, —
denied, and driven out by his subjects.

The CULTIVATORS OF THE SOIL Constitute
the great industrial class in this country.
They may well be called its " bone and
sinew ;" for at this moment do thej' not
only feed all other classes, but also no in-
significant portion of needj' Europe, furnish
the raw material for manufactures, and
raise the great staples which figure so large-
ly in the accounts of the merchant, the ship
owner and manufacturer, in every village,
town and sea-port in the Union.

The sovereign 'people has a better right
to look over its ^^ rent roll" — to examine the
annual sum total of the products of its in-
dustry-, than any other sovereign whatever ;
and it has accordingly employed Mr. Bubke,
the excellent commissioner of patents, to
collect statistical facts, and publish them in
the annual report of his office.

An examination of the condition of this
country, as exhibited in Mr. Burke's re-
port* of its industrial resources, will, we
think, afford the best proof ever exhibited
of the value of the the American Union,
and the extraordinary wealth of our terri-
tory. The total value of the products of the

• This report is now in press nt Washington. Our data
have been copied I'rcm an abstract nlreudy published.

VOL. n.

68

538

CULTIVATORS— THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL CLASS OF AMERICA.

soil, alone, for the past year, he estimates
at more than 07ie thousand five hundred
millions of dollars.*

The value of the grain crops and great
agricultural staples of the country, for 1847,
amounts to $815,863,688.

The value of all horticultural products,
(gardens, orchards and nurseries,) is esti-
mated at $459,577,533.

The value of the live stock, wool, and
dairy products, amounts to $246,054,579.

The value of the products of the woods
and forests, amounts to $59,099,628.

It is also estimated that there were pro-
duced last year 224,384,502 bushels of sur-
plus grains of various kinds, over and above
what was amply sufficient for home con-
sumption. This is much more than enough
to meet the ordinary demand of all the corn-
buying countries of Europe.

Over one thousand five hundred millions
of dollars, in the products of the soil, for a
single year ! Does not this fully justify us
in holding up the cultivators of the Ameri-
can soil as the great industrial class ?, But
let us compare them a little, by Mr. Burke's
aid, with the other industrial classes.

The annual product of all the manufac-
tures in the Union, for 1847, is estimated
at $500,000,000. The profits of trade and
commerce at $23,458,345. The profits of
fisheries $17,069,262 ; and of banks, money
institutions, rents and professions, $145,-
000,000. Total, $809,697,407.

Here we have the facts, or something, at
least, like an approximation to the facts, of
the results of the yearly industrial labor of
the republic. The average amount is the
enormous sum of over tioo thousand three
hundred and eighty-nine millions of dollars.

Of this, the agricultural class produces
nearly double that of all other classes, or over
one thousand five hundred and seventy-nine

• $1,579,595,428.

millions; while all other classes, merchants,
manufacturers, professional men, etc., pro-
duce but a little more than eight hundred
and nine millions.

There are a few, among the great traders
and " merchant princes," who do not suffi-
ciently estimate the dignity or importance
of any class but their own. To them we
commend a study of Mr. Burke's statistic-
al tables. There are some few farmers
who think their occupation one of narrow
compass and resources ; we beg them to
look over the aggregate annual products
of their country, and take shame to them-
selves.

It is no less our duty to call the attention
of our own readers to the great importance
of the horticultural interest of the country.
Why, its products ($459,000,000,) are more
than half as great in value as those strictly
agricultural; they are almost as large as
the whole manufacturing products of the
country; and half as large as the manufac-
turing and all other interests, exxepting the
agricultural, combined.

In truth, the profits of the gardens and
orchards of the country, are destined to be
enormous. Mr. Burke's estimate appears
to us very moderate ; and from the unparal-
leled increase in this interest very recently,
and the peculiar adaptation of our soil and
climate to the finest fruits and vegetables,
the next ten years must exhibit an amount
of horticultural products which will almost
challenge belief The markets of this coun-
try will not only be supplied with fruit in
great abundance and excellence, but thou-
sands of orchards will be cultivated solely
for foreign consumption.

The system of railroads and cheap trans-
portation already begins to supply the sea-
board cities with some of the fair and beau-
tiful fruits of the fertile west. When the
orchards of Massachusetts fail, the orchards

CULTIVATORS— THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL CLASS OF AMERICA 539

of western New- York will supph- the Bos-
ton market with apples ; and thus, wherever
the finest transportable products of the soil
are in demand, there they will find their
way.

There are, however, many of the finer
and more perishable products of the garden
and orchard which will not bear a long
journey. These, it should be the peculiar
business of the cultivator of the older and
less fertile soil in the sea-board states to
grow. He may not, as an agriculturist, be
able to compete with the fertile soils of the
west ; but he may still do so as a horticul-
turist, by devoting his attention and his
land to orchards and gardens. If it is too
difficult and expensive to renovate an old
soil that is worn out, or bring up a new one
naturally poor, for farm crops, in the teeth
of western grain prices, he may well afford
to do so for the larger profit derived from
orchard and garden culture, where those
products are raised for which a market
must be found without long transportation.
He who will do this most successfully must
not waste his time, labor and capital, by
working in the dark. He must learn gar-
dening and orcharding as a practical art,
and a science. He must collect the lost
elements of the soil from the animal and
mineral kingdoms, and bring them back
again to their starting point. He must
seek out the food of plants in towns and
villages, where it is wasted and thrown
away. He must plant and prune so as to
aid and direct nature, that neither time nor
space are idly squandered.

Certainly, we have just pride and plea-
sure in looking upon the great agricultural
class of America. Landholders and pro-
prietors of the soil, as they are, governing
themselves, and developing the resources
of a great nation — how different is their
position from that of the farmers of Eng-

land,— hundreds of thousands of men,
working, generation after generation, upon
lands leased by a small privileged body, which
alone owns and entails the soil ; or even from
that of France, where there are millions of
proprietors, but proprietors of a soil so sub-
divided that the majority have half a dozen
acres, or perhaps, even a half or fourth of
an acre in extent, — often scarcely sufficient
to raise a supply of a single crop for a small
family.

If we have said anything calculated to
inspire self-respect in the agricultural class
of this country, it is not wiih a view to les-
sen that for any other of its industrial
classes. Far from it. Indeed, with the
versatility of power and pursuits \.-hich
characterise our people, no class can be
said to be fixed. The farming class is the
great nursery of all the professions, and the
industrial arts of the country. From its
bosom go out the shrewdest lawj'ers and
the most successful merchants of the towns;
and back to the country return these classes
again, however successful, to be regene-
rated in the primitive life and occupation of
the race.

But the agricultural class perhaps is still
wanting in a just appreciation of its im-
portance, its rights and its duties. It has
so long listened to sermons, lectures and
orations, from those who live in cities and
look upon country life as " something for
dull wits,'^ that it still needs apostles who
draw their daily breath in green fields, and
are untrammelled by the schools of politics
and trade.

The agricultural journals, over the whole
country, have done much to raise the dig-
nity of the calling. They have much still
to do. The importance of agricultural
schools, of a high grade, should be continu-
ally insisted upon, until every state legis-
lature in the Union comes forward with libe-

540

HYBRIDIZATION OF THE CAMELLIA JAPONICA,

ral endowments ; and if pledges ought ever
to be demanded of politicians, then farmers
should not be slow to require them of their

every sound means of increasing the intel-
ligence of this great bulwark of the coun-
try's safety and prosperity — the cultivators

representatives, for legislation favorable to I of the soil.

THE HYBRIDIZATION OF THE CAaiELLIA JAPONICA AT^B ITS VARIETIBSj

WITH THE TREATMENT OF THE OFFSPRING.

[By Marshal P. Wilder, Esq , President of tlie Massacliusetts Horticultural Society.]

[We copy the following highly interesting
article from the 2d number of the Trans-
actio7is of the Massachcsetts Horticultural
Society. Ed.]

The following remarks have been pre-
pared in compliance with a request of the
Committee of Publication, to furnish an ar-
ticle on the cross-breeding of plants ; but
more particularly to give some account of
the method of practice, and the results of
my experiments in the production of hybrid
varieties from this beautiful family of Flora.

In treating of this branch of vegetable
physiology, I do not expect to promulgate
any new theory in explanation of the pro-
cess by which nature carries on this part
of her secret handiwork, or of the laws and
principles upon which an All-wise Provi-
dence has based the mysterious system of
the re-production of the races of beings and
plants.

My earliest experiments were pursued
more as a matter of recreation than as a
scientific study, and although in many in-
stances quite satisfactory, still it is to be
regretted, that from causes which could not
be controlled, by one busily engaged in
other avocations, some of them need far-
ther confirmation. I shall not, therefore,
pretend to lay down any fixed rules, from
which there can be no departure under any
circumstances or treatment, but simply re-
fer to such as are well established in my

own mind, and which, it is believed, will
by similar process produce like results. For
the success attendant on these efforts, I am
largely indebted to the researches of the
late Eev. Mr. Herbert, of SpofForth, Eng-
land, published many years since, in an
article on " Crosses and Hybrid Intermix-
tures." (See his Amaryllidacese.)

The Eeverend gentleman to whom I
have alluded, in his investigations into the
structure and functions of vegetables, dis-
covered in his experiments with the Ca-
mellia, that, " si7igle flowers, or those raised
from single ones,'''' were the best as breed-
ers, or seed bearers ; and that, for the pro-
duction of fine double flowers, it was im-
portant that the pollen, used for impregna-
tion, should be borne on a petaloid anther,
thus becoming petaloid pollen ; and fur-
ther, that this was still better, if from a
double flower. Another precaution was to
prevent the plant making any new wood,
by cutting out the young shoots as fast as
they appeared, thereby forcing as much nu-
triment as possible to the newly formed
germ.

Practicing on these suggestions, and be-
lieving that every change effected by cross-
fertilization is a remove from the normal
form, and therefore more easily susceptible
of continued mutations, I have preferred
hybrids for bearing the seed ; and in the
selection of the flower to be impregnated, I

HYBRIDIZATION OF THE CAMELLIA JAPONICA.

541

have had special reference to the strength
and prominence of the style, the form of
th? corolla, and the perfection of its petals ;
and, I think, for raising varieties with
double flowers, we are more dependent,
than has generally been apprehended, on
the kind of pollen used ; viz., that zchich is
borne o?i a petal ; this petaloid change be-
ing, as I imagine, the incipient stage to-
wards a full petalous form. I entertain the
opinion, that varieties possessing the pre-
requisites thus described, Avhen fecundated
with this pollen, will, for the most part,
produce double seedlings, with petals more
or less multiplied, and not unfrequentlj'-,
flowers that are full and sj'mmetrical, and
devoid even of the seminal organs. It may
be here observed, that the larger and bet-
ter developed this petaloid anther, the bet-
ter the chance for a fine oifspring, for, as
Mr. Herbert remarks, " the corolla, in truth,
belongs to the male portion of the flower,
the anthers being borne upon it, or in some
manner connected with it by a membrane."
That single or semi-double sorts with
perfect corollas, are more certain to produce
flowers of a regular symmetrical formation,
I have pretty conclusive evidence, as will
presently be shown ; still, I have had good
success with those raised from the pasony,
or loose waratah formation, but the propor-
tion of such has been less ; and these have
been more frequently stuffed with small
petals, or their rudiments. This opinion,
in relation to the latter class, I am happy
to learn, is confirmed by the experience of
Noel J. Becar, Esq., of Brooklyn, N. Y.,
who, practicing on these principles, has
produced several fine varieties from C. Mid-
dlemist, C. Colvillii, C. imbricata alba, &c.,
one of which, of first rate properties, from
C, Colvillii, by C. Donkaslarii, was on ex-
hibition at the rooms of the Society the past
winter.

In corroboration of what has been stated,
I adduce the following illustrations taken
from my own memoranda; remarking, how-
ever, that the ofE-pring from the same cap-
sule has varied much, although in my judg-
ment conforming to the principles advanced.

HYBRIDS FROM SKEDS OF SINGLE VARIETIES.

From the Single Red, (the type of the genus,)
by pollen of C. punctata.

Camellia Richardsonii, a very full lilac crimson
flower, with sixty to seventy petals, of the regu-
lar form.
Camellia Maria Louisa, perfectly double and
regular, sometimes hexangular, like C. Lady
Hume ; color deep rose, or crimson, with a pe-
culiar metallic lustre.
Camellia Wilderii, thus described in the Trans-
actions of the Society: "flower delicate clear
rose ; petals seventy-five to eighty in number,
beautifully imbricated and arranged with exqui-
site regularity."

From a large single hybrid crimson, by C. Lind-
briata, a very full perfect flower, of the color of the
female parent, much liice C. concinna in form, but
more double.

From C. Aitonia, by C. alba grandiflora ; double
white, large, nearly regular, but with occasionally
a few anthers.

From Single White, by Anemonefiora alba ; nu-
merous white and parti-colored varieties, more or
less double, the best of which is a full creamy
white, striped with rose, like Duchesse d'Orleans,
but not so regular.

examples from the seed of double varieties.

From Camellia imbricata alba, by pollen of the
C. variegata ; a douijle white, nearly of the regular
form, with a few stamens.

From C. King, by C. variegata ; a full symme-
trical flower, very dark crimson, striped with white
— peculiar.

From C. elegans, by C. punctata ; an enormous
large, globular, white flower, of the irregular
shape.

From C. LLiidbriata, by C. punctata ; very clear
beautiful pink ; corolla and petals largo, like the
female plant, but not entirely full.

From C. Lindbriata. by C. alba grandiflora ; a
very thick, full, globular flower, white, striped
with rose.

From C. Colvillii, by C. Donka^larii ; a double
symmetrical flower ; color, delicate rose or pink,
striped with white.

From the same, by the same, a very perfect
double flov\er ; color, clear rose.

From C. puncta(a, (male parent not known,)
Eurydice Augusta, a perfect regular flower ; co-
lor, light rose, broadly striped with white, and re-

542

HYBRIDIZATION OF THE CAMELLIA JAPONICA.

sembles Pi'essley's Queen Victoria, but surpasses it
in beauty.

From C. Middlemist, by C. pomponia ; the fine
white variety ligured in Transactions of the Soci-
ety ; very circular, of great depth, full and perfect ;
occasionally suffused or touched with light rose.

Having explained my views in relation
to the influence of petaloid pollen, I add, as
proof, a few examples illustrative of the in-
efficiency o( simple polle7i to generate double
flowers. This rule is not stated as invaria-
ble, but where the exception arises, may it
not be from a state of transformation not
visible to the eye.

From Camellia pfeoniflora, by C. Donkselarii,
several single seedlings, one of which, of the exact
color of the former, and singularly veined with
deep red.

From C. Colvillii, by C. Donkalarii ; seedlings,
with single flowers of various tints, but with no
disposition to double.

From C. tricolor, fertilized with itself; seedlings,
with white and red single flowers, but, retaining in
habit and foliage the character of the parent.

From C. Donkaslarii, by itself, a fac-simile, in
habit and foliage, but in flower resembling almost
precisely the old single red.

Camellia myrtifolia, and C. imbricata
rubra, having departed from their general
double form, produced a few anthers, the
pollen of which was seized on as most de-
sirable for impregnating with, but the pro-
geny of these crosses, although in one in-
stance so similar in foliage to C. mjTtifo-
lia as hardly to be distinguished from it,
brought only ordinary single flowers; these
varieties seldom deviate from their usual
perfect form, and it was therefore noticed,
that none of the anthers were petaloid.
The seedlings, also, of the Abbe Berlese
and Mr. Herbert, raised from crosses by C.
myrtifolia, were no better than mine, and
Mr. H. declares his were " single flowered,
and the worst he ever raised." To what-
ever cause this sporting from the accustom-
ed habit may be attributed, and without
regard to the agency which the female
plant may have in generating double flow-
ers, it is obvious that the pollen in these

instances was deficient in the proper ingre-
dient, arid further, that the circumstances
which induced the blossoms to revert to the
primordial stamp, also imparted to the plants
a strange retardation of inflorescence ; those
of C. myrtifolia not coming to the flowering
state, with me, until the seventh or eighth
year, and with the Abbe not until the twelfth.

I have alluded in another place to the
structure of the flower designed for seed,
and although I place great reliance on the
kind of pollen to be used, and doubt not
that the juices of the style have, also, a
corresponding duty to perform ; still, I at-
tach great importance to its perfection and
substance ; for where the style has been
feeble, distorted, or so imperfectly develop-
ed as to exist in numerous divisions, my
success has been quite limited.

Without, therefore, attempting to explain
the mysteries of fertilization, or to define the
line beyond which there can be no intermix-
tures or crosses of the vegetable kingdom,
a point on which botanists are much in
doubt at the present day, and w^ith no pre-
tensions " to breed to a pattern," or " to
wash out the last tip of black from the pi-
geon's wing," I submit the foregoing ob-
servations, with due deference, to those bet-
ter skilled in botanical science than my-
self.

There have been so many treatises pub-
lished on the cultivation of the Camellia,
some of which are quite elaborate, it would
be superfluous to enter on it here. It may
not, however, in concluding this article, be
considered irrelevant, to add the following
brief directions : —

The plants selected for fructification should
be removed from the Camellia house to one
of higher temperature ; this will essentially
assist fertilization, and in many cases ren-
der those fruitful which would not otherwise
become so.

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

)43

As soon as the flower to be impregnated
is sufficiently expanded, the anthers should
be cut out, taking care that this be done
before they open, and that the pistil be not
injured by the operation.

The stigma is generally ready for impreg-
nation in twenty-four to thirty-six hours,
when the pollen, if mature, may be applied,
selecting, if practicable, the middle of a
bright sunny day.

In five to ten days after the ovules are
fecundated, the young capsule commences
swelling, after which all new shoots should
be removed and the plants, once a week,
liberally supplied with guano water ; this
I have found a great aid in ripening full
and perfect seed.

The seeds, when gathered, should be
immediately labelled with their genealogy,
and stored in pots of sand, kept moderately
moist and warm ; in about two months they
will commence sending forth their young
radices ; as soon as these are perceived,

each seed should be planted in a small
shallow pot, thus preventing the long tap,
which in the common mode of planting de-
scends to the bottom, without any horizon-
tal or fibrous roots. The pots should then
be placed in a mild hot-bed, or stove, giving
a little air as the foliage becomes develop-
ed, and when they have attained the height
of three or four inches, be removed to a
shelf near the light, and carefully watered.
When the first growth has ripened its wood,
the plants should be shifted to pots a size
larger, and if treated with liquid guano,
will attain the first season eight to ten
inches in height ; these are now sufficiently
large for inarching, and thus, in two or
three years from the seed, j'ou may gene-
rally prove whether the new hybrid be
Avorthy of extension.

The compost for young plants consists of
two parts well rotted turfy loam, one part
leaf soil, and one part peat or heath mould,
with sand to make it free.

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

BY PROFESSOR KIRTLAND, CLEVELAND, OHIO.

[We copy the following interesting notes
from a copy of our work on Fruit Trees,
which Professor Kirtland, one of the most
intelligent pomologists in the west, kindly
sent some months ago, when we were re-
vising the eighth edition of this work, just
published. As many of them are worthy
of the attention of fruit growers, and as only
a portion of them could be made use of in
our work, we take the liberty of preserving
them in this form.

The copy of our Fruits in which these
memoranda were written, has the appear-
ance of being well worn ; and on a blank

leaf, at the commencement, we find the
following note in Prof. K.'s hand:

"This volume has performed a mission-
ary tour to half the houses in this township,
and has done much service by awakening
a taste for horticulture in a class of people
who own some of the best soil and localities
for fruit in the United States, but who, be-
forehand, had little or no conception of the
importance of cultivating it.

" They have not always washed their
hands before turning over its pages."]

Grafting — p. 15. Side-grafting succeeds
best for spongy wood, such as the peach.

544

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

magnolias, and ash. The magnoh'a takes
freely if side-grafted and tongued, but will
not succeed if the stock is amputated after
the usual plan. The rose Acacia takes ea-
sily on the common glutinous locust, [Ro-
hiiiia riscosa,) and makes a beautiful stand-
ard tree, if the graft be sloped upon one
side and inserted under the bark, as in bud-
ding.

Influence of the Graft — p. 24. A graft of
the Green Newtown Pippin will invariably
render the bark of the stock rough and
black, (the habit of the variety.) within three
years after its insertion.

Sucker Stocks — p. 29. The loss of our
pear trees, attributed to fire-blight, is very
often the result of using suckers for stocks.

P7-uning — p. 30. I doubt if much prun-
ing (orchard trees) is proper on the shores
of Lake Erie and the other great lakes.
Trees of all kinds incline to form thick
heads ; and if thinned out freely, they ge-
nerally soon decay.

Mulching — p. 45. A capital practice
in transplanting trees. Decaying leaves
from the wood are excellent for this pur-
pose.

Well Trenched Soil— -p. 50. The fol-
lowing paragraph must have the entire as-
sent of every practical fruit grower in the
country: — "Indeed, no fruit garden, where
the soil is not naturally deep and rich, is in
perfect condition for planting trees, unless
the soil has been well trenched two spades
in depth. This creates a matrix for the
roots, so deep and permanent, that they re-
tain their vigor and luxuriance through the
drouths of summer, and continue for a
long time in a state of health and produc-
tiveness."

bisects — p. 63. Our apple trees are often
injured by the larva of the Bupestris, which
will girdle out extensive portions of the
bark and 3^oung wood. Page 66 — Apple

I Worm — the CurcuHo^ and not this insect
I stings our apples.

Best Soil for the j^pple — p. 69. Apples
raised on the limestone hills in Ohio are
richer and higher flavored than from any
other locations.

Commo7i Berherry. — Experience has con-
vinced us, the pollen of this berberry loill
blast wheat and rye.

MEM. ON APPLES IN DOWNINg's FRUITS.

American Summer Pearmain. — First rate.

Bcno7ii has not equalled our expectations.

Sevan's Favorite is a valuable summer
apple.

Early Red Margaret. — Common and po-
pular here, but much inferior to Swmner
Rose and Bevan^s Favorite.

Summer Queen. — Good on warm sandy
soils; poor on cold clay lands.

Beauty of Kent. — Showy, but of little
value.

Golden Sweet. — Very valuable for swine ;
for which, along with clover, it forms the
cheapest and best of food. Every farmer
should cultivate at least 20 or 30 trees.

Gravenstein — excellent. Jersey Siveeti7ig
— valuable. Maiden's Blush — valuable for
marketing ; not high flavored.

Nonsuch — p. 91. The Richfield Nonsuch
is the best winter apple with which I am
acquainted. It was introduced there from
abroad ; true name not known. [We have
since seen specimens of this fruit, from
Ohio, that justify Prof. K.'s opinion. It
proves to be the " Old Nonsuch" of Massa-
chusetts, or Canada Red of western New-
York, noticed in a previous page of the
Horticulturist, but quite distinct from the
English Nonsuch, described in our Fruits.
Ed.]

Ramho. — The universal apple of the Ger-
man population in Ohio.

Seek-nofurther. — Coxe's Seek-no-further
is only a second rate fruit. "Westfield Seek-

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

545

no-further — very excellent. I think it is
the same as the "Marietta Seek-no-further"
of this state.

Stroat. — Fruit excellent ; tree not vigor-
ous.

Yellow Bellejleur. — Fruit rather light and
tart at the north ; flavor higher at Cincin-
nati.

IVhite Bellejleur, (?) — Is not this synony-
mous with Woolma7i's Long, or Ortley Pip-
•pin ?

Detroit, or Red Detroit, (?) — Red Cal-
ville ?

Doctor. — Fruit large, crisp, tender, — for
eating and cooking. Tree vigorous. My
tree came from Burlington, N. J. Can
yours be correct ?

Doniine. — Cultivated in this vicinity as
the ^^ Ramboulrettey

Jonathan. — Valuable ; preferable to the
Esopus Spitzenburgh in this locality.

Lady Apple. — Beautiful, but with us, sub-
ject to the fire-blight.

Newtown Pippin. — The Yellow is prefer-
able to the Green in northern Ohio. Both
thrive well, only on soil containing lime.
Indeed, I have never known the Newtown
Pippin to flourish, except on a limestone
formation, or when the soil was supplied
with lime.

Pennock — is not, and never was, worth
cultivation ; flavor bitter' and sweet ; sub-
ject to the dry rot.

Rhode Island Greening — on warm, sandy
soil, yellow and fine flavor ; on clay soil,
the skin tough, flesh fibrous and sour.

Roman Stem. — 20 years since, this was
one of our best winter fruits ; now, not so
fair as formerly. I had it from Burlington
in 1820.

Swaar. — Very excellent.

Esopus Spitzenburgh. — Not so good in
Ohio as it was 25 years since at the east.

Winesap. — Best of all apples for baking ;

drill out the core with a long and narrow
knife, [or apple corer,] fill the cavity with
butter and sugar rubbed together, place the
apples in a hot, closely covered bake-kettle
till they are cooked.

No. 184, (?), Red Astrachan Crab.— This
is dark red, and very showy.

MEM. ON CHEKRIES.

Black Tartarian. — Was cultivated in
Wallingford, Ct., as early as ISIO, under
the name of " Double Heart," or " Bishop's
Large;" and in Middletown, Ct., in 1818,
as Black Tartarian. In both cases, brought
from N. Y.

Downer^s Late — is becoming very popu-
lar in this vicinity.

Waterloo. — The true sort has never been
cultivated here. [It is very scarce in this
country ; that usually sold being incorrect.
Ed.]

Bigarreau. — Very fine, but decays sud-
denly, as about to ripen. The tree is hardy
and productive. The White Bigarreau is
an indifferent bearer — the tree not hardy.

Napoleon Bigarreau. — First rate, except
a little deficient in richness ; very hardy
and productive ; a slight inclination in the
fruit to decay.

Neiv Large Black Bigarreau. — Obtained
from Kenrick ; proves to be only Black Tar-
tarian.

Elton. — The finest fruit of the cherry
kind ; tree somewhat tender.

Belle Magnifique — has fruited two years
with me ; a good acid cherry, fine for cook-
ing, and very late. Sept. first, ripe fruit
still on the tree.

Grapes. — The crops of native grapes are
more certain at Cleveland than at Cincin-
nati. Bland is not adapted to om* climate.
The Catawba ripens well, and is our best
grape. The Ohio is rather tender for this
climate. •

Vol. II.

69

546

POMOLOGICAL NOTES.

The foreign grapes of the hardiest kind
do not succeed more than one or two sea-
sons, while the vines are young, in the
open air. After that, the fruits mildew.

CurcuHo, or Flu?n Weevil. — This insect,
last season, destroyed every plum on my
farm, except the crop of one tree in my
swine lot ; that tree is bending under its
load of fruit. / believe that swine and hens
will effectually protect a large orchard of
plum trees against the attacks of the cur-
culio. Persevering shaking off, and pick-
ing up of the punctured fruit will do the
same, but requires much labor. This spe-
cies of curculio breeds in our forests, and
even in some succulent plants. In 1835,
it was very abundant in Trumbull county,
Ohio, though not a plum tree grew in that
county in 1834. It seemed to emigrate in
'35, from the woods. Instinct directs its
movements. It will avoid trees standing
in places where its larva or its chrysalis
must evidently be destroyed ; and I think
this in part accounts for the effect of
swine and poultry in interrupting its opera-
tions.

This insect is an epicure, and will usu-
ally select the tenderest and best varieties.
But if hard-pushed for a supply of fruit, it
will also attack the wild plum, the peach
and the apple.

NOTES ON PLXJBIS.

Cot's Golden Drop. — Has not ripened well
here for the last three years ; requires a
long season ; have never known it very fine
but once.

Diamond. — Prolific, but coarse, and des-
titute of fine flavor.

Smith's Orleans. — Fine and valuable.

Pear Tree Blight — p. 322. I doubt whe-
ther the 1st or 2d view embraces the cor-
rect pathology of " Fire-blight" as it pre-
vails here. The disease seems to depend

on a peculiar state of the atmosphere — a
saturated state of vioisticre, as manifested
by the hygrometer, and a hot, scalding im-
pression of the sun. Insects and frosts may
produce a peculiar disease, — the latter oft-
en kills apples, pears, and cherries, as de-
scribed by Kev. Mr. Beecher ; but our west-
ern blight is a morbid, vegetable action,
siti generis — contagious, and it may be ex-
cited into action by atmospheric vicissitudes.
Bold and thorough amputation below the
diseased parts, and burning all the limbs
thus pruned off, is the only known remedy.

NOTES ON PEAKS.

Belle de Bruxelles. — One of the best pears
last season ; trees received of Elwanger &
Barry.

Bartlett. — Best of all pears, in my esti-
mation, taking all circumstances into con-
sideration.

Jargonelle. — Very popular, but not of
much value.

Julienne. — Insipid with me.

Madeleine. — Very valuable ; much supe-
rior to the Bloodgood in 1846 and '47.
[The Bloodgood far superior here, in all
seasons. Ed.]

Beurre Diel. — Has not equalled expec-
tations ; flesh coarse and harsh ; soil stiff'
clay. [Should be grown on quince stock.
Ed.]

Beurre Van Marum. — Has fruited for
four years ; valuable ; the fruit middling ;
very productive.

Dix. — This must be a seedling of the old
St. Germain.

White Doyenne, [St, Michael's or Virga-
lieu.] — I have cultivated this variety in Ohio
since 1823, a7td have never known it to mani-
fest any signs of disease or decay. It is now
as healthy, vigorous and productive as it
was when I first became acquainted with
it in Hartford, Ct., in the year 1812. It is

CULTURE OF THE DAHLIA.

547

not surpassed by any pear witli which I am
acquainted.

Gray Doyennt. — Tree rather less hardy
than the foregoing.

Forelle. — Has fruited and proved fine in
this neighborhood ; but the tree is since
dead with the blight.

Fred'k of Wurtemberg. — Well known ;
very handsome and popular here.

Marie Louise. — Excellent ; but in order
to obtain standard trees, must be grafted
high on strong stocks.

Napoleoti. — Very prolific and healthy ; not
equal in flavor to some other sorts.

Stevens^ Genesee. — Promises to be first rate.

Beurre d'^remberg. — Equals the highest
anticipations.

Easter Beurre. — Does not always ma-
ture sufficiently in autumn here ; occasion-

ally excellent ; but will not rank with the
foregoing.

Ucedale's St. German. — Valuable for cook-
ing ; very prolific.

Firgouleusc. — I obtained this sort from
N. J. in 1824; the tree is still standing in
Trumbull county, but never yet produced a
perfect fruit.

Wi7iter Nelis. — Is my favorite for an ear-
ly winter pear.

Oranges — p. 543. May be budded either
in Ju?ie or in Atigust. At the former sea-
son, employ last years buds; at the latter
buds of the first growth of the present year.
Those of the June insertion may make a
growth of a foot or more in August.

Duration of Varieties — p. 555. The old
White Doyenne pear is as healthy and pro-
ductive here as any new seedling.

REMARKS ON THE CULTURE OF THE DAHLIA.

BY AN AMATEUR, NEW- YORK.

I HAVE observed that very little has been
said in your columns of the Dahlia or its
culture. In the last number, I see allusion
made to the new class of Dahlias, which
has been originated within a few years. I
mean the " fancy flowers."

These deserve all the praise that you ac-
cord them ; as, with the sole exception of
ihe autumnal roses, it appears to me that
the Dahlia, in its more modern form, is the
pride and glory of the garden from midsum-
mer to autumn. Many of the new varie-
ties are as perfect as the double white ca-
mellia, and as exquisitely striped as a car-
nation ; and the continual succession of
bloom which they furnish makes them in-
dispensable in every garden where there is
room enough for a Dahlia parterre.

Without going into any systematic detail

of the routine of Dahlia culture, I propose
to offer a few hints, founded on some ten or
twelve years practical experience. The
English works abound with numerous di-
rections for cultivating this plant ; but our
climate is so different from theirs, that very
large departures from their rules are neces-
sary.

It should be premised, then, that the
great point in cultivating the Dahlia in the
United States is to have a deep soil. With-
out this, it is almost five to one that vou
will fail to get a good succession of flowers.
If the season is a moist one, the Dahlia will
bloom profusely in almost any soil ; but as
the majority of our summers are hot and
dry, the plants almost always get stinted
and feeble, and produce few flowers in a
thin or dry soil.

548

CULTURE OF THE DAHLIA.

Many persons, also, err in supposing that
fine Dahlias can be produced b}' crowding
Dahlia roots into shrubbery borders, and
parts of the pleasure ground filled with the
roots of trees. It may do very well to em-
ploy this plant as a material to fill up such
places and produce what flowers it may ;
but whoever wishes perfect blossoyns, and a
conti7iual succession of them, must set his
'plants in an open, airy situation, where the
soil ha<i j/reviously been trenched two spades
deep, ajid well manured.

In these two points, so far as my obser-
vation and experience are worth anything,
lie the whole art of growing fine Dahlias.
Trenching to the depth of 20 inches will
give dark green healthy foliage, and well
formed flowers in abundance, in a soil which,
without trenching, will only produce lean
and meagre plants, with weak shoots, yel-
lowish foliage, and a few indifferent blooms.

Pruning I do not think should be too
much practiced on the Dahlia. Certainly,
a plant is improved by having the weak and
slender side branches taken off", and a shoot
here and there cut out, if the variety has a
disposition to grow so bushy that the branch-
es are too crowded to permit a proper dis-
play of the flowers. But beyond this, I think
pruning is not needed with us, as it is in
the damper climate of England ; growth-
exciting as the latter is.

Dampness, and a moderate temperature,
the Dahlia delights in. I agree with you,
that the Messrs. Thorburn bear off' the
palm as the great Dahlia growers of this
country. They have, however, great na-
tural advantages, possessed by few cultiva-
tors of this plant. Their Dahlia ground, at
Astoria, is a deep, sandy loam, only a few-
feet above the level of the East river.
Hence, the subsoil is always somewhat
moist, and the atmosphere more or less
humid at night. Their season is also pro-

longed by this position, as many of your
readers, who have seen their magnificent
annual exhibitions of this flower in John-
street, in the month of October, must be
well aware.

Very few people in this country care to
take the trouble to compete with the Eng-
lish florists, with their many advantages, in
raising new sorts of the Dahlia from seed.
To those who do, however, the following hint
is worth attention. Always save your seed
from the outside row of the seed vessel, and
not from the centre. Repeated experiment
has proved that the former seeds will give
double flowers and the latter single ones,
with almost equal certainty.* The same
thing is true of China Asters, and other
syngenesious plants.

A good many amateurs, who cultivate
only a iew Dahlias, fail in preserving the
roots through the winter. The failure usu-
ally results from too much pains-taking,
drying the roots, putting them in a warm,
airy place, etc. Now the Dahlia tuber will
not bear a dry atmosphere ; it shrivels and
loses the vital power ; and if packed away
^n sand, &c., it often decays. What it
wants is a somewhat damp atmosphere,
quite free from frost. No one who has a
green-house ever experiences the least dif-
ficulty in preserving the roots ; it is suffi-
cient to lay them on the fioor under the
stage. Alternate moisture and dryness
does not injure them, provided they dry
and do not remain long wet.

A good cellar for potatoes will usually
keep Dahlia roots also, if the roots are sim-
ply laid on the floor. A friend of mine, who
failed several seasons in preserving them,
from want of knowledge of their nature, in-
forms me that he has succeeded perfectly
since he has mixed them in the bins with

* I mean, of course, when the seed is saved from the beet
semi-double, or nearly double flowers.

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

549

his potatoes, covering them two or three
inches deep in those bins intended for spring
use.

I til ink the finest flowers are had from
good plants turned out of pots from the 20th
of May to the first week in June. Septem-
ber is the Dahlia month — "par excellence;
and though it is well to plant some strong
roots in April to come into bloom early,
the late planted roots will usually give
the purest and most perfectly formed
blooms.

I will add, in conclusion, that old sorts of
Dahlias " wear out" in any given soil,
like potatoes ; that is, they do not thrive as

well after having been grown in one gar-
den several years, as they did at first. It
does not at all follow that the variety has
really "run out" because this happens.
Take it to a new soil, and it will bloom
again as well as the first year the variety
was " let out." Hence, it is well occasion-
ally to change the roots of a favorite old
sort, as you would " change the seed" of a
potato. But, in fact, the Dahlias of the
last three years are so far superior to the
old varieties, that they are the only ones
sought after at present. Yours.

An Amateur.

New-York, MaylOth, 1848.

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

A. J. Downing, Esq. — Having recently been
looking over the numbers of the current vo-
lume of " The Horticulturist,'''' I have been
ex'-eedingly interested with several articles,
from highly respectable cultivators in dif-
ferent sections, on " Transplanting Eveii-
greens." It is a subject which certainly
ought to meet with altogether more atten-
tion than it does at present from every cul-
tivator ; for no rural spot, whether it be the
environs of home, the public promenade, or
the cool and refreshing park, can be perfect
without them. They give beauty to the
scenery wherever they are found. Not
only by their beautiful symmetry, but by
the contrast they afford in their rich and
unfading foliage, — differing so widely in
form in their own family, and so varied
from that of deciduous trees. In spring,
they are lovely ; in summer, beautiful ; in
autumn, when maturity spreads its varie-
gated colours over the forest and the grove,
to give interest to the decay of nature, they

BY W. BACO.\, RICHMOND, MASS.

smile at biting frosts and cheerless winds ;
and when winter comes, " in her terrors
clad," they stand unchanged, amid howl-
ing blasts, and pitiless storms, and driving
snows, like " the friend that is born for ad-
versity.^' Who does not admire them, and
who would not cultivate them ?

It is a sad fact, and one that we hope
will soon be exchanged for a better truth,
that many neglect all attempts at the culti-
vation of evergreens, from an impression
that the risk is greater in their removal
than that which usually attends the process
on deciduous trees. Another reason which
some will give, is, that they have attempted
to cultivate them and failed, and they will,
therefore, spend no more time in the mat-
ter.

As it regards the first objection, we must
say, from our personal experience, that tve
will as soon risk success in their removal as
in that of any tree whatever, (unless it be
the willow, or some of the species that can

550

TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS.

hardly be killed under any circumstances.)
Care, we know, is necessary ; and so it is
in taking up and transplanting all trees, if
the highest degree of success would be ob-
tained. This is reasonable ; for men have
no right to expect success where they be-
stow no pains. But to our experience with
evergreens.

In our first efforts in their cultivation, we
had heard different seasons recommended
as the best for their removal. In order to
satisfy ourselves on this point, we have tried
each month, from September to June inclu-
sive, and with very fair success. So we
are able to say, that with proper care they
may be removed in any of the autumn
months, in any part of the winter, whether
the ground is frozen or not, and through all
the busy bustling spring and early summer,
at just such times as the convenience of the
operator may dictate. For the very best
time, as our labors will warrant, we would
recommend that, when the bud is fairly
bursting; and from that until the new
growth has attained an inch in length. We
have put them out when the new branches
were three or four inches long, and the
temperature of the atmosphere so high that
they would wilt before reaching home, and,
by copious watering for a few days, have
those branches assume their usual position,
and continue their growth. "We have also
had instances where these drooping extremi-
ties would dry up in spite of our labors to re-
suscitate, and seen new ones shooting forth
from buds which had hitherto lain dormant,
and might never have been called into ac-
tion, had not a necessary cause appeared
to push them forward. The better time,
however, is before they advance in growth
SCI far as to have new wood, which, in its
first stages, is so tender and herbaceous, of
sufficient length to droop.

Our method of taking up and putting out

again is somewhat like that of your corres-
pondents, to whom allusion has been made.
We get our trees from open lands, or
sparsely wooded grounds, when we can.
In this region, the fir, whose beauties all
admire, is often found growing in old pas-
tures on the high mountains. These pas-
ture lands have a cold, moist, shallow soil,
underlayed with an almost impermeable
subsoil. In such localities, where the roots
from necessity run horizontally and near
the surface, there is but little difficulty in
taking them up without loss of fibres or
earth, especially if we take that sharp edg-
ed spade along to cut around the tree.
The union between the soil and subsoil is
not so close but that they will easily sepa-
rate ; and thus a tree may be removed in
its native soil almost without loss of fibre.
They may be set in a wagon in their grow-
ing position, and safely transported, by care-
ful driving, to almost any distance.

Another method of obtaining is, to go into
swamp lands, where old logs and stumps
are always to be found in abundance ;
around and over these is often a shallow
stratum of vegetable earth, formed by the
decomposition of substances gathered round.
From this, evergreens frequently spring ;
and as their growth increases, they push
their main roots to a deeper and moister
soil. We take an axe and cut off these de-
scending roots ; after which, by gently rai-
sing the tree, you can save a thousand
fibres, and all the soil from which the tree
drew its first nourishment. This is a very
pretty way of obtaining them ; for by it we
save all the earth necessary without getting
a burdensome quantity to lift.

In putting out, we have had but little
regard to the soil or size of the pit, provi-
ded it is large enough freely to admit the
roots in their natural position. Soft and
light earth should be brought in contact

SUMMER PRUNING DWARF PEARS.

551

with the roots of all trees, in order to faci-
litate the first efforts of the roots in pushing
in a new soil. Watering we have found
ntjcessary the first season after transplant-
ing, as we have, for the most part, taken
our trees from moist soils, which had given
them aquatic habits. We never prune our
evergreens, but let them form heads to
their own fancy ; throwing out their first
branches at the ground, and thus forming
beautiful cones if they choose. If pruning
is preferred, however, it may safely be per-
formed ajter the first year ; and any form
given to the head by the knife they will be
likely to retain, as they are not like deci-
duous trees — disposed to throw out new
shoots to supply the places of branches taken
off.

We have found it an excellent practice to
keep the surface around evergreens well

covered with leaves, especially in summer,
when the rays of the sun fall most violently
upon them. Leaves keep the earth cool
and moist, which is a desideratum to their
healthful growth. In their decay, they fur-
nish a natural aliment to sustain and in-
vigorate them.

We cannot but suppose that the culture
of evergreens, when fully understood, will
be perseveringly entered into through every
section of our country. They will not only
be raised to please the eye and feast the
taste, but in northern and exposed regions,
the time will come Avhen they will be plant-
ed in belts around buildings and fields, to
protect them from the rude blasts of win-
ter and scorching sunbeams of summer, to
which such regions are eminently exposed.
Yours truly, W. Bacon.

Richmond, Massachusetts, 1848.

THE FRENCH MODE OP SUMMER PRUNING DWARP PEARS.
BY PROFESSOR LINDLEY.

Summer has brought all sorts of inquiries
about SUMMER PRUNING. It is needless for
us to say that the practice has always been
advocated in our columns, and we hardly
know how to add to what has been so often
urged already. Instead, then, of an argu-
ment, we will to-day produce some facts,
which we glean from Mr. Thompson's ac-
count of his visit to Paris.*

In the Garden of Plants there exist cer-
tain pyramidal pear trees, which may, we
believe, be regarded as the most perfect
models of management that can anywhere
be found. For ourselves we can only say
that we did not believe till we saw them
that such trees could be formed by art.
Not a shoot too many or too few ; not a

• Journal Hon. Soc, vol. ii., p. 202.

spur missed ; not a branch misplaced. Had
the trees been made up instead of being
grown, they could not have been more ad-
mirablys ymmetrical. Mr. Thojipson, who
appears to have been as much surprised as
we were, speaks of them thus :

" The pyramidal trained pear trees are
from 10 to 15 feet high, or more, having a
regularly tapering outline from the base to
the top, where they terminate in a single
shoot. The young plant is stopped accord-
ing to its strength, and so as to furnish side
branches. These are not in stages at uni-
form distances along the stem ; on the con-
trary, almost every shoot which breaks out
from the stem is allowed to grow ; but the
laterals produced on these are pinched i?i sum-
mer, and even such of the leading shoots

552

SUMMER PRUNING DWARF PEARS.

as appear likely to become too strong for
the others, are stopped. M. Cappe pinches
all the young shoots, not required to form
branches, tvhen in a very young state ; when
they have scarcely pushed a finger's length,
they are shortened to about 1 inch, or from
that to \h inch. The portion left forms the
basis of one or more fruit buds, bearing
fruit in the following season, or a spur on
which blos-ora buds are formed for bearing
in the second season.

" The advantages consequent on properly
managing fruit trees with regard to summer
pinching, are so important that attention to
the subject cannot be too strongly urged.
By the operation, the shoots necessary to
be retained have the great advantage of
more light and air than would be the case
if crowded by a multiplicity of laterals, re-
tained till the time of winter pruning, when
they must obviously be cut off, either so
close as to leave no bud to push, or short-
ened to within a few eyes of their bases.
In the former case the branch is left naked :
in the latter, when the tree is sufficiently
vigorous, the eyes left generally push other
shoots, to be again cut back in winter ; and
thus crops of shoots are annually produced,
instead of fruit for many years, or until the
tree approaches the state of old age.

" The plan which M. Cappe pursues suc-
ceeds admijabiy in the climate of Paris.
The fruit on the pyramid pear trees under
his management is stated on competent au-
thority to have been last year exceedingly
abundant, large and fine. This season the
trees are healthy and vigorous, and well
furnished with blossi-m buds. It may be
said that the generally dry, clear air of
Paris is very different from the cloudy and
moist climate of many parts of Britain ; the
one being favorable for the formation of
fruit buds, whilst the other favors the
growth of wood and leaves ; and therefore,
circumstances being different, the same

practice may not be equally proper for both.
There are, moreover, instances of circum-
stances differing so widely as to require op-
posite methods of culture. But this does
not hold good as regards summer pinching.
In England the drawback is a dull atmos-
phere ; the shoots and foliage want more
air and light. Summer pinching affords
this, inasmuch as it prevents the crowding
and shading of wood and leaves necessary
to be retained, by that which is superfluous ;
and therefore it must be considered of still
greater utility in dull climates than in bright,
more necessary in England than in France.
" Supposing the branches of a tree are
properly thinned and regulated at the win-
ter pruning, and that so far as they extend,
their number is quite sufficient for the space
they occupy ; presuming, also, that the tree
is in good health, a number of laterals are
sure to spring. They are, of course, super-
fluous ; and every one of them should be
pinched as already mentioned. If the last
year's shoot has been shortened at the win-
ter pruning, then, besides the terminal one
on the part left, one, two, or three next to
it are almost sure to push ; and these M.
Cappe commences to check by pinching
when about three inches in length ; but
those nearer the base of the shoot he al-
lows to grow till they attain the length of
six or eight inches before he shortens them.
The terminal bud is of course allowed to
go on for the prolongation of the branch.
It frequently happens in France, and the
liability will be still more in the climate of
England, that after a shoot is pinched back,
the newly formed buds on the part left will
push a secondary shoot in the same season.
When this is the case with those under the
care of M. Cappe, he also pi7iches these se-
condary shoots to an inch or an inch and a
half from where they originate. They
rarely push again ; but if they do, their
growths are again reduced as before.

RAISING CELERY.

553

REMARKS ON RAISING CELERY.

BY R. L., LONG-ISLAND.

The raising of celery is a subject that may-
appear to your readers to need very few
directions, as it is so generally understood
in our gardens. But having been more
than usually successful in growing this fine
vegetable on a large scale, perhaps a few
remarks, giving the detail of my mode, may
not be unacceptable to your readers.

I raise my crop of celery mostly for the
winter's supply ; and, to simplify the mat-
ter, I shall only speak here of the main
crop. Those of your readers who wish to
have it earlier, may easily do so by starting
the plants in a hot-bed about the middle of
March.

xne best time for the sowing for the
main winter's crop is about the 1st of April.
Although I have succeeded perfectly well
by sowing on a rich warm border, yet to
insure against the accidents of a cold and
untoward season, I usually sow in a slight
hot-bed, and cover, as usual, with glass.

About the middle of May I choose a bit of
ground in the warmest and richest part of
the garden for the " stock bed." This, I
prepare by digging it thoroughly, and mix-
ing with the uppermost six inches of the
soil as rich a coat of old manure as I can
well incorporate with it. In this plat, or
bed, thus well prepared, I prick out the
plants from the hot-bed three inches apart
everyway, — watering them thoroughly eve-
ry day when the weather is not damp or
rainy.

Here they grow until about the 10th or
15th of June — the season for the final plant-
ing out. Having fixed up the ground for
my celery patch, I have it well trenched |
two feet deep with a spade, if it has not |
VOL. 11- 70

been trenched previously. In the trench-
ing, I bury all the best top soil in the bot-
tom of the lower spit, and throw the clayey
or gravelly subsoil on the top. The reason
for this procedure is obvious. You always
set celery plants in a trench. If you take
off half the top soil to make this trench, it
is evident that you have but a very poor
bottom left on which to grow celery. On
the other hand, if you make the soil of
double the usual depth, and put the best
soil at the bottom of the two feet, it is
placed exactly where it is of most benefit
to the roots of the plants; while the poorer
subsoil, being on the top, answers equally
well to raise about the stalks, in order to
blanch them.

Very well; at the 10th of June, then, I
mark out my plat of trenched ground into
trenches three feet from each other. The
trenches themselves should be dug a foot
wide and eight inches deep. You can
scarcely make the soil in them too rich ;
and I have ascertained by experiment that
the celery plant not only likes common sta-
ble manure, but is also very fond of bone
dust, or horn shavings. I therefore, in pre-
paring the trench, put half a peck of either
of these substances to the soil of every fifty
feet of trench, and a quart of fine packing
salt. Then the whole manure, bone dust,
etc, is well incorporated in the soil of the
trench to the depth of six or eight inch-
es, and you are ready for the transplant-
ing.

It is best to do this in a dull or cloudy
day. But if it is properly done, i. e., with
halls of earth to each plant, one day will
answer nearly as well as another. In order

554

A TILLA IN THE ANGLO-ITALIAN STYLE.

to accomplish this, the stock, or nursery
bed, in which the plants grow in their se-
cond stage, must be thoroughly saturated
with water two or three hours in advance.
Then, with a trowel, take up each plant
separately, with a small ball of earth,
lay the balls in a sieve or basket, and
carry them at once and plant them in the
trenches. If it is well done, as it may in-
deed be with the greatest facility, not one
plant in five hundred will fail; and they
will scarcely suffer the least check, and
will require no shading.

About earthing-up the plants, in order to
blanch or whiten the stalks, there is a good
deal of difference of opinion ; but it is all
easily reconciled. If you wish very large
plants, you must not commence blanching
till the last three or four weeks. If you do
not care about the size of the celery, but
only the delicacy and crispness of flavor, you
must commence earthing-up about the mid-
dle of August ; doing it frequently, and
very little at a time, in fine dry weather.

The two best sorts of celery that I have
tried are Seymour'' s Hkite Solid, and Red
Solid. But, after all, I have raised as heavy
and as fine plants of the Common White, by
the mode here given, as of either of those
varieties.

A word or two about keeping celery for
winter use, may not be out of place here.
Many persons complain of the difficulty of

keeping it in winter — its rotting in the cel-
lar, root-house, etc. The method I have
employed for nine years, is a very simple,
easy one, and I have never lost a single
head by it, though I have raised and kept
many thousands. It is as follows : In No-
vember, when the frosty weather sets in,
and the time for digging the plants comes,
choose a high and dry part of the garden
in any convenient place ; level it, and be-
gin at one side to open a shallow trench,
deep enough to lay-in the roots of the celery
close together, burying them in an inclined
position, so as to cover all the blanched
part of the stalks, — only leaving the green
leaves at the top exposed. The next row
may be put within three inches of the last,
and so on, row inclining upon row, till the
Avhole is laid in. In this compact way, the
space required for a large crop will be only
a few feet square. This done, cover the
whole, as soon as the winter sets in, with
two and a half feet of straw, covered with
a few bits of wood to keep it down. This
will most effectually keep out all frost,
while the temperature of the soil itself is
so low that there can be no decay or change
in the plants. At the same time, by re-
moving a portion of the straw on one side,
the celery may be reached at any time dur-
ing the winter when required.

Eespectfully yours. R. L.

Long-Island, May, 1848.

A VILLA IN THE ANGLO-ITALIAN STYLE.

Our frontispiece shows a very pleasing
example of this style of country house,
which we borrow from one of Mr. Loudon's
publications, as a specimen well adapted
for many sites in this country.

The Italian style is much more simple in
its details than the Gothic. It is therefore

cheaper in construction. It also more rea-
dily adapts itself to a variety of scenery and
locality, and is, we think, on this account
more likely to give pleasure generally than
the Gothic style ; for though nothing can
well be more charming than the latter,
when built in suitable landscapes, its effect

A VILLA IN THK ANGLO-ITALIAN STYLK.

555

is often destroyed by the tame and bald
character of the surrounding scenery. For
suburban dwellings, especially, simple mo-
difications of the Italian style are always
satisfactory.

The villa shown in the frontispiece of this
number is one called Fortis Green, situated
in the suburbs of London, and the propertj'^
of W. A. Nesfield, Esq., a landscape paint-
er of eminence. It is picturesque in its
exterior, as one would expect the residence
of a landscape painter to be. And an exa-
mination of the interior plan will show w^at
are considered desiderata, in England, in a
villa of this class. The references to this
plan are as follows :

a. Dravvin£^-room.
a a. Green-bouse.

b. Dining-room.

c. Passage.

d. Staircase.

«. Entrance porch.
/. Closet.

g. Way to cellar, from kilclicn and glas.s closet.
A. Kitchen.
i. Scullery.

k. Stairs to servant's room.
I. Laundry.
tn- Store-room.
n. Tool-house, at end of which is the stoke-hole

to the green-house.
0. Passage to the yard.
p. Larder.
q. Coal hole.
r. Wash-house.
s. Pump.
t. Yard.
u. Stable.
uu. Dung pit.

The chief difference between this plan
and one of a villa of the same class in this
country, is the superior accommodation af-
forded to the kitchen offices, and the near
proximity of the stable to the house. In
the arrangement of the kitchen offices, the
English are more perfect, indeed, than any
other people, and we have much yet to
learn from them. In this country, this per-

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1

f

»^

c

1

-

'■_

o

1

1

o

— — _

o'-

.

p.

8

-

[

1

Fig. 61 — i'ta» of the Principal Floor of tlie ViOa.

tion of our domestic establishments, even
in houses of a superior grade, is often com-
paratively cramped and meagre ; a feature
which, in the end, is always found to be
antagonistical to the comfort of the family
in all its branches.

Fortis Green is a suburban place of only-
four and a quarter acres of ground. Of
this, one and a quarter acre is occupied by
the house, and ornamental and kitchen

556

GARDEN ENGINES AND SYRINGES.

garden ; the remaining three acres are de-
voted to sheep ! Mr. Nesfield's amateur
farming- is more profitable than that of most
sheep farmers, we are certain. His prac-
tice is to buy in autumn, at Smithfield, two
ewes per acre. Then in March he buys
eight tegs, (last year's late lambs.) The
whole are again sold in autumn in fine

condition. Mr. Loudon has given the de-
tail of the management and profits ; the
latter being, for the three acres, £18, 15s,
lOp. per annum. The pasture surface of
the three acres is divided by hurdles ; and
the latter are moved every ten days, so as
to give the sheep a "fresh bite" from time
to time.

POOLE'S PREMIUM GARDEN ENGINES AND SYRINGES.

Every good gardener knows how useful
and indispensable a good hand syringe, or
small engine, is for all plants cultivated
under glass. The pores of the leaves can
no more be closed by dust, without injury
to the perspiratory system of a plant, than
diseased lungs can exist without endanger-
ing the life of an animal. Frequent sprink-
ling over the foliage keeps the breathing
function in perfect order, and thereby con-
tributes to the luxuriance and vigor of al-
most all plants.

Fig. C2. — A Green-huuse Syringe.

Having had inquiries for machines of
this kind from various correspondents, we
are induced to publish cuts of several.

manufactured by Mr. Mark
Poole, of New- York,* which,
•for excellence of workman-
ship and efficiency, are equal,
if not superior, to any that we
have yet seen.

Fig. 62 is a green-house
syringe, after Read's patent,
acknowledged to be the best
yet brought into use. The
different forms represent the
same syringe with the va-
rious caps to regulate the
stream of water discharged.
a, shows the cap used when a
simple stream of considera-

Fig. 63.-4 Small , , „ . • j ,

Hand Engine. ble lorce IS required ; b, a
cap like an ordinary rose, for throwing a
gentle shower; c and d, are crooked and
goose-neck caps, to turn the shower in any
oblique direction, as desired.

Fig. 63 is a small hand engine, of very
convenient size, where the plants to be
watered are within a small compass. It is
readily placed in a watering pot or pail of
water, wherever it is required.

Fig. 64 is a large and very perfect brass
hand engine, — one of the neatest pieces of
workmanship that we have seen. It unites
a power almost equal to the barrow engine,

* The agrents in New- York are Mtssrs. J. M. Thorburn 4"
Co., 15 John-street.

DESIGX FOR A GEOMETRIC FLOWER GAUDEIt.

with the facility of transporta-
tion of the small hand engine.
It throws a powerful and stea-
dy stream of water, and may be
placed in a pail or cask of wa-
ter at any convenient point, or
made a fixture, if the latter
is preferred.

Fig. 65 is called the barrel
engine. It is intended, proper-
ly, for large hot-houses, to be
filled and carried by two per-
sons to any desirable point ; it
being more easily managed than
a barrow engine within doors.

Fisr Gi.-- A Brass -r,. nr> • i

Hand Engine. Fig. 66 IS a barrow engme,
and is a most efficient watering machine
for out-of-door uses, — lawns, flower parter-
res, washing diseased fruit trees, and the
like purposes. It is also a useful protec-
tion against fire when first discovered ; be-
ing always at hand, and easily worked by
one person. This engine is very perfectly
constructed, and the water box is provided
with a strainer to prevent any impurities in
the water from entering the valves, so as
to derange its operation.

These engines are all constructed after
the latest pneumatic improvements. The
facility with which they are worked, and
the volume and uninterrupted flow of the
stream or shower discharged, render them
greatly superior to the old machines, with

Fig. 66. — A Bnrrotv Engine.

the simple valve and air chamber of the
common forcing pump. We are glad to be
able to recommend them to our readers as
very superior and complete implements,
which are certain to ffive entire satisfaction.

DESIGN rOR A GI30METRIC FLOWER GARDEN.
BY ER. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I.

I SEND you a plan for a geometrical flower I the French parterre, or geometrical flower
garden. It was designed by Mr. Brown, garden, is, above all others, the most to be

gardener to the late Duke of Buckingham,
and is a very pretty thing of the kind.
When the nature of the ground will admit,

recommended, for many situations, because
it readily admits of the largest display of
flowers throughout the season. There is

DESUiN FOR A GEOMETRIC FLOWER GARDEN.

Fig. 67. — Design for a Geometric Flower Garden.

scarcely any difficulty in producing a splen-
did show once or twice in the year, spring
and autumn ; and in consequence of many
gentlemen not residing all the season near
their flower gardens, the gardeners have an
additional advantage in such places to pro-
duce, at the required time, the best display
of flowers. If a constant supply is required,
much care and attention are necessary.
The parterre gives great facilities. Plant-
ing in masses produces the most imposing
effect ; arrangement of the beds, and con-
trasting of colours, is the chief thing to
be considered ; succession of plants is also
indispensable ; the propagating by cuttings,
seeds, &c., and keeping in reserve to turn
out when a bed is prepared to receive
them.

If there is no green-house, cold frames
will answer for wintering almost every re-
quisite plant for the flower garden in the
spring, provided the glass be covered with
sufficient matting to keep out frost; frames
will be required to raise tender annuals.
The above plan would look best with
gravel walks and small box edgings in
front of a green-house or a dwelling. In
planting the beds, very much will depend
upon the proprietor's taste with regard to

his favorite flowers. Nevertheless, if the
beds be planted in the following manner,
very general pleasure and satisfaction will
be given.

In the adoption of the plan, the scale
must be adapted to the space of ground
occupied.

The beds will be planted in spring as
follows: 1, Hyacinths of sorts ; 2, Tulips of
sorts ; 3, Narcissus of sorts ; 4, Violets of
sorts. Standard Rose; 5, Crocuses of sorts;
6, Violets of sorts ; 7, Herbaceous Plants
and Roses ; 8, Hyacinths of sorts ; 9, Ra-
nunculus of sorts ; 10, Anemones of sorts ;
11, Mathiola annua, scarlet and purple,
turned out of pots ; 12, Herbaceous and
Annuals; 13, same as 11; 14, Violets of
sorts. Standard Rose in centre ; 15, ^tw-
thera macrocarpa ; 16, Ranunculus, border-
ed with Snowdrops ; 17, Tulips, bordered
with Snowdrops; 18, same as 11.

In summer and autumn, the beds will
contain — 1, 2 and 3, choice Dahlias ; 4,
Verbena melindres, Standard Rose ; 5, Cal-
ceolarias of sorts ; 6, Fuschia gracilis and
microphylla ; 7, Herbaceous and Roses ; 8,
Heliotr opium peruviamim and scarlet Gera-
niums ; 9, Salvia fidgens and splendens ; 10,
Salvia fill gens QxiA. involucrata ; 11, Lobe-

CULTURE OF THE APRICOT.

559

Ha, crimis and albtis, Standard Rose ; 12,
Herbaceous and Annuals ; 13, Mathiola an-
nua, sown in spring ; 14, Violets of sorts,
Standard Rose in centre ; 15, jEiiothera
macrocarpa ; 16, Campanula pyramidalis
and Lobelia fulgens mixed ; 17, Campanu-
la persifolia and Lobelia sple?idens ; 18,

Mathiola annua, scarlet and purple, sown
in spring.

Like the design figured at page 504 of
your journal, this will, also, I think, have
a charming and gay effect.

WiM. W. Valk, m. d.

Flushing, L. I., May 9, 1S49.

NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF THE APRICOT.

The apricot is looked upon generally as a
difficult fruit to grow ; and, comparatively,
little attention is paid to its cultivation.

Yet, it is a fruit which deserves more
attention. Beautiful, and of agreeable fla-
vor, its greatest merit, perhaps, is that it is
in perfection at precisely that period when
there is little or nothing else in the way of
fine fruit.

In this neighborhood the apricot is a
common fruit tree, and, in many cases,
bears regular and excellent crops. We
have a neighbor, about two miles distant,
who is a very zealous fruit grower, and
whose grounds occupy a table or flat, about
200 feet above the level of the Hudson.
He has for several seasons grown crops of
Moorpark and other finest apricots, as abun-
dant as we have ever seen peaches or ap-
ples, and of delicious flavor. His trees are
standard trees, grown in the open orchard,
with no unusual care. The soil is a deep
loam ; and the site is one that secures
him against spring frosts, while the curcu-
lio scarcely molests him. Mr. Dubois, of
Dutchess county, on the opposite shore of
the Hudson, also raises the varietj' known
as his " Early Golden" apricot, in the open
orchard, in great abundance. We saw, in
1846, two wagon loads of baskets of this
fruit going to market from his trees.

There are two serious obstacles usually
experienced in growing this fruit tree. The
first, is the early season at which the blos-
soms expand, rendering them liable to spring
frosts; the second, is the fondness of the
curculio for the young fruit, and the diffi-
culty of preserving the crop against its at-
tacks.

Regarding the first obstacle, we would
observe that there is a capital error com-
mitted by most cultivators in the position
which they usually give this tree. Being
considered a tender tree, it is almost inva-
riably placed in a warm and sheltered site,
open to the sun, — such as the southern side
of a building, wall, or fence ; or, at least,
some particularly sheltered slope or nook in
the garden.

Directly the opposite aspect is the proper
one for this apricot. Wherever this tree
will bear the winter's cold, (that is, wher-
ever the peach can be cultivated, in the
northern states,) there is never any difficul-
ty in ripening either its fruit or wood in
midsummer. The heat and light of the
sun are fully sufficient for this, in any In-
dian corn district, without a southern ex-
posure.

By all means, then, if the district is one
liable to spring frosts at the blooming sea-
son, put your apricot trees in a cool aspect.

560

CULTURE or THE APRICOT.

— the north sides of buildings, walls or fen-
ces, or the northern sides or slopes of your
garden or orchard. Here they will be later
in advancing in spring, and the blossoms
will escape destruction by frost five times
out of six. If a single cold night, notwith-
standing, should threaten to rob you of a
good crop, make a fire on the ground and
cover it with damp tan-bark, placing it in
such a position that a slight smoke will
rise and protect the tree or trees endan-
gered.

With respect to the curculio, that is a
matter worth some serious attention ; for,
indeed, it is this little mischief maker which
destroys ninety-nine hundreths of all the
apricots in the country. Here, in our heavy
loam soils, he finds but a poor place for his
winter quarters, and his numbers are few.
But in light sandy soils, he often punctures
and destroys whole crops, year after year.

There are two modes of combatting this
insect. If you have only a single tree or
two in your garden, the easiest and most
complete mode that we have tried, is to lay
a cart load or more of fresh stable litter un-
der the tree, as soon as the blossoms fall, —
doubling the dose at the end of a week, if
the insect is very abundant. This usually
protects the tree in question ; the fumes of
the manure driving away the curculio.

But in a real curculio district, the most
thorough, indeed, perhaps the only thorough
mode of operation, is to adopt the plan
pointed out in our last number (page 505,)
by a "Pennsylvania Subscriber," — that of
planting all plums, apricots, nectarines, and
other smooth stone fruits in a quarter by
themselves, adjoining the hog-pen, and al-
lowing the swine to have " free run" of the
orchard for a certain part of the year. We
have seen this tried with complete success
in two instances, and have, therefore, en-
tire confidence in recommending it.

Hundreds of our readers, in particular
sections of the countrj^, who scarcely ever
get a fine apricot or plum^ because they are
all punctured by the curculio, may, by this
easy arrangement of their trees, get large
and regular crops.

With respect to the varieties of apricots
in cultivation, there is nothing yet known
in this country superior in size and flavor
to the Moorpark and Peach apricots. They
are beautiful and fine fruits, growing with
us as large, or larger, than the Early York
Peach. Among the new sorts that we have
proved lately, the Large Early, and the
Large Red, are both very delicious varieties,
only inferior in size to the Moorpark. The
flesh of the Large Red is in colour a fine
dark orange, sweet and juicy. Both these
sorts have borne with us for three years
past.

The hardiest apricots known, are the
Rorna7i,i\\e, Early Golden, (Dubois',) and the
Breda. These will endure frost, and bear
good crops, in many situations where the
other varieties fail entirely. Hence, they
will be prized in many districts of the coun-
try where the larger varieties cannot be
cultivated as open standards.

The Early Golden is perhaps the most
prolific of apricots. It is of medium quali-
ty. The old Roman is well known, and is
chiefly valued for its earliness and hardi-
ness. The Breda is much the finest flavor-
ed of the three, and deserves to be much
more widely known than it is at present in
the middle states.

A severe storm, followed by frost, oc-
curred here about the middle of April, this
season. The apricot trees were in full
bloom ; and though it very rarely happens
in this locality, (owing to the ameliorating
influence of the river, which is a mile and
a quarter wide,) that fruit is destroyed by
spring frosts, yet that all the apricots would

CULTURE OF THE APRICOT.

561

rig. G8 — r/i« Berda Apricot

perish, with this temperature, (the thermo-
meter standing at 23^,) seemed inevita-
ble.

We find, however, that three sorts have
withstood the frost. These are the Roman,
the Breda, growing in our own garden, and
Dubois' Early, in the garden of a neighbor.
These sorts have set good crops, and have,
therefore, distinctly proved their greater
hardiness.

The Breda apricot, like the other two, is
a small variety. But it bears heavily; the
fruit growing in groups or clusters on the
branches, and the tree forms a broad bushy
head. The fruit is a beautiful dark golden
yellow in colour, round in figure, moderate-
ly juicy, and quite sweet and rich in fla-
VcL. II. 71

vor. It hangs on the tree sometime after
ripening, and is altogether one of the most
desirable sort? for general cultivation. We
observe that Mr. Rivers, the English nur-
seryman, says, in his Catalogue, it is " the
only variet)'^ that succeeds as a standard"
in that country.*

There are few persons who know how
excellent these small hardy apricots — the
common Roman, Early Golden and Breda,
are for tarts, — gathered at the last thinning
of the fruit, just before it commences to
ripen. Apricot tarts are more piquant and
delicious to our taste than those of any
other fruit.

* A spurious sort is sometimes cultivated umlo'- this name
The true Brtda is round not oval.

562

PLANTING BY THE SEA-SIDE

PLANTING BY THE SEA-SIDE.

BY JAMES GRIGOR, NORWICH.*

To RAISE trees by the sea-side is one of the
grandest triumphs of arboricuhural skill.
To plant anywhere successfully, confers pe-
culiar satisfaction on the planter ; but to
raise a sylvan bower, whence the grandeur
of the ocean can be closely contemplated, is
in every respect more interesting and im-
portant. ,It is almost unnecessary to wait
to enforce t,his position. The sea — one of
the grandest features in creation — is viewed
with awe and delight by all ; but, in almost
every instance, what a picture of sterility is
spread out along its shores ! Even our most
fashionable watering places, with reference
to their natural scenery, may with truth be
represented as " dull and treeless." I shall
therefore conclude, that to invest such
scenes with rich sylvan furniture, is a point
worthy of the closest attention.

Where has such a thing been done ? will
no doubt be the first question. To this I
reply, that the examples are to be seen on
the cliffs of the German Ocean, in the pa-
rishes of Runton and Trimmingham, in the
county of Norfolk, the property of Sir Ed-
ward North Buxton, Bart. There are in
all about twenty plantations in these pa-
rishes, extending over a space of about 120
acres, but I select one in particular, which
will afford a striking illustration of success-
ful maritime planting; it is called the "Bo-
reas Plantation." The plants stand on a
bold cliff, 250 feet above the level of the
sea, towards the north-west, and part of
them only twelve yards from the beach.
Standing, on this plantation, the beholder
looks down upon a wide expanse of the
ocean, which is here literally whitened by

• From the Lomlon Hort Mag^.izino.

the sails of the Scotch and Baltic traders.
Its commanding prospect has recommended
it to the officers of the Preventive Service,
for here their watch-house is erected. This,
then, is the locality.

How it has been planted is the more im-
portant question ; and here I shall take care
to state the details minutely. The first
thing to be done, is to have the soil trench-
ed with the spade, to the depth of 20 or 24
inches. This will cost 6Z. per acre. Cheap
processes of planting in such situations will
prove of no use ; they have been tried re-
peatedly with no success ; and I have little
hesitation in stating that it cannot be done
effectually without the preparation alluded
to. When trenching is put out to be done,
at so much per perch, 1 have known un-
principled men leave about a third of the
ground undisturbed. It should therefore
be done either by the day, or with the un-
derstanding that if any part of the soil
should be found unbroken, the price of the
whole would be withheld.

2. The time for planting is of the great-
est moment. All planting by the sea-side
should be done during the month of March,
or in the first fortnight in April. The plants
will thus be free from the cutting winter's
winds, until they have established them-
selves in their new situations. Some will
no doubt go and try a half measure, by
planting at the proper season on untrenched
soil: let them do so— success cannot be
theirs. It should be continually borne in
mind that planting, under the present cir-
cumstances, is not at all encouraged by Na-
ture ; it is a union of the wild and tame
which, though permitting, she does not fos-

PLANTING BY THE SEA-SIDE.

563

ter; and Art, therefore, has to use her ut-
most exertions to compensate for the want
of that encouragement.

3. So difficult is the work of maritime
planting, that, in addition to the land being
well prepared, and the best season chosen,
there must be shelter created ; and this
should be done in two'Avays — as an outside
work, by erecting a strong high fence of
furze bundles, or brushwood, around the
plantation, and by planting the young trees
very close to each other, leaving only about
a space of eighteen inches between them.
At this rate, 19,000 plants will be required
for every acre of land.

4. Cleaning the land for two years is all-
important. The best plan is to take a crop
of carrots or parsnips from the land the first
year ; and this will pay all the expenses of
hoeing, &c., and do no injury to the trees.

The next point is to select the kinds of
trees best suited for such a situation ; for,
if this should be neglected, the other in-
structions, as a matter of course, would
be rendered useless.

The first deciduous tree adapted to the
situation under consideration, is the Nor-
folk Black Sallow, a variety of the Salix
caprea, thought by some to be peculiar to
Norfolk : it is a most determined grower,
even close to the water, and a tree which
attains to a large size. In the parish of
Runton, in the neighborhood of the sea, is
a specimen which, at four feet from the
ground, is nine and a half feet in circum-
ference. It was the appearance of this
tree, in such a situation, which led to slips
of it being tried in the plantations above
referred to. The quality of the wood of
the Sallow is by no means first rate ; and
it is rather recommended as a nurse to
others here mentioned, than as fit to occu-
py the ground permanently. However, in
some maritime situations, any sort of tree

would be gladly accepted, and, as it is not
devoid of beauty, it should be planted
where those of a better texture do not
thrive. It will give some idea of the vigor
with which this tree proceeds, when I state
that, after the second year, it throws up
shoots an inch and a half in diameter at the
bottom ; and, if trained to a single stem, it
will become a tree twenty feet high., in four
years. Slips or cuttings are quite equal to
rooted plants, and there is a great saving
in carriage in ordering the tree in the for-
mer shape.

The next best deciduous tree is the Black
Italian Poplar, which may be readily ob-
tained of any nurseryman. It is late in
leafing, and to this circumstance, I think,
is to be attributed its "success in the situa-
tions under consideration.

The Scotch Elm forms a noble addition
to the few trees suited to grow by the sea-
side. On untrenched soil this plant be-
comes bark-bound, and covered with lich-
en ; but, where its roots have liberty, it
grows very rapidly.

The Alder is also to be recommended in
plantations adjacent to the sea. Damp or
swampy land is usually planted with Alders,
and it is sometimes thought that it delights
ohly in such soil ; it is found, however, to
grow luxuriantly in dry places, where the
soil is loosened to the depth of two feet.

The Birch, Larch, and Ash do not al-
ways refuse to grow by the sea; and, with
the aid of the Sallow for a few years to start
them, I have found they succeed very well.

Amongst evergreens, the best tree is the
Pinus Pinasier minor, a more robust grow-
er than the common Pinaster, with shorter
and thicker foliage. It is plentiful in the
extensive Pinaster plantations of Jack Pe-
tre, Esq., Westwick, Norfolk, and it is there
called i\ie false Pine, the common Pinaster
being termed the true Pine.

564

FOREIGN NOTICES.

Ver}'- little inferior to the foregoing, as a
maritime tree, is the Scotch Pine, P. syl-
vestris. Its wood is superior to that of the
Pinaster, and, if the better variety, with
red wood, is obtained, a more valuable tree
can scarcely be had.

Amongst shrubs, my experience is not so
extensive. The following, however, I have
proved to be fitted to stand the sea air.
The Elder, Snowberry, Berberry (Berberis
Aquifolium) and the common Broom.

One other point has to be attended to, I
mean the size of the plants. Cuttings of
the Sallow will grow freely, and the other
plants should not exceed four years in age.
Plants which had been transplanted in the
nursery the year previous to that in which
they are used, are to be preferred to any
others, for such are invariably furnished
with small fibrous roots.

With such trees, planted at the proper
season on well trenched soil, I should have
no fear of being able to raise plantations
on the sea-coast, wherever there is any
depth of soil. A beach of pure sand can
never be made to bear any sort of ligneous
vegetation ; but all other situations, and es-
pecially our watering places, which now
present a scene of frightful sterilit}^, are
quite capable of being made green and
shady. I am aware that sea-side planting
forms a work often undertaken, and as
often unsuccessful ; but still, there is a way
by which success is certain, for no tract of
land can be more exposed, or nearer to the
sea, than the "Boreas Plantation," now
flourishing in defiance of those obstacles
which, till lately, were considered insupe-
rable.

FOREIGN NOTICES.

The Potato Problem: — The solution of the
Potato Problem is aceomplishpti. At least, Pro-
fessor LiEBiG thinks so. In his last work* he de-
clares that the potatoes are attacked with influen-
za. " The cause of the disease is the same which,
in sprinfr and autumn, excites influenza ; that is,
the disease is the eflTect of the temperature and hy-
gToraetric state of the atmosphere, by which, in
consequence of the disturbance of the normal trans-
piration, a check is suddenly, or for a considerable
time, given to the motion of the fluids, which is one
chief condition of life, and which thus becomes in-
sufficient for the purposes of health, or even hurt-
ful to the individual."

To say that the potato ci-op has caught cold, is
new. But when we read in the same place that
the cause of the cold, or influenza, is impeded per-
spiration or " suppressed transpiration," the novel-
ty ceases. " The potato plant," says the learned
chemist, ''obviously (!) belongs to the same class
of plants as the Hop-plant, namely, to that class
which is most seriously injured by the stagnation of
their juices in consequence of suppressed transpi-
ration. According to Knight, the tubers are not
formed by swelling of the proper roots, but by the

* " Researches into the mntion of tlie .Tuices in the Animal
Body." By Justus Liebig, M- D. Taylor and Wnltoii. Svo.

development of a kind of underground stalks or
runners. He found that when the tubers under
ground were suppressed, tubers were formed on the
stalks above ground ; and it is conceivable that
every external cause which exerts a hurtful influ-
ence on the healthy condition of the leaves and
stalks, must act in like manner on the tubers. In
the districts which were most severely visited by
the so-called potato disease in 1846, damp, cold,
rainy weather followed a series of very hot days ;
and in 1847, cold and rain came on, after continued
drought, in the beginning of September, exactly at
the period of the most luxuriant growth of the po-
tatoes."

In this at least there is no novelty. It is the
same view as that taken by ourselves in this jour-
nal in August, 1845, when the disease first broke
out, which was very generally adopted, but which
we have long since shown to be erroneous. The
opinion was just that which would be formed upon
the first hurried glance at the phsenomena, but
which a full knowledge of the facts soon compelled
its advocates to relinquish. The only material
difference that we remark between Professor Lie-
big's discovery and the old hypothesis now referred
to, consists in his introducing it in 1848 as some-
thing uew, and surrounding it with an array of

FOREIGN NOTICES.

565

qnotations from the experiments of Hales which
are familiar to every student of ve^eiahic physio-
logy, toiiether with some observations of his own
on the motion of fluids in living bodies, the connec-
tion between which and the potato disease we fail
to discover.

Wt; wonder that Professor Liebig should not
have perceived that the seasons of 1845, 6, and 7,
in all which the disease was prevalent, were very
dissimilar ; we wonder still more that he should not
have weighed the mass of valuable evidence thai
has been collected on the subject in every country
in northern Europe, before he jumped to his pre-
sent conclusion. It is still more extraordinary that
he should not have asked himself why impeded
perspiration, influenza, cold, or whatever else he
terms the disease, should not have attacked the
potato crop before the year 1845, and should have
continued to do so every year since through sea-
sons essentially (lilferent from each other.

It would seem, however, that men cannot rea-
son calmly upon this subject. To our great sur-
prise we lind Dr. Gregoky, the translator of Pro-
fessor Liedig's work, appending to it Doctor
KlotzscH'S proposition as confirming his author's
speculation. What Dr. Ki.otzsch's proposition is,
our readers have learned from Sir Robert Schom-
burgk's translation of it in our last number. He
thinks that by strengthening the potato plant it
will be better able to resist the disease, an opinion
that we have expressed a hundred times. He be-
lieves that this strengthening may be effected by
repeatedly slopping the growth ol the branches by
pinching ofl" their shoots, so as to strengthen the
tubers and prevent those ciianges which result in
the production of flowers and fruit, or, as he terms
it, " to restrict the metamorphosis of the leaves."
What that has to do with impeded perspiration we
are unable to perceive. His object is to give the
jilant more vigor, by diverting into a smaller num-
ber of leaves the food obtained by the roots and
sent upwards into the stem, which food, under or-
dinary circumstances, is dispersed through a large
number of leaves. In prineijile this method is like
our English plan of destroying the flowers, and
whicli has not been attended with success ; for al-
though in the experiments in the Garden of the
Horticultural Society, in 1S47, topped or stopped
potatoes were less diseased than others untopped,
yet disease existed in both eases, and the diflerence
was only as 9.56 to 13 jier cent. There are,
however, some peculiarities in the plan of Dr.
Klotzscii which make it desirable to try it this
year exactly in the manner which he indicates.
So far, however, from pretending that the disease
is impeded perspiration, he expressly declares him-
self " unable to explain the nature of the dis-
ease."

For ourselves, we regard it with as much uncer-
tainty as ever ; of this, however, we are persuaded,
that be it what it may, it is not explained by our

own original hypothesis, now produced as a novelty
by Professor Liebig. (Lindley.)

Ox THE Choice of Fi.owebs. — We will sup-
pose the possessor of a garden is desirous of making
it as interesting and gay as possible during the
coming season, and is asking our advice in the
matier. The reply must be regulated by various
circumstances which modify the arrangements ne-
cessary for this end, such as the present state of
the garden, whether stocked with trees and shrubs
or not, whether largo or small, and whether much
of it is laid down in grass. Many things are es-
sential to the beauty of a garden bes des good flow-
ers. In autumn and winter the general laying out
should be attendid to, and if alterations of taste
are demanded in the arrangement of the grounds,
they must be deferred for the present. Our ad-
vice will relate to the general question, and point
out what productions will make a garden of ordi-
nary size more beautiful and attractive.

The old custom is to sow seeds of annuals in
every vacant spot, and let them take their chance
for the summer. Now annuals are very well la
certain connections, but their general growth is in-
dicative of bad taste, for they are mostly of strag-
gling habit, and soon lose their beauty. I would
have very few annuals in small gardens, and tl'.ey
should be of the dwarf kinds, such as Ciintoiiia
pulchella, tiie Mesembryantliemums, Nemophila,
&c., which may be selected from a seieatific cata-
loijue, like that published by Mr. James Carter,
of Holborn. This catalogue I have found of the
greatest utility, as it describes the colour, size,
time of flowering, and general habits of all plants
raised from seeds. As to Smillowers and Holly-
hocks, and all such giants, they are inadmissible in
small gardens. The Hollyhock is a great favorite
of mine, but it must have room, and be seen from
a distance. Nothing can be more inimical to the
good adjustment and tasteful aj)pearance of a gar-
den than a crowded state of veiretation, shading
the beds. No plant will come to perfection in such
circumstances, and before autumn there will he a
mass of entanglement, defying all efforts to ar-
range it, and demanding rooting up as the only
remedy.

The Rose naturally is first in the list of plants
which every garden may properly cultivate. It
will submit to narrow limits, and may be had in
pots for turning out, so that an amateur may have
a choice collection of Roses at once. Beds of these
are recommended, as ^-ell as isolated specimens.
The China, Bourbon, and Hybrid Perpetual varie-
ties may now bo procured cheap enough, and if
planted now, every advantage will be secured.
Let the purchaser be well convinced of ihc honesty
of the parties from whom his stcck is procured.
The writer once ordered a small collection of Hy-
brid Perpetuals in April, and received, instead of
strong plants, little things which had been struck

566

FOREIGN NOTICES.

in heat, were scarcely rooted, and wliich after three
years still look dwarfish and sickly. Even nurse-
rymen of first rate character are apt to forjiet the
impossibility of plants doinjj well, when removed
from a £Treen-hoiise to a garden. Disappointments
of this character, to our certain knowledge, injure
and restrict the trade in flowers.

Next to Roses come the tribes of exotics, which
are adapted to our summer climate and make such
a goriieous show. Scarlet Pelargoniums, Verbe-
nas, Petunias, Fuschias, Calceolarias, and many
others, oiler to the amateur opportunities of grati-
fying his taste at a small expense. These maj"^ be
arransed according to the various colours, and will
continue lo bloom profusely until the autumnal
frosts. They are, most of them, compact in their
growth ; ilieir foliage is less deciduous than that of
annuals ; and their whole appearance has that tro-
pical character which gives such a charm to gar-
dens in the iiresent day. The expense may be an
objection, but such things become cheaper every
year, and if the reader is disposed to acquire the
easy art of propagating plants for himself, the first
expense is the only one. Before the summer is
jiast, a few purchased plants will have spread so
as to allow many cuttings to be made from them,
which in methods afterwards to be described may
be easily preserved during the winter. We lay
much stress on the employment of shrubby exotics
for the adornment of summer gardens, because it is
found by experience they are kept in order easily,
and are inimitable in their power of furnishing ex-
quisitely varied groups. H.B. Gardeners' Chr on.

Peche Reine des Vebgers, {the Orchard
Queen Peach.) — The Peche Reine des Vergers is
stated in the " Portefeidlle des Horticulteurs ,"
for December, 1847, to be one of the most impor-
tant introductions of the season, inasmuch as it
supplies the desideratum of a variety adapted for
succeeding as a standard ; for as such it produces
abundantly, and its fruit is equal in size and flavor
to the finest wall varieties. It was discovered by
M. Jamin, two years ago, at Lores, Department
of Maine-et-Loire.

The tree is vigorous ; shoots of an intense violet
red next the sun ; the petioles, which are short and
thick, are also tinged with the same colour, and
are furnished with several glands (which appear
from the drawing to be reniform.) The fruit is
somewhat oval, but depressed at the summit like
the Grosse Mignonne ; it is fourteen centimetres,
or five and a half inches in its vertical diameter,
and twelve centimetres, or four and seven-tenths
inches transversely, and hence upwards of fourteen
inches in circumference. The skin is of a fine pur-
ple next the sun, and golden yellow where shaded ;
the down is fine and short. Flesh white, rayed
with red at the stone, from which it parts freely,
melting, perfumed, and vinous. The stone is large.
The fruit ripens towards the end of September ;

when ripe its perfume is powerful, and widely dif-
fused.

When we take into consideration the superior
climate of France compared with that of England,
we will not be disappointed siiould this variety be
found not adapted for a standard in this country ;
but if it maintains a superiority on an east or west
aspect, or even against a south wail in situations
where other varieties prove too tender, we may be
satisfied with the acquisition. Gard. Chron.

Rhubarb — This wholesome and agreeable ve-
getable has become so popular as a substitute for
fruit in the early spring, that no garden should be
without it. It will grow anywhere, is so hardy
that no frosts will injure the roots, however much
j exposed, and is so prolific that a few plants will
yield a plentiful supply of stalks for a large family.
Yet, notwithstanding the ease with which it is cul-
tivated, we often see it badly grown, and some-
times hear the complaint that parties have failed
in their efforts to get a crop. Our remarks will
obviate every objection, if attended to, and enable
our readers to grow rhubarb for themselves with
ease and success.

Rhubarb has a hard underground stem, which
pushes forth buds plentifully at the crown, or part
Nearest the surface ; every one of these buds taken
cff >^'ith a portion of root adhering to it, will form
a large plant in one season. If you wish to make
a plalntation now (although the season is rather
too far advanced, it may still be done.) get as
many buds or crowns as your bed will admit of,
allowing each two or three feet every way, ac-
cording to the habits of the varieties you prefer.
The plan generally adopted is to purchase as many
roots as are necessary to fill the allotted space, but
this is a more expensive and far less eligible
method than the one now recommended. Last
year a new sort of rhubarb was offered in the
neighborhood of the writer at 5s. a plant. Some
of his friends purchased four or five roots, but he
was satisfied with one. On receiving it he placed
it in a hole, and covered it up with soil until Fe-
bruary, when, on examination, five good buds were
developed. The root was then divided into five
parts, each of which, at the present time, is a
large, flourishing plant, equal to any of those
which were not divided. A bed was thus obtained
for five shillings, equal, indeed superior, to some
costing twenty-five shillings. We are convinced,
from actual experiment, that rhubarb may be
brought to perfection in one year ; that old beds
are inferior to new ones ; and that fresh planta-
tions should be made every two years. The old
plan of making a bed to descend to posterity
should be exploded, in reference to many garden
productions. Strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb,
&c. &,c., should be removed often, if fine healthy
produce is wished for.

Having a sufficient number of buds or ci'owns,

FOREIGN NOTICES.

567

let them be planted in a well trenched and mannrod i
soil. It" the leaves arc developed, care must be |
taken to prevent their ilairgin<^. This may be !
done by placinir over them some lonj^ litter, sutli- ]
cir^nt to answer the purpose without excluding 1
lij^ht and air. The younji phints will soon be es-
tablished, and will grow rapidly. No leaves must
be taken oil' the first year, as the object is to con-
vey all the elaborated sap possibJe to the stem for
future use. If the ground is good, and kept free
from weeds, no more care is required, and abun-
dance of line stalks can be taken oil" next spring.
An exposed situation, with plenty of sun and air,
will of course bring tiiis production to greatest
perfection ; but it will produce good crops wiihout
having these advantages fully. Every house with
a garden, however small, may thus furnish the
table of its owner, with little expense and trouble.

But rhubarb pos.^esses the advantage of being
forced with as much ease and as cheaply as it is
grown in the open air. This, may be done by
growing it against a wall in a sunny aspect, and
covering it when required with pots or boxes, over
whicii fermenting materials must be placed. But
decidedly the best method is to take the roots into
the house to be forced. For this purpose thej'
must be grown exactly as recommended above,
that as much power may be treasured up in the
roots as possible. To fake up exhausted plants
from a crowded bed, which has been stripped of its
leaves during the season, is to deprive them of
their natural advantages, and to expend the forcing
process on weakened and imperfect subjects. Let
cuttings, with a crown to each, be nov^: put in, in
the best possible situations, and by autumn the)'
will be admirably adapted to your purpose,. When
the foliage is withered take up the roots, and put
them singly into large pots or boxes.. These may
be stood away anywhere, and introduced, two or
three at a time, into a warm situation. The wri-
ter placed his pots this winter in a dark closet, at
the back of a kitchen range, and the rhubarb grew
rapidly. Every house can Hnd some spot having
the advantage of greater warmth than the ordinary
temperature. Rhubarb may thus he had at any
time, and a good supply kept up until it is produced
in the open air. It is very necessary to get it as
early as possible, as its value is much lessened
when gooseberries are plentiful. H. B. Garden-
er's Chron. ....

The Form.^tion of Butter. — Upon this im-
portant subject I forward for insertion an article
from the " Year Book of Facts" (1846); in which
I think " Hantonienses" will .see his idea fully car-
ried out — the air-churn. "The Bishop of Derry
has invented the atmospheric churn. Instead of
the present unscientific mode of making butter by
churning, his lordship accomplishes this measure
by the simpler manner of forcing a full current of
atmospheric air through the cream by means of an
exceedingly well devised forcing pump. The air

passes through a glass tube, connected with the
air pump, descending nearly to the bottom of the
churn. The churn is of tin, and it fits into another
tin cylinder provided with a funnel and stopcock,
so as to heat the cream to the necessary tempera-
ture. The jiump is worked by means of a VNinch,
which is not so laborious as the usual churns.
Independently of the happy application of science
to this important department of domestic economy,
in a practical point of view it is extremely valua-
ble. The milk is not moved by a dasher, as in the
common churn ; but the oxygen of the atmosphere
is brought into close contact with the cream, so as
to etiect a full combination of the butyraccoiis
parts, and to convert it all into butter. On one
occasion the churning was carried on for the space
of an hour and forty-tive minutes, and 11 gallons
of cream produced 26 lbs. of butter." E. Hulme.
[The inventor is ,a Mr. Weston, of Liverpool — not
the Bishop of Derry.] ^g. Gaz.

The Propagation of Fruit Trees and other
Trees from Cuttings. — From observation I am
inclined to imagine that many kinds of fruit trees,
deeiduous ornamental trees, shrubs, and roses,
may be propagated from branches and cuttings, a
plan which appears to me to be of some impor-
tance ; for almost every orchard, plantation, shrub-
bery, and rosary bears witness to some extent that
unsuitable stocks for budding and grafting have
been selected.

A circumstance that occurred in the spring of
1845 served to confirm my opinion, that many trees
and plants could be successfully cultivated from
branches and cuttings. During the winter of
1844, a considerable quantity of refuse prunings
from the shrubberies, parings of grass edgings,
sweepings of walks, and refuse from borders, were
accumulated for the purpose of being converted
into useful manure by charring. The beginning
of February, 1845, was chosen for packing it to-
gether for that purpose ; there were from 20 to
25 loads of it, and the greater proportion of it was
in a green, moist state, intermixed with a consi-
derable quantity of earth, and therefore it took a
considerable time to char. The weather the whole
time was severe frost, with a cutting north-east
wind; nevertheless, the charring went on satisfac-
torily, and when accomplished, on taking the heap
to pieces for the purpose of sifting and storing
away the contents in a dry situation, I was de-
lighted to observe at the base of one side of the
kiln that a quantity of moss-provins and other rose
prunings, together with Jasminum fruticans and
branches of other plants, had put forth abundance
of beautiful healtliy roots. They had been cast
upon the kiln at the finish of packing, and had
become intermixed with the sweepings and rak-
ings of half decayed leaves, gritty sand, and other
earthy refuse ; others within a lew inches of those
that had put forth healthy roots were completely

568

FOREIGN NOTICES.

charred. Tlic hint thus cfivcn I imagined might
be turned to a useful account, and it struck me
were tanks or gutters erected on a good principle
in the open air, so as to afford bottom heat at tiie
desired season, choosing healthy, suitable soil, and
placing it on good drainage over those tanks or
gutters, that cuttings prepared at a proper sea-
son, and inserted methodically in the soil, would
strike with success.

Not having a convenience of this description
myself, however, I resolved, when the pruning sea-
son of 1845 came round, to select cuttings of va-
rious fruit trees, such as apples, pears, plums,
cherries, medlars, peaches, nectarines, apricots,
some deciduous forest trees, shrubs, and roses, and
to prepare them, some by cutting close to an eye
of the young wood, and others by baring at the
base an inch or two of I he previous year's wood.
The}"^ were laid in by the heels until the beginning
of February, 1846, and taking the hint from ob-
serving the condition of the refuse prunings at the
char-kiln, which had been lying about for some
time previous to the materials being collected and
packed for charring, I had a kindly hot-bed made
with well wrought tree leaves to the height of
about 30 inches, then about 3 inches of healthy
loam, with some charred sawdust were mixed with
it. On these I placed an old wooden frame, not
so much for the sake of shelter as for seclusion to
carry out my experiment. The cuttings were
then placed in the .soil at various depths in rota-
tion, a kindly lining of the same material as that
of which the bed was formed was placed all
round ; and the outside to tlie top of the frame all
round was then thatched with furze fagaots ; this
kept cold winds from the lining, giving the whole
the appearance of a little furze stack. Tlie re-
sult turned out to my satisfaction. I found that
almost any deciduous tree or plant might be made
to put forth abundance of roots, and formed into
healthy plants, if all matters appertaining thereto
were carried out on good and systematic principles.
Some fruit trees, however, are greatly improved
by being budded or grafted on proper stocks, and
the same holds good to some extent with other
trees, shrubs, and roses, &c.; but I have observed
that the properties of others have been very much
deteriorated through their having been worked on
unsuitable stocks. On the other hand, I have
also seen many trees entirely fail, after good pre-
paration had been made for them at a considerable
expense, and at the very time when it was rea-
sonable to suppose they should have made some
return in the way of fruit; and others, again,
have changed their naturally good properties ; and
therefore, that some of the first attempts to pro-
duce healthy, thrifty plants by this process may
fail, it is not unreasonable to suppose, still I have
seen quite enough to convince me that the thing
may be accomplished to a considerable extent. I

have often observed, on turning leaves, rubbish
heaps, &c., that, besides branches, of trees and
shrubs having pushed forth healthy roots, green
stakes, thrust into hot-beds for the purpose of as-
certaining the degree of bottom heat, have under
peculiar circumstances put forth roots. Others,
again, have put forth strong shoots, only however
to a certain extent, without roots ; but I had
never, previous to the spring of 1845, given such
matters any particular consideration, with a view
to discover why such things should happen, and
the following facts may possibly throw a little
ligiit on the matter.

The last gentle forcing asparagus bed I had
made that year (1845) for producing asparagus,
until it came in naturally, was a kindl}- made bed
of half decayed leaves, &.c., from other hot-bed
linings. The necessary soil and roots were placed
on it, and a slight protection formed with stakes
placed on the sides, with some temporary wood
battens across and tied to the stakes on each
side, for the purpose of holding up clear from the
surface of the bed some evergreen boughs for
keeping off the morning frosts, a plan which I find
to answer very well for the last gathering of
forced asparagus. Some rubbish faggots, made
of refuse prunings, had been placed close by for
sheltering other hot-bed linings ; I pulled out of
those faggots three branches, lopped off the side
branches roughly, pointed one end, and thrust
them into the asparagus bed for heat stakes.
Time passed on, and the asparagus over ; in the
first week in May I proposed pricking a quantity
of young celery plants on the bed, but looking
about I observed strong shoots had burst forth
from all the three stakes, and on pulling them up
each was well rooted from the earth's surface to
the depth of about 6 inches, and the size of the
stakes thus far considerably increased, while the
part below the roots remained unincreased. Two
of the stakes were Fraxinus excelsior ; both hap-
pened to be placed the bare end downwards into
the bed, while the other, a common laurel, was by
chance thrust in top downwards, and was beauti-
fully rooted ; its buds (of course pointing towards
the bed) had pushed several strong shoots from 4
to 10 inches in length, and had turned up horizon-
tally from the stake which had been thrust in
slantingly.

From this and other facts of a similar nature, it
has appeared to me that abundance of healthy
plants may be produced from branches and cut-
tings if properly selected, and at the right season
methodically placed on bottom heat, the latter
being maintained only a sufficient time at the
proper season ; and, at the same time, the whole
of the branches or cuttings left above the surface
of the soil should be fully exposed to the open air.
Jas. Barnes, Gardener to the Baroness Rolle,
Journal London Hort. Soc.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

569

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Illustrations of Medical Botany, (consist-
ing of colored Figures, large quarto, of the Plants
affording the important articles of the Materia
Medica, and descriptive text by Joseph Carsen,
M. D., Prof. Mat. Med., Sfc. SfC. Philadelphia,
Robt. P. Smith, 1848.)

It is gratifying to observe the progress of Ame-
rican art in the production of accurate and finished
works in the different branches of Natural History.

That the taste and demand for really excellent
works of this kind is sm-ely increasing, is proved by
the successful publication of such works as Audu-
bon's magnificent collections of birds and animals of
America, Michaux and Nuttall's beautiful series of
plates of the American trees, and others of similar
character. We are now gratified by the addition
to this series, of two beautifully executed volumes
of illustrations of the plants used in the Materia
Medica, by Dr. Carsen, of Philadelphia.

They have been taken from nature, as well as
from a great variety of the best and most authen-
tic authorities, with care and judgment. The me-
dical value of the work, which from the high com-
mendations of the principal MedicalJournals, must
be great, does not lie within our province, but as
a valuable contribution to botanical science, we
cheerfully recommend it to our readers. We would
notice in particular the beautiful plates of the Ce-
rasus serotina (wild cherry) and the Cornus flo-
rida (dog wood.) taken from nature, as being
beautifully and faithfully executed.

Heating Green-hotjses. — In some late files of
the Gardener's Chronicle, published in London,
and edited by Prof. Lindley, I find strong recom-
mendations by the editor, and numerous contribu-
tor in favor of ''Polmaise heating" conservato-
ries, vineries, &c., without any explanation of the
necessary apparatus of such a mode of heating.

Will you have the kindness to state in your in-
teresting journal, if it be adapted to the cold cli-
mate of Canada, and to give such an explanation
of the plan of such mode of heating, that any good
mechanic may understand it ?

I am just completing a vinery 210 feet in length,
18 feet i;i width, and am desirous of ascertaining
if the Polmaise heating can be advantageously ap-
plied.

I send you the first report of our Horticultural
Society. I have proposed to our committee to of-
fer a premium to the practical gardener who
possesses the greatest amount of knowledge in
Horticulture, including chemistry and engineering
and landscape gardening, so as to be able to take
levels, and lay out grounds, as well as cultivate
them well. It would, I think, tend to excite a
spirit of emulation among gardeners in the study

Vol. II. 72

of their profession. Yours, very respectfully,
William Lunn. Montreal, April, 1848.

[" Polmaise" is an excellent mode of heating, in-
asmuch as it provides a circulation and supply of
fresh air for the plants. We fear that in the mode
applied in England, it would not be found of suffi-
cient power for the climate of Canada — but the
principle — that of a warm air chamber round the
furnace into which cold air enters, and from which
warm air issues into the house — may be applied
with the aid of the old system of flues or water
pipes. We will endeavor to give some explana-
tion, and the necessary illustrations of " Polmaise
heating," soon. Ed.]

General Com'ENTioN of Fruit Growers. —
Allow me through the widely read columns of the
Horticulturist, to suggest the propriety of holding
a convention of fruit growers the coming autumn
in the city of New York, to exhibit, compare, and
test the qualities of all snch fruits as may then be
at maturity. The first week in October would
probably be a convenient and suitable time. The
convention might be composed of delegates from
the various Horticultural Societies, and such fruit
growers as chose to attend.

I cannot but think that such a convention would
have a tendency to produce unanimity of opinion
respecting really desirable fruits, to establish a
more correct nomenclature of the varieties alrea-
dy in cultivation, and bring practical men in close
connexion — all of which I deem of great impor-
tance to the community at large.

The sessions of such a convention might be ad-
journed from year to year, thus making it a perpe-
tual institution, if its labors were found useful.
Yours. &c., Thomas Hancock. Burlington, N. J.

[Our correspondent's suggestion meets with our
entire approval — committees from the difTerent
societies, and fruit growers generally, would be
able to bring together a vast number of the finest
iVuits of the Union. Comparison, and the free ex-
pression of opinion as to the merits of varieties,
would soon enable the convention to determine the
really good sorts from the indifferent. We are sa-
tisfied that while this is left to individual prefer-
ences, and local prejudices, this kind of winnowing
the wheat from the chafTmust go on very slowly,
or not at all.

New York appears to us to be the point to hold
such a convention. It is more central to fruit
growers and pomologists from north, east, and
west than any other of our larger cities. We hope
to hear the opinion of other correspondents on this
proposal for a general convention, and trust a plan
may soon be matured for its convocation. — Ed.]

570

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Pennsylvania Apples. — Friend Downing — A
little typograpliical error occurred in the names ot
two fruits alluded to in my letter published in the
April No. of thy paper j which I by no means wish
to attribute to the men of types, remembering with
becoming modesty my somewhat notoriously ille-
gible hand. It should have read " Smokehouse"
instead of " Sraathchouse," and " Tulpehocken,"
instead of " Tulpehacken."

This latter is sometimes called the Pound apple,
and since writing the above letter I have conversed
with some of the most intelligent fruit growers of
this county, who believe it entirely identical with
the " Faliawater," a very popular variety in some
sections of this State, where it is the best known,
particularly in Berks county among the-German
farmers. There too the Tulpehocken is raised in
great perfection, and as it bears the name of one of
the townships of Berks, it is in all probability the
Faliawater dressed up in a new name by some ad-
mirer of the fruit resident in Tulpehocken in honor
of his district — having in all probability forgotten
the true name. There is also a variety known as
" Pims' Beauty of the West," considerably disse-
minated in the nurseries about Philadelphia and in
New Jersey, which will quite likely prove to be
this same fruit. John Pim, formerly of this county,
removed to Ohio, and some fifteen years back, came
in on a visit to his native place, bringing with
him some grafts of a superior variety of apple.
From these grafts a nurseryman raised two trees
and named the variety in honor of his friend Pim.
One of these trees stands some two miles south-
west oius, and is the parent of the stock now in
cultivation. The tree is a fine thrifty grower and
bearer, and the fruit is deemed very fine. If this
variety should really prove to be the Faliawater,
it will unsettle some catalogues, and therefore is a
question of some interest to the propagators of
frnit. Will not some one throw light upon the
point ? If able, I shall forward specimens of the
fruit to the Horticultural Society of Philadelphia,
or other competent judges, this fall, for the purpose
of ascertaining the facts if possible. Sincerely
thy friend, J. F. Chester co., Pa.

Effects of the Winter at the North. —
The past winter has been a disastrous one to the
cultivators of fine fruit, in this region. The fruit
buds of the peach, apricot, and the fine varieties
of cherry, were all killed. The plum trees have
here and there a straggling blossom, while the
common sour red cherry has a good show of them,
and the native wild plum is in full bloom, not a
bud injured. The pear trees are in blossom as
usual, and the apples promise well also. The
wood of tender trees has been unequally affected
by the winter's cold. The peach has not been much
injured, while some varieties of apricot have been
nearly destroyed. The Hemskirkis scarcely touch-
ed, while the Breda, Blotched Leaf, and Moorpark,
are severely injured, Dubois' Early apricot, plant-

ed out last November, has passed the winter with-
out injury. The young wood of bearing plum
trees, even the Peach plum, is not hurt, while
most of the latter variety in the nursery, even two
or three years from the bud, are killed. Our grape
vines, Bland, Catawba, &.c., passed the winter safe-
ly. I have lost only a few Brown Beurre pear
trees in the nursery, their growth being moderate,
from one to two feet, while the pear trees of one
of our nm-serymen, in highly manured ground,
which made a rank growth, are almost entirely
destroyed. Taking advantage of a rainy day, I
have been looking over the record of the weather,
which I have kept since October, 1829 : and I
think it will afford us some encouragement. The
earliest blossoming of the apricot and plum, was
the 15th April, 1834, and the latest 18th May,
1835, and 1841, being a difference of 33 days.
The apricot fruit buds, have been killed three
times during this period, while thep^ach have suf-
fered eight times. The plum buds have been ex-
tensively killed, only in 1835, and 1848. Fourth
January, 1835. the thermometer was 32 below
zero; 11th January, 1848, it was 21 to 24 below.
As a general rule, if the mercury does not fall be-
low zero till after the middle of January, the fruit
buds are less injured than if it happens in Decem-
ber, or early in January. The winter of 1835, '36
was long and severe, the mercury being below
zero more than thirty mornings and evenings,
during December, January, February and March.
And although the ground being deeply covered
with snow, remained unfrozen all winter, yet large
bearing peach and quince trees were killed to the
ground ; some sprouted and have been bearing for
several years. Yours truly, Charles H. Tomlin-
son. Schenectady, May 9, 1848.

[The season, here, has been favorable, and there
is promise of a fine crop of all kinds of fruit. —
Ed.]

to prevent the attack of the rose-bug.
Sir — I noticed in the Horticulturist of August
last, the complaints of " A Jerseyman" against
the rose-bugs, and he inquires whether there is any
remedy. I have, for several years, applied a sim-
ple, easy and effectual remedy for them. Take
dry ashes — those taken up in the kitchen the same
morning are the best because dryest — and with
some little paddle, or a transplanting trowel,
throw them plentifully into all parts of the tree or
shrub while the dew is on, and the earlier the bet-
ter. A repetition on two or three mornings will be
well at first — after that, a little watchfulness will
discover whether any further application will be
necessary. These bugs frequently destroy the ten-
der shoots of young cherry trees and the blossoms
of our grapes in this section of country. I have
never known a plentiful sprinkling of ashes, for a
few times, fail of saving the trees or securing a
crop of grapes from their ravages.

I have used the same remedy for the eurculio
on the plum tree, and have never known it fail of

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

571

paving the crop when begun in season, and follow-
ed up retrularly two or tliree times a week. After
a rain it should be immediately renewed. Ji.
Kewton. Worcester, Mass., May 10, 1848.

The whole secret of r.\ising Cranber-
ries.— By B. G. Boswell, Philadelphia. — Now
that ten times the quantity of this valuable fruit
is cultivated above what there was forty years ago,
and yet the price is full one hundred percent, high-
er than formerly, and wiiesi it is now shipped from
Boston to most of the middle, and the southern,
and some of the western States — l.o the West In-
dies, Europe, and even to the East Indies — it
seems perfectly natural to inquire if the fruit can-
not be grown in dili'erent and various sections of
the country.

We have written so often on this subject as to
be nearly ashamed of writing another word ; but
knowing that thousands of the friends of Horticul-
ture are totally unacquainted with its cultivation,
we proceed to give the best method of culture on
wet, moist, and dry soils.

The soil may be sandy, gravelly, loamy or
mucky — but the more muck the better. Clay soil
should be particularly avoided as it will bake in
dry weather, and the cranberry never flourishes on
this kind of soil.

Swamp soils. — Where this kind of land can be
drained, and then ploughed and harrowed, it makes
a most desirable soil. Strike out furr>-iws, two
feet apart, and set in the plants six inches apart in
the furrows or drills — care being taken to put all
the root part of the plant below the surface. Keep
the ground clear of grass and weeds the first sea-
son by hoeing. In general no cultivation is needed
afterwards, and in two or three years the vines
will completely cover the ground. Frequently
some fruit is produced the first season.

Abundant crops are yielded when the vines cover
the ground ; three hundred and twenty bushels to
the acre having been produced.

Where swamp ground is situated so low that it
cannot he drained, cover it during winter with sand
or gravel to the depth of about three inches — this
will kill the grass — dig small holes and set out six
plants together in a hill two feet apart each w-ay.
Where a person has a field of plants growing, sods
of the plants, three or four inches square, may be
set out three feet apart each way. Fine planta-
tions have been made in this manner.

Moist upland, is treated in the same manner
as drained swsimp land.

Dry upland should have some swamp muck put
in the furrows, previous to setting the plants, if
convenient.

Gathering the fruit. — Cranberry rakes are now
used in Massachusetts, with which one man can
gather fifty bushels in a day — and although these
rakes tear the vines somewhat, yet the crop is not
diminished ; on the contraiy, it is increased. Some
years ago a farmer in Massachusetts commenced

raking his little patch of one-fourth of an acre.
The first year it produced twelve bushels, the next
eighteen, the third twenty-five, and so on till he
gathered sixty-five bushels, or at the rate of two
hundred and sixty bushels per acre.

This increase is easily accounted for — the pull-
ing up a few vines loosens the ground, and al-
though not intended, yet in fact the raking acts as
a partial cultivator.

Shipping the fruit. — Previous to shipping cran-
berries, the berries should be run over a platform
slightly inclined — across this platform should be
nailed some common plastering lath six inches
apart. The bruised fruit will not run off but stick
fast on their way down the platform; and are
scraped off and thrown away, or else sold at a re-
duced price. If the fruit is to be sent to Europe
or Asia, it should be put into tight casks, and
when headed up, filled with water. In this man-
ner they arrive in Europe in perfect order, and
have frequently sold in England and France at
twenty dollars per barrel.

Ten thousand plants will plant out nearly a
quarter of an acre. In three years, from this fourth
of an acre several acres may be planted out from
plants of one's own raising. The plants may be set
out in November, in the fall, and from the opening
of spring until the 20th of May. B. G. Boswell.
Philadelphia, May 17, 1848.

Mr. Longworth's Strawberry Challenge
Accepted. — A. J. Downing, Esq. — I have been
so pressed with correspondence and other avo-
cations that I have reluctantly deferred for some
time past a portion of my duties to the public and
to myself. The amateurs of Pomona and of Flora
will, however, in the result realize that I have not
been idle " in inking notes," if I have appeared re-
miss in their annunciation. The " Strawberry
Question" will in the finale be solved by more sub-
stantial means, than by such falsified quotations,
misrepresentations, and plagiarisms, as I perceive
the public have had palmed upon them of late, and
which will at leisure receive their merited rebuke.
My present object is to say but few words, and
those direct to one of the points in the controver-
sy. Mr. Longworth, whose opinions are entitled
to the highest respect, and consequently to a full
investigation, has repeatedly offered a reward of
$500 for the production of any staminate variety
of the strawberry, that will produce a full crop.
Indeed he has stated that he never yet had one
such variety " that would average one quarter of a
crop,'' and again in a letter to me, "3'ou cannot
produce the plant that will average one quarter
of a crop of large perfect fruit from what you call
a perfect plant; much less can you one in which
both organs are perfect in all the blossoms," and
in another letter to me commenting upon various
staminate varieties, he says, " your Primate is S.
and very large and productive. This surely may
claim the $500." In order to obtain a fair under-

572

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

Btanding, I addressed a letter to Mr. L., asking
him what he would deem a full crop, entitling the
plant to the premium offered of $500. His an-
swer runs thus : "I am certainly explicit enough
as to what I expect for $500, and from your
catalogue, you have the very kind. A perfect
plant, bearing an abundant crop of large perfect
fruit. I do not even ask this; one that will with
similar cultivation, average half the crop of large
perfect fruit that the Hudson, Hovey, Necked Pine
or Pistillate Keen, will do, will satisfy me." I wish
now to state that, I accept the challenge, and
I ask the appointment of an arbiter to meet one
I will appoint, and to prevent delay I now select
J. D. Scott, Esq., one of the Secretaries of the
Long Island Hort. Society. I trust there will be
no delay on the part of Mr. Longworth, as the
season of maturity will be earlier this year than
the last. Yours respectfully, Wm. R. Prince.
Prince's Linnaan Botanic Garden and Nursery,
Flushing, L. I.

Amateurs of the strawberry are invited to view
my collection when in fruit. It comprises speci-
men beds of above 100 select, prolific, and highly
estimable varieties, covering one and a half acres.
Those who are lovers of fine fruit may be glad to
know that I distribute all the fruits from ray
grounds gratuitously, and never have sold any.

Comparative progress of Spring. — I have
for the last ten years carefully noticed the progress
of vegetation, to ascertain the forwardness of the
seasons about the 1st May. My observations
have been made from the same trees, shrubs and
plants in my garden.

Vegetation had advanced to a certain state on
the following days, viz :

May 9, 1839. April 18, 1844.

' May 2, 1840. April 27, 1845.

May 15, 1841. April 24, 1846.

April 23, 1842. ' May 10, 1847.

May 9, 1843. April 30, 1848.

Thus April 18, 1844, the earliest season, vege-
tation was as forward as on May 15, 1841, the
latest in the ten years — the present year is about
an average. G. Pomfret, Conn.

Horticultural Society of the Genesee
Valley. — List of oliicers for 1848 : Levi A.
Ward, of Rochester, president. John Williams,
of Rochester, 1st vice president ; Alfred Fitch,
Riga, 2d do.; John R. Murray, Mt. Morris, 3d
do.; Henry P. Norton, Brockport, 4th do.; Asa
Rowe, Sweden, 5th do. James H. Watts, Ro-
chester, treasurer. Leander Wetherell, corres-
ponding secretary. Joseph A. Eastman, record-
ing secretary.

Martynea fragrans. — After many vain at-
tempts to get the Martynea fragrans to come up
in the close heat of a propagating house, I tried it,
May 10th, in a pot out of doors, — sowed as care-
lessly as one would plant China Asters. I find

they have now, May 22, come up as thick as hair ;
an evidence of what the fine genial atmosphere of
nature for the last week can accomplish — exceed-
ing the heat (artificial) of the tropics. G. C. T.
Astoria, N. Y., May, 1848.

Nursery Catalogues. — I notice in each num-
ber of thy paper some prominent topic selected for
an editorial leader. Suppose I suggest one for the
next number — " Nurserymen's Catalogues," — for
really some of us, only familiar with little nurse-
ries, and these chiefly of the apple, cannot under-
stand how so many of them can offer for sale the
" most extensive selections ever offered the pub-
lic"— " the largest stock ever offered in the mar-
ket," &c. — and so many of them the possessors of
the " Ancient and real Linnean Botanic Garden
and Nurseries ?" How is all this ? Are the mat-
ters thus blazoned forth in their catalogues and
advertisements to be found in their nurseries? One
who wants to believe all he can, would like to
know. Sincerely thy friend, J. F. Chester co.,
Pa.

Chinese Sand Pear. — I observed some time
since, in the Horticulturist, a description of the
Chinese sand pear, in which it was referred to as
an ornamental tree altogether.

One of my friends has a tree of this variety in
bearing, and his family use its fruit for preserv-
ing. They assure me that it makes one of the best
sweet meats that can be made of pears. Thomas
Hancock. Burlington, N. J.

Errata. — In my article on strawberries, p. 497,
2nd column, I read thus — " in the variety /raster
framboise (European wood strawberry) the flowers
are always dioscious." Here is an error so evident
that I am inclined to think it is not so written in
the MSS. Yet if it be so, it no less needs correc-
tion. The frasier framboise of the French, is a vari-
ety of the Hautbois. How the words "European
wood strawberry" came placed where they are, is
beyond my memory just now. Wm. W. Valk.
Flushing, May 9, 1848.

Albany and Rensselaer Horticultural So-
ciety.— The annual meeting of the society was
held at the agricultural rooms on Saturday, 6th of
May. Joel Rathbone, Esq., president, in the
chair.

The amendments to the Constitution, proposed
at last meeting, were adopted.

The report of the executive committee of the pro-
ceedings of the society, during the past year, was
presented and ordered to be published.

Mr. D. Thomas Vail, from the committee on
nominations, reported a list of names for officers
for the ensuing year. The following gentlemen
were elected — being those reported by the commit-
tee:—

President — Joel Rathbone, of Bethlehem.

Vice Presidents — D. Thomas Vail, Troy; Dr.
Herman Wendell, Albany ; Ezra P. PrenticEj
1 Bethlehem ; V. P. Douw, Greenbush.

DOMESTIC NOTICES.

573

Secretary — B. P. Johnson, Allmny.

Treasurer — A. E. Brown, Albany.
Managers — Amos Briggs, Schanhticoke ; Ste-
PHEX E. Warren, Troy ; J. M. Lovett, Albany;
Wm. Buswell, Troy ; J. McD. McIntyre, Al-
bany ; Jas. Henry. Watervliet ; Wm. Newcomb,
Pittsiovvn ; James Wilson, Albany ; A. Osborn,
Watervliet.

Committees for 1848.

On Green-house Plants and Flowers — Wm. New-
comb, ot'Pittstown. chairman ; Dr. Stepiien Wicks,
Trov ; A. J. Parker, Albany ; C. Hemstreet, Troy;
J. M. Lovett, Albany.

On Fruit — Dr. Herman Wendell, Albany, chair-
man ; V. p. Douw, Greenbush ; David Benson, Al-
bany ; B. Kirtland, Greenbush ; W. Buswell, Troy.

On Vegetables — John S. Walsh, Bethlehem,
chairman; Dennis Beldin, Troy; C.N. Bement,
Albany ; John H. Haydock, Troy ; Robert F.
Johnstone, Albany.

On Gardens — Luther Tucker, Albany, chairman ;
B. T. Cushman, Troy ; C. F. Crosby, Watervliet.

On Essays, and for establishing synonyms of
fruits — Dr. E. Emmons, Albany, chairman ; Amos
Briirgs, Schaghtieoke ; Sanford Howard, Albany ;
JohnH. Willard, Troy ; Dr. J. M. Ward, Albany.

On Discretionary Premiums — E. P. Prentice, Al-
bany, chairman ; Henry Vail, Troy ; Wm. Cooper,
Guilderland ; David Hamilton, Watervliet ; Setli
H. Terry, Troy.

On Floral Designs, Bouquets, Ornaments, &c. —
S. E. Warren, Troy, chairman ; Abel French, Al-
bany ; George Gould. Troy ; Erastus H. Pease,
Albany; John B. Gale, Troy.

On Arrangements for Exhibition — For Albany —
J. MeD. McIntyre, chairman ; James Wilson, Wm.
Tliorburn, Charles B. Lansing, Dr. John Wilson.

For Troy— S. E. Warren, D. T. Vail, Wm. Bus-
well, C. Hemstreet, Charles Dauchy.
Exhibitions for 1848-9.

At Albany, 2d Wednesday, 14th June — For fruits,
cherries, strawberries, flowers, vegetables, &c.

At Troy, 2d Wednesday, 12th July — For fruits,
cherries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, flow-
ers, vegetables, &c.

At Albany, September — Annual Show.

At Albany, 2d Wednesday of February, 1849.
Annual Meeting — Fruit, flowers, 8cc.

Answers to Correspondents — Manures — E.
B. — Liquid guano is prepared by putting lib. of
guano in 3 gallons of water. The mixture should
be allowed to stand 24 hours before using it. It
produces the most decidedly beneficial elfects on
all plants in a growing state ; applied when they
are dormant, it is frequently injurious. Camellias,
and other wood green house plants, are greatly be-
nefited by it if watered with it while they are
making young shoots.

Rapid Growing Vines. — R. W. C. — Cobea
scandens and Ipomea Learii, are the two best an-
nual vines for covering a largo surface rapidly.
They are both very ornamental — niay be had in
pots of the florists, and should be turned out imme-
mediately.

Fruit Trees. — jl Boston Subscriber. It will

be best to remove all the old soil round your dis-
eased pear tree, and replace with a compost of
good peat loam from an old pasture, mixed with a
peck of lime, a bushel of wood ashes, and a cart
load of stable manure. This will bring the tree
into a healthy bearing state again. — R. L. P. (Bal-
timore.)— The Madeleine is rather more liable to
fire-blight than other pear trees — try Dearborn's
seedling — a finer early sort. — IV. (Trenton.) — If
your peach tree ripens its fruit prematurely, and
sends out wiry shoots along the branches with
dwarfish, narrow leaves, it certainly has the yellows.
It is better to dig it up and burn it at once, as the
disease will spread. Pruning other peach trees
directly after cutting ofl" limbs of one having the
yellows, is sufficient to communicate this disease.
W. (Pittsburgh.) — If your cherry trees refuse to
come into bearing from over luxuriance, dig a
trench and cut ofl' one-fourth of the roots at their
outer extremities. Small cherry trees may be
brought into bearing early by pinching out the ends
of ail the terminal shoots about the middle of June,
thus forcing them to form fruit buds for the next
year.

Grapes. — ^ constant reader. — Give the soil
in which your native grape vines grow a plentiful
sprinkling of gypsum or plaster of paris, and turn
this top-dressing under immediately. We have
found this a complete protection against mildew.
Under glass the floor of the vinery should be dusted
over wMth flower of sulphur when the young grapes
are formed, as directed by Mr. Allen in his pam-
phlet. This is a much neater process than throw-
ing the sulphur on the bunches.

Gooseberries. — /. B. S. (Philadelphia.) Se-
veral of our correspondents tried the salt hay last
spring for gooseberries, and found it to prevent the
rust. It should however be spread under the bush-
es early in the spring.

Raspberries. — J. Fulton, jr. The true Red
Antwerp is one of the hardiest of all foreign rasp-
berries. It bears good crops here without protec-
tion— but still better ones if the branches are bent
down in autumn and slightly covered with earth.

Garden Engine. — M. P. (Richmond.) will
find a description of various kinds in this number.
Mr. Poole's machines are admirably made. The
larger hand-engine will answer his purpose ex-
actly.

Cypress Vine. — A Lady. — Soak the seeds three
hours in warm water before planting. They will
then all vegetate.

Books. — A Novice. — Lindley's Theory of Hor-
ticulture is the best work on that branch of the
subject in any language. — Williamson. — For a
hand-book of reference the best little treatise on
the kitchen garden, is Buist's jPaz/uVi/ Kitchen Gar-
dener. It is to the point — no superfluous words.
Loudon's Suburban Horticulturist, is a better
book for the practical cultivator than his Ency-
clopedia of Gardening.

Roses. — L. (Rochester.) Souvenir de Mai-

574

ALBANY AND RENSSELAER HORT. SOC.

maison and Souchet, are two of the most perfect
and beautiful of everbloominfr roses. Solfaterre
is a remarkably tine pale yellow Nois'?tte in the
same style as Lamar que, worthy of a place in eve-
ry collection.

Apple tee eborer. — W. Johnsons—See our
directions in last No. p. 531. You should apply
the wash at once or it will be too late.

Strawberries. — /. R. C. — The " Aberdeen
Bee-hive" is already in the hands of two or three
cultivators in this country. The Messrs. Thorburn,
of New York, we believe imported it first, and
■will offer plants for sale in August next. Swain-

stone's seedling likes strong, damp soil. It bears
most abundantly with us though a staminate. —
Tyro — You will easily understand the difference
between strawberry blossoms if you compare Hud-
son, a pistillate sort, with Early Scarlet or Ross'
Phanix — staminate sorts.

*,* Correspondents who are subscribers , will
hereafter find replies to any questions on subjects
within the scope of this journal, in this department,
(unless otherwise requested) — and all queries put
in a brief shape, and sent to us free of postage,
shall receive attention. — Ed.

ALBANY AND RENSSELAER HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

There will be four exhibitions during the year. The first
to be held in June ; the second in July ; the third in Septem-
ber ; the fourth in Februdry.

Exhibition at Albany— Wednesday , June 14.

FRUITS.

Cherries — For the best and most expensive collection, not
less than a dozen on each plale, $3 ; for the second best, $Q ;
for the best three varieties, $2 ; for the best one variety, SI-

Strawberries— Fox the best and finest flavored dish, not less
than half a pint, $2 ; for the second best, and finest flavored

dish, $1.

FLOWERS.

jjoses—Hardy, including all hardy varieties : for the best
exhibition. $3 ; for the best twelve. $2 ; for the best six, $1.

Pinks— Vox the best six distinct varieties, S2; for the best
three do, ^1. „

PcBonies—VoT the best exhibition of Herbaceous Pseonies,
$2; for the best six, $1. .

PansJes— For the best ten, $2 ; for the best six, %\.

Pelargoniums— hi pols, for the best six, $2; for the best

Fuchsias— In pots, the best six, $2 ; the bestlhree, $1.

For the best display of Annual and Perennial flowers, f 2 00

For the best large round Bouquet for centre table vase, 2 00

For the best large flat Bouquet lor mantel vase, 2 00

For the best basket Bouquet with handle, 2 00

For the best flat hand Bouquet, 1 00

For the best round hand Bouquet, 1 00

For the best six plants in pots, of different varieties, 2 00

VEGETABLES.

Turnip Beets— Best, not less than six, 1 00

Brocoli— Best, not less than three heads, 1 00

Beans— Beit peck of string beans, 1 00

Best quart of Lima beans, 1 00

CaMage— Best, not less tlian two heads, 1 00

Caidiflowers—Best, not less than two heads, 1 00

C'eiery— Best six roots, . 1 00

Corn— Best half dozen ears of any variety, 100

Cucutnbers-Best brace grown under glass, if before

any of open culture are exliibited, 1 00

Best brace open culture, 1 00

Lettuce— Best, not less than three heads, 1 00

Peas-Best half peck, 1 00

Po;aro«s— Best half peck, | w

FJiiaarb-Best six stalks, 1 OU

Squaslies— Best, not less than three, 1 OU

Tomatoes— Best, not less than two quarts, 1 00

Exhibition in Troy— Second Wednesday, July 12.

FRUIT.

C/temes— Best and most extensive collection, not less than
a dozen on each plate, $3; for the second do, S2; for the
best three varieties, $2 ; for the best one variety, $1.

Currants — Best and finest flavored variety, not less than

half a pint, $2 ; second best, $1.
Gooseberries — Best and finest flavored variety, not less than

half a pint, $2; second best, $1.
Raspberries — Best and finest flavored varieties, not le.ss;

than half a pint, $2; second best, SI.
FLOWERS.
Carnation and Picotee tinks — Best six varieties, S2 ; best

three varieties, $1.
Da/tKas— Best exhibition, $2; best twelve vjirieties, $2

best six varieties, SI.

For the best display of Annual and Perennial flowers. 2 00

For the best large round Bouquet for Centre table vase. 2 00
For the best large flat Bouquet for a mantel vase, 2 00
For the best basket Bouquet with handle, 2 00

For the best flat hand Bouquet, 1 00

For the best round hand Bouquet, 1 00

For the best six plants of different varieties, in pots, 2 00

VEGETABLES.
Premiums will be awarded on all such varieties published

in the June list, as were not exhibited at that meeting.

September Exhibition in Albany — Which will be

the Annual Show.

(The day will hereafter be designated.)

FRUIT.

Apples— Best and most extensive collection of different va-
rieues. S3 ; second best, $2 ; best six varieties, three specimens
of each variety, S2 ; best one variety, six specimens, $1.

Pears— Best and most extensive collection of different va-
rieties, $3; second best, S2; best six varieties, three speci-
mens of each variety, S2 ; best one variety, six specimens, St.

Peac/iex— Best and most extensive collection of different va-
rieties, $3; second best, S2 ; best three varieties, three spe-
cimens of each variety, S2; best one variety, six specimens, $1.

Plums— Best and most extensive collection of different va-
rieties, S3 ; second best, $2 ; best six varieties, not less than
six of each variety, $2 ; b»st one variety, not less than six
specimens, $1 ; best seedling, iiever before exhibited, $2.

Nectarines— Best exhibition, not less than three specimens
of each variety, S3; best two varieties, not less than three
specimens of each, ^2; best one variety, not less than three
specimens, SI-

ffrapes— Foreign— Best exhibition of not less than three va-
rieties, and two bunches of each variety, S3 ; best two vari-
eties, and not less than three bunches, of each, S2 ; best one
variety, not less than three bunches, $1.

(jrapes— Native— Best exhibition of not less than three va-
rieties and two bunches of each variety, $3 ; best two vari-
eties, and not less than two bunches of each, S2; best one
variety, not less than three bunches, $1-

Figs— The best exhibition, not less than two varieties and
three specimens of each variety, $2 ; best one variety, not
less than six specimens, $1.

Watermelons— Best two varieties, $2 ; best one variety, $1-

PENNSYLVANIA HORT. SOCIETY.

575

Musk-melons — Best iwo varieties, $2 ; best one variety, SI.
Oranbfrnes — Best half peck, $2.

Assorted Fruit — Best basket ot' Assorted Fruit of various
kinds, $2.

FLOWERS.
Plants — Best si.x plants in pots of different varieties, S2.
Dalilias — Best display, S3; best twelve dissimilar blooms,
$!2 ; best six dissimilar blooms, $1; best flower, specimen
bloom, $1.

Roses — Hardy Perpetuals, including Hybrid Perpetuals and
Isle de Bourbons — best leu varieties, $2 ; best six varieties,
$1.

Phloxes — Best ten distinct varieties, S2 ; best six distinct
varieties, SI ; best seedling never before exhibited, $1.
Gerinan Asters — Best display, $2 ; second best, $1.
Verbenas — Best twelve varieties. $2 ; best six varieties,
$1 ; best seedling, never before exhibited, $1.
Round Vase Bouquet— For Centre table vase, — best, $2.
Flat Parlo' Bouquet — For mantel vase — best, $2.
Hand Bouquet — Best and most beautiful pair, one

round and one flat,S2.
Basket Bouquet— Ben and most beauli.'"ul, with handle, $2.
Floral Designs — Best, most beautiful, and most appropriate,
$3; second best, $2 ; third best, 5f 1.

VEGETABLES.
For the best new Seedling Potatoe, 2 00

For the best half peck Winter Potatoes, 1 00

For the best Winter Squashes, — not less than two

specimens to be exhibited, 1 00

For the best Long blood Beets — not less than six spe- ,

cimens to be exhibited, 1 00

For the best Carrois — not less than six specimens to

be exhibited, 1 00

For the best Parsnips — not less than six specimens

to be exhibited, 1 00

For the be»t Egg Plants— not less than two specimens

to be exhibited, 1 00

For the best Winter Cabbage — not less than two speci-
mens to be exhibited, 1 00

For the best Brocoli — not less than two specimens to

be exhibited, 1 OO

For the best Cauliflowers— not less than two specimens

to be exhibited, 1 00

For the best Celery— not less than six roots to be ex- 1 00

hibited, 1 00

For the best Arartinias — not less than six specimens to

be exhibited, 1 00

For the best Tomatoes — not less thaa half a peck to

be exhibited, 1 00

For the best exhibition of diflerent var'ts of Tomatoes, 1 00

Exhibition at Albany, on the second Wednesday
February, 1849.

FRUIT.

Apples — Best exhibition, §2 ; best one variety, not less than
six specimens, §1.

Pears — Best exhibition, §2 ; best one variety, 1.
FLOWERS.

For the best six plants in pols, of difl"erent varieties, $2.

For the bust display of cut Green House flowers, $2 ;
for the second, do. do. $1.

For the best large round Bouquet for Centre table vase, 2 00
For the best large flat Bouquet for mantel vase, 2 OO

For the best basket Bouquet, with handle, 2 00

For the best round hand Bouquet, 1 00

For the best flat hand Bouquet, 1 00

Camellia Japnnirus — For the best display of cut flowers
wnh foliage, $.3; for the best six varieties, §2; for the best
three varieties, $2.

Cuinese Primroses — Best six varieties, in pots, §2 ; be st
three varieties in pots, §1.

Pansies — Best teu disunct varieties, $2 ; best six distinct
varieties, $1.

Discretionary premiums for various objects of extraordinary
interest, not included in the above list, if any such offer, will
be awarded, five dollars at each ordinary exhibition, and ten
dollars at the September show.

< • • • >

PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The stated monthly meeting was held on Tuesday evening
May 16, 1S43. Tiie President in tlie chair. The exhibition
was very handsome; among the great variety of plants were
a number new or rarely seen, of which were a specimen of
a green Rose, Doryanthes excelsa, in full flower, shown in
R. Buist's collection. Azalea variegala, presenting one
mass of flowers enveloping completely the entire plant, a
most beautil'ul sight ; also a number of fine seedling Azaleas
shown by Peler McKenzie. A fine specimen of Habrotham-
nus elegans, Rhododendron sp. etc- by James Bisset, gar-
dener to James Duiidas. A collection of choice Roses, Paul
Joseph, Louis Bonaparte, &c., by William Mall. Several ta-
bles of Pelargonia, and collections of Tulips Also Indige
nous Plants by Robert Kilvingion — specimens of Double
flowered Lily of the Valley by Mrs G. I3illmeyer. of German-
town.

Of Vegetables. — A fine show of Cauliflowers by John Ri-
ley, gardener at the Insane Hospital. Very large Victoria
Rhubarb by William Hobson and Robert Dunk, and new
Potatoes and Cucumbers by James McKee, gardener to C.
Chauncey, Burlington. And extensive collections by Antho-
ny Felton.

Reports of the Committees.
The committee on plants and flowers, after a minute inves-
tigation of the several articles for competition, have awarded
the following premiums, viz , For the best lOnamed Pelargo-
nia, to James Bisset, gardener to James Dundas ; for the se-
cond best do. to B. DanleU, gardener to C. Cope ; for the
the third best do. to R. Buist ; for the best six named varie-
ties of perpetual Roses, to William Hall ; for the best 12 Tu-
lips to Jonathan Bass ; for the second best do. to James Fer-
ris ; for the third best, to R Farrington : for the best four
mimed Cinerarias to B. Daniels ; for the second best do. to
Benjamin GuUiss ; for llie best Hot hou.se and best Green
hoii->e plants, to James Bisset ; for the best collection of plants
in pols to R. Buist ; for do. second best, to James Bisset ^ the

third best do. to B. Daniels, gardener to C.Cope; for the
fourth best do. to James McDonald, gardener to iVIiss Gratz ;
for the best Indigenous plants, Robert Kilvington ; tor the
best Bouquet to D. Daniels ; for the second best Bouquet,
to R. Kilvington ; lor the best Bouquet formed of Indigenous
flowers, to R B. Kilvingion ; for the best basket of cut flow-
ers, to B. Daniels.

And a special premium of three dollars for two very fine
seedling Pelargonia, to R. Buist.

The committee would recommend a special premium of
five dollars to James Bisset, gardener to James Dundus, for
two beautit'ul floral arches compo.sed of Bignonia venusla
and the scarlet flowering thorn

Tlie Committee would mention with pleasure a very fine
plant of the Doryunllies excelsa, in full flower, from the gar-
den of Mr. Buisi ; likewise a most splendid specimen of the
Azalea varugata in prot'use flower, and many fine seedlibg
varieties in flower from the garden of Mr. McKenzie.

The Committee noticed as new and inieresiiiig specimens,
the double floweruig Lily of the Valley from Mrs. G. Bill-
meyer.

The Committee on Vegetables report that they have
awarded the following premiums ; — For the best Cucumbers
to Anthony Felten ; for the second best cucumber.*, to James
McKee, gardener lo C. Chauncey ; l"i>r the best Rhubarb, to
William Hobson; for the second best Khnbarb, to Robert
Dunk ; for t'le best Potatoes, to James McKee ; t"or the se-
cond best Potatoes, to Anthony Felten. For the best display
of Vegetables by market gardeners, to Anlhony Felten; for
the «econd best display by do. lo A. Felten ; for the best dis-
play by amateur gardeners to B. Daniels, gardener lo C.
Cope ; for the second best display by do. to William Johns.

The Committee also award a special Premium of iwo dol-
lars each to James McKee. and John Riley, gardener at ihe
Insane Hospital, for very fine displays of Cauliflowers.

Member elected — Mrs. Dr. James Rush.

On moiioii adjourned. Ttios. P. James, Rec. Sec.

576

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Opening of the Hall for the Season.

Saturday, May 13, 1848— The Hall of the Massacusetts
HorticuUural Society opened for the season to the public this
day under favorable auspices, but on account of a lieavy
sliowcr of ram, many were deprived of the pleasure of wit-
nessing the niagiiificent display of Greenhouse plants which
on no former occasion were in so great perlection. The
plants were generally well grown, including many rare spe-
cies and varieties, beautiful indeed, and worthy ol the admi-
ration and praise bestowed on them. It would he impossi-
ble to enumerate all, even if it were desirable, and a few
only will be named.

From the President of the Society, (not in competition,)
a very large Azalea indica variegata, three feet in diameter,
four new seedling Azaleas finely striped, and Azalea in-
dica, exquisita, Bellerophon, decora and tricolor recently im-
ported from Germany. Twenty pots of choice Ksrica, viz ..
E. vestita elegans, E. ventricosa alba, superba and brevi-
flora. E. odorata, and a plant imported for E. cavendishii,
very superb, but not true ; Lilium peregrinum, or testaceum,
two plants ; a fine seedling Rhododendron between R. cam-
panulatum and R. cataubiense ; Epiphyllums, Fuchsias and
Cinerarias, &c , in great variety.

jNIr. Wilder's display was large, and very rich, including
in his cut tiowers more than two hundred blooms of Noisette
tiolfaterre, and Lamarque roses, fine Camellias and other
beautiful greenhouse flowers.

From Hovey & Co., eighteen plants of exquisite Pelargo-
niums, viz., Beck's Centurion, Rosamund, Grandiflora, Fos-
ter's Orion, Drury's Pearl, and Celestial ; these received j\lr.
Beck's first prize of five pounds. The Society's first pre-
mium in Class 1, was awarded for Beck's Blanche, Desde-

mona, Isabella, Rosy Circle. Celestial and and

the first premium in Class 2, for Beck's Mustee Zanzummin,
Gigantic, Marc Antony, Celestial and Hovey's Jenny Lind ;
also a plant of Campanula nobilis and cut flowers of scarlet
turban ranunculus.

From T. H. Perkins, by William Quant, a grand display
of greenhouse plants and cut flowers, including eighteen
Pelargoniums of various sorts, finely grown, six Fuchsias
(fine plants), six Cinerarias, six Calceolarias, six extra dou-
ble Gilliflowers. Roses, — a splenid specimen of Auricaria
excelsa, and a magnificent plant of Ixora coccinea.

From Nonanlum Vale, by John Cadness, fine plants of
Cryptomaria Japonica, Burchellea speciosa. Clematis azu-
rea grandiflora. Azalea indica variegata. Cineraria bicolor,
Cadnessii elegans. Sylph, Emperor, Van Houttii, and Ada.
Also, six Calceolarias, nine Bouquets and cut flowers in va-
riety.

From Joseph Breck & Co., Hyacinths, and a great variety
of cut flowers.

From R M. Copeland, fine Hyacinths.

From O. H. Mathers, by Thomas Needham, a collection
of superb greenhouse flowers.

From Edward M. Richards, cut flowers, with Furaaria
cucularia and Trillium pictum, fine indigenous plants.

From G. C. Crowningshield, by John Quant, a fine show
of greenhouse plants, viz., six Pelargoniums, to which were
awarded Beck's second prize of two pounds — viz , for Ma-
tilda, Joan of Arc, Orange boven, Sylph, Prince Albert and
Lady Douro : six Ericas and fine plants of Lechenaullia for-
mosa, Brugsmansia, Pimelia speclabile, Epiphyllum Jenkin-
sonii, Cytisus, &c. &c.

From Azel Bowditch, Pelargoniums, Cacti, and other
plants, but of which no list was rendered to the chairman ;
also bouquets.

From Parker Barnes, plants without list.

From James Nugent, plants, but no return made, also fine
cut flowers.

Award of Premiums on Pelargoniums — Fuchsia, various sorts,

Pelargoniums, [Bick's Special Prizes.)
To Hovey & Co. for the best six dissimilar plants

1st premium $25 00

To John Quant for the 2nd best, do. 2nd do. — .... 10 00

Society's Premiums— Ctaw 1st,
To Hovey & Co. for the best six dissimilar plants,

1st premium S6 00

To William Quant, second best, 2d premium, 4 00

Class 'id.
To Hovey & Co., for the best six dissimilar plants, 1st

premium, $6 00

To Azell Bowditch, do. second best, 2nd premium, 4 00

Roses, no premium awarded.
Fuchsias— To Wm. Quant, for the best six, 1st prem. 6 00
(iVo competitor for the 2nd premium.)

Heaths— To John Quant a premium of 2 00

Various sorts— To Wm. Quant, for tiie best display, 8 00
To John Quant do. do. 2nd best do. 5 00
John Cadness, J

Thomas Needham, [ Judges.
Francis Tliieler, )
Award of Premiums on Cinerarias, Calceolarias, Cacti, Hya-

cynths and Bouquets-
Cinerarias— To Wm. Quant, for the best six varie-
ties, $3 00

To John Cadness, 2nd best do. 2 00

Calceolarias — To John Cadness, tor the best six

varieties, 3 00

To Wm. Quant, do. 2nd best do. 2 00^-

Cacti — To A. Bowditch, for the best six varieties, 3 00 >

(No competition for the 2nd premium.)
Hyacinths- To R. M. Copeland, for the best display, 5 00
To J. Breck & Co. and best, 3 00'

Bouquets — To John Cadness for the best vase 3 00

To R. Bowditch, for the best Parlor 2 00

To John Cadness for the 2nd best 1 00

James Nugent, )

John Qu.int, J Judges.

Cruickshank, )

The Committee on Cut Flowers, award

To Thomas Needham the 1st premium of 3 00

To Wm Quant, 2nd do. 2 00

They also recommend a gratuity to the President for

his fine display of greenhouse plants, of 8 00

For his splendid show of Roses, 3 00

To Wm. Quant, for a superb Ixora coccinea, 3 00

To James Nugent for a fine show of Cut Flowers, 2 00
Joseph Breck, Chairman of Committee

on Flowers, &c.

Business meeting, April 15th, 1S48. The President, M. P.
Wilder, in the chair.

The President, by request of the Chairman of the Commit-
tee of Publication, presented the 2d number of the "Trans-
actions of the Society," embracing the business meetings and
exliibitions lo the close of the year, and stated that the plates
of the number were coloured by the hand of experienced ar-
tists, increasing the cost of the work to the society, and that
a report thereof \vould be made in due season.
May 6th, 1848. President M. P. Wilder in the chair.
Voted, That the Recording Secretary be requested, and au-
thorised, to distribute the tickets of members and invited
g-uests through the " penny-post," and draw upon the Trea-
surer for such sum as may be necessary to det"ray the expense
thus incurred.

Voted, That the sum of $10 be paid to Mrs. Hurd, of Bil-
lerica, by the Treasurer, for a grass bouquet, presented by
her at the annual exhibition, and removed from the Society's
Hall without her knowledge or consent.

The following motion was submitted by Cheever Newhall,
Esq , with the desire that it be laid upon the table for consi-
deration, to be taken up and acted upon at the stated meeting
in July next, viz :

That appropriations for the objects of this Society be made
at the stated meetings, in January, April, July, and October,
and at no other meeting. The following gentlemen were
elected members of the Society :
Life — George W. Warren, Boston.

Subscription — Wm. S, Wilson, Boston ; John J. Clarke,
Roxbury. E. C. R. Walker, Rec. Sec^y.

GENERAL INDEX.

Acacia, Rose, 511, 544.

Acclinialatioii of plants, 257.

.^isculus rubricuiida, 513.

Agricultural sciiools, 26S.

Agriculiure, Chinese, 379.

Alahaniii, iiorlicuUure in, 484.

Alder, 5G3.

Alburnum, 49.

Almond, Uouble-dwarf, 510.

Aliheas, 511

America, The great industrial class of,

537.
American Journal of Science and Art, 183.
Amraoniacal liquor, 104.
Araorpha fruticosa, 511
Anagallis cserulea compacta, 145.
Analysis of earths, 13.

of the ash of the pear, apple and

grapevine, 301.
Analogies in animals and plants, 92.
Annuals, list of hardy and showy, 488.
Apple, best soil for, 544.
Apple crop, 335.

Apple orchards on the sea-coast, 100.
Apple tree borer, 50,531, 574.
APPLKS:

Uses of, 513.

Three fine western, 18.

Select lists for the north, 409.

Two new American, 20.

Select list of, 435

How to restore the productiveness
of old trees. 267.

in Pennsylvania, 570.
APPLKS— Varieties :

American Summer Pearmain, 544.

Ashmore, 344.

Baldwin, 220,48-3.

Beauty of Kent, 544.

Benoiu, 544

Bevan's Favorite, 544.

Detroit or Red Detroit, 545.

Doctor, 545.

Domine, 545.

Dyer, 2S9.

RarlyJoe, 195.

Early Red Margaret, 514.

Esopus Spit7enbergh, 484, 545.

Fa 1 In water, 570.

Golden Sweet, .544.

Gravenstein, 544.

Harrison, failure of the, 483.

Hawley, 27.

Jonatliiiii, 545.

Lady Apple, 545.

MHTtin. 26.

McLellan, 26.

Melon. 356.

NeverfaiL.OSS.

\eivtown Pippin, 482, 493, 545.

Nonsuch, 11^3, 544.

Norton's melon, 356.

Old Nonsuch, 2*n.

APPLES— Pennock, 545.

Pims' Beauty of the West, 570.

Pomme Royale, 2s9.

Pound Royal, 289.

Priestley, 4S3.

Pryor s Red, 18

Putnam Russet, 4S3.

Rambo, 544.

Rawles' Jannet, 19, 147, 291, 388,
4>3.

Red Astrachan Crab, 545.

Red Canada. 289.

Rhode Island Greening, 545.

Ribsion Pippin, 416.

Rockrfmaiii, 147,291.

Roman Slem, 545.

Seek no-lurlher, 544.

Sraathehouse,4S2, 570.

Siroat, 545.

Summer Rose, 483.

Swan. 545.

Tompkins, .3.57.

Tulpehocken, 570.

Waxen, 4s3.

White Bellefleur,i545.

White Seek-no-further, 289.

Winesap, 545.

Yellow Bellefleur, 545.

Yellow or .striped Jannet, 19.
Apricot, culture of the, 559.

Dubois' Early Golden, 99.

Araucaria or Chili Pine, 418.
Arboricullural Gossip, 28.
ARCHITECTURE, RURAL:

Architects' terms, 363

Bui. ding materials, 239.

Buildings, specificalions for, 39.

Choosing a site for a couinry house,
219.

English Rural Cottage, 66.

HintK to young architects, 37.

Rural buildings, hints and designs
lor, 303

Rural collage, design for, 19.

Rural church, design for a, 433.

Small cottage, design for a. 471.

Suburban cottages, 272.

Suburban villa, design for a, 329

Villa in the Anglo-Italian style, 554.
Aromatic oils, 49.
Ash, the flowering, 513.
Ash trees, seven of Tewin, 432.
Asparagus, how to cut, 43.

Culture of, 95.

Astronomy, progress of, 185.
Ausiriun pine, 492-

Azaleas, cu'tivntion and propugalion of,
161.

Ciiliure of. 318.

To restore sickly, 521.

sinensi.s, 47.

Baking of the soil, 4.35.
Balsam Fir, 492.

Balsam pear, 487.

Banana, produce of the, 49.

Bassano beet, 464.

Bean, the Turtle Soup. 464.

Bees, queries about, 196.

Begonia, t'uchsioideg. 46.

Berberry, does it cause blight, 229.

influence of the pollen of, 544.

Birds, frigliiening of, from fruits, 433.
Books on Gardening, 573.

Botany, Agricultural, 137.
Bolaiucal mission to India, 381.
British Association, address before, 183
Broccoli, Walclieren, 464.
Bruoels horticultural show, 337.
Buckihoriis, 427.
Budding in the spring, 434.
Buds, starling too soon, 160.
Buflfalo, horticulture at. 291.

horticullural dinner at, 484.

Buildings, specifications of, 30.
Building materials, the best, 239.
Buildings, hints for rustic, 363.
Bulbous plants, 144.

Bulbs, remarks on, 227.
Burning bush or spindle tree, 512.
Kultonwood. swamp, 510.
Buuer, air churn for. 567.
Cabbage, the Portugal, 464.
Cacti, great Me.xicaii, 141.
Calandriiiia uinl)e41ata. 145.
Calycanlhus florida. 511
Cambridge flower show, 141.
Camellias in Philadelphia, iBS.

Culture of, 348.

Camellia.iaponica, Hybridization of 540,
Campanula carpatica alba, 145. '

nobilis, 360.

Canada West, climate of, 342.
Carragaiia chanilagre, 510.
Cauliflower, Walclieren. 464.
Ceauoihu.s americaiia, 509.
Cedar for hedges, 241 1
Celery, on raising, 533.
Cells of the bee, 49.
Ceplialanthus occidenialis, 510.
Cerasus semperfloreiis, 512.
Cercis canadensis, 513.
Cereus, .Maynard's, 363.
Champagne on the Ohio, 192.
Chateau des fleurs at Paris, 338.
CHERRIES— Varieties:

Belle Mngiiifique, 545.

Bigarreau. 545.

Bigarreau d« Hilder.sheim, 477.

Black Tartiiriaii, 545.

Burr's Seedling, 242-

Cerise Indulee, 477.

("levclaiul Bigarreau, 60.

Coc'.s Transparent, 71.

Doctor, 12;?.

Downer's Late Red, 477, 545.

Elliot's Favorite, 124.

GENERAL INDEX.

CHERRIRS— Ellon, 545.
Kirilanri's Mary, 1'24.
]jale Bi^'arreuu, 124.
Louis Pliillippe, 477.
IMadisoii l?igarreau, 477.
Napoleon Bigarreau, 545.
New Large Black Bigarreau, 545.
Oliio Beauly, 123.
Ueiiie Hiirtciise, 477.
Rockpoit Bigarreau, 59.

Tardive de Bloiia, 477.
Waterloo, 540.

AV ...... ,.„,„.„.

Wendell's Moitled Bigarreau, 97,
CHERRIKS:

Culture on the Cerasus Mahaleb,
477.

Five New Ohio, 123.

."Select list of, 4-35.

Two New American, 59.
Cherry, Cornelian, 513.

Double-flowering, 512.

Weeping, 512.

Chestnuts, Large, 240.

Chinese agricultural population, 33S.

Primrose, Culture ot', 466.

Chionanlhus virginioa, 5U.

Cliocolate tree, 94.

Clirysauthemuni, William Penn, 342, 3S7.

Clay, burnt, 522. 523.

Clethra, fragrant, 510.
Cinchonia, 240.
Climbers. Annual, 487.

Conservatory, 2.S1.

New summer, 131.

Cobea scaiidens, 4S4, 573.
Cockroaches, to destroy, 313.
Co:d day at the north, 435.
Collection of birds in Philadelphia, 264.
Columbine, glandular, 72.
Combretum purpureum, 231.
Commelina, Blue. 488.
Conservatory climbers, 281'.
Convention of nurserymen, 342, 435.
Corn, Darling's Karly Sweet, 464.
Cornus florida, 513.

mascula, 513

Corosol of the Antilles, 449.
Cottage, design for a rural, 19.

design tor a small, 471.

English Rural, 60.

Suburban, 272.

Cotton growing at Nankin. 380.
Country seat, how to choose a site for,

249.
Crab, Powers' Large, 147.
Cranberiy, cultivation of the, 52, .371.
Cranberries, secret of raising, 571.
Crategus oxycanlha, 512.
Cucumber growing for market, 527.
Curculio, remedy for the, 195.

in Ohio, 545.

Destruction of, 50i.

Currants and gooseberries, keeping of,
132.

and raspberries, notes on, 265.

Currant, the Victoria, 265, 477.

Queries on the, 3S4

Cuttings, propagation by, 455, 567.
Cydonia japonica, 509.
Cypresses, Great Mexican, 521.
Cypress vine, 573.

Cytisus laburnus, 513.

Datilia. description of the New, 526.

destruction of earwigs on the, 93.

culture of the, 547.

Dahlias. New, 532
Dapline mezereum, 509.

Davis, Alex. J., rural architect, 3S3.

Delights of Gardening, 307.

Deodar Cedar, 344.

Deutzia, Garland, 510.

Dielyira spectabilis, 360.

Dipladenia splendens. 361.

Discourse by Rev. tl. W. Beethcr, 375.

Dogwood, common, 513.

Downing's Fruits, coloured edition, 195,

3S7.
Downing's Ijaiidscape Gardening, 261.
Karths and soils, 12
Ec'hites suberecta, 231.
Elephant's-ear, Fuchsia-like, 46.
Elm, American, 117.

Dutch, 143.

Scotch. 503.

English country places, 336.
Epidermis of Canes, 49.
Krr.ata, 572.

Eton Hall, 335.

Euonymus, The. 512.

Jivergreens, a word in favor of, 4S9.

pruning, 433.

trimsplanting of, 134. 416, 463. 549.

Fall flower, a charming, 239.

Farm houses, floral erabellishraents

for, 91
Fatee gardens, near Canton, 45.
Fecundation of plants, IS3.
Fertilization, is it necessary, 173.
Figs, Alicante, 448.

Celestial, 443.

v'^nil for, 527.

Filbert, cuhivation of the, 457.

Fire-bliglit at Cineiiiiiali, 430.

Flora and Pomona, Talk with, 105.

Floral embellishments for tarm houses,91.

Flower bed-*, position of, .52.

Flower garden, design for a small, 503.

5.57.
Flower trade in New- York, 343.
Flowers personified, 428.
Flowers, choice of, 565.
Foote's .Stock ■■plhter, 340.
Forbidden fruit, 449.
Forests, destruction and reproduction of,

207.
Forsythiana viridissima, 359.
France, crops in, 284.
Fringe tree, Virginia, 511.

Venetian, 513.

Frosts, effects of on trees. 74. 20.3.

Protection pgai.ist laie, 47.

Fruit culture, profits of, 305, 465.
Fruit gardens, best sites for, 53.
Fruit growing at the south, 534.
Fruit trees, answers to queries on, 573.
Fruits, a select list of unimpeachably

good, 215.

Improvement of small, 351.

New or rare, 356.

for the north, 406.

Notes on southern, 448.

of Scripture. 407.

Foreign notices of new, 475.

Ripening of, 525.

Profits of, 160.

Fruit trees, iiivigoration of, 34.

Principles of vitality and longevity

in, 444.

To make stone, hold their fruit, 505.

Fucus giganlea, 141.

Fuel in Paris, 46.
Fumitory, The showv, 300.
Garden of plants at Paris, 232, 320.
Garden walks, how to make, 527.
Garden engines, Poole's, 556.
Garden, Geometric Flower, 557.
Gardening at llie south, 190

Delights of, by Lamartine, 305.

Dictionary of modern, 41.

■ in Sweden, 431.

Remarks on the science of, 12, 60,

125. 213, 252, .303, 450.
Gas liquor, 532.

Genesee Farmer, notice of, 530.
Geranium leaves for wounds. 525,
Geraniums, Hints on the culture of, 20.

Preserving scarlet, 101.

Ginseng, 101.

Gladiolus, The, 489.

Glass, coloured, for hot-houses, 2;2.

Gooseberry, The Houghton, 242.

jMildew on, 341.

Gooseberries, Select list of, 410.

salt hay lor, 573.

Grafting, 543.

Graft, influence of, 544
Grafting tool, A new, 340.
GRAPES :

Culture of the, 136.

Forced, 147.

for wine making, 316.

Hybridizing, 533.

Native, .3^4.

Notes on Americ.Tn, 121.

Preservation of, 221.

To prevent mildew in, 311.
GRAPE.S — Varieties :

Bland's Virginia, 122.

Cape or Schuylkill Wuscadel, 421.

Clinton. 121,. 341.

in Ohio, 545.

Mildew on. 573.

Norton '.s Seedling, 122.

Ohio or Cigar. 12J.
Grapevine, Analysis of the Ash, 30L
Grav's Botar.y of the Northern States,

283, 472.
Green-house plants in summer, exposure

of, 144.
Green-houses, heating, 569.
Oris, Eusebe, medarto. 33S.
Guano, experience with, 79.
Guano, 573
Gumbo, or Okra, 118.
Halesia tetraptera, 513.
Hardy shrubs, selection of the best, 509.
Hawthorns, Flowering, .334, 512.
Hedge, The best evergreen, 128.
Hedges. Queries on, 240.
Ileliotropeum vollairianum, 286.
Hemlock, transplanting the. 490.
Herbaceous plants, half a dozen rare, 72.
Hermitage, wines of. 44.
Hibiscus syriacus, 511.
Hickory nuts. Bloody, 438.
Holkham. 28.3.
Hollbollia acuminata, 362.
Honeysuckles. Upright or Shrub, 610.

English Fly, 512.

Horse-chesnut, dwarf, 511.

Scarlet, 513.

Horticultural exhibitions in France, 333.
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES:
Albany and Rensselaer, officers
of, 52. 572.

Exhibitionsof, 98, 149, 198,

437.
Buffalo. Exhibition of, 247.

Election of officers. 4.37.

Detroit, Report of the. 532.
Genesee Valley, notice of, 93. 572.

Exhibition of, 243.

Massachusetts, weekly reports of,

54, 102, 150, 344. 3S9, 439, 534.
• Premium list for 1S48, 3!!0.

Annual exhibition of, 148, 293.

Montreal, notice of, 148.

Exhibiiion of, 198.

New-Haven County, notice of, 143.
Pennsylvania, reports of, 53, 440,

535.

Annual exhibiiion of, 148,

152, 295.
Springfield, notice of, 148.
St. Louis, officers of, 51.

Exhibition of, 245.

Utica, notice of, 98.

Exhibition of, 197.

Worcester Co., (Mass.) officers, 51.

Exhibition of, 244.

Horticultural satire, 91.

Society's Garden, 290.

GENERAL INDEX.

Horticulture, Influence of, 9.

Hot-houses, fires in. 144.

House plants, treatment of, 290.

Hovejr's Fruit.*, 143, 2?7.

Hyacinth, cultivation of the, 222.

H>acirtl)s in pots and g-|asses, 281, 2S3.

H>bridizalion, Remarks on. 113.

Hydranfrea, Oak-leaved, 509.

Hydraulic Ram, SI, 2a3.

India Rubber, preparation of, 432.

Indigo shrub. 511.

Insects, Boiiliag of, 241.

Insects, 544.

IpomoEa liorsfalliae. 2?1.

Learii, 4?7.57.3.

Iron, application of, to sickly plants, 521
Italian horticulture, 139.

flowers. 143.

Japan Quince, 509.
Jersey tea. 509.
Judas tree, 513.
Jujube tree, 513.

Kitchen garden, a few words on, 441.

KcElreuieria. Japan, 513.

Laburiuim, 513.

Lace woven by caterpillars. 49.

Landscape gardening, English and Ame

rican, 261.
Leaves, The practical use of, 349.
Liebig at home, 277.
Liebig's Chemistry, 1.33.
Liebigia speciosa, 863.
Light. 450.

Liguslram vulgare,511.
Lilac, Persian, 510.
Lilies. The new Japan, 31.

i'how Crimson Japan, 31.

Spotted Lance-ieaved, 32.

Lily, The Long-flowered, 73.
Lime for orchards, 302.

Locusts, seventeen year, effects of, on

trees. 15.
L"nicera tartarica, 510

Xylosteum, 512.

Loudon pension, 17.
Lychnis coronata. 7.3.
Magnesian lime, 4S2.
Magnolia, Chinese Purple, 511.

Chinese While, 512.

grandiflora, 31. 493.

Soulange's, 512.

Swamp, 511.

To raise, frum seed, 191.

Malaga raisins, 347.

vwieyards, 142.

Mandevilla suaveolens, 232.
?\Iammoth, lood and climate of, 192.
Manure, liquid, 179.

Value of, 49.

heap, how to manage, 76.

water tor plants. 232.

Value of inorganic, 34.3.

for (Vuit trees, 334, 426.

Marlynt^a fragrans, 4S8, 572.
Mauraniiia, The,4'-7.

Medical Botany, Illustrations of, 42, 569.
Melon, The Christiana, 149.

on a clay soil, 194.

Mezereum. 509.
Miltoirs house, sale of, 9.5.
Missouri, horticulture in, 484.
Moles, to destroy, 3~0.
Montgomery place. A visit to, 153.
Moral influence of good houses, 345.
Mount Vernon, purchase of', 431.
Mulchiinr. 191.544.

Nahaiit, Mr. Tudor'.s Garden at, 57.
Narci.ssu.*, cultivation of the. 22.3.
Nectarine, Baker's Seedling, 430.
Boston, 100

rs. Peach. 193

A subvariety, 191.

Negnnrto, The Ash-lcavod. 209.
Newark cider orchards, 4S3.

New- York, American Agricultural As- PE
sociaiion, premium list ol", 43.

Fair ol", 143.

Olficers of, 49.

Horticultural Show, 48, 197.

State Agricultural Fair, 14^, 197.

premium list of horlicullural

department for 184S, 530.

Transactions of, S7.

Norway spruce, 491.

for an evergreen hedge, 129.

Notabilia, 49.

Nurserymen, convention of, 342, 435.
Oak, The Kvergreen, 233.

Overcup, 209.

. Oak wood, cut in winter, 525.
Okra, 119.

Onion, cultivation of the, 514.
Orchardists' Saw, 417.
Orchards, philosophy of manuring, 297.
Oranges, time for budding. 547.
Orange tree, analysis of ihe ashes of, 94.
Ornamental planters, hints to, 5-30.
Ornus europea, 513.
Osage orange. 4-<7.
Pojonv. The p:iuited Tree, 302.

'The Tree, 3^4, 510

Parlor plants, culture of, 348.
Passiflora racemosa, 232.
Paulownia imperial is, 46.
Pavia macrosiachya, 511.
Peach crop, 21.
PEACHES— Varieties:

Apricot. 4(10.

Bergen's Yellow, 399.

Carey's Mammoth Cling, 400.

Clinton, 401.

Cole's Karlv Red, 400.

Columbia, 401.

Cooledge's Favorite, 400

CrawfoVd's Early. 399.

Crawford's Late Melocoton. 399

Druid 11111,241.

Early York, 309.

English Sw.ish, 401.

George the Fourth. 399.

Green Rareripe, 401.

Grosse Mignon. 400.

Hasting's Rareripe, 400.

Jaques or Jaquish, 400.

Jose Sweet, 400.

Kenrick's Heath, 401.

Late Admirable, 399.

Lemon Clingstone, 401.

Morris Re(rR;<reripe, 399.

Morris U'liite, 400.

Nivette, 399

OldmLxon Clingstone, 399.

Orchard Queen, 5G6.

President, 400

Itedcheek Melocolon, 401.

Sirawberrv, 4()I.

Walter's Early. 399

Washingtoji, 401.

Weld's Freestone, 401.
Peaches, fresh in winter, 43.

Large, 2(i3

Notes on. 393.

Select \i<\ of, 435, 393.

PEACH TREK.-; :

Culture of, 106.
Iron rust on the, 319.
Mildew in, 190.
Removal of budded, 3-12.
Variation in the, 100.
PEARS— Varieties :
Abbott, 241.
Andrews. ;597.
Aston town, 17.>. Pear

Bartlelt, 109,516.

Belle de Hruxclles. 546.

Belle et Bonne, 175.

Belle Angevine, 142. Pear
Belle dc Noel, 475.

ARS— Bergamotle d'Esperen, 475.
Beurre Bo.sc, 174, 132.
Beurre Romain, 174.

Beurre Diel, 174,546.

Beurre d'Anjou, 358, 397.

Beurre d'Amalis, 454.

Beurre d'.\reraberg, 547.

Beurre Brettoneau, 475.

Beurre gris d'Hiver Nouveau, 476.

Beurre, Easier, 547.

Beurre Van Marum, 546.

Bezi d'Esperen, 475.

Blootlgood. ]s2.

Bon Chretien Fondante, 174.

Buffum, l53.

Cabot, 174.

Capiauniont, 175.

Chelmsford, 175.

Chinese .'>and, 572.

Colmar d'Areniberg, 397.

Comprettee. 174.

Crassane d'Hiver, 476.

Dearborn's Seedling, 174.

Dix, 170, 546.

Doyenne, Boussock, 454.

Doyenne, Gray, 175, 547.

Doyenne. White. 424,546.

Elize d'Heyst. 476,

Knornious, 142.

Eschas.5erie. .397.

Kyewood, 397.

Fonilante d'Automne, 174, 1S2.

Foniiante de Malines, 475.

Forelle. 547.

Frederick of Wurteraburg, 547.

Glout Morceau, 4.34.

Golden Beurre of Bilboa, 174.

Hanna, 397.

Heathcot, 174, 397.

Hericart, 175.

Jargonelle, 546.

Josephine de Malines, 476.

Julienne, 546.

Knight's Seedling, .393.

Monarch, 393.

I>awrence. 397, 455.

Leech's Kmgsessing, 326.

Louise bonne de Jersev, 175.

Madeleine, 546, 573.

Marie Lo'jise, 175, 547.

Messire Jean. 170.

Napoleon, 5 17.

Napoleon d'Hiver, 476.

Onond.iga, 257, 397.

Orpheline. 476.

Paradise d'Automne, 397.

Petre, 175.

Pratt, 397.

Princess of Orange, 174.

Richard, 192

Rosliezer. 397,454.

Seckel, 182.

Soldat d'Esperen, 476.

Stevens' Genesee, 175,547.

St. Germain, 171.

St. Ghislain, 17.5,455

Surpasse Virgalieu, 455.

Susette de Bavay,
Triomplie de Judoigne, 476.

Tyson, .307.

I'rbanisie, 175.

Uvedale's St. Germain, 547.

Van Mons' Leon le Clerc, 171, 175.
Varieties of, 206.

Vicompte de Spoelberch, 397.

Virgoulouse. 547.
AVestcoii. 241,2^7.

Winter Nelis. 547.
blight, 290, 3«5, 365.

fire blight. 323, 436.

blight HI Albany, 4«5.

nt the west, 100.

Seedlings, how to raise, 255.

best soil for, 422.

GENERAL INDEX.

Pear Stocks, on niisinc 33!.
Persimmon, Japfiu, 449.
Peruv ail b:irk, '^K).
Peruvian paradise, 143.
PEAR TRKES ;

Roor-pruned, 4-').

Large Native-, 47.

Management of. 07.

List fit tor growing on single
worked quince. 69.

List fit lor growing on double

worked quince, 70.
on quince and asli stocks, 182, 381,522

Memoranda on, 169.

Select list for the north, 109.

Select list of, 4.35.

Remarks on twenty-five, 173.

on some new, 396.

Chinese, 191.

Analysis of the ash of. 300.

Special manure for, 403.

P'reiich mode of summer pruning
dwarf, 551.
Pears, extinction of the old, 423.
Peas, summer crons of, 149.

CedonuUi, 464.

Queen of Dwarf, 464

Pelargonium lucia-rosea, 2>0.
Perkins, i!?. G., death of, 51.
Petunia and its culture, 11 1.
Phenomenon, A slrange, 344.
Philadelphia collection of birds, 264.
Phlox, Van Houlte's, 72.
Phloxes, Van Iloutte's new, 479.
Physiological discoveries of Erenbergli,

187.
Physiology, vegetable, 268.
Pig-sty, cheap flooring for a, 527.
Pine tribe, culture of the, 93-
Pines for ornamental trees, 49.3.
Pinus pinaster, 563.

sylvestris, or Scotch pine, 564.

Pits for green-house plants. 383.
Plant growers, A hint to, 167.
Planting by the sea-side, 562.

Plants in rooms, best mode of growing,

402.
Plants new or rare, 358.
Plumbago capensis, 282.
PLUMS :

Black-knot in, 532.

Bleecker's Scarlet, 478.

Coe's Golden Drop, 548.

Demontfort, 478.

Dennison's Superb, 478.

Diamond, 546.

Gen. Hand, 4.36.

Ida Green Gage, 178, 291.

Imperial de Milan, 478.

Isabella, 478.

Jefferson, 408,475,478.

Mammelonue, 478.

Peach plum, 455, 473.

Purple Favorite, 478.

Quetsche, St. Mariyns, 478.

Red Gage, 478.

Reine Claude de Bavay, 478.

Rivers Early Favorite, 479.

Prolific, 479.

Select Ust of, 435.

for the north, 409.

Smith's Orleans. 546.
Yellow Magnum Bonum, 479.

Poivrea coccinea, 281.
Pomological notes, 109, 454, 543.

reform, 175.

notes from Rhode -Island, 241.

society at New-Haven, 343-

Pomology, Rules of American, 273, 292,

344, 436, 480, 5.30-

in Philadelphia, 287.

Poplar, The Black Italian, 563.
Potato blight, 51.

Earthing up the. 285.

Potato problem, 564.

Poultry yard. The mysteries of the, 372.

Primrose, Large-podded Evening, 73.

Privet, 511.

Prizes for new frui's, 99.

Profits of fruit culture, 305.

Propagation by cuttings, 455. 567.

of plants, 190.

Pruning, 544.
Pruning, Root, 476.
Prunus spinosa pleno, 512.
Pulque, a Mexican drink, 520.
Queries t'rom the west, 334.
QUINCES :

Cleaning the seed, 435.

Marmalade of, 528.

Mode of propagating, 4.34.

on the seacoast, 100.

Secret of growing, 6.3.
Quince tree, salt for the, 50.
Rain in New-England, 49.
Raspberry, The large-fruited Monthly,

236, 479.
Raspberries, Red Antwerp, 573.
Raspberry. Queries on the, 384.

Cushing, 2S7.

Prize lor a new. 99.

Notes on, 265, .387.

REVIEWS :

Agricultural Botany, 137.

Buisl's Kitchen Gardener, 475.

Cincinnati Strawberry Report, 517.

Culture of the Grape, 1.36.

Dictionary of Modern Gardening,
40.

Discourse of Mr. Beecher in Brook-
lyn, .375.

Flowers Personified, 428.

Gray's Manual of Botany, 472.

Hints to Young Arcliitects, &c.,37.

Illustrations of Medical Botany, 42.

Liebig's Chemistry, 1.38.

Silliman's Journal, 183.

The Rose, Its Culture and Classifi-
cation, 333.

Transactions of the New- York
Agricultural Society, 87.

Transactions of the Mass Horticul-
tural Society, part I, 278.

Washington's Letters on Agricul-
ture, 237.
Rhubarb poisonous, 1-35.

Cultivation of, 566.

Tartine, 42.

Rhus cotinus, 513.
Ribes aureum,510.
Robinia hispida, 51 1.
Root cutting, annual, 501.

grafting, 434.

ROSE.S :

Aimee Vibert, 533.

Cloth of Gold, .35, 47.

Culture of climbing, 367.

Ernestine de Barente, 344.

Favorhes of an amateur, 149

Lamarque, 384.

Marquesite d'Anjou, 480.

Persian Yellow, 532

Protection offender, 194.

Replanting, 438.

Review of Parsons' Book on, 333.

Seedlings for slocks, 487.

which are roses, 434.
Rose bugs and a philosoph'-r, 98.
Rosebug, prevention of the attacks of.

570.
Rose slugs, 99, 101.
Rules oi American Pomology, 273. 292,

S41. 4.36, 480,530.
Running out of fruit trees, 109.
Rural church, design tor, 433
Sallow, The Norfolk Black, 563.
Salvia patens, 488.
.Sap, rise and fall of, 180.

.'»chool-liouses. a chapter on, 393

.Sea-coast culture, 100.

Seakale, culture of the. 276, 527.

Sea-side planting, 337.

.Season, The, '.ii'-i.

Sea-weed, 49.

Sea-weed, giant, 141.

Sednm, Sieboldl's, 73, 289.

Seeds, on saving, 235.

Shade trees, planting of, 201.

Shakespeare's house, 95.

Shaw, William, death of, 290.

Shellac for wounds in trees, 533.

Siberian pear tree, 510.

.Skirving's nursery, 336.

Sloe, Double, 512.

Snowball, the Great Clustered, S.'ig.

Snowdrop, or Silver-bell tree, 513.

Soups, the science of, 118.

Sourkrout. how to make. 95.

Southern fruit, notes on, 448.

Spiraea hypericifolia, 510.

Spring, progress of, 572.

Spruce, The Norway, for hedges, 128.^

Stephanotis floribunda, 131, 232.

St. Peter's Wreath, 510.

STRAWBERRIES:

Cincinnati report on, 517.

How to plant, 50, 133.

Notes on, 242.

Prince's, 149, 192, 240, 292, 570.

Remarks, 493.

Remarks on the New Ohio, 177. j
STRAWBERRIE.S— 7ar(eaes :

Aberdeen Beehive, 534, 574.

Black Prince, 101.

Burr's .Seedlings, 98.

Burr's Old Seedling, 98.

Columbus, 98.

Late Prolific, 98.

New Pine, 93.

Ohio Mammoth, 98.'

Profusion, 98.

Scarlet Melting, 98.

Scioto, 93.

Hovey's Seedling, 352.

.Stoddard's Seedling, 101.
Strawberry, prize for a new, 99.

blossoms, (Hovey's Seedling,) 49,

101.

question, notes on, by Longworth,

22, 146.
Strawberry challenge accepted, 570,
Sucker stocks, 544.
Sweet scented .shrub, 511.
Syringa, The, 511.

persica, 510.

Syringes for green-houses, 556.
Tea, Green, 234.

plant in India, 144.

Tecoma jasminoides, 282.

Large flowered, 503.

Telegriph^ magnetic, 189.
Thibaudia pulcherrima, 362.
Thorns, raising from seed, 286.
Tides in the air, 185.

Transactions of the Massachusetts Hor-
ticultural Society, No. 1, 273.
Transplanting, an experiment in, 231.

Successful, 53.

trees, 275.

Tree, Box. .30.

Trees, rapid growing, 102.

in grass grounds, 1.30.

Treatment of. in cold latitudes, 146.

Hints on transplanting, 217.

worth planting, 269.

To proiect, from liares and rabitg,

361.

To promote the growth, 521.

for Die sea-coa,st, 533.

Cure for bark bound, 533.

wounds, 533.

Trenched soil, 544

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.

Ml

Vuilot's Garden in Nahanl. 57.
Turf, roasted, etlet-l of, 108.
Turkeys, rcarinsr, 373.
Vegeiables, green, for vvialer use, 93.

To raise good, 5W.

Valuable new. 4()3.

Viburnum. Karly White, 51'i.

macroceplialuin, 3.59

Villa, design for a suburban, XS.
Vine, culture of the, 2^5,

Vine, budding and inarching. G'iG

Killing insects on the, 43.

in pots, culture of. 401.

Vines, rapid growing. 573
Vineyards, Malaga ruisin, 142.

on the Ohio, S9, 4iy.

Virgilia, fine specimen of, 30.
Walcheren cauliflower, 403.

Broccoli, 404.

Ward's jases. plants in, .31)4, 402, 433.

Washington's Letters on Agriculture,

236
Water, use of, in transplanting, 271.
Weigela rosea, 359.
West. A picture of the, 9C.
Whitewash t;s Pearblight, 339.
Wilson, Dr. Thomas B., liberality of. 264.
Wine making at the west, 313, 383.

Ill France, 44.

Winter at the north, 570.

liNDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.

LIST OF PLATES.

I, Design for a Riir.il Cottage, >

Plan of tlie principal floor of the same, >
H. English Rural Cotlige,

III. Montgomery Place, ....

IV. View of the Janleii dis Plants. -

v. The New. England Suburban Dwelling, }
Design for improving (he same, S

to face
page

19
66
183
201

272

yi. Design for a Suburban villa, >
Ground plan of the same, J
Vn. Designs for Rustic Buildings,
VIU. Iiesign for a Rural Church, -
;IX. Design for a small Cottage, -
tX. A full grown Norway >pruce,
XI. Design for an anglo-Italian villa,

272

363
433
471
489

55-t

LIST OP ENGRAVINGS.

FLOWERS AND PI .\NT.S,
Liliuni speciosum, 32.
Van Ho'itle's Phlox, 73.
Hebe petunia, 112.
Stephanotis floribiinda, 132.
Double Hyacinth, 2^23.
Weigela, Rose-coloied, 360.
Snowball, The Great clustered, 339.
Dipladenia, The splendid, 361.
Tecoma, Large-flowered, 508.

FRUITS.
Apples :

Prior's Red, 18.
Rawl's Jannett, 18.
McClellan,26.
Hawley, 27.
Melon. 3.50.
Tompkins, 357.

Apricots:

The Breda, 561.

Figs:
Alicante, 448,
Celesttiul, 448.

Pears:

Golden Beurre of Bilboa, 174.
Leech's KiDgsessing, 327.
Beurre d'Anjou, 358.

Cherries:

Rockport Bigarreau, 59.
Cleveland Bigarreau,60.
Coe's Transparent, 72.
Ohio Beauty, 123.
Dor-.tor, 123.
Kirtland's iMary, 124.
Elliot's Favorite, 124.
Late Bigarreau, 124.
Burr's Seedling, 241.

Grapes:

Black Hamburgh in a pot, 462.

Plums :

Ida Green Gage, 179.

Implements:

Foote's Stock Splitter, 341.
Orchadist's Saw, 487.
Onion Hoe, 516.
Greenhouse Syringe, 556.
Small hand watering Engine, 556.
Brass hand Engine, 557.
Barrel Engine, 557.
Barrowr Engine, 557.

Trees:

Overcnp Oak, 270.
Arauciiria, or Chili Pine, 418.

Rural Architecture:

Rustic Seat at Montgomery Place
J 57.

Conservatory at Montgomery Place.
159.

Plan of the principal floor of an an-
gle-Italian villa, 555.

Miscellaneous:

Whitehurst's Water Ram, 83.

Montgolfier's Water Ram, 84.

The same, 81.

The same, 86.

Okra, The pod of the, 1 1 8.

View of the Lake at Montgomery
Place. 158.

Tree sh'ng the rise & fall of sap, 18L

Entrance avenue to the Jardin des
Plants, 235.

First Greenhouseerected in the Jar-
din des Plants, 235.

Interior view of a hothouse in the
Jardin des Plants, 321.

Outside view of the hot houses in
ao.. 323.

Ward's Case, plain, 403.

" ornamental, 40.3.

" with plants, 405.

Design for a geometric flowergarden.
558.

/

INDEX TO CORRESPONDENTS.

AmnteiT New-York, 72, 111, 149, 384 Harkness, E., Peoria Co., Ill, 96, Prince, Wm. R., Flushing, 101, MG,

50U, ol7. Harris, T. W., CamhridKe, Mass. 3G5. 149, 240. 2fi5, 387, 571.

Amateur Florist, New-York, 487. Ilurwell, Robert, Mobile, 534 Proctor, J. W.. Danvrrs, Mass., 514.

B., Hudson, N. V., 191. Herrick, General, Hampden, Me. 413. Reagles, C, Schenectady, 178.

JJa'con, W., Richmond, Mas^., 549. Horner, F H., 343. Retired Citizen, B.'.ltimurp, 79

]5artlett, George, Sinittiripld, R I., '-;71. Hull, Ur. A. Gerald, Newburgh, N.Y. Rivers, T., Sawbiidgewoilh, Eng, 67.
Bartlett! Levi, Warner, N. H., 410. 74. R. S., Long Island, 553.

B C Fittsbur<fh 533. Ives, John M., Salem, Mass., 162, 194, R. H., Mobile, Ala., 481.

Beckwiih, Elijhh, Bangor, Me., 410. 242. Rockwell, H. W., Utica, N. Y., 267.

Beecher, Heniy Ward, 34S J. A. K , Albany, 15. Rus in Urbe, 343.

Boswell.B. G.", Philadelphia, 305,465, James, Thoma- C, Philadelphia, 387. S.,|Bucks Co., Pa., 167.

571, Jacques, Geo., Worcester, Mass. 4S7. Saul, Andrew, Newburgh, 131.

Brack*enrid;ie, \V. D., Washington, 35, J. B. 8., Philadeldhia, 9S. S. B., near Philadelphia, 46b.

4g(j_ '^ Jerseyinan, 102, 498. Senei, New-York, 172.

Bniirivle, W. D., Philadelphia, 326. J. F., East Fallowfield, Chester Co., S. H., 52.

Bui^t R , Philadelphia, 434. Pa., 434, 482, 570,572. Smith, John J , Philadelphia, 28, 194.

Bryain, H. P., Kentncky, 18, 422. J. J. S., Philadelphia, 148. Smith. W. R., Wayne Co.. N. Y., 24.

Cape '>!av Reader, 533. J. L., Philadeljihia. 173. Smitlt, Stephen H., Smilhfield, R. 1.,

Chisohn,R..bt.., ileaufort, S. C, 448. J. S., Baltimore, 81. 239.

Cincinnati Friend, "."incinnaiti, 194. J. S., Philadelplda, 533. Springer, C, Meadow Farm, Chio, 147

Constant Reader, 50. 99. 196. J W., Baltimore, 533. 389.

Constant Reader, New-York. 500. J. W. B., Rochestrr, 341. Subscriber, Burlington. Iowa, 191.

Constant Reader, Philadeljihia, 109. Linn, William, Montreal, 569. Subscriber, l\ew liedford, Mass., 194.

Coppock, W. R., Buffalo, 292. Kins, Charles, New-York, 307. Subscriber, Philadelphia, 195.

C. S., Newport. N Y.,48. Kirtland, Prof., Cleveland, U., 543. Subscriber, Ontario Co . N. Y., 240.

Culler, ('ol. S., Wexter. Maine, 411. Leavenworth, Gen. E. W., Syracuse, Subscriber, Nashville. Tenn., 242.
J) , London. Enfilaiid, 270. 23. Subscriber, New-York, 290.

Dawson. J. W.. l'ictou,^. Scotia. 207. Longworth, N., Cincinnati, 22, 145, Subscriber, St. Louis, Mo., 52.
Doui^d,'.!., R"sel)ank, Ca., 342, 461. 3\3, 383. Subscriber, Waslangton, Ohio, 487.

E Ciricinnati Ohio, 384. Lindley, professor, London, Eng., 76, Suburban Grower, Boston, 133.

Eaton S C, Providence, R. 1., 101, 1 13, '130, 455, 55 L T., Astoria, L. I., 488.

240 ' Little, Henrv, 406. T. A. S., Syracuse, N. Y., 319, 4G9.

p:. G ' Pridsewater. Mass., 433. Manning, Robert, Salem, Mass., 398. T. B . New-York, 149.

Editor of the Lon. Hurt. l\)a;ia'z., 2.57. Nelson, Robert, Newbuiyport, Mass., Thomas, J J., Macedon, N. Y., 423.
Elliot, F. R , Cleveland, ().', 59, 123, 128, 255. Thorburn, G C. Astoria, L. I., 47.

3,j,j,' * ' Newton, R., Worcester, Mass., 571. Tomlinson, D., Schenectady, 268, 435,

y i\ * Walhondin". O., 240. Nichols, Eli, WalhondingO., 100,203, 570.

Ernst.' A. H., Cincinnati, 290, 323, 419, 239. Tracy, E. C, Windsor, Vt., 101.

43£i_ Nftrthampton, Mass., 194. Tucker, Luther. Albany, N. Y., 49.

Frrin''ton H 501. Novice, Auburn, N. Y , 438. Turner, Prof., Illinois College, 444.

Fvelvn 49 ' N.^yes, Alb, rt, Bai-Kor, Me, 410. Valk, Dr, W. W., Flushing, L. L, 12,

Fdmes'tock A., Lancaster, 0.,43G. O. L.^ Baltimore, 230. 60, 125, 101, 193. 213, 252,303, 351,

F C B 342. Olmsted, Sachem's Head, Conn., 100. 402, 450, 493, 557.

I'ish George W., Macon, Geo., 196. Old Orchardist, 63. W., Albany, 121.

Foot'e A , William.-'town, Mass , 210. Oneida Co.. 50. W., Philaddphia, 148,

Forsyth A., Allon 'I'oweis, Eng., 367 P , Peter^bul■gh, Va., 47. Walker, Samuel, Boston, .396.

Fruit Grower Wurc.e.ster, Mass., 454. Parsons, R B., Fbishnig, 147. Wendell, Ur. Herman, Albany, N.Y.,

G Poinfret Conn , 572. Par.sons, L. B., Flushing, 47, 2.32,320, 97.339,385.485.

g"c T.. Astoria. L. L. 572, 387, W. H., Philadelphia, 149.

Gl'enny, Mr,, England. 222. Pelargonium of Philadelphia, 20. Wilder, M. P., Boston, 31. 540.

Goid l)'an., Wasliington. I), C , 426. Pennsylvania Suliscrlbe;, 505. Williams. W., New-York, 221.

Goodale, Enh., ' irrinaton, Me , 4l2. Pennsylv;.nia, )6C. Wilson, Jas., Albany. N. Y.,29I, 332.

Goodale] S. L , Saco^ i'»ie., 409. Perkins, Samuel G., Boston, 109, 169 Wyman, jr. L., W. Cambridge, Mass.

Goodale.' W,, S. Orrington, Me., 412. Phoenix, F. K., Uelavan, VVisconsin, 468.
Goodrich, C.', Burlington, Vi.,51. 384. X. Y. Z., Boston, 101.

Grii;or, J uus, ^u^uicll, Eng , 502. Pinnco, Joseph, Hanover, N. H., 413. X. Y. Z., N^w-York, 344
Hancock, T., Burlington, Vt., 509,572 Yeamer, Geo. H., Mason co, Ky, 291.

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