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THELur  .::Li3R,ARY 

THE  NEW  YORK  BOTAr.'lGAL  GARDEN 


THE 


HOKTICULTUKIST, 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


DEVOTED  TO 


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


Edited  by  A.  J.  DOWNING, 

AUTHOR   OF    "landscape   OARDENl.NG,''    "DESIGNS   FOR  COTTAGE   RESIDENCES,"    "  iRUITS    AND   FRUIT   TREES 
OF  AMERICA,"    "COUNTRY   HOUSES,"    ETC.,   ETC. 


Vol.  VI. — January  to  December,  1851. 


ALBANY: 

PUBLISHED  BY  LUTHER  TUCKER. 


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

NEW-YORK M.    H.    MEWMAN    AND    CO.,    199    BROADWAY. 

PHILADELPHIA W.    B.    ZIEBER. 

1851. 


Original  Designs  for  Coxintry  Churches. 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


51  Ijinrt  €\}^\n  m  £nn\:i\  CljurrjirH. 


WHAT,  among  all  the  edifices  tliat  compose  a  country  town  or  village,  is  that  which 
the  inhabitants  should  most  love  and  reverence, — should  most  respect  and  ad- 
mire among  themselves,  and  should  feel  most  pleasure  in  showing  to  a  stranger  ? 

We  imagine  the  answer  ready  upon  the  lips  of  every  one  of  our  readers  in  the 
country,  and  rising  at  once  to  utterance,  is — the  Village  Church. 

And  yet,  are  our  village  churches  winning  and  attractive  in  their  exterior  and  inte- 
rior ?  Is  one  drawn  to  admire  them  at  first  sight,  by  the  beauty  of  their  proportions, 
the  expression  of  holy  purpose  which  they  embody,  the  feeling  of  harmony  with  God 
and  man,  which  they  suggest  ?  Does  one  get  to  love  the  very  stones  of  which  they 
are  composed,  because  they  so  completely  belong  to  a  building,  which  looks  and  is 
the  home  of  Christian  worship,  and  stands  as  the  type  of  all  that  is  firmest  and 
deepest  in  our  religious  faith  and  affections  ? 

Alas  !  we  fear  there  are  very  few  country  churches  in  our  land  that  exert  this  kind 
of  spell, — a  spell  which  grows  out  of  making  stone,  and  brick,  and  timber,  obey  the 
will  of  the  living  soul,  and  express  a  religious  sentiment.  Most  persons,  most  com- 
mittees, selectmen,  vestrymen,  and  congregations,  who  have  to  do  with  the  building 
of  churches,  appear  indeed,  wholl}-^  to  ignore  the  fact,  that  the  form  and  features  of  a 
building  may  be  made  to  express  religious,  civil,  domestic,  or  a  dozen  other  feelings, 
as  distinctly  as  the  form  and  features  of  the  human  face  ; — and  yet  this  is  a  fact  as 
well  known  by  all  true  architects,  as  that  joy  and  sorrow,  pleasure  and  pain,  are 
capable  of  irradiating  or  darkening  the  countenance.  Yes,  and  we  do  not  say  too 
much,  when  we  add,  that  right  expression  in  a  building  for  religious  purposes,  has  as 
much  to  do  with  awakening  devotional  feelings,  and  begetting  an  attachment  in  the 
as  the  unmistakable  signs  of  virtue  and  benevolence  in  our  fellow  creatures, 
in  awakening  kindred  feeling  in  our  own  breasts. 


No.  1. 


Jan. 1851. 


A  CHAPTER  ON  COUNTRY  CHURCHES 

do  not,  of  course,  mean  to  say,  that  a  beautiful  rural  churcli  will  make 
population  about  it  devotional,  any  more  than  that  sunshine  will  banish  all  gloom ; 
but  it  is  one  of  the  influences  that  prepare  the  way  for  religious  feeling,  and  which  we 
are  as  unwise  to  neglect,  as  we  should  be  to  abjure  the  world  and  bury  ourselves  like 
the  ancient  troglodytes,  in  caves  and  caverns. 

To  speak  out  the  truth  boldly,  would  be  to  say  that  the  ugliest  church  architecture 
in  Christendom,  is  at  this  moment  to  be  found  in  the  country  towns  and  villages  of  the 
United  States.  Doubtless,  the  hatred  which  originally  existed  in  the  minds  of  Puri- 
tan cvncestors,  against  everything  that  belonged  to  the  Eomish  Church,  including  in 
one  general  sweep  all  beauty  and  all  taste,  along  with  all  the  superstitions  and  errors 
of  what  had  become  a  corrupt  system  of  religion,  is  the  key  to  the  bareness  and  bald- 
ness, and  absence  of  all  that  is  lovely  to  the  eye  in  the  primitive  churches  of  New-Eng- 
land— which  are  for  the  most  part  the  type-churches  of  all  America. 

But,  little  by  little,  this  ultra-puritanical  spirit  is  wearing  off.  Men  are  not  now 
so  blinded  by  personal  feeling  against  great  spiritual  wrongs,  as  to  identify  forever, 
all  that  blessed  boon  of  harmony,  grace,  proportion,  symmetry  and  expression, 
which  make  what  we  call  Beauty,  with  the  vices,  either  real  or  supposed,  of  any  parti- 
cular creed.  In  short,  as  a  people,  our  eyes  are  opening  to  the  perception  of  influ- 
ences that  are  good,  healthful  and  elevating  to  the  soul,  in  all  ages,  and  all  countries — 
and  we  separate  the  vices  of  men  from  the  laws  of  order  and  beauty,  by  which  the 
universe  is  governed. 

The  first  step  which  we  have  taken  to  show  our  emancipation  from  puritanism  in 
architecture,  is  that  of  building  our  churches  with  'porticoes,  in  a  kind  of  shabby 
imitation  of  Greek  temples.  This  has  been  the  prevailing  taste,  if  it  is  worthy  of  that 
name,  of  the  northern  states,  for  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years.  The  form  of  these 
churches  is  a  parallelogram.  A  long  row  of  windows,  square  or  round-headed,  and 
cut  in  two  by  a  gallery  on  the  inside ;  a  clumsy  portico  of  Doric  or  Ionic  columns  in 
front,  and  a  cupola  upon  the  top,  (usually  stuck  in  the  only  place  where  a  cupola 
should  never  be — that  is,  directly  over  the  pediment  or  portico) — such  are  the  chef 
(Cavrres  of  ecclesiastical  architecture,  standing,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  as  the  rural 
churches  of  the  country  at  large. 

Now,  architecturally,  we  ought  not  to  consider  these,  churches  at  all.  And  by 
churches,  we  mean  no  narrow  sectarian  phrase — but  a  place  where  Christians  worship 
God.  Indeed,  many  of  the  congregations  seem  to  have  felt  this,  and  contented  them- 
seWes  with  calling  them  "  meeting-houses."  If  they  would  go  a  step  farther,  and 
turn  them  into  town-meeting  houses — or  at  least  would,  in  future,  only  build  such 
edifices  for  town' meetings,  or  other  civil  purposes,  then  the  building  and  its  purpose 
would  be  in  good  keeping,  one  with  the  other. 

Not  to  appear  presumptive  and  partial  in  our  criticism,  let  us  glance  for  a  mo- 
ment at  the  opposite  purposes  of  the   Grecian  or  classical,  and  tlie  Gothic  or  point- 
ed styles  of  architecture — as  to  what  they  really  mean  ; — for  our  readers  must  not  sup 
pose  that  all  architects  are  men  who  merely  put  together  certain  pretty  lines  and 
naments,  to  produce  an  agreeable  effect  and  please  the  popular  eye 


A  CHAPTER  ON  COUNTRY  CHURCHES. 

these  two  styles,  which  have  so  taken  root  that  they  are  employed  at  the  present 
moment,  all  over  Europe  and  America,  there  is  something  more  than  a  mere  conven- 
tional treatment  of  doors  and  windows ; — the  application  of  columns  in  one  case,  and 
tlie  introduction  of  pointed  arches  in  the  other.  In  other  words,  there  is  an  intrinsic 
meaning  or  expression  involved  in  each,  which,  not  to  understand,  or  vaguely  to  under- 
stand, is  to  be  working  blindly,  or  striving  after  something  in  the  dark. 

The  leading  idea  of  the  Greek  architecture,  then,  is  in  its  horizontal  lines — the 
unbroken  level  of  its  cornice,  which  is  the  "  level  line  of  rationality.''''  In  this  line, 
in  the  regular  division  of  spaces,  both  of  columns  and  windows,  we  find  the  elements 
of  order,  law,  and  human  reason,  fully  and  completely  expressed.  Hence,  the  fitness 
of  classical  architecture  for  the  service  of  the  state,  for  the  town  hall,  the  legislative 
assembly,  the  lecture  room,  for  intellectual  or  scientific  debate,  and  in  short,  for  all 
civil  purposes  where  the  reason  of  man  is  supreme.  So,  on  the  other  hand,  the  leading 
idea  of  Gothic  architecture  is  found  in  its  upward  lines — its  aspiring  tendencies.  No 
weight  of  long  cornices,  or  fiat  ceilings,  can  keep  it  down  ;  upward,  higher  and  higher,  it 
soars,  lifting  every  thing,  even  heavy,  ponderous  stones,  poising  them  in  the  air  in  vault- 
ed ceilings,  or  piling  them  upwards  towards  Heaven,  in  spires,  and  steeples,  and  towers, 
that,  in  the  great  cathedrals,  almost  seem  to  pierce  the  sky.  It  must  be  a  dull  soul 
that  does  not  catch  and  feci  something  of  this  upward  tendency  in  the  vaulted  aisles 
and  high,  open,  pointed  roofs  of  the  interior  of  a  fine  gothic  church,  as  well  as  its 
subdued  and  mellow  light,  and  its  suggestive  and  beautiful  forms :  forms  too,  that  are 
rendered  more  touching  by  their  associations  with  christian  worship  in  so  many  ages, 
not,  like  the  Greek  edifices,  by  associations  with  heathen  devotees. 

Grantiiig  that  the  Gothic  cathedral  expresses,  in  its  lofty,  aspiring  lines,  the  spirit 
of  that  true  faith  and  devotion  which  leads  us  to  look  upward,  is  it  possible,  in  the 
narrow  compass  of  a  village  church  which  costs  but  a  few  hundred,  or  at  most,  a  few 
thousand  dollars,  to  preserve  this  idea  ? 

We  answer,  yes.  A  drop  of  water  is  not  the  ocean,  but  it  is  still  a  type  of  the 
infinite ;  and  a  few  words  of  wisdom  may  not  penetrate  the  understanding  so  deeply 
as  a  great  volume  by  a  master  of  the  human  heart,  but  they  may  work  miracles,  if 
fitly  spokem  For  it  is  not  the  magnitude  of  things  that  is  the  measure  of  their 
excellence  or  power ;  and  there  is  space  enough  for  the  architect  to  awaken  devotional 
feelings,  and  lead  the  soul  upward,  so  far  as  material  form  can  aid  in  doing  this, 
though  in  a  less  degree,  in  the  little  chapel  that  is  to  hold  a  few  hundred,  as  in  the 
mighty  minster  where  thousands  may  assemble. 

And  the  cost  too,  shall  not  be  greater ;  that  is,  if  a  substantial  building  is  to  be 
erected,  and  not  a  flimsy  frame  of  boards  and  plaster.  Indeed,  we  could  quote 
numberless  instances  where  the  sums  expended  in  classical  buildings,  of  false  propor- 
tions but  costly  execution,*  which  can  never  raise  other  than  emotions  of  pride  in  the 
human  heart,  would  have  built  beautiful  rural  churches,  which  every  inhabitant  of  the 

have  se.eu  with  pain,  lately,  one  of  those  great  temple  churches  erectecl  ui  a  country  tovim  on  the  Hudson,  at  a 

20,000.    It  looks  outside  and  inside,  no  more  like  a  cliurch,  than  does  the  Custom  House.    And  yet  this  sum 

have  built  the  most  perfect  of  devotional  edifices  for  that  congregation. 


NOTES  ON  FOREIGN  GRAPES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


town  where  they  chanced  to  stand,  would  remember  with  feelings  of  respect  and 
tion,  to  the  end  of  all  time. 

And  in  truth,  we  would  not  desire  to  make  the  country  church  other  than  simple, 
truthful  and  harmonious.  We  would  avoid  all  pretensions  to  elaborate  architectural 
ornament ;  we  would  depend  upon  the  right  proportions,  forms,  outlines,  and  the  true 
expression.  Above  all,  we  would  have  the  country  church  rural  and  expressive,  by 
placing  it  in  a  spot  of  green  lawn,  surrounding  it  with  our  beautiful  natural  shade  trees, 
and  decorating  its  walls,  (for  no  church  built  in  any  but  the  newest  settlements,  where 
means  are  utterly  wanting,)  should  be  built  of  so  perishable  a  material  as  wood) — 
with  climbing  plants — the  ivy,  or  where  that  would  not  thrive,  the  Virginia  creeper. 
And  so  we  would  make  the  country  church,  in  its  very  forms  and  outlines,  its  walls 
and  the  vines  that  enwreath  them,  its  shady  green  and  the  elms  that  overliang  it,  as 
well  as  in  the  lessons  of  goodness  and  piety  that  emanate  from  its  pulpit,  some- 
thing to  become  a  part  of  the  affections,  and  touch  and  better  the  hearts  of  the  whole 
country  about  it. 


NOTES  ON  FOREIGN  GRAPES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

BY  JOSEPH  TOGNO,  WILMINGTON,  N.  C. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — I  have  frequently  referred,  especially  of  late,  to  your  excellent 
work  on  the  Fruit  Trees  of  America.  I  must  confess  that  I  have  been  much  instructed 
by  it;  but  there  is  one  idea  at  page  558,  I  do  not  fully  understand.  I  shall  quote  it  here: 
"  Varieties  of  the  vine  are  said  never  to  degenerate,  and  this  is  perhaps  owing  to  their  hav- 
ing very  rarely  been  propagated  by  grafting." 

My  comment  of  this  passage  is— 1st.  That  the  vine  degenerates,  perhaps,  sooner  than 
any  other  plant,  if  neglected  in  any  way,  though  it  be  generally  propagated  by  cuttings, 
especially  in  Europe.  I  consider  that  owing  to  a  sad  mismanagement  of  this  plant,  almost 
all  the  European  varieties  cultivated  in  the  open  field,  have  degenerated  in  this  country, 
because  they  were  planted  and  not  attended  to. 

The  next  remark  I  would  respectfully  make  is,  that  according  to  the  latter  portion  of 
your  phrase  which  I  have  quoted,  you  seem  to  admit  that  grafting  is  a  cause  of  degeneracy 
in  all  fruit  trees.  I  cannot  admit  that  under  favorable  circumstances,  the  graftino-  of  our 
hardy  native  vines  with  European  grafts,  causes  the  nobler  kind  to  degenerate.  '^  I  have 
grafted  a  great  many  European  varieties  on  the  American  wild  vines,  and  so  far,  to  judge 
by  the  extraordinary  growth  of  the  wood  of  the  grafts,  having  their  peculiar  European 
character,  there  is  no  degeneracy  to  be  observed;  on  the  contrary,  I  never  saw  more 
healthy  anywhere.  They  have  produced  some  few  bunches  the  same  year,  (within  seven 
months.)  Next  year  the  fruit  will  enable  me  to  speak  more  positively  with  respect  to  this 
matter. 

You  must  know,  sir,  that  I  have  established  a  model  vineyard  near  Wilmington,  N.  C. 
and  that  I  obtained  last  spring  from  Europe,  more  than  one  hundred  varietie^,  which  are 
now  growing,  and  many  have  succeeded  very  well;  and  that  being  in  correspondence  with 
Mr.  Le  Comtk  Odaut,  proprietor  of  the  largest  collection  of  grape-vines  in  the  world, 
(amounting  to  600  varieties,)  and  author  also,  of  the  best  work  on  the  culture  and  classi- 
fication of  the  vine,  yJmpolographic  on  traite  des  Cepages,   &c.,)      I  expect  to  receive 


NOTES  ON  FOREIGN  GRAPES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

next  spring,  from  this  gentleman,  'vvho  has  consecrated  40  years  of  his  life  to  collect  it, 
a  splendid,  choice  collection,  which  will  make  mine  the  most  extensive  in  America. 

It  is  my  intention  to  graft  a  great  many  of  these  varieties  on  our  native  vines,  so  common 
with  us  in  the  south,  and  I  expect  by  this  means  to  render  these  European  varieties  vastly 
more  hardy,  productive,  and  no  less  noble  than  the  original  stock.  Time  alone  can  deter- 
mine whether  my  views  of  this  subject  are  correct.  Should  you  be  possessed  of  any 
particular  information  on  this  mother  idea  of  mine,  you  would  confer  a  great  favor  on  me 
by  giving  me  your  ideas  about  it.  My  method  of  grafting  differs  somewhat  from  all  those 
described  by  yourself,  and  those  which  are  in  general  practice.  When  experience  will  have 
completely  confirmed  it,  I  shall  take  great  pleasure  in  communicating  it  to  you. 

In  the  hope  of  hearing  from  you,  I  remain  very  respectfully,  Joseph  Togxo. 

Remarks. — We  think  our  correspondent  does  not  fully  understand  what  we  mean  by 
the  term  degeneration  of  a  variety  of  fruit. 

By  this  phrase,  we  mean  that  enfeebling  of  a  variety  frequently  exhibited  after  it  has 
been  cultivated  for  a  great  number  of  years.  When  this  happens,  it  requires  great  care 
and  the  highest  culture,  to  produce  as  luxuriant  growth,  or  as  fine  fruit  upon  trees  of  that 
variety,  as  when  it  was  first  originated. 

Now  every  practical  cultivator  knows,  that  there  are  sorts  of  apples  and  pears  Avhich 
come  under  this  head — the  fruit  of  which  no  longer  sustains  its  old  reputation. 

As  we  notice  nothing  of  this  sort  among  grapes — the  oldest  varieties — ^like  the  Royal 
Muscadine  and  Black  Hamburgh,  or  even  the  Burgundy — bearing  in  a  favorable  soil  and 
climate,  as  good  fruit,  and  as  abundant  crops  as  ever,  we  were  led  to  say,  (and  we  think 
Van  Mons  has  somewhere  said  the  same  thing,)  that  varieties  of  the  vine  do  not  seem  to 
degenerate, — or  grow  feeble  by  long  culture, — ^like  other  fruits. 

As  a  proof  that  it  is  want  of  proper  climate  which  alone  deters  us  from  the  successful 
cultivation  of  the  grape  in  the  open  air,  in  this  country,  we  need  only  refer  to  the  nume- 
rous vineries  in  the  northern  states,  bearing  every  season  the  finest  grapes,  in  the  greatest 
abundance — without  fire-heat — simply  V)y  the  improved  climate  produced  by  regulating  the 
temperature  within,  so  as  to  avoid  sudden  changes,  &c. 

]\Ir.  Togxo  is  sanguine  as  to  the  introduction  of  the  foreign  grape  in  this  country,  for 
open  vineyard  culture.  The  thing  is  impossible.  Thousands  of  individuals  have  tried  it 
on  a  small  scale  in  various  parts  of  the  Union ;  and  several  persons — as  for  example,  M. 
LouBAT,  Mr.  LoNGwORTH,  etc.,  of  great  experience  abroad  or  knowledge  at  home,  joined 
to  abundant  capital,  have  tried  it  on  a  small  scale.  The  result  in  every  case  has  been  the 
same; — a  season  or  two  of  promise,  then  utter  failure,  and  finally  complete  abandonment 
of  the  theory.  The  only  vineyards  ever  successful  in  America,  are  those  of  American 
grapes.  As  it  is  a  pretty  well  established  axiom,  that  the  hardiness  of  a  variety  of  tree 
or  plant,  is  not  affected  by  grafting  it  on  a  hardier  stock — though  its  luxuriant  growth 
may  be  promoted  by  it, — we  doubt  if  our  correspondent  will  find  the  mildew  less  inclined 
to  make  havoc  on  his  foreign  grapes,  when  worked  on  our  wild  stocks.  If  he  really  wishes 
to  acclimate  the  foreign  grape  here,  he  must  go  to  the  seeds,  and  raise  tAvo  or  three  new 
generations  in  the  American  soil  and  climate.  They  will  then  get  American  constitutimis — 
which  no  grafting,  pruning,  training  or  manuring,  will  give  them.  The  only  thing  that  we 
can  do  for  them,  is  to  cheat  them  into  the  belief  that  they  are  in  the  warmer  parts  of 
Europe,  by  putting  them  in  a  glass  house. 

If  any  of  our  readers  doubt  whether  grafting  can  enfeeble  a  healthy  variety,  they  have 
only  to  try  the  experiment  by  taking  that  variety  and  grafting  it  for  two  or  three  successions 
upon  unsuitable  or  unhealthy  stocks.     We  do  not  mean,  however,  to  assort  that  graftin 


ON  THE  AGE  OF  TREES. 


on  healthy  stocks  impairs  the  vigor  of  a  sort— but  only  that  any  given  variety  which 
been  propagated  in  this  way  time  and  again,  for  100  years,  is  very  likely,  in  the  course 
of  that  time,  to  have  been  put  upon  an  unhealthy  stock,  and  hence  to  have  lost  some  of 
its  original  vigor. 

Little  encouragement  as  we  can  give  to  Mr.  ToGXO,  in  his  plan  of  making  vineyards  of 
foreign  grapes  in  this  country,  we  look  with  considerable  interest  upon  his  attempt  to 
introduce  here  a  large  collection  of  foreign  grapes.  It  is  by  no  means  imposssible,  that 
some  one  or  two  varieties  little  known  in  the  gardens,  but  better  known  in  the  vineyards 
of  Europe,  may  yet  be  found  to  stand  our  climate — though  we  cannot  say  that  such  a 
variety  has  yet  been  found.     Ed. 


ON   THE   AGE    OF   TEEES. 

(FROM  THE  LONDON  GARDENERS'  MAGAZINE  OF  F.OTANY.) 

In  speaking  of  the  age  of  trees,  we  insensibly  use  the  term  age,  in  the  same  manner  as 
we  do  when  speaking  of  animals.  "We  talk  of  old  trees,  old  animals,  and  old  houses,  as 
if  the  same  processes  had  gone  on  in  one  as  in  the  other.  Yet,  Avhen  we  come  to  examine 
the  nature  of  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  during  the  age  of  the  one  and  the  other, 
how  different  they  are.  Not  more  does  the  process  of  change  in  the  old  house  differ  from 
the  tree  and  animal,  than  does  the 
same  process  in  these  two.  The 
animal  lu\s  but  one  life,  and  this 


■M 


life  is  dependent  on  the  harmony 
of  the  whole  organization ;  whilst, 
if  we  examine  a  tree,  we  shall  find 
it  has,  (so  to  speak,)  many  lives. 
Each  bud  is  capable  of  an  inde- 
pendent existence;  nay  more, 
many  parts  of  the  tissues  of  plants 
arecai)able  of  producing  buds,  and 
each  cell  has  its  separate  and  inde- 
pendent existence.  It  is  here, 
then,  that  we  see  how  different 
must  be  the  circumstances  under 
wluch  age  Is  attained  in  a  tree, 
from  those  Avhich  produce  it  in  am 
animal. 

I'lants  are  called  annual,  bien- 
nial, or  perennial,  as  they  endure 
for  one,  two,  or  more  years.     The 
difference  depends  on  this,  that  the 
tissues  of  some  plants  are  unable 
to  resist  the  meteorological  inllu- 
ences  to  which  they  are  exposed,  so  well  as  others.     The  reason  of  this  difference  in  the 
tissues  is  not  well  made  out.     It  is,  however,  well  known,  that  a  plant  in  this  country 
)e  an  annual,  on  the  Continent,  a  biennial,  and,  in  the  Tropics,  a  shrub,  or 
the  case  with  the  castor-oil  plant,  Ricinus  communis. 


Beech  Tree — Exogen. 


ON  THE  AGE  OF  TREES 


In  perennial  plants,  the  tissues 
wiiich  resist  climatal  change  carrj'^  on 
a  kind  of  low  vitality,  as  seen  in  the 
trunks  of  trees,  in  this  country,  in  the 
winter.  At  more  favorable  periods, 
these  tissues  begin  to  grow  in  certain 
directions;  buds,  and  leaves,  and  new 
tissues  are  formed,  and  deposited,  in 
various  parts  of  the  plant,  more  espe- 
cially covering  the  old,  and  growth  or 
increase  is  the  consequence.  Even  in 
plants  not  producing  leaves,  this  pro- 
cess goes  on,  and,  year  after  year,  new 
tissues  are  added  to  the  old.  This  is 
especially  evident  in  sea-weeds,  which 
thus  exist  through  very  long  periods 
of  time.  Thus,  Professor  Schleiden 
says,  "  On  the  great  fucus  bank  of 
Corvo  and  Flores,  we  might  yet  find, 
floating  about,  plants  of  Sargassum, 
which  had  been  cut  in  strips  by  the 
bark  of  Columbus ;  and  in  the  north- 
ern drift,  we  might  expect  to  discover 
Lichens  that  had  been  transported  with 
the  soil  in  which  they  grew,  from 
Scandinavia."  Nor  is  this  conjecture 
at  all  unreasonable,  from  what  we 
know  of  the  nature  of  the  process  of 
growth  in  these  plants;  but  we  have 
no  means,  in  cryptogamic  plants,  of 
accurately  ascertaining  the  length  of 
time  they  have  been  in  growing.  Nor 
is  this  possible  in  endogenous  plants, 
or  even  in  all  exogens;  but,  in  the  lat- 
ter, the  stem  presents,  very  generally, 
a  series  of  zones,  and  each  zone  has 
been  found  to  correspond  with  one  pe- 
riod of  vegetation.  This  period  most- 
ly represents  a  year,  hence,  by  count- 
ing the  number  of  zones  in  the  trunk  ,( 
of  an  exogenous  tree,  we  may  form  an 
estimate  of  the  years  it  has  existed.  It 
is  in  this  way  that  the  ages  of  many 
very  old  trees  have  been  arrived  at. 
The  following  list  of  old  trees  has  been 
published  by  Moquin-Tandon,  in  his 

ratologie  Vegetals,hnd  is  reproduced 


Agave  American — Endogen. 


Sections  of  a  Stem  as  it  appears  in  May  and  June  of 
THE  Fifth  Yeak.    The  while  spaces  show  ilie  swelling  cam- 


II       I 


Section*  of  a  .''tem  at  the  end  of  the  Fifth  Year. 
The  eii\  eiopes  and  la)  ers  of  liber  are  too  thin  to  be  shown  by 
the  pencil. 


English  translation  of  Schleiden's  Principles  of  Scientific  Botany.  There  areknown. 


Years. 

Palms  of. 200, 300 

300 
327 
3o5 
383 
443 
516 


Cercis, 

Clieroilfiutroii, 

Ulmus  (Elm) 

Cupressus  (Cypress) . 

Hedera  (Ivy) 

Acer  (Maple)  ....... 


ON  THE  AGE  OF  TREES. 

Years. 

Cnstanea  (Chestnut) 300, 626 

Citrus  (Lemon,  Orange, 

&c.,) 400,509,640 

Plalanus  (Plane) 720 

Ccdrus  (Cedar) 200, 800 

Juglans  (Walnut) 900 

Tilia  (Lime)  304,  530,  800,  S25,  1036 
Abies  (Spruce) 1200 


Years 
Quercus  (Oak)  600,  800,  8G0,   1000 
ICOO 

O'.ea  (Olive) 700, 1000,  2000 

Taxus  (Yew)   1214,  1466,  2588,  28S0 
Schubertia  (Taxodium). .  3000,  4000 

Leguminosrea 2052,  4104 

Adansonia  (Baobab) 6000 

Draca;na  (Dragon  Tree) 6000 


Larix  (Larch) 203, 570 

"We  might  add  considerably  to  tliis  list,  but  it  already  supplies  a  sufBcient  number  of 
illustrations  of  our  general  remarks. 

The  means,  by  which  the  age  of  these  trees  has  been  ascertained,  are  two — first,  from 
historical  data,  and  second,  from  counting  the  zones.  Thus,  the  colossal  Dragon-tree  of 
Oratava  is  known  to  have  existed,  in  almost  its  j^resent  condition,  in  1402;  and  comparing 
it  with  the  younger  trees  in  its  neighborhood,  its  vast  age  is  inferred.  The  Yew  trees  at 
Fountain's  Abbey,  in  Yorkshire,  are  known  to  have  sheltered  the  monks  whilst  the  abbey 
was  building.  The  abbey  is  now  in  ruins,  but  the  trees  retain  their  vigor;  the  lowest  age 
that  can  be  assigned  them  is  twelve  centuries;  they  are  probably  much  more.  But  where 
trees  have  been  cut  down,  the  method  of  counting  the  zones  has  been  had  recourse  to. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  this  where  the  tree  is  sound;  but  in  many  instances,  the  older 
trees  are,  the  more  likely  they  are  to  be  decayed  in  their  center.  The  plan  then  adopted 
is,  to  take  a  square  inch,  count  the  zones  in  it,  multiply  this  number  by  the  number  of 
inches  from  the  bark  to  the  pith,  which  will  then  give  the  whole  number  of  zones,  and  the 
age  of  the  tree.  This  Avas  the  plan  adopted  by  Adanson  in  calculating  the  age  of  the 
Baobabs  of  Africa,  and  which  has  also  been  employed  in  calculating  the  age  of  other 
gigantic  trees.  The  numbers,  however,  thus  obtained,  can  only  be  looked  upon  as  approx- 
imations to  the  truth,  seeing  that  the  zones  of  wood  vary  very  much  in  thickness,  not 
only  one  with  the  other,  but  in  parts  of  the  same  ring. 

Size  is  no  indication  of  the  age  of  a  tree,  as  various  species  grow  at  very  different  rates, 
and  the  same  species  under  different  circumstances.  The  following  table  shows  the  diffe- 
rent rates  at  which  some  common  trees  grow. 


1st  Year. 

2d  Year. 

3d  Year. 

1st  Year. 

2a  Year. 

3d  Year. 

Ft.  In. 

Ft.  In. 

Ft.  In. 

Ft.  In. 

Ft.  In. 

Ft.  111. 

Oak,  circumference,   0  lOr 
Larch           "               10 

0  Hi 

1  3 

1    OJ 
1    4 

Si^^'M-— .   1    8 

2    0 

2    33 

Elm              "               2    7i 

2    9 

2  11 

Lime                   "         1    8J 

1  10| 

2    0 

Some  trees  attain  an  enormous  size  by  their  rapid  growth.  Species  of  Eucalyptus  have 
been  measured  that  reached  a  height  of  250  feet,  and  measured  70  feet  round  their  trunks. 

The  death  of  trees  does  not  appear  to  arise  from  an}'  natural  period  being  assigned  to  the 
existence  of  their  living  tissues,  or  reproductive  powers.  When  the  tissues  of  a  tree  are  very 
old,  they  lose  their  vitality,  especially  in  the  center  of  the  trunks  of  the  trees;  and,  on 
being  exposed  to  the  atmosphere,  or  moisture,  they  readily  decay.  The  process  of  new 
growth  is  sometimes  more  rapid  than  this  deca}^,  and  thus  trees  exist  M'ith  enormous  cavi- 
ties in  their  interior.  The  time,  however,  comes,  sooner  or  later,  when  a  separation  takes 
place  between  the  roots  and  branches,  and  then  the  tree  ceases  to  exist,  although  the  tis- 
sue that  has  been  conveyed  away  from  it,  in  the  form  of  slips  and  grafts,  may  still  con- 
tinue to  flourish.  Thus,  the  old  stump  of  the  Ribstone  Pippin  Apple  is  but  struggling  for 
life  in  Ribstone  Park,  while  the  slips  from  its  branches  adorn  a  thousand  orchards,  and 
the  thousands  upon  thousands  of  bushels  of  Ribstone  Pippin   Apples  that 

nuall}"^  consumed. 


IIORIZONTAI.   OR   TRAXSVER3E   AXD    PERPENDICULAR 
SECTION,  OF  THE  STEM  OF  AN  EXOGEX  OF  THKEE  YEAR's 

GROWTH.  Ill  the  center  of  each  is  seen  tlie  pitli,  a, 
compojiec)  of  cellular  tis<ue  ;  surroiuidiiig  ii  is  the  me- 
dullary sheath,  6,-  and  exterior  to  it  are  tli.ee  rings  of 
•wood,  each  consisting  of  c,  c,  dotted  ducts,  and  iJ,  ri, 
^v•oody  fibre.  The  last  o.med  is  in  contact  with  the 
barli,  e,  e,  in  which  tlie  layers  are  indistinct.  Carpen- 
ter's Vegetable  Pliysivlogy. 


HORIZOXTAL   AND   VERTICAL   SECTION   OF  THE    STEM 

OF  AN  Endogen,  showing  the  bundles  of  ducts,  woody 
fibre,  and  spiral  vessels,  irregularly  disposed  through 
the  whole  stem,  a,  a,  portions  of  cellular  tissue  ;  6,  6, 
spiral  vessels ;  c,  c,  doited  ducts ;  d.  rf,  woody  fibre. 
The  cellular  portion  of  the  skin.  M-hich  in  Exogcns  is 
separa  ed  by  the  first  introduction  of  wond  into  pidi  and 
bark,  liere  remains  permanently  intermingled  Witli  it. 


[The  accompanying  engraving,-;,  representing  sections  of  Exogcn  and  Endogen,  will  ex- 
plain themselves.  The  number  of  zones  in  trees  will  probabl}'  give  a  tolerable  approxima- 
tion to  the  years  of  growth  in  temperate  climates;  but  even  here,  two  may  be  formed  in 
one  year,  if  any  great  check  of  the  groAvtli  suddenly  occurs  during  the  summer.  In  tro- 
pical climates  the  indication  is  far  more  doubtful;  Adanson's  computation,  made  in  this 
way,  carried  the  age  of  the  Baobabs  to  from  5000  to  6000  years.  It  has  been  stated  that 
monthly  rings  are  formed  in  the  tropics  of  South  America,  (f/op/cms'  Rcssarches  in 
Magnetism.')  Some  plants,  such  as  the  Cacti  and  Cycadese,  require  more  than  one  year 
for  the  formation  of  a  zoue  of  wood.] 


CHEAP  VINERIES  AND  GREEN-HOUSES. 

Not  a  few  of  those  who  dabble  in  horticulture  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  would 
be  glad  to  borrow  the  assistance  of  a  little  glass  in  raising  a  good  crop  of  foreign  grapes, 
a  few  green-house  plants,  or  the  like,  but  are  prevented  by  the  cost  of  the  thing  in  the 
ordinary  way.  If  they  talk  to  the  carpenter  about  even  a  small  "green-house,"  say  20 
or  30  feet  long,  he  gives  them  an  estimate  of  some  300  or  400  dollars — and  as  this  is  more 
than  they  can  rightly  afford,  they  let  the  matter  drop. 

Some  mode,  then,  is  wanted  by  persons  of  moderate  means,  of  putting  up  a  building  of 
a  simple  and  cheaper  description — call  it  what  you  please — for  it  will  aim  to  be  useful — 
not  ornamental — some  plan  that  will  enable  us  to  get  as  fine  foreign  fruits,  grapes,  figs,  &c., 
or  as  healthy  and  beautiful  plants,  as  the  most  costly  building,  glazed  with  the  best  plate  glass. 

Such  buildings  as  these  have  larely  been  put  up  in  this  country — though  there  are  occa- 
sional examples  in  the  premises  of  some  of  the  market  florists  about  our  cities.  We  have 
already  spoken,  (p.  184,  v.  5.)  of  large  ranges  of  this  kind,  which  Are  saw  last  summer 
in  the  nurseries  of  jNIr.  Rivers,  Sawbridgeworth,  England.  In  these  buildings,  put  up  at 
less  than  half  the  cost  of  ordinary  green-houses,  we  saw  plants  of  all  kinds,  and  fr 
various  sorts,  all  in  the  highest  possible  health  and  productiveness. 


CHEAP  VINERIES  AND  GREEN-HOUSES. 

1,  vre  give  a  sketch  of  a  section  of  one  of  these  cheap  structures,  from  which  any 
of  our  readers  may  construct  a  similar  house. 

The  frame  of  this  building  is  wholly  of  wood.  Posts  are  set  into  the  ground  about  six 
feet  apart.  These  posts  rise  seven  feet  above  the  surface  at  the  rear,  (A.)  and  two  feet 
three  inches  at  the  front,  (B.)  They  are  sheathed  or  weather-boarded  in  the  common 
wa}',  on  the  outside  of  the  posts,*  along  the  back  and  front — the  tMo  ends  being  also 
boarded  uj] — with  a  door  in  each  or  in 
both  ends — opj  o.site  the  sunken  walk, 
(C)  This  walk  is  sunken,  partly  to  eco- 
nomise cost,  and  is  needed  to  raise  the  back 
and  front  high  enough  to  walk  under  the 
roof,  and  partly  to  bring  the  plants  as  near 
the  glass  as  possible — a  great  desideratum 
in  all  plant  culture. 

So  far,  it  Mill  be  seen  that  this  structure 
costs  little  more  than  a  board  fence.  Noav  '^' 

let  us  examine  the  glass  roof,  for  it  is  here  that  the  cost  usually  lies.  And  as  this  cost  is 
not  so  much  in  the  glass,  as  in  the  sliding  sashes,  all  nicely  jointed  and  framed,  and  the 
grooved  rafters  in  which  they  are  to  slide,  Mr.  Rivers  has  cut  loose  from  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  sashes,  and  made  the  entire  roof  one  fixture.  Ventilation,  which  is  not  to  be  dis- 
pensed with,  he  provides  for  in  a  much  more  eflectual  manner  tlian  the  common  one,  by 
having  boards,  d,  e,  both  at  the  front  and  rear — (either  at  intervals,  or  along  the  whole 
line,  as  may  be  needful,)  hung  upon  hinges,  so  as  to  open  outwards,  and  permit  a  stream 
of  air  to  pass  over  through  the  breadth  of  the  whole  house. 

To  construct  the  roof,  a  strip  of  timber — Avhat  is  usually  called  a  wale  strip — is  laid 
along  the  top  of  the  front  and  back  parts  to  form  a  "  plate."  To  this  plate  are  nailed  the 
rafter  pieces,  about  five  or  six  feet  apart.  Across  these  rafter  pieces,  light  strips,  i.  e.  s,  s,  s, 
about  two  inches,  by  one  inch,  are  let  in  on  a  level  with  the  top  of  the  rafter.  Then, 
along  the  whole  length  of  the  roof,  in  the  direction  of  the  rafters,  light  strips  are  nailed 
to  the  bearers,  s,  s,  s.  These  strips  are  rebated  on  the  top  like  a  common  sash-bar,  and 
are  of  course  laid  upon  the  roof  just  far  enough  apart  to  receive  the  glass — say  7  inches, 
(if  7  by  9  glass  is  to  be  used.)  'i^o  framing  of  sashes  is  necessary,  and  when  the  whole 
is  glazed,  it  is  light,  strong  and  durable,  and  is  put  together  so  easily,  that  a  house  30  or 
40  feet  long,  can  be  built  very  quickly.  The  strips  that  make  the  sash  bars  are  both  sawn 
and  rebated  at  the  saw-niilljt  and  as  many  of  Mr.  R.'s  houses  are  built  of  rough  stuff, 
left  unplaned,  and  coated  over  with  ship-varnish  instead  of  paint,  the  construction  is  re- 
duced to  the  minimum  of  simplicity  and  expense.  The  house  we  show  a  section  of  in  fig. 
1,  is  used  as  an  early  forcing  house  for  grapes  and  other  fruits,  and  the  grapes  are  grown 
upright  in  an  inside  border  on  one  side  of  the  walk,  while  the  other  side  is  occupied  with 
fruit  trees— peaches,  nectarines  and  figs,  in  pots  laden  with  fruit. 

For  this  climate,  a  variation  of  this  cheap  structure  would  be  very  useful  as  a  vinery 
without  fire  heat.  In  this  case  the  border  should  be  made  outside  of  the  front  wall,  (B.) 
the  vines  brought  under  the  boarding  and  trained  up  under  the  glass,  about  8  inches  below 
the  glass,  from  front  to  rear.      The  sunken  walk  could  then  be  dispensed  with,  as  there 

*  If  for  a  viiieo- or  a  house  to  be  used  in  summer,  tliis  would  be  sufficient ;  if  for  a  green-house,  then  the  posts 
hould  be  boarded  up  on  both  sides  and  the  space  between  filled-in  witli  tan,  pounded  clay,  or  anything  usually 
■•"■'  for  this  purpose. 

have  machines  m  this  comitrj-  that  saw,  rebate,  and  plane  these  strips  at  once. 


CHEAP  VINERIES  AND  GREEN-HOUSES 

be  height  enough  along  the  back  wall — which  is  7  feet  high,  for  a  person  to 
erect.  Such  a  house  would  make  a  capital  cold-vinery  at  very  trifling  cost ;  or  if  an  early 
vinery  was  desired,  then  by  making  the  border  inside  to  occupy  the  whole  space,  and  by 
putting  in  one  of  the  heaters  which  we  shall  now  describe,  the  structure  would  answer 
equally  well  for  that  purpose.  We  believe  it  is  Mr.  Rivers'  impression,  that  vines  plant- 
ed in  the  way  shown  in  fig.  1,  and  trained  to  upright  stakes,  will  produce  a  larger  crop 
of  fruit  in  a  given  space  than  if  fewer  vines  are  planted,  and  trained  in  the  ordinary  mode 
under  the  roof^but  of  this  point  we  do  not  feel  assured — while  we  do  feel  certain  that 
they  will  require  more  careful  feeding  to  prevent  their  exhausting  the  soil. 

Mr.  Rivers  heats  all  his  cheap  pits,  green-houses  and  structures  of  this  kind,  with  a 
very  simple  looking  little  affair,  which  he  calls  a  "  hrick-JrnotVs  Stove."  This  stove 
stands  in  the  middle  of  the  house,  in  a  small  space  left  for  it  there,  so  that  it  faces  the 
sunken  walk,  and  it  is  fed  with  fuel,  (coal,)  from  this  walk.  It  is  only  a  small  mass  of 
brick  work  about  20  inches  square  and  3  feet  high— the  front  looking  like  fig.  2.  On  opening 
the  cast  iron  door,  a,  you  see  a  small  chamber  about  10  inches  square,  with  a  grate  at  the 
bottom  in  which  the  fire  is  made.  The  other  door,  6,  opens  to  the  ash- 
pit, of  the  same  size  or  a  little  deeper,  below  the  fire.  In  this  ash-pit 
door  is  a  very  small  hole  to  admit  the  air  needful  for  combustion,  and  as 
the  Arnott's  stove  appears  to  be  much  upon  the  principle  of  our  air 
tight  stoves,  it  consumes  but  a  few  handfuls  of  fuel  in  the  course  of  24 
hours.  On  the  other  hand,  as  there  are  two  thicknesses  of  brick,  (the 
inner  one  fire-brick,)  all  round  the  fire,  the  heat  given  out  is  so  gradual 
that  the  plants  are  not  at  all  injured,  as  they  often  are  by  our  common  "'  "' 

iron  stoves,  when  standing  near  the  plants.     Of  course  there  is  a  flue  running  back  into 
a  small  chimney  in  the  back  wall  to  carry  off  the  smoke— just  as  in  our  common  stoves. 

This  brick-stove,  in  its  common  form,  is  merely  covered  with  a  thick  cast  iron  plate,  c. 
But  when  a  higher  and  a  more  uniform  temperature  is  needed  than  that  of  an  ordinary 
green-house,  Mr.  Rivers  adds  to  his  brick-stove  a  cast  iron  boiler,  fig.  3.  This  boiler  is 
cast  in  one  piece  with  the  exception  of  the  pipes,  which  are  ^  _- 
wrought  iron,  and  screw  on.  It  costs  in  England  30  shillings, 
(about  ^7.50,)  and  is  set  within  the  brick-stove  directly  over  the 
fire  chamber,  so  that  its  bottom  is  on  a  line  with  the  top  of  the 
door,  a,  fig.  2,  and  its  top  is  covered  by  the  iron  plate  c.  As  the  water  in  this  boiler  be- 
comes heated,  it  rises  and  flows  through  the  pipe,  e,  which  is  run  to  one  end  or  quite  round 
the  house,  and  returns,  entering  the  boiler  again  near  its  bottom,  /.  As  the  boiler  is 
tight,  the  water,  of  course,  makes  the  circuit  of  the  whole  pipe,  and  keeps  up  a  constant 
circulation.  The  whole  pipe,  which  rises  but  a  few  inches  in  its  course,  may  thus  be  coii- 
sidered  a  boiler — the  only  opening  to  which  is  at  the  highest  point  of  the  pipe,  e — that  is 
to  say,  half  way  round  the  house — where  there  is  an  opening  with  a  small  reservoir  for 
supplying  it  with  water.  This  is  the  simplest  of  all  apparatus  for  heating  by  hot  water, 
and,  in  conjunction  with  the  brick-stove,  will  heat  such  a  house  to  any  desired  tempera- 
ture. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  NEW  FRUITS. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  NEW  OR  RARE  FRUITS. 

I.  The  Great  Bigarreau,  This,  unquestionably  the  largest  and  most  beautiful  of 
all  cherries,  appears  to  be  scarcely  at  all  known  to  pomologists.  A  foreign  variety,  perhaps 
more  distinct  than  any  other  large  cherry  in  its  foliage,  growth,  and  in  the  size,  excellence, 
and  color  of  its  fruit,— which  is  equal  to  the  Black  Tartarian  in  flavor,  and  surpasses 
it  in  beauty  and  productiveness,  certainly  should  not  be  unknown  to  American  pomolo- 
gists. And  yet  we  cannot  identify  it  with  anything  known  or  described  in  the  English, 
French  or  American  books  on  fruits. 

The  only  tree  known  to  us  of  the  Great  Bi- 
garreau,  (a  name  we  have  adopted  temporarily, 
until  the  real  name  is  discovered,)  is  one  of  pret- 
ty large  size,  upon  the  premises  of  Mr.  Lindlet 
M.  Ferris,  nurseryman,  Coldenhara,  Orange 
county,  N.  Y.  jNIr.  Ferris  first  astonished  us  by 
bringing  branches  of  this  tree  in  full,  laden  with 
superb  fruit,  2  years  ago — supposing  we  should 
be  able  to  identify  it  with  some  foreign  variety, 
we  made  a  drawing  and  description  of  it  at  the 
time,  and  waited  to  make  further  research  on 
the  subject.  So  far,  our  labor  for  two  seasons 
to  identify  it  with  any  other  sort,  has  been  in 
vain,  and  we  nowpublisli  the  description,  to  in- 
troduce what  we  think  the  most  magnificent  of 
cherries,  to  the  notice  of  our  fruit  growers,  and 
partly  with  the  hope  that  some  of  our  pomolo- 
gical  readers  in  France  may  be  able  to  recognise 
and  give  us  its  true  name.* 

The  Colden  estate,  Avhich  Mr.  Ferris  now 
holds,  has  some  valuable  sorts  of  foreign  fruits  upon  it ;  and  among  a  number  of  trees  im- 
ported from  France  about  20  years  ago,  were  this  and  several  other  cherries — including 
the  Belle  de  Choisy.  No  labels  or  invoices  having  been  left,  all  record  of  the  sorts  was 
lost.  But  the  trees  have  grown  finely,  and  this  one  in  particular  has  formed  a  large  and 
luxuriant  head,  and  for  several  years  has  been  annually  loaded  with  large  crops  of  fruit. 

As  a  J'oung  tree,  the  Great  Bigarreau  is  remarkable  for  its  very  upright  growth,  with 
very  few  side  branches.  The  foliage  is  also  very  distinct  from  that  of  either  the  Tai-tarian 
or  the  light  colored  Bigarreaus,  by  being  unusually  long  as  well  as  large — much  larger 
indeed,  than  the  leaf  of  any  other  cherry  known  to  us. 

The  tree  is  usually  a  great  bearer,  producing  heavier  crops  than  the  Tartarian,  and  noth- 
ing can  well  be  more  beautiful  than  its  branches  laden  with  clusters  of  very  large  cherries, 
much  ruddier  and  lighter  in  color  than  the  fruit  of  the  Black  Tartarian — something  in 
color  between  red  and  black. 

The  following  is  its  pomological  character.  Fruit  very  large — considerably  larger  than 
the  Black  Tartarian,  Avhich  it  most  nearly  resembles  in  flavor,  texture  of  the  flesh  and 
general  appearance,  though  it  differs  in  color,  size  and  form — the  form  being  an  oblong 

believe  trees  of  the  Great  Bigarreau  have  been  propagated  for  sale  in  the  nurseries  of  Mr.  Ferris,  at 
our  neighbors,  Mr.  C.  Downing,  and  Messrs.  Saul  &  Co.,  of  Newburgh. 


The  Great  Bigarreau. 


DESCRIPT.ONS  OF  NEW  FRUITS. 

shape — high  shouldered,  and  not  irregular  in  outline  like  the  Tartarian.  Skin 
tiful  deep  red,  becoming  nearly  black  at  maturity.  Stalk  thick,  rather  short,  swollen  at 
both  ends,  and  set  in  a  deep  cavity.  Flesh,  in  texture.,  juiciness  and  flavor,  very  much 
like  and  fully  equal  to  the  Black  Tartarian.  Tree  very  luxuriant,  foliage  very  long  and 
large.     Kipens  with  the  Tartarian,  or  a  few  days  later. 

We  have  only  to  add  that  when  we  first  saw  this  cherry  in  bearing,  we  supposed  it 
would  prove  identical  with  the  Great  Bigarreau  de  INIezel,  a  French  cherry  described  in 
a  previous  vol.  of  this  Journal.  But  a  comparison  of  the  foliage  and  growth  of  the  young 
trees  of  both  varieties  in  the  same  soil,  the  past  season,  has  proved  that  the  two  are  quite 
distinct.  We  can  only  say,  therefore,  that  the  Great  Bigarreau  is  a  very  distinct  and 
a  very  superb  foreign  cherry,  which  succeeds  admirably  here,  and  must  become  a  great 
favorite  in  fruit  gardens. 

II.  Egberts'  Bed  Heart  Cherrt.  This  American  va- 
riety originated  in  the  garden  of  Mr.  Roberts,  of  Salem, 
Mass.,  and  was  first  brought  into  notice  by  the  late  Robert 
Manning,  Esq.,  of  Salem.  A  short  account  of  it  was  publish- 
ed in  our  work  on  Fruits,  but  as  we  were  not  then  fully  aware 
of  its  merits,  we  will  now  add  a  few  words  more  in  its  favor. 

This  is  not  a  fruit  conspicuous  by  either  size  or  beauty. 
But  it  has  sterling  qualities  nevertheless.  It  is  of  excellent 
flavor,  bears  most  abundantly  and  unfailingly,  and  is  neither 
affected  by  rainy  or  unfavorable  seasons,  which  destroy  so 
many  other  fine  cherries.  It  hangs  a  long  time  on  the  tree 
after  maturity,  and  the  flavor  is  particularly  agreeable  to 
those  who  relish  something  more  lively  and  sprightly  than 
the  honied  sweetness  of  most  of  the  heart  cherries — by  a 
fine  mingling  of  sugar  and  acid.  Its  lateness  and  excellence, 
joined  to  the  great  hardiness  of  the  tree,  commend  it  as  an  invaluable  fruit  for  family  use 

III.  The  General  Hand  Plum.  We 
think  this  may  be  called  the  largest  yellow 
plum  known — certainly  the  largest  native  va- 
riety. Its  history  is  obscure,  but  we  believe 
it  was  originated  somewhere  in  Maryland. 
The  first  trees  were,  we  believe,  sent  out  from 
the  nursery  of  Messrs.  Sinclair,  of  Balti- 
more, a  number  of  years  ago,  but  the  variety 
is  still  very  little  known  to  cultivators. 

We  first  received  specimens  of  it  from  Mr. 
Eli  Parry,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  and  noticed 
them  very  briefly  in  the  Ilort.  for  1848.  The 
only  accurate  account  published  of  this  fruit, 
by  any  reliable  practical  cultivator,  is  contain- 
ed in  a  note  from  Mr.  A.  Fahnestock,  of 
Lancaster,  Ohio,  in  the  Horticulturist,  vol.  Ill, 
p.  332,  in  which  he  says,  "  from  the  fruiting 
of  this  tree,  for  eight  years  past,  and  general 
observation — (though  the  location  is  a  bad 
one,)  I  am  induced  to  call  it  one  of  the  most 


Roberts^  Red  Heart  Cherry. 


NOTE  ON  LYSAMACHIA  STRICTA. 


lie  plums,  on  account  of  its  never  having  failed  to  bear  a  full  crop,  and  its  maturing 
its  fruit  perfectly.     I  admit  that  it  is  not  so  finely  flavored  as  the  Washington." 

Our  own  opinion  of  this  plum  is,  that  it  is  simply  a  good  fruit,  not  of  high  flavor,  but 
so  hu-gc,  handsome  and  productive,  that  it  will  become  a  favorite  for  market  cultivation. 

Fruit  very  large,  roundish  oval,  regularly  formed,  with  an  obscure  suture  running  half 
round,  and  terminating  at  the  top  in  a  small  scarred  point— the  remains  of  the  old  style. 
Skin  smooth,  deep  golden  yellow,  slightly  marbled  with  greenish  yellow.  Stalk  unusual- 
ly long,  moderately  stout,  set  in  a  very  small  shallow  cavity— the  whole  of  that  end  of 
the  fruit  being  rather  flattened.  Flesh  pale  yellow,  moderately  juicy,  sweet  and  good, 
though  not  of  high  flavor.  It  parts  freely  from  the  stone,  -which  is  ovate,  light  colored, 
and  small  for  so  large  a  fruit.  Branches  nearly  smooth,  leaves  large  and  long,  with  long 
foot-stalks.     Ripens  the  first  week  in  September. 

IV.  The  Townsend  Apple.  One  of  the  most  delicious  late  summer  and  early  autumn 
apples.  It  has  borne  abundantly  in  our  own  garden,  and  has  not,  so  far  as  we  are  aware, 
yet  been  described.  Grafts  were  sent  to  us  some  years  ago  under  this  name,  by  a  friend 
in  Pennsylvania,  as  having  been 
taken  from  a  tree  which  sprung 
up  on  the  site  of  an  Indian  clear- 
ing in  that  state.  To  our  own 
taste,  it  has  no  superior  among 
tender,  delicate  dessert  apples 
of  its  season. 

Fruit  of  medium  size,  round- 
ish and  usually  flattened,  smooth 
and  regularly  formed.  Skin 
very  pale  yellow,  splashed  and 
streaked  with  purple-red,  and 
covered  with  a  dense  white 
bloom,  (like  the  Astrachau.) 
Stalk  nearly  an  inch  long,  slen- 
der, inserted  in  a  deep  cavity; 
calyx  wooly,  set  in  a  basin  of 


The  Toicnsend  Apple. 


moderate  depth.  Flesh  white,  fine-grained,  remarkably  tender,  and  of  very  mild  and 
agreeable  sub-acid  flavor.  Tree,  a  moderately  luxuriant  grower  and  abundant  bearer. 
Season,  middle  of  August  to  middle  of  September. 


NOTE    ON   LYSAMACHIA   STRICTA. 

BY  A.  AV.  CORSON,  PA. 

About  twenty  years  ago  I  found  some  specimens  of  Lysamachia  stricta  on  the  banks 
of  the  Schuylkill,  and  not  having  before  seen  it  in  Pennsylvania,  I  took  them  up  and  plant- 
ed them  in  my  garden,  where  they  flourished  and  died  Mithout  producing  seed.  I  regret- 
cd  the  loss,  but  was  surprised  the  following  year  to  find  several  plants  of  the  same 
kind,  upon  which,  when  examining  them  for  seed,  I  found  none,  but  observed  a  number 
of  small  bulbs  formed  in  the  axils  of  the  leaves,  which  at  the  death  of  the  plants  fell  to  the 
round  and  continued  to  grow  through  the  winter,  and  rooting  in  the  soil  produced  plants 
next  season.     This  manner  of  reproduction  from  the  fallen  bulbs  has  been  continued 


THE  ESSENCE  OF  TFIE  FINE  ARTS. 

ery  year  from  that  time  to  the  present — care  having  been  annually  taken  to  leave  a  space 
about  two  feet  square  for  the  growth  of  the  plants  from  the  bulbs.  It  has  been  interesting 
to  me  to  observe  from  time  to  time,  the  growth  of  the  small  bulbs  lying  on  the  ground,  in- 
creasing from  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  to  near  or  quite  an  inch  in  length  during  the  winter 
season.  The  soil  in  which  they  were  planted  I  suppose  to  have  been  so  unsuited  to  their 
nature  as  to  prevent  the  production  of  seed,  and  they  were  obliged  to  call  into  operation 
the  additional  power  of  their  nature  given  to  prevent  the  extinction  of  the  species. 

But  the  reproduction  from  bulbs  is  not  rare.  During  the  past  season  a  singular  exten- 
sion of  power  was  shown;  there  were  but  few  plants  permitted  to  grow,  and  I  examined 
them  for  bulbs  at  what  I  thought  the  usual  season,  and  found  none,  but  continuing  to  ex- 
amine occasionally,  I  found  a  few  bulbs  on  some  of  the  plants,  of  smaller  size  and  later 
in  the  season  as  I  thought,  although  I  may  have  been  mistaken — but  on  two  of  the  plants 
there  were  no  bulbs,  and  on  one  of  these,  late  in  the  season — when  the  others  were  entire- 
ly dead,  and  of  this  one  the  top  was  entirely  dead  to  within  two  inches  of  the  ground,  I 
discovered  three  buds  on  the  living  part,  perhaps  half  an  inch  apart,  and  on  different  sides 
of  the  stalk;  these  buds  differed  in  form  from  a  common  bud,  producing  a  branch,  and 
also  from  the  common  bulb — being  of  a  conical  form,  about  half  an  inch  in  length,  and 
about  as  large  at  the  base  as  the  stalk  to  which  they  were  attached,  and  resembling  the 
spur  of  the  common  dunghill  cock;  this  singular  growth,  originating  in  the  decaying  stalk 
of  an  annual  plant,  I  regarded  as  being  unusual,  and  upon  examining  them  a  few  days 
after,  I  found  one  of  the  buds  lying  upon  the  ground,  apparently  prepared  to  form  a  new 
plant,  as  the  bulbs  have  hitherto  done;  and  upon  re-examination  a  few  days  after, 
although  it  still  differed  much  in  appearance  from  the  bulbs  around  it,  yet  there  remained 
no  doubt  that  its  office  was  the  same,  and  if  not  destroyed,  that  it  Avill  become  a  perfect 
plant,  showing  the  care  of  the  Creator  in  providing  the  means  to  prevent  any  species  from 
being  lost.  A.  W.  Corson. 

Montgomery  County,  Pa.,  11  vio.  27,  1350. 


THE   ESSENCE   OF   THE   FINE   ARTS. 

BY  S.  H. 

[TVe  find  the  following  interesting  article  in  a  late  number  of  that  useful  serial,  the  Lon- 
don Builder,  and  transfer  it  to  our  columns  for  the  gratification  of  our  readers.] 

My  endeavor  in  the  following  remarks  is  to  sketch  a  theory  of  art  generally,  which  I 
attempt  under  the  conviction  that  some  of  its  branches  are  not  fully  appreciated  even  by 
those  who  take  an  interest  in  its  manifestations.  By  a  large  proportion  of  educated  per- 
sons, the  arts  of  painting  and  sculpture  are  classed  among  mere  amusements,  or  hobbies, 
and  considered  only  as  vehicles  for  the  display  of  talent,  affording  at  the  most  a  refined 
species  of  pleasure  to  the  observer.  Of  architecture  they  have  no  idea  as  one  of  the  means 
of  intellectual  enjoyment  and  improvement  to  man.  They  see  nothing  in  it  but  brick  or 
stone,  and  wood,  formed  and  arranged  to  serve  certain  purposes  of  utility,  presenting  at 
the  farthest  a  clue  to  the  condition,  as  to  wealth  or  station,  of  the  occupant  of  the  struc- 
ture. Very  few,  I  apprehend,  think  of  art  as  an  influence  to  move  the  heart,  or  suppose 
it  has  functions  to  perform,  and  ends  to  fulfil,  in  any  way  connected  with  the  moral  sense 
and  intellectual  progress  of  mankind. 

has,  I  suspect,  been  a  result  of  the  excessive  commercial  development  of  our  coun- 
and  it  is  perhaps  natural,  until  the  general  mind  becomes  fully  awake  to  the  impor- 


THE  ESSENCE  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

tance  of  art-culturc,  that  it  should  lean  most  to  those  mechanical,  commemal,  and 
sciences,  Avhich  have  mainly  contributed  to  our  national  importance. 

But  true  o-i-eatncss  in  a  people  must  arise  from  the  cultivation  of  all  the  faculties  of  the 
mind.  It  takes  both  "  the  beautiful  and  the  useful  to  form  a  man;"  the  mind,  like  the 
body,  must  grow  in  all  directions; — the  moral,  intellectual  and  imaginative  faculties  being 
alike  developed.  We  must  cultivate  the  entire  man,  and  bring  ourselves  in  contact  with 
the  universe  in  every  possible  point;  and  not  only  endeavor  to  expand  our  own  natures, 
but  introduce  the  principle  into  every  system  of  education:  so  that  all  may  enjoy,  not  a 
partial,  but  as  far  as  practicable,  a  complete  and  universal  culture. 

It  appears  probable  that  a  much  greater  uniformity  in  education  existed  among  the  clas- 
sic ancients,  when  we  consider  how  equal  was  their  encouragement  of  the  different  branches 
of  intellectual  pursuit.  In  Gi-eece  we  perceive  that  not  only  literature,  philosophy  and  science, 
but  the  fine  arts  were  carried  to  the  highest  point  of  perfection.  This,  the  multitude  of 
exquisite  monuments  of  art  still  existing,  fully  attests.  The  brilliant  period  from  Homer 
to  Alexander  was  characterised  by  this  uniform  mental  pursuit.  Learning  and  literary 
composition — every  species  of  jihilosophy — eloquence — the  art  of  war — are  known  to  have 
arrived  at  the  highest  degree  of  perfection,  and  yet  were  not  in  advance  of  sculpture  and 
architecture;  illustrated  at  this  time  by  the  chisel  of  Phidias.  In  fine,  the  whole  circle 
of  arts  and  sciences  may  be  said  to  have  disputed  for  pre-eminence  with  each  other.  We 
may  apply  the  same  remark  to  the  Romans  in  the  reigns  of  Augustus  and  Adrian.  At 
the  same  time,  the  art  they  cultivated  was  not  fine  art  only.  The  aqueducts,  bridges  and 
cloacaj  of  the  latter  people  have  been  the  models  of  the  grandest  works  of  a  similar  nature 
in  modern  Europe. 

On  the  relative  importance  of  art, — its  rank  among  the  various  branches  of  human  pur- 
suit, I  will  content  mj-self  by  quoting  a  celebrated  living  writer: — "  There  are  two  ave- 
nues from  the  little  passions  and  drear  calamities  of  earth,  both  lead  towards  Heaven  and 
away  from  Hell — art  and  science ;  but  art  is  more  godlike  than  science ;  science  discov- 
ers,— art  creates.  The  astronomer  who  catalogues  the  stars  cannot  add  one  atom  to  the 
universe.  The  poet  can  call  a  universe  from  the  atom.  The  chemist  may  heal  with  his 
drugs  the  infirmities  of  the  human  form :  the  painter  or  sculptor  fixes  into  everlasting 
youth,  forms  divine,  which  no  disease  can  ravage,  and  no  years  impair." 

Schiller,  in  his  philosophical  and  a?sthetic  letters,  insists  upon  the  necessity  of  aesthetic 
as  a  preparation  and  foundation  for  moral  culture,  and  considers  that  until  we  are  so  de- 
veloped, we  cannot  be  morally  free,  and,  by  consequence,  not  responsible,  as  the  will  has 
no  sphere  in  which  to  operate.  And  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  even  in  his  day,  considered  an 
establishment  for  such  culture  as  a  subordinate  school  of  morality.  He  contended  that  it 
was  necessary  to  the  happiness  of  mankind  and  security  of  society,  that  the  mind  should 
be  elevated  to  the  idea  of  general  beauty,  as  a  mean  of  giving  it  its  proper  superioritj^  over 
the  common  scenes  and  temptations  of  life. 

The  Platonists  looked  upon  the  cultivation  of  the  understanding,  by  the  study  of  science, 
as  no  less  necessary  than  the  practice  of  virtue,  to  qualify  a  human  soul  for  the  enjoyment 
of  a  future  state;  and  Plato  himself  has  called  mathematical  demonstrations  the 
cathartics  of  the  soul,  as  being  the  most  proper  means  to  free  it  from  error,  and  give  it  a 
relish  for  truth.  May  not,  I  would  ask,  a  cultivation  of  the  sense  of  beauty  be  deemed  a 
more  appropriate  means  to  this  end  ?  Real  works  of  art  should  be  the  most  intimate 
companions  of  the  soul :  the  man  to  whom  they  are  mute,  to  Avhom  they  reveal  nothing, 
earn  little  of  a  moral  or  spiritual  nature  from  books,  and  must  have  but  faint  notions 
connection  with  external  nature, — of  his  relation  to  the  universe. 


THE  ESSENCE  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

know  there  are  persons  so  absorbed  in  the  ordinary  business  of  life,  that  this  would 
sound  in  their  ears  like  an  unkown  tongue.  There  are  not  wanting  men,  slaves  of  utility, 
who  would  crush  every  emotion  of  the  heart  as  weakness,  and  quench  every  spark  of  ima- 
gination. They  admire  the  powers  and  fivculties  that,  in  the  present  state  of  society,  most 
rapidly  lead  to  wealth,  and  despise  those  which  have  been  the  brightest  glory  of  our  race, 
and  the  chief  spur  of  civilization.  Such  persons  will,  however,  in  common  with  others, 
look  back  with  admiration  and  jjride  at  the  great  achievements  of  men  in  the  past  history 
of  the  world,  and  particularly  of  their  own  countrymen;  forgetting  that  from  these  very 
faculties  they  affect  to  despise,  have  chiefl}^  resulted  all  that  dazzles  in  the  past,  or  in  the 
present  possesses  any  real  dignity  or  importance.  We  feel  the  limits  of  the  human  under- 
standing, and,  the  more  profound  our  researches  in  philosophy,  the  more  palpably  we  ex- 
perience it.  We  see  the  boundary-line  bej'-ond  which  our  minds  cannot  penetrate ;  but  we 
are,  at  the  same  time,  conscious  of  a  void  beyond  that  limit,  which  superior  intelligence 
might  penetrate.  It  is  by  the  creative  faculties  that  this  is  to  be  filled  up;  hence  their 
advantage  over  reason.  The  imagination,  swifter  than  the  wings  of  the  morning,  trans- 
ports us  through  the  universe.  The  reason  is  limited,  but  the  imagination  is  boundless. 
By  it  we  approach  the  Infinite  and  are  linked  to  the  Divinity.  It  is  to  other  than  reason 
that  the  heroic  deeds  of  those  great  spirits  who  have  created  epochs  in  chronology  are  to 
be  ascribed.  The  great  wonders  of  the  ancient  world  were  not  the  result  of  reason.  The 
greatness  of  man  is  most  apparent  Avhen  he  works  from  the  feelings — his  power  over  his 
fellows  more  complete  when  he  holds  them  by  the  chords  of  the  heart  and  imagination. 

The  Arts,  which  will  be  treated  upon  in  the  following  paper,  are  those  of  Architecture, 
Painting,  Sculptor,  Poetry,  Music;  the  latter  two  will  be  occasionally  referred  to,  but  my 
attention  will  be  chiefly  given  to  the  three  former.  To  form  the  genealogical  tree  of  art, 
my  course  will  be  to  trace  its  essence  or  principle — the  beautiful — from  its  source;  which 
will  divide  the  subject  into  three  distinct  branches : — there  are  three  realms  of  the  beauti- 
ful, viz:  Nature;  the  Human  Mind,  or  Imagination;  and  Art  itself 

On  the  first  head  little  need  be  said.  The  most  interesting  of  the  three  kingdoms  of 
Nature  is  the  animal :  the  highest  species  of  beaut}^  is  to  be  found  in  that  department. 
The  human  form  and  foce  divine, — the  index  of  the  character  and  passions, — is  the  chief 
subject  involved  in  the  style  called  historic,  the  highest  walk  of  art.  The  beauty  exhi- 
bited by  the  other  creatures  of  God  is  various,  but  harmonious.  Among  the  savage  tribes 
of  the  forest,  in  the  depth  of  the  sea,  in  the  regions  of  the  air,  beauty  reigns  and  rules  in 
every  mood: — all  is  animated  grace.  What  beauty  is  renewed  tons  every  morning!  The 
eastern  sky  is  a  flood  of  glory,  and  the  morning  dew  sprinkles  the  earth  with  diamonds. 
The  glory  is  repeated  in  the  evening,  but  is  only  a  prelude — a  mere  earthly  pageant — to 
the  more  glorious  exhibition  of  the  starry  firmament — 

"  When  the  heavens 
Are  thronged  with  constellations,  and  the  sea 
Strewn  with  their  images." 

Tliis  is  the  sublimest  picture,  the  highest  class  of  art,  in  the  gallery  of  inanimate  nature. 
Philosophy  has  no  power  equal  to  these  luminaries  of  night,  these  monitors  of  the  sky, 
to  elevate  the  heart  above  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  life. 

Beauty  is  to  be  found  in  nature  in  all  seasons;  it  is  not  the  nymph  of  the  summer,  but 
the  goddess  of  the  year.     From  green-robed  Spring,  whose  voice, 

"  More  s\veet  than  softest  tovich  of  Doric  reed, 

Or  I^ydian  Flute,  can  soothe  the  maildening  winds," 

to  Autumn,  clad  in  the  hues  of  the  rainbow:  nor  beneath  Winter's  snowy  mantle  an 
zone  is  it  altogether  concealed. 

No.  I.  2. 


THE  ESSENCE  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

tlic  theme  is  endless :  it  is  vain  to  enter  into  detals :  in  the  most  insignificant  objects 
of  natuie  we  find  the  traces  of  the  beautiful.  What  delightful  curves  in  leaves,  shells, 
grasses !  What  exquisite  harmony  of  color  also  in  some  of  the  most  ordinary  plants  and 
flowers!  in  the  plumage  of  the  feathered  tribe!  seeming  a  link  between  earthly  and  ethe- 
real creatures ;  beauties  greater  and  more  numerous  than  appear  to  the  common  observer ; 
beauties  that  only  the  artist  can  rightly  appreciate;  for  the  eye  requires  training  and  prac- 
tice to  see  fully  the  beauties  of  creation.  How  wonderful,  again,  is  the  effect  of  motion 
upon  all!  What  elegance  in  the  movements  of  some  animals,  particularly  of  the  human 
form.  A  charm  ever  new  and  inexhaustible.  Beauty  is  but  half  developed  when  at  rest : 
j^Dneas,  in  Virgil,  knew  Venus  to  be  a  goddess  at  first  sight,  but  only  discovered  her  to 
be  the  goddess  of  beauty  when  she  moved : — 

"And  by  her  graceful  walk,  the  queen  of  love  is  known." 

Motion  generally  is  expressive  or  suggestive  of  beauty : — 

"  Thou  canst  not  wave  thy  staff  in  the  air, 
Or  dip  thy  padd.e  m  the  lake, 
But  it  forms  the  bow  of  beauty  tliere, 
And  the  ripples  in  rhymes  the  oar  forsake." 

After  a  survey  of  the  glories  of  creation,  the  thought  that  first  suggests  itself  to  a  re- 
flective mind  is  the  general  indifference  of  mankind  to  it.  The  beautiful  in  nature,  like 
the  beautiful  in  art,  has  too  few,  and  among  these,  too  many  lukewarm  worshippers. 
For  too  many,  nature  may  be  said  to  waste  its  loveliness  on  the  desert  air.  Beauty  is 
above,  around,  and  beneath  us,  and  we  do  not  heed  it.  We  tread  on  beauty  and  know 
it  not.  Many  are  born,  live,  and  pass  away,  with  scarce  a  glance  on  the  beautiful  world 
in  which  they  live.  There  are  many  fossils,  plaiits,  and  other  works  of  nature,  that  we 
scarcely  notice,  or  at  best  with  indifference,  which,  if  they  were  produced  by  art,  would 
be  preserved  as  treasures,  and  admired  without  bounds.  We  think  little  of  nature's  beau- 
ties, perhaps,  from  their  being  so  commonly  about  us.  How  often  do  we  find  men  who 
Avould  stand  in  apparent  rapture  before  a  painted  landscape,  that  would  pass  the  original 
with  indifference;  and  be  unmoved  by  the  sublimest  effect  of  sunshine  and  shadow 
when  presented  by  nature!  Showing,  however,  that  it  was  a  conventional,  rather  than  a 
true  and  genuine  feeling  for  the  beautiful,  by  which  they  were  excited.  How  often  do  we 
find  the  physiologist  in  extacies  with  the  scientific  beauty  of  a  subject,  while  utterly  heed- 
less of  the  charms  that  address  him  through  the  medium  of  form!  The  botanist,  also, 
whilst  busy  defining  and  classifying,  too  frequently  loses  some  part  of  his  enjoyment,  by 
by  the  non-contemplation  of  the  ajsthetic,  along  with  the  structural  grace;  forgetting  the 
marriage  of  beauty  and  science;  forgetting  that  nature  speaks  through  these  creatures  to 
the  eye  and  the  heart,  as  well  as  to  the  reason  and  intellect,  by  their  transcendant  beauty 
of  form  and  color.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  granted  that  the  pleasure  of  the  artist 
would  be  enhanced  by  tlie  scientific  knowledge  of  fitness, — adaptation  of  means  to  end, — 
and  the  union  of  the  various  parts  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  contemplated  result, 
which  natural  objects  exhibit.  Like  poetry  and  music,  the  aesthetic  and  scientific  beau- 
ties of  objects  may  be  said  to  stimulate  each  other,  raise  the  thovights,  and  enhance  the 
pleasure  of  the  spectator. 

In  truly  great  minds,  however,  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  there  has  existed  a  deejj-rooted 
love  and  veneration  of  nature.     Milton  considered  it  "  an  injury  and  suUenness  against 
nature,  not  to  go  out  and  see  her  riches,  and  partake  of  her  rejoicings  with  heaven  and 
Here,"  exclaims  an  old  English  poet,  in  reference  to  woods — "  Here  is  the 
nassus,  Castalia,  and  the  Muses."     And  so  charmed  were  the  classic  poets,  wi 


THE  ESSENCE  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

tural  shade  of  trees,  that  they  gave  to  temples  the  names  of  groves.  In  the  visl 
shades  of  trees,  poets  have  composed  verses  which  animated  their  countrymen  to  heroic 
and  glorious  actions.  Here  orators  have  delivered  their  discourses,  and  the  profoundest 
philosophers  have  been  so  enamoured  of  nature's  beauties  as  to  be  content  to  pass  their 
lives  in  her  bosom,  in  repose  and  contemplation.  Among  the  luminaries  of  the  middle 
ages,  how  prized  must  have  been  flowers,  since  we  find  them  named  after  whatever  was 
most  valued.  Nature  is  the  great  storehouse  of  art,  and  in  the  infancy  of  the  latter,  and 
prior  to  the  refined  pleasures  which  art  affords,  being  extensively  dififused  among  any  coun- 
try or  people,  the  innate  love  of  the  beautiful  would,  of  course,  be  more  concentrated 
upon  nature.  Accordingly,  in  the  early  period  of  mankind,  as  also  in  the  infancy  of  dif- 
ferent states,  large  use  was  made  of  beautiful  natural  objects  in  seasons  of  festivity,  as 
emblems  of  happiness  and  rejoicing,  "  Let  us  crown  ourselves,"  says  the  author  of  the 
Book  of  Wisdom,  "  with  rose-buds  and  flowers  before  they  wither."  Early  nations  in 
all  their  ceremonies,  whether  of  the  banquet,  the  altar,  or  the  tomb,  made  large  use  of 
flowers  as  docorations.  Among  the  classical  ancients,  the  wreath  of  the  victor,  and  other 
rewards  of  merit,  were  arboraceous,  and  this  led  to  their  extensive  employment,  as  sym- 
bols, in  architectural  decorations, 

I  come  now  to  the  second  branch  of  my  subject,  viz : — the  beautiful  in  the  Human  Mind 
or  Imagination. 

"Every  star  in  Heaven,"  says  Emerson,  "is  disconcerted  and  insatiable;  gravitation 
and  chemistry  cannot  content  them;  ever  they  woo  and  court  the  eye  of  every  beholder; 
every  man  that  comes  into  the  world  they  seek  to  fascinate  and  possess, — to  pass  into  his 
mind,  for  they  desire  to  republish  themselves  in  a  more  delicate  world  than  that  they  oc- 
cupy. It  is  not  enough  that  they  are  Jove,  Mars,  Orion,  and  the  North  star,  in  the  gra- 
vitating firmament;  they  would  have  such  poets  as  Newton,  Herschell,  and  Laplace,  that 
they  may  re-exist  in  the  finer  world  of  rational  souls,  and  fill  that  realm  with  their  fame. 
These  beautiful  basilisks  set  their  brute,  glorious  eyes,  on  the  eye  of  every  child,  and, 
if  they  can,  cause  their  natures  to  pass  through  his  wondering  eyes  into  him,  and  so  all 
things  are  mixed."  And  so  through  the  wondering  eyes  of  every  man,  all  external  ob- 
jects seek  to  pass.  The  aspect  of  nature  ojierates  insensibly  upon  the  soul  of  every  ra- 
tional creature  in  proportion  to  his  natural  susceptibility,  and  the  images  reflected  there, 
whilst  modified  by  the  original  disposition  and  current  of  his  being,  become  invigorated 
by  his  intellectual  power,  and  enriched  by  the  stream  of  education.  Impressions  and  in- 
fluences operate  also  from  other  sources,  until  his  mind  Ijecomes 

"  A  mausii'U  for  a'l  lovely  forms, 
His  memory  a  dwelling;  place 
For  al  sweet  sounds  and  harmonies." 

A  feeling,  more  or  less,  of  the  beatiful  in  nature,  is  common  to  all,  but  only  the  artist, 
who  from  superior  intellectual  power,  and  greater  strength  of  imagination,  has  a  fresher, 
deeper  insight  into  the  inexhaustible  life  around,  possesses  the  caj  anty  to  form  his  ideal, 
and  give  it  expression.  All  have  the  esthetic  feeling,  which  means  sensitiveness,  or  sus- 
ceptibility of  the  impress  or  influence  of  the  beautiful  and  poetic,  but  few  have  the  crea- 
tive power  which  belongs  to  the  artist,  viz :  the  faculty  fjr  reproducing  and  embodying 
the  feeling  in  some  form  of  art, — a  picture,  a  statue,  a  building,  or  a  poem.  This  is  what 
is  properly  termed  genius,  than  which  there  is  perhaps  nothing  more  difficult  to  define.  It 
has  been  said  to  consist  of  a  refined  love  of  nature,  "a  love  of  the  flower  and  perfection 
s,  and  a  desire  to  draw  a  new  picture,  or  copy  of  the  same."  Sir  Joshua 
must  be  considered  incorrect  when  he  speaks  of  the  imagination  as  being  a 


THE  ESSENCE  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 

faculty  than  reason;  for  the  creative  faculty  is  certainly  beyond  those  which  merely  per- 
ceive and  compare.  It  is  the  chief  part  of  genius —genius,  to  which  all  creation  admin- 
isters. To  its  sleepless  eye  lies  open  all  the  human  heart,  and  all  the  stores  of  nature. 
A  frequenter  of  the  highways  and  thoroughfares  of  life,  the  man  of  genius,  whether  poet, 
or  painter,  or  architect,  is  a  watcher  of  events,  "the  votary  of  circumstance:"  alive  to 
every  influence  of  nature,  awake  to  the  varied  and  complicated  truths  of  existence,  he  lives 
with  more  than  life  about  him;  and  the  difference  between  the  mind  of  the  artist  or  poet 
and  ordinary  minds  is  this,— to  the  latter,  the  model,  theme,  subject,  or  whatever  else  the 
groundwork  may  be  called  on  which  the  material  expressions  of  genius  are  founded,  ap- 
pears or  sounds  in  simple  unconnectedness,  unsuggested  and  unsuggesting,  and  exciting 
no  further  sensations  than  are  contained  within  its  known  limits;  but  to  the  true  artist  it 
is  the  type  of  a  past  revelation,  or  the  symbol  of  something  intuitively  foreseen.  It  is  a 
point  in  an  infinite  series,  coming  down  from  the  past,  and  leading  off  to  the  future  in  an 
interminable  perspective.  And  thus  he  to  whom  is  given  "  the  vision  and  the  faculty  di- 
vine," sees  or  hears  in  his  subject  that  which,  till  he  has  materially  realised  it,  is  to  other 
men  invisible,— inaudible.  The  truest,  subtlest  alchymy  is  his  who,  from  seeming  dross, 
works  the  true  metal  of  undying  thought. 

Genius,  however,  is  not  always  a  producer :  there  are  those  who  are  recipients  of  the 
tide  of  inspiration  from  nature,  and  yet  yield  no  fruit  to  the  storehouse  of  Art.  They  form 
and  nurture  their  ideal  but  for  their  own  solace  and  delight.  Dissatisfied  with  human 
power  of  execution,  and  free,  perchance,  from  "that  last  infirmity  of  noble  minds,"  they 
build  only  in  the  region  of  dream-land,  and  shrink  from  all  material  realization  of  their 
works,  lest  they  should  betray  the  grandeur  of  their  subject.  They  are  what  a  French 
writer  calls  the  "  virgins  of  the  mind,"  who  "  die  without  leaving  any  trace  of  them- 
selves behind  them  upon  earth." 

The  beauty  existing  in  the  mind  is  higher  in  degree  than  that  in  either  of  the  other 
realms  of  the  beautiful: — ^It  may  be  considered  as  superior  to  nature,  as  no  individual, 
however  beautiful  was  its  archetype;  and  it  is  superior  to  that  in  Art,  as  no  power  of  exe- 
cution can  do  justice  to  the  conceptions  of  genius.  It  is  superior  both  to  its  antetype  and 
to  the  iniage  through  which  it  is  expressed :  the  eye  never  saw  it  in  nature,  nor,  as  I  shall 
by  and  by  endeavor  to  show,  has  the  hand  embodied  it  in  Art.  It  is  neither  copied  from 
a  beiiutiful  individual,  nor  compounded  of  the  faultless  features  of  a  species,  "create  of 
every  creature's  best."  No  beauty  was  ever  so  formed,  either  in  the  mind  or  in  Art.  The 
mind  operated  upon  and  inspired  by  the  general  beauty  of  nature,  has  become  pregnant 
with  a  new  beauty,  greater  than  all.  By  what  steps  the  process  was  conducted  we  can  no 
more  explain  than  we  can  the  production  of  some  vivid  dream  of  the  night  from  dull  wak- 
ing thoughts  and  incidents.  The  ideal  of  landscape  Art  is  also  in  advance  of  nature; 
every  plant,  flower,  and  herb  has  its  Venus  or  Apollo  of  ideal  beauty :  nature's  general 
beauty  has  inspired  and  suggested  a  beauty  beyond  the  individual,  and  ideas  may  be  form- 
ed, and  have  been  formed,  of  various  inanimate  objects,  which  perhaps  no  individual  ever 
has  reached,  or  ever  Avill. 

One  object,  perhaps,  kindled  it  at  first,  but  by  constant  studj^and  observation — by  catch- 
ing nature  in  her  highest  moments — in  her  happiest  moods — and  fixing  on  marble  or  can- 
vas the  most  fleeting  beauties,  it  was  corrected  and  improved.  An  artist  once  told  me, 
that  after  he  had  placed  the  model  in  the  finest  position  he  could  think  of  for  exhibiting 
the  beauty  and  grace  of  the  figure,  by  an  accidental  movement,  he  (the  model)  has  him- 
imcdiatcly  gone  into  one  infinitely  finer,  and  which  he,  (the  artist,)  could  never 
imagined  nor  dreampt  of.     This  he  has  no  sooner  fixed  on  his  canvas,  than  a  slight 


CULTIVATION  OF  PEARS  ON  THE  QUINCE. 

and  partial  movement  of  some  limb  has  developed  a  new  beauty.  Grace  is  beauty  in  mo 
tion,  and  the  motion  of  animals,  as  well  as  of  man,  is  constantly  revealing  new  beauties 
to  the  eye  of  the  delighted  artist. 

Thus  is  the  ideal  generated,  nothwithstanding  the  fact  that  natural  beauty  of  form  is 
dependant  on  fixed  and  determinate  scientific  principles,  which  are  alike  applicable  to  all 
the  arts  of  design,  and  which  it  is  the  duty  of  the  artist  to  investigate  and  study.  It  is  a 
fact  that,  by  the  application  of  certain  rules  of  proportion,  beauty  of  form  is  produced  in 
each  art,  and  that  the  beauty  of  the  face  and  figure  of  the  Apollo  is  governed  by  precisely 
the  same  principles  that  reign  in  the  temples  of  the  Acropolis.  This  is  a  truth,  howev- 
er, that  does  not,  what  some  writers  have  supposed,  set  aside  the  theory  of  the  ideal.  It 
is  but  a  dead  beauty  that  can  be  produced  by  rule.  Expression  is  its  soul  and  life,  and 
this  cannot  be  given  by  rule.  We  may  point  out  the  more  prominent  effect  of  the  various 
passions  upon  the  human  countenance ;  but  to  communicate  to  marble  the  light,  the  glow, 
the  shade  of  thought,  the  reflection  of  the  soul  on  the  human  face,  is  the  work  of  genius. 
The  province  not  of  rule,  but  of  intuitive  feeling.  It  is  as  true  in  art  as  in  religion,  that 
the  letter  killeth,  the  spirit  giveth  life. 


CULTIVATION  OF  PEARS  ON  THE  QUINCE. 

BY  S.  B.  PARSONS,  FLUSHING,  L.  I. 

There  are  few  modes  of  culture  that  have  made  more  rapid  progress  in  the  United 
States,  than  that  of  the  pear  upon  the  quince  stock.  Ten  years  ago  these  dwarf 
pears,  were  found  in  very  few  gardens,  and  then  only  as  specimens  valuable  for  their  no- 
velty. They  were  even,  until  a  very  few  years  since,  esteemed  temporary  in  their  charac- 
ter, and  were  never  planted  in  a  permanent  orchard.  While  this  opinion  may  be  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  true,  or  rather,  while  we  have  no  evidence  to  controvert  its  truth,  and  while 
the  pear  on  its  own  root,  must  always  have  the  preference  in  a  permanent  orchard,  yet 
those  on  quince  may  always  advantageously  have  a  place  in  every  orchard,  and  may  be 
profitably  cultivated  for  market  fruit.  That  this  opinion  is  becoming  more  prevalent,  is 
evinced  by  the  large  sales  of  pears  on  quince  that  are  made  annually,  in  various  parts  of 
the  country.  To  ensure  success,  they  require  very  different  treatment  from  those  on  their 
own  root,  and  as  a  few  years  experience  may  be  of  value  to  some  who  are  about  planting, 
I  will  briefly  relate  the  course  that  I  have  pursued  with  satisfactory  results. 

Some  few  years  ago,  becoming  convinced  that  the  profits  of  the  nursery  business  could 
not  be  relied  upon,  I  decided,  with  our  friend  Rivers,  to  cast  out  another  anchor  to  wind- 
ward. I  prepared  at  first  only  four  acres,  intending  with  these  to  test  the  experiment, 
and  then,  if  successful,  to  plant  my  whole  farm. 

Although  much  fruit  has  not  yet  made  its  appearance,  the  fruit  buds  promise  me  so 
abundant  a  crop  another  year,  as  almost  to  warrant  me  in  planting  to  a  very  large  extent. 

The  field  I  selected  was  an  old  pasture  ground,  with  light  loamy  soil,  but  not  inclining 
to  sand,  and  a  subsoil  of  hard-pan.  This  I  planted  with  corn  until  the  ground  was  well 
mellowed,  and  then  put  upon  it  two  sloop  loads,  or  3,000  bushels  of  stable  manure,  worth 
on  the  ground,  $175. 

The  orchard   was  then   planted   with   poars  on   their   own  root,   twenty  feet  apart. 
ecu  these  were  planted  pears  on  quince,  ten  feet  apart,  each  row  being  thus  ten 
and  the  trees  in  each  ten  feet.     Each  alternate  row  is  thus  all  pears  on  quin 


CULTIVATION  OF  PEARS  ON  THE  QUINCE. 

on  pear  and  half  on  quince,  and  the  whole  orchard  contains  1,760  pears,  1,320 
on  quince,  and  440  on  their  own  root.  By  thus  planting,  I  think  I  gain  a  double  advan- 
tage. Tliose  on  quince  come  in  bearing  soon,  and  will  produce  a  good  crop  while  the  others 
arc  growing,  and  tliose  on  pear  will  undoubtedly  be  sufficiently  large  to  produce  a  good  crop, 
and  even  to  occupy  the  ground  to  the  exclusion  of  the  others,  long  before  those  on  quince 
will  decay,  if  such  decay  ever  should  take  place. 

Pears  on  quince  require  high  garden  culture,  and  it  is  my  i)ractice  to  put  upon  tliis  or- 
chard two  sloop  loads  of  manure  every  year.  The  first  year  after  planting,  the  orchard 
was  cropped  with  corn,  which  I  found  to  be  injurious  to  the  trees.  I  have  since  cropped 
with  potatoes  and  sugar  beets,  alternately,  and  Avith  good  management,  the  crop  of  these 
can  be  made  to  pay  for  the  manure,  and  sometimes  for  the  labor.  With  the  exception  of 
a  single  row,  all  those  on  their  own  root  are  of  one  varieiy,  the  Lawrence.  This  variety 
originated  on  Long  Island,  is  hardy,  an  early  and  abundant  bearer,  and  a  good  grower. 
The  fruit  of  medium  size,  nearly  equal  to  the  Virgalieu  (Doyenne)  in  flavor,  is  in  eating 
from  mid-autumn  to  mid-winter,  and  will  keep  and  ripen  in  a  barrel,  like  apples.  Its 
uniform  price  in  the  market  in  autumn,  is  five  dollars  per  bushel,  and  at  its  latest  period 
of  maturity,  when  no  other  pears  can  be  found  in  market,  it  would  probably  bring  ten  to 
fifteen  dollars  per  bushel. 

Of  the  varieties  on  quince,  I  have  only  planted  six.  Glout  Morccau,  Vicar  of  Wink- 
Jidd,  Louise  Bonne  dc  Jersey,  Winter  Nelis,  Laiorencs  and  Beurre  d'Aremherg.  "With 
the  two  latter  the  orchard  is  not  quite  finished,  owing  to  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  them. 
It  is  always  quite  as  uncertain  to  form  an  estimate  of  a  crop  of  fruit,  as  it  is  for  our  Bos- 
ton friends  to  calculate  the  amount  of  money  they  can  make  from  the  250  chickens  hatch- 
ed from  the  2G0  eggs,  laid  according  to  guarantee,  in  276  successive  days,  by  the  pure 
white  Shangha3  hen,  M'hich  may  have  cost  fifty  dollars.  But  after  making  all  reasonable 
allowances,  and  finding  to-da}^,  upon  some  of  my  A^icar  of  Winkfield  trees,  planted  in  the 
spring  of  1849,  from  fifty  to  scventj'-five  fruit  buds  each,  I  shall  be  somewhat  disappoint- 
ed if  those  on  quince,  in  the  fifth  year  fi'om  planting,  should  not  produce  one  dollar  per 
tree.  The  same  result  I  hope  to  obtain  from  those  planted  on  their  own  root,  in  the  tenth 
year,  after  making  all  reasonable  deductions  from  loss  by  blight.  It  will  not  be  safe  to 
estimate  that  the  crop  between  the  trees  will  always  pay  the  expense  of  cultivation.  With 
good  management,  it  may  do  so  the  first  few  years;  but  as  the  trees  grow,  the  roots  will 
gradually  occupy  the  space  betM'een  them,  when  no  crop  can  be  grown,  although  high  ma- 
nuring will  still  be  required. 

There  may  be,  and  we  know  in  the  experience  of  some  there  have  been,  obstacles  in  the 
cultivation  of  this  fruit,  which  have  not  yet  obstructed  the  advancement  of  my  trees,  and 
it  may  not  be  safe  for  all  to  estimate  according  to  the  preceding  statements.  Such,  how- 
ever, are  the  results  of  my  ex-perience;  and  while  it  may  be  expedient  to  make  large  al- 
lowances for  difficulties  which  may  hereafter  present  themselves,  I  cannot  doubt,  that  with 
the  present  almost  entire  destitution  of  good  pears,  in  all  the  markets,  and  the  facilities 
of  transporting  them  to  England,  I  should  be  fully  justified  in  planting  much  more  large- 
ly than  I  have  yet  done.  S.  B.  Parsons. 

Flushing,  Dec.  10,  1850. 


ORCHARDS  OF  NEW-ENGIiAND. 

SOME  FACTS  ABOUT   ORCHAEDS  IN  NEW-ENGLAND. 

BY  HENRY  F.  FRENCH,  EXETER,  N.  H 

Mr.  Downing — How  strange  it  is,  that  after  all  the  preaching  you  and  I,  and  other 
sensible  men,  have  done,  no  more  attention  is  paid  in  New-England  to  raising  fruit,  as  a 
regular  source  of  profit !  An  instance  of  Yankee  shrewdness  has  recently  come  to  my 
knowledge,  which  well  illustrates  the  advantages  of  knowing  something  on  this  sultject. 
In  the  spring  of  1846,  a  Mr.  W.  M'as  engaged  in  grafting  apple  trees,  in  various  parts  of 
Rockingham  count}^,  and  with  the  rest,  grafted  enough  to  amount  to  about  twelve  dollars, 
for  Mr.  R.,  of  Brentwood,  upon  an  old  orchard  of  natural  fruit,  consisting  of  about  one 
hundred  trees.  Mr.  R.  thought  it  rather  extravagant  to  expend  so  much  in  an  experiment 
so  hopeless,  and  W.  finally  proposed  that  he  would  go  on  in  subsequent  years,  and  graft 
as  many  of  the  old  trees  as  he  chose,  do  the  necessary  pruning,  and  receive  for  his  pay 
one  half  the  fruit  that  should  grow  on  his  grafts  during  the  next  twelve  j^ears,  and  R. 
should  cultivate  the  land  among  them,  for  his  own  profit.  This  was  considered  a  very  li- 
beral proposition,  and  at  once  accepted,  and  the  contract  was  reduced  to  writing,  and  ex- 
ecuted. I  happened  to  beat  Brentwood  during  the  past  autumn,  just  after  W.  had  called 
for  his  share  of  the  fruit,  and  learned  that  the  scions  set  in  1846,  for  setting  which,  he 
had  charged  twelve  dollars,  produced  sixteen  barrels  of  marketable  Baldwin  Apples, 
worth  twenty-four  dollars.  INIr.  R.  had  become  so  far  convinced  of  his  mistake,  that  he 
offered  W.  one  hundred  dollars  to  release  his  interest  in  the  orchard,  which  W.  promptly 
declined.  I  soon  afterwards  met  W.,  and  conversed  with  him  on  the  subject,  and  he  said 
that  so  far  from  releasing  his  interest  in  the  contract,  for  that  sum,  he  would  not  sell  his 
share  of  the  fruit/or  om  xjiar,  for  that  amount,  and  allow  the  purchaser  to  choose  it  out 
of  the  term. 

He  has  now  grafted  most  of  the  trees  with  the  Baldwin  Apple,  and  thinks  he  shall  get  more 
than  a  hundred  dollars  a  year,  in  each  of  the  even  years  of  the  last  half  of  his  term.  The 
evzn  year  is,  as  you  well  know,  the  bearing  year  for  the  Baldwin,  throughout  New-Eng- 
land. Mr.  W.  further  informs  me,  that  he  has  made  many  similar  contracts  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  has  acquired  an  interest  in  about  one  thousand  trees;  that  his  share  of  ap- 
ples, grown  on  land  of  other  people,  the  past  fall,  was  ninety  barrels,  and  that  none  of 
the  scions  which  produced  it  were  set  prior  to  1845.  He  grafted  one  tree  in  1845,  which 
produced  in  1850,  six  barrels  of  fruit,  and  that  he  knows  fifty  trees  which  this  year  pro- 
duced ten  barrels  each,  w^orth  in  all,  ^'750. 

Now,  there  are  scattered  all  over  New-England,  orchards,  of  natural  fruit,  which  is 
either  fed  to  swine,  or  made  into  cider.  As  food  for  swine,  soar  apples  are  a  little  better 
than  nothing.  I  have  given  hundreds  of  bushels  to  my  swine,  which  seemed  to  find  at 
least  a  rational  amusement  in  eating  them.  Indeed,  for  store  pigs,  they  do  tolerably  well, 
but  for  fattening  animals,  I  should  adopt  the  principle  laid  down  in  the  good  woman's 
receipt  for  making  saAvdust  bread,  "  the  less  sawdust,  the  better  the  bread."  Sweet  ap- 
ples are  worth,  perhaps,  one-sixth  as  much  per  bushel,  as  food  for  animals,  as  Indian  corn, 
and  this  will  just  about  pay  for  gathering  them. 

As  to  cider,  we  estimate  that  eight  bushels  of  apples,  will  make  one  barrel  of  cider, 
Avorth  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents,  which  will  not  pay  a  man  who  has  any  thing  else  to  do, 
for  his  labor  in  making  it,  if  you  give  him  the  fruit  on  the  trees.  The  natural  fruit,  then, 
no  value,  and  the  facts  before  stated,  show  how  readily  the  useless  trees  which  pro- 
,  may  be  made  valuable 


ORCHARDS  OF  NEW-ENGLAND. 

it  may  be  said,  that  great  attention  has  already  been  given  to  this  subject,  and  that 
vast  quantities  of  apples  are  already  produced  in  New-England.  Let  us  see  how  this  mat- 
ter is.  By  the  census  tables  of  1840,  it  appears  that  the  "  products  of  orchards  in  New- 
Hampshire,  was  greater,  in  proportion  to  its  population,  than  that  of  any  other  New- 
England  state,  except  Connecticut,  and  nearly  equal  to  the  jiroduct  of  that  state;  and  that 
Chester,  in  Rockingham  county,  gave  a  larger  product  than  any  other  toto7i,  (by  which 
your  southern  readers  must  understand  toionship,')  in  the  state,  with  one  exception.  Now, 
I  happen  to  know  all  about  that  good  old  town,  for  there  I  was  born  and  bred,  and  taught 
to  plant  trees,  and  love  them  too;  and  although,  with  a  population  of  only  1,300,  it  stands 
almost  first  as  a  fruit  grower,  it  will  be  seen  that  its  product  is  trifling,  compared  with 
what  it  might  and  should  be.  A  citizen  of  that  place,  Avhose  business  calls  him  into 
all  parts  of  the  town,  and  who  personally  gave  me  the  results  of  his  inquiries,  has  care- 
fully taken  an  account  of  the  marketable  winter  apples  produced  there,  in  the  present 
year,  1850,  noting  the  name  of  the  producer,  and  the  kind  and  quantity  of  fruit  raised  by 
each.  lie  has  taken  an  account  of  a  little  more  than  ten  thousand  bushels,  equal  to  four 
thousand  barrels,  of  which  nine-tenths  are  of  the  Baldwin  Apple,  The  Baldwin  bore 
bountifully  this  year,  throughout  this  state,  while  other  varieties  bore  but  little.  I  think 
the  whole  crop  this  year  is  not  much,  if  any,  over  the  average  of  other  years.  One  fur- 
ther fact  will  enable  me  fairly  to  present  my  view,  and  that  is,  that  one  single  orchard,  in 
the  town  referred  to,  covering  onlj^  two  acres  of  land,  produces  annually,  on  an  average, 
eight  hundred  bushels  of  first  rate  winter  apples,  equal  to  about  one-twelfth  of  the  whole 
product  of  one  of  our  best  fruit  growing  towns;  so  that  it  seems  that  twenty-five  acres 
of  well  cultivated  trees,  might  produce  as  much  as  that  whole  township,  of  some  25,000 
acres,  now  produces,  and  yet  their  crops  of  this  year  would  give  to  ench  man,  v/oman, 
and  child  of  the  town,  about  twenty  bushels  of  winter  apples. 

A  comparison  of  the  facts  I  have  stated,  will  give  some  idea  of  the  adaptation  of  our 
soil  to  the  culture  of  the  apple,  and  I  think,  clearly  show  that  we  have  as  yet,  made  but 
a  beginning  in  this  branch  of  cultivation.  I  suppose  that  any  land  in  New- Hampshire, 
except  an  occasional  dry,  sandy,  pine-plain,  which  will  yield  thirty  bushels  of  Indian  corn 
to  the  acre,  ma}*,  with  the  same  annual  labor  and  manuring,  produce  three  hundred  bush- 
els of  winter  apples,  of  the  best  quality,  worth  almost  as  much  per  bushel  as  the  corn, 
^fost  of  us  are  ready  to  admit,  that  corn  at  the  north,  cannot  be  raised  with  profit.  We 
are  losing  all  confidence  in  the  potato  crop,  and  ovir  manufacturers  are  sagely  shaking  their 
heads,  and  saying  that  Ncw-Englanders  must  leave  agriculture  to  the  west  and  south,  and 
"  devote  their  behavior"  to  cotton-mills  and  the  mechanic  arts.  Now  I  believe,  sir,  that 
the  cultivation  of  the  apple  alone,  may  be  made  a  source  of  more  profit  to  New-England, 
in  twenty-five  years,  than  all  her  present  manufactures;  and  I  trust  the  day  is  far  distant, 
when  the  sturd}^  sons  of  the  Puritans  will  leave  their  fair  fields,  on  the  mountain  sides, 
and  in  the  river  valleys,  and  grow  pale  and  degenerate  in  the  pent-up  factories  and  work- 
shops. 

No  portion  of  the  world  is  better,  and  I  think  none  so  well,  adapted  to  this  fruit,  as 
New-England.  Our  Baldwin  Apple  is  in  perfection  about  the  middle  of  January,  and  our 
Russets  are  in  eating  until  June.  Indeed,  we  often  see  the  old  j^ear's  fruit  of  our  or- 
chards, side  by  side  Mith  that  of  the  new  year.  So,  after  the  apples  of  more  southern 
orchards  have  decayed,  we  have  the  market  to  ourselves.  Steam  navigation  renders  ex- 
portation to  the  whole  world,  easy  for  us,  and  the  home  consumption,  as  well  as  foreign 
must  increase  beyond  the  supply,  for  a  generation  to  come,  at  least 

But  I  did  not  propose  to  write  an  essay,  only  to  say  enough  to  attract  more  attent 


THE   CRUSADE  AGAINST  THE  GRAND  TURK. 

old  trees,  "vrhich  are  impatiently  waiting  to  be  grafted,  and  to  prompt  to  the  f 
ing  of  new  orchards. 

Like  the  "  Ancient  Mariner,"  I  am  very  apt,  when  I  get  upon  my  favorite  suLject,  to 
hold  on  to  my  auditor  till  he  is  tired  of  me.  I  have  read  the  Horticulturist  from  its  com- 
mencement, and  think  the  "  Granite  State"  has  not  contributed  its  fair  proportion  to 
your  columns.  If  no  better  hand  should  oflfer,  perhaps,  in  future  nimibers, I  maybe  able 
sometimes  to  remind  your  readers,  that  we  are  not  so  far  north,  but  that  our  trees  blos- 
som, and  give  fruit  and  shade  in  summer,  and  our  ink  may  be  thawed  by  a  good  fire  in 
Avinter.  I  have  concluded  that  one  need  not  refrain  from  writing  for  a  publication  because 
he  may  not  know  quite  so  much  as  the  editor.  Many  seem,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  dis- 
believe in  all  n?tv  tlioories  in  agriculture,  as  if  Adam,  and  his  graceless  son,  Cain,  had  ex- 
hausted the  whole  subject,  and  transmitted  their  knowledge,  with  other  fruits  of  the  for- 
bidden tree,  to  all  their  posterity  alike.  Upon  them,  an  impression  may  be  made,  by  re- 
peating good  advice  until  its  novelty  is  wore  off,  and  it  comes  to  have  some  respeect 
because  of  its  antiquity. 

Others  seem  to  listen  and  comprehend,  but  never  to  profit  by  good  teachings.  The  good 
seed  of  the  sower,  seems  to  fall  upon  a  kind  of  ground  not  named  in  the  parable,  a  swampy 
soil,  perhaps,  where  it  neither  vegetates  nor  perishes.  Now  this  class  is  not  entirely 
hopeless.  The  general  tone  of  their  ideas  is  gradually  elevated.  They  are  like  the  good 
woman  who  went  to  church  every  Sunday,  without  being  able  to  recollect  a  word  of  the 
sermon.  She  said,  that  in  bleaching  her  cloth  on  the  grass,  she  sprinkled  it  day  after  day, 
with  water,  and  it  grew  whiter  and  whiter,  but  not  a  drop  of  water  remained  upon  it! 
and  she  supposed  the  preaching  affected  her  in  the  same  wa}' ! 

An  amusing  instance  of  inattention  of  this  sort,  came  to  my  notice  last  last  spring. 

A  neighbor  of  mine  gravely  announced  to  me  one  bright  morning,  that  he  believed  that 
some  sort  of  a  bug  was  biting  his  plums,  and  described  the  crescent  shaped  bite  of  the 
curculio  !  Upon  my  explanation  of  the  matter,  he  said  he  had  often  heard  and  read  of  such 
creatures,  but  seemed  utterly  amazed  that  an  insect  with  such  a  scientific  name,  should 
come  into  the  enclosure  of  a  plain,  honest  farmer,  like  himself.  He  evidently  had  an  idea 
that  the  curculio  was  of  the  humbug  species,  and  belonged  exclusively  to  book  farmers. 
He  pursued  the  subject  very  earnestly,  however,  and  a  few  days  after  announced  that  he 
had  succeeded  in  capturing  one  of  the  enemy,  and  produced  him  to  his  admiring  family 
and  friends,  in  the  shape  of  a  dor-bug !  The  best  advice  to  such  people  is,  to  subscribe 
for  the  Horticultiu-ist.  Yours  truly,  Henry  F.  French. 

[Our  correspondent  is  right  in  saying  that  Xew-Hampshirc  has  not  hitherto  been  duly 
represented  in  our  columns.  As  we  recognize  in  him,  a  correspondent  of  the  right  stamp, 
we  bid  him  welcome,  and  shall  hope  to  have  more  of  such  pithy  matter  from  the  Granite 
State,  frequently.     Ed.] 


THE  FRUIT-GROWERS'  CRUSADE  AGAINST  THE  GRAND  TURK. 

BY  WM.  HOPKINS,  BRUN.SWICK,  N.  Y. 

Of  what  use  is  the  curculio?  This  question  has  often  forced  itself  on  my  mind,  when 
witnessing  the  vexatious  effects  of  its  industry  and  perseverance;  but  I  have  never  an- 
swered it  to  my  own  satisfaction. 

I  have  been  acquainted  with  this  destroyer  about  ten  years,  and  if  the  observations  I 
have  made,  should,  by  you,  be  considered  worth  recording  in  the  Horticulturist,  you 
heartily  welcome  to  them. 


THE  CRUSADE  AGAINST  THE  GRAND  TURK. 

ing  the  torm  above  stated,  the  curculio  has  multiplied  with  fearful  rapidity, 
vicinity.  A  few  years  since,  when  trees  of  bearing  size,  were  not  so  numerous  by  many 
hundreds,  as  at  present,  plums  and  cherries  Avere  seen  in  abundance,  in  our  markets;  lat- 
terly, they  may  be  seen  in  abundance,  when  one-third  grown,  under  the  trees. 

The  curculio  flies  faster  and  farther,  than  most  writers  suppose  it  does.  I  have  worried 
a  specimen  with  lime,  salt,  &c.,  and  with  a  splinter  of  wood,  until  the  outside  shell  has 
opened  up  the  center  of  the  back,  and  a  pair  of  wings  projected  seemingly  from  behind, 
very  like  the  wings  of  the  insect  known  by  the  common  name  "  lady-bird,"  or  lady-bug. 
In  tlic  spring  of  184(3,  I  planted  an  orchard  and  garden,  with  nearly  one  thousand  fruit 
trees  and  shrubs,  in  a  situation  where  there  are  no  other  fruit  trees  nearer  than  an  eighth  of  a 
mile;  yet,  the  unmistakable  crescent-shaped  punctures,  were  visible  the  same  season  on 
every  stone  fruit  that  set — on  the  pear,  and  to  my  astonishment,  on  the  grape,  and  the 
gooseberry.  I  have  also  seen  it  on  large  sized  currrants.  It  does  no  injury,  however,  to 
the  last  named  fruits. 

The  curculio  does  but  little  damage  Avhen  plenty  of  poultry  is  kept  in  the  fruit  garden. 

Strolling  one  day,  on  the  grounds  of  a  slovenly  neighbor,  I  was  delighted  with  the  sight 
of  twenty  or  thirty  trees  of  the  common  horse  plum,  loaded  with  perfect  fruit.  The  trees 
standing  in  sod — unsightly  objects — pigs  and  chickens  the  only  gardeners.  I  have  noticed 
in  several  gardens,  where  poultry  is  kept,  the  result  to  be  satisfactory. 

The  curculio  is  most  active  about  night,  and  may  be  seen,  as  busy  as  bees,  in  the  early 
evening — even  in  places  where  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  specimen  in  the  daylight. 

I  have  never  battled  the  curculio  with  success.  They  are  too  numerous  for  me;  they  can 
reinforce  faster  than  I  can  kill.     I  wi.sh  it  were  possible  to  annihilate  them. 

I  have  just  put  heaps  of  manure  under  the  trees,  but  it  does  not  hinder  them.  I  have 
hung  vials  of  sweetened  water  in  the  trees,  and  caught  thousands  of  flies  and  moths,  of 
various  kinds,  but  the  "  turk"  will  not  enter.  I  have  tried  tubs,  and  a  light,  at  night — 
the  invitation  was  slighted.  I  have  thrown  slaked  lime  over  the  trees,  and  on  the  fruit; 
the  curculio  has  poked  it  away  with  perfect  ease.  Being  determined,  last  season,  to  se- 
cure a  few  apricots,  I  wliite-washed  them,  and,  (can  you  believe  it,)  the  wretches  stood  on 
the  stalks,  and  effected  their  work  of  destruction.  I  have  tried,  early  in  the  season,  to  cut  out 
the  eggs — if  I  cut  out  one  in  the  morning,  there  would  be  two  or  three  in  an  excellent  con- 
dition to  be  operated  upon  in  the  evening,  on  the  same  fruit.  From  thirty  nectarine  trees, 
I  had  but  three  nectarines,  last  season;  those  were  on  a  small  tree  under  which  a  few 
fowls  were  regularly  fed. 

I  have  some  faith  in  paving,  although  I  have  not  tried  it.  In  a  back  yard  in  Sixth- 
street,  Troy,  there  are  four  stunted,  little,  knotty  plum  trees,  bearing  an  inferior  Avhite 
plum.  The  lady  of  the  house  told  me  those  trees  produced  more  than  three  bushels  of 
plums,  free  from  the  marks  of  any  insect. 

The  yard  is  closely  paved  all  over  with  bricks.  In  other  parts  of  the  city,  where 
branches  over-hang  the  public  pavements,  the  fruit  hung  on  till  the  boys  knocked  it  off". 
I  do  not  believe  a  busliel  of  perfect  plums  were  produced  in  either  of  the  excellent  gar- 
dens on  ]\Iount  Ida,  in  1850.  In  this  I  may  be  mistaken,  as  I  judge  entirely  from  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  trees  in  July;  there  are  no  pavements  in  those  gardens.  From  more  than 
fifty  plum  trees  in  my  own  garden,  but  one  plum  ripened.  From  a  hundred  cherry  trees, 
but  three  or  four  cherries.  There  was  no  neglect  on  my  part.  The  trees  were  jarred,  and 
the  curculios  picked  up  and  destroyed,  as  long  as  a  perfect  fruit  was  visible.  Aga 
question  forces  itself— What  is  the  curculio  for?     I  cannot  tell,  unless  to  feed  the 


THE   CRUSADE  AGAINST  THE  GRAND  TURK. 

irds  are  not  here  now; — thoughtless  boys,  and  barbarous   men,  have  hunted 
until  only  an  occasional  timid  wanderer,  can  be  seen. 

I  have  put  the  following  questions,  to  the  oldest  people  in  the  neighborhood,  and  re- 
ceived, invariably,  about  the  same  answers.  "  Are  your  apples  as  sound  now,  as  those 
you  raised  thirty  or  forty  years  ago.'"  "  Oh  no!  they're  gnarly  and  wormy  now — the 
seaso7is  aint  as  good  as  they  used  to  be."  "  Are  the  birds  as  plentiful  now,  as  former- 
ly.?" "  Oh  law,  no!  they  used  to  make  noise  enough  to  deafen  you,  when  I  was 
young."  "Do  you  raise  as  much  poultry?"  "  Why  no!  guess  not,  we  get  more  butch- 
ers' meat  now."  It  will  be  readily  observed  by  the  first  reply,  that  those  persons  have 
not  the  least  idea  of  the  present  cause  of  failure — (I  do  not  insist  that  the  curuclio  is  the 
only  troublesome  thing.)  I  know  of  a  solitary  apple  tree,  in  a  forty  acre  field,  where  every 
fallen  fruit  shows  several  crescent  shaped  punctures. 

I  have  never  yet  conversed  with  a  person  who  understood  the  natural  history  of  the 
curculio.  The  only  one  that  seemed  to  have  any  previous  idea  of  it,  was  an  Irishman. 
He  complained  to  me,  that  his  plums  were  all  falling  to  the  ground.  As  I  make  it  a  rule 
to  talk  to  every  one  who  will  listen  to  me,  about  the  curculio — I  commenced  an  explana- 
tion— he  suddenly  threw  up  both  hands,  and  exclaimed  stcntoriousl}',  "  is  it  the  baby's 
nail,  A'ou  mane.'  by  this,  and  by  that,  I  alwa3-s  minded  the  thing  as  a  token  of  bad  luck, 
and  so  I  did."     By  the  way,  his  is  a  stiff  clay  soil,  and  that  dont  save  him. 

Paving  under  the  trees,  or  white-washing  the  fruit,  may  save  the  crop,  but  both  plans 
are  expensive;  and  even  when  we  have  done  it — the  greatest  vigilance  is  necessary,  be- 
cause we  are  still  surrounded  by  the  enemy.  Nothing  short  of  total  extermination,  should 
be  the  aim  of  the  fruit  grower; — let  him  explain  the  nature  of  this  insect,  to  every  one 
who  owns  a  tree,  to  every  man,  woman  and  child,  on  his  premises; — let  him  be  a  grower 
of  poultry,  as  well  as  a  grower  of  fruit; — let  him  give  accommodation  and  encouragement 
to  the  birds  of  the  air,  in  every  possible  way; — let  him  petition  the  proper  authorities, 
that  stringent  laws  may  be  enacted  for  their  preservation;  that  all  dishonest  persons  may 
be  prevented  from  coming  on  our  land,  to  shoot,  or  ensnare  them.  The  word  dishonest  may 
appear  too  severe  for  this  place — let  it  pass.  Those  who  feed  the  birds,  (namely,  the  own- 
ers of  the  soil,)  have  a  special  claim  to  their  services,  and  no  straggling  sportsman  should 
deprive  them  of  it. 

People  around  me,  pay  but  little  heed  to  my  advice,  in  regard  to  the  curculio,  because  I 
have  never  been  able  to  save  a  crop  of  fruit.  This  war  of  extermination  must  be  general; 
a  few  individuals,  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  country,  cannot  effect  it.  I  think  if  the 
N.  Y.  State  Agricultural  Society  should  have  a  simple  history  of  the  nature  and  habits 
of  the  curculio,  with  the  best  means  of  destroying  it,  printed  and  posted  up,  in  every 
country  tavern,  and  district  school-house,  in  the  state,  the  good  arising  therefrom,  would 
be  seen  in  a  very  few  years.  Yours,  &c.  William  Hopkins. 

Vomona^  Brunsivich,  Rens.  Co.,  N.  T.,  Dec.  13,  1850. 

[We  are  glad  to  find  that  our  correspondent,  despairing  as  he  seems  to  be,  has  still 
IJvith  in  fowls.  We,  also,  believe  that  plums  and  the  poultry-yard,  should  go  together. 
There  are  some  districts  like  his,  where  the  curculio  seems  almost  to  "rain  down," — 
while  others,  like  Hudson,  Albany,  and  Schenectady,  produce  the  finest  plums,  as  easilj'- 
as  currants.  We  have  seen  hundreds  of  bushels  of  delicious  plums — green-gages,  etc.,  in 
the  famous  orchard  of  Mr.  Denniston,  near  Alban}^ — the  soil  a  stiff  cla}^.  Yet  the  coun- 
try at  large,  suffers  sadly  from  the  Grand  Turk,  and  we  want  more  light.     Ed.] 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 


MR.   DOWNING'S   LETTERS   FROM   ENGLAND. 

Forn  (lav.s  in  the  I.sle  of  Wight — the  weather,  the  climate,  and  the  scenery,  all  de- 
lio-htful.  The  Island  it.sclf,  about  fifteen  miles  long,  is  England  in  miniature — with  its 
hedges,  green  lawns,  soft-tufted  verdure — now  and  then  a  great  house,  and  plenty  of  ornce 
cottages.  In  some  respects  it  fell  below,  but  in  manj^,  fully  equalled  my  expectations.  If 
you  think  of  it  as  the  "  Garden  of  England,"  it  Avill  disappoint  you,  for  there  are  coun- 
ties in  England — for  example,  Warwickshire — better  cultivated,  and  more  soignee,  than 
tliis  spot.  A  considerable  portion  of  the  Island — especially  the  western  end,  is  neither  cul- 
tivated fields  nor  gardens,  but  broad  downs  and  high  bluffs.  I  should  say  that  you  would 
get  the  best  idea  of  the  Isle  of  AVight,  without  seeing  it,  by  imagining  it  composed  partly 
of  Nahant,  and  partly  of  Brookline — near  Boston — the  prettiest  rural  nest  of  cottage  vil- 
las in  America.  The  bare  grass  slopes  and  bluffs  of  Nahant,  will  correspond  to  the  wes- 
tern part  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  while  the  suburbs  of  Boston,  that  I  have  mentioned,  are 
a  very  fair  offset  to  the  more  decorated  and  cultivated  cottages  and  grounds  of  the  eas- 
tern and  southern  portions. 

You  cross  from  Southampton  to  the  Island,  in  rather  less  than  an  hour,  by  one  of  the 
small  mail  steamers  plying  here.  The  towns  of  East  and  West  Cowes,  where  you  land, 
as  well  as  Rj'de,  which  is  a  few  miles  further,  have  quite  a  gay  ajipearance  at  this  season 
of  the  year,  from  the  harbors  being  filled  with  the  pretty  vessels  of  the  various  yacht 
clubs,  that  hold  their  regattas  here — and  the  accommodation  at  the  hotels  is,  for  the  time 
at  least,  brought  up  to  the  st3de  and  prices  which  the  titled  yacht-men  naturally  beget. 
The  flag  of  the  admiral  of  this  fancy  fleet,  the  Earl  of  YAREOROUGn,  floated  from  the 
mast  of  his  fast  looking  vessel,  and  a  variety  of  craft,  of  all  sizes,  .lying  about  hor,  gave 
the  whole  neighborhood  an  air  of  great  life  and  animation. 

Our  party,  three  in  number,  took  one  of  the  light,  open  carriages,  ■\\'ith  which  the 
Island  abounds,  and  started,  the  next  morning  after  our  arrival,  to  explore  it  pretty  tho- 
roughly. 

The  neighborhood  of  East  Cowes,  abounds  with  pretty  scats,  and,  on  the  opposite 
shore,  are  numberless  little  cottages,  by  the  side  of  the  water,  "  to  let,"  with  all  the 
cosy  furniture  in-doors,  of  English  domestic  life,  and  out-of-door  accompaniments  of  trees 
and  shrubs,  and  overhanging  vines,  that  gave  them  a  very  inviting  appearance.  Although 
I  had  never  lived  under  the  authority  of  a  landlord,  I  could  find  nothing  but  tempta- 
tions to  become  a  lessee  of  such  pretty  domicils  as  these.  They  look  so  truly  home-ish, 
and  tell  ycm  at  a  glance,  such  a  story  of  years  of  the  tenderest  care  and  attention,  in  all 
that  makes  a  cottage  charming,  that  they  make  one  long  to  stop  acting  the  traveler,  and 
nestle  down  in  the  bosom  of  that  peaceful  domestic  life,  which  they  suggest. 

A  short  distance,  perhaps  a  mile,  from  Cowes,  is  Osborne  House — the  marine  re- 
sidence of  YiCTORLA..  This  place  is  her  private  property,  and  having  been  almost  wholly 
erected  within  a  few  years  past,  may  be  said  to  afford  a  tolerable  index  to  the  taste  of 
lier  j\Iajcsty.  The  residence  is  an  extensive  villa,  in  the  modern  Italian  style,  with  a  front 
of  perhaps  two  hundred  feet,  and  the  outlines  picturesquely  broken  by  tower  or  campa- 
nile. It  stands  in  the  midst  of  a  sandy  plain,  Avhich  is  level  around  the  house  and  toward 
the  road,  and  undulating  and  broken  towards  the  sea— of  which  it  commands  fine  views. 

It  is  fenced  off  from  the  highway  by  a  close,  rough  board  "  park  paling,"  some   sev 
ht  feet  high.     Within  this   fence  is  a  belt  of  young  trees,  and  scattered  here 
over  the  surface  of  most  of  the  enclosure,  are  groups  and  patches  of  small  trees 


MR   DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

shrubs,  newly  planted.  The  whole  place  has,  most  completely,  the  look  of  the  pret 
tious  place  of  some  of  our  wealthy  men  at  home,  who,  turning  their  backs  upon  the  num- 
berless fine  natural  sites,  with  which  our  country  abounds,  choose  the  barest  and  bald- 
est situation,  in  order  that  they  may  dig,  delve,  level  and  grade,  and  spend  half  their  for- 
tunes, in  doing  what  nature  has,  not  a  mile  distant,  offered  to  them  ready  made,  and  a 
thousand  times  more  beautifully  done.  Osborne  House  may  be  a  toleraVjle  residence,  (we 
mean  respecting  its  out  of-doors-pleasure,)  fifty  years  hence;  but  it  is  almost  the  only 
country  seat  that  we  saw  in  England,  that  looked  thoroughly  raw  and  uncomfortable.  I 
suppose,  in  a  country  where  everything  seems  finished,  there  is  a  singular  pleasure  in  tak- 
ing a  place  in  the  rough,  and  working  beauties  out  of  tameness  and  insipidity.  The 
Queen  lives  here,  and  walks  and  drives  about  the  neighborhood,  in  a  comparatively  sim- 
ple and  unostentatious  manner,  and  attracts  very  little  attention,  and  her  husband  prac- 
tices farming  and  planting,  quite  in  good  earnest. 

A  country  seat,  only  a  mile  distant,  in  a  thoroughly  English  taste,  was  a  complete  con- 
trast to  the  foregoing,  and  gave  us  great  pleasure.  This  is  Norris  Castle,  built  by  Lord 
Seymour,  but  now  the  property  of  Mr.  Bell,  who  resides  here.  Neither  the  place,  nor 
the  house,  is  larger  than  several  on  the  Hudson,  and  the  grounds  reminded  me,  in  the 
bimple  lawn  or  park,  sprinkled  with  fine  groups  of  trees,  of  Livingston  INIanor  and  EUers- 
lie.  The  house  gave  me  greater  pleasure,  than  any  modern  castellated  building  that  I 
have  seen;  partly  because  it  was  simple,  and  essentially  domestic-looking,  and  yet,  with 
a  fine  relish  of  antiquit}^  about  it.  The  facade  may,  perhaps,  be  130  feet,  and  I  was  never 
more  surprised,  than  when  I  learned  that  the  whole  was  erected  quite  lately.  The  walls 
arc  of  gray  stone,  rather  rough,  and  they  get  a  large  part  of  their  beauty  from  the  luxuri- 
ant vines  that  festoon  every  part  of  the  castle.  The  vines  are  the  Ivy,  and  our  Virginia 
creeper,  intermingled,  and  as  both  cling  to  the  stone,  they  form  the  most  picturesque  dra- 
pery, which  has,  in  a  few  years,  reached  to  the  top  of  the  battlemented  tower,  and  given 
a  mellow  and  venerable  character,  to  the  whole  edifice. 

We  dined  at  Newport,  the  substantial  little  town,  which,  lying  nearly  in  the  center  of 
the  Island,  serves  as  its  capital  and  principal  market.  The  Isle  of  Wight,  enjoying,  as 
it  does,  a  wholly  insulated  position,  is  almost  the  only  English  ground  not  interlaced  by 
rail-roads.  For  this  reason,  the  genuine  stage  coach,  now  comparatively  obsolete  else- 
Avhere,  still  flourishes  here,  and  still  carries  a  number  of  passengers  out-side,  quite  at  va- 
riance with  all  our  ideas  of  safety  and  speed.  The  guard,  who  accompanies  these  coaches, 
usually  performs  an  obligato  on  the  French  horn  or  key  bugle,  just  before  the  coach  starts — 
and  performs  it  too,  with  so  much  spirit  and  taste,  that  it  was  not  without  some  difficulty  I 
could  resist  the  temptation  to  join  his  party.  Progress,  and  the  spirit  of  the  times, 
though  they  give  us  most  substantial  benefits,  in  the  shape  of  rail-roads,  etc,  certainly  do 
not  add  to  the  poetry  of  life — as  I  thought  when  I  compared  the  delicious  air  of  Bellixi, 
played  by  the  coach  guard,  with  the  horrible  screams  of  the  steam-whistle  of  the  locomo- 
tive— now  associated  with  the  travel  of  all  Christendom. 

It  is  but  a  mile  from  Newport  to  Carisbrook  Castle — one  of  the  most  interesting  old  ruins 
in  England.  It  crowns  a  fine  hill,  and  from  the  top  of  its  ruined  towers,  you  look  over  a 
lovely  landscape  of  hill  and  vale,  picturesque  villages,  and  green  meadows.  The  castle, 
itself,  with  its  fortifications,  covers  perhaps,  half  a  dozen  acres,  and  is  just  in  that  state 
of  ruin  and  decay,  best  calculated  to  excite  the  imagination,  and  send  one  upon  a  voyage 
into  dream-land.  You  clamber  over  the  parapets,  and  look  out  from  amid  the  mouldering 
battlements,  mantled  with  the  richest  masses  of  Ivy,  and  see  wild  trees  growing 
very  center  of  what  were  once  stately  apartments.     Here  is  the  very  window  from 


MR,  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

KS  I.  vainly  ciuleavored  to  make  his  escape,  when  he  was  a  prisoner  within 
walls,  two  hundred  j-ears  ago,  (1647.)  I  felt  tempted  to  question  the  stone  Avails  around 
mc,  of  the  sad  soliloquies  which  the}^  had  heard  uttered  by  that  royal  prisoner  and  his 
children,  confined  here  after  him.  But  the  stone  looked  silent  and  cold;  the  Ivy,  howev- 
er, so  full  of  mingled  life  and  health  and  antiquity,  seemed  full  of  the  mysterious  secrets 
of  the  place,  and  would,  doubtless,  have  unburdened  itself  to  a  willing  ear,  if  any  such 
would  linger  here  long  enough  to  get  into  its  confidence.  I  looked  down  into  the  vast  well, 
in  the  center  of  the  castle,  300  feet  deep,  and  still  in  excellent  order — from  which  water  is 
drawn  by  an  ass,  walking  his  slow  rounds  inside  a  large  windlass  wheel.  I  clambered  up 
the  72  stone  steps  that  led  into  the  high  old  ruined  keep,  and  found  one  of  my  compan- 
ions, (who  is  a  military  man,)  discoursing  to  a  little  group  of  tourists,  who  had  made  a 
pic-nic  on  the  ramparts,  about  the  nature  of  the  fortifications — breast  works — and  ba.s- 
tions,  which  cover  some  fifteen  or  twenty  acres  under  the  castle  walls.  "While  he  was  de- 
monstrating how  easily  this  ancient  stronghold  could  be  taken  by  a  modern  beseiger,  I 
speculated  on  the  quiet  way  in  which  a  few  types  and  a  printing  press,  are,  at  the  present 
moment,  fixr  more  powerful  restrainers  of  wayward  sovereigns,  and  more  able  protectors  of 
the  rights  of  the  people,  than  the  fierce  battlements,  and  standing  war  dogs,  of  the  old 
castles  of  two  centuries  ago.  The  imagination  is  so  excited  by  these  strong  old  castles, 
now  fast  crumbling  into  dust,  that  we  wonder  what  the  people  of  two  hundred  years 
hence,  will  have,  to  be  romantic  and  picturesque  about,  as  emblems  of  power  in  a  by-gone 
age.  An  old  printing  press,  or  galvanic  battery,  perhaps!  No — even  they  will  be  melted 
up  for  their  value,  as  old  metal. 

We  drove  from  Carisbrook,  to  the  extreme  end  of  the  Island — saw  the  Needles,  the 
colored  sands,  and  the  white  cliffs  of  Albion,  and  returned  by  the  south  side.  What 
pleased  me  more  than  even  the  sea  views,  and  the  bold  bays,  and  snowy  cliffs,  (perhaps 
from  novelty,)  were  the  Duivns — those  long  reaches  of  gently  sloping  surface,  covered 
with  very  short  gras.s — as  close  and  fine  as  the  finest  lawn.  Thej^  are  so  smooth  and 
hard,  and  the  air  is  so  pure  and  exliilirating,  the  temperature  so  bracing  and  delightful, 
that  one  is  tempted  into  walking — or  even  running — miles  and  miles,  upon  them.  Here 
and  there,  mingled  with  the  grass,  on  the  breeziest  parts  of  the  Downs,  I  saw  tufts  of  heath- 
er, in  full  bloom,  only  two  or  three  inches  high — their  purple  bells  embroidering,  as  with 
the  most  delicate  pattern,  the  fragrant  turf.  Herds  of  sheep  graze  upon  these  Downs, 
and  the  flavor  of  the  mutton,  as  you  may  suppose,  is  not  despised  by  those  who  cannot 
live  upon  air,  however  elastic  and  exliilirating. 

All  over  the  Island,  the  roads,  sometimes  broad — but  often  mere  narrow  lanes — are  bor- 
dered by  high  hawthorn  hedges— so  that  frequently  you  drive  for  a  mile  or  more,  with- 
out getting  a  peep  beyond  these  leafy  walls  of  verdure.  I  could  imagine  that  in  May, 
when  these  hedges  are  all  white  with  blossoms,  the  whole  Island  must  be  a  very  gay  land- 
scape—but  just  now,  they  only  served  to  confirm  me  in  my  opinion  of  the  Englishman's 
fondness  for  seclusion  and  privacy,  in  his  own  demesne.  Just  in  proportion  to  the  small- 
ness  of  his  place,  his  desire  to  shut  out  all  the  rest  of  the  Avorld,  increases — so  that  if  he 
only  owns  half  an  acre,  his  hedge  shall  be  eight  feet  high,  and  the  sanctity  of  the  paradise 
within,  remains  inviolate.  The  solid,  high,  well  built  stone  wall  around  some  of  the  little 
cottage  and  villa  places  of  half  an  acre,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Island,  astonished  me, 
and  gave  me  a  new  understanding  of  the  saying,  that  "  every  man's  house  is  his  castle." 
Here,  at  least,  I  thought,  it  is  clear  that  people  understand  what  is  meant  by  private 
and  intend  to  have  them  respected, 
as  not  until  I  reached  the  pretty  villages  of  Bowchurch,   Shanklin,  and  Vent 


MR.  DOAVNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

my  ideal  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  was  realized.  These  villages  lie  on  the  south  side 
the  Island,  backed  by  steep  hills,  and  sloping  to  the  sea.  The  climate  is  almost  perfec- 
tion. It  is  neither  hot  in  summer,  nor  cold  in  winter,  and  though  open  to  all  the  sea 
breezes,  the  latter  seem  shorn  of  all  their  violence  here.  The  consequence  is,  they  enjoy 
that  perfect  marriage  of  the  land  and  sea  so  rarely  witnessed  in  northern  climates.  The 
finest  groves  and  woods,  the  richest  shrubbery  and  flower-gardens,  the  most  emerald- 
like glades  of  turf,  here  run  down  almost  to  the  beach,  and  you  have  all  the  luxuriant 
beauty  of  vegetation,  in  its  loveliest  forms,  joined  to  all  the  sublimity,  life  and  excitement 
of  the  ocean  views.  As  to  the  climate,  you  may  judge  of  its  mildness  and  uniformity, 
when  I  tell  3-ou  that  the  Bay  trees  of  the  ]Mediterranean  grow  here  on  the  lawns,  as  lux- 
uriantly as  snow-balls  do  at  home,  and  Fuchsias,  as  tall  as  your  head,  make  rich  masses 
in  almost  every  garden,  and  stand  the  winter  as  well  here,  as  lilacs  or  syringoes  do  with 
us.  In  the  neighborhood  of  Shanklin,  I  saw  a  charming  old  iiarsonage  house — the  very 
picture  of  spacious  ease  and  comfort — with  its  great  bay  windows,  its  picturesque  gables, 
and  its  thatched  roof — quite  embowered  in  tall  myrtles — Roman  myrtles — one  of  our  cher- 
ished green-house  plants,  that  here  have  grown  thirty  or  forty  feet  high,  quite  above  the 
eves!  Bays,  Portugal  laurels,  hollies  and  China  roses,  surround  this  parsonage,  and  never 
lose  their  freshness  and  verdure,  (the  owner  assured  me  the  roses  bloomed  all  winter  long,) 
cheating  the  inhabitants  into  the  belief  that  winter  is  an  allegory,  or  if  not,  has  only  a 
substantial  existence  in  Iceland  or  Spitzbergen. 

Then  the  hotels  here — especially  in  Shanklin — are  absolutely  romantic  in  their  rural  beau- 
ty. Designed  like  the  prettiest  cottages,  or  rather  in  a  quaint  and  rambling  style,  half  cot- 
tage and  half  villa,  the  roof  covered  with  thatch,  and  the  walls  with  Ivy,  jessamines,  and 
perpetual  roses,  and  set  down  in  the  midst  of  a  charming  lawn,  and  surrounded  by  shrub- 
bery, }^ou  feel  the  same  reluctance  to  take  the  room  which  the  chambermaid,  with  the  fresh- 
est of  roses  in  her  cheeks,  and  the  cleanest  of  caps  upon  her  head — shows  you,  as  3'ou 
Avould  in  hiring  the  apartments  of  some  tasteful  friend  in  reduced  circumstances.  When 
you  rise  from  your  dinner,  (admirably  served,)  always  in  a  private  parlor,  the  casement  win- 
dows open  upon,  a  velvety  lawn,  bright  with  masses  of  scarlet  geraniums,  verbenas,  and  Tea 
roses,  set  in  the  turf,  and  3rou  give  yourself  up  to  the  profound  conviction  that  for  snugness, 
and  cosiness,  and  perfection  at  a  rural  Inn,  the  world  can  contain  nothing  better  than  may 
be  found  in  the  Isle  of  Wight. 

Bowchurch  disputes  the  palm  with  Shanklin,  for  picturesque  and  sylvan  beauty.     We 

made  a  visit  here  to  Capt.  S of  the  Royal  Navy,  whose  beautifid  villa  in  the  Elizabe- 

thean  style,  gave  me  an  opportunity  for  indulging  my  architectural  and  antiquarian  taste 
to  the  utmost.  Imagine  an  entrance  through  a  rocky  dell,  the  steep  sides  of  which  are 
clothed  with  the  richest  climbing  plants,  between  Avhich  your  carriage  winds  for  some 
distance,  passing  under  a  light  airy  bridge,  with  festoons  of  Ivy  and  clusters  of  blooming 
creepers  "waving  over  jour  head.  You  soon  emerge  upon  the  prettiest  of  little  lawns, 
studded  with  fine  oaks,  and  running  down  to  the  very  shore  of  the  sea.  On  the  left  are 
shrubberies,  pleasure  grounds,  kitchen  and  flower  gardens,  all  in  their  place,  and  though 
you  think  the  place  one  of  GO  or  80  acres,  there  are  not  above  20. 

The  house  itself  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and  agreeable  residences  of  moderate 
size  that  I  have  ever  seen.  Its  interior,  especially,  unites  architectural  beauty,  antique 
character  and  modern  comfort,  to  a  surprising  degree.  Every  room  seemed  to  have  been 
studied,  so  that  not  a  feature  was  omitted,  or  an  effect  lost,  that  could  add  to  the  pleasure 
or  increase  the  beauty  of  a  home  of  this  kind. 

If  I  was  delighted  with  the  house,  I  was  astonished  with  the  furniture.     It  was 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

the  antique  Elizabctliean  style — richly  carved  in  dark  oak  or  ebony.  This  is  not  very 
rare  in  England,  and  I  had  seen  a  good  deal  of  the  same  style  in  many  of  the  great  coun- 
try mansions  before.  But  almost  every  piece  here,  was  either  a  master-piece  of  workman- 
ship, or  marked  by  singular  beauty  of  design,  or  of  great  historical  interest.  Yet  the 
effect  of  the  whole,  and  the  adaptation  to  the  uses  of  each  separate  room,  had  been  con- 
sidered, so  that  the  ensemble  gave  the  impression  of  the  finest  unity  of  taste.     Among  the 

fine  specimens  which  Lady  S had  the  goodness  especially  to  make  us  acquainted 

with,  I  remember  an  exquisitelj'  carved  work-box  once  presented  by  Essex  to  Elizabeth, 
a  curious  silver  clock  that  belonged  to  Charles  I.  (and  was  carried  about  with  him  in  his 
carriage  on  his  journeys;)  and  a  superbly  carved,  high  bedstead,  once  Sir  AValter  Ra- 
leigh's, and  the  the  couch  of  Cardinal  Woolset.  There  was  also  an  old  Dutch  organ, 
bearing  the  date  1592,  of  singularly  beautiful  workmanship,  and  still  in  perfect  tone. 
Some  rare  and  unique  carved  oak  cabinets,  of  Flemish  origin,  one  of  them  with  the  histo- 
ry of  John  the  Baptist  carved  in  the  different  pannels,  challenged  the  most  elaborate  in- 
vestigation. Of  beautiful  chairs,  seats,  and  carved  wainscot,  there  was  the  greatest  vari- 
ety, and  in  short  the  house  was  at  once  a  museum  for  an  antiquarian — and  the  most  agree- 
able home  to  live  in. 

This  villa  was  built  by  a  wealthy  eccentric — I  think  a  bachelor — who  wholly  finished  the 
collection  only  a  few  years  ago.  He  carried  his  passion  for  collecting  very  choice  and  rare 
antique  furniture — especially  that  of  undoubted  historical  interest — to  such  an  extent,  that 
it  became  a  species  of  madness,  and  at  last  led  him  through  a  very  large  fortune,  and  forc- 
ed hini  to  surrender  the  whole  to  his  creditors.  You  may  judge  something  of  the  cost  of 
the  furniture — every  room  in  the  house  being  well  filled — when  I  tell  you  that  for  a  single 
Flemish  cabinet,  only  remarkable  for  its  superb  carving,  not  for  any  history  attached  to 
it,  he  paid  iEOOO,  (about  !j^-4,500.)  The  propertj^  when  brought  into  market  in  the  gross, 
Avas  of  course  bought  by  the  present  owner  at  a  merely  nominal  sum,  compared  with 
its  original  cost. 

England,  though  in  the  main  remarkable  for  its  common  sense,  abounds  with  instances 
like  this,  of  large  wealth  applied  to  the  indulgence  of  personal  taste — to  the  building  of  a 
great  mansion,  the  collection  of  books,  pictures,  or  to  the  indulgence  of  personal  whims 
or  IJxncies.  Thus  the  Earl  of  Harrington  has  in  his  seat  near  Derby,  a  peculiar  spot 
of  twenty  or  thirty  acres,  wholly  filled  with  the  rarest  and  most  beautiful  evergreens  in 
the  world — where  Araucarias  and  Deodars,  bought  when  they  were  worth  five  or  ten 
guineas  a  piece,  are  as  plentiful  now  as  hemlocks  in  western  New-York;  where  dark-green 
Irish  Yews  stand  along  thcM'alks  like  sable  sentinels,  and  gold  and  silver  hollies  and  yews 
are  cut  into  peacocks,  shepherds  and  shepherdesses,  and  all  manner  of  strange  and  fantas- 
tical whimsies.  The  conceit,  though  odd,  (I  had  a  glimpse  of  it,)  is  the  finest  specimen 
of  its  kind  in  the  world — yet  the  owner — an  old  man  now — who  has  amused  himself  and 
spent  vast  sums  on  this  garden  for  twenty  years  past,  will  not  let  a  soul  enter  it — unless 
it  may  be  some  gardener  whom  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  critic.  Even  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire — so  the  story  goes— in  order  to  get  a  sight  of  it,  went  incog  as  a  kitchen 
gardener.  The  Duke  of  Marlborough,  a  few  years  ago,  had  a  private  garden  at  Blen- 
heim, surrounded  by  a  high  wall,  into  wliichcvcn  his  own  brother  had  not  been  admitted. 
You  sec  even  the  most  amiable  qualities  of  the  heart— those  Avhich  lead  us  to  make  our 
homes  happy,  occasionally  run  into  a  monomania. 

I  loft  the  Isle  of  AYight  with  the  feeling  that  if  I  should  ever  need  the  nursing  of  soft 
d  kindly  influences  in  a  foreign  land,  I  should  try  to  find  my  way  back  to  it 
one,  blest  with  excellent  health,  and  usually  insensible  to  the  magical  influence 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


most  persons  find  in  a  change  of  air,  finds  something  added  to  the  pleasurable  sensation 
of  breathing  and  taking  exercise,  in  the  delicious  summer  freshness  of  this  spot. 

There  is  another  memorandum  which  I  made  here  and  which  is  worth  relating.  In  Eng- 
land at  large,  the  great  wealth  of  the  landed  aristocracy,  and  the  enormous  size  of  their 
establishments,  raises  the  houses  and  gardens  to  a  scale  so  far  above  ours,  that  they  are 
not  directly  or  practically  instructive  to  Americans.  In  the  Isle  of  Wight,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  numerous  pretty  cottages,  villas  and  country  houses,  almost  precisely  on  a  trans- 
atlantic scale  as  to  the  first  cost  and  the  style  of  living.  For  this  reason,  one  who  can 
only  learn  by  seeing  the  thing  done  to  a  scale  that  he  can  easily  measure,  should  come  to  the 
Isle  of  Wight  to  study  how  to  get  the  most  for  his  money — rather  than  to  Chatsworth  or 
Eaton  Hall.  And  it  is  this  kind  of  rural  beauty,  the  tasteful  embellishment  of  small  pla- 
ces, for  which  the  United  States  will,  I  am  confident,  become  celebrated  in  fifty  years 
more.  Yours  sincerely,  A.  J.  D. 

Brighton^  Aiigtist,  1850. 


Xitrrnni  fAm, 


A  Practical  Treatise  on  the  Construction, 
Heating  and  Ventilation  of  Hot- Houses, 
including    Conservatories,    Green-Hou- 
ses, Graperies,  and  other  kinds  of  Hor- 
ticultural   Structures.      By  Robert  B. 
Leuchars.     Boston,    Jewett  &  Co.,  8vo. 
p.  366. 
We  have  looked  through  the  pages  of  this 
volume,  which  is  fresh  from  the  press,  and 
welcome  it  as  a  valuable  contribution  to  our 
horticultural  literature. 

It  is  the  production  of  a  practical  gar- 
dener whose  communications  are  familiar  to 
our  readers,  and  he  enters  into  the  various 
branches  of  his  subject  with  that  minute 
knowledge  of  the  wants  and  requirements 
of  exotic  plants,  that  can  only  be  possessed 
by  one  who  is  thoroughly  conversant  with 
their  culture. 

Besides  this,  the  work  is  a  better  manual 
on  the  construction  of  the  various  species  of 
glass  structures,  than  any  that  we  remem- 
ber in  the  English  language.  The  author 
presents  a  well  digested  account  of  all  the 
various  forms  and  designs  most  generally 
approved  abroad,  and  gives  very  excellent 
advice,  based  on  his  experience  here,  for  the 
erection  of  horticultural  buildings  in  the 
United  States.  The  best  methods  of  warm- 
and  ventilating  hot-houses,  and  the  man- 
ement  of  the  atmosphere  when  the  build- 

___        _       __ 


ings  are  filled  with  plants,  are  treated  with 
much  scientific  and  practical  ability.  The 
work  is  illustrated  with  numerous  cuts  and 
diagrams  explanatory  of  the  text,  and  is 
sold  at  the  low  price  of  $'1.  It  will  be  found 
a  very  useful  text-book  for  those  who  are 
about  erecting  glass  structures  of  any  kind, 
from  the  small  forcing-pit,  up  to  the  most 
costly  domed  conservatory,  and  we  shall  be 
glad  to  see  it  pass  through  several  editions. 

Elements  of  Scientific  Agriculture,  or  the 

Connection  between  Science  and  the  Art 

of  Practical  Farming.      By   John  P. 

NoRTOX.     Albany,   Pease  &  Co.,  12mo., 

208  pages. 

This  little  volume  has  been  published  several 

months,  and  has  already  found  favor  in  the 

ej'^es  of  a  large  circle  of  readers.     It  is  au 

attempt  on  the  part  of  Professor  Norton, 

of  Yale  College,  to   put  in  the  shape  of  an 

elementary  volume,  Avhich  the  farmer  may 

carry  in  his  pocket,  or  the  student  use  as  a 

class  book,  the  scientific  knowledge  of  the 

present  day  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 

The  intention  is  well  carried  out  in  its  ex- 
ecution. The  language  is  clear  and  plain, 
and  the  unnecessary  use  of  technical  terms 
has  been  avoided.  The  novice  in  the  science 
of  farming,  or  the  practical  farmer  who 
just  discovered  that  science  has  already 


LITERARY  NOTICES,  &c. 


something  and  is  on  the  eve  of  doing  much 
more  for  his  art,  will  both  find  in  this  an  ad- 
mirable stepping  stone  to  the  subject — by 
the  aid  of  which,  if  he  has  any  real  interest 
and  intelligence  about  the  matter,  he  may 
climb  to  regions  of  endless  interest,  and  if 
he  is  clever  enough  to  sift  that  which  has 
practicability  in  it,  from  the  purely  theo- 
retic— endless  profit. 

This  volume  had  its  origin  in  a  prize  es- 
say elicited  by  the  New- York  State  Agricul- 
tural Society — and  has  been  warmly  approv- 
ed of  by  that  body.  We  gladly  recommend 
it  to  beginners  in  the  science  of  farming. 


7%e  Western  Horticultural  Revieio,  No.  2. 

Edited  by  Dr.  Warder.  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

8vo.,  $3  per  ann. 
There  is  a  pleasant  physiognomy  about  our 
young  kinsman  of  the  Buck-eye  state,  and 
we  very  cordially  shake  hands  with  the  Edi- 
tor across  the  AUeghanies.  This  number 
has  as  a  frontispiece — the  "  wine  house  of 
CoRNEAu  &  Son,"  and  there  is  a  flavor  of 
the  vineyard  and  vintage  aboui  it,  that  marks 
its  locality  in  the  midst  of  the  new  wine  re- 
gions of  ximerica. 

A  large  part  of  this  number  is  occupied 
with  a  report  of  the  Annual  Fair  of  the 
Cincinnati  Horticultural  Society,  which 
seems  to  have  been  a  very  brilliant  and  suc- 
cessful anniversary.  A  complimentarj'-  piece 
of  plate,  in  the  shape  of  a  finely  wrought 
silver  goblet,  was  presented  to  N.  Long- 
worth,  Esq.,  for  his  eminent  services  in 
horticulture,  and  a  spirited  address  was  de- 
livered by  Mr.  Mansfield. 

The  vintage  on  the  Ohio  has  been  large 
this  season,  but  the  quality  of  the  wine  is 
tliought  a  little  below  the  average.  The  Edi- 
tor gives  the  same  account  of  the  compari- 
son of  the  Diana  grape  with  the  Catawba, 
which  Mr.  Longworth  has  already  laid  be- 
fore our  readers — and  very  properly  adds 
that  the  grapes  sent  from  Boston  were  not 
in  fit  condition  for  the  test.  He  also  says, 
r.  Hovey's  nurseries,  (near  Boston) 
last  November,  the  Catawba  and  Dia- 


na, side  by  side — the  one  green,  shrivelled, 
and  not  fit  to  eat — the  other  plump,  juicy, 
and  of  pleasant  flavor" — not  bad  evidence 
en  passant  of  the  better  qualities  of  the  Di- 
ana in  a  northern  climate.  The  west  is  cer- 
tainly large  enough  to  present  its  local  in- 
terests more  completely  through  such  a  me- 
dium as  this  new  serial,  and  we  wish  Dr. 
Warder  success  in  his  undertaking. 


^.Vnii3i[lnaiuii  I^nrtirulttiTnl  Inrbtij. 

At  the  November  exliibition,  there  was  a  fiiie  display 
of  Green-house  plants.  Fruits  and  Vegetables,  which  drew 
a  large  attendance  of  visitors.  A  vote  of  thanks  was  ten- 
dered to  Mrs.  John  R.  Latimer,  for  her  liberality  in  re- 
linquishing to  the  society,  the  many  premiums  awarded 
to  her  for  years  past.  The  President  took  occasion  to 
address  the  society  on  topics  of  intere.st,  in  which  he  por- 
trayed the  beuefits  resulting  to  the  public  by  the  associa- 
tion, furnishing  a  concise  history,  and  exhibiting  its  opera- 
tions from  tlie  commencement,  throwing  out  many  valua- 
ble suggestions,  and  concludmg  with  a  desire  for  its  pros- 
perity and  prolonged  usefulness. 

At  llie  December  meeting,  owing  to  the  severity  of  the 
weather,  the  exhibition  was  less  interesting  than  usual. 
Among  the  plants  exhibited,  was  a  most  beautiful  and 
fragrant  air  plant,  from  the  President,  new,  and  sho^nifor 
the  first  time.  Of  fruits  tliere  was  a  dish  of  magnificent 
pears,  supposed  Beurre  Easter,  from  the  garden  of  Wm. 
V.  Pettit.  Also  a  dish  of  Beurre  Easter  from  H.  W. 
S.  Cleaveland,  Burlington,  and  Echassery  and  St.  Ger- 
main Pears,  from  Tlio.  Hancock,  Burlington.  The  usual 
premiums  were  awarded. 

The  library  comnntlee  submhted  their  annual  report  on 
the  state  of  the  library,  by  which  it  appears  that  seventy 
volumes  have  been  added  during  the  year,  and  that  the 
library'  contains  nine  hundred  and  twenty  volumes  on  ap- 
propriate snbjects. 

The  Treasurer  submitted  his  semi-annual  statement. 

The  Secretary  remarked  that  it  was  with  satisfaction, 
tliat  he  was  instructed  to  inform  the  Society  that  the  Pre- 
sident had,  to  supply  a  deficiency  experienced  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  premiums,  in  cases  where  medals  were  desir- 
ed in  lieu  of  money,  made  arrangements  for  executing  a 
set  of  dies,  wliicli  he  designed  as  a  present  to  the  i-'ociety; 
whereupon,  on  motion,  ordered  that  the  thanks  of  the  So- 
ciety be  tendered  for  the  acceptab'egift. 

The  committee  for  establishing  premiums  reported  a 
schedule  for  the  ensuing  year,  wliich  after  several  amend- 
ments, was  adopted. 

A  special  committee  for  nominating  officers  to  be  elect- 
ed at  the  approaching  anniversary,  ^vas  originated.  Also 
a  committee  to  take  into  consideration,  the  accommoda- 
tions for  the  stated  meetings  and  exhibitions  of  the 
ty,  and  report. 

T.  P.  James,  Recording  Seer 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


/nrrigu  cn^  BlisrrllnncDEQ  Jhim. 


Domestic  Life  in  Germany. — "  There  is  cer- 
tainly a  kind  of  simplicity  about  these  Ger- 
mans, which  one  does  not  see  in  America,"  I 
thought  to  myself,  as  I  sat  in  my  friend's  par- 
lor, in  a  comfortable  house,  looking  out  over 
the  Alster,  It  was  the  house  of  a  man  of  for- 
tune, a  retired  merchant :  yet  the  whole,  though 
bearing  marks  of  a  cultivated  taste,  showed  a 
very  remarkable  plainness.  The  parlor  in 
which  I  sat — a  high,  handsome  room,  with 
prettily-painted  ceiling  and  tasteful  papering — 
had  no  carpet.  The  furniture  was  plain;  there 
was  no  grand  display  of  gilt  and  crimson  any- 
where; and  it  was  evident  very  little  had  been 
laid  out  on  mere  splendor.  Yet  one  could  not 
but  notice  how  carefully  even  very  common 
implements  had  been  chosen  with  reference  to 
grace  of  form.  The  candle-stands,  the  shade- 
lamps,  and  even  the  pitcher,  or  the  common 
vase,  had  something  exceedingly  graceful  and 
almost  '■'  classical"  in  their  shape.  The  pic- 
tures on  the  walls  or  the  table  were  not  ex- 
pensive— often  mere  sketches;  yet  they  were 
very  pleasant  to  look  at,  and  had  not  been 
placed  there,  evidently,  merely  because  "  pic- 
tures must  be  hung  in  every  respectable  par- 
lor," The  groups  of  the  daguerreotype  showed 
the  same  traits;  not  formidable  ranks  of  stiff 
forms,  but  easy  groups  around  some  animal, 
or  in  some  natural  position.  There  were 
flowers,  too,  everywhere;  and  especially  that 
most  graceful  of  all  tlower-pots,  which  I  have 
seen  alone  in  Germany,  though  I  believe  it 
came  from  Italj^,  called  the  "  Ampel."  It  is 
simply  a  half  vase,  very  much  like  the  old 
Grecian  lamp,  hung  with  cords  from  the  C;'iling, 
with  some  flowering  vine  in  it,  which  twines 
and  wreaths  around  it;  yet  the  beauty  of  it  all 
can  hardly  be  imagined.  Perhaps  tlie  only  ex- 
ception in  this  house  to  the  general  good  taste, 
was  the  high  white  Berlin  stove,  looking  like  a 
porcelain  tower  with  gilt  battlements;  but  pos- 
sibly one  who  is  accustomed  to  our  quiet,  som- 
bre machines,  must  need  a  little  discipline  to 
get  used  to  these  gay  articles. 

Nearly  every  house  I  have  visited  in  Ham- 
burg has  been  without  carpets,  though  of 
course  many  are  so  only  during  the  summer. 
One  notices  the  same  kind  of  simplicity  everj-- 
where.  People  do  not  spend  as  much  money 
as  those  of  the  same  rank  would  in  America. 
Men  of  the  higher  cla.sses  travel  in  a  way  a 
gentleman  would  be  ashamed  to  with  us.  In 
my  mode  of  traveling  I  have  gone  much  in  the 
third-class  cars  and  cheap  conveyances,  and  I 
have  been  surprised  at  the  respectable  class  of 
persons  one  finds  in  them,  in  company  with  the 
"  Baner."  Students,  you  know,  in  Germany 
take  the  third-class  cars,  It  was  only 
other  day  that,  traveling  in  this  way,  I 
gentleman  ft'om  one  of  the  first  literary 


families  of  Germany,  a  personal  friend  of 
Chevalier  Bunsen,  who  evidently  thought  it 
no  more  strange  that  he  should  economise  by 
traveling  with  the  peasants,  than  that  lie  wore 
woolen  instead  of  satin.  I  ta.lked  with  him  a 
little  in  regard  to  it,  and  he  said  he  was  thank- 
ful "  there  were  very  few  circles  yet  in  Ger- 
many where  poverty  was  a  disgrace!"  This 
gentleman  meant  to  live  in  one  of  the  principal 
cities  of  Prussia,  and  have,  as  he  said,  "  all  the 
pleasures  of  a  gentleman,"  such  as  music,  and 
the  enjoyments  of  arts  and  society,  for  about 
$200  a  year !  And  I  am  disposed  to  think, 
from  all  my  observation,  that  tliroughout 
Europe  the  middle  classes  spend  less  money, 
and  are  contented  to  retire  from  business  with 
less,  than  the  same  classes  in  our  country. 
Of  course,  when  one  comes  to  the  higlier  class- 
es no  comparison  can  be  made.  But  among 
the  lawyers,  and  merchants,  and  literary  men, 
there  is  much  less  money  circulating,  and  it 
is  made  with  considerable  more  difficulty;  so 
that  naturally  there  would  be  a  difference  in 
the  spending  of  it.  I  have  heard  Americans 
sometimes  call  the  Germans  mean  in  money 
matters,  but  I  think  it  has  been  from  an  igno- 
rance of  this  flict.  For  certainly  in  all  that  be- 
longs to  hospitality,  and  kind,  liberal  treat- 
ment of  strangers,  they  are  beyond  any  people 
I  have  ever  met.  But  the  more  I  see  them, 
and  especially  those  of  the  cultivated  classes, 
the  more  I  am  surprised  at  this  trait  I  men- 
tioned above — this  simplicity,  and  this  open- 
hearted  good  nature,  or  "  Gtdmuthigkcit,'^  as 
they  call  it.  For  all  these  qualities  are  con- 
nected, and  they  certainly  give  an  a.spect  to 
the  German  character  which  scarcely  any  other 
nation  has.  I  have  sometimes  thought  some- 
thing of  the  same  traits  appeared  in  their  litera- 
ture, one  finds  so  little  subtle  wit  or  humor  in 
it ;  and  when  wit  does  appear,  it  is  so  broad  or 
grotesque  that  one  could  hardly  call  it  wit. 
For  instance,  no  Punch  could  ever  be  sustained 
among  the  G(?rmans  at  the  present  day ;  and  I 
believe  no  satirist  like  either  Swift  or  Dickens 
has  ever  appeared  among  them.  I  am  not  dis- 
posed to  attach  quite  as  much  value  to  this 
"  good  nature"  of  the  Germans  as  I  did  once. 
It  seems  rather  the  result  of  circumstances 
than  of  any  hard  sti-uggle  with  "  bad  nature." 
The  nation  has  long  been  in  a  situation  where 
they  were  shut  out  from  many  of  the  most 
absorbing  and  intense  struggles  of  life ;  and 
their  activity  has  expended  itself  very  much  on 
abstract  subjects.  They  have  become  easy  and 
good-natured  because  there  was  so  little  to  dis- 
turb them.  However,  this  is  mere  theorising, 
and  may  be  taken  for  what  it  is  worth. 

We  should  remember  in  regard  to  the  econo- 
my  of  the  Germans,  that  it  is  not  a  mere  at- 
tempt to  save  money  for  the  sake  of  saving. 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


It  seems  to  be  merely  the  choosing  of  one  class 
of  pleasures  rather  than  another.  The  Haus- 
frau  prefers  b(;ing  without  an  expensive  car- 
pet for  the  sake  of  having  many  tasteful  ob- 
jects around  her,  or  that  she  may  have  more 
means  for  social  company.  The  gentleman 
goes  on  the  fore-deck  of  the  steamboat,  so  that 
he  may  have  more  money  for  the  next  concert, 
or  may  be  able  to  fill  his  library  better. 

There  is  very  much  in  Hamburg  which  has 
interested  me,  beside  the  people.  I  had  no  idea 
from  travels  how  much  there  was  in  it  quaint 
and  striking.  The  quiet  old  streets,  like  those 
of  the  Dutch  cities,  with  canals  and  shade-trees, 
and  fantastic  gables  on  the  houses,  and  rather 
anomalous  statuary  in  the  niches  of  the  walls 
in  the  "old  city,"  contrasting  so  strangely  with 
the  bustling,  grand  new  streets.  For  you  know 
about  eight  years  ago  a  good  part  of  Hamburg 
was  burnt  down,  and  this  has  all  been  built  up 
in  really  a  most  splendid  manner.  I  have  seen 
no  city  in  Europe  whose  business-streets  make 
so  fine  an  impression  at  first  sight.  Stone  is 
very  scarce  here,  so  that  nearly  all  the  houses 
are  built  of  brick,  with  a  hard  cement  or  stucco 
over.  Either  the  climate  is  more  favorable,  or 
it  is  a  much  better  cement  than  with  us,  but 
certainly  the  stuccoed  houses  look  far  better 
than  in  our  cities.  And  it  has  afforded  an  op- 
portunity for  something  which  is  extremelyneed- 
ed  in  our  country,  tliat  is,  giving  to  each  house 
its  own  peculiar  ornament.  One  becomes  so 
heartily  tired  of  those  long  rows  of  monotonous 
houses,  exactly  corresponding  to  each  other, 
without  an  attempt  at  variety  or  character. 
Here  I  have  i)assed  through  streets  of  high, 
handsome  houses,  where  they  had  all  the  ad- 
vantage which  ours  have — and  undoubtedly  it 
is  an  advantage — of  a  succession  of  similar  lines 
on  the  front,  one  above  the  other ;  but,  besides, 
peculiar  independent  ornaments  to  each  build- 
ing, every  house  had  a  character.  Every  man 
could  show  his  own  peculiar  taste  on  the  front 
of  his  home.  And  this  cement  gives  a  beauti- 
ful opportunity  for  all  kinds  of  graceful  mold- 
ing and  ornament,  and  even  for  small  statuary. 
The  Hamburgers  have  certainly  improved  it 
well.  Mr.  Sindley,  a  prominent  English  engi- 
neer here,  has  been  "  the  genius"  of  all  these 
improvements.  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  him  frequently,  and  the  account  of  all 
his  eflbrts,  his  attempts  to  stop  the  progress  of 
"  the  great  fire"  by  the  general  blowing  up  of 
buildings;  his  struggles  with  the  lower  classes, 
who  at  first  believed  him  almost  a  demoniac 
man,  plotting  the  destruction  of  the  city;  his 
gigantic  plans  for  rebuilding,  and  his  endea- 
vors to  inspire  the  Germans  with  something  of 
the  English  practical  spirit,  would  altogether 
form  an  interesting  history  in  itself. — C.  S. 
in  the  Independent. 


Analysis  of  the  Apple. — A  critical  and 
elaborate  analysis  of  the  apple  has  recently 
been  made  by  Dr.  Salisbury,  of  Albany,  the 
results  of  which  are  of  deep  interest  to  farmers, 


as  throwing  light  upon  the  composition  of  this 
most  important  of  all  fruits.  Much  attenti<m 
has  within  a  few  years  been  directed  to  the 
subject  of  feeding  apples  to  stock,  and  a  though 
many  well  authenticated  instances  are  given, 
where  this  fruit  has  proved  exceedingly  valua- 
ble, especially  for  fattening  hogs,  yet  many  are 
incredulous  as  to  its  possessing  suflficient  nutri- 
tive properties  to  render  it  a  profitable  crop  to 
cultivate  expressly  for  that  purpose.  The  facts 
elicited  by  Dr.  Salisbury,  go  to  show  that 
while  apples  contain  about  3  per  cent,  more  of 
water  than  the  potato,  yet  "in  the  aggregate 
amount  of  fat -producing  products,  they  do  not 
materially  ditfer." 

Six  varieties  were  submitted  for  analysis:  the 
Talman  Sweeting,  Swaar,  Kilham  Hill,  Rox- 
bury  Russet,  English  Russet,  and  R.  Island 
Greening.  Of  the  five  last  named,  the  mean 
of  the  analyses  of  the  ash  is  as  follows : 

With  Csrboiiic  Wilhout  Car- 
acid,  bonic  acid. 

Carbonic  acid 15 .210 

Silica 1.362  1.6.37 

Pliosphate  of  iron 1 .  386  1 .593 

Phosporic  acid 11 .2-52  13.207 

Lime 3.442  4.199 

Magnesia 1.400  1.009 

Potash 31.810  37.010 

Soda 20.810  24.799 

Chlorine 1.822  2.169 

Sulphuric  acid 6.062  7.229 

Organic   matter  thrown  down 
by  nitrate  of  silver 4 .890  5.828 

99.. 396  100.000 

"  The  percentage  of  ash  in  the  apple  is  small 
yet  rich  in  phosphoric  and  sulphuric  acids,  pot- 
ash, and  soda.  1000  lbs.  of  fresh  apple  contain 
about  827  lbs.  of  water,  170.4  lbs.  of  organic 
matter,  destroyed  by  heat,  and  2.6  lbs.  of  in- 
organic matter,  or  ash.  1000  lbs.  dry  api)le 
contain  between  17  and  18  lbs.  of  ash — 100  lbs. 
of  apple  ashes  contain,  when  deprived  of  car- 
bonic acid,  about  13  lbs.  of  phosphoric  acid,  7 
lbs.  of  sulphuric  acid,  38  lbs.  of  potash,  and 
2.5  lbs.  of  soda:  these  four  bodies  forming  about 
83  per  cent,  of  the  whole  ash." 

The  mean  of  the  proximate  organic  analyses 
of  the  six  varieties  is  as  follows: 

ICIOO  parts  of  1000  parts  of 

fresh  apple.  dry  apple. 

Cellular  fibre 32.00  190.879 

Glutinous   matter,  with  a  little 

fat  and  wax 1.94  11.463 

Dextrine 31.44  186.805 

Sugar  and  extract 63 .  25  497 .  627 

Malic  acid 3.17  19.585 

Albumen 13.79  83.720 

Casein 1.64  9.921 

Dry  matter 167.26  1000.000 

Water 826.64 

Loss 6.10 

1000.00       1000.000 

"  The  ripe  apple  is  rich  in  sugar  and  a  body 
analogous  to  gum,  called  dextrine,  which  has 
the  same  composition  as  starch,  but  differs  from 
it  in  being  soluble  in  cold  water,  and  not 
blue  with  iodine.  Dextrine  and  gum  should 
not  be  confounded  with  each  other 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


very  materially  in  many  respects.  Dex- 
trine belongs  to  a  class  of  bodies  wliich  are  sus- 
ceptible of  nourishing  the  animal  body.  All 
the  starch  taken  as  food  is  converted  into  dex- 
trine before  it  is  assimilated  by  tlie  system. 
The  acids  of  the  stomach  possess  the  property 
of  converting  starcli  into  this  body. 

"  In  the  fresh  apple,  100  lbs.  contain  about 
3.2  lbs.  of  fibre ;  0.2  of  a  lb.  of  gluten,  flit,  and 
wax;  3.1  lbs.  of  dextrine;  8.3  lbs.  of  sugar 
and  extract;  0.3  of  a  lb.  of  malic  acid;  1.4  lbs. 
of  album;  0.16  of  a  lb.  of  casein;  and  82.66 
lbs.  of  water. 

In  the  fresh  potato,  100  lbs.  contain  about 
9.7  lbs.  of  starch;  5.8  lbs.  of  fibre;  0.2  of  a  lb. 
of  gluten;  0.08  of  a  lb.  of  albumen;  0.45  lbs. 
of  casein;  1.27  lbs.  of  dextrine;  2.6  lbs.  of 
sugar  and  extract;  and  79.7  lbs.  of  water. 

By  comparing  the  composition  of  the  apple 
with  that  of  the  potato,  it  will  be  noticed — first, 
that  the  former  contains,  according  to  the  analy- 
sis, about  3  per  cent,  more  of  water  than  the 
latter. 

Second,  that  dextrine  and  sugar  in  the  ap- 
ple take  the  place  of  starch,  dextrine,  and  su- 
gar, in  the  potato.  Of  the  former,  100  lbs. 
of  good  fruit  contain  of  dextrine,  sugar,  and 
extract,  11.4  lbs.;  the  latter  has,  in  the  same 
amount  of  tubers,  13.61  of  starch,  dextrine, 
sugar,  and  extract.  The  above  proximate 
principles  are  the  main  bodies  in  the  apple  and 
potato  which  go  to  form  fat.  In  the  aggregate 
amount  of  fat-producing  products,  it  will  be 
seen  tliat  the  apple  and  potato  do  not  material- 
1}'  differ.  It  would  be  natural,  however,  to 
infer  tliat  50  lbs.  of  dextrine  and  sugar  would, 
if  taken  into  the  system,  be  more  likely  to 
make  a  greater  quantity  of  fat  in  a  given  time, 
or  at  least ,  to  make  tlie  same  amount  in  a 
shorter  period,  than  an  equal  weight  of  starcli; 
for  the  reason,  that  the  two  former  bodies, 
although  nearly  the  same  in  composition  with 
tlie  latter,  yet  are  physically  farther  advanced 
in  organization,  and  hence  probably  approxi- 
mate nearer  the  constitution  of  fat.  If  this 
view  be  taken,  then  the  apple,  if  of  good  quali- 
ty, may  be  regarded  equally  if  not  more  rich 
in  fat-producing  products  tlian  the  potato. 

Thirdly,  that  the  apple  is  richer  in  nitrogen- 
ous compounds  than  the  potato.  100  lbs.  of 
fresh  apple  contain  of  albumen,  1.38  lbs.  The 
same  amount  of  fresh  potato  has  one-fourth  of 
a  pound.  100  lbs.  of  dry  apple  contain  8.37  lbs. 
of  albumen,  and  an  equal  weight  of  dry  tubers 
has  1;}  lbs.  100  lbs.  of  fresh  fruit  contain  of 
casein,  0-16  of  a  lb. ;  and  an  equal  weight  of 
fresh  tubers,  0.45  of  a  lb.  Hence  it  will  be 
observed  that  100  lbs.  of  fresh  apple  contain 
of  albumen  and  casein,  1.54  lbs. ;  and  the  same 
quantity  of  fresh  potato,  0.7  of  a  lb. 

From  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  in  albu- 
men the  apple  is  riclier  than  the  potato,  while 
in  casein  the  reverse  is  the  case — that  the  ag- 
gregate amount  of  albumen,  casein  and  gluten, 
in  good  varieties  of  the  apple,  is  more  than 
double  that  of  the  same  bodies  in  tlie  potato. 


Hence,  the  former  may  be  regarded  rich 
the  latter  in  those  bodies  which  strictly  nourish 
the  system;  or,  in  other  words,  to  form  muscle, 
brain,  nerve,  and  in  short,  assist  in  building  up 
and  sustaining  the  organic  part  of  all  the  tis- 
sues of  the  body. 

The  juice  of  the  apple  forms  what  was  re- 
garded not  long  ago  a  favorite  and  almost 
necessary  appendage  to  the  farmer's  stock  of 
winter  luxuries.  It  is  now,  however,  looked 
upon  by  him  with  comparative  indifference  as 
a  beverage,  he  having  found  a  far  better  and 
more  profitable  use  for  his  apples,  that  of  con- 
verting them  into  fat  instead  of  alcohol.  The 
juice  of  the  apple  after  being  fermented,  is 
called  cider,  and  contains  much  of  the  nutri- 
tive matter  of  the  fruit.  Cider  contains  alcohol, 
sugar,  gum  or  dextrine,  malic  acid  and  the 
phosphates  and  sulphates  of  the  alkalies,  with 
a  little  tannic  and  gallic  acids.  The  juice  be- 
fore being  fermented,  has  in  addition  to  the 
above  ingredients,  albumen  and  casein."  Ge- 
nesee Farmer. 


Mammoth  Grape- Vine. — All  the  world,  at 
least  all  that  part  of  the  gardening  world  which 
inhabits  Great  Britain,  has  heard  of  a  surpris- 
ing Vine  at  Hampton  Court.  Everybody  goes 
to  see  it  at  least  once  in  his  life ;  it  is  a  separate 
and  special  object  in  the  grounds  of  the  old 
palace,  kept  under  lock  and  key.  as  it  well 
may  be,  unless  its  fruit  is  abandoned  to  the  re- 
freshment of  her  Majesty's  loyal  subjects.  To 
account  for  the  immense  crops  of  Grapes  borne 
by  this  Vine,  and  for  its  vigorous  old  age,  it 
has  been  stated  that  its  roots  are  in  an  ancient 
sewer,  where  they  find  abundance  of  the  rich 
materials,  out  of  which  the  Vine  prepares  sugar 
and  acid,  and  color  and  fragance,  and  all  that 
gives  deliciousness  to  its  fruit.  In  1837  it  was 
reported  to  have  borne  800  lbs.  of  fruit,  upon 
a  roof  consisting  of  2304  square  feet. 

It  is  a  mistake  however  to  regard  this  famous 
Vine  as  the  most  remarkable  specimen  of  the 
kind  in  Great  Britain.  Within  a  few  miles  of 
it  may  be  found  one  yet  more  striking.  In  the 
royal  garden  of  what  was  once  Cumberland 
Lodge,  near  "Windsor,  there  stands  a  solitary 
Vinery,  sole  relic  of  departed  greatness,  con- 
cerning which  we  have  tlie  following  account 
from  an  experienced  Grape-grower  who  lately 
visited  it. 

"  We  have  been  astonished,  much  more  than 
instructed,  by  the  numerous  sj^stems  which 
have  of  late  years  appeared  for  Grape-growing; 
when  we  thought  that  we  had  found  a  roc's 
egg,  something  suddenly  appeared  to  dim  our 
vision.  The  object  fled,  our  faith  vanished,  and 
we  found  our.selves  again  where  we  were.  One 
successful  cultivator  recommended  tlie  borders 
to  be  concreted  beneath,  and  asphalted  above; 
the  first  to  prevent  the  roots  getting  down- 
wards, and  the  second  to  carry  off  tlie  rains 
An  unsuccessful  writer  condemned  the 
unnatural,  and  the  other  unnecessary ;  the 
because  the  drainage  would  be  incomplete 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


the  second,  <as  obstructing  the  action  of  the  sun 
on  tlie  border.  Another  gentleman  insisted 
upon  robbing  the  dog  kennel,  and  feeding  Vines 
upon  lu)rsertesh,  animal  manure  being  more 
potent  than  vegetable.  Nevertheless,  to  our 
astonishment,  an  experienced  cultivator  plants 
liis  Vines  in  his  roadway,  formed  of  clinkers, 
brickbats,  and  similar  rubbish,  and  ripens  most 
satisfactorily  two  crops  of  Grapes  in  a  season. 
Another  gentleman,  who  set  himself  up  as  a 
great  authority,  insisted — in  fact,  wrote  a  book 
about  it — that  good  grapes  could  only  be  grown 
by  having  their  roots  cemented  in  a  brick  pillar. 
Mystery  after  mystery  presents  itself,  and  not 
the  least  appears  when  we  stumble  upon  the 
great  Vine  at  Cumberland  Lodge.  Tliis  mon- 
ster, loaded  with  2000  large  bunches  of  Grapes, 
as  black  as  Damsons,  must  surely  have  had 
some  leviathan  '  practical'  to  cook  his  border. 
Let  us  read  its  history.  Some  50  years  ago  it 
was  found  in  a  small  Cucumber  pit.  The  plant 
seemed  to  like  its  situation,  for  it  soon  outgrew 
this  limited  abode.  It  became  necessary  to  ex- 
tend the  .shelter;  and  this  has  been  twice  done, 
until  the  pit,  for  it  can  hardly  be  called  a  house, 
is  138  feet  long,  and  Itt  feet  wide.  Incredible 
as  it  may  appear,  the  stem  of  this  Vine  mea- 
sures 2  feet  9  inches  in  circumference ;  and  when 
we  saw  it  about  a  month  ago,  this  immense 
crop  was  ripe,  the  bunches  were  large,  so  were 
the  berries;  besides,  they  were  black,  not 
brown,  and  the  foliage  as  vigorous  and  green 
as  in  June.  The  entire  aspect  of  this  house 
presented  a  perfect  and  most  instructive  whole. 
There  were  no  brown  bunches  here  and  black 
ones  there — no  missing  at  one  end  of  the  rafter, 
and  clustering  and  huddling  at  the  other.  It 
would,  in  fact,  have  defied  mechanical  skill  to 
have  distributed  the  bunches  with  greater  re- 
gularity. The  size  of  the  bunches,  likewise, 
was  nearly  uniform — not  a  shaggy  one  here  and 
a  monster  there ;  for,  as  we  find  Stilton  cheeses, 
so  these  were  nearly  of  one  weight  and  make. 

"  Now  we  come  to  the  great  problem  which 
is  to  resolve  all  this  wonderful  development — 
the  border;  and,  by  Mr.  Ingram's  kindness, 
we  were  permitted  to  dig  several  holes,  to  as- 
certain its  composition,  its  mechanical  construc- 
tion, and  to  ponder  upon  the  wisdom  and  fore- 
sight of  some  great  royal  gardener.  We  did 
for  a  moment  entertain  the  idea  that  one  of 
the  craft,  adorned  with  a  blue  apron,  bearing 
mysterious  wisdom  in  his  countenance,  and 
practice  in  his  whole  deportment,  must  have 
been  concerned  in  an  undertaking  which  has 
produced  such  marvellous  results.  We  entered 
upon  our  tusk,  then,  under  the  impression  of 
revealing  to  tlie  world  a  grand  secret,  and  so 
we  sliali.  Without  difficulty  or  serious  ob- 
struction we  readily  got  through  2  feet  of  com- 
mon garden  soil;  neither  encountering  a  brick- 
bat nor  a  clinker,  a  horse's  leg  nor  a'bullock's 
head.  There  was  no  evidence  of  compound 
manures  or  simple  quackery ;  the  ground  was 
as  natural  as  if  it  had  remained  untouched 
smce  the  Deluge;  for  immediately  beneath  this 


2  feet  of  ordinary  soil  we  came  upon  blue  clay 
— with  a  portion  of  sand  intermixed  with  it. 
Such  clay,  indeed,  as  we  should  be  glad  to  run 
against,  were  we  about  to  form  a  pond  and  in 
want  of  puddle!  !" 

It  is  12  years  since  we  la.«it  saw  this  plant, 
but  it  then  promised  to  become  all  that  it  is 
now  described  to  be ;  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  grew  are  fresh  in  our  recollection,  and 
entirely  confirm  our  correspondent's  descrip- 
tion; a  mass  of  the  gravel  and  clay  over  which 
it  grows  is  before  us,  and  is  too  hard  to  be 
broken  by  the  hands;  a  sample  of  its  beautiful 
fruit  was  exhibited  at  the  last  meeting  of  the 
Horticultural  Society  in  Regent-street,  and 
wholly  answered  to  the  character  just  given  of 
it. 

Here,  then,  a  Vine,  whose  roots  are  not  in  a 
sewer  or  any  such  place,  but  in  ordinary  gar- 
den ground,  resting  on  a  coarse  hard  gravelly 
clay,  covers  about  the  same  space  as  its  cele- 
brated rival,  and  bears  twice  as  many  Grapes, 
of  the  highest  excellence.  Surely  we  have  in 
this  a  striking  example  of  the  folly  of  spending 
large  sums  in  preparing  vast  borders  out  of 
costly  materials,  of  which  the  Vine  has  no  real 
need.  No  doubt  the  Vine  border  at  Cumber- 
land Lodge  was  prepared  originally  from  good 
materials,  such  as  our  predecessors  thought 
suitable  to  its  nature;  and  that  amount  of  pre- 
paration was  necessary,  in  order  to  enable  it  to 
establish  itself  securely  in  the  earth.  But  for 
this  a  small  quantity  of  materials  was  sufficient; 
and,  once  established  in  soil  that  it  likes,  the 
Vine  needs  little  further  care.  Its  chief  desire 
is  to  have  a  warm,  light,  dry,  shallow  bor- 
der, and  that  is  precisely  what  it  gets  at  Cum- 
berland Lodge. — Gardeners'  Chronicle. 


Planting  Roses. — The  beauty  and  interest 
which  a  garden  affords  depend  greatly  upon  the 
disposition  of  its  individual  parts,  even  the  ar- 
ranging and  planting  of  a  single  bed  require 
experienced  taste,  in  order  to  produce  effective 
display.  Take,  for  example,  a  Rose  bed; 
imagine  the  kinds  to  be  indiscriminately  mixed, 
and  no  attention  to  have  been  paid  to  their 
respective  heights,  and  the  effect  produced  by 
such  a  medley  assemblage  will  be  immediately 
felt  by  any  person  possessing  taste,  and  accus- 
tomed to  observation.  Let  us  farther  suppose 
such  a  bed  to  be  circular,  and  the  effects  will 
be  as  bad  as  it  well  could  be,  unless  the  object 
aimed  at  was  to  represent  wild  nature.  The 
taller  plant ^^should  have  been  placed  in  the 
center,  and  the  others  arranged  so  as  gradually 
to  fall  to  the  outer  rim.  This  arrangement 
would  advance  us  a  step;  but  let  us  proceed 
further,  and  dispose  of  the  trees  in  zones  or 
circles.  In  tliis  way  we  give  the  bed  the  ex- 
pression of  design.  For  be  it  clearly  understood 
that  we  are  discussing  gardening  in  an  artificial 
sense.  Now  let  us  go  a  little  further  still,  and 
consider  whether  there  be  not  yet  roor 
improvement;  suppose  we  i)lant  one  c< 
the  center  circle,  and  so  change  each  circle 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


we  reach  the  outer  one.  By  such  a  classifica- 
tion we  add  color  as  well  as  design ;  but 
imagine  the  colors  to  be  so  arranged  that 
anotlier  important  feature  is  produced,  viz., 
contrast,  and  the  picture  becomes  still  further 
improved,  though  not  yet  finished.  "Would 
not  an  edging  render  the  whole  more  complete? 
The  beauty  and  brilliancy  of  the  Rose  would  be 
singularly  improved,  and  relieved  by  an  ever- 
green margin.  Tliis  would  in  some  measure 
help  as  it  wore  to  lift  the  group  from  the  earth, 
and  i)lace  it  nearer  the  eye.  This  edging  may 
be  of  Ivy  or  Cotoneastcr  microphylla  or  Per- 
nettya  mucronata,  or  in  fact  any  low  dwarf 
evergreen  shrub  kept  shorn  into  a  formal  rim. 
In  the  above  I  have  shown  how  much  beauty 
may  be  exhibited  even  in  a  circular  bed,  by  the 
exercise  of  a  little  taste  and  forethought ;  but 
these  simple  principles  are  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  a  Ro.se  bed;  they  can  be  carried  out  in 
every  matter  relating  to  the  arrangement  of  a 
garden,  so  tliat  unity  and  comprehensiveness 
of  design  maj"  characterise  tlie  whole.  When 
a  contrary  state  of  things  prevail,  delight 
vanishes,  confusion  takes  the  place  of  order, 
disgust  that  of  pleasure ;  and  instead  of  the 
most  charming  of  all  pursuits,  contributing  to 
relieve  the  man  of  business  from  the  oppressions 
and  satieties  of  mind  usually  resulting  from  close 
application,  he  abandons  the  whole  in  utter 
dismay  and  hopelessness. — lb. 


The  Plum  as  a  Pyramidal  Tree. — For 
some  few  years  I  have  amused  myself  by  form- 
ing my  Plum  trees  into  pyramids,  feeling  con- 
vinced that  no  other  mode  of  cultivating  our 
hardy  fruits  is  so  eligible  for  small  gardens.  I 
was  induced  to  lake  extra  pains,  on  account 
of  observing  that  our  neighbors  the  French, 
so  fiimous  in  their  cultivation  of  pyramids, 
failed  to  a  certain  extent  with  the  I'lum;  as 
tlieir  trees,  I  observed,  on  being  pruned  to  that 
shape  made  too  vigorous  shoots,  and  were  in- 
clined to  gum.  They  do  not  know  the  value 
of  root-pruning,  and  will  not  listen  to  it;  I  do, 
and  therefore  felt  some  hope  of  success.  At 
first  I  commenced  to  root-prune  once  in  two 
or  three  years,  but  I  soon  found  that  was  not 
enough,  for  the  Plum  makes  roots  so  rapidly 
that  it  is  difficult  to  check  it;  I  have  now, 
therefore,  for  the  last  three  years  root-pruned 
annually,  early  in  autumn.  My  success  is  per- 
fect; this  I  have  generally  done  in  September, 
soon  after  gathering  the  fruit,  but  this  year  not 
having  any  fruit,  and  awakened  by  your  article 
on  "  Summer  Root-Pruning,"  given  in  Gar- 
dcner^s  Chronicle  in  July,  I  operated  on  them 
in  August;  the  trees  almost  innnediately  M-ent 
to  rest,and  are  now  pictures  of  forthcoming  fruit- 
fulness.  The  operation  is  so  simple,  that  any 
one  may  exercise  it  without  any  fear  of  failure. 
Let  me  attempt  to  describe  it ;  and  yet  how 
irksome  it  is  to  have  to  employ  so  many  words 
about  what  one  can  tell  and  do  in  a  few  minutes. 
Open  a  circular  trench,  18  inches  deep  (for  the 
Plum  does  not  root  deeply)  round  by  one  tree 


18  inches  from  its  stem;  for  the  first 
or  three  years  this  distance  will  be  enough; 
increase  the  diameter  of  the  circle  as  years  roll 
on,  but  very  slowly,  not  more  than  from  1  to 
2  inches  in  a  year,  and  cut  oft^  every  root  and 
fibre  with  a  sharp  knife.  This  operation  may 
be  likened  to  the  manner  in  which  old  folks  talk 
of  the  way  in  which  they  used  to  cut  the  hair  of 
poor  workhouse  boys,  viz.,  place  a  basin  on  the 
boy's  head  and  trim  ott"  the  hair  round  its  rim 
— in  short,  the  "workhouse  cut;"  then  when 
your  roots  are  so  trimmed,  introduce  a  spade 
under  one  side  of  the  tree  and  heave  it  over, 
so  as  not  to  leave  a  single  tap  root.  Fill  in  the 
mould ;  if  the  weather  is  dry  give  the  tree  a 
soaking  of  water,  and  it  is  finished.  If  your 
soil  is  poor,  give  a  top-dressing  of  manure,  to 
be  washed  in  by  winter  rains.  The  following 
summer  pinch  off  the  ends,  in  June,  of  any 
shoots  that  seem  inclined  to  push  more  than  4 
inches,  and  thin  those  out  with  the  knife  that 
are  too  crowded ;  the  result  will  be  a  handsome 
and  highly  prolific  pyramidal  tree.  Plums  are 
not  yet  half  appreciated ;  for,  owing  to  the  in- 
troduction of  many  new  and  good  varieties, 
they  are  in  season  from  July  till  November, 
for  the  dessert  and  for  the  kitchen. — Jb. 


Conjectures  as  to  the  Mode  in  which  the 
Earth  was  originally  clothed  with  Plants. 
— It  is  an  interesting  question  to  determine  the 
mode  in  which  the  various  species  and  tribes 
of  plants  were  originally  scattered  over  the 
glol^e.  "\'arious  hypothesis  have  been  advanced 
on  the  subject.  Linnajus  entertained  the  opin- 
ion that  there  was  at  first  only  one  primitive 
center  of  vegetation,  from  which  plants  were 
distributed  over  the  globe.  Some,  avoiding  all 
discussions  and  difficulties,  suppose  that  plants 
Avere  produced  at  first  in  the  localities  where 
they  are  now  seen  vegetating.  Others  think 
that  each  species  of  plant  originated  in,  and 
was  diffused  from,  a  single  primitive  center,  and 
that  there  were  numerous  such  centers  situated 
in  different  parts  of  the  world,  each  center 
being  the  seat  of  a  particular  number  of  species. 
Tliej^  thus  admit  great  vegetable  migrations 
similar  to  those  of  the  human  races.  Those 
who  adopt  the  latter  view,  recognise  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  plants  some  of  the  last  revolutions 
of  our  planet;  and  the  action  of  numerous  and 
varied  forces  which  impede  or  favor  the  dis- 
semination of  vegetables  in  the  present  day. 
They  endeavor  to  ascertain  the  primitive  Flora 
of  countries,  and  to  trace  the  vegetable  migra- 
tions which  have  taken  place.  Daubeny  says, 
that  analogy  favors  the  suitposition  that  each 
species  of  plant  was  originally  formed  in  some 
particular  locality,  whence  it  spread  itself 
gradually  over  a  certain  area,  rather  than  that 
the  earth  M'as  at  once,  by  the  fiat  of  the  Al- 
mighty, covered  with  vegetation  in  the  manner 
we  at  present  behold  it.  The  human  race  rose 
from  a  single  pair,  and  the  distribution  of  plants 
and  animals  over  a  certain  definite  area,  would 
seem  to  imply  that  the  same   was  the  general 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES 


law.  Analogy  would  lead  us  to  believe  that 
the  extension  of  species  over  the  earth  original- 
ly took  place  on  the  same  plan  on  which  it  is 
conducted  at  present,  when  a  new  island  starts 
up  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean,  produced  either 
by  a  coral  reef  or  a  volcano.  In  these  cases, 
the  whole  surface  is  not  at  once  overspread  with 
plants,  but  a  gradual  progress  of  vegetation  is 
traced  from  the  accidental  introduction  of  a 
single  seed,  perhaps  of  each  species,  wafted  by 
winds,  or  floated  by  the  currents.  The  re- 
markable limitation  of  certain  species  to  single 
spots  on  the  globe,  seems  to  fiivor  the  supposi- 
tion of  specific  centers.  Professor  E.  Forbes 
says,  the  hypothesis  of  the  descent  of  all  the 
individuals  "of  a  species,  either  from  a  first 
pair,  or  from  a  single  individual,  and  the  conse- 
quent theory  of  specific  centers  being  assumed, 
the  isolation  of  assemblages  of  individuals  from 
their  centers,  and  the  existence  of  endemic  or 
very  local  plants,  remain  to  be  accounted  for. 
Natural  transport,  the  agency  of  the  sea,  rivers, 
and  winds  and  carriage  by  animals,  or  through 
the  agency  of  man,  are  insufficient  means  in  the 
majority  of  cases.  It  is  usual  to  say,  that  the 
presence  of  many  plants  is  determined  by  soil 
or  climate,  as  the  case  may  be;  but  if  such 
plants  be  found  in  areas  disconnected  from  their 
centers  by  considerable  intervals,  some  other 
cause  than  the  mere  influence  of  soil  or  climate 
must  be  sought  to  account  for  their  presence. 
This  cause  he  proposes  to  seek  in  an  ancient 
connection  of  the  outposts  or  isolated  areas 
with  the  original  centers,  and  the  subsequent 
isolation  of  the  former  through  geological 
changes  and  events,  especially  those  depend- 
ent on  the  elevation  and  depression  of  land. 
Selecting  the  Flora  of  the  British  Islands  for  a 
first  illustration  of  this  view,  Professor  Forbes 
calls  attention  to  the  fact,  well  known  to  bota- 
nists, of  certain  species  of  flowering  plants  being 
found  indigenous  in  portions  of  that  area,  at  a 
great  distance  from  the  near  assemblages  of  in- 
dividuals of  the  same  species  in  countries  be- 
yond it.  Thus,  manj'  plants  peculiar  in  the 
British  Flora  to  the  west  of  Ireland,  have  the 
nearest  portion  of  their  specific  c?nters  in  the 
north-west  of  Spain ;  others,  confined  with  us 
to  the  south-west  promontory  of  England,  are, 
beyond  our  shores,  found  in  the  Channel  Isles 
and  the  opposite  coast  of  France;  the  vegeta- 
tion of  the  south-east  of  England  is  that  of  the 
opposite  part  of  the  continent ;  and  the  alpine 
vegetation  of  "Wales  and  Scotch  Highlands  is 
intimately  related  to  that  of  the  Norwegian 
Alps.  The  great  mass  of  the  Briti.-;h  Flora 
has  its  most  intimate  relations  with  that  of 
Germany.  He  believes,  therefore,  that  these 
isolated  outposts  were  formerly  connected  to- 
gether by  chains  of  land,  and  that  they  liave 
been  separated  by  certain  geological  convul- 
sions. Islands  may  be  considered  as  the  re- 
mains of  mountain  chains,  i)art  of  the  Flora  of 
which  they  still  exhibit,  and  the  farther  they 
from  continents,  the  more  likely  are  the 
to  be  peculiar. — Balfour's  Man.  Bot. 


SiNGUL.^R  Electrical  Phenomena. 
Looms  has  submitted  a  paper  to  the  American 
Association  for  the  advancement  of  Science, 
on  some  remarkable  electrical  phenomena  ex- 
hibited in  New- York.  He  states  that  for 
months  in  success'on,  electrical  sparks,  ac- 
companied by  loud  snaps,  have  been  observed 
in  several  houses. 

"  A  stranger  on  entering  one  of  these  electri- 
cal houses,  in  attempting  to  shake  hands  with 
the  inmates,  receives  a  shock  which  is  quite 
noticeable  and  unpleasant.  Ladies  in  attempt- 
ing to  kiss  each  other  are  saluted  by  a  spark. 
A  spark  is  perceived  whenever  the  hand  is 
brought  near  to  the  knob  of  a  door — the  gilded 
frame  of  a  mirror — the  gas  pipes — or  any  me- 
tallic body — especially  when  this  body  com- 
municates freely  with  the  earth.  In  one  house 
which  I  have  had  an  opportunity  to  examine,  a 
child  in  taking  hold  of  the  knob  of  a  door  re- 
ceived so  severe  a  shock  that  it  ran  otf  in  great 
fright.  The  lady  of  the  house  in  approaching 
the  speaking  tube  to  give  orders  to  the  servants, 
received  a  very  unpleasant  shock  in  the  mouth, 
and  was  very  much  annoyed  by  the  electricity 
until  she  learned  first  to  touch  the  tube  with 
her  finger.  In  passing  from  one  parlor  to  the 
other,  if  she  chanced  to  step  upon  the  brass 
plate  which  served  as  a  slide  for  the  folding 
doors,  she  received  an  unpleasant  shock  in  the 
foot.  AVhen  she  touched  her  finger  to  the 
chandelier  (the  room  M-as  lighted  with  gas  by  a 
chandelier  suspended  from  the  ceiling)  there 
appeared  a  brilliant  spark  and  a  snap  as  in  the 
discharge  of  a  Leyden  Jar  of  good  size.  In 
many  houses  the  phenomena  have  been  so  re- 
markable as  to  occasion  general  surprise  and 
almost  alarm.'' 

After  a  careful  examination,  Professor  L. 
has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  electricity 
is  excited  by  the  fiiction  of  the  shoes  of  the  in- 
mates upon  the  carpets  of  the  houses.  He  ob- 
serves: 

"  By  skipping  once  or  twice  across  a  room 
with  a  shuffling  motion  of  the  feet,  a  person 
becomes  highly  charged,  and  then  upon  bring- 
ing the  knuckle  near  to  any  metallic  body,  par- 
ticularly if  it  have  good  communication  with 
the  earth,  a  bright  spark  passes.  In  almost 
any  room  which  is  furnished  with  a  woolen  cai'- 
pct,  and  is  kept  tolerably  warm,  a  spark  may 
thus  be  obtained  in  winter — but  in  some  rooms, 
the  insulation  is  so  good  and  the  carpets  are  so 
electrical,  that  it  is  impossible  to  waUt  across 
the  floor,  without  exciting  sutficient  electricity 
to  give  a  spark." 


Fruitfulness  promoted  by  late  Pruning. 
— By  pruning  at  the  rising  of  the  sap,  we  in- 
duce in  trees,  barren  through  over-luxuriance  of 
growth,  a  flow  of  that  sap  from  the  roots,  which 
produces  vigor.  What  I  call  the  fertilizing  sap 
is  at  that  time  not  yet  formed,  since  the  leaves 
which  are  its  organs  of  formation,  do  not 
exist ;  the  wood  growth  which  is  made 
early  spring,  is  owing  then,  entirely  to  the 


FOREIGxN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


of  the  roots.  It  is  only  when  the  buds  are  al- 
ready considerably  developed,  and  the  leaves 
have  acquired  some  consistency,  and  their 
stomata  or  breathing  pores  are  well  organised, 
that  the  growth  takes  place  which  directly  forms 
fruit-buds.  Having  admitted  the  fact  that  the 
tirst  flowing  sap  of  the  roots  determines  the 
vigor  or  health  of  the  tree;  all  diminution  of 
this  increases  then  the  relative  proportion  of 
the  sap  of  the  leaves,  [rather  the  sap  elaborated 
by  them]  and  consequently,  the  chances  of 
fructification.  To  render  this  oi)eration  more 
efficacious  Mr.  Rubens  makes,  at  the  time  of  the 
risings  of  the  sap,  a  first  pruning,  which  re- 
moves all  badly-placed  or  superfluous  branches, 
and  afterwards  he  thins  out  the  buds  upon  the 
more  feeble  shoots. 

This  early  pruning  hastens  the  starting  of  the 
tree  and  makes  it  vigorous.  Thus  in  diminish- 
ing, previous  to  the  rising  of  the  sap,  the  num- 
ber of  buds  that  it  is  to  nourish,  those  which 
remain  receive  along  with  the  .sap  originally 
destined  for  tliem,  that  also  intended  for  buds 
which  were  removed ;  the  shoots  are  conse- 
quently more  vigorous,  and  are  developed  soon- 
er, because  a  great  increase  of  sap  causes  a 
more  prompt  development  of  the  buds  than  a 
less  abundant  flow.  On  the  contrary  a  late 
pruning  weakens  and  retards  the  tree,  altliough 
it  disposes  it  to  bear  fruit;  for  the  sap  of  the 
roots  in  the  early  spring  is  carried  directly  to 
the  terminal  bud  and  to  those  nearest  to  it.  In  a 
late  pruning  those  buds  are  removed  to  which 
was  directed  the  largest  supply  of  sap ;  a  great 
loss  of  sap  is  thus  ettected,  so  that  all  tliat  pre- 
ponderance of  sap  calculated  to  produce  excess 
of  growth  being  lost,  the  fructifying  food  col- 
lected or  digested  by  the  leaves,  has  the  pre- 
ponderance; moreover,  this  method  retards 
vegetation,  since  the  tree  is  deprived  of  its  most 
vigorous  and  advanced  limbs,  and  some  time 
must  elapse  before  the  buds  which  remain  can 
reach  the  same  condition  as  those  which  were 
cut  off:  by  this  delay,  the  flowering  time  is  also 
retarded,  and  consequently  the  tree  has  less 
risk  to  sutfer  from  the  sudden  variations  of 
spring  temperature. 

Thus,  it  is  by  impairing  the  strength  and 
vigor  of  the  tree,  that  a  late  pruning  makes  it 
fruitful. 

It  should  be  remarked,  that  late  pruning 
should  only  be  employed  upon  very  vigorous, 
healthy  subjects.  We  have  seen  it  applied  to 
vines  of  only  moderate  vigor,  and  although  it 
preserved  their  shoots  from  a  late  frost,  yet,  the 
following  year,  their  crop  was  a  feeble  one  from 
being  exhausted  the  year  before.  It  may,  be- 
sides, answer  to  restore  an  equilibrum  in  a  tree, 
whatever  its  shape,  by  an  early  pruning  of  the 
feeble  branches  and  a  late  one  for  those  which 
are  too  vigorous.  M.  A.  Puvis. — Revue  Horti- 
cole.  

New  Gkape. — There  is  nothing  that  people 
swallow  so  greedily  as  a  fine  tale  about  a  new 
Grape.  Not  that  the  public  appetite  has  be- 
come languid  towards  other  novelties,  but  that 


a  peculiar  voracity  is  shown  whenever  a 
with  new  qualifiers  is  said  to  make  its  appear 
ance.  Wc  must,  therefore,  take  care,  as  far  as 
in  us  lies,  that  our  worthy  friends  are  guarded 
with  especial  care  against  the  magnificient  ex- 
aggerations with  which  what  purports  to  be  a 
new  varietv  of  this  fruit  is  introduced  to  the 
notice  of  their  purses. 

"We  are  assured  in  the  Annales  de  la  Societe 
Royale  (V  Agriculture,  ^-c.,  de  Gaud,  that  a 
Grape  of  marvellous  goodness,  and  quite  new, 
was  exhibited  in  September  1848,  at  the  Belgian 
Agricultural  and  Horticultural  exhibition.  It 
is  described  and  figured  in  the  above  mentioned 
publication,  p.  415  of  the  volume  for  1848,  un- 
der the  name  of  the  Raisin  Royal  de  Craan. 
It  is  a  white  variety,  the  flesh  of  which  is  de- 
scribed as  being  "  exceedingly  juicy,  extremely 
high  flavored,  sugary,  and  perfumed  with  an 
indescribable  aroma,  which  is  not  that  of  the 
Muscat,  nor  that  of  the  Isabella  Grape,  butane 
peculiar  to  itself,  and  which  must  be  tasted,  in 
order  to  form  any  idea  of  it!"  This  Grape,  it 
is  stated,  could  bear  comparison  with  those 
sent  from  "Windsor  to  the  King  of  the  Belgians. 
Its  origin  had  not  been  satisfactorily  ascertained 
by  the  author  of  the  article. 

"We  owe  to  the  kindness  of  M.  de  Jonghe,  of 
Brussels,  a  bunch  of  this  Grape,  and  additional 
details  respecting  it.  He  says  that  the  original 
plant  is  13  years  old,  and  was  raised  from  seed 
of  a  •'  Raisin  Muscat;"  tliat  it  is  growing  in  the 
garden  of  Mademoiselle  IH;Nr)RicK,  a  lady  re- 
siding at  Kinsendacle,  a  village  about  a  league 
and  a  half  from  Brussels;  that  in  1848  a  bunch 
of  it  was  given  to  a  gardener  of  the  name  of 
De  Craan,  of  Brussels,  who  obtained  a  prize 
for  it,  and  it  was  then  figured.  In  September 
last  another  bunch  was  exhibited  by  Mdlle. 
Hendrick,  and  for  this  a  prize  was  also  award- 
ed. If  considered  to  be  really  deserving  of 
cultivation,  and  if  indeed  new,  Mdlle.  Hendrick 
intends  devoting  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  to 
some  charitable  purpose. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  appreciate  the  kind- 
hearted  spirit  in  which  this  lady  proposes  to 
apply  the  produce  of  her  Grape  to  benevolent 
objects;  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  the  public 
would  readily  second  her  intention,  if  the  Grape 
were  what  it  purports  to  be.  But  we  regret 
to  add  that  her  expectations  are  doomed  to 
disappointment. 

"When  received,  many  of  the  berries  were 
bruised  and  decayed,  owing  to  the  bunch  having 
been  too  loosely  packed  in  cotton,  and,  in  form- 
ing an  opinion  of  what  the  Grape  is,  this  cir- 
cumstance had  to  be  taken  into  consideration; 
but  after  making  full  allowance  for  all  defects 
arising  in  this  or  any  other  way,  we  come  to  no 
other  conclusion  than  that  this  J?ats?n  Royal  De 
Craan  is  neither  in  flavor,  nor  in  any  respect 
of  the  least  importance,  different  from  the  com 
mon  Muscat  of  Alexandria!  It  must 
mitted  that  it  is  not  so  good,  but  all 
growers  know  that  the  Muscat  itself  varies 


FOREIGN  AND  AHSCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


tremely  in  quality  according  to  the  manner  in 
which  it  is  treated. 

We  are  .sure  that  our  readers  will  he  greatly 
obliged  to  M.  de  Jonghe  for  having  given  us 
the  mean.s  of  preventing  much  disappointment 
to  all  parties  by  thus  pointing  out  the  true 
cliaracter  of  a  variety,  wliich,  in  the  absence  of 
sucli  an  examination,  would  soon  have  found 
its  way  into  the  market  as  a  great  novelty,  with 
a  very  fine  name,  and  with  a  price  high  in  pro- 
portion to  the  .skill  witli  whieh  it  would  have 
been  puffed. — Gardeners'  Chronicle. 

The  Roots  of  Plants. — It  is  long  since  we 
paused  from  our  observations  on  the  science  of 
gardening,  but  we  will  now  resume  (from  vol. 
iii.  p.  330)  our  remarks  relative  to  the  roots 
of  plants. 

We  have  seen  that  plants  search  after  and  ac- 
quire food  by  the  agency  of  their  roots;  and 
the  extremities  of  these  appear  to  be  the  chief, 
if  not  the  only  parts  employed,  in  the  sucking- 
in  of  all  food  not  in  a  gaseous  state,  for  M.  Du- 
hamel  observed  that  that  portion  of  a  soil  was 
soonest  exhausted  in  which  the  greateet  num- 
ber of  the  extremities  of  the  roots  were  as- 
sembled.    (Physique  des   Arhres,   vol.    iii.) 

M.  M.  Sennebier  and  Carradori  found  that 
if  roots  of  the  carrot,  scorzonera,  and  radish 
are  placed  in  water,  some  with  onlj^  their  ex- 
tremities immersed,  and  others  with  their  en- 
tire surfaces  plunged  in,  except  the  extremi- 
ties, the  former  imbibe  the  water  rapidly, 
and  the  plants  continue  vegetating;  but  the 
others  imbibe  no  perceptible  quantity,  and 
speedily  wither.  It  suggests  also  the  reason  why 
the  gardener,  in  applying  water  or  manure  to 
trees  or  shrubs,  does  so  at  a  distance  from  their 
stems.  A  good  rule  for  ascertaining  the  pro- 
per distance  for  sucli  applications,  seems  to  be 
to  make  them  beneath  the  circumference  of  the 
head  of  the  tree;  for,  as  M.  De  CandoUe  ob- 
served, there  is  usually  a  relation  between  that 
and  the  length  of  the  roots,  so  that  the  rain 
falling  upon  the  foilage  is  poured  off  most 
abundantly  at  the  distance  most  desirable  for 
reaching  the  extremities  of  the  roots. 

This  explains  why  the  fibrous  points  of  roots 
are  usually  annually  renewed,  and  the  caudex 
(or  main  limb  of  the  root)  extended  in  length: 
by  these  means  they  each  year  shoot  forth  into 
a  fresh  soil,  always  changing  their  direction  to 
where  most  food  is  to  be  obtained.  If  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  root  is  to  be  cut  off,  it  cea.ses  to 
increase  in  length,  but  enlarges  its  circle  of  ex- 
tension by  lateral  shoots. 

The  distance  to  which  the  roots  of  a  plant  ex- 
tend is  much  greater  than  is  usually  imagined ; 
and  one  reason  of  the  stunted  growth  of  plants 
in  a  poor  soil  is,  that  the  sap  collected  and 
elaborated  by  them  has  to  be  expended  in  the 
extension  of  the  roots,  wliich  have  to  be  larger 
in  proportion  as  the  pasturage  near  home  is 
scanty.  An  acorn  accidentally  deposited  on  a 
oduced  a  young  oak ;  but  this  made  no 
ess  until  its  root  had  descended  the  whole 


height  of  the  wall,  and  had  penetrated 
at  is  base. 

In  deep,  poor  siliceous  soils  we  have  traced 
the  roots  of  trees  from  twelve  to  fourteen  feet 
perpendicular  without  reaching  their  termina- 
tion. Those  of  the  Canada  thistle,  seven  feet; 
common  fern,  eight  feet;  wheat,  thirty  inches; 
oats  twenty-four  inches;  potatoes,  eighteen 
inches;  onions,  twenty  inches;  carrots,  pars- 
nips, and  beet,  two  feet.  The  distance  to  which 
roots  will  travel,  and  their  tenacity  of  life, 
render  them  often  very  obnoxious  to  the  gar- 
dener. Thus  tlie  common  couch  grass  ( Triti- 
cum  repens)  is  the  most  troublesome  of  weeds, 
for  every  fragment  of  its  far-spreading  roots 
will  vegetate ;  and  the  sweet-scented  coltsfoot 
and  lemon  mint  are  not  less  to  be  avoided,  for 
the  same  cause  renders  them  extremely  diffi- 
cult of  extirpation,  and  they  never  can  be  kept 
within  moderate  bounds.  Yet  these  creeping 
rooted  plants  are  not  to  be  condemned  without 
exception ;  for  whoever  has  grounds  under  his 
care  bordering  upon  the  sea-shore,  the  sands 
of  which  are  troublesomely  light  and  shifting, 
may  have  them  effectually  bound  down  by  in- 
oculating them  with  .slips  of  the  root  of  these 
grasses,  Ehjinus  arenarius,  C'arex  arenaria, 
and  jlrundo  arenaria. 

The  roots  of  plants,  unless  frozen,  are  con- 
stantly imbibing  nourishment,  and  even  develop- 
ing parts;  for  if  the  roots  of  trees  planted  dur- 
ing the  winter  be  examined  after  an  interval  of 
a  few  weeks,  they  will  be  found  to  have  emitted 
fresh  raidcles. 

It  is  by  their  extremities,  then,  that  roots 
imbibe  food ;  Init  the  orifices  of  these  are  so 
minute,  that  they  can  only  admit  such  as  is  in 
a  state  of  solution.  Carbon  reduced  to  an  im- 
palpable powder,  being  insoluble  in  water, 
though  offered  to  the  roots  of  several  plants, 
mingled  with  that  fluid,  has  never  been  observ- 
ed to  be  absorbed  by  them;  yet  it  is  one  of 
their  chief  constituents,  and  is  readily  absorbed 
in  any  combination  which  renders  it  fluid. 

Roots  then  must  obtain  from  a  soil  nourish- 
ment to  plants  in  a  gaseous  or  liquid  state:  Ave 
may  next,  therefore,  consider  what  constituents 
of  soils  are  capable  of  being  presented  in  such 
forms.  Water  can  be  the  only  solvent  employ- 
ed; indeed,  so  essential  is  this  liquid  itself,  that 
no  plant  can  exist  where  it  is  entirely  absent ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  many  will  exist  with 
their  roots  in  ves.sels  containing  nothing  but 
distilled  water.  Plants  with  a  broad  surface 
of  leaves,  as  mint,  beans,  &c.,  we  have  always 
found  increase  in  carbonaceous  matter,  whilst 
thus  vegetating;  but  onions,  hyacinths,  &c., 
with  small  surfaces  of  foliage,  we,  as  invariably, 
have  finind  to  decrease  in  solid  matters.  The 
first,  at  all  times,  obtain  nourishment  by  de- 
composing the  carbonic  acid  gas  of  the  at- 
mosphere: the  latter  do  so  in  a  much  smaller 
proportion:  hence  the  reason  why  the  latter  are 
so  much  more  impoverishing  crops  tha 
former,  inasmuch  as  that  they  acquire 
all  their  solid   matter  by  means  of  their 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


These  observations  explain  the  conflicting  state- 
ments of  Saussure  and  Hassenfratz  on  this 
point:  the  foi'mcr  experimented  with  broad- 
leaved  plants;  the  latter  on  such  as  have  small 
foliage.  The  first  maintained  that  plants  in- 
crease in  -solid  content  when  their  roots  are 
supplied  with  water  only;  the  latter  denied  the 
fact. — Cottase  Gardener. 


Roses  in  Pots. — In  compliance  with  your 
permission  and  wish  that  I  should  inform  you 
of  the  mode  adopted  by  me  in  growing  roses  in 
pots,  as  specimen  plants,  and  for  exhibition  at 
our  local  shows  in  the  months  of  May  and 
June,  I  will  begin  by  observing,  that  the  method 
does  not  in  principle  differ  from  that  so  ably 
laid  down  by  Mr.  Beaton  in  a  recent  number, 
but  simply  so  as  regards  little  matters  of  detail 
in  the  difference  of  time  recommended  for  the 
necessary  operations  of  pruning,  re-potting, 
&c. ;  and  hope  you  will  excuse  my  being  some- 
what lengthy  in  my  ob.servations,  as  I  feel  that 
omitting  the  most  trifling  operation  will  some- 
times hazard  the  success  of  an  undertaking. 

My  first  consideration  in  growing  "roses  in 
pots"  is  to  procure  some  pots  that  are  well 
cleaned,  or,  what  is  better  still,  quite  new;  and 
may  here  observe,  that  24s  are  a  very  con- 
venient size  to  commence  with.  I  then,  at  the 
commencement  of  November,  proceed  to 
Messrs.  Paul,  of  Cheshunt.  Having  recom- 
mended them  many  customers,  I  jiresume  in 
consequence,  and  make,  I  believe,  a  somewhat 
unusual  application  to  be  allowed  to  select  at 
once  and  take  up  such  roses  as  I  wish  for  the 
purpose, — a  request  which  young  Mr.  Paul 
Icindly  accedes  to,  and  accompanies  me  himself 
to  assist  in  the  selection.  It  is  as  well  here  to 
state,  that  experience  shows  me  that  worked 
roses  are  preferable,  for  pot  purposes,  to  those 
grown  on  their  own  roots ;  and  in  con.seqiience 
I  select  such  as  are  dwarf  standards  only,  and 
worked  close  to  the  collar,  so  that  when  the 
rose  is  potted  the  stem  is  scarcely  visible.  I 
also  find  that  Tea,  China,  and  Bourbon,  or 
their  hybrids,  are  better  suited  for  forcing  and 
pot  plants  than  Noisette  and  Hybrid  perpetuals, 
— the  two  last  named  class  of  roses  growing  to 
greater  perfection  in  the  open  air.  Among.st 
Tea  roses  I  would  recommend  Saffrano,  De- 
Yoniensis,  Compte  de  Paris,  Nephetos,  and 
Princess  Clementine  as  unrivalled.  Mrs.  Bo- 
sanquet,  Dutchess  of  Kent,  with  a  few  others 
amongst  Chinas;  Souvenir  de  Malmaison, 
Leveson  Gower,  and  Dupetit  Thouars  amongst 
Bourbons.  Of  the  above.  Souvenir  de  Mal- 
maison is  unrivalled  as  a  pot  rose.  Having  se- 
lected my  plants,  I  without  loss  of  time,  and 
before  the  roots  have  got  dry,  pot  them  (having 
first  pruned  the  strong  roots)  in  a  mixture  of 
old  cow-dung,  leaf-mould,  silver  sand,  and  yel- 
low loam,  and  the  rest,  as  regards  the  cuw-dung, 
leaf- mould,  and  sand,  in  equal  parts;  but  find 
that  a  greater  proportion  of  loam  may  be  added 
with  advantage,  should  the   rose  to  be  potted 


happen  to  be  a  Bourbon  or  Hybrid  perpet 
ual. 

My  plants  being  potted — which  operation  is 
complete  about  this  time, — I  place  them  on 
a.shes  under  a  north  wall  in  some  sheltered  part 
of  the  garden,  until  the  frosts  of  November 
comi)el  me  to  ])ut  them  in  cold  pits,  keeping 
them,  since  their  being  re-potted,  as  dry  as  I 
can  to  prevent  growth,  but  not  sufficiently  so 
to  cause  the  plants  to  flag  or  their  roots  to  get 
quite  dry.  I  then,  about  the  commencement 
of  December,  prune  all  that  I  intend  bringing 
into  the  greenhouse  in  the  early  part  of  January , 
for  blooming  in  May  and  June,  and  stimulate 
them  gently  by  applying  water  at  a  temperature 
a  few  degrees  warmer  than  the  atmosphere  of 
the  pit  where  they  still  are,  so  as  when  they 
are  introduced  into  the  greenhouse  at  the  com- 
mencement of  January,  at  a  medium  tempera- 
ture of  45°,  they  are  just  beginning  to  push 
strongly. 

About  the  commencement  of  February  a 
little  more  heat  is  given,  and  weak  liquid  manure 
is  applied  about  twice  a  week,  which  is  strength- 
ened as  the  plants  increase  in  vigour  and  have 
their  buds  well  set.  About  this  time  syringing 
overhead  with  lukewarm  water,  or  steaming, 
may  occasionally  be  had  recourse  to,  as  it  tends 
to  give  strength  to  the  plants,  and  keeps  away 
the  aphis  and  other  enemies.  Lastly,  when  the 
shoots  are  sufficiently  long  for  the  purpose,  they 
are  gently  brought  dovvn  tothesidcsof  the  pot, 
or  staked  to  such  places  as  they  are  intended 
to  occupy,  so  as  when  the  plants  are  ready  for 
the  show,  these  appliances  may  be  removed, 
and  the  plant  still  preserve  a  round  and  uni- 
form api)earance. 

I  had  almost  forgotten  to  add,  that  it  is  ne- 
cessary at  all  times  when  temperature  is  at  50'' 
or  above,  to  give  as  much  i,ir  as  possible;  and 
this  may  even  be  done  when  a  gentle  fire  is 
going. — Cattagc  Gardener. 


Drip  in  Fkames  and  Pits. — There  is,  proba- 
bly, no  cause  so  injurious  in  its  effects,  especial- 
ly at  this  time  of  the  year,  as  drip  in  plant  habi- 
tations, but  more  especially  in  cold  frames  and 
pits.  Great  care  must  be  taken  both  to  pre- 
vent it,  and,  when  it  takes  place,  to  neutralise 
its  almost  murderous  effects.  Various  schemes 
have  been  devised  for  the  purpose,  such,  for 
instance,  as  gutters  cut  in  the  rafters  and  ribs 
of  the  lights,  to  convey  the  accumulated  drops 
to  a  front  pipe,  and  by  this  to  be  conveyed  away 
outside;  but  the  grand  preventive  is  good 
glazing,  and  such  an  inclination  of  the  lights  as 
will  send  the  condensed  water  off  quickly,  be- 
fore it  has  time  to  collect  into  drops.  If,  there- 
fore, the  drip  is  observed  to  ftill  upon  the  plants, 
let  the  glazing  be  carefully  examined  and  re- 
paired; and  the  elevation,  or  angle  of  the  glass, 
raised  to  the  carrying-off  pitch.  Admission  of 
air,  on  every  favorable  day,  will  dry  up  the 
drp,  and  help  to  cure  the  evil  if  it  has  oc- 
curred.— lb. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES, 


Dnmrstir  Snilm, 


OrsTER-SitELL  Lime.— While  spending  a  few 
hours  on  Staten  Island  lately,  we  saw  a  simple 
and  efficient  mode  of  making  oyster-shell  lime, 
which  -we  record  for  the  benefit  of  such  of  our 
readers  as  have  the  opportunity  to  put  it  into 
practice. 

Mr.  Dunning,  (for  it  is  upon  this  gentle- 
man's place  that  the  thing  is  done,)  builds  up 
with  rough  stone  walls,  a  circular  kiln  about  5 
feet  in  diameter— just  as  you  would  stone  \vp  a 
well.  A  spot  is  selected  on  a  side  hill,  where 
the  slope  of  the  ground  is  such  that  with  a 
slight  excavation  the  base  of  the  kiln  is  exposed 
on  the  lower  side.  Here  a  small  opening— a 
rude  archway  18  or  20  inches  wide  and  a  little 
more  in  height — is  left  as  a  sort  of  furnace — to 
be  filled  with  faggots,  brush,  stumps  of  trees, 
and  the  like  rubbish  to  be  had  on  almost  every 
country  place — over  this  furnace  a  few  bars  of 
iron  are  built  into  the  wall,  to  hold  up  the  first 
layer  of  oyster  shells.  In  filling  the  kiln,  a 
layer  of  oyster  shells  and  a  thin  layer  or  sprink- 
ling of  the  screenings  of  anthracite  coal  are  Y)\.it 
alternately,  till  the  kiln  is  filled  to  the  top- 
making  in  all  a  depth  of  some  4  to  6  feet.  The 
fire  is  lighted  among  the  figgots  and  rough 
wood  below,  and  gradually  spreads  through  the 
whole  kiln — burning  the  oyster  shells  into  ex- 
cellent lime.  When  we  say  that  oyster  shells 
make  the  purest  and  best  lime  for  all  horticul- 
tural purposes,  and  especially  for  fruit  trees,  and 
that  in  most  of  our  Atlantic  towns  they  are 
wholly  wasted,  and  though  so  easily  burned  in 
this  way  in  these  simple  kilns,  (which  once 
made  will  last  for  a  dozen  years,)  we  think  we 
ofier  a  hint,  which  many  subscribers  will  lose  no 
time  in  profiting  by. 

The  Sheldon  Pear. — AVe  received  from  Mr, 
W.  S.  Verplanck,  of  Geneva,  N".  Y.,  a  box 
containing  some  samples  of  new  seedling  pears 
under  this  name.  They  were,  as  we  learn,  the 
product  of  several  trees,  all-  seedlings,  bearing 
the  strongest  resemblance  to  each  other,  and  all 
raised  from  seeds  brought  by  Mr.  Sheldon  to 
Wayne  co.,  from  the  form  of  Judge  Johnson,  of 
Dutchess  county,  N.  Y.  The  form  and  size  is 
much  like  that  of  the  Doyenne  or  Virgalieu, 


(which  was  probably  the  parent,)  but  with  more 
of  the  flavor  of  the  Brown  Beurre,  and  a  good 
deal  of  the  russety  greenish  yellow  skin  of  the 
latter  pear.  The  flavor  is  something  between 
the  two  first — and  so  far  as  we  could  judge  from 
the  product  of  a  single  season,  is  likely  to  take 
rank  as  a  "  very  good"  pear.  The  tree  is  said 
to  resemble  the  Virgalieu  in  its  growth.  We 
shall  hope  to  examine  this  variety  next  year, 
and  report  more  fully  upon  it . 


The  Cushino  Raspberry. — We  learn  from 
a  pomological  correspondent  in  Philadelphia, 
that  plants  of  this  fine  new  variety,  originated 
by  Dr.  Brinckle,  and  figured  in  a  previous 
vol.  of  this  Journal,  "  were  loaded  with  crops  of 
handsome  and  fine  fruit  all  the  month  of  No- 
vember." Its  ever-bearing  qualities  were  not, 
we  think,  known,  when  it  was  first  described, 
and  they  add  very  much  to  its  value. 


Removing  Trees  in  Winter. — Dear  Sir:  I 
owe  you  thanks  for  the  hints  about  moving  trees 
with  frozen  balls  of  earth.  I  began  to  put  them 
in  practice  the  beginning  of  this  month,  and 
have  already  moved  twenty  trees,  Elms,  Maples, 
and  White  Pines.  These  trees  are  from  18  to 
30  feet  high.  I  took  them  from  the  meadows 
and  road  sides  where  they  stood  alone — so  that 
they  have  handsome  heads.  The  latter  I  have 
shortened-in  all  over  the  tips  of  the  branches. 
With  three  hands,  a  yoke  of  oxen  and  a  low, 
strong  sled,  I  found  it  quite  an  easy  matter, 
and  feel  confident  the  trees  will  do  well — as 
balls  of  earth  five  feet  in  diameter — containing 
nearly  all  the  main  roots — were  taken  entire 
with  everj'  tree,  I  am  charmed  with  the  effect 
so  speedily  produced — turning  a  bare  site  into 
one  with  the  shelter  and  growth  of  eighteen  or 
twenty  years.  The  cost  of  removing  the  twen- 
ty trees,  preparing  the  holes  and  all,  is  exactly 
$100.  And  I  have  expended  no  such  sum  on 
my  premises  so  much  to  my  satisfaction.  A 
Constant  Reader.     Philadelphia,  Dec.  17. 


The   American   Holly. — The  finest   ever- 
green shrub  or  tree  north  of  Mason  &  D 
line,   and   one  which  is  most  neglected 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


one  never  sees  in  a  nursery,  pleasure 
ground,  or  garden,  is  the  American  Holly.  It 
is  not  a  tender  tree,  for  it  grows  in  the  eastern 
part  of  Massachusetts.  And  it  is  not  a  rare 
tree,  for  in  New- Jersey,  Mai-yland,and  Virgin- 
ia, the  woods  in  many  places  abound  with  fine 
specimens,  from  six  to  thirty  feet  high.  At 
this  season  of  the  year,  nothing  is  more  beauti- 
ful than  these  holly  trees,  laden  with  berries  of 
the  richest  coral  color,  which  contrast  so  finely 
with  the  fine  green  foliage.  This,  our  native 
holly,  is  very  much  like  the  European,  except 
the  fuliage  is  a  lighter  green  and  less  glossy. 
It  is  also  hardier.  Yet  it  would  probably  be 
found  difficult  to  purchase  twenty  plants  of  the 
American  Holly  in  any  nursery  in  America — 
consequently  nobody  plants  it,  and  few  people 
know  any  thing  about  it.  We  think  it  is  so  lit- 
tle planted,  because  it  takes  some  years  to  raise 
it  from  seed,  and  nurserymen,  therefore,  neg- 
lect it  for  shrubs  more  easily  turned  into  mo- 
ney, and  partly  because  it  requires  a  point  or 
two  of  attention  in  establishing  it.  It  does  not 
grow  well  in  open  exposed  sites,  nor  in  heavy 
clayey  soil.  Choo.se  a  sheltered  site — under  the 
partial  shade  of  trees  or  buildings — and  give  it 
a  light  gravelly  or  sandy  soil,  and  it  will  soon 
repay  one  for  the  trouble  of  planting.  The 
finest  garden  specimens  that  we  remember  to 
have  seen,  are  two  we  saw  last  month,  standing 
on  the  grounds  near  the  President's  house, 
"Washington.  They  were  pictures  of  beauty 
in  their  rich  green  and  coral  dress,  that  would 
cheat  any  winter  landscape  of  its  dreariness. 


Improved  Sweet  Corn. — Wc  find  the  fol- 
lowing in  the  Working  Farmer,  from  the  pen 
of  Professor  Mapes — who  not  only  writes 
good  editorials,  but  cultivates,  as  we  hear,  on 
his  farm  near  Newark,  some  rather  remarkable 
crops — such  as  are,  for  product  per  acre,  not 
often  seen  in  that  state.  The  Stowell  Sweet 
Corn  will,  we  should  think,  be  much  sought 
after. 

"  Stowell's  Sweet  Corn. — This  is  a  new 
sort,  and  is  every  way  superior  to  any  other  we 
have  seen,  for  after  being  pulled  from  the  ground 
the  stalks  may  be  placed  in  a  dry  cool  nlace, 
free  from  moisture,  frost,  or  violent  currents 
of  air,  (to  prevent  drying)  and  the  grains  will 
remain  full  and  milkj'  for  many  months.  Or,  the 
ears  may  be  pulled  in  August,  and  by  tying  a 
string  loosely  around  the  small  end,  to  prevent 
the  husks  from  drying  away  from  the  ears,  they 


may  be  laid  on  shelves  and  kept  moist  and  suita- 
ble for  boiling,  for  a  year  or  more.  This  corn 
is  a  hybrid,  between  the  Menomony  soft  corn 
and  the  northern  Sugar  corn,  and  was  first 
grown  by  Mr.  Nathan  Stowell  of  Burlington, 
New  Jersey.  We  purchased  from  Mr.  S.  a 
number  of  ears  dried  for  seed,  and  he  presented 
us  with  a  few  ears  surrounded  by  the  husks, 
grown  the  previous  summer,  the  inner  leaves 
of  the  husks  of  which,  and  the  corn  and  cob, 
were  in  as  green  a  state  as  when  pulled  the  pre- 
vious August.  Near  the  close  of  the  late  fair 
of  the  American  Institute,  I  presented  the 
managers  with  two  ears  pulled  in  August,  1849, 
and  twelve  ears  pulled  in  August,  1850.  They 
were  boiled  and  served  up  together,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  alike,  and  equal  to  corn  fresh  from 
the  garden. 

"  The  ears  are  larger  than  the  usual  sweet 
corn,  and  contain  twelve  rows.  To  save  the 
seed,  it  is  necessary  to  place  them  in  strong 
currents  of  air,  freed  from  most  of  the  husks, 
and  assisted  slightly  by  tire-heat  when  nearly 
dry.  In  damp  places  this  corn  soon  moulds 
and  becomes  worthless.  The  seed,  when  dry, 
is  but  little  thicker  than  writing  paper,  but  is  a 
sure  grower.  The  stalks  are  very  sweet  and 
valuable  as  fodder.  The  seed  may  be  procured 
from  Mr.  Stowell,  or  from  ourself." 


Making  Fish  Ponds. — Professor  Bryan, 
of  Philadelphia,  publishes  in  the  Plow,  Loom 
and  Anvil,  an  interesting  article  on  the  con- 
struction and  value  of  fish  ponds — especially  in 
the  interior  of  the  cp,untry.  He  gives  an  account 
of  an  artificial  pond,  between  200  and  300  feet 
square,  on  the  farm  of  Gideon  Lee,  Esq.,  near 
Seneca  Lake,  N.  Y.,  which  was  made  by  dam- 
ing  up  a  sloping  surface  backed  by  marshy 
ground.  The  supply  of  water  is  abundant — so 
that  the  overflow  moves  a  grist  mill.  Some 
seventeen  trout  were  put  into  this  pond  seven 
years  ago.  Since  that  time,  two  thousand 
large  and  fine  fish  have  been  taken  from  the 
pond,  and  the  table  of  the  family  is  at  all  times 
well  supplied.  Mr.  Delafield,  in  the  same 
neighborhood,  has  an  artificial  pond  made  by 
an  embankment  in  the  same  way.  It  is  stock- 
ed with  fish,  and  not  only  supples  his  table,  but 
allows  fish  once  a  week  for  his  farm  laborers. 
These  ponds  are  also  useful  in  affording  a  sup- 
ply of  ice  to  fill  the  ice  house-every  winter. 

In  England  the  carp  is  the  favorite  pond-fish, 
growing  to  a  large  size  and  becoming  fat  very 
readily.  It  is  a  good  fish,  especially  adapted  for 
ponds,  and  has  been  naturalized  in  several  pla- 
ces in  this  country. 

For  trout,  unless  the  surface  of  the  water  is 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


large — or,  as  in  Mr.  Lee's  above  referred 
to,  has  shallow  places  filled  with  tall  grass  into 
which  the  young  trout  swim,  the  old  fish  will 
often  devour  the  young  ones  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  prevent  their  increa.sing  rapidly.  To  pre- 
vent this,  it  is  best  to  make  a  small  pond,  con- 
nected with  the  large  one  by  a  shallow  strait — 
only  three  or  four  inches  deep.  Into  this  small 
pond  the  little  trout  will  escape  when  pursued, 
till  they  are  large  enough  to  command  the  re- 
sjiect  of  the  seniors. 

Useful  ponds  of  this  kind  may  often  be  made 
by  merely  forming  a  dam  or  embankment  in 
any  favorable  spot  well  supplied  with  water. 

Many  persons  have  a  fancy  for  makiiig  ponds 
as  ornamental  features  in  country  places.  This 
shoidd  never  be  done,  unless  it  is  first  ascertain- 
ed that  there  is  not  only  an  abundance  of  water 
to  keep  the  pond  full  in  the  dryest  seasons,  but 
also  to  preserve  it  clear  and  fresh.  A  large 
pond,  covered  with  weeds  and  half  stagnant, 
may  be  useful — but  it  is  far  from  ornamental. 
Nothing  but  a  constant  overjlow — made  by  a 
stream  running  continually  into  and  out  of  a 
pond,  will  keep  it  so  clear  and  bright  as  to  be 
really  ornamental. 


Delightful  Winter  Landscape. — I  saw, 
not  long  since,  a  country  house  where  there  was 
a  novel  feature  that  delighted  me.  This  was  a 
winter  landscape,  or  scene,  on  one  side  of  the 
house,  upon  which  the  two  rooms  occupied  by 
the  family  in  winter  looked.  A  broad  glade 
of  lawn  was  agreeably  varied  and  quite  sur- 
rounded, by  beautiful  evergreen  trees  and 
shrubs.  From  the  windows  commanding  this 
scene,  not  a  leafless  tree  was  in  sight,  nor  any 
other  feature  Mhich  reminded  you  that  the 
leaves  had  fallen.  The  grass  still  green,  and 
the  white  pines,  spruces,  firs,  hemlocks,  juni- 
pers, laurels,  etc.,  from  large  trees  to  small 
shrubs,  were  all  arrayed  in  the  richest  green — 
so  as  fairly  to  belie  the  season.  Even  when  the 
lawn  is  covered  with  snow  the  evergreens  are 
still  cheerful,  and  their  verdure  is  heightened  by 
contrast.  I  have  seldom  seen  a  happier  idea, 
or  one  better  carried  out.  It  seems  to  me  par- 
ticularly well  suited  to  country  houses  in  which 
the  family  passes  the  whole  year.     Yours,  S. 

[An  excellent  arrangement,  and  one  which 

heightened  in  the  execution.     With  the 

rican  Holly  and  the  Winter-berry  to  deco- 


rate it  by  their  brilliant  berries,  and  such 
as  the  Yucca  and  Chinese  Honeysuckle  (which 
hold  their  foliage  all  winter,)  to  give  it  variety, 
a  winter  garden  might  be  a  gay  and  agreeable 
thing  to  look  upon  when  January  is  at  its 
bleakest.     Ed.]        

Reform  in  Physical  Education. — We  have 
read  with  great  pleasure,  an  article  in  the  Ohio 
Cultivator,  from  the  pen  of  Mrs.  Bateham, 
which  is  so  much  to  the  point,  that  we  must  find 
a  place  for  it.  Mrs.  Bateham's  remarks  are  so 
truly  sensible  and  so  admirably  expressed,  that 
they  must,  we  think,  touch  bottom  in  the  west. 
When  feminine  writers,  in  farming  papers,  begin 
to  speak  to  the  purpose  in  this  way,  we  may 
begin  to  hope  that  the  millenium  of  a  healthy 
race  may  one  day  dawn  upon  the  country. 

"  We  may  not  agree  with  all  of  our  readers 
upon  the  mooted  questions  of  "women's  rights," 
or  the  propriety  of  calling  conventions  to  aid 
in  securing  the  rights  and  privileges  that  many 
of  them  demand;  but  one  thing  is  sure:  we 
can  none  of  us  remain  indifferent  while  every 
new.'^paper  and  periodical  is  more  or  less  oc- 
cupied in  discussing  the  subject,  and  the  public 
mind  is  so  much  interested  that  even  the  odious 
"  fugitive  slave  law"  can  only  crowd  it  a  little 
into  the  back  ground.  No,  we  cannot  be  indiffer- 
ent; and  few  of  us  will  deny  that  there  are 
great  social  evils  to  be  removed,  or  assert  that 
woman  now  occupies  in  all  her  relations,  the 
position  that  she  should.  There  is  need  of 
reform,  and  of  one  branch  of  this  reform  we 
wish  now  to  speak,  to  wit,  reform  in  the  physi- 
cal education  of  women. 

•''  Truly  it  is  folly  for  any  one  to  think  of 
having  women  educated  so  as  to  become  orna- 
ments to  the  bench,  bar  or  desk,  or  expect  them 
to  become  conversant  with  political  intrigues 
and  manoeuvres,  and  qualified  to  choose  their 
rulers,  or  become  such  themselves,  so  long  as 
their  physical  constitutions  are  so  frail  and 
delicate  that  a  little  unusual  exertion,  either 
physical  or  mental,is  sufficient  to  prostrate  them. 
Indeed,  they  are  not  qualified  to  discharge  their 
present  duties  aright,  much  less  to  add  new 
and  untried  ones.  With  their  feeble  bodies 
and  diseased  nerves,  and  the  host  of  other 
maladies  that  follow  in  their  train,  they  are  un- 
fit for  the  responsibilities  of  mothers,  house- 
wives, or  members  of  community.  Their  time 
■  is  occupied,  and  their  attention  engrossed,  by 
their  own  sufferings,  their  own  wants,  and  thinr 
own  petty  interests,  and  they  have  neither  time 
nor  sympathy  to  spare  for  others;  and  it  is 
vain  to  expect  in  them  a  philanthropic  heart, 
anxious  to  ascertain  the  necessities  of  the  poor 
and  the  wants  of  society,  or  to  expect  them  to 
manifest  the  strength  and  skill — the  energy  and 
decision  of  character  which  would  enable  them 
to  apply  the  remedy.    And  all  this  necessarily 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


from  their  impaired  health  and  feeble 
coiistitutioiis. 

"  There  should  and  must  be  a  change.  We 
know  that  health  of  body  is  not  a  panacea;  it 
alone  will  not  remove  the  evils  of  society,  and 
place  all  in  their  proper  positions;  bnt  without 
it,  and  until  tlicre  is  a  change  wrought  here, 
we  cannot  hope  to  see  the  females  of  our  coun- 
try become  the  earnest,  sensible,  well-informed 
women  that  they  must  be  to  meet  the  great  and 
increasing  demands  of  their  age   and  country. 

"  We  are  aware  that  these  evils  are  far  more 
prevalent  among  females  in  towns  and  cities, 
than  those  who  live  in  the  country,  yet  they  are 
fast  becoming  fearfully  prevalent  here.  The 
daughters  of  our  more  wealthy  farmers,  es- 
pecially, are  inclined  to  imitate  too  closely  the 
habits  of  the  city  ladies.  They  are  much  too 
fearful  lest  their  hands  should  be  soiled,  or 
their  foces  browned  by  labor  and  exposure; 
and  they  are  too  careful  to  prevent  the  pure 
air  and  healthful  sunlight  from  entering  their 
apartments.  The  casements  must  have  no 
crevices;  air-tight  stoves  must  be  introduced 
to  keep  the  vitiated  air  at  a  high  temperature, 
(too  often  even  in  sleeping  rooms,)  and  the 
windows  must  be  darkened  by  blinds  and 
abundant  drapery,  botli  to  protect  the  carpets 
and  insure  pale  and  delicate  countenances  to 
the  daughters. 

"  Now  this  is  all  wrong.  We  do  not  wish 
you  to  become  masculine  in  looks  or  manners, 
nor  to  aid  your  brothers  in  their  laborious  oc- 
cupations, but  we  do  earnestly  desire  that  you 
should  draw  back  the  curtains,  ventilate  your 
rooms  thoroughly,  engage  actively  in  household 
labor,  avoid  injurious  habits  of  dress  and  of 
diet,  pay  strict  attention  to  personal  cleanliness, 
and  above  all,  take  abundant  exercise  in  the 
open  air.  We  wish  you  to  consult  your  own 
constitutions,  and  instead  of  making tlie^ir natu- 
ral delicacy  an  excuse  for  perpetrating  any 
amount  of  injury  upon  them,  we  wish  you  to 
develop  and  strengthen,  without  overtasking 
and  injuring  them.  In  a  word,  we  wish  you  to 
cultivate  and  possess  healthful  and  vigorous 
physical  constitutions. 

"  Woman  cannot  be  elevated  until  her  mind 
is  vigorous  and  active.  With  an  intellect  en- 
feebled and  dull,  inactive  and  indolent,  she  is  fit 
for  no  more  elevated  station  than  a  parlor  doll 
or  a  kitchen  drudge.  She  must  be  awake  and 
in  earnest:  but  the  mind  is,  to  a  great  extent, 
dependent  upon  the  body.  If  the  latter  is 
diseased  and  enfeebled,  the  former  must  be 
weak ;  but  give  tone  and  energy  to  the  physical 
system,  and  mental  vigor  will  generally  be  pro- 
portionate."   

Pruing  Fruit  Trees. — From  observation 
and  experience  I  have  learned  some  facts  rela- 
tive to  trimming  trees,  which  may  be  useful  to 
others;  and  I  know  of  no  medium  of  com- 
munication so  suitable  as  your  excellent  work. 

The  question  is  repeatedly  asked,  "  When  is 


the  right  time  to  trim  fruit  trees?"  But  I  have 
never  heard  the  more  important  question  asked, 
How  is  the  right  way  to  trim  trees? 

The  answers  to  these  two  questions,  which  I 
propose,  is  the  following  rule  for  trimming  trees. 
Between  the  20th  of  June  and  4th  of  July, 
cut  the  limb  very  close  to  the  trunk,  so  as  not 
to  sejiarate  the  bark  from  the  wood ;  then  with 
a  brush,  cover  the  wood  and  bark  with  gum 
shellac,  having  it  previously  dissolved  in  alcohol. 

Why  this  particular  time?  some  will  ask.  I 
answer,  because  this  is  the  season  when  the 
year's  growth  of  wood  is  soft,  [when  the  de- 
posit of  young  wood  is  going  on,]  and  it  will 
unite  with  the  bark  quite  out  to  where  it  is  cut 
off,  a  very  important  point.  Why  cover  over 
the  space  with  gum  shellac?  another  will  ask. 
Simply  because  this  will  preserve  the  wood  from 
decaying,  while  Nature  is  at  work  healing  the 
wound. 

I  burn  apple  tree  wood  in  a  Franklin  stove, 
because  it  never  snaps  on  the  carpet, — and  I 
have  no  difficulty  in  pui'chasing  it.  Farmers 
are  "  cutting  down  old  apple  trees  which  form- 
erly bore  superior  fruit,  because  they  are  dy- 
ing." And  why  are  they  dying?  Simply  be- 
cause they  nave  been  improperly  trimmed.  In 
cutting  up  the  trees,  the  outside  has  generally 
a  sound  appearance,  but  inside  I  find  large 
limbs  have  been  cut  off,  and  before  the  wounds 
healed  over,  that  part  of  the  limb  not  removed 
had  become  rotten,  and  thereby  so  materially 
affected  the  health  of  the  tree,  that  it  could 
bear  no  more  fruit — it  could  hardly  live — it 
must  be  cut  down  to  make  room  for  young 
trees,  which,  if  treated  in  the  same  manner, 
will  prematurely  decay  from  the  same  cause. 

Trees  should  be  trimmed  when  young,  in  such 
a  manner  that  there  will  be  no  necessity  for 
cutting  off  large  limbs.  If  this  were  done  our 
fruit  trees  would  attain  a  good  old  age,  instead 
of  being  cut  down  when  they  should  be  in  the 
prime  of  life  and  in  full  bearing.  A  Subcri- 
BER.     Trenton,  N.  J.,  Nov.  26,  1850. 


5lnsiarr3  to  (rnrrfSfinukutB. 

Naked  Place. — IF.  S.  (New Haven.)  We 
notice  your  plan,  and  the  want  of  trees  about 
your  house.  You  had  better  expend  $50  in 
planting  ten  Elm  trees  of  good  size — say 
with  trunks  five   or  six  inches  in  diameter- 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


grouping  theiii  on  your  lawn  about  your  house, 
than  in  making  the  shrubbery  walks  you  speak 
of.  The  large  trees,  (moved  in  winter  with 
balls,)  will  give  you  shade  and  foliage  immedi- 
ately— and  next  year,  if  you  cannot  afford  to 
do  both  now — you  may  plant  your  shrubbery, 
and  complete  the  minor  details. 

Village  Church. — B.  It  would  have  been 
easy  to  design  a  simple  gothic  church,  to  be 
built  of  stone,  and  to  accommodate  the  same 
number,  for  the  same  sum  that  the  committee 
have  determined  to  expend  upon  the  building 
they  have  erected.  "We  have  sent  you  the 
sketch,  and  you  can  determine  which  would 
look  most  like  a  church.  The  whole  cost  would 
be  about  $6,500. 

Hedges. — A  German  Subscriber,  (Bucks  Co. 
Pa.)  The  hardiest  and  best  hedge  in  this  cli- 
mate, for  farmers,  is  the  Buckthorn.  You 
can  get  the  young  plants  for  $5  to  $6  per  1000, 
at  the  nurseries,  or  j' ou  may  buy  the  seeds,  and 
sow  them  as  you  would  peas,  and  after  they 
have  grown  one  year  in  the  rows,  transplant 
them  into  a  hedge.  To  plant  the  hedge,  clean 
the  ground  of  all  rubbish,  plow  the  space  three 
feet  wide,  and  deeply,  (running  the  plow  twice 
in  the  same  furrow,)  and  give  it  a  dressing  of 
manure  from  the  barn-yard .  The  plants  should 
be  set  in  a  double  row,  six  inches  apart — not  op- 
posite to  each  other,  but  alternate. 

Trenching. — .4  Constant  Header,  (Port- 
land.) The  difficulty  you  complain  of  in  your 
garden,  arises  from  want  of  drainage.  You 
must  contrive  to  run  one  deep  drain  through  it, 
at  least,  so  as  to  prevent  the  water  standing  in 
winter  and  spring.  After  doing  that,  trenching 
it  will  work  wonders,  but  not  without  drainage. 
The  brine-ashes  you  speak  of,  will  be  the  best 
possible  manure  for  it,  and  you  may  use  them 
at  the  rate  of  300  bushels  to  the  acre,  with 
great  advantage. 

Trees  for  Poor  Soil. — Arbor.  ATe  know 
of  nothing  that  will  do  so  well  on  your  dry,  gra- 
velly hills,  as  the  European  Larch  and  the  Nor- 
way Spruce.  If  you  want  a  great  number, 
you  had  better  import  plants  a  foot  or  eighteen 
inches  high,  from  the  English  nurseries.  They 
may  be  had  for  a  few  dollars  per  1,000. 

Green-houses. — i.  R.,  (Richmond.)  You 
have  injured  your  plants  by  watering  them  with 
manure  when  in  a  half  dormant  state, 
had  been  growing  freely  at  the  time. 


it  would  have  benefitted  them. — A 
(Brooklyn,  N.  Y.)  The  temperature  of  your 
green-house  should  not  be  kept  so  high  at  night 
— but  always  several  degrees  lower  than  in  the 
day  time.  It  is  contrary  to  natural  laws  to 
have  the  nights  hotter  than  the  day,  even  in 
the  tropics,  and  if  your  plants  are  forced  to 
grow  most  at  night,  the  stems  will  be  feeble  and 
sickly. — B.  Jones.  Your green-house,we  should 
think,  needs  more  air.  If  you  can  contrive  to 
introduce  it  warm,  then  you  can  ventilate  the 
house  in  all  weathers  which  will  benefit  the 
plants  amazingly.  Cannot  you  form  a  little  air 
chamber  over  the  hottest  part  of  the  flue — 
either  of  bricks  or  sheet  iron,  and  introduce 
cold  air,  by  a  tin  tube,  through  the  outside 
wall.  This  air-chamber  will  then  pour  in  a 
stream  of  warm  air  whenever  there  is  a  fire  in 
the  furnace,  and  when  there  is  none,  you  can 
shut  the  cold  off  by  a  lid  or  valve.  When  the 
weather  is  very  cold,  so  that  large  fires  are 
necessary,  you  should  occasionally  sprinkle  the 
the  flues  with  hot  water  in  the  mornings. — M. 
L.  P.,  (Jefferson  Co.,  IST.  Y.)  You  may  save 
one-half  the  fuel  consumed  by  having  light 
shutters  to  cover  your  glass  at  night.  The 
extremes  of  cold  will  also  be  prevented,  greatly 
to  the  benefit  of  the  plants. 

Evergreen  Seeds. — F.  Jones,  (Clarke  Co., 
Ky .)  Seeds  of  the  Deodar  and  Araucaria  can- 
not we  think,  be  procured  in  this  country.  It 
is  possible  that  by  addressing  Messrs.  Whitley 
and  Osborne,  Eulham,  near  London,  they  may 
be  obtained. 

Grafting  Seedling  Pear  Stocks. — A. 
Birdseij,  (Middletown.)  It  will  make  no  dif- 
ference as  to  the  liability  to  blight  at  what  age 
j^ou  graft  the  seedlings.  When  they  are  half 
an  inch  in  diameter  they  are  large  enough,  and 
they  may  be  budded  with  success  when  only 
two  years  old.  Double  grafting  is  not  at  all 
necessary  for  your  purpose.  The  most  profita- 
ble winter  pear  is  the  Pound,  and  the  most 
profitable  summer  pear  the  Bartlett. 

Books. — ./l.  N.  (Louisville,  Ky.)  Gray's 
Botany  of  the  Northern  States.  You  will  also 
find  Eaton's  Manual  of  Botany  a  useful  hand- 
book.—  Walter,  (Buflalo.)  The  volume  you 
want  is  Repton's  Landscape  Gardening.  Buist's 
American  Flower  Garden  Directory  will  give 
you  the  culture  of  all  the  most  popular 
exotics. 


M/b^yiiLii^m 


fiflDEI*'"'  ■ 


Design  for  Carriage  House  and  Stable. 


Ilort:  Feb.,  1851. 


«-r«Ji^ »-.',  '.. 


JOURNAL  OF  RURil  ART  AM)  RURAL  TASTE. 


€\}t  %tmiihl  m  n  €xtt 


IJ  N  WHAT  does  the  beauty  of  a  tree  consist  ?  We  mean,  of  course,  wLat  may  strict- 
^  ly  be  caUed  an  ornamental  tree — not  a  tree  planted  for  its  fruit  in  tbe  orchard,  or 
growing  for  timber  in  the  forest,  but  standing  alone  in  the  lawn  or  meadow — grow- 
ing in  groups  in  the  pleasure-ground,  over-arching  the  road-side,  or  bordering  some 
stately  avenue. 

Is  it  not,  first  of  all,  that  such  a  tree,  standing  where  it  can  grow  untouched,  and 
develop  itself  on  all  sides,  is  one  of  the  finest  pictures  of  symmetry  and  proportion 
that  the  eye  can  any  where  meet  with  ?  The  tree  may  be  young,  or  it  may  be  old, 
but  if  left  to  nature,  it  is  sure  to  grow  into  some  form  that  courts  the  eye  and  satisfies 
it.  It  may  branch  out  boldly  and  grandly,  like  the  Oak;  its  top  may  be  broad  and 
stately,  like  the  Chestnut,  or  drooping  and  elegant,  like  the  Elm,  or  delicate  and  airy, 
like  the  Birch,  but  it  is  sure  to  grow  into  the  type-form — either  beautiful  or  pic- 
turesque— that  nature  stamped  upon  its  species,  and  which  is  the  highest  beauty  that 
such  tree  can  possess.  It  is  true,  that  nature  plants  some  trees,  like  the  fir  and  pine,  in 
the  fissures  of  the  rock,  and  on  the  edge  of  the  precipice  ;  that  she  twists  their  boughs 
and  gnarls  their  stems,  by  storms  and  tempests — thereby  adding  to  their  picturesque 
power  in  sublime  and  grand  scenery  ;  but  as  a  general  truth,  it  may  be  clearly  stated 
that  the  Beautiful,  in  a  tree  of  any  kind,  is  never  so  fully  developed  as  when,  in  a  ge- 
nial soil  and  climate,  it  stands  quite  alone,  stretching  its  boughs  upward  freely  to  the 
sky,  and  outwai-d  to  the  breeze,  and  even  downward  towards  the  earth — almost  touching 
it  with  their  graceful  sweep,  till  only  a  glimpse  of  the  fine  trunk  is  had  at  its  spread- 
ing base,  and  the  whole  top  is  one  great  globe  of  floating,  waving,  drooping  or  sturdy 
luxuriance,  giving  one  as  perfect  an  idea  of  symmetry  and  proportion,  as  can  be  found 
of  the  Grecian  Apollo  itself, 
have  taken  the  pains  to  present  this  hemi-idcal  of  a  fine  ornamental  tree 


Feb.  1,  1851. 


No.  2. 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  IN  A  TREE. 

readers,  in  order  to  contrast  it  with  another  picture,  tiot  from  nature — -but  by  the 
hands  of  quite  another  master. 

This  master  is  the  man  whose  passion  is  to  prune  trees.  To  his  mind,  there  is 
nothing  comparable  to  the  satisfaction  of  trimming  a  tree.  A  tree  in  a  state  of  nature 
is  a  no  more  respectable  object  than  an  untamed  savage.  It  is  running  to  waste 
with  leaves  and  branches,  and  has  none  of  the  look  of  civilization  about  it.  Only  let 
him  use  his  saw  for  a  short  time,  upon  any  young  specimen  just  growing  into  adoles- 
cence, and  throwing  out  its  delicate  branches  like  a  fine  fall  of  drapery,  to  conceal  its 
naked  trunk,  and  you  shall  see  how  he  will  improve  its  appearance.  Yes,  he  will 
trim  up  those  branches  till  there  is  a  tall,  naked  stem,  higher  than  his  head.  That 
shows  that  the  tree  has  been  taken  care  of — has  been  trimmed — ergo,  trained  and  ed- 
ucated into  a  look  of  respectability.  This  is  his  great  point — the  fundamental  law  of 
sylvan  beauty  in  his  mind —  a  bare  pole  with  a  top  of  foliage  at  the  end  of  it.  If 
he  cannot  do  this,  he  may  content  himself  with  thinning  out  the  branches  to  let  in  the 
light,  or  clipping  them  at  the  ends  to  send  the  head  upwards,  or  cutting  out  the  leader 
to  make  it  spread  laterally.  But  though  the  trees  formed  by  these  latter  modes 
of  pruning,  are  well  enough,  they  never  reach  that  exalted  standard,  which  has  for  its 
type,  a  pole  as  bare  as  a  ship's  mast,  with  only  a  %ing  studding-sail  of  green  boughs 
at  the  end  of  it.* 

We  suppose  this  very  common  pleasure — for  it  must  be  a  pleasure — which  so  many 
persons  fiiad  in  trimming  up  ornamental  trees,  is  based  on  a  feeling  that  trees,  grow- 
ing quite  in  the  natural  way,  must  be  capable  of  some  amelioration  by  art ;  and  as 
pruning  is  usually  acknowledged  to  be  useful  in  developing  certain  points  in  a  fruit 
tree,  a  like  good  purpose  will  be  reached  by  the  use  of  the  knife  upon  an  ornamental 
tree.  But  the  comparison  does  not  hold  good — since  the  objects  aimed  at  are  essen- 
tially diiFerent.  Pruning — at  least  all  useful  pruning — as  applied  to  fruit  trees,  is 
applied  for  the  purpose  of  adding  to,  diminishing,  or  otherwise  regulating  i\\e  fniit ful- 
ness of  the  tree  ;  and  this,  in  many  cases,  is  effected  at  the  acknowledged  diminution 
of  the  growth,  luxuriance  and  beauty  of  the  tree — so  far  as  spread  of  branches  and 
prodigality  of  foliage  go.  But  even  here,  the  pruner  who  prunes  only  for  the  sake  of 
using  the  knife,  (like  heartless  young  surgeons  in  hospitals,)  not  unfrequently  goes 
too  far,  injures  the  perfect  maturity  of  the  crop,  and  hastens  the  decline  of  the  tree, 
by  depriving  it  of  the  fair  proportions  which  nature  has  established  between  the  leaf 
and  the  fruit. 

But  for  the  most  part,  we  imagine  that  the  practice  we  complain  of,  is  a  want  of 
perception  of  what  is  truly  beautiful  in  an  ornamental  tree.  It  seems  to  us  indispu- 
table, that  no  one  who  has  any  perception  of  the  beautiful  in  nature,  could  ever  doubt 
for  a  moment,  that  a  fine  single  elm  or  oak,  such  as  we  may  find  in  the  valley  of  the 
Connecticut  or  the  Genesee,  which  has  never  been  touched  by  the  knife,  is  the  most 
perfect  standard  of  sylvan  grace,  symmetry,  dignity,  and  finely  balanced  proportions, 
that  it  is  possible  to  conceive.     One  would  no  more  wish  to  touch  it  with  saw  or  axe 

*  Some  of  our  readers  may  not  be  awure  Ihat  to  cut  off  the  .side  brandies  on  a  young  tiunk,  actually  les; 
growth  in  diameter  of  that  trunk  at  once 


INFLUENCE  OF  HORTICULTURAL  EXHIBITIONS. 

(unless  to  remove  some  branch  that  has  fallen  into  deca}^)  than  to  give  a  nicer  curve 
to  the  rainbow,  or  add  freshness  to  the  dew-drop.  If  any  of  our  readers,  who  still 
stand  by  the  pruning  knife,  will  only  give  themselves  up  to  the  study  of  such  trees  as 
these — trees  that  have  the  most  completely  developed  forms  that  nature  stamps  upon 
the  species,  they  are  certain  to  arrive  at  the  same  conclusions.  For  the  beautiful  in 
nature,  though  not  alike  visible  to  every  man,  never  fails  to  dawn,  sooner  or  later, 
upon  all  who  seek  her  in  the  right  spirit. 

And  in  art  too — no  great  master  of  landscape,  no  Claude,  or  PoussiN,  or  Turner, 
paints  mutilated  trees ;  but  trees  of  grand  and  majestic  heads,  full  of  health  and  ma- 
jesty, or  grandly  stamped  with  the  wild  irregularity  of  nature  in  her  sterner  types. 
The  few  Dutch  or  French  artists  who  are  the  exceptions  to  this,  and  have  copied 
those  emblems  of  pruned  deformity — the  pollard  trees  that  figure  in  the  landscapes  of 
the  Low  Countries — have  given  local  truthfulness  to  their  landscapes,  at  the  expense 
of  everything  like  sylvan  loveliness.  A  pollard  willow  should  be  the  very  type  and 
model  of  beauty  in  the  eye  of  the  champion  of  the  pruning  saw.  Its  finest  parallels 
in  the  art  of  mending  nature's  proportions  for  the  sake  of  beauty,  are  in  the  flattened 
heads  of  a  certain  tribe  of  Indians,  and  the  deformed  feet  of  Chinese  women.  What 
nature  has  especially  shaped  for  a  delight  to  the  eye,  and  a  fine  suggestion  to  the  spi- 
ritual sense,  as  a  beautiful  tree,  or  the  human  form  divine,  man  should  not  lightly  un- 
dertake to  remodel  or  clip  of  its  fair  proportions. 


I^nrtirultiiral  (Eijiiliitinns. 

THEIR  INFLUENCE  UPON  CULTIVATION  AND  TASTE.* 

If  the  question  was  put  to  us — what,  within  the  last  seven  years  has  contributed  the 
most  to  the  promotion  of  first-class  cultivation  among  gardeners? — we  could  have  no  hesi' 
tation  in  answering,  the  public  exhibitions  of  plants;  for,  though  there  may  be  many  who 
may  profess  not  to  have  been  so  influenced,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  first  great 
cause  of  improvements  has  been  the  noble  examples  of  skill  periodically  brought  together 
under  the  auspices  of  these  Societies;  which  examples,  being  to  a  very  great  extent  parti- 
cularly described,  and  sometimes  pictorially  represented  by  means  of  engravings,  have, 
through  the  medium  of  the  horticultural  press,  been  sent  through  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land, — thus  penetrating  and  eradicating  prejudices  in  the  craniunis  of  some  of  our 
would-be  wise  countrymen,  which  could  not  have  been  eradicated  by  other  means.  Again 
the  employers  of  gardeners  have  Avitnessed  what  could  be  accomplished  by  proper  man- 
agement; and  hence,  where  the  means  were  allovved,  the  gardener  had  nothing  but  his 
own  want  of  skill  to  blame,  if  he  did  not  accomplish  that  which  others  had  -done  before 
him.  Apart,  however,  from  the  influence  of  these  fdes  upon  cultivation,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  they  have  effected  much  good  in  guiding  the  artist,  and  in  improving  and  correcting 
the  taste  of  the  middle  and  higher  classes  of  society,  and  of  this  we  need  no  stronger  proof 
than  the  fact  that  manufacturers  look  to  nature  and  not  to  art,  for  patterns  to  beautify  the 
productions  of  the  silk  loom,  &c.;  while  artists  in  wax  and  ai'tificial  flowers  imi 

*  From  the  London  Gardeners'  Magazine  of  Botany. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HORTICULTURAL  EXHIBITIONS. 


tate  nature  so  closely,  as  to  render  it  difficult,  in  some  specimens  which  wo  have  recently 
seen,  to  tell  whether  they  were  real  or  not. 

Our  object,  however,  in  this  paper,  is  not  so  much  to  point  out  the  benefits  accruing 
from  these  exhibitions,  as  to  call  the  attention  of  the  managers  of  the  exhibitions  them- 
selves, to  the  necessity  of  infusing  a  little  more  artistic  effect  into  the  arrangements  of  the 
exhibition  tents,  for  we  feel  convinced  there  is  yet  much  room  for  improvement.     Th 
^    exemplification  of  artistic  arrangement  was  seen  at  the  exhibitions  of  American  plant 


LXFLUENCE  OF  HORTICULTURAL  EXHIBITIONS. 


i*i'^ 


Pti. 


*-ViV  *"TGWr»^ 


-  .-^r,z"3^- 


^-Cr-ii ^  ^ 


the  Regent's  Park  Garden,  where,  by  diversifving  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  group- 
ing the  plants  with  considerable  taste,  a  very  effective  tout  ensenibh  was  produced. 

Seeing,  then,  that  improvements  are  to  be  made,  and  Avith  the  fact  before  us  that  this 
artistic  arrangement  of  plants  in  plant-houses,  is  a  matter  of  considerable  interest  among 
persons  of  taste  at  the  present  time,  we  venture  to  recommend  two  stands  for  the  exhibi- 
tion of  Orchids,  from  the  design  of  H.  Noel  Humphreys,  Esq.;  and  we  venture  further 
to  assert  that  if  these  stands  were  as  tastefully  filled,  as  the  designs  are  appropriate,  a 
very  pleasing  and  highly  gratifying  result  would  be  achieved.  The  larger  stand  is  sup- 
posed to  be  executed  in  rustic  work,  stands  four  feet  in  height,  to  the  first  tier  of  plants, 
and  is  proportionately  large  in  circumference.  The  second  stand  is  nearly  of  the  same 
dimensions,  but  to  render  it  more  artistic,  and  at  the  same  time  durable,  it  is  executed  in 
rra  cotta."  These  stands,  tastefully  filled  and  introduced  into  an  Orchid-tent 
rustic  stand  in  the  center,  between  the  tables,  and  a  terra  cofta   stand  at  each 


A  FEW  NOTES  ON  THE  STRAWRERRY 

the  tent,  thus  forming  a  group  with  a  center,  and  two  sides — we  are  quite  sure  would  be 
much  admired,  and  would  impart  an  entirely  new  feature  to  our  exhibitions.  Grouped 
artistically  with  mixed  plants,  some  remarkable  for  their  flowers,  others  for  their  noble  foli- 
age, and  a  third  section,  as  the  Ferns,  for  their  graceful  habit,  a  very  striking  effect  might 
be  produced;  and,  introduced  upon  the  same  principle  into  a  conservatory  or  ball-room, 
we  cannot  see  that  they  would  be  out  of  place.  To  keep  up  the  interest  of  an  exhibition 
tent,  it  is  necessary  that  the  plants  should  not  all  be  seen  on  first  entering  the  tent,  for 
though  the  first  effect  may  be  very  pleasing,  the  eye  gets  restless,  and  seeks  a  change  long 
before  one  can  be  met  with;  but  if  plants  of  an  opposite  and  striking  character  were  intro- 
duced in  these  or  similar  stands,  we  are  quite  sure  the  appearance  of  the  tents  would  be 
greatly  improved,  and  visitors  would  not  fail  to  appreciate  the  improvement. 


A   FEW   NOTES    ON   THE   STRAWBERRY. 

BY  R.  G.  PARDEE,  PALMYRA,  N.  Y. 

Since  a  brief  article  I  sent  to  the  Horticulturist  for  December  appeared,  I  have  receiv- 
ed numerous  letters  of  interest  and  inquiry,  on  the  nature  and  culture  of  the  strawberry, 
from  amateurs,  both  in  this  state  and  New-England;  and  it  has  occured  to  me  that  some 
of  our  unsettled  queries  on  the  subject,  might  be  appropriately  referred  to  the  public 
through  your  columns. 

First.  What  varieties  of  the  strawberry  are  uniformly  reliable  in  our  variations  of  soil 
and  climate?  An  important  inquir)%  truly..  Are  there  any  kinds  which  will  prove 
as  reliable  as  the  Rhode  Island  Greening,  or  Early  Harvest  Apple,  or  White  Doyenne 
Pear,  or  Crawford's  Early  Peach,  for  New-York?.  That  some  kinds  are  vastly  more  cer- 
tain of  a  crop  than  others,  any  observer  will  admit.  Among  our  finest  berries,  can  we 
not  say  that  Burr's  New  Pine  is  as  reliable  for  a  crop  in  all  places  in  our  state,  as  the 
Rhode  Island  Greening.  But  Avhat  others  have  been  so  generally  and  widely  tested,  and 
proved  satisfactory.  Some  will  say  the  Large  Early  Scarlet,  but  our  friends  from  Geneva 
assure  me  that  my  remarks  with  regard  to  this  variety  hold  true  there;  they  say  "  the 
amount  of  fruit  is  small  and  very  transient."  I  have  a  hope  that  Black  Prince  will  prove 
reliable  everywhere,  but  it  perhaps,  has  not  yet  been  sufficiently  tested.  Hovey's  is  very 
fickle  in  many  places.  Many  other  kinds  should  be  tested  everywhere,  and  so  tested  that 
their  failure  shall  not  be  caused  by  neglect. 

Second.  Is  the  flavor  of  strawberries  materially  changed  by  different  locations  and 
s,oils?  The  testimony  of  men  of  taste  in  difTerent  places,  seems  to  indicate  this.  If  not 
so,  why  does  Mr.  Downing  pronounce  the  Black  Prince  of  the  highest  flavor,  while  our 
friends  in  Rochester  pronounce  it  insipid,  or  poor  flavor.*  It  is  quite  certain  that  both 
parties  know  well  what  constitutes  superior  flavor  in  the  strawberry.  It  appears  quite 
probable,  therefore,  that  the  Black  Prince  has  degenerated  from  Mr.  Downing's  garden, 
or  it  has  been  unfavorably  affected  by  soil  or  climate  at  the  west.  In  Palmyra  we  do  not 
call  Black  Prince,  Hovey's,  &c.,  poor  flavor,  still  we  cannot  compare  them  with  the  deli- 
cious flavor  of  Burr's  New  Pine,  Svvainstone  Seedling,  &c. 

Is  it  after  all  necessary,  in  order  to  productiveness,  to  mingle  staminate  with  pistillate 
plants?     It  would  neither  be  modest  or  sensible  in  me  to  express  a  negative  to  this  ques- 

If  our  correspondent  will  examine  the  discussion  on  Strawberries  in  the  Report  of  the  Pomolog-ioal  Con„ 
New-York,  last  year,  he  will  Knd  that  this  strawberry  is  Jickle  in  flavor.  It  is  always  very  fine  here,  and  we 
generally  in  stiff  soils,  but  is  quite  insipid  hi  many  ligiit  soils.    Ed. 


A  FEW  NOTES  ON  THE  STRAWBERRY. 

tion,  when  such  distinguished  cultivators  as  Downing  and  Longworth,  Thomas  and 
Barry,  have  stated  it  otherwise;  and  yet,  after  all,  some  appearances  in  the  recent  con- 
duct of  Ilovey's  Seedling  puzzles  me.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  Thompson  of  London  and 
Hogg  of  New-York,  incline  to  a  contrary  opinion.  It  is  quite  certain  that  the  strawber- 
ry is  a  very  fickle  plant,  and  how  much  allowance  must  be  made  for  this  habit,  I  cannot 
determine.  I  have  taken  an  interest  in  the  strawberry  for  twelve  or  fifteen  years  past, 
and  have  often  observed  Ilovey's  refuse  to  bear  when  surrounded  by  staminates,  while 
on  the  other  hand,  I  have  certainlj'-,  several  times,  seen  them  M'ith  astonishing  crops  of 
fruit,  when  I  could  detect  no  staminates  in  their  vicinity,  and  was  assured  by  the  cultiva- 
tors there  Avas  none.  However,  all  this  may  be  explained  by  other  causes,  and  the  settled 
theory  remain;  and  yet  I  am  anxious  to  see  still  farther  and  more  careful  experiments. 
I  have  often  seen  a  new  bed  of  strawberries  bear  largely  the  first  year  of  fruiting,  and  ob- 
stinately refuse  to  bear  ever  afterwards,  and  vice  versa.  Sometimes  I  could  account  for 
such  sterility  by  a  dry  season,  but  at  other  times  I  could  find  no  such  apologj-  for  the 
barrenness.  "  I  think  it  desirable  to  choose  runners  from  healthy,  productive  plants," 
says  one  of  our  most  distinguished  amateur  florists.  "  I  have  not  allowed  a  single  or 
semi-double  aster  to  seed  in  my  garden  in  twenty-five  years;  as  soon  as  one  of  that  cha- 
racter blossoms,  I  pull  it  up."  Acting  on  this  plan  with  the  strawberry,  I  am  convinced 
our  best  kinds  will  uniformly  yield  large  crops.  At  an  expense  of  only  one  dollar  in  pre- 
paring the  bed  and  keeping  it  clean,  I  have  supplied  my  family  M'ith  one  to  two  quarts  per 
day  for  more  than  three  weeks,  of  this  most  delicious  fruit.  I  have,  in  my  travels,  accu- 
mulated some  twenty-three  kinds  in  my  garden,  (besides  those  I  have  discarded,)  with 
which  I  am  experimenting,  and  I  am  to  add  some  six  or  eight  kinds  more  in  the  spring, 
for  the  same  purpose.  I  cannot  convey  to  your  readers  how  much  I  am  interested  and 
entertained  "to  see  this  numerous  family  of  beauties  come  out  for  the  first  time,  as  the 
court  language  is,"  for  in  the  language  of  a  venerable  amateur  in  the  strawberry  field, 
whose  enthusiastic  devotion  to  it  makes  him,  as  you  see,  quite  J'oung  again,  elegantly 
says,  "  The  plant  is,  itself,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Nature,  beautiful  in  its  foliage — 
beautiful  in  its  blossom,  and,  above  all,  in  its  fruit.  Every  variety  shows  us  some  new 
form  of  beauty."  There  is  a  charm  in  strawberry  culture,  a  delightful  uncertainty  about 
the  product,  until  the  first  season  arrives;  and  to  the  lover  of  Nature  it  opens  a  wide,  and 
not  wholly  occupied  field,  for  the  study  of  vegetable  physiology.  E.  G.  Pardee. 

Falmyra,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  1S50. 

Eemarks. — The  most  popular  standard  strawberries,  at  the  present  moment — for  ge- 
neral cultivation — are  Large  Earl^^  S  arlet,  Ilovey's  Seedling,  and  Burr's  New  Pine. 

The  majority  of  cultivators  appear  to  assent  to  the  doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  having 
a  few  staminate  sorts  like  the  Early  Scarlet,  growing  near  a  patch  composed  wholly  of 
pistillate  blossoms,  like  Ilovey's  Seedling  and  Burr's  New  Pine.  Btit  there  are  still,  ex- 
perienced cultivators,  like  Mr.  Hogg  of  New-York — who  deny  the  necessity,  and  hold 
that  pistillate  sorts  in  good  soil,  and  with  good  culture,  will  bear  the  finest  crops.  Prac- 
ticallv,  hoM'ever,  one  bed  of  the  Large  Early  Scarlet  appears  to  be  sufficient  to  fertilize  a 
dozen  beds  of  pistillate  sorts — so  that  in  actual  culture  the  tiling  is  very  simple.  We  may 
add,  that  in  England  strawberry  growers  pay  no  attention  to  staminate  or  pistillate  flow- 
ers— yet  the  largest  and  finest  strawberries  in  the  world  are  grown  there.  They  contend 
that  a  good  strawberry  blossom  fertilises  itself,  and  becomes  sterile  only  by  defects  of  cli- 
mate or  soil.     Ed 


DIANA  GRAPE— FRUITS  AT  THE  SOUTH. 


DIANA   GRAPE  — FRUITS   AT   THE   SOUTH. 

BY  ROBERT  HARWELL,  MOBILE. 

A.  J.  DowxiNG,  Esq. — The  Diana  Grape  fruited  with  me  this  year,  and  is  cer- 
tainly the  best  grape  I  ever  tasted.  The  vine  is  a  strong  grower  and  good  bearer,  and 
will  suit  this  climate  as  well  as  we  could  desire.  I  had  Catawba  grapes  ripe  at  the  same 
time  the  Dianas  were  ripe,  and  although  the  Catawba  is  a  most  excellent  grape,  it  cannot 
be  compared  with  the  Diana  for  fine  flavor. 

In  your  remarks  at  the  close  of  an  article  written  by  me  for  the  Alabama  Planter,  you 
ask  me  to  explain  how  it  is  that  our  native  peach  trees  set  their  fruits  better  than  the 
northern  kinds,  when  the  natives  generally  blossom  in  February,  and  the  northern  kinds 
in  April. 

I  would  most  gadly  comply  with  your  request  if  I  could  do  so,  but  I  feel  altogether  un- 
equal to  the  task.  I  have  thought,  however,  that  all  fully  acclimated  stone  fruits,  in  obe- 
dience to  an  unchanging  law  of  nature,  must  blossom  just  as  soon  as  the  spring  will  per- 
mit, in  order  that  the  fruit  may  set  early,  while  the  weather  is  cool,  and  before  the  gene- 
ral rush  of  spring  sap  comes  on,  which  I  think  tends  to  throw  oif  the  very  young  fruit. 
There  are,  probably,  no  better  bearing  fruit  trees  in  the  world  than  our  native,  or  Chick- 
asaw plums,  and  they  almost  always  blossom  here  about  the  last  of  January  or  early  in 
February,  and  set  their  fruit  while  the  weather  is  cool;  and  it  is  prett}^  much  the  same  case 
Avith  our  native  southern  peaches.  On  the  28th  of  March,  last  spring,  our  northern  peaches 
were  killed  in  the  bud,  while  our  native  trees  had  a  fine  crop  of  young  peaches  nearly  or 
quite  as  large  as  Partridge  eggs,  and  were  but  little  injured  by  the  cold.  Our  wild  cher- 
ries, also,  blossom  very  early,  and  set  their  fruit  well. 

AYhen  I  first  began  to  cultivate  the  northern  varieties  of  peaches,  I  thought  their  habit 
of  blooming  late  in  the  spring  would  be  a  decided  advantage — ^but  I  have  found  that  in 
this  I  was  mistaken.  This  habit  of  late  blooming  renders  them  liable  to  be  destroyed  by 
cold  weather  in  the  latter  part  of  March,  or  in  April — and  if  they  escape  the  cold  weather, 
the  season  is  so  warm  when  they  blossom,  (say  from  10th  to  20th  April,)  that  the  young 
fruit  nearly  all  falls  off  the  trees,  from  some  cause  or  other;  I  suppose  it  to  be  owing  to 
the  warm  Aveather.  I  have  seen  our  northern  peach  trees  loaded  with  young  fruit  about 
the  size  of  small  bird's  eggs,  and  not  a  bud  to  be  seen  on  the  trees,  and  in  this  condition 
they  would  remain  for  two  or  more  weeks  without  any  perceptible  change  in  the  size  of 
the  j^oung  fruit — when  the  spring  sap  began  to  flow  freely  and  rapidly,  the  young  peaches 
would  be  thrown  ofl"  in  a  few  days.  Robert  IIakwell. 

Cottage  Hill,  Mobile,  Dec.  IsoO. 

Mr.  Harwell  is  one  of  the  most  intelligent  fruit-growers  at  the  south,  and  we  believe 
the  first  to  test  the  Diana  Grape  there.  We  are  glad  to  hear  so  favorable  an  account  of  it, 
and  one  corresponding  to  our  own  opinion. 

His  account  of  the  habit  of  our  northen  peach  trees  at  the  south,  is  curious  and  unex- 
pected, and  shows  how  strong  constitutional  tendencies  are.  It  goes  also  to  prove  how 
necessary  it  is  that  native  sorts  of  real  excellence  should  be  originated  in  every  considera- 
ble section  of  our  widely  extended  country,  to  be  thoroughly  adapted  to  such  localities. 
Ed. 


TrtE  DETROIT  RIVER  PEAR  TREES. 


THE    DETROIT   mVER   PEAR    TREES. 

BY  L,  F.  ALLEN,  BLACK  ROCK,  N.  Y. 

In  the  summer  of  1810,  thirty-one  years  ago,  then  but  a  boy,  T  first  saw  these  remark- 
able trees,  lofty,  venerable  and  flourishing.  Being  at  Detroit  last  September,  I  paid 
many  of  them  a  visit  in  detail,  for  the  purpose  of  a  close  examination.  Those  of  your  read- 
ers who  are  familiar  with  the  Detroit  river,  need  not  be  told  that  previous  to  the  late  war 
Avith  England,  and  for  several  years  after — perhaps  until  1820 — its  banks  on  both  sides, 
from  Lake  Erie  to  St.  Clair,  were  occupied  almost  exclusively  l)y  the  descendants  of  the 
original  French  settlers,  many  of  whom  still  remain.  On  their  farms  near  the  river  were 
and  still  are,  humble  looking  farm-houses,  principally  of  logs,  with  but  poor  and  inconve- 
nient out-buildings ;  a  small  garden ;  a  straggling  orchard  of  apple,  pear,  and  perhaps  a 
few  peach  trees,  currant  bushes,  &c.,  all  under  the  most  neglected  culture,  but  even  with 
these  drawbacks,  yielding  bountiful  crops  of  fruit.  They  were,  too,  of  natural  varieties; 
grafting,  if  even  known,  never  being  practiced  among  the  French  habitans  of  that  insulat- 
ed region.  Detroit,  Sandwich  and  ^laldcn,  Avere  the  only  toAvns  upon  the  river,  and  they 
small  trading  and  military  posts,  which  were  the  only  markets  for  the  meagre  products 
of  the  indolent  people  who  fiirmed,  fished  and  hunted  in  their  neighborhoods.  These  set- 
tlements were  commenced  about  the  year  1670 — one  hundred  and  eightj^  years  ago and 

but  fifty  years  after  the  Pilgrim  landings  at  Plymouth.  To  those  familiar  with  the  agri- 
culture of  the  Canadian  French,  of  whom  these  people  were  a  part,  the  exhaustino-  and 
Avasteful  farming  practiced  by  them  needs  no  description.  None  can  be  worse,  as  the  fre- 
quent old  mounds  of  barn  and  chip  manure  now  to  be  found  around  the  former  and  pre- 
sent sites  of  their  dwellings,  and  the  worn  and  desolate  appearance  of  their  exhausted 
fields,  too  jjlainly  testify. 

Taking  a  horse  and  buggy  at  Detroit,  I  rode  for  several  miles  up  the  river,  nearl  ,•  to  the 
foot  of  Lake  St.  Clair.  On  the  out-skirts  of  the  ciij,  these  old  pear  trees  are  occasionally 
seen,  towering  high  above  the  house-tops,  among  the  ancient  apple  and  other  trees;  but 
the  greater  part  of  them  have  been  rooted  out  in  the  opening  of  streets,  and  building  up  of 
the  town.  Two  or  three  miles  out,  Avhere  the  old  French  farmers  remain  undisturbed — and 
they  chiefly  so  remain,  both  in  their  use  and  occupants — for  cultivation  they  cannot  be  said 
to  have — these  grand  old  trees  begin  to  show  in  all  their  vigor  and  maturity.  Ten,  twen- 
ty, and  in  some  instances  more,  may  be  counted  in  a  field  adjoining  a  dilapidated  old  far- 
mery near  the  river;  some  in  rows  like  avenues,  others  scattered  about  in  groups,  and  oc- 
casionally struggling  for  supremacy  among  an  ancient  orchard  of  enormous  aj^ple  trees. 
I  stopped  at  several  places,  went  into  the  grounds  and  carefully  examined  the  trees.  I  girt- 
ed several  with  a  line,  and  found  them  to  measure  six  to  nine  feet  in  circumference  at  three 
feet  from  the  ground.  They  towered  up  in  many  instances,  fifty  to  sixty  feet  high,  with 
grand,  spreading  tops,  and  though  some  of  them  had  occasionally  dead  limbs  among  their 
branches,  and  others  had  lost  parts  of  their  tops  by  the  most  heedless  and  barbarous  cut- 
ting out,  leaving  large,  stumpy,  decayed  hollow  buts,  and  others  broken  and  torn  out  by 
Avinds  or  over-bearing,  the  main  trunk  and  branches  looked  vigorous  and  healthy,  shoAv- 
ing  wonderful  vitality.  The  crops  of  fruit  had  mostly  been  picked,  yet  some  trees  remain- 
ed loaded  with  fine  looking  pears,  very  fair  and  handsome;  much  resembling  the  Virga- 
lieu  in  size  and  appearance — winter  pears,  as  the  people  told  me.  Twenty  to  thirty  bush- 
a  common  crop  for  the  largest  trees.  There  were  no  signs  of  grafting  in  any  of 
I  tasted  some  of  the  fruit;  although  sweet  and  juicy,  they  had  the  astringent, 


THE  DETROIT  RIVER  PEAR  TREES. 

choky  taste  of  the  Avilding,  M'hich  I  have  no  doubt  they  are,  and  are  chiefly  used  for  cook- 
ing, drying  and  preserves.  Some  of  them  are  ripe  in  August,  and  but  few  of  them  last 
beyond  September;  and  the  great  majority  of  the  fruit,  as  I  was  told,  is  about  the  size 
of  those  I  saw.  The  oldest  person  T  could  find  to  learn  any  thing  of  their  age  and  histo- 
ry, was  an  old  French  woman  who  Avas  born  on  the  farm  Avhere  I  saw  her.  She  did  not 
know  her  own  age  exactly,  but  I  gathered  from  her  talk  that  she  was  full  seventy  years 
old.  She  informed  me  that  the  trees  in  her  orchard  were  apparently  as  large  as  they  now 
are  when  she  was  a  child;  but  by  whom,  or  when  they  were  planted,  she  could  give  no 
account.  The  seeds  unquestionably,  were  brought  from  France  at  the  first  settlement  of 
the  country,  and  in  all  probability,  the  trees  must  be  much  more  than  a  century,  proba- 
bly a  hundred  and  fifty  3'ears  old,  and  from  present  appearances  they  may,  with  ordinary 
care,  hold  on  full  another  hundred  years. 

I  got  a  spade  and  dug  on  several  different  farms  among  the  trees,  and  found  the  soil  rn- 
variubly  a  heavy,  strong,  clayzy  loam — 'Some  would  call  it  cold  and  clammy— AigAZy  char- 
ged with  lime,  and  resting  on  a  clay  subsoil — an  almost  dead  level,  and  elevated  but  a  few 
feet  above  the  river;  and  although  it  had  been  worked  ever  since,  and  probably  years  be- 
fore the  trees  were  planted,  did  not  appear  to  be  exhausted  in  its  fruit-sustaining  proper- 
ties. This  is  the  predominating  soil,  both  on  the  Detroit  and  Niagara  rivers,  and  finer, 
larger,  and  more  fruitful  trees  are  not  to  be  found,  tlian  are  produced  on  the  banks  of  these 
rivers,  particularly  in  the  old  settlements;  and  up  and  down,  as  they  were  seen  from  the 
water,  on  both  shores  of  the  Detroit  river,  the  old  pear  and  apple  trees  had  the  like  ap- 
pearance. Nor  had  the  land  been  drained  at  all,  that  I  could  discover,  but  was  just  in  its 
natural  condition. 

Now,  whether  if  these  had  been  ivorked  trees  of  the  finer  kinds  of  fruit,  they  would 
have  lived  to  this  advanced  age  and  great  bearing,  I  am  unable  to  determine.  But  certain 
it  is,  that  in  hardihood  and  vigor  no  fruit  trees  can  excel  them.  And  it  is  an  interesting 
fact  for  pomologists  to  learn,  that  we  have  a  soil  in  which  the  pear  will  flourish  equal  to 
an}^  other  tree  known — and  to  those  who  wish  to  cultivate  this  valuable  fruit  to  high  per- 
fection, it  is  worth  while  to  know  that  in  such  a  soil — a  lime  stone,  clayey  loam — they  will 
thrive  successfully,  while  in  a  sandy,  primitive  soil,  they  certainly  are  short-lived,  and 
fruit  badly,  unless  effectually  fed  with  lime  and  ashes. 

An  inference  or  two  drawn  from  the  history  and  position  of  these  ancient  trees,  may  be 
worth  consideration.  Is  not  the  stock  of  the  seedling  pear  hardier  and  more  vigorous 
than  the  worked  stocks  of  the  more  refined  and  delicate  wooded  fruits?  And  if  so,  is  it  not 
the  better  plan  to  grow  our  pears  of  such  seedling  stocks  up  to  the  branching  point,  and 
then  work  them  with  the  desired  varieties.'     It  so  appears  to  me. 

I  am  informed  by  some  intelligent  cultivators  of  fruit,  natives  of  Normandy,  that  in  the 
heavy  soils,  particularly  about  Rouen,  the  pear  grows  with  a  luxuriance  rarely  seen  in 
America,  and  the  now  almost  imiversal  practice  among  our  nurserymen,  of  importing 
French  seedlings  in  which  to  work  their  pears — thus  avoiding  the  earlj^  leaf  blight,  so  pre- 
valent among  their  own  seedlings — would  seem  almost  conclusive  proof  that  there  is  a  soil 
which  is  almost  exclusively  adapted  to  the  successful  culture  of  this  tree  beyond  any 
other. 

Look  at  the  magnificent  Virgalieus,  or  White  Doyennes,  Avhich  grow  in  such  luxuriance 
and  profusion  at  Canandaigua,  Geneva,  and  all  about  the  interior  lake  region  of  western 
New-York.     The  soils  on  which  these  pears  grow,  is  almost  uniformly  a  heavy  clay  loam 
stiff  clay  sub-soil,  highly  charged  with  lime  and  potash.     There  is  no  canker,  crack, 
pot  about  them;  while  in  some  other  localities,  light,  sandy  loams,  in  the  same  coun- 


HOW  TO  RENOVATE  AN  OLD  GARDEN. 

tr}^  they  do 'crack,  and  shrivel,  and  spot.  The  evidence  seems  to  me  to  be  conclusive,  par- 
ticularly with  this  variety. 

There  are  instances,  undoubtedly,  where  large,  flourishing  and  aged  pear  trees  are  found 
in  light  soils;  but  on  examination  it  will  be  ascertained  that  such  trees  are  favorably  locat- 
ed to  receive  the  wash  of  the  house,  out-buildings,  or  yards,  which  are  rich  in  lime  and 
potash,  thus  feeding  them  highly  on  the  material  so  necessary  to  their  full  development 
and  bearing.  And  the  fact  that  the  plum  is  so  successfully  grown  in  the  stiff  cla3's  of 
Schenectady,  Albany  and  Hudson,  and  other  portions  of  the  Hudson  river  valley  where 
the  peculiar  "Albany  clay"  predominates,  over  other  appareyitly  more  congenial  locali- 
ties, is  an  evidence  that  soil,  more  than  cultivation,  has  to  do  with  the  success  of  many 
of  our  better  fruits. 

May  not  the  history  of  the  Detroit  Pear  trees  also  throw  some  light  on  the  doctrine  of 
special  manures  as  a  panacea  for  barrenness  and  want  of  growth,  in  many  of  our  fruit 
trees,  standing  on  light,  loamy  and  sandy  soils.'  For  here  is  the  living  fact,  of  trees,  in 
all  probability  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  old,  of  enormous  growth,  and  in  full  vigor, 
annually  loaded  with  large,  fair,  perfect  fruit,  standing  out  in  open  fields — and  so  long  as 
the  trees  have  stood  there — under  an  exhausting,  wasteful  course  of  tillage,  with  little  or 
no  artificial  manures  of  any  kind.  "What  an  enormous  draft  of  the  constituents  of  the  wood, 
leaf,  and  fruit  of  the  pear,  has  been  made  on  that  soil;  and  still,  to  all  appearance,  not 
lacking  in  the  requisite  aliment  to  sustain  them  for  many  years  to  come!  A  most  interest- 
ing subject  of  examination  this,  to  the  physiologist.  That  many  of  these  old  trees  miglit 
now  be  benefitted  by  a  thorough  incorporation  into  the  soil  of  wood  ashes,  decayed  leaves, 
rotten  wood,  spent  tan-bark,  lime,  and  barn-yard  manure,  I  have  no  doubt;  for  beyond 
all  question,  some  individual  spots  where  the}'  grow,  judging  from  the  waning  appearance 
of  the  trees,  must  be  well  nigh  exhausted  of  their  fruit-growing  elements.  I  once  knew 
an  old  apple  tree — perhaps  it  had  stood  a  centur}'  or  more — the  last  survivor  of  an  orcliard, 
its  branches  mostly  gone,  its  trunk  decayed  and  hollow,  brought  into  a  vigorous  new 
growth  and  bearing,  by  the  application  of  chip  manure  and  leached  ashes,  upon  the  sur- 
face beneath  it.  I  knew  an  old  pear  tree  which  stood  in  a  deserted  garden,  beside  a  stone 
wall,  and  with  but  a  small  part  of  its  trunk  left,  (the  rest  had  rotted  off  and  fallen  away,) 
yet  by  reneAved  cultivation,  replaced  with  a  new  top  and  branches,  Avhich  became  fruitful, 
and  made  a  rapid  growth  of  new  bark  and  wood  on  the  decayed  trunk.  They  were  on 
moist,  sandy-loam  soils. 

If  I  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Detroit,  T  certainly — if  I  could  get  the  privilege — 
would  try  the  virtues  of  decayed  wood,  lime  and  ashes,  on  one  or  more  of  those  declining 
pear  trees,  and  know  the  result;  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  wished,  that  Avhile  they  still  sur- 
vive, some  one  in  their  immediate  neighborhood  may  feel  sufficient  interest  in  the  subject 
to  make  the  proper  application,  and  let  the  public  know  the  result.     Lewis  F.  Allen. 

Black  Rock  J  December,  18-50. 


HOW  TO  RENOVATE  AN  OLD  GARDEN. 

BY  JOHN  QUINN,  TROY,  N.  Y. 

As  this  question,  "  how  am  I  to  renovate  my  old  garden?"  is  invariably  put  bj'  a  nu- 
merous class  of  your  readers — who  perhaps  cannot  afford  to  employ  a  professional  gardener, 
and  are  therefore  obliged  to  look  to  the  "  Horticulturist"    for  information  on  all  gnrden- 
tters — the  following  remarks  are  respectfully  submited  for  their  perusal.     The 
I  am  about   to  propose  is  not  a  new  one,  for  as  I  consider  the  radical  cure  th 


HOW  TO  RENOVATE  AN  OLD  GARDEN. 

for  all  kinds  of  disease,  I  at  once  prescribe  trenching.  As  the  class  of  readers  to  which  I 
allude  may  not  be  acquainted  Avith  the  modus  operandi,  I  will  proceed  to  lay  my  method 
before  them — which  from  long  experience,  I  have  known  to  be  effectual. 

We  will  suppose  a  square  of  ground  in  the  garden,  bounded  by  walks  east,  west,  north 
and  south,  and  we  will  commence  at  the  west  side  and  trench  towards  the  east.  The  first 
thing  to  be  done,  is  to  open  a  trench  two  and  and  a  half  feet  wide,  and  two  feet  deep,  on 
the  west  side,  running  from  north  to  south — throw  the  earth  from  this  trench  in  a  pile 
along  the  west  side  of  it — the  practice  of  many  in  wheeling  this  opening  over  to  the  east 
side,  where  they  are  to  finish,  I  always  considered  nearly  one-third  of  the  Avhole  labor. 
As  sooh  as  the  first  trench  is  shoveled  out  clean,  to  the  depth  of  two  feet,  (I  vary  the 
depth  according  to  the  nature  of  the  subsoil,  i.  e.,  if  good  sandy  loam  I  go  deeper,  if  very 
gravelly,  not  so  deep,  say  eighteen  or  twenty  inches,)  I  commence  by  placing  a  laj'er  of 
dung  along  the  bottom  of  the  trench — at  the  rate  of  am  large  barrow  load  to  every  fifteen 
feet  of  the  trench.  I  then  mark  with  a  line,  another  trench  at  the  east  side  of  this,  two 
and  a  half  feet  wide  also,  and  having  one  of  "Ames'  spades,"  No.  2,  I  proceed  to  dig  the 
top  of  this  trench  and  throw  it  on  the  dung  which  is  placed  on  the  bottom  of  the  first;  in 
digging,  I  put  the  spade  down  its  full  length,  and  proceed  until  I  have  the  entire  surface 
soil  of  the  second  trench  on  the  bottom  of  the  first.  There  will  be  a  quantity  of  loose 
earth  after  this  spading — before  I  shovel  this  in,  I  spread  another  coat  of  manure  on  top 
of  the  earth  I  have  just  thrown  in,  and  then  shovel  the  loose  earth  on  top  of  it.  I  now 
commence  to  dig  the  bottom  of  the  second  trench,  throwing  it  also  on  to  the  first,  and 
shovel  out  the  loose  earth  that  falls  from  my  spade,  leaving  the  bottom  of  the  trench  level 
and  clean.  I  have  now  the  first  trench  finished,  and  proceed  on  toward  the  east  the  same 
wa}' — lining  ofi"  everj-  trench  until  I  come  M'ithin  four  of  the  end;  I  then  commence  mak- 
ing each  of  my  trenches  about  five  inches  narrower  than  the  preceding  one — the  object  of 
this  is  to  bring  it  gradually  to  a  close — the  last  trench  being  about  fifteen  inches  wide. 
Having  placed  the  manure  at  the  bottom  of  the  last  trench,  as  before  directed,  I  now  com- 
mence leveling  back,  and  bringing  the  whole  piece  to  a  grade.  In  this  process  let  the  spade 
down  as  deep  as  possible,  in  order  to  mix  the  old  soil  and  the  new,  thoroughly — I  keep  it 
well  from  me,  remembering  that  I  have  a  pile  of  earth  at  the  Avest  side,  that  has  got  to  be 
worked  in.  The  chief  advantage  that  I  claim  for  this  method,  (which  has  no  claim  to  ori- 
nality,)is  the  chance  it  gives  me  of  having  a  good  opening  where  I  finish,  of  giving  the  soil 
a  thorough  mixing — another  is,  I  can  spade  the  whole  piece  over  in  half  the  time  it  would 
take  me  to  wheel  the  opening  surplus  over  to  the  east  side.  I  would  here  suggest,  if  the 
sub-soil  is  not  too  hard,  it  would  be  the  most  perfect  mode,  to  spade  the  first  coat  of  ma- 
nure into  the  bottom  of  the  trench,  which  would  loosen  the  soil  eight  or  ten  inches  more. 
I  trenched  an  asparagus  bed  in  this  style  for  Messrs.  Parsons',  of  Flashing,  six  years 
ago — here  I  could  not  practice  it,  the  subsoil  being  too  hard. 

After  the  piece  is  leveled,  I  put  on  a  good  top-dressing  of  manure;  and  the  best  crops 
to  plant  the  first  year  would  be  potatoes,  cabbage  or  cauliflower,  anything  in  fact,  that 
requires  a  good  deal  of  hoeing.  October  and  November  is  the  best  time  to  trench — you 
have  more  leisure  then ;  the  ground  is  more  easily  worked ;  you  can  put  all  your  melon 
vines,  carrot,  parsnep,  turnep,  and  beet  tops,  leaves,  &c.,  in  the  bottom  of  your  trenches. 
As  soon  as  the  frost  is  out  of  the  ground  in  the  spring,  is  the  next  best  time.  Ground 
that  has  been  trenched,  will,  in  eight  or  ten  years,  become  black  by  the  annual  application 
of  manure — trench  this  over  again  and  it  will  improve  it.  It  is  a  great  mistake  for  any 
suppose  he  can  renovate  an  old  garden,  by  piling  on  it  annually,  a  quantity  of 
manure — if  he  will  not  trench,  he  must  try  a  rotation  of  manures,  say  lime  one 


TREES  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS  OP  PENNSYLVANIA. 

year,  guano  another,  or  better  still,  a  good  coat  of  yellow  loam  from  an  old  pasture 
Trenching  is  the  radical  cure,  as  it  creates  a  deep  soil.  Old  mother  earth  will  assuredly 
turn  up  her  nose  at  being  drugged  with  one  kind  of  manure  all  the  time,  as  she  invariably 
does,  at  pi'oducing  the  same  crop  for  a  succession  of  years,  on  the  same  space.  A  rotation 
of  manures,  and  a  rotation  of  crops,  are  in  my  opinion,  governed  by  the  same  laws.  Oc- 
casionally I  see  a  correspondent  in  your  Journal  who  has  got  sick  of  using  stable  manure, 
resort  to  Guano,  bone-dust,  spent  tan,  &c.,  and  finding  beneficial  results  arise  therefrom, 
immediately  sings  the  praises  of  guano,  spent  tan,  &c.,  and  their  superiority  over  stable 
manure — so  overjoyed  is  he,  that  he  thinks  he  has  discovered  the  philosopher's  stone.  My 
opinion  is,  that  his  success  proceeds  more  from  having  employed  anew  agent,  than  to  any 
intrinsic  virtues  that  either  the  guano  or  tan-bark  possess  over  stable  manure,  which  if 
followed  up  for  any  length  of  time,  would  soon  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  a  change.  I 
therefore  look  upon  a  deep,  well  trenched  soil,  as  the  great  ameliorator.  A  rotation  of 
crops,  and  a  rotation  of  manures,  and  mulching,  I  advocate  as  much  as  trenching;  and 
tan-bark  is  the  very  best  material  for  the  latter  purpose,  which  is  all  it  is  good  for.  I 
should  be  very  hard  pushed  when  I  should  mix  it  with  the  soil,  notwithstanding  that  Mr. 
Clevelaxd's  grape  vine  found  their  way  into  it.  They  were  attracted  there  by  the  mois- 
ture which  the  tan  holds;  the  roots  were  evidently  near  the  surface,  and  a  pile  of  saw- 
dust, or  leaves,  or  any  non-conductor  of  heat,  would  produce  the  same  results.  I  fear  I 
have  trespassed  too  long  on  your  valuable  space — but  as  Irishmen  sometimes  have  a  round- 
about method  of  conveying  their  ideas,  I  lay  claim  to  every  indulgence  that  is  extended  to 
them  on  that  head.  I  am  sir,  yours  respectfully,  John  Quinn. 

Ida  Farm,  Troy,  Decembtr  17,  1850. 


TREES  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

BY  A  MASSACHUSETTS  SUBSCRIBER. 

"  The  oak  now  stately  grown,  beneath  whase  boughs 
Have  chikheus'  cliilch-en  plaj'od,  his  care  liad  reared ; 
And  a  deep  grove  lie  sees  that  when  a  youth 
Was  but  a  thicket,  now  with  liim  grown  old." 

The  grounds  which  I  described  in  a  former  number  of  the  Horticulturist,  were  not  only 
planted  by  the  hand  of  taste,  but  had  been  kept  with  care;  to  the  one  of  which  I  shall 
now  speak,  time  had  added  new  beauty  in  its  stately  trees,  but  his  destroying  finger  was 
visible  in  all  else.  As  we  approached  the  former  residence  of  Humphrey  INIarshall,  (near 
the  village  of  Marshall  ton,)  the  massive  foliage  of  a  variety  of  trees  rising  above  a  dilapi- 
dated fence,  gave  us  a  foretaste  of  what  awaited  us.  We  were  directed  to  an  old  gate  as  the 
nearest  entrance,  but  found,  when  it  was  with  diflSculty  opened,  that  a  huge  Tecoma,  or 
trumpet  creeper,  and  Aristolochias  twining  their  cordage  like  branches  from  tree  to  tree, 
barred  the  passage — the  gentlemen  of  the  party  effected  an  entrance  for  us  through  the 
luxuriant  vines,  and  we  stood  in  what  was  once  the  pride  and  delight  of  one  of  the  earli- 
est arboriculturists.  Marshall  was  first  cousin  to  John  Bartram,  and  from  him  he 
probably  derived  much  of  his  knowledge  of  plants,  for  in  1773  he  followed  his  cousin's 
example,  and  commenced  this  botanic  garden,  where  he  gathered  together  the  most  inte- 
resting trees,  shrubs,  and  herbaceous   plants  of  our  country,  with  many  curious  exotios. 

In  1785,  he  published  an  account  of  our  native  trees  and  shrubs,  entitled  jirhustum 
jlmaricanum,  the  first  work  of  the  kind  printed  in  this  country.     It  received  little 
tion  hero,  as  it  was  half  a  century  in  advance  of  the  age — it  was,  however,  quickly 


TREES  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

ciated  abroad,  and  translated  into  most  of  the  languages  of  modern  Europe.  lie  was  in 
correspondence  with  many  eminent  men,  and  sent  large  quantities  of  American  seeds  and 
plants  to  England.  When  the  infirmities  of  age  and  a  cataract  had  rendered  him  nearly- 
blind,  he  could  still  recognise  his  favorite  trees  and  Avalks,  and  delighted  to  welcome  his 
friends  in  the  garden  he  had  planted. 

Many  of  the  trees  have  now,  at  the  end  of  77  years,  attained  a  large  size;  the  sovereign 
of  the  place  is  a  Magnolia  accuminata,  which  lifts  up  its  "leafy  crown"  to  the  height  of 
one  hundred  f.:ct,  in  form  perfectly  symmetrical,  giving  out  branches  from  its  stout  trunk  at 
regular  intervals;  it  must  be  a  glorious  sight  to  see  it  in  the  spring,  covered  with  its  large, 
white  [pale  buff,  Ed.]  blossoms.  Near  by  flourishes  the  Gymnodadas  canadensis,  or 
Kentucky  coffee,  whose  broad  green  pods  and  divided  leaves  have  a  grotesque  and  foreign 
appearance.  This  tree  would  probably  thrive  well  in  New-England,  as  it  grows  in  Cana- 
da. There  were  also  fine  specimens  of  the  Carya  olivoeformis,  or  peecan  tree,  the  Illinois 
hickory  as  it  is  sometimes  called;  this  tree  fruits  sparingly  in  the  climate  of  Pennsylvania, 
yet  it  grows  well,  and  is  an  ornamental  tree. 

I  noticed  nearly  the  same  variety  of  oaks  as  in  Bartram's  garden,  especially  one  of  the 
Quercus  heterophylla  of  a  remarkably  fine  shape.  This  variety-  of  oak  I  have  never  seen 
growing  in  Massachusetts,  but  it  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  every  pleasure  ground,  as  its  foli- 
age has  all  the  beauty  of  the  willow,  while  the  tree  has  the  distinguishing  characteristics 
of  the  oak.  A  few  herbaceous  plants  still  send  up  some  pale  flowers  from  amid  the  rank 
grass,  which  has  overgrown  both  borders  and  walks.  Some  of  the  hard}^  and  vigorous 
sorts  have  eradicated  the  native  claimant  of  the  soil,  and  grow  luxuriantly, — as  the  Vinca 
or  Periwinkle,  Avhose  brilliant  dark  leaves  formed  a  bed  manj^  yards  square. 

After  examining  the  trees  for  some  time,  the  grand  nephew  of  IIcmphrey  Marshall, 
who  inherited  the  place,  invited  us  into  the  house  built  by  the  botanist,  where  we  were 
shown  the  telescope  sent  him  by  D.  Fothergill,  of  London,  whose  name  is  engraved  upon 
it;  he  pointed  out  also,  the  place  in  the  closet  where  Marshall  concealed  it  by  a  false 
back,  during  the  time  that  the  British  army  were  in  the  neighborhood,  for  ^Iarshall 
added  to  his  love  of  the  flowers  of  earth,  a  taste  for  studying  the  stars,  those  unfading- 
flowers  of  heaven's  garden,  as  a  German  writer  has  quaintl}'^  called  them.  We  noticed  the 
little  observatory  which  he  built  in  one  corner  of  the  house,  where  it  was  his  delight  to 
Avatch  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  It  was  with  regret  that  I  looked  again  upon 
the  tangled  wilderness,  "  where  once  a  garden  smiled,  and  now  where  many  a  garden 
flower  grows  wild,"  and  walked  towards  the  burial  place  of  Bradford  meeting,  in 
wiiich  the  remains  of  jNIarshall  were  interred  nearly  fiftj^  years  ago.  We  crossed  a  stile 
shaded  by  magnificent  oaks,  which  must  have  been  spared  from  the  primeval  forests. 
They  formed  a  prett}^  group  near  the  old  fashioned  meeting-house,  their  gnarled  and  pic- 
turesque appearance  presenting  a  strong  contrast  to  the  usuall}"^  plain  and  exposed  state 
of  the  Friends'  houses  of  M'orship.  The  grave-yard  was  a  wide  field,  unvaried  by  shrub 
or  stone,  the  undulating  hillocks  only  marking  the  "  furrows  where  human  harvests 
grow."  This  neglect  of  the  Friends  to  ornament  the  last  resting  places  of  their  kind- 
red, appears  strange  to  one  of  a  different  faith,  since  there  seems  to  be  an  innate  desire 
in  the  breast  of  everj'  human  being,  that  some  memorial  should  recall  his  name  to  survi- 
vors. Trees  and  shrubs  at  least,  might  relieve  the  monotony  of  these  cheerless  fields,  for 
in  such  monuments  there  can  be  no  ostentation;  the  poorest  laborer  can  plant  a  seed,  or 
set  a  tree.  We  were  shown  as  nearly  as  possible,  the  place  where  Marshall's  grave  is 
supposed  to  be,  but  tradition  rarely  speaks  with  certainty  at  the  end  of  half  a  century, 
ht  for  some  memento  of  the  spot  to  take  to  my  distant  home ;   the  only  blossom  I 


NOTES  ON  SOUTHERN  HORTICULTURE. 

could  find  in  the  rank  grass,  was  a  pale  ■white  Spiranthcs,  which  I  carried  away  from  tliis 
desolate  habitation  of  the  dead. 

It  is  pleasant  to  trace  out  how  much  the  taste  of  one  person  influences  and  improves  that 
of  a  whole  neighborhood.  JonN  Bartram,  by  his  love  of  collecting  and  planting  rare  and 
curious  trees,  inspirited  his  cousin  to  follow  in  his  footsteps.  Marshall  embellished  his 
paternal  farm  in  ISIarlborough,  the  township  where  Pierce's  Arboretum  now  flourishes. 
And  the  Woodlands,  a  visit  to  which  I  shall  next  describe,  are  inclose  proximity  to  Bar- 
tram's  garden,  whose  owner  was  a  constant  friend  and  assistant  of  Hamilton.  Thus, 
"like  circles  widening  round  upon  a  clear  blue  river,"  may  the  efi'orts  of  a  single  person 
produce  a  salutary  effect  upon  many  generations.  To  all  the  readers  of  the  Horticultu- 
rist, I  would  re-echo  the  words  of  old  Gerard:  "Forward  in  the  name  of  God,  graft, 
set,  plant,  and  nourish  up  trees  in  every  corner  of  your  ground;  the  labor  is  small,  the 
cost  is  nothing,  the  commodity  is  great;  yourselves  have  plenty,  the  poor  shall  have  some- 
what in  time  of  want  to  relieve  their  necessity,  and  God  shall  reward  your  good  mind  and 
diligence."  Yours,  B. 

Cambridge,  Mass.,    Dec.  1850. 

4-»-> ■ 

NOTES    ON  SOUTHERN   HORTICULTURE. 

BY  ROBERT  HARWELL,  MOBILE. 

Fruit-Bearixg  Age  of  Fruit  Trees. — The  puberty,  or  fruit-bearing  age  of  fruit  trees, 
varies  according  to  variety,  climate  and  cultivation.  Peach  trees  very  often  bear  some  fruit 
the  second  year  from  the  seed,  provided  they  are  well  cultivated  and  well  cared  for  in  all 
respects,  and  on  the  third  year  a  good  crop  may  be  expected.  Apple  trees  will  begin  to 
bear  fruit  nearly  as  soon  in  this  climate  as  the  peach.  There  will  not  be  more  than  one  or 
two  years  difference,  (I  mean  grafted  or  budded  apple  trees.)  The  apple,  however,  is 
much  longer  than  the  peach  in  developing  its  fruit-bearing  powers  fully,  and,  unlike  the 
peach,  it  does  not  bear  its  fruit  generally  on  the  wood  of  the  previous  year's  growth, 
but  on  spurs  coming  out  from  the  limbs,  of  two  or  three  3^ears  growth  or  more.  Some 
varieties,  however,  bear  some  fruit  on  the  Avood  of  the  previous  year,  generally  from  the 
terminal  buds  of  the  young  limbs. 

The  apricot  is  about  one  year  longer  than  the  peach  in  coming  into  bearing,  and  bears 
its  fruit  on  the  young  wood  of  the  previous  year,  and  also  on  spurs  coming  out  from  the 
older  wood.  I  have  no  doubt  but  the  apricot  will  succeed  well  in  our  climate  with  proper 
management.  I  am  aware  that  the  common  opinion  about  IMobile  is,  that  it  will  not  suc- 
ceed. I  do  not  think,  however,  that  this  common  opinion  has  been  founded  on  the  results 
of  full  and  proper  experiments.  The  apricot  is  a  fine  and  very  early  fruit,  and  I  shall 
very  reluctantly  quit  trying  to  produce  it.  The  tree  blossoms  very  early  indeed,  in  the 
spring,  and  on  this  account  is  quite  liable  to  lose  its  fruit  from  the  effects  of  frost.  Some 
plan,  I  think,  can  be  adopted,  by  which  its  blooming  time  may  be  retarded  somewhat. 
The  trees,  if  possible,  should  be  planted  on  the  north  sides  of  buildings  or  fences — where 
this  cannot  be  done,  a  thick  covering  of  straw  or  something  of  the  kind  over  the  roots  of 
the  tree  would,  I  think,  keep  the  ground  cool,  and  retard  vegetation. 

The  proper  soil  for  the  apricot  is  a  rich  loam,  and  where  this  cannot  be  obtained  natu- 
rally, it  should  be  supplied  artflcially.  This  can  easily  be  done  by  preparing  a  proper  com- 
post, and  putting  it  in  place  of  the  natural  soil.  I  know  of  no  fruit  tree  that  equals  the 
apricot  in  rapid,  handsome  growth;  indeed,  it  is  so  rampant  that  the  most  of  the  surf; 
limbs  should  be  shortened  from  one-third  to  one-half,  every  winter. 


NOTES  ON  SOU?  HERN  HORTICULTURE. 

The  apricot  thriven  well  on  poach  sto  l.i,  but  our  commor.  or  Chickasaw  plum,  is  deci 
dedly  the  best  stock  for  it.  I  have  about  tvrenty  young  seedling  apricots,  from  which  I 
expect  to  derive  a  good  deal  of  pleasure;  some  are  from  seed  grown  on  my  own  trees,  and 
I  hope  from  these  seedlings  to  obtain  varieties  that  will  do  as  well  as  I  could  wish. 

In  speaking  of  the  apricot,  I  have  said  much  more  than  I  should  have  done  if  it  was  a 
tree  in  common  cultivation,  as  the  peach,  &c.  I  do  not  pretend  to  know  much  about  the 
cultivation  of  it,  but  have  been  trjdng,  and  shall  continue  to  try,  until  I  do  know  some- 
thing about  it.  I  fully  believe  that  apricots  may  be  raised  here  in  great  perfection,  and  I 
hojie  that  many  will  give  a  full  and  fair  trial,  who  have  never  yet  done  so. 

The  pear  tree,  unaided  by  art,  is  the  most  tardy  of  any  of  our  fruit  trees,  in  arriving 
at  a  fruit-bearing  state.  At  the  north,  when  grown  from  seed,  from  seven  to  twelve  years 
is  generally  allowed  for  trees  to  commence  bearing  fruit;  from  grafts  or  buds,  from  five  to 
seven  years  would  be  about  the  proper  time.  Some  varieties  Avill  bear  much  earlier  than 
others.  I  have  some  small  trees  which  I  think  were  two  years  old  when  I  received  them 
from  the  north,  and  this  is  their  third  year's  growth  with  me,  and  several  of  them  fruited 
this  season.  The  above  refers  to  pears  on  pear  stocks.  On  quince  stocks  they  may  be 
safely  expected  to  begin  to  fruit  the  second  or  third  j^ear  from  the  graft  or  bud;  their  fruit- 
bearing  capacity  annually  increasing  for  quite  a  number  of  years.  Pears  bear  their  fruit 
very  much  like  the  apple,  on  spurs  or  blossom-buds  coming  out  from  the  old  wood ;  the 
Duchess  d'Angouleme,  and  a  few  other  kinds,  bear  fruit  on  spurs,  and  also  on  the  wood  of 
the  previous  year's  groAvth.  I  have  had  as  many  as  fifteen  fine  Duchess  d'Angouleme 
pears,  on  one  limb  of  the  previous  year's  growth,  the  tree  on  a  quince  stock. 

The  fine  kinds  of  cherries  will  begin  to  fruit  in  from  three  to  five  j^ears  from  the  bud  or 
grafts.  In  our  climate,  from  three  to  four  years  may  be  properly  set  down  as  the  time  or 
age,  when  most  varieties  of  the  Duke,  Bigarreau,  and  Heart  cherries,  will  come  into  bear- 
ing. The  above  named  kinds  of  cherries  bear  their  fruit  exclusively  on  spurs  coming  out 
from  the  old  Avood. 

All  fruit  trees,  provided  they  are  well  attended  to,  will  come  into  a  fruit-bearing  state 
fully,  from  one  to  three  years  sooner  here,  in  our  warm  climate,  than  they  M'ill  in  any  of 
the  northern  states. 

Pruni2s^g  Fruit  Trees — There  are  but  few  kinds  of  fruit  trees  that  require  much  prun- 
ing, farther  than  to  keep  the  heads  of  the  trees  in  proper  shape.  Peach  trees  should  be 
shortencd-in  every  winter.  This  consists  in  taking  off  from  one-third  to  one-half  of  the 
current  year's  growth  of  the  surface  limbs,  as  well  as  all  such  of  the  inside  limbs  as  need 
to  be  shortened. 

This  shortcning-in,  or  surface  pruning,  very  greatly  promotes  the  vigor  and  productive- 
ness of  the  peach  tree,  suppljing  it  annually,  with  plenty  of  young  fruit-bearing  wood  in 
the  interior  of  the  head,  which  never  can  be  the  case  M'hen  trees  are  permitted  to  grow  in 
their  oM'n  way.  All  dead  and  decaying  branches,  should  be  carefully  taken  away  from 
the  heads  of  all  fruit  trees.  In  all  cutting  or  pruning  operations,  great  care  should  be 
taken  to  cut  the  limb  immediately  above  a  bud,  and  in  cutting  peach  trees,  the  cut  should 
always  be  made  just  above  a  leaf  bud;  if  made  above  a  fruit  bud,  the  limb  cannot  elon- 
gate from  the  fruit  bud,  and  is  compelled  to  die  down  to  a  leaf  bud,  which  often  happens  to 
be  a  foot  or  two.  Where  there  are  three  buds  together,  the  middle  one  is  a  leaf  bud,  with  but 
few  exceptions;  and  M'here  the  fruit  buds  are  single,  they  can  readily  be  recognised  by 
plump,  whitish  appearance,  Avhile  the  leaf  buds  are  slim  and  pointed 
arcely  ever  attempt  to  prune  any  of  my  fruit  trees,  except  my  peach  trees,  unle; 


A  HISTORICAL  ESSAY  ON  TASTE. 

be  to  give  the  head  a  shape  to  suit  me;  and  this  shaping  of  heads  ought  to  be  done  while 
the  tree  is  young. 

In  our  fine  climate,  pruning  may  safely  be  done  in  almost  any  month  in  the  year,  but 
wounds  inflicted  on  trees  in  the  summer,  heal  much  sooner  than  at  any  other  time. 

Robert  Harwell. 

Cottage  Hill,  Mobile,  Nov.  9,  1&50. 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY   ON   TASTE. 

BY  H.  T.  BRAITIIEWAITE.* 

In  approaching  a  subject  so  varied  and  extensive  as  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  Taste  in 
Art,  now  principally  in  Architecture,  it  would  not,  I  think,  be  unbecoming  to  request  in- 
dulgence for  the  errors  which  may  probably  be  made  by  one  who  does  not  belong 
to  the  profession,  but  who,  nevertheless,  perceiving  in  architecture  a  great  and  beautiful 
art,  is  desirous  of  devoting  attention  to  it,  for  the  sake  of  improving,  by  its  means,  his 
own  knowledge  and  understanding  of  the  principles  of  art.  These — in  nearly  all  the  oc- 
cupations of  the  muses — these  fundamental  principles  are,  in  all  arts,  nearly  or  precisely 
similar.  It  is  from  the  right  comprehension  of  them,  to  anticipate,  that  taste,  as  we  un- 
derstand it  now,  may  be  said  mainly  to  arise.  In  architecture,  in  poetry,  in  painting,  in 
sculpture,  it  is  alike  necessary  to  observe  those  axioms  of  construction,  execution  and 
adornment  which  have  been  declared  by  common  concurrence  to  be  inviolable,  and  with- 
out observance  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  produce  a  complete  work.  I  say  that  unity  of 
conception,  regard  of  general  effect,  justness  of  proportion,  constructive  solidity,  and  the 
like,  are  indispensably  necessary  to  the  creation  of  anything  which,  by  the  air  of  nature 
it  shall  wear,  shall  communicate  a  just  idea  to  the  mind,  answer  the  imagination  in  our 
presence,  or  haunt  the  memory  in  our  absence,  with  the  shape,  the  color,  the  sense,  or 
sound  of  beauty,  or  with  all  of  them  combined.  To  speak  generally,  the  violation  of  any 
of  the  primary  principles  would  show  an  incompleteness  or  absence  of  taste.  If  we  con- 
sider the  subject  more  closely,  taste  is  the  result  of  a  discriminative  power  of  the  intellect, 
which  decides,  in  several  or  more  objects,  and  consequently  ideas  of  them,  on  that  which 
most  perfectly  answers  to  her  idea  of,  for  instance,  beauty — the  effect  of  certain  constitu- 
ent causes,  such  as  proportion,  harmony,  &c.;  to  her  idea  of,  for  instance,  grandeur  re- 
sulting from  size,  height,  and  the  like, — an  idea,  I  think,  in  some  degree  natural  to  man; 
if  so,  doubtless  implanted  by  the  Creator,  and  showing  that  the  print  of  the  Divine  hand 
is  left  as  well  in  the  mind  of  man,  as  in  all  that  it  moulded,  and  it  moulded  all.  It  is  pro- 
bable, however,  that  the  idea  exists  naturally  in  a  ver}^  slight  degree — the  mind  improving 
it  to  an  observable  point  by  its  own  almost  unconscious  observance  of  nature.  Some 
wholly  reject  the  notion  of  any  innate  ideas;  the  learned  are  divided  on  this  point;  the 
definition,  too,  of  abstract  notions  is  at  all  times  difficult. 

To  resume.  According  to  the  experience  of  the  mind  by  observation,  arising  from  the 
multiplicity  of  objects  observed  and  compared,  will  the  power  of  justly  discriminating  be 
developed,  always  provided  that  the  principles  of  art,  which  are  natural,  be  allowed  to 
guide;  and  the  understanding  so  educated  will  acquire,  as  it  were,  a  wisdom  with  respect 
to  form,  color,  and  all  other  external  attributes  of  nature,  and,  imitatively,  of  art. 
Whether  any  may  justly  argue  that  that  quality,  which  we  call  taste,  originally  existed 
as  such  in  the  human  mind,  is,  therefore,  more  than  doubtful;  but  there  was  doubtless 
innate  in  it  an  admiration  of  the  works  of  nature,  a  sense  of  connection  with  created 

*  From  the  Lomlou  Builder. 

No.  11.  2 


A  HISTORICAL  ESSAY  ON  TASTE. 

hings, — man  being,  in  fact,  himself  but  a  link  in  God's  chain  of  creation;  and  it  is  but 
according  to  experience  to  suppose,  there  resulted  a  preference  for  this  or  that  form,  just 
as  the  mind  was  more  or  less  charmed  by  the  images  transmitted  to  it  through  the  senses. 

Thus  even  with  respect  to  the  works  around  us,  you  would  find  in  men  of  different  cli- 
mates, or  accustomed  to  different  scenery,  a  diversity  of  taste:  he  whose  native  land  is  a 
very  garden  adorned  with  an  endless  variety  of  foliage,  rife  with  flowers,  intersected  by 
by  rivers,  and  also  thronged  with  graceful  animals,  and  birds  of  all  brilliant  hues  and  mo- 
difications of  song — such  a  man,  I  say,  would  probably  possess  a  taste  for  that  which  is 
florid,  rich,  vivid  in  idea;  his  feeling  would  be  rather  for  the  beautiful,  than  for  the  grand; 
he  would  prefer  that  wliich  charms  to  that  which  astonishes; — the  fault,  perhaps,  of  his 
taste,  would  be  an  inclination  towards  redundancy;  the  advantage  of  it,  a  sparkling  gor- 
geous fancy;  a  bright  imagination ;  a  magnificent  versatility  of  thought ;  and,  perhaps,  a 
capacity  for  detail.  On  the  other  hand,  a  man  accustomed  to  the  waste  sublimity  of  the 
desert,  would  possess  a  corresponding  taste  for  extent,  even  for  boundlessness;  an  inha- 
bitant of  a  mountainous  region  would  admire  what  is  lofty,  aspiring,  towering,  free;  the 
capacity  of  the  two  last  would  probably  be  for  generalising;  and  with  respect  to  what  is 
free,  we  are  well  aware  that  both  Arabs  and  Swiss  are  noted  for  their  devotion  to  liberty. 
A  maritime  nation  would  prefer  the  bold,  strong,  extensive.  Such  would  be  the  taste  of 
each  of  these  with  respect  to  nature;  but  it  is  curious  to  observe,  how,  when  man  came 
by  degrees  to  express  his  mind  in  buildings,  he  appears  in  certain  respects  concerning  art, 
to  have  sought  that  which  he  had  not  in  nature  around  him ;  as  though  in  some  lands  he 
had  said — I  have  no  mountains — I  will  build  them ;  I  will  raise  something  that  shall  over- 
awe its  own  creator — something  vast,  by  which  I  myself  shall  be  astounded — and  so,  fur- 
ther, according  to  the  excess  of  the  designing  mind  above  its  fellows,  was  the  amount  of 
awe  and  wonder  inspired  among  them.  But  this  subject  will  further  develop  itself  as  we 
advance,  and,  having  premised  thus  much  concerning  taste  in  general,  I  will  proceed  to 
consider  it  more  particularly  with  respect  to  individual  nations.  Of  the  earliest  building 
of  the  world,  such  as  the  ark,  probably  by  no  means  elegant,  or  the  tower  of  Babel,  we 
should  think  a  huge,  unsightly  mass,  possessing  no  element  of  the  sublime,  but  that  of 
size,  it  is  not  necessary  to  dilate.  Whether  the  latter  was  really  built,  as  we  have  seen  it 
drawn,  like  a  huge  snake  rising  on  its  coils,  curling  up  to  heaven,  and  most  industriously 
lifting  the  nations  to  the  stars,  is  of  little  moment;  but  it  was  probably  built  of  a  kind  of 
brick,  cemented  with  the  bitumen  that  abounded  in  the  Babylonian  territory;  and  as  the 
object  was  to  build  to  heaven,  it  would  no  doubt  be  raised  in  a  great  hurry,  and  with  lit- 
tle regard  to  design.  It  is  not  here,  then,  we  shall  look  for  taste.  In  passing,  we  might 
observe,  that  the  scriptural  story  is  strongly  resembled  by  the  heathen  fable  of  the  giants 
piling  Ossa  on  the  top  of  Pelion  to  dethrone  Jove.  But  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  re- 
turn to  Babylon,  let  us  pass  into  Egypt,  historically  more  ancient.  Here  we  find  the  sub- 
limity of  magnitude  extraordinarily  developed;  a  massiveness  that  is  suggestive  of  eterni- 
ty: and  an  imitation  of  nature  in  many  respects  unbounded.  Here  are  the  mountainous 
pyramids;  here  is  the  Sphinx,  whose  head  only  now  rises  above  the  surrounding  deserts, 
once  thronged  by  its  superstitious  worshippers.  Here  are  the  palaces,  where  their  kings 
dwelt;  the  temples  where  their  priests  deceived;  the  tombs  which  have  given  up  their 
dead  for  the  daily  inspection  of  the  curious  in  modern  museums,  where  death  itself  has 
become  the  subject  of  impertinence. 

The  Sphinx  was  originally  a  huge  block  of  stone  that  stood  before  the  pyramids,  and  it 
shows  the  grand  taste  of  the  Egyptians  to  have  converted  it  into  the  wonderful  figure 
Avhich  still  remains.     The  taste  of  the  Egyi>tians  was  evidently  for  a  solid,  gloomy  gran 


A  HISTORICAL  ESSAY  ON  TASTE. 

deur;  they  delighted  m  massive  pillars,  in  dusky  chambers,  in  broad  effects  of  light  and 
shade,  in  dark  labyrinthine  walks,  in  cavernous  edifices  guarded  by  gigantic  recum- 
bent figures,  or  the  huge  forms  of  deities,  gaunt,  a^vful,  oppressive.  Their  observance  of 
nature  was  great :  it  is  asserted  by  some  that  they  derived  the  fluted  column  from  the  sim- 
ple idea  of  reeds  bound  together  at  the  top — and  their  sacred  language  is  an  endless  suc- 
cession of  the  forms  of  birds,  beasts,  fishes  and  reptiles— in  fact,  we  may  say,  they  wrote 
in  boasts  and  reptiles :  many  of  their  vessels  and  ornaments  are  evidently  imitated  from 
nature,  with  great  quaintncss  and  versatility  of  design;  but  in  all  they  seem  to  have  prac- 
ticed an  almost  disproportionate  solidity  of  construction.  Theirs  was  evidently  an  archi- 
tecture of  symbolism:  their  principal  buildings  being  for  sacred  purposes,  they  seemed 
determined  to  have  written  the  story  of  their  creed  in  every  pillar,  every  stone;  and  by 
that  means  to  give  their  designs,  as  it  were,  an  actual,  positive  sense — to  make  them  a 
species  of  embodied  poetry — so  that  every  man  on  seeing  the  temple,  would  at  once  be 
able  to  read  in  its  form,  proportion,  number  and  color,  the  scripture  of  the  god  to  whom 
it  was  dedicated  and  belonged.  In  their  flat  country,  we  perceive  that  they  made  their 
edifices  mountainous;  that  that  regard  of  death  with  which  their  religion  inspired  them, 
extended  a  sobering  influence  to  their  works ;  and  certainly  some  of  their  vast  temples 
could  have  derived  no  extra  cheerfulness  from  the  fact  that  they  were  only  magazines  of 
munimied  crocodiles  and  cats ;  and  finally,  to  repeat,  we  perceive  that  their  architectural 
taste  was  for  a  gloomy  sublimity  of  symbolism,  and  that  if  we  were  to  seek  a  symbol  to 
express  it,  we  might  call  it  a  sarcophagus.  With  respect  to  literature,  at  which  I  shall 
occasionally  take  the  liberty  to  glance,  we  have,  so  far  as  concerns  the  Egyptians,  small 
idea  of  their  taste;  their  painting,  such  as  it  was,  and  their  sculpture,  wonderful  as  is  the 
latter  in  respect  of  manual  skill,  appear  to  have  existed  only  as  subordinate  aids  to  the  ar- 
chitect, and  are  simply  entitled  to  share  in  the  above  general  remarks. 

A  most  ancient,  curious,  and  at  one  time  mighty  people,  were  the  Chaldees  ;  a  tribe 
of  people,  formed  probably,  from  the  conflux  of  many  others  in  those  well  watered  plains, 
who  inhabited  the  districts  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  and  who  boasted  a  dynasty  decend- 
ed  from  Nimrod,  according  to  some,  the  same  Avith  Ninus  and  Belus, — the  god  of  the 
tower  of  Babel.  It  is  probable  they  had  some  connection  with  the  Egyptians.  The  monu- 
ments of  Nineveh,  recently  discovered,  wear  certainly  in  many  respects  an  Egyptian  ap- 
pearance. If  you  examine  them,  you  will  observe  a  similar  mystical  taste, — a  profound 
disregard  of  perspective,  and  a  great  aptitude  for  expressing  things  by  signs :  thus,  a 
castle  sometimes  bears  a  marvellous  resemblance  to  its  namesake  of  chess  ;  a  distant  river 
is  represented  by  very  lively  fish  in  single  file  ;  while,  to  illustrate  the  country  beyond, 
you  will  probably  find  several  indigenous  trees  appearing  to  grow  out  of  the  fishes'  backs. 
The  carvers  of  the  Nineveh  marbles  seem,  nevertheless,  to  have  had  a  feeling  after  truth. 
In  the  treatment  of  animals,  they  may  be  said  comparatively,  to  excel:  the  lions  in  the 
lion  hunts  are  full  of  vivacity  and  expression,  although  sometimes  rather  symbolical  (I 
mean  in  size)  in  the  teeth  and  claws.  To  prove  what  I  say  concerning  the  truth  of  these 
lions,  you  will  find  depicted  on  the  tips  of  some  of  their  tails,  a  claw,  whose  existence  had 
of  late  years  been  disputed,  but  it  is  now  again  established.  The  procession  of  captives 
and  beasts  on  the  obelisk  is  in  several  respects,  and  considering  its  probable  antiqviity, 
admirably  executed. 

To  turn  to  history,  we  are  told   almost  incredible  wonders  of  Babylon.     The  walls 
were  300  feet  high,  80  feet  thick,  built  of  brick  and  bitumen  ;  flanked  and  protected 
with  numerous  towers,  adorned   with  a  hundred  brass  gates,   and  sixty  miles  in  circum 
ference.     We  are  told  the  Euphrates  was  enclosed  by  piers  in  a  straight  canal  through 


A  HISTORICAL  ESSAY  ON  TASTE. 

the  city ;  that  there  was  a  bridge  of  huge  stones  fastened  together  with  lead,  and  bound 
with  iron  chains:  to  the  west  stood  the  tower  of  Belus,  or  Babel,  enriched  with  an  in- 
finity of  spoils  and  golden  images  ;  in  the  New  Palace,  Nebuchadnezzar,  it  is  said,  had 
raised  a  hanging  garden,  on  sub-arched  terraces,  to  the  walls,  to  gratify  a  Median  wife, 
who,  haying  come  from  a  wooded  and  mountainous  country  to  one  which  consisted  of  a 
vast,  flat  plain,  intersected  with  streams,  and  interminable  rows  of  willows,  missed,  in 
accordance  with  what  we  have  observed  of  natural  taste,  the  beauties  of  her  native  land, 
and  desired  them  reproduced.  Now,  if  all  this  account  were  true,  it  would  show  that 
the  Babylonians  had  not  onlj^  a  taste  for  the  sublime,  but  also  for  the  beautiful;  and,  be- 
sides, had  attained  a  pitch  of  excellence  in  the  execution  of  art.  Babylon  having  vanished 
from  the  earth  under  an  irresistible  doom,  we  have  not  even  a  trace  of  it  left  whereby  to 
judge;  but  it  is  said  to  have  been  about  the  size  of  Ninevah,  and  Ninevah  has  been  proved, 
by  the  discoveries  of  Mr.  Layard,  to  have  been  sixty  miles  in  circumference, — the  exact 
girth,  under  the  expression  of  a  three  days'  journey,  assigned  to  it  in  the  book  of  Jonah. 
We  will  then  suppose  a  considerable,  at  least  some  portion,  of  the  Babylonian  account  to 
be  true;  and  will  thence  observe,  that  their  taste  was  kindred  to  the  Egyptian;  they  might 
even  improve  themselves  by  maritime  influences  at  second  hand,  having  conquered  the 
great  and  industrious  city  of  Tyre,  and  carried  off  all  its  works  of  art;  and  they  might, 
too,  have  turned  to  good  purpose  the  genius  of  the  captive  Jews  educated  by  Tyre.  Their 
buildings  appear  to  have  been  raised  on  huge  platforms,  in  graduated  masses,  the  Pyrami- 
dal appearing  to  be  the  prevailing  form  of  general  outline.  The  bulk  of  their  walls  cer- 
tainly seems  proved  by  modern  discovery;  and  we  have  also  good  reason  to  believe  they 
had  considerable  power  to  work  in  metals.  Altogether  their  taste  was  for  the  great  and 
astonishing,  for  vastness  of  design,  and  solidity  of  execution. 

Persepolis  is  suggested  by  the  consideration  of  Babj'lon.  Certain  discoveries  have  been 
made  concerning  it,  and  it  appears,  in  accordance  with  the  ruin,  to  have  been  built  on 
great  platforms,  with  elevations  of  huge  pillars,  still  on  the  graduated  principle.  It  is  also 
probable  that  the  chambers  of  the  palaces  were  similar  to  tliose  already  discoved  at  Nim- 
roud,  thickly  walled  and  surrounded  with  bas-reliefs.  Generally  of  Egypt  and  Assyria, 
it  may  be  observed,  that  their  taste,  although  not  guided  by  a  knowledge  of  proportion 
and  arrangement,  was  for  the  expression  of  power,  for  great  cost,  and  works,  the  result 
of  almost  superhuman  labor.  They  cultivated  geometry,  astronomy,  music — though  the 
proportion  of  harmonic  sounds  was  not  discovered  till  long  after  by  Pythagoras, — astrolo- 
gy, alchymy,  and  magic, — but  everything  was  rendered  subservient  to  priestcraft.  They 
had  also  an  idea  of  color;  but  as  they  attained  in  it  only  to  brilliancy,  its  effect  was  cer- 
tainly more  gaudy  than  harmonious,  and  must  have  caused  a  strange  contrast  with  the 
grandeur  of  their  other  works. 

We  have  but  little  record  of  Persian  architecture;  but  there  is  a  singular  account  of 
the  ancient  capital  city  of  Ecbatana.  It  is  said  that  Dejoces,  the  king,  built  it  on  a  hill,  with 
seven  walls,  but  they  were  so  disposed,  rising,  one  within  another,  to  the  summit  of  the 
hill,  that  the  ramparts  of  each  wall  should  show  above  the  one  in  front.  These  elevated 
portions  were  each  painted  of  a  different  color,  so  that  the  appearance  in  the  distance 
would  have  been,  as  it  were,  of  a  horizontal  rainbow.  In  this  we  observe  principally  a 
taste  for  effect  and  display.  This  taste  was  very  strikingly  developed  in  the  Persians; 
their  idea  of  magnificence  and  pomp  displays  itself  in  many  particulars  of  their  history. 
Their  literature,  like  that  of  the  other  nations,  was  chiefly  mystical  and  symbolical.  In 
ion  they  were  fire-worshippers,  performing  their  rites  in  the  open  air,  until  Zoroaster 
d  their  fire  altars  to  be  enclosed  in  temples,  of  which  there  were  three  kinds — the 


A  HISTORICAL  ESSAY  ON  TASTE. 

first,  mere  oratories,  where  the  sacred  fire  was  kept  in  lamps;  the  second,  public  fanes, 
where  the  fire  was  Ivcpt,  like  that  of  the  vestal  virgins  at  Rome,  continually  burning  on 
altars;  the  third,  the  grand  abode  of  the  arch  priest,  visited  only  at  certain  seasons  by 
indispensable  law,  such  as  bound  the  Jews.  The  chief  temple  stood  in  the  city  of  Balck 
till  the  seventh  century,  when,  on  persecution  by  the  !Mahomedans,  the  followers  of  the 
Magi  fled  to  Carmania,  whither,  no  doubt,  they  carried  their  arts  and  their  taste — and 
raised  another  temple.  But  you  see  that  their  worship  was  purer  than  that  of  Egypt; 
and  it  is  not  unreasonable  thence  to  argue  that  their  ecclesiastical  buildings  M'ere  less  the 
subject  of  gross  ideas.  Their  religion  flourished  among  the  Parthians,  Bactrians,  Clioras- 
mians,  Sacans,  Medes  and  other  nations :  from  this  we  may  guess  somewhat  at  the  tem- 
ple architecture — in  fact  the  architecture  of  these  nations ;  for  it  is  evident  that  the  grand- 
est efforts  of  the  art  have  been  in  all  ages  dedicated  to  the  purposes  of  religion,  from  the 
time  of  Osiris  to  that  of  the  Divine  Redeemer.  The  Indians,  whose  original  doctrines 
appear  to  have  been  borrowed  from  Zoroaster,  raised  in  old  time  many  curious  and  strik- 
ing edifices,  which  appear  to  be  better  understood  by  inspection  of  drawings  than  from 
description;  but  they  possess,  many  of  them,  a  bold  and  svAX'lling  outline — perhaps,  in 
some,  a  disproportionate  width,  and,  besides  a  singular  elaboration  of  detail — not  uncom- 
mon among  semi-barbarous  nations.  There  is  also  a  great  massiveness,  even  heaviness, 
about  them,  which  we  have  found  in  the  buildings  of  other  Pagan  nations;  whence 
we  can  only  suppose  that  the  taste  of  the  Indians  was  much  affected  by  their  lifeless  creed. 
This  heaviness  is  striking  in  Pagan  architecture,  while  the  Christian  Gothic  has  the  very 
opposite  characteristic.  Concerning  early  Arabian  taste — to  leave,  at  present,  the  Sara- 
cenic— there  is  little  to  be  said:  it  is  probable  there  was  little  of  it,  so  far  as  architecture 
is  concerned.  The  religion  of  the  Arabs  was  Chaldean:  they  cultivated  poetry,  i)0ssessed 
a  brilliant  and  versatile  imagination,  and  supported  a  good  moral  doctrine. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  investigate  the  taste  of  the  Phoenicians  or  of  the  Ethiopians; 
but  there  was  nothing  in  either  very  dissimilar  from  that  of  contemporary  nations.  In 
fact,  we  find  the  extraordinary  and  grotesque  religion  of  all  these  ancient  nations  to  have 
greatly  shackled  tlieir  arts,  and  to  have  given  them,  with  a  taste  for  pomp  and  grandeur, 
a  sort  of  necessary  absurdity  of  purpose.  The  Jews  were  more  ancient  than  all;  but 
from  their  religion  it  was  necessary  to  reserve  them  to  this  place,  on  account  of  certain 
remarks  generally  applied  to  the  rest,  in  which  they  would  not  be  included.  Being  for 
many  centuries  a  pastoral  and  nomad  race,  they  appear  to  have  had  little  opportunity 
either  for  the  acquisition  or  the  display  of  taste.  The  mention  of  their  name  immediate- 
ly suggests  the  Temple  of  Solomon.  The  king's  j^redominant  taste,  whether  or  not  sug- 
gested originally  by  a  far  higher  feeling,  was,  according  to  oriental  nature,  for  magnifi- 
cence; and  we  find  that  he  built  his  own  palaces  with  a  profusion  and  splendor  of  orna- 
ment little  inferior  to  that  displayed  in  the  Temple.  That  building  seems  not  to  have 
been  striking,  either  with  respect  to  its  proportion  or  its  size:  it  was  somewhat  Egyp- 
tian, and  the  adornments  of  it  were  Tj'^rian.  We  may  hence  assert,  while,  in  tlie  latter 
remark,  the  taste  in  the  art  of  the  Tyrians  is  suggested,  that  native  taste  was  but  little 
among  the  Jews,  and  that  they  were,  in  respect  of  taste  at  all,  far  behind  either  Egypt 
or  Assyria.  They  had  always,  however,  great  natural  genius,  and  their  want  of  taste 
arose  rather  from  their  long  pastoral  habits  above  referred  to,  than  from  any  natural  in- 
capacity. Time  afterwards  did  for  them,  and  now  does,  more  than  he  has  done  for  any 
other  race.  In  our  days,  the  leaders  of  taste  in  several  arts,  of  which  we  will  only  in 
stance  music,  are  Jews.  Of  their  ancient  literature  it  may  be  remarked,  that  besi 
insprired  character,  it  affords  a  perfect  model  of  sublimity  and  power,  not  to   speal 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  TRANSPLANTING  FOREST  TREES. 

wisdom  and  grace:  numberless  instances  might  be  brought  forward  to  jjrove  this,  but  it 
is  sufficient  to  point  to  the  description  of  the  M'ar-horse  in  the  book  of  Job. 

We  have  now  traced  the  varieties  of  taste  among  the  earliest  nations  of  the  world :  we 
have  seen  that  the  Egyptians  loved  the  huge  and  massive  and  heavy;  that  the  Assyrian 
taste  was  similar;  that  the  Persians,  Jews,  &c.,  favored  the  more  showy  and  magnificent; 
we  have  found  it  grand  in  all.  Hitherto,  then,  the  characteristic  of  taste  in  art,  has  been 
Grandeur.  But  in  none  have  we  found  the  pure,  the  chaste.  We  ask  for  it :  the  Sphinx 
and  the  winged  bull  shake  their  heads,  but  being  pressed,  nod  abashed  to  Greece.  It  is  to 
Greece,  then,  in  order  that  we  may  add  to  the  taste  we  have  already  acquired,  that  purity 
which  is  indispensable  to  a  right  taste — it  is  to  Greece  that  we  must  sail. 

II.  T.  Braithwaite. 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  TRANSPLANTING  FOREST  TREES. 

BY  A.  COLLIER,  SOUTH  GROTON,  MASS. 

Respecting  the  transplanting  of  Chestnut  trees,  I  have  seen  the  experiment  tried  by 
others,  and  have  tried  it  myself,  but  without  success.  I  have  taken  them  up  much  the 
same  as  we  take  up  nursery  trees,  and  planted  them  with  care,  but  a  speedy  death  was 
sure  to  follow.  Finding  that  experiment  a  fruitless  one,  I  resolved  to  take  another  metliod, 
which  was  to  remove  them  from  their  native  localities  early  in  the  spring,  b}^  cutting 
around  them  at  a  proper  distance,  (which  was  about  eighteen  inches  or  two  feet  from  the 
tree,)  with  a  sharp  spade,  and  raising  them  carefully  with  as  much  earth  as  would  adhere 
to  their  roots,  placing  them  one  at  a  time  on  a  wheelbarrow  and  trundling  them  as  gently 
as  possible  to  their  place  of  destination.  Having  previously  dug  the  hole,  the  subject  Avas 
immediately  placed  in  it,  to  prevent  injury  from  the  sun  or  air,  taking  heed  not  to  cover 
the  roots  too  deeply.  In  this  way  I  was  pretty  sure  of  success,  as  I  was  well  aware  that 
even  the  most  tender  evei'greens  flourish  well  under  such  treatment,  for  my  observation 
and  experience  had  abundantly  proved  it. 

I  was  considerably  elated  with  ray  experiment  when  I  beheld  the  buds  opening  and  the 
leaves  spreading  out  in  all  the  grandeur  and  magnificence  which  it  was  wont  to  display  in 
its  native  forest.  I  bid  my  friends  observe  it  as  they  passed,  and  signified  to  them  that  I 
had  surmounted  the  difficulty  of  transplanting  a  chestnut  tree.  My  trees  flourished  well 
through  the  summer  and  fall,  and  when  the  leaves  were  no  longer  an  ornament,  the}'' 
drooped  as  usual.  The  next  spring  I  observed  on  the  opening  of  the  buds,  that  the  leaves 
looked  sickly  and  to  my  great  mortification  that  my  trees  were  gasping  hard  for  breath, 
and  were  evidently  going  into  a  decline,  and  finally  died  like  their  predecessors. 

The  question  is  whether  the  trees  died  from  the  eifect  of  transplanting  merely,  or  from 
an  exposed  situation,  having  previously  been  sheltered  by  the  woods.''  Would  not  a  few 
wisps  of  straw  wound  around  the  trunk  of  the  trees,  and  some  of  their  main  branches, 
have  been  a  barrier  against  the  depredations  of  the  frost  and  cold,  so  as  to  innure  them 
by  degrees  to  a  more  exposed  situation?  Is  the  chestnut  less  hardy  than  many  other 
deciduous  trees,  say  the  Maple,  Ash,  Elm  and  the  Oak?  Last  February  I  tried  the  plan 
of  the  frozen  ball,  so  much  encouraged  in  your  valuable  treatise  upon  horticulture;  I 
went  to  the  forest  to  look  out  for  a  subject  of  experiment.  Having  found  one,  I  readily 
commenced  digging  around  it,  and  to  my  surprise  I  had  the  task  accomplished  much  soon 
an  I  had  expected.  I  left  it  to  freeze;  in  a  few  days  I  returned  with  a  pair  o 
stone  boat,  to  take  up  my  tree  and  transport  it  to  the  place  of  destination 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  TRANSPLANTING  FOREST  TREES. 

tree  stood  between  two  pines;  I  easily  conceived  the  idea  of  running  a  chain  across  from 
one  to  the  other,  and  hooked  a  tackle  to  it,  and  fearing  lest  I  sliould  injure  the  bark  by- 
drawing  directly  under  the  ball,  in  a  square,  so  that  I  could  take  two  draft  chains  and 
hitch  to  the  four  corners,  and  bring  up  the  loops  in  the  form  of  a  bail,  to  which  I  attached 
the  lower  block  of  the  tackle,  and  by  means  of  a  snatch  block  attached  to  a  neighboring 
tree,  and  my  oxen  to  the  fall,  in  a  moment  it  was  swinging  at  a  sufficient  height  to  admit 
me  to  run  two  poles  across  the  hole  on  which  I  run  the  stone-boat  under  the  ball  and 
and  lowered  it  down  carefully  on  it.  But  the  ball  was  not  frozen  sufficiently,  and  I  lost 
considerable  dirt.  I  however  succeeded  in  retaining  about  two-thirds  of  a  cart  load  with 
the  tree,  but  that  was  somewhat  crumbled  and  broken.  As  the  tree  had  a  handsome 
head,  I  hesitated  to  cut  into  it,  though  strongly  urged  to  do  so  by  my  friends;  not  know- 
ing what  proportion  to  cut  off,  I  let  it  remain,  concluding  that  the  chestnut  was  rather  a 
tender  tree,  and  would  not  endure  much  pruning.  The  whole  experiment  proved  a  fail- 
ure. Although  I  have  been  baffled  in  my  undertakings  to  transplant  this  beautiful, 
though  common  forest  tree,  and  make  it  an  ornament  nearer  home,  I  am  not  willing  to 
give  up  so  laudable  an  enterprise  so  long  as  there  is  a  reasonable  hope  of  success. 

Now,  if  there  is  any  course  which  you  would  recommend  me  to  take  to  effect  my  ob- 
ject, I  will  pursue  it  with  fresh  vigor,  and  one  day  Avill  give  you  the  result  of  the  experi- 
ment. 

There  is  a  young  planter  in  my  neighborhood  who  has  set  about  raising  a  few  chestnut 
trees  on  a  piece  of  ground  which  he  wished  to  ornament;  he  made  manj'^  attempts,  but  all 
in  vain;  it  seemed  as  if  the  fates  were  against  him;  at  last  with  commendable  zeal  he 
planted  the  7iuts,  which  came  up  in  the  spring  and  have  flouished  finely,  and  are  now  be- 
tween seven  and  eight  feet  high.  But  I  do  not  want  to  wait  so  long,  as  I  wish  to  set  them 
by  the  road-side;  and  the  labor  to  protect  them  from  stray  cattle  till  the}'  are  old  enough 
to  stand  unprotected,  would  be  more  expensive  than  to  transplant  large  trees.  When  you 
give  me  the  desired  information,  you  will  please  to  state  what  proportion  of  top  to  leave 
on  the  chestnut. 

As  to  all  the  rest  of  the  ornamental  trees,  both  deciduous  and  evergreens,  which  Ave 
transplant,  I  am  well  versed  in  the  manner  of  treatment,  both  in  transplanting  and  after- 
wards. Regarding  the  deciduous  trees;  when  I  have  not  as  good  a  supply  of  roots  as  I 
should  wish,  I  trim  nearly  to  bare  poles,  except  a  few  spurs  to  aid  them  in  starting;  but 
if  a  tree  is  not  vigorous  enough  to  force  out  a  sprout  it  Avill  rarely  succeed  afterwards.  It 
is  an  old  adage  that  "  experience  teaches  a  dear  school,  but  fools  Avill  learn  in  no  other." 
And  though  I  have  no  aching  desire  to  claim  its  application  to  myself,  I  have,  as  I  will 
own,  learned  a  few  lessons  in  that  school  Avhich  I  trust  will  be  of  service  to  me  in  years  to 
come.  If  I  could  have  had  the  perusal  of  your  valuable  work,  and  useful  hints  on  the 
Transplanting  of  Fruit  and  Ornamental  Trees,  both  deciduous  and  evergreens,  as  given 
from  the  experience  of  your  numerous  correspondents,  it  would  have  saved  me  a  great 
deal  of  pain,  both  of  body  and  mind.  Respecting  what  is  laid  down  in  your  important 
work  upon  the  pruning  of  evergreens,  I  knoAV  it  to  be  a  fact  that  they  scarce  ever  need 
the  knife  or  saw  to  improve  their  natural  outline.  But  when  evergreens  are  transplanted, 
it  should  always  be  done  in  the  frozen  ball,  or  in  the  clod,  especially  the  white  pino, 
spruce,  hemlock  or  firs,  and  the  more  carefully  it  is  done,  the  surer  will  be  the  success. 
Indeed,  I  have  taken  them  up  with  a  clod  of  earth  about  their  roots,  and  transported  them 
thirty  miles,  in  a  waggon,  and  planted  them  with  as  good  success  as  I  could  reasonabl}^ 
ask  for,  and  far  better  than  I  could  have  expected.  But  to  take  them  up  as  we  do  small 
deciduous  trees,  without  the  clod  of  earth,  the  chance  is  comparatively  small;  and  accord- 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  TRANSPLANTING  FOREST  TREES. 

ing  to  my  experience  and  observation,  twelve  out  of  twenty  will  surely  die.  Now,  the 
question  arises  in  my  mind,  why  should  a  chestnut  tree  be  more  difficult  of  removal  than 
many  other  deciduous,  and  even  evergreens.  It  is  a  native  of  our  soil;  it  graces  our  noble 
forest,  and  crowns  our  highest  hill,  standing  in  the  most  bleak  places,  and  seems  to  glory 
in  its  towering  majesty,  stretching  out  its  mighty  arms  in  defiance  of  the  storm-warfare 
of  centuries,  till  it  sometimes  attains  to  the  size  of  ten  feet  in  diameter. 

I  have  grafted  the  chestnut  with  good  success,  and  I  have  known  the  scions  to  grow 
from  four  to  six  feet  in  the  first  year;  indeed,  I  think  tlie  success  in  grafting  the  chestnut 
to  be  fully  equal  to  that  of  the  apple,  and  any  one  who  wishes  to  add  usefulness  to  beau- 
ty, can  do  so  with  perfect  safety,  and  improve  their  quality  of  chestnuts,  by  grafting.  I 
do  not  wish  to  be  lengthy  in  my  remarks,  but  I  have  such  a  love  for  shadowy  streets  and 
lanes,  especially  on  sultry  days,  that  I  cannot  forbear  to  lay  before  your  readers  the  result 
of  an  experiment  of  mine  in  bringing  about  this  good  work. 

Four  years  ago  I  resolved  to  set  a  row  of  trees  by  the  side  of  one  of  the  lanes  in  our 
village.  I  accordingly  measured  the  ground,  and  found  that  it  required  twenty  trees.  I 
thought  I  had  a  hard  task  to  perform,  and  called  on  my  neighbors  to  lend  a  hand  in  a  pub- 
lic work,  but  I  found  that  none  had  time  to  spare  to  aid  or  encourage  such  notions,  so  I 
resolved  to  do  it  alone.  I  went  some  little  distance  into  the  woods,  to  a  fine  little  copse 
of  rock  majjles,  [or  sugar  maples]  and  in  about  five  hours  I  succeeded  in  digging  my  num- 
ber. The  trees  which  I  selected  were  about  one  inch  and  a  half  in  diameter  at  the  base; 
as  they  were  sheltered  by  some  aged  pines,  they  grew  remarkably  slender,  and  seemed 
unable  to  sustain  their  own  weight;  and  as  there  was  a  drouth  in  the  fall,  I  took  them  up 
with  a  clod  of  earth  attached  to  them,  and  set  them  together  by  the  side  of  a  tree; 
not  having  conveyance  at  hand  I  left  them  there  three  or  four  days,  when  they  were 
conveyed  home.  I  cut  their  tops  off  to  ten  or  eleven  feet,  not  leaving  a  branch  or  scarcely 
a  spur  upon  them.  I  set  them  upon  light,  gravelly  ground,  and  when  I  dug  the  holes  the 
earth  was  as  dry  as  snuff.  I  took  heed  not  to  cover  the  roots  too  deeply,  but  placed  some 
stones  on  them,  to  prevent  the  frost  from  throwing  them  out,  which  answered  a  two-fold 
purpose,  both  to  keep  the  tree  firm,  and  to  keep  the  soil  pressed  about  the  roots  when  the 
frost  come  out  of  it  in  the  spring.  I  mention  this,  partly  to  show  that  this  kind  of  tree 
will  grow  with  less  care  in  transplanting  than  some  other  varieties,  though  with  more  care, 
the  better  they  will  flourish.  It  was  about  a  days'  work  to  set  them,  and  half  a  days' 
work  to  stake  them  up  to  guard  against  cattle.  Counting  time  as  money,  the  expense  did 
not  exceed  three  dollars;  and  though  they  set  in  an  exposed,  bleak  place,  I  had  but  two 
failures,  which  were  soon  replaced.  Some  of  them  made  a  more  rapid  growth  the  first 
year  than  they  would  have  done  in  their  native  forest.  I  have  now  the  gratification  of 
seeing  as  fine  a  row  of  trees  as  there  is  in  the  town,  with  the  prospect  of  yearly  additions 
to  their  beauty.  On  meeting  my  neighbors,  some  jocosely  remarked  that  I  had  got  my 
bean-poles  set  in  season ;  while  others  said  with  a  siieer,  "  I  guess  they  will  grow  like  bean- 
poles." I  was,  however,  so  elated  with  my  success,  that  I  resolved  to  set  a  row  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  lane,  which  I  did  in  a  year  two  after.  This  was  attended  Avith  a  little 
more  expense,  and  better  success.  I  got  trees  varying  from  two  to  three  inches  in  diame- 
ter, and  planted  them  in  the  same  way.  There  are  fifty-five  trees  in  all.  They  have  all 
flourished  well,  and  bid  fair  to  add  much  beauty  to  the  landscape,  and  afford  as  pleasant  a 
shade  as  one  could  wish;  may  others,  interested  in  the  beauty  of  shadowy  lanes,  go  and 
do  likewise.  How  many  tliere  are  who  spend  three  times  as  much  money  for  that  Avhich 
is  useless,  and  a  great  deal  more  time  than  it  would  require  to  plant  a  hundred  such 
in  the  course  of  a  year,  which,  if  rightly  employed   in  ornamenting  and  improving 


SUCCESSFUL  REMOVAL  OF  FRUIT  TREES. 

landscape,  would,  in  process  of  time,  in  many  places,  turn  the  bleakest  spots  to  gardens 
of  Paradise. 

To  resume  my  topic,  I  took  those  trees  from  a  sheltered  situation,  and  placed  them  in  a 
position  where  the  bleak  north-westerly  winds  had  a  fair  sweep  at  them,  and  old  Boreas 
has  not  neglected  to  open  his  battery  of  hail,  frost,  and  snow,  upon  these  juvenile  sons  of 
the  forest,  but  they  are  unscathed,  and  spring  annually  decks  them  in  a  drapery  of  the 
Unest  foliage. 

Some  years  ago,  I  resolved  to  set  a  row  of  trees  near  the  village,  on  the  edge  of  a  mea- 
dow. I  chose  the  sugur  maple,  and  planted  a  fine  line  of  trees,  which  flourished  for  a  sea- 
son and  then  died.  I  reset  the  row  for  several  years,  but  without  success.  I  then  carted 
two  or  three  loads  of  good  soil  to  each  hole,  and  then  set  them  on  the  mounds  thus  raised. 
They  now  thrive  well;  but  when  their  roots  extend  beyond  the  mounds,  will  they  con- 
tinue to  flourish,  or  will  they  grow  mossy  and  die.'' 

In  conclusion,  I  will  venture  to  predict  that  whoever  plants  rock  maples  in  clear  meadow 
land,  with  an  expectation  of  seeing  them  flourish,  will  be  sadly  disappointed.  This  is  be- 
cause they  flourish  in  low,  wet  land,  where  the  land  is  hard,  and  even  do  well  in  running 
water  and  ditch  banks;  and  they  Avill  flourish  in  moist  land,  (like  willows  planted  Vjy  the 
water  course,)  where  the  soil  is  not  meadow  mud.         Yours  trulj',  A.  Collier. 

South  GrotOH,  3Iass.,  Dec.  28,  1850 

Remarks. — Our  correspondent  has,  we  think,  failed  in  planting  Chestnuts,  because  he 
has  neglected  to  observe  that  they  have  strong  tap  roots — running  directly  downwards, 
and  which  he  probably  cut  off  without  mercy  in  removing  them.  This  tap  root  is  always 
found  in  chestnuts,  oaks,  and  tulip  trees,  &c.,  but  not  in  elms,  maples,  and  ashes,  which 
accounts  for  the  comparative  facility  of  removing  the  latter.  If  he  would  take  pains  to  ball 
a  chestnut,  and  include  the  tap  root  in  the  ball — at  the  same  time  reducing  the  top  by 
shortening-back  ever}'^^  limb  about  one-fourth,  at  the  time  of  transplanting,  (for  a  chestnut 
should  rarely  be  touched  with  a  knife  at  any  other  time,)  we  think  he  would  have  no 
cause  to  complain  of  want  of  success.     Ed. 


SUCCESSFUL   REMOVAL    OF   FRUIT   TREES. 

BY  M.,  ONEIDA  COUNTY,  N.  Y. 

Dear  Sir — This  last  spring  I  had  occasion  to  remove  from  one  part  of  my  garden  to 
another,  36  fruit  trees,  the  greater  part  plums.  As  soon  as  the  ground  would  admit,  it 
was  done,  and  so  successfullj'-,  that  I  am  induced  to  give  your  readers  a  description  of  the 
way  it  was  managed.  The  plum  trees  blossomed  and  bore  fruit  equally  as  perfect  as  oth- 
ers in  my  garden,  which  had  been  undisturbed. 

]My  gardener  who  transplanted  the  trees,  first  pared  ofl"  carefully  the  top  soil,  until  he 
came  to  the  upper  tier  of  roots;  then  dug  a  trench,  about  eighteen  inches  from  the  body 
of  the  tree,  so  deep  that  he  could  cut  off  the  tap  or  any  other  roots  too  low  to  be  easily 
saved.  When  the  tree  was  cut  loose  from  its  position,  a  strong  shovel  was  put  under,  two 
men  took  hold  of  the  body,  raised  it  up,  and  carried  it  to  another  place,  where  a  hole  had 
been  previously  dug,  (after  cutting  off  all  bruised  roots,)  and  immediately  planted. 

I  presume  it  is  precisely  on  the  same  principle  as  that  described  by  Mr.  PERKi>fS  in  a 
former  vol.* — the  earth  adhered  firmly,  but  as  we  could  not  remove  them  all  in  one 

*  In  Mr.  Perkins'  the  ball  was  soaked  with  water,  and  allowed  to  get  firm  before  removal. 


AVHAT  MAKES  THE  BEST  FARM  HEDGE. 

the  next  day  the  earth  had  got  too  dry,  for  it  fell  off.  We  then  waited  for  a  soaking  rain, 
and  the  day  after  finished  the  remainder. 

I  think  no  one  could  have  told  from  their  appearance  that  they  had  so  recently  been  dis- 
turbed. They  were  shortened-in,  not  more  so,  however,  than  every  fruit  tree  in  my  gar- 
den. I  think  it  more  than  likely,  that  there  may  be  nothing  nev/  in  the  above  manner  of 
removing  trees,  but  to  myself  it  was  very  novel  and  interesting. 

I  have  growing  on  mj^  premises  thirty-six  cherry  trees,  from  four  to  seven  years  from 
the  bud.  I  have  never  allowed  any  side  branches  to  be  removed,  (merely  shortened-in 
every  June) — two  of  the  above  trees  did  not  develop  branches  any  lower  than  five  feet 
from  the  ground.  On  all  the  others  are  limbs  from  one  foot  to  eighteen  inches  high.  The 
two  trees  with  no  shoots  lower  than  five  feet,  ooze  gum — and  none  of  the  others. 

Now,  is  this  accidental,  or  is  it  from  the  fact  that  the  bodies  of  the  other  trees  are  more 
perfectly  shaded  from  the  sun.'  It  is  best  not  to  be  too  certain  in  such  cases,  for  facts  are 
stubborn  things,  and  future  years  might  upset  any  theorj^ 

I  thank  you  sincerely  for  the  elucidation  of  the  mystery  why  the  AYistaria  sinensis 
would  not  grow  with  me.  In  the  spring  I  will  take  j^our  advice,  and  procure  thrifty  plants 
if  possible.  M. 

Oneida  County.  Dec.  21,  1S50. 


WHAT   MAKES    THE   BEST   FARM   HEDGE. 

BY.  A.  D.,  NEW- YORK. 

Dear  Sir — The  subject  of  live  hedges  is  an  interesting  one  to  the  farmer  in  some  parts 
of  the  country,  especially  in  sections  where  both  stone  and  timber  are  comparatively 
scarce.  It  seems  to  be  pretty  generally  conceded  now,  that  the  English  Hawthorn,  with 
which  the  farms  are  almost  entirely  fenced  in  Great  Britain,  is  not  adapted  to  this  climate,  so 
that  we  must  look  around  for  a  substitute.  In  Delaware,  I  have  observed  that  a  native  thorn 
called  the  New  Castle,  has  been  considerably  emploj^ed  for  hedges.  It  makes  a  good  and 
substantial  fence,  but  I  noticed  on  a  recent  visit  to  that  state,  that  the  use  of  it  did  not 
spread  much  among  the  farmers.  On  inquiring  the  reason,  I  was  told  that  the  plant  was 
very  liable  to  injurj^  by  the  borer  and  an  insect,  and  on  the  Miiole  had  not  given  satisfac- 
tion as  a  farm  fence. 

I  have  seen  a  hedge  of  the  Osage  Orange  upon  the  boundary  of  a  garden  near  Philadel- 
phia. It  is  five  feet  high,  well  clipped,  and  presents  a  very  handsome  appearance  when 
covered  with  its  rich  glossy  leaves.  Being  very  thorny,  it  makes  a  thorough  barrier 
against  man  or  beast.  I  see  by  the  papers  that  this  i^lant  has  come  into  use  for  farming 
purposes  in  Illinois — especially  in  some  parts  of  the  prairies,  and  that  Professor  Turner, 
of  Jacksonville,  has  planted  several  miles  of  it.  From  my  conversation  with  my  friend 
at  Philadeldhia,  I  am  led  to  think  that  it  requires  too  much  and  too  constant  clipping — 
say  twice  or  thrice  a  season,  to  suit  the  farmers  generally  in  this  country;  though  for  gar- 
dens it  is  not  easily  surpassed. 

I  should  be  glad  to  hear  your  experience,  and  that  of  some  of  your  readers  who  have 
planted  hedges  extensively,  as  to  what  will  make  the  hardiest  and  best  farm  hedge,  taking 
into  account  easy  cultivation,  durability,  and  adaptation  to  a  variety  of  soil  and  climate. 

I  saw  not  long  ago,  a  line  of  hedge  which  was  made  by  planting  the  seeds  of  the   Sibe 
rian  Crab — a  small  ornamental  variety  of  the  apple,  which  is  well  known  in  the  nurse 
and  sought  after  for  the  beauty  of  its  little  fruit.     The  tree,  naturally,  is  a  small 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

one,  and  has  not  exactly  thorns,  but  branches  which  become  somewhat  thofny  and  resist- 
ing. It  naturally  forms  a  thicket  with  a  good  many  branches,  so  that  it  takes  and  keeps 
the  hedge  form  very  easily.  He  sowed  the  seeds  of  these  crabs  in  the  garden,  and  when 
the  seedlings  were  a  year  old  he  transplanted  them  into  the  row,  where  they  were  to  grow 
as  a  hedge.  They  were  set  six  inches  apart,  in  a  single  row,  and  the  tops  were  cut  off 
Aviihin  three  or  four  inches  of  the  ground  the  same  spring  tlicy  were  planted.  They  made 
a  fine  growth,  and  the  next  spring  were  again  cut  down  to  within  six  inches  of  the  ground. 
This  made  the  hedge  bushy  and  thick  at  the  bottom. 

The  hedge  is  now  live  years  planted.  It  has  attained  its  proper  size,  and  having  been 
regularly  trimmed  every  spring,  has  become  one  of  the  thickest  and  most  impenetrable 
hedges  I  have  ever  seen.  It  requires  trimming  but  once  a  year,  and  seems  to  me  well  able 
to  take  care  of  itself  the  rest  of  the  time.  Besides  this,  it  has  a  fine  appearance  in  the 
spring,  when  it  is  covered  with  blossoms,  and  in  the  autumn  when  it  begins  to  bear  consi- 
derable fruit.     Would  not  the  Siberian  Crab  or  its  seedlings,  make  a  good  farm  fence.'* 

The  locust  has  been  used  by  some  persons  as  a  farm  fence,  and  it  makes  a  loose  barrier 
very  quickly.  But  it  is  difficult  to  keep  within  bounds,  and  it  is  apt  to  throw  up  suckers 
and  thus  take  up  the  ground  wanted  for  tillage.  The  Three  Thorned  Acacia — though  it 
does  not  sucker,  and  is  abundantly  thorny,  does  not  grow  thick  enough  to  make  a  com- 
plete hedge  Avithout  a  great  deal  of  clipping. 

The  Buckthorn  has  been  highly  spoken  of,  and  it  makes,  I  believe,  a  first  rate  hedge  for 
the  garden.     But  will  it  answer  for  the  farm,  and  what  is  preferable  to  it? 

Yours,  &c.  A.  D. 

Neu'-York,  Jan.  7,  1851. 

Remarks. — We  give  the  preference  to  the  Buckthorn,  over  any  plant  j'^et  tried,  for  farm 
hedges.  It  will  grow  in  anj^  soil,  makes  a  thick  hedge  witli  verj' little  time  or  labor,  needs 
clipping  but  once  a  year,  and  may  be  trimmed  when  the  leaves  are  off,  at  any  time  when 
the  farmer  has  least  to  do.  Besides  this,  it  is  less  liable  to  be  attacked  by  disease,  insects 
or  vermin,  than  any  other  hedge  plant  in  our  knowledge,  and  may  be  raised  from  seed  as 
easily  as  peas.  It  is  a  little  wanting  in  thorns  when  young,  but  gets  stiff  enough  to  turn 
cattle  while  it  has  been  sheared  three  or  four  years.     En. 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

I  received  in  London,  a  note  from  the  Duke  op  Bedford,  which  led  me,  while  I  was 
in  Bedfordshire,  to  make  a  visit  to  Woburn  Abbey. 

This  is  considered  one  of  the  most  complete  estates  and  establishments  in  the  kingdom. 
It  is  fully  equal  to  Chatsworth,  but  quite  in  another  way.  Chatsworth  is  semi-continen- 
tal, or  rather  it  is  the  concentration  of  everything  that  European  art  can  do  to  embellish 
and  render  beautiful  a  great  country  residence.  Woburn  Abbey  is  thoroughly  English; 
that  is,  it  does  not  aim  at  beauty,  so  much  as  grandeur  of  extent  and  substantial  complete- 
ness, united  with  the  most  systematic  and  thorough  administration  of  the  whole.  Besides 
this,  it  interested  me  much  as  the  home  for  exactly  f /tree  centuries,  of  a  family  which  has 
adorned  its  high  station  b}'-  the  highest  virtues,  and  b}'  an  especial  devotion  to  the  inte- 
rests of  the  soil.*  The  present  Duke  of  Bedford  is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  scientific 

first  John  Russell,  Duke  of  Behford,  came  into  possession  of  this  estate  iii  1549,  and  it  has  descended  in 
ly  ever  since.  In  one  of  tlie  apartments  of  the  palace  is  a  series  of  miniature  portraits  of  the  heads  of  the  fa- 
an  unbroken  line,  for  300  years. 


•MR.  DOAVNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

farmers  in  England,  and  his  father,  the  late  Duke,  was  not  only  an  enthusiastic  agricultu- 
rist, but  the  greatest  arboriculturist  and  botanist  of  his  day,  whose  works,  both  practi- 
cal and  literary,  made  their  mark  upon  the  age. 

The  Woburn  estate  consists  of  about  thirty  thousand  acres  of  land.  There  is  a  fine 
park  of  three  thousand  acres.  You  enter  the  approach  through  a  singularly  rich  avenue 
of  evergreens,  composed  of  a  belt  pei-haps  one  hundred  feet  broad,  sloping  down  like  an 
amphitheatre  of  foliage,  from  tall  Norway  spruces  and  pines  in  the  back  ground,  to  rich 
hollies  and  Portugal  laurels  in  front.  This  continues,  perhaps  half  a  mile,  and  then  you 
leave  it  and  wind  through  an  open  park,  spacious  and  grand — for  a  couple  of  miles — till 
you  reach  the  Abbey.  This  is  not  a  building  in  an  antique  style,  but  a  grand  and  mas- 
sive pile  in  the  classical  manner,  built  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century  on  the  site  of  the 
old  Abbey.  I  have  said  this  place  seemed  to  me  essentially  English.  The  first  sight  of 
the  house  is  peculiarly  so.  It  is  built  of  Portland  stone,  and  has  that  mossy,  discolored 
look  which  gathers  about  even  modern  buildings  in  this  damp  climate,  and  which  we  in 
America  know  nothing  of,  under  our  pure  and  bright  skies — where  the  freshness  of  stone 
remains  unsullied  almost  any  length  of  time. 

Woburn  Abbey  is  a  large  palace,  and  containing  as  it  does,  the  accumulated  luxuries, 
treasures  of  art,  refinements,  and  comforts  of  so  old  and  weathy  a  famil)'^ — (with  an 
income  of  nearly  a  million  of  our  money,)  you  will  not  be  surprised  when  I  say  that  we 
have  nothing  with  which  to  compare  it.  Indeed,  I  believe  Woburn  is  considered  the  most 
complete  house  in  England,  and  that  is  saying  a  good  deal,  when  you  remember  that  there 
are  20,000  private  houses  in  Great  Britain,  larger  than  our  President's  House.  To  get  an 
idea  of  it,  you  must  imagine  a  square  mass,  about  which,  externally — especially  on  the  side 
fronting  the  park,  there  is  little  to  impress  you — only  the  appearance  of  large  size  and  an 
air  of  simple  dignity.  Imagine  this  quadrangular  pile  three  stories  high  on  the  park  or  en- 
trance front,  and  two  stories  high  on  the  garden  or  rear,  and  over  two  hundred  feet  in 
length,  on  each  side.  The  drawing-room  floor,  though  in  the  second  story,  is  therefore 
exactly  on  a  level  with  the  gardens  and  pleasure  grounds  in  the  rear,  and  the  whole  of 
this  large  floor  is  occupied  Avith  an  unbroken  suite  of  superb  apartments — drawing-rooms, 
picture  galleries,  music-rooms,  library,  etc. — projecting  and  receding,  and  stealing  out  and 
in  among  the  delicious  scenery  of  the  pleasure  grounds,  in  the  most  agreeable  manner. 
There  is  a  noble  library  with  20,000  volumes;  a  gallery,  one  hundred  and  forty  feet  long, 
filled  with  fine  sculpture — (among  other  things  the  original  group  of  the  three  graces,  by 
Canova,)  and  a  sort  of  wide  corridor  running  all  around  the  quadrangule — filled  with 
cabinets  of  natural  history,  works  of  art,  &c.,  and  forming  the  most  interesting  in- 
door walk  in  dull  weather.  Pictures  by  the  great  masters,  especially  portraits,  these 
rooms  are  very  rich  in,  and  among  other  things  I  noticed  casts  in  plaster,  of  all  the  cele- 
brated animals  that  were  reared  here  by  the  late  Duke. 

NoAV,  imagine  the  quadrangule  continued  in  the  rear  on  one  side  next  the  sculpture 
gallery,  through  a  colonnade  like  side  series  of  buildings,  including  riding  house,  tennis' 
court,  etc.,  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  to  the  stables,  which  are  of  themselves  larger  than  most 
country  houses;  imagine  hot  houses  and  conservatories  almost  without  number,  con- 
nected with  the  house  by  covered  passages,  so  as  to  combine  the  utmost  comfort  and  beau- 
ty; imagine  an  aviary  consisting  of  a  cottage  and  the  grounds  about  it  fenced  in  and  filled 
with  all  manner  of  birds  of  brilliant  and  beautiful  plumage;  imagine  a  large  dairy,  fitted 
up  in  the  Chinese  style  with  a  fountain  in  the  middle,  and  the  richest  porcelain  vessels 
Ik  and  butter;  imagine  a  private  garden  of  bowers  and  trellis  work,  embosomed 
eepers,  which  belongs  especially  to  the  Duchess,  and  you  have  a  kind  of  sketchy  out 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROxAI  EXGI.A.XD. 

line  of  the  immediate  accessories  of  Woburn  Abbey.  They  occupy  the  space  of  a  little  vil 
lage  in  themselves;  but  you  would  gather  no  idea  of  the  luxury  and  comfort  they  afford  did 
you  for  a  moment  forget  that  the  whole  is  managed  with  that  order  and  system  which  are 
no  where  to  be  found  so  perfect  as  in  England.  I  must  add,  to  give  you  another  idea  of 
the  establishment,  that  a  hundred  beds  are  made  up  dail}'  for  the  family  and  household 
alone,  exclusive  of  guests.  The  pleasure  grounds,  which  surround  three  sides  of  the  house, 
and  upon  which  these  rooms  open,  are  so  beautiful  and  complete  that  you  must  allow  me 
to  dwell  upon  them  a  little.  They  consist  of  a  series  of  different  gardens  merging  one 
into  the  other,  so  as  to  produce  a  delightful  variety,  and  covering  a  space  of  many  acres — 
about  which  I  walked  in  so  bewildered  a  state  of  delight  that  I  am  quite  unable  to  say 
how  large  they  are.  I  know,  however,  that  they  contain  an  avenue  of  Araucarias  backed 
by  another  of  Deodar  Cedars  in  the  most  luxuriant  growth — each  line  upwards  of  1,000 
feet  long.  A  fine  specimen  of  the  latter  tree,  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  high,  attracted  my 
attention,  and  there  was  another,  tvventy-five  feet,  of  the  beautiful  Norfolk  Island  Pine, 
growing  in  the  open  ground,  with  the  shelter  of  a  glazed  frame  in  winter.  These  plea- 
sure grounds,  however,  interested  me  most  in  that  portion  called  the  American  garden — 
several  acres  of  sloping  velvety  turf,  thickly  dotted  with  groups  of  Rhododendrons,  Aza- 
leas, &c.,  forming  the  richest  masses  of  dark  green  foliage  that  it  is  possible  to  conceive. 
In  the  months  of  jMay  and  June,  when  these  are  in  full  bloom,  this  must  be  a  scene  of 
almost  dazzling  brilliancy.  The  soil  for  them  had  all  been  formed  artificially,  and  consist- 
ed of  a  mixture  of  peat  and  white  sand,  in  which  the  Rhododendrons  and  Kalmias  seemed 
to  thrive  admirably. 

Besides  this  scene,  there  is  a  garden  composed  wholly  of  heaths,  the  beds  cut  in  the 
turf,  one  species  in  each  bed,  and  full  of  delicate  bells;  a  parterre  flower  garden  in  which  a 
striking  effect  was  produced  by  contrasting  vases  colored  quite  black,  with  rich  masses 
(growing  in  the  vases)  of  scarlet  geraniums.  I  also  saw  a  garden  devoted  wholly  to  Willows, 
and  another  to  Grasses — both  tlie  most  complete  collections  of  these  two  genera  in  the 
world — the  taste  of  the  former  Duke — and  with  which  I  was  familiar  before-hand,  through 
the  "  Salidum  Woburnense,"  and  Mr.  Sinclair's  work  on  the  "  Grasses  of  JFoburn." 

The  park  is  the  richest  in  large  evergreens  of  any  that  I  have  ever  seen.  The  planting 
taste  of  the  former  Duke  has  produced  at  the  present  moment,  after  a  growth  of  fifty  or 
sixty  years,  the  most  superb  results.  The  Cedars  of  Lebanon — the  most  sublime  and 
venerable  of  all  trees,  and  the  grandest  of  all  evergreens,  bore  off  the  palm — though  all  the 
rare  pines  and  firs  that  were  known  to  arboriculturists  half  a  century  ago  are  here  in  the 
greatest  perfection — including  hollies  and  Portugal  laurels  which  one  is  accustomed  to 
think  of  as  shrubs,  with  great  trunks  like  timber  trees  and  magnificent  heads  of  glossy 
foliage.  A  grand  old  Silver  fir  has  a  straight  trunk  eighty  feet  high,  and  a  lover  of  trees 
could  spend  weeks  here  without  exhausting  the  arboricultural  interest  of  the  park  alone — 
which  is,  to  be  sure,  some  ten  or  twelve  miles  round. 

A  very  picturesque  morceau  in  the  park,  enclosed  and  forming  a  little  scene  by  itself, 
is  called  the  Thornery.  It  is  an  abrupt  piece  of  ground  covered  with  a  wild  looking  copse 
of  old  thorns,  hazels,  dog-woods  and  flintastic  old  oaks,  and  threaded  by  walks  in  various 
directions.  In  the  center  is  a  most  complete  little  cottage,  with  the  neatest  Scotch  kitchen, 
little  parlor  and  furniture  inside,  and  a  sort  of  fairy  flower  garden  outside. 

All  this  may  be  considered  the  ornamental  portion  of  Woburn,  and   I  have  endeavored 
to  raise  such  a  picture  of  it  in  your  mind  as   would  most  interest  j^our  readers.     But 
must  remember  that  farming  is  the  pride  of  Woburn,  and  that  farming  is 

of  immense  importance,  involving  the  outlay  of  immense  capital,  and  a  personal 


GRAPE  VINE  BORDERS. 

interest  and  systematic  attention  AT'hich  seems  almost  like  managing  the  affiiirs  of  state 
About  half  a  mile  from  the  house  is  the  farmery — the  most  complete  group  of  farm  build- 
ings perhaps,  in  the  world,  where  the  in-coming  harvest  makes  a  figure  only  equalled  by 
the  accommodations  to  receive  it.  Besides  these  there  are  mills  and  workshops  of  all  kinds, 
and  on  the  out-skirts  of  the  park  a  whole  settlement  of  farm  cottages.  I  can  only  give 
you  an  idea  of  the  attention  bestowed  on  details,  and  the  interest  taken  in  the  comfort  of 
the  immediate  tenants  bj^  resorting  to  figures,  and  telling  3'ou  that  the  present  Duke  has 
expended  i270, 000,  ( 1^350,000,)  within  the  past  five  years,  in  the  farm  cottages  on  this 
estate,  which  are  model  cottages — combining  the  utmost  convenience  and  comfort  for  dwel- 
lings of  this  class,  with  so  much  of  architectural  taste  as  is  befitting  to  dwellings  of  this 
size.  Of  course,  a  large  part  of  this  estate  is  let  out  to  tenants,  but  still  a  large  tract  is  ma- 
naged by  the  Duke  himself,  who  pays  more  than  400  laborers  weekly  throughout  the  year. 
The  farming  is  very  thorough,  and  the  effects  of  draining  in  improving  the  land  have  been 
very  striking.  Above  fifty  miles  of  drain  have  been  laid,  in  this  estate  alone,  annually,  for 
several  years  past. 

You  will  gather  from  this,  that  English  agriculture  is  not  made  a  mere  recreation,  and 
that  even  with  the  assistance  of  the  most  competent  and  skillful  agents,  the  life  of  a  noble- 
man with  the  immense  estate  and  the  agricultural  tastes  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  is  one 
of  constant  occupation  and  active  emplo3"ment.  Besides  this  estate,  he  has  another  in 
Cambridgeshire,  called  the  "  Bedford  Level" — avast  prairie  of  some  18,000  acres  reclaimed 
from  the  sea,  and  kept  dry  by  the  constant  action  of  steam  engines,  but  Avhich  is  very  pro- 
ductive, and  is  perhaps,  the  most  profitable  form  land  in  the  kingdom.     Yours,     A.  J.  D. 


GRAPE   VINE   BORDERS. 

BY  R.  BUIST,  PHILADELPHIA 

Those  who  read  the  various  periodicals  of  the  day,  and  who  reflect  on  the  past,  present 
and  future,  must  have  their  risibilities  frequently  agitated  by  articles  on  the  composition  of 
grape  vine  borders.  We  have  read  of  nothing  from  the  days  of  Adam  to  "WAsniNGTOX  to 
compare  with  the  blood  and  carrion  of  the  recent  da3^s  of  grape  growing.  From  such  we  must 
expect  grapes  far  outvieing  the  land  of  Eschol  or  the  graperies  of  SPEECnLT.  Every 
science  has  its  hobby  and  ever}''  practitioner  his  ultimatum.  In  medical  science  the  days 
of  phlebotomy  are  gone,  and  horticulture  is  at  prcKsent  nauseated  with  ofFal  and  ammo- 
nia. What  produces  the  rich  and  luscious  grapes  on  the  movmtain  sides  of  Southern  Europe? 
What  on  the  calcarious  steeps  in  the  vicinity  of  Paris,  or  the  sandy  alluvial  of  Thomery .'' 
What  gives  the  exhuberant  growth  and  heavy  product  of  the  famous  vine  at  Hampton 
Court,  or  its  more  famous  rival  at  Cumberland  Lodge?  We  say  a  dry  bottom,  thin,  warm 
free  soil,  with  a  regular  periodical  stimulant  either  of  decomposed  lava — mineral  or  vege- 
table substances.  Of  these  two  celebrated  vines,  the  former  is  said  to  luxuriate  in  an  old 
sewer,  but  that  is  a  mere  say  so,  and  not  a  fact!  the  latter  grows  in  the  dry  sandy  loam 
of  an  old  garden,  on  a  sandy  clay  bottom  that  no  roots  will  penetrate — perfectly  natural 
soil,  (as  you  may  have  seen  it,  and  no  mystery  about  it,)  peculiar  to  that  vicinity,  and  no 
doubt  very  genial  to  the  growth  of  the  vine,  which  should  be  analysed  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  are  affected  with  the  carrion  and  composition  mania. 

Sometime  ago,  we  saw  a  grape  vine  border  made  three  to  four  feet  deep,  according  to  the 

wed  judgment  of  a  recent  writer,  and  though  the  drainage  was  perfect  the  vines  did 

ow  in  it;  the  second  year  the  roots  became  rotten  and  musty — the  composition 


GRAPE  VINE  BORDERS. 

was  too  rich  with  shins  of  beef,  heads  and  even  whole  bodies,  of  animal  putrefaction 
One  half  had  to  be  removed,  and  the  remainder  incorporated  with  sandy  loam  from  an  old 
pasture.  The  vines  were  cut  down,  (those  that  were  alive,)  and  replanted.  They  now 
do  well  and  bear  freely,  but  in  wet  seasons  are  subject  to  mildew. 

Another,  and  on  a  larger  scale,  was  made  about  eight  years  ago.  The  soil  and  every 
etc.,  etc.,  to  carry  the  whole  figure  out  for  a  four  feet  deep  border,  was  carted  six  miles; 
the  vines  grew  well  for  two  years,  and  produced  one  good  crop,  when  the  roots  all  perish- 
ed except  a  few  near  the  surface.  Every  load  of  loam  cost  at  least  two  dollars,  indepen- 
dent of  the  animal  "  fixings,"  when  there  was  abundance  of  light  loamy  soil  and  decom- 
posed vegetable  matter  on  the  premises,  to  make  a  permanent  and  wholesome  foundation 
for  grape  culture.  About  two  years  ago  the  soil  was  renewed,  many  of  the  old  vines  re- 
placed and  others  cut  down,  and  now  they  promise  well.  The  error  of  those  rich,  deep 
borders,  consists  in  their  decomposing  and  becoming  a  solid,  greasy,  unctuous  mass,  that 
would  poison  any  roots,  however  gross  their  feeding  powers.  In  these  excessively  rich 
borders  the  Frontignac  and  Muscat  grapes  never  succeed  Avell — the  foliage  is  of  a  yellow- 
ish sickly  green,  the  wood  long  jointed,  with  weak  eyes,  the  fruit  when  produced,  crack- 
ing before  maturity.  These  are  stubborn  facts,  not  high  colored,  to  which  I  could  add 
several  others  if  the  confirmation  of  our  position  required  it.  Now  sir,  for  the  other  side 
of  the  picture,  (and  we  will  keep  under  the  mark.)  We  know  a  vine  border  of  a  graperj^ 
eighty  feet  long  and  sixteen  feet  wide,  that  has  been  made  six  years.  The  subsoil  is  clay, 
and  in  rather  a  low  situation.  Eighteen  inches  under  the  surface  there  was  formed  a  re- 
gular bed,  of  old  bricks,  stones  and  oyster  shells,  eight  or  ten  inches  deep,  shelving  to  a 
drain,  to  keep  the  bottom  perfectly  dry.  The  natural  soil  was  a  rich,  dark  loam,  to  which 
was  added  one-quarter  street  manure,  the  whole  being  well  incorporated  and  frequently 
turned;  the  border  when  finished,  was  one  foot  higher  than  the  surrounding  surface, 
forming  an  open,  dry,  porous  soil,  twenty  inches  deep.  The  vines  have  uniformlj'^  produc- 
ed great  crops,  well  ripened  and  colored,  consisting  of  about  thirty-five  to  forty  kinds  of 
foreign  grapes.  The  border  was  never  mulched  nor  covered,  in  summer  or  winter.  In 
June  and  July  they  had  several  waterings  of  liquid  manure.  On  examining  the  roots 
they  were  found  to  be  strong  and  fibrous,  ramifying  in  every  inch  of  the  soil. 

There  is  another  grape  border  ninety  feet  long  and  thirty  feet  Avide,  that  we  have  care- 
fully observed  the  past  ten  years.  The  substratum  to  within  eighteen  inches  of  the  sur- 
face is  sand  and  gravel,  or  gravelly  loam,  which  required  no  draining;  the  situation  is  na- 
turally elevated.  A  depth  of  twenty  inches  to  two  feet  was  dug  out  and  replaced  with 
the  sod  from  the  Avalks  of  the  garden  and  an  adjoining  field,  to  which  was  added  one-quar- 
ter decomposed  leaves  and  rotten  barn-yard  manure,  mixed  only  when  deposited  on  the 
spot.  The  growth  and  product  have  been  the  finest  I  have  seen — Hamburghs  weighing 
over  three  pounds,  and  Syrians  from  six  to  nine  pounds  per  bunch.  The  wood  is  uni- 
formly short  jointed,  and  of  a  particularly  healthy  growth.  The  border  has  had  an  an- 
nual top-dressing  in  Avinter  of  stable  manure — no  manure  water — and  although  the  estab- 
lishment has  been  under  the  management  of  four  different  gardeners  in  that  period,  the 
vines,  in  crop,  character,  color  and  growth,  have  maintained  their  peculiar  high  qualities. 

We  have  never  admitted  the  practice  of  deep,  rich  preparations,  for  the  culture  of  the 
grape,  even  of  materials  well  incorporated,  though  we  doubt  not  that  under  judicious 
management,  vines  will  grow  vigorously  and  produce  good  crops  of  half  colored,  large 
fruit;  but  when  the  fibre  of  the  loam  loses  its  elasticity,  and  the  manure  and  carrion  are 
decaj^ed,  the  whole  becomes  a  sour,  unctuous  mass,  retentive  of  moisture,  through 
no  roots  will  permeate,  and  even  the  strongest  will  deaden  and  decay,  as  in  the  cases 


noted;  so  that  what  was  once  a  rich,  porous,  and  expensive  border,  has  become  entirely 
unsuitcd  to  the  growth  of  the  vine.  This  error  has  been  adopted  very  unwittinglj^  from 
the  effervescent  recipes  of  some  blue-aproned  bragadocio!  No  sir,  we  have  a  climate  of 
our  own;  let  us  think  for  ourselves;  let  us  Americanise  our  handy  work,  as  you  have  done 
Landscape  Gardening  and  Architecture,  and  though  we  cannot  expect  the  critical  approv- 
al of  some  learned  plebians,  wc  may  at  least  show  that  our  reflective  organs  are  not  dis- 
eased. 

Give  an  artificial  vine  border  a  dry  bottom ;  if  natui-ally  sandy  or  gravelly  that  is 
enough,  but  if  not  make  it  so.  Go  down  two  feet,  not  more,  (less  will  do;)  fill  in  nine 
to  twelve  inches  of  stones,  bricks,  coal  ashes,  clinkers,  or  any  such  material,  inclining  the 
bottom  to  a  point  or  points  from  whence  there  are  permanent  drains  to  carry  off  the  mois- 
ture— having  prepai-ed  a  comj)ost  of  four  parts  sod  or  loam  taken  from  the  surface,  (not 
going  deeper  than  four  inches) — one  part  street  manure  or  sweepings  from  large  towns, 
and  one  part  thoroughly  rotted  stable-manure,  all  well  mixed  four  or  six  months  previous 
to  using  it.  If  03'ster  shells  or  charcoal  is  convenient,  a  few  loads  will  prove  beneficial  in 
keeping  open  the  soil;  take  fair  weather  to  fill  up  the  border,  raising  it  above  the  level  at 
least  twelve  inches.  Time  will  take  down  much  soluble  matter  amongst  the  dry  material 
in  the  bottom,  at  which  the  roots  will,  at  their  own  pleasure,  ramble  and  luxuriate  for 
half  a  century.  Give  j'earl}"-,  a  light  top-dressing  of  manure,  or  use  freely  in  the  growing 
season,  liquid  manure,  or  Guano  water,  till  the  fruit  begins  to  color,  but  not  later. 

AVe  hear  some  who  have  never  tried  it  already  say,  that  such  a  vine  border  is  too  poor 
and  too  shallow;  that  the  plants  will  be  weak,  and  the  summer  suns,  will  dry  them  up. 
To  such  we  reply,  friend,  you  are  "  verdant" — what  is  j^our  idea.'  "A  border  four  feet 
deep,  drained,  concreted,  bury  the  whole  animal,  (silver  dollars  too,)  and  asphalt  it  to 
keep  down  the  ammonia."  Such  sir,  is  the  last  and  newest  idea  of  this  electrical  age  on 
grape  vine  borders.  K.  Buist. 

PJiiladtlj/liia,  RoseduU  Nurseries,  Jan.  A,  1S51. 

As  the  foregoing,  from  one  of  the  most  experienced  horticulturists  in  the  country,  will 
probably  wake  up  a  rejoinder  from  the  other  side,  we  shall  reserve  what  we  have  to  say 
on  this  subject,  till  the  "  summing  up."     Ed. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  WATER  ON  VEGETATION. 

BY  WILLIAM  .SAUiXDERS,  BALTIMORE. 

If  I  were  asked  the  question,  "  What  point  do  you  consider  of  most  importance  in  the 
management  of  plants?"  I  would  unhesitatingly  answer,  the  application  of  water;  and  I 
believe  the  answer  would  be  endorsed  by  all  whose  experience  and  observation  makes 
their  opinion  worthy  of  notice.  It  matters  not  what  soil  a  plant  is  growing  in — how  it  is 
situated  with  regard  to  temperature  or  light;  if  negligentl}^  or  unskilfuU}^  supplied  with 
moisture,  it  cannot  thrive;  and  I  feel  warranted  in  saying  that  there  are  more  failures  in 
plant  cultivation,  occasioned  by  the  improper  use  of  this  liquid,  than  bj'^  any  other  cause. 

In  treating  on  matters  relating  to  the  cultivation  of  plants,  it  is  difficult  to  lay  down 
definite  rules  that  will  suit  all  cases  alike;  neither  will  any  amount  of  explanatory  infor- 
mation compensate  for  want  of  that  discriminating  knowledge  obtained  through  praclite 
perience.  There  is  abundant  proof  of  this  in  the  many  conflicting  opinions  given 
the  same  subject  by  different  persons,  opinions  which  frequently  appear  diametrical- 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  WATER  ON  VEGETATION. 

ly  opposed  to  each  other.  This  partly  arises  from  the  accommodating  jiature  of  plants, 
and  the  infinite  modifications  of  the  various  agents  hy  which  they  are  influenced,  render- 
ing it  extremely  improbable  for  anj^  single  observation  to  be  of  universal  application.  A 
further  cause  of  this  diversity  of  opinion  maybe  found  in  the  lucubrations  of  those  who  may 
be  termed  speculators  in  vegetable  physiology — "  who  are  apt  to  draw  general  conclusions, 
and  raise  axioms  from  every  particular  they  meet  with ;"  and  seldom  hesitate  in  promulgat- 
ing their  ideas,  and  investing  their  theories,  however  crude  they  may  be,  Avith  all  the 
"  pomp  and  circumstance"  of  authenticated  experiment. 

The  importance  of  water  to  plants,  and  its  influence  upon  them,  may  be  readily  con- 
ceived, when  it  is  known  to  form  upwards  of  one-half  of  all  green  vegetable  matter,  and 
serves  as  the  means  of  conveyance  for  all  the  nutritive  elements  required  for  their  food. 
Mineral  ingredients  must  be  in  a  state  of  solution,  or  so  minutely  divided  as  to  be  carried 
along  with  water,  before  they  gain  admission  into  the  roots  of  plants.  It  is  also  supposed 
that  gaseous  elements  cannot  be  absorbed  by  roots  in  their  ajriform  state,  and  are  availa- 
able  only  when  in  solution  with  water. 

Seeing  that  water  is  not  only  a  most  important  agent  in  vegetation,  but  is  one  more  under 
subjection  than  any  other,  it  is  evident  that  by  its  skilful  application  we  can,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, regulate  and  control  the  groAvth  of  plants.  It  is  true,  that  light,  heat  and  air,  are 
also  essential  agents,  and  their  co-operation  indispensable,  but  over  the  first  of  these  we 
have  no  control,  and  the  latter  are  under  subjection  only  in  artificial  atmospheres;  but 
even  in  out-of-door  culture,  in  fields  and  gardens,  it  is  possible  by  draining  and  deep  culti- 
vation, to  modify  the  injurious  effects  resulting  either  from  excess  or  deficiency  of  water. 
Our  control  over  this  agent  enables  us  to  meet  extremes  in  the  others.  By  its  withdrawal 
at  certain  seasons,  and  freer  application  of  it  in  others,  we  can  induce  different  develop- 
ments, and  hasten  or  retard  their  termination  at  will. 

Our  possession  of  this  controling  influence  is  practically  of  most  importance  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  exotics,  and  the  production  of  fruits  and  flowers  out  of  their  natural  seasons. 
Success  in  forcing  depends  chiefly  upon  the  previous  preparation  of  the  plants  for  that  pur- 
pose; an  early  and  thorough  ripening  of  the  previous  growth,  with  a  proper  period  of  rest, 
are  absolutely  indispensable.  This  is  effected  by  a  gradual  withdrawal  of  water.  If  we 
lessen  the  supply  of  water  to  a  growing  plant,  we  of  course  cut  off"  the  means  whereby 
nourishment  is  conveyed  into  its  system.  Alkalies  and  other  inorganic  substances  held  in 
solution,  are  constantly  convej^ed  to  the  plant  with  the  water  absorbed  by  the  roots,  these 
co-operate  with  the  carbonic  acid  absorbed  by  the  leaves  in  forming  new  constituents  of  the 
plant.  When  water  is  withheld  fi'om  the  roots  this  supply  of  mineral  ingredients  is  cut 
off";  these  are  then  taken  from  the  plant  itself,  principally  from  the  juices  of  the  leaves, 
which  soon  begin  to  change  color,  and  ultimately  fall  off";  while  the  substances  by  which 
they  were  upheld  are  incorporated  into  woody  fibre,  or  other  matters  necessary  for  the 
structure  of  the  plant.  (Liebig.)  And  "  rest  in  plants  is  effected  in  one  or  two  waj's;  either 
by  a  very  considerable  lowering  of  temperature,  or  by  a  degree  of  dryness  under  which 
vegetation  cannot  be  sustained."  (Lindley.) 

The  inflorescence  of  plants  is  increased  by  a  diminished  supply  of  water  Avhile  the  buds 
are  being  formed;  anything,  indeed,  that  tends  to  check  luxuriance — so  long  ss  the  plant 
is  in  a  healthy  state,  is  favorable  for  the  production  of  flowers.  The  rudiments  of  flower 
buds  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  leaf  buds,  they  are  formed  of  the  same  elements,  and 
may  be  mutually  transformed  into  each  other  according  to  circumstances.  ]\Iost  gardeners 
aware  that  an  over  supply  of  nourishment  has  a  tendency  to  promote  the  development 
instead  of  flower  buds.     Hence  we  find  fruit  trees  planted  in  rich,  stimulating  soil 

No.  II.  37 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  WATER  ON  VEGETATION. 

make  a  large  development  of  leaves  and  branches  without  producing  any  fruit.  Taking 
that  familiar  flowering  plant,  the  Camellia,  as  an  illustration — during  its  growth  it  de- 
lights in  a  free  supply  of  moisture,  both  in  soil  and  atmosphere;  if  these  conditions  are 
kept  up  uninterruptedly  after  the  seasonal  growth  is  completed,  it  will  not  form  flower  buds, 
but  immediately  start  into  a  second  growth.  On  the  other  hand,  as  soon  as  the  young 
shoots  are  done  growing,  let  the  plant  be  placed  in  a  dryer  atmosphere,  and  the  supply  of 
water  to  its  roots  diminished,  and  almost  every  bud  will  be  converted  into  a  flower  bud. 

The  ripening  of  fruit  is  also  accelerated  by  lessening  the  supply  of  water  to  the  roots 
during  this  process.  This  may  readily  be  supposed,  seeing  that  it  has  the  same  organic 
connection  with  the  roots  as  the  flowers  and  leaves.  When  in  a  young,  green  state,  the 
fruit  performs  the  same  functions  as  the  leaves,  absorbing  carbonic  acid  and  giving  off  oxy- 
gen, thus  elaborating  matter  for  itself  so  long  as  it  remains  of  a  green  color.  Its  principal 
dependence  for  nourishment,  however,  is  from  the  leaves.  Fruit  formed  upon  naked 
branches  will  rarely  ripen  to  perfection  without  the  assistance  of  leaves.  Its  intimate  re- 
lation and  dependence  upon  the  leaves  renders  it  similarly  affected  by  change  of  circum- 
stances. "  One  of  the  most  essential  of  the  alterations  which  occur  in  fruits  during  ri- 
pening, is  the  decomposition  or  dissipation  of  the  water  that  they  attract  from  the  stem. 
A  diminished  supply  of  water  will,  under  equal  circumstances,  produce  an  accelerated 
maturation,  because  less  time  will  be  required  to  decompose  or  dissipate  this  element;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  an  excessive  supply  of  water  will  retard  or  prevent  ripening,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  longer  time  required  for  the  same  purpose."  (Lindley.) 

The  amount  of  cold  that  plants  are  capable  of  enduring,  depends  in  a  great  measure 
upon  the  quantity  of  water  contained  in  their  structure.  We  frequently  see  plants  at  one 
time  killed  with  an  amount  of  frost  that  in  previous  occasions  did  not  injure  them.  The 
soft,  watery,  immature  points  of  shoots,  are  also  frequently  killed,  while  the  rest  of  the 
plant  remains  uninjured.  Mild,  moist  winters,  followed  by  severe  spring  frosts,  are  more 
injurious  to  vegetation  than  those  of  earlier  severity,  because  in  the  former  case  the  roots 
are  constantly  sucking  fluid  from  the  soil  and  driving  it  upwards  into  the  system,  the 
whole  plant  becomes  distended  with  watery  particles,  and  owing  to  the  expansion  of  water 
in  freezing,  the  bark  is  frequently  rent  asunder,  and  the  plant  otherwise  injured.  Hence 
the  proprirty  of  inducing  early  maturity — checking  the  growth  by  withdrawing  moisture, 
that  the  shoots  may  become  less  hard  and  solidified,  and  enabled  to  withstand  cold;  and 
hence,  also,  the  fact  that  plants  flower  and  fruit  more  profusely  and  withstand  the  rigors 
of  climate  with  less  injury,  on  well  drained  lands,  than  in  those  constantly  saturated  with 
moisture.  A  wet  soil  is  truly  a  cold  one.  Where  there  is  water,  the  rays  of  heat  pene- 
trate very  slowly;  the  more  water  the  greater  the  evaporation,  and  evaporation  alwaj's 
produces  cold. 

Attention  to  these  facts  is  of  much  importance  to  those  having  the  management  of  green- 
house plants  during  the  winter.  By  a  proper  preparatory  treatment  these  can  be  inured 
to  bear  a  degree  or  two  of  frost  without  injury;  and  in  severe  weather  it  is  preferable  to 
allow  this  falling  off"  of  the  atmosphere,  rather  than  have  recourse  to  high  artificial  heat, 
which  is  often  given  to  an  amount  not  only  useless,  but  decidedly  injurious.  I  have  fre- 
quently allowed  the  thermometer  to  fall  as  low  as  29°  in  a  house  containing  not  only  an 
average  collection  of  what  are  usually  considered  green-house  plants,  but  also  many  that  or- 
dinarily receive  hot-house  treatment,  as  Ixoras,  Stephanotis,  Eschynanthus ,  Gardenias, 
&c.  In  a  common  wooden  frame  sunk  in  the  earth,  with  no  other  protection  than  tliat 
ded  by  the  glazed  sash,  and  a  close  canvass  cover  elevated  a  few  inches  from  the  glass 
kept  Verbenas,  Roses,  Carnations,  &c.,  together  with  young  plants  of  lettuces  and 


^^ 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


that  "host  of  all  flowers,"  the  Cauliflower,  although  a  thermometer  in  their  immediate 
vicinity  f-'equentl}'  fell  six  and  eight  degrees  below  zero.  These  were  kept  scrupulously 
drj- — "  dry  as  dust,"  and  carefully  excluded  from  clear  sun-light  for  some  days  after  fine 
weather  set  in. 

As  we  become  more  familiar  with  the  natural  habits  of  plants,  and  knowledge  in  the 
science  of  cultivation  increases,  it  may  be  exi^ected  that  a  large  number  of  plants  which 
are  now  considered  tender,  will  prove  to  be  much  hardier  than  is  generally  supposed.  It 
is  u  fact  that  many  of  the  fiiilures  in  cultivation  are  caused  by  a  mistaken  eagerness  to 
keep  plants  in  an  artificial  instead  of  a  natural  condition.  In  their  native  countries,  many 
of  the  plants  we  cultivate  in  our  hot-houses,  are  subjected  to  extremes  of  temperature 
which  they  cannot  endure  under  ordinary  artificial  treatment.  In  Australia,  for  instance, 
such  plants  as  jlcacias,  Bovonias,  Mimosas^  Eucalypti,  f/oveas,  Myopoviums,  and  others, 
Avhich  are  generally  considered  to  be  more  susceptible  of  cold  than  these,  are  found  grow- 
ing and  flowering  where  the  night  temperature  falls  many  degrees  below  the  freezing  point. 
No  doubt  this  power  of  resisting  cold  is  attributable  to  the  high,  arid  temperature  to  which 
they  had  previously  been  subjected,  evaporating  and  solidifying  the  juices  so  as  to  bring  the 
plant  into  a  state  of  comparative  dryness.  It  is  a  very  prevalent  opinion  that  all  tropical 
plants  should  be  constantly  kept  in  a  state  of  active  vegetation.  This  opinion  is  unfound- 
ed; for  there  is  no  climate  in  the  world  without  its  periodical  seasons  of  excitement  and 
repose,  as  regular  as  our  summer  and  winter.  A  knowledge  of  the  natural  climates,  soils 
and  stations  of  the  plants  we  cultivate,  is  a  desideratum  of  the  highest  importance.  Not 
only  should  we  be  acquainted  with  the  climate  and  phj'sical  condition  of  the  atmosphere 
in  the  countries  to  which  they  belong,  but  also  the  altitude  at  which  they  are  found.  A 
plant  growing  upon  a  bleak  mountain  side,  where  it  can  scarcely  find  root-hold  on  the 
rocky  surface,  exposed  to  every  change  of  temperature,  must  require  very  different  artifi- 
cial treatment  from  one  located  in  a  valley,  luxuriating  in  the  rich  depositions  of  the  sur- 
rounding elevations,  where  a  free  current  of  air  rarely  visits  it.  There  is  a  great  want  of 
authentic,  practically  useful  information  on  this  subject. 

It  is  questionable  whether  we  do  not,  in  our  aim  at  what  is  called  high  cultivation, 
sometimes  overstep  the  simple  means  nature  employs  for  her  purposes.  The  closer  we 
can  imitate  nature,  the  more  likelihood  is  there  of  success;  and  though  there  is  much  in 
nature  that  the  wisest  cannot  understand,  there  is  also  much  that  is  intelligible  to  the 
most  illiterate.  William  Saunders,  Gardener  to  Johns  Hopkins,  Esq. 

Clifton  Park,  Baltimore,  Md.,  Jan.  6,  1851. 


lOnrtiriilturnl  Inrirtirs. 


MASS.  HORT.  SOCIETY. 
The  annual  meeting  of  this  Society  was  held 
in  the  Library  room,  at  Iloi'ticultnral  Hall,  in 
School-strc^et.  About  fifty  members  were  pre- 
sent. Samuel  Walker,  Esq.,  the  President 
of  the  Society,  on  assuming  the  chair  made  the 
foUowhig  address: 

Gentlemen — Laboring  together,  as  many  of 
us  liave  done  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  centurj', 
under,  as  we  trust,  the  guidance  of  that  all- 
wise  Providence  whose  works  have  been  our 
and  delight,  we  are  again  called  to  enter 
le  respective  duties  assigned  to  us  by  the 

ty. 


That  oneness  of  purpose  and  action  which  has 
been  so  characteristic  of  the  members  of  the  se- 
veral committees,  together  with  their  increased 
knowledge  from  past  experience,  and  the  judi- 
cious rules  and  regulations  that  they  have  from 
time  to  time  adoi)ted  for  their  future  action, 
gives  assurance  that  they  will  be  able  satisfacto- 
rily to  discharge  all  the  duties  imposed  ujjon 
them,  notwithstanding  the  increased  exhibitions 
at  the  Hall,  and  the  more  frequent  application 
for  information  respecting  new  fruits,  &.c.,from 
abroad. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure,  gentlemen,  to 
state   that  the  purpose  for  which  this  Society 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


was  established,  has  so  far,  it  appears  to  me,  ac- 
complished all  that  its  most  sanguine  friends 
expected;  still  there  remains  much  to  be  done. 
The  future  action  of  its  members  will  be  stimu- 
lated by  the  reminiscence  of  its  founders  and 
benefactors — these  will  cheer  their  path,  and  act 
as  a  talisman  on  their  future  aspirations,  while 
tlie  history  of  Mount  Auburn  will  be  a  record, 
in  all  coming  time,  that  the  members  of  this  So- 
ciety, some  of  whom  are  now  present,  were  the 
founders  of  that  "  Garden  of  Graves,"  and  that 
to  its  first  President,  General  H.  A.  S.  Dear- 
born, are  the  members  of  this  Society,  and  the 
public,  indebted  for  the  beautiful  and  chaste 
arrangement  of  this,  the  last  resting  place  of  so 
many  of  the  great  and  good. 

Tlie  conmiittee  to  visit  Gardens,  and  to  ascer- 
tain as  far  as  possible  the  best  mode  of  cultiva- 
tion in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  have  had  every 
fecility  afforded  them  by  the  courtesy  and  kind- 
ness of  the  proprietors  of  all  the  places  they  vi- 
sited. In  th^'se  examinations  they  found  many 
things  worthy,  and  much  to  admire.  I  would 
again  respectfully  recommend  this  interesting 
branch  of  our  labors  to  the  fostering  care  of  the 
Societj-,  and  also  call  its  attention  again  to  the 
noble  and  interesting  subject — Landscape  Gar- 
dening. For  my  views  more  fully  on  this  de- 
partment, purmit  me  to  refer  you  to  the  re- 
marks in  my  last  annual  address. 

The  increasing  taste  for  Horticultural  pur- 
suits requires  prompt  and  corresponding  action 
to  enable  us  to  keep  pace  with  the  times.  The 
question  with  us  now,  is  not  luhat  can  be  done, 
but  rather  what  will  be  done  first  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  community,  and  the  wants  of 
this  Society.  An  Experimental  Garden,  enlar- 
ged and  more  extended  annual  exhibitions,  un- 
der tents,  &c.,  are  subjects  full  of  interest,  and 
may  well  occupy  the  attention,  and  hereafter 
require  the  deliberate  consideration  of  the  Soci- 
ety. 

But,  gentlemen,  a  permanent  Temple  of  am- 
ple dimensions,  to  meet  all  the  wants  of  the  So- 
ciety and  the  wishes  of  tlie  public,  is  the  first 
thing  which  I  would  suggest  for  your  conside- 
ration. Let  us  obtain  a  suitable  location — a 
Home.  I'or  this  purpose,  let  us  economise  our 
resources,  tax  our  time  and  owv  energies,  and 
if  need  be,  our  fortunes,  for  this  desirable  con- 
summation of  the  wishes  of  our  friends,  and  the 
foiinders  of  this  Society ;  many  of  them  saw 
only  through  the  vista  with  the  eye  of  liope;  it 
is  our  duty  and  privilege  to  carry  out  their  de- 
signs, and  fill  up  the  picture  as  it  once  present- 
ed itself  to  the  vision  of  the  Lowells,  the  Sto- 
rys,  the  Lymans,  the  Brimmers  the  Curtises, 
the  Bradlees  and  the  Princes.  "Without  a  hall 
to  exhibit  to  advantage  all  the  specimens  raised 
by  Horticultural  efforts,  we  cannot  fully  accom- 
plish our  highest  aim — the  dissemination  of  a 
knowledge  of  and  love  for  Horticulture;  imbue 
the  public  with  this,  and  the  emulation  that  it 
eate  between  amateurs,  and  the  competi- 
among  cultivators  for  the  market,  will  be 
ut  to  fill,  in  a  few  years,  the  largest  hall 


we  could  desire  to  possess.  Having  expressed 
my  views  thus  frankly,  on  this  subject,  permit 
me  to  touch  upon  details,  by  suggesting  wheth- 
er a  hall  in  every  way  suited  for  Horticulture, 
might  not  be  built  and  fitted  up  with  reference 
to  Its  soul-stirring  kindred  spirit — Music — 
where  the  warbling  voice  and  the  "  Bird  Song" 
might  be  wafted  like  the  gentle  zephyr  among 
the  trees,  the  buds,  the  blossoms  and  the  flow- 
ers, to  ravish  the  ear,  while  the  eye  shall  be 
charmed  by  the  gems  of  lovely  spring,  or  the 
golden  drops  and  purple  hues  of  gorgeous  au- 
tumn. 

The  third  number  of  the  Transactions  and 
Proccerfingsof  the  Society,  which  will  complete 
the  first  volume,  will  .soon  be  published.  It  has 
been  delayed  from  causes  over  which  the  Com- 
mittee of  Publication  had  no  control,  and  which 
will  be  set  forth  in  the  introduction  of  that 
number.  The  history  of  the  Society,  by  Gene- 
ral Dearborn,  is  a  document  of  great  interest. 
The  propriety  of  printing  an  extra  number  of 
copies  of  this  part  of  the  work,  for  the  use  of 
its  present  members,  and  for  future  reference, 
is  respectfully  submitted. 

The  Report  of  the  Finance  committee  will 
show  the  estimated  value  of  the  Society's  pro- 
perty, together  with  its  income  and  expendi- 
tures. The  increased  appropriations  for  i)remi- 
ums  and  gratuities  for  the  present  year,  have 
my  cordial  approbation. 

I  cannot  close  tliese  brief  remarks  without 
again  congratulating  the  members  of  the  Socie- 
ty on  the  success  which  has  followed  their  unit- 
ed efforts;  a  continuance  of  the  same  spirit  of 
disinterestedness,  kindness  and  mutual  esteem, 
that  has  attended  their  action  thus  far,  cannot 
fiiil  to  reward  their  future  labors,  and  render 
their  ways  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  their  paths 
paths  of  peace. 

On  motion,  the  report  was  referred  to  a  spe- 
cial commitee  for  disposal. 

Hon.  Marshall  P.  AVilder,  from  the  Com- 
mittee on  Finance  presented  their  annual  re- 
port, from  which  we  learn  that  the  total  receipts 
of  the  Society  have  been  $17,245.03,  of  which 
$741  was  the  receipts  of  the  annual  fair,  and 
$10,000  the  legacy  of  the  Hon.  Theodore  Ly- 
MAN.  The  cash  in  hand  on  the  first  of  Janua- 
ary  was  $231.99.  The  Lyman  legacy  has  been 
invested  in  stock  of  the  AYorcester  railroad,  and 
in  the  bonds  of  the  Connecticut  River  and  Pas- 
sumpsic  railroad.  The  real  estate  of  the  Soci- 
ety in  School-street  is  valued  at  $36,000,  and 
the  total  property  at  $53,718.87. 

J.  S.  Cabot,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Premiums,  recommended  a  change  in  that  im- 
portant branch  of  the  Society.  The  Committee 
recommend  a  change  in  the  manner  of  giving 
premiums,  and  an  increase  in  the  amount. 
Among  the  changes  a  premium  is  recommend- 
ed on  Isabella  and  Diana  grapes,  of  $5  for  first 
qualitj'  of  each,  and  $3  for  second. 

Capt.  JosiAH  LovETT,  of  Beverly,  moved 
that  an  additional  sum  of  $50  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the   Distributing  Committee,   to  be 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


awarded  as  premiums  on  vegetables;  also  that 
ten  copies  of  Colman's  celebrated  work  on  Eu- 
ropean Agriculture,  be  procured  for  distribu- 
tion as  gratuities. 

After  some  discussion  touching  the  true  cha- 
racter of  the  vegetable  department  of  the  exhi- 
bition the  past  j'ear — whether  they,  or  the  pre- 
miums on  them,  were  the  most  meagre — the 
motion  of  Mr.  Lovett  was  carried,  and  the  re- 
port read  by  Mr.  Cabot  was  ordered  to  be  print- 
ed. 

Mr.  C.  M.  HovEY,  from  the  Library  Com- 
mittee, read  his  report.  From  it  we  learn  that 
the  Library  is  in  a  good  condition.  The  num- 
ber of  books  taken  out  during  the  past  year,  is 
greater  than  that  of  any  previous.  Many  works 
of  great  value  have  been  added  during  the  year. 
Many  not  received  have  been  ordered.  The 
Committee  recommend  an  appropriation  of  $1-50 
for  a  still  greater  increase  of  books.  They  al.so 
recommend  that  the  twenty  copies  of  Colman's 
Agriculture,  now  in  tlie  Library,  be  distributed 
as  gratuities. 

A  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  ensu- 
ing year  was  appointed,  consisting  of  the  follow- 
ing named  gentleman:  .Joseph  Breck,  (Chair- 
man.) D.  Haggerston,  Josiah  Lovett,  2d,  C.  M. 
Hovey,  E.  Wight,  A.  McLennon,  E.  A.  Story, 
A.  Bowditch,  W.  R.  Austin,  Augustus  Parker, 
P.  B.  Hovey,  Jr.,  and  Otis  Johnson. 


WORCESTER  CO.  IIORT.  SOCIETY. 

The  annual  meeting  of  this  flourishing  Soci- 
ety was  held  on  the  first  of  January.  The  re- 
port of  the  Committee  on  Building  was  so  fa- 
vorablj'  received,  that  the  Association,  after 
some  little  discussion,  resolved  unanimously 
that  it  is  expedient  to  build  a  Hall  upon  their 
lot  in  Front-street,  during  the  current  year. 
The  Building  Committee  were  accordingly  re- 
quested to  procure  plans  and  estimates,  and  to 
lay  the  same  before  the  Society  at  an  adjourned 
meeting.  The  arrangement  at  present  contem- 
plated, is  to  have  two  stores  on  the  lower  floor, 
and  a  very  large  hall  in  the  second  story,  with 
ante-rooms,  8cc.,  &.c. 

After  some  discussion,  the  gallantry  of  the 
Society  so  far  prevailed  over  their  economy  that 
they 

"Voted,  That  any  lady  may  hereafter  be- 
come a  member  of  the  Association  on  payment 
of  the  sum  of  one  dollar."     It  was  also 

Voted,  That  (hereafter)  the  wives  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Society  shall  have  free  admission 
to  all  the  Exhibitions. 

In  consequence  of  the  heavy  out-lays,  inter- 
ruptions, Sec.,  attendant  upon  building,  it  was 

Voted,  That  no  premiums  should  be  awarded 
the  present  year — also 

Voted,  To  have  but  one  Exhibition  the  pre- 
sent year,  and  to  hold  that  on  Cattle  Show 
week,— that  is  on  the  17th,  18th,  and  19th  of 
September  next. 


A  letter  was  received  from  the  President  of 
the  Society,  J.  M.  Earle,  who  was  necessarily 
absent,  declining  to  be  a  candidate  for  re-elec- 
tion. 

The  following  election  of  officers  was  made 
for  the  year  1851: 

President — Stephen  Salisbury. 

Vice-Presidents — Dr.  Wm.  Workman,  Wm. 
T.  Merrifield,  Edmund  F.  Dixie. 

Trustees — Geo.  T.  Rice,  Dr.  Samuel  Flagg, 
Samuel  II.  Colton,  Edward  Earle,  Wm.  N. 
Bickft.rd,  Daniel  W.  Lincoln,  Charles  Paine, 
Silas  Allen,  Shrewsbury;  Wm.  C.  Capron, 
Uxbridge;  Charles  Brigham,  Grafton. 

Librarian — Clarendon  Harris. 

Treasurer — Frederic  W,  Paine. 

Secretary — Dr.  Samuel  Flagg, 

It  is  not  affirming  too  much  to  say  in  regard 
to  this  Society,  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  pros- 
perous in  the  country.  A  great  amount  of 
valuable  information  has  been  diffused,  through- 
out the  community,  by  means  of  its  exhibitions, 
and  it  has  exerted  an  influence  within  its  ter- 
ritorial limits  of  which  the  practical  results  are 
everj^  where  becoming  apparent,  J.  Wor- 
cester, Mass.,  Jan.  7,  1851. 


MARYLAND  IIORT.  SOCIETY. 

A  number  of  our  Florists,  Gardeners  and 
Amateurs,  have  recently  resuscitated  the  old 
Maryland  Horticultural  Society — and  at  a  meet- 
ing held  in  November,  the  election  for  officers 
resulted  as  follows: 

President — Dr.  Thos.  Edmondson. 

Vice-Praidents — Joseph  King,  Jr.,  Henry 
Mankin,  Johns  Hopkins,  Wm.  C.  Wilson. 

Treasurer — Edward  Kurtz. 

Corresponding  Secretary— -Dv.  Gideon  B. 
Smith. 

Recording  Secretary — Chas.  B.  Barry. 

Counsellors — Saml.  Feast,  Jr.,  John  Feast, 
John  J.  Frisby,  John  Toumy,  O.  A.  Gill,  James 
Galloway,  Geo.  AVaesche.  E.  W.  Colburn,  Hen- 
ry Snyder,  E.  F.  Jenkins,  .Tames  Watt,  John 
Dukehart,  L.  J.  Williamson,  Jas.  McNeal,  Jr. 
Robert  Halliday,  Chas.  U.  Stobie,  Wm.  Saun- 
ders,  Zenas  Barnum,  Wm.  Gilmore,  Edward 
Roberts,  O.  Kemp,  James Pentland,  (jeo.  Dun- 
cun,  Jr.,  Samuel  Sands. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting,  it  was  resolved  to 
hold  monthly  exhibitions  of  Flowers,  Plants, 
Vegetables,  Fruits,  &c.,  commencing  in  Feb- 
ruary, to  which  the  members  and  their  fami- 
lies are  to  be  admitted — and  in  June  next,  the 
first  grand  public  Exhibition  is  to  take  place. 
The  spirit  which  lias  been  displayed  in  the  re- 
newal of  this  Society,  gives  us  the  assurance  of 
its  success.  A  large  number  of  members  have 
already  signed  the  constitution,  and  we  think 
that  we  can  promise  an  Exhibition  in  June, 
which  will  do  credit  to  our  city  and  state. — Jm. 
Farmer. 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES 


/nriigE  ml  dilmWmuM  JfMim, 


IcE-IIousE  Management. — This  is  a  matter 
of  no  small  importance,  yet,  how  often  do  we 
see  it  treated  not  only  with  indifference,  but 
upon  the  very  worst  principles  possible  to  en- 
sure its  preservation;  not  one  ice-house  in  fifty 
is  constructed  upon  correct  principles — not  one 
in  the  same  number  is  managed  correctly. 

When  we  consider  that  damp  and  heat  arc 
the  two  great  agents  for  thawing,  it  shou'd  he 
our  endeavor  to  counteract  these  by  every  means 
in  our  power.  To  effect  this,  ventilation  must 
be  had  recourse  to,  and  non-conducting  materi- 
als employed  in  the  erection.  Of  materials,  we 
may  observe,  that  stone  is,  of  all  others,  the 
worst ;  timber  and  brick  are  the  best .  The  usu- 
al practice  of  sinking  ice-houses  to  a  great  depth 
under  the  surfiiceis  bad ;  indeed,  it  has  only  one 
redeeming  property,  wliieh  is  the  convenience 
of  filling  from  the  top.  Its  disadvantages  are, 
the  difficulty  of  admitting  sufficient  ventilation 
to  correct  the  dampness,  which,  build  them  as 
We  may.  is  sure  to  exist  in  underground  houses; 
the  conduction  of  heat  from  the  surrounding 
spil,  and  the  ditficulty  of  effecting  sufficient 
drainage:  these  very  far  overbalance  the  advan- 
tages thus  offered.  Why  are  the  majority  of 
ice-houses,  and  most  cellars  during  winter,  so 
mucli  warmerthan  the  surroundingatmosphere? 
Is  it  not  from  the  heat  conducted  tluough  tlieir 
walls  from  the  surrounding  soil?  Earth  is  a 
much  better  conductor  of  heat  than  air,  or,  in 
other  words,  it  communicates  its  heat  to  other 
bodies  coming  in  contact  with  it,  much  quicker 
than  that  element.  Hence  the  necessity  of  i)lae- 
ing  betvyeen  the  earth  and  the  ice  some  slower 
conductor  of  heat,  and  the  slowest  conductors 
we  have  applicable  to  the  case,  are  timber  or 
air;  both  also,  re.sist  damp,  while  stone  does 
not,  and  besides,  it  is  a  rapid  conductor  of  heat. 
AVater  is  also  a  rapid  conductor  of  heat,  and  in- 
stances have  been  known  where  rain  water  has 
percolated  through  the  roof  of  an  ice-liouse, 
that  the  temperature  within  has  been  raised  to 
60°.  Hence  the  necessity  of  keeping  such  hou- 
ses perfectly  drj%  not  only  at  top,  but  also  all 
tliroughout,  by  efficient  drainage  of  the  melted 
ice.  and  by  ventilation  to  correct  the  dampness 
in  the  atmosphere  and  walls.  Indeed,  the  walls 
of  an  ice-house,  to  be  in  a  proper  condition, 
should  be  as  dry  as  those  of  a  dwelling.  Ven- 
tilation, if  properly  applied,  wilt,  in  most  cases, 
effect  this,  and  should  it  not,  the  introduction 
of  a  few  bushels  of  unslacked  lime,  occasional- 
ly placing  it  in  boxes  over  the  ice,  will  com- 
pletely dry  the  walls  without  elevating  the  tem- 
perature much,  if  the  ventilators  be  openattlie 
time. 

As  air  is  a  much  slower  conductor  of  caloric 
ither  earth    or   water,  it    might,  at   first 
inferred,  were  ice    surrounded   by    it, 
would  be  the  best  of  all  for  securing  its 


keeping;  and  so  it  would,  if  kept  in  a  state  of 
quie.scence,  but  this  is  impossible,  owing  to  the 
difference  of  temperature  which  will  exist  in 
that  portion  of  the  air  coming  in  immediate 
contact  with  the  surface  of  the  ice,  whetlier  on 
the  top  or  around  the  side  of  the  mass,  which 
will  be  reduced  to  a  much  lowor  temperature, 
say  nearly  '32°,  than  that  in  contact  with  the 
walls  of  the  house,  if  sunk  tinder  the  surface, 
from  its  receiving  heat  by  conduction  through 
them,  so  that  it  is  often  found  to  be  as  high 
there  as  46°  or  47° ;  this  difference  of  tempera- 
ture causes  circulation  to  take  place,  the  lighter 
air  ascending  upwards,  seeking  for  escape,  and 
becomes  replaced  with  the  colder  and  more 
weighty.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  if  this  cir- 
culation could  be  interrupt(>d,  the  melting  ac- 
tion on  the  ice  would  be  greatly  diminished,  and 
a  state  of  quiescence  secured.  This  ap{)ears, 
however,    to    be    impossible. — North    British 

Journal  of  Hort.     

The  Pleasures  of  Gardening. — We  know 
not  one  fancy,  one  recreation,  so  unalloyed  in  all 
its  points  as  the  cultivation  of  a  garden.  It 
Seems  to  aftbrd,in  common  with  all  the  rest  of  the 
fancies,  the  full  enjoyment  common  to  all,  and  to 
have  a  large  balance  in  its  favor.  The  miser  over 
his  treasure  gloats  not  more  completely  upon  his 
money  than  the  gardener  docs  upon  his  choice 
fruits,  flowers,  and  vegetables.  The  picture 
collector  is  not  prouder  of  his  painting  than  the 
florist  is  of  his  Tulips;  nor  does  the  owner  of 
the  ancient  gems  of  art  point  them  out  with 
more  satisfaction,  than  tlie  gardener  shows  his 
best  named  flowers.  If  the  owner  of  a  gallery 
of  pictures  has  his  Rubens,  his  Leonardo  da 
Vinci,  his  Paul  Potter,  so  has  the  owner  of  a 
bed  of  Tulips.  The  florist  combines  in  his  single 
garden  as  many  fancies  as  would  occupy  half  the 
population,  and  delights  in  all  of  them.  AVhat 
if  the  conchologist  boasts  of  his  collection  of 
shells?  He  can  only  look  at  them  in  one  state ; 
there  they  are,  always  alike,  no  change;  only 
a  few  people  can  see  them  at  once,  and  not  one 
in  a  thousand,  though  they  may  be  pleased  with 
the  beauty,  can  estimate  the  rarity  of  them. 
The  antiquarian  pores  over  his  coins  in  solitude; 
he  boasts  jjcrhaps,  that  this  crown,  that  guinea, 
or  the  other  medal,  are  the  only  known  (uies  in 
existence;  but  can  he  increase  them?  Can  he 
oblige  a  single  friend  with  an  offset  ?  Will  it  ever 
be  better?  but,  if  another  be  found  like  it,  will 
it  not  be  worse?  What  has  he  rare  that  the 
florist  may  not  in  his  own  estimation  equal? 
The  Tulip-grower  would  say,  "  What  coin  have 
you  got  equal  to  my  flne  Louis  XVI  ?"  And 
no  possessor  of  the  only  coin  of  a  kind,  prizes 
himself  more  upon  his  treasure  than  a  florist 
does  in  twenty  flowers  of  twenty  differen 
lies.  The  lover  of  the  garden  is  a  gene 
lector,  and  a  creator  of  new  beauties  i 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


gain ;  he  sows  his  seed  with  pleasure ,hc  watch- 
es the  progress  of  his  plants  with  interest,  he 
loolcs  for  tlieir  opening  tlowers  or  swelling  fruits 
with  auxietj';  and  if  liis  hopes  are  crowned  by 
one  solitary  plant,  fruit,  or  rtower,  better  than 
his  present  stock,  he  is  repaid  for  all  his  trouble, 
labor,  and  watchfulness;  if  not,  he  begins 
again,  nothiagdaunted,  saying  to  himself,  "  Bad 
luck  now,  better  another  tune."  Is  there  any 
fruit  eats  so  sweet  as  that  from  our  own  garden? 
Does  not  every  day  develope  some  new  claim 
to  our  attention?  Every  new  visitor  in  the  form 
of  a  flower,  or  fruit,  or  vegetable,  is  a  welcome 
one.  A  man  does  not  go  into  his  garden,  as 
he  must  into  a  gallery  of  pictures,  a  cabinet  of 
coins,  or  a  museum  of  natural  history,  to  S3e 
the  same  things  in  the  same  places  time  after 
time:  he  finds  something  new  every  day:  his 
beds  of  Tulips  and  Kanunculiise.s,  his  collections 
of  Picotees,  Carnations,  and  Finks,  his  Fansies, 
Dahlias,  Auriculas,  Polyanthuses,  and  other 
flowers,  come  in,  one  after  tlie  other,  to  reward 
him  for  his  recreation — for,  though  there  be 
much  exertion  occasionally  required,  he  will 
not  call  it  labor.  His  vegetables  and  liis  fruit 
repay  him  for  the  trouble  and  expense  he  in- 
curs; and  after  all,  there  is  one  sweetener  to 
all  his  cares,  one  refreshing  reward  for  all  his 
anxieties,  one  circumstance  that  gives  an  addi- 
tional relish  to  all  he  personally  c  joys,  and  it 
is  this, — he  has  not  to  seek  a  connoisseur  to 
participate  in  his  happiness,  for  ask  whom  he 
may  to  see  his  establishment,  all  the  classes  of 
society  are  delighted  with  a  well-kept  garden. 
It  delights  all  the  senses;  its  fragrance,  its  bril- 
liancy, its  usefulness,  all  speak  to  us  in  lan- 
guage not  to  be  misunderstood,  upon  the  numer- 
ous pleasures  and  duties  which  are  inseparable. 
But  there  is  one  point  of  which  we  must  not 
loose  sight, — it  is  the  facility  with  which  every 
class  of  society  can  accommodate  his  gardening 
to  his  means,  and  yet  excel  as  far  as  he  goes; 
one  cottager,  with  scarcely  more  ground  out- 
side his  house  than  his  house  covers,  can  be 
king  above  his  neighbors  for  the  growth  of 
Stocks;  another  prides  himself  upon  his  double 
Larkspurs;  a  third  will  allow  none  to  surpass 
hira  in  Pinks;  a  fourth  will  shine  in  Pansies; 
and  so,  according  to  the  means  at  his  disposal, 
the  owner  of  a  garden  may  be  ambitious,  suc- 
cessful, and  happy. —  Thomas  Miller. 


SuLrnuRATiNG  Machine. — Among  the  many 
instruments  essential  to  the  proper  management 
of  a  garden,  this  invention  by  Mr.  Fryiiromises 
to  be  one  of  the  most  useful,  alike  indispensable 
to  the  cottager  as  to  the  manager  of  the  largest 
establishment.  Through  the  kindness  of  a 
neighbor,  we  have  had  an  opportunity  of  trj'- 
ing  some  experiments  with  the  machine,  and 
we  And  it  admirably  adapted  for  the  purpose  in- 
tended, as  well  as  for  fumigating  with  tobacco. 
It  is  manufactured  on  the  principle  of  Brown's 
Fuinigator,  the  sidphur  being  drawn  into  a  box 
by  means  of  a  fan,  and  distributed  through  a 
tube  in  a  continuous  cloud.     With  this  instru- 


ment, a  row  of  Peas,  a  score  of  Heaths,  a 
frame  of  Cucumbers  or  Melons,  or  a  house  of 
Vines  may  be  covered  with  sulphur  in  a  iaw 
minutes,  and  that  not  in  superabundance  in  one 
place,  and  none  in  another,  but  it  is  equally 
distributed  like  flne  dust,  and  so  as  not  to  be 
offensively  perceptible  on  the  plants.  Sulphur, 
and  more  especially  sulphur  vivum — the  waste, 
is  very  cheap,  if  bought  at  the  manufactory; 
and  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  Hop 
growers  of  Kent  intend  to  avail  themselves  of 
this  machine  to  destroy  the  mildew  upon  the 
Hop  plants.  It  is  necessary  that  the  machine 
as  well  as  the  sulphur  be  perfectly  dry  when 
used,  or  it  is  liable  to  clog.  For  distributing 
snuft'to  destroy  the  Aphis  on  wall  trees,  and 
also  for  quick  lime  for  the  Turnip  fly,  this  ma- 
chine might  be  used  with  advantage. 

It  is  true,  we  have  not  been  in  the  habit  of 
using  sulphur  so  extensively  in  garden  manage- 
ment as  has  been  necessary;  but  now  we  have 
got  this  machine,  and  know  at  the  same  time 
sulphur  suflicient  for  the  supply  of  a  large  gar- 
den may  be  purchased  for  a  few  shillings,  we  .see 
no  reason,  why  Peach  trees,  Peas,  and  many 
other  crops  should  be  allowed  to  draw  out  a 
miserable  existence,  when  the  enemy  that  kills 
them  can  be  destroyed  by  a  few  puffs  of  this 
instrument.  One  of  the  best  flower  gardeners 
in  the  country,  Mr.  Beaton,  of  Shrubland  Park, 
uses  sulphur  among  his  flower  beds,  as  Verbenas, 
Calceolarias,  &.C.,  to  destroy  the  mildew,  which 
upon  some  kinds,  late  in  the  autumn,  is  very 
troublesome ;  and  we  have  no  doubt  he  will  re- 
gard this  machine  as  a  perfect  boon  to  him,  as 
will  every  other  gardener  who  procures  it. 
AVith  it,  all  the  beds  in  an  ordinary  flower  gar- 
den might  be  dusted  in  less  than  an  hour,  and 
without  being  rendered  unsightly , as  theymust  be 
when  sulphur  is  thrown  upon  them  by  the  hand. 

When  used  as  a  fumigator,  the  tobacco  is 
placed  in  a  vase  provided  for  the  purpose,  which 
can  be  attached  to  the  machine  in  a  few  seconds; 
thus  there  is  no  chance  of  the  ignition  of  the 
sulphur,  or  the  generation  of  sulphurous  acid 
gas,  wh  ch  is  so  destructive  to  vegetable  life,  and 
which  is  so  much  dreaded  by  some  gardeners 
who  do  not  know  the  machine.  In  fumigating, 
this  machine  discharges  the  smoke  much  colder 
than  Brown's  instruments,  as  a  portion  of  cold 
air  is  drawn  into  the  tube  and  mixed  with  the 
smoke  with  each  revolution  of  the  fan. 

The  only  fault  we  have  to  find  with  it  is,  that 
it  is  not  manufiictured  sufliciently  strong,  but 
when  properly  made,  we  doubt  not,  it  will  last 
for  a  number  of  years.  It  can  be  procured 
from  Mr.  Fry,  gardener  to  Mrs.  Dent,  Manor 
House,  Lee,  Kent. — Gard.  Mag.  of  Botany. 


Hydrangea  involuckata  vae.  floee  pleno. 
— All  the  species  of  this  beautiful  genus  are 
welcome  in  our  gardens.  Every  one  knows  the 
Hortensia  (Ilyd.  Hortensia,)  the  first  species 
introduced  to  Europe.  This  elegant  shrub  was^ 
received  from  China,  at  the  royal  gar 
KeAv,  in  1790,  and  from  thence  plants  w 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


tained  by  some  French  cultivatorSj  by  whom  it 
was  soon  extensively  distributed.  Tlie  plants 
produced  at  first  only  small  and  few  flowers, 
in  consequence  of  its  proper  treatment  being 
imperfectly  known.  But  when  subsequently 
tliey  were  grown  in  a  peaty  soil,  and  freely  sup- 
plied with  water  in  the  period  of  their  vegeta- 
tion, they  soon  assumed  a  very  different  ap- 
pearance, and  their  real  beauty  was  discovered. 
This  fact  alone  might  teach  us  to  abstain  from 
pronouncing  a  decided  opiin'on  on  the  merits 
of  a  newly  introduced  plant  before  the  proper 
method  of  treating  it  has  been  proved  by  ex- 
periment. ]\Ian}'  species  of  the  same  genus  have 
since  then  been  introduced,  but  these  are  not 
so  beautiful  as  the  old  one.  Their  umbels  are 
smaller,  and  the  blossoms  are  less  highly  color- 
ed; moreover,  witli  tlie  newer  sorts,  the  large 
unfertile  flowers  are  less  numerous  than  in  the 
old  species,  tlie  umbels  of  which  are  almost 
compact.  This  monstrosity  is  apparently  the 
rosnlt  of  long  experimental  culture  in  the 
Chinese  and  Japanese  gardens,  and  it  is  scarcely 
to  be  doubted  that  ultimately  the  smaller  flowers 
will  be  made  to  bloom  as  large  and  as  profusely 
as  the  others.  The  beautiful  species  which  has 
called  forth  these  observations,  would  seem  to 
confirm  this  supposition,  its  unfertile  exterior 
flowers  are  double,  of  a  bright  rose  color.  Ac- 
cording to  Siebold,  who,  however,  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  introduced  living  plants  of  it,  it 
grows  on  the  liighest  mountains  of  the  island 
of  Niphon  and  Sikok,  (Japan,)  where  itflowers 
during  the  months  of  July  and  August.  It  is 
gruwii  plentifully  in  tlie  gardens  of  tliese  parts, 
and  forms  a  handsome  plant,  with  a  stem  about 
three  feet  high.  According  to  some  travellers, 
there  are  four  varieties  of  it;  one  lilac,  the 
others  with  flesh-colored,  yellowish,  and  rose- 
colored  flowers.  The  leaves  are  opposite,  round- 
ed at  the  base,  or  nearly  heart-shaped. —  Van 
Houtle's  Flores  des  Serres. 


Ammonia  in  Horticulture. — The  labors  of 
modt'rn  chemists  have  shown  us,  and  it  is  one 
of  their  grandest  discoveries,  that  itisthe  Azote 
to  which  manures  owe  all  their  value,  and  that 
their  fertilizing  pi-operties  are  just  in  propor- 
tion to  the  quantity  of  this  agent  they  contain. 
Jt  is  not  always  in  its  form  of  a  simple  body 
that  this  gas  is  useful ;  it  can  only  be  absorbed 
by  plants  in  combination  with  hydrogen,  that  is 
to  say,  in  the  condition  of  animc)nia.  It  has 
also  been  satisfactorily  demonstrated  that  the 
atmosphere  is  the  grand  source  or  medium  from 
whence  vegetables  derive  this  substance.  Hence 
the  great  utility  of  cultivated  plants  being 
trenched  in  the  soil,  especially  if  these  jilants 
are  such  as  easily  give  off  their  azote  to  mix  in 
the  atmosphere  rather  than  in  the  soil.  Legu- 
minous plants,  for  instance,  are  very  suitable 
in  this  respect;  and  long  experience  rather  than 
the  teachings  of  science,  has  taught  agricultur- 
eeonomize  the  plants  of  this  family,  to 
the  ground  which  has  been  exhausted  by 
.ssivc  cropping.  Chemistry,  properly  speak- 


ing, has  not  made  this  discovery,  but  it  has 
■elucidated  and  justified  a  practice  long  in  use. 
It  may  be  interesting  to  investigate  the  causes 
which  perpetui.'.ly  hold  in  the  atmospliere  the 
quantity  of  ammonia  necessary  for  the  develop- 
ment of  vegetables,  and  which  repair  without 
ceasing  the  losses  which  they  sustain.  Accord- 
ing to  the  researches  of  many  chemists,  and 
particularly  those  of  M.M.  Boussingault  and 
Liebig.  these  causes  are  two  in  number.  The  one 
which  is  the  most  direct  is  the  decomposition 
of  organized  bodies,  which,  without  exception, 
contain  a  greater  or  less  quantity  of  azote.  All 
vegetables  contain  it,  but  it  is  particularly  in 
the  bodies  of  animals  that  this  agent  is  con- 
densed. It  enters  extensively  into  the  compo- 
sition of  their  organs,  and  when,  after  death, 
these  animals  are  left  to  the  chemical  action  of 
nature,  all  the  elements  of  which  they  are  con- 
stituted separate,  and  immediately  form  new, 
and,  for  the  greater  part,  gaseous  compounds, 
and  among  others  the  ammonia,  which  returns 
to  the  atmosphere,  where  it  soon  dissolves  in  the 
Wi.tery  vapor  with  which  the  air  is  always  char- 
ged. 

The  second  productive  cause  of  atmospheric 
ammonia  has  been  much  less  studied,  and  it  is 
only  within  a  few  years  that  its  existence  has 
been  suspected.  It  is  known  to  reside  in  the 
electric  discharges  which  succeed  one  another 
in  the  air,  at  least  in  certain  portions  of  the 
globe.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Boussingault  as  well 
as  of  the  celebrated  Liebig,  that  the  carbonate 
of  ammonia  must  pre-exist  In  all  organised  be- 
ings. "  Tbe  phenomenon  of  the  constancy  of 
thunder-storms,"  says  M.  Boussingault  in'  his 
treatise  on  Rural  Economy,  "would  seem  to 
justify  tliis  opinion."  It  is  said,  indeed,  that 
every  time  a  series  of  electric  flashes  pass  in  the 
humid  atmosphere,  there  is  a  production  and 
combination  of  nitric  acid  and  ammonia.  The 
nitrate  of  ammonia,  besides,  always  accompa- 
nies the  rain  which  falls  in  a  thunder-storm  ;  but 
this  acid  being  fixed  in  its  nature  cannot  be 
maintained  in  a  state  of  vapor.  "When  we  consi- 
der the  reactions  which  take  place  between  the 
different  compounds  in  question,  it  may  easily 
be  conceived  that  the  nitrate  of  ammonia, 
which  is  drawn  to  the  earth  by  the  rain,  and 
which  comes  in  contact  witli  the  rocks  or  calca- 
reoiis  soil,  is  afterwards  volatilised  to  the  state 
of  carbonate  at  the  next  drying  of  the  soil.  In 
such  a  climate  as  France,  where  thunder-storms 
are  rare,  we  should  perhaps  scarcely  attach  so 
much  importance  to  the  electricity  of  the 
clouds;  but,  between  the  tropics,  the  electric 
discharges  which  take  place  in  the  atmosphere 
are  almost  incessant,  and  an  observer  placed  at 
the  equator,  if  his  organ  of  .sound  were  delicate 
enough,  would  hear  the  peals  of  thunder  con- 
tinually. There  can  be  no  doubt  at  the  present 
day,  that  the  carbonate  of  ammonia  is  the  most 
active  agent  of  vegetation,  and  without  which 
all  the  others  would  be  useless;  but  this 
nate  is  gaseous,  and,  for  this  reason,  can 
employed  directly  by  the  cultivator,  who 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


y  to  create  an  atmosphere  of  the  carbo- 
nate of  ammonia  under  his  ground,  would  siiend 
a  great  deal  of  money  without  ohtaining  any 
benefit  whatever,  since  the  slightest  movement 
of  the  air  would  instantly  produce  evaporation 
ot  this  volatile  manure."  It  is  fortunate  then, 
that  so  useful  an  agent  can  be  insured  for  the 
purposes  of  horticulture  wherever  a  quantity 
of  the  air  can  be  isolated  from  the  air  outside; 
yet  it  is  somewhat  singular  that  its  use,  now  at- 
tracting attention,  in  the  cidtivation  of  plants 
in  the  green-house,  stove,  pit  and  frame,  has  not 
been  thought  of  sooner. — Revue  H^rticole. 


Yase,  or  en  Gobelet  mode  of  training 
FRUIT-TREES. — lu  the  gardens  of  the  Luxem- 
bourg, at  Paris,  all  the  (piartcrs  containing 
fruit-trees  are  surrounded  with  borders,  planted 
with  cherry,  plum,  and  apricot  trees,  as  stand- 
ards; and  some  with  excellent  effect  are  trained 
in  form  of  a  Vase  or  en  Gobelet,  dwarf,  or  with 
a  stem  five  feet  or  rather  more  in  height.  The 
hpad  is  formed  hollow,  in  shape  like  a  goblet, 
the  shoots  being  annually  tied  to  hoops  of  wood, 
adapted  to  thj  circumference  required  to  give 
the  desired  form.  Two  hoops  are  sufficient, 
the  two-year  old  wood  being  tied  to  one;  and 
the  equidistant  regulation  of  the  one-year  old 
shoots  is  effected  ui>on  the  other.  As  the  vase 
or  goblet  widens,  of  course  hoops  of  greater 
circuit  must  be  prepared,  either  of  new  ma- 
terials, or  introducing  an  additional  piece.  In 
some  instances  the  hoops  were  formed  of  round, 
apparently  a  quarter  of  an  inch,  iron  rods; 
but  wood  is  preferable  to  iron,  for  vegetation 
in  contact  with  the  latter  is  apt  to  be  injurious- 
ly affl'cted  by  the  rapidity  with  which  it  heats 
and  cools.  Shoots  are  apt  to  spring  up  in  the 
center  of  the  goblet ;  but  they  must  be  pinched 
in  summer;  and  so  all  other  irregularities  of 
growth  appear  likewise  to  have  been.  The  form 
is  very  ornamental ;  it  can  be  produced  at  little 
expense ;  and  the  trees  were  well  furnished  with 
fruit  buds.  Suppose  a  tree  to  have  six  shoots, 
let  them  be  tied  at  equal  distances  to  a  hoop 
placed  horizontally,  and  then  shortened  a  few 
inches  above  it,  or  so  as  to  leave  them  a  foot 
or  more  in  length.  From  each  of  these,  two 
shoots  may  be  trained  to  the  outside  of  a  some- 
what wider  hoop  in  the  following  season;  and 
thus  liy  annually  introducing  hoo]is  of  a  width 
proportionately  corresponding  with  the  respec- 
tive diameters  of  the  vase  intended  to  be  imi- 
tated, the  desired  form  will  ultimately  be  pro- 
duced. The  head  of  the  tree  will  be  complete- 
ly balanced ;  and  the  branches  will  be  more 
nearly  equidistant  than  they  could  be  by  any 
other  mode  of  training  asastandard.  I  should 
prefer  wooden  hoops  to  iron  ones.  It  weak,  or 
if  two  or  more  pieces  must  be  employed  for  the 
hoop,  its  circular  form  may  be  preserved  by 
two  small  rods,  secured  diametrically  across  it. 
R.  Thompson,  in  Jour.  Hort.  Soc. 


White  Transparent  Carrot. — The  pernia 
nence  of  certain  types  of  jdants,  commonly 
classed  among  esculents,  is  too  generally  be- 
lieved. This  exaggerated,  not  to  say  errone- 
ous, opinion  has  been  prejudicial  to  all  attempts 
to  improve  particular  vegetables.  In  the  car- 
rot, for  instance,  the  variety  having  a  white  skin 
Would  seem  to  has'e  been  condemned  for  ever; 
except,  perhaps,  the  white  carrot  of  Breteuil. 
Yet  it  is  clear  that  we  do  not  know  the  imiu- 
merable  atmospheric  influences,  as  well  as  those 
which  relate  to  situation  and  soil ;  all  whicli  may 
considerably  ameliorate  or  improve  the  types 
of  our  commonest  vegetables.  With  this  view 
M.  Barthel,  Sen.,  of  Mulhouse,  has  lately  suc- 
ceeded in  raising  a  very  interesting  novelty  in 
the  form  of  a  white  transparent  carrot.  It  only 
resembles  the  other  white  varieties  in  size.  It 
is  distinguished  by  its  roots  being  of  moderate 
length,  its  earliness,  and  especially  by  having 
the  appearance  of  pure  white  wax  overlaid  with 
a  coating  of  shining  varnish.  Its  leaves  aie 
short,  finely  cut,  the  collar  (formed  by  the 
stalks  of  the  leaves)  is  slender  and  inserted  in  a 
deep  cavity.  In  point  of  flavor  it  comes  near 
the  red  varieties,  a  circumstance  that  will  render 
the  transition  between  the  red  and  those  com- 
monly called  white,  more  natural. — Revue  Hort. 


YiNE  Borders. — I  imagine  it  will  be  found 
on  trial,  under  certain  conditions,  that  the  most 
economical  and  convenient  situation  for  the 
roots  to  ramble  in,  is  the  ground-floor  of  the 
structure  in  which  the  vines  are  grown.  And 
now  for  the  "conditions:"  iicat  is  indispensa- 
ble; but  it  must  be  applied  to  the  surface,  and 
not  under  the  roots;  concrete  in  any  shape  is 
not  requii-ed;  neither  is  it  requisite  that  the 
borders  should  rest  on  paving  stones,  sui)ported 
by  walls  of  masonry.  By  applying  heat  to  the 
surface,  this  is  rendered  unnecessary.  AVith 
me  the  roots  penetrate  through  bricks  and  mor- 
tar, in  order  to  obtain  heat,  and  with  heat  I 
could  lead  them  any  where;  therefore  there 
need  be  no  fear  of  their  descending  into  unfa- 
vorable soil;  deep  and  rich  borders  must  be 
avoided;  as  must  also  carrion  or  other  nos- 
trums of  the  day;  the  natural  soil  of  the  Yine 
should  be  imitated  as  far  as  is  practicable ;  and 
tepid  soft  water,  and  clear  liquid  manure,  ap- 
plied freely,  when  necessary.  For  supplying 
heat,  leaves  or  tan  answer  very  well ;  and  if  hot 
water  or  hot  air  is  used,  then  all  may  be  covered 
permanently  with  gravel,  or  anything  most  con- 
venient, for  the  border  will  never  afterwards 
want  to  be  disturbed.  Something  similar  to 
what  I  have  attempted  to  describe  has  been  in 
practice  for  the  last  16  or  18  years;  and  the 
plan  has  produced  fine  crops  every  year,  and 
at  all  seasons  of  the  year;  two  crops  of  grapes 
could  easily  be  taken  from  the  .same  vines  in 
one  year;  but  for  permanent  vines,  that  should 
not  be  put  into  practice. — Gard.  Chron. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Dninrritit  JMm. 


Our  Frontispiece. — We  present  our  read- 
ers, this  month,  with  a  perspective  view  and 
ground  plan  of  a  barn  and  stable  designed  for 
the  villa  residence  of  a  gentleman  on  the  Hud- 
son, whose  whole  establishment  will  be  remark- 
able for  the  completeness,  convenience,  and 
good  effect  of  the  various  buildings,  joined  to 
much  natural  beauty  of  features  of  the  locality 
in  which  they  are  placed. 

This  stable,  is  intended  to  produce  a  pic- 
turesque effect  externally,  and  to  contain  in- 
ternally all  the  convenience  demanded  in  a 
building  of  this  class.  The  central  portion  con- 
tains the  carriage-house,  with  space  for  four  ve- 
hicles, and  a  harness-room  at  the  end  of  it.  On 
one  side  of  this  is  the  stable — the  stalls  5^  feet 
wide,  with  racks  supplied  with  hay  through 
wells,  over  each  rack,  in  the  floor  of  the  hay- 
loft above.  A  flight  of  stairs  leads  from  the  end 
of  the  stable  to  the  hay-loft  above,  and  is  plac- 
ed here,  (and  not  in  the  carriage-house  as  we 
frequently  see  it,)  in  order  to  prevent  any  dust 
from  the  hay-loft  from  finding  its  way  into  the 
carriage-house.  On  the  other  side  of  the  car- 
raige-house  are  a  tool-house  and  work-shop. 

All  the  doors  in  this  stable  slide  upon  iron 
rollers  running  upon  a  piece  of  plain  bar  iron 
above  the  door.  These  iron  rollers  are  attach- 
ed firmly  to  the  door  by  iron  straps,  and  the 
door,  being  thus  suspended,  not  only  runs  much 
more  easily  and  freely  than  if  the  track  were  at 
the  bottom,  as  is  usually  the  case,  but  the  track 
is  not  liable  to  get  clogged  by  dust  or  other 
matters  falling  upon  the  floor.  Besides  this, 
a  sliding  door  in  a  stable,  when  opened,  gives 
the  largest  possible  egress  in  a  given  space,  and 
can  never  stand  in  the  way  to  the  injury  of  hor- 
ses or  carriages  passing  in  or  out  on  either  side. 

The  high-roof  of  this  building  gives  a  good 
deal  of  room  in  the  hay  loft,  and  the  ventilation 
on  the  top  keeps  this  space  cool  and  airy  at  all 
seasons.  The  whole  is  built  of  wood,  the  verti- 
tical  boarding  battened  in  the  ordinary  man- 
ner.   

Suburban  Embellishments. — We  learn, 
with  much  pleasure,  that  an  extensive  and  beau- 
mprovement  is  about  to  be  carried  out  in 
irons  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  by  building 


up  a  part  of  the  suburbs  of  that  city  so  as  to 
combine  the  greatest  amount  of  comfort,  health 
and  beauty,  possible.  A  suitable  piece  of  land 
has  been  selected ;  in  the  center  of  this,  a  park 
of  60  acres  is  to  be  laid  out  and  planted  in  the 
best  manner,  and  around  this  are  to  be  located 
the  various  cottages  and  villas  of  the  sharehol- 
ders in  this  enterprise — not  with  a  few  paltry 
feet  of  frontage,  but  with  space  enough  to  give 
each  residence  those  accessories  of  trees,  shrubs 
and  grounds,  that  bestow  an  air  of  rural  beauty 
upon  such  a  residence,  and  make  the  owner  feel 
that  he  has  a  home,  even  if  it  is  in  the  midst  of 
a  city.  The  project  is  one  that  pleases  us  much, 
and  we  shall  look  forward  to  its  faithful  execu- 
tion as  something  likely  to  have  an  influence  on 
the  taste  of  the  country.  We,  Americans,  lay 
out  and  build  our  cities  generally,  as  though 
there  was  a  fearful  scarcity  of  space  for  the  fu- 
ture destinies  of  the  race  on  tliis  western  con- 
tinent.   

Habits  of  the  Wild  Grape.— I  wish  to 
avail  myself  of  the  subscriber's  privilege,  and 
make  one  or  two  inquiries  in  relation  to  grape 
vines.  Six  or  seven  years  ago  I  took  half  a 
dozen  cuttings  from  the  vine  of  a  native  white 
grape,  in  another  garden,  and  planted  them  in 
my  own  garden ;  three  out  of  four  of  them 
that  lived,  when  they  were  three  years  old, 
produced  an  abundance  of  flowers,  but  did  not 
set  a  single  grape,  and  although  they  would 
blossom  every  year,  they  never  bore  any  grapes  ; 
the  other  one  began  to  blossom  when  the  others 
did,  and  has  always  borne  a  good  crop  of  grapes. 
Now  I  wish  to  inquire  if  cuttings  taken  from  one 
individual  vine,  as  I  think  mine  were,  will  pro- 
duce vines,  some  of  which  will  be  sterile  or 
barren,  and  others  fertile  and  producive;  if  so, 
then,  how  can  I  select  cuttings  from  a  vine  that 
will  be  sure  to  be  productive? 

I  have  thought  that  a  cutting  taken  from  the 
base  of  a  cane  of  vine  of  this  year's  growth, 
might,  in  some  cases,  produce  a  productive 
vine,  while  another  cutting  taken  from  the  top 
of  the  same  cutting,  might  produce  a  sterile 
vine,  yet  I  can  hardly  think  so;  it  would  seem 
to  beat  the   strawberry  in  that  case.     What  do 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


you  think  of  it?  "  Class-Book  of  Botany"  by 
A.  Wood,  says,  "  V.  labrucsa,  like  most  of  the 
North  'American  species,  flowers  are  dioe- 
cious." Prof.  Gkay,  in  "  Botany  of  Northern 
United  States,"  says,  "  Flowers  — polyga- 
mous in  all  the  American  species."  Wm.  Bar- 
tram,  in  a  paper  in  the  "  Domestic  Encyclope- 
dia," by  A.  F.  M.  WiLLicH,  says,  "  All  that 
I  have  observed  in  the  northern  and  eastern 
United  States  are  polygamous,"  yet  seems  to 
think  that  AYalter  might  have  been  right  in 
classing  the  ''  bull-grape"  of  Carolina  as  dioe- 
cious. If  the  grapevine  is  polygamous,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  it  is,  then  perhaps  it  might  sport 
as  I  have  specified  above,  but  if  it  is  dioecious, 
then  that  is  the  end  of  the  subject,  if  I  under- 
stand the  terms  aright,  and  I  must  have  taken 
the  cuttings  from  two  separate  vines.  Ariel 
Chandler.     Concord,  N.  H.,  Dec.  1,  1850. 

Remarks — The  Scuppernong  grape  of  Caro- 
lina is  diacious — but  all  the  other  native  sorts 
so  far  as  we  know  are  polygamous.  It  cannot 
be  denied,  however,  that  our  native  grapes  oc- 
casionally take  an  infertile  or  barren  habit — 
none  of  the  blossoms  setting  fruit,  perhaps 
from  an  imperfection  in  stamens  or  pistils. 
If  you  propagate  from  a  fruitful  plant  howev- 
er, you  rarely  or  ever  fail  in  getting  fruitful  re- 
sults from  the  cuttings  or  grafts.     Ed. 


Camellias — Last  fall  I  purchased  the  follow- 
ing Camellias,  viz:  Wilderii,  Eclipse,  Chand- 
lerii,  Mrs.  Abbey  Wilder,  Double  White,  Dou- 
ble Striped,  Hempsteadii,  Duchess  de  Orleans. 
They  Averc  well  set  with  flower-buds,  and  look- 
ed thrifty.  I  had  one  fine  flower,  a  Double 
White,  but  soon  faded;  the  remaining  buds 
grew  to  about  half  an  inch  long  and  then  drop- 
ped off.  There  was  one  on  Wilderii  that  partly 
opened,  and  then  dropped  off.  Wilderii  made 
a  growth  at  the  same  time  of  about  three  inch- 
es. The  remaining  si.K  went  in  the  same  way. 
I  kept  them  free  from  dust ;  kept  them  moist ; 
also  kept  the  atmosphere  as  moist  as  I  could, 
by  placing  a  flat  pan  on  the  top  of  my  stove,  and 
kept  water  in  it  all  the  time.  (I  burn  wood.)  I 
had  a  table  made  with  a  sink  to  it,  and  kept 
water  in  that  also,  over  which  I  set  my  plants. 
The  thermometer  has  stood  from  60°  to  70°, 
and  never  fallen  below  4-5*'.  I  have  used  rain 
water  on  them.  AVhat  must  be  done  to  secure 
good  blossoms  another  season?    Please  answer 


the  above  next  month,  in  your  valuable  Jour- 
nal, and  it  will  confer  a  great  favor  on  an  old 
subscriber.  M.  E.  Irwin.  Southbridge,  Jan. 
7,  1851. 

The  Camellia  likes  plenty  of  fresh  air,  and 
plenty  of  fresh  air  is  a  thing  not  often  seen  in 
a  room  that  is  heated  by  a  stove  to  60°  or  70°. 
The  buds  probably  fell  from  the  effects  of  the 
vitiated  air.  If  you  must  use  a  stove,  and  wish 
hea'.thy  plants,  you  must  enclose  a  space  with 
glass,  making  a  sort  of  double  window,  large 
enough  to  hold  your  plants.  It  should  have 
a  wi.dow  opening  into  the  room,  and  which  can 
be  shut  at  times  to  keep  out  its  excessive  heat. 
The  crevices  in  the  outside  window,  will  let  in 
air,  and  thus  your  little  plant  cabinet  can  be  re- 
gulated in  temperature,  he,  so  as  to  promote 
growth  and  bloom  much  more  readily  than  when 
the  plants  are  in  the  room  itself.     Ed. 


Importation  and  Exportation  of  Fruit. — 
Pears  are  now  selling  at  John  Tayler's,  (con- 
fectioner,) in  Broadway,  New- York,  which 
were  imported  by  the  steamer  from  France. 
They  are  labelled  Bon  Chretien  and  Poire  de 
Libra.  They  are  not  of  very  good  quality,  and 
may  be  the  Spanish  Bon  Chretien  and  common 
Pound  Pear.  They  are  sold  on  the  counter  at 
12^  cents  each.  They  came  packed  in  straw, 
and  were  fourteen  days  on  the  passage.  I  was 
told  that  a  "  good  many"  decayed,  and  there 
was  not  much  made  by  the  speculation. 

If  our  home  supply  of  winter  pears  should 
ever  exceed  the  home  demand,  there  Avill  be  no 
doubt  of  the  practicability  of  exporting  them. 
But  very  few  persons  will  pay  12  5  cents  here 
for  any  sort  of  pear,  and  then  only  for  a  short 
time,  when  there  might  be  a  scarcity  of  any 
fresh  fruit.  But  it  is  a  standing  retail  price  in 
England,  at  which  large  quantities  may  be  sold. 
The  usual  quotation  for  pears  in  the  Covent 
Garden  Market  Report,  in  winter,  is  "  4  to  12s. 
a  dozen"— that  is  $1  to  $3.  I  saw  i)ears,  (Lou- 
ise Bonne  of  Jersey,  Duchesse  d'^ngoulcme, 
and  Glout  Morceau,)  brought  from  France, 
selling  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  first  of  Oc- 
tober, 18.50,  at  Q>d—(\2\  cts.)  each.  At  the 
same  time  and  places,  the  price  of  peaches  was 
.3s  to  4s  a  pound — G  to  8  cents  each.  They  were 
of  what  we  should  call  in  New- York,  middl 
size  and  quality.    Apples  at  the  same  time 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


4  to  8  cents  a  pound — small  Ribstone  Pippins 
4  cents  each,  small  nectarines,  (very  poor,)  4 
cents  each.  Yours.  O.  Southside.  Staten- 
Island,  Jan.,  1851. 


Construction  of  Vineries. — The  increase 
of  glass  structures  for  growing  the  foreign 
grape,  has  been  very  great  within  the  last  three 
years — especially  in  the  suburbs  of  our  three 
largest  cities.  Now  that  it  is  prettey  well  set- 
tied  that  the  fbreign  grape  cannot  be  relied  on 
out  of  doors,  and  that  it  will  always  ripen  per- 
fectly with  the  mere  shelter  of  glass,  unaided 
by  fire  heat,  almost  every  amateur  who  can  af- 
ford it,  is  attempting  the  production  of  this  de- 
licious fruit  under  glass.  The  market  garden- 
ers are  not  behind-hand  in  the  matter,  and  the 
markets  of  New-York,  Boston  and  Philadel- 
phia, are  now  supplied  with  Black  Hamburghs 
and  Muscats  of  as  fine  quality,  and  at  lower 
prices  than  in  London;  and  it  is  not  impossible 
that  they  may  soon  become  as  cheap  as  in  Pa- 
ris. If  some  of  our  manufacturers,  who  use 
steam  power,  knew  how  to  apply  their  waste 
steam  to  the  warming  of  forcing  houses,  we 
might  have  an  abundance  of  grapes  in  our  mar- 
ket two  or  three  months  earlier  than  they 
usually  ripen  in  cold  vineries. 

TYe  shall  soon  give,  perhaps  in  our  next  No., 
some  further  plans  and  details  for  the  construc- 
tion of  vineries  of  moderate  size. 


Bees — Queries. ^-There  is  a  subject  connec- 
ted with  Horticulture  that  you  do  not  treat  of — 
the  Honey  Bee.  The  directions  in  the  Treati- 
ses on  Bee  Culture,  for  making  artificial  swarms, 
I  have  not  as  yet  been  able  to  carry  out  in  prac- 
tice. 

First.  Can  you  or  any  of  your  correspon- 
dents, say  from  experience,  whether  a  Queen 
can  be  raised  from  a  worker  egg  or  larva? 

Second.  Will  merely  closing  the  passage  fi-om 
one  part  of  the  hive  to  another,  at  the  proper 
season,  cause  them  to  raise  a  queen  in  that 
portion  which  has  none,  (as  some  assert,)  or  is 
it  necessary  that  the  part  containing  the  queen 
should  be  removed? 

Third.  If  it  is  necessary  to  remove  that  part 
of  the  hive,  how  can  it  be  ascertained,  (for  here 
practical  difficulty,)  which  part  contains 
queen? 


I  have  kept  bees  for  several  years,  and  have 
watched  them  at  their  labors  with  much  inte- 
rest, both  by  day  and  by  night.  I  have  seen 
them  making  comb  at  mid-night,  and  even  later, 
but  have  never  yet  been  able  to  increase  my 
stock,  as  it  is  not  easy  to  hive  a  swarm  in  a 
city. 

One  thing  is  certain,  they  pertinaciously  ad- 
here to  their  old  plan  of  working,  and  cannot 
be  made  to  comprehend  the  value  of  any  improve- 
ment in  a  hive,  that  interferes  with  tlieir  ancient 
usages,  however  much  it  may  be  lauded  by  the 
inventor. 

In  your  last  number  is  an  article  on  grape- 
vines, in  which  grafting  is  mentioned.  In  what 
way  can  thnt  be  done? 

The  bleeding  of  the  vine  in  the  spring  is  such 
an  obstacle  as  to  prevent  its  success  with  me. 
On  one  occasion  a  piece  of  India-rubber  was 
tied  around  a  cut,  and  seemed  eflJcctual  at  first, 
but  the  sap  after  a  time  stretched  it  to  the  size 
of  a  hen's  egg,  and  then  burst  it. 

Verbenas. — Last  fiill  I  planted  a  number  of 
newly  rooted  plants  in  a  glass-house  without 
any  fire  heat.  The  plants  are  well  sheltered 
from  the  heat  of  the  sun  and  from  cold,  by  dead 
stalks  cut  from  tlie  garden.  It  has  frozen  very 
hard  in  the  house  a  number  of  times,  yet  the 
Verbenas  look  well,  and  are  in  a  growing  state. 

Sicily  Sumac  is  an  article  largely  used,  and 
worth  double  the  price  of  American  Siimac. 
Would  it  not  be  worth  raising  as  a  crop  on  poor 
or  rocky  land,  that  is  worth  but  little  for  other 
purposes?  A  Subscriber.  Philidelphia,  Jan. 
6,  1851. 

Answers — As  we  know  very  little  of  the 
treatment  of  bees,  we  must  beg  some  of  our 
correspondents  to  reply  to  that  portion  of  our 
correspondent's  inquiries. 

Grafting  the  vine  is  easily  performed  in  the 
usual  cleft  manner,  (i.  e.,  by  splitting  the  stock 
and  inserting  the  bottom  of  the  scion  as  a 
wedge) — but  the  scions  should  be  cut  in  winter 
or  early  spring,  and  kept  in  the  cellar,  in  damp 
earth,  till  the  buds,  on  the  stock  to  be  grafted, 
are  bursting;  then  graft,  and  cover  the  wound 
with  grafting  clay.  If  the  stock  to  be  grafted 
can  be  cut  off  below  the  surface  of  the  graft, 
the  grafts  can  be  inserted  at  any  time  during 
the  grafting  season — say  middle  of  Mar 
middle  of  April,  about  Philadelphia 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


case  no  grafting  clay  will  be  needed,  the  soil 
being  drawn  completely  about  the  scion. 

Freshly  burned  plaster — such  as  is  used  by 
builders  in  making  hard-finished  walls — is  the 
best  thing  to  stop  the  bleeding  of  vines — but 
unless  a  very  large  limb  has  been  cut  off,  we  do 
not  look  upon  bleeding  as  doing  any  harm 
whatever.     Ed.         

Ohio  mineral  Paint. — ^Ye  have  been  a  little 
skeptical  about  the  advantage  claimed  for  this 
paint,  or  at  least  have  felt  that  time  was 
needed  before  any  satisfactory  judgment  could 
be  passed  upon  it.  We  have  much  pleasure 
however  in  bearing  witness  to  an  instance  of  its 
excellence  lately,  as  a  surface  covering  for 
metal  roofs,  and  its  superiority  to  the  paints  in 
common  use  for  that  purpose.  We  saw  the 
roof  of  a  building  covered  with  tin,  and  used 
for  a  purpose  peculiarly  calculated  to  try  any 
material  of  this  sort,  since  it  is  constantly  ex- 
posed to  great  variations  of  temperature — tho 
space  under  it  being  alternately  heated  and 
and  cooled — thus  expanding  and  contracting 
the  metal  beyond  what  is  usually  the  case  in 
our  severe  climate.  The  proprietor  had  tried 
various  modes  of  making  it  tight  without  suc- 
cess, but  finally  covered  with  two  coats  of 
Blake's  Paint.  This  was  done  two  years  ago, 
and  since  that  time  it  has  never  given  the  least 
trouble.  Decayed  and  defective  gutters  first 
lined  with  muslin,  and  then  thoroughly  painted 
with  it  at  the  same  time,  have  also  remained 
perfectly  water-tight.  A  single  coat — as  often 
used  is  not  suflicient — two  coats  are  necessary 
to  answer  the  purpose,  and  three  coats  make  a 
strong  and  lasting  coat  of  cement,  unalterable 
by  sun  or  rain. 


Quinces  on  Thorns. — Some  of  the  most 
beautiful  Quinces  we  have  seen  the  past  au- 
tumn, were  grown  upon  the  common  white 
thorn,  so  abundant  in  many  of  the  fields  in  the 
country,  that  they  seem  quite  a  nuisance, 
There  is  no  mistake  in  tho  matter,  for  we  saw 
the  same  quinces  just  after  they  had  formed, 
and  watched  them  every  time  we  passed  that 
way,  (which  was  often  enough,)  till  their  matu- 
rity, when  they  were  large,  fkir,  possessed  of 
the  golden  beauty  and  veritable  odor  of  the 
Quince,  Their  taste,  too,  was  that  of  the 
Quince,  and  they  could  be  nothing  else. 


The  trees  on  which  they  grew  were  very  beau 
tiful,  the  stocks  being  from  I  of  an  inch  to  1^ 
inches  in  diameter,  and  grafted  about  two  feet 
from  the  ground.  The  grafts  were  from  two  to 
four  feet  in  length,  and  were  borne  down  with 
rich  golden  fruit. 

The  advantages  of  raising  Quinces  on  thorns, 
are  that  they  assume  more  of  the  character  of 
trees,  than  Quince  bushes  will  do  without  fre- 
quent pruning.  Second,  the  stocks  are  hardy, 
being  natives  of  our  poorest  and  most  exposed 
soils.  Third,  they  are  not  subject  to  the  borer 
and  other  insects,  as  the  Quince  has  proved  it- 
self to  be.  There  are  thousands  of  thorn  bush- 
es in  our  county,  which  are  now  only  eye-sores 
to  the  beholder,  and  nuisances  to  the  landhold- 
er, which  by  grafting  in  this  way  may  become 
objects  of  great  beauty,  and  highly  productive 
value.  "W.Bacon.  Richmond,  Mass.  Jan.  7, 
1851.  

Stoves  and  Ventilation. — Mr.  Downing's 
leader,  in  the  Nov.  number  of  the  Horticultur- 
ist, ' '  Tlie  Favorite  Poison  of  America,"  is  how- 
ever, the  article  which  is  most  attractive,  as 
most  coincident  with  my  own  notions:  for  it  I 
feel  constrained  to  extend  a  hand  across  lake 
and  mountain,  to  give  him  the  grip  of  fellow- 
ship. You  are  right,  Mr.  Downing — wage  war 
on  the  stoves.  Oh,  that  we  had  some  chivalrous 
Knight,  armed  with  battle-ax  and  mace,  ready 
to  march  across  every  valley  and  hill  of  the 
country,  through  every  street  and  alley  of  our 
cities,  destroying,  as  he  went,  those  villainous 
stoves,  the  Demons  of  the  Castle  of  Hypochon- 
driasis, as  good  old  .John  Bunyan  would  proba- 
bly have  called  them,  had  he  lived  in  this  de- 
generate age  of  pale  faces  and  hot  stove  rooms. 
AVith  such  a  destroying  champion  of  our  cause 
abroad,  ah,  what  music  would  resound  in  our 
ears,  from  kitchin  and  cellar,  from  parlor  and 
chamber,  as  the  stalwart  blows  fell  upon  "  air- 
tight" and  "  ten-plate,"  cooking-stove,  coal- 
range  and  furnace!  Who  would  not  sue  for  the 
honor  of  Knight-erranty  in  such  a  cause,  and 
believe  that  he  could  still  do  his  country  some 
good  service  under  such  a  leader! 

In  serious  truth,  we  fear  the  worst  effects 
ft'om  the  deleterious  influences  pointed  out  by 
Mr,  Downing.  It  is  a  growing  evil,  far  more 
serious  in  the  Eastern  States  than  we  in  the 
West  can  well  imagine.  In  my  visits  to  an  east- 
ern city,  the  loss  of  the  open  fires  is  everywhere 
oppressively  felt — ^furnaces,  furnaces,  nothing 
but  furnaces— no  bright,  cheerful  fires  to  enliven 
the  scene — ^all  dull  and  gloomy,  exhausted  and 
exhausting,  reminding  one  of  something  as  dif- 
ferent as  possible  from  what  you  gardeners  call 
a  damp  stove— ^I  believe-=-a  something,  the  ex- 
istence of  which  is  problematical,  and  which, 
for  vegetation,  would  probably  be  nonsensical — 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


a  dry  stove— v;h\c\\  I  sincerely  hope   is  not  yet 
invented,  except  to  liatch  chickens. 

In  the  parlors  of  my  eastern  friends,  there 
were  elegant  pictures  and  beautiful  flowers,  and 
devoted  lovers  of  these  specimens  of  the  fine 
arts;  but  they  had  discarded  that  which  is  far 
more  beautiful  than  pictures  or  flowers,  the 
bright,  breathing,  sparkling,  crackling,  o-pen 
wood  fire.  What  picture,  by  KubensorGuido, 
can  equal  it  in  its  colors?  what  flower,  not  even 
the  Victoria  regia,  can  compare  with  its  life 
and  varying  change?  Still,  amid  all  the  dry 
heat  that  every  wliere  prevailed,  there  was  one 
dear  old  lady,  who  was  not  to  be  turned,  e'en 
by  fashion's  irresistible  force,  from  the  gratifica- 
tion of  her  more  refined  and  less  highly  educa- 
ted taste,  but  who  kept  the  old  open  wood  fire, 
with  straight  sticks,  of  dry  hickory,  the  pic- 
ture of  old  fashioned  neatness  and  comfort,  the 
hearth  neatly  swept,  and  the  andirons  with  their 
brass  balls  burnished  as  brightly  as  tliough  they 
were  representing  the  satellites  of  Jupiter. 
Alas!  where  now  are  those  nice  brasses? — ban- 
ished from  the  parlor.  I  loved  this  old  lady 
for  her  quaint  persistance  in  the  olden  ways — it 
struck  a  chord  of  sympathy  in  my  own  heart, 
which  vibrates  afresh  as  I  sit  here  now,  in  front 
of  a  blazing  fire.  The  frost  has  wrapped  all 
nature,  without,  in  bis  cerements  of  death;  the 
wind  sings  his  mournful  requiem  of  summer 
gone,  and  the  very  fallen  leaves  rustle  as  they 
drift  closer  and  closer  together  in  the  shelter 
of  some  little  shrub  in  every  sheltered  nook; 
but  within,  all  is  cheeiful  and  gay — the  fire 
crackles  and  rejoices,  and  the  cricket  on  the 
hearth  comes  forth  with  his  merry  and  content- 
ed notes.  Hearths,  too ;  what  are  to  become 
of  them  and  their  genial  associations  of  social 
ties  and  social  joys!  arc  they  all  to  be  swept 
away?  and  for  what?  What  new  happiness  have 
you  with  which  to  replace  them?  When  far 
away  from  home,  where  does  fancy  picture  dear 
ones? — surely  around  the  blazing  fire.  When 
memory  calls  up  scenes  of  early  childhood,  are 
they  not  of  the  same  place,  whence  we  looked 
up  into  the  faces  of  dear  parents?  Yes, 
the  recollections  of  boyhood  and  manhood  are 
all  connected  most  pleasantly  together  at  this 
spot,  and  the  hearth-stone  becomes  sacred  to 
us  all — we  love  it,  we  cherish  it,  and,  if  needs 
be,  Ave  would  fight  for  it. 

Good  friends,  in  earnest  truth,  beware  how 
you  cast  from  you  one  single  source  of  happi- 
ness, one  single  cause  of  joy.  We  have  too 
little  of  either  in  this  weary  life  of  disappoint- 
ments, to  be  reckless  of  the  one  or  of  the  other. 
Economy  and  neat  housekeeping  are  most  ex- 
cellent good  things,  and  much  to  be  desired; 
but  the  pleasures  of  a  refining  joy  and  the  joy- 
ousness  of  pure  air  and  consequent  good  health 
are  infinitely  more  to  bo  treasured.  Then 
beat  down  your  stoves,  brighten  up  your  cheer, 
ful  hearth-stones,  and  you  will  find  within  your 
own  family  circle  a  well-spring  of  constant  hap- 
piness.—  West.  Hart.  Review. 


Analysis  of  the  Peach. — According  to 
promise,  I  send  you  for  publication,  an  analysis 
of  the  ashes  of  three  of  our  most  valuable  sorts 
of  the  Peach,  viz :  of  the  Yellow  Rareripe,  Mor- 
ris Red  Rareripe  and  Morrisania  Pound .  I  took 
about  equal  quantities  of  limbs  and  twigs  of 
these  three  kinds,  from  healthy  trees,  burned 
them  carefully  and  with  a  moderate  heat,  hav- 
ing first  thoroughly  dried  them.  They  lost  in 
drying  about  44  per  cent  of  their  weight,  of 
water.  The  branches  when  dried  yielded  about 
one-thirty-sixth  part  of  their  weight,  in   aslies. 

115  grains  of  Ash  gave  of  Charcoal  and  Sand 3. ISO 

do  of  Silica 1.4&0 

do  of  peroxide  of  Iron 9.30 

do  of  peroxide  ©f  Manganese.  .. .         &00 

do  of  Lniie 31 .060 

do  of  Magnesia 7.(i52 

do  of  Polash 12. MS 

do  of  Soda 2.^77 

do  of  Phosphoric  Acid 1G.752 

do  of  Sulpliuric      do 1 .  320 

do  of  Chlorine 422 

do  of  Carbonic  Acid S'^.-OSO 

111.188 

The  above  are  the  results  separately  astound 
by  analysis,  with  a  loss  of  three  grains  and 
about  eight-tenths  of  a  grain,  to  be  added 
to  the  above  to  make  up  the  115  grains, 
thus—  111.188 

Loss,  3.812 

115.000 
It  is  most  useful  to  unite  several  of  these  con- 
stituents in  their  combining  proportions,  the 
Chlorine  to  its  proportion  of  Sodium;  the  Lime 
to  its  Phosphoric  acid;  Sulphuric  acid  and  Pe- 
roxide of  Iron.  The  numbers  will  then  be  ar- 
ranged thus: — 

Charcoal  and  Sand S.lgO 

Silica 1  .<(eO 

Perphosphale  of  Iron 2.174 

Potash 12  ..5il5 

Soda 2.000 

Sulphate  of  Lime 2.258 

Lime 23.!1.'51 

Phosphate  of  Lime 21  .fiS)9 

Magnesia 7.052 

Peroxide  of  Manganese 8(10 

Chloride  of  Sodium 699 

Carbonic  Acid 33 .  350 

111.188 
Loss  in  analysis 3.812 

115. OCO 

The  peach  trees  grew  on  a  lime-stone  soil, 
that  had  been  but  little  tilled,  and  had  been 
well  manured.  These  facts  may  account  for 
the  abundance  of  Lime  in  their  composition. 
Analysis  shows  that  even  the  wood  of  our  fine 
fruits,  for  instance,  thePear,  Peach,  Apple  and 
Grapevine,  contain  a  much  larger  amount  of 
Phosphates,  than  do  our  forest  and  ornamental 
trees.  The  Peach  comes  next  to  the  Pear  in 
this  respect.  Truly  yours,  B.  Kirtland. 
Poland,  Ohio,  Dec.  14.     To  Prof.  Kirtland. 

Horticultural  Exhibition  at  Salem 
Sept.  1850— The  hall  was  beautifully  decor 


the  committee  being  assisted  in  this  portion  of 
their  duties  by  the  refined  t.aste  of  the  ladies 
who  so  Icindly  volunteered  their  aid  on  this  oc- 
casion. The  large  and  elegant  evergreen  arbor 
opposite  the  entrance,  formed  a  very  conspicu- 
ous object,  presenting  a  great  variety  of  wild 
flowers  tastefully  grouped  togetlier;  and  sup- 
ported by  two  immense  cornucopiaj,  pouring 
forth  their  abundant  treasures — the  one,  of 
vegetable  productions,  and  the  other  of  fruits 
in  great  vari^'ty.  Over  the  center  door  was  a 
tablet  contaiuing  the  name  of  Pomona,  sur- 
rounded with  a  rich  border  of  fruits.  The 
eastern  door  was  surmounted  with  a  similar 
tablet,  containing  the  name  of  Ceres,  with  a 
chaste  wreathing  of  grains  and  grasses;  while 
Flora  occupied  a  similar  jjosition  over  the 
western  door,  decked  with  a  gorgeous  array  of 
flowers.  Other  decorations  adorned  the  win- 
dows, and  bouquets  and  vases  of  flowers  in 
abundance  were  arranged  on  the  tables,  and 
around  the  hall. 

Among  the  curiosities  that  attracted  much 
attention,  were  pears  from  the  original  Endicott 
pear  tree  in  Dauvers,  which  tradition  says  was 
planted  in  1630;  some  fine  looking  Orange 
pears,  from  a  tree  two  hundred  and  ten  years 
old  on  the  estate  of  Capt.  "William  Allen,  in 
Hardy  street:  also,  apples  from  a  tree  planted 
by  Peregrine  White,  the  first  male  child  born 
in  New  England,  on  the  flirm  originally  settled 
and  subdued  by  him  in  Marshfield.  The  flirm 
is  now  occupied  and  owned  by  his  direct  de- 
scendants, by  one  of  whom.  Miss  Sybil  White, 
the  apples  were  sent  to  Dr.  Merriam,  of  Tops- 
field.  These  relics  of  past  ages  are  yet  pro- 
ductive, and  their  fruits  of  no  little  curiosity. 

The  (lisplay  of  Fruit  was  very  fine,  especial- 
ly that  of  Pears,  which,  for  their  variety, 
beauty,  and  perfection  may  well  challenge  com- 
parison with  any  similar  exhibition  of  this  sea- 
sou.  Two  thousand  dishes  or  baskets  of  fruit 
were  placed  upon  the  tables,  consisting,  as  will 
appear  from  the  list,  of  sis.  hundred  and  seven- 
ty varieties,  viz:  of  Pears,  two  hundred  and 
ninety  with  names,  eight  seedlings  and  twenty- 
nine  unknown — total, three  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven;  of  Apples,  one  hundred  and  fifty-one 
with  names,  seven  seedlings,  and  twenty-three 
unknown — total,  one  hundred  and  eighty-one; 
of  Peaches,  forty  with  names,  thirty-four  seed- 
lings, eight  unknown — total,  eighty-two;  of 
Plums,  nineteen  with  names,  three  seedlings, 
one  unknown — twenty-three;  of  Grapes,  thirty- 
tliroe  with  names,  eight  native  seedlings — total, 
forty-one ;  of  Quinces,  Nectarines,  Figs,  and 
Melons,  three  each;  of  Oranges,  Lemons,  Eu- 
ropean Walnuts,  and  Cornelian  Cherries,  one 
each. 

The  specimen  flowers  were  arranged  on  stands 
which  occupied  the  center  of  the  hall,  and  com- 
prised a  goodly  array  of  Dahlias,  Roses,  Asters, 
tec.  Tlio  Dahlias  were  the  most  prominent  in 
variety  and  the  gorgeousness  of  the  flow- 
A  stand  from  Lawrence,  brought  in  on 
second  day,  contained  the  finest  specimens 


in  the  hall.  The  Rose,  which,  with  its  hybrid 
Perpetuals,  Noisettes,  and  Bourbons,  is  begin- 
ning to  extend  the  season  of  its  lovely  and  fra- 
grant blooms  during  the  autumnal  months, 
was  well  represented.  The  Asters,  Stocks,  and 
Coxcombs  were  also  conspicuous.  A  stand  of 
Pansies,  and  also  a  stand  of  Phloxes,  Antirrhi- 
num in  varieties,  (Enothera,  Aconitum,  Gail- 
lardia,  Tradescantia,  Trollius,  &c.,  added  much 
to  the  interest  of  the  exhibition. 

A  few  pot  plants  were  placed  on  the  platform 
in  front  of  the  arbor,  consisting  of  Acliimenes, 
Gloxinias,  Fuchsias,  &c.,  whose  showy  and 
splendid  flowers  formed  a  striking  contrast  with 
the  native  denizens  of  our  fields  and  meadows, 
grouped  in  the  rear. 

The  vegetables,  &c.  were  arranged  in  the 
anterooms.  The  display,  although  not  large, 
was  very  interesting,  and  consisted  of  fine 
specimens  of  Squashes,  Potatoes,  Onions,  &c. 
In  this  department  were  placed  the  Cereals — 
as  varieties  of  Corn,  "Wheat,  he.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  the  last  named  grain  is  said  by  the  gen- 
tlemen who  exhibited  specimens,  to  have  been 
successful;  and  it  Is  greatly  to  be  desired  tliat 
further  experiments  should  be  tried  by  our 
agriculturists,  to  test  fully  the  advantage  of  Its 
more  general  Introduction. — Report  of  Com. 


Camellias. — D.  B.  Williams.  Procure  the 
following  ten  sorts:  Double  White,  Double 
variegated.  Eclipse,  "Wllderll,Elcgans,  Duchess 
of  Orleans,  Imbrlcata,  Sacconova,  Mrs.  Abbey 
Wilder,  Dunlap's  Americana.  You  can  pro- 
cure young  stocks  for  inarching  of  any  of  the 
large  Camellia  growers  about  New- York  or 
Philadelphia. 

Tree  Seeds. — G.  C.  Merrifidd,  (Mlshawa- 
ka,  la.)  Seeds  of  Pines,  Hemlock,  and  most 
other  coniferous  trees,  should  be  gathered  In 
autumn;  but  many  of  them  do  not  drop  the 
seeds  from  the  cones  till  spring,  and  may  there- 
fore be  gathered  soon.  If  the  cones  will  not 
open  readily,  lay  them  before  the  fire  for  an 
hour  or  two.  Mix  the  seeds  with  sand.  If  you 
cannot  plant  them  at  once.  As  soon  as  the 
spring  opens,  make  a  bed  on  the  north  side  of  a 
fence,  where  it  will  be  shaded  the  greatest  part 
of  the  daj';  the  bed  should  be  composed  of  one- 
third  sand,  one-third  good  loam  and  one-third 
light  leaf  mould  from  the  woods.  Plant  the 
seeds  in  drills,  and  cover  the  bed  with  a  little 
old  spent  tan  or  leaf  mould  to  keep  it  light  and 
moist.  Besides  that,  it  should  be  wate 
gularly  every  evening  in  dry  summer  we 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


to  prevent  the  young  seedlings  from  dying  off. 
We  think  it  doubtful  if  you  could  procure  these 
tree  seeds  now:  the  only  dealers  that  we  know 
are  BuLst  of  Pliiladelphia  and  Thorburn  of  JST. 
Y.;  and  as  they  collect  native  seeds  chiefly  for 
exportation,  they  usually  ship  all  they  have 
before  this  time.  Foreign  evergreen  tree  seeds 
are  not,  to  our  knowledge,  kept  for  sale  here. 

Roses.— IF.  C.  B.,  (Buffalo.)  You  will  find 
Malmaison,Solfaterre,  Devoniensis  and  Chroma- 
tella,  free  bloomers  in  winter,  if  you  give  them 
plenty  of  room,  and  allow  them  to  make  long 
shoots.  Water  with  liquid  manure  occasionally 
when  they  are  in  full  growth.  S.  C.  M.  The 
best  rose  for  stocks  is  Rosa  Mannetti,  and  if 
you  cannot  get  this,  use  the  common  Boursault, 
(climber  ;)both  these  growreadily  from  cuttings. 

Cuttings.— D.  ft.  K.,  (Roxboro',  Pa.)  To 
propagate  the  Arbor- vitea  from  cuttings,  sink  a 
square  or  oblong  frame  fitted  with  lights  like  a 
hot-bed,  on  the  shady  side  of  a  fence  or  building. 
Take  out  the  soil  for  6  inches.  Fill  up  its  place 
with  a  mixtui-e  of  fine  sand  and  good  garden 
soil,  one-fourth  of  the  latter  to  three-fourths 
of  the  former;  make  the  cuttings  of  the  arbor- 
vitea  in  the  usual  way — about  4  or  5  inches 
long — cutting  off  the  bottom  of  each,  square 
and  smooth.  Plant  the  frame  full  of  these 
cuttings — about  2  inches  apart,  and  press  or 
pack  the  earth  SiS  firmly  as  possible  about  the 
cuttings.  Water  them,  and  put  the  glass  on 
the  frame.  This  should  be  done  in  April,  and 
the  watering  must  be  kept  up  all  the  season — 
the  lights  being  taken  off  at  sunset  and  put  on 
an  hour  after  sunrise  every  day.  The  ever- 
green Euonymus  will  grow  very  readily  from 
cuttings  planted  in  a  shaded  place,  or  in  a  pot 
placed  in  a  frame  or  green-house. 

Mandre. — ^.  P.,  (Baltimore.)  If  your 
ground  is  free  from  frost,  dig  in  a  heavy  dressing 
of  the  fresh  stable  manure — the  more  litter  the 
better — all  the  gasses  will  be  taken  up  by  the 
soil,  which  will  also  be  made  much  lighter  by 
it.  ^/i  £n5tti?-er,  (Cleveland,  0.)  Coal  ashes 
are  very  valuable  on  heavy  soils,  aiding  me- 
chanically, making  them  lighter.  They  are 
also  good  manure  for  some  things,  viz:  Indian 
corn,  cherry  trees,  and  grapevines,  and  should 
never  be  thrown  away  as  useless.  Thomas  Bell. 
ashes— the  residuum  of  lime-kilns  burned 
ood — are  much  cheaper  and  far  better 


manure  for  your  fruit  garden  than  the  pure 
lime — because  they  contain  potash  also. 

Gkapes.— IF.  Riggs,  (New- York.)  Neither 
the  Ohio  nor  the  Herbemont,  are  equal  to  the 
Elsingburgh  as  table  grapes  in  the  climate  of 
New- York.  The  Isabella  is  a  better  grape  here 
than  in  Ohio;  the  Catawba,  except  in  the  warm- 
er parts  of  New  York,  not  quite  so  good. 
The  latter  is  the  only  jjrofitable  wine  grape  yet 
tested  in  the  United  States. 

FiEE  Blight. — W.  Ashley,  We  cannot  give 
you  any  newer  light  as  to  the  theory  of  this 
disease  than  you  will  find  in  our  former  pages. 
There  is,  doubtless,  more  speculation  than  wis- 
dom in  the  books  on  this  subject.  There  can 
be  but  little  dispute,  however,  that  one  way  or 
other  pears  trees  (at  least  the  improved  sorts,) 
are  more  susceptible  to  great  atmospheric 
changes  than  other  hardy  fruits.  The  remedy 
is  to  shield  the  most  vulnerable  points  from  ex- 
cessive heat  or  cold.  Mulch  the  ground,  and 
sheath  the  stems — whenever  they  are  not  shel- 
tered by  the  leaves,  with  straw.  This — so  far 
as  we  have  observed — works  well  in  preserving 
the  trees  in  sound  health. 

Arboriculture. — A  Trenton  Subscriber. 
The  tree  you  describe,  is  the  Georgia  Bark — 
Pinckneya  pubens — one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  least  cultivated  of  all  our  southern  trees.  The 
only  fine  specimen  we  ever  saw,  cultivated,  was 
one  in  the  old  nursery  grounds,  (now  we  think 
destroj^ed,)  of  the  Messi-s.  Landreth,  Philadel- 
phia. It  was  about  18  or  20  feet  high,  and 
very  beautiful,  in  its  large  bracts  or  blossoms. 
It  will  not  stand  in  New-England,  but  should 
do  so  with  you,  and  is  worthy  of  your  attention. 

Bulbs  in  Winter. — Emily.  The  waterneed 
not  be  changed  ofteuer  than  twice  aweek.  Do  not 
take  the  roots  out  of  the  glass — but  raise  the  bulb 
slightly  and  pour  the  water  off.  A  small  pinch 
of  salt  added  to  the  water  every  other  time,  will 
augment  the  vigor  and  give  fine  color  to  the 
plants :  but  be  careful  that  the  pinch  is  verysmall. 
Verbenas. — Ti/ro,  (New-London, Ct.)  If  you 
find  diflnculty  in  wintering  these  in  your  cool 
house,  keep  them  dry — just  moist  enough  to 
maintain  verdure  during  the  cold  weather.  They 
will  bear  quite  severe  frost  with  this  treatment — 
while  if  kept  watered  and  growing  in  the  usual 
way,  they  perish  and  damp  off  with 
cold. 


t.VDC"^''"' 


The  Vinery  at  Medary,  near  Philadelphia. 


Hoit:    Maroli.  18.51. 


b  ^   \  >l  ^ 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


in  OUNTRY  places  that  may  properly  be  called  ornamental,  are  increasing  so  fast, 
especially  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  large  cities,  that  a  word  or  two  more,  touch- 
ing their  treatment,  will  not  be  looked  upon  as  out  of  place  here. 

All  our  country  residences  may  readily  be  divided  into  two  classes.  The  first  and 
largest  class,  is  the  suburban  place  of  from  five  to  twenty  or  thirty  acres  ;  the  second 
is  the  country-seat,  properly  so  called,  which  consists  of  from  30  to  500  or  more  acres. 

In  all  suburban  residences,  from  the  limited  extent  of  ground,  and  the  desire  to  get 
the  utmost  beauty  from  it,  the  whole,  or  at  least  a  large  part  of  the  ornamental  portion, 
must  be  considei'ed  only  as  pleasure-grounds — a  term  used  to  denote  a  garden  scene, 
consisting  of  trees,  shrubs  and  flowers,  generally  upon  a  basis  of  laM'n,  laid  out  with 
walks  in  different  styles,  and  kept  in  the  highest  order.  The  aim  in  this  kind  of  resi- 
dence, is  to  produce  the  greatest  possible  variety  within  a  given  space,  and  to  attain 
the  utmost  beauty  of  gardening  as  an  art,  by  the  highest  keeping  and  cultiu-e  which 
the  means  of  the  proprietor  will  permit. 

Of  this  kind  of  pleasure-ground  residence,  we  have  numberless  excellent  examples — 
and  perhaps  nowhere  more  admirable  specimens  than  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston. 
Both  in  design  and  execution,  these  little  places  will,  at  the  present  moment,  bear  very 
favorable  comparison  with  many  in  older  countries.  The  practical  management  of  such 
places  is  also  very  well  understood,  and  they  need  no  especial  mention  in  these  remarks. 

But  in  the  larger  country  places,  there  are  ten  instances  of  failure  for  one  of  suc- 
cess. This  is  not  owing  to  the  want  of  natural  beauty,  for  the  sites  are  picturesque, 
the  surface  varied,  and  the  woods  and  plantations  excellent.  The  failm-e  consists,  for 
the  most  part,  in  a  certain  incongruity  and  want  of  distinct  character  in  the  treatment 
place  as  a  whole.  They  are  too  large  to  be  kept  in  order  as  pleasure-gr 
they  are  not  laid  out  or  treated  as  parks.     The  grass  which  stretches  on  all 


March  1,  1851. 


No.  III. 


THE  MANAGEiMENT  OF  LARGE  COUNTRY  PLACES. 

of  the  house,  is  partly  mown  for  lawn,  and  partly  for  hay  ;  the  lines  of  the  farm  and 
the  ornamental  portion  of  the  grounds,  meet  in  a  confused  and  unsatisfactory  manner, 
and  the  result  is  a  residence  pretending  to  be  much  superior  to  a  common  farm,  and 
yet  not  rising  to  the  dignity  of  a  really  tasteful  country  seat. 

It  appears  to  us  that  a  species  of  country  places  particularly  adapted  to  this  coun- 
ti-y,  has  not,  as  yet,  been  attempted,  though  it  offers  the  largest  possible  satisfaction  at 
the  least  cost. 

We  mean  a  place  which  is  a  comhination  of  the  'park-Uhe  and  pastoral  landscape. 
A  place  in  which  the  chief  features  should  be  fine  forest  trees,  either  natural  or  plant- 
ed, and  scattered  over  a  surface  of  grass,  kept  short  by  the  pasturage  of  fine  cattle. 
A  place,  in  short,  where  sylvan  and  pastoral  beauty,  added  to  large  extent  and  great 
facility  of  management,  would  cost  no  more  than  a  much  smaller  demesne,  where  a 
large  part  is  laid  out,  planted  and  kept,  in  an  expensive,  though  still  unsatisfactory 
manner. 

There  are  sites  of  this  kind,  already  prettily  wooded,  which  may  be  had  in  many 
desirable  localities,  at  much  cheaper  rates  than  the  improved  sites.  On  certain  por- 
tions of  the  Hudson,  for  instance,  we  could  purchase  to-day,  finely  wooded  sites  and 
open  glades,  in  the  midst  of  fine  scenery — in  fact  what  could  with  very  trifling  ex- 
pense be  turned  into  a  natural  park — at  $60  per  acre,  while  the  improved  sites  will 
readily  command  S200  or  $300  per  acre. 

Considerable  familiarity  with  the  country-seats  on  the  Hudson,  enables  us  to  state 
that  for  the  most  part,  few  persons  keep  up  a  fine  country  place,  counting  all  the 
products  of  -the  farm-land  attached  to  it,  without  being  more  or  less  out  of  pocket  at 
the  end  of  the  year.  And  yet  there  are  very  few  of  the  large  places  that  can  be  look- 
ed upon  as  examples  of  tolerable  keeping. 

The  explanation  of  this  lies  in  the  high  pi-ice  of  all  kinds  of  labor — which  costs  us 
nearly  double  or  treble  what  it  does  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  the  com- 
paratively small  profits  of  land  managed  in  the  expensive  way  common  on  almost  all 
farms  attached  to  our  Atlantic  country-seats.  The  remedy  for  this  unsatisfactory 
condition  of  the  large  country  places  is,  we  think,  a  very  simple  one — that  of  turning 
a  large  part  of  their  areas  into  park  meadow,  and  feeding  it,  instead  of  mowing  and 
cultivating  it. 

The  great  and  distinguishing  beauty  of  England,  as  every  one  knows,  is  its 
parks.  And  yet  the  English  parks  are  only  very  large  meadows,  studded  with  great 
oaks  aTid  elms — and  grazed-^prqfitalhj  grazed,  by  deer,  cattle  and  sheep.  We  be- 
lieve it  is  a  commonly  received  idea  in  this  country,  with  those  who  have  not  travelled 
abroad,  that  English  parks  are  portions  of  highly  dressed  scenery — at  least  that  they 
are  kept  short  by  frequent  mowing,  etc.  It  is  an  entire  mistake.  The  mown  lawn 
with  its  polished  garden  scenery,  is  confined  to  the  pleasure  grounds  proper — a  spot  of 
greater  or  less  size,  immediately  surrounding  the  house,  and  wholly  separated  from  the 
park  by  a  terrace  wall,  or  an  iron  fence,  or  some  handsome  architectural  barrier.  The 
which  generally  conies  quite  up  to  the  house  on  one  side,  receives  no  other  at 
ion  than  such  as  belongs  to  the  care  of  the  animals  that  graze  in  it.     As  most  of 


THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  LARGE  COUNTRY  PLACES. 

these  parks  afford  excellent  pastui-age,  and  tliongh  apparently  one  wide,  unbroken 
surface,  they  are  really  subdivided  into  largo  fields,  by  wire  or  other  invisible  fences, 
they  actually  pay  a  very  fair  income  to  the  proprietor,  in  the  shape  of  good  beef,  mut- 
ton and  venison. 

Certainly,  nothing  can  be  a  more  beautiful  sight  in  its  way,  than  the  numerous  herds 
of  deer,  short-horned  cattle  and  fine  sheep,  which  embroider  and  give  life  to  the  sce- 
nery of  an  English  country  home  of  this  kind.*  There  is  a  quiet  pastoral  beauty,  a 
spaciousness  and  dignity,  and  a  simple  feeling  of  nature  about  it  which  no  highly 
decorated  pleasure  grounds  or  garden  scenery  can  approach — as  the  continual  surround- 
ing of  a  country  residence.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  poetical  idea  of  Arcadia,  a  sort  of 
ideal  nature — softened,  refined,  and  ennobled,  without  being  made  to  look  artificial. 

Of  course,  any  thing  like  English  parks,  so  far  as  regards  extent,  is  almost  out  of 
the  question  here  ;  simply  because  land  and  fortunes  are  wisely  divided  here,  instead 
of  being  kept  in  large  bodies,  intact,  as  in  England.  Still,  as  the  first  class  country- 
seats  of  the  Hudson  now  command  from  $50,000  to  $75,000,  it  is  evident  that  there 
is  a  growing  taste  for  space  and  beauty  in  the  private  domains  of  republicans.  What 
we  wish  to  suggest  now,  is,  simply,  that  the  greatest  beauty  and  satisfaction  may  be 
had  here,  as  in  England — (for  the  plan  really  suits  our  limited  means  better,)  by 
treating  the  bulk  of  the  ornamental  portion  as  open  park  pasture — and  thus  getting 
the  greatest  space  and  beauty  at  the  least  original  expenditure,  and  with  the  largest 
annual  profit. 

To  some  of'  our  readers  who  have  never  seen  the  thing,  the  idea  of  a  park,  pastur- 
ed by"  animals  almost  to  the  very  door,  will  seem  at  variance  with  all  decorum  and 
elegance.  This,  however,  is  not  actually  the  case.  The  house  should  either  stand  on 
a  raised  terrace  of  turf,  which,  if  it  is  a  fine  mansion,  ma}^  have  a  handsome  terrace 
wall,  or  if  a  cottage,  a  pretty  rustic  or  trellis  fence,  to  separate  it  from  the  park.  Di- 
rectly around  the  house,  and  stretching  on  one  or  more  sides,  in  the  rear,  lie  the  more 
highly  dressed  portions  of  the  scene,  which  may  be  a  flower-garden  and  shrubbery  set 
in  a  small  bit  of  lawn  kept  as  short  as  velvet — or  may  be  pleasure-grounds,  fruit  and 
kitchen-gardens,  so  multiplied  as  to  equal  the  largest  necessities  of  the  place  and  fa- 
mily. All  that  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  is,  that  the  park  may  be  as  large  as  you  can 
afford  to  purchase — for  it  may  be  kept  up  at  a  profit — while  the  pleasure-grounds  and 
garden  scenery,  may,  with  this  management,  be  compressed  into  the  smallest  space 
actually  deemed  necessary  to  the  place — thereby  lessening  labor,  and  bestowing  that 
labor,  in  a  concentrated  space,  where  it  will  tell. 

The  practical  details  of  keeping  the  stock  upon  such  a  place,  are  familiar  to  almost 
every  farmer.  Of  course,  in  a  country  place,  only  comely  animals  would  be  kept,  and 
a  preference  would  be  given  to  breeds  of  fine  stock  that  "  take  on  flesh"  readily,  and 
command  the  best  price  in  the  market.  In  cases  where  an  interest  is  taken  in  breed- 
ing cattle,  provision  must  be  made,  in  the  shape  of  hay  and  shelter  for  the  whole  year 

All  attempts  to  render  our  native  deer  really  tame  m  home  grounds  have,  so  far  as  we  know,  failed  amon 
though  ^v'itll  patience  the  thmgf  may  doubtless  be  done.  It  would  be  well  worth  while  to  nnport  the  finer  breed: 
English  deer,  which  are  thorougUy  domesticated  m  their  habit?,  and  the  most  beautiful  animals  for  a  park, 


^^2^^- 
yi^ 


103  TRAA'SPLANTING  TREES  IN  WINTER. 

round  ;  but  we  imagine  tbe  most  profitable,  as  well  as  least  troublesome  mode,  to  the 
majority  of  gentlemen  proprietors,  would  be  to  buy  the  suitable  stock  in  the  spring, 
put  it  in  good  condition,  and  sell  it  again  in  the  autimm.  The  sheep  would  also  re- 
quire to  be  folded  at  night  to  prevent  the  flocks  from  being  ravaged  by  dogs. 

With  this  kind  of  arrangement  and  management  of  a  country  place,  the  owner 
would  be  in  a  position  to  reap  the  greatest  enjoyment  Avith  the  least  possible  care.  To 
country  gentlemen  ignorant  of  farming,  such  an  extent  of  park,  with  its  drives  and 
walks,  along  with  its  simplicity  of  management,  would  be  a  relief  from  a  multitude  of 
embarrassing  details  ;  while  to  those  who  have  tried,  to  their  cost,  the  expenses  of 
keeping  a  large  place  in  high  order,  it  would  be  an  equal  relief  to  the  debtor  side  of 
the  cash  account. 


TKANSPLANTING   TREES   IN  WINTER. 

BY  HENRY  F.  FRENCH,  EXETER,  N.  H. 

Dear  Sir — Several  subjects  touched  upon  in  your  January  number,  seem  to  deserve 
further  agitation,  before  they  arc  allowed  to  go  off  the  list  as  settled;  and  as  the  old  Gran- 
ite State  is  snugly  ensconced  under  a  covering  of  nearly  three  feet  of  snow,  so  that  the 
plow  and  the  spade  cannot  be  about  their  appropriate  work,  I  hold  it  the  duty  of  some- 
body who  lives  iu  it,  to  make  it  manifest  by  the  pen,  that  our  people  though  nearly  buri- 
ed, are  not  dead. 

Believing  that  the  only  way  in  which  progress  can  be  made  in  "  Kural  Art  and  Kural 
Taste,"  is  by  a  free  interchange  of  ideas  among  those  variously  situated,  as  to  soil  and 
climate,  who  are  interested  in  such  pursuits,  I  avail  myself  of  your  kind  invitation,  again 
to  offer  you  some  suggestions,  not  in  tlie  way  of  a  regular  essay  or  scientific  treatise,  but 
for  the  purpose  of  aiding  to  keep  up  among  your  readers,  a  familiar  conversation  through- 
out the  C^/iio?i,  on  subjects  of  mutual  interest;  and  first,  let  me  add  to  your  collection, 
my  own  experience  on  the  suhject  of 

Transplanting  Trees  in  Winter. — Right  opposite  the  window  by  which  I  am  Avriting, 
are  four  trees,  two  of  the  elm,  and  two  of  the  red  oak,  averaging  twenty-five  inches  in 
circumference,  and  thirty  feet  in  height,  which  have  taken  their  present  position  within 
the  last  fortnight.  They  really,  even  in  winter,  relieve  the  rawness  oi  a.  new  jilace  so 
much  as  to  surprise  the  initiated. 

Your  advice  to  your  New-IIaven  correspondent,  to  expend  his  first  labor  in  moving  a 
few  large  trees,  rather  than  in  shrubbery  and  walks,  would  bo  followed  by  any  man  who 
has  once  seen  the  experiment  tried.  Moving  large  trees  is  like  buying  stocks  with  the  di- 
vidends on;  you  get  your  return  forthwith. 

You  and  your  Philadelphia  correspondent  estimate  the  expense  of  transplanting  a  tree 
of  much  larger  size  than  mine,  at  five  dollars.  ]\Iy  trees  were  moved  an  average  distance 
of  about  half  a  miie,  and  reckoning  the  labor  of  a  man  at  one  dollar  per  day,  and  that  of 
a  yoke  of  oxen  the  same,  they  were  dug  up,  moved,  and  completely  planted,  for  three  dol- 
lars each.  As  my  method  of  moving  them  seems  comparatively  cheap,  I  will  give  it  to 
you  in  a  few  words. 

Selecting  a  tree  near  the  highway,  we  removed  the  snow  and  found  the  ground  vei 
tie  frozen.     We  then  dug  a  trench  entirely  round  the  tree,  two  feet  deep,  and  un 


TRANSPLANTING  TREES  IN  WINTER. 

to  leave  a  ball  of  unbroken  earth,  from  six  to  eight  feet  across  the  top,  and  rounded 
on  the  bottom  to  the  shape  of  the  inside  of  a  common  washbowl,  and  then  left  it,  still  up- 
right, about  three  days,  until  the  ball  was  frozen.  "VYe  then  attached  a  rope  to  the  tree, 
about  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground,  having  first  wound  it  with  matting,  to  prevent  galling. 
Four  men,  with  double  blocks  and  pulleys,  were  sufficient  to  bring  its  top  to  the  ground, 
when  a  common  ox-sled,  covered  with  strong  plank,  was  backed  under,  and  chained  so  as 
not  to  slip.  Then  shifting  our  ropes,  we  pulled  the  tree  upright  upon  the  sled,  at  the  same 
time  slipping  it  by  means  of  chains,  round  the  mass  of  earth,  with  the  oxen,  into  the  re- 
quired position. 

Eight  oxen  Avere  used  to  start  the  sled  with  the  tree,  out  of  the  hole,  and  when  fairly 
on  the  road  each  tree  made  a  comfortable  load  for  two  yoke,  being,  as  the  teamsters  ex- 
pressed it,  about  as  much  heft  as  a  cord  of  green  hickory.  We  unloaded  by  supporting 
the  top  b}--  means  of  the  puUies,  and  slipping  the  bottom  upon  sticks  of  timber,  directly 
from  the  sled  into  the  hole  previously  prepared,  at  one  pull  with  the  oxen.  Having  care- 
fully filled  the  space  about  the  ball  with  the  soil,  protected  by  a  covering  of  straw  from 
freezing,  and  placed  three  strong  props  against  the  tree,  to  maintain  its  uprightness 
through  the  next  season,  I  pronounce  the  work  done,  postponing  the  matter  of  pruning 
until  spring.  Our  soil  is  a  sandy  loam,  free  from  stones,  and  our  teamsters  and  their  oxen 
understand  their  business  thoroughly,  or  we  could  not  so  readily  perform  our  opera- 
tions. 

I  should  not  have  thought  it  Avorth  Avhile  to  trouble  you  with  a  repetition  of  a  process 
so  fomiliar  with  many  of  j^our  readers,  but  half  the  Avorld  who  do  read,  seem  to  have  an 
idea,  that  those  modern  improvements  are  confined  entirely  to  ink  and  paper,  and  are  as 
much  surprised  to  see  them  really  practiced,  as  though  they  never  had  heard  of  them.  A 
friend  of  mine  came  in  his  sleigh  to  see  my  trees  in  their  triumphal  entry  into  the  village, 
and  after  satisfying  himself  with  seeing,  inquired  in  a  somewhat  confidential  tone,  "  Now 
do  3^ou  really  expect  these  trees  are  going  to  liveV  And,  by  the  way,  how  very  common, 
and  how  very  pernicious  is  the  idea,  that  if  you  can  make  a  tree  live,  the  whole  object  is 
attained.     When  ivill  it  be  understood  that 

"  It  is  not  all  of  life  to  live,^^ 

even  for  a  tree;  that  to  be  entitled  to  any  respect,  the  tree,  as  well  as  the  planter,  must 
occupy  some  position,  either  useful  or  ornamental.  It  must  not  onlj^  live,  but  grow  and 
flourish,  and  look  cheerful,  and  happy,  and  contented,  in  its  new  situation,  and  not  as  if 
it  had  experienced  some  recent  bereavement,  and  Avere  looking  back  Avith  regret  to  its  for- 
mer estate,  and  half  changed,  like  Lot's  Avife,  into  a  pillar  of  salt,  or  something  else  as 
unlovely. 

It  is  a  very  small  part  of  the  art  of  transplanting  to  make  a  tree  live.  I  set  some  oak 
fence  posts  last  spring,  and  they  livsd,  and  threAV  out  shoots  half  a  foot  long. 

A  tree  may  live,  though  set  so  deeply  that  it  Avill  scarcely  groAV  an  inch  for  years.  It 
may  live,  if  its  roots  be  badly  mutilated,  and  the  top  left  entire  and  unsupported;  but  if 
he  who  planted  it  lives  also,  long  enough  to  Avatch  the  progress,  he  Avill  see,  perhaps,  about 
half  the  limbs  die  the  first  year,  and  the  tree  looking  decidedly  down  street  I  The  second 
and  third  year  he  will  see  a  feAv  half  fledged  branches,  and  possibly  some  new  shoots  from 
the  trunk,  and  by  the  next  year  he  will  conclude  to  cut  the  top  off,  as  should  have  been 
done  at  first,  or  get  discouraged  and  leave  landscape  gardening  to  those  who  have  better 
hick.  A  tree,  tall  and  slender,  taken  from  the  thick  forest  may  live,  but  it  Avill  expend  its 
energies  for  years,  in  strcghtening  its  trunk  and  roots,  before  its  top  Avill  expand; 
tare  spreads  no  more  sail  to  the  breeze  than  she  can  safely  carry.     I  do  expect  forest 


TRANSPLANTING  TREES  IN  WINTER. 

properly  selected,  properh^  transplanted,  and  properly  protected,  not  only  to  live,  but  to 
be  immediately  ornamental. 

In  December,  1848,  I  moved  three  elms,  of  about  the  same  size  as  those  above  named, 
in  a  similar  manner,  and  they  have  prospered  finely.  Last  winter  I  moved  a  rock  maple 
of  about  five  inches  diameter,  which,  without  the  loss  of  a  single  twig,  went  through  the 
summer  apparently  without  the  least  suspicion  of  having  been  disturbed  during  its  winter 
sleep.  That  tree,  however,  had  been  something  of  a  traveller  in  its  youth.  It  was  pulled 
up  in  the  forest  and  planted  in  the  garden  by  a  sister,  who  gave  it  to  me-  on  her  leaving 
the  homestead,  about  fifteen  years  ago.  In  1844, 1  brought  it  seventeen  miles,  and  placed 
it  by  my  house,  where  it  grew  six  seasons,  when  I  removed  it  with  my  other  household 
gods,  to  my  present  residence.  I  saw  in  the  summer  of  1849,  at  Lexington,  Mass.,  an  elm 
a  foot  and  a  half  in  diameter,  moved  the  previous  winter,  which  succeeded  admirably.  On 
the  whole,  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  no  method  so  sure  and  satisfactory,  of  moving 
large  trees  at  the  north,  as  with  frozen  balls  of  earth  in  winter. 

"  A  Constant  Reader,"  in  your  January  number,  who  speaks  of  recentl}^  moving  elms, 
maples,  and  i«/iife  joints,  says  he  shortened  them  in  all  over  the  tips  of  the  branches.  I 
very  much  doubt  the  expediency  of  thus  treating  the  pine.  Having  at  least  five  hundred 
now  growing,  which  I  have  transplanted  within  three  years,  I  have  carefully  observed 
the  habits  of  the  tree.  Each  branch  has  a  leading  shoot,  surrounded  at  its  base  by  about 
five  other  shoots.  If  the  terminal  bud  or  huds,  (for  there  are  iu  winter  about  half  a  do- 
zen together,)  of  the  leading  shoot  be  removed,  the  whole  shoot,  I  think,  alwaj's  perishes 
to  its  base.  The  surrounding  shoots,  it  is  true,  Avill  soon  go  into  an  election  of  a  loader, 
and  the  successful  candidate  will  finally  bend-in,  and  take  what  the  Irishman  called  thi  mid- 
dle extreme,  and  the  tree  M-ill  go  on  and  grow;  but  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  always  with 
more  or  less  deformity  at  the  point  of  the  mutilation. 

M}^  first  experiment  in  setting  white  pines,  Avas  in  June,  after  the  trees  had  made  most 
of  their  growth  for  the  year.  They  lived,  but  the  new  wood  all  died,  which  had  much  the 
same  effect  as  shortening-in.  They  were  set  in  1844,  and  still  exhibit  the  ill  effects  of  their 
trimming,  having  an  ungraceful  crook  at  every  point  where  the  terminal  shoot  was  des- 
troyed. I  should  prefer  upo7i  evergreen  trees,  to  cut  away  whole  branches,  if  neeessarj^, 
although  by  removing  trees  of  only  five  or  six  feet  height,  I  have  found  it  verj^  easy  to 
take  earth  enough  with  them  to  preserve  the  top  entire. 

Since  my  first  experiment,  I  have  moved  the  pine  in  early  spring.  I  have  found  no  tree 
so  easy  to  manage  successfully,  as  the  pine,  both  white  and  j'cllow;  and  having  originally 
planted  them  for  mutual  protection,  much  closer  than  they  can  properly  grow,  I  have 
since  moved  them  from  place  to  place,  in  spring,  with  almost  as  much  facility  as  a  lady  re- 
arranges her  parlor  furniture. 

I  intended  to  say  something,  in  this  letter,  on  the  subject  oi^  pruning  fruit  trees,  but 
have  already  exceeded  all  reasonable  bounds,  and  wiUnot  venture  upon  a  new  subject. 

With  much  respect,  Henry  F.  French. 

Exeter,  N.  H.,  Jan.  14,  1851. 

[A  most  excellent  article,  which  we  commend  to  all  owners  of  sites  where  the  "  genius 
of  the  bare  and  the  bald,"  hold  sway.     Ed.] 


A  CHAPTER  ON  INIODERN  PEARS. 


A  CHAPTER  ON  MODERN  PEARS. 


BY  HON.    MARSHALL  P.  WILDER,  BOSTON. 

^Ir.  Editor — I  embrace  the  first  leisure  moment  to  respond  to  your  request,  and 
herewith  subjoin  a  few  extracts  from  my  "  Notes  on  Pears." 

The  unpropitious  character  of  the  two  past  seasons,  has  so  seriously  affected,  not  only 
the  quantity,  but  the  quality  of  our  fruits,  that  I  have  been  unable  to  decide  so  fully  as 
could  be  desired,  upon  the  merits  of  those  recently  introduced,  or  their  adaptation  to  our 
climate. 

The  year  1849,  was  distinguished  for  the  destruction  of  the  buds,  Avhich  were,  in  the 
order  of  nature  to  produce  the  crop  of  that  season,  but  whether  the  cause  was  attributable 
to  the  severe  cold  of  the  previous  November,  or  to  the  sudden  alternations  of  tlie  weather 
in  the  subsequent  winter  and  spring,  has  not  yet  been  satisfactorily  ascertained. 

For  many  years  previous,  we  had  regular  and  fair  crops  of  fruit.  It  was,  there- 
fore, confidently  anticipated  that  the  succeeding  season  would  prove  more  propitious,  and 
thus  enable  us  to  test  the  character  of  many  new  varieties,  which  have  come  to  us  under 
the  influence  of  the  "pear  mania,"  from  transatlantic  gardens,  and  which,  too  often, 
have  no  other  saving  quality,  than  that  of  being  "farfetched  and  dear  bought." 

In  our  expectations,  we  have 
been  sadly  disappointed,  for,  al- 
though the  quantity  was  much 
increased  over  that  of  the  year 
1849,  and  the  specimens  in  some 
instances  of  superior  size  and  beau- 
ty, yet,  on  the  whole,  there  has 
been  a  decided  deterioration  in 
quality. 

The  year  1850,  has  been  marked 
with  an  unusual  quantity  of  rain, 
causing  excessive  moisture  and 
a  low  temi^erature,  both  unfavora- 
ble for  the  ripening  of  fruits,  and 
to  which  cause  may  be  attributed 
the  immaturity  and  want  of  flavor 
so  manifest  in  all  the  classes,  a 
cause  which  has  not  only  imparted 
to  some  of  our  finest  kinds  a  watery 
and  insipid  taste,  but  has  rendered 
the  medium  grades  only  fit  for 
culinary  purposes.  So  general 
has  this  been,  that  I  have  not  at 
the  present  time,  a  single  variety 
of  the  i^ear  suitable  for  the  dessert. 

I  regret  that  your  call  should  be 
made  under  such  unfavorable  cir- 
cumstances, and  I  shall,  therefore, 
confine  my  descriptions  to  such  va- 


A  CHAPTER  ON  MODERN  PEARS. 


rieties  of  recent  introduction  as  have 
given  promise  of  excellence,  reserving 
the  right  "  to  amend"  as  experience 
may  hereafter  dictate. 

KouvEAU  PoiTEAU. — Sizc — largc, 
three  and  a  half  inches  high  by  two 
and  a  half  in  diameter.  jTorm — ob- 
ovate,  obtuse  pyriform,  slightly  con- 
tracted in  the  neck.  Stem — short, 
rather  stout,  set  a  little  on  one  side, 
and  ■without  depression.  Calyx — 
medium  size,  open,  Avith  segments 
reflexed.  Color — dull  green,  occasion- 
ally with  brownish  red  cheek  next  the 
sun.  Flesh — ^very  melting  and  juicy. 
Flavor — rich,  sweet  and  delicious, 
with  melon-like  aroma.  Season — • 
ripens  early  in  November.  Qaalitij 
— gives  promise  of  being  classed  with 
the  "  best." 

The  Nouveau  Poileau  is  to  all  ap- 
pearances,   a   desirable   addition  to 

our   list   of  autumnal   pears.      The 


Beurre  Lnnglier. 

tree  is  of  an  upright  vigorous  habit,  comes  into 
bearing  earlj'-,  and  succeeds  well  both  on  the 
quince  and  pear  stocks. 

Beurre  Langlier. — Size — large,  three  in- 
ches high  by  two  and  a  half  broad.  Form — 
obovate  pyriform,  contracted  in  the  upper 
part,  and  terminating  obtusely  at  the  stem. 
Stem  —  one  inch  or  more  in  length,  insert- 
ed without  much  depression,  generally  upright, 
but  occasionally  on  one  side.  Calyx — 
medium  size,  sunk  in  coarsely  plaited  cavi- 
ty. Color — handsome  light  green,  assuming 
at  maturity  a  pale  yellow,  Avith  a  dull  blush  or 
red  cheek  on  the  sunny  side,  and  covered  with 
numerous  grey  russet  dots.  Flesh — ^j'ellowish 
white,  melting,  juicy  and  fine  grained .  Flavor 
— sprightlj^,  sub-acid,  rich,  excellent,  with  a 
little  perfume.  Siason — December  to  Janua 
ry.      Quality — "  vzry  good"  to  '■'best 


A  CHAPTER  ON  MODERN  PEARS. 


The  tree  is  of  a  very  strong  vigorous 
habit,  and  succeeds  well  both  on  the 
quince  and  pear  stock.  The  fruit  ad- 
heres firmly  until  late  in  the  season, 
keeps  well,  and  promises  to  sustain  its 
high  reputation  as  a  capital  winter  va- 
riety 

IiVCONNUE  Van  Mons. — Form — ■ 
oblong-pyriform.  Size  —  medium . — 
Stem — long,  rather  slender,  one  inch 
or  more  in  length,  and  set  with- 
out depression.  Calyx — open,  in  ab- 
rupt, rather  deep  basin,  frequently 
without  segments.  Color — dull  j)ale 
green,  over-spread  partially  with  traces 
and  dots  of  russet.  Flesh — melting, 
buttery  and  fine.  Flavor — pleasant, 
good,  resembling  a  little  the  Glout 
Morceau,  but  without  astringency. 
Season — December  to  February,  keeps 
well.  Quality  —  "very  good,"  and 
will  probably  prove  to  be  an  excellent 
late  variety. 

It  succeeds  well  on  the  quince  stock, 
and  from  which  the  fruit  is  much  lai'- 
ger  and  finer  than  from  standards. 

FONDAXTE     DE      MaLINES. Siz: 

medium,  2^  inches  long  by  two  and 
a  quarter  in  diameter.  Form — round- 
ish obovate.  Stem — long,  set  without  de- 
pression, sometimes  curved.  Calyx — 
small,  in  a  narrow  furrowed  basin,  and 
frequently  without  segments.  Color — 
pale  lemon  3'^ellow,  slightly  marked  with 
patches  and  traces  of  cinnamon  russet, 
and  with  brownish  red  intermixed  with 
distinct  spots  of  vermillion  on  the  sun- 
ny side.  Flesh — white,  buttery  and 
melting,  a  little  granulous  near  the  core. 
Flavor — sweet,  excellent.  Core — rath- 
er large.  Siason — last  of  October. 
Quality — promises  to  be  classed  as 
"very  good."     A  handsome  fruit. 

Beurre  de  Waterloo. — Size — large, 

inches  high  by  two  and  a  quarter 

diameter.  Form — obovate,  obtuse  py- 


A  CHAPTER  ON  MODERN  PEARS. 


riform.  Stem — set  without  much  de- 
pression, on  one  side.  Calyx — open, 
in  shallow  furrowed  basin.  Chlor — 
dull  green,  skin  rough,  covered  with 
coarse  russet  traces  and  points. 
Fl2sh — melting  and  juicy,  flavor — 
sprightly  saccharine,  pleasant.  Sju- 
son — Middle  of  October. 

Beurrk  Axdusson". — Size — me- 
dium, two  and  a  half  inches  long  by 
two  and  a  half  inches   in  diameter. 


Beiirre  A>idusson 

Form — obovate,  acute  pyriform,  tapering 
rather  abruptly  into  the  stalk.  Stem — 
short,  stout,  fleshy  at  the  point  of  junc- 
tion, set  in  an  irregular  manner.  Calyx — 
large  open,  in  a  shallow  basin.  Color — 
yellowish  green  at  maturity,  with  a  dull 
red  cheek  on  the  sunny  side,  and  covered 
with  numerous  russet  dots.  Flesh — melt- 
ing, tender,  juicy.  Flavor — rich  sub-acid, 
slightly  perfumed  with  rose.  Season — 
ripens  from  the  first  to  the  fifteenth  of  Oc- 
tober.     Quality — ''very  good." 

Saint  Nicholas. — Size — large,  three 
inches  and  a  half  long  by  two  and  a  quar- 
ter  in   diameter.      Form — oblong   pyri- 
Saint  Nicholas  f^^.^^^  I_j^g  ^^^^^  tapering  gradually  into  the 

stem.  Stem — short,  thick,  wrinkled  at  the  base,  curved.  Calyx — small,  open,  in  broad  flat 
basin.  Color — greenish  jj^ellow,  clouded  with  a  thin  covering  of  russet.  Flesh — melting 
and  juicy.  Flavor — rich  sub-acid,  slightly  perfumed,  with  some  astringency  next  the 
skin.     Season — October,  first  to  fifteenth.      Quality — "  very  good." 

Should  this  variety  prove  good  as  a  standard,  it  will  be  a  desirable  market  fruit.  The 
French  catalogues  describe  the  size  of  the  Saint  Nicholas  as  "petit,"  small,  hut  it  has 
here  uniformly  borne  large  fruit. 

ENNE  GRis  d'hiver  Nouveau. — Size — rather   below  medium.     Form. — obovate, 
,  pyriform.      Stem — short,  stout,  inserted  in  a  slight  depression.      Calyx — very 


A  CHAPTER  ON  JMODliRN  PEARS. 


small,  in  narrow  sunken  cavity,  often  without  segments.  Co/or— dull  russety  green,  pro 
fusely  covered  with  coarse  russet  dots.  Skin — rough  and  thick.  Flesh — tinged  with 
orange,  coarse  grained,  but  melting  and  juicy.  /"Zf/for— sprightly,  vinous,  good,  slightly 
astringent  near  the  skin.  /Sanson— -keeps 
easily  to  ^Nlay  or  June,  ripens  readily,  and 
is  free  from  the  objections  which  rest  against 
some  of  our  latest  varieties  in  this  respect. 

SouvKAixE  d'Ete, — Size  —  medium. — 
Form — roundish  obovate.  C((lijx — open, 
medium  size,  sunk  in  moderately  deep  basin. 
Stem — short,  inserted  a  little  on  one  side, 
and  without  much  depression.  Color — 
lemon  yellow,  traced  and  dotted  with  light 
russet,  and  frequently  with  a  bright  red 
cheek  next  the  sun.  Flesh — melting,  tender, 
and  very  juicy.  Flavor — sprightly,  a  little 
vinous,  rich.  Season — ripens  the  last  of 
August.  Quality — "very  good."  A  hand- 
some fruit. 

Howell. — The  Howell  Pear  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  in  cultivation.  It  was  raised 
from  seed  by  a  gentleman  of  that  name,  at 
New-Haven,  many  years  since.  From  the 
experience  of  three  or  four  years,  this  vari- 
ety gives  promise  of  sustaining  a  high  reputation. 

Size — large,  three  inches  high  by  two  and  three-fourths  broad 
obtuse  pj-riform,  contracted  towards  the 
stem,  surface  a  little  irregidar,  like  the 
Thompson.  Stem — one  inch  or  more  in 
length,  often  curved,  and  set  without  de 
pression.  Calyx — medium  size,  open,  sunk 
in  a  moderately  deep  irregular  cavity.  Co- 
lor— at  maturity,  clear  pale  j^ellow,  covered 
with  numerous  small  russet  dots,  and  occa- 
sionally with  a  faint  red  blush  on  the  sunny 
side.  Flesh — melting  and  juicy.  Flavor — 
rich,  slightly  acidulous,  with  a  delicate  aro- 
ma. Sjaso7i — ripens  from  October  first  to 
fifteenth. 

Tkiomphe  de  Jodoign-e — Size — extra, 
weigliing  from  ten  to  twelve  ounces.  Form 
— obovate,  slightl}' pear  shaped,  terminating 
obtusely  at  the  stem.  Color — green,  Avitli 
occasional  traces  of  russet.  Fl:sh — melting, 
rich  sub-acid,  good.  Ripens  in  November. 
The  tree  of  this  variety  is  exceedingly  ro- 
bust, bat  does  not  come  into  bearing  so  early 
as  many  other  sorts.  Souvrainc  d'Ete 


Doyenne  gris  d'hiver  Nouveait. 


Form — obovate, 


A  CHAPTER  ON  MODERN  PEARS. 


Beurbe  Sprix. — Size — medium.  Form — obovate,  obtuse  pyriform.  Color — pale  y el 
low,  slightly  traced  with  russet,  and  with  occasionally  a  blush  cheek.  /7cs/t— melting, 
juicy,  rich,  with  a  peculiar  aroma.     &ason— October. 

Smith's  Boroenave. — This  va 
riety  was  imported  from  France  into 
Hartford, Ct.,  manyyears  since,  and 
has  been  somewhat  extensively  dis 
tributed  by  Alfred  Smith,  Esq.,  of 
that  city.  The  fruit  is  of  medium 
size,  acute  pyriform  in  shape,  with 
a  dull  greenish  russet  coat.  The 
flesh  is  juicy  and  buttery,  and  the 
flavor  peculiar,  sprightly  and  spicy. 
The  true  or  original  name,  is  yet 
unknown.  Ripens  about  the  mid- 
dle of  September.  A  valuable  ac- 
quisition. 

Beurre  Bretoxn-eau. — A  large 
handsome  fruit,  ripening  in  Decem- 
ber or  January.  The  flesh  is  melt- 
ing, high  flavored  and  excellent, 
promising  to  add  another  fine  sort 
to  the  winter  varieties. 

Soldat  Laboureur.  —  Fruit 
large,  resembling  the  Beurre  Diel 
in  form,  but  a  little  more  depressed 
at  the  stem.  Flesh,  melting  and 
buttery,  with  a  little  perfume.  Ri- 
pens from  December  to  February. 
Tliis  is  a  distinct  variety ,  raised  by  ^°""" 

iMaj.  EsPEREN,  of  jMalines,  a  hardy  and  beautiful  tree,  and  must  not  be  confounded  with 
the  Soldat  Laboureur  of  the  French,  or  Beurre  d'Aremberg. 

Beurre  Supkrfin. — This  variety  received  a  special  premium  at  Angers,  in  France,  for 
its  excellence.  The  fruit  is  represented  as  very  large,  but  with  me  it  has  not  attained  a 
larger  size  than  the  Louise  Bonne  d' Jersey.  Color,  dull  pale  green,  with  traces  and 
patches  of  russet,  and  dull  brown  cheek.  Flesh,  juicy,  melting,  and  with  slight  aroma. 
Ripens  from  the  middle  of  September  to  the  first  of  October. 

Beurre  Sterkmann. — Size,  medium.  Form,  obovate  pjTiform.  Color,  dull  green- 
ish russet.     Flesh,  juicy,  melting.     Flavor,  rich  sub-acid.     Ripens  in  November. 

Among  others  whose  characteristics  give  tokens  of  excellence,  may  be  named:  Doyenne 
ih  Ncrckmann,  ripening  in  November — Beurre  Sch^idioillur,  in  October — Calinka,  a  fine 
large  yellow  fruit,  in  December — Beurre  Benoist,  in  October — Beurre  Giffard,  in  Au- 
gust— Baronne  da  Mdlo,  in  October — Fondante  de  llillot,  in  November — Bon  Parent, 
in  October — and  3farechnl  de  la  Cour,  in  November. 

The  above  are  all  wortliy  of  consideration,  and  to  which  I  might  add  others;  but  under 
the  unfavorable  circumstances  to  which  I  have  alluded,!  refrain  from  further  descriptions 
ng  confident  that  those  already  submitted  will  conform  to  the  characteristics 
varieties  may  assume,  undci-'the  influence  of  more  congenial  seasons. 


REMARKS  ON  LEAF  BLIGHT. 

Before  closing  this  ai-ticle,  which  has  now  been  extended  beyond  my  original  design, 
permit  me  earnestly  to  recommend  the  practice  of  raising  new  varieties  from  seed,  a  prac- 
tice which  I  am  happy  to  inform  you,  is  becoming  quite  general  in  this  region.  When  this 
branch  of  cultivation  shall  be  more  perfectly  understood,  I  entertain  no  doubt  but  we  shall 
be  able  to  produce  varieties  rivaling  in  excellence  the  most  celebrated  foreign  fruits.  In 
support  of  these  views,  we  might  name  among  the  instances  which  have  been  crowned  with 
success,  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Francis  Dana,  of  Roxbury,  who  has  the  past  year, 
from  promiscuous  seed,  fruited  three  varieties  of  pears  of  good  character — two  of 
Avhich  are  entitled  to  particular  commendation;  one  an  early,  the  other  a  late  sort.  The 
Messrs.  Hovbt  have  also  presented  this  season,  a  native  variety  of  great  beauty,  and  of 
fine  quality,  which  promises  to  rank  among  the  best  of  our  early  pears. 

Unfortunately,  the  passion  for  new  fruits,  has  placed  so  many  under  cultivation,  that  Ave 
are  scarcely  able  to  do  justice  to  all.  Instead  of  transferring,  at  once,  scions  of 
foreign  varieties  to  healthy  and  mature  trees  for  trial,  our  conclusions  are  too  often  drawn 
from  imported  trees,  which  are  not  fully  established,  or  perhaps  not  adapted  to  the  stock 
upon  which  they  have  been  grafted. 

During  the  past  two  years,  we  have  witnessed  the  disastrous  effects  of  unfavorable  at- 
mospheric influences.  These  are  chiefly  beyond  our  control;  but  cannot  the  other  ills 
which  vegetation  is  "  heir  to,"  be  provided  against.''  Cannot  the  tendency  to  deteriora- 
tion, now  so  generally  complained  of,  be  arrested,  and  the  pristine  beauty  and  perfection 
of  those  fruits  which  were  once  the  pride  of  our  gardens,  but  now  remembered  only  as 
"  out-casts,"  be  restored,  and  perhaps  maintained?  Science  has  wrought  wonders  in 
other  departments  of  knowledge,  and  whj^  should  it  not  aid  the  pomologist,  as  well  as 
the  manufacturer  or  the  mechanic?  Doubtless  it  can;  but  our  efforts  must  be  governed 
by  the  laws  of  nature — for,  if  there  are  scientific  principles  upon  which  terraculture  is 
founded,  then  no  practice  which  is  not  based  on  these  principles,  can  be  depended  upon 
with  any  certainty  for  success. 

Your  readers  will  excuse  this  digression,  but  in  view  of  your  being  about  to  address  the 
good  people  of  the  Empire  State  on  the  great  subject  of  Agricultural  Education,  I  cannot 
refrain  from  expressing  the  hope,  that  not  only  New-York,  but  other  states,  will  take  up 
this  matter  in  earnest,  and  establish  such  systems  of  instruction  as  shall  enable  the  culti- 
vator, whether  in  the  garden  or  in  the  field,  to  take  his  place  by  the  side  of  the  most  fa- 
vored class  in  the  progress  of  improvement,  for  which  our  age  is  so  distinguished. 

Marshall  P.  "Wilder. 

Boston,  Jan.  10,  1851. 


REMAKES    ON  LEAF   BLIGHT. 

BY  n.  E.  HOOKER,  ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 

Tuis  disease,  which  has  by  some  been  mistaken  for  the  Jire  blight,  and  by  others  deem- 
ed worthy  of  so  little  attention,  that  few  notices  of  its  presence,  or  hints  for  its  destruc- 
tion, have  appeared  in  j'our  magazine,  is,  I  am  persuaded,  productive  of  more  injury  to 
nurserymen  and  those  amateurs  who  undertake  the  propagation  of  their  own  pear  and 
plum  standards,  than  the  genuine  fire  blight. 

I  propose,  therefore,  to  state  some  of  my  views  on  the  subject,  hophig  that  brother  nur- 
serymen, at  least,  will  give  the  readers  of  the  Horticulturist  the  benefit  of  their  exi)eri- 


REiMARKS  ON  LEAF  BLIGHT. 

euce;  as  I  doubt  not  all  of  them  have  consulted  their  own  interest  sufficiently  to  make 
some  experiments  upon  the  matter. 

The  disease  in  question  makes  its  first  appearance  in  the  shape  of  small  brown  spots  or 
blotches,  upon  the  under  side  of  the  lower  leaves  of  the  trees  affected;  from  thence  spread- 
ing rapidly  to  the  neighboring  leaves  and  branches,  and  gradually  destroying  the  foliage, 
from  the  bottom  upwards,  until  finall}''  the  plants  remain  leafless,  or  nearly  so,  in  mid- 
summer or  early  autumn.  The}'  usually  attempt  a  second  growth  the  same  season,  but 
the  result  is  only  a  feeble,  sickly  shoot,  which  also  sheds  prematurely  its  leaves,  and 
mournfully  waits  for  another  season  of  similar  attempts  and  like  success :  its  spindling 
branches  and  thorny  stock,  giving  but  poor  encouragement  to  the  cultivator,  that  his  ut- 
most skill  with  budding  or  puning  knife,  will  cause  a  vigorous  shoot  to  appear  form  its 
hide-bound  stem,  or  induce  his  puny  seedling  to  assume  an  air  of  health  and  beauty.  Alas ! 
bitter  experience  satisfies  him  that  hope  for  leaf-blighted  stocks  is  of  that  character  which 
"  makes  the  heart  sick." 

Its  attacks  are  not  entirely  confined  to  small  seedlings  or  nurszry  trees,  although  it  is 
to  these  that  it  is  most  injurious;  nor  docs  it  limit  its  depredations  to  a  single  town  or  state; 
from  Belgium  to  Iowa,  its  presence  is  almost  universal  in  grounds  which  have  for  any  con- 
siderable length  of  time  been  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  pear  and  plum  trees;  some- 
times a  bearing  tree  is  the  object  of  its  attention,  in  which  case,  a  leafless  tree  in  August, 
with  immature  and  blackened  fruit,  is  the  reward  of  the  waiting  cultivator;  a  sorry  re- 
muneration to  one  who  has  expended  his  time  and  patience  in  catching  "  Turks,"  or 
pinching  his  pj^ramids ;  in  cutting  off  knots,  or  watching  for  the  first  symptom  of  the  fire 
blight;  but  as  it  is  not  often  that  its  choice  falls  upon  the  orchard  or  standard  tree,  I  shall 
confine  my  present  remarks  to  its  ravages  in  the  nursery. 

It  is  a  fivct  well  known  to  most  nurserymen,  that  this  disease  has  been  the  cause  of  more 
failures  in  the  rearing  of  pear  and  plum  trees,  both  in  the  nursery  row  and  the  seed  bed, 
than  all  other  causes  combined.  The  stock  which  is  attacked  becomes  impracticable  to  the 
budder  before  the  season  arrives  for  inoculation,  or  if,  perchance,  he  is  able  to  raise  the 
bark  sufliciently  for  his  purpose,  the  languid  state  of  the  plant  renders  his  efforts  almost 
useless;  and  even  when  he  succeeds  in  working  the  refractory  subject,  those  which  have 
been  severely  attacked  make,  at  first,  but  an  indifferent  growth.  The  injury  is  not  always 
nor  commonly  mortal,  for  stocks  which  have  been  attacked,  appear  after  working,  to  re- 
cover their  health,  and  finally  to  make  as  good  trees  as  others;  but  the  delay  and  vexa- 
tion to  the  nurseryman  is  intolerable. 

In  the  seed  bed,  he  first  discovers  small  patches,  where  the  smaller  and  weaker  plants 
have  a  brownish  appearance,  and  are  shedding  their  lower  leaves,  which  patches  increase 
in  size,  luitil  thewliole  bed  looks  as  if  a  fire  had  passed  over  it.  If  it  is  his  first  acquaint- 
ance with  the  pest,  he  consults  some  author  on  fruit  trees,  but  finds  no  disease  treated  of 
which  answers  the  description,  and  consoles  himself  with  the  idea  that  it  will  soon  disap- 
pear ;  or,  perhaps,  he  applies  those  universal  remedies,  lime  and  ashes,  but  with  no  good  re- 
sult. Some  afflicted  cultivators  have,  in  their  desperation,  applied  salt  to  their  suffering 
subjects,  until  the  entire  disappearance  of  foliage  convinced  them  that  even  salt  was  unable 
to  save.  Perhaps  he  consoles  himself  with  the  idea,  that  when  he  has  them  dibbled  out 
in  nursery  rows,  this  trouble  will  be  over.  But  another  season's  experience  convinces  him 
that  whatever  ailed  his  stocks,  they  have  carried  their  ailment  with  them,  and  seem  deter- 
mined to  perpetuate' the  indisposition,  by  giving  it  to  their  neighbors. 

My  observations  lead  me  to  the  belief,  that  whatever  be  the  cause  of  this  difBculty 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  work  of  an  Insect.     The  most  critical  examination  which 


REMARKS  ON  LEAF  BLIGHT. 

been  able  to  make,  has  revealed  neither  insect  nor  egg,  but  only  a  species  of  rust,  or 
fungus,  which  spreads  over  the  surface  of  the  leaf,  and  closes  the  pores,  thus  ^jroducing 
death. 

I  am  also  convinced  that  it  is  exceedingly  infectious,  and  that  when  once  a  patch  of  trees 
has  been  affected,  there  is  but  little  hope  to  the  nurser3-man,  that  he  will  be  entire!}^  free 
from  it  on  that  piece  of  ground.  It  is  also  pretty  certain,  that  stocks  which  are  diseased 
in  the  seed  bed,  will  carry  the  complaint  with  them  to  the  place  where  thej"  are  planted 
out;  but  this  last  result  will  not  always  follow — I  have,  m5'self,  known  one  (and  but  one) 
instance,  in  which  leaf-blighted  seedlings,  which  Avere  removed  far  away  from  other  trees, 
recovered  entirely  their  proper  health  and  beauty. 

It  is  impossible  to  raise  pear  or  plum  seedlings  which  shall  be  entirely  free  from  this  dis- 
ease, in  an  old  nursery,  by  any  method  of  prevention  or  cure  which  is  known  to  us;  most 
of  the  old  established  nurseries  have,  therefore,  depended  in  a  great  measure  upon  pur- 
chasing this  species  of  stock,  and  as  its  attacks  do  not  seem  permanently  to  injure  good 
sized  ijlants,  they  are  thus  enabled  to  supply  their  customers  with  trees,  which,  when  re- 
moved to  the  fruit  yard,  or  the  orchard,  give  entire  satisfaction. 

One  peculiarity  has  i^robably  been  observed  by  all  who  have  examined  this  subject,  which 
is,  that  budded  or  worked  trees  are  comparatively  free  from  attack;  these  often  retaining 
their  foliage  unspotted,  and  continuing  to  grow  rapidly,  while  their  natural  or  seedling 
neighbors  are  leafless.  Why  the  Zeaucsof  our  most  esteemed  varieties  are  able  to  withstand 
attacks  which  are  fatal  to  those  which  we  are  accustomed  to  believe  are  more  hardy  than 
they,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  determine. 

The  cause  of  so  great  an  evil  as  this,  deserves,  of  course,  our  best  attention;  but  it  is 
still  a  profound  mystery;  it  makes  its  appearance  without  warning,  and  has  no  fore-run- 
ners, no  busy  hum  of  insect,  nor  endless  throng  of  aphides,  ushers  in  the  work  of  destruc- 
tion. It  cares  not  for  rain,  nor  does  the  mighty  wind  check  its  steady  progress;  sunshine 
and  cloud  seem  to  favor,  and  darkness  to  offer  no  obstacle  to  its  work  of  desolation;  lime 
and  ashes,  plaster  and  guano,  are  but  aggravations;  even  copperas  water,  and  filthy  whale 
oil  soap,  are  alike  agreeable  to  the  mysterious  visitor;  like  the  unseen  malaria,  it  is 
known  only  by  its  effects.  A  friend  w^ho  has  some  acquaintance  with  it,  believes  the  po- 
tatoe  rot  has  attacked  his  little  pear  trees. 

The  cure  has  not  yet  transpired,  but  there  is  much  hope  in  pravantion;  my  own  obser- 
vations lead  me  to  recommend  tlic  planting  of  pear  and  plum  seeds,  and  stocks,  at  a  dis- 
tance, say  at  least  half  a  mile  from  any  other  nursery;  the  superior  advantages  of  a  virgin 
soil,  combined  with  freedom  from  adverse  influences,  Avill  generally  be  sufficient  to  ensure 
at  least  one  healthy  crop.  Probably  many  old  nurserymen  have  observed,  that  begin- 
ners usually  have  their  best  success  (with  these  trees)  first;  after  this  their  progress  is 
like  that  of  others,  somewhat  variable,  and  against  obstacles,  of  which  leaf  blight  is  the 
chief. 

Shall  we  not  hear  from  others  upon  this  subject,  which,  although  of  little  consequence 
to  the  orchadist,  is  eminently  worthy  the  attention  of  nurserymen.         H.  E.  Hooker. 

A  very  interesting  article  to  all  the  cultivators  of  the  pear,  and  one  which  we  hope  will 
elicit  the  remarks  of  other  correspondents.  We  examined  the  spots,  caused  by  this  leaf- 
blight,  last  summer,  under  a  powerful  microscope,  and  are  satisfied  that,  as  Mr.  H.  sug- 
gests, they  are  caused  by  a  fungus.  And  this  has  led  us  to  suspect  that  the  cracking  and 
blight  of  many  varieties  may  be  merely  the  effects  of  this  same  parasite.  We  have  notic- 
tree  loaded  with  the  finest  crop  of  Brown  Beurres,  looking  as  fair  and  promising 
e  till  midsummer.     Then  suddenly  the  leaf-blight  would  attack  the  foliage — ; 


REMARKS  ON  THE  DEGENERACY  OF  FRIUT. 

spots  and  an  occasional  crack  would  appear  upon  the  fruit,  the  pears  would  cease  to 
swell,  and  the  whole  crop  would  prove  an  utter  failure.  Was  not  this  failure  of  the  crop 
the  immediate  effect  of  the  attack  of  this  fungus  called  the  leaf  blight,  and  is  not  this  fun- 
gus the  partial  cause  of  the  so-called  decline  of  some  of  the  old  varieties?  Further  obser- 
vation will  establish  the  truth  of  these  conjectures  if  they  are  correct,  and  as  the  attacks 
of  fungi  are  not  past  prevention,  we  hope  something  may  also  be  discovered  to  answer  this 
purpose.     At  any  rate,  this  is  an  important  subject  of  investigation..     Ed. 


REMARKS    ON   THE   DEGENERACY   OF   FRUITS. 

BY  A.  MARSHALL,  WESTCHESTER,  PA. 

There  is  an  opinion  prevalent  with  some  pomologists,  that  fruits  of  various  kinds,  ap- 
ples and  pears  for  instance,  degenerate  by  a  continuation  of  grafting  or  budding,  through 
a  long  series  of  generations,  and  that  new  varieties  obtained  from  seed  are  not  subject  to 
this  degenerating  process,  until  the  variety  has  been  long  cultivated  and  propagated  by  buds 
or  branches. 

They  say — that  propagation  by  grafting  or  budding  is  a  continuation  of  the  original  tree 
of  the  jjarticular  variety  thus  propagated.  That  is — all  the  Baldwin  Apple  trees  now  grow- 
ing in  the  world,  are  parts  and  parcels  of  the  original  Baldwin  Apple  tree  grown  in  the 
state  of  Massachusetts,  and  that  the  ages  of  those  trees  are  not  to  be  counted  from  the 
times  they  were  respectively  grafted  or  budded,  but  from  the  time  the  seed  germinated 
that  produced  the  original  tree  of  that  name;  that  at  some  future  period' of  time,  (not 
very  well  ascertained,)  this  variety  of  tree  will  produce  degenerate  fruit;  that  the  quality 
of  the  fruit  can  never  be  bronght  back  to  its  primitive  character,  because  of  the  age  of  the 
parent  tree.  Yet  a  seed  of  this  degenerate  fruit  grown  on  a  tree  whose  parentage  may 
be  traced  back  two  or  three  centuries,  will  produce  a  new  variety  possessing  distinct  cha- 
racteristics; that  it  Avill  retain  those  qualities  until  it  arrives  at  a  certain  age,  when  its 
degeneracy  will  commence  also. 

Although  this  theory  has  strong  names  in  its  support,  some  of  whom  have,  no  doubt, 
received  it  on  trust  without  investigation — I  have  never  seen  sufficient  evidence  in  the  facts 
relied  on,  to  convince  me  of  its  truth. 

A  jjarticular  variety  of  the  apple,  (called  new,)  is  discovered  in  a  new  settlement,  grow- 
ing on  virgin  soil;  the  fruit  is  large,  handsome,  and  of  good  flavor.  It  becomes  a  fovorite, 
and  is  extensively  propagated  by  budding  or  grafting,  and  spread  over  large  districts  of 
country.  The  soil  on  which  this  variety  was  first  discovered  as  a  "seedling,"  is  culti- 
vated, cropped,  and  impoverished — manures  are  applied — the  soil  is  improved  and 
strengthened — it  again  produces  good  crops  of  corn,  wheat  and  grasses;  but  this  apple, 
(now  called  old,)  does  not  exhibit  its  former  fair  proportions  and  other  praiseworthj^  qua- 
lities. It  is  condemned  as  a  worn-out,  degenerate  variety,  and  the  onl}^  reason  assigned 
for  thus  giving  the  cold  shoulder  to  an  old  friend  is,  that  it  has  been  legitimately  propagat- 
ed through  a  long  series  of  generations.  Such  a  reason  for  casting  off  an  old  friend  is  very 
easily  gotten  up,  and  may  be  made  to  assume  a  very  plausible  shape. 

Now  let  the  "  rejected"  apple  tell  its  own  tale  of  woe.  "  j\Iy  ancestors  were  highly 
prized  by  your  fore-fathers.  Both  flourished  together  in  primitive  times.  The  virgin  soil 
furnished  our  family  Avith  plenty  of  such  food  as  suited  to  produce  our  then  fair  propor- 
tions and  peculiar  flavor.     That  soil  was  cropped  and  impoverished  by  your  relatives,  un- 


REMARKS  ON  THE  DEGENERACY  OF  FRUIT. 

til  many  of  them  were  obliged  to  go  to  the  far  west  to  obtain  their  bread — those  who  re 
mained  behind  were  compelled  to  resort  to  artificial  stimulants,  which  entirely  changed 
the  nature  and  relative  properties  of  the  soil,  so  that  we  were  unable  to  obtain  those  par- 
ticular particles  of  food  which,  in  former  days,  contributed  so  largely  to  give  us  that  pe- 
culiar flavor  and  other  valuable  properties  which  we  then  exhibited.  Let  me  tell  you  in 
all  candor,  before  we  part  forever — that  if  you  will  place  our  family  in  a  soil  and  climate 
congenial  to  our  taste  and  constitutional  habits,  similar  in  every  respect  to  that  in  which 
our  ancestors  flourished  with  so  much  credit,  we  will  engage  to  redeem  our  reputation. 
The  younger  members  of  our  family  are  as  sound  in  stem  and  branch,  as  ever  our  ances- 
ters  were.  Give  us  the  same  food  to  eat,  and  climatical  air  to  breathe,  and  we  will  pro- 
duce as  good  fruit  as  they  ever  did." 

Tlie  pomologist  here  cuts  the  argument  short  by  saying — "  You  are  an  old  superanuat- 
ed  variety — we  have  tried  you  too  long  already — you  have  set  '  our  children's  teeth  on 
edge' — we  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  you — our  Pomological  Congress  has  rejected 
you,  and  that's  enough  I  Here  is  a  new  seedling  variety  lately  brought  to  notice  by  an 
eminent  nurseryman,  who  has  thousands  of  them  for  sale.  His  price  is  rather  high,  to  b 
sure ;  but  then  our  Pomological  Congress  has  recommended  it,  and  I  guess  they  know 
what's  what  about  good  or  bad  apples." 

"  Why  bless  you" — says  the  rejected  apple — "  I  know  all  about  that  seedling.  A  boy, 
after  having  eaten  an  apple  of  our  variety,  threw  the  core  containing  the  seed,  in  a  hedge 
by  the  way-side.  A  tree  grew — the  fruit  had  some  good  properties,  and  accidentally  fell 
into  the  hands  of  a  pomologist,  who  gave  it  a  high  sounding  name — set  it  afloat  on  a  po- 
pular current,  and  the  wind  so  far,  has  been  in  its  favor." 

That  some- varieties  of  fruit  do  not  succeed  so  well  in  localities  differing  in  soil  and  cli- 
mate from  those  in  which  they  originated,  is  a  generally  acknowledged  fact,  clearly  demon- 
strated; but  that  fact  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  question  of  degeneracy. 

The  Baldwin  Apple  is  considered  good  in  every  respect  in  the  state  of  Massachusetts. 
Grafts  taken  from  those  trees  and  cultivated  in  the  southern  part  of  Ohio,  prodvice  fruit 
subject  to  the  "  dry  rot."  Grafts  taken  from  those  dry-rot  fruit  trees  in  Ohio,  and  culti- 
vated in  ^lassachusetts,  produce  fruit  equal  to  those  trees  which  remained  at  home.  Does 
this  prove  degeneracy? 

It  is  said  that  the  stock  on  which  a  graft  is  worked  has  an  influence  on  the  fruit.  I  ac- 
knowledge that  it  has  individually,  but  not  generally.  The  Angouleme  pear,  worked  on 
the  quince,  slightly  changes  the  fruit  for  the  better.  But  take  a  bud  from  the  Angouleme 
pear  on  quince,  and  work  it  back  on  the  pear  stock,  and  there  is  no  difference  between  its 
fruit  and  the  Angouleme  that  has  always  been  worked  on  the  pear  stock.  This  explains 
what  I  mean  by  the  influence  being  individually,  but  not  generally. 

Mr.  Downing,  in  his  work  on  "  Fruits  and  Fruit  Trees  of  America,"  speaking  of  the 
White  Juneating  Apple,  says — "  this  is  an  old  variety  mentioned  by  Evelyn  in  1660,  and 
described  by  Ray,  in  1688,  and  is  a  very  tolerable  little  apple."  p.  78.  Of  the  Golden 
Pippin,  he  says,  "  It  is  a  very  old  variety,  being  mentioned  by  Evelyn  in  ICCO,  but  it 
thrives  well  in  many  parts  of  England  still."  p.  112.  Of  the  Canada  Rcinctte,  he  says, 
"  It  is  doubtful,  notwithstanding  its  name,  whether  it  is  truly  of  Canadian  Origin,  asMer- 
let,  a  French  writer,  describes  the  same  fruit  in  the  17th  century;  and  some  authors  think 
it  was  brought  to  this  continent  from  Normandy,  and  carried  back  under  its  new  name. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  a  very  large  and  handsome  fruit,  a  good  bearer,  and  of  excellent  quality 
espects."  p.  129.  Of  the  Bartlett  pear,  he  says,  "  It  is  an  English  variety,  origi- 
about  1770."  p.  334. 

No.  III.  2.  ^^^ 


NOTES  ON  THE  DISEASES  OF  FRUIT  TREES  IN  THE  WEST. 

Some  of  our  pomologists  complain,  that  certain  varieties  of  fruit  are  not  so  good  now 
as  when  they  were  little  boys.  Perhaps  the  diiference  is  in  the  taste  and  judgment  of  the 
boy  and  those  of  the  man. 

I  believe  that  a  sound  healthy  graft,  taken  from  a  vigorous  tree  in  perfect  health — work- 
ed on  a  seedling  stock  of  the  same  genera,  grown  in  similar  soil  and  climate — thus  repro- 
duced for  ages,  will  never  degenerate.  That  the  degeneracy  complained  of,  is  in  the  soil 
and  cultivation — not  in  the  tree  or  its  fruit.  A.  Marshall. 

West  Chester,  Chester  County/,  Pa. 


NOTES  ON  THE  DISEASES  OF  FRUIT  TREES  IN  THE  WEST. 

BY  PROFESSOR  TURNER,  ILLINOIS  COLLEGE. 

Dear  Sir — I  confess  my  delinquencies  as  a  correspondent;  but  I  have  been  unusually 
engaged  this  past  fell  in  attending  Institutes  and  delivering  lectures  on  the  "  Education 
of  the  Industrial  Classes,"  in  neighboring  counties,  as  well  as  in  an  unusual  pressure  of 
business  at  home.  When  I  have  pushed  the  matter  a  little  farther  in  my  own  state,  I 
shall  probably  have  a  word  to  say,  with  your  leave,  through  the  Horticulturist  on  this 
theme. 

I  see  favorable  notices  of  your  work  on  "  Country  Houses,"  on  all  sides,  and  I  have 
never  known  a  book  in  the  west  receive  so  universal  a  commendation  from  all  classes  and 
professions.  As  there  was,  for  some  time,  no  other  copy  to  be  had  here,  I  loaned  mine 
until  I  was  obliged  positively  to  refuse  to  loan  it  any  more,  to  keep  it  from  being  worn  out 
by  others. 

There  are  no  less  than  five  houses  built,  or  being  built,  after  j^our  models  in  this  village 
already,  all  taken  from  this  book;  and  I  think  when  completed,  they  will  be  almost  the 
only  tasteful  houses  in  the  place.  For  myself,  I  may  say  I  expected  a  good  work,  but  so 
far  as  the  architecture  of  houses  is  concerned,  it  is  at  least  much  more  in  accordance  with 
true  principles  of  taste,  and  much  better  adapted  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  country,  and 
the  age,  than  I  could  have  believed  forthcoming  in  the  present  state  of  both  the  art  and 
the  science  in  this  country.  And  for  this,  as  well  as  for  much  else,  we  Americans  owe  you 
our  sincere  and  hearty  thanks.  I  think  it  ought  to  be  placed  on  the  table  of  every  man 
who  has  a  family,  in  the  United  States,  and  if  so,  it  would  do  more  to  improve  their  taste, 
and  indirectly  to  form  their  morals  and  manners,  than  four  times  the  same  money  expend- 
ed in  the  ordinarj'  methods  of  teaching  the  "  young  idea  how  to  shoot."  It  is  a  book, 
too,  of  first  lessons,  regarding  the  very  place  where  all  instructions  should  begin — "home." 
But  I  must  proceed  to  my  annual  report;  and  first — 

Apples. — There  has  been  throughout  this  state,  an  unparalleled  blight  in  the  tops  of 
apple  trees.  At  first  I  thought  it  was  the  Scolytas  Pyri,  or  some  similar  insect.  But  I 
have  never  been  able  to  obtain  the  least  proof  of  the  existence  of  an  insect,  or  to  find  any 
marks  of  his  ravages  whatever,  and  many  facts  induce  me  to  think  it  is  not  an  insect. 

Nor  was  there  any  unusual  drouth  or  severity  of  winter  that  could  have  produced  it. 
The  winter  was  so  mild  and  favorable  here,  that  tender  shrubs  never  stood  it  better,  and 
the  ground  at  the  time  of  the  blight,  was  unusually  moist  for  that  season  of  the  year. 
The  springs  were  higher  than  they  are  now,  or  have  been  since. 

deed,  the  season  has  varied  from  ordinary  seasons  so  far  as  I  know,  but  in  one 
pect.     It  was  generallj^  quite  cool  until  Jul  •,  after  which  we  had  an  unusual  num 


NOTES  ON  THE  DISEASES  OF  FRUIT  TREES  IN  THE  WEST. 

of  excessively  Iwt  days,  the  thermometer  ranging  from  ninety  to  one  hundred  degrees  in 
ordinary  exposures,  and  from  one  hunded  and  thirty  to  one  hundred  and  forty  degrees  in 
the  simsJiine,  through  at  least  two  days,  when  I  noticed  it.  Still,  in  alternate  daj^s,  it  fre- 
quently and  suddenly  sunk  several  degrees.  Did  the  excessive  heat,  or  the  sudden  changes, 
or  both,  or  neither,  do  the  mischief  .'  I  cannot  tell.  At  any  rate,  there  was  scarce  a  terminal 
branch  of  an  apple  tree  in  this  county  that  was  not  more  or  less  affected,  and  some  of  them 
several  feet  down  below  the  last  years  growth.  On  my  grounds,  it  affected  young  nurse- 
ry trees  from  one  to  three  j'ears  old,  worse  than  older  trees.  At  first,  the  leaves  near  the 
end  turned  black,  and  usually,  by  cutting  the  stem,  a  black  and  dead  spot  would  be  found 
below  the  dying  leaves,  of  greater  or  less  extent.  Sometimes  these  black  patches  of  bark 
and  M'ood,  would  be  found  at  some  distance  below  any  dead  leaves,  but  the  leaves  were 
sure  at  last,  to  die  down  to  that  point.  But  it  passed  away  without  any  serious  injury  to 
the  trees,  so  far  as  can  now  be  seen. 

People  talk  and  write,  as  I  have  done,  about  "  the  blight,"  but  I  am  couvinced  that  this 
form  of  blight  has  never  been  in  this  part  of  the  country  before — whether  caused  by  heat, 
or  cold,  or  insects,  or  what  not. 

Pears. — On  pears  this  blight  was  more  injurious  by  far.  The  branches  not  only  died 
down  to  the  lowest  black  spot,  as  was  the  case  with  the  apple,  but  they  continued  to  form 
black  spots  of  bark  still  farther  and  farther  down,  even  to  the  ground,  when  not  arrested 
by  amputation.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  here,  that  I  had  six  pear  trees,  not  grafted,  upon 
whole  seedling  roots,  and  only  six;  of  these,  five  out  of  the  six,  some  ten  years  old,  were 
almost  entirely  ruined, 

Tlie  one  not  injured,  in  the  spring  I  filled  with  sulphur,  by  putting  it  in  ahalf  inch  hole, 
as  I  did  some  of  my  plum  trees,  merely  to  see  if  it  would  correct  the  disease  of  the  leaf, 
of  which  I  spoke  in  a  former  communication.  Whether  this  did  any  good  or  not,  I  know 
not;  but  the  fact  was,  every  tree  around  it  was  sadly  injured,  while  it  wholly  escaped. 

Again,  of  several  hundred  plum  trees  in  the  same  lot,  known  to  be  grafted  on  "  entire 
seedling"  roots,  not  one  was  in  the  least  degree  affected  with  the  blight  through  the  sea- 
son, though  many  of  them  stood  in  the  midst  of  a  young  nursery  of  apples,  all  of  which 
were  more  or  less  dead  in  their  terminal  branches.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  a 
part  of  these  trees  vrere  plentifully  supplied  with  ashes,  bones,  &c.,\vhen  they  were  trans- 
planted several  years  ago — though  not  all  of  them. 

Toward  the  latter  part  of  the  season,  I  began  to  suspect  that  the  disease  in  the  pear  tree 
was  analogous  to  the  erj^sipelas  in  the  animal  system — and  as  I  had  got  tired  of  amputa- 
tion, I  cut  away  all  the  dead  corticle,  or  outer  bark,  as  fast  as  it  appeared,  and  left  the  in- 
ner bark  untouched.  The  inner  bark  in  such  cases  lived,  and  I  see  is  alive  now.  On  one 
tree,  there  was  a  blotch  on  the  trunk  two  feet  long,  and  some  four  to  six  inches  wide,  in 
which  the  cuticle  appeared  entirely  dead,  while  the  inner  bark  was  fresh.  T  proceeded  on 
the  same  principle  as  ph3^sicians  do  with  erysipelas,  and  arrested  the  progress  of  the 
blotch,  and  thus  far  saved  the  tree.  How  it  will  do  in  the  spring,  I  cannot  say.  I  am 
sure  this  disease  is  unlike  anything  I  ever  saw  before,  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  is  of 
atmospheric  origin,  or  proceeds  from  the  presence  of  animalcula),  and  that  it  progresses 
by  the  same  general  law  as  erysipelas  in  the  human  system,  and  that  peeling  the  dead 
corticle  off  as  soon  as  it  appears,  and  applying  a  weak  alkaline  wash,  will  arrest  its  down- 
ward and  fatal  progress;  and  also,  that  sulphur,  as  applied  to  plum  trees  for  the  curcu- 
lio,  may  prevent  it,  if  done  early  in  the  season.  But  I  only  make  these  suggestions  in  the 
that  they  may  stimulate  others  to  a  more  extensive  and  satisfactory  investigat 
facts  in  the  case.     All  theories  which  I  can  form,  are  as  yet  quite  unsatisfastorj' 


NOTES  ON  THE  DISEASES  OF  FRUIT  TREES  IN  THE  WEST. 

many  of  those  proposed,  are  entirely  at  war  with  the  facts  as  they  appeared  here,  though 
they  may  apply  well  elsewhere. 

By  the  way,  the  erysipelas  has  appeared  more  fatally  in  the  human  subject  in  these 
parts,  within  a  few  years,  than  was  ever  before  known.  Do  the  same  atmospheric  or  oth- 
er causes,  conduce  to  both  diseases  in  the  animal  and  vegetable  world?  Let  us  observe 
and  inquire.  At  all  events,  if  no  remedy  is  found,  it  will  be  useless  to  attempt  to  culti- 
vate pears  in  this  western  country. 

It  should  be  noticed,  however,  that  the  only  pear  trees  of  twenty  or  twenty-five 
years  old,  in  this  vicinity,  have  stood  for  many  years  in  an  unbroken  sward  of  blue 
grass,  which  is  hard  and  compact.  Some  of  these  trees  were  somewhat  blighted  at  the 
top,  but  far  less  than  younger  trees  differently  situated.  One  seedling  tree  in  the  same 
lot,. standing  in  a  cultivated  garden,  about  fifteen  years  old,  showed  not  a  single  blighted 
leaf,  while  all  others  near  it  were  blackened  more  or  less. 

It  is  certainly  true  here,  that  trees  grafted  upon  entire  seedling  roofs,  and  trees  stand- 
ing in  a  hard,  tough,  blue  grass  sward,  have  escaped  all  forms  of  blight  as  yet,  far  better 
than  others,  [which  is  partly  owing  to  their  making  very  moderate  growth — instead  of 
running  into  over-luxuriance,  and  partly  to  the  grass  protecting  the  roots  from  excessive 
changes — like  mulching.     Ed.] 

The  blight  to  which  I  alluded  in  a  former  paper,  and  which  has  heretofore  prevailed 
here,  starts  from  the  south-west  of  the  trunk  and  large  branches,  and  spreads  both  up- 
wards and  downwards,  while  the  leaves  are  still  unafiected;  and  seems  precisely  like  that 
form  of  blight  which  is  described  by  your  correspondent  as  killing  his  apple  trees  in  Mo- 
bile, in  the  December  No.  of  the  Horticulturist.  I  cannot  have  been  mistaken  in  calling 
this  form  of  blight  a  severe  scald — the  facts  here  abundantly  prove  it.  Beside,  how  do 
your  advocates  of  the  frozen-sap  theory,  account  for  the  above  case.  Does  frost  kill  ap- 
ple trees  in  Mohili  1  I  apprehend  they  would  be  killed  still  worse  in  the  same  way,  far- 
ther south,  if  their  trunks  were  exposed  to  the  scalding  sun,  continually  drying  the  liquid 
sap  into  solid  gum.  But  while  the  blight  of  former  years  thus  began,  and  appeared  to 
spread  like  a  general  mortification  of  the  animal  tissues,  the  blight  of  this  year  appeared 
to  begin  on  or  near  the  extreme  twigs  and  small  branches,  at  once  affecting  the  leaves, 
while  still  the  trunk  and  large  branches  Avere  entirely  sound — and  spreading  mostly  down- 
wards, first  on  the  outer  bark,  like  erysipelas,  and  not  by  a  general  simultaneous  black- 
ening and  gangrene  of  the  interior  tissues,  as  in  the  other  case. 

Again,  it  frequently  began  on  the  most  shady  side  of  the  tree,  even  where  the  sun  never 
shown  upon  the  branch;  and  while  extreme  heat  is  the  only  known  cause  to  which  I  can 
ascribe  the  disease  in  this  latter  case — still  it  operated  by  producing  a  general  paralysis  of 
the  functions  of  the  cuticle,  if  at  all,  and  not  by  a  sudden  scald  of  a  particular  part  of  the 
trunk,  as  in  the  former  case.  I  have  been  thus  particular  and  tedious,  because  it  is,  in  my 
present  view,  as  absurd  to  suppose  all  blights  in  trees  are  alike,  as  it  is  to  suppose  all 
fevers  and  inflammations  in  men  and  animals  alike.  It  is  true,  a  blight  is  a  blight,  and  so 
a  fever  is  a  fever,  whether  produced  by  cold  or  heat,  or  miasma  or  surfeit,  or  starvation; 
but  phjrsicians  find  it  quite  convenient,  after  all,  to  distinguish  between  fevers  and  their 
causes,  before  they  prescribe  remedies — and  that  both  frost,  and  heat,  and  miasma,  and 
animalculaS,  and  surfeit,  and  starvation  may,  in  different  localities  produce  different  modes 
and  forms  of  this  baleful  pear  tree  fever,  has  at  least,  been  rendered  sufficiently  probable 
to  awaken  suspicion  and  inquiry.  Let  us  try,  therefore,  to  obtain  accurate  descfip 
of  its  forms  and  modes  in  different  places  and  seasons,  as  the  only  sure  first 

truly  philosophical  investigation.     It  is  certainly,  however,  about  as  dangerous  here 


NOTES  ON  THE  DISEASES  OF  FRUIT  TREES  IN  THE  WEST. 

trim  a  pear  tree,  or  disturb  the  blue  grass  sward  around  it,  as  it  would  be  to  trim  a  bo3"s 
nose,  hair  and  ears  off,  and  lay  him  out  naked  to  roast,  in  a  hot  summer's  sun,  thinking 
thereby  to  make  him  grow  faster,  or  into  better  shape.  To  say  nothing  of  our  horticul- 
turists, our  most  ordinary  observers  now  know  better  here,  though  in  many  cases  their 
knowledge  cost  them  more  than  it  is  worth,  for  their  trees  are  all  gone. 

Quinces  and  Plums. — Quinces  have  been  affected  also,  by  a  similar  blight,  not  so  fa- 
tal as  to  the  pear,  but  more  so  than  on  the  apple,  which  soon  recovered  of  their  own  ac- 
cord, and  bore  their  fruit  as  usual. 

For  two  years  I  have  put  sulphur  in  a  few  of  my  plum  trees,  and  have  got  some  fruit 
from  those  trees  alone.  I  think  as  sulphur  is  usually  put  into  the  trees,  it  can  be  of  no 
po-ssible  use.  A  hole  is  bored,  a  little  sulphur  thrown  in,  perhaps  half  filling  the  hole, 
and  stopped  with  a  loose  plug.  Of  course  the  air  soon  dries  up  the  pores  about  the  hole, 
and  no  part  of  the  sulphur  is  absorbed  and  carried  up  with  the  sap.  I  have  tried  this 
mode  several  times  without  the  least  success.  For  two  years  past,  suspecting  what  might 
be  the  cause  of  failure,  I  have  proceeded  more  cautiously,  and  all  T  can  say  is,  on  those 
trees  I  had  some  fruit,  on  others  none  at  all.  I  first  bored  a  smooth  half-inch  hole,  with 
a  sharp  center-bit,  almost  through  the  sap  wood.  I  then  took  fine  sulphur,  in  a  half-inch 
gouge,  and  with  a  round  stick  crowded  the  hole  as  full  of  this  substance  as  it  could  be 
pressed,  up  to  the  point  I  wished  my  plug  to  reach.  I  then  fitted  the  plug  with  entire  ac- 
curacy, so  as  not  to  split  the  bark,  while  it  still  pressed  hard  upon  the  sulphur,  and  ex- 
cluded all  air  from  the  hole.  I  then  sealed  the  outside  fast  with  grafting  wax,  so  as  to 
exclude  air  from  without.  Of  course,  if  the  sulphur  is  pushed  into  the  heart-wood,  or  if  the 
air  come  into  the  hole  it  can  do  little  or  no  good,  as  it  cannot  be  absorbed. 

I  suspect  also,  that  after  the  sulphur  is  pretty  well  absorbed,  so  as  to  leave  the  hole  in 
part  vacant,  the  effect  must  cease,  and  as  I  did  not  repeat  the  process,  it  may  be  that  was 
the  reason  why  many  of  my  plums  were  at  last  stung  by  the  curculio.  Still,  here  again 
I  consider  nothing  proved,  only  let  us  "  keep  trying."  But  as  this  process  would  natu- 
rally be  ordinarily  performed,  it  is  evident  it  must  utterly  fail,  even  if  good  in  itself.  Let 
it  be  performed  on  both  sides  of  the  tree  with  great  care,  and  repeated  once  in  two  weeks, 
or  so — or  once  a  week — and  then  it  would  be  f;iirly  tested.  Let  us  also  try  with  care, 
some  more  soluble  minerals,  or  salt  of  iron,  copperas,  &c. — finely  pulverised — and  care- 
fully inserted.  Probably  none  of  these  would  reach  the  fruit  without  injuring  the  tree. 
But  that  is  not  certain  until  it  is  tried ;  for  even  a  noxious  exhalation  from  the  bark  and 
leaves,  might  repel  the  intruder. 

Grapes. — Oh  grapes,  grapes! !  "We  go  from  bad  to  worse.  All  the  grapes  raised  in  Illi- 
nois last  season,  would  not  make  nectar  enough  to  fill  Hebe's  smallest  cup.  All  remedies 
and  theories,  have  utterly  failed.  The  grapes  set  well  as  usual,  but  in  July,  even  before 
the  extreme  heat  came  on,  they  began  to  rot.  I  visited  nearly  every  grapevine  in  this 
place,  to  try  to  ascertain  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  I  found  but  one  solitary  vine  which  even 
tolerably  retained  its  fruit.  This  was  one  about  five  or  six  3'ears  old,  planted  on  the  top 
of  the  lime  scorise  thrown  out  from  the  mortar  bed  while  building  a  large  brick  house. 
Its  bed  was  supposed  to  be  from  one  to  two  feet  thick,  of  lime  and  brickbats,  covered  with  a 
few  inches  of  soil  by  the  natural  process  of  grading  about  the  house.  The  grapes  on  this 
vine  ripened  well  with  no  extra  care,  and  it  was  the  only  case  in  town,  or  in  the  county, 
so  far  as  I  know.  I  tried,  myself,  all  sorts  of  experiments.  I  obtained  cedar  posts  22 
feet  long,  from  St.  Louis,  and  elevated  some.  I  sent  to  New-York  and  got  a  barrel  of 
of  Paris  for  others;  lime  for  others,  ashes  and  bones  for  others.  Some  I  cover 
inches  deep  with  saw-dust;  some  I  covered  with  a  coping,  and  kept  them  as  d 


NOTES  ON  THE  DISEASES  OF  FRUIT  TREES  IN  THE  WEST. 

possible-  others  I  kept  water  standing  around  all  summer.  Some  I  trimmed  close  in  vari 
ous  ways,  and  others  I  did  not  trim  at  all.  But  the  rot  took  the  whole  of  them  at  last, 
indiscriminatel3^  At  one  time  I  thought  those  mulched  with  saw-dust  and  elevated  on  the 
cedar  poles,  had  escaped,  and  was  about  to  inform  you  of  my  entire  triumph,  as  the  oth- 
ers were  nearly  all  gone,  while  these  were  fresh  and  fair.  But  fortunately,  before  I  got 
time  to  write  my  exultation,  these  mostly  went  in  the  same  way;  they  however  ripened  a 
few  bunches,  and  strange  to  tell,  almost  every  grape  that  ripened  had  a  worm  in  it,  and 
was  worthless.  Now,  query — is  this  rot  caused  by  an  insect,  and  did  not  the  mulching 
destroy  the  larvae  under  these  vines  until  all  the  others  were  "  used  up,"  the  insects  then 
gathering  upon  those  also,  by  emigration?  I  confess  it  looks  like  it.  Again,  the  week  be- 
fore they  began  to  rot,  I  saw  a  great  number  of  little  insects  on  the  M'ing  under  those 
vines — somewhat  resembling  a  small  ^y,  but  so  quick  on  the  wing  it  was  impossible  to 
catch  them,  and  I  never  saw  one  light,  nor  could  I  find  any  in  any  other  part  of  the  garden, 
though  there  were  hundreds  under  this  grape  arbor  in  the  early  part  of  the  day.  This 
attracted  my  attention  strongly  at  the  time.  But  I  thought  little  of  it  until  I  found  the 
grapes  all  worm-tenanted  in  the  fall. 

Again,  I  had  almost  forgotten  the  conclusion,  until  a  week  or  two  since,  I  was  inform- 
ed while  in  Quincy  that  one  man  had  saved  his  crop,  by  his  son's  catching  an  insect  about 
the  vines  earl}'  in  the  season.  His  theory,  I  learn,  is  that  the  rot  is  caused  by  an  insect 
which  deposits  the  larvaj  in  the  bloom,  similar  to  the  pea-flj^ — hence  those  grapes  which 
perish  early,  say  about  the  size  of  green  peas,  do  not  perfect  their  larvae,  while  those 
which  hang  on  late,  and  ripen  as  some  of  mine  did,  do  perfect  them. 

This  also  accords  well  enough  with  the  fact,  that  old  vines  are  worse  infected  than  new 
ones — and  the  same  of  localities. 

Some  soils,  also,  may  be  propitious  to  the  larvjc,  others  destructive — while  mulching, 
liming  and  various  other  processes,  may  tend  to  destroy  them.  But  here  I  have  no  theo- 
ry and  no  opinion;  the  facts  I  have  detailed  are  facts — that  is  all  I  care  as  yet  to  say,  ex- 
cept that  I  think  them  sufficient  to  set  others  to  watching  and  thinking;  for  in  the  present 
state  of  things,  grapes,  over  thousands  of  square  miles  in  the  west,  can  be  of  little  or  no 
use,  and  he  who  first  discovers  the  true  cause  and  cure,  will  be  one  of  the  greatest  bene- 
factors of  his  country  and  race.     Have  any  others  found  their  grapes  ivormy  in  the  fall  1 

Melons. — I  have  found  for  two  years,  that  melons,  and  especially  water-melons,  did 
far  best  either  on  new  ground,  (which  all  admit,)  or  after  a  crop  of  tomatoes,  where  they 
yielded  twice  as  well  as  on  other  old  ground. 

CnERRiES. — All  the  cherry  trees  which  I  stripped  of  their  outer  bark  some  years  since, 
have  escaped  all  disease  thus  far,  and  continue  to  do  well.  I  intend  to  experiment  upon 
the  corticle  of  the  pear  next  season  with  a  rasp,  as  I  have  a  suspicion  that  they  may  thus 
be  benefitted.  At  all  events,  with  us,  their  most  critical  period  hy  far,  is  while  changing 
from  a  smooth  to  a  rough-barked  tree. 

I  am  conscious  I  have  been  tedious.  I  will  therefore  close,  and  leave  you  to  publish  as 
much  or  as  little  of  this  long  epistle — in  entire  or  separate  numbers — as  you  please. 
Meantime,  I  am  as  ever  truly  yours,  '  J.  B.  Tuknek. 

JaclcsonviUe,  Illinois,  Jan.  7,  1851. 


TREES  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 


THE  RARE  TREES  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

BY  A  MASSACHUSETTS  SUBSRCIBER. 

If  in  this  country,  where  the  people  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  profess  to  be  pat- 
riots, they  can  once  be  persuaded  that  planting  is  a  patriotic  work,  or  where  all  are  close 
calculators  of  profit  and  loss,  it  can  be  demonstrated  to  their  satisfaction,  that  it  is  a  pro- 
fitable one — the  end  is  attained.  To  those  who  ask  why  they  should  plant  for  posterity, 
when  posterity  has  done  nothing  for  them,  I  would  urge  these  two  arguments,  profit  and 
patriotism.  With  all  due  deference  to  the  wisdom  of  the  oracular  Dr.  JonxsoN,  I  deny 
both  his  premises  and  conclusions,  when  he  offers  the  following  consoling  paragraph  to  the 
Scotch  planters :  "  There  is  a  frightful  interval  between  the  seed  and  the  timber.  He  that 
calculates  the  growth  of  trees,  has  an  unwelcome  remembrance  of  the  shortness  of  life 
driven  hard  upon  him.  He  knows  that  he  is  doing  what  will  never  benefit  himself,  and 
Avhen  he  rejoices  to  see  the  stem  rise,  is  disposed  to  repine  that  another  shall  cut  it  down." 
A  less  gloomy  moralist,  the  good  and  gentle  Herbert,  in  enumerating  the  advantages  of 
cultivating  the  earth,  alludes  to  a  common  idea,  and  draws  the  beautiful  simile,  "  that  as 
the  smell  of  a  fresh  turned  sod  is  good  for  the  health  of  the  body,  so  may  the  contempla- 
tion of  death  be  for  the  health  of  the  soul."  The  first  and  last  portion  of  Dr.  Jonx- 
son's  assertion  is  easilj'  controverted  by  the  calculations  and  experience  of  English  gentle- 
men, Avho  have  estimated  that  "a  single  acre  planted  with  the  poplar  or  larch,  will,  in 
favorable  situations,  and  in  no  longer  period  than  twenty  years,  yield  a  produce  worth 
ten  times  the  fee  simple  of  the  land."  The  low  price  of  labor  and  higher  value  of  wood 
in  Great  Britain  is  about  equalised  in  this  country  by  the  lower  value  of  land,  so  that  while 
the  individual  estimates  are  different,  the  aggregate  account  is  similar.  Walter  Scott,  who 
was  a  practical  planter,  found  that  in  eleven  years  the  necessary  cuttings  and  trimmings 
from  a  larch  plantation  would  pay  the  expenses  attendant  upon  the  first  setting  out,  fen- 
cing and  rent  of  land;  after  that  the  value  increases  in  a  compound  ratio.  The  larch  tree 
is  not  only  a  fast  growing  tree,  but  produces  firm  and  durable  wood,  and  is  well  adapted  to  a 
soil  and  climate  where  little  else  will  flourish.  By  it  large  tracts  of  country  in  the  north 
of  Perthshire  were  converted  from  waste  unprofitable  land  to  fine  woods  and  pasturage 
for  cattle.  The  Duke  of  Athol  remarked  that  the  Avhite  clover  sprung  up  beneath  the 
larch,  the  annual  fall  of  the  leaves  manuring  the  ground,  so  that  the  seeds  of  this  plant 
which  lay  dormant  beneath  the  sod,  required  only  a  little  stimulant  to  bring  them  up, 
after  the  sod  had  once  been  disturbed  by  the  setting  of  the  trees.  I  should  like  here  to 
speak  upon  the  subject  of  spontaneous  vegetation,  an  error  very  coinmonly  maintained; 
but  the  limits  of  this  article  will  not  allow  such  a  digression.  To  return  to  our  larches. 
The  poet  of  nature  protested  against  a  "  vegetable  manufactory"  of  them  being  carried  on 
his  neighborhood,  and  I  can  well  imagine  tliat  they  would  not  harmonize  with  the  rich 
landscape  of  Cumberland  and  R3fdal  Mount;  but  on  the  bleak  hills  and  barren  seashore 
of  Xew-Eugland,  where  Emerson,  in  his  Report  on  the  Trees  of  Massachusetts,  has  recom- 
mended them  to  be  planted,  the  scenery  is  far  different.  These  hills,  as  well  as  the  islands 
on  the  Massachusetts  coast,  were  formerly  covered  with  wood,  but  the  injudicious  and  care- 
less felling  of  the  outer  trees  first,  let  in  the  cold  winds  upon  those  which  had  been 
tenderl}'^  sheltered, 

"  And  the  shady  nook 
Of  hazels  and  ihe  green  and  mossy  bower, 
Deformed  and  sallied,  patiently  gave  up 
Their  quiet  being." 


TREES  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Some  mute  inglorious  Milton  of  those  days  may  have  felt  like  Woudsworth, 

"  A  sense  of  pain  when  he  beheld 
The  silent  trees  and  the  intruding  sky." 

Our  ancestors  had  a  valid  excuse  for  thus  destroying  the  primeval  forest.  It  was  to 
them  no  longer  the  good  green-wood  of  merrie  England,  peopled  with  fairies,  Robin  Good- 
fellow  and  Puck,  hut  each  tree  afforded  a  secure  shelter  for  the  savage  Indian,  who,  with 
tomahawk  and  scalping  knife,  darted  from  behind  the  huge  grey  boles,  to  inflict  a  san- 
guinary death  upon  those  who  ventured  beyond  the  "  clearings  ;"  thus  he  who  destroyed 
a  tree  brought  his  labor  to  an  excellent  work.  But  now  the  times  have  changed;  "  trees 
are  notes  issued  from  the  bank  of  nature,"  increasing  in  value  as  the  eastern  portion  of  the 
country  is  becoming  rapidly  denuded  of  wood,  and  the  railroads,  which  in  every  direction 
are  weaving  a  net-work  amid  the  northern  forests,  consume  annually  the  growth  of  hun- 
dreds of  acres.  Another  Evelyn  is  needed  to  sound  throughout  the  land  a  parenesis,  to 
awaken  the  man  of  fortune  and  the  farmer  to  the  knowledge  that  there  is  pleasure  as  well 
as  profit  in  raising  something  else  besides  cabbages  and  monster  squashes,  for  trees  will 
live  where  not  even  a  turnip  will  grow.  A  gentleman  in  this  neighborhood  has  very 
wisely  offered  a  premium  to  any  one  who  plants  and  makes  grow  a  certain  number  of 
forest  trees  within  a  limited  time.  Some  such  plan  as  this,  generally  adopted  by  Agricul- 
tural Societies,  would  have  a  good  effect,  and  make  our  bleak  hills  and  waste  places 

"  One  ample  theatre  of  sylvan  shade." 

This  long  digression  upon  planting  brings  me  at  last  to  the  subject  with  which  I  in- 
tended to  have  commenced — a  visit  to  the  Woodlands,  near  Philadelphia. 

This  beautiful  place  was  formerly  the  seat  of  William  Hamilton,  a  man  of  taste,  and  a 
patron  of  the  Arts  and  Natural  Sciences.  He  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Andrew  Hamil- 
SON,  a  Scotchman,  well  known  in  the  early  settlement  of  Pennsylvania  as  William 
Penn's  deputy  governor.  William  Hamilton,  after  his  return  from  Europe  in  1784, 
built  a  splendid  house  in  the  Italian  style,  on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill,  and  laid  out  the 
grounds  around  it,  giving  to  the  sylvan  spot  the  characteristic  name  of  the  Woodlands. 
The  mansion  is  large,  and  the  rooms,  even  now,  though  deserted  and  unfurnished,  present 
an  appearance  of  elegance;  the  base  walls  were  once  ornamented  with  fine  paintings,  and 
the  niches  adorned  with  statues.  The  works  of  art  have  vanished,  but  the  beautiful  fea- 
tures of  nature  remain  unchanged;  the  view  from  the  stately  piazza,  over  the  bright  wa- 
ters and  fertile  fields,  still  delights  the  eye,  as  it  did  in  daj^s  long  passed.  Seen  from  that 
point,  the  river  in  its  windings  presents  the  appearance  of  five  detached  lakes,  the  inter- 
vening portion — 

''  "  The  shado\\-y  woodlands  hide  it, 

And  the  waters  disappear." 

In  this  smiling  retreat  Mr.  Hamilton  delighted  to  gather  together  a  variety  of  rare  trees 
and  plants,  and  did  much  by  his  enthusiasm,  to  cultivate  a  love  for  such  pursuits,  when 
they  were  less  common  than  at  the  present  day.  His  hot-houses  were  extensive,  and  filled 
with  the  floral  riches  of  the  tropics,  rarely  seen  in  this  country  half  a  century  ago.  An 
anecdote  is  related  of  the  Aite  that  befel  one  of  the  first  Camellia  flowers  that  bloomed  in 
this  country  in  his  green-house;  Mr.  Hamilton  was  social  in  his  habits,  and  accustomed 
to  give  large  entertainments ;  on  one  one  of  these  occasions,  the  first  flower  had  expanded, 
and  he,  desirous  of  delighting  and  astonishing  his  friends,  had  directed  the  gardener  to 
have  it  in  readiness  to  be  placed  in  the  center  of  the  dinner  table.  At  the  proper  time,  as 
alked  towards  the  green-house  to  see  that  his  orders  were  fulfilled,  he  met  one 
of  the  party,  who  had  in  her  hand  the  prize,  the  only  flower,  and  stepping 


TREES  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

him  in  great  glee,  said,  "  see  what  a  lovely  flower  I  have  plucked."  Mr.  Hamilton  ex- 
claimed with  an  oath,  "  Madam,  I  had  rather  have  given  you  one  hundred  guineas  than 
that  you  should  have  picked  that  precious  blossom."  [A  rather  ungallant  speech, 
for  doubtless  the  lady  was  herself,  the  fairer  flower.  Ed.]  The  grounds  Were  planted 
with  taste;  the  grouping  and  variety  of  trees  produce  a  picturesque  eflect;  yet  the  place 
has  suffered  severely  from  changing  owners,  and  is  now  far  inferior  in  beauty  to  what  it 
was  during  Hamilton's  life  time.  He  bequeathed  it  to  his  nephew,  James  Hamilton, 
by  whom  it  was  finally  sold  to  a  gentleman  of  Philadelphia,  who  occupied  the  house  for 
a  time,  and  felled  many  of  the  finest  trees  for  fuel.  Quite  recently,  one  of  the  most  state- 
ly specimens  of  the  black  oak  (Quercustinctoria)  existing  in  this  neighborhood,  was  laid 
low.  This  regal  tree  was  four  feet  in  diameter.  A  walk  leading  from  the  mansion  in  a 
northerly  direction,  and  of  which  there  is  still  some  remains,  was  termed  the  "  EnglLsh 
walk,"  on  account  of  its  sinuous  course;  it  is  skirted  with  the  yellow  Broom  (Cytisus 
scoparius,)  which  grows  here  luxuriantly.  He  probably  first  brought  the  plant  to  this 
countrjr,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  a  favorite  with  him,  as  it  existed  on  his  other  estates 
of  Bush  Hill  and  Lemon  Hill.  Hamilton  introduced  the  Platanus  orientalis,  of  which 
there  is  a  fine  specimen  still  flourishing  at  the  Woodlands,  probably  the  first  in  the  coun- 
try; it  was  under  the  eastern  plane  that  Xerxes  halted  his  army  of  seventeen  hundred 
thousand  men,  according  to  Evelyn,  "  to  admire  its  pulchritude  and  procerity,  and  be- 
came so  fond  of  it,  that  spoiling  both  himself,  his  wives  and  great  persons  of  all  their 
jewels,  he  covered  it  with  gold  gems,  necklaces,  scarfs,  bracelets  and  infinite  riches,  *  *  * 
and  when  he  was  forced  to  part  with  it,  he  caused  the  figure  of  it  to  be  stamped  on  a  medal 
of  gold,  which  he  continually  wore  about  him." 

Hamilton  also  introduced  (besides  the  Wych  Elm  from  Britain,  and  the  Tartarian 
]Maple,  indigenous  to  Russia,)  the  Lombardy  Poplar,  for  a  while  such  a  universal  favorite, 
but  which  is  now  rarely  considered  an  ornamental  tree.  The  cause  of  this  deterioration 
ma)^  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  poplar  is  dioecious,  and  only  the  staminate  tree  was 
brought  to  this  country;  consequentlj'',  it  has  been  propagated  b}'- suckers  or  cuttings, 
which  root  easily  and  grow  rapidly,  so  that  the  tree  is  now  in  its  dotage;  it  would  be  well 
for  some  one  to  import  either  seed  or  a  pistillate  tree,  and  thus  raise  a  new  stock.  Long 
rows  of  this  stiff  tree  have  justl}^  given  to  the  lovers  of  the  picturesque,  a  distaste  to  it,  but 
the  landscape-gardener  ought  not  wholly  to  neglect  it  on  that  account,  any  more  than  the 
landscape-painter  would  refuse  to  use  a  certain  color  because  another  artist  employed  that 
color  too  profusely;  a  few  Lombardy  poplars  planted  judiciously  produce  a  fine  effect — 
their  tall  symmetrical  forms  rising  above  their  neighbors,  catch  the  eye  and  break  the 
monotony  of  a  view.  The  stately  heads  of  the  pojalars  were  laid  low  in  New-England 
many  years  ago,  on  account  of  the  stories  circulated  that  a  frightful  insect  had  been 
found  to  infest  them ;  this  creature  seemed  to  partake  somewhat  of  the  fabulous  charac- 
ter of  the  dragon,  but  whether  real  or  imaginary  it  caused  the  destruction  of  this  tree, 
which  had  become  so  fashionable  after  the  French  revolution,*  that  it  was  planted  in  front 
of  nearly  every  house,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others. 

The  Gingko  tree  (^Salisburia  adantifolia,^  a  n&iive  o?  China,  a  number  of  which  are 
flourishing  there  finely — brought  to  ray  mind,  as  its  strange  leaves  flashed  in  the  sun-light. 
Dr.  BiGELOw's  address  to  this  curious  tree : 

Thou  queer,  outlandish,  fcn-leaved  tree, 
"Wliose  grandfather  came  o'er  the  sea, 
A  pilgrim  of  the  ocean — 

The  poplar  was  adopted  by  the  French  as  the  liberty  tree. 


ON  RAISING  POTATOES  FROM  SEED. 

Didst  thou  expect  to  gather  gear 
By  scUing  out  thy  chopsticks  here? 
What  a  mistaken  notion. 

These  are  said  to  be  the  largest,  if  not  the  oldest  in  the  country;  however,  I  do  not 
think  they  exceed  in  age  the  one  on  Boston  Common,  wliich  was  removed  to  its  pre- 
sent site  about  fourteen  years  ago,  when  the  Greene  estate  was  levelled  to  build  Pember- 
ton  Square;  it  was  thought  at  the  time  a  great  risk  to  remove  so  large  and  delicate  a  tree, 
but  it  must  be  either  moved  or  cut  doM'n,  modern  improvement  said,  and  the  event  has 
proved  that  the  attempt  was  judiciously  made,  for  though  it  languished  for  several  years, 
and  has  probably  increased  but  little  in  size  since  its  transplantation,  it  is  now  growing, 
its  roots  and  branches  somewhat  cut  away,  in  order  to  convey  it  through  the  narrow 
streets,  so  that  it  will  never  vie  in  beauty  of  form  with  its  brethren  of  the  Woodlands. 
Hamilton  did  not  import  and  nurse  up  foreign  trees  to  the  exclusion  of  those  of  native 
growth,  but  gathered  together  at  the  Woodlands,  the  most  beautiful  from  the  northern 
and  southern  states:  there  are  two  noble  specimens  of  the  Fagus  farugin^a  now  growing 
there,  probably  the  only  ones  in  that  section  of  countr3^  The  Magnolia  cordata  was  also, 
through  his  means,  brought  from  the  south.  It  was  as  gardener  on  this  estate,  that  PuRsn, 
the  author  of  Flora  America  Scptentrionalis,  began  his  career  in  this  country.  His  pre- 
decessor was  John  Lton,  also  a  collector  of  American  plants,  for  whom  a  genus  of  the 
Andromedete  was  named — Lyonia.  The  green-house  formerly  under  their  care,  is  still 
stocked  with  plants;  a  part  of  it  is  used  as  a  rosarium,  where  are  blooming  in  great  luxu- 
riance, a  variety  of  the  queen  of  flowers,  which  are  cultivated  to  plant  out  upon  the  graves; 
for  the  Woodlands  was  laid  out  a  few  years  ago  as  a  cemetery.  I  could  not  but  lament 
that  so  fine  a  house,  in  such  a  lovely  situation,  was  not  still  occupied  by  a  gentleman  of 
taste  and  fortune;  the  reason  given  for  the  desertion  of  the  place,  was  the  prevalence  of 
the  fever  and  ague,  which  is  now  said  to  have  almost  disappeared. 

To  this  lovely  spot,  once  the  resort  onl}^  of  the  gay  and  fashionable,  the  rich  and  the 
learned,  the  dwellers  of  the  crowded  city  now  come  out  to  bury  their  dead — 

And  nature's  pleasant  robe  of  green, 
Humanity's  appointed  shroud,  enwraps 
Tlieir  monuments  and  their  memory. 


Cambridge,  Mass.,  1851. 


Yours. 


ON  EAISINa  POTATOES   FROM   SEED. 

BY  WILLIAM  PARRY,  BURLINGTON  CO.,  N.  J. 

Having  derived  much  pleasure  an  information  from  reading  accounts  of  the  experi- 
ments recorded  in  the  Horticulturist,  I  feel  it  right  to  contribute  Avhat  little  laj's  in  my 
power  towards  the  general  good,  in  part  return  for  the  benefits  which  I  have  received  from 
the  experience  of  others. 

The  potato  being  so  valuable  an  esculent,  every  precaution  should  be  used  to  extend  its 
usefulness,  by  increasing  the  varieties  and  testing  the  merits  of  each,  as  well  in  qualitj'  as 
quantity  produced,  that  those  which  prove  superior,  either  in  early  ripening  or  adaptation 
to  particular  soils  or  climate,  may  be  disseminated  throughout  the  country,  and  those 
which  are  inferior  be  discarded  from  cultivation. 

The  usual  mode  of  raising  potatoes  from  the  seed,  by  planting  in  the  open  garden 
tedious  and  requiring  several  years  to  develop  their  true  characters,  has  deterred  man 


ON  RAISING  POTATOES  FROM  SEED. 

from  the  undertaking.  The  seed  require  a  long  time  to  vegetate,  and  the  growth  bein 
slow  thereafter,  noxious  weeds  and  grass  get  the  start  and  become  very  troublesome;  the 
plants  attain  but  a  diminutive  size  early  in  the  season,  which  is  the  most  favorable  time 
for  their  growth;  the  tubers  do  not  set  until  the  latter  part  of  summer,  when  the  dry 
weather  and  parching  rays  of  the  sun  check  their  future  growth,  and  tend  to  ripen  the 
crop  before  it  has  attained  much  size,  so  that  the  product  of  the  first  year  is  very  trifling, 
and  several  years  are  required  to  ascertain  the  true  qualities  of  the  seedling. 

The  great  object,  then,  is  to  get  the  plants  so  advanced  in  the  spring,  that  the  tubers 
may  set  and  grow  in  the  early  part  of  summer,  when  the  refreshing  showers  alternating 
with  the  genial  rays  of  the  sun  are  most  favorable  for  their  growth. 

The  plan  that  has  succeeded  well  with  me  for  several  years  past,  is  as  follows:  Soon 
after  the  ripening  of  the  potato  tops,  I  gathered  the  balls  of  the  Mercer  potato,  mashed 
them  together,  threw  on  a  little  Avater  and  left  them  a  few  days  to  ferment,  when  the  seed 
were  easily  separated  from  the  pulp  and  husk,  and  after  being  dried  were  placed  away  se- 
cure from  frost  or  moisture,  to  remain  until  spring  for  planting.  The  latter  part  of  the 
third  month  the  seed  were  sowed  in  a  hot-bed  under  glass,  the  grains  being  sown  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  asunder.  From  the  middle  to  the  latter  part  of  the  fifth  month,  the  plants 
being  three  or  four  inches  high,  and  frosty  weather  appearing  to  be  over,  on  damp  cloudy 
days  or  soon  after  a  rain,  the  plants  were  taken  up  with  a  portion  of  earth  to  each  and 
placed  in  loose  rich  soil,  at  about  the  same  distance  from  one  another  as  potatoes  are  usual- 
ly planted. 

The  plants  neither  wilted  nor  showed  any  signs  of  suffering  from  transplanting. 

It  is  of  importance  that  thej^  should  be  put  down  into  the  earth  two  inches  lower  than 
they  stood  in  the  seed  bed;  they  will  thus  produce  more  roots:  but  care  must  be  taken 
that  the  young  plants  do  not  produce  tubers  while  they  remain  in  the  seed-bed,  as  they 
will  be  very  much  weakened  if  allowed  to  do  so  before  they  are  put  out.  The  earthing-up 
of  the  potatoes  raised  from  the  seed,  should  be  done  earlj^,  and  not  too  heavily;  for  if  the 
plants  are  put  out  in  weather  which  is  not  very  unfavorable,  they  soon  begin  to  shoot  up, 
and  the  entire  soil  is  penetrated  by  very  small  fine  fibres,  which  would  be  injured  by  a 
high  or  late  earthing-up,  the  production  of  tubers  be  delayed  for  a  fortnight  or  three 
Aveeks,  and  the  produce  diminished.  The  potato  plants  thrive  best  in  a  rich  sandy  soil 
Avhich  has  been  deeply  dug.     [Potatoes  should  never  be  earthed  up  at  all.     Ed.] 

By  the  above  method  I  have  raised  full  sized,  merchantable  potatoes  the  first  year  from 
the  seed ;  many  hills  having  but  three  to  five  potatoes  and  all  of  a  fair  size  for  market — 
others  having  a  larger  amount  were  proportionally  smaller.  By  recurring  to  seedlings  Ave 
may  obtain  a  healthy  article  free  from  rot  or  any  other  disease,  but  I  have  no  confidence 
that  they  Avill  long  remain  so  after  being  exposed  to  the  same  influence  under  which  the 
parent  stock  has  degenerated. 

The  failure  of  the  potato  crop  in  many  parts  of  the  country  has  induced  farmer  to  ex- 
periment carefull}^  in  order  to  ascertain  if  possible  in  Avhat  situations  or  kinds  of  soils 
they  generally  succeed  best,  and  from  Avhat  experience  I  have  had,  I  am  inclined  to  the 
opinion,  that  Avhere  the  land  is  clayey  and  tenacious,  thereby  holding  the  heavy  rains  in 
immediate  contact  Avith  the  tubers  until  the  hot  sun  coming  upon  them,  Avhile  thus  tho- 
roughljr  saturated  Avith  Avater,  completes  their  destruction,  drying  and  baking  the  ground 
over  and  around  them,  so  as  to  exclude  the  air;  that  if  they  were  so  near  ripe  at  the  time 
to  retain  their  form  until  harvested,  the}^  soon  give  Avay  after  being  exposed  to  at 
leric  influence.  Such  soil  is  unsuitable  for  raising  potatoes — and  the  same  cause 
s  heretofore  prcA'ented  the  cultivation  of  the  more  delicate  sweet  potato  on  heavy 


NOTES  ON  THIRTY-TWO  VARIETIES  OF  PLUMS. 

land,  now  operates  against  the  Mercer  or  Irish  potato,  which  seems  to  have  degenerated 
in  vio'or,  and  has  at  length  yielded  to  those  adverse  influences  (which  the  sweet  potato 
never  could  withstand)  that  had  been  imperceptibly,  though  no  less  certainly  impairing 
its  constitution  for  many  years  previous;  and  that  sandy  loam,  open  and  porous  soils, 
which  allow  the  excess  of  moisture  to  pass  off  freely  from  the  plants,  whereby  severe 
storms  act  like  gentle  showers  merely  to  moisten  the  roots  and  invigorate  the  plants,  and 
the  genial  rays  of  the  sun  thereafter  meliorate  the  land  to  the  great  benefit  of  the  grow- 
ing crop — is  the  most  certain  land  on  which  to  depend  for  a  good  crop. 

Respectfully,  William  Paert. 

Cinnaminson,  Burlington  county^  N.  J.,  \st  mo.  24,  1851. 


NOTES  ON  THIRTY-TWO  VARIETIES  OF   PLUMS. 

BY  C.  REAGLES,  Esq.,  SCHENECTADY,  N.  Y. 

Living  in  a  plum  growing  district,  where  the  fruit  is  produced  in  great  perfection  and 
abundance,  I  ma}^  claim  a  right  to  know  something  about  plums  and  plum  trees.  I  there- 
fore send  you  a  few  scraps  from  my  Note  Book,  in  hopes  they  may  be  of  some  benefit  to 
those  who  are  not  similarly  blessed. 

1.  Peach  Plum. — I  am  well  satisfied  of  the  impossiblity  of  successfully  cultivating  this 
plum  to  the  northward  of  New-York.  The  winters  are  so  severe  as  to  destroy  nearly  every 
3'ear  the  new  wood  and  blossom-buds;  consequently  fruit  from  this  variety  is  very  rarely 
obtained.  I  have  grown  it  for  the  last  twenty-two  years;  in  the  nursery,  frequently,  hun- 
dreds of  trees  are  entirely  destroyed,  rarely  showing  a  symptom  of  vitality  on  the  ap- 
proach of  vegetation  the  ensuing  season. 

2.  Lombard. — This  variety  of  native  origin,  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  profitable 
plums,  for  orchard  culture,  that  has  as  yet  come  under  my  notice — not  only  producing 
enormous  crops  of  perfect  fruit,  annually,  but  at  the  same  time  growing  vigorously  with 
ordinary  attention,  accommodating  itself  to  almost  every  variety  of  soil;  a  great  desidera- 
tum in  my  opinion,  for  such  soils  as  are  not  adapted  to  the  general  cultivation  of  the 
plum. 

3.  Schene.ctadrj  Catharine. — A  variety  peculiar  to  this  locality,  where  it  has  enjoyed  the 
reputation  of  a  first  rate  fruit,  and  deservedly  so,  as  it  posseses  all  the  qualities  desired, 
except  large  size — i.  e.,  hardy,  extremely  productive,  and  of  a  flavor  but  rarely  excelled. 

4.  Co2^s  Golden  Drop. — A  great  fiivorite  wherever  it  is  generally  known;  this  plum 
has  already  been  extensively  planted  in  this  city,  although  I  opine  it  will  not  be  very  pro- 
fitable to  the  market  grower,  as  it  is  rather  a  shy  bearer;  but  its  late  maturity  and  ex- 
cellent flavor,  will  always  command  a  place  for  it  in  the  kitchen  and  amateur  garden. 

5.  Coe''s  Late  Red. — Has  been  somewhat  over  praised,  as  it  has  nothing  to  commend 
it  but  the  lateness  of  its  ripening  season.  [A  quite  correct  opinion  for  your  latitude,  but 
farther  south  it  is  a  valuable  fruit.     Ed.] 

6.  Colmnhia. — I  have  fruited  for  the  last  five  years;  my  experience,  during  which  time, 
goes  to  prove  it  hardly  worthy  of  the  high  encomiums  which  have  so  frequently'  been  be- 
stowed upon  it.  The  tree  is  a  hardy,  vigorous  grower,  and  good  bearer,  but  the  fruit  is 
liable  to  rot.     This  plum  is  of  a  magnificent  size  and  color — flavor  rather  mediocre. 

7.  Bhecker  Gage. — A  tolerable  bearer,  and  an  excellent  fruit  in  all  respects. 
Green  Gage. — Assumes  a  variety  of  characters  in  different  soils.     I  have  fruited 

the  several  names  of  Wilmott's  Late  Green  Gage,  Schuyler  Gage,  Rensselaer 


NOTES  ON  THIRTY-TWO  VARIETIES  OF  PLUMS. 

and  Ida  Gage.  To  produce  its  fruit  in  perfection,  (north,  of  New-York,)  it  requires  a 
warm,  deep  soil,  with  a  southern  inclination;  and  on  a  wall,  with  the  latter  mentioned 
exposure,  it  can  be  grown  to  twice  its  usual  size  and  beauty. 

9.  Prince's  Imperial  Gage. — A  well  known  and  extensively  cultivated  variety,  on 
which  the  grower  can  calculate  to  a  certainty  the  number  of  bushels  of  fruit  he  can  annu- 
ally carry  to  market.  This  fact,  connected  with  its  other  good  qualities,  will  keep  it  in 
cultivation  when  other  higher  flavored  sorts  are  comparatively  abandoned. 

10.  Huling's  Sapcrb. — This  mammoth  fruit  does  not  seem  to  have  attracted  that  uni- 
versal notice  to  which  it  is  entitled  in  so  eminent  a  degree.  It  is  a  decided  anomaly  in  this 
class  of  fruits,  carrying  out  its  gigantic  proportions  in  wood,  foliage,  and  fruit.  It  is  to- 
lerably hardy,  a  good  or  ordinary  bearer,  fruit  of  the  largest  size,  &c. — superior  flavor. 

11.  Blue  Imperatrice. — A  very  late  plum — decidedly  superior  to  Coe's  Late  Red  in  this 
latitude. 

12.  Jefferson. — An  excellent  plum  in  all  respects;  a  little  tender  here,  and  very  difficult 
of  propagation  to  any  extent. 

13.  Lawrence's  Favorite. — Has  proved  itself  highly  deserving  of  the  numberless  eulo- 
giums  so  unsparingly  bestowed  upon  it  by  those  who  have  partaken  of  its  highly  delicious 
fruit.  The  tree  is  a  strong  grower,  quite  hardy,  difiering  very  materially  in  this  respect 
from  the  Jefferson. 

14.  Purple  Magnum  Bonum. — A  very  ordinary  plum,  frequently  reproducing  itself 
from  seed,  with  scarcely  any  perceptible  difference  of  habit  or  fruit.  One  of  these  seed- 
lings is  "  Duane  Purple,"  which  does  not  differ  materially  from  a  half  dozen  other  seed- 
lings cultivated  here,  under  the  name  of  Red  Magnum  Bonum. 

15.  Yelloto  Magnum  Bonum,  (or  Egg  Plum,)  is  quite  a  favorite  here,  being  very  hardy, 
productive,  late,  and  consequently  a  very  profitable  plum  for  market. 

16.  Marten's  Seedling. — A  new  yellow  plum,  which  originated  in  the  garden  of  the 
gentleman  whose  name  it  bears,  residing  in  this  city;  it  has  fruited  with  me  this  last  sum- 
mer, and  proves  to  be  a  plum  of  the  finest  quality,  superior  to  the  majority  of  highly 
lauded  foreign  varieties. 

17.  3Iediterranean. — Another  new  seedling  from  the  interior  of  this  state,  nearly  as 
large  as  the  Peach  plum;  superior  to  it  in  point  of  flavor,  and  some  six  days  earlier.  It 
forms  a  beautiful,  thrifty  growing  tree,  perfectly  hardy.  Ripens  the  latter  part  of  July 
and  first  of  August. 

18.  Washington. — A  magnificent  showy  plum,  of  very  good  flavor;  hardy  and  produc- 
tive; a  general  favorite. 

19.  Early  Roijal. — Rather  tender;  a  slow  grower;  very  productive;  an  excellent,  high 
flavored  fruit;  ripens  the  latter  jjart  of  July. 

Lucomb's  Nonsuch. — Quite  mediocre. 

20.  Autumn  Gage. — A  prodigious  bearer;  quite  late,  and  nearly  first  rate. 

21.  Cloth  of  Gold. — Early;  but  too  dry  and  small  to  commend  it  to  favorable  notice. 

22.  Red  Diaper,  (or  Mimms) — Grows  very  much  like  the  Green  Gage;  the  wood  of 
the  new  growth  is  occasionally  destroyed  by  severe  winters.  It  is  a  red  plum,  as  its  name 
indicates,  exceedingly  delicious  and  melting. 

23.  Emerald  Drop. — An  abundant  bearer;  makes  a  fine  tree;  well  worthy  of  cultivation. 

24.  Imperial  Ottoman. — This  is  a  beautiful  plum;  ripens  first  of  August;  flavor  occasion- 
ally first  rate;  almost  too  tender  for  this  latitude 

i>/orocco.— Fruit  second  rate;  a  shy  bearer;  quite  early  and  hardy.     Ripens 
ust. 


NOTES  ON  DECORATIVE  GARDENING. 

2G.  Nectarine. — Second  rate;  much  below  my  expectation;  very  large,  but  quite  coarse. 

27.  Purple  Favorite. — One  of  the  best  of  purple  plums;  hardy,  productive,  and  deli- 
cious. 

28.  Royal. — An  excellent  plum  of  French  origin,  and  quite  hardy;  not  equal,  liowev- 
to  the  Purple  Favorite. 

29.  Parple  Gage. — Nearly,  if  not  quite  as  good,  as  the  Purple  Favorite. 
Jckworth  Imperatrice. — Seldom  ripens. 

30.  Jted  Gags. — Almost  as  productive  as  the  Lombard;  greatly  surpassing  the  latter, 
however  in  flavor.     [Deserves  to  be  far  more  extensively  planted  than  it  has  been.     Ed.] 

31.  Dennisf oil's  Med. — I  think  this  plum  may  be  safely  ranked  among  the  first  rate, 
for  such,  thus  far,  it  has  certainly  proved  to  be;  vigorous,  hardy  and  productive. 

32.  Benniston's  jllhany  Beauty. — Not  as  good  as  the  foregoing,  but  well  worthy  the  at- 
tention of  cultivators.  I  remain  your  ob't  serv't.  C.  Reagles. 

P.  S.     Another  season  I  shall  be  able  to  send  joxx  specimens  of  the  new  seedling  varie- 
ties, that  you  may  judge  of  their  qualities,  compared  with  other  good  sorts.  C.  Pt. 
Schenectady,  Jan.,  1851. 


NOTES  ON  DECORATIVE  GARDENINO— Architectural  Terraces. 

BY  H.  NOEL  HUMPHREYS,  Esq.* 

I  HAVE,  in  my  last  communication,  shown  how  terraces  maybe  produced  at  an  exceed- 
ingly moderate  expense,  suitable  to  various  styles  of  cottage  and  villa  architecture,  and 
it  is  on  this  moderate  scale  that  suggestions  for  the  formations  of  terraces  will  interest  the 
greatest  numlier;  but  this  most  important  feature  of  decorative  gardening  would  be  but 
imperfectly  explained  did  we  finish  the  series  without  alluding  to  terraces  in  their  more 
palatial  form,  and  in  their  noblest  proportions.  It  is  not  always  necessary  to  terrace  ef- 
fects, on  the  largest  scale,  that  architectural  decorations  should  be  introduced,  for,  by 
simple  embankments,  as  suggested  in  our  paper  on  cottage  terraces,  gardenesque  features 
of  a  very  noble  character,  and  suited  to  residences  of  the  highest  class,  may  be  obtained. 
The  engraving,  from  a  portion  of  the  Papal  Gardens  of  the  Belvedere  at  the  back 
of  the  Palace  of  the  Vatican,  at  Rome,  will  serve  to  show  what  may  be  produced  by  such 
simple  means;  and  though  still  susceptible  of  great  improvement,  the  geometrical  figures 
produced  by  deep  box  edgings,  and  the  symmetrical  effect  given  to  the  variety  of  elevation 
by  the  embankments,  are  evidences  of  a  true  feeling  for  the  gardenesque  in  the  designer. 
The  effects  to  be  produced  near  main  terraces,  b}^  deep,  massive,  box  edgings,  have  been 
much  neglected,  and  might  be  revived  with  great  effect;  but  this  feature  must  be  cautious- 
ly used,  and  not  carried  too  far,  as,  in  that  case,  the  attempts  invariably  sink  into  the  me- 
ritricious — when,  for  instance,  these  cropped  edgings  are  tortured  into  initial  ciphers,  or 
even  entire  epigrams,  as  in  some  of  the  later  Italian  villas;  or  to  select  a  more  modern 
instance,  in  the  magnificent  gardens  of  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  at  Alton  Towers— gar- 
dens reclaimed  by  art  from  land,  which  some  years  ago  was  no  other  than  a  barren 
waste — where,  if  my  memory  serves  me  correctly,  a  bust  has  been  placed  upon  a  marble 
column,  in  a  conspicuous  part  of  the  ornamental  gardens,  at  the  base  of  which,  the  inge- 
nious and  persevering  spectator  may  decipher,  in  the  cropped  box,  the  motto,  "He  made 

*  From  the  Gardener's  Magazine  of  Botany. 


THE   PAPAL  GARDENS   OF  THE   BELVEDERE. 


the  desert  smile,"*  in  honor  of  the  late  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  under  whose  directions  the 
improvements  were  effected.  Such  elaborate  conceits  are  apt  to  make  the  spectator  smile ; 
but  they  are  not,  as  I  have  observed,  without  their  precedent,  for  some  of  the  finest  of  the 
Italian  villas  are  disfigured  by  similar  effusions,  and  to  a  much  greater  extent — of  which 
several  ridiculous  and  scarcely   creditable  examples  might  be  cited. 

Of  the  most  architectural  terrace,  with  its  full  complement  of  statuary,  vases,  foun- 
tains, &c.,  the  villa  Panfili  Doria,  may  be  cited  as  an  example.  Of  this  magnificent  spe- 
cimen, the  engraving  will  contain  a  very  good  general  idea. 

As  displaying  the  true  feeling  of  the  palatial  terraces  of  the  school,  these  Italian  villas 
are  the  safest,  as  they  are  the  original  models.  I  find,  in  my  Italian  journal,  the  follow- 
ing notes  on  these  fine  monuments  of  architectural  and  gardeuesque  composition. 

The  villas  of  the  modern  Romans  merit  the  name  of  palaces,  and  form  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  features  of  Italian  scenery.  Of  those  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Rome,  that 
of  the  Borgliesi  family,  which  is  the  confiscated  domain  of  the  unfortunate  Cenci,  is  the 
most  important;  it  is  open  to  the  public,  and  forms  the  Hyde  Park  of  the  Romans;  but 
neither  Hyde  Park,  nor  Kensington  gardens,  nor  the  Tuilleries,  nor  Versailles,  can  convey 
any  idea  of  the  peculiar  charms  of  a  Roman  villa.  There  is  a  freshness  of  vegetation 
about  the  suburban  delizie  of  Rome,  that  the  neighborhood  of  large  towns  always  tarnish- 
es, except  in  Italy.  But  there,  close  under  the  walls  of  Rome,  the  Appenine  Anemone, 
of  various  tints,  brightly  colored  Scillas,  the  deep  crimson  Cyclamen,  and  many  beautiful 
Orchids,  put  forth  their  fragrant  blossoms  in  early  spring,  as  in  the  woody  dells  of  the 
secluded  country.  The  "sky-cleaving  Cypress"  shoots  aloft  its  pointed  or  forked  peak, 
to  a  height  equal  to  the  Poplar  of  the  North,  and  noble  groves  of  Ilices,  whose  vast  trunks 
spread  above  with  groined  branchwork,  into  densely-matted  foliage,  form, 

am  not  certain  whether  the  vegetable  literature  may  not  be  confined  to  initial  ciphers,  and  the  motto  i 
on  the  column ;  if  so,  the  ciphers  serve  the  purpose  of  illustration  equally  well. 


NOTES  ON  DECORATIVE  GARDENING. 


"  A  pillared  shade 
With  echoing-  walks  beneath." 

The  peculiar  character  of  the  tufted  heads  of  the  Stone  Pines,  too,  grouping  in  picturesque 
masses  Avith  terraces,  statues,  and  fountains,  tend  to  invest  Roman  villas  with  a  charm 
peculiarly  their  own. 

To  return  to  the  subject  of  our  engraving,  the  villa  Panfili  Doria  is  next  in  importance 
to  that  of  the  Borghesi,  among  the  villas  near  Rome;  but  its  somewhat  greater  distance, 
and  unhealthy  situation,  cause  it  to  be  much  less  frequented.  The  palace  itself  is,  on  its 
exterior,  almost  entirely  encrusted  with  antique  alto-relievi,  some  of  which  are  of  the 
highest  merit,  and  most  exquisite  beauty.  This  is  a  luxury  which  cannot  be  imitated  ex- 
cept in  Italy,  where  the  soil  still  teems  with  the  fragments  of  her  ancient  splendor,  many 
of  the  finest  of  these  relievi  having  been  turned  up  in  digging  the  foundation  of  the  build- 
ing. The  whole  of  the  composition  of  this  palace  and  gardens — for  the  whole  forms  one 
harmonious  design — is  an  excellent  model  for  the  careful  examination  of  the  modern  stu- 
dent, but  the  reduced  dimensions  of  our  engraving,  can  convey  but  a  very  inadequate  idea 
of  the  numerous  and  elaborate  details. 

I  find  the  following  brief  notices  of  one  or  two  other  villas  in  my  journal,  with  which 
I  shall  conclude  this  article,  which,  though  not  strictly  of  a  practical  character,  is  yet,  I 
think,  calculated  to  convey  my  opinion  of  the  styles  to  be  adopted  in  the  higher  class  of 
terraces,  better  than  more  mechanical  definition. 


TEH   VILLA  PANFILI   DORIA. 

The  villa  Albani,  perhaps,  realises  more  than  any  other  the  dreams  of  the  Italian  villa, 
that  haunt  the  imagination  before  having  seen  Italy.  It  is  chaste,  and  severely  classic  in 
its  style,  yet,  withal,  richly  magnificent,  a  rare  and  difficult  combination.  And  to  its  in- 
trinsic features,  the  charms  of  position  are  superadded,  the  range  of  views  from  its  mar 
ble  terraces  commanding  the  finest  portions  of  the  picturesque  campagna,  with  its  ru 
lines  of  half  crumbling  acqueducts,  and  scattered  groups  of  detached  ruins. 


MR.  DOWNING' S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

The  gardens  of  the  Borghesian  villa  Mondragone,  at  Frascati,  combine  to  an  unusual 
extent  the  richness  of  immediately  surrounding  features  with  the  result  of  art.  The  no- 
blest views  over  the  Appenine  range,  and  the  campagna,  the  latter  extending  even  to  Rome, 
where  the  vast  cupolas  of  St.  Peter's  are  seen  describing  a  dim  blue  arch  upon  the  horizon. 
The  various  and  picturesque  foreground  offered  by  the  rich  marble  terraces  of  Moudragone, 
have  not  been  overlooked  by  artists;  many  distant  views  of  Rome,  and  of  the  ever  attrac- 
tive campagna,  have  been  painted  from  this  spot. 


MR.   DO WNING'S  LETTERS   FROM  ENGLAND. 

Dropmore  is  the  seat  of  Lady  Grenville,  and  has  been  celebrated,  for  some  time,  for 
its  collection  of  rare  trees — especially  evergreens.  It  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  Windsor, 
and  I  passed  a  morning  there  with  a  good  deal  of  interest. 

In  point  of  taste  and  beauty,  Dropmore  disappointed  me.  The  site  is  flat,  the  soil  sandy 
and  thin,  and  the  arrangement,  in  no  way  remarkable.  The  mansion  is  not  so  fine  as 
some  upon  the  Hudson,  and  the  scenery  about  it,  does  not  rise  above  the  dead  level  of  an 
uniformity  rendered  less  insipid  by  abundant  plantations.  There  is,  however,  a  wilderness 
of  flower-garden  about  the  house,  in  which  I  saw  scarlet  geraniums  and  garden  vases 
enough  to  embellish  a  whole  village.  The  effect,  however,  was  riant  and  gay  without  the 
sentiment  of  real  beauty. 

But  one  does  not  go  to  Norway  to  drink  sherbet,  and  Dropmore  is  only  a  show  place 
by  virtue  of  its  Pinetum.  This  is  its  collection  of  evergreen  trees,  and  particularly  of 
the  piyie  tribe — every  species  that  will  grow  in  England  being  collected  in  this  one  place. 

Of  course,  in  a  scientific  collection  of  evergreen  trees,  there  are  many  that  are  only 
curious  to  the  botanist — many  that  are  only  valuable  for  timber,  and  many  that  are  al- 
most ugly  in  their  growth — or  at  least  present  no  attractive  feature  to  the  general  eye. 
But  there  are  also,  in  this  Pinetum,  some  evergreens  of  such  rare  and  wonderful  beauty, 
growing  in  such  exquisite  perfection  of  development,  that  they  effect  a  tree-lover  like  those 
few  finest  Raphaels  and  Vandykes  in  the  great  galleries,  which  irradiate  whole  acres  of 
common  art. 

The  oldest  and  finest  portion  of  the  Pinetum  occupies  a  lawn  of  several  acres  near  the 
house,  upon  which  are  assembled,  like  belles  at  a  levee,  many  of  those  loveliest  of  ever- 
greens— the  Araucaria  or  pine  of  Chili,  the  Douglass'  Fir  of  California,  the  Sacred  Cedar 
of  India,  the  Funebral  Cypress  of  Japan  and  many  others. 

Perhaps  the  finest  tree  in  this  scene  is  the  Douglass'  Fir  (^Jlhies  Douglassii.^  It  is 
sixty-two  feet  high,  and  has  grown  to  this  altitude  in  twenty-one  years  from  the  seed. 
It  resembles  most  the  Norway  Spruce,  as  one  occasionally  sees  the  finest  form  of  that 
tree,  having  that  graceful  downward  sweep  of  the  branches  and  feathering  out  quite 
down  to  the  turf — but  it  is  altogether  more  airy  in  form  and  of  a  richer  and  dark 
er  green  in  color.  At  this  size  it  is  the  symbol  of  stately  elegance.  Here  is  also  a  speci- 
men, thirty  feet  high,  of  Pinus  insignis,  the  richest  and  darkest  of  all  pines,  as  well  as 
Pinus  excelsa,  one  of  the  most  affectedly  pretty  evergreens — its  silvery  leaves  resemblin"- 
those  of  the  white  pine,  but  drooping  languidly — and  Pinus  macrocarpa  with  longer  leaves 
than  those  of  the  Pinaster.* 

*  Taxodiuin  sempervirens  is  here  seventeen  feet  hia:U — rich  dark  green  m  foliage  and  very  ornamental 
tomeriajaponica,  nearly  as  large,  rather  disappointed  me — keeping  its  brown  leaves  so  long  as  to  disfigure 
somewhat.    Picea  ncAilis  is  a  truly  beautiful  fir  tree. 

No.  III.  3^  ~~~ 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

But  the  gem  of  the  collection  is  the  superb  Chili  Pine  or  Araucaria — the  oldest,  I  think, 
in  England,  or,  at  all  events,  the  finest.  The  seed  was  presented  to  the  late  Lord  Gren- 
VILLE  by  William  IVth — who  had  some  of  the  first  gigantic  cones  of  this  tree  that  were 
imported.  This  specimen  is  now  30  feet  high,  perfectly  symmetrical,  the  stem  as  straight  as 
a  column — the  branches  disposed  with  the  utmost  regularity,  and  the  lower  ones  drooping 
and  touching  the  ground  like  those  of  a  larch.  If  you  will  not  smile,  I  will  tell  you  that 
it  struck  me  that  the  expression  of  this  tree  is  heroic — that  is,  it  looks  the  very  Mars  of 
evergreens.  There  are  no  slender  twigs,  no  small  branches — but  a  great  stem  with 
branches  like  a  colossal  bronze  candelabrum,  or  perhaps  the  whole  reminds  one  more  of 
some  gigantic,  dark  green  coral  than  a  living,  flexible  tree.  Yet  it  is  a  grand  object — in 
its  richest  of  dark  green,  its  noble  aspect  and  its  powerful,  defiant  attitude.  This  is 
quite  the  best  specimen  that  I  have  seen,  and  stands  in  a  light,  sandy  soil  on  a  gravelly 
bottom — on  which  soil  I  was  told,  it  only  grows  luxuriantly.  I  do  not  know  how  well 
this  fine  evergreen  will  succeed  at  home.  It  is  now  on  trial — but  T  would  hint  to  those 
who  may  fail  from  planting  it  in  rich  damp  soil,  that  even  here,  it  completely  fails  in 
such  situations. 

After  leaving  what  I  should  call  the  Pinetum  in  full  dress — i.  e.  in  the  highly  kept  part 
of  the  grounds  near  the  house,  you  emerge  gradually  into  a  tract  of  many  acres  of  nearly 
level  surface,  which  reminded  me  so  strongly  of  a  scattered  Jersey  pine  barren,  that 
had  it  not  been  for  tufts  and  patches  of  that  charming  little  plant  the  heather  in  full 
bloom,  growing  wild  on  all  sides,  I  might  have  fancied  myself  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Amboy.  The  whole  looked,  and  much  of  it  was,  essentially  wild,  with  the  exception 
of  carriage-drives  and  foot-paths  running  through  the  mingled  copse,  heath  and  woodland. 
But  I  was  soon  convinced  of  the  fact  that  it  was  not  entirely  a  wild  growth,  by  being 
shown,  here  and  there,  looking  quite  as  if  they  had  come  up  by  chance,  rare  specimens  of 
pines,  firs,  cedars,  etc.  fr'om  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  presently  I  came  upon  a  noble 
avenue,  half  a  mile  long,  of  Cedars  of  Lebanon  (a  tree  to  which  I  always  feel  inclined  to  take 
off  my  hat  as  I  would  to  an  old  cathedral.)  The  latter  have  been  planted  about  twenty-five 
years,  and  are  just  beginning  to  merge  the  beautifvil  in  the  grand.  Everj^thing  in  the  shape 
of  an  evergreen  seems  to  thrive  in  this  light  sandy  soil,  and  I  suggest  to  the  owners  of 
similar  waste  land  in  the  middle  and  southern  states,  to  take  the  hint  from  this  part 
of  Dropmore — plant  here  and  there  in  the  openings  the  same  evergreen  trees,  protecting 
them  by  a  slight  paling  at  first,  and  gradually  clearing  away  all  the  common  growth  as 
they  advance  into  beauty.  In  this  way  they  may  get  a  wonderfully  interesting  park — in 
soil  where  oaks  and  elms  would  never  grow — at  a  very  trifling  outlay. 

I  cannot  dismiss  Dropmore  without  mentioning  a  superb  hedge  of  Portugal  laurel,  thirty- 
one  feet  high — and  the  beautiful  "Burnam  beeches,"  almost  asfineas  one  ever  sees  in  Ameri- 
ca, that  I  passed  on  the  way  back  to  the  rail-way  station. 

The  last  word  reminds  me  that  I  must  say  a  word  or  two  here,  about  the  English  rail- 
Avays.  In  point  of  speed  I  think  their  reputation  out-runs  the  fact.  I  did  not  find  their 
average,  (with  the  exception  of  the  road  between  Liverpool  and  London,)  much  above 
that  of  our  best  northern  and  eastern  roads.  They  make,  for  instance,  hardly  20 
miles  an  hour  with  the  ordinary  trains,  and  about  3G  miles  an  hour  with  the  express 
trains.  But  the  perfect  order  and  system  with  which  they  are  managed;  the  obliging  ci- 
vility of  all  persons  in  the  employment  of  the  companies  to  travellers,  and  the  quietness 
with  which  the  business  of  the  road  is  carried  on,  strikes  an  American  very  strongly.  For 
pie,  suppose  you  are  on  a  railroad  at  home.  You  are  about  to  approach  a  small 
you  may  leave  and  take  up,  perhaps,  twenty  passengers.     As  soon  as  the  tow 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

in  sight,  the  engine  or  its  whistle  begins  to  scream  out — the  bell  rings — the  steam  whiz 
zes — and  the  train  stops.  Out  hurry  the  waj*^  passengers,  in  rush  the  new  comers. 
Again  the  bell  rings,  the  steam  whizzes,  and  with  a  noise  something  between  a  screech  and 
a  yell,  but  more  infernal  than  either — ^a  noise  that  deafens  the  old  ladies,  delights  the 
boys,  and  frightens  all  the  horses,  off  rushes  the  train — whizzing  and  yelling  over  a  mile 
or  two  more  of  country,  before  it  takes  breath  for  the  like  process  at  the  next  station. 

In  an  English  railwajr  you  seldom  hear  the  scream  of  the  steam  whistle  at  all.  It  is 
not  considered  part  of  the  busine-ss  of  the  engineer  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  whole  neigh- 
borhood, and  inform  them  that  he  and  the  train  are  coming.  The  guard  at  the  station 
notices  the  train  when  it  first  comes  in  sight.  He  immediately  rings  a  hand-bell,  just  loud 
enough  to  warn  the  passengers  in  the  station,  to  get  ready.  The  train  arrives — no  yelling, 
screaming — or  whizzing — possibly  a  gentle  letting  off  of  the  steam — quite  a  necessary 
thing — not  at  all  for  effect.  The  passengers  get  out,  and  others  get  in,  and  are  all  care- 
fully seated  by  the  aforesaid  guard  or  guards.  When  this  is  all  done,  the  guard  of  the 
station  gives  a  tinkle  or  two  with  his  hand-bell  again,  to  signify  to  the  conductor  that  all 
is  ready,  and  off  the  train  darts,  as  quietly  as  if  it  knew  screaming  to  be  a  thing  not  tole- 
rated in  good  society.  But  the  difference  is  national  after  all.  John  Bull  says  in  his 
railroads,  as  in  everything  else,  "  steady — all  right."  Brother  Jonathan",  "  clear  the 
the  coast — go  ahead!"  Still,  as  our  most  philosophical  writer  has  said,  it  is  only  boys  and 
savages  who  scream — men  learn  to  control  themselves — we  hope  to  see  the  time  when  our 
people  shall  find  out  the  advantages  of  possessing  power  without  making  a  noise  about  it. 

If  we  may  take  a  lesson  from  the  English  in  the  management  of  rail-wa3^s,  thej^  might 
learn  vastly  more  from  us  in  the  accommodation  of  passengers.  What  are  called  "  first- 
class  carriages"  on  the  English  rails,  are  thoroughly  comfortable,  in  the  English  sense  of 
the  word.  They  have  seats  for  six — each  double-cushioned,  padded,  and  set  off  from  the 
rest,  like  the  easy  chair  of  an  alderman,  in  which  you  can  entrench  yourself  and  imagine 
that  the  world  was  made  for  j^ou  alone.  But  only  a  small  part  of  the  travel  in  England 
is  in  first-class  cars,  for  it  is  a  luxury  that  must  be  paid  for  in  hard  gold — costing  four  or 
five  times  as  much  as  the  most  comfortable  travelling  bj^  railroad  in  the  United  States. 
And  the  second  class  cars — in  which  the  great  majority  of  the  British  people  really  travel 
— what  are  they?  Neat  boxes,  in  which  you  may  sit  down  on  a  perfectly  smooth  board, 
and  find  out  all  the  softness  that  lies  in  the  grain  of  deal  or  good  English  oak — for  they 
are  guiltless  of  all  cushions.  Our  neighbors  of  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  have  been  so  long 
accustomed  to  catering  for  the  upper  class  in  this  country,  that  the  fact  that  the  railroad 
is  the  most  democratic  institution  of  the  day,  has  not  yet  daM'ned  upon  them  in  all  its  breadth. 
An  American  rail-car,  built  to  carry  a  large  number  in  luxurious  comfort,  at  a  price 
that  seems  fabulous  in  England,  paj'S  better  profits  by  the  immense  travel  it  begets,  than 
the  ill-devised  first  and  second-class  carriages  of  the  English  rail-ways. 

But  what  finish  and  nicety  in  these  English  roads !  The  grades  all  covered  with  turf, 
kept  as  nicely  as  a  lawn,  quite  down  to  the  rails,  and  the  divisions  between  the  road  and 
the  lands  adjoining,  made  by  nicel}^  trimmed  hedges.  The  larger  stations  are  erected  in  so 
expensive  and  solid  a  manner  as  to  have  greatly  impaired  the  profits  of  some  of  the  roads. 
But  the  smaller  ones  are  almost  always  built  in  the  style  of  the  cottage  ornec — and,  in- 
deed, are  some  of  the  prettiest  and  most  picturesque  rural  buildings  that  I  have  seen  in 
England.  They  all  have  their  little  flower-gardens,  generally  a  parterre  lying  open  quite 
to  the  edge  of  the  rail,  and  looking  like  a  gay  carpet  thrown  on  the  green  sward.  If  the 
lish  are  an  essentially  common  sense  people,  they,  at  least,  have  a  love  of  flowers 

aces,  that  has  something  quite  romantic  in  it 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

I  reached  London  only  to  leave  it  again  in  another  direction,  to  accept  a  kind  invitation 

to  the  country  house  of  Mrs. the  distinguished  authoress  of  some  charming  works 

of  fiction — which  are  widely  known  in  my  country,  though  I  shall   not  transgress  Eng- 
lish propriety  by  giving  you  a  clue  to  her  real  name. 

This  place  reminded  me  of  home  more  than  any  that  I  have  seen  in  England;  not,  in- 
deed, of  my  own  home  in  the  Hudson  highlands,  with  its  bold  river  and  mountain  scene- 
ry, but  of  the  general  features  of  American  cultivated  landscape.  The  house,  which  is  not 
unlike  a  country  house  of  good  size  with  us,  is  situated  on  a  hill  which  rises  gently,  but 
so  high  above  the  surrounding  country,  as  to  give  a  wide  panorama  of  field  and  woodland, 
such  as  one  sees  from  a  height  about  Boston  and  Philadelphia.  The  approach,  and  part 
of  the  grounds,  are  bordered  with  plantations  of  forest  trees,  Avhich,  though  all  planted, 
have  been  left  to  themselves  so  much  as  to  look  quite  like  our  native  after-growth 
at  home.  The  place,  too,  has  not  the  thorough,  fall-dress  air  of  the  great  English  country  pla- 
ces where  I  have  been  staying  lately,  and  both  in  extent  and  keeping,  is  more  like  a 
residence  on  the  Hudson.  The  house  sits  down  quite  on  a  level  with  the  ground,  however, 
so  that  you  can  step  out  of  the  drawing-room  on  the  soft  grass,  and  stroll  to  yonder 
bright  flower-garden,  grouped  round  the  fountain  dancing  in  the  sunshine,  as  if  you  were 
only  going  out  of  one  room  into  another.  In  the  library  is  a  great  bay-window,  and  a  spa- 
cious fire-place  set  in  a  deep  recess  lined  with  books,  suggesting  warmth  and  comfort  at 
once,  to  both  mind  and  body;  and  the  air  of  the  whole  place,  joined  to  the  unaffected  and 
cordial  welcome  from  many  kind  voices,  gave  me  a  feeling  of  maladie  du  pays  that  I  had 
not  felt  before  in  England. 

There  are  no  especial  wonders  of  park  or  palace  here,  though  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
quiet  beauty,  and  as  I  have,  perhaps,  given  you  almost  a  surfeit  of  great  jjlaces  lately, 
you  will  not  regret  it.  I  look  out  of  the  windows,  however,  and  see  in  abundance  here, 
as  every  where,  those  two  evergreens  that  enrich  with  their  broad  glossy  leaves,  all  Eng- 
lish gardens  and  pleasure  grounds,  and  Avhich  I  never  cease  to  reproach  for  their  monar- 
chical habits — since  they  so  obstinately  refuse  to  be  naturalised  in  our  republic — I  mean  the 
English  and  the  Portugal  laurels.  I  would  give  all  the  hot-house  plants  that  Yankee  glass 
covers,  to  have  these  two  evergreens  as  much  at  home  in  our  pleasure-grounds  as  they  are 
everywhere  in  England. 

There  are  other  guests  in  the  house — Sir  Chas.  M ,  Lady  P.,  some  Irish  ladies  with- 
out titles,  (but  so  rich  in  natural  gifts  as  to  make  one  feel  the  poverty  of  mere  rank,)  and 
a  charming  family  of  grown  up  daughters.  It  would  be  difficult,  perhaps,  to  have  a  bet- 
ter opportunity  to  judge  of  the  life  of  the  educated  middle  class  of  this  country,  than  in  such 
homes  as  this.  And  what  impressions  do  such  examples  make  upon  my  mind,  you  will 
ask?  I  will  tell  you,  (not  without  remembering  how  many  fair  young  readers  you  have 
at  home.)  The  young  English  woman  is  less  conspicuously  accomplished  than  our  young 
women  of  the  same  position  in  America.  There  is,  perhaps,  a  little  less  of  that  je  ne  sais 
quoi — that  nameless  grace  which  captivates  at  first  sight — than  with  us,  but  a  better  and 
more  solid  education,  more  disciplined  minds,  and  above  all,  more  common  sense.  In  the 
whole  art  of  conversation,  including  all  the  topics  of  the  day,  with  so  much  of  politics  as 
makes  a  woman  really  a  companion  for  an  intelligent  man  in  his  serious  thoughts,  in  his- 
tory, language,  and  practical  knowledge  of  the  duties  of  social  and  domestic  life,  the  Eng- 
lish women  have,  I  imagine,  few  superiors.  But  what,  perhaps,  would  strike  one  of  our 
young  women  most,  in  English  society,  would  be  the  thorough  cultivation  and  refinement 
that  exist  here,  along  with  the  absence  of  all  false  delicacy.  The  fondness  of  E 
women,  (even  in  the  highest  rank,)  for  out-of-door  life,  horses,  dogs,  fine  cattle,  anim 


of  all  kinds, — for  their  grounds,  and  in  short  every  thing  that  belongs  to  their  homes- 
their  real,  unaffected  knowledge  of,  and  pleasure  in  these  things,  and  the  unreserved  way  in 
which  they  talk  about  them,  would  startle  some  of  my  young  friends  at  home,  who  are 

educated  in  the  fashionable  boarding-school  of  jMadamf. ,  to  consider  all  such  things 

"  vulgar,"  and  "  unlady-like."  I  accompanied  the  younger  members  of  the  family  here 
this  morning,  in  an  exploration  of  the  mysteries  of  the  place.  No  sooner  did  we  make 
our  appearance  out  of  doors,  than  w^e  were  saluted  by  dogs  of  all  degrees,  and  each  had  the 
honor  of  an  interview  and  personal  reception,  which  seemed  to  be  productive  of  pleasure  on 
both  sides.  Then  some  of  the  horses  were  brought  out  of  the  stable,  and  a  parley  took  place 
between  them  and  their  fair  mistresses ;  some  favorite  cows  were  to  be  petted  and  looked  after, 
and  their  good  points  were  descanted  on  with  knowledge  and  discrimination;  and  there  was 
the  basse  coiir,  with  its  various  population,  all  discussed  and  shown  with  such  livel}^  un- 
affected interest,  that  I  soon  saw  my  fair  companions  were  "  born  to  love  pigs  and  chick- 
ens." I  have  said  nothing  about  the  garden,  because  3'ou  know  that  it  is  especially  the 
lady's  province  here.  An  English  woman  with  no  taste  for  gardening,  would  be  as  great 
a  marvel  as  an  angel  without  wings.  And  now,  Avere  these  fresh  looking  girls,  who  have  so 
thoroughly  entered  into  these  rustic  enjoyments,  mere  country  lasses  and  dairymaids?  By 
no  means.  They  will  converse  with  you  in  three  or  four  languages;  are  thoroughly  well- 
grounded  in  modern  literature;  sketch  from  nature  with  the  ease  of  professional  artists, 
and  will  sit  down  to  the  piano-forte  and  give  you  an  old  ballad,  or  the  finest  German  or 
Italian  music,  as  your  taste  may  dictate.  And  yet  many  of  mj^  young  country-women  of 
their  age,  whose  education — wholly  intended  for  the  drawing-room — is  far  below  what  I 
have  described,  would  have  half  fainted  with  terror,  and  half  blushed  with  false  delicacy, 
twenty  times  in  the  course  of  the  morning,  with  the  discussions  of  the  farm-3'ard,  meadow 
and  stables,  which  properly  belong  to  a  wholsesome  country  life,  and  are  not  in  the 
slightest  degree  at  variance  with  real  delicacy  and  refinement.  I  very  well  know  that 
there  are  many  sensibly  educated  young  women  at  home,  who  have  the  same  breadth  of 
cultivation,  and  the  same  variety  of  resources,  that  make  the  English  women  such  truly 
agreeable  companions;  but  alas,  I  also  know  that  there  are  many  whose  beau  ideal 
is  bounded  by  a  circle  that  contains  the  latest  fashionable  dance  for  the  feet,  the  latest 
fashionable  novel  for  the  head,  and  the  latest  fashionable  fancy  work  for  the  fingers. 

If  I  have  unconsciously  run  into  something  like  a  sermon,  it  is  from  the  feeling  that 
among  my  own  lovel}'  countrywomen  is  to  be  found  the  ground- work  of  the  most  perfectly 
attractive  feminine  character  in  the  world.  But  of  late,  their  education  has  been  a  little 
vitiated  by  the  introduction  of  the  flimsiest  points  of  French  social  requirements — rather 
than  the  more  solid  and  estimable  qualities  which  belong  to  English  domestic  life.  The  best 
social  development  in  America  will,  doubtless,  finally  result  from  an  internal  movement 
springing  from  the  very  bosom  of  our  institutions;  but  before  that  can  happen,  a  great 
many  traits  and  refinements  will  necessarily  be  borrowed  from  the  old  world — and  the 
larger  interests,  healthier  home  tastes,  and  more  thorough  education  of  English  women, 
seem  to  me  hardly  rated  so  highly  by  us  as  they  deserve.  Go  to  Paris,  if  you  will,  to  see 
the  most  perfect  taste  in  dress,  and  the  finest  charm  of  merely  external  manners, 
but  make  the  acquaintance  of  English  Avomen  if  you  wish  to  get  a  high  idea  of  feminine 
character,  as  it  should  be  to  command  your  sincerest  and  most  lasting  admiration  and 
respect.  A.  J.  D. 

Htrlford shire,  Sept.,  1,  ISjO. 


RAISING  PEAS— KITCHEN-GARDEN  TALK. 


RAISING   PEAS  — KITCHEN-GARDEN  TALK. 

BY  AN  OLD  DIGGER. 


"  This  is  one  of  tho.se  vegetables,"  said  Cobbett,  "which  all  men  most  like."  You 
know  there  is  not  a  tolerable  kitchen-garden  in  all  Europe  or  North  America,  where  peas 
are  not  cultivated,  so  it  is  worth  while  to  ask  a  neighbor  what  are  the  best  sorts,  and  how 
to  cultivate  them?  For  all  peas  are  not  alike — some  are  dry  and  in.sipid,  while  others  are 
tender  and  sugary. 

Well,  there  are  a  dozen  or  twenty  sorts  of  peas,  and  you  may  find  half  the  latter  num- 
ber in  almost  any  large  seed  store.  But  many  of  them  are  only  second  rate,  and,  of 
course,  you  waste  your  garden  space  in  planting  second  rate  sorts.  What  you  do 
want,  is  the  very  best  early  pea;  the  best  succession  pea,  and  the  best  late  pea.  For  with 
these,  supposing  you  plant  all  three  sorts  about  the  same  time,  they  will  come  in  so  as  to 
keep  your  table  in  peas  till  August.  After  that,  if  you  are  as  fond  of  peas  as  I  am,  you 
will  provide  a  second  crop,  or  rather  a  couple  of  second  crops  of  the  early  pea,  for  Sep- 
tember and  the  early  part  of  October,  by  sowing  them  again  about  the  middle  of  August. 

For  the  spring  crop,  you  should  commence  sowing  peas  as  soon  as  the  frost  is  out  of  the 
ground — even  it  be  the  first  of  March,  (or  a  month  earlier  at  the  south,)  for  peas  are  not 
tender  chicks,  like  most  other  vegetables,  being  not  a  whit  injured  by  a  few  very  frosty 
nights,  even  when  the}'  are  several  inches  high.  If  j'ou  have  a  warm  .sheltered  piece  of 
ground,  on  the  south  side  of  a  fence  or  building,  where  you  can  plant  a  couple  of  drills  as 
soon  as  the  ground  is  mellow,  then  you  will  get  the  start  of  your  neighbors  who  plant  in 
the  open  garden — for  the  pea  is  easily  coaxed  forward  by  keeping  the  cold  winds  away 
from  it.  But  much  the  best  way  of  raising  a  very  early  crop  of  peas,  if  you  like  to  get 
ahead  of  the  season  a  little,  is  that  described  in  the  Horticulturist,  vol.  1.,  p.  481,  which 
I  have  tried  for  several  years.  I  find,  fol- 
lowing out  that  plan,  with  very  little  trou- 
ble I  can  gain  ten  days  over  most  of  my 
neighbors,  who  have  the  sharpest  garden- 
ers, if  they  trust  entirely  to  what  can  be 
done  in  the  open  air.  You  tack  these 
troughs  loosely  together,  so  that  the  nails  can  be  easily  drawn;  you  nearly  fill  them  Avith 
good  soil,  planting  a  drill  of  peas  in  them,  in  the  usual  way,  and  you  set  tliem  in  any 
rough  frame,  (without  dung  or  bottom  heat.)  This  you  must  contrive  to  cover  Avith  sash- 
es of  some  sort — or  if  you  have  no  sashes,  then  with  frames  covered  with  cheap  cotton, 
coated  over  with  a  little  oil,  to  make  it  partly  transparent.  With  such  a  frame,  set  in  a 
sunny  place,  and  covered  with  cotton  stuff  or  sashes,  you  begin  to  start  peas  by  the  mid- 
dle of  February,  or,  if  the  season  is  late,  the  first  of  March.  When  they  are  about  three 
or  four  inches  high,  and  the  season  grows  mild,  )'ou  make  a  furrow  in  the  kitchen-garden, 
set  the  troughs  in  the  farrow:  draw  the  nails;  lift  out  the  boards,  pressing  the  earth  grad- 
ually in  their  place,  and  then  you  have  peas  ready  to  stick  when  your  earliest  planting  in 
the  open  ground  is  just  breaking  through  the  soil.  The  peas  transplanted  from  the 
troughs  in  this  way,  don't  know  that  they  have  been  moved  at  all,  and  grow  on,  settling 
themselves  as  if  they  had  been  sown  there,  and  had  a  "  pre-emption  right"  to  tlie  ground. 
Not  mxich  needs  to  be  said  about  the  soil  for  peas.  They  like  a  good  soil,  but  the  early 
'ill  grow  on  almost  any  land  that  can  be  dignified  with  th.e  name  of  a  /arden 
look  for  rapid  growth  and  good  crops,  j^our  soil  must  be  kept  in  good   heart 


RAISING  PEAS— KITCHEN-GARDEN  TALK 

peas,  as  well  as  for  every  thing  else,  and  the  best  way  to  do  this  is  to  ridge  up  theground 
in  the  fall,  after  all  the  crops  are  taken  off,  digging-in  a  good  dressing  of  fresh  stable-manure 
when  you  are  throwing  it  up  into  ridges.  If  this  has  not  been  done,  and  still  here  you 
are  at  the  beginning  of  March,  with  spade  in  hand,  and  a  bag  of  peas  for  planting  lying 
before  you,  you  must  make  the  most  of  it  for  the  time.  If  your  garden  is  rich,  this  will 
be  done  by  marking  out  the  drills,  and  sprinkling  along  them  a  light  dressing  of  leached 
ashes,  (about  half  as  much  as  will  fairly  hide  the  soil  in  the  drill,)  covering  this  with  a 
little  soil,  and  planting  the  peas  upon  that.  If  your  soil  is  poor,  dig  in  a  good  dressing  of  any 
manure  you  can  get — even  fresh  stable  manure — over  the  whole  ground,  before  you  plant 
the  peas.  Or,  if  manure  is  scanty,  then  mark  out  the  drill,  lay  a  dressing  of  manure 
upon  it,  and  turn  it  under  half  a  spade  deep — smoothing  all,  and  planting  over  the  ma- 
nured furrow  in  the  common  way. 

"And  what  is  the  common  way,"  somebody  asks  who  never  planted  a  pea  in  his  life. 
It  is  as  simple  as  ruling  a  copy  book.  You  have  only  to  mark  off  the  newly  dug  ground 
into  straight  lines,  (two  and  a-half  feet  apart,  if  you  are  planting  early  peas,  or  three  and 
a-halt  if  late  ones,)  open  a  drill  about  an  inch  deep,  with  a  hoe,  along  these  lines.  Then 
drop  the  peas  in  this  drill,  about  an  inch  apart.  Some  persons  plant  only  a  single  line  of 
peas  in  the  drill,  others  make  the  drill  as  broad  as  the  blade  of  the  hoe,  and  scatter  the 
peas  an  inch  apart  throughout  the  whole — and  I  recommend  the  last  way  as  giving  the 
largest  crop.  Of  course,  j^ou  must  have  such  a  thing  as  a  garden  lino,  to  make  a  straight 
drill — for  straight  lines  in  the  kithen-garden  give  it  as  much  a  look  of  neatness  and  order, 
as  they  do  in  the  copy  book.  Having  covered  the  peas,  by  drawing  over  them  with  the  hoe 
all  the  earth  that  you  pushed  aside  to  make  the  drill,  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  wait  till 
they  come  up.  When  they  have  grown  four  or  five  inches  high,  and  begin  to  put  out  their 
little  feelers,  or  tendrils,  you  must  provide  something  for  them  to  catch  hold  of,  either  in 
the  way  of  sharpened  sticks,  usually  called  "pea  brush,"  or  by  stakes  driven  down 
every  ten  or  fifteen  feet  on  each  side  of  the  drills,  with  lines  of  twine  stretched  from  one 
to  the  other.  Either  makes  a  good  support,  but  the  branchy  pea-brush  is  the  best,  because 
the  most  like  nature's  way  of  allowing  vines  to  run  over  a  bush.  When  you  stick  the  peas, 
you  must  loosen  the  soil  well,  and  draw  a  little  up  on  each  side,  to  help  keep  up  the  vines. 
No  doubt  you  expect  me  to  tell  you  which  are  the  very  best  peas  for  your  own  garden,  for 
you  have  been  puzzled,  I  dare  say,  by  the  many  new  and  old  names  that  you  see  in  the  seeds- 
men's catalogues.  I  will  be  glad  to  do  this,  for  I  have  tried  many  of  them,  and  am  content 
with  three  ;  which,  indeed,  I  think  will  give  you  the  topmost  flavor  of  this  vegetable,  as 
well  as  the  most  reliable  and  surest  crops. 

First  then.  Prince  yilbert,  for  the  best  early  pea;  second,  the  Champion  of  England, 
for  the  best  large  pea;  and  third.  Knight's  Tall  Marroio,  for  the  best  summer  crop. 

Prince  Jllhert  IS.  a  variety  of  the  old  "Early  Frame,"  or  "  Early  Washington,"  of 
the  same  habit  and  flavor,  (but  rather  more  dwarf,)  decidedly  earlier,  and  I  think  a  bet- 
ter bearer.  At  any  rate,  after  trying  it  along  side  of  the  Early  Frame,  and  Early  Charl- 
ton, Cedo  Nulli,  and  four  or  five  others,  for  three  years,  I  have  given  up  all  others  as  sup- 
planted by  the  Prince  Albert — now  pretty  generall}'^  admitted  to  be  the  best  early  pea. 

Champion  of  England  is  a  first  rate  marrowfat  pea — the  best  of  its  class — and  the  very 
best  large  pea — tender  and  very  sugary.  It  grows  about  three  and  a-half  to  four  feet 
high,  is  a  fine  healthy  plant,  and  bears  most  abundant  crops.  Planted  at  the  same  time 
as  the  early  peas,  it  is  fit  to  gather  about  three  or  four  weeks  later.  The  very  large  peas 
s  are  slightly  shrivelled,  and  of  a  bluish  cast  in  the  dry  state.  If  you  are  to 
two  peas,  this  and  the  Prince  Albert  are  the  sorts  for  your  money 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES; 


Knight's  Tall  Marroio,  is  the  best  of  the  tall  late  peas,  bearing  along  time,  and  giving 
a  good  crop.  It  is  some  objection  to  this  sort,  that  it  grows  six  feet  high,  and  requires 
more  room  and  pains  in  staking,  than  KnighVs  Dwarf  Marrow,  but  it  is  a  better  and 
more  prolific  pea  in  strong  soils.  I  am  content  with  the  Champion  of  England — a  pea 
of  the  same  class,  and,  therefore,  should  only  cultivate  this  for  variety,  and  for  its  being 
a  little  later.     The  Waterloo  is  something  like  it,  but  no  so  good. 

Every  body  knows  how  to  cook  peas,  or  at  least  every  body  thinks  so — and  everj'-  body 
hails  them.  That  is  excellent,  but  by  no  means  tlie  only  way  to  taste  this  vegetable  in 
perfection;  an  Old  Digger  may  not  be  supposed  to  know  much  about  cooking,  but  in  fact 
no  place  lies  so  close  to  the  kitchen  as  the  kitchen-garden,  and  it  must  be  a  dull  digger  who 
does  not  know  something  of  what  the  cook  does  with  his  "truck."  So  I  will  tell  you 
that  the  neatest  little  dishes  that  any  cook  ever  sends  to  the  table,  are  very  small  joints  of 
lamb  or  veal,  or  perhaps  a  pair  of  spring  chickens,  stewed  in  a  close  pot  or  stew-pan  very 
gently,  over  a  slow  fire,  for  two  or  three  hours,  till  quite  done,  ivith  peas  ; — butter,  pep- 
per, and  salt,  being  added,  of  course.  The  juices  of  the  meat  penetrate  the  peas,  and  the 
flavor  of  the  peas  is  given  to  the  whole  dish,  so  that  I  doubt  if  there  was  more  savory 
dishes  among  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  than  one  of  these  stews.  These  are  the  dishes  for 
the  dinners  of  small  families,  instead  of  the  eternal  steaks  and  cutlets,  more  than  half  of 
the  time  fried  instead  of  broiled,  that  stare  us  in  the  face,  "  year  in  and  year  out,"  and 
which  nobody  can  eat  for  a  long  time,  without  a  fit  of  indigestion,  unless  it  be  some  one 
who  lives  out  of  doors  pretty  much  the  whole  time,  and  becomes  as  hardy  as. 

Yours,  An  Old  Digger. 


I^nrtirttlttirnl  InriEttPSf. 


Mass.  Hort.  Society. — At  a  recent  meeting 
of  this  Society,  Mr.  Cabot,  fi-om  the  commit- 
tee for  estabfishing  jiremiums  for  1851,  report- 
ed a  list  amounting  to  $2,200,  which  was  adopt- 
ed and  ordered  printed.  From  this  list,  we 
select  the  following  "  Prospective  Prizes,"  for 
objects  to  be  originated  subsequent  to  1846, 
and  wliicli,  after  a  trial  of  five  years,  shall  be 
deemed  equal  or  superior  in  quality  and  otlier 
characteristics,  to  any  now  extant. 

For  the  best  seedling 

Pear,  the  Society's  large  Gold  Medal S60 

Apple,           do               do              do     60 

Hardy  Grape,                 do              do     60 

Plum,  (he  Appleton  Gold  Medal 40 

Cherry,  the  Lowell  Gold  Medal 40 

Tree  Pceonia.  the  Appleton  G.  M 40 

Herbaceous  Pajouia,  the  Lowell  G.  M 40 

Potato,  tlie  Society's  large  Gold  Medal 60 

^fter  a  trial  of  three  years. 

For  the  best  seedling 

Strawlieny,  the  Lyman  Plate S50 

Raspberry,  the  Bradlee  Medal 40 

Hardy  Rose,  large  Gold  Medal 60 

Camellia  Japonica,            do         60 

Azalea  Indica,  Lowell  Gold  Medal 40 

Blackberry 40 

Gooseberry 30 

Currant,  red  or  white 30 


Albany  and  Rensselaer  Hort.  Society. — 
The  society  met  at  tlie  State  Agricultural 
Rooms,  Feb.  6,  V.  P.  Douw,  President,  in  the 
chair. 

The  Treasurer  made  his  annual  report,  which 
was  referred  to  a  committee  consisting  of  Dr. 
Herman  Wendell  and  Mr.  James,  who  report- 
ed the  account  correct. 

Messrs.  Tucker,  Prentice,  Menand,  Dorr  and 
Kirtland,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  nomi- 
nate officers,  who  reported  the  names  of  the 
following  gentlemen,  who  were  elected: 

Piesideiit — VolkertP. Docw,  Wolvenhook. 

Vice-Presidents — Herman  Wendell,  M.  D., 
Albany ;  D.  Thomas  Vail,  Troy ;  E.  P.  Prentice, 
Mt.  Hope;  William  Newcomb,  Pittstown. 

Secretary — B.  P.  Johnson,  Albany. 

Treasurer — Luther  Tucker,  Albany. 

Managers — B.  B.  Kirtland,  Greenbush;  .J. 
M.  Lovett,  Albany;  L.  Menand,  AYatervliet; 
S.  Moro-an,  Guilderland;  J.  S.  Goold,  Albany; 
J.  McD^McIntyre,  Albany;  W.  A.  McCulloch, 
Greenbush;  James  Wilson,  Albany;  E.  Dorr, 
Albany. 

Committees  for  1850. 

Fruits. — Dr.     Herman     AYendell,    Albany 
chairman.     V.  P.  Douw,  Greenbush;  E 
Albany;  B.    B.    Kirtland,   Greenbush; 
Vail,  troy. 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


Green-house  Plants  and  Green-house  Flow- 
ers.— Win.  Nevvcomb,  chairman.  J.  II.  A^'il- 
laid,  Troy;  J.  S.  Goold,  Albany;  Vf .  A.  Mc- 
Cullocli,  Greeubush;  William  Janes.  Bethle- 
hem. 

Gardens. — Luther  Tucker,  chairman.  B.  T. 
Cushman,  Troy,  and  C.  P.  Williams,  Albany. 

Flowers. — Sanford  Howard,  Albany,  chair- 
man. E.  N.  Pratt,  Greenbush;  J.  McD.  Mc- 
Intyre,  Albany;  E.  Corning,  jr.,  Albany;  A. 
March,  M.  D.,  Albany. 

Floral  Designs,  Bouquets,  Ornaments,  6(C. — 
Steplien  E.  Warren,  Troy,  cliairman.  J.  M. 
Lovt'tt,  Albany;  Jetterson  Mayell,  Albany; 
T.  C.  Abrams,  West  Troy. 

Discretionary  Premiums. — E.  P.  Prentice, 
Bethlehem, cliairman.  D.  T.  Vail, Troy;  Wni. 
Cooi)er,  Guilderland;  Jacob  Henry,  Water- 
vlirit;  E.  E.  Piatt,  Albany. 

Essays  and  on  Establishing  Synonyms  of 
Fruits. — Dr.  E.  Emmons,  Albany,  chairman. 
Amos  Brings,  Schagliticoke;  Sanford  Howard, 
Albany;  John  H.  Willard.  Troy;  A.  T.  Rich- 
ards, West  Troy. 

Vegetables. — R.  F.  Johnstone,  Albany,  chair- 
man. Dennis  Belden,  Tro";  Dr.  Jolm  NVilson. 
Bethlehem;  Samuel  Morg^u, Albany ;  Wm.  s! 
Shepard,  Watervliet. 

.Arrangements  for  Exhibitions. — J.  McD. 
Mclntyre,  Albany,  chairman.  Sanford  How- 
ard, Elislia  Dorr,  J.  Dingwall,  Albany,  D.  D. 
T.  Moore,  "Watervliet;  "William  Thorburn, 
James  Wilson,  Erastus  II.  PeasC;  Albany. 


Genesee  Valley  Horticultural  Society. 
— At  tlie  annual  meeting  of  this  Society,  held 
at  Rochester  on  the  3d  Feb. ,  Jason  W.  Seward, 
Esq.,  was  ajjpointed  cliairman.  in  the  absence 
of  the  president. 

The  minutes  of  the  last  annual  meeting  were 
read  and  approved.  The  report  of  the  Trea- 
surer was  also  read  and  approved,  showing 
a  balance  in  his  hands  at  the  close  of  the 
year  of  fifty-six  dollars.  The  Society  then 
proceeded  to  the  election  of  officers  and  com- 
mittees for  the  ensuing  year,  whereupon  the 
following  gentlemen  were  elected: 

President — Levi  A.  Ward,  Rochester. 

Vice  Presidents — Mathew  G.  Warner,  Ro- 
chester; Henry  P.  Norton,  Brockport;  J.  J. 
Thomas,  Macedon;  Asa  Rowe,  Sweden;  S. 
Donallan,  Greece. 

Cor.  Sec'y — Dellon  M.  Dewey. 

Rec.  Sec'y — J.  A.  Eastman. 

Treasurer — James  H.  Watts. 

Committees. 
Fruits. — Patrick  Barry,  M.  G.  Warner,  J. 
W.  Bissell,  Samuel  Moulson,  Alonzo  Frost, 
Jas.  Buchan,  John  J.  Thomas,  Jas.  C.  Camp- 
bell, Elias  Pond,  Isaac  Hills,  W.  R.  Smith, 
and  L.  B.  Langworthy. 

Trees,  Shi'ubs  and  Flowers. — Jno.  Gray,  Jas. 
hitney,    L.  Wetherell,  Francis   Brown, 
and  H.  Billings. 
etables. — Jason  W.    Seward,   James  P. 


Fogg,  John  Rapalje,  James  Vick,  jr.,  and 
James  Buchan. 

Jiotany. — L.  Wetherell,  C.  P.  Dewey,  Geo. 
H.  Smith,  J.  W.  Seward,  and  C.  M.  Booth. 

Entomology. — L.  Wetherell,  and  J.  W. 
Seward. 

Executive  Committee. — Levi  A.  Ward,  Ma- 
thew G.  Warner,  Patrick  Barry,  John  Grey, 
Jason  W.  Seward,  and  L.  Wetherell. 

On  motion  of  J.  W.  Bissell,  a  committee  of 
six  were  appointed  by  the  Chairman  on  tlie 
part  of  the  Society,  to  co-operate  witli  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  of  the  State  Agricultural 
Society  in  making  arrangements  for  the  next 
State  Fair,  and  especially  to  arrange  the  "  Flo- 
ral Hall." 

The  Chairman  announced  the  following  gen- 
tlemen as  such  Committee: 

Geo.  Ellwanger,  J.  M.  Whitney,  H.  E. 
Hooker,  C.  J.  Ryan,  Joseph  Frost,  and  R. 
Donallan . 

Mr.  J.  W.  Seward  presented  specimens  of 
a  new  variety  of  Potato,  a  seedling  of  Mr.  H. 
N.  Langworthy  of  Irondequoit,whicli  has  been 
very  successfully  cultivated  for  market  for  two 
or  three  years  past,  by  Mr.  Mandeville,  of 
Irondequoit.  After  some  remarks  by  Mr. 
Seward  and  others,  it  was  referred  to  the  com- 
mittee on  vegetables  to  give  a  name  to  said  potato 

Mr.  J.  W.  Seward, the  special  cominitteeap- 
pointcd  at  the  last  annual  meeting,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  procuring  members  to  tliis  society,  and 
soliciting  the  co-operation  of  our  citizens  in  its 
belialf,  having  made  his  report,  was  reappoint- 
ed as  such  committee,  together  with  Mr.  W. 
C.  Bloss,  for  the  ensuing  year. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  P.  Barry,  the  thanks  of 
the  society  were  presented  to  Mr.  J.  W.  Se- 
ward for  his  successful  efforts  as  such  special 
committee  during  the  past  year. 

The  thanks  of  the  meeting  having  been  pre- 
sented to  the  Hon.  Levi  A.  Ward,  for  a  basket 
of  very  fine  fruit  furnished  for  the  use  of  the 
society  this  evening,  the  meeting  thereu^Jon  ad- 
journed.    J.  A.  Eastman,  Sec'y. 


Hort.  Society  for  the  Valley'  of  Lake 
Champlain. — At  a  convention  held  at  Burling- 
ton last  month,  a  Horticultural  Society  for  tlie 
valley  of  I^ake  Champlain,  was  organized,  and 
the  following  oflicers  appointed: 

President — Rev.  John  Wheeler. 

Vice  Presidents — David  Reed,  Chittenden 
county;  Rowland  T.  Bobinson,  Addison  co.; 
M.  F.  Palmer,  Franklin  co.;  Buel  Landon, 
Grand  Isle  co. ;  John  W.  Baily,  Clinton  co.; 
C.  M.  AVatson,  Esse.x  co. 

Sec'y— Dr.  Wm.  C.  Hiekok. 

Treasurer — Prof.  J.  Chancy. 

Standing  Fruit  Committee. — Jonathan  Bat- 
tey,  Jasper  Curtis,  Albert  Carpenter,  C.  Good- 
rich, Prof.  J.  Torrey. 

Prof,  of  Botany.~J.  Torrey,  D.  D. 

Prof,  of  Entomology. — Rev.  Z.  Thompson. 

Prof,  of  Horticultural  Chemistry. — Rev. 
John  Mattocks. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Dnnirstir  lintins. 


Frontispiece — Vinery  at  Medary. — Our 
vignette  this  month,  is  a  A'ery  accurate  view  of 
the  vinery  at  Medary,  the  country  seat  of 
Harry  Ingersoll,  Esq.,  near  Philadelphia. 

We  saw  the  vinery  last  autumn,  just  after  its 
completion,  and  it  struck  us  that  in  size  and 
proportion,  it  might  be  taken  as  a  viodel  for 
this  kind  of  structure  for  the  amateur's  garden, 
or  for  a  gentleman's  residence,  where  only  a 
moderate  supply  of  grapes  is  desired— since  it 
would  afford  without  fire  heat  a  sufficiency  of 
delicious  foreign  grapes  for  the  use  of  the  fami- 
ly. Its  light  and  elegant  appearance,  and  the 
simplicity  and  neatness  of  its  construction,  re- 
commend it  to  the  eye  as  an  agreeable  feature 
in  the  fruit-garden. 

The  plan  and  construction  of  this  building  are 
substantially  that  contrived  and  carried  out  on  a 
larger  scale  by  Mr.  Van  Rensselaer,  in  his 
vinery  at  Clinton  Point,  on  the  Hudson,  and  an 
interior  view  of  which  we  gave  in  vol.  iv,  p. 
178. 

We  add  the  following  note  from  Mr.  Inger- 
soll, explanatory  of  its  dimensions  and  exact 
cost,  for  the  use  of  any  of  our  readers  about 
building  vineries,*  and  we  have  the  promise  of 
some  detailed  drawings  of  another  building  of 
this  kind  near  Boston,  which  we  hope  soon  to 
present  to  our  readers.     Ed. 

My  Dear  Sir — I  wish  to  redeem  mypi-oraise 
to  give  you  the  exact  cost  of  a  moderate  sized 
vinery,  on  the  plan  of  that  of  Mr.  Van  Eens- 
selaer,  your  neighbor  on  the  Hudson. 

The  building  is  43  feet  6  inches  in  length,  by 
18  feet  wide,  and  fourteen  feet  high. 
The  materials  used  by  the  carpenters,  including 

iron  work,  cost, $185  00 

Carpenters'  labor, 200  00 

Glass, 00  00 

Painting  and  materials, 28  00 

$503  00 
I  may  mention  that  all  the  materials  are  the 
best  that  could  be  got.     And  that  the  work  was 
done  by  city  mechanics  at  city  prices. 

The  cost  of  making  the  borders,  which  are 
each  18  feet  wide  by  3  feet  deep,  according  to 

carpenter  in  our  neighborhood  offers  to  contract  to 
eries  like  this  for  SIO  the  rumiuicr  foot. 


your  instructions,  and  altogether  outside  the 
house,  must  vary  so  much  that  no  accurate  es- 
timate can  be  given.  Mine  cost  very  little ;  all 
the  matters,  (except  the  ground  bones,)  used 
in  them — the  leaf  mould,  decomposed  sod,  and 
manure — were  collected  about  the  farm ;  and 
the  labor  was  done  by  the  gardener  and  other 
people  at  convenient  times.  Yours  sincerely, 
Harry  Ingersoll.  Bristol  township,  Phila- 
delphia Co.,  Jan.  22, 1851. 


Climbing  plants — Golden  Trumpet  Flow- 
er.— I  do  not  agree  entirely  with  your  friend 
the  English  Landscape  Gardener,  that  we  are 
an  ungrateful  people — ungrateful  for  our  rich 
gifts  of  native  trees  and  plants.  We  do  not 
plead  guilty  to  ingratitude.  Ignorance  may 
be  our  misfortune,  but  ungrateful  we  are  not. 
Show  us  how  Ave  ought  to  evince  our  gratitude 
— point  out  the  object  that  would  not  forget 
the  good  we  bestowed  on  it — name  the  indi- 
vidual that  would  do  credit  to  our  adoption ; 
and  Americans  will  be  found  as  ready  to  bestow 
on  them  as  high  a  patronage,  and  to  estimate 
as  highly  as  the  most  antique  nation  under  his- 
tory the  duties  which  that  patronage  and  adop- 
tion involved.  We  do  not  know  what  to  be 
grateful  for.  Let  us  once  understand  that, 
and  then  judge  us. 

The  English  ivy  is  indeed  a  noble  plant.  We 
have  no  substitute.  There  is  none.  It  has  a 
peculiar  charm  of  its  own  which  no  other  plant 
possesses.  In  its  historical  associations  it  is 
unrivalled, — in  its  poetical  expressiveness  it 
has  no  compeer,  and  in  its  relation  to  all  the  ro- 
mantic past,  it  speaks  forth  volumes  where  any 
other  plant  would  be  speechless.  Who  that 
has  travelled  in  Europe — no  matter  how  many 
years  may  have  since  elapsed — can  look  upon 
an  ivy  in  America  without  being  easily  led  back 
in  imagination  or  memory  to  the  old  ruined 
castles,  palaces,  and  abbeys  around  which 
gathers  the  history  of  those  foreign  lands?  For 
my  part  I  can  seldom  look  upon  the  magnifi- 
cent robe  of  ivy  which  envelopes  the  old  dwel- 
ling of  that  great  botanist  Bartram,  (from 
whence  I  write  these  lines,)  but  I  can  almost 
fancy  that  I  see  a  host  of  grim  warriors  in  arms 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


and  armour,  assembled  within  its  walls,  with 
their  liigli  ht-ad-drcsscd  dames,  in  hoops  and 
furbelows,  or,  with  a  little  more  stretch  of 
fancy,  see  the  bare  headed  and  shoeless  sons 
of  the  cloister  assembled  to  distribute  their 
morning  alms  in  the  old  front  portico.  What 
substitute  can  replace  this?  We  must  first 
change  the  whole  face  of  history,  before  we  can 
answer  that.  But  laying  aside  its  historical, 
poetical  and  domestic  associations,  and  taking 
it  up  only  as  a  decorative  plant,  what  have 
we?  To  place  the  five  leaved  or  Virginia  creep- 
ing ivy  {Ampelopsis  hederacca,  or  quinquefolia) 
in  competition  with  it,  is  to  set  off  "  hoddin 
gray,  and  a'  that"  against  "purple  and  fine 
linen."  The  Virginia  creeper  may  do — just  do, 
to  cover  the  bare  walls  of  a  building, — but  as 
a  substitute  for  ivy,  no,  never  !  Its  bald,  cheer- 
less, wintry  aspect  at  a  season  when  the  ever- 
green, rich,  warm-looking  ivy  has  its  sweetest 
charms,  will  ever  make  the  comparison  an  un- 
favorable one.  I  would  prefer  the  Golden 
Trumpet  fiower — {Bignonia  capreolata,)  to 
the  Ampelopsis.  Being  a  native  of  the  south- 
ern part  of  Pennsylvania,  and  of  Virginia,  it 
would  probably  be  hardy  a  considerable  degree 
farther  north.  It  is  indeed  a  beautiful  ever- 
green creeper.  Its  pendant  secondary  branch- 
es are  so  graceful,  that  I  know  of  nothing  to 
compete  with  it  in  its  sphere.  Those  who  are 
unacquainted  with  this  plant  cannot  conceive 
how  much  it  deserves  to  be  loved  and  admired. 
The  characteri.stic  expression  of  gratitude  and 
affection  for  which  i)oets  have  made  the  ivy  so 
emblematical — clinging  as  it  does  with  a  femi- 
nine fondness  to  some  fatherly  oak  which  sup- 
ported it  in  infancy, — and  encircling  in  its  arm- 
like  folds  the  perhaps  now  decaying  form  of  its 
early  protector — is  more  appropriate  to  this 
plant.  Indeed,  if  I  were  a  poet,  I  would  con- 
jure up  in  my  imagination  a  grove  expressly  to 
introduce  it.  I  would  see  it  running  wildly 
over  a  rustic  bower,  now  clinging  to  some 
rugged  grapevine,  now  sipping  with  the  ends 
of  its  drooping  branches,  tlie  crystal  waters  of 
a  winding  streamlet  which  should  run  at  its 
feet.  And  then  its  beautiful  flowers,  like  golden 
cups,  which  would  admit  a  gaze  at  them  long 
enough  to  lead  the  imagination  to  the  belief 
they  were  the  drinliing  vessels  of  the  fair- 
mphs — the  dryads  of  the  woods,  and  the 


naiads  of  the  stream.  If  you  visit  our  fair  city 
soon,  and  have  time  to  make  us  a  visit,  I 
will  introduce  a  specimen  of  this  vine  to  your 
notice  which  shall  warrant  all  that  I  have  said 
of  it.  It  is  not  a  neglected  plant — it  is  an  un- 
known one.  Although  described  in  the  oldest 
books,  it  is  seldom  seen.  I  believe  the  only  plant 
that  ever  I  saw  of  it  in  England  was  at  Col. 
Vernon  IIarcourt's  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
where  it  was  received  direct  from  Montreal 
with  other  hardy  things  in  1838 — but  I  feel  as- 
sured that  I  will  yet  see  the  day  when  the 
Golden  Trumpet  flower  {Bignonia  capreolata) 
will  be  as  popular  and  as  common  both  in  this 
country  and  in  England  as  the  ivy  now  is — not 
as  a  substitute  or  competitor — for  that  can 
never  be — but  as  a  comrade  and  welcome  com- 
panion. Yours  very  sincerely,  Thomas  Mee- 
HAN.  Bartram  Botanic  Garden,  Philadel- 
phia; Jan. 10, 1851. 

[We  saw  the  very  plant  of  the  Golden  Trum- 
pet flower  which  our  correspondent  describes, 
5  or  6  years  ago,  at  the  Bartram  Garden  when 
it  was  in  full  bloom.  It  was  then  one  of  the 
finest  climbers  we  ever  beheld,  and  we  imme- 
diately ordered  a  plant  of  it  for  our  own  garden 
where  it  is  now  growing  well.  The  foliage  is 
evergreen  and  handsome,  but  the  flowers  are 
not  so  fine  here  as  in  Philadelphia.  It  is,  cer- 
tainly, a  climber  worthy  of  being  more  general- 
ly known.     En.] 


Random  Notes  of  a  Winter's  Evening. — 
With  the  comparative  leisure  of  winter,  is  it 
not  well  to  take  a  retrospective  glance  at  what 
has  been  accomplished ;  to  be  pleased  with  what 
has  been  well  done,  and  to  compare  notes  of 
what  is  in  progress — Horticultural ly,  of  course 
— your  Journal  being  the  vude  mecum  for  tliat 
subject. 

The  season  has  been  one  of  great  fruitful- 
ness;  the  granaries  of  the  industrious  farmer 
are  richly  stored  with  all  the  cereal  and  other 
crops,  both  in  quantity  and  quality,  and  the 
horticulturist's  heart  has  gladdened  at  the  pro- 
fusion and  richness  of  the  bounties  set  before 
him.  Kevor,  within  the  recollection  o:' the 
oldest  inhabitant,  has  there  been  such  an  uni- 
versal crop,  and  so  universally  well  ripened. 
Strawberries,  cherries,  peaches,  plums,  apples 
and  pears,  with  all  the  minor  fruits  and  escu- 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


have  been  excellent ;  and  bating  the  oc- 
casional loss  by  insect  depredations,  and  a 
touch  of  a  nameless  blight,  all  have  reaped  a 
quid  pro  quo  for  labor  bestowed.  For  one,  I 
can  truly  say,  that  it  has  been  a  season  of  pecu- 
liar pleasure  and  satisfaction,  although  physi- 
cal labor  has  been  more  severe  than  for  forty 
years  before. 

Permit  mc,  in  usus  loquendi,  to  say  a  word 
or  two  to  those  who  like  myself  have  been 

Pent  up  in  cities'  murky  g;loom, 
Brealliing  infection, 

and  to  lure  them  into  rural  places,  where  alone 
can  health  and  cheerful  mind  attain  the  acme 
of  God's  paradise  on  earth. 

For  several  years  past  my  passion  for  garden- 
ing has  been  confined  witliiu  narrow  bounds. 
Fruits,  flowers,  vinery  and  conservatory,  have 
occupied  but  a  few  perches  of  land.  Lately, 
having  purchased  a  suburban  residence  of  some 
five  and  twenty  acres,  within  two  miles  of  the 
city,  I  have,  thanks  to  a  kind  providence,  learn- 
ed to  walk  again — aye,  and  to  work  too — en- 
joying the  elastic  influences  of  healthftil  exer- 
cise, with  the  accessories  of  a  sound  and  natural 
appetite.  Here  we  enjoy  the  luxuries  of  home- 
made butter,  fresh  eggs,  wholesome  and  nutri- 
tious vegetables,  luscious  fruits,  and  a  happy 
thankfulness  that  onr  lot  has  been  thus  cast  in 
pleasant  places. 

My  lands  had  once  been  in  a  high  state  of 
cultivation,  but  for  some  years  past  most  shame- 
fully abused.  Burdock,  and  a  host  of  mongrel 
grasses,  weeds,  grubs.  Sec.  had  taken  posses- 
sion. The  trees  were  mossy,  and  had  been 
starved  into  bare  existence.  What  a  picture! 
and  yet,  who  would  not  envy  my  position?  Be- 
lieve me,  and  I  doubt  not  you  would  respond  to 
the  truth,  that  to  create,  to  replant,  and  to  re- 
juvenate such  a  place,  Avatching  grateful  earth 
put  forth  her  latent  energies ;  to  guide  and  di- 
rect each  branch  and  twig,  and  turn  the  neglect- 
ed sward  into  velvet  lawn,  is  productive  of  far 
greater  happiness  to  the  lover  of  rural  labors, 
than  the  possession  of  a  finished  place,  where 
nought  was  left  to  do. 

]\[ost  fortunately  the  soil,  which  varies  from 
sandy  loam  to  a  stiff  clay,  had  never  been  stir- 
red beyond  the  depth  of  a  few  inches,  and  my 
design  in  these  desultory  ramblings,  is  to  relate 
some  of  my  experiments  and  their  results. 


Intending  to  appropriate  the  larger  portion 
of  the  plot  to  fruit  culture,  the  first  instru- 
ment purchased  was  a  subsoil  plow.  This  tool 
strikes  at  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  has,  wherev- 
er used,  done  wonders.  As  Rome  was  not  built 
in  a  day— for  want  of  time — neither  have  I 
subsoiled  all  my  land ;  yet  desiroxis  of  testing 
the  efficacy  of  each  experiment,  I  applied  it 
to  alternate  lands,  and  with  the  aid  of  the 
common  plow,  I  have  thoroughly  worked  seve- 
ral acres,  from  17  to  20  inches  in  depth.  Thus, 
with  the  design  of  getting  the  soil  in  good  heart 
and  tilth  before  planting,  I  put  in  root  and  hoed 
crops. 

The  surface  was  mamrred  in  this  wise : — 50 
loads  stable  manure,  10  loads  leached  ashes,  10 
loads  limed  hair  from  the  tannery,  and  100  bush- 
els rectified  charcoal  per  acre — all  of  which  was 
well  and  thoroughly  incorporated  to  the  depth 
of  eight  or  ten  inches,  with  a  scattering  of  air 
slaked  lime  upon  the  surface ;  the  latter  more 
particularly  to  meet  the  appetite  of  the  grubs. 
The  result  has  been,  that  potatoes,  corn,  cab- 
bage, carrots  and  oats,  were  in  wciglit,  as  two 
to  one  in  favor  of  the  subsoiled  land.  These 
crops  never  showed  the  least  wilt  in  drouth,  nor 
lost  color  until  the  ripening  process. 

How  little  is  known  of  the  true  value  of  this 
limed  hair  and  refuse  charcoal — articles  readily 
procured  in  large  quantities,  in  nearly  every 
town,  for  the  carting,  and  which  are  frequently 
buried  in  sunken  holes  to  get  rid  of  them.  I  con- 
sider the  hair  nearly  as  rich  in  the  same  consti- 
tuents as  ground  bones,  (which,  with  us,  are 
very  expensive,)  containing  largely,  nitrogen 
and  ammonia,  besides  being  rich  in  phosphates, 
and  withal  readily  decomposing,  not  a  vestige 
being  left  in  its  former  state  at  the  close  of  a 
season.  For  grape  and  fruit  culture  generally, 
it  is  invaluable. 

Of  charcoal,  enough  lias  been  said  through 
the  pages  of  the  Horticulturist,  to  assure  the 
most  skeptical  of  its  intrinsic  virtue.  But,  says 
a  novice,  your  charcoal  is  ruined  by  the  uses  to 
which  it  has  been  applied;  in  rectifying  spirit, 
it  is  so  perfc'ctly  changed  by  the  absorption  of  the 
essential  oil,  that  it  has  lost  all  power  of  far- 
ther absorbtion  as  a  deodoriser?  This  is  non- 
sense in  tlie  extreme.  Charcoal  is  indestruc- 
tible nearly,  and  loses  none  of  its  v 
properties  to  the  gardener  by  such  use. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


experiments  in  disinfecting  night-soil,  and  fetid 
chamber  slops,  in  warm  weather,  I  find  it  puts 
a  quietus  upon  the  odors  most  perfectly — and 
for  this  purpose  fully  equal  to  fresh  burned 
coal.  Try  it,  ye  skeptics,  who  profess  to  de- 
light in  rich  foliage  and  luxuriant  growth. 

Wood  ashes,  leached  or  fresh,  is  another  in- 
valuable auxiliary  to  the  tiller  of  the  soil ;  and 
remarkable  is  it,  that  the  farmer  and  gardener 
will,  even  now,  sell  his  ashes  at  a  few  cents  a 
bushel,  iu  exchange  for  soap,  at  a  loss  of  a 
thousand  per  cent!  As  a  single  fertilizer  for  tree 
culture,  it  is  the  most  valuable  of  any. 

In  my  orchard  of  an  hundred  rather  old  ap- 
ple trees,  whose  beauty  had  departed,  and 
whose  fruit  was  bitter,  and  miserably  poor,  I 
have  already  wrought  a  favorable  change. 
Around  each  tree  the  soil  has  been  trenched, 
two  feet  deep  by  two  feet  wide,  at  from  six  to 
eight  feet  from  the  bole;  the  roots  cut  off 
smoothly  with  a  well  ground  spade,  and  the 
trench  filled  with  a  compost  of  chopped  sod, 
hair,  leached  ashes  and  chip  manjiire.  well  incor- 
porated, scattering  the  soil  taken  out  upon  the 
surface.  The  trees  were  then  somewhat  prun- 
ed and  grafted ;  the  loose  bark  and  moss  care- 
fully scraped  away,  and  a  wash  of  whale  oil 
soap,  sulphur  and  sand,  put  freely  upon  them. 
The  grafts  took  well ;  the  trees  put  on  a  new 
dress,  and  already  have  they  assumed  a  health- 
ful vigor.  What  they  will  attain  by  another 
season's  growth,  we  can  readily  imagine.  This 
orchard  was  well  manured,  deeply  plowed,  and 
put  into  potatoes  which  turned  out  well. 

An  experiment  made  here,  vi'ith  salt,  in  po- 
tato culture,  may  be  useful  to  record:  It  has 
been  contended  that  common  salt,  both  was, 
and  was  not,  valuable  to  the  growth  of  this 
crop.  I  experimented  somewhat  largely,  and 
offer  the  results: 

Upon  100  sets,  I  placed  directly  in  the  hole, 
when  planting,  a  gill  of  common  salt,  which 
killed  about  fifty  per  cent.  To  another  100 
sets  half  a  gill;  all  came  up  and  grew.  Upon 
another  100  sets  none ;  the  tubers  and  haulm 
showed  no  observable  difiercnee  among  the 
different  lots.  To  another  100  sets  that  were 
treated  each  with  half  a  shovel  full  of  leached 
ashes,  a  marked  difference  was  readily  seen; 
they  were  not  more  vigorous,but  better  colored, 
and  yielded  better.     As  connected  with  this  ex- 


periment I  would  remark  that  Jlat  hoeing,  and 
not  hilling  up,  is  far  preferable  for  this,  and  all 
other  crops  requiring  regular  moisture  at  the 
roots ;  indeed, it  is  one  of  the  most  mistaken  dog- 
mas of  the  age,  that  garden  beds  are  universally 
made  high,  and  curved,  or  rounded  on  the  sur- 
face, and  the  paths  or  walks  left  sunken,  when 
in  truth,  the  reverse  should  be  the  case.  Our 
summer  showers  are  few  and  far  between,  and 
should  be  carefully  caught  upon  the  spot  where 
they  fall,  instead  of  allowing  them  to  wash  the 
surface  of  its  fertility,  to  be  carried  by  the 
paths  to  some  neighboring  brook,  or,  perchance, 
enrich  some  neighbor's  low  land.  In  evidence 
of  this,  I  would  adduce  the  fact,  Avell  known 
to  observing  persons,  that  the  soil  under  a  tree 
of  ten  or  more  inches  in  girth,  is  never  mois- 
tened beyond  a  few  inches  in  depth,  from  the 
middle  of  May  to  September,  that  is  from  the 
opened  leaf  to  the  fall  rains.  Is  it  not  rea- 
sonable then,  that  in  our  climate  we  have  no 
spare  moisture.  Did  I  dare  offer  an  immature 
opinion,  I  shouldattribute  to  this  fact  the  blight 
of  pear  trees,  &-c.  In  the  observations  I  have 
made,  the  trees  thus  affected  have  in  all  cases 
been  in  a  light  porous  or  shallow  worked  soil, 
and  affected  at  a  time  when  evaporation  is  at 
its  greatest  point,  the  roots  having  exhausted 
the  surrounding  moisture  in  greater  ratio  than 
the  supply.  In  deep  and  well  trenched  soil, 
with  a  suitable  mulch,  I  have  never  yet  seen  a 
blight. 

Pear  seedlings  in  our  neighborhood  are  gen- 
erally considered  a  failure,  losing  their  foliage 
early  and  suffering  greatly  from  blight — while 
mine,  on  the  contrary,  grown  on  subsoiled 
land,  well  dressed  with  ashes,  hair  and  scoriae 
have  flourished  finely,  ripening  well  their  wood, 
and  had  not,  up  to  the  5th  of  December  shed 
their  leaves.  They  were  then  covered  by  a 
heavy  fall  of  snow.  Of  several  hundred  pears 
from  the  yearling  to  the  bearing,  which  I  plant- 
ted  early  in  the  spring  in  similarly  prepared 
land,  each  having  a  mulch  of  spent  tan,  not  an 
instance  of  blight  has  occurred ;  while  a  neigh- 
bor is  deeply  sorrowing  the  \osso(  forty  beauti- 
ful trees.  It  may,  I  feel  assured,  be  a  settled 
axiom,  that  the  pear  can  not  be  successfuily 
grown  on  light  soils,  neither  will  they  thrive 
without  that  specific  aliment,  well  incorporated 
in  the  soil,  which  goes  to  make  up  the  wood. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Yogetable  phj-siology  fully  demonstrates  this, 
and  from  it  we  may  learn  that  all  high  bred 
and  hybrid  plants  require  a  greater  degree  of 
care  in  their  culture,  which  includes  both  food 
and  pruning.  In  especial  evidence  we  might 
adduce  the  foreign  grape,  the  strawberry,  and 
the  modern  pear,  which,  under  the  manage- 
ment of  different  individuals,  even  in  the  same 
locality,  show  as  great  dissimilitude  as  it  is  pos- 
sible to  conceive. 

While  on  the  subject  of  pears,  may  I  ask  yon, 
or  your  correspondents  to  settle  the  disputed 
question  of  legitimate  Quince  stocks — must 
they  as  a  sine  qua  non,  be  of  the  Angers,  up- 
right, pear,  Portugal  or  orange  variety?  Pray 
clear  up  this  matter — as  I  design  to  plant  yet 
some  two  thousand  more  dwarfs,  1  feel  some 
interest  in  the  solution. 

A  portion  of  my  plantation  consists  of  an 
hundred  cherries,  mostly  beginning  to  bear; 
and  also  an  acre  of  strawberries,  among  which, 
arc  the  famous  Scheneike  seedlings. 

Peaches  in  our  locale,  in  open  position,  are  a 
doubtful  crop,  and  yet  in  many  of  our  city 
gardens — warm,  and  sheltered,  fine  specimens 
are  annually  grown.  Having  a  soil  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  peach  (an  old  sod  sandy  loam 
on  a  limestone  rock)  and  elevated  beyond  any 
adjacent  point  for  several  miles,  I  have  thought 
it  worth  the  experiment,  to  plant  seventy-five 
trees,  of  the  hardy  varieties;  selecting  those 
on  plum  stocks,  as  vastly  better  suited  to  our 
climate,  aside  from  the  protection  by  this  means, 
from  the  peach  worm.  Ashes,  lime  and  hair 
are  my  specific  fertilizers  for  this  fruit — I  give 
a  shovel  full  of  each,  well  incorporated  in  the 
hole,  with  an  additional  shovel  full  of  ashes 
and  charcoal  as  a  top  dressing,  and  finish  by 
raising  a  mound  a  foot  high  as  a  stay  for  winter 
blasts,  and  the  depredations  of  field  mice. 

How  unfortunate  it  is  that  nurserymen  in 
packing  this  tree,  so  perfectly  denude  them  of 
their  lower  branches;  these,  to  me,  constitute 
their  best  portions,  to  renew  which,  requires 
severe  heading  back.  The  peach  to  be  success- 
full,  should  be  kept  low,  and  bush  like.  They 
then  shade  the  ground,  answering  the  purpose 
of  a  mulch.  The  stocks  are  thus  kept  free 
from  gumming,  are  easily  reached  for  summer 

runing,  and  the  fruit  is  readily  gathered. 

lums  I  am  planting  an  hundred  trees, 


notwithstanding  the  hue  and  cry  about  the 
curculio.  In  this  matter  I  have  had  some  ex- 
perience, and  with  all  due  deference  to  the 
"  instincts"  your  correspondents  so  kindly 
speak  of,  I  claim  to  have  the  secret  of  success  ! 
For  ten  years,  I  have  tried  with  faithful  care, 
the  various  recipes  promulged,  such  as  sulphur, 
salting,  picking  up,  dung  heaps,  strong  odors, 
and  lastly  manipulation  (the  grand  secret,) 
viz:  catching  all  the  he  ones  and  shortening  the 
proboscis.  From  half  a  dozen  trees,  planted 
fifteen  years  ago,  full  half  a  mile  from  any 
other,  and  yearly  loaded  with  fruit  to  be  con- 
signed to  the  piggery,  I  have  by  my  method, 
for  several  seasons  past,  obtained  annually, 
fifteen  bushels  of  perfect  fruit.  That  this  in- 
sect is  migratory,  and  fleet  of  wing,  there  can 
be  no  doubt,  and  neither  is  their  presence  con- 
fined to  plum  trees.  I  have  found  them  in  the 
woods  in  great  abundance,  on  the  Manitou 
I.slands  in  Lake  Michigan,  and  other  places 
where  no  plums  are  to  be  found.  The  paving 
process  is  a  failure,  the  trees  to  over-hang 
water  an  absurdity-and  although  catching  them 
may  seem  a  "  2Juttering"  job,  let  me  assure 
you  it  is  a  safe  one,  productive  of  much  fruit. 
My  method  has  been  from  the  setting  of  the 
blossom,  to  spread  sheets  under  the  tree,  and 
jar  and  shake,  with  a  properly  arranged  hooked 
pole.  This  should  be  done  early  in  the  morn- 
ing about  sunrise,  and  continued  at  frequent 
intervals,  say  three  or  four  times  per  week, 
until  the  fruit  is  ripening,  when  instinct  tells 
the  creature  (should  there  be  any  left)  that  it  is 
too  late  to  penetrate  the  pit.  To  induce  watch- 
fulness I  have  paid  a  penny  each,  and  frequent- 
ly have  they  been  captured  in  the  act  of  punc- 
turing the  fruit.  Occasionally  from  forty  to 
fifty  were  caught  per  day,  and  yet  even  at  these 
prices  I  have  been  the  gainer,  as  the  fruit,  from 
the  general  scarcity,  would  readily  command 
from  three  to  four  dollars  per  bushel. 

Hedging  in  this  vicinity  is  almost  unknown, 
if  we  except  the  Privet,  which  is  only  suitable 
to  define  paths,  or  form  screens  around  build- 
ings. 

Hedges  proper,  however,  should  be  formed 
of  that  material  which  shall  fully  answer  the 
double  purpose  of  fence  and  durability — creat- 
ing a  perfect  barrier  against  man  and  beast,  and 
which  shall  be  ornamental,  free  from  diseases. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


and  the  attacks  of  animals  and  insects.  These 
are  highly  important  considerations — and  to  me 
peculiarly  so.  At  the  present  I  am  trenching 
for  three  hundred  rods  of  hedge.  The  Osage 
Orange  is  my  favorite,  but  I  fear  its  durability 
for  that  purpose  in  our  neighborhood.  Of  se- 
veral hundred  plants  which  I  grew  from  seed, 
and  bestowed  upon  friends  in  this  vicinity,  I 
find  them,  as  also  my  own,  more  or  less  winter 
killed  when  unprotected,  besides  being  subject 
to  girdling  by  field  mice,  of  which  we  have 
more  than  a  share.  It  makes,  however,  the 
most  beautiful  hedges,  in  every  point  of  view, 
far  handsomer  where  it  flourishes,  than  Eng- 
land's Hawthorn,  which  fades  under  our  bright 
sun.  The  Berberry  has  been  highly  spoken  of 
for  hedging,  but  not  having  seen  either  hedge 
or  testimony,  sufficiently  satisflictory,  I  remain 
in  doubt.  A  side  nurserjnnan  last  year  adver- 
tised largely,  a  stock  of  this  plant  for  hedging, 
but  sending  an  order  at  once,  for  a  thousand 
plants,  they  were  all  just  gone ! 

Some  years  since,  I  induced  a  friend  to  try 
the  indigenous  thorn  so  common  in  our  woods. 
Nearly  half  a  mile  of  hedge  was  mado,  and  does 
pretty  well,  but  due  care  was  not  taken  in  se- 
lecting the  plants  sufficiently  small.  The  lar- 
ger ones  being  stunted  by  transplanting,  gaps 
were  made  difficult  to  repair.  Thus,  after  all 
that  has  been  written  on  the  subject,  safety 
seems  confined  alone  to  the  Buckthorn.  Your 
own  testimony  has  resolved  me  to  plant  largely 
of  it.  I  had  feared  that  animals  would  browse 
upon  it,  but  you  say,  vol.  1,  p.  348,  "  its  leaf 
and  bark  are  offensive  to  insects,  and  the  borer 
will  not  touch  it",  which  I  trust  may  be  extend- 
ed to  graminivorous  animals. 

A  thoroughly  protective  hedge,  or  an  un- 
couth looking  strong  fence,  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  the  orchardist,  if  he  may  derive  either 
pleasure  or  profit  from  his  trees.  Climbing  a 
a  fence,  or  pushing  aside  a  picket,  and  pelting 
the  choice  apples,  pears,  &c.  from  the  trees,  is, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  not  considered  generally  a 
misdemeanor,  or  theft,  at  the  present  day. 
And  a  peremptory  order  to  desist  such  intru- 
sion, brings  upon  the  owner  the  anathema  of 
"  how  ?22can  ."'  The  venerable  D.  Thomas  re- 
marks, "  no  insect,  no  birds  and  no  malady 
among  fruit  trees  have  discouraged  pomologists 
so  much  as  the  depredations  of  our  own  species," 


and  as  an  antidote  urges  "that  all  persons 
should  be  induced  to  grow  their  own  fruit,  as 
he  never  knew  a  boy  to  steal  fruit,  whose 
father  raised  fruit  himself,"  to  which  we  would 
respond  Amen.  AV.  R.  Coppock.  Longsight 
Place,  near  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  Jan.  1,  1851. 


Notes  of  the  Season. — The  new  year  open- 
ed with  fine  sleighing,  a  cool  healthful  air,  and 
smiling,  but  not  a  very  warm  sunshine.  The 
southern  sky  looked  soft  and  agreeable  enough 
for  September,  in  the  early  part  of  the  day, 
but  before  night,  the  north  wind  arose,  and  the 
loose  snow  was  hurried  in  wild  confusion  into 
drifts.  The  morning  of  the  2d,  was  cool,  and 
as  some  would  say,  the  air  was  fine  and 
bracing  through  the  day — 5th,  mercury  at  sun- 
rise, only  2°  above  0,  and  did  not  rise  higher 
than  10°  through  the  daj-— 6th,  22°  at  sunrise, 
and  reached  4^  in  the  afternoon.  On  the 
morning  of  the  8th  only  2°  above  0,  but  mode- 
rates fast  and  continues  very  fine  for  ten  days, 
the  mercury  frequently  being  above  freezing 
at  sunrise.  On  the  morning  of  the  19th,  it 
stood  4°  below  0,  and  rose  only  to  18"  above 
through  the  day ;  after  which  it  continues  mild 
and  agreeable.  The  23d  was  a  fine  smoky  day, 
and  the  snow  wasted  under  the  influence  of  the 
sun.  The  morning  of  the  24th  was  noted  for  a 
remarkable  white  frost,  which  curiously  orna- 
mented the  spires  of  grass  and  branches  of 
trees,  especially  on  lowlands,  beside  streams, 
where  the  feathery  chrystals  hung  in  rich  and 
varied  beauty,  and  gave  under  the  influence  of 
the  sun  a  fairy  appearance  to  the  desolations 
of  winter.  But  the  illusion  soon  melted  off, 
and  we  found  winter  yet  reigning  in  its  every 
day  costume.  Warm  weather  followed  this 
frost,  and  in  the  four  following  days,  the  sleigh- 
ing was  nearly  used  up  by  sunshine.  The  morn- 
ing of  the  29th  was  ushered  in  by  a  rain  storm 
with  the  mercury  at  38°  and  the  wind  blowing 
fresh  from  the  south-west.  Wind  changes  to 
northwest  at-  S-J  o'clock  A.  M.,  and  a  furious 
snow-squal  follows,  continuing  until  nearly 
noon.  The  weather  grows  blustering  through 
the  day.  The  30th  will  long  be  remembered 
as  a  cold,  blustering  daj'^.  made  still  more  un- 
pleasant by  the  sudden  change  of  temperature. 
At  suin-ise  the  mercury  was  8°  below  0 — at  9 
A.   M.   6°   below  — at   3   P.   M.   2°   below- 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


at  9  P.  M.  9"  below,  exposed,  to  the  full 
force  of  the  wind.  On  the  morning  of  the  31st 
it  was  9°  below  0 — at  9  A.  M.,  at  4  below — at 
3  P.  M.  4°  above  0.  It  is  a  very  unusual  cir- 
cumstance, and  one  which  I  do  not  recollect  to 
have  witnessed  before,  to  experience  a  tempera- 
ture below  0  through  the  day,  but  here  it  ac- 
tually continued  for  at  least  36  hours. 

The  storms  of  the  month  have  been  few  and 
comparatively  light.  On  the  4th,  snow  fell  to 
the  depth  of  four  inches.  On  the  9th  rain  and 
hail  I  inch.  On  the  mornings  of  the  16th  and 
17th,  fog  rested  on  the  hills  and  we  had  very 
slight  sprinklings  of  rain.  The  20th  brought  a 
slight  fall  of  snow,  and  another  the  22d.  Snow 
fell  to  the  depth  of  1^  inch  on  the  27th,  and 
the  rain  of  the  29th,  was  two  inches  and  the 
snow  that  followed  gave  3  inches.  These  were 
all  the  storms  of  the  month.  There  were  three 
days  only  of  entire  cloudiness — of  entire  clear- 
ness none.  In  12 1  observations  the  course  of  the 
wind  was  northerly  64 — southerly  60. 

The  general  temperature  of  the  month  was 
mild  and  agreeable,  and  until  the  sudden  change 
of  the  29tli,  was  highly  favorable  for  the  fruit 
buds  of  the  peach,  &.c.  But  when  we  saw  the 
mercury  sink  46"  in  twenty-four  hours  we  must 
necessarily  conclude  that  it  is  all  over  with  them 
for  the  present  year.  Such  changes  are  far 
more  fatal  in  their  effects  than  steady,  uncom- 
promising  cold  weather.  This  any  individual 
may  see  from  his  own  liability  to  take  severe 
colds,  contract  lung-fevers  and  other  diseases 
incident  to  frequent  and  severe  changes  of  tem- 
perature. 

Such  changes  are  greatly  injurious  to  do- 
mestic animals  of  all  kinds  and  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances,  but  they  are  most 
keenly  felt  for  those  which  are  allowed  to  shift 
for  themselves  in  getting  protection.  How  much 
is  suffered  by  animals  and  actually  lost  to  farm- 
ers by  negligence  in  providing  shelter  cannot 
be  known.  It  is  no  doubt  the  case,  however, 
that  diseases  are  often  contracted  by  such  ex- 
posures which  are  not  fully  developed  until  the 
warm  season,  and  then  are  attributed  to  wrong 
causes.  It  is  certainly  a  wise  policy  for  farmers 
to  provide  good  and  comfortable  shelters  for 
all  their  animals,  and  then  see  that  they  are 
housed  through  the  storms,  let  their  mildness 
promise  ever  so  fovorably,  for  a  righteous  man 


will  surely  regard  the  comfort  as  well  as  the 
life  of  his  beast.     Yours  truly,     W.  Bacon. 

Random  Notes. — I  was  much  pleased  with 
the  communication  from  your  new  correspond- 
ent Mr.  Fkench,  and  hope  he  may  write  often, 
as  it  will  add  considerably  to  the  interest  of  the 
Horticulturist.  Is  there  no  way  to  induce 
"  Jeffries"  to  resume  his  pen?  I  feel  quite 
grieved  at  losing  his  pleasant  criticisms,  and 
have  no  doubt  it  would  be  pleasant  to  a  great 
many  to  meet  with  them  again.  "  W.  H." 
seems  to  be  quite  in  despair  about  his  plums  as 
well  as  myself,  but  I  intend  planting  some 
where  the  fowls  will  have  free  acess  to  them, 
and  see  what  that  will  do.  I  hope  the 
"  Stowell"  sweet  corn  will  soon  get  far  enough 
south  to  reach  us.  It  must  be  a  very  desirable 
variety. 

Mrs.  Bateham's  remarks  were  well  worth  a 
place  in  the  Horticulturist,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
they  may  do  good.  What  a  blessing  it  would 
be  to  the  country  if  we  had  many  more  of  such 
sensible  women.  I  should  like  to  see  a  piece 
of  poetry  by  Mary  Howitt,  "on  the  use  of 
flowers."  in  your  columns,  as  it  well  deserves  a 
place,  but  do  not  like  to  send  it  without  know- 
ing whether  it  would  be  acceptable  or  not. 

AYe  wish  to  plant  two  trees  in  front  of  our 
house  (a  western  exposure)  that  will  soon  make 
a  shade,  and  such  as  are  not  liable  to  be  attack- 
ed by  insects.  "Would  not  the  sugar  maple  be 
suitable? — [very  suitable.]  "We  have  a  good 
many  fine  roses  in  an  ojjen  space  in  front  of  our 
dwelling,  but  they  do  not  grow  as  I  could 
wish.  What  kind  of  manure  had  I  better  apply? 
The  soil  is  rather  light,  and  I  suppose  not  as  rich 
as  it  ought  to  be.  [Well  rotted  stable  manure 
— bury  it  as  deep  as  you  can.]  I  have  suc- 
ceeded better  in  raising  the  Oleander,  Azalea, 
and  Daphne  from  cuttings  by  placing  them  in 
vials  of  rain  water,  excluding  the  air  with  raw 
cotton,  and  keeping  them  in  the  window,  than 
in  any  other  way ;  of  course  we  keep  filling  the 
vial  as  it  requires  it — ^as  soon  as  the  roots  are 
half  an  inch  long,  plant  them  in  light  soil.  I 
frequently  start  roses  in  the  same  way.  I  have 
planted  a  few  cranberry  vines  which  I  intend 
to  keep  wet  by  the  waste  water  from  the  pump. 
Think  they  will  do  well.  [We  fear  not,  unless 
you  keep  the  pump  going.]  A  Con; 
Reader.     Maryland,  Feb.  14,  1851, 


JOURNAL  OF  RUIIAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


€^t  (§xui  Di3rnii]?rt(  in  tJrgttatinn. 


^  T  is  one  of  the  misfortunes  of  an  editor  to  be  expected  to  answer  all  questions,  as 
^^  if  he  were  an  oracle.  It  is  all  pleasant  enough  when  his  correspondent  is  lost 
in  the  woods,  and  he  can  speedily  set  him  right,  or  when  he  is  groping  in  some  dark 
passage  that  only  needs  the  glimmer  of  his  farthing  candle  of  experience,  to  make  the 
way  tolerably  clear  to  him.  But  correspondents  are  often  unreasonable,  and  ask  for 
what  is  little  short  of  a  miracle.  It  is  clear  that  an  editor  is  not  only  expected  to  know 
everything,  but  that  he  is  not  to  be  allowed  the  comfort  of  belonging  to  any  secret  so- 
cieties, or  any  of  those  little  fraternities  where  such  a  charming  air  of  mystery  is 
thrown  over  the  commonest  subjects. 

We  are  brought  to  these  reflections  by  a  letter  that  has  just  come  before  us,  and 
which  runs  as  follows  : 

Dear  Sir — I  have  been  expecting  in  the  last  two  numbers,  to  hear  from  you  on 
the  subject  of  the  great  discovery  in  vegetation,  which  was  laid  before  the  committee 
of  the  State  Agricultural  Society  at  its  annual  meeting  in  January  last.  You  were, 
if  I  mistake  not,  a  member  of  that  committee,  and  of  course,  the  fullest  disclosures 
of  the  secret  of  the  gentleman  who  claims  to  have  found  out  a  new  "  principle  in  ve- 
getation," were  laid  before  you.  No  formal  report,  has,  I  think,  been  published  by 
the  Society.  The  public  are,  therefore,  in  the  dark  still.  Is  this  right,  when  the 
discoverer  is  now  urging  the  legislature  of  this  state  to  pass  a  bill  giving  him  a  bonus 
of  $150,000  to  make  his  secret  public,  for  the  benefit  of  all  cultivators  of  the  soil? 
Either  the  thing  is  pure  humbug,  or  there  is  something  in  it  worthy  of  attention. 
Pray  enlighten  us  on  this  subject  ?  Yours,  &c. 

Yes,  we  were  upon  that  committee,  and  nothing  would  give  us  greater  pleasure  than 
to  unburden  our  heart  to  the  public  on  this  subject,  and  rid  our  bosom  of  this 
lous  stuff"  that  has  weighed  upon  us  ever  since.     But  alas  !  this  gentleman  wh 


Apeil  1.  1851. 


No.  IV. 


THE  GREAT  DISCOVERY  IN  \'T:GETATI0N. 

been  urging  his  great  discovery  upon  the  attention  of  congress  and  the  legislature 
for  ten  or  twelve  years  past,  put  all  the  committee  under  a  solemn  vow  of  secrecy, 
though  we  protested  at  the  time  against  his  expecting  that  a  horticultural  editor  should 
preserve  sHence  touching  anything  that  is  told  him  suh  rosa. 

And  yet  we  would  not  treat  our  correspondent  rudely — ^for  his  letter  only  express- 
es what  a  good  many  others  have  expressed  to  us  verbally.  We  shall,  tiierefore,  en- 
deavor to  console  him  for  the  want  of  the  learned  dissertation  an  vegetable  physiology 
which  he  no  doubt  expected,  by  telling  him  a  story. 

Once  on  a  time  there  was  a  little  spaniel  who  lived  only  for  the  good  of  his  race.  He 
had  a  mild  countenance,  and  looked  at  the  first,  enough  like  other  dogs.  But  for  all  that 
he  was  an  oddity.  Year  in  and  year  out,  this  little  spaniel  wandered  about  with  a  wise 
look,  like  the  men  that  gaze  at  the  stars  through  the  great  telescopes.  The  fact  was, 
he  had  taken  it  into  his  head  that  he  was  a  philosopher,  and  had  discovered  a  great  se- 
cret. This  was  no  less  than  the  secret  of  histinct  by  which  dogs  do  so  many  wonder- 
ful things,  that  some  men  with  all  their  big  looks,  their  learning,  yes,  and  even  their 
wonderful  knack  of  talking,  cannot  do. 

It  was  curious  to  see  how  the  little  spaniel  who  had  turned  philoshpher,  gave  him- 
self up  to  this  fancy  that  had  got  into  his  head.  He  had  a  comfortable  kennel,  where 
he  might  have  kept  house,  barked,  looked  after  trespassers,  where  he  might  have  been 
well  fed,  and  had  a  jolly  time  of  it  like  other  dogs. 

But  no,  he  was  far  too  wise  for  that.  He  had,  as  he  said,  found  out  something  that 
would  alter  the  whole  "  platform"  on  which  dogs  stood,  something  that  would  help  them 
to  carry  their  heads  higher  than  many  men  he  could  name,  instead  of  being  obliged  to 
play  second  fiddle  to  the  horse.  If  the  community  of  dogs  in  general  would  but  lis- 
ten to  him,  he  would  teach  them  not  only  how  to  be  always  wise  and  rich,  how  to  be 
strong  and  hearty,  but  above  all,  how  to  preserve  their  scent — for  the  scent  is  a  plea- 
sure that  dogs  prize  as  much  as  some  old  ladies  who  take  snufi".  In  short,  the  know- 
ledge of  this  wonderful  discovery  would  bring  about  a  canine  millennium — for  he  as- 
sm-ed  them  that  not  only  was  every  one  of  them  entitled  to  his  "  day,"  but  that  "  a 
good  time  was  coming,"  even  for  dogs. 

And  why,  you  will  say,  did  not  our  philosopher  divulge  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
family  of  dogs  ?  "  It  is  so  pleasant  to  do  something  for  the  elevation  of  our  race,"  as 
the  travelled  monkey  thought  when  he  was  teaching  his  brothers  to  walk  on  their  hind 
legs.  All  the  dogs  in  the  country  could  not  but  owe  him  a  debt  of  gratitude,  since  they 
would  soon  become  so  wise  that  they  might  even  teach  their  masters  something  of  in- 
stinct. And  then  they  would  be  so  happy — since  there  would  not  be  a  downcast  tail 
in  all  the  land — for  the  whole  country  would  be  in  one  perpetual  wag  of  delight. 

Ah  !  dear  reader,  we  see  that  you,  who  put  such  questions,  know  nothing  either  of 
philosophy,  or  the  world.  As  if  the  people  who  discover  why  the  world  turns 
round,  and  the  stars  shine,  throw  their  knowledge  into  the  street  for  every  dog 
to  trample  on.  No,  indeed  !  They  will  have  a  patent  for  it,  or  a  great  sum  of 
money  from  the  government,  or  something  of  that  sort.  It  would  be  a  sorry 
who  should  think  that  every  new  thing  found  out   is  to  be  given  away  to  every 


THE  GREAT  DISCOVERY  IN  VEGETATION. 

for  nothing  at  all,  in  that  manner.  To  be  sure,  it  would,  perhaps,  benefit  mankind 
all  the  more,  but  that  is  only  half  the  question.  "  If  you  think  the  moon  is  made  of 
green  cheese,"  said  our  curly  philosopher  to  his  friends,  "  you  are  greatly  mistaken. 
I  am  well  satisfied,  for  my  part,  that  that  is  only  a  vulgar  error.  If  it  had  been,  loilN 
Bull  would  have  eaten  it  up  for  lunch  a  long  time  ago." 

So  our  philosopher  went  about  among  his  fellow  dogs,  far  and  near,  and  spent  most 
of  his  little  patrimony  in  waiting  on  distinguished  mastiffs,  Newfoundlands,  and  curs 
of  high  degree.  He  Went,  also,  to  ail  conventions  or  public  assemblies,  where  wise  ter- 
riers were  in  the  habit  of  putting  their  heads  together  for  the  public  good.  Wherev- 
er he  went,  you  would  see  him  holding  some  poor  victim  by  the  button,  expounding 
his  great  secret,  and  showing  how  the  progress,  yes,  and  the  very  existence  of  dogs, 
depended  upon  the  knowledge  of  his  secret — since  it  would  really  explain  in  a  moment 
everything  that  had  been  dark  since  the  days  when  their  great-grandfathers  were  kept 
from  drowning  in  the  ark.  Only  let  the  congress  of  grey-hounds  agree  to  pay  him  a 
million  of  money,  and  he  would  make  known  principles  that  would  make  the  distem- 
per cease,  and  all  the  other  ills  that  dog-flesh  is  heir  to,  fade  clean  out  of  memory. 

Some  of  the  big  dogs  to  whom  he  told  his  secret,  (always,  remember,  in  the  strict- 
est confidence,)  shook  their  heads,  and  looked  wise ;  others,  to  get  rid  of  his  endless 
lectures,  gave  him  a  certificate,  saying  that  Solomon  was  wrong  when  he  said  there 
was  nothing  new  under  the  sun ;  and  all  agreed  that  there  was  no  denying  that  there 
is  something  in  it,  though  they  could  not  exactly  say  it  was  a  new  discovery. 

Finally,  after  a  long  time  spent  in  lobbying,  and  after  wise  talks  with  all  the  mem- 
bers that  would  listen  to  him,  yes,  and  after  exhibiting  to  every  dog  that  had  an  hour 
to  give  him,  his  collection  of  dogs'  bones  that  had  died  solely  because  of  the  lamenta- 
ble ignorance  of  his  secret  in  dog-dom,  he  found  a  committee  that  took  hold  of  his  doc- 
trine in  good  earnest — quite  determined  to  do  justice  to  him,  and  vote  him  a  million 
if  he  deserved  it,  but,  nevertheless,  quite  determined  not  to  be  humbugged  by  any 
false  doggerel,  however  potent  it  might  have  been  to  terriers  less  experienced  in  this 
current  commodity  of  many  modern  philosophers. 

It  was  a  long  story,  that  the  committee  were  obliged  to  hear,  and  there  were  plenty 
of  hard  words  thrown  in  to  puzzle  terriers  who  might  not  have  had  a  scientific  education 
in  their  youth.  But  the  dogs  on  the  committee  were  not  to  be  puzzled  ;  they  seized 
hold  of  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  philosophic  spaniel,  tossed  it,  and  worried  it, 
and  shook  it,  till  it  stood  out,  at  last,  quite  a  simple  truth,  (how  beautiful  is  deep  phi- 
losophy,) and  it  was  this — 

The  great  secret  of  'perfect  instinct  in  clogs,  is  to  keep  their  noses  cool. 

Of  course,  the  majority  of  the  committee  were  startled  and  delighted  with  the  no- 
velty and  grandeur  of  the  discovery.  There  were,  to  be  sure,  a  few  who  had  the  fool- 
hardiness  to  remark,  that  the  thing  was  not  new,  and  had  been  acted  upon,  time 
out  of  mind,  in  all  good  kennels.  But  the  philosopher  soon  put  down  such  nonsense, 
by  observing  that  the  fact  might,  perchance,  have  been  known  to  a  few,  but  who,  be- 
him,  had  ever  shown  the  principle  of  the  thing? 

And  now,  we  should  lilie  to  see  that  cur  who  shall  dare  to  say  the  canine  ph 


ON  GRAPES  AND  WINE. 


plier  who  has   spent  his  life  in  studying  nature  and  the  Looks,  to  such  good  results, 
shall  not  have  a  million  for  his  discovery  ? 


ON   GRAPES    AND   WINE. 

BY  N.  LONGWORTH,  CINCINNATI,  O. 

Mr.  Downing — There  is  much  experience,  and  the  best  of  all  sense,  common  sense,  in 
your  remarks  in  your  Dec.  No.,  on  the  cultivation  of  the  foreign  grape  in  the  open  ground. 
But  you  say  "  Mr.  Longworth  has  tried  it  ona,  small  scale."  Had  you  expended  as  large  a 
sum  as  I  have  done  on  this  wild  goose  chase,  for  twenty  years,  if  a  Jerseyman,  jou  would 
deem  it  a  large  scale.  There  never  was  a  year,  for  twenty  years,  that  I  did  not  collect 
foreign  grape  roots  from  some  of  our  eastern  cities.  I  also  imported  over  5,000  grape  roots 
from  Madeira,  of  all  their  best  wine  grapes.  As  many  from  the  middle  part  of  France, 
and  from  Germany.  All  lived,  and  were  cultivated  for  a  few  years,  and  finally  discarded. 
As  a  last  trial,  I  imported  6,000  roots,  composed  of  24  varieties  of  grapes,  from  the  moun- 
tains of  Jura,  in  the  north  part  of  France,  where  the  vine  region  suddenly  ends.  Their 
vineyards  are  for  months  covered  with  snow.  My  success  was  no  better  than  with  vines 
from  a  warmer  latitude.  Grafting  a  foreign  grape  on  wild  stock,  as  you  truly  observe, 
does  not  render  the  graft  more  hardy.  I  have  had  the  grafts  to  grow  with  great  vigor, 
but  occasionally  they  were  killed,  even  down  to  the  native  stock.  "VYe  must  look  to  our 
native  grapes  and  seedlings  from  them,  and  to  a  cross  Avith  the  best  foreign,  for  our  sup- 
ply. In  our  latitude,  even  for  the  table,  few  foreign  grapes  can  surpass  the  Herhemont, 
Ohio,  Missouri,  and  some  others  recently  introduced. 

I  hope  to  send  you  a  sample  of  sparkling  Catawba  manufactured  by  Mr.  Fournat,  as 
it  has  now  been  in  the  bottle  nearly  two  years.  Those  heretofore  sold,  were  bottled  by 
my  former  manufacturer.  Two  reasons  lead  me  to  believe  my  sparkling  wine  will  com- 
pare favorably  with  the  best  French  Champaign.  It  is  better  flavored,  because  it  is  made 
from  the  Catawba  wine,  only.  In  Champaign,  three  or  four  kinds  of  wine  are  mixed 
together,  as  they  say,  because  the  one  possesses  the  aroma  and  flavor,  another  the  effer- 
vescence, another  the  strength.  If  true,  the  wine  cannot  be  as  well  flavored,  or  as  healthy, 
as  it  would  be  from  a  grape  containing  all  these  requisites,  which  the  Catawba  does. 
A  second  reason  is,  that  no  wine  made  from  a  mixture  of  three  or  four  kinds,  can  be  as 
healthy  to  the  stomach  as  where  made  from  a  single  variety.  If  the  Champaign  manu- 
facturers were  allied,  even  in  the  forty-second  degree,  to  Yankees  or  Jerseymen,  I  should 
suspect  a  stronger  reason  for  the  mixture — i.  e. :  the  wine  of  fine  aroma  and  flavor  costs 
$'1  per  gallon.  The  others,  from  50  cents  down  to  25  cents  per  gallon.  My  opinion  of 
the  healthy  character  of  the  sparkling  wine,  made  from  one  variety  of  grape,  is  confirmed 
in  a  letter  I  received  a  few  days  since,  from  a  physician  of  Boston,  whose  name  will 
give  credence  to  the  principle  wherever  it  is  known. 

lie  says,  "  From  some  trials  made  of  your  Champaign  wine,  I  am  induced  to  believe 
it  possesses  peculiar  advantages  for  the  sick,  and  that  it  might  be  important  to  have  some 
of  it  at  hand.  J.  C.  Warren."  Yours  truly, 

N.    LONGWORTH. 

[What  our  correspondent  says  about  the  grape  culture  is  full  of  practical  value.     His 
ing  wine  is  rapidly  gaining  favor,  and  we  are  confident  that  the  wines  of  the 
pure,  and  wholesome,  will  at  no  distant  day  be  in  high  repute.     Ed.] 


AN  ELOQUENT  PLEA  FOR  BIRDS. 

AN   ELOQUENT   PLEA  FOR   BIRDS. 

BY  WILD  FLOAVER,  NEW-ENGLAND. 

["We  heartily  sympathise  with  the  following  eloquent  and  beautiful  appeal  for  the  little 
feathered  creatures  of  the  air,  from  our  fair  unknown  correspondent  in  New-England.  If 
there  is  any  common  sight  more  truly  mean  and  contemptible  in  our  eyes  than  another, 
it  is  that  of  a  biped,  with  a  gun  on  his  shoulder,  making  game  of  blue  birds  and  sparrows. 
And  yet  our  community  is,  for  the  most  part,  callous  to  the  commission  of  the  sin.  We  re- 
commend such  to  the  perusal  of  the  following,  and  pray  that  their  consciences  may  awa- 
ken.    Ed.] 

Mr.  Downing — I  did  not  think  to  have  trespassed  on  your  kindness  again,  or  ventured 
before  so  wide  an  audience,  even  behind  my  friendly  veil.  But  this  time  my  errand  is  not 
to  my  own  sex.  I  am  figuratively  on  my  knees  to  the  gentlemen.  Not  to  any,  howev- 
er, who  have  a  right  to  smile  at  my  petitioning  humility.  I  come  as  a  memorialist  before 
the  law  makers  of  our  country,  to  beseech  them  for  my  friends,  my  companions,  my  dar- 
lings, the  little  birds.  Even  as  I  write,  the  song  of  a  blue-bird,  shivering  in  this  untime- 
ly snow,  seems  in  its  plaintive  cheerfulness  to  encourage  my  undertaking.  Gentlemen  of 
the  legislatures !  past,  present,  and  to  come,  you  are  very  good  to  the  eatable  fowls  of 
heaven;  woodcock,  snipe,  partriges,  quails,  all  feel  the  weight  of  your  protecting  influ- 
ence, but  who  cares  for  the  singing  birds?  If  they  were  nightingales,  indeed,  and  their 
tongues  a  "lordly  dish,"  as  once  they  were  to  the  Roman  epicures,  the  friendless  things 
might  hope  for  a  reprieve;  but  now  they  sing  their  gentle  life  away,  withoi:^t  confidence  or 
hope  in  its  endurance.  Da3'-b3f-day,  boys,  who  ought  rather  to  be  barrelled  up  with  a 
spelling-book  till  they  come  to  years  of  discretion,  shoulder  their  old  fowling  pieces  and  stroll 
the  fields  with  some  attendant  cur,  to  try  how  many  dear,  harmless,  happy  little  crea- 
tures, they  can  deprive  of  all  they  possess,  their  life;  indeed,  I  grow  indignant  at  the 
thought.  Here  the  blue-birds  sing  peacefully,  and  the  song-sparrow  warbles  with  confi- 
dent sweetness,  for  no  wandering  biped  comes  within  these  bounds  unquestioned  by  a 
great  dog,  happily  gifted  with  a  bark  much  beyond  his  bite.  But  in  the  fields  about,  I 
see  almost  daily  one  of  these  little  stalking  Herods,  bent  on  the  murder  of  these  next  love- 
liest thing  to  children,  the  innocents  of  dumb  creation.  I  know  very  well,  they  seem  to 
you  comparatively  useless;  they  don't  do  anything  but  sing.  Neither  does  Jenny Lind! 
AVill  you  call  the  fair  Swede  a  useless  unit  in  creation?  Is  it  no  good  to  awaken  in  so  many 
tired  and  dusty  hearts  the  breath  of  hope,  and  the  pulses  of  nature?  And  the  birds  are 
the  poor  man's  orchestra,  the  country-girl's  concert,  the  interpreters  of  earth's  great  la- 
boring heart  and  sealed  lips.  Theirs  is  an  incessant  psalm  of  gratitude,  always  har- 
monious with  the  deep  chorus  of  the  inanimate  music  of  creation.  They  teach  us  the 
very  lessons  of  heaven,  hope,  faith,  charity.  They  are  the  first  to  celebrate  the  slow 
steps  of  spring;  the  last  to  leave  us  in  the  advent  of  frosty  winter;  the  heralds  of  rain  to 
the  thirsty  earth;  the  prophets  of  sunshine  to  the  frozen  ground.  They  are  the  poets  of 
those  flowers  that  live  and  die  unseen  of  man;  and  in  their  tiny  love  songs  tell  us,  who 
listen,  fairy  tales  of  desolate  water-lilies,  and  gorgeous  painted-cups  that  the  summer- 
moth  has  deserted. 

Beside,  they  eat  up  bugs!  Am  I  coming  to  common-sense  now?  I  avow  it  as  my  firm  be- 
lief, that  all  the  discussions  about  the  curculio  which  vex  the  horticultural  soul  from  day 
to  day,  would  come  to  a  peaceful  end  if  there  were  birds  enough  to  eat  the  creatures  up. 
Were  our  fore-fathers  beset  with  these  spoilers  of  the  fruit?     Did  not  my  grand-mother's 


A  CHEAP  VENTILATOR. 


garden  teem  with  plums,  aprioots,  and  peaches,  of  every  kind  and  color?  Was  the  curcu 
lio  made  expressly  for  the  vexation  of  later  days,  or  is  it  that  the  feathered  toll-gatherers 
are  gone  too:  and  to  use  your  own  language,  oh  conscript  fathers!  "  the  supply  exceeds 
the  demand"  of  every  bug  that  caters  for  itself  in  our  thriftless  orchards. 

I  should  not  dare  to  raise  my  feeble  voice  in  this  behalf  through  any  other  medium 
than  the  Horticulturist;  but  I  know  my  audience  here  are  the  forest  trees,  as  it  were,  of 
the  land.  Sturdy,  sensible,  culturers  of  the  soil.  Educated,  intelligent  possessors  of  gar- 
dens and  green-houses.  Electoi'S,  if  not  members,  of  the  legislative  bodies.  And  I  am 
supported  by  the  wide  sympathies  of  every  poraological  convention  and  fruit-grower  in  the 
land.  Strong  in  this  triple  shield,  I  ask  you,  assembling  citizens  of  this  free  and  fertile 
country,  to  have  regard  in  your  laws  to  the  birds.  Do  not  let  them  be  slaughtered  for  the 
wanton  pleasure  of  school-boys,  or  the  improvement  in  shooting  of  the  older,  but  scarce 
wiser  men.  Throw  around  their  wind-swung  cradle,  the  sheltering  film  of  legal  pains 
and  penalties.  Guard  their  untried  wings  with  lines  and  prosecutions,  to  the  disturbing 
and  destroying  hand.  Let  them  fixirly  grow  up,  at  the  least.  Somewhat  encourage  the 
song  and  appetite  that  give  j'ou  pleasure,  and  the  insects  an  end.  If  it  please  j'ou  to  per- 
mit their  shooting  after  a  certain  date,  yet  let  them  arrive  to  some  strength  and  flight.  A 
hand  of  greater  power  and  tenderness  than  is  apparent  to  j'ou,  has  given  them  means  of 
escape;  a  pure  air  and  wide  sky  open  before  them;  and  if  the  leaden  message  overtake 
even  their  rapid  pinions,  they  shall  not  fall  unnoted  or  uncared  for.  It  is  not  life,  or  food, 
or  any  other  alms,  the}^  ask  from  human  compassion;  but  merely  such  protection  to  their 
existence  as  is  most  for  human  benefit.  My  dear  sirs!  care  for  the  birds  a  little,  and  they 
shall  care  for  you!  Your  fruit  shall  ripen  in  August  suns.  Your  plantations  shall  echo 
to  songs  that  Avill  be  vocal  gratitude  to  your  conscience.  And  all  lovers  of  the  woods  and 
fields  will  bless  you  in  their  heart  for  the  little  comrades  of  their  pleasure.  Last  and  least, 
you  will  have,  though  it  be  of  faint  and  scorned  value,  the  sweetest  perfume  of  thanks 
that  lies  folded  away  in  the  heart  of  a  Wild  Flowee. 

In  the  Bushes,  March  10,  1851. 


A   CHEAP   VENTILATOR. 


cAMPEn  b 


Dear  Sir — In  jour  Dec.  No.  you  mention  that  Dr.  Arnott's  chimney  valve  is  the 
best  cheap  ventilating  apparatus.  I  wish  to  describe  a  cheaper  and  more  simple  one,  in- 
vented by  my  friend  Peter  Taylor,  Esq.,  of  this  place,  and  which  has  succeeded  admi- 
rably wherever  it  has  been  tried.  It  can  be  attached  to  any  stove 
pipe  for  less  than  a  dollar,  and  will  ventilate  rooms  heated  by  a 
stove,  the  pipe  from  which  goes  into  a  chimney  in  an  adjoining 
room,  and  to  which  Arnott's  inveution  could  not  be  applied. 

It  is  simply  an  elbow  of  sheet  iron,  of,  say  three  inches  in 
diameter,  attached  to  the  upper  part  of  the  stove  pipe,  with  the 
mouth  uppermost  near  the  ceiling ;  the  short  leg  of  the  elbow  and 
the  long  leg  of  the  stove  pipe  and  chimney,  forming  an  air  sy- 
phon through  which  the  heated  air  from  the  upper  part  of  the 
room  rushes  with  great  rapidity  and  of  course  cold  air  replaces 
it  from  without  the  room.  It  can  be  regulated  by  having  a 
damper  on  it,  so  as  to  cool  the  room  in  a  very  short  time,  from 
excessive  heat,  to  any  temperature  yoti  may  choose.  Tlicre  is  no 
danger  of  smoke  escaping  b}'  the  ventilator;  in  fiict  the  air  rushes 
in  with  such  velocity  as  to  drive  a  toy  wind-mill  placed  in  the 
mouth  of  it.  James  Dougall. 


X. 


Rosebank,  near  Amherstburgh,  Canada  West,  Jan.  7,  1851. 


WAYNE  COUNTY— THE  ORCHARD  OF  NEW-YORK. 

WAYNE  COUNTY— THE  ORCHARD  OF  NEW-YORK. 

BY  R.  G.  PARDEE,  PALMYRA,  N.  Y. 

Nothing  has  attracted  more  attention  lately  in  the  markets  of  New-York,  than  the 
superb  fruits  of  Wayne  county.  The  pears  especially — the  fairest  and  most  delicious  Doy- 
ennes or  Virgalieus  to  be  found  in  that  market — come  not  from  the  Hudson,  from  New- 
Jersey  or  Pennsylvania — but,  barrels  upon  barrels,  from  Wayne  county.  The  soil  of 
that  county,  abounding  in  lime  and  potash,  seems  so  especially  adapted  to  the  growth  of 
all  the  fine  fruits,  that  the  orchards  and  fruit  gardens  of  that  central  portion  of  New- 
York  will,  with  very  little  care,  produce  not  only  the  greatest  abundance  for  the  owners, 
but  enable  them  to  export  more  fruit  than  any  county  in  the  state.  We  are  much  obliged 
to  Mr.  Pardee  for  an  opportunity  to  put  on  record  the  natural  orchard  fertility  of  this 
portion  of  New-York.  Our  pages  have  lately  had  so  many  more  accounts  of  the  pests  of 
the  orchard,  in  the  shape  of  insects,  that  a  stranger  to  the  actual  products  of  our  orchards 
might  almost  think  the  blight  and  the  curculio  left  us  neither  pear  nor  plum,  from  one  end 
of  the  land  to  the  other,  while  the  fact  is  just  the  contrary.     Ed. 

Mr.  Downing — It  is  quite  pleasant  to  comply  with  your  request,  to  furnish  the  read- 
ers of  the  Horticulturist  with  some  of  the  interesting  facts  connected  with  the  cultivation 
of  fruit  in  Wayne  county. 

The  county  comprises  a  strip  of  land,  say  17  to  20  miles  wide,  by  38  to  40  long, 
bordering  on  Lake  Ontario,  between  Oswego  and  Rochester.  Sixty-five  years  ago  it  was 
a  heavy  timbered  forest,  uninhabited  by  the  white  man.  At  the  present  time  that  forest 
is  almost  subdued,  so  that  there  are  very  few  acres  of  waste  land  to  be  seen  in  all  its 
length  and  breadth,  particularly  in  the  western  or  older  part,  where,  indeed,  I  may  say 
there  is  hardly  an  untillable  hill,  or  an  unrecoverable  spot  of  low  ground,  or  a  stony  acre 
visible,  so  that  Prof.  Norton  justly  recorded  of  it — "  This  is  a  superb  country,  with  won- 
derful natural  advantages." 

The  face  of  the  land,  except  from  the  Lake  up  to  the  Ridge  Road,  some  four  or  five 
miles,  is  gently  rolling,  mostly  from  east  to  west.  The  soil  is  a  mixture  of  sandy  and  gra- 
velly loam,  with  sections  moderately  mixed  with  clay;  is  easily  tilled,  and  the  crops  are 
very  certain. 

The  soil  and  climate  of  Wayne  county  prove  to  be  particularly  favorable  to  the  growth 
and  perfection  of  all  our  various  kinds  of  fine  fruit.  The  grape,  the  raspberry,  the  black- 
berry and  the  strawberry,  with  civil  attention,  amply  reward  our  care. 

The  pear  has,  to  a  very  great  extent,  escaped  or  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  pear 
blight,  and  the  old  standard  pear  trees  around  us  have,  during  the  last  season,  borne  so  well, 
that  one  firm  in  this  village  alone,  shipped  eastward  last  fall,  between  one  hundred  and  fifty 
and  two  hundred  barrels  of  the  delicious  "  Virgalieu,"  as  the  White  Doyenne  is  familiar- 
ly called  in  market.  A  few  years  hence  our  county  will  greatly  increase  its  exports  of 
this  article  from  our  young  pear  orchards,  for  the  Messrs.  Yeomans  of  Walworth,  have  al- 
ready set  out  of  this  variety  alone,  over  four  thousand  trees  on  the  quince,  and  E.  Black- 
man,  Esq.,  of  Newark,  has  also  fifteen  hundred  trees  for  market  production,  besides  nu- 
merous smaller  orchards,  I  might  name,  including  not  only  this  favorite  variety,  but  from 
ten  to  fifty  or  seventy  other  of  the  choicest  varieties. 

It  has  not  yet  come  to  my  knowledge  that  the  Virgalieu  has,  in  our  county,  shown 
symptoms  of  cracking  or  degeneracy,  although  such  may  possibly  be  the  ease 

The  peach  is  a  great  favorite  in  our  county,  and  well  it  may  be,  for  it  grows  almost  spon- 


WAYNE  COUNTY— THE  ORCHARD  OF  NEW  YORK. 

taneouslj'-;  is  reliable  for  the  market,  and  its  quality  cannot  be  surpassed,  as  our  premi 
ums  witness  when  in  competition  occasionally  at  the  state  Fair.  In  favorable  seasons  our 
county  exports  not  far  fron  ten  thousand  bushels  of  dried  peaches,  but  these  are  mostly 
from  our  common  peach  orchards,  Rare  Ripes,  &c.  Some  of  our  private  fruit  growers 
number  from  sixty  to  seventy  selected  varieties  of  the  peach,  already  in  fruit,  while  a 
great  portion  of  our  citizens  have  from  ten  to  twenty  of  the  choicest  varieties  around  their 
dwellings.  We  cannot,  of  course,  compete  with  our  New-Jersey  and  Delaware  fi-iends  in 
the  extent  of  our  peach  orchards,  and  yet  many  are  growing  this  fruit  in  various  parts  of 
our  county  quite  extensively,  for  market.  One  of  our  farmers,  Mr.  Odell,  in  the  extreme 
north-east  portion  of  the  county,  has  already  a  rare  peach  orchard  of  fifteen  hundred  of' 
the  best  varieties  of  trees,  in  bearing  I  am  told,  and  for  which  he  designs  to  seek  a  market 
by  the  help  of  a  small  schooner,  via  Oswego.  Our  poorest  families  can,  many  of  them  even 
now,  indulge  plentifully  in  the  finest  George  IVth  and  Crawford  Peaches,  and  the  num- 
ber is  rapidly  increasing. 

Of  cherries,  it  need  only  to  be  said  that  we  raise  them  in  abundant  quantities,  of  un- 
surpassed flavor  and  size,  and  of  the  finest  varieties. 

^Ve  have  a  very  large  quantity  of  plums,  including  most  of  the  new  and  best  kinds, 
grown  in  our  county;  and  the  exports  of  dried  plums  from  our  county,  in  favorable  sea- 
sons, will  not  vary  much  from  three  thousand  bushels.  But  within  a  year  or  two,  the 
black  wart  has  most  virulently  and  fatally  attacked  our  plum  trees,  and  threatens  entire 
destruction  to  this  fruit.  The  Peach  Plum,  and  some  other  kinds,  seem  as  yet  to  escape, 
but  the  genuine  Green  Gage,  and  most  other  kinds,  are  going  rapidly.  We  do  not  so  much 
regret  this,  as  it  has  been  a  favorite  argument  with  some  dealers  for  years  past,  that  com- 
pared with  the  peach  it  was  hardly  worth  growing;  being  of  the  same  season,  of  more  dif- 
ficult cultivation,  and  inferior  fruit  in  all  respects.  This,  however,  has  not  prevented  our 
enterprising  amateurs  from  obtaining  most  of  the  desirable  varieties. 

We  now  come  to  our  most  important  fruit,  the  apple,  which,  perhaps,  no  where  grows 
more  freely  with  little  care,  than  with  us,  and  yet  our  finest  fruit  growers  alwaj^s  give  the 
best  cultivation.  We  have  examples  around  us  of  high  cultivation,  that  would  do  honor 
to  the  Hudson  river  districts;  for  instance,  a  retired  merchant  in  a  neighboring  town,  first 
purchased  a  side-hill  of  ten  or  fifteen  acres,  for  a  fruit  orchard,  and  liberally  supplied  it 
with  about  five  hundred  loads  of  manure,  the  same  quantity  of  leached  ashes,  and  about 
an  equal  amount  of  swamp  muck  and  coal-pit  bottoms — after  which  he  trenched  it,  and 
thorough  drained  the  whole  with  pipe,  until  now  I  much  doubt  whether  our  county  or  any 
other,  can  any  where  produce  an  orchard  of  trees  of  five  years  old,  of  such  extraordinary 
size  and  productiveness,  as  that  of  Mr.  Yeomans,  of  Walworth.  I  understood  Prof.  Nor- 
ton to  say  as  much  of  this  fine  orchard,  when  we  together  visited  this  place  last  fall. 

But  to  return,  I  can  add  while  the  apple  always  gratefully  repays  superior  care,  yet  it  is 
also  true,  that  our  orchards,  left  almost  to  nature  with  us,  produce  a  fair  quantity  of  ex- 
cellent fruit. 

Our  orchards  often  largely  overrun  the  estimate  of  production,  a  striking  instance  of 
which  occurred  last  fall,  where  an  intelligent  farmer  and  his  neighbors  estimated  the  pro- 
duct of  his  orchard  at  one  hundred  barrels,  and  so  sold  it  to  the  speculator,  who  succeed- 
ed in  obtaining,  however,  more  than  five  hundred  barrels  from  it.  Numerous  other  in- 
stances of  orchards  yielding  two  and  three  times  as  much  as  estimated,  came  under  my 
own  observation.  Our  single  port  of  Palmyra,  during  the  last  season,  cleared  more  than 
ght  thousand  barrels  of  grafted  fruit  east,  and  ten  to  twelve  thousand  bush 
I  fruit,  while  cast  of  us,  in  our  county,  remains  the  large  and   flourishing  villa 


WAYNE  COUNTY— THE  ORCHARD  OF  NEW-YORK. 

Lyons,  Newark  and  Clj^de,  to  ship  their  quota.  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Rogers,  of  Williamson, 
one  of  our  lake  towns,  who  obtained  the  first  premium  of  a  silver  medal  and  diploma,  at 
the  late  annual  meeting  of  the  New-York  State  Agricultural  Society,  at  Albany,  for  the 
best  and  largest  (134  varieties)  collection  of  winter  apples — is  a  young  and  enterprising 
farmer,  occupying  about  one  hundred  acres  of  land,  on  forty-five  of  which  he  has  grow- 
ing in  the  finest  condition,  over  seventeen  hundred  trees,  comprising  sixty  to  seventy  va- 
rieties of  the  choicest  apples.  Other  farmers  have  immense  orchards,  which  yield  up  their 
products  to  them  with  no  sparing  hand.  A  few  seasons  since,  one  of  my  neighbors  had 
two  thousand  grafts  set  in  one  spring,  on  a  farm  he  had  recently  bought.  Among  the  ear 
liest  pioneers  of  Wayne  county,  were  the  Foster  and  Reeve  families  of  this  town,  who 
penetrated  this  then  unbroken  wilderness,  selected  their  location,  marked  their  "  pre- 
emption tree,"  and  at  the  foot  of  the  tree  cleared  away  a  few  feet  of  ground,  and  sowed 
first  some  apple  seeds  for  a  nursery,  and  returned  east  to  Long-Island,  after  securing  their 
title  to  their  soil. 

The  following  season  they  returned  with  their  families,  and  brought  and  introduced 
into  their  small  nursery,  grafts  of  the  Esopus  Spitzenburgh,  Rhode  Island  Greening,  and 
Roxbury  Russet  Apples,  and  from  this  small  beginning  these  varieties  spread  in  every  di- 
rection, so  that  now  these  three  standard  varieties  seem  to  predominate  in  our  market. 

I  was  quite  surprised  two  years  ago,  on  examining  the  last  report  of  the  canal  commis- 
sioners, to  find  in  the  returns  for  that  year,  that  the  collectors'  offices  of  Palmyra  and 
Lyons,  in  our  retired  county,  had  shipped  during  the  year,  more  dried  fruit,  by  more  than 
thirty  per  cent,  than  the  entire  state  west  of  us,  including  Rochester  and  Buffalo,  and  of 
course,  including  the  Ohio  fruit  via  Buff'alo;  and  also  fifteen  per  cent,  more  than  the  en- 
tire state  east  of  us  to  Albany.  All  the  offices  east  cleared  six  hundred  and  ten  thousand 
pounds;  those  west  cleared  five  hundred  and  thirty-eight  thousand  pounds,  while  Lyons 
and  Palmyra  cleared  seven  hundred  and  eight  thousand  pounds. 

And  3'et  it  seems  quite  certain,  that  fruit  raising  in  our  county  was  never  so  popular  as 
at  the  present  time,  or  were  there  ever  so  many  practically  engaged  urging  it  forward.  It 
is  made  apparent  to  every  one  here,  that  to  enjoy  in  profusion  the  finest  fruits  the  world 
produces,  costs  really  very  little  besides  the  pleasure  of  its  cultivation;  but  the  enthusi- 
asm excited  on  the  subject,  causes  fruit  to  be  cultivated  in  many  quarters,  with  most  ex- 
traordinary care,  and  liberality  of  expenditure.  Among  men  of  various  pursuits,  I  might 
instance  Messrs.  Lovett  &  Rogers,  merchants  of  this  village,  Mr.  M.  Mackie,  a 
farmer  of  Galen,  and  Mr.  H.  G.  Dickenson  of  Lyons,  an  enterprising  and  intelligent  me- 
chanic, who  has  already  over  fifteen  hundred  fruit  trees  growing  on  his  beautiful  grounds. 

Our  sister  village  of  Lyons  started  very  early  in  the  pursuit  of  raising  rare  fruits,  and 
now  can  exhibit  fruit  gardens  and  orchards  of  great  size  and  excellence. 

Wayne  county  is  under  lasting  obligations  to  our  truly  esteemed  friends,  John  J.  Tho- 
mas and  Wm.  R.  Smith  of  Maccdon,  for  their  liberal  exhibition  of  the  choicest  and  most 
approved  varieties  of  fruits,  and  also  for  supplying  us  with  reliable  kinds  at  cheap  rates. 
I  believe  I  can  say  in  the  name  of  Wayne  county,  they  have  never  deceived  us,  which  is 
a  rare  testimony  for  nurserymen,  who  with  all  their  care  are  often  liable  to  be  deceived 
themselves. 

Our  Rochester  friends,  and  Albany  friends,  and  Flushing  friends,  and  particularly  our 
Newburgh  friends,  justly  cfaim  our  acknowledgments,  also,  on  behalf  of  their  respective 
nurseries. 

yet  the  desire  to  increase  our  fine  fruits,  was  never  greater  than  at  present 
a  farmer,  north,  sold  and  delivered  in  the  northern  range  of  two  or  three 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  FRUIT  BY  CROSS-BREEDING. 

lake  towns,  four  thousand  fruit  trees  during  the  transplanting  season;  and  yet  we  have 
no  fear  that  as  fine  fruits  as  we  can  easily  raise  in  Wayne  county,  will  ever  need  to  beg 
for  a  market.  We  will  cordially  rejoice  with  those  who  can  or  will  excel  us,  and  engage 
never  to  be  jealous  over  a  rival.  R.  G.  Pardee. 

Palmyra^  Feb..  1S51. 


ON  THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  FRUIT  BY  CROSS-BREEDINa. 

BY  JOHN  TOWNLEY,  PORT  HOPE,  WISCONSIN. 

In  the  July  number  of  the  Cultivator,  is  the  substance  of  a  paper  by  the  President  of 
the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  on  raising  new  pears.  He  urges  the  importance 
of  raising  seeds  for  new  varieties  by  crossing,  regularly  and  systematically  conducted,  and 
proposes  that  two  good  varieties  of  summer,  autumn  and  winter  pears,  should  be  grown  in 
three  different  locations,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  a  part,  and  out  of  the  influence  of  other  pear 
trees.  The  Seckel  and  Louise  Bonne  de  Jersey,  for  instance,  are  to  be  grown  by  themselves, 
and  the  seeds,  when  taken  from  the  ripe  fruit,  are  to  be  labelled,  Louise  Bonne  fertilised 
by  the  Seckel,  and  the  Seckel  fertilised  hy  Louise  Bonne. 

It  is  a  matter  of  some  importance  to  raise  new  varieties  of  fruit,  which,  by  the  same 
expenditure  of  land  and  labor,  will  yield  more  certain  and  more  abundant  crops,  and  of 
greater  excellence  than  many  varieties  we  now  possess.  It  is  desirable,  therefore,  that  all 
who  may  wish  to  devote  a  portion  of  their  time  to  this  good  work,  should  know  by  wliat 
means  they  can  most  certainly  attain  the  object  they  have  in  view.  I  entirely  coincide  in 
the  opinion  that  cross-breeding  is  that  means;  but  I  cannot  so  readily  subscribe  to  the  au- 
thor's method  of  conducting  the  experiment — and  I  venture  to  hope  that  I  shall  be  able  to 
prove  that  my  objections  are  well  founded. 

It  is  usual  with  the  best  cultivators  especially  to  fertilise  a  few  flowers,  not  to  trust  to 
crosses  which  may  incidentally  take  place  between  varieties  growing  contiguous  to  each 
other,  which  appears  to  be  the  plan  recommended.  A  man  may  botanise  a  summer  through 
without  meeting  with  a  single  plant  which  he  has  reason  to  believe  to  be  the  offspring  of 
two  parents;  3'et  there  is  little  doubt  that  many  of  our  wild  flowers  can  be  made  to  inter- 
marry Avith  each  other.  In  gardens,  a  closer  relationship  exists  between  many  plants, 
than  between  the  wild  flowers  of  the  fields.  We  have  in  the  garden,  many  varieties  of  one 
species;  in  the  woods  each  plant  is  a  distinct  species — and  experience  has  proved  that  it  is 
much  easier  to  breed  between  varieties  than  between  species;  hence,  in  gardens,  natural 
crosses  not  unfrequently  occur.  But  it  will  be  found  a  true  saying  in  this,  as  of  more 
important  matters,  that  "itis  well  not  to  trust  to  others  what  we  can  do  ourselves" — and  of 
all  helps,  the  wind  and  insects  will  be  found  most  capricious,  and  little  to  be  relied  on.  Pollen 
is  known  to  be  conve3'cd  by  the  wind,  for  miles,  and  bees  in  their  wanderings,  do  not  limit 
their  flights  to  the  extent  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile ;  there  is,  therefore,  almost  as  great  a  probabili- 
ty that  the  seeds  of  the  two  trees  growing  side  by  side,  would  be  fertilised  by  the  pollen  of 
others  growing  at  a  distance,  as  that  one  tree  should  fertilise  the  flowers  of  the  other. 
Each  blossom  of  the  pear,  moreover,  is  provided  Avith  its  own  stamens,  affording  pollen  at 
the  exact  time  when  the  embrj-o  seeds  are  in  a  condition  to  be  fertilised.  I  am  quite  at  a 
loss  to  understand  by  what  freak  the  pollen  of  the  flowers  of  each  tree  is  to  fertilise  the 
seeds  of  its  neighbor,  rather  than  its  own.  That  some  may  be  cross  fertilised,  is  proba- 
t  they  will  be  exceptions — and  in  our  endeavors  to  improve  the  pear,  whose  seed- 
equire  so  long  a  period  to  arrive  at  maturity,  in  a  matter  so  important  as  cross- 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  FRUIT  BY  CROSS-BREEDING. 

breeding — certainty  should  be  substituted  for  chance  when  it  can  so  easily  be  done.  The 
late  Mr.  Knight  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Herbert,  -who  have  probably  made  more  experiments 
in  cross-breeding  and  hybridising  plants,  than  any  other  men — applied  the  pollen  artifi- 
cially, and  invariably  removed  the  stamens  from  the  flowers  to  produce  seed,  before  their 
pollen  had  arrived  at  maturity,  because  they  knew  that  the  pistil  was  so  likely  to  be  affect- 
ed by  its  own  stamens,  that  there  could  be  no  certainty  as  to  the  result  of  their  experi- 
ments, unless  they  were  destroyed  while  yet  in  an  imperfect  state.  How  much  less,  then, 
must  be  the  chances  of  obtaining  cross-fertilised  seeds,  when  not  only  the  stamens  are  not 
removed,  but  pollen  from  another  plant  is  not  directly  applied.  By  operating  on  a  few 
flowers,  after  the  manner  of  Knight  and  Herbert,  we  may  be  sure  that  our  seeds  are 
cross-fertilised;  by  trusting  to  the  wind  and  insects,  there  can  obviously  be  very  little  cer- 
tainty about  the  matter.  The  author  of  the  paper  referred  to  being  a  nurser3'man,  I  ap- 
prehend knows  perfectly  well  what  is  the  usual  mode  of  proceeding  in  this  matter,  but 
may  have  considered  that  it  was  of  little  use  recommending  the  practice  generally,  many 
not  knowing  much  about  the  sexual  organs  of  plants,  and  the  mode  of  distinguishing 
them  and  conducting  the  experiment  being  somewhat  difficult  of  explanation  on  paper, 
though  in  the  field  the  easiest  thing  imaginable.  I  think,  however,  that  it  may  be  done; 
and  as  some  readers  of  this  Journal  who  have  not  hitherto  bestowed  much  attention  on 
the  subject,  may  possibly  be  induced  to  take  an  active  interest  in  it,  a  few  further  remarks 
on  the  object  of  cross-breeding,  the  mode  of  conducting  the  operation,  and  of  cultivating 
the  seel-bearing  plants,  ma}^  not  be  devoid  of  use. 

In  all  that  regards  reproduction,  a  close  analogy  seems  to  subsist  between  plants  and 
animals;  and  he  who  is  a  successful  breeder  of  one,  may,  by  applying  the  same  principles, 
become  an  equally  successful  improver  of  the  other,  providing  he  brings  to  his  task  an 
equally  competent  knowledge  of  what  constitutes  excellence. 

Both  plants  and  animals  will  only  breed  within  certain  limits.  As  a  general  rule,  two 
animals  of  distinct  genera  cannot  be  made  to  breed  with  each  other — and  it  is  doubted  by 
those  most  likely  to  know,  whether  a  truly  bi-generic  mule  plant  has  j'et  been  seen. 
x\nimals  of  two  distinct  species  belonging  to  one  genus,  as  the  horse  and  the  ass,  are  well 
known  to  breed  together,  and  that  the  offspring  are  incapable  of  reproduction.  So  of 
plants;  the  IMorello,  for  instance,  has  been  made  by  IMr.  Knight  to  breed  with  the  com- 
mon cherry,  two  distinct  species,  and  the  progeny  were  true  mules,  affording  abundance 
of  blossoms,  but  no  fruit. 

Again,  a  species  of  animal  or  plant  is  capable  of  being  progressively  improved  by  the 
skill  of  man,  or,  in  other  words,  they  can  be  made  to  assume,  by  improved  culture  and 
judicious  selection,  through  successive  generations,  various  modified  forms  and  qualities 
which  better  enable  them  to  minister  to  man's  wants,  than  the  species  from  which  they 
were  originally  derived.  Now,  plants  or  animals,  which  culture  or  domestication  have 
much  altered  from  the  normal  condition  of  the  species,  are  not  alike  in  all  particulars. 
Owing  to  some  peculiarit}^  of  constitution,  some  are  better  adapted  to  one  soil  or  climate 
than  to  another,  and  those  suited  to  a  given  location  are  found  to  possess  various  degrees 
of  excellence.  These,  then,  constitute  the  materials  with  which  the  cross-breeder  or  im- 
prover has  to  work;  and  it  is  highly  desirable  if  not  requisite,  that  he  be  well  acquainted 
Avith  his  materials;  he  should  know  what  has  alreadj'  been  done,  and  be  a  good  judge  of 
plants  or  animals,  as  the  case  may  be,  in  order  that  he  may  be  better  able  to  determine 
what  remains  to  be  accompli.shcd,  and  what  varieties  of  flowers  or  fruits,  or  breeds  of  ani 
are  best  calculated  to  further  his  views, 
advisable  at  the  out-set,  to  consider  well  what  constitutes  perfection.     The 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  FRUIT  BY  CROSS-BREEDING. 

ver  should  study  his  subject  point  by  point,  put  his  thoughts  on  paper,  and  to  this  ideal 
standard  of  perfection,  he  should  constantly  aim.  This  will  save  him  from  aiming  at  one 
thing  at  one  time,  and  another  thing  another  time — and  there  is  little  doubt  that  his  stock 
Would  shortly  assume  a  decided  character. 

Most  important  points  to  be  attended  to  in  selecting  plants  or  animals,  to  breed  from,* 
are,  that  they  shall  be  hardy,  adapted  to  the  climate,  and  free  from  disease.  The  certain- 
ty of  produce,  and  consequently  the  profit  to  be  derived  from  fruit  trees  in  a  given  num- 
ber of  years,  depends  much  on  their  hardiness,  and  on  the  power  of  their  blossoms  to  with- 
stand spring  frosts;  and  there  are  many  facts  on  record  which  seem  to  indicate  that  dis- 
ease is  hereditary  in  the  vegetable,  as  it  is  in  the  animal  kingdom. 

The  principal  objects  of  cross-breeding  are,  to  add  vigor  to  the  constitution;  to  modify, 
or  get  rid  of  defects,  and  to  combine  many  good  properties  in  one  individual,  in  the  short- 
est time.  It  is  a  common  practice  with  the  breeders  of  cattle,  to  obtain  bulls  now  and  then 
from  other  herds,  rather  than  to  breed  from  generation  to  generation,  from  their  own  stock — 
the  object  being,  in  some  cases  at  least,  to  prevent  the  stock  from  becoming  delicate — a 
cross  from  another  herd  being  found  to  invigorate  the  constitution.  And  Mr.  Knigot,  in 
his  numerous  experiments  to  obtain  improved  varieties  of  vegetables  and  fruit,  "  found 
that  he  obtained  an  increased  vigor  and  luxuriance  of  growth  when  the  fecundation  of  the 
blossoms  of  a  variety  was  produced  by  the  pollen  of  another  kind." 

Again,  cross-breeding  is  resorted  to  with  a  view  to  obliterate  defects,  and  to  combine 
many  excellencies  in  one  individual,  in  the  shortest  time.  Supposing,  for  instance,  a  man 
had  a  herd  of  Short-horns — good  in  all  points,  excepting  that  they  were  somewhat  too 
light  in  the  hind  quarters;  he  might,  in  the  course  of  several  generations,  by  culling  his 
animals  to  breed  from  which  showed  this  defect  the  least,  so  improve  his  stock  as  to  bring 
it  near  to  perfection;  but,  supposing  instead  of  this,  when  made  conscious  of  the  defects 
of  his  herd,  he  at  once  obtained  a  Short-horn  bull,  good  in  all  points,  except  that  it  was 
too  full  in  the  hind  quarters,  defective  in  the  opposite  degree;  the  result  would  probably 
be  that  the  progeny  would  be  more  symmetrical  than  either  of  its  parents,  perhaps  more 
so  than  if  the  bull  had  been  perfect.  Thus  by  onejudicious  cross,  a  breeder  might  cause 
his  animals  to  attain  a  high  degree  of  perfection  in  one  generation,  Mhich,  if  he  had  confin- 
ed himself  to  his  own  stock,  would  have  taken  him  several  generations  to  accomplish. 

Until  recent  times — for  it  is  but  lately  that  the  nature  of  the  sexes  of  plants  was  clearly 
understood,  (Mr.  Knight  being  the  first  I  believe  to  turn  this  knowledge  to  practical  ac- 
count,) men  had  to  take  advantage  of  any  deviation  which  appeared  in  their  crops  natu- 
rally, or  as  the  result  of  improved  culture;  and  if  the  cultivator  wished  to  perpetuate  an 
improved  variety,  or  obtain  others  better,  he  grew  and  seeded  the  plants  alone;  and  if  any 
seedling  raised  from  it  was  better  than  the  parent,  that  only  was  sown;  seed  from  it  sown; 
the  best  again  selected,  and  so  on  through  successive  generations.  A  practice  similar,  it 
will  be  observed,  to  the  breeding  in-and-in  of  animals.  Now,  the  practiced  experimenter 
having  a  distinct  object  in  view,  a  certain  standard  of  excellence  to  aim  at,  carefully  ex- 
amines his  plants,  not  with  a  view  to  select  one  but  several;  he  notes  their  power  to  with- 
stand adverse  weather;  their  habit  of  growth;  the  character  of  their  foliage;  the  abun- 
dance, form,  substance,  color,  size  and  fragrance  of  their  flowers;  or  the  quantity,  quali- 
ty, size  and  beauty  of  their  fruit,  and  the  period  it  arrives  at  maturity.  If  he  finds  a 
plant  having  one  good  point  in  perfection,  and  not  remarkably  defective  otherwise,  it  is 
suited  to  his  purpose;  he  may  cross  this  with  another  plant  having  a  second  good  point, 
tolerably  good  in  other  respects,  and  may  thus  combine  the  two  good  properties  in  one 
ual.     But  if  he  could  only  meet  with  plants  possessing  these  two  good  points,  which 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  FRUIT  BY  CROSS-BREEDING 

had  also  marked  defects,  providing  the  defects  of  one  were  opposed  to  the  defects  of  the 
other,  so  that  if  he  could  blend  the  two  together  a  more  perfect  plant  would  be  obtained 
than  either,  these  two  might  be  suited  to  his  purpose;  he  might  cross  them  in  the  hope 
that  the  defects  of  one  parent  would  counteract  the  defects  of  the  other,  and  enable  him  to 
unite  their  two  good  properties  in  one  individual,  without  the  plant  being  otherwise  ob- 
jectionable. If,  in  the  same  season,  two  other  plants,  possessing  two  other  good  points, 
were  crossed,  and  with  a  like  result,  the  best  of  the  seedlings  obtained  from  each  of  these 
crosses,  might  be  crossed,  and  it  is  probable  that  in  the  next  generation  a  seedling  would 
be  raised  in  which  the  four  good  points  would  be  combined.  At  the  present  day,  howev- 
er, the  experimenter,  instead  of  having  to  commence  operations  with  an  original  species, 
has  to  deal  chiefly  with  varieties  already  considerably  improved.  The  Seckel  and  Louise 
Bonne  de  Jersey  Pears,  for  instance,  which  it  is  proposed  to  cross,  possess  to  begin  with, 
many  desirable  qualities.  They  are  both  hardy,  adapted  to  the  climate,  good  bearers, 
and  yield  fruit  of  first  rate  excellence.  But  the  fruit  of  Louise  Bonne  de  Jersey  is  larger 
and  handsomer  than  that  of  the  Seckel;  while  the  fruit  of  the  Seckel  is  superior  in  quali- 
ty to  that  of  the  Louise  Bonne.  If,  therefore,  seeds  of  Louise  Bonne  were  fertilised  by 
the  Seckel,  and  the  fruit,  bearing  these  seeds,  made  by  superior  management  to  attain  a 
greater  size  and  higher  flavor,  than  by  ordinary  culture  they  ever  attain  to,  it  is  likely  a 
variety  would  be  raised  whose  fruit  would  rival  the  Seckel  in  quality,  and  Louise  Bonne 
in  size  and  beauty.  I  need  not  pursue  this  further;  it  must  be  sufiiciently  apparent  that 
cross-breeding  when  properly  conducted,  is  a  short  cut  to  perfection — it  enables  one  to  ef- 
fect in  a  few  generations,  what  the  former  practice  would  have  taken  many  generations  to 
accomplish;  hence,  the  truly  marvellous  improvement  which  has  been  made  within  the 
last  twenty  years,  in  plants  whose  seedlings  require  a  comparatively  short  period  to  arrive 
at  maturity,  as  the  rose,  pelargonium,  fuschia,  calceolaria,  strawberry,  &c. 

Next,  as  to  the  mode  of  cross-breeding  plants.  The  apple,  pear,  peach,  plum,  cherry, 
raspberry  and  strawberry,  all  belong  to  the  natural  order  Rosacea^  and  their  flowers  have 
an  indefinite  number  of  stamens,  about  twenty  or  more.  But  as  one  not  previously  ac- 
quainted with  these  organs,  may  be  somewhat  puzzled  to  distinguish  them  from  the  pistils, 
if  the  study  is  commenced  with  the  flowers  of  these  plants,  it  will  be  well  to  examine  first 
some  flowers  which  have  a  certain  and  fewer  number  of  stamens.  Take  the  currant,  for 
example,  one  of  the  earliest  plants  in  blossom,  and  found  in  almost  every  garden.  With 
a  pen-knife  slit  carefully  down  one  side  of  a  full  bloom  flower,  so  as  to  spread  it  open  for 
examination.  There  will  be  found  an  outer  covering,  or  envelope,  divided  at  the  edge  into 
five  small  parts;  this  is  the  calyx  of  the  flower;  next  are  five  small  leaflets — the  petals, 
situated  alternately  with  the  segments  of  the  calyx;  then  we  have  five  small  bodies  alter- 
nate with  the  petals,  and  seated  like  them,  on  the  throat  of  the  calyx;  these  ai-e  the 
stamens,  or  male  organs,  which  produce  the  yellow  fertilising  dust,  called  pollen.  In 
the  center  of  the  flower  is  the  pistil,  or  female  organ,  a  small,  greenish,  thread-like  point, 
more  or  less  two-cleft  at  the  summit,  and  which  is  seated  directly  on  the  miniature  berry 
containing  the  embryo  seeds,  and  not  on  the  calyx,  as  the  stamens.  Having  well  exam- 
ined these  flowers,  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  distinguishing  similar  parts  in  the  flowers 
of  other  plants.  In  the  pear,  there  is  the  green  calyx  outside,  divided  at  the  edge  into 
five  small  segments;  then  there  are  five  large  distinct  petals,  next  numerous  stamens,  each 
tipped  with  a  little  head  or  anther,  producing  the  yellow  pollen  grains;  and  lastly  two  to 
five  pistils  in  the  center.  Now,  all  that  requires  to  be  done  to  cross  between  two  varieties, 
the  flowers  to  produce  seed  must  be  carefully  opened  just  before  they  naturally 

pand — before  any  pollen  is  visible,  and  the  stamens  must  be  removed  with  a  pair  of 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  FRUIT  BY  CROSS-BREEDING. 

small  pointed  scissors,  taking  great  care  to  leave  the  pilstil  in  the  center  of  the  flower  un 
injured;  then,  Avhen  these  flowers  have  expanded,  perfect  flowers  of  the  variety  intended 
for  the  male  parent,  must  be  collected,  and  the  pollen  from  them  gently  dusted  on  the 
summit  of  the  pistil.  The  best  time  to  apply  [with  a  small  camel's-hair  brush]  the  pol- 
len, is  in  the  middje  of  a  dry  sunny  day,  and  for  fear  of  failure  it  should  be  repeated  three 
or  four  days  in  succession.  The  petals  of  the  flowers  have  been  observed  to  foil  soon  after 
the  seeds  were  fertilised,  and  to  retain  their  freshness  for  days  longer,  when  this  had  not 
taken  place. 

Owing  to  the  difference  in  the  size  of  flowers,  and  the  position  of  the  stamens,  the  pear 
will  be  found  much  easier  for  the  learner  to  operate  on,  than  the  currant. 

There  are  one  or  two  other  points,  which,  if  attended  to,  may  contribute  to  the  success 
of  the  experimenter.  Not  only  should  much  care  be  bestowed  in  selecting  varieties  to  raise 
seeds  from,  but  they  should  be  so  managed  as  to  ensure  a  healthy  and  vigorous  growth, 
and  the  finest  fruit  and  most  perfect  seeds  which  the  variety  cultivated  is  capable  of  pro- 
ducing. These  objects  may  be  attained  by  superior  general  culture,  and  by  special  expe- 
dients. Perhaps  I  may  best  explain  how,  by  stating  the  plan  I  intend  to  follow  in  en- 
deavoring to  improve  our  native  Black  Currant  of  this  region,  Hibes  floridmn;  it  appears 
to  me  a  much  finer  species  to  begin  with  than  the  R.  nigrum  of  Europe,  the  origin  of  the 
garden  varieties:  it  has  a  neat  habit  of  growth,  bears  abundant  crops  of  tolerably  well 
flavored  fruit,  and  its  blossoms  are  somewhat  showy.  My  aim  is  to  obtain  a  variety  with 
flowers  approaching  the  color  of  those  of  the  Missouri  Currant,  /?.  aureum,  and  with  fruit 
equal  or  superior  in  size  and  quality  to  that  of  the  Black  Naples.  In  raising  plants  or 
animals  to  be  grown  for  profit,  utility  should  never  be  sacrificed  to  mere  show,  but  if  we 
can  combine  the  beautiful  with  the  useful,  it  is  well. 

From  several  plants  raised  in  the  last  year,  I  shall  select  three  which  have  the  cleanest 
and  strongest  branches,  and  whose  roots  are  well  developed  from  the  base  of  the  cuttings. 
This  I  have  found  a  matter  of  some  importance;  why  it  is  so,  I  shall  endeavor  to  explain 
in  another  letter  on  the  Season  for  Transplanting.  The  next  consideration  is,  where  and 
how  the  trees  should  be  planted  so  that  the  organs  of  vegetation  may  perform  their  func- 
tions in  the  most  efficient  manner.  A  soil  moderately  rich,  and  free  from  stagnant  water, 
should  be  selected,  and  a  hole  dug  for  each  plant  about  six  inches  deep,  and  wide  enough 
to  admit  the  roots  being  laid  out  their  full  length;  the  small  lateral  fibres,  as  well  as  the 
main  roots,  should  be  spread,  as  the  greater  the  space  covered,  the  greater  will  be  the 
means  of  the  plant  for  obtaining  food  from  the  soil.  It  may  be  well  to  cover  the  roots 
slightly  with  earth,  as  contact  with  manure  sometimes  produces  canker.  The  hole  may 
then  be  filled  up  with  a  compost  formed  of  decayed  turf,  well  rotted  stable  manure,  and 
charcoal,  this  being  calculated  to  produce  a  steady  and  vigorous,  but  not  over  luxuriant 
growth.  Abundance  of  food  will  avail  but  little  if  the  plant  has  not  the  means  of  digest- 
ing it.  By  the  action  of  light  on  leaves,  the  crude  sap  undergoes  certain  chemical  changes 
which  fit  it  for  the  nourishment  of  new  parts;  the  trees  should  not,  therefore,  be  shaded 
by  others,  but  fully  exposed  to  light.  Circumstances  which  may  tend  to  render  the  leaves 
less  efficient,  should  also  be  avoided  or  prevented — such  as  a  situation  exposed  to  boisterous 
winds,  and  the  attack  of  insects.  If  a  favorable  time  should  be  chosen  for  transplanting, 
the  trees  may  attempt  to  bear  fruit  the  first  season;  all  the  blossoms  should,  however,  be 
removed,  so  that  the  energies  of  the  plant  may  be  directed  solely  to  the  extension  of  its 
feeding  organs.  The  same  sap,  variously  modified  and  combined,  gives  existence  alike  to 
gans  of  vegetation  and  reproduction.     By  destroying  the  fruit  of  a  young  tree,  a 

cater  amount  of  sap  is  expended  in  the  production  of  roots  and  branches;  a  greater 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  FRUIT  BY  CROSS-BREEDING. 

amount  of  organised  sap  will  also  be  deposited  in  the  tissue  of  the  wood,  than  if  the  tree 
had  borne  fruit;  this  will  give  rise  in  the  following  spring,  to  vigorous  branches  and  well 
developed  leaves;  it  will  also  contribute  directly  to  the  growth  of  the  fruit.  Early  in 
spring,  the  plants  should  be  top-dressed  with  a  compost  as  above.  Numerous  blossoms 
will  now  be  produced,  all  of  which  should  be  destroyed,  excepting  about  four  or  six 
bunches.  By  reducing  the  quantity  of  fruit,  we  increase  the  size  and  improve  the  quality 
of  that  left;  a  fact  well  understood  and  turned  to  account  by  some  cultivators,  but  not,  I 
fear,  sufficently  understood  or  practiced  generally.  When  the  fruit  is  set,  if  the  weather 
should  prove  dry,  liquid  manure  may  be  applied  with  advantage;  one  part  of  pigeons'  or 
fowls'  dung,  with  three  or  four  parts  of  water,  is  a  powerful  and  prompt  fertiliser;  after 
being  mixed  it  should  be  allowed  to  settle,  and  the  clear  liquid  used.  This  watering 
should  be  continued  more  or  less,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  season,  till  the  fruit 
shows  signs  of  ripening — water  should  then  be  withheld,  or  the  quality  of  the  fruit  may 
be  injured.  Fruit  of  the  best  quality  being  always  obtained  when  the  latter  part  of  the 
summer  is  dry  and  sunny.  The  growing  points  of  the  young  shoots  may  now  be  nipped 
off,  with  a  view  to  add  still  farther  to  the  size  and  quality  of  the  fruit-  When  the  berries 
are  ripe,  the  seeds  should  be  washed  free  from  pulp  in  milk-warm  water — dried  on  paper, 
and  suspended  in  cotton  bags,  in  a  dry  room,  till  the  time  of  sowing. 

As  soon  as  all  danger  from  frost  is  past,  the  seeds  may  be  sown  thinly  in  rows,  in  a 
good  light  soil;  when  two  years  old,  the  trees  may  be  transplanted  to  where  they  are  to 
bear  fruit,  and  they  should  be  planted  at  such  a  distance  apart,  as  that  the  foliage  of  one 
will  not  interfere  with  or  shade  that  of  another.  If  the  branches  are  too  crowded,  some 
of  the  weakest  may  be  cut  clean  out.  The  aim  should  be  to  have  as  great  a  breadth  of  fo- 
liage as  possible  to  the  light,  with  a  view  to  hasten  the  period  of  fruit  bearing. 

By  this  mode  of  cross-breeding,  different  varieties  of  the  pear  or  other  fruits  may  be 
grown  together,  instead  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  apart.  If  trees  are  set  out  purposely  for 
cross-breeding,  no  blossoms  should  be  allowed  to  perfect  their  pollen ;  all  should  be  early 
destroyed,  excepting  those  to  be  operated  upon.  It  is  not,  however,  absolutely  necessarj'', 
though  advisable,  to  plant  trees  specially  for  this  purpose.  A  healthy  young  tree,  alreadjr 
in  full  bearing,  may  be  used;  it  should  be  suffered  to  bear  only  a  very  moderate  crop  of 
fruit  the  year  preceding  the  experiment.  A  branch  may  then  be  selected  on  the  south  side, 
all  the  flowers  on  the  branch  to  be  destroyed,  excepting  those  to  be  cross-fertilised;  these 
I  would  enclose  in  net  or  gause  bags,  to  protect  them  from  insects,  and  possibly  from  the 
ingress  of  adventitious  pollen.  When  the  fruit  is  set,  it  should  be  again  well  thinned  all 
over  the  tree,  and  such  other  means  resorted  to  as  seem  best  calculated  to  add  to  the 
size  and  quality  of  the  fruit. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  the  seedlings  of  all  highly  improved  fruits  to  revert  to  the  origi- 
nal condition  of  the  species,  which  can  only  be  prevented  by  judicious  selection  and  cross- 
ing, combined  with  high  culture;  comparatively  few  varieties  deserving  permanent  cul- 
ture will  be  obtained,  even  with  the  best  management — but  the  chances  will  evidently  be 
much  in  his  favor,  who  diligently  avails  himself  of  those  means  which  the  practice  of  the 
most  enlightened  cultivators,  founded  on  a  knowledge  of  the  functions  of  the  various  parts 
of  plants,  has  proved  to  be  successful. 

I  noticed  that  two  correspondents  were  boasting  of  the  number  of  good  varieties  of  peach- 
es and  pears  which  had  been  raised  in  the  states,  compared  with  the  quantity  of  seedlings 
grown.  I  suspect  that  much  of  the  credit  of  this  is  due  to  the  climate,  and  that  in  our 
endeavors  to  improve  many  kinds  of  fruit,  we  shall  have  an  advantage  over  most  European 
nations,  especially  over  England  and  Germany,  where  cross-breeding  fruits  has  hitherto 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  FRUIT  BY  CROSS-BREEDING. 

been  most  practiced.  A  given  species  of  plant  requires  a  certain  range  of  temperature, 
and  a  certain  amount  of  light,  to  enable  it  to  grow  in  a  healthy  condition,  or  yield  fruit  of 
the  greatest  excellence;  an  excess  or  deficiency  of  heat  and  light,  being  alike  injuri- 
ous. 

The  gooseberry,  strawberry,  apple,  and  perhaps  the  cherry,  are  perfectly  at  home  in 
England;  they  are  grown  there  in  great  perfection,  and  there  many  valuable  varieties  have 
originated.  But  the  pear,  generally,  seems  to  require  a  somewhat  higher  temperature. 
Several  of  the  fine  Flemish  varieties  do  not  ripen  Vv'ell  on  standards  in  ordinary  seasons, 
and  fruit  from  a  wall,  though  large  and  handsome,  is  never  so  highly  flavored  as  that  ri- 
pened on  a  standard.  Peaches,  again,  grown  in  England  at  great  expense,  chiefly  under 
glass,  and  with  artificial  heat,  are  poor  and  insipid,  compared  with  the  delicious  fruit  which 
may  be  had  so  cheaply  in  New-York.  If,  therefore,  it  is  a  matter  of  so  much  importance 
that  the  fruit  we  wish  to  save  seed  from,  should  be  made  to  acquire  a  high  degree  of  ex- 
cellence, it  is  apparent  that  in  several  of  the  states  at  least,  ordinary  culture  will  aff"ord 
peaches  far  superior  to  any  that  could  be  raised  in  England  by  the  most  skillful  gardener. 
Our  high  summer  temperature,  and  dry  atmosphere,  may  be  imitated,  but  the  brilliant 
sunshine,  the  bright  light,  on  which  the  quality  of  the  fruit  so  much  depends,  is  inimita- 
ble. This  should  be  a  matter  of  great  encouragement  to  the  improvers  of  the  more  valu- 
able kinds  of  fruit  in  this  country — favored  so  much  by  climate,  judicious  selection  and 
crossing,  with  improved  culture,  they  can  hardly  fail  to  be  otherwise  than  successful. 

While  on  this  subject,  perhaps  I  may  be  permitted  to  quote  from  one  of  the  letters  I 
had  the  pleasure  to  receive  from  the  late  Andrew  Knight,  a  few  remarks  respecting  the 
kinds  of  fruit  he  considered  yet  capable  of  improvement. 

After  giving  me  a  humorous  account  of  an  interview  with  a  grower  of  large  gooseberries 
in  Cheshire,  he  says,  "  I  lament  that  the  improvers  of  the  gooseberry  did  not  in  prefer- 
ence, select  the  Red  Currant.  Culture  has  alwaj^s  a  tendencj'^  to  render  fruits  less  acid, 
and  to  some  extent,  more  tasteless,  and  the  currant,  on  that  account,  promised  a  wider 
extent  of  improvement  than  the  gooseberry.  I  think  it  not  very  improbable  that  the  Red 
Currant  might  be  made  by  successive  generations,  and  proper  culture, a  sweet,  perhaps  a  very 
sweet  fruit.  The  Green  Gage  Plum  is  the  cultivated  sloe.  And  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  pun- 
gently  acid  fruit  of  the  Berberry  might  be  changed  into  a  very  saccharine  fruit.  The  apple 
and  gooseberry  alone,  of  our  fruits,  have,  I  think,  been  shown  in  the  greatest  state  of  per- 
fection, nearly  what  they  have  the  power  of  acquiring  in  the  climate  of  England;  and  of  the 
plum  and  common  cherry,  we  have  many,  or  more  properly,  several  fine  varieties.  To 
the  improvement  of  the  Morello  Cherry,  a  totally  distinct  species,  no  attention  has  been 
paid.  With  the  pear,  probably  much  may  yet  be  done,  but  I  fear  the  pear  assumes  its 
highest  state  of  perfection  in  the  warmer  parts  alone  of  England;  as  a  fruit  for  the  press, 
in  such  situations,  I  think  it  capable  of  affording  a  very  fine  wine  fluid,  far  preferable  to 
the  wretched  mixture  often  drank  in  England  under  the  name  of  wine." 

I  have  been  glad  to  learn  from  the  pages  of  this  Journal,  that  many  are  now  endeavor- 
ing to  raise  improved  varieties  of  fruit.  Gardening  is  allowed  to  be  one  of  the  most  de- 
lightful amusements  which  can  occupy  the  leisure  hours  of  man — but  pleasing  as  the  ordi- 
narj"-  culture  of  the  plant  may  be,  it  is  a  tame  and  monotonous  pursuit,  compared  with  the 
pleasure  to  be  derived  from  raising  new  kinds  of  perennial  flowers  or  fruit  from  seed.  The 
comparative  uncertainty  of  the  results  of  our  experiments  has  its  charms.  In  ordinary 
gardening,  we  know  that  the  flowers  and  fruit  of  next  summer  will  be  like  those  of  the 
summer  that  is  past — differing  it  may  be,  a  little,  in  beauty  or  flavor,  as  the  season 
pitious  or  otherwise;  but  from  the  momenta  seedling  springs  from  the  ground,  to  the 


NEW  MODE  OF  BATTLING  THE  PEACH- WORM. 


it  produces  its  flowers  or  fruit,  it  is  an  object  of  great  interest,  and  a  source  of  much  specula 
tion  to  the  experimenter;  more  mind  is  in  the  work,  than  in  ordinary  gardening — greater 
skill  is  required — more  correct  habits  of  observation,  and  a  more  intimate  and  extensive 
knowledge  of  cause  and  effect.  And  not  only  may  the  pursuit  be  recommended  as  a  refin- 
ed am^'oraent,  or  for  the  pleasure  it  is  capable  of  aflbrding,  but  it  may  be  recommended 
as  a  commercial  speculation.  There  is,  doubtless,  ample  room  for  improvement  yet — more 
valuable  varieties  of  fruit  than  any  we  now  possess,  will  yet  be  obtained,  and  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  pleasures  of  hope  to  be  enjoj^ed  by  the  way,  there  is  a  fair  prospect  of  ultimate- 
ly receiving  an  adequate  return  for  the  time  and  labor  expended.  Within  twelve  years 
from  the  time  of  proving  the  fruit,  an  improved  variety  might  be  introduced  into  every 
garden  of  the  United  States,  and  in  a  country  where  fruit  growing  is  a  matter  of  so  much 
imjiortance,  it  must  be  a  soui'ce  of  gratification  to  the  successful  experimentalist,  to  be  con- 
scious, that  even  by  his  amusements  he  may  have  contributed  to  some  extent,  to  the  wel- 
fare of  his  country  and  fellow  men.  Johx  Townlet. 

Port  Hope,  Columbia  Co.,  Wis.,  Jan.,  1851. 

]\Iany  thanks  to  our  new  correspondent  in  Wisconsin.  We  recognise  him  as  a  well 
known  cultivator,  who  has  seen  the  best  practice  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  him  again.     Ed. 


NEW   MODE   OF   BATTLING  THE   PEACH-WORM. 


BY  J.  C.  WRIGHT,  SCOTTSVILLE,  VA. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — I  noticed  some  time  ago,  in  your  book  on  Fruits  and  Fruit  Trees 
of  America,  an  article  on  the  subject  of  planting  fruit  trees,  in  which  you  advise  that  the 
trees  should  be  so  set  in  the  ground  as  to  bring  the  upper  roots  on  a  line  with  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth.  I  liked  the  suggestion  much,  and  in  setting  out  a  number  of  young 
plums  and  peach  trees,  I  adopted  it.  I  have,  however,  suflfered  greatly  from  the  destruc- 
tive little  grub  which  attacks  the  collar  or  root  of  peach  and  plum  trees,  and  had  tried 
various  means  which  had  occurred  to  me  as  re- 
medies, such  as  unslacked  or  powdered  lime, 
ashes,  tobacco,  hot  lye,  and  pot-ash — all  I 
found  to  be  inefficient.  Last  may  I  gave  my 
trees  a  thorough  over  hauling,  or  examination, 
and  found  an  incalculable  number  of  these 
grubs  at  their  work  of  destruction  and  death 
about  the  collar  and  roots.  I  then  tried  anoth- 
er experiment,  which  I  found  to  answer  the 
purpose  admirably,  so  far.  It  is  as  fol- 
io \vs : 

I  commenced  by  removing  the  earth  from 
around  the  roots,  as  is  exhibited  by  the  annexed 
figure,  so  as  to  form  a  circle  round  the  tree, 
and  make  a  basin  of  a  foot  in  width,  and  four 
inches  deep.  I  then  procured  a  quantity  of  rock 


TOP  SURFACE; 


iV ,/',,  V  wvor  GRguMt 


and  slacked  it,  reducing  it  to  the  consistency  of  very  thick  white-wash,  and  after 
stand  in  this  state  for  a  day,  I  poured  it  into  this  basin,  completely  filling 


No.  IV. 


DOMESTIC  ANIMAMS  FOR  PARKS  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS. 

interstices  about  the  roots.  In  a  short  time  this  lime  was  formed  into  a  hard  crust,  "which 
served  not  only  as  an  effectual  bar  to  the  entrance  of  the  grub  during  the  whole  season, 
but  what  is  almost  equally  important,  I  found  last  fall  unon  removing  this  lime  from  its 
bed,  that  the  wounds,  (and  some  of  them  were  quite  serious  ones,)  which  I  had  inflicted 
on  the  base  of  the  tree  in  removing  the  grubs,  were  healed  up,  and  in  as  good  and  healthy 
condition  as  any  part  of  the  tree;  and  now  my  trees  are  in  a  more  healthful  and  promis- 
ing condition  than  they  ever  have  been.  This  process  of  liming,  however,  should  be  re- 
newed every  spring. 

I  do  not  know  whether  this  experiment  of  mine  is  original,  but  can  confidently  say  that 
I  never  saw  or  heard  of  its  having  been  tried  before.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  the  in- 
formation is  before  you,  and  if  you  think  it  will  in  any  degree  promote  the  interest  of  hor- 
ticulture, it  is  at  your  service.        Very  respectfully  your  ob't  serv't.       J.  C.  "Wright. 

Scottsville,  Albemarle  Co.,  Ya.,  IGth  Dec,  1850. 

A  very  good  hint,  and  one  which  may  be  amplified  and  improved  on.     Ed. 


DOMESTIC  ANIMALS  FOR  PARKS  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS. 

BY  L.  F.  ALLEN,  BLACK  ROCK,  N.  Y. 

[The  following  article,  on  the  same  subject  as  the  leader  in  our  March  number, — was 
written  before  our  correspondent  had  seen  that  number — though  it  is  an  excellent  continu- 
ation of  the  same  idea.  We  are  glad  to  have  our  notions  of  the  advantages  of  introducing 
domestic  animals  into  the  ornamental  park  scenery  of  our  country  places,  fortified  by  one 
of  the  most  noted  stock-breeders  in  the  country,  whose  broad  meadows  on  the  Niagara 
river,  give  example  for  his  and  our  precepts.     Ed.] 

Dear  Sir — It  is  passing  strange  that  a  people  so  intelligent  in  most  things  appertaining 
to  their  own  enjoyment,  and  so  ambitious  in  the  fitting  up  and  arrangement  of  their  coun- 
try places,  as  the  Americans,  have  thus  far  shown  so  little  taste  in  collecting  fine  domes- 
tic animals  about  them,  not  only  as  creatures  of  convenience  and  economy  in  living,  but 
as  adding  a  beauty  and  effect  to  their  summer  homes,  ftir  more  expressive  than  anything 
else  which  can  be  obtained,  even  at  a  much  greater  expense.  In  every  populous  part  of 
the  United  States,  and  more  particularly  in  the  neighborhood  of  our  large  cities  and  towns, 
scattered  far  and  wide,  are  seen  imposing  and  costly  houses,  seated  in  large  lawns  and 
parks,  planted  out  with  noble  trees,  embellished  with  beautiful  gardens,  and  expensive 
grounds,  to  say  nothing  of  the  various  minor  decorations,  both  of  nature  and  of  art,  set 
up  or  planted  at  much  cost,  and  cared  for  at  a  heavy  annual  charge  upon  the  proprietor, 
merely  as  objects  to  gratify  the  taste,  or  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the  passer-bj",  to  gaze 
at  and  admire.  These,  so  far  as  they  go,  are  all  very  well;  but,  contrary  to  what  is  usu- 
ally supposed,  they  fall  far  short  of  completing  a  country  establishment  as  it  should  be; 
a  pantomime  in  the  landscape;  not  speaking  io  the  heart  like  the  living  action  and  the 
moving  beauty  of  animal  life,  which  would  otherwise  give  effect  and  fulness  to  so  much 
rural  beauty  and  ornate  embellishment,  and  make  it  just  what  it  should  be,  the  perfection 
of  rural  objects  inartificially  brought  together,  and  filling  up  a  complete  picture. 

In  taking  a  summer  drive  through  a  neighborhood  of  the  fine  summer  establishments 
out  of  our  large  cities,  or  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  or  the  Delaware,  and  observing  the 
fostidious  keeping  of  many  of  the  parks  and  grovmds  about  them,  one  would  suppo 
the  land  was  not  made  to  be  grazed  or  trodden  upon,  even  where  worthless  for  any 


DOMESTIC  ANIMALS  FOR  PARKS  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS. 

purpose,  and  that  the  presence  of  an  animal  to  run  at  large  in  the  enclosures,  was  a  con 
taiuination  of  vulgarity  not  for  a  moment  to  be  tolerated.  All  this,  to  one  who  appreci- 
ates the  country  in  its  true  spirit,  is  false  and  artificial.  An  open  common,  with  a  hum- 
ble cot  or  two  upon  its  margin;  the  huge  Oak  or  Elm  along  its  border,  the  grazing 
cow,  the  scattering  sheep;  or 

"  The  noisy  geese  that  gabble  o'er  the  pool," 

are  more  interesting  objects  in  quickening  the  enjoyment  of  one  who  truly  contemplates 
them,  than  a  paradise  full  of  such  dull,  unspeaking  beauty. 

Nor  does  this  inattention  to  animate  objects  in  most  cases  arise  from  a  grudging  of  the 
expense  of  obtaining  and  keeping  them,  but  from  the  want  of  a  knowledge  in  what  to  get, 
and  how  to  manage  the  creatures  which  are  required  for  the  purpose.  A  resident  of  the 
city,  getting  up  a  country  place,  where  himself  and  fliraily  are  to  spend  their  summers, 
knows  that  he  wants  his  horses.  For  them  his  stables  are  built  and  furnished,  to  all  re- 
quired extent  and  convenience.  He  knows,  also,  that  he  must  have  a  cow  or  two  to  fur- 
nish the  daily  mik  for  the  house;  possibly  a  pig  to  put  in  the  "pen,"  and  eat  the  offals 
of  the  kitchen;  and  perhaps,  a  dozen  hens  to  furnish  the  new  laid  eggs,  so  dear  to  all  good 
housekeepers;  with  any  quantity  of  dogs  to  guard  the  premises;  and,  though  he  does  not 
think  of  it,  to  become  an  intolerable  nuisance  by  their  depredations  among  his  neighbors. 
His  horses — for  he  is,  perhaps,  a  man  of  taste  in  that  line — are  good,  and  such  as  betakes 
pleasure  in  driving  or  riding  after;  and  he  likes,  besides,  to  see  his  wife  and  children,  and 
guests,  well  set  up  in  their  driving  equipage ;  but  for  all  the  rest  he  knows  or  cares  nothing. 

His  cow,  which  he  knows  simply  as  a  thing  that  gives  milk,  and  lives  on  grass,  is  probably 
driven  in  and  sold  to  him  by  a  cattle-jobber  of  the  neighborhood,  and  more  likely  than  not 
of  the  commonest  description  of  brutes,  and  disgraceful  to  any  piece  of  ground  but  the  worst 
and  most  obscure  lot  on  the  farm.  She  is,  therefore,  driven  out  and  kept  in  obscurity, 
and  shows  herself  only  to  the  stable-boy,  who  drives  her  up,  milks,  and  kicks  her  out  of 
sight  again,  as  soon  and  as  carelessly  as  possible.  The  pig  and  chickens  are  got  to  match, 
while  the  dogs,  of  "  mongrel,  puppy,  whelp,  and  hound  degree,"  run  wild  on  the  place, 
the  only  real  ."  lords  of  misrule"  on  the  domain. 

Thus  he  has  no  domestic  thing  around  him  beyond  his  horses,  or  dogs,  in  the  brute  cre- 
ation, which  interests  him.  His  meadows  yield  him  only  a  scanty  crop  of  hay  for  his  hor- 
ses, and  his  pastures  run  waste  for  want  of  creatures  to  crop  them,  or  are  gnawed  to  the 
ground  by  his  neighbors'  breachy  cattle.  He  is,  consequently,  without  anything  to  arrest 
his  attention  in  the  fields  or  grounds,  and  the  overgrown  grass  in  his  lawn  or  park — for 
what  is  a  country  house  without  one  or  both? — must  be  weekly  cut  to  keep  it  in  good  trim, 
and  he  becomes  annoyed  at  the  continual  expense  of  keeping  a  hand  or  two  to  clip  and  rake 
a  scanty  coat  of  shrivelled  herbage,  or  otherwise  see  it  grow  up  rank  and  seedy  on  his  ill 
kept  grounds.  And,  what  is  the  poor  man  to  do.'  Why,  as  sensible  men  do,  who  have 
some  natural  fancy  that  way,  and  taste,  and  economy,  and  liberality  enough  to  get  some- 
thing worth  keeping,  and  ornament  his  grounds  with  beautiful,  well-bred  cattle  or  sheep. 
Deer,  as  in  England,  he  cannot  keep;  and  if  he  could,  they  are  a  creature  of  no  profit. 
Neither  will  our  American  fences  hold  them,  and  they  are  destructive  to  every  young  thing 
of  vegetable  growth  within  reach.*  But  choice  cattle  and  sheep  he  can  get,  which  may  be 
kept  without  trouble,  and  be  a  source  of  profit  and  pleasure.  And  premising  that  our 
friend,  who  is  disposed  to  take  some  sensible  advice,  wishes  to  make  a  few  inquiries  as 
to  what  description  of  stock  he  wants,  a  hint  or  two  will  be  given  for  his  benefit. 

cannot  qui  e  agree  with  our  correspondent  about  the  deer — unless  his  remarks  apply  to  our  wild  deer 
the  English  parks  are  perfectly  tame,  and  as  easily  kept  within  bounds  as  any  of  our  cattle.    We  do 
they  should  not  be  imported  into  our  parks,  as  well  as  Short-horns.    Ed. 


DOMESTIC  ANIMALS  FOR  PARKS  AND  PLEASURE  GROUNDS. 

If  he  delight  in  a  horse,  and  inclines  to  breed  a  colt  or  two,  which  may  grow  up  on  his 
farm  and  make  a  good  fiunily  beast  or  a  match  of  them,  for  his  own  riding  or  driving,  let 
him  get  one  or  more  fine  young,  healthy  mares,  as  breeders,  and  turn  them  into  the  park. 
Let  them  be  at  least  half-bred  "turf  horse"  in  blood.  If  three-fourths  or  seven-eights 
of  that  blood,  all  the  better,  if  well  selected.  They  will  be  great  in  "  wind  and  bottom" 
for  the  road.  A  mare  or  two  of  such  material,  with  each  a  colt  at  her  foot,  will  be  a 
beautiful  and  characteristic  ornament  to  the  grounds  in  summer,  keep  easily  through  the 
winter  on  the  common  "  fodder"  of  the  place,  with  a  little  grain,  and  grow  up  to  profit 
and  future  usefulness.  If  he  love  cattle — and  he  has  little  business  in  the  country  if  he 
does  not — let  him  get,  according  to  his  area  of  ground,  one,  two,  three,  or  more,  well  se- 
lected Short-horn,  Devon,  Ayrshire,  or  Alderney  cows,  as  his  soil  and  fancy  may  direct, 
and  turn  into  his  park;  and  if  he  have  still  more  room,  a  dozen  or  two  nice,  well-bred 
South  Down  sheep,  to  graze  after  the  cows,  and  give  him  choicer  mutton  than  any  he  can 
find  at  the  neighboring  butchers,  or  even  better  than  he  can  get  out  from  the  city. 

If  his  soil  be  strong,  and  his  pastures  rich,  he  should  take  the  Short-horns  for  his  cows. 
They  are  the  largest,  most  imposing  and  profitable  of  all  others,  where  feed  is  abundant; 
will  give  "a  bushel"  of  milk  in  a  day,  of  the  richest  quality;  and,  scattered  over  his 
grounds,  with  their  beautiful  silky  colors  of  white  or  red,  or  more  usually,  both  inter- 
mingling in  every  variety  of  shade,  present  the  most  picturesque  group  imaginable,  as  they 
graze,  or  stand,  or  lie  ruminating  among  the  trees.  If  the  soil  be  light,  and  the  pasture 
shorter,  let  him  adopt  either  the  Devons,  the  Ayrshires,  or  the  Alderneys.  They  are  all 
good  milkers,  when  properly  selected,  and  for  his  governance  I  will  describe  them  briefly. 

The  Devon  is  a  medium  sized  animal,  deer-like  in  its  appearance,  a  full  cherry  red  in  co- 
lor, with  a  clean  delicate  head,  a  high  spreading  horn,  a  clear  prominent  eye,  and  of  per- 
fect symmetry  in  figure;  light,  agile,  and  beautiful;  she  is  docile,  perfectly  hardy,  and 
easily  kept. 

The  Ayrshire  is  the  "dairy  cow"  of  the  Scotch  lowlands;  a  great  milker,  an  exceed- 
ingly pretty  animal,  of  medium  size,  a  deep  to  light  red  and  white  in  color — the  red  large- 
ly predominating;  a  low,  yet  delicate  horn;  not  so  light  and  graceful  as  the  Devon  in 
figure,  but  of  a  most  domestic,  housekeeping  appearance,  and  as  useful  and  profitable  a 
creature  as  lives. 

The  Aldernej^  Jersey,  or  Gurnsey  cow,  for  she  is  called  all  these  names — is  the  cow  of 
the  English  islands  on  the  coast  of  France.  She  is  largely  kept  on  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and 
in  Hampshire  and  other  southern  counties  of  England,  by  the  gentry,  for  her  rich  and 
creamy  milk,  and  delicious  butter.  She  is  small  in  stature,  meek  and  somewhat  inferior 
in  appearance,  a  "  crumpled"  horn,  red  and  white  in  color,  quiet  in  temper,  usually  low 
in  flesh,  and  requires  good  feeding  to  keep  her  in  condition  when  in  milk,  and  at  no  time 
presents  that  beautiful  and  imposing  appearance  of  the  other  breeds.  But  her  usefulness 
is  unsurpassed;  and  a  herd  of  Alderneys  grazing  in  a  pasture,  or  park,  or  a  paddock,  are 
a  pretty  sight  to  look  upon. 

Either  of  the  above  varieties  of  cow  are  profitable,  as  well  as  ornamental  animals  to  the 
park  or  pleasure  grounds;  and  when  selected  with  an  eye  to  their  milking  qualities,  in 
which  they  usually  excel,  none  others  can  equal  them.  Their  value,  according  to  blood 
and  quality,  with  the  breeders,  is  from  $100  to  $250  each,  but  those  wanting  them  for 
milking  qualities  alone,  and  not  requiring  those  choice  and  high  traits  of  "blood,"  to 
which  professional  breeders  attach  so  much  value,  may  readily  obtain  them  at  prices  vary 
ing  fi'om  $75  to  fl50;  and  many  of  them,  for  milking  alone,  are  worth  either  sum  named, 
better  than  a  common  cow  is  worth  her  usual  price  in  market 


FREESTONE  COTTAGE. 

The  South  Down  sheep  is  a  good  sized  animal,  with  a  snug,  compact  fleece  of  medium 
qualit}^;  a  black  or  dark  brown  face;  robust  in  its  figure,  and  of  exceeding  ripeness  of 
points.  It  is  emphatically  the  "  mutton  sheep"  of  England,  with  a  dark,  venison  colored 
flesh,  arriving  at  early  maturity,  and  giving  a  "saddle"  and  "chop"  equaled  by  no 
other  sheep  among  us.  They  are  exceedingly  gentle  and  quiet  in  their  habits,  hardy  in 
constitution,  prolific,  and  easily  kept,  either  in  a  lean  pasture,  or  in  the  straw  yard.  Their 
value,  thorough  bred,  ranges  from  $10  to  $20. 

If  a  lake,  a  pond,  or  running  stream  lie  within  the  park,  the  large  African,  or  the  White 
or  Brown  China,  or  the  Bremen  Goose,  is  a  most  ornamental,  as  well  as  useful  water  fowl. 
The  African  or  China,  has  the  long  arched  neck,  and  all  the  grace  and  beauty  of  the  Swan, 
and  their  cry  at  a  distance,  is  really  musical.  They  are  fine  and  delicate  in  their  flesh, 
very  domestic,  and  in  all  but  our  most  northerly  climates,  quite  hardy.  They  are,  with 
abundance  of  water,  a  decided  ornament  to  the  pleasure  grounds. 

There  are  many  spacious  grounds  and  extensive  farms  in  several  of  our  states,  where 
fine  herds  and  flocks  of  some  of  the  varieties  of  cattle  and  sheep  described,  are  kept  and 
bred  in  great  purity,  and  easily  accessible  to  those  who  desire  them.  No  well  managed 
country  establishment,  either  of  the  professional  farmer  or  amateur,  can  be  complete  with- 
out a  specimen  of  some  one  breed  of  choice  animals  upon  it;  and  when  we  in  America, 
shall  have  learned  the  true  art  of  country  life  as  they  understand  it  in  England,  no  place 
of  any  pretension  will  be  found  which  shall  not  embrace  more  or  less  of  these  fine  varie- 
ties of  stock  within  its  enclosures,  as  giving  character,  finish  and  eSect,  to  its  appoint- 
ments. 

My  remarks  on  this  subject,  may,  I  am  aware,  be  thought  to  "  smell  of  the  shop;"  but 
convinced,  as  I  am,  that  in  the  United  States  we  are  most  lamentably  behind  the  times  in 
this  important  appendage  to  our  country  establishments ;  and  referring  to  a  recent  conver- 
sation with  you  on  this  subject,  I  thus  "  give  tongue"  to  my  thoughts.  And  I  will  only 
add  my  entire  conviction  that  he  who  seeks  one  of  the  highest  enjoyments  of  country  life, 
can  do  no  better  than  to  cultivate  a  taste,  both  in  himself  and  in  his  family,  for  the  appre- 
ciation of  fine  domestic  animals,  in  which  they  will  find  some  of  their  purest  and  least 
expensive  pleasures.  It  is  so  with  many  who  from  entire  indifference,  have  become  enthu- 
siasts in  their  love  of  them ;  and  for  myself — though  it  be  egotism  to  say  it — in  my  own 
island  park  of  some  hundreds  of  acres,  I  find  no  serener  pleasure  than  with  my  honest 
shepherd  dog  at  my  side,  to  stroll  out  among  my  Short-horns,  my  Devons,  and  my 
South  Downs,  and  amid  the  summer  beauty  of  woods,  and  grass,  and  waters,  to  call  them 
around  me  in  their  joyous  fulness,  and  commune  with  their  gentle  natures  as  one  entrust- 
ed by  a  kind  Providence  with  the  care  of  his  subordinate  creatures,  and  whose  bounty  in 
their  beautiful  creation,  it  would  be  guilt  in  me  to  neglect.  Lewis  F,  Allen. 

Black  Rock,  N.  Y.,  Feb.,  1851. 


FREESTONE  COTTAGE  AT  MIDDLETOWN,  CONN. 

(SEE  FRONTISPIECE.) 

Dear  Sir — As  your  journal  is  in  part  devoted  to  the  progress  of  rural  architecture,  I 
venture  to  send  5-ou  the  engravings  of  a  beautiful  cottage  erected  in  this  place  by  Mr.  D. 
Barnes — which  is  not  only  tastefully  designed,  but  one  of  the  best  built  residences  in  the 
state 

house  stands  on  the  west  side  of  High-street,  which  is  lined  on  both  sides  wi 

riety  of  beautiful  shade  trees  in  double  rows,  and  is  emphatically  the  street  of  the 


FREESTONE  COTTAGE. 


Preparations  are  making  by  a  gentleman  of  ability  and  taste,  for  erecting  a  splendid  man 
sion  the  ensuing  season,  on  a  beautiful  lot  a  few  rods  to  the  north.  Directly  in  front  of 
the  cottage  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  between  the  fine  residences,  lies  a  little  for- 
est of  evergreens,  ornamental  trees,  &c.;  while  on  the  south,  are  the  beautiful  grounds, 
crowded  with  the  richest 
variety  of  trees,  shrubbe- 
ry and  flowers,  which 
surround  the  fine  resi- 
dence of  the  late  Richard 
Alsop,  Esq. 

The  cottage  stands  back 
100  feet  from  the  street, 
on  a  lot  having  a  front  of 
210  feet,  the  lines  of  which 
extend  so  far  back  of  the 
house  as  to  contain  two 
acres,  which  is  well  stock- 
ed with  trees  of  the  choic- 
est varieties  from  the  va- 
rious nurseries  of  the 
country,  mostly  selected 
and  planted  by  the  pro- 
prietor himself.  They 
were  planted  2  and  3 
years  since,  in  the  richest  Principal  Floor. 

soil,  and  with  extra  care;  and  their  unexampled  growth  has  well  repaid  all  the  labor  and 
attention  bestowed  on  them. 

Seen  from  the  street, 
the  proportions  of  the 
cottage  are  very  pleasing. 
The  length  of  the  build- 
ing (exclusive  of  veranda) 
is  43 i  feet,  breadth  39^ 
feet.  The  basement  is  di- 
vided by  brick  walls  into 
a  vegetable  cellar  under 
the  south  part,  a  large 
front  cellar,  which  makes 
a  cool  dining  room  in  the 
summer  months,  with  an 
apartment  in  the  rear  of 
it  for  a  furnace,  coal,  &c. 
The  north  part  is  divided 
into  a  bathing  room  and 
cistern  on  the  east;  a 
kitrlicn,   provided  with  a 

range  and  cistern  on  the  west,  and  between  them,  sunk  deep  in  the  enrth  beneath 
nc  stair-way,  is  a  cold  cellar  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  butter,  &c.     The  whole  cel- 


CuAMBER  Floor. 


FREESTONE  COTTAGE. 

lar  is  paved  with  choice  large  flagging  of  the  best  quality,  and  laid  in  water-proof  cement, 
so  as  to  be  dry  in  all  seasons.  The  walls  are  laid  five  feet  below  ground,  two  and  a 
half  feet  above.  The  courses  are  of  single  stones,  those  at  the  bottom  weighing  half  a 
ton  or  more.,  each.  The  upper  course,  two  and  a  half  feet  above  ground,  is  of  single 
stones,  each  weighing  nearly  a  ton,  hewn  and  polished  in  the  best  manner.  Their  size 
may  be  inferred  from  the  fact,  tha't  five  only  are  required  to  extend  from  corner  to  corner 
across  one  end  of  the  building,  a  distance  of  31  feet  8  inches.  On  this  course  is  the  water 
table,  which,  like  the  courses  below,  is  laid  in  cement  and  lime-mortar,  thus  effectually 
preventing  any  dampness  from  arising  from  the  walls  under  it.  Above  the  water  table, 
the  stones  of  the  main  walls  are  each  one  foot  wide  and  thick,  by  various  lengths  from  two 
to  twelve  feet,  according  to  the  place  they  occupy,  each  stone  having  been  cut  and  marked 
for  its  place.  Twelve  courses  of  one  foot  each,  complete  the  first  story,  on  which  is  laid 
a  belting  course  which  passes  entirely  around  the  building.  Above  this  belt  the  walls 
are  not  so  thick,  being  set  back  one  inch  from  a  line  perpendicular  with  the  walls  below. 
The  entire  walls  are  laid  with  the  closest  possible  joints,  in  a  fine  grout  of  lime-mortar 
and  cement,  with  an  outer  edge  of  stone  putty,  which  has  hardened  like  the  stone  itself, 
and  is  perfectly  impervious  to  the  weather.  All  the  stones  which  form  the  corners  are  cut 
in  the  shape  of  the  letter  L,  thus  locking  them  together  with  great  strength.  Wherever 
beauty  or  strength  seemed  to  require  it,  single  blocks  of  a  large  size  have  been  used.  The 
arches  of  the  pointed  windows  are  cut  from  single  blocks.  The  whole  of  the  projection  in 
the  second  story,  over  the  front  entrance,  is  composed  of  four  pieces,  the  sill,  the  sides  and 
the  arched  top.  From  this  window,  as  indeed  from  all  the  front  windows,  the  view  of  the 
city,  of  the  windings  of  the  river,  of  Portland,  and  the  Strait  hills  in  the  distance,  is  un- 
surpassed. 

The  timber,  joists,  &c.,  are  of  first  quality  chestnut;  the  joists  large,  and  thickly  plac- 
ed. The  floors  are  of  well  seasoned  lumber,  closely  laid;  the  principal  one  is  of  one  and  a 
quarter  inch  narrow  cypress  plank.  Thereof  is  covered  with  first  quality  shingles,  dipped 
in  boiling  oil  and  whiting.  They  were  selected  and  cut  in  a  semi-circular  form,  so  as  to 
lay  like  the  scales  of  a  fish.  All  the  first  floor  rooms  are  wainscoted  three  and  a  half  feet 
high.  The  doors  are  of  black  walnut,  two  inches  thick,  with  mahogany  panels.  All  the 
wood-work  of  the  first  story  corresponds  with  the  outward  style  of  the  building,  the  pan- 
eling of  the  doors,  wainscoting,  casements,  &c.,  being  finished  with  the  trefoil  or  quatre- 
foil  mouldings.  No  unseasoned  or  second  quality  of  lumber  has  been  used  in  the  building, 
and  the  builder,  Mr.  E.  Rockwell  of  Middletown,  has  shown  himself  a  most  accomplish- 
ed joiner. 

The  design  for  the  ornamental  tracery  at  the  gables  is  original.  It  is  a  vine  running  up- 
ward to  the  peak,  with  carved  leaves  and  clusters.  All  the  hangings  for  the  doors  and 
windows,  and  other  trimmings,  are  of  the  best  quality. 

The  labor  has  not  been  done  by  the  job,  but  by  thorough  craftsmen  who  understood 
their  business,  and  were  paid  the  wages  such  men  arc  entitled  to;  and  there  has  been, 
probably,  less  waste  of  material  than  is  common  in  the  erection  of  buildings  of  half  its 
value. 

This  cottage  is  not  yet  entirely  completed,  but  will  probably  be  finished  in  a  couple  of 
months.  The  proprietor,  Mr.  Barnes,  I  understand,  will  then  offer  it  for  sale  to  any  per- 
son whose  taste  and  means  would  lead  him  to  desire  so  charming  a  residence,  in  one  of  the 
most  healthful  and  beautiful  towns  in  New-England.  Yours,  A  Subscriber 

Middletown,  Ct.,  Jan.,  1S51. 


AJSr  ARTICLE  ON  BEES. 

AN  ARTICLE    ON   BEES. 

BY  H.  K.  O.,  LAWRENCE,  MASS. 

Mr.  Downing — Your  bee  correspondent  may  be  assured  from  my  "  experience,"  of 
the  fact  that  a  queen  bee  has  been  produced  from  a  worker's  egg.  I  use  the  common 
phraseology.  The  working  bees  are  barren  females;  the  queen  the  only  fertile  bee  of  the 
hive.  If  she  be  lost,  or  dies,  and  there  be  worms  [larva]  of  some  three  or  four  days  old, 
which,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  Would  become  workers  and  barren,  the  bees  select 
one,  and  by  some  treatment  which  no  one  has  yet  satis%ctorily  explained,  so  develop  its 
organs  as  to  render  them  generative — and  such  bee  becomes  the  mother  and  queen,  so 
called. 

The  subject  is  full  of  difficulties.  For  not  only  is  the  generative  power  of  such  bee 
changed — but  her  shape,  length  of  body,  and  sting.  The  various  writers  on  the  subject  great- 
ly disagree.  Let  me  refer  to  "  Bevan  on  the  Honey  Bee,"  and  "  Huish  on  Bees,"  and 
"  Miner  on  Bees  and  Hives."  In  these  works  the  subject  is  fully  treated.  The  proba- 
bility is,  that,  as  in  most  contested  cases,  the  truth  lies  between  the  parties,  and  not 
wholly  on  one  side. 

Some  years  since,  in  a  single  combed  hive  made  for  the  purpose,  an  apiarian  friend  and 
myself  witnessed  the  experiment.  The  queen  of  the  swarm,  from  the  nature  of  the  hive, 
could  easily  be  seen  at  any  time.  She  was  killed  by  a  stab  with  a  long  knitting  needle. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  hours  the  bees  were  found  in  great  commotion,  and  continued  so  for 
most  of  the  day.  When  quiet,  it  was  found  that  a  small  knot  of  bees  was  clustered  round 
a  spot  near  the  center  of  the  comb, — and  here  they  continued,  till  at  the  end  of  about  four- 
teen days  a  queen  was  seen  to  emerge  from  the  cell  at  which  they  had  operated.  Whether 
the  worm  was  a  Avorm,  which,  if  let  alone,  and  no  queen  were  wanted,  Avould  have  pro- 
duced a  worker,  or  whether  it  was  a  queen-worm,  and  which,  (whether  a  queen  Avere 
wanted  or  not,)  would  have  been  a  queen,  I  leave  to  the  theorists  to  settle.  Of  the  fact 
that  a  queen  was  had,  your  correspondent  may  be  assured. 

To  his  second  query,  I  cannot  reply  practically,  but  should  by  all  means  recommend  the 
parting  of  the  hive,  and  the  removal  of  one  of  the  parts  to  at  least  a  mile's  distance. 

To  his  third  query,  I  reply  that  the  bees  in  that  part  of  the  hive  which  contains  the 
queen,  will,  (whether  it  be  the  part  carried  off  or  the  part  remaining  at  home,)  be  quiet  and 
easy,  and  keep  about  their  regular  business;  while  the  bees  in  the  part  which  has  not  the 
queen,  will  soon  become  troubled  and  uneasy,  and  begin  to  run  about  and  travel  over  the 
combs  in  great  agitation,  as  if  in  search  of  the  queen.  This  they  will  do  for  some  hours, 
until  they  settle  down  under  the  necessity  of  the  case,  and  get  to  work  on  the  process  of 
procurhig  their  new  queen. 

Your  correspondent  appears  to  keep  his  bees  in  a  city;  now,  although  I  have  known 
bees  to  do  pretty  well  in  town,  they  do  much  better  in  the  country.  The  temptations  of 
the  town  lead  many  bees,  as  well  as  many  bipeds,  into  dangerous  and  deadly  places.  In 
the  early  and  warm  spring,  before  the  honey-yielding  flowers  have  blossomed,  and  in  the 
late  summer,  after  they  have  withered, — the  sAveet  odors  of  the  confectionary  shops,  of 
the  sugar  and  molasses  stores,  allure  the  industrious  wanderers,  and  they,  improvident 
against  the  danger,  and  supposing  that  they  can  get  out  of  the  door  or  the  window,  or  es 
om  the  sugar  box  or  molasses  cask,  as  easily  as  from  the  petals  of  a  flower,  are 
ly  made  prisoners, and  perish  by  thousands.     "  God  made  the  country  and  man 


THE  PYRAMIDAL  PEAR  TREES. 

the  town,"  and  all  the  works  and  places  which  bear  impress  of  the  Deity,  are  far  letter 
for  bees  as  well  as  for  bipeds. 

''Rura  milii  placent  ante  omnia" — 

Tlie  coiiiiiiy,  the  country  is  the  right  place  for  me, 
The  fields  and  the  woods  for  the  sweet  sucking  bee. 

Still,  if  it  be  his  misfortune  to  be  tied  down  to  brick  and  mortar,  and  a  pavemented 
town,  he  had  better  resort  to  the  "  non-swarming  hives,"  and  depend  for  the  increase 
of  his  stock  upon  some  farmer  out  of  town.  My  limits,  or  rather  your  limits,  will 
not  permit  the  space  for  the  details,  or  I  could  give  a  description  of  one  which  I  have 
used  for  3'ears,  without  its  swarming,  and  have  had  an  annual  produce  of  honey  of  from 
fifty  to  eighty  pounds,  without  destroying  a  bee.  [We  shall  be  glad  to  have  this  descrip- 
tion.    Ed.]  Yours,  11.  K.  0. 

Laiorence,  Mass.,  Feb.  14,  1S51. 


THE  PYRAMIDAL  PEAR  TREES, 

IN  THE   GARDEN  OF  PLANTS. 

The  most  beautiful  sight,  in  the  way  of  hardy  fruit  tree  culture,  that  greeted  our  eyes 
last  season,  in  Europe,  was  that  of  the  Pyramidal  Pear  Trees  in  the  Jar  din  des  Plantes. 

On  one  side  of  this  great  national  garden,  which,  with  its  parterres,  schools  and  muse- 
ums, is  a  vast  collection  of  all  that  is  interesting  in  Natural  History,  is  a  piece  of  ground 
of  perhaps  an  acre,  somewhat  away  from  the  principal  walks.  It  is  separated  from  the 
rest  of  the  garden,  (to  which  the  public  has  the  freest  access,)  by  an  iron  railing  and  a 
gate,  which  is  kept  locked.  This  is  the  "  school  of  pears" — that  is  to  say,  the  garden  in 
which  MoxsiEUR  Cappe,  the  head  of  the  fruit  department,  has  his  house,  and  more  espe- 
cially his  beautiful  pear  trees — to  which  he  has  given  up  almost  the  whole  of  the  area  al- 
lotted to  him. 

It  was  September  when  we  were  in  this  garden.  "We  were  weary  with  a  day  of  sight- 
seeing, and  a  long  ramble  through  the  other  different  departments  of  the  garden,  and 
though  very  desirous  of  seeing  M.  Cappe's  trees,  which  have  become  rather  famous  as 
fine  specimens  of  the  art  of  pruning,  and  had  come  provided  with  a  note  to  him  which 
would  open  the  iron  gate  where  the  trees  of  knowledge  stood — we  had  almost  determin- 
ed before  we  reached  it,  that  we  would  be  content  with  a  passing  glance  from  the  outside, 
at  what  we  supposed  would  present  a  familiar  appearance  to  our  eyes. 

But  a  passing  glance  through  the  iron  railing  soon  made  us  feel  that  ]\I.  Cappe  was  not 
a  man  to  be  neglected.  And  patiently  we  waited  till  one  of  the  garcons  had  found  him 
and  delivered  our  note,  in  order  that  we  might  enter  the  now  unclosed  gate,  and  make  the 
acquaintance  of  the  master  of  pear  trees. 

"We  do  not  wish  to  depreciate  the  magnificent  pictures  in  the  Louvre,  but  we  must  still 
be  allowed  to  say,  that  in  their  loay,  M.  Cappe's  pear  trees  are  as  well  worth  seeing  as 
any  of  the  great  master-pieces  of  art  there.  Nobody  (with  a  soul)  would  think  of  com- 
paring a  PoussiN  with  a  pear  tree,  yet  what  one  of  Poussin's  grand  sj^lvan  landscapes, 
(in  which  you  can  almost  feel  the  tempest  that  sways  the  tops,)  is  to  a  landscape  on  a 
sign-board,  ]M.  Cappe's  pyramidal  pear  trees  are  to  the  pear  trees  of  common  gardens, 
both  in  England  and  America. 

readers  must  imagined  level  plot  of  ground,  marked  off  into  beds  or  borders,  about 
feet  wide,  with  a  narrow  alley  between.     In  a  straight  line  in  the  middle  of  these  beds 


Cappers  Pyramidal  Pear  Tree. 


THE  PYRAMIDAL  PEAR  TREES. 


stand  the  pear  trees — about  ten  feet  distant  from  each  other.  And  such  pear  trees:  so 
symmetrically  shaped,  forming  perfect  pyramids  of  foliage  in  the  finest  tapering  lines  from 
top  to  bottom;  so  healthy  and  luxuriant,  with  not  a  leaf  nor  branch  wanting,  and  with 
the  utmost  possible  vigor  and  beauty  of  growth,  as  if  not  "  nice  art"  had  educated  them 
into  this  shape,  but  rather  they  had  grown  so  because  it  was 
their  nature,  and  the}^  could  not  help  it;  and  so  laden  all  over 
with  the  finest  and  fairest  fruit — golden,  orange,  dark  bronze 
red,  or  tinted  with  the  ruddiest  tints  of  autumn;  in  short,  so 
altogther  the  complete  and  perfect  thing  as  garden  pear 
trees,  that  we  strongly  suspect  that  good  Monsieur  Cappb 
has  a  better  understanding  with  mistress  Pomona,  than  any 
of  us,  her  Anglo  devotees. 

We  had  a  very  interesting  chat  with  M.  Cappe  about  the 
management  of  his  trees,  which  we  shall  give  the  substance 
of  for  the  benefit  of  our  readers.  We  ras^j  say,  in  the  first 
place,  that  the  climate  of  Paris  is  so  much  like  our  own,  that 
any  lesson  in  open  air  culture  learned  there,  is  worth  twice 
as  much  as  if  learned  in  England.  In  fact,  the  pear  tree 
grows  but  indifferently  as  an  open  standard  in  many  parts  of 
England — while  M.  Cappe's  trees,  almost  all  of  them,  had 
made  shoots  at  the  ends  of  the  branches,  on  all  sides,  about 
two  feet  in  length.  They  had  been  planted  from  10  to  18 
years,  and  were  from  a  dozen  to  eighteen  feet  high.  None  of  them  were  on  quince  stocks — 
though  Mr.  C.  admitted  the  value  of  the  stocks  for  particular  varieties.  Neither  does  he 
practice  root-pruning,  but  rather  smiled  at  our  account  of  the  importance  attached  to  it 
in  England  by  some  of  the  best  cultivators — saying  "  it  is  all  very  well  for  a  cold,  moist 
country — but  neither  you  nor  us  need  it."  His  pear  trees  are  all  worked  on  pear  stocks. 
They  are  planted  in  a  good  mellow  loam — simply  trenched  two  and  a  half  feet  deep,  and 
Avell  manured.  The  trees,  as  Ave  have  said,  are  planted  in  borders.  These  borders  are 
about  eight  feet  wide,  and  when  they  are  loosened  in  the  spring,  the  whole  top  of  the  bor- 
der is  formed  into  a  hollow,  shaped  like  a  shallow  pan,  two  or  three  inches  deep.  Over 
the  surface  of  this  is  spread  a  mulching,  an  inch  deep,  of  decomposed  barn-yard  manure — 
which  not  only  shades  and  keeps  the  soil  cool,  but  every  time  the  rain  falls  and  fills  the 
basin  containing  this  dressing  or  mulching  of  manure,  it  carries  down  to  the  roots  their 
best  food.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  soil  of  Paris  is  calcareous,  and  there  is,  proba- 
bly, no  lack  of  lime  for  the  growth  of  the  pear. 

So  much  for  general  culture.  Now  a  Avord  as  to  pruning,  which  is  the  great  point  in 
which  the  French  excel  us — it  being  in  short,  the  education  of  the  tree.  "  Just  as  the 
tAvig  is  bent  the  tree's  inclined." 

M.  Cappe's  method  of  pruning,  which  he  was  good  enough  to  explain  to  us  very  clear- 
1}^,  is  simple,  and  easily  understood.  Perhaps  we  should  say  it  is  easily  explained  Avith 
the  knife  in  hand,  and  the  tree  before  one.  But  as  our  thousands  of  readers  are  notAvith- 
in  such  convenient  reach  of  the  eye,  we  must  do  the  best  we  can  to  make  it  clear  by 
Avords. 

M.  Cappe  confines  his  pruning  to  three  seasons  of  the  year.     In  the  month  of  March,  or 
befoie  the  buds  start,  he  shortens  back  with  the  knife  all  the  leading  .shoots,  fig.  2,  a.  a. 
the  terminal  shoots  at  the  end  of  each  side  branch.     Of  course,  this  forces  out 
new  leading  shoot  at  the  end  of  the  branch,  but  side  shoots,  h,  b,  at  various  plac 


THE  PYRAMIDAL  PEAR  TREES. 


the  lower  part  of  the  shoot.  These  side  shoots  arc  left  to  grow  till  the 
end  of  May.  They  have  then  pushed  out  to  about  four  or  five  inches 
in  length.  The  ends  of  all  these  side  shoots  are  then  pinched  off, 
leaving  only  about  an  inch  and  a  half  at  the  bottom  of  the  shoot. 

Fig.  3.  shows  one  of  the  branches,  with  the  side  shoots,  as  they 
are  at  the  end  of  June.  The  dotted  lines,  6,  b,  show  the  point  to 
which  these  shoots  should  be  pinched  off. 

The  terminal  or  leading  shoot,  c,  is  left  entire,  in  order  to  draw  up 
the  sap,  which  would  otherwise  force  all  the  side  .shoots  into  new 
growth.  Notwithstanding  this  precaution,  in  luxuriant  seasons  the 
side  shoots  will  frequently  push  out  new  shoots  again,  just  below 
where  they  were  pinched.  This  being  the  case,  about  ths  last  of  Au- 
gust M.  Cappe  shortens  back  these  new  side  shoots  to  about  an  inch  and  a  half.  But  this 
time  he  does  not  pinch  them  off.  He  breaks  them,  and  leaves  the  broken  end  for  several 
days  attached  and  hanging  down,  so  that  the  flow  of  sap  is  not  so  suddenly  checked  as 
when  the  branch  is  pinched  or  cut  off — and  the  danger  of  new  shoots  being  forced  out  a 
tliird  time  is  thereby  effectually  guarded  against. 

The  object  of  this  stopping  the  side  branches,  is  to  accumu- 
late the  sap,  or,  more  properly,  the  organizable  matter  in  these 
shortened  branches,  by  which  means  the  remaining  buds  be- 
come fruit-buds  instead  of  wood-buds.  They  also  become 
spurs,  distributed  over  the  whole  tree,  which  bear  regularly 
year  after  year — sending  out  new  side  shoots,  which  are 
pinched  back  in  the  same  manner  every  summer. 

In  order  to  keep  the  tree  finely  proportioned,  the  eye  of  the 
pruner  must  be  a  nice  one,  that.he  may,  with  a  glance,  regu- 
late the  pruning  of  the  terminal  branches  or  leaders,  which, 
as  we  have  just  said,  are  shortened  back  in  ^larch — for  then 
is  the  time  to  adjust  any  extravagancies  of  growth  which  the 
tree  may  have  run  into,  on  either  side:  and  in  the  summer 
pinching  the  balance  of  growth  is  adjusted  by  pinching  the  side  shoots  that  start  out  near- 
est the  ends  of  the  branches,  quite  short,  say  an  inch  and  a  half,  while  those  that  start 
near  the  bottom  of  the  branch,  (or  the  center  of  the  tree,)  where  they  have  less  nourish- 
ment, are  left  from  four  to  five  inches  long. 

Understanding  this  mode  of  pruning,  nothing  is  easier  than  to  form  pyramidal  pear 
trees  of  the  most  perfect  symmetry,  and  beauty  of  form.  But  in  order  to  have  the  branch- 
es regularly  produced  from  the  ground  to  the  summit,  you  must  plant  a  tree  which  is  only 
a  couple  of  feet  high,  so  that  you  can  form  the  first  tier  of  branches  quite  near  the  ground, 
by  cutting  back  the  leader  at  the  very  outset — for  if  the  tree  is  once  allowed  to  form  a 
clean  body  or  stem, of  course  it  is  impossible  afterwards  to  give  it  the  requisite  shape  and 
fullness  of  branches  at  the  bottom. 

Our  readers  will  see  that  we  are  not  giving  this  account  for  the  benefit  of  our  orchard- 
ists.  It  is  a  refinement  in  horticulture  which  belongs  to  the  fiuit  garden — but  which  avcU 
repays  the  amateur  or  practical  gardener,  both  bj' the  increased  fruitfulness  and  beauty  of 
the  trees.  From  the  especi;illy  health}'  condition  of  the  trees  in  the  Jardin  des  Plant's, 
as  well  as  from  other  analogous  instances,  we  are  led  to  believe  that  by  the  fine  clothing 
age  which  protects  tlie  bark  of  the  trunk  and  branches  from  the  violence  of  the  sun 
pyramidal  trees  will  be  found  less  liable  to  many  diseases  that  attack  the  pea 


THE  POMOLOGICAL  CONGRESS  AT  CINCINNATI. 

in  climates  like  France  and  the  United  States,  than  when  the  trunks  of  the  trees  are  fully 
exposed  to  the  sun. 

Most  of  the  finer  sorts  of  pears  were  in  full  bearing  when  we  saw  M.  Cappe's  trees. 
Beurre  d'Anjou,  White  Doyenne,  Seckel,  Beurre  Bosc,  were  among  the  finest  specimens 
of  fruit.  Bonne  des  Zees  was  very  highly  rated  byM.  Cappe.  Colmar  d'Aremberg  was 
very  large  and  good.  Louise  Bon  d'Avranches — (quite  distinct  from  Louise  B.  de  Jersey, 
with  which  it  is  often  confounded,  and  they  are  growing  side-by-side  here,)  had  heavy  crops 
of  fruit.  And  Belle  Alliance,  an  exceedingly  beautiful  pear,  of  large  size,  pyriform  shape,  in 
color  a  rich  orange  yellow,  Avith  a  crimson  check,  and  of  very  good  quality,  was  one  of  the 
finest  sights  upon  the  tree  that  we  remember  to  have  seen  in  a  fruit  garden — so  abun- 
dantly did  it  load  the  trees,  and  so  superb  was  the  color  of  the  pears. 


THE  POMOLOGICAL  CONGRESS  AT  CINCINNATI. 

BY  BENJ.  HODGE,  BUFFALO 

Dear  Sir — The  American  Pomological  Congress  met  at  Cincinnati  in  the  month  of  Oc- 
tober last,  and  I  am  aware  that  much  disappointment  has  already  been  expressed  at  the 
non-appearance  of  its  proceedings.  It  is  an  old  proverb  "  that  large  bodies  move  slow;" 
but  patience,  gentlemen — and  these  proceedings  Avillyet  come  to  light.  But  is  it  not  very 
desirable,  that  for  the  future  we  "  turn  over  a  new  leaf"  in  this  matter,  and  hereafter 
take  the  publishing  of' the  proceedings  into  our  own  hands.'' 

The  facts  were  these.  The  Cincinnati  Horticultural  Society  had  procured  a  room  for 
the  use  of  the  Pomological  Congress.  Here  our  preliminary  meetings  M'ere  held.  Dr. 
Brinckle  of  Philadelphia,  was  unanimously  elected  president.  The  middle  and  western 
states  were  well  represented,  but  no  delegates  fi'om  any  of  the  eastern  states  appeared. 
Soon  after  the  President  took  the  chair,  a  resolution  was  offered  that  the  future  meetings 
of  the  Congress  be  held  on  the  show-grounds,  in  connection  with  the  Ohio  State  Agricul- 
tural Society.  It  was  also  stated  that  a  tent  had  been  provided  for  our  use,  and  that  the 
Ohio  State  Board  of  Agriculture  would  be  at  the  expense  of  publishing  our  proceedings. 
This  called  forth  a  most  animated  debate.  The  show-grounds  were  about  three  miles  from 
the  citj^,  and,  of  course,  we  could  hold  no  evening  sessions.  Yet  the  promise  of  our  pro- 
ceedings being  published  without  expense  to  the  Congress,  seemed  to  carry  us  by  the 
turning  point,  and  the  resolution  was  adopted  by  a  small  majority.  Three  sessions  were 
held  on  the  ground;  but  the  noise  and  confusion  incident  to  the  place,  prevented  as  much 
being  accomplished  as  would  have  been,  had  the  meetingf^een  held  in  the  city.  A  stenog- 
rapher was  present,  who  took  notes  of  our  whole  proceedings,  debates,  &c.,  and  no  doubt, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  the  proceedings  will  be  published. 

Now,  it  is  not  my  object  in  this  communication,  to  find  fault  with  any  man,  or  any  set 
of  men,  in  regard  to  this  matter;  but  I  ask,  would  it  not  be  far  better  for  the  American 
Pomological  Congress  to  attend  to  their  own  matters,  and  at  all  times  to  stand  disconnect- 
ed from  that  of  any  other  society  Avhatever?  There  is,  perhaps,  no  objection  to  holding 
our  meetings  at  the  same  time  and  place  of  the  meetings  of  any  other  societies;  and,  as 
horticulturists,  let  us  do  all  we  can  for  the  furtherance  of  agricultural  and  other  kindred 
societies.  But  for  the  future,  let  the  Congress  take  the  responsibility  of  publishing  its  own 
proceedings.  A  few  dollars  from  each  member  would  pay  all  the  expense.  It  ha 
been  suggested,  that  our  Horticultural  Journals  publish  the  M'hole  proceedings  in  their 


THE  POMOLOGICAL  CONGRESS  AT  CINCINNATI. 

pcrs  by  installments.  This  ■would  be  a  good  movcj  and  there  is  little  doubt  but  it 
would  add  to  their  subscription  list. 

While  at  Cincinnati,  we  had  the  pleasure  of  examining  many  varieties  of  fruits,  which, 
comparatively,  are  but  little  known  in  the  more  northern  states.  Prominent  among 
these,  are  the  Cooper  Apple  and  the  Rome  Beauty.  Both  of  these  apples  are  of  the  lar- 
gest size,  and  there  esteemed  as  fine  autumn  fruits;  productive,  and  very  valuable.  Of 
the  last  named  variety,  one  individual  exhibited  a  barrel.  They  were  of  mammoth  size, 
rivaling  all  others.  A  long  debate  arose  upon  the  Cooper  Apple,  and  some  of  our  good 
friends  pronounced  it  "  second  rate,"  "  coarse  and  spongy."  This  called  forth  the  grit 
of  the  good  "  Buckeyes,"  and  they  carried  it  up  to  the  mark  most  manfully.  Finally,  it 
passed  as  "  a  fruit  of  fair  promise."  There  is  not  a  question  but  that  these  are  very  va- 
luable varieties  for  the  south  part  of  Ohio.  They  are  there  cultivated  largely  for  market 
purposes.  The  Cooper  is  a  late  autumn  apple,  and  probably,  farther  north,  will  prove  to 
be  a  winter  fruit,  as  we  were  informed  that  there,  the  Rhode-Island  Greening  and  Coop- 
er ripened  about  the  same  time. 

Pryor's  Red  Apjile  is  esteemed  very  highly;  and  that  worthy  old  pioneer  horticultu- 
rist, James  Allen,  Esq.,  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  assures  me,  in  some  notes  on  western 
fruits,  "  that  the  Pryor  Red  has  no  superior,  and  but  few  equals."  Have  any  of  our  eas- 
tern friends  fruited  this  variety.' 

Rawle's  Jennet,  and  Kaighn's  Spitzenburgh,  were  also  found  there  in  numerous  collec- 
tions, and  also  highly  valued.  All  these  are  winter  varieties.  The  last  named  variety 
very  much  resembles  the  Pownal  Spitzenburgh. 

The  Belmont — of  this  variety  there  were  numerous  specimens,  mostly  from  the  more 
northern  parts  of  the  state.  It  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  apples  in  the  world.  In  fla- 
vor it  may  be  classed  as  "very  good."  I  would  remark,  by  the  way,  that  some  beauti- 
ful specimens  of  the  Belmont,  and  of  many  other  choice  fruits,  were  exhibited  by  ]\Ir. 
Kelly,  of  Kelly's  Island,  in  Lake  Erie.  These  attracted  great  attention.  More  beauti- 
ful specimens  of  fruit  I  never  saw.  So  bright,  clear,  and  free  from  all  spots  or  blemish. 
Are  the  islands  in  our  lakes  and  rivers,  any  better  adapted  to  growing  fruits  than  other 
places .'' 

Putnam  Russet.  It  is  now  pretty  generally  conceded  that  this,  and  the  Boston  or  Rox- 
bury  Russet,  are  one  and  the  same  fruit.  Mr.  Putnam  of  Ohio,  a  descendant  of  the  old 
orthodox  stock,  (wolf-killing  memory,)  was  also  a  member  of  the  fruit  committee,  and 
gave  us  the  genealogy  of  the  Putnam  Russet — and  says  Roxbury  was  its  native  place. 
This  fruit  was  exhibited  in  numerous  collections,  generally  marked  "Putnam  Russet." 
Many  of  the  apples  were  very  large,  and  grown  out  of  the  usual  form — no  doubt  true  to 
name,  but  with  a  little  extra  touch  of  the  Buckeye,  growing  rampant  and  large. 

Surprise,  Yellow  Injestrie,  and  Pennock,  were  found  in  many  collections.  The  two 
first  named  we  had  proposed  to  add  to  the  list  of  "  rejected  apples."  On  inquiry,  how- 
ever, we  learned  that  many  esteemed  them  very  highly,  and  that  any  such  move  would 
meet  with  the  most  decided  opposition.  The  specimens  of  Yellow  Injestrie  wei'e  tru- 
ly beautiful. 

It  is  really  worth  taking  a  tour  to  Cincinnati,  to  look  into  the  fine  vineyards  there. 
Our  old  friend,  N.  Longworth,  Esq.,  has  about  ninety  acres  devoted  to  the  culture  of  the 
vine.  And  we  were  informed  from  reliable  authority,  that  within  a  few  miles  of  Cincinna- 
ti, there  are  near  one  thousand  acres  of  land  devoted  to  the  growing  of  the  grape.  The 
Catawba  seems  to  be  almost  the  only  grape  successfully  cultivated  in  the  open  air.  In 
most  of  the  vineyards,  this  is  the  only  variety  devoted  to  wine  culture.     The  soil,  which 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES 


is  a  clay  loam,  perhaps  somewhat  mixed  with  marl,  seems  to  be  admirably  adapted  to  the 
growth  of  the  grape.  The  Catawba  is  much  more  palatable  than  the  Isabella,  and  for 
wine  is  far  superior.  Large  quantities  of  wine  are  made  from  these  vine}-ards.  Wines 
of  various  brands — I  had  almost  said  "foreign  and  domestic,"  Champaign,  &c — at  all 
events,  numerous  brands,  some  of  them  in  imitation  of  foreign  wines. 

The  iron  green-house  of  Mr.  Resor,  (iron  instead  of  wood,)  is  a  most  admirable  struc- 
ture. Had  that  old  incog.,  "  Jeffries,"  been  there,  he  must  have  admired  it,  and  re- 
pented of  his  strictures  on  this  beautiful  edifice.  Here  were  exhibited  to  us  some  of  the 
most  beautiful  specimens  of  the  Black  Hamburgh  grape  I  ever  saw — very  large  bunches, 
and  of  "  most  delicious  flavor,"  as  we  all  could  well  attest  ■without  the  aid  of  proxy. 

While  at  Cincinnati,  we  must  needs  wend  our  way  up  to  Mount  Adams — there  to  spend 
an  hour  in  star-gazing  through  the  monster  telescope,  the  largest  but  one  on  the  continent 
of  America.  On  the  whole,  we  were  well  pleased  with  our  visit  at  Cincinnati.  We  had 
the  pleasure  of  visiting  many  fine  gardens,  green-houses,  vineyards,  &c.;  and  also  of  be- 
coming much  better  acquainted  with  many  of  our  western  horticultural  friends;  and  their 
kind  attention  to  strangers  from  abroad,  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  pleasure  of  our 
visit  to  the  Queen  City  of  the  West.  B.  Hodge. 

Buffalo  Xiursery,  Feb.,  I80I. 


/nriigii  null  Sisnllniitniis  llntim 


Large  Rose  Trees. — I  have  often  heard 
amateurs,  when  admu'ing  some  of  the  large  spe- 
cimens in  the  nurseries  here,  express  astonish- 
ment at  their  prodigious  size,  which  they  at- 
tribute to  their  great  age,  and  good  soil.  But 
it  must  be  told,  that  the  system  of  pruning  has 
as  much  to  do  in  this  matter  as  the  age  of  the 
trees,  or  the  soil  in  which  they  grow.  The 
oldest  of  the  large  trees  here  cannot  nimiber 
more  than  twelve  years,  though  (here  are  others 
much  older,  not  half  the  size.  Often  have  I 
seen  rose  trees  full  of  shoots,  nearly  all  pro- 
ceeding from  the  base  of  the  head,  owing  prin- 
cipally to  close  pruning.  When  the  knife  is  ap- 
plied, whether  in  autumn  or  in  spring,  the 
greater  part  must  be  removed,  for  there  is  not 
room  enough  for  the  whole  to  be  developed. 
Now,  it  is  not  the  production  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  branches  I  consider  injurious:  if  the 
tree  is  in  a  healthy  and  vigorous  condition,  this 
is  natural  and  advantageous.  But  why  should 
they  not  be  obtained  in  such  positions  that  they 
may  be  of  permanent  benefit  to  the  plant — be 
made  to  extend  its  size,  and  render  less  thin- 
ning necessary?  This  may  be  done.  Two  years 
ago,  after  having  pruned  a  number  of  large  spe- 
cimens, in  which  I  had  observed  this  error,  I 
watched  for  the  bursting  of  the  buds,  with  the 
view  of  practicing  disbudding.  When  they  had 
shot  forth  about  half  an  inch,  I  took  a  knife 
with  a  sharp  point  and  commenced  my  search 
heart  of  the  tree.  From  here  I  rubbed 
close  to  the  bark,  a  great  number  of  buds, 
only  such  as,  from  their  position,  pro- 


mised to  increase  the  size  or  improve  the  con- 
tour of  the  head.  If  a  bud  was  pushing  where 
there  was  a  gap,  such  was  left;  the  others  were 
thinned,  leaving  those  which  took  a  lateral  and 
outward  course  of  growth.  Proceeding  up- 
wards, I  cleared  the  center  of  the  tree  pretty 
freely,  leaving  only  just  so  many  buds  as  seem- 
ed necessary  to  preserve  it  from  becoming  strag- 
gling. Towards  the  top,  and  circumference, 
also,  the  buds,  where  crowded,  or  likely  to 
cross  each  other,  were  removed.  A  month  af- 
ter the  first  looking  over,  fresh  buds  had  bro- 
ken, and  thus  was  opened  a  prospect  of  more 
gaps  being  filled,  the  outlines  of  the  heads  be- 
ing still  improved,  and  their  size  extended. 
They  were  looked  over  again  and  again,  and 
the  same  plan  followed  out.  The  growth  was, 
in  consequence,  more  vigorous  than  that  ofthe 
previous  year,  and  the  fiowers  fine.  On  the  fall 
of  the  leaf  in  autumn,  the  succeeding  course 
of  action  M'as  apparent.  The  trees  were  prun- 
ed as  usual,  and  there  was  little  mind  exercis- 
ed in  the  operation — little  thinning  required — 
no  necessity  to  look  at  the  tree  for  some  mi- 
nutes before  one  could  determine  Avhere  to  be- 
gin; which,  in  my  early  attempts,  I  must  con- 
fess, I  have  often  done,  owing  to  the  intermi- 
nable interlacings  of  the  shoots.  The  second 
and  third  year  the  same  plan  was  followed,  and 
the  trees  are  now  of  handsome  form,  large  and 
healthy,  producing  an  abundance  of  good  fiow- 
ers. It  should  be  stated  that  the  first  year  they 
were  taken  in  hand,  they  were  watered  once  a 
week,  for  two  months,  with  liquid  manure. 


FOREIGN  Ai\D  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


sole  reason  for  this  was,  that  the  soil  in 
which  tliey  grew  had  become  impoverished. 
We  apply  "the  plan  of  disbudding  to  pillar  and 
weeping  roses,  as  toothers,  by  rubbing  out  any 
buds  that  may  appear  disadvantageously  situ- 
ated. In  the  youngest  stage  of  the  tree,  the 
buds  left  to  produce  flowers  and  flowering 
shoots  for  the  subsequent  year,  should  stand 
about  six  inches  apart  on  the  main  branches: 
intermediate  buds  should  be  rubbed  out.  The 
laterals  produced  in  after  stages,  may  also 
be  disbudded ;  but  masses  of  flower  being  the 
object  sought  here,  the  practice  should  not  be 
too  freely  resorted  to.  A  few  words  on  sum- 
mer pruning  or  thinning  seem  called  for.  If 
disbudding  can  be  carried  out,  there  is  no  need 
of  summer  thinning;  but,  if  it  cannot  be,  then 
the  latter  practice  may  be  followed  to  advan- 
tage. So  soon  as  the  plants  have  done  flower- 
ing look  Ihem  carefully  over,  thin  out  the  weak 
unhealthy  shoots,  and  even  some  of  the  stout 
and  healthy  ones,  where  they  approach  each 
other  too  nearly:  each  shoot  should  stand  free 
and  exposed  on  every  side,.  It  is  surprising  to 
see  how  stout  and  Arm  the  shoots  become,  and 
how  the  leaves  increase  in  size  after  summer 
thinning.  The  summer  kinds  submitted  to  this 
treatment  usually  continue  their  growth  by  the 
elongation  of  the  main  shoots,  the  buds  on  the 
axils  of  the  leaves  remaining  dormant;  but, 
with  the  autumnals,  the  buds  push  forth  the 
entire  length  of  the  shoots,  and  the  second  flow- 
ering is  complete.  The  trees  are  imjyoved  in 
both  cases,  for  the  shoots  grown  at  this  period 
will  produce  the  finest  flowers  in  the  subsequent 
season. — Paul's  Rose  Garden. 


Charcoal  is  an  impure  form  of  carbon,  and 
is  manufactured  on  a  large  scale  for  the  purpo- 
ses of  the  arts.  The  process  of  manufacture 
con^ists  in  exposing  to  heat  billets  of  wood,  or 
other  organic  matter,  under  such  conditions  as 
either  wholly  or  partiallj'  to  exclude  the  air. 
Charcoal  has  several  properties  which  render 
it  of  value  to  the  cultivator.  As  a  manure,  it 
docs  not  act  by  furnishing  carbon  to  the  vege- 
tation; because  it  is,  in  reality,  one  of  the  most 
indestructible  substances  known,  and  remains 
for  an  indefinite  length  of  time  without  change. 
But  it  is  remarkably  absorptive  of  certain  gases 
which  it  retains  within  its  pores  in  a  state  of 
high  condensation.  A  fragment  of  freshly  burn- 
ed charcoal  condenses  as  much  as  ninety  times 
its  bulk  of  ammoniacal  gas,  and  thirty-five 
times  its  volume  of  carbonic  acid.  As  these 
two  gases  form  the  jirincipal  organic  food  of 
plants,  it  is  obvious  that  charcoal  may  have  a 
powerful  individual  action  upon  their  growth. 
The  experiments  of  Saussure  and  others,  have 
shown  that  plants  flourish  with  great  luxuri- 
ance when  the  atmosphere  in  which  thej'  grow 
contains  more  than  the  usual  amount  of  car- 
bonic acid.  Charcoal,  after  liaving  absorbed 
carbonic  acid  and  ammonia  from  the  air,  places 
plants  under  favorable  conditions  for  receiving 
and  appropriating  a  larger  than  usual  amount 


of  this  organic  food.  The  only  diffl-rence  is, 
that  instead  of  entering  the  plant  by  the  leaves, 
they  reach  it  through  the  roots,  which  absorb 
the  rain  water  containing  these  gases,  washed 
out  from  the  charcoal.  Thus,  charcoal,  from 
its  absorbtive  nature,  liecomes  an  indirect 
means  of  increasing  the  supjjly  of  carbon  and 
nitrogen  to  plants.  Different  kinds  of  charcoal 
have  varying  values  in  this  respect.  Experi- 
ments made  by  exposing  freshly  burned  i)ieces 
of  charcoal  to  the  air,  showed  their  diti'erent 
absorptive  powers,  by  the  increase  in  weight 
after  they  had  been  exposed  a  week  to  the  at- 
mosphere. The  charcoal  from  fir  gained  13 
per  cent,  in  weight ;  that  from  lignuna  vitse,  9.6 ; 
that  from  box,  14;  from  beech,  16-3;  from  oak, 
16.5;  and  from  mahogany,  18.  Charcoal  also 
possesses  the  property  of  absorbing  and  retain- 
ing the  odoriferous  and  coloring  principles  of 
most  organic  substances.  It  is,  on  this  account, 
used  for  removing  the  putrefactive  taint  from 
foul  water,  or  other  putrid  substances.  When 
used  as  a  filter  for  foul  water,  both  the  smell 
and  color  are  removed.  From  this  deodorising 
property  charcoal  is  frequently  mixed  with 
night-soil,  and  other  decaying  manures,  which 
it  keeps  free  from  smell,  and  at  the  same  time 
aids  in  preserving,  by  absorbing  the  gases  which 
would  otherwise  escape.  A  mixture  of  char- 
coal and  burnt  clay  is  frequently  used  for  this 
purpose  with  excellent  effect.  Charcoal,  when 
employed  as  a  manure,  acts,  to  a  small  extent, 
by  presenting,  in  a  soluble  form,  the  ashes  of 
the  wood  from  which  it  was  prepared ;  but  this 
action  is  only  temporary,  and  of  small  impor- 
tance, when  compared  with  its  principal  point 
of  utility,  viz:  its  power  of  absorbing  from  tlie 
air  the  gaseous  food  of  plants;  and  therefore, 
of  presenting  it  in  a  more  condensed  form,  and 
in  greater  quantity. — Professor  Playfair,  in 
Morion's  Cyclopedia  of  .Agriculture. 


Dwarf  Pinks  of  Verviers. — Liege  and 
Verviers  are  the  only  two  towns  in  Belgium  in 
which  the  Pink,  including  all  the  different  kinds 
and  classes,  is  held  in  honor;  and  there  are  in 
these  towns  extensive  and  influential  societies 
for  the  promotion  of  the  culture  and  exhibition 
of  this  flower.  Even  at  Brussels  amateurs 
would  scarcely  believe  that  the  growers  belong- 
ing to  the  towns  already  named,  can  exhibit 
pots  of  Dwarf  Pinks  in  which  from  180  to  200 
flowers  may  be  counted;  and  yet  nothing  is 
more  common  in  these  localities  where  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  Pink  is  established.  We  may 
easily  perceive  with  what  class  of  the  i)opula- 
tion  the  cultivation  of  Dwarf  Pinks  is  most  in 
favor.  If  the  Pink  is  not  the  flower  of  the  rich, 
neither  is  it  that  of  the  poor.  It  has  more  of 
dignity  and  greater  value ;  it  is  the  flower  of 
honest  labor.  At  Liege,  for  instance,  the  most 
industrious  and  the  most  moral  part  of  the 
population  is  that  including  the  colliers,  who  are 
famous  for  the  good  management  of  the 
dow  gardens,  which  comprise,  in  a  grea 
sure,  these  Dwarf  Pinks.     The  same  obse 


FOREIGN  A>rD  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


tiou  applies  to  the  artizans  and  mechanics  of 
Terriers. 

In  a  treatise  published  by  Hoog  [?  Hogg,] 
in  1820,  we  find  mentioned  the  double  Dwarf 
Carnation  of  Liege,  having  the  flowers  sessile. 
or  without  much  stem.  There  is  also  men- 
tioned a  Tree  Pink,  having  an  under-shrub-like 
form,  growing  from  five  to  six  feet  high,  and 
which  was  grown  on  a  trellis  against  a  Avail. 
It  appears  evident  tliat  the  Dwarf  Pink  was 
unknown  before  the  19th  century;  and  it  is  not 
less  clear  that  this  interesting  creation  origina- 
ted in  Belgium.  The  Dwarf  Pink  is.  indeed, 
a  remarkable  plant,  and  confined  to  the  banks 
of  the  Yesdre  and  the  Weay,  two  rivers  of 
Terviers  and  Spa.  All  the  dwarf  varieties 
formerly  belonged  to  the  series  known  as  bizar- 
res.  the  petals  being  fringed:  but  at  the  pre- 
sent day  it  is  the  custom,  at  Yerviers.  to  make 
all  indistinctly  dwarf.  Thus  we  see  dwarf  bi- 
zarres.  dwarf  picotees.  dwarf  flakes,  and  so  on. 

There  is,  however,  in  cultivation,  particular- 
ly in  the  trade,  a  race  of  Pinks  having  flowers 
smaller  than  those  of  the  primitive  sf>ecies. 
They  are  generally  rose  purple,  red,  striated, 
or  white ;  rarely  yellow,  or  varied inthe  ground. 
These  Dwarf  Pinks  would  thus  seem  to  claim 
kindred  with  the  old  bizarre,  from  which  they 
are  derived.  At  the  recent  exhibition  of  Pinks, 
held  under  the  auspices  of  the  Horticultural 
and  Agricultural  Society  of  Yerviers,  we  had 
occasion  to  notice  the  excellent  management 
which  these  Dwarf  Pinks  receive  in  that  quar- 
ter. Of  these,  the  productions  of  Messrs. 
L'Enfant  were  particularly  deserving  of  notice. 
M.  Barhon.  also,  had  two  specimens,  the  one 
h-iving  184  flowers,  and  the  other  178.  These 
were  indeed  astonishing  productions,  combin- 
ing all  that  is  grateful  in  odor,  elegant  in  form, 
and  ornamental  for  the  drawing-room  conserva- 
tory. 

The  Dwarf  Pinks  of  Yerviers  grow  about 
four  inches  high:  the  stems  are  crowded  with 
blossoms,  the  number  of  the  flowers  being  very 
great ;  the  corolla  of  a  delicate  rose  color,  with 
the  variations.  The  aroma  of  these  flowers  is 
very  agreeable,  and  nothing  can  be  more  suita- 
ble for  the  boudoir  or  parlor.  To  produce  a 
.specimen  such  as  those  alluded  to,  requires 
about  three  years  of  careful  cultivation.  These 
Dwarf  Pinks  are  usually  grown  in  pots,  painted 
outside  of  a  deep  green  color,  and  from  five  to 
six  or  seven  inches  wide  at  the  rim.  The  most 
favorable  aspect  for  them,  if  grown  at  a  win- 
dow, is  that  where  they  may  have  fuU  exposure 
to  the  sun  for  the  greater  part  of  the  day. 
The  reflected  warmth  of  the  window-sills  is  also 
beneficial  to  their  roots.  The  pots  are  not  quite 
filled  with  soil,  but  to  within  about  an  inch  of 
the  rim:  and,  as  the  leaves  extend,  and  cover 
the  border  or  rim.  a  humid  atmosphere  is 
maintained  around  the  stem  or  neck  of  the 
plants.  [Abridged  from  La  Bels;ique  Horti- 
very  interesting  new  periodical,  edited 
'.  Morren.for  The  Gardeners'  Magazine 
otany.'] 


The  Properties  of  the  Carxatiox. — First 
The  flower  should  be  not  less  than  two  and  a 
half  inches  across. 

Second.  The  guard  or  lower  petals,  not  less 
than  six  in  number,  must  be  broad,  thick,  and 
smooth  on  the  outside,  free  from  notch  or  ser- 
rature,  and  lap  over  each  other  sufficiently  to 
form  a  circular  roseate  flower,  the  more  round 
the  outline  the  better. 

Third.  Each  row  of  petals  should  be  smaller 
than  the  row  immediately  under  it ;  there  should 
not  be  less  than  five  or  six  rows  of  petals  laid 
regularly,  and  the  flower  should  rise  and  form 
a  good  bold  centre  or  crown;  and  in  quan- 
tity should  form  half  a  ball. 

Fourth .  The  petals  should  be  stiff",  and  slight- 
ly cupped. 

Fifth.  The  ground  should  be  pure  snow- 
white,  without  specks  of  color. 

Sixth.  The  stripes  of  color  should  be  clear 
and  distinct,  not  running  into  one  another,  nor 
confused,  but  dense,  smooth  at  the  edges  of  the 
stripes,  and  well  defined. 

Seventh .  The  colors  must  be  bright  and  clear, 
whatever  they  may  be ;  if  there  be  two  colors, 
the  darker  one  cannot  be  too  dark,  or  form  too 
strong  a  contrast  with  the  lighter.  With  scarlet 
the  perfection  would  be  a  black:  with  pink 
there  cannot  be  too  deep  a  crimson;  with  lilac, 
or  light  purple,  the  second  color  cannot  be  too 
dark  a  purple. 

Eighth.  If  the  colors  run  into  the  white  and 
tinge  it,, or  the  wliite  is  not  pure,  the  fault  is 
very  great;  and  pouncy  spots  or  specks  are 
highly  objectionable. 

Ninth.  The  pod  of  the  bloom  should  belong 
and  large,  to  enable  the  flower  to  bloom  with- 
out bursting  it ;  but  this  is  rare ;  they  general- 
ly require  to  be  tied  about  half  way,  and  the 
upper  part  of  the  calyx  opened  down  to  the 
tie  of  each  division;  yet  there  are  some  which 
scarcely  require  any  assistance,  and  this  is  a 
very  estimable   quality. — Glcnny's  Properties 

of  Flowers.  

THE    GREAT   DISCOVERT   IN"   VEGETATION. 

All  our  readers  may  not  have  heard  of  Mr. 
RrsSELL  CoMSTOCK,  and  the  fundamental 
secret  of  vegetable  growth,  which  he  claims 
to  have  discovered.  Ashe  is  now  before  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  of  Xew-York,  ask- 
ing for  the  "paltry  sum"  of  ^-150,000,  we 
feel  bound  to  lay  his  statement,  (which  we 
copy  from  a  newspaper  published  in  the 
count}'  on  the  Hudson  where  he  Lives,)  be- 
fore our  readers. 

"  The  Great  Discovert. — Under  the 
agricultural  head,  on  the  first  page,  will  be 
found  another  appeal  from  Eussell  Comstock 
for  legislative  aid,  to  enable  him  to  make 
known  his  great  discovery  in  agricult 
which,  he  says,  when  universally 
stood,  will  be  a  great  blessing  to  ma 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


If  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  it  are 
as  great  as  jNIr.  Comstock  promises,  we  are 
sure  the  Legislature  will  no  longer  withhold 
from  him  the  paltry  sum  of  $150,000."— 
Poagh.  Ewrh,  Dec.  21,  1850. 

"  Bm'fits  obtainable  from  the  Discovery  i?i 
Fegutation.  Experimmted  uponfoartecn 
years. 
General  Outlines  relative  to  the  discovered 
Natural  Principle  advantageous  toAgricul- 
ture.  See  Bill  No.  395,  which  was  refer- 
red to  a  committee  of  five,  who  unani- 
mously reported  complete,  April  6,  and 
passed  the  Assembly  )'esterday.  See  As- 
sembly Document  No.  23,  of  IG  pages. 
1st.  That  the  discovery  is  a  Law  of  Vege- 
tation. 

2d.  That  it  Avill  introduce  the  s\veet  pota- 
to and  almost  all  other  crops,  into  higher 
latitudes. 

3d.  That  it  forms  a  rule  by  which  to  cul- 
tivate. 

4th.  That  plants  cultivated  according  to 
it,  will  have  a  more  robust  constitution, 
will  endure  greater  excess  of  drouth  and 
rains;  will  be  more  uniformly  productive; 
will  be  less  liable  to  be  preyed  upon  by  in- 
sects. 

5th.  That  it  will  introduce  the  best  modes 
of  cultivation,  and  perpetuate  them. 

Gth.  That  by  the  discovery  the  common 
modes  of  cultivation  can  be  demonstrated  to 
be  erroneous. 

7th.  That  by  it  the  comparative  value  of 
manures  will  be  better  tested  and  known. 

8th.  That  by  it  the  annual  potato  rot  will 
be  prevented,   [(ji^^  The  recent  occasional  ex- 
cessive rot  is  referred  to  in  the  appendix.] 
9th.  That  when  known  it  will  be  a  nation- 
al honor. 

10th.  That  it  being  an  idea  or  knowledge 
of  a  certain  law  in  nature,  and  the  practice 
not  altogether  new,  although  the  objects  to 
be  obtained  by  the  practice  are  new,  it  can- 
not be  patented. 

11th.  That  the  copy-right  laws  cannot 
protect  it.     They  protect  words  only. 

12th.  That  the  admitted  best  judge  of  Bos- 
ton said,  "  It  is  one  of  the  prettiest  things 
in  the  world,  because  any  one  could  use  it 
and  nobody  know  it." 

13.  That  the  discovered  principle  has  3 
practical  bearings  on  the  cultivation  of 
plants;  and  when  comprehended  commends 
the  practice  instantaneously. 

N.  B.  That  the  laws  of  all  civilised  soci- 
ety are  intended  to  protect  their  discoverers, 
(ji^  Three  committees,  after  knowing 
the  secret,  have  unanimously  recommended 


it  to  public  patronage.    Russell  Comstock 
Albany,  Jlpril  10,  1850. 

Appendix. 

14th.  That  the  sun  will  rise  tomorrow  is 
a  moral  certainty,  but  the  existence  of  this 
newly  discovered  principle  in  vegetation, 
can  be  demonstrated  to  a  philosophical  and 
matliematical  ccrtaintj^  as  tlie  discovery  is 
founded  on  self-evident  facts;  a  knowledge 
of  which,  from  its  nature  and  importance, 
should  be  one  of  the  first  lessons  to  be  taught 
to  a  young  agriculturist,  in  a  state  agricul- 
tural school  or  elsewhere;  to  the  young  lady 
who  would  rear  her  house  plants  successful- 
ly, as  well  as  to  all  gardeners,  and  also  wor- 
thy of  the  attention  of  all  who  value  im- 
provement in  art  and  science,  and  in  the  con- 
dition of  our  species,  man. 

15th.  That  in  the  cultivation  of  all  agri- 
cultural crops,  a  knowledge  of  the  principle 
is  essential,  to  know  how  to  preserve  the  vi- 
tality and  healthy  growth  of  the  plants. 

16th.  That  the  discoverer's  system  of  cul- 
tivation is  formed  by  a  combination  of  dis- 
coveries. 

17th.  That  he  has  discovered  the  cause 
of  the  excessive  potato  rot,  and  an  economi- 
cal and  natural  method  of  preventing  it,  al- 
most to  a  moral  certainty. 

18th.  That  the  bonus  or  reward  of  ^150,- 
000,  which  is  suggested  in  said  Assembly 
Document,  No.  23,  by  eight}^  of  the  princi- 
pal tax  paj'^ers  of  the  town  of  the  discove- 
rer's nativity  and  residence,  and  others  of 
Dutchess  county,  when  paid  by  the  state, 
will  be  a  powerful  stimulus  to  cause  all  ter- 
ra-culturists  to  test  the  existence  of  this  dis- 
covered principle  in  nature  experimentallj'; 
a  practical  knowledge  of  which  will  cause 
them  to  abandon  their  traditional  mode  of 
cultivation,  and  to  adopt  the  improved  sj's- 
tem,  which  is  in  direct  opposition  to  their 
traditional  custom,  and  therefore  may  re- 
quire (to  be  quickly  introduced,)  the  most 
powerful  stimulants,  conviction,  interest  and 
popularity,  to  make  the  inroad  on  their  cus- 
tom. 

19th.  That  the  honor  of  the  Republic  de- 
mands legislative  action  on  the  subject  with- 
out delay,  even  should  the  discoverer  de- 
mand of  the  state  the  amount  which  he  had 
encouragement  to  believe  congress  would 
appropriate  eleven  )'ears  since,  say  three 
quarters  of  a  million,  instead  of  this  state's 
proportion  of  that  amount,  but  he  has  never 
set  any  price. 

20th.  That  the  want  of  lobby-money,  to 
cause  honorable  members  of  the  legislative 
bodies  to  read  all  the  proofs,  may  have  been 


No,  IV, 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


the  principal  reason  for  the  inactivity  of 
Congress  and  the  state  legislature. 

19th.  That  on  the  22d  ult.  Hon.  Dr.  Peter 
Crispell,  Jr.,  of  Ulster  county,  who  was 
chairman  of  New-York  Assembly  Commit- 
tee on  Agriculture,  in  1849,  stated  to  the 
discoverer,  and  Mr.  Rutzer  of  the  Pough- 
keepsie  Hotel,  and  others,  that  this  year,  an 
unfavorable  year  for  Maize,  for  the  first 
time,  he  had  grown  more  than  100  bushels 
of  shelled  Indian  corn  to  the  acre.  When 
the  discoverer  explained  the  principle  of  his 
botanical  discovery  to  the  chairman,  in  Jan. 
1849,  Mr.  Crispell  told  the  discoverer  that 
he  thought  the  information  worth dol- 
lars to  him,  although  he  had  no  right  to  use 
it.  And  on  the  22d  ult.  he  pronounced  the 
preceding  description  of  the  discoveries 
"very  good." 

Hon.  Judge  0.  Titus,  of  Dutchess  county, 
used  the  same  expression  after  perusing  it 
a  day  or  two  before,  confirming  with  pleasure 
the  letters  that  he  had  written  on  this  sub- 
ject, to  members  of  Congress  and  the  state 
legislature. 

That  during  the  present  year  the  discove- 
rer has  applied  his  system  of  cultivation  to 
the  growing  of  the  sweet  potato  in  Dutchess 
county,  N.  Y.,  and,  as  in  all  other  cases, 
where  he  has  applied  it  to  any  species  of  plant 
for  the  first  time,  his  success  has  far  exceed- 
ed his  expectations,  growing  them  in  good 
garden  soil, — without  artificial  heat,  manure 
or  sand — in  95  days  after  the  21st  of  June, 
more  than  eight  inches  in  circumference. 

The  discoverer  will  add,  that  each  and 
every  individual  to  whom  he  has  ever  ex- 
plained a  confidential  knowledge  of  this  law 
in  nature,  has  admitted  that  to  the  extent 
of  their  ability  to  judge,  the  undersigned  is 
the  orignal  discoverer. 

Said  bill  No.  395,  for  testing  the  practica- 
bility, utility  and  value  of  the  improvements 
and  discoveries,  passed  the  Assembly  only 
two  days  previous  to  the  adjournment  of  the 
last  legislature,  the  Senate  laying  it  on  their 
table ;  a  portion  of  that  honorable  body  as- 
signing as  a  reason,  that  as  the  bill  antici- 
pated a  conditional  appropriation  for  defray- 
ing the  discoverer's  travelling  expenses,  no 
member  of  the  legislature  could  be  consti- 
tutionally one  of  the  testing  committee;  a 
member  of  the  Assembl}^  being  on  the  com- 
mittee as  the  bill  passed  the  Assembly. 

Hon.  A.  J.  Downing  was  in  Europe  dur- 
ing the  past  season  of  vegetation,  and  Hon. 


E.  P.  Prentice  of  Albany  county,  President 
of  the  State  Agricultural  Society,  and  one 
of  its  principal  founders  was  substituted. 
And  after  the  adjournment  of  the  legislature 
the  committee  agreed  to  examine  the  sub- 
ject; for  which  purpose  the  discoverer  call- 
ed on  the  committee  in  April,  May  and  June, 
and  again,  to  learn  their  conclusion,  on  the 
8th  and  9th  inst.,  when  the  committee  stat- 
ed that  they  considered  the  existence  of  this 
newl}''  discovered  law  in  the  vegetable  king- 
dom, "self-evident,"  when  exhibited  and 
understood;  and  that  as  far  as  either  of 
them  could  judge,  the  undersigned  was  the 
first  discoverer  of  it;  and  that  neither  of 
them  had  been  able  to  detect  the  discoverer 
in  error  in  any  of  his  various  positions  rela- 
tive to  his  discoveries  and  system,  nor  in 
anything  that  he  had  said  on  the  subject. 

The  committee,  on  the  8th  inst.,  agreed  to 
present  the  subject  to  the  New- York  State 
Agricultural  Society  on  the  15th  of  Janua- 
ry, (its  annual  meeting,)  and  solicit  the  so- 
ciety to  apply  to  the  legislature  to  cause  the 
discovery,  or  discoveries  and  system  to  be- 
come public  propert)^ 

Yesterday  Judge of  Dutchess  coun- 
ty, said,  "  that  there  was  one  thing  about 
this  subject  that  he  could  not  understand, 
and  that  was,  that  the  discoverer  apparent- 
ly could  get  the  recommendation  of  every 
person  to  whom  he  imparted  a  confidential 
knowledge  of  his  discovery  and  system, 
commending  to  the  public,  either  the  princi- 
ple or  the  practice,  or  both;  and  as  j'et,  no 
efficient  legislative  action  on  the  subject;  to 
him,  he  said,  it  was  incomprehensible;  that 
he  could  not  comprehend  it." 

But  the  people  must  now  "  come  to  his 
rescue,"  or  the  discoverer  must  abandon  it 
again,  as  he  did  ten  years  ago. 

As  civilised  society  has  no  law  to  protect 
such  discoveries,  the  discoverer  asks  of  each 
citizen  who  is  not  incredulous,  some  direct 
or  indirect  aid,  for  the  benefit  of  the  human 
race,  and  for  the  honor  of  the  age  in  which 
we  live.  Russell  Comstock.  3Iabbctts- 
ville,  Dutchess  Co.,  N.  Y.,   Bee.  12,  1850. 

P.  S.  The  reader  who  takes  an  interest  in 
this  subject,  (and  who  does  not?)  will  please 
attract  the  attention,  (per  mail  or  otherwise) 
of  some  member  of  the  legislature  to  it,  and 
also  show  it  to  members  of  the  State  Agri- 
cultural Societj'.  R.  C."  Poughkcepsie 
American,  Jan.  11,  1851. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Dnintstic  Uatitrs. 


Gen.  Hand  Plum. — Being  a  constant  reader 
of  the  Horticulturist,  I  have  noticed  several  ar- 
tides  on  tlie  Gen.  Hand  Plum,  and  as  its  ori- 
gin seems  somewhat  of  a  mj'stery,,  and  as  I 
happen  to  know  all  that  is  known  about  it,  I 
have  taken  the  liberty  of  addressing  you  on  the 
subject- 

The  tree  from  whicli  tlie  original  graft  was 
obtained,  grew  on  the  late  Gen.  Hand's  place, 
on  the  Conestoga,  about  a  mile  from  Lancaster, 
Pa.j  and  if  living,  would  now  be  fifty  or  sixty 
years  old.  About  thirty  years  ago,  Mr.  George 
Miller  procured  a  graft,  and  succeeded  in  rais- 
ing it.  The  original  tree  died  shortly  after.  Mr. 
E.  W,  Carpenter,  nurseryman,  of  Lancaster, 
Pa.,  procured  a  specimen  of  the  fruit  about 
1831,  and  as  it  was  of  an  uncommon  size,  mea- 
suring about  two  and  a  quarter  inches  in  diam- 
eter, I  made  a  drawing  of  it  for  him,  as  I  was 
in  the  habit  of  doing  as  fast  as  his  standards 
came  into  bearing.  He  budded  a  number  of 
trees,  and  sent  grafts  (among  the  rest,)  to  his 
brother,  S.  Carpenter,  of  Lancaster,  Ohio, 
and  RoBT.  Sinclair,  Baltimore,  and  thus  in- 
troduced it  to  notice.  The  drawing  in  the  Horti- 
culturist, though  correct,  is  not  as  large  as  I 
have  seen  the  fruit.  It  is  supposed  to  be  a 
seedling. 

I  would  also  bring  to  your  notice  another 
plum,  introduced  by  E.  W.  Carpenter,  viz  : 
the  Montgomeiy  Plum.  He  found  the  tree,  (a 
very  old  one,)  some  twenty  years  ago,  in  adj'- 
ing  condition,  on  the  premises  of  Mr.  Mont- 
gomery, and  procured  four  grafts,  one  of  which 
grew,  I  have  never  seen  the  fruit  itself,  but  he 
describes  it  as  a  very  large  oval  purple  plum, 
and  of  a  most  delicious  flavor,  and  very  prolific. 
He  has  had  them  as  large  as  a  hen's  egg.  The 
wood  and  fruit  somewhat  resemble  the  German 
Quetsche,  (blue  prune,)  though  the  tree  is  of  a 
more  vigorous  growth,  and  more  prolific.  Dr. 
Eli  Parry  of  Lancaster,  could  doubtless  pro- 
cure you  some  of  the  fruit  next  summer.  Hav- 
ing  obtained  a  few  grafts,  I  shall  test  it  here. 
Yours  respectfully.  C.  G.  Siewers.  Cincin- 
March  5,  1851. 
are  obliged  to  our  correspondent  for  his 


concise  and  detailed  account  of  these  fruits. 
Ed.]  

Boiling  Water  for  Peach  Trees.— It  has 
been  thought  impossible  to  recover  a  tree  badly 
infected  with  the  yellows.  If  the  following  ex- 
periment on  a  peach  in  this  condition  will  prove 
of  any  use  by  saving  the  trees  of  others,  it  is  at 
the  service  of  your  readers. 

Many  of  our  peach  trees  perished  during  the 
winter  of  '49.  Others  bore  no  fruit  the  fol- 
lowing summer,  and  were  deeply  infected  with 
the  yellows,  and  were  accordingly  cut  down  and 
their  roots  grubbed  up.  One  or  two  trees, 
however,  in  the  same  condition,  were  overlook- 
ed,  and  left.  A  friend,  who  is  a  successful 
fruit  culturist,  happened  to  walk  into  the  gar- 
den, and  observing  a  tree  bad  with  the  yellows, 
and  hearing  an  intention  of  cutting  it  down  ex- 
pressed, cried  out,  "  By  no  means,  by  no 
means,  you  can  save  it!"  This  was  about  the 
commencement  of  autumn.  The  tree  was  evi- 
dently dying— leaves  yellow,  stems  full  of  dried 
withered  fruit,  and  the  root  very  gummy.  He 
immediately  caused  a  basin  to  be  excavated 
round  the  trunk,  and  the  gum  and  worms  to  be 
taken  out  thoroughly  with  a  sharp  knife ;  while 
this  was  doing  he  applied  himself  to  heading  in 
the  branches,  lopping  off  from  one  foot  to  three, 
as  he  thought  necessary;  cutting  away  all  the 
dead  spurs,  twigs,  and  fruit,  and  pruning  out 
superfluous  branches  of  sound  wood.  This 
done,  and  the  litter  all  carried  off",  he  ordered 
a  copious  supply,  (2  or  3  gallons)  of  boiling 
water  poured  round  the  trunk  where  the  exca- 
vation was  made.  Whether  it  was  the  prun- 
ing of  the  limbs,  the  scraping  about  the  base  of 
the  tree,  or  the  boiling  water,  those  wiser  in 
pomology  than  myself,  must  decide ;  certain  it 
is,  however,  that  an  influence  quite  magical 
was  exerted  on  the  peach,  for  in  two  or  thi-ee 
weeks  it  put  out  fresh  and  abundant  foliage,  of 
a  deep  green,  and  continued  full  of  verdure  till 
late  frost.  [Boiling  water  is  a  most  excellent 
application  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  for  dis- 
eased and  feeble  peach  trees,  and  is  a  certain 
remedy  for  the  peach  worm.  "We  presume 
from  our  correspondent's  description  of  the  tree 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


in  question,  that  its  yellow  leaves  and  sickly 
habit,  were  the  result  of  the  attacks  of  the 
peach-worm — since  he  says  nothing  of  the  small 
wiry  shoots  and  diminutive  leaves  that  are  the 
infallible  symptoms  of  the  yellows.  The  latter 
disease  pervades  the  whole  sap  of  the  tree,  and 
after  many  experiments,  we  believe  it  to  be  in- 
curable. The  best  thing  to  be  done  is  to  dig  up 
the  tree  infected  with  it,  and  burn  it,  root  and 
branch.     Ed  ] 

Insect  on  the  common  daily,  or  China  Rose. 
This  rose,  a  favorite  with  me,  because  indepen- 
dently of  its  beauty,  it  is  easily  cultivated,  has 
been  a  source  of  disappointment  for  several 
successive  seasons  during  the  first  flowering  time 
of  the  summer.  An  insect  resembling  the 
bumble  bee,  (humble  bee,)  has  been  the  depre- 
dator. It  is,  however,  not  half  so  large  as  the 
insect  named,  and  of  a  dark  color.  Itsattacks 
commence  as  soon  as  the  buds  begin  to  show 
the  red  leaf,  and  more  vigorously  as  they  are 
near  unfolding.  They  eat  around  the  edges 
of  the  petals,  and  scoop  out  the  forward  or  half 
blown  roses,  in  the  form  of  a  bowl.  They  have 
been  killed  by  slapping  the  hands  quickly  to- 
gether over  a  bud,  before  they  are  aware,  thus 
catching  two  and  three  at  a  time ;  a  continual 
succession,  immediately,  however,  has  supplied 
the  place  of  those  destroyed,  and  after  a  time 
they  also  become  shy,  ("  biding  their  time") 
from  the  efforts  made  to  kill  them.  In  one  sea- 
son, those  destroyed  amounted  to  over  three 
hundred. 

"  The  rose  is  sweetest  when  'tis  budding  new," 
says  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  so  thought  these 
vagrant  bees ;  for  not  a  full  blown  rose ,  nor  even 
half  expanded  bud,  could  be  had  while  the  first 
blooming  season  lasted,  after  which  time  tlie 
bees  found  some  other  employment,  or  their 
race  was  run  for  the  summer ;  for  they  Arould 
return  no  more  until  the  summer  of  the  suc- 
ceeding year. 

I  was  told  the  insect  was  called  the  Carpen- 
ter-bee, and  misled  by  the  name,  hoped  to  find 
its  haunts  in  the  wood  of  some  old  building  or 
hollow  tree,  but  being  disappointed  in  tracing 
them  home,  the  roses  were  given  up  in  despair. 
Last  summer,  however,  tlie  retreat  of  the  bee 
was  discovered  in  the  claying  or  plastering  of 
an  out-door  oven.  The  bees  were  found  play- 
ing about  numerous  small  holes  they  had  bored 


in  the  sides  of  the  oven,  to  and  from  which 
they  had  free  ingress  and  egress;  and  even,  in 
order  as  it  may  be  presumed,  to  afford  every 
facility  for  the  infirm  and  delicate  visiting  the 
inner  chambers  of  the  habitation  without  expo- 
sure, they  had  many  table-like  galleries  raised 
on  the  surface  of  the  oven,  communicating  with 
the  holes  leading  to  the  interior  chambers,  and 
with  each  other,  after  the  manner  of  a  laby- 
rinth;— ^these  were  about  the  thickness  of  a  fin- 
ger, and  made  of  finely  wrought  clay.  No  time 
was  lost  in  destroying  this  populous  city.  It  is 
only  to  be  regretted  that  nimibers  of  the  inha- 
bitants escaped,  and,  perhaps,  that  some  for- 
bearance was  not  exercised  toward  them  for  a 
time,  in  order  that  the  internal  arrangement  of 
their  dwellings,  the  larva3,  &c.,  might  have  been 
laid  open  for  inspection,  and  curious  investiga- 
tion into  their  habits.  "What  is  the  name  of 
this  insect?  It  seems  decidedly  of  the  mason- 
ic fraternity. 

N.  B.  These  bees  attacked  no  other  roses, 
although  there  is  considerable  variety  in  the 
garden,  Yours.  J.  C.  W.  Washington  Co., 
Maryland,  Jan.  10,  1851. 

Raising  Early  Peas. — The  course  pre- 
scribed by  your  correspondent  in  the  March 
number,  for  starting  peas  early,  is  certainly  a 
good  one,  and  worthy  of  the  adoption  of  every 
lover  of  so  rich  and  healthful  a  vegetable.  We 
have  tried  another  plan  to  efifect  the  same  re- 
sidts,  which,  although  it  may  be  no  better,  we 
have  no  hesitancy  in  commending  to  at  least  a 
trial.  In  the  first  place  we  dig  a  trench  where  we 
design  to  plant  our  peas,  to  a  depth  of,  say  six 
inches.  This  we  fill  two-thirds  full  of  recent 
horse  manure,  and  make  it  as  compact  as  j^ossi- 
ble,  which  will  leave  a  space  of  three  or  four 
inches  between  it  and  the  surface.  Over  the 
manure,  put  an  inch  and  a  half  of  the  garden 
earth,  and  sow  the  peas.  We  then  take  two 
straight-edged  boards  and  nail  them  together  in 
the  form  of  a  V.  This  is  laid,  inverted,  over 
the  peas,  when  it  is  cold  enough  to  freeze  the 
ground,  and  taken  ofi"  in  mild  pleasant  weather. 
They  may  be  protected  in  this  way  until  they 
are  high  enough  to  bush,  and  enjoy  all  the  ad- 
vantages of  rain  and  sunshine  where  they  are 
to  grow.  If  the  stoma  is  heavy,  they  may  also 
be  protected  from  it,  by  rej^lacing  their  cover- 
ing. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


the  spring  advances,  the  hot  and  dry  na- 
ture of  the  manure  miglit,  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances, be  injurious  to  the  plants;  but  this 
we  provide  against.  "When  our  peas  come  up, 
they  are  an  inch  perhaps  below  the  surface,  and 
the  earth  taken  from  the  trench,  is  some  of  it 
yet  remaining  to  supply  the  deficiency.  So 
when  the  peas  are  high  enough,  and  the  weath- 
er growing  milder,  we  replace  the  earth  until 
the  trench  is  level  with  or  hig-her  than  the  ad- 
joining surface.  This  gives  strength  and  firm- 
nes.s  to  the  plants,  utterly  destroys  all  weeds 
which  may  be  starting  from  the  manure,  and 
prevents  the  heat  and  dryness  of  the  soil  which 
is  incident  to  placing  hot  and  fermenting  ma- 
nures near  the  surface.  We  speak  of  this 
method  Avhich  we  have  found  in  our  case  to  be 
a  very  good  one,  and  leave  for  others  to  adopt 
or  reject  as  they  choose.  Yours  truly,  Wu. 
Bacon.  

Raising  Grapes  in  Pots. — If  you  will  write 
an  article  for  the  Horticulturist,  describing  in 
detail  the  best  method  of  raising  grapes  in  large 
pots,  (say  of  the  size  of  16  inches  high  by  14 
inches  diameter  across  the  top,)  under  glass, 
and  without  fire  heat,  naming  just  what  the 
soil  should  be,  the  watering,  fcc. — how  much, 
if  any,  liquid  manure  had  better  be  used  for 
them,  &c. — also  how  productive  they  can  be 
made  under  proper  culture,  &c. — also  as  to  the 
expediency  of  having  a  liouse  on  purpose  for 
grapes  in  pots,  and  the  kind  of  house  for  them 
if  expedient — I  name  these  details  that  you 
may  see  what  points  information  is  needed  upon 
— if  j^ou  will  do  this,  you  will  much  oblige  an 
original  subscriber  in  New  England. 

[Will  some  of  our  most  experienced  grape 
growers  comply  with  the  above  request?  Wc 
have  already  published  two  or  three  articles  on 
that  subject.     Ed.] 


Cheap  Vineries  and  Vine  Bordres. — 
Having  read  with  much  satisfiiction,  your  arti- 
cle upon  the  construction  of  cheap  houses  for 
horticultural  purposes,  and  tlieir  perfect  adap- 
tation to  the  cultivation  of  choice  fruits,  and 
that  being  a  subject  to  which  I  have  paid  much 
attention,  I  c:innot  but  think  the  subscribers  to 
this  Journal,  many  of  them,  must  soon  become 
much  interested  in  it.  They  would  derive 
real  pleasure  in  a  few  leisure  hours  devo- 
the  cultivation  of  choice  fruits,  grown 


under  glass,  than  from  any  other  source,  it  be- 
ing a  pursuit  of  which  a  person  seldom  tires, 
for  the  farther  he  advances  the  more  in- 
terested he  becomes.  In  the  first  place, 
let  us  see  how  this  object  is  to  be  accom- 
plished. You  have  pointed  out  the  way  of 
growing  fruits  in  cheap  houses,  and  a  field  is 
now  open  where  practical  men  can  add  their 
experience.  Many  persons  who  have  hitherto 
been  disposed  to  commence  something  of  the 
kind,  have  been  in  a  great  measure  deterred  on 
account  of  tlie  expense  of  the  materials  em- 
ployed in  the  construction  of  houses  and  the 
formation  of  vine  borders.  I  allude  now  to 
"  cold  houses."  In  houses  lieated  by  artificial 
means  there  are  expenses  which  it  is  impossible 
to  avoid.  We  will  suppose  a  man  wishes  to 
erect  a  cold  vinery.  His  first  question  will  be. 
what  is  the  shaped  house  I  require.  He  refers 
to  the  cut  of  Mr,  Rivers?  This  kind  of  house 
answers  admirably  in  England,  but  will  it  do 
as  well  in  this  country.  Now  I  do  not  positively 
mean  to  assert  that  it  will  not,  but  I  feel  cer- 
tain that  one  built  in  the  following  manner 
would  answer  much  better  for  this  climate  at 
least. 

It  should  be  2  feet  high  in  front,  and  the  back 
wall  should  be  at  least  10  feet  high,  and  the 
width  of  house  14  feet,  whicL  would  give  the 
roof  a  better  pitch,  and  prevent  any  great 
weight  of  snow  from  lodging,  and  also  prevent 
a  deal  of  drip,  and  as  the  vines  would  have  to 
be  brought  up  on  a  trellis  under  the  glass,  it 
would  give  the  operator  more  room  to  attend 
to  his  vines.  The  frame  work  of  the  bouse  might 
be  boarded  with  planed  and  matched  .stufi"  as 
it  is  so  much  neater  in  appearance  than  rough 
boards,  and  the  difference  in  cost  between  the 
two  is  so  very  trifling  as  scarcely  to  make  it 
any  object  in  point  of  economy.  The  back  wall 
should  have  strips  nailed  on  to  the  posts  to  form 
a  trellis  on  which  peaches,  apricots  or  nectarines 
can  be  trained,  and  let  me  here  remark,  that 
I  have  never  known  an  instance  of  stone  fruit 
of  any  kind  being  attacked  by  thecurculiothat 
has  been  grown  luider  glass.  If  some  of  your 
correspondents,  who  cultivate  stone  fruit  under 
glass,  would  let  us  know  if  they  escape  in  their 
different  localities  it  might  be  worth  reading, 
as  it  would  then  prove  if  it  may  be  relied 
a  general  thing  or  only  partially   so. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


been  using  for  some  ycara  a  very  cheap  and 
durable   wire  trellis  for  training    vines  under 
rafters,  which  I  will  describe:  take  some  com- 
mon hoop  iron,  1  inch  in  width,  and  cut  up  into 
lengths  of  10  or  1 2  inches ,-  then  punch  two  holes 
two  or  throe  nches  apart,  and  one  hole  at  the 
other  end  about  1  inch  from  the  end.  and  large 
enough  to  allow  of  the  wire  which  is  intended 
for  the  trellis  to  pass  through  easily;  then  take 
some  li  inch  clout  nails   and  fasten  the  pieces 
of  iron  to  the  rafters.     Begin  on  the  first  rafter 
at  18  inches   from  the  jdate,  and  so  on  in  suc- 
cession, so  that  each  piece  shall  be  exactly  18 
inches  from  the  other  on  the  rafters.     It  is  how- 
ever, immaterial  whether  the  distance  be  more 
or  less,   provided  equal   distance  is  observed. 
After  all  the  pieces  are  nailed  to  the  rafters, 
pass  the  wire  through  the  holes,  form  the  wire 
into  a  loop  at  one  end — take  a  two  inch  wrought 
nail  with  a  large  head,  put  it  in  the  loop  and 
drive   it  home — that  secures  that   end.     Then 
strain    the  wire,  drive    another  nail  half   its 
length,  give  the  wire  one  or  two  turns  round 
the   nail,  then  drive  it  home,  and  the  wire  is 
secured.      After    all    the    wires  are  put   in, 
parallel    with   the  length  of  the  house,  take 
some  small  annealed  wire,  fasten  one  end  to  the 
bottom  trellis  wire  and  carry  it  up  parallel  with 
the  rafter,  and  6  inches  from  it,  taking  a  turn 
round  each  large  wire  to  keep   it  in  its  place. 
Each  rafter  or  vine  will  require   two  of  these 
wires.     The  pieces  of  iron  should  not  hang  per- 
pendicularly, but  stand  out  at  an  angle  to  cor- 
resijond  with  the  house.     The  materials  for  a 
trellis  of  this  description  for  a  house  14  feet 
wide,  will  not  cost  more  than  one  dollar,  for  every 
10  feet  in  length.     In  glazing  a  vinery,  use.  the 
best  cylinder  glass,  that  which  is  free  from  waves 
or  blisters,  for  if  a  poorer  quality  is  used  it  will 
be  impossible  to  get  rid  of  the  burning  of  the 
leaves,  unless  the  glass  is  whitened.     The  first 
cost  will  be  a  little  more,  but  the   better  glass 
Mill   ulliinj\tely  prove   the  cheapest.     The  in- 
terior of  the  ho\ise  may  be  devoted  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  vines  in  pots,  or  for  raising   early 
vegetables  to  transplant  into  the  garden.  Such  a 
house  as  this  can  be  put   up,  painted,  glazed, 
the  trellis  built,  and  all  made  complete  for  about 
four  dollars  the  running   foot,  or  a   nice  snug 
o.use  ti5  feet  long  and  14   feet  wide  for 
such  a  house  being,  in  fact,  only  a  slight 


variation  of  Mr.  Rivers',  with  the  addition  of 
more  room .  Trees  are  to  be  trained  on  the  back 
wall,  and  vines  under  the  rafters.  Now  let  us 
see  what  such  a  house  is  capable  of  producing 
when  the  vines  and  trees  come  into  full  bearing. 
Nine  rafter  vines  which  will  produce  from  20 
to  26  pounds  of  grapes  annually,  or  two  hun- 
dred pounds  for  the  whole,  (this  is  not  an  over 
estimate,)  worth  from  50c.  to  75c.  per  lb.  The 
trees  on  the  back  wall  will  produce  from  20  to 
25  dozens  of  peaches,  apricots  or  nectarines, 
worth  3  or  4  shillings  per  dozen.  The  interior 
of  the  honse  I  make  no  estimate  on,  as  it  is  not 
my  intention  to  mislead  by  making  over  esti- 
mates. I  should  like  m^ch  to  see  amateurs 
take  this  thing  in  hand,  not  on  speculation,  but 
from  the  pleasure  they  would  derive  from  it — 
also  to  give  the  people  at  large  some  idea  of 
what  the  duties  of  a  gardener  are,  and  the 
qualifications  he  ought  to  possess,  a  thing  but 
imperfectly  understood  in  many  parts  of  the 
country,  and  w'hich  frequently  ends  in  disap- 
pointment, either  through  gentlemen  being  im- 
posed upon  by  ignorant  and  intfficient  men,  or 
else  that  the  talents  of  a  really  good  man  are 
not  properl}'  appreciated  on  the  part  of  the 
employer,  which  I  must  say  is  too  often  the 
case. 

For  vines  grown  in  pots,  I  would  recom- 
mend the  following  mode  for  each  pot.  Pro- 
cure a  box  or  tub  a  few  inches  larger  than  the 
diameter  of  the  pot,  bore  some  holes  in  the 
bottom,  place  a  block  of  wood  two  inches  thick 
and  about  six  inches  square  on  the  bottom  of 
the  box,  and  set  the  pot  on  it.  Then  put  in  two 
or  three  inches  of  charcoal  or  broken  bricks. 
Then  fill  in  the  space  between  the  pot  and  box 
with  tan  bark.  By  this  mode  the  roots  will  not 
suffer  from  too  rapid  evaporation,  which  is  very 
injurious  to  young  vines ;  the  block  is  to  prevent 
the,  roots  from  running  out  of  the  bottom  of  the 
pot. 

"We  are  told  by  very  many  experienced  culti- 
vators, that  unless  we  use  an  immense  quantity 
of  certain  kinds  of  manures,  in  the  formation 
of  the  borders  of  vineries,  it  is  impossible  to 
raise  good  grapes.  Now  I  do  not  mean  to  say 
this  is  all  idle  stuff,  because  the  grapevine, 
being  a  gross  feeder,  requires  a  great  deal  of 
stimulus,  but  what  I  will  say  is  that  m 
cellent  grapes  may  be  grown  in  the   folio 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES 


manner.  If  the  soil  is  wet  and  cold,  drain  it 
■well,  trench  it  2  feet  deep,  and  put  in  plenty  of 
old  lane  rubbish  and  rotten  manure.  If  the  soil 
is  a  good  loam  and  does  not  lay  low,  trench  it  2 
feet,  and  to  every  layer  of  earth  put  on  a  layer 
of  old  rotten  dung.  The  manure  from  old 
hot-beds  is  the  best  for  this  purpose ;  in  the 
absence  of  that,  use  the  best  that  can  be  had. 
I  prefer  wide  and  shallow  borders,  say  two  feet 
deep  and  20  or  24  feet  wide.  Such  a  border  as 
this  will  cost  no  more  than  for  an  asparagus 
bed  tlie  same  size,  but  it  should  be  mulched 
with  rotten  manure  every  summer,  and  forked 
in  in  spring.  I  would  like  to  give  my  method 
of  attendance  to  the  vines  during  the  growing 
season,  but  fear  I  have  already  extended  my 
notes  too  far.  Yours  most  respectfully,  Wm. 
Webster.     Rochester,  Feb.  4,  1851. 

[AYe  shall  be  glad  to  have  our  correspond- 
ent's routine  of  vinery  culture.  We  are  not  in 
favor  of  excessive  feeding  of  vine  borders — but 
we  do  not  think  a  border  will  continue  to  give 
good  grapes  for  many  seasons,  unless  it  contains 
at  least  one  fourth  of  its  whole  bulk  of  good 
active  animal  manure — stable  manure  we  pre- 
fer.    Ed.]  

Planting  Strawberry  Beds. — Pray  give 
a  new  subscriber,  who  has  not  your  back  vo- 
lumes to  refer  to,  some  plain  directions  for  ma- 
king a  few  strawberry  beds,  for  the  supply  of  a 
small  family.  When  is  the  best  season  for 
planting ;  what  are  the  best  sorts,  and  how  shall 
the  soil  be  prepared?  Yours.  A.  H.  New- 
London,  Ct. 

Answer. — The  month  of  April  is  the  best 
time  to  plant  strawberries  in  the  whole  year. 

If  you  wish  the  largest  and  finest  fruit,  you 
must  make  the  soil  deep  and  rich.  The  best 
manure  for  the  strawberry,  is  either poudrette, 
(we  can  recommend  that  of  the  Lodi  Manufac- 
turing Co.,  New- York,)  or  decomposed  stable 
manure.  If  you  have  these,  trench  the  soil 
two  feet  deep,  mixing  in  a  very  liberal  dressing 
of  either  of  these  manures,  throughout  the 
whole  depth.  Supposing,  as  is  too  often  the 
case  with  beginners,  that  you  have  nothing  but 
fresh  stable  manure,  then,  when  you  are  trench- 
ing, bury  this  stable  manure  in  the  lower-  spit, 
(i.  e.,  the  lower  of  the  two  feet  trenched.)  To 
a  good  manuring,  you  should  trench  in 

much  stable  manure  as  will  be  equal  in  bulk 


to  one-third  of  this  lower  foot  of  earth.  The 
reason  for  trenching  it  among  the  lower  spit  is, 
that  it  may  be  decomposed  before  the  roots  of 
the  strawberries  reach  it.  If  mixed  with  the 
top  spit,  it  would  do  more  harm  than  good. 

Having  thus  trenched  and  manured  the  soil, 
form  it  into  beds  three  and  a  half  feet  wide. 
Draw  three  lines  lengthwise  through  the  beds, 
and  set  the  young  plants  along  these  lines,  about 
4  inches  apart.  During  the  summer,  the  beds 
must  be  kept  stirred  with  the  hoe,  and  all  run- 
ners should  be  cut  off,  that  extend  more  than 
a  couple  of  inches  beyond  the  lines.  You  will 
thus  have  three  rows  of  strawberries  about  ten 
inches  apart — -between  which,  the  next  season, 
you  can  lay  straw  or  tan-bark,  which  will  both 
keep  down  the  weeds,  and  keep  the  fruit  clean. 
This  straw  or  tan  may  thereafter  keep  its 
place — the  runners  must  be  kept  clipped,  and 
a  little  additional  straw  or  tan  laid  over  the 
plants  at  the  approach  of  winter,  and  removed 
again  in  the  spring. 

In  this  way — digging  in  a  top-dressing  of 
spent  manure  or  poudrette  between  the  rows 
every  spring,  your  strawberry  beds  may  be 
kept  in  good  condition  for  four  years — at  the 
end  of  which  time  they  must  be  abandoned,  and 
new  ones  planted  to  take  their  place. 

If,  however,  you  do  not  wish  the  trouble  of 
cultivating  the  plants  so  carefully,  then  plant 
them  in  the  same  way,  and  allow  the  runners 
to  cover  and  occupy  the  whole  bed.  This  they 
will  do  the  same  season,  and  the  next  year  will 
give  you  an  abundant  crop — the  fruit  not  so 
large  as  in  the  first  case,  but  perhaps  ratlier 
more  in  quantity.  But  the  bed  will  only  Last 
one  year,  and  you  must  make  a  new  one  every 
spring,  to  supply  the  place  of  the  old  one. 

As  to  sorts,  if  you  are  to  plant  but  three,  let 
them  be  Large  Early  Scarlet,  Burr'&New  Pine, 
and  Hovey's  Seedling.  If  four,  add  Rival  Hud- 
son^ if  five,  Swainstone  Seedling.  There  are 
many  other  good  sorts,  but  this  selection  will 
probably  prove  most  valuable  to  you.  The 
White-wood  is  a  nice,  delicate,  small  fruit,  and 
bears  a  long  time,  and  is  a  pretty  contrast  in  a 
dish  of  red  strawberries. 


Making  New  Lawns. — As  we  have  had  nu- 
merous inquiries  lately,  repecting  the  laying 
down  of  grass  surfaces  for  lawns,  we  shall  com- 
press our  answers  into  one,  and  make  it  public 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


for  the  benefit  of  all  our  readers  interested  in 
the  matter. 

A  fine  lawn,  as  everyone  knows,  is  the  most 
essential  ground-work  of  all  ornamental  plea- 
sure grounds.  It  is  not  so  easy  to  get  a  fine 
lawn  here  as  in  England,  but  quite  as  easy  as  on 
most  parts  of  the  continent.  What  we  have  to 
contend  with,  are  our  dry  summers  and  hot 
sun — which  often  parch  up  and  turn  brown  a 
lawn  made  in  the  ordinary  way.  This  is  not 
to  be  guarded  against,  as  some  suppose,  by 
enriching  the  top-soil  where  the  lawn  is,  but  by 
making  it  deep — so  deep  that  the  roots  of  the 
grass,  instead  of  depending  on  the  top  layer  of 
the  soil,  which  always  suffers  by  the  heat  of  the 
mid-summer  sun,  shall  run  down  to  the  cool 
under  layer,  eighteen  inches  or  more  deep — 
Mhich  preserves  a  more  uniform  moisture  and 
temperature. 

If  you  are  preparing  the  ground  for  a  new 
lawn,  let  the  first  point,  then,  be  to  deepen  the 
soil.  It  ought  to  be -at  least  18  inches,  and  is 
better  if  two  feet  deep.  If  it  is  a  small  sur- 
face you  can  prepare  it  by  trenching — if  large, 
by  using  the  sub-soil  plough.  It  is  well  to  mix 
a  good  coat  of  manure  with  the  sub-scfil  while 
this  is  going  on — and  it  is  just  as  needful  (or 
even  more  necessary)  that  the  sandy  soil  should 
be  as  deep  as  clayey — for  unless  tlie  sub-soil  is 
well  stirred  the  roots  of  the  grass  will  not  pene- 
trate there. 

The  soil  being  well  prepared,  and  the  surface 
made  quite  even  and  smooth,  sow  it  with  a 
mixture  of  blue  grass  and  white  clover  at  the 
rate  of  three  bushels  to  the  acre.*  There 
should  be  about  two  quarts  of  white  clover  seed 
to  a  bushel  of  blue  grass — all  mixed  intimately 
together  before  sowing  it ;  and  if  a  quart  or  so 
of  sweet  scented  grass  is  mixed  with  the  whole 
before  sowing,  the  lawn  will  give  out  a  delicious 
odor  every  time  it  is  mown.  The  seed  should 
be  sown  in  a  still  day  (if  just  before  rain  so 
much  the  better)  very  evenlj',  by  hand,  and 
the  ground  should  be  lightly  raked,  and  if  pos- 
sible rolled  afterwards. 

*  We  formerly  recominendeil  Red-top  and  While 
Clover;  but  some  careful  experiments  of  different  grasses 
for  a  lawn  have  satisfied  us  that  the  Poa  pratensis — known 
in  various  parts  of  the  country  a?  "  bent-grass,"  "  blue 
grass,"  "  green  grass" — which  grows  by  the  road  sides 

most  parts  of  the  country,  is  superior  to  the  Red-top — 
closer,  and  finer,  and  greener  turf,  and  enduring 
ih  better  than  the  Red-top. 


To  keep  a  lawn  in  good  order  order  it  re 
quires  in  our  climate,  to  be  mown  about  once 
a  fortnight — witli  a  sharp,  broad-bladed  lawn 
scythe.  In  England,  we  found  mowing  ma- 
chines in  very  general  use  for  this  purpose,  and 
when  there  is  much  lawn  to  be  mown  they 
would  be  found  of  equal  or  even  greater  value 
here.  One  of  these  machines  is  small,  and  is 
managed  by  hand ;  the  other  requires  a  man 
and  a  horse,  and  will  mow  as  much  in  a  day 
as  six  good  mowers, — rolling  the  lawn  as  it 
mows  it — and  mowing  the  grass  as  neatly  and 
evenly  as  if  it  was  done  with  a  pair  of  shears. 


Rural  Hours. — "We  have  already  spoken  of 
Miss  Cooper's  charming  hand-book  of  nature 
and  the  seasons,  published  last  winter  under 
this  title.  But  lest  any  of  our  readers,  and 
especially  our  fairreaders,  who  would  study  na- 
ture, now  in  her  freshest  and  most  winning  garb, 
should  not  yet  have  made  its  acquaintance,  we 
must  be  allowed  to  allude  to  it  again.  The 
w"ay  to  enjoy  the  "  Rural  Hours,"  is  to  take  the 
book  in  hand  daily,  and  read  it  as  the  season 
unfolds  itself — for  it  is  a  diary  of  nature,  telling 
us  of  every  bird,  and  flower,  and  rural  incident 
that  makes  part  of  the  out-door  life  of  country 
people.  Make  its  acquaintance,  study  it  in 
this  way,  and  you  will  feel  as  if  the  author 
were  a  personal  friend,  who  knows  nature's 
sweetest  secrets,  and  lets  you  into  all  her  con- 
fidences.   

To  Propagatk  the  Scarlet  Japan  Quince.- 
Being  afflicted  with  deep  horticultural  propen- 
sities, I  have,  as  a  matter  of  course,  been  led 
to  "  try  all  things,  and  prove  all  things,"  in 
the  true  horticultural  sense  of  the  quotation. 
I  was  exceedingly  desirous  of  obtaining  a  large 
quantity  of  the  Pijrus  Juponica,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  using  it  for  a  division  hedge.  I  tried 
various  modes  of  propagation.  Firstly,  by 
grafting  on  the  stock  and  on  the  root ;  by  lay- 
ers, which  seldom  took  root ;  by  cuttings  of  the 
roots,  which  method  did  pretty  well.  But  not 
being  satisfied,  I  made  another  experiment, 
which  resulted  in  complete  success. 

Having  had  occasion  to  move  two  large  plants 
of  the  scarlet  variety,  and  one  of  the  white,  I 
was  obliged,  very  unwillingly,  to  take  them  up 
after  they  had  bloomed,  and  just  before  the 
leaves  were  fully  expanded.  Severe  pruning 
was  necessary  in  this  case ;  and  when  I  beheld 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


tops  of  my  beautiful  bushes  lying  on  the 
ground,  my  propensity  seized  me,  and  I  could 
not  consent  to  throw  away  the  trimmings  with- 
out an  effort  to  save  them. 

So  down  I  sat,  on  the  edge  of  the  border,  and 
after  cutting  off  all  the  last  year's  growth,  I 
placed  them  in  a  warm,  rich  .soil;  but  I  con- 
fess, without /a?7A,  even  to  the  extent  of  a.  hun- 
dredth part  of  a  grain  of  "  mustard  seed." 

Tliere  T  left  them,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  ex- 
posed to  tlie  full  blaze  of  almost  a  summer's 
sun.  I  passed  by  the  spot  every  day  for  a 
week,  and  each  time  thought  how  many  fruit- 
less experiments  I  had  made,  and  this  very  one 
likely  to  be  another  of  them.  Several  weeks 
pa.sscd  away,  when  I  thought  I  would  visit  my 
cuttings,  and  to  my  utter  astonishment,  every 
one  of  them  had  grown,  and  made  nice  plants 
by  autumn  !     Tliis  is  a  horticultural  fact. 

I  have  a  few  now  on  hand,  which  I  would 
gladly  present  for  the  benefit  of  some  one,  who 
may  be  even  now,  as  verdant  in  these  matters 
as  I  was.  previous  to  my  sufferings.  Thy  sin- 
cere friend.  E.  S.  Hillside,  Cayuga  Co.,  N. 
Y.,  U  mo.,  Zd,  18-51. 

[We  thank  our  fair  correspondent  for  her 
useful  notice,  and  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  her 
again.  Her  postscript,  in  which  she  frankly 
owns  herself  "  a  real  live-woman  horticultu- 
rist," pleases  us  still  more.  When  American 
women  know  their  gardens  in  this  way — by  ac- 
tually shaking  hands  with  garden  tools,  daily — 
then  they  will  begin  to  enjoy  them  in  right  ear- 
nest.    Ed.]  

Camellias  in  Rooms. — I  have  tried  for  two 
years  to  bloom  Camellias,  but  without  success. 
I  have  Elegans,  Donkclarii,  Varicgata,  Candi- 
dissima,  Derbyana,  Florida,  Tricolor,  and  Im- 
bricata.  During  the  first  year,  I  had  them  in 
my  sitting  room,  enclosed  in  a  glass  case,  which 
was  aired  every  day.  The  room  was  warmed 
by  a  furnace,  supplied  with  air  from  without 
the  house.  The  thermometer  in  the  room, 
ranged  from  60°  to  70°.  In  the  case,  it  was 
much  lower.  They  were  frequently  syringed 
above  and  beneath  the  leaves,  and  occasionally 
wiped  with  a  wet  sponge.  The  second  year, 
they  have  been  kept  in  a  closet,  adjoining  my 
counting-room.  The  closet  has  a  large  window 
looking  south,  and  receives  its  heat  from  the 
counting-room,  which  is  itself  heated  by  steam 


pipes.  The  thermometer  in  the  main  room 
ranges  from  G0°  to  70°,  and  in  the  closet,  will 
be  10°  lower.  The  plants  were  kept  back  from 
the  window  and  in  the  shade.  The  window  is 
opened  for  fresh  air,  whenever  the  weather  will 
permit — and  I  have  a  tub  filled  with  water, 
warmed  by  a  steam  pipe,  whenever  used  fur 
watering  the  plants,  or  to  make  the  air  of  the 
closet  of  a  proper  degree  of  moisture.  The 
closet  is  12  feet  by  G,  and  11  feet  high.  During 
the  summer,  the  plants  were  kept  out  of  doors, 
and  in  the  shade.  I  get  buds,  which  swell  and 
promise,  and  show  the  tip  of  the  beautiful 
petals,  within,  and  then  become  "  done  brown," 
drop  and  perish .  What  is  the  matter  1  Yours, 
A  Floral  Enthusiast.  Lawrence,  Massa- 
chusetts, March  10,  1851. 

[Tlie  Camellia  is  one  of  the  worst  plants  for 
close  rooms,  as  it  wants  a  great  deal  of  air,  and 
a  very  uniform  atmosphere,  to  bloom  freely. 
If  you  can  contrive  to  ventilate  your  room  or 
plant-closet  so  as  to  have  a  stream  of  pure  fresh 
air  (warmed  of  course)  pass  through  it,  we 
think  the  flowers  will  open  well.     Ed.] 


Cherries — Pear  Blight — At  a  sale  of 
French  fruit  trees,  in  New- York,  April,  1841, 
I  purchased  with  others,  over  fifty  cherry  trees, 
under  the  names  of  WliitcBigarreau,  Red  Bi- 
garreau,  Guine  of  Turkey,  Bigarreati  de  Lyon, 
Royale  Hative,  Black  Griotte,&c.,  but  on  their 
passage  home  the  labels  were  lost ;  none  proved 
to  be  better  sorts  than  we  had,  except  one 
kind,  and  that  1  supposed  to  be  the  Bigarrcau 
de  Lyon,  and  have  so  called  it.  I  have  never 
seen  the  cherry  described  in  any  foreign  or 
American  horticultural  or  pomological  work, 
until  in  your  Jan.  Horticulturist,  where  you  de- 
scribe a  cherry  as  "The  Great  B'garreau." 
The  shape,  size,  color  and  flavor,  appear  to  be 
identical  with  the  sort  I  have.  It  has  some- 
times ripened  a  little  before  the  Tartarian.  It 
has  a  remarkable  growth ;  the  foliage  is  larger 
and  longer  than  any  I  have  seen,  and  I  consi- 
der it  the  most  desirable  cherry  known.  If 
among  the  list  above  named,  you  think  I  liave 
selected  the  right,  you  can  adopt  it,  or  wait  un- 
til the  bearing  season,  and  I  will  .send  you  sam- 
ples of  the  wood,  leaf  and  fruit. 

Soon  after  the  purchase  alluded  to,  I  com- 
menced .setting  pear  trees  on  quince  stocl 
though  told  by  ray  neighbors  that  they 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


short  lived,  and  would  not  pay  the  cost,)  and 
they  have  succeeded  well ;  borne  early  and  pro- 
fusely until  the  last  summer,  and  dwarf  pears 
have  now  become  popular,  and  are  much  sought 
for  here.  Out  of  about  three  hundred  trees,  I 
have  lost  forty-five,  thrifty  and  full  of  fruit,  by 
blight.  "What  is  the  cause,  and  what  the  reme- 
dy? I  have  not  seen  anything  satisfactory  on 
the  subject.  My  plum  trees  are  very  produc- 
tive, for  the  benefit  and  ravages  of  the  curcu- 
lio  only ;  covering  with  gauze,  salt,  lime,  and 
mulching,  have  entirely  failed.  My  next  ex- 
periment will  be  with  pigs  and  chickens.  Very 
respectfully  yours.  Lewis  Eaton.  Buffalo, 
N.  Y.,  Jan.  12,  1851. 

[The  cause,  in  brief,  of  your  pear  blight,  is 
the  tenderness  of  the  sap  vessels  of  the  foreign 
pears,  whereby  they  suffer  in  the  heat  and  cold 
changes  of  our  variable  climate.  The  remedy 
is  to  wind  straw  ropes  round  the  stem  and  lar- 
ger branches  of  your  dwarf  trees,  and  mulch 
the  surface  of  the  ground  over  the  roots.  A 
cultivator  of  our  acquaintance,  who  lives  in  a 
blight  district,  and  who  made  wry  faces  for 
years,  over  the  blight,  has  become  a  cheerful 
and  happy  man,  since  he  has  practiced  this 
simple  method.  It  is  useless  to  go  into  long 
arguments — there  is  no  end  to  them  on  this 
subject — but  "  a  word  to  the  wise,"  etc.     Ed.] 

A  Budget  of  Queries. — .^.  /.  Downing, 
Esq :  May  I  trespass  on  your  kindness  by 
soliciting  answers  to  the  following  queries: — 

1st.  What  is  the  best  way  of  composting  the 
leaves  of  the  forest  for  manure?  [By  treating 
them  with  the  lime  and  salt  mixture  described 
in  Hort.  Vol.  iv.  p.  202.] 

2d.  Will  unleached  ashes  or  lime  most  readi- 
ly promote  the  decomposition  of  leaves?  [Ei- 
ther— but  the  latter  will  act  most  speedily.] 

3d.  Which  in  "your  opinion"  are  the  four 
best  pears  for  market  cultivation,  (2  of  them 
on  quince  and  2  on  pear  roots,)  out  of  all  the 
old  and  new  varieties?  I  mean  four  most  suited 
for  this  eastern  climate  and  this  naturally  poor 
gravelly  soil — four  out  of  the  vast  collection — 
.of  a  thrifty  and  vigorous  growth.  I  know  and 
appreciate  the  qualities  of  the  Bartlett  and 
Loivise  Bonne  de  Jersey,  but  would  not  a  culti- 
vator be  at  his  wit's  end  to  keep  up  the  prices 
300  bushels  of  either  the  above  named 
ies,  provided  these   sorts  continue  to  be 


cultivated  by  "every  body?"  [No  fear  of  an 
overstock  of  fine  pears — no  one  will  see  it  in  our 
day.  Your  question  is  difficult.  We  should 
say  Bartlett,  Louise  Bonne  de  Jersey,  Vicar 
of  Winkfield,  and  (if  it  answers  on  your  soil) 
Black  pear  of  Worcester.] 

4tli.  Wliich  is  the  best  Kaspberry  for  market 
cultivation,  taking  into  consideration  tender- 
ness, firmness,  and  productiveness?  [The  true 
Red  Antwerp.] 

5th.  How  near  may  be  planted  the  different 
varieties  of  squashes  and  melons  without  fear 
of  mixing.  For  instance  I  have  a  two  acre 
field,  one-half  of  which  I  should  like  to  devote 
to  squashes  next  summer,  and  the  other  half  to 
melons.  Would  the  quality  of  each  be  dete- 
riorated by  so  doing?  [Will  mix  if  nearer  than 
100  feet.] 

6th.  If  the  flavor  of  melons  should  become 
injured  (a  little  squashy)  the  first  year,  would 
the  2d  crop,  planted  with  the  seeds  of  the  first, 
be  liable  to  a  further  deterioration?  [Of  course, 
but  so  far  as  we  have  observed  the  fruit  is  not 
affected  the  first  year,  only  the  seed.  The 
second  year  the  mixture  becomes  apparent  in 
the  fruit.] 

7th.  Which  is  the  best  water-melon  and  the 
best  winter  squash  ?  [The  Spanish  water  melon 
and  the  Autumnal  Marrow  squash,  are  two  very 
superior  sorts.] 

8th.  Can  plum  trees  be  grafted  in  the  spring 
with  success,  instead  of  the  usual  way  of  bud- 
ding? [Yes,  very  easily,  if  by  wiiip-grafting— 
but  cleft-grafting  requires  more  skill  in  tlie 
plum  than  in  other  fruit  trees.] 

9th.  Does  it  injure  apple  pomace  to  be  ex- 
posed to  frosts,  before  planting  in  the  spring? 
[How  "  in  the  spring?"  The  seeds  should  be 
freed  from  pomace  as  soon  as  possible  in  the 
fill!.] 

10th.  Is  it  necessary  that  pits  and  seeds  of 
fruit  be  buried  in  the  ground  to  suffer  the  action 
of  the  frost,  if  planting  be  delayed  till  spring? 
[The  action  of  the  frost  is  not  needed.  What 
is  needed,  is  that  the  seeds  be  kept  moist  in 
damp  earth  during  the  winter,  and  if  the  earth 
is  not  froze  at  all,  so  much  the  better.  If  the 
seeds  have  become  dry  it  will  be  necessary  to 
soak  them  for  half  an  hour  in  hot  water — not 
quite  boiling — before  planting.] 

11th.  Can  you  give  me  any  information   in 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


ard  to  the  Invaluable  mineral  substance  re- 
cently discovered  in  New-Jersey.  It  will  work 
iniracles,mixed  with  ashes,cn  our  unfertile  land. 
You  may  have  had  means  of  knowing  at  what 
expense  it  might  be  obtained  in  Newark  or 
New- York?  [Know  nothing  of  it,  and  will  be 
glad  to  learn  what  it  is.] 

AVith  sorrow  at  troubling  you  with  so  many 
queries,  mixed  with  joy  at  being  allowed  to  seek 
all  this  information  at  the  fountain  he.id,  I  re- 
main your  friend,  A.  J.  R.  New-Bedford, 
Mass.,  Feb.  6,  1851. 


HORTICDLTURE  IN  THE  INTERIOR  OF  GEOR- 
GIA.— Although  but  a  recent  subscriber  to  your 
valuable  periodical,  I  have  been  an  interested 
reader  of  it  for  some  two  years  past,  and  I 
venture  to  offer  an  article  for  publication  in  it, 
if  you  think  it  will  prove  acceptable  to  your 
subscribers. 

I  am  a  native  of  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk, 
and  have  spent  some  thirty  years  of  my  life  in 
it ;  but  for  the  last  twelve  years  have  been  a  re- 
sident of  Habersham  county,  Ga.,  a  section  of 
country  comparatively  little  known  at  the  north. 
My  cliief  intention  is  to  give  your  readers  a 
short  history  of  its  location,  geological  forma- 
tion, its  native  fruits,  flowers,  &c.  Habersham 
county  lies  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  State, 
and  mostly  on  the  first  steppe  of  the  Allegany 
range  of  mountains,  some  3000  feet  above  the 
ocean  level ;  its  climate  is  unequaled  for  salu- 
brity in  the  United  States,  the  thermometer 
rarely  rising  in  midsummer  to  90°  during  the 
day,  and  at  night  usually  about  60°,  while  our 
winters  are  mild,  with  but  little  frost  and  snow; 
and  now,  while  writing  this,  I  am  sitting  in  my 
room  with  the  sashes  up  and  the  door  open. 
Our  summer  nights  are  delightful  and  cool,  so 
that  one  always  needs  a  blanket  wlien  sleeping, 
for  covering.  Billions  fever,  that  scourge  of  the 
south,  never  intrudes  here,  nor  the  insinuating 
consumption  of  the  north ;  consequently  Haber- 
sham is  a  place  of  i-csort  for  the  rice  and  cotton 
planters  of  the  lower  portion  of  the  state.  The 
soil  is  poor  upon  the  hills  and  upland,  and  in  the 
vallies  and  bottoms,  rich  and  productive,  and 
composed  of  the  elements  of  granite,  the  pri- 
mitive formation  of  the  mountains  here.  No 
cotton  is  raised  here,  it  being  too  cold  for  it  to 
mature  well;  corn,  wheat,  rye,  oats,  and  all 
the   grasses  succeed  as  well  as   at  the  north. 


Farming  is  conducted  very  rudely,  but 
proving,  owing  to  the  influence  of  agricultural 
papers  and  societies.  I  wish  you  could  see  a 
southern  plough,  such  as  are  used  here  in  the 
mountains.  It  would  be  a  great  curiosity  to  a 
New-York  farmer,  were  he  to  find  one  in  the 
road.  I  am  sure  he  could  not  tell  for  what  use 
it  was  intended,  or  to  what  nation  of  people  it 
belonged. 

In  this  county  is  situated  the  far-famed  falls 
of  Tallulah,  and  the  beautiful  fall  of  Toccoa, 
both  worth  a  trip  across  the  Atlantic  to  be  seen 
in  the  month  of  June,  when  thousands  of  Rho- 
dodendrons, Kalmias  and  other  flowers  and 
shrubs  wliich  surround,  are  in  bloom  ;  and  were 
some  of  your  exi)erienced  manufacturers,  only 
to  see  the  number  of  splendid  water-falls  here, 
wasting  their  power  in  obscurity,  and  as  it  were, 
inviting  and  tempting  them  to  come  and  use 
them,  almost  for  the  using  alone,  they  would, 
I  think,  forthwith  be  off  to  Georgia,  notwith- 
standing the  great  bug-bear  to  northerners, 
Negro  slaver}'. 

The  forests  are  almost  unlimited  in  extent, 
as  the  country  has  been  settled  but  about  35 
years,  with  a  present  population  of  8000  whites. 
The  forests  are  composed  of  say  8  or  10  kinds 
of  Oaks,  the  same  of  Firs,  Chestnut,  Hickory, 
Walnut,  Poplar,  Gum,  Birch,  Holly,  &c.  Wild 
grapes  abound  here;  Fox  grapes  and  Mus- 
cadines without  number,  in  this  and  the  ad- 
joining counties  of  Rabun  and  Union ;  and  by 
the  way,  we  have  three  varieties  of  native 
grapes  that  possibly  may  prove  valuable  for 
cultivation.  One  of  them  is  a  large  white 
grape,  about  the  size  of  the  Isabella,  but  sweet- 
er. Another,  a  red  grape  about  the  same  size, 
a  little  more  acid,  and  the  other  a  small  white 
grape  about  the  size  of  Herbemont's  Madeira. 
None  of  them  are  known,  except  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, where  they  are  still  growing  wild  in 
the  coves  of  the  mountains.  I  am  unable  to 
give  tlie  botanical  character,  as  I  have  never 
seen  them  when  in  flower.  I  have  them  all  in 
process  of  domestication,  and  will  if  desirable 
give  you  the  results. 

Foreign  grapes  thus  far  do  well.  We  have  the 
white  Burgundy  jWhite  Muscat  and  some  others, 
all  which  grow  in  the  open  air ;  the  rot  occa- 
sionally attacks  them,  but  judicious  manuring 
is  a  remedy  for  it.  The  rascally  curculio 
all  of  our  nothern  plums,  nectarines,  chcrr 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


and  apricots.  Last  year  we  tlio^ight  to  be  rid 
of  liis  presence,  as  tlie  previous  year  Ave  had  a 
frost  in  April,  wliich  killed  all  the  fruit.  We 
had  neither  apples,  pears,  plums,  peaches,  nor 
anything  else  in  the  fruit  line,  within  50  miles 
of  us.  But  lo!  this  year,  "  Monsieur  Ton- 
son  come  again,"  and  more  than  ever.  "Where 
did  he  come  from?  Not  from  the  fruit  that  fell 
from  the  trees  the  year  previous,  for  we  had 
none. 

We  have  some  fifty  varieties  of  your  best 
northern  apples,  and  as  many  of  i^ears,  all 
which  succeed  very  well.  Also  some  fine  na- 
tive apples;  and  I  should  like  to  send  you,  (if 
the  distance  was  not  so  great,)  a  barrel  of  them, 
to  compare  with  your  Newtown  Pippins  and 
Spitzenburghs,  &;c.  Much  attention  is  being 
p\id,for  a  few  years  past,  to  the  cultivation  of 
fruits — and  this  county  can  probably  boast  a 
larger  variety  than  all  the  rest  of  the  state  to- 
gether. Thus  far,  cherries  do  not  succeed,  from 
the  splitting  of  the  bark  when  about  three  years 
old  J  the  cause  we  cannot  ascertain.  Some  sup- 
pose it  to  be  caused  by  the  heat  of  the  sun ;  I 
doubt  it,  as  the  temperature  of  summer  is  be- 
low that  of  Albany  or  New- York.  Peaches 
flourish  in  perfection,  and  native  trees  do  bet- 
than  northern,  of  every  description,  and  come 
into  bearing  sooner. 

I  intended  to  say  something  about  our  south- 
ern shrubs  and  flowers,  when  I  began,  but  as 
this  article  has  reached  such  a  length,  I  fear  if  I 
should  say  anything  more,  you  will  not  print  it, 
and  if  you  should,  your  subscribers  will  not  read 
it;  so  will  defer  it  for  another  time.  Yours  re- 
spectfully. J.  Van  Buren.  Clarksville,  Ga., 
Jan.  23,  1851.  

Native  Bone  Earth. — The  discovery  has 
been  made,  recently,  of  an  ''inexhaustible 
quantity"  of  native  phosphate  of  lime,  near 
Dover,  New- Jersey.  It  has  been  analyzed  by 
Dr.  Chilton,  Prof.  Mapes  and  Dr.  Antisell, 
separately,  and  pronounced  by  them  to  be 
superior  as  a  manure,  to  the  bone  dust  usually 
sold  in  New- York  market.  The  legislature  of 
New-Jersey,  we  understand,  passed  a  bill  last 
winter,  chartering  a  company  for  working  this 
mineral  manure,  and  putting  it  into  market 
extensively — but  Gov.  Ford  has  vetoed  the  bill. 
s  the  Gov.  means  that  his  own  state  shall 
ade  fertile  first.     If  this  manure   corres- 


ponds to  the  expectation  formed  from  the  pub 
lished  analyses,  it  will  be  in  great  demand  for 
grain  crops  and  fruit  trees— especially  pears. 

The  Value  of  Carrots. — Very  few  persons 
are  aware  of  the  fact,  that  young  carrots  are 
among  the  most  wholesome  of  vegetables,  and 
greatly  assist  digestion.  French  cooks,  in 
many  of  their  stewed  dishes,  introduce  small 
slices  of  young  carrots,  and  the  Julienne  soup, 
so  common  on  every  French  table,  is  seasoned 
with  finely  chopped  vegetables — young  carrots 
being  the  most  important,  and  the  difference  in 
digestion  between  a  dinner  eaten  at  a  French 
cafe,  and  an  English  hotel,  is  not  alone  in  the 
cooking,  but  in  the  vegetable  condiments  in- 
troduced. It  is  only  lately  that  the  chemists 
have  explained  the  digestive  stimulus  known  to 
exist  in  the  carrot,  to  consist  in  a  peculiar  acid 
— pectic  acid — found  in  this  vegetable. 

After  saying  so  much,  with  a  view  to  the 
promotion  of  a  better  understanding  with  the 
carrot  in  our  kitchen  gardens,  we  quote  the 
following  in  corroboration  from  the  Working 
Farmer,  calculated  to  increase  the  field  culti- 
vation of  this  useful  vegetable: 

"  Two  bushels  of  oats  and  one  of  carrots,  is 
better  food  for  a  horse  than  three  bushels  of 
oats;  and  when  used  for  light  work,  the  quan- 
tity of  carrots  may  be  increased.  With  such 
food  horses  will  enjoy  good  health  and  spirits, 
a  loose  hide,  shining  coat,  and  improved  di- 
gestion. It  may  be  thus  exp'aincd:  The  car- 
rot is  very  nutritiDus,  and,  in  addition,  has  the 
curious  property  of  gelatinizing  the  watery 
solutions  contained  in  the  stomach  of  the  horse. 
Carrots  contain  pectic  acid,  a  single  drop  of 
wliicli  mixed  with  the  juice  of  an  orange  or 
otlier  fruit,  immediately  turns  it  into  a  jelly, 
and  the  Paris  confectioners  use  it  for  this  pur- 
l)0se.  Soups  iu  which  carrots  have  been  boiled, 
are  always  gelatinous  when  cold,  and  are  more 
easily  digested  when  used  as  food,  than  soups 
otherwise  made. 

The  bene  pla.it  has  similar  properties.  A 
thill  slice  of  tliis  plant  thi-own  into  a  glass  of 
water,  renders  it  ropy  and  gelatinous,  and  for 
tliis  reason  it  is  a  specitic  for  summer  complaint 
Avith  children. 

By  examining  the  dung  of  a  horse  fed  in  part 
on  carrots,  it  will  be  found  to  contain  no  undi- 
gested hay  or  oats,  and  therefore  less  quantities 
of  those  materials  are  necessary  than  Avhen  lialf 
the  amount  swallowed  is  parted  Avith  in  an  undi- 
gested state.  For  fittcning  animals  the  carrot 
is  equally  valuable,  and  for  milch  cows  they 
surpass  any  other  food.  The  milk  of  a  coav  at 
mid-winter  fed  on  carrots,  is  equal  in  flav 
that  supplied  from  clover  in  summer,  Avhil 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


butter  made  from  the  milk  is  finely  colored  and 
highly  flavored. 

Ill  soils  containing  proper  proportions  of 
boiic-dnst,  .sulpliuric  acid,  potash,  and  com- 
mon salt,  800  bushels  of  long  orange,  or  1100 
bushels  of^  white  Belgian  carrots  may  be  easily 
raised  per  acre,  while  the  same  land  will  not 
produce  one-tenth  the  quantity  of  oats.  We 
have  sold  our  crop  of  carrots  this  year  to  the 
livery  stable  keepers  of  Newark,  at  50  cents 
per  bushel,  and  we  could  have  sold  another 
thousand  bushels  or  more  at  the  same  price." 


Evergreen  IIjedges. — j1  Friend  to  Improve- 
ment, (Northampton,  Mass.)  We  prefer  the 
Norway  Spruce  to  the  Hemlock,  for  a  hedge, 
because  it  grows  faster,  and  makes  a  stronger 
barrier.  As  the  shoots  of  the  latter  tree  are 
slender  and  pliant,  they  require  to  be  sheared 
many  years  before  they  form  an  impenetrable 
hedge.  In  point  of  beauty,  there  are  few 
hedges  that  surpass  a  hemlock — as  some  fine 
hedges  near  Philadelphia  bear  witness.  Plants 
six  to  eighteen  inches  high,  are  the  most  suita- 
ble. Your  soil  would  be  improved  by  trench- 
ing, or  sub-soil  ploughing. 

Painting. — E.  B.P.,  (Springfield,  Illinois.) 
You  have  painted  your  house  a  drab,  and  the 
cornices,  window-dressings,  &c.,  a  brown-stone 
color.  The  best  effect,  then,  for  your  blinds, 
will  be  obtained  by  painting  the  frame  of  the 
blinds  the  same  dark  brown,  and  the  slats,  or 
lufTer  boards,  the  same  drab  as  the  house. 

Rose  Seedlings. — ^  Lover  of  Roses,  (Frank- 
lin Co.,  Pa.)  To  raise  roses  from  seed,  you 
should  gather  the  seeds  when  fully  ripe,  divest 
them  of  the  pulp,  mix  the  seeds  with  sand,  and 
put  this  sand  in  a  flower-pot  or  box,  covering 
the  surface  with  something  to  prevent  the  mice 
from  devouring  the  seeds.  Then  place  the  pot 
or  box  in  the  cellar,  and  keep  the  sand  moist. 
"VYhen  the  spring  opens,  sow  the  seeds  in  a  com- 
mon hot-bed,  and  when  the  plants  are  about  an 
inch  high,  transplant  them  into  a  rich,  light  bor- 
der, shading  them  till  established.  When  the 
seeds  are  sown  in  the  ordinary  way,  they  fre- 
quently lie  two,  and  sometimes  three  years,  be- 
fore vegetating. 

Grape  Border  for  Yineries. — /.  (Phila- 
delphia.)    Your  border  must  not  be  less  than 
wide  and  2^  feet  deep.     If  the  sub-soil 
ous,  so  that  it  drains  itself,  that  will  an- 


swer; if  clayey,  you  must  make  the  border 
three  inches  lower,  filling  the  bottom  with 
brick-bats  and  oyster-shells,  and  cutting  a  drain 
from  the  lowest  side  of  the  border,  to  carry  off 
the  wet.  Taking  it  for  granted  that  the  natu- 
ral soil,  where  the  border  is  to  be  made,  is  a 
good  loam,  let  your  border  be  composed  as  fol- 
lows: One-half  loam,  one-fourth  stable  ma- 
nure, one-eighth  broken  oyster-shells  and  bones, 
and  one  eighth  decomposed  vegetable  matter — 
such  as  decayed  leaves  from  the  woods,  decom- 
posed black  earth  from  swamps,  or  sods  chop- 
ped up.  To  a  border  of  this  kind,  25  feet  long, 
add  a  cart-load  of  leached  wood  ashes,  and  a 
peck  of  plaster  of  Paris.  The  whole  should 
be  mixed  very  thoroughly  together.  The  best 
three  or  four  sorts  for  a  cold  vinery,  are  the  fol- 
lowing— Black  Hamburgh,  Muscat  of  Alexan- 
dria, Royal  Muscadine,  Grizzly  Frontingnan. 

Stowell's  Sweet  Corn. — R.  S.  Knight, 
(Waterloo,  N.  Y.)  If  you  refer  to  the  article 
again,  you  will  see  that  the  seed  is  to  be  had  of 
Prof.  Mapes,  Newark,  N.  J.,  and  not  of  us. 

Pruning. — (West  Jersey.)  The  best  time  to 
head-back  the  old  forest  trees  you  describe,  is 
immediately  before  the  sap  starts.  Brush  over 
the  wounds,  in  all  cases,  with  the  liquid  shel- 
lac, (gum-shellac  dissolved  in  alcohol,  to  the 
consistency  of  thin  paint,)  described  in  our 
work  on  Fruits. 

Cherry  Tree  Grubs. — C.  P.,  (Granville, 
0.)  Push  a  small  wire  into  all  the  holes  con- 
taining the  grubs,  and  thus  kill  all  you  can. 
About  the  first  of  May,  coat  ovei*  all  the  trunks 
and  larger  branches  of  the  trees  affected,  or  li- 
able to  be  attacked,  with  a  mixture  of  soft-soap 
and  tobacco- water,  put  on  as  thick  as  it  will 
work  easily  from  the  brush.  If  you  leave  it 
till  June,  it  will  be  too  late — the  grub  coming 
out  in  a  winged  state  then,  and  depositing  its 
eggs  in  the  bark.  The  same  treatment  for  the 
apple-tree  borer.  Dont  prune  your  apple  trees 
for  the  mere  sake  of  pruning.  If  the  limbs  do 
not  actually  interfere,  you  had  better  let  them 
alone. 

Dissolving  Bones. — /.  R.  S.,  (Clarksville, 
Ga.)  To  dissolve  bones,  provide  a  strong  cask, 
fill  it  three-fourths  full  of  bones — (broken  into 
pieces  if  you  wish  to  save  time.)  Pour  over 
them  a  mixture  of  sulphuric  acid,  (oil  of 
ol,  which  may  be  had  at  the  druggists 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES, 


cents  per  lb.)  and  water,  in  the  proportion  of 
one  measure  of  acid  to  eight  measures  of  wa- 
ter. In  ten  days,  or  a  fortnight,  the  bones,  or 
most  of  them,  will  De  found  dissolved — and  if 
any  remain,  a  fresh  dilution  of  acid  can  be  ap- 
plied to  them.  Whatever  acid  remains  not  ta- 
ken up,  should  be  poured  into  the  compost 
heap,  as  it  is  a  very  powerful  manure.  If  you 
cannot  procure  acid,  you  may  bury  a  large 
mass  of  bones  in  a  heap  in  tlie  earth  j  they  will 
heat,  and  gradually  decompose  of  themselves — 
to  aid  which,  pour  hot  water  over  them  before 
covering  them  up.  They  are  usually  ground 
in  a  strong  mill,  without  being  calcined — when 
offered  for  sale  as  a  manure. 

Grafting  Grape-vines. — A.M.,  (Detroit.) 
Bury  your  grafts  in  a  cool,  shady  place,  cover- 
ing two-thirds  of  the  lower  part,  till  the  stocks 
that  you  wish  to  graft  have  begun  to  grow,  and 
their  leaves  are  as  large  as  a  shilling.  Then  graft, 
and  you  will  be  successful.  The  great  flow  of 
sap,  almost  destitute  of  oi'ganizable  matter,  in 
the  grape-vine,  often  prevents  the  graft  from  uni- 
ting with  the  stock,  when  set  at  the  usual  time. 

Peat  Earth. — A.  P.  W.,  (Columbus.) 
The  common  black  earth  of  swamps  is  of  no 
value  as  a  fertilizer  in  its  raw  state — being 
"  sour,"  or  full  of  acid.  It  will,  therefore,  do 
your  trees  and  plants  no  good  for  the  first  year, 
if  put  on  fresh  from  the  swamp.  You  must  re- 
duce it,  either  by  mixing  it  with  fermenting 
manure,  or  by  treating  it  with  brine,  ashes,  or 
lime  slaked  with  brine.  The  latter  is  the  best 
mode.  But  if  you  wish  to  make  it  ready  for 
immediate  use,  you  can  mix  it  with  newly  slak- 
ed lime — two  bushels  to  a  waggon  load.  Mix 
the  lime  in  layers  through  the  heap,  and  let  it 
lie  for  a  week — turn  it  over  and  let  it  lie  a  few 
days  more,  and  it  will  be  ready  for  use. 

Insects. — A  Novice,  (Bangor,  Me.)  If  you 
spread  coarse  refuse  salt  over  your  garden 
and  field,  at  the  rate  of  sis.  bushels  to  the 
acre,  as  soon  as  the  land  is  fit  for  working,  you 
will  destroy  the  cut-worm,  (the  white  grub  that 
destroys  your  vegetables,)  and  benefit  the 
land. 

Hedges. — A  Massachusetts  Subscriber.  You 
inquire  about  our  silence  respecting  the  Arbor 
Vitae  as  a  hedge  plant.  "We  consider  the  Arbor 
Vitae  the  most  valuable  and  useful  of  all  our 
native  evergreen  trees,  for  an  inside  hedge,  or 


screen- — ^but  it  is  hardly  fit  for  an  outside  hedge, 
except  in  civilised  parts  of  the  country,  like 
Massachusetts,  where  animals  are  not  allowed 
to  run  at  large. 

Girdled  Trees. — Fit  in  a  piece  of  bark  from 
the  limb  of  another  apple  tree, either  all  round, 
or  on  one  side  of  the  spot  that  has  been  girdled. 
If  you  do  it  neatly,  binding  the  whole  uptight, 
and  covering  it  from  the  air  by  a  plaster  of 
grafting  clay,  the  strip  of  bark  will  unite  like  a 
graft,  and  the  tree  will  be  saved. 

Plum  Tree  Warts. — /.  G.  Pease,  (Dutch- 
ess Co.,  N.  Y.)  The  brancli  you  sent  is  not 
affected  by  the  black  wart.  The  eggs  deposit- 
ed there  would  hatch,  and  the  branch  perish 
without  any  wart  occuring. 

Transplanting. — H.  H.  Coit,  (East  Cleve- 
land, 0.)  We  are  not  aware  that  any  of  our 
nurserymen  grow  evergreens  for  sale  by  the 
thousand.  Traders  in  native  evergreens  are  in 
the  habit  of  supplying  large  quantities  of  the 
most  popular  .sorts — such  as  Balsam  Fir  and 
Spruce,  at  about  $1  to  $6  per  100,  one  to  two 
feet  high — packed  in  crates.  The  larger  num- 
ber of  these  trees  come  from  Maine,  and  a  line 
addressed  to  Col.  Little,  Bangor,  Me.,  would 
probably  obtain  for  you  the  details  of  this  trade. 
Your  best  course  regarding  foreign  evergreens, 
will  be  to  import  them  early  next  fall,  from 
English  nurseries.  Rivers  of  Sawbridgeworth, 
Skira'ING  of  Liverpool,  and  Whitley  &  Os- 
BORN,  Fulham,  all  deal  extensively  in  these 
trees.  AYrite  for  a  catalogue  with  prices,  and 
then  send  your  order  through  IIarnden  &  Co., 
N.  Y.,  or  any  shipping  house  with  whom  you 
can  deposit  the  money — or  buy  a  bill  of  ex- 
change, and  .send  it  in  your  letter  containing 
the  order.  The  Italian  grai)e  you  mention, 
(Pitsiotclla)  we  do  not  know.  /.  W.  Gray, 
(New  Fairfield,  Ct.)  Trees  are  of  the  best 
size  for  transplanting  from  the  woods  to  the 
nursery,  at  from  4  to  6 feet.  Shorten  back  the 
tops  well.  If  they  are  to  be  sent  a  distance, 
cover  the  roots  with  old  cotton  bagging,  and 
the  tops  with  straw.  The  seeds  of  the  Hicko- 
ry nut  should  be  planted  in  the  fall. 

Special  Manures. — An  Orchardist,  (Mor- 
ristown,  N.  J.)  The  reason  you  failed  to  get 
any  good  from  the  toj)-dressing  of  lime  and  ash- 
es that  you  gave  your  fruit  trees,  is,  from  your 
account,  very  plain  to  us.  Your  trees  have  com- 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


pletely  impoverished  the  ground  where  they 
have  been  growing  and  bearing,  without  any 
new  supply  of  food  for  fifteen  years.  Notliing 
that  you  can  apply  as  a  mere  top-dressing,  will 
restore  such  trees — whether  in  the  shape  of  ani- 
mal or  mineral  manures.  Clear  off  all  the  old 
soil  over  the  roots — taking  care  not  to  injure  or 
cut  them.  At  the  outside  of  the  principal 
roots,  dig  a  trench  all  round  the  tree — 18  inch- 
es deep.  Throw  aside  the  old  exhausted  soil 
in  this  trench,  and  replace  it  by  new  soil  from 
the  corner  of  some  good  pasture  field,  where 
it  has  laid  fallow  for  years.  Mix  with  this  soil 
a  heavy  dressing  of  good  stable  manure,  or  rich 
compost  of  any  sort,  that  j'ou  may  have.  This 
will  give  new  life  to  the  exhausted  constitution 


of  the  tree.  If  you  now  add  a  bushel  of  ashes, 
and  half  a  peck  of  air-slaked  lime  to  the  new 
soil  that  you  must  put  in  the  place  of  that 
which  you  took  from  the  surface  roots,  your 
trees  will  be  well  supplied  with  both  organic 
and  inorganic  food.  Both  are  needful ;  and  ab- 
solutely necessary  as  lime,  and  potash,  and 
phosphates  are  to  the  growth  of  trees,  they 
can  no  more  live  upon  these  in  a  worn-out  soil, 
than  a  man  can  live  on  salt,  and  pepper,  and 
mustard,  with  no  beef  or  bread  to  go  along 
with  them. 

Insects. — Owen  T.  Hobbs,  (Randolph,  Pa.) 
The  eggs  of  the  peach  tree  insect  we  do  not  re- 
cognise— will  be  able  to  say  what  it  is  if  they 
hatch. 


33nrtinilturnl  Inriftirs. 


Pennsylvania. — The  stated  meeting  of  the 
Pennsylvania  llort.  Society  occurred  on  Tues- 
day evening  January  21st,  1851 — the  president 
in  the  chair.  Owing  to  the  precariousness  of 
midwinter,  contributors  do  not  risk  fine  speci- 
mens of  plants;  hence  displays  are  less  attrac- 
tive. One  small  collection,  however,  of  a  very 
interesting  character,  was  shown  by  Robert 
Scott,  foreman  to  Robert  Buist,  consisting  of 
Forsythia  viridissima  in  flower,  and  exhibited 
for  the  first  time,  Epacris  nivalis,  E.  purpuras- 
cens,  E.  coccinea,  Correa  multiflora  rubra, 
C.  bicolor,  Erica  Wilmorcanei,  and  Cleroden- 
dron  splendens.  James  Ritchie  presented  a 
beautiful  seedling  Camellia,  and  a  large  collec- 
tion of  cut  Camellia  flowers,  of  the  choicest 
varieties  Designs,  baskets  of  cut  flowers  and 
bouquets,  were  unusually  handsome.  Of  fruit, 
a  few  dishes  of  apples  only  were  seen.  The 
committee  on  this  department,  reported  that 
they  were  regaled  on  New  Year's  day  with 
Hamburg  grapes,  which  had  just  been  cut  from 
the  vine  under  glass,  by  William  Johns;  the 
merit  consisted  in  the  mode  of  preservation, 
being  ripe  last  October,  and  retaining  their 
freshness  and  flavor.  This  result  was  effected 
by  darkening  the  house,  thus  checking  the 
growth  of  the  vine,  with  occasional  circula- 
tion of  air  to  prevent  moulding.  Of  vegeta- 
bles there  were  four  large  displays  of  the  finest 
esculents.  Thomas  Meehan,  gardener  to  A. 
M.  Eastwick,  (Bartram's  Garden.)  exhibited  a 
dish  of  blanched  dandelion  plants,  the  leaves 
of  which  are  eaten  as  salad,  and  by  some  much 
relished. 

The  committee  of  finance  reported  as  to  the 
correctness  of  the  Treasurer's  accounts  and 
favorable  state  of  the  investments. 

The  special  committee  on  the  accommoda- 


tions of  the  Society  submitted  a  lengthy  report 
which  was  ordered  to  lie  over  for  consideration. 

An  interesting  communication  was  read  from 
Dr.  John  Dawson,  (formerly  of  the  city,)  da- 
ted Cape  of  Good  Hope,  South  Africa,  Nov. 
8,  1850,  purporting  that  he  had  procured  of  the 
"  Botanic  Garden  Commission"  of  the  Cape, 
a  package  of  seed,  and  had  forwarded  the  same 
to  the  Society,  and  desiring  a  reciprocity. 

At  the  annual  meeting,  the  following  oflicers 
were  elected  for  the  ensuing  year: 
-  President — Caleb  Cope. 

Vice  Presidents — Gen.  R.  Patterson,  Jas. 
Dundas,  Joshua  Longstrethand  E.  W.  Keyser. 

Treasurer — John  Thomas. 

Cor.  Sec'y — Thomas  C.  Percival. 

Rec.  Sec'y — Tho.  P.  James. 

The  stated  monthly  meeting  for  February, 
occurred  on  the  18th.  The  President,  upon 
taking  the  chair,  addressed  the  society,  tender- 
ing his  thanks  for  the  marked  expression  of 
confidence  in  his  re-election,  dwelling  upon  the 
usefulness  of  the  association,  and  alluding  to 
its  prosperous  condition,  remarking  that  of  late 
some  little  extravagance  had  crept  into  its 
management,  which  only  required  investigation 
to  be  remedied,  and  reiterating  his  intention 
to  retire  at  the  termination  of  the  j'ear. 

The  display  on  the  occasion,  consisted  of  two 
fine  collections  of  plants.  In  that  from  R. 
Buist 's  houses,  were  tliree  new  and  interesting 
specimens — the  Boronia  anernonifolia,  Erica, 
levigata  and  E.  aurantiaca,  which  were  seen 
for  the  first  time.  Among  A.  M.  Eastwick's 
plants  were  many  choice  species.  Tlnee  sets 
of  Primula  sinensis  were  presented  by  John 
Lambert,  Robert  Buist,  and  A.  M.  Eastwick's 
gardeners.  Displays  of  cut  Camellias,  which 
were  unusually  rich  and  extensive,  were   from 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


the  houses  of  James  Ritchie,  Robert  Buist, 
John  Lambert  and  John  Dick.  Two  very  hirge 
vases,  supporting  pyramids  of  the  choicest  cut 
flowers,  exhibited  by  Andrew  Dryburgh,  were 
much  admired.  Of  fruits,  there  were  a  few 
dishes  of  apples.  Of  vegetables  there  were 
three  very  large  tables  from  the  gardens  of 
Anthony  Felten,  Joseph  Ripka  and  Miss  Gratz. 

The  appointments  of  standing  committees  for 
the  ensuing,  year  was  announced. 

Members  elected. — Sir  Wm.  Jackson  Hooker, 
London,  Eng..  John  Dawson,  M.  D.,  Burmah, 
E.  I.,  to  honorary  and  corresponding  member- 
ship, and  three  as  resident  members. 

Tho.  p.  James  Rec.  Sec. 


Buffalo. — The  annual  meeting  of  the  Buffalo 
Hort.  Society,  was  lield  February  19th, 

President,  Lewis  Eaton,  in  the  chair. 

On  motion,  T.  Burwell,  Esq.,  was  appointed 
Secretary,  pro.  tem. 

The  Treasurer,  A.  A.  Howard,  read  his  re- 
port, which  shows  a  flourishing  condition  of  the 
finances. 

The  Society  then  proceeded  to  the  election 
of  ofhcers. 

Lewis  Eaton  was  re-elected  President,  but 
declined  the  office,  and 

On  motion  of  H.  B.  Potter,  liis  declination 
was  accepted,  and  the  thanks  of  the  Society 
tendered  him  for  his  valuable  services. 

On  the  second  ballot,  Benjamin  Hodge  was 
unanimously  elected  President  of  the  Society 
for  the  ensuing  year. 

Vice  Presidents — Abner  Bryant,  H.  B.  Pot- 
ter, Joseph  G.  Masten,  and  Jas.  W.  Brown. 

Cor.  Sec'y — W.  R.  Coppock. 

Jicc.  Sec'y — Jno.  B.  Eaton. 

Treasurer — A.  A.  Howard. 

The  following  committes  were  appointed: 

Flowers  and  Flowering  Plants — AV.  R.  Cop- 
pock, J.  W.  Brown,  F.  Bryant,  C.  F.  S.  Tho- 
mas and  E.  Ford. 

Fruits— L.  F.  Allen,  Lewis  Eaton,  H.  "\7. 
Rogers,  J.  G.  Masten  and  J.  Dart,  Jr. 

Vegetables — J.  Sexton,  O.  Allen,  R.  Had- 
field,  S.  J.  Mills  and  T.  Burwell. 

On  motion  of  L.  F.  Allen,  it  was 

Resolved,  That  the  President,  Treasurer  and 
Recording  Secretary  be  constituted  a  commit- 
tee on  the  subject  of  printing. 

Resolved,  That  the  Society  hold  four  exhi- 
bitions during  the  ensuing  season — in  the  months 
of  May,  June,  August  and  September. 

On  motion  of  Lewis  Eaton. 

Resolved,  That  the  Society  hold  monthly 
meetings  throughout  the  year,  at  such  time 
and  place  as  may  have  been  appointed  at  the 
previous  meeting. 


Montreal  Botanical  Society. — At  a  meet- 
ing held  in  Mr.  Garth's  Rooms,  on  Feb.  the 
20th,  called  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  Bo- 


tanical Society  in  Montreal — present,  Messrs 
Shephard,  Garth,  Taylor,  Turner,  Small, 
Archibald,  Spriggings,  Cockburn,  Brown,  Cur- 
roll,  Laurence  and  Allan. 

It  was  resolved  to  form  such  a  Society,  to  be 
called  the  "  Montreal  Botanical  Society," 
having  for  its  object,  principally,  mutual  in- 
struction in  the  study  of  Botany,  the  investiga- 
tion of  Plants  indigenous  to  the  country,  and 
the  classification  and  examination  of  the  Fruits 
cultivated  in  Canada. 

It  was  resolved,  in  order  that  information  re- 
garding the  structure,  uses,  and  classification 
of  Plants  may  be  more  widely  disseminated, 
that  a  Library  be  formed  principally  of  Botani- 
cal works. 

The  following  gentlemen  were  appointed  of- 
fice-bearers for  the  ensuing  year,  viz; — 

President — Mr.  Shephard. 

Vice  President — Mr.  Garth. 

Treasurer — Mr.  Spriggins. 

Secretary — Mr.  Brown. 

New  Bedford. — At  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  New-Bedford  Hort.  Society,  held  Feb.  6, 
the  following  gentlemen  were  unanimously 
chosen  as  the  officers  of  the  Society  for  the 
ensuing  year: — 

President — James  Arnold. 

Vice  Presidents — Henry  H.  Crapo,  John 
Howland,  Jonathan  Bourne,  Jr.,  William  P. 
Jennej'. 

Treasurer — William  C.  Coffin. 

Cor.  Sec'y— John  H.  W.  Page. 

Rec.  Sec'y — Matthew  Howland. 

Executive  Committee — The  President,  Trea- 
surer, Rec.  Sec'y,  L.  B.  Keith,  Matthew  Luce, 
James  H.  Collins,  and  James  Moores. 

Committee  for  Establishing  Premiums — The 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Fruits,  do.  on 
Plants  and  Flowers,  do.  on  Trees,  Shrubs  and 
Entomology,  do.  on  Vegetables,  Willard  Nye, 
and  George  Tappan. 

Library  Committee — Joseph  C.  Delano,  Geo. 
Howland,  jr.,  Samuel  R.  Brown. 

Committee  on  Fruits — H.  H.  Crapo,  Wm. 
Swift,  Wm.  T.  Cook,  Jos.  Clark,  Rodolphus 
N.  Swift. 

Committee  on  Plants  and  FJowers — Thomas 
A.  Greene, William  C.  Coffin,  Wellwood  Young, 
F.  P.  Chase,  I.  D.  Hall. 

Committee  on  Shrubs  and  Entomology — Au- 
gustus Tabcr,  Obed  Nye,  Hattil  Kelley,  Well- 
wood  Young,  John  B.  Burgess. 

Connnittee  on  Vegetables — Edmund  Gardner, 
John  B.  Burgess,  H.  S.  Packard,  John  M! 
Howland,  Philip  Anthony. 

Committee  on  Publications — James  B.  Cong- 
don,  Rec.  Sec'y,  and  the  Cliairman  of  the  re- 
spective Committees  on  Fruits,  Plants  and 
Flowers,  on  Trees,  Shrubs  and  Entomology, 
and  on  Vegetables. 

Committee  on  Exchanges^-Alhcvt  D.  Hatch. 


Af^DERSON    St. 


RTJUAL  GOTHIC  CHURCH. 


Hort:   May,  ia51. 


JOURNAL  OF  RUKAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


€ljB  Stglrrtri  51  mr rime  ^Mnis, 

^  T  is  an  old  and  familiar  saying  that  a  prophet  is  not  without  honor,  except  in  his  own 
^^  country,  and  as  we  were  making  our  way  this  spring  through  a  dense  forest  in  the 
state  of  New-Jersey,  we  were  tempted  to  apply  this  saying  to  things  as  well  as  peo- 
ple. How  many  grand  and  stately  trees  there  are  in  our  woodlands,  that  are  never 
heeded  by  the  arboriculturist  in  planting  his  lawns  and  pleasure-grounds  ;  how  many 
rich  and  beautiful  shrubs,  that  might  embellish  our  walks  and  add  variety  to  our  shrub- 
beries, that  are  left  to  wave  on  the  mountain  crag,  or  overhang  the  steep  side  of  some 
forest  valley ;  how  many  rare  and  curious  flowers  that  bloom  unseen  amid  the  depths 
of  silent  woods,  or  along  the  margin  of  wild  water-courses.  Yes,  our  hot-houses  are 
full  of  the  heaths  of  New-Holland  and  the  Cape,  our  parterres  are  gay  with  the  Ver- 
benas and  Fuchsias  of  South  America,  our  pleasure-grounds  are  studded  with  the  trees 
of  Europe  and  Northern  Asia,  while  the  rarest  spectacle  in  an  American  country 
place,  is  to  see  above  three  or  four  native  trees,  rarer  still  to  find  any  but  foreign 
shrubs,  and  rarest  of  all,  to  find  any  of  our  native  wild  flowers. 

Nothing  strikes  foreign  horticulturists  and  amateurs  so  much,  as  this  apathy 
and  indifference  of  Americans,  to  the  beautiful  sylvan  and  floral  products  of  their 
own  country.  An  enthusiastic  collector  in  Belgium  first  made  us  keenly  sensible  of  this 
condition  of  our  coimtrymen,  but  Summer,  in  describing  the  difiiculty  he  had  in  pro- 
curing from  any  of  his  correspondents,  here,  American  seeds  or  plants — even  of  well 
known  and  tolerably  abundant  species,  by  telling  us  that  amateurs  and  nurserymen  who 
annually  import  from  him  every  new  and  rare  exotic  that  the  richest  collections  of 
Europe  possessed,  could  scarcely  be  prevailed  upon  to  make  a  search  for  native  Ame- 
rican plants,  far  more  beautiful,  which  grow  in  the  woods  not  ten  miles  from  their  own 
Some  of  them  were  wholly  ignorant  of  such  plants,  except  so  far  as  a 
with  their  names  in  the  books  may  be  called  an  acquaintance.     Others 


May  1,  1851. 


No.  V. 


THE  NEGLECTED  AMERICAN  PLANTS. 


them,  but  considered  them  "  wild  plants,"  and  therefore,  too  little  deserving  of  atten- 
tion to  be  worth  the  trouble  of  collecting,  even  for  curious  foreigners.  "  And  so,''  he 
continued,  in  a  country  of  Azaleas,  Kalmias,  Rhododendrons,  Cypripediums,  Magnoli- 
as and  Nysas, — the  loveliest  flowers,  shrubs,  and  trees  of  temperate  climates, — you  never 
put  them  in  your  gardens,  but  send  over  the  water  every  year  for  thousands  of  dollars 
worth  of  English  larches  and  Dutch  hyacinths.      Voila  h  gout  RepubliqueV 

In  truth,  we  felt  that  we  quite  deserved  the  sweeping  sarcasm  of  our  Belgian 
friend.  We  had  always,  indeed,  excused  ourselves  for  the  well  known  neglect  of  the 
riches  of  our  native  Flora,  by  saying  that  what  we  can  see  any  day  in  the  woods,  is 
not  the  thing  by  which  to  make  a  garden  distinguished — and  that  since  all  mankind 
have  a  passion  for  novelty,  where,  as  in  a  fine  foreign  tree  or  shrub,  both  beauty  and 
novelty  are  combined,  so  much  the  greater  is  the  pleasure  experienced.  But,  indeed, 
one  has  only  to  go  to  England,  where  "  American  plants"  are  the  fashion,  (not  unde- 
servedly, too,)  to  learn  that  he  knows  very  little  about  the  beauty  of  American  plants. 
The  difference  between  a  grand  Oak  or  Magnolia,  or  Tulip  tree,  grown  with  all  its 
graceful  and  majestic  development  of  head,  in  a  park  where  it  has  nothing  to  interfere 
with  its  expansion  but  sky  and  air,  and  the  same  tree  shut  up  in  a  forest,  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  high,  with  only  a  tall  gigantic  mast  of  a  stem,  and  a  tuft  of  foliage  at  the  top,  is 
the  difi'erence  between  the  best  bred  and  highly  cultivated  man  of  the  day,  and  the 
best  buff"alo  hunter  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  with  his  sinewy  body  tattooed  and  tan- 
ned till  you  scarcely  know  what  is  the  natural  color  of  the  skin.  A  person  accustom- 
ed to  the  wild  Indian  only,  might  think  he  knew  perfectly  well  what  a  man  is — and  so 
indeed,  he  does,  if  you  mean  a  red  man.  But  the  "  civilizee"  is  not  more  diff"erent  from 
the  aboriginal  man  of  the  forest,  than  the  cultivated  and  perfect  garden  tree  or  shrub, 
(granting  always  that  it  takes  to  civilization — which  some  trees,  like  Indians,  do  not,) 
than  a  tree  of  the  pleasure  grounds  differs  from  a  tree  of  the  woods. 

Perhaps  the  finest  revelation  of  this  sort  in  England,  is  the  clumps  and  masses  of 
our  Mountain  Laurel,  Kalmia  latifolia,  and  our  Azaleas  and  Rhododendrons,  which 
embellish  the  English  pleasure-grounds.  In  some  of  the  great  country  seats,  whole 
acres  of  lawn,  kept  like  velvet,  are  made  the  ground-work  upon  which  these  masses  of 
the  richest  foliaged  and  the  gayest  flowering  shrubs  are  embroidered.  Each  mass  is  plan- 
ted in  a  round  or  oval  bed  of  deep,  rich,  sandy  mould,  in  which  it  attains  a  luxuriance 
and  perfection  of  form  and  foliage,  almost  as  new  to  an  American  as  to  a  Sandwich 
Islander.  The  Germans  make  avenues  of  our  Tulip  trees,  and  in  the  South  of  France, 
one  finds  more  planted  Magnolias  in  the  gardens,  than  there  are,  out  of  the  woods,  in 
all  the  United  States.  It  is  thus,  by  seeing  them  away  from  home,  where  their  merits 
are  better  appreciated,  and  more  highly  developed,  that  one  learns  for  the  first  time 
what  our  gardens  have  lost,  by  our  having  none  of  these  "  American  plants"  in  them. 

The  subject  is  one  which  should  be  pursued  to  much  greater  length  than  we  are  able  to 
follow  it  in  the  present  article.  Our  woods  and  swamps  are  full  of  the  most  exquisite 
plants,  some  of  which  would  greatly  embellish  even  the  smallest  garden.  But  it  is 
rather  to  one  single  feature  in  the  pleasure  grounds,  that  we  would  at  this  moment  di- 
rect the  attention,  and  that  is,  the  introduction  of  two  broad-leaved  evergreen  shrubs, 


OSAGE  ORANGE  FOR  HEDGES. 

that  are  abundant  in  every  part  of  the  middle  states,  and  that  are,  nevertheless,  sel- 
dom to  be  seen  in  any  of  our  gardens  or  nurseries,  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the 
other.  The  defect  is  the  more  to  be  deplored,  because  our  ornamental  plantations,  so 
far  as  they  are  evergreen,  consist  almost  entirely  of  pines  and  firs — all  narrow-leaved 
evergreens — far  inferior  in  richness  of  foliage,  to  those  we  have  mentioned. 

The  Native  Holly  grows  from  Long-Island  to  Florida,  and  is  quite  abundant  in  the 
woods  of  New- Jersey,  Maryland  and  Virginia.  It  forms  a  shrub  or  small  tree,  vary- 
ing from  four  to  forty  feet  in  height — clothed  with  foliage  and  berries  of  the  same  or- 
namental character  as  the  European  Holly — except  that  the  l^af  is  a  shade  lighter  in 
its  green.  The  plant  too,  is  perfectly  hardy,  even  in  the  climate  of  Boston — while  the 
European  Holly  is  quite  too  tender  for  open  air  culture  in  the  middle  states — notwith- 
standing that  peaches  ripen  here  in  orchards,  and  in  England  only  on  walls. 

The  American  Laurel  or  Kalmia,  is  too  well  known  in  all  parts  of  the  country  to 
need  any  description.  And  what  new  shrub,  we  would  ask,  is  there — whether  from 
the  Himmalaj'as  or  the  Andes,  whether  hardy  or  tender,  which  surpasses  the  Ameri- 
can Laurel  when  in  perfection — as  to  the  richness  of  its  dark  green  foliage,  or  the  ex- 
quisite delicacy  and  beauty  of  its  gay  masses  of  flowers  ?  If  it  came  from  the  high- 
lands of  Chili,  and  were  recently  introduced,  it  would  bring  a  guinea  a  plant,  and  no 
grumbling ! 

Granting  all  this,  let  our  readers  who  wish  to  decorate  their  grounds  with  something 
new  and  beautiful,  undertake  now,  in  this  month  of  May,  (for  these  plants  are  best 
transplanted  after  they  have  commenced  a  new  growth,)  to  plant  some  laurels  and  hol- 
lies. If  they  would  do  this  quite  successfully,  they  must  not  stick  them  here  and 
there  among  other  shrubs  in  the  common  border — but  prepare  a  bed  or  clump,  in  some 
cool,  rather  shaded  aspect — a  north  slope  is  better  than  a  southern  one — where  the  sub- 
soil is  rather  damp  than  dry.  The  soil  should  be  sandy  or  gravelly,  with  a  mixture 
of  black  earth  vrell  decomposed,  or  a  cart-load  or  two  of  rotten  leaves  from  an  old 
wood,  and  it  should  be  at  least  18  or  20  inches  deep,  to  retain  the  moisture  in  a  long 
drouth.  A  bed  of  these  fine  evergreens,  made  in  this  way,  will  be  a  feature  in  the 
grounds,  which,  after  it  has  been  well  established  for  a  few  years,  will  convince  you 
far  better  than  any  words  of  ours,  of  the  neglected  beauty  of  our  American  plants. 


OSAGE   ORANGE   FOR   HEDGES. 

BY  B.  HODGE,  BUFFALO,  N.  Y. 

A.  J.  DowNTiKG,  Esq. — Dear  Sir:  During  the  past  few  years  I  have  had  very  many 
inquiries  relative  to  the  Osage  Orange  as  a  hedge  plant — whether  it  would  endure  the  se- 
verity of  hard  winters,  &c.  For  the  purpose  of  enabling  me  to  answer  these  inquiries 
understandingly,  two  years  ago  I  procured  and  planted  a  quantity  of  the  seed.  The 
season,  (1849,)  they  made  a  growth  of  nearly  two  feet — and  when  the  cold  frosts 


REMARKS  ON  VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY. 

tumn  came,  the  wood  was  but  imperfectly  ripened.  I  left  them  entirely  unprotected,  and 
in  the  spring  the  whole  of  the  tops  were  completely  killed,  quite  down  to  the  ground.  The 
roots,  however,  all  survived,  and  during  the  year  1850  they  made  a  tine  growth,  having 
thrown  up  numerous  shoots  from  three  to  four  feet  high.  I  have  examined  them  to-day, 
and  find  that  the  ends  of  all  the  branches  are  killed  from  one  to  two  feet.  We  have  had  a 
few  very  cold  days  during  the  past  winter — yet,  on  the  whole,  a  rather  mild  winter  tlian 
otherwise.  Again,  there  was  considerable  snow  on  the  ground  during  the  most  severe 
weather,  and  this  no  doubt  protected  the  trees.  From  my  little  experience,  and  from  ob- 
servation, I  am  quite  of  the  opinion,  that  the  Osage  Orange  cannot  be  relied  on  for  a 
hedge  in  a  northern  latitude.  Will  others  who  have  had  more  experience,  give  us  their 
opinion? 

In  conclusion,  I  would  just  remark,  that  in  the  vicinity  of  Cincinnati,  the  Osage  Orange 
succeeds  admirably.  Such  beautiful  hedges  as  I  saw  there  last  autumn,  are  rare  indeed, 
in  this  country.  I  fear,  however,  that  for  New-York,  New-England,  Wisconsin,  Northern 
Illinois,  &c.,  it  will  not  answer.  Yours  verj'-  truly,  B.  Hodge. 

B^iffalo,  March  14,  1851. 

Remarks. — We  believe  we  have  already  given  our  opinion  that  the  Osage  Orange  will 
make  a  good  hedge  no  farther  north  than  the  peach  ripens  well.  But  we  have  no  doubt 
it  will  answer  at  Buffalo.  It  is  found  by  experience,  that  as  soon  as  the  hedge  is  sheared, 
and  the  growth  becomes  short  and  well  matured,  it  is  far  hardier  than  when  the  plants 
are  young.     Ed. 


SOMEEEMAKKS   ON  VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY. 

BY  P.  BARRY,  ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 

In  what  way  arc  new  layers  of  wood  added  to  the  stems  of  growing  exogenous  treesl 

This  is  a  mooted  question  among  vegetable  physiologists,  and  as  the  subject  has  been 
brought  forcibly  to  my  mind,  by  an  example  which  I  have  met  in  pruning,  I  thought  it 
might  not  be  unprofitable  to  draw  attention  to  this  very  interesting  subject. 

The  popular  theory,  I  believe,  is  that  the  moisture  of  the  soil  enters  the  roots  of  plants, 
through  the  spongioles  or  porous  points,  by  absorption — that  there  it  combines  with  soluble 
matters  already  in  the  roots  and  stem,  and  becomes  what  is  called  sap — that  this  ascends 
through  the  cells  or  organs  of  the  stem,  into  the  leaves,  where,  by  parting  with  water  by 
exhalation,  and  receiving  carbonic  acid  gas  from  the  atmosphere  by  absorption,  it  under- 
goes certain  changes,  becomes  duly  elaborated  and  fitted  for  the  formation  of  new  parts, 
when  it  takes  the  name  of  cambium.  Then  this  cambium  or  elaborated  sap,  passes  down- 
wards, through  the  inner  bark,  and  deposites  a  new  la3'er  of  wood  on  the  top  of  the  pre- 
vious one,  and  a  new  layer  of  bark  loithin  the  previous  one, — and  thus  what  we  call  the 
concentric  layers  or  annual  rings  of  wood,  by  which  we  count  the  ages  of  trees,  are  formed. 

This,  as  I  have  remarked,  is  the  most  popular  theory,  at  least  so  I  regard  it,  of  the  for- 
mation of  exogenous  wood.  But  there  are  some  learened  physiologists  and  botanists 
who  dissent  from  this  theory. 

Dr.  ScHLEiDEN,  extraordinary  professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of  Jena,  in  his 
"Principles  of  Scientific  Botany,"  a  learned  and  valuable  work,  says,  "this  is  only  a 
dream  picture."  "  In  the  first  place,"  says  he,  "  there  is  no  such  thing  as  crude  sap. 
It  cannot  therefore  be  carried  to  the  leaves  to  become  assimilated.     From  whatever  part, 


REMARKS  ON  VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY. 

and  at  whatever  time,  we  examine  the  sap  of  a  plant,  we  find  that  it  contains  organic 
principles  which  cannot  come  from  the  soil,  because  they  do  not  exist  there;  such  as  starch; 
sugar,  gum,  malic,  citric  and  tartaric  acids,  albumen,  &c.  These  substances  are  diluted 
with  a  good  deal  of  water,  and  mixed  with  a  little  carbonic  acid  and  carbonate  of  ammo- 
nia which  are  contained  in  the  water  of  the  soil.  Even  in  the  colls  of  the  roots  which 
first  receive  the  moisture  of  the  soil,  it  is  chemically  changed,  assimilated,  and  the  sap  is 
most  decidedly  not  flowing  in  special  vessels  but  passing  upwards  from  cell  to  cell,  and  thus 
it  is  in  every  new  cell  which  is  being  developed  by  the  formative  chemical  processes.  Noth- 
ing remains  for  the  leaves  to  assimilate." 

This  you  see  is  an  utter  denial  of  the  ascent  of  the  sap  in  special  vessels,  of  its  elabora- 
tion in  the  leaves,  or  descent  in  the  bark.  Now  if  he  be  right,  how  is  it  possible,  that, 
when  the  ascent  of  the  sap  is  obstructed  by  the  compression  of  the  stem  as  with  a  ligature 
the  upper  part,  which  is  less  in  contact  with  the  sap  than  the  lower  part,  can  increase 
much  more  rapidly  in  size?  The  example  to  which  I  have  referred  is  that  of  the  branch 
of  a  plum  tree  encircled  by  the  wire  of  a  label.  This  branch  is  four  years  old,  and  during 
the  whole  of  last  season  and  part  of  the  one  previous,  this  wire  has  been  so  tight  that  no 
enlargement  of  the  wood  under  it  could  take  place,  the  consequence  is  that  the  part  just 
above  the  wire  is  one  inch  greater  in  circumference  than  that  below  it,  so  much  greater 
have  been  the  deposites  of  new  matter  above  than  below.  Besides  it  happened  that  on 
one  side  the  wire  did  not  press  so  firmly,  nor  so  soon  as  on  the  other,  and  on  that  side 
of  the  part  below  the  wire,  we  find  the  last  layer  of  wood  three  times  as  thick  as  on  the 
other  side,  where  the  pressure  was  first  and  greatest,  and  the  separation  more  complete. 

The  annexed  drawing  represents  the  branch  referred  to,  A  the  large  por- 
tion above  the  wire,  and  B  the  smaller  portion  below.  C,  D,  the  point  en- 
circled by  the  wire.  On  the  side  D,  the  wire  admitted  of  greater  expan- 
sion, and  there  the  upper  and  lower  lip  of  the  wound  project  almost  equal- 
ly. On  the  side  C,  the  upper  lip  is  a  regular  perpendicular  wall  3-lG  of  an 
inch  deep,  the  surface  of  the  lower  part  being  quite  even.  On  the  cut  sec- 
tion E,  we  find  the  last  ring  of  wood  on  the  side  A,  D,  B,  3  times  as  large 
as  on  the  other,  on  account  of  the  partial  communication  existing  at  the 
point  D. 

Does  not  this  furnish  a  pretty  strong  indication  that  the  formation  of  new  layers  of 
wood,  is  a  downward  process,  and  that  it  depends  upon  the  leaves. 

Dr.  ScHLEiDEN  accounts  for  such  cases  by  saying,  "  As  water  is  continually  exhaled  by 
plants  in  proportion  to  the  motion,  drj^ness  and  warmth  of  the  air,  so  the  sap  becomes 
concentrated,  and  thus  interrupts  the  endosmotic  process  towards  the  other  cells;  this  ac- 
tion is  continued  naturally  downwards  towards  the  roots,  by  which  new  watery  and  un- 
assimilated  fluids  are  absorbed.  If  this  stream  of  crude  sap*  is  artificially  interrupted  in 
its  course  from  below  upwards,  the  sap  in  the  upper  part  becomes  more  concentrated,  and 
its  organizing  power  increased.  This  is  the  simple  fact  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all 
the  phenomena  which  are  brought  forward  to  support  the  groundless  h3'pothesis  of  a  de- 
scending bark  sap.  The  two  most  important  facts  upon  this  subject  are :  1.  The  magic 
ring  (ringing  fruit  trees.)     2.  The  action  of  grafts. 

"  If  from  the  circumference  of  a  branch  or  tree,  a  ring  of  bark  be  removed,  the  upper 
part  Avill  bear  richer  blossoms  and  fruit  ;  the  latter  will  ripen  quicker,  the  leaves  will  be 
thrown  off  sooner,  and  the  trunk  will  become  thicker  and  stronger  than  in  the  part  below 
the  cutting.     All  this  is  completely  explained  in  the  foregoing  facts,  without  makin 

*  In  a  previous  quotation  the  existence  of  a  "crude  sap"  is  denied. 


REMARKS  ON  VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY. 

the  least  degree  necessary  to  assume  the  motion  of  any  descending  proper  juice   or  bark 
sap  which  certainly  does  not  exist." 

"  When  an  apricot  graft  grows  from  the  trunk  of  a  plum  tree,  the  latter  is  naturally  and 
by  degrees  clothed  with  apricot  wood,  for  out  of  the  same  soil,  an  apricot  tree  would 
merely  take  up  the  same  sap  as  the  plum  tree;  but  afterwards,  in  proportion  as  the  leaves 
and  branches  of  the  plum  tree,  or  of  the  apricot,  evaporate,  assimilate,  &c.,  plum  or  apri- 
cot wood  will  remain."  Such  is  Dr.  Schleiden's  mode  of  reasoning,  and  really  the  case 
of  the  graft  presents  at  first  sight  the  strongest  olyection  to  the  descending  sap  theory,  be- 
cause if  the  new  woody  matter  is  prepared  in  the  leaves  and  is  deposited  by  a  downward 
process,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  when  the  pear  grows  on  a  quince  stock,  new 
layers  of  pear  wood  will  be  deposited  on  the  quince.''  But  no  such  phenomenon  occurs, 
and  as  I  believe  for  this  reason.  The  cambium  or  elaborated  sap,  is  only  a  prepared  condi- 
tion of  the  food  of  trees,  and  when  it  happens,  as  in  the  case  of  the  pear  on  the  quince, 
that  one  species  prepares  cambium  for  itself  and  another,  each  one  receives  it  as  food  only 
and  appropriates  it  to  its  own  peculiar  formation  in  the  way  that  two  species  of  plants  will 
grow  in  precisely  the  same  soil  without  losing  their  identity,  or  two  species  of  animals 
subsist  on  the  same  food  without  assuming  any  degree  of  similarity.  I  do  not  doubt,  nor 
is  it  denied,  that  I  am  aware  of,  by  any  physiologists  that  the  sap  undergoes  a  certain  de- 
gree of  elaboration  in  the  cells  and  organs  of  the  stem,  but  that  it  \s  principally  performed 
by  the  leaves,  and  that  the  principal  part  of  the  new  wood  is  formed  by  the  descending 
prepared  sap,  seems  most  in  harmony  with  the  facts  that  daily  occur  to  us  in  practice. 

P.  B. 

Rochester,  N.  Y.,  April,  1S51. 

Remarks. — A  highly  interesting  communication.  Dr.  Scrleiden,  in  someof  his  works, 
reasons  so  poorly  that  we  have  little  ftiith  in  him.  Experiments,  which  may  be  repeated 
by  any  one,  prove  the  passage  of  the  fluids  downward,  after  having  risen  to  the  leaves,  and 
been  exposed  to  a  distinct  process  there.  The  assimilation  or  digestion  is  however  not 
completed  in  the  leaf,  but  depends  for  that  final  individuality  of  character  which  causes 
it  to  make  plum  or  pear  tree  wood,  upon  the  bark  which  immediately  overlays  such  Avood 
— for  the  downward  current  usually  passes  through  the  bark,  and  is  thence  distributed 
horizontally  through  the  medullary  raj's  into  the  interior  of  the  stem.  Hence,  whatever 
the  bark  is  which  covers  any  part  of  the  stem  of  a  tree,  such  will  be  the  kind  of  wood  de- 
posited beneath  that  bark — no  matter  w"hether  the  leaves  above  that  bark  be  pear  or  quince. 

This  is  not  only  proved  by  the  familiar  fact,  that  the  barks  above  and  below  the  graft, 
always  maintain  their  original  line  of  distinction,  but  more  clearly  by  the  experiment 
made  by  phiysiologists  of  grafting  rings  of  the  bark  of  various  allied  species,  as  the  pear, 
quince  and  apple,  upon  different  parts  of  the  same  trunk.  After  growing  several  years  it 
was  found  that  the  pear  bark  had  deposited  pear  wood — the  quince  bark,  quince  wood, 
and  so  of  the  others.  There  were  no  leaves  to  each  ring  of  bark,  and  the  experiment 
clearly  proved  that  the  action  of  the  wood  depends  on  the  bark  which  overlays  it,  and 
gives  its  final  character  to  the  downward  currant  of  fluid  nutriment  just  as  it  undergoes 
its  last  change  into  solid  matter.    Ed. 


RAMBLE  AMONG  WILD  FLOWERS. 

A   SEASON'S   RAMBLE   AMONG   WILD   FLOWERS. 

BY  T.  S.  GOLD,  CONNECTICUT. 

The  dissolving  snows  of  winter  remind  us  of  the  pleasures  of  spring,  and  as  the  frosts 
relax  their  hold  upon  the  soil,  the  ever  teeming  earth  is  ready  to  put  forth  a  thousand 
forms  of  life  and  beauty.  My  object  at  the  present  time,  is  to  refresh  our  minds  that  are 
familiar  with  these  beauties,  not  by  a  full  description  of  them,  but  by  adverting  to  some 
of  their  striking  characters;  also  to  awaken  the  attention  of  those  who  have  hitherto 
walked  the  fields  unmindful  of  a  greater  display  of  glory  around  them,  than  that  with 
which  Solomon  was  arrayed. 

To  the  true  lover  of  flowers  and  of  nature,  (and  I  cannot  separate  the  two,)  a  wide  field 
of  enjoyment  is  presented,  into  which  many  never  enter.  I  can  feel  no  sympathy  with 
him  who  ruthlessly  destroys,  or  carelessly  treads  upon  these  gems  which  God  has  strewn 
so  bountifully  about  our  paths,  evidently  with  a  design  to  cherish  our  finer  feelings,  and 
soften  our  hearts.  As  they  were  created  for  our  happiness  and  improvement,  we  should 
gather  them,  (but  not  rudely,)  study  the  marks  of  design  and  goodness  thej^  exhibit,  and 
present  them  to  our  friends  as  tokens  of  that  peace  and  purity  which  alone  pertains  to  the 
productions  of  the  Divine  hand. 

The  list  Avhich  I  propose  to  give  of  these  gems  of  nature,  will  be  by  no  means  complete, 
but  contain  many  found  in  this  locality,  Litchfield  county,  Ct.  They  are  nearly  all  peren- 
nials, and  most  of  them  might  be  established  with  a  little  care,  in  some  undisturbed  posi- 
tion near  the  dwelling.  How  much  would  it  add  to  the  charms  of  a  country  residence  to 
form  upon  that  rocky  knoll  hard  by,  a  collection  of  wild  plants  suited  to  it,  or  beneath 
the  shades  of  some  neighboring  copse,  or  upon  the  borders  of  that  little  rivulet,  to  assem- 
ble from  distant  wood  and  glen  their  floral  treasures,  allowing  each  to  retain  their  pecu- 
liar habits,  of  which  many  are  very  tenacious.  Once  established,  very  little  care  would  be 
necessary  to  preserve  them,  and  thus,  through  the  season,  a  succession  might  be  maintain- 
ed of  these  modest,  fairy-like  gifts,  almost  in  their  native  haunts,  and  another  rose  be  ad- 
ded to  the  wreath  of  rural  pleasures. 

For  every  flower  which  I  shall  name,  I  have  a  strong  affection;  its  native  locality,  Avhere 
I  have  often  found  it,  is  fresh  in  my  mind,  and  at  the  sight  of  it  my  heart  thrills  with  de- 
light, as  when  I  meet  an  old  and  long  tried  friend. 

And  now,  friends,  let  us  take  a  long  ramble  in  the  fields  and  woods,  beginning  as  soon 
as  the  blue-bird  commences  its  happy  carol,  and  continuing  it  till  the  chilly  blasts  of 
autumn  warn  us  to  seek  ngain  our  warm  firesides,  thereto  meditate  upon  the  many  bright 
images  with  which  we  have  stored  our  minds. 

First,  let  us  visit  that  bleak  northern  hill-side,  for  there  the 

EpigcEa  repens,  (Trailing  Arbutus,)  as  I  saw  before  the  snows  were  gone,  had  prepared 
its  buds  to  open  with  the  first  genial  breath  of  spring.  Here  it  is,  an  evergreen  vine,  or 
trailing  shrub,  half  covered  with  the  dry  leaves;  but  its  little  pink  clusters  are  open,  ex- 
haling a  fragrance  equaling  that  of  more  favored  flowers. 

Let  us  pass  that  skirt  of  woodland,  and  under  its  sunny  side,  peeping  from  beneath 
the  dry  leaves,  we  will  find  the 

Hspatica  acutiloba  and  americana,  (Liverleaf.) — These  species  resemble  each  other  in 
potted  lobed  leaves,  and  in  their  numerous  delicate  blue  and  white  flowers,  and 
us  a  welcome  salutation  to  enjoy  the  beauties  of  spring. 


RAMBLE  AjMONG  WILD  FLOWERS. 

You  must  follow  me  without  particular  invitation,  as  we  visit,  during  the  advance  of  the 
season,  the  various  haunts  of  flowers,  for  nature's  garden  is  extensive,  and  so  delicate  are 
many  of  her  productions,  that  they  can  only  thrive  in  the  soil  and  aspect  particularly 
adapted  to  each;  yet  is  no  spot  so  barren,  but  that  at  the  proper  time  it  yields  its  jewels. 
As  we  descend  these  broad  rocks,  wherever  a  niche  occurs  in  which  there  is  an  inch  of  soil, 
we  may  find  the 

Saxifraga  virginicnsis,  (Rock  Saxifrage,)  not  waiting  to  grow  more  than  one  inch  in 
height,  lest  the  kindly  showers  of  spring  fail,  it  opens  its  little  white  flowers  until  the 
whole  rock  is  carpeted  with  them.  Where  the  soil  is  deeper,  it  grows  upwards  of  a  foot 
in  height. 

In  yonder  sheltered  vale,  half  shaded  and  half  sunnj-,  undisturbed  by  the  hand  of  man, 
we  may  find  many  flowers. 

Anemone  ncmorosa  and  thalictroidcs,  (Wood  Anemone.)  Fit  tenants  of  this  favored 
spot;  the  first  rude  blast  will  strip  them  of  their  delicate  white  or  pale  lilac  petals,  and 
crush  their  airy  foliage;  they  are  welcome  to  our  boqucts. 

Claytonia  virginica,  (Spring  Beautj''.)  The  frailness  and  delicate  beauty  of  this  plant, 
render  it  worthy  of  its  name.  It  is  found  under  the  protection  of  some  large  rock,  or 
decaying  stump,  opening  its  pretty  pink  petals,  striped  with  red,  to  the  gladdening  sun. 

j^rum  triphyllum,  (Wild  Turnep,  or  Indian  Turnep,  Jack  in  the  Pulpit.)  The  curious 
form,  rather  than  the  beauty  of  this  plant,  attracts  us.  Its  spathe,  striped  with  purple 
and  green,  bending  over  like  a  friar's  hood,  to  cover  its  cup,  Mhich  is  succeeded  by  a  bunch 
of  brilliant  scarlet  berries,  always  affords  a  theme  for  admiration. 

jlzurum  canadense,  (AVild  Ginger.)  Beneath  that  decayed  log,  thrusting  aside  the 
fallen  leaves,  some  large  and  broad  kidney -shaped  leaves,  attached  to  a  kind  of  subterra- 
nean stem,  appear,  and  close  in  at  their  base  may  be  found  a  small  purplish  flower.  The 
pleasing  fragrance  of  its  stem  and  root,  are  the  chief  merits  of  this  plant. 

Dentaria  diphylla,  (Pepper  Root.)  Along  the  dry  banks  of  the  stream,  this  may  be 
found  producing  a  spike  of  white  flowers.     Its  root  is  large,  white,  and  pungent. 

Erythronium  americanum,  (Dog-tooth  Violet.)  Another  of  the  welcome  harbingers 
of  spring.  Verj'-  early,  its  long  sjiotted  leaf  shoots  up  in  some  sheltered  spot,  succeeded 
by  its  flower  stalk,  bearing  a  single  yellow,  lilly-like  flower. 

Uvularia  perfoliata  find  sessilifolia,  (^Bell  Wort.)  These  are  graceful  plants,  about 
one  foot  high,  resembling  the  preceding  in  their  flowers,  and  the  same  damp,  rich  soil  pro- 
duces them. 

Sanguinaria  canadensis,  (Blood  Root.)  This  is  one  of  the  earliest  flowers.  We  shall 
find  it  in  some  sunny  moist  spot  in  the  meadow,  vmder  the  shelter  of  a  rock,  opening  its 
large,  pure  white  petals  to  the  sun,  disclosing  the  j-ellow  stamens  within.  The  blood-red 
juice  which  exudes  from  the  stem,  as  well  as  the  root,  when  bruised,  gives  rise  to  its  name. 
The  leaf  is  like  the  foliage  of  the  grape-vine. 

Caltha  paliistris,  (Water-Cowslips.)  Marking  the  course  of  the  stream  as  it  winds 
along  through  the  meadow,  this  plant  appears  with  its  gay  and  yellow  fllowers,  too  well 
known  to  need  description. 

jlctcza  rubra  and  alha,  (Necklace  Weed.)  Before  leaving  the  deep  rich  soil  of  the  vale, 
we  may  find  these  plants,  with  clusters  of  small  white  flowers;  but  they  are  better  known 
when  in  fruit,  the  former  producing  bunches  of  deep  scarlet  berries  the  latter  white  oval 
waxen  ones,  with  black  spots  on  their  extremities,  which,  upon  their  large  red  peduncles, 
present  a  very  striking  appearance. 

Mitclla  diphylla,  (Currant  Leaf)     The  same  fruitful  soil  has  still  other  treasures 


RAAIBLE  AMONG  WILD  FLOWERS. 

This  plant  produces  a  single  spike  of  small  white  flowers,  nearly  one  foot  in  height.  It 
exhibits  the  same  tenderness  which  belongs  to  most  of  the  flowers  of  this  period.  It  ac- 
companies the  following  species,  which  it  much  resembles,  in  the  borders  of  moist  woods. 

Tiardla  cordifoUa,  (Mitre  Wort.)  Two  opposite  leaves  upon  the  flower  stalk  is  the  most 
prominent  distinction  between  this  and  the  preceding. 

As  we  leave  tlie  vale  already  loaded,  but  not  burdened,  with  our  collection,  we  will  di- 
rect our  course  through  the  open  woods,  towards  yonder  rocky  and  half  exposed  ledges. 
We  may  find  on  our  way  the  little  starry  white  blossoms  of  the 

Trientalis  americana,  (Chick  Wintergreen,)  surrounded  by  long,  narrow  pointed 
leaves,  on  a  slender  stalk,  about  six  inches  in  height.  This  is  one  of  those  pure  and  spot- 
less things  which  remind  us,  that  notwithstanding  human  imperfections,  there  is  a  being 
whose  works  are  perfect. 

jjtquilcgia  canadensis,  (Columbine.)  Having  reached  the  ledge,  we  find  this  plant,  far 
surpassing  in  tlie  delicacy  of  its  foliage  and  flowers,  the  cultivated  varieties.  The  sweet- 
ness of  its  pendant  red  and  yellow  blossoms,  graceful  form  and  luxuriance,  always  render 
it  a  favorite. 

Jlronia  botryapimn,  (Shad-bush — June  Berry.)  Growing  from  the  clefts  of  the  same 
rock,  is  this  shrub  or  small  tree;  and  even  before  any  foliage  appears,  it  is  covered  with 
its  snow-white  blossoms. 

Xylosteum  ciliatum,  (Fly  Honej^suckle.)  Sheltered  in  this  thicket  we  may  find  this 
plant;  a  shrub  about  five  feet  high,  covered  with  small  yellowish-red  flowers,  growing  in 
pairs,  and  very  sweet.  The  bees  soon  find  their  way  to  these  delicacies;  and  what  is 
more  cheering  on  a  bright  day  in  spring,,  than  a  bush  in  full  leaf  and  flower,  covered  with 
the  busy  bees,  while  all  around  is  still,  dry  and  barren. 

Trillium  ercctum,  (Wake  Robin.)  As  we  descend  from  the  rocky  knoll,  among  the 
thick  shrubs  and  in  a  damp  soil,  is  found  the  wake  robin.  Its  stalk  is  about  one  foot  in 
in  height,  where  it  sends  out  three  rhomboidal  leaves,  and  is  terminated  above  by  one 
flower  with  three  petals;  these  are  either  purple  or  white,  with  purple  centres.  Were  it 
not  for  its  unpleasant  odor,  this  would  be  one  of  the  favorite  flowers  of  the  woods. 

Viola,  (Wild  Violets.)  During  our  rambles  we  have  not  failed  to  gather  blue,  white 
and  yellow  violets;  although  they  are  not  distinguished  for  beauty,  yet  as  heralds  of  sum- 
mer they  are  ever  welcome.  Some  of  them  are  sweet  scented,  (though  usually  they  have 
no  fragrance,)  and  no  bunch  of  spring  flowers  is  perfect  w^ithout  them.  Two  years  since, 
I  found  in  a  meadoAV  a  bunch  of  violets,  which  from  their  rare  size  and  beauty,  I  removed 
to  the  garden.  They  are  blue,  striped  with  white,  and  upon  a  little  turf  of  six  inches  in 
diameter,  there  were  about  fifty  flowers. 

Polygala  pancifolia,  (Flowering  Wintergreen.)  In  the  border  of  these  pine  woods  we 
find  this  delicate  red  flower.  The  plant  is  about  the  size  of  the  common  wintergreen,  j^ct 
it  produces  one  or  two  flowers  of  rare  beauty;  often  hundreds  of  them  may  be  found 
where  the  fallen  pine  leaves  have  checked  every  other  species  of  vegetation. 

Houstonia  cerulca,  (Venus  Pride,  Innocence,  Bluett,  Forget-me-not.)  As  we  emerge 
into  the  open  field,  we  still  find  our  path  strewed  with  flowers.  This  humble  and  modest 
little  plant,  is  too  well  known  to  need  any  description ;  yet  abundant  as  it  is,  who  can 
tread  roughly  on  the  turf  which  it  makes  like  a  soft  enameled  carpet. 

jizaha,  (Wild  Honeysuckle,  May  Apple.)  Now  let  us  plunge  into  the  deep  woods,  and 
where  the  hand  of  man  has  never  violated  its  retreat,  we  shall  find  this  sweet  flower. 
What  lover  of  nature  ever  returned  from  a  ramble  in  our  forests  in  smiling  May,  without 
bending  his  steps  to  some  sequestered  spot  where  he  may  gather  a  bunch  of  these  blossoms. 


RAMBLE  AMONG  AVILD  FLOWERS. 

which  always  attract  by  their  rich  color  and  delicate  fragrance.     Many  species  are  com 
mon,  varying  in  color,  but  in  other  respects  similar. 

Orchis  spectabilis,  (Gay  Orchis.)  In  woods  a  little  later  we  may  find  this  species,  one 
of  the  most  delicate  of  the  family,  p"oducing  spikes  of  pink  flowers  about  six  inches 
high. 

CypripediuM,  (Moccasin  Flower.)  In  the  same  soil,  some  in  the  deep  forest,  and  some 
in  its  borders,  are  found  the  different  species  of  this  most  beautiful  genus.  The  rich  shades 
of  their  colors,  and  delicacy  of  their  markings,  are  only  equaled  by  their  graceful  and  cu- 
rious forms,  and  the  most  careless  rambler  would  stop  to  admire  them.  Yet  few  plants 
are  as  tenacious  of  their  own  rights  to  a  congenial  soil,  and  so  difficult  of  cultivation.  The 
spactabik  is  the  only  species  which  is  found  in  open  grounds,  and  from  its  rugged  appear- 
ance, gives  some  hope  that  it  may  succeed  in  the  garden. 

Convallaria,  (Solomon's  Seal.)  We  shall  find  several  species  of  this  genus  at  this  sea- 
son, but  none  of  them  equal  the  one  cultivated,  (Lily  of  the  Valley,)  which  belongs  to  the 
south. 

These  may  form  our  boquet  of  spring  flowers;  no  less  beautiful  will  be  those  of  summer. 

Sisyrinchium  anceps,  (Blue-eyed  Grass.)  As  we  wander  in  the  low  grassy  meadows, 
this  little  blue-eye  looks  up  at  us  on  its  grass-like  stem,  and  seeks  our  notice. 

Corydalis  glauca.  We  must  again  turn  to  the  woods,  and  in  their  rocky  border  we 
may  find  this  delicate  biennial;  whose  singular  foliage,  of  a  bluish  tinge,  and  long  succes- 
sion of  small  yellow  and  pink  flowers,  should  render  it  an  especial  favorite.  This  and  the 
following  species,  are  much  improved  by  cultivation,  both  in  the  size  and  number  of  their 
flowers. 

C.  fungosa.  The  deepest  and  wildest  recesses  of  the  forest  must  be  searched  for 
this  species.  It  is  a  delicate  vine,  and  there  I  have  seen  it  spreading  over  the  rocks  in  the 
greatest  profusion.  Its  airy  foliage  and  curious  flower,  is  similar  to  the  preceding. 
Another  species  still,  is  found  in  similar  localities. 

Sarracenia  purpurea,  (Side-saddle  Flower,  Pitcher  plant.)  In  our  search  for  summer 
flowers,  we  must  not  neglect  to  visit  yonder  peat  bog,  for  cold  and  forbidding  as  it  looks, 
some  of  its  productions  exceed  the  bounds  of  the  most  erratic  fanc}'.  The  purple  flower 
of  the  pitcher  plant,  with  the  termination  of  its  pistil  expanded  so  as  to  cover  nearly  the 
whole  flower,  excites  our  admiration,  but  not  equally  with  its  cup-shaped  leaves;  these  are 
rigid,  upright,  shaped  like  a  sack  contracted  towards  the  top,  and  often  holding  a  gill  of 
water.  Here  we  see  a  provision  made  by  Providence  for  maintaining  a  supply  of  this  ne- 
cessary element,  in  addition  to  that  which  the  roots  may  obtain. 

Calopogon  pulchellum,  (Grass  Pink.)  We  must  not  leave  the  swamp  until  we  have 
discovered  other  treasures.  The  grass  pink  has  a  slender  stalk  of  a  foot  or  more  in  height, 
and  near  the  top  several  large  purple  flowers,  which  possess  the  curious  forms  belonging 
to  the  Orchis  family'-. 

Pogonia  ophioglossoides,  (Snake-mouth  Arethusa.)  Belonging  to  the  same  tribe,  and 
standing  at  its  side,  we  find  the  arethusa.  It  has  a  single  purple  flower,  at  the  top  of  a  stem 
rarely  one  foot  in  height.  Language  fails  to  give  anjMdea  of  the  curious  forms  this  family 
exhibit. 

Pontederia  cordata,  (Pickerel  Weed.)  Before  leaving  the  marsh  we  must  visit  this  lit- 
tle lake,  for  the  bright  sun  has  warmed  it,  and  emerging  from  its  shallow  borders  are  seen 
the  pale  blue  spikes  of  the  pickerel  weed,  rising  about  two  feet  in  height. 

Calla  palustris,  (^Water  Arum.)     This  plant,  though  much  inferior  to  the  exot 
cies,  is  not  devoid  of  beauty.     It  is  found  in  slugglish  streams,  or  shallow  lakes,  w 


RAMBLE  AMONG  WILD  FLOWERS. 

Nymphm  odorata,  (White  Water  Lily.)  Fit  dwellings  for  the  undines  or  water  nymphs; 
we  see  their  lai-ge  white  corols  expanded,  pure  and  spotless,  on  the  surface  of  the  deeper 
water,  while  their  broad  glossy  leaves  extend  around  them.  Their  sweet  perfume  equals 
their  beauty.  Having  gathered  these,  shall  we  not  say  that  we  have  been  richly  paid  for 
our  visit  to  this  otherwise  unattractive  spot. 

Geranium  viaculatum,  (Crowfoot  Geranium,  Cranesbill.)  We  must  make  another  visit 
to  the  low  meadow  and  sheltered  rivulet,  for  here  now  the  cranesbill  expands  its  delicate 
purple  petals.  This  is  not  inferior  to  some  of  the  cultivated  species,  and  as  it  grows  in 
the  greatest  profusion,  the  effect  it  produces  is  very  pleasing. 

Lysimachia  strida,  (Loose  Strife.)  There  are  many  species  of  this  genus,  of  which 
this  is  the  finest.  They  grow  on  the  borders  of  streams,  and  produce  an  abundance  of 
small  yellow,  star-like  flowers. 

Iris  versicolor  and  prismatica,  (Blue  Flag,  Boston  Iris.)  In  the  same  locality  we  may 
find  these  two  species  of  iris,  resembling  those  cultivated;  but  the  latter  one,  especially, 
is  more  slender  and  delicate. 

Chimaphila  maculata,  (Spotted  Wintergreen.) 

Chimaphila  umbdlata,  (Prince's  Pine.)  The  burning  sun  inclines  us  to  visit  the  deep 
shades  of  the  forest,  and  there  we  shall  still  find  new  charms.  These  two  species  are  ev- 
ergreens, and  produce  clusters  of  small  reddish  white,  fragrant  waxen  flowers. 

Pyrola  rotandifolia  and  elliptica,  (Pear  Leaf  Wintergreen.)  The  habits  of  these  plants 
are  similar  to  the  preceding,  as  also  their  flowers,  except  they  grow  on  slender  spikes. 

Mitchella  repens,  (Partridge  Berry.)  Where  there  is  some  partial  opening  in  the  forest, 
we  may  find  this  small  evergreen  vine,  with  its  dark  pink  flowers,  in  pairs,  bearing  at  the 
same  time  the  red  waxen  berries  of  the  previous  year.  Its  thick  carpet  of  green  is  attrac- 
tive, but  its  most  pleasing  feature  is  its  delicate  fragrance. 

Monotropa  uniflora,  (Indian  Pipe,  Wax  Plant.)  Enter  again  the  deep  forest,  and  we 
are  startled  at  something  which  at  first  sight  presents  more  the  appearance  of  a  work  of 
art,  than  a  production  of  nature.  The  wax  plant,  with  no  green  leaves,  but  the  whole 
stem,  as  well  as  flower,  of  a  frosty  whiteness,  makes  us  doubt  whether  it  is  natural  or  ar- 
tificial. An  examination  of  its  delicate  and  perfect  corol  settles  this  point.  Later  in  the 
season  the  flower  turns  brown,  and  from  a  nodding  position  becomes  upright.  It  is  said 
to  be  parasitic  on  the  roots  of  trees,  and  is  one  of  nature's  greatest  curiosities. 

Linnea  borcalis,  (Twin  Flower.)  This  is  the  only  species  in  our  country  of  this  genus, 
named  in  honor  of  the  immortal  Linneus.  It  is  a  slender,  prostrate  vine,  found  in  dry 
woods,  and  usually  excludes  everything  else  from  the  space  it  occupies.  Its  stalks,  each 
bearing  a  pair  of  small  pink,  sweet  scented  flowers,  rise  about  four  inches.  I  have  seen  it 
but  in  two  localities,  and  its  beauty,  and  the  associations  connected  with  its  name,  have 
induced  me  to  make  a  pilgrimage  of  manj^  miles  to  visit  it. 

Cassia  chammcrista  and  niditans,  (Wild  Sensitive  Plant.)  Leaving  the  forest,  let  us 
now  search  that  arid  sandy  plain,  for  since  our  visit  in  spring,  its  vegetation  has  entirely 
changed.  We  .shall  now  find  these  two  species  of  Cassia,  which  are  very  similar,  except 
the  flowers  of  the  first  are  much  the  largest.  They  are  bright  yellow,  with  dark  centres, 
produced  abundantly  on  their  slender  branching  stems,  which  grow  about  one  foot  high. 
As  the  delicate  feathery  fuliage  of  these  little  annuals,  like  the  true  sensitive  plant,  folds 
up  at  the  approach  of  evening,  or  of  a  storm,  or  when  they  may  be  rudely  handled  or 
plucked,  but  more  slowly,  they  are  always  attractive,  even  before  the  blossoms  aj^pear; 
for  many  years  I  have  cultivated  them  with  perfect  ease  and  success 

Lupinus  perennis,  (Wild  Lupine.)     So  abundant  is  this  plant  in  the  same  localty 


RAMBLE  AaiONG  WILD  FLOWERS. 

be  esteemed  a  weed,  yet  its  numerous  spikes  of  blue  flowers  render  it  attractive,  and  well 
worthy  of  notice. 

^sclcpias  quadrifolia  and  tubsrosa,  (Swallow-Worts.)  In  that  broken  wood  which 
borders  this  sandy  plain,  thrive  these  species  of  Asclepias.  The  first  possesses  delicacy 
of  form,  and  is  sweet-scented,  but  the  latter,  (the  butterfly-weed,)  is  very  showy,  with 
its  large  clusters  of  orange  colored  flowers. 

jRosa  rubiginosa,  (Sweet  Briar,  Elegantine.)  Other  species  of  single  wild  roses  are  com- 
mon, but  the  sweet  briar  is  the  most  worthy.  The  charming  fragrance  which  it  exhales 
at  "  early  morn  or  dewy  eve,"  the  soft  and  airy  expression  of  its  foliage,  the  unassuming 
beauty  of  its  flowers,  have  always  rendered  it  a  favorite;  and  whether  we  find  it  adorning 
some  humble  cottage,  or  luxuriating  in  its  native  haunts,  it  ever  appears  appropriate  and 
beautiful. 

Cactus  opuntia,  (Prickly  Pear.)  Dry  basaltic  or  trap  rocks,  are  the  natural  habitat 
of  this  plant.  I  have  seen  it  only  at  West  Rock,  New-Haven,  Ct.  The  flower  will  not 
compare  in  beauty  with  the  exotic  species,  yet  the  unique  appearance  of  the  plant  well 
adapts  it  to  deck  some  rocky  peak. 

Campanula  rotU7idifolia,  (Hair  Bell.)  In  similar  localities,  but  more  generally  distri- 
buted throughout  the  state,  we  may  find  the  hair  bell.  The  round  radical  leaves  of  this 
species  give  rise  to  its  botanical,  and  the  slender  hair-like  leaves  of  the  stem,  to  its  com- 
mon name.  Nothing  can  be  more  graceful  than  the  delicate  nodding  blue  bells  of  this 
plant,  supported  on  their  slender  stalks,  and  as  they  wave  over  some  sunny  bank,  or  shel- 
tered crevice,  we  can  only  admire  and  praise  them.  Another  species,  the  AmphxicauUs , 
(Clasping  Bell-flower,)  exhibits  the  same  beautiful  blue,  but  its  flowers  are  half  conceal- 
ed among  the  clasping  leaves  of  its  single  upright  stem. 

Liliam  philadelphicum,  canadsnse  and  suparbum,  (Field  and  Wood  Lilies.)  Let  us 
visit  these  low  meadows  once  more,  before  the  scythe  strips  them  of  their  mantle,  for 
there  and  in  the  adjoining  hedge  row,  among  the  abundant  productions  of  summer,  we 
shall  find  much  that  is  beautiful.  These  three  species  of  lily  are  each  superior  to  some 
of  the  cultivated  ones.  The  first  has  one  or  two  large,  red  spotted,  upright  flowers;  the 
second,  one  or  more  nodding  yellow,  or  orange  ones,  with  dark  spots;  but  the  third  is 
a  noble  pyramid  of  10 — 20  bright  orange  flowers,  with  purple  spots. 

JIabanaria  Jimbriata,  (Fringed  Orchis.)  A  little  later  than  the  lilies,  appears  in  the 
same  situation,  this  most  beautiful  species  of  the  Orchis  family.  Its  dense  spike  of  curi- 
ously formed  purple  flowers,  ever  renders  it  interesting. 

L?ptandra  virginica.  In  the  borders  of  that  hedge,  now  may  be  seen  shooting  up,  the 
tall  spikes  of  the  Leptandra,  covered  with  its  pretty  white  flowers. 

Hudbi'ckia  vacciniata.  Accompanying  it,  or  among  the  wild  vegetation  on  the  banks  of 
some  stream,  is  found  the  Rudbeckia,  its  tall  branching  stalks,  terminated  by  its  large 
yellow  petals,  making  a  very  showy  appearance. 

Cusenta  americana,  (Dodder.)  This  is  a  slender,  yellow,  parasitic  vine,  twining  about 
other  plants,  in  damp,  shady  places.  It  has  small  white  flowers,  and  being  destitute  of 
green  herbage,  its  curious  aspect  arrests  our  attention. 

Jmpaticvs  pallida  and  fulva,  (Touch-me-not,  Jewel  Weed.)  These  species  are  more 
delicate  than  the  garden  balsams,  and  their  flowers  are  less  abundant.  These  annuals 
grow  so  plentifully  in  some  rich,  damp  situations,  Avhere  the  soil  may  have  been  disturb- 
ed, as  to  be  regarded  as  weeds. 

matis  virginica,  (Virgin's   Bower,   Traveler's   Joy.)     This  is  a  common  cl 
beautiful  when  covered  with  its  clusters  of  white  blossoms,  but  very  showy 


RAMBLE  AMONG  WILD  FLOWERS. 

the  seeds  are  formed,  which,  from  their  long  feathery  appendages,  have  given  to  this  plant 
the  peculiar  name  by  ■which  it  is  often  known,  of  "  devil's  head  in  the  bushes." 

Lobelia  cardinalis  and  siphiliiica.  Few  flowers  of  the  garden  or  green-house  equal  in 
brilliancy  the  scarlet  cardinal  flower.  This,  and  the  latter  species,  which  is  blue,  in  Au- 
gust adorn  the  banks  of  our  streams  with  their  tall  spikes  of  flowers,  and  attract  the  at- 
tention of  the  most  careless  observer. 

Glycine  apios,  (Ground  Nut.)  This  plant,  which  from  the  edible  character  of  its  root, 
has  attracted  considerable  attention  in  France,  is  found  in  the  same  neighborhood.  It  is  a 
vine  often  ten  feet  in  length,  with  handsome  pinnate  leaves,  and  thick  clusters  of  brick- 
red,  papilionaceous  flowers;  their  fragrance  is  peculiar,  strongly  resembling  that  of  fine 
green  tea.  (It  produces  a  large  number  of  small  oblong  tubers,  the  largest  about  the  size 
of  a  dove's  egg,  strung  upon  its  roots  four  or  five  inches  apart.  As  freezing  does  not  in- 
jure them,  they  may  be  dug  in  autumn  or  spring;  and  at  the  latter  season,  the  only  time 
I  have  tried  them,  much  resemble  a  mealy  potato,  to  which  they  are  superior  in  flavor. 
From  a  vine  which  has  stood  in  my  garden  for  many  years,  and  covers  a  small  trellis,  I  dig 
a  few  handfuls  annually,  as  a  curiosity,  and  the  parent  stock  remains  uninjured.  Should  it 
improve  by  cultivation,  as  the  potato  has  done,  it  would  rival  that  important  plant,  and 
perhaps  may  become  a  useful  substitute  for  it.) 

Helonias  dioicia,  (False  Unicorn  Root.)  This  plant  grows  in  the  open  fields,  in  cold, 
lean  soils.  Its  flowers  are  small  and  white,  arranged  on  a  single  tall,  noodding,  white  or 
nearly  transparent  stem. 

Spiranthus  tortilis  and  gracilia,  (Lady's  Tresses.)  In  the  same  soil,  we  shall  find  the 
upright,  slender  stems  of  these  species,  surrounded  in  spiral  rows  by  their  white  waxen 
flowers.     To  beauty  of  appearance  they  add  a  delightful  fragrance. 

Euchroma  coccinea,  (Painted  Cups.)  The  corol  of  this  plant  is  very  insignificant,  but 
it  is  accompanied  by  a  number  of  scarlet  bracts,  which  give  it  a  very  gay  appearance.  It 
is  found  in  dry,  poor  soils. 

Epilobium  spicatum,  (Willow  Herb.)  A  strong  plant,  often  six  feet  high,  with  long 
spikes  of  purple  flowers.  It  is  usually  found  in  rich  lands,  recently  stripped  of  their 
growth  of  timber. 

(Enothera  biennis,  (Tree  Primrose.)  This  is  a  biennial,  so  abundant  as  sometimes  to 
be  considered  a  weed.  It  delights  in  cultivation,  and  continues  for  a  long  time  to  furnish 
abundantly,  its  large,  lemon-yellow  flowers.  Many  plants,  at  a  particular  hour  or  sea- 
son,open  their  corols,  butnoneis  more  regular  or  easily  observed  than  this.  Soon  after  sun- 
set its  petals  expand,  not  slowly,  but  with  a  sudden  jerk;  so  that  as  they  open  one  after 
another,  the  whole  plant  appears  to  possess  animal  life,  and  where,  but  a  few  minutes  be- 
fore, the  buds  were  scarcely  seen  among  the  leaves,  now  appear  broad,  expanded  flowers. 

Gerardia  flava  and  pedicularia,  (False  Foxglove.)  These  plants  are  distinguished  for 
handsome  foliage,  and  large,  lemon-yellow  flowers,  shaped  like  the  foxglove  of  the  gar- 
dens.    They  grow  about  two  feet  high,  and  prefer  dry,  open  woods. 

G.  purpurea  and  tcnuijolia.  These  are  much  smaller  than  the  preceding;  their  flow- 
ers are  purple,  and  they  are  found  in  cold,  damp  soils. 

Solidago,  (Golden  Rod.)  It  will  not  be  worth  while  to  enumerate  the  different  species 
of  this  genus,  yet  we  will  not  pass  it  by  in  silence;  for  by  the  abundance  of  its  rich  yel- 
low flowers,  seen  in  every  hedge  row,  it  adds  much  to  the  beauties  of  summer  and  autumn. 

Gnaphalum  polycephalum  and  margaritaceum,  (Life  Everlasting.)    These  are  also  very 
common,  but  that  does  not  detract  from  the  honey-like  fragrance  of  the  first,  or  the 
ty  of  the  pure  white  and  durable  little  roses  of  the  latter 


TO  RESUSCITATE  TREES  LONG  OUT  OF  GROUND. 

Aster.  This  is  so  numerous  a  family,  that  during  autumn  scarcely  any  localitj'-  or  soil 
is  without  its  representative.  Its  colors  are  equally  varied,  exhibiting  almost  every  color 
except  yellow.  As  they  are  all  very  hardy,  and  bear  cultivation  well,  many  of  them  may 
worthily  occupy  some  vacant  corner,  even  in  a  small  garden.  They  remain  bright  and 
beautiful,  after  frosts  of  considerable  severity. 

Gentiana  crinita,  (Fringed  Gentian.)  Nature  seems  not  to  have  bestowed  all  her  fa- 
vors on  spring  or  summer,  but  to  have  reserved  this  one  of  her  most  unique  productions, 
for  dull  and  sober  autumn.  The  bright  blue  color  of  its  petals,  their  delicately  fringed 
edges,  and  the  fairy-like  twist  of  its  buds,  always  render  it  one  of  our  favorites.  Other 
species  of  gentian  are  found  with  it,  in  cold,  damp  places,  but  they  resemble  it  onl  \  in  its 
rich  blue  color. 

And  now,  kind  friends,  as  we  gather  these  last  flowers  of  autumn,  how  changed  are  our 
emotions  from  those  which  we  felt,  as  full  of  hope  and  joy  we  culled  the  first  blossoms  of 
spring.  It  is  with  a  kind  of  melancholy  satisfaction,  that  we  prolong  the  pleasures  of 
summer,  by  collecting  these  last  delicate  productions  of  nature,  even  while  the  rude  blasts 
of  autumn  are  sweeping  by,  and  remind  us  of  coming  winter,  in  which  all  vegetation  must 
sleep  until  its  frosts  are  dispelled  by  the  genial  breath  of  spring,  again  to  cheer  us  with 
their  varied  forms  of  life  and  beauty.  How  plainly  typical  of  our  final  rest  and  journey 
hence  to  the  spirit  land,  where,  with  new  powers,  we  hope  to  spend  a  blest  eternity  in  ad- 
miring and  praising  the  perfect  works  of  our  Creator.  T.  S.  Gold. 

Cream  Hill,  Ct.,  March  3,  185L 


TO  RESUSCITATE  TREES  LONG  OUT  OF  GROUND. 

BY  B.  DESPORTES,  ANGERS,  FRANCE. 

Hon.  a.  J.  Downing — Sir :  Permit  me,  through  your  estimable  journal  to  make  known 
a  fact  of  the  utmost  importance  to  your  countrymen,  who  import  trees  from  Europe.  And 
this  communication  is  the  more  valuable  from  not  being  mere  theory,  but  the  result  of 
actual  experience. 

In  the  spring  of  1850,  M.  Andre  Lerot,  nurserymen  of  Angers,  in  France,  imported 
from  an  American  nurseryman,  a  large  number  of  fruit  trees,  evergreens,  plants,  &c.  The 
season  was  rather  too  far  advanced  when  the  order  was  sent,  and  when  the  trees  arriv- 
ed at  their  destination,  they  appeared  to  have  suffered  so  much  from  the  length  of  their 
journey,  and  to  be  in  such  a  dry  condition,  that  if  they  had  been  offered  for  sale,  not  a 
single  buyer  could  have  been  found  for  them.  But  the  intelligent  owner  was  not  easily 
discouraged.  He  had  them  unpacked,  and  taken  to  the  bank  of  a  stream  which  runs 
through  his  grounds.  There  he  had  a  wide  ditch  dug,  in  which  he  placed  the  pear  trees, 
covering  them  eight  or  ten  inches  deep  with  sand,  which  extended  even  upwards  among  the 
branches  and  over  the  roots,  so  as  to  cover  them  completely.  In  this  condition  they  re- 
mained fifteen  days,  and  on  examination  he  found  they  were  doing  very  well;  he  was  not 
able  to  plant  them  until  six  days  later,  being  at  the  time  much  engaged  with  other  busi- 
ness; when  he  drew  them  from  the  earth  they  were  in  full  blossom,  and  the  roots  were 
covered  with  new  white  fibres,  nearly  an  inch  long.  The  ground  they  were  planted  in 
was  trenched  and  enriched  with  stable  manure.  Fearing  that  the  roots  were  too  small  and 
feeble  to  nourish  such  long  branches  at  that  advanced  season,  he  thought  it  prudent 
shorthen  in  the  trees  for  six  or  eight  inches.     Only  two  of  them  were  lost;  and  alth 


some  of  them  did  not  advance  much,  all,  nevertheless,  seemed  healthy  and  vigorous. 
Some  of  the  sorts  have  made  four  feet  of  new  growth. 

There  were  two  thousand  young  pear  trees,  which  were  also  a  little  drj',  but  by  bury- 
ing them  under-ground  some  time  before  planting  them,  we  succeeded  with  the  greater 
number,  that  is  to  say,  four-fifths  are  living  and  doing  well.  The  quinces  and  other  fruit 
trees  were  buried  not  in  sand,  but  in  earth  which  was  too  moist,  on  account  of  the  abun- 
dant rains  of  that  season,  so  that  we  were  less  fortunate  with  them,  as  well  as  with  some 
young  plants  of  the  Cedar  of  Lebanon.  The  Larches,  Mahonias,  Hollies,  Norway  spruces. 
Rhododendrons,  Judas  trees,  Filberts,  &c.,  all  flourish  well. 

This  method  has  been  known  to  us  for  some  time  past,  and  we  have  already  pointed  it 
out  on  the  first  page  of  our  catalogue;  these  fects  now  serve  to  corroborate  its  value. 

We  also  made  the  experiment  during  the  past  winter,  with  seventy-two  rosebushes  that 
were  left  out  of  the  ground  during  three  months;  we  had  them  covered  with  nearly  six 
inches  of  earth,  for  the  space  of  eighteen  or  twenty  days;  we  planted  them  afterwards  in 
the  midst  of  others,  which  had  not  been  subjected  to  this  test,  and  we  lost  only  five  out 
of  the  whole  number.     All  the  others  grew  and  flourished  as  usual. 

This  method  cannot  be  too  much  urged  upon  those  persons  who  receive  their  trees  in  too 
dry  a  condition.  B.  Despoetes, 

At  Andre  Leroifs  Nursery,  Angers,  \_France.^  Feb.  5,  1S51 

Having  made  trial  of  the  above  method,  we  can  vouch  for  its  efficacy.  We  will  add  to 
it,  that  trees  which  are  imported  when  not  in  a  growing  state,  should  never  be  packed  in 
wet  moss,  (ignorant  packers  often  put  them  up  for  a  long  voyage  as  if  they  were  going 
100  miles  at  home,)  but  always  in  dry  moss.  In  the  latter  case,  they  never  heat  or  start 
to  grow — in  the  former,  always.  If  they  are  over  dry,  they  are  easily  recovered  by  bury- 
ing them  in  earth,  (^not  too  damp')  as  our  correspondent  suggests.  If  they  have  been  for- 
ced into  vegetation  by  being  enveloped  in  damp  moss,  they  are  often  wholly,  always  half 
ruined.     Ed 


GAKDEN  UTENSILS. 

[FROM  THE  GARDENER'S  MAGAZINE  OF  BOTANY.] 

The  annexed  engraving  represents  some  Belgian  novelties  of  the  class  of  garden  uten- 
sils, and  may,  perhaps,  be  suggestive  of  some  improvements  in  the  mode  of  watering 
plants.     The  figures  and  descriptions  are  taken  from  La  Belgique  Horticole. 

At  the  Agricultural  Institute  of  Hohenheim,  a  new  method  of  watering  plants  and  gar- 
dens was  brought  into  notice,  and  which,  in  German,  is  called  Schnellgiesser;  in  Flemish, 
Schnclgieter;  and  in  French,  Jlrrasoir  a  la  minute,  (all  three  terms  signifj^ing,  literally, 
quick  waterer.)  Figure  1  shows  this  invention  with  the  mode  of  applying  it.  It  consists 
of  a  wooden  tub,  bound  by  hoops  of  iron,  furnished  at  the  top  with  iron  handles,  and  in 
front  with  two  stout  leather  straps,  by  which  it  is  suspended  from  the  back  of  the  work- 
man. At  the  bottom  of  the  tub  is  a  copper  socket,  to  which  a  gutta-percha  or  India-rub- 
ber pipe  is  attached,  and  at  that  part  of  this  pipe,  which  may  be  conveniently  held  by  the 
hand,  there  is  a  small  turn-cock,  and  beyond  this  a  spout  and  rose,  the  latter  having  the 
holes  below.  The  tub  contains  as  much  water  as  the  workman  can  carry,  and  when  it  is 
empty  it  is  not  taken  off  his  back,  but  filled  at  the  pump  by  a  second  person.  The  turn- 
cock enables  the  operator  to  stop  or  discharge  the  water  at  pleasure.     By  this  contrivance 


GARDEN  UTENSILS. 


a  great  saving  of  time  and  labor  is  effected.     [Some  adaptation  of  this  idea  might  be  use 
fuL] 

Figure  2  represents  a  new  pot  constructed  to  prevent  worms  from  entering  at  the 
bottom,  in  some  gardens, 
where  the  earth  is  rich,  the 
earth-worms  are  very  trou- 
blesome, especially  when  the 
ground  is  damp.  In  these 
localities  the  worms  crawl  in- 
to the  pots  by  means  of  the 
hole  at  the  bottom,  and  if 
they  commit  little  injury  in 
the  open  ground,  they  are  not 
so  harmless  among  the  roots 
confined  in  a  pot.  In  order 
to  obviate  the  evil  arising 
from  their  intrusion,  the  new 
form  of  pot  represented  at 
figure  2,  has  been  invented  by 
M.  Ghj'selin,  potter  at  Brus- 
sels. The  bottom  is  distin- 
guished by  having  three  feet,  which  are  only  prolongations  of  the  pot.  The  bottom  is 
thus  raised  above  the  ground,  and  the  worms  are  thereby  prevented  from  entering  at  the 
hole.  This  pot  has  also  the  advantage  of  facilitating  the  circulation  of  air,  and  prevent- 
ing the  stagnation  of  water.  [Worms,  however,  do  not  alwaj's  enter  garden-pots  through 
the  drainage  hole,  but  sometimes,  especially  in  small  pots,  from  the  top.  Against  this  the 
proposed  form  offers  no  safeguard.  After  all,  the  best  plan  is  to  take  care  on  what  foun- 
dation the  pots  are  set.] 

Among  the  useful  horticultural  contrivances,  may  be  noticed  the  iron  trellis,  represented 
at  figure,  3,  which  combines  solidity,  elegance  and  lightness,  qualities  never  found  together 
in  wooden  trellises.  The  iron  trellis,  too,  preserves  all  the  forms  or  shapes  which  are  given 
to  it,  and  one  may  thus  train  plants  in  all  the  varied  styles  which  are  otherwise  inapplica- 
ble. The  form  which  is  used  has  a  circular  head,  like  a  parasol,  consisting  of  four  wires, 
which  are  bent  and  sustained  in  their  position  by  three  circles  or  hoops,  the  undermost 
considerably  stouter  than  the  others.  The  stem  is  supported  at  the  base  by  three  prongs, 
which  are  made  so  as  to  admit  of  being  fixed  in  the  ground  or  in  a  pot.  This  form,  when 
made  from  three  to  four  feet  high,  produces  a  very  good  effect,  when  used  to  support  such  a 
plant  as  Calystegia  pubescens,  which  looks  remarkably  well  trained  to  this  form  of  trellis. 
This  same  form  may  be  used  in  training  climbing  roses,  in  pots  or  in  the  open' ground; 
their  branches  being  led  over  the  arches  so  as  to  cover  the  whole,  present  a  mass  of  flow- 
ers in  the  summer  time. 


PROSPECTS  OF  GARDENERS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CONDITION  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  GARDENERS  IN  THE  U.  STATES. 

BY  THOMAS  MEEHAN,  PHILADELPHIA. 

I  have  often  been  struck,  Mr.  Editor,  by  the  accuracy  and  truthfulness  with  which  the 
predictions  of  the  late  J.  C.  Loudon,  with  regard  to  the  progress  of  horticulture  in  Ame- 
rica, are  daily  becoming  verified.  In  his  time,  he  found  that  in  "  all  the  more  difficult 
operations  of  the  art,  every  man  was  his  own  gardener" — but  he  thought  that  "  as  a 
number  of  professional  gardeners  had  of  late  emigrated  from  Britain,  and  horticultural 
societies  were  about  to  be  established,  the  science  of  gardening  would  soon  be  disseminat- 
ed every  where."  Mr.  Loudon  was  also  of  opinion  that  horticulture  would  never  be  car- 
ried on  by  individuals  in  America,  to  the  grand  and  magnificent  extent  that  it  is  in  Eng- 
land; but  that  it  would  have  a  greater  number  of  patrons,  a  wider  field  for  its  operations, 
and  be  a  means  of  greater  enjoyment  to  its  inhabitants,  than  to  those  of  any  country  on 
the  globe.  We  have  only  to  look  at  gardening  then,  and  merely  glance  at  it  now,  in  order 
to  be  convinced  of  the  justice  of  this  view.  Gardening  is  progressing,  and  gardeners  are 
more  prosperous;  but  both  can  be  made  more  so  by  a  little  consideration. 

A  few  days  ago,  one  of  our  city  papers,  "  The  Public  Ledger,"  in  speaking  of  the 
commercial  progress  and  prospects  of  Philadelphia,  came  down  like  a  thunderbolt  on  a  sect 
of  philosophers  which  it  calls  "  waiters  on  Providence,"  whose  creed  teaches  that  every- 
thing in  this  world  must  "  bide  its  time,"  and  that  nothing  can  be  forced  beyond  the  des- 
tiny of  nature.  Now  I  do  not  believe  that  such  a  sect  exists  among  gardeners,  for  we  all 
know  too  well  that  unless  we  put  our  crops  in  the  ground  at  the  proper  season,  or  our 
fires  on  our  forcing  houses,  not  the  firmest  faith  jn  the  "wait  on  Providence"  doc- 
trine, will  aid  us.  We  are  all  practically  acquainted  with  the  truth  of  ^Esop's  fable  of 
Hercules  and  the  Wagoner,  and  know  how  the  weight  of  all  our  results  must  bear  on  our 
own  shoulders.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  we  depend  too  much  on  the  course  of  events  for 
the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  our  profession. 

I  am  one  of  those  men,  Mr.  Editor,  who  are  somewhat  selfish.  It  was  my  misfortune 
to  be  taught  by  the  village  schoolmaster,  that  "  number  one  was  the  first  law  of  nature." 
I  strive,  and  have  ever  strove,  to  advance  the  interests  of  gardeners  and  of  gardening;  but 
I  do  not,  nor  have  I  ever  done  so,  from  any  mere  feeling  of  philanthropy,  but  from  a  firm 
faith  in  the  belief  that,  by  furthering  the  interests  of  gardening,  I  am  contributing  to  my 
own.  It  was  doubtless  the  same  consideration  which  prompted  the  English  government  to 
adopt  Rowland  Hill's  suggestion  of  penny  postage  on  letters.  It  was  not  merely  be- 
cause it  was  contributing  to  the  convenience  and  consequent  happiness  of  its  subjects,  but 
because,  by  increasing  the  circle  of  its  postal  patrons,  it  was  evidently  increasing  its  own 
revenue.  It  is  not  an  incumbent  duty — at  any  rate  it  is  not  general  for  the  followers  of 
any  profession,  to  inquire  whether  their  profession  is  to  the  increase  of  the  pleasures  or 
happiness  of  mankind,  or  not, — but  gardeners  have  the  advantage  of  knowing,  when- 
ever that  question  does  arise,  "  that  the  garden  is  the  purest  of  all  human  pleasures," 
and  that  no  profession  under  heaven  affords  such  abundant  material  for  looking  from  "  na- 
ture up  to  nature's  God."  While,  therefore,  they  aim  at  the  increase  of  their  patrons — 
while  they  strive  by  every  means  in  their  power,  to  diffuse  a  love  of  nature  as  displayed 
in  gardening,  and  while,  by  their  untiring  endeavors,  gardening  is  flourishing  and  prosper- 
ous, they  have  the  advantage  of  knowing,  in  the  language  of  Lindlet,  that  they  ar 
tributing  to  "  the  augmentation  of  the  luxuries    and  comforts,  and  the  diminution 

No.  v.  2.  ~~ 


PROSPECTS  OF  GARDENERS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

wants  and  miseries  of  mankind,"  at  the  same  time  that  they  are  administering  to  the  in 
terests  of  themselves. 

"  Gardeners  are  badly  paid" — "there  is  no  profession  of  whose  members  so  much  and 
so  varied  duties  are  required,  at  so  small  a  remuneration."  These  have  now  become  pro- 
verbs. To  be  "paid  like  a  gardener,"  has  become  parallel  to  be  "  shod  like  a  shoema- 
ker's wife."  But  how  can  this  be  remedied?  Not  by  repining  or  complaining,  but  by 
constant  and  untiring  endeavors  to  show  that  we  are  worth  more  than  we  get — by  leaving 
nothing  undone  that  may  let  those  who  employ  us  know  that  our  profession  is  a  difficult 
one,  and  requires  much  cost  and  labor  to  arrive  at  any  perfection  in — and  by  leaving  no 
opportunity  to  pass  by  which  may  lead  us  to  the  intelligence  of  how  we  may  still  be  more 
useful  to  those  who  employ  us. 

It  has  been  remarked  by  a  correspondent  in  the  July  number  of  this  Journal,  that  "  a 
dozen  gardeners,  who  live  with  some  of  the  first  merchants  in  New-York  city,  do  not 
receive  more  money  than  is  paid  their  porters  for  the  scientific  purpose  of  nailing  up  a 
packing  box."  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  American  employers  are  far  more  open  to  a 
sense  of  the  justice  of  a  fair  remuneration  to  useful  intelligence,  than  English  gentlemen; 
and  I  would  suggest  the  merchants  in  question  are  unacquainted  with  the  labor  and  cost 
that  it  requires  to  make  a  first  rate  gardener;  at  any  rate  never  have  given  it  a  thought. 
The  gentlemen  which  Mr.  Quinn  alludes  too,  as  giving  fair  wages  to  their  gardeners, 
do  know  this  fact,  and  hence  arises  the  difference.  I  know  a  fine  garden  in  Connec- 
ticut, that  has  some  fine  plant  houses,  in  which  some  plants  are  grown  that  would  not 
disgrace  a  Chiswick  exhibition,  and  which  has  or  had  as  clever  a  gardener  as  ever  came 
to  this  country.  This  gardener  was  one  of  the  "badly  paid."  Upon  inquiring  I  fouxid 
that  none  of  the  members  of  this  family  ever  went  into  the  garden  or  plant  houses,  from 
one  month's  end  to  another.  Can  we  expect  gentlemen  to  pay  for  what  they  take  no  inte- 
rest in? — or  even  if  they  do  happen  to  take  an  interest, — for  what  they  do  not  under- 
stand? 

As  I  write  these  lines,  I  am  strongly  reminded  of  a  maxim  I  learned  while  connected 
with  commercial  gardening: — "  He  who  can  raise  enough  stock  to  supply  a  large  and 
varied  market,  is  a  'smart' man;  but  he  who  can  make  a  market  for  his  stock,  and 
bring  in  its  full  value  where  no  market  already  exists,  is  a  '  smarter.'  "  In  another 
sense,  this  should  be  the  aim  of  gardeners.  If  they  find  that  they  do  not  receive  that 
remuneration  which  their  services  are  worth,  and  that  a  main  cause  of  that  is  a  want  of 
interest  by  employers  in  their  profession,  together  with  a  want  of  knowledge  as  to  its 
pleasures,  and  the  cost  and  labor  which  the  gardener  has  had  to  put  himself  to,  to  make 
himself  capable  of  administering  those  pleasures — then  it  must  be  apparent  that  the  re- 
moval of  these  obstacles  alone,  must  be  his  object.  One  great  means  of  effecting  this,  is 
to  promote  the  extension  and  usefulness  of  horticultural  societies  and  publications.  They 
demand  the  enthusiastic  support  of  the  gardener.  I  have  met  with  some  gardeners  who 
denounce  them.  I  remember  well  that  when  the  Gardener's  Chronicle  was  first  started 
in  England,  the  majority  of  gardeners  in  our  district  denounced  it.  It  was  asserted  that 
employers  already  "  knew  enough,"  and  that  if  "such  things"  were  encouraged,  "the 
gentry"  would  soon  "  know  as  much  as  themselves."  A  few  gardeners,  with  more  judg- 
ment, knew  that  the  more  intimately  the  "  gentry"  were  acquainted  with  gardening,  the 
more  they  would  be  acquainted  with  the  worth  of  a  gardener,  and  the  more  interest  they 
were  likely  to  take  in  its  pursuits.  The  sequel  showed  the  correctness  of  their  judgment 
few  men  would  now  deny  that  the  Gardener's  Chronicle  has  done  more  in  its  estab- 
ent  towards  the  present  position  of  gardening  in  England,  with  regard  to  its  patron 


PROSPECTS  OF  GARDENERS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

age,  than  in  the  existence  of  any  other  circumstance,  whatever.  Where  one  patronised 
gardening  before  it  started,  ten  did  afterwards.  Some  evils,  of  course,  attended  the  im- 
provements; but  ever^J-  move  in  the  course  of  progress,  disturbs  something  settled. 

Not  only  by  means  of  horticultural  societies  and  publications,  ought  a  gardener  to  dif- 
fuse a  knowledge  of  his  profession,  and  its  pleasures  and  profits,  but  by  a  thousand-and- 
one  other  means  that  will  readily  suggest  themselves,  according  to  the  circumstances 
around  him.  I  know  a  gardener  who  accidentally  fell  in  with  a  military  oflBcer.  This 
gaidener  was  not  one  who  thought  it  dangerous  "  to  tell  others  for  nothing,  what  it  had 
cost  him  something  to  learn."  The  conversation  turned  upon  grafting  and  budding.  The 
gardener  explained  the  whole  process,  and  illustrated  it  by  experiments.  This  gentleman 
was,  of  course,  learned  how  to  do  without  a  man  to  bud  roses  or  pear  trees,  which,  I  be- 
lieve, he  would  never  have  thought  of  requiring;  but  if  my  memory  serves  me  right,  that 
gentlemen  who  had  never  owned  a  flower  before,  so  pleased  with  the  success  of  his  experi- 
ments in  budding,  has  been  led  to  keep  a  garden,  and  employ  a  gardener. 

Not  only  is  it  our  interest  to  take  every  available  means  of  spreading  a  knowledge  of 
our  profession,  but  it  is  also  incumbent  on  us  to  study  by  what  means  to  render  that  know- 
ledge easy  to  be  acquired  by  those  who  are  willing  to  learn.  With  this  view,  I  am  proud 
to  find  LiNDLET  and  others,  agitating  for  a  reform  in  the  names  of  plants.  The  fact  is, 
that  if  botanists  do  not  take  this  matter  into  their  own  hands,  the  people  will  for  them. 
We  have  tried  it  already  in  Philadelphia,  and  a  pretty  mess!  "Johnny  Jump-up,"  Glory  of 
the  world.  Elephant's  Ear,  Pig's  Nose,  Catsfoot  and  Lion's  Tail,  are  specimens  of  the  names 
some  plants  have  got.  One  time,  when  a  lady  unacquainted  with  plants,  yet  anxious  to 
learn,  would  ask  me  the  name  of  some  plant,  I  would  feel  ashamed  to  have  to  bring  out 
such  names  as  my  Robalanus  and  my  Robatindus, — Pleuroschis  motj'pus,  or  Nowad 
Worskia;  and  I  have  rejoiced  when  I  could  get  a  Phaloenopsis  into  a  "  Moth  Flower," 
or  a  Peristeria  to  the  "Dove  Plant."  Every  one  knows  how  necessary  it  is  that 
one  universal  science  should  have  one  universal  language;  but  there  can  be  no  reason  why 
the  botanist  who  names  his  plant,  should  not  also  give  it  a  common  name.  I  so  feel  the 
necessity  of  this,  that  I  cannot  wait  for  them.  In  naming  my  plants,  I  put  the  English 
name  on  one  side,  and  the  botanical  on  the  other.  Where  the  plant  has  no  English  name, 
but  is  named  after  some  individual,  as  in  Jiussclia,  for  instance,  I  make  the  English 
"  Russel  Flower."  I  tried  to  translate  many  of  them  literally,  but  such  names  as  Melas- 
toma  and  Sterculia,  frightened  me,  just  as  one  would  be  who  tried  to  get  a  French  Cata- 
logue of  pears  into  English,  when  he  met  with  such  names  as  Pater  Noster,  La  Cuisse 
Madame,  or  Ah  Mon  Dieu ! 

It  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Editor,  that  the  reform  in  the  nomenclature  of  plants  is  a  subject 
which  does  not  concern  the  botanist,  and  one  which  he  is  not  likely  to  meddle  with.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  one  which  no  one  horticulturist  is  ever  likely  to  try  his  hand  at.  The 
only  chance  that  I  see  of  an  uniform  standard  of  common  and  easy  names  ever  being 
brought  into  use,  is  by  a  committee  appointed  by  either  the  Pennsylvania  or  Massachusetts 
Horticultural  Society,  to  ascertain  and  arrange  the  best  common  names  the  plants  in  the 
United  States  have  obtained,  and  give  names  to  those  which  have  none.  Nurserj'men 
would  adopt  them,  and  their  use  would  soon  become  general.  Unless  something  of  this 
kind  iri  done,  I  fear  all  talk  about  reforms  will  end  in  talk.  Such  a  reform  is  tenfold  more 
necessary  here  than  in  England.  The  classes  there  who  take  an  interest  in  flowers,  have 
been  familiar,  from  their  infancy,  with  the  classics,  and  a  name  in  Latin  or  Greek,  is  the 
same  to  them  as  their  own  tongue.  In  this  country,  the  wealthiest  are  those  who  by  their 
commercial  talents,  and  unwearied  industry,  have  raised  themselves  to  the  positions  they 


NOTES  ON  SOUTHERN  HORTICULTURE. 

occupy,  and  to  the  majority  of  whom  Homer,  or  Horace,  would  be  as  intelligible  as  the 
language  of  Si-San,  or  Sadi  the  Persian.  It  is  only  by  associating  the  names  of  plants 
with  some  name  we  have  heard  before,  that  any  of  us  can  make  much  progress  in 
the  commencement  of  our  career.  I  can  only  answer  for  myself,  that  I  should  never  have 
learned  j4nagallis,  but  for  connecting  it  with  "  hang  the  gallows,"  nor  Camellia  without 
"  Amelia."  At  any  rate,  it  is  a  subject  which  would  well  repay  the  attention  of  horticul- 
tural societies,  as,  were  the  names  of  plants  in  the  common  language,  the  knowledge,  and 
consequently  the  love  and  cultivation  of  plants,  would  much  increase. 

These,  and  kindred  subjects,  are  well  worthj--  the  attention  of  gardeners.  They  tend  to 
the  advancement  of  their  profession, — as  does  every  thing  which  tends  to  increase  their  al- 
ready extensive  intelligence.  The  success  of  a  Paxton — Joseph  Paxton,  gardener — in 
beating  in  the  field  of  competition,  the  whole  host  of  British  architects  engaged  in  design- 
ing the  building  for  the  "  Exhibition  of  the  Industry  of  all  Nations,"  does  more  towards 
raising  gardeners  and  gardening  to  their  proper  position,  than  all  the  talk  about  low  wages 
would  do  in  a  century.  Let  not  American  gardeners  despair.  Their  profession  is  yet  des- 
tined to  be  held  in  higher  estimation  here,  than  it  ever  has  been  in  anj^  nation  in  the  Avorld. 
The  time  will  assuredly  come,  when  every  large  citj'^in  the  Union  will  vie  with  each  other 
in  the  spleiidor  ahd  magnificence  oi  their  public  gardens,  as  compared  to  which,  the  majo- 
rity of  gardens  in  England  will  be  children's  play  grounds.  Thomas  Meehan, 

Gardener  to  A.  M.  Eastwick,  Bartram  Bot.  Garden,  Philadelphia. 


RANDOM  NOTES  ON  SOUTHERN  HORTICULTURE. 

BY  SYLVANUS,  NEW-ORLEANS. 

I  was  taking  a  stroll  the  other  morning  among  the  old  faishioned  gardens  of  New-Or- 
leans, which  are  just  beginning  to  be  inviting,  after  the  gloomy  and  cheerless  winter,  when 
it  occurred  to  me  that  a  few  random  notes  on  the  subject  of  what  does  or  does  not,  grow 
in  this  region,  might  be  acceptable  to  your  columns.  I  plucked  a  Chromatella  rose,  such 
in  size  and  color  as  would  make  your  heart  glow  to  look  on,  and  sauntered  home  to  fulfill 
my  intention.  It  was  near  the  first  of  March,  and — do  not  feel  envious — green  peas  were 
ready  for  the  table;  as  I  passed  a  coffee-house,  the  fragrant  scent  of  fresh  mint,  as  some 
dry  citizen  was  imbibing  a  julep,  floated  invitingly  into  the  street,  and — restrain  j'our 
feelings — a  bowl  of  fresh  strawberries,  the  very  first  of  the  season,  had  that  morning  been 
announced  as  having  been  deposited  in  the  sanctum  of  some  lucky  editor.  The  next  day 
"came  a  frost,  a  killing  frost — pea  blossoms  wilted,  strawberries  soured,  and  mint-juleps 
gave  way  to  hot  toddies."  But  this  lasted  only  a  few  days.  The  weather  has  cleared  up; 
peach  and  plum  trees  are  in  full  blossom,  the  forest  has  assumed  its  liverj'-  of  green,  and 
the  whole  air  is  fragrant  v/ith  odours.  Spring  is  here  at  last,  but  I  do  not  find  that  the 
charms  of  nature  are  so  highly  appreciated  here  as  in  the  colder  north.  At  least,  so  much 
attention  is  not  paid  to  horticulture  as  a  science.  The  south  is  generally  considered  as  the  land 
of  flowers,  and  nature  has  done  her  best  to  make  it  so,  but  as  yet,  in  this  quarter,  at  least, 
but  little  attention  is  paid  to  gardening,  beyond  laying  out  an  acre  or  two  on  plantations, 
and  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  in  a  few  of  the  more  common  fruits  and  flowers  that  are  indi- 
genous to  the  soil,  or  have  been  long  introduced.  Yet  along  the  coast  of  the  Mississippi, 
ty  miles  above  and  below  New-Orleans,  might  be  grown  all  the  most  beautiful  trees 
shrubs  of  the  tropics,  with  but  slight,  or  even  no  protection  whatever. 


NOTES  ON  SOUTHERN  HORTICULTURE. 

There  are,  hoAvever,  some  serious  drawbacks  to  horticultural  enjoyment  in  this  vicinity. 
The  coast,  as  it  is  here  called,  is  nothing  but  a  strip  of  land  of  about  a  mile  in  width, 
bounded  on  one  side  by  the  Mississippi,  on  the  other  by  a  densely  wooded  swamp,  entered 
by  few  except  runaway  negroes,  hunters,  or  very  devoted  lovers  of  nature.  The  land  is 
very  low,  indeed  perfectly  flat,  and  always  damp,  for  by  digging  a  few  feet,  you  can  reach 
water  that  is  brackish  and  unwholesome.  The  soil,  though  rich  in  the  extreme,  isunsuit- 
ed  to  many  kinds  of  trees,  and  the  long  continued  heats  to  which  it  is  exposed,  render  it 
highly  unfavorable  to  others.  Then,  too,  however  beautiful  and  tasteful  may  be  the  shrubbe- 
ries and  gardens,  they  are  at  all  times  too  damp  for  any  long-continued  out-door  enjoyment. 
There  are  no  rich  green  grass  swards,  for  grass  does  not  flourish  in  this  climate,  and  if 
thei-e  were,  you  could  not  lie  upon  them.  A  little  insect,  called  the  "  bete  rouge,"  or  red 
bug,  would  soon  penetrate  your  skin,  and  make  you  the  nest  of  its  interesting  family;  the 
dampness  would  bring  on  your  rheumatism ;  and  instead  of  indulging  in  pleasant  thoughts, 
your  time  would  be  taken  up  in  dealing  destruction  to  the  myriads  of  musquitoes  swarm- 
ing in  clouds  around  j'ou,  seeking  an  opportunity  to  get  a  taste  of  you. 

Yet  is  the  vegetable  growth  beautiful  to  look  upon.  Immense  live  oaks  expand  their 
arms  over  you,  and  shelter  you  from  the  sun.  The  orange,  the  pomegranate,  and  the  lem- 
on, invite  you  by  the  fragrance  of  their  blossoms,  and  the  lusciousness  t)f  their  fruit.  The 
Jessamine  makes  the  air  heavy  with  its  oppressive  odor,  and  a  stranger  would,  in  the  ear- 
lier months  of  spring,  reap  much  enjoyment  from  a  visit,  if  he  could  be  satisfied  with 
flowers  and  fruits  alone. 

As  you  approach  New-Orleans,  descending  the  river,  the  view  on  either  bank  is  quite 
attractive.  You  can  scent  the  odor  of  the  flowers.  You  can  hear  the  notes  of  the  mock- 
ing bird,  and  see  hundreds  of  these  merry  bucks  of  the  woods,  flitting  from  tree  to  tree, 
as  untiring  as  young  kittens  in  their  sports. 

But  the  admiration  you  feel  and  express,  is,  I  think,  more  the  result  of  contrast  with 
the  dull  and  heavy  wilderness  through  which  you  travel  for  several  days  before  you  reach 
what  is  called  the  coast.  Though  nature  has  done  much  to  adorn  the  scene,  art  has  done 
little  or  nothing.  And  your  admiration,  should  you  chance  to  stop  at  any  of  the  numerous 
plantations,  would  cease.  You  would  be  astonished  at  the  few  varieties  of  trees  and  shrubs, 
and  flowers,  you  would  meet  with,  and  surprised  at  the  meagreness  of  what  seemed  so 
powerfully  attractive  in  the  approach.  Notwithstanding  all  the  praises  bestowed  upon 
the  sunny  south,  in  this  part  of  it,  at  least.  Landscape  Gardening  is  half  a  century  be- 
hind the  age.  I  say  this  after  many  years  acquaintance  with  the  gardens  of  both  town 
and  country.  Even  with  the  wealthiest  planters,  those  who  count  their  slaves  by  hundreds 
and  their  acres  by  thousands,  and  have  the  incomes  of  the  nobles  of  England,  a  garden 
seems  a  superfluity,  except,  indeed,  a  kitchen-garden,  and  even  that  is  left  to  the  care  of 
some  superannuated  negro,  who  can  no  longer  be  made  profitable  in  the  field.  The  French 
Creoles  are  fond  of  gardening,  but  it  is  in  a  small  way,  and  indeed,  their  fondness  for  it 
is  more  connected  with  the  idea  of  profit  than  of  pleasure.  There  are  many  families  in 
New-Orleans,  highly  respectable,  who  make  a  handsome  support  from  the  products  of  their 
gardens,  principally  flowers,  which  here  are  always  in  demand,  particularly  when  the  city 
is  filled  with  strangers,  as  is  usual  for  about  two-thirds  of  the  year.  But  their  flowers 
are  usually  of  the  most  ordinary  kind,  and  that  require  but  little  labor  or  care  in  the 
cultivation,  such  as  roses,  acacias,  violets  and  camellias,  which  latter,  however,  generally 
bring  from  one  to  two  dollars.  I  have  known  a  single  bush  bring  as  high  as  ten  dollars, 
on  some  extraordinary  occasion,  when  scarce. 

There  is  a  public  garden  about  six  miles  from  the  city.     It  is  a  common  resort,  part 


NOTES  ON  SOUTHERN  HORTICULTURE. 

larly  on  Sundays,  when,  as  it  is  easily  accessible  by  railroad,  thousands  flock  to  it  to  get 
a  little  fresh  air  and  a  nosegay.  It  is  laid  out  in  the  English  style,  and  is  a  pleasant  place 
of  retreat  from  the  heat  and  stench  of  this  dirtiest  of  all  cities.  It,  however,  possesses 
no  horticultural  or  botanical  attraction.  The  garden  is  a  source  of  profit  from  its  flowers, 
but  I  suspect  more  money  is  made  from  the  sale  of  liquor  in  the  hotel  which  is  connected 
with  it.  It  is  owned  by  the  railroad  company,  and  is  the  only  attraction  at  that  termi- 
nus of  the  line. 

But  there  are  many  quiet,  snug  little  gardens  and  delicious  retreats,  scattered  here  and 
there,  through  the  city  and  its  suburbs,  giving  a  little  variet}'^  to  the  vmgainl}-  masses  of 
brick  and  mortar  that  constitute  our  squares,  for  except  in  public  buildings,  New-Orleans 
possesses  no  architectural  beauty.  As  the  city  becomes  Americanised,  more  and  more 
taste  seems  to  be  developed.  The  houses  are  built  back  from  the  street.  Trees  are  plant- 
ed. Shrubberies  unfold  their  sweets,  and  an  idea  begins  to  prevail,  that  there  are  other 
pleasures  besides  the  gathering  of  dollars,  and  filling  the  stomach  Mith  dainties  from  the 
market. 

The  markets  here  are  poorly  supplied  with  vegetables.  Celery  is  brought  from  the  west, 
as  are  cabbages;  every  boat  that  comes  down  in  the  fall  being  literally  covered  with  the 
latter.  Strawberries  are  very  scarce,  and  very  acid,  as  a  general  rule.  I  have,  however, 
seen  fine  ones  in  the  gardens  upon  the  coast.  They  are  just  beginning  to  find  out  how  to 
cultivate  them.  I  was  on  a  visit  last  year,  to  a  plantation  not  far  from  the  city,  the  pro- 
prietor of  which  took  me  out  one  fine  morning  to  admire  his  strawberry  beds,  which  wore 
white  with  blossoms.  He  remarked  that  it  was  singular  he  never  could  raise  anj',  though 
his  plants  seemed  to  bloom  well,  and  had  the  greatest  attention  paid  to  them.  He  had 
tried  to  raise  them  for  five  years,  and  was  about  giving  them  up  in  despair.  I  examined 
his  plants,  and  found  they  were  nearly  all  males.  I  explained  to  him  the  distinction, 
which,  though  he  had  heard  of,  had  never  been  pointed  out  to  him  before.  It  appears  he 
had  purchased  his  plants  from  some  dishonest  nurseryman  in  the  vest,  Avho  had  taken 
advantage  of  his  ignorance  on  the  subject,  and  got  rid  of  his  barren  plants  at  a  high  price. 
This  3'ear  he  will  have  a  fair  crop,  as  will  many  of  his  neighbors,  who  have  heretofore 
been  in  the  same  predicament  as  himself.  While  on  the  subject  of  strawberries,  I  will  cor- 
rect an  error  of  the  great  Linnjeus,  Avho  has  said  that  strawberiies  were  good  for  the 
gout.  A  friend  of  mine  tried  the  experiment,  and  literally  "  put  his  foot  into  it,"  for  he 
was  rewarded  for  his  indulgence  by  a  very  sharp  fit  of  that  by  no  means  pleasant  disease. 

Within  the  last  year  or  two,  I  have  seen  very  fine  Cauliflowers  in  the  market.  The  Ar- 
tichoke, which,  when  properly  cooked,  is  a  delicious  vegetable,  is  here  a  great  favorite,  and 
very  common.  Every  garden,  of  course,  contains  a  space  devoted  to  Okra.  Water-melons 
will  grow  here,  but  are  ver}^  insipid,  while  the  green  fleshed  Nutmeg  Melon,  is  nowhere 
more  delicious.  Figs  and  Oranges  are  abundant,  while  the  Pear,  Cherry,  and  the  Plum, 
(except  the  wild  kinds,)  do  not  thrive  at  all.  Bannanas  grow  and  bear  readily  in  the  open 
air,  but  in  very  cold  seasons  are  apt  to  be  killed  to  the  roots,  when  it  requires  tM'o  jears 
for  them  to  bear  again.  They  are,  however,  imported  in  profusion  from  Havana,  with 
Oranges  and  Pineapples,  and  other  tropical  fruits.  The  Olive  will  stand  the  winter  here, 
and  bear  well,  and  might  be  made  a  source  of  profit;  but  I  have  only  seen  it  grown  on  one 
or  two  plantations,  and  then  only  as  a  curiosity. 

As  I  have  before  stated,  there  is  not  much  true  horticultural  taste  here,  or  much  know- 
ledge of  trees  and   shrubs,  eithci-  in  town  or  countrj'^.     Perhaps  one  reason  is,  that  there 
are  no  large  nurseries,  from  which  trees  and  slirubs  may  be  seen  and  procured.     Thcr 
several  nurseries  on  a  small  scale,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city,  but  thej^  contain  notli 


NOTES  ON  SOUTHERN  HORTICULTURE. 

the  most  common  sorts  of  trees,  flowers  and  shrubs,  such  only  as  meet  with  a  ready  sale; 
such  as  Peltisfurmus,[?]  Magnolias,  Arbor  Vities,  Cedars,  Oleanders,  Tallow  trees,  (intro- 
duced only  within  the  last  few  years,)  and  any  quantity  of  roses.  The  most  beautiful 
tree  I  have  yet  seen  in  the  south,  is  the  Date  Palm.  It  resists  the  cold  Aveather,  grows 
with  remarkable  rapidity,  and  yet  is  rarely  planted,  or  to  be  found  in  the  nurseries.  The 
largest  here,  is  one  standing  in  an  old  stable  yard,  and  receives  no  care  or  protection.  It 
is  supposed  to  have  been  planted  by  the  Jesuits  some  sixty  years  since.  It  is  from  thirty 
to  forty  feet  in  height,  and  perhaps  eighteen  inches  in  diameter.  I  have  seen  it  in  flower, 
but  of  course,  standing  alone,  without  a  male,  it  bears  no  fruit.  There  are  one  or  two 
others  in  the  city;  one  is  now  in  sight  from  my  window  as  I  write.  Though  planted  only 
about  twenty  years  ago,  it  is  thirty  feet  high,  and  ten  inches  in  diameter. 

The  Mcspilas  Japonica  has  become  quite  a  favorite  tree  here.  The  fruit  is  no  addition 
to  our  stock,  but  the  tree  is  beautiful,  and  withstands  the  cold  even  better  than  the  Mag- 
nolias, native  though  they  are.  But  after  all,  no  tree  is  more  deservedly  a  favorite  than 
the  Magnolia  grandiflora.  It  is  almost  the  only  tree  from  the  woods  that  is  thought 
worthy  of  being  transplanted  into  the  shrubbery — a  great  mistake,  by  the  way.  In  the 
city  during  winter,  it  is  rather  meagre,  and  suffers  more  from  tlie  cold  than  it  does  in  the 
woods.  There,  however,  it  is  always  beautiful.  I  once  traveled  up  the  Mississippi  dur- 
ing the  season  of  its  bloom.  Occasionally  our  boat  would  sweep  in  sight  of  a  forest  of 
Magnolias,  which,  covered  with  their  beautiful  and  fully  expanded  flowers,  presented  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  sights  I  ever  witnessed.  As  we  neared  the  shore,  the  whole  air 
seemed  laden  with  fragrance,  and  to  add  interest  to  the  scene,  a  flock  of  bright-winged 
Paroquets  were  glancing  amid  the  green  foliage  and  the  luxuriant  undergrowth  of  the  for- 
est. The  Magnolia  glaiica  grows  freely  in  the  swamps,  but  it  is  seldom  seen  in  the  gar- 
dens. It  may  be  considered  here,  as  much  an  evergreen  as  the  grandiflora.  The  Sweet 
Gum  is  another  common  tree  here,  and  in  my  opinion  the  most  beautiful.  When  it  has 
attained  any  great  size,  it  is  covered  with  a  peculiar  corky  excrescence  on  the  branches, 
that,  when  it  sheds  its  leaves,  gives  it  a  singular  and  not  uninteresting  appearance. 

The  deciduous  Cypress  is  the  most  common  tree  of  the  swamps  and  woods,  but  it  is 
rarely  applied  to  any  ornamental  use,  beautiful  as  it  is.  Both  Loudon  and  Michaux  fall 
into  the  error  of  supposing  the  timber  of  this  tree  to  be  durable.  It  decays  sooner  than 
that  of  almost  any  other  tree,  and  is  peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  attacks  of  insects,  when 
employed  in  the  construction  of  houses.  It  grows  to  an  enormous  size,  and  presents  a 
remarkable  appearance  with,  (as  is  almost  always  the  case,)  its  branches  covered  with 
the  huge  green  moss  peculiar  to  this  climate.  In  walking  through  the  forest,  one  is  struck 
with  the  singular  excrescences  called  Planter's  or  Cyprus  Knees,  that  rise  in  every  direc- 
tion from  the  roots,  from  two  to  five  feet  in  height.     They  never  vegetate. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  find  either  the  Gordonia  lasianthus  or  pubesccns  in  the  nur- 
series ;  nor,  indeed,  have  I  found  a  single  nurseryman  here  that  knows  them  even  by  name. 
Yet  they  are  natives  of  the  south,  and  from  their  habits  of  flowering  very  early,  are  well 
Avorthy  of  any  shrubbery.  Until  it  attains  great  age,  the  Live  Oak  is  far  from  being  a 
beautiful  tree.  A  collection  of  them  looks  exactly  like  an  old  apple  orchard.  In  the  spring 
of  the  3"ear,  the  Water  Oak  is  far  more  beautiful.  Its  bright  green  leaves,  which  put  forth 
very  early,  are  really  beautiful. 

The  grape-vine  does  not  produce  well  here.     Higher  up,  at  Natchez,  there  are  several 
vineyards.     The  principal  grape  cultivated  is  the   Scuppernong  or  Roanoake.     It  is  said 
ake  a  palatable  wine.     In  a  small  yard  in  Natchez,  attached  to  the  residence  of 
Carson,  a  gentleman  of  that  place,  who  delights  in  horticulture,  stands  what 


THE  PARK  AT  BIRKENHEAD. 

believe  to  be  the  original  of  the  far-famed  Ohio,  or  Cigar-box  Grape,  of  Mr.  Longworth. 
The  leaves  and  growth  of  the  plant  are  the  same,  and  no  difference  exists  in  the  taste  of 
the  fruit  or  the  formation  of  the  bunches.  It  is  there  known  by  the  name  of  the  Jack 
Grape,  so  called  from  an  old  Spaniard  of  the  name  of  Jaques,  who  introduced  the  vine. 
I  do  not  think  it  a  native  grape.  The  vine,  when  I  saw  it  in  1840,  was  trained  to  a  small 
arbor,  and  had  on  it  more  than  two  thousand  hunches  of  grapes,  many  of  them  a  foot  in 
length.  ]Mr.  C.  imformed  me  that  many  years  previous  he  had  sent  Mr.  Longworth  the 
cuttings  from  this  vine,  on  several  occasions  as  opportunity  offered,  but  had  never  heard  of 
their  being  received.  There  are  other  matters  in  and  about  Natchez,  in  the  horticultural 
line,  worthy  of  notice,  but  as  my  notes  have  already  exceeded  what  I  intended,  I  must 
conclude  for  the  present.  Stlvanus. 

New-Orleans.  March  20,  1851. 


THE  PEOPLE'S  PARK  AT  BIRKENHEAD,  NEAR  LIVEROOL. 

BY  W.,  STATEN  ISLAND,  NEW-YORK. 

Birkenhead  is  the  most  important  suburb  of  Liverpool,  having  the  same  relation  to  it 
that  Brooklyn  has  to  New-York,  or  Charlcstown  to  Boston.  When  the  first  line  of  Liv- 
erpool packets  was  established,  there  were  not  half  a  dozen  houses  here;  it  now  has  a  po- 
pulation of  many  thousands,  and  is  increasing  with  a  rapidity  hardly  paralleled  in  the 
New  World.  This  is  much  owing  to  the  very  liberal  and  enterprizing  management  of  the 
land-owners,  which  affords  an  example  worthy  of  consideration  in  the  vicinity  of  many  of 
our  own  large  towns.  There  are  several  public  squares,  and  the  streets  and  places  are 
broad,  and  well  paved  and  lighted.  A  considerable  part  of  the  town  has  been  built  with 
uniformity,  and  a  reference  to  general  effect,  from  the  plans,  and  under  the  direction  of  a 
talented  architect,  Gillespie 'Graham,  Esq.,  of  Edinburgh. 

We  received  this  information  while  crossing  the  INIersey  in  a  ferry-boat,  from  a  fellow 
passenger,  who,  though  a  stranger,  entered  into  conversation,  and  answered  our  inquiries, 
with  frankness  and  courtesy.  Near  the  landing  we  found,  by  his  direction,  a  square  of 
eight  or  ten  acres,  enclosed  by  an  iron  fence,  and  laid  out  with  tasteful  masses  of  shrub- 
bery, (not  trees,)  and  gravel  walks.  The  houses  about  were  detached,  and  though  of  the 
same  general  style,  were  sufficiently  varied  in  details  not  to  appear  monotonous.  These 
were  all  of  stone. 

We  had  left  this,  and  were  walking  up  a  long,  broad  street,  when  the  gentleman  who 
had  crossed  the  ferry  witb  us,  joined  us  again,  and  said  that  as  we  were  strangers,  we 
might  like  to  look  at  the  ruins  of  an  abbey  which  were  in  the  vicinity,  and  he  had  come 
after  us;  that  if  we  pleased  he  might  conduct  us  to  it.  What  an  odd  way  these  English- 
men have  of  being  "  gruff  and  reserved  to  strangers,"  thought  I. 

***** 

Did  you  ever  hear  of  Birkenhead  Abbey.''  I  never  had  before.  It  has  no  celebrity, but 
coming  upon  it  so  fresh  from  the  land  of  Youth  as  we  did,  so  unexpecting  of  an3'^thing  of 
the  kind — though  I  have  since  seen  far  older  ruins,  and  more  renowned,  I  have  never 
found  anything  so  impressively  aged. 

***** 

the  ^larket  place  we  went  into  a  baker's  shop,  and  while  eating  some  buns,  learned 
the  poorest  flour  in  the  market  was  American,  and  the  best,   French.     French  and 


'^J^ 


THE    PARK  AT  BIRKENHEAD. 

English  flour  is  sold  in  sacks,  American  in  barrels.  The  baker  asked  us  if  American  flour 
was  kiln  dried,  and  thought  it  must  be  greatly  injured,  if  it  was  not,  on  that  account. 
When  we  left,  he  obligingly  directed  us  to  several  objects  of  interest  in  the  vicinity,  and 
showed  us  through  the  market.  The  building  is  very  large,  convenient,  and  fine.  The 
roof,  which  is  mostly  of  glass,  is  high  and  airy,  and  is  supported  by  two  rows  of  slender 
iron  columns,  giving  to  the  interior  the  appearance  of  three  light  and  elegant  arcades.  The 
contrivances  to  effect  ventilation  and  cleanliness,  arc  very  complete.  It  was  built  by  the 
town,  upon  land  given  to  it  for  the  purpose,  and  cost  ^175,000. 

The  baker  had  begged  of  us  not  to  leave  Birkenhead  without  seeing  their  new  Park,  and 
at  his  suggestion  we  left  our  knapsacks  with  him,  and  proceeded  to  it.  As  we  approached 
the  entrance,  we  were  met  by  women  and  girls,  who,  holding  out  a  cup  of  milk,  asked 
us — "Will  you  take  a  cup  of  milk,  sirs!  Good,  cool,  sweet,  cow's  milk,  gentlemen,  or 
right  warm  from  the  ass."  And  at  the  gate  were  a  herd  of  donkies,  some  with  cans  of 
milk  strapped  to  them,  others  saddled  and  bridled,  to  be  let  for  ladies  and  children  to 
ride. 

The  gateway,  which  is  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  ferry,  and  quite  back  of  the 
town,  is  a  great  massive  block  of  handsome  Ionic  architecture,  standing  alone,  and  unsup- 
ported by  anything  else  in  the  vicinity,  and  looking,  as  I  think,  heavy  and  awkward. 
There  is  a  sort  of  grandeur  about  it  that  the  English  are  fond  of,  but  which,  when  it  is 
entirely  separate  from  all  other  architectural  constructions,  always  strikes  me  unpleasant- 
ly. It  seems  intended  as  an  impressive  preface  to  a  great  display  of  art  within.  But 
here,  as  well  as  at  Eaton  Park,  and  other  places  I  have  since  seen,  it  is  not  followed  up 
with  great  things — the  grounds  immediately  within  the  grand  entrance  being  very  simple, 
and  apparently  rather  overlooked  by  the  gardener.  There  is  a  large  archway  for  carria- 
ges, and  two  smaller  ones  for  those  on  foot;  on  either  side,  and  over  these,  are  rooms, 
which  probably  serve  as  inconvenient  lodges  for  the  laborers.  No  porter  appears,  and  the 
gates  are  freely  open  to  the  public. 

Walking  a  short  distance  up  an  avenue,  we  passed  through  another  light  iron  gate  into 
a  thick,  luxuriant,  and  diversified  garden.  Five  minutes  of  admiration,  and  a  few  more 
spent  in  studying  the  manner  in  which  art  had  been  employed  to  obtain  from  nature  so 
much  beauty,  and  I  was  ready  to  admit  that  in  democratic  America,  there  was  nothing  to 
be  thought  of  as  comparable  with  this  People's  Garden.  Indeed,  I  was  satisfied  that  gar- 
dening had  here  reached  a  perfection  that  I  had  never  before  dreamed  of.  I  cannot  at- 
tempt to  describe  the  effect  of  so  much  taste  and  skill  as  had  evidently  been  employed;  I 
will  only  tell  you,  that  we  passed  through  winding  paths,  over  acres  and  acres,  with  a 
constant  varying  surface,  where  on  all  sides  were  growing  every  variety  of  shrubs  and 
flowers,  with  more  than  natural  grace,  all  set  in  borders  of  greenest,  closest  turf,  and  all 
kept  with  most  consummate  neatness.  At  a  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  gate, 
we  came  to  an  open  field  of  clean,  bright,  green-sward,  closely  mown,  on  which  a  large 
tent  was  pitched,  and  a  party  of  boys  in  one  part,  and  a  party  of  gentlemen  in  another, 
were  playing  cricket.  Beyond  this  was  a  large  meadow  with  rich  groups  of  trees,  under 
which  a  flock  of  sheep  were  reposing,  and  girls  and  women  with  children,  Avere  playing. 
While  watching  the  cricketers,  we  were  threatened  with  a  shower,  and  hastened  back  to 
look  for  shelter,  which  we  found  in  a  pagoda,  on  an  island  approached  by  a  Chinese  bridge. 
It  was  soon  filled,  as  were  the  other  ornamental  buildings,  by  a  crowd  of  those  who, 
like  ourselves,  had  been  overtaken  in  the  grounds  by  the  rain;  and  I  was  glad  to  observe 
that  the  privileges  of  the  garden  were  enjoyed  about  equally  by  all  classes.  There  were 
some  who  even  were  attended  by  servants,  and  sent  at  once  for  their  carriages,  but  a  lar"-e 


THE   PARK  AT  BIRKENHEAD. 

proportion  were  of  the  common  ranks,  and  a  few  women  with  children,  or  suffering  from 
ill  health,  were  evidently  the  wives  of  very  humble  laborers.  There  were  a  number  of 
strangers,  and  some  we  observed  with  note-books,  that  seemed  to  have  come  from  a  dis- 
tance to  study  from  the  garden.  The  summer-houses,  lodges,  bridges,  &c.,  were  all  well 
constructed,  and  of  undecaying  materials.  One  of  the  bridges  which  we  crossed  was  of 
our  countryman,  Remington's  patent,  an  extremely  light  and  graceful  erection. 

I  obtained  most  of  the  following  information  from  the  head  working  gardener. 

The  site  of  the  Park  and  Garden  was  ten  years  ago,  a  flat,  sterile,  clay  farm.  It  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Paxton  in  June,  1844,  by  whom  it  was  laid  out  in  its  present 
form  by  June  of  the  following  year.  Carriage  roads,  thirtj^-four  feet  wide,  with  borders 
of  ten  feet,  and  walks  varying  in  width,  were  first  drawn  and  made.  The  excavation  for 
a  jjond  was  also  made,  and  the  earth  obtained  from  these  sources  used  for  making  mounds 
and  to  vary  the  surface,  which  has  been  done  with  much  naturalness  and  taste.  The 
whole  ground  was  thoroughly  under-drained,  the  minor  drains  of  stone,  the  main,  of  tile. 
By  these  sufficient  water  is  obtained  to  fully  supply  the  pond,  or  lake,  as  the}'^  call  it, 
which  is  from  twenty  to  forty  feet  wide,  and  about  three  feet  deep,  and  meanders  for  a 
long  distance  through  the  garden.     It  is  stocked  with  aquatic  j^lants,  gold  fish  and  swans. 

The  roads  are  McAdami.sed.  On  each  side  of  the  carriage  way,  and  of  all  the  Avalks, 
pipes  for  drainage  are  laid,  which  communicate  with  deep  main  drains  that  run  under  the 
edge  of  all  the  mounds  or  flower  beds.  The  walks  arc  laid  first  with  six  inches  of  fine 
broken  stone,  then  three  inches  cinders,  and  the  surface  with  six  inches  of  fine  rolled  gra- 
vel. All  the  stones  on  the  ground  which  were  not  used  for  these  purposes,  were  laid  in 
masses  of  rock-work,  and  mosses  and  rock-plants  attached  to  them.  The  mounds  were 
then  planted  with  shrubs,  and  Heaths,  and  Ferns,  and  the  beds  with  flowering  plants. 
Between  these,  and  the  walks  and  drives,  is  everywhere  a  belt  of  turf,  which,  by  the 
way,  is  kept  close  cut  with  .short,  broad  scythes  and  shears,  and  swept  with  house-brooms, 
as  we  saw.  Then  the  rural  lodges,  temple,  pavilion,  bridges,  orchestra  for  a  band  of  in- 
strumental music,  &c.,  were  built.  And  so,  in  one  j'ear,  the  skeleton  of  this  delightful 
garden  was  complete. 

But  this  is  but  a  small  part.  Besides  the  cricket  and  an  archery  ground,  laj-ge  valleys 
were  made  verdant,  extensive  drives  arranged — plantations,  clumps,  and  avenues  of  trees 
formed,  and  a  large  park  laid  out.  And  all  this  magnificent  pleasure-ground  is  entirely, 
unreservedly,  and  forever  the  People's  own.  The  poorest  British  peasant  is  as  free  to  en- 
joy it  in  all  its  parts,  as  the  British  Queen.  !More  than  that,  the  Baker  of  Birkenhead 
had  the  pride  of  an  Owner  in  it. 

Is  it  not  a  grand  good  tning?  But  you  are  inquiring  who  paid  for  it.  Tlie  honest  own- 
ers— the  most  M'ise  and  worthy  town's  people  of  Birkenhead — in  the  same  wa}''  that  the 
New-Yorkers  pay  for  the  Tombs,  and  the  Hospital,  and  the  cleaning,  (as  they  amusingly 
say,)  of  their  streets. 

Of  the  farm  which  was  purchased,  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres  have  been  disposed 
of  in  the  way  I  have  described.  The  remaining  sixty  acres,  encircling  the  Park  and  Gar- 
den, were  reserved  to  be  sold  or  rented,  after  being  well  graded,  streeted  and  planted,  for 
private  building  lots.  Several  fine  mansions  are  alreadj^ built  on  these,  (having  piivate  en- 
trances to  the  pai-k,)  and  the  rest  now  sell  at  $1.25  a  square  yard.  The  whole  concern 
cost  the  town  between  five  and  six  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  gives  employment  at 
present,  to  ten  gardeners  and  laborers  in  summer,  and  to  five  in  winter.* 

hen  the  important  advantap;es  to  the  poorer  classes,  of  snch  an   extensive  and  delightful  pleasure  grottnd,  are 
o  consideration,  no  one  will  be  hiclined  to  say  that  such  an  expenditure  does  not  merit  the  most  inibounded  sue- 


THE  PARK  AT  BIRKENHEAD 

The  generous  spirit  and  fearless  enterprise,  that  has  accomplished  this,  has  not  been 
otherwise  forgetful  of  the  health  and  comfort  of  the  poor.*  Among  other  things,  I  re- 
member, a  public  wash  and  bathing  house  for  the  town  is  provided.  I  should  have  men- 
tioned also,  in  connection  with  the  market,  that  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town  there  is  a 
range  of  stone  slaughter-houses,  with  stables,  j'ards,  pens,  supplies  of  hot  and  cold  water, 
and  other  arrangements  and  conveniences,  that  enlightened  regard  for  health  and  decency 
would  suggest. 

The  consequence  of  all  these  sorts  of  things  is,  that  all  about,  the  town  lands,  which  a  few 
years  ago  were  almost  worthless  wastes,  have  become  of  priceless  value;  where  no  sound 
was  heard  but  the  bleating  of  goats  and  braying  of  asses,  complaining  of  their  pasturage, 
there  is  now  the  hasty  click  and  clatter  of  many  hundred  busy  trowels  and  hammers. 
You  may  drive  through  wide  and  thronged  streets  of  stately  edifices,  where  were  only  a 
few  scattered  huts,  surrounded  by  quagmires.  Docks  of  unequalled  size  and  grandeur 
are  building,  and  a  forest  of  masts  grows  along  the  shore;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  this 
young  town  is  to  be  not  only  remarkable  as  a  most  agreeable  and  healthy  place  of  resi- 
dence, but  that  it  will  soon  be  distinguished  for  extensive  and  profitable  commerce.  It 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  only  town  I  ever  saw  that  has  been  really  built  at  all  in  accordance 
Avith  the  advanced  science,  taste,  and  enterprising  spirit  that  are  supposed  to  distinguish 
the  nineteenth  century.  I  do  not  doubt  it  might  be  found  to  have  plenty  of  exceptions  to 
its  general  character,  but  I  did  not  inquire  for  these,  nor  did  I  happen  to  observe  them. 
Certainly,  in  what  I  have  noticed,  it  is  a  model  town,  and  maybe  held  up  as  an  example, 
not  only  to  philanthropists  and  men  of  taste,  but  to  speculators  and  men  of  business. 

After  leaving  the  Park,  we  ascended  a  hill,  from  the  top  of  which  we  had  a  fine  view  of 
Liverpool  and  Birkenhead.  Its  sides  were  covered  with  villas,  with  little  gardens  about 
them.  The  architecture  was  generally  less  fantastic,  and  the  style  and  materials  of  build- 
ing more  substantial  than  is  usually  employed  in  the  same  class  of  residences  with  us. 
Yet  there  was  a  good  deal  of  the  same  stuck  up,  and  uneasy  pretentious  air  about  them, 
that  the  suburban  houses  of  our  own  city  people  so  commonly  have.  Possibly  this  is  the 
ci^ect  of  association  in  my  mind,  of  steady,  reliable  worth  and  friendship  with  plain  or 
old  fashioned  dwellings,  for  I  often  find  it  difficult  to  discover  in  the  buildings  themselves, 
the  elements  of  such  expression.  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  is  more  generally  owing  to 
some  disunity  in  the  design — often  perhaps  to  a  want  of  keeping  between  the  mansion  and 
its  grounds  or  its  situation.  The  architect  and  the  gardener  do  not  understand  each  other, 
and  commonly  the  owner  or  resident  is  tetally  at  variance  in  his  tastes  and  intentions 
from  both;  or  the  man  whose  ideas  the  plan  is  made  to  serve,  or  who  pays  for  it,  has  no 
true  independent  taste,  but  had  fancies  to  be  accommodated,  which  only  follow  confusedly 
after  custom  or  fashion.  It  is  a  pity  that  every  man's  house  cannot  be  really  his  own,  and 
that  he  cannot  make  all  that  is  true,  beautiful,  and  good,  in  his  own  character,  tastes,  pur- 
suits and  history,  manifest  in  it. 

But  however  fanciful  and  uncomfortable  many  of  the  villa  houses  about  Liverpool  and 
Birkenhead  appear  at  first  sight,  the  substantial  and  thorough  manner  in  which  most  of 
them  are  built,  Avill  atone  for  many  faults.  The  friendship  of  nature  has  been  secured  to 
them.     Dampness,  heat,  cold,  will  be  welcome  to  do  their  best.     Every  day  they  willim- 

cos,  mul  ihe  deepest  public  gratitude.     Here  nature  may  be  viewed  in  her  loveliest  garb,  the  most  obdurate  heart  may 
be  softened,  aud  the  mind  gently  led  to  pursuits  which  refine,  purify,  and  alleviate    the  humblest  of  the  toil-worn." 

Few  towns,  in  modern  times,  have  been  built  with  such  regard  to  sanitary  regulations,  as  Birkenhead,  and  in 
instance  has  so  much  been  done  for  the  health,  comfort  and  enjoyment,  of  a  people,  as  by  those  energetic  individu- 
whose  names  the  rise  and  progress  of  Birkeuliead  are  so  intimately  counecled."     Dr.  J.  H.  Robertson 


prove.  In  fifty  or  a  hundred  years,  fashions  may  change,  and  they  Tvill  appear, 
perhaps,  quaint,  possibly  grotesque — at  any  rate,  picturesque — but  still  strong,  homelike, 
and  hospitable.  They  have  no  shingles  to  rot,  no  glued,  and  puttied,  and  painted  gim- 
crackery,  to  warp  and  crack,  and  moulder,  and  can  never  look  so  shabby,  and  desolate, 
and  dreary,  as  will  nine-tenths  of  the  buildings  of  the  same  denomination  now  erecting 
about  New-York,  almost  as  soon  as  they  loose  the  raw,  cheerless,  impostor-like  airs  which 
seem  almost  inseparable  from  their  newness.  Wayfarer. 

We  are  very  much  indebted  to  our  correspondent  for  his  clear  and  pleasing  account  of 
one  of  the  most  interesting  public  places  of  enjoyment  in  all  Europe — and  all  the  more  in- 
teresting, because  it  has  been  formed  by  the  people  themselves,  and  not  made  and  presented 
to  them  by  the  sovereign.  We  only  regret  that  the  people  of  our  large  cities,  generally, 
cannot  see,  with  their  own  eyes,  the  beauty,  and  realize  the  advantages  of  such  parks  in 
the  midst  of  towns.  New-York,  for  instance,  now  one  of  the  largest  cities  in  the  world, 
has  no  public  park,  whatever — no  breathing  place,  no  grounds  for  the  exercise  and  refresh- 
ment of  her  jaded  citizens — for  to  call  the  Yiiile  yards  of  land,  covered  with  turf,  and  plant- 
ed with  trees,  in  various  parts  of  the  town,  parks,  is  as  much  a  misnomer  as  it  would  be 
to  spread  one's  handkerhief  down  on  the  floor  of  the  rotunda  of  the  capitol,  and  call  it  a 
carpet. 

The  fact  is,  Americans  generally,  have  no  conception  of  the  value,  extent,  or  importance 
to  the  people  of  large  cities,  of  public  parks — and  among  the  good  results  that  will  grow 
out  of  the  World's  Fair  in  London,  will  be  that  of  showing  thousands  of  them,  Hyde 
Park,  where  the  Crystal  Palace  stands — a  building  that  covers  twenty  acres,  and  appears 
to  take  up  as  little  room  there,  as  if  it  were  in  an  oak  opening  in  Illinois. 

We  are  glad  to  be  able  to  say,  en  passant,  that  the  government  at  Washington  are  ma- 
nifesting a  lively  interest  in  this  subject.  The  large  tract  of  unimproved  public  lands  lying 
south  of  the  city  of  Washington — consisting  of  between  one  and  two  hundred  acres,  has 
just  been  taken  in  hand,  at  the  desire  of  the  President,  with  the  view  of  making  a  Nation- 
al Park — something  really  worthy  of  the  name.  If  his  views  can  be  fully  carried  out, 
that  Park  may  exert  an  influence  on  the  public  taste  of  the  whole  country,  as  well  as  em- 
bellish and  improve,  in  the  highest  degree,  its  seat  of  government.     Ed. 


NOTES  ON  THE  CULTURE  OF  MELONS  IN  THE  NORTH. 

BY  C.  SMITH,  NEWPORT,  N.  Y 

Thk  Melon  is  one  of  the  greatest  luxuries  that  can  be  grown  in  our  climate,*  provided 
we  have  it  ready  for  the  table  during  the  warm  season.  But  if  it  is  not  matured  and  ri- 
pened until  the  chilly  days  of  September,  it  loses  its  delicious  flavor,  and  will  hardly  pay 
for  cultivation.  Those  who  grow  it,  therefore,  should  bear  in  mind  that  the  harvest  must 
be  made  in  August,  and  early  in  .September,  in  order  to  realize  either  profit  or  pleasure. 
Of  course,  it  is  easy  to  start  the  plants  soon  enough,  but  how  to  remove  them  from  the 
hot-bed  to  onen  culture,  without  stopping  their  growth  from  two  to  three  weeks,  is  what 
I  have  not  been  able  to  accomplish.  Even  when  the  plants  were  growing  on  inverted  sods, 
the  same  check  in  their  growth  would  take  place,  although  it  would  seem  that  the  roots 
of  the  vines  could  not  have  been  disturbed  to  the  smallest  extent.     I  know  of  no  vegetable 

write,  of  roiirse,  for  the  northern  part  of  the  Union — for  all  over  ihc  southern  and  soutli-western  portion; 
lenty  as  blackberries. 


CULTURE  OF  MELONS  AT  THE  NORTH. 

SO  sensitive  to  the  slightest  injury  in  the  process  of  transplanting,  or  change  of  location, 
as  the  melon. 

To  obviate  this  impediment,  and  yet  to  obtain  the  fruit  at  the  season  desired,  I  have 
adopted  with  success,  the  following  method,  which  may,  perhaps,  prove  interesting  to 
those  who  attempt  the  melon  culture  anywhere  north  of  New-York  city. 

About  the  20th  of  April,  and  sooner,  if  the  season  will  permit,  I  spread  a  generous 
dressing  of  Avell  rotted  manure,  broadcast  over  the  ground  intended  to  grow  the  vines 
upon,  and  plow  it  under.  Let  the  drag  or  cultivator  follow  the  ploughing,  until  the  soil 
is  finely  pulverised.  The  hills  should  not  be  less  than  seven  feet  apart.  Procure  two  bush- 
els of  highway  sand,*  and  place  that  quantity  where  each  hill  is  to  be  grown.  If  this  can- 
not be  easily  obtained,  sand  thrown  upon  the  bank,  and  left  there  by  running  water,  is 
equallj^  appropriate,  or  sand  dug  out  of  the  earth,  two  feet  below  the  surface,  is  nicely 
adapted  to  the  purpose.  At  any  rate,  find  sand,  and  nothing  but  sand,  to  make  the  hills 
of,  and  if  its  energies  were  never  taxed  to  grow  any  crop  whatever,  so  much  the  better. 
Spread  the  soil  thus  supplied,  over  a  surface  of  two  feet  in  diameter.  This  will  raise  the 
hill  five  or  six  inches  above  the  surrounding  surface,  which  will  favor  the  growth  of  the 
melon,  though  it  might  injure  most  other  vegetables.  Plant  the  seed  half  an  inch  deep. 
This  will  insure  moisture  suflicieut  for  the  purpose  of  germination;  and  if  the  seed  of  any  ve- 
getable whatever,  be  buried  deeper  than  it  need  be,  to  secure  that  amount  of  humidity,  the 
product  will  not  be  so  abundant,  nor  will  it  be  perfected  as  soon  as  it  would,  had  it  not 
had  an  unnatural  obstacle  to  surmount  and  overcome.  I  should  have  said,  that  before  de- 
positing the  seed,  the  sand  referred  to  should  be  thoroughly  incorporated  with  powdered 
charcoal,  saturated  with  urine,  and  mixed  with  a  fortieth  part  of  its  bulk  of  guano  or 
fowl  manure.  This  can  easily  be  prepared  six  or  eight  weeks  in  advance  of  the  time  when 
it  will  be  wanted.  Sprinkle  as  much  coal  dust  over  the  surface  of  the  hill  as  will  give  it 
the  dark  color  of  charcoal,  and  then  over  the  place  where  the  seeds  have  been  buried  lay 
a  pane  of  glass  flat  upon  the  ground.  Now,  if  those  seeds  do  not  germinate  in  five  or  seven 
days,  it  will  be  because  the  sun  does  not  show  himself.  Whenever  the  orb  of  day  peeps 
out,  the  germinating  process  will  proceed  with  all  the  rapidity  that  it  would  in  a  hot-bed 
under  the  most  favorable  condition. 

Uusually,  in  a  week,  the  glass  must  be  raised  to  let  the  plants  through,  and  placed  on 
four  bricks  arranged  about  the  vines,  where  they  will  do  finely  until  about  the  middle  of 
May,  when  the  glass  should  be  taken  away,  and  a  box  two  feet  over  and  six  inches  deep, 
covered  with  coarse  milinet  or  cheese  binding  must  be  put  over  each  hill.  This  will  prevent 
the  evaporation  of  moisture,  and  keep  the  cold  winds  from  the  plants,  and  it  is  the  only 
sure  protection  against  the  injuries  usually  inflicted  by  the  striped  bug.  If  the  boxes  are 
more  than  half  a  foot  deep,  they  will  shade  the  vines  too  much,  and  cause  them  to  run 
up  tall  and  slender,  to  their  permanent  injury.  If  the  ground  about  the  hill  is  kept  black 
with  coal  powder,  and  the  season  prove  favorable,  the  Citron  Melon  will  be  full}^  ripe  in 
112  days  from  planting;  without  the  coal  it  will  be  two  weeks  later,  and  not  quite  up  to 
standard  in  flavor.  The  coal  dust  keeps  off  that  great  enemy,  the  cut-worm.  It  is  not 
olfensive  to  the  worm,  but  gets  up  such  a  degree  of  heat  that  it  will  turn  away  to  avoid  it. 
The  boxes  should  not  be  removed  until  the  vines  begin  to  be  cramped  in  their  growth  by 
them.  The  weeds  may  be  kept  down,  and  the  soil  stirred  easily  until  the  middle  of  June, 
by  passing  a  cultivator  between  the  rows.     This  process  should  be  repeated  often. 

If  the  manure,  or  a  part  of  it,  is  spread  over  the  ground,  instead  of  being  all  put  in  the 

*  Our  correspondent  proceeds  on  the  supposition  that  the  soil  is  a  loamy  one — if  naturally  very  sandy,  of  course  this 
is  not  needed.    Ed. 


SUCCESSFUL  CURCUUO  PRACTICE. 

hill,  and  the  whole  soil  kept  loose  and  mellow  by  faithful  cultivation,  the  roots  will  extend 
to  a  great  distance,  much  to  the  advantage  of  the  fruit  that  sets  latest,  and  to  the  amount 
of  the  crop.  And  this  holds  good  not  only  with  this  vine,  but  all  its  congeners.  The  na- 
tural habit  of  the  roots  of  this  class  of  vegetable  productions,  is  to  reach  far  in  all  direc- 
tions. This  the  cultivator  should  assist  and  encourage;  if  he  does  not  he  will  interfere 
with  his  own  reward  for  his  industry.  Let  the  bulk  of  his  manure  be  spread  over  the 
whole  ground,  and  then  place  sufficient  in  a  hill  so  that  the  vegetable  body  may  never  one 
moment  of  its  existence  fail  to  expand  itself  for  want  of  nourishment.  If  a  plant,  in  the 
early  stages  of  its  life,  w^ants  for  a  few  days  only,  its  proper  sustenance,  it  will  never  fully 
recover  from  the  effects  of  the  misfortune.  A  want  of  nutrition,  also,  at  the  time  the 
fruit  begins  to  forni  and  mature,  is  still  more  destructive,  and  that  fertilizer  which  was 
spread  broadcast  over  the  soil,  now  comes  to  the  rescue  .and  ensures  success. 

The  labor  we  have  referred  to,  maj'^  appear  large  to  be  bestowed  on  one  item  of  the  gar- 
den; perhaps  it  is  so.  Yet  it  will  abundantly  repay  every  step  taken,  and  every  finger 
lifted.  Six  weeks  of  melons  in  abundance,  for  ourselves  and  friends,  is  worth  twice  the 
efforts  needed  for  their  production. 

I  think  it  was  nine  years  since,  that  I  began  to  experiment  with  the  Yellow  Flesh  ^lelon, 
with  a  view  to  improve  its  size.  I  began  with  specimens  weighing  six  or  seven  pounds, 
and  ended  the  last  season  with  a  crop  averaging  between  twenty  and  thirty  pounds. 
I  would  leave  but  one  fruit  on  a  vine,  which  would  become  large.  From  the  seeds  of  this 
improved  specimen,  I  would  plant  the  next  year,  and  this  operation  repeat  every  season. 
The  gain  was  gradual  for  several  years,  and  then  became  more  rapid.  The  last  year  the 
improvement  in  size  was  greatest.  The  melons  were  grown  in  open  culture,  planted  about 
the  20th  M-Aj.  The  flavor  of  this  melon  has  not  deteriorated,  nor  can  I  perceive  in  that 
matter,  any  change.  For  productiveness  and  easy  cultivation,  I  know  of  nothing  better 
than  the  Christiana.  For  excellence  of  flavor,  the  Citron  has  no  superior.  If  there  is  a 
better  water-melon  than  the  Black  Spanish,  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  it. 


SUCCESSFUL  CURCULIO  PRACTICE. 

BY  O.,  OAVEGO,  N.  Y. 

Me.  Downing — Dear  Sir:  I  send  you  an  account  of  the  method  I  have  successful- 
ly practiced  during  eight  years,  in  protecting  my  plums  from  the  depredations  of  the  cur- 
culio. 

I  will  first  mention  some  facts  relative  to  the  habits  and  natural  history  of  that  destruc- 
tive insect,  the  knowledge  of  which  I  acquired,  part  by  observation,  and  partly  by  reading 
an  article  on  insects  from  the  pen  of  the  lamented  Willis  Gaylord. 

Generally,  as  soon  as  the  plum  has  attained  the  size  of  a  full  grown  currant,  the  curcu- 
lio  ascends  [or  flies  to,  Ed.]  the  tree,  and,  making  a  semilunar  puncture  in  the  plum,  de- 
posits an  egg  in  it;  commonly  only  one  egg  is  deposited  in  a  plum,  but  sometimes  two  eggs 
are  found  in  the  same  plum.  These  eggs  become  larvae  or  grubs,  that  feed  on  the  pulp  of 
the  plum,  which  finally  causes  the  plum  to  fall  to  the  ground  before  it  is  ripe.  After  the 
maggot  or  larvas,  as  the  embryo  insect  is  frequently  called,  attains  a  sufficient  size,  it 
crawls  out  of  the  plum,  goes  into  the  earth,  stays  there  about  twenty-one  days,  and  comes 

perfect  insect.     These  new  insects  ascend   the  tree,  either  by  climbing   or 
ptuicture  the  plums  and  deposit  their  eggs.     These  eggs  become  larvse,  feed  on  the 


SUCCESSFUL,    CURCULIO  PRACTICE. 

of  the  plums  until  they  fall  to  the  ground,  and,  when  they  have  attained  the  proper  size, 
they  craM'l  out  of  the  plum,  go  into  the  earth,  stay  there  their  allotted  time,  twentj^-one 
daj's,  become  perfect  insects,  come  out  of  the  earth,  ascend  the  trees  and  perform  the  same 
destructive  operations  that  their  predecessors  did.  Thus  we  perceived  that  several  genera- 
tions of  that  most  destructive  pest,  to  stone  fruits  generally,  are  produced   in  one  season. 

Reflecting  on  these  facts,  I  concluded  that  if  we  would  destroy  the  insects  in  their  em- 
bryo state,  we  should  preserve  our  stone  fruits  from  their  depredations.  I  made  the  ex- 
periment; audits  success  exceeded  my  most  sanguine  expectation;  for,  instead  of  from 
half  a  dozen  to  a  dozen  ripe  plums,  my  usual  annual  crop  from  one  tree,  I  had  three  mea- 
sured (not  estimated,)  bushels,  and  I  had  that  amount  annually  from  one  tree,  until  it 
was  destro3^ed  by  the  disastrous  fire  that  laid  waste  our  village  in  the  autumn  of  1849. 

Early  in  the  spring  I  remove  all  grass  and  weeds  from  the  vicinity  of  the  trees;  I  then 
level  and  smooth  the  surface  of  the  ground  around  the  trees,  and  make  it  as  hard  as  I  can, 
by  beating  it  with  the  surface  of  a  spade  or  hoe.  It  is  then  prepared  for  being  easily  swept 
with  a  common  broom.  As  soon  as  the  young  plums  attain  tlie  size  of  a  full  grown  cur- 
rant, I  shake  the  trees  with  some  violence  early  in  the  morning, — early  because  the  curcu- 
lio  is  somewhat  torpid  then  in  consequence  of  the  coldness  of  the  night,  and  it  is  therefore 
more  easily  detached  from  the  tree;  I  then  collect,  by  sweeping,  everything  that  falls  from 
the  tree,  whether  insects  or  plums,  and  commit  the  sweepings  to  the  flames  or  throw  them 
into  boiling  water,  and  by  that  means  destroy  both  the  insects  and  their  embryos.  If  the 
jjunctured  plums  are  thrown  into  cold  water,  the  insects  are  hatched,  about  as  readil)'',  as 
if  they  were  suffered  to  lie  on  the  ground,  as  I  have  witnessed  in  several  instances.  It  is 
necessarjr  to  continue  this  shaking  and  sweeping  and  burning  dailj'',  until  the  plums  are 
ripe.  When  the  ground  around  the  trees  is  properly  prepared  for  sweeping,  as  above 
mentioned,  it  requires  less  than  five  minutes  each  day  to  shake  three  trees,  sweep,  and 
commit  to  the  flames  the  collected  sweepings.  The  time  was  measured,  not  estimated. 
If  the  ground  around  the  trees  is  closely  covered  with  flat  stones,  bricks  or  boards,  the 
fruit  is  effectually  protected  from  destruction  by  the  curculio,  unless  that  pest  is  suff'ered 
to  breed  in  the  vicinity.  The  punctured  plums  should  not  be  permitted  to  lie  long  on  the 
ground,  lest  the  embryo  insect  should  crawl  out  and  go  into  the  earth.  The  above  state- 
ments can  be  relied  on;  they  are  facts  deduced  from  actual  practice.  I  think  we  may 
justly  conclude  from  them,  that  a  proper  concert  of  action,  on  the  part  of  the  owners  of 
stone  fruit  trees,  would  effectually  preserve  our  plums  from  the  devastations  of  the  curcu- 
lio. 

The  curculio  sometimes  feeds  on  ripe  plums,  but  more  commonly,  I  believe,  on  the  suc- 
culent and  tender  extremity  of  the  branches  near  the  terminal  bud.  It  frequently  bites 
off"  the  terminal  bud  of  the  leading  shoot.  After  it  has  fed,  it  conceals  itself  on  the  under 
surface  of  a  leaf,  where  it  usually  spends  the  day,  unless  the  day  is  cloudy  and  dark.  I 
believe  it  moves  about  more  during  the  night  than  during  the  day.  I  do  not  know  what 
becomes  of  it  on  the  approach  of  cold  weather.  I  think  it  hybernates  in  the  earth.  I  have 
seen  it  go  into  the  crevices  of  the  ground. 

I  have  made  some  efforts  to  discover  the  insect  that  causes  the  excrescences  which  de- 
stroy so  many  plum  and  cherry  trees,  but,  thus  far,  my  efforts  have  been  unavailing.  I 
have  tried  to  hatch  thelarvse  in  the  house,  but  soon  after  the  limbs,  containing  the  excres- 
cences, were  severed  from  the  tree,  the  larvae  died.  On  exaihining  these  excrescences  in  a 
green  state,  I  found  the  texture  of  the  saw-wood  converted  from  a  fibrous  into  a  granular 
state.  When  the  excrescences  become  numerous  on  the  limbs,  the  circulating  fluid  seems 
to  be  so  vitiated  that  it  does  not  afford  its  wonted  nutriment  to  the  tree,  or,  what,  perhaps. 


MANAGEMENT  OF  GREEN-HOUSE  PLANTS  AT  THE  SOUTH. 

is  more  likely,  after  the  nutriment  has  been  elaborated  by  the  appropriate  organs,  the 
fibrous  texture  is  destroyed  to  such  a  degree  that  the  elaborated  nutriment  can  not  be  car- 
ried through  the  proper  vessels  to  its  destined  places,  and  the  tree  therefore  dies.  The 
excrescence  insect  seems  to  prefer  the  morello  cherry  tree  to  any  other  tree.  I  have  seen 
that  tree,  standing  among  young  and  vigorous  plum  trees,  destroyed,  while  the  plum  trees 
remained  untouched. 

I  have  been  acquainted  with  the  wild  plum  tree  for  nearly  half  of  a  century,  and  I  do 
not  remember  to  have  seen  an  excrescence  on  any  of  them.  The  curculio  generally  des- 
troys its  fruit.  A  gall  insect  often  preys  on  the  wild  plum  and  wild  cherry  also,  convert- 
ing both  the  plum  and  the  cherry  into  large,  irregular  bladder-like  masses.  The  wild 
pliini  tree  does  not  grow  so  fast  as  the  cultivated  plum  tree,  but  is  much  longer  lived.  I 
have  seen  them  more  than  a  foot  in  diameter  in  this  vicinity,  and  I  think  three  quarters 
of  a  century  old.  The  cultivated  plum,  inocculated  or  ingrafted  into  the  wild  stock, 
grows  well.  I  recently  measured  a  thorn  tree  in  this  vicinity,  sixteen  inches  in  diameter. 
The  apple  tree  ingrafted  into  the  thorn,  grows  well  here.         Respectfully  yours.         0. 

Owego,  N.  Y.,  March,  18j1. 


THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  GREEN-HOUSE  PLANTS  AT  THE  SOUTH. 

BY  JAMES  STEWART,  MEMPHIS,  TENN. 

To  be  a  thorough  good  plant-grower  requires  no  mean  competency,  and  an  amount  of 
practice  by  no  means  insignificant.  But  to  be  such  in  the  southern  states,  is  almost  say- 
ing you  have  reached  perfection  in  the  art.  Doubtless  this  will  appear  singular,  and 
will  be  strongly  questioned  by  those  who  are  accustomed  to  the  climate  of  England,  or 
other  parts  of  Europe,  and  who  imagine  they  have  a  deal  more  to  contend  with,  than  it  is 
possible  to  have  in  such  a  favorable  climate  as  that  of  America.  These,  as  well  as  perhaps 
some  plant  owners,  are  apt  to  suppose  that  good  practical  "  plantsmen"  are  not  yet  among 
us,  to  take  the  matter  in  hand.  But  that  is  not  the  case,  as  we  have  as  competent  men  in 
that  department  as  any  country  can  produce;  and  nothing  more  or  less  than  the  scorch- 
ing heat  of  American  tropical  summers,  which  is  so  overpowering  in  its  effects  of  parch- 
ing the  leaves  and  drying  their  substance,  weakening  and  exhausting  others,  and  even 
dissolving  some  of  a  certain  class,  and  notwithstanding  the  efforts  and  energies  of  the  gar- 
dener, he  will  be  even  threatened,  in  some  instances,  with  the  entire  loss  of  his  stock. 
Large  plants  that  are  of  any  age,  seem  as  though  they  were  more  exposed,  and  in  all  cases 
are  the  greatest  sufferers.  Small  and  young  stock  will  always  survive  best,  and  conse- 
quently we  have  always,  with  such,  to  be  pretty  well  supplied;  we  water  largely,  and 
syringe  freely,  but  this  is  in  an  hour  wasted  and  consumed  by  a  burning  atmosphere. 
Again,  the  variations  of  seasons  such,  as  extremes  of  wet  or  dry,  or  sudden  interchanges 
of  both,  defy  all  rules.  To  be  a  plantsman  here,  you  must  be  directed  by  nature's  laws, 
paying  the  closest  attention  to  the  great  excesses  of  temperature  which  belong  to  a  climate 
partly  temperate  and  partly  tropical. 

The  winter  division  here,  that  is  after  the  heat  of  summer  declines,  and  before  it  regains 
its  power  in  the  spring,  is  to  a  certainty,  of  all  the  climes  I  have  practiced  in,  the  most 
favorable.  "VVe  may  pot,  repot,  reduce  balls  of  earth,  shake  them  to  j^ieces,  or  whatever  else 
necessity  and  proper  management  directs.  Nature  assists  at  this  season,  and  every 
prospers  well  and  grows  luxuriantly.    A  charming  sight  certainly,  is  a  well  kept  an 


MANAGEMENT  OF  GREEN-HOUSE  PLANTS  AT  THE  SOUTH. 

managed  green-house,  all  throughout  this  season.  Next  comes  the  summer  division,  the 
season  of  extreme  heat,  with  strange  contrast  in  its  efiects.  The  rich  gum  of  j'our  soft 
wooded  plants  will,  if  plants  are  exposed  as  they  would  be  in  England,  change  into  a 
sickly  yellow  appearance,  which  will  soon  deprive  them  of  nearly  all  their  foliage,  leaving 
the  whole  in  such  a  feeble  condition  as  to  be  hard  for  them  to  exist.  Then  is  the  time  the 
gardener  enters  upon  his  difficulties.  Then  is  the  time  that  the  unacclimated  practitioner 
and  the  unskilful  amateur  will  be  confounded.  They  naturally  suppose  that  something 
must  be  done  to  bring  them  back  to  their  usual  condition,  and  to  stay  them  from  getting 
any  worse;  putting  in  fresh  soil,  and  a  little  cutting  to  excite  them  into  fresh  growth,  is 
resorted  to,  but  instead  of  getting  better  they  get  worse,  and  many  of  them  die.  Perhaps 
soil  and  situation  are  supposed  to  have  been  unsuitable,  and  all  is  again  changed,  but  they 
will  gradually  drop  oflf  till  probably  all  perish.  Such  is  the  result  of  applying  common 
practice  to  green-house  plants  in  the  south.  Your  hard-wooded  plants,  and  all  that  are  not 
the  growth  of  a  few  months,  will  not  be  effected  so  visibly,  and  you  may  venture  to  repot 
such  in  the  event  of  additional  room  being  required.  But  it  should  be  law  among  the 
plant  growers  in  the  southern  United  States,  not  to  destroy  root  or  branch  during  this 
season,  for  just  as  sure  as  they  do  so,  certainly  they  will  loose  their  plants.  They  may 
look  shriveled,  yellow,  or  leafless,  but  be  glad  if  you  can  save  the  wood,  and  to  do  this  you 
must  be  strictly  careful  that  everything  stand  in  the  shade — a  place  in  the  shade  of  trees 
but  not  under  them  will  do  very  well — but  the  north  side  of  a  building  is  much  better. 
The  most  delicate  ought  to  be  protectible  from  the  destructive  rain-storms.  The  summer 
site  being  chosen  and  the  plants  placed  in  it,  they  must  be  kept  moist  by  watering  them 
twice  a  day — morning  and  evening.  Do  not  become  uneasy  and  think,  because  they  are 
looking  tolerably  well,  that  a  repotting  or  some  other  process,  would  assist  them.  If  you 
do  so,  the  chance  is  ten  to  one  that  you  will  make  the  worst  of  a  good  job.  As  the  sea- 
son grows  cooler,  they  will  show  signs  of  commencing  to  grow,  but  even  then  do  not  be 
in  a  hurry;  let  all  dangers  and  hazards  of  the  hot  season  be  over,  before  you  prepare  for 
winter  and  its  entirely  altered  condition. 

As  to  the  various  plants  that  are  sown  throughout  summer  for  winter  bloom,  such  as 
the  Chinese  Primrose,  Mignonette,  and  other  annuals,  in  four  seasons  out  of  five,  you  fail 
to  bloom  them  here  before  February,  because  you  cannot  get  a  sowing  to  stand  before  late  in 
September  or  October,  but  to  overcome  the  difficulty,  I  sow  as  late  in  spring  as  possible, 
and  let  them  remain  in  the  seed  pot,  in  the  shade,  with  all  the  rest,  till  the  growing  season 
commences  at  the  south,  and  the  gardener  must  be  wide  awake  to  get  his  plants  ready  for 
it.  There  is  something  to  do  and  to  be  done,  as  well  after  the  heat  of  the  season  has  so 
far  declined  as  to  allow  the  plants,  which  are  still  in  their  shaded  situation,  to  commence 
their  growth;  let  them  be  fairly  started  to  prove  that  the  season  of  rest  is  complete  and 
the  season  of  growth  has  begun.  Then  is  the  proper  time  to  commence  potting.  A  great 
part  of  the  collection  will  want  their  balls  examined  and  divested  of  nearly  all  the  soil 
in  which  they  grew  last  year;  others  must  be  reduced  to  suit  the  condition  of  their  roots. 

I  wish  here  to  make  a  few  remarks  on  soil,  drainage,  and  watering,  as  they  form  part  of 
the  general  system  of  culture.  Compost,  according  to  nearly  all  writings  and  practition- 
ers, must  be  of  as  many  kinds  and  natures  as  you  have  genera  in  your  collection,  and 
many  pages,  and  much  time,  are  spent  in  collecting  and  mixing  them.  In  all  this  rou- 
tine I  was  educated;  I  have,  perhaps,  seen  as  systematic  a  practice  as  any  body,  but  expe- 
rience has  taught  me  that  all  such  detail  respecting  compost,  is  unnecessary.  A  theorist 
may  suppose,  and  may  state,  that  each  variety  of  plant  must  have  a  different  soil,  or  mix- 
ture of  soils,  and  quite  natural  it  may  appear  to  be;  but  I  have  satisfied  myself  it  is  but 

No.  V. 


A  WORD  OR  TWO  ON  LAWNS. 

theory.  Some  years  ago  I  came  to  the  conclusion,  that  practically,  we  need  only  two  soils 
loam  and  peat;  the  former  I  use  free  from  any  mixture  whatever,  for  all  the  general  as- 
sortment of  plants,  excepting  such  as  camellias,  to  which  I  add  half  the  latter,  and  to 
hair-rooted  plants,  (heaths,  &c.)  I  use  the  latter.  To  the  cactus  tribe,  I  use,  with  the 
former,  a  little  lime-rubbish  or  sand.  I  never  use  manure  under  any  circumstances,  in  the 
compost.  The  soil  I  obtain  from  where  I  can  get  it  most  convenient  and  suitable,  although 
I  decidedly  prefer  and  recommend  soil  to  be  collected  with  all  the  rough  herbage,  bones, 
&c.,  and  to  be  piled  up  to  lie  undisturbed  at  least  two  years.  I  find  sods  from  an  old  pas- 
ture give  the  best  loam,  and  Avhen  Avell  decomposed  they  are  rich  in  vegetable  matter. 
Next  comes  draining,  a  subject  which  occupies  more  room  in  horticultural  pages,  and 
has  been  so  long  and  universally  practiced,  that  it  is  the  height  of  boldness  to  assail  its 
value.  But  let  me  invite  the  gardener  at  the  south  to  stop  and  look  into  it,  and  ask  if 
such  is  really  necessary,  and  for  what  reason.  "  Why  certainly,  it  is,"  he  will  reply; 
"  every  article  you  read,  and  every  gardener  you  meet,  declares  it  needful,  to  prevent  the 
plants  being  flowed  with  superfluous  water."  My  answer  is,  that  if  a  gardener  does  not 
know  such  a  small  portion  of  soil,  of  elevated,  movable  soil,  as  is  contained  in  a  flower- 
pot, without  a  drain,  or  how  and  when  to  water  a  plant,  without  surcharging  and  satu- 
rating it,  it  will  be,  by  all  means,  advisable  for  him  to  employ  a  drain;  but  for  a  man  who 
really  is  competent  in  the  plant  department,  I  contend  a  drain  of  some  two  or  three  inch- 
es of  broken  pieces  in  the  bottom  of  the  pot,  is,  in  a  dry  climate,  worse  than  useless.  The 
pots  are  ready  and  clean,  inside  and  out,  and  a  heap  of  soil  is  collected  free  from  any  for- 
eign mixture.  This  I  use  in  as  rough  a  state,  (without  sifting,)  as  the  size  of  the  pot  may 
allow.  I  make  the  soil  compact  in  potting,  by  beating  the  bottom  of  the  pot  on  the  pot- 
ing  bench.  Never  by  pressing  with  stick  and  fingers.  The  bad  effects  of  the  latter  are 
unseen  and  unknown  to  the  inexperienced,  but  bad  effects  they  often  are.  After  potting, 
place  the  plants  in  the  situation  you  have  for  each  species.  If  such  situation  be  at  all  adapt- 
ed, they  will  soon  show  a  rich  appearance  of  sound,  healthy  growth,  though  they  are  al- 
ways to  be  found  in  different  stages;  some  more  delicate,  and  not  fit  to  feed  on  anything 
but  the  pure  soil,  others  growing  quite  robust,  and  therefore  ready  to  use  something 
stronger.  In  the  latter  case,  I  commence  manure  watering,  by  the  use  of  guano,  a  strong 
solution  of  which  I  keep  mixed  up  in  a  tub,  and  as  I  pass  with  the  water  pots,  I  add  half 
a  pint  or  half  a  gallon,  or  in  other  words,  make  it  strong  enough  to  suit  the  condition  of 
the  plants,  and  so  on  continue  all  the  growing  season,  with  additional  pot  room,  and  more 
and  stronger  liquid  feeding.  This,  however,  must  be  gradually  withdraw^n  as  the  hot  sea- 
son approaches.  When  the  growth  ceases,  the  plants  can  no  longer  digest  liquid  manure, 
and  suffer  by  it.  James  Stewart. 

Memphis,  Tennessee. 


A   WORD   OR   TWO   MORE    ON   LAWNS. 

BY  A.  B.  ALLEN,  NEW- YORK 

Dear  Sir — I  agree  with  you  fully  in  your  preference  of  blue  grass  and  white  clover  for 
a  lawn;  they  undoubtedly  make  the  finest  and  softest  turf  of  any  of  the  grasses  grown 
in  the  United  States.     But  allow  me  to  add  to  your  excellent  observations  on  the  prepa 
the  ground  before  sowing,  that  blue  grass  and  white  clover  delight  in  a  calca 
If  lime  then  does  not  already  exist  in  the  soil,  it  should  be  added  in  doses  of  at 


SEASONABLE  HINTS. 

50  bushels  per  acre,  once  in  thi'ee  to  five  years,  till  300  bushels  per  acre  is  thoroughly  well 
incorporated  in  the  soil.  In  addition  to  the  lime,  it  would  be  well  to  sow  two  bushels  of 
plaster  of  Paris  on  each  acre  early  every  spring.  Plaster  is  the  direct  food  of  the  clover 
family,  and  is  beneficial  also  to  blue  grass. 

Another  grass  is  getting  to  be  in  great  repute  in  this  vicinity  for  lawns,  and  this  is  the 
English  perennial  ray  grass — not  rye  grass — that  is  quite  an  inferior  kind  of  grass,  and  it 
is  not  perennial. 

After  preparing  the  lawn  as  recommended  by  j-ou,  sow  at  the  rate  of  three  bushels  per 
acre;  mix  no  other  seed  whatever  with  it,  otherwise  it  will  be  likely  to  come  up  in  tufts. 
August  and  March  are  the  best  months  in  this  climate  to  sow  ray  grass.  It  has  been  cul- 
tivated for  several  years  as  far  north  as  Connecticut,  and  south  as  far  as  the  lower  part 
of  North  Carolina;  and  when  properly  sown  and  cared  for,  it  has  given  entire  satisfaction, 
even  as  afield  crop.  It  is  in  high  repute  for  grazing,  and  yields  almost  as  great  an  an- 
nual burthen  as  orchard  grass.  It  has  rather  a  coarse  stalk  and  is  of  a  rank  growth; 
but  when  this  comes  to  be  cut  often  and  close,  in  the  manner  of  lawns,  the  grass  grows 
finer  and  Very  thick;  and  forms  the  most  elastic  and  velvety  turf  I  have  ever  trod  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  about  ten  years  since  ray  grass  was  first  introduced  into  this  neigh- 
borhood. 

One  more  word  about  the  treatment  of  lawns  in  our  hot  climate,  and  I  have  done.  It 
is  best  to  mow  them  in  the  afternoon,  and  j  ust  before  a  shower  if  possible,  [but  a  lawn  cannot 
be  closely  mown  except  when  there  is  some  moisture  on  the  grass.  Ed.]  Irrigate,  if  you  have 
water,  for  several  evenings  after  mowing,  if  the  weather  be  dry.  If  you  cannot  irrigate, 
then  scratch  the  whole  surface  with  a  fine  tooth  harrow,  or  iron  rake,  spread  a  light  dress- 
ing of  swamp  muck  or  compost  upon  it,  and  always  roll  hard  with  an  iron  roller  the 
morning  after  mowing.  A.  B.  Allen. 

New-  York,  April  9,  185L 


SEASONABLE   HINTS. 

BY  AN  OLD  DIGGER. 

If  you  wish  to  raise  the  earliest  vegetables,  or  get  the  best  growth  possible  in  any  an- 
nual plant,  be  sure  to  use  well  rotted  manure.  The  chemists  may  gay  what  they  please 
about  the  loss  of  ammonia  and  the  gases,  and  what  they  say  about  the  actual  waste  in 
letting  manure  rot  before  using  it,  is  true  enough,  doubtless.  But  setting  that  aside,  prac- 
tice has  told  me,  time  and  again,  that  I  can  get  a  crop  of  peas  four  or  five  days  earlier  than 
my  neighbors,  in  the  same  soil,  by  using  manure  a  year  old,  and  quite  _^ne,when  they  use 
it  almost  as  fresh  as  when  it  first  comes  from  the  stable.  The  fact  is,  fresh  manure  is  like 
corned  beef  and  cabbage — very  hearty  food,  but  requiring  a  strong  stomach.  Annuals  of 
moderate  growth,  like  something  easier  of  digestion.  As  all  old  gardeners  know  this  by 
constant  trial,  you  can  no  more  beat  the  value  of  rotted  manure  out  of  their  beads,  than 
you  can  make  an  elder  bush  bear  white  berries,  by  scolding  it. 

It  is  quite  wonderful  what  a  passion  some  men  have  for  what  thnj  call  pruning  trees, 
and  what  I  call  murdering  them  by  inches.  Only  put  a  knife  or  saw  into  their  hands,  and 
a  tree  before  them,  and  you  will  see  that  it  is  only  because  they  were  not  born  Caliphs 
dad,  that  their  neighbors  have  any  heads  left  on  their  shoulders.  Gardeners  from 
auld  countrie" — especially  all  such  as  have  served  their  time  behind  a  wheel-barrow, 


SEASONABLE  HINTS. 

are  mighty  fond  of  this  sort  of  thing.  One  of  these  "gintlemen"  was  lopping  oif  and 
utterly  despoiling  the  natural  ways  of  a  fine  linden  tree  lately.  When  he  was  cross- 
questioned  a  little  as  to  Avhat  he  was  about,  ruining  the  tree  in  that  manner,  he  replied — 
"  Bless  yer  sowl — I'm  only  a  littin  the  hair  intil  it!"  But  in  fact,  many  a  better  gar- 
dener than  this  Paddy — many  a  man  who  has  done  as  good  things  iu  the  gardening  way 
in  Great  Britain,  as  can  be  done  any  where  in  the  world,  is  placed  in  the  same  awkward  fix 
when  he  comes  into  a  country  with  a  dry,  hot  climate,  like  the  United  States.  All  his 
life-long  has  he  been  busy  learning  how  to  "  let  the  air  in  "  to  the  top,  and  keep  the  wet 
away  from  the  roots,  till  it  is  a  second  nature  to  him,  and  he  finds  it  almost  as  impossible 
to  adopt  just  the  contrary  practice  when  he  gets  to  America,  as  it  is  for  a  Polar  bear  to 
lay  aside  his  long,  white  furry  coat,  and  walk  about  like  a  tropical  gentlemen  in  his  na- 
tural nankeen  pantaloons  and  waistcoat.  He  cuts  away  at  his  trees  to  let  in  the  sun,  and 
raises  up  his  flower  beds  to  diain  off"  the  wet,  when  it  is  just  the  very  sun  and  drouth 
that  we  have  too  much  of.  No  man  can  be  a  good  gardener  who  will  not  listen  to  reason, 
and  in  a  country  where  nature  evidently  meant  leaves  for  umbrellas,  take  care  how  you 
snap  your  fingers  at  her,  by  pruning  without  mercy,  and  "  littin  the  hair  in.'" 

If  you  find  some  of  your  transplanted  trees  flagging,  and  looking  as  if  they  were  going 
to  say  good  bye  to  you,  don't  imagine  you  can  save  them  by  pouring  manure  water  about 
their  roots.  You  might  as  well  give  a  man  nearly  dead  with  debility  and  starvation,  as 
much  plum  pudding  as  he  could  make  a  hearty  meal  of.  The  best  thing  you  can  do  is, 
first  to  reduce  the  top  a  little  more,  (or  a  good  deal  more  if  needful) — for  the  difficulty 
most  probably  is,  that  we  have  more  top  to  exhaust  than  root  to  supply.  Then  loosen  the 
soil,  and  water  it  if  dry,  and  lastly,  mulch  the  ground  as  far  as  the  roots  extend.  This 
you  may  do  by  covering  it  Avith  three  or  four  inches  of  straw,  litter,  tan-bark,  or  some- 
thing of  that  sort,  to  keep  the  roots  cool  and  moist — so  as  to  coax  them  into  new  growth. 
Watering  a  transplanted  tree  every  day,  and  letting  the  surface  dry  hard  with  the  sun 
and  wind,  is  too  much  like  basting  a  joint  of  meat  before  the  kitchen  fire,  to  be  looked 
upon  as  decent  treatment  for  anything  living.  If  your  tree  is  something  rare  and  curi- 
ous, that  you  are  afraid  will  die,  and  would  not  loose  for  the  world,  and  yet  that  wont 
start  out  in  spite  of  all  your  wishes,  syringe  the  bark  once  every  night  after  sun-set.  This 
Avill  freshen  it,  and  make  the  dormant  buds  shoot  out. 

If  you  find  any  of  your  fruit  trees  barren,  from  too  great  running  to  wood,  about  the 
first  of  June  is  the  time  to  shorten  back  the  long  shoots,  and  clip  or  pinch  off"  the  ends  of 
the  side  shoots,  so  as  to  force  the  tree  to  expend  its  substance  in  making  fruit  buds,  in- 
stead of  wasting  every  bit  of  sap  in  overgrowth. 

Make  war  upon  insects  all  this  month,  and  especially  at  the  end  of  it,  as  if  it  were  the 
chief  duty  of  man  to  destroy  them — (there  is  no  doubt  about  its  being  the  chief  duty  of 
the  gardener.)  Tobacco  water  is  your  main  weapon,  and  with  a  syringe  or  a  hand  en- 
gine, you  can,  if  you  take  them  in  time,  carry  such  slaughter  into  the  enemy's  camp  as 
would  alarm  the  peace  society,  if  there  is  one  among  these  creeping  things.  Slugs  on  rose 
bushes,  or  the  green  fly  on  plants,  will  make  their  appearance  by  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands,  as  the  weather  gets  hot,  and  the  nights  summery.  The  time  to  open  your  light 
artillery  upon  the  "inemy,"  is  very  early  in  the  morning,  or  just  after  sun-down,  the 
latter  the  better  time — by  all  odds.  Find  out  whether  they  "  roost"  on  the  under  or  up- 
per side  of  the  leaves,  or  nibble  away  at  the  tender  points  of  the  shoots,  and  shower  them 
to  the  tune  of  "  Old  Virginny,"  i.  e.,  strong  tobacco  water.  If  your  plant  is  of  a  delicate 
substance,  mind,  however,  that  you  don't  give  it  a  fainting  fit,  as  well  as  the  vermin. 
Always  make  the  tobacco  water  by  mixing  some  rain  water  with  it,  for  such  plants,  and 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  MULCHING. 


if  you  have  had  no  experience  in  the  matter,  dilute  and  use  some  on  a  single  plant  before 
you  undertake  your  whole  border.  After  half  a  day  you  can  tell  how  it  works,  and  act 
accordingly.  What  j'ou  want  is  just  strength  enough  to  kill  the  insect,  and  not  enough  to 
injure  the  young  leaves.  Yours,  An  Old  Digger. 


ON  THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  MULCHING. 

BY  A  PRACTICAL  MULCHER,  DEDHAM,  MASS. 

Though  the  subject  we  have  placed  at  the  head  of  this  communication,  has  received  some 
attention  from  scientific  cultivators  in  certain  parts  of  the  country,  and  allusions  to  its 
use  and  importance  have  been  made  in  "  the  Horticulturist,"  whose  different  volumes 
form  our  best  standard  book  of  reference,  yet  it  must  be  confessed  that  a  thorough  treatise 
upon  the  subject  is  a  very  great  desideratum,  especially  in  this  land  of  clear  skies,  arid 
atmosphere,  burning  suns,  and  summer  drouths. 

There  are  certain  departments  of  horticulture,  and  certain  processes  and  operations  of 
the  gardener's  noble  and  beautiful  art,  that  either  have  been  overlooked  and  neglected  in 
this  country,  or  that  have  not  yet  had  their  time  and  opportunity  for  development.  One 
is  the  "Hybernation  of  Plants;"  another  "the  Proper  Feeding  of  Trees;"  another 
"  the  Value,  Beauty  and  Cultivation  of  Evergreens;"  and  last  but  not  least,  "  the  Benefit 
of  Mulching,"  to  trees,  plants,  seeds,  &c.  In  some  future  communication,  Mr.  Editor,  I 
purpose  to  give  you  the  results  of  my  observation,  experience  and  reflection  upon  the  former 
themes,  should  you  allow  me,  while  I  confine  my  remarks,  for  the  present,  to  the  sub- 
ject of  "  mulching."  In  England  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  this  matter  is  receiving 
something  of  the  attention  it  deserves,  and  yet,  if  the  process  has  its  value  on  the  sea-girt 
isle  of  mists  and  fogs,  where  old  Sol  himself  shines  hardly  brighter  than  our  harvest 
moon,  of  what  vastly  greater  importance  must  it  be  in  this  climate,  where  annual  and  long 
continued  drouths  seem  a  part  of  the  order  of  nature,  and  where  the  h3'grometer  indi- 
cates a  greater  deficiency  of  moisture  than  is  known  in  any  European  atmosphere.  Indeed, 
I  regard  mulching  as  our  jjrime  and  especial  necessity, — the  must  indispensible  thing  in 
North  American  Horticulture.  For  in  the  first  place,  the  operation  of  mulching, — or 
covering  over  the  surface  of  the  ground — prevents  the  evaporation  of  the  moisture  that  is 
so  requisite  to  the  rooting  of  new  plantations,  to  the  development  of  luxuriant  foliage,  and 
the  production  of  perfect  flowers,  and  fair,  juicy  large  sized  fruits.  Again:  the  operation 
of  mulching  not  only  prevents,  to  a  great  extent,  the  escape  of  moisture,  but  also,  and 
what  is  of  greater  importance,  the  passing  away  from  the  earth  of  the  volatile  gases  that 
are  held  in  solution  in  the  water,  and  which,  sucked  in  by  the  minute  mouths  of  the  radi- 
cles or  spongioles,  give  nourishment  to  the  plant  or  tree. 

That  mulching  is  of  great  value  in  the  case  of  young  and  newly  planted  trees,  by  pre- 
venting the  process  of  evaporation,  is  universally  admitted  in  theory,  and  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent carried  out  into  practice;  and  yet,  but  few  seem  to  be  aware  of  its  value  in  retainmg 
the  nourishment  as  well  as  the  moisture  in  the  earth,  and  thus,  by  both  these  means, 
contributing  to  the  luxuriant  and  hcathful  condition  o^  plants  and  trees  already  rooted, 
and  well  established  in  the  soil.  But  observation,  however,  as  well  as  actual  experience, 
has  fully  convinced  me,  that  trees  will  not  only  put  forth  more  luxuriantly,  and  grow 
more  vigorously,  but  that  the  fruit  will  be  far  larger,  Jairer,  and  juicer,  for  mulch 
during  the  hot  season.     And  I  hazard  the  observation,  that  in  the  culture  of  pears 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  MULCHING. 


certain  kinds   of  apples, — such  as   the   Roxbury  russet,  that   are   generally  small   and 
knerly  on  a  gravelly  bottom,  careful  mulching  is  almost  equal  to  a  cl;iy  subsoil. 

And  here  let  me  say,  by  way  of  parenthesis,  that  in  the  cultivation  of  these  fruits,  it  is 
not,  I  think,  any  nutritive  element  in  the  clay  soil,  but  only  its  power  of  retaining  mois- 
ture, that  gives  it  the  advantage  over  a  gravelly  substratum.  By  carefully  mulching, 
however,  I  do  not  mean  a  wisp  of  straw,  hay,  weeds,  or  small  brush,  nor  a  shovel  of  spent 
tan,  hub-chips  or  saw-dust,  placed  just  round  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  but  a  covering  of  the 
ground,  if  possible,  as  far  as  the  roots  extend.  There  are  some  absurd  people,  who  seem 
to  think,  if  we  are  to  judge  them  by  their  practice,  that  somewhere  at  the  butt  of  the  tree 
is  a  great  mouth,  in  which  the  tree  takes  in  its  food  and  drink;  and,  accordingly,  they 
put  all  the  nourishment,  whether  liquid  or  solid,  "  right  round"  the  trunk.  Whereas 
the  truth  is,  the  numerous  little  mouths  that  drink  in  the  moisture,  and  the  nutritious 
elements  that  are  disolved  in  it,  are  in  the  little  spongioles  that  form  the  very  termina- 
tions of  the  radical  branches;  and  our  course  of  treatment  should  be  based  upon  this  fact, 
in  watering,  manuring,  and  mulching. 

Mulching  then,  in  the  first  place,  prevents,  in  light  gravelly  soils — and  in  dry  seasons 
in  all  soils — the  evaporation  of  the  moisture  necessary  to  that  flow  of  sap,  that  shall  make 
a  luxuriant  growth,  fine  foliage  und  fair,  large  juicy  fruit . 

And  secondly,  as  the  elements  that  nourish  the  tree  are  contained  in  the  moisture  in 
solution,  and  a  dry  state  of  the  earth  must  thus  cut  off  the  supply  of  food,  mulching  ac- 
tually nourishes  the  tree.  In  proof  of  this,  I  might,  would  my  space  allow,  adduce  nu- 
merous facts;  but  experiments  are  so  easil}^  tried,  that  such  evidence  is  hardly  necessarj'- 
here. 

In  conclusion,  as  the  season  for  planting  flowers,  roots,  seeds,  &c.,  is  at  hand,  I  must 
say  one  word  in  favor  of  mulching  for  them. 

3/ulch  your  dahlias, — if  you  want  free,  rapid,  vigorous  growth,  and  full  abundant  bloom. 
Much  the  best  substance  or  mulch  tor  this  purpose,  is  the  soft  spongy  meadow  moss,  though 
leaves  and  coarse  sedgy  meadow  hay  will  do.  I  have  planted  two  rows  of  dahlias  side  by 
side,  trenched  them  alike — twenty  inches  deep — manured  them  alike,  and  the  row  that 
was  kept  carefully  mulched  outgrew  and  outbloomed  the  other,  and  put  it  altogether  to 
shame. 

Mulch  your  flower  seeds — "  and  what  do  you  mean  by  that .'"'  I  mean  that  flower  seeds 
fail  to  come  up,  either  from  a  deficiency  or  a  superabundance  of  moisture,  both  of  M'hich 
extremes  are  obviated  by  this  process. 

When  you  plant  your  seeds,  cover  them  over  with  the  same  spongy  moss  spoken  of 
above.  And,  that  I  may  be  perfectly  understood,  here  is  my  recipe  for  planting  flower 
seeds:  Make  the  earth  very  fine  with  a  garden  knife  or  common  case  knife.  Scatter  your 
seeds,  if  small,  over  the  place  thus  prepared, — if  large,  bury  them  a  little;  press  the 
earth  upon  them;  spread  your  damp  moss,  and  clap  a  flower  pot  or  pan  over  them.  When 
your  seeds  have  started,  lift  up  the  pot  a  little  by  putting  a  stick  or  stone  under  the  south 
side,  and  as  soon  as  your  seedlings  look  green  and  strong,  take  away  the  moss,  keeping 
the  pot  or  pan  handy  against  a  late  frost  or  chilling  wind.  In  this  M'a}'-,  you  will  rarely 
have  to  complain  of  your  seedsman;  and  you  may  have  early  plants  and  the  most  delicate 
kinds  without  a  hot-bed.  My  fiiends  are  putting  the  continual  query,  "  How  do  you 
make  all  your  seeds  come  up  and  grow  .'"  This  is  my  secret,  and  in  Prof.  LINDLFA'^s 
book  3^ou  will  find  it  more  in  detail.  Let  me  say  in  conclusion:  mulch  nno  plantations 
wish  your  trees  to  live  and  grow.  Mulch  your  young  trees  if  you  want 
and  luxuriant.     IMulch  your  old  trees  if  you  desire  fine  foliage  and  fair  larg( 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 


Imitate  nature  in  the  fields  andjorests,  ivho  gathers  a  bed  of  leaves  and  moss  about  the 
roots  of  her  trees,  and  follow  the  advice  of  An  Old  Mulcher. 


Titrrnrtf  JMim. 

The  Flower  Garden,  or  Br eck's  Book  of  Mowers;  in  vjhich  are  described  all  the  va- 
rious hardy  Herbaceous  Perennials,  Annuals,  Shrubby  Plants,  Evergreens,  Si'c,  ivith 
Directions  for  their  Cidtivation.     By  Joseph  Breck.     Boston:  published  by  Jewett 
&  Co.— (1  vol.  336  p.  12  mo.) 
[The  following  notice  of  Mr.  Breck's  volume  on   Flower  Gardening,  lately  published, 
was  received  too  late  for  our  last  number.     The  volume  itself,  which  we  have  just  seen, 
and  have  not  j'^et  fully  examined,  appears  to  be  a  very  useful  and  practical  hand-book  for 
the  amateur  in  ornamental  gardening.     Ed.] 

"  Breck's  Book  op  Flowers,"  with  hints  on  Flowcr-Beds  and  Flower-Borders. — 
Here  is  a  new  book, — for  which  we  desire  our  thanks  to  the  author, — on  the  delightful 
subject  of  horticulture  and  flowers. 

The  brightest,  the  fairest,  the  sweetest,  the  loveliest  members  of  the  vegetable  king- 
dom,— and,  save  fair  maidens  and  innocent  childliood,  the  loveliest  things  in  the  universe, 
are  flowers.  They  have  been  well  called  "  The  Lyric  Poetry  of  Creation."  Horace 
Smith,  the  author  of  that  grand  poem,  "  Moral  Ruins,"  and  to  my  mind,  one  of  the  chief- 
est  English  poets,  in  his  charming  "  Hymn  to  the  Flowers,"  calls  them  "day  stars," 
"  matin  worshippers,"  "  living  preachers,"  "  floral  apostles,"  "  ephemeral  sages,"  and 
concludes  with  the  enthusiastic  declaration — 

"  Were  I,  O  God  1  in  churchless  lands  remaining-, 
Far  from  all  teachers,  and  from  all  divines, 
My  soul  would  find  in  flowers  of  thy  ordaining;. 
Priests,  sermons,  shrinesl" 

Poets  of  all  times  have  sung  of  flowers;  and  Mary  Howitt's  pious  interpretation  of 
their  mission  and  teaching,  how  often  soever  quoted,  never  loses  its  charm  to  our  ears, 
especially  the  lines — 

"  Our  outward  life  requires  them  not ; 

Then  wherefore  had  they  birth  ? 
To  7nini$ter  delight  to  man, 

To  beautify  the  earth  ; 
To  eomfort  man — to  ivhisper  hope, 

Whene'er  his  faith  is  dir>i. 
For  he  that  careth  for  thejioivers. 

Will  much  more  carfare  hirn." 

Truly,  our  heavenly  Father  and  the  blessed  angels, — with  all  reverence  be  it  said,  must 
be  lovers  of  flowers;  for  they  are  scattered  by  the  divine  bounty,  with  lavish  hand,  over 
field  and  meadow,  on  mountain  and  in  valley.  They  nod  to  us  from  the  tall  trees,  they 
open  their  starry  eyes  by  the  side  of  the  dancing,  musical  streamlet,  and  smile  serenely  on 
us  from  the  bosom  of  the  placid  lake.  They  are  the  acme  and  perfection  of  natural  beau- 
ty. They  give  the  finishing  touch  to  nature.  They  refine  and  complete  the  beauty  of 
earth's  brightest,  fairest  scenes.  They  are  to  rocks  and  fields,  woods  and  trees,  what  the 
flushing  cheek,  the  ruddy  lip,  the  radiant  flashing  eye,  are  to  a  lovely  woman  or  a  hand- 
some man.     And  flowers,  like  human  beings,  grow  more  resplendently  beautiful,  more 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 

exquisitely  fair  and  perfect,  by  continual  culture.  Indeed,  the  finest,  choicest  flowers  are 
the  very  result  of  civilization,  cultivation,  and  refinement,  and  preach  a  continual  lesson 
to  our  race,  of  the  wonderful  and  transforming  influence  of  a  fine  culture  and  perfect 
training.  The  Rose,  with  form  of  beauty  and  soul  of  perfume, — the  brilliant  and  long  il- 
lustrious Tulip, — that  lively,  sparkling  little  pet,  the  Verbena,  and  the  stately,  gorgeous 
Dahlia,  are  all  creations  of  civilization  and  high  culture.  What  a  change,  from  the  strag- 
ling  bramble,  with  insignificant  blossoms,  to  the  protean  queen  of  flowers, — with  full  blooms 
of  every  various  tint  and  fragrant  odor;  or  from  the  coarse  and  single  Mexican  flower, 
with  its  scanty  petals  of  dull  purple,  to  the  splendid,  full,  round,  quilled,  cupped  Dahlia, 
with  every  variety  of  shading,  streaking,  and  tinting  and  coloring — except  blue.  And  I 
should  take  delight  in  the  Dahlia  for  this,  if  for  no  other  reason,  that  it  is  a  glowing  and 
exquisite  historj"-,  as  well  as  a  persuasive  exhortation  of  the  importance  and  value  of  high, 
true  culture.  And  we  should  be  thankful  for  any  work  that  treats  lucidly  on  the  sub- 
ject of  flowers, — and  especially  for  a  writer,  that  without  any  pretence  of  mere  tech- 
nical science,  makes  an  intelligible,  practical  book — like  the  one  before  us — for  popular  use, 
that  can  aid  us  in  the  pursuit  of  this  most  elevating  and  refining  art — by  selecting  for  us 
a  good  assortment  of  shrubbery,  as  well  as  of  annuals  and  perennials,  explaining  simply 
their  habits  and  wants,  and  showing  us  how  to  cultivate  them.  And  here,  a  word  or  two 
now,  at  the  opening  of  the  season,  may  not  be  amiss  on  the  subject  of — 

Flower  Beds  and  Flower  Borders. — In  all  cases,  where  possible,  I  prefer  borders  to 
beds;  it  is  so  dilBcult  to  relieve  the  latter  from  an  air  of  stiff"ness,  primness  and  artificial- 
ity, that  reminds  one  of  the  old  fashioned,  Frenchified,  geometric  school  of  gardening. 
Again :  the  paths  and  avenues  on  which  the  boders  touch,  should  never  be  straight  or  angu- 
lar. In  the  early  days  of  science  it  was  said,  that  nature  abhorred  a  vacuum;  but  it  is 
always  true,  that  nature  abhors  straight  lines  and  angles,  and  delights  in  curves ;  and  so  does 
the  lover  of  the  beautiful,  and  every  horticulturist  of  true  taste.  See  to  it,  then,  if  you 
would  "gratify  both  soul  and  sense,"  "  that  you  make  your  avenues  and  walks  and  paths, 
curvilinear.  A  flower  border  is  most  beautiful  when  stealing  out  and  sloping  down  to  the  ave- 
nue, from  luxriant  groups  of  trees  and  shrubbery,  that  are  verdant  down  to  the  very 
ground.  If  these  are  wanting,  low  evergreens,  or  a  deep  green  hedge,  or  at  any  rate,  a 
hack  ground  of  verdure — with  the  tall  flowers  set  ofi"  against  it,  has  a  most  beautiful  and 
charming  effect.  These  tall  flowers  at  the  back  of  the  borders  should  be  Yuccas,  Spireas, 
as.  Lobelia  fulgens.  Campanulas  in  variety,  Foxgloves,  Gladiolii,  Bee  Larkspur,  L.  sinen- 
sis. Hollyhocks,  and  all  such  plants  as  send  up  tall  and  brilliant  spikes  of  flowers,  from 
a  pyramid  of  leaves  against  the  back  ground  of  shrubbery.  Mingling  in  with  these,  there 
should  be  light  frames  for  the  best  climbers,  such  as  the  Calystegia  pubescens,  Lobb's 
pretty  new  Nasturtium,  pink,  white,  and  purple,  Maurandias,  Eternal  and  Sweet  Peas, 
Thunbergias,  Cypress  Vine,  and  Canary  Bird  flower,  (Tropoeolum  peregrinum.)  Then 
should  come  the  flowers  of  middle  height  and  bright  colors, — and  these  should  gradually 
slope  off"  into  masses  of  Petunias,  Portulaccas,  Verbenas,  Convolvulus  minor,  Ca- 
lystegias.  Scarlet  Geraniums,  &c.,  &c.  Indeed,  a  temporary  or  late  flower  garden,  can 
be  rapidly  improved  with  nothing  but  Fever-fews,  Scarlet  Geraniums,  Petunias  and  Ver- 
benas, by  properly  arranging  and  grouping  the  colors — and  marking  the  distances  with  a 
bunch  of  Gladiolii  or  Roses.  Beds  of  Roses,  Verbenas  and  Mignonette,  with  a  climber 
or  Dahlia,  if  you  please,  in  the  center,  in  a  round,  oval  or  curvilinear  figure,  are  admissi- 
ble, cut  out  of  the  turf  and  embroidered  upon  a  lawn.  Poeonias  and  Dahlias  should  not,  I 
think,  be  in  a  border,  but  should  set  alone  among  shrubbery,  between  evergreens,  &c 
word  on  grouping  according  to  forms   and  colors,  as  well  as  heights,  and  I  have 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


The  care  to  bring  complementary  colors  together,  has  sometimes  a  fine  effect — as  in  case 
of  vivid  orange-scarlet,  and  azure  blue — the  scarlet  of  Smith's  Geranium,  Scarlet  Lych- 
nis, or  Defiance  Verbena,  with  the  blue  of  Salvia  patens.  Camellia  Celestis,  and  the 
blue  Nemophila.  AVhite  and  scarlet,  orange  with  purple,  yellow  Avith  blue,  pink  with 
white  or  deep  purole,  look  well.  Next  your  Scarlet  Geraniums  place  a  knot  of  Camel- 
lias, or  pin  down  a  blue  Salvia.  In  another  place,  or  on  the  other  side  of  the  (Jeranium, 
set  double  white  Feverfews.  Place  a  mass  of  blue  Nemophila  or  of  white  Verbenas, 
beside  Ransom's  Defiance,  (I  am  talking  of  Verbenas) — put  Eclipse,  Brill's  Rosy  or  Beau- 
ty Supreme,  with  Frost's  purple.  St.  Margaret  with  Othello,  or  the  common  purple  Ver- 
bena. Star  masses  of  new  blue  Convolvulus;  next  Escholtzia,  (Chryse's,)  and  masses 
of  Calystegia,  set  with  masses  of  the  new  Plumbago  larpentaj.  Flowers  should  also  be 
grouped  in  the  borders  according  to  their  forms.  Double  white  Feverfews,  and  pur{)le 
Senecias,  together.  Malope,  purple  and  white  Lavateras,  and  African  (annual)  Hibiscus, 
together.  Scarlet  and  orange  colored  Cacalia,  Mexican  Ageratum  and  white  Eupatorium, 
in  a  group.  It  is  everything  to  a  flower  garden,  to  arrange  and  group  flowers  according 
to  heights,  forms  and  colors,  so  that  in  place  of  the  chaotic,  hap-hazard,  higgledy-pig'gle- 
dy  style  so  common,  the  order,  grace,  and  beauty  of  true  divine  Art,  should  rule  and 
harmonise  all  things  in  it. 

Dedhim,  Mass.,  March  17. 


Dnmrstir  Untirri 


Frontispiece — Rural  Church. — Pursuing 
our  intention  of  occasionally  presenting  sketches 
and  hints  for  the  improvement  of  our  county 
churcli  architecture,  we  give,  this  month,  a 
view  from  an  English  Journal,  of  the  new  dis- 
trict church  at  Bracknell.  We  think  no  one 
can  become  familiar  with  the  forms  and  outlines 
of  the  Gothic  style  as  applied  to  church  archi- 
tecture, even  in  this  comparatively  simple  man- 
ner, without  being  impressed  with  its  superiori- 
ty, both  in  point  of  significance  and  beauty, 
over  the  Grecian  structures,  still  so  commonly 
built  for  churches  in  many  parts  of  the  country. 


Hardy  Trees. — It  is  interesting  to  note  the 
hardiness  of  various  trees  or  shrubs  not  yet 
well  known  in  the  country.  Though  the  past 
winter  has  not  been  a  cold  one  in  the  northern 
states,  yet  the  alternation  of  heat  and  cold  have 
been  so  frequent  as  to  affect  many  half  hardy 
plants  quite  as  much  as  a  much  lower  state  of 
the  atmosphere  usually  does. 

Cryptomeria  japonica  and  Taxodiuin  sem- 
pervirens,  two  new  evergreens  which  were  ex- 
pected to  prove  decided  acquisitions  to  our 
pleasure  ground,  do  not,  we  are  sorry  to  find, 
after  two  years  trial,  prove  to  be  really  hardy. 


The  young  shoots  of  the  latter  have  either  been 
quite  killed  by  the  frost — even  when  the  plants 
have  been  covered;  while  the  former,  though 
not  absolutely  killed,  becomes  so  browned  and 
enfeebled  that  it  can  never  be  looked  upon  as 
a  hardy  tree  north  of  Philadelphia.  In  the  cli- 
mate of  Baltimore  and  southward,  we  have  no 
doubt  that  both  these  trees  will  prove  quite 
hardy. 

Pinus  excelsa,  abies  Smithiana,  Picea  ce- 
phalonica,  Thuya  filifonnis,  prove  perfectly 
hardy  in  all  exposures.  The  Deodar  cedar,  we 
are  glad  to  mention,  is  quite  hardy,  and  flourish- 
es admirably  in  this  climate,  and  will  soon  be 
extensively  planted  as  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful of  evergreens.  We  have  still  some  doubts 
about  the  hardiness  of  the  Araucaria  or  Chili 
pine.  It  certainly  stands  the  winter — but  still 
it  seems  enfeebled  by  it.  This  tree  seems  to 
demand  a  soil  composed  of  three-fourths  sand 
as  a  necessity.  In  rich,  damp,  loamy  soils  it 
neither  grows  nor  bears  the  winters — even  about 
Philadelphia — wliile  in  a  somewhat  shaded  posi- 
tion and  in  very  sandy  soil,  it  thrives  as  far 
north  as  the  Hudson  Highlands.  Whether  it 
will  take  to  our  climate  as  it  does  to  that 
*  England — where  it  is  certainly  the  most  striki 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


of  all    evergreen    trees — remains    yet    to  be 
proved. 

One  of  the  handsomest  of  all  the  new  ever- 
greens, is  the  new  Yew-like  tree  from  Florida — 
Torreya  taxifolia.  Its  rich,  dark  green  foliage, 
its  extremely  elegant  habit  and  rapid  growth, 
recommend  it  particularly  to  amateurs.  It  has 
borne  the  past  three  winters  about  New- York 
and  in  this  neighborhood  quite  without  protec- 
tion. 

Rhododendron  catawbiense  and  its  many  beau- 
tiful varieties,  sent  out  here  from  English  nur- 
series, prove  much  better  adapted  to  hardy 
culture  than  even  the  R.  inaxiinum  of  our  native 
woods.  They  should  find  a  place  in  every  good 
garden — and  should  be  planted  in  a  deep  shady 
border  composed  of  sand  and  leaf  mould. 

Wiegela  rosea,  Spirea  primifolia  pleno,  Bud- 
dlca,  Lindleyana  and  Forsythia  viridissima — 
three  of  the  finest  new  deciduous  shrubs  lately 
introduced,  prove  perfectly  hardy  in  all  situa- 
tions. The  evergreen  Euonymus  and  its  two 
rarieties  with  gold  and  silver  striped  foliage, 
are  quite  hardy  about  New- York,  and  seem 
I)artlcularly  well  suited  for  town  gardens,  where 
verdui-e  in  shrubs  during  winter  is  desirable. 


The  Camellia,  hardy  at  BALTiMORE.-Pass- 
ing  through  Baltimore  a  few  days  since,  we  made 
a  hasty  visit  to  the  conntry-scat  of  Dr.  Ed- 
MUNDSON,  a  mile  from  the  city,  to  see  Camellias 
growing  and  blooming  in  the  open  air,  (see 
Hort.  vol.  iii.  p.  417.)  The  sight  was  one  well 
worth  seeing.  In  the  rear  of  Dr.  E.'s  house  are 
fine  groups  of  oak  trees,  standing  in  the  lawn. 
Under  the  partial  shelter  of  these  trees,  we  saw 
three  large  clumps  or  beds  of  Camellias,  con- 
taining, perhaps,  a  couple  of  hundred  plants. 
They  were  growing  in  a  dry,  light,  gravelly 
loam,  where  they  have  now  flourished  for  some 
five  or  six  years,  and  have  grown  to  various 
heights,  from  2  to  6  feet.  They  receive  no  pro- 
tection whatever,  in  winter,  except  a  covering 
of  three  or  four  inches  of  the  oak  leaves  thrown 
over  the  surface  of  the  soil  in  autumn,  to  keep 
the  severe  frosts  from  the  roots.  The  plants 
were  in  fine  condition,  and  when  we  saw  them, 
(April  17,)  they  were  nearly  in  full  bloom — 
at  the  same  time  with  the  fruit  trees  in  the  sur- 
rounding  orchards,  and  apparently  almost  as 


will  very  much  surprise  those  who  look 


upon  the  Camellia  as  a  tender  green-house 
plant — but  not  those  who  are  familliar  with  the 
fact,  that  in  that  part  of  China  where  the  Ca- 
mellia grows  naturally,  the  rivers  are  occasion- 
sionally  frozen. 

Dr.  Edmundson  found  that  the  finer  double 
sorts  taken  from  the  green-house,  were  not  suf- 
ficiently hardy  to  stand  without  protection — 
partly,  no  doubt,  from  their  having  been  ren- 
dered more  tender  than  they  were  naturally, 
by  the  constant  high  temperature  of  the  green- 
house. He  then  took  seedling  plants,  and  plant- 
ed them,  when  only  a  foot  high,  in  the  open 
borders,  as  we  have  described.  These  proved 
perfectly  hardy — and  have  been  exposed  once 
to  a  temperature  of  zero,  or  32°  below  the 
freezing  point. 

In  Carolina,  nearly  all  the  double  Camellias 
are  hardy  enough  to  be  treated  as  garden 
shrubs.  But  the  success  of  Dr.  Edmundson 
proves  to  our  minds,  that  the  Camellia  might 
be  acclimated  as  far  north  as  New-York — not 
by  means  of  slicltering  green-house  sorts,  but 
by  raising  seedlings.  His  plants  produce  seeds 
in  abundance,  we  understand,  and  no  doubt 
seedlings  raised  from  them  would  give  us  plants 
perfectly  naturalised  to  many  parts  of  the 
northern  states.         

California  Seeds. — Every  botanical  reader 
is  aware  of  the  riches  of  the  Flora  of  our  new 
territory  on  the  Pacific,  and  a  project  was  start- 
ed a  year  ago,  to  form  a  subscription  to  send 
out  a  collector  to  procure  rare  plants  and  seeds 
in  California  and  Oregon, — which,  however, 
was  never  carried  out.  We  notice,  however, 
that  Messrs.  Thorburn  &  Co.,  offer  for  sale 
(at  their  warehouse,  1-5  John-street,  N.  Y.)  a 
collection  of  seeds  of  47  different  species  of  the 
most  attractive  and  showy  trees,  shrubs,  and 
flowering  plants  of  California,  carefully  labeled, 
and  put  up  in  tin  boxes.  These  seeds,  we  are 
informed,  have  just  been  received  from  Califor- 
nia, where  a  collector  of  experience  has  devot- 
ed a  season  to  the  exploration  of  the  country, 
and  their  collection  and  preservation.  Among 
them  we  notice  the  "Nut  Pine,"  (Pinvs  mo- 
nophyllu.1,)  a  new  evergreen  oak,  several  spe- 
cies of  Spirae,  Philadelphus,  Stc,  not  hitherto 
known  or  described.  Amateurs  will  do  well  to 
make  a  sowing,  in  the  hope  of  adding  some 
thing  new  to  their  grounds. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


CuRCULio. — Your  correspondent  Wm.  Hop- 
kins, exhibits  much  judgment  in  his  remarks 
on  the  curculio.  What  good  will  your  plum 
and  poultry  yards  produce,  unless  all  your  phmi 
growers  in  the  neighborhood,  pursue  the  same 
course,  as  you  all  agree  the  insect  knows  how 
to  use  its  wings?  What  good  can  result  from 
lime,  salt  or  tobacco,  when  the  young  insect 
glories  in  possessing  them?  All  I  can  say,  is, 
that  in  20  years,  I  have  not  losta  crop  from  the 
curculio,  from  more  than  30  trees,  in  a  brick 
pavement,  round  my  house.  From  trees  in  the 
garden,  I  liave  had  a  crop  for  two  years  only. 
I  see  it  stated,  east,  that  where  a  part  of  the 
branches  extended  over  a  stream  of  water,  no 
plums  were  touched  by  the  curculio,  but  where 
over  the  ground,  all  were  destroyed.  The  rea- 
son I  assign  is  this.  The  instinct  of  the  insect, 
teaches  it  not  to  deposit  its  egg  over  a  pave- 
ment, as  the  young,  when  it  falls  to  the  ground, 
cannot  get  thro'  the  pavement,  to  obtain  winter 
quarters.  The  insect  is  timid,  and  not  fond  of 
congregating  where  persons  are  constantly 
passing,  or  hogs  or  poultry  constantly  under 
the  trees.  It  is  true,  the  hogs  and  poultry 
may  destroy  all  the  eggs  in  your  plums,  but 
you  can  generally  depend  on  the  liberalitj'  of 
your  neighbors,  to  give  you  an  abundant  supply 
when  your  fruit  is  growing.  Yours  truly,  N. 
LoNGWOKTH.     Cincinnati,  0. 


The  Nectarine  a  Smootu  Peach — A.  J. 
DoAVNiNG,  Esq. — Dear  sir:  Having  read  much 
in  the  Horticulturist,  pro  et  con,  concerning  a 
peach  stone  producing  a  nectarine  and  vice  ver- 
sa, I  thought  a  circumstance  that  transpired 
under  my  own  observation  the  past  season, 
might  not  prove  uninteresting  to  the  readers  of 
the  Horticulturist. 

Some  five  or  six  years  since,  I  planted  a  few 
thousand  peach  stones  to  raise  stocks  from ;  but 
in  budding  them,  quite  a  number  failed  to  take 
the  bud,  and  were  consequently  headed  down 
the  next  .spring,  with  the  exception  of  the  first 
in  each  row,  which  were  left  as  markers;  one 
of  which  produced  the  past  season,  a  crop  of 
peaches  and  nectarines  The  peaches  were  of 
smallish  size,  good  flavor,  and  ripened  a  few 
days  later  than  the  Early  York. 

The   nectarines   were  of  small  size,  well  co- 

and  of  fine  flavor.     Being   unwilling  to 

to  the  evidence  of  my  own  senses  in  this 


matter,  I  preserved  a  specimen  of  the  necta- 
rines till  the  fall  show  of  our  (Niagara  coun- 
ty) Horticultural  Society,  when  I  presented 
it  to  some  of  our  best  judges  of  fruit,  who  un- 
hesitatingly pronounced  it  a  bona  fide  nectarine. 
This  tree  never  has  been  grafted  or  budded.  I 
did  not  find  thera,  the  fruit,  on  the  ground,  but 
picked  them  off  the  tree  myself.  These  are 
facts,  and  (to  me  at  least,)  conclusive  and  selt- 
convincing,  which  cannot  be  controverted. 

If  you  think  the  above  worthy  of  insertion 
in  the  Horticulturist,  it  is  at  your  disposal. 

I  have  taken  the  Horticulturist  ever  since  its 
commencement ;  it  is  my  hand-book  on  all  sub- 
jects of  which  it  treats.  I  remain  yours  most 
sincerely,  Jas.  Culver.    Royalton,  March  10. 

Foreign  Vines  in  North  Carolina. — A. 
J.  Downing,  Esq. — Sir:  I  am  much  obliged 
to  you  for  all  you  are  jileased  to  say  on  the 
cultivation  of  the  vine  in  general,  and  especial- 
ly with  respect  to  the  universal  failure,  in  this 
country,  in  cultivating  the  European  varieties 
in  the  open  air;  though  I  have  been  acquainted 
with  those  same  prevailing  opinions  for  a  great 
many  years.  I  can  add  to  the  authorities  cited 
by  you,  that  of  the  late  President  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson, who  stated  to  me  so  far  back  as  1819, 
his  utter  failure,  and  his  inability  to  succeed  in 
cultivating  the  European  varieties  at  Monticel- 
lo.  Professor  Caldwell,  at  Chapel  Hill,  N. 
C,  has  also  failed.  Many  more  could  be  added, 
such  as  MiCHAux's  (the  botanist,)  experiment 
in  South  Carolina,  which  equally  proved  a  fail- 
ure. Herbemont  in  South,  and  Laspevre  in 
North  Carolina,  met  only  partial  success,  so  far 
as  I  can  learn.  Still,  so  far  back  as  1821  and 
1822,  I  succeeded  in  cultivating  them  in  Fau- 
quier county,  Virginia,  on  the  farm  of  Dr.  R. 
Peyton.  I  understand  that  Judge  John  Scott 
has  had  since,  great  success  in  the  same  county. 

Wherever  I  have  been,  I  have  found  that  the 
idea  you  entertain,  about  European  varieties 
not  succeeding  in  "  this  country,"  in  the  open 
air,  is  every  where  prevailing.  "  The  thing  is 
impossible,"  you  say;  certainly  in  the  state  of 
New- York.  Though  Mr.  N.  Longwortii  did 
not  succeed,  as  he  did  me  the  honor  to  inform 
me  at  Cinc'nnati,  still  that  is  no  reason  for  my 
trial  not  succeeding  G°  of  latitude  farther  south. 

I  may  here  state  that  the  fig  tree  and  almond 
tree,  do  weil  with  us  in  the  open  air,  and  that 
my  Muscat,  dc  Frontignan  and  White  Chasse- 


DOxMESTIC  NOTICES. 


las,  ripened  in  the  open  field  ^hy  the  10th  of  last 
August,  i.  e.,  in  146  days,  and  that  they  were 
as  good  as  any  I  have  ever  eaten  in  Corsica,  ce- 
lebrated for  its  climate  for  the  culture  of  the 
vine.  It  must  be  i-emarked  that  this  early  de- 
gree of  perfect  maturity,  was  produced  by  vines 
that  eight  months  previously  were  not  as  yet 
planted  in  the  sand  hillsof  North  Carolina,  but 
were  on  the  ocean,  on  their  way  to  this,  their 
now  adopted  countr3\ 

In  a  letter  written  more  than  17  months  ago, 
to  Mr.  Thomas  Ewbank,  at  his  own  request, 
which  will  soon  be  published  in  the  Patent  Of- 
fice Eeport,  you  will  see,  sir,  that  I  do  not  dif- 
fer with  you  as  to  the  importance  of  the  method 
of  seedlings,  in  order  to  obtain  new  varieties 
best  suited  to  tliis  country.  It  may  be  grati- 
fying to  you  to  know  that  your  hint  of  resort- 
ing to  seedlings  has  long  been  anticipated  by 
me. 

As  to  the  grape-vines  being  exhausted  by 
long  cultivation  or  neglect,  the  experience  of 
France  Vigninicole  abundantly  proves  it. 
Let  us  see,  for  instance,  what  Le  Comte  de 
Gasparin  says.  "  We  must  provide  for  this 
state  of  things,  (old  age,)  which  threatens  its 
future  fecundity.  There  exists  two  systems. 
The  first  is  to  root  up  the  vine,  which  tends  to 
its  decripitude,"  &c;  and  again:  "  In  about  15 
years,  more  or  less,  the  vintage  of  the  vineyard 
diminishes,  and  from  this  epoch,  the  weakness 
which  at  first  was  but  little  perceptible,  contin- 
ues, and  ends  by  becoming  considerable.  A 
vineyard  wliich  at  first  produced  18  liectoliters, 
with  the  same  care  and  manures  will  only  yield 
9  or  10  when  the  vineyard  will  be  30  or  40  years 
old."  Vol.  iv,  p.  674. 

I  cannot  anticipate,  and  will  not  now  state 
what  are  my  future  expectations.  I  have  plant- 
ed European  grape-vines  in  the  open  air,  in  the 
hope  to  succeed,  though  you  say  it  is  in  vain. 
"  Time  alone  can  determine,"  I  say.  I  shall 
take  great  pleasure  in  informing  you  of  the  re- 
sults of  my  trial. 

Your  recommendation  with  respect  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  European  vines  in  northern 
latitudes,  is  perfectly  right,  but  does  not  hold 
good  for  my  locality,  in  latitude  34''.  The  iso- 
thermal line  fortunately  places  me  nearly  on 
the  same  footing  with  the  south  of  France. 
That   Mr.  Loubat  and  Mr.  N.   Longwokth, 


should  not  have  succeeded  in  the  field  culture 
of  European  varieties,  is  perfectly  natural,  and 
nothing  else  could  be  expected,  unless  they  had 
tried  the  Khenish  kinds.  On  the  contrary,  the 
fig  and  almond  trees  do  well  with  us.  This  is, 
sir,  a  pretty  good  index  of  climate,  and  it  be- 
ing  congenial  to  them  and  the  cactus,  I  hold, 
by  parity  of  reasoning,  that  the  most  delicate 
vines  will  continue  to  fiourish  with  us.  I  am 
led  to  suppose,  also,  that  in  the  same  degree 
as  the  quince  stock,  for  instance,  modifies  its 
graft,  so  will  our  luxurious,  hardy  native  vines, 
affect  the  European  varieties..     Nous  verrons. 

I  wish  that  such  a  work  as  the  jlmpelogra- 
phie,  by  Comte  Odart,  should  be  more  gene- 
rally known  in  this  country.  Comte  de  Gas- 
parin, in  speaking  of  this  work,  in  his  "  Cours 
d'jjgriculture,"  says:  "  We  have  adopted  the 
nomenclature  of  Comte  Odakt,  whose  Ampe- 
lographie  is  the  first  work  which  presents,  in  a 
manner  somewhat  general,  the  character  and 
synonyms  of  the  grape-vines.  This  work  is  the 
fruit  of  long  years  of  research  and  experience." 

Such  are  the  men  I  love  to  imitate,  and  quote 
for  my  authority.  With  great  consideration, 
Joseph  Togno,  M.  D.  Diccoteaux,  near  Wil- 
mington,  N.  C,  January,  1851. 

P.  S.  CoMTK  Odart,  in  his  classification  of 
American  grape-vines,  mentions  only  three, 
namely:  the  Skou-per-nong,  (the Indian  name, 
meaning  Sweet-water,)  the  Catawba  and  Isabel- 
la, (Laspeyre) — all  tliree^be  it  said,  en  passant, 
native  of  North  Carolina.  This  is,  at  least,  a 
sliglit  proof  that  this  is  the  region  of  the  grape 
par  excellence.         

Tan- BARK  FOR  Mulching. — Having  been  a 
constant  reader  for  the  last  four  years,  of  .the 
best  publication  on  horticulture  in  the  U.  S., 
the  Horticulturist  and  Journal  of  Rural  Art  and 
Rural  Taste,  and  having  received  more  know- 
ledge and  real  pleasure  in  the  perusal  than  in 
reading  any  other  work,  I  take  the  liberty  to 
ask  a  few  questions.  Last  fall  I  set  $250  worth 
of  pear  trees.  I  am  satisfied  that  mulching  is 
one  of  the  greatest  securities  for  the  life  of  new 
set  trees.  Will  you  tell  me  if  there  is  danger 
in  mulching  with  refuse  tan-bark  from  the  tan- 
yard?  If  not,  how  thick  ought  it  to  be  round 
the  tree?  I  have  read  your  articles  recom 
mending  tan-bark  for  grapes,  but  I  have 
plied   it  to  young  trees  without  your 


-s1 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Last  full  soon  after  the  fruit  dropped,  I  removed 
three  pear  trees  from  ten  inches  to  eighteen 
inches  in  diameter;  it  took  sixteen  cattle  to 
move  the  large  one.  My  neiglibors  said  it  could 
not  be  done,  and  now  they  are  moved  they  say 
they  will  not  live.  I  have  already  proved  them 
half  wrong,  and  this  summer  I  intend  proving 
the  other  half.  If  they  live  I  will  tell  you  ;  if 
they  die,  I  shall  keep  perfectly  quiet  about  it, 
and  when  I  want  to  move  big  trees  again,  wait 
till  winter  and  freeze  a  ball  of  earth  round  the 
roots.  I  much  regret  the  silence  of  some  of 
your  old  correspondents.  Has  some  GilBlas 
told  Jeffries  he  begins  to  flag,  or  what  is  the 
matter?  I  intend  writing  a  series  of  articles 
against  the  selfishness  of  mankind  in  general 
and  Jefferies  in  particular,  if  Ave  dont  hear 
from  him  in  the  next  number.  Respectfully 
yours,  A.  A.  F.  Granite  Lodge,  Brookline, 
Mats.,  March  17,  1851. 

[Old  tan-bark — that  has  been  exposed  for  a 
year  to  the  weather  is  a  good  viulcher,  and  will 
do  your  trees  no  harm.  Bark  fresh  from  the 
tan-vats  may.  We  hope  Jeffries  will  feel 
himself  called  out  again  by  the  force  of  public 
opinion.     Ed.]  

Education  OF  Gardeners. — Your  judicious 
remarks  respecting  experimental  gardens  in  the 
April  number  of  last  year,  are  so  good  that  you 
deserve  the  thanks  of  every  gardener  in  the 
United  States,  who  wishes  to  see  his  profession 
advance  from  the  miserable  position  in  which 
it  now  generally  stands.  If  as  has  been  before 
said,  "  Man  begins  to  build  stately  sooner  than 
garden  finely,"  as  if  gardening  were  the  greater 
Ijerfection,  surely  America  with  all  its  grandeur 
must  be  behind  in  the  march  in  this  respect.  I 
do  not  deny  that  there  are  many  places  which 
will  rank  with  some  of  the  best  kept  up  gardens 
on  the  other  side  the  Atlantic,  but  generally 
speaking  this  is  not  the  case.  Yet  there  is  suf- 
ficient taste  and  desire  on  the  part  of  those  who 
can  afford  to  support  such  establishments.  We 
find  most  of  our  wealthy  citizens  keeping  a 
country  house  and  retiring  from  the  crowded 
cities  when  Flora  puts  on  her  gay  attire.  We 
see  them  wishing  to  have  gardens,  and  those 
few  who  really  get  them  enjoying  their  beau- 
ties. A  further  proof  is  in  the  universal  love 
flowers  and  the  high  prices  that  are  frequent- 
for  them.     Many  expend  thousands  of 


dollars  in  laying  out  their  grounds,  but  which 
I  am  sorry  to  say  is  too  often  squandered  by 
men  in  whom  they  have  placed  confidence,  who 
have  no  ability  for  such  things,  who  pitch,  here 
and  there,  a  stick  of  a  tree  in  a  hole  not  large 
enough  to  bury  a  cat,  as  accidentally  as  if  they 
had  fallen  from  the  clouds,  and  think  they  have 
done  wonders,  and  who  instead  of  producing 
beauty  and  grace,  and  thus  giving  satisfiiction, 
are  at  last  cut  short  by  the  disgust  of  their  em- 
ployers. If  there  is  desire  for  such  things,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  universal  wish  to  ex- 
cel, will  prompt  American  gentlemen  to  have 
as  good  gardens  as  most  Europeans,  providing 
they  can  get  enough  of  the  same  class  of  gar- 
deners as  are  there  found  in  the  best  conducted 
places.  Mr.  Quin's  comparison  (in  the  July 
number)  between  a  store-sweeper's  wages  and 
those  of  a  gardener,  are  ill-timed  and  out  of 
place.  Indeed  it  seems  to  me  his  whole  argu- 
ment will  hardly  bear  the  test  of  examination. 
It  is  hoped  that  the  eruption  may  be  quenched 
by  a  little  common  sense. 

The  profession  is  held  back  by  the  horde  of 
pretenders  who  swarm  all  over  the  country,  who 
have  no  ability  but  in  their  impudence,  who 
can  do  every  thing  perfect  in  the  porter  house, 
and  everything  imperfectly  in  the  garden,  and 
who  from  their  numbers,  their  presumption  and 
their  arrogance,  make  the  gardener's  calling  a 
derision  and  a  mockery.  How  are  gardeners 
to  expect,  (except  in  a  few  instances)  better 
remuneration  than  "  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water,"  while  the  present  state  of 
things  exists.  It  is  the  bounden  duty  of  every 
true  gardener  to  set  a  decided  stand  against 
such  men,  and  to  hold  out  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship  to  any  one  who  has  public  influence, 
and  respond  with  the  kindest  feelings  to  him 
who  in  his  public  capacity,  endeavors  to  raise 
gardening  from  its  present  forlorn  condition,  up 
to  that  position  which  it  is  entitled  to  hold. 
Such  societies  for  the  practical  education  of 
gardeners  as  you  advocate,  would  do  much 
towards  bringing  about  so  desirable  a  consum- 
mation. They  would  be  the  means  of  testing 
the  abilities  of  the  different  men  who  would 
come  within  their  sphere,  and  depend  upon  it 
that  sphere  would  be  a  very  extended  one  if 
fully  carried  out,  sufficiently  so  to  remodel 
gardening  throughout  the  country.     Only  let 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


the  ijrincipal  large  cities  have  each  its  horticul- 
tural society's  garden,  and  let  there  be  in  each 
a  department  for  general  culture.  Let  it  be 
known  to  gardeners  both  here  and  abroad  that 
they  would  be  employed,  and  their  abilities 
tested  by  a  scientific  and  experienced  director, 
whose  recommendation  could  be  relied  on,  and 
there  would  be  no  lack  of  good  and  talented 
men  applying  for  admission.  Such  societies 
would  be  a  credit  to  the  country.  They  would 
be  supported  at  very  little  cost;  in  fact  they 
might  be  made  to  be  paying  concerns, and  garde- 
ners abroad — real  gardeners — not  wheelbarrow 
trundlers — would  know  that  there  would  be 
something  in  the  way  of  an  asylum  for  them  to 
come  to,  and  would  be  induced  thereby  to  come 
over  in  greater  numbers,  when  the  host  of  pre- 
tenders would  fall  back  before  the  face  of  ex- 
perience, and  fill  only  the  situations  of  the  op- 
pressor arid  the  penurious,  and  such  places 
would  in  their  turn  become  a  laughing  stock 
to  all  men  of  good  taste.  I  have  had  some  ex- 
perience in  the  working  of  such  societies  in 
England,  and  can  assert  with  confidence  that 
they  have  done  more  to  elevate  gardening  in 
that  country  than  anything  else.  They  have 
been  the  means  during  the  last  twenty  years 
of  making  English  horticulture  a  model  for  the 
world,  of  stimulating  skill  and  raising  a  higher 
standard  of  perfection.  They  have  also  been 
the  means  of  attracting  the  attention  of  spirited 
observing  and  intelligent  young  men, who  there- 
by have  been  induced  to  learn  the  profession, 
seeing  in  it  something  to  occupy  a  talented 
mind.  Plenty  of  such  young  men  are  now 
languishing  in  the  nursery  establishments 
abroad  at  low  wages,  and  little  prospect  before 
them.  These  would  be  easily  induced  to  come 
over  here  if  they  knew  there  were  any  chance 
of  bettering  their  condition,  and  employing 
their  talent,  but  in  the  present  position  they  are 
ignorant  of  the  true  state  of  gardening  here, 
and  those  who  are  here  and  know  how  they 
would  be  situated  on  landing  do  not  like  to  en- 
courage them  to  come  out.  Establish  such 
societies  as  the  above ;  let  it  be  known  that  there 
are  such  institutes  M-here  the  educated  garden- 
er can  find  a  resting  place  without  having  to 
succumb  to  the  degrading  position  (perhaps  for 
years  because  he  has  not  the  pretender's  ef- 
frontry)  of  doing  all  kinds  of  conveniences  for 


every  domectic  about  a  gentleman's  back  door, 
and  wages  in  the  first  instance  will  be  no  object, 
and  although  employers  should  have  to  pay  a 
little  more  for  the  services  of  such  men,  they 
will  generally  and  eventually  be  the  gainers  to 
a  large  extent.  AA'ishiug  you  every  success  in 
your  advocacy  of  the  true  interests  of  good 
gardeners,  lam  yours  most  respectfully,  Wm. 
Chorlton,  Gardener  to  J.  C.  Greene,  Esq. 
Staten  Island,  March  4,  1851. 

Grapes  and  Strawberries. — I  am  gratifi- 
ed to  learn  that  the  Diana  grape  is  of  good  qua- 
lity south.  The  fruit  in  Boston  is  far  inferior 
to  the  Catawba  with  us.  I  doubt  not  it  will  be 
improved  here.  I  have  several  vines  that  will 
fruit  this  season. 

Your  correspondent  errs  in  supposing  a  cut- 
ting from  a  grape-vine,  perfect  in  male  and  fe- 
male organs,  can  become  barren.  I  would 
sooner  believe  in  mesmerism  than  this.  I  have 
raised  from  cuttings,  300,000  bearing  plants, 
and  never  a  non-hearer.  A  cutting  of  a  defec- 
tive plant  has  got  there  by  mistake.  You  cer- 
tainly err  in  saying  the  Scuppernong  of  North 
Carolina  is  the  only  native  grape  that  is  not 
perfect  in  both  male  and  female  organs.  In  our 
woods,  I  believe  the  greater  portion  of  our  wild 
grapes  Mill  be  found  defective  in  female  organs, 
and  barren.  I  have  had  the  wild  seedlings, 
(the  seed  I  presume  dropped  by  birds,)  gene- 
rally of  this  character.  You  certainly  err,  also, 
in  saying,  that  in  England  no  attention  has 
been  paid  to  the  sexes  of  the  strawberry  plant. 
The  strawberries  they  usually  cultivate,  are 
hermaphrodite,  and  are  chiefly  used  for  forcing. 
In  the  open  ground,  with  us,  their  large  fruit- 
ed ones  will  not  average  a  quarter  of  a  crop  of 
perfect  fruit.  [Our  correspondent  has  not  seen 
the  crops  of  British  Queen  grown  in  England, 
or  he  would  not  hold  this  opinion.  Ed.]  Where 
forced,  the  pistils  are  better  developed,  and 
bear  more  fruit.  This  is  the  character  of  their 
boasted  variety,  Keen's  Seedling.  But  Mr. 
Keen  himself,  discovered  that  there  were  va- 
rieties wholly  defective  in  the  male  organ.  He 
says,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  the  London  Horti- 
cultural Society,  published  in  their  Transac- 
tions, that  he  found  one  of  his  beds  in  forcing, 
though  full  of  blossoms,  bore  no  fruit.  He 
examined  the  blossoms,  and  found  no 
male  organs.    He  went  to  a  bed  perfect 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


mens,  and  removed  a  few  plants  to  the  frames, 
and  every  blossom  was  impregnated  and  bore  a 
perfect  fruit.  I  imported  this  variety  near  30 
years  since,  and  still  have  it,  and  cultivate  it 
largely.  As  soon  as  the  character  of  the  straw- 
berry plant  is  settled  east,  the  Early  Scarlet 
will  only  be  cultivated  as  an  impregnator.  I 
will  present  Mr.  Hogg  a  silver  cu;»  of  the  value 
of  $100,  as  soon  as  he  will  produce  half  a  crop 
of  fruit  from  Hovey's  justly  celebrated  seed- 
ling, or  the  English  Methven  Scarlet,  if  sepa- 
rated from  all  others.  Neither  of  them  will 
bear  a  perfect  berry.*  The  same  is  true  of 
Burr's  highly  flavored  Nevr  Pine.  Mr.  ITovey 
and  Mr.  Burr  both  know  the  character  of  their 
seedlings,  and  will  endorse  what  I  say.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  say  the  Catawba  is  our  only  wine 
grape.  I  believe  the  wine  from  the  Missouri 
and  Herbemont,  will  command  a  higher  price 
than  the  dry  Catawba  wine.  I  this  season  paid 
double  price  for  some  of  the  latter,  to  one  of 
my  tenants.  I  offered  another  a  higher  price, 
which  he  declined.  The  former,  with  skillful 
manufacture,  will  equal  Madeira.  The  latter, 
the  Spanish  Manzanilla,  which  it  resembles  in 
aroma  and  flavor.  Yours  resp'ly,  N.  Long- 
WOTRH.     Cincinnati,  0.,  Feb.  20,  18-51. 


Rabbits  vs.  Sulphur. — I  have  tried  the  ex- 
periment, [from  the  account  in  a  former  num- 
ber,] the  present  winter,  of  placing  small  pie- 
ces of  cloth  dipped  in  melted  sulphur,  around 
a  small  nursery  of  fruit  trees,  at  the  distance 
of  eight  or  ten  feet  from  each  other,  and  thus 
far  it  has  been  an  impregnable  barrier  against 
the  ravages  of  rabbits,  which,  in  winters  past, 
have  been  verj''  destructive.  C.  P.  Granville, 
Ohio,  Feb.  10,  1851. 


Horticultural  Plough. — Mr.  Wilkinson, 
of  the  Mt.  Airy  Agricultural  Institute,  hag 
lately  read  an  interesting  paper  before  the 
Philadelphia  agricultural  association  on  ploughs 
and  tillage.  He  exhibited  a  plan  of  a  horticul- 
tural plough,  which  appears  to  us  worthy  of 
attention,  and  accompanied  it  with  the  follow- 
ing remarks: 

To  perfect  the  catalogue  of  ploughs  for  the 
various  purposes,  we  need  a  plough  which 
might  properly  be  styled  the  Horticulttiral 
Plough,  for  the  purpose  of  ploughing  in  or- 
one  that  will  enable  us  to  till  close  to 
trees  without  exposing  them  to  injury 
hope  Mr.  H.  will  accept  this  challenge.     Ed. 


from  being  barked  or  galled  by  the  whii)ple 
trees  of  the  horse  tackling,  or  the  yoke  of  the 
o.xen;  and  also  to  guard  against  injuring  the 
teams,  whicli  often  occurs  in  ploughing  among 
trees,  by  bruising  their  hips  against  them.  The 
same  instrument,  if  properly  constructed,  will 
also  be  found  very  usel'ul  for  ploughing  along 
fences,  whether  the  furrow  is  to  be  turned  to 
or  from  the  fence. 

I  have  prepared  a  diagram  of  a  form  of 
l)lough,  which  I  will  submit  to  your  inspection, 
that  will  be  found  an  efficient  improvement  for 
all  the  above  purposes,  for  which  no  manufac- 
turer has  ever  succeeded  in  making  one  in  the 
least  adapted.  In  tilling  the  land  near  the 
thorn ,  or  maclura  hedge,  this  plough  will  enable 
us  to  till  as  close  to  them  as  we  desire,  witliout 
subjecting  the  teams  to  that  painful  laceration 
by  the  thorns,  which  is  unavoidable  in  the  use 
of  a  common  plough  in  tillage.  Any  common 
plough,  that  is  adapted  to  both  fallow  and 
sward  land,  and  one  that  is  considerably  worn, 
will  answer  the  purpose  for  a  horticultural 
plough,  when  altered,  by  attaching  to  it  the 
shifting  beam — from  the  fact  that  it  will  be  used 
but  little,  compared  with  other  ploughs;  hence 
a  plough  considerably  worn,  will  answer  as  well 
as  any.  

Prairie  Roses. — In  June  last  I  wrote  an  ar- 
ticle on  the  prairie  roses,  15  in  number,  which 
were  in  my  possession,  and  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, in  bloom.  This  article  was  published  in 
the  Syracuse  Daily  Journal,  about  the  4th  of 
July,  and  copied  into  the  August  number  of 
the  Horticulturist.  Some  of  the  above,  as  be- 
fore stated,  were  not  fully  expanded  at  the 
time,  but  the  descriptions  of  such  were  copied 
from  an  article  in  Hovey's  Magazine,  (by  the 
editor,  see  August  No.  1847,)  who  then  had 
eight  in  number  in  bloom,  not  including  "  Mrs. 
Hovey,"  but  represented  Mrs.  Hovey  as  a  pure 
or  superb  white  rose,  giving  Mr.  Joshua  Pier- 
ce's description  of  it.  After  I  had  penned  this 
article,  my  Mrs.  Hovey  bloomed  very  finely  and 
was  a  splendid  blush. 

I  see,  however,  that  this  rose  is  still  advertis- 
ed by  Messrs.  Hovey  and  others  as  a  pure 
white,  (see  June  No.  of  Hovey's  Magazine, 18-50) 
and  I  naturally  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I 
might  have  recieved  the  wrong  rose,  although 
I  purchased  it  from  the  originator  himself.  (Mr. 
J.  Pierce,  of  Washington.)  "When  in  Albany, 
last  September,  I  asked  Mr.  James  Wilson  if 
he  had  Mrs.  Hovey,  (Prairie) — to  which  he  re- 
plied afflrmatively.  Where  did  you  get  it?  His 
reply  was  that  a  friend  had  ordered  it  from 
Miss  Hovey  &  Co.,  of  Boston,  and  he  had 
received  his  plant  from  that  friend.     I  then 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


served  that  I  thought  I  had  the  wrong  rose,  but 
that  Messrs.  IIovey  &  Co.'s  was  right,  as  they 
still  advertised  it  as  a  fine  white,  and  I  should 
be  pleased  to  get  a  few  buds  of  him ;  particularly 
so,  as  his  rose  was  the  same  as  Messrs.  Hovey 
&  Go's.  Mr.  Wilson  looked  me  in  the  face, 
and  very  pointedly  asked,  "what  color  is 
yours?"  I  replied,  a  beautiful  blush.  "  So  is 
mijie,  and  so  is  Messrs.  Hovey  &  Co.'s,"  was 
his  immediate  answer. 

Now,  sir,  presuming  that  I  have  the  Prairie 
Rose  Mrs.  Hovey,  correct,  (as  a  number  have 
also  said  it  was  a  blush,)  I  wish  to  correct  the 
statement  I  have  put  forth,  and  let  it  be  public- 
ly known,  that  the  Prairie  Rose,  Mrs.  Hovey, 
is  not  a  pure  white,  (although  a  beautiful  rose,) 


and  if  the  Messrs.  Hovey  k  Co.  of  Boston,  or 
our  friends  Parsons  &  Co.  of  Flushing,  or  any 
other  persons,  have  it  "  a  pure  white,"  as  ad- 
vertised or  described,  they  will  confer  a  very 
great  favor  on  many  of  your  readers,  and  par- 
ticularly on  your  humble  servant,  by  making  it 
known,  so  that  we  may  all  possess  ourselves  of 
so  valuable  a  rose.  Can  you,  Mr.  Editor,  en- 
lighten usany  on  this  subject?  A.  Fahnestock. 
Syracuse,  Feb.  15,  1851. 

[We  have  this  Prairie  Rose  called  "Mrs.  Ho- 
vey," received  from  Boston,  and  described  as 
a  white  rose,  which  has  bloomed  two  seasons, 
and  is  a  deep  blush  rose — with  no  white  about 
it.     Ed.] 


IGnrtirultiirnl  Inrirtirs. 


Pennsylvania. — The  meeting  for  March 
was  held  on  the  18th,  when  there  was  a  fine 
display,  comprising  fine  collections  of  flowering 
plants,  from  Jas.  Ritchie,  Jno.  Lambert,  Robert 
Buist,  A.  M.  Eastwick,  and  J.  D.  Fulton — Cut 
flowers,  Designs,  Boquets,  Sec.  Extensive  col- 
lections of  vegetables  were  shown  by- several 
gardeners.  A  vote  of  thanks  was  accorded  to 
Charles  Downing,  for  a  copy  of  the  "'  Archi- 
tecture of  Country  Houses,  by  A.  J.  Downing." 

The  stated  meeting  for  April  was  held  on  the 
15th.  The  displays  of  plants  and  forced  vege- 
tables, were  very  fine,  and  furnished  from  six 
green-houses  and  a  number  of  hot-beds.  A  few 
only  of  the  most  interesting  plants  from  each 
contribution  will  be  noticed.  Among  those 
from  F.  Lennig,  were  Gardenia  Stanleyana, 
Franciscea  hydrangeaj  formis,  and  Columnea 
Scheideana,  rare,  and  which  attracted  much 
attention.  From  Peter  Mackenzie,  were  Silene 
rosea  gracea  and  Crepis  Druramondii  of  recent 
introduction,  Pansies,  Roses,  and  a  beautiful 
display  of  Camellias ;  of  the  latter,  a  flower  of 
his  seedling  of  this  year,  named  "  Jenny  Lind," 
a  perfect  gem,  and  was  much  admired.  From 
Robert  Buist,  were  specimens  of  a  new  plant 
from  California  in  full  bloom,  allied  to  Arbutus, 
Pimelia  spectabilis,  Pelargonia  and  Hyacinths. 
From  A.  M.  Eastwick,  Callostylisaurantiacus? 


new,  Azaleas,  Cereas  and  Hyacinths.  From 
Miss  Gratz,  Campanula  nobilis,  Azalea  indica, 
rubra  and  Pelargonia.  From  James  Ritchie, 
a  choice  selection  of  Roses  and  Pansies.  Some 
beautiful  specimens  of  cut  Ranunculus  were 
shown  from  James  McGowan,  Mt.  Airy. 

The  only  description  of  fruits  shown,  were 
Apples.  By  James  Jackson,  Quackertovvn,  a 
seedling  of  merit.  By  Dr.  Brinckle,  from  Chas. 
Cai-penter,  Kelly's  Island,  LakeErie,  "Carpen- 
ter's No.  2" — from  A.  Fahnestock,  Syracuse, 
N.  Y.,  "  Northern  Spy."  By  John  Perkins, 
Monmouth  and  Newtown  Pippins  and  Tewks- 
bury  winter  blush. 

The  vegetable  department  consisted  of  three 
collections  from  Joseph  Ripkat,  Manayunck; 
from  Miss  Gratz,  and  from  the  garden  of  the 
Insane  hospital. 

A  vote  of  thanks  was  accorded  to  Dr.  Jno. 
M.  Sharpless  for  the  gift  of  a  collection  of 
Seeds  from  Cairo,  Egypt.  Tho.  P.  James, 
Rec.  Secretary. 

New-Jersey. — The  N.  J.  Hort,  Society  have 
resolved  to  hold  their  next  Annual  Exhibition 
at  Jersey  City,  on  the  24th,  25th  and  26th  days 
of  September,  and  have  issued  a  liberal  list  of 
Premiums  to  be  awarded  at  that  time.  A  semi- 
annual meeting  of  the  Society  is  to  be  held  at 
Trenton,  on  the  20th  of  June. 


N 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


1  Jfm  il"*Drk  m  nnr  ^c^rngrrss  in  13nilMng. 

I^IHE  "Genius  of  Architecture,"  said  Thomas  Jefferson,  some  fifty  years  ago, 
*^  "  has  shed  its  malediction  upon  America."'  Jefferson,  though  the  boldest  of 
democrats,  had  a  secret  respect  and  admiration  for  the  magnificent  results  of  aristocrat- 
ic institutions  in  the  arts,  and  had  so  refined  his  taste  in  France,  as  to  be  shocked,  past 
endurance,  on  his  return  home,  with  the  raw  and  crude  attempts  at  building  in  the  re- 
public. 

No  one,  however,  can  accuse  the  Americans  with  apathy  or  want  of  interest  in  ar- 
chitecture, at  the  present  moment.  Within  ten  years  past,  the  attention  of  great  num- 
bers has  been  turned  to  the  improvement  and  embellishment  of  public  and  private 
edifices;  many  foreign  architects  have  settled  in  the  Union,  numerous  works — espe- 
cially upon  domestic  architecture — have  been  issued  from  the  press,  and  the  whole 
community,  in  town  and  country,  seem  at  the  present  moment  to  be  afflicted  with  the 
building  mania.  The  upper  part  of  New- York,  especially,  has  the  air  of  some  city  of 
fine  houses  in  all  styles,  rising  from  the  earth  as  if  by  enchantment,  while  in  the  su- 
burbs of  Boston,  rural  cottages  are  springing  up  on  all  sides,  as  if  the  "  Grenius  of 
Architecture"  had  sown,  broadcast,  the  seeds  of  07-/iee  cottages,  and  was  in  a  fair  way 
of  having  a  fine  harvest  in  that  quarter. 

There  are  many  persons  who  are  as  discontented  with  this  new  hot-bed  growth  of 
architectural  beauty,  as  Jefferson  was  with  the  earlier  and  ranker  growth  of  defor- 
mity in  his  day.  Some  denounce  "  fancy  houses,"'— as  they  call  everything  but  a 
solid  square  block — altogether.  Others  have  become  weary  of  "  Gothic,"  (without 
perhaps,  ever  having  really  seen  one  good  specimen  of  the  style,)  and  suggest  whether 
there  be  not  something  barbarous  in  a  lancet  window  to  a  modern  parlor  ;  while  the 
larger  number  go  on  building  vigorously  in  the  newest  style  they  can  find,  determined 
to  have  something,  if  not  better  and  more  substantial  than  their  neighbors,  at 
more  extraoi'dinary  and  uncommon. 


JuME  1,  1851. 


2^0.  VI. 


A  FEW  WORDS  ON  OUR  PROGRESS  IN  BUILDING 


There  is  still  another  class  of  our  countrymen  who  put  on  a  hypercritical  air,  and 
sit  in  judgment  on  the  progress  and  development  of  the  building  taste  in  this  country. 
They  disdain  everything  foreign.  They  will  have  no  Gothic  mansions,  Italian  villas, 
or  Swiss  cottages.  Nothing  will  go  down  with  them  but  an  entirely  new  "  order,"  as 
they  call  it,  and  they  berate  all  architectural  writers,  (we  have  come  in  for  our  share,) 
for  presenting  certain  more  or  less  meritorious  modifications  of  such  foreign  styles. 
What  they  demand,  with  their  brows  lowered  and  their  hands  clenched,  is  an  "  Ame- 
rican style  of  architecture!"  As  if  an  architecture  sprung  up  like  the  after-growth 
in  our  forests,  the  natural  and  immediate  consequence  of  clearing  the  soil.  As  if  a 
people  not  even  indigenous  to  the  country,  but  wholly  European  colonists,  or  their 
descendants,  a  people  who  have  neither  a  new  language  nor  religion,  who  wear  the  fash- 
ions of  Paris,  and  who  in  their  highest  education,  hang  upon  the  skirts  of  Greece  and 
Kome,  were  likely  to  invent,  (as  if  it  were  a  new  plough,)  an  original  and  altogether 
novel  and  satisfactory  style  of  architecture. 

A  little  learning  we  have  been  rightly  told,  is  one  of  the  articles  to  be  labelled 
"  dangerous."  Our  hypercritical  friends  prove  the  truth  of  the  saying,  by  expecting 
what  never  did,  and  never  will  happen.  An  original  style  in  architecture  or  any  other  of 
the  arts,  has  never  yet  been  invented  or  composed  outright;  but  all  have  been  modifica- 
tions of  previously  existing  modes  of  building.  Late  discoverers  have  proved  that  G  recian 
Architecture  was  only  perfected  in  Greece — the  models  of  their  temples  were  found  in 
older  Egypt.*  The  Romans  composed  their  finest  structures  out  of  the  very  ruins  of  pub- 
lic edifices  brought  from  Greece,  and  the  round  arch  had  its  rise  from  working  with  these 
fragments  instead  of  masses  of  stone.  The  Gothic  arch,  the  origin  of  which  has  been 
claimed  as  an  invention  of  comparatively  modern  art,  Mr.  Euskin  has  proved  to  be  of 
purely  Arabic  origin,  in  use  in  Asia  long  before  Gothic  architecture  was  known,  and 
gradually  introduced  into  Europe  by  architects  from  the  East.  And  whoever  studies 
Oriental  art,  will  see  the  elements  of  Arabic  architecture,  the  ground-work  of  the 
style,  abounding  in  the  ruins  of  Indian  temples  of  the  oldest  date  known  on  the  globe. 

It  is  thus,  by  a  little  research,  that  we  find  there  has  never  been  such  a  novelty 
as  the  invention  of  a  positively  new  style  in  building.  What  are  now  known  as  the 
Grecian,  Gothic,  Roman  and  other  styles,  are  only  those  local  modifications  of  the 
styles  of  the  older  countries,  from  which  the  newer  colony  borrowed  them,  as  the 
climate,  habits  of  the  people,  and  genius  of  the  architects,  acting  upon  each  other 
through  a  long  series  of  years,  gradually  developed  into  such  styles.  It  is,  therefore, 
as  absurd  for  the  critics  to  ask  for  the  American  style  of  architecture,  as  it  was  for  the 
English  friends  of  a  Yankee  of  our  acquaintance  to  request  him,  (after  they  were  on 
quite  familiar  terms,)  to  do  them  the  favor  to  put  on  his  savage  dress  and  talk  a  little 
American!  This  country  is,  indeed,  too  distinct  in  its  institutions,  and  too  vast  in 
its  territorial  and  social  destinies,  not  to  shape  out  for  itself  a  great  national  type  in 
character,  manners  and  art ;  but  the  development  of  the  finer  and  more  intellectual  traits 
of  character  are  slower  in  a  nation,  than  they  are  in  a  man,  and  only  time  can  develope 
them  healthily  in  either  case. 

*  According  to  the  last  conclusions  of  the  savans,  Solomon's  Tennple  was  a  pure  model  of  Greek  Architect 


A  FEW  WORDS  ON  OUR  PROGRESS  IN  BUILDING. 

lu  the  mean  time,  we  are  in  the  midst  of  what  may  be  called  the  experimental  stage 
of  architectural  taste.  With  the  passion  for  novelty,  and  the  feeling  of  independence 
that  belong  to  this  country,  our  people  seem  determined  to  try  everythi?ig.  A  pro- 
prietor on  the  lower  part  of  the  Hudson,  is  building  a  stone  castle,  with  all  the  towers 
clustered  together,  after  the  fashion  of  the  old  robber  strong-holds  on  the  Rhine. 
We  trust  he  has  no  intention  of  levying  toll  on  the  railroad  that  runs  six  trains  a  day 
under  his  frowning  battlements,  or  exacting  booty  from  the  river  craft  of  all  sizes 
forever  floating  by.  A  noted  New-Yorker  has  erected  a  villa  near  Bridgeport,  which 
looks  like  the  minareted  and  domed  residence  of  a  Persian  Skah — though  its  orientalism 
is  rather  put  out  of  countenance  by  the  prim  and  puritanical  dwellings  of  the  plain 
citizens  within  rifle  shot  of  it.  A  citizen  of  fortune  dies,  and  leaves  a  large  sum 
to  erect  a  "  large  plain  building"  for  a  school  to  educate  orphan  boys — which  the  build- 
ing committee  consider  to  mean  a  superb  marble  temple,  like  that  of  Jupiter  Olympius; 
a  foreigner  liberally  bequeaths  his  fortune  to  the  foundation  of  an  institution  "  for 
the  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men'' — and  the  regents  erect  a  college  in  the 
style  of  a  Norman  monastery — with  a  relish  of  the  dark  ages  in  it,  the  better  to 
contrast  with  its  avowed  purpose  of  diffusing  light.  On  all  sides,  in  our  large  towns, 
we  have  churches  built  after  Gothic  models,  and  though  highly  fitting  and  beautiful  as 
churches,  i.  e.,  edifices  for  purely  devotional  purposes — are  quite  useless  as  places  to 
hear  sermons  in,  because  the  preacher's  voice  is  inaudible  in  at  least  one-half  of  the 
church.  And  everywhere  in  the  older  parts  of  the  country,  private  fortunes  are 
rapidly  crystalizing  into  mansions,  villas,  country-houses  and  cottages,  in  all 
known  styles  supposed  to  be  in  any  way  suitable  to  the  purposes  of  civilized  habita- 
tions. 

Without  in  the  least  desiring  to  apologise  for  the  frequent  violations  of  taste  wit- 
nessed in  all  this  fermentation  of  the  popular  feeling  in  architecture,  we  do  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  we  rejoice  in  it.  It  is  a  fermentation  that  shows  clearly  there  is  no  apathy  in 
the  public  mind,  and  we  feel  as  much  confidence  as  the  vintner  who  walks  through  the 
wine  cellar  in  full  activity,  that  the  froth  of  foreign  affectations  will  work  off,  and  the  im- 
purities of  vulgar  taste  settle  down,  leaving  us  the  pure  spirit  of  a  better  national 
taste  at  last.  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day,  and  whoever  would  see  a  national  ar- 
chitecture, must  be  patient  till  it  has  time  to  rise  out  of  the  old  materials,  under  the 
influences  of  a  new  climate,  our  novel  institutions  and  modified  habits. 

In  domestic  architecture,  the  difficulties  that  lie  in  the  way  of  achieving  a  pure  and 
correct  taste,  are,  perhaps,  greater  than  in  civil  or  ecclesiastical  edifices.  There  are  so 
many  private /a/zczes,  and  personal  vanities,  which  seek  to  manifest  themselves  in  the 
house  of  the  ambitious  private  citizen,  and  which  are  defended  under  the  shield  of  that 
miserable  falsehood,  "there  is  no  disputing  about  tastes.''^  (If  the  proverb  read 
whims,  it  would  be  gospel  truth.)  Hence  we  see  numberless  persons  who  set  about 
building  their  own  house  without  the  aid  of  an  architect,  who  would  not  think 
of  being  their  own  lawj^er,  though  one  profession  demands  as  much  study  and 
pacity  as  the  other ;  and  it  is  not  to  this  we  object,  for  we  hold  that  a  man  may 


A  FEW  WORDS  ON  OUR  PROGRESS  IN  BUILDING. 

build  his  own  house  and  plead  his  own  rights  to  justice  satisfactorily — but  it  must  be 
done  in  both  instances,  in  the  simplest  and  most  straight-forward  manner.  If  he  at- 
tempts to  go  into  the  discussion  of  Blackstone  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  mysteries 
of  ViTRUVius  and  Pugin  on  the  other,  he  is  sure  to  get  speedily  swamped,  and 
commit  all  sorts  of  follies  and  extravagancies  quite  out  of  keeping  with  his  natural 
character. 

The  two  greatest  trials  to  the  architect  of  taste,  who  desires  to  see  his  country  and 
age  making  a  respectable  figure  in  this  branch  of  the  arts,  are  to  be  found  in  that  class 
of  travelled  smatterers  in  virtu,  who  have  picked  up  here  and  there,  in  the  tour  from 
Liverpool  to  Eome,  certain  ill-assorted  notions  of  art,  which  they  wish  combined  in 
one  sublime  whole,  in  the  shape  of  their  own  domicil ;  and  that  larger  class,  who  am- 
bitiously imitate  in  a  small  cottage,  all  that  belongs  to  palaces,  castles  and  buildings 
of  princely  dimensions. 

The  first  class  is  confined  to  no  country.  Examples  are  to  be  found  everywhere, 
and  we  do  not  know  of  a  better  hit  at  the  folly  of  these  cognoscenti,  than  in  the  fol- 
lowing relation  of  experiences  by  one  of  the  cleverest  of  English  architectural  critics : 

"  The  architect  is  requested,  perhaps,  by  a  man  of  great  wealth,  nay,  of  established 
taste  in  some  points,  to  make  a  design  for  a  villa  in  a  lovely  situation.  The  future 
proprietor  carries  him  up  stairs  to  his  study,  to  give  him  what  he  calls  his  '  ideas  and 
materials,'  and,  in  all  probability,  begins  somewhat  thus; — '  This,  sir,  is  a  slight  note; 
I  made  it  on  the  spot ;  approach  to  Villa  Reale,  near  Puzzuoli.  Dancing  nymphs, 
you  perceive  ;  cypresses,  shell  fountain.  I  think  I  should  like  something  like  this  for 
the  approach  ;  classical  you  perceive,  sir  ;  elegant,  graceful.  Then,  sir,  this  is  a 
sketch  by  an  American  friend  of  mine  ;  Whe-whaw-Kantamaraw's   wigwam,  king  of 

the Cannibal  Islands  ;  I  think  he  said,  sir.     Log,  you  observe  ;  scalps,  and  boa 

constrictor  skins  ;  curious.  Something  like  this,  sir,  would  look  neat,  I  think,  for  the 
frontdoor;  don't  you?  Then  the  lower  windows,  I'm  not  quite  decided  upon ;  but 
what  would  you  say  to  Egyptian,  sir?  I  think  I  should  like  my  windows  Egyptian, 
with  hieroglyphics,  sir  ;  storks  and  cofl&ns,  and  appropriate  mouldings  above  ;  I  brought 
some  from  Fountain's  Abbey  the  other  day.  Look  here,  sir ;  angel's  heads  putting 
their  tongues  out,  rolled  up  in  cabbage  leaves,  with  a  dragon  on  each  side  riding  on  a 
broomstick,  and  the  devil  looking  out  from  the  mouth  of  an  alligator,  sir.*  Odd,  I 
think ;  interesting.  Then  the  corners  may  be  turned  by  octagonal  towers,  like  the 
centre  one  in  Kenilworth  Castle  ;  with  Gothic  doors,  port-cullis  and  all,  quite  perfect ; 
with  cross  slits  for  arrows,  battlements  for  musketry,  machiolations  for  boiling  lead, 
and  a  room  at  the  top  for  drying  plums  ;  and  the  conservatory  at  the  bottom,  sir,  with 
Virginia  creepers  up  the  towers  ;  door  supported  by  sphinxes,  holding  scrapers  in  their 
fore  paws,  and  having  their  tails  prolonged  into  warm-water  pipes,  to  keep  the  plants 
safe  in  winter,  &c.'  " 

We  have  seen  buildings  in  England,  where  such  Bedlam  suggestions  of  taste  have 
not  only  been  made,  but  accepted  either  wholly  or  partly  by  the  architect,  and  where 

This  grotesque  device  is  actually  carved  on  one  of  the  groins  of  RosUn  Castle,  Scotland. 


A  FEW  WORDS  ON  OUR  PROGRESS  IN  BUILDING. 

the  result  was,  of  course,  both  ludicrous  and  absurd.  There  is  less  dictation  to  ar 
chitects  in  this  country  on  one  hand,  and  more  independence  of  any  class  on  the  oth- 
er, to  bring  such  examples  of  architectural  salmagundies  into  existence — though  there 
are  a  few  in  the  profession  weak  enough  to  prostitute  their  talents  to  any  whim  or  ca- 
price of  the  employer. 

But  by  far  the  greater  danger  at  the  present  moment  lies  in  the  inordinate  ambition 
of  the  builders  of  ornamental  cottages.  Not  contented  with  the  simple  and  befitting 
decoration  of  the  modest  veranda,  the  bracketted  roof,  the  latticed  window,  and  the 
lovely  accessories  of  vines  and  flowering  shrubs,  the  builder  of  the  cottage  ornee  in 
too  many  cases,  attempts  to  engraft  upon  his  simple  story  of  a  habitation,  all  the 
tropes  and  figures  of  architectural  rhetoric  which  belong  to  the  elaborate  oratory  of 
a  palace  or  a  temple. 

We  have  made  a  point  of  enforcing  the  superior  charm  of  simplicity — and  the  real- 
ness  of  the  beauty  which  grows  out  of  it,  in  our  late  work  on  Country  Houses. 
We  even  went  so  far  as  to  give  a  few  examples  of  farm-houses  studiously  made  sim- 
ple and  rural  in  character,  though  not  without  a  certain  beauty  of  expression  befitting 
their  locality,  and  the  uses  to  which  they  were  destined.  But,  judging  from  some 
criticisms  on  these  farm-houses  in  one  of  the  western  papers,  we  believe  it  will  not  be 
an  easy  task  to  convince  the  future  proprietors  of  farm-houses  and  rural  cottages,  that 
truthful  simplicity  is  better  than  borrowed  decorations,  in  their  country  homes.  Our 
critic  wonders  why  farmers  should  not  be  allowed  to  live  in  as  handsome  houses,  (con- 
founding mere  decoration  with  beauty,)  as  any  other  class  of  our  citizens,  if  they  can 
afi"ord  it — and  claims  for  them  the  use  of  the  most  ornamental  architecture  in  their 
farm-houses.  We  have  only  to  answer  to  this,  that  the  simplest  expression  of  beauty 
which  grows  out  of  a  man's  life,  ranks  higher  for  him  than  the  most  elaborate  one 
borrowed  from  another's  life  or  circumstances.  We  will  add,  by  way  of  illus- 
tration, that  there  is  no  moral  or  political  objection,  that  we  know,  to  a  farmer's  wear- 
ing a  general's  uniform  in  his  corn-fields,  if  he  likes  it  better  than  plain  clothes  ;  but 
to  our  mind,  his  costume — undoubtedly  handsomer  in  the  right  place,  would  be  both 
absurd  and  ugly — behind  the  harrow. 

We  are  glad  to  find,  however,  that  our  feeling  of  the  folly  of  this  exaggerated  pre- 
tension in  cottage  architecture,  is  gradually  finding  its  expression  in  other  channels  of 
the  public  press — a  sure  sign  that  it  will  eventually  take  hold  of  public  opinion.  The 
following  satire  on  the  taste  of  the  day  in  this  over-loaded  style  of  "carpenter's 
gothic,"  from  the  pen  of  one  of  the  wittiest  and  cleverest  of  American  poets,  has 
lately  appeared,  (as  part  of  a  longer  satire  on  another  subject,)  in  one  of  our  popular 
magazines.  But  it  is  too  good  to  be  lost  sight  of  by  our  readers,  and  we  recommend 
it  to  a  second  perusal.  A  thought  or  two  upon  its  moral,  as  applied  to  the  taste  of 
the  country,  will  help  us  on  most  essentially  in  this,  our  experimental  age  of  architec- 
ture. 


A  FEW  WORDS  ON  OUR  PROGRESS  IN  BUILDING. 


THE  PvUKxiL  COT  OF  MR.  KNOTT. 


By  Lowell. 


My  worthy  friend,  A.  Gordon  Knott, 

From  business  snug  withdrawn, 
W^as  much  contented  with  a  lot 
Which  would  contain  a  Tudor  cot 
'Twixt  twelve  feet  square  of  garden-plot 
And  twelve  feet  more  of  lawn. 

He  had  laid  business  on  (he  shelf 

To  give  his  taste  expansion, 
And,  since  no  man,  retired  with  pelf, 

The  building  mania  can  shun, 
Knott  being  middle-aged  himself, 
Resolved  lo  build,  (unhappy  elfl) 

A  mediseval  mansion. 

He  called  an  architect  in  counsel ; 

"  I  want,"  said  he,  "  a — you  know  what, 
(You  are  a  builder,  I  am  Knott,) 
A  thuig  complete  from  chimney-pot 

Down  to  the  very  groundsel ; 

Here's  a  half  acre  of  good  land  ; 

Just  have  it  nicely  mapped  and  planned, 

And  make  your  ^vorkmen  drive  on ; 
IMeadow  there  is,  and  upland  too, 
And  I  sliould  like  a  water-view, 

D'  you  think  you  could  contrive  one  ? 

(Perhaps  the  pump  and  trough  would  do, 
If  painted  a  judicious  blue  ?) 
The  woodland  I've  attended  to;" 
(He  meant  three  pines  stuck  up  askew. 

Two  dead  ones  and  a  live  one.) 

"  A  pocket-full  of  rocks  'twould  take 

To  build  a  house  of  freestone. 

But  then  it  is  not  hard  to  make 

What  now-a-days  is  the  stone  ; 
The  cunning  painter  in  a  trice 
Your  house's  outside  petrifies. 
And  people  think  it  very  gneiss 

Without  inquiring  deeper ; 

My  money  never  shall  be  thrown 
Away  on  such  a  deal  of  stone. 

When  stone  of  deal  is  cheaper." 

And  so  the  greenest  of  antiques 

Was  reared  for  Kkott  to  dwell  in ; 

The  architect  worked  hard  for  weeks 
In  venting  all  his  private  peaks 
Upon  the  roof,  \vhose  crop  of  leaks 
Had  satisfied  Fluellen. 

Whatever  anybody  had 

Out  of  the  common,  good  or  bad, 
Knott  had  it  all  worked  well  in, 

A  don-jon  keep  where  clothes  might  dry, 

A  porter's  lodge  that  was  a  sty. 


A  campanile  slim  and  high. 

Too  small  to  hang  a  bell  in; 

All  up  and  down  and  here  and  there, 

With  Lord-knows-whats  of  round  and  square 

Stuck  on  at  random  everywhere  ; 

It  was  a  house  to  make  one  stare. 

All  corners  and  all  gables ; 
Like  dogs  let  loose  upon  a  bear. 
Ten  emulous  styles  staboyed  with  care, 
The  whole  among  them  seemed  to  bear, 
And  all  the  oddities  to  spare. 

Were  set  upon  the  stables. 

Knott  was  delighted  with  a  pile 

Approved  by  fashion's  leaders; 
(Only  he  made  the  builder  smile. 
By  asking,  every  little  while. 
Why  that  was  called  the  Twodoor  style, 

Which  certainly  had  three  doors'?) 
Yet  better  fOr  this  luckless  man 
If  he  had  put  a  downright  ban 

Upon  the  thing  in  limine  ; 
For,  tliough  to  quit  affairs  his  plan, 
Ere  many  days,  poor  Knott  began 
Perforce  accepting  draughts  that  ran 

All  ways — except  up  chimney; 
The  house,  though  painted  stone  to  mock. 
With  nice  white  lines  round  every  block. 

Some  trepidation  stood  in, 
When  tempests  (with  petrific  shock, 
So  to  speak)  made  it  really  rock. 

Though  not  a  whit  less  wooden  ; 
And  painted  stone,  howe'er  well  done, 
Will  not  take  hi  the  prodigal  sun 
Whose  beams  are  never  quite  at  one 

With  our  terrestrial  lumber ; 
So  the  wood  shrank  around  the  knots, 
And  gaped  in  disconcerting  spots. 
And  there  were  lots  of  dots  and  rots 

And  crannies  without  number. 
Where  through,  as  you  may  well  presume, 
The  wind,  like  water  through  a  flume. 

Came  rushing  m  ecstatic, 
Leaving  in  all  three  floors,  no  room 

That  was  not  a  rheumatic ; 
And  what,  with  points  and  squares  and  rounds. 

Grown  shaky  on  their  poises, 
The  house  at  night  was  full  of  pounds, 
Thumps,     bumps,    creaks,    scratchmgs,     raps,  —  till  ■ 

"zounds," 
Cried  Knott,  "  this  goes  beyond  all  bounds, 
I  do  not  deal  in  tongues  and  sounds. 
Nor  have  I  let  my  house  and  grounds. 

To  a  family  of  Noyeses!" 


TALK  IN  THE  APPLE  ORCHARD. 

A   LITTLE    TALK   IN   THE   APPLE    ORCHARD. 

BY  HENRY  F.  FRENCH,  EXETER,  N.  H. 

[The  following  pithy,  spirited,  and  practical  article — one  of  the  best  ever  sent  us,  will 
commend  itself  to  every  reader.     Ed.] 

The  inquiry  is  frequently  made,  "  At  what  season  is  it  best  to  prune  apple  trees?" 
Now  if  we  take  down  Cobbett's  edition  of  "  Forsyth  on  Fruit  Trees,"  we  read  at  page  48 
as  follows — "  The  best  time  to  prune  apple  trees,  is  in  the  month  of  J/pril  or  May."  If, 
then,  we  open  Kenrick's  "  New  American  Orchardist,"  at  page  107  we  read  thus — "The 
most  suituable  season  for  pruning  (apple  trees,)  is  that  interval  between  the  time  when  the 
Jrost  is  oat  of  the  ground  in  spring,  and  the  opening  oj  the  leaf."  Cole,  in  his  "  Fruit 
Book,"  at  page  57,  says — "  Moderate  pruning  should  be  done  in  Jane,  July,  or  j^agust, 
though  it  will  answer  very  well  till  December.  If  trees  are  pruned  in  July,  August,  or 
September,  the  wood  will  become  hard,  sound  and  well  seasoned — we  should  prefer  Oc- 
tober, November,  or  even  December,  to  the  spring,  tvhich  is  the  worst  ssasoii."  The  au- 
thor of  "  the  Fruits  and  Fruit  Trees  of  America,"  at  page  31,  (11th  edition,)  sums  up 
the  matter  thus — "  There  are  advantages  and  disadvantages  attending  all  seasons  of  prun- 
ing, but  our  own  experience  has  led  us  to  believe,  that  practically,  a  fortnight  bfore  mid- 
summer is  by  far  the  best  season  on  the  whole,  for  pruning  in  the  northern  and  middle 
states." 

I  have  heard  by  tradition,  the  advice  of  a  clergyman  of  a  former  generation,  famous  alike 
for  worldly  and  spiritual  knowledge,  to  a  hearer,  who  asked  him  at  what  time  he  would 
advise  to  prune  apple  trees — "  When  your  tools  are  sharp,"  was  the  reply — a  reply,  by 
the  way,  which  seems  to  embody  the  wisdom  of  all  modern  writers  on  the  subject. 

All  the  writers  of  books,  and  most  of  the  growers  of  fruit,  have  some  decided  opinion 
on  this  point,  on  which  they  are  ready  to  peril  "  life  and  limb,"  both  of  their  trees  and 
themselves,  if  necessary',  and  although  most  of  the  late  authors  teach  otherwise,  the  ge- 
neral practice  in  this  section  of  the  country,  is  still  to  prune  apple  trees  in  ^larch  and 
April,  before  the  bursting  of  the  buds.  And  it  will  require  strong  and  obvious  reasons  to 
change  the  custom  among  our  farmers. 

Pruning  an  old  orchard,  which  has  been  neglected  for  ten  or  a  dozen  years,  and  espe- 
cially one  that  has  been  recently  grafted  upon  full  grown  trees,  is  a  pretty  serious  matter, 
requiring  time  and  a  strong  arm,  as  well  as  skill.  They  who  tell  us  that  trees  properly 
trained,  require  very  little  pruning,  and  that  it  may  all  be  done  the  first  week  in  June,  no 
doubt  speak  truly,   but  not  very  satisfactorily  to  us,  of  the  northern  latitudes. 

We  have  snow  and  a  frozen  soil,  in  New-Hampshire,  until  April.  During  that  month, 
much  of  our  land  is  unfit  for  the  plow,  and  "  planting  time,"  for  our  corn  and  potatoes, 
our  principal  hoed  crops — is  from  the  10th  of  May  till  the  10th  of  June.  From  the  end 
of  planting,  all  hands  are  hoeing  until  "  haying  time,"  which  commences  with  July,  and 
continues  through  that  month  and  part  of  the  next,  so  that  there  is  no  leisure  for  us  except 
in  earlj"  spring,  or  in  autumn. 

It  is  at  this  season,  while  waiting  for  the  coming  on  of  the  "  spring's  work,"  when 
the  blue  bird  and  robin  are  heard  welcoming  the  first  bright,  still  days  of  the  season,  that 
you  may  see  the  former  with  his  boys,  both  great  and  small,  perched  upon  the  old  trees  of 
the  orchard,  pruning  and  grafting.  Many  a  boy  of  twelve  or  fourteen  have  I  seen  engaged  in 
this  employment,  and  not  unfrequently,  a  lad  of  eighteen  or  twenty,  makes  it  his  business 


TALK  IN  THE  APPLE  ORCHARD. 

for  several  weeks,  to  go  from  town  to  town,  with  his  grafting  tools,  and  an  assortment  of 
scions  of  his  own  selecting,  setting  them  for  two  cents  each,  and  warranting  them  to  live, 
and  waiting  for  his  pay  till  the  following  year,  when  he  again  goes  over  his  route.  This, 
you  will  say,  is  entrusting  the  business  to  rather  unskillful  hands.  And  so,  indeed,  it  is, 
but  it  is  for  better  so  than  not  done  at  all,  for  by  similar  means,  have  some  sections  of  our 
state  been  filled  with  the  best  varieties  of  fruit.  To  be  sure,  one  who  trusts  to  another's 
selection  of  varieties,  finds  himself  egregiously  deceived  sometimes,  when  his  trees  come 
to  bearing,  for  every  man  has  some  favorite  kind  of  apple,  which  he  persists,  against  light 
and  knowledge,  in  regarding  as  superior  to  everything  else  in  the  world.  It  may  be  some 
discovery  of  his  own,  of  some  fruit  of  about  the  size  of  a  pumpkin,  and  of  similar  flavor, 
or  more  likely  it  is  the  product  of  some  famous  old  tree,  that  stands  by  the  back  door  of 
the  old  homestead,  where  he  used  to  play  with  his  brothers  and  sisters  and  the  old  house- 
dog, and  eat  green  apples  when  a  boy.  I  have  a  picture  of  just  such  a  tree  in  my  memo- 
ry, of  which  the  apples  were  sweeter  than  any  that  grow  now-a-days.  I  always  forget  to 
set  scions  which  are  recommended  as  coming  from  anybody's  father's  or  grandfather's 
place;  and  there  are  reasons  less  complimentary  to  poor  humanity,  for  not  trusting  to 
itinerant  performers  in  these  branches. 

I  may  as  well  confess  to  having  fallen  in  with  the  practice  of  my  neighborhood,  of  prun- 
ing in  early  spring,  at  the  time  of  grafting.  Kenrick  and  Forsyth  were  considered  good 
authority,  formerly,  and  although  I  admit  that  my  opinion  has  been  at  times  much  sha- 
ken by  more  modern  writers,  I  have,  from  personal  observation,  seen  no  reason  to  change 
my  practice. 

The  reasons  of  convenience  with  us,  are  very  strong  for  pruning  in  April,  rather  than 
in  summer.  Besides  the  fact  that  it  is  comparatively  a  leisure  season,  are  other  reasons 
for  preferring  tlie  spring.  At  that  time  the  bark  do  s  not  slip,  and  there  is  less  danger  tlien 
than  later,  of  injury  to  the  tree  by  standing  on  the  limbs,  as  well  as  by  the  starling  of  the 
bark  where  the  brimch  is  cut  off. 

With  us,  nobody  pretends  to  graft  after  the  bark  begins  to  slip,  and  it  requires  more 
care  and  skill  than  can  readily  he  purchased,  to  remove  limbs  of  large  size  without  leaving 
bad  Avounds,  from  the  causes  referred  to.  I  am  fully  aware  that  we  who  read  the  Horti- 
culturist, know  how  to  ampuJate  limbs  scientifically,  and  that  we  should,  by  no  means, 
be  guilty  of  placing  a  lawless  foot  upon  any  tree,  to  its  liurt;  but  the  fact  is  that  many 
of  the  orchards  arc  owned  by  farmers,  who  do  not  wear  velvet  slippers,  especially  when 
at  work,  and  one  "finds  no  rest  for  the  sole  of  his  foot"  on  a  tree,  without  some  sub- 
stantial protection  against  knots  and  the  rough  bark,  so  that  it  must  and  does  happen, 
although  against  all  propriety,  that  man}'  thick  boots  go  upon  our  trees,  and  many  coarse 
saws  are  used  in  pruning,  and  a  great  many  limbs  are  taken  off  by  persons  too  unskilful 
or  indolent  to  cut  on  the  undzr  side  first,  to  prevent  splitting  or  stripping  off  the  bark. 

Again,  spring  prunhig  is  most  convenient,  because  in  summer  we  usually  have  our  or- 
chard land  under  cultivation,  and  by  pruning  then,  the  crops  must  be  much  injured  by 
trampling  them  down,  and  by  the  branches  thrown  upon  them.  I  am  perfectly  aware  of 
the  answer  which  will  be  at  once  given  by  the  merely  theoretical  man,  that  orchards 
should  by  no  means  be  cultivated  for  other  crops  than  apples — and  I  reply,  that  although, 
perhaps  trees  may  grow  faster  with  no  vegetation  about  them,  j-et  they  Avill  grow  fast 
enough  for  the  first  ten  years,  upon  ground  properly  cultivated,  with  any  hoed  crop  cov- 
ering all  the  ground,  except  a  small  space  round  each  tree.  And  besides,  there  is  great 
difficulty  in  keeping  land  fallow  and  free  from  weeds,  for  successive  years,  and  lastly 
man  nature  has  always  had  a  strange  propensity  to  enjoy  the  present  at  the  expense 


Talk  in  the  apple  orchard. 

future;  and  vre  shall  have  to  write  a  good  while  longer,  before  men  will  be  persuaded  to 
plant  for  the  future,  at  such  present  sacrifice  as  is  involved  in  surrendering  the  entire  in- 
come of  their  best  and  most  convenient  land,  even  for  so  long  a  period  as  is  required  in 
bringing  an  orchard  into  bearing. 

The  objections  to  early  spring  pruning  are,  that  the  wounds  then  made  do  not  heal  so 
readily  as  when  the  tree  is  in  full  process  of  growth.  This  is,  perhaps,  true,  and  may  be 
admitted  as  a  fact,  without  being  practically  entitled  to  much  weight,  because  I  think  with 
us,  vigorous  trees  seldom  suffer  any  delayer  failure  in  the  healing  of  wounds  made  in 
pruning,  at  either  season. 

I  have  said  that  our  grafting  is  all  done  in  April.  The  old  native  trees  are  fast  being 
changed  to  finer  fruit,  and  thousands  of  stocks  are  grafted  every  spring.  The  work  is  of- 
ten done  carelessly.  Limbs  of  two  or  more  inches  in  diameter  are  cut  off,  the  scions  in- 
serted, the  grafting  cement  is  spread  on,  and  no  further  attention  given  to  the  matter. 
And  yet  it  is  very  rare  to  see  a  stock  dead,  or  imperfectly  healed,  even  under  the  rudest 
treatment,  and  such  being  the  fact,  there  can  be  little  danger  of  injury  from  the  cause  re- 
ferred to,  in  pruning  with  ordinarj'  care  at  the  season  of  grafting. 

I  have  recently  examined  several  orchards  which  have  been  uniformly  pruned  in  April, 
and  among  the  rest  that  of  Fkeeye  Dearborn-,  Esq.,  of  this  place.  His  trees  are  among 
the  best  within  my  knowledge.  He  informs  me  that  he  raised  them  from  the  seed,  planted 
about  twenty-six  years  ago;  and  set  them  where  they  now  stand,  nineteen  years  ago.  He 
gathered  one  hundred  and  fifty  barrels  of  the  Baldwin,  last  year,  from  forty  trees — being 
all  the  trees  in  one  enclosure,  which  are  old  enough  to  be  reckoned  bearing  trees.  He  has 
many  others,  principally  of  a  younger  growth.  From  one  of  the  forty,  he  took  nine  bar- 
rels of  fine  fruit. 

If  we  judge  Mr.  Dearborn  by  his  fruits,  we  must  concede  that  his  principles  cannot 
be  far  from  correct.  Upon  examining  his  orchard  with  him,  for  the  purpose,  we  could  find 
no  indication  in  any  instance,  that  injury  had  resulted  from  pruning.  There  appeared  no 
mark  of  disease  or  decay  where  the  branches  had  been  cut  off,  and  yet  Mr.  Dearborn 
says  he  has  pruned  always  in  spring,  and  has  never  applied  anything  to  the  wounds, 
or  even  used  a  knife,  after  removing  the  limbs  with  a  saw. 

So  much  for  the  practice,  and  now  let  us  see  how  the  most  rational  theories  correspond 
with  these  results.  I  shall  attempt  no  scientific  examination  of  the  question  by  what  poiv- 
er  in  nature  the  circulation  of  the  sap  is  carried  on.  Some  fiicts  in  regard  to  it,  are  obvi- 
ous. "We  know  that  in  the  spring  the  sap  rises  from  the  roots  to  the  branches.  That  it 
rises  not  by  capillary  attraction  merely,  and  not,  in  the  first  instance,  by  any  attracting 
power,  exerted  by  or  through  the  loaf-buds  or  branches,  would  seem  to  be  true,  because 
the  sap  flows  in  great  quantities  from  the  stumps  of  trees  recently  cut.  Every  boy  in  a 
sap-sugar  country,  has  drunk  from  the  top  of  a  rock-maple  stump,  hollowed  out  to  retain 
the  up-rising  sap.  Whether  as  much  sap  flows  from  such  a  stump  as  could  have  been 
drawn  from  the  tree,  by  tapping  in  the  ordinary  mode,  I  have  no  means  of  knowing.  The 
pressure  of  the  up-rising  sap  is,  at  its  first  flow,  very  great.  In  Gregory's  Dictionary  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  it  is  stated  that  by  afiixing  tubes  to  the  stumps  of  vines  cut  off  at  the 
rising  of  the  sap,  it  has  been  ascertained  that  the  sap  rises  in  the  tubes  thirty-five  Ject 
above  the  stumps,  or  about  the  same  height  as  a  column  of  water  equal  in  weight  to  the 
atmosphere.  And  a  French  writer,  M.  DuxRocnET,  in  a  more  recent  work,  states  the  as- 
cending force  of  the  sap  of  a  grape-vine,  to  be  sufiicent  to  rai.se  a  column  of  mercury  to  the 
of  twenty-eight  inches 
the  appendix  of  Dr.  Charles  T.  Jackson's  Report  upon  the  Geology  of  New-Ha 


TALK  IN  THE  APPLE  ORCHARD. 


sliire,  may  be  found,  under  the  title  "  Endosmose  and  Exosmose,"  a  most  interesting  the- 
ory of  the  circulation  of  sap,  which  I  should  be  glad  to  see  entire  in  the  Horticulturist,  at 
some  convenient  season.  It  rests  upon  soma  mysterious  inherent  tendency  of  gases  and 
of  liquids  of  different  densities  to  commingle,  a  tendency  which  neither  the  power  of  gra- 
vitation, nor  the  intervention  of  any  immhram,  either  animal  or  vegetable,  if  the  cellular 
tissue  of  plants  and  the  thin  diaphragms  that  lie  at  intervals  across  the  sap  vessels  may 
be  so  termed,  can  overcome.  This  tendenc}'  is  so  strong  as  to  force  liquids  through  apiece 
of  bladder,  as  may  readily  be  ascertained  by  expeiiment,  in  the  manner  pointed  out  by 
Dr.  Jackson.  The  same  principle,  of  the  transmission  of  gaseous  matters  though  mem- 
branes, has  been  applied  to  explain  the  chemical  phenomena  of  respiration.  Whether  the 
fact  that  the  sap  rises  and  flows  from  the  stump,  where  there  is  no  liquid  above  to  entice 
it  upward,  does  not  conflict  somewhat  with  this  theory,  as  applied  to  the  circulation  of 
the  sap,  may  deserve  consideration.  But  whatever  be  the  principle  of  the  motion,  this 
"ujjward  striving"  of  the  sap  occurs  chiefly  in  spring.  At  least,  at  that  season,  it  has  a 
power  greater  than  at  any  other.  And  it  seems  to  be  generally  conceded,  that  it  has  then 
not  only  a  peculiar  impulse,  but  also  a  peculiar  character  or  quality,  and  that  the  first 
flow  of  the  sap  is  designed  to  promote  the  growth  of  wood.  If  this  be  so,  we  should  infer 
that  wounds  made  before  the  force  of  this  peculiar  sap  is  spent,  that  is  to  say,  before  the 
growth  of  the  wood,  would  heal  more  readily  than  those  made  afterwards. 

At  page  49  of  your  Jan.  No.,  under  the  title  "  Fruitfulness  Promoted  b}^  Late  Pruning," 
in  an  extract  from  a  French  publication,  may  be  found  what  seems  a  rational  theory  about 
pruning,  which  may  be  briefly  stated  thus.  The  growth  which  is  made  in  early  spring, 
is  induced  entirely  by  the  sap  in  the  roots.  By  diminishing  the  top  previous  to  the  rising 
of  the  sap,  the  remaining  shoots  receive  the  sap  designed  for  the  whole,  and  therefore 
make  a  more  vigorous  growth.  The  fertilizing  sap  which  induces  fruitfulness,  is  not  form- 
ed until  later,  the  leaves  being  the  organs  of  its  formation.  By  a  late  pruning  so  much 
of  the  vitality  of  the  tree  is  wasted,  as  has  gone  into  the  growth  of  the  branches  removed. 
A  late  pruning  promotes  fruitfulness  at  the  expense  of  the  vigor  of  the  tree,  as  it  seems  to 
be  generally  conceded  that  anything  that  checks  the  growth  of  the  wood,  as  root-pruning 
and  the  like,  tends  to  the  formation  of  fruit  buds,  and  the  converse  seems  to  be  true,  that 
great  fruitfulness,  by  whatever  means  induced,  checks  the  growth  of  wood. 

That  tha removal  of  part  of  the  top  in  early  spring,  promotes  the  growth  of  the  remain- 
der, seems  evident  from  the  rapid  growth  of  scions,  even  when  set  in  full  grown  trees;  and 
probably  no  one  will  contend  that  the  growth  of  wood  is,  in  the  same  degree,  increased 
by  pruning  in  summer.  It  is  a  common,  and  doubtless  correct  idea  with  our  f;irmers,  that 
to  kill  bushes  they  should  be  cut  in  summer,  and  that  if  cut  in  winter  or  spring,  the  life 
principle  is  still  left  active  in  the  root,  and  they  will  spring  up  anew.  I  have  tried  the  ex- 
periment of  heading-in  young  apple  trees  to  promote  their  growth.  I  was  aided  in  my 
first  trial,  by  a  drove  of  cattle,  which  in  the  spring  of  1847,  broke  into  my  orchard  and 
browsed  off"  nearly  the  entire  tops  of  thirty  fine  trees,  of  which  part  had  been  grown  there 
one  year,  and  part  were  set  the  previous  autumn.  Their  mode  of  pruning  was  sufficient- 
ly thorough,  as  they  left  most  of  their  subjects  no  limb  more  than  six  inches  long,  but  the 
style  of  execution  was  barbarous  in  the  extreme,  many  of  the  branches  being  split  off", 
and  the  rest,  as  Hamlet  said  of  the  speeches  of  the  players,  "mouthed  most  abomina- 
bly." 

The  artist  Fuseli,  used  to  say  to  his  wife,  when  any  extraordinary  trial  of  temper  oc- 
curred to  her,  "  My  dear,  why  don't  you  swear  a  little,  you  don't  know  how  it  would 
ease  your  mind!"     People  find  relief  in  different  modes.     I  thought  it  a  favorable  oppor- 


THE  SEASON  FOR  TRANSPLANTING. 

tunity  to  observe  the  effect  of  heading-in  young  apple  trees,  and  so  smoothed  matters 
over  as  well  as  possible  with  my  pruning  knife,  and  awaited  the  result.  Many  of  those 
trees  made  shoots  Jour  fed  long  the  following  season,  and  now  they  are  of  about  the  same 
size  as  those  which  escaped  the  operation. 

I  have  since  cut  back  every  other  one  of  forty  trees,  at  the  time  of  transplanting.  My 
opinion  is,  that  the  growth  is  rather  promoted  than  retarded  by  this  process,  but  that  the 
tree  is  disfigured,  and  requires  far  more  subsequent  attention  to  keep  it  in  order.  A 
curve,  like  that  produced  by  budding,  is  made  at  the  place  where  the  twig  is  cut  off,  and 
often  several  shoots  are  thrown  out  in  the  place  of  the  one  removed,  so  that  it  is  difficult 
to  keep  an  open  top,  so  desirable  in  an  apple  tree.  I  much  prefer  thinning  the  tops  of 
apple  trees,  to  shortening  their  leading  shoots. 

In  thus  suggesting  my  views,  Mr.  Editor,  I  wish  distinctly  to  disclaim  any  attempt  at 
originalit3\  The  various  theories  above  stated,  are  by  no  means  overlooked  in  your  valu- 
able treatise  upon  Fruits  and  Fruit  Trees.  Several  considerations  must  always  modify 
the  views  of  writers  on  this  subject.  My  own  experience  has  been  only  in  a  section  of  the 
country  where  the  apple  is  a  liealthy  tree,  and  little  liable  to  disease  or  decay,  from  the 
wounds  of  the  pruning  knife,  and  where  high  manuring  is  necessary  to  obtain  a  sufficient 
growth.  With  a  soil  and  climate  of  a  different  character,  the  same  theories  might  lead  to 
different  conclusions.  Even  the  reasons  of  convenience  for  spring  pruning,  which  have 
been  given,  although  almost  imperative  upon  us,  would  have  no  force  where  the  season  is 
longer,  and  land  more  abundant  and  fertile.  If  my  views  seem  heretical,  I  shall  be  happy 
to  have  them  corrected.  The  true  idea  is,  for  each  of  your  correspondents  to  speak  out  as 
he  thinks.  Upon  this,  as  upon  most  other  subjects,  "error  of  opinion  may  safely  be  to- 
lerated, where  reason  is  left  free  to  combat  it." 

In  conclusion,  perhaps  a  hint  may  not  come  amiss,  from  one  who  has  at  least  followed 
a  good  example,  that  your  correspondents  affix  their  own  names  to  their  communications. 
Such  friends  of  the  cause  as  Jeffries,  and  "  A  Constant  Reader,"  ought  not  to  "  hide 
their  light  under  a  bushel,"  by  the  use  of  fictitious  signatures;  and  as  to  the  beautiful 
"  Wild  Flower,"  (surely  beautiful  in  spirit,')  M'hat  right  has  she  to  date  from  "  In  the 
Bushes,"  and  to  keep  her  "  local  habitation  and  her  name,"  a  mystery.  At  all  events, 
she  gives  a  new  interest  to  the  Horticulturist,  and  your  readers  may  flatter  themselves 
that  if  she  is,  indeed,  "  born  to  blush  unseen,"  she  does  not  entirely  "  waste  her  sweet- 
ness on  the  desert  air."  With  much  respect,  Henry  F.  French. 

Exeter,  N.  H.,  April  10,  1851. 


ON  THE  SEASON  FOR  TRANSPLANTING. 

BY  JOHN  TOAVNLEY,  PORT-HOPE,  WISCONSIN. 

Mucn  difference  of  opinion  prevails  respecting  the  most  suitable  time  for  transplanting. 
Some  prefer  early  in  the  spring,  others  late  in  the  fall;  and  both  parties  are  generally  en- 
abled to  refer  to  successful  results  in  support  of  their  opinions.  So  much,  indeed,  depends 
on  the  weather  immediately  after  planting,  and  on  the  care  observed  in  performing  the 
operation,  that  we  not  unfrequently  hear  of  success  having  been  attained,  even  at  midsum- 
mer. It  is  probable,  however,  that  if  a  series  of  comparative  experiments  were  made, 
during  several  successive  years,  that  one  period  would  be  found  to  afford  more  satisfactory 
results  than  any  other. 


THE  SEASON  FOR  TRANSPLANTING. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  there  is  a  certain  period,  or  rather  a  certain  stage 
in  the  plant's  annual  growth,  when  it  it  may  be  removed  with  a  better  prospect  of 
success,  than  at  any  other  time.  My  notions  on  this  point  do  not,  I  am  avare, 
exactly  coincide  with  those  of  writers  who  are  generally  considered  high  authorities 
in  gardening  matters.  I  am  the  more  desirous  on  that  account,  to  state  briefly  in  the 
pages  of  the  Horticulturist,  what  are  the  facts  and  principles  on  which  m)'-  opinions  are 
founded,  and  if  other  readers  of  the  Horticulturist,  whose  experience  may  differ  from  my 
own,  or  who  may  consider  my  theoretical  views  unsound,  should  forward  to  you  a  state- 
ment of  their  experience  and  objections,  we  might,  in  the  end,  be  enabled  to  understanjl 
more  clearly  the  causes  of  success  or  failure  at  different  seasons,  and  be  induced  to  make 
further  inquiries,  and  more  accurate  observations,  by  means  of  which  more  correct  views 
might  ultimately  prevail,  and  a  more  uniform  and  successful  system  of  transplanting  be 
established.  Ltndley,  in  his  Theory  of  Horticulture,  considers  that  the  most  favorable 
time  for  transplanting,  is  during  the  months  of  November  and  December,  or,  betAveen  the 
fall  of  the  leaf  and  the  earliest  part  of  spring,  and  chiefly  for  these  reasons;  because  the 
roots  of  a  plant  are  necessarily  more  or  less  injured  in  the  process,  and  are  consequently 
less  able  to  support  the  stem,  than  they  were  before  the  mutilation  took  place;  and  in 
summer,  when  there  is  the  greatest  demand  upon  them,  owing  to  the  perspiration  of  the 
foliage,  the  roots  are  most  essential;  but  in  winter,  when  the  leaves  have  fallen,  they  are 
comparatively  unimportant,  as  is  evident  from  a  very  common  case.  Let  a  limb  of  a  tree 
be  felled  in  full  leaf,  in  June,  its  foliage  will  presently  wither,  the  bark  will  dry  up,  and 
the  whole  will  speedily  perish;  but  if  a  similar  limb  be  lopped  off  in  November,  when  its 
foliage  has  naturallj-  fallen  off,  it  will  exhibit  no  signs  of  death  during  winter,  nor  till  the 
return  of  spring,  when  its  efforts  to  recover,  bj'the  emission  of  leaves,  onl}^  accelerates  its 
end.  These  two  propensities  are  considered  to  include  the  most  essential  parts  of  the  the- 
ory of  transplantation. 

If  the  trees  to  be  transplanted  had  to  be  carried  a  considerable  distance,  or  were  likel}', 
through  any  cause,  to  remain  unplanted  several  daj'Sjthen  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  greater 
number  of  plants  would  be  found  to  live,  and  that  the  success  upon  the  whole  would  be 
more  satisfactory,  if  they  were  transplanted  in  November,  when  the  leaves  had  fallen, 
than  if  they  were  transplanted  at  any  other  time  of  year.  But  if  it  is  intended  merely  to 
transplant  from  one  part  of  a  garden  to  another,  or  from  a  nursery  within  a  day's  jour- 
ney, as  M'ill  generally  be  the  case,  then  there  seems  to  be  good  reasons  for  concluding,  that 
providing  the  precautions  in  the  "  Theory  of  Horticulture"  respecting  the  preservation  of 
the  roots,  and  the  selection  of  a  .suitable  daj'',  be  attended  to,  these  plants  will  be  found  to 
succeed  most  perfectly,  which  are  transplanted  early  in  autumn,  soon  after  the  leaves  be- 
gin to  fall,  but  while  a  considerable  quantity  yet  remain  in  a  mature  and  efficient  state  I 
have  been  led  to  this  conclusion,  not  only  by  the  results  of  my  own  practice,  but  by  con- 
sidering the  state  in  which  the  elaborated  sap  is  deposited  in  the  wood  during  winter;  the 
changes  this  sap  must  undergo  in  early  spring,  to  fit  it  to  produce  and  support  new  leaves 
and  roots;  the  necessity  of  efficient  roots  to  produce  this  change,  and  the  necessity  of  ma- 
ture leaves  to  speedily  repair  the  injury  done  to  the  roots,  and  to  produce  fresh  fibres. 
There  is  evidently  a  wide  difference  between  transplanting  a  tree  in  summer,  when  it 
is  in  full  leaf,  and  in  autumn,  when  the  leaves  have  partially  fallen.  In  the  former  case, 
there  would  be  so  many  adverse  causes  to  contend  with,  that  success  would  be  very  doubt- 
ful; there  would  be  long  da3's;  a  probability  of  much  bright  sun.shine;  a  comparatively 
mosphere,  much  unripened  wood,  and  the  most  profuse  perspiration  from  the  leaves 
the  latter  case,  the  objections  on  the  score  of  solar  and  atmospheric  influences. 


THE  SEASON  FOR  TRANSPLANTING. 


would  be  considerably  modified,  the  young  wood  would  be  nearly  ripe,  and  in  consequence 
of  the  diminished  number  of  leaves,  there  must  be  a  corresponding  diminution  in  the  sup- 
ply of  sap  required  from  the  roots;  consequently,  any  mutilations  which  might  take  place, 
if  trees  were  carefully  transplanted,  would  not,  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude,  be  felt  to  an 
injurious  extent;  by  the  action  of  the  mature  leaves  which  remained,  the  injuries  which 
the  leaves  had  sustained  would  be  speedily  repaired,  new  roots  would  be  immediately 
produced,  and  the  plants  would  be  established  before  winter,  and  be  prepared  to  grow  with 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  their  usual  vigor  in  the  following  spring. 

It  is  now  generally  known  that  leaves,  in  the  first  stage  of  their  existence  at  least,  and 
all  other  parts  of  a  plant,  are  composed  of  and  supported  by  matter  which  has  been  pre- 
viously elaborated,  or  prepared  by  mature  leaves.  Every  plant  then  contains  within  it- 
self, during  winter  or  its  season  of  rest,  a  fund  of  organizable  sap,  by  which  its  first  emit- 
ted leaves,  &c.  are  supported.  It  is  not,  however,  stored  up  in  a  fluid,  but  in  an  inspissa- 
ted or  concrete  state,  and  before  it  can  be  made  available  for  the  support  of  leaves,  &c., 
it  must  be  dissolved  by  aqueous  sap  absorbed  by  the  roots  previously  to  the  unfolding  of 
the  leaves;  and  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  sap  thus  prepared,  which  a  plant  con- 
tains previously  to  the  renewal  of  its  growth  in  spring,  so  will  be,  in  a  great  measure,  the 
size  and  vigor  of  the  first  emitted  leaves  and  shoots.  The  roots  of  plants,  then,  are  obvi- 
ousljr  of  great  importance  to  them  during  winter  as  well  as  summer,  and  that  season 
must  therefore,  I  think,  be  the  best  for  transplanting,  which,  with  little  risk  of  loss  or  in- 
jury from  atmospheric  influences,  insures  the  speediest  renovation  of  the  roots. 

In  my  earliest  gardening  days,  long  before  I  remember  to  have  read  any  work  on  vege- 
table phj^siology,  so  that  my  opinions  were  not  influenced  by  any  theoretical  views,  I  had 
arrived  at  the  conclusions,  that  if  I  transplanted  a  tree  soon  after  the  leaves  began  to  fall, 
I  should  have  a  vigorous  growth  of  wood,  and  of  the  smaller  fruits,  as  the  currant,  a 
good  crop  of  fruit  also,  in  the  following  summer;  if  I  transplanted  in  the  winter,  when 
the  leaves  had  fallen,  I  should  have  a  feeble  growth  of  wood,  and  a  comparatively  puny 
crop  of  fruit  and  if  I  transplanted  in  spring,  when  the  buds  were  about  to  burst  into  leaf, 
I  should  generally  have  a  free  growth  of  wood,  but  little  or  no  fruit,  and  my  subsequent 
experience  has  afl'orded  me  no  reasons  for  difiering  materially  from  the  above  conclusions. 

By  way  of  illustration,  I  may  mention  a  somewhat  remarkable  instance  of  successful 
transplanting  at  the  time  I  recommend.  A  five  year  old  tree,  of  the  White  Eagle  varie- 
ty of  the  gooseberry,  was  transplanted  when  the  leaves  in  the  center  only,  had  fallen;  in 
the  following  summer  I  exhibited  twenty  berries,  the  produce  of  this  tree,  at  the  meeting 
of  a  horticultural  society  I  was  connected  with,  and  obtained  a  premium  for  them.  I 
never,  either  before  or  since,  had  a  crop  from  that  tree  of  equal  size  and  beauty,  nor  had 
there  been  twenty  berries  of  that  variety,  so  large,  produced  at  any  former  exhibition, 
though  nurserymen  who  had  several  trees  to  select  their  fruit  from,  Avere  members  of  the 
society,  and  exhibitors.  Now,  it  is  evident  that  the  tree  had  entirely  recovered  from  the 
effects  of  transplanting  befoi'e  winter,  before  the  time  had  arrived  when  Lindlet  considers 
it  safest  to  plant.  If  it  had  been  transplanted  when  the  leaves  had  fallen,  I  do  think  it 
would  have  been  almost  impossible,  however  much  care  had  been  taken  in  the  operation, 
to  have  had  so  vigorous  a  growth  of  wood,  and  so  fine  a  crop  of  fruit,  in  the  following 
summer.  There  would,  doubtless,  have  been  little  or  no  difference  in  the  amount  of  or- 
ganizable sap  which  the  tree  would  have  contained  during  winter,  whether  it  had  been 
transplanted  before  or  after  the  leaves  had  fallen,  or  if  it  had  not  been  transplanted  at  all. 
The  whole  difference  in  the  vigor  of  the  tree  in  the  following  spring,  under  these  different 
circumstances,  would  have  been  entirely  owing  to  the  comparative  activity  or  efficient  state 


of  the  roots  before  the  leaves  unfolded.  Most  eminent  physiologists  are  of  opinion  that 
food  is  absorbed  from  the  soil  almost  exclusively  by  the  extremities  of  the  roots,  called 
spong-ioles.  Owing  to  the  delicate  nature  of  these  organs,  it  it  hardly  possible  to  preserve 
any  considerable  quantity  of  them,  even  by  the  greatest  attention  and  care;  hence  the 
importance  of  transplanting  at  a  time  when  the  damage  to  the  roots  can  be  most  certainly 
and  speedily  repaired.  The  influence  of  mature  leaves  on  the  formation  of  roots,  is  now 
generally  understood.  Andrew  Knight,  in  a  paper  on  the  Detached  Leaves  of  Plants, 
said — "  he  had  frequently  observed  in  his  experiments,  that  the  destruction  of  the  mature 
leaves  of  young  plants  suspended  the  growth  of  the  roots."  Many  experiments  liave  been 
made  of  late  j'cars,  with  detached  leaves,  that  is,  leaves  without  any  wood  or  even  a  bud 
at  their  base.  I  have  been  curious  enough  to  grow  them,  and  found  that  with  due  care 
they  will  live  a  considerable  time;  they  add  considerably  to  their  substance,  become  thick 
and  fleshy,  usually  form  a  tuberous  sort  of  base,  and  emit  roots  abundantly.  Lindlei' 
speaks  of  the  advantages  possessed  by  evergreen  over  deciduous  trees,  in  transplanting, 
owing  to  the  presence  of  efficient  foliage.  "  As  evergreens,"  he  remarks,  "  are  never  de- 
prived of  their  leaves,  so  the}'^  are  never  incanable  of  forming  roots;  on  the  contrarj?-,  they 
produce  them  abundantly  all  Avinter  long,  and  rapidl}^  at  any  other  period  of  the  jenr 
which  is  favorable  to  their  growth,  so  that  they  are  capable  of  making  good  an  injury  to 
their  roots  much  more  speedil^^  than  deciduous  plants."  Then  why  not  plant  deciduous 
trees  at  a  time  when  a  part  of  the  foliage  remains  in  an  efficient  state,  and  enable  them  to 
rejiair  their  damaged  roots  as  speedil}^  as  evergreen  trees.^  It  is  certainly  possible,  as 
may  be  objected,  that  the  Aveather  early  in  the  fall,  might  prove  so  unfavorable  as  to  in- 
jure the  newly  planted  tree;  on  the  other  hand,  I  believe  it  is  certain,  that  if  favorable 
weather  should  be  experienced,  the  tree  would  grow  with  greater  vigor  the  following  year, 
than  if  it  had  been  removed  at  any  other  time.  But,  considering  the  inefficient  state  of  the 
roots  of  a  winter-transplanted  tree,  may  it  not  be  asked,  is  it  not  also  possible  that  the 
weather  in  the  early  part  of  spring  might  prove  so  unfavorable  that  "  the  efforts  of  the 
tree  to  recover  itself  bj'^  the  emission  of  leaves,  would  only  accelerate  its  end?"  It  is  well 
known  to  planters  that  this  may  occur,  and  I  think  it  must  be  conceded  that  the  growth 
of  a  tree  planted  after  the  leaves  had  fallen,  would  be  comparatively  feeble,  even  under  the 
most  fovorabe  circumstances.  Owing  to  the  damaged  state  of  its  roots,  a  scanty  and  defi- 
cient supply  of  aqueous  sap  would  be  absorbed  in  earl}'^  spring;  a  less  quantity  of  organi- 
zable  sap  would  be  dissolved;  the  buds  would  be  imperfectly  nourished,  and  would  not 
acquire  that  size  and  plumpness,  so  sure  a  sign  of  health  and  vigor;  the  first  emitted  leaves 
would  be  comparatively  small;  a  less  breadth  of  foliage  would  thus  be  exposed  to  the 
light,  and  a  less  quantity  of  sap  would  therefore  be  elaborated  in  spring  and  early  sum- 
mer; hence  the  puny  growth  of  the  fruit  and  young  wood,  and  the  crippled  state  of  the 
tree  for  that  year  at  least;  it  would  in  fact  have  the  appearance  so  well  understood  by  the 
phrase,  "a  transplanted  tree." 

With  respect  to  transplanting  in  spring,  when  the  buds  are  about  to  burst  into  leaf,  I  do 
not  think  it  advisable  to  defer  transplanting  till  then,  if  it  can  be  avoided,  although  the 
growth  of  several  trees  which  I  have  removed  at  that  time  has  been  very  satisfactory,  and 
seemed  to  me  mucli  more  vigorous  than  it  would  have  been  if  they  had  been  planted  soon 
after  the  leaves  had  fiillen;  but  early  in  the  fall  is  every  way  preferable.  A  plant,  I  be- 
lieve, will  be  found  much  more  susceptible  of  injury  in  spring,  than  it  is  in  the  fall.  Dry 
withering  winds  frequently  prevail  in  the  early  spring  months,  and  they  constitute  one  of 
chief  objections  to  planting  at  that  time;  but  supposing  the  weather  to  be  as  favorable 
the  fall,  yet  the  difference  between  the  functions  of  mature  and  young  leaves,  would 


THE  SEASON  FOR  TRANSPLANTIiXG. 

be  sufHcient  to  make  fell  planting  more  successful  generally.  Gardeners  know  the  im 
portance  of  bottom  heat  in  inducing  cuttings  to  strike  root,  and  the  soil  in  the  fall  will  be 
warmer,  as  compared  with  the  air,  than  it  is  in  spring,  and  will  probably,  in  consequence, 
be  more  favorable  to  the  emission  of  roots.  Spring,  moreover,  is  a  very  busy  time  Mith 
the  fermer  and  gardener,  and  work  which  can  as  well  be  done  in  the  fall,  should  be  disposed 
of  at  that  time.  Besides,  by  planting  early  in  the  fall,  we  have  the  choice  of  nursery 
stock,  a  matter  of  some  importance. 

I  mentioned  that  success  in  planting  depends  much  on  the  weather,  and  on  the  care  ob- 
served in  performing  the  operation.  Mild,  cloudy,  moist  weather  should  always  be  se- 
lected for  planting,  if  possible.  Leaves  perform  their  functions  by  the  aid  of  diffused 
light,  or  in  cloudy  weather,  as  well  as  in  bright  sunshine;  they  are  not,  indeed,  capable 
of  doing  the  same  amount  of  work,  but  in  cloudy  weather,  and  with  a  damp  atmosphere, 
there  is  less  evaporation  from  the  leaves,  and  roots  do  not  dry  so  quickly  when  exposed  to 
the  air.  The  surface  of  roots  should  never  be  suffered  to  become  dry.  When  removing 
from  one  part  of  a  garden  to  another,  no  more  plants  should  be  lifted  at  once  than  ran  be 
planted  while  the  roots  continue  moist,  and  when  transplanting  from  a  distant  nursery, 
they  should  be  coated  with  puddle,  and  further  protected  by  moss  and  matting. 

In  planting,  a  space  should  be  dug  out  wide  enough  to  allow  the  roots  to  be  spread  ho- 
rizontally. This  is  seldom  attended  to  as  it  ought;  many  seem  never  to  consider  that  a 
plant  is  a  living  being,  requiring  food,  or  if  such  a  thought  occurs  to  them,  they  must  con- 
clude that  it  is  a  matter  of  little  moment  how  the  roots  are  disposed  of,  so  that  thej^  are 
buried  in  the  soil.  The  quantity  and  quality  of  fruit  produced  in  after  years  will  be  in- 
fluenced to  some  extent  by  tlie  character  or  position  of  the  roots,  and  by  the  mode  in  which 
they  are  distributed  through  the  soil.  During  the  growing  season,  there  is  a  more  or  less 
constant  motion  of  the  fluids  in  a  soil;  downwards  when  much  rain  falls,  and  upwards 
when  dry  weather  prevails,  to  supply  evaporation;  by  this  means  food  is  presented  to  the 
roots,  and  it  is  obvious  that  a  plant  must  work  at  greater  advantage  whose  roots  extend 
horizontally  six  feet,  as  compared  with  one  whose  roots  do  not  extend  over  more  than 
half  that  distance.  If  we  tether  a  calf  to  a  stake  in  a  pasture,  the  food  can  only  be  avail- 
able Avithinthe  length  of  its  tether;  extend  the  tether  but  a  little,  and  by  the  increased  cir- 
cumference of  the  circle  the  supply  of  food  is  considerably  increased.  Not  only  should 
the  main  roots  be  spread  horizontally,  but  the  lateral  fibres  should  be  so  arranged  as  to 
cover  as  great  a  surface  as  possible.  When  the  roots  are  spread,  I  cover  them  slightly 
Avith  earth,  then  lay  on  a  coating  of  manure  or  compost,  apply  water,  and  level  with  the 
common  soil.  Some,  when  planting  fruit  trees,  dig  out  the  earth  below  where  the  roots 
are  to  be  spread,  and  add  a  foot  or  so  of  compost,  but  unless  a  soil  is  very  poor,  I  prefer 
laying  the  manure  about  the  roots.  The  fibrous  roots  of  plants  are  so  constituted  as  to  grow 
most  in  that  direction  wherein  they  meet  with  most  food,  and  it  is  desirable  to  keep  them 
near  the  surface.  The  shallowest  planted  trees  are  generall}'  the  most  fruitful,  and  many 
an  unthrifty  tree  has  been  restored  to  health  and  fruitfulness,  by  simply  raising  its  main 
roots  nearer  the  surface. 

The  character  or  the  position  of  the  roots  of  a  tree,  I  have  found  a  matter  of  some  im- 
portance. The  nearer  they  spring  from  a  common  center  the  better, — I  mean  there  should 
be  one  tier  or  whorl,  above  another.  This  will  not  be  the  case,  or  at  least  not  to  an  inju- 
rious extent,  if  cuttings  are  not  planted  more  than  about  three  inches  deep,  or  if  seedling 
trees  are  not  replanted  deeper  than  they  at  first  grew.  But  I  have  observed  in  cases  where 
cuttings  were  abundant,  that  many  have  been  made  too  large,  and  planted  too  deep;  roots 
were  emitted  the  whole  length  of  the  part  inserted,  and  as  it  is  usual  to  raise 


HOW  TO  GROW  MUSHROOMS. 

plants  in  land  in  good  condition,  and  as  large  cuttings  contain  within  themselves  a  much 
greater  quantity  of  organizable  matter  than  small  ones,  they  grow  with  great  vigor  at  first, 
and  soon  become  showy  and  saleable  plants;  but  I  never  could  make  trees  of  this  descrip- 
tion grow  well  afterwards,  nor  produce  fine  fruit.  When  in  the  course  of  time,  the  soil 
has  become  somewhat  exhausted,  and  manure  is  applied,  the  difference  in  the  position  of 
the  roots  begins  to  tell.  Manure  is  usually  laid  on,  or  worked  into  the  surface  soil  round 
the  plants,  and  its  soluble  fertilizing  matters  are  conveyed  to  the  roots  by  the  motion  of 
the  fluids  in  the  soil,  in  the  manures  previously  mentioned.  A  tree  with  four  or  five  tiers 
of  short  roots,  is  now  much  in  the  position  of  a  ti'ce  whose  roots  have  been  doubled  and 
cramped  together  in  transplanting;  it  has  not  that  extensive  and  efficient  horizontal  net- 
work of  fibres,  as  a  tree  whose  roots  have  all  sprung  from  the  base  of  the  cutting. 

John  Townley. 

Fort-Hope,  Columbia  Co.,  Wis.,  ISJl. 


HOW   TO   GROW   MUSHROOMS. 

BY  WILLIAM  SAUNDERS,  BALTIMORE. 

Amongst  the  many  valuable  communications  in  the  Horticulturist,  this  esculent  has 
not  received  the  attention  which  it  deserves.  Many  persons  suppose  that  there  is  great 
difficulty  in  its  artificial  production,  almost  amounting  to  a  mysterious  secret  known  only 
to  a  few. 

The  poisonous  properties  of  many  varieties  of  fungi,  and  the  difliculty  of  distinguishing 
the  good  from  bad,  also  militates  against  them,  and  renders  it  necessary  to  be  cautions  in 
making  them  an  article  of  food.  Nevertheless,  mushrooms  are  very  generally  esteemed  when 
properly  cooked,  and  are  nutritious  when  used  in  moderation.  Chemically,  they  have 
more  resemblance  to  fiesh  than  any  other  vegetable.  In  some  parts  of  Russia,  it  is  said 
the  peasantr^r  depend  on  mushrooms  and  bread  for  the  greater  part  of  their  sustenance. 
They  employ  about  fifty  kinds  of  fungi  as  food.  In  Rome  there  is  an  "Inspector  of  Fun- 
guses," who  attends  the  markets  as  a  guarantee  for  public  safety,  and  strange  to  say,  our 
common  edible  mushroom,  (^yigaricus  campzstris,')  is  interdicted;  any  specimens  of  it 
brought  to  the  fungus  market,  are  sent  under  escort  and  thrown  into  the  Tiber. 

It  appears  from  the  remarks  of  mycologists,  that  the  majority  of  funguses  are  harm- 
less; the  poisonous  varieties  being  the  exception,  the  innoxious  and  esculent  the  rule.  But 
the  difficulty  lies  in  the  selection,  as  we  have  no  definite  guide  to  point  out  what  sorts  are, 
or  what  are  not  poisonous;  even  some  of  the  wholesome  kinds  acquire  noxious  properties, 
when  grown  under  peculiar  circumstances.  Soaking  in  vinegar  destroys  much  of  the  poi- 
sonous qualities  if  present.  Heat  also  extracts  the  deleterious  properties  from  many  that 
Avould  be  unsafe  to  eat  in  a  raw  state.  Various  tests  have  been  recommended.  The  pre- 
sence of  a  free  acid  has  been  considered  a  sign  of  harmlessness.  This  is  found  not  to  be 
conclusive,  as  many,  good  and  bad,  will  redden  litmus  paper.  Cooking  them  with  a  sil- 
ver spoon,  under  the  impression  that  if  bad  the  spoon  will  change  its  color,  is  also  an  er- 
roneous idea.  Cooking  an  onion  with  them  is  said  to  be  a  good  test;  if  they  are  edible 
the  onion  will  maintain  its  original  color,  while  it  will  turn  black  if  the  mushroom  is  poi- 
sonous. Selecting  by  color  has  also  its  advantages;  many  of  the  most  noxious  species  are 
snowy  w^hiteness,  while  others  of  a  less  tempting  color  are  perfectly  harmless, 
care  and  experience  are  requisite  to  discriminate  those  that  can  be  eaten  with 


HOW  TO  GROW  MUSHROOMS. 


The  Agaric  campestris,  or  common  mushroom,  is  the  only  species  that  is  generally 
grown  artificially.  It  is  thus  botanically  described :  Stipes,  (or  stalk,)  two  or  three 
inches  in  length,  white,  solid,  fleshy,  furnished  with  an  annular  veil,  (a  thin  membrane- 
ous substance  encircling  the  stalk.)  Pileus,  (cap  or  edible  part,)  fleshy,  dry,  convex,  at 
length  plane,  white,  changing  from  yellowish  to  brownish.  Gills,  (thin  parallel  plates  un- 
derside of  the  cap,)  free,  ventricose,  (swelling  unequally  on  one  side,)  pink,  changing  to 
deep  purplish  brown.     Flesh,  (internal  substance,)  white. 

There  are  several  species  of  the  Agaric  besides  the  above,  and  also  a  few  varieties  of  the 
yi.  campestris  that  are  sometimes  grown  for  using  in  a  recent  state.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  describe  them  here,  as  those  who  purchase  spawn  need  be  under  no  apprehension  of 
receiving  a  spurious  article;  at  least  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  I  have  never  seen  disap- 
pointment in  this  respect.  So  far  from  there  being  any  difficulty  in  growing  them,  I  ven- 
ture to  say  that  not  one  in  fifty  who  makes  the  attempt  will  fail.  Of  course,  some  little 
attention  is  requisite,  as  with  everything  else  artificially  circumstanced.  A  knowledge  of 
the  condition  under  which  they  are  most  plentifully  found  in  nature,  will  be  of  material 
assistance  to  the  grower.  The  germs  of  fungi  seem  to  be  widely  diifused  in  the  atmos- 
phere; all  that  is  wanting  for  their  development  being  a  favorable  medium.  In  very  dry 
seasons,  mushrooms  are  most  plentiful  in  low  situations,  on  strongish  soils;  on  the  con- 
trary, should  there  be  much  wet,  they  are  more  abundant  in  upland  and  drier  localities. 
A  continuance  of  warm,  dry  weather,  followed  by  slight  showers,  and  a  hazy,  still 
atmosphere,  brings  them  most  profusely.  These  considerations  are  worthy  of  keeping  in 
mind  in  their  artificial  culture.  There  is  no  particular  season  for  making  a  mushroom 
bed.  In  winter  it  requires  to  be  under  cover,  and  in  summer  the  difficulty  lies  in  keeping 
it  cool  and  moist.  Autumn  is  perhaps  the  best  season  for  building  a  bed  out  of  doors,  and 
if  a  constant  supply  be  an  object,  a  bed  should  be  made  up  in  some  spare  cellar  about  the 
beginning  of  November. 

Before  entering  into  the  details  of  management  it  may  be  useful  to  make  a  few  remarks 
upon  the  propagation  of  spawn.  Summer  is  the  best  time  for  performing  this  operation. 
Procure  some  horse  droppings;  if  there  is  a  sprinkling  of  short  litter  with  them,  so 
much  the  better;  cow  dung  and  light  loamy  soil,  or  road  scrapings,  in  about  equal  propor- 
tions; it  is  not  particularly  necessary  that  they  should  be  in  exact  quantities.  I  mention 
this  in  passing,  as  an  idea  sometimes  gets  abroad,  that  unless  everything  is  mathematical- 
ly adjusted  by  number  or  weight,  it  would  be  folly  to  expect  a  satisfactory  result.  Mash 
these  ingredients  together  with  water,  into  a  thick  mortar,  and  spread  it  out  three 
inches  in  thickness,  in  an  open  shed  to  dry.  As  soon  as  firm  enough,  cut  it  with  a  spade 
in  squares  of  seven  or  eight  inches,  set  them  on  edge,  and  turn  them  occasionally  to  faci- 
litate their  drying.  When  they  will  admit  of  being  handled  with  safety,  cut  with  a  knife 
two  or  three  holes,  about  two  inches  in  diameter,  little  more  than  half  through  the  brick, 
and  fill  each  hole  with  good  spawn,  plastering  it  over  Avith  a  portion  of  what  was  cut  out. 
They  should  now  be  left  until  quite  dry.  Have  ready  a  quantit}'  of  fermenting  manure 
which  has  been  well  sweetened  by  frequent  turnings.  Spread  a  la3'er  of  this  six  or  eight 
inches  in  thickness,  and  build  the  bricks  on  it  with  the  spawned  side  uppermost,  drawing 
the  pile  up  to  a  point,  then  cover  the  whole  with  the  warm  manures.  A  genial  warmth 
of  about  sixty  degrees  will  be  sufficient  to  cause  the  spawn  to  run  through  the  whole  of 
the  bricks;  when  this  takes  place  the  process  is  ended.  They  can  be  laid  past  in  a  dry 
place,  where  they  will  keep  good  for  years. 

shroom  beds  out  of  doors  may  be  made  of  any  material  capable  of  producing 
by  fermentation.     Stable  manure  is  best,  taking  long  and  short  as  it  comes  to 

_ 


HOW  TO  GROW  MUSHROOMS. 

tossing  it  into  a  heap  to  ferment.  Upon  its  coming  into  a  good  heat,  turn  it  over,  bring 
ing  the  rougher  portions  into  the  center;  this  should  be  repeated  until  it  is  well  mixed 
and  equally  rotted.  The  object  is  to  bring  the  whole  into  an  equal  state  of  fermentation 
without  rottenness;  to  drive  off  excessive  moisture  and  subdue  the  burning  heat,  with 
least  possible  loss  of  the  essential  gases.  If  a  third  part  of  old  hot-bed  manure  is  mixed 
with  it,  it  will  moderate  the  heat,  and  give  the  bed  a  consistency  that  it  would  not  other- 
wise possess.  Having  it  in  readiness,  choose  a  spot  for  making  the  bed;  if  under  the 
shade  of  a  tree  so  much  the  better.  Mark  out  the  ground  four  or  five  feet  wide,  and 
length  to  correspond  with  the  quantity  of  manure.  Commence  by  throwing  in  a  layer  of 
the  least  decayed  portions  of  the  dung;  then  build  the  whole  up  in  a  rounded  ridge  three 
feet  high.  It  must  be  equally  and  firmh^  beat  down,  that  it  may  produce  a  mild,  equable 
heat.  Push  a  few  stakes  at  intervals  all  round;  drawing  these  out  occasionally  and  feel- 
ing them  with  the  hand,  will  afford  a  tolerable  estimate  of  the  interior  warmth.  The  heat 
should  never  exceed  ninety  degrees  after  the  bed  is  put  up.  If  likely  to  get  warmer  than 
this,  make  holes  all  over  it  with  a  stout  stake,  and  when  the  heat  subsides  to  between  se- 
venty and  eighty  degrees,  it  is  ready  for  planting  the  spawn.  Beat  the  bed  evenly  all 
round,  and  insert  the  spawn  just  below  the  surface,  in  pieces  the  size  of  a  hen's  egg,  twelve 
inches  apart.  Then  case  it  over  with  a  la3^er  of  strong  loamy  soil  two  inches  in  thick- 
ness, beating  it  firmly  and  left  quite  smooth.  To  prevent  accident  from  over  heating,  it 
should  only  be  partly  soiled  at  first — say  half  way  up — covering  the  whole  some  days  af- 
terwards. To  prevent  the  soil  from  cracking  in  dry  weather,  a  thin  covering  of  short 
straw  or  hay  may  be  thrown  over  it;  very  little  watering  will  be  necessary.  When  it  is 
found  requisite  to  moisten  the  surface,  let  water  pass  through  a  fine  rose  on  the  outside  of 
tne  covering,  which  is  preferable  to  applying  it  directly  on  the  bed.  Should  it  be  made 
up  about  the  middle  of  August,  mushrooms  may  be  expected  towards  the  end  of  Septem- 
ber, from  six  weeks  to  two  months  after  spawning.  When  the  nights  become  cold  the 
covering  should  be  increased,  and  to  guard  against  damp,  choose  a  clear  day  occasionally, 
turn  off  the  covering,  remove  all  deca3nng  matter,  and  when  all  is  dry,  cover  as  before. 
It  will  keep  in  bearing  for  two  months  or  more,  if  the  interior  heat  is  preserved  by  addi- 
tional covering. 

A'^arious  schemes  may  be  resorted  to  for  obtaining  mushrooms  in  winter.  Those  who 
have  a  green-house  may  make  a  bed  in  the  furnace  room,  if  there  is  convenience,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  heat  that  escapes  from  the  furnace.  A  good  supply  may  be  had  from  a  bed 
formed  underneath  the  plant  stage,  provided  the  drippings  of  water  from  the  pots  above 
be  guarded  against  by  boards  or  water  proof  cloth.  Portable  boxes  three  or  four  feet 
long,  two  feet  wide,  and  one  in  depth,  filled  with  horse  droppings  and  spawned  in  autumn, 
set  in  a  dry  place,  will,  when  soiled  over  in  rotation,  and  placed  in  the  warm  end  of  a 
green-house,  afford  a  moderate  supply.  Even  good  sized  flower  pots  may  be  thus  prepar- 
ed, and  a  few  introduced  at  intervals.  The  equal  temperature  of  an  underground  cellar, 
or  root-room,  is  very  suitable  for  the  growth  of  this  esculent;  in  such  a  place  they  may 
be  had  the  whole  year  from  successional  beds,  without  much  trouble  or  expense.  The 
best  crop  I  ever  saw  was  in  beds  on  each  side  of  a  close  shed,  with  a  row  of  fermenting 
manure  between  them.  The  frequent  turning  over  of  the  manure  filled  the  place  with  an 
agreeable  moisture,  and  obviated  the  necessity  of  watering.  The  ammonia  disengnged  by 
this  process  was  also  decidedly  beneficial.  Shelves,  four  feet  wide  and  one  in  depth,  ris- 
ing one  above  another,  M'ill  be  found  economical  where  space  is  limited.  Where  an  am- 
d  constant  supplj--  is  wished,  it  is  better  to  erect  a  structure  on  purpose.  Thisncei; 
a  costly  affair.     A  house  thirty  feet  long,  ten  wide,  and  ten  feet  high  to  the 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OF  A  PLANT. 


built  with  timber,  would  not  be  expensive.  Allowing  three  and  a  half  feet  on  each  side 
for  beds,  there  would  be  three  feet  in  the  center  for  a  path,  underneath  which  a  flue  or  hot 
water  pipes  should  be  placed.  By  having  a  bed  on  the  surfiice,  there  would  be  space  for 
two  tier  of  shelves  on  each  side,  affording  in  all  upwards  of  six  hundred  square  feet  of 
surface  for  growing  the  crop.  This  would  be  sufficient  for  a  constant  supply  the  whole 
j'ear.  Means  should  be  provided  in  the  roof  for  light  and  ventilation;  four  windows, 
three  feet  square  each,  would  be  sufficient  for  this  purpose. 

The  principal  material  for  forming  beds  in  winter,  or  at  any  season,  on  shelves,  should 
consist  of  horse  droppings,  with  a  little  short  litter  intermixed.  As  this  is  collected, 
spread  it  out  thinly  to  dry,  turning  it  over  frequently  to  prevent  violent  heating.  The 
object  is  to  get  it  into  a  dry  state  without  decomposition.  When  it  is  in  this  latter  condi- 
tion, commence  making  the  bed  by  throwing  in  the  manure  to  the  depth  of  three  or  four 
inches,  and  beat  it  firmly  with  the  back  of  a  spade,  or,  what  is  more  expeditious,  a  flat 
heavy  board,  having  two  handles  to  work  it  with.  Proceed  in  this  manner  until  there  is 
a  depth  often  inches  or  so,  firmly  beaten,  then  insert  the  spawn  just  below  the  surface,  as 
before.  Insert  the  bulb  of  a  thermometer  into  the  bed,  and  should  the  heat  rise  above 
eighty  degrees,  bore  holes  eight  or  nine  inches  apart  all  over  it.  When  the  temperature  is 
about  sevent3'-five  degrees,  cover  the  surface  with  two  inches  of  strong  turfy  loam,  well 
beaten,  leaving  the  surface  smooth  and  level.  The  atmospheric  temperature  may  range 
from  fifty  to  sixt}'  degrees  with  proportionate  humidity.  A  sprinkling  of  short  hay  laid 
over  the  bed  will  keep  it  moist.  When  it  is  found  necessary  to  moisten  the  surface,  apply 
it  on  the  hay,  which  is  preferable  to  watering  directly  on  the  surftice  of  the  soil;  pass  it 
through  a  syringe  or  fine  rosed  watering  pot,  observing  to  use  the  water  a  few  degrees 
warmer  than  the  temperature  of  the  house;  better  to  give  it  frequently  than  too  much  at 
a  time.  If  duly  attended  to,  mushrooms  will  be  gathered  in  six  or  seven  weeks,  and  keep 
in  bearing  for  two  or  three  months.  An  occasional  watering  with  weak,  clear  manure 
water,  will  prolong  their  duration.  In  gathering  the  crop,  the  mushrooms  should  be  hoist- 
ed up  as  far  as  possible  without  disturbing  the  young  ones  around.  When  cut  over,  the 
remaining  part  of  the  stem  is  liable  to  hurt  the  others  from  its  decomposition. 

William  Saunders. 

Clifton  Park,  Baltimore,  Md.,  April  9,  1851. 


THE   SCIENTIFIC    HISTORY   OF   A   PLANT.* 

By  JOHN  M.  AIISLEY,  Esq.,  Lecturer  on  Clemistry  to  the  Iluiiteriaii  School  of  Medichie. 
(A  Lecture  delivered  before  the  Royal  Medico- Botanical  Society  of  London.) 

At  the  request  of  my  friend,  the  learned  Professor  of  Chemistry  to  this  society,  I  have 
been  induced  to  throw  together,  into  a  connected  form,  a  few  facts,  tending  to  show  how 
the  sciences  of  chemistry,  geology,  and  meteorology,  are  by  means  of  botanical  geography 
and  structural  botany  mutually  related  to  each  other.  It  was  with  a  feeling  of  diffidence 
that  I  approached  such  a  subject  as  this,  considering  how  very  limited  my  knowledge 
must  necessarily  be  upon  many  of  the  topics  which  it  includes;  and  this  feeling  was  in  no 
way  diminished,  when  I  found  that  this  grouping  of  the  sciences  led  me  within  the  portals  (  f 
a  712W  science,  which  is  founded  upon  more  enlarged  generalisations  than  any  other  that  has 
gone  before  it,  and  this  because  it  is  the  last  product  of  the  rearing  and  creative  faculty 

*  From  the  Gardeners'  Magazine  of  Botany. 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OF  A  PLANT 

applied  to  a  reviewal  of  the  more  extended  surveys  of  the  natural  world  which  we  have 
now,  coupled  with  the  accurate  and  profound  knowledge  of  the  labors  and  advances  of 
philosophers  during  past  years. 

Natural  history  geography  is  the  science  to  which  I  allude:  a  science  which,  besides 
geographical  description,  includes  the  general  phenomena  of  the  present  life  of  the  globe, 
in  reference  to  their  connection  and  mutual  dependence.  For  the  most  part,  this  science 
is  a  production  of  the  German  schools.  Schlegel,  in  his  "  Concordia,"  in  1820,  put  forth 
some  of  the  germs  of  this  branch  of  natural  philosophy,  (or  rather  this  combination  of 
branches;)  in  seven  years  afterwards,  in  1827,  appeared  those  memorable  lectures  on  the 
"  Philosophy  of  Life,"  embodying  more  extended  and  perfect  views  than  had  yet  been 
suggested,  even  although,  as  early  as  1806,  and  perhaps  before,  some  of  the  sketches 
which  at  present  form  the  "  Aspects  of  Nature,"  were  publicly  delivered  by  their  illus- 
trious author.  At  the  end  of  the  fourth  lecture  on  the  "  Philosophy  of  Life,"  we  find 
expressed  one  of  those  truths  to  which  I  have  just  alluded: — "  An  exalted  view  and  un- 
derstanding of  nature  consists  in  its  being  contemplated  not  merely  as  a  dynamical  play 
of  reciprocal  forces,  but  historically  in  its  course  of  development  as  a  commencing  life, 
perpetually  relapsing  into  death,  ever  disposed  to  sleep,  and  only  painfully  raising  itself, 
or  rather  raised  and  lovinglj^  guided  through  all  the  intermediate  grades  into  life.  But 
beneath  the  huge  tombstone  of  outward  nature,  there  sleeps  a  soul  not  wholly  alien,  but 
half  akin  to  ourselves,  which  is  distracted  between  the  troubled  and  painful  reminiscences 
of  eternal  death,  out  of  which  it  issued,  and  the  flowers  of  light,  which  are  scattered 
here  and  there  on  this  dark  earth  as  so  many  lively  suggesters  of  a  heavenly  hope."  Per- 
haps in  a  more  eminent  degree,  Carl  Ritter  aided  in  forwarding  the  science  of  natural  his- 
tory geography.  He,  as  well  as  Schlegel,  recognised  the  vitality  of  the  globe.  Our  views 
on  this  subject  have  to  a  considerable  degree  been  enlarged  and  strengthened  by  the  trans- 
lation into  English  of  the  beautiful  comparative  physical  geography  of  Arnold  Guoyet— 
a  work  that  cannot  be  too  extensively  read.  But  after  all,  there  is  one  name  which  is 
more  especially  connected  with  this  science — a  name  which  has  been  by  Professor  E. 
Forbes  termed  its  organiser,  as  well  as  originator:  I  allude  to  the  Baron  Alexander  Yon 
Humboldt. 

Natural  history  geography  may  be  regarded  as  including,  among  other  things,  the  diffe- 
rent chemical,  geological,  and  general  physical  relations  which  have  modified  the  distribu- 
tion of  plants  and  animals — of  plants,  because  the  conditions  of  a  thriving  vegetation  are 
so  various,  that  under  certain  circumstances  there  springs  a  peculi;ir  flora,  giving  a  charac- 
teristic scenery  to  a  country,  and  so  influencing  the  mind.  But  such  a  distribution  is  also 
an  index  to  the  geology,  because  certain  plants  require  a  certain  soil,  and  the  quality  of 
the  soil  depends  mainly  npon  the  geological  formations;  to  the  meteorology,  because  cer- 
tain plants  require  particular  amounts  of  heat  and  moisture.  It  is  the  proper  province 
of  chemistry  to  tell  us  the  constitution  of  the  soil — to  show  what  ingredients  are  contain- 
ed in  a  plant  from  the  analysis  of  its  ashes :  so  that  chemistry,  geology,  and  meteorology 
are,  by  means  of  vegetation,  brought  into  a  more  intimate  relationship.  We  can,  howev- 
er, look  at  a  plant  as  the  theatre  for  the  display  of  certain  physical  actions — as  an  appa- 
ratus constructed  for  exhibiting  certain  purely  molecular  actions — endosmose,  exosmose, 
capillary  attraction,  force  of  suction — so  that  general  physics  may  be  added  to  the  other 
group.  Under  all  these  circumstances,  therefore,  the  subject  appeared  not  inapt  to  bring 
before  the  members  of  a  society  connected  as  this  is  with  the  study  of  botany. 

reference  to  the  first  portion  of  our  subject — the  chemical  phenomena  of  vegetation — 
observe,  that  we  are  much  indebted  to  the  researches  of  Professor  Liebig;  and  the 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OF  A  PLANT. 

benefits  he  has  conferred  upon  science  are  very  great,  for  this  reason :  they  are  twofold 
in  their  nature.  Besides  the  actual  results  of  his  own  labors — and  they  are  many  and 
various — he  opened  a  new  field  for  the  direction  of  the  energies  of  other  men.  Were  his 
theories  all  wrong — his  researches  all  false — still,  if  by  them  the  spirit  of  inquiry  was 
aroused,  in  the  end  he  would  benefit  science.  The  past  histor}'  of  inductive  science  con- 
firms this  statement.  We  cannot  now  afford  time  to  trace  the  origin  and  rise  of  agricultu- 
ral chemistry,  but  must  be  content  with  a  slight  glance  at  it  as  it  now  exists — a  product 
of  the  mental  exertions  of  the  German  professor. 

The  first  point  of  importance  upon  looking  at  the  chemical  phenomena  of  vegetation, 
is,  that  there  are  various  actions  alwa}'S  going  on  in  a  plant,  owing  to  the  decomposition 
of  certain  portions  of  its  structure,  or  of  the  materials  whence  it  derives  its  food — actions 
extremely  different  to  those  mechanical  actions  to  which  I  have  before  alluded.  They  are 
changes  which  at  first  sight  appear  to  be  strictly  chemical,  and  which  are  very  often  con- 
founded with  each  other.  I  refer  to  the  decomposition  of  carbonic  acid  and  of  water — to 
the  absorption  of  oxygen  during  darkness — to  the  emission  of  carbonic  acid  during  the 
night.  The  decomposition  of  carbonic  acid  and  of  water  may  be  designated  as  chemico- 
physical  action;  the  absorbtion  of  oxj'gen  during  the  night  is  entirel}'^  a  chemical  process; 
the  emission  of  carbonic  acid  being,  on  the  other  hand,  a  purely  mechanical  operation. 

For  the  decomposition  of  carbonic  acid  and  water,  we  find  that  light  is  required;  that 
where  there  is  a  deficiency  of  light  this  action  goes  on  put  partially.  Researches  have 
proved  that  while  the  blue  rays  are  most  active  in  germination,  the  yellow  rays  act  more 
readily  on  the  developed  plant.  Mr.  Robert  Hunt,  in  a  lecture  which  he  delivered  at  the 
Royal  Institution  last  year,  on  "  Light  and  Actinism,"  stated  some  valuable  and  curious 
facts.  He  considers  germination  to  be  entirely  dependent  upon  the  actinic,  but  to  be  act- 
ually impeded  by  the  luminous  rays;  while  on  the  other  hand,  this  decomposition  of  car- 
bonic acid,  this  lignification  is  most  extensively  carried  on  by  the  action  of  the  luminous 
power,  and  is  stopped  by  the  actinic  force.  As  summer  advances,  the  thermic  and  the  pa- 
rathermic  rays  are  most  conducive  both  to  fruiting  and  flowering.  All  that  we  can  say  to 
these  carefully  investigated  and  well  proved  facts,  is,  that  the}'^  give  us  one  of  the  most 
striking  examples  of  the  adaption  of  inorganic  nature  to  organic  life,  that  can  be  found  in 
the  whole  range  of  physical  science. 

From  the  first  moment  of  the  germination  of  a  seed,  carbonic  acid  is  always  being  ab- 
sorbed, but  not  alwaj's,  as  I  have  before  mentioned,  being  decomposed;  for  in  the  dark 
this  action  is  stopped,  but  the  carbonic  acid  still  continues  to  be  absorbed  by  the  juices 
which  the  plant  holds  in  solution.  This  action  was  very  aptly  compared  by  Professor  Lie- 
big — this  emission  of  water  and  carbonic  acid  from  a  plant  in  the  dark — "  to  a  cotton  wick 
enclos-ed  in  a  lamp  containing  a  liquid  saturated  with  carbonic  acid."  Water  and  carbon- 
ic acid  are  taken  up  by  the  wick  by  capillary  attraction,  both  evaporating  on  its  exterior 
surface.  In  the  night  another  action  goes  on  in  the  growth  of  plants — the  absorption  of 
oxygen;  an  action  as  purely  chemical,  as  the  evolution  of  carbonic  acid  was  purely  me- 
chanical. Yet,  because  they  occur  simultaneously,  it  was  presumed  that  they  were  sub- 
ject to  the  like  causes;  even  after  it  was  found  that  their  ratios  of  action  were  not  equal; 
for  plants  absorb  more  oxj'gen  than  they  emit  carbonic  acid. 

This  nightl}'  absorbtion  of  carbonic  acid  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  independent  of  the  life 
of  the  plant,  not  acting  upon  the  main  parts,  but  upon  the  blossoms,  fruit  and  leaves,  and 
the  result  of  experiment  has  revealed  to  us  the  facts,  that  leaves  containing  highly  nitro 
genised  compounds,  or  volatile  oils,  absorb  oxygen  more  vigorously  than  leaves  which 
tain  neither  of  these  principles.     In  the  latter  class  of  leaves  the  volatile  oil,  by  the 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OF  A  PLANT. 

of  oxygen,  is  converted  into  a  resin.  The  Agave  americana,  absorbs  0.3  times  its  volume 
of  oxj'gen  in  twenty-four  hours;  the  Pinus  abies,  containing  volatile  and  resinous  oils, 
ten  times  its  volume  of  ox\'gen  in  the  same  time;  the  Quercus  robur,  containing  tannic 
acid,  fourteen  times  its  volume  of  oxygen;  and  the  Populus  alba,  twenty-one  times  its  vo- 
lume of  oxj'gen  during  a  day  and  night. 

I  need  hardly  mention  as  a  familiar  example  of  these  chemical  changes,  caused  by  the 
absorption  of  oxygen,  Cacalia  ficoides,  which  is  sour  in  the  morning,  tasteless  at  noon, 
and  bitter  in  the  evening  from  the  excess  of  hydrogen;  it  became  tasteless  when  there  was 
no  excess  of  oxygen,  and  sour  owingto  the  oxygen  which  it  had  absorbed  duiingthe  night. 

This  decomposition  of  carbonic  acid  is  most  interesting  to  us  as  exhibiting  clearly  the 
real  process  of  lignification;  as  helping  to  establish  correct  notions  regarding  that  vegeta- 
ble matter  undergoing eremacausis  which  is  familiarly  known  as  humus;  experiments  have 
proved  the  insolubility  of  humus;  calculations  have  demonstrated,  that  suppo.se  there  ex- 
isted a  superabundance  of  the  most  soluble  salt  of  humic  acid,  still  all  the  carbon  which 
it  might  contain,  would  be  totally  inadequate  to  give  us  but  a  very  small  portion  of  that 
carbon  which  is  found  in  vegetation.  But  another  calculation  was  made  as  to  a  different 
source  for  the  carbonic  acid;  a  calculation  which  was  based  upon  De  Saussure's  accurate 
determination  of  the  amount  of  carbonic  acid  present  in  the  atmosphere,  an  amount  of  a 
little  more  than  one-thousandth  of  its  weight;  yet  we  find  that  the  air  contains  no  less 
sum  than  3085  billions  of  pounds  of  carbon,  a  quantity  surpassing  in  weight  not  only  the 
carbon  of  existing  vegetation,  but  also  that  which  is  at  present  locked  up  in  the  mineral 
coal  which  is  distributed  over  certain  parts  of  the  earth's  sui'face. 

It  may  now  well  be  asked.  How  lives  the3'oung  plant  before  it  comes  in  contact  with  the 
atmosphere,  the  source  of  its  carbonic  acid?  The  rei)ly  to  this  question  is  the  ke^^  to  the 
proper  action  action  of  humus.  This  humus  is  especially  useful  for  the  support  of  young 
plants;  it  takes  oxygen  from  the  air;  and  then  furnishes  the  plant  with  caibonic  acid 
— tliis  is  its  great  use.  We  see,  then,  that  the  process  of  nouiishmentin  a  young  plant 
totally  differs  from  those  actions  by  which  the  well  developed  vegetable  is  supported.  A 
j^ouiig  plant  causes  a  certain  quantity  of  oxj'gen  to  be  abstracted  from  the  atmosjihere, 
while  an  old  one  furnishes  us  M'ith  a  never-failing  source  of  this  gas. 

I  cannot  help  referring  to  the  fact,  that  many  juicy  and  milky  plants  in  warm  countries, 
flourish  on  ^  soil  destitute  of  humus,  containing  absolutely  not  a  trace  of  carbon;  and 
sometimes  are  found  being  held  by  one  point  of  attachment  to  this  barren  soil — such  shrubs 
as  the  Cactus  and  the  Caoutchouc  are  among  this  number.  Baron  Humboldt  especially 
mentions  the  Cactus  tribe.  In  his  beautiful  paper  on  the  "  Physiognoniy  of  Plants,"  he 
states: — "  In  the  waterless  plains  of  South  America,  animals  suffering  from  thirst  seek 
the  Mdon- Cactus,  a  spherical  plant  half  buried  in  the  dry  sand,  and  encased  in  foimida- 
ble  prickles,  but  of  which  the  interior  aboynds  in  refreshing  juice.  The  stems  of  the  co- 
lumnar Cactus  often  rise  to  the  height  of  fioin  thirty  to  thirty-two  feet;  they  are  often 
covered  with  lichens,  and  dividing  into  candelabra-like  handles,  resemble  in  physiognomy 
some  of  the  Euphorbias  of  Africa."  Again,  in  note  20: — "  AVhen  one  has  been  accustom- 
ed to  see  Cactuses  only  in  our  hot-houses,  one  is  astonished  at  the  degree  of  density  and 
hardness  which  the  ligneous  fibres  attain  in  old  Cactus  stems.  The  Indians  know  the 
Cactus  wood  is  incorruptible  and  excellent  for  bars  and  the  thresholds  of  doors.  Tliere 
is  hardly  anytl),ing  in  vegetable  physiognomy  that  makes  so  iiregular  and  ineffaceable  an 
impression  upoji  a  newly  arrived  person,  as  the  sight  of  an  arid  plain  thickly  covered 
o!-e  near  Cumar^a,  New  Barcelona  and  Cora,  with  columnar  and  candelabra-1 
Cactus  stems.'* 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OP  A  PLANT. 

We  must  all  allow,  that  this   fact  of  the  growth  of  higlily  ligneous  plants  containin 
juices  in  arid  plains,  is  not  in  favor  of  an  hypothesis  that  considers  vegetable  mold  as  the 
true  source  of  carbon  for  plants. 

Besides  the  property  of  decomposing  carbonic  acid,  vegetables  have  also  the  power  of 
decomposing  water;  hence  the  source  of  hydrogen.  At  first  sight  we  must  imagine  that 
there  must  be  a  marvellous  energy  in  the  chemical  process  of  vegetation,  when  able  to  ef- 
fect what  the  electricity  of  a  powerful  thunderstorm  accomplishes  only  feebly  and  imper- 
fectly: but  when  we  reflect  upon  the  various  methods  by  which  water  can  be  decomposed, 
this  feeling  is  somewhat  limited.  The  metals — some  at  common  temperature,  others  at  a 
red  heat,  and  the  same,  or  more  of  them  in  contact  with  a  strong  acid;  and,  as  it  has  been 
beautifully  shown  by  Mr.  Grove,  by  heat  alone. 

We  krow  that  this  action  must  take  place,  from  the  fact  that  caoutchouc,  wax,  and  oils, 
contain  more  hydrogen  than  oxygen;  and  we  also  know  that  water  must  be  the  only 
source  of  the  hydrogen.  The  water  is  decomposed,  the  hydrogen  is  taken  up  into  a 
plant  with  the  green  principle  of  the  leaf,  which  diminishes  in  quantity  when  oxygen  is 
absorbed.  Plants  containing  water  and  carbonic  acid,  and  evolving  only  a  little  oxygen, 
give  an  acid, — evolving  more  oxygen,  they  form  a  neutral  substance,^evolving  a  large 
amount  of  ox3'gen  they  give  us  an  oil. 

Again,  chemical  analysis  pointed  out  nitrogen  as  a  constituent  of  plants,  and  for  a  long 
time  it  was  a  question  how  this  nitrogen  was  obtained;  later  experiments,  however,  have 
shown  that  it  has  its  origin  in  the  ammonia  which  is  always  found  in  the  atmosphere. 

It  was  found  that  plants  would  grow  in  charcoal,  or  in  calcined  earth  containing  not  a 
trace  of  carbon,  if  watered  with  rain  water,  and  this  because  rain  water  contains  more 
ammonia — hence  its  softness.  So  there  are  two  forms  in  which  this  ammonia,  so  requisite 
for  vegetation,  may  be  found :  as  a  gas  existing  in  the  atmosphere,  (though  this  is  seldom  the 
case,)  and  held  in  solution  by  water  which  conveys  it  to  the  soil.  Agriculturists  find  that 
the  form  in  which  it  is  given  is  of  more  importance  than  the  actual  quantity.  Carbonate 
of  ammonia  is  often  found  in  large  quantities;  but  it  is  a  volatile  salt,  and  for  this  reason 
a  very  considerable  qunntity  of  the  ammonia  it  contains  is  volatilized  and  lost.  The  ob- 
ject of  gypsum  as  a  manure,  is  to  produce  that  double  decomposition  by  which  is  formed 
carbonate  of  lime  and  sulphate  of  ammonia,  a  more  stable  compound. 

The  source  of  ammonia  exhibits  to  us  one  of  those  beautiful  and  never  ending  cj^cles  of 
mutual  relationship  upon  which  the  mind  of  the  real  observer  of  nature  always  delights 
to  dwell.  Throughout  the  physical  world,  from  its  formation  to  the  present  time,  there 
has  never  ceased  to  be  a  perpetual  mutation  of  matter — a  ceaseless,  ever  restless  desire  for 
change  of  form,  and  after  some  boundless  wanderings,  a  turning  back  again,  to  undergo 
perchance  the  same  work,  though  on  a  different  subject — at  a  great  distance  from  its  for- 
mer one — and  after  an  inconceivably  long  interval  had  elapsed. 

"  Communion  with  nature  awakens  thoughts  that  had  long  lain  dormant,"  enthusiasti- 
cally exclaims  the  author  of  the  "Cosmos."  Surely  this  sentiment  must  find  within  a 
hearty  echo,  when  for  the  first  time  we  contemplate — actually  by  experimental  demonstra- 
tion— the  imperishability  and  the  indestructibility  of  matter:  when,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
combustion  of  an  organic  substance  with  oxide  of  copper,  the  sugar,  the  volatile  oil  is  de- 
destroyed,  but  its  elements  have  a.ssumed  new  forms,  rendered  cognizant  to  the  senses  by 
the  balance. 

It  is  this  great  fact  which  lends  to  my  mind  a  charm — somewhat  ftinciful  I  must  admit 

the  science  of  geology.     The  thought  that  the  oxygen — as  carbonic  acid  was  emitted 

lentifully  in  the  volcanic  disturbances  of  the  ancient  world — which  formed  part  of  its 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OF  A  PLANT. 

atmosphere,  then  passed  into  the  composition  of  the  flora  of  the  gigantic  vegetation  of  the 
coal-fields — the  liberated  oxygen  in  after  ages  uniting  itself  perhaps  with  a  mineral,  form- 
ing a  sulphate — again  to  be  reduced  by  organic  matter  to  a  sulphide — the  carbonic  acid 
freed  again,  passing  off  into  oxygen  by  the  vegetation  of  the  oolite — taken  up  into  the  sys- 
tems of  the  icthyosaurus — that  this  same  oxygen,  for  what  we  know  to  the  contrary,  may 
even  now  be  helping  to  carry  on  in  us  the  vital  process — is  still  at  work  to  change  again — 
to  become  as  pure  and  free  as  it  ever  was,  and  not  different  from  ourselves, — never  to  wear 
out  or  to  decay,  but  while  the  world  lasts  to  be  pursuing  a  destiny  predetermined  before 
its  existence  by  the  Great  Author  of  nature. 

Ammonia  is  secreted  from  the  body  during  life:  it  is  a  result  of  its  putrefaction  when 
dead.  A  thousand  million  of  the  human  race,  besides  animals,  annually  die.  How  much 
nitrogen  is  thus  given  to  plants,  is  a  question  that  I  think  it  is  beyond  the  limit  of  science 
to  answer.  But  it  comes  round  to  us  again,  though  not  exactly  in  the  same  form;  for  the 
plants  supply  the  herbivora,  who  in  their  turn  supply  the  carnivora.  In  some  recent  re- 
searches, I  obtained  from  several  coffins  a  nitrogenized  compound  called  adipocere,  rich  in 
ammonia — in  fact,  an  ammoniacal  sap.  In  all  cases,  on  opening  a  coffin,  there  Avas  a 
powerful  odor  of  ammonia;  and  as  an  illustration  of  the  large  amount  of  it  in  this 
adipocere,  I  may  mention,  that  happening  to  have  some  in  my  pocket,  on  standing  before 
afire  it  began  to  melt;  some  ladies  at  the  same  time  observing,  "What  a  very  strong 
odor  of  hartshorn  there  is!" 

If  all  four  can  be  represented  by  an  oval,  as  some  suppose — ab  ova  omnia — somewhat 
on  the  same  principle,  the  actions  of  nature  might  be  represented  by  a  circle.  The  excre- 
ment of  plants  afford  another  exampleof  circular  change.  Besides  tho.se  which  are  gaseous 
and  solid,  there  are  some  liquid  excrements  which  are  excreted  by  the  roots  and  absorbed 
by  the  soil :  these  fluids  are  very  rich  in  carbon,  so  that  the  amount  of  that  element  which 
is  furnished  to  the  young  plant  by  the  humus  is  actually,  by  the  secretions  of  the  grown 
vegetable,  returned  again  to  it. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  these  circular  changes  is  that  which  subsists  between  the  animal 
and  vegetable  kingdoms — the  principles  of  the  two  systems  of  life  requiring  the  refuse,  the 
one  of  the  other.  It  would  be  altogether  out  of  place  here  to  mention  anj'  statistics  as  to 
the  large  amount  of  carbonic  acid  derived  from  artificial  combustion,  from  thermal 
springs,  from  extinct  volcanoes,  or  from  the  respiration  of  animals;  but  Ave  know  that  if 
it  were  not  removed  the  atmosphere  could  not  for  any  length  of  time  support  life.  But 
vegetation  does  this  great  work,  and  cultivation  in  most  cases  produces  a  purer  atmos- 
phere; so  these  plants  serve  the  animal  kingdom  in  two  ways — by  sui)plying  it  with  food, 
and  by  affording  it  a  pure  atmosphere. 

I  can  hardly  conclude  this  sketch  without  making  some  reference  to  the  origin  of  vege- 
table life,  a  subject  which  it  is  well  to  be  cautious  in  approaching,  because  of  the  present 
imperfect  state  of  our  knowledge.  Among  the  many  theories  of  life,  (so,  I  suppose,  they 
must  be  termed,)  although  we  cannot  even  attempt  to  reach  ultimate  causation,  I  may  per- 
haps be  allowed  to  express  what  may  be  termed  a  fancy  of  vegetable  life,  (for  theory  is 
far  too  grave  a  term  to  be  applied  here) — a  fancy  of  vegetable  life  founded  upon  a  review 
of  Dr.  Faraday's  magnificent  discoveries. 

The  vitality  of  a  plant  forms  an  episode  in  the  history  of  discovery,  because  at  the  first 
animal  life  was  regarded  as  totally  distinct  from  vegetable  life;  but  as  facts  accumulated, 
analogy  in  functional  arrangement,  thoxigh  brought  about  by  a  differertt  form  of  organic 
atus,  leads  us  to  suppose  that  there  was  but  one  known  cause  of  vitality,  both 
and  animals.     In  a  plant,  iheatand  light  are  considered  as  necessary,  but  not 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OF  A  PLANT. 

first  great  moving  power.  Vegetable  physiology  advances,  and  seems  to  incline  to  the  idea 
that  the  vitality  of  a  plant  is  a  purely  chemical  process. 

Upon  what  is  dependent,  then,  this  chemical  action  that  enables  a  plant  to  decompose 
both  carbonic  acid  and  water,  that  is  always  going  on  in  it  as  a  part  of  its  life,  and  the 
source  of  its  development.^  The  magnetic  discoveries  of  Dr.  Faraday  of  the  connection 
between  magnetism,  light,  and  cr^'stallisation,  have  no  doubt  brought  us  to  the  eve  of  a 
great  generalisation.  We  are  in  a  state  so  happily  described  by  Humboldt  as  "  a  state 
of  prcsagement" — in  one  of  those  intervals  that  renders  the  history  of  philosophy  so  in- 
distinct between  the  presentiment  of  an  epoch  and  its  actual  realisation.  We  have  the 
strongest  grounds  for  considering  galvanism,  electricity,  magnetism,  as  one  and  the  same 
force;  whicn  force  is  a  certain  quality  of  matter  termed  by  Professor  Graham  polarity, 
which  is  due  to  the  presence  of  inherent  magnetism.  So  then,  we  may  almost  go  so  fiir  as  to 
say,  that  the  same  force  that  deflects  a  ray  of  polarised  light — that  causes  the  crystal  to 
elect  a  certain  determinate  position  in  the  magnetic  field — that  gires  polarity  to  the  needle 
of  the  compass — that  this  same  force  causes  the  formation  and  growth  of  an  inorganic 
cell. 

Such  may  be  considered  as  an  unfinished  and  imperfect  glance  at  some  of  the  most  strik- 
ing points  in  the  chemical  history  of  vegetation;  but  our  survey  is  not  yet  finished.  The 
vegetable  fiame  requires  the  introduction  of  certain  peculiar  elements  which  are  not  organ- 
ic, but  which,  nevertheless,  makes  it  subservient  for  the  support  of  life,  and  for  the  growth 
of  structure. 

We  do  not  now  wish  to  discuss  the  exact  degree  of  alkalies  or  alkaline  earths  required 
in  certain  cases,  nor  to  trouble  ourselves  about  the  presence  of  organic  acids  in  plants.  We 
know  that  oaks  require  certain  conditions  for  their  existence;  in  some  soils  they  flourish, 
in  others  they  will  not  live.  A  barren  and  granitic  soil  amply  supports  the  Pine  and  the 
Fir,  but  not  the  Oak;  and  this  because  such  soils  do  not  contain  sufficient  alkalies  for  the 
purpose.  The  Equisetacea3,  like  the  Oak,  require  much  potash;  a  soil  formed  from  .the 
grauwacke  and  porphyry,  nourishes  these  plants. 

The  Tobacco-plant  and  the  Vine  require  lime;  the  Beet  and  Potatoes  magnesia;  Cheno- 
podium  likes  nitrates;  and  the  Fuchsia  iodine;  Cereals  phosphates  of  ammonia  and  mag- 
nesia. For  the  growth  of  the.se  plants,  one  or  other  of  these  constituents  is  required;  but 
there  are  some  soils  composed  of  pure  sand  and  limestone — they  support  no  species  of  ve- 
getation; they  are  absolutely  barren.  Argillaceous  earths  always  exist  in  a  fertile  soil; 
their  fertility  being  doubtless  derived  from  the  alkali  they  contain,  because  rich  soils  were 
formed  by  the  disintegration  of  potash  and  soda  felspars.  Alumina  is  never  found  in  the 
ashes  of  plants;  its  action  is  merely  indirect.  It  is  useful  in  condensing  the  water  and 
the  ammonia  of  the  atmosphere.  A  cubic  foot  of  felspar  contains  enough  potash  to  sup- 
ply an  Oak-copse  of  twenty-six  square  feet  with  potash  for  five  j^ears. 

We  find,  even  in  short  excursions  in  our  own  country,  great  changes  in  the  scenery  of 
different  places;  this  is  often  brought  about  by  the  predominance  of  a  certain  class  of 
shrubs.  We  may  pass  a  woody  country — a  country  occupied  as  arable  land — an  entirely 
pastoral  country.  Whence  this  differenee?  From  the  soil,  which  influences  the  produc- 
tions owing  to  the  operations  in  nature  of  the  f^icts  which  I  have  just  stated.  Soil,  with 
climate,  is  omnipotent  in  influencing  the  distribution  of  plants;  and  the  formation  of  soil 
and  arable  land  is  one  of  the  main  points  of  agricultural  geology.  Such  a  fact  furnishes 
us  with  a  very  clear  example  of  the  connection  existing  between  chemistry,  botany,  and 

y- 

how  are  soils  formed.?     This  is  yet  a  question  to  be  explained. 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OF  A  PLANT. 

In  speaking  of  the  imperishability  of  matter,  I  alluded  to  the  changes  which  it  is  con- 
stantly undergoing,  because  the  earth,  from  the  first  moment  of  creation,  has  been  sub- 
ject to  the  never-ending  play  of  natural  forces;  and  by  looking  at  the  present  state  of  the 
globe,  and  then  by  reading  its  past  history,  the  mutation  of  all  material  substance  is  tho- 
roughly illustrated. 

The  progress  of  disintegration  has  not  been  much  investigated;  but  Liebig  has  collected 
into  his  *' Agricultural  Chemistry"  the  results  of  most  experiments  on  this  subject.  He 
divides  the  process  of  disintegration  into  two  groups — waste,  the  result  of  mechanical 
force,  and  disintegration,  properl}'  so  called,  a  product  of  chemical  action.  It  by  no  means 
follows  that  both  disintegration  and  waste  may  not  be  simultaneously  taking  place  in  the 
same  rock,  or  in  other  AVords,  both  chemical  and  mechanical  causes  operating  in  unison, 
and  by  their  union  producing  great  effects. 

The  action  of  carbonic  acid  and  water  is  generally  to  liberate  in  a  soluble  form  the  al- 
kaline bases,  producing  frequently  as  an  ultimate  product,  hj^drate  of  silica,  before  which 
is  often  formed  a  soluble  silicate.  I  presume  that  a  descriptive  detail  of  the  pi'operties  of 
silicic  acid  would  be  superfluous;  but  an  experiment  of  that  talented  chemist,  Lavoisier, 
deserves  notice  here. 

Silicates  are  more  or  less  decomposed  by  the  action  of  hot  water;  the  opacity  of  the 
windows  in  hotbeds  is  an  example  of  this.  Lavoisier,  on  distilling  some  water  from  a  clean 
glass  vessel,  found  it  left  a  residue;  on  weigliing  it,  he  also  found  that  the  glass  retort  had 
lost  in  weight  what  the  water  had  gained:  from  this  experiment  it  was  obvious  that  a  por- 
tion of  the  silica  of  the  ghuss  had  been  dissolved  during  the  distillation. 

It  is  needless  to  enumerate  all  the  substances  upon  which  chemists  have  operated;  suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  their  experiments  have  had  a  very  extended  range,  and  that  they  con- 
firm all  the  statements  made  by  those  who  preceded  them  in  this  investigation.  In  this 
memoir  there  are  two  points  of  especial  interest.  One  is,  that  the  alkalies  are  not  quite  so 
essantial  to  the  disintegration  and  decomposition  of  mere  rocks,  as  it  was  at  first  suppos- 
ed:  for  hornblende,  epotite,  chlorite,  and  rocks  composed  mainly  of  these  substances,  un- 
derwent rapid  decomposition  by  pure  as  Avell  as  by  carbonated  water,  and  this  Avithout 
calling  in  the  agency  of  an  alkali;  this  experiment  accounts  for  the  fact  that  rocks  of  this 
kind  are  often  moie  readil}'  decomposed  by  meteoric  agencies  than  are  felspars :  it  enables  us 
to  trace  the  simple  process  hy  which  plants  arc  furnished  with  the  lime  and  the  magnesia 
they  require,  without  our  having  recour.se  to  any  mysterious  decomposing  power  of  the 
roots  of  the  growing  vegetable.  The  second  and  most  important  result  is,  that  potash, 
soda,  and  tlieir  carbonates,  but  especially  carbonate  of  pot  sh,  is  volatile  at  a  red  heat, — 
that  many  plants  contain  much  alkali,  whci'eby  a  very  little  is  found  in  the  ashes  after 
incineration.  So,  by  this  incineration  of  the  ashes  of  a  plant,  according  to  the  ordinary 
rules  for  the  analysis  of  vegetables,  the  Professors  Rogers'  statements  show  that  a  very 
large  amount  of  error  must  not  only  have  been  by  such  analyses  introduced,  but  b}'^  them 
parptuatzd.  The  ashes  of  anthracite,  of  bituminous  coal,  of  lignite,  contain  not  a  trace 
of  alkali,  but  digestion  with  water  previously  to  incineration,  reveals  to  us  their  presence — 
thus  adding  another  proof  to  the  vegetable  origin  of  coal. 

I  have  not  gone  into  the  minutiae  of  an}'  actu:il  decompositions  which  take  place  during 
the  disintegration  of  certain  rocks,  because  my  object  is  more  to  point  out  a  train  of 
thought  than  to  dwell  upon  the  facts  by  which  these  reflections  may  be  produced.  Our 
facts  may  be  likened  to  the  landmarks  of  the  journey,  but  their  attainment  is  not  its  ulti 
iin. 

mentioned   that  certain  plants  require  soils  containing  some  particular  mineral 


SCIENTIFIC  HISTORY  OF  A  PLANT. 

constituent,  and  that  for  the  most  part  soils  are  formed  by  the  disintegration  of  the  parent 
rock  of  the  district,  it  is  obvious  that  these  facts,  when  applied  on  a  great  scale  to  nature, 
must  divide  and  influence  vegetation;  for  according  to  the  geological  conformations  of  a 
country  is  its  soil,  and  so  is  its  flora. 

The  subsoil  is  generally  in  connection  with  the  original  rock,  by  fl"hose  wearing  away  it 
was  formed,  and  the  soil  is  in  intermediate  relation  to  it,  not  always  having  even  the  same 
color;  fur  it  may  be  a  transplanted  soil,  or  separated  from  the  parent  rock  by  a  larger 
amount  of  gravel,  in  which  case  the  white  subsoil  from  the  chalk,  or  the  yellow  from  the 
clays,  would  not  represent  the  color  of  the  land's  exterior  surface.  The  depth,  texture, 
and  fertility  of  a  soil  is  dependent  both  upon  the  mineral  constituents  and  the  easily  dis- 
integrating properties  of  the  rock  whence  it  is  formed;  and  it  is  the  pliysical  and  nnneral, 
more  tlian  the  geological  age  of  a  soil,  that  conduces  to  its  fertility:  old  rocks  maybe  bar 
ren  in  one  place,  but  fertile  in  another. 

In  merely  a  geological  survey  of  a  soil  we  are  apt  to  underestimate,  if  not  to  overloook, 
the  important  fact,  which  is  played  by  water  in  vegetation.  Yet,  if  we  cast  our  eyes  over 
a  hydrographic  map  of  the  world,  we  find  certain  rainless  districts,  destitute  of  water 
courses,  and  where  the  air  is  rarified  to  allow  of  the  condensation  of  aqueous  vapor. 
What  do  travellers  tell  us  of  the  vegetation  of  a  tract  of  country  so  circumstanced?  AVhy, 
in  tliis  rainlesss  desert  let  but  a  little  spring  of  water  rise,  it  generates  fertility  in  the  li- 
mited sphere  of  its  operations;  an  oasis  is  produced;  and  that  arid  ocean  of  burning  .sand 
rejoices  in  one  small  island  of  vegetable  life. 

Water  is  one  local  cause  of  influencing  the  fertility  of  a  soil,  but  there  are  various  oth- 
ers, many  physical  actions  in  one  place  shifting  the  superficial  detritus  which  covers  the 
more  stubborn  rocks;  and  if  we  do  not  take  circumstances  like  these  into  account,  we 
shall  be  apt  to  consider  that  geology  gives  us  more  information  than  it  really  does;  to  form 
the  idea,  tliat  with  a  geological  map  before  us,  it  would  be  no  trouble  by  its  inspection  ac- 
curately to  ascertain  the  soil  of  any  particular  country. 

The  mill-stone  grit  plains  around  Paris  in  a  geological  map  of  the  district,  would  be  si- 
milarl}' colored;  yet  each  one  of  these  plains  has  its  own  particular  form  of  vegetation. 
Montmorency  is  covered  with  corn-fields;  Sannois  supports  only  a  short  sterile  rod;  Meu- 
don  is  furnished  with  Spanish  chestnut  trees;  the  Airaflexuosa,  theMelampyrum  sylvati- 
cum,  the  Pteris  aqiiilina,  all  grow  there.  Only  a  minute's  inspection  clears  up  this  seem- 
ing incongruity.  We  find,  though  no  difference  is  pointed  out  by  the  map — for  geologi- 
cally speaking,  there  can  be  no  distinction  made:  they  are  all  mill-stone  grits — we  find  in 
the  one  case  the  millstone-grit  is  mixed  with  sand;  in  another  case  it  is  mixed  with  clay; 
and,  in  the  third,  it  is  alone  and  uncovered. 

Thus  far  we  have  pursued  our  journej'',  and  now  it  is  time  that  we  pause.  I  would  hope 
that  my  sketch  has  been  clearly  followed,  and  that  my  design,  imperfect  as  it  is,  has  been 
strictly  adhered  to. 

In  following  the  chemical  history  of  a  plant,  we  saw  how  interwoven  were  a  variety  of 
subjects  with  each  other;  we  saw,  too,  that  the  plant  itself  is  capable  of  reading  to  us 
many  a  lesson  from  the  great  book  of  nature,  of  bringing  before  us  many  of  her  beautiful 
operations;  of  exhibiting  to  us  clearly  and  distincly  some  fuller  proofs  of  that  design,  and 
order,  and  harmon}',  so  palpably  jnanifested  in  this  our  universe. 

So  then  man  and  nature  can  be  viewed  as  two  great  forces  here,  the  one  progressive,  and 
the  other  stationary,  albeit,  though  not  still,  yet  both  working  out  their  proper  ends  in 
the  universal  scheme  of  the  Great  Designer,  which  it  is  past  the  feeble  ken  of  man 
netrate 


ARTIFICIAL   ROCKERIES. 


Such  subjects  as  these  must  make  us  feel  with  Emerson  that  "  the  destiny  of  organised 
nature  is  amelioration,  and  who  can  tell  its  limits?  It  is  for  man  to  tame  the  chaos  on 
every  side,  while  he  lives  to  scatter  the  seeds  of  science  and  of  song>  that  climate,  corn, 
animals,  men,  may  be  milder,  and  that  the  germs  of  love  and  benefit  may  be  multiplied." 


ON   ARTIFICIAL    ROCKERIES. 

BY  R.  B.  L.,  BOSTON. 

Among  the  numerous  natural  embellishments  which  are  so  abundantly  scattered  over 
the  surface  of  this  country,  and  the  natural  facilities  afforded  for  beautifying  the  private 
pleasure-ground  of  the  wealthy  proprietor,  there  are  but  few  instances  where  these  natural 
facilities  have  been  advantageously  turned  to  account  in  artificial  decoration. 

It  would  appear  the  taste  of  the  Puritans,  which  swept  everything  bearing  the  semblance 
of  grace  and  beauty,  from  their  religious  and  civil  architecture,  inspired  their  decendants 
Avith  a  taste  no  less  justifiable  of  sweeping  everything  from  ornamental  grounds  that  has 
the  shape  and  form  which  nature  gave  it,  and  if  a  cropping  rock  or  jutting  ledge  or  pro- 
jecting precipice,  happen  to  come  within  the  sacred  limits  of  the  so-called  improvements, 
it  must  of  course,  be  blown  to  pieces,  (to  build  stone  walls,  perhaps,  though  plenty  more 
may  be  found  within  a  dozen  j'ards  of  it,)  nor  is  this  pretext  of  utility  itself  always  given, 
for  who  would  have  rocks  in  their  garden  or  shrubbery,  when  they  may  be  seen  plentiful- 
ly in  the  fields  and  uncultivated  wilds,  so  in  accordance  with  this  taste.^  Away  go  the  rocks, 
and  their  place — if  it  happens  to  be  a  slope — is  supplied  with  a  turf  bank,  yclept  a  terrace. 

Now  if  natural  decorations  increase  the  interest  and  beauty  of  a  garden,  accordingly 
as  they  are  treated  in  an  artistic  manner,  so  also  do  decorations  merely  artificial  gain  in 
proportion  as  the}'  resemble  nature.  But  the  artificial  has  never  the  value  or  the  interest  of 
the  natural,  any  more  than  a  copy  has  the  interest  or  value  of  an  original  picture  from 
the  hands  of  one  of  the  old  masters.  So  truly  is  this  the  case,  when  applied  to  garden 
scenery,  that  a  place  wholly  artificial,  however  well  executed,  has  nothing  interesting  or 
pleasing  about  it,  until  by  age,  it  has  obtained  something  of  a  natural  appearance. 

An  object  purely  natural,  in  the  midst  of  a  pleasure-ground,  is  not  only  a  pleasing  re- 
lief to  the  mind,  but  is  also  more  striking  and  impressive,  more  august  and  grand,  than 
the  ornamental  vase,  or  the  geometrical  parterre.  These  may  be  pretty  or  beautiful,  but 
even  the  hard,  cold,  stern  features  of  a  projecting  rock,  gives  us  a  nobler  and  more  exalted 
kind  of  i)leasure  than  these  artificial  nicities.  The  practice  of  imitating  the  rude  works 
of  nature  by  making  artificial  rockeries  has  been  attempted  in  England,  on  an  extensive 
scale,  and  in  some  instances  has  been  carried  to  an  extreme,  nearly  as  ridiculous  as  the 
famous  rock  of  Semiramis,  with  all  the  rocks  that  lay  in  the  shape  of  tributary  kings 
around  her.  The  object  in  most  of  these  rock  builders  seems  to  be,  who  will  have  the 
largest  pile,  as  if  mere  bulk  were  the  only  method  of  producing  effect.  Some  of  these 
noble  stone  gatherers  have  been  pretty  largely  imbued  with  the  same  notions  that  filled 
the  minds  of  the  builders  of  the  Pyramids,  or  the  Tower  of  Babel,  or  the  great  wall  of 
China,  collecting  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  at  enormous  expense,  boulders  and  con- 
glomerates, large  masses  of  spar  and  basalt,  as  if  determined  to  leave  behind  them  a  last- 
ing memorial  of  their  extravagance  and  bad  taste,  in  the  shape  of  a  huge  unsightly  pile 
of  stones. 

It  has  been  remarked  by  some  elegant  writers,  that  these  gigantic   eflForts  to  im 


ART.FICIAL   ROCKERIES, 


natural  object,  are  generally  the  least  successful,  and  it  ia  indisputably  true  that  these 
huge  attempts  at  artificial  rock  making  have  invariably  been  the  least  happy  in  producing 
the  anticipated  results,  and  in  some  instances,  as  at  Woburn  Abbey,  are  an  absolute  dis- 
figuration of  the  grounds.  The  Rocker}'  at  Sion  House,  considered  in  regard  to  the  bold- 
ness and  beauty  of  the  design,  or  the  tastefulness  of  its  execution,  is  perhaps  the  finest 
piece  of  artificial  Rockwork  in  Britain.  It  fails  however  in  producing  that  effect  upon  the 
mind  of  the  beholder,  as  a  piece  of  landscape  scenery,  which  such  a  mass  of  human  skill 
and  labor  ia  expected  to  produce.  The  peculiar  object  of  this  rockery  is  certainly  attained 
—if  this  was  its  only  object — of  forming  a  gradual,  easy,  and  imperceptible  boundary  to 
the  flower  ground,  but  for  this  purpose  detached  masses  of  shrubbery  are  inconceivably 
better  adapted;  and  could  be  accomplished  at  a  trifling  cost. 

The  Chatsvvorth  rockery  is  but  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  impress  the  mind  by  an 
imitation  of  nature.  Notwithstanding  its  magnitude,  it  is  but  a  mimicry  of  some  of  the 
natural  rockeries  that  might  be  seen  at  places  of  less  repute,  as  at  Penryn  and  other  places 
in  AVales,  at  Invermay,  Dunkeld,  Taymouth,  and  hundreds  of  places  in  the  Scottish 
Highlands,  and  such  natural  rockeries  as  we  frequently  meet  with  in  this  country,  want- 
ing only  a  little  help  from  art  in  the  shape  of  walks,  shrubs  and  climbers.  Such  spots 
we  may  see  almost  every  where  without  looking  for  them,  though  in  very  few  instances 
have  any  such  spots  been  taken  advantage  of  for  ornamental  purposes.  And  it  is  not  un- 
common to  see  splendid  country  mansions  built  by  the  side  of  a  salt  marsh  without  a  pros- 
pect from  itself,  or  a  decent  place  for  a  pleasure  garden  around  it — though  numerous 
picturesque  and  beautiful  locations  could  be  found  within  a  mile  circle  of  itself.* 

These  rockeries  already  mentioned,  cannot  be  regarded  as  anything  else  than  a  violent  out- 
rage uijon  the  principles  of  taste ;  both  are  incongruous  in  the  highest  degree, and  equally  offen- 
sive to  a  well  regulated  judgment.  Neither  is  in  harmony  or  unity  with  the  surrounding 
objects,  and  both  are  equally  out  of  place,  and  equally  void  of  the  necessary  appendages 
to  effect.  In  the  one  there  is  nothing  but  a  pile  of  rocks  in  an  open  lawn;  the  other  a 
similar  pile  by  the  side  of  an  artistical  flower  garden,  and  both  exposed  to  view  from 
nearly  every  side  and  from  a  considerable  distance.  When  covered  with  foliage,  so  as  to 
conceal  the  individual  parts  of  the  composition,  their  several  beauties  are  lost,  and  the 
whole  has  the  appearance  of  a  large  mound  of  earth  covered  Avith  different  varieties  of 
plants,  with  here  and  there  a  rock  sticking  out  among  them.  Again,  if  the  plants  be  kept 
small  by  constant  trimming,  as  is  necessary  to  show  the  composition  of  the  fragments, 
then  the  mind,  in  spite  of  all  its  enthusiasm,  cannot  conjure  up  any  other  idea  than  that 
the  thing  called  a  rockery  is  but  an  artificial  heap  of  stones. 

The  rock  garden  at  Chatsworth  is  perhaps  the  most  extensive  specimen  of  this  kind  of 
gardening  in  Europe  of  an  artificial  character,  although  specimens  of  rock  gardening  more 
extensive,  and  incomparably  more  interesting  are  to  be  found  in  many  places  of  moderate 
dimensions,  and  without  dogmatising  on  the  subject,  it  is  yet  doubtful,  to  sa}'  the  least, 
Avhether  such  a  piece  of  landscape  gardening  is  worthy  of  imitation,  under  circumstances 
similarly  f^xvorable  to  its  execution,  and  no  less  essentially  required  as  a  concomitant  of  a 
garden  landscape.  The  impression  made  upon  the  mind  by  the  rock  garden  in  question, 
is  decidedly  unfavorable  to  it,  when  compared  with  the  other  parts  of  the  garden.  On 
examining  the  rockery  some  time  after  its  completion,  with  some  others,  we  were  particu- 

*  A  very  striking  illustration  of  what  is  here  stated,  may  be  seen  in  the  vicinity  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  where  a  coun- 
try mansion  lately  erected,  that,  taking  it  as  a  whole — is  probably  the  finest  of  which  that  State  can  boast,  ia  built  on  a 
narrow  strip  of  a  few  acres  of  low  marsliy  land,  with  the  said  marsh   on  one  side  and  the  public  highway  a  few  rods 
front,  and  considerably  higher  than  its  own  ground  level,  on  the  othef. 


ARTIFICIAL   ROCKERIES. 


larly  struck  with  the  tameness  and  insipidity  of  a  work  about,  which  so  much  had  been 
said  and  written;  and  instead  of  being  the  expression  of  highly  cultivated  and  refined 
taste  in  a  gardenesque  landscape,  seemed  rather  intended  as  a  practical  lesson  to  the  next 
incipient  volcano,  that  became  active  in  England,  that  it  might  lieave  up  the  rocks  and 
scatter  about  its  boulders  according  to  the  principles  of  taste  displayed  in  the  Chatsworth 
rockery. 

Large  rockeries,  like  large  flower  gardens,  lose  their  interest  with  their  limited  space. 
A  large,  open  artistical  or  geometrical  flower  garden,  of  ten  or  more  acres,  has  a  far  less 
pleasing  effect  upon  the  mind  of  the  spectator,  than  one  a  quarter  or  half  an  acre  in  ex- 
tent, situated  in  a  retired  recess  of  the  pleasure  ground.  In  like  manner  a  large  mass  of 
rocks,  however  tastefull}^  arranged,  in  a  spacious  pleasure  ground,  has  less  influence  on 
the  imagination  than  a  small  irregularis^  arranged  group,  in  a  confined  and  secluded  nook, 
Avith  all  the  wild  savageness  of  primitive  nature  around  it.  Indeed,  a  low  confined  dell, 
the  channel  of  a  ravine,  or  a  quiet  secluded  hollow,  retired  from  everything  architectural 
or  artificial,  appears  to  be  the  most  proper  place  for  a  rockery.  The  spectator  should  come 
upon  it  quite  unexpectedlj^,  but  not  by  a  sudden  transition  of  the  general  scene,  although 
circumstances  may  often  occur  to  render  sudden  transitions  unavoidable. 

One  of  the  prettiest  rockeries  I  ever  beheld,  was  made  in  an  old  stone  quarr}',  which  in 
its  original  condition,  was  not  only  dangerous,  but  a  serious  disfiguration  to  the  place. 
Trees  were  planted  on  the  margin,  and  threw  their  dependent  branches  irregularly  down 
the  face  of  the  rocks.  Ferns  and  other  plants,  were  planted  in  niches  and  clefts  made  in 
the  rock  in  different  places;  paths  were  also  cut  for  walking  along  the  steep  sides;  groups 
were  arranged  in  different  forms  and  of  different  heights;  jets  were  introduced  in  different 
places,  in  small  basins,  and  formed  the  most  enchanting  spot  imaginable. 

It  is  not,  however,  absolutely  necessary  to  deprive  a  small  garden  of  rockwork,  and  the 
cottage  architecture  of  this  countr}',  permits  the  nearer  approach  of  rockwork  tlian  the 
enormous  mansions  of  English  gentlemen.  The  monotony  and  tameness  of  a  villa  garden 
ma}'  be  considerably  relieved  and  diversified  by  the  introduction  of  rocks,  especially  if 
the  grounds  afford  a  position  naturally  favorable,  such  as  natural  rocks,  or  a  secluded  cor- 
ner, or  water  in  any  form — for  water,  if  possible,  should  invariably  form  an  appendage  to 
a  rocker}'.  But  to  introduce  large  stones  and  boulders  on  a  lawn,  or  in  a  shrubbery  con- 
tiguous to  the  house,  or  having  them  scattered  about  singly,  on  the  grass,  on  the  margins 
of  a  lake,  or  beside  a  bridge,  as  they  are  frequently  to  be  seen,  may  justly  be  regarded  as 
a  monstrous  infringement  on  taste,  and  a  foolish  mockery  of  nature. 

Rockwork  may  sometimes  be  placed  in  the  proximity  of  glass  structures,  and  even  in 
flower  gardens,  with  good  effect,  when  these  are  of  a  gothic  or  rustic  character,  but  here 
the  rockwork  must  have  none  of  the  savage  wildness  of  nature  about  it,  and  consequentl3r 
nothing  of  the  impressive  picturesqueness  of  natural  rocks.  It  should  be  rendered  con- 
formable to  the  objects  around  it,  and  appearing  to  be  placed  there  for  the  purpose  of  cul- 
tivating those  plants  that  succeed  best  among  rocks;  or  for  showing  the  natural  habits  of 
plants  that  grow  naturally  among  rocks,  or  those  that  produce  a  better  effect  when  plant- 
ed on  them.  In  these  cases  the  rocks  should  be  more  artistically  and  tastefull}'  arranged. 
It  should  be  clearly  shown  by  their  arrangement  and  accompaniments,  that  no  attempt  is 
made  to  imitate  nature,  but  rather  a  proper  place  for  displaying  and  cultivating  the  plants 
that  are  grown  upon  them. 

Rockeries  of  this  kind  depend  for  their  interest  and  beauty,  more  on  the  disposition  of 

plants  than  on  any  influence  possessed  by  themselves,and  therefore  they  should  never  be 

ed  to  become  bare,  otherwise  they  dwindle  down  to  meaningless  conceits.  They  ought 


ARTIFICIAL  ROCKERIES. 


also,  to  be  formed  of  choice  materials,  as  specimens  of  rare  minerals,  metallic  ores,  rich 
conglomerates,  stalagmites,  fossils,  scoria,  fine  specimens  of  crystallography  and  vitrifica- 
tion, forming  a  kind  of  cabinet  which  excites  the  attention  of  the  spectator,  and  affords 
interest  and  gratification  to  the  more  curious  examiner,  and  tending  also  to  divest  the  rock- 
ery of  any  incongruity  which  might  arise  from  its  being  out  of  place. 

It  ma}'  likewise  be  observed  that  rockeries  should  always  be  in  detached  gi'oups,  and 
whether  large  or  small,  should  never  present  straight  lines  or  flat  surfaces.  Tiie  moi'c 
irregular  the  arrangement,  the  more  striking  the  effect  produced.  It  should  also  be  so  sit- 
uated as  to  be  partly  shaded  and  overhung  by  pendulous  trees,  to  screen  it  from  the  glare 
of  sunshine;  it  should  always  be  rather  cool,  and  if  possible,  shut  in  by  itself  by  shrub- 
bery, and  if  possible,  also,  should  be  accompanied  by  a  jet  d'eau  or  basin  of  water,  or 
both. 

To  attempt  giving  rules  for  the  arrangement  of  rockeries  is  useless,  as  their  forms  entirely 
depend  upon  the  taste  of  the  builder;  and  in  this  kind  of  work,  ntiore  than  any  other 
branch  of  ornamental  gardening,  will  the  taste  of  the  builder  be  brought  out,  and  here, 
also,  will  be  perceived  the  difference  between  those  who  have  studied  from  nature,  and 
those  who  have  no  vivid  conceptions  of  natural  beauty.  It  may  here  be  observed,  how- 
ever, that  the  whole  design  should  be  diversified  in  its  outlines,  in  its  heights,  and  in  its 
general  forms.  No  two  parts  should  bear  the  slightest  resemblance  to  each  other,  and  the 
greater  the  irregularity,  the  more  interesting  the  effect. 

The  great  artificial  rock  gardens  at  Chatsworth  and  other  places  in  England,  can  nei- 
ther be  regarded  as  works  of  instruction,  nor  models  of  imitation,  but  rather  monuments 
of  extravagance,  and  may  be  viewed  in  the  same  light  as  the  famous  hanging  gardens  of 
Babylon.  No  person  of  refined  taste  and  correct  judgment,  can  view  these  costly  mon- 
strosities of  vanity  and  uselessness,  without  regarding  them  as  a  repetition  of  the  vanity 
of  the  eastern  monarchs,  and  a  revival  of  the  relics  of  a  barbarous  age. 

I  hope  it  will  not  be  supposed  that  the  above  remarks  are  intended  to  deter  an^^  one  from 
the  imitation  of  nature  on  a  large  scale,  in  the  formation  of  rockeries ;  but  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  this  absurd  kind  of  landscape  gardening  Avill  never  be  carried  into  so  ridiculous  ex- 
tremes in  this  countrj'.  Natural  cropping  clefts,  and  romantic  rocky  spots,  maj'  be  easily 
turned  to  excellent  advantage,  and  far  excel  those  artificial  rock  gardens,  at  compara- 
tively small  cost;  and  sure  enough,  such  spots  are  sufficiently  numerous  in  this  country, 
if  wealthy  men  who  build  fine  country  houses,  would  bring  themselves  to  choose  loca- 
tions where  they  might  have  trees,  landscapes,  and  rock  gardens,  ready  made. 

R.  B.  L. 

Remarks. — Both  rockwork  and  artificial  ponds  are,  in  our  estimation,  dangerous  fea- 
tures in  ornamental  gardens,  for  any  one  to  meddle  with  who  has  not  a  great  deal  of  taste, 
or  a  lively  feeling  of  natural  beauty  and  fitness.  We  quite  agree  with  our  correspondent, 
that  they  should  occupy  secluded  spots  in  the  grounds,  and  that  they  are  never  so  suc- 
cessful as  when  they  may  be  wholly  mistaken  for  nature's  own  work.  A  little  round 
pond,  like  a  soup  basin,  set  in  an  open,  smooth  lawn,  and  a  pile  of  rocks  heaped  up  upon 
a  formal  mound,  as  we  have  sometimes  seen  them,  in  the  midst  of  high  artificial  flower 
garden  scenery,  are  equally  offensive  to  good  sense  and  good  taste,  Nature  puts  her  small 
pools  of  water,  and  her  ledge  of  rocks  filled  with  mosses  and  ferns,  in  the  depths  of  some 
secluded  dell,  or  under  the  shelter  of  some  dark  leafy  bank  of  verdure. 

Touching  the  rock  garden  at  Chatsworth,  we  must  differ  from  our  correspondent.     That 

garden  has,  to  our  mind,  but  one  defect,  viz:  that  you  enter  it  from  a  highly  dressed 

n  of  flower  garden  scenery.     For  the  rest,  time  and  vegetation  have  now  so  com- 


NOTES  ON  THE  CURCULIO. 

pletely  harmonised  it  with  the  wild  scenery  of  the  high  hills  of  Derbj'shire,  which  rise 
behind  it,  and  of  which  it  seems  a  spur,  that  we  will  venture  to  say  nine  strangers  out  of 
ten  would  walk  through  it  in  the  full  belief  that  it  was  a  natural  rocky  pass  in  the 
grounds,  if  they  were  not  asked  to  wonder  at  it  as  a  work  of  art  and  labor.  It  was  pro- 
bably more  new  and  raw  when  Mr.  L.  obtained  his  impressions.  It  is  hardly  worth  while 
to  inquire  as  to  the  cui  bono  of  such  gardcnmg  fancies — for  Chatsworth  is  not  a  model  of 
rural  economy,  but  of  prodigal  magnificence  of  landscape  embellishment.     Ed. 


NOTES    ON   THE    CURCULIO. 

By  J.  F,  C.  H.,  NEWTON  CENTRE,  MASS. 

Dear  Sir — I  notice  you  invite  horticulturists  and  others  to  contribute  to  j^our  valuable 
Journal,  even  rough  notes  of  experience;  accepting  your  invitation,  I  will  speak  of  the 
curculio,  that  most  uncompromising  enemy  of  the  plum. 

Last  year  my  plum  trees  blossomed  well,  as  they  have  done  for  some  j^ears  past,  though 
I  have  not  been  able  to  raise  scarcely  a  single  perfect  plum  during  the  time;  and  I  deter- 
mined, if  possible,  to  prevent  the  ravages  of  the  curculio,  at  least  in  part.  When  the  fruit 
got  to  be  about  the  size  of  a  pea,  I  made  it  a  practice  to  shake  two  of  the  trees  every 
morning,  having  a  cloth  under  the  tree,  in  which  to  catch  the  little  "  Turk;"  this  I  con- 
tinued to  do  until  the  fruit  began  to  turn  color,  though  I  caught  but  few  towards  the  last. 
The  result  was  gratifying;  I  had  a  good  crop  of  fine  fruit.  With  another  tree  I  proceed- 
ed as  follows,  though  I  did  not  commence  until  some  of  the  fruit  was  punctured.  I  dust- 
ed the  entire  tree  with  air  slaked  lime,  applying  it  when  the  dew  was  on,  that  it  might 
adhere  to  the  fruit;  this  I  renewed  every  time  it  was  washed  off  by  rains,  until  the  plums 
were  nearly  ripe;  those  previously  punctured  dropped  off,  but  I  think  there  were  few  if  any 
injured  after  the  first  application  of  the  lime.  There  was  another  circumstance,  however, 
connected  with  this  experiment,  which  may  in  part  account  for  the  preservation  of  the 
plums;  hens  and  chickens  run  at  large  under  the  tree.  It  stood  on  high,  dry  land,  the 
variety  was  "  Prince's  Imperial  Gage." 

A  few  words  respecting  warts  on  plum  and  cherry  trees,  and  I  am  done. 

In  your  last  number,  your  correspondent,  0.  of  Owego,  says  he  has  made  some  efforts 
to  discover  the  insect  which  causes  these  unseemly  excrescences,  but  thus  far  has  failed. 
He  further  says  he  has  tried  to  hatch  the  larvae  which  is  found  in  them,  but  they  have  soon 
died.  Last  summer,  being  in  the  garden  of  a  neighbor,  I  noticed  that  his  cherry  trees 
were  badly  warted;  with  bus  permission  I  cut  off  some  of  these  warts,  and  taking  them 
home,  picked  out  the  larva;  carefully,  and  placed  them  under  an  inverted  tumbler  partly 
filled  with  earth,  where  in  the  course  of  ten  or  twelve  days,  more  or  less,  (I  did  not  note 
the  exact  time,)  they  became — curcalios;  soon  after  having  passed  through  this  transfor- 
mation, they  died.  Whether  the  curculio  was  the  cause  of  the  excrescence  in  which  I  found 
it,  is  more  than  I  can  say;  I  will  leave  it  for  others  to  decide.  I  would  add,  in  conclu- 
sion, that  though  ni)''  plums  have  nearly  all  been  destroyed  in  years  past,  by  the  curculio, 
still  I  have  never  seen  two  dozen  warts  on  any  or  all  of  my  trees.     Yours  truly, 

J.  F.  C.  H. 

Newton  Centre,  Mass.,  May  5,  1851 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 


MR.   DOWNING'S  LETTERS   FROM  ENGLAND. 

My  Dear  Sir — If  my  English  letters  have  told  you  mostly  of  country  places,  and 
country  life,  it  is  not  that  I  have  been  insensible  to  sight-seeing  in  town.  London  is  a  great 
world  in  itself.  Ink  enough  has,  however,  already  been  expended  upon  it  to  fill  the  Grand 
Canal,  and  still  it  is  a  city  which  no  one  can  understand  without  seeing  it.  Its  vastness, 
its  grave  aspect  of  bu-siness,  the  grandeur  of  some  parts,  the  poverty  of  others,  the  air  of 
order,  and  the  taint  of  smoke,  that  pervade  it  everywhere,  are  its  great  features.  To  an 
American  eye,  accustomed  to  the  clear,  pure,  transatlantic  atmosphere,  there  is,  at  first, 
something  really  repulsive  in  the  black  and  dingy  look  of  almost  all  buildings,  whether 
new  or  old,  (not  painted  within  the  last  month.)  In  some  of  the  oldest,  like  Westmins- 
ter Abbey,  it  is  an  absolute  covering  of  dirty  soot.  That  hoary  look  of  age  which  belongs 
to  a  time-honored  building,  and  which  mellows  and  softens  all  its  lines  and  forms,  is  as  deli- 
cious to  the  sense  of  sight  as  the  tone  of  old  pictures,  or  the  hue  of  old  wine.  But  there 
is  none  of  this  in  the  antiquity  of  London.  You  are  repelled  by  the  sooty  exterior  of  all 
the  old  facades,  as  you  would  be  by  that  of  a  chimney-sweep  who  has  made  the  circuit 
of  fifty  flues  in  a  morning,  and  whose  outer  man  would  almost  defy  an  entire  hydropathic 
institution. 

If  I  have  shown  you  the  dark  side  of  the  picture  of  the  great  Metropolis,  first,  let  me 
hasten  to  present  you  with  some  of  its  lights,  which  made  a  much  stronger  impression 
upon  me.     I  mean  the  grand  and  beautiful  parks  of  London. 

If  everything  one  sees  in  England  leads  one  to  the  conviction  that  the  English  do  not, 
like  the  French  and  Germans,  possess  the  genius  of  high  art,  there  is  no  denying  that  they 
far  surpass  all  other  nations  in  a  profound  sentiment  of  nature.  Take,  for  example,  the 
West  end  of  London,  and  what  do  you  see  there?  ^lagniflcent  palaces,  enormous  piles 
of  dwellings,  in  the  shape  of  "terraces,"  "squares,"  and  "places" — the  same  costly 
town  architecture  that  you  find  everywhere  in  the  better  portions  of  populous  and  wealthy 
capitals.  But  if  you  ask  me  what  is  the  peculiar  and  distinguishing  luxury  of  this  part 
of  London,  I  answer,  in  its  holding  the  country  in  its  lap.  In  the  midst  of  London  lie,  in 
an  almost  connected  series,  the  great  parks.  Hyde  Park,  Regent's  Park,  St.  James'  and 
Green  Parks.  These  names  are  almost  as  familiar  to  you  as  the  Battery  and  Washington 
Square,  and  I  fear  you  labor  under  the  delusion  that  the  former  are  only  an  enlarged  edi- 
tion of  the  latter.  Believe  me,  you  have  fallen  into  as  great  an  error  as  if  you  took  the 
"  Brick  meeting-house"  for  a  suggestion  of  St.  Peters.  The  London  Parks  are  actually  like 
districts  of  open  country — meadows  and  fields,  country  estates,  lakes  and  streams,  gar- 
dens and  shrubberies,  with  as  much  variety  as  if  you  were  in  the  heart  of  Cambridgeshire, 
and  as  much  seclusion  in  some  parts,  at  certain  hours,  as  i(  you  were  on  a  farm  in  the  in- 
terior of  Pennsylvania.  And  the  whole  is  laid  out  and  treated,  in  the  main,  with  a  broad 
and  noble  feeling  of  natural  beauty,  quite  the  reverse  of  what  you  see  in  the  public  parks 
of  the  continental  cities.  This  makes  these  parks  doubly  refreshing  to  citizens  tired  of 
straight  lines  and  formal  streets,  while  the  contrast  heightens  the  natural  charm.  Unac- 
customed to  this  breadth  of  imitation  of  nature — this  creating  a  piece  of  wide-spread 
country  large  enough  to  shut  out  for  the  time  all  trace  of  the  houses,  though  actually  in 
the  midst  of  a  city,  an  American  is  always  half  inclined  to  believe,  (notwithstanding  the 
abundance  of  evidence  to  the  contrary,)  that  the  London  Parks  are  a  bit  of  the  native 
country,  surprised  and  fairly  taken  prisoner  by  the  outstretched  arms  of  this  giant  of 
n  cities. 
James'  Park  and  Green  Park  are  enormous  pieces  of  real  pleasure-ground  scenery 

No.  VI.  3^ 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 


with  broad  glades  of  turf,  noble  trees,  rich  masses  of  shrubbery  and  flowering  plants — 
lakes  filled  with  rare  water-fowl,  and  the  proper  surroundings,  in  fact,  to  two  royal  palaces 
and  the  finest  private  houses  in  London;  but  still,  all  open  to  the  enjoyment  of  hundreds 
of  thousands  daily.  You  look  out  upon  the  forest  of  verdure  in  Green  Park,  as  you  sit  in 
the  windows  of  our  present  minister's  fine  mansion  in  Piccadilly,  astonished  at  the  breadth 
and  beauty  of  the  green  landscape,  which  seems  to  you  more  like  a  glimpse  into  one  of 
the  loveliest  pleasure  grounds  on  the  Hudson,  than  the  belongings  of  the  great  metropolis. 

But  the  pride  of  London  is  in  Hyde  Park  and  Kensington  Gardens,  which,  together,  con- 
tain nearly  800  acres,  so  that  you  have  to  make  a  circuit  of  nearly  seven  miles  to  go  over 
the  entire  circumference.  If  you  enter  Hyde  Park  between  seven  and  eight  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  all  the  world  of  fashion  is  asleep,  you  will  fancy,  after  you  have  left  the 
great  gateways  and  the  fine  colossal  statue  of  Achilles  far  enough  behind  you  to  be  quite 
out  of  sight,  that  you  have  made  a  mistake  and  strolled  out  into  the  country  unawares. 
Scarcely  a  person  is  to  be  seen  at  this  time  of  day,  unless  it  be  some  lonely  foot-passenger, 
who  looks  as  if  he  had  lost  his  way,  or  his  wits,  at  this  early  hour.  But  you  see  broad 
grass  meadows  with  scattered  groups  of  trees,  not  at  all  unlike  what  you  remember  on 
the  smooth  banks  of  the  Connecticut,  and  j-our  impression  that  you  have  got  astray  and 
quite  out  of  the  reach  of  the  jNIetropolis,  is  confirmed  by  hearing  the  tinkle  of  sheep-bells 
and  seeing  flocks  of  these  and  other  pastoral  creatures,  feeding  quietly  on  the  short  tuff 
of  the  secluded  portions  of  the  Park.  You  walk  on  till  you  are  quite  weary,  without  find- 
ing the  end  of  the  matter — for  Kensington  Garden,  which  is  only  another  and  a  larger  Park, 
is  but  the  continuation  of  Hyde  Park — and  you  turn  back  in  a  sort  of  bewildered  aston- 
ishment at  the  vastness  and  wealth  of  a  city  which  can  afi'ord  such  an  illimitable  space 
for  the  pleasure  of  air  and  exercise  of  its  inhabitants. 

That  is  Hyde  Park  in  dishabille.  Now  go  in  again  with  me  in  the  afternoon,  any 
time  during  the  London  season,  and  you  shall  see  the  same  place  in  full  dress,  and  so 
altered  and  animated  by  the  dramatis  person<B,  that  you  will  hardly  identify  it  as  the  locale 
of  the  solitary  country  ramble  jou  took  in  the  morning. 

It  is  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  fashionable  world  (who  dine  at  seven  all 
over  England)  is  now  taking  its  morning  airing.  If  you  will  sit  down  on  one  of 
these  solid-looking  seats  under  the  shadow  of  this  large  elm,  you  will  see  such  a  display 
of  equipage,  pass  you  in  the  course  of  a  single  hour,  as  no  other  part  of  the  Avorld  can 
parallel.  This  broad  well-macadamized  carriage-drive,  which  makes  a  circuit  of  some  4 
or  5  miles  in  Hyde  Park,  is,  at  this  moment,  fairly  filled  with  private  carriages  of  all 
degrees.  Here  are  heavy  coaches  and  four,  with  postillions  and  footmen,  and  massive 
carriages  emblazoned  with  family  crests  and  gay  with  all  the  brilliancy  of  gold  and  crimson 
liveries;  yonder  superb  barouche  with  eight  spirited  horses  and  numerous  outriders,  is  the 
royal  equipage,  and  as  you  lean  forward  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  sovereign,  the  close 
coach  of  the  hero  of  Waterloo,  the  servants  with  cockades  in  their  hats,  dashes  past  you 
the  other  Avay  at  a  rate  so  rapid  that  you  doubt  if  he  who  rides  within,  is  out  merely  for  an 
airing.  Yonder  tasteful  turn-out  with  liveries  of  a  peculiar  delicate  mulberry,  with  only  a 
single  tall  figure  in  the  coach,  is  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's.  Here  is  the  carriage  of  one  of 
the  foreign  ambassadors,  less  showy  and  lighter  than  the  English  vehicles,  and  that  pret- 
ty phaeton  drawn  by  two  beautiful  blood  horses,  is,  you  see,  driven  by  a  woman  of  extra- 
ordinary beauty,  with  extraordinary  skill.  She  is  quite  alone,  and  behind  her  sits  a  foot- 
man with  his  arms  folded,  his  face  as  grave  and  solemn  as  stones  that  have  sermons  in 
them.  As  you  express  your  surprise  at  the  air  of  conscious  "  grace  with  which  the 
drives,"  your  London  friend  quietly  remarks,  "  yes,  but  she  is  «of  a  lady."  Uncea 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

the  carriages  roll  by,  and  you  are  less  astonished  at  the  numberless  superb  equipages  or  the 
beauty  of  the  horses,  than  at  the  old-world  air  of  the  footmen  in  gold  and  silver  lace, 
gaudy  liveries,  spotless  linen  and  snowy  silk  stockings.  Some  of  the  grand  old  coachmen 
in  full  powdered  wigs,  decked  in  all  the  glory  of  laced  coats  and  silken  calves,  held  the 
ribbons  with  such  a  conscious  air  of  imposing  grandeur  that  I  willingly  accepted  them  as 
the  tree-pcenoias,  the  most  blooming  blossoms  of  this  parterre  of  equipage.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  there  may  be  something  comfortable  in  thus  hanging  all  the  trappings  of  station  on 
the  backs  of  coachman  and  footman,  if  one  must  be  bothered  with  such  things — so  that  one 
may  lean  back  quietly  in  plain  clothes  in  the  well-stuffed  seat  of  his  private  carriage. 

But  do  not  let  us  loiter  away  all  our  time  in  a  single  scene  in  Hyde  Park.  A  few  steps 
farther  on  is  Rotten  Row,  (rather  an  odd  name  for  an  elegant  place,)  the  chosen  arena  of 
fashionable  equestrians.  The  English  know  too  well  the  pleasures  of  riding,  to  gallop  on 
horse-back  over  hard  pavements,  and  Rotten  Row  is  a  soft  circle  of  a  couple  of  miles,  in 
the  park,  railed  off  for  this  purpose,  where  your  horse's  feet  have  an  elastic  surface  to  travel 
over.  Hundreds  of  fair  equestrians,  with  fathers,  brothers,  or  friends,  for  companions,  are 
here  enjoying  a  more  lively  and  spirited  exercise,  than  the  languid  inmates  of  the  car- 
riages we  have  just  left  behind  us.  The  English  women  rise  in  the  saddle,  like  male  riders, 
and  at  first  sight  they  look  awkwardly  and  less  gracefully  to  our  eyes — but  you  soon  see 
that  they  also  sit  more  firmly  and  ride  more  boldly,  than  ladies  on  our  side  of  the  water. 

To  stand  by  and  see  others  ride,  seems  to  me  always  too  tantalizing  to  be  long  endured 
as  a  pastime — even  where  the  scene  is  as  full  of  novelty  and  variety  as  this.  Let  us  go 
on,  therefore.  This  beautiful  stream  of  water,  which  would  be  called  a  pretty  "  creek" 
at  home,  is  the  Serpentine  river,  which  has  been  made  to  meander  gracefully  through 
Hyde  Park,  and  wonderfully  does  its  bright  water  enhance  the  beauty  of  the  verdure  and 
the  charm  of  the  whole  landscape.  As  we  stand  on  the  bridge,  and  look  up  and  down  the 
river,  amid  the  rich  groves  and  across  the  green  lawns,  the  city  wholly  shut  out  by  groves 
and  plantations,  how  finely  one  feels  the  contrast  of  art  and  nature  to  be  realised  here. 

That  delicious  band  of  music  which  you  hear  now,  is  in  Kensington  gardens,  and  only 
a  belt  of  trees  and  yonder  iron  gate,  separate  the  latter  from  Hyde  Park.  Let  us  join  the 
crowd  of  persons  of  all  ages,  collected  in  the  great  walk,  under  the  shade  of  gigantic 
elm  trees,  to  hear  the  music.  It  is  a  well  known  air  of  Donizetti's,  and  as  your 
eye  glances  over  the  companj'-,  perhaps  some  five  or  six  thousand  persons,  who  form  the 
charmingly  grouped,  out-of-door  audience, (for  the  afternoon  is  a  bright  one,)  and  as  j'ou  see 
the  radiant  pleasure-sparkle  in  a  thousand  happy  fiices,  young  and  old,  who  are  here  en- 
joying a  little  pleasant  mingling  of  heaven  and  earth,  in  an  innocent  manner,  you  cannot 
but  be  struck  with  the  fact,  that  if  there  is  a  duty  belonging  to  good  governments,  next  to 
protecting  the  lives  and  property  of  the  people,  it  is  that  of  providing  public  parks  for  the 
pent  up  inhabitants  of  cities. 

"  Imperial  Kensington"  is  not  onl}'  more  spacious  and  grand  than  Hyde  Park,  but  it 
has  a  certain  antique  stateliness,  which  touches  my  fancy  and  pleases  me  more.  The 
trees  are  larger  and  more  grove-like,  and  the  broad  glades  of  soft  green  turf  are  of  a 
darker  and  richer  green,  and  invite  you  to  a  more  private  and  intimate  confidence  than  any 
portions  of  Hyde  Park.  The  grand  avenue  of  Elms  at  the  farther  part  of  Kensington  Gar- 
dens, coming  suddenly  into  it  from  the  farther  Bayswater  gate,  is  one  of  the  noblest  ge- 
ometric groves  in  any  city,  and  was  laid  out  and  planted,  I  believe,  in  King  William's 
An  avenue  some  hundreds  of  years  old,  is  always  majestic  and  venerable,  and 

adds  great  extent  and  fine  keeping,  like  this,  is  really  a  grand  thing.   And  yet,  per 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

not  one  American  in  fifty  that  visits  Hyde  Park,  ever  gets  far  enough  into  the  depths  of  its 
enjoyment  to  explore  this  avenue  in  Kensington  Gardens. 

No  carriages  or  horses  are  permitted  in  Kensington  Gardens,  but  its  broad  glades  and 
shadowy  lawns,  are  sacred  to  pedestrians,  and  are  especially  the  gambol-fields  of  thou- 
sands of  lovely  children,  who,  attended  by  their  nurses,  make  a  kind  of  infant  Arcadia 
of  these  solemn  old  groves  of  the  monarch  of  Dutch  tastes.  Even  the  dingy  old  brick 
Palace  of  Kensington,  which  overlooks  one  side  of  the  great  lawn,  cannot  chase  away  the 
bright  dimples  from  the  rosy  faces  of  the  charming  children  one  sees  here,  and  the  symbols  of 
natural  aristocracy — beauty  and  intelligence,  set  upon  these  young  faces,  were  to  my  eyes 
a  far  more  agreeable  study  than  those  of  accident,  birth,  and  fortune,  which  are  so  gaudi- 
ly blazoned  forth  in  Hyde  Park. 

My  London  friend,  who  evidently  enjoys  our  astonishment  at  the  vastness  of  the  London 
Parks,  and  the  apparent  display  and  real  enjoyment  they  minister  to,  calculates  that  not 
less  than  50,000  persons  have  been  out,  on  foot,  on  horseback,  or  in  carriages,  this  after- 
noon, and  adds  that  upon  review  days,  or  other  occasions  of  particular  brilliancy,  he  has 
known  200,000  persons  to  be  in  Hyde  Park  and  Kensington  Gardens  at  once. 

You  may  be  weary  of  Parks  to  day,  but  I  shall  not  allow  you  to  escape  me  without  a 
glance  at  Regent's  Park,  another  link  in  the  rural  scenery  of  this  part  of  London.  Yes, 
here  are  three  hundred  and  thirty  six  acres  more  of  lawn,  ornamental  plantations,  drives 
ai:.d  carriage  roads.  Pvegent's  Park  has  a  younger  look  than  any  of  the  others  in  the  West 
end  of  London,  having  only  been  planted  about  twenty-five  or  thirty  years — but  it  is  a 
beautiful  surface,  containing  a  great  variety  of  different  scenes  within  itself.  Here  are, 
for  instance,  the  Royal  Botanic  Garden,  "with  its  rich  collection  of  plants,  and  its  beauti- 
ful flower-shows,  which  I  have  already  described  to  you;  and  the  Zoological  Garden,  some 
twenty  acres  in  extent,  where  you  may  see  almost  every  living  animal  as  nearly  as 
possible  in  the  same  circumstances  as  in  its  native  country.  Over  the  lawns  walk  the 
giraffe  and  camel -leopard,  led  by  Arabs  in  oriental  costume;  among  the  leafy  avenues  you 
see  elephants  waddling  along  with  loads  of  laughing,  half-frightened  children  on  their 
backs;  down  in  a  deep  pool  of  water  you  peer  upon  the  sluggish  hippopotamus  ;  you  gaze 
at  the  soft  eyes  of  the  gazelle  as  she  feeds  in  her  little  private  paddock,  and  you 
feed  the  black  swans  that  are  floating  along  with  innumerable  other  rare  aquatic  birds, 
upon  the  surface  of  glassy  lakes  of  fresh  water.  And  "  the  Zoological"  is  just  as  full  of 
people  as  Hyde  Park,  though  of  a  totally  different  appearance — many  students  in  natural 
history,  some  fashionable  loungers,  chiefly  women,  more  curious  strangers,  and  most 
of  all,  boys  and  girls,  feeding  their  juvenile  appetite  for  the  marvellous,  by  seeing  the  less 
astonished  animals  fed. 

And  whose  are  those  pretty  country  residences  that  you  see  in  the  very  midst  of  another 
part  of  Regent's  Park — beautiful  Italian  villas  and  ornamental  cottages,  embowered  in  trees 
of  their  own,  and  only  divided  from  the  open  park  by  a  light  railing  and  belts  of  shrub- 
bery? These  are  the  villas  of  certain  favored  nobles,  who  have,  at  large  cost,  realised,  as 
you  see,  the  perfection  of  a  residence  in  town,  viz:  a  country-house  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
park,  which  is  itself  in  the  midst  of  a  great  city.  In  these  favored  sites  the  owners  have 
the  luxury  of  quiet,  and  rural  surroundings,  usually  confined  to  the  country,  with  the 
whole  of  the  great  world  of  May  Fair  and  politics  within  ten  or  twenty  minutes  walk. 

And  now,  having  been  through  more  than  a  thousand  acres  of  park  scener}'-,  and  wit- 
nessed the  enjoyments  of  tens  of  thousands  of  persons  of  all  classes,  to  whom  these  parks 
open  from  sunrise  to  nine  o'clock  at  night,  you  will  naturally  ask  me  if  these  luxuries 
holly  confined  to  the  West  End  of  London.     By  no  means.     In  almost  all  parts  of 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 

London  are  "  squares" — open  places  of  eight  or  ten  acres,  filled  with  trees,  shrubs,  grass 
and  fountains — like  what  we  call  "  parks"  in  our  cities  at  home.  Besides  these,  a  large 
new  space  called  the  Victoria  Park — of  two  hundred  and  ninety  acres,  has  been  laid  out 
lately  in  the  East  part  of  London,  expressl}'  for  the  recreation  and  amusement  of  the  poor- 
er classes  who  are  confined  to  that  part  of  the  town. 

You  see  what  noble  breathing-places  London  has,  within  its  own  boundaries,  for  the 
daily  health  and  recreation  of  its  citizens.  But  these  by  no  means  comprise  all  the  rural 
pleasures  of  its  inhabitants.  There  are  three  other  magnificent  public  places  within  half 
an  hour  of  London,  which  are  also  enjoyed  daily  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands.  I 
mean  ILimpton  Court,  Richmond  Park,  and  the  National  Gardens  at  Kew. 

Hampton  Court,  is  the  favorite  resort  of  the  middle  classes  on  holidays,  and  a  pleasanter 
sight  than  that  spot  on  such  occasions, — when  it  is  thronged  by  immense  numbers  of  citi- 
zens, their  wives  and  children,  with  all  the  riches  of  that  grand  old  palace,  its  picture-galle- 
ries, halls,  and  splendid  apartments,  its  two  parks  and  its  immense  pleasure  grounds  thrown 
open  to  them,  is  not  easily  found.  Indeed,  a  man  may  be  dull  enough  to  care  for  neither  pa- 
laces nor  parks,  for  neither  nature  nor  art,  but  he  can  scarcely  be  human,  or  have  a  spark  of 
sympathy  in  the  fortunes  of  his  race,  if  he  can  wander  without  interest  through  these  mag- 
nificent ILills,  still  in  perfect  order,  built  with  the  most  kingly  prodigality  by  the  most 
ambitious  and  powerful  of  subjects — Woolset  :  halls  that  were  afterwards  successively  the 
home  of  Henry  the  VIII,  Elizabeth,  James,  Charles  and  Cromwell;  halls  where 
Shakespeare  played  and  Sidney  wrote,  but  which,  with  all  their  treasures  of  art,  are 
now  the  people's  palace  and  normal  school  of  enjoyment. 

I  am  neither  going  to  weary  you  with  catalogues  of  pictures  or  dissertations  upon  palace 
architecture.  But  I  must  give  you  one  more  impression — that  of  the  magnificent  surroundings 
of  Hampton  Court.  Conjure  up  a  piece  of  country  of  diversified  rich  meadow  surface, 
some  five  or  six  miles  in  circuit ;  imagine,  around  the  palace,  some  forty  or  fifty  acres  of 
gardens,  mostly  in  the  ancient  taste,  with  pleached  alleys,  (Queen  Mary's  bower  among 
them,)  sloping  banks  of  soft  turf,  huge  orange  trees  in  boxes,  and  a  "wilderness"  or 
labyrinth  where  you  may  lose  3'ourself  in  the  most  intricate  perplexity  of  shrubs;  imagine 
an  avenue  a  mile  and  a  quarter  long,  of  the  most  gigantic  horse-chestnuts  you  ever  beheld, 
with  long  vistas  of  velvet  turf  and  highlj^ -dressed  garden  scenery  around  them ;  [see  Fron- 
tispiece] imagine  other  parts  of  the  park  where  you  see  on  all  sides,  only  great  masses  and 
groups  of  oaks  and  elms  of  centuries  growth,  and  all  the  freedom  of  luxuriant  nature, 
with  a  broad  carpet  of  grass  stretching  on  all  sides ;  with  distant  portions  of  the  park  quite 
wild-looking,  dotted  with  great  hawthorn  trees  of  centuries  growth,  with  the  tangled  copse 
and  fragrant  fern  which  are  the  belongings  of  our  own  forests,  and  then  fill  up  the  scene 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  palace  and  gardens  as  I  have  before  said,  on  a  holiday,  with  thou- 
sands of  happy  faces,  Avhile  in  the  secluded  parts  of  the  park  the  timid  deer  flits  before 
you,  the  birds  stealthily  build  their  nests,  and  the  insect's  hum  fills  the  silent  air,  and 
you  have  some  foint  idea  of  the  value  of  such  a  possession  for  the  population  of  a  great 
city  to  pass  their  holidays  in,  or  to  go  pic-uic-ing! 

I  am  writing  you  a  long  letter,  but  the  parkornanie  is  upon  me,  and  I  will  not  let  the 
ink  dry  in  my  pen  without  a  word  about  Richmond  Great  Park — also  free  to  the  public, 
and  also  within  the  reach  of  the  Londoner  who  seeks  for  air  and  exercise.  Richmond 
Great  Park  was  formerly  a  Royal  hunting  ground,  but,  like  all  the  parks  I  have  men- 
tioned, has  been  given  up  to  the  people — at  least  the  free  enjoyment  of  it.  It  is  the  lar 
all  the  parks  I  have  described,  being  eight  miles  round,  and  containing  2,250  acres 
piece  of  magnificent  forest  tract — open  forest,  with  grass,  tufts  of  hazel,  thorns  and 


MR.  DOWNING'S  LETTERS  FROM  ENGLAND. 


ferns,  the  surface  gently  undulating,  and  dotted  with  grand  old  oaks — extremely  like  what 
you  see  on  a  still  larger  scale  in  Kentucky.  Its  solitude  and  seclusion,  within  sight  of 
London — are  almost  startling.  The  land  is  high,  and  from  one  side  of  it  your  eye  wan- 
ders over  the  valley  of  Richmond — with  the  Thames — here  only  a  silvery  looking  stream 
winding  through  it — a  world-renowned  view  and  one  whose  sylvan  beauty  it  is  impossible 
to  praise  too  highly.  Just  in  this  part  of  the  Park,  and  commanding  this  superb  view, 
with  the  towers  of  Windsor  Castle  in  the  distance  on  one  side,  and  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's 
on  the  other,  and  all  the  antique  sylvan  seclusion  of  the  old  wood  around  it,  stands  a  mo- 
dest little  cottage — the  favorite  summer  residence  of  Lord  John  Russell,  the  use  of 
which  has  been  given  him  by  his  sovereign.  A  more  unambitious  looking  home,  and  one 
better  calculated  to  restore  the  faculties  of  an  over-worked  premier,  after  a  day's  toil  in 
Downing  Street,  it  would  be  impossible  to  conceive. 

I  drove  through  Richmond  Great  Park  in  the  carriage  of  the  Belgian  minister,  and  his 
accomplished  wife,  who  was  my  cicerone,  stopped  the  coachman  for  a  moment  near  this 
place,  in  order  that  she  might  point  out  to  me  an  old  oak  that  had  a  story  to  tell.  "  It 
was  here— just  under  this  tree,"  she  added,  (her  eyes  gleaming  slightly  with  womanly 
indignation  as  she  said  it,)  "  that  the  cruel  Henry  stood,  and  saw  with  his  own  eyes, 
the  signal  made  from  the  Tower  of  London,  (five  miles  off,)  which  told  him  that  Anne 
RoLETN  was  at  that  moment  beheaded!"  I  thanked  God  that  oak  trees  were  longer  lived 
than  bad  monarchs,  and  that  modern  civilization  would  no  longer  permit  such  butchery  in 
a  christian  country. 

I  will  close  this  letter  with  only  a  single  remark.  AVe  fancy,  not  without  reason,  in 
New- York,  that  we  have  a  great  city,  and  that  the  introduction  of  Croton  water,  is  so  mar- 
velous a  luxury  in  the  way  of  health,  that  nothing  more  need  be  done  for  the  comfort  of 
half  a  million  of  people.  In  crossing  the  Atlantic,  a  young  New-Yorker,  who  was  rabidly 
patriotic,  and  who  boasted  daily  of  the  superiority  ofour  beloved  commercial  metropolis  over 
every  city  on  the  globe,  was  our  most  amusing  companion.  I  chanced  to  meet  him  one  af- 
ternoon a  few  days  after  we  landed,  in  one  of  the  great  Parks  in  London,  in  the  midst  of  all 
the  sylvan  beauty  and  human  enjoyment,  I  have  attempted  to  describe  to  you.  He  threw 
up  his  arms  as  he  recognised  me,  and  exclaimed — "  good  heavens!  what  a  scene,  and  / 
took  some  Londoners  to  the  steps  of  the  City  Hall  last  summer,  to  show  them  the  Park  of 
New-York!"  I  consoled  him  with  the  advice  to  be  less  conceited  thereafter  in  his  cockney- 
ism,  and  to  show  foreigners  the  Hudson  and  Niagara,  instead  of  the  City  Hall  and  Bow- 
ling Green.  But  the  question  may  well  be  asked,  is  New-York  really  not  rich  enough,  or 
is  there  absolutely  not  land  enough  in  America,  to  give  our  citizens  public  parks  of  more 
than  ten  acres?  Yours  sincerely,  A.  J.  D. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES, 


Dnnifstir  JMim, 


State  Agricultural  Schools. — Just  before 
the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New-York  broke 
up  ia  the  late  abnormal  manner,  the  bill  for  the 
Agricultural  College  was,  at  its  third  reading, 
quietly  laid  on  the  table — chiefly  at  the  motion 
of  Messrs.  Vaknum  and  Pardee,  two  gentle- 
men who  we  believe  wish  more  time  to  consider 
whether  it  is  worth  while  to  give  a  farmer's  son 
any  education! 

This  bill,  or  any  other  for  the  same  object, 
will  never  pass,  and  should  never  be  expected 
to  pass,  till  the  leading  farmers  of  the  state  be- 
stir themselves  a  little  more  energetically  to 
procure  its  passage.  They  greatly  desire  its 
passage,  to  be  sure;  they  even  send  a  petition 
to  that  effect  from  various  parts  of  the  state, 
now  and  then,  and  for  the  rest,  they  quietly 
pass  their  winter  days  in  foddering  the  cows, 
and  their  evenings  in  reading  the  agricultural  pa- 
pers by  the  fireside.  Meanwhile,  when  any 
other  interest  in  the  state  wishes  legislative  aid, 
it  makes  its  importance  felt  at  Albany  by  the 
presence  of  constituent  representatives  who  give 
no  peace  to  law-makers  till  they  decidedly  as- 
sent or  deny.  Pressed  by  such  unceasing  de- 
mands by  some  of  their  constituents,  and  allow- 
ed almost  to  forget  the  real  wants  of  others,  it 
is  not  remarkable  that  the  railroad  bills  pass, 
while  farm-school  bills  are  laid  upon  the  table. 

The  new  session  of  tlfe  legislature  is,  we  un- 
derstand, to  be  called  in  June.  Let  every  ag- 
ricultural society  in  the  state  but  send  one  de- 
legate to  Albany,  armed  to  tlie  teeth  with  sharp 
and  earnest  words  about  farmer's  rights,  and  the 
wise  men  at  the  capitol  will  deny  them  nothing. 
But  if  the  farmers  expect  to  get  laws  enacted 
for  their  benefit,  and  the  good  thereby  of  tlie 
whole  country,  by  merely  sitting  still  at  home, 
and  hoping,  when  all  the  rest  of  the  world  is 
as  busy  asserting  its  rights,  as  mid-summer  bees 
in  making  honey,  they  are  in  a  fog  of  delusion 
as  impenetrable  as  Egyptian  darkness. 

New- Jersey  is,  we  see,,  faring  no  better  than 
New- York.  Massachusetts  has  the  matter  of  a 
State  Agricultural  School  still  under  considera- 
tion, and  judging  from  the  signs  upon  the  sur- 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  she 
succeed  first.    Prof.  Hitchcock   who  visi- 


ted for  this  special  purpose  all  the  leading  farm 
schools  in  Europe  last  year,  has  made  a  very 
valuable  report  to  the  legislature,  embracing  all 
the  needfid  statistics  of  these  schools.  Hun.  M. 
P.  AViLDER,  chairman  of  the  Agricultural 
Committee,  a  host  in  himself,  is  laboring  un- 
weariedly  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  decided  ac- 
tion, and  public  meetings  have  been  held  at  the 
state  house,  to  develop  and  bring  to  a  focus  pub- 
lic opinion  on  this  subject.  Thus,  Massachu- 
setts, with  one-f(Jurth  of  the  farming  interest  at 
stake,  compared  with  New-York,  will  doubtless 
get  a  school  to  teach  fiirming  first,  because  her 
farmers  are  more  active  in  asserting  their 
rights.  

Fortune's  Five  Colored  Rose. — Messrs. 
Parsons  &  Co.,  of  Flushing,  have  success- 
fully introduced  this  rose.  A  small  plant, 
which  they  had  the  kindness  to  send  us  late- 
ly, has  produced  some  fine  flowers,  pure 
white,  striped  with  red,  and  we  trust,  when 
older,  will  show  its  full  character.  Mr.  For- 
tune, it  will  be  remembered,  brought  this  plant 
out  to  England  from  China,  and  his  account  of 
it — given  in  his  travels,  is  the  following:  '•  Ano- 
ther rose,  which  the  Chinese  call  five-colored, 
was  found  in  the  gardens;  it  belongs  to  the  sec- 
tion commonly  called  China  Roses  in  this  coun- 
try— but  sports  in  a  very  strange  and  beautiful 
manner.  Sometimes  it  produces  self-colored 
blooms,  being  cither  wholly  red,  or  French 
wliite,  and  frequently  having  flowers  of  both  co- 
lors on  one  plant  at  the  same  time,  while  at 
other  times  the  flowers  are  striped  with  the  co- 
lors above  mentioned.  This  will  be  as  hardy  as 
our  common  China  Rose." 

On  inquiring  of  Mr.  Cadness,  (at  Messrs. 
Parson's  establishment,)  respecting  the  beha- 
vior  of  this  new  variety  in  this  country,  we  re- 
ceived the  following  note  from  him.     Ed. 

Fortune's  Five  Colored  Rose  is  undoubtedly  a 
great  novelty  amongst  roses,  but  like  all  flowers 
of  its  character,  requires  nice  cultivation  in  or- 
der to  get  the  flowers  true.  We  have  not,  as  yet, 
we  consider,  paid  that  attention  to  its  culture 
which  it  undoubtedly  requires,  having  given  it 
the  same  treatment  as  our  other  China  and 
Roses,  and  for  the  past  year  encouraged 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


gorous  growth  for  a  supply  of  wood,  for  cut- 
tings, &c.  Yet,  under  this  treatment,  we  have 
had  flowers  beautifully  marked  and  very  per- 
fect, being  flaked  and  striped  exactly  like  a  car- 
nation. The  colors  are  very  bright,  and  the 
marking  very  distinct  and  clear,  and  I  have  no 
doubt,  that  in  proper  soil,  and  under  proper 
treatment,  the  character  of  the  flowers  will  be 
permanent.  It  flowers  more  perfectly  in  win- 
ter and  spring,  but  as  soon  as  the  weather  be- 
comes hot  they  loose  their  color,  and  often  be- 
come nearly  single.  Another  season  we  hope 
to  give  it  a  fair  trial,  and  test  its  merits,  and  as 
it  appears  to  seed  very  freely,!  think  it  cannot 
but  become  valuable  for  hybridising,  &c.  Tours, 
C,  Flushing,  N.  Y.,  May,  1851. 

The  Golden  Bell  Shrub. — The  new  hardy 
shrub  from  China,  Forsythia  viridissima,  is  too 
gay  and  ornamental,  and  will  become  too  popu- 
lar to  be  commonly  known  by  its  hard  botanical 
name,  and  we  propose  to  call  it  Golden  Bell. 
Blossoming  before  the  fruit  trees,  and  remaining 
in  bloom  for  a  long  time,  it  forms  the  brightest 
embellishment  of  the  shrubbery  in  early  spring, 
and  its  hardiness  and  easy  culture,  will  soon 
give  it  a  place  in  every  garden. 

Deatu  of  J.  S.  Skinner. — Our  venerable 
friend,  the  Editor  of  the  Plough,  Loom  and 
Anvil,  who  was  the  Nestor  of  the  Agricul- 
tural Press,  a  few  weeks  since,  met  with  an 
untimely  end.  No  man  in  the  country  had 
labored  so  long  and  zealously  for  the  im- 
provement of  Agriculture,  as  Mr.  Skinner, 
and  he  blended  wiih  the  varied  knowledge 
of  the  art  he  taught,  a  large  spirit  of  patriot- 
ism, and  a  generous  humanity,  that  gave  to  the 
various  journals  that  were  successively  conduct- 
ed by  him,  an  influence  ftir  above  that  of  their 
class  generally .  Though  he  had  reached  a  good 
age,  he  was  still  in  the  full  vigor  of  his  intellect- 
ual powers.  If  the  sentiment  of  gratitude  for 
services  done  one's  country,  entitle  a  man's  me- 
mory to  be  kept  alive  bj'  "storied  bust  and 
monumental  urn,"  certainly  there  are  few  whose 
names  could  be  so  rightly  honored  in  this  way, 
as  the  subject  of  this  notice. 


The  Giant  Ivy. — We  have  sought  for  some 
time  for  a  place  where  the  genuine  giant  ivy 
could  be  procured  in  this  country,  and  have 
a  quantity  of  well  rooted  plantfi  for  sale. 


"We  are  sure  our  readers  will  thank  us  for  im 
forming  them  how  they  can  do  as  we  have  just 
done,  viz:  procure  twenty  healthy  specimens 
of  this  invaluable  and  hardy  and  fast  growing 
evergreen  creeper,  one  which  we  are  anxious 
to  see  introduced  to  cover  every  old  wall,  old 
tree,  fence  and  house  in  the  country.* 

A  letter  enclosing  one  dollar  .addressed  David 
Ffrguson,  gardener,  Falls  of  Schuykill,  near 
Philadelphia,  will  insure  ten  fine  plants  grown 
in  pots,  with  established  roots,  sent  by  express 
or  as  directed,  to  any  part  of. the  Union.  It 
will  answer  to  plant  it  at  any  time  during  the 
spring  or  summer;  a  position — the  north  side 
of  a  building,  wall,  &c.,  is  best.  Half  theabove 
sum  will  of  course  purchase  half  the  number 
of  roots.  Every  one  in  the  middle  states,  who  can 
get  it  should  make  trial  of  the  giant  ivy.  Under 
favorable  circumstances  it  will  grow  from  5  to 
12  feet  annually.  It  succeeds  well  trained  on 
wire  or  iron  railing,  and  is  also  one  of  the  hand- 
somest parlor  window  plants  ever  cultivated, 
bearing  the  air  of  heated  apartments  perfectly. 


Gardener's  Commissions. — Will  you  have 
the  kindness  to  give  a  novice  your  opinion 
of  the  morality  of  a  gardener  receiving  a  dis- 
count from  nurserymen  for  his  own  benefit.  On 
finding  that  my  gardener  had  purchased  for  me 
some  very  poor  plants,  I  was  induced  to  make 
inquiry,  and  found  that  he  had  been  allowed  a 
discount  for  his  own  benefit  which  did  not  ap- 
pear on  my  bill.  To  my  notions  of  mercantile 
correctness,  this  did  not  appear  to  be  quite  an 
honest  transaction  on  the  part  of  the  nursery- 
man, inasmuch  as  it  held  out  a  temptation  to 
the  gardener  to  purchase  where  he  could  ob- 
tain the  largest  discount,  or  rather  fee.  for  his 
custom,  without  regard  to  the  interest  of  his 
employer. 

As  mercantile  and  horticultural  integrity  how- 
ever may  not  be  synonymous,  I  thought  I  would 
inquire  what  is  the  practice  in  this  respect 
among  nurserymen  generally.  I  find  many 
who  are  always  in  the  habit  of  allowing  this 
discount  to  gardeners  for  their  own  benefit,  as- 
signing as  a  reason  that  gardeners  are  them- 
selves obliged  to  bear  their  own  travelling  ex- 
penses, and  that  it  is  no  more  than  right  that 
they  should  be  paid  for  their  custom.     I  find 

*  See  an  interesling  essay  on  ivy  in  Vol.  IV,  page 
of  the  Horticulturist,  by  one  of  our  correspondents 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


other  nurserymen  again,  who  say  that  it  would 
be  decidedly  to  their  interest  to  induce  garden- 
ers in  this  way  to  buy  of  them,  but  that  tlicy 
have  uiiiformily  refused  to  do  so,  because  they 
could  not  quite  reconcile  the  transaction  with 
their  notions  of  integrity,  and  that  they  were 
also  unwilling  to  do  anything  of  which  an  em- 
ployer would  disapprove  if  lie  knew  it. 

Now  this  difference  in  practice  left  me  still 
in  the  dark,  so  I  wrote  to  an  old  and  intimate 
friend  in  the  nursery  business  in  England,  beg- 
ging him  to  tell  me  what  is  the  practice  there. 
He  says  very  frankly  and  in  confidence,  so  I  will 
not  mention  his  name,  that  it  is  a  uniform  prac- 
tice to  allow  such  discount  to  gardeners,  but 
that  they  generally  make  it  up  by  a  slight  ex- 
tra charge  upon  the  plants.  So  I  find  that  we 
novices,  who  do  notknow  sufficient  to  purchase 
our  own  plants,  are  obliged  to  suffer  in  some 
measure. 

I  am  half  inclined  to  make  it  a  rule  with  my 
next  gardener,  that  I  shall  have  the  benefit  of 
all  the  bargains  he  can  get  out  of  the  nursery- 
men. In  my  ignorance  of  the  rules  of  horticul- 
tural trade,  I  may  however  be  wrong  in  my  no- 
tions, and  should  like  very  much  to  have  your 
opinion  and  that  of  gentlemen  employing  gar- 
deners, as  to  the  correctness  of  these  things. 
Yours  very  truly,  A  Lover  of  Flowers. 

Remarks — If  a  gentleman  don't  take  interest 
enough  in  his  garden  to  purchase  plants  him- 
self, or  won't  pay  his  gardener's  travelling  ex- 
penses when  he  sends  him  to  select  them,  he 
cannot  fairly  complain  if  the  gardener  gets  his 
rights  by  a  commission  from  the  nurseryman. 

But  the  srjstem  is  a  bad  one,  because  it  leads 
to  a  kind  of  premium  paid  by  the  nurserymen 
to  get  custom ;  the  result  of  which  is,  that  the 
gardener  goes  to  the  nursery  where  he  can  get 
the  most  commission,  instead  of  that  where  the 
best  plants  and  trees  are  to  be  found.    Ed. 


To  Improve  Stiff  Clay  Soils. — Dear  Sir: 
Among  the  many  useful  directions  and  hints  for 
the  improvement  of  soils,  which  I  find  in  four 
volumes  of  your  Magazine,  I  see  nothing  that 
fully  answers  my  purpose,  and  not  having  the 
time  to  seek  and  read  other  works,  take  the  li- 
berty to  ask  your  advice. 

desired  to  raise  in  a  garden  containing 
third  of  an  acre,  fruit,  ornamental  shrubs, 


flowers  and  vegetables;  a  very  limited  variety 
of  the  latter,  however.  The  land  has  been  un- 
der cultivation  two  years,  having  previously 
been  mowing  land.  It  was  quite  "springy," 
which  has  been  rcme<lied  by  deep  draining. 
Little  manure  of  any  kind  has  been  used — but 
trenching  and  frequent  digging  has  been  adop- 
ted— and  last  autumn  some  ten  loads  of  fine 
sand  were  mixed  with,  say  one-quarter  of  an 
acre  of  the  soil,  which  yet  remains  clayey, 
coarse,  and  cakes  badly  on  the  surface  after 
rain.  The  following  is  the  result  of  an  analysis 
of  equal  weights  of  loam  and  subsoil  mixed, 
that  being  about  the  proportion  of  each  in  the 
part  which  I  have  broken  up — the  loam  being, 
say  a  foot  in  depth,  and  the  ground  dug  a  foot 
deeper  than  that — the  sub-soil  turned  up  and 
mixed. 

One  hundred  parts,  (dried  and  mixed  as 
above.)  yield — 

Insoluble  earthy  matters, 85.400 

Organic  matter, 7 .  800 

Lime, 224 

Alumina, 3.200 

Per  oxide  of  iron, 2.300 

Magnesia, 256 

Chloride  of  sodium,  traces, 

Phosphoric  acid, 253 

99.4.33 
I  presume  you  will  remark  here  a  deficiency  of 
alkalis  and  phosphates. 

Will  you  oblige  me  with  your  advice  as  to  the 
proper  substances  to  be  used  to  supply  the 
lacking  ingredients,  and  at  the  same  time  ren- 
der the  earth  more  friable;  for  after  all,  my 
plants  grow  pretty  well  if  the  soil  is  stirred  as 
often  as  it  is  watered,  but  the  seeds  push  through 
the  surface  crust  with  an  effort  that  is  pain- 
ful to  witness. 

My  pea  patch,  (sowed  just  before  the  late 
heavy  storm,)  has  the  baked  and  cracked  ap- 
pearance of  a  dried  bed  of  mortar.  In  making 
your  suggestions,  will  you  be  so  good  as  to  re- 
member that  articles  which  may  be  obtained  of 
the  dry  salters  are  much  more  accessible  to  me 
than  wood  ashes,  peat,  &c.,  which  every  farmer 
in  the  country  can  easily  obtain,  but  which  are 
less  abundant  here  than  guano.  Very  respect- 
fully yours,  E.  R.     Boston,  April  28,  1851 

We  answer  in  brief — burn  a  portion  of  the 
clay  next  autumn — by  which  process  you  both 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


enrich  and  loosen  the  soil — as  burned  clay  never 
coheres  again.  Then  ridge  up  the  soil  before 
winter,  digging  into  it  a  good  dressing  of  fresh 
stable  manure.  For  the  i)rocess  of  burning 
clay,  see  Hort.  vol.  ii.  p.  442,  and  vol.  iii.  p. 
184.     Ed.  

A  WORD  ABOUT  EARLTf  Peas. — As  digging 
with  me  commenced  almost  with  my  life,  and 
I  think  will  only  end  with  me  in  death,  there- 
fore it  is  natural  I  should  have  a  fellow  feeling 
for  your  correspondent,  "An  old  Digger;"  I 
have  read  all  his  letters  for  this  two  or  three 
years  past,  and  must  say.  as  far  as  a  digger  is 
allowed  to  be  a  judge,  that  they  are  all  to  the 
point,  good  sound  unvarnished  tales,  and  well 
delivered;  but  I  believe  Jeffries  paid  him  a 
pretty  little  corapliTnent,  but  I  must  not  under- 
take such  things,  or  I  may  get  the  promise  of  a 
good  shower  of  walking  canes  and  umbrellas. 
To  come  to  the  point :  peas  are  the  things  I  wish 
to  talk  about;  old  Digger's  method  is  very  good 
in  its  way,  and  as  he  has  been  kind  enough  to 
lay  it  before  the  readers  of  the  Horticulturist, 
I  will  in  return  tell  you  my  plan. 

In  the  first  place  get  some  weather  boarding 
cut  in  about  foot  lengths,  (longer  will  be  un- 
handy,) then  cut  a  sod  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  board,  lay  it  with  the  grass  side  down, 
let  the  sod  be  about  three  inches  thick,  (of 
course  good  old  pasture  sods  are  the  best;)  cut 
a  channel  down  the  center  of  the  sod,  sow  the 
peas  therein  and  cover  them  with  good  light 
rich  soil;  put  them  in  a  hot-bed  frame,  on  a 
mild  heat ;  fill  all  the  chinks  between  the  sods 
with  some  light  soil ;  M'hcn  the  peas  appear 
above  the  ground  give  all  the  air  you  can ;  when 
they  are  up  about  two  inches  remove  them  into 
a  cold  frame;  a  covering  with  boards  in  case  of 
very  bad  weather  will  do.  When  the  time  ar- 
rives for  planting,  open  a  trench  wide  enough 
to  take  the  sods;  they  will  slip  off  the  board 
very  readily.  I  have  grown  peas  for  many 
years  this  way,  and  where  I  have  had  the  con- 
venience of  vineries,  where  I  could  shift  them 
from  the  first  to  the  second  or  third  house  to 
harden  them  otf,  I  have  had  them  in  bloom  and 
supported  by  strings  attached  to  straps  nailed 
on  to  the  boards.  But  the  least  trouble  is 
some  brush  just  strong  enough  to  keep  up  the 
peas.  I  have  at  this  time  a  good  crop  of  snap- 
beans as  well  as  peas  grown  in  this  way;  the 


beans  will  be  in  flower  by  the  time  I  can  put 
them  out. 

This  is  not  all  I  grow  in  this  way ;  cucumbers, 
musk  and  water-melons,  squashes,  egg-plant, 
okra,  &c.  succeed  equally  well.  Ipreparethe 
boards  and  sods  the  same  as  for  peas  and  beans 
with  this  slight  difference ;  after  the  long  sod  is 
laid  on  the  board,  I  cut  it  into  about  five  blocks 
and  scoop  out  the  middle.  I  then  drop  in  the 
seeds,  allowing  enough  for  thinning.  They  are 
then  treated  the  same  as  the  peas;  they  are  not 
taken  so  soon  out  of  the  hot-bed,  but  give  them 
full  air  every  day  you  can ;  when  the  season  is 
for  enough  advanced  all  you  have  to  do  is  to 
put  them  in  the  hills,  sods  and  all,  and  they 
will  never  know  they  were  forced.  R.  Weston. 
Ashwood,  Tennessee,  March  26,  1851. 

Preserving  Fruits  Fresh. — In  the  Febru- 
ary No.,  1850,  of  the  Horticulturist,  you  pub- 
lished an  account  of  the  mode  of  preserving 
fruit  in  tin  cans,  by  which  (those  who  succeed- 
ed) were  to  have  it  in  all  its  freshness  and  deli- 
cacy, as  if  but  recently  plucked  from  the  trees. 
Having  made  the  attempt  and  signally  failed,  I 
wish  to  ascertain  wherein  I  erred,  so  that  I  may 
make  the  trial  again,  for  I  would  like  much  to 
be  able  to  have  by  me  a  few  cans  of  delicious 
fruits,  with  which  either  to  treat  a  friend,  or 
better  still,  to  add  to  the  comforts  of  the  inva- 
lid. My  experiment  was  thus  conducted.  I 
procured  a  number  of  tin  cans,  about  six  inch- 
es high  by  five  wide,  with  tops  to  fit  over,  with 
a  small  hole  the  size  of  a  pin  in  the  centre. 
These  I  filled  with  fruit,  packing  them  careful- 
ly, so  as  to  have  no  bruised  or  decayed  speci- 
mens. The  first  I  tried  was  filled  with  straw- 
berries; tlie  others  with  peaches.  The  straw- 
berries were  carefully  hand  picked.  The  peach- 
es were  selected  by  myself,  so  as  to  be  sure 
there  were  no  specks  or  bruises;  they  were  put 
in  whole,  and  as  some  of  the  cans  were  filled 
with  large  varieties,  only  very  few  could  be  put 
in.  I  then  had  the  tops  carefully  soldered,  and 
following  the  directions  given  by  "  W."  I  plac- 
ed them  in  a  pot  filled  with  hot  water,  which 
was  made  to  boil  over  a  gentle  fire,  and  a  drop 
of  water  was  placed  over  the  small  hole  to  as- 
certain when  the  air  was  expelled,  but  it  seem- 
ed to  me  to  be  impossible  to  expel  it  all  if  that 
was  to  be  the  test,  for  I  kept  some  of  the  cans 
in  the  water  for  upwards  of  a  half  hour,  and 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


even  then  the  air  would  bubble  through  j  think- 
ing,however,  that  the  fruit  would  be  stewed, and 
not  preserved,  in  the  state  your  correspondent 
promised,  I  hermetically  sealed  them  up,  by 
dropping  some  solder  on  the  hole— took  them 
out,  and  after  wiping  them,  put  them  away  in 
cool  places.  Some  were  in  the  water  15  mi- 
nutes, others  upwards  of  a  half  hour,  and  one 
I  suppose  a  full  hour.  And  now  for  the  result. 
On  opening  them,  I  have  found  the  peaches 
pretty  well  stewed,  and  having  an  acid  ferment- 
ed taste,  somewhat  resembling  the  mixture  of 
brandy  and  sugar,  and  not  one  fit  to  be  eaten. 
The  strawberries  a  mess  not  fit  even  to  be  tast- 
ed. Now  as  you  have  eaten  fruit  preserved  in 
their  fresh  state,  and  pronounced  them  excel- 
lent, I  am  very  desirous  of  knowing  how  to  ac- 
complish it,  and  will  be  exceedingly  glad  if  you 
or  your  correspondent  W  ,  will  inform  me  in 
what  I  erred,  and  give  me  such  plain,  practical 
directions  that  I  may  succeed  in  my  next  trial. 
The  difficulty  seems  to  be  to  expel  tlie  air  com- 
pletely, and  yet  the  time  I  gave  was  sufficient 
to  stew  the  fruit,  and  yet  did  not  sufficiently 
expel  the  air,  as  indicated  by  its  escape  through 
the  water  dropped  over  the  hole. 

I  shall  be  especially  obliged  to  you,  (or  W.) 
if  you  will  furnish  these  directions  at  an  early 
day,  for  strawberries  are  now  ripening,  and  I 
would  like  to  put  up  a  few  of  tliem,  as  well  as 
peaches.  Yours.  &c.,  L.  South  Carolina, 
March  ^1,  1851. 

AVe  reply  to  the  foregoing,  (and  another  com- 
munication to  the  same  effect,)  by  saying,  that 
we  imagine  our  correspondent  "  W."  was  not 
fully  informed  regarding  the  mode  of  expelling 
the  air  from  the  cans.  We  learn,  on  inquiry, 
that  this  is  understood  to  be  tlie  whole  mystery 
of  preserving  fruits  in  their  fresh  state — quite 
a  large  trade  in  which  is  now  carried  on  in  Bal- 
timore and  New-York — but  whether  the  air  is 
exhausted  by  means  of  the  air  pump,  or  by  the 
boiling-water  process — we  are  unable  to  say. 
The  companies  engaged  in  the  trade  make  a 
secret  of  it — but  it  is  known  to  "  out-siders," 
and  perhaps  some  of  the  knowing  ones  will  send 
us  a  line  on  this  subject.     Ed. 

Native  Trees  in  Virginia. — I  propose  to 
send  you  a  brief  description  of  a  few  of  the 
trees  which  we  have  in  lower  Virginia,  that  may 
be  used  to  great  advantage  on  lawns  and  else- 


where, as  ornamental  trees  j  whether  your  rea- 
ders take  enough  interest  in  us  down  in  "Old 
Virginny,"  to  be  satisfied  with  such  a  disposal 
of  your  space,  is  for  you  to  decide. 

The  American  Holly,  (Ilex  opaca,)  should 
undoubtedly  be  placed  first  upon  our  list  of  in- 
digenous ornamental  trees.  Its  dense  ever- 
green, glossy  foliage,  its  masses  of  berries,  so 
brilliant  in  winter,  and  its  symmetrical  shape, 
all  tend  to  make  it  the  most  beautiful  of  our 
trees.  It  grows  to  some  forty  or  fifty  feet  in 
height,  but  very  slowly,  though  even  as  a  shrub 
it  is  exceedingly  beautiful ;  with  a  little  care, 
it  can  be  successfully  transplanted. 

The  Forest  Fo^Aar ,(Liriodendron  tulipifera .) 
Deciduous — is  another  of  our  trees  that  no  one 
should  omit  to  plant  in  his  grounds;  it  can  be 
transplanted  ^nthout  difficulty,  [only  when  very 
small,]  and  is  of  moderately  rapid  growth; 
symmetrically  umbrageous,  its  large,  deep 
gi'een  leaves,  and  tulip  formed  flowers  render  it, 
a  most  desirable  addition  to  ornamental  plant- 
ing; it  soon  attains  the  height  of  forty  or  fifty 
feet,  and  eventually  becomes  majestic  in  its 
size. 

The  White  Elm,  Ulmus  americana.  River 
Elm,  U.  memoraiis.  Slippery  Elm,  U.fulva. 
Whahoo  Elm,  U.  alata — deciduous  trees — are 
all  formidable  rivals  of  the  Dutch  Elm,  in  point 
of  beauty  and  grandeur,  and  unlike  it,  are  free 
from  the  deplorable  ravages  of  the  insect ;  they 
are  of  a  growth  sufficiently  rapid  to  induce  even 
those  who  do  not  plant  for  posterity,  to  incur 
the  trouble  of  removing  them.  The  River  Elm 
is  perhaps  the  most  ornamental  of  these  trees, 
on  account  of  the  graceful  weeping  of  its 
boughs;  they  all,  except  the  Whahoo,  attain 
great  size. 

The  Red  Maple,  Jlcer  rubrum, — deciduous — 
is  a  very  showy  tree,  and  can  be  readily  trans- 
planted. In  the  spring  it  is  adorned  with  clus- 
ters of  the  richest  scarlet  pendent  seed  vessels, 
which  present  a  most  striking  appearance 
amongst  the  silvery  green  leaves,  and  in  the  au- 
tumn the  foliage  assumes  the  most  brilliant  hue, 
rendering  it  a  dazzling  ornament  to  our  forests; 
the  White  Maple,  ^cer  dasycarpum,  is  also 
well  worth  planting,  though  not  so  brilliant 
in  the  color  of  its  foliage  and  seed  vessels,  as 
the  other. 

The  Box  Elder,  ^cer  negundo, — deciduous 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


— is  regular  in  its  shape,  foliage  dense,  and  of 
a  peculiar  and  pleas.ing  hue,  yellowish  green; 
readily  transplanted,  moderately  rapid  in  its 
growth,  and  attains  to  considerable  size. 

The  Fringe  Tree,  (Chionanthus  virginicus) 
— deciduous— this  is  the  finest  of  our  shrubs> 
The  leaf  is  large  and  dark,  and  in  the  month  of 
May  it  is  covered  with  the  most  delicate  fringe- 
like  flowers,  of  the  purest  white.  The  contrast 
of  these  deep  green  leaves,  with  tiie  beautiful- 
ly  airy  flowers,  render  it  most  desirable  either 
fur  a  lawn  or  shrubbery;  it  reaches  some  twen- 
ty feet  in  height. 

Tlie  Red  Bud  or  Judas  Tree,  {Cercis  cana- 
densis)— deciduous— -is  a  small  tree  that  pre- 
sents a  pleasing  appearance  through  the  spring 
and  summer,  but  in  the  early  spring  it  is  with- 
out an  equal;  then  every  branch,  and  every 
part  of  every  branch,  are  literally  covered  with 
the  most  beautiful  deep  pink  bloom ;  it  can  be 
transplanted  without  difficulty,  and  will  bloom 
at  once, 

I  might  extend  this  list  to  a  much  greater 
length,  but  fear  that  I  have  already  taxed  you 
too  largely.  Your  ob't  scrv't,  X.  Virginia^ 
March  8,  1851. 

£A11  these  trees  are  cultivated  in  our  nurse- 
ries, and  more  extensively  planted  in  the  plea- 
sure grounds  of  the  north,  than  in  Virginia — ■ 
except  the  American  Holly — the  finest  of  Ame- 
rican evergreens.  Will  not  some  clever  nur- 
seryman undertake  to  get  up  a  good  stock  of 
this  tree?  It  cannot  be  called  tender,  for  it 
grows  wild  on  Long  Island.     Ed.] 


IIoRTicuLTUKE  IN  THE  Canadas. — The  fol- 
lowing letter  from  Col.  Little,  one  of  the  most 
experienced  horticulturists  in  Maine,  contains 
some  matter  interesting  to  fruit  growers  at  the 
extreme  northern  part  of  the  Union,  and  we 
transfer  it  to  our  columns  from  the  Bangor 
Courier.  The  local  effects  of  climate  must  be 
carefully  studied  by  the  fruit-grower  who  would 
plant  profitably.  The  Ribston  pippin,  the  fa- 
mous apple  of  England,  is,  for  instance,  nearly 
wortliless  in  the  middle  states — where  our 
Newtown  pippin  is  in  perfection — but  in  the 
colder  climate  of  Maine  and  Canada  is  one  of 
the  finest  of  apples.     Ed. 

the   request  of  some  of  our  pomological 

in  this  vicinity,  including  yourself  among 

rest,  I  give  you  a  supplement  to  my  "  Pen- 


cilling3  by  the  "Way,"  on  the  subject  of  horti 
culture  in  the  Canadas.  It  hardly  can  be  ex- 
pected that  a  chapter  on  fruits  alone  can  be 
made  interesting  to  any,  but  those  only  who 
take  a  lively  interest  on  the  subject,  notwith- 
standing its  acknowledged  usefulness.  I  now 
have  the  pleasure  of  stating  from  my  own 
knowledge,  that  fruits  of  the  richest  varieties 
can  be  cultivated  with  success  in  the  Canadas, 
and  particularly  at  Montreal,  where  there  is  a 
flourishing  Horticultural  Society,  of  which 
Geo.  SnErABD  and  Wm.  LuNN.Esqrs.,  are  the 
President  and  Vice  President.  During  my  short 
.stay  at  Montreal,  I  was  favored  with  interviews 
with  these  gentlemen ;  also  with  Henry  Corse, 
Esq.,  the  veteran  cultivator  of  fruits  and  the 
originator  of  several  choice  plums  described  in 
Downing's  and  other  fruit  books.  "When  at 
Montreal  Mr.  Matheson  called  at  my  lodgings 
early  one  morning  and  invited  me  to  take  a 
seat  in  his  carriage,  saying  he  was  going  to  car- 
ry me  to  see  Mr.  Lunn's  fruit  garden,  graperies 
and  green  houses,  distant  about  one  mile,  in  the 
western  suburbs  of  the  city.  On  arriving  at 
his  garden,  I  was  much  surprised  and  very 
agreeably  disappointed  in  finding  so  rich  a  dis- 
play of  as  fine,  and  as  highly  flavored  fruits  as 
I  had  ever  seen  on  the  tables  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Horticultuaal  Society  in  School  street, 
Boston,  though  not  so  many  varieties.  His  ap- 
ples generally  were  large  sized,  fair  and  hand- 
some. On  tasting  them  I  found  them  very 
liigh  flavored  and  his  trees  bore  bountifully. 
His  Ribston  Pippins  were  extra  large  and  beau- 
tiful specimens.  This  variety  was  a  great  fa- 
vorite of  the  late  Dr.  Vaughan,  of  Hallowell; 
of  the  venerable  horticulturist  of  Orrington, 
and  is  TIIE  apple  of  England. 

Mr.  LuNN  informed  me  tliat  at  least  200  va- 
rieties of  apples  would  be  exhibited  on  tlie  ta- 
bles of  their  fruit  fair,  then  to  bo  held  in  three 
days  at  the  famous  IBonsecours  Market  Hall, 
and  urged  me  to  tarry  and  attend  it.  Tliis  I 
could  not  do,  for  my  passage  ticket  was  limited. 
His  apple,  pear  and  plum  trees  were  all  very 
thrifty,  and  all  of  them  of  the  most  choice  va- 
rieties and  well  suited  to  the  climate  of  Mon- 
treal. His  pears  and  plums  were  mostly  gath- 
ered. AVhat  remained  were  of  excellent  flavor. 
His  grapes  in  open  culture  were  two  varieties 
only — the  White  Sweetwater  and  the  Black 
Cluster.  The  trellises  were  well  loaded  with 
tlie  rich  clusters  of  these  delicious  fruits.  But 
the  best  of  the  story  is  not  yet  told,  for  after 
looking  through  this  large  garden,  located  in  a 
city  of  forty-five  thousand  inhabitants, — we  en- 
tered his  extensive  graperies,  in  one  ot  which 
the  vines  were  loaded  with  the  nfifcd  Black 
Hamburgh  grapes,  which  were  hanging  down 
from  tlie  trellises  in  large,  rich  and  heavy  clus- 
ters throughout  the  building,  and  equalling  our 
neighbor  Hobb's  best,  of  this  city,  or  Dr.  S.  L. 
Goodale's,  of  Saco,  in  size,  weight  of  the  clus 
ters  and  high  flavor  of  this  choicest  vai 
the  grape  catalogue.  In  one  of  his  gr 
were  several  peach  trees  with  the  fruit  on 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Tliey  were  trained  flat  to  a  brick  wall.  'SVo 
then  went  to  the  Bonsecours  Market  Hall  and  I 
was  introduced  to  Mr.  Suepard,  who  was, 
with  many  others,  arranging  his  choice  fruits 
for  exhibition  at  the  Fair. 

"We  conversed  on  the  subject  of  the  best  va- 
rieties of  fruits,  for  a  northern  climate,  for  some 
time.  I  then  asked  the  favor  of  them  to  hand 
me,  at  their  earliest  convenience,  a  catalogue 
of  such  fruits  as  are  best  suited  to  the  climate 
of  the  Canadas.  Mr.  Lunn  replied  he  would 
do  it  with  pleasure,  and  show  it  to  Mr.  Suepard 
for  his  api)roval.  He  did  so.  Mr.  Shepard 
added  one  or  two  varieties  and  both  signed  it, 
a  copy  of  which  I  hand  you  with  this  communi- 
cation. 

I  received  from  Dr.  S.  J.  Lyman,  druggist 
of  Place  d'Armcs,  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
the  venerable  Henrx  Corse,  Esq.,  a  horticul- 
turist of  mark. 

I  rang  the  door-bell  and  Mr.  Corse,  himself, 
invited  me  in  and  to  be  seated.  And  I  think  I 
never  spent  two  hours  more  agreeably  than  I 
did  with  this  gentleman.  AVere  I  a  skillful 
stenographer,  I  should  have  been  pleased  to 
have  pencilled  down  all  he  said  to  me.  By  his 
consent  I  did  take  notes  of  much  of  his  con- 
versation. I  should  judge  he  was  about  70 
years  of  age.  He  gave  his  reasons  tor  believing 
we  should  have  a  succession  of  mild  winters 
for  many  years  from  18i9,  and  thought  our 
fruit  trees  would  not  be  killed  by  hard  winters 
as  they  have  been  for  fifty  years  past.  He  in- 
formed me  the  reason  he  did  not  reply  to  my 
fruit  circular,  two  winters  since,  was  that  he 
was  then  in  England.  I  went  with  him  through 
his  fruit  garden  and  his  graperies.  Among 
other  fruits  he  showed  me  a  pile  of  gold  colored 
pears,  as  tempting  as  any  I  had  witnessed  in 
my  journeys  a  month  previously.  I  seldom, 
if  ever,  eat  a  more  melting  and  better  flavored 
fruit.  It  was  the  Beurre  Crapaud.  The  trees 
of  this  variety,  he  said,  will  bear  to  be  planted 
as  far  north  as  will  the  sugar  maple.  He  show- 
ed me  the  trees  and  they  were  of  large  size  and 
all  of  them  were  very  thrifty  to  the  tip  end  of 
each  branch.  Most  of  his  apple  and  plum  trees 
were  of  his  own  originating,  and  it  seems  to  be 
his  ambition  to  originate  new  and  choice  va- 
rieties. His  Nota  Bena  Plum  is  as  popular  at 
Montreal  as  our  McLaughlin  is  in  Bangor.  His 
grapes  were  chiefly  of  the  "White  Sweet  "Water 
vaiiety,  in  the  open  culture,  and  lie  said  he  liad 
raised  and  ripened  them,  in  some  years,  in  the 
open  air,  and  had  one  month  to  s])are.  His 
fruit  garden  and  graperies,  as  a  whole,  are  not 
equal  to,  nor  so  extensive  as  Mr.  Ltjnn's. 

I  noted  down  the  fruits  he  would  recom- 
mend for  a  northern  climate.  They  were  as 
follows: 

Apples. — Bourassa,  Fameuse  or  Pomme 
d'Neige,  Pomme  Grise, Corse's  Orange  Reinette, 
a  native  of  his  own  garden;  St.  Lawrence, 
Corse's  Seedling,  a  fall  apple  of  good  flavor; 
the  Duehes.s  of  Oldenburgh,  a  Russian 
ery  popular  in  this  city. 


Pears. — Beurre  Crapaud,  and  Holland  Ber 
gamot  or  Bergamotte  d'UoUande,  see  Down- 
ing page  430. 

Plujis. — Nota  Bena,  Admiral,  Field  Marshal, 
Twin,  Decatur,  Rising  Sun,  Regent,  Golden 
Globe,  Sovereign  and  Aurora.  All  the  above 
plums  were  originated  by  himself. 

Grapes. — Open  culture — "V\^hite  Sweet  "Wa- 
ter and  Black  Chuster. 

At  Quebec  I  had  no  time  to  devote  to  horti- 
culture; for  I  arrived  at  that  city  at  8  A.  M. 
on  Friday  and  left  the  next  day  at  5  P.  M., 
and  in  the  mean  time  rode  9  miles  to  the  Falls 
of  Montmorenci.  I  learnt  however  that  apples 
and  plums  were  raised  there,  and  in  fact  I  saw 
the  fruits  on  the  trees.  Many  of  the  fruits  in 
this  latitude  of  47  are  cultivated  in  greenhouses 
or  under  glass. 

Green-houses  arc  seen  here  in  abundance. 
Dwarf  apple,  pear  and  other  fruit  trees  can  be 
walled  in  a  green  house  without  taking  much 
room. 

In  conclusion  I  would  say  to  all  who  intend 
to  raise  good  fruit,  that  the  trees  must  be  nour- 
ished with  something  to  cause  them  to  thrive, 
such  as  ashes,  leaves,  bones  of  all  kinds,  lime, 
meadow  muck  mixed  with  ashes  or  lime,  oyster 
and  clam  shells,  and  stable  manure,  that  the 
soil  be  not  exhausted.  "Will  a  cow  in  one  day 
fill  a  ten  quart  pail  with  milk  without  good 
feed?  AVill  horses  and  oxen  perform  their  ac- 
customed labor  without  being  well  fed?  Cer- 
tainly not.  Neither  can  a  tree  yield  fruit 
bountifully  without  being  fed. 

Montreal,  Oct.  14lli,  1S50. 

CoL.  Little — Dear  Sir — The  fruit  trees  that 
appear  to  be  the  best  adapted  for  cultivation  in 
the  climate  of  Montreal,  in  Canada,  are  the 
following,  viz: 

Apples. — Pomme  Grise,  Fameuse^-every 
good  orchard  in  Montreal  contains  a  propor- 
tion of  about  two-thirds  of  these  two  varieties. 
Bourassa — an  excellent  apple,  but  does  not  live 
long,  and  can  very  seldom  be  trained  to  become 
a  handsome  tree.  St.  Lawrence — an  excellent 
fruit,  but  does  not  keep  long.  Blinkbony — a 
Montreal  seedling,  ripe  here  in  August,  an  ex- 
cellent table  fruit.  Early  Harvest,  Keswick 
Codlin,  Ribston  Piiipin;  English  Rennet — a 
very  high  flavored,  large  sized  autumn  fruit, 
color  a  greenish  yellow,  closely  resembling  the 
Fall  Pipi)in.  Spanish  Rennet — a  winter  ajjple. 
Red  Astrachan;  King  of  the  Pi])pins — a  Sept. 
fruit,  large  and  handsome.  Rhode  Island 
Greening;  Duchess  of  Oldenburgh — a  hand- 
some Russian  fruit. 

Pears. — Passe  Colniar  Precelle,  (probably 
Passe  Colmar  of  New  England,)  "\Yhite  Beurre, 
Beurre  d'Hiver,  Summer  Bon  Chretien,  Moor- 
Fowl-Egg. 

Grapes. — The  White  Sweetwater  and  Black 
Cluster. 

Plums. — Green    Gage,     Jefferson,     Corse's 
Dictator,   Corse's  Nota   Bena,    Kirke's 
plum,   peach  do..    Corse's    admiral,  Bolmar 
"Washington,  Violette  Hative,  Lucombe 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


such,  "Wellington  Plum,  Wilmot's  early  Or- 
leans. Nectarine,  but  a  distinct  plum  from  the 
Caledonian.         '  Wim.  Lunn. 

I  concur  in  the  above,     George  Shepard. 


Notes  on  Plums. — In  the  Horticulturist  for 
April  you  publish  an  article  from  your  corres- 
pondent, C.  G.  ScRivERS,  of  Cincinnatti,  on 
the  Gen.  Hand  Plum.  After  reading  your  for- 
mer notice,  (with  a  drawing  attached,)  I  disco- 
vered that  you  had  fallen  into  an  error  when 
you  supposed  that  it  originated  with  Mr.  Sin- 
clair of  Md,,  and  had  written  out  an  article 
on  the  subject,  but  being  very  busy,  had  neg- 
lected to  send  you  a  copy  previous  to  the  pub- 
lication alluded  to  aboYe. 

Your  correspondent  gives  the  true  origin,  &c., 
of  this  plum,  as  I  received  it  from  Mr.  Samuel 
Carpenter,  of  Lancaster,  Ohio,  and  the  notice 
I  first  sent  you  from  Ohio  in  relation  to  the 
Gen.  Hand  Plum,  its  bearing  qualities,  size, 
&c.,  was  predicated  upon  a  tree  upon  the  lot 
of  Mr.  S.  Carpenter,  grown  from  one  of  the 
grafts  received  from  his  brother  in  Penn. 

In  relation  to  the  Montgomer3'^  Plum,  I  have 
only  to  say,  that  I  have  as  repeatedly  seen  the 
fruit  and  eaten  of  it,  as  I  have  the  Gen.  Hand, 
and  it  is  all  your  correspondent  says  about  it, 
only  that  it  is  called  the  Montgomery  Prune, 
instead  of  plum,  by  Mr.  Carpenter. 

There  is  another  plum  grown  by  Mr.  C.  which 
he  ranked,  I  believe,  as  superior  to  either  the 
above,  and  wliich  he  called  the  "  Ground-acre." 
It  is  not  so  large  as  either  the  above,  but  I  be- 
lieve superior  in  flavor.  I  have  a  few  trees  of 
each  of  these  plums,  brought  with  me  from 
Ohio,  and  thinking  you  would  like  to  test  the 
Mongomery  Prune,  I  have  sent  you  this  day 
a  scion  of  the  same.  The  Ground-acre  is  far 
too  advanced  to  cut  you  a  scion  for  grafting  this 
spring. 

If  the  above  is  of  any  service  to  you,  use  it 
as  you  deem  proper.  I  always  think  that  we 
cannot  have  too  much  light  on  any  new  fruit, 
and  I  could  have  given  you  all  the  information 
in  relation  to  these  plums  when  I  first  noticed 
the  Gen.  Hand  Plum,  as  well  as  now,  if  I  had 
then  felt  its  importance  equally  as  much. 

As  soon  as  the  busy  season  is  over  I  will  no- 
tice the  "  Primate"  apple,  or  as  it  is  dubbed  by 
some,  the  "  Rough  and  Ready ,"  and  show  when 
^ht  into  the  country  and  by  whom,  &c.  &c. 


I  regret  for  the  cause  of  pomology,  that  men 
should  pick  up  a  fruit  and  suppose  it  a  seedling 
at  once,  and  dub  it  with  a  new  title,  and  send 
it  forth,  saying  it  must  be  a  seedling,  because 
Messrs.  Thomas  and  Barry  do  not  know  it. 
A  sage  conclusion  truly,  showing  how  easily 
and  upon  how  trifling  a  foundation  a  man  will 
form  an  opinion,  and  then  promulgate  the  same, 
for  although  Mr.  Barry  did  not  know  the  fruit, 
it  is  growing  within  a  very  short  distance  of 
Rochester.  We  have  names  enough  for  apples 
if  the  original  ones  could  be  kept  sacred,  and 
not  re-christened  so  often. 

It  is  this  that  creates  such  confusion  in  Po- 
mology, and  against  which  we  cannot  guard  too 
much,  and  with  you  I  will  war  continually  to 
suppress  it. 

We  have  a  seedling  Tea  Rose  raised  by  my- 
self, light  straw  with  deeper  centre,  exquisitely 
fragant,  large  size,  and  full  double,  much  like 
Lamarque,  but  more  compact.  It  is  an  acquisi- 
tion. I  will  send  you  a  plant  after  a  while,  and 
will  leave  the  opinion  of  its  merits  to  your  un- 
biassed judgment.  A,  Fahnestock.  Syra- 
cuse, Jpril  14,  1851. 


Fine  Strawberrij  Crop. — Allow  me  to  add 
one  to  the  numerous  accounts  of  large  crops  of 
that  excellent  fruit,  the  Strawberry. 

In  the  spring  1849,  I  selected  a  small  patch 
of  ground  8  by  18  feet  for  a  bed.  It  was  noth- 
ing better  than  common  garden  soil,  which  in 
the  spring  of  '48  had  been  trenched  one  spit 
deep,  turning  under  plenty  of  stable  manure. 
I  gave  it  a  top-dressing  of  well  rotted  manure, 
plaster  and  cliarcoal  dust  which  had  laid  in  the 
air  and  weather  two  or  three  years. 

I  planted  my  strawberry  roots  (Black  Prince, 
originally  from  A.  Saul  k  Co.,  Newburgh,) 
in  rows  eighteen  inches  apart  and  two  feet  in 
the  rows.  Every  plant  lived  and  grew  finely. 
I  allowed  all  the  runners  to  take  root,  and  the 
next  spring  ('50)  the  bed  was  a  complete  mat 
of  vines  strong  and  thrifty. 

The  first  picking  was  twenty-one  quarts;  the 
next  was  lost  by  rotting  before  fairly  ripening, 
owing  to  the  excessively  warm  rainy  weather 
at  that  time,  probably  as  many  as  ten  quarts 
rotted  on  the  ground  j  however,  what  we  ac- 
tually picked  and  measured  amounted  to  thirty 
quarts,  from  the  bed  8  by  18  feet.  As  for  size 
they  would  compare  favorably  with  any 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


seen,  beingly  uniformly  large.    Yours  respect- 
fully, Butler  Sheldon.   Auburn,  March,  '51. 

Cincinnati  IIort.  Society. — At  the  recent 
annual  meeting  an  election  was  held,  at  whicli 
the  following  officers  were  selected  for  the  en- 
suing year: 

A.  11.  Ernst,  President;  Wm.  Resor,  M.  S. 
Wade,  N.  B.  Shaler,  Vice-Presidents  j  J  no. 
A.  AVarder,  Rec.  Sec.;  Geo.  Graham,  Cor. 
Sec;  Wm.  Resor,  Treasurer. 

Executive  Council. — Jno.  P.  Foote,  M.  Mc- 
AVilliams,   Wm.   Orange,    S.  S.   Jackson,   G. 
Sleath,  Jos.  Longwortli  and  S.  Mosher. 
Standing  Committees  for  the  Year. 

Fruits.— M.  Mc.  Williams,  M.  S.  Wade,  S. 
M.  Carter,  Wm.  Orange,  Jno.  G.  Anthony. 

Flowers. — N.  B.  Shalur,  Jas.  Hall,  Robert 
Neale,  Chas.  Pat  ton,  TIios.  Salter. 

Vegetables. — John  P.  Foote,  A.  Worthing- 
ton,  Rob't.  M.  Moore,  Geo.  Graham,  Henry 
Ives. 

Library. — Jno.  P.  Foote,  Jno.  A.  Warder 
Jno.  G.  Anthony. 


Adrian,  (Mich.)  Hort.  Society. — At  a  re- 
cent meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Adrian,  a  Hor- 
ticultural Society  was  formed,  and  D.  K.  Un- 
DERAvooD  was  choscu  President;  L.  G.  Berry 
Vice-President;  P.  Raymond,  Treasurer;  F. 
R.  Stebbins  Secretary. 


Rome  IIort.  Society. — At  a  meeting  of 
gentlemen  interested  in  Horticultural  opera- 
tions, held  April  19th,  a  Horticultural  Asso- 
ciation was  formed ;  and  the  following  officers 
were  elected  for  the  present  year:  President, 
Edward  Huntington;  Vice  President,  H.  C. 
Vogell;  Secretary ,C.  P.  Grosvenor;  Treasurer, 
J,  A.  Dudley;  Trustees,  Alva  Mudge,  Jay 
Hatheway,  J.  Stryker,  Ilervey  Brayton,  B. 
Leonard. 


!^\imm  ta  CnrrrsjinnkntH. 

Fruit  Tree  Seeds.— D.  ji.  Carley,  (Dun- 
dee, 111.)  Pour  some  milk- warm  water  over  the 
apple,  pear  and  other  seeds,  lately  received  by 
you  in  a  dry  state;  let  it  stand  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  then  pour  hot  water,  (just  so  hot  that 
you  can  barely  keep  your  hand  in  it,)  over 
them,  and  let  it  remain  an  hour.  Then  plant 
them.  If  you  can  cover  the  drills  in  which 
you  plant,  (after  you  have  covered  the  seeds  to 
the  usual  depth — half  an  inch) — with  about 
half  an  inch  of  spent  tan,  or  what  is  much  bet- 
ter, very  rotten  manure,  or  decayed  leaf  mould 
from  the  woods,  you  will  greatly  promote  their 
vegetation  and  after-growth.  The  seeds  that 
are  in  pomace  should  be  separated  from  it  by 


washing,  and  it  would  have  been  much  better 
done  lust  fall  than  now.  Afterwards,  jtlant  in 
tlie  same  way.  The  wild  plum,  crab  and  thorns 
which  you  speak  of,  will  answer  pretty  well  as 
stocks ;  but  they  do  not  generally  do  so  well  as 
seedling  stocks  more  akin  to  the  sorts  to  be 
worked  on  tliem. 

Books.— D.  M.  J.,  (Carlisle,  Pa.)  The  oest 
general  treatise  is  Loudon's  Encyclopedia  of 
Gardening.  For  hardy  garden  culture,  Lou- 
don's Suburban  Horticulturist.  Buist's  Flow- 
er Garden  Directory  will  give  you  much  useful 
and  practical  information  on  the  culture  of  hot- 
house and  green-house  plants.  (Your  other 
queries  are  answered  by  letter.)  ^  Subscriber, 
(Mount  Pleasant,  Iowa.)  Procure  Buist's 
Flower  Garden  Directory,  and  our  Fruit  Trees 
of  America,  which  will  give  you  the  desired 
information. 

Special  Culture.  —  Rachel  W.  Morris. 
(Wellsboro.)  The  curled  leaves  and  unhealthy 
habit  of  the  snowballs,  of  which  you  complain, 
are  the  work  of  an  insect.  It  is  perhaps  too 
late  to  effectually  get  rid  of  the  trouble  this  sea- 
son— but  if  you  will  manure  the  plants  thorough- 
ly next  fall,  cut  out  all  the  old  wood,  and  prune 
and  shorten  back  the  new  shoots  till  the  plants 
are  pretty  thin  and  open,  and  then,  as  soon  as 
the  leaves  begin  to  unfold,  shower  them  once  a 
week  for  three  weeks,  with  tobacco  water,  you 
will  get  rid  of  the  pest — and  once  well  rid  of  it, 
you  will  probably  have  no  further  trouble.  Left 
in  undisturbed  possession,  it  lays  its  eggs  and 
provides  a  new  colony  of  depredators  every  sea- 
son. Your  heliotropes,  probably,  do  not  Hower 
In  winter,  because  you  plant  them  out  and  al- 
low them  to  bloom  all  summer.  To  bloom  well 
ii)  winter,  they  should  be  kept  in  pots  all  the 
year,  and  shifted  in  fresh  soil  in  September — 
so  as  to  make  new  growth  when  you  wish  them 
to  bloom.  Jl.  S.,  (Iowa.)  Box  may  be  readi- 
ly propagated  from  seed,  but  we  never  heard 
of  any  being  produced  in  this  country.  Few 
plants,  however,  grow  so  freely  from  slips,  if 
you  will  only  take  pains  to  pound  the  earth 
quite  hard  about  the  base  of  the  cuttings  when 
you  plant  them. 

Durable   Wash   for  Brick  Wai,ls,— W^, 
Riley,  ( Alma.O.)  The  best  wash  for  brickwalls 
is  the  following.     Take  a  barrel,  and  slal 
carefully,  with  boiling  water,  half  a  bushel 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


fresh  lime.  Then  fill  the  barrel  two  thirds  full 
of  water,  and  add  1  bushel  of  hydraulic  lime  or 
water  cement.  Dissolve  in  water  and  add  3 
I)ounds  of  sulphate  of  zinc,  (white  vitriol,) 
stirring  the  whole  to  incorporate  it  thoroughly. 
The  wash  should  be  of  the  consistency  of  thin 
paint,  and  may  be  laid  on  with  whitewash  or 
other  brush .  The  color  is  pale  stone  color — 
nearly  white.  If  you  wish  it  to  be  straw  co- 
lor add  yellow  ochre,  2  pounds  in  powder;  if 
drab,  add  4  pounds  raw  umber.  For  other 
cheajD  paintsand  washes,  see  our  work.  '•'  Coun- 
try Houses,"  part  first,  (which  maybe  had  se- 
parately,) page  186. 

Miscellaneous. —  W.  R.,  (Ibid.)  Buck- 
thorn for  hedges  may  be  had  at  any  of  the  large 
nurseries  at  the  north,  for  $5.00  or  $6.00  per 
1,000.  The  three  most  profitable  late  apples 
for  you  will  probably  be  the  Roxbury  Russet, 
Pryor's  Red,  and  if  your  soil  is  rich  and  deep, 
Newtown  Pippin.  Plums  should  be  whip  or 
splice  grafted — they  take  root  but  poorly  if  cleft 
grafted.  Blackberries. — j1.  R.,  (Oswego,  N. 
Y.)  The  common  blackberry  might  be  im- 
mensely  improved  by  selecting  the  very  largest 
fruits  and  planting  the  seeds  in  the  garden,  giv- 
ing the  seedlings  high  cultivation,  then  selecting 
the  seeds  of  their  largest  fruit  and  planting 
again.  There  is  no  doubt,  from  the  known  ten- 
dency of  this  genus  of  plants  to  improve  by 
culture,  that  blackberries,  three  times  the  size 
of  tlie  native  sort,  and  far  superior  in  flavor, 
might  be  easily  originated  in  this  way.  Large 
Currants. — W.  Silsby,  (Boston.)  The  Dutch 
Currant  only  needs  rich  soil  and  thinning  of  the 
branches  to  produce  fine  fruit — but  if  you  wish 
to  have  it  in  the  greatest  perfection,  plant  some 
bushes,  one  year  old  from  the  cutting,  in  deep 
rich  soil,  on  a  north  wall  or  building,  andfrawi 
the  bi'anches  just  as  you  would  those  of  any 
vine.  The  size  and  beauty  of  the  fruit  will  be 
greatly  increased,  and  you  may  extend  the 
branches  over  a  large  space. 

Late  Transplanting. — H.  B.  R.,  (German- 
town,  Pa.)  Shrubs  and  trees  of  moderate 
size  may  be  safely  removed,  if  needful,  even 
when  in  full  leaf,  in  this  manner.  Dig  a  trench 
carefully  round  the  tree,  so  as  to  leave  a  good 
ball  of  earth — not  inconvenient  to  manage, 
about  the  principal  part  of  the  roots.  The 
trench  should  be  as  narrow  as  your  si)ade  will 


permit  you  to  make  it.  Fill  the  trench  with 
water — and  let  it  stand  for  12  hours,  till  the 
water  has  saturated  the  ball  and  soaked  away. 
Then  fasten  a  piece  of  coarse  cloth  or  matting 
about  the  ball — for  it  will  adhere  in  a  mass,  lift 
it  out  of  the  hole,  and  transplant  it,  tree  and 
all.  In  this  way  we  have  seen  pretty  good  sized 
trees  removed  with  perfect  success,  even  in 
mid-summer. 

"Vineries. — An  Old  Subscriber,  (Philadel- 
phia.) Your  grapes  fail  from  the  want  of  nu- 
triment. The  best  thing  you  can  do,  at  this 
late  time,  is  to  fork  up  tlie  border  and  water 
it  plentifully  once  a  week  during  the  season, 
except  in  very  rainy  weather,  with  liquid  ma- 
nure. Do  not  syringe  when  the  vines  are  in  full 
flower — but  keep  the  house  moist  by  sprinkling 
the  floor  once  or  twice  a  day. 

AVater  Pipes. — Geo.  Howland,  jr.,  (Kew- 
Bedford.)  We  do  not  know  where  the  iron 
jiipe  glazed  inside  can  be  obtained.  Lead  pipe 
tinned  inside  answers  well  for  conveying  water 
for  domestic  uses,  and  may  be  had  of  any  of 
the  wholesale  dealers  in  Boston  or  New- York. 

Sale  of  Improved  Cattle. — L.  G.  Morris's 
great  sale  of  improved  domestic  animals,  takes 
place  on  the  24th  inst.  For  further  particulars 
see  his  advertisement.  Catalogues  can  be  ob- 
tained from  Mr.  Morris.  If  required  to  be 
sent  by  mail,  the  postage  will  be  pre-paid. 


TRAILING  ARBUTUS. 

Darlings  of  the  forest ! 

Blossomiuo;  alone 
Wlien  Eartii's  grief  is  sorest 

For  her  jewels  gone — 
Ere  the  last  snow  drift  melts,  your  teinler  buds  have  blown. 

Tinged  with  color  faintly, 

Like  the  morning  sky, 
Or  more  pale  and  saintly. 

Wrapped  in  leaves  ye  lie, 
Even  as  children  sleep  in  faith's  simplicity. 

There  the  wild  ^vood-robin 

Hymns  your  solitude, 
And  the  rain  comes  sobbing 
Through  the  budding  wood. 
While  the  low  south  wind  sighs,  but  dare  not  be  more  rude. 

Were  your  pure  lips  fashioned 

Out  o{  air  and  dew; 
Starlight  unimpassioned ; 

Dawn's  most  tender  hvie; 
And  .scented  by  the  woods  that  gathered  sweets  for  you? 

Fairest  and  most  lonely, 

F'rom  the  world  apart, 
Made  for  beauty  only, 

Veiled  from  Nature's  heart, 
With  such  unconscious  grace  as  makes  the  dream  of  Art 

Were  not  mortal  sorrow 

An  immortal  shade, 
Then  I  would  to-morro^v 
Such  a  flower  be  made, 
And  live  in  the  dear  woods  where  my  lost  ch 
played.  A 

(Tribune.) 


Design  for  a  Cottage  for  a  Country  Clergyman. 


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Plan  of  Principal  Floor. 


Hort:   July,  1851 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


51  /tin  Vdmh  m  /ritit  €i3,\kxt. 

Y  far  the  most  important  branch  of  horticulture  at  the  present  moment  in  this 
country,  is  the  cultivation  of  Fruit.  The  soil  and  climate  of  the  United  States 
are,  on  the  whole,  as  favorable  to  the  production  of  hardy  fruits  as  those  of  any  other 
country — and  our  northern  states,  owing  to  the  warmth  of  the  summer  and  the  clear- 
ness of  the  atmosphere,  are  far  more  prolific  of  fine  fruits  than  the  north  of  Europe. 
The  American  farmer  south  of  the  Mohawk,  has  the  finest  peaches  for  the  trouble  of 
planting  and  gathering — while  in  England  they  are  luxuries  only  within  the  reach  of  men 
of  fortune,  and  even  in  Paris,  they  can  only  be  ripened  upon  walls.  By  late  reports 
of  the  markets  of  London,  Paris  and  New- York,  we  find  that  the  latter  city  is  far 
more  abundantly  supplied  with  fruit  than  either  of  the  former — though  finer  specimens 
of  almost  any  fruit  may  be  found  at  very  high  prices,  at  all  times,  in  London  and 
Paris,  than  in  New- York.  The  fruit  grower  abroad,  depends  upon  extra  size,  beauty, 
and  scarcity  for  his  remuneration,  and  asks,  sometimes,  a  guinea  a  dozen  for  peaches,  while 
the  orchardist  of  New-York  will  sell  you  a  dozen  baskets  for  the  same  money.  The  re- 
sult is,  that  while  you  may  more  easily  find  superb  fruit  in  London  and  Paris  than  in 
New- York — if  you  can  afford  to  pay  for  it — you  know  that  not  one  man  in  a  hundred 
tastes  peaches  in  a  season,  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  while  during  the  month 
of  September,  they  are  the  daily  food  of  our  whole  population. 

Within  the  last  five  years,  the  planting  of  orchards  has,  in  the  United  States,  been 
carried  to  an  extent  never  known  before.  In  the  northern  half  of  the  Union,  apple 
trees,  in  orchards,  have  been  planted  by  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands,  in  al- 
most every  state.  The  rapid  communication  established  by  means  of  railroads  and 
steamboats  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  has  operated  most  favorably  on  all  the  lighter 
branches  of  agriculture,  and  so  many  farmers  have  found  their  orchards  the  most  pro- 
fitable, because  least  expensive  part  of  their  farms,  that  orcharding  has  become  in  some 


July  1,  1851. 


No.  VII. 


A  FEW  WORDS  ON  FRUIT  CULTURE. 


parts  of  the  west,  almost  an  absolute  distinct  species  of  husbandry.  Dried  apples  are  a 
large  article  of  export  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another,  and  the  shipment  of 
American  apples  of  the  finest  quality  to  England,  is  now  a  regular  and  profitable  branch 
of  commerce.  No  apple  that  is  sent  from  any  part  of  the  Continent  will  command 
more  than  half  the  price  in  Covent  Garden  market,  that  is  readily  paid  for  the  New- 
town Pippin. 

The  pear  succeeds  admirably  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States — but  it  also  fails 
as  a  market  fruit  in  many  others — and,  though  large  orchards  have  been  planted  in 
various  parts  of  the  country,  we  do  not  think  the  result,  as  yet,  warrants  the  belief  that 
the  orchard  culture  of  pears  will  be  profitable  generally.  In  certain  deep  soils — 
abounding  with  lime,  potash  and  phosphates,  naturally,  as  in  central  New- York,  the 
finest  pears  grow  and  bear  like  apples,  and  produce  very  large  profits  to  their  culti- 
vators. Mr.  Pardee's  communication  on  this  subject,  in  a  former  number,  shows 
how  largely  the  pear  is  grown  as  an  orchard  fruit  in  the  state  of  New-York,  and  how 
profitable  a  branch  of  culture  it  has  already  become. 

In  the  main,  however,  we  believe  the  experience  of  the  last  five  years  has  led  most 
cultivators — particularly  those  not  in  a  region  naturally  favorable  in  its  soil — to  look 
upon  the  pear  as  a  tree  rather  to  be  confined  to  the  fruit-garden  than  the  orchard  ;  as 
a  tree  not  so  hardy  as  the  apple,  but  sufficiently  hardy  to  give  its  finest  fruit,  provided 
the  soil  is  deep,  the  aspect  one  not  too  much  exposed  to  violent  changes  of  tempera- 
ture. As  the  pear  tree,  (in  its  finer  varieties,)  is  more  delicate  in  its  bark  than  any 
other  fruit  tree  excepting  the  apricot,  the  best  cultivators  now  agree  as  to  the  utility 
of  sheathing  the  stem  from  the  action  of  the  sun  all  the  year  round — either  by  keep- 
ing the  branches  low  and  thick,  so  as  to  shade  the  trunk  and  principal  limbs — the  best 
mode — or  by  sheathing  the  stems  with  straw — thus  preserving  a  uniform  temperature. 
In  all  soils  and  climates  naturally  unfavorable  to  the  pear,  the  culture  of  this  tree  is 
far  easier  upon  the  quince  stock  than  upon  the  pear  stock  ;  and  this,  added  to  compact- 
ness and  economy  of  space  for  small  gardens,  has  trebled  the  demand  for  dwarf  pears 
within  the  last  half  dozen  years.  The  finest  pears  that  make  their  appearance  in  our 
markets,  are  still  the  White  Doyenne,  (or  Virgalieu,)  and  the  Bartlett.  In  Philadel- 
phia the  Seckel  is  abundant,  but  of  late  years  the  fruit  is  small  and  inferior,  for  want 
of  the  high  culture  and  manuring  which  this  pear  demands. 

If  we  except  the  neighborhood  of  Rochester  and  a  part  of  central  New- York — (proba- 
bly the  future  Belgium  of  America,  as  regards  the  production  of  pears,)  the  best  fruit 
of  this  kind  yet  produced  in  the  United  States,  is  still  to  be  found  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Boston.  Neither  climate  nor  soil  are  naturally  favorable  there,  but  the  great  pomo- 
logical  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  amateur  and  pi'ofessional  cultivators  of  Massachu- 
setts, have  enabled  them  to  make  finer  shows  of  pears,  both  as  regards  quality  and  varie- 
ty, than  have  been  seen  in  any  part  of  the  world.  And  this  leads  us  to  observe  that  the 
very  facility  with  which  fruit  is  cultivated  in  America— consisting  for  the  most  part 
in  planting  the  trees,  and  gathering  the  crop — leads  us  into  an  error  as 
lard  of  size  and  flavor  attainable  generally.      One  half  the  number  of  trees 


A  FEW  WORDS  ON  FRUIT  CULTURE. 


cultivated,  manured,  pruned,  and  properly  cared  for,  annually,  would  give  a  larger 
product  of  really  delicious  and  handsome  fruit,  than  is  now  obtained  from  double  the 
number  of  trees,  and  thrice  the  area  of  ground.  The  difficulty  usually  lies  in  the 
want  of  knowledge  and  the  high  price  of  labor.  But  the  horticultural  societies  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  are  gradually  raising  the  criterion  of  excellence  among  amateurs, 
and  the  double  and  treble  prices  paid  lately  by  confectioners  for  finely-grown  speci- 
mens, over  the  market  value  of  ordinary  fruit,  are  opening  the  eyes  of  market  grow- 
ers to  the  pecuniar}'  advantages  of  high  cultivation. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  advance  in  fruit  growing  of  the  last  half  dozen  years,  is  in  the 
culture  of  foreign  grapes.  So  long  as  it  was  believed  that  our  climate,  which  is  warm 
enough  to  give  us  the  finest  melons  in  abundance,  is  also  sufficient  to  produce  the  for- 
eign grape  in  perfection,  endless  experiments  were  tried  in  the  open  garden.  But  as 
all  these  experiments  were  unsatisfactory  or  fruitless,  not  only  at  the  north  but  at  the 
south — it  has  finally  come  to  be  admitted  that  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  variableness, 
rather  than  the  want  of  heat,  in  the  United  States.  This  once  conceded,  our  horticul- 
turists have  turned  their  attention  to  vineries  for  raising  this  delicious  fruit  under 
glass — and  at  the  present  time,  so  much  have  both  private  and  market  vineries  increas- 
ed, the  finest  Hamburgh,  Chasselas,  and  Muscat  grapes,  may  be  had  in  abundance  at 
moderate  prices,  in  the  markets  of  Boston,  New- York  and  Philadelphia.  For  a  Sep- 
tember crop  of  the  finest  foreign  grapes,  the  heat  of  the  sun  accumulated  in  one  of  the 
so  called  cold  vineries — (i.  e. — a  vinery  without  artificial  heat,  and  the  regular  tempe- 
rature insured  by  the  vinery  itself,)  are  amply  sufficient.  A  cold  vinery  is  construct- 
ed at  so  moderate  a  cost,  that  it  is  now  fast  becoming  the  appendage  of  every  good 
garden,  and  some  of  our  wealthiest  amateurs,  taking  advantage  of  our  bright  and  sunny 
climate,  have  grapes  on  their  tables  from  April  to  Christmas — the  earlier  crops  forced 
— the  late  ones  slightly  retarded  in  cold  vineries.  From  all  that  we  saw  of  the  best 
private  gardens  in  England,  last  summer,  we  are  confident  that  we  raise  foreign  grapes 
under  glass  in  the  United  States,  of  higher  flavor,  and  at  far  less  trouble,  than  they 
are  usually  produced  in  England.  Indeed,  we  have  seen  excellent  Black  Ilam- 
burghs  grown  in  a  large  pit  made  by  covering  the  vines  trained  on  a  high  board  fence, 
with  the  common  sash  of  a  large  hot-bed. 

On  the  Ohio,  the  native  grapes — especially  the  Catawba — have  risen  to  a  kind  of 
national  importance.  The  numerous  vineries  which  border  that  river,  particularly 
about  Cincinnati,  have  begun  to  yield  abundant  vintages  of  pure  light  wine,  which 
takes  rank  Avith  foreign  wine  of  established  reputation,  and  commands  a  high  price  in 
the  market.  Now  that  the  Ohio  is  certain  to  give  us  Hock  and  Claret,  what  we  hear 
of  the  grapes  and  wine  of  Texas  and  New-Mexico,  leads  us  to  believe  that  the  future 
vineyards  of  New-AVorld  Sherry  and  Madeira  may  spring  up  in  that  quarter  of  our 
widely  extended  country. 

New--Jersey,  so  long  famous  for  her  prolific  peach  orchards,  begins  to  show  the  ef- 

of  a  careless  system  of  culture.       Every  year,  the  natural  elements  of  the 
dful  to  the  production  of  the  finest  peaches,  are  becoming  scarcer  and  scarcer 


A  FEW  WORDS  ON  FRXnT  CULTURE. 

nothing  but  deeper  cultivation,  and  a  closer  attention  to  the  inorganic  necessities  of 
vegetable  growth,  -will  enable  the  orchardists  of  that  state  long  to  hold  their  ground  in 
the  production  of  good  fruit.  At  the  present  moment,  the  peaches  of  Cincinnati  and 
Rochester  are  far  superior,  both  in  beauty  and  flavor,  to  those  of  New- York  market 
— though  in  quantity  the  latter  beats  the  world.  The  consequence  is,  that  we  shall 
soon  find  the  peaches  of  Lake  Ontario  outselling  those  of  Long-Island  and  New-Jer- 
sey in  the  same  market,  unless  the  orchardists  of  the  latter  state  abandon  Malagatunes 
and  the  yellows,  and  shallow  ploughing. 

The  fruit  that  most  completely  baffles  general  cultivation  in  the  United  States,  is 
the  plum.  It  is  a  tree  that  grows  and  blossoms  well  enough  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try— but  almost  everywhere  it  has  for  its  companion  the  curculio,  the  most  destructive 
and  the  least  vulnerable  of  all  enemies  to  fniit.  In  certain  parts  of  the  Hudson,  of 
central  New-York,  and  at  the  west,  where  the  soil  is  a  stiff  fat  clay,  the  curculio  finds 
such  poor  quarters  in  the  soil,  and  the  tree  thrives  so  well,  that  the  fruit  is  most  deli- 
cious. But  in  light,  sandy  soils  its  culture  is  only  an  aggravation  to  the  gardener. 
In  such  sites,  here  and  there  only  a  tree  escapes,  which  stands  in  some  pavement  or 
some  walk  forever  hard  by  the  pressure  of  constant  passing.  No  method  has  proved 
effectual  but  placing  the  trees  in  the  midst  of  the  pig  and  poultry-yard — and  notwith- 
standing the  numerous  remedies  that  have  been  proposed  in  our  pages  since  the  com- 
mencement of  this  work,  this  proves  the  only  one  that  has  not  failed  more  frequently 
than  it  has  succeeded. 

The  multiplication  of  insects  seems  more  rapid,  if  possible,  than  that  of  gardens 
and  orchards  in  this  country.  Everywhere  the  culture  of  fruit  appears,  at  first  sight, 
the  easiest  possible  matter,  and  really  would  be,  were  it  not  for  some  insect  pest  that 
stands  ready  to  devour  and  destroy.  In  countries  where  the  labor  of  women  and 
children  is  applied,  at  the  rate  of  a  few  cents  a  day,  to  the  extermination  of  insects,  it 
is  comparatively  easy  to  keej)  the  latter  under  control.  But  nobody  can  afford  to  catch 
the  curculios  and  other  beetles  at  the  price  of  a  dollar  a  day  for  labor.  The  entomo- 
logists ought,  therefore,  to  explain  to  us  some  natural  laws  which  have  been  violated 
to  bring  upon  us  such  an  insect  scourge — or  at  least  point  out  to  us  some  cheap  way 
of  calling  in  nature  to  our  aid,  in  getting  rid  of  the  vagrants.  For  our  own  part,  we 
fully  believe  that  it  is  to  the  gradual  decrease  of  small  birds — ^partly  from,  the  destruc- 
tion of  our  forests,  but  mainly  from  the  absence  of  laws  against  that  vagabond  race  of 
unfledged  sportsmen  who  shoot  sparrows  when  they  ought  to  be  planting  corn,  that 
this  inordinate  increase  of  insects  is  to  be  attributed.  Nature  intended  the  small  birds 
to  be  maintained  by  the  destruction  of  insects,  and  if  the  former  are  wantonly  destroy- 
ed, our  crops,  both  of  the  field  and  gardens,  must  pay  the  penalty.  If  the  boys  must 
indulge  their  spirit  of  liberty  by  shooting  soviething  innocent,  it  would  be  better  for 
us  husbandmen  and  gardeners  to  subscribe  and  get  some  French  masters  of  the  arts 
of  domestic  sports,  to  teach  them  how  to  bring  their  light  artillery  to  bear  upon  Bull- 
frogs. It  would  be  a  gain  to  the  whole  agricultural  community — of  more  national 
importance  than  the  preservation  of  the  larger  birds  by  the  game  laws 


A  GLIMPSE  AT  THE  GARDENS  OF  RIO. 

We  may  be  expected  to  say  a  word  or  two  here  respecting  the  result  of  the  last  five 
years  on  pomology  in  the  United  States.  The  facts  are  so  well  known  that  it  seems 
hardl}'  necessai*y.  There  has  never  been  a  period  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  when 
so  much  attention  has  been  paid  to  fruit  and  fruit  culture.  The  rapid  increase  of  nur- 
series, the  enormous  sales  of  fruit  trees,  the  publication  and  dissemination  of  work 
after  work  upon  fruits  and  fruit  culture,  abundantly  prove  this  assertion.  The  pomolo- 
gical  congress  which  held  its  third  session  last  year  in  Cincinnati,  and  which  meets 
again  this  autumn  in  Philadelphia,  has  done  much,  and  will  do  more  towards  general- 
ising our  pomological  knowledge  for  the  country  generally.  During  the  last  ten  years 
almost  every  fine  fruit  known  in  Europe  has  been  introduced,  and  most  of  them  have 
been  proved  in  this  country.  The  result,  on  the  whole,  has  been  below  the  expec- 
tation ;  a  few  very  fine  sorts  admirably  adapted  to  the  country ;  a  great  number  of 
indifferent  quality ;  many  absolutely  worthless.  This,  naturally,  makes  pomolo- 
gists  and  fruit  growers  less  anxious  about  the  novelties  of  the  nurseries  abroad — 
and  more  desirous  of  originating  first  rate  varieties  at  home.  The  best  lesson  learn- 
ed from  the  discussions  in  the  Pomological  Congress — where  the  experience  of  the 
most  practical  fruit  growers  of  the  country  is  brought  out — is,  that  for  every  state, 
or  every  distinct  district  of  country,  there  must  be  found  or  produced  its  improved  in- 
digenous varieties  of  fruit — varieties  born  on  the  soil,  inured  to  the  climate,  and  there- 
fore best  adapted  to  that  given  locality.  So  that  after  gathering  a  few  kernels  of  wheat 
out  of  bushels  of  chaff,  American  horticulturists  feci,  at  the  present  moment,  as  if  the 
best  promise  of  future  excellence,  either  in  fruits  or  practical  skill,  lay  in  applying  all 
our  knowledge  and  power  to  the  study  of  our  own  soil  and  climate,  and  in  helping 
nature  to  perform  the  problem  of  successful  cultivation,  by  hints  drawn  from  the  facts 
iminediately  around  us. 


A   GLIMPSE   AT   THE    GARDENS    OF   RIO. 

BY  W.  J.  H.,  LOCK-HAVEN,  PA. 

Dear  Horticulturist — Allow  a  new  but  gratified  subscriber  to  encumber  a  few  pages 
of  your  incomparable  monthly,  in  endeavoring  to  describe  some  of  the  beauties  of  a 
tropical  climate,  as  seen  during  a  recent  voyage  round  the  world. 

Brazil  is  beyond  doubt  the  loveliest  country  on  this  continent,  and  I  think  can  scarcely 
be  surpassed  by  any  other  in  the  world.  Rio  de  Janeiro,  with  a  motley  population  of  two 
hundred  thousand,  boasts,  and  justly  too,  of  her  public  and  private  gardens,  but  it  is  of 
the  former  we  are  about  to  Avrite.  They  are  called  the  Imperial  and  the  Botanical  Gar- 
dens, and  are  greatly  resorted  to  by  the  citizens,  who  are  real  lovers  of  nature;  and  a 
stranger  is  told  here,  as  they  are  by  the  Italians  "  who  has  not  seen  Rome,  (i.e.  in  Rio 
the  gardens)  has  seen  nothing."  They  are  indeed  well  worth  a  visit,  and  I  shall  never 
forget  the  impression  they  made  on  me  when  I  saw  them  for  the  first  time,  having  just 
left  our  snow-clad  country,  and  our  friends  shivering  in  a  March  wind,  to  be  thus  sud 
denly  translated  to  this  earthly  paradise. 

Having  selected  a  carriage,  from  the  hundreds  congregated  about  the  palace,  the  dr 


TREE  P^ONY  GARDENS  IN  CHINA. 

or  more  properly  postillion,  being  remarkable  for  bis  gaudy  livery  and  big  boots,  our  sable 
Jebu  was  persuaded  to  transfer  bimself  from  a  recumbent  position  inside  the  carriage,  to 
his  saddle,  and  after  some  delay,  off  we  started,  our  ponderous  vehicle  rolling  under  the 
arches  of  the  imperial  dwelling,  which  spans  the  Rua  Direta.  Soon  after  leaving  the 
palace,  the  magnificent  bay  of  Boto  Fago  suddenly  burst  upon  our  view,  its  large  waves 
rolling  on  the  snow-white  strand  with  a  sudden  roar.  Then  we  drove  through  street  after 
street,  every  now  and  then  catching  a  glimpse  of  small  but  beautiful  bays,  until  we  came 
again  to  the  beach,  while  the  small  sail  boats  at  a  distance,  danced  and  bobbed  like  white 
sea  fowls. 

Corcovado  Peak  soon  was  seen  rearing  his  sharp  and  lofty  head  to  the  clouds,  and  at 
whose  base  lay  the  Botanical  Gardens,  surrounded  by  an  impenetrable  hedge,  teeming 
with  small  white  flowers.  On  entering  we  came  across  large  beds  of  the  tea  plant,  and 
beyond,  were  rows  and  groups  of  majestic  trees  both  foreign  and  indigenous;  bread  fruit, 
cocoa  nut,  clove,  cinnamon,  (I  omit  scientific  names)  and  hundreds  of  others.  Then  on 
each  side  of  the  white  and  smoothly  rolled  walks,  stood  rows  of  the  stately  palm,  with 
their  rings  showing  each  years  growth,  and  between  them,  golden  pine  apples  nestling  in 
the  bosom  of  their  long  green  leaves.  After  spending  several  hours  in  this  beautiful  place, 
we  were  shown  into  an  adjoining  garden  devoted  to  the  culture  of  oranges,  lemons,  limes, 
plantains  and  bananas.  A  more  lovely  spot  than  these  gardens  does  not  exist  on  this 
continent,  and  after  spending  days  of  admiration  and  botanical  delight  in  them,  I  feel  tliat 
I  can  never  do  them  justice  in  any  description.  Groups  of  bambo,  nodding  in  solemn  and 
oriental  grandeur,  greatly  diversified  the  picture,  with  tlieir  refreshing  greenness. 

Delightful  cool  summer  houses,  pavillions,  and  rustic  retreats,  shaded  with  the  richest 
climbing  evergreens,  and  covered  with  myriads  of  gorgeous  flowers,  of  all  the  colors  of  the 
rainbow;  playful  sparkling  fountains,  reflecting  the  golden  lines  of  a  tropical  sun;  mur- 
muring rivulets,  flowing  peacefully  over  pebbles  and  shells,  then  leaping  down  in  minature 
cascades,  and  dashing  off  to  be  lost  in  a  beautiful  thicket  of  laurels,  make  up  the  ensem- 
ble of  this  enchanting  scene. 

Parts  only  of  these  lovely  gardens  are  kept  in  good  order,  some  portions  being  left  in  a 
state  of  nature,  and  utter  neglect.  A  more  romantic  spot  I  never  saw,  and  my  mind  un- 
consciously transferred  me  to  those  scenes  so  beautifully  described  by  the  ancient  classical 
authors,  and  good  old  Fenelon,  and  all  that  seemed  to  be  wanting,  were  the  nymphs,  and 
mermaids,  the  dryads  and  fauns,  to  give  more  animation  to  the  groves  and  streams. 

Yours,  &c.  W.  J.  II. 

Lock  Haven,  Pa. 


TREE   P^ONY   GARDENS   IN   CHINA. 

BY  R.  FORTUNE. 

Leaving  the  south  garden  described  in  my  last  letter,  I  walked  onwards  to  the  Moutan 
Nurseries.  They  are  situated  near  the  village  of  Fa-who,  about  five  or  six  miles  west  of 
Shanghae,  and  in  the  midst  of  an  extensive  cotton  country.  On  the  road  I  met  a  number 
of  Coolies,  each  carrying  two  baskets  filled  with  Moutans  in  full  flower,  which  were  on 
their  way  to  the  markets  for  sale.  When  I  reached  the  gardens  I  found  many  of  the 
in  full  bloom,  and  certainly  extremely  handsome.  The  purple  and  lilac-col 
were  particularly  striking.     One,  a  very  dwarf  kind,  and  apparently  a  distinc 


TREE  PiEONV  GARDENS  IN  CHINA. 

cics,  had  finely  cut  leaves,  and  flowers  of  a  dark  velvety  purple,  like  the  Tuscany  Rose 
of  our  gardens.  This  the  Chinese  call  the  "  black"  Moutan,  and  I  believe  it  is  the  same 
Mhich  Dr.  Lindley  has  described  in  the  Journal  of  the  Horticultural  Society,  and  named 
P.  atrosanguinea.  Another  kind  called  the  "  tse,"  or  purple,  has  double  flowers  of  a  large 
size :  this  is  probably  the  variety  reported  to  have  1000  petals,  and  which  is  said  to  exist 
only  in  the  garden  of  the  Emperor.  The  third  is  called  the  "  Ian,"  or  blue:  this  is  a  lilac 
variety,  with  flowers  of  the  color  of  Glycine  sinensis.  There  are  others  of  various  shades 
of  purple,  perfectly  distinct  fi'om  these,  and  equally  fine. 

The  double  whites  are  also  numerous  and  handsome.  The  largest  of  these  Dr.  Lindley 
has  named  P.  globosa,  but  there  are  four  or  five  others  nearly  as  large  and  double.  Some 
of  them  have  a  slight  lilac  tinge,  which  gives  a  richness  to  the  color.  The  most  expensive 
is  one  called  "  wang,"  or  yellow,  by  the  Chinese:  it  is  a  straw-colored  variety,  rather 
pretty,  but  not  so  handsome  as  some  of  the  others. 

The  reds,  (Hong,)  are  also  numerous.  Curious  enough,  those  kinds  which  are  com- 
mon in  Canton  and  England,  are  rare  here.  There  are  about  half  a  dozen  of  new  varieties 
of  reds  in  these  gardens:  one  of  them,  called  "  Van-yang-hong"  by  the  Chinese,  is  the 
finest  flower  I  ever  saw.  The  flowers  are  of  a  clear  red  color,  unlike  any  of  the  others, 
perfectly  double,  and  each  measures  about  ten  inches  across.  Altogether  I  numbered  about 
thirty  distinct  varieties  in  these  gardens. 

Nearly  all  these  fine  varieties  of  the  Moutan  are  quite  unknown  in  Canton.  This  may 
seem  strange  in  a  country  where  the  people  are  proverbially  fond  of  flowers,  but  the  Chi- 
nese are  so  machine-like  in  all  their  movements,  that  after  a  little  acquaintance  with  them, 
we  cease  to  wonder  at  the  apparent  anomaly.  The  fact  is,  the  Canton  gardens  are  suppli- 
ed with  jSIoutans  by  another  district,  which  lies  much  farther  to  the  west  than  Shanghae. 
From  time  immemorial  the  same  gardens  have  supplied  these  flowers;  they  came  always 
by  the  same  road,  and  at  the  same  time  of  the  year.  Shanghae,  until  the  close  of  the  last 
war,  never  seems  to  have  had  any  connection  with  Canton,  in  so  far  as  flowers  were  con- 
cerned, consequently  these  fine  varieties  of  the  Tree  Pseony  never  found  their  way  to  the 
south,  and  from  thence  to  Europe. 

The  Jiloutan  gardens  are  numerous,  but  each  is  upon  a  very  small  scale.  They  look  more 
like  cottage  gardens  than  anything  else,  and  are  managed  in  the  same  way  as  gardens  of 
this  description  generally  are,  namely,  by  the  members  of  the  family.  The  female  part 
of  the  community  seem  to  take  as  much  interest  in  the  business  as  the  males,  and  are  very 
avaricious  and  fond  of  money.  I  invariably  found  I  had  to  pay  higher  prices  for  the  plants 
when  they  were  consulted  on  the  matter.  The  soil  of  these  gardens  is  a  rich  loam,  well 
manured,  and  thus  rendered  lighter  in  texture  than  that  of  the  surrounding  country  in 
which  the  cotton  grows. 

The  propagation  and  management  of  the  Moutan  seems  to  be  perfectly  understood  by 
the  Chinese  at  Shanghae,  much  better  than  it  is  in  England.  Our  nurserymen  always 
complain  that  they  cannot  propagate  it  with  facility,  and  consequently  this  fine  flower  is 
invariably  high  in  price.  I  will  tell  you  how  the  Chinese  manage  the  business,  in  order 
that  your  nursery  readers  may  give  the  system  a  trial. 

In  the  beginning  of  October  large  quantities  of  the  roots  of  a  herbaceous  Peeony*  are 
seen  heaped  up  in  sheds  and  other  outhouses,  and  are  intended  to  be  used  as  stocks  for 
the  Moutan.  The  bundle  of  tubers  which  forms  the  root  of  a  herbaceous  PaBony  is  pulled 
to  pieces,  and  each  of  the  finger-like  rootlets  forms  a  stock  upon  which  the  Moutan  is  des 
tined  to  be  grafted.      Having  thrown  a  large  number  of  these  rootless  upon  the  pott 

*  A  variety  with  small  single  flowers 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  DEW. 

bench,  the  scions  are  then  brought  from  the  plants  which  it  is  desirable  to  increase.  Each 
scion  used  is  not  more  than  one  and  half  or  tM'O  inches  in  length,  and  is  the  point  of  a  shoot 
formed  during  the  bj'gone  summer.  Its  base  is  cut  in  the  form  of  a  wedge,  and  inserted 
in  the  crown  of  the  finger-like  tuber  just  noticed.  This  is  tied  up  or  clayed  round  in  the 
usual  way,  and  the  operation  is  completed.  When  a  large  number  of  plants  have  been 
prepared  in  this  manner,  the}'  are  taken  to  the  nursery,  where  thej'  are  planted  in  rows 
about  a  foot  and  a  half  apart,  and  the  same  distance  between  the  rows.  In  planting,  the 
bud  or  point  of  the  scion  is  the  onl^'  part  which  is  left  above  ground;  the  point  between 
the  stock  and  scion,  where  the  union  is  destined  to  take  place,  is  always  buried  beneath 
the  surface.  Ksempfer  states  that  the  Chinese  propagate  the  Moutan  by  budding;  but  this 
must  have  been  a  mistake,  as  budding  is  never  practiced  in  the  country,  and  is  not  under- 
stood. He  was  probably  deceived  by  the  small  portion  of  scion  which  is  employed, 
and  which  generally  has  only  a  single  bud  at  its  apex. 

Man}'  thousands  of  plants  are  grafted  in  this  manner  every  autumn,  and  the  few  vacant 
spaces  which  one  sees  in  the  rows,  attests  the  success  which  attends  the  system;  indeed, 
it  is  rare  that  a  graft  fails  to  grow.  In  about  a  fortnight  the  union  between  the  root  and 
the  scion  is  complete,  and  in  the  following  spring  the  plants  are  well  established  and  strong. 
They  frequently  bloom  the  first  spring,  and  arc  rarely  later  than  the  second,  when  they 
are  dug  up  and  taken  to  the  markets  for  sale,  in  the  manner  I  have  described.  When 
each  has  only  one  stem  and  one  flower  bud,  it  is  of  more  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  Shanghae 
nurserymen,  than  when  it  becomes  larger.  In  this  state  it  is  more  saleable,  it  produces  a 
very  large  flower,  and  it  is  easily  dug  up  and  carried  to  the  market.  I  could  alwaj'S  buy 
large  plants  at  a  cheaper  rate  than  small  ones,  owing  to  these  circumstances. 

In  the  gardens  of  the  Mandarins  it  is  not  unusual  to  meet  with  the  Tree  Paiony  of  great 
size.  There  was  one  plant  near  Shanghae  which  produced  between  300  and  400  blooms 
every  year.  The  proprietor  was  as  careful  of  it  as  the  Tulip  fencier  is  of  his  bed  of  Tulips. 
When  in  bloom  it  was  carefully  shaded  from  the  bright  rays  of  the  sun  by  a  canvas  awn- 
ing, and  a  seat  was  placed  in  front  on  which  the  visitor  could  sit  down  and  enjoy  the  sight 
of  its  gorgeous  flowers.  On  this  seat  the  old  gentleman  himself  used  to  sit  for  hours  every 
day,  smoking  pipe  after  pipe  of  tobacco,  and  drinking  cup  after  cup  of  tea,  while  all  the 
time  he  Avas  gazing  on  the  beauties  of  his  favorite  "  ^loutan  wha."  It  was  certainly  a  no- 
ble plant,  and  well  worthy  of  the  old  man's  admiration;  long  may  he  live  to  sit  under  his 
awning  and  enjoy  such  a  sight. —  Gardeners''  Chronicle. 


THE   PHILOSOPHY    OF    DEW. 

BY  M.  MELLONI. 

[There  are  few  more  beautiful  processes  in  nature  than  the  formation  of  dew,  and  few 
which  are  so  generally  misunderstood — "  The  falling  dew"  being  in  fact  only  a  piece  of 
pure  poetry.  The  following  interesting  explanation  by  M.  Melloni,  a  European  savan 
of  distinction,  is  the  latest  and  best  that  we  have  seen.  It  was  originally  published  in  the 
Compta  JRendus,  in  a  more  elaborate  form,  but  has  been  condensed  and  translated  by  Dr. 
Lindlet,  in  the  following  letters.     Ed.] 

EiRST  letter. 
M  the  experiments  undertaken  by  Wells  to  explain  the  true  cause  of  dew,  it  seems 
clear,  I  think,  that  dew  neither  rises  from  the  earth  nor  falls  from  the  sky,  but  is 


formed  b})-  the  elastic  and  invisible  vapor  which  is  present  everywhere  in  the  atmosphere; 
the  precipitation  of  aqueous  vapor  is  clearly  owing  to  the  cold  produced  by  the  radiation 
of  bodies  towards  a  clear  sky.  Looking  at  the  question  in  this  way,  leaves,  wood,  glass, 
varnish,  lampblack,  become  covered  with  dew,  because  they  emit  heat  easily,  and  are  con- 
siderably cooled  under  a  clear  sky.  Metals,  on  the  other  hand,  remain  dry,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  difficulty  they  have  in  radiating  their  heat  to  the  upper  regions  of  the  at- 
mosphere; and,  in  fact,  a  great  difference  is  observed  between  the  indications  of  a  thermo- 
scope,  when  a  vessel  of  polished  metal,  full  of  boiling  water,  and  an  exactly  similar  one 
coated  with  lampblack,  are  succcssivel}^  presented  to  it;  the  action  of  the  second  being 
much  greater  than  that  of  the  first.  The  deduction  is  correct;  but  it  must  be  allowed 
that  it  does  not  necessarily  appear  so  to  everybody.  Indeed,  Prevost,  and  Saussure  be- 
fore him,  attributed  the  absence  of  dew  on  metals  to  an  electric  force;  Leslie  explained 
the  same  phenomenon  by  a  particular  repulsion,  which,  he  said,  existed  between  metallic 
surfaces  and  watery  vapor;  and  those  who  maintained  that  dew  arose  from  the  earth,  ex- 
plained the  same  thing  by  the  heat  and  electricity  disengaged  by  the  chemical  action  of 
metals  upon  the  particles  of  this  same  vapor,  at  the  moment  of  their  passage  to  the  liquid 
state.  To  show  that  these  hypothesis  are  untenable,  I  first  take  three  thermometers 
with  graduated  stems,  and  on  each  tube  I  fix  a  small  cork  about  five  or  six  millimetres 
above  the  bulb.  This  cork  helps  to  support  the  metallic  cases  in  which  the  thermometers 
for  experiments  on  nocturnal  cooling,  are  inclosed.  The  first  case  consists  of  a  small,  thin, 
polished  silver  or  copper  cup,  like  a  common  thimble,  and  large  enough  to  contain  the 
bulb  of  the  thermometer;  the  second  is  a  tin  cylinder,  open  at  one  end  and  closed  at  the 
other;  this  serves  as  an  envelope  for  the  graduated  tube.  The  two  metallic  pieces  (which 
can  easily  be  put  off  or  on,)  are  kept  in  their  places  by  the  elasticity  of  the  coik. 

In  the  next  place  I  procured  three  tin  cups,  each  having  a  lateral  opening  near  its  bot- 
tom, through  which  the  bulbs  of  the  prepared  thermometers  can  be  passed,  while  the 
stems  with  their  envelopes  remain  horizontally  on  the  outside.  These  cups  are  supported 
by  fine  metallic  tubes,  provided  with  covers  of  the  same  nature,  and  the  whole  were  ex- 
posed to  the  air  on  a  calm  fine  night.  One  of  the  thermometer  cases  was  blackened,  and 
the  other  two  were  in  their  natural  state,  and  the  cups  were  sometimes  open  and  some- 
times shut.  Such  was  the  apparatus  with  which  I  compared  the  nocturnal  radiation  of 
silver  with  that  of  lampblack.  Suppose  the  cups  to  be  first  shut,  the  three  thermometers 
then  mark  the  same  temperature.  Then  by  opening  two  of  the  cups,  and  leaving  the  third, 
containing  one  of  the  bright  thermometers,  shut,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  metallic  thermo- 
meter which  is  now  exposed  to  the  air,  falls  so  little  that  hardly  any  change  can  be  obser- 
ved, except  with  the  finest  instruments;  while  the  thermometer  coated  with  lampblack, 
falls  very  visibly,  and  after  a  few  minutes  it  will  mark  three  or  four  degrees  less  than  the 
thermometer  in  the  closed  cup — an  evident  proof  that  this  difference  is  owing  to  the  heat 
radiated  by  the  lampblack,  and  not  at  all  to  the  contact  of  the  exterior  air,  which 
equally  surrounded  the  polished  metallic  casing  of  the  other  exi^osed  thermometer.  My 
results  confirm,  in  a  striking  manner,  the  assertion  of  MM.  La  Provostaye  and  Desains, 
viz:  that  the  emissive  power  of  metals  is  much  less  than  the  experiments  of  Leslie,  Du- 
long  and  Petit,  led  people  to  suppose. 

The  radiating  power  of  lampblack  being  100,   that  of  laminated  silver  I  found  to  be 
3.026.      MM.  LaProvostaye   and  Desains  find  5.37  for  silver  chemically  precipitated  on 
copper,  and  2.1  when   the  silver   is  polished.      According  to  the  last  mentioned  gcntle- 
the  emissive  power  of  recently  laminated  silver  is  2.94;  while  2.38  is  that  of 
silver  burnished. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  DEW. 

From  observations  made  in  1838,  lam  led  to  believe  that  the  differences  in  the  radiating 
power  of  the  polished  and  the  scratched  side  of  the  cube  in  Leslie's  famous  experiment, 
is  not  owing,  as  was  generally  thought,  to  the  diflerences  in  the  mechanical  state  of  the 
two  surfaces,  but  to  a  change  of  density  resulting  from  the  scratching.  This  appears, 
moreover,  to  be  confirmed  by  the  three  following  facts :  1st.  The  variation  in  the  emissive 
power  is  only  observable  in  metals;  marble,  jet,  or  ivory  have  the  same  radiating  power 
whether  they  are  smooth  or  not.  2d.  If  silver  be  melted  and  slowly  cooled  in  sand  molds, 
then  burnished  and  afterwards  scratched  with  a  diamond,  so  that  the  bottom  of  the 
scratches  be  compressed  and  condensed,  its  radiating  power  will  be  less  after  the  scratch- 
ing than  it  was  before.  3d.  This  same  piece  of  silver,  melted  and  polished,  has  its  radi- 
ating power  diminished  by  being  hammered  or  laminated. 

Thermoscopic  instruments  similar  to  those  described  above,  and  having  the  cases  cover- 
ed with  varnish,  black  lead,  isinglass,  sawdust,  sand,  dust  and  leaves,  constantly  indicat- 
ed a  very  sensible  fall  of  temperature  before  becoming  moist  with  dew;  the  lapse  of  time 
between  the  fall  of  temperature  and  the  deposit  of  dew,  sometimes  amounted  to  several 
hours;  a  fall  of  temperature,  moreover,  often  occurred  without  any  deposit  of  dew  at  all 
during  the  night.  This  last  phenomenon  occurred  the  more  frequently  the  higher  the 
thermometers  were  placed  above  the  ground.  By  making  your  observations  at  a  certain 
height  above  the  soil,  you  can  delay  or  entirely  prevent  the  deposition  of  dew  on  your  in- 
struments, and  prove  conclusively  that  it  alwa}^s  follows  and  never  precedes  the  produc- 
tion of  cold.  I  have  never  seen  the  polished  metallic  cases  of  my  thermometers  covered 
with  condensed  vapor  during  damp  nights,  provided  there  was  no  trace  of  fog  in  the  at- 
mosphere. 

Hence  we  see,  that  in  order  that  a  body  may  be  covered  by  dew  it  must  first  cool  to  a 
certain  degree,  and  the  reasons  why  metals  do  not  become  covered  with  dew,  is  that  they 
do  not  become  sufficiently  cold  by  radiation.  But  is  there  nothing  else  to  hinder  the  pre- 
cipitation of  dew  on  metals?  In  other  words,  is  the  feeble  radiating  power  of  metals  the 
true  and  only  reason  why  they  are  never  wetted  bj'  dew  ? 

The  following  experiment  seems  to  me  to  answer  this  question,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
refutes  the  theories  that  dew  rises  from  the  earth  or  falls  from  the  clouds,  and  clearly 
proves  Well's  principle:  On  a  tin  disc,  as  large  and  thin  as  possible,  draw  a  concentric 
circle  with  a  radius  equal  to  one-third  of  that  of  the  disc,  and  cover  it  with  a  thick  layer 
of  varnish.  Then  take  another  tin  disc  less  by  ten  millimetres  than  the  varnished  circle; 
and  having  soldered  a  pointed  iron  wire  (2  millimetres  large  and  2  or  3  decimetres  long,) 
at  its  centre,  and  perpendicular  to  it,  place  the  wire  through  a  hole  in  the  center  of  the  great 
disc  on  the  varnished  side.  The  great  disc  is  to  be  puslied  along  the  wire  until  the  two 
discs  are  about  five  millimetres  from  each  other,  at  which  distance  they  must  be  kept. 

The  discs  so  joined  are  to  be  taken  in  the  evening  out  in  the  fields,  and  left  for  a  few  mi- 
nutes in  a  horizontal  position,  quite  out  of  contact  with  any  other  bodies.  If  the  night  is 
calm  and  fine,  phenomena  which  one  might  easily  foretell  will  soon  be  observed  on  the 
surface  of  the  larger  disc. 

It  suffices,  indeed,  to  remember  that  in  the  position  in  which  the  instrument  was  left, 
the  small  disc  was  ui)permost,  and  hence  an  annular  band  of  the  varnished  part  of  the 
lower  disc  will  be  exposed  to  the  air.  Now  it  is  clear  that  this  band  will  radiate  heat, 
cool,  become  covered  with  dew,  and  will  propel  cold  and  dew  in  consequence,  from  the  side 
next  the  center,  and  from.that  next  the  circumference.  This  propagation  will,  however, 
proceed  much  further  in  the  latter  than  in  the  former  direction,  and  for  this  reason 
points  cooled  by  contact  will  cool  further  by  radiation,  and  will  become  covered  with 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OP  DEW. 

whilst  the  varnish  beneath  the  small  disc  can  only  cool  by  contact.  And  we  find  that 
the  central  part  of  the  varnished  circle  remains  perfectly  dry,  whereas  the  outer  metallic 
band  is  wetted  to  its  very  edge,  if  the  atmosphere  is  exceedingly  damp. 

But  there  is  another  circumstance  which  we  could  not  so  easily  have  foreseen.  I  mean 
the  exact  repetition  of  the  same  appearances  on  the  surface  of  the  disc  turned  next  the 
ground.  Dew  begins  to  appear  on  this  surface  exactly  opposite  the  little  exterior  varnish- 
ed band ;  a  light  whitish  circle  suddenly  appears  on  the  polished  metal,  and  after  becom- 
ing better  defined,  spreads  little  by  little,  sometimes  as  far  as  the  edges  of  the  plate  in 
one  direction,  but  never  reaches  the  center,  which  remains  quite  dry  and  brilliant  like  the 
corresponding  portion  on  the  other  side  of  the  disc,  and  the  small  circular  roof  which  covers 
it  without  touching  it. 

From  this  very  simple  experiment  we  draw  the  following  conclusions.  Dew  does  not 
fall  from  the  sky,  because  the  upper  disc  is  always  dry,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  lower 
one  is  wetted.  It  does  not  arise  from  the  ground,  because  if  the  exterior  part  of  the  lower 
surface  of  the  great  disc  is  covered,  the  middle  part  of  it  remains  perfectly  dr}"-  and  bril- 
liant. jMctals  do  not  repel  aqueous  vapor  which  forms  dew,  nor  do  they  cause  its  evapo- 
ration, as  it  is  deposited  upon  them,  since  we  see  some  parts  of  the  metal  quite  wet,  and 
othei's  quite  dry. 

The  appearance  of  the  dew  first  on  the  uncovered  band  of  varnish,  and  its  gradual  ex- 
tension to  the  other  adjacent  and  opposite  parts  of  the  great  disc,  together  with  the  fall 
of  temperature  observed  on  the  varnished  cases  of  the  thermometers  exposed  freely  to  the 
air,  prove  that  dew  is  a  pure  consequence  of  nocturnal  radiation,  which  gives  to  good  ra- 
diators the  degree  of  cold  necessary  for  the  condensation  of  the  elastic  invisible  aqueous 
vapor  which  pervades  our  atmosphere. 

Thus  far  all  the  facts  agree  perfectly  with  the  generally  received  theory  of  dew.  In  a 
second  letter  I  shall  bring  forward  others  which  are  not  capable  of  explanation  in  the  usual 
way,  but  which,  nevertheless,  are  connected  in  a  fortunate  manner  to  the  principle  of 
Wells. 

SECOND   LETTER. 

In  this  letter  I  shall  show,  as  I  before  promised,  that  although  Wells'  principle  of  the 
origin  of  dew  is  correct,  it  is  impossible  to  explain  all  the  thermometrical  and  hygromet- 
rical  phenomena  which  are  produced  during  a  calm  fine  night,  without  taking  into  account 
a  new  circumstance,  as  yet  entirely  neglected,  which  is  of  the  greatest  consequence  in  the 
nocturnal  cooling  of  bodies.  But  before  proceeding  to  this  point,  I  shall  offer  a  few  re- 
marks on  two  series  of  experiments,  advanced  by  those  who  maintain  that  dew  arises 
from  the  soil,  and  which  they  say  completely  refute  all  theories  of  dew  based  upon  radia- 
tion. 

A  certain  number  of  thermometers,  as  nearly  as  possible  equal,  both  in  size  or  sensibi- 
lity, arc  taken,  of  which  some  are  coated  with  lampblack,  varnish  and  Indian  ink,  while 
others  are  covered  with  gold,  silver,  tin,  copper,  and  leaves  of  plants.  These  instruments, 
thus  prepared  and  exposed  to  the  free  atmosphere  on  a  calm  fine  night,  indicated  at  first 
temperatures  differing  a  little  the  one  from  the  other;  but  after  a  certain  space  of  time, 
the}'  all  indicated  very  nearly  the  same  temperature.  The  experiment  was  varied — on  the 
ends  of  glass  tubes  placed  upright  in  the  soil,  plates  of  zinc,  copper,  glass,  were  laid;  in  the 
center  of  each  of  these  plates  was  a  depression  in  which  the  bulb  of  the  thermometer  was 
placed,  wliile  its  stem,  supported  by  an  iron  wire,  remained  in  a  vertical  position;  another 

ermometer   suspended   freely  between   the  plates   marked  the  temperature  of  the   air 
gain  the  instruments,  when  exposed  to  the  air  in  the  evening,  indicated  differences. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  DEW. 

of  temperature  which  afterwards  disappeared,  so  that  at  day-break  all  the  thermometers 
were  sensibly  at  the  same  height. 

These  facts  appeared  to  the  opponents  of  Wells'  principle  completely  decisive;  and  from 
that  time  forward  they  maintained  that  "  the  pretended  cold  which  is  indispensable  for 
the  formation  of  dew  is  a  pure  invention!"  But  the  experiments  of  these  gentlemen  were 
made  near  the  soil,  in  an  atmoshphere  charged  with  moisture;  all  the  tubes  of  the  ther- 
mometers were  uncovered;  and  in  the  last  experiment  their  bulbs  communicated  by  means 
of  the  plates,  with  the  tubes  supporting  them.  Now  glass,  of  which  these  tubes  were 
made,  radiates  considerably;  its  temperature  falls  and  the  cold  acquired  is  communicated 
to  the  bodies  touching  it;  the  latter  being  in  a  moist  atmosphere  cause  a  deposit  of  aque- 
ous vapor;  and  we  know  that  water  radiates  heat  and  cools  as  much  as  glass,  lampblack, 
or  varnish.  There  is  then  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that  the  thermometers  on  the 
plates  marked,  after  a  certain  time,  the  same  temperature  as  those  surrounded  with  bet- 
ter radiating  substances.  From  the  fact  that  the  metallic  surfaces  covered  with  dew  were 
as  cold  as  the  glass  or  blackened  surfaces,  we  can  only  conclude  that  the  radiating  powers 
of  water,  lampblack  and  glass,  are  sensibly  equal;  but  we  can  by  no  means,  from  these 
experiments,  say  that  metals  cool  on  calm  fine  nights  as  much  as  glass  or  lampblack. 

In  order  to  be  certain  of  the  true  state  of  things,  glass  must  not  be  employed;  the  sup- 
ports must  be  made  of  polished  tin,  which  hardly  radiates  at  all,  and  which  sufficiently 
isolates  the  thermometers  from  the  soil;  moreover,  all  the  parts  of  the  thermometers  must 
be  covered  with  metal.  Then,  the  metal  being  polished,  the  thermometers  will  give  the 
true  temperature  of  the  air;  and  when  the  casing  is  varnished,  blackened,  covered  with 
leaves  or  any  other  substance,  we  obtain  by  a  simple  comparison  with  the  polished  ther- 
mometer, the  degree  of  cold  produced  hj  the  radiation  of  this  substance. 

By  means  of  such  instruments  as  these,  I  have  found  that  leaves  of  plants,  glass,  var- 
nish and  lampblack,  always  cool  on  calm  fine  nights,  from  one  to  two  degrees  below  the 
surrounding  air.  On  looking  at  the  smallness  of  these  differences,  one  might  be  led  to 
suppose  that  the  fall  of  temperature  observed  by  Wilson  and  Wells,  and  which  amounted 
to  seven  or  eight  degrees,  was  much  exaggerated.  But  when  we  remember  that  in  their 
experiments  the  tliermomcters  for  showing  the  temperature  of  the  air  were  raised  four  or 
five  feet  above  the  earth,  while  those  covered  with  the  radiating  substance  were  close  to 
the  soil,  we  can  easily  see  why  their  results  and  my  own  differ  so  much.  For  Pictet  has 
long  ago  shown  that  the  temperature  of  the  air  decreases  rapidly,  on  calm  fine  nights,  as 
we  approach  the  earth.  This  fact  alone  would  render  the  temperature  of  the  radiating 
substance,  placed  close  to  the  surface  of  the  earth,  lower  than  that  of  the  air  in  which  the 
higher  thermometers  were  placed;  so  that,  in  this  arrangement  of  the  instruments,  the 
difference  between  the  two  thermometers  by  no  means  indicates  the  amount  of  cooling  of 
the  bod}'  below  the  surrounding  air. 

In  another  of  Wells'  experiments  there  was  a  thermometer  covered  with  wool  placed 
at  the  same  level  as  a  free  thermometer,  and  the  difference  of  temperature  observed  was 
5°, 3.  Here  the  wool  certainly  cooled  two  or  three  times  as  much  as  the  lampblack  in  my 
experiments ;  and  I  know  that  the  radiating  power  of  wool  is  not  greater  than  that  of 
lampblack. 

To  explain  the  cause  of  this  extraordinary  cold  observed  by  Wells,  we  must  first  clear 
up  any  doubt  that  may  be  attached  to  it.  It  was  for  this  purpose  that  I  covered  a  ther- 
mometer with  wool,  and  exposed  it  to  the  air  with  two  others  of  the  same  size,  one  of 
which  was  coated  with  lampblack  and  the  other  with  polished  metal;  in  a  few  minutes 
the  thermometer  with  the  wool  fell  twice  as  low  as  that  coated  with  lampblack.   A  fourth 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  DEW. 


thermometer  covered  with  au  equal  quantity  of  wool,  pressed  close  to  the  instrument  by 
means  of  a  metallic  wire,  gave  a  result  intermediate  between  the  other  two.  Lastly,  I 
covered  a  fifth  thermometer  with  two  pieces  of  flannel,  and  it  fell  still  less  than  the  last. 
These  experiments  were  repeated,  cotton  being  used  instead  of  wool,  and  the  results  were 
perfectly  simihir.  I  then  began  to  suspect  that  the  superiority  of  the  cotton  and  wool 
over  the  lampblack,  was  owing  to  a  certain  modification  in  the  radiating  power  of  these 
bodies,  caused  by  the  presence  of  the  air  filling  their  interstices. 

But  how  can  air  increase  the  cold  resulting  from  radiation.''  The  answer  is  simple.  We 
have  known  for  many  years,  that  the  nocturnal  cooling  of  a  body  does  not  vary  with  the 
temperature  of  the  atmosphere.  Thus  Capts.  Parry  and  Scoresby  state  that  on  calm  fine 
nights  in  the  polar  regions,  the  snow  was  cooled  about  9'^  below  the  air  four  or  five  feet 
above  it  when  the  temperature  of  the  latter  was  0*^ — or  25° — or  SO'^.  M.  Pouillet  has 
found  that  Swan's  down  is  cooled  7°  below  the  air  at  0°  or — 25''.  And  I  for  my 
part,  have  found  that  the  blackened  or  varnished  thermometers  cool  a  certain  fixed  num- 
ber of  degrees,  whatever  the  temperature  of  the  night  may  be.  Now  it  is  clear  that 
the  tufts  of  cotton  or  of  wool  spread  out  on  the  upper  part  of  the  bulb  of  a  thermome- 
ter, after  having  cooled  by  radiation,  will  communicate  the  cold  so  acquired  to  the  sur- 
rounding air,  which  becomes  by  this  means  heavier,  will  descend  in  the  interior  to  fall  on 
the  ground ;  but  a  certain  time  is  required  for  the  passage  of  this  air  through  the  inter- 
stices of  the  wool  or  cotton.  The  threads  then,  of  these  last,  will  be  in  contact  with  air 
that  is  colder  than  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment;  and  as  the  fall  in  this  tem- 
perature below  the  surrounding  medium  is  invariable,  they  must  necessarily  become  cold- 
er still.  This  increase  of  cold  will  cause  a  new  fall  of  temperature  in  the  medium;  the 
latter  gives  rise  to  another  cooling  in  the  radiating  body;  and  so  on  until  the  weight  ac- 
quired by  the  condensed  air  is  sufiicent  to  overcome  the  obstacles  opposing  its  exit. 

The  same  phenomena  take  place  naturally  in  many  circumstances.  Indeed,  plants  with 
hairjr  leaves  are  colder  than  those  with  smooth  ones.  The  temperature  of  grass  and  that 
of  other  low  plants  which  clothe  the  fields,  falls,  in  consequence  of  this  reaction  of  the  air, 
much  below  that  of  elevated  bodies,  because  of  their  vicinity  to  the  soil  which  supports 
the  surrounding  medium,  and  compels  it  to  remain  in  contact  with  the  radiating  surfaces. 
The  truth  is,  that  the  laj^er  of  air  by  which  the  grass  is  surrounded,  is  not  steady;  it  chan- 
ges its  position,  on  the  contrary,  in  precisely  the  same  way  as  water  in  a  vessel  over  the 
fire;  the  particles  of  air  condensed  by  the  cold  on  the  tops  of  the  blades  of  grass,  descend 
towards  the  earth,  become  heated  by  contact  with  the  latter,  and  rise  again  towards  the 
tops  of  the  leaves,  and  so  on;  but  it  is  clear  that,  in  spite  of  this  state  of  motion,  the  air 
on  the  whole  cools,  and  in  order  that  the  grass  may  be  of  the  same  constant  temperature 
below  that  of  the  surrounding  medium,  it  must  cool  more  still;  and  thus  a  gradual  cool- 
ing and  an  increasing  moisture  in  the  layer  of  air  are  caused. 

I  cannot  enter  here  into  all  the  necessary  details  to  show  how  the  frigorific  reaction  of 
the  air  explains  all  the  facts  preceding  and  accompanying  the  appearance  of  dew,  and 
many  other  phenomena  connected  with  this  interesting  question,  which  have  not  as  yet 
been  satisfactorily  accounted  for.  They  will  all  be  found,  however,  in  my  memoir,  which 
I  shall  soon,  I  hope,  have  the  honor  to  present  to  the  academy. 

THIRD   LETTER. 

My  studies  on  dew  seem  to  me  to  have  proved  conclusively,  that  if  Wells'  principle  is 
the  theory  known  by  the  same  name  is  erroneous,  or  at  least  exceedingly  incomplete, 
ght  that  I  had  stated  this  proposition  so  clearly  as  to  leave  no  room  for  any  misun- 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OP  DEW. 


derstanding;  but  on  looking  over  several  periodicals  I  think  that  it  has  been  entirely  mis- 
represented. In  short,  the  editors  of  these  papers,  having  perhaps  the  same  opinion  as 
he  who  first  among  them  noticed  my  theory,  cite  the  first  part  of  it,  and  pass  over  the 
second  in  silence;  the  reader  is  hence  led  to  believe  that  my  work  tends  only  to  confirm 
Wells'  theory  as  explained  in  all  treatises  on  physics  and  meteorology;  while  it  is  precise- 
ly to  an  opposite  conclusion  that  my  experiments  lead.  I  shall  try  to  render  myself  more 
intelligible  by  setting  out  from  those  data  on  which  the  theory  is  based. 

Take  two  pairs  of  thermometers  enveloped  in  their  metallic  case,  and  hung,  by  means 
of  metallic  threads,  in  the  manner  described  in  my  first  letter.  Suppose  that  each  of  these 
pairs  is  composed  of  one  thermometer  with  a  polished,  and  another  with  a  blackened  case. 
Let  us  suppose  lastly,  that,  on  a  calm  and  clear  night,  one  of  these  pairs  be  fixed  close  to 
the  surface  of  an  exposed  meadow,  while  the  other  be  placed  four  or  five  feet  above  the 
surface,  so  that  the  two  thermometers  of  each  pair  are  at  the  same  level. 

After  a  short  exposure,  the  black  thermometers  will  be  seen  to  descend  about  l^jS 
below  the  metallic  thermometers  beside  them.  However,  the  temperatures  indicated  by 
the  lower  will  be  very  different  from  those  marked  by  the  upper  pair;  the  difference  will 
amount  to  five  or  six  degrees,  if  the  night  is  calm  and  fine;  and  as  the  lower  pair  of  ther- 
mometers always  indicates  the  coolest  temperatures,  Ave  conclude  that  the  differences  ob- 
served between  the  indications  of  the  two  pairs  of  instruments,  arise  solely  from  the  dif- 
ferent temperatures  of  the  atmospheric  layers  in  which  they  are  placed;  and  that  conse- 
quently, on  calm  and  clear  nights,  the  temperature  of  the  air  decreases  rapidly  as  we  ap- 
proach the  earth. 

Now  the  experiment  on  which  Wells'  theory  rests,  consists  in  the  often-repeated  obser- 
vation that  a  common  thermometer,  placed  in  contact  with  the  grass,  indicates  a  much 
lower  temperature  than  a  thermometer  raised  four  or  five  feet  above  the  soil;  whence  it 
has  been  concluded  that  the  grass  is  cooled  many  degrees  by  radiation  towards  the  sky. 
*  *  *  But  it  is  easy  to  convince  yourself  that  this  conclusion  is  quite  unauthorised. 
In  short,  place  one  of  your  uncovered  thermometers  in  contact  with  the  grass,  and  let  the 
other  hang  freely  in  the  air,  at  the  same  distance  from  the  ground,  you  will  find  that  the 
two  instruments  mark  the  same  degree.  Now  nobody  would  deny  that  this  is  the  way 
to  proceed  to  show,  according  to  the  old  method,  the  cooling  of  the  grass  below  the  medi- 
um surrounding  it.  We  are  forced,  then,  to  conclude  that  the  fundamental  data  of  Wells' 
theory  are  inconclusive — 1st,  because  the  surfaces  of  the  thermometers  employed  radiated 
quite  as  much  as  the  blades  of  grass;  2d,  because  the  thermometer  destined  to  measure 
the  temperature  of  the  air  was  placed  in  an  atmospheric  layer  much  warmer  than  that 
which  surrounds  the  grass  in  contact  with  the  other  thermometer. 

The  principle  that  the  deposition  of  dew  is  owing  to  the  cold  caused  by  radiation,  is,  I 
repeat,  perfectly  just,  but  Wells'  theory  is  incorrect.  The  reason  of  this  is  evidently  be- 
cause the  influence  of  the  air  in  the  production  of  the  cold  which  is  continually  developed 
near  the  surface  of  the  earth,  has  been  entirely  neglected.  It  has  been  vaguely  said,  it  is 
true,  that  radiating  bodies,  placed  at  a  certain  height,  do  not  lower  in  temperature  so 
much  as  those  placed  close  to  the  ground,  in  consequence  of  descending  currents  which 
are  formed  around  the  first,  and  are  absent  from  the  second.  But  that  was  insufficient  to 
show  the  true  part  plaj^'cd  by  the  air  in  the  formation  of  dew. 

It  was  necessary  to  prove,  as  I  think  I  was  the  first  to  do,  that  notwithstanding  its  in- 
abilitj^  to  cool  b}'  radiation,  the  air  close  to  the  earth  contributes  powerfully  to  lower  the 
ature  of  the  plants  in  it,  by  means  of  a  series  of  actions  and  reactions,  the  causes 
ffects  of  which  have,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  been  clearly  defined  in  the  second  of  the 


ROUGH  NOTES  ON  THE  HISTORY  OF  BOTANY. 


two  letters  which  form  the  object  of  this  discussion.  Those  who  have  clearly  seen  their 
true  meaning  will  permit  me,  without  doubt,  to  save  them  the  annoyance  of  a  useless  re- 
petition, and  to  refer  the  editors  of  the  papers  of  which  I  spoke  above,  to  a  rather  more 
attentive  perusal  of  the  numbers  of  the  Comptcs  rendws,  where  they  are  inserted.  After 
which  they  will  be  quite  at  liberty  to  show  that  I  am  wrong;  but  they  will  first  admit,  I 
hope,  that  they  have  misinformed  their  readers  with  respect  to  the  consequences  resulting 
from  my  work  on  the  phenomena  of  dew. 


ROUGH   NOTES    ON   THE    HISTORY   OF   BOTANY. 

BY  A.  A.  F.,  SYRACUSE,  N.  Y. 

Though  the  science  of  botany  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  the  world,  we  cannot  but  admit 
that  by  mankind  in  general  it  has  been  deplorably  neglected.  For  centuries,  a  knowledge 
of  this  delightful  science  was  confined  within  the  walls  of  monasteries,  so  that  little  bo- 
tanical information  reached  the  minds  of  the  populace.  In  the  earlier  ages  there  were 
botanical  devotees — "herbalites,"  as  they  called  themselves,  who  devoted  themselves  to 
the  study  of  plants;  but  the  advancement  which  they  made  was  liable  to  be  lost  and  for- 
gotten in  the  dim  light  of  the  dark  ages.  All  concentrated  their  efforts  to  one  point,  name- 
ly, the  classification  of  plants,  which  seemed  to  baffle  all  their  investigations,  and  set  at 
naught  their  united  researches. 

The  oldest  mention  of  the  subject  of  plants  which  we  have,  may  be  found  in  the  Histo- 
ry of  the  Creation  of  the  World,  by  Moses.  It  was  on  the  third  day  of  this  great  work 
that  God  said,  "  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass,  the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit  tree 
yielding  fruit  after  his  kind,  whose  seed  is  in  itself  upon  the  earth,  and  it  was  so,  and  the 
earth  brought  forth  grass,  and  the  herb  yielding  seed  after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yielding 
fruit,  whose  seed  was  in  itself  after  his  kind,  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good."  It  is  re- 
corded that  Adam  gave  names  to  all  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  to  all  the  fowls  of  the  air, 
and  to  everything  wherein  was  life.  But  Milton  imagines  that  to  Eve  was  assigned  the 
pleasant  task  of  naming  all  the  flowers,  and  numbering  their  tribes.  When  our  parents 
were  cast  out  of  Paradise  for  their  disobedience,  and  were  about  to  depart  from  their  de- 
lightful home,  Eve,  in  the  bitter  anguish  of  her  soul  exclaims — 

O,  unexpected  stroke,  worse  than  death ! 
Must  I  leave  thee,  Paradise?    Thus  leave 
Thee,  native  soil,  these  happy  walks  and  shades, 
Fit  haunts  for  Gods,   where  I  had  hoped  to  spend. 
Quiet  though  sad,  the  respite  of  that  day. 
That  must  be  mortal  to  us  both.  O  flowers, 
That  never  will  in  other  climate  grow, 
My  early  visitation,  and  my  last 
At  even,  which  I  bred  up  with  tender  hand 
From  the  first  opening  bud,  and  gave  ye  names, 
Who  now  shall  rear  yo  to  the  sun,  and  rank 
Your  tribes  ? 

The  Bible  and  the  poems  of  Homer,  afford  us  the  only  vestiges  of  the  botanical  know- 
ledge in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  world.      Among  the  most  renowned  of  early  botanists 
were  Aristotle,  who  published  various  works  upon  Natural   History  about  386  years 
Christ.     Theophrastus  published  a  work  entitled  "  The  Causes  of  Vegetation," 
A  History  of  Plants."     He  treated  upon  the  different  kinds  of  plants  separately, 


ROUGH  NOTES  ON  THE  HISTORY  OF  BOTANY. 


such  as  aquatics,  parasites,  culinary  herbs,  &c.;  he  also  treated  upon  their  anatomy  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  microscope,  and  advanced  correct  ideas  respecting  the  various  functions 
of  their  structure.  Dioscorides  was  a  physician  of  Greek  extraction  "vvho  traveled  over 
Greece,  Asia  Minor  and  Italy,  in  order  to  obtain  the  plants  of  those  countries.  He  divi- 
ded them  into  four  classes,  and  gave  descriptions  of  over  600;  his  labors  were  of  compa- 
ratively little  value,  on  account  of  want  of  method  and  arrangement.  Flint,  who  lived  in 
the  time  of  Nero,  protested  against  the  erroneousness  of  the  times,  and  also  published 
some  valuable  works;  his  "  History  of  the  World,"  was  evidently  intended  to  embrace 
the  whole  of  nature.  Many  learned  men  devoted  their  untiring  attention  to  botanical 
study;  a  detail  of  all  would  carry  us  beyond  our  limits.  Among  the  most  popular  of  later 
times  were  Leonard  Fuciis,  of  Germany,  aiad  TobbIxY,  physician  to  James  1st.  Gesner 
was  also  a  native  of  Germany,  of  humble  and  obscure  origin;  he  possessed  a  powerful 
and  penetrating  mind,  and  exploring  the  Alps  he  discovered  many  valuable  plants  which 
were  then  unknown.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  groups,  or  natural  affinities  in  plants.  His 
descriptions  were  reliable  and  accurate;  before  his  time  the  art  of  describing  plants  with 
accuracy,  was  unknown.  Clusius  was  born  about  the  year  1526;  his  parents  had  des- 
tined him  for  the  profession  of  the  law — but  his  decided  love  for  the  study  of  nature 
finally  induced  him  to  abandon  his  profession.  He  traveled  over  most  of  Europe,  and 
made  more  discoveries  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  than  any  other  botanist  of  his  day.  Ce- 
SALPiNiis,  who  lived  cotemporary  with  Clusius,  proposed  to  arrange  all  known  species 
into  classes,  but  his  method  was  too  imperfect  to  make  it  in  any  way  valuable.  John 
Banhin,  the  friend  of  Gesner,  composed  a  "  General  History  of  Plants,"  which  was  a 
work  evincing  great  learning.  Gaspard,  his  brother,  conceived  the  plan  of  a  work  which 
should  embrace  accurate  descriptions  of  all  the  plants  which  former  botanists  had  disco- 
vered. About  this  time  the  plants  of  our  own  country  began  to  attract  attention.  Louis 
XIV  sent  to  America  a  botanist  by  the  name  of  Plumier,  who  made  many  valuable  dis- 
coveries. He  described  more  American  plants  than  any  other  traveler  had  done.  Bota- 
nists now  began  to  stud}'  the  stamens  and  pistils  of  plants,  as  it  was  predicted  that  the 
science  would  remain  obscure  as  long  as  species  and  ge?ier-a remained  undefined;  the  result 
of  which  was  the  production  of  a  work  by  Hay,  a  celebrated  botanist,  entitled  a  "  General 
History  of  Plants,"  in  which  he  separated  them  into  thirty-three  classes,  twenty-seven 
of  which  were  composed  of  herbs,  and  the  rest  of  trees.  Joseph  Pitton  de  Toune- 
FORT,  was  born  about  the  year  1656.  He  had  also  been  destined  for  a  profession,  but  he, 
while  young,  also  evinced  a  great  fondness  for  the  study  of  nature,  and  finally  devoted 
himself  exclusively  to  it.  He  traveled  over  the  Alps  and  Pyrenees  collecting  many  new 
flowering  treasures.  It  will  be  observed,  that  up  to  this  time  the  endeavors  of  botanists 
were  mainly  directed  to  the  discovery  of  some  mode  of  classification.  Investigating  minds 
now  began  to  study  their  anatomy  and  physiokgy,  which  had  been  totally  neglected  since 
the  days  of  the  Greek  naturalists.  It  was  at  this  period  that  the  microscope  was  inven- 
ted, which  threw  much  additional  light  upon  the  subject.  As  yet,  however,  the  science 
of  botany  lay  in  scattered  fragments  of  various  contending  sj-stems.  Much  labor  had  been 
bestowed,  and  many  facts  collected,  but  there  was  no  central  point  around  which  their  in- 
formation could  be  gathered.  Charles  Von  Linn.eus  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest 
botanist  in  the  world,  for  it  was  through  his  system  that  all  others  have  originated.  He 
was  born  in  the  j-ear  1707.  His  father  was  a  clergyman,  and  had  designed  his  son  for  the 
same  sa-cred  office,  but  seeing  him  leave  his  books  and  ramble  in  the  fields  in  search  of 
s,  he  inferred  that  he  was  a  weak  mind,  unfit  for  close  investigation,  and  was  about 
him  to  some  mechanical  employment,  when  some  discerning  persons,  perceiving  his 


A  COTTAGE  FOR  A  COUNTRY  CLERGYMAN. 


devotion  to  the  study  of  nature,  placed  him  in  a  situation  favorable  to  the  development  of 
his  peculiar  talent.  Linn^us  formed  anew  the  science  of  botany — he  defined  every  piant 
with  precision,  and  gave  it  an  appropriate  name.  He  studied  the  stamens  and  pistils,  be- 
lieving, as  he  did,  that  no  plant  could  be  destitute  of  them;  the  result  of  his  investigations 
was  the  production  of  his  beautiful  arrangement  called  the  "  Artifical  Method." 

Among  the  first  of  moderners  who  investigated  the  internal  structure  of  plants,  were 
Greer,  Leuenhoek,  and  Camerarius. 

Messrs.  Lindley  and  Loudon,  of  England,  have  published  many  valuable  works,  and 
given  an  increased  impulse  to  the  advancement  of  our  educed  science.  Drs.  Torret  and 
Grax,  of  our  own  country,  have  done  much  in  perfecting  our  present  system  of  botany. 
Dr.  Gray's  Manual  of  Botany  is  the  best  in  use  in  America;  his  Botanical  Text  Book  is 
the  clearest  exposition  of  vegetable  physiology  that  I  have  ever  seen,  and  is,  I  believe,  the 
American  standard.  There  are  many  other  celebrated  botanists  of  our  age,  who  have  done 
much  to  increase  taste  for  our  science,  and  to  remove  the  obstacles  which  have  so  long  de- 
barred us  from  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  the  noblest  of  nature's  works.  Botany  rests 
now  on  a  solid  foundation,  and  no  other  science  can  boast  of  more  firm  and  true  advocates 
than  it;  and  it  is  hoped  that  as  discoveries  are  made,  they  will  cluster  around  the  princi- 
ciples  already  established,  each  taking  its  proper  place  in  the  various  departments  now  ar- 
ranged for  the  reception  of  scientific  truths.  Augustus  A.  Fahnestock. 


A  COTTAGE  FOR  A  COUNTRY  CLERGYMAN. 

[SEE   FRONTISPIECE.] 

We  noticed  with  delight  in  Great  Britain,  that  among  the  warmest  devotees  of  horti- 
culture and  rural  taste  generally,  are  the  country  clergymen.  Their  homes  are  always 
pictures  of  comfort,  snugness,  and  beauty,  and  thus  exercise  a  more  powerful  influence 
in  disseminating  a  love  of  rural  life  and  domestic  enjoyment  among  the  agricultural  popu- 
lation than  the  castles  and  mansions  of  the  great  proprietors. 

Little  by  little,  something  of  the  same  tastes  are  growing  up  in  this  countiy.  We  received 
a  letter  lately  from  a  clergyman  in  Worcester  county,  Mass.,  (whose  name  he  would  pre- 
fer withheld,)  soliciting  some  assistance  in  the  plan  of  his  house.  His  letter  contained  a 
sketch  of  what  he  considered  the  essential  features  of  the  plan,  and  as  we  have  always  found 
that  a  home  is  most  conveniently  arranged  when  the  architect  proceeds  upon  the  ascertain- 
ed and  acknowledged  wants  of  the  family,  or  the  class  of  families  for  whose  use  it  is  in- 
tended, we  have  in  modifying  and  re-arranging  the  cottage  for  our  friend,  the  country 
clergyman  in  Massachusetts,  adhered  pretty  closely  to  his  own  sketch  of  the  principal 
floor — only  varying  it  where  it  could  be  improved. 

As  his  letter  will  explain  his  wants  and  those  of  many  who  are  situated  like  him,  we 
print  the  following  extract  from  it,  for  the  benefit  of  our  readers,  in  order  that  they  may 
see  the  real  requirements  of  such  a  family. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — In  the  "  Horticulturist,"  to  which  I  have  become  a  subscriber, 
I  find  a  few  pages  devoted  to  answering  the  questions  and  relieving  the  difficulties  of  your 
correspondents.  Following  their  example,  will  you  alloAV  me  to  detain  you  a  moment 
with  a  statement  of  my  troubles,  with  the  hope  that  you  may  give  me  a  little  assistance — 
not,  at  present,  in  respect  to  plants — but  houses. 

I  recently  purchased,  and  have  read  with  much  interest,  your  volume  upon  "  Cott 

________ 


A  COTTAGE  FOR  A  COUNTRY  CLERGYMAN. 

Residences."  I  have  been  wishing  to  procure  a  home — one  however,  plain  and  simple  in 
its  character,  that  might  yet  have  something  attractive  about  it,  above  the  appearance  of 
the  unsightly  fobrics  that  are  too  often  classed  under  the  head  of  houses.  And  I  turned 
over  the  pages  of  your  volume  in  eager  hope  of  finding  something  that  would  be  adapted 
to  my  wants,  and  that  would  be  so  economical  in  its  construction,  that  it  might  be  made 
available  for  the  comfort  and  convenience  of  a  poor  country  clergyman,  in  the  condition 
of  him  who  addresses  you.  There  were  many  of  those  snug  cottages  that  charmed 
me,  but  I  could  not  find  in  them  what  I  cannot  do  without — a  study.  It  was  only  in  the 
more  expensive  structures,  the  cost  of  which  places  them  wholly  beyond  my  hope  of  pos- 
session, that  the  "  library"  found  a  place.  With  the  expectation  that  others  will  aid  me 
in  the  erection  of  a  house,  from  absolute  necessity,  I  wish  to  restrict  myself  to  the  least 
possible  outlay.  Yet  I  have  felt  that  the  most  modest  residence  might  have  something  of 
true  beauty  in  its  character,  and  that  there  was  no  need  in  any  structure,  of  sinning 
against  architectural  propriety  and  law.  I  dare  not  think  of  having  a  house  that  shall  cost 
much  above  ,^1,100  or  $1,200,  for  I  can  ill  afford  to  pay  the  rent  of  one  that  shall  much 
exceed  that  cost.''  But  is  it  impossible  that  for  about  that  sum  we  may  be  furnished  with 
the  conveniences  we  need?  We  have  in  prospect  of  possession,  a  little  bit  of  land,  but 
half  an  acre,  fronting  to  the  south  upon  the  road,  which  runs  east  and  west.  To  the  west 
and  south-west  we  shall  have  a  fine  prospect,  which  we  wish  to  enjoy  by  bringing  the 
rooms  mostly  occupied  upon  that  side  of  the  house.  The  rooms  we  desire  upon  the  first 
floor  are  a  kitchen,  sitting-room,  bed-room,  study,  parlor,  and  pantries,  etc.  We  wish  to 
place  the  house  upon  the  east  side  of  the  lot,  or  very  near  the  east  side,  that  the  garden 
may  occupy  the  other  portion.  From  your  "  Cottage  Residences,"  with  my  own  cogita- 
tions, I  have  endeavored  to  approximate  such  a  plan  as  we  need, — yet  find  it  still  defec- 
tive; and  I  much  desire  to  know  whether  it  will  meet  your  sincere  approval,  or  if  you  can 
aid  me  in  regard  to  the  defective  points.  Will  you  have  patience  with  me,  while  I  lay 
before  you  a  rough  sketch  of  my  plan — and  tell  you  what  there  is  to  me,  unsatisfactory 
about  it. 

[We  omit  the  country  clergyman's  sketch  of  plan,  which  we  have  varied  and  improved, 
though  the  main  features  of  his  sketch  are  all  retained,  and  his  remarks  upon  it.] 

And  now  what  should  be  the  external  finish  of  such  a  house,  that  it  may  be  neat  and 
proper,  j'et  without  any  showing  pretensionl  I  have  attempted  to  give  you  &  front  elevation 
with  my  pen,  but  it  has  run  wild  with  me.  I  will  try  my  pencil,  and  may  succeed  better. 

My  difficulties  are  to  bring  the  kitchen  nearer  the  sitting-room,  without  giving  up  the 
bed-room;  to  get  a  back  stair-way,  underneath  which  may  be  a  way  to  the  cellar;  and  to 
obtain  a  room  over  the  kitchen ;  and  to  know  whether  the  plan  of  such  a  house  would  meet 
the  approval  of  an  architect's  eye,  externally — or  how,  most  economically,  it  may  be  made 
acceptable  to  correct  taste  in  its  outward  appearance.  Which  of  the  styles  among  your 
"  Cottage  Residences,"  would  be  a  proper  and  economical  finish  for  this?  Poor  as  I  am, 
for  I  possess  not  a  farthing  aside  from  my  salary  of  ^700  per  annum,  I  dislike  to  be  acces- 
sory to  the  erection  of  a  house  that  shall  be  an  eye-sore  to  those  Avho  may  rightly  judge 
it.  We  have  few  houses  here  built  with  any  regard  to  good  taste.  I  appreciate  most  fully 
all  that  you  say  about  the  proper  construction  of  houses,  and  now,  when  I  am  struggling 
to  obtain  one  for  my  own  home,  I  desire  that  it  may  be,  however  humble,  an  approxima- 
tion to  what  a  neat  little  "  parsonage"  should  be — and  that  it  may  be  a  standing  lesson 
to  those  who  belong  to  my  parish,  of  the  manner  in  which  a  pleasant,  unpretending  home 
may  be  constructed — with  the  hope  that  it  may  not  be  without  a  certain  tendency 
influence  upon  their  minds,  to  an  increased  refinement  and  moral  elevation. 


A  COTTAGE  FOR  A  COUNTRY  CLERGYMAN. 


I  beg  pardon  for  so  long  taxing  your  patience.  I  should  not  have  been  emboldened  to 
address  you  thus  familiarly,  were  it  not  for  the  con  amore  spirit  with  which  you  have 
written  upon  the  subject  of  architecture,  and  of  homes.  If  3'ou  will  be  kind  enough  to 
give  me  a  little  help  in  i-espect  to  the  points  that  perplex  me — or  if  you  will  furnish  for  the 
"  Horticulturist"  the  design  for  a  cottage  for  a  country  clergyman,  that  shall  include  the 
accommodations  which  I  have  suggested  on  the  first  floor,  with  three  or  four  lodging 
rooms  in  the  chambers — and  at  a  cost  that  shall  be  within  the  means  of  us  poor  minis- 
ters— ^}'ou  will  greatly  oblige  me  and  others,  and  help  those  who  would  do  something  to 
carry  out  the  principles  which  you  have  so  ably  advocated.        Yours  very  respectfully. 

For  the  plan  and  perspective  view  of  the  cottage  which  we  have  designed  for  the  "  par- 
sonage" of  the  author  of  the  foregoing  letter,  we  refer  our  readers  to  the  Frontispiece  of 
this  number.  In  the  elevation  we  have  chosen  a  simple  cottage  style — one  that  always 
befits  rural  scenery,  and  gives  the  most  room  for  the  cost  of  any  style  that  can  be  adopt- 
ed. The  rustic  veranda,  and  rustic  trellises  over  the  windows,  are  intended  for  vines — 
but  not  merely  as  a  support  for  vines — but  rather  as  thereby  giving  an  air  of  rural  re- 
finement and  poetry  to  the  house  without  expense.  We  say  without  expense;  and  by 
this  we  mean  comparatively;  for  we  do  not  mean  these  rustic  trellises  to  be  built  by  car- 
penters, and  included  in  the  original  cost  of  the  cottage,  but  to  be  added  afterwards  from 
time  to  time  by  the  clergyman  himself,  aided  by  some  farm-hand,  expert  with  the  saw 
and  hammer.  They  should  be  constructed  of  cedar  poles — with  the  bark  on — which  may 
be  had  almost  anywhere  in  Massachusetts  for  a  trifle,  and  which  if  neatly  put  together  will 
be  more  becoming  to  such  a  cottage  as  this  than  elaborate  carpentry  work.  By  the  addi- 
tion of  such  trellis  work  and  a  few  vines,  a  simple  rural  cottage  like  this  may  be  made  a 
most  attractive  object  in  a  rural  landscape. 

The  plan  (see  frontispiece,)  is,  as  we  have  said,  mainly  that  of  our  correspondent — the 
country  clergyman.  We  have  only  retouched  it  here  and  there,  so  as  to  bring  the  rooms 
into  good  fellowship.  We  could  not  afford  a  separate  "  back- 
stairs," but  we  have  given  something  of  the  utility  of  one,  so 
far  as  the  cellar  way  is  concerned,  by  shutting  off  the  back  en- 
try from  the  front  hall,  by  a  door  at  C.  A  door  at  D,  opens 
on  the  veranda.  There  is  a  studj'  with  places  for  books,  at  B, 
(where  otherwise  may  be  a  door  to  connect  the  study  with  the 
living  room,  if  thouglit  desirable:)  a  nice  parlor  on  one  side  of 
the  entry,  and  a  living-room  on  the  other  side — which  living- 
room  has  two  convenient  closets  so  placed  at  the  side  of  the  room 
as  to  form  a  kind  of  bay-window  effect,  that  would  be  pleasing 
and  convenient.  There  are  also,  a  kitchen,  abed-room  for  the 
family,  and  a  childs'  bed  room,  all  in  connection. 


Fig.  1 — Second  Floor. 

The  door  between  the  latter  and  the 
back  entry  should  be  glazed,  to  admit  light  to  that  part  of  the  entry  behind  0.  If  a 
communication  between  the  entry  and 
the  large  bed-room  is  thought  more  desi- 
rable than  the  closets,  a  door  placed  there 
instead  of  the  closets,  would  answer  that 
purpose. 

The  second  floor  plan,  (fig.  1,)  shows 
five  o;ood  bed-rooms  with  a  closet  to  each, 
n  to  a  smaller  scale.)     Fig  2  is  a 
sketch  of  the  rear  of  the  house — 


Fig.  2 — Sketch  of  the  Rear. 


GROWTH  OF  PARASITIC  FUNGI. 


showing  the  back  porch  and  the  arrangement  of  the  kitchen  wing.  To  build  this  house  for 
the  sum  named  by  our  correspondent,  it  must,  of  course  be  constructed  of  wood,  and  in  por- 
tions of  of  the  country  where  both  labor  and  materials  are  not  at  the  present  high  pri- 
ecs  about  New-York.  The  whole  must  be  constructed  in  a  simple  manner — the  inside  walls 
to  be  white-washed  or  neatly  papered — the  first  story  to  be  91  or  10  feet  high  only. 

The  principal  merit  of  this  design  is  in  its  comprising  a  convenient  arrangement  for  the 
purpose,  brought  into  a  form  that  is  rural  and  picturesque. 


CONDITIONS  REQUIRED  FOR  THE  GROWTH  OF  PARASITIC  FUNGI. 

BY  J.  TOWNLEY,  MOUNDVILLE,  MARQUETTE  CO.,  AVISCONSIN. 

In  this  age  of  inquiry  and  progress,  it  is  surprising  that  so  little  attention  has  been  paid 
to  the  habits  of  parasitic  fungi,  and  that  so  little  is  really  known  respecting  the  conditions 
which  favor  their  growth  and  increase.  To  the  farmer  and  gardener  the  subject  is  one  of 
much  importance;  not  a  season  passes  without  much  of  their  labor  being  rendered  of  no 
avail  by  the  influence  of  these  almost  invisible  destroyers.  How  great,  for  instance,  is  the 
loss  annually  sustained  by  the  attack  of  rust,  smut,  and  mildew,  on  the  wheat  crop 
alone?  and  who  can  estimate  the  value  of  the  food  destroyed  within  the  last  five  years, 
by  the  attack  of  the  parasitic  fungus  Botrytis  infestans  on  the  potato?  Almost  every 
plant  we  cultivate  is  liable  to  be  atacked  by  fungi,  and  he  would  certainly  be  entitled  to 
no  mean  place  among  the  benefactors  of  mankind,  who  should  discover  a  means  by  which 
their  development  might  with  certainty,  and  at  will,  be  prevented.  The  powers  of  man 
may  not  be  permitted  to  extend  thus  far,  nevertheless,  there  are  grounds  for  concluding 
that  by  patient  inquiry,  and  well-considered  experiments  carefully  conducted,  we  may  ul- 
timately attain  greater  control  over  them  than  we  now  possess. 

Different  plants,  as  well  as  different  animals,  have  their  peculiar  parasites,  some  parasiti- 
cal fungi  will  indeed  prey  upon  many  different  plants,  but  the  attack  of  a  species  is  gener- 
ally confined  to  a  certain  natural  order  of  plants,  or  to  a  genus,  or  to  two  or  three  species 
of  a  genus;  whilst  some,  as  in  animal?,  seem  to  exist  on  a  particular  part  only  of  one 
species.  The  parasitical  fungus  which  is  the  cause  of  the  mildew  of  wheat,  will  not  live 
upon  turneps;  that  which  infests  the  turnep  will  seize  upon  the  cabbage,  they  being 
nearly  allied  plants,  but  it  has  no  power  over  the  potato;  yet  the  parasites  of  the  turnep 
and  the  potato  are  nearly  allied.  For  a  plant  to  be  attacked  by  fungi,  two  things,  then,  are 
required;  the  presence  of  the  reproductive  germs  of  its  peculiar  parasite,  and  the  condi- 
tions required  for  their  growth.  Hence,  one  apparent  means  of  securing  a  crop  against  an 
attack  of  fungi,  is  to  obtain  seeds  of  plants  free  from  their  parasite,  and  to  grow  them  on 
land  where  no  similar  crop  has  been  previously,  or  at  least  recently  grown;  a  second  mode 
is  to  destroy  the  germs,  if  seeds  or  plants  are  known  to  be  infected,  as  is  commonly  done 
in  the  case  of  wheat.  It  has  been  proved  experimentally,  that  wheat  may  be  inoculated 
with  smut,  by  simply  mixing  smutty  ears  with  clear  grain  previous  to  soMiug.  And 
"  Quekett  found  that  he  could  propagate  the  ergot  of  rye  by  mixing  the  sporules  with 
water,  and  applying  this  to  the  roots."  (Balfour.)  These  facts,  coupled  with  the  benefi- 
cial effects  of  steeping  grain  in  various  solutions,  indicate  that  the  germs  of  fungi  find  their 
way  into  plants  by  means  of  the  root,  or  through  the  seed  itself.  May  it  not  be  worth 
trying  whether  any  benefit  would  be  derived  by  steeping  seeds  of  the  pear  in  weak 
ine  solutions,  as  of  lime,  potash,  or  ammonia,  which  are  said  to  form  a  soapy  matter 


GROWTH  OF  PARASITIC  FUNGI. 

with  oil  in  germs  of  fungi,  and  thus  destroy  them.  In  old  nurseries,  having  a  tenacious 
soil,  and  where  healthy  pear  seedlings  cannot  now  be  raised,  it  may  be  well  to  try  the  ef- 
fect of  paring  and  burning  the  surface  soil  where  the  pear  seeds  are  intended  to  be  sown. 
If  the  burning  is  so  managed  as  only  to  char  the  organic  matter,  the  soil  might  be  freed 
from  the  germs  of  fungi,  and  its  productive  powers  at  the  same  time  increased. 

It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  these  precautions  will  in  all  cases  insure  the  safety  of 
a  crop.  The  spores  of  fungi  are  probably  admitted  into  the  interior  of  plants,  by  the 
stomata  or  breathing  pores  of  the  leaves,  as  well  as  by  the  roots.  Leaves  inhale  gases 
and  absorb  moisture;  and  how  very  minute  must  be  the  reproductive  germs  of  a  plant, 
when  the  plant  itself,  in  many  Instances,  is  so  small  as  only  to  be  seen  distinctly  by  the 
aid  of  the  highest  powers  of  the  microscope.  If  they  are  admitted  into  plants  by  this 
means,  then  it  is  an  important  question  to  determine  what  are  the  conditions  required  for 
their  development,  and  whether  any  of  them  are  under  our  control,  and  by  what  means 
they  can  be  avoided.  We  shall  have  the  surest  ground  for  hoping  successfully  to  subdue 
this  evil,  if  we  can  only  discover  the  secret  of  its  power.  I  think  it  may  be  assumed  that 
fungi  have  not  the  power  to  destroy  healthy  vegetation — if  they  had,  where  would  be  the 
limit  of  their  ravages.''  The  Rev'd.  M.  J.  Berkeley,  who  is  highly  distinguished  for  his 
knowledge  of  fungi,  has  observed  young  plants  of  Botrytis  infestans  springing  from  with- 
in the  cells  of  a  potato.  As  the  potato  tuber  is  considered  to  be  formed  exclusively 
of  matter  which  has  been  prepared  by  mature  leaves,  these  germs  could  not  have  immedi- 
ately vegetated  on  entering  the  potato  plant,  but  were  probably  carried  with  the  elabora- 
ted sap  of  the  leaves,  and  deposited  with  it  in  the  tissue  of  the  tuber.  Mr.  Berkely  has 
further  stated  that  "  it  seemed  to  him  most  certain,  from  observation  of  those  fungi  which 
grow  from  the  tissues  of  plants,  that  minute  particles,  too  small  to  be  distinguished  by  the 
highest  powers  of  the  microscope,  must  be  carried  about  with  the  juices,  and  when  fitting 
circumstances  concur,  proceed  to  act  on  the  tissue  with  which  they  are  in  contact."  What 
then  are  these  fitting  circumstances.''  The  two  tribes  into  which  fungi  may  be  artificially 
divided,  have  separate  tasks  assigned  to  them.  The  office  of  one  is  obviously  to  hasten 
the  decay  of  matter  which  is  already  decaying;  the  office  of  the  other,  I  believe,  is  to 
prey  upon  or  hasten  the  death  of  that  which  is  unhealthy.  Those  which  flourish  on  dead 
organic  matter,  appear  only  when  decay  has  commenced,  not  while  it  is  yet  fresh — a  fact 
well  known  to  many.  "  Fungi,"  says  Mr.  Soil}',  "  are  only  developed  in  those  solutions 
which  are  in  that  state  of  putrefaction  favorable  to  their  growth;  moreover,  they  do  not 
appear  till  the  solution  has  acquired  that  state."  There  must,  I  believe,  be  unhealthy 
action,  possibly  some  slight  chemical  change  in  the  fluids  of  superior  plants,  before  parasi- 
tic fungi  can  successfully  attack  and  destroy  them.  Mr.  Berkeley,  however,  whose  opinion 
i,s  entitled  to  much  deference,  considers  that  the  growth,  and  especially  the  numbers  of 
fungi,  depend  upon  certain  atmospheric  influences.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  whatever, 
that  the  state  of  the  weather  has  considerable  influence  on  the  development  and  increase 
of  fungi  in  ordinary  cases.  For  instance,  in  moist,  dull  seasons,  crops  are  observed  to  be 
alwa3's  more  or  less  affected  by  mildew.  Any  sudden  check  in  the  progress  of  vegetation, 
such  as  is  caused  when  hot  sunny  weather  is  succeeded  by  calm  dull  days,  or  by  a  sudden 
transition  from  weather  favorable  to  rapid  growth,  to  weather  cold  and  wet,  is  generally 
considered  the  precursor  of  blight,  and  favorable  to  the  growth  of  fungi.  Now,  circum- 
stances like  these  would  exercise  an  injurious  influence  on  the  health  of  the  larger  plants; 
it  is  therefore  doubtful,  whether  it  is  not  the  state  of  the  plant  attacked,  rather  than  any 
peculiar  atmospheric  condition  which  favors  the  growth  of  the  parasite 

Other  facts  seem  to  indicate  very  clearly  that  circumstances  of  soil,  situation,  manure, 


GROWTH  OF  PARASITIC  FUNGI. 

&c.,  predispose  plants  to  an  attack  of  fungi,  independent  of  atmospheric  influence;  thus 
we  read  respecting  the  diseases  of  wheat — "it  rarely  happens  that  blight,  rust,  and  mil- 
dew are  felt  in  sunny  seasons,  except  in  confined  enclosures,  or  marshy  ground,  where 
the  evening  dews  stagnate,  and  fogs  are  generated."  Again,  "  in  looking  over  a  blighted 
field  of  wheat,  we  may  observe  that  the  lowest  and  richest  parts,  or  where  it  stands  thick 
upon  the  ground,  are  more  affected  than  those  which  stand  higher."  Wheat  to  which 
manure  is  directly  applied,  is  found  more  subject  to  rust  and  mildew,  than  that  which  is 
grown  upon  a  clean  fallow.  An  interesting  instance  of  the  predisposing  influence  of  an 
excess  of  manure,  is  mentioned  in  the  Agricultural  Gazette.  Wheat  which  had  been  top- 
dressed  with  guano,  "  was  a  good  crop,  and  free  from  symptoms  of  blight,  excepting  in 
the  spots  where  the  sacks  were  put  down;  here  the  straw  was  blighted,  evidently  from  re- 
ceiving an  overdose."  Now,  all  these  difierent  circumstances  would  tend  to  make  wheat 
plants  unhealthy,  hence  the  attack  of  fungi — it  cannot  be  attributed  to  atmospheric  influ- 
ences in  these  cases;  since  wheat  growing  in  large  open  fields,  or  on  the  higher  parts  of 
fields,  or  on  clean  fallows,  instead  of  on  land  recently  manured,  or  if  plants  growing  at 
proper  distances  apart,  escaped.  The  atmospheric  conditions  under  which  the  healthy  and 
blighted  plants  were  growing,  must  have  been  the  same  in  most  of  these  instances,  but 
other  conditions  which  affected  the  health  of  the  plants,  were  not  the  same;  the  inference 
therefore,  is,  that  the  latter  are  most  likely  to  be  the  conditions  which  led  to  the  attack  of 
fungi. 

Andrew  Knight  considered  that  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  mildev/  was  the  want  of 
sufficient  moisture  in  the  soil,  more  especially  if  excessive  humidity  in  the  air,  and  low 
temperature  succeeded  warm  bright  weather.  The  pea  when  cultivated  late  in  the  fall  is 
very  liable  to  be  attacked  by  mildew,  and  Mr.  Knight  found  that  by  deepening  the  soil 
and  by  copious  watering  he  could  prevent  its  appearance.  In  a  forcing  house  he  found  it 
equally  easy  of  appropiate  management  to  introduce  or  prevent  the  appearance  of  mildew. 
"  When  he  had  kept  the  mould  very  dry,  and  the  air  in  the  house  damp  and  unchanged, 
the  plants  soon  became  mildewed,  but  when  the  mould  had  been  regularly  and  rather 
abundantly  watered,  not  a  vestige  of  the  disease  has  appeared."  The  development  of 
fungi  in  these  cases  also  was  obviously  not  dependent  solely  on  certain  atmospheric  con- 
ditions, but  partly  on  the  state  of  plants  consequent  on  the  moisture  or  dryness  of  the  soil 
in  which  they  were  growing. 

We  have  further  evidence  that  the  growth  of  parasitic  fungi  does  not  depend  exclusive- 
ly on  atmospheric  influences.  Varieties  of  the  same  species  of  plant  growing  under  the 
same  circumstances  may  off"er  greater  resistance  to  fungi  than  others,  owing  apparently  to 
some  peculiarity  of  constitution,  or  to  greater  constitutional  vigor,  or  to  the  stage  of  growth 
the}'  have  reached  when  exposed  to  the  external  influences  which  favored  the  devolopment 
of  the  parasite,  When  examining  crops  of  potatoes  on  the  first  outbreak  of  the  latest 
form  of  disease  of  that  plant,  known  as  the  blight,  or  murrain,  I  have  observed  early  va- 
rieties with  the  foliage  destroj^ed,  many  of  the  tubers  having  the  peculiar  rotten-apple-like 
appearance  while  the  parasite  had  only  just  commenced  its  ravages  on  some  adjoining 
patches  of  a  later  variety.  Instances  have  occurred  in  which  tubers  of  a  late  variety  had 
been  introduced  with  the  manure  into  a  plot  of  any  early  variety,  and  the  late  plants  con 
tinned  to  grow  vigorously,  while  the  foliage  of  the  early  ones  was  nearly  destroyed  and 
the  tubers  decaying.  If  the  growth  and  increase  of  fungi  depended  solely  upon  certain 
atmospheric  conditions,  should  not  the  attack  have  been  simultaneous  in  these  cases.'  The 
plants  were  growing  under  the  same  circumstances,  living  in  the  same  soil,  breathin 
same  atmosphere,  and  whether  the  germs  of  the  parasite  are  admitted  into  plants 


GROWTH  OF  PARASITIC  FUNGI. 

roots  or  by  the  leaves,  it  is  probable  that  both  the  early  and  late  varieties  were  inoculated 
with  the  germs  at  the  same  time,  but  in  one  the  conditions  were  favorable  for  their  de- 
velopment while  in  the  other  the}^  were  not  favorable,  and  the  difference  must  obviously  have 
been  owing  to  some  internal  cause  as  both  were  subject  to  the  same  external  influences. 

It  has  been  commonly  observed  that  varieties  of  the  potato  are  usually  attacked  as  they 
approach  maturity,  as  if  a  certain  cessation  or  decline  of  the  growth  of  the  plant  favored 
the  growth  of  the  parasite;  varieties  of  the  potato  are  not  however  invariably  mildewed 
at  a  certain  stage,  or  when  the  plants  have  nearly  perfected  their  tubers,  neither  is  wheat 
and  other  grain  crops  always,  though  generally,  blighted  by  rust  or  mildew  when  the 
plants  are  in  ear.  The  vitality  of  an  annual  plant  like  wheat,  or  of  the  potato,  whose 
stems  endure  but  for  a  season,  is  probably  more  energetic  at  the  commencement  of  their 
growth  than  when  they  have  nearly  performed  their  functions,  and  they  may  in  conse- 
quence be  better  able  to  resist  the  action  of  ordinary  external  influences  at  that  time  than 
afterwards.  If  this  be  so,  then  it  is  not  unlikely  that  different  varieties  of  our  cultivated 
plants  growing  under  the  same  circumstances  may  ofier  greater  resistance  to  attacks  of 
fungi  than  others  seeing  that  they  possess  different  degrees  of  constitutional  vigor.  This 
is  a  point  in  the  inquiry  of  considerable  interest,  whether  according  to  the  vigor  or  con- 
trolling power  of  the  vital  princij^le  of  a  plant,  so  will  be  its  power  of  contracting  the 
action  of  ordinary  external  influences  and  its  comparative  freedom  from  disease  arising 
from  attacks  of  fungi. 

Many  of  our  garden  plants  are  propagated  by  extension,  that  is  by  buds,  cuttings,  lay- 
ers or  roots  instead  of  by  seeds, — and  notwithstanding  the  "  tale  of  woe"  revealed  to 
your  correspondent,  Mr.  Marshall,  by  the  gallant  old  apple  tree,  which  in  spite  of  its  age 
and  infirmities  persisted  in  believing  that  it  retained  the  vigor  of  youth,  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  say  that  the  evidence  of  apple  trees  and  other  plants  seems  to  me  to  afford  sub- 
stantial grounds  for  coinciding  with  the  views  advanced  by  Andrew  Knight,  that  each  plant 
propagated  by  extension  has  a  limited  duration,  that  it  cannot  by  any  known  means  be 
continued  equally  healthy  and  vigorous  forever;  but  that  sooner  or  later  the  progeny  will 
gradually  decline  in  vigor  become  unhealthy  and  unproductive,  not  suited  to  the  purposes 
of  the  cultivator  and  consequently  extinct.  This  also  suggests  an  interesting  branch  of 
the  inquiry,  whether  as  a  variety  declines  in  vigor  it  becomes  more  subject  generally  to 
attacks  of  fungi,  or  if  an  attack  is  more  virulent  and  damaging  than  on  younger  and  more 
vigorous  varieties,  growing  under  the  same  circumstances. 

The  hop  is  generally  propagated  by  cuttings,  and  a  writer  who  has  raised  plants  from 
seed,  in  consequence  of  his  old  plants  dying  off,  and  the  hops  becoming  small,  and  of  a 
bad  color,  said,  "  We  write  from  experience;  having  raised  very  many  hop  plants  from 
seed,  we  have  found  them  to  be  much  more  energetic  and  vigorous  than  those  which  have 
been  raised  from  cuttings,  their  luxuriant  growth  enabling  them  to  withstand  the  effect 
of  blight."  It  is  well  known  that  some  varieties  of  the  potato  have  suffered  much  less 
from  the  blight  than  others,  while  some  varieties  recently  raised  from  seeds,  in  the  United 
States  and  Prussia,  are  said  to  have  continued  free  from  the  disease,  though  growing  near 
to  others  which  were  infected.  I  believe  the  potato  plant,  considered  in  the  mass  or  as  a 
species,  to  be  in  an  unhealthy  and  degenerate  condition;  that  it  is,  in  fact,  hcredeterarily 
diseased,  the  accumulated  result  of  maltreatment  and  neglect  in  the  culture  of  the  plant, 
operating  through  successive  generations.  This,  I  believe,  is  the  foundation  or  predispos- 
ing cause  of  the  disease;  that  the  parasitic  fungus,  Botr3'tis  infestans,  is  the  immediate  or 
exciting  cause,  the  observations  of  men  so  well  qualified  to  observe  with  accuracy  in  mat- 
ters where  fungi  are  concerned,  as  Berkeley  and  Morren,  have  already  placed  beyond  the 


GROWTH  OF  PARASITIC  FVNGI. 

reach  of  controversy,  though  possibly  not  of  cavil.  The  unprecedented  attack  on  the 
potato,  so  much  more  extensive  and  virulent  than  the  usual  attacks  of  fungi  on  other  cul- 
tivated plants,  T  consider  to  be  the  result  of  its  previously  unhealthy  condition.  If  these 
views  are  well  founded,  then  the  question,  What  are  the  conditions  required  for  the  growth 
and  increase  of  parasitic  fungi.'  has  a  great  practical  bearing,  if  considered  with  reference 
to  this  plant  only,  because  if  their  growth  and  increase  does  not  depend  solely  on  atmos- 
pheric influences,  but  is  favored  by  the  unhealthy  state  of  the  larger  plant,  then  we  may 
reasonably  hope,  that  by  restoring  the  plant  to  its  pristine  vigor,  with  judicious  selection, 
through  several  successive  generations  of  seedlings,  with  improved  culture,  we  shall  ob- 
tain varieties  which,  when  propagated  by  divisions  of  the  tuber,  will,  for  a  time  at  least, 
resist  the  attacks  of  their  parasite,  just  as  wheat,  turneps  and  other  crops  annually  raised 
from  seeds,  now  do;  further  than  this  we  are  not  justified  in  anticipating.  What  we  know 
of  the  attacks  of  fungi  on  other  crops,  forbids  the  hope  now  that  the  parasite  of  the  pota- 
to is  established  in  this  country,  (for  several  facts  seem  to  indicate  that  it  is  a  recent  in- 
troduction to  North  America  and  Europe,)  that  our  crops  will  ever  be  entirely  free  from 
mildew  when  the  potato  is  restored  to  the  highest  rate  of  health  which  it  is  capable  of  at- 
taining. And  it  is  equally  vain  to  expect,  as  many  have  done,  that  the  vigor  of  the  plant 
can  be  restored  by  one  generation  of  seedlings.  The  progeny  of  unhealthy  and  degene- 
rate parents  cannot  reasonably  be  expected  to  be  perfectly  healthy  and  hardy.  The  result 
of  upwards  of  a  century  of  mismanagement,  cannot  be  entirely  obliterated  by  the  first 
step  in  the  right  direction. 

The  fact  that  pear  seedlings  are  .attacked  by  their  parasite,  may  seem  to  many  a  serious 
objection  to  the  conclusion  I  am  induced  to  arrive  at;  but  as  plants  annually  raised  from 
seeds  are  not  exempt,  I  do  not  see  why  young  plants  of  the  pear  should  offer  greater  re- 
sistance, when  exposed  to  influences  which  afl'ect  their  health.  I  think  it  may  also  be 
questioned  whether  a  plant  whose  average  duration  is  supposed  to  be  about  400  years,  is 
not  more  susceptible  of  injury,  or  more  easily  aifected  by  adverse  atmospheric  influences 
in  the  first  few  years  of  its  existence,  than  when  in  the  prime  of  its  life.  This  seems  to 
be  the  case  with  the  Osage  orange,  at  least,— but  possibly  this  can  hardly  be  considered 
a  case  i«  point,  inasmuch  as  the  difference  in  the  power  to  withstand  the  severity  of  our 
winters,  may  be  owing  to  the  more  concrete  state  in  which  I  suspect  the  sap  is  deposited 
in  the  tissue  of  the  wood  during  winter,  in  mature,  as  compared  with  young  plants.  A 
further  question  arises  here,  whether  woody  plants,  when  once  attacked,  do  not  afterwards 
become  more  under  the  control  of  their  parasite.  The  first  appearance  of  the  fungus  on 
Mr.  Knight's  pear  trees,  caused  him  no  alarm,  it  being  confined  to  spots  on  the  leaves,  but 
in  after  years  the  young  wood  also  became  affected,  and  perished. 

The  way  in  which  parasitic  fungi  injure  plants,  is  not,  I  believe,  understood  generally. 
They  do  not  grow  on  the  surface  merely,  of  leaves,  prevent  perspiration,  and  thus  cause 
death.  They  spring  from  the  living  tissue  and  destroy  it.  What  we  see  of  the  plant  ex- 
ternally, is  merely  the  fructification — the  plant  itself,  composed  of  minute,  thread-like  fila- 
ments, spawn  or  mycelium,  as  it  is  usually  called,  is  concealed  in  the  tissue.  Now  the 
contents  of  the  cells  of  plants  are  various,  as  researches  recently  made  by  the  aid  of  che- 
mical reagents  indicate;  the  mycelium  of  fungi  has  the  power  of  piercing  the  cell  walls. 
By  thus  rupturing  the  tissue  the  contents  are  set  free,  they  are  no  longer  under  the  control 
of  vitality,  hence  chemical  action  ensues,  putrefaction  of  the  part  attacked  follows,  morbid 
matter  is  thus  generated,  which  circulates  with  the  fluids  of  the  plant,  and  gives  rise  to 
unhealthy  action 
this  matter  as  on  so  many  other  points,  a  close  analogy  seems  to  subsist  between  the 


GROWTH  OF  PARASITIC  FUNGI. 

animal  and  vegetable  worlds,  the  same  law  appears  to  prevail  in  both,  that  an  unhealthy 
state  of  the  larger  plant  as  well  as  of  the  larger  animal  is  the  essential  condition  required 
for  the  attack  and  increase  of  parasites.  "  The  different  species  of  minute  insects,"  ob- 
serves Mr.  Knight,  "  which  feed  upon  the  bodies  of  our  domestic  cattle,  are  scarcely  ever 
seen,  and  never  injurious  so  long  as  the  larger  animals  retain  their  health  and  vigor;  but 
M'hcn  these  become  reduced  by  famine  or  disease,  the  insects  multiply  with  enormous 
rapidity,  and  though  they  are  at  first  only  symptomatic  of  disease,  they  ultimately  become 
the  chief  and  primary  cause.  The  reciprocal  action  of  the  larger  plant  and  the  mildew, 
upon  each  other,  may  be  somewhat  similar."  (Knight's  Phys.  and  Ilort.  papers,  p. 
208.) 

I  apprehend  no  further  remarks  are  needed  to  prove  that  this  is,  as  you  observe,  an 
important  subject  of  investigation,  and  I  would  suggest  in  conclusion,  whether  some  Hor- 
ticultural Society,  or  the  Poraological  Congress  would  not  do  well  by  instituting  a  search- 
ing and  systematic  inquiry  with  a  view  to  ascertain  what  are  the  causes  which  lead  to  at- 
tacks of  fungi,  and  by  what  means  they  can  be  prevented  or  modified.  It  is  well  to  re- 
ward the  successful  improver  of  the  pear  and  other  fruits  as  our  Horticultural  Societies 
now  do;  but  how  much  greater  would  be  the  service  rendered  to  horticulture,  how  much 
more  profitably  Avould  be  the  money  expended,  if  a  means  could  be  discovered  which 
would  enable  us  to  grow  in  a  healthy  condition,  those  varieties  we  already  possess,  or 
may  hereafter  obtain.''  If  the  inquiry  should  be  confined  to  the  pear  alone;  the  first  steps 
to  be  taken  would  be  to  determine  the  name  of  the  fungi.  A  few  fresh  infected  leaves  her- 
metically sealed  in  a  light  tin  case  might  be  transmitted  by  post  to  the  first  authority  ou 
these  plants  in  this  country,  and  to  two  or  three  distinguished  cryptogamic  botanists  of 
Europe — say  the  Rev.  M.  J.  Berkeley  of  England,  Professor  Morren  of  Belgium,  or  Dr. 
Montague  of  France,  not  only  with  a  view  to  ascertain  the  name  of  the  parasite,  but 
whether  it  exists  in  Europe,  and  if  any  means  are  there  known  to  prevent  its  development 
or  diminish  it  power.  A  plain  and  accurate  description  of  the  disease  should  then  be 
drawn  up,  and  distributed  with  a  series  of  inquiries,  in  different  parts  of  the  states  to 
individuals  likely  to  afford  useful  and  accurate  information.  The  returns  would  show  the 
geographical  limits  of  the  disease,  the  period  of  its  development  and  its  intensity  in  differ- 
ent parts.     I  append  a  few  inquiries  which  have  occurred  to  me. 

1.  Has  this  disease  been  observed  by  you  in  the  locality  where  you  now  reside,  and  if 
so,  how  long  has  it  been  experienced.'' 

2.  AVhen  once  developed  has  it  ever  entirely  disappeared,  and  under  what  circum- 
stances.' 

3.  Are  seedlings  more  liable  to  be  attacked  than  grafted  varieties.' 

4.  Among  grafted  varieties  do  any  uniformly  offer  greater  resistance  to  the  disease  than 
others  ? 

5.  "What  is  the  character  of  the  soil  of  your  orchard  or  nursery,  and  if  there  is  any 
difference  in  the  quality,  texture,  moisture  or  dryness  of  the  soil,  are  trees  more  free  from 
disease  in  one  part  than  another,  and  if  so,  which.' 

6.  State  the  position  of  j'our  orchard,  whether  on  low  ground  or  on  the  side  of  a  hill, 
and  whether  you  have  observed  in  the  same  locality  trees  to  be  more  exempt  from  disease 
in  one  position  than  another.' 

7.  Are  teees  growing  in  damp  shady  places  more  affected  than  those  in  more  exposed 
situations? 

Does  difference  of  aspect,  as  the  north  or  south  side  of  a  hill,  make  any  difference.' 
Are  trees  growing  in  grass  less  affected  than  those  in  cultivated  lands? 


POTATO  AND  BUTTONWOOD  DISEASES. 


10.  Have  you  tried  trenching  or  deep  plowing  an  orchard  or  nursery,  or  where  pear 
seeds  were  sown,  a:td  with  what  results? 

11.  Have  you  mulched  newly  planted  as  well  as  estahlished  trees,  and  have  these  been 
more  exempt  from  the  disease  than  others  in  the  same  orchard  not  mulched? 

12.  In  a  locality  where  the  disease  exists,  are  pear  seedlings  always  healthy  if  raised  in 
new  land? 

13.  Have  you  steeped  pear  seeds  in  any  solution  previously  to  sowing,  and  with  what 
success  ? 

14.  Have  you  pared  and  burned  the  surface  soil  intended  for  the  seed  bed? 

15.  Have  you  dusted  flour  of  sulphur  on  infested  leaves  or  shoots,  or  inserted  a  por- 
tion in  a  hole  in  the  stem,  or  applied  a  weak  solution  of  sulphuric  acid  to  the  soil  around 
a  diseased  tree  and  with  what  results? 

16.  Have  you  applied  any  special  manure  to  your  trees,  which  exercised  any  marked 
influence,  beneficial  or  otherwise? 

17.  Have  you  observed  the  character  of  the  weather  immediately  proceeding  the  develop- 
ment of  the  fungi,  and  whether  in  the  same  or  different  seasons  their  growth  and  increase 
seemed  to  be  favored  with  peculiar  atmospheric  influences? 

18.  Have  you  tried  any  experiments  with  a  view  to  cure  or  prevent  the  disease,  or  can 
you  supply  any  additional  information  calculated  to  throw  light  on  the  subject,  and  which 
is  not  comprised  in  these  queries?  KespectfuUy,  J.  Townlet. 

Moundville.  Marquette  co.,  Wis. 


THE   POTATO   AND   BUTTONWOOD    DISEASES. 

Dear  Sir — After  all  the  time  that  has  elapsed  since  the  potato  disease  made  its  appear- 
ance, and  the  many  speculations  that  have  appeared,  pray  inform  me  if  anything  is  con- 
sidered as  settled  on  the  subject?  Is  there  any  well  ascertained  cause  for  this  malady? 
That  there  has  been  no  certain  remedy  discovered,  I  am  well  aware,  nor  does  it  appear  to 
me  there  is  likely  to  be,  so  long  as  we  remain  wholly  in  the  dark  as  to  the  origin  or  cause 
of  the  disease. 

The  same  remarks  apply  to  the  disease  under  which  the  buttonwood  still  suffers  in  all 
parts  of  the  country;  I  should  say,  perhaps,  such  as  are  not  already  killed  by  it.  It  is 
now  some  ten  years  since  this  disease  made  its  appearance.  At  that  time  the  plane  tree, 
or  buttonwood,  (sycamore  it  is  often  incorrectly  called,)  was  one  of  our  fairest  and  most 
majestic  forest  and  shade  trees  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States.  At  the  present  time, 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  the  trees — many  of  them  of  fifty  or  sixty  years  growth — are 
entirely  dead,  most  of  the  remainder  are  either  half  dead,  or  in  the  last  stages  of  decline 
and  debilit)'-,  and  it  is  a  very  rare  thing,  indeed,  to  find  a  healthy  and  luxuriant  specimen 
anywhere  in  the  Atlantic  states.  The  loss  of  the  plane  tree  is  not  such  a  positive  loss  to 
be  counted  in  dollars  and  cents,  as  that  of  the  potato  crop,  still  it  is  worthy  of  being  no- 
ticed, that  one  of  the  hardiest  and  most  luxuriant  of  all  our  native  forest  trees,  which  has 
evidently  never  suffered  in  this  way  before,  (vide,  the  fact  that  sound  trees  were  to  be  found 
200  years  old,  in  a  sound  and  healthy  state  before  this  malady,)  should  be  a  marked  tree, 
to  be  visited  by  such  a  plague,  while  all  the  other  trees  of  the  forest  remain  healthy  and 
vigorous.  Can  nothing  be  done  for  the  sycamore?  Will  you,  or  some  of  your  correspon- 
throw  a  little  light  on  the  subject.  Yours,  A  Constant  Reader. 

York^  June,  1851. 


POTATO  AND  BUTTONAVOOD  DISEASES. 


Remarks. — We  are  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  say,  nothing  satiafactory  has  yet  been  set 
tied,  regarding  the  nature  of  either  of  these  disease  or  the  remedy. 

If  our  correspondent  wishes  us  to  add  our  speculation,  to  the  pile  of  speculations  al- 
ready before  the  public,  it  is  at  his  service. 

We  believe  both  the  potato  disease  and  the  Sycamore  malady  to  be  not  the  same  disease, 
but  diseases  owing  their  origin  to  causes  quite  similar.  We  think  them  both  the  result  of 
an  attack  of  the  growing  parts  by  peculiar  fungi,  the  seeds  of  which  are  invisible  to  com- 
mon eyesight,  floating  about  in  the  air.  Wherever  these  seeds  of  fungi  light  upon  vege- 
tation to  which  they  have  a  natural  aflanity,  they  take  root  in  the  young  vegetable  tissue 
— propagate  themselves  and  gradually  destroy  the  healthy  functions  of  the  plant.  In  the 
potato,  the  fungus  attacks  the  tops,  but  its  decomposing  influence  is  not  confined  there, — 
like  mould — which  is  a  species  of  fungus — its  influence,  so  destructive  to  the  life-tissues 
of  the  plant,  penetrate  to  the  root  and  appear  there  in  the  form  of  the  rot.  In  the  Syca- 
more, the  smallest  and  tenderest  young  shoots  are  first  attacked — the  poison  of  the 
fungus  thence  gradually  extends  in  a  blackened  filth-line  down  the  branches,  directly  in 
connection  with  the  young  shoots,  until  at  la.st  the  whole  tree  is  poisoned — healthy  vital 
action  ceases,  and  the  trunk  dies.  The  fungus  ripens  its  invisible  seeds  in  these  decaying 
plants  and  trees;  these  seeds  floating  in  the  air  seize  upon  other  healthy  trees,  and  thus, 
little  by  little,  the  disease  extends  all  over  the  country. 

Some  fifteen  j'ears  ago,  Buttonwood  disease  appeared  at  the  South.  Ten  years  ago  it 
began  to  be  fatal  in  Philadelphia.  At  that  time  it  had  not  reached  New-York,  where  the 
trees  were  still  green  and  flourishing.  It  gradually  spread  northward,  it  has  since  reach- 
ed Canada  and  will  extend  all  over  the  continent.  The  only  mitigation  of  it  seems  to  be 
in  severely  heading  back  the  whole  top  of  such  trees  as  are  aftected,  boring  a  hole  in  the 
trunk,  filling  it  with  sulphur  and.  plugging  it  up  tightly.  We  have  known  trees  so  aflected 
put  out  a  new  head  and  recover  a  healthy  appearance  again.  But  there  is  now  little  doubt 
that  the  disease  will  exterminate  the  present  generation  of  Plane  or  Buttonwood  trees  from 
the  United  States  altogether.  It  is  a  little  curious  that  the  plane  tree  of  Europe  (^Platanus 
orientalis,')  though  so  closely  resembling  our  native  buttonwood,  is  not  liable  to  the  dis- 
ease though  standing  near  aflected  trees.  We  have  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  this 
in  our  own  grounds,  and  were  told  in  England  last  year,  that  a  long  time  ago  this  very 
plane  tree  disease  appeared  in  England  and  swept  off  most  of  the  jlmerican  species  (P. 
occidcntalis,^  while  the  European  plane  tree  remained  untouched.  Such  being  the  case 
and  the  growth  of  the  oriental  plane  being  the  more  ornamental  of  the  two,  no  one  will 
plant  our  native  species  for  the  present — but  select  the  oriental  and  especially  the  pyrami- 
dal plane  tree,  now  to  be  had  in  some  of  the  nurseries. 

The  potato  disease  has  extended  gradually  but  rapidly  in  the  same  manner  all  over  the 
world.  At  the  present  time  its  eff'ects  have  raised  the  price  of  potatoes,  as  an  article  of 
food  for  winter  use,  nearly  four-fold  in  many  parts  of  the  Union. 

We  notice  that  recommendations  have  lately  been  made  of  the  use  of  powdered  sulphur 
in  the  hills  when  planting.  If  it  could  be  sufficiently  pulverised  and  divided  by  mixing 
it  with  ashes  or  some  such  substance  to  render  its  use  feasible  in  an  economical  point  of 
view,  we  should  think  it  more  likely  to  answer  the  purpose  than  any  other  substance — 
simply  because  we  know  that  sulphur  is  the  only  remedy  for  certain  kinds  of  mildew  and 
blight — the  result  of  the  attack  of  fungi — yet  successfully  applied.  The  chief  point, 
therefore,  the  remedy  being  known,  is  to  discover  how  to  apply  it  with  practical  benefit. 

And  how  is  it  that  these  fungi  suddenlj"^  make  their  appearance  all  at  once  and  spread 
all  over  the  earth — readers  will  naturally  ask?     It  is  not  easily  answered,  the  most  pro- 


NOTICES  OF  NEW  PLANTS. 


bable  solution  seems  to  be  that  they  are  the  result  of  some  electrive  agency,  and  are  de 
posited  on  the  earth  by  its  agency.  The  phenomena  of  colored  rain,  which  has  been 
observed  and  carefully  examined  by  naturalists  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  seems  to 
us  to  have  some  relation  to  those  mysterious  and  sudden  eruptions  of  vegetable  disease. 
In  many  cases  recorded  in  the  Journal  of  Science,  this  rain  has  fallen  when  the  sky  was 
unclouded—showing  its  direct  dependance  upon  electric  phenomena.  In  1845  a  shower 
of  inky  black  rain  fell  in  a  district  in  England,  and  was  believed  there  to  be  the  origin  of 
the  potato  disease.  Prof.  Bailet,  of  West  Point,  one  of  our  closest  microscopic  naturalists, 
has  recorded  two  instances  of  colored  rain  which  have  fallen  in  this  country,  in  Sillinian's 
Journal.  His  analysis  of  this  rain  showed  it  to  be  composed  mainly  of  the  pollen  of  Pine 
trees — but  an  analysis  of  some  colored  rain  which  fell  in  England,  in  1849,  showed  dis- 
tinctly the  spores  of  fungi.  The  whole  subject  is  still  far  from  being  understood,  but  it  is 
one  which  is  taking  a  shape  so  serious  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  that  men  of  science 
should  bestow  more  attention  upon  it 


NOTICES    OF   NEW   PLANTS. 

IIabrothamnus  elegans. — We  must  commend  this   showy  and   beautiful   summer 
blooming  plant,  to  the  attention  of  our  floricultural  readers.      It  is  a  native  of  Mexico, 


and  though  as  yet  only  kept  in  green-hcuscs  m  winter,  it  is  likely  to  prove  hardy  at  the 
root  if  covered  with  a  foot  or  two  of  leaves  and  litter  at  the  approach  of  winter.      Young 
foot  or  two  high,  turned  out  into  a  rich  deep  border,  will  grow  three  or  four 
uring  the  summer,  and  bloom  continual  from  July  to  November.       The  plan 


NOTICES  OF  NEW  PLANTS. 

luxuriant  growth,  and  the  ends  of  all  the  young  shoots  are  loaded  with  clusters  of  trum 
pet  or  tuber-shaped  blossoms,  of  the  finest  lake  or  dark  carmine  color.     Altogether,  It 
may  be  looked  upon  as  a  decided  acquisition. 

This  species  of  llabrothamnus  has  oidy  lately  been  introduced  into  this  country,  but  it 
is  easily  propagated  from  cuttings,  like  all  the  cestracea — to  which  natural  family  it  be- 
longs. Young  plants  in  pots,  may  bo  had  of  Messrs.  Buist,  of  Philadelphia,  and  Messrs. 
Hogg  or  Thorburn,  of  New- York. 

Macleania  cordata. — A  fine,  green-house,  evergreen  shrub,  growing  three  to  four  feet 
high,  bearing  opposite,  oblong,  lanceolated  leaves,  nearly  three  inches  long,  upon  smooth 
upright  branches.  The  flowers  are  bright  red  corolla  tubes  an  inch  long,  with  an  open 
mouth  of  five  segments  of  a  3'ellow  color.  They  are  borne  at  the  axils  of  the  terminal 
roots,  and  contrasting  with  the  rich  evergreen  foliage,  have  a  fine  effect.  This  plant  be- 
longs to  the  natural  order  Vacciniacae,  is  a  native  of  Chili,  and  flowers  in  summer. 

Lucia  Rosea  Geranium. — This  pretty  variety  of  the  dw^arf  scarlet  geranium,  bearing 
flowers  of  a  fine  pink  color,  has  been  propagated  and  disseminated  considerably  by  our 
leading  florists  this  spring.  A  bed  of  it  in  our  own  garden  has  been  full  of  bloom  for  a 
month  past,  and  appears  to  be  a  valuable  budding  plant  for  the  parterre.  It  blooms  more 
freely  and  abundantly  here  than  in  England — where  it  was  originated — probably  from  the 
greater  abundance  of  sunshine  which  both  this  and  the  Tom  Thumb  scarlet,  like.  It  is 
very  easily  propagated  by  cuttings,  like  the  scarlet  varieties. 

Bereeris  jAPONiCA. — We  believe  this  fine  new  shrub — the  Japanese  Berberry,  brought 
from  China  to  England  in  1849,  by  Mr.  Fortune,  has  only  just  been  introduced  into  the 
United  States,  and  is  not  yet  off*ered  for  sale  by  any  of  our  nurserymen.  It  is  a  superb 
evergreen,  with  large  Mahonic-like  pinerated  foliage — each  leaf  more  than  a  foot  long. 
This  foliage  is  of  thick  leathery  texture,  and  is  armed  with  lateral  spines.  As  it  was 
found  150  miles  north  of  Shanghae,  it  will  undoubtedly  prove  perfectly  hardy  here.  We 
believe  the  flowers  are  large  and  yellow,  but  they  have  not  yet  been  produced,  either  in 
this  country  or  in  Europe. 

Ceanothus  papillosus,  and  C.  dentatus. — Two  beautiful  little  shrubs  of  the  same 
general  habit  as  the  Jersey  Tea,  (  C.  americanus,')  common  in  our  woods,  but  with  globu- 
lar clusters  and  panicles  of  lovely  azure  blue  blossoms,  borne  profusely  all  summer,  and 
very  ornamental  whether  grown  in  pots,  in  the  conservatory,  or  in  the  open  border. 
These  plants,  natives  of  California,  are  quite  rare  and  new,  having  been  introduced  into 
England  by  the  collector  of  the  London  Horticultural  Society,  Mr.  Hartwig.  They  have 
stood  the  winter  in  England,  and  will  probably  do  so  here.  Rich  turfy  loam,  leaf  mold, 
and  silver  sand,  makes  the  soil  they  prefer. 

Petunia — Eclipse. — This,  the  prettiest  of  all  the  new  varieties  of  this  popular  border 
flower,  we  saw  in  England  last  year,  has  been  propagated  and  sold  extensively  by  TiiOR- 
BURN,  of  New-York,  this  season.  The  flowers  are  light  rose,  striped  with  rich  purplish 
crimson,  in  the  same  style  as  Hebe,  but  much  clearer  and  richer  in  the  coloring.  The  form 
is  good — not  rag-like  and  coarse,  like  some  of  the  new  sorts  lately  sent  out. 

Petunias  and  Verbenas  are  the  most  valuable  plants  in  American  flower  gardens,  since 
they  defy  the  sun — or  rather  luxuriate  and  bloom  all  the  more  freely  in  it.  Among  the 
best  new  verbenas  of  the  season  are  Heroine — a  handsome  lilac  blue — the  tresses  large  and 
abundantly  produced — and  St.  Marguerite,  (a  French  variety  received  last  year,)  with 
shaded  crimson  flowers  produced  in  abundance.  A  dozen  new  sorts  promise  well,  but  we 
farther  experience  of  their  merits,  to  speak  decidedly  of  them 


EXPERIMENTS   IN  MULCHING. 

SUCCESSFUL   EXPERIMENTS   IN   MULCHING. 

BY  W.  R.  COPPOCK,  BUFFALO,  N.  Y. 

Dear  Sir — All  facts  tending  to  the  improvement  of  practical  results  in  the  processes  of 
gardening,  are  what  are  sought  for  by  the  readers  of  the  Horticulturist,  &c.  And  al- 
though much  creeps  into  our  magazines  that  is  desultory,  and  of  accidental  origin,  oft- 
times  misleading  the  anxious  inquirer,  to  the  neglect  of  sound  practical  and  philosophical 
operations,  yet  it  is  to  them  reference  must  be  had,  if  we  would  keep  up  with  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  and  reap  the  advantages  that  are  daily  being  developed  in  this  subject. 

Heretofore,  we  have  been  but  copyists — of  great  schools  we  admit — but  whose  chief 
greatness  lay  in  the  adaptation  of  their  genius  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  climate  they  ori- 
ginated in.  Their  processes  in  the  acclimation  of  plants — the  art  of  propagating, — sys- 
tems of  pruning,  and  the  routine  of  tree  and  vegetable  culture,  has  attained  the  acme  of 
perfection,  which  we,  having  reference  only  to  the  details,  have  closely  followed;  any  "in- 
novation from  those  standard  authorities  being  looked  upon  as  doubtful,  if  not  altogether 
futile  in  purpose. 

That  the  spirit  of  horticulture  has  received  an  impetus  with  its  kindred  sciences,  needs 
no  demonstration  here.  The  nation  is  alive  to  the  subject,  and  throughout  our  land  the 
features  of  embellished  nature  are  beginning  to  attract  the  eye  of  the  traveler,  and  delight 
the  lover  of  rural  refinement. 

The  peculiarities  of  climate,  superinduce  specific  methods,  whether  in  reference  to 
animate  or  inanimate  things.  Thus  we  find  animals  of  a  colder  or  higher  country,  cannot 
be  safely  treated  in  their  accustomed  method,  when  transferred  to  a  hotter  country,  or  to 
lower  grounds. 

The  same  facts  apply  to  plants  under  similar  removal.  Even  on  the  same  isothermal 
line  do  we  find  promiment  deviations.  The  quality  of  constitution  is  inherent  in  all  or- 
ganised beings;  and  in  no  wise  is  that  feature  of  life  less  marked  in  the  vegetable  than  in 
the  animal  kingdom.  Hence  the  treatment  of  hybrid  and  cross-bred  varieties  of  plants, 
cannot  be  successfully  attained  in  these  varied  localities,  without  modified  adaptedness  to 
constitution  and  habit.  Herein,  then,  lies  the  great  study  of  horticulture.  The  analyti- 
cal structure  of  soils  for  specific  purposes — the  altitude,  aspect  and  position,  for  one  class 
— dryness  or  moisture  for  another — the  nature  and  effect  of  special  manures,  in  ameliorat- 
ing wbat  are  termed  worn  out  soils — the  peculiar  efiects  of  climate  and  hybridization 
upon  vitality  and  longevity' — specific  analysis  of  the  various  trees  composing  che  circle  of 
hardy  fruit  culture— and  last,  though  not  least,  a  strict  inquiry  into  the  habits  of  all  those 
insects  depredatory  upon  fruits  and  trees. 

My  design  in  this  paper  is  not  to  inflict  upon  you  an  elaborate  essay  upon  these  subjects, 
but  to  simply  make  known  the  results  of  some  few  practical  results  on  the  subject  of  viulch- 
ing  trees — a  practice  which  I  believe  will  be  found  indispensably  necessary  to  the  success- 
ful growth  of  many  plants,  and  especially  those  of  large  fleshed  varieties;  such  plants  are 
usually  loose  in  their  tissues,  making  growth  rapidly  during  the  rainy  season.  This  sea- 
son of  luxuriant  growth,  followed  by  our  hot  and  dry  summers,  subject  fruit  culture  to  se- 
rious ills,  such  as  scalding,  or  spongy  and  blighted  wood,  as  in  the  apple  and  pear,  and  to 
drying  and  then  bursting  of  the  bark,  as  in  the  cherry,  plum,  and  peach,  causing  the  ex- 
udation of  gums,  and  its  attendant  diseases.  Such  trees,  and  especially  those  recently 
transplanted,  are  highly  benefitted  by  checking  the  too  rapid  transpiration  through  the 
bark,  by  a  loose  bandage  of  straw  or  hay  ropes.      The  latter  can  be  readily  made  in  any 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  MULCHING. 

desirable  length  or  thickness,  by  hitching  the  first  loop  to  the"axle  of  a  grindstone  or  other 
crank,  and  feeding  as  in  making  common  rope.  And  inch  and  a  half  for  large,  and  an 
inch  in  thickness  for  small  trees,  are  the  sizes  I  find  most  suitable.  The}'  are  put  on  the 
trees  by  beginning  with  a  half-hitch  at  the  bottom  and  winding  upward,  merely  tight 
enough  to  hold  their  position.  These  ropes,  by  shading  the  bark  from  a  scorching  sun — 
keep  the  sap  cool  and  healthful,  without  depriving  it  of  the  necessary  circulation  of  air. 
Of  a  row  of  standard  pear  trees  planted  in  the  early  spring,  those  thus  treated  are  at  this 
time  full  three  weeks  in  advance  of  others  not  rope-wound.  Of  cherries,  the  rope-wound 
trees  are  fresher  and  fuller  of  foliage,  with  fruit  in  abundance  now  swelling,  while  those 
not  wound  have  made  but  little  growth,  and  have  not  set  a  fruit.  The  same  difference  is 
observable  on  the  plum  and  peach.  I  am  thus  far,  fully  persuaded  of  its  salutary  influ- 
ence, and  that  it  will  effectually  check  the  bursting  of  the  bark,  and  the  guming  of  stone 
fruits,  from  which  they  rarely  long  survive.  This  experiment  has  been  successively  made 
for  many  seasons,  the  present  embracing  more  than  a  hundred  trees.  I  would  add,  also, 
the  roots  of  all  are  mulched  with  spent  tan,  to  a  circumference  at  least  equal  with  the  top. 

Mulching  Trees. — It  is  surprising  to  witness  the  difference  between  the  growth  of 
trees,  and  especially  the  dwarf  pear  trees,  from  the  effects  of  mulching  the  roots.  Such 
trees  I  have  found  to  have  made  masses  of  fibrous  roots  in  a  single  season,  nearly  if  not 
quite  double  to  others  similarly  situated  in  every  respect,  but  without  the  mulching. 

So  long  as  our  tree  propagators  will  determine  to  grow  their  trees  for  market,  with  long 
and  bare  stems  five  to  seven  feet  high,  before  heading  them  in  while  in  the  nursery  rows, 
it  may  be  a  settled  axiom,  that  such  trees  will  not  do  without  strawing  and  mulching. 
Every  season  proves  this  in  the  loss  of  multitudes  of  beautiful  and  apparently  thrifty 
bearing  trees,  especially  among  the  cherry  and  peach.  A  neighboring  friend  whose  cher- 
ries have  long  been  the  admiration  of  all  observers,  from  their  fine  fruit  and  luxuriant 
habit,  is  fast  losing  his  stock  from  this  cause.  The  bursting  and  exudation  of  the  gum 
poisoning  the  surrounding  parts — stopping  the  pores  of  the  bark  below,  and  forming  a 
mass  of  flint  like  substance,  which  gradually  increases  until  the  cellular  tissues  are  entirely 
blocked  up,  when  the  tree  dies. 

That  this  malady  is  produced  by  the  action  of  the  sun,  and  other  external  causes,  upon 
the  long  and  naked  trunk,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  The  outer  bark  hardens  to  such  aw  ex- 
tent, that  its  expansion,  does  not  keep  pace  with  the  growing  tissues  beneath — a  yeiat  for 
the  over  accumulating  sap  is  a  necessary  result.  Strawing  or  shading  the  stem  will 
remedy  this,  as  the  outer  bark  is  then  kept  in  the  same  progress  of  growth  as  are  the  in- 
ner. The  barbarous  custom  of  slitting,  will  oft  times  produce  relief — but  when  cut  too 
deep  produces  the  same  disease. 

Mulching  Strawberries. — In  a  former  number  of  the  Horticulturist  I  detailed  sfjue 
experiments  on  the  virtues  of  spent  tan,  as  tested  by  many  years  experience.  Those  re- 
marks having  elicited  many  inquiries  from  strawberry  growers,  allow  me  to  add,  yet 
another  valuaVjle  feature  in  its  use,  viz:  earliness  in  fruiting  without  forcing. 

There  is  not  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  many  individuals  comprising  the  Buffalo 
Horticultural  Society,  a  strawberry  within  their  grounds  (June  4th)  more  than  a  third 
grown,  and  generally  yet  merely  blossoming — while  from  my  mulched  beds  of  the  varie- 
ties. Early  Scarlet,  Hovey's  Seedling,  Burr's  Seedling  and  Necked  Pine,  we  have  gathered 
ripe  fruit  from  the  first  of  June.  The  whole  crop  is  ripening  and  coloring  well,  and  is  at 
least  two  weeks  in  advance  of  those  in  ordinary  culture.  The  plants  show  great  vigor 
iage  and  fruit.  On  stools,  which  were  runners  planted  in  May  last  year,  an  hund 
enty  berries  were  counted  on  many  of  them.     Here  then  is  a  valuable  fruit  easi 


328  PROPAGATION  OF  ROSES  BY  CUTTINGS. 


obtained,  no  other  means  or  protection  being  needful  save  a  deep  and  rich  soil  (clay  loam) 
with  an  inch  and  half  covering  of  spent  tan  direct  from  the  vat. 

When  strawberries  are  thus  mulched  with  tan,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  winter  frosts 
penetrate  far  less  deeply  into  the  ground — the  roots  are  not  torn  or  otherwise  injured  by 
the  upheaval  of  frosty  weather;  the  warm  rays  of  the  sun  penetrate  to  the  roots  during 
March  and  April;  while  the  soil  collects  and  retains  its  heat  greatly  by  the  aid  of  the 
mulch,  and  the  warmth  arising  from  the  increased  temperature  of  the  tan,  hastens  the 
swelling  and  ripening  of  the  fruit.  Your  obt.  W.  K.  Coppock. 

Black  Rock,  June  6,  1851. 

[We  can  add  our  testimony  to  Mr.  Coppock's,  as  to  the  value  of  mulching  trees  gener- 
ally, and  of  tan  mulching  in  particular,  as  admirably  adapted  to  the  strawberry.  We 
covered  some  strawberry  beds  last  autumn  about  two  inches  deep  with  tan,  and  found 
them  this  spring  in  the  finest  possible  condition — far  better  than  beds  covered  with  straw, 
litter,  or  leaves.  The  tan  seems  specificallj^  adapted  as  a  constant  covering  for  the  straw- 
berry beds,  the  fruit  and  the  foliage  both  being  decidedly  improved  by  it — though  we 
have  not  found  in  our  own  experiments  much  gain  in  the  earliness  of  ripening.     Ed.] 


PROPAGATION   OF   ROSES   BY   CUTTINGS.* 

BY  R.  P.  DRUMMOND. 

It  is  generally  believed  by  amateurs  and  others,  that  Moss,  Provins,  French,  Damask, 
and  Bourbon  Koses,  &c.,  are  difficult  to  increase  bj"-  cuttings;  but  by  the  following  method, 
these  sorts  may  be  raised  in  abundance.  Let  a  bed  of  well-fermented  stable  litter  and 
leaves  be  made  by  the  side  of  a  north  wall,  and  place  a  one  or  two-light  frame  on  it  so  as 
to  face  the  north.  In  this  put  about  eight  inches  of  leaf-mould  that  has  been  previously 
well  soaked  with  water;  then  spread  over  all  about  three  inches  of  sharp  pit  sand,  and 
make  the  whole  firm  and  level.  The  back  part  of  a  span-roofed  pit,  running  east  and  west, 
with  a  wall  in  the  centre,  is  also  a  suitable  place  for  the  purpose.  It  should  be  filled  to 
M  ithin  a  few  inches  of  the  glass  with  the  same  kind  of  material.  In  selecting  the  cuttings, 
tolerably  M'eak  wood  of  the  present  year's  growth  should  be  taken,  if  it  is  sufficiently 
ripened  at  the  base  or  has  made  one  full-formed  leaf.  Strip  the  cuttings  with  the  finger 
and  thumb,  and  smooth  the  base,  reserving  the  detached  portion  of  the  parent  bark;  cut 
them  close  above  the  first  leaf,  and  insert  them  in  the  sand,  but  not  so  thick  as  that  their 
leaves  will  overlap  one  another.  When  this  is  finished,  the  bed  should  be  watered,  to 
settle  the  soil  about  them,  and  they  should  have  plenty  of  air  for  the  first  four  days;  but 
it  ought  to  be  lessened  by  degrees,  so  as  to  gradually  inure  them  to  a  confined  atmosphere. 
As  the  preservation  of  their  leaves  in  a  healthy  state  is  essential  to  success,  the  bed  may 
be  formed,  and  the  cuttings  put  in  on  the  same  day,  without  waiting  until  the  material 
becomes  heated,  as  a  thin  covering  of  cellular  tissue  should  be  formed  over  the  wounded 
end  of  the  cutting  before  that  takes  place.  In  the  third  week  the  greater  part  will  be 
rooted,  and  in  the  fourth  they  should  be  potted  off  into  60-sized  pots,  in  a  soil  composed 
of  leaf-mould  and  loam.  They  should  be  afterwards  removed  into  a  damp  frame  or  pit, 
without  any  water  being  given  to  their  I'oots;  but  they  may  be  slightly  sj'ringed  over 
their  leaves,  and  when  they  become  well  rooted  in  the  new  soil,  they  may  be  hardened 
d  either  shifted  into  larger  sized  pots  or  planted  out  in  a  sheltered  border, 
*  From  the  Gardeners'  Chronicle. 


they  will  make  fine  plants  for  next  year.  By  again  levelling  the  surface  of  the  beds,  and 
making  the  cuttings  to  two  eyes — always  preserving  one  leaf,  Tea-scented  China,  Noisette 
and  Boursault  Roses,  &c.,  will  root  freely  in  it  without  any  further  preparation;  but  if  a 
considerable  quantity  of  the  first  named  sorts  are  required,  either  the  old  beds  should  be 
taken  down,  and  a  little  fresh  fermented  dung  added,  or  a  new  one  should  be  made,  using 
the  same  soit  of  materials  as  are  recommended  above.  The  young  wood  should  be  taken 
before  the  blooms  are  expanded,  and  the  cuttings  prepared  similar  to  what  I  have  already 
described.  The  young  shoots  of  what  is  called  the  second  growth,  may  also  be  used  for 
cuttings;  they  should  be  taken  when  two  full-formed  leaves  are  made,  smoothed  at  the 
base,  and  cut  down  to  the  first  leaf,  then  planted  in  a  bed  of  the  same  construction  as 
above.  When  they  are  rooted,  they  may  be  hardened  ofi"  and  allowed  to  remain  in 
the  bed  until  spring.  Plenty  of  air  in  favorable  weather  should  be  admitted.  In  this 
way  they  will  occupy  less  room  than  when  placed  in  pots,  and  they  will  stand  the  winter 
better.  Cuttings  of  Roses,  like  those  of  many  other  hard-wooded  plants,  are  more  cer- 
tain of  rooting  when  they  are  made  short,  especially  if  a  healthy  leaf  is  attached  to  them 
and  kept  there  until  they  are  rooted.  This,  however,  can  never  be  accomplished  if  the  soil 
in  which  they  are  placed  is  subjected  to  the  alternate  action  of  wet  and  drouth;  but  by 
placing  wet  leaf-mould  between  the  dung  and  sand,  an  uninterrupted  supply  of  moisture 
is  obtained,  and  no  water  is  required  from  the  time  the  cuttings  are  put  in  till  they  are 
rooted  in  the  pots.  So  suitable  is  this  treatment,  that  when  the  bud  at  the  axil  of  the  leaf 
has  been  damaged,  or  otherwise  abortive,  those  at  the  root  are  excited,  and  suckers  are 
produced.     All  kinds  of  Roses  will  root  freely  under  this  treatment. 

R.  P.  Drummond. 


lUnina. 

The  Fruit  Garden;  by  P.  Barry,  of  the  Mount-Hope  Nurseries,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

One  vol.  8vo.,  398  pages.     (Charles  Scribner,  New -York.) 

Since  the  issue  of  the  first  edition  of  our  work  on  Fruit  Trees,  in  1845,  twelve  editions 
of  that  work  have  been  published  and  disseminated  in  every  part  of  this  country,  and  in 
some  parts  of  Europe — and  the  sale  continues  unabated  to  this  day.  Since  that  time 
various  smaller  works  have  been  issued  from  the  press,  and  have  also  met  with  an  exten- 
sive sale.  The  present  volume,  by  Mr.  Barry,  the  well-known  Rochester  nurseryman, 
has  the  last  and  freshest  contributions  to  the  subject,  and  is,  we  think,  the  best  of  the 
smaller  works.  It  does  not  profess  to  be  a  comprehensive  work  on  Pomology,  to  which 
the  reader  is  to  look  for  complete  descriptions  of  Fruits,  since  it  only  offers  brief  abridged 
descriptions  of  select  varieties.  It  takes,  however,  a  different  and  distinct  ground  from 
the  other  works,  namely,  to  teach  "  the  art  of  planting  fifty  trees  on  an  acre  of  ground, 
and  bringing  them  into  a  fruitful  state  in  four  or  five  years."  In  other  words,  it  is  writ- 
ten to  be  the  hand-book  of  amateurs  who  wish  to  cultivate  with  care  and  skill,  a  few  fruit 
trees,  in  a  fruit  garden,  rather  than  orchard  cultivators,  whose  operations  are  pursued  on 
a  wider  scale,  and  with  less  labor  bestowed  on  the  detail  of  their  operations. 

The  book  is  written  in  a  clear,  straight-forward,  common-sense  style,  and  bears  the 
marks  everywhere,  of  the  practical  cultivator  who  understands  his  subject.  Of  course,  a 
arge  part  of  it  is  occupied  with  brief  accounts  of  the  modes  of  propagation,  budding, 
g,  layering,  &c.,  in  which,  of  course,  we  find  little  or  nothing  that  is  new  to  those 

No.  vii.  3^ 


REVIEW. 

in  possession  of  works  already  published — but  the  author  explains  these  operations  afresh, 
in  a  concise,  graphic,  and  agreeable  manner. 

The  point  in  which  ]Mr.  Barry's  work  mainly  differs  from  other  works  published  in 
this  country,  and  in  which  it  is  a  decided  improvement  upon  them,  is  one  that  we  natu- 
rally expected,  both  from  its  title,  and  its  later  date.  We  mean,  of  course,  Pruning. 
Most  of  the  works  on  Fruits,  hitherto,  have  been  intended  mainly,  either  for  orchard  plan- 
ters who  allow  their  trees  to  take  the  natural  form  of  standards,  in  which  pruning  is  a 
matter  rather  to  be  avoided  than  insisted  upon,  in  this  climate;  or  else  for  cultivators  with 
smaller  space,  whose  limited  time  and  means  does  not  permit  them  to  indulge  in  any  of 
the  special  refinements  of  the  art  of  horticulture,  in  the  way  of  training  or  pruning  trees — 
the  methods  generally  practiced  in  the  gardens  of  Europe,  where  labor  is  so  vastly  cheap- 
er. The  fact,  too,  that  almost  all  the  fruits  of  temperate  climates  bear  excellent  crops  in 
many  parts  of  the  United  States,  with  the  simple  conditions  of  a  good  soil  and  abundant 
air  and  light,  has  had  a  tendency  to  retard  the  introduction  of  what  may  be  called  the  re- 
finements of  fruit  culture  as  practiced  abroad — viz :  the  pruning  and  training  fruit  trees 
as  dwarfs,  standards,  pyramids,  espaliers,  and  a  dozen  fanciful  modes,  some  of  which 
greatly  add  to  their  productiveness  and  value,  while  others  are  highly  ornamental  features 
in  the  fruit  garden.  The  great  value  of  these  improved  modes  of  training  and  pruning,  is, 
indeed,  not  for  the  million,  who  plant  fruit  trees  solely  for  the  sake  of  getting  fruit,  with 
the  least  possible  expenditure  of  labor  or  money  on  their  part,  but  for  the  few  who  wish 
to  get  superior  fruit  by  superior  and  improved  modes  of  cultivation,  and  who  take  that 
kind  of  personal  interest  in  their  fruit  garden,  that  makes  daily  attention  to  the  growth 
of  a  tree,  a  source  of  continual  pleasure  and  satisfaction. 

No  horticulturists  at  the  present  time,  understand  the  art  of  pruning  so  thoroughly  as 
the  French,  as  we  had  ample  opportunity  of  ascertaining  by  personal  inspection  last  year. 
Mr.  Barry's  enthusiam  on  the  subject  of  dwarf  trees,  pyramids  and  espaliers,  was  awa- 
kened by  the  same  sight,  and  he  accordingly  gives  his  readers  ample  details,  based  on  his 
own  observation  of  the  whole  system  of  ''pinching,"  and  the  cutting  back  of  the  young 
shoots — which  constitutes  the  pith  and  marrow  of  the  French  mode — a  system  which  we 
are  forced  to  say  is  the  best  possible  mode  of  pruning,  since  it  directs  the  subject  in  the 
way  it  should  go  by  means  of  foreseeing  its  future  capacities  and  character,  instead  of  al- 
lowing all  growth  to  go  at  random  generally,  but  occasionally  coming  down  on  the  poor 
creature  with  a  terrible  onslaught  of  saw  and  knife,  to  the  permanent  injury  of  the  consti- 
stution  of  the  tree. 

Our  amateur  readers  who  have  carefully  read  the  previous  volumes  of  this  Journal,  are 
acquainted  with  the  secrets  of  the  pinching  and  shortening-back  modes  of  pruning  which 
lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  French  practice,  but  they  will  also  find  Mr.  Barry's  work  a 
most  convenient  hand-book  of  reference,  when  busy  with  the  details  of  the  art. 

The  author  of  the  Fruit  Garden  very  properly  places  M.  Dubreuil,  the  French  Profes- 
sor of  Arboriculture,  at  the  head  of  the  masters  of  the  art  of  pruning,  at  the  present  day, 
and  quotes  at  length  from  that  author  the  following  admirable  expose  of  his  principles  of 
pruning,  which  we  copy  here  for  the  perusal  and  study  of  our  readers  interested  in  this 
subject: 

"  The  theory  of  the  pruning  of  fruit  trees  rests  on  the  following  six  general  princi- 
ples: 

1.   The  vigor  of  a  tree,  subject   to  pruning,  depends,  in   a  great   measure,  on    the 
distribution  of  sap  in  all  its  branches. 
fruit  trees  abandoned  to  themselves,  the  sap  is  equally  distributed  in  the  different 


parts  v/ithout  any  other  aid  than  nature,  because  the  tree  assumes  the  form  most  in  har 
mony  with  the  natural  tendency  of  the  sap.* 

"But  in  those  submitted  to  pruning,  it  is  different;  the  forms  imposed  on  them,  such 
as  espalier,  pyramid,  vase,  &c.,  change  more  or  less  the  normal  direction  of  the  sap,  and 
prevent  it  from  taking  the  form  proper  to  its  species.  Thus  nearly  all  the  forms  given  to 
trees  require  the  development  of  ramifications  more  or  less  numerous,  and  of  greater  or 
less  dimensions  at  the  base  of  the  stem.  And,  as  the  sap  tends  by  preference  towards  the 
summit  of  the  tree,  it  happens  that,  unless  great  care  be  taken,  the  branches  at  the  base 
become  feeble,  and  finally  dry  up,  and  the  form  intended  to  be  obtained  disappears,  to  be 
replaced  by  the  natural  form,  that  is  a  stem  or  a  trunk  with  a  branching  head.  It  is  then 
indispensable,  if  we  wish  to  preserve  the  form  we  impose  upon  trees,  to  employ  certain 
means,  by  the  aid  of  which  the  natural  direction  of  the  sap  can  be  changed  and  directed 
towards  the  points  where  we  wish  to  obtain  the  most  vigorous  growth.  To  do  this  we 
must  arrest  vegetation  in  the  parts  to  which  the  sap  is  carried  in  too  great  abundance, 
and  on  the  contrary  favor  the  parts  that  do  not  receive  enough.  To  accomplish  this  the 
following  means  must  be  successively  employed. 

*'  1.  Prune  the  branches  of  the  most  vigorous  parts  very  short,  and  those  of  the  loeak 
parts  long.  We  know  that  the  sap  is  attracted  by  the  leaves.  The  removal  of  a  large 
number  of  wood-buds  from  the  vigorous  parts,  deprives  these  parts  of  the  leaves  which 
these  buds  would  have  produced;  consequently  the  sap  is  attracted  there  in  less  quanti- 
ties, and  the  growth  thereby  diminished.  The  feeble  parts  being  pruned  long,  present  a 
great  number  of  buds,  which  produce  a  large  surface  of  leaves,  and  these  attract  the  sap 
and  acquire  a  vigorous  growth.  This  principle  holds  good  in  all  trees,  under  whatever 
form  they  maj'  be  conducted. 

"  2.  Leave  a  large  quantity  of  fruit  on  the  strong  part,  and  remove  the  whole,  or  great- 
er part,  from  thefcebls.  We  know  already  that  the  fruit  has  the  property  of  attracting 
to  it  the  sap  from  the  roots,  and  of  emplo  ing  it  entirely  to  its  own  growth.  The  neces- 
sary result  of  this  is,  what  we  are  about  to  point  out,  viz:  that  all  the  sap  which  arrives 
in  the  strong  parts,  will  be  absorbed  by  the  fruits,  and  the  wood  there,  in  consequence, 
will  make  but  little  growth,  while  on  the  feeble  part,  deprived  of  fruits,  the  sap  will  all 
be   appropriated  by  the  growing  parts,  and  they  will  increase  in  size  and  strength. 

"  3.  Bend  the  strong  parts  and  keep  the  weak  erect.  The  more  erect  the  branches  and 
stem  are,  the  greater  will  be  the  flow  of  sap  to  the  growing  parts;  hence,  the  feeble  parts 
being  erect,  attract  much  more  sap  than  the  strong  parts  inclined,  and,  consequently, 
make  a  more  vigorous  growth,  and  soon  recover  their  balance.  This  remedy  is  more  es- 
pecially applied  to  espalier  trees. 

"  4.  Remove  from  the  vigorous  parts  the  superfluous  shoots  as  early  in  the  season  as 
possible,  and  from  the  faebli'  parts  as  late  as  possible.  The  fewer  the  number  of  young 
shoots  there  are  on  a  branch,  the  fewer  there  are  of  leaves,  and  consequently  the  less  is 
the  sap  attracted  there.  Hence,  in  leaving  the  young  shoots  on  the  feeble  part,  their  leaves 
attract  the  sap  there,  and  induce  a  vigorous  growth. 

"  5.  Pi7ich  early  the  soft  extremities  of  the  shoots  on  the  vigorous  parts,  and  as  late 
as  possible  on  the  feeble  parts,  excepting  always  any  shoots  which  may  be  too  vigorous  for 
their  position.  By  thus  pinching  early  the  strong  part,  the  flow  of  sap  to  that  point  is 
checked,  and  naturally  turns  to  the  growing  parts  that  have  not  been  pinched;  this  remedy 
is  applicable  to  trees  in  all  forms. 

"  C.  Lay  in  the  strong  shoots  on  the  trellis  early,  and  leave  the  feeble  parts  loose  as  long 
as  possible.  Laying  in  the  strong  parts  obstructs  the  circulation  of  the  sap  in  them,  and 
consequently  favors  the  weak  parts  that  are  loose.     This  is  only  applicable  to  espaliers. 

"  7.  In  e'spalicr  trees,  giving  the  feeble  parts  the  ben'^fils  of  the  light,  and  confining 
the  strong  parts  more  in  the  shade,  restores  a  balance,  for  light  is  the  agent  which  enables 
leaves  to  perform  their  functions  and  their  action  on  the  roots,  and  the  parts  receiving  the 
greatest  proportion  of  it  acquire  the  most  vigorous  development. 

2.  "  The  sap  acts  with  greater  force  and  produces  more  vigorous  growth  on  a  branch 
or  shoot  pruned  short,  than  on  one  pruned  long.  This  is  easily  explained.  The  sap  act- 
ing on  two  buds  must  evidently  produce  a  greater  development  of  wood  on  them,  than  if 
it  Were  divided  between  fifteen  or  twenty  buds. 

*  This  is  not  in  all  cases  true.  Peach  Irees,  we  know,  left  to  themselves,  exhibit  a  very  striking  example  of  the  un- 
sliibiition  of  llie  sap-  The  ends  of  the  branches  attract  nearly  the  whole,  leaving  the  lateral  shoots  and  lower 
die  out.  In  other  species,  similar  instances  might  be  quoted,  and  as  a  general  thing,  the  proposition  is  unsound, 
in  a  comparative  sense. 


REVIEW. 

"  It  follows  from  this,  that  if  we  wish  to  obtain  wood  branches,  we  prune  short,  for 
vigorous  shoots  produce  few  fruit  buds.  On  the  contrary,  if  we  wish  to  obtain  fruit 
branches,  we  prune  long,  because  the  most  slender  or  feeble  shoots  are  the  most  disposed 
to  fruit. 

"  Another  application  of  this  principle  is  to  prune  short  for  a  year  or  two,  such  trees 
or  parts  as  have  become  enfeebled  by  overbearing.  (This  principle  deserves  especial  at- 
tention, as  its  application  is  of  great  importance.) 

3.  "  The  sap  tending  always  to  the  extremities  of  the  shoots  causes  the  terminal  bud  to 
push  with  greater  vigor  than  the  laterals.  According  to  this  principle,  when  we  wish  a  pro- 
longment  of  a  stem  or  branch,  we  should  prune  to  a  vigorous  wood  bud,  and  leave  no  pro- 
duction that  can  interfere  with  the  action  of  the  sap  on  it. 

4.  "  The  more  the  sap  is  obstructed  in  its  circulation,  the  more  likely  it  will  be  to  pro- 
duce fruit  buds.  This  principle  is  founded  on  a  fact  to  which  we  have  already  had  occa- 
sion to  refer,  viz:  that  the  sap  circulating  slowly  is  subjected  to  a  more  complete  elabora- 
tion in  the  tissues  of  the  tree,  and  becomes  better  adapted  to  the  formation  of  fruit  buds. 

"  This  principle  can  be  applied  to  produce  the  following  result:  When  we  wish  to  pro- 
duce fruit  buds  on  a  branch,  we  prevent  a  free  circulation  of  the  sap  by  bending  the 
branches,  or  by  making  annular  or  circular  incisions  on  it;  and  on  the  contrary,  when  we 
wish  to  change  a  fruit  branch  into  a  wood  branch,  we  give  it  a  vertical  position,  or  prune 
it  to  two  or  three  buds,  on  which  we  concentrate  the  action  of  the  sap  and  thus  induce 
their  vigorous  development. 

5.  "  The  leaves  serve  to  prepare  the  sap  absorbed  by  the  roots  for  the  nourishment  of  the 
tree,  and  aid  the  formation  of  buds  on  the  shoots,  Jill  trees,  therefore,  deprived  of  their 
leaves  are  liable  to  perish.  This  principle  shows  how  dangerous  it  is  to  remove  a  large 
quantity  of  leaves  from  trees,  under  the  pretext  of  aiding  the  growth  or  ripening  of  fruits, 
for  the  leaves  are  the  nourishing  organs,  and  the  trees  deprived  of  them  cannot  continue 
to  grow,  neither  can  the  fruit;  and  the  branches  so  stripped  will  have  feeble,  ill-formed 
buds,  which  will,  the  following  year,  produce  a  weak  and  sickly  growth. 

6.  "  JVhere  the  buds  of  any  shoot  or  branch  do  not  dcvelope  before  the  age  of  two  years, 
they  can  only  be  forced  into  activity  by  a  very  close  pruning,  and  in  some  cases,  as  the 
peach,  this  even  luill  often  fail.  This  last  principle  shows  the  importance  of  pruning  the 
main  branches  of  espaliers  particularly,  so  as  to  ensure  the  development  of  the  buds  of 
their  successive  sections,  and  to  preserve  well  the  side  shoots  thus  produced,  for  without 
this,  the  interior  of  the  tree  Mill  become  naked  and  unproductive,  and  a  remedy  will  be 
very  difficult." 

The  nicer  operations  of  pruning  and  training  are  taught  in  France  by  means  of  lectures, 
with  the  trees  before  the  pupils — the  only  rapid  mode  of  teaching  a  practical  art  some- 
Avhat  diificult  of  explanation  upon  paper.  If  our  different  states  would  establish  agricul- 
tural schools,  as  they  should  do,  the  teacher  of  practical  horticulture  should  have  the 
whole  modern  art  of  pruning  fruit  trees  at  his  fingers  ends,  and  every  pupil  would,  by  the 
aid  of  a  few  specimens  in  different  stages  of  growth,  and  a  few  small  subjects  to  operate 
upon  with  the  pruning-knife,  soon  become  an  accomplished  master  of  the  art.  It  is  some- 
thing, however,  that  must  be  pursued  con  amore.  Mr.  Barry  very  properly  says:  "It 
is  not,  by  any  means,  labor  that  is  required,  but  attention,  that  the  most  delicate  hand 
can  perform;  fl.fteen  or  twentj'  minutes  at  a  time,  say  three  times  a  week,  during  active 
growth,  will  be  sufficient  to  examine  every  shoot  on  a  moderate  collection  of  garden  trees; 
for  the  eye  very  soon  becomes  trained  so  well  to  the  work,  that  a  glance  at  a  tree  will  de- 
tect the  parts  that  are  either  too  strong  or  too  weak,  or  that  in  any  way  require  attention. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  features  in  the  management  of  garden  trees.  We  are 
never  allowed  to  forget  them.  From  day  to  day  they  require  some  attention,  and  offer 
some  new  point  of  interest  that  attracts  us  to  them,  and  augments  our  solicitude  for  their 
prosperity,  until  it  actually  grows  into  enthusiasm." 

Though  Mr.  Barry  is  in  many  parts  of  the  work  plain  and  perspicuous,  yet  in  others 
ances  so  hastily  and  in  so  general  a  manner  at  important  operations  of  culture 
the  majority  of  readers  for  whom  his  work  is  intended,  somewhat  in  the  dark 


REVIEW. 

instance,  root  pruning  is  occasionally  of  great  value  as  a  remedial  process  in  checking  the 
growth  of  our  luxuriant  fruit  trees,  and  bringing  them  into  a  bearing  state.  The  follow- 
ing are  the  author's  whole  remarks  on  the  subject : 

"  Pruning  the  Roots. — This  is  practiced  as  well  to  promote  fruitfulness  as  to  lessen 
the  dimensions  of  trees.  The  roots,  as  has  been  shown,  are  the  organs  that  absorb  from 
the  ground  the  principal  food  of  the  tree,  and  in  proportion  to  their  number,  size  and  ac- 
tivity, other  things  being  equal,  is  the  vigor  and  growth  of  the  stem  and  branches. 
Hence,  when  a  tree  is  deprived  of  a  certain  portion  of  its  roots,  its  supply  of  food  from 
the  soil  is  lessened,  growth  is  checked,  the  sap  moves  along  in  its  channels,  is  better  ela- 
borated in  its  leaves,  and  the  young  branches  and  buds  begin  to  assume  a  fruitful  char- 
acter. 

Roots  are  also  pruned  to  prevent  them  from  penetrating  too  deeply  into  the  earth,  and 
induce  the  formation  of  lateral  roots  near  the  surface,  similar  to  the  cutting  back  of  a  stem 
to  produce  lateral  branches;  the  principal  is  the  same." 

Not  a  word  is  said  as  to  the  manner  of  performing  the  operation;  how  much  of  the  roots 
of  a  young  or  old  tree  may  be  judiciously  cut  off;  the  best  season  of  performing  the  ope- 
ration, etc.  Now,  as  root  pruning  is  a  far  more  dangerous  operation  in  the  hands  of  a 
novice,  than  any  other  kind  of  pruning,  it  seems  to  us  a  great  oversight  in  a  work  in 
which  the  little  details  of  practical  culture  are  professedly  entered  into,  merely  to  state 
the  principle  of  the  thing,  and  leave  the  operator  wholly  in  the  dark  as  to  its  practice. 

Mr.  Barry  is  very  non-committal  and  vague  on  the  subject  of  diseases  of  fruit  trees. 
The  yellows  "  is  supposed  to  arise  from  negligent  cultivation."  The  pear  blight  may 
be  "  owing  to  an  insect,  a  fungus,  or  some  atmospherical  cause,"  etc.  We  know  it  is  far 
easier  to  take  this  ground  than  to  risk  one's  reputation  on  points  where  there  are  so  many 
different  opinions — but  readers  do  not  gain  much  of  an  addition  to  their  previous  stock  of 
knowledge  by  it.  Quite  contrary  to  our  observation  and  experience,  Mr.  Barrt  is  of 
opinion  that  "  to  avoid  the  evil  effects  of  the  pear  blight,  the  great  point  is  to  get  a  rapid 
vigorous  growth  before  midsummer,  when  it  usually  happens."  To  get  the  growth  before 
midsummer  is  certainly  important,  since  a  late  growth  is  so  frequently  caught  immature 
at  the  approach  of  winter,  and  suffers  thereby,  either  in  frost-blight,  or  in  some  other  way 
— but  we  had  considered  it  a  pretty  well  settled  point  among  American  fruit  growers  who 
have  studied  this  subject,  that  the  great  desideratum  to  prevent  blight,  is  to  place  the  tree 
in  a  condition  where  all  "rapid  and  vigorous  growth" — a  growth  always  most  liable  to 
disease,  and  especially  to  the  blight — should  be  especially  guarded  against,  and  a  moderate 
grotvth  oi  weW-formed,  short  jointed  wood,  secured.  It  is  because  of  the  luxuriant  growth 
of  the  pear  on  the  rich  deep  soils  of  the  west,  that  the  blight  is  ten  times  more  frequent 
and  destructive  there,  than  in  eastern  gardens,  and  it  is  because  such  varieties  as  the  Seckel 
never  incline  to  make  a  luxuriant  growth,  that  they  escape  the  blight  that  preys  upon  the 
more  succulent  and  luxuriant  shoots  that  are  almost  alwaj'^s  found  on  some  other  varieties. 

But  we  will  undertake  no  more  of  fault-finding.  We  welcome  Mr.  Barry's  book  as  in 
the  main,  one  of  sterling  merit,  abounding  with  excellent  rules  of  practice,  and  a  valuable 
hand-book  for  every  real  amateur  of  the  fruit  garden. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Dninrstir  JiMlm, 


Unnoticed  Chaeacteeistics. — Among  the 
peculiarities  of  well  known  plants  which  we  do 
not  remember  to  have  seen  noticed  in  any  of  the 
books,  are  the  following: 

The  flowers  of  the  Bignonia  capreolata, 
(buff  or  tawny  flowered  trumpet  vine  of  the 
south — a  handsome  climbing  shrub,  very  dis- 
tinct from  the  common  trumpet  creeper  which 
has  bloomed  finely  in  our  garden,  in  the  open 
border  trained  to  a  pole,)  have  precisely  the 
odor  of  liquorice. 

The  flowers  of  the  Umbrella  Magnolia,  (M. 
tri  data,)  open  regularly  about  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  This  tree  should  be  planted 
on  the  lawn,  so  that  the  effect  of  the  flowers 
and  foliage  can  be  seen  at  a  distance  of  fifty  or 
100  feet.  Near  by  the  flowers  look  coarse — but 
seen  at  a  distance,  each  blossom  set  in  its  termi- 
nal tuft  of  broad  foliage,  they  suggest  water  li- 
lies in  ther  peculiar  way.  This  tropical-looking 
magnolia  will  grow  as  far  north  as  the  Isabella 
grape  ripens,  and  it  needs  only  a  rich  loamy 
soil  to  thrive  well;  it  deserves  to  be  more  ex- 
tensively planted  than  it  is  at  present. 


CRvrxoMERiA  JAPONICA. — Mr.  BuiST informs 
us  that  this  tree,  which  has  been  twice  noticed 
in  our  pages,  as  not  being  hardy  about  New. 
York,  is  perfectly  hardy  at  Philadelphia,  and 
has  ripened  seeds  there.  We  have  seen  a  spe- 
cimen lately  in  the  grounds  at  Wodcnethe, 
the  seat  of  our  neighbor  H.  "W.  Sargent.  Esq., 
which  has  stood  the  past  winter  quite  uninjur- 
ed, and  is  now  very  healthy.  It  is  not  impro- 
bable that  grafted  upon  some  of  our  native  Ju- 
nipers, the  Cryptomeria  may  prove  entirely 
hardy.  

Bohemian  Olive. — Dr.  Valk,  of  Flushing, 
Long  Island,  informs  us  that  the  Oleagnus 
■parvijlorus,  sometimes  called  the  Bohemian 
Olive,  proves  to  be  a  hardy  shrub  in  his  garden. 
The  following  extract  from  his  letter  will  inte- 
rest our  arboricultural  readers: 

"  I  would  bring  to  your  notice  a  very  fine 
plant  in  my  garden — and  I  believe  a  very  rare 
one  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic — the  Oleagnus 
orus.  I  received  it  when  very  young 
the  garden  of  the  London  Hort.  Society, 


and  planted  it  immediately  in  the  open  ground, 
where  it  has  grown  to  a  large  bush,  and  now 
bears  every  season  a  heavy  crop  of  fruit.  This 
fruit  is  pretty  in  appearance,  and  pleasant 
in  flavor.  The  shrub  is  a  native  of  Bohemia, 
and  I  think  might  be  very  much  increased  in 
size  by  judicious  cultivation.  Its  English  name 
is,  I  think,  the  Bohen^ian  Olive. 

My  Deodar  Cedar  has  grown  luxuriantly;  is 
now  ten  feet  high,  and  beautifully  feathered  to 
the  ground.  It  has  been  i^lanted  and  fully  ex- 
posed four  winters,  and  is  not  exceeded  in  beau- 
ty by  any  of  its  kindred  evergreens."  Yours, 
w.  W.  V.  

A  Special  Manure  for  Evergreens. — It  is 
well  known  that  most  evergreens  are  impatient 
of  the  ordinary  animal  manures,  applied  with 
so  much  benefit  to  deciduous  trees,  and  the  zea- 
lous cultivator  is  often  at  a  loss  to  know  how  to 
urge  the  slower  sorts  of  firs,  pines,  kc,  to  a 
more  luxuriant  growth. 

We  have  experimented  a  little  on  this  sub- 
ject, and  think  we  have  found  a  most  valuable 
stimulant  for  all  rare  evergreen  trees  in  orna- 
mental plantations. 

Two  years  ago,  the  Lodi  Manufacturing  Co., 
Liberty-st.,  New- York,  (whose  excellent  pou- 
drette,  we  have  already  recommended,)  sent  us 
for  trial  a  cask  of  "manure  for  shrubs  and 
trees,"  requesting  us  to  make  trial  of  it.  It 
presents  to  the  eye  the  appearance  of  a  finely 
pulverized  gray  powder,  and  is  quite  dry  to  the 
touch.  We  applied  it  to  a  variety  of  trees  and 
shrubs;  in  the  majority  of  cases  it  seemed  to 
act  simply  as  a  good  manure,  with  no  effects  in 
any  way  remarkable.  But  to  our  surprise  it 
acts  mosts  distinctly  and  beneficially  upon  all  ev- 
ergreens. Pines,  Firs,  Deodars  and  Spruces, 
that  had  made  but  a  feeble  growth  for  some 
.seasons,  when  liberally  dressed  with  this  mix- 
ture, put  on  a  darker  green  and  made  more 
luxuriant  shoots  than  they  had  ever  done  pre- 
viously. Encouraged  by  this  we  used  the  mix- 
ture liberally,  in  planting  young  evergreens  tlie 
past  spring — mixing  three  or  four  shovelfuls  to 
the  soil  used  in  planting  young  Deodars 
carias,  and  the  like.      The  effect  was  very  soon 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


perceptible  in  the  darker  hue  of  the  foliage,  and 
now,  at  midsummer,  in  the  greater  luxuriance 
of  the  growth.  We  have  no  hesitation  in  re- 
commending this  "  manure  for  shrubs,"  as  a 
capital  top-dresser  for  evergreen  plantations, 
and  as  an  especially  valuable  manure  for  using 
in  the  process  of  transplanting  evergreens.  We 
understand  it  consists  of  a  small  quantity  of 
poudrette,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  mine- 
ral manures  adapted  to  the  growth  of  trees  ge- 
nerally.   

Seventeen  Year  Locusts. — The  hum  of 
this  singular  insect  fills  the  woods  and  gardens 
of  Maryland  at  the  present  time,  and  the  coun- 
try there  is  alive  with  them.  Though  the  Sev- 
enteen year  Locust  only  appears  during  this 
long  interval,  the  people  of  the  districts  favored 
by  the  visitation,  congratulate  themselves  that 
the  visits  are  so  few  and  far  between — for  nei- 
ther the  ceaseless  drone  of  the  insect,  nor  the 
havoc  it  causes  in  ploughing  up  the  young  bran- 
ches of  trees,  are  among  the  pleasant  experien- 
ces of  country-  life. 

It  is  a  mistake  of  many  persons  to  suppose 
this  insect  feeds  upon  vegetation.  It  feeds 
upon  nothing  during  its  three  or  four  weeks 
of  existence  above  ground,  but  is  occupied  sole- 
ly with  paring,  singing  its  song,  (or  more  cor- 
rectly beating  its  drum — which  is  really  the 
way  in  which  the  sound  is  made,)  and  laying 
its  eggs  in  the  tender  branches  of  the  trees. 
These  young  branches,  which  finallj-  strew  the 
ground  beneath  the  trees,  fall  from  the  trees, 
broken  by  the  winds  at  the  weak  place  made  by 
the  punctures  of  the  female  in  laying  her  eggs 
— and  are  not  eaten  off  by  the  insects  as  many 
suppose.  The  actual  food  of  the  Seventeen 
Year  Locust  is  made  long  beforehand,  and  con- 
sists of  the  roots  of  trees,  as  it  appears  by  the 
careful  examination  of  naturalists.  Miss  Mor- 
ris, of  Germantown,  well  known  for  her  inves- 
tigation of  insect  habits,  has  well  settled  the 
point  that  these  locusts  are  a  busy  devourer  of 
the  roots  of  trees  when  they  descend  and  take 
up  their  long  abode  underground.  She  thinks, 
from  examination  of  the  roots  of  many  trees  in 
the  locust  districts,  that  the  larvae  do  more 
harm  upon  the  roots  of  trees  in  this  way,  than 
the  full  grown  insects  do  upon  the  branches. 
Doubtless  many  a  fine  tree,  whose  decline  is  a 
of  surprise  and  perplexity  to  the  culti- 
is  the  prey  of  these  creatures  at  the  root. 


Fortunately  the  Cicada  Septendecem  does  not 
occur  all  over  the  country  at  once — but  in 
different  portions  upon  different  years.  There 
is  no  longer  any  question,  however,  as  to  the 
fact  that  each  brood  remains  seventeen  years 
under  the  surface  of  the  earth.  The  insect  is 
not  a  true  locust  like  our  annual  insect  of  that 
name,  or  those  which  ravage  the  East,  devour- 
ing the  herbage,  but  a  Cicada  or  larvent  fiy — 
equally  as  large  and  a  good  deal  resembling  a 
true  locust.  

Healthy  Apricot  Trees. — Dear  Sir — Ob- 
serving the  weight  you  give  to  shielding  tender 
trees  from  the  sun  in  summer,  and  rapid  freez- 
ing and  thawing  in  winter,  I  was  induced  to  ap- 
ply the  practice  to  my  apricot  trees — the  only 
fruit  trees  that  uniformly  have  baffled  my  at- 
tempts at  successful  cultivation.  The  trouble 
with  this  tree,  as  many  of  your  readers  must  be 
aware,  is  that  it  "  goes  off"  very  suddenly,  and 
usually  some  time  between  the  exfoliation  and 
the  beginning  of  summer.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  this  is  owing  to  the  effects  of  heat  and 
cold  upon  the  bark — as  you  have  pointed  out. 
To  guard  against  it  I  have  employed  old  cotton 
bagging,  a  material  easily  and  cheaply  obtained 
by  those  who  live  near  cities.  I  cleaned  the  bark 
with  soft-soap,  and  dipped  the  cloth  just  before 
using,  into  a  thin  white-wash,  both  to  preserve  it 
and  prevent  it  from  harboring  insects.  I  then  tied 
it  loosely  but  neatly  round  the  stem  and  the  lar- 
ger and  lower  part  of  the  branches.  This  has  been 
upon  the  trees  three  years  and  now  requires  re- 
newing. It  has  answered  the  purpose  well.  The 
trees  are  remarkably  healthy,  and  both  foliage 
and  fruit  have  been  unusually  large.  Not  one 
of  the  trees  so  covered  has  been  attacked  by 
the  paralysis,  common  to  the  apricot,  while 
others  not  covered,  in  an  adjoining  garden, 
have  been  dying  off  every  season  in  the  usual 
way.  If  you  think  the  foregoing  worthy  of 
being  printed,  it  is  at  your  service.  Yours,  A. 
W.     Philadelphia,  June,  1851. 


Daphne  odora  hardy. — We  are  extremely 
glad  to  learn  by  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Thorburn  that  this  plant  has 
proved  hardy  on  Long  Island.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  Chinese  azaleas,  raised  from  seeds, 
and  i)lanted  out  in  a  shaded  border  while  young, 
would  also  prove  hardy,  and  what  a  beautiful 
ornament  to  the  shrubbery  and  flower  garden 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


they  would  be.  There  are  still  many  plants  in 
our  green-houses  that  rnay  be  successfully 
naturalized. 

The  Daphne  odora  which  I  last  autumn  in- 
formed you  had  stood  out  all  winter  in  the 
garden  of  Mr.  Benner.  has  again  proved  its 
robustness,  and  has  Jloivcred  this  season.  I  con- 
sider this  a  valuable  experiment,  as  it  is  making 
a  garden  shrub  of  what  was  hitherto  considered 
a  tender  green-house  plant,  and  which  is  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  most  delicious  of  all  plants 
in  its  fragant  flowers.  Yours  truly,  G.  C. 
Thokburn.     Astoria,  May  28,  1851. 


Preserving  Cherries  from  Birds. — Dear 
Sir:  If  you  or  any  of  your  readers  ever  "  lov- 
ed a  tree  or  flower,"  and  especially  a  cherry 
tree  on  your  own  premises,  covered  with  a  fine 
crop  of  particularly  early  fruit,  which  you  had 
set  your  heart  upon  enjoying,  only  to  see  the 
spoiler  come  in  the  shape  of  a  parcel  of  little 
cedar  birds,  or  "  ring  tails."  to  make  a  desert 
of  your  cherries  before  you  could  get  a  fair 
chance  to  pronounce  them  ripe,  you  probably 
understand  someting  of  the  sufferings  of  such 
disappointed  hopes.  As  these  young  Ishmael- 
ites  of  "  ring  tails"  make  their  breakfast  on  my 
Early  Purple  Guignes  and  Bauman'sMay  every 
season,  I  have  been  a  little  provoked  at  them, 
and  at  last  have  succeeded  in  baffling  them,  by 
suspending  three-cornered  pieces  of  new  bright 
tin,  about  as  large  as  my  hand,  among  the 
branches.  These  bits  of  tin  may  be  had  from 
the  tin  shops  for  a  mere  trifle,  or  if  you  take 
the  refuse  pieces — for  nothing.  Punch  a  hole 
in  one  corner,  and  suspend  the  tin  by  a  piece  of 
twine  from  one  of  the  outer  branches,  so  that 
it  may  swing  freely.  As  it  turns  it  will  catch 
the  light  and  sunshine,  and  frighten  off  the  rob- 
bers. A  neighbor,  who  never  does  things  by 
halves,  has  improved  on  my  mode  by  smearing 
a  branch  or  two  of  each  tree  with  bird-lime. 
This  detains  one  or  two  of  the  little  thieves  now 
and  then,  til  he  makes  a  sign  of  distress,  which, 
connected  with  the  awful  brightness  of  the  tin, 
induces  them  to  give  the  tree  a  "  wider  birth," 
as  the  sailors  say.     W.     Boston,  June  8, 1851. 

The  Curcdlio  w.^rfare. — If  the  curculio, 
as  is  generally  believed,  emerges  from  the 
ground,  immediately  under  the  tree  whose  fruit 
it  destroys,  might  not  the  insect  be  thoroughly 
eradicated    by    burning?    For    example,  the 


trunk  could  be  protected  by  one  or  more  old 
stove  pipes,  stuck  in  the  ground  at  a  little  dis- 
tance from  the  tree,  and  the  mellow  soil  hoed 
up,  and  incorporated  with  saw  dust,  tanner's 
bark,  or  something  similar,  in  proper  quantity, 
which  being  set  fire  to.  would  destroy  all  in- 
sects, without  penetrating  to  the  roots  of  the 
tree.  By  doing  this  at  the  proper  season,  would 
not  this  pest  be  exterminated  at  once  and  for 
ever?  George  Leslie.  Toronto,  Canada, 
26  3fay,  1851. 

Not  a  bad  suggestion  for  small  gardens  where 
there  are  but  a  few  trees — and  where  the  cur- 
culio does  not  migrate  from  other  cjuarters.  Ed. 


Staminate  Strwberries  Productive. — In 
the  may  number  of  your  Journal  Mr.  Long- 
worth  of  Cincinnati,  in  an  article  on  Grapes, 
says:  "That  neither  Hovey's  Seedling  or  the 
English  Methven  Scarlet,  will  produce  half  a 
crop,  or  bear  perfect  berries,  if  separated  from 
all  others." 

He  then  goes  on  to  say,  that  the  same  may  be 
said  of  Burr's  New  Pine.  Of  the  two  first  I 
cannot  speak,  never  having  cultivated  them, 
but  with  regard  to  the  New  Pine  he  is  certainly 
in  error. 

Two  years  ago  I  procured  a  few  plants  of  the 
New  Pine  direct  from  the  garden  of  Mr.  Burr, 
in  Columbus.  They  came  into  full  bearing  this 
year,  and  are  now  producing  a  very  full  crop 
of  berries,  of  the  largest  and  most  perfect  kind, 
without  the  assistance  of  "  any  others." 

In  this  matter  there  can  be  no  mistake,  I 
never  having  grown  any  other  variety  of  straw- 
berry, nor  are  any  other  kinds  cultivated  with- 
in a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  my  residence.  S.  11. 
Werb.     Newburgh,  Ohio. 

[Such  cases  do  sometimes  occur,  but  our 
Cincinnati  friends  ignore  them.     Ed.] 


Budding  Roses. — Dear  Sir:  July  is  the 
month  for  budding  roses,  and  I  wish  a  little 
space  among  the  Domestic  Items  to  recommend 
this  practice  to  rose  amateurs.  The  common 
mode  of  budding  rare  roses  on  stocks  near  the 
ground  is  so  familiar  that  it  needs  no  mention 
here.  What  I  would  like  to  recommend  to  the 
readers  of  the  Horticulturist  is,  the  practice  of 
budding  ever  blooming  roses  on  the  Prairie 
climbing  roses.  The  effect  is,  I  assure  you 
very  beautiful.  You  select,  about  the  10th  or 
15th  of  July,  long,  clean  straight  shoots,  or 


— e^^^ 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


flourishing  young  side  shoots,  on  your  Prairie 
rose,  which  I  will  sui)pose  trained  to  a  pole 
ten  feet  high,  or  against  a  wall.  You  insert 
huds  of  the  Bourbon  and  Noisette  roses — or  of 
the  Perpctuals;  I  find  the  former  the  best. 
Next  spring  you  head  back  the  shoots  to  a  point 
an  incli  or  so  above  the  buds  tliat  have  taken. 
The  vigor  of  the  prairie  stock  soon  forces  these 
buds  of  the  ever-blooming  roses  into  luxuriant 
growth,  and  they  will  speedily  be  covered  with 
flowers.  By  selecting  half  a  dozen  of  the  most 
striking  colors  and  contrasts,  and  budding  them 
at  ditTcrent  heights  on  the  Prairie  climber,  you 
have  one  of  the  richest  pillars  of  roses  concei- 
vable— blooming  more  or  less  all  the  season.  In 
pruning  the  pillar  you  do  not  sacrifice  the  Prai- 
rie rose  itself — but  allow  it  to  bear  a  conside- 
rable number  of  its  own  flowers,  only  keeping 
down  its  strongest  shoots,  so  as  to  throw  the  ne- 
cessary amount  of  nourishment  into  the  budded 
shoots. 

I  find  tlie  following  varieties  succeed  admira- 
bly in  this  way.  Aiince  Vibert,  (Noisette,  pure 
white;)  Madam  Desprez,  (Bourbon,  deep  rose- 
color,  in  large  clusters ;)  ilfa//«aison,  (Bourbon, 
delicate  blush  white;)  Mrs.  Bousanquet,  (Chi- 
na, creamy  white;)  Bouquet  de  Flore,  (Bour- 
bon, briglit  crimson.) 

When  the  Prairie  another  is  a  large  plant  and 
a  strong  gi-ower,  it  is  better  to  top  back  the 
shoots  to  within  three  or  four  buds  above  where 
the  new  bud  is  Inserted,  at  the  time  of  perform- 
ing the  operation.  This  throws  more  nourish- 
ment into  the  bud.  It  should  not,  however, 
be  topped  near  the  inserted  bud,  as  that  would 
force  the  latter  into  immediate  growth,  which 
is  not  desirable.  Your  Friend,  S.  Philadel- 
phia, June  15,  1851. 


Mass.  Hort.  Society. — "We  notice  by  the 
reports  of  the  Exhibition,  that  J.  F.  Allen, 
Esq.  of  Salem,  exhibited  very  fine  hot-house 
grapes  in  six  varieties,  as  early  as  the  31st  of 
May.  Messrs.  Story  and  Hovey  &  Co.,  also 
exhibited  fine  grapes — the  Wilmot's  Black 
Hamburgh,  of  the  latter,  particularly  good. 

Col.  Wilder  made  a  very  fine  display  of  120 
blooms  of  Tree  Paionics — in  all  18  varieties  of 
this  choice  flowering  shrub.  J.  S.  Cabot,  Esq. 
also  exhibited  nine  choice  varieties  of  the  same. 
Messrs.  Hovey  exhibited  30  varieties  of  Chi- 
nese azaleas,  and  Messrs.  Winship  a  very  large 


collection  of  blooms  of  fine  shrubs  and  herba- 
ceous plants. 

At  the  show  on  the  7th  of  June,  Mr.  Allen 
produced  four  varieties  of  Figs  in  perfect  ma- 
turity— with  Hunt's  Tawny  Nectarine,  and  a 
fine  new  cherry  called  "  Ellen."  Tliere  was 
also  a  good  collection  of  grapes  and  other  fruit 
from  Messrs.  Bowditcii,  Strong,  Hovey  & 
Co.,  and  Williams.  Mr.  Lovett  showed  15 
mammoth  stalks  of  the  Victoria  Rlmbarb, 
weighing  24  lbs.  Some  of  the  stalks  measured 
45  inches  long.  Messrs.  Winship  showed  12 
stalks  weighing  16  lbs. 


Mr.  Downing — Sir:  It  is  a  rainy  day,  and 
therefore  I  can  now  send  you  my  observations 
of  this  last  winter  and  spring,  with  respect  to 
my  European  grape-vines,  and  the  grafts  of 
European  cuttings  on  the  American  wild  stocks. 
Generally  speaking,  the  grape-vine  cuttings  and 
rooted  vines,  planted  very  late  last  year,  (in- 
deed some  as  late  as  June,  that  escaped  the 
great  drouth  during  last  summer,)  are  doing 
very  well,  and  many  of  them  have  a  fair  average 
crop  and  promise  well  for  the  future. 

The  grafts  of  last  year  have,  like  the  wild 
native  grape-vines,  put  out  about  three  weeks 
later  than  their  parent  European  stocks;  show- 
ing decidedly  the  positive  influence  of  the  wild 
native  vine  upon  the  European  grafts,  since 
their  circulation  has  been  retarded.  Their  wood 
is  now  already  loaded  with  bunches  of  grapes 
in  their  embryo  condition.  This  lastFebruary 
I  have  grafted  about  100  more,  and  they  are 
already  nearly  all  putting  out.  To  show  you 
the  great  power  of  my  wild  vines,  I  may  simply 
state  tliat  by  my  method  of  grafting,  I  have 
31  grafts  on  one  wild  stock,  and  I  have  another 
that  has  sixty  European  grafts  of  many  kinds. 

In  your  remarks  you  stated  that  tlie  grafts 
would  not  be  influenced  by  the  native  wild  stock 
on  which  I  had  grafted  the  European  cuttings.* 
So  far,  my  experience  does  not  sustain  your 
views ;  and  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say  that  nature 
and  experience  would  not  support  your  ideas. 

I  flnd  that  my  experiment  and  views  respect- 
ing the  power  of  the  nurse  stock  in  modifying 
the  habits  of  the  nursling  are  neither  singular 
nor  original  with  me — that  Compte  Odart,  that 

*  Our  correspoiulenl  somewhat  mistakes  us.  We  know 
of  course,  that  the  habit  of  growth,  etc.,  will  be  slightly 
modified  by  the  stock — but  the  latter  will  fail  to  naturalize 
the  foreign  grape  to  our  climate — the  point  desired.    Ed. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


great  practical  writer  in  his  "  ^mpilographie," 
or  a  treatise  on  tlie  classification  of  tlie  vine, 
at  page  291,  at  the  article  "  Raisin  des  Dames," 
says:  "  This  magnificent  grape  of  a  very  beau- 
tiful yellow  color,  with  very  big  ellipsoidal  ber- 
ries, has  indeed  some  failings  j  it  does  not  bear 
every  year ;  its  beautiful  bunclies  are  often  very 
thinly  furnished  with  berries  owing  to  tlie  blight 
of  at  least  four-fifths  of  tliem,  and  their  flavor 
is  not  very  high ;  /  have  found  the  means  to  re- 
medy theblight,  (coulure,)  and  this  is  by  graft' 
ing  it  on  a  common  white  Muscat." 

I  shall  add  to  this  statement  of  facts  the  opin- 
ion of  one  no  less  celebrated  than  I'Abbe  Ro- 
ziER,  as  published  in  his  10th  4to.  vol.,  page 
248,  of  his  complete  treatise  on  agriculture. 
He  says,  "  Grafting  on  the  vine  takes  with  so 
much  ease,  and  anasthimoses  so  perfectly,  that 
no  other  kind  of  plant  appears  better  calcula- 
ted by  nature  for  this  mode  of  improvement 
(deperfection ;)  and  they  would  have  us  be- 
lieve that  this  operation  deteriorates  the  quali- 
ty of  the  grape  while  it  improves  that  of  other 
fruit!  Tliat  is  not  possible.  Graft  the  Muscat 
on  a  Chasselas,  and  then  compare  the  quality 
of  its  fruit  to  that  of  the  Muscat  not  grafted, 
and  you  will  be  forced  to  admit  that  the  pro- 
duce of  the  graft  is  superior;  make  the  same 
trial  with  tlie  Mourillon  on  a  Cliasselas  and  you 
will  see  that  grafting  adds  to  the  quality  of  the 
grape."  These,  sir,  are  very  important  facts  and 
worthy  to  be  recorded  in  your  valuable  publi- 
cation for  the  benefit  of  Horticulture.  So  you 
see  that  I  was  not  so  singular  in  my  notions: 
if  I  err  I  am  in  good  company.  I  may  also 
state  for  your  gratification,  that  one  of  the 
grafts  of  last  year  has  on  it  about  100  bunches 
of  grapes  of  remarkable  sizes,  and  tliat  the 
others  have  bunches  in  proportion  to  their  size. 

I  have  just  read  Mr.  N.  Longworth's  letter 
in  your  April  number,  and  the  facts  he  states 
in  it,  he  had  the  kindness  to  communicate  to 
me  two  years  ago.  I  must,  however,  and  with 
all  due  respect  for  that  gentleman's  valuable 
experience,  in  Cincinnati,  remark  that  his  ex- 
perience and  conclusions  must  be  limited  and 
confined  to  the  latitude  of  his  locality.  Whilst 
my  vineyard  is  located  6°  farther  south,  and  I 
may  say  very  near  and  almost  on  a  level  with 
the  ocean.  Again  my  rolling  land,  the  proxi- 
a  river,  a  calcareous  subsoil  resting  on 
of  very  rich  wliite  and  grey  marl,  much 


of  it  mixed  with  abundance  of  oxides  of  iron 
and  alumina,  clay  of  every  possible  kind  mixed 
in  diflTerent  proportions  with  gravel  and  silicious 
sand,  green  sand,  muck,  &c.  &c.,  each  and  all 
of  which  have  their  share  of  influence  in  my 
trial.  [Undoubtedly  these  are  most  favorable 
circumstances,  and  we  shall  be  glad  to  hear  of 
your  success.     Ed.] 

Now,  sir,  you  may  be  able  to  judge  and  un- 
derstand  the  difference  and  advantages  of  my 
locality  over  that  of  the  environs  of  Cincinnati. 
To  the  8°  Fahrenheit,  at  least,  difference  in  the 
temperature,  I  may  add  the  warm  quality  of 
my  soil  and  its  hygroscopicity  so  favorable  to 
the  grape-vine,  and  which  is  also  the  best  re- 
medy for  the  rot.  In  con.sequence  of  it  I  was 
able  to  mature  last  year,  even  the  Muscat  de 
Frontignan  in  145  days  after  the  vine  was  first 
planted,  and  just  after  a  long  sea  voyage.  The 
minimum  number  of  days,  even  in  the  south 
of  France  being  140,  and  the  maximum  about 
160,  with  au  accumulation  of  GOOO"  F.  in  tliat 
same  space  of  time,  with  also  the  indispensable 
minimum  temperature  possible,  that  comports 
with  the  perfect  growth  of  tlie  vines.  See 
Compte  de  Gasparin's  book  on  agriculture,  4th 
Svo.vol.  Very  resp'ly,  Joseph  Togno,  Princi- 
pal of  the  Vine  Dresser  Model  Scliool,  near 
Wilmington,  N.  C.     ^pril  8,  1851. 


A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — I  enclose  Adam's  & 
Co.'s  receipt  for  a  box  of  Catawba  wine,  which 
I  hope  you  will  receive  from  me  as  a  slight  to- 
ken of  respect  due  to  you  for  the  interest  you 
have  taken  in  the  grape  culture  of  the  west. 
Six  bottles  are  Mr.  Longwokth's  sparkling 
Catawba,  (the  best  of  that  kind  made  here  as 
yet  by  any  one,)  and  six  of  still  wine  from  my 
ov.n  vineyard,  vintage  of  1849.  I  think  my 
vintage  of  1850  will  be  better. 

We  have  ready  sale  here  for  the  sparkling  at 
$12  per  dozen,  and  for  the  still  at  $6,  of  the 
best  quality  of  course,  inferior  at  less  rates. 

The  great  frost  of  the  morning  of  the  2d  of 
May,  made  a  general  sweep  of  all  the  fruits  in 
the  west  and  south-west — with  the  exception  of 
some  parts  of  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie, 
near  the  lake.  A  few  late  apples,  (Rawle's 
Janet,)  may  be  spared  to  us. 

The  grapes  have  fared  better,  not  more  than 
half  the  shoots  being  destroyed.  Latent  buds 
will  push  out  new  shoots  of  course,  but  whether 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


productive,  (or  fruit  bearing,)  I  am  unable  to 
say.  I  expect,  however,  a  pretty  fair  crop — 
rot  excepted. 

Tills  frost  has  proved  conclusively,  that  of  all 
important  fruits,  the  grape  is  least  subject  to 
injury  from  that  cause. 

This  frost  is  the  most  destructive  we  have 
had  since  the  26th  of  April,  1834,  (which  was 
also  locust  year,)  and  very  similar  in  its  effects; 
the  vegetation  was  then  a  little  more  forward 
than  now. 

On  the  morning  of  the  2d  instant  the  average 
range  of  the  thermometer  in  this  vicinity,  at  5 
o'clock,  was  about  24^.  Very  repectfully,  R. 
Buchanan. 

N.  B.  "We  find  here,'  that  a  glass  or  two  of 
the  still  Catawba  at  dinner,  prevents  acidity  on 
the  stomach — and  that  two  or  three  at  the  .same 
meal,  is  very  useful  to  those  afflicted  with  dys- 
pepsia. The  pure  article  is  often  prescribed  by 
our  physicians.  R.  B.  Cincinnati,  May  9, 
18.51. 

"VVe  are  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  Buchanan 
for  his  very  acceptable  present  of  these  wines. 
In  flavor,  the  Ohio  wines  very  closely  resemble 
those  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  Catawba  grape 
gives  a  peculiar  fruity  flavor  which  is  fast  gain- 
ing the  approbation  of  good  judges.  About 
Cincinnati,  the  shores  of  the  Ohio  are  thickly 
dotted  with  vinevards,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  calcareous  soil  and  warm  climate 
of  that  region  will  soon  give  us  American  wines 
that  will  rank  with  any  of  the  same  class  pro- 
dilced  in  the  world. 

Very  few  Americans,  except  those  who  have 
traveled  abroad,  estimate  properly  the  moral 
value  of  pure  light  wines — because  pure  wines 
very  rarely  find  their  way  across  the  Atlantic. 

Containing,  as  hocks  and  clarets  do,  only 
about  eight  or  nine  per  cent  of  alcohol,  they  are 
far  more  wholesome  than  coffee ;  and  the  cheap 
production  of  such  wines*  will  do  more  to  de- 
crease the  consumption  of  ardent  spirits,  than 
any  other  circumstance.  Neither  law  nor  morals 
can  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  present  age  so  as 
io  force  men  to  be  entirely  temperate — but  the 
introduction  of  wholesome,  pure  light  wines,  at 
a  cheap  rate  will — as  there  is  abundant  proof  in 
the  wine  districts  of  Europe.     It  is  for  thisrea- 

♦  We  uiidersland  thai  the  light  Catawba  wine  of  the 
ordinary  grade,  may  be  liad  for  about  .30  cents  a  boUle  in 
Cincinnati. 


son,  as  well  as  because  we  look  upon  it  as  a 
source  of  national  wealth,  that  we  regard  the 
successful  labors  of  such  men  as  Mr,  Long- 
worth  and  Mr.  Buchanan,  in  introducing  and 
perfecting  the  wine  culture,  as  worthy  of  the 
highest  public  gratitiule. 


Peaches  and  Nectarines  one  species. — 
Enclosed  I  send  you  an  account  of  a  curious 
union  of  the  Peach  and  Nectarine,  which  was 
found  on  a  farm  but  a  few  miles  distant  from 
this  place,  last  summer.  I  did  not  have  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  it  myself  (being  out  of  the 
way  at  the  time,)  but  as  a  very  singular  speci- 
men, it  was  forwarded  to  one  of  our  most  dis- 
tinguished botanists  in  Charleston,  by  whom 
the  accompanying  description  was  furnished  to 
one  of  the  city  papers.  As  the  account  will 
prove  interesting  to  pomologists  generally,  I 
have  thought  it  worthy  of  a  more  permanent 
record,  especially  as  it  would  be  seen  by  com- 
paratively only  a  few,  in  the  paper  in  which  it 
appeared.  I  would  have  furnished  you  with  a 
copy  at  the  time,  but  that  you  were  travelling 
in  Europe,  and  when  remembered  after  your 
return,  I  could  not  find  the  one  I  kept  for  some 
time.  I  send  you  all  that  was  published  and 
you  can  insert  the  whole  or  only  such  parts  as 
you  may  think  proper.  I  shall  endeavor  to  as- 
certain whether  any  such  are  produced  this 
summer,  and  should  there  be,  will  try  and  for- 
ward a  specimen  to  you.  I  remain,  yours,  &c. 
J.  D.  Legabe.  Aiken,  S.  C,  March  31,  1851. 

We  yesterday  received  from  Aiken,  for  which 
we  are  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Dawson, 
a  specimen  of  fruit  of  so  singular  a  character 
and  presenting  a  peculiarity  which  occurs  at 
such  rare  and  uncertain  intervals,  that  we  re- 
quest a  small  space  in  your  paper  for  a  brief 
description. 

We  cannot  characterise  this  fruit  more  accu- 
rately than  as  half  a  peach  and  half  a  nectarine, 
united  by  a  seam  running  around  and  through 
the  fruit,  by  which  it  is  divided  into  nearly 
equal  parts.  The  fruit  was  of  moderate  size, 
and  was  taken  from  a  peach  tree — it  having 
been  the  only  one  that  presented  this  peculiari- 
ty. All  the  rest  were  genuine  peaches.  It  was 
what  is  usually  called  a  cling-stone,  viz:  the 
pulp  adhering  to  the  stone.  On  one  side  of  this 
fruit  was,  in  all  its  peculiarities,  a  nectarine. 
It  had  a  smooth  skin  of  a  rich  dark  red  color, 
possessing  the  fragrance  of  that  fruit,  and  it 
was  ascertained  on  being  tasted  by  several  good 
judges,  that  it  had  all  the  flavor  of  the 
rine.  The  other  half  was  in  all  its  part 
a  peach,  with  its  down,  fragrance  and 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


The  seam  which  separated  the  two  halves  of  the 
fruit  was  very  distinct— on  one  side  the  nectarine 
protruded,  whilst  on  the  ojiposite  edge  the  peach 
swelled  out  and  the  nectarine  receded,  present- 
ing the  appearance  of  half  a  peach  and  half  anec« 
tarine,  nut  regularly  placed  together,  but  slip- 
ped a  little  to  one  side,  and  then  united  by  a 
subsequent  growth.  Tiie  stone  was  on  the 
peach  side  deeply  furrowed  and  corrugated,  as 
Is  the  case  in  the  peach  stone,  and  on  the  other 
less  indented  and  more  smooth,  as  in  the  nec- 
tarine. We  had  some  expectation  of  finding  a 
double  kernel,  but  in  this  we  were  disappoint- 
ed. It  is  a  single  kernel,  well  filled,  and  which 
we  have  planted,  although,  even  should  it  pro- 
duce a  tree,  we  have  little  expectation  of  its 
bearing  similar  fruit. 

An  interesting  inquiry  still  remains  for  the 
consideiation  t)f  botanists.  By  what  process  in 
nature  has  this  fruit  been  produced?  We  were 
infromed  by  our  friend  President  Finley,  who 
sent  us  a  communication  which  accompanied 
the  fruit,  "  that  it  grew  on  a  tree  of  Mr.  Zeag- 
ler's  about  ten  or  twelve  miles  from  Aiken,  and 
that  there  were  no  nectarine  trees  on  the  farm." 

It  has  now  been  fully  established  by  botan- 
ists, that  the  peach  and  nectarine  are  mere  va- 
rieties of  one  species,  {Annjgdalus  persica.) 
These  varieties  are  only  preserved  with  their 
separate  peculiarities  by  budding,  grafting  on 
the  roots,  and  other  artificial  modes.  Bees  and 
other  winged  insects,  are  known  to  carry  the 
pollen  of  fertilizing  dust  to  great  distances, 
which  is  communicated  to  the  pistil.  Hence, 
in  our  apples,  pears,  peaches,  plums,  corn,  &c., 
we  cannot  calculate  with  certainty  on  a  product 
similar  to  the  original  fruit.  We  cannot  ac- 
count for  the  peculiarity  in  this  nectarine-peach 
on  any  other  principle  than  that  of  a  double 
fertilization  of  the  pistil  by  a  bee  or  other  in- 
sect, and  that  whilst  the  pollen  of  the  peach 
communicates  its  peculiar  projterties  to  one  side 
of  the  fruit,  that  of  the  nectarine  was  convey- 
ed to  the  other.  The  occurrences,  however, 
are  as  rare  as  that  of  a  somewhat  analogous 
phenomenon  in  tlie  human  subject.  We  recol- 
lect having  read  in  the  Horticultural  Transac- 
tions, vol.  1st.,  of  a  single  fruit  having  been 
produced  with  the  coat  of  the  peach  on  one 
side,  and  that  of  the  nectarine  on  the  other, 
but  have  no  opportunity  of  referring  more  par- 
ticularly to  that  work.  It  was  also,  we  think, 
stated  that  in  one  instance  a  tree  was  produced 
which  on  one  side  had  the  downy  coat  of  the 
peach,  and  on  the  other  the  smooth  bark  of  the 
nectarine.  This  is  repeated  in  a  recent  English 
work — Description  of  Vegetable  Substances, 
Fruits,  &c.,  297.     B. 


New  Zealand  Spinach. — A  correspondent 
who  is  a  good  judge  of  greens,  complains  that 
we  have  never  recommended  one  of  the  most 
valuable  of  all  the  tribe — especially  for  sum- 
mer use — the  New  Zealand  Spinach,  and  sends 
us  the  following  note  of  this  plant — the  seeds 


of  which  may  be  had  at  Thorburn's  or  any 
other  of  the  large  seed  stores.     Ed. 

New  Zealand  Spinach,  (Tetragoniaexpansa.) 
so  called,  because  it  was  found  growing  wild  on 
the  shores  of  New  Zealand  when  Captain  Cook 
first  touched  at  that  island.  Although  the  na- 
lives  made  no  use  of  this  plant  as  an  esculent, 
the  naturalists  who  accompanied  the  expedition 
were  induced  to  recommend  it  as  a  vegetable 
which  might  be  safely  eaten,  since  its  appear- 
ance  and  general  characteristics  were  so  similar 
to  the  Chenopodium.  On  trial,  it  was  found 
to  be  both  agr-.'eable  and  wholesome.  Sir  Joseph 
Banks  brought  it  into  culture  in  England  in 
1772,  and  it  has  subsequently  been  found  to  be 
a  much  more  hardy  and  valuable  plant  than 
was  at  first  supposed.  It  was  at  first  treated 
as  a  green-house  plant;  but  now  grows  freely 
in  the  open  garden,  and  indeed  seems  already 
to  have  naturalized  itself  in  the  south-west  of 
England.  A  writer,  from  Exmouth,  observes, 
in  the  "  Gardener's  Magazine"  for  February 
1829,  "The  New  Zealand  Spinach  is  quite  a 
weed  with  us,  as,  wherever  it  has  once  grown, 
plants  rise  spontaneously,  even  when  the  seeds 
have  been  wheeled  out  with  the  dung  in  the 
the  winter,  and  again  brought  in  as  manure  in 
the  spring.  I  have  now  a  full  supply  of  it  in 
my  old  pink  bed."  This  Spinach  has  an  ad- 
vantage over  the  common  sort  under  cultiva- 
tion, in  producing  an  abundance  of  large  and 
succulent  leaves  during  the  hot  weather,  when 
the  latter  plant  runs  almost  immediately  to  seed, 
and  produces  little  or  nothing.  It  is  likewise 
milder  in  flavor,  and  of  so  rapid  growth,  that 
a  bed  with  about  20  plants  is  sufficient  for  the 
daily  supply  of  a  large  family.  Though  by 
some  called  a  biennial,  this  Spinach  is  an  an- 
nual in  our  climate.  The  stem  has  numerous 
thick  and  strong  branches,  somewhat  procum- 
bent for  the  greater  part  of  their  length,  but 
raised  at  the  points.  The  leaves  are  fleshy  and 
succulent,  three  or  four  inches  long,  of  a  dark 
green  on  the  under  part,  but  of  a  paler  color 
on  the  surface,  on  which  the  midribs  and  nerves 
arc  strongly  marked.  They  are  triangular,  or 
rather  of  an  elongated  heart-shape,  having  the 
angles  at  the  base  rounded,  and  the  apex  sharp 
and  extended.  The  flowers  are  small,  and  of 
a  yellowish  green  color ;  they  appear  in  August 
and  September.  The  whole  plant  is  thickly 
studded  with  minute  aqueous  tubercles;  a  pe- 
culiarity likewise  to  be  found  in  some  species 
of  atriplex  and  chenopodium.  In  six  weeks 
after  sowing,  some  of  the  leaves  of  the  plants 
are  fit  for  gathering.  These  are  pinched  off, 
and  not  torn  from  the  branches.  This  plant 
has  been  likewise  found  growing  on  the  Tonga 
islands;  and  Thumberg  discovered  it  of  spon- 
taneous growth  in  Japan.  New  Zealand  Spinach 
is  remarkable  as  being  almost  the  only  native 
of  the  isles  of  Australasia  which  has  been  found 
wortliy  of  a  place  in  the  kitchen-gardens  of 
Europe. — Rhind^s  Vegetable  Kingdom 

Bkxdgman   says,   "  its  nature   seems 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


opposite  to  the  common  Spinach,  as  it  will  en- 
dure the  heat  better  than  the  cold.  It  may  be 
obtained  in  the  summer  by  planting  the  seed  in 
April  or  May — {he  might  have  added  June.) 
Being  of  luxuriant  growth,  it  sliould  be  planted 
in  hills  three  feet  apart  and  about  two  seeds  in 
a  hill.  The  leaves  will  be  fit  for  use  during  the 
summer  and  until  late  in  the  autumn."  Yours, 
E.     New-York,  May,  1851. 


Prof.  Harris  on  the  Cl'rculio. — This  able 
entomologist  has  sent  the  following  letter  to 
the  Boston  Cultivator,  as  a  guide  to  culti- 
vators. As  the  recommendation  of  one  who 
has  studied  the  habits  of  this  insect  very 
thoroughly,  it  is  worthy  of  attention. 

Mr.  Editor: — These  depredators  have  be- 
gun their  summer  work  in  good  earnest.  On 
the  27th,  I  saw  cherries  not  bigger  than  small 
peas,  and  plums  still  smaller,  that  had  been 
stung;  and  the  next  day,  shaking  bi'ought 
down  the  weevil  from  a  i)lum  tree.  From  the 
appearance  of  the  fruit,  tlie  weevils  must  have 
been  busy  a  week  or  more  ago.  Those  persons 
who  wish  to  save  their  plums  and  cherries, 
should  immediately  begin  to  use  such  means  as 
may  prove  best  for  protecting  the  fruit. 

Showering  the  trees  with  lime-water,  or 
throwing  the  fluid  upon  them  with  a  syringe, 
till  it  forms  a  white  coat  on  the  young  fruit,  is 
said  to  be  an  eflfectual  preservative  from  the  at- 
tacks  of  the  plum-weevil.  It  may  be  asked, 
however,  whether  we  shall  not  have  to  shower 
our  cherry  trees  and  our  apple  trees,  also.  It  is 
a  well  established  fact,  that  the  plum- weevil  at- 
tacks all  the  following  fruits,  namely:  plums, 
cherries, apples, nectarines, apricots, and  peaches 
and  even  walnuts.  The  whitewash  may  pro- 
tect the  plums,  but  the  other  fruits  will  be  only 
the  more  sure  to  suffer,  unless  protected  in  like 
manner;  and,  when  it  comes  to  showering  big 
trees  and  whole  orchards  in  order  to  save  the 
fruit,  we  shall  begin  to  make  unfavorable  esti- 
mates of  the  cost  and  of  the  time  required. 

Sprinkling  salt  upon  the  surface  of  the  ground 
has  been  repeatedly  recommended,  and  some 
cultivators  have  applied  it  abundantly  to  the 
soil  around  plum  trees;  but  it  seems  with  very 
doubtful  results.  Some  of  us  have  lately  had 
an  opportunity  of  testing  the  efficacy  of  sea 
salt  on  a  large  scale,  where  our  gardens  (as 
was  the  case  witli  mine)  have  been  thrice  over- 
flown by  the  sea,  during  the  high  tides  of  last 
April.  We  shall  soon  find  out  whetlier  the 
brine  will  have  any  effect  upon  the  weevils,  or 
will  do  our  trees  good  in  any  other  way.  It  is 
not  yet  time  to  make  up  an  opinion  thereon. 

Of  other  remedies  I  can  speak  with  much 
confidence — of  those  whose  object  is  to  kill  the 
outriglit,  in  whatever  form  they  maybe 
We  may  begin  the  slaughter  by  taking 
insects  during  the  season  when  they  em. 


ployed  in  laying  their  eggs,  or  stinging  the  fruit 
as  this  process  is  commonly  called.  Let  a  large 
sheet,  divided  half  way  through  the  middle,  be 
spread  under  the  the  trees,  every  morning  early, 
and  every  evening  after  sunset;  then,  if  the 
tree  be  suddenly  jarred  by  a  few  smart  blows, 
the  weevils  will  drop  upon  the  sheet  as  if  dead, 
looking  in  their  motionless  state,  like  little 
blackish  buds.  Gather  them  up  immediately, 
and  throw  them  into  a  tin  pail  having  a  little 
water  therein,  and  when  the  gathering  is  finish- 
ed, put  them  into  the  fire.  Most  of  the  insects 
thus  caught  napping,  will  be  found  to  be  fe- 
males; and,  as  each  female  lays  a  large  num- 
ber of  eggs,  it  is  apparent  that  in  this  way,  we 
shall  nip  the  future  brood  in  the  bud.  Plum 
trees,  peach  trees,  and  cherry  trees,  when  not 
too  large,  and  small  apple  trees,  may  thus  be 
protected  to  some  extent.  But,  as  the  weevils 
fly  well,  especially  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  we 
may  expect  to  be  visited  by  some  from  the  gar- 
dens and  orchards  of  our  neighbors,  and  even 
from  others  distant  half  a  mile  or  more.  The 
remedy,  to  be  effectual  therefore,  requires  to  be 
universally  adopted. 

Let  swine  be  suffered  to  go  at  large  and  to 
root  in  the  old  orchards,  and  they  will  do  their 
part  in  killing  and  eating  the  weevils  while  in  a 
chrysalis  state  in  the  ground.  Gather  up  all 
wind-fallen,  immature  and  wormy  fruit,  daily, 
or  twice  a  day,  put  it  into  barrels  or  tubs,  and 
pour  boiling  water  over  it.  Let  this  be  done 
faithfully  by  every  owner  of  a  fruit  tree,  and 
my  word  for  it,  there  will  soon  be  a  sensible  di- 
minution of  the  number  of  the  insects;  and  a 
much  greater  amount  of  sound  fruit  will  be  pro- 
duced. This  simple  remedy  can  be  emi)loyed 
by  almost  every  one,  at  a  comparatively  trifling 
expense.  It  is  because  it  has  been  so  much 
neglected,  that  we  now  have  so  much  Avormy 
fruit;  and  the  evil  is  evidently  very  much  on 
the  increase. 

There  are,  in  fine,  but  two  resources  that 
come  within  our  power;  either  to  make  a  gene- 
ral business  of  killing  destructive  insects  in 
their  season,  by  direct  attacks  upon  them  in 
their  various  forms ;  or,  to  starve  them  to  death, 
by  cutting  down  all  our  fruit  trees.  T.  ^Y. 
IIaeris.     Cambridge,  Mass.,  May  30,  1851. 

^umm  tn  CnrrrspnnhntH. 

Perpetuals. — Rosa,  (Saratoga,  N.  Y.)  You 
complain  of  the  non-blooming  of  your  perpet- 
ual Roses.  It  is  doubtless  owing  to  the  want 
of  food.  You  should  take  up  the  bed  this 
autumn,  dig  out  the  whole  of  the  soil  and  sub- 
soil  (i.e.  the  second  foot  of  soil)  and  fill  up  its 
place  with  stable  manure  mixed  with  one-half 
loam.  Then  replant  the  roses  and  they  will 
bloom  plentifully  all  next  summer — especially 
if  you  keep  the  bed  rather  low,  so  as  to  catch 
and  hold  the  summer   showers.     All  that 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


can  do  this  season  is  to  cut  back  three  or  four 
inches,  the  ends  of  the  shoots  that  have  flower- 
ed, fork  up  the  bed  and  drench  it  liberallj'  with 
liquid  manure  once  or  twice.  This  will  start 
the  plants  into  new  growth  and  with  that  comes 
more  flowers  of  course. 

Rare  Trees. — W.  Wilson,  (New- York.) 
The  Virgilia  is  a  native  of  Kentucky,  and  is 
perfectly  hardy  in  any  part  of  the  northern 
states.  It  is  one  of  the  handsomest  of  all  orna- 
mental trees — whether  we  consider  its  tine 
foliage  or  its  lovely  white  blossoms.  It  is  scarcer 
in  the  nurseries  than  it  should  be — considering 
the  fact  that  there  are  several  trees  in  the  gar- 
dens about  Philadelphia  that  bear  seeds  abun- 
dantly. J.  31.,  (Buffalo.)  The  evergreen  al- 
luded to  is  the  Ilinmialayan  spruce  {Mies  Smi- 
thiana)  perfectly  hardy  and  unsurpassed  among 
spruces — being  much  more  beautiful  than  the 
Norway  spruce,  in  the  same  way.  Pinus  ex- 
celsa  proves  as  hardy  as  the  common  white 
pine.  The  European  Judas  tree  {Cercis  sili- 
guastrum)  has  larger  and  finer  flowers  than  our 
native  species.  Plants  may  be  had  of  Saul  k 
Co.,  Newburgh- 

SiCKLT  Orange  Trees.— .^.  P.  /.,  (Balti- 
more.)  Bad  soil  is  undoubtedly  the  cause  of 
the  sickly  state  of  your  yellow  leaved  orange 
and  lemon  trees.  Take  them  out  of  the  tubs 
and  shake  off  a  good  part  of  the  soil  from  the 
roots.  Repot  them  in  a  mi.Kture  of  one-half 
good  rich  loam — the  top  spit  of  a  rich  turfy 
pasture — one- third  decomposed  cow  manure 
and  one-third  fine  charcoal  with  a  little  sand. 
Shorten  in  the  branches  all  over  the  head, 
place  the  tubs  in  a  shaded  situation  (on  the 
north  side  of  a  building) — and  water  them  plen- 
tifully as  often  as  they  appear  dry. 

Espalier  Fruit  Trees. — N.,  (Boston.) 
Your  gardener  has  injured  your  trees  by  ex- 
cessive pruning.  Being  a  Scotchman  he  was 
taught  training  and  pruning  in  a  damp  climate 
with  a  covered  sky,  and  pursues  the  same  sys- 
tem here  where  we  have  a  dry  climate  and  an 
unclouded  sky.    If  he  will  take  a  hint  from 


nature  on  this  side  of  the  water  and  leave  more 
wood  and  leaves,  his  trees  will  regain  their 
health.  A  south  exposure  we  consider  on  the 
whole  the  worst  for  trained  fruit  trees. 

Cockroaches. — A  Kitchen  Gardner,  (Jersey 
City.)  The  following  is  given  as  an  excellent 
mode  of  destroying  these  creatures.  "  Miz  1 
oz.  of  arsenic  with  4  oz.  of  tallow,  and  melt 
them  together.  When  thoroughly  incorporated 
by  stirring  and  partially  cooled,  small  pieces 
of  Mood  should  be  dipped  in  the  mixture  which 
will  form  a  coating  over  the  wood.  If  these 
pieces  of  wood  are  placed  in  the  kitchen  where 
the  cockroaches  are,  they  will  eat  them  greedily 
and  perish." 

Red  Spider. — A  Novice.  The  sickly  yellow 
appearance  of  the  foliage  of  the  grapes  in  your 
vinery  is  caused  by  that  pest  the  red  spider. 
The  only  remedy  for  it  now,  is  to  dust  the  un- 
der side  of  the  leaves  with  flower  of  sulphur. 
But  you  should  have  prevented  it  by  keeping 
the  air  of  the  vinery  moist  during  the  hot  weath- 
er, by  frequent  syringings  and  sprinkling  the 
floor  with  water. 

Names  of  Plants. — J.  G.  S.,  (Rose  Hill, 
Va.)  The  Clematis  with  a  large  pale  blue 
flower  from  the  Blue  Ridge  mountains,  of  which 
you  enclose  a  specimen  in  bloom,  is  the  Ameri- 
can Atragene  (Atragene  Americana)  one  of 
the  Clematis  tribe — and  one  of  our  prettiest 
native  climbing  shrubs.  The  buck-eye  of  the 
western  states  is  a  species  of  horse-chestnut. 

To  Destroy  Ants. — Will  you  please  to  in- 
form nie  through  your  valuable  journal  of  some 
method  for  destroying  ants.  After  repeated 
doses  of  whale  oil,  soap,  tobacco  M-ater,  lime, 
ashes,  and  snuff,  they  still  continue  to  operate 
destructively  upon  Osage  Orange  hedge  plants 
and  other  things  which  are  not  so  strong  as  to 
bid  them  defiance.  I  am  quite  discouraged  and 
would  be  greatly  obliged  for  information. 
Yours  resp.,  A  Rochester  Subscriber.  June 
14,  1851. 

Tobacco  water  if  made  strong  enough,  and  a 
very  little  starch  mixed  with  it,  will  destroy 
them  on  the  young  shoots.    Ed. 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


linrtiniltiiriil  Inrittks. 


Pennsylvania  Horticultural  Society. — 
The  stated  meeting  for  May,  was  licld  on  the 
21st.  The  saloon  was  thronged  with  visitors, 
■who  assuredly  must  have  been  gratified  with 
the  display,  which  consisted  of  extensive  tables 
covered  with  beautiful  flowering  plants  and 
culinary  vegetables,  in  the  greatest  profusion. 
Of  the  former,  Peter  Mackenzie  exhibited  (not 
for  competition)  a  handsome  collection  of  Cal- 
ceolarias, Fuchsias,  Cinerarias,  and  a  large 
specimen  of  Azalea  variegata,  completely  en- 
veloped w"ith  its  rich  and  resplendent  flowers, 
an  object  of  great  attraction.  Robert  Buist, 
an  extensive  collection  of  Pelargonia,  many 
of  which  were  of  the  new  fancy  varieties,  and 
all  of  the  choicest  kinds  J  new  Calceolarias,  tine 
Azaleas,  and  several  plants  of  recent  introduc- 
tion, and  now  for  the  first  time  brought  into 
notice.  The  Tetratheca  verticillata,  a  pretty 
delicate  plant,  with  very  narrow  leaves  in 
whorls,  and  fine  cerulean  flowers;  Henfrya 
scandens  bearing  clusters  of  white  flowers ;  Cen- 
tranthus  microsiphon,  a  very  showy  seedling 
mimulus  of  rich  colors,  which  he  names  "  Ju- 
piter;" Azalea  coronata.  with  other  fine  plants. 
Jno.  Lambert's  gardener  exhibited  fine  speci- 
mens of  Rhododendron  ponticum  in  full  bloom. 
Camellias,  Pelargoniums,  Cinerarias,  etc. 
Benj.  Galliss  and  "William  Hall  each  presented 
tables  of  choice  roses.  A  large  basket  of  the 
choicest  cut  flowers  was  shown  by  the  Presi- 
dent's gardener ;  also  ripened  grapes  of  the  white 
Constantia  and  Chasselas  of  Fontainbleau  va- 
rieties. J.  M.  Page,  of  Burlington,  Strawber- 
ries.  Two  seedling  apples  of  merit  from  Berks 
county  were  seen,  and  specimens  of  the  Loquat 
by  Mrs.  J.  R.  Latimer  of  Wilmington.  Among 
the  vegetables  were  observed  very  fine  cucum- 
bers from  Geo.  W.  Carpenter.  Germantown, 
Saml.  C.  Ford's,  Isaac  Newton's,  Delaware 
county,  and  Harry  IngersoU's.  Rhubarb  of 
gigantic  proportions  was  brought  by  Saml. 
Cooper,  Henry  Cooper,  William  Hobson  and 
others.  A  display  of  cauliflowers  from  the  Asy- 
lum for  the  Lisane,  which  for  beauty  and  extent 
has  never  been  surpassed.  Superb  Asparagus 
by  J.  M.  Page,  Burlington,  and  large  displays 
by  Anthony  Felton,  Jr.,  Miss  Gratz's  gardener, 


John  Lambert's  gardener  and  a  few  varieties 
by  Wm.  Johns. 

The  usual  stated  meeting  for  June,  was  held 
on  Tuesday  June  17th.  The  exhibition  was 
very  good  for  a  summer  month,  when  few 
green-house  plants  are  in  bloom,  and  but  a 
small  variety  of  fruits  matured.  The  saloon 
was  quite  crowded  with  visitors.  Among  the 
objects  shown,  some  of  interest  only  will  be 
noticed.  In  Robert  Buist's  collection  of  plants 
were  Jasminum  teunifoUum,  of  recent  intro- 
duction, and  shown  for  the  first  time;  it  is  a 
beautiful,  delicate  species  of  that  favorite  genus : 
two  seedling  Gloxinias,  remarkably  fine  and 
much  admired — No.  1,  bore  flowers  of  a  deli- 
cate blush  with  a  white  throat;  No.  2,  scarlet, 
with  throat  white,  edged  with  crimson.  Mag- 
nolia Exmouthii,  a  dwarf  plant,  bearing  very 
large  flowers ;  some  dozen  specimens  of  Pelar- 
gonia and  as  many  Gloxinias,  with  Erica;,  form- 
ed the  collection.  From  James  Dundas'  houses 
were  three  plants  of  Cereus  grandijlorus,  each 
bearing  expanded  flowers — Gloxinias,  Lilies 
and  Fuchsias.  Thomas  Meehan.  gardener  to 
A.  M.  Eastwick,  (Bartram's  garden.)  sent  fine 
seedling  Calceolarias,  handsome  Fuchsias,  and 
other  plants,  with  three  specimens  of  Chrysan- 
themums in  flower,  which  he  by  management 
has  bloomed  in  the  summer  season;  the  mode 
of  culture  by  which  he  effected  this  result,  he 
reported  to  the  society  in  an  interesting  com- 
munication. 

On  the  fruit  tables,  were  six  pots  of  grape 
vines  in  full  bearing,  grown  from  single  eyes, 
one  year  old. from  C.  Cope's  (President)  houses, 
of  the  Black  Hamburg,  Lashmere's  seedling, 
white  and  grizzly  Formtignac,  white  Constan- 
tia and  white  sweet  water  varieties,  forming  a 
spectacle  of  much  attraction ;  from  same  source, 
was  a  very  large  specimen  of  the  La  Mercier 
cherry.  Dr.  Brinckle  exhibited  fine  specimens 
of  nine  varieties  of  his  seedling  Raspberries, 
several  of  which  were  of  surpassing  excellence. 
Isaac  B.  Baxter,  beautiful  specimens  of 
Brinckle's  Col.  AVilder  Raspberry,  large  Goose- 
berries, the  Guigne  noir,  June  Duke  and  Portu- 
gal cherries.  John  R.  Brinckle  presented  a 
fine  display  of  cherries  of  the  following  kinds- 


HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


Amber,  Bigarreau,  Gros  Coeuret,  Black  Tar- 
tarian, Burr's  Seedling,  Downton,  ^"apoleon 
BigarreaU;  Reiiie  Hortense,  and  a  seedling. 
John  Perkins  several  varieties  of  cherries — fine 
Amber,  Black  Eagle  and  other  kinds  of  cher- 
ries; and  Hovey's  seedling  strawberries  were 
seen.  Four  tables  well  spread  with  fine  vegeta- 
tables  were  shown.     Thos.  P.  James,  Rec.  Sec. 


HaKTFORD    Co.    HORTICULTCRAL    SoCIETY. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Hartford  County 
Horticultural  Society,  the  following  officers 
were  chosen  for  the  year  ensuing,  and  it  was 
voted  that  a  list  of  the  same  be  forwarded  for 
publication  in  the  Horticulturist: 

President — Alfred  Smith. 

Vice  Presidenti — "Wm.  W.  Turner,  Henry 
Mygatt. 

JRcc.  Sficretary — Gurdon  "W.  Russell. 

Cor.  Secretary — John  J.  Butler. 

Treasurer — Erastus  Smith. 

Auditor— 1.  H.  Holcomb. 

Standing  Committee — Wra.  W.  Turner,  Dr. 
H.  A.  Grant,  P.  D.  Stillman,  Joseph  Winship, 
George  Beach,  jr.,  Dr.  T.  S.  Comstock,  Dr. 
Gurdon  W.  Russell,  John  H.  Goodwin,  H.  W. 
Terry,  E.  A.  Whiting,  Chas.  P.  Wells,  H.  L. 
Bidwell,  Charles  L.  Porter  and  Henry  Aflleck. 
Yours,  &c.,  GuEDON  AY.  Rcssel,  Rec.  Sec'y. 
Hartford,  June  2i,  1851. 

Cleveland  Horticulttiral  Societs  . — This 
Society  held  its  first  meeting  lor  the  season  on 
Wed'y.  May  14,  1851.     J.  Gallup  inthechair. 

On  motion,  A.  Mcintosh — Resolved,  That 
we  now  proceed  to  the  election  of  officers  for 
the  ensuing  year. 

On  counting  the  ballots,  the  following  gentle- 
men were  declared  duly  elected: 

President — Maj.  S.  H.  "Webb,  of  Newburg. 

Vice  Presidents — Dr.  J.  P.  Kirtland,  of  Rock- 
port;  Col.  H.  H.  Coit.  of  East  Cleveland;  Wm. 
D.  Beattie,  of  Cleveland;  Jno.  Kirkpatrick, 
of  Ohio  city. 

Cor.  and  Rec.  Secretary — J.  F.  Hanks. 

Treasurer — J.  Stair. 

Librarian — B.  H.  Stair. 

Commiltee  on  Trees  and  Shrubs. — G.  Head- 
ier, J.  Houghton,  J.  Kirkpatrick. 

Comm.  on  Entomology — Beattie  and  Hanks. 

Committee  on  Finance  and  Library — Young- 
love,  Payne  and  Brown. 

Committee  on  Fertilizers — Case  and  Cassels. 

On  motion,  Maj.  Webl) — Reeolved,  That  Mrs. 
Wm.  Smyth,  Mrs.  J.  A.  Harris.  Mrs.  C.  D. 
Brayton.  Miss  Jane  Blair  and  Mrs.  John  Shel- 
ley are  hereby  constituted  a  Floral  Committee 
for  the  ensuing  year,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  ta 
notice  new,  rare  and  extra  grown  specimens  of 
flowers,  and  pre])are  a  report  of  the  same,  to 
be  publislied  with  the  proceedings  of  the  an- 
xhibition. 

motion,  J.  Houghton — Resolved,  That  J. 
dley,  J.  Gallup,  J.  Houghton,   J.  Stair, 


J.  Kirkpatrick,  A.  Mcintosh  and  W.  W.  Cus- 
tead  be  a  committee  to  prepare  a  list  of  pre- 
miums, to  be  awarded  at  the  annual  exhibition, 
to  report  at  our  next  meeting  on  the  7th  of  June. 

On  motion,  J.  Stair — Resolved,  That, in  com- 
mon with  our  fellow-citizens  generally,  we  de- 
plore the  sudden  and  unexpected  decease  of 
our  late  worthy  President,  C.  D.  Brayton,  M. 
D. ,  who,  for  many  years,  was  an  active  and  very 
efficient  member  of  this  Society ;  promoting 
largely  its  interests  and  prosperity  by  his  jire- 
sence,  counsels  and  contributions. 

Resolved,  That  Messrs.  Webb  and  Hanks  be 
a  committee  to  present  the  heartfelt  condolence 
and  sympathy  of  this  Society  to  Mrs.  Brayton 
and  her  affiicted  family. 

On  motion,  G.  Hoadley — Resolved,  That 
Messrs.  J.Stair,Webb  and  Hanks  be  authorized, 
should  it  become  necessary  before  our  next 
meeting,  to  dispose  of  the  Horticultural  Rooms, 
according  to  their  best  judgment. 

J.  F.  Hanks,  Sec'y. 


Chester  Co.  (Pa.)  Hort.  Society. — The 
June  exhibition  of  this  Society  was  held  at  their 
Hall  iu  Westchester,  last  week.  The  efficient 
officers  and  managers  of  the  institution  had 
spared  no  pains  to  fit  up  the  building  in  tlie 
most  tasteful  and  convenient  manner  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  the  lovers  of  Flora,  mechan- 
ics, artists  and  manufacturers — as  well  as  for 
the  accommodation  of  visitors. 

Some  accountof  the  numerous  articles  which 
were  presented,  with  most  of  tlie  premiums, 
will  be  found  in  the  Record  to  day,  under  our 
Horticultural  Department.  It  is  necessarily 
imperfect,  as  indeed  no  pen  could  do  justice  to 
the  many  beautiful  specimens  of  natural  objects, 
arranged  and  prepared  by  the  hand  of  beauty 
and  taste.  There  were  magnificent  specimens 
of  green-house  plants — and  numerous  designs 
of  flowers,  shrubs,  grasses  and  vegetables.  The 
atmosphere  was  fragrant  with  the  perfume  of 
the  flowers,  and  at  the  same  time  vocal  witli  the 
songs  of  birds  and  the  noise  of  the  fountain. 
There  were  some  beautiful  specimens  of  moss 
work,  and  also  grottoes  of  shell  which  could 
only  be  fully  admired  by  being  carefully  studied 
out  and  examined.  The  needle  work  adorned 
various  parts  of  the  Hall,  exhibiting  many  rich 
designs  wrought  out  with  a  taste  and  judgment 
that  could  be  looked  for  only  in  the  cultivated 
minds  of  the  gentler  sex.  The  walls  of  the 
building  were  adorned  with  a  numberof  exqui 
site  paintings  in  water  colors  and  pastil,  reflect- 
ing great  credit  upon  the  artists.  In  the  de- 
partment of  wax  flowers  and  vegetables,  and 
artificial  paper  flowers,  there  was  a  brilliant  va- 
riety. In  the  department  of  fruits  and  vegeta- 
bles— of  cherries,  apples,  strawberries,  beets, 
cabbages,  potatoes,  &c.  &c.,  there  were  nume- 
rous specimens,  creditably  sustaining  this  e- 
partment  of  the  exhibition.  But  we  did 
design  to  go  into  detail;  we  refer  to  our  Hr 
cultural  Department  for  additional  particul 
— Village  Record. 


Mount  Fordham— the  Country  Seat  of  Lewis  G.  Morris,  Esq.— (See  p.  372.) 


Hon:   August,  1851 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  AM)  RURAL  TASTE. 


€lrf  Jlm-^nrk  f  ark. 

I^JIHE  leading  topic  of  town  gossip  and  newspaper  paragraphs  just  now,  in  New- York, 
^  is  the  new  park  proposed  by  Mayor  Kingsland.  Deluded  New- York  has,  until 
lately,  contented  itself  with  the  little  door-yards  of  space — mere  grass  plats  of  verdure, 
which  form  the  squares  of  the  city,  in  the  mistaken  idea  that  they  are  parks.  The 
fourth  city  in  the  world,  (with  a  growth  that  will  soon  make  it  the  second,)  the  com- 
mercial metropolis  of  a  continent  spacious  enough  to  border  both  oceans,  has  not  hith- 
erto been  able  to  afford  sufficient  land  to  give  its  citizens,  (the  majority  of  whom  live 
there  the  whole  year  round,)  any  breathing  space  for  pure  air,  any  recreation  ground 
for  healthful  exercise,  any  pleasant  roads  for  riding  or  driving,  or  any  enjoyment  of 
that  lovely  and  refreshing  natural  beauty  from  which  they  have,  in  leaving  the  coun- 
try, reluctantly  expatriated  themselves  for  so  many  years — perhaps  for  ever.  Some 
few  thousands,  more  fortunate  than  the  rest,  are  able  to  escape  for  a  couple  of  months, 
into  the  country,  to  find  repose  for  body  and  soul,  in  its  leafy  groves  and  pleasant  pas- 
tures, or  to  inhale  new  life  on  the  refreshing  sea-shore.  But  in  the  mean  time  the  city 
is  always  full.  Its  steady  population  of  500,000  souls,  is  always  there  ;  always  on 
the  increase.  Every  ship  brings  a  live  cargo  from  over-peopled  Europe,  to  fill  up  its 
crowded  lodging-houses  ;  every  steamer  brings  hundreds  of  strangers  to  fill  its  throng- 
ed thoroughfares.  Crowded  hotels,  crowded  streets,  hot  summers,  business  pursued  till 
it  becomes  a  game  of  excitement,  pleasure  followed  till  its  votaries  are  exhausted, 
where  is  the  quiet  reverse  side  of  this  picture  of  town  life,  intensified  almost  to  dis- 
traction ? 

Mayor  Kingsland  spreads  it  out  to  the  vision  of  the  dwellers  in  this  arid  desert 
of  business  and  dissipation — a  green  oasis  for  the  refreshment  of  the  city's  soul  and 
body.  He  tells  the  citizens  of  that  feverish  metropolis,  as  every  intelligent  man  will 
them  who  knows  the  cities  of  the  old  world,  that  New- York,  and  American  cities 
generally,  are  voluntarily  and  ignorantly  living  in  a  state  of  complete  forgetfulnes  of 


Aug.  1,  1851. 


No.  YIII. 


THE  NEW-YORK  PARK. 

nature,  and  her  innocent  recreations.  Tliat  because  it  is  needful  in  civilized  life  for 
men  to  live  in  cities, — yes,  and  unfortunately  too,  for  children  to  be  born  and  educated 
without  a  daily  sight  of  the  blessed  horizon, — it  is  not,  therefore,  needful  for  them  to  be  so 
miserly  as  to  live  utterly  divorced  from  all  pleasant  and  healthful  intercourse  with 
gardens  and  green  fields.  He  informs  them  that  cool  umbrageous  groves  have  not  for- 
sworn themselves  within  town  limits,  and  that  half  a  million  of  people  have  a  right  to 
ask  for  the  "greatest  happiness"  of  parks  and  pleasure  grounds,  as  well  as  for  paving 
stones  and  gas  lights. 

Now  that  public  opinion  has  fairly  settled  that  a  park  is  necessary,  the  parsimoni- 
ous declare  that  the  plot  of  160  acres  proposed  by  Mayor  Kingsland  is  extravagant- 
ly large.  Short  sighted  economists !  If  the  future  growth  of  the  city  were  confined 
to  the  boundaries  their  narrow  vision  would  fix,  it  would  soon  cease  to  be  the  com- 
mercial emporium  of  the  country.  If  they  were  the  purveyors  of  the  young  giant,  he 
would  soon  present  the  sorry  spectacle  of  a  robust  youth  magnificently  developed,  but 
whose  extremities  had  outgrown  every  garment  that  they  had  provided  to  cover  his  na- 
kedness. 

These  timid  tax-payers,  and  men  nervous  in  their  private  pockets  of  the  municipal 
expenditures,  should  take  a  lesson  from  some  of  their  number  to  whose  admirable  fore- 
sight we  owe  the  unity  of  materials  displayed  in  the  New- York  City-Hall.  Every 
one  familiar  with  New- York,  has  wondered  or  smiled  at  the  apparent  perversity  of 
taste  which  gave  us  a  building — in  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  the  city,  and  devoted 
to  the  highest  municipal  uses,  three  sides  of  which  are  pure  white  marble,  and  the 
fourth,  of  coarse,  brown  stone.  But  few  of  those  who  see  that  incongruity,  know  that 
it  was  dictated  by  the  narrow  sighted  frugality  of  the  common  council  who  were  its 
building  committee,  and  who  determined  that  it  would  be  useless  to  waste  marble  on 
the  rear  of  the  City-Hall,  "  siiice  that  side  would  only  be  seen  by  'persons  living  in 
the  suburbs  V 

Thanking  Mayor  Kingsland  most  heartily  for  his  proposed  new  park,  the  only 
objection  we  make  to  it  is  that  it  is  too  small.  One  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  park  for 
a  city  that  will  soon  contain  three-quarters  of  a  million  of  people  ?  It  is  only  a  child's 
play-ground.  Why  London  has  over  six  thousand  acres  either  within  its  own  limits, 
or  in  the  accessible  suburbs,  open  to  the  enjoyment  of  its  population — and  six  thou- 
sand acres  composed  too,  either  of  the  grandest  and  most  lovely  park  scenery,  like 
Kensington  and  Richmond,  or  of  luxuriant  gardens,  filled  with  rare  plants,  hot-houses 
and  hardy  shrubs  and  trees,  like  the  National  Garden  at  Kew.  Paris  has  its  Garden 
of  the  Tuilleries,  whose  alleys  are  lined  with  orange  trees  two  hundred  years  old,  whose 
parterres  are  gay  with  the  brightest  flowers,  whose  cool  groves  of  horse-chestnuts, 
stretching  out  to  the  Elysian  Fields,  are  in  the  very  midst  of  the  city.  Yes,  and  on 
its  out-skirts  are  Versailles,  (three  thousand  acres  of  imperial  groves  and  gardens  there 
also,)  and  Fontainbleau,  and  St.  Cloud,  with  all  the  rural,  scenic,  and  palatial  beauty 
that  the  opulence  of  the  most  profuse  of  French  monarchs  could  create,  all  open  to 
jjeuple  of  Paris.  Vienna  has  its  great  Prater,  to  make  which,  would  swall 
of  the  "  unimproved"   part  of  New- York  city.     Munich  has  a  superb  plea: 


THE  NEW- YORK  PARK. 


ground  of  five  hundred  acres,  whicli  makes  the  Arcadia  of  her  citizens.  Even  the 
smaller  towns  are  provided  with  public  grounds  to  an  extent  that  would  beggar  the 
imagination  of  our  short-sighted  economists  who  would  deny  "  a  greenery''  to  New- 
York  ;  Frankfort,  for  example,  is  skirted  by  the  most  beautiful  gardens,  formed  upon 
the  platform  which  made  the  old  ramparts  of  the  city — gardens  filled  with  the  love- 
liest plants  and  shrubs,  tastefully  grouped  along  walks  over  two  miles  in  extent. 

Looking  at  the  present  government  of  the  city  as  about  to  provide,  in  the  Peoples' 
Park,  a  breathing  zone,  and  healthful  place  for  exercise  for  a  city  of  half  a  million  of 
souls,  we  trust  they  will  not  be  content  with  the  limited  number  of  acres  already  pro- 
posed. Five  hundred  acres  is  the  smallest  area  that  should  be  reserved  for  the  fu- 
ture wants  of  such  a  city,  7ioio,  while  it  may  be  obtained.  Five  hundred  acres  may 
be  selected  between  39th-street  and  the  Harlem  river,  including  a  varied  surface  of 
land,  a  good  deal  of  which  is  yet  waste  area,  so  that  the  whole  may  be  purchased 
at  something  like  a  million  of  dollars.  In  that  area  there  would  be  space  enough 
to  have  broad  reaches  of  park  and  pleasure-grounds,  with  a  real  feeling  of  the 
breadth  and  beauty  of  green  fields,  the  perfume  and  freshness  of  nature.  In  its  midst 
would  be  located  the  great  distributing  reservoirs  of  the  Croton  aqueduct,  formed  into 
lovely  lakes  of  limpid  water,  covering  many  acres,  and  heightening  the  charm  of  the 
sylvan  accessories  by  the  finest  natural  contrast.  In  such  a  park,  the  citizens  who 
would  take  excursions  in  carriages,  or  on  horseback,  could  have  the  substantial  de- 
lights of  country  roads  and  country  scenery,  and  forget  for  a  time  the  rattle  of  the 
pavements  and  the  glare  of  brick  walls.  Pedestrians  would  find  quiet  and  secluded 
walks  when  they  wished  to  be  solitary,  and  broad  alleys  filled  with  thousands  of  happy 
faces,  when  they  would  be  gay.  The  thoughtful  denizen  of  the  town  would  go  out 
there  in  the  morning  to  hold  converse  with  the  whispering  trees,  and  the  wearied 
tradesmen  in  the  evening,  to  enjoy  an  hour  of  happiness  by  mingling  in  the  open  space 
with  "  all  the  world." 

The  many  beauties  and  utilities  which  would  gradually  grow  out  of  a  great  park  like 
this,  in  a  great  city  like  New-York,  suggest  themselves  immediately  and  forcibly. 
Where  would  be  found  so  fitting  a  position  for  noble  works  of  art,  the  statues,  monu- 
ments, and  buildings  commemorative  at  once  of  the  great  men  of  the  nation,  of  the 
history  of  the  age  and  country,  and  the  genius  of  our  highest  artists  ?  In  the  broad 
area  of  such  a  verdant  zone  would  gradually  grow  up,  as  the  wealth  of  the  city  in- 
creases, winter  gardens  of  glass,  like  the  great  Crystal  Palace,  where  the  whole  people 
could  luxuriate  in  groves  of  the  palms  and  spice  trees  of  the  tropics,  at  the  same  mo- 
ment that  sleighing  parlies  glided  swiftly  and  noiselessly  over  the  snow  covered  sur- 
face of  the  country-like  avenues  of  the  wintry  park  without.  Zoological  Gardens, 
like  those  of  London  and  Paris,  would  gradually  be  formed,  by  private  subscription 
or  public  funds,  where  thousands  of  old  and  young  would  find  daily  pleasure  in  study- 
ing natural  history,  illustrated  by  all  the  wildest  and  strangest  animals  of  the  globe, 
almost  as  much  at  home  in  their  paddocks  and  jungles,  as  if  in  their  native  forests  ; 
Horticviltural  and  Industrial  Societies  would  hold  their  annual  shows  there,  and 
expositions   of  the  arts   would   take   place  in   spacious   buildings    within   the 


% 


^•^s^^a 


THE  NEW- YORK  PARK. 

park,  far  more  fittingly   than  in  the  noise    and  din  of  the  crowded  streets  of  the 
city. 

We  have  said  nothing  of  the  social  influence  of  such  a  great  park  in  New- York. 
But  this  is  really  the  most  interesting  phase  of  the  whole  matter.  It  is  a  fact  not  a 
little  remarkable,  that  ultra  democratic  as  are  the  political  tendencies  of  America,  its 
most  intelligent  social  tendencies  are  almost  wholly  in  a  contrary  direction.  And 
among  the  topics  discussed  by  the  advocates  and  opponents  of  the  New  Park,  none 
seem  so  poorly  understood  as  the  social  aspect  of  the  thing.  It  is,  indeed,  both  curi- 
ous and  amusing  to  see  the  stand  taken  on  the  one  hand,  by  the  million,  that  the  park  is 
made  for  the  "  upper  ten,"  who  ride  in  fine  carriages,  and  on  the  other  hand,  by  the 
wealthy  and  refined,  that  a  park  in  this  country  will  be  "  usurped  by  rowdies  and 
low  people."  Shame  upon  our  republican  compatriots  who  so  little  understand  the 
elevating  influences  of  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  art,  when  enjoyed  in  common  by 
thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  all  classes,  without  distinction !  They  can  never 
have  seen,  how  all  over  France  and  Germany,  the  whole  population  of  the  cities  pass  their 
afternoons  and  evenings  together,  in  the  beautiful  public  parks  and  gardens.  How 
they  enjoy  together  the  same  music,  breathe  the  same  atmosphere  of  art,  enjoy  the 
same  scenery,  and  grow  into  social  freedom  by  the  very  influences  of  easy  intercourse, 
space  and  beauty,  that  surround  them.  In  Germany,  especially,  they  have  never  seen 
how  the  highest  and  the  lowest  partake  alike  of  the  common  enjoyment — the  prince 
seated  beneath  the  trees  on  a  rush  bottomed  chair,  before  a  little  wooden  table,  sup- 
ping his  coffee  or  his  ice,  with  the  same  freedom  from  state  and  pretension  as  the 
simplest  subject.  Drawing-room  conventionalities  are  too  narrow  for  a  mile  or  two 
of  spacious  garden  landscape,  and  one  can  be  happy  with  ten  thousand  in  the  social 
freedom  of  a  community  of  genial  influences,  without  the  unutterable  pang  of  not  hav- 
ing been  introduced  to  the  company  present. 

These  social  doubters  who  thus  intrench  themselves  in  the  sole  citadel  of  exclu- 
siveness,  in  republican  America,  mistake  our  people  and  their  destiny.  If  we  would 
but  have  listened  to  them,  our  magnificent  river  and  lake  steamers,  those  real  palaces 
of  the  million,  would  have  had  no  velvet  couches,  no  splendid  mirrors,  no  luxurious 
carpets.  Such  costly  and  rare  appliances  of  civilization,  they  would  have  told  us,  could 
only  be  rightly  used  by  the  privileged  families  of  wealth,  and  would  be  trampled  upon 
and  utterly  ruined  by  the  democracy  of  the  country,  who  travel  100  miles  for  half  a  dol- 
lar. And  yet  these,  our  floating  palaces  and  our  monster  hotels,  with  their  purple  and  fine 
linen,  are  they  not  respected  by  the  majority  who  use  them,  as  truly  as  other  palaces  by 
their  rightful  sovereigns  ?  Alas,  for  the  faithlessness  of  the  few,  who  possess,  regarding 
the  capacity  for  culture  of  the  many,  who  are  wanting.  Even  upon  the  lower  platform  of 
liberty  and  education  that  the  masses  stand  in  Europe,  we  see  the  elevating  influences  of 
a  wide  popular  enjoyment  of  galleries  of  art,  public  libraries,  parks  and  gardens,  which 
have  raised  the  people  in  social  civilization  and  social  culture  to  afar  higher  level  than  we 
have  yet  attained  in  republican  America.  And  yet  this  broad  ground  of  popular  refine 
ment  must  be  taken  in  republican  America,  for  it  belongs  of  right  more  truly  here,  than 
elsewhere.    It  is  republican  in  its  very  idea  and  tendency.    It  takes  up  popular  education 


THE  BUTTONWOOD  TREE  DISEASE. 

■where  the  common  school  and  ballot-box  leave  it,  and  raises  up  the  working-man  to  the 
same  level  of  enjoyment  with  the  man  of  leisure  and  accomplishment.  The  higher  social 
and  artistic  elements  of  every  man's  nature  lie  dormant  within  him,  and  every  laborer 
is  a  possible  gentleman,  not  by  the  possession  of  money  or  fine  clothes — but  through 
the  refining  influence  of  intellectual  and  moral  culture.  Open  wide,  therefore,  the 
doors  of  your  libraries  and  picture  galleries,  all  ye  true  republicans !  Build  halls 
where  knowledge  shall  be  freely  diffused  among  men,  and  not  shut  up  within  the  narrow 
walls  of  narrower  institutions.  Plant  spacious  parks  in  your  cities,  and  unloose  their 
gates  as  wide  as  the  gates  of  morning  to  the  whole  people.  As  there  are  no  dark  places 
at  noon  day,  so  education  and  culture — the  true  sunshine  of  the  soul — will  banish  the 
plague-spots  of  democracy  ;  and  the  dread  of  the  ignorant  exclusive  who  has  no  faith  in 
the  refinement  of  a  republic,  will  stand  abashed  in  the  next  century,  before  a  whole 
people  whose  system  of  voluntary  education  embraces  (combined  with  perfect  individ- 
ual freedom)  not  only  common  schools  of  rudimentary  knowledge,  but  common  enjoy- 
ments for  all  classes,  in  the  higher  realms  of  art,  letters,  science,  social  recreations 
and  enjoyments.  Were  our  legislators  but  wise  enough  to  understand,  to-day,  the 
destinies  of  the  New  "World,  the  gentility  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  made  universal, 
would  be  not  half  so  much  a  miracle  fifty  years  hence  in  America,  as  the  idea  of  a 
whole  nation  of  laboring-men  reading  and  writing,  was,  in  his  day,  in  England. 


THE   BUTTONWOOD    TREE   DISEASE. 

BY  A.  BAYLIES,  TAUNTON,  AIASS. 

Dear  Sir — "  A  Constant  Reader"  in  the  July  No.,  inquires  for  a  little  light  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Buttonwood  disease.  lie  shall  have  that  light,  alhough  he  may  consider  it  by 
far,  smaller  than  a  rush-light. 

I  have  long  been  acquainted  with  the  Buttonwood,  and  it  was  with  me  a  favorite  tree. 
I  never  saw  a  diseased  one  in  Massachusetts,  before  May  21st,  1842,  and  I  never  have  seen 
a  healthy  one  in  Massachusetts  since  that  time.  Now  for  a  solution  of  this  mystery,  if 
mystery  it  may  be  called.  ^lay  20th,  1842,  we  had  a  very  cold,  i-ainy  day,  with  much 
sloet,  with  the  wind  at  north-east  and  north,  which  lasted  nearly  all  day,  and  at  sunset 
the  wind  hauled  round  to  the  north-west,  with  a  clear  sky,  and  at  9  o'clock  in  the  evening 
it  was  very  cold,  with  the  numerous  stars  shining  and  twinkling  as  we  often  see  them  in 
December.  This  state  of  the  weather  lasted  through  the  night,  and  the  morning  presented 
appearances  which  I  shall  never  forget — the  earth  was  frozen  hard  enough  to  bear  up  a 
man,  and  the  ice  was  as  thick  as  window  glass,  and  sad  to  relate,  but  the  truth  must  come 
out,  every  leaf  and  Buttonwood  bud  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  Massachusetts 
was  "as  dead  as  a  herring."  Now  what  could  the  poor  Buttonwood  tree  do  in  this  di- 
lemma? Its  leaves  and  its  buds  were  all  gone,  but  it  had  life  and  sap  enough  to  form  ano- 
ther crop  as  large  as  the  first,  but  how  to  begin  this  process  was  .the  question.  Nature 
is  never  idle,  and  perhaps  she  was  not  altogether  prepared  for  this  contingency,  and  so  I 
should  infer  from  her  tardiness  in  repairing  the  injury  of  the  21st  of  May. 

But  finally,  about  the  first  of  July  following,  young  shoots  and  leaves  began  to  appear 


NEW  MEXICAN  CACTUS. 


— SO  that  the  friends  of  this  doomed  tree  began  to  hope  that  all  was  not  lost — and  that 
we  should  finally  see  the  Buttonwood  restored.  But  that  hope  is  likely  to  prove  falla- 
cious— for  new  wood,  that  has  only  about  sixty  days  to  mature  in,  can  hardly  get  strength 
and  vigor  to  stand  our  winters.  And  consequently,  the  spring  of  every  succeeding  year 
since  that  eventful  time,  finds  the  Buttonwood  without  a  living  bud  to  start  from. 

A  friend  of  mine,  who  is  quite  a  traveler,  informed  me  tlie  other  day  that  the  only  But- 
tonwood trees  that  he  had  seen,  that  had  not  suffered  as  ours  have,  Avere  some  near  the 
falls  of  Niagara,  and  they  were  in  all  their  glory — having  been  protected  bj'  that  eternal 
spray  that  always  fills  the  air  in  their  immediate  vicinit}'.         Yours  respeclfuUy. 

Alfked  Baylies. 

Taunton,  July  8,  1651. 

[Our  correspondent's  theory  would  be  a  good  one  if  its  application  could  be  confin- 
ed to  Massachusetts.  But  three  years  before  the  fatal  day  he  records,  which  began 
the  Buttonwood  blight  in  his  state,  we  saw  trees  entirely  killed  by  it,  as  far  south  as 
Maryland,  where  no  such  frost  had  taken  place.  From  the  south,  the  disease  has  gradu- 
ally spread  to  the  north,  and  we  have  watched  young  trees,  that  stood  last  year  in  perfect 
luxuriance,  by  the  side  of  diseased  old  trees,  gradually  fall  victims  to  the  same  malady. 
Wherever  the  Buttonwood  stands  in  moist  ground,  there  it  seems  best  able  to  withstand 
the  disease — while  in  dry,  sandy  soils,  it  is  a  pretty  sure  victim  to  it.  The  cause,  we  are 
confident,  lies  deeper  than  any  matter  of  climate — and  is  M'orthy  of  the  careful  investiga- 
tion of  vegetable  physiologists.     Ed.] 


NEW  MEXICAN  CACTUS. 

FROM  CARD.  MAGAZINE  OF  BOTANY. 

ECHINOCACTUS      RHODOPHTnALMUS, — 

Hooker. — Red  eyed  Echinocactus,  (^Bot. 
Mag.  t.  4486)— Nat.  Ord.,  Cactaceaj  § 
Cactse. — A  green-house  succulent  plant 
of  sub-columnar  form,  six  inches  (or 
more)  high,  longitudinally  divided  into 
eight  or  nine  deep  furrows,  Avith  obtuse 
ridges,  formed  by  transverse  lines  into 
lobes  or  tubercles,  each  tubercle  bearing 
a  cluster  of  about  nine  strong,  straight, 
spreading  spines,  about  an  inch  in  length, 
the  central  one  longest,  and  standing  for- 
ward. The  flowers — from  the  top  of  the 
plant — are  large,  handsome,  the  petals 
linear-spathulate,  rose  colored,  a  dark  red 
stain  at  the  base  forming  a  radiating  cir- 
cle around  the  staminal  column. — From 
Mexico:  San  Luis  Potosi;  iutrodujced 
about  1847,  by  F.  Stains,  Esq.  Flowers 
in   summer.       Royal    Botanic   Gardens, 


POMOLOGICAL  MEMORANDA. 

POMOLOGICAL    MEMORANDA. 

BY  L.  F.  ALLEN,  BLACK  ROCK,  N.  Y. 

The  Brown  Beurre  Pear. — Why  it  is  that  this  delicious  old  pear  is  so  little  noticed 
of  late,  when  so  many  new  and  as  5'et  untried  (thoroughly,)  varieties  are  receiving  the 
praises  of  our  pomologists,  is  to  me  strange.  I  have  cultivated  the  Brown  Beurre  for 
many  years.  It  needs  good  culture,  I  admit;  and  what  don't,  if  j^ou  intend  to  get  its 
best  productions? 

Its  qualities  are  these :  It  is  a  good  grower — irregular  and  twisting,  to  be  sure — but  that 
matters  little;  it  is,  in  the  main,  a  graceful  tree. 

It  is  very  hardy,  and  ripens  well  its  wood. 

It  is  a  great  bearer,  and  matures  its  fruit  in  October,  keeping  well  into  November^  and 
sometimes  into  December. 

Its  size  is  large  medium;  its  flavor  is  vinous;  and  grown  under  the  influence  of  a  full 
sun,  most  sugarj'  and  delicious — indeed  I  know  of  nothing  more  piquant  and  yet  de- 
licate, in  the  pear  family;  and  with  its  rich,  golden  russetyhue,  the  fruit,  as  a  mere  show, 
is  a  rich  ornament  to  the  table. 

Grown  either  on  the  pear  or  quince  stock,  and  planted  in  a  rich  and  dry  stijf' soil — and 
not  much  matter  how  stiff  either — one  who  wants  the  very  best  October  pear  can  do  no 
better  than  to  cultivate  the  Brown  Beurre  as  a  prominent  variety.  [We  entirely  agree 
with  Mr.  Allen  as  to  the  merits  of  the  Brown  Beurre.  But  it  has  failed  of  late  in  all  the 
old  soils  of  the  east,  and  its  cultivation  has  therefore  gradually  declined.  In  a  new  soil, 
like  that  of  western  New-York,  its  fruit  is  of  the  finest  quality— and  any  person  who 
wishes  to  raise  it  further  east,  must  restore  the  potash,  lime  and  phosphate  abstracted 
from  the  soil  by  long  culture,  before  he  can  succeed  well  again.     Ed.] 

The  Northern  Spy  Apple. — In  writing  about  the  culture  of  this  excellent  fruit,  our 
pomologists  say  much  of  its  requiring  careful  pruning  and  rich  cultivation,  but  without 
telling  the  public  wAi/ or  how  it  requires  such  pruning  and  cultivation;  thus  confusing 
those  who  do  not  understand  its  habits,  and  creating  doubts  as  to  the  expediency  of  grow- 
ing it  all.  If  those  who  set  about  informing  the  world  would  go  into  particulars,  it  would 
be  better. 

The  fact  is,  the  Northern  Spy  is  a  vigorous  and  upright  grower,  inclined  to  throw  its 
wood  closely  together,  like  a  currant  bush.  Indeed,  the  head  of  a  Northern  Spy  tree,  left 
to  itself,  looks  more  like  an  enormous  currant  bush  than  like  an  ordinary  apple  tree.  But 
the  branches  are  rather  slender,  and  when  in  bearing  incline  to  bend  over  outward  with 
the  weight  of  their  fruit.  The  head  must  be  thinned— and  that  severely.  I  have  several 
hundred  of  them  planted  in  my  orchard.  Their  heads  grew  compactly  together,  contrary 
to  my  expectations,  from  what  I  had  heard  of  them,  and  last  year,  for  the  first  time- 
years  after  some  of  my  other  varieties  of  apple  planted  at  the  same  time  with  them,  for 
the  Spy  is  tardy  in  arriving  at  a  bearing  state— they  bore  well.  I  saw  the  difficulty  in  the 
compact  growth  of  the  head,  and  the  past  spring  I  went  through  my  trees,  and  with  the  saw 
and  knife,  gave  them  a  thorough  cleaning  out  of  the  central  leading  branches,  giving  an 
open,  wine-glass  shape  to  them,  and  in  some  cases  more  like  an  inverted  umbrella.  But 
the  process  was  the  right  one.  They  are  bearing  finely;  the  apples  already  bending  over 
the  branches,  and  the  vigorous  young  shoots  taking  a  more  lateral  direction. 

In  describing  fruits,  our  authors  almost  all  fail  in  giving  the  habits  of  the  tree,  its  mode 
of  growth,  best  manner  of  pruning  each  particular  variety  to  induce  fruitfuUness,  &c., 


POMOLOGICAL  MEMORANDA. 

&c.,  "which,  if  they  would  do,  would  confer  a  much  greater   benefit  to  their  readers,  than 
the  loose  and  general  remarks  which  are  usually  made  in  their  descriptions. 

Working  the  Earth  around  the  roots  op  Trees. — In  the  last  October  number  of 
your  paper,  I  gave  a  word  or  two  on  mulching  orchard  trees.  Those  trees  stood  in  a  grass 
meadow  which  was  mowed  for  hay — of  course  unploughed,  and  the  mulching  was  substi- 
tuted for  the  ploughing.  As  the  trees,  invigorated  by  the  mulching,  hadmadegood  growth, 
and  fearing  that  the  repetition  of  that  process  alone  would  not  answer  the  purpose  the 
present  season — the  mulch  being  removed  early  last  fall,  for  fear  it  would  harbor  the  mice 
about  the  roots,  and  thus  destroy  them,  early  in  May  I  put  to  work  the  plough,  with  a 
pair  of  stout  oxen,  and  a  careful  driver — the  latter  more  particularly  to  keep  the  oxen 
from  goring  the  trees.  Setting  the  plough,  with  a  good  coulter  to  it,  (to  cut  the  sod  in- 
stead of  tearing  it,)  into  the  ground  at  six  feet  back  from  the  tree,  and  as  near  within  line 
of  it  as  would  lay  the  furrow  against  the  trunk — say  twelve  to  fifteen  inches — I  upset  the 
sod  six  to  eight  inches  deep,  and  gave  four  furrows  on  each  side,  eight  in  all,  throwing  out 
the  plough  at  six  feet  beyond  the  tree — the  same  distance  as  it  was  let  in. 

The  plan  worked  to  my  entire  satisfaction.  I  measured  young  wood  on  many  trees  last 
Saturday,  (21st  of  June,)  which  had  made  nine  to  eighteen  inches  already,  and  still  grow- 
ing vigorously,  while  the  grass  all  over  the  meadow  is  large  and  heavy,  thus  giving  the 
trees  all  the  advantage  of  an  entire  ploughing  to  the  field.  The  sods  are  not  turned  flat; 
but  perhaps,  at  an  average,  two-thirds  over,  so  that  the  rains  and  the  air  can  penetrate  the 
open  earth,  and  reach  the  roots  freely.  This  sod  operates  as  a  perfect  mulch  also — for 
what  is  better  than  a  rich,  heavy  up-turned  sod  about  a  tree?  The  fruit,  too,  hangs  well, 
and  promises  large  growth. 

You  ma}'  possibly  expect  me  to  say  a  word  of  my  trees  planted  a  year  ago,  of  which  I 
also  gave  an  account  in  October.  Owing  to  the  heavy  snows  of  last  winter  the  mice  nib- 
bled many  of  them,  and  quite  destroyed  eight  or  ten  of  the  1,200  planted.  The  land 
where  they  stand  was  all  ploughed  last  fall,  at  an  average  of  nine  inches  deep,  and  in  April 
following  sowed  into  spring  wheat,  oats  and  barley,  and  seeded  into  grass  for  meadow. 
Owing  to  its  being  in  grain,  and  in  consequence,  subject  to  the  depredations  of  mice  while 
growing  and  harvesting,  I  dared  not  trust  the  mulching  around  the  trees.  Still  they  are 
growing  remarkably  well,  many  of  them  already  having  made  a  foot  of  wood  up  to  this 
time. 

Necessity  of  Thorough  Draining  for  Fruits. — Having  a  small  piece  of  stiff  soil, 
about  half  an  acre,  (clay  loam  on  a  clay  sub-soil,)  near  my  form-house,  which  lay  in  a 
dishing  shape,  and  of  course  catching  and  holding  the  water  flowing  on  to  it  from  the  con- 
tiguous grounds,  and  in  a  spot  where  I  wanted  fruit  trees  to  stand,  after  thoroughly  ma- 
nuring and  ploughing  it,  I  planted  it  in  apple,  pear,  plum  and  cherry  trees,  for  house  use, 
and  laid  it  into  grass.  I  didn't  look  at  the  condition  of  the  land  as  I  should  have  done, 
and  paid  no  attention  to  draining  it;  yet  I  dug  well  around  the  trees  every  year,  to  pro- 
mote their  growth.  Although  well  planted  and  tended,  the  trees  did  not  grow  loell,  and  the 
English  cherries  all  but  one,  several  in  number,  died  out,  with  the  single  exception  of  two, 
and  they  stood  still,  barely  holding  their  own.  The  others  made  small  growth,  and  bore 
a  little  fruit,  but  even  that  little  in  number  was  small  in  size.  Suspecting  the  cause,  I 
made  two  or  three  small  open  drains  about  a  foot  deep,  across  the  piece,  but  it  was  no  go. 
The  trees  refused  to  progress,  and  were  becoming  stunted  and  mossy. 

Last  fall  I  went  thoroughly  to  work  and  opened  ditches  two  and  a  half  feet  deep,  three 
de  at  the  top,  and  one  foot  at  bottom,  thirty  to  forty  feet  apart,  laying  the  gr 
beds,  and  leading  the  water  as  it  fell  or  stood  upon  the  ground,  entirely  away 


POMOLOGICAI,  MEMORANDA. 

trees  found  it  out  as  quick  as  I  did,  and  they  have  now,  the  very  first  season  after  being 
relieved  of  that  cold  stagnant  water  in  the  soil,  already  made  more  growth  than  in  the 
three  last  years  before. 

Trees  of  any  kind — not  water  trees — must  have  a  dry  and  warm  soil  to  grow  luxuriant- 
ly; and  if  the  soil  on  which  they  are  wanted  to  stand  be  cold,  wet  and  clammy,  thorough 
draining  will  warm  it.  I  have  orchard  trees  now  standing,  where  the  year  before  they 
were  planted  was  a  low  swale,  but  dried  by  cutting  a  good  ditch  through  it,  and  they  are 
the  thriftiest  trees  in  the  field.  One  cause  no  doubt  is,  that  the  swale  soil  is  the  richest, 
but  before  it  was  drained  fruit  trees  would  not  grow  in  it;  standing  water  was  upon  it  for 
two-thirds  of  the  year,  and  it  yielded  nothing  but  water  grass  and  bushes.  An  expense 
of  five  or  ten  dollars  in  ditching  has  relieved  the  entire  difficulty,  and  given  the  best  pos- 
sible soil  for  a  hundred  trees  to  luxuriate,  and  grow,  and  rejoice  as  laughingly  as  so  many 
frolicking  colts  in  a  summer  pasture,  besides  yielding  as  good  crops  as  any  of  the  adjoin- 
ing upland.     Ditch,  ditch,  ditch,  your  cold  and  clammy  soils  for  tree  planting! 

Wild  or  Natural  Stocks  for  Fruit  Ttees. — It  is  probably  not  for  the  interest  of 
nurserymen  to  believe  it,  but  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  natural  stocks,  up  as  high  as 
the  branching  point,  are  the  best  for  the  finer  fruits.  Let  the  grafting  or  budding  be  done 
at  that  point,  and  I  do  believe  the  tree  will  live  twice  or  thrice  as  long  as  if  done  near  to 
the  root.  Look  at  the  old  orchards,  even  on  poor  soil  in  the  old  states,  that  were  planted 
when  grafting  and  budding  was  little  practiced,  or  scarce  known  in  our  country,  and  see 
the  enormous  size  and  great  age  of  some  of  the  trees.  Many  of  the  trees,  to  be  sure,  were 
grafted,  but  it  was  done  years  after  they  were  planted,  and  in  the  branches.  The  huge 
rings  on  many  of  them  show  that. 

Take  a  common  wilding  from  the  nursery  or  a  hedge  row,  cut  it  with  your  saw  or  knife, 
and  see  how  much  tougher  and  harder  it  is  than  the  delicate  wood  of  a  refined  fruit.  See 
the  one  stand  out  through  all  vicissitudes,  and  grow  and  flourish,  while  the  other  withers, 
and  blights,  and  cankers  under  all  the  care  you  may  give  it,  unless  it  be  now  and  then 
one  of  the  hardiest  constitution,  which  escapes  and  thrives.  The  notes  of  j'our  thorough 
and  capital  correspondent,  Mr.  French,  in  the  June  Horticulturist,  p.  257,  are  a  practical 
commentary  on  the  hardihood  of  natural  stocks  in  surviving  the  harsh  treatment  they  re- 
ceive at  the  hands  of  bunglers — and  I  have  seen  thousands  like  it — sufficiently  so  to  lead 
fruit  growers  into  the  trial,  at  least,  of  wildings  for  their  standards — and  for  pears  more 
especially. 

A  fact  in  point  I  will  mention.  Some  time  since  I  purchased  of  a  nurseryman  a  lot  of 
apple  trees — in  the  lump — standing  on  a  certain  quarter  of  his  grounds  which  he  wanted 
to  clear  away.  Many  of  the  best  worked  trees  had  been  taken  out  and  sold.  Of  the  re- 
mainder probably  half  were  worked  at  the  root  and  the  remainder  natural  stocks,  work- 
ed originally,  but  failed  and  grew  up  wild  and  scrubby.  As  the  worked  trees  were  not 
of  the  kind  I  wanted,  I  took  them  up  indiscriminately,  intending  to  graft  them  over,  with 
the  natural  stocks,  into  kinds  that  I  wished.  When  they  were  removed,  I  found  the  roots 
of  the  wildings  to  be  on  an  average  full  twice  as  stout  and  numerous  as  the  worked  stocks, 
although  the  roots  of  these  last  were  wildings.  In  a  few  days  I  cut  them  all  off  branch 
high  and  grafted  them.  I  found  the  wildings  much  harder  in  the  wood — for  I  sawed  off 
and  trimmed  every  one  myself — than  the  others,  and  when  planted,  some  in  the  orchard, 
and  others  in  nursery  rows  for  the  purpose  of  making  more  growth  before  planting  out, 
the  wild  stocks  budded  out  thicker  and  stonger  than  the  worked  stocks,  and  made  a  bet 
ter  growth.     I  should  be  happy  to  hear  the  views  of  experienced  men  on  this  subject 

Black  Rock,  N.  Y.,  June  24,  1S51.  LeWIS  F.  AlLEN 


LEAF  BLIGHT  OF  THE  PEAR. 

THE  LEAF  BLIGHT  OF  THE  PEAR 

BY  JOHN  TOWNLEY,  MOUNDVILLE,  WIS. 

On  reading  the  communication  on  leaf-blight,  by  Mr.  Hooker,  I  was  reminded  of  a 
paper  on  a  similar  subject  by  the  late  Andrew  Knight.  On  referring  to  it,  I  find  Mr. 
Knight's  observations  so  nearly  coincide  with  those  recorded  by  Mr.  Hooker,  that  it  is 
probable  the  diseases  observed  by  them  are  identical.  The  attack  of  a  parasitic  fungus 
(and  as  will  probabl}^  hereafter  be  found  of  the  same  species,)  seems  to  have  been  the  im- 
mediate cause  of  disease  in  both  cases.  As  so  little  seems  to  have  been  M'ritten  hitherto 
by  horticulturists  on  this  important  subject,  I  send  you  extracts  from  Mr.  Knight's  pa- 
per, considering  that  a  statement  of  the  facts  observed  by  him,  and  of  the  experiments  he 
made  with  a  view  to  determine  how  the  disease  is  communicated  from  one  plant  to  anoth- 
er, and  whether  by  any  expedient  it  could  be  prevented  or  cured,  might  possibly  prove  in- 
teresting to  Mr.  Hooker  and  to  the  growers  of  pears  generally.  I  may  mention  that 
Mr.  Knight's  paper  was  read  before  the  Horticultural  Society  in  1815,  and  that  the  fun- 
gus which  attacked  his  pear  trees  was  known  to  botanists  at  that  time  by  the  name  of 
Lycopcrdon  cancellatum. 

"I  observed,  about  seven  years  ago,  a  disease  upon  a  few  of  the  leaves  of  one  of  the 
pear  trees  in  my  garden  at  Downton.  Bright  yellow  spots,  from  which  a  small  quantity 
of  liquid  exuded,  appeared  upon  the  upper  surface  of  the  leaves  in  June;  and  subsequent- 
ly, several  conic  processes,  about  one.third  of  an  inch  in  length,  were  protruded  from  the 
same  parts,  but  from  the  opposite  surface  of  each  leaf;  and  from  these  a  large  quantity  of 
brown  impalpable  powder,  consisting  of  very  minute  globular  bodies,  was  discharged  in 
August  and  September.  These  minute  globular  bodies  I  concluded  to  be  seeds  of  a  species 
of  fungus;  but  as  a  few  only  of  the  leaves  of  my  trees  were  affected,  and  no  very  injurious 
effects  were  visible,  I  did  not  take  anj^  measures  to  prevent  their  dispersion  over  my  gar- 
den. 

"  I  did  not,  however,  long  remain  ignorant  of  the  formidable  nature  of  my  new  enemy: 
for  within  two  years,  every  pear  tree  in  my  garden  became  in  some  degree  diseased.  The 
leaves  onl}',  at  first,  api)eared  to  be  injured;  but  the  disease  soon  extended  itself  to 
the  annual  branches  in  many  protuberant  yellow  spots,  beneath  which  the  bark  was  found 
to  have  acquired  a  bright  yellow  color;  and  as  far  as  this  color  extended,  the  bark  and 
the  wood  beneath  it  invariably  perished,  either  in  the  same  or  following  season,  leaving 
wounds  similar  to  those  inflicted  by  canker,  but  less  curable.  The  fruit  also  became  dis- 
eased and  worthless,  and  almost  all  the  young  shoots,  when  once  attacked,  perished  in  the 
following  winter.  These  effects  were  not  confined  to  my  garden,  but  extended  to  the 
pear  trees  in  an  orchard  which  was  two  hundred  yards  distant,  and  I  cannot  entertain  a 
doubt,  but  that  the  disease  was  communicated  to  these  by  seeds  which  had  been  conveyed 
by  the  prevalent  west  winds.  I  endeavored  during  the  summer  of  1813  and  1814,  to 
check  its  progress  in  my  garden,  by  picking  off  every  diseased  leaf;  but  I  found  all  my 
efforts  nearly  abortive,  and  I  have  been  obliged  to  destroy  the  greater  part  of  my  pear 
trees:  those  which  remain  have  become  annually  more  diseased,  and  I  fear  never  can  be 
ultimately  preserved,  unless  a  remedy  for  the  disease  can  be  discovered." 

Mr.  Knight  tried  the  effect  of  sprinkling   the   leaves   with   quick-lime   and  fresh  wood 
ashes,  but  he  had  not  an  opportunity  of  observing  the  ultimate  effect  of  these  substances, 
most  all  the  leaves  fell  off  prematurely, 
hose  of  a  single  small   standard   pear-tree,  on   which  flour  of  sulphur   had 


LEAF  BLIGHT  OF  THE   PEAR. 

sprinkled,  remained  alive  till  late  in  the  autumn;  and  upon  these  I  did  not  observe  the 
sulphur  to  operate  in  any  degree,  till  the  period  at  which  the  conic  processes  above  men- 
tioned would  have  appeared;  but  the  yellow  spots  then  became  black,  and  perished,  with- 
out aflbrding  seeds;  whence  I  have  reason  to  hope,  that  flour  of  sulphur  will  prevent, 
in  some  measure  at  least,  the  rapid  extension  of  this  disease. 

"  As  the  existence  of  this  species  of  fungus  appeared,  three  years  ago,  to  be  confined  to 
my  garden  and  a  few  pear  trees  in  its  vicinity,  and  to  the  hawthorn  in  an  adjoining  hedge 
(for  it  attacks  the  hawthorn  as  well  as  the  pear  tree,)  I  then  thought  it  would  be  practi- 
cable to  ascertain  decisively  the  means  by  which  it  transfers  itself  from  one  tree  to  anoth- 
er: and  this  appeared  to  me  to  be  an  important  object,  because  the  habits  of  the  Lycoper- 
don  canccllatam,  and  of  the  fungus  which  forms  the  rust  or  mildew  of  wheat,  are,  in 
man}^  respects,  very  similar. 

"  I  had  so  often  tried,  without  success,  to  transfer  the  mildew  of  wheat,  and  other 
plants,  from  a  diseased  to  a  healthy  subject,  in  the  same  season,  that  I  had  not  any  ex- 
pectation of  succeeding  in  an  attempt  of  that  kind ;  but  I  thought  it  not  improbable  that 
I  might  succeed  in  communicating  this  disease  to  seedling  plants  of  the  pear  tree,  having 
long  ago  satisfied  myself  that  the  species  of  fungus,  Arhich  forms  the  mildew  of  wheat, 
always  rises  from  the  root  of  the  plant. 

"  I  have  many  years  been  in  the  habit  of  raising  annually  pear  trees  from  seeds,  with 
the  hope  and  expectation  of  obtaining  new  and  hardy  varieties;  and  as  the  means  I  em- 
ploy to  obtain  seeds  well  calculated  for  my  purpose,  necessarily  cost  me  a  good  deal  of 
time  and  labor,  I  have  always  planted  them  in  pots,  and  in  the  kind  of  mould  which  long 
experience  has  pointed  out  to  me  as  the  best.  This  I  have  always  obtained,  at  the  period 
of  sowing  the  seeds,  in  January  or  February,  from  the  banks  of  a  river  at  some  distance 
from  my  garden;  and  in  this  mould  my  seedling  pear  trees  always  sprang  up,  and  re- 
mained during  the  first  season  perfectly  free  from  disease.  In  the  spring  of  1813,  a  por- 
tion of  this  mould,  which  I  did  not  want,  was  intentionally  placed  very  near  some  haw- 
thorns and  pear  trees  upon  which  the  Lycoperdon  cancellatum  abounded,  where  it  re- 
mained till  the  spring  of  1814,  when  it  was  put  into  pots,  and  new  seeds  deposited  in  it. 
These  sprang  up  as  usual,  and  remained  in  perfect  health  till  the  end  of  Mayor  beginning 
of  June;  when  the  fungus  presented  itself  upon  almost  all  the  first  true  leaves  of  the 
plants,  which  leaves  had  composed  the  plumules  of  the  seeds. 

"  That  the  fungus  in  this  case  rose  from  the  ground,  will,  I  think,  scarcely  be  questioned ; 
but  it  is  necessary  to  state,  that  the  seeds  were  all  taken  from  trees  which  were  not  quite 
free  from  disease,  and  that  I  saw  in  the  last  spring  some  diseased  plants,  in  a  case  where 
every  precaution,  except  that  of  using  new  pots,  (which  had  been  my  previous  custom,) 
had  been  taken;  and  therefore  whilst  so  little  is  known  respecting  the  habits  of  plants  of 
this  tribe,  the  preceding  facts  are  not  sufficient  to  support  a  decision,  that  the  source  of 
the  disease  might  not  have  been  in  the  seeds  themselves.  For  as  the  fructification  is  pro- 
bably every  thing  which  is  seen  of  this,  and  many  other  parasitical  fungus  plants,  the 
plant  may  extend  in  minute  filaments  through  the  whole  body  of  the  tree  which  sup- 
ports it;  and  it  appears  in  this  view  of  the  subject  possible,  that  these  slender  filaments 
may  extend  into  the  seeds.  Tlie  following  circumstances,  however,  militate  strorigly  in 
opposition  to  this  conclusion.  A  great  number  of  seedling  pear  trees,  which  were  very 
much  diseased,  were  removed  in  the  last  spring,  from  my  garden  to  a  distant  situation, 
after  having  had  their  roots  and  stems  carefully  and  repeatedly  washed  and  brushed,  so 
remove  from  them  every  paiticle  of  the  mould  in  which  they  had  previously  g: 
on  these  not   a  vestige  of  disease  has  since   appsared.     Grafts   also,  which 


NOTES  ON  THE  STRAWBERRY. 


formed  of  parts  of  diseased  trees,  have  in  all  cases  produced  perfectly  healthy  foliage, 
even  when  inserted  into  the  branches  of  other  diseased  trees;  which  circumstance  I  think 
interesting,  because  it  tends  to  point  out  a  further  apparent  similarity  in  the  habits  of  this 
species  of  fungus,  and  that  which  forms  the  mildew  of  wheat,  which  ceases  to  vegetate 
as  soon  as  the  straw  is  severed  from  its  roots,  though  that  remains  for  some  time  green 
and  living:  whence  arises  the  advantage  of  cutting  mildewed  crops  of  wheat  in  an 
immature  state.  Further  experience  can,  however,  alone  decide  these  points :  and  the  only 
inference  I  wish  to  draw  from  the  facts  I  have  stated  is,  that  the  Lycoperdon  cancellatum 
is  capable  under  certain  circumstances,  of  being  transferred  from  one  plant  to  another  iu 
its  vicinity  by  means  of  its  seeds." 

I  had  intended  to  have  added  a  kw  remarks  on  the  conditions  required  for  the  growth 
and  increase  of  parasitic  fungi,  together  with  suggestions  for  an  extended  and  systematic 
inquiry  with  a  view  to  determine  whether  any  means  are  known,  or  can  be  devised,  to 
prevent  an  attack,  or  diminish  the  power  of  these  parasites,  but  as  I  find  they  would 
make  this  article  much  too  long,  I  reserve  them  for  a  separate  communication. 

Respectfully  yours,  John  Townley. 

MoundvilU,  Marquette  county,  Wiscon%in. 


NOTES  ON  THE  ST EAAV BEERY. 

BY  R.  G.  PARDEE,  PALMYRA,  N.  Y. 

Some  distant  readers  of  the  Horticulturist  have  desired  me  to  send  to  the  Editor  a 
sketch  of  my  observations  and  experience  with  the  strawberry  the  current  season.  This 
I  will  cheerfully  do,  if  I  am  permitted  to  add,  that  I  do  not  wish  them  to  be  considered  as 
conclusive  in  any  case,  but  rather  as  only  suggestive  to  others.  I  am  not  aware  that  I 
have  any  partialities  or  prejudices  for  any  particular  kinds,  and  I  am  quite  sure  I  have 
never  received  a  dime  for  strawberries  from  any  one.  I  cultivate  them  for  my  own  satis- 
faction, to  Avhich  I  may  add  the  luxury  of  giving  my  family  and  kind  neighbors  more  ac- 
ceptable fruit  than  money  will  often  purchase,  and  assisting  them  in  determining  the  best 
varieties  for  us  to  cultivate. 

This  season  has  been  Avith  us  an  exceedingly  favorable  one  for  the  strawberry.  The 
constant  succession  of  plentiful  showers  has  been  so  grateful  to  this  thirsty  plant,  that  it 
has  returned  to  us  larger  and  more  abundant  fruit  than  usual. 

Jlovey's  Seedling  has  never  borne  so  satisfactorily  on  my  grounds  as  during  the  pre- 
sent season,  and  the  fruit  has  been  so  large  that  we  have  gathered  quarts  at  a  time  mea- 
suring from  four  to  five  inches,  and  the  flavor  has  been  good.  While  I  can  say  thus  much 
in  favor  of  this  standard  variety,  I  am  also  happy  to  say  that  in  productiveness  and  flavor 
Burr's  New  Pins  has  decidedl}^  and  largely  surpassed  it,  and  is  only  slightly  inferior  to 
it  in  the  average  size,  for  we  have  also  gathered  quarts  of  the  New  Pine  measuring  from 
three  and  three-fourths  to  four  and  three-eights  inches  just  below  the  stem.  I  allowed 
my  New  Pine  and  a  portion  of  the  Hovey's,  side  by  side,  to  strike  their  runners  and  cover 
the  ground,  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  I  was  unable  to  find  a  single  plant  of  the 
New  Pine,  even  of  those  runners  which  struck  as  late  last  fall  as  November,  Avhich  has 
not  borne  liberally  this  season,  and  I  have  carefully  examined  hundreds  with  reference  to 
oint;  no  other  variety  has  as  j-et  done  this  on  my  grounds. 
Lord  Spencer  (.^)  has  not  this  season  quite  met  my  expectations,  either  in  res 


NOTES  ON  THE  STRAWBERRY. 

to  size  or  productiveness,  and  yet  its  flavor  as  a  table  berry,  when  fully  ripe,  is  almost 
unequalled;  but  in  many  respects  this  season,  it  has  more  resembled  the  Early  Scarlet 
than  my  other  varieties. 

The  Black  Prince  has  borne  largely  with  me,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  fruit  has  been 
very  large,  saj'  three  and  three-fourths  to  four  and  a  half  inches,  and  is  a  very  showy 
fruit,  but  no  previous  season  have  we  noticed  it  so  defitient  in  high  flavor.  The  plants 
which  had  extraordinary  cultivation,  and  were  of  such  remarkable  size^  were  among  those 
the  most  deficient  in  flavor. 

The  j^lica  Maud  has  also  borne  well,  and  the  fruit  has  been  unusually  large,  but  this 
also  has  failed  to  be  of  high  flavor. 

Jenny's  Seedling  has  not  quite  met  our  expectations  this  season  in  productiveness,  but 
the  fruit  has  been  very  large  and  good,  and  may  redeem  its  character  with  us  another  sea- 
son. 

The  Hosebcrry  is  of  fine  flavor,  and  has  borne  well,  though  of  medium  size.  I  am  quite 
pleased  with  EUwanger  So  Barry's  new  seedlings,  the  Genesee,  Monroe,  and  Climax 
Scarlet.  The  plants  are  very  vigorous,  and  promise  a  large  supply  of  fine  flavored  fruit. 
We  shall  give  them  a  good  chance  for  another  season.  Nearly  or  quite  the  same  may  be 
said  oi  Richardso7i's  Early,  Late,  and  Cambridge,  togthcrwith  i\iQ  Boston  Pine,  Crim- 
son Cons,  Royal  Scarlet,  and  perhaps  Swainstone  Seedling  and  a  number  of  others. 

From  their  good  conduct  the  present  season,  I  shall  watch  with  more  than  usual  inte- 
rest, the  development  of  some  ten  or  a  dozen  of  Prince's  choicest  new  varieties  from 
Flushing,  which  I  am  testing  for  another  season  with  care,  for  our  soil  and  climate. 

I  have  had  more  of  the  New  Pine  than  any  other  variety  in  bearing  in  my  garden,  and 
the  greater  portion  of  my  plants  were  transplanted  on  the  15th  of  July,  1850,  and  the  ground 
leveled  and  mulched  immediately,  with  an  inch  or  so  of  saw-dust  and  old  tan-bark,  since 
which  I  have  not  had  occasion  to  bestow  any  labor  upon  them,  beyond  an  occasional  wa- 
tering when  very  dry,  and  the  pulling  of  a  very  few  weeds,  and  the  result  has  been  we 
have  gathered  between  three  and  four  bushels  of  fine  fruit  in  a  succession  of  more  than 
four  weeks  daily  abundant  supply,  from  a  spot  of  ground  fifteen  by  forty-five  feet,  and 
at  the  full  cost  of  less  than  seventy-five  cents  per  bushel.  The  New  Pine  was  among  the 
first  and  last  in  the  season  of  bearing. 

Unless  I  find  other  new  varieties  which  I  can  take  pleasure  in  giving  a  trial,  I  do  not 
expect,  after  next  July,  to  find  it  desirable  to  retain  more  than  a  selection  of  some  half 
dozen  kinds,  out  of  the  thirty-six  now  in  my  garden. 

A  lady  from  New-Orleans,  brought  to  this  place  some  three  or  four  years  ago,  two  kinds 
of  French  strawberries,  which  I  will  refer  to.  One  is  called  the  French  Cucumber  Straw- 
berry, from  its  long  and  singular  appearance,  somewhat  resembling  the  French  Hautboy 
in  foliage  and  appearance,  but  probably  will  not  be  desirable  to  cultivate  only  as  a  curiosi- 
ty. The  other  is  called  the  Prince  of  Orleans — in  color  and  aijpearance  resembling  the 
Roseberry;  not  larger  and  not  equal  to  that  in  flavor,  but  ajspears  on  a  short  trial  to  be  a 
very  large  bearer,  but  rather  tender  for  a  market  fruit. 

We  have  also  some  seedlings  of  Burr's  New  Pine,  fertilised  with  our  best  varieties,  com- 
ing forward. 

The  large  success  of  our  citizens  generally,  in  raising  the  strawberry  the  past  season, 
has  greatly  increased  the  cultivation  in  this  vicinity,  and  the  next  season  we  hope  to  take 
a  more  extended  view  of  this  fruit  than  ever  before.  R.  G.  P. 

Palmyra,  July  4,  1851 


VICTORIA  REGIA  IN  OPEN  PONDS. 


^>i'5^1i)ll!llWi'llliBill1i^l!||l^,'ll|^lllil|•m■^     (llWn'li,,,,  „. 

(ai-/,\^*i"Wlilliilli,Kl"ilr,y liK  l!;:'!,!;,'.  !>iii:L:!l 


>!i'-''''*''-^^;?^^':!aiiji,;;i!:'':ifra 


7^^- 


VICTORIA  REGIA  IN  OPEN  PONDS. 


THE  VICTORIA  REGIA  IN  OPEN  PONDS. 

By  the  following  account  from  the  Illustrated  News,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  magnifi- 
cent water  lily  has  been  grown  in  an  open  pond  in  England.  An  uniformly'  high  tempe- 
rature of  the  water  has  been  secured  for  it,  partly  by  artificial  means,  it  is  true, — but  we 
imagine  this  would  not  be  needed  in  the  United  States — supposing  the  Victoria  to  be  plant- 
ed about  the  middle  of  June. 

"We  understand  Mr.  Cope,  of  Philadelphia,  has  the  Victoria  growing  in  a  hot-house 
which  he  has  lately  erected  for  this  noble  aquatic,  and  we  hope  some  amateur  will  make 
trial  of  it  now  in  the  open  air.     Ed. 

A  SUCCESSFUL  attempt  has  been  made  by  Messrs.  John  Weeks  &  Co.,  King's  Road 
Nursery,  Chelsea,  to  grow  this  magnificent  plant  in  the  open  air.  For  this  purpose  was 
prepared  a  pond  21  feet  in  diameter,  and  3  2  feet  in  depth,  wherein  the  lily  was  planted  in 
loam  and  river  sand,  on  the  3d  of  March,  when  it  had  three  leaves,  the  largest  being  18 
inches  in  diameter.  The  plant  has  since  increased  in  size,  and  has  a  robust  and  healthy 
appearance:  the  number  of  leaves  on  at  present  is  seven,  varying  from  3^  to  4  feet  in  di- 
ameter; and,  as  the  season  increases  in  warmth,  they  will  attain  to  a  much  larger  size. 
The  petioles  of  the  leaves  are  from  eight  to  twelve  feet  in  length,  throwing  them  a  consi- 
derable distance  from  the  base  of  the  plant. 

The  first  flower  partially  expanded  on  the  evening  of  the  16th  inst. :  for  some  hours  pre- 
viously it  gave  out  a  very  rich  and  powerful  fragrance,  which  could  be  perceived  at  a  con- 
siderable distance.  The  flower  became  fully  expanded  on  the  following  evening,  and  dis- 
played all  its  beauties  to  an  admiring  company,  who  had  been  for  a  considerable  time 
watching  its  development.  The  colors  of  the  lily  are  white  and  pink;  the  outer  rows  of 
petals  being  white,  and  the  inner  a  rich  pink.  The  entire  flower  is  from  nine  inches  to  a 
foot  in  diameter :  it  is  of  short  duration,  opening  only  on  two  successive  evenings;  but 
there  is  a  constant  display  of  flowers  throughout  the  season.  The  plant  has  a  more  no- 
ble appearance  in  the  open  air,  than  when  growing  in  the  hot-house  aquarium — the  leaves 
becoming  hypocrateriform,  a  natural  desideratum  of  much  interest. 

The  pond  in  which  the  plant  is  growing  is  heated  by  hot  water  pipes,  of  which  there  are 
two  rows  placed  at  the  bottom,  communicating  with  a  boiler  which  heats,  besides,  a  range 
of  houses,  the  temperature  being  thereby  kept  at  from  75  to  90  degrees  Fahrenheit.  There 
is  a  constant  flow  of  clear  water  into  the  pond,  and  a  waste  pipe  to  carr}^  off  the  supera- 
bundance and  keep  the  surface  clear.  A  margin  of  blue,  yellow  and  Avhite  water-lilies, 
is  placed  round  the  l^idoria  Rcgia,  and  tends  to  show  well  their  lovely  and  trul}^  regal 
Sovereign  in  all  her  majesty.  A  temporary  covering  is  placed  over  the  plant  at  night  to 
protect  it  from  storm  and  cutting  winds. 

The  Tldoria  Rcgia  has  been  an  oTject  of  unceasing  interest  from  the  moment  of  Sir 
Robert  Schomburgk,  in  1(S37,  finding  this  magnificent  plant  in  one  of  the  rivers  of  British 
Guiana.  In  England  the  Victoria  Rcgia  first  flowered  in  1849,  and  the  spectacle  was  en- 
graved in  the  Illustrated  London  News  for  Nov.  17.  A  leaf  and  flower  of  this  plant,  it 
will  be  recollected,  was  presented  to  her  INIajesty  and  Prince  Albert,  at  "Windsor,  by  Mr. 
Paxton;  and  the  train  of  circumstances  by  which  this  very  plant  was  mainly  contributa- 
ry  to  the  success  of  the  great  exhibition  is  so  interesting  as  to  merit  recapitulation.  We 
give  it  in  Mr.  Paxton's  own  words: — "  Having  in  contemplation  the  erection  of  the  great 
conservatory  at  (Chatsworth)  in  its  present  form,  it  was  determined,  in  1836,  to  erect  a 
new  curvilinear  hot-house,  60  feet  in  length  and  26  feet  in  width,  with  the  elliptical  roof 


DESCRIPTION  OF  NEW  CHERRIES. 


on  the  ridge  and  furrow  principle,  to  be  constructed  entirely  of  wood,  for  the  purpose  of 
exhibiting  how  roofs  of  this  kind  could  be  supported.  The  plan  adopted  was  this — the 
curved  rafters  were  composed  of  several  boards  securely  nailed  together  on  templets  of 
wood  cut  to  the  exact  curve;  by  this  means  a  strength  and  firmness  was  obtained  suffi- 
cient to  support  an  enormous  weight.  This  house  was  subsequently  fitted  up  for  the  ^'ic- 
toria  Regia;  and  it  M'as  here  I  invented  a  waterwheel  to  give  motion  to  the  M-ater  in  which 
the  plant  grew;  and  here  this  singularly  beautiful  aquatic  flowered  for  the  first  time  in 
this  country,  on  November  9,  1849.  You  will  observe  that  nature  was  the  engineer  in 
this  case.  If  you  examine  this,  and  compare  it  with  the  drawings  and  models,  you 
will  perceive  that  nature  has  provided  it  witli  longitudinal  and  transverse  girders  and 
supporters,  ou  the  same  principle  that  I,  borrowing  from  it,  have  adopted  in  this  build- 
ing." 


DESCRIPTION  OF  TWO  NEW  CHERRIES  FROM  OHIO. 


BY  F.  R.  ELLIOTT,  CLEVELAND    O. 


A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — Dear  Sir:  Some  two  years  since  I  assumed  description  of  several 
new  varieties  of  cherries  originating  from  pits  of  the  Yellow  Spanish,  grown  and  fruited  by 
Prof.  J.  P.  KiRTLAND.  These  having  become  pretty  extensively  distributed,  I  trust  have 
sustained  elsewhere,  as  at  home,  the  report  I  then  made.  Here  they  have  fully  sustained 
my  words.  The  "  Rockport  Bigarreau,"  and  "  Kirtland's  Mary,"  taking,  however,  a 
first  rank,  when  considered  as  to  point  of  real  merit,  market  value  and  public  favor.  I 
have  now  to  introduce  to  your  readers,  and  the  pomological  world  at  large,  the 

Governor  "Wood  Cherry. — This  is  a  variety,  the  tree  of  which 
was  grown  at  same  time  as  "Kirtland's  Mar}'^,"  but  afterhaving 
fruited  one  season,  was  by  mistake  transplanted,  and  thus  retarded 
in  again  showing  perfect  fruit  for  two  years.  "When  first  fruited, 
my  notes  were  made  to  the  effect  that  it  would  prove  the  "most 
valuable  of  all."  My  subsequent  notes  sustain  my  first,  and  I  can 
now  safely  say,  that  for  size,  flavor,  and  containing  a  large  amount 
of  saccharine  matter,  it  will  excel  any  cherry  in  cultivation. 

During  four  seasons  that  I  have  examined  it  almost  daily  while 
ripening  its  fruit,  my  notes  vary  but  four  days  in  noting  the  time 
it  matures. 

Description.  Size — among  the  very  largest.  Form — roundish 
heart  shape.  Skin — rich  light  yellow,  with  a  beautiful  carmine 
blush  slightly  mottled  or  marbled,  when  grown  fully  exposed  to 
the  sun;  the  color  clear  rich  red.  Stem — varying  from  1;|  to  2  in- 
ches long,  and  medium  stout  to  slender.  Suture — half  round, 
followed  on  opposite  side  by  a  dark  line.  Flesh — light,  clear  rich 
yellow,  half  tender,  juicy,  with  a  sweetness  equal  or  exceeding 
Black  Tartarian,  and  with  a  very  delicious  flavor.  Pit — round, 
smooth  and  regular.  Tree — round,  regular  form,  and  moderately 
strong  growth.      Ripe — 16th  to  22d  June. 

Black  Hawk  CnEREY. — This  is  also  a  seedling  of  Prof.  Kirtland's,  which  has  fr 


Governor  Wood  Cherry. 


HINTS  TO  CULTIVATORS  OF  PEARS  ON  QUINCE. 

rcgulaily  since  1845.  My  notes  and  figure  of  it  were  first  made  in  1847,  and  have  been 
compared  with  the  fruit  yearly  since  that  time.  As  a  market  fruit  I  think  there  is  no 
cherry  at  same  time  of  maturity  that  will  compare  with  it.  As  an 
amateur's  fruit  to  be  grown  for  the  desert,  those  who  like  Black  Eagle 
will  have  no  cause  to  complain  of  this  variet}^.  In  point  of  produc- 
tiveness the  Black  Eagle  maintains  no  chance  for  comparison,  and  in 
flavor  will  only  hold  its  own. 

Description.  Size — with  Black  Eagle.  Form — heart  shape, 
sometimes  obtuse  and  varying  to  pointed.  Color — dark  purplish 
black,  when  ripe  almost  coal-black ;  surface  uneven.  Stem — stout, 
inserted  in  a  broad  cavity.  Flesh — dark  purplish  black,  half  ten- 
der, juicy,  good  flavor,  rich  and  sweet.  Pit — medium  size,  its  sur- 
face undulating  like  the  surface  of  the  fruit.  Ripe  a  few  days  later 
thai   Black  Tartarian.         Very  respectfully.  F.R.Elliott. 

Cleveland,  O.,  July  6,  ISol. 

We  have  fruited  for  a  couple  of  seasons  several  of  the  Ohio  seed- 
ling cherries  of  Prof.  Kirtland,  described  by  Mr.  Elliott  in  a  former  BiackHawk  cherry. 
volume — and  can  bear  testimony  to  their  being  a  most  valuable  acquisition  to  our  list  of 
cherries.  Rockport,  Bigarreau  and  Kirtland 's  Mary  may  be  classed  with  the  few  most 
select  standard  sorts  admirably  adapted  to  this  climate.  We  therefore  gladly  give  place 
to  the  preceding  account  of  two  more  new  sorts  likely  to  supercede  foreign  varieties  for- 
merly considered  first  rate.    Ed. 


PRACTICAL  HINTS  TO  CULTIVATORS  OF  PEARS  ON  QUINCE. 

BY  W.  E.  HOOKER,  ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 

The  pear-loving  and  pear-cultivating  public,  have  of  late  years  had  their  attention  fre- 
quently called  to  the  advantage  of  growing  pear  trees  worked  upon  quince  stock,  both  by 
the  writers  upon  such  themes,  and  by  the  nurserymen  interested  in  supplying  their  wants. 
The  advantages  and  objections  to  the  practice,  have  been  fully  discussed  by  many,  and 
now  nearly  every  one  who  reads  horticultural  books,  or  attends  horticultural  meetings, 
knows  something  about  them  from  experience  or  observation.  Still,  there  are  many  who 
plant  their  trees,  and  are  disappointed  in  their  own  case,  and  perhaps  are  disposed  to 
blame  those  who  have  led  them  into  the  experiment. 

My  present  purpose  is  not  to  give  any  new  views  of  cultivation  and  management,  but 
simply  again  to  call  attention  to  a  few  important  features  which  have  been  before  ably  set 
forth,  but  which  are  often  overlooked  by  cultivators,  who  proceed  upon  the  supposition 
that  the  same  treatment  which  enabled  them  to  gather  pears  from  trees  upon  pear  stocks, 
will  answer  equally  well  with  those  upon  quince.  1  desire  to  remove  this  mistaken  idea, 
and  at  the  same  time  encourage  the  cultivation  of  this  most  desirable  fruit,  in  the  most 
satisfactory  and  economical  method. 

If  we  examine  the  roots  of  a  quince,  we  find  that  they  are  numerous,  but  not  large  or 
long;  they  do  not  extend  to  any  great  depth  in  the  soil;  nor  are  they  inclined  to  spread 
a  long  distance  from  the  stem  or  collar  of  the  tree;  consequently,  the  supply  of  food 
moisture  must  be  obtained  within  a  small  space  of  ground,  and  the  ability  of  the  plant 

No.  VIII.  2. 


STRAWBERRIES  AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 

sustain  leaves  and  branches,  is  of  course  proportioned  to  the  resources  of  its  roots.  If, 
now,  we  graft  a  pear  tree  upon  it,  whose  range  of  limbs,  and  of  course,  of  leaves  and 
fruit,  is  large,  and  which  is  provided  by  nature  with  corresponding  roots,  extending  deep 
into  the  earth,  securing  firmness  to  the  trunk  and  moisture  to  the  leaves,  without  b}-  some 
artificial  means,  providing  for  this  disproportion  of  parts,  we  must  inevitabl}'  fail  of  full 
success. 

In  proof  of  this,  we  find  that  those  who  have  planted  dwarf  pears  in  grass  grounds, 
without  giving  them  further  care,  and  those  who  grow  them  in  rich,  well  cultivated  soil, 
but  neglect  to  diminish  the  tops  sufficiently  to  enable  the  quince  roots  to  sustain  the  tree 
firmly,  as  well  as  those  who  have  allowed  their  healthy  and  beautiful  pyramids  to  sup- 
port an  enormous  load  of  fruit  while  yet  in  infancy,  thereby  so  exhausting  its  energy  that 
two  or  three  years  nursing  becomes  necessary,  before  it  is  again  useful,  are  not  usually 
very  strong  advocates  for  pyramid,  or  dwarf  trees;  their  own  experience,  certainly,  would 
not  warrant  them  in  recommending  their  adoption,  and  if  this  were  the  best  that  could  be 
expected  of  them,  all  men  would  agree,  that  the  less  we  see  of  them  the  better  we  shall 
be  off. 

The  obvious  methods  of  avoiding  the  evils  which  I  have  pointed  out,  are,  to  secure  to 
the  plant  a  sufficient  supply  of  food,  by  manuring  more  highly  and  frequently  than  we 
find  necessary  for  the  pear  stock,  by  planting  in  such  soils  as  do  not  suffer  severely  from 
drouth,  by  frequent  stirring  of  the  soil  with  spade  or  hoe,  and  most  especiall}'^  by  abun- 
dant mulching;  added  to  this  it  is  indispensible,  to  reduce  the  size  of  the  top,  by  pruning 
in  the  winter  or  spring,  and  also  in  some  cases  during  the  summer,  though  I  apprehend 
we  shall  not  in  many  instances,  do  so,  with  that  care  and  patience  which  M.  Cappe,  and 
other  eminent  foreigners  have  seen  fit  to  bestow  on  their  pets. 

One  thing  is  certain,  the  man  who  is  not  willing  to  pay  some  regard  to  the  peculiarities 
of  the  position  in  which  the  pear  is  placed  when  worked  upon  quince,  need  not  expect  to 
gather  as  abundantly  and  continually,  as  some  men  do,  who  have  never  given  a  thought 
to  their  noble  Bartletts  and  Doyennes  beyond  stripping  from  their  laden  boughs,  the 
luscious  fruits,  with  which  nature  has  crowned  the  year.  But  to  the  good  cultivator  who 
can  afford  to  spare  an  hour,  now  and  then,  to  care  for  the  wants  of  his  silent  laborers, 
there  is  an  abundant  and  sure  reward  laid  up,  in  the  vigor,  beauty  and  productiveness  of 
this  class  of  trees.  H.  E.  Hooker. 


STRAWBEPcRIES   AND   THEIR   CULTURE. 

BY  A.  GERARD  HULL,  NEWBURGII,  N.  Y. 

Having  experimented  during  the  past  three  years  with  more  than  fifty  varieties  of 
strawberries,  the  conclusions  reached  may  possibly  benefit  neophytes  who  fancy  this  de- 
licious fruit.  The  soil — a  clay  loam  with  a  hardpan  subsoil — was  deeply  trenched — three 
and  four  feet — and  richly  manured.  ■ 

1.  Trenching — deep  trenching — in  this  locality  cannot  be  too  earnestly  commended. 
Its  value  may  be  fully  illustrated  in  a  dry  season  by  comparing  the  crops  of  trenched  and 
untrenched  ground. 

2.  Animal  manures  can  be  abundantly  used  in  trenched  ground  in  safety,  whether  neAV 
horse,  cow  or  poudrette,  &c. 

Moisture  is  an  essential  element  in  developing  size  and  flavor. 


STRAAVBERRIES  AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 

4.  Mulching,  Avhether  of  straw,  hay,  grass,  long  manure,  &c.  is  necessary  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  fiuit  from  dust,  while,  in  dry  seasons,  it  subserves  in  a  great  measure  the 
requirement  of  dew  and  rain.  Mr.  Downing's  free  and  successful  trial  of  tan-bark  as  a 
mulcher  for  strawberries  will  probably  give  it  a  preference  over  other  materials.  Prof. 
Mafes  considers  the  tannic  acid  it  contains  specifically  applicable  to  the  strawberry, 
which  adds  another  inducement  for  its  general  use. 

5.  Some  strawberries  flourish  as  well,  if  not  better,  in  rows  or  in  crowded  beds.  Ex- 
amples: Crimson  Cone,  Ilovey's  Seedling,  Iowa,  Alpine,  Wood,  &c.  Others,  on  thecon- 
trary,  require  planting  in  stools  at  liberal  distances— Avhether  dependent  on  sun  and  day- 
light or  circulation  of  air— if  large  and  fine  flavored  fruit  in  any  quantity  be  expected. 
British  Queen,  Hyatt's  Eliza,  Deplford  Pine,  Schiller  and  Wiley,  should  never  be  plant- 
ed at  less  distances  than  two  feet,  while  three  and  four  feet,  will  enhance  their  size  and 
quality. 

6.  Specific  inorganic  manures. — Many  strawberry  plants  apparently  demand  varied 
specific  nutrition,  as  much  so  as  different  families  of  trees.  A  large  bed  was  prepared  and 
divided  into  three  equal  portions;  one  containing  potash  neutralized  by  muck;  another 
ashes  treated  in  the  same  manner;  and  last  phosphate  of  lime  (Bone-dust.)  Lines  of  the 
same  plants  extended  across  the  three  soils.  Boston  Pine,  Crimson  Cone,  Iowa,  Burr's 
Seedling,  Columbus,  Rival  Hudson,  Late  Prolific,  Wiley,  British  Queen,  Mjatt's  Eliza, 
Victoria,  Huntman's  Pistillale,  Scarlet  Melting,  Ohio  Mammoth  and  Scioto  displayed  a 
sturdy  growth  throughout  this  entire  triple  tract;  at  the  same  time  they  exhibited  a 
positive  preference  for  the  potash  over  the  ashes;  for  the  ashes  over  the  bone-dust. 

Buist's  Prize,  conversely,  grew  more  vigorously  and  bore  larger  fruit  where  the  bone- 
dust  had  been  applied. 

Black  Prince  grew  with  a  sickly  foliage,  producing  small  and  insipid  fruit  where  potash 
and  ashes  were  used;  and  the  plants  were  miserable  and  the  fruit  almost  worthless  on 
the  bone-dust  tract.  Tasting  the  latter  variety  from  my  neighbor,  Mr.  Downing's  tan- 
bark  bed,  it  was  certainly  excellent;  confirming  the  judgment  of  its  advocates,  while  the 
former  justified  the  opinion  of  its  opponents.  Another  illustration,  requiring  further  at- 
tention, offers  singular  interest  touching  specific  nutrition.  A  bed  of  plants,  procured  as 
Higgin's  seedling,  was  fertilized  with  the  following  inorganic  manures:  Sulphur  flour  1 
pint;  iron  cinders  12;  charcoal  40.  The  color  and  flavor  of  the  fruit  were  similar  to  those 
of  Mr.  Downing's  Black  Prince.  The  product  was  enormous  as  to  numbers;  the  average 
size  approached  three  inches,  and  very  many  specimens  exceeded  four  inches  in  circum- 
ference. Mr.  Downing  and  others  pronounce  this  strawberry  to  be  the  Black  Prince! 
[We  believe  Higgins'  seedling  is  a  scarlet  strawberry— the  sort  sent  Dr.  Hull  under  this 
name,  Avas  a  very  dark  colored  fruit — undoubtedly  the  Black  Prince.     Ed.] 

7.  Lime,  in  almost  every  form,  unless  neutralised  by  fresh  muck,  or  other  substances, 
will  injure  most  varieties  of  strawberry  plants,  and  vitiate  their  fruit.  The  same  objec- 
tion will  probably  apply  to  potash  in  a  crude  state.  A  bed  of  Hovey's  Seedling,  where 
crude  lime  and  potash  were  used,  labored  through  two  years  of  sickly  existence,  produc- 
ing small  and  flavorless  fruit,  and  reached  a  fatal  decline  this  spring.  Last  year  some  vi- 
gorous plants  of  Hovey's  Seedling  were  placed  in  the  border  of  a  bed  specifically  compos- 
ed for  the  pear  tree,  phosphates  of  lime  forming  an  important  proportion.  These  plants 
have  barely  lived,  and  have  not  produced  a  single  blossom  this  season. 

I.  Staminates — of  these  the  following  have  been  selected. 

British  Queen. — This  strawberry  far  exceeds  all  others  in  regard  to  size,  flavor  and 
numbir.      Specimens,  four  and  five  inches  in  circumference,  with  a  delicate  polished  sur- 


STRAWBERRIES  AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 

face  of  deep  lake,  and  a  rich  juicy  flesh,  are  the  parents  of  this  opinion.  The  Queen  comes 
into  bearing  a  trifle  later  than  Ilovey's,  and  continues  among  the  latest,  producing  fruit 
about  three  weeks.  It  revels  in  a  deep,  moist,  rich  soil,  and  requires  cultivation  in  stools, 
at  a  distance  of  three  or  four  feet. 

Myatt's  Eliza. — This  beautiful,  light  scarlet  fruit,  characterized  by  its  burnished, 
seedless  base,  in  frequent  instances  reminding  one  of  an  acorn,  demands  the  first  rank  for 
flavor  among  strawberries.  Examples  have  melted  in  the  consumer's  mouth,  equalling  the 
peculiar  rich  flavor  of  the  best  pine  apple.  It  is  slightly  inferior  to  the  Queen  in  average 
size  and  quantity,  but  later  in  maturing;  indeed,  it  is  later  than  any  large  strawberry,  a 
bed  being  in  fair  bearing  at  this  moment. 

Deptford  Pine. — This  is  a  delicious  large  fruit,  intermediate  in  color  to  the  Queen  and 
Eliza.  It  has  more  of  the  form  and  glistening  surface  of  the  former,  and  the  flavor  of  the 
latter,  with  a  degree  or  two  more  of  acidity.  It  has  proved  a  shy  bearer  the  present  season. 

Schiller. — This  German  strawberry  was  procured  last  year  from  Mr.  Hogg,  who  had 
imported  it,  but  lost  its  original  name.  In  vigor  of  growth,  and  in  its  large,  free  flow- 
ers, it  exceeds  any  other  plant  of  its  kind.  The  fruit  is  paler  than  the  Queen  and  darker 
than  Eliza;  of  a  capricious  conical  form;  of  the  size  of  Eliza;  of  firm,  sound  flesh,  and 
of  a  rich,  aromatic  flavor,  frequently  quite  acid  and  sprightl}',  giving  it  a  preference  with 
some  judges  over  the  previous  named.  It  ripens  late.  These  four  strawberries  are  suited 
only  to  private  culture. 

Buist's  Prize. — The  plants  of  this  strawberry — in  rows  now  three  years  out — have 
grown  with  surpassing  vigor  this  season,  and  produced  fruit  equal  in  size  and  num- 
ber to  some  of  the  best  pistillates.  Last  year  they  produced  indiflerently.  The  flavor 
surpasses  that  of  Hovey's,  nearly  equalling  it  in  size,  very  many  berries  measuring  four 
and  four  and  a  half  inches  in  circumference.  If  this  be  its  usual  character,  Mr.  Long- 
worth  can  allow  his  anxieties  respecting  a  good  masculine  standard,  to  repose  on  this  no- 
ble plant,  as  answering  the  full  requirement.  These  were  cultivated  in  the  triple  tract  of 
soil  previously  alluded  to. 

Burr's  Szedling  and  Mammoth. — These  two  have  produced  fruit  quite  freely  in  the  tri- 
ple tract,  approaching  Buist's  in  size  and  number.  The  Mammoth,  which  has  even  a  sick- 
ly and  repulsive  paleness,  has  the  finest  fiavor,  partaking  in  a  fair  degree  of  the  peculiar 
aromatic  taste  of  the  New  Pine. 

Victoria. — This  strawberry  was  grown  in  distant  stools,  and  produced  fruit,  although 
sparingly,  of  marked  beauty,  fine  flavor  and  good  size,  specimens  measuring  four  inches 
in  circumference. 

loioa. — This  energetic  staminate  presents  a  massive  foliage  and  produces  most  liberally, 
although  its  light  scarlet  berries  are  scarcely  over  the  medium  size,  and  are  too  acid  where 
better  ones  can  be  easily  secured. 

IT.  Pistillates. 

Hovey's  Seedling — sustains  its  high  reputation  here  for  productiveness  and  size,  many 
specimens  exceeding  five  inches.     It  is,  however,  somewhat  deficient  in  flavor. 

Burr's  New  Pine. — This  is  the  finest  flavored  pistillate  of  our  land.  The  fruit  does 
not  exceed  the  medium  size,  and,  although  prolific,  does  not  equal  Hovey's  in  productive- 
ness. [With  us  it  proves  much  more  productive.  Ed.]  The  plants  seem  to  lose  their 
vigor  in  our  triple  tract,  and,  like  the  Black  Prince,  require  another  and  snecific  soil. 

Huntsman's  Pistillate. — This  plant  is  a  prodigious  bearer.  The  fruit  clusters  around 
base  of  the  plant  in  rich  masses.  Some  of  its  specimens  measure  four  and  five  inches 
cumference.     It  is  paler  than  Hovey's,  and  inferior  to  it  in  flavor 


STRAWBERRIES  AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 

Columbus,  Rival  Hudson  and  Late  Prolific.  These  strawberries  of  Mr.  Burr,  of 
Ohio,  are  entitled  only  to  medium  rank  after  a  taste  of  his  New  Pine.  The  first,  howev- 
er, is  a  larger  fruit,  measuring  three  and  a  half  inches  in  circumference,  and  is  produced 
abundantly.  The  second  is  a  handsome  fruit,  and  in  every  respect  preferable  to  the  Old 
Hudson. 

Wiley — one  of  the  best  of  our  pistillates.  It  produces  on  its  single  stalks,  bouquet- 
looking  clusters  of  fruit,  which  surpass  in  beauty  all  other  strawberry  groups.  The  fruit 
is  round,  of  medium  size,  and  deep  red  color.  The  flavor  is  pleasant — sub-acid  and 
sprightlj^ — rendering  it  one  of  our  best  table  strawberries.  One  hundred  and  forty  floM'- 
ers  and  berries  on  a  single  plant,  which  I  have  had  this  season,  is  only  a  fair  illustration 
of  its  productiveness. 

The  Wiley  proves  the  value  of  open  culture.  Three  years  ago,  a  bed  of  this  strawber- 
ry, cultivated  in  stools,  produced  surprisingly.  Last  year  the  plants  were  allowed  to  grow 
compactly;  the  yield  was  not  more  than  one  third,  and  the  size  and  flavor  were  materially 
lessened.  This  year  the  free,  open  culture  was  pursued,  that  is,  the  plants  were  kept  in 
separate  hills  or  rows;  the  vigor  of  the  plants,  yield  and  character  of  the  fruit,  have  as- 
tonished all  by  their  display. 

A  plant,  which  has  gained  great  reputation  in  our  neighborhood  under  the  name  of 
j^lice  Maude,  has  proved,  under  Mr.  Downing's  examination,  to  be  identical  with  Wiley. 

MyaWs  Pine. — Plants  purchased  under  this  name  have  exhibited  pistillate  flowers. 
Whatever  the  true  name  may  be,  the  fruit  demands  a  place  in  the  first  rank  for  size  and 
productiveness.  The  average  size  of  the  berries  was  about  four  inches;  and  the  clusters  of 
this  large  fruit  were  the  most  prominent  of  any  on  our  ground.  The  plants  were  allowed 
to  grow  thickly  in  a  well  manured,  three  feet  deep  trenched  bed.  The  only  inorganic  manure 
was  well  slacked  limel  Here  is  a  palpable  exception  to  the  hurtful  property  of  lime;  and 
another  point  gained  for  specific  nutrition  of  difierent  varieties  of  strawberries. 

Crimson  Cone  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  every  private  garden.  The  fruit — so  beautiful  in 
form  and  color,  of  such  fair  size  and  excellent  acid  flavor — is  a  charming  embellishment 
for  a  table,  and  precisely  the  requirement  for  our  fair  friends'  preserves.  It  is  an  abundant 
producer,  and,  in  luxuriance  of  growth,  ranks  with  Schiller  and  Iowa. 

Richardson's  strawberries — Early  and  Cambridge — have  not  seemingly  found  with  us 
a  congenial  soil,  and  have  disappointed  us  both  in  size  and  flavor,  after  two  years  culture. 
Another  year  may,  possibly,  afibrd  a  more  satisfactory  decision.  His  Late,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  a  large  and  beautiful  fruit  entitled  to  rank  in  every  large  collection. 

Of  Dr.  Brinckle's  seedlings — Cushing  and  JVashington — the  former  promises  well, 
being,  its  first  year  with  us,  a  Avell  f  jrnicd  pleasant  fruit,  and  one  of  the  first  to  ripen. 

Many  other  strawberries  require  at  least  another  season  to  afford  a  satisfactory  opinion. 
Aberdeen  Bee-Hive,  North's  Victory,  Scioto  and  Duke  of  Kent  may  be  unhesitatingly 
discarded  when  so  many  superior  strawberries  can  so  much  more  profitably  occupy  their 
place.  A.  G.  H. 

Newburgh,  July  11,  1331. 

Dr.  Hull  is  engaged  in  some  interesting  experiments  with  special  manures,  the  results 
of  which  cannot  but  prove  interesting  to  horticulturists.  He  has  imitated  artificially 
most  of  the  famous  vine  soils  of  Europe,  and  we  are  looking  forward  with  considerable 
anxiety  to  the  effects  produced  by  mere  soil  upon  the  open  air  culture  of  the  foreign  grape 
in  his  grounds. 

foregoing  notes  on  strawberries  will  be  perused  with  interest  by  many  of  our 
The  fact  which  Dr.  II.  has  arrived  at,  respecting  the  pernicious  influence  of /j 


CREAM  OF  THE  ROSE  CATALOGUES. 

on  most  sorts  of  strawberries,  is  confirmed  by  what  we  heard  last  year  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Paris,  of  the  difficulty  of  growing  this  fruit  in  the  calcareous  soil  of  that 
vicinity.  In  our  own  garden,  we  have  entirel}'  satisfied  ourselves  of  the  great  value 
of  tan-bark  for  strawberry  culture.  The  beds  should  be  covered  with  it  when  the  plants 
are  established — to  the  depth  of  an  inch — an  inch  or  two  more  may  be  applied  as  a  pro- 
tection against  the  cold  of  winter,  in  all  situations  north  of  Pliiladelphia.  Its  virtues  are 
three  fold;  1st,  as  a  fertilizer — tannic  acid  being  a  specific  manure  fur  this  plant;  2d,  as  a 
mulcher — keeping  the  ground  cool,  the  fruit  clean,  and  the  weeds  from  growing;  3d,  as  a 
protection  against  injury  by  the  frosts  of  winter.     Ed. 


THE  CREAM  OF  THE  ROSE  CATALOGUES. 

.  BV  JOHN  SAUL,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

We  commend  to  such  of  our  readers  as  are  likely  to  be  bewildered  by  the  innumerable 
varieties  of  the  Rose  now  oflered  to  amateurs,  the  following  select  list  by  an  English  cul- 
tivator of  long  experience,  M'ho  has  latel}'^  settled  in  the  United  States.  It  was  oi'iginully 
written  for  an  English  Horticultural  Journal,  but  seems  to  us  admirably  adapted  in  the 
main  to  this  country.  All  the  roses  are  evzr-blooming — and  ever-blooming  roses  certain- 
ly overtop  all  other  of  the  present  day  flowers.  We  will  only  add,  that  the  great  secret 
of  growing  and  blooming  all  this  class  of  roses  in  the  United  States,  is  to  put  them  in 
beds  of  loamy  soil  trencned  two  feet  deep,  and  enriched  with  one-half  its  bulk  of  stable 
manure — which  should  have  been  well  fermented  first,  (unless  the  beds  are  made  up  in 
the  autumn  to  be  planted  in  the  spring — wlicn  fresh  manure  may  be  used.  In  such  beds, 
ever  blooming  roses  will  form  a  continued  succession  of  new  shoots  and  blossom  buds,  dur- 
ing the  entire  growing  season.     Ed. 

The  season  is  fast  approaching  when  gardeners  will  once  more  have  to  decide  M'hat  de- 
scription of  plants  will  give  to  the  flower  garden  the  greatest  beauty,  fragrance,  variety, 
clearness,  and  contrast  of  colors,  with  continuity  of  bloom  for  the  longest  possible  period 
of  time;  and,  not  only  are  these  qualities  essential,  but  it  is  equally  necessarj'-  to  ascer- 
tain what  class  of  flowers  will  give  the  greatest  pleasure  and  satisfaction  to  the  greatest 
number  of  persons.  Were  this  last  question  proposed  to  me,  I  should  answer  unhesitat- 
ingly, Roses. 

The  Rose  is  no  longer  a  summer  flower,  for  we  now  have  autumnal  bloomers,  surpass- 
ing, if  possible,  in  color,  beauty,  and  fragrance,  our  former  favorites  of  June.  Other  class- 
es of  flowers,  such  as  the  Pelargonium,  the  Fuchsia,  &c.,  have  each  its  own  admirers. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  may  be  found  those  who  will  say  of  some  plants,  however  beau- 
tiful, "  I  don't  care  much  about  this;  it  is  not  a  tribe  I  much  fiincj^."  But  has  this  ever 
been  said  of  the  Rose.'  I  think  not;  I  have  never  yet  heard  of  any  person  sayin^,  "  I 
don't  admire  Roses!" 

If  Roses,  then,  are  such  general  favorites,  how  comes  it  that  they  have  not  received  that 
extensive  cultivation  which  they  deserve?  for  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  very  few  gardens 
thej'  have  received  it.  Is  it  because  they  are  difficult  to  cultivate?  Certainly  not;  no 
flower  requires  more  simple  treatment.     Perhaps  it  may  be  in  part  caused  by  the  long  ca 

ogue  of  varieties  from  which  both  gardeners  and  amateurs  are  puzzled  how  to 
this  in  view,  I  will  proceed  to  mention  a  few  really  good  flowers — some  of  them 


CREAM  OF  THE  ROSE  CATALOGUES. 


sorts — which  are  adapted  for  grouping,  and  which,  from  their  excellence,  cannot  fail  to 
give  satisfaction  to  those  who  may  cultivate  them. 

In  the  flower  garden  we  formerly  had  annuals,  grouped  in  abundance  to  adorn,  or,  rath- 
er, disfigure  it.  These  have  given  way  of  late  to  a  more  beautiful  class  of  plants,  which 
are  annually  bedded  out,  such  as  Scarlet  Geraniums,  Fuchsias,  Calceolarias,  Petunias,  &c.; 
and,  with  as  much  propriety,  may  some  of  these  make  way  for  the  grouping  in  the  flower 
garden,  of  the  more  beautiful  of  the  Autumnal  Roses;  for  what  can  surpass  or  even  equal 
the  dazzling  beautj"-  of  a  bed  of  Geant  des  Batailles,  Grand  Capitaine,  &c.;  or  the  magni- 
ficence of  clumps  of  Baronne  Prevost,  La  Reine,  and  Souvenir  de  la  Malmaison,  &c.;  or 
the  extreme  beauty  and  delicacy  of  masses  of  Mrs.  Bosanquet,  Eliza  Sauvage,  &c.  The 
following  varieties  are  well  suited  for  this  massing  system  of  culture: — 

HYBRID    PERPETUAL    ROSES. 

1.  Baronne  Prevost. — Bright  rose  color,  a  very  large  flower,  strong,  vigorous,  free 
grower,  blooming  freely  from  June  till  November.  Always  opens  its  blooms  well,  whether 
in  the  heat  of  summer,  or  the  cold  damp  weather  of  November.  Well  suited  for  a  large 
clump.     A  most  magnificent  Rose. 

2.  Dr.  Marx. — Rich  carmine  color,  large  flower,  strong,  robust  grower,  opening  its 
flowers  freely,  both  in  summer  and  autumn.  Will  make  a  splendid  dark  mass.  A  very 
beautiful  Rose. 

3.  Duchess  of  Sutherland. — Mottled  rose  color,  bright  and  clear:  free,  vigorous  grow- 
er, will  contrast  with  Dr.  Marx,  or  Geant  des  Batailles.     A  beautiful  flower. 

4.  Geant  des  Batailles. — Dazzling  crimson,  the  nearest  approach  to  scarlet  in  this 
class;  A'ery  free  grower,  and  one  of  the  most  abundant  bloomers,  flowering  from  June  to 
December,  and  invariably  opening  its  blooms  well.  It  will  contrast  well  with  any  of  the 
light  flowers  which  follow.  A  bed  of  this  under  a  bright  sun,  is  almost  too  brilliant  for 
the  eye  to  rest  on. 

5.  La  Heine. — Brilliant  glossy  rose,  very  large,  has  the  appearance  of  a  true  perpetual 
Cabbage,  but  much  larger;  strong  robust  grower,  and  free  bloomer.  This,  like  Baronne 
Prevost,  forms  a  magnificent  clump.     A  grand  flower,  well  worthy  of  its  name. 

6.  Madams  Laffay. — Bright  crimson,  very  fragrant;  free,  vigorous  grower,  and  an 
abundant  bloomer  from  the  end  of  May  till  the  middle  of  December.  Expands  its  flow- 
ers well,  and  never  fails  to  give  them  in  abundance.  One  of  the  most  useful  of  Roses,  and 
admirable  for  a  clump. 

7.  Standard  of  Marengo. — Brilliant  crimson;  will,  I  doubt  not,  be  equal  to  the  Geant 
des  Batailles,  but  is  as  yet  rather  scarce. 

8.  William  Jesse. — Lilac  crimson,  a  large  and  fine  flower,  strong  grower:  forms  a  splen- 
did mass. 

BOURBON    ROSES. 

9.  Bouquet  de  Flore. — Bright  carmine;  opens  freely,  and  blooir.s  profusely  from  June 
to  November;  a  strong  vigorous  grower,  and  admirably  adapted  fjr  a  mass.  A  very  fine 
and  striking  Rose. 

10.  Comte  d'  Eu. — Brilliant  carmine,  very  showy,  and  continues  to  bloom  well  through 
the  summer  and  autumn;  a  moderately  strong  grower.  Forms  a  lovely  bed.  Distinct 
and  very  good. 

11.  Enfant  d'  Jljaccio. — Scarlet  crimson,  very   bright;  a  moderately  strong  grower, 
only  bad  quality  is,  that  it  will  not  open  well  in  hot  summer  weather,  but  in  autumn  , ' 

uly  brilliant;  the  rains  of  October  appear  not  to  affect  it  in  the  least;  I  have  seen 


CREAM  OF  THE  ROSE  CATALOGUES. 

it  at  this  season,  and  as  late  as  the  middle  of  November,  a  sheet  of  dazzling  bloom.    Very- 
beautiful  and  good. 

12.  George  Cuvier. — Rosy  crimson,  fine  shape,  expands  its  blooms  freely,  a  moderate 
grower.     Distinct  and  superb. 

13.  Grand  Capitaine. — Velvety,  fiery  scarlet,  very  brilliant;  opens  its  flowers  well 
both  in  summer  and  autumn ;  not  very  double ;  dwarf  habit,  well  adapted  for  a  small  bed, 
where  the  intense  brilliancy  of  its  flowers  will  show  to  advantage.  One  of  the  most  dis- 
tinct of  Roses. 

14.  Pierre  de  St.  Cyr. — Glossy  rose,  fine  largo  flower,  expands  well  and  blooms  pro- 
fusely; a  most  robust  grower.  Will  form  a  splendid  clump  to  contrast  with  any  of  the 
strong  growing  Hybrid  Perpetuals.     A  superb  Rose. 

15.  Qusc7i. — Fawn-color  shaded  with  salmon,  very  sweet  scented.  One  of  the  first  and 
last  in  bloom,  while  invariably  expanding  its  flowers  well,  which  appear  in  profusion. 
Rather  dwarf  habit,  but  will  form  a  lovely  small  clump.     Distinct  and  beautiful. 

16.  Soucket. — Purplish  carmine,  large  flower  and  a  good  dark  variety;  indeed,  one  of 
the  best  of  this  class  for  the  purpose;  moderate  grower,  expanding  its  blooms  with  free- 
dom.    Superb. 

17.  Souvenir  de  la  Malmaison. — White  with  fawn  center,  very  large  and  magnificent, 
flowering  freely  through  the  summer  and  autumn,  strong  grower.  This  will  make  a  gor- 
geous clump,  in  contrast  with  such  Roses  as  Baronne  Prevost,  La  Reine,  &c. 

CHINA    ROSES. 

18.  Archduke  Charles. — Light  rose  changing  to  brilliant  crimson,  a  profuse  bloomer, 
moderate  grower.     One  of  the  best  changeable  Roses.     Unique. 

13.  Clara  Sylvain. — Pure  M'hite,  a  superb  flower,  blooming  freely  from  June  till  the 
end  of  October;  moderate  grower,  suited  for  a  small  bed,  and  the  best  white  for  the  pui'- 
pose.     Beautiful. 

20.  Eugene  Beauharnais. — Beautiful  bright  lake,  a  free  bloomer  through  the  summer 
and  autumn.  One  of  the  hardiest  Roses  in  this  class,  as  well  as  one  of  the  best  dark  va- 
rieties, free  grower,  splendid  in  a  small  clump.     A  charming  variety. 

21.  3frs.  Bosanquet. — Creamy  white;  I  have  heard  amateurs  call  this  "  the  Wax  Rose," 
from  its  loveliness;  a  profuse  bloomer  from  June  to  November,  moderate  grower.  This 
Rose  appears  intermediate  between  the  Chinese  and  what  are  called  Bourbons.  Will  form 
a  small  clump.  If  possible,  more  unique  and  beautiful  than  any  other  variety.  A  truly 
splendid  Rose. 

TEA-SCENTED   KOSES. 

22.  j^dam. — Rosy  blush,  verj'  large  and  magnificent,  with  beautiful  camellia-lilce  pe- 
tals, blooms  freely,  moderate  grower,  rather  tender,  and  needs  slight  protection  in  win- 
ter.    Suitable  for  a  small  mass.     Very  fine. 

23.  Comte  de  Paris. — Creamy  blush,  a  large  fine  flower,  blooming  abundantly,  growth 
moderate.  A  very  desirable  variety,  forming,  in  a  bed,  a  lovely  mass.  Superb  and  very 
distinct. 

24.  Devoniensis. — Creamy  white,  buff  center.  Shall  I  say  the  most  beautiful  of  Ro- 
ses.^ It  hns  now  become  so  well  known  as  scarcely  to  need  description.  Fragrant  as  well 
as  beautiful.     A  clump  of  this  is  one  of  the  loveliest  objects  in  a  flower  garden. 

25.  Eliza  Sauvage. — Cream  with  deep  orange  center,  profuse  bloomer,  and  the  best 
yellow  for  a  small  bed.     Dwarf,  delicate  habit,  requiring,  and  well  deserving  a  little  pro 

in  winter.     An  extremely  lovely  flower. 
Safrano. — Deep  fawn,  very  lovely  in  the  bud,  a  free  flowerer,   and  a  modera 


strong  grower  as  a  Tea-scented  Rose.  Being  more  hardy  than  the  Eliza  Sauvage,  wliere 
that  variety  is  considered  tender,  or  the  clump  large,  this  should  be  used.  A  very  unique 
and  beautiful  Rose. 

NOISETTE    ROSES. 

27.  j^imee  Vihert. — Pure  white,  blooming  in  immense  clusters,  very  showy.  There  be- 
ing a  scarcity  of  good  white  Autumnal  Roses,  this  will  be  found  useful  to  group  in  con- 
trast with  the  strong  growing  Bourbons  and  Perpetuals,  in  large  clumps;  using  Clara 
Sylvain,  with  more  dwarf  varieties,  in  smaller  beds. 

28.  Narcissi. — Pale  lemon;  a  beautiful  flower,  blooming  in  abundance.  This  is  a  Tea- 
scented  Noisette  of  moderate  growth,  and  rather  tender,  requiring  slight  protection.  Will 
form  a  beautiful  small  clump.     A  very  first  rate  Rose. 

29.  Nc  Plus  Ultra. — Cream}^  white,  fragrant,  dwarf  habit,  blooming  in  large  clustc'-s. 
Like  Narcisse,  a  Tea-scented  Noisette,  but  more  hardy  than  that  variety.  Will  contrast 
admirably  with  any  of  the  dwarf  dark  varieties,  such  as  Grand  Capitaine.  A  very  desi- 
rable and  beautiful  Rose. 

30.  Ophirie. — Bright  gold  and  salmon,  a  strong  grower,  blooming  in  rich  abundance 
from  the  early  summer  until  the  approach  of  frost;  even  the  wet  and  damp  of  autumn  ap- 
pear only  to  give  a  deeper  tint  to  its  lovely  flowers.  Indispensable,  from  its  color  for  a 
large  clump  where  this  color  is  wanting.  The  other  yellows,  which  are  free  bloomers,  are 
of  too  delicate  growth,  and  only  adapted  for  small  beds.  Pegged  over  a  large  clump, 
which  it  should  be,  what  an  unique  mass  it  forms  in  the  flower  garden!  Fragrant  and 
very  distinct. 

This  list  will  be  found  ample  from  which  to  select.  The  varieties  named  are  all  free 
bloomers,  and  of  first-rate  excellence,  flowering  until  arrested  by  the  approach  of  frost. 
If  grown  in  masses  in  the  flower-garden,  planting  but  one  variety  in  a  bed,  and  well  con- 
trasting the  colors,  they  will  be  found  far  more  pleasing,  as  well  as  more  beautiful  and  fra- 
grant, than  the  majority  of  plants  at  present  so  employed. 

I  will  just  add  one  or  two  hints  on  their  cultivation  in  the  flower  garden — they  are  not 
intended  as  more  than  hints.  If  the  natural  soil  is  of  a  tenacious  loam,  it  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  well  enrich  it  with  any  strong  manure,  such  as  night-soil,  slaughter-house  dung, 
or  any  similar  strong  manure.  On  the  contrary,  should  the  natural  soil  be  very  sandy  or 
poor,  I  should  recommend  a  portion  to  be  taken  out,  and  the  bed  filled  with  rich,  stiff, 
fibrous  loam,  or  any  such  soil  that  may  be  at  command;  well  manuring,  as  in  the  other 
case,  and  thoroughly  working  up  the  mass  to  a  couple  of  feet  in  depth,  mixing  the  ingre- 
dients together.  The  natural  soil  I  take  for  granted,  is  drained;  stagnant  water  about 
their  roots  is  as  injurious  to  Roses  as  to  any  other  plants.  The  distance  which  they  should 
be  planted  apart  is  variable,  and  must  depend  on  whether  the  variety  is  a  weak  or  a  strong 
grower,  or  Avhether  intended  to  be  pegged  over  the  bed,  or  grown  as  a  bush.  In  the  lat- 
ter case  they  will  require  a  greater  distance  than  in  the  former.  In  a  general  way,  I  should 
say,  the  strong  sorts,  if  to  be  pegged  down,  should  be  two  feet  apart  each  way;  and  if 
grown  as  dwarf  bushes,  from  two  feet  and  a  half  to  three  feet;  dwarf,  or  moderate  grow- 
ing varieties,  a  foot  and  a  half  if  pegged  down,  or  from  two  to  two  and  a  half  feet  if  grown 
as  bushes.  In  some  gardens  the  pegging  down  system  is  indispensable,  whilst  in  others 
this  is  immaterial;  as  amateurs  wish  to  see  the  beauty  of  their  Roses  growing  individu- 
ally as  dwarf  bushes. 

Roses,  of  the  classes  I  have  selected,  require,  in  a  general  way,  but  little  pruning.  The 
delicate  growers  require  to  have  the  head  regulated  in  winter,  and  any  dead  wood  cut  out. 
The  strong  growers,  at  the  same  season,  should  have  the  gross  and  weak  shoots  taken  out. 


NOTES  ON  THE  WEARING  OUT  OF  VARIETIES. 

shortening  the  others  moderately,  and  regulating  the  head.  In  summer,  as  soon  as  any 
strong  shoots  are  perceived  not  likely  to  flower,  the  points  should  be  pinched  out;  and  the 
laterals  from  these  in  general  bloom  well.  Tiiis  applies  to  all.  As  soon  as  the  first  bloom 
is  over,  cut  the  dead  flower  stalks  back  to  the  next  well  developed  bud,  but  not  too  far 
back;  for  if  this  is  done  the  branch  will  not  break  freely,  whereas  in  the  former  case  it 
will  soon  push  out  abundance  of  fresh  flowering  shoots.  Give  abundance  of  liquid  ma- 
nure during  the  growing  season.  There  is  no  fear  of  green  centers  in  any  of  the  Roses  I 
have  selected;  nor  is  this  a  failing  common  to  many  of  the  autumnals. 


NOTES  ON  THE  WEAEING  OUT   OF  VARIETIES. 

BY  A.  MARSHALL,  AVESTCHESTER,  PA. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — Your  learned  correspondent,  Mr.  Townley,  in  an  essay  on  the 
"  Conditions  required  for  the  growth  of  Parasitic  Fungi,"  published  in  the  Horticulturist 
for  July,  uses  the  following  language: — "  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  the  evidence  of 
apple  trees  and  other  plants  seems  to  me  to  afford  substantial  grounds  for  coinciding  with 
the  views  advanced  b}'  Andrew  Knight,  that  each  plant  propagated  by  extension,  that 
is,  b}'  buds,  cuttings,  layers,  or  roots,  instead  of  seeds,  has  a  limited  duration — that  it 
cannot,  by  any  known  means,  be  continued  equally  healthy  and  vigorous  forever;  but  that 
sooner  or  later  the  progeny  will  gradually  decline  in  vigor,  become  unhealthy  and  unpro- 
ductive, not  suited  to  the  purposes  of  the  cultivator,  and  consequently  extinct." 

The  evidence  of  apple  trees  and  other  plants!  Well,  that  is  coming  to  the  point.  As 
Mr.  Townley  is  in  possession  of  such  evidence  on  the  subject  as  affords  him  substantial 
grounds  for  coinciding  in  those  views,  I  hope  he  will  be  kind  enough  to  lay  it  before  the 
readers  of  the  Horticulturist,  that  each  one  may  decide  for  himself  Some  people  believe 
easier  than  others.     Give  us  the  facts,  and  let  each  one  draw  his  own  conclusions. 

Again,  (on  page  320,)  speaking  of  restoring  the  potato  by  seedlings,  he  says — "  It  is 
equally  vain  to  expect,  as  many  have  done,  that  the  vigor  of  the  plant  can  be  restored  by 
one  generation  of  seedlings.  The  progeny  of  unhealthy  and  degenerate  parents  cannot 
reasonably  be  expected  to  be  perfectly  healthy  and  hardy." 

He  first  condemns  propagation  by  extension,  in  comparison  with  seeds,  and  then  con- 
demns the  seedlings  too.  His  hobby  evidently  trips  a  little  here; — I  like  to  see  so  bold  a 
rider  mounted  on  a  sure-footed  nag. 

Now,  if  the  evidence  shall  prove  conclusively  that  trees  and  plants  propagated  by  ex- 
tension, do  produce  degenerate  fruit  from  that  very  cause,  and  that  alone;  that  the  seeds 
also  partake  of  the  degeneracy,  and  can  only  be  restored  through  many  generations,  if  at 
all;  then  we  may  prepare  to  shut  our  mouths  against  good  apples  and  potatoes,  for  along 
time  to  come. 

Seedling  apples  must  be  resorted  to,  in  order  to  restore  the  fruit  to  its  pristine  purity, 
says  our  new  philosophy.  We  have  the  Northern  Spy,  the  Melon,  the  Mother,  the  Bald- 
win, the  Jeffries,  and  many  others.  Now  we  want  to  see  the  evidence  that  the  seeds  from 
which  these  new  varieties  were  produced,  were  not  of  the  fruit  of  some  of  the  old  "  de- 
generate" varieties.  If  this  cannot  be  produced,  we  may  have  a  long  road  before  us  to 
travel  before  reaching  the  summit  of  perfect  fruit,  by  a  wild-goose  chase  of  seedlings 

Our  natural  fruit,  so  called,  is  generally  produced  from  the  seed  of  trees  propagated  by 


NOTES  ON  THE  WEARING  OUT  OF  VARIETIES. 

extension;  therefore,  acccording  to  this  new  philosophy,  we  raust  have  nothing  to  do  with 
them. 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Editor,  I  would  advise  your  readers  to  propagate  good  old  varieties 
of  the  apple  by  extension,  as  they  used  to  do — get  fat  on  the  fruit,  and  not  get  frightened 
before  they  are  hurt.  Yours,  &c.  A.  Marshall. 

Remarks. — This  is  a  very  interesting  question — the  duration  of  varieties — and  one 
which  we  shall  be  glad  to  see  discussed  by  practical  men  in  our  columns. 

It  is  not  a  little  curious  that  a  variety  that  is  considered  to  be  worn-out  by  cultivators 
in  an  old  and  long  settled  part  of  a  country,  if  taken  to  a  new  country,  or  now  soil  well 
adapted  to  it,  will  immediately  resume  all  its  original  vigor.  This  has  been  lately  illus- 
trated by  potatoes  of  old  and  favorite  sorts,  that  could  with  difficulty  be  preserved  from 
the  rot  in  this  part  of  the  United  States,  but  which,  taken  to  California  and  planted,  pro- 
duced immense  crops  of  potatoes,  of  very  large  size  and  unrivalled  excellence,  entirely 
free  from  rot,  and  showing  all  the  habit  of  the  most  healthy  new  variety.  It  would  ap- 
pear from  such  facts  as  these,  (which  have  given  rise  to  the  practice  ao  well  known  among 
farmers  and  gardeners  of  "  changing  seed,")  that  the  variety  wears  out  the  soil  where  it 
is  grown  before  it  becomes  decrepid  in  itself. 

Mr.  Loudon,  in  the  Suburban  Horticulturist,  the  work  on  gardening  which  he  publish- 
ed just  before  his  death,  gave  an  excellent  expose  of  the  different  views  on  this  subject  in 
the  following  paragraph. 

All  the'  plants  of  a  variety  which  have  been  procured  by  division,  for  example  all  the 
plants  of  any  particular  variety  of  grape,  apple,  or  potato,  being  in  fact,  only  parts  of  one 
individual,  it  has  been  argued  by  Mr.  Knight,  that  when  the  parent  plant  dies,  all  the 
others  must  die  also;  or  to  put  the  doctrine  in  a  more  general  form,  that  all  varieties  are 
of  but  limited  duration.  This  opinion,  though  it  has  been  adopted  by  many  persons,  has 
not  met  with  the  approbation  of  Professor  De  Candolle,  who  says  that  the  permanence 
of  the  duration  of  varieties,  so  long  as  man  wishes  to  take  care  of  them,  is  evident  from 
the  continued  existence  of  varieties  the  most  ancient  of  those  which  have  been  described 
in  books.  By  negligence,  or  by  a  series  of  bad  seasons,  they  may  become  diseased,  like 
some  of  our  varieties  of  apple  or  potato;  but  by  careful  culture  they  may  be  restored,  and 
retained,  to  all  appearance,  for  ever.  We  are  not  sure  that  De  Candolle's  theory  will 
hold  good  with  the  finest  fruits  and  florist's  flowers.  The  .species  might  be  recovered,  but 
we  question  whether  in  manj^  instances  that  will  be  the  case  with  the  varietj'.  Perhaps  a 
hypothesis  might  be  devised  which  would  coincide  with  both  authorities.  It  would  coin- 
cide with  that  of  De  Candolle,  if  Mr.  Knight  had  spoken  with  reference  to  actually  wild 
varieties  only;  but  with  regard  to  improved  varieties,  as  they  are  understood  in  a  horti- 
cultural point  of  view,  they  are  doubtless  prone  to  decay,  in  proportion  to  their  degree  of 
departure  from  the  physiological  perfection  which  enables  the  wild  variety  to  maintain  it- 
self continually  on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  independent  of  the  care  of  man.  A  wild  va- 
riety will  produce  seed  under  favorable  circumstances,  but  many  highl}-  improved  varie- 
ties, in  a  horticUUural  sense,  do  not  perfectly  mature  their  seeds  under  any  circumstances 
whatever;  and,  therefore,  must  be  physiologically  imperfect,  and  being  so,  a  priori,  if  it 
be  admitted  that  imperfection  is  a  principle  of  decay,  it  will  not  be  denied,  that  no  plant 
imperfectly  constituted  can  carry  on  its  functions  but  for  a  more  or  less  limited  time,  even 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances. 


CATTLE  SALE  AT  MOUNT  PORDPIAM. 


THE  ANNUAL  CATTLE  SALE  AT  MOUNT  FORDHAM. 

One  of  the  pleasantest  events  of  last  month,  in  the  "  rural  districts,"  was  the  annual 
sale  of  stock  at  Mount  Fordham,  on  the  24th  of  June  last. 

Mount  Fordham,  (as  all  our  agricultural  readers  know,)  is  the  farm  and  country  seat 
of  Lewis  G.  Morris,  Esq.,  about  eleven  miles  from  New-York.  You  reach  Upper  Mor- 
risiania  by  the  Harlem  railroad,  in  half  an  hour  from  the  City-Hall,  and  tnree-quarters 
of  a  mile  from  the  station  lies  Mr.  Morris'  residence. 

There  is  a  combination  of  rural  elegance  and  substantial  comfort  about  the  mansion  at 
Mount  Fordham,  that  made  the  most  favorable  impression  upon  us.  A  country  house, 
solidly  built  of  the  stone  of  the  native  hills  about  it,  always  seems  to  us  to  have  the  ge- 
nuine look  of  a  homestead,  far  more  than  one  built  of  any  foreign  material,  however  beau- 
tiful in  itself,  and  therefore  the  genial  gray  tint  of  this  building  pleased  us  far  more  than 
if  it  had  been  marble  or  brown  stone.  There  seems,  too,  a  character  of  duration  and  per- 
manence about  a  stone  house  in  the  midst  of  landed  property,  that  connects  itself  agreea- 
bly with  other  things  in  nature  that  last  "  as  long  as  grass  grows  and  water  runs," — a 
feeling  that  we  can  never  get  from  wooden  buildings,  however  well  proportioned,  agreea- 
ble in  design,  or  economical  in  construction.  The  house  at  Mount  Fordham  is  a  good  spe- 
cimen of  a  free  adaptation  of  the  Tuscan  or  Italian  style  to  this  country,  and  we  saw 
it  first  with  an  undefined  feeling  of  a  previous  acquaintance.  Mr.  Morris  informed  us 
that  he  was  indebted  for  the  conception  of  the  plan,  to  our  Cottage  Residences — publish- 
ed some  years  ago.  The  house  is,  however,  larger  than  our  design,  and  had  tlie  benefit 
while  in  progress  of  erection,  of  Davis'  talent  as  an  architect,  together  with  Mr.  Mor- 
ris' excellent  practical  notions  of  comfort  and  convenience  for  the  life  of  a  hospitable  land- 
holder in  the  northern  states.  As  compared  with  many  of  the  residences  of  gentlemen- 
farmers,  it  struck  us  as  being  spacious,  genuine  in  character,  and  agreeable  in  arrange- 
ment, the  details  bold  and  appropriate,  without  any  of  the  frippery  ornaments  which  dis- 
figure many  otherwise  acceptable  modern  houses. 

We  found  a  large  company  of  gentlemen  from  all  parts  of  the  Union,  assembled  at  this 
annual  sale — which  has  become  a  kind  of  agricultural  fete-day,  as  well  as  business  day, 
for  those  who  take  an  interest  in  improved  agriculture.  Agoodly  number  of  ladies  added 
to  the  animation  and  pleasure  of  the  scene,  and  gave  us  abundant  proof,  that  with  im- 
proved agriculture  comes  a  larger  and  healthier  interest  in  rural  pursuits,  from  intelligent 
women  all  over  the  country. 

Around  the  house  at  Mount  Fordham,  extends  on  all  sides  a  kind  of  meadow-lawn,  en- 
closed and  divided  by  pretty  wire  fences  of  various  patterns.  This  lawn  is  kept  short  by 
the  grazing  of  improved  dairy  stock,  and  we  were  glad  to  see  successfully  practiced  what 
we  have  been  commending  so  strongly  of  late  to  our  readers,  as  the  most  available  point 
of  English  country  places,  that  we  saw  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic — that  is  the  main- 
tenance of  a  neat  and  handsome  lawn  about  a  country  house,  not  only  without  the  ex- 
pense of  mowing,  but  with  united  profit  and  beauty — the  profit  of  grazing  the  grass  and 
the  beauty — the  real  pastoral  beauty — of  fine  cattle,  soft  turf,  and  pleasant  groups  of 
trees,  as  the  home  landscape  of  our  country  places  generally.  By  adopting  this  course, 
the  hay-field  aspect  of  many  so-called  gentlemen's  country-seats,  would  disappear,  and 
a  more  complete  and  satisfactory  lawn  or  park  be  acquired,  with  no  loss  of  money,  and 
the  attainment  of  a  higher  species  of  keeping  to  one's  country  home. 

Morris  has  done  this  satisfactorily  and  well,  and  we  advise  those  who  wish 
from  actual  practice,  to  pay  a  visit  of  an  hour  to  Mount  Fordham. 


CATTLE  SALE  AT  MOUNT  FORDHAM. 

On  the  morning  of  the  sale,  this  meadow-lawn  presented  an  animated  spectacle — for  it 
was  embroidered  M'ith  groups  of  the  finest  stock — Devons,  Ayrshircs,  the  fine  Short- 
horns, which  Mr.  Morris'  repeated  visits  to  England  have  secured  to  the  country,  the  im- 
proved dairy  stock  which  he  has  bred  here  upon  the  spot,  fine  South  Down  sheep,  blood 
horses,  &c.  In  the  yards  about  the  spacious  barns  also,  Suffolk  and  other  pigs,  that 
engaged  the  attention  of  many  who  were  curious  in  this  department. 

An  admirable  luncheon  was  most  hospitably  served  to  all  the  visitors  at  noon,  and  di- 
rectly afterwards  the  sale  commenced.  In  the  large  circle  of  buyers  who  surrounded  the 
auctioneer,  we  noticed  not  only  most  of  the  leading  agriculturists  who  are  stock-breeders 
— the  editors  of  our  leading  farming  journals,  and  the  new-beginners  from  various  parts 
of  the  country,  who  take  their  initiatory  step  in  Short-horn  learning  on  such  occasions, 
by  buying  the  worst  calves  sold  at  the  highest  comparative  prices — but  a  good  many  of 
those  whom  the  public  are  accustomed  to  think  of  as  more  closely  devoted  to  the  produc- 
tion of  ideas  than  the  breeding  of  stock,  but  most  of  whom  we  were  glad  to  learn,  had 
become  interested  members  of  the  rural  districts.  Bryant,  the  poet,  looked  thoughtful- 
ly in  the  mild  faces  of  young  heifers,  and  Clarke,  the  Editor  of  the  Knickerbocker,  seem- 
ed speculating  whether  improved  rounds  of  beef  for  the  "Editor's  Table,"  could  be  had 
out  of  the  material  before  him,  while  an  artist-farmer  evidently  bid  with  the  feeling  of 
Paul  Pottkr  in  his  heart,  rather  than  any  knowledge  of  the  thorough-bred.  Some  cockneys, 
in  pumps  and  white  stockings,  had  stolen  out  by  the  train,  evidently  wondering  why  the 
streets  had  not  been  watered  for  the  da}"-,  and  offered  a  fine  contrast  to  a  couple  of  our 
quiet  imperturbable  friends,  the  Shaking-Quakers,  who,  in  their  long  brown  frocks  and 
broad-brimmed  hats,  mingled  iii  the  crowd,  evidently  vastly  more  interested  by  the  stock 
itself,  than  by  the  wit  of  the  auctioneer,  or  the  varied  expressions  portrayed  in  the  faces 
of  his  auditory. 

The  bidding  was  spirited,  and  the  second  annual  sale  passed  of  in  a  manner  highly  sa- 
tisfactory to  Mr.  Morris.  Dairy  Stock  brought  prices  which  denoted  a  confidence  in  the 
public  in  his  labors  as  a  breeder,  and  a  growing  interest  in  the  general  improvement  of  our 
farm  animals.  This  class,  consisting  of  cows,  heifers,  and  heifer  calves — twenty  in  number 
— averaged  ^'78.87  per  head.  The  pure  bred  stock,  of  which  comparatively  few  were  on  the 
catalougue,  brought  still  higher  prices.  It  will  be  understood  that  Mr.  Morris  reserved, 
as  a  breeding  stock,  a  number  of  his  choicest  animals — Short-horns,  Devons,  and  Ayr- 
shires — and  the  future  sales  of  stock  may  be  expected  to  exceed  his  former  ones  in  inte- 
rest and  vlaue. 

The  strictly  agricultural  journals  will  give  the  details  of  the  sale  at  greater  length. 
What  we  have  desired  chiefly  to  draw  attention  to,  is  the  steady  and  persevering  effort  of 
Mr.  Morris,  not  onl)^  to  improve  the  stock  of  the  country,  but  to  set  an  example  of  the 
best  management  of  such  sales,  and  the  general  condition  and  treatment  of  what  may  be 
considered  the  largest  class  of  genuinely  comfortable  country  places  in  the  northern  states. 


NOTES  ON  STRAWBERRIES,  GRAPES  AND  PLUMS. 

BY  N.  LOKGWORTH,  CINCINNATI,  O 

There  is  a  communication  in  your  last  number,  headed  "  Staminate  Strawberries  pro- 
ductive," and  refers  to  Hovey's  Seedling,  Methven  Scarlet,  and  Burr's  New  Pine.  I  have 
much  to  learn,  if  these  are  staminates.  I  say  they  are  all  pistillates,  and  wholly  defective 
in  stamens.  He  reports  me  as  saying  that  neither  will  produce  half  a  crop,  or  bear  per- 
fect berries,  if  separated  from  all  others.  Here  he  again  errs.  I  say  that  neither  variety, 
separated  from  others,  will  bear  one-tioentieth  of  a  crop  of  even  defective  berries,  and  I 
have  never  yet  seen  them  bear  a  single  perfect  one.  This  is  not  the  first  instance  of  a  fair 
crop  from  pistillates,  separated  from  all  others.  Mr.  Lock,  of  our  vicinity,  had  a  fair 
crop  of  Hovey's  Seedlings  with  no  other  variety  within  100  yards,  and  so  notified  our  soci- 
ety. The  next  season,  when  his  plants  were  in  bloom,  a  committee  went  to  his  garden, 
and  were  astounded,  for  not  a  staminate  blossom  was  to  be  seen,  and  the  stems  and  leaves 
proved  all  the  plants  to  be  the  true  Hovey.  When  about  to  leave,  one  of  the  committee, 
who  did  not  believe  in  spiritual  knockings,  looked  under  a  currant  bush,  and  found  a  few 
staminates  in  full  bloom.  They  were  pulled  up,  and  the  next  season  Mr.  Lock  had  not  a 
single  fruit,  and  so  reported  to  the  society. 

Another  gentleman  was  equally  fortunate  with  your  correspondent.  He  bought  a  pis- 
tillate variety  and  planted  a  large  patch,  and  had  a  full  crop  for  three  years,  and  so  report- 
od  to  the  members  of  our  society.  His  garden  was  visited  by  the  members  of  the  society 
when  his  plants  were  in  blossom,  and  they  found  the  staminates  were  increasing  so  fast 
from  runners,  that  they  would  soon  destroy  all  the  pistillates.  Nurserymen  generally 
cultivate  many  varieties  on  the  same  border,  and  it  is  rare  to  buy  them  without  a  mix- 
ture. Even  if  the  varieties  are  kept  far  apart,  a  seedling  staminate  ma}^  come  up,  and  be- 
foi'e  he  is  noticed,  ungraciously  crowd  most  of  his  companions  out  of  the  bed.  The  gen- 
tleman errs  in  saying  Burr's  New  Pine  produces  fruit  of  the  largest  kind.  It  requires 
but  little  sugar,  is  bj'  many  admired  for  its  flavor,  and  is  superior  to  most  others  when 
eaten  from  the  stem.  But  I  deem  acid  strawberries,  where  sugar  is  plenty,  superior  to 
all  others,  and  among  these  the  Old  Hudson  has  no  superior.  If  the  hermaphrodite  seed- 
ling of  Mr.  ScnNiKE,  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  shall  in  future  bear  as  full  a  crop  as  it  has 
done  for  four  years,  we  shall  have  but  little  cause  to  quarrel  about  the  sexual  character 
of  the  strawberry  plant — for  it  will  do  what  no  plant  in  England  has  done,  where  we  hear 
of  hermaphrodites  only — bear  a  full  crop  of  extra  large  fruit,  and  of  good  flavor.  Mc- 
Avoy's  and  Schnike's  Garden  of  Eden  pistillate  seedlings,  at  our  late  exhibition,  sur- 
passed all  others  in  size,  and  to  one  of  McAvot's,  "was  awarded  the  prize  of  ^100,  as  a 
pistillate  superior  to  the  Hovey  in  size.  Mr.  Hovey's  has  for  many  years  surpassed  all 
others  in  size,  and  to  be  entitled  to  the  premium,  it  was  required  the  sei.dling  should  sur- 
pass it  in  size.  This,  three  of  McAvot's  and  two  of  Schnike's  seedlings,  had  done 
for  three  years,  on  exhibition  before  the  society.  We  ignore  your  concurrence  in  the 
opinion  of  your  correspondent,  Mr.  Editor,  *'  that  pistillates  or  staminates  change  their 
character." 

My  experience  in  cultivating  the  foreign  grape,  does  not  correspond  with  that  of  your 

North  Carolina  correspondent.      Against  my  high  garden  wall,  I  have  100  foreign  grape 

vines,  consisting  of  many  varieties,  and  several  kinds  of  native  grapes.     The  natives  slioot 

early  in  the  spring  as  the  foreign,  and  this  spring  we   had  a  late  frost  that 

f  the  young  shoots  in  our  vineyards.      Against  my  walls,  the  young  shoots 


NOTES  ON  STRAWBERRIES,  GRAPES  AND  PLUMS.  375      [(ip 

native  vines  were  the  longest,  and  were  all  killed  down.  All  the  shoots  of  the  foroign 
vines  escaped.  I  attribute  this  to  the  more  vigorous  growth  of  the  native,  and  the  greater 
quantity  of  sap.  But  this  is  mere  guess-work.  The  shoots  of  the  foreign  and  native 
vines,  fifty  feet  from  the  wall,  were  all  killed.  Foreign  vines  grafted  on  our  natives,  are 
equally  tender  as  on  their  own  stock,  and  are  with  me  often  killed  down  to  the  native 
stock.  I  shall  be  pleased  to  learn  that  the  grapes  of  your  correspondent  succeed  better  in 
his  southern  latitude  than  in  our  region.  He  will  be  more  successful  than  the  vine  culti- 
vators were  in  South  Carolina.  Mr.  Guignard  wrote  me  that  four-fifths  of  his  wine 
turned  to  vinegar;  and  I  know  that  the  wine  of  Mr.  Hkrbkmont,  sold  after  his  death  at 
auction,  was  rapidly  becoming  good  vinegar.  They  were  both  men  of  great  skill  and 
judgment.  There  are  many  things  hard  to  account  for.  I  believe  that  wind  alone  will 
not  impregnate  hermaphrodite  strawberry  blossoms.  That  insects  are  necessary.  On  my 
border,  against  a  high  wall  fully  exposed  to  the  south,  and  where,  from  the  warmth  of 
the  atmosphere,  flies  and  bees  congregated,  even  in  our  cold  weather,  my  Schn ike's  her- 
maphrodite and  pistillates,  this  season,  produced  a  full  crop  of  perfect  fruit.  Fifty  feet 
distant,  my  pistillates  had  not  one  perfect  fruit  to  100  blossoms,  though  in  close  contact 
with  staminates,  and  the  hermaphrodites  had  not  one  perfect  fruit  to  twenty  blossoms. 
Here  it  was  too  cold  to  attract  insects.  A  singular  instance  occurred  in  my  grape-house. 
The  handsomest  grape  in  the  house  I  got  from  Mr.  Buist,  but  under  a  wrong  name.  Its  true 
name  I  know  not.  The  bunch  is  very  large  and  the  grape  beautiful.  It  has  ripened  fruit 
two  seasons.  Three  or  four  blossoms  on  a  bunch  were  impregnated,  and  had  very  large, 
long  grapes,  with  seed,  and  of  fine  quality.  The  residue  of  thegrapes  had  no  seed,  and  were 
not  larger  than  pe.ns.  This  spring,  by  merely  shaking  the  vine,  all  the  blossoms  are  fully 
impregnated,  and  the  fruit  large.  My  gardener  was  led  to  try  this  experiment  from  their 
practice  in  England  with  their  hermaphrodite  strawberries.  In  forcing  their  plants  in 
green-houses,  they  are  placed  on  boards  which  are  jarred  to  insure  impregnation.  I  had 
supposed  the  location  of  the  stamens  over  the  pistils,  and  the  current  of  air  would  always 
insure  impregnation.  It  may  do  it  where  the  blossom  shoot  is  upright,  not  where  droop- 
ing. 

You  say,  Mr.  Editor,  that  Texas  and  New  Mexico  may  hereafter  give  us  Sherry  and 
Madeira  wine.  The  Herbemont  grape  is  a  table  grape  of  superior  quality,  and  the  most 
vigorous  growth  of  any  grape  in  our  vineyards.  This  grape,  without  the  addition  of  spi- 
rit or  sugar,  will  make  a  wine  of  the  same  flavor,  and  of  superior  quality  to  the  Manza- 
nilla  Sherry,  and  our  Missouri  grape,  with  the  addition  of  brandy,  equal  to  Madeira.  I 
say  with  the  addition  of  brandy,  for  brandy  is  added  to  Madeira  wines.  Without  brandy, 
the  Missouri  makes  a  superior  wine.  The  vine  is  hardy,  but  a  delicate  grower.  The 
vines  should  be  planted  close  together  and  trimmed  low. 

You  say,  "no  method  of  securing  the  plum  from  the  ravages  of  the  curculio,  has  prov- 
ed efiectual,  but  placing  the  trees  in  the  midst  of  the  pig  and  poultry  yard."  I  have  not 
lost  a  crop  by  the  curculio  in  twenty-five  years,  and  in  the  same  time  had  but  two  crops 
in  other  parts  of  the  garden.  I  have  forty  trees  planted  round  the  house,  with  a  compact 
and  clean  brick  pavement  extending  beyond  the  tops  of  the  trees.  Others  have,  with  good 
pavements,  been  equally  successful.  Some  of  your  eastern  writers  say,  that  where  their 
plum  trees  bend  over  a  stream  of  water,  that  that  part  of  the  tree  escapes  the  ravages  of 
the  curculio.  The  reason  is  this,  if  true.  The  instinct  of  the  insect  teaches  it  not  to  de- 
posit its  egg  where  the  young  must  perish  when  it  falls  to  the  ground,  and  cannot  obtain 
quarters.  The  insect  is  a  timid  one.  The  proximity  of  my  trees  to  the  house 
persons  are  constantly  passing,  may  aid  in  keeping  ofi'  the  insect.     This  is  the 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


son  why  hog  pens  often  keep  them  off.  Destroying  the  yonng  will  not  be  a  perfect  reme- 
dy, as  the  insect  flies  from  garden  to  garden.  Mr.  Thatcher,  of  Chilicothe,  in  a  late  let- 
ter to  our  Horticultural  Society,  speaks  of  an  insect  that  deposits  eggs  in  his  grapes,  but 
which  passes  by  those  that  hang  over  a  pavement.  I  find  that  Dr.  Hildreth,  of  Mariet- 
ta, of  our  state,  and  Dr.  Warder,  Editor  of  our  Western  Hort.  Review,  concur  with  me 
in  the  opinion  that  insects  are  indispensible  in  the  impregnation  of  strawberres. 

Yours.  N.  Longworth. 

Cincinnati,  O.,  July  15,  1851. 


/nrngn  ml  MMhrnnm  JMm. 


Notices  of  Various  Vegetables  and 
Fruits. — Pomeranian  Cabbage. — Remarkable 
for  its  conical  tapering  form,  very  compact  and 
firm  to  the  apex.  It  is  very  hardy,  and  likely 
to  prove  valuable  in  situations  too  cold  for  the 
Battersea  and  other  cabbages,  grown  in  the 
neighborhood  of  London. — Jour.  Hor.  Soc, 
vol.  5,  p.  280. 

Haricot  d'Algiers. — A  Runner  Bean,  from 
Lorraine,  remarkable  for  its  pale  color;  and  the 
pods  being  entirely  destitute  of  any  lining,  they 
are  exceedingly  tender  and  excellent  when 
cooked.  Its  pale  color  renders  it  unattractive, 
but  when  known  it  will  be  esteemed  for  private 
gardens,  though  not  suitable  for  market  pur- 
poses.— Ibid.  p.  281. 

Early  Peas- — Essex  Champion,  "Warner's 
Early  Emperor,  Warner's  Early  Conqueror. 
Early  Bedalean,  Early  Railway,  and  Early 
AVonder  may  be  considered  identical.  War- 
ner's Early  Emperor  is  stronger  and  taller  than 
the  Early  Kent;  not  quite  so  early,  but  a  few 
days  earlier  than  the  Early  May.  Danecroft 
Rival,  Danecroft  Early  Green,  Fames'  Con- 
servative Green  Marrow,  and  the  Transparent 
Pea  are  the  same. — Ibid.  p.  282. 

Late  Peas. — Of  fifteen  varieties  (so  called  by 
the  seedsmen)  the  following  appear  to  be  the 
best,  as  proved  in  the  Horticultural  Society's 
Garden: — American  Dwarf,  sown  April  6,  fit 
for  use  July  8th;  about  one  and  a  half  foot 
high,  a  good  bearer,  rijjeniag  about  ten  days 
later  than  Bishop's  Long  Pod.  Stubb's  or 
Burbidge's  Eclipse,  sown  April  6tli,  fit  for  use 
July  12;  a  good  dwarf  for  its  season,  having 
the  peas  larger  than  any  other  variety  equally 
dwarf.  Hunter's  New  Marrow,  sown  April 
6th,  fit  for  use  July  18th;  larger  tlian  Knight's 
Dwarf  Marrow,  and  of  very  sugary  quality;  a 
good  bearer.— /6?Vi.  p.  282-3.  Hairs'  Dwarf 
Green  Mammoth  Marrow,  two  and  a  half  feet 
high,  sown  March  11th,  in  full  flower  June  24th ; 
six  peas  in  a  pod  of  large  size  and  full  flavor; 
first  gathering  July  lOtli,  the  most  prolific  and 
best.— iV.  B.  Jour,  of  Hor.,  p.  41. 

CajiliJJowers  were  sown  on  April  9th,  and 
subsequently  treated  alike  in  every  respect. 
Of  the  eight  kinds  tried,  the  large  Asiatic  and 
the  Walcheren  proved  to   be   those  most  de- 


serving of  cultivation.  It  must  here  be  re- 
marked, that  April  9th  is  much  too  late  to  sow 
Cauliflowers  to  prove  in  this  country ;  for  every 
gardener  knows  that  a  kind  that  comes  good  in 
spring  may  be  almost  worthless  in  a  dry  hot 
summer.  The  early  varieties  were  failures; 
but  the  late  kinds  were  good.  In  experiments 
upon  vegetables,  it  is  important  that  they  should 
be  proved  in  the  best  season  for  their  growth. 
Jour.  Hor.  Soc,  v.  5,  p.  24. 

Summer  Lettuces. — AVhite  Paris  Cos:  Of  all 
the  varieties  of  summer  Cos  Lettuces,  this  was 
the  largest,  the  best  and  longest  in  running  to 
seed  ;  it  was  sown  April  10th.  and  had  not  com- 
menced to  run  July  27th,  when  the  other  Cos 
Lettuces  sown  on  the  same  day  were  running 
to  flower.  Malta,  sown  April  10th;  it  was 
only  running  partially  July  27th.  A  good 
Cabbage  Lettuce,  larger  than  the  Neapolitan; 
leaves  dentate,  their  margins  not  curled. — 
Ibid.,  p.  26. 

Neapolitan  Cabbage  Lettuce. — Sown  April 
10th ;  still  remained  in  the  cabbage  form  with- 
out running  July  27th.  Compact,  finely 
blanched,  crisp,  and  tender;  leaves  having  the 
margins  dentate,  a  little  curled.  As  in  the  last 
season,  so  in  this,  it  has  proved  the  best  Cab- 
bage Lettuce.  From  the  above  detail  it  ap- 
pears that  the  above  are  the  best  summer  Let- 
tuces, and  that  various  others  reputed  new  and 
good,  are  not  deserving  of  cultivation. — Ibid., 
p.  26. 

The  Barker  Nectarine,  when  first  introduced 
from  Mr.  Barker  of  Suedia,  was  noted  as  pro- 
ducing leaves  of  globose  glands,  large  flowers, 
and  peaches  of  little  merit.  Subsequently,  one 
small  twig  was  observed  having  reniform  glands. 
Buds  from  this  were  taken  and  worked  on  a 
tree  against  the  south  wall,  and  the  fruit  proves 
to  be  the  Nectarine.  Leaves  with  reniform 
glands;  flowers  small:  fruit  large  obovate,  dark 
red  next  the  sun ;  pale  yellowish  green  where 
shaded.  Flesh  fine,  yellowish  white,  rayed 
with  bright  red  at  the  stone,  from  which  if  i)arfs 
freely;  rich  in  this  unfavorable  season  (1850;) 
but  scarcely  so  aromatic  as  the  Violette  Hative. 
Stone  larger  than  that  of  the  sort  just  ment' 
ed,  flattish,  obovate.  Kernel  bitter.  Tl 
riety  is  quite  distinct  from  the  Stanwic 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLAJVEOUS  NOTICES. 


tarine,  originally  obtained  from  the  same  gen- 
tlemen, the  one  having  a  sweet,  the  other  a 
bitter  kernel. — Ibid.,  p.  25. 

Walbvrton  Jldmirable  Peach. — Raised  near 
Arundel,  Sussex,  and  supposed  to  be  a  seed- 
ling from  the  JCoblesse,  which  it  much  resem- 
bles, but  is  more  valuable  in  quality,  in  conse- 
quence of  its  ripening  from  three  weeks  to  a 
month  later,  or  about  the  same  time  as  the  late 
Admirable  Peach.  Flesh  melting,  parting  free- 
ly from  the  stone;  leaves  serrated,  glandless. 
Ripe  and  in  fine  perfection  this  season,  (1850,) 
the  first  week  iu  October. — Rivers  in  Florist, 
p.  11. 

Strawberries. — Of  these.  Keen's  Seedling, 
Princess  Alice  Maud,  British  Queen,  Old  Pine, 
Comte  de  Paris,  and  Elton,  are  recommended 
as  the  best  by  Mr.  Whiting;  and  Black  Prince, 
Wilmot's  Prince  Arthur,  Kitley's  Goliah,  and 
Myatt's  Surprise,  as  being  worth  atrial. — Flo- 
rist, p.  9. 

Market  Gardening. — The  land  can  well  sus- 
tain so  much  cropping,  on  account  of  the  heavy 
dungings,  trenchings.  and  hoeings,  which  it  re- 
ceives. If  you  ask  a  market  gardener  what  is 
to  succeed  this  or  that  crop,  the  answer  is 
' '  Don't  know ;  it  depends  upon  what  is  ready 
for  planting."  Continued  trenching  two  spades 
deep  seems  expensive ;  but  market  gardeners 
know  that  after  an  active  crop  the  top  soil  for 
several  inches  is  quite  exhausted,  and  hence  the 
reason  for  continued  trenching,  to  bring  up  the 
top  soil  that  but  a  few  months  before  had  been 
turned  down,  with  a  large  proportion  of  dung 
to  enrich  it,  and  fit  it  for  active  use  along  with 
the  half  decayed  manure.  The  laborers  em- 
ployed on  150  acres  are  seventy  during  winter, 
and  in  summer  about  150.  The  cost  per  acre 
is  from  £9  to  £10;  the  tithes  being  10s.  to  12s. 
per  acre.  Some  idea  of  the  amount  of  labor 
consumed  on  small  matters  will  be  conceived 
when  I  state  that  the  whole  of  the  frames, 
amounting  to  one  thousand  lights,  and  the  hand 
glasses,  to  four  thousand,  are  repaired  every 
autumn. — Gard.  Chron.,  p.  4. 

Dickson's  Emperor  Jpple. — Size  large,  form 
irregular,  slightly  ribbed,  color  yellow,  with 
dashes  of  carmine  red  interspersed,  as  well  as 
with  numeroxis  minute  specks  of  yellowish  straw 
color;  the  side  most  exposed  to  the  sun  colored 
with  a  rich  reddish  brick  color ;  stalk  unusual- 
ly short  for  so  large  a  fruit;  indicating  that  it 
will  not  be  liable  to  be  blown  from  the  tree  by 
the  wind,  an  important  merit;  eye  very  large, 
irregular,  and  very  deeply  sunk,  cavity  for  seeds 
small;  flesh  yellowish  white,  juicy;  flavor  ex- 
cellent, keeps  till  January;  bears  abundantly 
as  a  standard,  and  is  certainly  one  of  the  very 
best  apf)les  in  existence.  It  was  raised  at  Sea- 
clifFe  Gardens,  near  Prestonkirk,  Scotland,  by 
Mr.  Arthur  Calder,  the  gardener  there. — N. 
B.  Jour,  of  Hort.,  p.  27. 

Grafting  Cacti.— 'M.v.  J.  C.  Bidwell,  of  Ti- 
nana.  New  South  Wales,  recommends  Cereus 
triangularis  as  being  a  superior  stock  for  graft- 
ing  the  trailing  kinds  upon.    He  states  it  will 


No.  VIII. 


bear  great  heat,  considerable  coolness,  any 
amount  of  wet  above  ground,  and  in  rich  soil 
will  make  a  shoot  six  feet  from  a  cutting  of  six 
inches  in  one  season.  "  My  advice  to  gardeners 
iu  England  who  wish  to  procure  gigantic  speci- 
mens of  slow-growing  Cacti  in  a  short  space  of 
time,  is  to  procure  plants  of  C.  triangularis, 
plant  them  in  any  rich  soil,  give  them  plenty 
of  heat  and  water;  when  high  enough,  stop  the 
shoots,  in  order  to  make  the  angles  thicker, 
and  graft  at  a  time  when  the  stock  is  attempt- 
ing vigorously  to  sprout  at  every  eye.  A  graft 
of  C.  Mallisonii,  three  inches  long,  six  months 
after,  has  seventeen  shoots  all  pushing  at  the 
tips:  eight  of  the  largest  are  twelve  to  fifteen 
inches  long,  and  none  of  the  rest  less  than  six 
inches."  The  original  plant  of  C.  Mallisonii, 
growing  in  the  same  place  in  the  same  time, 
barely  replaced  the  shoot  taken  off  to  graft. — 
Gard.  Chron.,  p.  22. 

Oxalis  Bowei,  in  the  open  garden.  "  The 
earth  was  removed  to  the  depth  of  two  feet ;  I 
then  introduced  eight  inches  of  drainage,  lay- 
ing on  the  top  of  it  a  layer  of  fresh  turf,  with 
the  view  of  preventing  the  soil  falling  into  the 
interstices.  I  then  filled  up  the  bed  with  equal 
parts  of  well-rolled  turfy  loam  and  leaf-mould 
intimately  mixed  together.  In  May  I  turned 
out  the  plants,  and  placed  them  so  that  the 
bulbs  might  be  three  inches  below  the  surface. 
Thus  circumstanced,  I  have  never  found  them 
to  receive  any  injury,  with  the  exception  of  the 
foliage  being  destroyed  by  frost.  They  flower 
beautifully  every  autumn." — Ibid.  p.  39. 

Nursery  Reform. — Mr.  Rivers,  in  the  last 
number  of  our  excellent  contemporary,  the 
Florist,  has  successfully  stripped  of  its  rags 
one  of  the  idols  which  the  folly  of  collectors 
has  set  up  for  the  admiration  of  simple  garde- 
ners. "  Nothing  in  floriculture,"  he  says  most 
truly,  "  has  marched  so  rapidly  and  steadily 
onward  as  an  improved  and  common-sense  taste 
for  roses.  It  is  only  a  few  years  since  all  the 
gardening  world  used  to  talk  of  the  2000  vari- 
eties of  roses  grown  by  the  Messrs.  Loddiges; 
and  happy  was  the  amateur  who  could  beat  his 
rival  by  a  score  or  two  of  varieties ;  I  mean  va- 
rieties in  name,  and  not  in  fact.  In  this  we  had, 
with  our  usual  national  weakness,  copied  our 
neighbors,  the  French,  who  will  even  now  say 
to  their  English  visitors,  'Ah,  Monsieur,  have 
you  seen  my  new  Rose? — la  voila !'  and  then 
you  will  have  pointed  out  to  you  a  seedling 
from  La  Reine,  with  an  accidental  stripe  on 
eaeh  petal;  or  a  seedling  from  Madame  Laffay, 
with  smaller  flowers  than  its  parent:  then  takes 
place  the  following  dialogue: 

"  English  Florist.  These  are  of  no  use, Mon- 
sieur; they  are  not  distinct  enough. 

"  French  Florist.  Monsieur;  distinct!  they 
are  new. 

"E.  F.  New  or  old,  they  are  of  no  use,  I 
tell  you:  have  you  a  scarlet  La  Reine, or 
low  one,  or  a  white  Madame  Laffay? 

"  F.  F.  Monsieur,  c'est  impossible;  but 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


I  have  fine  new  roses  from.  La  Reine,  all  suberb! 
Voila  Perpetuelle,  Conpe  d'Hebe. 

"  E.  F.  Why,  your  seedlings  are  all  pretty, 
but  they  are  not  distinct  enough.  But  at  what 
charge  do  you  propose  so  sell  these  seedlings? 
for  although  of  nearly  the  same  color  as  their 
parent,  I  should  like  one  or  two  if  not  too 
dear. 

"  F.  F.  Monsieur,  theij  are  new.  What  a 
horrible  word  is  that  '  distinct'  of  yours;  I  pray 
you  do  not  use  it.  But  for  my  seedlings  I  must 
have  a  high  price,  as  I  will  deliver  to  you  all 
the  property  in  them ;  let  me  see,  for  No.  1  you 
must  give  100/.;  for  No.  2,  125/.;  for  No.  3, 
150/. 

"E.  F.  Stop,  stop, Monsieur!  Iwillnotgive 
you  one  hundred  shillings  for  your  '  propriete ;' 
they  are  not  distinct  enough. 

^^  F.  F.  Monsieur,  what  a  horrible  word!  it 
kills  me." 

It  is  satisfactory  to  find  a  man  like  Mr.  Riv- 
ers joining  us  in  an  attempt  which  we  have  so 
long  been  making,  to  persuade  the  world  todis- 
tingush  between  selection  and  collection.  We 
accept  him  as  a  stout  recruit,  from  whom  good 
service  may  be  expected.  His  trade  experience 
tells  him  much  that  we  know  nothing  of;  we 
suspect  that  it  tells  him,  among  other  things, 
how  unprofitable  it  is  to  swamp  a  nursery  with 
things  which  only  a  few  curious  people  ever 
ask  for.  Let  us  add  that  he  has  to  some  extent 
carried  out  his  principle  in  the  last  edition  of 
his  sale  catalogue,  by  cutting  down  the  varieties 
with  no  sparing  hand.  For  instance,  he  now 
oifers  for  sale  only  67  varieties  of  Hybrid  Per- 
petual Roses;  while  a  neighbor  enumerates 
110. 

But  why  keep  67  of  these  varieties?  Can  it 
be  said  that  among  them  there  are  67  distinct 
peculiarities — of  growth  for  instance,  or  foli- 
age, or  color,  or  form  or  season.  And  if  there 
be,  are  the  distinctions  always  of  horticultural 
value?  Assured! J'  not.  No  one  who  only  re- 
gards the  decoration  of  a  garden  can  possibly 
want  67  sorts  of  Hybrid  Perpetual  Roses.  A 
dozen  of  the  best  are  worth  all  the  remainder. 
The  object  of  the  gardener  should  be  to  obtain 
the  finest  possible  result  by  the  simplest  and 
most  unexpensive  means.  Let  us  suppose  that 
he  has  space  for  60  roses;  if  he  plants  60,  bo 
called  different  sorts,  he  will  produce  an  effect 
about  as  good  as  that  of  an  old-fashioned  patch- 
work quilt.  No  skill  can  combine  such  mate- 
rials into  a  harmonious  whole.  But  suppose  he 
takes  half  a  dozen  of  the  finest  growers,  the 
longest  bloomers,  and  the  most  distinct  colors; 
with  these  he  may  really  exercise  what  skill  he 
possesses  in  creating  a  brilliant  scene.  Mr. 
Rivers  himself  points  this  out: — "Amateurs 
are  not  now  content  with  mixed  beds  of  roses ; 
all  our  finer  sorts  are  planted  in  masses:  thus, 
in  some  rose-gardens  formed  this  season,  the 
beds  are  made  to  contain  from  50  to  60  plants 
in  olden  times,  these  would  each  have 
varieties,  forming  a  patchwork  of  color ; 
now  they  are  arranged  so  as  to  form  masses  of 


distinct  colors.  Thus,  No.  1  is  Baronne  Pre 
vost;  No.  2,  Doctor  Marx;  No.  3,  Madame 
Aimee;  No.  4,  Geant  des  Batailles,  and  so  on; 
now  these  crimson  and  blush  and  rose-colored 
large  groups  must  have  a  fine  efiect."  Cer- 
ainly  they  must:  and  an  efiect  that  not  only 
cannot  be  rivalled,  but  cannot  be  even  imitated 
by  any  higgledy-piggledy  arrangement  whatso- 
ever. Let  us  hope,  then,  that  the  intelligent 
rose-growers  will  combine  to  carry  out  this 
principle  of  selection,  saving  themselves  much 
trouble  and  loss,  and  their  customers  endless 
vexation  and  annoyance.  For  who  is  to  know 
what  to  select  from  a  legion  of  queer  names? 
or  how  to  produce  a  beautiful  effect  with  mate- 
rials of  whose  quality  he  cannot  possibly  have 
any  knowledge? 

We  have  often  urged  this  point  upon  the  con- 
sideration of  the  trade,  and  we  are  glad  to  see 
that  the  force  of  our  arguments  is  beginning  to 
be  felt.  In  the  majority  of  the  lists  this  year, 
issued  by  the  most  considerable  nursery  and 
seedsmen,  a  very  appreciable  reduction  has 
been  made  in  the  names  of  varieties  offered  for 
sale.  Men  are  beginning  to  see  the  improprie- 
ty of  mystifying  their  customers,  and  we  may 
add  the  unprofitableness  of  it.  But  nothing 
like  enough  has  yet  been  done.  Annuals,  har- 
dy plants,  green-honse  plants,  hot-house  plants. 
Orchids,  all  the  race  of  florists'  flowers,  and 
fruit  trees  of  every  description,  are  quite  as 
much  in  want  of  the  weeder  as  roses  and  kitch- 
en garden  stuff.  Of  what  possible  advantange, 
for  instance,  to  any  one  in  Great  Britain  can  be 
the  1,400  sorts  of  apples,  or  677  of  pears,  or  89 
of  figs,  or  182  of  grapes,  or  360  of  gooseberries, 
enumerated  in  the  last  edition  of  the  Horticul- 
tural Society's  "  Catalogue  of  Fruits."  Why, 
fifty  apples,  five-and-twenty  pears,  half-a-dozen 
figs,  a  dozen  grapes,  and  as  many  gooseberries, 
answer  every  purpose — except  that  of  curiosi- 
ty. The  remainder  may  as  well  be  consigned 
to  the  rubbish  heap. 

We  know  how  unpalatable  these  truths  will 
prove  to  some  of  our  enthusiastic  friends,  who 
cling  to  their  collections  with  as  much  tenacity 
as  a  lawyer  to  old  statutes,  or  a  venerable 
lady  to  still  more  ancient  china;  but  we  enter- 
tain no  doubt  that  they  are  becoming  rapidly 
acknowledged  as  truths  all  over  the  country, 
and  that  the  interest  of  every  man  consists  in 
their  recognition.  In  former  days,  the  object 
was  to  have  something  new ;  the  purpose  now- 
a-days  is  to  obtain  something  better;  variety 
is  not  the  presnt  consideration,  an  anxious  de- 
sire for  IMPROVEMENT  has  taken  its  place;  and 
long  may  its  place  be  thus  occupied.  Time  is 
rapidly  proving  that  the  fancies  of  our  prede- 
cessors must  give  way  before  the  utilitarianism 
of  this  age,  and  that  to  maintain  the  former  has 
become  as  undesirable  as  it  is  impossible. — Gar- 
deners^ Chronicle. 


Hothouses  in  the  time  of  the  Romans  ;  by 
M.  DuREAU  DE  LA  Malle. — In  the  memoir  a 
short  time  since  read  to  the  Academy  upon  the 


£^fii 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


379 


subject  of  Roman  hothouses  and  pits,  heated 
artificially,  I  omitted  several  (flotations  whicli 
proved  my  statements,  and  they  have  conse- 
quently been  impugned.  My  first  authoritj'  is 
Columella  (XL,  3,  51,  53.)  Tiberius  being  in 
ill  health,  was  advised  to  eat  cucumbers  every 
day.  Tiie  Roman  gardeners  cultivated  these 
vegetables  in  frames,  containing  hot  dung,  and 
e.vposed  to  the  sun  in  front  of  a  wall.  The 
frames  were,  moreover,  on  wheels,  so  as  to  be 
easily  moved  into,  and  continual!}'  placed  in  the 
sun's  rays,  and  were,  in  addition,  furnished 
with  pieces  of  talc,  by  which  they  were  covered 
at  night,  and  by  which  the  plants  were  jtrotect- 
ed  fiom  frost  and  cold.  "  Thanks  to  this  in- 
vention," says  Columella,  "  Tiberius  was  sup- 
plied with  cucumbers  at  nearly  every  season 
of  the  year  {fere  toio  anno.")  Martial  (VIII., 
14,)  the  contemporary  of  Domitian,  who  had 
in  his  palace  a  hothouse,  containing  exotic 
plants,  called  Adonea,  describes  a  glass  hot- 
house, belonging  to  one  of  his  patrons,  which 
was  set  apart  for  similar  plants,  as  follows,  in 
one  of  his  Epigrams: — "  As  you  are  afraid  that 
your  pale  fruit  trees,  natives  of  Cilicia,  cannot 
withstand  the  winter,  and  tliat  a  too  cold  wind 
may  nip  your  delicate  shrubs,  you  take  care 
that  b}'  panes  of  talc  the  chilly  wintry  blast 
may  be  kept  off,  and  that  nothing  be  admitted 
but  sun  and  a  genial  air;  and  yet  I  have  noth- 
ing but  a  miserable  lodging,  with  a  window  that 
does  not  fit,  and  where  Boreas  himself  would 
not  find  a  habitation.  Is  it  thus,  cruel  man, 
that  you  lodge  an  old  friend!  I  had  much 
rather  be  the  guest  of  your  tree!"  The  use 
of  some  heating  apparatus  is  here  clearly  re- 
ferred to ;  but  Seneca  (Letter  122)  tells  us  that 
the  Roman  hothouses  were  heated  by  steam. 
He  denounces  the  unbridled  luxury  of  his  con- 
temporaries. '■  Do  not  those  live  contrarj' 
to  nature  who  require  roses  in  winter,  and  who. 
by  the  use  of  hot  water,  and  application  of 
heat,  compel  the  lily  to  blossom  in  winter,  in- 
stead of  in  the  spring?"  It  is  remarkable  that 
the  most  direct  evidence  of  the  use  of  hot- 
houses by  the  Romans  should  be  furnished  by 
a  poet  and  a  philosopher. — Comptes  Rendus. 


London  Hort.  Society. — The  event  of  the 
past  week  has  been  the  second  show  of  the 
Horticultural  Society  at  Chiswick.  A  sunless 
but  dry  day  brought  together  9383  visitors, form- 
ing such  an  assemblage  of  rank  a  nd  fashion  as  is 
to  be  seen  in  these  gardens  only,  in  the  open 
air,  near  London.  At  an  early  liour  the  ex- 
hibition had  the  distinguished  honor  of  being 
inspected  by  her  Royal  Highness  the  Duchess 
of  Orleans. 

In  speaking  of  the  objects  presented  for  ex- 
amination, we  can  do  little  more  than  repeat 
wliat  we  have  said  on  recent  occasions,  namely, 
that  the  great  and  important  feature  of  the  ex- 
hibition was  the  total  absence  of  ill-cultivated 
mens.  There  were  various  degrees  of  ex- 
nce,  but  everything  was  excellent  in  its  way. 
may  even  add  that  the  worst  plants  exhibi- 


ted last  Saturday  would  have  swept  away  the 
first  prizes  20  years  ago.  The  miserable  penny, 
pressed  Pansy  flowers,  which  once  collected  a 
crowd  of  simple  admirers,  would  now  be  con- 
sidered a  disgrace  to  the  place,  and  are  satis- 
factorily represented  by  well  cultivated  speci- 
mens in  pots.  The  gawky  straggling  half- 
starved  sticks,  first  exhibited  as  roses  grown  in 
pots,  are  replaced  by  plants  of  exquisite  beauty 
prepared  with  unrivalled  skill-  And  let  us  add. 
in  justice  to  one  class  of  exhibitors,  even  the 
Cape  Heaths,  which  were  for  so  many  years 
produced  in  silly  imitation  of  beehives,  or  Hot- 
tentot kraals,  have  at  last  been  permitted  to 
assume  their  natural  forms.  The  pruning- 
knife,  in  moderation,  has  taken  the  place  of  the 
shears  with  which  some  innocent  gardeners 
thought  it  necessary  to  clip  their  bushes  into 
shape  (!),  and  the  genus  Eiica  now  merits,  for 
its  beauty,  the  high  place  in  these  exhibitions 
which  was  once  given  it  merely  because  of  the 
difficulty  attending  its  cultivation. 

As  to  Orchids,  the  fondness  for  them  is  evi- 
dently extending;  new  and  good  exhibitors  are 
threatening  the  ancient  lords  of  the  region  of 
epiphytes;  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  in  a  few 
years  the  sanguine  expectations  of  our  friend 
"  Dodman"  will  be  realised,  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  Mr.  AVilliams'  capital  practi- 
cal papers,  now  appearing  weekly  in  our 
columns.  The  continual  sales  by  auction  of 
these  plants  afford  opportunities  of  purchase 
suitable  to  the  means  of  different  classes  of 
buyers,  and  it  is  not  extravagant  to  predict  that 
Orchids  will  some  day  be  as  common  as  Heaths 
and  Pelargoniums.  It  is  not  impossible  indeed 
that  they  may  dislodge  the  latter,  admiration 
of  whose  tawdry  charms  is  more  and  more 
clearly  on  the  decline. 

As  usual  Messrs.  Veitch,  of  Exeter,  stood 
pre-eminent  among  the  exhibitors  of  new  or 
rare  plants.  Their  exhibition  of  Pitcher 
plants  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  sights 
that  have  yet  been  chronicled  in  the  annals  of 
Horticulture.  Some,  the  Nepenthes,  from  the 
forests  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  threw  abroad  their 
tendrils,  and  suspended  their  curious  bags  of 
gi'een  and  crimson  and  white  by  whatever  they 
could  cling  to.  Others,  the  Sarracenias,  from 
the  swamps  of  North  America, stood  erect,  like 
living  trumpets,  or  imitating  ewersand  jugs  ol' 
green  and  crimson ;  even  while  the  spectator 
was  looking  at  them,  the  unhappy  fly  might  be 
seen  entrajjped  amongst  the  relentless  teeth 
with  which  the  recesses  of  these  cups  are  guard- 
ed. The  most  curious  of  all,  perhaps,  and  the 
most  beautiful  in  form,  was  the  Cephalote,  from 
the  Australian  bogs,,  whose  delicate  goblets 
reared  their  richly-carved  and  many-tinted 
crests  above  their  bed  of  moss.  No  one  in  the 
world  except  Mr.  Veitch  could  produce  such 
an  exhibition  as  this.  He  had  also  a  new  yel- 
low shrubby  Calceolaria,  with  leaves  like  a 
Peach-tree;  a  curious  Aster-like  plant  from 
New  Zealand,  said  to  be  a  hardy  evergreen 
shrub;  and  the  Eucalyptus  coccifera  of  Van 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


Diemen's  Land,  a  tree  with  glaucous  leaves  and 
an  abundance  of  large  white  flowers,  which  has 
lived  without  injury  for  several  years  at  Exeter 
in  the  open  ground,  where  it  is  now  20  feet 
high. 

New  hybrid  plants  are  slow  in  appearing. 
The  only  one  which  caught  our  eye  was  a  hy- 
brid Pelargonium  obtained  between  the  lemon- 
scented  (Citriodorum)  and  one  of  the  Fancies, 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Kempster,  of  Blackheath.  His 
object  was  to  add  good  Howers  to  sweet  foliage, 
and  we  are  glad  to  see  that  he  is  evidently  on 
the  road  to  success;  the  specimen  exhibited 
was  very  pretty,  and  was  accompanied  by  a 
cross  between  Kadula  and  Rollisson's  Unique, 
which  we  also  look  upon  as  a  good  beginning. 
If  growers  would  but  persevere  in  this  way 
they  would  soon  strike  a  rich  vein,  and  occupy 
themselves  more  profitably  in  every  sense,  than 
in  trying  for  results  which  only  end  in  running 
out  their  breed.  What  is  wanted  among  Pe- 
largoniunis  is  new  blood,  of  which  the  wild 
species  can  furnish  an  abundance. 

Among  miscellaneous  objects,  was  a  remark- 
able collection  from  Syon,  consisting  of  a  tree 
bearing  ripe  nutmegs;  a  branch  of  Vanilla  with 
flowers,  and  ripe  as  well  as  unripe  pods;  a 
Gamboge-tree,  witli  rich  orange  fruit;  and  a 
piece  of  the  Serpent  Trichosanth  (Trichosan- 
thes  colubrina,)  loaded  with  its  long  striped 
and  twisted  Cucumbers. 

Of  Mr.  Ilosea  Waterer's  magnificent  display 
of  American  plants  in  the  Society's  Garden, 
we  spoke  at  length  last  week.  On  this  occasion 
it  was  open  to  all  visitors,  throngs  of  whom  were 
gratified  by  one  of  the  most  varied  and  beauti- 
ful spectacles  which  the  gorgeous  varieties  of 
Rhododendron  and  Azalea  can  produce.  Under 
the  influence  of  the  beauty  of  so  grand  a  scene 
the  clumsiness  of  the  awning  which  screened 
it  from  the  weather  was  hardly  remarked.  A 
few  hours  however  after  the  close  of  the  meet- 
ing this  awning  gave  way  before  a  gale  of  wind, 
and  it  became  necessary  to  close  the  ground 
for  some  days,  till  it  could  be  repaired.  This 
has  naturally  given  rise  to  expressions  of  sur- 
prise, and  to  inquiries,  which  we  take  this  op- 
portunity of  answering,  by  stating  that  the 
awning  in  question  (not  furnished  by  Mr.  Edg- 
ington)  was  contracted  for  by  the  gentleman 
lately  removed  from  his  office  of  Secretary  by 
the  Fellows  of  the  Horticultural  Society,  at 
their  anniversary  meeting;  and  that  the  con- 
tract was  made,  not  only  without  the  concur- 
rence of  the  proper  officer,  but  in  opposition 
to  all  experience  and  remonstrance. — Garden- 
ers' Chronicle. 


Russian  mode  of  Preserving  Green  Peas 
FOR  WINTER  USE. — The  peas  to  be  preserved 
are  chosen  full  grown,  but  before  they  become 
at  all  farinaceous;  they  are  carefuUj^  shelled, 
and  all  damaged  ones  are  picked  out  rom  the 
sound  ones ;  the  peas  are  then  thrown  into  water 
whilst  boiling  on  the  fire;  the  instant  the  water 
resumes  the  boil  after  immersion   of  the  peas, 


it  is  expeditiously  strained  oflT  from  them,  the 
peas  are  then  immediately  spread  upon  a  cloth 
and  turned  over  on  it  till  all  loose  moisture  has 
been  soaked  up ;  the  peas  are  then  dried  gently 
in  the  coolest  part  of  a  Russian  oven-like  fire- 
place. Green  French  beans  are  dried  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  manner,  but  the  pods  require 
to  be  cut  into  narrow  strips  previou.sly  to  scald- 
ing them.  Both  green  peas  and  green  French 
beans  dried  are  sold  at  a  very  moderate  price 
at  St.  Petersburgh.  When  either  of  them  is 
to  be  prepared  for  table,  they  are  soaked  for  a 
short  time  in  lukewarm  water,  just  enough  to 
cover  them,  then  gently  stewed  in  it,  with  the 
addition  of  either  gravy  or  a  white  sauce,  and 
seasoned  with  sugar  as  well  as  salt  and  spices. 
Green  peas  for  winter  use  have  been  perfectly 
kept  in  England  by  simply  bottling  them  like 
green  gooseberries,  but  much  care  is  required 
in  the  process  to  avoid  difl'erent  sources  of  pu- 
trefaction, such  as  damaged  peas  and  moisture. 
Green  French  beans  may  be  preserved  till  win- 
ter by  keeping  them  in  brine  just  strong  enough 
to  float  an  egg ;  the  beans  must  be  entire  and 
without  blemish.  In  preparing  them  for  the 
table  they  should  be  washed  in  warm  water ; 
if  then  found  salter  than  desirable,  they  should 
be  soaked  two  or  three  hours  in  lukewarm 
water,  before  being  put  into  that  in  which  they 
are  to  he  either  boiled  or  stewed.  Green  rye 
is  also  dried  in  Russia,  is  esteemed  a  great 
delicacy,  and  sells  in  St.  Petersburgh  for  eight 
or  ten  times  the  price  by  weight  of  either  green 
peas  or  green  haricot  dried. — Gard.  Chronicle. 


Preserving  Fruit. — We  have  frequently 
been  asked,  what  is  the  best  mode  of  preserv- 
ing fruit,  and  whether  there  are  not  chemical 
means  of  keeping  it,  so  that  it  may  be  preser- 
ved fresh  and  wholly  unchanged  for  a  long 
time ;  either  by  placing  it  in  contact  with  some 
substance  which  shall  counteract  its  tendency 
to  spoil,  or  by  plunging  it  in  some  gas  or  liquid 
which  will  prevent  it  from  decomposing.  There 
have  been  a  great  many  attempts  to  do  this, 
but  they  have  all  been  attended  with  but  very 
partial  success.  Fruit,  for  the  most  part,  con- 
sists chiefly  of  sugar,  gum,  starch,  cellular 
matter,  water,  and  a  small  quantity  of  albu- 
men and  gluten;  but  besides  all  these,  it  also 
contains  certain  other  substances,  such  as  color- 
ing matter,  and  a  small  quanity  of  some  highly 
fragrant  volatile  oil,  to  which  the  taste  and 
agreeable  smell  of  the  fruit  is  due.  The  most 
changeable  component  of  fruit,  therefore,  is 
the  azotised  matter,  which  is  generally  that 
which  first  of  all  commences  to  decompose; 
usually,  too,  air  is  necessary  to  its  change,  and 
consequently  tho.se  fruits  which  have  thick 
dense  skins,  dry  and  shrivel  up,  when  they  are 
kept,  witliout  being  spoilt.  In  drying,  of  course 
they  lose  some  portion  of  the  volatile  flavor- 
ing" matter,  but  they  also  retain  some,  and 
they  may  be  kept  for  a  long  time,  w'' 
their  either  putrifying  or  fermenting, 
more  delicate  and  highly  flavored  fruits 


FOREIGN  AIVD  MISCELLANEUS  NOTICES. 


ever,  are  not  of  this  description ;  their  skins  are 
so  porous  and  open,  that  they  very  soon  allow 
the  air  to  pass  into  the  interior  of  the  fruit,  and 
consequently  it  is  impossible  to  preserve  them 
by  drying. 

The  immediate  consequence  of  air  coming  in 
contact  with  the  pulpy  matter  of  ripe  fruit,  is 
that  the  azotised  matters  begin  to  absorb  oxy- 
gen, and  decompose;  then  the  sugar,  starch, 
and  gum  are  acted  on;  the  flavor  is  rapidly  de- 
stroyed, sometimes  spirit  is  formed,  the  sugar 
simply  undergoing  the  vinous  fermentation;  at 
other  times,  the  change  goes  on  more  rapidlj', 
and  tlie  fruit  soon  becomes  putrid.  All  these 
effects  may  be  easily  observed,  by  watching  the 
ripening  of  any  of  the  common  varieties  of 
fruit.  The  drying  up  of  ripe  grapes,  which 
are  left  to  hang  with  their  skins  uninjured,  and 
the  immediate  change  whicli  occurs  if  the  skin 
is  injured  or  punctured,  is  familiar  to  every 
one.  The  rapid  change  which  takes  place  in 
ripe  Gooseberries,  when  the  skins  burst,  and 
which,  in  the  first  instance,  is  a  mere  case  of 
common  vinous  fermentation, is  also  well  known. 
The  injury  which  all  fruit  sustains  from  bruises, 
though  it  often  does  not  produce  the  same  ef- 
fect, is  yet  in  chemical  nature  very  similar  to 
that  which  occurs  in  the  gooseberry.  The  cause 
of  the  evil  in  all  cases  is  the  oxygen  of  the  air; 
and  the  mode  in  which  it  acts  consists  in  the 
skin  or  cuticle  being  destroyed  or  injured,  so 
tliat  the  air  finds  an  easy  entrance  through  the 
damaged  part.  In  the  case  of  delicate  and  thin 
skinned  fruits,  they  are  so  porous  that  the  air 
enters  on  all  sides,  as  soon  as  they  are  fully 
ripe,  and  even  though  they  are  not  in  any  way 
injured,  and  this  constitutes  the  chief  difficulty 
in  preserving  them. 

The  fresh  juice  of  the  grape  readily  ferments, 
as  soon  as  it  is  ex[)osod  to  the  air,  but  the  juice 
of  a  raisin  or  half  dried  grape  no  longer  has 
the  power  of  doing  so,  because  it  contains  too 
much  sugar  to  ferment.  A  weak  solution  of 
sugar,  under  favorable  conditions,  soon  begins 
to  ferment;  whilst  a  strong  one  is  unable  to  en- 
ter into  the  vinous  fermentation.  It  is  in  part, 
on  this  fact,  that  the  common  mode  of  preser- 
ving fruits  by  means  of  sugar  depends.  In 
making  preserves,  too,  the  fruit  is  heated,  and 
heat,  by  rendering  the  vegetable  albumen  solid, 
makes  it  less  likely  to  decompose.  The  pre- 
servative influence  of  heat  on  all  forms  of  or- 
ganic matter  is  well  known;  the  value  of  heat 
in  preventing  the  decomposition  of  food  gene- 
rally, was  minutely  detailed  by  Appnrt  in  1810, 
for  which  he  was  rewarded  by  the  French 
Government  with  a  sum  of  twelve  thousand 
francs. 

But  both  heat  and  sugar,  though  no  doubt 
very  useful  agents  in  the  preservation  of  fruit, 
are  very  far  from  being  quite  satisfactory  ;  and 
though,  by  their  use,  the  fruit  may  be  prevented 
from  undergoing  actual  fermentation,  yet  more 
of  the  flavoring  matter  of  the  fruit  is 
destroyed  or  lost.  What  is  wanted  is 
means  of  preventing  the  decomposition  of  the  I 


fruit,  without  the  use  of  any  substance  which 
could  injure  its  flavor,  either  by  the  addition 
of  a  new  flavor  or  the  destruction  of  the  natural 
one.  After  what  has  been  done  already  in  the 
storing  and  preservation  of  some  sorts  of  fruit, 
and  the  improved  modes  of  keeping  it  which 
have  been  devised,  we  do  not  altogether  des- 
pair of  a  satisfactory  mode  of  preserving  the 
more  delicate  kinds  being  discovered,  although 
most  of  the  recorded  experiments  which  have 
been  made  with  that  view  are  certainly  not  very 
encouraging.  The  experiments  usually  referred 
to  on  the  preservation  of  fruit  by  chemical 
means,  are  some  which  were  made  by  Dr. 
Henry  in  1776,  and  described  in  the  fourth 
volume  of  Dr.  Priestley's  '•'  Essays  on  Air.'' 
The  fruit  in  these  experiments  was  suspended 
in  carbonic  acid,  so  that  it  was  kept  in  an  at- 
mosphere containing  no  free  oxygen.  A  bunch 
of  grapes  expo.sed  to  carbonic  acid  remained 
fresh  and  plump  for  six  weeks,  whilst  a  corres- 
ponding bunch  placed  near  it  in  a  similar  ves- 
sel, containing  common  air,  was  quite  mouldj' 
in  three  weeks.  A  second  experiment  was 
made  with  some  ripe  and  rather  stale  straw- 
berries, which  had  been  gathered  the  day  be- 
fore; the  following  day  those  which  were  ex- 
posed to  the  air  had  lost  their  taste,  whilst  the 
fruit  kei)t  in  cai-bonicacid,  "  had  become  more 
dry,  but  was  fragant  and  well  tasted;  their 
fragrancy  was  even  thought  to  be  improved." 
On  the  fourth  day,  those  in  air  became  quite 
musty  and  mouldy,  whilst  those  in  carbonic 
acid  were  some  of  them  firm,  and  had  still  a 
moderate  degree  of  flavor  at  the  end  of  eight 
days- 

In  this  experiment  of  Dr.  Henry's  there  are 
two  points  which  were  decidedly  against  the 
preservation  of  the  fruit,  namely,  that  the 
fruit  was  already  stale  at  the  commencement 
of  the  trial,  and  that  the  carbonic  acid  employ- 
ed was  not  pure,  but  contained  common  air. 
A  number  of  similar  experiments  have  since 
been  made,  the  general  result  of  which  has 
been,  that  though  the  fruit  kept  well,  it  wholly 
lost  its  flavor;  but  we  do  not  think  that  there 
is  any  reason  to  despair  of  ultimate  success.  It 
is  plain,  from  all  the  trials  which  have  been 
made,  that  it  is  easy  to  prevent  the  decay  or 
fermentation  of  fruit;  the  difficulty  is  rather 
to  preserve  its  fine  flavor,  and  prevent  it  from 
becoming  tasteless  and  insipid.  "When  an  ap- 
ple is  bruised,  the  part  thus  injured  soon  turns 
brown,  decay  commences,  it  becomes  mouldy, 
and  the  whole  fruit  soon  rots;  and  this  decay 
easily  spreads  from  one  apple  to  another.  If 
a  little  hole  is  cut  through  the  skin  of  a  sound 
apple,  and  a  small  piece  of  a  rotton  one  is  in- 
serted under  the  skin,  the  sound  fruit  will  soon 
be  brought  into  a  state  of  decay;  but  if  this 
is  done  in  a  jar  of  carbonic  acid,  no  such  effect 
will  take  place — the  sound  apple  will  remain 
fresh,  even  though  there  is  a  portion  of  decay 
ed  apple  in  contact  with  it.  The  flavor  of 
is  apt  to  be  spoilt,  not  merely  from  the 
the  peculiar  volatile  oil  which   it  contains 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


likewise  from  the  absorption  of  other  volatile 
substances;  for  fruit  of  all  descriptions  has  a 
very  remarkable  power  of  absorbing  odorous 
matters  of  various  kinds. 

Amongst  the  many  plans  for  preserving  fruit 
which  have  been  described,  and  which  more  or 
less  depend  in  principle  on  the  exclusion  of  air, 
such  as  packing  it  in  close  sealed  vessels,  wrap- 
ping in  fine  paper,  covering  the  ends  of  the 
stalks  with  sealing-wax,  or  arranging  it  in  boxes 
filled  with  thoroughly  dry  sand,  bran,  straw, 
fern,  or  other  similar  substance,  the  greatest 
care  in  all  cases  must  be  taken  that  the  pack- 
ing material  has  no  odor;  for  if  it  has,  the 
fruit,  besides  losing  a  portion  of  its  own  natural 
aroma,  will  acquire  some  of  the  odor  of  tlie 
packing  material,  and  the  delicate  flavor  of  the 
fruit,  and  consequently  its  value,  will  be  de- 
stroyed. On  the  other  hand,  when  fruit  is  pre- 
served by  cold,  and  especially  when  for  this 
purpose  it  is  gathered  before  it  is  perfectly  ripe, 
it  is  often  found  that  on  removing  it  from  the 
ice-house  or  cold  w^ell  in  which  it  has  been  pre- 
served, though  at  first  it  has  but  little  flavor, 
yet  that  on  gently  warming  it  and  keeping  it  a 
few  days,  the  flavor  improves  and  decidedly 
increases.  This  and  other  similar  facts  may 
fixirly  lead  to  the  consideration,  whether  the 
odor  and  flavor  of  fruit  which  has  been  pre- 
served some  time  in  carbonic  acid,  nitrogen,  or 
hydrogen,  and  which  has  in  con.sequence  be- 
come deteriorated,  is,  in  truth,  really  altogeth- 
er destroyed  ;  and  whether  it  might  not  be  pos- 
sible to  recover  the  whole,  or  at  least  a  portion, 
of  the  lost  flavor? 

The  absorption  of  manure,  or  rather  manner 
in  which  plants  fed  with  very  strong  manures 
acquire  a  peculiar  and  often  very  disagreeable 
flavor  in  consequence;  and  also  the  curious 
way  in  which  the  odor  of  flowers  is  sometimes 
modified  by  the  absorption  of  particular  sub- 
stances, are  probably  also  examples  of  the  fa- 
cility with  which  vegetables  absorb  odorous 
substances.  Concerning  the  formation  of  odors 
by  plants,  very  little  indeed  is  known.  There 
are,  however,  a  number  of  curious  facts  bearing 
upon  the  subject,  and  showing  how  volatile 
odors,  closelj'  resembling  those  secreted  by 
plants,  are  sometimes  formed  in  the  most  unex- 
pected manner.  Thus,  for  example,  in  the 
process  of  bleaching  rags  by  chlorine  for  making 
paper,  it  frequently  happens  that  the  bleached 
pulp  has  precisely  the  odor  of  ripe  apples;  this 
is  evidently  due  to  the  presence  of  some  sub- 
stance formed  by  the  action  of  the  chlorine. — 
Gard.  Chronivle.     

New  Tkee  Peonies. — We  have  lately  re- 
ceived from  Mr.  VerschafTelt.  of  Ghent,  flow- 
ers of  two  tree  Peonies  of  admirable    beauty. 

They  were  intended  for  exhibition  in  London, 
but  would  not  keep  for  that  purpose. 

One  wos  rosy  pink,  large,  and  uncommonly 
showy  because  of  the  very  fine  color  of  the 
When  full  blown  they  measured  7 
across ;  but  in  this  state  they  showed 
quantities    of   stamens    in    the     centre,    and 


some  of  the  petals,  though  all  of  good  sub- 
stance, were  much  longer  than  the  others,  giv- 
ing the  general  aspect  of  the  flower  a  somewhat 
ragged  appearance . 

The  other  was  French  white,  shading  off  into 
rose  at  the  base  of  the  petals,  and  rather  smal- 
ler, but  more  double  and  regular,  and  conse- 
quently more  compact,  holding  together  well, 
even  after  it  had  been  cut  a  very  long  time. 
Both  kinds  were  exceedingly  handsome,  as  all 
tree  Paeonies  are.  A  well  grown  specimen  or- 
namented with  such  flowers  in  even  tolerable 
profusion  must  produce  a  magnificent  display. 

We  understand  that  these  were  prodifCed  by 
Mr.  Charles  Goethals,  a  gentleman  residing  at 
Ghent.  The  darker  kind,  called  Gloria  Bel- 
garum,  is  described  in  the  •'  Journal  d'Horti- 
culture  Prati(|ue,"  as  a  seedling  which,  in  1844, 
had  flowered  for  five  successive  years,  and  at 
that  time  was  producing  blossoms  at  least  10 
inches  in  diameter ;  a  single  plant  bearing  seven 
of  them.  It  would  seem  tliat  they  are  now 
appearing  in  great  abimdance,  Mr.  Verschatfelt 
having  been  able  to  forward  four  of  them. 
Certainly  these  Moutans  are  among  the  finest 
we  have  ever  seen. — Gard.  Chronicle. 


The  Acuminate  Onion. — A  few  bulbs  of  this 
charming  plant  were  sent  from  California  to 
the  Horticultural  Society,  by  Mr.  Hartweg, 
and  flowered  last  spring  in  the  Chiswick  Gar- 
den, in  a  greenhouse.  It  is,  however,  in  all 
probability,  hardy,  if  kept  in  a  place  dry  in 
winter.  The  name  onion  conveys  to  an  English 
ear  ideas  of  anything  but  beauty,  for  many 
common  species  are  as  ugly  as  plants  well  can 
be,  and  the  handsome  kinds  are  almost  un- 
known in  gardens.  Nevertheless,  in  a  genus 
consisting  of  nearly  a  couple  of  hundred  spe- 
cies, many  may  be  found  which  ought  to  take 
rank  with  hyacinths  and  jonquils;  of  these, 
the  moly  and  the  magical  onion  are  well-known 
examples,  though  now-a-days  confined  to  curi- 
ous collections;  and  the  rare  species  here 
figured  is  anotlicr,  much  handsomer  than  either, 
and  probably  the  queen  of  the  family.  Its  gay 
flowers,  almost  transparent  when  colorless,  and 
stained  with  the  richest  rose  color  near  the 
points,  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  inferior  in 
beauty  to  the  Guernsey  lily  itself,  and  they  are 
far  less  fugitive.  Were  it  permitted  to  sup- 
pose that  a  plant  so  similar  to  onions  in  most 
lespects  could  forma  separate  genus,  one  would 
be  tempted  to  place  this  apart,  for  it  wants 
their  smell,  and  is  most  remarkable  for  its  petals 
being  considerably  smaller  than  the  sepals. 
But  no  other  difference  being  perceptible,  we 
must  believe  it  to  belong  to  the  group  of  which 
allium  roseum  forms  one.  At  first  sight  it  would 
seem  to  diffiu"  from  the  acuminate  allium  de- 
scribed by  Sir  W.  Hooker,  in  his  "  FIora-Bo- 
reali-Araeric;ina,"  in  the  absence  of  toothings 
from  the  petals,  in  thesmallnessof  those ymrts, 
and  in  stature;  being  a  much  larger  an  " 
hawlsome  plant  than  Sir  W.  Hooker's 
represents. — Pa.vton's  Flower  Garden. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Dnmrstic  ^Mlm. 


TuE  Prize  Strawberry. — The  prize  of 
$100,  offered  some  three  years  ago  by  the  Cin- 
cinnati Hort.  Society,  has  been  awarded  this 
season  to  Mr.  McAvoy,  a  cultivator  of  that  vi- 
cinity. As  Cincinnati  is  noted  as  the  finest 
strawberry  market  in  America,  and  as  the  hor- 
ticulturists there  are  especially  acute  in  straw- 
berry lore,  we  naturally  look  for  great  merit 
in  this  prize  production  doubly  endorsed.  The 
fruit  committee,  in  their  report,  speak  of  it  as 
follows: 

"  McAvoy's  No.  12  Seedling,  we  propose  to 
call  McJlvoy's  Superior ;  the  specimens  exhi- 
bited are  superior  to  Hovey's  Seedling,  or  any 
other  strawberry  that  came  under  the  exami- 
nation of  the  committee,  and  it  is  entitled  to 
the  premium  of  $100  offered  by  this  society  in 
1847."  

Seedling  Apricots. — It  is  not  a  little  re- 
markable, that  numerous  as  are  the  fine  varie- 
ties of  peaches  originated  in  this  country,  many 
of  them  so  much  better  adapted  to  our  climate 
than  any  of  foreign  origin,  no  one  appears  to 
have  taken  any  pains  with  originating  superior 
new  apricots.  The  only  native  seedling  of  any 
mark  that  we  know — Dubois'  Early  Golden — 
is  far  hardier,  and  more  productive  than  any 
foreign  sort,  if  we  except  the  Breda,  and  there 
cannot  be  a  doubt  that  a  little  pains  taken  in 
raising  apricot  seedlings,  would  reward  us  with 
fine  new  sorts  of  this  agreeable  mid-summer 
fruit,  which  would  thrive  with  half  the  care  now 
bestowed  on  European  sorts — most  of  which  are 
of  tender  origin. 

At  the  present  time,  the  apricot  seems  to 
succeed  better  in  portions  of  Virginia,  than  in 
almost  any  part  of  the  Union. 


Gigantic  Strawberries. — We  understand 
from  an  eye-witness,  that  Mr.  Pell,  at  his  ce- 
lebrated orchard  farm,  Pelham,  on  the  Hud- 
son, has  raised  the  largest  strawberries  ever 
grown  in  the  country.  The  variety  was  Ho- 
vey's Seedling.  The  largest  berry  weighed  2 
ounces,  and  measured  84  inches  in  circumfe- 
rence. We  hope  Mr.  Pell  will  give  our  read- 
ers the  key  to  this  mammoth  size — as  we  un- 
derstand it  is  the  result  of  careful  experiment. 


PoMOLOGiCAL  CONVENTION. — Dear  Sir:  In 
reading  the  pages  of  the  July  Horticulturist,  I 
notice  you  speak  of  the  next  Pomological  Con- 
gress to  be  held  at  Philadelphia  this  coming 
fall.  As  this  is  undoubtedly  an  oversight  on 
your  part,  and  might  not  be  noticed,  without 
your  attention  was  drawn  to  it  by  some  one,  I 
desire  to  remind  you,  that  the  meeting  at  Phi- 
ladelphia is  to  be  held  in  the  autumn  of  1852. 
Yours  respectfully,  F.  R.  Elliott.  Cleve- 
land, O.,  July  8,  1851.  [We  thank  Mr.  E.  for 
correcting  the  error  into  which  we  had  inad- 
vertantly fallen.  Ed.] 


CuRCULio  Extirpator. — A.  J.  Downing, 
Esq.:  It  has  been  the  study  of  a  great  many 
practical  men  and  amateurs,  of  late  years,  to 
devise  some  means  for  the  destruction  of  the 
curculio;  but  as  yet,  I  believe,  with  no  consi- 
derable degree  of  success.  Although  I  have 
read  in  your  Journal  the  reports  of  various  gen- 
tlemen, stating  their  entire  success  in  extirpating 
this  insect,  I  am  led  to  believe  their  discoveries 
have  not  led  to  any  general  results. 

I  have  never  as  yet  seen  in  the  writings  of 
any  persons  on  this  subject,  any  invitation  to 
visit  their  place,  for  the  public  to  be  convinced 
of  their  success.  The  depredations  of  this  worst 
of  all  pest,  have  attained  such  a  magnitude  that 
I  think  any  party  claiming  to  be  able  to  subdue 
the  curculio,  should  offer  proofs  of  their  theo- 
ry by  saying,  '-'come  and  see,  and  believe." 
Occular  demonstration  is  satisfactory  to  all  par- 
ties. This  I  suggest,  because  then  no  one  will 
be  led  astray. 

I  will  now,  state  to  you  my  experience  with 
the  curculio.  Being  gardener  for  near  7  years, 
for  Col.  T.  H.  Perkins,  Brookline,  Mass.,  one 
of  the  best  and  most  extensive  private  gardens 
in  the  country,  I  was,  while  there,  indefatiga- 
ble in  my  exertions  to  find  out  some  method  to 
exterminate  the  curculio,  but  without  avail. 

In  the  year  1848,  I  left  that  place,  and  went 
south  and  west.  During  all  that  time,  the  de- 
struction of  the  curculio  was  my  principal  ob- 
ject. I  was  last  summer  gardener  upon  the 
place  of  Mr.  Longworth,  and  I  can  with  truth 
assert  that  there  was  not  two  dozen  of  sound 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


plums  in  his  whole  establishment  for  the  year. 
Leaving  west,  I  came  to  New- York,  and  ob- 
tained a  situation  with  W.  C.  Langley.  Esq.,  a 
patron  and  friend  of  horticulture,  and  a  gentle- 
man who  has  spared  no  expense  in  furnishing 
his  establishment  Avith  the  choicest  fruits — the 
plum  in  particular.  Here  I  again  commenced 
my  labors,  and  I  am  happy  to  say,  with  perfect 
success;  and  as  mere  assertion  is  worth  little, 
I  invite  all  unbelievers,  as  well  as  inquirers,  to 
occular  demonstration. 

Mr.  Langley  has  an  extensive  and  beautiful 
plum  orchard,  and  this  year  in  particular,  it 
was  loaded  with  fruit,  all  the  treesbearing  about 
equally.  For  an  experiment,  I  commenced  the 
application  with  a  quill,  of  a  neio  composition, 
on  three  trees.  The  result  is  worthy  of  being 
seen.  There  is  not  a  plum  in  the  orchard,  ex- 
cept on  these  three  trees,  they  having  fallen  off, 
destroyed  by  the  insect.  To  one  of  the  three 
I  shall  be  obliged  to  apply  props,  otherwise  it 
will  break  down.  I  can  only  add,  that  I  am 
convinced  that  my  composition  is  a  radical  ex- 
terminator. I  shall  keep  its  nature  private 
until  practical  men,  and  others  interested,  are 
satisfied.  Mr.  Langley'.«  place  will  be  open 
for  the  public  to  examine  for  themselves,  after 
which  my  receipt  shall  be  open  to  the  world. 
The  compound  for  100  trees  would  not  cost 
over  eight  dollars.  It  is  applied  with  a  syringe. 
lam  sir,  your  humble  servt.,  Wm.  Quant, 
Gardener  to  W.  C.  Langley,  Esq.,  od  Avenue. 
Long  Island,  July  12,  1851. 


Sweet  Potatoe  Culture. — Sir:  The  sweet 
potato  forms  a  very  important  article  of  pro- 
vision on  the  southern  plantations.  It  is  so  sub- 
ject to  rot — even  by  the  1st  of  January— that 
it  is  much  less  planted  than  would  otherwise  be 
the  case.  There  are  various  modes  adopted  to 
preserve  them,  j-et  none  giving  entire  assur- 
ance. It  has  struck  me  that  some  way  might 
be  adopted  of  kiln-drying  them.  This  would 
reduce  them  greatly  in  bulk,  by  ridding  them 
of  water — the  principal  cause  of  their  decay. 
They  would  thus  be  brought  to  a  state  easily 
convertible  into  a  flour. 

This  notion  first  suggested  itself  to  me  in  the 
famine  year,  when  a  good  deal  of  Indian  corn 
was  kiln-dried  to  stand  a  voyage  to  Ireland. 

not  think  I  exaggerate,  when  I  consider 
atter  of  national  importance,  and  upon 


this  ground  beg  that  you  will  turn  it  in  your 
mind.  Should  you  be  at  fault,  a  suggestion  in 
your  paper  would  bring  out  some  of  your  cor- 
respondeuts  upon  the  two  points — 

Is  the  scheme  a  practicable  one?  If  so,  what 
mode  of  preparation  would  best  accomplish  it? 

I  do  not  give  my  name — it  would  add  noth- 
ing to  the  importance  of  the  subject,  nor  ought 
it  to  do  so. 

I  send  this  to  your  paper,  as — taking  it — I 
shall  see  anything  you  may  say  on  the  subject. 
Charleston,  S.  C,  June  10,  1851. 

We  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  correspondents 
who  have  information  to  communicate  on  this 
subject.     Ed.  

Peach  Trees — The  Effect  or  Shorten- 
iNG-iN. — Last  winter  we  tried  the  experiment 
of  shortening-in  the  branches  of  a  portion  of  a 
peach  tree,  and  leaving  the  remainder  untouch- 
ed, in  order  more  fully  to  test  the  beneficial  ef- 
fects of  the  practice,  and  give  an  occular  de- 
monstration of  the  difierence,  if  any  should 
appear,  resulting  from  the  operation,  to  all  who 
might  witness  the  result.  The  blossoms  on  the 
branches  shortened-in.  came  out  from  a  week 
to  ten  days  earlier,  and  the  fruit  at  the  time  of 
writing,  is  at  least  one-third  larger  than  that 
on  branches  left  in  their  natural  state.  The  new 
growth  of  wood  on  the  shortened  branches  is 
of  a  more  vigorous  and  finer  character,  and 
will  probably  acquire  a  greater  degree  of  har- 
diness, to  enable  it  to  withstand  the  vigor  of 
the  coming  winter. 

But  this,  too,  is  labor,  and  being  so,  it  will 
be  an  objection  with  many  to  any  further  at- 
tempts to  raise  peaches.  Yet  it  is  a  labor  of 
pleasure,  if  not  of  profit,,  to  all  who  wish  to 
enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  nature  yielding 
to  their  control,  and  nature  perfecting  herself 
under  their  influence.  To  those  who  have  plea- 
sure of  tasting  rich  fruit  of  their  own  raising, 
and  plucking  it  in  delicious  freshness  from  the 
tree,  it  will  be  but  a  light  service,  compared 
with  emptying  their  pockets  to  purchase  the 
fruits  of  other  climes,  too  often  gathered  in  a 
crude  atid  immature  state,  in  order  to  enable 
them  to  survive  transportation,  and  contracting 
insipidity  and  decay  in  every  step  of  their  jour- 
neying. 

We  might  before  have  remarked,  for 
ncfit  of  the  inexperienced,  (if  any  of  your 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


ders  are  more  so  than  myself.)  that  in  shorten- 
ing we  are  sure  to  cut  down  to  sound  and  vi- 
gorous wood,  such  as  has  not  and  will  not  win- 
ter-kill, and  through  which  the  sap  will  com- 
mence a  healthy  and  vigorous  growth  in  spring. 
Hence  we  take  off  rather  more  than  the  last 
growth  of  the  season.  If  the  work  is  delayed 
until  February  or  March,  we  cut  down  to  where 
the  buds  are  healthful  and  strong.  Y'rs  truly, 
W.  Bacon.     Richmond,  3£ast.,  July  7,  1851. 


A.  J.  DowNiNfi,  Esq. — Dear  Sir:  I  should 
not  venture  to  address  you,  but  for  two  encour- 
agements, (very  faint  ones  to  me,  to  be  sure, 
but  still  encouragements,)  whicii  I  find  in  the 
pages  of  the  Horticulturist.  One  of  these  is 
your  promise  to  answer  all  questions  of  your 
subscribers,  if  put  in  a  brief  form.  Alas  for 
me  then  !  but — I  have  a  question  to  ask.  The 
other  is  your  invitation  to  ''  Horticulturists  and 
Amateurs  to  contribute  Essays,  Papers,  or 
Rough  Notes  of  Experience."  Now,  I  am  too 
ignorant  for  a  horticulturist,  but  if  amateur 
means  a  lover  of  flowers,  (roses  especially)  I 
am  one,  most  certainly ;  and  I  must  detail  my 
experience,  in  order  to  ask  my  question. 

Two  years  since,  I  came  in  possession  of  four 
roses;  the  Fellenberg.  Louis  Philippe,  Queen 
of  Naples,  and  Gloire  de  France.  These  I 
planted  out  on  the  north  side  of  the  house,  in 
the  only  place  which  could  then  be  spared  for 
them.  I  was  instructed  to  cut  them  all  down 
to  within  a  short  distance  of  the  ground,  on  the 
approach  of  cold  weather,  but  thej'  grew  so 
beautifully  during  the  summer,  that  when  au- 
tumn came  I  could  not  bear  the  thought  of 
cutting  them  down.  I  therefore,  took  up  the 
Fellenberg,  and  covered  the  rest  carefully  with 
straw,  and  placed  a  box  over  them.  When  I 
uncovered  them  in  the  spring,  I  found  that  the 
Queen  of  Naples  and  Louis  Phillippe  had  each 
sent  a  shoot  from  the  root,  some  six  inches  in 
length,  which,  for  want  of  air,  had  died  and 
moulded.  These  were  covered  too  early,  and 
with  too  much  straw;  so  I  had  learned  some- 
thing from  experience.  On  close  examination, 
I  found  that  the  Queen  of  Naples  was  entirely 
dead,  the  Louis  Phillipe  showed  one  bud  close 
to  the  root,  while  the  Gloire  de  France,  more 
hardy  than  either,  exhibited  quite  a  healthy 
stem.  I  now  removed  them  to  a  bed 
lad  been  prepared  on  the  east  side  of  the 


house,  and  added  to  them  the  Souvenir  de 
Mahnaison,  White  i)/c;/(//i/j/ Moss  Rose,  (I  have 
my  doubts  about  its  bcinga  monthly, )Chron)a. 
tella,  and  Gloire  de  Rosamene.  The  Louis 
Phillippe  grew  a  few  inches,  then  a  careless  boy 
snapped  the  top  off  with  his  whip-lash,  and  it 
never  came  up  again.  The  Gloire  de  France 
gradually  died  down  to  the  root,  then  sent  up 
one  small  sickly  sprout,  which  grew  an  inch, 
and  then  stopped.  I  dug  away  the  earth  from 
the  roots,  and  filled  in  with  chip  dirt,  watering 
it  plentifully,  and  it  soon  began  to  grow.  The 
Souvenir  de  Malmaison  was  killed  about  as 
soon  as  I  had  it,  by  a  great  black  bug,  which 
gnawed  into  the  heart  of  the  root.  I  resolved 
to  cover  the  roots  with  tan-bark  this  winter, 
but  as  tliey  make  no  more  scruple  of  disap- 
pointing ladies  in  the  west,  (this  part  of  it,  at 
least,)  than  others,  my  tan-bark  did  not  come 
to  hand;  so  I  twisted  straw  carefully  about  the 
the  stems,  and  about  the  middle  of  our  very 
mild  winter,  all  except  the  Moss  Rose  were  co- 
vered with  boxeS;  so  placed  as  to  admit  plenty 
of  air.  This  spring  I  found  my  Moss  Rose  en- 
tirely uninjured, — my  two  Glories,  (of  France 
and  Rosamene,)  at  once  sent  up  strong  shoots 
from  the  roots;  but  my  Chromatella — no,  that 
too,  is  alive  !  A  very  small  tuft  of  leaves  made 
their  appearance  three  inches  up  the  stem.  But 
in  a  very  few  days,  to  my  dismay,  these  leaves 
began  to  droop.  In  my  alarm  I  took  it  up, 
(breaking  several  long  strong  roots  in  the  ope- 
ration,) but  could  discover  nothing  which 
should  cause  its  death.  A  foot  from  where  it 
stood,  and  within  two  inches  of  my  Moss  Rose, 
a  very  small  something  made  its  appearance 
when  the  leaves  first  began  to  droop,  and  grow- 
ing with  amazing  rapidity,  soon  showed  unmis- 
table  proofs  of  its  origin.  I  had  not,  then,  lost 
my  Chromatella.  It  is  now  seven  feet  high, 
and  sf'l  growing  at  the  rate  of  an  inch  a  day. 
Now,  Mr.  Downing,  must  I  cut  down  this 
splendid  i>lant?  Is  there  no  way  to  save  it?  It 
has  not  blossomed  yet,  and  I  fear  it  will  not 
this  year.  And  my  others,  too,  growing  and 
blossoming  beautifully  as  they  are,  must  they 
all  come  down?  If  you  will  give  me  some  ad- 
vice about  them,  you  will  confer  a  very,  very 
great  favor  on  ^  Subscriber  at  the  West.  July 
7,  1851. 

We  shall  be  glad,  if  possible,  to  give  our  fair 
correspondent    in    Illinois    some    consolation 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


against  the  winter  severity  upon  her  roses,  and 
for  that  purpose,  must  state  the  following. 

Two  things  are  very  essential  to  enable  a 
half  hardy  plant  to  stand  the  winter.  The  first 
is,  that  there  shall  be  no  sappy  immature 
wood,  and  the  second,  that  the  entire  plant, 
(root  especially,)  shall  be  kept  dry  in  winter. 
To  secure  the  first,  the  ends  of  the  long  shoots 
should  be  pinched  off,  to  stop  their  further 
growth,  about  the  middle  of  September.  This 
will  cause  the  shoots  to  harden  and  ripen.  To 
secure  the  second  point,  the  border  or  bed 
should  have  a  good  drainage — either  natural  or 
artificial.  Afterwards,  at  the  approach  of  win- 
ter, our  correspondent  will  strip  off  any  leaves 
remaining  on  the  shoots  of  the  rose,  bind  down 
the  long  branches,  and  cover  the  whole  plant, 
including  them,  entirely  over  with  dry  tan- bark 
— say  to  the  depth  of  a  foot  and  a  half  above 
the  surface  of  the  ground  if  necessary,  and 
finally  lay  boards  over  the  hillock  of  tan  in 
such  a  way  as  to  shed  all  the  storms  of  winter, 
we  think  she  will  find  her  roses  quite  uninjured 
when  she  uncovers  them  in  the  spring.     Ed. 


Notes  on  Richmond  Park. — Will  you  per- 
mit me  with  the  greatest  respect,  to  correct 
what  appears  to  be  an  error  in  one  of  your 
most  interesting  letters  on  the  parks  of  Lon- 
don, which  has  been  copied  into  several  of  the 
papers.  It  is  regarding  the  spot  where  Henry 
the  8th  is  said  to  have  waited,  for  the  signal 
of  Anne  Boleyn's  execution.  I  never  before 
heard  of  its  being  in  Richmond  Park,  although 
that  version  of  the  legend  has,  since  I  saw  your 
letter,  been  repeated  to  me  by  two  young  Eng- 
lishmen. I,  who  lived  in  London  some  thirty 
years,  always  understood  it  was  in  Epping 
Forest,  much  nearer  the  Tower  than  Rich- 
mond, at  which  last,  I  very  much  doubt  wheth- 
er the  small  guns  of  the  period,  could  have 
been  heard,  unless  under  particular  circum- 
stances of  the  air  and  wind.  The  story  how- 
ever, although  highly  probable  is  not  mentioned 
by  HoLLiNGSHEAD,  Hall  or  FabyN;  nor  in 
Miss  Strickland's  life  of  Anne,  all  of  which  I 
have  consulted.  It  is  however  given  in  one 
of  the  very  useful  pictorial  folios  published  by 
C.  Knight  &  Co.,  and  also  in  that  volume  of 
the  Edinburgh  Cabinet  Library  wherein  the  life 
RY  occurs,  written  by  Patrick  Eraser 
— no  mean  authority,  although  he  gives 


it  as  a  tradition ;  I  beg  leave  to  inclose  the 
following  extract  from  the  work  for  your  fur- 
ther information.  "  That  Henry  waited  with 
unfeeling  impatience  for  the  death  of  Anne  is 
certain;  and  a  tradition  is  yet  preserved  in  Ep- 
ping Forest,  which  strikingly  illustrates  this 
fact.  On  the  morning  of  the  day  which  was 
to  be  her  last,  he  went  to  hunt  in  that  district, 
and  as  he  breakfasted,  surrounded  by  his  train 
and  his  hounds,  under  a  spreading  oak  which 
is  still  shown,  he  listened  from  time  to  time 
with  a  look  of  intense  anxiety.  At  length  the 
sound  of  a  distant  gun  boomed  through  the 
wood.  It  was  a  preconcerted  signal,  and 
marked  the  moment  when  the  execution  was 
completed.  '  Ah,  ah!  it  is  done,'  said  he, 
starting  up,  '  the  business  is  done;  uncouple 
the  dogs  and  let  us  follow  the  .sport.'  On  the 
succeeding  morning  he  was  married  to  Jane 
Seymour." — vide  life  of  King  Henry  the  eighth, 
by  P.  F.  Tytler— Edin.  1837— p.  383,  Edinburg 
Cabinet  Library.  I  have  my  doubts  whether 
Richmond  Park  ever  was  a  hunting  ground — 
but  Epping  Forest  was,  from  the  earliest  re- 
cords, and  so  continues  to  the  present  day,  or 
did,  until  within  a  few  years — -and  an  annual 
hunt  according  to  charter,  was  always  given  on 
Easter  Monday  to  all  citizens  of  London  who 
chose  to  attend  it.  Your  obd't.  servt.  Robert 
Balmanno.     N.  Y.,  June  27,  1851. 


Prairie  Rose — Mrs.  IIovey. — I  noticed,  in 
a  former  number  of  the  Horticulturist,  that  a 
doubt  was  expressed  by  one  of  its  contributors 
whether  this  fine  rose  was  ever  white,  as  it  has 
been  represented.  In  our  correction  of  this 
doubt  we  deemed  it  desirable  to  wait  for  the 
present  blooming;  we  find  some  of  our  plants 
have  borne  flowers  of  the  purest  white,  while 
others  have  at  the  same  time  produced  flowers 
of  a  very  pale  blush.  Our  experiment  also 
coincides  with  that  of  Joshua  Pierce,  of 
Washington,  the  originator  of  this  variety. 
Under  date  of  May  9,  18-51,  he  writes  us,  "  by 
reference  to  my  first  year's  notice  I  find  No.  41 
(Mrs.  Hovey,)  marked _/ine  wAffe ;  again  anoth- 
er year  it  is  marked  very  pale  blush."  It  thus 
seems  clear  that  this  rose  is  somewhat  incon- 
stant, but  by  the  right  mode  of  cultivation  can 
undoubtedly  be  produced  uniformly  white 
The  soil  of  Syracuse  and  western  New 
is  probably  unpropitious.     The  facts  respect 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


this  rose  readily  suggest  the  thought  that  it  is 
inexpedient  to  pronounce  wrong  any  description 
of  a  flower  so  variable  as  the  rose,  particularly 
when  the  difference  is  so  slight  as  between 
white  and  very  pale  blush.  The  same  remark 
may  apply  to  many  other  flowers  which  being 
neither  of  a  distinct  genus  or  species  but  simply 
varieties  or  sports,  are  liable  to  great  changes. 
S.  B.  P.     Flushiiig,  7  wo.  16,  1851. 

Albany  and  Rensselaer  Hort.  Society. 
— The  first  exhibition  of  this  Society  was  held 
on  the  25th  and  26th  of  June.  It  had  been  ap- 
pointed for  the  18th  and  19th  of  the  month,  but 
on  account  of  the  backwardness  of  the  season, 
was  postponed  for  a  week.  At  the  latter  time 
there  was  a  fine  display  of  strawberries,  a  few 
samples  of  cherries,  (the  crop  in  general  not  be- 
ing sufficiently  matured  to  exhibit,)  a  fair  show 
of  early  vegetables,  and  handsome  collections 
of  roses  from  two  or  three  individuals.  But  in 
most  departments,  the  competition  was  much 
more  limited  than  usual.  Of  strawberries. 
Burr's  New  Pine  Avas,  as  last  year,  deemed  of 
the  first  quality.  An  extraordinary  sample  of 
Ross's  Phoenix  was  presented  by  Mrs.  C.  P. 
Williams  of  this  city.  They  measured,  on  the 
average,  four  and  three-fourths  inches  in  cir- 
cumference. They  grew  on  what  was,  a  few 
years  since,  raw  blue  clay,  but  which  has  late- 
ly been  made  rich  and  mellow  by  manure. 
Dr.  March  offered  some  very  handsome  sam- 
ples of  the  Black  Tartarian  cherry.  A  seed- 
ling cherry,  offered  by  Mrs.  E.  C.  Cobb,  at- 
tracted much  attention.  It  is  of  the  May-duke 
character,  perhaps  somewhat  earlier  than  that 
variety,  large,  and  very  pleasant.  It  is  worthy 
of  examination  in  future  seasons.  A  seedling 
was  also  offered  by  Mr.  B.  B.  Kirtland,  which 
has  been  before  exhibited,  and  deemed  entitled 
to  favorable  notice.  It  is  of  fine  flavor,  and 
for  several  years  has  been  very  productive.  It 
is  a  light  colored  cherry,  ripening  with  the 
Black  Tartarian. 

The  second  exhibition  was  held  on  the  9th 
of  July.  The  general  display,  though  limited 
in  comparison  with  some  previous  exhibitions, 
was  respectable,  and  in  some  respects  highly 
creditable.  The  time  was  several  days  too  late 
for  most  kinds  of  cherries — the  warm  damp 
weather  of  the  preceding  week  having  swept 
off  most  of  those  which  were  fully  ripe.     There 


was  still  some  fine  specimens  of  Black  Tartari- 
an— especially  those  offered  by  Mr,  Elisha 
Dorr,  Albany,  and  Mr.  E.  C.  Aiken,  Green- 
bush.  Handsome  samples  of  several  other 
choice  kinds  were  offered  by  Messrs,  Douw, 
Rathbone,  "VVillson,  Platte,  and  Mayell.  Goose- 
berries of  all  the  most  noted  kinds  were  exhi- 
bited, and  they  were  generally  in  better  perfec- 
tion than  for  previous  years.  The  specimens 
offered  by  Messrs.  Douw,  AYilson,  John  S. 
Goold,  Mayell,  Dorr,  and  others,  were  very 
fine.  There  were  some  excellent  samples  of 
raspberries — especially  the  Red  Antwerp,  Fas- 
tolff,  and  the  Black  and  Yellow  Ohio  Everbear- 
ing, shown  by  John  S.  Goold.  Mr.  Goold  also 
offered  samples  of  four  kinds  of  strawberries — 
the  only  ones  offered.  Knight's  Sweet  Cur- 
rant, shown  by  James  "Wilson,  was  deemed,  as 
it  lias  been  in  several  previous  years,  the  best 
offered.  The  Cherry  Currant  is  larger,  but  the 
bunches  are  shorter,  and  the  fruit  more  acid. 
Several  handsome  specimens  of  the  Christiana 
Melon,  well  ripened,  were  offered  at  this  and 
the  former  exhibition,  by  Messrs.  Douw  and 
Rathbone.  There  was  a  good  display  of  vege- 
tables, embracing  potatoes,  cauliflowers,  cab- 
bages, beets,  onions,  beans,  peas,  &c.,  from  the 
gardens  of  Messrs.  Douw,  Rathbone,  Passen- 
ger, Mayell,  and  Newcomb.  Very  handsome 
collections  of  flowers  were  shown  by  Messrs. 
Douw,  Rathbone,  Menand,  Wilson,  Newcomb, 
Jaynes,  J.  S.  Goold,  Mayell,  Dorr,  and  others. 


Pennsylvania  Horticultural  Society. — 
The  stated  meeting  of  this  society,  for  the 
month  of  July  was  held  in  the  Chinese  Saloon 
Philadelphia,  on  the  evening  of  the  15th.  The 
president  in  the  chair. 

The  display  on  the  occasion  was  unusually 
fine,  the  most  attractive  part  of  which  was  the 
luscious  fruit,  which  consisted  of  grapes  from 
the  President's  houses,  composed  of  seven 
dishes.  The  finest  varieties  were  the  Muscat  of 
Alexandria,  White  Sweet  Water  and  St.  Peter 
— some  ten  dishes  of  Apricots,  the  finest  of 
which  were  the  Royal,  Moorpark  and  Peche  va- 
rieties from  the  garden  of  Mrs.  J.  B.  Smith, 
the  Moorpark  from  the  grounds  of  Wm.  V. 
Pettit,  James  Dundas,  Robert  Johnson  and 
Isaac  B.  Baxter.  Plums  of  the  Mirabelle  va- 
riety from  Wm.  Foster  and  Alex.  Parker. 
Pears  from   A.  M.   Eastwick's,  the  Jargonelle 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


and  Little  Muscat  j  Early  Catherine,  etc.  from 
Miss  Gratz's;  Nectarines  two  varieties  from 
John  Lambert's;  very  large  Gooseberries  from 
Mrs.  J.  B.  Smith  and  Isaac  B.  Baxter.  Figs 
from  Wm.  John.s.  Apples,  the  Red  Juneat- 
ing  from  A.  M.  Eastwick's.  Ten  varieties  of 
seedling  Raspberries  by  our  indefatigable  mem- 
ber Dr.  W.  D.  Brinckle.  Currants — fine  red 
and  white  from  Miss  Gratz's;  red,  from  Mrs. 
N.  W,  Roe,  and  black  from  John  Lambert's 
gardens.  A  specimen  of  the  Colong  cherry 
from  Jno.  R.  Brinckle — an  interesting  dwarf 
variety  indigenous  to  the  Rocky  mountains. 

The  collections  of  plants  in  pots  from  Robert 
Buist's,  John  Lambert's  John  Sherwood's,  A. 
M.  Eastwick's  gardens  contained  many  speci- 
mens of  interest.  Among  Mr.  Sherwood's  were 
a  dozen  different  varieties  of  that  graceful  genus 
the  Fuchsia.  A  table  by  Edward  Delevan, 
gardener,  contained  twelve  varieties  of  Achi- 
nicnes,  a  number  of  which  were  entirely  new  and 
beautiful.  Seedling  Carnations  by  Matthew 
Mills  and  Joseph  Mevius.  Beautiful  bouquets 
and  a  basket  formed  of  indigenous  flowers  by 
Robert  Kilvington;  basket  of  exotic  flowers  by 
H.  A.  Dreer,  hand  bouquets  by  Jno.  Gallagher 
and  others. 

The  three  tables  of  vegetables  by  Thomas 
Wrigaines'  gardener,  by  Miss  Gratz's  and  John 
Lambert's,  did  them  credit. 

A  specimen  of  wheat  some  seven  feet  in 
height,  from  Col.  Holman's  farm,  Chester  Co., 
was  shown,  and  considered  so  prolific  that  the 
crop  was  estimated  at  50  bushels  to  the  acre. 
Tiio.  P.  James,  Rec.  Sec. 


Oswego  Hort.  Society. — As  Secretary  of 
the  Oswego  Horticultural  Society,  I  am  re- 
quested to  give  you  some  account  of  our  doings. 
At  the  annual  meeting  in  January  last,  the  fol- 
lowirig  officers  were  chosen  for  the  ensuing  year. 

President — A.  P.  Grant. 

Vice  Presidents— F.  S.  Slocum.C.  S.  Phelps, 
S.  Worden,  W.  Newkirk,  and  C.  Trowbridge. 

Cor.  Secretar]/ — J.  W.  P.  Allen. 

Rec.  Secretary — J.  M.  Casey. 

Librarian — C.  Severance. 

Treasurer — S.  IL  Lathrop. 

Executive  Committee — G.  W.  Burt,  J.  L. 
McWhorter,  G.  MoUison,  Geo.  Seeley,  J.  AY. 


Ex.  Committee  have  prepared  a  list  of 


premiums,  for  the  year,  on  a  pretty  liberal 
scale,  amounting  to  $200  and  upwards.  Three 
exhibitions  are  proposed  to  be  given;  the  first 
was  held  on  the  2d  inst..  at  the  City  Hall.  A 
report  of  the  proceedings  is  enclosed.  The 
exhibition  room  was  very  appropriately  deco- 
rated under  the  supervision  of  a  committee  of 
ladies.  The  display  of  flowers  was  very  fine, 
and  evinced  much  taste  and  skill,  not  only  in 
the  culture  of  rare  kinds,  but  in  their  arrange- 
ment on  the  exhibition  tables.  For  particulars, 
see  the  report  of  the  committee  on  that  sub- 
ject which  is  enclosed.  The  show  of  fruits  was 
very  creditable,  especially  of  strawberries  which 
were  in  great  perfection,  and  all  the  choice  va- 
rieties  were  on  the  table.  I  very  much  regret 
that  the  report  does  not  give  the  names  of  all 
the  varieties,  and  further,  that  the  commit- 
tee  on  fruits,  in  the  discharge  of  their  duty, 
have  not  named  a  single  sort  for  which  a  pre- 
mium was  awarded.  Of  those  which  came 
under  my  observation,  Hovey's  seedling  and 
Methven's  scarlet  were  the  finest  looking  ; — not 
having  tasted,  I  am  unable  to  speak  of  their 
flavor,  but  should  consider  them  well  worthy 
a  premium.  There  were  also  some  choice  Al- 
pines and  Hautbois. 

The  season  was  not  sufficiontly  advanced  for 
our  best  cherries, — the  only  kinds  in  perfection 
being  the  Mayduke,  Elton  and  American  Heart. 
A  premium  for  the  best  cherry  (the  Elton) 
was  awarded  to  Mr.  Barnard,  and  deservedly 
too.  Mr.  Worden  h.ad  as  usual  a  large  collec- 
tion of  the  best  sorts, — among  them  the  Elton, 
American  Heart,  Black  Tartarian  and  Down- 
ton.  Mrs.  L.  B.  Crocker  ju-esented  the  Napo- 
leon Bigarreau,  Graffion  and  other  fine  varie- 
ties. 

At  the  close  of  the  exhibition  the  articles 
were  sold.  The  society  numbers  about  250 
members  whose  contributions,  added  to  the 
proceeds  of  the  fairs  amount  to  a  very  respect- 
able sum,  which  is  disbursed  in  premiums  and 
books,  thus  encouraging  competition,  diffusing 
knowledge,  and  promoting  a  taste  for  horticul- 
tural pursuits. 

Our  next  exhibition  is  to  be  held  in  Septem- 
ber, when  our  peaches  and  pears  will  be  in 
season — the  crop  of  which  promises  to  be  very 
abundant.  Many  of  the  orchards  planted 
in  the  last  five  or  six  years  begin  to  yield 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


turn  to  the  proprietor  for  bis  outlay  of  money 
and  time.  Tlie  city  and  town  of  Oswego  must, 
this  year,  have  a  very  large  surplus  of  the  finest 
apples  for  export;  and  of  peaches,  a  sufficiency 
to  meet  the  liome  demand.  There  is  a  pros- 
pect too,  tliat  the  demand  for  choice  pears  will 
be  measurably  supplied.  I  notice  in  many 
places,  arrangements  for  the  culture  of  the  Isa- 
bella and  Catawba  grape,  on  a  pretty  extensive 
scale — and  the  crop  must  be  a  large  one.  I 
trust  our  citizens  will  not  neglect  the  cultiva- 
tion of  these  varieties,  yielding,  as  they  do, 
liberal  and  sure  returns  for  a  small  amount  of 
labor  and  space.  Yours,  &c.  J.  M.  Casey, 
Rec.  Sec.  Oswego  Ilort.  Society. 


The  Berkshire  Hort.  Society  held  its 
first  meeting  for  the  exhibition  of  fruits  and 
flowers,  at  Lee,  on  the  3d  of  July.  Present  E. 
"Williams,  Esq.,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. 

The  exhibition  of  flowers  surpassed  that  of 
any  former  period,  for  the  corresponding 
months,  and  the  display  of  fruit,  though  limit- 
ed to  strawberries,  (cherries,  in  consequence 
of  the  lateness  of  the  season,  not  being  in  ma- 
turity,) was  enough  to  tempt  any  one  to  ex- 
claim in  favor  of  their  cultivation. 

The  first  premium  on  strawberries  was  given 
to  AVilliam  G.  Backus,  of  Pittsfield,  $2;  and 
the  second  to  Edward  Pomeroy,  of  Pittsfield, 
$1.  Mrs.  Hon.  Wm.  Porter,  of  Lee,  exhibited 
more  than  30  varieties  of  the  Rose,  beautifully 
arranged  in  tasteful  pyramids.  These  roses 
were  roses,  none  of  your  half  formed,  stinted 
productions,  such  as  are  too  ofien  seen  among 
the  grass  and  weed  plots  of  those  who  "  don't 
care  nothin  about  flowers !  'taint  no  profit  to 
raise  em."  In  form,  they  were  nearly  perfect; 
in  shade,  rich ;  in  variety,  forming  agreeable 
contrasts.  Mrs.  Porter  received  the  first  pre- 
mium, $1.  Mrs.  G.  W.  Platner,  of  Lee,  a 
large  and  rich  variety,  2d  premium,  Breck's 
Book  of  Flowers.  Mrs.  Sarah  L.  Clark,  of 
Richmond,  3d  premium,  Bridgeman's  Florist's 
Guide.  The  first  premium  on  Perpetual  Ro- 
ses, to  Edward  Pomeroy,  Pittsfield,  $1.  Sec- 
ond premium  to  Mrs.  Curtis,  of  Stockbridge, 
Breck's  Book  of  flowers. 

On  cut  flowers,  to  Mrs.  Chamberlain,  of  Lee, 
$1,  Mrs.  George  Hull,  of  Sandisfield,  Breck's 
f  Flowers.  Mrs.  Adams  of  Stockbridge, 
man's   Florist's   Guide.     A  spirited  and 


talented  address  was  given  by  Hon.   H.  W 
Bishop,  of  Lenox. 

The  next  exhibition  will  be  held  at  Pittsfield, 
on  the  first  Wednesday  of  August.  W.  Bacon, 
Secretary.     Richmond,  July  7,  1851. 


Mass.  Hort.  Society. — At  the  meeting  of 
July  12th,  the  following  fruits  were  exhibited. 

Fruits.  From  James  Hyde  &  Son,  Cherries 
— probably  Bigarreau  Noir. 

From  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  Cherries — Seed- 
ling, Bigarreau  Noir  tardift',  Bigarreau  Noir, 
Downer's  Late  Red,  superior. 

From  Winship  &  Co.,  Clierries — Bigarreau 
Noir,  (?)  Downers  Late  Red. 

From  Jonathan  Mann,  Clierries — unnamed, 
probably  EUvhorn;  Raspberries. 

From  Cheever  Newhall,  Raspberries — Kne- 
vet's  Giant. 

From  Azell  Bowditch,  Raspberries — Kne- 
vet's  Giant;  Grapes — Black  Hamburgh,  and 
Black  St.  Peters. 

From  Samuel  Sweetzer,  Raspberries — Kne- 
vet's  Giant. 

From  J.  W.  Foster,  Raspberries — Knevet's 
Giant,  fine. 

From  Breck  &  Co.,  Grapes — Black  Ham- 
burgh, fine;  White  Chasselas. 

From  Messrs.  Hyde,  Cherries — Hyde's  New 
black  seedling. 

From  E.  C.  Grant,  Strawberries — Newland's 
Alpine  and  Monthly  Alpine;  Ra.spberries — 
Knevet's  Giant. 

From  H.  B.  Stanwood,  Cherries — Downer's 
Late  Led,  very  fine. 

From  Otis  Johnson,  Cherries — Sweet  Mont- 
morenci,  Florence,  Black  Eagle,  superior;  Na- 
poleon Bigarreau,  fine,  and  seedling. 

From  George  Walsh,  Cherries — Seedling  No. 
1,  2  and  3,  fine. 

From  J.  F.  Allen,  Grapes — Garden  Tokay 
and  Black  Hamburgh;  White  Hamburgh,  very 
fine;  Cannon  Hall,  superior;  Wliite  Frougtig- 
nan,  very  fine.  Peaches — Late  Crawford,  ex- 
tra size,  superior;  Tippecanoe,  New- Jersey, 
Gros.  Mignonne,  Old  Mixon.  Nectarines — 
Violet  Hatif,  and  Bo.ston. 

From  J.  P.  Cushing,  Esq.,  Grapes — Black 
Hamburgh,  very  fine;  Syrian  Bunch,  extra 
size;  Muscat  of  Alexandria,  very  fine;  White 
Frontignan,  superior.  Melons — Beachwoodand 
Persian,  both  very  fine. 

From  William  Batchelder,  Cherries — Down- 
er's Late  Red? 

From  Galen  Merriam,  Cherries — Downer's 
Late  Red?  very  fine. 

From  JosiahLovett,  2d,  Cherries,  Spachaus, 
Honey  Hearts.  Raspberries — Knevet's  Giant, 
superior. 

From  Henry  Vandine,  Cherries — Elkhorn, 
very  fine. 

From  Hovey  &  Co.,  Figs,  Black  Fig 
Michaels.  Cherries — Black  Eagle,  ver 
seedling;  Monstreuse   de   Bavay,  and  one 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


named.      Grapes — GrosBleii;    Victoria,  very 
fine,  and  Muscat  of  Alexandria. 

From  J.  S.  Sleeper,  Cherries — Seedling. 
For  tlie  committee.     J.  S.  Cabot,  Ch'n. 

School  of  Design,  for  Women. — While 
there  is  so  much  of  mere  speculation  about  the 
"  rights"  of  the  sexes,  it  is  gratifying  to  find 
now  and  then,  something  actually  dune  in  the 
right  direction.  From  the  following  account, 
by  Mrs.  Bateham,  the  School  of  Design  estab- 
lished for  women,  in  Philadelphia,  seems  to  us 
to  have  more  value  in  it  than  a  dozen  conven- 
tions. Give  the  women  of  America  who  have 
talent  and  industry,  an  interesting  and  intel- 
lectual occupation,  and  we  shall  find  the  uToiigs 
rapidly  dipappearing.  In  the  instinctive  facul- 
ty of  taste,  many  women  are  largely  gifted,  and 
such  schools  of  design  as  this  would  not  only 
give  employment  to  thousands — but  elevate  and 
refine  their  whole  social  life.     Ed. 

Philadelphia  School  of  Daignfor  IVomen. — 
This  truly  benevolent  institution  is  a  branch  of| 
the  "  Franklin  Institute  for  the  promotion  of 
the  Mechanic  Arts,"  at  Pliiladelphia,  and  its 
design  is  to  furnish  woman  another  source  of 
maintenance  by  preparing  her  to  enter  upon 
the  lucrative  business  of  engiaving.  design- 
ing, &c.  It  was  commenced  in  November, 
1848,  by  Mrs.  Peter,  whose  benevolent  heart 
had  been  pained  fur  years,  by  seeing  so  large 
and  increasing  a  number  of  deserving  women, 
exposed  to  deprivation  and  suffering,  fur  want 
of  a  wider  scope  in  which  to  exercise  their 
abilities  for  the  maintenance  of  themselves  and 
their  children.  After  long  deliberation,  she 
selected  this  department  of  industry,  not  only 
because  it  presents  a  wide  and  almost  unoccu- 
pied field  in  our  country,  but  because  these 
arts  can  be  practiced  at  home,  without  mate- 
rially interfering  with  the  routine  of  domestic 
duty. 

For  two  years  she  taught  private  classes  in 
her  own  dwelling,  and  being  greatly  encouraged 
by  her  success,  in  March,  1850,  she  presented 
the  cause  to  the  managers  of  the  Franklin  In- 
stitute, rtho  reported  favorably,  and  it  was 
taken  under  their  patronage. 

The  committee  on  instruction  having  had  re- 
ferred to  it,  by  tlie  Boardof  Managers,  the  pro- 
ject of  Mrs.  Peter  for  the  establishment  of  a 
School  of  Design  fur  women. reported  as  follows: 

It  cannot  be  a  matter  of  doubt  even  to  the 
most  careless  observer  among  us,  that  there 
is,  in  our  city,  a  groat  want  of  ways  in  which 
female  industry  may  be  profitably  employed; 
and  that  this  evil  is  increasing  is  evident  from 
the  yearly  accession  to  the  demands  upon  our 
public  and  private  charities  for  the  support  of 
and  their  families,  who  apply  for  such 
with  the  greatest  reluctance,  and  would 
lly  earn  for  themselves  if  the  means  of 


profitably  employing  their  labor  were  counted 
out  to  them.  In  the  severe  commercial  crises 
which  affect  our  country  from  time  to  time, 
many  families  are  suddenly  reduced  from  com- 
fort and  even  affluence  to  poverty,  and  the  evil 
alluded  to  is  much  increased  since  no  small 
share  of  this  suflering  falls  upon  widows  and 
single  women. 

The  person,  therefore,  who  points  out  a  new 
field  for  the  employment  of  female  indu.stry, 
must  be  looked  upon  as  a  public  benefactor: 
and  any  mode  by  which  such  a  field  may  be 
rendered  ascessible  to  neces.sitous  women,  re- 
commends itself  strongly  to  society  as  a  power- 
ful agent  in  the  advancement  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, and  the  relief  of  suffering. 

It  is,  however,  very  desirable  that  whatever 
mode  may  be  devised  for  the  employment  of 
female  industry,  should  be  of  such  a  nature 
as  to  allow  it  to  be  exercised  at  their  own  homes, 
or  at  least  without  crowding  them  together  in 
work-shops:  and  especially  without  forcing 
them  into  contact  with  the  opposite  sex — prac- 
tices which  are  too  frequently  destructive  to 
female  delicacy,  (a  quality  not  less  valuable 
to  the  community  than  beautiful  in  itselQ  even 
when  they  do  not  lead  to  habits  of  actual  im- 
morality. 

Now,  one  of  the  distinguishing  peculiarities 
of  the  female  sex,  whether  it  be  an  intrinsic 
difference  in  their  intellectual  nature  from  that 
of  man,  or  only  the  result  of  a  difference  of 
education,  and  a  habit  of  clo.se  observation,  is 
the  vcrj'  general  possession  by  them  of  a  more 
refined  and  correct  taste,  and  a  power  of  deli- 
cate discrimination,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
effects  of  form  and  color — effects  whic-h  strike 
almost  every  one  among  us,  but  which  few, 
except  women,  are  able  to  analyze  and  pro- 
duce at  will.  Heretofore  little,  if  any  attention 
has  been  paid  to  the  cultivation  of  this  peculiar 
faculty ;  and  even  in  our  most  elaborate  systems 
of  female  instruction,  it  appears  to  be  consider- 
ed as  very  subordinate  in  importance  to  other 
branches  less  fitted  to  the  peculiar  capacities 
of  their  minds. 

On  the  other  hand,  amidst  the  very  rapid  ad- 
vances which  we  liave  made  in  manufacturing, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  our  improvement  in 
the  arts  of  design  has  been  by  no  means  com- 
mensurate with  other  successes;  and,  while 
the  quality  of  our  materials,  and  the  cheap- 
ness of  their  production  are  enabling  usgradu- 
all}-  to  exclude  foreign  productions  from  our 
market,  we  are  still  compelled  to  depend  al- 
most entirely  upon  foreigners  for  our  designs 
and  patterns;  thus  exhibiting  ourselves  rather 
in  the  light  of  successful  imitators  of  others, 
than  as  original  inventors.  Thus  the  designs 
of  our  articles  of  furniture,  and  the  patterns 
of  our  dresses  and  other  stuffs,  are  rarely  any- 
thing more  than  servile  imitations  of  those  im- 
ported from  France  and  England,  which  the 
different  habits  of  life  among  us,  as  well  as  the 
different  climate  of  our  country,  render  more 
or  less  inappropriate  to  our  use,  while  the  ex- 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


istence  of  tliis  state  of  things  must  necessarily 
render  us  tributary,  and  in  so  far  inferior  to 
foreign  nations. 

Tliis  is  another  matter  well  worthy  of  the 
attention  of  our  community ;  and  if,  by  any 
means,  we  shall  succeed  in  freeing  our  manu- 
facturing industry  from  this  slavery,  which  is  a 
defect  and  reproach  upon  it,  we  shall  certainly 
have  made  another  important  step  forward  in 
our  career  as  a  producing  nation. 

The  plan  which  has  been  submitted  to  the 
Institute,  and  upon  which  the  committee  is 
called  to  report,  appears  calculated  to  diminish 
or  destroy  both  these  great  evils,  by  providing 
a  school  in  which  young  women  may  receive  a 
competent  education  in  the  arts  of  design,  and 
their  various  applications  to  manufactures,  thus 
furnishishing  them  with  a  lieretofore  unoccu- 
pied branch  of  industry,  for  which  by  their 
very  natures,  they  are  peculiarly  titled,  and  by 
which  they  may  sustain  themselves  by  their 
own  labor,  while  at  the  same  time  they  give  to 
our  other  arts  that  stamp  of  originality  and  na- 
tionality in  which  they  ai-e  now  in  so  great  a 
degree  deficient. 

The  successful  establishment  of  such  a  school 
would,  moreover,  fit  them  for  employment  in 
many  arts,  such  as  woodcutting  and  engraving, 
for  which  their  (piick  perceptions  of  form,  and 
their  delicacy  of  hand  very  especially  fit  them; 
while  even  should  they,  in  these  and  similar 
branches  of  labor,  finally  supplant  men  entirely, 
no  evil  could  occur,  especially  in  a  country  like 
ours,  where  such  broad  fields  for  male  labor, 
lie  entirely  unoccupied. 

Your  committee  therefore  think  that  the 
project  is  deserving  of  the  warmest  approbation 
of  the  Franklin  Institute,  and  respectfully  re- 
commend the  Board  of  Managers  to  adopt  the 
following  resolutions: 

Resolved,  That  the  project  submitted  by  Mrs. 
Peter  for  the  establishment  of  a  school  of  de- 
sign for  women,  as  tending  to  furnish  women 
with  a  large  field  for  the  exercise  of  their  talents 
and  industry,  and  to  increase  their  usefulness 
to  society,  is,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Franklin  In- 
stitute, worthy  of  the  highest  commendation, 
and  if  successfully  carried  out,  cannot  but  be 
of  great  value  to  the  community. 

By  order  of  the  Com.  J.  F.  Frazer,  Ch'n. 
May  15,  1850. 

The  school  has  now  been  in  successful  opera, 
tion  about  a  year,  and  the  present  number  of 
pupils  is  about  65.  Mrs.  Anne  Still,  the  head 
teacher,  is  quite  enthusiastic  in  her  devotion  to 
the  cause,  and  is  admirably  adapted  to  fill  the 
post  she  does,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  handi- 
work of  her  pupils. 

The  pupils  are  principally  engaged  in  devis- 
ing and  sketching  patterns  or  designs  for  calicos, 
delains,  oil-cloths,  carpets,  wall  paper,  table 
covers,  hearth  rugs,  &c.,  though  a  large  num- 
ber are  engaged  in  wood  engraving,  for  maga- 
and  cuts  representing  machinery,  &c.,in 
re,  and  indeed  in  designing,  coloring  or 
staining,   painting,   enameling,   burnishing    or 


carving  household  goods  and  utensils  of  every 
description,  mouldings  and  carvings,  and  near- 
ly every  article  of  use  or  ornament.  The  terms 
of  admission  are  talent  and  skill  suitable  to 
some  of  the  departments  of  labor,  a  determi- 
nation to  make  the  knowledge  here  obtained, 
useful  to  themselves  or  others,  and  a  small  tu- 
ition fee  of  $4  per  quarter,  or  if  unable  to  pay 
this,  simply  an  entrance  fee  of  $2. 

As  soon  as  the  knowledge  of  drawing  is  ac- 
quired, the  pupil,  if  skillful,  can  commence  to 
earn  rapidly,  while  at  the  same  time  improving 
herself.  The  occupation  is  so  light  and  delicate, 
and  so  lucrative,  that  with  skill,  a  young  wo- 
man can  seldom,  if  ever,  do  so  well  for  herself 
in  any  other  way.  We  are  rejoiced  to  see  such 
a  school  opened  and  sustained,  for  it  will  ac- 
complish much  for  women,  and  we  hope  a  very 
few  years  more  will  find  such  an  institution  in 
our  own  state.  But  I  have  neither  time  nor 
room  remaining  to  speak  now  of  the  Female  Me- 
dical College,  so  it  must  be  for  another  No. 


Stocks  forRoses. — J.  S.  i).,(Elkton,  Ky.) 
The  most  experienced  cultivatorslook  upon  the 
Manettii  Rose  stock,  as  the  best  of  all  stocks 
for  perpetual  Roses.  It  not  only  grows  readi- 
ly from  cuttings,  takes  to  bud  easily,  and  very 
seldom  throws  out  a  sucker,  but  being  allied 
to  the  China  Rose,  it  promotes  the  free  bloom- 
ing of  Perpetuals  worked  upon  it.  The  stock 
generally  used  for  standard  roses  is  the  sweet 
brier,  native  to  the  road  sides.  We  do  not 
know  what  species  of  oxalis  you  refer  to,  but 
they  all  require  a  rich  sandy  soil,  and  plenty  of 
sun  light,  if  you  wish  them  to  bloom  freely. 

Raspberries. — ^n  Amateur,  (Brooklyn,  N. 
Y.)  The  best  way  to  raise  seedlings  of  the 
raspberry,  is  the  following:  Wash  the  seeds 
free  from  the  pulp  as  soon  as  the  berries  are 
perfectly  ripe.  Take  one  or  more  wooden  box- 
es, constructed  about  6  inches  deep,  2  feet  wide 
and  3  feet  long:  fill  them  with  rich  sandy  loam, 
to  within  an  inch  of  the  top.  Sow  the  seeds  in 
the  soil  about  a  fourth  of  an  inch  deep,  press- 
ing the  mould  down  firmly,  and  watering  it 
after  sowing  the  seeds.  The  boxes  should  then 
be  placed  in  a  shady  situation,  on  the  north 
side  of  a  fence  or  building — plunged  up  to 
the  rims  in  tan-bark  or  coal-ashes,  and  water- 
ed regularly  every  evening,  so  long  as  the  dry 
weather  continues.  When  the  winter  sets  in, 
cover  them  two  inches  deep  with  leaves.  Un 
cover  them  in  spring.  The  seeds  will  com 
in  April,   and  when  the  plants  are  two 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


high,  transplant  them,  (during  wet  weather,) 
into  a  favorable  place  in  the  garden.  You  may 
succeed  in  making  the  seeds  vegetate  by  plant- 
ing them  in  the  open  garden — but  you  will  not 
probably,  get  half  the  number  in  this  way  that 
you  will  with  the  boxes.  The  strawberry  may 
be  treated  in  the  same  manner. 

Tyro,  (New  London,  Gt.)  The  rose  leaves 
which  you  have  sent  us,  and  of  which  only  the 
skeleton  remains,  (the  covering  of  the  leaf 
having  been  entirely  eaten  up,)  have  been  de- 
voured by  the  rose  slug.  If  you  wish  to  get 
rid  of  this  pest,  which  as  you  say  destroys  all 
the  beauty  of  the  queen  of  garden  flowers,  you 
must  commence  next  year,  early  in  the  season 
— as  soon  as  the  rose  buds  begins  to  show  the 
first  faint  signs  of  the  color  of  the  flower,  and 
syringe  the  foliage  on  the  under  side,  with  to- 
bacco water.  This,  repeated  two  or  three  times, 
at  intervals  of  four  or  five  days,  will  effectually 
destroy  the  rose  slug  while  it  is  in  the  state  of 
a  small  green  fly. 

Hot  water  Apparatus. — W.  Field.  We 
recommend  you  to  apply  to  Hogg  &  Benton, 
engineers,  136  Crosby  street,  New- York.  They 
devote  their  attention  especially  to  heating 
green-houses  and  buildings  in  this  way,  and  can 
ensure  you  the  best  and  latest  improvements. 

Cedar  of  Lebanon. — M.  Martin.  The 
largest  sized  plants  that  we  have  heard  of  for 
sale  are  at  Hancock's  nursery,  Burlington,  N. 
J.     A  deep  sandy  loam  suits  this  tree  best. 

Chrysanthemums. — A  Lady.  (Pittsburgh.) 
You  may  have  nice  dwarf  plants  of  these  by 
bending  down  the  long  shoots  of  the  old  stock 
plants,  and  fastening  them  to  the  ground  with 
•pegs  at  a  distance  of  4  or  5  inches  from  the  end 
of  the  shoot.  In  a  few  days  this  end  of  the  shoot 
will  again  take  an  upright  position.  Then  sink  a 
flower  pot  filled  with  rich  mould  under  the 
bend  of  the  shoot  and  make  a  layer  of  it.  It 
will  soon  send  out  plenty  of  roots  into  the  pot 
— after  which  you  can  cut  off  the  connection 
with  the  mother  plant,  and  your  young  plant 
will  bloom  finely  at  about  a  foot  high. 

Wintering  bedding  out  Plants. — A.  W. 
M.,  (New- Bedford.)  You  fail  in  wintering 
Verbenas  in  your  cool  green-house  mainly  be- 
cause your  plants  are  so  young  that  they  damp 
off     Cuttings  of  Verbenas,  Scarlet  Geraniums, 


&c.,  should  be  made  no^v,  as  speedily  as  possi- 
ble, so  that  they  maj'  form  abundant  roots,  and 
the  plants  become  strong  with  well  ripened 
shoots  before  winter.  The  same  remarks  ap- 
ply to  Maurandias,  Cobeasand  other  half  hardy 
climbers. 

Apricot  trees. — B.  Johnson,  (New- York.) 
The  cracking  disease  of  the  trunk  ffnd  decline 
of  your  trees  is  owing  to  their  having  suffered 
in  the  bark  from  the  great  alternations  of  tem- 
perature in  winter.  Wind  the  stems  of  your 
sound  trees  about  with  straw  ropes  and  you 
will  avoid  the  same  result  in  them. 

Carnations. — B.  J.  In  order  that  the  lay- 
ers should  root  freely,  you  must  water  the 
ground  every  morning  in  dry  weather — and  if 
you  can  cover  it  with  moss  or  short  grass  as  a 
mulcher  it  will  promote  greatly  the  formation 
of  roots. 

Peach  trees. — Junius,  (Princeton,  N.  J.) 
From  the  account  you  give  of  the  difficulty  of 
raising  good  peaches  in  your  soil  as  compared 
with  twenty  years  ago  we  should  say  your  soil 
is  exhausted  of  the  proper  food  for  the  tree, 
to  restore  it  prepare  large  holes  for  a  new  plan- 
tation of  peach  trees,  by  trenching  the  soil  two 
feet  deep  and  mixing  with  it  a  heavy  dressing 
of  leached  wood  ashes  and  stable  manure.  If 
we  were  to  add  another  hint  it  would  be  to  send 
to  a  distance  and  get  a  new  stock  of  the  best 
varieties. 

Drawing  Plants. —  A  Young  Gardener, 
(Charleston,  S.  C.)  The  best  possible  way  for 
you  to  learn  drawing  "  by  yourself,"  is  to  pro- 
cure "  Chapman's  Drawing  Book,"  which  may 
be  had.  no  doubt,  in  Charleston,  or  at  any  rate 
ordered  through  any  bookseller  there,  as  it  is 
published  in  New- York.  This  work  is  accom- 
panied by  a  copy-drawing  book,  in  wliich  all 
the  needful  elementary  practice  is  put  before 
the  beginner  in  the  most  comprehensible  form. 

Climbers. — A.  P.,  (Northampton,  Mass.) 
The  difference  between  the  Virginia  Creeper, 
(or  jlmpilopsis.)  a  harmless  plant,  and  the  poi 
son  sumac,  or  Mercury  vine,  (Rhus  toxicoden- 
dron,) which  somewhat  resemble  each  other, 
as  you,  say,  is,  that  the  former  has  five  leaflets 
in  a  cluster,  and  the  latter  only  three.  They 
both  cling  to  stone-walls  by  the  little  rootlets 
sent  out  from  the  stem. 


study  of  Trees  in  Park  Scenery, 


Hort:  Sept.    1851 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  Affl)  RURAL  TASTE. 


€^  Sfltianal  Sgnnrunre  nf  tlje  IgrirEltnrnl  Mm± 

KRO  general  observers,  the  prosperity  of  tlie  United  States  in  the  great  interests  of 
^  trade,  commerce,  manufactures,  and  agriculture,  is  a  matter  of  every-day  remark, 
and  general  assent.  The  country  extends  itself  from  one  zone  to  another,  and  from 
one  ocean  to  another.  New  states  are  settled,  our  own  population  increases,  emigra- 
tion pours  its  vast  tide  upon  our  shores,  new  soils  give  abundant  harvests,  new  settle- 
ments create  a  demand  for  the  necessaries  and  luxuries  of  life  provided  by  the  older 
cities,  and  the  nation  exhibits  at  every  census,  so  unparalleled  a  growth,  and  such 
magnificent  resources,  that  common  sense  is  startled,  and  only  the  imagination  can 
keep  pace  with  the  probable  destines  of  the  one  hundred  millions  of  Americans  that 
will  speak  one  language,  and,  we  trust,  be  governed  by  one  constitution,  half  a  cen- 
tury hence. 

As  a  wise  man,  who  finds  his  family  increasing  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient  pa- 
triarchs', looks  about  him  somewhat  anxiously,  to  find  out  if  there  is  likely  to  be  bread 
enough  for  their  subsistence,  so  wise  statesmen,  looking  at  this  extraordinary  growth 
of  population,  and  this  prospective  wealth  of  the  country,  will  inquire,  narrowly, 
into  its  productive  powers.  He  will  desire  to  know  whether  the  national  domain  is  so 
managed  that  it  will  be  likely  to  support  the  great  people  that  will  be  ready  to  live 
upon  it  in  the  next  century.  He  will  seek  to  look  into  the  present  and  the  future 
sufficiently  to  ascertain  whether  our  rapid  growth  and  material  abundance,  do  not  arise 
almost  as  much  from  the  migratory  habits  of  our  people,  and  the  constant  taking-up 
of  rich  prairies,  yielding  their  virgin  harvests  of  breadstuflfs,  as  from  the  institutions 
peculiar  to  our  favored  country. 

We  regret  to  say,  that  it  does  not  require  much  scrutiny  on  the  part  of  a  serious 
inquirer,  to  discover  that  we  are  in  some  respects  like  a  large  and  increasing  family 
running  over  and  devouring  a  great  estate  to  which  they  have  fallen  heirs,  with 


Sept.  1, 1851. 


No.  IX. 


NATIONAL  IGNORANCE  OF  THE  AGRICULTURAL  INTEREST. 

or  no  care  to  preserve  or  maintain  it,  rather  than  a  wise  and  prudent  one,  seeking  to 
maintain  that  estate  in  its  best  and  most  productive  condition. 

To  be  sure,  our  trade  and  commerce  are  pursued  with  a  thrift  and  sagacity  likely 
to  add  largely  to  our  substantial  wealth,  and  to  develop  the  collateral  resources  of  the 
country.  But,  after  all,  trade  and  commerce  are  not  the  great  interests  of  the  coun- 
try. That  intei-est  is,  as  every  one  admits,  agriculture.  By  the  latter,  the  great  bulk 
of  the  people  live,  and  by  it  all  are  fed.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  if  that  interest  is  ne- 
glected or  misunderstood,  the  population  of  the  country  may  steadily  increase,  but  the 
means  of  svipportiug  that  population,  (which  can  never  be  largely  a  manufacturing  po- 
pulation,) must  necessarily  lessen,  proportionately,  every  year. 

Now,  there  are  two  undeniable  facts  at  present  staring  us  Americans  in  the  face — 
amid  all  this  prosperity  :  the  first  is,  that  the  productive  power  of  nearly  all  the  land 
in  the  United  States  which  has  been  ten  years  in  cultivation,  is  fearfully  lessening  every 
season,  from  the  desolating  effects  of  a  ruinous  system  of  husbandry  ;  and  the  second, 
is,  that  in  consequence  of  this,  the  rural  population  of  the  older  states  is  either  at  a 
stand  still,  or  it  is  falling  off,  or  it  increases  very  slowly  in  proportion  to  the  popula- 
tion of  those  cities  and  towns  largely  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits. 

Our  census  returns  show,  for  instance,  that  in  some  of  the  states,  (such  as  Ehode 
Island,  Connecticut,  Delaware  and  Maryland,)  the  only  increase  of  population  is  in 
the  tow7is — for  in  the  rural  population  there  is  no  growth  at  all.  In  the  great  agricul- 
tural state  of  New- York,  the  gain  in  the  fourteen  largest  towns  is  sixty-four  per  cent, 
while  in  the  rest  of  the  state  it  is  but  nineteen  per  cent.  In  Pennsylvania,  thirty- 
nine  and  a  quarter  per  cent  in  the  large  towns,  and  but  twenty-one  per  cent  in  the 
rural  districts.  The  politicians  in  this  state,  finding  themselves  losing  a  representa- 
tive in  the  new  ratio,  while  Pennsylvania  gains  two,  have,  in  alarm,  actually  deigned 
to  inquire  into  the  growth  of  the  agricultural  class,  with  some  little  attention.  They 
have  not  generally  arrived  Jit  the  truth,  however,  which  is,  that  Pennsylvania  is,  as  a 
state,  much  better  farmed  than  New-York,  and  hence  the  agricultural  population  in- 
creases much  faster. 

It  is  a  painful  truth,  that  both  the  press  and  the  more  active  minds  of  the  country 
at  large,  are  strikingly  ignorant  of  the  condition  of  agriculture  in  all  the  older  states, 
and  one  no  less  painful,  that  the  farmers,  who  are  not  ignorant  of  it,  are  as  a  body, 
not  intelligent  enough  to  know  how  to  remedy  the  evil. 

"  And  what  is  that  evil?  "  many  of  our  readers  will  doubtless  inquire.  We  answer, 
the  miserable  system  of  farming  steadily  pursued  by  eight-tenths  of  all  the  farmers  of 
this  country,  since  its  first  settlement :  a  system  which  proceeds  upon  the  principle  of 
taking  as  many  crops  from  the  land  with  as  little  manure  as  possible — until  its  produc- 
tive powers  are  exhausted,  and  then emigrating  to  some  part  of  the  country  where 

they  can  apply  the  same  practice  to  a  new  soil.  It  requires  far  less  knowledge  and 
capital  to  wear  out  one  good  soil  and  abandon  it  for  another,  than  to  cultivate  a  good 
soil  so  as  to  maintain  its  productive  powers  from  year  to  year,  unimpaired.  Accord 
the  emigration  is  always  "to  the  west."     There,  is  ever  the  Arcadia 

merican  farmer ;  there  are  the  acres  which  need  but  to  be  broken  up  by  the  pi 


NATIONAL  IGxNORANCE  OF  THE  AGRICULTURAL  INTEREST. 


to  yield  their  thirt}'  or  forty  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre.  Hence,  the  ever  full  tide 
of  fanners  or  farmers  sons,  always  sets  Avestward,  and  the  lands  at  home  are  left 
in  a  comparatively  exhausted  and  barren  state,  and  hence,  too,  the  slow  progress  of 
farming  as  an  honest  art,  where  every  body  practices  it  is  like  a  highway  robber. 

There  are,  doubtless,  many  superficial  thinkers,  who  consider  these  western  soils 
exkaustless — "prairies  where  crop  after  crop  can  be  taken,  by  generation  after  gene- 
ration." There  was  never  a  greater  fallacy.  Thei-e  are  acres  and  acres  of  land  in  the 
counties  bordering  the  Hudson — such  counties  as  Dutchess  and  Albany — from 
which  the  early  settlers  reaped  their  thirty  to  forty  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  as 
easily  as  their  great  grand-children  do  now  in  the  most  fertile  fields  of  the  valley  of  the 
the  Mississippi.  Yet  these  very  acres  now  yield  only  twelve  or  fourteen  bushels  each, 
and  the  average  yield  of  the  county  of  Dutchess — one  of  the  most  fertile  and  best 
managed  on  the  Hudson,  is  at  the  present  moment  only  six  bushels  of  wheat  to  the 
acre  !  One  of  our  cleverest  agricultural  writers  has  made  the  estimate,  that  of  the 
twelve  millions  of  acres  of  cultivated  land  in  the  state  of  New-York,  eight  millions 
are  in  the  hands  of  the  "  skinners,"  who  take  away  everything  from  the  soil,  and  put 
nothing  back  ;  three  millions  in  the  hands  of  farmers  who  manage  them  so  as  to  make 
the  lands  barely  hold  their  own,  while  only  one  million  of  acres  are  well  farmed, 
so  as  to  maintain  a  high  and  productive  state  of  fertility.  And  as  New-York  is  con- 
fessedly one  of  the  most  substantial  of  all  the  older  states,  in  point  of  agriculture, 
this  estimate  is  too  flattei'ing  to  be  applied  to  the  older  states.  Even  Ohio — newly 
settled  as  she  is,  begins  to  fall  oflF  per  acre,  in  her  annual  wheat  crop,  and  before  fifty 
years  will,  if  the  present  system  continues,  be  considered  a  worn  out  soil. 

The  evil  at  the  bottom  of  all  this  false  system  of  husbandry,  is  no  mystery.  A  rich 
soil  contains  only  a  given  quantity  of  vegetable  and  mineral  food  for  plants.  Every 
crop  grown  upon  a  fertile  soil,  takes  from  it  a  certain  amount  of  these  substances,  so 
essential  to  the  growth  of  another  crop.  If  these  crops,  like  most  of  our  grain  crops, 
are  sent  away  and  consumed  in  other  counties,  or  other  parts  of  the  counties — as  in 
the  great  cities,  and  7ione  of  their  essential  elements  in  the  way  of  vegetable  matter, 
lime,  potash,  &c.,  restoi-ed  to  the  soil,  it  follows  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  eventually 
the  soil  must  become  barren,  or  miserably  unprofitable.  And  such  is,  unfortunately, 
the  fact.  Instead  of  maintaining  as  many  animals  as  possible  upon  the  farm,  and  care- 
fully restoring  to  the  soil  in  the  shape  of  animal  and  mineral  manure,  all  those  ele- 
ments needful  to  the  growth  of  future  vegetables,  our  farmers  send  nearly  all  their 
crops  for  sale  in  cities — and  allow  all  the  valuable  animal  and  mineral  products  of  these 
crops  to  go  to  waste  in  those  cities.* 

"  Oh  !  but,"  the  farmer  upon  worn  out  land  will  say,  "we  cannot  afford  to  pay  for 
all  the  labor  necessary  for  the  high  farming  you  advocate."  Are  you  quite  sure  of 
that  assertion  ?  We  suspect  if  you  were  to  enter  carefully  into  the  calculation,  as  your 
neighbor,  the  merchant,  enters  into  the  calculation  of  his  profit  and  loss  in  his  system 
of  trade,  you  would  find  that  the  difference  in  value  between  one  crop  of  12  bushels  and 

Belgium — the  most  productive  country  in  the  world,  the  urinary  excrements  of  each  cow  arc  sold  for 
are  regularly  applied  to  the  land,  and  poudrette  is  valued  as  gold  itself. 


NOTES  ON  THE  HABITS  OF  THE  CURCULIO. 

another  of  30  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  would  leave  a  handsome  profit  to  that  farmer 
who  would  pursue  with  method  and  energy,  the  practice  of  never  taking  an  atom  of 
food  for  plants  from  the  soil  in  the  shape  of  a  crop,  without,  in  some  natural  way,  re- 
placing it  again.  For,  it  must  be  rememembered,  that  needful  as  the  soil  is,  every 
plant  gathers  a  large  part  of  its  food  from  the  air,  and  the  excrement  of  animals  fed 
upon  crops,  will  restore  to  the  soil  all  the  needful  elements  taken  from  it  by  those 
crops. 

The  principle  has  been  demonstrated  over  and  over  again,  but  the  difficulty  is  to  get 
farmers  to  believe  it.  Because  they  can  get  crops,  such  as  they  are,  from  a  given  soil, 
year  after  year,  without  manure,  they  think  it  is  only  necessary  for  them  to  plant — 
Providence  will  take  care  af  the  harvest.  But  it  is  in  the  pursuit  of  this  very  system, 
that  vast  plains  of  the  old  world,  once  as  fertile  as  Michigan  or  Ohio,  have  become 
desert  wastes,  and  it  is  perfectly  certain,  that  when  we  reach  the  goal  of  an  hundred 
millions  of  people,  we  shall  reach  a  famine  soon  afterwards,  if  some  new  and  more 
enlightened  system  of  agriculture  than  our  national  "  skinning"  system,  does  not 
beforehand  spring  up  and  extend  itself  over  the  country. 

And  such  a  system  can  only  be  extensively  disseminated  and  put  into  practice  by 
raising  the  intelligence  of  farmers  generally.  We  have,  in  common  with  the  Agri- 
cultural Journals,  again  and  again  pointed  out  that  this  is  mainly  to  be  hoped  for 
through  a  practical  agricultural  education.  And  yet  the  legislatures  of  our  great  ag- 
ricultural states  vote  down,  year  after  year,  every  bill  reported  by  the  friends  of  agri- 
culture to  establish  such  schools.  Not  one  such  school,  efficient  and  useful  as  it  might 
be,  if  started  with  sufficient  aid  from  the  state,  exists  in  a  nation  of  more  than  twenty 
millions  of  farmers.  "  What  matters  it,"  say  the  wise  men  of  our  state  legislatures, 
"  if  the  lands  of  the  Atlantic  states  are  worn  out  by  bad  farming  ?  Is  not  the  great 
WEST  the  granary  of  the  world  ?"  And  so  they  build  canals  and  railroads,  and  bring 
from  the  west  millions  of  bushels  of  grain,  and  send  not  one  fertilizing  atom  back  to 
restore  the  lands.  And  in  this  way  we  shall  by-and-bye  make  the  fertile  prairies  as 
barren  as  some  of  the  worn  out  farms  of  Virginia.  And  thus  "the  sins  of  the  fathers 
are  visited  upon  the  children,  even  to  the  fourth  generation  !" 


NOTES   ON   THE   HABITS   OF   THE   CURCULIO. 

BY  J    VAN  BUREN,  CLARKSVILLE.  GA. 

Mr.  Downing — For  the  last  six  or  eight  years  I  have  been  endeavoring  to  cultivate 
plums  and  nectarines,  amongst  other  fruits;  but  from  the  depredations  of  that  pest,  the 
curculio,  I  have  never  yet  had  the  satisfaction  to  have  one  ripen.  On  the  opening  of  the 
present  season,  I  determined  to  ascertain  more  of  the  history,  habits,  and  if  possible, 
some  better  remedy  for  the  evil  than  was  yet  known.  If  the  results  of  the  numerous 
experiments  I  have  run  "  the  Turk"  through,  will  be  of  any  service  to  the  readers 
Horticulturist,  they  are  at  your  service. 


Fig.4!. 


Fig.  2 

Fig.  2. — PcPA  Magnified. 
Fig.  1. — Common  Curculio  Magnified. 

Fig.  2.  Pupa  in  the  progress  of  transformation, 
showing  the  incipient  wings,  wing  covers,  legs  and 
mandibles  turned  under  the  throat. 

Fig.  3.  Head  and  mandibles  as  used  in  biting  the 
fruit  to  deposit  the  ova,  showing  the  mandibles  open. 

Fig.  4.  Curculio  of  the  natural  size. 

In  the  first  place,  I  filled  a  glass  tumbler  about  half  full  of  earth;  on  this  I  placed  one 
nectarine  and  two  Chickasaw  plums,  which  had  been  bitten  by  the  curculio,  and  tied  a 
piece  of  paper  over  the  top  closely.  The  plums  and  nectarine  decayed  or  rotted  in  the 
course  of  a  few  days,  when  the  larvae  left  them,  and  were  seen  moving  about  on  the  top 
of  the  earth  for  a  few  hours,  and  then  disappeared.  The  next  day,  on  examination,  I 
found  them  deposited  at  the  bottom  of  the  tumbler,  where  they  had  excavated  a  small  ca- 
vity in  the  earth  about  the  size  of  a  pea.  In  this  situation  I  watched  them  from  day  to 
day,  by  looking  through  the  bottom  of  the  tumbler,  where  I  could  perceive  them  wrig- 
gling about.  In  about  thirty  days  they  began  to  disappear,  and  in  a  day  or  two  after  I 
opened  the  tumbler,  and  turned  out  the  earth  on  a  paper,  and  picked  up  thirteen  lively 
curculiosi  Some  of  them  had  assumed  the  perfect  size  and  color  of  those  found  upon  the 
trees,  whilst  some  others,  of  a  more  recent  date  or  change,  were  of  a  reddish  or  mahogany 
color — whilst  one  of  them  was  in  a  state  or  process  of  change,  from  a  larvse  to  a  perfect 
curculio.  Enclosed,  I  send  you  some  of  them  in  their  three  different  stages,  also  some 
magnified  drawings  taken  at  the  time.  I  immediately  had  a  hole  dug  beneath  a  plum  tree 
in  the  orchard,  and  at  the  depth  of  about  a  foot,  found  his  excellency  alive,  and  in  fine 
condition  for  continuing  his  depredations. 

I  was  somewhat  surprised  at  the  manner  of  transformation  from  the  larvae  to  the  per- 
fect insect.  I  had  expected  it  to  first  have  entered  the  pupa  state,  but  such  is  not  the 
case,  as  you  will  perceive  on  examining  specimen  No.  3,  if  it  reaches  you  in  good  order. 
The  legs,  wings,  and  probocis,  or  more  properly  mandibles,  appear  to  grow  out  from  the 
larvae,  while  the  body  contracts  to  the  size  of  the  perfect  insect,  no  skin  or  shell  is  form- 
ed or  cast  off  in  the  course  of  the  change.  I  trust  this  experiment  will  satisfy  all  as  to 
the  manner  of  its  propagation,  as  well  as  to  the  time. 

On  enclosing  the  before  mentioned  fruits,  I  did  not  count  the  number  of  punctures  on 
them,  so  as  to  ascertain  how  many  eggs  had  been  deposited  in  each  puncture;  and  that 
you  may  form  an  opinion  of  their  numbers  and  industry  here,  I  will  observe  that  I  have 
seen  nectarines  scarified  in  at  least  fifty  places  on  one  nectarine.  This,  in  connection  with 
the  fact,  that  probably  several  broods  or  generations  are  propagated  in  every  season,  will 
give  you  an  idea  of  their  rapid  increase,  and  consequent  ravages.  I  shall  preserve  some 
of  the  insects  during  the  coming  winter,  by  placing  them  in  earth  in  bottles,  and  ascer- 
hethcr  any  further  changes  take  place,  either  as  to  size  or  habits. 
11  now  proceed  with  a  history  of  my  experimental  remedies,  but  will  remark 


NOTES  ON  THE  HABITS  OF  THE  CURCULIO. 

outset  that  I  am  hors  du  combat  in  all.  I  have  made  no  impression,  ■whatever,  upon  the 
grand  rascal.  I  commenced  my  operations  in  the  spring,  by  mixing  pulverised  cobalt  in 
honey  and  water,  and  hanging  it  in  cups  in  the  trees,  and  by  spreading  some  of  it  on  the 
branches,  and  sometimes  on  the  fruit,  and  I  cannot  say  that  I  ever  caught  three  curculios 
in  all  my  cups,  nor  that  one  ever  tasted  that  I  spread  upon  the  trunk  or  limbs.  But  I  can 
say,  if  I  did  not  kill  the  curculios,  I  killed  all  the  trees  upon  which  T  put  it  to  any  extent, 
so  they  will  not  be  tormented  any  more.  I  next  put  a  ring  of  tar  and  grease  around  the 
trunks  of  some  others,  so  as  to  stick  them  fast  if  they  attempted  to  crawl  up  th^  trunk. 
Never  did  one  put  his  foot  in  it,  that  I  could  discover.  Next  I  caught  some  of  thjem  on  a 
cloth,  by  shaking  the  trees,  and  placed  them  in  bottles,  and  fed  them  on  green  plums, 
some  dipped  in  a  decoction  of  tobacco,  some  in  that  of  elder-bark  and  leaves,  ot|iers  in 
penny-royal,  and  so  on — all  which  they  ate  with  a  relish,  as  well  as  deposited,  their  eggs 
in  them.  .,,   -,,   .; 

In  short,  everything  that  I  have  tried  has  failed  to  arrest  them  in  .their  wicked- 
edness,  except  shaking  them  from  the  trees,  which  is  rather  a  chinquapin  business,  as  we 
say  out  here.  :  I  have  a  fine  nectarine  tree  standing  near  the  kitchen  door,  under  which  the 
little  niggers  play  and  dance  from  morning  till  night,  but  not  one  nectarine  has  ever  ri- 
pened upon  it  yet,  nor  do  I  think  ever  will,  until  some  other  reraed}  than  those  now 
known,  is  found.  The  only  reason  why  trees  growing  over  brick  walks,  and  near  doors, 
have  succeeded  at  times,  is  from  the  fiict  that  the  insect  is  very  shy.  I  have  caught  them 
in  the  act  of  puncturing  the  fruit,  and  on  endeavoring  to  pick  them  off,  they  would  roll 
themselves  up  and  drop  off  like  a  'possum. 

All  that  promises  to  be  of  any  service,  that  I  am  able  to  conceive  of,  is  to  destroy  the 
j^oung  fruit  as  fast  as  it  falls  from  the  trees;  and  that  is  a  forlorn  hope  here,  where  peach 
trees  grow  almost  indigenously.  The  fruit  should  be  gathered  up  and  destroyed  at  least 
once  every  day,  as  the  larvae  soon  leaves  it  after  it  f\\lls  to  the  ground.  Keeping  poultry 
amongst  the  trees  does  no  good,  as  the  worm,  immediately  on  leaving  the  fiuit,  crawls 
underneath  it,  and  there  burrows  in  the  earth.  [But  the  poultry  "makes  a  business"  of 
devouring  the  insect  the  moment  it  emerges,  and  therefore,  where  there  are  plenty' of  chick- 
ens— there  are  plenty  of  plunas.  Ed.]  Hogs  will  doubtless  be  of  much  service,  if  per- 
mitted to  run  amongst  the  trees,  but  the  fruit  that  first  falls  is  so  small  that  much  of  it 
is  not  eaten  by  them,  and  besides,  some  of  the  plums  do  not  fall  at  all — but  on  the  larvae 
leaving  them,  dry  up  and  remain  upon  the  tree  during  the  entire  season.  We  encourage 
and  protect  the  birds  all  we  can  about  the  orchard,  (the  Jay  excepted,)  who  charges  so 
much  for  his  services  that  we  cannot  afford  to  tolerate  him,  for  when  our  grapes  ripen  he 
claims  the  whole:  so  you  will  perceive  all  is  failure  thus  far  with  your  humble  servant. 
I  have  thought  it  best  to  give  you  a  history  of  all  my  failures,  that  others  may  not  travel 
over  the  same  ground,  and  trust  that  they  will  do  the  same  with  theirs;  and  I  have  no 
doubt  but  that  perseverance  will  yet  discover  a  remedy  or  specific  cure  for  this  pest. 

We  have  two  other  varieties  of  this  inseet  here,  which  I  intended  to  have  sent  you,  but 
thej'  have  accidentally  escaped.  One  is  quite  small,  and  the  other  three  or  four  times  the 
size  of  the  common  kind.  Should  I  be  able  to  get  hold  of  either  of  them  again  this  sea- 
son, I  will  send  them.  J.  Van  Buren. 

Clarksviile,  Ga.,  July  15, 1851. 


REVIEW. 


"Notes  ox  North  America,  Jlgricultural,  Economical  and  Social,"  by  Professor 

Johnston.  Edinburgh  and  London,  1851. 
It  has  ever  been  the  fortune  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  to  be  patronised  by  an 
itinerating  race  of  English,  Scotch,  or  Irish  travelers,  who,  in  "  a  laudable  spirit  of  inqui- 
ry," come  over  among  us,  as  they  themselves  asserted,  "  to  judge  candidly,  and  without 
prejudice,  of  our  people  and  their  institutions;"  and  after  receiving  the  hospitalities  and 
attentions  of  those  to  whom  they  had  condescended  an  acquaintance,  and  fatigued  with 
their  exactions,  to  return  home,  and  most  heartily,  and  with  a  right  good  will,  abuse  us,  al- 
ways in  general,  and  quite  frequently,  in  particular,  in  a  written  book  of  travels.  It  were 
bootless  either  to  classify  or  name  the  shoal  of  scribblers  running  down  the  catalogue,  from 
"  Tommy  Moore,  the  Irish  Rhj^mster,"  to  Charles  Dickens,  of  "  International 
Copy-right"  notoriety — all  equally  celebrated,  if  not  in  the  literary  merit  of  the  books 
themselves,  yet  altogether  so  for  the  kind  temper  and  generous  motives  of  their  philan- 
thropic labors! 

The  literar}"^  foreigner  has  threaded  our  country  to  ascertain  "  who  reads  an  American 
book.'" — the  politician  and  pamphleteer,  to  earn  his  pension  at  home,  in  the  noble  object 
of  spying  out  the  nakedness  of  the  land  in  our  lack  of  institutions  "  time  honored  in  Old 
England;" — a  vulgar,  gossipping  old  woman,  to  gather  material  for  a  lively  and  scan- 
dalous book; — and  a  clever,  termigant  play-actress,  to  get  a  rich  husband,  and  "  kick  up  a 
fuss  generally," — which  in  one  way  or  other  they  have  managed  to  accomplish,  no  doubt 
with  singular  satisfaction  to  themselves,  and  the  exceeding  joy  of  sundry  among  their 
equally  honest  and  self-satisfied  cbuntr}'-  people  at  home. 

Such  travelers  wer'^Qhiefly  of  the  common  line;  traveling  to  write,  and  writing  to  pay. 
But  we  have  now  to  notice  one  of  another  kind,  ostensibhj  a  traveler  in  the  way  of  his 
profession.  Agriculture  and  her  sister  arts,  within  the  last  twenty  years,  have  attracted 
a  larger  share  of  the  public  attention  than  formerly,  in  a  great  portion  of  the  United 
States,  as  partaking  in  the  general  progress  of  the  day;  and  among  the  British  authori- 
ties which  our  inquiring  cultivators  have  sought  to  instruct  them  in  their  labors,  and  aid 
in  their  investigations,  the  published  writings  of  a  Scotch  Professor — Johnston  by  name — 
in  a  small  Chemico-Agricultural  department  of  a  university,  so  styled,  in  the  city  of  Dur- 
ham, have  been  consulted.  Awakened  to  a  notion  that  where  a  plausible  book  had  made 
some  impression  for  our  benefit,  the  author  of  that  book  could  make  a  more  emphatic  im- 
pression by  his  own  presence,  the  managing  department  of  the  New-York  State  Agricul- 
tural Society,  extended,  some  three  years  since,  a  sort  of  invitation,  or  hint,  to  the  af/^re- 
said  Professor,  that  he  should  come  over  to  the  United  States  and  deliver  a  course  of  lec- 
tures on  "  Chemistry  as  applied  to  Agriculture,"  for  a  compensation,  whic^,  after  a  suffi- 
cient amount  of  professional  coquetry  on  his  ow^n  part,  he  accepted.  In  due  time,  therefore, 
it  became  known  that  in  the  month  of  August,  of  the  year  1840,  •'  James  F.  W.  John- 
ston, M.  A.,  F.  R.  S.  S.  L.  E.,  &  F.  G.  S.,  0.  S.,  &c.  Reader  of  Chemistry  and  Mine- 
ralogy in  the  University  of  Durham" — we  quote  the  title  page  of  his  book — 'arrived  at 
Halifax,  and  spending  some  time  in  the  Provinces  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick, 
in  four  weeks  thereafter  entered  the  United  States,  and  arrived  in  the  city  of  Syracuse,  in 
the  state  of  New-York,  on  the  11th  day  of  September;  and  on  the  13th,  at  the  great  an- 
nual Fair  and  Cattle  Show  of  the  New-York  State  Agricultural  Society,  "  at  three  P.  M., 


REVIEW. 

delivered  my  address,  in  a  large  open  tent,  to  several  thousand  people,  by  whom  it  was 
warmly  and  kindly  received." 

Now,  we  intend  to  deal  fairly  with  Professor  Johnston.  A  man  of  respectable  at- 
tainments— a  chemist  by  profession — a  lecturer  in  a  school  of  some  local  celebrity,  by  oc- 
cupation—and in  the  connection  which  his  subject  of  teaching  has  to  the  agriculture  of  hia 
own  country,  a  farmer  and  a  horticulturist,  in  theory  at  least, — and  as  a  matter  of  course, 
supposed  to  be  a  gentleman  in  manners,  we  had,  in  our  simplicity,  supposed  that  we 
should  obtain  much  information  at  his  hands.  We  hoped — although  against  heavy  odds, 
we  admit — that  our  country,  in  the  observations  made  upon  it  by  an  intelligent  and  truth 
loving  spirit,  would  be  fairly  examined — so  far  as  examined  at  all,  and  that  if  he  presum- 
ed to  indite  a  book  of  two  stout  volumes  upon  us  and  our  institutions,  both  our  people  and 
their  country  would,  at  least,  be  treated  with  justice.  It  will  be  seen  in  what  way  and 
manner  all  these  have  been  done. 

We  say  presume  to  write  a  book  upon  the  people  of  the  United  States  and  its  institu- 
tions. Not  that  these  subjects  are  so  lofty  and  abstruse  that  they  may  not  be  touched  by 
the  pen  of  a  foreigner,  and  that  foreigner  not  a  first  class  man  either,  by  any  means;  but 
it  is  a  matter  of  some  presumption  we  humbly  submit,  for  a  closet  man,  cooped  up  for  the 
greater  part  of  his  professional  life  within  the  walls  of  an  ancient  Saxon  town,  to  take  a  broad 
leap  across  the  Atlantic,  "  steam"  over  a  portion  of  the  bays  and  rivers,  and  lakes;  trun- 
dle over  a  few  of  the  railways  of  a  country  thousands  of  miles  in  extent;  dive  into  a  che- 
mical laboratory  here;  attend  a  private  entertainment  there;  partake  in  a  set,  or  a  cas- 
ual conversation  elsewhere;  and  make  a  thorough  examination  of  nothing, — all  within  the 
space  of  four  months,  and  then  square  himself  deliberately  to  the  composition  of  a  work 
which  he  is  to  put  forth  with  all  the  authority  and  self-complacency  of  a  teacher  in  the 
sciences,  physical,  political,  and  ethical,  as  applied  by  a  people,  and  to  a  country  he 
had  never  before  seen!  This,  at  least,  would  be  called  presumption  in  an  American  who 
should  dare  to  take  such  liberty  with  Old  England,  or  any  part  of  Great  Britain,  although 
somewhat  less  extensive  in  territory  and  population,  than  the  United  States.  But  it  may 
be  called  condescension  by  the  modest  author  himself,  to  the  less  enlightened  curiosity  of 
his  "  traus-atlantic  cousins." 

To  be  precise  and  in  order:  Professor  Johnston  arrived  at  Halifax  on  the  7th  day  of 
August,  1849.  On  the  4th  of  September  he  took  the  steamboat  at  St.  John,  and  arriv- 
ed the  following  morning,  at  Portland,  in  the  state  of  Maine,  in  time  for  the  railway  to 
Boston,  where  he  arrived  at  2  P.  M.,  and  after  two  full  hours  of  keen  observation,  (a 
large  share  of  it  at  the  dinner  table,)  in  that  promising  little  town,  again  took  the  cars 
for  New-Haven,  where  he  ari'ived  at  11  o'clock  the  same  night. 

"In  this  rapid  run  through  New-England,  only  three  things  made  a  permanent  impres- 
sion on  my  mind.  These  were,  first,  that  the  general  rudeness  of  the  people  which  tra- 
velers r-peak  of  [what  travelers?  we  would  humbly  inquire,]  is  not  perceptible  in  New- 
England  ge.~"'raiZ(/.  It  may  be  more  strikiag  in  the  western  states."  But  after  all,  our 
Professor  doubts  that  even  in  Old  England,  if  «// classes  of  travelers  were  indiscriminately 
mixed  up  by  fifties  and  sixties  together  in  a  train  of  cars,  the  passengers  might  not  behave 
so  ivell  as  those  of  New-England  do.  A  precious,  although  a  grudging  confession,  truly. 
"  The  second  t'ling  was  the  numerous  country  boxes  or  cottages,  of  all  fa.shions  and  sizes, 
with  their  white  painted  walls  and  green  jalousies,  which  skirted  the  railway  during  the  last 
twenty  m'les  of  our  ride  to  Boston.  This  is  a  peculiarly  English  feature,  and  indicates 
the  existence  among  our  trans-atlantic  kindred,  of  that  love  of  green  fields,  and  of 
country  life  which  characterizes  so  much  our  own  island-home."     Surprising!  did  our 


REVIEW. 

veled  author  suppose  that  the  untutored  Yankees  dwelt  in  wigwams  outside  the  cities,  and 
lived  by  hunting,  instead  of  growing  farm  crops,  garden  fruits,  and  vegetables?  "  And 
my  third  observation  was,  that  though  the  drouth  of  Kova  Scotia  and  New-Brunswick 
had  extended  into  Maine,  its  effects  became  less  perceptible  as  I  advanced  westward  into 
the  other  New-England  states,  till,  in  Connecticut,  the  fields  looked  as  beautifully  green 
as  I  had  seen  them  last  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mersey."  It  must  have  been  a  "  permanent 
impression"  truly,  that  in  a  range  of  four  hundred  miles,  from  the  fog-ridden  banks  of 
Nova  Scotia,  and  through  a  declining  latitude  of  five  degrees,  he  should  have  discovered 
that  New-Haven  weather  had  been  quite  as  irreverent  in  its  imitation  of  a  "  drouth"  in 
the  provinces,  as  its  people  are  regardless  of  some  of  the  practices  of  their  provincial 
"kindred." 

Spending  four  days  in  New-Haven,  which  gives  him  material  for  some  eight  pages  of 
comment  on  what  he  saw  in  and  around  the  city,  and  Connecticut  in  general,  he  started 
on  the  10th  for  Syracuse  in  company  with  Professor  Norton.  On  his  way  uptheHousa- 
tonic  valley  to  Albany,  whirling  along  in  a  rapid  railroad  train,  he  remarks  on  the  "  drift" 
and  geological  formation  of  the  country,  which  he  obtained,  of  course,  from  his  intelli- 
gent informant  and  traveling  companion.  At  Albany  a  stay  of  one  night  is  made,  and  in 
the  next  half  day's  ride  up  the  Mohawk,  his  geological  observations  continue,  coupled  with 
a  dash  of  agricultural  remark,  and  a  running  commentary  now  and  then,  neither  new 
nor  profound,  on  soils,  climate,  and  crojis.  By  way  of  variety,  also,  are  interspersed  the 
stereotyped  remarks  of  foreigners  upon  the  odd  names  of  our  towns  and  villages,  and 
some  equally  original  reflections  upon  our  manner  of  elections,  fondness  of  titled  names, 
and  popped  corn,  in  particular.  Rather  annoyed  at  the  accession  of  Mr.  Clay,  to  the 
traveling  train  at  Utica,  our  author  proceeds  in  his  commentaries  through  Rome,  not  "  the 
Niobe  of  nations,"  but  little  Rome,  on  the  Mohawk,  then  full  of  enthusiastic  curiosity  for 
a  sight  at  the  great  statesman;  then  to  Verona,  where  no  "two  gentlemen"  bid  him 
"  good  morrow;"  thence  to  Syracuse,  where  he  arrives  "  at  half-past  three,  distance  178 
miles  from  Albany." 

As  Syracuse — to  which  place  he  had  been  invited  by  the  State  ^Agricultural  Society,  to 
deliver  the  usual  address  made  before  the  multitude  assembled  to  attend  its  annual  jubi- 
lee— is  to  be  a  point  in  his  travels  and  observations,  a  full  chapter  of  thirty-three  pages  is 
devoted  to  the  discussion  of  sundry  matters  and  things  appertaining  thereto,  and  the 
country  by  which  it  is  surrounded.  As  it  was  the  theatre  of  his  own  personal  display,  too, 
for  the  time,  we  shall  follow  him  somewhat  closely  for  the  two  and  a-half  days — we  like  to 
be  precise  in  some  things — that  he  remained.  With  a  like  originality  of  remarks  as  be- 
fore, he  finds  that  Syracuse  is  "a  new  city  of  IGOOO  inhabitants,  large  hotels,  numerous 
churches,  and  skeleton  streets,  which,  if  its  prosperity  continue,  will  soon  be  built  up," 
— "  so  late  as  six  years  ngo,  the  wilderness  still  surrounded  the  residence  of  the  mryor 
— to  whose  hospitality  I  was  indebted  during  my  stay  at  Syracuse — where  his  garden  now 
extends,  and  plum  and  peach  trees  ami  vines  are  in  full  and  luxurian'  bearing." 

Our  author's  notes  are  accurate,  no  doubt;  but  we  would  give  a  tr'.fle  to  learn  the  won- 
derful method  of  transformirg  a  wilderness  "  into  the  sites  of  noble  mansions  and  dwel- 
lings, with  highly  ornamental  gardens,  towering  shade  trej.«,  and  paved  streets,  which 
extend  far  beyond  the  fine  premises  of  Mr.  Leavexworth,  within  the  brief  period  of  six 
years,  and  meekly  inquire  whether,  if  the  word,  twenty,  were  prefixed  to  the  "  six," 
it  would  not  be  nearer  the  n  ark?     Such  is  our  own  roc  )l'ection. 

Professor  Johnston  goes  with  his  attentive  friend,  Mr.  Norton,  into  the  show  yard 
Things  here  are,  very  naturally,  compared  with  the  show  of  the  English  Royal  Agricul 


REVIEW. 

tural  Society,  and  as  they  agree  with  that,  is  the  exhibition  more  or  less  deserving.  Some 
things  he  commends,  other  things  furnish  him  a  text  for  commentary,  and  as  the  people, 
in  a  country  where  the  best  of  unimproved  lands  can  be  had  for  fifteen  to  twenty  dollars  an 
acre,  have  not  as  yet  under-drained  all  their  swamps,  at  an  expense  of  twenty'  to  thirty  dol- 
lars the  acre,  he  has  made  up  his  mind  (another  original  idea)  that  as  "yet  in  New-Eng- 
land and  New-York,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  local  attachment — the  love  of  a  place  because 
it  is  a  man's  own — generally  speaking  every  farm,  from  Eastport  in  Elaine,  to  Buffalo  on 
Lake  Erie,  is  for  sale!"  Accommodating  people,  most  truly!  Thence  follows  a  homily 
on  the  superior  production  of  land  where  the  owner  of  the  soil  and  its  cultivator,  hold 
the  relative  attitudes  of  landlord  and  tenant,  upon  which  his  remarks  are  quite  as  pro- 
found as  a  stickler  for  the  cast-oif  feudal  usages  of  Europe  may  be  supposed,  winding  up 
by  an  equivocal  compliment  to  "  our  respected  Yankee  cousins." 

"  In  the  New-England  states  and  in  New-York  the  Devon  blood>pvevails.  Most  of  the 
stock  are  grmdes,  as  they  are  called,  or  crosses  of  the  pure  Devoh  bull  Avith  the  older 
stock  of  the  ceuntrjs  which  is  originally  of  mixed  English  and  Dutch  of  various  kinds. 
The  cows  exhibited  were  nearly  all  Devons,  and  there  was  a  beautiful  Devon  bull  in  the 
yard  which  had  been  bred  in  Canada.  In  the  Western  and  South-Western  states  the  Short- 
horn blood  predominates,  and  of  this  blood  there  were  some  good  specimens  exhibited."  p. 
165,  vol.  1.  An  astute  agricultural  professor,  most  truly,'  Mho,  in  the  Provinces,  a  fort- 
night before  this,  atTected  to  be  a  judge  of  cattle!  The  veriest  tyro  on  earth,  who  had  ever 
slept  a  night  on  a  stock  farm  in  "  New-England  or  New-York,"  would  deserve  to  have 
his  ears  soundly  boxed  for  a  remark  betraying  such  profound  ignorance  and  stupidity. 
Did  Mr.  Johnston  go  into  the  cattle  quarter  of  the  show  grounds  at  all?  Or  if  he  did, 
had  he  knowledge  in  live  stock  enough  to  discriminate  between  the  scores  of  Short-horns, 
the  Ilerefords,  the  Devons,  the  Ayrshires — his  own  countiy-kine,  and  the  various  grades 
of  almost  every  intermixture  that  he  could  not  but  see  there?  Or  Avas  his  information 
drawn  from  some  one  quite  as  ignorant  and  unobserving  as  himself?  There  were  some 
400  cattle  exhibited  on  the  Syracuse  show-ground,  and  there  were  not  a  score  of  Devon 
cows  among  them  all,  although  of  Devons,  including  bulls,  cows,  heifers,  and  calves,  there 
was  a  fine  collection :  but  there  were  at  least  three  Short-horns  to  one  Devon,  and  the 
best  show  of  Sh(  rt-horns  j-et  exhibited  in  the  state,  and  several  of  them  recently  import- 
ed from  England.  Equally  correct  is  the  remark  that  "  in  the  New-England  States  and 
New-York  the  Devon  blood  prevails."  In  those  states  not  one  animal  in  twenty'  has  a 
trace  of  Devon  blood  in  its  veins,  as  Devon  cattle  are  now  understood.  Both  Devons  and 
Short-horns  are  occasi  nally  found  in  New-England,  and  so  are  Ayrshires,  Alderneys, 
and  Herefords,  in  their  purity;  and  so  also  are  there  many  grade  cattle  of  those  bloods; 
but,  in  comparison  with  the  whole,  they  are  few,  like  our  author's  facts,  and  far  between. 
And  so  with  the  Short-horns  in  "  the  Western  and  south  Western  states,"  towards  which 
he  never  advanced  beyond  the  foot  of  Lake  Erie,  where  he  asserts  that  "  the  Short-horn 
blood  predominates."  In  regard  to  New-England  and  New-York  he  must  have  made  his 
very  accurate  observations  as  he  "  steamed,  and  railed"  through  that  country;  and  a 
most  convenient  clairvoyance  undoubtedly  helped  him  to  the  like  accurate  information 
regarding  the  Western  and  South  western  cattle. 

Our  horses  "  are  in  reality  too  light  for  heavj'  farm-work."     Our  author  believes  that 

"  when  the  period  arrives  for  deeper   ploughing  and  more  extensive  cultivation  of  heavy 

land,  a  heavier  and  stronger  stock  of  horses  will  be  necessary."     When  he  demonstrates 

that  the  clumsy  draught  horse  of  Clydesdale,  or  the  snail-paced  cart-horse  of 

e,  with  the  same  weight  of  carcass  applied  to  the  work,  and  the  same  amount  of 


REVIEW 


and  the  same  manual  assistance,  can  plow  two  acres  of  strong  land  in  one  day,  and  plow- 
it  as  deep  and  as  well  as  a  team  of  "  limber"  New-York  horses,  we  shall  give  more  weight 
to  his  authority.  The  time  has  not  yd  arrived  for  a  "  Britisher" — so  self-styled,  only 
— to  read  the  Yankee  a  lesson  in  the  breeding  of  usnfal  horses. 

In  some  other  branches  of  the  exhibition  at  Syracuse,  Professor  Johnston"  was  quite 
as  discriminating  as  in  the  stock  department.  "  Farm  and  dairy  produce,  however,  and 
fruits,  receive  much  attention  from  the  New-York  State  Society,  and  had  an  appropriate 
place  assigned  to  them  under  the  tents  and  sheds  which  were  scattered  on  the  grounds." 
In  his  ver3'  particular  notice  of  the  fruits — aud  what  we  have  quoted  is  all  of  it — we  have 
much  to  admire  in  the  extent  of  his  information.  An  unsophisticated  man  would  have 
supposed  that  a  tent,  regal  in  size,  120  by  80  feet  in  area,  containing  shelves  placed  am- 
phitheatre-like the  full  length  of  its  oval  sides,  and  filled  with  thousands  of  the  choicest 
specimens  of  apples,  pears,  quinces,  grapes,  peaches,  plums,  and  melons,  all  grovm  inthe 
open  air,  and  of  the  most  exquisite  flavor,  garnished  with  beautiful  collections  of  flowers, 
and  by  their  tempting  luxuriance  attracting  the  attention  of  a  dense  crowd  during  the 
three  days  of  their  exhibition, would  have  excited  a  remark  beyond  simply  naming  their  pre- 
sence in  general  terms.  But  true  to  the  instinctive  taste  of  his  own  foggy  hills,  where  not  a 
thing  of  them  all  is  grown  out  of  doors,  he  no  doubt  regarded  them  with  the  like  affection 
of  the  old  laird  at  the  sight  of  the  sugar-plums:  "  Hoot  mon!  and  what  is  all  this  bau- 
bee  trumpery  to  a  bicker  of  kail  broose?"  In  his  after  observations,  our  traveler  remarks 
somewhat  upon  our  apple  culture,  none  of  which  remarks  are  new,  and  part  of  them  in- 
correct. Of  apples,  he  says,  "  those  varieties  which  are  best  for  the  table  are  unfit  alojie 
to  make  a  palatable  cider."  "  AVhere  ignorance  is  bliss,  'tis  folly  to  be  Avise,"  said  a 
much  abler  man  than  Professor  Johnston,  and  it  were  equally  wise  for  his  own  credit 
that  he  should  speak  of  that  only  of  which  he  knew  something.  He  has  however  intro- 
duced the  extensive  orchards  of  Mr.  Pell,  and  their  management,  but  draws  no  conclu- 
sions. In  this  place,  he  saj-s  that  Mr.  P.  has  2,000  Newtown  Pippin  apple  trees  in  full 
bearing.  In  the  second  volume  he  states,  that  "  Mr.  Pell  has  20,000  apple  trees,  chiefly 
Newtown  Pippins."  We  should  really  like  to  know  hoiv  many  apple  trees  Mr.  Pell  has 
got  in  his  orchard,  so  that  the  disputed  question  of  two  thousand,  or  twenty  thousand — 
for  there  is  som2  difference  in  the  number — may  be  set  at  rest. 

Discharging  creditably,  though  in  manner  and  taste  quite  mistakenlj',  his  public  duties 
at  Syracuse, he  extends  his  rambles  to  the  fine  farm  of  Mr.  GEDDES,a  few  miles  out  of  town, 
which  gives  him  opportunity  for  some  geological  remarks  upon  soils — all  borrowed — and 
modes  of  agriculture,  not  new.  He  then  leaves  in  the  railwaj'  for  Buffalo  on  the  15th, 
after  a  two  and  a  half  days'  sojourn  in  the  richest  agricultural  county  of  the  state.  "  In- 
troduced to  a  gentlemanly-looking  physician,"  he  soon  apologizes  for  the  rudeness  of  an 
answer  which  he  gave  him  to  a  question  which  we  are  quite  sure  no  "  gentlemanly-look- 
ing" man  of  any  profession  would  have  addressed  to  him;  and  then  a  commentary  on 
manners  and  language  in  general,  in  which  neither  the  words  "  Britisher"  nor  "  Trans- 
atlantic Cousins,"  occur.  Joe  Smith  and  company,  of  the  Mormon  faith,  now  come  in 
for  a  share  of  his  reflections,  followed  up  by  a  fling  at  the  fanaticism  of  his  followers,  in 
whicli  he  candidly  admits  that  a  large  accession  to  their  force  had  come  from  England  to 
sustain  the  open  polygamy  of  Smith,  when  living,  and  Brigham  Young,  now  chief  apos- 
tle and  leader  of  the  tribe.  Agriculture — of  which  every  idea  that  he  has,  as  applied  to  the 
region  of  which  he  discourses,  is  given  by  some  previously  introduced  acquaintance,  or 
passenger  in  the  cars — receives  a  part  of  his  attention;  and  politics,  forms  of  govern 


REVIEAV. 

ment,  existing  institutions,  and  misceilaneous  matters,  follow,  as  drawn  from,  but  not  cre- 
dited to,  the  books  and  statistical  tables  of  which  he  is  possessed. 

Hailing  from  Buffalo,  where  our  traveler  spent  an  entire  night,  he  dashes,  in  imagina- 
tion, away  to  the  far  west,  and  by  aid  of  the  aforesaid  statistical  tables  and  maps,  and  geog- 
raphies, and  Lyell's,  and  other's  American  Geology,  talks  of  Wisconsin,  and  the  country 
about  Lake  Superior,  the  "Hog  crop,"  and  "  Cattle  crop"  of  Ohio,  and  settles  down 
with  a  surprisingly  "clever"  act  of  "  a  gentleman  introduced  to  him  at  Syracuse,  but 
whose  name  he  did  not  know,"  who  invited  him  to  spend  the  night  at  his  house,  two  miles 
out  of  the  city,  which  he  declined,  owing  to  the  brief  stay  he  should  make,  but  who,  nev- 
ertheless, furnished  him  unsolicited,  with  free  lodgings  at  the  "American  Hotel."  This 
is  noted  "  as  an  instance  of  the  proneness  of  our  trans-atlantic  cousins  to  the  virtue  of 
hospitality,"  as  also  the  truth  of  his  own  reiterated  remark,  that  "  blood  is  thicker  than 
water." 

Stepping  in,  while  at  Buffalo,  at  a  butcher's,  after  asking  hira  sundry  questions,  which 
were  dwly  answered,  and  then  answering  the  butcher's  questions  in  turn,  he  writes, — 
"  Well,  sir,  says  he,  (the  butcher,)  we  live  in  a  great  country  here — we  are  a  great  peo- 
ple." NoAV  we  dare  risk  our  veracity  against  that  of  Professor  Johnston,  that  the  afore- 
said butcher  never  said  any  such  thing;  or,  if  he  did  say  so,  that  he  was  a  foreigner  of 
British  birth.  "  It  is  unpleasant  to  a  stranger  to  be  always  called  upon  to  admire  and 
praise  wjjat  he  sees  in  a  foreign  country;  and  it  is  a  part  of  the  perversity  of  human  nature 
to  withhold,  upon  earnest  request,  what,  if  unasked,  would  be  freely  and  spontaneously 
given,"  Then  a  fling  at  the  "  brag  and  swagger  among  individuals  in  the  United  States." 
An  amiable  man,  too,  is  Professor  Johnston. 

Leaving  Buffalo  on  the  morning  of  the  16th,  for  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  he  tarried  a  full 
twenty-four  hours  at  the  latter  place.  He  viewed  the  f;ills  from  both  sides  of  the  river, 
and  treats  us  to  a  few  trite  remarks  of  moderate  admiration,  and  a  borrowed  cut  of  the 
geological  formation  of  the  rocks  at  that  point.  He  then  hurries  off  to  Lewiston,  on  the 
17th,  and  takes  the  boat,  where  "  we  steamed  through  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara  river." 
We  really  wish,  for  the  reputation  of  all  concerned,  that  our  Professor  had  informed  us 
whether  it  was  himself  and  his  companions  who  did  so  much  steaming, — whether  it  Avas 
simply  the  tea-kettle  steaming  up  the  water  for  their  whiskey-toddy,  or,  only  the  inno- 
cent boat  itself,  driving  her  paddle-wheels  by  aid  of  steam  through  the  water — for  this 
word  "  steaming"  has  sometimes  an  equivocal  meaning  on  both  shores  of  Lake  Ontario, 
among  "  our  trans-atlantic  cousins." 

On  board  the  boat  on  the  way  to  Oswego,  another  conversation  was  had  "  with  a  prac- 
tical farmer  from  Syracuse."  The  result  of  this  conversation  was,  a  drawn  conclusion  as 
to  the  profits  and  hopes  of  farming  as  a  business.  Yet  he  was  impressed  with  the  opin- 
iou  that  the  New-York  farmers  knew  much  more  of  the  geological  formation  of  their  own 
soils,  than  the  English  farmers  did  of  theirs.  From  six  to  half  past  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  our  author  waited  at  Oswego,  where  he  found  that  "  the  flouring  mills  were  the 
chief  source  of  the  prosperity  of  the  town."  The  extensive  commerce  with  the  upper 
lakes  and  with  Canada,  which  that  thriving  town  enjoys,  he  did  not  hear  of.  Thence  to 
Sackett's  Harbor,  which  "shows  nothing  to  attract  attention,  beyond  its  hotel,  and  some 
signs  of  increase  in  size."  From  Sackett's  Harbor  "we  steamed"  again  through  the 
Thousand  Islands,  to  Kingston,  Upper  Canada,  and  "  at  6  P.  M.  we  landed  on  the 
pier."  "  I  almost  felt  myself  at  home  again,  as  I  set  my  foot  on  shore  in  sight  of 
itish  flag."  Herein  "the  kind  welcome  of  a  Kingston  family,"  and  under 
folds  and  broad  protection  of  "  the  British  flag,"  he  luxuriates  for  a  full  w 


REVIEW. 

longer  time  than  he  spent  in  the  whole  region  of  the  United  States  from  New-Haven  to 
Niagara,  in  which  prolific  tour  he  drew  the  material  for  half  a  volume  of  speculation  and 
theory,  on  matters  and  things  in  general.  We  here  leave  the  author  for  several  months, 
to  talk  to  his  countrymen  at  home,  as  he  may,  of  the  advantages  of  "  the  Provinces"  over 
the  United  States,  regretting  only,  as  we  close  this  part  of  his  travels,  that  his  good  taste 
could  not  have  dictated  a  better  story  than  the  shabby  slur  upon  the  housekeeping  virtues 
of  our  Yankee  women,  which  he  has  chronicled:  "I'll  go  over  to  Canada  for  a  wife 
when  I  marry,"  said  a  young  South  Shore  farmer  to  his  friend.  "  When  I  come  home  at 
night  she'll  have  a  nice  blazing  fire  on,  and  a  clean  kitchen,  and  a  comfortable  supper  for 
for  me;  but  if  I  marry  a  New-Yorker,  it  '11  be,  when  I  come  home,  '  John,  go  down  to 
the  well  for  some  water,  to  make  some  tea,'  or  *  John,  go  and  bring  some  logs  to  put  on 
the  fire,  to  boil  the  kettle.'  No,  no;  a  Canadian  woman  's  the  wife  for  me."  Vol.  1,  p. 
263.     His  "  South  Shore"  hero  probably  wanted  a  drudge,  instead  of  a  companion. 

On  the  24th  of  the  following  December,  our  author  again  finds  himself,  amid  the  discom- 
forts of  winter  travel,  entering  the  north-east  point  of  Maine,  in  a  journey  from  St.  John 
to  Boston  and  Albany,  at  which  latter  place  he  was  engaged  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures 
on  "  the  general  relations  of  Science  to  Agriculture,"  before  the  members  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, and  the  New- York  State  Agricultural  Society.  On  the  28th  he  is  again  domiciled 
at  the  hospitable  quarters  of  his  young  friend.  Professor  Norton,  in  New-Haven.  Here 
he  makes  a  stay  of  several  days ;  and  although  he  observes  a  studied  silence  regarding  it, 
we  have  no  doubt  he  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Norton  to  several  of  the  learned  and  accom- 
plished faculty  of  Yale  College,  had  free  access  to  the  extensive  and  richly  stored  cabinets  of 
Professor  Silliman,  and  that  all  the  geological,  mineralogical  and  chemical  treasures  of  that 
highly  reputable  University  were  opened  to  him;  but  whether  he  felt  bound  by  considera- 
tions of  delicacy  to  say  nothing  of  either,  or  all  of  them,  or  whether  he  found  himself,  on 
comparison  with  men  of  real  attainments,  altogether  out  of  position,  is  no  business  of  ours ; 
yet,  as  a  characteristic  acknowledgment  of  the  kind  attentions  and  hospitality  he  must 
have  received  at  New-Haven,  he  sneakingly  records  a  dirty  slander  of  Fenimore  Cooper, 
an  American  author,  on  the  meanness  of  Connecticut  hospitality !  And  it  is  with  such 
creeping  inuendoes  at  his  heels,  that  we  have  followed  him  thus  far  on  his  journey  in  the 
United  States.  At  so  fitting  an  opportunity  we  cannot  forego  the  relation  of  a  private  an- 
ecdote, slightly  touching  the  good  manners  of  this  Agricultural  Professor :  During  his 
stay  at  one  of  our  cities,  where  he  gave  lectures,  he  was  invited  by  a  gentleman  residing 
some  miles  out  of  town,  to  dine  with  a  party,  among  which  were  several  gentlemen  of  dis- 
tinction, and  an  ex-president  of  the  United  States.  A  highly  respectable  Scotch  gentle- 
man, resident  in  the  neighborhood,  was  of  the  party,  and  presuming  that  both  he,  and 
Mr.  Johnston,  would  be  mutually  pleased  at  meeting,  as  fellow  countrymen,  their  host 
introduced  them  to  what  "  he  hoped,"  as  he  led  them  together,  "  would  be  an  intimate 
acquaintance."  But  our  Professor,  after  slightly  noticing  his  countryman,  abruptly  turn- 
ed away,  and  continued  a  conversation  with  his  host.  Indignant  that  so  marked  an  insult 
should  be  given  to  an  esteemed  guest  and  neighbor,  simply  because  he  was  a  countryman 
of  his  own,  by  Mr.  Johnston,  our  host  immediately  turned  to  the  other,  and  in  company 
with  the  ex-president,  who  had  also  witnessed  the  petty  slight,  renewed  the  conversation 
with  marked  attention,  and  left  the  consciously  embarrassed  Professor  to  the  enjoyment 
of  his  own  affected  superiority ! 

Mr.  Johnston  arrived  at  Albany  on  the  4th  day  of  January,  1850.  He  staid  three 
weeks,  and  delivered  his  course  of  lectures,  which,  as  we  have  not  them  under  notice,  we 
shall  pass.      Here,  with  a  ride  or  two  out  of  town,  a  visit  to  the  Shakers  at  Niskayu- 


REVIEW. 

na,  and  his  usual  reference  to  statistical  tables,  geological  reports,  speeches  of  legislators, 
and  pamphlets,  he  makes  up  sundry  sage  commentaries  and  conclusions  on  American  gov- 
ernment, institutions,  religion,  life,  and  manners;  some  of  which  are  sensible  enough 
when  simple  of  solution,  and  others  ridiculously  absurd,  as  touching  the  true  results 
which  a  fair  mode  of  reasoning  would  draw  from  his  premises.  Here  is  a  specimen:  He 
attended  the  annual  meeting  of  the  State  Agiicultural  Society,  at  which  the  usual  busi- 
ness of  the  Society  was  transacted.  "  I  was  struck  with  the  gravity  and  decorum  with 
which  the  discussion  was  carried  on,  and  with  the  apparent  self-possession  of  the  speak- 
ers. R  is  partly  to  the  general  acknowledgment  of  no  higher  rank  than  his  own,  that 
the  absence  of  our  insular  nervousness  in  the  American  speaker,  is  to  be  ascribed;  but 
partl}'^,  also,  to  the  undisciplined  and  uncontrolled  way  in  which  children  are  brought 
up-'XO  He  also  coins  another  story,  in  which  a  lady  is  brought  in,  to  prove  (to  us,) 
the  utter  emptiness  of  his  conclusion.  Our  professor  is  also  great  on  American  slavery, 
which  he  discusses  with  about  the  same  amplitude  of  reasoning,  that  certain  other  foreign 
philanthropists  indulge,  and  reads  us  frequent  lectures  on  the  astounding  benefits  oi free- 
trade,  as  exhibited  in  the  recent  striking  and  disinterested  examples  of  the  English  gov- 
ernment, for  our  "  trans-atlantic"  imitation  I 

Jan.  26,  at  Philadelphia.  Along  the  railway  route,  and  in  the  depth  ofiointer,  another 
geological  notice  of  the  country — original  in  hims'lf,  no  doubt!  In  this  city  he'  was  in- 
vited by  Professor  Hare  to  attend  a  "  very  agreeable  whister(^!)  party," — a  new  social  in- 
vention we  fanc}^ —  probably  chemical  or  geological,  as  we  do  not  know  that  name  in  any 
other  of  the  sciences.  We  are  happy  to  learn  that  the  green  sands  and  phosphates  of 
lime  of  New-Jersey,  have  struck  his  attention — for  his  skill  in  such  subjects  We  have  a 
true  respect — and  that  his  examinations  confirm  the  opinions  of  our  own  cheiiiiists  as  to 
their  permanent  and  great  value  to  agriculture.  At  the  Eutaw  House — "  EUtaw's  Ho- 
tel,"— Baltimore,  our  Pbofkssor  gives  us  an  inkling  into  his  gastronomic  atifd' Convivial 
propensities,  in  the  discussion  of  "  Canvass-backs,"  and  "  Apple-toddy."  ^A  highly 
wrought  recipe  for  making  the  latter  is  given,  in  which  the  virtues  of  a  "  red-sf  reafc  ■^pple, 
roasted  before  a  slow  fire,  on  a  China  plate,"  are  a  part  of  the  process;  but  whether  the 
compound  is  to  be  stirred  with  a  sharp  stick  or  a  blunt  one,  we  are  not  informed.  This, 
he  has  discovered,  although  a  winter,  is  not  a  very  "  slow"  drink,  and  also  that  mint-ju- 
leps are  a  summer  beverage,  which  the  "jovial  middle  '  states  men,'  "  and  not  the  strait- 
laced  temperance  Yankees,  had  discovered  to  him  I 

Washington.  Here  again  the  guide  books  and  the  scribblings  of  foreign  tourists,  are 
emptied  out  upon  his  groaning  table,  for  scissoring,  clipping,  and  pasting.  "  Magnificent 
distances,"  tlie  President,  Congress,  the  Supreme  Court,  the  public  buildings.  Southern 
Nullification,  tariff,  free-trade,  as  taught  us  by  English  policy,  slavery,  the  public  lands, 
and  Smithsonian  Institute,  each,  every,  and  all  of  them  came  under  his  emasculating  pen, 
and  are  discussed  with  a  self-complacency  and  decision  from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 
The  only  new  subject  of  discussion  is  that  of  the  Agricultural  Bureau,  in  which,  we  re- 
gret to  say,  no  new  idea  is  advanced.  But  he  is  quite  clear  that  two  or  three  Republics, 
made  out  of  our  existing  one,  would  be  a  wholesome  improvement  upon  our  present  sys- 
tem; and  the  annexation  of  Cuba  and  Canada,  he  fears,  would  be  embarrassing  to  our 
President  and  his  Cabinet! 

While  in  Washington,  our  friend  made  a  detour  down  into  "  Old  Virginia,"  where  he 
"  steamed"  it- — (what  an  inveterate  toper  the  Professor  has  got  to  be!) — eight  miles  on 
Potomac  to  Alexandria!  And  here  the  statistics  again  rattle  like  a  hail  shower  about 
ocious  goose  quill.     Slang  words,  political  economy,  rise,  progress,  and  increase  of 


slavery,  all  jingle  again  in  beautiful  succession.  "We  have  a  story  about  a  ladj^  and  a 
"  Britisher,"  and  our  unfortunate  politics  continue  to  annoy  his  chemico-agricultural 
head  until  he  leaves  the  capitol,  and  again  addresses  himself  to  the  north. 

Arrived  at  New-York  on  the  5th  February,  our  author  adjusts  himself  to  the  settlement 
of  the  conflicting  pretensions,  between  his  own  country  and  ours,  to  skill  and  superiority 
in  the  construction  of  Atlantic  steamers,  the  commerce,  manufactures,  population,  and 
prosperity  of  our  great  emporium,  and  makes  up  his  mind  that  after  all  it  is  only  a 
British  town,  manned  and  worked  by  British  labor,  supplied  by  British  capital,  and  kept 
in  this  breathing  woi-ld  by  British  influence!  Here  the  old  tiles  of  statistics  are  unfolded, 
and  their  subjects  again  canvassed,  during  his  six  days  stay,  in  which  his  agricultural  re- 
searches are  extended  into  the  American  Institute,  and  back  into  Mr.  Pell's  apple  or- 
chard, the  only  one  he  appears  yet  to  have  heard  of  on  this  side  the  Atlantic. 

February  11th.  Back  to  Boston.  His  stay  here,  oft'  and  on,  was  now  six  wrecks,  hav- 
ing been  engaged  in  giving  a  course  of  lectures  at  the  Lowell  Institute,  on  the  "  Relations 
of  Science  to  Agriculture," — a  repetition  of  those  delivered  at  Albany.  Ilis  mind  here 
seems  to  have  been  sorely  exercised  in  comparing  the  Service  and  Liturgy  of  the  Established 
Church  in  England  with  that  of  the  United  States,  and  especially  in  its  application  to  the 
Unitarian  faith,  as  if  the  latter  doctrines  were  solely  American,  and  had  not  been  impor- 
ted a  century  ago  from  England.  The  Mormons  and  their  polygamy,  again  haunt  his  peace, 
and  he  is  sadly  puzzled  to  ascertain  whether  "  their  Senators  and  Representatives  would 
bring  their  harems  to  Washington  with  impunity;  and  if  one  of  their  wives  eloped  to  Bos- 
ton, the  husband  could  reclaim  her  without  doubt,  as  he  now  does  his  slave — [the  Mor- 
mons do  not  hold  slaves,  we  believe,]  all  the  laws  of  New-England  against  bigamy,  not- 
withstanding.-'" 

It  were  bootless  to  follow  our  erudite  Professor  through  all  the  various  topics  which 
engage  the  remaining  part  of  his  time  while  in  and  around  Boston.  In  the  dead  of  win- 
ter, when  he  could  make  few  or  no  personal  observations  upon  the  geology,  or  soils  of  the 
neighborhood,  he  draws  upon  the  various  surveys,  and  authors,  which  he  found  in  abun- 
dant number  around  him;  and  his  various  disquisitions,  and  dissertations,  of  which  we 
have  many,  are  still  taken  from  the  statistics,  and  official  reports  of  the  Commonwealth, 
to  neither  of  which  does  he  give  the  slightest  credit.  In  the  large  amount  of  this  material 
which  he  has  so  unblushingly  appropriated,  we  are  reminded  of  that  prince  of  critics,  old 
John  Drtdkn,  who,  finding  a  plagiarist  of  remarkable  dimensions,  exclaimed  in  his  in- 
dignation, "  that  instead  of  picking  here,  and  stealing  there,  like  a  common  literary  mouser, 
he  pounced  down  and  appropriated  the  spoils  of  others  with  all  the  audacitj-  of  a  conque- 
ror!" Indeed,  we  think  he  shows  a  better  taste  in  the  selection  of  his  subjects  while  at 
Boston,  than  at  any  other  point  in  his  travels ;  and  possibly,  had  he  remained  some  months 
longer,  he  might  have  informed  himself  into  quite  a  tolerable  train  of  extract.  But  we 
doubt  whether,  after  all,  they  could  have  indicated  other  than  the  researches  and  notices 
of  a  remarkably  small  man.  Had  nature  favored  him  with  a  modicum  of  the  discrimina- 
tion and  modesty  of  a  Lyell,  and  his  own  judgment  furnished  him  with  an  equal  dispo- 
sition to  investigate  for  himself  upon  the  broad  surface  of  our  country,  and  to  an  equal 
extent  that  his  own  vanity  and  self-complacency  permitted  him  to  appropriate  the  not  ex- 
ceedingly well  selected  subjects  from  the  toils  of  others,  his  own  countrymen  Avould  be 
better  instructed,  and  our  respect  for  his  rectitude  of  motive  bo  enhanced. 

His  stories,  by  way  of  illustrating  his  conclusions,  are  absurd  and  pointless;  his  pick- 
ings, of  matter  poured  forth  in  the  bitterness  of  party  feeling,  out  of  newspapers 
malicious  and  false;  and  the  occasional  anecdotes  which  he  chronicles,  as  told  him 


REVIEW. 


mischevious  waggery  of  others,  are  so  many  Munchausens  which  prey  upon  his  credulity. 
That  he  makes  some  sensible  and  proper  remarks,  and  arrives  at  occasional  right  conclu- 
sions, is  not  denied;  but  the  carping  spirit  in  which  he  generally  discusses  his  subjects, 
and  the  deprecatory  approbation  which  he  yields  when  he  can  no  longer  withhold  it,  are 
a  lively  testimony  to  the  grudging  temper  in  which  he  looks  upon  us  and  our  country. 
We  can  aflford  to  be  criticised — abused,  even — for  we  confess  to  many  and  frequent  delin- 
quencies— when  necessary,  and  done  with  smartness  and  discrimination  from  the  salient 
points  of  one's  own  observation;  indeed  a  little  wholesome  castigation  to  our  National 
self-complacency  may  be  at  times  most  wholesomely  administered;  but  Ave  choose  that  it 
be  done  by  the  hand  of  a  master.  For  the  donkey-like  reproof  of  a  quack  and  a  bungler, 
we  have  no  relish. 

We  sat  down  to  these  volumes  of  Professor  Johnston  with  the  anticipation  that  in  a 
man  of  pretended  attainments  in  our  own  favorite  science  of  agriculture,  and  its  attend- 
ant pursuits,  a  traveler  to  some  extent  in  the  way  of  his  profession,  on  the  European 
Continent,  and  now  in  the  maturity  of  his  intellect  and  the  vigor  of  his  mind,  coming  to 
a  country,  certainly  not  without  interest  to  an  intelligent  investigator  of  the  natural 
sciences,  to  make  his  professional  observations,  and  to  select  objects  of  interest  and  novel- 
ty for  the  instruction  of  his  countrymen,  we  should  find  something  both  rich  and  rare. 
A  reading  of  his  books  has,  to  be  sure,  discovered  to  us  much  in  either;  but  we  have  risen 
from  our  search  with  the  sorrowing  conviction  that  what  he  has  chronicled  as  rare,  is  not 
particularly  rich,  and  whatever  he  has  recorded  as  rich  is  not  at  all  rare.  Had  he  con- 
fined himself  simply  tohispro/l'sszonai,labors  and  investigations,and  they  been  reaZZy  labors 
and  investigations  of  his  own,  we  doubt  not  he  could  have  made  up  a  volume  of  matter 
both  interesting  and  instructive.  In  the  United  States  was  a  fresh  mine  of  vast  resource, 
inviting  both  his  chemical  and  his  agricultural  exploration.  He  chose  to  neglect  these, 
to  become  philosopher,  politician,  and  political  economist;  and  on  subjects  upon  which 
vastly  abler  foreigners  than  himself  have  preserved  a  discreet  silence,  or  written  but  mo- 
derately well,  he  has  poured  out  his  half-pledged  opinions  with  the  flippancy,  garrulity 
and  emptiness  of  a  TroUope,  and  a  Fidler.  A  parting  specimen  we  give  in  our  traveler's 
visit  to  Springfield,  when  speaking  of  the  national  armory  at  that  place.  "  Springfield, 
from  its  position  as  the  place  of  meeting  of  so  many  railways,  is  remarkably  well  chosen 
as  the  site  of  a  national  arsenal.  Weapons  for  300,000  men  can,  upon  the  first  telegraphic 
signal,  be  dispatched  either  up  the  Connecticut  towards  Lower  Canada,  through  Albany 
towards  the  Lakes,  or  to  the  Atlantic  shores  northward  by  Boston,  or  southward  by 
New-York."  A  school  boy  might  have  said  this  very  prettily.  But  it  so  happens  that 
this  national  armory  was  established  by  our  government  upwards  of  half  a  century  ago, 
when  Springfield  was  an  obscure  inland  town,  off  from  navigable  waters,  or  easy  commu- 
nication, and  for  the  very  reason  that  it  was  so,  and  a  long  generation  before  either  rail- 
ways or  telegraphs  were  known!  The  wisdom  of  Congress  in  this  matter  is  therefore,  as 
applied  by  our  Professor,  altogether  apocryphal.  The  accident  that  Springfield  lay  in 
a  central  position,  and  on  the  best  line  of  construction,  made  that  town  "  the  place  of 
meeting  of  so  many  railways."  The  railways  met  the  arsenal — not  the  arsenal  the  rail- 
ways. Our  Professor's  sagacity  in  this  matter  equals  that  of  his  philosophic  prototype, 
who  acknowledged  the  great  kindness  of  Providence  in  making  the  navigable  rivers  run 
by  the  great  towns  and  cities,  that  the  people  who  dwelt  there  might  be  accommodated  in 
their  shipping  facilities ! 

But  we  tire  of  quotations,  which  might,  of  like  character,  be  almost  indefinitely 
tended  from  the  two  volumes  before  us.     On  the  2Gth  March,  Mr.  Johnston  left  Bost 


VALUE  OF  GREEN-HOUSES  TO  INVALIDS. 


for  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut,  visited  Springfield,  Northampton,  Amherst,  and  Green- 
field. "Greenfield  is  a  small  town,  tisw,  straggling,  and  unfinished,  as  aZUhese  country- 
towns  are."  These  Connecticut  valley  towns,  we  believe,  are  about  two  hundred  years 
old!  For  the  first  time  he  now  appears  to  be  awalie  to  the  beautiful  scenery  of  our  coun- 
try. In  this  jaunt  he  is  received  by  every  one  on  whom  he  calls,  withcourtesv  and  mark- 
ed attention,  and  condescends  to  give  a  trifling  credit  for  it.  His  manners  r.end  with  the 
season,  and  probably  had  he  sojourned  during  the  summer  among  tlie  Yankees,  he  might 
have  become  as  agreeable  a  man  as  an  unpolished  manner,  and  an  uncouth  provincial  accent 
in  his  language,  would  have  permitted.  He  dashes  on  over  the  railway  to  Albany,  stops  a 
day  there,  and  goes  down  the  Hudson  to  Poughkeepsie  in  a  steamboat,  is  disappointed  in 
its  scenery — sees  nothing  to  admire,  and,  in  a  car  ride  along  the  banks  of  the  river  to  New- 
York,  makes  up  his  mind  that  he  "  was  not  in  a  condition  to  form  an  adequate  idea  of 
what  its  beauties  in  its  summer  garb  really  are!" 

From  New-York  to  New-Haven,  and  thence  to  Boston.  On  the  third  day  of  April, 
A.  D.  1850,  Professor  JonxsTON  leaves,  for  the  last,  as  well  as  only  time,  we  trust,  the 
shores  of  America,  for  England.  We  owe  an  apology  to  the  reader  for  spending  so  much 
time  upon  a  subject  so  little  to  our  taste  as  the  one  we  have  presented;  but  as  we,  in  com- 
mon with  our  agricultural  and  horticultural  friends,  had  expected  something  in  our  own 
line,  from  one  who  made  high  pretensions  while  here  to  instruct  us  in  things  both  new  and 
important,  we  have  noticed  his  book  but  to  chronicle  another  instance  of  the  sounding 
brass  and  tinkling  cymbal  that  so  often  greet  us  from  our  "  Cis-Atlantic"  teachers.  We 
have  done  it  also  as  a  thorough  confirmation  of  the  fact  that  a  foreigner  in  "  getting 
up"  a  book  of  travels  on  America,  has  but  to  "steam"  it  across  the  Atlantic,  trundle  a 
thousand  or  two  miles  over  our  railways,  gather  up  half-a-dozen  Champagne  baskets  of 
travels,  pamphlets,  official  reports  of  Legislatures,  and  societies— this  last  not  much  mat- 
ter what — hold  a  conversation  now  and  then  with  an  ostler,  tide-waiter,  or  barkeeper, 
"steam"  it  home  again  with  all  possible  despatch,  and  become  a  most  accomplished 
"professor"  of  book-making  on  America !  Jeffreys. 


THE  VALUE  OF  GREEN-HOUSES  TO  INVALIDS. 

BY  DR.  STEVENS,  NEW-YORK. 

We  ask  the  especial  attention  of  readers  interested  in  the  subject,  to  the  following  re- 
marks, by  one  of  the  most  distinguished  physicians  in  the  country,  on  the  sanitary  effects 
of  green-houses.  At  a  moderate  cost,  many  a  family  might  enjoy  the  delightful  bloom  and 
fragrance  of  exotics  in  winter,  with  the  satisftiction  of  providing  for  an  invalid  member  of 
that  family,  the  soothing  influences  of  the  air  of  IMadeira  or  Cuba.  In  a  public  point  of 
view  the  matter  is  even  more  important — as  Dr.  S.  truly  suggests.     Ed. 

Dear  Sir:  Having  for  many  years  suffered  from  a  pulmonary  complaint,  I  am  led  to 
avail  myself  of  your  Journal,  to  offer  some  observations  on  a  subject  lying  mid-way  be- 
tween our  respective  callings.  Some  ten  or  twelve  years  since,  in  visiting  the  green-house 
of  Mr.  Niblo,  then  my  neighbor  in  Broadway,  during  the  winter,  I  found  the  atmosphere 
exceedingly  congenial.  It  abated  my  cough,  rendered  the  expectoration  loose  and  easy, 
softened  the  skin,  and  induced  a  comfortable  state  of  feeling,  approaching  to  exhileration. 
Wishing  to  have  such  an  atmosphere  at  command,  I  constructed  a  cold  grapery,  in  which. 

No.  IX.  2. 


ISABELLA  GRAPE— ITS  HISTORY,  &.c. 

whenever  it  has  been  convenient,  I  have  passed  the  hours  of  reading  and  study.  The  cli 
mate  of  a  cold  green-house,  in  a  sunny  day  of  the  winter  or  spring,  is  a  Florida  climate, 
and  is  entirely  different  from  that  of  an  artificially  heated  atmosphere.  I  venture  to  re- 
commend it  under  most  circumstances,  to  pulmonary  invalids,  in  preference  to  the  more 
expensive  plan  of  removal  to  the  South,  involving,  as  it  does,  much  discomfiture,  inter- 
ruption of  business,  hazardous  exposure,  and  entire  separation  from  friends. 

While  on  this  subject,  I  am  induced  to  speak  of  the  importance  of  glass  structures  for 
convalescents  in  hospitals.  The  New-York  Hospital  has  already  been,  and  the  Ward's 
Island  Hospital  will  soon  be  provided  with  such  structures,  of  which  the  importance  can 
scarcely  be  over-estimated.  Who  that  has  noticed  the  instinctive  desire  of  man  and  ani- 
mals, to  bask  in  the  sun,  Avill  fail  to  appreciate  the  advantage  of  providing  the  means  of 
such  enjoyment  for  those  who  are  able  to  leave  a  sick  room. 

And  now,  sir,  I  leave  the  matter  in  your  hands.  What  men  of  wealth  may  do  for  them- 
selves, and  what  the  public  may  do  for  its  charities,  the  public  should  do  for  the  middling 
classes  and  the  poor.     They  should  establish  winter  gardens  in  all  our  great  cities. 

I  am,  &c.  A.  H.  Stevens. 

Astoria,  Long-Island,  July  17,  1851. 


THE   ISABELLA   GRAPE  — ITS    HISTORY,   etc. 

BY  L.  F.  ALLEN,  BLACK  ROCK,  N.  Y. 

Fruits — indeed  anything  which  have  become  celebrated — are  an  interesting  subject  of 
history.  Of  such  is  the  Isabella  Grape,  a  story  about  which,  many  years  ago — perhaps 
twenty — I  chronicled  in  the  Genesee  Farmer,  published  in  Rochester.  As  my  attention 
was  again  called  to  the  subject  a  day  or  two  since,  in  a  pleasant  interview  with  my  old 
friend  and  acquaintance.  General  Joseph  G.  Swift,  long  connected  with  our  armj^,  and 
for  many  years  past  with  the  Topographical  Engineer  Corps  of  the  general  government, 
and  now  a  resident  of  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  I  refer  to  it  for  the  purpose  of  putting  the  record  in 
a  more  enduring  form  in  the  pages  of  the  Horticulturist. 

I  first  knew  the  Isabella  grape,  when  a  boy,  in  Norwich,  Connecticutj  about  the  year 
1817  or  18.  It  then  grew  in  several  gardens  there,  and  from  its  great  luxuriance,  and  the 
fine  flavor  of  its  fruit,  I  became  exceedingly  interested  in  its  origin.  The  parent  vine  was 
traced  to  the  garden  attached  to  what  was  called  the  "  Vernet  House,"  which  stood  near 
what  was  then  "  the  Landing,"  now  Norwich  city.  Into  that  garden,  some  years  before 
the  late  war  with  England,  say  1807,  8,  or  9,  the  grape  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Vernet, 
a  French  West  Indian,  who  built  the  house,  and  there  resided  several  years.  Where  he 
brought  the  grape  from  was  unknown;  but  as  he  was  largely  engaged  in  the  West  India 
trade,  it  was  supposed  he  brought  it  from  one  of  the  French  West  India  islands.  The 
vine  then  had  no  other  name  there,  than  the  "  Vernet  Grape."  I  have  since  grown  it 
from  cuttings  obtained  from  the  original  stock  in  Norwich,  and  roots  of  the  Isabella  sent 
me  from  the  Brooklyn  nurseries,  side  by  side;  and  the  vines,  in  leaf,  growth,  habit,  and 
fruit,  were  identical. 

In  the  city  of  New-York,   about  1825,  or  '6,  I  became  acquainted  with  the  Isabella 
Grape,  and  immediately  recognised  it  as  the  Vernet  Grape  of  Norwich.      In  1828,  the 
late  William  Prince,  nurseryman,  of  the  Linnsean  Garden,  in  Flushing,  Long-Isl 
published  "  A  Short  Treatise  on  Horticulture,"  on  page  51  of  which  occurs  the  follow 


ISABELLA  GRAPE— ITS  HISTORY,  &c. 

^'Isabella  Grape. — This  is  an  American  Grape,  a  native  of  Dorchester,  South  Caroli- 
na, and  was  introduced  into  this  state  by  Mrs.  Isabella  Gibbs,  the  lady  of  George 
GiBBS,  Esq.,  of  St.  Augustine,  who  then  resided  at  Brooklyn,  Long  Island,  and  in  honor 
of  that  lady,  has  been  called  Isabella  Grape." 

In  his  description  of  the  grape,  which  follows,  Mr.  Prince  further  remarks:  "This 
grape,  of  which  but  a  single  vine  existed  in  any  gartLii  in  181G,  and  which  I  at  that  time 
met  with  in  the  possession  of  the  gentleman  before  mentioned,  (alluding  to  Gen.  Swift,) 
and  deemed  worthy  of  a  notice,  and  a  name,"  &c. 

In  the  recent  conversation  referred  to  with  Gen.  Swift,  he  remarked:  "  The  Isabella 
Grape  originated  eight  miles  from  Charleston,  S.  C,  at  Goose  Creek,  in  a  garden.  It  is 
a  hybrid  between  a  Burgundy  Grape,  introduced  by  the  early  Ilugenots,  who  settled  in 
South  Carolina,  and  the  /bx  Grape  of  that  state.  The  Isabella  Grape  was  taken  from  the 
garden  where  it  originated,  to  Mr.  N.  Smith's  plantation,  on  Cape  Fear,  in  South  Caroli- 
na, and  from  there  was  carried  by  Mrs.  Col.  Gibbs,  to  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  I  afterwards 
purchased  the  residence  and  garden  of  Col.  Gibbs,  where  I  found  the  grape,  and  first  in- 
troduced it  to  the  late  Mr.  Prince.  He  proposed  to  name  it  after  Mrs.  Swift.  I  repli- 
ed. No.  Let  justice  be  done;  call  it  after  her  who  introduced  it  here,  Mrs.  Gibbs — her 
name  is  Isabella,  and  the  grape  was  so  named." 

Such,  unquestionably,  is  the  history  of  the  Isabella  Grape,  so  far  as  its  introduction  into 
Brooklyn,  and  its  name  is  concerned.  At  what  time  the  grape  originated,  or  was  first 
known  in  South  Carolina,  Genl.  Swift  has  no  knowledge.  It  may  have  been  cultivated 
many  years  in  the  neighborhood  of  its  origin;  and  from  Charleston  Mr.  Vernet  may  have 
obtained  it,  as  it  has  not  since  been  known  as  a  West  India  grape,  and  between  Charles- 
ton and  Norwich  then,  more  than  now,  existed  much  commercial  intercourse.  Yet  this 
is  not  certain.  But  certain  it  is,  for  near  ten  j'ears — possibl^r  more — the  grape  was  known 
in  Connecticut,  before  it  was  in  Brooklyn.  Genl.  Swift  also  stated  to  me  that  he  wrote 
an  account  of  the  grape  and  its  introduction  to  Mr.  Prince,  for  Skinner^s  j^merican 
Farmzr,  published  in  Baltimore,  in  1819  or  '20. 

To  the  above  account,  while  in  the  mood,  I  will  devote  a  moment  to  a  brief 

Gossip  on  Grapes. 

Earl}'^  in  last  October  I  spent  a  delightful  week  in  Cincinnati.  It  was  the  week  of  their 
great  State  Cattle  Show,  their  grand  Horticultural  Jubilee,  and  it  was  also  a  week  of  hos- 
pitality, of  kindness,  and  polite  attentions,  from  those  residents  with  whom,  together  wMth 
some  of  my  neighbors,  and  friends  of  my  own  state,  I  became  acquainted.  During  our 
sojourn  there,  we  visited  the  finest  and  most  extensive  vine3Mrds  in  the  neighborhood, 
Mr.  LoNGwORTii's,  Mr.  Buchanan's,  Mr.  Ernst's,  !Mr.  Resor's,  and  others.  The 
luscious,  large,  plump,  and  M'onderfully  developed  fruit  of  the  Catawba,  then  in  their  full 
ripeness,  excelled  any  oiii-(Zoor  native  grapes  I  ever  beheld,  not  excepting  the  finest  Isa- 
bellas of  Long  Island,  or  the  Hudson  valley — hardly  excelled,  indeed,  by  the  Black 
Hamburgh  of  a  hot-house;  and  the  numerous  vineyards  of  the  Catawba,  dotting  the  hill- 
sides and  valle3^s,  from  an  area  of  a  few  rods,  to  fifteen  acres  in  extent,  around  the  city, 
to  an  eastern  man,  were  truly  a  luxury  to  look  upon.  This,  too,  is  the  grand  grape 
of  the  Ohio  valley,  and  the  onl}'  good  table  grape,  except  the  Ilerbemont,  which  I 
found  in  the  garden  of  Mr.  Longworth,  that  attracted  my  attention.  The  Ilerbemont  is 
small,  but  of  a  delicious,  mild  and  aromatic  flavor;  and  from  a  sample  of  its  wine,  tasted 
L.'s,  it  must  become  a  valuable  loine  grape, 
in  the  Isabellas,  of  which  there  are  man^'  cultivated  there,  I  was  disappointed 


ISABELLA  GRAPE— ITS  HISTORY,  &c. 

They  are  not  more  than  two-thirds  the  size  of  those  of  New-York,  inferior  in  juice  and 
flavor,  and  most  of  them  had  a  shrivelled  appearance.  Possibly  the  soil,  (a  friable  lime- 
stone clay,)  is  in  fault,  for  a  finer  climate  to  perfect  their  growth  and  ripening,  I  can  hard- 
ly imagine.  And  such,  I  was  told,  is  the  usual  character  of  the  Isabella  at  and  about 
Cincinnati. 

En  passant  on  jlmcrican  wines.  I  was  familiarly  chatting  not  long  since,  at  a  dinner 
table  over  a  glass  of  wine,  with  a  distinguished  American — I  could  tell  his  name,  but  for 
the  thought  that  I  were  boasting  of  a  great  man's  acquaintance  and  friendship — and  I 
named  the  Champagne  Catawba  of  Cincinnati.  "Don't  tell  me  of  j^merican  yvmas," 
said  he — "  we  have  a  thousand  good  things  in  America — more  than  any  where  else — but 
we  can't  make  good  wines.  The  uo/canic  and  other /ria6Ze  soils  of  western  Europe,  swept 
by  the  Atlantic  winds,  are  the  only  good  wine  soils  of  the  world,  we  hear  of.  From  the  north- 
ern coast  of  the  Mediterranean  we  get  some  tolerable  wines.  In  eastern  Europe,  and  Asia, 
we  know  of  none.  In  California  and  on  our  Pacific  coast,  we  may,  in  time,  produce  good 
wines — possibly  from  the  native  grape  found  there;  and  when  so,  we'll  talk  of  Ameri- 
can wines.  But  for  the  present  we  must  be  content  to  grow  cotton  and  wool,  and  our  other 
valuable  products  for  the  wine  countries  of  Europe,  and  let  them  grow  wines  for  us  in  re- 
turn." Perhaps  it  is  so;  for  I  could  not  gainsay  authority  so  high  on  such  a  subject,  as 
on  many  others,  from  which  there  is  hardly  an  appeal. 

Yet,  the  Champagnes  and  Ilocks  of  Cincinnati,  are  largely  drank  at  the  best  public 
tables  there,  and,  I  am  told,  preferred,  at  the  same  price,  to  the  foreign  Champagnes  and 
llocks.     Time  must  3'ct  test  this  matter.  Yours  truly,  Lewis  F.  Allen. 

BmcIc  Rock.  Juli/,  1S51. 

PiEMARts. — Mr.  Allen's  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Isabella  grape  is  a  valuable  con- 
tribution to  our  history  of  native  fruits.  There  is,  we  think,  no  doubt  whatever  that  the 
Isabella  grapes  in  general  cultivation  over  the  country  at  large,  all  sprung  from  the  origi- 
nal South  Carolina  vine  whose  history  is  correctly  given  by  Gen.  Swii'T.  But  there  is  no 
reason  whatever  for  thinking  that  vine  to  have  been  a  hybrid  between  the  Fox  grape  and 
the  foreign  Burgundy.  There  are  indeed,  two  very  good  reasons  to  the  contrary.  The 
first  is,  that  any  good  botanist  and  vegetable  physiologist  need  not  be  told  that  the  Isa- 
bella is  a  pure  unmixed  native  grape,  like  the  Catawba — having  unmistakable  character- 
istics of  growth  and  flavor,  without  a  particle  or  trace  of  the  habits  of  the  grapes  of  Eu- 
rope— a  distinct  species :  the  other  is,  that  it  differs  so  little  from  the  native  Vitis  la- 
brusca,  or  summer  grape,  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its  being  merely  a  good  accidental  seed- 
ling. What  Mr.  Allen  says  about  the  Yernet  grape  which  he  knew  many  years  earlier, 
goes  to  show  that  other  similar  seedlings  had  accidentally  sprung  up  earlier  than  that  which 
is  now  known  as  the  Isabella,  and  we  have  also  once  found  a  wild  vine  of  this  species  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  so  nearly  like  the  Isabella  as  not  readily  to  be  distinguished  from  it. 
The  fact  that  a  West  India  grape  would  not  be  hardy  in  this  latitude,  settles  the  conjecture 
touching  that  origin  of  the  variety. 

There  is,  unfortunately,  no  well  authenticated  proof  that  our  native  grape  has  ever 
been  hybridised  with  the  grapes  of  Europe.  All  our  seedlings,  so  far  proved,  are  chance 
seedlings — but  we  believe  some  of  our  pomologists  are  now  busy  with  the  experiment  of 
crossing  the  species  if  possible — to  effect  a  more  speedy  amelioration  of  the  hardy  native 
varieties.  A  cross  between  Black  Hamburgh  and  Isabella,  giving  us  the  size  and  luscious 
flavor  of  the  former,  and  the  hardiness  of  the  latter,  would  be  worth  untold  thousands, 
to  American  wine,  the  question  is  no  longer  a  mooted  one — so  far  as  Hock  and 
ing  wine  is  concerned — for  the  last  and  best  vintages  of  the  Ohio,  have  to  our  own 


CULTURE  OF  AQUATICS  AND  NATIVE  PLANTS. 

knowledge,  been  tasted  this  year  by  some  of  the  best  judges  in  our  Atlantic  cities — judges 
familiar  with  the  same  grade  of  Avines  on  the  Rhine — who  rate  the  Ohio  wines  very  high, 
both  for  flavor  and  boqait.  The  Ohio  will  soon  become  as  famous  for  light  wines,  as  the 
Rhine. 

We  have  no  reason,  as  yet,  to  disagree  with  Mr.  Webster  (for  we  presume,  from  having 
heard  this  remark  before,  that  our  correspondent  refers  to  that  gentleman)  respecting  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  different  soil  and  climate  from  ours,  in  this  portion  of  the  Union,  for  the  produc- 
tion of  good  dry  wines  of  the  same  grade  as  Madeiras  and  Sherries.  But  we  understand 
from  good  authority,  that  California  not  only  possesses  these  requisites,  but  has  actually 
begun  to  produce  excellent  wines  of  this  character.     Ed. 


NOTES  ON  THE  CULTURE  OF  AQUATICS  AND  NATIVE  PLANTS. 

BY  DR.  ]MUNSON,  NEAV-IIAVEN,  CT. 

Dear  Sir — For  the  gratification  of  such  of  your  readers  as  may  have  a  taste  for  the 
cultivation  of  aquatic  plants,  and  have  not  an  appropriate  situation  for  their  culture,  I 
would  subjoin  for  the  Horticulturist,  (should  you  think  it  worth  a  place  there,)  a  plan 
for  growing  them  on  a  small  scale;  and  give  j'ou  a  description  of  an  aquarium  in  the  gar- 
den of  J.  L.  CoMSTOCK,  M.  D.,  of  Hartford,  Ct. 

It  consists  of  a  cheaply  constructed  box,  made  of  thick  pine  boards,  roughly  put  to- 
gether, about  sixteen  feet  long,  fifteen  inches  wide,  and  twenty  deep,  open  at  the  top  only, 
having  partitions  and  spaces  proportioned  to  the  room  allotted  to  each  plant,  or  parcel  of 
plants,  the  divisions  being  from  one  to  two  feet  apart.  These  spaces  are  filled  nearly  full  of 
soil  appropriate  to  the  plants,  and  the  water  is  supplied  generally  in  sufficient  abundance 
from  a  roof,  by  rains,  through  a  trough  leading  to  them,  all  excess  running  off. 

In  this  the  Doctor  had  quite  an  interesting  group  of  wildings,  which  have  luxuriated 
in  their  native  vigor,  apparently  unconscious  of  any  inferiority  to  some  of  their  exotic 
neighbors. 

Among  them  I  noticed  the  white  Water  Lily,  (^NymphcBa  odorata.)  The  Pitcher  plant, 
(^Sarracenia  purpurea.')  The  Cardinal  ilower,  (^Lobelia  cardinaUs ,")  Vacdnium  oceycoc- 
cus,  j^corus  calamus,  Typha  latifulia,  Chelonc  glabra,  Caltha  palustris,  &c.,  &c.  In 
the  vicinity,  the  Doctor  had  introduced,  and  had  growing  in  perfection,  many  other  inte- 
resting native  flowering  plants  and  trees.     The  following  are  some  noticed  by  me: 

Lygodium  palmatum,  Habinaria  grandiflora,  Jlrctostaphxjlos  uva  ursi,  beautifully 
flourishing,  Aster  cyaneus,  Asarum  canadense,  Osmunda  regalis.  Several  species  Cor- 
nus.  Viburnum,  Salix,  and  Rhododendron.  Also  jI ristolochia  sipho,  from  the  Cats- 
kill  mountains,  a  most  luxuriant  climber.  Leptinthus  gramineus;  beside  species  of  the 
Yucca,  Epilobium,  Thalictrum,  Sedum,  Clethra,  Liutris,  Ludwigia,  Staphylea,  Eaony- 
mus,  Equ'situm,  Viola,  &c.,  and  Solidago  odora,  very  flourishing.  This  latter  species  is 
Avorth  cultivating  for  its  fragrance.  It  is  rare  about  New-Haven,  and  I  know  of  but  one 
localit}'  of  its  growth  here.  It  is  diflicult  to  detach  a  root  from  the  parent  stock,  but  I 
find  on  trial  it  grows  well  from  slips  placed  in  a  hot-bed. 

Now  while  on  this  subject  it  may  be  worth  while  to  ask  why  are  not  more  of  our  own 

flowering  plants  and  shrubs  cultivated  among  us;  they  grow  more  vigorously 

foreign  species,  and  there  are  many  of  them  which  feAV  of  our  own  people  ever 


A  RURAL  SKETCH  IN  THE  SANDWICH  ISLAiNDS. 

which  adorn  the  gardens  of  the  wealthy  in  Europe.     I  would  only  allude  to  a  few  as  an 
example  of  the  large  class  of  numerous   native  species  worthy  of  attention. 

How  many  beauties  we  have  in  the  single  class  of  orchidacea.  In  it  are  the  Calypso 
borealis,  Gynmodenia  flava.  The  genus  Cypripedium,  Oichis,  Arethusa,  Pogonia,  &c. 
&c.  The  families  Lilicca  and  Rosacea,  &c.,  afford  many  more  beautiful  species.  Of  the 
trees,  shrubs,  &c.  my  time  will  not  at  present  permit  any  extended  remarks.  The  genus 
Staphylea  affords  three  species,  one  native  of  our  country,  the  frijolia,  one  of  the  West 
Indies,  one  of  Europe.  Where  is  there  a  prettier  ornamental  shrub  than  our  Staphylea 
trifoiia?  Its  beautiful  striated  stalks,  symmetrical  shape,  and  inflated  capsules  of  seeds, 
vigorous  growth,  and  being  uninfested  by  any  insect,  all  recommend  it  strongly  for  cul- 
tivation in  pleasure  grounds.  Of  evergreens  we  have  one  which  is  common,  but  its  capa- 
bilities are  scarcely  at  all  known,  or  its  cultivation  would  supersede  many  others  which 
make  far  inferior  appearance.  I  mean  the  Jlbies  canadensis,  commonly  called  hemlock  and 
Spruce  Pine.  In  its  native  localities  it  is  a  fine  tree,  but  when  trimmed  in  and  shaped 
into  such  form  as  it  is  capable  of,  [allowed  to  grow  and  develop  freely  on  all  sides.  Ed.] 
it  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  evergreens,  and  of  all  others,  seems  to  me  most  worth 
cultivating;  plants  of  it  under  four  or  six  years  of  age,  set  out  in  March  or  April,  make  a 
good  hedge,  and  it  lives  under  other  trees  better  than  most  evergreens,  but  for  trimming  in 
as  symmetrical  garden  trees,  or  for  ornamental  single  trees,  its  excellence  consists,  and  plants 
not  over  three  years  old  are  best;  as  they  are  kept  trimmed  they  become  very  compact,  re- 
sembling the  Irish  Yew;  although  handsomer,  have  been  mistaken  for  it. 

The  seeds  of  this  tree  are  generally  eaten  by  birds  or  more  of  them  might  be  found. 
Their  cultivation  from  seed  requires  particular  management;  they  germinate  well,  but  great 
numbers  die.     Can  you  oblige  us  with  the  result  of  some  of  your  own  experience. 

Very  respectfully  yours,  A.  L.  Munson,  M.  D. 


A  RURAL  SKETCH  IN  THE  SANDWICH  ISLANDS. 

BY  W.   H.  .T.,  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Honolulu — .We  let  go  anchor  abreast  of  the  town  about  3  P.  M.,  and  were  imme- 
diately surrounded  by  canoes  and  bum-boats,  swarming  with  natives,  who  rushing  up  to 
us,  pulled  out  what  looked  like  diploma  cases  made  of  bambo,  and  handed  us  innumerable 
certificates  of  being  good  washermen;  some  of  the  papers  stated  that  the  bearers  were  ar- 
rant rogues,  and  would  steal,  cheat,  and  lie,  and  the  scamps  thought  we  viewed  them  as 
most  exemplary  characters. 

Pu.shing  oui"  way  through  the  crowd,  and  nearly  deafened  by  their  clamor,  we  were  pad- 
dled ashore  in  canoes  with  outriggers  to  prevent  their  capsizing,  and  strolled  through  the 
town.  Thje  streets  were  filled  with  natives,  some  of  them  almost  in  a  state  of  nature, 
and  others,  well  dressed;  the  women  walked  in  crowds  covered  with  garments  tied  about 
the  neck  and.  hanging  to  the  ground,  of  cotton  or  flaring  silk,  resembling  walking  rainbows. 

Hundreds  of  them  squatted  along  the  sidewalks  on  their  haunches,  which  is  the  com- 
mon mode  of  resting,  jabbering  and  staring  at  the  "Ouries"  or  foreigners. 

Honolulu  is  a  pretty  city  and  the  tropical  plants  hanging  over  the  walls,  and  trees 
sheltering  the  sidewalks,  give  it  a  cool  and  delicious  appearance;  it  having  rained  this  day, 

erything  looked  fresh  and  green,  the  air  delightful,  and  sweet  odours  filling  the 


TANNIC  ACID  FOR  STRAWBERRIES. 


Nearly  all  the  squares  are  surrounded  by  mud-walls  or  sun-dried  brick,  the  houses  all 
standing  off  the  streets.  Some  of  the  houses  belonging  to  foreigners  are  beautiful,  being 
composed  of  coral  taken  by  divers  from  its  bed  in  the  ocean.  The  squares  enclosed  by 
the  mud-walls  are  filled  with  grass  houses  in  which  the  natives  live,  and  are  large,  cool 
and  impervious  to  rain  and  more  preferable  to  live  in,  in  this  climate,  than  those  construct- 
ed of  any  other  material. 

An  extinct  crater  called  the  "  Punch  buwl,^'  rises  back  of  the  city,  and  on  its  sides  are 
mounted  cannon,  which  conmiand  the  place;  within  the  crater  is  a  beautiful  valley,  Mhere 
multitudes  of  goats  are  continually  grazing.  The  city  is  bounded  by  the  sea  on  one  side 
and  lofty  mountains  on  the  other,  while  a  low  narrow  valley  leads  from  it  through  the 
mountains,  making  a  splendid  and  much  frequented  drive,  with  handsome  trees  planted 
on  each  side,  for  seven  miles,  where  the  valley  terminates  in  an  abrupt,  perpendicular 
precipice,  called  the  Pare,  over  which  Kameiiameha  the  First  drove  thousands  of  his  ene- 
mies down  several  hundred  feet,  and  not  a  single  one  escaped. 

Kameuameiia  the  Third,  lives  in  a  fine  large  house,  surrounded  by  a  beautiful  garden, 
and  near  him  lives  his  mother,  a  great  fat  old  lady  with  a  suite  of  half  naked  natives  al- 
ways at  her  heels,  dozens  falling  into  the  procession  as  she  walks  the  streets.  His  Ila- 
Avaiian  majesty  is  a  good  looking,  stout  fellow,  and  sports  a  genuine  Broadway  mustache. 

After  spending  the  day  on  shore,  we  hunted  everywhere  for  a  house  to  rent,  unsuccess- 
fully, and  a  Kanacka  or  nc-itive,  overhearing  our  conversation,  accosted  us  with,  "  me  find 
good  house,  no  too  much  money,"  so  we  followed  our  sable  mercury  until  we  obtained  a 
good  house,  in  the  centre  of  a  square  filled  with  trees  and  flowers,  opposite  the  king's 
palace;  here  we  soon  established  ourselves,  and  lived  in  a  style  of  "  oriental  magnificence" 
(excepting  the  magnificence!)  with  nothing  to  do  but  send  our  "  Tamarre"  or  servant  up 
one  of  ourcocoanut  trees,  and  revel  in  the  nuts  and  milk. 

I  was  here  enabled  to  add  many  tropical  plants  to  my  already  large  herbarium.  Our 
landlady,  being  a  chieftess,  wanted  to  give  me  her  daughter  (aged  13)  in  marriage,  but 
not  being  ambitious  to  become  allied  to  the  aristocracy,  I  respectfully  but  firmly  declined. 

The  old  lady  had  many  visitors  of  the  softer,  if  not  the  fairer  sex,  and  if  perchance  we 
would  be  indulging  in  the  luxury  of  a  genuine  oak-leaf-IIavanna,  or  meerschaum,  the  la- 
dies would  stop  and  gently  remove  said  luxury'  from  our  mouths,  and  much  to  our  unso- 
phisticated consternation,  would  take  a  whiff  or  two,  and  pass  it  around,  then  politely 
return  it,  with  a  grunt  of  approbation  or  a  "  miti,"  (good).  These  eccentricities  Ave  soon 
grew  accustomed  to,  and  soon  learned  to  rub  noses,  and  smoke  the  pipe  of  peace,  when  we 
wished  to  conciliate.  Yours,  &c.,  W.  J.  H. 


TANNIC    ACID   FOR  STRAWBERRIES. 

BY  11.,  ALBANY,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  Downing — I  do  not  understand  how  tannic  acid  can  be  a  specific  food  for  the 
strawberry.  This  has  been  asserted  by  Prof  Mapes,  at  a  meeting  of  the  American  Insti- 
tute Farmers'  Club,  and  your  correspondent.  Dr.  Hull,  and  yourself,  allude  to  it  in  the 
August  number  of  the  Horticulturist.  I  do  not  doubt  the  good  effects  of  mulching  straw- 
berry plants  with  old  tan-bark — the  question  is  as  to  the  hypothesis  by  which  the  result 
is  attempted  to  be  explained.  Is  it  known  that  the  strawberry  feeds  on  tannic  acid 
on  what  is  the  assertion  founded?  So  far  we  are  Avithout  any  clew  to  the  "  why  and 


TANNIC  ACID  FOR  STRAWBERRIES. 


fure"  of  Prof.  M.'s  idea,  unless  the  statement  of  his — put  forth  at  the  same  meeting  of 
the  American  Institute  Farmers'  Club, — that  "  toads  eat  strawberries,"  is  to  be  taken  as 
an  illustration.  Perhaps  it  is  held  that  tannic  acid  is  a  specific  food  for  toads,  and  that 
the  toughness  of  their  skins  is  owing  to  the  tanning  they  have  undergone  from  the  effects 
of  that  acid,  contained  in  the  strawberries  the  animals  had  eaten! 

But  does  any  one  suppose  that  tannic  acid  exists  in  the  strawberry?  If  it  did,  it  would 
be  an  anomaly,  as  the  malic,  tartaric,  and  citric,  are  the  distinguisliing  acids  of  fruits; 
and  though  I  cannot  refer  to  any  chemical  examination  of  the  strawberry,  it  is  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  its  acid  is  one  of  these.  Tannic  acid  may,  to  be  sure,  exist  in  the  stem 
and  root,  and  so  it  does  in  many  other  plants,  to  which  it  has  never  been  thought  of  ap- 
plying it  as  food.     Plants  have  probably  the  power  of  elaborating  their  own  acids. 

Again,  is  it  even  known  that  old  tan-bark  contains  any  appreciable  amount  of  tannic 
acid?  It  is  well  known  that  tanners  use  it  as  long  as  any  tanning  "  liquor"  can  be  made 
from  it,  and  it  is  only  thrown  aside  as  "  spent  tan,"  when  the  tanning  principle  has 
been  thoroughly  extracted.  The  acid  which  then  remains  is  probiably  the  gallic.  The 
beneficial  effects  of  the  bark  as  a  mulch,  are  probably  chiefly  mechanical — preserving  the 
moisture  and  friabilit}'  of  the  soil.  When  mixed  with  the  soil,  however,  it  decomposes 
slowly,  and  may  thus  form  a  source  of  carbonic  acid,  on  which  it  is  known  plants  feed. 
But  its  value  as  manure  is  little  or  nothing  till  its  natural  acid  is  gone. 

Can  a  single  instance  be  cited  of  the  beneficial  application  of  tannic  acid  to  plants?  As  a 
general  thing,  we  know  there  is  nothing  more  unwholesome  for  them  than  astringent  acids. 
For  example,  peat  or  muck,  from  hemlock  swamps,  (and  sometimes  from  other  localities,) 
frequently  contains  a  considerable  amount  of  tannic  acid,  and  when  first  dug,  it  is  not 
onl}'  valueless  as  food  for  plants,  but  positively  injitrioibs — turning  the  leaves  yellow,  and 
checking  the  growth.  The  substance  does  not  operate  as  manure,  till  rain,  frost,  and  air 
have  dissipated  the  acid. 

It  is  true  that  strawberries  have  been  known  to  grow  well  in  reclaimed  bogs;  so  have 
Indian  corn,  potatoes,  beans,  &c.;  but  is  there  any  more  evidence  that  tannic  acid  con- 
tributed to  the  growth  of  the  former  than  the  latter?  Neither  will  grow  well,  till  the 
surf\ice  of  the  soil  has  become  changed  and  sxoietemd  by  decomposing  agents.  Cranber 
ries,  however,  grow  natural]}',  on  bogs,  without  any  preparation  of  the  soil:  but  it  has 
ever  been  pretended  that  tannic  acid  was  a  specific  food  for  this  plant,  and  its  sour  prin- 
ciple is  known  to  be  citric  acid.  H. 

A.bany,  Aug.  1,  1S51. 

Remarks. — It  is  we  believe  understood  from  recent  chemical  analysis  that  tannic  acid 
forms  a  part  of  the  strawberry  plant,  (not  the  fruit,)  and  it  is  upon  this  ground  that  it  is 
considered  especially  beneficial  to  strawberry  beds.  From  our  own  experience  we  cannot 
positively  speak  of  beneficial  effects  from  tan,  considered  as  a  specific  manure.  But  as  a 
malchzr  we  consider  it  by  fiir  the  beet  we  have  ever  tried  for  strawberry  beds. 

Prof.  Mapks,  however,  in  a  conversation  that  we  had  with  him  a  short  time  ago,  as- 
sured us  that  he  had  watered  his  beds  with  diluted  tannic  acid  with  good  results,  and  we 
hope  he  will  give  liis  own  more  complete  experience  for  the  benefit  of  our  correspondent. 

Tan-bark,  fresh  from  the  pit,  does  Ave  tliink  contain  a  considerable  amount  of  tannic 
acid — as  we  have  known  it  to  injure  very  delicate  plants,  though  robust  ones  do  not  mind 
it  at  all.     Ed. 


PRESERVIiNG  FRUITS  ANK  VEGETABLES. 


THE  BEST  WAY  OF  PRESERVING  FRUITS  AND  VEGETABLES. 

BY  H.,  DAYTON,  O. 

Your  June  number  has  a  communication  from  "  L.,  of  South  Carolina,"  asking  infor- 
mation as  to  the  proper  method  of  preserving  fruits  and  vegetables,  with  the  flavor  of  those 
freshly  gathered. 

Though  too  late  for  any  fruit  but  peaches,  or  vegetables,  except,  perhaps,  tomatoes,  this 
season,  I  will  send  3'ou  the  method  I  have  successfully  practiced  fur  five  years,  in  keeping 
gooseberries,  cherries,  plums,  peaches,  peas,  Lima  beans,  green  corn,  and  tomatoes. 

Tin  cans,  of  about  three  quart  capacity,  are  a  convenient  size  for  an  ordinary  family; 
the  hole  in  the  top  should  be  about  three  inches  diameter,  and  the  cover  pierced  with  as 
minute  a  hole  as  possible.  Fill  the  can  with  the  prepared  fruit,  solder  the  top  on,  place  it 
over  the  fire  in  a  pan  or  ketlSe,  containing  water  enough  to  rise  within  an  inch  of  the  top 
of  the  can,  and  heat  until  the  contents  attain  the  temperature  of  boiling  water,  then  close 
the  hole  in  the  cover,  and  the  thing  is  done. 

For  peas,  Lima  beans,  and  corn,  I  have  found  it  better  to  manage  somewhat  difFerentl}^, 
and  I  think  cans  of  about  one-half  the  size  above,  sufficient,  for  the  reason  that  these  last 
should  be  eaten  directly  after  being  opened,  while  the  others  may  be  easily  kept  a  da^^  or 
more  in  cool  weather,  if  not  all  needed  at  once.  Peas  and  beans  are  put  in  water  and 
brought  to  the  boiling  point,  then  filled  into  the  cans  hot,  sealed  up,  and  the  cans  im- 
mersed in  boiling  water,  where  they  should  remain  half  an  hour  at  least.  Corn  is  treated 
in  the  same  way,  using  milk  instead  of  water — I  do  not  know  whether  the  cans  filled  hot 
need  any  aperture  for  the  escape  of  air — this  depends  upon  the  rationale  of  the  Avhole 
process.  Ure,  in  his  Dictionary,  suggests  that  its  preservative  propertj^is  effected  by  the 
small  quantity  of  air  which  he  assumes  is  retained  in  the  can,  becoming  carbonized,  but  I 
think  that  where  there  is  an  aperture  for  the  escape  of  tlie  contained  air,  the  steam  from 
the  water  within  M'ill  force  out  the  whole  of  the  air,  so  that  the  can,  closed  immediately 
and  cooled,  contains  nothing  but  the  fruit  and  its  juice,  or  the  vegetables,  and  the  water  or 
milk  in  which  they  were  boiled.  If  the  first  explanation  is  correct,  no  aperture  need  be 
left,  as  there  will  be  so  little  difference  of  temperature  between  the  can  full  of  heated  ve- 
getables, and  the  boiling  point  to  which  they  are  to  be  again  raised,  that  there  will  be  no 
danger  of  bursting  the  can;  and  it  will  avoid  some  trouble,  for  it  sometimes  exercises  the 
patience  and  temper  of  an  amateur  tinker  to  close  the  can  securely  when  hot,  and  the  steam 
excited  by  the  touch  of  the  hot  soldering  iron — but  if  the  latter  be  right,  the  hole  in  the 
crater  must  be  made  for  the  escape  of  all  the  air. 

I  am  confirmed  in  the  latter  view  from  facts  of  my  own  experience.  We  sometimes  put 
up  fruit  in  glass  or  stone-ware  jars,  tied  over  with  a  double  bladder.  These  are  tied  se- 
curely before  they  are  heated,  and  of  course  contain  air  where  not  occupied  with  fruit — but 
we  invariably  find  about  half  an  inch  in  depth,  from  the  top  of  the  fruit,  spoiled.  This, 
I  think,  must  be  the  effect  of  the  small  portion  of  air  contained — but  mj'  facts,  i.  c.  ex- 
periences, are  probably  more  interesting  than  my  philosophy,  and  the}^  are  impregnable. 

In  our  communit}^,  prcserVi'd  [I  mean  preserved  in  sugar  or  syrup]  peaches,  plums, — 
indeed  the  whole  catalogue  of  these  monsters  of  indigestion,  aie  becoming  "  rara  aves"  be- 
fore the  economy  and  luxury  of  this  better  way. 

I  infer  this  will  not  meet  your  correspondent's  views,  M'ho  evidently   expected  to  pre- 
serve his  strawberries  with  the  moisture  of  the  morning  dew  gleaming  upon  their 
sides,  and  his  peaches  with  their  bloom  untarnished,  but  it  is  the  next  best  thin 


FLORICULTURAL  PERFECTION. 


besides,  the  best  now  at  our  command,  I  mean  vre  of  the  great  public,  for  I  believe  there 
are  some  dealers  who  possess  the  art  of  preserving  strawberries,  and  of  course  less  deli- 
cate fruit,  with  the  fresh  flavor  and  beauty — and  if  we  think  it  worthy  commendation  and 
premiums  to  originate  a  valuable  kind  in  any  variety  of  fiuit  or  vegetables,  would  it  not 
be  worth  while  to  offer  a  premium  of  corresponding  value  for  the  method  of  preserving 
the  fruit  of  a  week  or  a  month,  for  enjoyment  during  the  whole  year,  in  its  original  deli- 
ciousness.  If  the  secret  could  not  be  purchased  at  a  reasonable  rate  of  its  present  pos- 
sessors, would  not  a  premium  of  one  or  five  hundred  dollars  encourage  a  competent  and 
practical  chemist  (a  spice  of  horticultural  furor  would  be  no  disqualification  for  the  task) 
to  attempt  its  discovery.  The  "  chicken  in  every  subject's  pot"  would  fade  forever  before 
strawberries  at  Christmas,  without  hot-bed  or  furnace,  or  the  "price  of  a  Knight's  ran- 
som." Yours,  &c.  H. 

Dayton,  O. 


FLORICULTURAL  PERFECTION. 


There  are  few  persons,  even  among  our  most  experienced  horticulturists,  on  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic,  who  know  to  what  perfection  floriculture  is  canied  in  some  parts  of  Eu- 
rope, where  certain  plants  are  made  the  object  of  especial  attention  and  admiration.  Every 
one  has  heard  of  the  Tulip  and  Hyacinth  cultures  of  Holland,  and  the  Rose  culture  of 
France,  but  no  where  are  the  entire  perfections  of  floriculture  carried  to  so  high  a  pitch, 
at  the  present  moment, 
as  in  Great  Britain.  In 
the  first  place,  we  must 
remember  that  gardening 
is  the  passion  of  many 
of  the  nobles  and  persons 
of  the  largest  wealth  in 
that  kingdom;*  in  the 
second  place  that  the  gar- 
deners are  a  highly  intel- 
ligent reading  class;  in 
the  third  place  that  labor 
is  comparatively  cheap, 
and  lastly  that  the  pr-izcs 
given  at  the  great  horti- 
cultural fetes  have  bro't 
all  the  best  horticultural 
talent  into  a  wide  field 
of  competition. 

The  result  of  these  va- 
rious  circumstances   has 

been  to  make   the    two  Gardema  Stanleyana. 

great  horticultural  fetes  of  England — those  of  the   Horticultural  Society   and  the  Royal 
Botanic  Society — the  most  wonderful   sights,  to  a  lover  of  horticultural   skill,  that  the 

Lawrence,  the  wife  of  an  eminent  physician  near  London,  who  is  one  of  the  most  successful  competitors  at 
reat  shows,  is  said  to  spend  $30,000  a  year  on  her  gardens, 


FLORICULTURAL  PERFECTION. 


:fe^. 


■'   0^  ^  i^ 


.^^tJs^rj 


CURCULIO— VERSUS  UJME  AND  SULPHUR, 

world  has  ever  known.  Although  Britain  is  by  no  means  a  propitious  climate,  for  fruit, 
(we  believe  Voltaire  said  the  only  ripe  fruit  England  yielded  was  a  baked  apple,)  the  dis- 
plays of  grapes,  peaches,  pine-apples,  and  other  choice  pomonal  treasures,  at  these  shows, 
are  in  point  of  size  and  beauty,  if  not  in  flavor,  hardly  to  be  equaled  by  any  part  of  the 
world  where  these  separate  fruits  grow  naturallj^,  Avith  all  the  advantages  of  a  genial 
climate. 

Our  attention,  however,  was  most  attracted  by  the  specimens  of  exotic  plants  grown  by 
the  leading  florists  and  gardeners,  and  shown  at  these  exhibitions.  Species,  that  we 
usually  know  only  as  lean  and  indifferent  in  habit — because  all  attention  to  high  develop- 
ment is  denied  them,  here  showed  the  same  superiority  to  the  specimens  as  commonly 
grown,  that  a  fine  thorough-bred  animal  does  over  a  lean,  starved  creature  of  the  coun- 
try stock.  It  was  not  merely  that  the  flowers  were  finer,  or  the  plants  healthier,  or  the 
foliage  fresher,  but  that  the  whole  plant  had  been  developed  with  a  perfection  of  growth, 
symmetry,  and  luxuriance,  that  we  had  never  seen  elsewhere,  and  that,  in  fiict,  has  never 
been  seen  until  the  last  ten  years. 

We  give,  to  illustrate  our  remarks,  three  very  accurate  portraits  of  rare  plants  shown 
at  these  exhibitions  last  year.  Most  of  our  readers,  who  have  a  taste  for  exotics,  will 
understand  at  a  glance  how  different  these  specimens,  loaded  with  flowers  at  every  point, 
fresh  with  health  in  every  pore,  are  from  the  same  things  as  most  of  us  know  them  in  our 
collections.  It  is  one  thing  to  be  able  to  keep  plants  alive,  and  another  to  bring  them  to 
the  highest  development  which  art  and  nature  conjointly  make  possible. 


THE  CUR CULIO— VERSUS  LIME  AND  SULPHUR. 

BY  THOMAS  W.  LUDLOW,  Jr.,  YONKERS,  N.  Y. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — As  as  it  appears  by  a  writer  in  the  last  number  of  the  Horti- 
culturist, that  Mr.  Longworth,  of  Cincinnati,  has  not  as  j'et  succeeded  in  preventing  the 
attacks  of  the  curculio,  and  that  his  theory  is  wrong;  that  the  instinct  of  the  insect  teach- 
es it  not  to  deposit  its  eggs  in  the  fruit  of  trees  paved  underneath,  or  those  leaning  over 
water,  or  in  any  such  situations,  where  its  eggs  cannot  be  hatched,  or  the  grub  protected 
during  its  transformation,  I  must  beg  him,  as  well  as  all  the  unsuccessful  cultivators  of 
smootli  skin  fruit,  not  to  despair,  for  there  is  a  remedy  at  hand,  and  a  very  simple  one,  too. 

To  wit — (for  facts  are  all  that  are  wanted  in  this  matter,)  having  about  t\venty  plum 
trees,  which  have  blossomed  freely  for  the  last  six  years,  but  have  never  ripened  any  fruit, 
I  was  induced,  by  reading  a  notice  in  the  Horticulturist  last  year,  of  the  efficacj^  of  lime, 
to  try  two  trees,  hy  syringing  them  with  white-wash  made  of  unslaked  lime,  with  a  hand- 
fid  or  two  of  flour  of  sulphur  mixed  through  it. 

Just  after  the  fall  of  the  blossom,  I  observed  that  much  of  the  fruit  was  stung.  Then, 
in  order  to  give  the  lime  and  sulphur  a  fair  chance,  I  shook  the  trees,  and  gathered  about 
thirty  curculios,  after  which  each  tree  was  syringed  with  a  ]iailful  of  white-wash  and 
the  above  quantity  of  sulphur,  which  was  repeated  twice  more,  allowing  three  daj-s  to  in- 
tervene between  each  application. 

I  am  now  happy  to  state,  that  one  of  the  trees  is  so  heavily  laden  with  plums,  that  I 
obliged  to  prop  the  limbs.  It  is  a  common  variet}'',  but  however,  I  invite  all  those 
e  inclined,  to  come  and  see  it,  as  it  is  a  rare  thing  in  these  parts,  whore  even  com- 


EXPRESSION  IN  ARCHITECTURE. 


mon  plums  are  almost  unknown.     The  trees  stand  in  a  soil  the  best  adapted  for  the  nur- 
sery off  all  kinds  of  insects,  being  warm,  dry,  and  sandy. 

I  have  observed  that  the  syiinging  not  only  checked  the  ravages  of  the  curculio  them- 
selves, but  destroyed  the  vitality  of  their  eggs  deposited,  and  thus  insures  the  fruit,  even 
though  it  had  the  scar  of  the  puncture  already  upon  it.     Truly  yours, 

Thos.  W.  Ludlow,  Jr. 

Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  AJigvst  12,  1851. 

We  are  glad  to  get  so  straight-forward  an  account  of  a  successful  experiment,  from  a 
correspondent  who  is  a  pains-taking  horticulturist,  and  whose  accuracy  ma}'  be  relied  on. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  some  of  the  lime-wash  experiments  have  failed — but  so  far  as 
we  know,  Mr.  Ludlow's  addition  of  sulphur  is  new,  and  may  prove  more  effectual.     Ed. 


ON   EXPRESSION   IN  ARCHITECTURE. 

BY  S.  H.— FROM  THE  LONDON  BUILDER. 

A  GREAT  part  of  the  diiBculty  in  reference  to  decorative  expression  arises  from  our  con- 
tracting too  much  the  field  of  our  resources,  from  a  neglect  of  many  sources  from  which 
the  fibres  of  architecture  should  be  nourished.  Egyptians,  Indians,  Greeks,  Romans, 
Venetians,  and  our  own  mediaeval  architects,  drew  their  inspiration  from  the  highest  foun- 
tains then  open  to  them;  and  we  see  the  poet  and  the  orator  ransack  all  nature,  existing 
art, and  science,  for  similies  and  metaphors Mherewith  to  vivify  their  works.  Now  architec- 
ture, to  be  a  living  art,  and  reflect  to  posterity  the  divine  of  humanity,  must  do  likewise: 
it  must  move  with  the  general  march  of  mind,  and  grow  with  the  increase  of  knowledge: 
it  must  digest  every  improvement  in  science,  and  draw  its  vitality  and  power  from  every 
accessible  source. 

The  entire  language  of  architecture  is  really  a  copious  one:  all  nature,  animate  and  in- 
animate, and  all  extant  art,  offer  themselves  as  models  to  the  architect.  The  botanist, 
the  geologist,  the  naturalist,  the  chemist,  the  archteologist, — all  explorers  and  expounders 
of  nature,  of  history,  and  of  art,  are,  though  they  may  not  be  aware  of  it,  benefactors 
to  architecture;  but  their  gifts  have  been  but  partially  applied  to  the  enrichment  of  the 
poetry  or  the  strengthening  of  the  expressive  faculties  of  the  art. 

Modern  sculpture,  as  applied  to  architecture  as  well  as  sculpture  generally,  has,  I  am 
well  aware,  a  different  province  to  that  of  the  ancients,  which  was  to  express  the  natural 
idea  of  their  deities  as  promulgated  by  the  poets,  and  which  was  conceived  after  the  ana- 
logy of  humanity.  The  Greek  sculptures  are  hieroglyphics  of  Pagan  theology :  the  gods 
of  the  Greeks  partook  of  the  character  of  men,  and  coming  within  the  shade  of  human 
passion,  and  actuated  by  human  motives,  they  admitted  of  personal  representation.  As 
we  conceive  of  the  Deity  in  a  totally  different  manner,  as  filling  immensity  and  "inhabit- 
ing eternity,"  no  graven  image,  however  warm  with  the  fire  of  genius,  will  answer  to  our 
ideas.  "\Ye  must,  therefore,  be  careful  how  we  draw  from  heathen  mythology  for  the  em- 
bellishment and  illustration  of  Christian  churches. 

Objects  emploj^ed  in  Pagan  rites  are  unfit  emblems  for  such  structures;  but  Christiani- 
ty has  its  own  subjects  and  sacred  objects  of  illustration,  which  may  be  iipplied  to  the 
classic  architecture  as  well  as  to  the  Gothic.     In  the  sculpture,  painting,  stained  glass, 
the  middle  ages,  the  patriarchs,  apostles,  and  saints  were  distinguished  by 
iar  attributes,  or  by  some  particular  circumstance  allusive  to  sacred  history,  just 


EXPRESSION  IN  ARCHITECTURE. 

were  the  gods  and  heroes  of  antiquity.  More  rational  and  artistic  compositions  than 
many  of  these  could  doubtless  be  formed;  but  they  might  be  made  the  basis  of  a  system 
worthy  of  the  present  advanced  state  of  art  and  religion.  Surely  Scripture  yields  a  suf- 
ficient field  for  this,  and  sculpture  could  embody  the  sacred  memories  and  associations  of 
our  religion, — the  sublime  personages  of  Bible  history,  as  well  as  the  myths  and  allegories 
of  the  ancients.  For  secular  purposes,  the  case  is  different;  and  though  faith  has  ceased 
to  be  exercised  in  the  Thunderer  of  Olj-mpus,  and  the  emp3'real  conclave  of  subordinate 
divhiities,  j'et  a  great  portion  of  Greek  mythology  and  allegor^^  will  apply  to  our  general 
purposes;  and,  as  fur  as  they  are  so  applicable,  they  are  unimprovable.  Their  is  some- 
thing so  exquisite  in  the  conceptions  of  these  ideal  and  figurative  beings,  which  so  beauti- 
fully personify  the  different  qualities,  physical  or  moral,  that  they  represent, — their  roots 
are  so  deep  in  nature, — that  they  must  ever  have  a  potent  spell  upon  our  feelings  and 
imagination.  For  emblematic  illustration,  what  could  be  superior  to  the  attributes  and 
emblems  of  the  mythology?  The  helmet  and  lance  were  the  symbols  of  war,  and  maj^  be 
such  while  war  continues.  The  lyre  and  laurel  branch  are  still  appropriate  symbols  of 
harmony  and  fame.  The  myrtle-branch  and  the  dove  were  to  characterise  affection,  and 
may  still  do  so,  as  the  palm  branch  and  M'reath  may  announce  victory,  and  the  olive,  peace. 
Though  .symbols  of  a  banished  creed,  do  they  not  belong  to  humanity?-  Xo  more  natural 
and  beautiful  emblem  of  justice  than  the  equal  balance  could  be  conceived:  the  hoodwink 
of  Impartiality,  the  veil  of  I\Iodesty,  the  bridle  of  Temperance,  are  unrivalled  in  their 
significant  beauty.  Festoons,  wreaths,  garlands,  to  whatsoever  they  owe  their  origin, 
have  been  universally  received  among  cultivated  nations  as  representative  of  certain  ideas, 
a:id  may  still  be  so  employed  while  art  shall  need  them.  Symbolism  and  allegory  are  a 
source  that  has  been  inadequately  drawn  upon  in  modern  architecture:  yet  it  is  surely  an 
artistic  one.  The  Greek  architecture  spoke  bj'^  it,  and  emblems  were  invented  when  an- 
cient art.  had  reached  a  high  point  of  perfection.  The  trope  and  metaphor  of  poetry  and 
Scripture  are  used  on  the  same  princii)le, — to  illustrate  and  strengthen  the  intended  idea. 
What  striking  morals  are  conveyed  by  allegorical  persons  and  things  in  poetry  I  The 
destination  of  some  buildings  cannot  be  distinguished  from  that  of  others  by  an  appeal  to 
analogy  alone,  and  therefore  a  further  language  is  required;  and  here  is  one  of  almost  in- 
finite scope,  that  supplies  genius  with  a  boundless  field  of  invention, — a  rich  and  beautiful 
language,  and,  withal,  a  natural  one,  for  we  are  instinctively  prone  to  allegorise:  personi- 
fication is  the  natural  language  of  feeling  and  imagination. 

But  whatever  mode  of  illustration  we  adopt,  we  must  not  neglect  our  own  national  re- 
sources. In  drawing  from  British  litei-ature  and  history,  and  embodying  in  stone  the 
creations  of  our  poetr}^  or  the  great  historical  personages  of  our  country,  we  follow  the 
highest  ancient  examples,  and  such  subjects  generally  will  be  more  interesting  to  English 
hearts  than  the  brightest  imaginings  of  Homer  and  Ilesiod.  Thus  enriched,  we  should 
find  no  difficulty  in  characterizing  our  respective  works.  The  destinations  of  modern  edi- 
fices are  not  too  numerous  in  their  variety  to  be  distinguished,  when  all  our  resources 
are  drawn  upon,  and  all  our  unwrought  elements  organized.  The  various  arts  and 
sciences, — the  different  virtues,  have  their  respective  natural  emblems;  the  Romans  dei- 
fied all  the  virtues,  and  gave  them  their  appropriate  attributes,  or  distinguished  them  by 
their  attire,  and  such  creations  we  could  not  improve.  The  instruments  used  in  the  vari- 
ous arts  and  sciences  have  been  emplo3'^cd  on  buildings  as  indications  of  their  devotion  to 
these  arts,  and  they  may  be  still  employed  with  the  greatest  propriet}'.  We  do  well  to  im- 
ise  in  stone  the  fading  forms  of  nature;  but  artificial  forms  are  often  called  fo 
not  only  be  useful  in  expression,  but  conducive  to  beauty :  many  musical  and 


EXPRESSION   IN   ARCHITECTURE. 

art  instruments  are  graceful  in  form,  and,  while  so,  they  are,  though  the  work  of  man, 
also  reflections  of  the  work  of  God. 

The  representing  literally  the  use  of  a  building  b}--  means  of  sculpture  or  painting,  with 
a  view  to  rendering  the  work  completely  phonetic,  good  taste,  I  think,  would  not  sanc- 
tion: the  phonetic  quality  is  not  called  for  or  desirable  in  architecture, — nor  are  painting 
and  sculpture  higher  arts  than  architecture,  from  being  phonetic:  if  they  were,  the  lowest 
branch  of  literature  might  claim  precedence  of  it.  The  subject  of  Paul  preaching  at 
Athens,  on  the  facade,  or  in  the  pediment  of  a  building,  would  speak  plainly  enough  of 
Christian  worship;  but  this  mode  of  expression  would  be  more  prosaic  than  poetical,  and 
would  remind  us  too  much  of  the  significant  hat  or  boot  of  colossal  dimensions,  that  pro- 
ject into  some  of  our  trading  streets. 

T  observed  above  that  one  style  is  better  fitted  for  expressing  a  given  character  than 
another.  Now,  this  peculiar  and  exclusive  fitness  for  one  purpose,  eminently  character- 
izes the  Gothic  or  pointed  style  of  architecture,  which  deserves  separate  notice  here.  The 
Gothic  system  is  not  what  many  of  the  advocates  of  the  classic  styles  have  asserted  it  to 
be, — an  incoherent  style,  unnatural  and  false  to  principle,  devoid  of  all  harmony  and  pro- 
portions. Nor  is  it  full  of  inconsistencies  and  caprices,  as  contended  by  others.  Incon- 
sistencies and  caprices  appear  only  at  first  sight,  and  to  superficial  or  prejudiced  observers. 
The  great  monuments  of  this  style  evince  the  most  striking  intention  of  purpose,  and  a 
power  of  expressive  grandeur  and  sublimity  in  harmony  with  that  purpose,  which  no 
other  system  could  have  secured.  But  Gothic  architecture,  notwithstanding,  will  never 
become  the  universal  style.  It  is  only  adapted  to  the  expression  of  qualities  analogous 
to  sacred  uses,  and  will  be  the  more  sacred  in  its  associations  from  being  exclusively  de- 
voted to  such  uses.  The  cathedrals  and  churches  erected  during  the  Gothic  period  were 
exactly  adapted  to  the  Roman  Catholic  ritual — the  form  of  devotion  then  in  use,  to  pro- 
cessions and  every  other  ceremony  connected  with  the  religious  service  of  the  day.  Music, 
for  example,  was  an  important  part  of  the  service,  and  the  cathedrals  were  built  so  as  to 
give  the  finest  effect  to  music:  thej'^  were  covered  interiorly  Avith  sculptural  and  pictorial 
decoration  in  harmony  with  the  spirit,  and  symbolizing  the  leading  points  of  belief;  and 
like  the  maze  of  material  beauty  in  nature  speaking  also  of  the  eternal  splendor  and  sub- 
limity. There  was  a  completeness  of  adaptation,  a  conspiracy  for  the  expression  of  one 
idea,  perhaps  never  before  or  since  exhibited.  "Then,"  says  Meuzel,  in  his  history  of 
Germany,  "  the  pile  resounded  and  spoke,  like  God  from  the  clouds,  from  its  lofty  tower, 
or  alternately  sorrowed  and  rejoiced,  like  man,  in  the  deep  swelling  organ:  the  arts  of  the 
founder  and  musician  were  each  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  Church."  The  Tudor  style 
is  suited  to  all  buildings  of  a  domestic  character,  but  ecclesiastical  Gothic,  applied  to  civil 
or  domestic  purposes,  is  out  of  its  natural  element,  and  must  present  to  the  eye  of  taste 
inconsistency  of  the  grossest  kind.  It  can  have  no  harmony  or  sympathy  with  ideas  and 
enternrizes  of  earth,  which  it  seems  to  spurn.  It  speaks  not  home  to  men's  "  every  day 
business  and  bosoms."  It  is  all-aspiring,  like  the  flame,  heavenward;  and  finds  a  solu- 
tion of  its  mystery  only  in  the  faith  that  points  to  worlds 

"  Far  above  the  clouds  and  beyond  the  tomb." 

In  respect  of  mere  sensuous  beauty,  it  (Gothic  architecture)  cannot  compare  with  the 
Greek,  which  possesses  the  most  exquisite  adaptation  of  form  and  style  to  every  variety 
of  purpose;  but  I  have  spoken  of  it  as  regards  its  vitality  and  power  and  truthfulness  to 
its  original  and  peculiar  purpose:  as  regards  its  application  to  ecclesiastical  uses  and  power 
analogous  and  symbolical  expression,  Gothic  architecture  is  a  perfect  system ;  it  fills  a 
and  holy  place  in  art,  to  which   it  Is  wonderfully,  we  might  almost  say  divinely, 


EXPRESSION  IN  ARCHITECTURE. 


adapted;  and  I  would  have  it  respected  like  a  tliiug  set  apart,  and  which  nothing  secular 
should  profane.  It  must,  however,  be  observed  that  for  general  purposes  of  expression,  an 
architect  need  not  fetter  his  genius  to  the  particular  mode  or  style  of  any  age  or  country  past 
or  present.  Indeed  so  fettered  he  cannot  give  suitable  expression :  his  self-imposed  manacles 
will  be  among  the  causes  of  his  failure.  On  observance  of  distinct  style  beauty  is  not  de- 
pendant, and  an  expressive  character  may  be  given  without  it :  nay,  architecture  itself  may  be 
conceived  of  as  distinct  from  style:  style  is  the  servant — an  useful  one — of  architecture,  but 
not  its  master.  A  building,  I  apprehend,  might  be  so  designed  and  erected  as  to  exhibit 
no  trace  of  any  style  known  in  the  world,  and  j-et  be  good  architecture, — a  real  work  of 
art.  The  circumstances  of  climate  and  situation  under  which  an  edifice  is  to  be  built, 
and  its  destined  use,  may  be  so  peculiar  as  to  dictate  a  form  of  structure  and  style  of 
decoration  differing  from  any  thing  existing;  j'et  an  unbiassed  attention  to  such  dictation 
might  result  in  an  artistic  and  meritorious  production.  It  belongs  to  the  very  idea  of  a 
fine  art  as  distinguished  from  the  mechanical  arts,  to  yield  the  utmost  scope  to  the  inven- 
tive faculties  throughout;  and  the  remark  applies  to  architecture  as  far  as  consistent  with 
the  prior  demands  of  utility, — the  first  law.  The  critic  should  therefore  be  taught  to 
judge  of  architecture  independently  of  stj'le,  and  in  reference  onl}'  to  philosophical,  i.e., 
abstract  architectural  principle.  We  should  not  consider  whether  two  or  more  features 
we  would  wish  to  introduce  into  a  design  belong  to  one  style,  and  were  emploj-ed  together 
in  ancient  examples;  but  whether  they  would  naturally  harmonize.  With  all  due  reve- 
rence for  Italian  architecture,  I  hesitate  not  to  say,  that  as  a  style  or  system  of  architec- 
tural design,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  With  its  members,  its  mouldings,  as  with 
words,  we  have  to  do.  We  have  to  resolve  it  into  its  original  elements,  taking  due  ad- 
vantage of  what  Italy  or  modern  design  has  contributed  to  the  general  stock  as  additional 
words  enriching  and  swelling  the  antique  languages,  for  the  expression  of  English  ideas. 
Using  it  otherwise,  might  remind  one  of  a  tradesman  or  shopkeeper  going  to  his  brother 
trader  instead  of  the  merchant  for  his  goods.  We  might  as  well  take  the  French  archi- 
tecture, or  the  Spanish  modification  of  the  classic:  the  error,  different  indeed  in  degree, 
would  be  the  same  in  kind.  Why  use  a  translation  when  we  can  read  the  original?  Or 
go  to  a  derived  system,  when  we  can  have  access  to  the  parent  source? 

But  whatever  the  style,  or  whether  we  have  style  or  not,  the  present  purposes  of  our 
buildings,  be  those  purposes  what  they  may,  must  govern  the  form  or  plan,  which  should 
be  precisely  what  the  purpose  requires, — adapted  to  situations  and  circumstances  without 
reference  to  the  associations  of  past  art,  or  the  requirements  of  deceased  institutions.  The 
signs  of  language  or  elements  we  use,  must  be  employed  not  in  repeating  ancient  thoughts, 
and  feelings,  and  purposes,  but  in  clothing  the  ideas  of  to-daj'-  with  a  material  form.  The 
purpose  or  destination  is  to  a  building  what  the  subject  or  fable  is  to  a  poem,  and  like  the 
subject  in  the  poem,  this  purpose  should  thrill,  as  it  were,  through  every  part,  and  beam 
from  every  feature.  The  idea  of  its  design  must  be  conceived  in  accordance  with  our  habits 
and  manner  of  life,  customs,  worship,  &c.,  according  as  it  is  public  or  private,  and  that 
idea  of  its  use  or  destination  must  pass  like  a  spirit  into  the  building,  and  pervade  and 
animate  it.  Art  owns  nature  and  reason,  not  precedeiit,  for  her  lav/-giver;  "it  is  not 
metre,  but  a  metre-making  argument,  that  makes  the  poem."  Nor  is  it  columns  and  en- 
tablatures, nor  arcades  and  buttresses,  that  constitute  architecture.  "  For  works  which 
are  the  result  of  the  mere  connexion  of  even  beautiful  forms,"  observes  a  German  writer 
on  Art,  "  would  themselves  be  without  all  beauty,  as  that  which  gives  beautj^  to  the 
whole  cannot  be  form.  It  is  beyond  form — it  is  the  essential,  the  universal,  the  ai 
and  expression  of  the  indwelling  spirit  of  nature."  S 


RENOVATING  OLD  PEAR  TREES. 

ON  RENOVATING  OLD  PEAR  TREES. 

BY  A  BOSTON  SUBSCRIBER. 

Dear  Sir — Many  of  your  readers  living  in  the  sea-board  states,  have  in  their  gardens 
old  pear  trees  of  fine  sorts,  principally  St.  Michels,  Butter  pears,  St.  Germains,  or  other 
well  kno«'n  vaiieties,  that  have  fallen  into  disrepute.  The  reason  of  this,  as  most  of  the 
writers  of  the  day  affirm,  is,  either  that  the  varieties  are  worn  out,  or  else  the  soil  is  ex- 
hausted of  the  food  that  once  enabled  these  trees  to  bear  such  fine  crops  of  beautiful  pears, 
as  they  were  once  in  the  habit  of  doing,  annualI3^ 

I  suspect  there  is  some  truth  in  both  these  conjectures.  In  other  words,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve the  fine  old  pears,  such  as  the  St.  Michel  and  St.  Germain,  can  by  any  process  be  re- 
stored to  precisely  the  same  state  of  health  and  productiveness  that  belonged  to  them 
forty  years  ago,  in  this  part  of  the  country;  but  at  the  same  time,  I  think  it  can  be  easily 
proved  that  they  can  be  made  productive,  and  that  a  worn  out  soil  is  practically  the  cause 
of  much  of  the  degeneracy  which  we  see  here  among  the  fine  old  pears. 

Your  readers  will  no  doubt  remember  some  brief  directions  which  you  gave  in  one  of 
the  early  volumes  of  the  Horticulturist,  for  renovating  old  pear  trees.  As  several  of  my 
acquaintances  in  this  county  have  tried  the  experiment,  and  as  I  have  myself,  dabbled  a 
little  in  the  matter,  I  hope  you  will  allow  me  to  make  a  few  comments,  with  a  view  to  con- 
tributing something  to  the  stock  of  useful  knowledge  on  this  subject. 

The  principle  assumed  in  the  directions  given  to  renovate  old  pear  trees,  is,  that  the  soil 
of  our  worn  out  fields  and  gardens,  has  become  deficient  from  long  cultivation,  in  the  mi- 
neral substances  needful  for  the  perfect  growth  of  the  fruit.  These  substances  are  espe- 
cially lime,  potash  and  phosphates.  In  order  to  supply  these  deficiencies,  it  was  recom- 
mended to  apply  liberally,  lime,  ashes  and  bone  dust.  This  was  coupled  with  directions 
to  add  fresh  soil,  rejecting  the  old  soil,  and  a  considerable  quantity  of  animal  manure. 

As  many  persons  like  to  get  at  a  given  object  with  as  little  trouble  as  possible,  they 
have  doubtless  failed  in  recovering  old  pear  trees,  because  they  have  trusted  solely  to  a 
liberal  top-dressing  of  the  said  ashes,  lime  and  bone  dust.  Such  top-dressing  will,  of 
course,  benefit  a  young  and  healthy  tree — but  they  are  by  no  means  sufficient  to  renovate 
one  that  has  stood  'in  the  same  place  for  twenty  or  thirty  years — and  exhausted  the  soil 
as  far  as  the  roots  extend,  of  not  only  the  necessary  mineral,  but  also  animal  or  vegetable 
matters.  I  will  recount  the  treatment  of  three  trees  that  have  particularly  come  under 
my  own  inspection,  to  illustrate  this  position,  as  well  as  to  show  the  real  value  of  the  mi- 
neral manures. 

These  three  pear  trees  were  all  of  the  St.  Michel  or  Doyenne  variety.  They  stood  on 
the  north  side  of  an  old  kitchen  garden — were  all  about  twenty-five  years  old — had  borne 
many  good  crops  of  fruit — but  had  cracked  and  failed  for  ten  years  past. 

To  begin,  all  these  trees  had  trenches  dug  round  them,  and  the  roots  were  partially  laid 
bare  of  the  old  soil. 

The  first  one,  (which  I  shall  call  No.  1,)  had  good  soil  put  back,  mixed  with  half  a 
bushel  air-slaked  lime,  two  bushels  ashes,  leached,  and  half  a  peck  of  bone  dust. 

No.  2  had  no  lime  or  ashes,  but  about  three  cart  loads  of  strong  stable  manure  incorpo- 
rated with  the  fresh  soil  that  was  filled  in  the  trench  and  about  the  roots. 

3  had  the  same  quantity  of  lime,  ashes  and  bone  dust,  as  No.  1,  and  the  same  quan- 
stable  manure  as  No.  2. 


No,  IX. 


RENOVATING  OLD  PEAK  TREES. 


This  is  now  three  years  ago.  All  the  trees  have  greatly  improved.  No.  2,  which  had 
only  manure,  has  made  a  good  growth,  but  the  fruit  is  still  imperfect.  No.  1,  which  had 
only  the  mineral  manures,  bears  much  better  fruit  than  it  formerly  did,  but  the  tree  is  not 
vigorous.  No.  3,  which  had  a  plentiful  supply  of  both  mineral  and  animal  manure,  is  not 
only  very  much  the  most  luxuriant  tree,  but  is  loaded  with  a  crop  of  St.  Michels  that 
reminds  me  of  "  old  times." 

Does  not  this  experiment  prove  that  to  renovate  an  old  pear  tree,  it  is  not  suflBcient  to 
give  it  lime,  potash,  and  the  like?  I  think  so.  But  there  are  other  points  which  are 
worth  a  moment's  attention. 

The  first  is,  that  an  old  tree,  with  stunted  short  branches,  which  have  grown  perhaps 
onlj"-  two  or  three  inches  per  annum,  for  five  j^ears  past,  is  not  in  a  condition  to  be  roused 
into  healthy  growth,  even  by  both  kinds  of  manures.  For  such  a  tree,  it  is  necessary  to 
use  the  knife,  in  order  to  force  the  tree  to  re-ad  or  rouse  itself  a  little — to  make  new  wood 
— to  put  out  fresher  and  larger  leaves — in  short,  get  up  a  new  set  of  sap-vessels  at  the 
extremities,  which  are  not  so  choked  up  and  sluggish  in  action  as  the  old  stunted  ones. 

The  right  way  to  do  this  is  to  shorten-back  the  ends  of  the  limbs — say  from  six  inches 
to  a  foot,  all  over  the  tree.  The  more  the  tree  is  stunted — the  more  it  should  be  cut  back. 
But  never  "trim  out"  the  large  branches  of  an  old  pear  tree  severely — as  this  often  has 
a  tendency  to  cause  the  fire  blight.  The  shortening-back  may  be  done  in  early  autumn 
or  spring.     I  prefer  March.     The  best  time  for  the  "  renovating"  is  in  the  autumn. 

The  second  point,  is  to  keep  the  tree  well  mulched  over  the  surface  of  the  ground  that 
covers  the  roots.  The  best  things  for  this  purpose  I  believe  to  be  salt-hay — or  tan  bark. 
It  should  be  spread  as  far  as  the  roots  extend — or  better  still,  half  as  far  again.  The 
roots  of  trees  actually  luxuriate  in  the  cool  and  moist  soil  that  is  always  to  be  found  un- 
der the  mulching — even  in  this  hot  and  dry  season,  when  otherwise,  the  top  soil  would  be 
as  parched  as  powder. 

Although  I  have  given  you  but  three  examples  of  pear  trees  renovated,  I  have  seen 
several  others  which  go  to  illustrate  with  greater  or  less  force  the  facts  I  have  stated.  The 
older  and  more  stubborn  the  subject,  the  more  it  becomes  necessary  to  give  it  a  very  liberal 
supply  of  both  animal  and  mineral  manures.  But  once  applied  in  the  manner  I  have  di- 
rected, it  will  not  probably  be  requisite  again  for  several  years,  or  perhaps  an  annual  top- 
dressing  of  the  same  substances  would  be  sufiicient  for  a  long  time  afterwards. 

I  am  sir,  yours,  A  Boston  Subscribkr. 

Boston,  Jug.  1851. 

We  thank  our  Boston  Subscriber  for  his  practical  communication,  which  we  cordially 
approve.  Old  pear  trees  that  have  become  barren,  need  an  abundant  supply  of  animal 
manure  as  well  as  mineral,  to  rouse  them  into  a  state  of  renewed  growth  and  fruitfulness. 
We  were  present  lately  at  a  discussion  which  took  place  respecting  the  application  of  sub- 
stances to  renovate  old  pear  trees — in  which  one  of  the  experimentors  declared  his  utter 
failure  and  want  of  faith  in  any  such  results.  Another  gave  an  account  of  a  fine  old  tree 
most  completely  renovated  by  a  plentiful  drenching  of  the  soil  about  its  roots  with  "bul- 
lock's blood,"  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  manures,  containing  both  organic  and  inorganic 
food  for  plants.    Ed. 


STUDY  OF  PARK  TREES. 

STUDY    OF   PARK   TREES. 

[  SEE  FRONTISPIECE.  ] 

There  is  as  much  difference  between  a  wild  forest  tree  and  a  park  tree,  as  between  a 
wild  horse  and  the  finest  trained  Arabian  courser.  Full,  as  our  forests  are,  of  native  trees 
in  the  richest  variety  to  be  found  on  the  globe,  but  few  Americans  are  familiar  with  the 
beauty  of  finely  developed  trees.  Even  in  our  ornamental  grounds,  it  is  too  much  the 
custom  to  plant  trees  in  masses,  belts,  and  thickets — by  wliich  the  same  effects  are  pro- 
duced as  we  constantly  see  in  ordinary  woods — that  is,  there  is  picturesque  intricacy, 
depth  of  shadow,  and  seclusion,  growing  out  of  masses  of  verdure — but  no  beauty  of  de- 
velopment in  each  individual  tree — and  none  of  that  fine  perfection  of  character  which 
is  seen  when  a  noble  forest  tree  stands  alone  in  soil  well  suited  to  it,  and  has  "  nothing  else 
to  do  but  grow"  into  the  finest  possible  shape  that  nature  meant  it  to  take. 

One  sees  such  trees,  to  be  sure,  occasionally,  all  over  the  country.  Witness  the  elms 
of  the  Connecticut  valley,  the  maples  of  the  Housatonic,  the  tulip  trees  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  the  oaks  of  Western  New-York.  But  there  are  two  places  Avhere  this  kind  of  park- 
like development  of  trees,  is  most  perfect  and  complete. 

The  first  is,  in  the  English  Parks — those  broad  grassy  surfaces,  studded  with  scattering 
trees  and  groups  of  trees — hundred  of  years  old — many  of  them  allowed  to  grow  into  the 
most  beautiful  forms  that  nature  has  impressed  into  their  organization,  and  spread  out 
into  the  richest  drooping  umbrageous  heads  of  foliage  that  so  favorable  a  climate  for  their 
growth  can  beget. 

The  other  position  is  in  the  natural  parks  of  America — the  oak  openings  of  the  West — 
where,  over  a  gently  rolling  surface  of  thousands  of  acres,  you  see  grouped,  precisely  as  in 
an  English  Park,  but  sometimes  on  a  still  grander  scale,  the  noblest  trees — now  singly, 
and  now  three  or  four,  or  half  a  dozen  together, — trees,  each  one  of  which  would  have 
been  chosen  by  Claude  as  a  study  for  the  foreground  of  his  wonderful  landscapes — which 
are  the  master-pieces  of  sly  van  beauty.  Nearer  home,  such  a  growth  may  be  seen  in  the 
meadow  park  at  Geneseo, — the  Wadsworth  estate,  previously  described  by  us — where 
are  as  fine  oaks,  by  hundreds,  as  are  to  be  found  in  any  park  in  England. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  these  grand  parks  of  America,  and  the  best  specimens  of  English 
taste  in  Landscape  Gardening,  should  be  such  close  counterparts  of  one  another.  And 
though  a  man  may  have  room  to  plant  only  half  a  dozen  trees,  yet  he  should  study  such 
examples  as  a  sculptor  would  study  the  Apollo  or  the  Venus — to  make  himself  familiar 
with  that  high-water  level  of  the  beautiful  in  form,  where  both  art  and  nature  meet  and 
become  identical. 


lU  n  i  nn. 

The  American  Pomologist:  containg  finely  colored  drawings,  accompanied  by  letter 
press  descriptions  of  Fruits  of  American  origin.  Edited  by  Dr.  W.  D.  Brinckle. 
Published  by  A.  Hoffy,  Philadelphia.  (^-2  a  number,  quarterly — $8  a  vol.) 
Those  who  remember  Mr.  Hoffy's  colored  serial  of  Fruits,  of  which  only  a  few  num- 
were  issued  in  Philadelphia,  some  five  or  six  years  ago,  will  recognize  the  prototype 
new  work  which  has  just  issued  from  his  press  in  Philadelphia.     It  is  a  quarto 


FOREIGN  AND  AHSCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


number  with  plates,  showing  thh  specimens  of  fruit  with  their  wood  and  foliage  attached, 
lithographed  and  colored  by  Mr.  Hofft,  in  very  good  style. 

The  new  features  which  entitle  it  to  favorable  consideration,  are  two.  The  first,  that  it 
is  devoted  wholly  to  Fruits  of  American  origin,  which  will  commend  it  to  all  those  who, 
like  ourselves,  have/aiYA  in  the  products  of  our  own  soil  as  best  adapted  to  this  climate; 
and  second,  that  it  is  edited  by  Dr.  Bkinckle,  one  of  the  most  zealous  and  accomplished 
of  tlie  amateur  pomologists  of  the  country.* 

The  first  number  contains  the  Brandywine,  the  Moyamensing,  the  Petre  and  the  Penn- 
sylvania Pears :  the  Ptcpublican  Pippin,  the  Eliza  Peach,  the  Burlington  Apricot,  Wen- 
dell's mottled  Bigarreau  Cherry,  and  the  Wilder  and  Gushing  Raspberries.  A  plate  is 
given  of  each  variety,  and  the  letter  press,  though  very  brief,  is  perhaps  sufficient  for  a 
work  which  presents  a  full  portrait  to  the  eye  of  the  reader. 

We  beg  Dr.  Bkinckle  in  this  work,  which  promises  to  become  one  of  value,  to  adopt 
the  classification  of  fruits,  as  respects  quality,  which  has  been  established  by  the  Pomo- 
logical  Congress,  viz;  good,  very  good,  best.  It  is  impossible  for  the  general  reader,  from 
his  description  of  the  varieties  figured,  (and  the  fault  is  common  to  most  books  or  prints) 
to  tell  what  is  the  real  rank  of  the  variety.  The  Pennsylvania  pear  for  instance — a  sort 
which  we  (and  most  other  northern  pomologists)  have  fruited  and  rejected,  is  set  down 
with  the  single  remark  as  to  its  flavor,  that  it  is  "  highly  perfumed."  This  is  quite 
true — and  yet  it  is  no  less  true  that,  compared  with  the  standard,  it  will  not  rank  as  a 
"  good"  pear. 

The  work  is  one  which  will  commend  itself  to  pomologists  and  fruit  growers,  and  its 
appearance  is  the  best  proof  of  the  steady  progress  of  fruit  culture  in  the  United  States. 

*  We  are  only  sorry  to  observe  that  the  Doctor  says,  in  his  preface,  he  is  in  no  way  connected  with  the  profits  of  the 
undertaking — it  is  wholly  a  labor  of  love  with  him.  We  only  regret  this  because  we  have  generally  found  that  what  is 
not  worth  paying  well  for,  is  not  worth  doing  so  well — especially  if  it  has  to  be  done  month  after  month,  and  year  after 
year.    We  trust  our  friend  will  prove  the  rule  has  exceptions. 


/nrrigii  m^i  MmlkmmB  JMm, 


PiiiLOSOPnT  OF  Manures. — It  is  an  ex- 
cellent custom  in  certain  foreign  countries, 
and  one  wiiich  leads  to  very  valuable  results, 
to  send  from  time  to  time  scientific  men  to 
travel  in  the  various  neighboring  ki-igdoms; 
they  are  sent  with  a  spc^cific  object,  they 
carefully  investigate  the  matter  to  which 
their  attention  is  directed,  and  on  their  re- 
turn, they  make  a  report  to  the  government 
who  sent  them,  embodying  the  facts  which 
they  have  collected  in  their  travels,  and  the 
conclusions  at  which  they  have  arrived; 
these  reports,  which  are  generally  drawn  up 
by  men  eminently  well  qualified  for  the  task, 
often  present  better  and  more  impartial 
views  of  the  particular  manufactures  of  the 
kingdoms  so  visited,  than  could  possibly  be 
prepared  by  any  one  residing  in  them .  There 
od  illustration  of  the  truth  of  this,  in 
ilful  reports  lately  drawn  up  by  M. 
r,  by  desire  of  the  Minister  of  Agri- 


culture and  Commerce  of  France,  on  drain- 
age, the  use  of  peat,  and  the  employment  of 
artificial  manures  in  England.  These  re- 
ports, written  by  an  excellent  observer,  one 
who  is  intimately  acquainted  with  all  the 
various  departments  of  scientific  agriculture, 
and  the  econom)"  of  vegetation  in  general, 
are  of  the  highest  interest  and  importance. 

If,  however,  a  stranger  visiting  England 
for  such  a  specific  purpose,  comes  with  the 
advantage  of  an  unprejudiced  and  unbiased 
judgment,  he  has  at  the  same  time,  the  dis- 
advantage that  he  does  not  always  know  in 
how  far  he  may  safely  rely  on  the  statements 
which  are  made  to  him,  and  he  therefore 
runs  considerable  risk  of  being  misled  by 
false  or  erroneous  information.  The  con- 
clusion which  M.  Paten  appears  to  have 
arrived  at,  from  a  very  careful  study  of  the 
present  state  of  the  manufacture  of  artificial 
manure  in  England,  and  of  the  results  of 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


numerous  experiments  on  the  practical  ap- 
plication of  those  manures,  might  probably 
be  expressed  as  follows.  A  dozen  years  ago 
it  was  stated  by  Likbig  and  his  followers 
that  the  great  object  of  all  artificial  manures 
"was  to  supply  certain  inorganic  matters  to 
growing  plants.  It  was  asserted  that  soils 
became  exhausted  from  the  abstraction  of 
potash,  phosphoric  acid,  and  soluble  silica, 
and  it  was  therefore  said  that  manures  were 
chiefly  valuable  in  proportion  to  the  quanti- 
ty of  those  substances  which  they  contain- 
ed. The  experience  of  the  last  few  j'^ears 
has,  however,  shown  that  this  is  not  really 
the  case,  for  the  most  careful  and  satisfacto- 
ry experiments  have  proved,  that  soils  are 
veryseldom  wanting  in  the  inorganic  elements 
of  plants,  such  as  phosphoric  acid  and  alka- 
lies; but  that  they  are  often  deficient  in  ni- 
trogen, in  a  state  capable  of  being  assimilat- 
ed by  plants.  In  other  words,  that  ammo- 
nia and  nitric  acid  are  far  more  important 
components  of  manure  than  phosphoric  acid 
or  alkalies. 

That  LiEBiG  did,  at  one  time,  attribute 
very  great  importance  to  the  earthy  and  al- 
kaline parts  of  manure,  no  one  will  deny; 
and,  indeed,  it  is  evidently  proved,  by  the 
fact  that  he  even  became  the  originator  of  a 
patent  mineral  manure,  which,  as  Payen 
remarks,  has  for  the  most  part  been  found 
of  comparatively  little  real  value.  If,  how- 
ever, it  is  acknowledged  on  the  one  hand, 
that  the  value  of  these  inorganic  manures 
has  been  over-rated,  it  must,  however,  at  the 
same  time  be  admitted  that  there  are  cir- 
cumstances under  which  they  produce  very 
remarkable  effects;  and  that  even  though  it 
is  proved  that  they  are  not  the  only  things 
necessary  to  the  growth  of  plants,  or  the 
only  things  which  the  cultivator  has  to  add 
to  the  soil,  it  does  not,  therefore,  follow  that 
they  are  of  no  value  at  all ;  and  we  ought  to 
take  care  that  in  acknowledging  our  error, 
we  do  not  fall  into  the  opposite  extreme. 

It  has  been  all  along  known,  that  the  very 
best  manures  were  those  which  contained  a 
mixture  of  organic  and  inorganic  matters; 
substances  such  as  common  farm-j'ard  ma- 
nure, consisting  of  decomposed  and  decom- 
posing animal  and  vegetable  materials,  inti- 
mately mixed  together.  The  error  which 
has  been  committed  consisted  in  the  attempt 
to  comi)are  perfectly  different  and  opposite 
things;  and  to  decide  which  of  the  two  was 
the  most  important.  The  alkalies  and  phos- 
phoric acid  are,  no  doubt,  quite  essential  to 
the  growth  and  well-being  of  plants;  but  so 
e  ammonia,  nitric  acid,  and  the  vari- 
ious  other  sources  of  nitrogen.  To  attempt 


to  compare  the  two  kinds  of  food,  is  pretty 
much  as  though  we  were  to  try  and  compare 
together  meat  and  bread,  as  articles  of  ani- 
mal food;  both  are  valuable,  and  the  two 
taken  together  are  more  valuable  than  either 
taken  alone.  So  it  is  with  plants;  it  is  of  no 
use  attempting  to  determine  whether  ammo- 
nia or  alkaline  phosphates  are  the  most  im- 
portant, as  constituents  of  manure;  they 
serve  very  different  objects  in  the  nutrition 
of  plants,  and  when  the  one  is  required,  it 
is  certainl}'-  idle  to  attempt  to  supply  its 
place  b}'  giving  more  of  the  other. 

There  are  a  number  of  curious  experiments 
which  have  at  times  been  quoted,  as  proving 
that  the  organic  part  of  common  yard  ma- 
nure is  of  no  value;  and  that  its  virtue  con- 
sists entirely  in  the  inorganic  salts  which  it 
contains.  Thus,  for  example,  it  has  been 
stated,  that  on  manuring  two  equal  pieces 
of  ground,  the  one  with  a  certain  weight  of 
good  farm-3'ard  manure,  and  the  other  with 
the  ashes  of  an  equal  quantity  of  the  same 
manure,  no  difference  could  be  subsequently 
observed  between  the  crops  raised  on  the  two 
fields.  The  truth  of  this,  again,  has  been 
called  in  question  by  other  experiments,  the 
results  of  which  were  just  the  reverse;  and 
those  who  attempted  to  draw  general  con- 
clusions from  the  two  experiments,  were 
at  last  fairly  puzzled  how  to  reconcile  two 
apparently  diametrically  opposite  state- 
ments. The  real  cause  of  the  difficulty, 
however,  was  simple  enough;  it  arose  mere- 
ly from  the  attempt  to  compare  together  dis- 
similar things,  which,  from  their  very  na- 
ture, could  not  fairly  be  contrasted  with  one 
another.  If  we  admit  that  which  is  now 
pretty  well  generally  acknowledged,  name- 
ly, that  all  plants,  in  addition  to  certain 
other  substances,  require  both  ammonia  and 
also  alkaline  phosphates,  it  is  very  easy  to 
perceive,  not  only  that  a  manure  containing 
both  those  substances  must  be  generally  val- 
uable, and  therefore  more  certain  in  its  ef- 
fects than  a  manure  which  contains  only  one 
or  the  other;  but  also  that  such  a  manure 
would  act  in  a  very  different  manner  on  dif- 
ferent soils,  and  applied  to  different  plants. 
For  example,  good  farm-yard  manure,  ap- 
plied to  a  soil  rich  in  earthy  phosphates, 
and  abounding  in  bone  earth,  will,  never- 
theless, be  found  to  do  good  and  cause  the 
plants  cultivated  in  it  to  grow  with  increas- 
ed vigor  and  luxuriance;  not  because  of  the 
phosphoric  acid  which  it  contains,  but  chief- 
ly from  the  presence  of  a  certain  quantity 
of  ammonia,  nitric  acid,  and  matters  capa- 
ble of  yielding  those  substances  by  their  pu- 
trefaction.    Nevertheless,  the  same  manure 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


applied  to  a  soil  containing  no  phosphoric 
acid,  but  artificially  supplied  with  salts  of 
ammonia,  will  also  be  found  to  act  benefi- 
cially; in  this  case  it  is  not  the  ammonia, 
but  the  phosphoiic  acid  of  the  manure, 
which  is  of  importance.  Or,  if  in  place  of 
applying  a  mixed  manure,  such  as  we  have 
imagined,  to  these  two  soils,  we  were  to  take 
simple  chemical  manures — say  phosphate  of 
lime  and  sulphate  of  ammonia,  we  should 
piobably  find,  that  upon  the  one  soil  the 
phosphoric  salt  was  the  best  manure,  whilst 
upon  the  other  the  salt  of  ammonia  would 
produce  the  best  effect.  It  is  plain,  then, 
that  the  value  of  these  different  elements  of 
manure  must  depend  on  the  wants  of  the 
plant,  and  on  the  capabilities  of  the  soil. 

The  conclusion,  therefore,  to  which  M. 
Payen  arrives,  namely,  that  the  mineral 
manures,  consisting  chiefly  of  phosphate  of 
lime,  and  containing  little  or  no  organic 
matter,  are  of  comparatively  trifling  value, 
and  that  they  act  so  slowly  as  to  be  of  small 
profit  to  cultivators,  is  perhaps  rather  too 
sweeping  a  condemnation.  Undoubtedly 
they  will  not  supnl}^  the  place  of  ammonia, 
but  at  the  same  time  they  are  valuable  ma- 
nures, and  on  certain  soils  the  cost  of  their 
use  is  amply  repaid,  especially  when  they  are 
emplo3'ed  in  conjunction  with  animal  or  ain- 
moniacal  manures.  In  the  composition  of 
artificial  manures,  M.  Payen  fully  admits 
the  value  of  sulphuric  acid  as  a  solvent  of 
phosphate  of  lime;  and  he  insists  strongly 
on  the  great  practical  value  of  charcoal  when 
associated  with  rich  animal  manures. 

In  concluding  his  report,  M.  Payen  well 
observes,  that  there  is  one  thing  wanting 
which  would  be  a  very  great  aid  to  the  cul- 
tivator, and  that  is,  that  all  artificial  ma- 
nures should  be  designated  by  plain  and 
simple  names,  expressing  their  real  nature, 
and  that  their  exact  chemical  composition 
should  be  honestly  stated,  as  their  purclia- 
sers  would  be  no  longer  deceived  by  m3'ste- 
rious  names,  or  misled  by  vexatious  uncer- 
tainty as  to  the  real  value  of  the  manures 
the)'  buy.  On  this  point  there  can  be  no 
doubt  as  to  the  evil,  though  the  remedy  may 
not  be  quite  so  clear.  Perhaps  the  best  ad- 
vice which  can  be  given  is  this — buy  only  of 
respectable  dealers,  and  do  not  be  deceived 
by  cheap  manures;  if  you  are  tempted  by 
what  is  termed  a  bargain,  you  are  pretty 
sure  to  sufler  in  the  end;  good  manure  is 
well  worth  its  tn'iv  market  value;  the  trash 
which  dishonest  dealers  sell  you  is  often  not 
worth  having  as  a  gift. —  Gard.  Chronicle. 


-•fTER  Garden  in  the  Crystal  Pa- 
— Shall  we  keep  the  Crystal  Palace? 


says  "  Denarius."  What  is  to  become 
of  the  Crystal  Palace?  asks  Mr.  Paxton; 
and  the  same  questions  are  daily  put  by 
thousands  of  voices,  less  powerful  but  not 
less  earnest.  As  yet  no  answer  has  been 
given,  and  probably  no  answer  will  be  given 
till  the  public  has  more  generally  expressed 
its  own  opinion.  Let  us  then  endeavor  to 
point  out  to  those  who  do  us  the  honor  to 
read  our  columns  in  what  way  this  question 
strikes  us. 

"  Denarius"  believes  that  the  building 
may  be  applied  to  various  scientific  uses, 
that  it  may  become  a  great  gallery  of  sculp- 
ture, a  winter  garden  filled  with  fountains, 
and  groves  of  Orange  trees,  a  gymnasium 
where  science  and  art  may  unite  in  friendly 
contest,  where  schools  and  lectures  would 
naturally  arise,  and  where  periodical  exhi- 
bitions would  be  held  of  silk-weaving  or 
cotton-printing,  and  the  manufactures 
which  give  their  names  to  the  great  City 
Corporations,  the  Goldsmiths',  the  Iron- 
mongers', the  Mercers',  the  Dyers',  &c. 
•'  If  the  place,"  he  says,  "  were  recognized 
as  a  receptacle  for  plants  and  shrubs,  it 
might  be  expected  that  in  a  very  short  time 
it  would  be  well  furnished  with  public  do- 
nations. Proceeding  with  the  development 
of  this  idea  more  in  detail,  it  may  be  pointed 
out  that  the  nave  and  the  aisles  48  feet  wide, 
would  give  a  space  of  10  acres  independent- 
ly of  the  galleries,  which  would  give  in  ad- 
dition, walks  exceeding  a  mile.  Thegrotnid 
floor  might  be  used  for  plantations  and 
sculpture,  the  galleries  for  potted  flowers 
and  smaller  works  of  statuary ;  but  care 
should  be  taken  to  consider  the  promenade 
as  the  chief  feature,  and  not  to  occupy  too 
much  space  Avith  the  collections.  The  pub- 
lic would  desire  to  have  walks  among  flowers 
and  plants — not  flowers  and  plants  with 
some  walks.  This  last  kind  of  treatment 
belongs  to  Kew  and  Chiswick,  and  the  Re- 
gent's Park.  Spaces  at  the  extreme  sides 
of  tlie  building  might  be  kept  vacant  to  be 
applied  to  various  public  purposes,  such  as 
periodical  exhibitions  of  agricultural  pro- 
duce, colonial  raw  produce,  machiner}', per- 
haps models  of  objects  claiming  patent 
rights,  manufactures,  and  fine  arts." 

These  ideas  he,  however,  as  Ave  under- 
stand him,  only  off'ers  as  "  supplementary 
to  the  great  object  of  a  winter  garden;" 
and  we  are  bound  to  say,  that  we  doubt  the 
wisdom  of  carrying  them  out,  even  if  it 
were  possible. 

Mr.  Paxton,  Avhose  pamphlet  we  reprint 
in  another  column,  entertains  different 
He  would  have  a  garden  or  park,  and 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


ing  more,  embellished  with  birds,  and  flow- 
ers, and  trees,  and  sculpture,  displayed  in 
a  climate  temperate  at  all  seasons.  Hic  ver 
PERPETUM  would  be  inscribed  above  his  por- 
tals,  and  the  scene  within  them  would  be 
that  of  a  noble  "park,  decorated  with  the 
beauties  of  nature  and  art,  under  a  sky- 
roof,  having  a  climate,  warmed  and  ventila- 
ted for  the  purpose  of  health  alone,  furnish- 
ing, close  to  their  own  firesides,  a  pi-omenade 
unequalled  in  the  world,  and,  for  the  six 
winter  months,  a  temperature  analogous  to 
that  of  Southern  Italy.  Beautiful  creeping 
plants  might  be  planted  against  the  columns, 
and  trailed  along  the  girders,  so  as  to  give 
shade  in  summer,  while  the  effect  they  would 
produce  by  festooning  in  every  diversity  of 
form  over  the  building,  would  give  the  whole 
a  most  enchanting  and  gorgeous  finish." 

Are  these  visions  capable  of  being  realized? 
That  is  the  question  which  it  really  interests 
us  to  answer.  The  funds  and  means  out  of 
v.'hich  a  reality  may  arise  are  subordinate 
considerations,  especially  since  the  building, 
the  main  feature  in  any  calculation  of  cost, 
may  be  said  to  be  already  paid  for. 

That  all  which  Mr.  Paxton  proposes  to 
do  may  be  easily  done,  no  one  acquainted 
with  gardening  will  doubt;  that  the  climate 
of  Naples  or  Madeira  may  be  secured  to 
Hyde  Park  by  means  of  the  Crystal  Palace, 
is  as  certain  as  the  existence  of  those  two 
countries.  AH  we  require  in  order  to  ac- 
complish such  an  end  is  a  heating  power, 
which  will  exclude  frost  in  winter,  and  a 
water  power  which  will  exclude  drouth  in 
summer.  The  rest  is  simple.  That  the 
great  engineers  who  put  together  the  vast 
fabric  can  water  it  and  heat  it,  nobody 
doubts;  that  plants  will  thrive  in  it  if  heat- 
ed and  watered,  we  all  of  us  know  perfectly 
well. 

But  would  such  a  winter  garden  be  at- 
tended by  the  advantages  that  are  expected 
from  it  to  public  health  and  convenience.' 
That  is  to  say,  would  it  be  agreeable  to  ride 
and  walk  under  shelter  while  rain  or  snow 
is  falling  all  around.''  Would  it  be  comfort- 
able to  have  a  cool  garden  of  18  acres  as  a 
place  of  resort  in  the  dog-days?  Have  dust 
or  mud  irresistible  attractions  to  us  English? 
These  are  matters  of  taste  which  all  men 
can  judge  of  for  themselves. 

If  we  look  at  the  matter  as  it  affects  the 
value  of  contiguous  property,  then  such 
questions  as  the  following  arise.  Would  it 
be  advantageous  to  the  neighborhood  to  be 
within  a  few  minutes  walk  of  Naples  or  Ma- 
deira? Would  invalids  find  any  comfort 
therein?     Would  the  aged  and  infirm?  And 


if  health  and  comfort  should  be  increased 
by  turning  the  Crystal  Palace  into  such  a 
place  as  Mr.  Paxton  contemplates,  would 
the  value  of  houses  and  land  at  Knights- 
bridge,  Kensington,  Brompton,  and  Bays- 
water,  rise  or  fall?  The  owners  of  proper- 
ty there  will  probably  express  their  opinion 
as  to  those  points. 

Should  all  these  questions  be  answered  in 
the  affirmative,  (and  who  can  doubt  it;)  if 
the  comfort,  the  health,  the  enjoyment,  the 
wealth  of  the  metropolis  would  be  thus 
largely  increased,  by  converting  the  Crystal 
Palace  into  such  a  park  as  could  only  be  na- 
turally found  in  Portugal  or  Madeira,  then 
the  last  inquiry  that  we  should  make  would 

be,    WHO    WILL    RKCOMMEND     ITS    REMOVAL, 

when  a  short  Act  of  Parliament  shall  be 
introduced  to  enable  it  to  remain  where  it 
is? — Gard.  Chron. 


What  is  to  become  of  the  Crystal  Pa- 
lace?— The  time  is  approaching  when  the 
World's  Fair  will  terminate,  and  the  vast 
roof  under  which  it  is  held,  being  no  longer 
required  for  that  purpose,  must,  according  to 
the  terms  of  agreement  with  the  Commission- 
ers of  Woods  and  Forests,  be  removed;  and, 
by  this  time  next  year,  the  ground  is  to  be 
made  as  smooth,  and  the  grass  is  to  look  as 
green,  as  before  the  25th  of  September  1850. 
The  exhibited  articles  will  all  be  removed, 
and  many  of  them  will  be  looked  upon  as 
precious  relics,  connected  with  an  event,  the 
greatest  of  our  times,  and  they  will  be 
cherished  more  and  more  as  they  become 
separated  further  from  the  day  of  their  great 
triumph,  whilst  the  building  (I  hope  I  may 
say  without  vanity) — the  great  feature  of 
the  Exhibition — must,  if  removed,  be  either 
transported  to  another  country,  or  be  rent 
asunder  and  dispersed  in  fragments  to  per- 
form a  variety  of  inferior  offices.  Now,  if 
I  can  show — as  I  believe  I  can — good  rea- 
sons why  the  structure  should  remain  stand- 
ing, I  trust  the  Royal  Commis.'^ioners  will 
do  all  in  their  power  to  further  that  object. 

Apart,  then,  from  all  thoughts  of  its  pre- 
sent use,  and  also  fi-om  all  those  considera- 
tions which  fairly  entitle  it  to  great  atten- 
tion— the  building,  I  would  suggest,  should 
be  allowed  to  remain  standing,  on  account 
of  its  peculiar  fitness  to  supply  a  great  pub- 
lic want,  which  London,  with  its  two  and  a 
half  millions  of  inhabitants,  stands  most 
essentially  in  need  of — namely,  a  Winter 
Park  and  Garden  under  glass. 

When  I  determined  on  sending  in  a  design 
for  the  Glass  Palace,  T  had  in  view  quite  as 
much  the  after  nurpose  for  which  the  build- 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


ing  could  be  adapted  as  the  object  then  more 
immediately  required;  and,  in  my  original 
prospectus,  I  prominenty  mentioned  the 
fact,  as  one  which  had  received  a  large  share 
of  my  attention.  Since  that  day  nothing 
has  transpired  to  alter  my  views,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  ever3'thing  has  contributed  to 
strengthen  and  establish  them,  and  to  fur- 
ther convince  me,  if  such  further  conviction 
had  been  needed,  how  valuable  an  appendage 
to  this  great  metropolis  would  be  a  large 
national  place  of  recreation  and  instruction, 
such  as  I  propose. 

AVithin  the  last  twenty  years,  the  phy- 
siology, economy,  and  requirements  of  ani- 
mated nature,  with  the  effects  which  climate, 
locality,  and  various  contingencies  have  upon 
their  health  and  habits,  have  been  studied 
and  examined,  with  the  best  results.  Geo- 
logy, closely  connected  with  the  study  of 
plants,  has,  in  its  wondrous  discoveries,  un- 
folded to  our  view  the  mysteries  of  ages 
long  gone  by,  when  the  earth's  inhabitants 
differed  widely  from  those  now  seen  occupy- 
ing its  surface;  of  these  no  recorded  history 
furnishes  us  with  particulars,  and  but  for 
this  science  we  must  have  looked  back  thro' 
the  thick  mist  of  time,  with  scarcely  a  glim- 
mering of  light  to  guide  us.  By  the  aid  of 
chemistry  and  botany  many  useful  disco- 
eries  have  been  made,  which  practical  hor- 
ticulture hns  rendered  subservient  to  the 
comforts  and  happiness  of  man;  and  the 
removal  of  the  duty  on  glass  has  given  an 
impetus  to  this  science  which  onlj'-  a  short 
time  ago  no  efforts  could  possibly  have  call- 
ed into  action;  iudeed,  had  that  duty  still 
existed,  no  building  such  as  I  am  now  treat- 
ing of  could  possibl}'  have  been  erected,  and 
without  an  extensive  use  of  glass,  to  equally 
admit  and  diffuse  a  subdued  light,  no  such 
displays  as  at  present  could  have  been  se- 
cured. 

The  achievements  of  horticulture,  how- 
ever, do  not  stop  here,  or  merel}'  consist  in 
what  has  been  accomplished  within  the  great 
exhibition  building,  where  dry  and  polished 
articles  and  the  most  tender  fabrics  may  be 
safely  preserved;  but  it  leads  onwards  to 
the  formation  of  climates,  which  even  under 
opposite  influences  are  rendered  healthy, 
and  suited  to  the  wants  and  requirements 
of  man.  Formerly,  wherever  plants  were 
congregated  beneath  a  glass  structure,  the 
atmosphere  was  invariably  deteriorated,  and 
rendered  unfit  for  being  more  than  transient- 
ly inhaled;  the  usual  method  with  visitors 
being  to  take  a  hurried  view  of  the  chief 
beauties  within,  and  then  retire  to  a  more 
genial   air.     But   now  plant-structures  are 


no  longer  unhealthy , pent  up  ovens ;  although 
the  immense  variety  of  objects  they  contain 
form  a  remarkable  contrast  with  the  mea- 
gre appearance  of  former  collections,  yet 
these  objects  are  seen  growing  with  an  ease 
and  natural  vigor  which,  with  the  limited 
knowledge  and  means  we  possessed  former- 
ly, it  was  impossible  to  imitate.  The  ven- 
tilation and  climate  of  our  dwelling-houses 
have  also  been  considered,  and  many  addi- 
tions to  our  comfort  have  in  this  respect 
been  made.  The  perfection  of  these  inter- 
nal arrangements,  contrasted  with  the  at- 
mosphere without,  renders  it  still  more  de- 
sirable that  something  on  a  large  scale  should 
be  done  to  counteract  the  effects  of  the  out- 
er air,  which,  in  this  country,  and  the  neigh- 
borhood of  London  especially,  is  often  dur- 
ing many  months  in  the  year  impure,  mur- 
ky, and  unfit  for  healthy  recreation  and 
enjoyment;  and  it  is  to  meet  this  want  that 
I  offer  the  present  recommendation.  All 
hitherto  erected  structures,  however  great 
and  noble  some  of  them  are,  fall  far  short 
of  answering  this  end,  and  I  cannot  but 
recommend,  now  that  we  do  possess  a  build- 
ing like  the  Crystal  Palace,  which  in  its  di- 
mensions is  the  best  adapted  for  such  a  pur- 
pose of  anything  that  has  been  hitherto  at- 
tempted, that  it  should  be  so  appropriated 
— and  especially  as  its  peculiar  site  between 
Hyde  Park  and  Kensington  Gardens  is  the 
best  spot  that  couM  have  been  selected;  con- 
necting as  it  does  those  two  great  prome- 
nades— it  appears  exactly  calculated  to  con- 
centrate beneath  its  roof  the  pleasures  of 
both. 

A  building  like  this,  if  properly  laid  out, 
will  open  a  wide  field  of  intellectual  and 
healthful  enjoyment;  it  will  likewise,  I 
hope,  stimulate  the  wealthy  in  large  manu- 
facturing towns  to  a  similar  adoption  of 
what  may  now  be  raised  so  cheaply;  and 
when  judiciously  furnished  with  vegetation, 
ornamented  Avith  sculpture  and  fountains, 
and  illustrated  with  the  beautiful  works  of 
nature,  how  pure,  elevating,  and  beneficial 
would  its  studies  and  exercises  be.  At  pre- 
sent England  furnishes  no  such  place  of  pub- 
lic resort,  for  although  Kew  has  a  splendid 
Palm-house,  where  daily  arc  congregated  a 
great  number  of  individuals,  j'et  its  warm 
and  humid  atmosphere  is  only  calculated  to 
admit  of  visitors  taking  a  hasty  view  of  the 
wonders  of  the  tropics,  as  they  pass  in  their 
walks  through  the  gardens.  On  the  con- 
trary, in  the  Winter  Park  and  Garden  I 
propose,  climate  would  be  the  principal 
thing  studied;  all  the  furnishing  and 
up  would  have  special  reference  to  that 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


SO  that  the  pleasures  found  in  it  would  be 
of  a  character  which  all  who  A'isit  could 
share;  here  would  be  supplied  the  climate  of 
Southern  Italy, where  multitudes  might  ride, 
walk,  or  recline  amidst  groves  of  fragrant 
trees,  and  here  they  might  leisurely  examine 
the  works  of  nature  and  art, regardless  of  the 
biting  east  winds  or  the  drifting  snow.  Here 
vegetation  in  much  of  its  beauty  might  be 
studied  with  unusual  advantages,  and  the 
singular  properties  examined  of  those  great 
filtcrers  of  Nature,  which  during  the  night 
season,  when  the  bulk  of  animal  life  are  in 
a  quiescent  state,  inhale  the  oxygen  of  the 
air,  whilst  in  the  day,  when  the  mass  of 
animal  existence  have  started  into  activity, 
they  drink  in  the  carbonic  supply,  given  out 
by  man  and  animals,  which  goes  to  form 
their  solid  substance,  at  the  same  time  pour- 
ing forth  streams  of  oxygen,  which,  ming- 
ling with  the  surrounding  atmosphere,  gives 
vigor  to  man's  body  and  cheerfulness  to  his 
spirits. 

In  this  Winter  Park  and  Garden,  the 
trees  and  plants  might  be  so  arranged  as  to 
give  great  diversity  of  views  and  pictu- 
resque effect.  Spaces  might  be  set  apart  for 
equestrian  exercise,  and  for  carriage  drives; 
but  the  main  body  of  the  building  should  be 
arranged  with  the  view  of  giving  great  ex- 
tent and  variety  for  those  who  promenade 
on  foot.  Fountains,  statuary,  and  every 
description  of  park  and  garden  ornament, 
would  grcatl}^  heighten  the  effect  and  beau- 
ty of  the  scene. 

Beautiful  creeping  plants  might  be  planted 
against  the  columns,  and  trailed  along  the 
girders,  so  as  to  give  shade  in  summer,  while 
the  effect  they  would  produce  by  festooning 
in  every  diversity  of  form  over  the  building, 
would  give  the  whole  a  most  enchanting  and 
gorgeous  finish.  Besides  these,  there  might 
be  introduced  a  collection  of  living  birds 
from  all  temperate  climates,  and  the  science 
of  Geology,  so  closely  connected  with  the 
study  plants,  might  be  illustrated  on  a  large 
and  natural  scale,  thus  making  practical 
botany,  ornithology,  and  geology,  familiar 
to  every  visitor. 

The  alterations  necessary  to  the  building 
itself,  to  produce  the  effects  I  have  sugges- 
ted, would  not  be  many  or  cost  much  mo- 
ney. Shortly  will  be  published  by  me  a 
view  showing  how  the  whole  may  be  finish- 
ed so  as  to  do  away  with  all  idea  of  smoke, 
chimneys,  or  other  kind  of  nuisance.  The 
details  of  the  alterations  necessary  I  do  not 
ose  to  treat  of  now;  but  I  may  men- 
for  the  information  of  those  Avho  live 
opposite  the  Crystal  Palace,  that  I  should 


recommend  the  wood  boarding  round  the 
bottom  tier  of  the  building  to  be  removed 
and  replaced  with  glass;  the  present  ap- 
pearance of  it  is  heavy,  and  gives  anything 
but  the  idea  indicated  by  its  name;  when 
glass  is  substituted  for  wood,  the  appearance 
will  be  marvellously  changed;  those  who 
drive  and  ride  in  the  park  will  even  in  winter 
see  the  oljects  within  as  they  pass  by, 
and  the  whole  will  have  a  light  aerial  ap- 
pearance totally  unlike  what  it  has  at  pre- 
sent. In  summer  I  .should  recommend  the 
Avhole  lower  glass  tier  to  be  entirely  remov- 
ed, so  as  to  give,  from  the  park  and  the 
houses  opposite  the  Palace,  an  appearance 
of  continuous  park  and  garden.  Here  I 
must  state  what  I  believe  will  be  the  posi- 
tion of  those  who  live  opposite  the  Crystal 
Palace.  I  fully  admit  they  have  just  cause 
of  complaint  by  having  all  the  turmoil  of 
so  vast  an  undertaking  as  the  great  exhibi- 
tion developed  imder  their  eyes  and  ears, 
with  all  its  attendant  inconveniences;  but 
if  the  building  is  allowed  to  stand,  and  be 
adapted  as  I  propose,  the  advantages  de- 
rivable to  them  Avill  fully  compensate  for 
all  the  evil  thej^  niaj'-  have  sustained  in  that 
respect.  The  boarding  being  all  removed 
and  glass  substituted,  they  will  have,  with- 
in a  few  minutes'  walk,  a  beautiful  park, 
decorated  with  the  beauties  of  nature  and 
art,  under  a  sky-roof,  having  a  climate, 
warmed  and  ventilated  for  the  purpose  of 
health  alone,  furnishing,  close  to  their  own 
firesides,  a  promenade  unequalled  in  the 
world,  and,  for  the  six  winter  months,  a 
temperature  analogous  to  that  of  Southern 
Italjr;  and  I  have  no  doubt  the  property  in 
that  immediate  neighborhood  would,  from 
such  an  arrangement,  considerably  advance 
in  value,  because  of  the  recreation  and  ex- 
ercise afforded  to  the  inhabitants  and  their 
families. 

The  advantages  derivable  from  such  an  ap- 
propriation of  the  Crystal  Palace  would  be 
many,  and  may  be  thus  summed  up.  In  a 
sanitary  point  of  view  its  benefits  would  be 
incalculable.  By  its  various  objects  it  would 
produce  a  new  and  soothing  pleasure  to  the 
mind.  The  great  truths  of  Nature  and  Art 
would  be  constantly  exemplified.  Peculiar 
facilities  would  especially  be  given  for  the 
development  on  a  large  scale  of  the  sciences 
of  Botany,  Geology  and  Ornithology.  A 
temperate  climate  would  be  supplied  at  all 
seasons.  Taste  would  be  improved  by  indi- 
viduals becoming  fomiliar  with  objects  of  the 
highest  order  of  Art,  and  by  viewing  the 
more  beautiful  parts  of  Nature  Avithout  its 
deformities.     Pleasant  exercise  could  be  ta- 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


ken  at  all  times,  and  in  every  variety  of 
weather.  It  would  serve  as  a  drive,  for 
equestrian  exercise,  for  a  promenade,  or 
lounge,  and  as  a  place  which  could  at  all 
seasons,  be  resorted  to  with  advantage  by 
the  most  delicate. 

Although  the  Crystal  Palace  at  present, 
with  its  magnihcent  display  of  useful  and 
ornamental  articles,  is  truly  wonderful,  yet 
if  the  building  be  converted  into  a  Winter 
Park  and  Garden,  and  arranged  as  I  pro- 
pose, I  feel  confident  it  would  become  a  still 
more  extraordinarj'  and  beautiful  object. 
These  things  all  considered,  I  cannot  help 
expressing  an  earnest  hope  that  the  building- 
will  be  allowed  to  stand,  and  be  converted 
to  so  laudable  a  use.  The  cost  of  forming 
it  in  the  first  instance,  must  entirely  depend 
upon  the  extent  to  which  my  proposition  is 
carried  out.  Should  it  be  decided  for  the 
building  to  stand,  and  be  so  appropriated,  a 
calculation  of  the  cost  could  readily  be 
given. 

I  have,  however,  thought  it  right  to  state 
what  I  believe  would  be  the  annual  outlay, 
if  the  whole  were  kept  in  first  rate  condition 
and  constant  repair;  of  course,  a  less  sum 
would  be  required  if  a  high  standard  M'as 
not  aimed  at;  and  this  yearly  sum  might  be 
obtained  cither  bj-  a  national  grant,  or  by 
making  the  building  itself  self-supporting. 

Annual  Expenditure. 

Lalxir,  fuel,  water,  iniplenieiits,  gravel  for  walks, 
feediiijr  and  atteiulauce,  to  birds,  and  general 
superiiitentience, £8,0G0 

Besides  the  above,  constant  painting  and  renewal 
M'onld  be  required;  for  this  areserve  fundshould 
be  jirovided,  and  by  which  the  building  miglit 
be  renewed  Ibrever, ". . .  £4,000 

Making  a  total  of £12,000 

— Joseph  Paxton. 

SoMK  Facts  about  the  Action  of  Cold 
ON  Plants. —  Facts,  however  trivial  in 
themselves  individually,  become  in  the  ag- 
gregate of  immen.se  value  in  building  up  a 
theory  or  illustrating  a  practice;  for  we  must 
recollect  that  a  theory  is  as  often  the  child 
of  exjierience,  as  that  practice  is  illustrated 
by  it,  although  such  may  not  appear  evident 
at  the  moment.  The  action  of  cold  on  plants 
is  of  vital  importance  to  the  practical  garde- 
ner, as  well  as  interesting  to  the  natural  phi- 
losopher. The  relation  of  temperature  to 
the  healthj'  development  of  vegetable  life,  is 
as  yet  but  imperfectly  understood.  Every 
day,  however,  adds  useful  knowledge  on  this 
head  to  our  acquired  stock.  In  the  earl}^ 
spring  of  184G,  a  quantity  of  Geraniums  and 
other  soft  wooded  plants  were  despatched  by 
aihvay,  at  the  station  of  which  they  arriv- 
ed Siifely  enough,  but  having  to  be  conveyed 


some  20  miles  by  waggon  on  a  frosty  night, 
and  not  being  properly  protected  (although 
the  baskets  containing  them  were  matted  in 
the  ordinary  May,)  thej^  were  completely 
frozen  through  ^hen  they  arrived  at  their 
destination,  by  daylight  in  the  morning.  So 
much  were  they  frozen,  that  the  succulent 
tops  for  several  inches,  were  apparently 
masses  of  ice,  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
leaves  had  suffered  more  or  less.  On  the 
extent  of  the  damage  being  known,  the  whole 
of  the  plants  were  quickly  removed  to  a  dark 
cellar;  and,  to  make  "  assurance  doubly 
sure,"  a  covering  of  mats  supported  by  a 
temporary  frame-work,  was  thrown  over 
them.  Water,  only  removed  from  the  freez- 
ing temperature,  was  freely  applied  to  the 
foliage,  and  no  light  admitted  for  24  hours. 
On  removing  them,  the  damage  they  had 
sustained  was  but  nominal.  Scarcely  a  leaf 
had  suffered,  except  such  as  had  been  bruis- 
ed in  the  unpacking.  Every  leaf  or  part  of 
a  leaf  so  damaged,  had  to  be  removed.  Ano- 
ther instance: — On  a  festive  night  in  mid- 
winter, the  person  in  charge  of  a  conserva- 
tory forgetting,  or  by  procrastination  omit- 
ting to  apply  the  necessary  artificial  tempe- 
rature, to  expel  the  frost,  (for  it  had  set  in 
severe  rather  unexpectedly)  found,  on  his 
entering  the  house  at  4  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, that  the  tender  plitnts  were  much  fro- 
zen, lie  applied  fire  to  the  boiler,  raised  the 
temperature  a  degree  or  two  above  freezing, 
and  then  liberall}'  applied  cold  water  with 
the  syringe.  The  result  was,  that  nothing 
beyond  a  few  leaves  on  a  stray  shoot  or  so, 
evinced  any  damage,  and  by  sunrise  all  was 
as  promising  as  could  be  wished;  so  com- 
pletely^ were  the  plants  recovered,  that  the 
circumstances  would  never  have  been  report- 
ed in  the  Chronicle  had  not  the  delinquent 
revealed  the  mishap  after  all  danger  of  de- 
tection was  past.  One  more: — A  house  of 
Geraniums  was  penetrated  by  the  frost,  the 
plants  were  much  frozen,  and  the  frost  was 
on  the  increase  when  the  circumstance  be- 
came known  in  the  morning.  Cold  water 
was  in  this  case  applied,  but  without  the 
precaution  of  raising  the  temperature  above 
freezing  point.  The  result  of  course,  was, 
that  the  water,  as  soon  as  it  fell  on  the  foli- 
age, became  ice,  till  the  plant  looked  encased 
in  candied  sugar.  The  more  water  the  great- 
er evil.  This  detected,  a  fire  was  lighted, 
and  the  necessary  temperature  acquired, 
when  the  result  was  all  that  could  be  wish- 
ed. Sunlight  was  prevented  reaching  the 
plants  till  a  recirculation  of  the  fluids  had 
taken  place.  In  all  similar  cases  light  sho 
if  possible,  be  excluded;  in  fact,  every 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANKOUS  NOTICES. 


centive  to  a  rapid  reaction  of  the  vital  pow- 
ers should  be  applied  only  in  the  most  limit- 
ed degree,  increasing  stimuli  with  the  re- 
quirements of  the  plants,  retarding  rather 
tlian  accelerating  vital  action.  As  regards 
the  action  of  light  on  plants,  a  wide  field  is 
open  to  the  ingenious  experimentalist.  Let 
a  given  number  of  plants  be  frozen;  admit 
to  some  light  in  its  ordinary  condition,  from 
others  exclude  the  chemical  ray;  fi-ommore, 
both  the  chemical  and  heating  raj' ;  toothers 
admit  only  the  luminous,  or  vary  its  appli- 
cation in  the  many  ways  which  will  occur 
to  the  chemist.  The  result  must  be  of  im- 
poitance  alike  to  the  gardener  and  the  pure 
man  of  science.      G.  L. —  Gard.  Chnm. 


The  Scarlet  Geranium  at  Sea. — In 
the  year  1825  I  sailed  for  America  in  a  ship 
con\e_ying  emigrants  to  Canada,  all  of  them 
humble  people  from  a  rural  district,  to  whom 
the  inside  of  a  ship  or  the  waves  of  the  sea 
wei'e  as  strange  objects  as  a  sight  of  the  man 
in  the  moon  would  have  been,  or  a  slice  of 
the  green  cheese,  of  which,  according  to  nur- 
sery traditions,  it  is  composed.  Fine  hear- 
t}',  sturdy  country  people  they  were,  as  rich 
in  children  as  thej^  were  poor  in  pocket. 
jMost  of  them  had  connexions  in  the  land 
the}'  were  going  to;  but  bej'ond  a  belief  that 
there  were  no  taxes  in  America,  and  conse- 
quently there  could  be  no  want,  their  ideas 
on  the  subject  were  vague  enough.  It  was 
an  amusing  sight  to  an  unreflecting  young 
fellow,  as  I  then  was,  to  see  their  bits  of  fur- 
niture brought  on  board,  the  old  carved 
chests  containing  their  wardrobes,  their  va- 
rious cooking  utensils,  and  the  little  things 
with  which  they  could  not  part,  because 
"  the}'  had  had  them  so  long."  Amongst 
these  were  various  biids,  a  cat  or  two,  and 
a  dog;  one  little  girl  had  a  field-mouse  in  a 
cage;  and  a  nice  matronly  woman  had  a 
Scarlet  Geranium.  Now  my  mother  had 
been  fond  of  Geraniums,  and  she  had  often 
permitted  me  when  a  child  to  water  them  as 
they  stood  near  a  spot  where  she  was  en- 
gaged with  her  household  duties ;  so  that  it 
was  like  an  old  acquaintance,  this  said  Ge- 
ranium, in  its  green-painted  tub.  Its  owner 
had  been  repeatedly  told  "  it  would  die"  on 
the  voyage.  "  Never  mind,  then;  let  it  die, 
so  long  as  it  dies  with  me,"  was  her  reply, 
as  she  fastened  it  up  in  a  corner  of  the  rude 
deck  on  Avhich  these  poor  emigrants  were  to 
live  for  seven  long  weeks.  And  so,  with  a 
strong  breeze  and  a  llowing  sheet,  we  left  the 
harbor  together.  The  fair  wind  with  which 
led  soon  shifted  into  an  adverse  qnar- 
nd  off  the  coast  of  Scotland,  (for  we 


were  going  north  about,)  it  became  a  dead 
noser,  with  all  the  usual  amount  of  miseries. 

To  a  set  of  poor  country  folk,  what  can  ex- 
ceed the  miseries  of  the  temporary  lower 
deck  of  a  collier^  converted  into  an  emigrant 
ship,  hatches  battened  down,  to  keep  out  the 
washing  seas  or  heavy  rain,  foul  air,  sea- 
sickness? Miseiies  indeed!  The  word  as 
understood  when  applied  to  felons  in  goal,  or 
paupers  in  a  woikhouse  ashore,  conveys  no 
conception  of  the  wretchedness  in  question. 
It  was  .soon  found  of  no  use  to  contend  with 
the  violence  of  the  elements;  so,  when 
things  were  at  the  worst,  the  captain  order- 
ed the  helm  to  be  put  up,  and  we  made  a  fair 
wind  of  it  by  running  to  the  south.  As  soon 
as  the  ship  was  fairly  before  the  wind,  the 
hatches  were  unbattened,  light  and  air  were 
admitted,  attempt  was  made  to  get  things 
snug.  As  a  sailor  boy,  part  of  this  pleasing 
duty  fell  to  my  lot;  and  well  do  I  remem- 
ber the  thoughts  of  my  comfortable  home 
which  were  awakened  when,  amidst  the  des- 
perate confusion  of  that  lower  deck,  the  old 
Geranium  caught  my  eye.  It  had  flowers 
on  when  it  came  on  board;  they  had  soon 
fallen  otf;  day  by  day  it  sickened  and  lan- 
guished; the  color  went  little  by  little  out 
of  its  leaves ;  and  then  they  drooped  off  al- 
together, and  were  succeededby  smaller  and 
feebler  ones,  till  at  last  all  appearance  of  life 
had  entirely  vanished.  Still  it  was  kept.  It 
had  flourished  for  years  in  the  cottage  win- 
dow of  its  owners,  which  looked  out  upon 
pleasant  green  fields.  That  cottage  and  those 
fields,  now  tenanted  and  tilled  by  others, 
still  lived  in  their  recollection,  and  were  as- 
sociated no  doubt,  with  the  plant  in  ques- 
tion. And  so  it  went  with  us;  cro.ssed  the 
wild  dark  ocean,  accompanied  us  up  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  there  we  parted,  for  it  went 
ashore  with  its  owners.  Yet  I  saw  it  once 
again;  for  being  on  shore  upon  some  duty, 
I  went  upon  Goudie's  wharf,  where  I  found 
a  family  group  sitting  upon  their  effects  pre- 
paratory to  embarkation  up  the  river  in  a 
steamboat.  They  Avere  part  of  our  emigrant 
passengers.  And  standing  by  the  side  of 
their  bedding  and  boxes  was  my  old  acquain- 
tance, the  Scarlet  Geranium — dead,  dead — 
looking  as  hopeless  and  miserable  as  the  un- 
happy exiles  themselves.  But  if,  as  I  have 
little  doubt,  they  have  long  ere  this  made 
for  themselves  a  happy  and  independent 
home  in  the  western  solitudes,  it  may  be 
hoped  that  with  the  Scarlet  Geranium  they 
did  not  lose  the  last  link  which  bound  their 
affections  to  their  father  land. —  The.  Flor- 
rist,  Frwitcst,  and  Garden  Miscellany  for 
Jan.  1851. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Dnmrstic  IJntirrs. 


Mr.  Glover's  Modkl  Fruits.— Our  neigh- 
bor,  Mr.  Glover,  Fishkill  Landing,  N.  Y., 
who  is  both  an  artist  of  talent,  and  a  zealous 
amateur  of  liorticulture,  has  turned  his  attcn- 
tion,  for  some  three  or  four  years  past,  to  the 
production  of  fac-similes  of  fruits  and  insects. 
After  a  long  course  of  experiments,  he  has  suc- 
ceeded in  making  a  composition  for  modelling 
fruits,  which  possesses  much  more  of  the  truth- 
fulness of  nature,  than  the  usual  wax  imita- 
tions, together  with  that  durability  in  which 
the  wax  models  are  wholly  wanting. 

Mr.  Glover  has  for  some  time  past  been  en- 
deavoring to  give  a  practically  useful  turn  to 
his  efforts  in  this  department,  by  taking  casts 
of  all  the  principal  varieties  of  standard  fruits 
cultivated  in  this  country,  with  a  view  to  the 
formation  of  Pomological  Cabinets  for  Horti- 
cultural Societies.  As  the  specimens  are  cast 
in  moulds  made  from  the  very  fruits  themselves 
and  colored  after  nature,  the  most  perfect  ac- 
curacy is,  of  course,  obtained.  A  society  in 
possession  of  one  of  these  Pomological  Cabi- 
nets, would  have  always  at  hand  an  authentic 
specimen  or  model  of  the  leading  sorts  to  refer 
to,  when  the  fruit  itself  is  not  in  season — thus 
settling  a  host  of  disputes  among  the  members 
who  trust  to  memory. 

The  advantages  of  this  will  be  apparent  to 
every  pomologist,  and  the  beauty  and  appro- 
priateness of  the  collection  would  commend  it 
to  members  of  the  Society  not  directly  inter, 
csted  in  its  utility. 

Mr.  Glover's  collection,  though  now  very 
large,  is  daily  increasing  by  casts  from  new  va- 
rieties, and  begins  to  attract  considerable  at- 
tention. The  N.  y.  State  Agricultural  Socie- 
ty, and  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  So- 
ciety, have  ordered  the  Pomological  Cabinets 
from  him,  and  we  have  no  doubt  Mr.  Glover 
will  find  calls  made  upon  him  from  other  quar- 
ters, both  public  and  private.  Nurserymen 
having  new  varieties  of  merit,  not  known  to 
their  customers,  will  find  a  model  by  Mr. 
Glover,  a  great  help  to  verbal  description. 


Augusta  Rose. — Some  of  our  readers 
member   an  account   of  a   new   yellow 


climbing  rose,  a  seedling,  described  under  this 
name  in  vol.  4,  p.  147.  This  rose,  as  we  un- 
derstand, has  not  yet  been  sent  out,  but  the 
whole  stock  of  it  is  in  the  possession  of  Messrs. 
Thorp,  Smith,  Hanchett&  Co.,  of  Syracuse. 
N.  Y. 

We  have  just  received  bj'  express  from  these 
nurserymen,  a  small  box  containing  a  branch 
of  the  Augusta  Rose  in  good  order,  and  are 
glad  to  bear  testimony  (as  far  as  a  single  clus- 
ter of  cut  flowers  will  allow  us,)  to  the  beauty 
of  this  new  variety.  The  flowers  arc  a  fine 
yellow,  deeper  than  Cloth  of  Gold,  and  deli- 
ciously  fragrant.  We  learn  from  those  who 
have  seen  this  new  American  seedling  growing, 
that  it  is  a  fine  vigorous  climber,  with  an  ever- 
blooming  habit — and  have  no  doubt  that  it  will 
prove  a  great  aquisition.  Messrs.  T.,  S.,  H. 
&Co.,  write  us,  that  "mere  cuttings  struck 
in  March  and  April — some  of  them  not  more 
than  six  inches  high,  are  now  in  full  bloom. 
Every  new  shoot  blooms  freely." 


Princess  Alice  Maud  Strawberry. — As 
one  of  the  objects  of  the  Horticulturist,  is  the 
dissemination  of  correct  information  in  respect 
to  the  varieties  and  character  of  fruits.  I  pro- 
pose to  give  what  I  have  reason  to  believe  is 
the  true  history,  at  least  in  part,  of  the  Prin- 
cess Alice  Maud  Strawberry.  In  an  article 
•■'  on  Strawberries  and  their  culture,"  in  the 
last  number  of  the  Horticulturist,  by  Dr.  Hull, 
of  Newburgh,  it  is  stated  that  "  a  plant  which 
has  gained  great  reputation  in  our  neigborhood, 
under  the  name  of  Alice  Maud,  has  proved, 
under  Mr.  Downinc's  examination,  to  be  iden- 
tical with  Willey."  It  is  there  classed  as  a  pis- 
tillate variety.  This,  of  itself,  is  sufficient 
proof  that  it  is  not  the  true  variety,  for  the 
Princess  Alice  Maud  is  a  perfect  staminate 
plant,  with  a  very  large  and  beautiful  flower. 
It  is  of  English  origin;  and  in  the  same  num- 
ber of  the  Horticulturist,  under  the  head  of 
'•■  Foreign  and  Miscellaneous  Notices,"  is  an 
extract  from  the  Florist,  p.  337,  where  this 
variety,  among  others,  is  "  recommended  as 
the  best,  by  Mr.  Whitney."  This  cli 
is  fully  sustained   in  this  part  of  the  count 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


This  variety  may  have  been  imported  by  per- 
sons in  other  sections,  but  all  under  that  name 
here,  were  obtained  from  John  Slater,  an 
Englishman,  and  now  a  market  gardener  in  the 
vicinity  of  Alexandria,  Va.,  who  imported 
them  from  England  a  few  years  ago,  and  dis- 
seminated them  amongst  us. 

He  cultivates  the  strawberry  largely,  for  the 
supply  of  Washington  market,  and  prefers  this 
variety  before  any  other,  as  with  him  it  is  more 
productive  than  any  he  has  cultivated.  This 
opinion  is  sustained  by  Dr.  BAYNE,of  the  same 
vicinity,  who,  by  the  bye,  not  only  cultivates 
fruit  largely,  but  is  an  excellent  judge  of  such 
things.  He  not  long  since  considered  Hovey's 
Seedling  as  the  best  variety  for  him,  but  now 
acknowledges  that  the  Princess  Alice  Maud  is 
the  best  market  fruit,  and  he  cultivates  largely 
for  market;  whether  this  character  will  be  sus- 
tained in  all  soils  remains  to  be  seen.  The  soil 
of  both  Dr.  Bayne  and  Mr.  Slater's  gardens 
is  a  fine  sandy  loam,  interspersed  more  or  less 
with  rounded  pebbles  and  gravel,  similar  to 
much  that  is  met  with  in  the  vicinity  of  tide 
water  rivers.  The  ground  of  the  latter  is  but 
a  few  feet  above  tide,  while  the  former  is,  per- 
haps, as  high  as  150  feet. 

This  strawberry  is  a  strong  grower,  and  suc- 
ceeds best  in  rows,  say  two  feet  apart ;  the  flow- 
ers very  large  staminate,  fruit  conical,  color 
darker  than  Hovey's  Seedling,  and  more  glossy, 
flavor  more  sprightly,  and  a  more  abundant 
bearer.  Yardley  Taylor.  Loudon  co.,  Va., 
8th  mo.,  9th. 

[Our  correspondent  is  quite  correct  in  his 
account  of  the  Alice  Maud  Strawberry — an 
English  variety  of  excellent  qualities,  well 
known  in  this  state  also — the  blossoms  stami- 
nate, and  the  flavor  delicious.  Dr.  Hull  did 
not  intend  it  to  be  understood  that  he  suppos- 
ed the  pistillate  strawberry  described  by  him,  to 
be  the  Alice  Maud — he  only  mentioned  the 
fact  that  it  had  been  wrongly  disseminated  under 
that  name.     Ed. 


Preserving  Fruits  and  Vegetables. — I 
observe  in  the  June  number  of  your  paper,  a 
correspondent,  L.  of  S.  C.  making  inquiries 
as  to  the  best  way  of  preserving /res/t  for  a 
length  of  time,  fruits  and  vegetables.  He  is 
in  all  his  preparations,  except  that  instead 
ing  them  in  boiling  water,  he   should 


put  them  in  cold  water,  with  a  quick  fire,  and 
just  allow  it  to  come  to  the  boiling  point,  and 
no  more ;  at  the  moment  the  water  boils  seal 
up  the  cans  hermetically.  I  will  except  corn, 
which  should  boil  two  minutes,  and  should  be 
cut  from  the  cob  before  putting  in  the  cans.  I 
am  a  greater  part  of  my  time  from  home,  and 
cannot  give  much  time  to  writing.  Otherwise 
I  should  have  written  more  in  detail  about  this 
mode  of  preserving  fresh  fruits,  vegetables, 
&c.  Very  resp't  yours,  J.  C.  Wright.  Scotts- 
ville,  .Albemarle  county,  Va. 


Culture  of  Achimenes. — What  is  the  pro- 
per manner  of  wintering  Achimenes?  Last 
autumn,  after  the  leaves  had  died  down,  I  put 
my  pots  away  on  a  back  shelf  of  the  green- 
house, in  a  warm  part,  out  of  the  reach  of 
frost,  and  gave  them  no  water  all  winter.  When 
I  came  to  repot  them  in  the  spring,  the  tiny 
bulbs  or  tubers  had  all  disappeared,  not  one  to 
be  found  ■  this  treatment  is  evidently  wrong. 
How  must  I  proceed  to  winter  these  pretty 
plants,  in  the  event  of  procuring  a  fresh  sup- 
ply? Yours,  &c.  Fairymead.  Canada 
East. 

We  suspect,  from  having  seen  such  things 
before,  that  your  disappointment  in  not  finding 
the  bulbs  of  the  Achimenes  where  they  should 
have  been,  for  the  spring  repotting,  was  owing 
to  the  plants  having  been  exposed  to  a  slight 
frost  in  the  autumn  before  they  were  housed. 
The  bulbs  are  found  very  near  the  surface  and 
a  single  cold  autumn  night  is  sufiicient  to  de- 
stroy them.  Your  manner  of  wintering  them 
is  the  correct  one,  and  the  disappearance  of  the 
bulbs  must  be  either  owing  to  frost  or  mice.  Ed. 


Peaches  and  Nectarines  on  one  Tree. — 
Sir:  To  verify  the  statements  made  to  you  the 
last  season,  and  which  you  were  kind  enough  to 
place  in  the  columns  of  your  Journal — having 
reference  to  the  peach  and  nectarine  growing 
upon  the  same  stock,  I  yesterday  visited  the 
tree,  in  the  nursery  grounds  of  Mr.  Duncan 
C.  Wood,  in  this  vicinity,  and  ascertained  that 
the  statement  was  correct  in  every  particular — 
confirmed  by  another  year  of  growth — peaches 
and  nectarines  growing  on  the  twin  stems.  I 
examined  the  root,  also,  finding  they  came  from 
the  same  stone  or  pit,  spoken  of  in  that  com- 
munication.    The  peach  given  to  Mr.  Wood  by 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


his  countryman,  Mr.  Buchanan,  from  the  yard 
of  Mr.  Chahles  Tompkins,  all  of  this  city. 

I  have  again  conversed  with  each  of  the  per- 
sons named,  and  find  the  facts  precisely  as  I 
have  stated  them, 

I  take  the  liberty  of  again  noticing  these  facts 
to  you,  as  the  season  for  peaches  and  nectarines 
is  approaching,  I  do  so,  as  there  are  doubters 
to  such  unique  freaks  of  dame  Nature,  in  all 
parts  of  our  land.  Yours,  &c.,  J.  Bingham. 
Hudson,  July  24,  1851. 


New-Jersey  Horticultural  Society. — 
The  annual  exhibition  of  the  above  Society, 
will  be  held  at  Jersey  City  on  the  24th,  25th 
and  20th  Sept.  A  liberal  schedule  of  pre- 
miums is  offered  on  fruits,  flowers,  and  vege- 
tables, which  is  open  to  competitors  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  The  various  lines  of 
conveyance  will  afford  every  facility  for  trans- 
porting articles  intended  for  the  exhibition,  and 
the  central  position  will  doubtless  bring  togeth- 
er a  collection  of  rare  objects  of  interest  to  the 
horticulturist.  Contributions  of  every  species 
of  horticultural  and  floricultural  produce  are 
earnestly  solicited.  Articles  intended  for  the 
exhibition  may  be  directed  to  the  "  N.  J.  Hor- 
ticultural Exhibition,  Jersey  City,"  and  will  be 
received  by  the  i)roper  committee.  All  articles 
intended  for  the  exhibition  must  he  delivered 
at  the  Hall  before  12  o'clock  on  "Wednesday, 
Sept.  24th.     Ira  B.  Underhill,  Rec.  Sec. 

VJ^  The  Grand  Autumnal  E.xhibition  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Horticultural  Society,  will  be  held 
in  the  Museum  building,  Philadelphia,  on  the 
17th,  18th,  and  19th  of  September. 


IE7='  The  annual  exhibition  of  the  Albany  and 
Rensselaer  Hort.  Society,  will  be  held  in  the 
old  State  Hall,  on  the  lOlh  and  11th  days  of 
September — that  of  the  Rhode  Island  Hort. 
Society,  will  be  held  at  Providence,  on  the 
lOfh,  11th,  and  12th  of  Sept.— that  of  Cin- 
nati,  Ohio,  takes  place  on  the  1st,  2d,  and  3d 
of  October.  

Pennsylvania  Horticultural  Society. — 
The  stated  meeting  of  this  Society  occurred 
August  19th,  in  ihe  Chinese  Saloon,  Philadel- 
phia, The  President  in  the  chair.  The  Hall 
was  much  crowded  with  the  beauty  and  fashion 
of  the  city.     Every  visitor  was  highly  gratified 


with  the  display.  The  object  of  the  greaest  at 
traction,  and  it  assuredly  merited  all  the  admi- 
ration bestowed  upon  it,  was  theleaf  of  the  far- 
famed  Victoria  regia,  or  great  water  lilj',  from 
the  hot-house  of  Caleb  Cope,  the  President  of 
the  Society.  This  leaf  was  six  feet  four  inches 
in  diameter,  or  nineteen  feet  in  circumference; 
of  circular  form,  peltate,  emarginate  at  that 
portion  of  the  border  which  was  the  point  of 
its  orignal  sagittate  shape;  a  similar  notch  ex- 
isted directly  opposite,  where  a  suture  occurs, 
which  latter  is  caused  by  the  adhesion  of  the 
lobes  of  its  arrow-headed  form ;  the  venation 
was  remarkably  prominent,  and  beset  with 
sharp  spines,  as  also  was  the  rope-like  petiole  ; 
the  whole  of  the  under  surface  was  of  a  beauti- 
ful purple  tint.  The  flower  hud  not  having  ex- 
panded, was  not  shown;  as  buds  are  observed 
issuing  from  the  plant,  it  is  hoped  and  confi- 
dently expected,  that  flowers  may  be  seen  at 
the  grand  autumnal  display,  commencing  on 
the  17th  September.  A  representation  in  wax, 
of  the  flower,  obtained  by  A.  Kimber  in  Europe, 
was  exhibited.  A  choice  collection  of  flower- 
ing plants,  from  Robert  Buist's,  were  present- 
ed. Fine  baskets  of  choice  cut  flowers,  from 
Jno.  Ellis,  gardener  to  Caleb  Cope,  Henry  A. 
Dreer,  and  Robert  Kilvington,  were  seen. 

In  fruits  the  display  was  really  very  fine 
Of  grapes,  there  were  seven  contributions,  con^ 
sisting  of  Black  Hamburgh,  White  Chasselas 
Cochin  China,  White  Frontignac,  Golden  Chas 
solas,  and  a  collection  consisting  of  many  varie 
ties.  Nectarines  were  brought  from  green-hou 
ses,  of  the  Elruge.  Vermash,  new  White,  Red 
Roman,  Pitmaston,  Orange,  and  other  varieties. 
Of  plums,  there  were  six  contributors,  and  the 
kinds  shown  were  the  Marston,  Green  Gage, 
Mammoth,  Quetch,  Blue  and  Cleavinger. 
Highly  flavored  Cayenne  Pine  Apples  were  from 
the  President's  houses.  Delicious  peaches  of 
the  Crawford's  Early,  the  Heath,  free,  and  a 
seedling  variety,  were  seen.  Of  pears,  there 
were  from  one  source  eight  kinds — the  Bartlett, 
Cailot  Rosat,  AYashington,  Bezi  de  la  Motte, 
Chaumontelle,  Moyamensing,  Andrews,  and  Ah 
mon  Dieu,  and  the  Dewitt,  Bartram,  Rousse- 
let  de  Rhelms,  Seckel,  and  a  seedling,  and  the 
Esperion,  St.  Ghislain,  and  three  unknown 
French  kinds;  the  Andrews,  Duchess  de 
the  Dearborn's  Seedling,  the  Julienne,  the 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Ir  Catharine,  Seckel  and  Gratz.  Of  apples, 
the  following  varieties — Pearmain.  Maiden's 
BUish,  Porter,  Hagloe,  and  Hawthornden. 
Several  new  varieties  of  melons  were  brought 
forward.  Three  fine  displays  of  vegetables  were 
shown. 

The  committee  on  fruits  submitted  a  report 
of  fruits  examined  ad  interim — viz:  Fine  spe- 
cimens of  the  Bloodgood,  Dearborn's  Seedling, 
Ananas  d'  Ete,  Benoist  pears,  from  Charles 
Downing,  Newburgh,  N.  Y . ;  the  Gratz,  Mather 
and  Ott  pears,  and  Cleavinger  plums.  The 
Bloodgood,  Dearborn's  Seedling,  Ananas  d' 
Ete,  and  Benoist,  were  of  the  finest  quality; 
the  last  were  particularly  fine.  The  Gratz  was 
of  good  quality,  and  believed  to  be  synonymous 
with  Julienne.  The  Mather  is  a  large,  fair  na- 
tive pear  of  Delaware  county,  of  great  produc- 
tiveness, but  wants  flavor.  The  Ott,  as  hereto- 
fore,  sustains  its  high  reputation,  excelling  in 
quality  all  the  summer  pears.  The  Cleavinger 
is  a  native  purple  plum,  free,  of  the  largest 
size,  and  of  good  flavor.  Tho.  P.  James,  Re- 
cording Secretary. 


Ripening  and  Preserving  Fruit. — At  a 
meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Hort.  Soc,  May 
31,  the  following  report  from  the  Fruit  Com- 
mittee was  read  by  the  Chairman,  accepted  and 
ordered  to  be  printed. 

The  Fruit  committee,  to  whom  a  communi- 
cation from  Mr.  Daniel  T.  Curtis,  in  respect  to 
a  method  discovered  by  him  for  ripening  and 
preserving  fruits,  has  been  referred,  ask  leave 
to  report  at  this  time  but  in  part,  upon  the  sub- 
ject committed  to  them. 

Specimens  of  fruit,  consisting  mainly  of 
pears,  have  repeatedly,  during  the  past  year, 
been  placed  upon  the  tables  of  the  Society,  by 
Mr.  Curtis,  that  had  been  preserved  by  hini  for 
a  long  time  after  their  usual  period  of  maturity, 
that  were  found  on  examination  to  be  perfectly 
sound,  and,  in  some  instances,  to  have  retained 
unimpaired  their  juice  and  flavor.  Among 
these  pears  were  specimens  of  the  Seckel, 
Bonne  Louise  de  Jersey  .Duchess  d'Angouleme, 
and  Easter  Beurre.  The  Seckels,  though  a 
kind  peculiarly  subject  to  early  decay,  were 
perfectly  sound,  and  retained  in  perfection  the 
peculiar  flavor  of  that  variety.  Of  the  other 
varieties,  the  specimens  exhibited  were  general- 
ly,  though  sound,  insipid  and  tasteless,  aris- 
ing from  the  circumstance,  as  Mr.  Curtis  stat- 
ed, and  astheir  appearance  indicated,  that  they 
were,  when  packed,  and  subjected  to  his  pro- 
cess, immature  and  imperfect. 

These  pears  were  exhibited  by  Mr.  C.  as  late 
as  January  and  February,  months  after  their 
usual  season  of  ripening,  thus  proving,  as  no 


signs  of  decay  were  visible,  that  their  season 
could  be  almost  indefinitely  prolonged. 

Mr.  Curtis  has  sent  pears  preserved  and  pack- 
ed in  his  iteculiar  metliod,  to  the  Havana,  to 
London,  and  San  Francisco,  thus  subjecting  his 
method  to  the  most  severe  trials. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  from  his 
correspondent  at  Havana,  shows  the  result  of 
the  experiment,  as  far  as  the  shipment  to  that 
city  is  concerned;  ''  The  pears  arrived  in  per- 
fect order  ;  they  were  delicious.  I  never 
tliought  they  could  be  eaten  in  so  jjerfect  a 
state,  except  in  the  country  where  thev  grow." 

The  Gardeners'  Chronicle  of  April  5th, states, 
that  at  the  Exhibition  of  the  London  Horticul- 
tural Society,  April  first,  a  box  of  15  Piaster 
Beurre  pears,  received  from  Mr.  Curtis,  of  Bos- 
ton, were  exhibited;  that  cases  containing  sev- 
en of  these  pears  were  opened,  and  of  them, 
four  were  found  to  be  decayed,  and  three  good; 
and  then  states,  "  These  pears  were  stated  to 
have  been  ripened  by  a  method  peculiar  to  Mr. 
Curtis,  the  nature  of  which  was  not  explained. 
They  were,  for  the  most  part,  melting,  sweet, 
and  perfectly  ripe,  a  conclition  which  this  fruit 
with  difficultj'  attains  with  us  in  England." 
The  society  awarded  Mr.  Curtis  its  Knightian 
medal. 

The  California  Daily  Courier  of  April  9th, 
acknowledges  the  receipt,  through  Mr.  D.  H. 
Haskell,  of  Adam's  Express,  of  a  "magnifi- 
cent pear,  as  sound  as  when  packed  at  Boston." 
The  Pacific  News,  and  Alta  California, and  other 
San  Francisco  papers,  make  similar  acknow- 
ledgments, and  all  concur  in  stating  that  the 
pears  were  perfectly  sound,  and  that  as  they 
were  sent  for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  prac- 
ticability of  sending  fruit  to  California,  across 
the  Isthmus,  speak  of  the  experiment  as  suc- 
cessful. The  pears  were  shipped  at  Boston, 
January  27,  and  after  a  detention  of  70  days, 
arrived  in  California  in  April.  The  papers  re- 
ferred to  state,  that  the  pears,  though  sound, 
were  deficient  in  flavor,  a  ciicumstance  to  be 
imputed,  as  with  those  exhibited  to  the  Socie- 
ty, perhaps  to  the  immature  and  imperfect 
state  of  the  fruit  when  shipped,  and  not  to  the 
effect  of  the  passage,  or  a  difference  of  climate. 

From  the  facts  now  detailed  as  well  as  from 
their  own  observation,  your  committee  feel  jus- 
tified in  expressing  a  confident  opinion,  that 
after  many  unsuccessful  trials  of  various  pro- 
cesses and  different  methods,  Mr.  Curtis  has 
succeeded  in  discovering  a  method  of  preserv- 
ing fruit  for  a  very  long,  if  not  for  any  desired 
period,  and  that  this  method  is  capable  of  a 
practical  application. 

Although  Mr.  Curtis  has,  as  he  states,  pre- 
served other  varieties  of  fruit  besides  pears, 
yet  so  f;xr  as  the  personal  knowledge  of  the 
committee  extends,  the  fruit  subjected  to  his 
process  has  thus  far  been  mainly  of  the  latter 
description,  and  they  feel,  before  arriving  at  a 
conclusive  opinion  respecting  the  value  of  this 
discovery  to  the  Society,  experiments  with 
er  species  of  fruit,  as  peaches,  plums,  &c 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


should  be  made,  and  opportunity  be  offered  for 
their  examination,  after  being  subjected  to  the 
process.  With  a  view  to  the  gratification  of 
the  committee  in  this  particular,  Mr.  Curtis  is 
about  commencing,  under  their  inspection, 
some  experiments  with  the  early  and  soft  fruits, 
to  be  continued  with  other  kinds,  as  they  come 
into  season. 

In  addition  to  the  discovery  of  a  mode  of 
preserving  fruit,  Mr.  Curtis  seems  also  to  have 
succeeded  in  finding  out  a  process  by  which 
such  varieties  as  are  difhculty  to  ripen,  maybe 
brought  to  perfection, — a  discovery  of  almost 
as  much  interest  to  cultivators,  as  that  by  which 
the  season  of  all  varieties  is  so  greatly  prolonged 
and  their  safe  transmission  to  distant  places 
secured. 

That  the  discoveries  of  Mr.  Curtis  are  im- 
portant, and  that  he  is  justly  entitled  to  an 
honorary  and  pecuniary  recompense  at  the 
hands  of  the  Society,  as  well  as  that  a  know- 
ledge of  the  process  should  be,  if  possible,  pro- 
cured for  tlie  use  of  its  members,  your  com- 
mittee entertain  no  doubt,  and  tliey  believe 
that  it  will  be  but  fulfilling  some  of  the  objects 
for  which  it  was  instituted,  in  testifying  by 
such  recompense,  a  proper  a{)preciation  of  the 
merits  and  discoveries  of  Mr.  Curtis,  and  in 
procuring  for  the  public  the  means  of  availing 
itself  of  the  advantages  to  be  derived  there- 
from. 

Under  existing  circumstances,  however, 
while  they  wi.sh  now  to  place  on  record  such 
evidence  of  the  claims  of  Mr.  Curtis  as  is  af- 
forded by  this  expression  of  their  opinions  and 
statements  of  facts,  your  committee  are  of 
opinion  that  the  final  action  of  the  Society,  in 
relation  to  this  matter,  should  yet  be  delayed 
until  the  result  of  the  ex])eriments  referred  to 
are  ascertained,  and  such  further  information 
with  respect  to  the  expense  attending  the  pro- 
cess and  the  mode  of  practicing  it  procured, 
as  will  enable  them,  in  view  of  the  beneficial 
results  of  which  it  is  capable,  the  better  to  re- 
commend, and  the  Society  to  adopt,  such  mea- 
sures in  relation  to  these  discoveries,  as  Mr. 
Curtis  seems  to  deserve  and  its  own  interest  to 
demand. 

With  these  views,  your  committee  ask  that 
the  whole  subject  may  yet  be  left  in  their  hands, 
and  that  further  time  be  allowed  them  to  con- 
sider what  action  it  is  proper  that  the  Society 
should  take  in  reference  thereto.  Joseph  S. 
Cabot,  Chairman. 


White  Blackberktes. — They  were  first 
grown  in  the  garden  of  Mr.  J.  S.  Needham, 
West  Danvers,  and  seem  to  possess  some  re- 
markable characteristics  which  emineutly  enti- 


tle them  to  general  cultivation.  The  first  speci 
mens  of  this  new  species  were  exhibited  in 
Boston  the  last  season,  and  were  pronounced 
by  competent  judges,  a  curiosity,  as  well  as  a 
most  palatable  fruit;  in  which  opinion  I  think 
you  will  fully  concur.  The  original  plant  was 
discovered  growing  wild  in  the  midst  of  a 
blackberry  patch  in  the  State  of  Maine;  and 
this  year,  for  the  first  time,  it  has  fully  demon- 
strated what  it  is  capable  of  producing  under 
garden  cultivation.  It  is  a  tall,  upright  bush, 
growing  to  the  height  of  four  and  five  feet,  and 
is  prolific  to  an  extent  scarcely  credible  to  one 
who  has  not  seen  it  in  bearing.  The  bush  from 
which  these,  which  I  send  you,  were  picked, 
produced  eleven  quarts  of  marketable  berries! 
The  size  as  well  as  the  quantity  of  the  fruit 
would  doubtless  have  been  larger,  if  nearly 
half  of  the  fruit  had  not  been  removed  in  the 
spring  in  separating  the  shoots  from  the  parent 
stock,  for  the  purpose  of  propagation.  Besides 
being  a  great  bearer  the  plant  is  hardy  and 
needs  no  artificial  protection  during  the  winter. 

The  flavor  of  the  high  blackberry  is  well 
Known  to  be  greatly  superior  to  tlie  common 
low  blackberry ;  yet  every  cultivator  is  aware 
that,  except  in  some  favorable  localities,  the 
high  blackberry  is  a  shj'  and  capricious  bearer, 
and  unworthy  of  his  attention.  AVhen  brouglit 
under  garden  cultivation  that  plant  grows  rank  ; 
but  the  few  berries  which  it  bears  are  ill-foiiued, 
hard  and  bitter.  All  these  objections  this  new 
species  obviates,  and  promises  to  bring  their 
delectable  fruit  into  general  cultivation. 

Mr.  Needham  has  in  his  possession  the  origi- 
nal plant,  and  all  that  have  been  propagated 
from  it;  and  in  the  spring  he  hopes  to  be  able 
to  supply  demands  for  them  from  abroad.  A 
visit  to  Mr.  Needham's  garden  would  richly 
compensate  one  curious  in  such  matters,  for 
his  trouble.  The  cold  weather  of  the  past 
week  has  given  some  of  the  specimens  I  send 
a  darker  color  than  naturally  belongs  to  them. 
The  berry  is  usually  as  light  colored  and  trans- 
parent as  a  sweet- water  grape. — IBoston  Jour. 


A  New  and  Yalcable  Cherry. — We  re- 
ceived  of  James  Hyde  &  Son,  nurserymen, 
Newtown  Centre,  a  lot  of  fine  cherries  on  the 
first  day  of  August,  which  from  its  lateness 
and  sujterior  quality,  we  thiidc  will  be  a  valua- 
ble acquisition.  It  originated  in  that  neigh. 
borhood.  The  fruit  is  medial  size;  obtuse 
heart  shaped;  dark  red  and  mottled,  light 
amber  in  the  shade ;  stem  rather  short  and  slim ; 
flesh  soft,  tender,  very  juicy,  sweet,  rich,  and 
delicious:  stone  small;  ripe  the  first  day  of 
August. — N.  E.  Farmer. 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  AOT)  RURAL  ^TASTE. 


£  fxrfnrm  MtM, 

IWHERE  is  one  feature  in  the  municipal  government  of  most  of  our  towns  and  vil- 
^  lages,  indicative  of  so  low  a  point  of  civilization,  that  it  calls  loudly  for  reform. 
It  would,  perhaps,  hardly  be  worth  while  to  call  attention  to  it,  trusting  to  the  pro- 
gress of  good  government  and  propriety  to  banish  it,  did  it  not  appear  rather  to  take 
the  position  of  a  more  established  fact,  year  by  year. 

We  refer  to  the  custom  of  allowing  animals  that  belong  to  the  pasture-field,  and 
barn-yard,  to  run  at  large  in  the  highways  of  the  country,  and  streets  of  the  cities. 

We  believe  we  are  correct  in  saying,  that  this  abomination  prevails  by  toleration  all 
over  the  Union,  with  the  exception  of  one  single  state,  Massachusetts — which  forms  a 
most  honorable  exception. 

The  traveler  may  journey  from  one  end  of  Massachusetts  to  the  other — he  may 
visit  her  smallest  hamlets — her  lovely,  elm-embowered  villages — her  busy  manufactur- 
ing towns,  or  her  thriving  and  populous  cities — and  everywhere  he  sees  more  order, 
cleanliness,  and  good  government,  than  elsewhere.  If  it  pains  us  as  a  New-Yorker 
to  be  obliged  to  confess  their  superiority — it  gives  us  pleasure  as  an  American,  to  be 
able  to  point  to  one  of  the  states  where  public  education  has  been  longest  and 
most  largely  diffused,  as  a  standard  in  these  respects  to  other  states  that  yet  lag  behind 
in  these  external  marks  of  civilization. 

We  believe,  indeed,  that  the  same  municipal  laws  governing  the  towns  and  villa- 
ges of  Massachusetts,  which  forbid  the  running  at  large  of  animals  in  the  streets,  are 
for  the  most  part  in  existence  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  But  in  Massachusetts 
these  laws  are  enforced — in  other  states  they  are  a  dead  letter. 

The  most  flagrant  violation  of  these  laws,  and  the  most  unaccountable  one,  is  in  the 
great  commercial  metropolis  of  the  country.  New- York.     In  the  third  largest  city 
the  christian  world,  where  the  wealth,  luxury,  and  refinement  of  the   oldest  and 


Oct.  1,  1851. 


No.  X. 


A  REFORM  NEEDED. 

cultivated  portions  of  Europe  prevail,  the  civilization  is  at  so  low  an  ebb  in  this  res 
pect,  that  hogs  and  cows  have  free  range  of  the  streets — that  droves  of  fat  cattle  and 
sheep  are  driven  through  the  streets  at  mid-day,  and  hardly  a  month  passes  by  that 
the  newspapers  do  not  record  accidents  to  women  and  children — gored  or  trampled 
upon  in  the  very  park  in  front  of  the  city-hall  itself.  All  over  the  country  the  condi- 
tion of  things  is  little  or  no  better.  In  Washington,  droves  of  cows  and  hogs,  by 
hundreds,  ramble  at  will  over  the  open  unimproved  grounds  about  the  city — in  almost 
every  town  the  traveler  stumbles  over  swine  at  every  corner  of  the  street ;  in  almost 
every  country  neighborhood,  the  owners  of  gardens  and  orchards  tremble  daily  for 
the  sanctity  of  their  premises,  and  guard  jealously  the  gates,  lest  the  domestic  animals 
that  are  nobody's  property  in  particular,  but  live  by  robbing  the  community  in  general, 
should  make  an  onslaught  upon  our  light  wooden  fences,  and  sweep  gai-den  and  orchard 
before  them. 

The  extra  cost  of  fencing  against  these  commoners,  amounts  to  at  least  hundreds 
of  millions  of  dollars  to  the  country  at  large — as  any  one  who  has  traveled  through 
France,where  no  animals  run  at  large, and  there  are  miles  without  fences, will  understand. 
Every  man  who  owns  a  few  acres  of  land,  spends  hundreds  of  dollars  in  shutting  out 
animals  that  are  not  his  own,  and  have  no  right  to  be  at  large  to  his  annoyance  and 
cost ;  and  thus  the  country  is  both  disgraced  and  over-taxed  by  a  miserable  shortsight- 
edness upon  the  part  of  the  more  intelligent  members  of  the  community,  who  will  not 
boldly  enforce  the  law  and  protect  their  own  interests. 

We  have  called  this  feature  a  mark  of  a  low  condition  of  civilization,  and  every 
thinking  person  who  will  give  it  a  few  moment's,  reflection,  will,  we  think,  agree  with 
us. 

In  Ireland,  the  poor  cottagers  think  it  no  degradation  to  humanity  to  share  the  best 
and  only  room  of  their  cabins,  with  their  pigs.  In  Switzerland,  even  wealthy  farmers 
lodge  their  cattle  in  the  basement  story  of  their  houses,  and  a  neatly  rounded  manure- 
heap  is  one  of  the  scenic  features  that  meets  the  eye  from  every  front-door. 

Will  any  American  attempt  to  argue  that  this  condition  of  things  in  Ireland  and 
Switzerland,  is  not  the  index  of  a  lower  state  of  civilization  than  our  own  ?  But  will 
not  any  person,  either  from  England,  France,  or  even  Massachusetts,  also  feel  equally 
shocked  at  the  hriUal  aspect  of  the  streets  in  most  parts  of  the  United  States,  and 
put  it  down  as  an  almost  equally  decided  mark  of  low  civilization  ? 

It  seems  to  us  that  as  there  can  be  no  question  on  this  subject,  and  as  no  right- 
thinking  man  can  Avish  to  live  among  cattle  or  share  the  streets  and  avenues  with 
them,  it  is  time  that  something  should  be  done  to  arouse  public  attention  to  the 
barbarism  we  speak  of.  It  may  be  thought  a  little  matter  by  many  persons,  but  so 
are  personal  cleanliness,  the  health  of  cities,  the  introduction  of  pure  water  in  towns, 
and  even  common  schools — all  "  little  matters"  if  the  public  sentiment  and  public 
intelligence  are  at  so  low  an  ebb  as  not  to  see  and  feel  their  value.  But  in  fact  every- 
thing A^hich  tends  to  make  mankind  respect  themselves,  tends  to  raise  them  in  the 
scale  of  humanity.  Certainly  the  more  we  live  like  men,  the  more  we  fulfil  this 
dition,  and  it  is  no  help  to  such  a  hopeful  condition  to  pass   great  part  of  our  time 


A  REFORM  NEEDED. 

the  streets  of  towns  and  cities  when  animals  and  men  make  common  enjoyment  of 
them. 

There  are  two  classes  of  citizens  who  stand  in  the  way  of  wholesome  reform  in  the 
matter  we  speak  of.  One,  and  the  largest,  is  an  ignorant  and  indifferent  class — who 
see  nothing-  uncomfortable  in  this  state  of  things,  and  need  therefore  to  be  roused 
and  shamed  into  action  by  an  expression  of  right  feeling  on  the  part  of  those  who  see 
cleanliness  and  decorum  in  their  true  light ;  the  second  consists  of  demagogues  who  fear 
to  disturb  the  prejudices  of  that  small  class  in  the  community,  which  understand  by  the 
word  liberty,  not  a  wholesome  obedience  of  just  laws  made  by  the  people — but  a  certain 
license  to  do  anything  and  everything  not  absolutely  criminal,  with  their  own  property, 
and  that  of  all  their  neighbors. 

That  it  is  only  needful  for  a  few  good  citizens  in  every  town  to  look  at  the  matter 
clearly,  and  determine  to  have  orderly  and  sanitary  laws  like  these  enforced,  we  have 
had  abundant  proof  in  the  town  where  we  live — which  is,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  only 
one  in  the  State  of  New- York  where  animals  are  not  joint-stock  possessors  of  all  the 
streets  and  highways.  Eight  or  ten  years  ago,  Newburgh,  which  has  a  population  of 
nine  thousand  inhabitants,  w^s  one  of.  the  least  cleanly  and  orderly  towns  in  the  North. 
Droves  of  hogs,  cows  and  geese  ran  at  large  everywhere,  and  the  possessor  of  a  gar- 
den or  even  of  a  bit  of  sidewalk  was  always  liable,  night  and  day,  to  the  nuisance  and 
annoyance  of  numbers  of  these  commoners.  At  length  it  was  determined  by  a  few 
of  the  more  orderly  inhabitants,  to  endeavor  to  have  enforced  the  law  for  pounding 
animals.  The  trustees  of  the  village  doubted  the  possibility  of  enforcing  the  law, 
and  faltered  in  their  duty.  At  the  next  election,  however,  the  hog-law  was  made  the 
test,  trustees  favorable  to  its  execution  were  elected  by  a  large  majority,  nothwith- 
standing  a  fierce  opposition.  When  the  law  was  enforced,  so  strong  was  the  feeling 
of  resistance,  that  the  public  pound  was  several  times  broken  into  at  night,  and  the 
animals  released.  But  the  orderly  part  of  the  community  stood  firmly  by  the  author- 
ities, and  the  latter  did  their  duty,  until  the  law  triumphed.  After  much  grumbling 
on  the  part  of  many  who  imagined  that  they  had  a  clear  right  to  prey  upon  the  public 
in  this  manner,a  general  acquiescence  came  about.  And  now  for  five  years  we  have  had 
cleanly  streets,  free  from  all  animals  of  all  kinds,  and  such  an  air  of  neatness  and  rural 
beauty  has  sprung  up,  that  the  place  has  almost  changed  its  character.  The  can-iage- 
gates  of  grounds,  like  our  own,  which,  under  the  old  system  of  things,  needed  almost 
an  armed  huntsman  to  keep  out  the  brute  population,  are  now  wide  open  day  and 
evening,  without  the  least  plant  suffering  depredation  ;  and  what  is  the  best  part  of 
the  story,  so  completely  has  the  feeling  of  better  civilization  triumphed,  that  it  would, 
we  imagine,  be  very  hard  at  the  present  moment,  to  persuade  the  population  of  this 
town  to  return  to  the  old  condition  of  streets,  overrun  with  unclean  beasts. 

In  order  that  the  reform  may  spread,  right-thinking  persons  must  both  protest  and 
take  up  arms  against  the  nuisance — and  we  hereby  enter  the  lists  with  all  our  hearts, 
and  call  on  our  fellow  citizens  throughout  the  country  to  shake  off  this  remnant  of 
low  civilization. 


NOTES  ON  THE  GRAPE. 

NOTES   ON  THE   GRAPE. 

BY  \VM.  W.  VALK,  M.  D.,  FLUSHING,  LONG  ISLAND. 

Dear  Sir — In  your  Horticulturist  for  September,  page  410,  I  notice  an  article  headed 
"  The  Isabella  Grape — Its  History,  &c."  You  have  some  remarks  appended  thereto,  a 
portion  of  which  I  quote,  viz:  "  There  is,  unfortunately,  no  "well  authenticated  proof  that 
our  native  grape  has  ever  been  hybridised  with  the  grapes  of  Europe.  All  our  seedlings, 
so  far  proved,  are  chance  seedlings — but  we  believe  some  of  our  pomologists  are  now  busy 
with  the  experiment  of  crossing  the  species  if  possible — to  effect  a  more  speedy  ameliora- 
tion of  the  hardy  native  varieties.  A  cross  between  Black  Hambugh  and  Isabella,  giving 
us  the  size  and  luscious  flavor  of  the  former,  and  the  hardiness  of  the  latter,  would  be 
worth  untold  thousands." 

I  beg  leave  to  refer  you  to  Hovey  's  Magazine,  Vov .  IX,  page  134.  You  will  there  find  an 
article  "  On  the  Production  of  hardy  Seedling  Grapes,  by  hybridizating  the  Native  with 
the  Foreign  Grape."  I  communicated  the  same  to  that  periodical,  and  should  like  to 
have  you  read  it.  You  will  perceive,  that  as  far  as  human  accuracy  can  be  depended  upon, 
I  succeeded  in  fertilizing  the  Hamburgh  with  the  pollen  of  the  Isabella.  In  that  year, 
(1845,)  I  raised  fourteen  seedlings  from  the  fertilized  seed.  Absence,  and  other  causes 
combined,  compelled  me  to  neglect  them  for  more  than  two  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  but  two  of  them  were  living,  and  these  not  in  very  good  order.  All  had  been  care- 
fally  labelled,  and  kept  in  pots.  In  the  spring  of  1847,  I  planted  both  these  seedlings  in 
the  open  soil,  at  the  head  of  my  garden,  tacked  them  to  the  fence  as  they  grew,  and  have 
rather  neglected  them  than  otherwise.  I  did  not  prepare  the  earth  in  any  way  for  their 
support,  nor  have  I  given  them  the  slightest  protection  daring  the  last  four  ivinters.  Last 
year  they  fruited  for  the  first  time — one  vine  having  on  it  eleven  bunches,  the  other  thir- 
teen. The  fruit  was  of  good  size,  and  very  handsome  looking,  but  before  it  was  ripe,  the 
poultry  fancied  it,  and  soon  destroyed  the  whole  of  it,  much  to  my  regret  and  annoy- 
ance, for  I  now  began  to  watch  my  vines  with  more  than  ordinary  interest.  This  season 
they  have  borne  a  little  more,  and  on  one  vine  the  fruit  was  beautiful,  on  the  other,  (with 
a  western  exposure,)  the  mildew  rather  injured  its  appearance.  During  my  absence  for 
four  days  in  Connecticut,  some  miserable  thief  got  over  my  fence,  and  helped  himself  to 
all  but  one  bunch  of  my  finest  grapes,  leaving  the  mildewed  one's  scarcely  touched.  Had 
I  caught  him  in  the  act,  I  think  I  should  have  been  disposed  to  pepper  his  footsteps  with 
small  shot;  as  it  is,  my  best  grapes  are  gone,  and  they  were  not  ripe  by  at  least  a  month, 
though  deeply  colored. 

The  concluding  paragraph  of  my  article  in  Hovey,  reads  thus:  "  "We  shall  take  care  to 
ascertain  all  particulars  as  soon  as  practicable,  and  make  them  known  when  we  are  satisfied 
fully  of  their  perfect  correctness,  not  speculating  carelessly  with  the  credulity  of  our  co-la- 
borers or  the  public,  but  giving  them  the  true  result,  whatever  that  may  be."  What  is  this 
result?  It  is,  as  far  I  know  and  believe,  a  very  important  one  to  pomologists  generally. 
My  two  seedlings,  from  the  Hamburgh  fertilized  by  the  Isabella,  have  lived  through  much 
neglect,  and  boms  triumphantly  the  frosts  of  four  winters.  They  are  at  this  moment  in 
as  good  health  as  can  be  under  the  circumstances,  and  fully  deserving  of  the  utmost  care. 
The  fruit  so  far  has  not  been  as  large  as  the  Hamburgh,  but  it  is  thin  skinned,  and  has  a 
soft  and  pleasant  pulp,  wholly  unlike  the  Isabella.  Is  it  hardy.?  I  have  told  you  what  I 
certainly  know  and  believe,  that  my  seedlings  are  as  hardy  as  the  Isabella,  and  bear 
equal  to  the  Hamburgh  in  everything  but  size  ;  better  cultivation  may  give  them  that 


SUPERPHOSPHATE  OF   LIME  FOR  TRANSPLANTING   TREES. 


foliage  they  more  nearly  resemble  the  Hamburgh,  though  some  of  my  friends  here  think 
them  distinct;  the  leaves  are  "very  deeply  serrated." 

The  bunch  the  thief  left  is  not  a  good  specimen  to  judge  by,  but  poor  as  it  is,  I  send  it 
to  you.     The  fruit  is  not  ripe  yet,  but  you  can  tell,  perhaps,  what  may  be  thought  of  it. 

Yours  very  truly,  &c.  Wm.  W.  Valk,  M.  D. 

Flushing,  L.  I.,  Sept.  13,  1851. 

Kemarks — The  bunch  of  grapes  referred  to  by  Dr.  Valk,  reached  us  in  excellent  order. 
At  first  sight  the  bunch  resembles  that  of  the  Isabella — the  grapes  being  hung  somewhat 
loosely  upon  it.  But  the  berries  are  round — blacker  than  the  Isabella,  and  totally  dis- 
tinct in  flavor  from  our  native  grapes — resembling  the  dark  colored  foreign  grapes.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is  the  first  genuine  cross  between  the  foreign  grapes  and  our  na- 
tives, and  if  the  cross  realizes  the  promise  of  this  single  bunch — evidently  a  poor  sample 
of  the  product  of  the  vine — this  new  seedling  of  Dr.  Valk's  will  soon  become  widely 
sought  after.  The  fact  that  hybrids  may  be  raised,  being  settled,  we  shall  expect  to  see 
a  new  and  delicious  class  of  hardy  grapes  springing  up  in  this  country,  admirably  adapted 
for  the  table  and  for  wine,  and  perfectly  suited  to  our  climate.    Ed. 


SUPERPHOSPHATE  OF  LIME  FOR  TRANSPLANTING  TREES. 

PROF.  LINDLEY.— IN  THE  GARDENERS'  CHRONICLE. 

There  are  no  doubt  places  in  which  all  the  skill  of  the  planter  will  at  first  fail  in  getting 
trees  to  grow,  but  even  in  such  cases  he  need  not  despair;  the  cause  of  his  failure  usually 
is,  not  that  the  soil  is  absolutely  unfit  to  support  vegetation  of  any  kind,  but  that  the 
circumstances  being  highly  unfavorable,  the  plants  are  not  able  to  get  over  that  shock  to 
their  systems  which  they  always  suffer  in  ordinary  transplanting.  It  is  evident  that 
plants  which  are  moved  with  bare  roots,  as  young  trees  are,  must  receive  a  far  greater 
check  than  those  which  are  moved  with  a  ball  of  earth;  and  it  is  very  often  found  that  a 
little  extra  care  in  the  planting  is  well  repaid,  because  if  the  tree  survive  this  check,  and 
form  fresh  roots,  it  will  generally  get  such  a  hold  upon  the  soil,  that  it  is  then  able  to 
grow  up,  and  form  a  healthy  tree.  In  planting  the  most  barren  and  exposed  situations 
then,  particular  care  must  be  taken,  and  it  appears  in  such  cases  to  be  well  worth  while 
to  add  some  "improver"  to  the  soil,  thrown  into  the  holes  in  which  the  trees  are  planted. 
The  quantity  required  is  small,  its  cost  need  not  be  great,  and  the  labor  of  using  it  is  a 
trifle,  compared  with  the  good  effect  produced  by  its  application. 

The  effect  which  it  is  desired  to  produce  is  the  formation  of  fresh  roots,  and  any  sub- 
stance which  will  cause  the  plant  to  throw  out  a  quantity  of  fibrous  rootlets,  will  enable 
it  to  overcome  the  evil  effects  of  its  being  transplanted.  It  appears  that  phosphoric  acid 
possesses  a  very  great  and  remarkable  influence  on  the  development  of  roots,  causing 
plants  to  throw  them  out  with  unusual  vigor;  we  do  not  know  of  any  very  satisfactory  ex- 
planation of  this  phenomenon,  either  chemical  or  physiological,  but  of  the  fact  itself  there 
seems  to  be  no  doubt.  The  most  convenient  mode  of  employing  this  substance  is  in  the 
form  of  superphosphate  of  lime,  as  it  is  called,  that  is  to  say,  a  mixture  of  oil  of  vitriol 
and  burnt  bones.  This  compound,  which  is  rich  in  phosphoric  acid  in  a  soluble  state,  may 
be  readily  mixed  with  a  little  dry  mould,  and  it  then  forms  a  most  valuable  aid 
planter;  a  little  of  the  mixture  being  thrown  in  round  the  roots  of  the  transplanted 


SUPERPHOSPHATE  OF  LIME  FOR  TRANSPLANTING  TREES. 

aids  greatly  in  the  formation  of  root  fibres,  and  consequently  assists  very  much  in  estab 
lishing  the  plant  in  its  new  situation.  Or,  if  scattered  over  the  soil  next  the  roots,  before 
it  is  finally  watered  after  planting,  it  is  well  distributed  to  the  places  where  it  is  most  re- 
quired. 

When  a  young  tree  has  its  roots  thrust  into  such  a  hole  as  is  made  by  a  single  cut  of  a 
spade,  or  even  by  two  cross  cuts,  the  roots  are  crowded  together,  and  crushed  into  a  small 
space;  they  are  unfitted  therefore  to  collect  and  absorb  nourishment,  at  a  time  when  the 
plant  stands  peculiarly  in  need  of  it.  Not  only  is  the  freshly-planted  tree  able  to  obtain 
little  food  by  means  of  its  roots,  in  consequence  of  the  mode  in  which  it  is  planted,  but 
the  supply  of  nourishment  is  at  the  same  time  also  diminished  inconsequence  of  the  change 
of  soil.  In  all  cases  the  soil  of  the  nursery  or  seed  plantations,  having  been  repeatedly 
dug  over,  and  moi'c  or  less  manured,  is  better  suited  to  the  growth  of  the  young  plants 
than  the  soil  into  which  they  are  transplanted  can  possibly  be.  When  a  plant  is  moved 
from  one  soil  to  another  its  growth  is  always  checked,  and  the  first  step  which  it  makes 
towards  repairing  the  evil  thus  caused,  is  the  formation  of  fresh  roots;  by  bad  planting 
this  is  made  as  diflficult  as  possible  to  the  plant. 

It  is  hardly  fair  to  compare  togetherthegrowthof  trees  with  that  of  the  ordinary  vegeta- 
bles which  are  cultivated  in  our  kitchen  gardens;  of  course  the  conditions  necessary  to 
the  growth  of  an  annual,  differ  from  those  proper  to  the  healthy  development  of  a  slow 
growing  tree,  which  requires  a  long  series  of  years  to  arrive  at  maturity;  but  even  in  the 
case  of  common  garden  crops,  the  same  general  effects  to  which  we  have  just  referred, 
may  be  observed.  In  almost  every  case  where  it  is  desirable  to  increase  the  development 
of  roots,  phosphoric  acid  is  of  the  greatest  value.  When  we  wish  to  force  young  plants, 
to  push  them  forward  as  fast  as  possible,  so  that  their  roots  may  get  some  hold  upon  the 
soil,  the  superphosphate  of  lime  is  one  of  the  best  manures  we  can  employ.  The  mode  in 
which  that  substance  brings  forward  a  crop  of  turneps  is  an  illustration  of  this,  and  the 
remarkable  way  in  which  it  assists  the  growth  of  the  young  plants,  getting  them  rapidly 
into  the  rough  leaf,  and  producing  a  more  marked  influence  on  their  growth  then,  than  it 
does  at  any  subsequent  period,  appears  to  depend  chiefly  on  the  fact  that  it  aids  them  in 
the  formation  and  development  of  roots. 

Superphosphate  of  lime  is,  therefore,  a  very  valuable  fertiliser  in  the  hands  of  the  plant- 
er, but  in  using  it  he  must  always  remember,  that  as  his  plants  must  necessarily  absorb 
the  whole  or  the  greater  part  of  the  soluble  manure  which  he  gives  them,  he  must  take 
care  not  to  give  too  much,  lie  must  not  suppose  that  if  one  handful  will  do  good,  there- 
fore ten  handfuls  will  do  more:  it  is  very  easy  to  give  too  much,  and  plants,  like  animals, 
may  equally  be  injured  by  over  feeding  or  by  starvatiQn. 


.MRS.  LAWRENCE'S  GARDEN. 


ACCOUNT  OF  MRS.  LAWRENCE'S  GARDEN,  NEAR  LONDON. 

«Y  H.  C.  KEMP. 

[We  quote  the  following  description  of  the  place  most  celebrated  in  England  for  the 
high  cultivation  of  the  plants  and  the  richness  and  variety  of  the  exotic  flora  it  contains. 
Mrs.  Lawrence's  plants  are  as  nearly  perfect  as  plants  can  be,  in  beauty  of  growth  and 
completeness  of  development,  and  she  uniformly  carries  off  the  majority  of  the  prizes  at 
the  great  London  shows,  where  she  has  the  combined  skill  of  all  England  to  compete  with. 
The  account  is  taken  from  an  interesting  little  volume  lately  received,  on  the  parks  and 
gardens  about  London.     Ed.] 

Mrs.  Lawrence's  gardens  at  Ealing,  Park  have  acquired,  and  justly,  a  universal  re- 
putation, on  account  of  the  superb  collection  of  plants  which  they  contain,  and  the  general 
taste  displayed  in  the  arrangement  of  the  place.  As  they  are  most  generously  thrown 
open  to  the  public  for  one  day  in  each  week  during  the  summer,  they  demand  to  be  pretty 
fully  described. 

The  entrance  to  the  park  is  at  the  eastern  corner,  and  after  passing  through  the  gates, 
the  drive  turns  to  the  left,  and  crosses  the  open  park  till  it  reaches  a  long  piece  of  artificial 
water,  over  which  it  is  carried  by  a  low  bridge, — which  is  in  fact  a  neck  of  land  dividing 
the  lake  into  levels, — and  soon  arrives  at  the  house.  There  is  also  a  walk  from  the  lodge 
to  the  house,  just  along  the  belt  of  plantation  which  covers  the  northern  boundary.  In 
the  lake  is  a  pretty  island  of  weeping  willows,  which  shows  well  from  the  house.  The 
drive,  walk,  water,  &c.,  were  planned  by  Brown;  but  the  southern  belt  of  pLantation  was 
afterwards  thinned  out  with  great  judgment  and  effect  by  Repton,  who  saw  that  it  was 
concealing  the  views  into  the  country  across  the  Surrey  Hills,  and  of  tliC  Kew  Pao-oda, 
gardens,  &c.,  and  caused  several  varied  openings  in  the  line  of  plantation  to  be  made, 
thereby  greatly  enlivening  and  expanding  the  place. 

From  the  house,  which  is  so  unfortunately  contrived  that  the  offices  are  on  the  south 
side,  and  can  only  be  gained  by  passing  the  principal  entrance  door,  an  opening  through 
an  architectural  wing  wall  at  the  north  end  brings  us  at  once  into  the  pleasure  grounds. 
This  wall  is  also  used  to  connect  the  house  with  a  conservatory,  which  stands  on  the  right 
as  soon  as  the  garden  is  entered,  and  is  generally  filled  with  Camellias,  or  other  large 
flowering  plants  that  are  not  grown  as  specimens. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  house,  a  short  colonnade  is  thrown  out,  and  supported  by  low 
evergreen  trees,  through  which  the  access  to  what  is  called  the  "  Italian  walk"  is  given. 
This  is  a  straight  walk  on  a  descending  slope,  with  pairs  of  small  figures  on  pedestals  at 
either  side  of  it,  and  good  specimens  of  Irish  yew  between  these.  It  terminates  in  a  mo- 
derately large  circular  basin  of  water,  in  the  center  of  which,  on  a  suflicient  pedestal,  is 
a  figure  of  Apollo.  The  walk  is  kept  confined  towards  the  end  by  large  evergreens,  which 
narrow  the  vista,  and  restrict  the  view  pretty  much  to  the  principal  terminating  object  in 
the  middle  of  the  basin.  The  figures  on  the  pedestals  at  the  sides  are  arranged  in  pairs; 
on  one  pedestal  Mars  and  Venus  being  placed,  on  another  Cupid  and  Psyche,  on  a  third 
Castor  and  Pollux,  &c.  The  general  effect  is  classic  and  elegant,  and  consistent  with  the 
style  of  the  house. 

The  lawn  view  from  the  front  of  the  house  is  rich  and  varied.  A  great  many  specimen 
plants,  especially  of  the  coniferous  tribe,  are  scattered  about  upon  the  grass,  and  their 
lower  branches  lie  down  upon  it  in  the  most  graceful  manner.      A  rustic  arch,  throu<^h 


MRS.  LAWRENCE'S  GARDEN. 


which  a  small  fountain  is  seen,  and  some  fragmentary  classic  ruins,  jut  out  from  the  mass 
of  trees  and  shrubs  at  different  points  along  the  northern  boundary,  and  prevent  the  abun- 
dance of  green  vegetable  objects  from  degenerating  into  sameness.  Certain  cross  avenues, 
however,  break  up  the  principal  glade  more  than  is  desirable.  One  of  these  avenues  is  of 
Cupressus  macrocarpa,  backed  by  mixed  evergreens.  Near  the  house  among  other  choice 
specimens,  is  a  large  plant  of  Arbutus  procera,  which,  with  its  smooth  stems,  and  fine 
clusters  of  fruit  in  autumn,  has  a  striking  appearance.  Garrya  elliptica  is  also  large  and 
handsome,  and  is  a  most  valuable  shrub  for  winter  flowering. 

When  the  basin  of  water  is  reached,  it  is  found  to  contain  four  other  figures  on  pedes- 
tals, one  of  them  representing  Neptune,  and  another  a  mermaid,  and  the  remaining  two 
herons.  On  the  east  and  west  sides  of  this  pond,  the  ground  rises  into  a  bank,  with  large 
masses  of  evergreens  on  the  summit.  The  bank  to  the  east  is  the  highest,  and  has  a  splen- 
did Cedar  of  Lebanon  upon  it,  the  branches  of  which  are  held  up  by  ivy  covered  props, 
so  as  to  allow  of  its  being  walked  under.  Close  to  this  bank  is  the  dairy,  a  pretty  object, 
and  decorated  inside  with  a  row  of  busts  on  brackets  against  the  upper  part  of  the  walls, 
with  flints,  shells,  &c.,  on  part  of  the  shelves.  The  door  is  of  stained  glass,  with  wreaths 
of  roses  and  other  flowers. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  the  dairy,  under  the  large  evergreen  trees,  is  an  oval  arch, 
formed  with  masses  of  fused  brick,  and  supported  on  either  side  with  a  miniature  rockery 
of  the  same  material,  clothed  with  ivy,  &c.  The  design  of  the  aperture  is  to  afford  a 
sudden  and  confined  view  towards  the  park,  embracing  part  of  the  lake,  on  the  margin 
of  which  latter  some  masses  of  fused  brick  have  been  set  up  to  form  an  object  to  this 
view. 

Were  the  scene  more  definite  and  contracted,  and  did  it  embrace  one  principal  and  striking 
feature,  it  is  probable  that  this  idea  of  an  oval  opening,  which  starts  from  the  level  of  the 
ground,  and  is  about  the  height  of  a  full-grown  man,  would  be  very  effective,  by  yielding 
a  kind  of  telescopic  view  without  the  awkwardness  and  trouble  of  having  to  approach  so 
closely  to  a  smaller  aperture,  or  to  move  about  with  effort  in  order  to  obtain  the  desired 
survey.  A  better  example  occurs  on  the  outer  side  of  the  round  pond,  where,  after  thread- 
ing our  way  amongst  large  laurels,  and  other  evergreens,  which  group  themselves  into  a 
natural  retreat  called  the  Leicester  bower,  and  turning  at  length  between  shaded  masses 
of  fused  brick,  which  furnishes  a  shaded  home  for  ferns  and  alpines,  we  come  all  at  once 
to  another  oval  aperture,  through  which  we  look  out  to  the  pond  and  its  figures,  with  the 
grassy  bank  and  noble  evergreens  beyond.  Here  there  has  been  more  preparation,  by  a 
winding  and  uncertain  path,  in  deep  shadow,  among  imitation  rocks,  of  which  the  arch 
forms  a  part;  and  the  burst  of  light  which  we  suddenly  obtain  through  the  arch,  with  the 
limited  nature  of  the  view,  and  the  existence  of  a  more  definite  object  in  the  pond  and 
figures,  render  this  much  more  satisfactory,  and,  indeed,  decidedly  artistic. 

We  cannot  but  remark  on  the  felicity  with  which  the  oval  figure  has  been  chosen  for 
framing  these  little  scenes,  and  how  well  the  shape  and  size  of  the  aperture  fulfil  its  in- 
tention. Any  more  irregular  opening  would  have  the  effect  of  scattering  too  much  the 
objects  to  be  revealed,  whereas  this  serves  to  concentrate  and  confine  them.  A  circular 
aperture,  again,  would  produce  the  same  bad  result  as  an  irregular  one,  unless  it  were 
quite  small,  when  it  would  have  to  be  looked  through  Avith  effort,  and  the  whole  scene 
would  be  taken  in  only  by  degrees.  The  oval,  on  the  other  hand,  as  here  adopted,  is  in 
itself  a  beautiful  figure,  and  directly  the  eye  catches  it,  all  that  is  wished  to  be  seen 
h  it  is  exhibited  at  once.  The  suddenness  with  which  the  view  opens  upon 
half  of  the  charm.     Any  gradual  unfolding  of  the  scene  would  ruin  it. 


MRS.  LAAVRENCE'S  GARDEN. 


Following  the  walk  which  runs  along  the  boundary  of  the  pleasure  grounds,  we  see 
how  nicel}''  these  are  separated  from  the  park.  A  very  low  hedge  is  placed  in  the  bottom 
of  a  hollow,  and  its  line  its  broken  by  a  few  dwarf  evergreens,  such  as  Rhododendrons, 
scattered  here  and  there  regularly  along  the  inside.  Standing  on  the  walk,  therefore,  or 
the  lawn,  we  scarcely  observe  this  boundary  line,  because  it  is  so  low  and  unobtrusive, 
and  does  not  at  all  arrest  the  sight,  while  it  is  quite  hidden  from  the  other  side  of  the 
place. 

Around  some  of  the  plantations  at  this  end  of  the  park,  luxuriant  masses  of  the  double- 
blossomed  furze  form  a  broken  and  beautiful  fringe,  carrying  the  line  of  plants  well  down 
to  the  ground,  and  blending  it  with  the  grass,  besides  making  a  very  brilliant  display  in 
the  blooming  season.  Tufts  of  this  furze,  or  of  various  brooms,  scattered  along  the  mar- 
gins of  park  plantations,  would  often  be  exceedingly  valuable  in  giving  roundness  and 
finish  to  their  outline,  and  would  furnish  splendid  patches  of  color  in  spring,  besides  being 
green  and  lively  through  the  winter.  In  this  part  of  the  pleasure  grounds,  the  varied 
openings  occasioned  by  Mr.  Repton's  operations  on  the  southern  belt  are  especially  con- 
spicuous and  important,  as  that  belt  is  so  comparatively  near. 

Two  other  avenues,  besides  the  one  alreadj^  named,  cross  the  principal  lawn  of  the 
pleasure  grounds.  That  farthest  to  the  west  is  composed  of  Deodar  cedars,  with  a  row  of 
Irish  yews  in  front  of  each  line  of  them,  the  yews  alternating  with  the  cedars.  These 
deodars,  of  which  there  are  some  in  other  parts  of  the  gardens,  are  very  beautiful  speci- 
mens, and  must,  in  time,  become  grand  objects.  This  avenue  is  terminated  by  a  small 
temple  at  the  north  end,  containing  a  statue  of  the  Dying  Gladiator.  The  temple  was 
much  used  by  Pope  when  Lord  Warwick  was  proprietor  of  this  place.  Another  avenue 
is  of  jlraucaria  imbricata,  the  plants  being  very  regular  and  healthy,  and  having  lines  of 
Cupressus  ju7iiperoides  in  front  of  them. 

In  addition  to  these  avenues  of  choice  plants,  great  numbers  of  rare  specimens  are  plac- 
ed about  the  lawn.  There  is  an  unusually  large  and  good  uibies  fVebbimia,  jiraliaja- 
ponica,  a  fiine  Catalpa,  many  scarce  and  beautiful  pines,  firs,  &c.,  and  some  very  excellent 
variegated  hollies. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  garden,  a  cedar  of  Lebanon  has  been  used  as  the  nucleus  of  a 
small  detached  plot,  planted  to  resemble  a  cemetery  of  the  Crusaders  said  to  be  still 
existing  at  Jerusalem.  Its  surface  is  varied  by  masses  of  fused  bricks,  thrown  up  mto 
irregular  shapes,  and  formed  in  one  part  into  a  rude  and  picturesque  arch.  Groups  of  the 
same  materials  are  continued  from  this  spot  into  the  pleasure  grounds,  at  the  side  of  a  se- 
cluded walk,  which  affords  an  exit  from  the  place  towards  Brentford.  All  these  masses 
are  partially  clothed  with  ivy,  and  having  generally  a  rugged  outline,  it  is  remarkable  how 
speedily  the  ivy  disguises  the  meanness  of  the  material,  and  converts  it  into  a  beautiful 
feature.  Irish  yews,  junipers,  savins,  weeping  willows,  &c.,  constitute  the  other  and  ap- 
propriate ornaments  of  the  so-called  cemetery;  which  must  be  looked  at  solely  as  a  pic- 
turesque episode  in  the  garden,  and  without  reference  to  its  avowed  purpose. 

Nearly  adjoining  the  plot  just  described  is  a  large  circular  hollow,  surrounded  with 
masses  of  shrubs  and  trees,  and  having  a  fountain  in  the  center,  which  plays  over  a  pile 
of  moss-covered  rocks.  On  the  west  side  of  this  spot  is  another  fountain,  half  shrouded 
by  trees,  which  are  mostly  weeping  willows.  Many  of  the  trees  here  take  picturesque 
forms,  and  are  covered  with  ivy.  The  water  trickles  over  masses  of  stone,  clothed  with 
many  species  of  wild  plants,  and  is  very  pretty  in  summer,  or  when  the  sun  is  shining 
little  scene  is  quite  complete  in  itself,  and  being  in  a  corner,  and  a  hollow,  much  shut 
plantations,  it  furnishes  an  agreeable  change. 


MRS.  LAWRENCE'S  GARDEN. 

In  a  survey  of  these  pleasure  grounds  there  is  much  to  satisfy  and  please.  A  great  deal 
of  variety,  and  several  delightful  minor  compartments,  are  secured.  In  general,  t6o, 
there  is  much  harmony  and  good  taste  shown  in  the  arrangements  and  the  decorations. 
The  leading  cause  for  regret  is  that  the  breadth  of  the  lawn  has  been  sacrificed  to  obtain 
the  cross  avenues  we  have  spoken  of.  These  lines  of  plants  cut  up  the  lawn  very  much, 
and  destroy  all  appearance  of  openness  or  extent.  Two  of  them  are  likewise  altogether 
without  an  object;  and  as  the  plants  in  them  all  grow  up,  we  can  only  conceive  of  their 
becoming  still  more  objectionable.  Scarcely  any  consideration  can  ever  justify  the  use  of 
lines  of  plants  across  a  lawn  that  comes  into  view  from  the  house;  and  the  only  show  of 
reason  which  can  be  assigned  for  their  use  in  this  case  is,  that  they  supply  the  means  of 
exhibiting  some  highly  beautiful  plants  to  great  advantage. 

A  quiet  walk  from  the  western  side  of  the  lawn  leads  through  the  plantations,  beneath 
an  arched  trellis  embowered  with  climbers,  to  the  department  in  which  the  plant  houses 
are  situated.  And  here  the  real  treasures  of  the  place  begin  to  develop  themselves.  In 
regard  to  the  size  and  rarity  of  the  specimens,  the  superiority  of  their  cultivation,  and  the 
quantity  possessed,  there  is  probably  no  collection  in  Europe  which,  in  all  these  respects, 
can  at  all  rival  this. 

A  walk  through  the  plant  houses  supplies  continual  food  for  wonder  and  admiration. 
The  conviction  is  pressed  upon  us  at  every  step  that  the  power  of  cultivation  "  can  no 
further  go."  And  everything  is  done  with  a  liberality  as  to  space  and  conveniences  which 
is  quite  of  a  piece  with  the  fame  of  this  establishment.  The  well-known  success  which 
attends  the  exhibition  of  plants  from  this  place  at  the  great  metropolitan  shows,  will  no 
longer  be  matter  of  surprise  after  the  collection  is  seen.  The  only  occasion  for  astonish- 
ment will  be  that  any  other  competitor  should  ever  be  able  to  carry  off  the  highest  prize. 

At  the  front  of  the  principal  group  of  plant  houses  is  a  somewhat  square  area,  arranged 
as  a  flower  garden,  and  having  little  wire  temples,  as  supports  for  climbing  roses,  at  the 
corners.  Walls  covered  with  climbers  inclose  it  at  the  sides,  and  the  charming  Clematis 
montana  is  among  the  most  conspicuous  plants  on  these  walls.  There  is  a  fountain  in  the 
center,  and  some  vases  are  placed  about  in  parts,  while  masses  of  stones  at  the  base  of 
the  buildings,  and  in  front  of  them,  receive  a  variety  of  pretty  trailing  and  alpine  plants. 
The  flower-beds  are  cut  out  of  the  grass,  and  are  each  furnished  with  a  single  kind  of 
plant,  in  the  usual  manner. 

The  houses,  which  are  composed  of  a  series  of  span  roofs,  slightly  varying  in  height, 
occupy  a  considerable  space,  but  they  do  not  present  one  uniform  front.  The  two  end 
compartments,  which  are  supposed  to  be  about  20  ft.  wide  by  75  ft.  long,  and  each  of 
which  is  covered  by  a  span  roof,  are  devoted  to  greenhouse  plants.  Between  these  and  the 
centre  of  the  group,  there  are  two  short  houses,  about  15  ft.  long,  against  the  back  wall, 
leaving  an  open  gravelled  space  in  the  front  of  them.  These  small  houses  are  assigned  to 
tall  Cacti,  large  specimen  plants,  or  a  mixed  collection.  The  central  compartment  is  about 
55  ft.  wide,  by  75  ft.  long,  and  is  roofed  by  three  parallel  spans,  the  middle  one  being 
highest.  The  whole  of  this  portion  is  kept  at  stove  heat,  and  it  has  a  glass  partition 
across  the  middle,  separating  the  stove  plants  from  the  orchids.  Two  other  glass  parti- 
tions in  the  back  part  divide  it  into  three  unequal  spaces,  the  larger  middle  portion  being 
given  up  chiefly  to  the  jJvihcrslia,  a  small  aquarium,  and  some  mixed  orchids  and  stove 
plants,  while  the  side  divisions  are  filled  with  orchids  alone. 

The  first  thing  which  we  notice  on  entering  the  plant  houses  is,  that  they  are  raised 
ft.  above  the  ground  level,  and  that  therefore  they  are  very  dry,  and  may  be  made 
as  can  be  desired.     Our  next  observation  is  that,  although  preparing  the  plants  for 


MRS.  LAWRENCE'S  GARDEN. 

exhibition  is  one  of  the  primary  objects  of  consideration  here,  yet  the  houses  are  construe 
ted  and  the  plants  arranged  so  that  they  can  be  examined  comfortably  and  displayed  well. 
There  is  no  want  of  neatness  and  finish  in  the  buildings;  and  the  stages,  paths,  &c.,  are 
contrived,  and  the  plants  disposed,  as  if  everything  were  intended  only  to  be  enjoyed  at 
home.  There  is  no  crowding,  no  inconvenient  effort  to  make  the  most  of  the  space,  no 
putting  the  plants  where  they  cannot  be  fully  seen.  Everything  is  planned  with  great 
simplicity,  and  each  plant  has  a  sufficient  space  accorded  it  to  allow  it  to  stand  perfectly 
free,  and  bring  every  part  of  it  into  view. 

A  leading  feature  of  the  collection  here  is  that  the  plants  grown  are  all  of  the  most  or- 
namental kind.  Although  the  bulk  of  the  specimens  are  of  rare  kinds,  and  many  of  them 
are  quite  new — for  Mrs.  Lawrence  spares  no  expense  in  obtaining  the  first  available  plants 
of  a  good  new  species,  and  often  procures  the  original  specimen — yet  none  but  the  really 
showy  members  of  each  tribe  are  cultivated,  and  everything  that  is  not  fit  for  making  a 
fine  display  is  excluded.  Hence,  there  is  scarcely  a  plant  in  the  collection  that  does  not, 
at  some  season  of  the  year,  perform  an  important  part  in  maintaining  its  attractiveness; 
and  all  are  capable  of  being  so  thinly  placed  about  on  the  stages  that  each  will  have  am- 
ple room  to  grow  and  to  exhibit  itself. 

To  obtain  large  specimens  is  another  grand  point  aimed  at  here.  But  this  is  only  sought 
in  so  far  as  it  is  compatible  with  extreme  density  of  habit,  and  a  complete  mass  of  bloom. 
Plants  that  look  old  or  ragged  are  not  allowed  a  place.  And  the  desired  result  is  attain- 
ed by  growing  the  plants  in  large  pots,  (only  the  common  pots  and  no  kind  of  tub  being 
used,)  and  employing  rather  coarse  and  lumpy  soil,  partially  mixed  with  drainage  mate- 
rials. There  is  also  a  regular  system  of  pruning  and  training  adopted  from  the  earliest 
stage  of  each  plant's  growth,  so  that  it  is  never  permitted  to  become  thin  or  stragglino-. 
With  many  of  the  species,  the  shoots  of  young  plants  are  stopped  back  several  times  in 
each  year,  and  the  most  careful  and  constant  attention  is  given  to  keep  each  shoot  in  its 
right  place  by  sticks  and  ties.  This  plan,  of  course,  imparts  to  the  plants  a  somewhat 
formal  appearance,  and  causes  some  of  them  to  present  a  httle  forest  of  supporting  sticks. 
But  as  the  specimens  become  old  enough  to  bloom  well,  they  are  less  rigidly  pruned,  and 
begin  to  require  fewer  sticks,  acquiring  altogether  a  more  natural  aspect.  Indeed,  it  is 
pleasing  to  observe  that  it  is  now  becoming  more  the  fashion  to  allow  plants  to  take  their 
natural  shapes,  with  less  help  from  sticks,  and  only  so  much  pruning  as  will  secure  a 
broad  and  close  mass  of  flowers. 

Provision  is  likewise  made  here  against  the  loss  of  larger  specimens,  or  the  having  to 
discard  them  on  account  of  their  size  or  poorness,  by  bringing  on  a  succession  of  plants 
in  different  stages  of  growth;  young  specimens  being  generally  found  more  healthy,  and 
richer  in  all  the  qualities  of  show  plants,  except  mere  size. 

For  the  facility  of  removal,  and  also  to  render  each  plant  more  manageable,  and  pre- 
vent the  stronger  growing  ones  from  injuring  the  others,  everything  is  here  grown  in  pots, 
and  not  planted  out.  When,  therefore,  a  plant  becomes  large,  or  bare,  or  unhealthy,  or 
in  any  way  undesirable,  it  can  be  instantly  taken  away,  without  making  any  gap  in  the 
collection.  And  for  the  recovery  of  specimens  that  may  have  fallen  into  bad  health,  or 
for  retarding  the  bloom  of  those  which  are  wanted  at  a  particular  time,  or  for  retaining 
any  specimens  in  bloom  that  may  be  required  for  a  special  purpose,  there  are  various  sub- 
ordinate houses,  pits,  and  large  wooden  boxes  or  frames,  in  which  any  of  these  objects  can 
be  quietly  carried  out.  In  moving  about  large  specimens,  too,  a  contrivance  is  here  adop- 
ted which  is  very  simple  and  efficacious.  It  consists  in  putting  an  iron  hoop  capable  of 
contraction  or  enlargement  according  to  the  size  of  the  pots,  round  the  pot  to  be  moved, 


MRS.  LAWRENCE'S  GARDEN. 

just  beneath  the  rim.  This  hoop  is  furnished  with  two  strong  hooks,  one  on  each  side, 
beneath  which  two  hand  spikes  made  to  fit  them  are  placed,  and  the  plant  is  then  carried 
as  if  it  were  on  a  hand-barrow. 

In  the  greenhouses  the  most  perfect  ventilation  is  provided  for  by  opening  all  the  side 
lights,  so  that  during  the  hottest  weather  the  houses  may  be  kept  comparatively  cool; 
and,  after  the  occurrence  of  great  moisture,  they  may  likewise  immediately  be  dried. 
Beneath  the  stages,  moreover,  there  are  small  slides  or  shutters,  for  further  ventilation; 
and  these  are  very  useful  in  winter,  as  the  air  they  will  admit  passes  over  the  heating 
pipes.  By  their  means,  likewise,  the  floor  and  lower  parts  of  the  house  can  be  kept  dry. 
The  stages  are,  for  the  most  part,  covered  with  a  thin  coating  of  gravel;  and,  to  bring  the 
plants  as  near  as  possible  to  the  glass,  and  secure  to  them  a  greater  amount  of  air,  and 
guard  them  against  becoming  too  moist,  each  of  the  specimens  is  generally  raised  on  a 
large  pot,  so  as  to  stand  from  18  to  30  inches  above  the  stage. 

It  will  of  course  be  impossible,  were  it  even  worth  attempting,  to  do  more  than  point 
out  some  of  the  general  features  of  this  collection.  The  two  principal  greenhouses  contain 
nothing  but  specimens.  The  plants  in  them  that  are  most  conspicuous  are  Boronias, 
Epacrises,  Polygalis,  Eriostemons,  Pimeleas,  Leschenaultias,  Croweas,  Chironias,  Choro- 
zemas,  Hoveas,  &c.,  with  a  few  climbing  plants  trained  to  low  trellises.  Crowea  saligna, 
Coronia  crenata  and  scrrulatu,  Chorozema  cordata,  Pimelea  spectabilis,  all  the  Erioste- 
mons, especially  JiJ.  buxifolium  and  intermedium,  and  the  charming  old  Leschenaultia 
formosa,  are  some  of  the  plants  here  cultivated,  which  flower  abundantly  in  all  stages  of 
their  growth,  and  are  of  a  free  and  excellent  habit.  Some  idea  of  the  size  of  many  of  the 
plants  will  be  conveyed  by  mentioning  that  Pimelea  spectabilis  is  27  feet  in  circumference, 
and  that,  from  the  edge  of  the  pot  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  plant,  there  is  scarcely 
space  enough  to  allow  of  the  hand  being  introduced  between  any  of  the  branches.  Nearly 
every  one  of  the  shoots  is  crowned  with  a  bunch  of  blossoms  in  the  summer.  Gompholo- 
biumpolymorphum  grandiflorum  is  treated  as  a  bush,and  makes  a  beautiful  plant  in  this  state. 

Ih  the  stove  the  plants  are  equally  good  of  their  kind.  A  great  many  handsome  climb- 
ers are  here  grown  to  trellises,  and  a  few  of  this  tribe  are  also  trained  up  the  slender 
pillars  which  support  the  roof.  The  Jlllamanda  cathartica,  Schotti,  and  grandiflora, 
Stephanotis  floribunda,  Convolvulus  pentanthus,  Jloya  imperialis  and  JSedwilli,  sever al 
species  of  Ipomcea,  Echites,  uTJschynaiithus,  and  Combretum,  Clerodendron  splendens, 
&c.,  are  some  of  the  principal  dwarf  climbers,  and  are  in  great  perfection.  Medinilla 
spcciosa,  a  rare  and  exceedingly  ornamental  species,  with  very  large  leaves  and  conspicu- 
ous drooping  spikes  of  pink  flowers  succeeded  by  showy  crimson  fruit,  is  in  an  excellent 
state,  and  blooms  for  several  months. 

A  glass  partition,  with  a  light  iron  frame  (the  rest  of  the  houses  being  of  wood,)  sepa- 
rates the  commoner  stove  from  the  orchid  houses,  and  from  the  compartment  devoted  to 
the  jimhcrstia.  Of  this  last,  there  is  an  extraordinary  specimen,  which  is,  perhaps,  the 
greatest  feature  of  the  whole  collection.  It  is  now  quite  a  little  tree,  although  it  has  only 
been  here  four  or  five  years,  and  has  flowered  here  for  the  first  time  in  Europe,  very  few 
other  plants  of  it  existing  in  England.  At  the  present  time  (January,  1851)  it  is  again 
showing  a  quantity  of  bloom,  which  usually  expands  about  April.  The  leaves,  which  are 
pinnated,  and  are  paler  in  the  young  state,  are  of  the  handsomest  and  amplest  character, 
forming  a  head  of  the  most  graceful  kind.  The  flowers  are  vermillion-colored,  and  are 
produced  in  large  drooping  racemes,  after  the  manner  of  a  laburnum  or  Wistaria.  It  is 
a  native  of  the  East  Indies,  from  whence  it  was  obtained  through  Dr.  Wallich;  and 
reached  its  present  state  of  perfection  here  in  a  surprisingly  short  period  of  time 


MRS.  LAAVRENCE'S  GARDEN. 

As  it  deserves,  the  plant  here  receives  every  attention.  It  is  placed  near  the  back  of  the 
house,  and  grows  in  a  large  tub,  plunged  in  a  bed  of  bark.  An  extra  heating  pipe  passes 
round  the  plant,  within  about  two  yards  of  the  tub,  and  an  open  zinc  gutter  for  contain- 
ing water  is  fixed  to  the  top  of  this  pipe.  In  the  front  of  the  plant  is  a  small  basin  for 
aquatic  plants;  and  provision  is  made  for  spreading  over  the  plant,  beneath  the  glass,  an 
oiled  calico  screen,  which  runs  on  rollers,  and  which,  when  used,  at  once  furnishes  any 
required  shade,  and  protects  the  leaves  of  the  plant  from  the  water  that  might  drop  fiom 
the  roof.     A  high  temperature  and  a  most  atmosphere  are  preserved. 

Besides  some  interesting  aquatics,  a  number  of  gold  fish  are  kept  in  the  basin  opposite 
the  j^mherstia,  which  is,  moreover,  furnished  with  a  fountain.  The  back  wall  of  this 
house  is  also  partly  clothed  with  ferns  and  orchids,  and  a  few  of  the  more  purely  tropical 
stove  plants  and  orchids  are  placed  at  the  sides  of  the  house;  but  a  considerable  open 
space  is  wisely  preserved  in  the  middle,  so  as  to  give  more  consequence  to  the  Jlmherstia, 
and  cause  it  to  be  better  seen.  The  Barringtonia,  with  its  noble  leaves,  seems  quite  at 
home  in  this  close  stove;  and  there  is  a  large  plant  of  the  curious  Grammatophyllum,  v;\th 
a  very  beautiful  climbing  Lycopodium,  which  has  large  bluish  fronds. 

One  of  two  small  orchid  houses  on  either  side  of  that  which  contains  the  j^mherstia, 
is  used  for  Mexican  species,  and  the  other  for  such  as  require  a  rather  higher  temperature. 
The  collection  of  both  these  tribes  is  good,  and  the  plants  well  grown,  but  not  remarka- 
ble. By  the  side  of  the  paved  path,  and  partly  under  the  stage,  there  is  an  open  channel 
or  gutter  provided  for  carrying  off  any  water  that  may  be  used  in  syringing  the  plants  or 
washing  the  paths. 

Behind  the  larger  group  of  houses  there  is  a  very  nice  heath  house,  with  a  western  as- 
pect, and  full  of  the  choicest  specimens  in  admirable  health.  Other  and  smaller  houses 
are  devoted  to  Pelargoniums,  which  are  placed  on  stages,  to  Azaleas,  to  stove  plants  re- 
quiring bottom  heat,  and  to  miscellaneous  articles.  The  Azaleas  stand  in  pots,  like  the 
green-house  specimens,  and  are  most  splendid  examples  of  cultivation.  As  with  the 
green-house  plants,  (and  also  with  the  heaths,)  there  are  successional  or  younger  speci- 
mens, which  are  preparing  to  supply  the  place  of  the  larger  ones  when  these  Avear  out  or 
become  shabby. 

A  small  stove,  which  contains  a  bark  bed,  in  addition  to  the  usual  heating  power,  is  al- 
most wholly  filled  with  Ixoras  of  different  kinds,  plunged  in  the  bark.  They  are  superb 
■plants,  and  this  method  of  treatment  keeps  them  very  luxuriant.  /.  javanica,  which  is 
nearly  new,  has  attained  a  considerable  size  here,  and  produces  its  pale  orange  flowers 
most  profusely.  An  extraordinary  specimen  of  Gardenia  Fortuni,  some  Rondeletias,  &c., 
are  kept  in  this  house  likewise;  and  a  wire  trellis  is  beautifully  covered  with  the  charm- 
ing Dipladenia  crassinoda.  Another  small  stove,  with  a  similar  bark  bed  in  the  center 
and  heated  by  a  tank  traversed  with  hot-water  pipes  beneath  the  bark  bed,  is  occupied 
with  various  kinds  of  ^schynanthus,  Gardenias,  and  such  other  plants  as  flourish  best 
with  bottom  heat.  The  very  best  eff"ects  result  from  this  mode  of  plunging  certain  kinds 
of  stove  plants  in  a  material  supplying  bottom  heat,  as  they  never  thrive  half  so  well 
under  any  other  system  of  management. 

A  span-roofed  house  has  lately  been  built  for  the  East  Indian  orchids,  on  the  north 
side  of  the  area  containing  the  plant-houses.  It  is  heated  by  hot-water  pipes,  which  pass 
all  round  it  in  the  ordinary  way,  and  has  no  other  heating  material.  The  species  belon"-- 
ing  to  the  Vanda  tribe  are  chiefly  grown  here.  There  are  some  noble  plants  of  j^erides 
j^rgrcBcum  eburncum.  And  the  entire  contents  of  the  house  are  so  excellent 
are  only  surpassed  by  Mr.  Rucker's  collection.     It  is  a  most  desirable  plan  th 


HOW  TO  HAVE  ROSES  IN  "WINTER. 

bring  this  class  of  orchids  together  in  one  house,  as  well  because  they  can  thus  be  more 
appropriately  treated,  as  on  account  of  the  effect  produced  by  such  a  combination  of  ex- 
clusively elegant  forms. 

Calceolarias,  Cinerarias,  tall  Cacti,  and  many  tribes  that  we  need  not  mention,  are  cul- 
tivated here  in  the  best  order  in  other  houses  and  pits.  Our  notice,  indeed,  can  by  no 
means  do  justice  to  the  place,  which  contains,  even  among  its  minor  features  and  mechan- 
ical agents,  very  much  that  must  interest  the  general  cultivator.  For  example,  there  are 
several  large  box-like  frames,  made  high  enough  to  contain  moderately  large  specimen 
plants,  and  capable  of  being  covered  with  oiled  calico  or  with  glass  lights,  and  ventilated 
by  small  slides  at  the  ends,  which,  with  an  eastern  aspect,  are  well  adapted  for  receiving 
plants  that  have  been  newly  potted,  or  such  as  are  out  of  health,  or  those  which  may  be 
wanted  to  be  kept  from  blooming  so  soon,  or  to  be  preserved  longer  in  flower.  There  are 
also  some  very  convenient  span-roofed  pits,  the  lights  of  which  work  on  a  kind  of  hook- 
like hinge  at  the  top,  and  are  l\isteiaed  down  by  iron  pins  in  windy  weather.  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  pits  of  this  description,  made  about  7  ft.  wide  and  4  ft.  high  (or  a  lit- 
tle higher)  in  the  center,  with  the  lights  to  lift  up  (not  slide)  from  the  side,  and  capable 
of  being  taken  off  altogether  if  required,  are  in  all  respects  the  cheapest  and  the  most  con- 
venient, and  the  best  structures  in  which  to  grow  those  green-house  plants  that  may  be 
wanted  for  decorating  a  conservatory,  drawing-room,  or  other  place  where  flowers  are 
chiefly  demanded. 

As  a  screen  to  some  of  the  out -buildings  in  the  plant  house  department,  a  strong  privet 
hedge  is  employed,  the  treatment  of  which  struck  us  as  worth  mentioning.  The  top  of 
it  is  cut  into  a  series  of  crescent  shapes,  the  hollow  of  each  crescent  having  the  closely- 
pruned  head  of  a  standard  rose  just  rising  above  it.  A  character  by  no  means  common- 
place, and  which  may  serve  as  a  hint  to  improve  upon,  is  thus  obtained. 

The  period  at  which  the  greatest  display  of  flowers  may  be  seen  at  this  place,  is  during 
the  month  of  May,  when  the  majority  of  the  house  plants  are  in  their  highest  glory.  In 
June,  also,  they  are  almost  equally  fine ;  and  in  so  large  an  establishment  there  will,  of 
course,  be  many  plants  in  flower  at  all  seasons. 


HOW  TO   HAVE   ROSES   IN  WINTER. 

BY  WILLIAM  CHORLTON,  STATEN  ISLAND,  N.  Y. 

Dear  Sir — As  the  winter  flowering  of  roses  is  a  matter  of  some  importance  to  all  lov- 
ers of  flowers,  perhaps  a  few  plain  directions  by  which  they  may  be  successfully  grown 
and  brought  to  bloom  with  little  trouble  or  expense,  from  November  till  May,  will  be  of 
service  in  your  journal. 

My  present  purpose  is  with  the  amateur  and  those  having  small  green-houses  managed 
by  themselves,  without  the  assistance  of  professed  gardeners.  How  many  of  these  struc- 
tures do  we  see  which  are  in  themselves  unsightly  objects,  but  which,  by  a  little  more 
knowledge  in  the  matter,  would  become  gems  of  beauty.  It  is  the  duty  of  all  competent 
gardeners  to  assist  in  the  general  dissemination  of  the  knowledge  they  possess;  to  lend  a 
helping  hand  to  the  enthusiastic  lovers  of  flora,  many  of  whom,  for  want  of  a  little  prac- 
tical information,  meet  with  constant  vexation  in  their  little  operations.  Our  callin 
never   be  injured  by  such  a  course.      No  profession  will  ever  advance  one  jot  the 


HOW  TO  HAVE  ROSES  IN  WINTER. 

towards  perfection,  or  be  better  paid  by  wrapping  its  details  in  mystery.  Disseminate 
and  diffuse  knowledge,  and  the  more  extensively  and  enthusiastically  will  it  be  sought 
after,  the  greater  in  number  will  be  its  proselytes,  and  the  more  the  demand  for  those  who 
practice  in  its  various  spheres.  Circulate  experience,  and  pedantry  will  fly  before  it. 
Extend  true  practice,  and  pretension  and  empty  boastings  will  hide  their  heads,  leaving 
an  open  field  for  improvement. 

But  to  my  point.  In  the  first  place,  select  in  the  spring  as  many  good  stout  bushes  as 
there  is  house-room  for,  and  let  them  be  of  the  following  kinds:  (Chinese) — Queen  of 
Lombardy,  Mrs.  Bosanquet,  Agrippina,  or  Cramoisie  superieure,  old  China,  and  Trium- 
phant. (Tea  scented) — Antheros  and  White  Tea.  (Noisette) — La  Pactole.  If  there  is 
room  for  spreading  branches,  Lamarque  and  Cloth  of  Gold,  or  Solfaterre,  may  be  added, 
which,  if  allowed  to  grow  without  being  shortened-in,  will  bloom  freely.  (Bourbon) — 
Ilemosa  and  Souvenir  de  la  Malmaison.  Place  these  in  pots  suitable  to  their  size,  in  a 
mixture  of  two-thirds  rough  turfy  loam,  and  one-third  good  rotted  stable  manure,  (incor- 
porated well  together,  but  not  made  fine.)  Let  the  pots  be  well  drained,  and  prune  in  the 
plants  rather  close;  plunge  the  pots  in  the  soil  on  a  dry  bottom  in  a  shady  place,  for  the 
summer.  In  the  fall,  if  they  have  filled  the  pots  with  roots,  and  have  made  correspond- 
ing top  growth,  remove  them  into  larger,  being  careful  not  to  break  the  ball  of  earth;  but 
do  not  remove  them  unless  they  require  it.  If  not  repotted,  some  of  the  surface  soil  should 
be  removed,  and  the  pot  again  filled  up  with  fresh  compost  of  the  same  kind. 

If  the  foregoing  preparation  of  the  plants  has  not  been  made  in  the  spring — the  follow- 
ing course  may  be  pursued.  Lift  carefully  about  the  middle  of  September,  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  good  plants  of  the  foregoing  sorts,  and  pot  as  above  directed.  These  will  not 
bloom  so  abundantly  in  November  and  December,  though  quite  as  much  so  afterwards. 
About  the  beginning  or  middle  of  October,  according  as  the  weather  is  mild  or  cold,  Mash 
the  pots  clean,  and  remove  them  into  the  house.  At  the  same  time  prune  away  anj^  dead 
or  weak  spray,  place  as  near  the  glass  as  possible,  and  exposed  to  the  sun.  (The  old  ex- 
ploded tan-bed  is  of  little  use  where  this  is  attended  to.)  Admit  air  freely  over  the  heads 
of  the  plants,  but  by  no  means  from  front  lights  or  outside  doors,  which  only  produces 
cold  and  damp  under  drafts.  This  point,  in  all  plants  growing  in  glass  structures,  is  not 
sufiiciently  attended.  It  only  reduces  the  temperature  below,  leaving  the  head  of  the 
plant  warmer  than  the  roots,  causing  stagnation  to  the  growth,  and  encouraging,  (in  this 
climate  more  particularly,)  the  progress  of  fungoid  vegetation,  the  sporules  of  which  are 
continually  floating  in  countless  myriads  in  the  atmosphere,  ready  to  develop  themselves 
upon  various  plants  under  favorable  circumstances,  the  result  of  which  is  mildew  or  blight, 
in  its  various  forms.  It  sometimes  happens,  if  the  weather  is  cold  and  damp,  that  roses 
are  mildewed  when  taken  up  for  housing.  If  the  above  directions  in  airing  are  attended 
to,  and  a  little  fire  heat  put  on  in  the  day  in  damp  weather,  it  will  soon  disappear.  If  it 
should  show  itself  any  time  afterwards,  put  on  a  little  extra  heat,  and  admit  air  from  the 
top  freely  on  sunny  days,  but  keep  the  house  closely  shut  up  in  stormy,  and  dull  damp 
weather.  By  following  this  advice  nobody  need  suffer  from  mildew  when  forcing  roses. 
When,  in  the  autumn,  the  nights  begin  to  be  cold,  a  little  fire  will  be  regularly  required, 
increasing  it  graduallj'  as  the  cold  increases,  observing  to  keep  the  temperature  throughout 
the  season  at  about  55"  at  night,  allowing  it  to  rise  with  the  sun's  rays  to  70°  or  75°,  but 
not  more  than  60°  in  dull  weather.  Never  use  more  artificial  heat  than  is  absolutely  ne- 
cessary. When  the  soil  has  become  somewhat  impoverished,  say  the  middle  of  January, 
commence  giving  a  watering  with  liquid  guano,  and  continue  it  once  a  week,  usin 
ounce  to  one  gallon  of  water,  or  else  taking  instead,   diluted  drainage  from  a  dun 


VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY— THE  ROOT. 


always  applying  either  in  a  clear  state.  This  will  wonderfully  improve  the  color  of  the 
flowers,  and  invigorate  the  plants.  The  red  spider  (Acarus,)  which  is  sure  to  make  its 
appearance,  and  will  destroy  all  success  if  not  kept  down,  may  be  eradicated  by  syringing 
occasionally  with  a  solution  of  whale-oil  soap,  using  one  ounce  to  two  gallons  of  water. 
Be  careful  to  apply  the  wash  to  the  under  side  of  the  leaves,  as  it  is  there  mostly,  where 
the  pest  lodges — using  it  in  the  evening,  after  a  bright  day,  as  too  much  moisture  in  the 
atmosphere  is  apt  to  spoil  the  flowers.  The  green  fly  (Aphides,)  is  easily  kept  under  by 
occasionally  fumigating  with  tobacco.     No  further  care  is  required. 

By  following  the  above  directions,  any  person  with  from  twenty  to  thirty  good  strong 
plants,  may  gather  a  boquet  of  Roses  every  morning  from  the  beginning  of  November  to 
the  latter  end  of  May,  previous  to,  and  after  which,  there  are  plenty  out  of  doors.  A 
small  green-house  well  exposed  to  the  sun,  and  a  small  plot  of  ground  outside,  will  pro- 
duce roses  every  day  throughout  the  year. 

The  above  short  list  is  not  a  tithe  of  the  roses  suitable  for  forcing,  but  they  are  sorts 
which  will  bloom  without  intermission  so  long  as  the  plants  are  kept  healthy,  and  freely 
exposed  to  the  sun's  ra3'S.  There  are  also  many  which  have  larger  and  more  double  flow- 
ers than  some  of  them,  but  those  mentioned  are  of  different  and  distinct  colors,  from  white 
to  dark  crimson,  (including  yellow,)  and  are  beautiful  in  the  buds,  which  are  much  more 
prized  than  the  flowers  by  many.  Hoping  the  above  short  hints  may  be  useful — I  am 
yours  most  respectfully,  Wm.  ChorltoN",  gardener  to  J.  G.  Green,  Esq. 

Staten  Island,  Augxist  25,  1851. 


STUDIES  IN  VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY— THE  KOOT. 

BY  A.  A.  FAHNESTOCK,  SYRACUSE,  N.  Y. 

In  explaining  the  history  of  a  plant,  it  is  necessary  to  begin  with  the  most  important 
parts.  The  root  is  that  organ  which,  in  contradistinction  to  the  stem,  seeks  to  exclude 
itself  from  the  light  and  air,  and  descend  into  the  medium  of  the  earth.  Stems  and  roots, 
though  sufficiently  distinct  in  most  plants,  are  in  others  often  mistaken  for  one  another; 
but  the  latter  may  be  readily  distinguished  from  the  former  by  having  no  buds,  and  one 
regular  ramification.  The  principle  office  of  the  root  seems  to  be,  to  supply  a  copious 
quantity  of  nutriment,  or  sap,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  plant,  which  it  does  by  "  £Jn- 
dos7nosis."  This  term  may  be  explained  by  the  following  example.  When  two  liquids 
of  unequal  density  arc  separated  by  a  permeable  membrane,  the  lighter  liquid,  or  the 
weaker  solution,  will  flow  into  the  denser  and  stronger  with  a  force  proportioned  to  the 
difference  in  density — but  at  the  same  time  a  small  proportion  of  the  denser  liquid  will 
flow  into  the  weaker,  which  is  called  "  Exosmosis."  By  the  examination  of  any  embryo, 
of  the  exogenous  structure,  we  may  gain  a  good  idea  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  root.  The 
radicle,  or  pre-existing  axis  grows  in  such  a  manner  as  to  elongate  throughout  its  whole 
extent,  showing  that  it  is  not  root  itself,  but  merely  the  first  joint  of  the  stem,  which 
thrusts  itself  downwards  into  the  soil,  while  it  raises  two  cotyledons,  which  supply  the 
place  of  leaves  until  the  caulineones  appear.  Contemporaneous  with  this  elongation  of  the 
radicle,  a  new  and  different  growth  takes  place  at  the  lower  extremit)',  in  a  downward 
direction,  which  forms  the  root.  The  root,  then,  is  a  new  formation  of  cells  from  the 
root  end  of  the  radicle;  it  commences  by  a  number  of  very  lax,  tender  cellular  tissue, 
resting  upon  a  blunt  cone  of  woody  matter,  composed  principally  of  woody  tubes,  con- 


VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY— THE  ROOT. 

nected  with  the  alburnum.  The  accumulation  of  cells  is  not  upon  its  sides,  but  at  the  ex 
tremity  under  the  thin  epidermis  and  the  superficial  cells.  The  division  of  the  cells  from 
this  point  proceeds  from  below  onwards,  those  which  lie  behind  quickly  extending  to  their 
full  size,  and  remain  in  that  state,  while  those  which  approach  the  apex  multiply  by  con- 
tinual divisions.  In  this  way  the  root  keeps  on  growing,  and  may  be  compared  to  an 
icicle,  which  lengthens  from  the  point  only;  the  only  real  difference  being  that  the  icicle 
elongates  by  continual  accretions  from  the  outside,  while  the  growth  of  the  root  is  from 
the  inside.  As  this  growth  of  the  root  is  made  fi'om  the  under  side  of  the  cxtremitj'  alone, 
it  follows  that  that  part  is  always  clothed  with  a  vitally  active  tissue.  "  The  new 
cells,*  however,  do  not  occupy  the  extremity  alone,  as  is  commonly  but  incorrectly  stat- 
ed; this  is  capped,  as  it  were,  by  an  obtusely  conical  mass  of  older  cells,  consisting  of 
the  superficial  tissue  of  the  end  of  the  radicle,  pushed  forward  by  the  cell  multiplication 
that  commences  behind  it,  as  already  mentioned. 

"  As  the  orignal  cells  of  this  apex  wear  away  or  perish, they  are  replaced  by  a  layer  beneath, 
and  so  the  advancing  point  of  the  root,  consisting,  as  inspection  plainly  shows,  of  older 
and  denser  tissue  than  that  behind  it,  (the  point  of  every  branch  of  the  root  is  capped  in 
this  way,)  it  follows  that  the  so  called  spongioles,  or  spongclds,  have  no  existence.  Not 
onl}''  are  there  no  such  organs  as  are  commonly  spoken  of,  but  absorption  does  not 
evidently  take  place  to  any  considerable  extent,  through  the  older  tissue  of  the  point  itself." 
Roots  absorb  nourishment  by  endosniosis  throughout  the  whole  of  the  newly  formed  tis- 
sue, and  especially  through  the  hair-like  prolongations,  commonly  called  the  fibrils;  these 
capillary  tubes  are  of  great  tenuity,  and  have  extremely  delicate  walls,  and  perform  a 
more  important  part  in  absorption  than  is  generally  supposed.  They  perish  soon  as  the 
growing  season  is  ended,  or  when  the  roots  become  old  and  hardened — "  at  the  same  time 
the  external  layer  of  cells  that  bears  them,  at  first  indistinguishable  from  the  parenchy- 
ma beneath,  except  perhaps  in  the  size  of  the  cells — hardens  and  thickens  into  a  kind  of 
epidermis,  or  firmer  skin,  so  as  to  arrest  or  greatly  restrain  the  imbibition.  This  epider- 
mis of  the  root  consists  of  less  compressed  cells  than  in  other  parts  exposed  to  the  light, 
and  is  distributed  to  stomates,  or  breathing  fibres."  The  growth  of  the  root  keeps  pace 
with  the  stem,  as  the  latter  shoots  up  and  becomes  clothed  with  blanches  and  leaves,  from 
which  water  is  exhaled  during  healthy  vegetation;  the  former  grows  onward,  still  renew- 
ing the  tender  hygronietrical  tissue,  through  which  the  absorption  required  to  restore  that 
which  is  lost  by  elaboration,  or  consumed  by  growth,  is  principally  effected;  hence  the 
danger  of  removing  trees  during  the  summer  season,  or  when  the  roots  are  in  rapid  action. 
The  growth  of  the  branches  and  roots  being  simultaneous,  while  new  branches  and  leaves 
are  developing — the  roots  are  extending  at  a  corresponding  rate,  and  greatly  increasing 
the  absorbing  points,  they  cannot  now  be  removed  with  safety  to  the  tree,  and  at  the  very 
time  when  their  aid  is  most  required.  But  when  the  growth  of  the  season  is  over,  the 
leaves  grow  languid,  and  the  rootlets  also  cease  to  grow,  as  the  tissue  of  their  extremities 
not  being  renewed,  gradually  becomes  hardened,  and  loses  its  absorbing  powers.  This 
marks  the  season  for  transplanting,  (namely,)  before  the  growth  of  tlie  season  has  com- 
menced, or  in  the  fall,  after  it  is  made.  This  elongation  of  the  roots  by  their  growing 
points  alone,  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  situation  in  which  they  are  placed,  growing,  as 
they  do,  in  such  an  unequal  medium  as  the  soil.  If  the  roots  increased  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  stems,  they  would  be  forced  wherever  the  elongating  force  was  insufllcieut  to  over- 
come the  obstacle,  or  wherever  this  force  was  most  powerful,  and  they  would  be  thrown 
into  all  kinds  of  contorted  shapes,  very  ill  adapted  to  perform  the  services  for  which  they 

*  See  Gray's  Botanical  Text  Book,  new  edition,  pi  31. 
No.  X.  2, 


VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY— THE  ROOT. 

are  required.  But,  increasing  as  they  do,  by  their  points  only,  they  insinuate  themselves 
into  the  crevices  of  rocks,  or  yielding  parts  of  the  soil,  and  afterwards,  by  their  expansion 
in  diameter,  enlarge  the  cavity,  or  when  arrested  by  any  obstacle,  their  advancing  points 
follow  its  surface  until  it  reaches  a  softer  medium.  In  this  manner  they  rapidly  extend 
from  place  to  place,  as  fast  as  the  nourishment  in  their  immediate  vicinity  is  consumed. 
Thus  roots  extend  in  whatever  direction  the  soil  proves  most  favorable  to  their  growth, 
without  supposing  any  instinct  or  pre-science  on  the  part  of  the  vegetable,  as  we  have 
before  stated .  "The  advancing  extremity  of  the  root  consists  of  parenchyma  alone, 
but  bundles  of  vessels  and  woody  tissue  appear  in  the  forming  root  soon  after  their  appear- 
ance in  the  primordial  stem  above;  these  form  a  central  woody  or  fibrous  portion,  which 
continues  to  descend  as  the  growing  apex  advances,  sometimes,  although  not  usu- 
ally, enclosing  a  distinct  pith,  as  the  wood  of  the  stem  does."*  We  have  taken  the  root 
as  an  epitome  of  the  whole  plant,  for  in  its  whole  development  it  produces  no  other  parts, 
nothing  but  naked  branches  emanating  from  one  particular  part  of  the  root,  but  indiscri- 
minately over  the  whole  of  the  surperficial  surface,  all  tending  to  increase  the  amount  of 
absorbing  surface.  In  reply  to  the  statement  that  roots  produce  no  other  organs,  there  is 
this  abnormal  exception,  namely,  that  of  producing  buds,  which  spring  up  into  branches, 
and  are  clothed  with  leaves.  Although  the  roots  are  not  naturally  provided  with  buds, 
yet,  under  certain  circumstances,  they  will  produce  them;  that  for  instance  when 
a  poplar  or  apple  tree,  gorged  with  sap,  is  cut  down,  the  root  will  send  up  innumer- 
able branches.  The  roots  of  the  osage  Grange  habitually  give  rise  to  such  stems,  hence 
the  utility  of  it  in  planting  hedges.  Some  plants  present  a  still  more  striking  phenome- 
na, such  as  the  Bryophyllum,  which  has  been  known  to  produce  buds  on  the  margins  of 
its  leaves;  all  such  buds  are  said  to  be  adventitious. 

"  The  root  has  been  illustrated  from  the  highest  class  of  phenogamous  plants,  in 
which  the  original  root,  or  downward  prolongation  of  the  axis  continues  to  grow,  at  least 
for  a  considerable  time,  and  becomes  a  tap-root,  or  main  trunk,  from  which  branches  of  a 
larger  and  smaller  size  emanate.  Often,  however,  this  main  root  nearly  perishes,  or  ceas- 
es to  grow,  and  the  branches  take  its  place.  In  some  plants  of  the  highest  class,  (in  the 
gourd  family  for  example,)  and  in  nearly  the  whole  great  classes  to  which  the  grasses,  and 
lilies,  and  palms  belong,  there  is  no  one  main  trunk  or  primary  root,  from  which  the  rest 
proceed;  but  several  roots  spring  forth  simultaneously  f  rom  the  radicle  in  germination, 
and  form  a  cluster  of  fibres  of  nearly  equal  size.  Such  plants  scarcely  exhibit  the  dis- 
tinct opposition  of  growth  in  the  first  instance,  already  mentioned  as  one  characteristic  of 
phenogamous  vegetation.  Most  phenogamous  plants  likewise  send  forth  secondary  roots 
from  the  stem  itself,  the  only  kind  produced  by  cryptogamous  plants.  Roots  vary  much 
as  regards  their  duration,  and  have  been  divided  into  three  grand  classes.  First,  into  an 
nuals,  Avhich  are  those  that  spring  up  from  the  seed  the  first  season  and  die;  such  plants 
are  composed  mostly  of  fibrous  roots,  which  act  a  powerful  part  in  absorption,  but  are 
good  for  nothing  else.  These  fibres  usually  proceed  from  the  sides  of  the  tap-roots,  or 
else  the  whole  plant  divides  itself  at  once  into  numerous  branching  fibres,  such  as  the 
grasses.  The  food  which  such  a  plant  absorbs,  after  having  been  digested  and  elaborated 
in  the  leaves,  is  all  expended  in  the  production  of  branches  and  flowers.  The  flowering 
process  and  the  maturation  of  the  fruit  greatly  exhaust  the  resources  of  the  plant,  con- 
suming all  the  nourishment  which  it  contains,  or  in  storing  it  up  for  the  future  oflspring, 
and,  having  no  accumulation  of  sap,  the  root  is  unable  to  supply  the  increasing  demand, 
the  consequence  is,  it  dies  as  soon  as  the  growing  season  is  over,  or  whenever  the  seeds 

*  Gray's  Text  Book 


FLOWERING  OF  THE  VICTORIA  REGIA. 

are  fully  ripe.  The  second  class  compose  the  biennials,  or  such  as  live  two  years;  these 
do  not  flower  until  the  second  season,  when  they  die  as  the  annuals;  in  this  case  the  root 
serves  as  a  reservoir  for  nourishing  the  assimilated  matter,  such  as  starch,  vegetable  jelly 
and  sugar,  (that  is,  its  cells  become  gorged  with  these  articles) — also,  such  roots  receive 
the  general  appellation  of  fleshy,  but  have  received  different  names  according  to  whatever 
shape  the}^  assume.  For  instance,  if  the  enlargement  takes  place  in  the  trunk  or  tap-root, 
it  becomes  conical,  as  in  the  carrot.  When  it  regularly  tapers  from  the  crown  to  the 
apex,  it  becomes /wsi/orm,  or  spindle-shaped.  But  if  it  leaves  the  middle  the  largest,  in 
which  instance  it  tapers  from  both  ends,  it  becomes  spheriform,  or  turnep- shaped.  If 
some  of  the  branches  are  thickened,  instead  of  the  main  root,  they  are  said  to  be  cluster- 
ed. Such  plants  do  consume  much  of  the  supply  of  sap  in  the  production  of  leaves  and 
branches,  but  they  form  a  large  tuft  of  leaves  just  at  the  surface  of  the  ground,  which 
supply  the  roots  with  nearly  the  whole  summer's  supply  of  nourishment.  In  the  follow- 
ing spring,  when  reaction  is  commenced,  it  shoots  up  a  large  thrifty  stem,  with  leaves  and 
flowers,  which  is  wholly  supported  by  the  nourishment  of  the  previous  year;  and  the 
plant,  in  the  mean  time,  neglecting  to  form  roots  anew,  gradually  perishes  from  the 
immense  absorption  of  the  external  part,  (or  stem.)  This  class  includes  a  very  large 
proportion  of  our  most  useful  vegetables.*  Augpstus  A.  Fahnestock. 


FIRST  FLOWERING   OF  THE  VICTORIA   REGIA  IN  THE  U.  S. 

BY  CALEB  COPE,  ESQ.,  PHILADELPHIA 

The  great  event  in  our  floriculture  world  just  now,  is  the  blooming  of  the  Victoria — 
that  queen  of  water  lilies — at  the  country  residence  of  the  President  of  the  Pennsj'lvania 
Horticultural  Society.  Mr.  Cope's  zeal  and  spirit  in  the  introduction  and  cultivation  of 
this  noble  plant,  have  been  most  satisfactorily  rewarded  by  a  larger  growth,  both  of  flower 
and  leaf,  than  the  most  skilful  culture  in  Europe  has  yet  attained.  We  give  his  letter, 
and  the  interesting  account  of  Mr.  Ellis,  below.     Ed. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq — Dear  Sir:  I  am  sorry  that  you  were  not  here  to  witness  the  ex- 
citement which  prevailed  on  the  21st  ult.,  when  the  Victoria  bloomed  for  the  first  time  in 
this  country,  and  when  my  grounds  seemed  to  be  in  complete  possession  of  the  public. 
Since  that  event  we  have  had  a  weekly  contribution  of  a  flower,  the  fourth  one  maturing 
last  evening.  The  interest  felt  by  the  public  appears  not  only  unabated,  but  on  the  in- 
crease, so  that  every  show  day  we  have  crowds  of  visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 

I  hope  before  long  to  send  you  the  drawing  of  my  Victoria  house,  which  you  request. 
In  the  mean  time  I  send  you  a  report  from  my  gardener,  which  will  be  interesting  to  those 
who  wish  to  look  into  the  detail  of  the  culture  and  treatment  of  the  plant.  If  j^ou  deem 
any  portion  of  it  worthy  of  insertion  in  the  Horticulturist,  you  can  make  use  of  it. 

The  committee  on  plants  and  flowers  of  the  Horticultural  Society,  were  present  on  the 
second  flower  blooming.  They  measured  the  petals,  which  they  found  seven  inches  in 
length,  and  the  crown  or  disk  of  the  flower  three  inches,  thus  making  the  diameter  of  the 
whole  seventeen  inches.  This  is  three  inches  larger  than  any  flower  produced  in  England. 
The  leaves  are  also  six  inches  larger  than  any  grown  there.  The  natural  conditions  of  the 
plant  in  our  country  are,  undoubtedl}'',  more  favorable  than  they  can  possibly  be  in  Eng- 
land. There  the  water  is  at  85°  generally,  and  the  atmosphere  at  75°;  here  it  is  just  the 
reverse,  which  is  undoubtedly  more  like  its  native  country.      I  am  satisfied  that  we 

*  Gray's  Botanical  Text  Book. 


FLOWERING  OF  THE  VICTORIA  REGIA. 

hit  upon  the  right  method  of  cultivating  the  plant;  and  that  both  flowers  and  leaves  are 
equal  to  any  found  either  in  a  native  or  foreign  state,  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Although 
all  this  has  been  accomplished  at  a  great  expense  of  money  and  personal  exertion,  I  do  not 
regret  what  I  have  done.  I  think  I  never  have  been  so  richly  repaid  in  a  similar  effort. 
Even  Mr.  Longworth,  who  regards  so  much  of  what  is  new  in  his  favorite  path,  as 
humbug,  says,  in  a  letter  which  I  received  from  him  to  day,  that  "  there  is  but  one  plant 
in  the  world — the  Victoria."  He  adds,  however,  that  he  will  present  me  with  a  fresh- 
milk  cow,  if  he  fails  to  grow  the  lily  without  heat.  By  this  he  means  that  he  can  grow 
it  in  his  pond.  Our  plant  is  also  grown  without  fire  heat.  We  have  had  no  fire  since  the 
21st  June.  The  plant  in  the  kitchen  garden,  which  has  had  fire  heat  at  no  time,  is  very 
beautiful,  and  would  bloom,  I  think,  if  it  had  been  planted  a  month  earlier.  As  it  is,  I 
am  not  without  hope  that  it  will  yet  give  us  a  flower.  The  leaves  are  within  three  inches 
as  large  as  the  largest  leaf  spoken  of  by  Bridges.  Next  season,  if  I  live,  I  will  show  you 
a  flower  on  the  same  spot,  since  you  invite  the  effort. 

The  flower  last  evening  was  more  gorgeous  than  any  of  its  predecessors.  As  its  con- 
version was  going  on,  in  its  second  stage,  it  seemed  that  the  pink  or  red  hue  greatly  pre- 
ponderated over  the  white.  I  cut  the  flower,  placed  it  on  a  thin  circular  board,  a  foot  in 
diameter,  which  it  completely  covered,  and  sent  it  to  a  wedding  party.  I  am  in  hopes  that 
one  of  the  buds,  now  visible,  will  bloom  in  season  for  our  annual  exhibition,  which  is  to 
be  held  next  week.  I  shall  send  two  of  the  leaves — one  of  them  to  be  placed  under  side 
up,  so  that  the  beauty  of  its  architectural  structure  can  be  seen. 

The  Victoria  is  one  of  the  few  things  that  has  not  been  exaggerated ;  nor  is  it  possible 
to  exaggerate  it.     It  is  truly  a  wonderful  plant.  Yours  very  truly,  C.  Cope. 

Springbrook,  near  Philadelphia,  Sept.  10,  1851. 


A.  J.  Downing,  Esq — Sir:  As  the  experiment  of  cultivating  the  Victoria  Regia  at  this 
place  has  resulted  successfully,  T  propose  giving  a  brief  history  of  the  attempt,  not  doubt- 
ing that  it  will  prove  interesting  to  the  numerous  readers  of  the  Horticulturist. 

On  the  21st  day  of  March  last,  a  letter  containing  twelve  seeds  of  the  Victoria  Regia 
was  received  by  Mr.  Cope,  from  Sir  "\Vm.  J.  Hooker,  Director  of  the  Royal  Gardens  at 
Kew.  Four  of  these  were  planted  in  small  seed  pans,  in  loam  and  sand,  and  placed  in  a 
tank  of  water  in  the  forcing  house.  This  tank,  which  was  five  feet  by  six  in  diameter, 
was  heated  to  the  temperature  of  85°  to  95°,  by  a  circulation  of  hot-water,  produced  by 
a  copper  box  being  placed  upon  the  furnace,  and  an  inch  lead  pipe,  passing  from  it  twice 
round  the  inside  of  the  tank.  A  coil  of  half  inch  pipe,  of  about  fifty  feet  in  length,  was 
also  placed  over  the  furnace,  in  order  that  the  water  might  be  tempered,  which  was  destin- 
ed to  supply  the  tank.  From  this  pipe  the  water  dropped  on  a  small  tin  Avheel,  which 
agitated  the  water  in  the  tank,  and  dissipated  the  vegetable  mucus  or  slimy  matter  which 
accumulated  around  the  borders  of  it,  and  sometimes  upon  the  edge  of  the  leaves  of  the 
Victoria,  after  it  commenced  growing. 

Three  of  the  seeds  germinated  as  follows:  The  first  on  the  10th  of  April;  the  second  on 
the  14th  of  April,  and  the  third  on  the  22d  of  May.  The  fourth  seed  failed  to  grow. 
The  first  growth  of  the  lily  was  in  form  of  a  spear,  not  unlike  a  young  shoot  of  grass,  and 
attained  in  length  about  an  inch  and  a  half.  On  the  17th  a  second  leaf  appeared,  of  a  form 
similar  to  that  of  the  Calla  ethiopica,  being  long  and  tapering,  from  a  broad  blade. 
On  the  21st  a  third  leaf  appeared  of  like  form. 

25th,  the  fourth  leaf  reached  the  surfiice,  and  was  in  the  shape  of  an  ellipsis 
however,  being  separated,  till  near  the  point  where  the  petiole  and  leaf  were  uni 


FLOWERING  OF  THE  VICTORIA  REGIA. 

May     3.  The  fifth  leaf  appeared,  which  reached  its  maturity  on  the  6th;  was  nearly 

round,  and  measured 3s  inch,  in  diameter. 

9.  6th  leaf  appeared,  it  was  quite  round,  and  measured  at 

maturity, 3i         "         " 

16.  7th  leaf  appeared, M        "         " 

23.8th,       do  4i         '•        " 

On  the  24th  the  plant  was  transferred  to  the  big  tank  in 
the  lily  house,  which  was  especially  constructed  for 
its  accommodation.  It  had  five  leaves  on,  the  lar- 
gest measured 4^        "         " 

28.  9th  leaf  appeared  J  measured  at  maturity, 5  "         •* 

30.10th        do  do  do  6^        "        " 

Junes,  lllh  do  do  do  9 

7.  12th  do  do  do  9          "         " 

10.  13th  do  do  do  12^        "        " 

13.14th  do  do  do  14| 

16.15th  do  do  do  18 

20.  16th  do  do  do  2U 

25.17th  do  do  do  29 

29.  18th  do  do  do  3    feet  1  inch. 

July  3.  19th  do  do  do  3          6 

9.20th        do  do  do  3        10 

13.21st         do  do  do  4  4 

18.  22d         do  do  do  4  9i      " 

22.23d         do  do  do  5  2i      " 

27.  24th.     This  leaf  exhibited  a  beautiful  salver  edge,  as  have 

all  its  successors, 5  8i       " 

31.  25th  leaf  appeared ;  measured  at  maturity, 6  4         " 

Aug.  6.  26th        do  do  do  6  4^      " 

10.27th        do  do  do  6  6 

This  leaf  is  six  inches  larger  than  any  produced  in  England,  of  which  we  have 
any  account. 
13.  This  morning  we  discovered,  to  our  great  delight,  a  flower  bud  rising  a  little  in 
advance  of  the  28th  leaf,  which  was  also  approaching  the  surface.     The  latter 
presented  a  dark  object,  whilst  the  former  looked  bright,  though  several  inch- 
es deeper  in  the  water. 
15.  28th  leaf;  not  matured. 

21.  Flower  opened  between  five  and  six  o'clock,  P.  M.     Color,  pure  white;  form, 

globular;  very  fragrant;  odour  strongly  resembles  highly  cultivated  Pine  ap- 
ples. On  the  subsequent  day  the  flower  remains  in  its  primitive  globular 
form,  (with  the  exception  of  slight  variation,)  until  five  or  six  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  at  which  time  it  undergoes  a  complete  transformation.  So  novel 
is  the  appearance  of  the  transformed  flower,  that  were  we  not  conversant  with 
its  nature  to  "metamorphose,"  we  could  not  believe  it possi6Ze  to  be  produc- 
ed from  the  same  plant.  The  petals  become  reflexed,  lie  prostrate  on  the 
water,  and  expose  to  view  a  disk,  so  beautiful  in  color  and  form,  that  I  am 
sorry  I  cannot  find  language  to  describe  it  adequately.  In  its  form  it  resem- 
bles a  crown  of  some  of  the  ancient  kings  of  England;  especially  so  when  the 


FLOWERING  OF  THE  VICTORIA  REGIA. 

flower  has  reached  its  climax.  The  disk,  which  first  appears  quite  smooth 
and  flat,  becomes  in  a  very  short  time  perpendicular  petalus  looking  anthers, 
surrounded  by  others  of  crimson,  embosomed  in  pure  white.  Thus  it  floats 
in  its  glory  through  the  night,  declines  as  the  rays  of  light  approach  the  suc- 
ceeding morn,  and  ultimately  sinks  into  the  element  from  whence  it  arose  so 
noble  and  grand. 
22.  29th  leaf  appeared;  not  matured. 
31.  30th  do  do 

Sept.  6.  31st  do  do 

Sept.  8.  "We  hare  now  in  flower  the  fourth  bud,  and  two  others  are  seen  under  the 
water.  The  flowers,  (one  of  which  measured  17  inches  in  diameter,)  are  produced  at  the 
base  of  the  leaves,  which  induces  us  to  believe  that  as  long  as  the  plant  continues  to  fur- 
nish new  leaves,  so  long  may  we  expect  flowers.  At  the  present  time  appearances  are  al- 
together very  promising.  There  are  seven  leaves  on  the  plant,  some  of  them  measuring 
nearly  twenty  feet  in  circumference,  and  a  weekly  succession  of  flower  buds. 

You  will  observe  that  on  the  24th  day  of  May  the  lily  was  planted  in  the  large  tank. 
From  that  time  up  to  the  20th  of  June,  fire  heat  was  applied  in  the  evening  only.  Dur- 
ing this  period  the  thermometer  ranged  on  an  average  at  about  85°.  On  the  21st  of  June 
fire  heat  was  dispensed  with,  and  has  not  been  applied  since.  The  tank  had  been  well 
prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  plant — first,  by  the  bottom  being  covered  with  charcoal 
and  pieces  of  brick,  to  the  depth  of  two  or  three  inches,  and  then  half  a  dozen  two-horse 
cart  loads  of  chared  loam  and  leaf  mold  placed  therein  in  the  form  of  a  mound.  I  would 
here  remark  that  good  loam  alone  is  sufiicient  for  the  plant.  A  difierent  ingredient  was 
adopted  in  this,  our  first  essay,  as  a  similar  compost  was  found  successful  in  England. 
Some  material  departures  from  the  custom  there  observed,  have  been  indicated  as  politic 
in  the  process  of  our  experiments. 

In  reference  to  the  temperature  of  water  in  the  tank,  after  artificial  heat  was  dispensed 
with,  it  has,  of  course,  varied  materially,  being  sometimes  as  low  as  70°,  and  rising  to 
83°.  To  prevent  the  injurious  effects  of  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun,  the  glass  of  the  house 
is  frosted  with  sugar  of  lead  ground  in  oil.  The  house  is  generally  kept  very  close. 
Fresh  water  is  freel}'^  admitted  during  the  day,  but  none  at  night.  From  the  lily  house, 
the  water  flows  into  a  basin  in  the  kitchen  garden,  where  one  of  the  plants  of  the  Victoria 
was  placed  on  the  25th  day  of  June;  it  had  then  five  leaves  on,  the  largest  measuring 
fourteen  and  a  half  inches.  The  plant  has  made  a  slow  growth,  compared  to  its  more  favor- 
ed companion  in  the  aquarium,  but  it  has  nevertheless  flourished,  and  its  largest  leaf  now 
measures  3  feet  nine  inches  in  diameter.  We  do  not  doubt  our  ability  to  grow  it  success- 
fully in  this  position  next  season,  when  the  alterations  proposed  to  be  made  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  basin,  shall  have  been  efiected. 

Under  the  influence  of  solar  heat  alone,  the  plant  has  made  wonderful  progress,  and  I 
think  its  beauty  and  luxuriance  cannot  be  excelled  in  any  part  of  the  world.  We  can 
easily  appreciate  the  admiration  and  delight  of  the  enterprising  Dorbignt  and  Shom- 
BURGn,on  their  discovering  this  vegetable  phenomenon,  so  gigantic  in  its  appearance,  unique 
in  its  formation,  and  deeply  interesting  in  its  development.  When  we  contrast  the  seed 
in  its  first  state  of  germination,  and  by  an  acute  observation  perceive  its  feeble  cotyledon, 
like  a  thread,  endeavoring  to  reach  the  water's  surface,  but  unable — with  its  colossal  leaves, 
between  six  and  .seven  feet  in  diameter,  well  may  Ave  call  it  a  "  Vegetable  Wonder,"  and 
the  "  Queen  of  Aquatics."  We  hail  with  delight  the  promised  leaf,  and  watch  its 
unfoldings  with  increasing  interest.      When  we  view  its  shell-like  appearance  when 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  IN  ART. 

above  the  water's  surface,  quilled  together  into  ridge  and  furrow  of  transparent  golden 
hues,  with  its  dark  crimson  veins  flowing  through  its  much  admired  tissue,  its  superb  sal- 
ver edge,  and  its  huge  rope-like  stems,  covered  with  elastic  spines  of  surprising  strength, 
as  though  destined  to  protect  its  noble  structure  from  all  invasion.  AVhen  we  look  at  the 
short  period  it  has  taken  to  germinate  a  seed  no  larger  than  a  pea,  and  to  bring  to  maturi- 
ty a  plant  that  lills  a  tank  twenty-four  feet  in  diameter,  in  the  short  space  of  something 
like  four  months,  well  may  we  affirm  that  it  deserves  the  attention  and  culture  of  every 
true  lover  of  nature  who  can  afford  the  expense.  Such  amateurs  will  surely  be  amply  re- 
munerated by  the  constant  unfolding  of  beauties  not  to  be  equaled  in  any  other  plant 
known  to  the  civilised  world. 

It  would  be  doing  injustice  to  Mr.  Downing,  did  I  fail  to  mention  that  the  first  living 
plants  of  the  Victoria  which  have  grown  in  this  country,  were  produced  from  seed  fur- 
nished by  him  to  the  proprietor  of  these  gardens,  out  of  a  supply  presented  to  him  last 
autumn,  at  Chatsworth.  These  were  lost  by  the  gardener  then  in  charge  of  the  place,  as 
I  understand,  by  an  accidental  over-heating  of  the  tank,  consequent  upon  a  sudden  change 
of  the  weather  during  the  night.  I  am,  respectfully,  John  Ellis, 

Gardener  to  Caleb  Cope,  Esq. 

Springbrook,  Sept.  8,  1851. 


THE   BEAUTIFUL   IN  ART. 

BY  S.  H.— FROM  THE  LONDON  BUILDER. 

This  brings  me  to  the  third  branch  of  my  study,  viz.,  the  beautiful  in  art  itself.  Nature 
drunk  in  by  the  mind,  as  shown  under  the  former  head,  is  the  seed  for  the  production  of 
a  new  world, — the  world  of  art,  which  exists  for  the  same  purpose  as  its  prototype,  to  sa- 
tisfy the  sense  of  beauty  in  the  human  breast.  From  a  chaos  of  sensations  previously 
awakened  by  the  aspect  of  external  nature  in  the  mind  of  man,  this  new  and  fairer  crea- 
tion rises.  A  more  perfect  system,  freed  from  the  blemishes  and  faults  of  the  first,  is  thus 
established  in  the  sphere  of  art:  the  materials  and  principles,  luxuriance  and  comprehen- 
siveness, are  derived  from  nature;  while  the  fostering  love  of  the  beautiful,  as  the  inspira- 
tion in  the  soul,  gives  it  harmonious  unity  and  depth. 

Art  is  therefore  something  more  than  a  transcript  of  nature  even  in  her  highest  charms : 
it  is  essentially  spiritual.  It  does  not  come  from  nature  direct,  but  is  refined  and  exalted 
in  the  mind.  If  art  were  no  more  than  a  reproduction  of  nature,  it  would  be  the  inferior, 
as  the  imitator  must  ever  be  behind  the  original.  But  art  takes  higher  ground ;  she  has 
a  dignity  peculiar  to  herself,  an  essence  of  her  own,  which  wins  her  the  advantage.  Art 
appropriates  the  principles  and  elements  of  nature,  but  in  their  passage  through  the  mind, 
a  fresh  image  is  stamped  upon  her  types.  They  receive  a  new  lustre  from  the  soul,  a  ray 
of  the  beautiful  from  within.  The  artist  may  exercise  his  genius  upon  a  perishable  mate- 
rial, but  something  from  the  immortal  part  of  himself  has  mingled  in  his  conceptions,  and 
this  gives  to  works  of  art  infinitely  greater  interest  than  their  originals  could  have.  The 
main  difference  between  architecture  and  the  other  arts  of  design,  is  this — architecture 
springs  out  of  physical  necessity,  while  the  other  fine  arts  have  beauty  for  their  sole  ob- 
ject. Architecture  is  the  application  of  abstract  beauty,  as  much  of  it  as  can  be  applied, 
embellishment  of  the  useful,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  forms  and  elements  of  necess 
forms  of  necessity;  but  some  of  the  general   forms  of  architecture  are  struck 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  IN  ART. 

foi'esliadowed  by  nature  herself.  But  the  disadvantage  of  architecture  is,  that  the  useful 
must,  in  some  measure,  qualify  the  beautiful.  Painting  and  sculpture  have  beauty  for 
their  essence,  but  architecture  is  a  clothing,  or  pervading,  the  useful  with  the  spirit  of  the 
beautiful.  It  is,  however,  the  human  architect,  so  far  as  consistent  Mith  the  different  scale 
of  his  enterprise,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Divine.  That  the  primitive  wood  cabin 
was  its  type,  may  well  be  questioned.  Infancy  is  as  much  the  tj'pe  of  manhood.  Archi- 
tecture has  better  types,  a  richer  dower;  it  has  all  nature,  from  the  human  form  and  face, 
to  the  most  insignificant  plant  or  mineral :  all  yield  ther  lesson  to  the  architect.  It  draws 
not  literally,  however,  from  them.  It  is  not  a  direct,  but  an  analogical  imitation  of  na- 
ture. 

But  art,  taken  generally,  is  an  imbodiment  of  an  invisible  archetype  in  the  artist's  mind, 
his  beau  ideal  ;  but  which  he  models  upon  nature  as  a  basis:  it  is  nature  transfigured, 
glorified,  by  its  contact  with  humanity.  Of  all  created  beings,  man,  particularly  as  refers 
to  the  manifestation  of  his  mind  and  character,  is  the  most  interesting  to  man ;  an  object, 
therefore,  on  which  is  impressed  human  feeling  and  intelligence,  possesses,  in  consequence, 
a  greater  interest  than  by  any  other  extraneous  circumstances  it  could  receive.  "Works  of 
real  art  are  the  works  of  God  brought  through  the  mind  of  man;  and  therefore  doubly 
"good,"  beautiful,  and  divine. 

Art  may,  in  this  light,  be  considered  as  a  supplement  which  the  human  mind  adds  to 
nature.  It  is  a  sequel  to  her  original  beauty.  Like  "  the  metamorphosis  of  things  into 
higher  organic  forms,"  is  their  change  from  nature  into  art.  The  mind  or  imagination  of 
the  artist  is  a  mirror  that  gives  back  the  formal  hues  of  nature,  but  heightened  and  refin- 
ed: while  painting  and  sculpture  array  with  second  life  some  glorious  action,  some  heroic 
deed  of  the  past,  architecture  clothes  with  new  vitality  and  beauty  the  forms  of  external 
nature. 

The  sculptured  Jupiters  and  Minervas  of  the  ancients,  and  the  rest  of  their  petrified 
goddesses  and  nymphs,  are  therefore,  as  remarked  under  the  preceding  head,  not  copies 
from  nature,  but  from  a  vision  of  beauty  in  the  mind  of  the  artist,  inspired  indeed  by  na- 
ture, but  exalted  in  the  mind,  and  possessing  more  of  perfection  than  any  individual. 

But  whilst  showing  the  advantage  of  art  over  nature  in  this  respect,  let  us  do  justice  to 
the  latter.  The  eye  requires  education  and  constant  practice,  even  to  see  truly  the  beau- 
ties of  nature.  All  does  not  lie  upon  the  surface.  In  the  lowest  walk  of  art  there  is  scope 
for  the  highest  mind.  The  most  gifted  eye  cannot  exhaust  the  significance  of  any  object, 
and  "  in  the  commonest  human  face,"  to  quote  Fuseli,  "there  is  more  than  Raphael  will 
take  away  with  him." 

We  cannot  compete  with  nature  on  the  same  ground.  For  the  production,  for  instance, 
of  powerful  light  and  shade  in  a  picture,  an  artist  must  take  advantage  of  the  local  color 
of  objects,  and  place  dark  ones  in  the  shade,  and  white  ones  in  the  light;  while,  such  is 
the  intensity  of  light  in  nature,  that  she  can  produce  her  effects  independently  of  local 
color, — effects  more  gorgeous  and  potent  than  the  artist,  with  all  the  contrivances  of  art, 
and  of  science  to  boot,  is  able  to  reach. 

Moreover,  the  effects  in  nature  are  nearly  always  fine.  Natural  objects,  whether  viewed 
singly,  or  in  groups,  must  be  almost  invariably  picturesque,  for  both  the  linear  and  aerial 
perspective  operate  upon  them  on  the  most  unerring  principles — an  advantage  which  the 
artist,  from  some  error  in  applying  the  science,  may  miss.  Light  and  shade,  and  reflection, 
which  the  artist  can  but  imperfectly  comprehend  and  represent,  are  also,  in  nature,  acting 
unerringly. 

artist  of  a  fine  fjerception,  is,  therefore,  of  all  others,  the  least  satisfied  with 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  IN  ART. 

he  produces,  as  he  is  the  most  capable  of  seeing  the  truthfulness  and  transcendancy  of  na- 
ture. He  is  also  the  most  capable  of  seeing  the  immense  distance  between  her  common- 
place, every-day  effects,  and  those  Avhich  she  sometimes  exhibits  to  the  educated  and  poet- 
ic eye. 

The  comparative  feebleness  of  art  is  further  apparent  when  we  consider,  in  the  greatest 
works  of  art,  how  few  the  beauties,  how  many  the  faults;  how  seldom  we  find  a  picture 
that  is  good  in  more  than  one  department  of  the  art  I  The  great  colorist  is  deficient  in 
composition;  one  wonderful  in  conception  and  composition,  may  have  no  idea  of  color : 
while  the  master  of  chiaroscurso  is  a  novice  in  everything  else;  suggesting  the  fact,  that 
only  the  union  of  the  talents  of  several  artists,  supposing  that  possible,  could  secure  a  full, 
truthful  rendering  of  nature.  Each  of  tliese  important  departments  has  had  its  respective 
master,  but  where  is  the  magician  who,  uniting  their  varied  excellencies  in  one  produc- 
tion, can  conjure  up  before  us  the  entire  spirit  and  sentiment  of  nature,  and  reveal  to  us 
the  whole  mystery  of  creation? 

Besides,  from  nature  comes  every  element  of  art;  within  her  sphere  lies  all  the  inspira- 
tion of  genius.  An  abstract  idea  of  beauty,  it  is  true,  exists  in  the  mind,  transcribed 
from  no  individual  object  or  creature.  But,  as  Pope  asks,  from  what  can  we  reason  but 
from  what  we  know?  so,  we  may  inquire,  what  can  we  conceive  and  image  to  ourselves, 
but  from  what  we  have  seen?  The  first  part  of  genius  is  a  strong  susceptibility  to  the  in- 
fluence of  beauty  in  nature.  And  the  Muses  were  rightly  conceived  as  the  daughters  of 
memorj^:  the  great  ideas  which  the  Raphaels  and  Titians  have  sought  to  embody,  howev- 
er gradual  their  growth,  have  been  indebted  to  nature  for  every  stage  of  their  advancement. 

Architecture,  as  we  have  seen,  in  common  with  all  the  fine  arts,  derives  its  principle  of 
beauty  from  nature;  but  unlike  the  rest,  it  is  indebted  to  nature  for  something  else,  close- 
ly allied  to,  and  in  some  measure  interwoven  with  the  other,  viz :  constructive  principle. 
Structure  is  an  important  element  of  architecture,  and  fortunately  for  us,  the  affinity  be- 
tween it  and  nature  extends  also  to  construction.  Of  this  fact  many  illustrations  could  be 
given,  and  of  the  use  made  of  it  by  architects.  The  constructive  principle  of  St.  Bride's 
Church  steeple  at  London,  with  its  spiral  staircase  and  newal,it  is  well  known  was  deriv- 
ed by  Sir  C.  Wren  from  a  common  form  of  spiral  shell.  The  dome  of  the  Cathedral  of 
Florence  owes  its  origin  to  the  structure  of  the  human  skull,  the  peculiarity  of  which  is 
its  combining  strength  with  lightness.  The  naval  architect  has  obtained  valuable  hints 
for  ship-building  from  the  structure  of  shells.  The  figure  of  the  duck  originally  suggest- 
ed the  form  of  the  ship,  and  certainly  the  finest  models,  the  best  for  contending-  with 
winds  and  waves,  are  those  that  most  resemble  their  original,  as  the  Dutch  galliot  will 
attest. 

But,  as  in  art,  so  in  science,  we  cannot  directly  compete  with  nature;  we  cannot  reach 
her  wonderful  mathematical  skill, — the  nice  balance  of  forces, — resistance,  and  strain;  we 
must  waste  our  material,  and,  after  all,  be  behind  in  that  certainty  which  characterises 
her  engineering  enterprises,  which  is  visible  in  her  most  ordinary  productions. 

Let  us  glance  for  a  moment  over  the  empire  of  art,  with  an  eye  to  this  analogy  with 
nature.  In  music's  various  moods  and  instruments  we  recognise  the  various  hymns  of 
nature, — the  murmuring  stream,  the  melody  of  birds,  the  wind  upon  the  shore  in  "  vocal 
reed,"  which  are  music's  acknowledged  types.  Many  oft-used  expressions,  as  "  a  tide 
of  harmony,"  "  floods  of  melody,"  "gush  of  song,"  are  confessions  of  this  analogy. 
Campbell  speaks  of  the  "stormy  music  of  the  drum;"  Shakespeare  makes  music  the 
food  of  love,  and  compares  its  dying  fall  to  a  gentle  wind  stealing  over  violets;  and 
ton's  "  heavenly  host" 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  IN  ART. 

'  Sang  hallelujah  as  the  sound  of  seas." 

In  the  department  of  architecture  we  shall  find  equal  interest.  The  "  twilight  grove"  is 
seen  in  the  temple  colonnade,  or  "dim  religious  aisle."  The  "awe-inspiring  dome" 
speaks  of  the  canopy  of  the  skies — the  celestial  hemisphere — which  has  in  some  instances 
been  its  model.  The  beautiful  curves  of  the  capitals  and  shafts  of  the  antique  columns 
are  at  least  suggested  by  lines  in  nature.  The  earliest  Egyptian  column  was  a  stalk  of 
the  lotus,  capped  by  its  calix;  and  its  base  was,  in  all  probability,  the  foot  of  the  same 
plant,  where  it  issues  from  the  root. 

All  descriptions  of  design  are  varied  pictures  or  reflections  of  nature.  "Whether  a  single 
edifice,  or  group  of  edifices,  or  picturesque  avenue,  be  the  object  of  our  admiration  as  a 
work  of  art,  one  source  of  our  pleasure  must  be  a  recognition  of  principles  dictated  by 
nature,  and  a  recollection  of  corresponding  effects  in  her  wide  domain. 

Every  true  style  has  its  types  in  nature,  every  shade  of  character  its  corresponding  ex- 
pression there.  The  principles  of  design  have  been  learnt  in  her  school.  In  the  decora- 
tion of  architecture  we  shall  find  nearl}'-  the  whole  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  which, 
though  not  literally  copied,  are  yet  the  most  easily  traced.  No  department  of  creation 
seems  better  adapted  for  decoration  in  the  arts  of  architecture,  sculpture,  &c.,than  this: 
plants,  their  foliage,  flowers,  fruits,  have  accordingly  been  more  extensively  cmijloyed, 
as  the  basis  of  ornamentation,  than  any  other  objects.  In  some  Gothic  buildings  the 
abundance  of  floral  decorations  renders  them  rivals,  in  point  of  luxuriance,  of  Nature  her- 
self. Plants  were  very  early  thus  employed.  The  almond,  pomegranate,  and  flowers 
were  chosen,  even  in  the  wilderness,  by  divine  appointment,  to  give  form  to  the  sacred 
utensils;  and,  down  to  the  present  time,  the  iv}',  lotus,  acanthus,  palm,  vine,  oak,  and 
other  beautiful  objects  of  the  vegetable  creation  have  been  the  subjects  of  the  chisel,  and 
have  given  life  and  expression  to  architecture  and  the  arts  of  decoration. 

The  types  of  art  are  in  nature,  but  art,  as  before  shown,  cannot  be  entirely  referred  to 
that  source.  The  soul  of  man  has  had  part,  and  through  that  part  may,  generally,  be 
read  much  that  is  interesting  of  the  character  and  history  of  the  times  that  produced  it. 
The  monuments  of  art  are  always  the  true  representatives  of  the  physical,  moral,  and  in- 
tellectual state  of  man.  They  are  the  exponents  of  his  religious  and  political  position, 
and  indicate  the  exact  character  of  his  mental  development  at  the  corresponding  periods 
of  his  annals.  Nations  have  written  the  records  of  their  history  in  stone.  The  temples, 
the  palaces,  the  monuments  of  Germany,  France,  and  England  are  so  many  pertrified 
poems.  The  Vatican,  the  Escurial,  the  Alhambra,  each  unfold  to  us  more  than  many 
volumes  could  have  done,  of  all  that  is  interesting  to  man,  of  all  those  absorbing  and  fas- 
cinating subjects  on  which  we  would  question  the  past.  Catholicism  has  written  its  his- 
tory, and  more  than  is  ordinarily  understood  by  history,  in  the  monasteries,  cathedrals, 
and  monuments  of  the  middle  ages;  and,  whatever  be  its  subsequent  fate,  the  memory, 
at  least,  of  its  worship  will  need  no  other  shrine.  Liberty,  commerce,  and  industry  have 
recorded  their  enterprise,  also,  in  the  same  characters.  And  the  monuments  of  munici- 
pal greatness  are  not  among  the  least  of  the  trophies  and  achievements  of  architecture. 
Ambition  has  imbodied  its  yearnings  and  its  triumphs  in  pyramids,  columns,  obelisks, 
triumphal  arches ;  humanity  in  hospitals,  and  schools,  and  institutions  of  benevolence; 
and  science  in  railroads,  tunnels,  aqueducts,  and  bridges.  The  edifices  of  England  are 
so  many  chapters  of  our  history.  The  genius  of  a  nation,  as  well  as  of  the  architect,  is 
stamped  upon  such  relics 

We  have  seen  that  art  is  one  in  its  origin, — that  its  waters,  however  diversified  their 
channel,  flow  from  one  fountain,  and  its  glories,  however  differing  in  hue,  are  reflections 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  IN  ART. 

of  one  infinite  brightness :  may  we  not  go  further,  and  observe  that  art  is  one  in  its  real 
nature  and  object?  In  the  infinity  of  beauty  and  of  truth,  pervading  this  mighty  universe 
of  matter  and  of  mind,  lie  the  inspirations  of  art;  and  it  is  from  his  fresher,  deeper  in- 
sight into  this  inexhaustible  life,  that  genius  derives  his  power,  and  his  productions  their 
value.  No  matter  what  his  tools,  whether  colours,  or  marble,  or  stone,  or  sounding  pipes 
and  strings,  or  cadenced  words,  his  work  is  the  same;  his  eye  has  looked  through  and 
beyond  the  horizon  of  his  time;  his  ear  has  listened,  through  the  discords  of  the  present, 
to  the  harmonies  of  the  future;  his  thought  has  pierced  through  the  crust  of  the  surfiice, 
to  the  deep  beneath;  and  now  the  time  is  come;  he  has  seen, — he  must  show;  he  has 
heard, — he  must  tell;  he  has  received, — he  must  give;  in  picture,  or  statue,  or  structure, 
or  symphony,  or  poem,  he  inibodies  his  results;  and  in  all  these  various  forms  of  produc- 
tion, whatever  be  the  character  of  their  design,  the  aim  of  the  earnest-souled  receiver, 
is  one; — that  the  thing  produced  shall  be  beautiful  and  true. 

As  the  artist's  work  is  similar,  so  is  its  purpose.  Like  the  mountain  stream,  which, 
descending  from  the  clouds  of  heaven,  seeks,  with  a  widening  current,  the  boundless  ocean 
whence  its  waters  first  exhaled,  the  true  artist  ever  strives  after  that  whole  infinity  of 
beauty  and  of  truth,  from  a  detached  ray,  as  it  were,  of  which  his  course  of  inspired  ac- 
tion began.  In  the  beginning  of  his  career  there  was  an  extension  of  the  infinite  to  him, 
— a  revelation  to  his  spirit  of  a  beauty  and  a  truth,  newer  in  kind  or  higher  in  degree,  than 
was  before  known  or  felt:  from  this  his  labors  sprang;  and  the  true  tendency  and  end  of 
them  is  to  make  what  he  thus  knows  and  feels,  known  and  felt;  to  open  to  his  own  and 
all  others'  ej^es  a  wider  and  more  perfect  view  of  that  glory  which  has  glanced  upon  him; 
and  in  proportion  as  he  has  fulfilled  this,  shall  his  work  endure.     But  this  is  not  all: — 

The  ruling  principles  also  of  the  several  arts  are  identical :  in  the  expression  of  the  same 
quality  or  feeling,  the  same  law  of  means  obtains  in  all  the  arts,  i.  «.,  the  elements  must 
be  used  after  the  same  principles,  and  therefore  the  laws  of  the  fine  arts  are  deducible  from 
the  principles  of  art,  and  may  be  considered  as  a  polyglot  version  of  art-law.  If,  there- 
fore, we  obtain  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  principles  and  laws  of  art,  we  possess 
the  key  to  the  intelligence  and  application  of  the  laws  of  the  arts,  which  are  its  different 
branches.  The  aim  of  art,  in  all  its  branches,  throughout  its  works,  is,  from  variety  of 
element,  by  harmony  of  combination  and  arrangement,  to  produce  unity  of  effect;  in 
fewer  words,  variety  in  unity. 

It  would  free  an  artist  from  the  pedantry — from  the  trammels  of  the  technical,  to  ac- 
quire some  knowledge  of  the  arts  which  thus  claim  kindred  with  his  own ;  and  where  there 
is  original  power,  the  mind,  instead  of  being  oppressed  by  its  increase  of  attainments,  will 
discover,  or  discern,  more  clearly,  the  common  bearings  and  hidden  analogies  of  the  diffe- 
rent branches  of  art,  which  will  thus  shed  light  upon  each  other.  An  architect  for  in- 
stance, would  be  a  better  architect  from  knowing  someting  of  painting  and  sculpture, — 
while  the  painter  and  sculptor  would  find  their  advantage  in  an  acquaintance  with  archi- 
tecture— the  principles  of  the  three  arts  being  the  same,  only  differently  applied.  The  ar- 
chitect need  not  be  able  to  paint  a  picture  or  model  a  bust, — nor  the  sculptor  or  painter  to 
design  a  mansion:  but  each  should  understand  the  great  principles  of  the  sister  arts,  and 
know  how,  or  in  what  way,  they  are  identical  with  those  of  his  own,  and  be  able  to  trace 
the  analogy  and  relations  of  the  various  productions  of  genius.  He  does  not  thoroughly 
understand  the  principles  of  his  own  art,  unless  he  sees  their  universal  application.  A 
study  of  the  laws  of  art,  generally,  would  not  enable  the  same  man  to  write  an  epic,  com- 
pose an  overture,  and  design  a  palace,  but  it  would  be  attended  with  advantages  suflicient 
ly  important  in  reference  to  the  art  to  which  he  was  devoted.    It  would  lead  him  to  see  at 


NOTICES  OF  NEW  OR  RARE  PLANTS. 

a  glance  to  which  of  the  arts  any  given  subject  was  best  fitted,  and  prevent  a  painter  tak- 
ing one  that  was  more  suited,  or  perhaps  only  suited  to  a  poem;  or  a  sculptor  attempting 
to  illustrate,  by  his  chisel,  one  that  required  the  superior  resources  of  painting  to  express. 
Many  failures  have  had  their  source  in  ignorance  or  inattention  on  this  head.  There  are 
necessary  limitations  to  each  of  the  arts:  their  scope  is  various.  Painting  is  more  confin- 
ed than  poetry,  and  sculpture  than  either.  Of  the  five  several  arts,  poetry  is  the  most  ex- 
cellent— the  most  comprehensive:  the  poet  has  the  longest  line,  the  widest  range.  Ideas 
can  be  expressed  in  poetry,  that  cannot  be  adequately  expressed  otherwise, — by  any  other 
of  the  arts.  S.  H. 


NOTICES    OF   NEW  OR   RARE   PLANTS. 

I.  Fortune's  Cape  Jasmine.— (  Gardenia  Florida.y&r.  Fortaniana.') — Very  few  green- 
house plants,  introduced  within  the  last  five  years,  Avill  bear  comparison  with  this  superb 
new  Gardenia,  brought  from  China  by  Mr.  Fortune.  In  the  first  place,  the  plant  is  one 
of  the  finest  green-house  shrubs,  with  noble  broad  leaves,  each  four  to  six  inches  long. 
In  the  second  place,  the  flowers,  which  are  very  large — of  the  size  of  the  largest  Camel- 
lia, resemble  those  of  the  double  White  Camellia,  both  in  form  and  purity  of  color;  and 
in  the  last  place,  they  are  deliciously  fragrant.  "We  notice  that  Messrs.  Parsons  &  Co., 
of  Flushing,  advertise  this  unrivaled  Gardenia  for  sale  this  autumn. 

II.  Large  Red  Escallonia. — (^jEscallonia  macrantha.) — One  of  the  most  ornamental 
evergreen  shrubs,  a  native  of  Chiloe — hardy  about  Baltimore,  and  likely  to  prove  a  most 
valuable  "  bedding-out"  plant  for  the  flower  garden  farther  north.  The  flowers  are 
borne  in  terminal  panicles,  are  large  and  showy,  and  of  a  deep  crimson  red  color.  It 
blooms  from  June  to  October,  most  abundantly.  The  leaves  are  elliptical,  and  doubly  ser- 
rated. "  No  garden  where  ornamental  plants  are  esteemed" — says  the  periodical  just 
quoted,  "  ought  to  be  without  this  Escallonia.  In  Devonshire  it  is  hardy.  In  a  cold  con- 
servatory it  would  form  a  splendid  bush,  and  moderate  sized  plants,  grown  in  pots,  would 
be  very  useful  for  purposes  of  decoration.  It  may  be  multiplied  to  any  extent  by  cuttings 
of  the  young  shoots,  planted  under  hand  glasses,  in  sandy  soil;  the  young  plants  requir- 
ing the  protection  of  a  frame  in  winter." 

III.  The  Slender  Deutzia. — (Deutzia  Gracalis.^ — Those  of  our  readers  already  in 
possession  of  that  charming  hardy  shrub,  the  Deutzia  Scabra,  will  welcome  with  plea- 
sure a  new,  equally  beautiful,  and  more  airy  species — with  long  white  flowers,  borne  in 
slender  panicles.  This  species,  very  lately  introduced  from  Japan,  grows  about  three 
feet  high,  with  a  slightly  pendant  habit  in  the  branches — the  leaves  only  about  an  inch 
long — the  flowers  a  delicate  paper  white — blooming  in  May.  It  grows  readily  from  cut- 
tings, and  delights  in  a  rich  light  loam. 

IV.  The  Double  Flowering  Horse  Chestnut. — (^Aesculas  Hippo,  fl.  plcno.) — We 
do  not  know  whether  this  rare  and  beautiful  lawn  tree  may  yet  be  had  in  this  country, 
but  it  is  grown  for  sale  by  Mr.  Thomas  Rivers,  nurseryman,  Sawbridgeworth  Herts, 
England,  who  deals  largely  with  America.  The  tree  grows  to  a  large  size,  and  is  much 
like  the  common  horse  chestnut,  but  when  in  bloom  it  presents  a  far  more  beautiful  ap- 
pearance, the  flowers  being  so  double  as  to  resemble  a  good  deal  thost  of  the  double  pink 
Hyacinth.  The  tree  flowers  when  quite  young,  and  is  readily  propagated  by  graft 
the  common  species.     We  copy  the  engraving  from  the  Gard.  Mag.  of  Botany. 


Thk  Double  FLOurERiNO  Horse  Chestnut 


A  CHEAP  PIT  FOR  GREEN-HOUSE  PLANTS. 

A   CHEAP   PIT  FOR   GREEN-HOUSE   PLANTS. 

BY  AN  ORIGINAL  SUBSCRIBER,  NEW- YORK. 

Dear  Sir — I  take  it  for  granted  that  there  are  a  good  many  among  your  readers,  who, 
like  myself,  love  gardens,  and  are  too  poor  to  have  all  the  luxuries  that  belong  to  them. 
Among  these  luxuries  I  count  green-houses  and  hot-houses.  Now,  as  I  dont  spend  fifty 
dollars  a  year  on  my  garden,  besides  my  own  labor,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  I  have 
any  such  "  Crystal  palaces."  Yet  I  contrive  by  the  aid  of  cheap  pits  or  frames,  sunk  in 
a  dry  warm  part  of  my  garden — under  the  south  side  of  a  board  fence,  to  keep  through 
the  winter  all  the  half-hardy  plants,  such  as  tea-roses,  carnations,  petunias,  heliotropes, 
and  most  of  the  hard-wooded  green-house  plants  that  adorn  the  garden,  and  keep  it  gay 
in  summer.  Chinese  Azaleas  do  even  better  in  these  pots,  than  they  do  in  green-houses. 
To  make  such  frames,  it  is  only  needful  to  choose  a  piece  of  ground  that  is  Avell  drain- 
ed, to  have  a  few  good  hot-bed  sashes,  to  make  a  frame  or  bottomless  box,  out  of  some 
rough  boards,  as  wide  as  the  sashes  are  long,  and  as  long  as  the  sum  total  of  feet  that 
your  sashes  will  cover  if  laid  side  by  side.  Sink  the  frame  in  the  ground  to  its  level, 
within  two  inches  at  the  front,  and  three  inches  at  the  back,  so  as  to  make  the  needful 
slope  to  carry  off  the  rain.  Dig  out  the  soil  for  two  feet  deep.  Spread  a  couple  of  inches  of 
small  stones,  or  coal  ashes  at  the  bottom,  and  set  the  pots  upon  this.  Give  as  much  light 
and  air  as  you  can  until  severe  frosty  weather  sets  in.  In  downright  winter  weather 
keep  the  frames  shut  pretty  close,  covering  the  glass  at  night  with  several  thicknesses  of 
matting  or  old  canvas  bagging — and  in  very  hard  frost,  with  a  few  bundles  of  straw  in 
addition.  Water  only  when  the  pots  appear  somewhat  dry — but  then  water  freely — 
especially  if  the  weather  is  such  that  you  can  keep  the  frame  open  for  an  hour  or 
more. 

In  this  way,  almost  all  the  popular  and  showy  green-house  plants  may,  as  I  have  said, 
be  wintered  in  excellent  condition,  at  very  trifling  expense,  no  artificial  heat,  whatever, 
being  required.  Wishing,  however,  last  winter,  to  do  something  new,  and  have  a  few  re- 
ally tender  exotics  in  a  pit,  I  hit  upon  a  cheap  and  simple  sort  of  warming  apparatus, 
which  succeeded  quite  to  my  satisfaction,  and  I  must  therefore  describe  it  to  you. 

My  heating  apparatus  was  a  large  flat,  tin  lamp,  with  a  common  candle  wick — the  lamp 
large  enough  to  hold  a  pint  of  alcohol — for  this  was  to  be  my  fuel.  Over  this  lamp,  at 
the  distance  of  an  inch  and  a  half,  was  suspended  or  fixed  my  boiler — about  six  by  eight 
inches,  also  tin.  Out  of  the  side  of  this  boiler,  about  one-third  of  the  way  down,  started 
a  tin  pipe,  one  inch  in  diameter,  tightly  soldered  to  the  boiler,  and  also  at  every  joint. 
This  pipe  ran  quite  round  the  frame,  (suspended  a  little  way  from  the  board  by  a  wooden 
bracket,)  and  finally  entered  the  boiler  again  near  the  bottom,  on  the  side  opposite  where 
it  went  out.  The  boiler  itself  was  soldered  quite  tight,  and  the  whole  pipe  was  quite 
tight — with  the  exception  of  one  place;  this  was  the  first  elbow  after  it  left  the  boiler — 
one-third  of  the  way  round.  Here  it  had  an  upright  joint  soldered  on,  reaching  up  to  near 
the  glass — say  two  inches  higher  than  the  level  of  the  water  in  the  boiler.  This  upright 
joint  was  open  at  the  top,  and  into  this  opening  I  daily  poured  the  water  to  fill  the  boiler, 
pipe  and  all — for  you  see  it  was  in  fact  all  one  boiler.  I  had  then,  as  your  readers  well 
versed  in  hot-water  heating,  will  see  at  a  glance,  a  modern  hot- water  apparatus — on  a  mi 
niature  scale,  at  a  very  low  price,  such  as  can  be  made  in  a  few  hours  by  any  tinman 
pence  worth  of  alcohol  would  carry  my  hot-water  apparatus  through  the  coldest 


DESIGN  FOR  A  PUBLIC  SCHOOL. 

and  warm  the  frame  admirably,  without  any  danger  of  over-heating,  and  in  ordinary 
nights,  (the  frame  being  well  covered,)  I  needed  no  fire.  Soon  after  the  lamp  was  lighted, 
the  warm  water  began  to  rise  in  the  boiler,  and  to  flow  off  through  the  topmost  pipe,  and 
as  it  became  cooled  it  returned  to  the  bottom  of  the  boiler,  by  the  lower  part  of  the  same 
pipe — and  although,  of  course,  the  water  never  became  hot,  it  was  quite  warm  enough, 
not  only  to  raise  the  temperature  of  the  frame,  but  to  keep  it  raised — as  the  water  once 
heated  remained  so  a  long  time  after  the  lamp  went  out. 

I  ought  to  add,  that  at  the  end  of  the  frame,  where  the  lamp  was  fixed,  I  had  a  little 
box,  or  double  door,  by  which  I  could  light  and  feed  the  lamp  without  letting  cold  air  into 
the  frame. 

I  have  sent  you  this  account  of  my  simple  experiments,  which  will  appear  insignificant 
enough  to  many  of  your  readers,  thinking  that  some  few  of  those  to  whom  "  necessity  is 
the  mother  of  invention,"  might  find  a  useful  hint  for  their  own  practice. 

Yours  truly,  An  Original  Subscriber. 

New-York,  September,  1851. 


DESIGN   FOE  A  PUBLIC   SCHOOL. 

[  SEE  FRONTISPIECE.  ] 

In  accordance  with  our  wishes,  to  see  an  improvement  in  the  architecture  of  our  school- 
houses,  as  expressed  in  previous  numbers  of  this  Journal,  we  present  this  month  a  de- 
sign by  Mr.  Oavelkr,  an  English  architect,  which  will  be  found  to  present  some  points 
worthy  of  study,  in  the  composition  of  this  class  of  buildings. 

The  style  is  what  may  be  called  domestic  Gothic,  and  in  picturesque  effect  is  only  cal- 
culated to  harmonise  with  rural  scenery.  It  is  to  be  built  of  brick,  with  stone  dressings 
— a  very  substantial  and  excellent  mode — and  one  which,  in  many  parts  of  this  country, 
would  be  comparatively  economical. 

The  plan  of  this  school-house  embraces  a  double-school  accommodation — one  for  bo3^s, 
and  another  for  girls.  The  total  number  of  pupils  provided  for  is  four  hundred.  Each 
school-room  has  a  class-room,  a  lobby  for  cloaks  and  hats  attached  to  it,  and  a  separate 
yard  for  play  ground,  in  the  rear. 

Buildings  for  public  instruction,  if  thus  designed  in  a  style  calculated  to  awaken  ideas 
of  beauty,  fitness  and  order  in  the  minds  of  youth,  would  always  help  to  educate  the  eye 
and  the  feelings  in  architecture,  while  like  every  other  mark  of  civilization  and  refine- 
ment, they  would  insensibly  elevate  the  character  of  all  who  are  brought  in  contact  with 
them.  A  boy  may  learn  arithmetic  as  well  in  a  log  hut  as  in  the  most  admirably  propor- 
tioned building;  but  in  the  latter  he  will  also  be  much  more  likely  to  learn  something  of 
the  power  of  the  nobler  forms  of  mere  matter,  and  their  superiority  over  low  and  vulgar 
forms. 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS. 

ON  THE  LIMITED  DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF   PLANTS. 

BY  JOHN  TOWNLEY,  MOUNDVILLE,  WIS. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — Dear  Sir:  I  accede  with  pleasure  to  the  request  of  your  corres- 
pondent, Mr.  Marshall,  to  state  what  grounds  I  have  for  subscribing  to  the  theory  ad- 
vanced by  Andrew  Kkight,  respecting  the  limited  duration  of  varieties  of  plants. 

Before  I  proceed,  however,  I  wish  to  set  Mr.  Marshall  right  on  one  or  two  points;  he 
says  that  I  condemn  propagation  by  extension  in  comparison  with  seedlings;  if  what  I 
have  said  should  convey  that  meaning  to  your  readers  generally,  some  apology  is  due  from 
me  for  the  imperfect  manner  in  which  I  must  have  expressed  myself,  for  I  certainly  do  not 
condemn  propagation  by  extension;  on  the  contrary,  I  consider  that  when  once  a  valuable 
variety  of  apple,  &c.,  is  obtained  from  seed,  that  multiplying  it  by  divisions  of  the  stem 
is  a  perfectly  legitimate  mode  of  propagation,  and  one  that  should  be  practiced  so  long  as 
the  individual  variety  retains  its  health  and  vigor;  but  beyond  that  period — when  a  vari- 
ety exhibits  manifest  symptoms  of  declining  vigor,  and  has  become  diseased  and  unpro- 
ductive, through  age,  then  I  consider  it  should  no  longer  be  propagated  by  division,  nor 
should  seeds  be  saved  from  it  with  a  view  to  raise  new  varieties,  seeing  that  it  is  probable 
that  the  health  of  the  seedling  plants  would  be  influenced  to  some  extent  by  the  unhealthy 
and  degenerate  condition  of  the  parent  tree. 

I  may  further  remark  that  I  am  not  prepared  to  prove  "that  trees  and  plants  propa- 
gated by  extension,  do  produce  degenerate  fruit  from  that  very  cause,  and  that  alone."  I 
am  not  aware  of  having  said  anything  in  the  paper  referred  to,  which  will  justify  the  con- 
clusion that  I  entertain  an}'  such  notions.  In  the  matter  of  the  potato,  I  stated  what  I 
believe  to  be  the  exciting  and  chief  predisposing  causes  of  the  blight;  I  consider  the  pota- 
to to  be  in  a  condition  diiferent  from  that  of  any  other  cultivated  plant;  that  considered  in 
the  mass,  or  as  a  species,  it  is  hereditarily  diseased;  believing  this,  and  knowing  that  it 
had  been  observed  in  the  case  of  the  pear,  that  seedlings  raised  from  old,  nearly  worn  out 
varieties,  proved,  as  might  reasonably  have  been  expected,  unhealthy,  and  liable  to  disease 
also;  and  knowing,  moreover,  that  many  varieties  of  potatoes  recently  obtained  from  seed, 
were  subject  to  dry  rot,  and  as  much  injured  by  the  blight,  as  older  varieties,  I  concluded 
that  the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  the  hereditary  taint,  was  to  persevere  in  raising  a  succes- 
sion of  seedlings,  with  improved  culture,  selecting  the  strongest  and  healthiest  plants  each 
year,  to  be  the  parents  of  a  fresh  generation  of  seedlings  in  the  year  following.  If  seeds 
were  saved  from  a  healthy  variety  of  fruit  tree,  or  other  plant,  Avhen  in  the  prime  of  its 
existence,  although  the  plant  it  was  saved  from  had  been  propagated  by  extension,  I  know 
of  no  reason  why  the  progeny  should  not  be  perfectly  healthy.  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
for  believing  otherwise,  than  that  a  species  of  plant  whose  varieties  are  propagated  by  ex- 
tension, may  not  be  continued  equally  healthy  and  vigorous  forever,  providing  the  succes- 
sive generations  of  seedling  varieties  were  always  raised  from  seeds  taken  from  plants 
when  in  a  healthy  and  vigorous  condition. 

Now  for  my  "  hobby."  Perhaps  it  may  be  well  at  the  outset  to  state  briefly  the  nature 
of  the  hypothesis  we  are  about  to  consider.  It  is  this.  Vegetable  life,  like  animal  life, 
has  its  fixed  periods  of  duration.  A  seedling  apple  tree,  for  instance,  has  its  periods  of 
youth,  maturity,  and  old  age.  All  cuttings  taken  from  this  seedling  apple  tree  and  graft- 
but  the  extension  of  an  individual  plant — one  distinct  variety,  and  the  plants 
ated  possessing  the  same  constitution,  properties  and  tendencies,  and  are  not 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS 

newal  or  reproduction,  as  by  seed.  They  will  all  exhibit,  (if  we  may  so  speak,)  a  sympa 
thetic  state  of  health,  making,  of  course,  due  allowance  for  the  action  of  adventitious  cir- 
cumstances; and  although  some  plants,  if  placed  in  unusually  favorable  circumstances, 
may  out-live  tlie  parent  tree,  yet  there  will  come  a  time  "  beyond  which  the  debility  inci- 
dent to  old  age,  cannot  be  stimulated;"  all  plants  of  the  variety  will  consequently  be- 
come diseased  and  worthless. 

A  knowledge  of  this  hypothesis  is  of  importance  to  all  cultivators,  because  if  it  is  well 
founded,  it  shows  to  us  the  hopelessness  of  striving  against  nature,  by  persevering  in  the 
cultivation  of  varieties  of  plants  when  they  have  become  aged  and  unhealthy,  and  no  lon- 
ger able  to  make  an  adequate  return  for  the  labor  and  attention  bestowed  on  them.  It 
shows  also,  the  necessity  of  keeping  up  a  succession  of  varieties  from  seed,  and  that  it  is 
an  important  matter  to  consider  the  age  and  health  of  a  variety,  when  our  object  is  to  ob- 
tain from  seed,  new,  improved,  and  healthy  varieties. 

In  order  that  Mr.  Knight's  hypothesis  may  be  better  understood,  generally,  and  that 
I  may  be  better  able  to  prove  what  substantial  grounds  it  rests  upon,  I  have  thought  it 
advisable  to  direct  attention  to  the  most  recent  and  elaborate  attack  on  it — viz :  two  arti- 
cles of  Prof.  LiNDLEY,  in  the  Gardeners'  Chronicle  of  December  13  and  20,  1845;  for  the 
value  of  a  theory  is  made  manifest  not  only  by  the  accuracy  of  the  facts  on  which  it  is 
based,  or  the  soundness  of  the  reasoning  by  which  it  is  supported,  but  by  the  fallacy  of 
the  arguments  by  which  it  is  assailed,  more  especially  if  the  assailant  is  a  man  of  acknow- 
ledged ability,  and  acquainted  with  the  subjects  on  which  he  writes. 

The  opinion  of  systematic  botanists  generally,  on  horticultural  matters, — I  mean  men 
whose  lives  have  been  chiefly  devoted  to  the  classification  and  description  of  plants,  does 
not  seem,  so  far  as  my  experience  extends,  to  be  entitled  to  any  very  great  weight. 
LiNDLEY,  however,  is  an  exception — the  son  and  brother  of  a  nurseryman,  Vice-Secretary 
of  the  Horticultural  Society  of  London,  and  Editor  of  the  Gardeners'  Chronicle,  he  has 
enjoyed  opportunities  of  obtaining  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  details  of  practice, 
and  the  history  of  cultivated  plants,  than  any  other  man  now  living  who  possesses  any- 
thing like  the  same  amount  of  theoretical  knowledge;  and  when,  with  these  advantages, 
we  consider  that  he  wields  the  pen  of  a  ready  and  plausible  writer,  it  may  be  presumed 
that  if  any  man  were  capable,  by  means  of  facts  at  present  known,  of  proving  that  Mr. 
Kkight's  views  on  this  point  are  erroneous,  Lindley  would  assuredly  be  that  man. 

Possibly  there  may  be  readers  of  the  Horticulturist  not  much  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Knight's  labors,  aud  who  may  not,  therefore,  be  able  to  appreciate  the  deference  which 
is  due  to  him  as  a  patient,  ingenious,  and  truth  seeking  inquirer.  No  one  can  better  testi- 
fy to  his  great  merits  than  Dr.  Lindley.  In  a  memoir  of  Mr.  Knight,  published  in  the 
Atheneum,  Dr.  Lindley,  when  alluding  to  his  celebrated  paper  on  the  inheritance  of  dis- 
ease in  fruit  trees,  and  other  communications  laid  before  the  Royal  Society,  said,  "  in  all 
these  researches  the  originality  of  the  experiments  was  very  remarkable,  and  the  care 
with  which  the  results  were  given,  was  so  great,  that  the  most  captious  of  subsequent 
writers  have  admitted  the  accuracy  of  the  facts  produced  by  Mr.  Knight,  however  much 
they  may  have  differed  from  him  in  the  conclusions  which  they  drew  from  tliem.  No  man 
living,  now  before  the  world,  can  be  said  to  rank  with  him  in  that  particular  branch  of 
science  to  which  his  life  was  devoted." 

One  of  the  first  subjects  to  which  Mr.  Knight's  attention  was  directed,  was  the  un- 
healthy condition  of  several  old  and  famous  varieties  of  the  apple  and  pear;  he  was  told 
ghboring  nurserymen  that  they  could  no  longer  raise  healthy  and  profitable  trees 
them ;  that  they  were,  in  fact,  worn  out.     Mr.  Knight  was  persuaded  that  this  was 

No.  X. 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS. 

a  vulgar  error,  and  he  commenced  a  series  of  experiments  with  the  express  view  of  prov 
ing  it  to  be  so.  Instead,  however,  of  holding  an  imaginary  conversation  with  the  old 
trees,  after  the  fashion  of  your  correspondent,  Mr.  Marshall,  he  allowed  them  to 
speak  for  themselves;  he  questioned  and  cross-questioned  them,  with  an  ingenuity  and  per- 
severance as  trees  were  never  questioned  before,  in  the  vain  hope  to  shake  their  testimony 
and  non-suit  the  nurserymen;  but  they  told  him  plainly,  repeatedly,  and  decisively,  in  a 
language  not  to  be  misunderstood,  that  their  doom  was  sealed;  that  the  vigor  of  youth, 
and  the  productiveness  of  mature  age,  had  passed  away;  that  they  were  no  longer  able  to 
sustain  their  former  labors,  and  nothing  but  increasing  infirmities  remained  for  them. 

An  account  of  his  experiments  in  this  matter,  was  the  subject  of  his  first  communica- 
tion to  the  Royal  Society,  in  1795,  and  in  a  communication  to  the  Horticultural  Society, 
in  1824,  when  his  views  had  been  subjected  to  much  criticism  and  no  small  amount  of  ri- 
dicule, he  stated  that,  "  every  experiment  which  seemed  to  afibrd  the  slightest  prospect 
of  success,  was  tried  by  himself  and  others,  to  propagate  the  old  varieties  of  apple  and 
pear,  which  formerly  constituted  the  orchards  of  Herefordshire,  without  a  single  healthy 
or  efficient  tree  having  been  obtained;"  and  what  Andrew  Knight,  and  other  practical 
men,  found  by  repeated  experiments  to  be  impracticable,  no  man,  that  I  am  aware  of,  has 
yet  proved  by  experiments  in  the  climate  of  England,  to  be  feasible;  and  that,  I  appre- 
hend, is  an  important  fact  which  should  not  be  altogether  lost  sight  of  in  this  inquiry. 

"Of  the  apples  mentioned  and  described  by  Parkinson,"  Mr.  Knight  says,  "the 
names  onlj^  remain;  but  many  of  Evelyn's  are  still  well  known,  particularly  the  Red- 
streak;  we  had  many  trees  of  it,  but  they  appear  to  have  been  in  a  state  of  decay  during  the 
last  forty  years;  others  mentioned  by  him  are  in  a  much  better  state  of  vegetation,  but  they 
have  all  ceased  to  deserve  the  attention  of  the  planter."  Dr.  Lindlet  does  not  attempt 
to  deny  these  facts,  but  offers  what  we  may  presume  he  considers  to  be  a  more  satisfacto- 
ry explanation.  Besides  the  main  point  at  issue,  three  foolish  propositions  are  gravely 
examined  in  these  anticles,  and  as  a  matter  of  course,  are  very  cleverly  proved  to  be  unte- 
nable. They  are  these:  1.  It  is  alleged  that  seeds  renew  the  languid  vigor  of  a  species  as 
often  as  they  are  sown,  and  that  if  an  unhealthy  plant  is  multiplied  by  seeds,  the  immedi- 
ate offspring  becomes  healthy.  2.  It  is  also  said  that  multiplication  by  seed  is  the  only 
natural  mode  of  propagation  known  among  plants.  3.  Seeds  are  said  hi  all  instances  to 
produce  healthy  plants,  but  this,  as  Lindlet  truly  observes,  "  like  the  previous  asser- 
tions, will  not  bear  exact  investigation."  As,  besides  Mr.  Knight,  no  other  writer  is  re- 
ferred to  but  myself,  in  these  articles,  I  may,  in  case  any  readers  of  the  Horticulturist 
should  have  access  to  the  Gardeners'  Chronicle,  be  allowed  in  self-defence  to  say,  that 
these  propositions  did  not  emanate  from  me. 

Dr.  Lindlet,  in  attempting  to  disprove  the  soundness  of  Mr.  Knight's  views,  goes  at 
once  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  by  boldly  denying  that  vegetable,  like  animal  life,  has  its 
fixed  periods  of  duration:  he  says,  "  trees,  and  other  wild  perennial  plants,  have  never 
yet  been  shown  by  any  trustworthy  evidence  to  be  subject  to  decripitude  arising  from  old 
age.  On  the  contrar}',  every  new  animal  growth  is  a  renewal  of  their  vitality.  In  the 
absence  of  disturbing  causes  from  without,  there  is  no  intelligible  reason  why  a  forest  tree 
should  not  continue  to  grow  to  eternity."  If  there  be,  indeed,  no  trustworthy  evidence 
on  record  showing  that  trees  become  decrepid  through  age,  the  only  conclusion  that  I 
should  feel  justified  in  arriving  at,  would  be,  that  trustworthy  authors  must  have  consi- 
dered it  would  be  idle  and  superfluous  to  insist  upon  a  fact  which  would  seem  to  be  so 
dent  to  every  one  who  had  ever  enjoyed  a  woodland  ramble.  And  as  to  ever}^  an- 
growth  being  a  renewal  of  the  vitality  of  trees,  it  is  an  annual  transition  trom  pas 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS. 

sive  to  active  vitality,  but  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  a  renewal  of  vitality,  any  more  than  the 
awakening  of  a  dor-mouse,  or  other  hybernating  animal,  can  be  said  to  be  a  renewal  of 
its  vitality.  It  is  the  same  vitality  throughout  life,  only  differing  in  power  as  the  measure 
of  life  progresses,  and  maintaining  its  ascendency  for  a  longer  or  shorted  period,  according 
to  the  original  vigor  of  the  constitution,  and  to  the  favorable  or  adverse  circumstances  to 
which  individuals  may  have  been  exposed.  The  periods  of  youth,  maturity,  and  old  age, 
are,  indeed,  sufficiently  well  marked  in  fruit  and  forest  trees,  and  the  changes  induced  by 
age  have  been  observed  and  described  by  Knight,  Loudon,  and  other  writers,  and  ma}'' 
be  briefly  summed  up.  We  find  a  tree  in  its  youth  grows  with  rapidity,  exulting  as  it 
were,  in  its  vigor  and  health;  as  it  reaches  maturity  the  exuberance  of  its  growth  is  check- 
ed, and  its  energies  are  chiefly  directed  to  the  production  of  fruit  or  seed;  as  old  age  ad- 
vances, the  foliage  is  first  seen  to  become  meagre,  blossoms  are  more  seldom  followed  by 
fruit;  the  production  of  a  moderate  crop  of  fruit  is  followed  by  great  exhaustion,  from 
which  the  tree  slowlj-  recovers;  the  young  shoots  become  more  feeble  and  shorter;  next, 
the  extremities  of  the  branches  begin  todeca}"^;  the  fruit  is  now  irregularly  ripened,  and  of 
inferior  quality;  mosses,  lichens  and  canker  seize  upon  the  wood;  parasites  infest  the 
leaves;  insects  lend  a  helping  hand  in  the  work  of  destruction;  birds  hasten  the  work  by 
searching  and  digging  for  the  insects;  water  and  air  are  thus  introduced;  thus  all  these 
various  causes  combine  to  reduce  the  aged  tree  to  its  kindred  dust.  All  this  may  be  ad- 
mitted as  true,  yet  it  is  contended  that  the  decay  and  death  of  a  tree  are  not  a  consequence 
of  age,  or  diminution  of  vital  power,  but  arise  from  external,  not  intrinsic  causes.  "  The 
soil,"  LiNDLEY  says,  *'  becomes  exhausted,  the  roots  wander  into  uncongenial  soil,  food 
is  withheld,  and  the  elements  conspire  against  the  doomed  tree."  Now,  there  are  many 
trees  and  shrubs  which  propagate  themselves  considerably  by  means  of  suckers.  "  The 
Aspen,"  Mr.  Knight  observes,*  "is  seldom  seen  without  a  thousand  suckers  arising 
from  its  roots ;  yet  this  tree  is  thinly,  though  universally,  scattered  over  the  woodlands 
of  England."  I  can  speak  from  experience,  he  adds,  "  that  the  luxuriance  and  excessive 
disposition  to  extend  itself,  in  another  plant,  (the  raspberry,)  decline  in  twenty  years  from 
the  seed."  If  the  diminution  of  vigor  which  precedes  decay  was  owing  to  external,  and 
not  to  intrinsic  causes,  mainly,  then  the  raspberry  should  go  on  and  on,  extending  its  cir- 
cle each  year,  like  the  fungi  of  a  fairy  ring,  never  resting  while  there  was  any  fresh  soil 
to  occupy,  and  the  last  plants  should  be  as  vigorous  as  the  first;  for  surely  it  cannot  be 
said  that  the  diminution  of  the  vigor  of  a  plant  which  extends  itself  in  this  manner,  can 
be  owing  to  the  external  causes  above  mentioned. 

In  the  same  soil  a  gooseberry  bush  ma)'  live  fifty  years,  an  apple  tree  two  hundred,  a 
pear  four  hundred,  and  an  oak  one  thousand.  If  external  influences  alone  determine  the 
existence  of  a  tree,  why  this  difference.'  Why  does  not  the  hardy  gooseberr)',  growing 
under  the  same  circumstances,  live  as  long  as  the  oak.'  It  is  because  the  influence  which 
chiefly  determines  the  existence  of  different  species,  is  inherent,  and  not  dependent  solely 
upon  external  circumstances.  And  if  it  is  the  inherent  vitality  or  constitutional  power, 
which  limits  the  duration  of  an  individual  tree,  then,  obviously,  all  cuttings  taken  from 
that  tree  inherit  the  same  constitutional  power  and  tendencies;  and  the  healthy  existence 
of  the  plants  raised  from  the  cuttings,  must  be  nearly  co-equal  with  that  of  the  original 
tree,  providing  it  died  from  the  infirmities  of  age.  The  truth  is,  the  same  law  prevails  in 
the  vegetable  as  in  the  animal  kingdom.  For  wise  purposes,  difierent  periods  of  existence 
are  assigned  to  different  species  of  plants,  as  well  as  to  difierent  species  of  animals;  but  it 
is  obviously  a  law  of  nature,  that  none  shall  live  forever.  Some  species  of  animals  run 
*  Knight's  Phys.  and  Horl.  Papers,  p.  84. 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS. 

their  course  in  a  few  hours  or  days,  the  life  of  others  extends  beyond  a  century,  but  the 
end  of  all  is  death.  So  of  plants:  some  spring  into  existence,  fructify  and  die  within  a 
week ;  the  life  of  others  is  limited  to  five  or  six  months ;  and  so  the  period  of  existence  gra- 
dually extends  until  we  come  to  the  monarchs  of  the  forest,  which  may  boast  of  a  life  of 
one  thousand  years  and  upwards.  But  because  they  have  lived  so  long,  are  we  then  to 
conclude  that  there  is  no  limit  to  their  existence,  that  they  form  an  exception  to  all  other 
organic  beings,  and  that  they  can  never  sulBfer  decay  through  the  infirmities  of  age? 
Most  assuredly  not.  A  more  unwise  or  inconsistent  supposition  never  entered  into  the 
mind  of  man .  The  lordly  oak  labors  under  the  same  irrevocable  decree  as  the  humble 
weed, — dust  they  are,  and  unto  dust  they  must  return. 

As  a  set  off  to  Knight's  experiments  on  the  apple  and  pear,  some  instances  are  cited 
by  Dr.  Lindlet,  of  cultivated  plants  having  been  propagated  by  division  a  considerable 
time,  without  wearing  out.  The  white  buttery  pears  of  France  are  said  to  have  been  pro- 
pagated by  division,  from  time  immemorial,  and  exhibit  no  trace  of  debility.  I  am  not 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  white  buttery  pears  of  France,  and  cannot,  therefore, 
say  what  value  is  due  to  this  statement.  I  may  observe,  however,  that  it  is  anything  but 
satisfactory  or  conclusive  evidence.  French  writers  might  with  equal  truth  say  that  white 
heart  cherries,  or  pink-eyed  potatoes,  had  been  cultivated  in  England  from  time  immemo- 
rial. There  are,  and  have  been,  however,  many  varieties  of  these  plants  known  by  these 
names;  and  as  the  duration  of  the  pear  is  supposed  to  be  somewhere  about  four  hundred 
years,  possibly  this  period,  even  supposing  one  variety  only  has  been  known  to  French 
writers  under  that  name,  is  amply  sufficient  to  constitute  a  "  time  immemorial."  My  de- 
sire, however,  is  to  arrive  at  the  truth,  and  if  your  knowledge  of  fruits,  Mr.  Editor,  will 
enable  you  to  confirm  the  accuracy  of  Lindley  's  statement,  let  him  have  the  benefit  of  your 
knowledge. 

Dr.  Lindley  further  remarks,  that  "  some  vines  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  in 
existence,  in  the  days  of  Columella,  have  been  transmitted  by  division  to  the  present 
day."  The  fact  that  varieties  of  the  vine  had  been  propagated  by  cuttings  a  considerable 
time,  was  the  chief  reason  advanced  many  years  ago  by  Loudon,  to  prove  that  Mr. 
Knight's  views  were  erroneous,  and  when  I  considered  the  spirit  in  which  the  objections 
seemed  to  have  been  penned,  and  the  extent  of  Loudon's  knowledge  of  garden  history,  it 
tended  in  no  small  degree,  to  convince  me  that  truth  was  on  the  side  of  Mr.  Knight;  for 
even  supposing  the  conjecture  is  true,  that  some  vines  of  the  present  day  are  the  same  va- 
rieties mentioned  by  Columella,  surely  an  impartial  inquirer  after  truth,  must  be  ready 
to  confess  that  this  seemingly  formidable  objection  is,  in  reality,  no  objection  whatever, 
seeing  that  the  vine  is  one  of  the  longest  lived  plants  known;  nay,  so  long  will  individual 
plants  of  the  vine  live,  that  Loudon  says,  "  the  age  which  the  vine  will  attain  in  warm 
climates,  is  so  great  as  not  to  be  known;  it  is  supposed  to  equal  or  surpass  the  oak."  If 
this  be  so,  then  there  is  obviously  nothing  improbable  in  the  supposition  that  a  plant  of 
the  vine  living  in  the  days  of  Columella  might,  if  not  destroyed  by  violence  be  living 
now;  it  is,  therefore,  perfectly  consistent  with  Mr.  Knight's  hypothesis,  that  varieties  of 
the  vine  mentioned  by  Columella,  may  have  been  continued  by  division  to  the  present 
day.  And  yet  because  varieties  of  this  long  lived  plant  have  been  propagated  by  cuttings 
during  centuries,  we  are  required  to  believe  that  varieties  of  the  potato,  and  other  short- 
lived plants,  propagated  in  like  manner,  do  not  wear  out  and  become  feeble  in  consequence 
of  age,  but  that  with  due  care,  they  may  be  made  to  live  forever!*      John  Townley. 

*  To  be  coHiitinued. 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


A   NEW  VARIETY    OF   PORTULACCA. 

BY  PROF.  CHARLES  O.  PAGE,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C, 

Deae  Sir — The  varieties  now  cultivated  of  the  Portulacca  splendens,  are  four  in  num- 
ber, viz :  the  crimson,  the  scarlet,  the  tohite,  and  the  yellow.  The  white  is  subject  to  the 
freak,  not  uncommon  in  florist's  flowers,  of  bearing  difierent  colored  flowers  upon  the  same 
stalk.  Sometimes  every  flower  will  be  a  pure  white,  and  occasionally  two  petals  crimson, 
and  two  white;  occasionally  a  dash  of  crimson  in  one  or  more  petals,  and  so  on.  I  have 
even  seen  a  pure  crimson  flower,  on  the  white  variety.  But  the  yellow  has,  for  the  three 
seasons  I  have  raised  it,  been  pertinaciously  yellow,  although  I  have  made  many  attempts 
to  cross  it  with  the  crimson  and  scarlet.  I  have  at  last  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  new  and 
exceedingly  beautiful  variety  between  the  crimson  and  yellow,  and  what  is  quite  interest- 
ing, it  has  occasionally  a  pure  crimson  flower  upon  the  same  stalk.  It  has  not  yet  borne 
a  pure  yellow,  though  by  analogy  it  should.  Thus  far,  the  mixed  flowers  have  the  yel- 
low and  crimson  nearly  equally  distributed,  the  crimson  generally  predominating  a  little. 
Two  petals  are  generally  crimson,  and  two  yellow,  slightly  spotted  or  dashed  with  crim- 
son.    The  difierent  colored  petals  are  sometimes  opposite  and  sometimes  in  pairs. 

C.  G.  P. 

Washington,  Sept.  1,  1851. 


/nrrigu  nnt  Mmllmmm  jMlm, 


Influence  of  Gypsum  on  Vegetation. 
By  M.  0.  Mene. — Ever  since  Franklin's 
great  experiment,  gypsum  or  sulphate  of 
lime  has  generally  been  considered  as  pos- 
sessing much  fertilising  power,  and  of  being 
of  great  importance  in  agriculture.  Having 
paid  some  attention  to  this  substance,  I 
make  known  my  results,  in  the  hope  that 
they  may  be  found  of  value  to  the  public. 

1.  I  tilled  two  zinc  boxes  with  pure  sul- 
phate of  lime  obtained  from  the  double  de- 
composition of  sulphate  of  soda  and  chloride 
of  calcium;  in  one  of  these  boxes  I  sowed 
some  grass  seeds,  in  the  other  some  wheat. 
The  two  boxes  were  then  placed  under  glass 
shades,  in  order  that  all  external  influences 
might  be  avoided;  the  seeds  were  watered 
every  other  day.  At  the  end  of  a  few  weeks 
plants  had  come  up  green  and  healthy,  as  in 
common  soil;  but  as  they  developed,  their 
fine  appearance  diminished,  and  at  the  end 
of  a  fortnight  they  looked  dried  and  with- 
ered. 

2.  In  boxes  similar  to  the  first,  I  placed 
a  mixture  of  equal  quantities  of  pure  sul- 
phate of  lime,  obtained  as  before,  and  clay, 
and  sowed  the  same  seeds  as  in  the  last  ex- 
periment; the  plants  came  up,  but  not  near- 
ly so  well  as  in  an  unartificial  soil,  and  they 

not  ripen. 
In  boxes,  and  under  circumstances  the 


same  as  before,  I  sowed  the  same  seeds  on 
dung  covered  over  with  a  layer  of  sulphate 
of  lime  three-tenths  of  an  inch  deep.  At 
the  end  of  a  fortnight  the  plants  had  come 
up  and  giown  wonderfully;  they  ripened 
well  and  were  magnificent  specimens. 

These  facts,  though  of  considerable  prac- 
tical importance,  would  not  have  shown  in 
what  way  sulphate  of  lime  really  acts,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  following  accident : 

Happening  to  have  a  glass  of  muriatic 
acid  in  my  hand  one  day,  when  looking  at 
box  No.  3,  I  accidentally  spilled  some  of  the 
acid  on  one  of  the  boxes,  and  to  my  great 
surprise  the  lime  effervesced,  and  on  further 
examination  I  was  satisfied  that  the  sulphate 
had  become  changed  into  carbonate  of  lime. 
I  concluded  from  this  fact  that  the  carbonate 
of  ammonia,  given  off"  by  the  decomposition 
of  the  dung,  being  volatalised  by  the  heat 
of  the  sun,  came  in  contact  with  the  sul- 
phate of  lime,  Avhen  double  decomposition 
ensued. 

To  ascertain  how  far  this  was  true,  I  got 
some  zinc  pots,  Avith  bottoms  pierced  like  a 
sieve;  in  the  pots  I  placed  some  dung,  then 
some  sulphate  of  lime,  and  then  I  sowed 
some  grass  seeds. 

When   the   plants  had   appeared  and  be 
come  tolerably  developed,   1  watered 
abundantly  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour, 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


the  liquid  which  flowed  from  the  bottom  of 
the  pots  I  found  sulphate  of  ammonia,  whilst 
on  the  surfiice  of  the  pots  there  was  evident- 
ly carbonate  of  lime.  This  confirmed  the 
view  I  had  adopted. 

I  then  made  other  experiments,  which  do 
not,  however,  bear  upon  the  last  mentioned 
facts.  For  example,  I.  Avatered  grass  seeds 
sown  in  manure,  in  pots  with  pierced  bot- 
toms, with  water  containing  one  of  the  fol- 
lowing substances,  viz:  sulphuric  acid,  mu- 
riatic acid,  nitric  acid,  acetic  acid,  sulphate 
of  iron,  sulphate  of  potash,  chloride  of  man- 
ganese, phosphate  of  soda,  sulphate  of  mag- 
nesia, nitrate  of  soda. 

With  all  these  substances  the  grass  grew 
well,  and  from  the  bottoms  of  the  pots  I 
obtained  salts  of  ammonia,  which  are  not 
volatile  at  the  ordinary  temperature.  From 
all  these  facts  I  think  we  may  conclude — 

1.  That  gypsum  has  by  itself  no  fertilis- 
ing power,  and  is  alone  useless  as  a  manure. 

2.  That  gypsum  only  is  useful  in  agricul- 
ture when  mixed  with  substances  contain- 
ing ammonia;  in  which  case  there  is  a  dou- 
ble decomposition,  and  the  ammonia  is  stor- 
ed up  for  the  use  of  the  plants. 

3.  That  for  gypsum  may  be  substituted 
any  other  salt  which  will  fix  ammonia,  and 
render  it  not  volatile  at  the  ordinary  tempe- 
rature. 

It  is  my  intention  next  year  to  repeat  these 
experiments  on  a  large  scale,  in  order  to  as- 
certain their  real  practical  value. —  Comptes 

Hendus.  

Method  of  Presesving  young  Fruit 
Trees  from  tub  attacks  of  Hares  and 
Rabbits. — All  lovers  of  gardens  know  by 
experience  that  hares  and  rabbits  devour 
with  great  avidity  the  annual  bark  of  young 
fruit  trees,  and  particularly  of  dwarf  ap- 
ple trees,  among  which  the  most  healthy 
and  vigorous  are  always  destro3'ed  the  first, 
in  consequence  of  their  bark  being  the  most 
tender  and  savoury.  As  soon  as  the  ground 
is  covered  with  snow, these  animals,  no  long- 
er finding  anytliing  in  the  fields  on  which 
the}'^  can  browse,  begin  their  devastations  in 
the  gardens :  if  they  are  numerous,  and  the 
fall  of  snow  heav}^  a  few  nights  only  are 
sufficient  for  them  completely  to  ruin  the 
most  beautiful  plantation,  and  to  annihilate 
the  result  of  many  5'^ears  of  labor  and  care. 
Happily,  nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  place 
these  trees  be^^ond  the  attacks  of  these 
marauders  protected  by  the  law.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  ])lan  I  have  adopted  withcom- 
leto  success  during  the  last  six  or  seven 
I  mix  about  4^  pounds  of  quick-lime, 
ps,  with  21  gallons  of  water,  and  add 


a  few  handfuls  of  soot,  stirring  the  liquid 
until  the  two  substances  are  intimately 
incorporated.  I  then  take  a  handful  of 
Rye-straw  and  bind  it  on  a  stick  to  form 
a  kind  of  brush,  with  which  I  grey- 
wash  the  trunk  and  branches  of  my  trees 
fi'om  the  ground  to  at  least  a  yai-d  above  it; 
for  should  the  snow  drift  by  the  wind  against 
the  foot  of  the  trees,  the  hares,  by  means 
of  the  inclined  plane  thus  afforded  tlicm, 
would  be  able  to  attack  the  trees  at  a  much 
greater  height.  The  wash,  applied  hot,  lias 
also  the  advantage  of  preserving  the  bark 
of  the  trees  in  a  state  of  perfect  health,  and 
preventing  the  increase  of  mo.-.s,  which  is 
often  pernicious  in  its  eil'ccl,  and  always 
very  disagreeable  to  the  eye.  It  is  desirable 
that  this  preservative  application  should  be 
made  in  dry  weather,  in  order  that  tlie 
mixture  on  drying  may  adhere  to  the  b;»rk; 
for  should  it  rain  at  the  time,  or  immediate- 
ly afterwards,  the  mixture  would  be  wash- 
ed from  the  trees,  and  it  would  be  nece.ssiiry 
to  re-commence  the  operation.  If  the  mix- 
ture also  is  applied  during  a  frost,  there 
would  be  little  chance  of  jierfect  success; 
as  the  oart  of  the  bark  on  which  it  would 
be  laid  would  be  thawed.  If,  however, 
through  want  of  Ibresiglit,  a  fi'ost  sets  in 
during  the  course  of  the  operation,  and  it 
becomes  urgent  to  complete  it,  we  may  do 
so  with  perfect  success  by  choosing  tiiat 
moment  of  the  day  in  which  the  sun  strikes 
most  strongly  with  his  rays  the  trees  on 
which  we  wish  to  operate.  Three  gallons 
of  this  wash  are  sufficient  to  secure  two  or 
three  hundred  dwarf  trees  from  the  ravages 
of  hares:  a  result  that  may  be  obtained  for 
a  pennyworth  of  lime  and  the  day's  work 
of  an  active  laborer.  This  plan  is  equnlly 
infallible  for  the  preservation  of  grafts  and 
all  nursery  collections.  I^rom  th:i  /'''r.^nch 
of  thi  Baron  Vundsr-StrosLn  (i;i  th^  Jour- 
nal jlgricoh  di  Virvhrs.') 


The  Glycine  Sinensis — where  it  is  found  luild. 
— Before  the  last  war  with  China,  foreignei's 
were  confined  to  narrow  limits  about  Canton 
and  j\Iacao,  where  they  had  no  means  of 
knowing  anything  of  the  more  hardy  plants 
of  the  north,  which  they  sometimes  met 
with  in  gardens,  and  introduced  to  Europe. 
Now,  however,  we  can  prosecute  our  botan- 
ical reseaches  in  a  country  whic;h  is  nearly  a 
thousand  miles  further  to  tlie  north-east, 
and  at  many  other  places  which  lie  along 
that  line  of  coast.  'J'he  isl.tnd  of  Koo- 
lung-su,  for  example,  near  Amoy,  was  t:ik 
by  our  troops  dui'ing  the  war,  ajid  occu 
by  them  for  some  years,  according  to  t 


until  a  portion  of  the  ransom  money  was 
paid.  It  seemed  to  have  been  a  place  of  re- 
sidence to  manj^  of  the  mandarins  and  prin- 
cipal merchants  in  peaceful  times,  and  boast- 
ed of  its  gardens  and  pretty  tisa  ponds. 
When  I  first  saw  these  gardens  they  were 
mostly  in  a  ruinous  condition,  and  every- 
where exhibited  the  fatal  effects  of  war. 
Many  beautiful  plants,  however,  still  conti- 
nued to  grow  and  scramble  over  the  Avails. 
Captain  Hall,  of  the  Madras  army,  who  was 
stationed  there  for  some  time,  was  very  fond 
of  botany,  and  took  great  plea.sure  in  point- 
ing out  to  me  all  the  plants  which  he  met 
with  in  his  rambles.  "  I  have  good  news 
for  3'ou,"  said  he,  one  morning  when  I  met 
him;  "  come  with  me  and  I  shall  show  you 
the  most  beautiful  plant  on  the  island,  which 
I  have  just  discovered.  It  is  a  creeper,  it 
produces  fine  long  racemes  of  lilac  flowers 
before  it  puts  forth  its  leaves,  and  it  is  de- 
liciousl}'  fragrant."  What  could  it  be?  was 
it  new.''  would  it  produce  perfect  seeds?  or 
could  young  plants  be  procured  to  send 
home?  were  questions  which  rapidly  sug- 
gested themselves.  It  is  only  the  enthusi- 
astical  botanical  collector  who  can  form  an 
idea  of  the  amount  of  excitement  and  plea- 
sure there  is  when  one  fancies  he  is  on  the 
eve  of  finding  a  new  and  beautiful  flower. 
Captain  Hall  led  the  way,  and  we  soon 
reached  the  spot  where  the  plant  grew. 
There  had  been  no  exaggeration  in  his  de- 
scription; there  it  was,  covering  an  old  wall, 
and  scrambling  up  the  branches  of  the  ad- 
joining trees;  it  bore  long  racemes  of  Pea- 
shaped  flowers,  and  scented  the  surrounding 
air  with  its  odors.  Need  I  say  it  was  the 
beautiful  Glycine.  But  it  was  not  found  in 
a  wild  state  even  at  Amoy,  and  had  evident- 
ly been  brought  from  more  northern  lati- 
tudes. 

When  I  reached  Chusan,  in  latitude  30" 
north,  I  found  a  remarkable  change  in  the 
appearance  of  the  vegetation.  Tropical  forms 
had  entirely  disappeared,  or  were  rarely  met 
with.  Although  the  summers  were  as  warm, 
or  even  warmer,  than  they  were  in  the  south, 
3^et  the  winters  were  nearly  as  cold  as  those 
we  have  in  England.  On  this  ground,  and 
all  over  the  provinces  of  Chekiang  and 
Kiangnan,  the  Glycine  seemed  to  be  at  home. 
It  grew  wild  on  every  hill-side,  scrambling 
about  in  the  hedges  by  the  footpaths,  and 
hanging  over  and  dipping  its  leaves  and 
flowers  into  the  canals  and  mountain  streams. 

But  by  far  the  most  beautiful  effect  is  pro- 
duced when  it  attaches  itself  to  the  stems 
and  branches  of  other  trees.     This  is  not 


unfrequent  in  nature,  and  is  often  copied  by 
the  Chinese  and  introduced  into  their  gar- 
dens. 

You  can  scarcely  imagine  anything  more 
gorgeous  or  beautiful  than  a  large  plant  of 
tliis  kind  in  full  bloom.  Its  main  and  larger 
bi'anches  are  entwined  round  every  branch 
and  branchlet  of  the  tree;  and  from  them 
hundreds  of  small  ones  hang  down  until 
they  nearly  touch  the  ground.  The  whole 
of  the  branches  are  covered  with  flower-  buds, 
which  a  day  or  two  of  warm  weather  brings 
rapidly  forward  into  bloom.  To  form  an 
idea  of  the  effect  produced  by  these  thou- 
sands of  long  lilac  racemes,  you  nmst 
imagine,  if  you  can,  a  floral  cascade,  or  a 
Weeping  Willow  covered  Avith  the  flowers 
of  the  Glycine.  There  are  some  large  spe- 
cimens of  this  kind  on  the  island  of  Chusan. 
One,  in  particular,  was  most  striking.  Not 
content  with  inonopolising  one  tree,  it  had 
scrambled  ovei'  a  Avhole  clump,  and  formed 
a  pretty  arbor  underneath.  \Vhen  I  saw  it 
last,  it  was  in  full  flow  er,  and  had  a  most 
charming  appearance. 

The  Chinese  are  fond  of  groM'ing  the  Gly- 
cine on  trellis-work,  and  forming  long  cover- 
ed walks  in  the  garden,  or  arbors  and  por- 
ticos in  front  of  their  doors.  In  a  former 
letter  I  noticed  a  large  specimen  of  this  de- 
scription in  the  garden  of  the  British  con- 
sulate at  Shanghae.  There  is  another  re- 
markable one  in  the  garden  of  a  mandarin 
atNingpo;  growing  in  company  Avith  it  is 
the  fine  new  variety  introduced  lately  by 
the  Horticultural  Society  of  London,  and 
published  in  the  Journal  of  the  Society.  In 
foliage  and  general  habit  the  two  kinds  are 
nearly  alike,  but  the  new  one  bears  long 
racemes  of  pure  Avhite  floAvers.  The  kind 
old  gentleman  to  whom  the  garden  belonged 
(he  is  dead  now)  allowed  me  to  make  layers 
of  this  plant  on  the  top  of  his  house,  and 
during  the  summer  months,  when  I  Avas 
travelling  in  other  districts,  attended  to 
them  and  watered  them  Avith  his  own  hands. 
When  I  saAV  him  about  a  year  ago  he  told 
me  he  was  then  nearly  80  years  old.  One 
of  the  gentlemen  Avho  accompanied  me  (Dr. 
Kirk,  of  Shanghae,)  being  introduced  to 
him  as  a  medical  man,  was  asked  if  he  could 
live  for  one  year  m.ore.  The  old  man  said 
he  kncAV  he  must  die  soon,  but  he  was  most 
anxious  to  live  for  another  year.  His  pre- 
sentiment was  but  too  correct,  for  the  next 
time  I  visited  Ningpo,  about  six  months  af- 
ter, I  found  the  door  of  the  mansion  bricked 
up,  and  the  garden  neglected  and  overrun 
with  weeds. —  Gardeners^  Chronicle 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Snmrstir  jfntirBs. 


Pears  Rttnning  Out. — Any  person  con- 
versant with  fruit,  who  will  take  the  trou- 
ble to  walk  through  the  markets  of  Phila- 
delphia— where  more  Seckel  Pears  are  to  be 
seen  than  any  where  else  in  the  world,  can- 
not but  be  struck  with  the  very  small  size 
of  these  pears.  If  he  has  besides,  been  in 
the  habit,  as  we  have  been,  of  seeing  the 
Philadelphia  markets  at  this  season,  for 
some  years  past,  he  will  make  the  compari- 
son between  the  Seckel  Pears  of  Philadel- 
phia now,  and  those  of  ten  or  fifteen  years 
ago.  Then,  the  Seckel  Pears  might  be  seen 
by  the  waggon  load,  large,  fair,  ruddy  and 
handsome,  as  well  as  delicious.  If  j'ou  men- 
tion this  present  degeneracy  to  a  Philadel- 
phian,  he  will  shrug  his  shoulders,  and  say, 
"  yes,  the  Seckel  Pear  is  no  longer  what  it 
once  was;  I  am  afraid  it  is  running  out." 

And  yet,  if  you  goto  Boston — which  is 
far  from  being  so  favorable  a  climate  for 
fruit  culture,  as  that  of  Philadelphia,  you 
will  see  Seckel  Pears  so  large  and  fine  that 
you  almost  doubt  their  being  the  same  fruit. 
If  you  are  curious  to  investigate  the  history 
of  the  Seckel  Pear  culture  in  the  two  places, 
you  will  not  long  be  at  a  loss  how  to  account 
for  the  difference.  In  Philadelphia  they 
trust  to  nature,  and  a  soil  once  highly  fer- 
tile. But  the  Seckel  pear  trees  have  ex- 
hausted the  soil — because  it  had  only  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  pear  tree  elements,  and  lan- 
guished for  more  food.  In  Boston  they 
know  that  nature  is  a  hard  mother,  and  they 
rely  on  art — trenching  the  soil  twice  as  deep 
as  nature  makes  it,  and  supplying  an  abun- 
dance of  food  for  the  growth  of  the  tree  and 
fruit.  Hence  the  average  size  of  the  Seckel 
Pear  in  Philadelphia,  has  dwindled  down  in 
twenty  years,  from  an  inch  and  three-fourths 
in  diameter,  to  a  little  more  than  an  inch — 
while  in  Boston,  it  has  been  raised  by  high 
culture,  to  between  two  and  three  inches  in 
diameter. 


Some  soils,  however,  contain  in  them- 
selves an  almost  inexhaustible  supply  of  na- 
tural food  for  fruit  trees.  Even  long  cul- 
ture wears  out  such  soils  slowl}^ — because 
the  mineral  elements  of  fertility  gradually 
decompose,  and  form  new  soil.  TVe  have 
before  us  a  couple  of  Seckel  Pears,  of  extra- 
ordinary size  and  beauty,  sent  us  from 
Brandon,  on  the  James  Kiver,  Virginia,  one 
of  the  largest  and  oldest  estates  in  America 
— having  been  cultivated  since  the  earliest 
settlement  of  the  country.  This  estate  still 
shows  large  fields,  which,  under  the  present 
good  management — (i.  e.  the  judicious  ap- 
plication of  lime,)  yield  30 bushels  of  Avheat 
to  the  acre.  But  the  Seckel  pear  trees  here, 
without  any  special  attention,  still  bear  lar- 
ger and  finer  fruit  than  we  have  seen  in  Phi- 
ladelphia. It  is  useless,  with  such  proofs 
of  the  effects  of  soil  and  culture  upon  fruit, 
for  our  Philadelphia  friends  to  talk  about  the 
"  running  out"  of  so  modern  a  pear  as  the 
Seckel.  It  is  the  soil  which  has  run  out, 
not  the  variety.      

Guano. — Nothing  is  more  pleasant  than 
to  give  advice  which,  when  applied  to  prac- 
tice, affords  satisfactory  results.  A  year 
ago  a  friend  complained  of  the  high  cost  of 
stable  manure.  We  recommended  guano — 
which,  at  2|  cts.  per  lb.,  cannot  but  be  con- 
sidered a  cheap  manure.  "  Ah,  but,"  said 
he,  "  it  does  not  suit  either  our  climate  or 
our  soil."  When  do  you  apply  it,  we  asked 
him.  "In  the  months  of  April  or  May, 
when  planting  my  crops,  or  working  my 
garden  borders."  It  is  precisely  on  that 
account,  Ave  answered,  that  in  your  drj'  soil 
and  our  dry  climate,  j'ou  have  failed  to  get 
good  results.  Now  make  another  trial  in  the 
months  of  October  or  November.  Apply 
guano  to  garden  or  orchard  soils  that  Avant 
enriching,  at  the  rate  of  500  lbs.  per  acre 
The  soil  should  be  lightly  stirred  after 
to  bury  the  guano,  and  fix  it. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


He  followed  our  advice — not  only  in  his 
garden  and  orchard,  but  in  his  meadows. 
In  the  latter  he  sowed  it  broad-cast,  like 
plaster,  while  in  the  garden  he  spread  it  over 
the  ground  while  ridging  it  up  for  winter. 
This  season  he  had  better  growth  of  vegeta- 
bles and  grass,  and  larger  fruit,  than  for 
many  years  past,  and  he  attributes  it  very 
justly  to  the  action  of  guano  applied  in  the 
autumn — when  it  has  time  to  impart  its  fer- 
tilising properties  to  the  soil,  in  which  they 
become  completely  incorporated  before  the 
next  season's  growth  commences. 


Save  Thk  Dead  Leavks. — Very  few 
gardeners  would  be  guilty  of  so  foolish  a 
thing  as  to  waste  barn-yard  manure.  But 
they  are  almost  all  guilty  of  a  waste  not  a 
whit  less  excusable. ,  We  mean  the  waste  of 
dead  leaves  that  fall  at  this  season  of  the 
year,  from  trees  and  shrubs  of  all  kinds. 
If  every  horticulturist  would  reflect  for  a 
moment  on  the  nature  of  these  fallen  leaves 
— which  contain  not  only  the  vegetable  mat- 
ter, but  the  earthy  salts,  lime,  potash,  &c., 
needed  for  the  next  season's  growth-and  that 
too,  exactly  in  the  proportion  required  by  the 
very  tree  or  plant  from  which  they  fall — 
nay  more,  if  they  would  consider  that  it  is 
precisely  in  this  way,  by  the  decomposition 
of  these  very  falling  leaves,  that  nature  en- 
riches the  soil,  year  after  year,  in  her  great 
forests,  it  would  scarcely  be  possible  for 
such  a  reflecting  horticulturist  to  allow  these 
leaves  to  be  swept  away  by  every  wind  that 
blows,  and  finally  be  lost  altogether. 

A  wise  horticulturist  will  diligently  col- 
lect, from  week  to  week,  the  leaves  that  fall 
under  each  tree,  and  by  digging  them  under 
the  soil  about  the  roots,  where  they  will  de- 
cay and  enrich  that  soil,  provide  in  the 
cheapest  manner,  the  best  possible  food  for 
that  tree.  In  certain  vineyards  in  France, 
the  vines  are  kept  in  the  highest  condition 
by  simply  burying  at  their  roots  every  leaf 
and  branch  that  is  pruned  off"  such  vines,  or 
falls  from  them  at  the  end  of  the  sea- 
In  the  same  manner,  the  leaves  that 


fall  from  young  fruit  trees  should  be  careful 
ly  saved  and  dug-in  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  soil.  A  single  year's  experience  of  its 
good  results  will  confirm  our  readers  in  this 
practice.  

Some  Autumn  Hixts. — Dear  Sir :  I  send 
you  a  few  hints  for  the  management  of  the 
garden  in  autumn,  which  may  perhaps  be 
useful  to  your  readers. 

1.  Carnations. — A  frame  of  boards — 
an  old  hot-bed  frame  covered  with  glass  and 
a  few  boards,  is  all  that  is  needful  to  keep 
Carnations  through  the  winter.  The  plants 
should  be  taken  up — the  new  layers  I  mean, 
and  carefully  potted  in  a  mixture  of  old  de- 
composed manure,  sand  and  loam;  the  pots 
set  on  some  coal  ashes  spread  over  the  bot- 
tom of  the  bed.  So  long  as  the  weather  is 
warm  and  mild,  give  a  good  supply  of  wa- 
ter whenever  the  soil  in  the  pots  appears  the 
least  dry,  and  keep  the  frames  open.  When 
the  frost  sets  in,  water  more  sparingly — but 
give  air  as  often  as  you  can.  During  the 
winter,  keep  the  glass  covered  with  boards 
for  a  good  part  of  the  time — especially  if  the 
soil  in  the  pots  is  frozen.  The  great  point 
is  to  keep  the  plants  perfectly  dormant  and 
quiet  during  the  winter,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose you  only  open  the  bed  to  the  sun  when 
the  weather  is  fine,  and  there  is  not  a  parti- 
cle of  frost  in  it — all  the  rest  of  the  time 
you  keep  it  shaded  well  with  boards,  ad- 
mitting the  air  in  at  one  end — or  both  ends. 
As  spring  opens,  j'ou  gradually  open  the 
plants  to  the  sun,  and  commence  giving  them 
more  water.  About  the  10th  of  April  you 
plant  them  out  in  the  bed  where  they  are  to 
bloom.  I  ought  to  add  to  this  simple  prac- 
tice, that  the  rats  and  mice  are  verj'  fond  of 
Carnations,  and  it  will  be  wise  to  keep  a  lit- 
tle arsenic  and  meal  on  boards,  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  beds,  that  they  may  get  their  de- 
serts. 

2.  Dahlias — Many  lose  their  Dahlias 
from  too  much  care  in  preserving  the  roots. 
The  following  is  my  mode,  pursued  with 
success  for  years.  I  take  up  the  plants 
soon  as  the  frost  has  blackened  the 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


choosing  a  clear  windy  day  for  the  purpose. 
I  cut  off  the  stalk  an  inch  above  the  surface 
of  the  ground.  After  the  roots  are  taken 
up,  carry  them  to  an  airy  loft  or  out-build- 
ing, where  they  will  be  secure  from  frost  for 
several  days.  Here  allow  them  to  stand 
quite  separately,  till  the  particles  of  soil  that 
may  adhere  to  them  appear  perfectly  dry; 
better  still  if  the  the  roots  are  turned  over 
once,  so  as  to  become  ripe  and  dry  on  all 
sides.  Then  take  them  into  a  dry  cellar  that 
will  keep  potatoes  well,  and  lay  them  in  a 
single  tier  on  a  floor,  or  on  shelves,  covering 
the  roots  lightly  with  dry  tan. 

3.  Manuring  Fruit  Trees. — This  is  the 
season  for  the  amateur  to  look  over  his  fruit 
trees — especially  those  which  have  failed  to 
produce  good  crops  for  want  of  nourishment 
in  the  soil.  Carefully  open  a  trench  at  the 
very  ends  of  the  roots — throw  out  a  third 
of  the  poorest  of  the  soil,  and  replace  it  with 
a  mixture  of  manure  and  ashes.  I  use  a  cart 
load  of  barn-yard  manure — no  matter  if  it 
is  fresh — to  a  bushel  of  ashes,  and  I  find  it 
never  to  fail  in  bringing  up  the  tree.  If  I 
wait  till  spring  before  I  apply  this  stimulus 
— I  find  it  to  do  just  half  as  much  good  as 
if  I  put  it  in  the  soil  in  October  and  Novem- 
ber. It  is  quite  surprising  how  old  fruit 
trees  can  be  brought  to  by  this  simple  dress- 
ing— barn-yard  manure  and  ashes,  applied 
in  the  fall  of  the  year.  Some  persons  are 
too  indolent  to  do  it,  but  I  think  I  can  prove 
to  them  that  it  will  "pay."  On  one  side 
you  have  an  enfeebled  tree;  it  bears  a  peck 
of  poor  fruit,  half  of  which  is  not  fit  to  take 
to  the  table.  It  costs  you  nothing  per  an- 
num— profit  about  equal  to  cost.  On  the 
other  side  you  have  the  same  tree — you  give 
it  two  cart  loads  of  manure — two  bushels 
of  leached  ashes — once  in  three  years,  cost 
one  dollar — and  receive  two  bushels  of  fine 
fruit  per  annum,  for  three  years, — value, 
three  dollars  a  year,  nine  dollars — profit 
eight  dollars!  Very  respectfully  yours,  A. 
T.      Chester  Co.,  Pa.,  Sept.  1851. 


Rot  in  Grapes — Dear  Sir :  As  many 


cultivators  of  the  native  grapes  suffer  from 
the  "rot" — a  disease  that  makes  its  ap- 
pearance by  a  small  discolored  spot  on  the 
berries,  that  frequently  spreads  till  it  des- 
troys the  whole  bunch,  and  sometimes  great- 
ly injures  the  entire  crop,  I  beg  leave  to  say 
that  this  disease  is  capable  of  being  kept  un- 
der by  careful  hand-picking. 

Having  been  more  or  less  troubled  by  the 
the  appearance  of  this  disease  in  my  vine- 
yard for  several  summers  past,  I  ventured 
to  attempt  to  eradicate  it  by  the  following 
means.  As  soon  as  the  rot  season  commen- 
ced— say  the  first  of  July,  I  employed  a 
man  to  go  carefully  over  the  vines,  and  with 
a  small  pair  of  scissors,  cut  out  every  bunch 
that  was  in  the  least  degree  affected.  These 
grapes  were  taken  and  buried  in  a  lime  heap 
— where  I  got  them  out  of  the  way,  and  will 
I  trust,  turn  them  into  compost.  The  man 
spent  a  morning  every  week  in  going  over 
mj'-  vineyard  of  two  acres,  and  the  cost  of 
his  time  so  employed  is  exactly  six  dollars 
and  fifty  cents.  Per  contra — I  have  few  or 
no  bunches  with  the  rot  in  my  vineyard — on 
the  other  hand,  I  have  an  excellent  crop  of 
fine  grapes — while  my  neighbors,  who  have 
only  trusted  to  providence  and  the  season, 
are  much  afflicted  with  the  rot.  If  you 
think  this  experiment  of  any  value,  the  fore- 
going is  at  your  service.  An  Ohio  Reader. 

Dr.  Comstock's  Aquarium. — Dear  Sir: 
In  my  description  of  Dr.  Comstock's  aqua- 
rium, I  forgot  to  mention  that  the  box 
should  be  placed  in  the  ground,  as  it  would 
otherwise  burst  by  freezing,  and  be  destroy- 
ed. The  Doctor  covers  his  in  the  fall  with 
boards,  to  prevent  injury  by  excess  of  wa- 
ter and  frost.  Yours,  A.  S.  Monson.  Neiv- 
Haven,  Sept.  12,  1851. 


Fruit  Culture  in  the  United  States. 
— Our  cotemporary,  Mr.  Barrt,  of  the 
Genesee  Farmer,  who  has  been  spending  the 
summer  abroad,  from  whence  he  has  writ- 
ten the  best  letters  that  have  appeared  in 
the  agricultural  journals,  on  the  matters  re- 
lating to  the  Exhibition,  has  given  his  read- 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


ers  the  following  comparison  of  the  horticul- 
tural advantages  of  both  sides  of  the  water. 
Looking  at  the  matter  in  so  far  as  relates  to 
fruit  and  farm  culture — we  entirely  agree 
with  him — but  for  ornamental  gardening, 
no  climate  equals  England. 

"  In  regard  to  fruit  culture,  our  advanta- 
ges are  still  greater.  An  orchard  of  fruit 
trees  in  this  country,  even  when  well  at- 
tended, does  not  require  as  much  care 
and  labor  in  five  years  as  it  does  in  one 
in  the  greater  portion  of  Europe.  A  single 
peach  tree  in  England  or  France,  receives 
more  actual  hard  labor  in  one  season,  than 
an  orchard  of  one  hundred  trees  in  Western 
New-York;  and  the  price  of  a  single  fruit, 
or  at  any  rate  half  a  dozen,  in  the  markets 
of  London,  or  Paris,  will  buy  a  bushel  in 
New-York  or  Eochester.  We  complain  of 
curculio  destroying  our  plums  and  apricots, 
and  this  is  one  of  our  greatest  drawbacks 
here,  but,  notwithstanding,  I  have  seen 
more  plums  and  apricots  on  a  single  tree 
here  since  I  returned,  than  on  any  dozen  I 
saw  in  England.  We  have  the  aphis  on  our 
cherry  trees  here,  but  they  are  easily  des- 
troyed. In  both  France  and  England  I  saw 
both  orchards  and  nurseries  of  cherry  trees 
almost  ruined  by  them,  and  they  were  said 
to  be  unconquerable.  We  have  fire  blight, 
and  leaf  blight  here,  and  both  are  sad  diffi- 
culties, but  in  France  and  England  they  are 
not  without  both  these  maladies.  I  saw  ap- 
ple trees  very  seriously  affected  in  England, 
with  what  we  designate  fire  blight, — the 
ends  of  the  branches  black  and  dead,  and 
there,  as  here,  the  real  cause  is  quite  un- 
known to  the  most  skillful  cultivators.  In 
France  I  saw  as  bad  cases  of  our  leaf  blight 
on  the  pear,  as  I  have  ever  seen  in  America. 
The  ravages  of  birds  in  Eurore  are  tremen- 
dous. It  is  almost  impossible  to  save  a  crop 
of  cherries.  Nets,  scarecrows,  and  a  thou- 
sand expensive  and  troublesome  devices  are 
practiced,  that  in  this  country,  where  labor 
is  dear,  would  not  be  attempted,  even  though 
the  culture  should  be  abandoned. 

"  Fruit  stealing  has  been  supposed  to  be 
peculiarly  an  American  vice,  but  it  is  not  so 
by  any  means,  though,  probably,  quite  as 
prevalent  as  elsewhere.  In  other  countries 
fruit  gardens  are  better  protected  than  in 
ours,  and  this  gives  them  a  greater  degree 
of  safety :  but  in  France  I  saw  several  nur- 
series at  some  distance  from  houses,  where 
the  fruits  were  removed  as  soon  as  they  ap- 
peared, to  save  the  trees  from  being  broken 
by  the  fruit  stealers.  If  in  America  we  were 
to  apply  ourselves  to  culture  with  the  same 


indefatigable  perseverance,  the  same  regard- 
lessness  of  labor  that  I  have  seen  in  Europe, 
we  could  produce  results  that  we  do  not  now 
dream  of,  and  we  Avill  come  to  this  by  and 
bye — we  are  every  year  approaching  it  near- 
er and  nearer — our  culture  is  becoming  more 
skillful,  more  thorough  and  more  success- 
ful; but  we  have  onl}'  made  a  beginning. 

"  In  Horticulture,  as  in  Agriculture,  the 
United  States  of  America  has  a  great  desti- 
ny to  fulfil.  Our  territory  is  not  only  im- 
mense, but  so  diversified  in  soil  and  climate, 
that  all  the  most  valuable  grains  and  fruits 
can  be  produced  in  such  abundance  as  will 
enable  us  to  supply  other  countries  less  fa- 
vored in  these  respects.  The  intimate  con- 
nection now  established  between  all  paits 
of  the  world,  has  removed  the  barriers 
which  distance  heretofore  created,  and  we 
have  now  a  clear  course.  Cultivators  may 
redouble  their  energies  with  a  sure  prospect 
of  reward,  and  if  our  government,  in  its 
wisdom,  should  see  fit  to  lend  a  helping 
hand,  all  the  better." 


Osage  Okange  Hedges. — The  Osage 
Orange  is  growing  in  favor  as  a  hedge  plant. 
Though  the  ends  of  the  shoots  are,  in  New 
England,  liable  to  be  nipped  by  the  winter 
while  the  plant  is  young,  it  grows  more  har- 
dy with  age  and  clipping  till  it  becomes 
quite  acclimated.  Wherever  the  peach  ri- 
pens, the  Osage  Orange  will  make  a  good 
hedge.  The  following  remarks  from  the 
Boston  Cultivator  are  interesting  in  a  prac- 
tical sense : 

Mr.  Editor — In  a  late  number  of  the 
Cultivator,  one  of  your  correspondents  re- 
quests me  to  give  my  mode  of  cultivating 
the  Osage  Orange  as  a  hedge.  I  commenced 
in  April,  1848,  with  three  pints  of  seed, 
sown  in  drills  a  foot  distant  from  each  other; 
hoeing  and  weeding  them  Avell.  In  the 
Spring  of  1849,  I  planted  350  yards;  dug 
the  trench  18  inches  deep,  and  where  the 
land  was  poor,  spread  earth  at  the  bottom 
that  was  collected  from  the  wood  pile,  plant- 
ed the  sets  at  eight  inches  apart,  and  cut 
them  off  two  inches  above  the  ground.  Each 
plant  sent  up  from  two  to  three  shoots,  Avhich 
attained  a  height  of  five  or  six  feet  that  sea- 
son. The  first  summer  I  kept  them  free 
from  weeds,  and  made  the  ground  mellow  by 
repeatedly  hoeing  and  digging  with  the  spade, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1850,  I  cut  them  down 
to  one  foot  from  the  ground,  cultivatin 
before.  In  July,  I  again  cut  them  down 
two  feet,  and  in  Sept.  trimmed  them 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


In  the  present  year,  1851,  they  did  not  re- 
quire any  cultivation.  July  10th,  the  hedge 
was  from  seven  to  eight  feet  high,  when  I 
trimmed  and  shortened  to  three  feet  six 
inches.  The  hedge  is  now  30  inches  in 
width,  and  so  thick  that  a  small  bird  can- 
not fly  through  it,  while  the  winter  does 
not  appear  to  affect  it.  I  trimmed  the  350 
yards  in  three  hours,  and  a  boy  put  the  bush 
in  heaps  in  one  hour,  ready  for  burning.  I 
have  not  discovered  any  enemies  except  the 
mole,  and  it  has  never  appeared  since  the 
first  spring.  I  have  now  750  yards  grow- 
ing, all  of  which  assumes  a  very  healthy  ap- 
pearance. 

Mr.  Wilkinson's  objections  were,  I  be- 
lieve, but  not  having  the  No.  of  the  Culti- 
vator at  hand,  I  speak  from  memory.  First : 
"  The  impoverishing  of  the  land  to  20  or  30 
feet  on  each  side  of  the  hedge."  Now  I 
have  not  discovered  any  injury  from  mine 
as  yet,  and  do  not  apprehend  any  more, 
than  I  should  from  the  common  thorn  of  the 
same  height;  but  I  was  told  by  Mr.  Solon 
Robinson,  that  "  on  the  prairies  of  Illinois, 
where  they  grow  without  being  trimmed, 
they  impoverish  the  ground  10  feet  on  each 
side  of  the  hedge;"  and  thorns  will  do  the 
same  if  not  kept  trimmed.  I  keep  my  com- 
mon thorn  hedges  down  to  four  feet  high, 
with  a  bank  along-side,  and  the  grain  and 
grass  is  as  good  within  a  foot  of  the  hedge, 
as  it  is  elsewhere.  Second  objection,  "  that 
horses  would  not  approach  sufficiently  near 
while  ploughing,  &c."  This  we  consider 
their  greatest  merit;  we  do  not  desire 
hedges,  that  horses  and  cattle  can  at  plea- 
sure eat,  trample  upon,  and  destroy;  we 
can  plough  within  half  the  length  of  the 
single  tree,  say  about  two  feet,  and  that  is 
near  enough  to  approach  any  hedge  with  the 
plough.  Third  objection,  the  expense  in 
trimming;  you  can  perceive  by  the  above, 
that  by  taking  the  hedge  in  time,  it  is  but  a 
very  easy  day's  work  to  trim  the  750  yards ; 
but  as  a  matter  of  course,  when  the  hedge 
becomes  larger  and  older,  it  will  require  a 
longer  time  to  perform  the  same  work.  I 
conclude  by  saying,  I  like  the  osage  much 
better  than  the  common  thorn,  and  they 
form  decidedly  the  cheapest  fence  that  can 
be  made,  as  those  that  were  planted  first  in 
the  spring  of  1849,  are  now  a  good  fence, 
and  capable  of  turning  horses  and  cattle, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  that  are  planted 
under  shade  trees,  where  they  are  not  quite 
so  large  and  strong.  Bryan  Jackson. 
Bloomjiled,  Del. 


Register  of  Natural  History. — The 


Smithsonian  Institution,  being  desirous  of 
obtaining  information  with  regard  to  the 
periodical  phenomena  of  animal  and  vege- 
table life  in  North  America,  respectfully  in- 
vites all  persons  who  may  have  it  in  their 
power,  to  record  their  observations,  and  to 
transmit  them  to  the  Institution.  The 
points  to  which  particular  attention  should 
be  directed,  are  the  first  appearance  of  leaves 
and  of  flowers  in  plants;  the  dates  of  ap- 
pearance and  disappearance  of  migratory 
or  hybernating  animals,  as  Mammalia, 
Birds,  Reptiles,  Fishes,  Insects,  &c.;  the 
times  of  nesting  of  Birds,  of  moulting  and 
littering  of  Mammalia,  of  utterance  of  cha- 
racteristic cries  among  reptiles  and  insects, 
and  any  thing  else  which  may  be  deemed 
noteworthy. 

A  list  of  plants  is  appended,  to  which  par- 
ticular reference  should  be  had  in  making 
observations.  It  has  been  prepared  from 
materials  furnished  by  Dr.  John  Torrey 
and  others,  and  will  be  found  to  contain 
many  species  distributed  throughout  the 
United  States,  together  with  a  number  in- 
digenous to,  or  cultivated  in  Europe.  For 
the  present,  attention  may  be  paid  alone  to 
the  time  of  flowering  of  these  species,  this 
period  in  all  cases  being  indicated  by  the 
first  appearance  of  the  anther  in  the  ex- 
panding flower. 

The  Smithsonian  Institution  is  also  de- 
sirous of  obtaining  detailed  lists  of  all  the 
animals  and  plants  of  any  locality  through- 
out this  continent.  These,  when  practica- 
ble, should  consist  of  the  scientific  names, 
as  well  as  those  in  common  use;  but  when 
the  former  are  unknown,  the  latter  may  be 
employed.  It  is  in  contemplation  to  use  the 
information  thus  gathered,  in  the  construc- 
tion of  a  series  of  tables,  showing  the  geo- 
graphical distribution  of  the  animal  and 
vegetable  kingdoms  in  North  America. 

List  of  Plants  to  be  particularly  observed. 
Acer  rubrum,  L.,  Red  or  soft  maple. 

pseudo-platanus,  L.,  European  sycamore. 

saccharinum,  L.,  Sugar  maple. 

Achillea  millefolium,  L.,  Millefoil  or  yarrow. 
Actea  rubra,  "Willd,  Redbaneberry. 
alba,   Bigelow,  White   baneberry — neck- 
lace weed; 
Asclepias  (syriaca)  cornuti,  L.,  Milkweed. 
./Esculus  hippocastanum,   L.,  Horsechestnut, 
(fruit  rough  and  prickly.) 

glabra,    Willd.,    Ohio    Buckeye,    (fruit 

rough  and  prickly.) 

pavia,  or  flava,   Ait.,   Yellow  buckeye; 

(fruit  smooth.) 
Allan  thus  gland  ulosus,  Tree  of  heaven 
Amelanchier  canadensis,  Torr.  and  Gray 
bush,  serviceberry. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Ampelopsis  qiiinqnefolia,  Michx.,  American 
ivy — Virginia  creeper. 

Alisma  plantago,  L.,  Water  plaintain. 

Amygdalus  nana.  L.,  Flowering  almond. 

Anagallis  arvensis,  L.,  Pimpernel,  Poor  man's 
weather  glass. 

Anemone  nemorosa,  L.,  Windflower;  wood 
anemone. 

Aplectrum  hyemale,  Nutt.,  Putty  root,  or 
Adam  and  Eve. 

Apocynum  androsaemifolium,  L.,  Dogbane. 

Aquilegia  canadensis,  L.,  Wild  columbine. 

Amaryllis  atamasco,  L.,  Atamasco  lily. 

Aretbusa  bulbosa,  L.,  Arethusa. 

Arum  triphyllum,  L.,  Indian  turnep. 

Aristolochia  sipho,  D'Her.,  Dutchman's  pipe. 

Azalea  nudiflora.  L.,  Common  red  honeysuckle. 

Bignonia  (Tecoma)  radicans.  Juss.,  Trumpet 
creeper. 

Catalpa  bignonioides.  Walt.,  Catalpa  tree. 

Indian  bean. 

Caltha  palustris,  L.,  Marsh  marigold. 

Carpinus  americana,  Michx.,  Hornbeam,  iron- 
wood. 

Celastrusscandens,  L.,  Bittersweet,  waxwork. 

Convolvulus  purpureus,  L.,  Common  morning 
glory. 

Cercis  canadensis,  L.,  Eed  bud;  Judas  tree. 

Chelidonium  majus,  L.,  Celandine. 

Chionanthus  virginica,  L.,  Fringe  tree. 

Cimifuga  racemosa,  Ell.,  Black  snake  root; 
rattle  snake  root. 

Claytonia  virginica,  L.,  Spring  Beauty. 

Corchorus  japonicus.  Yellow  rose ;  (flowers  all 
the  year.) 

Cornus  florida,  L.,  Flowering  dogwood.  (The 
time  of  expansion  of  the  real  flower, 
not  of  the  white  involucre.) 

Crataegus  crus-galli,  L.,  Cock.spur  thorn. 

coccinea,  L.,  Scarlet  fruited  thorn. 

— —  oxycantha,  L.,  English  hawthorn. 

Cynoglossum  officinale,  L.,  common  hound's 
tongue. 

Dentaria  laciniata,  Muhl.,  Cut  leaved  tooth- 
wort. 

Dicentra  cucullaria,  D.  C,  Dutchman's  breech- 
es. 

Digitalis  purpurea,  L.,  Purple  fox-glove. 

Draba  (Erophyla)  verna,  L.,  Whitlow  grass. 

Epigsea  repens,  L.,  Trailing  arbutus j  ground 
laurel. 

Erythronium  americana,  Smith,  Dog  tooth 
violet,  or  adder's  tongue. 

Geranium  maculatum,  L.,  Cranesbill. 

Gentiana  saponaria,  L.,  Soapwort  gentian. 

Gleditschia  triacanthos,  L.,  Three  thorned 
acacia,  honey  locust. 

Gillenia  trifoliata,  Mcench.,  Indian  physic. 

Gymnocladus  canadensis,  Lam.,  Kentucky 
coffee-bean  tree. 

Halesia  tetraptera,  Willd.,  Snow-drop  tree. 

Hepatica  triloba,  Chaix.,  Round  lobed  liver- 
wort. 

Houstonia  ccerulea.  Hook,  Bluets,  innocence, 
&c. 

Hypericum  perforatum,  L.,  St.  John's  wort. 


Hydrangea  arborescens,  L.,  Wild  hydrangea 

Iris  versicolor,  L.,  Large  blue  flag. 

Juglans  regia,  L.,  English  walnut. 

nigra,  L.,  Black  walnut. 

Kalmia  latifolia,  L.,  Mountain  laurel. 

Lamium  amplexicaule,  L.,  Dead  nettle 

Laurus  benzoin,  L.,  Benzoin  odoriferuni,Nees., 
Spice  bush,  Benjamin  bush. 

Lappa  major.  (Arctium  lappa,)  Gseertn.,  Com- 
mon burdock. 

Ligustrum  vulgare,  L..  Common  privet. 

Lobelia  cardinalis,  L.,  Red  cardinal  tlower. 

Lonicera  periclymenum,  L.,  Foreign  spurs. 

sempervirens.  Ait. ,  trumpet  honeysuckle. 

Lonicera  tartarica,  L.,  Foreign  spurs. 

Linaria  vulgaris,  Mill.,  Common  toadflax. 

Lupinus  perennis,  L.,  Wild  lupine. 

Lilum  philadelphicum,  L.,  Wild  lily. 

Liriodendron  tulipifera,  L.,  Tulip  tree.  Ameri- 
can poplar. 

Magnolia  glauca,  L.,  Small  or  laurel  magnolia, 
sweet  bay. 

Morus  rubra,  L.,  Red  mulberry. 

Nuphar  advena,  Ait.,  Yellow  pond  lily,  splat- 
terdock. 

Nymphaea  odorata.  Ait.,  Sweet  scented  water 
lily. 

Orontium  aquaticum,  L.,  Golden  club,  never- 
wet. 

Oxalis  violacea,  L.,  Violet  wood  sorrel. 

Platanus  occidentalis,  L.,  Buttonwood,  syca- 
more. 

Persica  vulgaris,  L.,  Peach. 

Lodophyllum  peltatum,  L.,  Mandrake,  May 
apple. 

Pentstemon  pubescens, Sol, Downy  pentstemon. 

Pontederia  cordata,  L.,  Pickerel  weed. 

Populus  tremuloides,  Michx.,  American  aspen. 

Pogonia  ophioglossoides,  Nutt,  Adder's  tongue. 

Ptelea  trifoliata,  L.,  Shrubby  trefoil. 

Pulmonaria  (Mertensia)  virginica,  D.  C,  Lung- 
wort. 

Pyrus  communis,  L.,  Common  pear  tree. 

Pyrus  mains,  L.,  Common  apple  tree. 

Qnercus  alba,  L.,  White  oak. 

Rhamnus  cathartica,  L.,  Common  Buckthorn. 

Rhus  cotinus,  L.,  Smoke  tree. 

typhina,  L.,  Staghorn  sumac. 

Rhus  glabra,  L.,  Smooth  sumach. 

Ribes  rnbrum,  L.,  Currant. 

grossularia.  Gooseberry. 

Robinia  pseiid-acacia,  L.,  Common  locust. 

Rosa  centifolia.L.,  Hundred  leaved  or  cabbagge 
rose. 

Carolina,  L.,  Swamp  rose. 

Rubus  odoratus.L., Purple  flowered  raspberry. 

Sagittaria  sagittifolia,  L.,  Arrow  weed. 

Sambucus  canadensis,  L.,  Common  elder. 

nigra,  L. 

Sanguinaria  canadensis,  L.  Blood  root. 

Saponaria  officinale,  L.,  Soapwort,  bouncing 
bet. 

Sarracenia  purpurea,  L.,  Side-saddle  flower. 

Saxifragravirginiensis, Michx.,  Early  saxifrage 

Sassafras  officinale,  Nees.,  Sassafras. 

Silene  pennsylvanica,  Michx.,  Wild  pinl< 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Smilacina  bifolia,  Ker.,  2  leaved  Solomon  seal. 
Stapli^'lea  trifolia,  L.,  American  bladder  nut. 
Syringa  vulgaris,  L.,  Lilac. 
Symplocarpus  foetidus,  Salisb.,  Skunk  cabbage. 
Tilia  americana,  L.,    Bass  wood,  white  wood, 

American  lime,  or  linden. 
Tradescantia  virginica,  L.,  Spider- wort. 
Ulmus  americana,  L.,  American  elm. 
Verbena  liastata,  L.,  Blue  vervaia. 
Viburnum  opulus,  L.,  Snowball  bush. 

opulifolium,  Mx.,  Nine  bark. 

Viola  lanccolata,  L.,  Lance  leaved  violet. 

cucallea,  Ait.,  Hood  leaved  violet. 

Vitis  ffistivalis,  Mich.,  Summer  grape. 

First  appearance  of  the  following  animals, 
and  if  possible,  time  of  depositing  eggs. 

Pandion  carolinus,  Gm.,  Fisk  hawk. 
Hirundo  purpurea,  L.,  Martin. 
Tardus  migratorius,  L.,  Robin. 
Sialia  Wilsonii,  Sw.,  Blue  bird. 
Agelaius  phoeniceus,  L.,  Red  wing  black-bird, 

and  any  other  species  of  birds. 
Salmo  salar,  L.,  Salmon 
Alosa,  Shad. 
Acipenser,  Sturgeon. 
Cry  of  toads  and  frogs, 

Catydid. 

Locust.     (Cicada. 

Appearance  of  fire-flies. 


Albany  and  Rensselaer  Horticultural 
Society. — The  annual  show  of  fruits  on  the 
10th  and  11th  of  September,  was  one  of  the 
best  exhibitions  of  the  Society.  The  display 
of  flowers  was  also  large  and  respectable,  but 
was  less  full  and  perfect  in  some  departments 
than  it  would  have  been,  if  there  had  been  a 
sufficient  supply  of  rain.  Plums  and  pears 
formed  a  fine  show — the  former  being  very  ex- 
tensive, and  comprising  most  of  the  choice  va- 
rieties for  which  this  vicinity  is  justly  celebrated. 
The  principal  exhibitors  of  this  fruit  were 
Messrs.  Dorr,  Denniston.  and  Prentice.  Mr. 
Denniston  exhibited  several  new  seedlings  of 
evident  merit,  for  one  of  which,  called  Dorr's 
Favorite,  a  premium  was  awarded.  He  also 
showed  a  seedling  Green  Gage,  which  so  close- 
ly resembled  the  parent  in  every  respect  as  to 
be  pronounced  identical.  A  very  large  seed- 
ling plum  was  also  exhibited  by  "Wm.  Hallen- 
bake,  of  Greenbush,  raised  by  him.  It  is  fully 
equal  in  size  to  the  Red  Magnum  Bonum,  and 
bears  a  striking  general  reseuiblance  to  that  va- 
riety, but  is  much  superior  to  it  in  quality, 
being  nearly  equaltothe  best  of  the  dark  color- 
ed varieties.  It  received  a  premium  as  a  seed- 
A  specimen  of  prune,  raised  from  seed, 
om  Germany,  was  exhibited  by  Mr.  C. 


H.  Anthony,  of  Albany.  This  fruit  is  raised 
in  several  gardens  in  this  vicinity,  and  might 
easily  be  produced  here  to  any  extent. 

A  large  and  handsome  collection  of  pears 
was  exhibited  by  Henry  Vail,  Esq.,  of  Troy, 
and  collections,  embracing  several  of  the  most 
esteemed  varieties,  were  also  shown  by  Messrs. 
V.  P.  Douw,  B.  B.  Kirtland,  E.  M.  Alystyne, 
Greenbush;  J.  Rathbone,  E.  Dorr,  Jefierson 
Mayell,  John  S.  Goold,  J.  D.  Chism,  Wm. 
James,  Albany. 

There  was  a  good  show  of  apples, — the  prin- 
cipal exhibitors  being  Messrs.  Prentice  and 
Kirtland. 

Few  peaches  were  exhibited,  though  there 
were  some  very  fine  ones  from  E.  Wood,  "Wa- 
tervliet.  Dr.  A.  March,  and  J.  Rathbone.  Al- 
bany. 

Grapes,  comprising  some  very  excellent  spe- 
cimens, both  from  houses  and  open  air,  were 
shown.  Of  the  former,  those  offered  by  Mr. 
Henry  Vail,  attracted  much  attention.  They 
comprised  specimens  of  the  Black  Hamburgh 
and  White  Frontignac,  each  bunch  of  which 
as  we  were  informed  by  Mr.  Quinn,  the  gar- 
dener, weighed  upwards  of  a  pound.  They 
were  certainly  highly  creditable  to  the  skill  of 
the  cultivator.  The  specimens  shown  by  Mr. 
J.  Rathbone  were  also  fine.  Isabella  and  Black 
Cluster,  from  open  gardens,  in  fine  perfection, 
were  shown  by  Messrs.  E.  H.  Pease,  Jos.  Cary, 
V.  P.  Douw,  and  W.  W.  Frothingham. 

There  was  a  good  show  of  melons  of  the  best 
quality,  by  Messrs.  Dorr,  Menand,  Prentice, 
Kirtland,  Goold,  Mayell,  and  others. 

Vegetables  made  a  large  array,  and  the  spe- 
cimens were  generally  of  excellent  quality- 
Among  the  collections  we  noticed  those  of 
Messrs.  Prentice.  Goold,  Mayell  and  Newcomb. 

Flowers,  comprising  dahlias,  roses,  verbenas, 
asters,  &c.,  as  well  as  many  green-house  plants, 
made  a  fine  appearance,  and  the  collections 
of  Messrs.  Menand,  Wilson,  Douw,  Rathbone, 
D.  T.  Vail,  Newcomb,  Goold,  and  others,  at- 
tracted much  attention  and  praise.  * 


New- York  State  Fair. — Floral  Hall 
consisted  of  an  elliptical  tent  80  feet  wide  and 
140  feet  long.  Its  interior  arrangements  were 
designed  in  excellent  taste.  Next  to  its  outer 
circumference,  and  extending  round  the  whole 
tent,  was  a  series  of  terraced  shelves, 
exhibition  of  fruit.     These  shelves  wer 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


closely  filled.  Next  to  this  was  the  broad  pas- 
sage for  the  spectators.  Inside  of  this  passage 
was  tlie  series  of  tables,  parallel  to  the  fruit 
tables,  for  the  flowers.  These  presented  a  very 
rich  display.  Tlie  interior  area  was  occupied 
with  a  large  mass  of  rockwork  in  the  centre, 
intersjjersed  with  ferns, cactuses,  &c.,  surmount- 
ed with  a  massive  rustic  tree,  supporting  bas- 
kets of  fruits,  flowers,  grapevines,  &c.  On  each 
side  of  the  rockwork  were  high  terraces  of 
shelves  densely  filled  with  a  rich  display  of 
greenhouse  plants  from  several  contributors. 

Among  the  fruits  which  excited  most  atten- 
tion, were  the  fine  exhibition  of  peaches — many 
specimens  of  Crawford's  Early  measuring  from 
10  to  11  inches  in  circumference.  Bartlett  and 
Stevens'  Genesee  pears  were  exhibited  possess- 
ing great  beauty;  and  there  was  a  profusion  of 
fine  apples.  The  following  were  among  the 
principal  contributors: — 

W.  R.  Smith,  of  Macedon,  N.  Y.,  exhibited 
a  collection  of  large  glass  jars,  containing  cher- 
ries, strawberries,  peaches,  ^^:c.,  beautifully 
preserved  in  a  fresh  state,  sealed  air-tight.  Bis- 
sell  and  Hooker  of  Rochester,  very  fine  bunches 
of  Black  Hamburgh,  Golden  Chasselas  and 
other  exotic  grapes,  grown  in  a  coli  house; 
several  other  collections  of  foreign  grapes 
grown  in  a  similar  way,  including  Muscat  of 
Alexandria,  Royal  Muscadine,  Hamburgh,  &c., 
show  the  progress  of  the  culture  of  these  va- 
rieties. Among  the  principal  contributors,  who 
all  furnished  extensive  collections  of  fruits, 
were  Benjamin  Hodge,  of  Buffalo;  Tliorp, 
Smith  &  Co.,  of  Syracuse;  J.  J.  Thomas,  of 
Macedon;  W.  F.  and  E.  Smith,  Geneva;  and 
from  EUwanger  &  Barrj ,  C.J.  Ryan,  Bissell  & 
Hooker,  N.  Hayward,  S.  Moulson,  and  others 
of  Rochester  and  vicinity.  John  Morse  of 
Cayuga  Bridge,  exhibited  43  sorts  of  pears,  in 
which  we  observed  very  fine  specimens  of  Beurre 
Bosc,  Flemish  Beauty,  and  Pratt.  EUwanger 
&  Barry  had  more  than  a  hundred  sorts  of 
pears,  embracing  some  fine  and  rare  sorts.  One 
of  the  best  collections  of  plums  was  from  E. 
Dorr,  of  Albany. 

Among  the  floral  contributions,  we  observ- 
ed extensive  collections  from  Wm.  "Webb  and 
B.  Hodge,  of  BuflTalo,  John  Donnellan  and  C. 
Powis,  of  Greece,  and  King  and  Dawe,  EU- 
wanger &  Barry,  A.  Frost  &  Co.,  S.  Moulson, 
"\7ra.  Webster,  and  C.  J.  Ryan,  of  Rochester. 
A  beautifully  constructed  floral  alcove  was  pre- 
sented  by  A.  Frost  k  Co. ;  a  large  and  beauti- 
ful box  of  flowers,  of  some  200  sorts,  by  Mary 
Devoe,  of  Aurora,  Cayuga  county;  and  a  very 
striking  and  singular  conceit, — a  finely  propor- 
tioned pony,  five  feet  long,  surmounted  by  an 
equestrian  '•  bloom-er,"  the  whole  composed 
of  flowers  quite  tastefully  arranged,  was  ex- 
liibited  by  L.  E.  Smith,  of  Saratoga  county. 
Kew-York. — Cultivator. 


English  and  Scotch  Acres. — The  English 
acre  contains  4,840  square  yards — the  Scotch, 
6,150.  The  Scotch  acre,  therefore,  is  rather 
more  than  one-fourth  the  largest. 


2\iBmm  ta  (Cnrrrspnnhnts. 

Cheap  Cottages. — ^  Massachusetts 
Subscriber.  You  will  find  the  ground  plans 
with  descriptions,  of  the  cheap  cottages  you 
refer  to,  in  our  work  on  "  Country  Hou- 
ses," pages  73  and  95.  The  fust  part  of 
this  work,  on  Cottages  and  Farm  Houses, 
may  be  had  separate  at  $2 — or  the  whole, 
including  Villas  and  Furniture,  for  $4.  It 
is  published  by  Appleton  &  Co.,  New-York, 
and  may  be  ordered  through  any  country 
bookseller. 

Grapes. —  C.  P.  Williams,  (Albany.) 
The  leaf  blight  which  turns  brown  the  edg- 
es of  the  native  grape,  has  not  been  satis- 
factorily explained.  Picking  off  the  leaves 
affected  appears  to  prevent  its  spreading. 
B.  Johnson. — The  Clinton  Grape  is  worthy 
of  trial  as  a  wine  grape.  It  is  much  earlier 
and  hardier  than  the  Isabella.  Norton's 
Seedling  has  borne  with  us  for  several  years 
past,  and  we  have  rejected  it  as  worthless 
for  the  table.  The  Elsinburgh  is  the  best  of 
all  the  small  native  sorts — being  delicate  in 
flavor,  sweet,  and  entirely  without  hard  pulp. 
W.  B.  P.,  (Buffalo.)  You  have  allowed 
your  vine  to  extend  too  much,  and  exhaust 
itself.  Dig  in  this  fall,  about  the  roots,  over 
an  area  of  some  15  or  20  feet  square,  as 
much  stable,  or  other  strong  animal  manure 
as  will  cover  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
Next  spring  apply  half  a  peck  of  plaster  as 
a  top  dressing.  This  will  effectually  reno- 
vate the  vine. 

Select  Lists  of  Fruits. — ^n  jlmateur, 
(Pittsburgh.)  The  following  are  very  fine 
new  pears,  whose  excellence  has  been  prov- 
ed in  the  northern  states.  Bonne  des  Lees — 
August — melting,  very  juicy;  Beurre  Lang- 
lier — December — melting,  vinous  flavor;  Su- 
zette  de  Bavay — Jan.  Feb. — sweet,  spriglit- 
tly;  Brandy  wine — Sept — sweet,  very  juicy; 
Alpha — Oct. — buttery,  fine.  Of  the  stand- 
ard pears  we  recommend  to  you  the  follow- 
ing for  a  small  collection,  viz :  JEarly  pears — 
Bartlett,  Dearbon's  Seedling,  Tyson 
tiezer,      Autumn  pears — Beurre   d'Anj 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Fondante  d'Automne,  Duchess  d'Angou- 
leme,  Doyenne  Boussock,  Heathcote,  Louise 
Bonne  de  Jersey.  Wintar  pears — Beurre 
d'Arembergh,  Lawrence,  Winter  Nelis.  For 
three  plums,  we  would  plant  Green  Gage, 
Purple  Favorite,  Imperial  Gage;  three  cher- 
ries— May  Duke,  Black  Tartarian,  Dow- 
ner's Late.  The  Breda  is  the  hardiest  apri- 
cot of  first  rate  quality. 

Keeping  Grapes. —  W.  S.,  (New-York.) 
If  you  wish  to  preserve  your  grapes  very 
perfectly,  take  large  earthern  jars  and  fill  the 
bottom  one  inch  in  depth  with  dry  charcoal 
dust.  Pick  the  clusters  in  a  dry  cool  day — 
dip  the  end  of  the  stalk  in  melted  sealing 
wax ;  cut  out  every  decayed  or  wilted  berry 
with  a  small  scissors.  Wrap  each  bunch  in 
soft  paper,  and  lay  one  upon  another  till  the 
jar  is  full.  Then  put  the  lid  of  the  jar  on, 
and  cover  it  all  round  the  edges  with  pulve- 
rised charcoal.  Set  the  jars  away  on  shelves 
in  a  cool  dry  cellar,  or  room  where  the  tem- 
perature is  low  without  frost. 

Taking  up  Green-house  Plants. — ^ 
Lady  in  Ohio.  First  remove  all  the  earth 
very  carefully,  by  slicing  it  gradually  awaj^ 
with  the  spade,  so  as  to  leave  an  unbroken 
ball,containing  the  roots,  about  the  size  of  the 
pot  or  tub  into  which  you  wish  to  remove 
the  plant.  Then  soak  this  ball  of  earth  very 
plentifully  with  water,  so  that  it  is  quite 
saturated.  Leave  it  all  night  to  drain  off. 
In  the  morning  you  will  find  the  ball  to  ad- 
here well  to  the  roots,  and  you  can  then  lift 
it  and  pot  it  with  little  or  no  check  to  the 
plant.  For  forty-eight  hours  after  removal 
it  is  best  to  place  the  transplanted  exotics 
in  a  close  frame  or  cellar — where  the  air  is 
damp. 

Tomatoes.  —  William^  (New-Bedford.) 
If  you  pull  up  the  tomato  plants  before  the 


frost  has  touched  them,  and  hang  them  up 
in  a  dry  light  seed  room,  or  garret,  the  fruit 
will  continue  to  ripen  for  several  weeks. 

Evergreens.  —  R.  Van  W.,  (Oneida 
Co.)  You  may  transplant  evergreens  suc- 
cessfully at  any  season,  if  you  take  balls  of 
earth  with  them.  Otherwise,  they  grow 
most  readily  when  the  buds  have  just  start- 
ed in  the  spring.  The  white  pine  is  the  best 
for  your  purpose — it  transplants  easily, 
grows  fast,  and  holds  its  color  all  seasons. 
The  English  Yew  is  a  little  tender  north  of 
New-York.  We  are  not  confident  that  the 
Chili  Pine  will  prove  entirely  hardy  with 
you — but  the  Deodar  will,  and  is  a  most 
graceful  tree.  There  is  no  more  ornamental 
hardy  evergreen  for  general  purposes,  than 
the  Norway  Spruce. 

Clean  Trees  for  Streets. — A  Phila- 
dclphian.  There  are  no  better  or  cleaner 
trees  for  streets,  than  the  Silver  Maple,  Su- 
gar Maple  and  Tulip  tree — not  one  of  which, 
so  far  as  we  have  observed,  are  infested  with 
insects.  Lindens  and  Elms  are  always  haz- 
ardous in  this  respect. 

Preparing  Fruit  GARDENS.-i?.,  (Hart- 
ford, Ct.)  First  give  the  soil  a  heavy  dress- 
ing of  stable  manure  and  ashes — then  trench 
it  two  spades  deep.  Plant  your  trees  in  good 
composted  soil,  and  mulch  them  with  three 
inches  of  tan-bark — after  the  ground  has 
settled  over  the  roots.  In  your  light  soil 
we  would  never  stir  or  dig  the  ground  at 
all,  over  the  roots  of  fruit  trees.  But  every 
other  autumn  we  would  remove  the  mulch- 
ing— give  a  top-dressing  of  decomposed  ma- 
nure and  ashes,  and  replace  the  tan  again 
upon  the  top — keeping  it  there  summer  and 
winter — by  renewing  it  as  often  as  necessa- 
ry. Nothing  is  so  injurious  to  fruit  trees  in 
light  soils,  as  to  be  constantly  stirring  the 
soil,  and  breaking  the  young  fibres. 


\^r]'n. 


JOUKNAL  OF  KUPtAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


^l  jfm  lints  in  tmhx^t  d^nrkning. 

WOVEMBER  is,  above  all  others,  the  tree-planting  month  over  the  wide  Union. 
''^*  Accordingly,  every  one  who  has  a  rood  of  land,  looks  about  him  at  this  season,  to 
see  what  can  be  done  to  improve  and  embellish  it.  Some  have  bought  new  places, 
where  they  have  to  build  and  create  everything  in  the  way  of  home  scenery,  and  they, 
of  course,  will  have  their  heads  full  of  shade  trees  and  fruit  trees,  ornamental  shrubs 
and  evergreens,  lawns  and  walks,  and  will  tax  their  imagination  to  the  utmost  to  see 
in  the  future  all  the  varied  beauty  which  they  mean  to  work  out  of  the  present  blank 
fields  that  they  have  taken  in  hand.  These,  look  for  the  most  rapid-growing  and  ef- 
fective materials,  with  which  to  hide  their  nakedness,  and  spread  something  of  the 
drapery  of  beauty  over  their  premises,  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  Others,  have 
already  a  goodly  stock  of  foliage  and  shade,  but  the  trees  have  been  planted  without 
taste,  and  by  thinning  out  somewhat  here,  making  an  opening  there,  and  planting  a 
little  yonder,  they  hope  to  break  up  the  stiff  boundaries,  and  thus  magically  to  con- 
vert awkward  angles  into  graceful  curves,  and  harmonious  outlines.  Whilst  others 
others,  again,  whose  gardens  and  pleasure-grounds  have  long  had  their  earnest  devo- 
tion, are  busy  turning  over  the  catalogues  of  the  nurseries,  in  search  of  rare  and  curi- 
ous trees  and  shrubs,  to  add  still  more  of  novelty  and  interest  to  their  favorite  lawn 
and  walks.  As  the  pleasure  of  creation  may  be  supposed  to  be  the  highest  pleasure, 
and  as  the  creation  of  scenery  in  landscape  gardening  is  the  nearest  approach  to  the 
matter  that  we  can  realise  in  a  practical  way,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  November, 
dreary  as  it  may  seem  to  the  cockneys  who  have  rushed  back  to  gas-lights  and  the 
paved  streets  of  the  city,  is  full  of  interest,  and  even  excitement,  to  the  real  lover  of 
the  country. 

It  is,  however,  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  human  mind  to  overlook  that  which 
is  immediately  about  us,  however  admirable,  and  to  attach  the  greatest  importance  to 


Nov,  1, 1851. 


No.  XI. 


HINTS  ON  LANDSCAPE  GARDENING. 


whatever  is  rare,  and  difficult  to  be  obtained.  A  remarkable  illustration  of  the  truth 
of  this,  may  be  found  in  the  ornamental  gardening  of  this  country,  which  is  noted  for 
the  strongly  marked  features  made  in  its  artificial  scenery  by  certain  poorer  sorts  of 
foreign  trees,  as  well  as  the  almost  total  neglect  of  finer  native  materials,  that  are  in- 
digenous to  the  soil.  We  will  undertake  to  say,  for  example,  that  almost  one-half 
of  all  the  deciduous  trees  that  have  been  set  in  ornamental  plantations  of  the  last  ten 
years,  have  been  composed,  for  the  most  part,  of  two  very  indifferent  foreign  trees — 
the  Ailantus  and  the  Silver  Poplar.  When  we  say  indifferent,  we  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  such  trees  as  the  Ailantus  and  the  Silver  Poplar,  are  not  valuable  trees  in 
their  way— that  is,  that  they  are  rapid  growing,  will  thrive  in  all  soils,  and  are  trans- 
planted with  the  greatest  facility — suiting  at  once  both  the  money-making  grower  and 
the  ignorant  planter — but  we  do  say,  that  when  such  trees  as  the  American  Elms, 
Maples  and  Oaks,  can  be  raised  with  so  little  trouble — trees  as  full  of  grace,  dignity, 
and  beauty,  as  any  that  grow  in  any  part  of  the  world — trees,  too,  that  go  on  gather- 
ing new  beauty  with  age,  instead  of  throwing  up  suckers  that  utterly  spoil  lawns,  or 
that  become,  after  the  first  few  years,  only  a  more  intolerbable  nuisance  every  day — it 
is  time  to  protest  against  the  indiscriminate  use  of  such  sylvan  materials — no  matter 
how  much  of  "  heavenly  origin,"  or  "  silvery"  foliage,  they  may  have  in  their  well 
sounding  names. 

It  is  by  no  means  the  fault  of  the  nurserymen,  that  their  nurseries  abound  in  ailan- 
tuses  and  poplars,  while  so  many  of  our  fine  forest  trees  are  hardly  to  be  found.  The  nur- 
serymen are  bound  to  pursue  their  business  so  as  to  make  it  profitable,  and  if  people 
ignore  oaks  and  ashes,  and  adore  poplars  and  ailantuses,  nurserymen  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  starve  because  the  planting  public  generally  are  destitute  of  taste. 

What  the  planting  public  need  is  to  have  their  attention  called  to  the  study  of  na- 
ture— to  be  made  to  understand  that  it  is  in  our  beautiful  woodland  slopes,  with  their 
undulating  outlines,  our  broad  river  meadows  studded  with  single  trees  and  groups  al- 
lowed to  grow  and  expand  quite  in  a  state  of  free  and  graceful  developnent,  our 
steep  hills,  sprinkled  with  picturesque  pines  and  firs,  and  our  deep  valleys,  dark 
with  hemlocks  and  cedars,  that  the  real  lessons  in  the  beautiful  and  picturesque  are  to 
be  taken,  which  will  lead  us  to  the  appreciation  of  the  finest  elements  of  beauty  in 
the  embellishment  of  our  country  places — instead  of  this  miserable  rage  for  "  trees 
of  heaven"  and  other  fashionable  tastes  of  the  like  nature.  There  are,  for  example, 
to  be  found  along  side  of  almost  every  sequestered  lawn  by  the  road-side  in  the  north- 
ern states,  three  trees  that  are  strikingly  remarkable  for  beauty  of  foliage,  growth  or 
or  flower,  viz  :  the  Tulip  tree,  the  Sassafras,  and  the  Pepperidge.  The  first  is,  for 
stately  elegance,  almost  unrivalled  among  forest  trees :  the  second,  when  planted  in 
cultivated  soil  and  allowed  a  fair  chance,  is  more  beautiful  in  its  diversified  laurel-like 
fohage  than  almost  any  foreign  tree  in  our  pleasure  grounds :  and  the  last  is  not  sur- 
passed by  the  orange  or  the  bay  in  its  glossy  leaves,  deep  green  as  an  emerald  in  sum- 
mer, and  rich  red  as  a  ruby  in  autumn— and  all  of  them  freer  from  the  attacks  of  in 
sects  than  either  larches,  lindens,  or  elms,  or  a  dozen  other  favorite  foreign  trees, — be 
sides  being  unaffected  by  the  summer  sun  where  Horse-chestnuts  are  burned  brown, 


-"^^^^^St^T^ 


DECAY  OF  THE  PEACH  TREE. 


and  hokUiig  their  foliage  through  all  the  season  like  nativc-ljorn  Americans,  ■when 
foreigners  shrivel  and  die  ;  and  jet  we  could  name  a  dozen  nurseries  where  there  is  a 
large  collection  of  ornamental  trees  of  foi-eign  growth,  hut  neither  a  sassafras,  nor  a 
pepperidge,  nor  perhaps  a  tulip  tree  could  be  had  for  love  or  money. 

There  is  a  large  spirit  of  inquiry  and  a  lively  interest  in  rural  taste,  awakened  on 
every  side  of  us,  at  the  present  time,  from  Maine  to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi — 
but  the  great  mistake  made  by  most  novices  is  that  they  stndj  garde7is  too  much,  and 
nature  too  little.  Now  gardens,  in  general,  are  stiff  and  graceless,  except  just  so  far 
as  nature,  ever  free  and  flowing,  re-asserts  her  rights,  in  spite  of  man's  want  of  taste, 
or  helps  him  when  he  has  endeavored  to  work  in  her  own  spirit.  But  the  fields  and 
woods  are  full  of  instruction,  and  in  such  features  of  our  richest  and  most  smiling 
and  diversified  country  must  the  best  hints  for  the  embellishment  of  rural  homes  al- 
ways be  derived.  And  yet  it  is  not  any  portion  of  the  woods  and  fields  that  we  wish 
our  finest  pleasure-ground  scenery  precisely  to  resemble.  We  rather  wish  to  select 
from  the  finest  sylvan  features  of  nature,  and  to  recompose  the  materials  in  a  choicer 
manner — by  rejecting  anything  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  elegance  and  refinement  which 
should  characterize  the  landscape  of  the  most  tasteful  country  residence — a  landscape 
in  which  all  that  is  graceful  and  beautiful  in  nature  is  preserved — all  her  most  per- 
fect forms  and  most  harmonious  lines — but  with  that  added  refinement  which  high  keep- 
ing and  continual  care,  confer  on  natural  beauty  without  impairing  its  innate  spirit 
of  freedom,  or  the  truth  and  freshness  of  its  intrinsic  character.  A  planted  elm  of 
fifty  years,  which  stands  in  the  midst  of  the  smooth  lawn  before  yonder  mansion — its 
long  graceful  branches  towering  upwards  like  an  antique  classical  vase,  and  then 
sweeping  to  the  ground  with  a  curve  as  beautiful  as  the  falling  spray  of  a  fountain, 
has  all  the  freedom  of  character  of  its  best  prototypes  in  the  wild  woods,  with  a 
refinement  and  a  perfection  of  symmetry  which  it  would  be  next  to  impossible  to  find 
in  a  wild  tree.  Let  us  take  it  then  as  the  type  of  all  true  art  in  landscape  garden- 
ing— which  selects  from  natural  materials  that  abound  in  any  country,  its  best  sylvan 
features,  and  by  giving  them  a  better  opportunity  than  they  could  otherwise  obtain, 
brings  about  a  higher  beauty  of  development  and  a  more  perfect  expression  than  na- 
ture itself  offers.  Study  landscape  in  nature  more,  and  the  gardens  and  their  cata- 
logues less, — is  our  advice  to  the  rising  generation  of  planters,  who  wish  to  embellish 
their  places  in  the  best  and  purest  taste. 


PREMATURE  DECAY  OF  THE  PEACH  TREE. 

BY  J.  P.  KIRTLAND,  CLEVELAND,  O. 

Fifty  years  since  the  peach  tree  grew  vigorously,  and  almost  spontaneously,  in  many 
sections  of  New-England,  where  the  soil  and  climate  were  congenial.  In  more  recent 
times,  it  has  flourished  with  equal  vigorin  many  parts  of  the  western  country,  particular- 
ly the  state  of  Ohio. 

has  required  no  special  powers  of  observation  to  discover  that  it  has  been  gradually 
its  healthfulness — till  at  length  it  canuot  be  cultivated  without  extra  care.      The 


DECAY  OF  THE  PEACH  TREE. 

progress  of  this  diseased  condition  has  evidently  advanced  farther  in  the  eastern  states, 
than  in  the  newer  and  more  fertile  regions  of  the  vt'est. 

A  knowledge  of  the  pathology  of  a  disease,  whether  in  the  animal  or  vegetable  king- 
dom, often  leads  to  the  discovery  of  successful  means  of  cure.  With  this  view,  attention 
has  been  directed  to  the  nature  and  causes  of  this  disorder.  So  far  as  they  have  been  dis- 
covered, they  seem  to  be  dependant  on  the  following,  "  to  wit :" 

1st.  Tlie  depredations  of  the  jUgeria  exitiosa,  or  Borer. — The  first  stage  of  impair- 
ment was  probably  ertablished  by  the  attacks  of  this  insect.  It  was  known  as  earl}'',  or 
before  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  yet  it  was  then  met  with  only  in  limited 
numbers,  and  its  depredations  hardly  attracted  attention.  At  this  time  it  has  become  so 
numerous  that  every  peach  tree  is  annually  assailed  by  from  half  a  dozen  to  a  dozen  indi- 
viduals, in  the  larvae  state. 

The}^  perforate  the  crown  of  the  roots,  and  excavate  it  so  extensively  as  to  nearly  cut  off 
all  communication  with  the  body.  Before  the  injury  they  inflict  in  one  year  is  corrected 
by  the  growth  of  the  ensuing  season,  a  second  generation  renews  the  attack.  The  tree 
finally  sinks  under  repeated  injuries,  or  perhaps  spins  out  a  sickly  existence  for  a  few 
years. 

2d.  Exhaustion  of  the  Soil. — No  species  of  tree,  shrub,  or  vegetable,  can  retain  health, 
vigor  and  productiveness,  without  a  requisite  supply  of  inorganic  elements  in  tlie  soil. 
Few  soils  originally  contain  supplies  sufficient  to  sustain  a  successive  growth  of  the  same 
species  of  trees,  in  the  same  locality.  When  a  forest  is  suddenly  removed,  its  place  is  sure 
to  be  occupied  by  a  different  growth  of  timber,  and  an  attempt  at  cultivating  the  same  kind 
of  crop  upon  the  same  field,  repeatedly,  is  sure  to  be  met  with  manifestations  of  exhaus- 
tion, in  the  form  of  disease  and  unproductiveness. 

Such  evidences  are  now  too  common  with  the  peach  tree,  when  it  is  planted  on  soils  ex- 
hausted of  the  essential  elements.  The  doctrine  is  not  perhaps  exploded,  that  the  excre- 
tions of  vegetables  exert  an  unfavorable  influence  on  a  succeeding  crop  of  a  similar  kind. 
If  it  be  correct,  it  may  aid  in  throwing  light  on  the  nature  and  causes  of  the  decay  of  the 
peach  tree. 

3d.  The  Curl  of  the  Leaf. — Of  late  years,  the  first  developed  leaves  in  the  spring  sea- 
son, become  diseased  with  a  spongy  and  malignant  growth,  which,  in  a  few  days'  time,  oc- 
casions them  to  fall.  This  occurs  at  a  period  when  the  vigorous  circulation  of  the  sap  re- 
quires a  corresponding  action  in  those  important  organs.  A  second  growth  is  soon  forced 
out,  which  ultimately  restores  the  tree  apparently  to  its  wonted  health  and  vigor. 

It  is,  however,  evident,  that  though  the  recuperative  powers  of  nature  may  for  once, 
twice,  or  even  thrice,  restore  a  growth  of  leaves,  the  shock  must  at  length  impair 
the  vitality,  and  induce  an  unhealthy  condition.  This  curl  of  the  leaf  is  produced  by  the 
punctures  of  a  small  plant  louse,  perhaps  the  jJphis  persica,  or  its  analogue.  It  is  de- 
scribed by  Dr.  Harris  in  his  Treatise  on  Destructive  Insects,  also  in  Kollar's  work,  to 
which  the  reader  is  referred. 

People  judging  of  the  size  of  this  insect  from  the  extent  of  its  injurious  impressions, 
might  overlook  it,  expecting  to  find  a  huge  monster  where  a  mite  exists,  or  very  likely  by 
searching  for  it  long  after  its  day  and  generation  had  passed  away. 

4th.  The  Yellows. — It  is  questionable  whether  anydistinct  disease  occurs,  to  which 
this  name  is  applicable.  Perhaps  it  is  only  a  collection  of  symptoms  arising  from 
causes  previously  noticed — acting  either  individually  or  collectively.  Facts  seem  to  favor 
this  view — though  the  insight  of  popular  opinion  is  in  favor  of  its  being  a  specif 
contag-ious  disease 


DECAY  OF  THE  PEACH  TREE. 

In  estimating  the  power  and  extent  of  the  operation  of  these  causes,  it  should  be  recol 
Iccted  that  an  injurious  impression  acting  constantly  upon  successive  generations,  of  either 
animal  or  vegetable  species,  may  ultimately  establish  an  hereditary  entailment,  that  may 
be  propagated  in  the  form  of  predispositon  to  disease,  or  disease  itself.  The  converse  is 
equally  true  in  producing  health  or  physical  development. 

These  several  causes  have  been  exerting  their  influences  on  the  peach  tree  for  a  long 
term  of  years — impairing  the  stamina  and  health  of  its  fruit  germs.  These  impressions 
have  been  propagated  and  repropagated,  in  conjunction  with  the  action  of  the  primary 
causes  of  impairment,  till  at  length  we  have  only  a  sickly  progeny. 

If  this  view  be  correct,  we  have  two  indications  to  fulfil  in  working  a  cure. 

First.  To  withdraw  or  counteract  the  primary  causes  of  impairment. 

Second.  To  propagate  only  from  healthy  pits. 

Let  us  begin  with  perhaps  the  main  cause — 

Mgeria  or  Borer. — This  depredator  can  only  be  assailed  with  succccs  by  preventing  the 
deposition  of  the  egg  into  the  crown  of  the  root,  or  by  the  destruction  of  the  larvae  after 
it  has  hatched.  Embankments  of  earth,  lime,  ashes,  tobacco,  &c.,  have  been  tried  for 
these  purposes,  but  with  not  very  perfect  success.  During  a  late  tour  to  the  eastern  states, 
I  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  results  of  the  use  of  a  remedj^  devised  by  E.  M.  Posr- 
ERor,  Esq.,  of  Wallingford,  Conn.  He  seems  to  have  found  an  application  which  is  sure 
to  prevent  the  perfect  insect  from  layingher  eggs  in  the  crown  of  theroot.s — the  only  point 
at  which  it  can  exist  and  do  injury — and  is  equally  certain  to  destroy  the  larvae  which 
may  have  already'-  commenced  their  career  of  destruction.  The  cost  and  labor  of  its  use 
are  very  trifling.  Further  trials  are  necessary,  to  test  its  certainty.  As  the  discoverer 
has  laid  his  claims  before  the  Commissioner  of  Patents,  at  Washington,  I  shall  say  nothing 
more  in  regard  to  it — only  expressing  the  belief  that  it  will  prove  successful. 

The  second  cause,  exhaustion  of  the  soil,  must  be  corrected  by  the  aid  of  agricultural 
chemistry.  Lime,  ashes,  bone-dust,  salt,  barn  and  poultry  manure,  &c.,  empirically  ap- 
plied, will  generally  correct  the  evil.  No  tree  pays  better  for  high  feeding  than  the  peach, 
on  a  silicious  soil. 

The  third  cause,  the  j^phis,  seems  to  be  beyond  control  where  it  exists  in  large  orchards. 
It  may  be  destroyed  on  a  few  trees  by  whale-oil  soap-suds,  and  tobacco  water.     . 

The  fourth  cause,  the  Yellows,  I  must  leave  for  the  investigation  and  management  of 
those  among  whom  it  occurs.  Fortunately,  little  is  known  of  it  in  Ohio.  For  the  purpose 
of  propagating  healthy  stocks,  pits  of  the  peach  should  be  obtained  from  sections  of  the 
countrj^  Avhere  this  diseased  condition  does  not  prevail.  J.  P.  K. 

Cleveland,  Ohio,  Oct.  8,  1851. 

PiEMARKS. — Professor  Kirtland's  remarks  are  closely  to  the  point,  and  are  particular- 
ly well  tuned.  We  pointed  out,  five  jgrts  ago,  that  the  peach  tree  was  becoming  enfee- 
bled by  bad  cultivation,  and  careless  propagation — and  the  fact  cannot  be  too  strongly 
urged  upon  nurserymen  and  orchardists.  In  fact,  the  peach  has  hitherto  been  cultivated 
so  carelessly,  that  to  an  European  fruit-grower  it  M^ould  not  be  called  cultivation  at  all — 
only  a  downright  abuse  of  the  natural  powers  of  the  tree.  It  is,  however,  leading  to  the 
inevitable  result  of  artificial  degeneracy,  and  henceforth  it  will  require  something  like  at- 
tention and  care  to  produce  good  peaches.     Ed. 


THE  WILLIAMSON  PEAR. 


THE  WILLIAMSON  PEAR. 

BY  H.  WOOD,  LONG-ISLAND,  N.  Y. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — I  send  you  by  express,  two  specimens  of  a  seedling  pear,  which 
sprung  up  wild  in  a  piece  of  woodland  on  the  south  side  of  Long-Island,  belonging  to 
Nicholas  Williamson,  Esq.  The  tree  attracted  no  attention  until  Mr.  W.,  having  occasion 
to  clear  the  timber  from  the  land,  left  it  exposed  to  the  sun  and  air,  when  it  soon  com- 
menced bearing. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  its  being  a 
natural  seedling,  but  whether  it  is  an 
acquisition  of  any  value,  I  leave  you  to 
determine.  Many  believe  our  Ameri- 
can seedlings  AV  ill  prove  more  hardy  and 
profitable  than  the  delicate  foreign  va- 
rieties in  cultivation;  and  I  think  I 
have  seen  remarks  of  your  own  to  that 
effect. 

The  tree  appears  quite  hardy,  is  a 
good  grower  and  bearer. 

Mr.  AY.  has  sold  the  fruit  at  high  pri- 
ces in  Fulton  market,  and  those  who 
had  it  once  invariably  desired  to  pur- 
chase it  again,  having  readily  retailed 
them  for  sixpence  each. 

The  specimens  sent  are  not  above  the 
average  size  of  this  fruit.  The  tree 
stands  in  sod  ground,  and  has  never 
been  manured  or  cultivated  in  any  man- 

Ugj.,  The  Williainso7t  Penr. 

You  will  observe  that  these  specimens  show  no  calyx ;  this  is  a  distinct  characteristic  of  the 
fruit,  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  and  must  decide  the  originality  of  the  variety.  Should 
you  think  it  worthy  of  publicity,  I  propose  to  christen  it  the  "Williamson  Pear."  From 
my  knowledge  of  the  gentlemanly  owner  of  this  tree,  I  am  confident  he  will  be  happy  to 
supply  you  with  grafts,  should  you  desire  to  obtain  the  variety.      Yours,      II.  Wood. 

Brambleworth  Cottage,  Oct.  2,  1851. 

We  are  a  little  reserved  in  our  praise  of  new  varieties — but  there  can  be  no  hesitation  in 
pronouncing  this  pear  one  of  the  very  best.  The  flavor  is  of  the  rich  saccharine-vinous, 
well  known  in  such  fruits  as  Surpasse  Virgalieu,  Beurre  Bosc,  &c.  The  fruit  has  a  rich 
yellow  color,  abundantly  sprinkled  with  russet  dots,  and  has  a  "  thorough-bred"  look 
and  taste  in  all  respects.  Cultivators  will  do  well  to  get  possession  of  what  appears  to 
be  a  new  American  sort  of  such  a  high  grade. 

The  following  is  the  pomological  description  of  the  fruit :  Medium  size — obovate,  nar- 
rowing pretty  rapidly  to  the  stalk.  Stalk,  short  and  stout,  set  in  a  moderate  cavity — 
which  is  a  little  higher  on  one  side  than  the  other.  Calyx,  none — its  place  is  occupied  with 
a  small  scar — set  in  a  deep,  rather  narrow,  russeted  basin.  Skin,  rich  golden  yellow  at 
maturity — thickly  sprinkled  with  russet  dots — and  considerably  russeted  at  each  end. 
Seeds,  small  and  flattened.  Flesh,  yellowish  Avhite,  fine  grained,  melting,  (though  more 
in  texture  than  most  melting  pears,)  with  an  abundant  juice,  and  a  rich  s 
inous  flavor — October.     Ed. 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS. 


ON  THE  LIMITED  DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS.* 

BY  JOHN  TOWNLEY,  MOUNDVII.LE,  WIS. 

Dr.  LiNDLEY  next  touches  on  the  apple;  fortunately  he  has  referred  to  three  English 
varieties  which  are  supposed  to  be  in  the  winter  of  their  age;  the  Golden  Pippin,  Golden 
Hervey,  and  the  Red-streak.  Respecting  the  Golden  Pippin,  he  states  that  healthy  trees 
were  many  years  since  shown  to  exist  in  Norfolk,  and  in  warm  dry,  places  this  variety 
has  no  particular  appearance  of  suffering.  Trees  of  it  are  growing  vigorously  in  Madeira. 
It  is  also  growing  in  France,  whence  trees  have  been  brought  to  England,  which  are  said 
to  be  recruited  by  the  fine  dry  climate  of  the  former  country,  and  this  is  considered  to  be 
a  conclusive  answer  to  Mr.  Knight's  h^'pothcsis.  Previously,  however,  to  ariiving  at  this 
positive  conclusion.  Dr.  Likdley  should,  if  only  out  of  respect  to  the  "  memory  of  Thomas 
Andrew  Knigut,"  have  considered,  and  frankly  stated,  that  he  had  anticipated  what  would 
be  the  effect  of  such  like  circumstances  on  the  health  of  aged  varieties.  Mr.  Knight  ob- 
served, that  they  seemed  like  invalids,  to  enjo}'  the  benefit  of  a  better  climate — that  a  gra- 
velly, or  a  wet  soil,  or  a  cold  preceding  summer,  or  a  high  exposed  situation,  adds  much 
to  the  virulence  of  the  disease;  on  the  other  hand,  he  states  "  it  appeared  probable  that 
the  latter  period  of  the  existence  of  the  apple  tree  would  hi  considerably  prolonged  in  a 
southern  climate,  for  all  the  old  varieties  succeeded  best  in  warm  situations,  and  the  most 
diseased  flourish  with  the  greatest  vigor  when  trained  to  a  south  wall."  And  yet  with 
such  observations  as  these  by  Mr.  Knight  on  record.  Dr.  Lindlet  would  fain  persuade 
us,  that  because  trees  of  the  Golden  Pippin,  in  a  comparatively  healthy  state,  yet  exist  in 
France  and  Madeira,  and  in  warm  dry  places  in  England,  therefore  this  variety  is  not  de- 
clining in  vigor,  and  wearing  out. 

The  Golden  Pippin  was  formerly  a  general  favorite.  Mr.  Knight,  says,*  "  it  was  very 
extensively  planted  in  Herefordshire,  before  the  end  of  the  17th  century,  and  many  very 
large  orchards  of  it  still  remained  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  and  as  long  as 
the  tree  possessed  even  a  moderate  degree  of  health  and  vigor,  the  Golden  Pippin  retained 
the  character  of  a  very  prime  cider  apple.  But  owing  to  the  debilitated  state  of  the  vari- 
ety in  which  the  vital  principle  seems  nearly  expended,  much  of  the  fruit  generally  re- 
mains imperfect  and  immature,  and  almost  all  the  cider  which  it  has  afforded  Avithin  the 
last  twenty  years,  has  been  crude  or  thin,  and  very  frequently  acetous.  No  attempts  to 
propagate  it  as  a  cider  apple,  are  now  made  in  Herefordshire,  though  many  trees  of  it  of 
very  large  size,  still  remain."  If  this  apple  was  formerly  grown  with  so  much  success, 
and  was  so  highly  prized  for  its  qualities  in  Herefordshire,  and  if  varieties  of  plants  do 
not  in  the  course  of  time  become  debilitated,  and  more  susceptible  of  disease  and  injury 
from  adverse  influences,  then  why  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  does  not  the  Golden  Pip- 
pin now  flourish,  yield  excellent  cider,  and  grow  to  a  tree  of  very  large  size,  in  the  same 
soil,  the  same  climate,  and  with  the  same  treatment,  and  still  continue  to  be  a  universal 
fovorite  in  that  county.' 

It  cannot,  I  think,  be  reasonably  objected  in  this  case,  that  the  soil  was  probably  ex- 
hausted of  some  particular  aliment  necessary  for  the  healthy  development  of  this  apple. 
New  orchards  are  not  alwaj's  planted  on  the  sites  of  old  ones;  and  if  new  land  had  the 
power  of  restoring  this  variety  to  health,  so  striking  and  rauch-wished-for  a  result  must 
been  apparent  to  the  most  ordinary  observer,   and  have  become  generally  known 

*  Continued  from  p.  476. — t  Kiiiglil's  Pomona  Herefordiensis. 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS. 

Besides,  change  of  soil  was  one  of  the  expedients  specially  resorted  to  with  a  view  to 
restore  old  varieties  to  health,  and  proved  to  be  inefficient,  and  the  fact,  moreover,  that 
trees  of  the  old  varietes  grow  well  when  trained  to  a  south  wall,  indicates,  I  think,  most 
clearly,  that  it  is  not  the  soil,  but  the  vitality  of  the  plant,  which  is  at  fault.  When  the 
feeble  powers  of  the  plant  are  stimulated  by  the  greater  amount  of  heat  afforded  by  a  wall, 
it  is  enabled  to  obtain  from  the  soil  sufficient  material  to  enable  it  to  grow  with  apparent 
vigor,  while  in  the  same  soil,  as  a  standard,  it  is  decrepid  and  diseased. 

Respecting  the  Golden  Hervey,  Dr.  Lindley  says  it  is  in  all  good  gardens.  This  may 
be  so;  as  Mr.  Knight  says,  "  the  trees  of  the  Golden  Hervey  still  posses  a  considerable 
share  of  health  and  vigor,  and  for  culture  in  the  garden  only,  it  is  not  much  impaired  by 
age." 

Of  the  Red-streak  Dr.  Lindley  says  "  it  is  little  known  to  him,  and  he  has  no  evidence 
about  it."  But  if  varieties  of  the  apple  do  not  deteriorate  and  wear  out,  how  is  it  that 
this,  once  the  most  famous  cider  apple  known,  is  now  all  but  extinct?  Now  it  is  of  im- 
portance to  prove  that  varieties  of  plants  which  were  propagated  bj^  extension,  and  have 
disappeared,  or  nearly  so,  formerly  possessed  such  a  combination  of  good  properties  as  to 
make  it  highly  desirable  to  continue  tliem  for  ever  if  possible. 

That  the  Red-streak  was  held  in  great  estimation  may  be  inferred  from  Phillips'  poem 
named  "cider." 

Lei  every  tree  in  every  garden  own 

The  Red-streak  as  supreme,  whose  pulpous  fruit 

With  gold  irradiate,  and  vertnilhon  sliines. 

Evelyn  speaks  of  it  as  "  the  famous  Red-streak;"  and  again,  "  theGennetMoyle  was 
preferred  to  the  very  Red-streak."  "  The  Moj'le  of  sweetest  honied  taste."  It  is  also 
apparent  by  other  remarks,  that  Evelyn  considered  the  Red-streak  had  no  rival  in  this 
or  any  other  country.  With  regard  to  health  and  productiveness,  Evelyn  observes, 
"  the  Red-streak  will  at  three  years  old  grafting,  give  you  fair  hopes,  and  last  a  hundred 
years,  if  from  sundry  men's  experience  of  more  than  sixty  3'ears,  we  may  divine."  When 
comparing  the  merits  of  the  Golden  Pippin  with  the  Red-streak,  he  says  of  the  former, 
"  it  is  in  no  wise  so  proper  for  a  cider  orchard,  not  half  so  soon  bearing,  nor  so  certainly, 
nor  in  that  quantity,  nor  in  that  fulness  or  security,  for  as  it  (the  Red-streak)  is  no  tall 
tree,  so  it  is  less  exposed  to  blasts  and  the  like."  Then  respecting  the  quality  of  its 
cider.  In  papers  on  cider  and  cider  apples,  published  in  Evelyn's  Pomona,  one  writer  says, 
"  among  cider  apples  the  Red-streak  bears  the  bell."  Another  observes,  "the  cider  of 
the  summer  Red-streak  is  of  a  wonderful  fragrant  and  aromatic  quality."  Evelj-n  men- 
tions that  a  Mr.  Taylor  of  Herefordshire  challenged  a  London  vintner  that  he  would 
produce  a  cider  which  should  excel  his  best  Spanish  or  French  wines — "  the  wager  being 
deposited,  he  brings  in  a  good  Red-streak  to  a  private  house,  and  all  the  vintner  could  call 
to  be  judges  pronounced  against  his  wine."  The  vintner  not  being  satisfied,  two  other 
Avagers  were  entered  into,  but  M'ith  a  like  result.  Now  for  evidence  of  the  decline  of  this 
once  famous  apple.  In  Martyn's  edition  of  Miller  it  is  said,  "  the  Red-streak  so  much 
celebrated  by  writers  of  the  last  century,  appears  almost  to  have  survived  its  fame  as  a 
cider  apple."  Mr.  Knight  in  his  Pomona  Ilerefordionsis  observes,  "trees  of  the  Red- 
streak  can  now  no  longer  be  propagated,  and  the  fruit,  like  the  trees,  is  affected  by  the 
debilitated  old  nge  of  the  variety,  and  has  in  a  very  considerable  degree,  survived  those 
qualities  to   which  was  owing   its   former   fame;  the  cider   which   has   been  made  of  it 

one,  within  the  last  thirty  years  having  rarelj'  proved  good."     Here  then  we  hav 
ctor}'  proofs  of  a  once  famous   apple;  handsome,  hard}'',  productive,  and  afFo 


cider  of  surpassing  excellence;  having  become  feeble,  diseased  and  almost  if  not  quite  ex- 
tinct. Such  then,  when  they  come  to  be  examined,  are  the  facts  and  arguments  advanced 
by  Dr.  Lixdlkv  in  support  of  his  assertion  that  "  there  is  not  only  no  proof  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  Mr.  Knight's  theory,  but  the  strongest  presumption  to  the  contrary." 

As  in  the  case  of  the  natural  death  of  forest  trees,  the  facts  are  too  numerous  and  too 
well  authenticated,  proving  that  valuable  varieties  of  plants  propagated  by  extension, 
have  ultimately  become  diseased  and  unproductive,  and  con-sequentl}'  extinct. 

Dr.  Lindley  thus  explains  these  facts — "a  tree  is  allowed  from  some  cause  or  other  to 
become  unhealthy,  a  piece  cut  from  it  and  put  upon  another  tree,  carries  its  disease  with 
it;  when  again  divided,  the  disease  is  again  propagated;  and  this  will  go  on  so  long  as  the 
unhealthy  plants  remain  exposed  to  the  circumstances  which  originally  caused  their  bad 
health." 

Adverse  circumstances  certainly  tend  to  make  plants  unhealthy,  and  a  variety  of  apple 
which  has  been  in  existence  two  hundred  years  is  likely  to  have  been  exposed  to  a  greater 
amount  of  damaging  influences  than  a  variety  which  has  been  in  existence  only  fifty  years; 
therefore  we  may  reasonably  conclude  that  the  old  variety,  owing  to  the  effect  of  these 
adverse  external  influences  alone,  will  be  less  healthy  than  the  younger  variety. 

Dr.  LiNDLEY  may  tell  us  that  disease  does  not  arise  from  internal  but  external  circum- 
stances. But  the  question  will  intrude,  how  are  we  to  avoid  these  circumstances?  what 
is  "  the  some  cause  or  other"  which  makes  them  unhealthy.^  If  the  plants  of  a  variety 
in  a  certain  locality  only  become  diseased,  then  we  might  have  some  grounds  for  hope, 
but  when  we  remember  that  of  the  apples  mentioned  by  Parkinson,  the  names  only  re- 
main, and  when  we  now  know  that  old  varieties  of  the  apple  and  pear  decline  in  vigor  and 
productiveness,  first  in  cold  wet  ungenial  soils;  lastly  in  warm  dry  situations,  how  are 
we  to  prevent  this.''  "  Change  the  circumstances;  keep  off  the  cause  of  the  evil  and  the  evil 
will  gradually  disappear  as  in  the  case  of  the  Golden  Pippin."  Are  we  then  to  establish 
a  plant  hospital  in  the  South  of  France  or  in  Madeira;  what  other  means  are  we  to  resort 
to,  seeing  that  the  Golden  Pippin  is  the  only  instance  mentioned  of  trees  of  an  almost  worn 
out  variety  existing  in  a  comparative  state  of  health. 

The  duration  of  both  animal  and  vegetable  life  depends  upon  the  original  vigor  of  the 
constitution  as  well  as  adventitious  circumstances.  There  are  inherent  as  well  as  external 
influences  with  which  we  have  to  contend.  Thus  of  human  beings;  many  die  in  infancy, 
others  may  live  a  century.  Of  ten  thousand  born,  hardly  one  may  die  through  exhaus- 
tion of  vitality,  or  sheer  old  age, — I  mean,  without  the  exhibition  of  any  active  disease. 
Again,  of  two  children  born  with  equally  vigorous  constitutions;  one  whose  constitution 
has  been  subject  to  many  trials  may  die  in  forty  years,  whilst  the  other  more  favorably 
circumstanced  may  live  double  that  time.  In  like  manner  individual  seedling  plants 
differ  greatly  in  constitutional  vigor.  Some  we  find  are  so  weak  that  the  first  adverse  in- 
fluence to  which  they  may  be  exposed  destroys  them,  whilst  other  plants  of  the  like  kind 
and  age,  growing  under  the  same  circumstances,  remain  unharmed.  Why  is  this?  Be- 
cause of  the  difl'erence  in  constitutional  vigor.  Some  external  influence  may  have  been 
the  immediate  cause  of  death,  but  the  inherent  feebleness  of  the  plant  was  the  predisposing 
cause  which  led  to  its  destruction.  So  of  plants  with  originally  vigorous  constitutions; 
few  majr  die  simply  of  exhaustion  of  vitality,  and  a  tree  in  the  prime  of  its  existence  may 
become  unhealthy  and  diseased  from  various  external  causes;  the  soil  maybe  wet  or  other- 
wise unsuitable,  the  roots  may  wander  into  an  ungenial  subsoil,  or  the  leaves  in  an  ad- 
verse season  may  be  attacked  by  fungi,  &c.  But  improve  the  soil,  replant  the  trees 
prevent  their  roots  from  reaching  the  subsoil,  or  let   the  fungi  disappear,  and  the 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS 

being  sound  at  heart,  if  I  may  so  speak,  will,  ovA'ing  to  their  inherent  strength  be  restored 
to  better  health,  exactly  as  in  the  case  of  animals  in  the  prime  of  life  laboring  under  local 
or  transitory  circumstances  affecting  their  health.  But  we  may  graft  a  scion  of  an  old 
nearly  worn  out  variety  on  a  healthy  j'oung  stock,  we  may  jilant  it  in  a  situation  where 
trees  of  the  same  variety  continued,  previously,  in  health  and  vigor  upwards  of  a  hundred 
years  and  where  younger  varieties  now  grow  healthy  and  vigorously,  but  *'  the  young 
stock,"  as  Mr.  Knight  observed,  "  can  give  nutriment  only,  not  new  life;"  it  is  found 
therefore,  that  the  feeble  scion,  like  a  weak  seedling,  soon  shows  sj'mptoms  of  disease. 
If  it  be  objected  that  external  influences  first  caused  the  feebleness,  this  may  be  said  as 
reasonably  of  the  infirmities  of  age  in  animals.  It  is  inherent  weakness  in  both  which 
renders  the  attack  of  ordinary  external  influences  formidable. 

When  a  variety  of  apple  or  potato  has  arrived  at  the  best  and  most  productive  period 
of  its  existence,  is  it  rational  to  suppose  or  expect  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  can  keep  it 
stationary''  forever,  and  prevent  its  decline?  The  inherent,  and  many  of  the  external  in- 
fluences which  lead  to  debility  and  death,  are  beyond  the  control  of  man;  and  every  ad- 
verse influence  to  which  plants  or  animals  are  exposed,  contributes  more  or  less,  to  pros- 
trate and  wear  out  the  constitution;  and  the  power  of  external  influences  increases  in  pro- 
portion to  the  diminution  of  vital  power.  Man,  by  various  expedients,  may  postpone  the 
evil  day,  but  he  cannot  prevent  its  coming.  He  may,  for  instance,  betake  himself  to  Italy 
or  Madeira,  in  order  to  bolster  up  his  feeble  constitution,  and  he  may  take  plants  of  his 
favorite  old  invalid  fruit  trees,  with  him,  as  a  warmer  climate  is  found  to  be  as  beneficial 
to  them  as  to  him,  and  both  may  return  to  their  native  land  considerably  fortified,  but 
certainly  not  restored  to  the  vigor  of  youth. 

Proofs  of  the  degeneracy  of  varieties  of  the  potato,  are  too  numerous  to  admit  of  doubt. 
The  changes  induced  in  a  variety  by  time,  are,  I  believe,  very  accurately  described  by  the 
editor  of  the  Irish  Farmer's  Magazine.*  "  In  a  few  years,"  he  observes  "  after  a  variety 
has  been  raised  from  seed,  it  arrives  at  its  greatest  degree  of  productiveness;  then  it  con- 
tinues annually,  for  a  number  of  years,  to  decrease  in  productiveness,  but  to  become  more 
valuable  for  food,  being  more  farinaceous,  or  as  it  is  termed,  drier;  afterwards  it  begins  to 
lose  this  quality,  also,  and  rapid^'  to  decline,  until  in  a  few  years  more,  it  is  utterly  use- 
less." Dr.  LiNDLEY  offers  an  explanation  of  these  facts  also,  which  he  wishes  us  to  substi- 
tute for  that  of  Mr.  Knight;  "  a  potato  forced  in  such  land,"  he  observes,  "  has  a  fee- 
ble constitution,  and  a  small  matter  makes  it  ill;  its  unhealthiness  is  communicated  to  its 
successors,  and  so  the  evil  is  ceaselessly  augmented."  He  further  remarks,  "  after  six 
months  unnatural  treatment  during  winter,  the  tubers  are  committed  to  the  ground,  and 
though  we  have  no  reason  whatever,  to  connect  this  practice  with  the  blight,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  doubt  that  such  a  practice,  long  persevered  in,  must  have  a  tendency  to  diminish 
the  constitutional  vigor  of  the  crop."  The  remedy  proposed  is  to  raise  potatoes  for  sets 
upon  a  different  principle  from  those  which  are  for  the  table;  they  must  be  grown  in  poor, 
light  land,  left  in  the  ground  undug  during  winter,  or  planted  in  autumn,  or  if  taken  up 
and  not  planted  in  autumn,  they  must  be  thoroughl}'  greened  and  packed  in  sand,  ^nd 
we  are  to  comfort  ourselves  with  the  belief  that  these  means  are  sufficient  to  restore  the 
potato  to  its  primitive  vigor,  and  that  it  is  nonsense  to  think  of  troubling  ourselves  by  rais- 
ing new  varieties  from  seed. 

Can  it  be  considered  probable,  that  this  method  of  renovating  the  health  of  aged  or  dis- 
eased varieties  of  the  potato,  should  have  escaped  the  attention  of  Mr.  Knight.     He  knew 
the  pernicious  efi'ects  on  the  progeny  of  over-feeding  our  domestic  cattle,  with  a  view 

*  1S34,  p.  340 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS. 

to  premiums,  as  one  of  my  letters  from  him  testifies,  and  doubtless  no  man  was  better 
aware  of  the  injurious  effects  of  an  excess  of  food  and  other  influences  on  plants-  Then 
consider  the  attention  which  he  obviously  paid  to  the  culture  of  the  potato,  the  unusual 
care  and  diligence  with  which  he  conducted  all  his  inquiries,  and  the  anxious  desire  he 
ever  manifested  to  arrive  at  the  truth,  by  repeatedly  trying  experiments  from  which  he 
suspected  results  unfavorable  to  the  conclusions  at  which  he  had  arrived.  The  object, 
moreover,  which  he  constantly  had  in  view,  was  utility.  To  be  useful  to  his  country  and 
fellow  men,  by  discovering  important  truths  in  cultivation,  was  the  aim  of  all  his  inqui- 
ries. Yet,  with  such  qualifications  as  these,  and  when  near  the  close  of  his  invaluable 
labors,  and  after  fiftj^  years,  at  least,  of  experiments  and  observations  on  plants,  Mr. 
IvNi'iHT  said,  "  I  have,  in  several  instances,  tried  to  renovate  the  vigor  of  old  and  excel- 
lent nearly  expended  varieties  of  the  potato,  by  change  of  soil  and  mode,  of  culture,  but 
I  never  in  any  degree,  succeeded;  all  became  iniproductive  and  worthless."  Yet,  not- 
withstanding, Mr.  Knight,  with  his  profound  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  vegetable  life, 
and  his  great  skill  as  a  cultivator,  was  foiled  in  his  repeated  endeavors  to  re-invigorate  old 
varieties  of  the  potato;  the  peasantry  of  England  were  seriously  told,  that  to  think  of  re- 
novating the  potato  crop,  by  raising  new  varieties  from  seed,  Avas  a  dream,  and  that  if  they 
would  only  adopt  certain  methods,  they  might  restore  old  varieties  to  health  and  vigor, 
and  so  continue  them  healthy  and  vigorous  forever. 

The  failure  of  Mr.  Knight  and  others,  to  restore  old  varieties  of  the  potato  to  health, 
is  not  the  only  ground  for  doubting  the  efficacy  of  the  means  recommended  by  Dr.  Lind- 
LEY.  If  the  feebleness  of  the  constitution,  or  the  wearing  out  of  varieties  were  a  conse- 
quence chiefly  of  their  being  grown  in  too  rich  land,  or  frequently  repeated  on  the  same 
land,  surely  garden  varieties  should  have  been  short  lived,  and  most  subject  to  disease, 
for  gardens  generally  are  much  more  highly  manured  than  fields,  and  there  the  crop  is 
most  frequently  repeated.  But  early  varieties  seem  upon  the  whole,  to  have  been  more 
free  from  disease  than  late,  or  field  varieties,  and  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  as  a  general 
rule,  they  continue  in  a  healthy  and  useful  condition  for  a  much  greater  length  of  time, 
owing  to  the  non-production  of  blossoms  and  seeds.  These  do  not,  moreover,  have  the 
same  high  forming  in  other  countries  as  in  England,  of  late  years;  and  in  England,  what 
may  be  called  high  farming,  is  even  now  the  exception,  and  not  the  rule.  Much  of  the 
arable  land  in  the  first  settled  parts  of  the  United  States,  is  well  known  to  have  been  con- 
siderably exhausted  by  taking  repeated  white  crops,  without  making  any  adequate  return 
to  the  soil,  in  the  shape  of  manure,  yet  the  blight  of  the  potato  has  been  fully  as  virulent 
in  the  United  States  as  in  England.  In  this  section  of  the  country,  the  potato  has  been 
grown  on  land  first  broken  up  two  or  three  years  ago,  and  to  which,  in  many  instances, 
no  manure  has  been  applied,  but  the  crops  are  blighted,  our  plants  are  now  nearly  desti- 
tute of  foliage,  and  in  many  cases  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  tubers  has  alrea- 
dy decayed. 

Varieties  of  the  ranunculus  and  anemone,  which  are  propagated  by  their  tubers,  are 
also  exempt  from  many  of  the  causes  which  Dr.  Lindley  says  must  be  avoided  in  the 
future  cultivation  of  the  potato,  with  a  view  to  restore  it  to  health.  The  tubers  of  these 
plants  are  not  gathered  into  heaps,  and  suffered  to  heat  during  winter;  they  are  not  al- 
lowed to  grow  before  planting  in  spring;  consequently  no  useless  sprouts  are  rubbed  off; 
they  are  not  planted  on  raw  manure,  nor  are  they  cut  into  sets;  therefore  there  is  no  loss 
of  sap,  or  danger  of  injury  from  external  causes  arising  from  that  practice.  Yet,  not 
landing  these  disadvantages,  and  notwithstanding  the  care  and  skill  bestowed 
b}'  the  ardent  florists,  varieties  of  these  plants  unquestionably  degenerate  and  wear 


DURATION  OF  VARIETIES  OF  PLANTS. 

One  of  the  first  authorities  on  the  ranunculus,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ttso,  a  gentleman  who 
has  raised  thousands  of  this  beautiful  flower  from  seeds,  observes  that  "  the  longevity 
of  the  ranunculus  has  been  variously  stated.  Some  of  the  finest  seedlings  are  weak,  and 
therefore  die  in  a  few  years,  though  for  a  time  they  had  great  renown;  others  of  first  rate 
character,  are  remarkably  strong,  and  increase  abundantly.  A  variety  may  be  perpetuat- 
ed about  a  century.  Many  of  the  varieties  standing  high  in  the  esteem  of  florists  forty 
3' ears  ago,  are  fast  declining  in  numbers  and  energj'^;  they  now  blossom  less  frequently,  or 
produce  smaller  blossoms.  Seedlings  possess  all  the  luxuriance  and  vigor  of  youth,  and 
pi'oduce  larger  and  finer  blossoms  than  the  old  varieties."*  Similar  observations  might  be 
quoted  from  papers  in  the  Gardener's  Chronicle,  by  Dr.  Horner,  Mr.  R.  Lymburn,  and 
other  cultivators  of  this  flower. 

Another  high  authority  in  these  matters,  minutely  describes  the  eflfects  of  age  on  varie- 
ties of  the  anemone.  "  The  constitution  of  anemones,"  says  Mr.  Maddock,!  undergoes 
considerable  changes  with  age,  which  is,  perhaps,  in  a  greater  or  smaller  degree,  the  case 
Avith  all  other  vegetables.  The  anemone  Mill  not  last  over  twelve  or  fifteen  years  without 
degenerating,  unless  it  be  frequently  removed  to  a  different  soil  and  situation;  nor  will 
any  removals  protract  or  prolong  its  existence  more  than  thirty  or  forty  years.  It  gene- 
rally blooms  in  the  greatest  perfection  from  the  fifth  to  the  tenth  or  twelfth  year,  after 
which  it  gradually  becomes  smaller  and  weaker,  and  if  the  flower  was  originally  full  and 
double,  with  age  it  loses  that  property ;  the  petals  diminish  in  number,  become  small  and 
irregular  and  finally,  the  sort  perishes.  It  has  more  than  once  occurred,  that  the  same 
variety,  although  in  the  possession  of  many  persons  residing  at  remote  distances  from  each 
other,  has  been  entirely  lost  in  one  season,  without  the  possibility  of  accounting  for  it  in 
any  other  manner  than  the  above." 

Mr.  Knight's  hypothesis  seems  indeed  to  be  based  on  such  numerous  indisputable  facts, 
the  results  of  repeated  experiments  and  observations  by  himself  and  other  practical  men, 
that  I  could  scarcely  have  believed  any  serious  objection  would  be  urged  against  it  at  the 
present  day,  by  any  man  whose  opinion  is  entitled  to  respect.  Loudon,  who  was  so  de- 
cidedly opposed  to  it  at  one  time,  very  nearly  coincided  with  Mr.  Knight's  views  lately, 
as  your  extract  from  the  Suburban  Horticulturist  indicates.  In  the  life  of  Mr.  Knight, 
prefixed  to  the  published  collection  of  his  Phys.  and  Hort.  papers,  it  is  said :  "  Mr.  Knight's 
hypothesis  was  so  contrary  to  generally  received  opinions,  that  it  at  first  met  with  consi- 
derable opposition;  but  the  increasing  decay  of  the  old  fruits,  even  when  grafted  on  the 
most  vigorous  stocks,  and  the  superior  healthiness  of  the  new  varieties  produced  from 
seed,  has  caused  Mr.  Knight's  theory  to  be  almost  universally  adopted." 

Dr.  LiNDLEY  has  indeed  himself  placed  on  record  the  most  decided  opinion  in  favor  of 
this  hypothesis, — that  there  is  some  analogy  between  vegetable  and  animal  life;  that  va- 
rieties of  plants  do  become  feeble  and  less  productive  as  they  become  old.  In  an  article 
in  the  Gardene/'s  Chronicle  of  the  Gth  of  September,  1845,  he  said,  "  raising  seedling  po- 
tatoes is  a  practice  upon  the  importance  of  which  we  have  frequently  insisted.  All  old 
varieties  of  those  cultivated  plants  which  are  propagated  by  division  of  the  stem  and  not 
by  seeds,  seem  to  decline  as  they  grow  old,  there  being  some  analogy  in  this  respect  be- 
tween plants  and  animals."  In  the  Gardener's  Chronicle  of  March  1,  1845,  Dr.  Lind- 
LEY,  in  an  article  on  the  potato  said — "  finally  let  us  point  to  the  immense  importance  (the 
italics  are  his  own)  of  renewing  the  vigor  of  potatoes  by  raising  new  varieties  from  seeds; 
this  has  been  tried  over  and  over  again,  and  always  with  some  advantage;  sometimes  with  a 
deal.  It  is  certain  that  the  productive  quality  of  a  given  variety  of  the  potato  is  in 
Gurd.  Chroii.,  June  22,  1844,  and  Tyso's  Pamph.  on  the  Ranunculus  — t  Haddock's  Florist's  Directory 


PARLOR-FLOWERS  L\  WINTER. 


proportion  to  its  youth,  and  that  all  varieties  cease,  after  a  few  j-ears,  to  be  as  productive 
as  they  once  Mere.  When  Mr.  Knight's  seedlings  weie  originally  tried,  they  yielded 
in  one  case  at  the  rate  of  68  and  70  for  one;  no  such  crops  can  now  be  obtained  from 
them." 

In  tlic  n;ll  of  that  year,  1845,  the  blight  of  the  potato  was  first  extensively  developed 
in  England,  and  Dr.  Lindley  with  two  eminent  chemists  were  appointed  on  a  commission 
by  the  government  of  the  late  Sir  Kobeut  Peel,  to  inquire  into  the  cause  and  suggest  a 
remedy.  Considering  that  I  had  good  reasons  to  be  disatisfied  with  their  explanation,  and 
that  a  more  truthful  view  of  the  whole  cause  had  occurred  to  me,  I  sent  three  letters  to 
the  London  Morning  Herald,  stating  ray  views  as  to  the  nature  of  the  malady,  and  show- 
ing that  the  commissioners  were  in  error  in  concluding  that  the  disease  was  of  a  tempora- 
ry character;  that  their  explanation  was  not  adequate  to  account  for  it,  and  that  their  re- 
medial measures  alone  could  not  possibly  prove  efficient. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  time  has  abundantly  proved  my  objections  were  well  founded.  In 
the  article  on  the  20th  of  Dec,  1845.  Dr.  Lindley,  when  objecting  to  my  notions  in  the 
matter  said,  "we  regard  the  notion  that  the  races  (varieties)  of  plants  wear  out,  as  utterly 
baseless  and  visionary.  The  health  of  the  potato  is  not,  with  any  certainty,  to  be  increas- 
ed by  raising  new  varieties  fiom  seeds.  The  idea  of  renovating  the  potato  crops  of  Europe 
by  raising  new  varieties  from  seed  is  a  dream.  We  advise  growers  not  to  indulge  in  a  vain 
hope  that  seedling  varieties  will  be  any  better  than  what  they  now  have."  May  I  not 
well  ask,  if  in  March  and  September,  it  was  certain  that  in  the  course  of  time  the  pro- 
duce of  varieties  diminishes,  and  they  become  feeble  as  tbey  grow  old,  what  had  occurred 
since;  what  new  light  had  there  been  thrown  on  the  subject,  that  these  opinions  should  in 
December  be  denounced  as  "  utterly  baseless  and  visionary?"  If  in  March  and  Septem- 
ber, renewing  the  vigor  of  potatoes  by  raising  new  varieties  from  seeds,  was  a  point  of 
hnmcnse  importance,  a  practice  always  attended  with  some  advantage,  why  in  December 
should  the  idea  of  renovating  the  health  of  the  potato  crop  by  raising  a  succession  of  new 
varieties  from  seed  be  pronounced  a  dream,  and  the  hope  that  seedlings  would  be  any  bet- 
ter than  those  we  now  have  be  dismissed  as  vain? 

Respectfully  yours,  John  Townley. 

MoundvilU,  Marquette  county,  Wis. 

We  commend  Mr.  Townley's  article — certainly  one  of  the  most  interesting  we  have 
published  in  this  Journal — to  the  perusal  of  our  readers.     Ed. 


PARLOR-FLOWERS   IN   WINTER. 

BY  H.  W    BEECHER. 

The  treatment  of  house-plants  is  very  little  understood,  although  the  practice  of  keep- 
ing shrubs  and  flowers  during  the  winter,  is  almost  universal.  It  is  important  that  the 
physiological  principles  on  which  success  depends,  should  be  fairly  understood,  and  then 
cultivators  can  apply  them  with  success  in  all  the  varying  circumstances  in  which  they 
may  be  called  to  act. 

Two  objects  are  proposed  in  taking  plants  into  the  house, — either  simple  protection,  or 
the  development  of  their  foliage  and  flowers  during  the  winter.     The  same  treatment  will 
for  both  objects.     Indeed  the  greatest  number  of  persons  of  our  acquaintance,  treat 
inter  plants,  from  which  they  desire  flowers,  as  if  they  only  wished  to  preserve 


PARLOR-FLOWERS  L\  WINTER. 


tliem  till  spring;  and  the  consequence  is,  that  they  have  very  little  enjoyment  in  their  fa- 
vorites. 

Treatment  of  House-planls  designed  simply  to  Stand  Over, — Tender  roses,  Azaleas, 
Cape  Jessamines,  Crape  Myrtles,  Oranges,  Lemons,  Figs,  Oleanders,  may  be  kept  in  a 
light  cellar  if  frost  never  penetrates  it. 

If  kept  in  parlors,  the  following  are  the  most  essential  points  to  be  observed.  The  ther- 
mometer should  never  be  permitted  to  rise  above  60"  or  65°;  nor  at  night  to  sink  below 
40°.  Although  plants  will  not  be  frost-bitten  until  the  mercury  falls  to  32°,  yet  the  chill 
of  a  temperature  below  40°  will  often  be  as  mischievous  to  tender  plants,  as  frost  itself. 
Excessive  heat,  particularly  a  dry  stove  heat,  will  destroy  the  leaves  almost  as  certainly  as 
frost.  We  have  seen  plants  languishing  in  a  temperature  of  70°,  [it  often  rising  ten  de- 
grees higher,]  while  the  owners  wondered  what  could  ail  the  plants,  for  they  were  sure 
that  they  kept  the  room  warm  enough! 

Next,  great  care  should  be  taken  not  to  o^■er-water.  Plants  which  are  not  growing,  re- 
quire very  little  water.  If  given,  the  roots  become  sogged,  or  rotten,  and  the  whole  plant 
is  enfeebled.  Water  should  never  be  suffered  to  stand  in  the  saucers;  nor  be  given,  always, 
when  the  top  soil  is  dry.  Let  the  earth  be  stirred,  and  when  the  interior  of  the  ball  is 
becoming  dry,  give  it  a  copious  supply,  let  it  drain  through  thoroughly,  and  then  turn  oiF 
what  falls  into  the  saucer. 

Plants  designed  for  Winter-Flowering. — It  is  to  be  remembered  that  winter  is  natu- 
rally the  season  of  rest  for  plants.  All  plants  require  to  lie  dormant  during  some  portion 
of  the  year.  You  cannot  cheat  them  out  of  it.  If  they  are  pushed  the  whole  year,  they 
become  exhausted  and  worthless.  Here  lies  the  most  common  error  of  plant-keepers.  If 
you  mean  to  have  roses,  blooming  geraniums,  &c.,  in  winter,  you  must,  artificially,  change 
their  season  of  rest.  Plants  which  flower  in  summer  must  rest  in  winter;  those  which 
are  to  flower  in  winter,  must  rest  either  in  summer  or  autumn.  It  is  not,  usually,  worth 
while  to  take  into  the  house  for  flowering  purposes,  any  shrub  which  has  been  in  full  bloom 
during  the  summer  or  autumn.  Select  and  pot  the  wished  for  flowers  during  summer; 
place  them  in  a  shaded  position  facing  the  north,  give  them  very  little  water,  and  then 
keep  them  quiet.  Their  energies  will  thus  be  saved  for  winter.  When  taken  into  the 
house,  the  four  essential  points  of  attention  are  light,  moisture,  temperature,  and  cleanli- 
ness. 

1.  Light.  The  functions  of  the  leaves  cannot  be  healthfully  carried  on  without  liglit. 
If  there  be  too  little,  the  sap  is  imperfectly  elaborated,  and  returns  from  the  leaves  to  the 
body  in  a  crude,  undigested  state.  The  growth  will  be  coarse,  water}^,  and  brittle;  and 
that  ripeness  which  must  precede  flowers  and  fruit  cannot  be  attained.  The  sprawling, 
spindling,  white-colored,  long-jointed,  plants,  of  which  some  persons  are  unwisel}'^  proud, 
are,  often,  the  result  of  too  little  light  and  too  much  water.  The  pots  should  be  turned 
around  every  day,  unless  when  the  light  strikes  down  from  above,  or  from  windows  on 
each  side;  otherwise,  they  will  grow  out  of  shape  by  bending  toward  the  light. 

2.  Moisture.  Different  species  of  plants  require  different  quantities  of  water.  What 
are  termed  aquatics,  of  which  the  Calla  ^thiopica,is  a  specimen,  require  great  abundance 
of  it.  Yet  it  should  be  often  changed  even  in  the  case  of  aquatics.  But  roses,  geraniums, 
&c.,  and  the  common  house  plants  require  the  soil  to  be  moist,  rather  than  wet.  As  a 
general  rule  it  may  be  said  that  every  pot  should  have  one-sixth  part  of  its  depth  filled 
with  coarse  pebbles,  as  a  drainage,  before  the  plants  are  potted.  This  gives  all  superflu 
ous  moisture  a  free  passage  out.  Plants  should  be  watered  by  examination  and  not 
time.     They  require  various  quantities  of  moisture,  according  to  their  activity,  an 


DESCRIPTION  OF  NEW  PEARS. 

period  of  their  growth.  Let  the  earth  be  well  stirred,  and  if  it  is  becoming  dry  on  the  in- 
side, give  water.  Never  water  by  dribblets — a  spoonful  to-day,  another  to-morrow.  In 
this  way  the  outside  will  become  bound,  and  the  inside  remain  dr}^.  Give  a  copious  wa- 
tering, so  that  the  Avhole  ball  sliall  be  soaked;  then  let  it  drain  off,  and  that  which  comes 
into  the  saucer  be  poured  off.  But,  in  whatever  way  one  prefers  to  give  water,  the  thing 
to  be  gained  is,  a  full  supply  of  moisture  to  every  part  of  the  roots,  and  yet  not  so  much 
as  to  have  it  stand  about  them.  Mannre-water  may  be  employed  with  great  benefit  every 
second  or  third  watering.  For  this  purpose  we  have  never  found  anything  equal  in  value 
to  guano.  Besides  water  to  the  root,  plants  are  almost  as  much  benefitted  by  water  on 
the  leaf — but  of  this  we  shall  speak  under  the  head  of  cleanliness. 

3.  Temperature.  Sudden  and  violent  changes  of  temperature  are  almost  as  trying  to 
plants  as  to  animals  and  men.  At  the  same  time,  a  moderate  change  of  temperature  is 
very  desirable.  Thus,  in  nature,  there  is  a  marked  and  uniform  variation  at  night  from 
the  temperature  of  the  day.  At  night,  the  room  should  be  gradually  lowered  in  tempera- 
ture to  from  45*  to  50°;  while  through  the  day  it  ranges  from  55°  to  70*^.  Too  much, 
and  too  sudden  heat  will  destroy  tender  leaves  almost  as  surely  as  frost.  It  should  also 
be  remembered  that  the  leaves  of  plants  are  constantly  exhaling  moisture  during  the  day. 
If  in  too  warm  an  atmosphere,  or  in  one  which  is  too  dry,  this  perspiration  becomes  ex- 
cessive and  M'eakens  the  plant.  If  the  room  be  stove-heated,  a  basin  of  water  should  be 
put  on  the  stove  to  supply  moisture  to  the  air  by  evaporation.  Sprinkling  the  leaves,  a 
kind  of  artificial  dew,  is  also  beneficial,  on  this  account.  The  air  should  be  changed  as 
often  as  possible.  Every  warm  and  sunny  day  should  be  improved  to  let  in  fresh  air  upon 
these  vegetable  breathers. 

4.  Cleanlin:ss.  This  is  an  important  element  of  health  as  well  as  of  beauty.  Animal 
unchanliness  is  first  to  be  removed.  If  ground-worms  have  been  incorporated  with  the 
dirt,  give  a  dose  or  two  of  lime-water  to  the  soil.  Next  aphides  or  green-lice  will  appear 
upon  the  leaves  and  stems.  Tobacco  smoke  will  soon  stupefy  them  and  cause  them  to 
tumble  upon  the  shelves  or  surface  of  the  soil,  whence  they  are  to  be  carefully  brushed, 
or  crushed.  If  one  has  but  a  few  plants,  put  them  in  a  group  upon  the  floor;  put  four 
chairs  around  them  and  cover  Avith  an  old  blanket,  forming  a  sort  of  tent.  Set  a  dish  of 
coals  within,  and  throw  on  a  handful  of  tobacco  leaves.  Fifteen  minutes  smoking  will 
destroj'  any  decent  aphis. 

If  a  larger  collection  is  on  hand,  let  the  dish  or  dishes  be  placed  under  the  stands. 
When  the  destruction  is  completed,  let  the  parlor  be  well  ventilated,  unless,  fair  lady, 
you  have  an  inveterate  smoker  for  a  husband ;  in  which  case  you  may  have  become  used  to 
the  nuisance.  The  insects  which  infest  large  collections  in  green-houses,  are  fuU}^  treated 
of  in  horticultural  books  of  directions. 

Dust  will  settle  every  day  upon  the  leaves,  and  choke  up  the  perspiring  pores.  The 
leaves  should  be  kept  free  by  gentle  wiping,  or  by  washing.  II.  W.  B. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THREE  NEW  PEARS. 

BY  ANDRE  LEROY,  ANGERS,  FRANCE. 

AVe  have  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  from  Monsieur  Le  Roy,  of  Angers,  the  follow- 
ino-  descriptions  of  valuable  new  fruits,  which  we  take  pleasure  in  presenting  to  our  read- 
er. Le  Rot  enjoj^s  a  well  earned  reputation  as  one  of  the  most  distinguished  Fren 
tors;  his  nurseries,  the  finest  in  France — covering  over  an  hundred  acres,  are 


DESCRIPTION  OF  NEW  PEARS. 


Doyenne  du  Cornice  d^ Angers 

ably  known  in  the  United  States. 
They  embrace,  among  other  things, 
a  "  School  of  Pears,"  where  all  vari- 
eties of  merit  are  tested  before  being 
propagated  in  the  nurseries — a  feature 
which  is  now  being  adopted  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  in  this  country. 

I.  Doyenne  du  Cornice  d'An- 
GERS. — Tree  —  vigorous,  pyramidal 
shaped,  productive;  fruit — very  large, 
regularly  turbinate;  skin — greenish 
yellow,  speckled  with  russet  dots; 
flesh-melting, buttery,  juicy,  sugary, 
agreeably  perfumed;  very  delicious; 
ripens  in  November  and  December; 
raised  from  seed  in  the  garden  of  the 
Horticultural  Society  at  Angers. 

IT.  WiEDOw  Pear. — The  trees  of 


this  variety  are  of 
medium  growth,  py- 
ramidal  shaped, 
straight  branched 
the  wood  is  short 
stout;  very  produc- 
tive; fruit — of  medi- 
um size,  regularly 
turbinate;  the  stem 
is  slender,  and  ob- 
liquely inserted  at 
the  surface;  color — 
yellowish  green,  co- 
vered over  about  half 
of  the  surface  with 
dark  gray  spots, 
grayer  on  the  sunny 
side.  It  resembles 
the  color  of  Beurre 
9'Angleterre;  skin — 
Ihin;  flesh  —  white, 
very  melting,  butte- 
ry; juice— abundant, 
slightly  acidulous  or 


Wiedoio  Pear 


DESCRIPTION  OF  NEW  PEARS. 


vinous  in  flavor;  agreeably  perfumed  and  highly  flavored.      It  is  a  delicious,  first 
pear,  and  I  do  not  know  another  equally  good  at  this  season,  where  we  have  SO  many 
kinds  in  ripening, — end  of  September  and  October.    I  do  not  know  its  origin. 


Beurre  Clairgeau  of  Nantes. 

III.  Beurke  Clairgeau,  (of  Nantes.) — A  very  large  fruit,  irregularly  turbinated; 
skin — yellow  greenish,  with  dark  spots;  flesh — melting,  buttery,  juicy;  resembles  the 
Graj"^  Doyenne;  ripens  in  October  and  November.  A  vigorous  tree;  very  productive,  and 
forming  fine  pyramids.  It  is  a  handsome  pear  of  first  rate  quality,  raised  from  seed  by 
Mr.  Clairgeau,  at  Nantes,  (France,)  and  put  in  trade  by  the  care  of  the  Horticultural 
Society  of  this  city.  Yours  very  respectfully,  Andre  Le  Ror. 

Angers,  France,  1st  Sept.,  1S5I. 


No.  XI. 


2. 


ORNAMENTAL  CRABS  AND  APPLES. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  ORNAMENTAL  CRABS  AND  APPLES. 

BY  B.  DESPORTES,  ANGERS,  FRANCE. 

Mr.  Downing — I  take  the  liberty  to  forward  you 
the  following  descriptions  of  our  collections  of  ap- 
ples for  ornament.  I  beg  you  to  give  a  place  in 
your  Journal  to  them,  if  you  think  them  accepta- 
ble. I  am  very  respectfully, 

B.  Desportes. 

Among  the  numerous  collections  of  ornamental 
trees  and  shrubs  of  any  sort,  that  Mr.  Andre  Le- 
ROY  cultivates  in  his  large  nurseries,  there  is  a  ge- 
nus that  we  have  not  met  with  any  where  else  so 
complete.  It  is  this  of  the  ornamental  apples,  in- 
cluding the  series  of  Baccata,  [Siberian  Crabs.]  All 
the  following  kinds  are  not  eatable,  except  the  Si- 
berian Crabs,  which  are  very  suitable  to  make  good 
preserves,  but  we  use  them  more  generally  in  the 
ornamental  plantations  of  the  parks  and  pleasure 
grounds.  They  are  so  productive  that  the  fruits 
touch  each  other  on  the  branches;  their  brilliant  co- 
lor makes  them  of  the  most  ornamental  objects.  The 
fruit  hangs  upon  the  tree  a  very  long  time,  and  does 
not  fall  till  after  the  frosts  in  November.  We  use 
the  fruits  very  agreeably  to  decorate  a  desert  table. 

No.  1.  TuE  Purple  Siberian  Crab — Baccata 
fructa  purpurea  or  rosea.  Fruit,  about  one  inch 
high,  and  one  and  a  half  broad,  oblate  towards  the 
two  extremities,  roundish  on  the  other  side;  stem, 
two-thirds  of  an  inch  long,  slight  slender,  curvate, 
inserted  within  a  profound  cavity;  color,  beautiful 
reddish  purple  on  the  sunny  side,  covered  with  fine 
white  flower  like  that  of  the  plums,  the  shaded  side 
is  less  brilliant,  and  all  the  surface  is  .speckled  with 
same  gray  dots;  flesh,  is  like  all  the  crabs,  coarse 
and  acerb. 

No.  2.  Large  Siberian  Crab — Baccata  viacro- 
carpa.  Fruit,  about  one  inch  long  and  a  little  more 
in  diameter,  compressed  towards  the  eye,  roundish 
towards  the  stem;  this  is  one  and  a  half  inches 
long,  slender,  almost  right,  covered  with  asperities 
towards  the  upper  part.  It  is  inserted  within  a 
narrow  and  deep  cavity;  eye  small,  closed  outside 
of  the  surface,  inserted  upon  some  small  wrinkles 
reunited  together;  color,  rose  violet  on  the  sunny 
.side,  covered  with  a  white  bloom,  and  green  on  the 
shaded  side. 

3.  Striped  Siberian  Crab — Baccata  fructa 


ORNAMENTAL  CRABS  AND  APPLES 


striata.  Fruit,  one-third  of  an  inch  high  and  one  and  a  half 
inch  in  diameter;  form,  roundish  oblate  towards  the  eye, 
round  towards  the  stalk;  this  is  half  an  inch  long,  large 
at  the  upper  end,  obliquely  inserted  in  a  profound  cavit}'; 
eye,  small,  closed;  segments  of  the  calyx  united  in  a  bun- 
dle; color,  rose  yellowish,  red  striped  every  where,  car- 
mine on  the  sunny  side,  more  yellow  towards  the  stem; 
covered  with  a  fine  white  bloom.  This  is  an  extremely  or- 
namental tree. 

No.  4.  Rouen  Transparent  Siberian  Crab — Bacca- 
ta  transparent  de  Routn.     Fruit,  about  one  inch  high  and 
one-third  of  an  inch  in  diameter;  form,  oblate,  compressed 
towards  the  eye,  round  towards  the  stalk,  irregular;  stem, 
slender,  sometimes  very  long,  ordinarily  one  and  a  half  in- 
ches, curved  obliquel3^,  inserted  in  a  deep  but  very  wide  ca- 
vity; calyx,  small,  inserted  at  the  surface,  between  several 
small  wrinkles;  color,   red   carmine  everywhere, 
except  in  the  place  wholly  covered  by  shade,  then 
the  color  is  yellowish,  covered  upon  all  the  surface 
with  a  white  fine  bloom,  which  makes  it  very  beau- 
tiful and  transparent. 

No.  5.  OblOxVG  Siberian  Crab — Baccatafruc- 
ta  oblonga.  Fruit,  one  and  a  half  inches  high,  and 
a  little  more  than  an  inch  in  diameter;  form,  oblong 
or  ovoid,  irregular;  a  lip  surmounts  the  insertion 
of  a  side  of  the  stem,  and  another  the  eye;  the 
stiilk  is  long,  slender,  curved,  larger  at  the  upper 
part;  calyx,  small  and  almost  wholly  covered  by 
the  lip,  and  crowded  by  small  wrinkles;  color,  red 
crimson  everywhere,  speckled  with  small  gray 
dots;  the  time  of  ripening  is  earlier  than  for  the 
other  kind;  this  time  arrives  generally  about  the 
end  of  September.  The  figure  shows  two  speci- 
cimens  of  different  size,  of  the  same  kind. 

No.  6.  The  Double  White  Siberian  Crab — 
Flore  pleno  alba.  Fruit,  three-fourths  of  an  inch  high,  and 
one  and  a  quarter  inches  in  diameter;  form,  compressed, 
round,  irregular,  more  swollen  on  one  side  than  the  other; 
stalk,  one-third  of  an  inch  long,  larger  at  the  upper  extre- 
mity, obliquely  inserted  at  the  surface;  eye,  large,  even  with 
the  surface,  closed ;  color,  red  carmine  on  the  sunny  side, 
green  on  the  shaded  side,  covered  with  white  bloom. 

This  kind  is  worthy  of  notice,  not  only  by  the  fruits  but 
by  the  flowers,  which  are  large,  double  white  rosy.  It  is  a 
brilliant  and  very  ornamental  crab. 

No.  7.  Tqe  Fragrant  Flowered  Siberian  Crab. — 
Odorata.     Fruit,  small,  about  three-fourths  of  an  inch  high 


No.  11. 


No.  7. 

and  one  inch  broad;  form, 
compressed  at  the  two  ex- 
tremities, rounder  to- 
wards the  stem  than  the 
eye;  stalk,  half  an  inch 
long,  slender,  right,  in- 
serted  in  a  shallow  ca-  No.  8. 

■vity ,  but  very  open ;  eye,  small,  set  in  a  cavity  No.  9. 

formed  with  small  wrinkles;  color,  green  everywhere,  speckled  with 
gray  whitish  dots.  The  flower  is  very  fragrant;  the  odor  is  the  same 
as  that  of  the  violet. 

No.  8.  Cherkt  Apple— Fruit,  one  inch  high,  three-fourths  of  an  inch  in  diameter; 
form,  ovoid,  cordiform  towards  the  stem,  conic  towards  the  eye;  this  is  terminated  by  a 
small  stalk,  long,  slender,  curved;  eye,  large,  projecting  out  of  the  surface,  formed  with 
a  bundle  of  small  wrinkles,  crowded  by  segments  of  calyx;  color,  yellowish  lemon  uni- 
formly, nevertheless  a  little  spotted  with  red  on  the  sunny  side. 

No.  9.  The  Suowt  Crab — Spedabilis.  Fruit,  about 
three-fourths  of  an  inch  high,  and  three-fourths  of  an  inch 
in  diameter;  form,  very  irregular,  almost  square;  stalk, 
three  and  a  half  inches  long,  largA-  at  the  upper  part,  large, 
fleshy  at  the  base,  inserted  at  the  surface  and  crowded  by 
wrinkles ;  eye  or  calyx,  very  broad,  large  profound  segments, 
numerous  and  out  the  surface;  the  cavity  is  formed  by  small 
wrinkles,  irregular;  yellow  color,  slightly  spotted  with  rose 
on  the  sunny  side,  speckled  with  white  dots  upon  the  surface. 

No.  10.   ASTRACAN,     OR     EVERGREEN     ApPLE     CrAB. — 

Fruit,  two-thirds  of  an  inch  high,  and  three-fourths  of  an 

inch  broad;    form,  oblate,   compressed,   irregular;  stalk, 

short,  one-third  of  an  inch  long,  obliquely  inserted  in  a  shal-  No.  12. 

low  cavity,  crowded  on  one  side  by  a  lip;  eye,  broad,  formed  by  several  small  wrinkles 

out  the  surface;  segments,  long;  color,  deep  green,  speckled  with  white  dots.     The  leaves 

are  evergreen,  and  remains  on  the  tree  during  the  winter. 

No.  11.  The  Double  Flowering  Crab. — Fruit,  two-thirds  of  an  inch  high,  and  three- 
fourths  of  an  inch  in  diameter;  form,  roundish,  but  very  irregular;  stalk,  one  inch  long, 
lajger  at  the  two  extremities;  eye,  very  large,  out  the  surface,  formed  with  five  small 
wrinkles  united  together,  and  terminated  in  a  bundle  by  the  segments  of  the  calyx;  color, 
rose  violaceous  on  the  sunny  side,  ashy  green  on  the  shaded  side,  covered  with  a  white 


ORNAMENTAL  CRABS  AND  APPLES 


flour  on  the  rose  color.  It  is 
very  ornamental  by  its  double 
white  flowers  in  the  spring. 

No.  12.  TuE  Currant  Crab 
— Pomme  groscille.  The  fruits 
of  this  kind  of  apple  are  of  the 
size  of  the  currants,  and  are 
borne  like  them,  in  clusters. 
They  are  round,  a  little  com- 
pressed towards  the  two  ends; 
the  stem  is  about  half  an  inch 
long;  the  eye  is  large;  red  co- 
lored, slightly  striped  with  deep 
red;  it  is  ornamental  in  its 
flowers  as  well  as  its  fruits. 

I  can  add  to  the  above  list 
some  other  kinds,  which  are 
not  less  ornamental  as  trees  of 
decoration  in  the  pleasure- 
ground,  and  as  desert  fruits;  nevertheless, 
they  take  place  generally  among  the  eatable 
fruits. 

No.  13.  Transparent  de  Zurich  Applk. 
— Fruit  of  two  inches  high,  and  two  and  a 
half  inches  in  diameter;  form,  obovate,  lar- 
ger towards  the  stem,  and  narrower  towards 
the  eye;  stalk,  slender,  half  an  inch  long, 
curved,  inserted  in  a  profound  cavity;  eye, 
compressed,  closed,  set  in  a  wrinkled  cavity ; 
color,  white,  like  the  wax,  of  which  this  apple 
has  the  appearance,  and  the  brilliant  coloring, 
without  the  smallest  spot;  skin,  very  fine; 
flesh,  white,  like  the  snow,  and  not  different 

from  the  skin;  dry,  acidulous;  it  is  only  of  No.  14. 

third  rate,  but  I  do  not  know  another,  a  more  pretty  or  more  ornamental  desert  apple 
ripens  in  September  and  October. 

No.  14.  Black  Lady  Apple. — Fruit,  one  and  one-third  inches  high,  and  one  and  three- 
fourth  inches  in  diameter;  form,  roundish,  irregular;  stalk,  short,  inserted  in  a  shallow 
cavity;  eye,  small,  closed,  set  in  a  profound  cavity;  color,  deep  black  everywhere,  speck- 
led with  some  gray  dots  towards  the  stem;  flesh,  tender,  breaking,  acidulous,  first  rate; 
ripens  from  November  to  March.     It  is  very  curious,  and  very  suitable  as  a  desert  fruit. 

I  am  very  respectfully. 


It 


B.  Desportes. 


Angers,  France,  Septernber  24,  1851. 


STRAWBERRY  HILL— A  L,ESSON  IN  TASTE. 

STRAWBERRY  HILL— A  LESSON  IN  TASTE. 

[  SEE  FRONTISPIECE.  ] 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  men  of  the  last  century,  as  every  one  familiar  vrith  English 
literature  knows,  was  Horace  Walfole.  His  literary  talent,  his  love  of  art,  his  anti- 
quarian taste,  and  his  social  position,  all  combined  to  make  him  one  of  the  celebrities  of 
his  age.  All  reviewers  admit  that  his  letters  convey  the  best  interior  picture  of  his  time, 
that  we  possess,  and  they  have  a  charm  of  style,  and  a  flow  of  anecdote  and  wit,  that 
have  made  them  the  most  popular  books  of  their  kind  for  nearly  a  century. 

When  Walpole  was  in  his  prime,  he  retired  to  Twickenham,  on  the  Thames,  one 
of  the  suburbs  of  London.  Here  he  purchased  a  property,  and  amused  himself  for  twen- 
ty years  in  building  a  villa,  which  he  called  Strawberry  Hill,  and  collecting  a  museum  of 
antiquarian  relics,  and  curiosities  of  all  kinds.  In  this  residence  and  its  contents  he  spent 
vast  sums  of  money,  and  exhausted  all  his  taste  and  ingenuity  in  producing  something 
unique  and  admirable.  Having  already  ransacked  Italy  as  a  virtuosa,  before  commencing 
his  building  he  made  a  tour  through  various  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  collected  models 
of  the  principal  cathedrals  and  fine  old  gothic  buildings.  England  had  been  saturated  for 
two  generations  previous  to  his  time,  with  so-called  classical  architecture,  and  Walpole, 
with  his  antiquarian  taste,  set  about  a  revival  of  the  taste  for  the  ancient  style. 

The  result  in  Strawberry  Hill,  is  both  amusing  and  instructive.  It  is  amusing,  since  the 
house  was  at  last  only  a  caricature  of  gothic  style — a  kind  of  bastard  imitation,  or  rather 
jumble  of  various  eras  of  gothic  architecture,  without  unity,  harmony,  or  correctness  of 
detail  or  proportion.  Square  headed  labels  are  hung  over  pointed  windows,  pinnacles 
spring  out  of  embattled  parapets — and  every  species  of  absurdity  of  which  the  style  is 
capable,  seem  to  be  assembled  to  keep  each  other  company. 

Strawberry  Hill  is  instructive,  because  it  shows  very  clearly  that  a  man  may  have  a 
great  deal  of  knowledge,  and  abundant  taste  of  a  certain  kind,  and  yet  make  an  utter  fail- 
ure in  attempting  to  become  his  own  architect.  If  a  man  Avishes  to  build  a  plain  house — 
which  shall  express  only  a  comfortable  and  convenient  family  residence,  he  may  succeed 
well  enough  without  any  professional  aid.  But  it  is  easier  to  compose  a  fine  piece  of  music 
without  having  studied  harmony  and  thorough  basso,  than  it  is  to  compose  a  large  build- 
ing, in  a  complicated  style  of  architecture,  without  knowing  a  great  deal  more  of  the  art  than 
what  is  comprised  in  a  mere  love  of  the  subject,  and  a  smattering  of  knowledge  of  the  de- 
tails and  plans  of  other  buildings. 

Strawberry  Hill  has  been  looked  upon  with  favor  by  some  critics,  not  as  possessing  in- 
trinsic beauty,  but  as  having  drawn  attention  to  the  merits  of  the  Gothic  style,  which  had 
long  been  neglected  in  England.  A  writer  in  the  London  Quarterly,  claims  even  more  for 
Walpole.  "He  will  probably  be  for  ages  remembered  as  the  creator  of  a  new  style  of 
architecture.  Great  discoveries  are  sometimes  made  from  small  circumstances,  and  the  re- 
pairs and  additions  made  to  what  was  originall}'  a  little  citizen's  box  at  the  corner  of  two 
high  roads,  revealed  to  Walpole  the  great  secret  of  the  combined  beauty,  convenience  and 
grandeur,  which  a  revival  of  our  old  English  architecture  was  capable  of  producing.  He 
honestly  confesses  that  when  he  began  to  gothicise  Strawberry  Hill,  he  knew  little  about 
the  principles  of  the  style  he  adopted — all  his  earlier,  and  some  of  his  later  details,  were 
poor,  erroneous  and  inconsistent,  and  the  whole,  even  after  the  author  had  finished  it  to 
his  own  mind,  has  been  censured  as  a  heap  of  littlenesses  and  incongruities.  The  descrip 
tion  is  just,  but  the  censure  is  not  so." 


MELONS  AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 

Another  English  writer  gives  the  following  description  of  Strawberry  Hill,  whichaccords 
entirely  with  our  own  impressions : 

"A  place  more  intrinsically  paltry  docs  not  exist:  dirty,  dingy  walls,  rough  coated  with 
mortar  and  pebbles,  and  surmounted  by  wooden  battlements,  of  which  the  founder  him- 
self outlasted  three  generations;  bounded  on  two  sides  by  the  high  road,  with  all  its  dust, 
noise  and  publicity;  the  rooms  low,  dark,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  long  galler}^,  de- 
void of  proportion;  the  grounds  limited  to  a  very  small  space,  and  that  limitation  ren- 
dered still  more  conspicuous  from  the  attempt  to  crowd  into  it  temples,  grottoes,  and  sta- 
tuary; the  onl}^  merit  of  Strawberry  Hill  is  one  with  which  Horace  Walpole  had  noth- 
ing to  do,  namely — the  view  of  the  river  commanded  by  this  piece  of  architectural  gim- 
crackery. 

"Walpole  seemed  altogether  to  forget,  in  what  he  chose  to  consider  his  restoration  of  the 
pure  gothic,  that  the  essential  character  of  that  style  is  grandeur  and  sublimity;  and  that 
without  space  and  magnitude,  all  examples  of  castellated  gothic,  must  be  contemptible. 
The  classic  styles  admit  of  being  applied  to  buildings,  either  great  or  small;  and  seem  to 
equal  advantage  in  the  Temple  of  Minerva  or  the  Lanthorn  of  Demosthenes.  But  to  the 
gothic,  [where  one  goes  beyond  a  mere  cottage,]  breadth  and  altitude  are  essential;  and 
the  attempt  to  illustrate  its  character  and  beauties  in  lath  and  plaster,  at  Strawberry  Hill, 
has  produced  only  a  very  ugly,  fragile,  and  incommodious  structure,  destitute  either  of  beau- 
ty or  sublimity." 

We  have  held  up  Strawberry  Hill  to  public  notice,  because  we  have  seen  one  or  two  in- 
stances of  this  kind  of  virtuoso  amateur  compilation  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  We 
could  name  one  example,  at  least,  where  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  have  been 
spent  in  a  private  residence,  in  a  miserable  battlemented  gothic  style,  most  solidly  and 
well  built  of  brown  sandstone — but  hardly  less  tolerable  in  point  of  design,  than  Straw- 
berry Hill.  The  owner  was  his  own  architect,  disdaining  all  professional  assistance,  and 
with  the  aid  of  a  few  books  on  gothic  architecture,  and  a  good  builder,  has  hashed  up  a 
building  that  he  will  most  likely  live  to  be  ashamed  of,  as  his  friends  now  are,  when  he 
might  have  set  a  noble  example  of  pure  taste  to  aid  the  architectural  genius  of  a  young 
people. 


MELONS   AND    THEIR   CULTURE. 

BY  A.  GERALD  HULL,  NEWBURGH,  N.  Y. 

MuSKMELONS. — The  rather  flattering  success  which  has  attended  my  plantation  of 
melons,  contrasted  with  the  failure  of  many  neighbors,  especially  during  the  past  season 
of  unusual  drouth,  has  elicited  inquiries  as  to  the  method  ;  to  which  I  cheerfully  respond, 
deferentially  desirous  of  contributing  even  a  mite  to  the  rich  treasury  of  modern  horticul- 
ture. The  originalittj  mainly  consists  in  borrowing  hints  and  facts  from  every  available 
source  prior  to  experiment,  in  which  many  experienced  cultivators  will  detect  familiar 
features;  so  that  the  method  in  publishing  phraseology,  may  be  described  as  "a  new  edi- 
tion, compiled  from  the  best  authorities,  with  emendations  and  suited  to  the  requirements 
of  the  locality."  It  may  be  pertinent  to  state  that  the' culture  was  in  the  open  air,  or  ex- 
clusive of  green-houses,  frames  or  other  mechanical  expedients  for  forcing,  insect  protec 
tion,  &c. 

Planting. — Seeds,  one  and  two  years  old,  were  planted  dry,  there  being  apparently  no 


MELONS  AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 

difference  in  the  size  or  quality  of  the  melon  on  account  of  age  of  seeds.  Firm,  inverted 
sods,  five  inches  square  and  two  and  three  inches  thick,  were  laid  side  and  side  over  a  well 
prepared  hot-bed  and  two  seeds  were  inserted  into  each  piece.  The  whole  plane  of  these 
inverted  sods  was  dusted  over  with  rich  mould,  which  filled  the  interstices,  and  furnished 
an  uniform  surface  to  the  seeds.  Another  season  fine  charcoal  dust  will  be  substituted. 
The  advantages  of  the  sod  planting  consist — in  the  selection  of  a  southern  and  early  ger- 
minating exposure  by  barn  or  wall;  in  affording  ample  time  during  the  germination  of  the 
seed  to  prepare  permanent  beds;  and  in  the  specific  quality  of  the  turf  in  which  the  melon 
delights. 

Beds. — The  permanent  beds  or  hills  in  the  open  ground  were  thus  prepared,  at  inter- 
vals of  six  feet  from  their  centres.  Circular  holes  were  dug  out  of  trenched  ground  to  the 
depth  of  twenty  inches  and  two  feet,  Avith  diameters  varying  from  two  to  four  feet.  No 
special  advantage  was  gained  from  the  larger  diameters.  The  lower  halves  of  the  holes 
were  filled  with  equal  parts  of  clay  loam  and  fresh  manure;  the  upper  halves  with  the 
same  loam  and  old  manure.  A  compost  was  then  formed  of  equal  thirds  oi poudretted  muck, 
(a  barrel  of  Lodi  poudrette  thoroughly  incorporated  with  a  cord  of  muck) — sand  and 
virgin  earth  or  decomposed  turf.  This  was  spread  above  the  filled  holes  forming  hills, 
about  five  inches  high  with  diameters  of  four  feet.  In  previous  years  ripe-manure  was 
applied  instead  of  poudrette,  with  less  satisfactory  results. 

Transplanting. — When  the  cotyledon,  or  two  earliest  leaves,  of  the  seeds  were  fully 
developed,  the  sods  were  moved  to  their  beds.  Each  sod  was  lifted  with  care,  a  broad 
trowel  or  sharp  thin  spade  being  the  most  efiicient  means  for  this  purpose.  The  objec- 
tions urged  against  this  process,  because  of  the  sensitiveness  of  the  plants  when  disturbed, 
need  not  obtain  in  a  single  instance  if  the  sods  be  thick  and  firm  and  be  not  wantonly 
handled.  Four  sods  were  placed  in  each  hill,  about  twelve  or  fourteen  inches  apart,  form- 
ing the  corners  of  a  square,  thus  affording  room  for  the  free  extension  of  the  vines.  If 
two  plants  were  growing  in  a  sod,  as  soon  as  the  vigor  of  the  major  plant  was  determined, 
the  weaker  one  was  destroyed,  allowing  four  vines  to  the  hill. 

Mulch. — Long  litter  has  been  my  favorite  mulch  for  years.  This  was  freely  applied 
until  it  filled  the  intervals  between  the  hills  quite  close  to  the  plants.  The  moisture  of 
the  earth  was  thus  preserved,  and,  after  a  few  rains,  a  clean,  bleached  surface  of  straw 
was  furnished  for  the  maturing  melons.  Foreign  gardeners  prefer  flat  stones  to  the  bleach- 
ed straw,  and  in  nursing  large  specimens  for  exhibition  or  seed  they  will  answer.  This 
question  evoked  the  following  experiment.  Two  hills  were  carefully  prepared,  and  planted 
with  equal  numbers  of  a  hybrid  of  green  Ilosainee  and  Borneo  melons.  The  one  was 
mulched  with  long  manure;  the  other  was  paved  with  stones.  Both  plantations,  from 
their  exposed  situation,  suffered  from  parching  drouth.  The  long  litter  gained  the  preference. 

In-heading. — I  have  followed  the  practice,  which  has  obtained  with  careful  growers, 
of  pinching  off  the  first  blossom  buds,  which  undoubtedly  adds  to  the  increase  of  lateral 
shoots,  the  vigor  of  the  whole  plant,  and  the  size  of  the  fruit. 

Bugs. — Who  can  enumerate  the  expedients  advised  to  extirpate  these  venomous  pests! 
Snuff,  tobacco  water,  soot,  guano,  lime,  ashes,  and  the  like  have  been  essayed,  and  suc- 
ceeded for  the  most  part  only  when  their  too  acrid  form  destroyed  the  plants!  The  cu- 
cumber flea-beetle  {Ilaltica  pubescens,)  a  hopping  little  black  demon,  generally  infests  the 
plants  on  the  maturing  of  the  cotyledon.  I  have  temporarily  succeeded  in  debarring  the 
insects  of  this  class  from  their  plunder,  by  placing  around  the  plants  a  cordon  or  circle 
of  plaster  of  Paris  well  sprinkled  with  spirits  of  turpentine.  The  rapid  evaporation  of 
the  turpentine,  however,  rendered  its  frequently  required  repetition  too  troublesome. 


MELONS   AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 

This  annoyance  induced  me  to  profit  by  a  hint,  derived  from  the  practice  of  Mrs.  Lou- 
don, who  expelled  the  aphides  of  her  rose  trees  by  a  strong  decoction  of  quassia.  I  di- 
rected four  gallons  of  boiling  water  to  be  poured  on  four  pounds  of  quassia  chips,  con- 
tained in  a  barrel.  After  twelve  hours  digestion  the  barrel  was  filled  with  cold  water. 
This  preparation,  freely  administered  through  a  watering-pot,  although  it  did  not  kill  the 
black  flea  beetles,  rendered  the  leaves  quite  unpalatable  and  every  plant  escaped  harm  from 
their  attempted  depredations.  The  striped  melon  bug  (^Galereuca  vittata^  usually  fol- 
lows the  beetle.  The  application  of  the  quassia  water  to  the  plants  was  continued,  at  the 
close  of  the  day;  and  it  was  gratifying  to  find  in  it  an  immunity  also  from  the  assaults 
of  the  bugs  of  this  kind.  If  the  quassia  water  were  omitted  one  or  two  days  the  return 
of  these  foes  was  injuriously  manifest. 

The  most  persisting  enemy  to  the  melon,  devouring  plants  and  fruit,  is  the  squash  or 
pumpkin  bug,  (  Corcus  tristis.^  As  long  as  the  vines  were  damp  with  the  quassi  water, 
the  bugs  of  this  class  made  but  trifling  encroachments;  soon  as  they  were  dry,  they  were 
again  busy,  disregarding  the  bitterness  so  much  modified  by  evaporation.  I  then  directed 
that  a  pound  of  common  glue  should  be  solved  in  water,  and  added  to  ten  gallons  of  a 
quassi  preparation  of  double  strength.  This  glutinous  liquid  adhered  to  the  plants,  and 
molestation  to  both  vines  and  fruit,  thereafter  ceased.  The  quassi  water,  in  its  strongest 
form,  is  perfectly  harmless  to  nearly  all  vegetation,  and  especially  of  this  tribe,  which  will 
allow  the  melon  cultivator  to  increase  its  animal  disturbing  power  to  any  degree  consistent 
with  economy.  A  plantation  of  Bermuda  squashes  was  made  on  another  part  of  the  ground 
at  some  distance  from  the  melons.  The  quassi  water  was  not  applied.  The  ravages  of 
the  pumpkin  bugs  were  comparatively  surprising.  Mr.  Hope,  the  expert  gardener  of  my 
neighbor,  J.  Tuckerman,  Esq., — had  recourse  also,  to  the  quassi  liquid,  and  attributes 
the  injury  and  loss  that  occurred  to  some  of  his  melons,  to  the  omission  of  the  same. 

Another  opponent  to  melon  growers — the  white  grub  or  cut-worm — has  never  troubled 
me.  Professor  Mapes  asserts,  that  salt,  scattered  around  the  plant,  or  incorporated  with 
the  soil,  in  the  proportion  of  six  bushels  to  the  acre,  will  prove  an  effectual  exterminator. 
Mr.  Smith,  of  Newport,  in  a  former  No.  of  this  Journal,  advises  the  covering  of  the  beds 
with  charcoal  powder,  for  a  protector. 

Maturity. — Citron  melon  seeds  were  planted  on  the  3d  of  May;  those  of  the  Borneo, 
the  9th.  They  germinated  within  twelve  hours  of  each  other.  The  citron  melons  com- 
menced to  ripen  freely  about  the  20th  of  August — 104  days  from  planting.  Mr.  Smith 
states,  that  his  melons  ripened  in  112  days  from  planting,  with  his  appliances  of  glass, 
brick  squares,  and  milnet  boxes.  This  allows  an  advantage  to  the  open  culture  of  six 
days. 

Product. — The  plot  of  ground  occupied  by  the  melons  measured  40  by  180  feet.  Six- 
teen hundred  melons  were  produced.  Wycoff''s  citron,*  Borneo,  and  the  true  citron,  were 
the  varieties  grown.  The  citron  exceeded  in  sweetness  and  delicious  flavor.  The  Borneo 
— a  noble  looking  melon — which  was  excellent,  attained  the  greatest  size. 

Specific  inorganic  manures. — For  three  consecutive  years  I  have  been  experimenting 
with  these  manures,  in  regard  to  the  size,  productiveness,  and  flavor  of  melons. 

1849.  Exclusive  of  the  humus,  the  upper  stratum  of  the  soil  is  a  clay  loam,  the  lower 
hard  pan.  The  site  selected  was  trenched  three  feet  deep;  the  several  strata  were  freely 
incorporated,  and  well  rotted  horse  manure  was  freely  distributed  through  the  whole  mass. 
Hills  were  raised  six  inches  high,  made  light  with  fine  sand,  and  distinguished,  with  one 
ion,  by  the  following  materials  faithfully  commingled. 

A  cross  between  the  nutmeg  and  citron 


Bed  1.  Superphosphate  of  lime  and  sulphate  of  potash.  2.  turned  turf.  3.  Mack, 
neutralised  by  potash.  4.  jlshes.  5.  This  bed  was  left  without  any  mineral  addition. 
They  were  mulched  with  long  litter.     The  melons  grown  were  nutmeg. 

Note  of  lAth  of  Soptembsr. — No.  1  exhibited  the  greatest  number  of  large  melons;  2 
and  3  were  the  earliest  to  offer  ripe  fruit;  5  the  latest;  2  produced  melons  grouped  in  beau- 
tiful clusters,  more  numerous  for  the  space  covered  than  the  others;  3  and  4  gave  larger 
samples  than  the  others. 

Note  oj  28th  of  September. — 1.  Superphosphate  of  lime  and  sulphate  of  potash.  This 
plot  has  afforded  the  largest  amount  of  melons  of  full  size,  and  contains  most  at  present, 
matured  and  maturing. 

No.  2.  Burned  turf. — The  clusters  have  been  closer  than  either  of  the  others;  the 
total  amount  less  than  the  one  above. 

No.  3.  Muck  neutralised  by  potash. — This  plot  has  produced  an  amount  of  melons  equal 
to  No.  2;  nearly  all  have  been  matured  for  some  days,  evidentl}'-  exceeding  all  the  others 
in  this  respect. 

No.  4.  Ashes. — This  bed  has  exhibited  the  greatest  number  of  very  large  melons;  has 
not  equaled  No.  1  in  productiveness. 

No.  5.  Soil  without  mineral  manure. — The  melons  of  this  bed  appear  to  be  intermediate 
to  No.  1  and  4  as  to  size;  to  No.  2  and  3  as  to  productiveness. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  melons  of  No.  1  excelled  in  size,  quantity  and  lateness  ; 
those  of  No.  3  in  the  early  maturing  of  the  entire  crop  ;  and  those  of  No.  4  and  5  in  the 
size  of  select  specimens  ;  in  their  productiveness,  being  inferior  to  No.  1  in  number. 

My  own  taste  preferred  the  flavor  oi  the  melons  grown  in  No.  1  and  3,  where  superphos- 
phate of  lime  and  sulphate  of  potash,  and  humate  or  gyate  of  potash,  exercised  their  spe- 
cific influence. 

Specimens,  however,  corresponding  with  these  beds  and  dates,  were  sent  to  my  neigh- 
bor, Mr.  Downing,  and  his  practised  judgment  will  be  most  satisfactory,  touching  the 
important  question  whether  inorganic  manures  can  modify  the  flavor  of  melons. 

1850. — Holes  were  dug  in  two  feet  trenched  ground,  and  hills  formed  similar  to  those 
of  the  present  year,  with  this  exception,  that  old  manure  was  applied  in  place  of  guano. 
Beds  were  composed  of — potash  in  muck — ashes  in  muck — burned  turf — superphosphate 
of  lime — superphosphate  of  lime  and  sulphate  of  potash — sulphate  of  soda  in  muck — salt 
and  lime  mixture,  and  poudrette. 

The  melons  fed  by  humate  of  potash  exceeded  in  number,  size  and  flavor  ;  those  by  pou- 
drette equalled  the  previous  in  number  and  size  ;  and  those  by  superphosphate  of  lime, 
and  lime  and  sulphate  of  potash,  equalled  the  first  in  flavor,  and  approached  the  two  pre- 
vious in  size. 

1851. — The  experiments  were  repeated  the  present  year;  but  illness  at  the  time  most  es- 
sential to  an  opinion,  interfered  with  any  accurate  conclusions.  My  gardener,  however, 
renders  a  decided  preference  to  the  product  of  the  beds  modified  by  the  preparations  of 
potash  and  superphosphate  of  lime. 

Hybridizing. — The  sensitiveness  of  the  delicate  Persian  melons  in  the  open  air  has  in- 
terfered with  their  cultivation  in  this  country.  To  harden  and  acclimate  them,  I  made  ex- 
periments of  cross-breeding  with  our  ordinary  melons,  during  the  last  year,  and  with  to- 
lerable success.  The  flowers  of  Borneo  were  fertilized  with  the  pollen  of  Green  Iloosia- 
nee.  Melons  were  produced  of  the  precise  form  of  the  Green  Hoosianee,  with  the  color 
of  the  Borneo;  their  flesh  possessing  the  fine  fibre  and  tenderness  of  the  Hoosianee,  and  in 
a  partial  degree,  the  flavor  of  the  Borneo.     The  cross-breeding  was  extended  to  Polignac 


MELONS  AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 

and  Borneo,  and  also  to  the  French  Cantaloupe,  (^Mdon  gahuz,)  and  Wycoff 's  citron. 
All  the  specimens  gave  positive  evidence  in  their  form  and  tissue,  of  their  male  parentage. 

This  year  plants  were  raised  from  the  seeds  of  the  cross  of  Iloosianee  and  Borneo.  The 
melons  on  my  grounds  possessed  the  form  of  the  Borneo,  and  flesh  of  the  Iloosianee,  those 
on  Mr.  Tuckkhman's  grounds,  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Hope,  exhibited  the  form  of  the 
Iloosianee — the  whole  produced  from  the  seeds  of  the  same  melon.  The  extreme  drouth 
of  the  season  has  interfered  with  trials  for  satisfactory  conclusions,  and  another  year  will 
be  required  to  determine  as  to  the  important  quality  of  adaptation  to  our  cUmate. 

Watkr  Melons. — These  melons  mature  very  freely  in  this  locality,  under  orJniari/ cul- 
ture, while  the  mu.skmelons,  similarly  treated,  fail  entirely.  My  plantations,  however, 
have  been  subjected  to  the  same  discipline  as  the  muskmelon,  in  every  respect,  with  this 
exception,  that  the  intervals  from  the  center  of  the  beds  were  increased  from  six  to  ten 
feet.  The  fruit  has  certainly  possessed  the  finest  flavor  in  the  estimation  of  no  indifferent 
tasters.  The  melons  cultivated  were  "  Imperial,"  "  Florida,"  and  "  California;"  the  two 
latter  I  have  so  named  to  designate  them. 

The  "  Florida"  was  grown  from  seeds  brought  from  Florida  by  Mr.  Skally,  my  gar- 
dener of  last  j'ear.  It  resembles  the  "Spanish,"  and  probably  is  one  of  its  varieties. 
The  fruit  is  oblong,  of  medium  size;  skin  deep  green,  striate  with  white  marbling;  flesh 
bright  red,  soh'd,  very  tender  and  delicious;  seeds  sparse  and  small,  in  diiferent  samples 
black,  red  or  white.     The  largest  specimen  weighed  25  pounds. 

The  "California"  seems  to  be  another  variet}' of  the  Spanish,  sustaining  an  interme- 
diate form  between  it  and  the  Imperial.  It  was  matured  from  seeds  received  from  the 
"Auriferous  tract"  last  year.  A.  G.  H. 

Neu'biirgh,  N.  Y  ,  Oct.  15,  ISol. 

The  foregoing  record  of  a  careful  course  of  experiments  in  melon  culture — continued 
during  three  years — by  our  scientific  neighbor  Dr.  IIuiX,  will  be  read  with  much  interest. 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  our  readers,  living  on  the  M'armer  and  lighter  soils  of  New- 
Jerse}^  and  fartlier  south,  where  fine  melons  are  "  grown  with  as  little  care,  almost,  as 
cabbages,"  that  the  soil  about  Newburgh  is  a  strong  clay  loam — naturally  b}^  no  means  .so 
favorable  to  the  melon  as  the  warm  sandy  loams  of  the  former  localities.  It  is  therefore 
necessary  to  take  far  more  pains  to  grow  a  fine  crop  of  melons  here,  than  in  other  and 
lighter  soils. 

As  to  Dr.  Hull's  success,  we  frankly  confess  it  surpassed  all  precedent  here.  We  ex- 
amined several  times  his  melon  patch,  40  by  180  feet,  which  produced  the  enormous  num- 
ber of  sfx^cMi  AujiJrctZ  meZo7is,  and  tasted  tlie  products,  and  are  bound  to  say  that  we 
never  saw  so  large  a  crop  on  so  small  a  space,  or  tasted  larger  or  finer  melons.  Looked  at 
merely  as  a  matter  of  profit,  the  outlay  of  preparation  would  be  satisfactory — though  of 
course  much  more  was  expended  in  the  process  of  making  the  different  experiments  than 
would  be  needful  to  carry  any  one  of  the  modes  of  manuring  out,  on  a  scale  suited  to 
general  culture.  The  flavor  was  very  distinct  in  the  diff'erent  beds — those  in  the  beds  of 
burnt  turf  being  to  our  taste  the  most  sugary  and  rich,  while  those  with  the  superphos- 
phate of  lime  were  the  most  juicy  and  melting.     Ed. 


ON  RAISING  NEW  GRAPES  BY  HYBRIDIZING. 

BY  WM.  CHORLTON,  STATEN  ISLAND. 

Dear  Sir — I  have  been  very  much  interested  in  reading  over  Dr  Valk's  article  in  the 
Horticulturist  for  October,  describing  his  success  in  hybridizing  our  hardy  grapes  with 
the  exotic  varieties.  Too  much  praise  cannot  be  given  to  that  gentleman  for  his  enterpris- 
ing experiment,  but  it  appears  to  me  that  he  has  gone  the  wrong  way  to  work. 

Physiological  theory  teaches,  and  practical  experience  proves  to  us,  that  the  progeny 
of  a  plant,  the  flowers  of  which  have  been  fertilized  by  another,  is  more  likely  to  retain 
the  constitution  and  habit  of  the  mother,  while  any  peculiarities  as  to  flowers  and  fruit 
of  the  father,  are  introduced  into  the  same  body;  consequently  the  Isabella  should  have 
been  fertilized  by  the  pollen  of  the  Hamburgh,  when  an  Isabella  vine  would  most  proba- 
bly have  been  more  the  product,  with  an  approach  towards  the  fruit  of  Hamburgh.  This 
appears  to  be  proved  by  your  own  description  of  the  fruit,  and  also  Dr.  Valk's  account 
of  the  appearance  of  the  plant.  So  decided  is  the  above  fact,  where  proper  care  has  been 
taken  in  the  crossing,  that  the  operator  can  predict  tolerably  closely,  what  the  result  will 
be.  I  do  not  pretend  to  deny  that  both  fruit  and  plant  will  be  somewhat  changed  by  the 
same  course  which  Dr.  Valk  has  practiced,  but  we  shall  sooner  and  more  surely  come  to 
the  goal  of  our  wishes,  by  acting  in  accordance  with  those  laws  which  an  all-wise  Creator 
has  so  unerringly  established.  If  we  study  nature  she  will  bend  most  willingly  to  our 
purpose,  and  the  progressive  intellect  of  man  may  realise  his  most  ambitious  desires.  It 
appears  to  me  as  settled  as  a  demonstrated  fact,  that  we  can  produce  by  perseverance  in 
this  course,  a  tribe  of  grapes  quite  equal  in  flavor  to  a  Muscat  or  Frontignan,  and  as  hand- 
some in  form  and  size  as  the  Hamburgh,  with  a  constitution  equally  as  hardy,  if  not  more 
so,  than  the  Isabella. 

Perhaps  no  better  varieties  can  be  chosen  than  Black  Hamburgh  for  a  black,  and  Chas- 
selas  Fontainbleau  or  Dutch  Sweetwater  for  a  light  colored  class,  as  these  kinds  are  very 
sweet  and  devoid  of  that  hard  pulp  which  predominates  in  the  hardy  sorts.  The  Fron- 
tignans  or  Muscats  I  would  not  make  use  of,  for  the  natives  have  already  too  much  of  the 
muskj'-  flavor.  By  introducing  the  sweetness  of  the  Hamburgh  and  Chasselas,  we  shall 
be  most  likely  to  reduce  in  a  corresponding  degree  the  foxiness  of  the  natives,  which  is 
likely  to  produce  a  Muscat  flavor  and  Hamburgh  size  of  berry  and  form  of  bunch.  I  do 
not  presume  to  say  that  this  can  be  accomplished  in  one  generation,  but  perseverance  in 
the  right  track  is  sure  to  bring  it  out  in  process  of  time.  To  ensure  success,  some 
care  and  attention  is  necessary;  more  will  be  accomplished,  with  care,  from  a  dozen  seed- 
lings, than  by  a  thousand  without  it.  The  plants  to  be  operated  upon,  should  be  in  ro- 
bust health,  neither  having  at  any  time  shown  symptoms  of  mildew,  and  the  flowers  of 
both  selected  from  fine  and  well  shouldered  branches.  The  operation  of  fertilizing  is  also 
a  somewhat  delicate  one,  and  there  is  some  difiiculty  in  getting  the  two  sorts  to  bloom  at 
the  same  time, — for  the  exotic,  to  be  perfectly  free  from  mildew,  will,  almost  without  ex- 
ception, have  to  be  under  glass,  and  the  native  on  account  of  producing  hardiness  should 
be  planted  outside.  A  temporary  glass  frame  to  forward  the  latter  would  be  of  service, 
and  the  former  might  be  retarded  by  excluding  the  light  till  the  buds  burst  and  afterwards 
keeping  the  head  down  in  a  cold  house.  When  the  hardy  sort  begins  to  open  its  flowers 
the  stamens  should  be  immediately  cut  out,  and  the  stigma  fertilized  by  the  exotic, 
this  depends  all  success,  as  any  plant  will  more  readily  be  impregnated  by  its  own 


THE  CALIFORNIA  GRAPE. 

another's  pollen.  "While  the  mother  plant  is  in  bloom,  care  must  be  taken  to  keep  oif  in 
sects,  and  the  female  should  be  some  distance  from  any  other  grapevine  which  is  in  bloom, 
for  the  pollen  is  a  very  subtle  substance  and  a  proximity  might  destroy  all  success. 

As  this  subject  is  of  such  paramount  and  national  importance,  you  will  perhaps  think 
these  few  hints  of  use  to  some  of  your  numerous  subscribers. 

Yours  most  respectfully,  Wm.  Chorlton. 

New  Brighton,  Statcn  Island. 


THE    CALIFORNIA   GRAPE. 

BY  R.  G.  PARDEE,  PALMYRA,  N.  Y. 

There  has  been  an  unusual  interest  for  some  time  past,  to  learn  something  definite  re- 
specting a  grape  growing  in  California,  of  which  almost  every  return  traveller  speaks  in 
the  most  extravagant  terms. 

During  the  State  Fair  at  Rochester,  I  was  privileged  with  an  interview  with  an  intelli- 
gent officer  in  the  U.  S.  Army,  Capt.  II ,  who,  with  his  accomplished  lady,  spent  a 

year  or  two  in  California,  mostly  at  San  Diego — and  from  whom  I  gained  a  more  reliable 
and  particular  account  than  I  have  hitherto  seen. 

They  assure  me  the  grape  is  of  richer  flavor  as  a  table  fruit,  than  any  of  our  foreign 
vinery  grapes,  and  we  had  just  been  eating  some  of  those  superior  Black  Hamburgh  and 
others,  to  which  the  first  premium  was  awarded  at  the  state  fair. 

The  grape  is  a  reddish  purple,  but  a  trifle  larger  than  a  full  size  Catawba,  and  yet  the 
bunches  are  enormous — often  weighing  three  pounds,  and  some  twelve  to  eighteen  inches 
long. 

It  is  always  cultivated  in  the  vineyard  mode,  except  each  vine,  instead  of  being  trained 
to  a  pillar,  is  allowed  to  fall  in  a  heap  on  the  ground,  under  which  hangs  three  or  four 
enormous  bunches  of  these  unequalled  grapes.  They  say  as  far  as  their  observation  ex- 
tended in  California,  and  certainly  in  the  vicinity  of  San  Diego,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
native  or  wild  growing  grape,  to  be  found.  Capt.  H.  says  the  grape  makes  a  fine  wine, 
very  similar  to  the  Tarragonna  wine  of  Spain,  and  he  saw  some  immense  wine  vats  for 
making  wine  on  a  vast  scale,  which  were  built  a  long  time  ago. 

The  general  impression  seems  to  be,  that  the  grape  was  imported  from  Spain  many  years 
ago,  and  has  improved  in  flavor  by  being  cultured  in  the  very  genial  soil  of  California,  so 
that  now  it  cannot  be  identified  with  any  foreign  grape. 

AVhether  these  impressions  are  correct,  could  very  soon  be  ascertained,  if  the  cuttings 
were  sent  across  the  Isthmus  this  winter,  and  placed  in  a  process  of  cultivation. 

R.  G.  P. 

"We  have  heard  before  of  this  fine  grape — which  is  probably  some  variety  from  the 
South  of  Europe,  not  introduced  into  our  collections.  "Will  not  some  of  our  readers  who 
have  friends  travelling  through  San  Diego,  take  a  little  pains  to  get  some  cuttings  of  this 
variety.     In  winter  they  might  be  carried  in  one's  trunk,  as  easily  as  dry  sticks.    Ed. 


REVIEWS. 


1.  Address  before   the  Norfolk  Agricultural  Society  at  Dedham,  September  26, 

1851:  By  George  R.  Russel. 
Mr.  Russell's  address  before  the  Norfolk  Society — one  of  the  youngest,  but  certainly 
one  of  the  most  energetic  in  IMassachusetts — deserves  more  than  ordinary  attention.  It  is 
a  production  full  of  vigor,  earnestness  and  pith.  It  is  replete  with  evidences  of  scholarly 
culture,  adding  what  is  even  more  important,  a  right  understanding  of  the  present  condi- 
tion and  wants  of  the  agricultural  class;  and  it  is  enlivened  with  genial  strokes  of  humour 
that  doubtless  gave  it  no  little  effect  in  the  delivering, 

Mr.  Russel  speaks  to  the  point  on  the  all  important  sulject  of  agricultural  education, 
and  we  cordially  agree  Avith  his  views  as  expressed  in  the  following  extract : 

"  The  advance  of  our  cultivation  is  often  retarded  by  the  indifference  of  the  cultivator. 
There  are  to  be  found  those  who  scoff  at  book-farming  as  useless,  maintain  that  there  can  be 
no  imi)rovement  in  the  management  of  the  soil,  and  look  at  a  newly-invented  implement  as 
an  insult  to  their  ancestors.  They  would  go  on  as  the  latter  have  done,  not  reflecting, 
that  if  successive  generations  did  not  add  something  to  the  stock  of  knowledge,  we  might 
get  back  to  that  patriarchal  period  when  the  broadest  branched  tree  was  the  best  house, 
and  red  paint  the  most  fashionable  garment;  when  the  economy  of  the  kitchen  consisted 
in  robbing  the  hoard  of  the  squirrel,  and  the  ten  fingers  were  the  only  tools  that  scratched 
the  t^ice  of  mother  earth. 

A  blind  reverence  for  the  past  is  the  great  stumbling-block  of  the  present,  and  flagrant 
injustice  to  the  future.  Do  as  our  fathers  did!  It  is  well  we  should,  when  we  can  do  no 
better;  but  man  has  been  made  a  progressive  creature,  is  endowed  with  aspirations  after 
excellence,  has  implanted  in  him  a  restless  energy  that  is  continually  urging  him  onward. 
He  could  not  stop  if  he  would.  He  partakes  of  that  law  of  motion  which  governs  all 
things,  from  the  smallest  particle  of  animated  dust,  up  to  the  infinite  worlds  which,  clus- 
ter on  cluster,  system  witliin  system,  Avhirl  in  endless  revolution  round  the  throne  of  God. 

The  fanatic,  who  threw  a  stone  at  the  Earl  of  Rosse's  telescope,  because  it  pryed  into 
mysteries,  intended,  as  he  believed,  to  be  concealed  from  human  curiosity,  was  a  t3'pe  of 
that  conservatism  which  would  have  no  new  farming.  It  would  not  encourage  the  undi- 
tiful  longings  of  children,  who  strive  to  know  more  than  their  parents.  It  would  level 
the  school-house,  entertaining  Jack  Cade's  opinion  of  men  "  that  usually  talk  of  a  noun 
and  a  verb  and  such  abominable  words."  Of  what  use  is  education,  but  to  engender 
self-conceit  and  encourage  wasteful  expenditure.  Whjr  buy  volume  on  volume,  and  cover 
black. boards  with  cabalistic  characters,  when  "  our  forefathers  had  no  other  books  but 
the  score  and  the  tally.?" 

Advancement  is  the  destiny  of  man.  He  who  stops  in  the  race  is  run  over,  and  left 
behind,  crippled  and  forgotten.  Whatever  may  be  the  limit  to  human  attainment,  it 
has  not  yet  been  discovered.  We  nress  forward  to  an  eminence  from  whicii  we  hope  to 
behold  all  created  things,  but  it  is  reached  only  to  find  heights  to  be  climbed  and  diffi- 
culties to  be  surmounted. 

It  is  too  generally  supposed,  that  education  should  be  confined  to  the  "  learned  profes- 
sions"— that  it  is  well  to  fill  the  heads  of  law3'ers,  doctors,  andclergjmien;  but  as  for  the 
farmer,  merchant,  and  mechanic,  it  is  better  that  their  drudgery  should  not  be  disturbed 
by  any  information  beyond  the  rudiments.  If  the  farmer  can  read  the  almanac  and  week- 
ly newspaper,  the  merchant  keep  his  accounts  in  tolerable  condition,  and  the  mechanic 
spell  out  the  orders  on  his  slate,  they  are  presumed  to  be  amplj''  provided  with  all  the 
erudition  necessary  for  their  vocations.  The  patronage  of  the  state  and  the  munificence 
of  private  individuals  have  been  reserved  to  encourage  a  course  of  education,  which  had 
its  origin  in  the  wants  of  a  privileged  class  of  a  bygone  age,  and  is,  now,  of  questionable 
use,  even  to  those  who  intend  to  enter  the  pulpit,  the  sick  chamber,  or  the  courts  of  law. 
But,  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  active  life,  the  college  student,  when  he  is  turned  adrift 

ith  his  diploma  in  his  pocket,  is  about  as  helpless  and  useless  an  object  as  can  be  cast 

le  cold  charities  of  the  world.     His  nursing  mother,   after   softly   rocking  his   crad 
slumber  of  four  years'  duration,  suddenly  shakes  him  off,  in  an  unweaned  state,  thrusts 


REVIEWS. 

him  into  the  street,  slams  to  ami  holts  the  door,  and  there  he  stands,  in  hopeless  dejec 
tion,  wondering  what  to  do  with  himself.  "Necessity's  sharp  [.inch"  arouses  him.  He 
finds  that  tlie  speculations  of  philosophy  do  not  yield  an  available  income,  nor  can  he  feed 
on  Greek  roots.  lie  discovers  that  the  world  is  a  very  unclassical  sort  of  a  place,  and 
requires  an  equivalent  of  more  solidity  than  Latin  verses,  or  the  species  of  knowledge 
that  can  be  applied  to  nothing.  He  begins  to  suspect  that  he  must  learn  something  use- 
ful; and  he  lays  himself  down  to  his  new  preparation,  forgetting,  with  all  possible  celeri- 
ty, the  little  he  has  acquired  during  his  college  life. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  undervalue  classical  education.  There  are  scholarly  men  to 
whom  it  is  as  the  breath  of  life,  and  who,  in  sustaining  its  refining  influences,  take 
that  share  in  the  well-being  of  society  for  which  they  are  adapted  by  taste  and  tempera- 
ment. But  it  is  one  thing  to  feel  enthusiasm  for  the  charm  of  ancient  genius,  and  another 
to  limp  along  through 

"  The  (IriU'd  dull  lesson,  forced  down  word  by  word." 

All  things  are  not  intended  for  all  men.  The  usual  course  of  university  education,  excel- 
lent as  it  may  be  in  some  cases,  is  the  exception,  not  the  rule  applicable  to  the  necessities 
of  this  age  and  this  country,  which,  in  general,  require  sciences  that  can  be  applied  to  the 
useful  arts,  and  knowledge  that  can  be  turned  to  account. 

While  learning  has  rarely  called  in  vain  for  assistance,  when  its  object  has  been  to  swell 
the  already  overcrowded  ranks  of  what  is  generally  understood  by  professional  life,  there 
has  been  little  or  nothing  done  to  educate  young  men  as  farmers.  The  most  important 
and  the  most  honorable  occupation,  which  is  co-extensive  with  civilization,  which  employs 
millions  of  men  in  daily  labor,  and  on  which  the  whole  population  of  the  globe  depends 
for  subsistence,  has  not  a  single  institution  devoted  to  it  in  all  this  broad  land.  It  is  left 
to  help  itself  as  it  can,  without  Government  protection,  and  with  only  such  encourage- 
ment as  can  be  derived  from  societies  formed  by  farmers  themselves.  The  exertions  which 
have  been  made  to  establish  an  Agricultural  School  in  this  State,  have  not  yet  been  suc- 
cessful, but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  be  renewed  and  persisted  in,  until  this  great 
branch  of  industry  shall  receive  the  care  and  attention  it  demands.  It  is  not  supposed 
that  an  institution  will  turn  out  ready-made  practical  husbandmen  to  order,  from  the  mere 
learning  of  books.  There  is  no  such  intention  or  expectation.  But  it  is  believed  that  a 
course  can  be  followed,  which  will  combine  theory  with  practice,  and  produce  young  men 
of  intelligence  and  activit}^,  whose  hard  hands  and  bronzed  fiices  will  bear  honorable  tes- 
timony that  they  have  seen  as  much  of  the  field  as  the  study-room. 

It  was  a  saying  of  Napoleon,  that  "battles  make  soldiers."  It  is  equally  true,  that 
hard  work  makes  fanners.  He  who  would  "  thrive  by  the  plough,"  must  leave  his 
gloves  with  his  Sunday  coat.  He  must  not  expect  to  walk  daintily  over  the  earth,  in 
holiday  garb,  and  have  her  productions  spring  up  in  his  footsteps.  He  Avho  courts  her 
favors,  must  go  manfully  to  the  work.  She  is  not  to  be  trilled  with,  and  does  not  yield 
to  coy  wooing.  The  badges  of  her  successful  suitors  are  the  dust  of  the  ploughed  ground, 
the  sweat  of  the  hay-field,  the  marks  of  honest  industry  wi'ought  out  in  shirt  sleeves. 
She  loves  the  pressure  of  the  cowhide  boot,  smiles  on  the  tanned  countenance,  and  the 
sinewy  limbs,  on  which  the  insignia  of  manhood  have  been  ingrained  by  the  elements. 
But  shedoesnot  lookless  winningly,if  thecalculatinghead,whichguides  the  laboringhand, 
has  drawn  information  from  recorded  wisdom,  gathered  hints  from  the  periodical,  inter- 
changed opinions  with  fellow  workers,  and  brought  thought  to  bear  on  the  great  mystery 
of  nature.  Excellence  in  agriculture  is  neither  the  result  of  closet  study  nor  of  assiduous 
labor.  It  can  be  eiTccted  only  by  a  union  of  both.  May  the  sagacit}'  of  Government  con- 
sult the  best  interests  of  this  people,  by  establishing  the  means  of  producing  that  as  yet 
unknown  prodigy,  a  perfect  former." 

Though  Mr.  Russel  is  a  highly  educated  man,  he  is  too  much  of  an  American  to  forget, 
as  many  college  men  do,  that  he  belongs  to  a  new  age  and  a  new  country.  He  recognizes 
the  spirit  of  the  times  and  characterizes  with  trueness  and  point  the  master  element  of 
our  modern  enterprises : 

"  The  guarding  genius  who  presides  over  the  New  England  cradle,  is  a  very  matter-of- 
fact  working  day  spirit.  Should  he  embody  himself  to  mortal  sight,  then  would  appear 
no  ethereal  being,  wreathed  with  flowers,  hovering  between  earth  and  heaven,  but  a  burly 
solid  actuality;  fixed  on  the  firm  ground,  his  hair  filled  with  hay  seed  or  cotton,  his 
throne  a  country-house  stool,  his  wand  a  shovel  or  hammer;  decked,  not  in  fairy  green. 


REVIEWS. 

but  in  stout  frocking,  or  factory  skirting  rolled  up  at  the  elbows.  There  is  nothing  green 
about  him." 

There  is  a  large  catholic  spirit  in  the  following  remarks — which  contain  a  "worthy  re- 
buke to  those  who  distrust  the  tendencies  of  immigration: 

"  What  is  said  of  England,  equally  applies  to  the  other  highly  cultivated  countries  of 
Europe,  it  being  conceded  that  there  is  no  one  whose  productiveness  might  not  be  increas- 
ed to  the  necessities  of  its  population.  Yet,  worn-out  civilization  broods,  despondingly, 
over  the  apparently  exhausted  elements  of  fertility,  and  covering  the  seas  with  the  super- 
abundance of  the  old  world,  extends  an  unbroken  line  of  emigration  towards  the  setting 
sun.  It  comes  to  spread  itself  over  this  new  land  of  promise.  It  comes  with  the  anti- 
quated usages  of  past  generations,  to  renew,  on  a  virgin  soil,  the  hopes  which  have  with- 
ered in  ceaseless  and  unrequited  labor.  It  comes  to  demand  from  the  reclaimed  earth, 
food  and  raiment  and  shelter;  to  seek  comfort,  independence,  protection;  to  trust  to  an 
unknown  land  for  the  peace  and  subsistence  denied  in  the  much-loved  places  of  its  nativity. 
It  comes  to  clear  the  forest,  drain  the  morass,  open  the  dark  dank  face  of  nature  to  the 
breath  and  light  of  heaven.  It  comes  with  limbs  accustomed  to  delve  and  burrow,  to  do 
the  rough  work  of  this  J'oung  country — to  build  her  cities — to  construct  her  railroads  and 
aqueducts — to  level  her  hills,  fill  her  valleys,  tunnel  her  mountains,  span  her  rivers.  It 
comes  to  unfold  the  resources  of  this  vast  continent,  to  people  its  recesses  with  active  life, 
and  to  disturb  the  silence  of  its  solitudes  with  the  hum  of  industry.  It  comes  to  carry 
out  the  designs  of  the  Creator,  a  predestinated  agent  to  work  his  will,  and  take  its  allot- 
ed  part  in  the  great  drama  enacting  on  this  new  stage  of  human  destiny.  Let  Europe, 
then,  pour  out  her  population  upon  us  if  she  will.  There  is  room  for  all.  Room  in  the 
primeval  forest,  on  the  boundless  prairie,  on  ftirm  and  in  workshop.  Room  in  the  school- 
house,  where  the  children  of  ignorance  may  be  qualified  for  the  duties  and  objects  of  life, 
preparing  for  future  usefulness  by  a  process  of  regeneration  that  shall  atone  for  the  neg- 
lect and  degredation  of  the  past.  Withhold  not  from  others  the  privileges  we  possesss. 
They  come  as  our  fathers  came.  Grudge  them  not  a  portion  of  this  ample  inheritance, 
which  is  for  all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  God  who  need  a  home." 

II.  Sketches  of  European  Capitals,  by  William  Ware,  Author  of  Letters  frovi 

Palmyra,  Sfc.  Boston:  Phillips,  Sampson  &  Co.;  1851.  1  vol.  12  mo. 
One  of  the  most  delightfully  instructive  volumes  for  a  long  time  published,  is  this  new 
sketch-book  of  Mr.  Ware's.  By  persons  of  refinement,  and  especially  to  such  as  have  a 
taste  for  art,  it  will  be  read  and  re-read  with  increasing  delight.  It  rarely  happens  that 
an  American  of  so  much  artistic  feeling  and  culture,  adds  to  that  feeling  so  much  literary 
ability  as  Mr.  Ware  does.  You  feel  it  to  be  a  peculiar  pleasure  to  linger  over  the  fine  gal- 
leries of  art,  and  the  rich  facades  of  old  capitals,  in  his  company.  His  appreciation  of  the 
beautiful  is  so  genial,  and  ready,  and  warm,  and  his  utterance  of  his  enjoyment  is  in  such 
pure  and  choice  English,  that  it  is  a  noble  delight  to  sit  at  his  feet  as  a  pupil  and  learner. 
It  is  neither  our  province  nor  our  intention  to  review  Mr.  Ware's  book.  We  only  wish 
occasion  to  make  a  comment  or  two  upon  his  notice  of  the  English  Parks — especially  since 
town  parks,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  are  just  now  subjects  of  attention  in  this 
country. 

"Another  similar  feature  of  London,  similar  for  magnificence,  for  vastness,  for  an  in- 
describable nobleness,  is  its  parks.  They  are  in  no  proper  sense  of  the  word,  however, 
parks,  unless  you  mean  deer  parks.  They  certainly  are  rather  vast  landed  estates,  farms, 
sites  for  towns  and  cities.  It  is  a  misnomer  to  speak  of  a  city  park  which  you  can  neither 
see  across  nor  travel  round,  in  the  midst  of  which,  in  an  English  atmosphere,  you  might 
easily  lose  joxir  way,  and  may  be  as  easily  robbed  and  murdered — so  far  as  society  could 
know  anything  about  it,  as  in  the  midst  of  Hounslow  Heath,  or  the  Arabian  Sahara.  The}'  are 
the  country,  rather  than  parks;  a  portion  of  the  country  fenced  in,  with  houses  just  visible 
in  the  distance.  There,  where  the  whole  Island  is  hardly  bigger  than  some  of  our  states, 
those  parks,  are  several  of  them,  four  hundred  acres  each.  Here,  where  in  our  American 
cities,  territory  is  a  mere  drug,  cheap  and  illimitable,  the  largest  of  our  parks,  or  sq 
reach  forty  acres — I  suppose,  on  the  principle  that  what  is  common 
is  to  be  despised.     But  these  English  grounds,  though  too  large  for  comfort 


REVIEWS. 

beauty  or  safety,  have  the  single  merit  of  consistency;  they  are  in  due  proportion  to  all 
the  rest  of  London,  and  the  character  of  the  people. 

St.  James'  Park  is  the  true  size  for  every  object  for  which  a  park  should  exist  at  all; 
large  enough  for  beauty,  air,  health,  exercise.  Nothing  can  be  imagined  more  elegant  in 
its  design,  more  complete  in  its  plan  and  ornament.  It  may  be  considered  a  model  for 
all  the  world  of  landscape  gardening,  and  for  all  city  parks;  any  deviation  from  which 
must  be  so  far  into  error.  It  is  a  gem  of  beauty  and  elegance,  and  is,  one  cannot  but 
think,  the  most  beautiful  piece  of  cultivated  ground  in  the  world;  so  different  in  its 
graceful  curves  from  all  our  rectilinear  plantings,  and  in  its  charming  variegated  shrub- 
beries, from  our  unending  monotonous  elms.  1  would  not  decry  the  ehn.  I  saw  no  oak 
or  elm  in  England,  that  would  compare  for  grandeur  with  our  elms,  especially  of  the 
valley  of  the  Connecticut.  But  we  must  beware  of  the  proverb,  "too  much  of  a 
good  thing,"  &c.  The  elm  is  not  everything.  St.  James  Park  combines  the  beauty  of 
the  conservatory  with  the  grandeur  of  forest  planting.  Here,  trees,  in  groups,  or  if  large, 
insulated;  there,  a  dense  parterre  of  shrubs  and  llowers;  then,  in  addition,  sheets  of 
water  with  their  appropriate  inhabitants.  Our  Boston  Common,  with  a  moderate  outlay 
of  taste  and  sense,  might,  with  its  naturally  varied  surface,  have  been  made  as  beautiful 
as  the  Park  of  St.  James  is  now,  one  must  suppose, — though  still  not  too  late  for  some 
change  for  the  better — condemned  for  all  time  to  their  geometrical  lines  of  elms  and  ma- 
ples, as  if  there  were  in  nature  neither  such  things  as  shrubs,  flowers,  or  curved  lines. 
Our  American  idea  of  a  city  park,  or  square,  seems  to  be — it  is  not  the  same  thing  in  all 
cities — rows  of  forest  trees,  with  straight  paths  between,  which  will  conduct  the  business 
man,  by  the  shortest  possible  cut,  to  his  shop  or  his  couning-room,  allowing  never  the  sac- 
rifice of  a  foot  or  an  inch  to  taste,  the  love  of  beauty,  or  the  enjoyment  of  a  walk.  With 
the  single  exception  of  the  Common  in  Boston,  no  other  park  or  square  in  the  country, 
exceeds  some  ten  or  fifteen  acres.  And,  though  so  small,  yet  if  well  laid  out,  it  were  in 
most  cases  enough — better  at  least,  and  less  of  a  nuisance — for  that  they  are  with  all  their 
vast  extent — than  Hyde,  Regent's,  or  Victoria." 

The  impression  of  vastness  produced  on  the  mind  of  Mr.  Ware  b}'  the  London  Parks, 
is  precisely  that  which  is  felt  by  all  Americans  at  first  sight,  and  so  far  we  agree  with  him. 
But  he  seems  to  have  overlooked  the  highest  merit  of  those  parks,  as  compared  with  the 
larger  parks  of  the  continental  cities,  though  his  description  clearly  shows  that  he  felt 
what  he  did  not  understand  the  true  value  of,  viz:  their  truthful  expression  of  nafitre. 
That  they  are  like  vast  landed  estates — portions  of  real  country,  with  trees,  streams  of 
water,  broad  meadow-like  surfaces,  untouched  by  art,  is  just  their  highest  praise,  both  as 
proving  the  real  fondness  of  the  English  for  natural  beauty,  (for  all  continental  town 
parks  are  formal,)  and  as  evincing  a  knowledge  of  the  great  charm  and  power  of  contrast 
in  art;  for  nothing  can  be  finer  than  the  contrast  of  the  great  London  Parks,  so  rural,  so 
simple,  so  entirely  natural  in  character,  with  the  highly  artificial  aspect  of  the  elaborated 
and  complex  streets  and  buildings  of  the  city. 

But  Mr.  Wake  makes  also  a  greater  practical  mistake  when  he  complains  of  the  useless 
size  of  the  great  London  Parks.  His  error  can  onl}^  be  explained  by  sunposing  he  could 
only  have  seen  them  when  London  was  comparatively  deserted,  or  that  he  only  walked 
there  in  the  morning — when  they  always  look  lonely.  One  of  the  main  uses  of  the  great 
parks — Hyde  Park,  for  instance — is  for  the  purpose  of  taking  exercise  in  carriages  or  on 
horse-back.  St.  James'  Park,  which  is  not  undeservedly  Mr.  Ware's  beau  ideal,  is  only 
a  park  for  promenade.  It  is  too  small  for  any  other  purpose,  (though  containing  87 
acres,)  and  we  have  several  times  seen  its  numerous  broad  walks  and  alleys  absolutely 
thronged  with  men,  women  and  children,  all  enjoying  their  promenade.  To  understand 
the  value  of  the  Parks  of  London,  one  must  visit  them  day  after  day,  in  the  London  "  sea- 
son"— and  from  half  past  three  to  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  He  will  then  see  Hyde 
Park,  vast  as  it  seems  in  the  morning,  completely  and  wholly  taken  possession  of.  The 
circle,  four  or  five  miles  round,  will  be  one  unbroken  line  of  carriages,  of  all 
descriptions — Rotten  Row,  as  the  space  particularly  set  apart  for  equestrians 

No.  XI.  3^ 


REVIEWS. 

ed,  will  be  gay  with  its  hundreds  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  on  horseback — the  banks  of  the 
Serpentine  will  be  crowded  with  thousands  on  foot,  enjoying  the  beauty  of  the  "  flood  and 
field."  At  the  same  moment — especially  on  the  days  when  the  band  plays,  Kensington 
Gardens — which  joins  Hyde  Park,  will  be  filled  with  thousands  of  pedestrians — for  no 
carriages  are  allowed  there — though  there  are  over  three  hundred  acres  of  park  there. 
When  we  state  that  we  have  seen  over  fifty  thousand  persons  in  Hyde  Park  and  Kensing- 
ton gardens,  riding,  driving,  and  walking,  in  a  single  afternoon,  and  that  at  the  same  mo- 
ment St.  James'  Park  was  as  gay  with  its  thousands,  it  will,  we  think,  be  understood  that 
the  immense  parks  of  London  are  no  larger  breathing  zones  than  the  lungs  of  a  great,  po- 
pulous and  wealthy  city,  require.  Parks  for  promenade  merely,  are  delightful  features 
in  a  city,  but  much  more  delightful  are  carriage  parks,  which  include  the  privilege  of  tak- 
ing exercise  in  all  waj's.  Hundreds  and  thousands  of  invalids,  who  are  unable  to  walk, 
are  enabled  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  the  open  air,  without  the  annoying  rattle  of  the  pave- 
ment, in  the  carriage  path — while  to  those  who  own  carriages,  the  pleasure  of  driving  over 
a  smooth  park  road,  instead  of  round  stones,  is  almost  the  whole  difference  of  enjoyment 
or  no  enjoyment.  What  our  great  cities,  therefore,  should  really  aim  at  now,  is,  not  lit- 
tle green  squares,  of  no  value  except  for  promenades — but  spacious  carriage  parks,  large 
enough  for  all  purposes  of  recreation  and  enjoyment  in  the  widest  sense. 

As  a  specimen  of  the  chasteness  and  beauty  of  Mr.  Ware's  style,  and  the  excellence  of 
his  architectural  criticism,  we  quote  the  following  passages  upon  some  of  the  edifices  of 
Florence : 

"  There  are  no  palaces  for  a  dark  and  sombre  magnificence,  like  those  of  Florence.  If 
one  looked  no  higher  than  the  ground  floor,  he  would  think  much  more  of  a  prison  than  a 
palace;  but  if  of  a  prison,  it  would  be  one  for  the  incarceration  of  nothing  less  than  prin- 
ces or  kings.  But  lifting  the  eye  upward,  and  no  one  can  longer  doubt  that  he  is  examin- 
ing the  residences  of  some  of  tlie  long  descended  inheritors  of  the  power  and  wealth  of 
Tuscany.  They  have  about  them,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  an  air  of  nobility.  The  forms 
are  extremely  simple,  even  to  severity;  no  ornament  which  seems  to  be  ornament  for  its 
own  sake.  The  architecture,  you  Avill  observe  too,  will  have  all  the  parts  which  properly 
belong  to  it,  but  beyond  that,  not  a  line,  not  a  curve,  not  a  moulding — nothing  beyond  the 
strictest  demands  of  the  order;  and  the  order  chosen  you  will  find  for  the  most  part  to 
be  the  simplest  and  severest  of  the  fine,  that  to  which  the  country  has  given  its  name,  the 
Tuscan.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  a  more  impressive  building  in  Europe  than  the  Ricardi 
Palace  in  Florence,  the  ancient  residence  of  the  Medici,  in  the  days  of  the  first  Cosmo  and 
Lorenzo.  It  preaches  like  a  sermon;  it  harangues  like  an  oration;  it  inspires  like  a  poem. 
I  came  upon  it  unexpectedly  the  first  day  I  was  in  Florence,  and  as  I  stood  beneath  its 
black  walls  of  chisselled  rock,  with  its  massive  overhanging  cornice,  I  felt  for  the  first 
time  the  power  of  architecture.  And  j-et,  palace  though  it  be,  it  presents  but  two  sheer, 
unbroken  fi'onts,  on  the  corner  of  two  streets— no  projection,  no  recesses,  no  towers,  pedi- 
ments, columns  or  piazzas, — two  simple  fronts  with  their  magnificent  cornice,  that  is  all; 
but  so  grand  are  the  proportions  of  all,  as  if  Michael  Angelo  had  written  his  name  all 
over  it,  that  for  true  sublimitj^  it  far  surpasses  all  other  structures  there,  even  the  huge 
Cathedral  itself. 

The  famous  Cathedrr.l — the  Duomo,  begun  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  Arnolfo,  and 
finished  by  Brunelschi,  in  the  fiftoentli,  is  very  vast,  having  a  length  of  four  hundred  and 
fifty,  and  a  height  of  three  hundred  and  eighty-seven  feet.  And  had  it  been  built  of  one 
kind  of  marble,  it  would  not  have  been  without  a  very  grand  effect.  It  is  impressive  as  it 
is,  especially  in  its  intei'ior,  with  its  rich  pnintcd  windows,  rich  as  if  Titian  had  been  the 
artist — but  much  is  lost  to  the  exterior,  owing  to  its  parti-colored  material,  being  made  of 
marble  in  alternate  layers  of  Mhite  and  black — a  childish  taste  of  the  age  in  which  it  was 
built, — which  disfigures  many  otherwise  fine  buildings,  both  there  and  in  Pisa,  and  not- 
withstanding its  great  size,  gives  to  the  church  in  question  the  look  of  being  only  an  un- 
commonly hirge  toy.  Its  dome  is  considered  its  greatest  glory  and  boast — and  with  rca 
there  had  been  nothing  like  it  before.  It  was  in  point  of  time,  before  St.  Peter 
as  its  model  to  Michael  Angelo,  who  was  never  satisfied  with  gazing  upon  i 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


with  admiration  and  a  feeling  of  despair  of  ever  being  able  to  equal  or  surpass  it;  and  was 
accustomed  to  say,  as  he  looked  up  to  it,  "  Like  thee  I  will  not  build,  and  better  I  can- 
not;" 3^et  he  ended  in  building  both  like  it  and  better.  The  dome  of  St.  Peter's  is  both 
larger  and  far  more  grceful  in  its  design.  The  st^'le  of  this  Cathedral  is  especially  inte- 
resting, as  it  marks  the  point  of  departure  from  the  Greek  and  Roman  forms,  and  the  in- 
troduction of  the  modern  style  of  the  Gothic.  It  is  of  a  mi.xed  character,  like  the  great 
Cathedral  of  Pisa,  (neither  wholly  the  one  nor  wholly  the  other — the  new,  however,  pre- 
dominating very  decidedly) — and  which,  in  its  more  completed  forms,  has  erected  the 
noblest  religious  buildings  in  the  world." 


Snnirsttr  SntitH. 


Timely  Hints  on  Transplanting. — Novices 
In  planting  always  think  it  quite  sufficient  to 
place  the  roots  of  the  newly  moved  tree  in  the 
earth  again;  old  planters  take  care  to  prepare 
deep  and  wide  holes — throwing  out  all  the  clayey 
or  poor  sub-soil,  and  mixing  the  good  soil  with 
plenty  of  manure  or  compost.  New  planters 
replant  the  routs  just  as  they  are — broken  and 
bruised  by  lifting  them  out  of  the  ground ;  old 
planters  carefully  smooth  the  ends  of  all  bruised 
roots  and  cut  off  all  broken  ones — knowing  very 
well  that  such  roots,  if  not  cut  off,  lead  to  a 
diseased  condition  of  things  under  ground. 
Young  planters  are  content  with  shovelling  in 
the  earth  upon  the  roots  and  tramping  it  down 
with  the  foot  till  the  tree  is  quite  firm — ^by 
which  many  hollows  are  left  under  the  tree  and 
among  the  roots — whereby  mouldy  roots,  feeble 
growth  and  often  death  ensues;  old  planters 
make  it  a  vital  point  to  see  with  their  own  eyes 
and  feel  with  their  own  fingers  that  the  fine  soil 
reaches  every  fibre,  and  that  not  a  single  hollow 
is  left  among  the  larger  roots.  Young  planters 
bury  a  tree  three  or  four  inches  deeper  than  it 
stood  before — by  which  the  roots  are  put  so  far 
below  the  kindly  influences  of  the  air  that  the 
tree  either  dies  at  once  or  lives  the  life  of  a  half- 
starved  mendicant  for  years,  scarcely  growing 
at  all ;  old  planters  plant  the  tree  scarcely  so 
deep  as  before,  knowing  that  the  roots  will  run 
down  easily,  though  it  is  hard  for  them  to  run 
up.  Young  planters  plant  their  trees  on  alevel, 
by  which,  when  the  ground  settles,  they  find 
their  trees  too  deep:  old  i)lanters  plant  them 
on  a  slight  hillock,  by  which,  when  the  ground 
settles,  they  stand  precisely  as  they  ought. 
Young  planters,  with  their  fine  tender-hearted- 


ness, cannot  bear  to  shorten  the  limbs  of  trans- 
planted trees,  and  hence  their  trees  struggle 
hard  to  live,  and  probably  stand  still  for  a  year 
or  two  to  recover;  old  planters,  with  their 
hard-earned  better  judgment,  shorten-back  half 
or  two-thirds  of  the  growth  of  the  current  year 
on  all  the  leading  shoots,  in  all  cases — and  in 
trees  that  have  been  much  mutilated  at  the 
roots,  they  head-in  the  main  branches  still  more, 
till  some  of  balance  is  restored,  so  that  their 
trees  push  out  vigorous  shoots  the  first  year, 
and  at  the  end  of  three  years  are  far  larger  and 
handsomer  than  the  unpruned  lieads  of  the 
young  planters.  And,  finally,  young  planters 
often  waste  money  in  staking  fall  planted  trees 
to  hold  them  up,  even  in  positions  not  windy; 
while  old  planters  raise  a  hillock  of  earth  over 
the  roots  eight  or  ten  inches  high,  thereby 
steadying  the  tree,  and  protecting  the  roots  till 
spring,  when  the  soil  being  well  settled,  they 
take  it  away  and  the  tree  will  stand  alone. 


The  Hort.  Shows  and  Festivals. — The 
month  of  September  has  been  an  unusually  gay 
one  among  both  the  Agriculturists  and  Horti- 
culturists all  over  the  land.  Shows  have  been 
numerous  and  fine,  and  in  several  instances  they 
have  closed  with  festivals,  dinners  or  balls,  that 
have  united  the  sympathies  of  the  outside  pub- 
lic and  the  immediate  votai  ies  of  the  art  very 
happily.  New  Haven,  Rochester  and  Norfolk 
County,  seem  to  have  been  especially  fortunate 
in  these  festivals.  We  regret  that  our  nume- 
rous professional  engagements  prevented  our 
accepting  the  many  kind  invitations  to  these 
fairs  and  festivals,  which  have  been 
showered  down  upon  us,  and  for  which 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


not  the  less  obliged  that  we  were  not  able  to 
accept  the  welcome  biddings.  But  indeed  it 
would  have  been  difficult  for  the  best  intention- 
ed  and  most  leisurely  of  guests  to  have  done 
much  more  than  sit  down  at  one  of  the  many 
tables,  since  our  societies  will  persist  in  sending 
out  all  their  cards  of  invitation  the  same  week. 
Why  should  not  some  of  them  vary  the  matter 
by  having  their  annual  Exhibition  in  the  early 
summer,  at  the  cherry  and  strawberry  season? 
It  would  be  a  delightful  novelty  at  least,  and 
we  think,  if  well  done,  would  have  a  freshness 
and  brilliancy  about  it  that  would  contrast  finely 
with  the  usual  rich  but  somewhat  monotonous 
display  of  Autumn.  If  the  Boston  Society,  for 
instance,  would  hold  its  next  show  under  large 
tents  in  the  beautiful  grounds  of  some  gentle- 
man in  the  suburbs,  it  would  be  far  more  de- 
lightful and  appropriate  than  this  constancy  to 
small  halls  in  town.  Mr.  Gushing,  or  some  of 
his  neighbors  at  lovely  Brookline,  would,  we 
should  thiuk,  be  as  liberal  in  offering  the  use 
of  grounds  for  a  day  to  Massachusetts,  as  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire  is  to  the  London  Hort. 
Society.     Nous  xerrons. 


Montgomery  Plum. — I  noticed  in  an  article 
on  plums,  in  your  June  number,  something  re- 
quiring explanation  from  me,  but  have  not  been 
able  for  want  of  time,  to  attend  to  it.  I  once 
called  the  Montgomery  a  i)lum,  (though  it  goes 
by  the  name  of  prune,)  and  for  this  reason.  It  is 
customary  in  Lancaster  to  call  any  new  seedling 
plum,  or  any  nameless  one,  prune  or  plum,  ac- 
cording as  it  is  oval  or  round ;  it  was  so  with 
Mr.  Carpenter,  and  by  the  enclosed  letter  you 
will  perceive  it  was  also  so  with  others.  In  the 
latter  case,  where  two  diflerent  sorts  have  the 
same  name,  it  is  well  enough,  but  I  think  upon 
the  whole,  it  were  better  for  horticulturists  ge- 
nerally, to  curtail  and  simijlify  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, and  not  dub  a  plum  "  prune,"  simply  on 
account  of  shape,  without  reference  to  sweet- 
ness  or  drying  qualities.  The  above  article  also 
recommends  the  Groundacre  plum,  and  know- 
ing that  there  was  a  mistake  in  the  name,  I 
wrote  to  the  namer  of  the  fruit,  Mr.  Gun- 
DAKER,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  for  a  description, 
which  he  has  kindly  furnished,  and  which  I  take 
pleasure  to  enclose  to  you. 

The  Gundaker  prune  is  doubtless  the  fruit 


Mr.  Fahnestock  alludes  to,  as  it  agrees  with 
Mr.  Carpenter's  description  of  it. 

The  excessive  heat  and  drouth  of  the  last 
three  weeks,  has  caused  a  heavy  loss  to  the  wine 
makers  of  Ohio,  leaving  but  about  one-third  of 
the  half  crop  anticipated,  the  balance  being  dri- 
ed up.  Three  weeks  since,  my  crop  of  grapes 
on  three  acres,  was  estimated  at  600 gallons;  to- 
day it  is  all  pressed,  yielding  but  130  gallons, 
very  sweet,  but  containing  also  much  sediment, 
and  I  have  done  better  than  many  others. 

I  was  much  pleased  -nith  Mr.  Van  Buren's 
experuuents  on  the  curculio,  in  the  last  number, 
and  hope  he  will  not  be  discouraged.  I  shall 
send  you  some  of  my  experience  when  time  al- 
lows. Tours  respectfully,  C.  G.  Siewers. 
Cincinnati,  Sept.,  1851. 

The  following  is  Mr.  Gundaker's  letter  re- 
ferred to — 

C.  G.  SiEWERS — Dear  Sir:  Tours  of  the  SOth 
of  August,  came  duly  to  hand.  Tou  inquire 
relative  to  the  origin  of  the  Gundaker  plum. 
The  fruit  you  allude  to  was  raised  by  myself, 
somewhere  about  32  years  ago.  I  planted  some 
seed,  of  what  kind  of  fruit  I  do  not  recollect; 
there  were  about  a  dozen  grew,  and  when  going 
to  inocculate  them,  two  of  which,  judging  by 
the  leaves,  &c.,  I  let  stand,  thinking  they  would 
bring  good  fruit. 

The  one  you  allude  to  was  named  the  Gunda- 
ker Prune,  and  the  other  Gundaker  Plum.  The 
prune  is  of  a  yellowish  white  color,  nearly  as  large 
asthe  Blue  Prune,  and  of  the  same  shai^e,  (oval,) 
very  high  flavored,  and  a  good  bearer.  The 
plum  is  of  a  purple  color  on  one  side,  and  the 
other,  a  light  color;  heart  shaped,  resembling  a 
plum  called  the  Golden  Drop,  but  larger  in  size, 
and  a  great  bearer. 

I  should  have  answered  yours  before  this, 
but  my  absence  from  home  was  the  reason  of 
my  not  doing  it.  Resp'ly  your  obd't  servant, 
Saml.  E  Gundaker.  Lancaster,  Sept.  15, 
18.51.  

LiME-WASH     FOR    CuRCULIO. — DeAR     SiR:    I 

have  noticed  with  much  pleasure,  in  your  Sep- 
tember number  of  the  Horticulturist,  the  suc- 
cess of  Mr.  Ludlow,  of  Tonkers,  N.  T.,  on  ap- 
plying a  new  remedy  against  the  attacks  of  the 
curculio.  He  tells  us  that  he  made  a  pailful  of 
white-wash  from  unslaked  lime,  and  mixed  with 
it  a  handful  or  two  of  flour  of  sulphur.     This 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


he  applied  three  times,  allowing  three  days  to 
intervene  between  each  application. 

I  have  great  faith  in  his  remedy,  and  the  more 
from  an  experiment  which  I  performed  upon 
two  plum  trees  several  years  ago,  which  I  will 
now  describe  to  you.  I  had  read  somewhere 
this  fact,  or  it  had  been  related  to  mc,  that  a 
man  sowed  gypsum,  or  plaster  of  Paris,  in  a 
field  adjoining  an  orchard  of  apple  trees,  at  a 
time  when  they  were  in  full  blossom.  It  was 
quite  windy  that  day,  and  the  plaster  was  car- 
ried pretty  abundantly  to  all  the  trees  on  that 
side  of  the  orchard  next  to  the  field.  In  the 
fall  it  was  observed  that  those  trees  which  re- 
ceived the  plaster  bore  very  abundantly,  while 
the  other  trees  which  did  not  receive  it,  bore 
little  or  none ;  and  I  remember  that  the  cause 
of  the  great  bearing  was  attributed  to  the  plas- 
ter. Receiving  a  hint  from  this,  others  had  ap- 
plied the  plaster  to  other  fruit  trees  when  in 
blossom,  and  with  similar  good  results.  Hav- 
ing become  acquainted  with  these  facts,  I  resolv- 
ed to  try  the  efficacy  of  plaster  on  my  two  plum 
trees,  which  had  previously  been  full  of  blos- 
sums  from  year  to  year,  but  had  borne  no  fruit 
of  any  account.  This  year  they  were  very  full 
of  blossoms,  and  I  applied  the  plaster  by  throw- 
ing it  in  a  powdered  state,  on  to  the  blossoms, 
in  the  morning,  I  think,  and  probably  when  they 
were  somewhat  moist  with  dew.  In  the  time 
of  their  ripening,  the  tops  of  the  trees  were  one 
almost  perfect  blush  of  purple.  I  never  saw 
plum  trees  hang  fuller  in  my  life. 

I  did  not  then  know  that  the  plum  tree  was 
subject  to  the  attacks  of  such  an  insect  as  the 
curculio,  nor  did  I  understand  what  connection 
there  was  between  the  x'^aster  and  the  great 
bearing  of  the  trees.  The  next  year,  I  think, 
I  left  the  place,  and  not  till  within  the  past  year 
or  two,  ha%nng  had  any  plum  trees  large  enough 
to  bear,  I  had  forgotten  all  about  my  experi- 
ment, nor  had  I  had  seen  in  any  quarter,  notice 
of  the  continued  application  of  plaster  for  the 
purpose  of  making  trees  bear  more. 

Mr,  Ludlow  attributes  the  perfect  success  of 
his  experiment  to  the  sw/pftMr,and  if  he  is  cor- 
rect, I  think  I  can  see  now  the  reason  of  my 
success  in  the  case  I  have  mentioned.  Gyp- 
.sum,  or  plaster  of  Paris,  is  sulphate  of  lime,  and 
throwing  this  on  to  the  blossoms,  sufficient 
ur  was  communicated  to  them,  and  ab- 


sorbed by  them,  to  protect  the  growing  fruit 
from  the  ravages  of  the  curcuHo.  I  think  I  did 
not  make  the  application  but  once.  Perhaps, 
however,  it  had  better  be  made  two  or  three 
times — once,  at  least,  after  the  fruit  is  formed. 
This  method  of  applying  the  sulphur,  i.  e.,  by 
throwing  ground  plaster  on  to  the  blossoms,  has 
this  advantage  over  Mr.  Ludlow's  method,  that 
it  is  more  simple  and  easy.  Yours  respectfully, 
E.  L.  Hart.  Farmington,  Ct.,  Sept.  18,  1851. 

Cheap  Covering  for  Green-houses,  etc. — 
I  have  a  few  words  to  say  about  a  cheap  and  ef- 
fectual covering  for  green-houses,  pits,  etc., 
which  will  answer  for  the  American  climate,  as 
it  has  answered  for  our  severe  winters  in  the 
northern  parts  of  Germany  for  the  last  30  years, 
to  the  greatest  satisfaction,  under  all  circum- 
stances. According  to  the  size  of  your  lights, 
have  a  frame-work  made,  so  if  put  on,  to  cover 
the  whole  light  .sufficient.  Take  paste-board  of 
the  mo.st  common  kind — tar  it  well  over,  so  that 
the  tar  wiU  soak  well  in  the  paste-board — do  it 
a  second  time — then,  according  to  the  size  of  the 
paste-board,  nail  it  on  to  the  above  mentioned 
frame,  and  put  so  many  lath  in  your  frame-work 
as  to  make  the  paste-board  tight ,  or  rather  keep 
it,  when  snow  or  rain  is  falling,  from  bending  on 
the  glass.  After  that  is  done,  give  the  whole 
another  tarring  over  with  a  better  sort  of  tar. 
I  forgot  to  mention  that  it  is  best  to  put  the  tar 
on  when  it  is  either  boiled,  or  made  thiu  by 
means  of  hot  stones  pxit  into  it.  After  that  is 
done,  take  a  fine  sieve  and  sift  some  sand  over 
the  whole,  which  will  give  it  a  nice  appearance, 
and  prevent  any  sticking  which  might  be  left  by 
the  last  tarring.  This,  done  every  second  or 
third  year,  will  keep  these  shutters  for  many 
years.  Any  accidental  hole  can  be  repaired  by 
sewing  a  piece  of  prepared  paste-board  in  it.  It 
is  possible  that  many  may  think  boards  for  shut- 
ters, cheaper  and  better  than  this ;  but  any  one 
acquainted  with  them,  will  know  that  the  glass 
is  very  liable  to  be  broken  by  them,  besides  get- 
ting so  often  out  of  repair,  and  being  so  very 
hea\-y  when  snow  or  rain  falls  on  them.  Tlie 
way  to  secure  these  sashes,  (or  shutters,)  must 
be  left  to  any  one's  own  choice. 

P.  S.  It  is  the  air,  or  space  between  the  shut- 
ters and  glass,  which  keeps  the  frost  out. 

Viola  arborea. — I  find  it  said  in  your  co- 
lumns, some  years  back,  that  this  violet  is  grow- 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


ing  like  any  other  species,  only  being  a  good  and 
double  sweet  blooming  kind,  not  resembling  any 
tree-like  appearance.  I  beg  to  say,  that  If  you 
trim  the  plant  of  its  suckers  continually,  within 
two  years,  if  well  grown,  you  can  have  hand- 
some plants,  with  a  crown  of  one  and  half  to 
two  feet  high.  The  plant  is  of  double  value 
then.    F.  T:  M.  Otto.    Flushing,  Oct.  6, 1851. 


Presekvation  of  Ripe  Fruit. — To  A.  J- 
DowNiNG,  Esq. — About  the  season  when  the 
Madeleine  Pear  is  ripe,  (in  July,)  I  expected  a 
friend,  who  I  knew  would  be  delighted  with  the 
taste  of  this  fruit.  He  did  not  however  arrive 
until  the  fruit  (which  you  know  lasts  only  a  few 
days)  was  nearly  gone.  I  gathered,  notwith- 
standing, a  few  good  specimens,  and  putting 
them  into  a  dry,  covered,  tin  vessel,  surrounded 
this  with  ice,  where  it  remained  for  two  weeks. 
This,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  was  an  original  ex- 
periment, and  I  knew  not,  therefore,  how  it 
would  succeed;  but  on  the  arrival  of  my  friend, 
the  cover  being  rejuoved,  I  was  not  a  little 
gratified,  as  well  as  s:urprised,  to  find  that  the 
fruit  had  undergone  little  or  no  change,  several 
of  the  pears  being  still  liard,  while  those  which 
were  fully  ripe,  when  put  into  the  vessel,  had 
not  decayed. 

As  the  success  of  this  experiment  was  wholly 
beyond  my  expectation,  I  have  since  tried  it  on 
other  fruits,  as  early  peaches,  and  summer 
pears,  with  equal  success.  I  see  no  difficulty, 
therefore,  in  presenting  our  friends,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  specimens  of  our  finest 
pears  and  peaches,  if  they  are  enclosed  in  dry 
tin  or  glass  vessels,  and  placed  in  the  ice-house 
of  the  ship.  My  experiments,  however,  have 
been  made  only  with  small  quantities  of  fruit, 
the  vessels  holding  each  but  one  or  two  quarts, 
as  a  common  tin-pail  with  a  tight  cover.  If 
you  think  this  new,  and  worth  knowing,  please 
insert  it.  Yours  truly,  J.  L.  Comstock. 
Hartford,  Ct.^  Sept.  1851. 

A  very  simple  and  very  successful  experi- 
ment. Since  receiving  this  account,  we  notice 
in  the  Liverpool  papers,  that  an  American  has 
carried  out  peaches  in  the  same  manner,  and 
had  the  pleasure  of  presenting  them  to  his 
friends  in  England  in  the  finest  preservation, 
not  unlikely  that  this  amateur  experiment 
lead  to  a  large  business  in  exporting  the 


more  delicate  fruits.  Mr.  Tcdor,  of  Boston, 
familiarly  known  as  the  "Ice  King,'' — must, 
however,  have  the  credit  of  the  discovery,  for 
his  ice  ships  have  for  several  years  past  been  in 
the  habit  of  supplying  the  wealthy  citizens  of 
Calcutta  with  fine  American  apples — carried 
out  with  the  ice.     Ed. 


New  Portdlaccas. — In  my  communication 
last  month,  I  described  only  one  new  variety, 
viz.  the  crimson  &nd  yellow,  and  that  had  not  de- 
veloped its  full  character.  Shortly  after,  ano- 
ther bloomed,  even  more  beautiful  than  the 
first.  It  is  a  white,  with  crimson  stripes.  The 
white  Portulacca,  already  known,  sports  occa- 
sionally by  an  aggravating  dash  of  crimson  upon 
one  or  two  petals,  and  sometimes  a  whole  crim- 
son petal,  etc ;  but  th*?  new  variety  I  have  ob- 
tained has  a  distinct  and  decided  character, 
combining,  in  every  flower,  the  colors  of  the 
two  parents,  crimson  and  white,  presenting  a 
flower  delicate  in  its  pencillings,  and  beautiful 
in  the  extreme.  The  pure  j'ellow  and  pure 
white,  are  both  feeble  plants  compared  with  the 
crimson  and  scarlet  varieties,  the  crimson  being 
the  strongest  grower  of  all.  The  crimso?}  and 
yellow  mixed,  partakes  largely  of  the  strength 
of  the  crimson,  and  the  flowers  are  quite  as 
large.  The  white  and  crimson  mixed  is  not 
quite  so  strong  as  the  last  named. 

The  crimson  and  yellow  7nixed,  sports  cxacily 
as  I  predicted,  and  makes  an  extraordinary 
show.  The  mixed  flowers  predominate,  but 
nearly  every  morning  it  puts  forth  among  its 
varigated  flowers  one  or  two  of  pure  crimson 
and  of  pure  yellow.  The  ^\hite  and  crimson 
mixed,  thus  far  has  not  shown  the  sporting  char- 
acter, every  flower  being  beautifully  .striped. 
It  seems  from  the  character  of  these  varieties 
of  Portulacca,  that  it  comports  itself  exactly 
like  the  Mirabilis  Jalapa,  the  common  marvel 
of  Peru,  and  I  infer  that  we  shall  soon  have  as 
many  varieties  of  Portulacca  as  we  have  of  that 
I>lant;  and  what  is  somewhat  interesting,  to  an- 
ticipate all  the  same  colors  and  mixtures.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  here  that  Mr.  McLeod,  Florist 
of  this  city,  had  in  his  garden  this  season,  a 
double  flower  of  the  crimson  Portulacca.  It 
was  accidental .  I  omitted  to  mention  that  the 
two  new  varieties  of  Portulacca  were  all 
were  obtained  from  a  large  number  of 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Chas.  G.  Page.     Patent  Office,  Washington, 
D.  C,  Oct.  \,  1851. 

JficE  DisBARKiNQ  Trees. — After  so  much 
experience,  what  is,  in  your  opinion,  the  best  re- 
medy or  preventive  of  mice  from  gnawing  young 
orchard  trees. 

I  have  a  large  quantity  that  are,  or  will  be, 
somewhat  exposed,  and  I  want  to  take  early 
measures  to  prevent  injury.  If  coal  tar  is  re- 
commended, how  am  I  to  judge  that  it  is  not 
too  strong  so  as  to  injure  the  trees?  In  haste, 
respectfully,  T.  G.  Yeomans.  Walworth,  N. 
Y.,  Oct.  2,  1851. 

We  believe  the  best  preventive  to  be  the  fol- 
lowing. Just  before  winter,  throw  up  a  small 
hill  about  a  foot  high  round  each  tree — remov- 
ing it  in  the  spring.  The  mice  look  for  the  ten- 
der bark  at  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  not 
being  able  to  find  it,  let  the  tree  alone. 

Coal  tar  is  found  dangerous — sometimes  serv- 
ing the  purpose  well — but,  when  too  strong, 
killing  the  tree.     Ed. 


Seedling  Grape. — Ms.  Downing  —  Dear 
Sir:  Herewith  I  send  you  a  few  bunches  of 
grapes  from  a  seedling  vine,  which  has  produc- 
ed fruit  this  season  for  the  first  time,  and  should 
like  to  have  your  opinion  as  to  the  quality. 
The  vine  is  now  four  or  five  years  old;  I  do 
not  exactly  remember  which.  It  is  a  strong 
grower,  and  I  should  say  will  prove  a  great 
bearer,  if  the  fact  of  its  setting  about  100  bun- 
ches of  fruit  for  the  first  time,  goes  for  any 
thing.  I  picked  off  all  but  40  bunches  Avhen 
the  fruit  had  attained  a  good  size.  In  fact,  the 
fruit  was  larger  a  month  after  the  blossom,  by 
one-half,  than  that  of  an  Isabella  vine  that  is 
on  the  opposite  of  my  garden.  The  vine  has 
had  no  cultivation  whatever,  aijd  I  have  no 
doubt  that  if  we  had  had  more  rain,  the  berries 
would  have  been  very  much  larger  than  they 
are.  It  strikes  me  as  a  very  good  flavored 
grape,  but  as  I  know  nothing  about  the  various 
seedlings  that  have  been  produced,  I  must 
leave  the  matter  to  some  good  authority  like 
yourself.  If  not  too  late,  I  would  like  to  have 
your  opinion  in  the  October  number  of  the 

Horticulturist.      Yours  respectfully,      A . 

New-York  City. 

The  specimen  of  the  grape  above  referred  to 
appears  to  be  precisely  like  the  Catawba,  only 


riper  and  sweeter  than  the  Catawbas  were  at 
the  time  they  were  received;  in  color,  size  and 
flavor,  however,  it  resembles  the  Catawba  pre- 
cisely. Another  season,  it  will  be  worth  while 
to  notice  if  this  seedling  Catawba  ripens  earlier 
than  the  original  variety — as  if  so  it  will  be  more 
valuable.  Should  it  turn  out  earlier,  we  hope 
"A."  will  let  us  hear  from  him  again.    Ed. 


Scarlet  IIor.se  Chestnut. — The  Horticul- 
turist notices  a  double  flowering  Horse  Chest- 
nut, grown  by  Mr.  Rivers  in  England,  and  which 
will  probably  soon  be  introduced  into  this  coun- 
try. Can  the  editor  of  the  Horticulturist  give 
us  an  account  of  the  scarlet  flowering  horse 
chestnut  grown  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  and  the  best 
manner  of  propagating,  and  whether  ti-ees  can 
be  obtained  ?  Can  this  variety  be  engrafted  suc- 
cessfully upon  the  common  chestnut? 

The  true  scarlet  Horse  Chestnut  is  rare  in 
this  country — we  know  of  no  large  specimens 
except  in  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Buist  of  that  city 
and  Messrs.  Parsons  of  Flushing,  L.  I.,  we 
think  have  it  for  sale.  It  is  propagated  by  whip 
or  splice  grafting  on  the  common  horse  chest- 
nut.    Ed.  

The  Largest  Pear  Yet. — "We  received  this 
morning  from  the  garden  of  Dr.  I.  M.  Ward, 
an  enormous  pear  of  the  Duchess  d'  Angouleme 
species,  which  weighs  18  oz.  and  measures  12 
inches  in  its  smallest  circumference,  and  13 
inches  in  the  largest.  This  rather  beats  the  one 
noticed  the  other  day  at  the  Astor  House, 
which  weighed  16  ounces,  and  was  supposed  to 
be  the  largest  on  record. — \_Newark  Daily  Ad- 
vertiser, Vith. 

This  is  by  no  means  "  the  largest  pear  yet." 
A  specimen  of  this  same  fine  variety — the  Du- 
chess of  Angouleme,  was  raised  by  S.  Leeds, 
Esq.,  of  Boston,  last  year,  which  weighed  25 
oz.,  and  measui'cd  15  inches  in  circumference — 
the  largest  way.  We  have  an  exact  model  of 
the  fruit  on  our  table,  made  by  Mr.  Glover  of 
Fishkill  Landing,  N.  Y.,  and  colored  to  the 
life.  Very  large  and  fine  flavored  specimens 
of  the  D 'Angouleme  are  easily  produced  in  rich 
deep  soil — especially  when  the  tree  is  grafted  on 
quince  stock.     Ed. 


A  Model  Hotel  for  Country  Towns. — We 
copy  the  following  description  by  Willis,  of 
the  Hotel  at  Taunton — which  has  become  a 
celebrity — both  as  a  record  of  progress  in  ar- 
chitecture and  as  a  warning  to  landlords  about 
building  this  kind  of  property,  not  to  fall  behmd 
the  spirit  of  the  age.    The  style  and  conve- 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


nience  of  town  hotels  generally  have  been  ex- 
ceedingly improved  within  the  last  ten  years — 
but  those  in  the  country  are  for  the  most  part 
lagging  behind.  In  the  country  where  every 
body  travels,  too  much  attention  cannot  be 
paid  to  designing  and  keeping  hotels,  in  the 
best  manner.    En. 

"  Tauntjjn  has  stolen  a  march  on  the  progress 
of  the  age.  It  probably  shows  the  effect  of  a 
few  superior  minds  among  its  business  popula- 
tion. The  singular  advance  beyond  other  towns 
of  same  size  is  visible  in  many  things;  but, 
among  other  surprises  for  the  traveller,  there 
is  a  hotel  of  Venetian  architecture,  built  in  as 
good  taste  as  any  gentleman's  residence  in  tlie 
country,  and  furnished  and  kept  in  full  accor- 
dance with  its  peculiar  elegance  of  exterior. 
The  contrast,  between  the  impression  with 
which  one  would  probably  visit  the  town  for 
the  first  time,  and  what  one  finds  there,  in  the 
advance  of  art  and  luxury,  could  scarcely  be 
exceeded.  One  hears  of  it  as  the  place  for  nails 
and  herrings,  and,  if  there  is  a  peculiarly  in- 
tense specimen  of  tlie  Yankee  to  be  written 
about,  he  would  be  described  as  coming  "  from 
Taunton,  good  Lord!"  by  every  anecdote- 
monger  in  the  country.  Yet  neither  at  AVind- 
sor  nor  Versailles  would  the  traveller  be  lodged 
and  waited  on  half  so  luxuriously,  nor  in  any 
small  town  in  England  would  the  private  resi- 
dences, and  their  accordance  with  the  natural 
features  of  the  place,  show  a  taste  more  refined 
and  liberal.  The  public  square  —  Taunton 
Green,  as  it  is  called — is  heavily  shaded  with 
old  and  venerable  trees,  and  it  has  the  effect 
of  a  noble  court-j-ard  to  the  richly  balconied 
and  turreted  hotel,  while  on  its  opposite  sides 
are  one  or  two  mansions  of  model  architecture 
and  grounds — the  sitter  in  any  one  of  the  pic- 
turesque galleries,  upon  which  open  the  long 
windows  of  the  public  house,  having  nothing 
within  view  that  would  not  accord  with  his 
dream  of  the  most  tasteful  stopping-places  of 
Europe."  

Pennsylvania  Hort.  Society. — The  stated 
meeting  of  this  society  was  held  on  Tuesday 
evening,  Oct.  21 — Dr.  W.  D.  Brinckle  in  the 
chair.  The  displays  of  fruits  and  vegetables 
were  very  rich.  One  collection  of  plants  from 
Robert  Buist's  houses,  were  interesting;  but 
the  object  most  admired,  was  a  cut  flower  of 
the  Victoria  regia.  This  specimen  was  in  the 
finest  condition  of  any  heretofore  shown  before 
the  society,  and  was  truly  beautiful.  A  num- 
ber of  handsome  baskets  of  cut  flowers  and 
bouquets  were  exhibited.  The  show  of  fruits 
was  remarkably  fine,  and  consisted  of  grapes — 
very  large  "White  Syrian,  from  U.  B.  Tidden's 
houses,  Tacony, — Black  Hamburg,  from  H.  "W. 


S.  Cleveland, — Blade  Morocco  from  the  Presi- 
dent's, and  Decandolle,  from  Miss  Gratz's.  Of 
pears,  there  was  a  great  variety,  and  some 
luscious  specimens.  Isaac  B.  Baxter  presented 
large  and  fine  Duchess d'Angouleme;  Mrs.  Jno. 
B.  Smith,  Passe  Colmar,  Sieulle,  D.  d'Angou- 
leme, Buerre  d'Alembert  and  Holland  Green  ; 
Caleb  Cope,  Beurre  Diel,  Sieulle  and  Bleeker's 
Meadow ;  Edm'd  Jones,  Kingsessing,  the  Jones; 
A.  M.  Eastwick  and  A.  Fulton,  jr.,  two  un- 
known varieties.  Other  varieties  were  shown, 
from  C.  B.  Lines,  New-Haven,  the  Calhoun, 
Jones'  Winter,  Jones'  December  and  January ; 
from  J.  C.  Hastings,  Clinton,  Oneida  Co.,  N. 
Y.,  Fredericka  Bremer;  from  Matthew Mackie, 
Clyde,  N.  Y.,  Sheldon;  from  J.  P.  Cushing, 
Boston,  Doyenne  Gris;  from  M.  P.  Wilder, 
Boston,  six  native  and  nineteen  foreign  varie- 
ties. Of  apples,  M.  Synder  exhibited — Bell- 
flower,  HageS;  Pennock,  Carthouse  and  Smoke- 
house; Jno.  Perkins,  Ridge  Pippin  and  Pen- 
nock; B.  F.  Hodges,  a  seedling  from  the  Bell- 
flower;  and  from  J.  W.  Bailey,  Plattsburgh, 
N.  Y.,  Bailey  Spice, and Snelly  Autumn;  from 
J.  C.  Hastings,  an  unknown  variety;  from  M. 

Mackie,  the  Clyde  Beauty,  and  from N. 

Y.,  Baily  Spice,  Fall  Harvey,  Jack,  Jcwett's 
Red,  Late  Strawberry,  Melon.  Minister,  North- 
ern Spy,  President,  Sweet  Baldwin  and  Sponge. 
Of  vegetables  there  were  five  tables  of  well 
grown  esculents. 

A  special  report,  emanating  from  the  com- 
mittee  on  plants  and  flowers,  fully  describing 
the  Victoria  regia,  as  it  appeared  when  visited 
by  the  committee  on  the  28th  of  August,  was 
submitted,  and  their  recommendation  that  a 
gold  medal  should  be  presented  to  Caleb  Cope 
for  his  liberality  and  energy  in  bringing  into  suc- 
cessful and  mature  growth  that  truly  wonder- 
ful water  lily,  was  unanimously  sanctioned  by 
the  society.  In  the  report  of  the  committee 
on  flowers  and  designs,  at  the  recent  autumnal 
exhibition,  read  this  evening,  a  recommenda- 
tion awarding  twenty-five  dollars  to  Jno.  Ellis, 
gardener  to  Caleb  Cope,  for  his  skill  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  Victoria  regia,  was  also  con- 
curred in  by  the  Society.  Thos.  P.  James, 
Rec.  Secretary.        

The  Berkshire  Hort.  Society  held  its 
fourth  annivers&ry  at  Stockbridge,  on  Wednes- 
day the  17th  of  September.     The  number  of 


DOMESTIC  AOTICES. 


contributors  exceeded  those  of  all  previous  ex- 
hibitions. Hon.  Edward  A.  Newton,  of  Pitts- 
field,  presented  specimens  of  eleven  varieties  of 
pears,  grown  to  perfection  on  his  unfavorable 
soil  in  Pittsfield.  Gen. William  Williams,  Judge 
Byington,  and  G.  P.  R.  James,  of  Stockbridgc, 
Hon.  Asahcl  Foote,  of  Williamstown,  and  oth- 
ers from  different  Societies,  presented  specimens 
wliich  give  assurance  that  the  choice  varieties 
of  this  delicious  fruit  can  be  successfully  culti- 
vated in  our  hill  country. 

The  show  of  apples,  among  which  were  the 
Baldwin,  Northern  Spy,  and  many  other  choice 
varieties,  was  more  varied,  and  all  that  would 
be  anticipated  in  a  region  where  fruit  culture  is 
yet  in  comparative  infancy.  We  say  in  its  in- 
fancy ;  we  have  many  old  orchards,  in  some  of 
which  valuable  fruit  is  to  be  found,  yet  the  idea 
has  been  too  prevalent,  that  good  fruit  could 
not  be  successfully  raised  on  our  old  and  too 
much  exhausted  soil.  But  the  exhibitions  of 
the  two  last  years,  are  doing  away  these  im- 
pressions, and  in  consequence  new  orchards  are 
springing  up  every  where. 

Plums  were  exhibited  from  some  half  a  dozen 
towns.  The  varieties  were  numerous,  and  the 
specimens  all  fine.  We  had  seedling  peaches, 
too,  such  as  would  make  the  mouth  of  a  Jersey- 
man  water,  in  rich  abundance. 

Premiums  on  pears  were  awarded  to  Hon. 
Edward  A.  Newton,  Pittsfield;  William  Wil- 
liams, Stockbridge;  William  G.  Backus,  Pitts- 
field; Edward  C.  Carter,  Stockbridge.  On 
winter  apples,  to  Judge  Byington,  Edward  C. 
Carter,  D.  R.  Williams  and  Isaac  Bassett.  On 
fall  apples,  to  D.  F.  Goodrich,  Mrs.  Jane  Sedg- 
Avick,  William  G.  Backus.  On  peaches,  to 
William  Williams,  Mrs.  Hamlin  of  Sheffield, 
and  Thomas  Wells  of  Stockbridge.  On  plums, 
to  Edward  A.  Newton  of  Pittsfield,  Samuel 
Goodrich  of  Stockbridge,  and  Asahel  Foote  of 
Williamstown.  On  garden  vegetables,  to  D.  F. 
Goodrich  of  Stockbridge,  Graham  C.  Root  of 
Sheffield,  and  R.  A.  Galpin  of  Stockbridge. 

The  premiums  on  flowers,  were,  to  Mrs. 
James  Bradford  of  Sheffield,  for  a  fine  display 
of  (27  varieties)  Dahlias.  On  cut  flowers,  to 
Mrs.  Whitney  of  Stockbridge,  Miss  Susan 
Pomeroy  of  Stockbridge  and  Mrs.  Sarah  L. 
of  Richmond .  On  verbenas  and  German 
to  Miss  Elizabeth  Spaulding  of  Stock- 


bridge.  A  second  premium  on  asters  to  Mrs 
Mary  Goodwin  of  Stockbridge,  and  one  on 
Dahlias  to  Mrs.  Root  of  Sheffield. 

An  interesting  and  poetical  address  was  given 
by  the  Hon.  G.  P.  R.  James,  and  the  zeal  and 
good  feeling  brought  out  by  the  occasion  gave 
good  assurance  that  old  Berkshire,  among  the 
first  to  excite  emulation  by  her  cattle  shows  and 
fairs,  is  determined,  though  her  mountains  are 
cold  and  her  soil  hard,  not  to  be  the  last  nor 
the  least  in  her  horticultural  achievements. 
W.  Bacon.     Richmond,  Oct.  1851. 


Oswego  Hort.  Society.  —  The  September 
E.xhibition  of  this  society  was  held  on  the  11th, 
at  the  City  Hall.  The  display  of  fruits  much 
exceeded  any  former  one,  in  quality  and  variety. 
Among  the  peaches  worthy  of  note,  was  a  bas- 
ket presented  by  Mr.  J.  McNair— the  fruit  of 
very  large  size — melting,  and  very  juicy,  with 
sprightly  flavor,  and  a  remarkably  thin  white 
skin,  which  I  am  unable  to  identify  with  any  of 
the  sorts  described  in  books.  The  character  of 
the  leaf  (serrated)  induces  me  to  suppose  it  is 
the  Sweetwater,  described  by  Thomas.  It  is 
among  our  earliest  peaches,  but  too  good  to 
belong  to  the  Early  Ann  or  Nutmeg  family. 
The  tree  is  now  upwards  of  30  j'ears  old — pro- 
duced its  largest  crop  this  year,  and  is  yet  in 
full  vigor.  The  variety  is  extremely  difficult 
to  propagate  from  buds.  Can  you  inform  us 
what  it  is  ?     [No  doubt  the  Sweetwater.] 

Mr.  WoRDEN  presented  seven  good  varieties, 
among  them.  White  Imperial,  Large  Early 
York,  and  Red  Rareripe — the  last  grown  on 
trees  3.5  years  old.  Mr.  C.  S.  Phelps,  seven 
varieties — George  4th,  Grosse  Mignonne,  and 
orhers;  the  Rec.  Sec'y,  10  varieties,  of  wliich 
the  Early  York  and  Bergen's  Yellow  were  the 
finest.  Among  them  were  a  doz.  of  the  Mal- 
ta— the  "spurious  sort" — as  the  leaves  have 
glands.  The  trees  were  grown  on  Long  Island, 
and  planted  here  in  the  spring  of '46.  Now,  as 
this  is  not  the  true  Malta,  but  yet  a  large  fine 
fruit,  and  withal  pretty  widely  disseminated, 
can  you  tell  me  what  it  is  ? 

Of  Pears,  the  best  varieties  were  Bartlett  and 
Dearborn's  Seedling.  These,  with  some  fine 
specimens  of  Stevens'  Genesee,  from  the  garden 
of  Mr.  Phelps,  were  about  the  only  k 
merit  sufficiently  mature  for  eating.     Mr 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


tree  of  this  last  variety,  from  which  the  pears 
were  taken,  is  nearly  gone  with  blight,  and  I 
regret  to  see  that  this  valuable  sort  is  peculiarly 
subject  to  that  malady  in  this  region. 

Plums — Worthy  of  note,  were  Imperial  Gage, 
by  MissCARRiNGTONand  A.  P.Grant;  Bolraar 
AVashington,  by  Messrs.  Beardsley,  Phelps, 
Brown,  and  others;  baskets  of  assorted  varie- 
ties by  Mrs.  J.  Turrill,  Mrs.  I.  S.  Isaacs, 
and  others. 

Nectarines. — Mr.  J.  W.  P.  Allen  exhibited 
4  varieties;  Mr.  A.  P.  Grant,  and  Mr.  W. 
Brown,  a  dish  each  of  the  Argyle  and  White; 
Mr.  Geo.  Seeley,  the  Elruge — all  very  large 
and  perfect. 

Mr.  W.  R.  Smith,  of  the  Macedon  Nursery, 
exhibited  15  varieties  of  the  pear,  28  of  the  ap- 
ple, and  30  of  the  peach:  the  last  mostly  in 
perfection,  and  of  the  finest  quality.  Promi- 
nent among  them  were  Early  Crawford  and 
Bergen's  Yellow. 

I  must  not  forget  to  add,  that  among  the  best 
peaches  was  our  Beckwiih,  a  native  of  Oswego, 
a  very  large  and  delicious  variety,  reproducing 
itself  from  seed  in  nearly  every  orchard  and 
garden,  and  never  failing  to  j^roduce  abundant 
crops.  Respectfully  yours,  Jno.  Casey,  Rec. 
Sec'y.     Oswego,  Oct.  20,  1851. 


Champlain  Yalley  Hort.  Society. — The 
doors  of  the  Court  House  were  thrown  open  to 
the  members  of  the  Horticultural  Society  of 
the  Valley  of  Lake  Champlain,  and  to  the 
public,  at  2  o'clock,  Tuesday  afternoon,  Oct.  5, 
and  we  hazard  nothing  in  saying  that  one  of 
the  finest  exhibitions  of  the  fruits  and  flowers, 
(more  particularly  the  former)  that  were  ever 
made  north  of  New  Jersey,  greeted  the  admir- 
ing eyes  of  the  numerous  visitors.  The  sur- 
prise and  gratification,  on  witnessing  so  superb 
a  display  of  the  beneficence  of  our  soil,  under 
careful  and  intelligent  cultivation,  were  strong 
and  universal, — more  especially  as  but  imper- 
fect notice  to  the  Horticulturists  of  our  Valley 
of  the  intended  exhibition  had  been  given,  and 
very  many  were  wholly  unapprised  of  the  in- 
tention of  the  managers  to  bestow  premiums. 
This  is  the  first,  too,  of  the  attempts  to  bring 
out  numerous  samples  of  the  horticultural  pro- 
ductions of  the  fertile  and  quite  extensive  ter- 
ritory embraced  in  the  bailiwick  of  the  society, 
and  we  believe  we  have  the  warrant  of  the 
active  and  indefatigable  President  himself  for 
saying  that  the  response  quite  exceeds  any  ex- 
pectations that  were  formed.  Indeed  we  were 
assured  by  Mr.  Howard,  who  has  attended  the 
annual  fairs  of  the  American  Institute,  in  New- 
York  city,  for  more  than  twenty  years  past, 


that  he  never  saw  so  excellent  a  display  of  fruit 
at  any  one  of  them,  both  as  resjiects  quality, 
and  variety,  as  was  on  tlie  tables  of  our  own 
youtliful  societj^,  yesterday  and  to-day. 

And  tliis  is  but  the  begiiniing  of  the  end. 
The  Valley  of  Lake  Champlain  can  do  vastly 
better.  It  can  produce  apples,  pears,  grapes, 
quinces,  &c.,  &c.,  and  the  wide  range  of  garden 
esculents,  that  need  shun  no  comparison  with 
those  of  any  otlier  portion  of  the  globe, — and 
produce  them  in  boundless  profusion.  And  it 
v;ill.  It  is  manifest  that  the  untiring  and  cre- 
ditable zeal  of  numerous  intelligent  and  spirited 
gentlemen  (and  ladies,  too)  on  each  shore  of 
our  lake,  is  working  out  successfully  a  most 
profitable  problem,  to  wit:  tlie  advantage  of 
the  scientific  cultivation  of  fruit  in  tlie  Valley 
of  Lake  Champlain,  and  the  congeniality  of  the 
soil  and  climate  for  such  cultivation.  They 
have  pretty  much  succeeded  in  the  solution, 
and  with  what  effect,  the  future  annual  exhi- 
bitions of  their  society  will  unmistakably  de- 
monstrate. Vre  bid  them  God  speed!  "They 
are  in  their  duty;  be  out  of  it  who  may." 

We  have  neither  time  nor  space  to  go  into 
any  i)articulars  in  reference  to  this  very  hand- 
some display.  There  was  scarcely  a  specimen 
of  fruits  or  flowers,  or  of  the  products  of  the 
garden,  in  the  Court  Honse,  that  would  not 
have  attracted  notice  in  any  fair  in  the  country. 
Where  excellence  was  so  universal,  it  is  more 
than  difficult  to  specify.  We  cannot  omit, 
however,  to  mention  the  very  beautiful  boqueis 
sent  in  by  Mrs.  Abel  Houghton  of  St.  Albans, 
as  elegant  and  tasteful  in  their  arrangement  as 
they  were  choice  and  rare  in  their  species,  nor. 
the  superb  floral  contributions  of  Mrs.  JohnH. 
Peck  of  our  own  village  which  attracted  very 
great  admiration. 

Our  friends  over  the  Lake,  Messrs.  Bailet, 
of  Plattsburgh,  Battet  and  Keese,  of  Keese- 
ville,  Everest,  of  Peru,  Hubbell,  of  Cham- 
plain, Barber,  of  Beekmantoxra,  contributed 
largely  to  the  interest  and  value  of  the  exhi- 
bition, as  also  did  our  next  door  neighbors 
Messrs.  Curtis,  Hoyt  and  P.\lmer  of  St.  Al- 
bans, Hunt  and  Langdon  of  New  Haven,  Al- 
bert Chapman,  of  Middlebury,  Penniman  and 
Read,  of  Colchester,  Landon,  of  S.  Hero, 
Wells,  of  Underbill,  Hewes,  of  Georgia; — 
while  our  own  townsmen.  President  Wheeler, 
Prof.  ToRREY,  Messrs.  Goodrich,  Pomeroy, 
Smalley,  H.  p.  Hickok,  Dr.  Hatch,  Pierce, 
R.  G.  Cole,  Haswell,  Tucker,  N.  Parker, 
and  others,  most  creditably  represented  Bur- 
lington,in  the  friendly  and  honorable  competition 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Society,  for  the 
choice  of  officers,  and  for  the  transaction  of  such 
other  business  as  may  be  necessary,  will  be  held 
at  Burlington,  on  the  third  Tuesday  cf  Februa- 
ry 1852,  commencing  at  ten  o'clock,  A.  M. 

In  connection  with  the  annual  meeting,  there 
will  be  held,  each  year,  an  exhibition  of  winter 
fruits,  at  which  any  other  article  or  production 
not  unconnected  with  the  objects  of  the  Society 
may  be  exhibited. 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


The  Secretary  Dr.  W.  C.  Hickok,  requests 
us  to  invite  all  living  in  Chaniplain  Valley  to 
contribute  to  the  winter  exhibition. — Bu}  ling- 
ton  Free  Press.  ■  ■    •■•• 

Staten  Island  (N.  Y.)  IIort.  Society. — 
The  Third  and  last  exhibition  for  this  season 
took  place  on  Saturday  the  27th  ult.,  and  was 
atteniled  by  most  of  our  fashionable  residents. 
The  judges  were  Mr.  Reid,  Mr.  Boll  (not  Mr. 
Ball,  the  indefatigable  Secretary  of  the  So- 
ciety), and  Mr.  Tryon  the  well  known  Florist 
of  New- York.  Mr.  Thorburn  not  only  sent  a 
superb  collection  of  his  rarest  Dahlias,  but  at- 
tended personally  to  aid,  with  his  good  advice, 
in  the  management.  Mr.  Dunlap  presented  a 
beautiful  basket  of  flowers,  and  Mr.  Boll  and 
Mr.  Keid  very  elegant  bouquets.  The  display 
of  flowers  was  perfectly  dazzling,  and  pro- 
nounced superior  to  the  Show  which  has  lately 
taken  jjlace  at  Jer.sey  City.  Mr.  Greene's 
"  Gardener's  Basket/'  was  the  most  graceful 
thing  we  have  ever  .seen,  the  same  design,  we 
believe,  with  which  he  took  the  silver  cup  last 
year  at  the  Fair  of  the  American  Institute. 
Mr.  Carleton  made  a  fine  display,  and  received 
many  prizes.  Mr.  Aspinwall's  floral  design  (an 
immense  pyramid)  contained  many  rare  and 
beautiful  specimens,  and  attracted  much  atten- 
tion. Mr.W.  H.  Townsend  exhibited  many  fine 
plants,  and  a  beautiful  collection  of  tuberoses 
that  loaded  tlie  air  with  their  delicious  perfume. 
Mr.  Nesmith  exhibited  some  rare  fruits  and 
flowers,  but  not  for  competition.  Mr.  Ball 
again  carried  o(f  the  first  prize  for  the  amateur's 
basket,  which  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
things  on  the  table,  quite  new  in  design,  and 
the  flowers  in  excellent  condition.  Mrs.  A. 
Field's  basket  evinced  gieat  taste  in  arrange- 
ment, and  contained  some  beautiful  specimens; 
and  Mr.  Dunning  exhibited  some  of  the  rarest 
roses  known  in  this  country.  The  fruits  were 
magnificent.  Mr.  Olmstead,  of  South  Side, 
had  a  superb  collection  of  pears  from  nis  rare 
trees,  many  of  which  he  imported  only  last  year, 
and  are  now  in  full  beai-ing ;  we  think  he  should 
have  exhibited  them  together;  being  separated, 
many  were  not  aware  of  the  extent  of  his  col- 
lection, which  embraced  upwards  of  twenty 
varieties  of  the  choicest  kinds;  on  this  occasion 
we  would  gladly  have  offered  our  services  to 
the  committee  of  taste.  The  hot  house  grapes 
of  Mr.  Greene  exceeded  all  we  have  seen,  and 
reflect  the  greatest  credit  on  his  gardener,  Mr. 
Chorlton;  whatever  Mr.  Greene  exhibits  is  al- 
ways of  the  highest  order.  The  vegetables 
were  in  abundance,  and  remarkably  fine;  a 
niamm  >th  pumpkin  from  Col.  Barret  was  cer- 
tainly the  greatest  curiosity  present,  measuring 
some  soven  feet  in  circumference.  The  mana- 
gers have  every  rea.son  to  be  proud  of  this 
crowning  eflbrt  to  their  exertions,  while  the 
subscribers  and  the  public  should  feel  much  in- 
debted to  Mr.  Xesmith,  Mr.  Griffith,  Mr.  Dun- 
d  Mr.  Ball,  for  establishing  a  Society 
must  prove  of  the  greatest  benefit  to  the 


Island,  and  canying  it  through  its  first  season 
in  such  a  brilliant  manner;  may  their  successors 
emulate  their  spirit,  though  for  the  success  of 
the  Society,  we  trust  that  no  change  will  take 
place  in  the  management,  until  their  excellent 
plana  are  accomplished. — Staten  Islander. 


University  of  Albany. 
Department  of  Scientific   Agriculture. 

The  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Albany, 
convinced  of  the  vast  importance  which  they 
should  attach  to  the  subject  of  improvement  in 
Agriculture,  have  made  this  an  object  of  special 
attention  in  their  first  steps  toward  the  organi- 
zation of  a  complete  Scientific  School. 

Nearly  all  of  our  more  intelligent  farmers  are 
now  sensible  that  their  profession  is  one  which 
should  be  studied;  that  it  is  a  profession  in 
which  the  specially  educated  man  occupies  the 
same  position  of  advantage  that  he  does  in  every 
other  jmrsuit  of  life.  The  old  cries  of  opposi- 
tion to  all  theories,  and  of  condemnation  against 
all  books,  are  now  fa.st  yielding  to  an  eager  de- 
sire for  instruction,  and  to  at  least  a  partial  be- 
lief in  the  efficacy  of  science.  Indeed  some 
farmers  go  much  farther  than  this,  in  expecting 
results  that  are  at  present  certainly  not  within 
the  range  of  possibility,  and  that  there  is  little 
reason  to  suppose  will  ever  be  realized. 

Instruction  then  is  needed  to  supply  what  is 
called  tor  by  one  class,  to  confirm  the  still  doubt- 
ful minds  of  another,  and  to  sweep  away  the 
too  extravagant  expectations  of  a  third.  It  is 
also  needed  to  enlighten  the  minds  of  a  class,  still 
it  is  to  be  feared  exceedingly  numerous,  who 
look  upon  all  progress  with  inciedulity  and  sus- 
picion, and  who  frown  indignantly  upon  the  idea 
that  any  one  can  imjiart  new  light  to  them  in 
the  way  of  their  own  business,  tinder  the  in- 
fluence and  the  jjractice  of  such  men  as  these, 
a  great  portion  of  our  land  is  now  deteriorating 
under  cultivation,  and  will  continue  to  deterio- 
rate, untfl  it  reaches  at  last  the  condition  of  cer- 
tain tracts  in  some  of  our  older  States,  where 
the  crop  does  little  more  than  return  the  seed 
sown.  Every  year  of  the  system  now  pursued 
by  vast  numbers  of  our  farmers,  increases  by 
an  immense  amount,  the  labor  and  the  expense 
that  will  be  necessary  in  restoring  the  land  again 
to  a  proper  state  of  fertility. 

That  this  evil  is  felt,  that  it  is  endured  with 
impatience,  is  attested  by  the  great  numbers 
of  active  and  influential  societies  for  the  im- 
l)rovement  of  Agriculture,  in  so  many  parts  of 
the  country;  by  the  increasing  patronage  ex- 
tended to  agricultural  books  and  periodicals; 
by  agricultural  surveys  past  or  in  progress;  and 
by  the  numerous  efforts  toward  the  establish- 
ment of  schools  where  scientific  agriculture  shall 
be  the  end  and  aim  of  study. 

The  reasons  which  operate  so  strongly 
commending  Albany  as  the  proper  place 
location  of  a  great  Scientific  School,  tell 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


redoubled  force  when  the  organization  of  the 
Agricultural  department  is  considered.  The 
capital  of  the  greatest,  most  wealthy,  and  most 
powerful  State  of  the  Union ;  a  State,  too,  moi-e 
fully  alive  than  any  other  to  the  cause  of  Agri- 
cultural improvement;  the  nucleus  of  the  most 
powerful  and  influential  Agricultural  Society  of 
the  Union,  a  society  whose  annual  shows  bring 
together  a  greater  concourse  than  those  of  any 
similar  society  in  the  world ;  the  most  desirable 
and  accessible  position  with  regard  to  the  New 
England  States,  and  on  the  great  lines  of  com- 
munication north,  south,  and  west,  it  presents 
a  combination  of  advantages  that  may  be  pro- 
perly called  unequalled. 

In  view  of  such  arguments  as  these,  in  view 
of  the  often  expressed  desire  of  the  people  of 
this  State  for  at  least  the  commencement  of  an 
institution  which  should  have  some  special  re- 
ference to  the  wants  of  its  farming  population, 
the  Trustees  have  decided  to  go  as  far  during 
the  present  season,  as  their  means  and  the  short 
time  available  for  organization  ^vHl  allow. 

They,  therefore,  announce  a  course  of  lectures 
by  Prof.  John  P.  Norton,  now  for  some  years 
in  charge  of  the  Department  of  Scientific  Agri- 
culture in  Tale  College.  Prof.  Norton  will 
commence  his  course  in  the  first  week  of  Janua- 
ry, and  continue  it  during  the  ensuing  three 
months.  This  course  is  designed  especially  for 
the  practical  man,  and  the  subjects  are  intended 
to  be  presented  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  per- 
fectly intelligible  to  those  who  have  never  be- 
fore attended  to  such  studies.  A  complete  and 
detailed  outline  of  the  general  connections  be- 
tween science  and  practice  M'ill  be  given,  and 
will  be  fully  illustrated  by  experiments. 

The  substances  of  which  the  soil,  the  plant, 
and  the  animal  consist,  will  be  shown  and  their 
properties  described.  The  soil  will  call  atten- 
tion first,  with  regard  to  its  composition  in  dif- 
ferent localities,  its  resulting  fertility  or  barren- 
ness, the  means  of  improving  by  drainage,  the 
composition  and  effect  of  manures  applied,  and 
the  most  economical  methods  of  fertilization. 

To  this  will  succeed  the  plant,  with  an  ac- 
count of  its  structure  in  various  parts,  its  com- 
position so  far  as  our  crops,  common  trees,  and 
fruits,  are  concerned,  with  the  various  theories 
of  rotation ;  in  this  part  of  the  course  the  nu- 
tritive value  of  the  different  crops  is  dwelt  upon 
at  considerable  length,  and  illustrated  by  very 
full  tables. 

To  such  statements  a  notice  of  the  animal 
economy  will  naturally  succeed,  prefaced,  how- 
ever, by  two  or  three  lectures  on  butter  and 
cheese,  giving  the  most  authentic  theoretical 
and  practical  information  on  all  points  connected 
with  their  manufacture,  preseiwation,  &c.  Af- 
ter this  come  the  various  theories  of  feeding 
and  fattening  animals,  with  references  to  num- 
erous practical  examples. 

By  such  a  course  the  various  beautiful  theo- 
retical and  most  important  practical  connections, 
ecn  the  soil,  the  plant,  and  the  animal,  will 
inctly   brought  forward,  and  impressed 


upon  the  mind  of  the  hearer.  Recitations  and 
conversational  meetings  will  be  held  in  connec- 
tion with  the  lectures,  for  such  as  choose  to  at- 
tend  them. 

Prof.  James  Hall,  of  the  N.  T.  State  Geo- 
logical Survey,  will  lecture  at  the  same  time  on 
Geology,  and  so  much  of  Mineralogy  as  is  ne- 
cessary to  the  comprehension  of  his  subject. 
This  course  will  have  especial  reference  to  the 
bearings  of  Geology  and  Mineralogy  upon  agri- 
culture, and  other  economical  interests.  The 
practical  advantages  of  the  connection  of  geo- 
logical with  agricultural  science,  will  be  briefly 
pointed  out  in  the  course  by  Prof.  Norton ;  in 
this  course  these  subjects  will  be  more  fully  elu- 
cidated, and  the  student,  aided  by  the  State 
collection,  and  the  very  fine  private  one  of  Prof. 
Hall,  will  have  an  opportunity  of  obtaining  such 
knowledge  as  will  be  of  much  value  in  after 
life,  whatever  may  be  his  profession,  and  will 
besides  be  productive  of  infinite  pleasure,  as  he 
may  have  occasion  to  visit  various  sections  of 
of  our  country.  Geological  and  mineralogical 
information,  when  possessed,  is  always  called 
into  frequent  action,  and  gives  its  possessor 
weight  and  influence  in  any  community. 

A  course  on  Entomology,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  injurious  or  beneficial  action  of  in- 
sects on  vegetation,  may  also  be  expected.  This 
course  will  be  by  Dr.  Henry  Goadby,  former- 
ly of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  London. 
This  gentleman  will  be  able  to  illustrate  his 
course  by  a  collection  of  specimens  altogether 
unrivalled,  and  exhibited  to  the  class  by  means 
of  the  oxyhydrogen  and  the  compound  micros- 
cope. The  advantages  to  be  derived  from  such 
a  course  are  entirely  obvious,  and  have,  more- 
over, been  hitherto  quite  unattainable  in  this 
country. 

Arrangements  are  in  progress  which  will 
enable  students  to  attend  a  course  on  Engineer- 
ing and  Surveying,  a  knowledge  of  whicli  sub- 
jects would  prove  highly  valuable  and  also  re- 
munerative to  every  practical  farmer. 

Prof.  Cook, Principal  of  the  Albany  Academy, 
will  deliver  a  course  of  lectures  on  Elementary 
Chemistry,  to  such  students  of  this  department 
as  may  desire  it  ,•  the  course  to  be  both  experi- 
mental and  practical. 

It  would  seem  that  any  practical  man  must 
see  the  advantage  of  attendance  upon  such  a 
course  as  has  been  dwelt  upon  in  the  foi-egoing 
portion  of  this  circular.  Science  is  brought 
forward  and  inculcated,  not  to  supersede  prac- 
tice, but  in  its  aid  The  information  given  is 
upon  points  which  are  really  of  vital  importance, 
a  knowledge  of  which  ought  to  be  looked  upon 
as  absolutely  essential  to  every  farmer.  These 
lectures,  too,  come  at  a  period  of  the  year  when 
comparatively  little  is  doing  on  the  farm,  and 
may  thus  be  attended  without  neglecting  any 
material  interest. 

The  importance  to  a  young  man  of  thus  re 
siding  for  a  time   within  the  atmosphere 
literary  institution,  can  scarcely  be  over 
ted.     He  comes  in  contact  with  others  w 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


also  bent  on  improvement ,  and  has  also  unlimited 
access  to  books;  he  learns  to  think  fur  liimself 
— to  see  that  a  practice  is  not  necessarily  right 
because  it  is  old ;  lie  becomes  favorably  disposed 
to  the  adoption  of  every  useful  improvement, 
and  the  whole  circle  of  his  ideas  and  intelligence 
is  permanently  enlarged ;  he  makes  his  profes- 
sion an  interesting  study,  not  a  mere  routine 
of  hard  work,  and  while  better  paid  for  exer- 
tion, as  superior  well  directed  knowledge  al- 
ways is,  he  takes  a  higher  rank  in  society  as  a 
man  understanding  his  own  business  better  than 
those  who  have  not  enjoyed  like  opportunities. 

It  is  intended  to  offer  free  tickets  to  the 
courses  on  Scientific  and  Practical  Agriculture, 
on  Geology  and  Mineralogy,  on  Entomology, 
and  probably  on  Engineering,  Anatomy  and 
Physiology,  to  two  young  men  in  each  senatorial 
district  of  the  State,  the  tickets  to  be  at  the 
disposal  of  the  several  Senators.  The  same 
privilege  will  be  extended  to  each  of  the  colleges 
in  the  State,  the  students  to  be  selected  by  the 
faculty  of  each  college  from  the  graduating 
class  of  the  previous  year.  It  is  hoped  that 
this  liberality  may  be  continued  in  subsequent 
j'cars,  that  in  this  way  sixty-four  young  men 
may  be  annually  aided  and  sent  out  to  all  parts 
of  the  State,  to  disseminate  the  valuable  infor- 
mation which  they  have  obtained.  The  tickets 
for  the  Agricultural  lectures  will  be  $10;  for 
the  Geological  $10;  for  the  Entomological  course 
$5.  All  are  payable  in  advance,  but  the  student 
only  attends  such  as  he  may  select. 

The  price  of  board  in  respectable  families 
varies  from  $2  to  $2.50  per  week,  exclusive  of 
washing.  Two  or  more  young  men,  by  club- 
bing together,  can  hire  a  room  respectably  fur- 
nished, for  the  purpose  of  lodging  and  study, 
for  fifty  cents  each  per  week,  and  can  furnish 
themselves  with  food,  fuel,  light,  and  every- 
thing except  washing,  at  a  total  expense  of  from 
$1,374  to  $1.50  per  week  in  winter. 

For  farther  information  apply  either  to  Prof. 
James  Hall,  Albany,  or  to  B.  P.  Johnson, 
Esq.,  Secretary  of  the  N.  Y.  State  Ag.  Society, 
Albany. 

Another  circular,  in  pamphlet  form,  stating 
the  general  objects  and  plan  of  this  University 
at  length,  will  soon  be  issued,  and  can  be  had  on 
application  as  above. 


The  Country  in  Autumn. — A  leaf  from 
nature  is  never  out  of  place,  and  having  an  ul- 
terior object  in  view,  we  resume  our  woodland 
sketches,  though  a  little  after  date.  Trees  have 
many  a  moral  as  well  as  economical  lesson. 

This  is  the  month  when  the  thistle  is  in  blos- 
som, and  its  fragrance  breathes  by  the  road-side. 
The  sunflower  also  turns  its  golden  circlet  of 
leaves,  and  its  black  ripening  seeds  to  the  great 
luminary,  and  a  few  autumnal  flowers,  besides 
the  flaunting  faded  dahlias,  are  beginning  to 
struggle  for  possession  against  the  summer 
weeds.  The  mower's  work  is  almost  ended  for 
the  season,  and  the  reaper's  is  begun,  so  that  the 
fields  put  on  their  show  of  stubble,  though  the 

^yl^^f^ - 


meadows  and  pasture  grounds,  refreshed  with 
rains  and  coolness,  display  a  tender  green,  like 
the  spring  growth  of  grass,  uncropped  and  un- 
shaven. But  the  forests  are  still  in  all  their  glory. 
A  deeper,  darker  green,  verging  in  grand  ma.ss- 
es  of  foliage  towardsthe  brownand  purple,  with 
an  hidurated  glossy  lustre,  is  all  that  indicates 
the  time  of  changing  hues,  and  the  fall  of  the 
leaf,  and  the  departure  of  the  glories  of  sum- 
mer as  near. 

I  am  now  in  a  region  of  great  woodland  rich- 
ness, variety  and  beauty.  The  vast  sweeping 
undulations,  and  fair  sloping  terraces,  and  dis- 
tant long  waving  ridges  of  country,  rising  at  the 
horizon  into  mountain  ranges,  are  covered  with 
deep  forests  interspersed  with  cleared  and  richly 
cultivated  farms,  so  fair,  so  smooth ,  so  green  with 
lawns  and  fields  of  grain  and  meadows,  that 
nothing  can  be  more  beautiful .  The  deep  masses 
of  the  woods  are  con)posed  mostly  of  the  pine 
and  maple,  beautifully  intermingled,  the  maple 
being  far  predominant.  It  grows  to  an  immense 
hight  and  size,  so  that  the  forests  here  are  truly 
magnificent.  In  the  coolness  and  freshness  of 
the  dewy  morning,  how  sweet  to  pass  at  early 
dawn  into  the  depth  of  these  grand  old  woods, 
or  after  seeing  sunrise  in  the  open  glades,  or  on 
the  upland  lawn,  to  enter  the  forests  when  the 
trees  are  casting  their  earliest  shadows,  and  the 
sun  is  throwing  his  slant  beams  upon  the  clusters 
of  the  topmost  foliage.  These  majestic,  tall,  old 
trees,  the  growth  of  centuries,  how  solemnly  they 
rise  towards  heaven,  upholding  and  outspread- 
ing in  such  pendant  arches,  a  waving  roof  of 
thick,  fretted,  interlacing  foliage,  over  avenues 
of  dim  cathedral  aisles.  And  when  the  wind 
breathes  softly,  or  sweeps  with  surging  gales 
over  the  leafy  branches,  how  the  whole  forest 
whispers  with  the  music,  or  roars  like  the  thun- 
der of  the  far  off  sea ! 

These  mighty  trees  are  the  growth  of  centu- 
ries, and  what  depth  of  soil  from  centuries  of 
decay!  Here  and  there  a  vast  tree  lies  along, 
the  bark  of  which  looks  so  sound  that  you  would 
not  dream  of  its  being  a  tree  in  form  only,  and 
in  reality  a  mass  of  moist  vegetable  loam  ;  but 
you  set  your  foot  to  walk  upon  it,  and  you 
plunge  into  it  as  you  might  into  a  huge  rotten 
squash  or  melon.  Sf)metimes  the  decaying  trees 
are  piled  one  upon  another,  moss-covered  inches 
deep,  the  giant  corses  of  the  vegetable  world, 
laid  there  by  kindly  nature  in  their  open  sepul- 
cher,  death  amidst  life,  death  nourishing  life, 
new  trees  .springing  fresh  and  majestic  from  the 
skeletons  of  the  old,  and  dropping  the  annual 
autumnal  shroud  of  withered  leaves  over  their 
former  compeers  in  the  forest.  The  heart  of 
such  a  deep  unbroken  wilderness  is  trulj-  a  sub- 
lime, impressive,  solemn  spectacle.  How  many 
lessons  it  teaches,  if  only  this  human  heart  is  in 
that  suggestive,  moral  mood,  in  which,  in  such 
a  spot  as  this,  meditation  may  think  down  hours 
to  moments.  Nay,  Cowq)er  might  have  said 
ages  to  days ;  for  you  realise  here  somethin; 
the  truth,  that  one  day  is  with  the  Lor 
thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  are 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


day.  Here  are  these  trees,  hundreds  of  yeare 
In  rising,  what  grand  products  of  time  and  na- 
ture, and  ahnost  as  long  decaying,  and  the  pro- 
cesses of  life  and  death  go  on  in  such  sublime 
imconsciousness  and  carelessness,  of  time,  as  if 
it  were  an  eternity  of  vegetation. 

AVhat  grand  and  thoughtful  objects!  Seventy 
feet  in  height,  some  of  the  clean  straight  trunks 
rise  up  before  a  branch  or  leaf  is  visible,  and 
then  they  spread  in  the  sky  their  airy  festoons 
and  fans  of  foliage.  The  tall  maples  in  the  eve- 
ning sun,  look  like  birds  of  paradise  spreading 
their  golden  wings,  for  nothing  can  be  richer,  in 
its  transmission  of  the  golden  yellow  light  of  sun- 
set, than  the  delicate  green  "leaf,  almost  trans- 
parent, of  the  mayile.  A  maple  seen  against 
the  sunlight,  Avhile  its  leaves  are  in  their  sum- 
mer tenderness  of  hue  and  texture,  is  one  of 
the  richest  and  most  splendid  objects  in  the 
whole  domain  of  nature.  It  looks  as  though  it 
might  have  been  bathed  in  the  sea  of  glass  in 
heaven,  or  in  the  river  of  the  water  of  life,  or 
in  a  pool  of  liquid  topaz,  so  that  a  breath  of 
wind  across  it  would  bring  down,  showering,  a 
rain  of  golden  light. 

The  play  of  light  upon  the  leaves  is  like  the 
changeful  moods  of  thought  and  feeling  in  a  sen- 
sitive soul,  like  the  flashings  and  fitful  pauses, 
and  lightnings  up  again  of  expression,  in  an  in- 
telligent and  watchful  countenance.  One  can 
never  be  weary  with  observing  the  quick  and 
magical  variety.  The  whole  forest  is  mottled 
with  spots  of  sunliglit,  that  takes  the  color  of 
the  leaf  it  falls  on.  But  the  loveliness  of  the 
sight  depends  on  whether  yoxi  observe  the  liglit 
falling  on  the  foliage  before  you,  and  reflected 
from  it  to  your  eye,  while  the  sun  is  behind  you, 
or  whether  you  look  at  the  light  coming  toj'ou 
through  the  foliage,  and  at  the  foliage  with  the 
sun  behind  it.  The  latter  is  much  more  beauti- 
ful. Indeed,  as  it  comes  and  goes  in  the  forest, 
it  seems  like  a  visible  pervading  spirit,  now  re- 
vealed, now  hiding  and  withdrawing.  The 
branches,  leaves,  and  green  earth  seem  to 
breathe  with  it,  as  if  its  coming  and  going  were 
the  inspiring  and  exhaling  motion  of  the  vital  be- 
ing of  nature  in  these  woods. 

As  the  clouds  pass  and  the  light  pours  in,  the 
depths  of  the  woods  are  opened  by  it,  the  per- 
spective of  the  retreating  lines  of  trees  is  visi- 
ble, and  the  radiant,  sparkling  air  between,  and 
the  finest  network  of  the  interlacing  foliage. 
Here  and  there  a  far  otf  trunk,  on  the  whole 
length  of  which  the  sun  streams  direct  through 
some  glade  opening,  is  seen  gleaming  through  a 
vista  of  green,  and  the  eye  runs  down  cloistered 
and  festooned  avenues  and  arches,  seemingly  in- 
terminable. Then  again,  as  the  sun  is  sudden- 
ly shaded,  all  is  confusedly  drawn  together,  un- 
spliered  of  interspace,  and  comparatively  dispiri- 
ted and  flattened,  disenchanted  I  might  say,  for 
the  coming  and  going  of  the  light  is  like  en- 
chantment. The  effect  is  as  when  you  view  a  dis- 
landscape  with  the  telescope.  If  yon  get 
'ght  focus,  all  is  clear,  distinct,  in  full 
ight  perspective ;  but  if  you  start  the  tube 


a  line  beyond  or  hither,  then  all  becomes  indis- 
tinct, ohscure,  glimmering,  nor  are  any  reaches 
of  clear  and  radiant  air  visible  between  the  in- 
tervals and  openings  of  hill  and  valley,  forest 
and  winding  dale. — Independent. 


The  Problem  for  a  Republic. — The  great 
Industrial  Exhibition  at  London,  which  has 
just  closed,  has  elicited  many  good  speeches 
and  original  thoughts  on  both  sides  of  the  water. 
Its  one  leading  aspect  has  not,  however,  been 
seized  by  any  one  so  significantly  as  by  Mr. 
WiNTiiKOP  —  a  statesman  always  most  com- 
pletely American,  and  always  broad  and  com- 
prehensive in  his  views — in  his  late  speech  at 
Faneuil  Hall,  before  the  Mechanic's  Associa- 
tion. The  following  extract  will  awaken 
thought  in  the  minds  of  all  republicans: 

But  let  me  ask,  sir,  who  of  us  is  sorry  that 
we  are  behind,  far  behind,  the  old  word,  in 
articles  of  mere  taste  and  ornament?  Who 
docs  not  rejoice  that  we  cannot  vie  with  Europe 
and  Asia,  in  arts  that  minister  only  to  the  lust 
of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life?  Who  is  in 
haste  to  see  the  day,  when  the  tissues  and 
tapestries,  the  jewels  and  porcelain  of  India  or 
of  France,  shall  be  native  to  our  own  land  ? 
Who,  on  the  contrary,  does  not  desire  that 
such  a  consummation  may  be  postponed,  until 
that  double  problem  shall  be  solved,  of  which 
the  history  of  mankind  as  yet  affords  no  solu- 
tion,— first,  how  these  sumptuous  and  gorgeous 
decorations  of  the  rich  can  be  fabricated  with- 
out the  degredation  and  debasement  of  the 
poor; — and  second,  how  the  morality  and  puri- 
ty, which  are  the  very  vital  air  of  republican 
liberty,  can  withstand  the  fascinations  and  blan- 
dishment sofa  corrupting  and  cankering  luxury? 

And  this  leads  me  to  say,  Mr.  President,  in  a 
single  concluding  sentence,  that  there  is  at  least 
one  element  wanting  in  that  great  exhibition, 
for  the  purposes  of  any  just  comparison  between 
our  own  and  other  countries.  We  see  there 
the  products — but  we  do  not  see  the  producers. 
We  see  there  the  fabrics — but  we  do  not  see 
the  hands  which  made  them. 

Sir,  if  it  had  been  possible  to  exhibit,  in  any  tan- 
gible shape,  or  byany  personal  representation,  the 
real  condition  of  the  artisans  and  mechanics  of  the 
world;  if  the  makers  of  every  article  could  have 
been  seen  standing  by  their  work,  with  their  ordi- 
nary dress  on  their  back,  with  their  ordinary  food 
at  their  side,  and  with  all  the  advantages  or  dis- 
advantages of  their  relative  condition  fully  de- 
veloped and  displayed — their  intelligence,  their 
education,  their  wages,  the  amount  of  individ- 
ual comfort,  independence  and  hapi)iness  they 
enjoy, — the  whole  moral,  social,  and  political 
position  which  they  occupy, — what  contrasts 
would  not  have  been  witnessed!  If  th' 
hall,  with  all  that  it  now  contains,  could  be 
ed  over  the  waters  by  a  wish,  on  some  magic 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


carpet  like  that  described  in  one  of  the  tales  of 
the  Arabian  Nights, — if  it  could  be  set  down 
safely  in  that  much  talked  of  "  vacant  space" 
in  the  American  section  of  the  Crystal  Palace ; 
and  if  your  excellent  Fresident,  now  there, 
could  be  on  the  spot  to  meet  you  as  you  alight, 
and  to  say  to  the  assembled  throng  of  visitors; 
' '  Here  are  the  American  Mechanics — here  are 
the  men  wlio  build  our  ships,  and  our  houses, 
and  our  bridges,  and  our  railroads — who  make 
our  iron  ware,  and  tin  ware,  and  brass  ware, 
and  who  construct  those  wonderful  machines 
and  invent  those  curious  implements  to  which 
you  have  given  your  prizes — and  here,  too,  are 
their  wives  and  daughters — behold  them,  and 
compare  them  with  your  own" — would  they 
not  feel  that  it  was  something  better  than  a  vain- 
glorious boast,  for  us  to  exclaim : — 

"  Man  is  tlie  uoblier  plant  our  realm  supplies, 
Aiid  souls  are  ripened  in  these  iiorllieni  skies  I" 


The  Norfolk  Ag.  Soc. — The  annual  Fair  of  this  So- 
ciety was  very  successful,  and  the  anniversary  dinner 
passed  off  with  great  spirit,  on  the  21lh  of  September. 
The  Horticultural  display  was  excellent.  The  diinier  to 
over  a  thousand  ladies  and  gentlemen  was  furnished  gra- 
tuitously by  John  Gardner,  Esq.,  of  Dedham,  Mass. 
Hon.  M.  P.  Wilder,  the  President  of  the  Society,  made 
the  annual  address,  a  portion  of  which  being  of  more  than 
local  interest,  we  copy  from  the  published  report. 

"  The  exhibitions  of  to-day  furnish  ample  proof  that 
progress  has  been  made,  particularly  in  the  agricultural 
and  horticultural  departments,  and  settles  a  question  on 
which  there  rested  doubts  previous  to  our  first  exhibition, 
whether  Norfolk  contained  resources  sufficient  to  sustain 
a  large  and  successful  agricultural  association.  The 
show  of  blood  stock  has  never  been  equalled  in  tliis,  if  in 
any  other  county  in  the  Commonwealth,  and  for  which 
we  are  much  indebted  to  the  officers  of  the  State  Society 
and  other  geiulemen  who  have  contributed  by  their  im- 
portations or  otherwise  to  this  depaitment. 

The  exhibition  of  Fruit  is  of  a  remarkable  character, 
and  we  doubt  whether,  in  some  respects,  it  has  been  sur- 
passed in  any  other  portion  of  the  world. 

We  are  happy  to  see  again  on  exhibition  the  improved 
implements  of  agriculture,  the  importance  of  which  to  the 
farmer  can  scarcely  be  over-rated.  And  what  American 
does  not  feel  a  generous  pride  in  the  success  with  which 
these  implements  have  been  crowned  at  the  AVorld's  Fair, 
especially  in  the  triumph  of  a  plough,  the  invention  and 
manufacture  of  a  member  of  this  society,  and  which  has 
not  only  distanced  the  competition  of  tlie  world,  but  has 
absolutely  turned  the  ridicule  of  European  conlrilnitors 
into  universal  applause  f  But  while  we  rejoice  in  the 
progress  and  prosperity  of  our  society,  and  in  the  remar- 
kable preservation  of  tlie  lives  and  health  of  our  members, 
let  us  not  forget  that  the  Destroyer  has  been  among  us. 
Three  distinguished  friends,  who  were  present  at  our  last 
anniversary,  who  th(Ui  participated  with  us  in  the  privi- 
ledges  and  pleasures  of  that  occasion,  have  ceased  from 
their  earthly  labors  and  entered  into  their  re.st.  The  Hon 
Asa  T.  Newhall,  Delegate  from  the  Essex  society,  at 
^vhose  approaching  anniversary  no  doubt  a  just  tribute 
will  be  paid  to  his  memory  The  vener;ible  John  Stewart 
Skinner,  and  Gen.  Henry  Alexander  Samuel  Dearborn 

In  the  death  of  these  gentlemen,  Agriculture  has  lost 
powerful  champions,  and  society  old  and  valuable  mem- 
bers. With  the  two  latter,  it  was  my  privilege  to  enjoy 
a  long  and  happy  acquainlance.  Both  were  pioneers  in 
agriculture  and  the  rural  arts — able,  constant,  and  large 
contributors  to  the  press — gentlemen  of  richly  endowed 
and  highly  cultivated  minds — of  varied  and  extensive 
of  lofty  and  benevolent  purposes,  and  of  untir- 
rseverance. 
Skinner,  in  addition  to  numerous  offices  of  trust. 


emolument,  and  honor,  under  the  national  government, 
w:ts  the  editor  of  the  first  rgricultural  paper  ever  publish- 
ed in  the  United  States ;  also,  of  the  Plough,  the  Loom, 
and  the  Anvil ;  with  many  other  kindred  valuable  works 
— all  of  which,  in  the  language  of  our  sentiment  last 
year,  were  honor  to  him  while  living,  and  are  iTionuments 
to  his  praise  now  he  is  gone. 

It  afibrds  me  great  pleasure  to  bear  public  testimony  to 
the  briUjant  talents  and  "reat  worth  of  our  lamented  Dear- 
born— a  testimony  which  is  the  result  of  more  than  twenty 
years  intimate  acquaintance  with  him,  in  our  favorite  pur- 
suits and  hi  official  duty. 

His  labors  in  the  establishment  of  the  Ma.ssacliusetts 
Horticultural  Society,  the  Mount  Auburn  and  the  Forest 
Hills  Cemeteries,  are  proud  and  durable  memorials  of  his 
skill,  energy  and  taste.  No  enterprise  was  too  bold  for  him 
to  attempt :  no  sacrifice  was  too  great  for  him  to  make ; 
no  labors  too  arduous  for  him  to  perlorm.in  order  to  promote 
the  intelligence,  the  refinement,  virtue,  welfare,  and  re- 
nown of  his  countrymen. 

His  eulogy  has  been  spoken  by  a  master  hand,  and  pro- 
nounced in  lis  appropriate  place.  He  sleeps  in  the  conse- 
scrated  ground  which  his  genius  planned,  and  which  his 
taste  adorned, — beneath  the  flowers  which  his  own  hand 
planted." 


^mmm  to  C^nrrrspniiknts. 

AuTCMN  PnuNiNG. — B.  Jamcs.  We  do  not 
hesitate  to  prune  small  limbs  at  any  time,  but 
north  of  Philadelphia  it  is  better  not  to  make 
large  woutids  just  before  winter.  But  if  you 
brush  the  shellac  mixture  (gum  shellac  dis- 
solved in  alcohol  to  the  consistency  of  thick 
varni.sh)  over  the  wound.s,  you  may  prune  with 
safety  at  any  season. 

Strawberries. —  W.,  (Cleveland,  O.)  The 
best  possible  covering  for  strawberry  beds  is 
tan-bark  spread  evenly  over  the  whole  bed, 
just  thick  enotigh  to  nicely  cover  the  plants.  It 
does  not  matter  wliether  it  is  new  or  old.  If 
you  cannot  get  this,  use  straw  or  stable  litter. 

Scarlet  Geraniums. — P.  B.,  (Watervliet.) 
Take  them  up  before  frost  and  set  them  in  long 
shallow  boxes.  Keep  them  moderately  dry  all 
winter  so  as  to  encourage  growth  as  little  as 
possible,  and  they  will  bloom  far  more  abundant- 
ly in  the  beds  next  season,  than  if  kept  grow- 
ing in  the  green-house.  A  warm  cellar  will 
carry  them  through  the  winter  safely,  if  you 
have  plenty  of  light  in  it. 

Pears. — Pyrus,  (Philadelphia.)  The  non- 
productiveness  is  owing  to  deficiency  inthesoil. 
The  best  special  manure  that  we  have  tried  for 
pear  trees  is  the  bone-black  of  the  sugar  re- 
finers— that  may  be  had  for  a  trifle.  Mingle  it 
with  the  soil  around  the  trees,  at  the  rate  of  a 
peck  for  a  trunk  of  the  size  of  your  wrist,  and 
two  bushels  for  a  large-bearing  tree.  If  your 
soil  is  worn  out  by  long  culture  add  ashes  and  a 
plentiful  supply  of  stable  manure.      The  Louis 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


Bonne  de  Jersey  is  one  of  the  most  regular  and 
plentiful  bearers.  Doyenne  Boussock  is  large 
and  delicious.  Beurre  Gris  d'Hiver  Nouveau 
is  one  of  the  finest  new  winter  pears,  melting, 
high  flavored,  and  a  good  bearer.  (It  would 
be  better  to  call  it  simply  Gray  winler  Beurre.) 
Lawrence  is  also  a  first  rate  winter  pear  for  the 
dessert,  of  native  origin.  Swan's  Egg  is — good 
for  nothing.  The  following  is  the  complete  list 
of  best  pears  for  general  cultivation  adopted  at 
the  two  meetings  of  the  Pomological  Congress. 
It  may  be  taken  as  the  results  of  leading  fruit 
growers'  experience,  viz:  Early  Pears — Made- 
leine,Eostiezer, Dearborn's  Seedling, Bloodgood, 
Andrews,  Tyson.  Autumn  Pears — Bartlett, 
Golden  Beurre  of  Bilboa,  Buflfum,  Fondante 
d'Automne,  Seckel,  Fulton,  Flemish  Beauty, 
Beurre  Bosc,  Louise  Bonne  de  Jersey,  Urban- 
iste.  Winter  Pears — "Winter  Nelis,  Beurre  d' 
Aremberg.  Fine  Pears  for  -particular  locali- 
ties— White  Doyenne  (Butter  pear  or  Virga- 
lieu,)  Graj'  Doyenne.  Late  cooking  Pears — 
Yicar  of  Winkfield,  Avedale,  St.  Gei-main  or 
Pound.  In  selecting  a  site  for  pears  choose  an 
aspect  not  too  warm  or  southern,  for  the  direct 
sun  does  harm  in  mid-summer  and  mid- winter; 
choose  or  make  a  deep  soil,  keep  your  trees  low 
and  bushy,  and  always  protect  the  roots  in  sum- 
mer by  mulching  the  surface  of  the  ground. 

Shrcbs. — j1  Lady  Gardener,  (Pittsburgh, 
Pa.)  The  best  shrubs  for  small  grounds  are 
not  those  solely  remarkable  for  beauty  of  blos- 
som or  fruit,  for  these  usually  last  but  a  few 
days,  but  those  with  good  foliage  and  fine  habit 
of  growth.  It  is  better  to  multiply  such,  than 
to  have  a  great  variety — merely  for  the  sake  of 
variety — if  your  object  is  picturesque  embellish- 
ment rather  than  botanical  rarity.  We  recom- 
mend to  you,  as  answering  this  description  the 
following:  Virginian  Fringe  tree  (grows  6  or  8 
feet,)  Venetian  Sumac,  (10  feet,)  Cornelian 
Cherry,  (10  feet,)  Purple  Strawberry  tree, 
(7  feet,)  Oak  leaved  Hydrangea  (3  feet,)  Mag- 
nolia obovata,  (6  feet;)  Early  white  Viburnum, 
(8  feet;)  Eose  Weigela,  (3  feet;)  Rough  leaved 
Deutzia,  (4  feet;)  Spirea Lindlyeana,  (3 feet;) 
Tartarian  bush  Honeysuckles,  3  sorts,  (3  to  5 
feet;)  Dwarf  Horse  Chestnut,  (3  feet;)  Tree 


Paeonies,  (2^  feet.)  Manure  your  shrubberies 
by  top-dressing  them  with  manure  at  this  sea- 
son of  the  year — rather  than  spring,  and  you 
wi[l  find  the  advantage  of  it. 

Vines. — Ibid.  The  best  woody  vines  for  the 
trellis  of  a  vei-anda  are  the  following:  Chinese 
twining  Honeysuckle,  Yellow  trumpet  Honey- 
suckle, Cliinese  Wistaria,  sweet  scented  Cle- 
matis, Tecoma  grandiflora  and  the  Virginia 
creeper.  Ivy  does  better  (north  of  42°  lat.) 
on  the  north  side  of  buildings  than  the  south 
side.  The  Dutchman's  pipe  vine  is  very  hardy, 
with  large  picturesque  foliage  and  will  cover  a 
large  trellis  or  arbor. 

Geeen  House  Plants. — M.  E.  Irtvin, 
(Southbridge,  Mass.)  The  proper  soil  for  the 
plants  you  name — Gardenia  Fortunia,  ^schy- 
nanthus  Hrsofleldii,  JE.  zebrina,  Hoya  bella, 
and  Chorizema  varium — is  the  following:  one- 
third  pure  loam,  (say  the  rotted  sods  of  an  old 
pasture,)  one  third  decomposed  manure  (old 
spent  hot-beds,)  one-third  leaf  mould  from  the 
woods,  and  add  to  the  whole  as  much  wliite 
sand  as  will  make  the  compost  light  and  porous. 
The  plants  may  all  be  grown  in  a  common  green 
house  temperature,  but  all  of  them,  except  the 
Gardenia,  should  be  kept  in  the  warmest  part 
of  the  green-house,  with  plenty  of  light,  and 
watered  as  often  as  the  soil  appears  in  the  least 
dry.  Florella,  (l<ew-London.)  Pot  Chinese 
Primroses  in  light  rich  soil — old  spent  hot-bed 
mould  and  silver  sand,  give  them  plenty  of  Ava- 
ter  and  keep  them  as  close  to  the  glass  as  you 
can.  If  you  plunge  your  hj^acinths  in  pots 
in  a  hot-bed  frame  filled  with  tan-bark,  and 
keep  them  near  the  glass,  and  sprinkle  them 
every  day,  they  will  do  better  there  than  in 
the  green-house  till  the  weather  becomes  very 
frosty.  Oleafragrans  and  Daphne  odora  are 
the  two  most  deliciously  scented  green-house 
plants.  The  foi-mer  blooms  all  winter,  and  has 
the  scent  of  violets.  Begonia  fuchsioides  is  as 
handsome  as  any  Fuchsia  in  its  blossoms,  and 
in  a  warm  green-house  it  blooms  almost  per- 
petually. In  a  cold  one  it  thrives  but  poorly. 
The  little  daisy  flowered  chrysanthemums  with 
flowers  no  larger  than  a  daisy,  are  a  great  ac- 
quisition to  the  green-house  at  this  season. 


JOURNAL  OF  RURAL  ART  AND  RURAL  TASTE. 


Cljt  §kk  itnlr  l^rnHjirrts  of  InrtirulturL 

RETROSPECTIVE  glance  over  the  journey  we  have  traveled,  is  often  both  in- 
structive and  encouraging.  We  not  only  learn  what  we  have  really  accomplish- 
ed, but  we  are  better  able  to  overcome  the  obstacles  that  lie  in  our  onward  way,  by 
reviewing  the  difficulties  already  overcome. 

The  progress  of  the  last  five  years  in  Horticulture,  has  been  a  remarkable  one  in 
the  United  States.  The  rapid  increase  of  population,  and  the  accumulation  of  capi- 
tal, has  very  naturally  led  to  the  multiplication  of  private  gardens  and  country  seats,  and 
the  planting  of  orchards  and  market  gardens,  to  an  enormous  extent.  The  facility 
with  which  every  man  may  acquire  land  in  this  country,  naturally  leads  to  the  forma- 
tion of  separate  and  independent  homes,  and  the  number  of  those  who  are  in  some 
degree  interested  in  the  cultui-e  of  the  soil  is  thus  every  day  being  added  to.  The 
very  fact,  however,  that  a  large  proportion  of  these  little  homes  are  7iew  places,  and 
that  the  expense  of  building  and  establishing  them  is  considerable,  prevents  their  owners 
from  doing  much  more  for  the  first  few  years,  than  to  secure  the  more  useful  and  ne- 
cessary features  of  the  establishment.  Hence,  the  ornamental  still  appears  neglected  in 
our  country  homes  and  gardens,  generally,  as  compared  with  those  of  the  more  civi- 
lized countries  abroad.  The  shrubs,  and  flowers,  and  vines,  that  embellish  almost 
everywhere,:  the  rural  homes  of  England,  are  as  yet  only  rarely  seen  in  this  country — 
though  in  all  the  older  sections  of  the  Union  the  taste  for  ornamental  gardening  is 
developing  itself  anew  every  day.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great  facility  with  which 
excellent  fruits  and  vegetables  are  grown  in  this  climate,  as  compared  with  the  north 
of  Europe,  makes  our  gardens  compare  most  favorably  with  theirs  in  respect  to  these 
two  points.  The  tables  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  more  abundantly  sup- 
plied with  peaches  and  melons,  than  those  of  the  wealthiest  classes  abroad — and  the 
display  of  culinary  vegetables  of  the  north  of  Europe,  which  is  almost  confined 
potatoes,  peas,  French  beans,  and  cauliflowers,  makes  but  a  sorry  comparison  with 


Dec.  1,  1851. 


No.  XII. 


STATE  Ai\D  PROSPERITY  OF  HORTICULTURE. 


abundant  bill  of  fare  within  the  daily  reach  of  all  Americans.  The  traveller  abroad 
from  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  learns  to  value  the  tomatoes,  Indian  corn,  Lima  beans, 
egg-plants,  okra,  sweet  potatoes,  and  many  other  half-tropical  products,  which  the 
briciht  sun  of  his  own  land  offers  him  in  such  abundance,  with  a  new  relish — and  put- 
tinf  these  and  the  delicious  fruits,  w^hich  are  so  cheaply  and  abundantly  produced,  in- 
to the  scale  against  the  smooth  lawns  and  the  deep  verdure  of  Great  Britain,  he  is  more 
than  consoled  for  the  superiority  of  the  latter  country  in  these  finer  elements  of  mere 
embellishment. 

In  the  useful  branches  of  gardening,  the  last  ten  years  have  largely  increased  the 
culture  of  all  the  fine  culinary  vegetables,  and  our  markets  are  now  almost  every- 
where abundantly  supplied  with  them.  The  tomato,  the  egg  plant,  salsify,  and  okra, 
from  being  rarities  have  become  almost  universally  cultivated.  The  tomato  affords  a 
singular  illustration  of  the  fact  that  an  article  of  food  not  generally  relished  at  first, 
if  its  use  is  founded  in  its  adaptation  to  the  nature  of  the  climate,  may  speedily  come 
to  be  considered  indispensable  to  a  whole  nation.  Fifteen  years  ago  it  would  have 
been  difficult  to  find  this  vegetable  for  sale  in  five  market  towns  in  America.  At  the 
present  moment,  it  is  grown  almost  everywhere,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  acres  de- 
voted to  its  culture  for  the  supply  of  the  New- York  market  alone.  We  are  certain  that 
.  no  people  at  the  present  moment,  use  so  large  a  variety  of  fine  vegetables  as  the  people 
of  the  United  States.     Their  culture  is  so  remarkably  easy,  and  the  product  so  abundant. 

We  have  no  means  of  knowing  the  precise  annual  value  of  the  products  of  the  or- 
chards of  the  United  States.  The  Commissioner  of  Patents,  from  the  statistics  in  his 
possession,  estimates  it  at  ten  millions  of  dollars.  The  planting  of  orchards  and  fruit- 
gardens  within  the  last  five  years  has  been  more  than  three  times  as  great  as  in  any 
previous  five  years,  and  as  soon  as  these  trees  come  into  bearing,  the  annual  value  of 
their  products  cannot  fall  short  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  millions  of  dollars.  Ameri- 
can apples  are  universally  admitted  to  be  the  finest  in  the  world,  and  our  pippins  and 
Baldwins  have  taken  their  place  among  the  regular  exports  of  the  country.  In  five 
years  more  we  confidently  expect  to  see  our  fine  late  pears  taking  the  same  rank,  and  from 
the  great  success  which  has  begun  to  attend  their  extensive  culture  in  Western  New- 
York,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  that  region  will  come  to  be  considered  the  centre 
of  the  pear  culture  of  this  country. 

The  improvements  of  the  last  few  years  in  fruit  tree  culture  have  been  A'cry  great, 
and  are  very  easily  extended.  From  having  been  pursued  in  the  most  careless  and 
slovenly  manner  possible,  it  is  now  perhaps  the  best  understood  of  any  branch  of 
horticulture  in  America.  The  importance  of  deep  trenching,  mulching,  a  correct  sys- 
tem of  pruning,  and  the  proper  manures,  have  come  to  be  pretty  generally  acknow- 
ledged, so  that  our  horticultural  shows,  especially,  and  the  larger  markets,  to  a  certain 
extent,  begin  to  show^  decided  evidences  of  progress  in  the  art  of  raising  good  fruits. 
Our  nurserymen  and  amateurs,  after  having  made  trial  of  hundreds  of  highly  rated 
foreign  sorts,  and  found  but  few  of  them  really  valuable,  are  turning  their  attention  to 
the  propagation  and  dissemination  of  those  really   good,  and    to  the  increase 


STATE  AND  PROSPERITY  OF  HORTICULTURE. 

number  mainly  by  selections  from  the  numerous  good  native  varieties  now  springing 
into  existence. 

The  greatest  acquisition  to  the  amateur's  fruit  garden,  within  the  last  few  years, 
has  been  the  cold  vinery, — a  cheap  glass  structure  by  the  aid  of  which,  without 
any  fire  heat,  the  finest  foreign  grapes  can  be  fully  ripened,  almost  to  the  extreme 
northern  parts  of  the  union.  These  vineries  have  astonishingly  multiplied  within  the 
last  four  years,  so  that  instead  of  being  confined  to  the  gardens  of  the  very  wealthy,  they 
are  now  to  be  found  in  the  environs  of  all  our  larger  towns — and  a  necessary  ac- 
companiment to  every  considerable  country  place.  As  a  matter  of  luxury,  in  fruit  gar- 
dening, they  perhaps  afford  more  satisfaction  and  enjoyment  than  any  other  single  fea- 
ture whatever,  and  the  annual  value  of  the  grapes,  even  to  the  market-gardener,  is  a 
very  satisfactorj-  interest  on  the  outlay  made  in  the  necessary  building. 

Now  that  the  point  is  well  settled  that  the  foreign  grapes  cannot  be  successfully 
grown  without  the  aid  of  glass,  our  most  enterprising  experimentalists  are  busy  with  the 
production  of  new  hybrid  varieties — the  product  of  a  cross  between  the  former  and  our 
native  varieties — which  shall  give  us  fine  flavor  and  adaptation  to  open  air  culture, 
and  some  results  lately  made  public,  would  lead  us  to  the  belief  that  the  desidera- 
tum may  soon  be  attained.  In  the  mean  time  the  native  grapes,  or  at  least  one  va- 
riety— the  Catawba — has  taken  its  rank — no  longer  disputed — as  a  fine  wine  grape — 
and  the  hundreds  of  acres  of  vineyards  which  now  line  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  and  the 
rapid  sale  of  their  vintages,  show  conclusively  that  we  can  at  least  make  the  finest 
light  wines  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  progress  of  the  art  of  gardening  in  this  country,  considered  merely  in  a  useful 
point  of  view,  is  greatly  retarded  by  the  want  of  some  school  in  which  native,  or  at 
any  rate  naturalised  ability,  could  be  developed.  Almost  all  the  practical  gardeners 
in  America,  are  foreigners — generally  either  Irish,  Scotch,  or  German.  They  bring 
with  them  much  experience  from  the  mother  country  ;  but  much  of  it  is  of  little  va- 
lue in  this  climate — partly  from  its  great  difference  to  that  of  the  climate  of  the  north 
of  Europe,  and  partly  because  they  have  only  learned  the  routine  of  practice,  and  not 
the  principles  of  the  art.  Hence  we  see  every  day,  gardeners,  in  this  country,  where 
the  great  want  is  shade  from  the  burning  sun — pruning  trees  and  plants  to  let  the  sun 
in,  just  as  they  have  been  used  to  do  in  a  moist  and  foggy  climate,  where  the  trouble 
is  to  get  sun  enough  to  ripen  either  the  wood  or  fruit.  It  may  be  safely  said,  that 
half  the  disappointments  in  our  nicer  operations  of  gardening,  arise  from  this  cause. 
It  is,  of  course,  only  to  be  remedied  in  the  main,  by  the  dissemination  of  sufiicient 
knowledge  among  the  owners  of  gardens,  to  enable  them  to  enforce  upon  the  gardener 
the  absolute  necessity  of  remembering  that  he  must  change  his  practice  with  his  coun- 
try. If,  as  we  have  before  suggested,  some  one  of  our  large  Horticultural  Societies 
would  establish  an  experimental  garden,  where  emigrant  gardeners  could  labor  for  a 
certain  time,  at  a  nominal  sum,  where  they  could  learn  the  necessary  changes  demand- 
ed in  the  practice  by  the  change  of  climate,  and  then  go  out  for  higher  wages,  with 
the  certificate  of  the  society  in  their  pockets,  a  new  era  in  practical  gardening  would 
soon  arise.     But  as  yet  the  Horticultural  Societies  expend  all  their  energies  on  annual 


STATE  AND  PROSPERITY  OF  HORTICULTURE. 


shows,  and  anniversary  dinners — ^which  have,  indeed,  become  almost  fatiguing  from 
their  sameness — without  the  ambition  to  achieve  any  larger  field  of  usefulness. 

Tn  ornamental  gardening,  many  and  beautiful  are  the  changes  of  the  last  few  years. 
Cottages  and  villas  begin  to  embroider  the  country  in  all  directions,  and  the  neigh- 
borhood of  our  three  or  four  largest  cities  begins  to  vie  with  the  environs  of  any  of  the 
old  world  capitals  in  their  lovely  surroundings  of  beautiful  gardens  and  grounds.  The 
old  and  formal  style  of  design,  common  until  within  a  few  years,  is  almost  displaced 
by  a  more  natural  and  graceful  style  of  curved  lines,  and  graceful  plantations.  The 
taste  for  ornamental  planting  has  extended  so  largely,  that  much  as  the  nurseries  have 
increased,  they  are"  not  able  to  meet  the  demand  for  rare  trees  and  shrubs — especially 
evergreens — so  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  fine  species  are  annually  imported  from 
abroad.  Though  by  no  means  so  favorable  a  climate  for  lawns  as  that  of  England, 
ours  is  a  far  better  one  for  deciduous  trees,  and  our  park  and  pleasure  ground  scenery, 
(if  we  except  evergreens,)  is  marked  even  now  by  a  greater  variety  of  foliage  than  one 
easily  finds  in  any  other  temperate  climate. 

A  peculiar  feature  of  what  may  be  called  the  scenery  of  ornamental  grounds  in  this 
country,  at  the  present  moment  is,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  to  be  found  in  our  rural 
cemeteries.  They  vary  in  size  from  a  few,  to  three  or  four  hundred  acres,  and  in  cha- 
racter from  pretty  shrubberies  and  pleasure  grounds,  to  wild  sylvan  groves,  or  superb 
parks  and  pleasure  grounds — laid  out  and  kept  in  the  highest  style  of  the  art  of  land- 
scape gardening.  There  is  nothing  in  any  part  of  the  world  which  equals  in  all  res- 
pects, at  the  present  moment.  Greenwood  Cemetery,  near  New- York — though  it  has 
many  rivals.  We  may  give  some  idea  of  the  extent  and  high,  keeping  of  this  lovely 
resting  place  of  the  dead,  by  saying  that  about  three  hundred  persons  were  constantly  em- 
ployed in  the  care,  improvement,  and  preservation  of  its  grounds,  this  season.  The 
Cemetery  of  the  Evergreens,  also  near  New-York,  Mount  Auburn  at  Boston,  Laurel 
Hill  at  Philadelphia,  and  the  cemeteries  of  Cincinnati,  Albany,Salem,  and  several  others 
of  the  larger  towns,  are  scarcely  less  interesting  in  many  respects — while  all  have  fea- 
tures of  interest  and  beauty  peculiar  to  themselves. 

From  cemeteries  we  naturally  rise  to  public  parks  and  gardens.  As  yet  our  coun- 
trymen have  almost  entirely  over-looked  the  sanitary  value  and  importance  of  these 
breathing  places  for  large  cities,  or  the  powerful  part  which  they  may  be  made  to  play 
in  refining,  elevating,  and  afi"ording  enjoyment  to  the  people  at  large.  A  more  rapid 
and  easy  communication  with  Europe,  is,  however,  beginning  to  awaken  us  to  a  sense 
of  our  vast  inferiority  in  this  respect,  and  the  inhabitants  of  our  largest  cities  are  be- 
ginning to  take  a  lively  interest  in  the  appropriation  of  sufficient  space — while  space 
may  be  obtained,  for  this  beautiful  and  useful  purpose.  The  government  has  wisely 
taken  the  lead  in  this  movement,  by  undertaking  the  improvement,  (on  a  comprehen- 
sive plan  given  by  us,)  of  a  large  piece  of  public  ground — 150  acres  or  more,  lying 
almost  in  the  heart  of  Washington.  A  commencement  has  been  made  this  season,  and 
we  hope  the  whole  maybe  completed  in  the  course  of  three  or  four  years.  The  plan 
embraces  four  or  five  miles  of  carriage-drive — walks  for  pedestrians — ponds  of  water, 
fountains  and  statues — ^picturesque  groupings  of  trees  and  shrubs,  and  a  complete  col 


THE  TREES  OF  AMERICA. 

lection  of  all  the  trees  that  belong  to  North  America.  It  will,  if  carried  out  as  it 
has  been  undertaken,  undoubtedly  give  a  great  impetus  to  the  popular  taste  in  land- 
scape-gardening and  the  culture  of  ornamental  trees ;  and  as  the  climate  of  Washing- 
ton is  one  peculiarly  adapted  to  this  purpose — this  national  park  may  be  made  a 
sylvan  museum  such  as  it  would  be  difficult  to  equal  in  beauty  and  variety  in  any  part 
of  the  world. 

Asa  part  of  the  same  movement,  we  must  not  forget  to  mention  that  the  city  of 
New- York  has  been  empowered  by  the  State  legislature  to  buy  160  acres  of  land, 
admirably  situated  in  the  upper  part  of  the  city,  and  improve  and  embellish  it  for  a 
public  park.  A  similar  feeling  is  on  foot  in  Philadelphia,  where  the  Gratz  estate  and 
the  Lemon  Hill  estate  are,  we  understand,  likely  to  be  purchased  by  the  city  for  this 
purpose.  It  is  easy  to  see  from  these  signs  of  the  times,  that  gardening — both  as  a 
practical  art  and  an  art  of  taste — is  advancing  side  by  side  with  the  steady  and  rapid 
growth  of  the  country — and  we  congratulate  our  readers  that  they  live  in  an  age  and 
nation  where  the  whole  tendency  is  so  healthful  and  beautiful,  and  where  man's  des- 
tiny seems  to  grow  brighter  and  better  every  day. 


THE   TREES    OF    AMERICA, 

BY  AN  ARBORICULTURIST,  PHILADELPHIA. 

An  arboricultural  friend  has  sent  us  the  following  notice  of  a  new  edition  of  Michaux's 
splendid  work  on  American  Forest  Trees,  and  Nuttall's  continuation  of  the  same,  which 
we  commend  to  all  our  readers  who  would  enrich  their  libraries.     Ed. 

One  of  the  very  best  works  published  on  the  subject  of  our  beautiful  forest  trees,  a 
work  which,  from  the  accuracy  of  the  engravings,  and  the  beauty  of  their  coloring,  has 
always  been  found  indispensable  for  the  study  and  identification  of  specimens,  is  undoubt- 
edly Michaux's  "  North  American  Sylva,  or  a  description  of  the  Forest  Trees  of  the 
United  States,  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia."  The  original  edition  was  published  in  Paris, 
and  has  become  extremely  rare,  and  difficult  to  be  obtained;  the  plates  were  brought  over 
to  this  country  by  the  late  celebrated  patron  of  science,  William  Maclure,  who,  for  the 
benefit  of  his  countrymen,  had  an  edition  struck  off  at  New  Harmony,  Indiana;  it  was 
executed,  however,  so  rudely,  on  such  bad  paper,  and  with  so  many  typographical  errors, 
as  to  be  nearly  worthless  and  unsaleable.  Knowing  the  great  value  of  the  engravings,  Mr. 
Maclure's  brother  presented  the  original  copper  plates  to  the  late  lamented  President  of 
the  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Philadelphia,  in  whose  hands  they  remained  untouched  and 
uninjured  several  years ;  himself  a  devotee  of  Science,  and  anxious  for  its  diffusion,  he 
looked  round  for  some  person  to  superintend,  and  for  a  publisher  to  reissue  this  beautiful 
and  instructive  work,  in  a  dress  commensurate  with  its  value  and  utility.  A  suitable 
editor  was  found  in  Doctor  Morton's  brother-in-law,  Mr.  J.  Jat  Smith,  himself  a  lover 
and  successful  planter  of  these  beautiful  productions  of  nature.  The  plates  were  retouch- 
ed where  necessary,  and  this  was  not  often  found  to  be  needful;  the  translation  was  care- 
fully remoddled,  and  its  numerous  errors  corrected,  and  Mr.  Smith's  son,  liliewise  as  a 
labor  of  love,  undertook  the  laborious  vork  of  superintending  the  printing,  and  the  still 
more  onerous  task  of  seeing  that  the  coloring  was  faithfully  done  by  experienced  and  cost- 
ly artists.     The  freshest  and  best  French  copies  were  taken  as  the  main  guides,  assisted 


THE  TREES  OF  AMERICA. 

by  living  specimens  of  the  leaves  and  fruits.  The  result  has  been  the  republication  in  Phi 
ladelphia,  of  this  superb  work,  in  three  large,  handsome  octavo  volumes;  a  most  valuable 
gift  to  the  American  student  it  is,  and  we  are  happy  to  be  able  to  say,  confidently,  that 
the  plates  and  coloring  are  in  no  way  inferior  to  the  original,  while  the  text  is  much  im- 
proved. The  editor,  too,  has  added  notes  taken  from  his  own  extensive  experience,  and 
from  other  Avriters,  and  given  directions  for  soil  and  the  cultivation  of  each  species.  His 
notes  add  value  to  the  work,  which  has  been  reduced  one-half  in  price,  and  thus  made 
accessible  to  every  gentleman's  library. 

This  reduction  could  never  have  been  made,  but  for  the  fact  that  no  charge  whatever 
■was  made  for  the  use  of  the  plates;  had  this  been  the  case,  Michaux  would  have  still 
been  an  inaccessible  work  to  the  gardener  and  cultivator;  it  is  now  within  their  reach. 
The  labor  necessary  to  color  well  so  many  plates,  makes  the  production  of  copies  a  slow 
process,  since  few  colorists  are  to  be  found  who  will  do  them  justice.  Thus  far,  the  sales 
have  been  confined  to  private  demand  almost  entirely;  lately,  however,  a  few  copies  in  ad- 
vance of  that  demand  have  been  got  ready,  and  are  to  be  procured  of  Mr.  Robert  P. 
Smith,  the  publisher,  Philadelphia,  and  of  Mr.  G.  P.  Putnam,  New-York. 

If  praise  is  to  be  awarded  in  no  stinted  terms  to  this  effort  at  diffusing  accurate  infor- 
mation regarding  our  own  trees,  we  should  give  further  credit  for  the  completion,  by  the 
same  publisher,  of  the  invaluable  continuation  of  Michaux's  great  work,  by  Nuttall,  who 
has  taken  up  the  subject  where  his  predecessor  left  off,  and  completed  our  list  of  Ameri- 
can trees  in  a  very  handsome  and  correct  manner,  with  colored  lithographic  plates,  Mi- 
chaux being  on  copper  by  the  celebrated  Redoutb.  Nuttall's  continuation  forms  also 
three  superb  volumes,  embracing  the  newly  discovered  trees  of  California,  New  Mexico, 
and  Oregon,  productions  much  valued  in  Europe,  and  which  are  now  finding  their  way 
to  our  own  ornamental  plantations.  We  cannot  do  better  than  to  transcribe  that  portion 
of  Mr.  Smith's  preface  which  alludes  to  these  additional  volumes;  he  says: — 

"  It  was  a  singular  circumstance,  and  a  happy  one  it  has  proved  for  advancing  science, 
that  Mr.  Nuttall  arrived  in  this  country  the  very  year  that  the  younger  INIichaux  left  it. 
From  that  time  he  devoted  his  talents  to  Botany,  and  after  visiting  a  large  portion  of  the 
United  States,  with  an  aptitude  of  observation,  a  quickness  of  eye,  tact  in  discrimination, 
and  tenacity  of  memory,  rarely  possessed  by  one  man,  he  published  his  extended,  and 
most  happily  executed  botanical  work,  the  '  Genera  of  North  American  plants.'  In  1834 
he  crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  explored  the  territory  of  Oregon,  and  Upper  Cali- 
fornia. With  his  peculiar  qualifications,  he  prepared  the  supplement  to  Michaux's  Sylva, 
in  three  handsome  volumes,  corresponding  in  size  with  the  present,  the  publication  of 
which,  after  many  delays,  was  completed  in  1849,  by  my  son,  in  Philadelphia.  The  two 
works  are  now  one  and  homogeneous,  the  former  most  highly  valued  by  all  lovers  of  trees, 
and  the  latter  destined  to  be  equally  so,  when  the  fine  products  of  our  newly  acquired 
western  regions  make  their  way  to  our  gardens  and  plantations.  The  frequent  references 
I  have  made  to  Mr.  Nuttall's  volumes,  will  show  the  reader  that  his  additions  to  our 
Sylva,  are  both  extensive  and  important;  inspection  will  convince  him  that  both  authors 
stand  on  the  highest  pedestal  of  merit." 

The  editions  of  both,  are  very  small  ones,  and  may  never  again  appear  to  be  sufiiciently 
remunerative  to  warrant  others;  indeed  no  copies  of  Nuttall  have  yet  been  prepared  for 
the  demand  abroad,  all  that  have  been  ready  being  required  for  the  home  supply;  twenty 
copies,  at  most,  are  all  that  are  left.  Persons  forming  their  libraries,  cannot,  therefore 
early  in  forwarding  their  orders.  Nuttall's  work  furnishes  information  not  found 
other  volumes;  it  is  entirely  new,  and  truly  valuable. 


STUDIES  IN  VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY. 

STUDIES   IN  VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY— THE  ROOT. 

BY  AUGUSTUS  FAHNESTCCK,  SYRACUSE,  N.  Y. 

The  third  class  of  plants  whose  roots  are  perennial,  or  live  an  indefinite  number  of  years, 
is  the  largest  of  the  three  grand  divisions.  It  comprises  all  our  forest  and  shade  trees, 
and  most  of  our  beautiful  flowering  plants,  and  their  forms  are  no  less  desirable  than  in 
the  foregoing  grand  divisions.  The  most  common  form  of  the  perennial  root  is  the  branch- 
ing. The  roots  resemble  the  branches  of  a  tree,  but  have  no  regularity.  Some  of  these 
branches  penetrate  the  earth  to  a  great  depth.  Some  of  them  trail  horizontally  beneath 
the  surface.  They  do  not,  as  the  foregoing,  depend  upon  the  stock  of  the  previous  year, 
but  annually  produce  new  roots,  and  form  new  accumulations,  sometimes  in  separate  por- 
tions of  the  root,  as  in  the  dahlia  or  in  the  Orchis,  where,  while  one  or  more  of  such 
reservoirs  is  exhausted  each  year,  others  are  providentially  formed  for  the  next  years  sus- 
tenance; and  so  on  from  year  to  year,  a  portion  annually  perishing,  but  the  individual 
plant  surviving  indefinitely.  More  commonly,  the  whole  body  and  main  branches  of  the 
root  are  somewhat  thickened,  or  portions  of  the  stem  may  subserve  this  purpose,  as  in 
all  tuberous  roots;  or  the  nourishing  matter  may  be  widely  distributed  through  the  trunk, 
as  in  shrubs  and  trees.  Thus  far  we  have  only  considered  the  primary  root,  or  that  organ 
which  originated  in  the  embyro  of  the  seed  at  germination.  Adventitious  buds  grow  from 
most  stems  when  placed  horizontally  on  the  ground,  or  buried  beneath  it,  and  this  is  very 
common  to  some  species;  thus  the  verbena  is  furnished  with  joints  at  intervals  of  several 
inches  each,  all  of  which  strike  when  placed  in  contact  with  the  soil.  "  Such  roots  obey 
the  ordinary  tendency  of  the  organ,  avoiding  the  light,  and  seeking  to  bury  themselves  in 
the  soil.  Thus  when  a  part  of  the  stem  of  a  plant  be  cut  oft"  at  each  end,  and  subjected 
to  the  requisite  amount  of  light,  heat,  and  moisture — they  will  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten 
take  root.  It  is  in  this  manner  that  most  green-house  shrubs  and  plants  are  cultivated. 
Many  plants  will  emit  roots  from  their  leaves.  For  instance,  if  the  leaf  of  a  Gloxinia  or 
Gesneria  be  pinned  upon  the  surface  of  some  soil  placed  in  a  pot,  roots  will  be  seen  to 
issue  from  the  stem  in  the  course  of  from  four  to  six  weeks."  To  this,  as  in  every  other 
general  rule,  there  are  exceptions — as  in  the  case  of  aerial  roots.  Such  plants  as  the 
Poison  Ivy,  (^Rhus  toxicodendron,')  Trumpet  flower,  {Teconiia  radicans,')  &c.,  emit  aerial 
rootlets  from  their  stems,  which  fix  them  to  any  object  which  may  present  itself;  in  this 
case  the  plant  draws  its  nourishment  from  the  soil  through  its  roots,  the  aerial  ones  only 
serving  for  mechanical  support ;  in  this  way  a  plant,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  reaches  the 
tops  of  the  highest  trees.  There  are  other  plants  which  produce  true  aerial  roots,  which 
are  emitted  from  the  stem,  descend  to  the  ground  and  grow.  This  phenomena  may  be 
observed  in  our  common  Indian  corn,  the  lower  joints  of  which  often  send  down  roots 
the  length  of  three  and  four  inches;  but  is  more  perceptible  in  the  vegetation  of  a  south- 
ern climate,  where  the  atmosphere  is  charged  with  moisture  for  a  large  part  of  the  3'ear. 
The  Pandanus  or  Screw  Pine,  forms  a  good  illustration.  The  roots  are  emitted  from  the 
stem,  and  fall  down,  which  gives  the  tree  the  appearance  of  having  been  raised  out  of  the 
ground.  The  Banyan  also  affords  another  illustration;  in  this  case  the  roots  spring  from 
the  horizontal  branches,  often  at  a  great  length  from  the  ground;  they  then  descend,  take 
root,  and  produce  in  their  turn,  plants  similar  to  themselves.  This  tree  grows  to  an 
immense  size;  there  is  one  in  the  world,  which,  it  is  said,  is  suflBciently  large  to  shelter 
ten  thousand  men.     The  Mangrove  is  very  similar  in  its  habits. 

Prof.  Gray  says:  Its  aerial  roots  spring  both  from  the  main  trunk,  as  in  the  Pandanus, 


STUDIES  IN  VEGETABLE  PHYSIOLOGY. 

and  from  the  branches,  as  in  the  Banyan.  Moreover,  this  tendency  to  shoot  in  the  air  is 
shown  even  in  the  embr^'-o,  which  begins  to  germinate  while  the  pod  is  yet  attached  to  the 
parent  branch;  the  radicle,  or  root  end  of  the  embryo,  elongating  into  a  slender  thread, 
which  often  reaches  the  ground  at  the  height  of  many  yards,  before  the  pod  is  detached. 
In  this  manner  the  Mangrove  forms  those  immense  maritime  thickets  which  abound  on  low 
muddy  shores  within  the  tropics.  There  is  a  class  of  plants  called  Epiphytus  or  air 
plants,  which  exhibit  a  further  peculiarity.  They  not  only  emit  roots  from  every 
part  of  their  trunks,  but  during  their  whole  life  have  no  connection  with  the  soil;  they  are 
generally  found  growing  upon  bark,  and  the  trunks  of  old  trees.  The  roots  adhere  to  the 
bark,  and  fix  the  plant  in  a  steady  position,  or  else  hang  loose  in  the  air,  from  which  such 
plants  draw  all  their  nourishment.  The  parasites  are  mostly  natives  of  southern  regions, 
such  as  the  orchidaceous  plants;  many  of  them  adorn  our  hot-houses,  and  are  rare  and 
interesting  objects.  Some  parasites  not  only  grow  upon  other  plants,  but  live  wholly  at 
their  expense,  which  the  epiphytes  do  not.  Parasites  may  be  reduced  to  two  different 
sorts:  first,  green  parasites,  those  which  have  green  and  proper  foliage  for  respiration  and 
perspiration — and  second,  those  which  are  destitute  of  green  foliage;  they  also  differ  in 
their  degree  of  parasitism — the  great  number  of  them  oeing  dependant  upon  the  foster 
plant  for  support;  but  there  are  a  few,  such  as  the  Colutiarosea,  which  often  take  root  in 
the  soil,  and  from  thence  assimilate  a  part  of  their  food,  and  in  some  cases  live  and  grow  in- 
dependent of  their  aerial  roots.  The  green  parasites  are  furnished  with  proper  digestive  or- 
gans of  their  own,  just  as  in  the  higher  class  of  flowering  plants;  they  strike  their  aerial 
roots  through  the  bark  of  the  plant  upon  which  they  grow,  and  embed  themselves  in  the 
alburnum,  from  which  they  can  draw  little  or  no  sustenance,  except  the  crude  ascending 
sap,  which  they  must  assimilate  with  their  own  organs.  The  Misletoe  is  always  parasitic, 
being  at  no  time  connected  with  the  soil;  the  seed  germinates  upon  the  tree  wherever  it 
happens  to  fall;  the  germinating  root,  or  the  woody  mass  which  it  forms  resembling  the 
root,  penetrates  the  bark  of  the  foster  plant,  and  forms  a  close  junction  apparently,  with 
its  young  wood,  as  that  of  a  natural  branch.  Some  species  of  the  Misletoe  have  no  pro- 
per green  colored  foliage,  but  are  of  a  brown  or  yellow  cast.  Pale  or  colored  parasites,  such 
as  the  Beech  drops,  strike  their  roots  in  the  bark  of  the  foster  plant,  and  thence  draw 
their  nourishment,  already  assimilated.  Hence  they  have  no  use  for  their  proper  colored 
foliage.  In  some  instances,  such  plants  as  the  Dodder  will  germinate  in  the  earth,  but  as  soon 
as  they  grow  large  enough  they  twine  around  some  approximate  tree,  their  aerial  rootlets  pe- 
netrating the  epidermis  into  the  bark,  and  feed  upon  its  nourishment — while  its  own  root 
dies,  and  the  plant  has  never  any  more  connection  with  the  soil;  thus  the  plant,  like  some 
human  ones,  steals  its  nourishment,  and  requires  no  proper  foliage,  for  it  would  not  use 
it  if  it  had  it.  Such  parasites  do  not  live  upon  all  plants,  but  only  upon  those  which 
will  yield  a  propitious  food.  Some,  it  is  said,  are  restricted  to  certain  species,  and  others 
seem  to  have  little  or  no  choice.  Their  seeds  are  only  germinated  when  placed  in  contact 
with  the  plant  upon  which  they  are  to  grow.  Some  parasites  may  be  reduced  to  a  single 
flower,  or  flowers,  situated  immediately  upon  the  foster  plant.  A  truly  wonderful  instance 
of  this  kind  is  furnished  by  that  vegetable  titan,  the  Rafflesia  arnoldi,  of  Summatra.  The 
flower  which  was  first  discovered  grew  upon  the  stem  of  a  kind  of  grape-vine;  it  measur- 
ed nine  feet  in  circumference,  and  weighed  fifteen  pounds.  Its  color  is  of  light  orange, 
mottled  with  yellowish  white.  Some  cryptogamous  plants,  such  as  the  fungi,  are  parasi- 
tic upon  languishing  vegetables,  and  some  infest  living  animals;  the  rest  live  upon  decaying 
animal  and  vegetable  matter,  and  are  all  destitute  of  clorophyle,  (coloring  matter.) 

Augustus  A.  Fahnestock 


RAISING   STRAAVBERRIES. 


RAISING  OR  HOW  TO  RAISE  THE   FINEST   STRAWBERRIES. 

BY  R.  G.  PARDEE,  PALMYRA,  N.  Y. 

The  following  is  the  best  way  that  I  know,  of  cultivating  the  strawberry  in  our  favora- 
ble soil : 

Select,  in  the  early  spring,  a  rich  deep  mellow,  gravelly  loam,  if  possible,  in  rather  low 
moist  ground,  with  a  good  exposure  to  the  sun.  Then  spade  it  full  a  spade  deep,  repeat- 
edly, on  the  first  of  every  month  until  July,  when  the  ground  will  have  become  thorough- 
ly broken  up  and  mellow,  and  also  the  danger  of  the  earth  packing  and  becoming  hard, 
will  mainly  have  past.  After  breaking  up  the  ground  well  on  the  1st  July,  and  levelling 
off  the  soil  instead  of  raising  it  into  beds,  then  immediately  set  out  the  strawberry  plants, 
two  in  a  stool,  18  to  24  inches  apart.  Then  mulch,  forthwith,  the  whole  ground,  includ- 
ing the  walk,  with  an  inch  and  a-half  deep  of  old  tan-bark,  saw-dust  or  well  rotted  ma- 
nure; but  I  would  carefully  prevent  any  barn-yard  manure,  or  even  ashes,  becoming  in- 
corporated in  the  soil  previously  or  at  this  time.  Next  I  would  thoroughly  Avater  them, 
and  keep  them  sufficiently  watered  to  insure  a  constant  and  vigorous  growth,  which  is  not 
a  task  if  well  mulched.  After  this,  the  occasional  pulling  of  a  very  few  weeds,  that  find 
their  way  through  the  mulching,  and  a  slight  coating  of  leaves  and  straw  on  the  approach 
of  winter,  is  all  the  care  I  would  give  them,  until  the  opening  of  the  following  spring, 
when  I  pursue  the  following  process : 

On  removing  the  coating  on  the  opening  of  spring,  I  fertilize  the  plants  with  a  liberal 
sprinkling  of  a  solution  of  |  lb.  each  of  sulphate  of  pottassium,  glauber  salts,  and  sal  soda, 
and  one  ounce  of  muriate  ammonia,  to  eight  gallons  water,  and  continue  this  once  in  a  week 
or  ten  days  until  they  blossom,  when  I  give  them  pure  cold  water  till  they  ripen,  when  I 
discontinue  all  applications.  I  do  not  say  my  combination  of  fertilizers  cannot  be  im- 
proved, but  it  proves  efficient  enough  with  me  until  I  learn  of  a  better  one. 

If  not  couvenient,  I  do  not  break  up  the  ground  until  the  1st  July,  when  I  plant  out; 
although  I  think  it  better  not  to  allow  the  ground  to  be  occupied  the  previous  part  of  the 
season,  and  to  be  fiequently  stirred.  I  prefer,  all  things  considered,  the  1st  to  10th  July 
for  planting  out,  for  the  reason  the  soil  does  not  bake  so  hard  as  if  set  out  in  spring,  and 
at  this  season  I  can  secure  the  largest  crop  next  June.  If  the  setting  out  is  delayed  till 
August,  I  can  only  depend  on  half  a  crop,  and  only  a  quarter  if  delayed  till  September. 
By  this  plan,  it  will  be  seen,  I  avoid  all  trouble  in  forking  over  the  ground  in  the  AiU  or 
spring — I  do  not  find  it  necessary. 

Although  so  many  succeed  unsatisfactorily  in  raising  strawberries,  yet  I  know  of  no 
fruit  raised  in  this  climate  on  which  I  can,  with  such  confidence,  rely  for  a  certain  and  regu- 
lar large  crop  as  by  this  plan,  with  good  varieties— only  amateurs  who  wish  to  raise  re- 
markably fine  fruit  may  choose  to  take  so  much  pains  as  the  whole  process  here  laid  down 
involves,  yet  M'hat  is  worth  doing  at  all,  is  generally  worth  doing  well. 

I  will  not  presume  to  say  that  this  plan  is  perfect,  or  is  the  be^t.  Othei- soils  and  climate 
may  demand  some  modification,  yet  after  examining  a  large  number  of  grounds  for  years 
past,  and  listening  to,  or  reading  the  mode  of  procedure  of  a  large  number  of  the  most 
successful  cultivators,  I  have  summed  them  all  up,  and  prefer  the  above  to  all  others  which 
has  come  to  my  knowledge.  Every  cultivator  has  his  own  best  way  to  accomplish  the 
object,  and  yet,  perchance,  all  have  much  to  learn  from  the  experience  or  observation  of 
others.  -d     p 

Palmyra,  N.  V.,  Nov.,  1S51. 


ON  THE  THEORY  OF  PRUNING  FURIT  TREES. 

•    BY  LAWRENCE  YOUNG.  LOUISVILLE,  KY. 

A.  J.  Downing,  Esq. — I  have  heretofore  suggested  to  you  my  design  of  offering  through 
the  medium  of  your  columns,  to  the  pomological  world,  the  outline  of  a  rude  theory  which 
I  have  entertained  for  some  years,  respecting  the  existence  of  two  forces  or  principles  in 
vegetable  phj'siology,  and  their  bearing  upon  the  science  of  culture,  training,  and  pruning. 
It  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  vague,  indistinct,  not  to  say  contradictory  notions  of  these 
forces,  to  be  learned  in  the  books,  is  a  frequent  source  of  injury  to  the  cause  of  fruit  cul- 
ture at  large. 

In  order  to  explain  the  nature  of  the  two  forces  referred  to,  and  in  order  to  give  an  ex- 
ample of  the  manner  in  which  erroneous  views  of  their  nature  may  operate,  I  shall  quote 
a  few  authorities  setting  forth  the  axiomatic  and  doctrinal  nature  of  said  forces,  according 
to  the  present  state  of  the  science  of  vegetable  physiology. 

Four  of  the  best  American  authors.  Downing,  Tuomas,  Barky  and  Kenrick,  and  at 
least  one  English  writer,  Loudon,  agree  substantially  in  setting  down  to  the  account  of 
over  luxuriance,  the  cause  of  unfruitfulness  in  trees  of  the  orchard  or  fruit  garden — as 
also  in  stating  that  fruitfulness  lies  in  an  opposite  direction,  or  at  some  point  towards  fee- 
bleness not  more  remote  than  debility  itself.  Downing  asserts  that  fruitfulness  or  luxu- 
riance, or  rather  the  causes  which  lead  to  their  development,  are  susceptible  of  being  ex- 
cited, either  the  one  or  the  other,  at  the  will  of  the  operator,  by  "  difference  in  the  mode 
of  pruning."  The  others  make  luxuriant  wood  growth  and  fiuitfulness  two  antagonistic 
extremes,  stating  in  substance  that  "  whatever  tends  to  promote  one  retards  the  other." 
These,  and  such  other  of  the  best  authors  as  I  am  familiar  with,  all  admit  an  existence  of 
two  tendencies  in  the  condition  of  a  tree,  one  to  fruit-bearing,  and  one  to  the  making  of 
wood-branches;  all  agree  that  fruitfulness  lies  in  an  opposite  condition  from  wood  forma- 
tion, but  in  terms  so  general  that  the  inexperienced  are  left  to  infer  that  the  farther  you 
recede  from  luxuriance,  the  nearer  one  approaches  the  point  of  fruitfulness.  In  fine,  high 
feeeding,  in  one  form  or  other,  is  set  down  as  the  great  agent  for  exciting  the  system  of 
wood-buds  and  starvation,  for  bringing  into  activity  the  fruit  bud.  Luxuriance  and  un- 
fruitfulness are  used  as  synonymous  terms,  and  by  inference,  starvation  and  fruitfulness 
seem  also  to  have  the  same  import.  My  theory  of  these  forces  supposes  them  also  to  exist 
in  a  state  of  antagonism — that  the  seat  of  the  wood  system  is  in  the  trunk,  branches  and 
roots,  between  which  there  is  evidence  of  a  strong  sympathj'',  and  of  a  continued  action 
and  reaction — that  the  fruit-bearing  system  has  no  sympath}^  with  the  roots,  but  feeds 
upon  the  juices  of  cii'culation  in  the  branches,  as  parasitical  plants — that  fruit  spurs  once 
developed  never  change  their  nature,  except  in  consequence  of  some  act  of  violence,  and 
may  multiply  like  parasitical  plants,  until  their  demand  upon  the  juices  of  circulation  even 
starve  out  the  Avood-buds,  and  finally  induce  the  death  of  the  tree.  Fruitfulness  I  consi- 
der a  state  of  normal  health  in  a  tree  large  enough  to  bear.  I  think  it  exhibits  the  exis- 
tence of  these  two  forces  in  a  state  of  equilibrium,  and  a  departure  therefrom,  towards 
either  extreme — towards  luxuriance  or  feebleness,  is  a  disturbance  of  the  balance  of  power 
— the  beginning  of  a  state  of  disease,  the  nature  of  which  will  entirely  depend  upon  the 
character  of  the  force  in  predominance,  and  must  call  for  remedies  in  accordance;  that  is, 
a  tree  too  luxuriant  for  fruitfulness  will  need  depletions,  while  a  starving  subject  would 
want  stimulants  and  tonics. 


PRUNING  FRUIT  TREES. 

In  giving  an  example  of  the  manner  in  which  erroneous  notions  of  these  forces  affect 
the  cultivator,  I  will  suppose  one  has,  as  a  subject,  a  tree  unfruitful  from  too  great  luxuri- 
ance. Suppose  he  should  undertake  to  cure  this  defect  by  lessening  the  number  of  root- 
lets catering  for  the  woody  system,  by  root  pruning,  would  it  not  be  absurd  philosophy 
and  a  waste  of  time  to  fill  up  with  rich  manures,  a  trench  made  for  amputating  the  roots 
thus  enabling  the  surviving  rootlets  to  gather  from  a  crib,  food  in  quantities,  perhaps, 
equal  to  the  eiforts  of  the  whole  system  from  leaner  pastures  before  amputation. 

Again,  a  tree  neither  too  feeble  nor  too  luxuriant  for  fruit-bearing,  ought  not  to  be  prun- 
ed unless  for  symmetry's  sake — whilst  one  needing  the  knife  ought  to  be  con.sidered  either 
as  too  vigorous  or  too  feeble.  How  confused,  then,  must  the  science  of  pruning  be,  when 
its  best  expounders  direct  an  annual  indiscriminate  pruning  of  trees  under  all  conditions, 
when  the  admitted  effect  of  that  particular  mode  of  pruning  too,  is  to  stimulate  but  one 
of  these  forces.  Yet  such  cases  are  in  the  books,  and  one  of  these  cases  I  will  refer  to, 
because  the  distinguished  author  who  exercises,  and  I  think  justly  exercises  a  wide-spread 
influence  over  man}^  admiring  friends,  has  in  the  south  and  west  led  some  of  them  into 
error  and  disappontraent.  I  would  not  be  understood  in  this  as  endeavoring  to  show  off 
the  gentleman's  fallibility.  I  Avillingly  acknowledge  myself  his  debtor  for  much,  both  of 
pleasure  and  instruction.  In  fact,  T  have  thought  that  none  other  than  an  inspired  mem- 
ber of  Pomona's  priesthood  could  have  given  readings  of  the  laws  of  nature  so  generally 
true  to  her  text-book,  as  those  rendered  by  the  accomplished  author  of  the  Fruits  and 
Fruit  Trees  of  America,  and  I  have  thought  moreover,  that  high  latitude  and  New- Jersey 
sand  betrayed  him  into  the  error  alluded  to,  Avhich  is  taking  the  peach  tree  at  three  years 
old,  and  in  March  or  April  of  every  year  during  life,  shortening-in  the  branches. 

In  any  cultivated  orchard  of  the  Indian  corn  district,  west  or  south,  this  treatment  is 
erroneous.  It  would  be  wrong,  because  in  such  location  the  tendency  of  the  tree  is,  at 
that  age,  to  over  luxuriance,  and  in  that  case,  cutting  off  the  branches  to  make  it  less  so, 
would  be  as  though  a  farmer  should  attempt  to  starve  out  his  briars  by  cutting  off  their 
heads  in  March,  when  the  roots  had  before  them  a  years  supply,  instead  of  the  fated  Au- 
gust— when  they  would  be  in  the  midst  of  famine;  it  would  be  as  though  he  should  at- 
tempt to  reduce  the  condition  of  grazing  cattle,  by  diminishing  the  number  of  his  herds, 
or  increasing  the  extent  of  his  fields,  or  the  luxuriance  of  their  verdure. 

Without  much  confidence  that  my  remarks  will  have  much  interest,  other  than  that  of 
novelty,  I  propose  to  consider  the  appreciable  evidences  and  outward  marks,  peculiar  to 
the  wood  system  and  the  fruit  bearing,  respectively. 

Next  to  class  the  rules  for  growing,  training,  and  pruning  in  accordance  therewith;  re- 
viewing also  their  aptitude,  claiming  as  I  do,  to  be  a  great  admirer  of  the  true  and  the 
beautiful  in  nature — next  to  the  pleasure  of  weaving  fine  theories  myself,  is  that  of  seeing 
them  stript  of  their  flimsiness  by  others.  I  should  therefore  like  to  be  set  right  in  any 
error  perpetrated  in  the  course  of  these  remarks,  by  any  of  your  numerous  correspond- 
ents, who  shall  perceive  an  error,  and  at  the  same  time  have  patience  and  inclination  for 
the  work.  L.vwrence  Young. 

Louisville,  Ky.,  Oct.,  1851. 

Remarks. — Mr.  Young  appears  to  have  singularly  misunderstood  the  aim  of  the  short- 
ening-in system  of  pruning,  which  we  have  labored  to  introduce  in  this  countr}'-.  The 
main  object  of  this  mode  of  pruning,  is  to  prevent  the  tree  from  enfeebling  itself — partly 
by  regulating  the  annual  crop  and  partly  by  forcing  it  to  push  out  several  luxuriant  shoots, 
where  it  would  otherwise  only  have  made  one.  To  quote  the  precise  language  of  our 
work  on  Fruit  Trees — "  while  we  have  thus  secured  against  the  prevalent  evil,  an  over 


EUROPEAN  STRAWBERRIES. 

crop,  we  have  also  provided  for  the  full  nourishment  of  the  present  year's  fruit,  and  in- 
duced a  supply  of  fruit-bearing  shoots  throughout  the  tree,  for  thenext  season." — p.  459. 
It  is  straining  an  inference  to  say  that  high  feeding  is  the  only  course  for  making  wood, 
and  starvation  for  making  fruit,  pointed  out  by  the  best  writers.  The  production 
of  fruit-buds  depends  upon  the  formation  and  deposit  of  that  organizable  matter  which 
nature  directs  especially  to  this  end,  and  not  to  the  end  of  growth,  and  though  starvation 
often  forces  nature,  by  cutting  off  rapid  growth,  to  turn  all  the  accumulatedenergy  of  the 
tree  into  the  production  of  organizable  matter,  such  is  not  the  operation  of  secretions  in 
the  normal  and  healthy  condition  of  the  tree.  That  condition  lies,  as  Mr.  Young  truly 
says,  and  as  we  think  all  sound  writers  will  be  found  also  to  say,  in  an  equilibrium  of  the 
vital  action  of  the  tree.  The  most  skilful  pruners  of  fruit  trees  in  the  world,  are  the 
French,  and  whoever  has  seen  the  best  pyramidal  pruned  pear  trees  in  France,  must  have 
been  struck  by  the  perfect  balance  between  healthy  growth  and  productiveness  maintained 
by  the  admirable  system  of  pruning  practiced  on  those  trees.     Ed. 


DESCRIPTION  AND  CULTURE  OF  EUROPEAN  STRAWBERRIES. 

BY  JOHN  SAUL,  WASHINGTON,  I).  C. 

Having  had  considerable  experience  in  the  cultivation  of  all  the  leading  varieties  of 
strawberries  in  England,  I  have  thought  that  a  few  remarks  may  be  useful  as  well  as  in- 
teresting to  the  cultivators  of  this  excellent  fruit  in  this  country.  In  my  list  will  be  found 
none  but  ivhat  I  have  grown  and  tested  mxjself.  Climate,  soil,  and  other  circumstances 
effect  all  fruits  more  or  less,  as  regards  growth,  productiveness  and  flavor,  and  none  more 
so  than  the  strawberry.  I  believe  it  is  generally  acknowledged  that  European  strawber- 
ries do  not  succeed  in  this  country  so  well  as  the  American  garden  seedling  varieties— to 
this  there  may  be  some  exceptions — and,  vice  versa,  the  American  varieties  will  not  adapt 
themselves  to  the  murky  atmosphere  of  England,  as  the  natives  born  of  the  soil  do;  as 
regards  size,  productiveness,  and  flavor,  they  want  the  bright  light  and  genial  heat  of  their 
native  land.  This  I  had  seen  conclusively  proved  by  parties  on  the  other  side  of  the  water, 
who  had  imported  the  best  American  varieties;  in  a  word  they  were  miserable,  when 
compared  to  the  splendid  kinds  they  already  possessed.  I  fear  it  will  prove  the  same  with 
many  of  the  finest  English  varieties  here;  they  will  probably  be  pronounced  rti66is/t — and 
justly  so  in  this  soil  and  climate— yet  I  think  more  of  the  good  English  strawberries  will 
be  found  to  succeed  in  America,  than  of  the  American  varieties  in  England.  Perhaps  I 
shall  be  asked  why?  My  reason  simply  is,  in  England  the  great  drawback  and  the  great 
difliculty  consists  in  want  of  the  light  and  heat  which  the  American  fruits  require,  and  which 
no  cultivation,  however  good,  can  give  them  in  the  open  air.  Not  so  in  this  country;  here 
is  plenty  of  light  and  heat,  and  careful  cultivation  can  assist  them  with  other  little  essen- 
tials.    However,  some  may  be  found  useful,  while  many  others  deserve  a  trial. 

Of  late,  many  fine  varieties  have  been  raised  both  in  this  country  and  England,  yet  a 
wide  field  is  open  for  the  rai.sers  of  seedlings  yet.  We  have  the  Chili,  a  very  large  but  ten- 
der variety;  why  not  cross  this  with  some  of  the  hardy  high  flavored  varieties.  Myatt, 
the  great  English  strawberry  grower,  evidently  had  this  before  him  when  he  originated 
his  Eleanor  and  Mammoth.  To  all  appearance  they  are  crosses  from  the  Chili  with  some 
Pines.  Again,  we  have  the  high  flavor  of  the  Alpine;  why  not  combine  it  with  i 
a  Chili  or  Pine.     Mr.  Saunders  aimed  at  this  when  he  produced  his  Giant  Alpi 


EUROPEAN  STRAWBERRIES. 

Could  not  the  peculiar  flavor  of  the  Hautboy  be  blended  with  some  of  the  larger  kinds  I 
have  named.  Yet  I  know  not  of  one  attempt  to  cross  this  strawberry  with  any  of  the 
other  kinds.  A  little  consideration  will  suggest  many  other  crosses  which  would  beequal- 
1}^  valuable — indeed  I  know  of  no  fruit  more  capable  of  improvement  than  this,  fine  though 
it  be  already. 

There  are  many  small  and  delicious  flavored  sorts,  whose  good  qualities  may  be  combin- 
ed with  the  large  size,  productiveness,  and  hardiness  of  others.  This  present  time  some 
two  or  three  English  growers  are  before  the  public  with  new  varieties.  Mtatt  advertises 
one  which  he  names  "  Cinquefolia,"  the  distinguishing  character  being  its  having  five 
leaves  on  a  stalk ;  if  this  strawberry  is  first  rate  as  regards  flavor,  size  and  productive- 
ness, it  may  be  useful;  on  these  will  its  merits  depend,  as  strawberry  eaters  will  care  but 
little  whether  the  leaves  which  nourished  their  delicious  fruit,  had  three  leaflets  or  five. 
These  remarks  are  not  penned  to  lessen  the  value  of  Mr.  Myatt's  fruit,  T  being  well  aware 
there  is  not  a  more  respectable  man  in  the  trade  in  England,  than  Mr.  Myatt;  the  straw- 
berries and  rhubarb  which  he  has  already  sent  out,  are  the  best  guarantee  for  the  future. 
But  I  do  object  to  the  legion  of  varieties  of  all  sorts  of  fruits,  and  florist's  flowers  too, 
which  are  continually  forced  upon  the  public  notice;  flowers  which  frequently  are  but  a 
repetition  of  older  varieties,  or  differ  so  little  that  an  ordinary  observer  could  not  distin- 
guish them;  and  fruits,  which,  if  they  differ  from  older  ones,  in  too  many  instances  they 
are  far  from  equaling  them.  By  all  means  let  seedlings  be  raised,  let  new  varieties  be 
brought  into  culture — but  as  we  do  the  latter  let  us  be  convinced  that  they  are  superior  to 
older  ones — if  not  superior,  most  certainly  equal,  and  possessed  of  other  good  sterling  qua- 
lities to  recommend  them. 

In  England  they  know  of  no  such  distinction  as  "  staminates"  and  " pistillates." 
There  they  are  all  hermaphrodites,  if,  perhaps,  we  except  the  old  Hautboys,  which  are 
very  subject  to  become  sterile.  In  forcing  strawberries,  when  they  are  first  introduced 
into  too  violent  a  heat,  sterility  will  be  the  consequence.  Wh}'  this  difference  between  the 
strawberries  of  this  country  and  England.''  It  cannot  be  over  luxuriance  of  growth,  as  in 
England  they  receive  the  very  highest  cultivation;  we  must  look  for  another  cause,  which 
I  suspect  we  shall  find  in  the  climate.  Upon  this  point,  the  following  excellent  remarks 
from  Dr.  LiNDLEy,  will  not  be  out  of  place: 

"  Those  who  would  understand  the  philosophy  of  strawberry  forcing,  should  begin  at 
the  beginning,  and  first  determine  what  it  is  they  have  to  deal  with.  This  can  only  be  as- 
certained by  examining  the  young  flower  buds  as  they  exist  in  the  plant,  when  it  makes 
its  first  move  towards  growth.  At  that  time  they  are  collections  of  tiny  scales,  placed 
over  a  small  spongy  center.  By  degrees  they  take  on  the  forms  of  calyx,  corolla,  stamens, 
and  pistil.  They  form  successively  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  named,  the  calyx  first, 
the  pistil  last.  The  calyx  and  corolla  are  the  most  simple,  grow  the  quickest,  and  most 
easily  bear  to  be  hastened;  stamens  require  more  time  for  growth;  the  pistil  most  of  all. 
When  high  temperature  night  and  day,  with  abundance  of  moisture,  and  as  much  light  as 
February  yields,  are  suddenly  applied  to  the  strawberry,  it  is  compelled  to  grow,  the  pre- 
determined parts  advance,  and,  obedient  to  the  influences  which  their  nature  cannot  disre- 
gard, the}'  by  degrees  unfold;  but  how.^  The  oldest  parts,  namel}',  the  calyx  and  corolla, 
simple  in  their  structure,  and  already  advanced  in  their  formation,  suffer  no  injur}"^,  but 
appear  in  their  usual  state,  arraying  the  blossom  in  gaj'  apparel  of  white  and  green.  The 
next,  however,  the  stamens,  having  less  time  to  form,  acquire  perhaps  their  yellow  color, 
are  powerless  for  their  allotted  office;  while  the  pistil,  the  most  complicated  of 
that  which  demands  the  longest  period  for  its  perfect  formation,  but  which 


EUROPEAN  STRAWBERRIES. 

latest  that  the  flower  produces,  and  which  is  to  hecome  the  fruit,  is  a  mere  tuft  of  abor 
tions,  incapable  of  quickening,  and  shrivelling  into  pitch-black  threads  as  soon  as  it  is  fully 
in  contact  with  the  air."  How  true  is  every  word  of  this!  I  have,  myself,  on  many  oc- 
casions, seen  strawberries  of  the  most  productive  kinds,  grown  in  pots,  and  well  estab- 
lished, on  being  introduced  too  suddenly  into  heat  early  in  spring,  say  from  the  middle 
of  January  to  the  end  of  Februar}^  become  so  sterile,  that  on  a  couple  of  hundred  of  pots 
there  could  not  have  been  gathered  a  dozen  of  strawberries;  the  reader  must  bear  in  mind 
that  at  that  period  of  the  year  in  England,  there  is  very  little  sun-light,  and  when  this  is 
added  to  heat,  with  proportionate  moisture,  and  little  air,  the  cultivator  has  a  magnificent 
crop  of  sterile  strawberry  blooms !  Let  plants  of  the  same  growth  and  variety  be  put  into 
the  forcing  house  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  March,  keep  them  near  the  glass,  with 
a  low  temperature  to  start  with,  and  abundance  of  air — as  the  spring  is  now  advancing, 
even  in  that  dull  atmosphere,  there  is  a  little  more  sun-light — a  large  crop  of  fine  fruit  will 
be  the  reward  of  such  judicious  treatment.  Again,  the  same  variety  grown  in  the  open 
air  in  that  country,  will  produce  a  splendid  crop.  This  experience,  however,  only  bears 
out  the  sensible  and  philosophic  remarks  of  Dr.  Lindley,  and  which,  to  my  mind,  is  con- 
clusive as  to  the  cause  of  sterility  in  strawberries — namely,  climate.  Strawberries  in  Eng- 
land, we  will  suppose,  are  in  the  fall,  strong  and  well  established,  having  well  formed  and 
well  ripened  crowns;  winter  sets  in,  but  it  is  mild  in  comparison  with  its  American  coun- 
terpart; no  protection  is  required  by  the  plants,  their  foliage  is  scarcely  injured;  they  re- 
main generally  torpid  until  about  the  middle  of  February;  the  days  are  beginning  to 
lengthen,  and  occasionally  there  is  a  little  sun;  the  plant,  obedient  to  the  call  of  nature, 
moves  a  trifle,  though  but  a  trifle,  up  to  the  beginning  of  March;  all  through  March  the 
same  proceeds  slowly ;  April  generally  comes  in  warmer,  with  refreshing  showers,  and 
-from  the  tliird  week  in  this  month,  until  about  the  end  of  the  first  week  in  May,  may  be 
considered  their  blooming  season.  May  is  generally  a  fine  month,  but  not  so  warm  as  an 
American  one,  the  thermometer  ranging  from  50°  to  60''  in  the  shade  by  day,  and  sinking 
at  night  as  low  as  40°  to  45^;  of  course,  I  now  speak  generally.  I  have  known  sharp 
white  frosts  as  late  as  the  13th  and  14th  of  the  month,  and  proportionably  cold  by  day — 
by  the  end  of  May  the.  early  varieties  will  be  ripening.  By  taking  a  retrospective  glance, 
it  will  be  seen  that  in  England  their  season  of  growth  is  long,  moderately  cool,  though 
never  very  cold  at  night — moderately  warm  by  day,  the  strawberries  having  time  to  form 
the  various  parts  of  fructification  so  well  described  by  Dr.  Lindlet. 

Turning  to  the  American  seasons,  what  shall  we  find?  A  long,  severe  winter,  during 
which  time  our  strawberries  are  reposing  beneath  a  covering  of  litter  and  snow — so  far  so 
well;  spring  sets  in  suddenly  warm,  and,  it  may  be,  dry,  and  strawberries  which  were 
so  dormant  but  a  short  time  before,  are  quickly  in  foliage  and  flower,  producing  stami- 
nates  in  abundance,  and  caused  by  what?  the  sudden  transition  from  cold  to  heat,  as  in 
the  instance  of  the  forced  strawberry  plants,  and  were  it  not  for  the  bright  light  and  sun, 
the  crop  would  be  as  scanty  as  in  an  Engli.sh  forcing-house,  in  Dr.  Lindlet 's  words — "  the 
oldest  parts,  namely  the  calyx  and  corolla,  simple  in  their  structure  and  already  ad- 
vanced in  their  formation,  suffer  no  injury."  "The  stamens,  having  less  time  to  form, 
acquire  perhaps  their  yellow  color,  but  are  powerless  for  their  allotted  ofiice;  while  the 
pistil,  the  most  complicated  of  all  the  parts,  that  which  demands  the  largest  period  for  its 
perfect  formation,  but  which  is  the  latest  that  the  flower  produces,  and  which  is  to  be- 
come the  fruit,  is  a  mere  tuft  of  abortions,  incapable  of  quickening,  and  shrivelling  into 
pitch-black  threads  as  soon  as  it  is  fully  in  contact  with  the  air."  Has  not  soil,  local 
or  season  much  to  do   with  the  character   which  a  strawberry   assumes?     I  thinli 


EUROPEAN  STRAWBERRIES. 

and  in  support  of  this,  I  may  name  Myatt's  British  Queen,  Deptford  Pine  and  others, 
which  in  England  are  hermaphrodites;  in  this  climate  they  become  staminates.  Again  I 
shall  suppose  A,  raises  a  good  seedling  which  he  sells  out  as  a  perfect  or  hermaphrodite 
bloomer,  whichever  it  may  be — B  purchases,  but,  to  his  great  disappointment,  finds 
his  plants  principally  to  consist  of  staminates;  he  now  accuses  A  of  having  deceived  him  as 
to  the  real  character  of  the  strawberry;  when  the  error  lays  with  himself  in  planting  in 
too  quick  or  warm  a  soil  or  situation,  where  the  sudden  transition  from  the  cold  of  winter 
to  the  heat  of  spring  is  as  sudden  as   it  is   warm,  and  hence  the  cause  of  the  change. 

If  soil  and  situation  will  cause  this  change  whether  more  or  less,  may  it  not  to  a  conside- 
rable extent  be  counteracted — will  not  tan-bark,  so  strongly  recommended  by  Mr.  Downing 
as  a  fertilizer,  mulcher,  and  protection  against  cold,  prove  invaluable  as  a  mulchcr  in  early 
spring — the  transition  time  from  winter  to  spring — keeping  the  ground  cool  under  the 
bright  beams  of  a  burning  sun,  allowing  the  plants  to  progress  more  slowly  and  surely  in 
the  formation  of  the  various  parts  of  fructification.  Many  other  ways  equally  effectual 
in  attaining  this  desirable  end,  will  suggest  themselves  to  the  practical  and  scientific  cul- 
tivator. 

With  this  preliminary  I  proceed  to  my  practical  notes  on  the  leading  European  varie- 
ties: 

1.  jihc.rdecn  Beehive. — This  variety  was  sent  out  some  two  or  three  years  back  by  a 
nurseryman  near  Aberdeen,  as  an  extraordinary  new  strawberry,  for  which  he  modestly 
charged  about  37^  cents,  a  plant;  ten  plants  came  into  my  hands  direct  from  this  worthy 
man,  through  the  post.  I  had  them  planted  in  a  well  prepared  piece  of  ground,  expecting 
with  the  returning  season  to  have  my  eyes  dazzled  and  palate  pleased,  with  the  size,  beau- 
ty, and  flavor  of  this  redoubtable  variet}^.  Imagine  my  surprise,  when  instead  of  some- 
thing new  and  magnificent,  I  had  the  "  old  Grove-end  Scarlet,"  for  such  it  proved  to  be! 
Some  may  suppose  there  had  been  an  error  here,  but  there  M'as  nothing  of  the  sort;  every 
purchaser  fared  alike— all  were  deceived — they  paid  high  for  the  "  Old  Grove-end  Scarlet." 

2.  Black  Prince,  (  CathiWs.) — Sent  out  by  Cuthill  of  Camberwell,  London,  three 
years  ago;  he  described  it  as  "a  fruit  of  medium  size,  very  dark  colored,  well  flavoied, 
and  a  first-rate  sort  for  preserving."  Other  growers  in  England  considered  it  as  too  acid; 
after  growing  it  two  years  and  giving  it  a  fair  trial,  I  have  come  to  the  following  conclu- 
sions: 1st.  It  is  the  earliest  of  all  strawberries.  2d.  It  is  a  prodigious  bearer.  3d.  If 
divested  of  its  bloom  in  spring,  it  will  bear  a  pretty  good  crop  in  the  autumn.  4th.  Fruit 
of  medium  size,  long  conical,  dark  colored;  flavor,  in  dull,  cloudy,  or  wet  weather,  very 
acid,  but  in  hot  dry  weather,  middling.  5th.  It  is  an  admirable  forcer,  bearing  abundant 
crops  in  pots.  This  variety  deserves  a  trial  in  this  country,  it  being  very  early  and  pro- 
ductive; the  bright  light  and  heat  of  this  fine  climate  may  improve  its  flavor.  This  is  not 
the  old  Black  Prince  of  the  American  nurseries,  highly  spoken  of  in  Mr.  Downinf's 
Fruits,  as  a  variety  of  first  rate  quality;  the  latter  variety  was  sent  out  from  England 
or  at  least  one  under  this  name,  about  12  years  ago,  but  it  is  now  nearly,  if  not  quite  gone 
out  of  cultivation  there,  (England.)  If  my  memory  is  correct  it  was  a  fruit  of  good  size, 
round  and  verjj^  dark  color;  high  flavor. 

3.  Carolina,  Bath  Scarlet  or  Old  Pine. — Of  late  this  fine  old  fruit  is  not  much  cul- 
tivated in  England,  British  Queen  and  similar  varieties  having  displaced  it;  still  there  are 
those  who  will  not  discard  their  old  favorite;  it  is  of  the  richest  flavor,  a  moderate  bearer, 
and  requires  the  best  of  culture. 

Coles'  Prolific— RMSQdi  by  Coles  of  Wellow,  near  Bath,  England.     It  is   "in  the 
of  Keen's  Seedling  and  Princess  Alice  Maud,  most  probably  raised  from  this  paren- 


EUROPEAN  STRAWBERRIES. 

tage;  color  deeper  than  that  of  the  latter  named  variety;   largest  size,  conical,  and  high 
flavor. 

5.  Coal's  Late  Scarlzt. — This  variety  has  been  out  some  years.  Fruit  of  medium  size, 
deep  colored;  flavor  good;  a  moderate  bearer;  may  be  called  a  second  class  variety. 

6.  Cox's  Seedling. — Raised  from  the  Elton  Pine,  but  not  as  good  as  that  fine  variety. 
Fruit  large,  light-red,  very  irregular  in  shape;  flavor  pretty  good,  though  a  little  acid; 
good  bearer  and  very  late;  this  variety  so  closely  resembles  the  Elton,  that  it  is  not  worth 
cultivating  where  that  can  be  had. 

7.  Downton. — One  of  Mr.  Knight's  seedlings,  a  very  high  flavored  strawberry.  Fruit 
medium  size,  very  dark  colored,  ovate;  a  moderate  bearer,  which  of  late  has  caused  it  to 
be  rather  neglected  in  England. 

8.  Duncan's  Seedling. — This  variety  was  raised  from  Keen's  Seedling,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Bristol,  England.  Like  that  excellent  variety,  it  is  of  first  rate  flavor,  large 
size,  dark  color  and  good  bearer;  it  is  considerably  cultivated  in  that  locality. 

9.  Elton  Pine. — In  England  this  is  considered  their  finest  late  strawberry.  Fruit  of 
the  largest  size,  light  red  color,  high  flavor,  but  a  little  inclined  to  be  acid;  ovate,  and  occa- 
sionally cockscomb  shaped.  There  is  no  variety  so  extensively  grown  as  this  in  England, 
for  a  late  crop;  to  its  other  good  qualities,  it  adds  that  of  a  good  bearer. 

10.  Giant  Jllpine. — Raised  from  seed  by  Mr.  Saunders,  Tedworth,  England,  from  the 
old  Alpine,  crossed  evidently  by  one  of  the  Pines;  a  person  unacquainted  with  its  origin 
would  never  suppose  it  had  any  of  the  blood  of  an  Alpine  in  it;  as  in  foliage  and  habit  it 
agrees  with  the  Pines.  From  this  union  we  may  expect  something  fine,  but  in  this  instance 
such  is  not  the  case;  it  neither  possesses  the  fine  flavor  of  the  Pine,  or  peculiar  flavor  of 
the  Alpine,  nor  a  combination  of  both;  in  dull  weather  it  is  tasteless, but  in  warm  weath- 
er and  light  warm  soils,  it  is  rather  better;  indeed  I  have  known  such  circumstances, 
when  the  flavor  may  have  been  considered  good.  It  is  a  prodigious  bearer,  throwing  up 
immense  bunches  of  fruit,  which  are  of  a  fine  rich  lake  color,  globular  and  medium  size. 
I  have  noticed  this  much,  as  it  has  been  recently  sold  in  England  at  a  high  price. 

11.  Goliath,  (^Kitley's.') — This  strawberry  was  brought  into  notice  two  or  three  years 
since,  by  the  raiser,  Mr.  J.  Kitlet,  Bath,  England.  It  is  a  seedling  from  British  Queen, 
to  all  appearance  crossed  by  Elton  or  Cox's  seedling,  most  probably  the  latter,  as  like  that 
variety,  it  is  very  irregular  in  shape  and  size.  As  it  has  been  extensively  "  puffed  off," 
and  to  my  knowledge,  immense  quantities  disposed  of  at  a  high  price  in  England,  before 
giving  my  opinion  of  its  merits,  I  think  I  ought  to  say  what  opportunities  I  have  had  of 
testing  them.  In  the  summer  of  1849,  (I  quote  from  memory,)  Mr.  Kitley  brought  a  sam- 
ple of  fruit  of  this  variety  to  the  horticultural  establishment  to  which  I  was  then  attached; 
the  fruit  was  of  a  rich  scarlet  color,  of  large  size,  (though  I  had  seen  British  Queens  lar- 
ger,) the  flavor  was  good,  though  to  my  palate  I  had  tasted  better.  A  few  weeks  after 
this,  fifty  strong  plants  were  put  into  my  hands  by  Mr.  Kitley,  which  he  then  stated 
were  the  first  sent  out;  these  I  had  planted  in  a  well  prepared  piece  of  ground — and  a 
good  strawberry  soil — in  the  summer  of  1850  they  bore,  and  the  doubts  which  I  first  en- 
tertained of  this  variety,  were  more  than  confirmed.  Fruit  rich  scarlet  color,  very  irre- 
gular in  shape  and  size,  having  numbers  of  small  and  medium  sized  fruit  with  some  large 
ones;  and  those  that  were  large  were  most  certainly  inferior  in  size  to  a  good  British 
Queen,  and  many  other  large  strawberries;  its  name  is  therefore  a  misnomer;  flavor  de- 
cidedlj'  inferior  to  a  British  Queen,  and  inclined  to  be  acid;  a  pretty  good  bearer.  This 
variety  is  as  tender,  and  will  require  as  much  care  in  culture  as  a  British  Queen — : 
therefore,  not  worth  cultivating  where  that  fine  variety  will  succeed. 


EUROPEAN  STRAWBERRIES. 

12.  Grove  End  Scarlet. — An  old  variety  not  much  cultivated  in  England  of  late.  Fruit 
very  small,  of  a  light  vermillion  color,  globular,  and  early.  Being  an  abundant  bearer 
and  rather  acid,  when  cultivated  in  that  country,  is  generally  used  for  preserving. 

13.  IJautboy,  fertilized,  (^Myatt^s.) — This  is  the  most  prolific  as  well  as  the  largest 
and  finest  of  the  Hautboys;  it  was  raised  by  Myatt  the  great  strawberry  grower, and  should 
be  grown  by  all  who  admire  the  peculiar  and  high  flavor  of  this  cla.ss  of  strawberries. 
Fruit  medium  size,  conical,  deep  purple  in  the  sun,  passing  into  very  light  purple  in  the 
shade,  possessing  that  fine  sweet  flavor  for  which  they  are  noted — a  pretty  good  bearer. 

14.  Hautboy,  Globe. — Differs  from  the  above  in  having  globular  fruit,  of  smaller  size, 
and  less  jjroductive;  consequently  not  worth  cultivating  when  better  varieties  can  be  had. 

15.  Hautboy,  Prolific. — For  a  long  time  considered  the  best  in  this  class,  but  it  must 
now  give  place  to  INIyatt's  Fertilized,  which  is  a  larger  fruit  and  better  bearer;  in  other  re- 
spects they  are  precisely  identical. 

16.  Hooper's  Seedling. — This  variety  was  sent  out  by  Mr.  Mj^att  about  the  same  time 
as  his  Globe,  Mammoth,  &c.,  made  their  appearance.  It  belongs  to  the  same  class  as 
Keen's  Seedling  and  Princess  Alice  Maud,  and  has  the  appearance  of  a  seedling  from  the 
latter,  but  the  fruit  is  more  globular,  darker  in  color  and  later  in  ripening.  Fruit  of  a 
deep  lake  approaching  to  black  when  ripe,  of  high  flavor,  and  excellent  bearer.  Ripening 
however,  as  it  does,  about  the  same  time  as  British  Queen,  Myatt's  Globe,  and  other  cele- 
brated varieties,  it  has  never  been  very  extensively  cultivated. 

17.  Keen's  Seedling. — Perhaps  at  the  present  day  there  is  no  strawberry  more  general- 
ly cultivated  in  England  than  this  fine  old  variety ;  it  is  considered  too  tender  for  this  cli- 
mate, and  it  requires  care  in  its  culture  there.  Fruit  of  large  size,  round,  sometime  cocks- 
comb shaped,  of  a  fine  rich  purplish  crimson,  and  the  highest  flavor,  and  good  bearer  and 
very  early.     For  strawberry  forcing  this  variety  is  indispensable. 

18.  La  Liegoise. — This  variety  is  of  French  origin  and  made  its  appearance  in  England 
about  three  or  four  years  since;  in  appearance  it  is  nearer  allied  to  the  Roseberry  than  any 
variety  I  know.  Fruit  medium  size,  of  bright  scarlet  color,  good  flavor,  very  prolific,  and 
one  of  the  earliest.  These  qualities  should  recommend  it  to  cultivation,  and  it  is  worthy 
of  a  trial  in  this  country. 

19.  3fyatt's  British  Queen. — Tn  my  remarks  on  Keen's  Seedling,  I  noticed  its  exten- 
sive cultivation  in  England,  and  coequal  with  it  is  the  culture  of  this  superb  variety.  Dif- 
ficult it  would  be  to  find  a  garden  in  England  in  which  strawberries  are  cultivated  that 
has  not  this  splendid  sort.  There  never  has  been  a  variety  originated  in  Britain  equal  to 
this.  Fruit  of  the  largest  size,  roundish  and  slightly  conical,  rich  scarlet  color,  and  the 
highest  flavor,  ripens  about  medium-season,  and  an  excellent  bearer.  It  is  also  an  ad- 
mirable forcing  variety.  For  its  successful  culture  it  requires  a  deep  loamy  soil  well  en- 
riched; in  this  climate  it  should  be  well  protected — I  have  seen  great  quantities  of  it  killed 
by  cold  and  wet  in  the  comparatively  mild  climate  of  England. 

20.  Myatt's  Deptford  Pine. — This  variety  after  several  years  culture,  I  consider  worth- 
less. It  is  much  hardier  than  British  Queen.  Fruit  light  scarlet,  medium  size,  ovate,  a 
good  bearer,  but  very  acid,  ripens  at  mid-season.  Can  this  be  the  same  as  what  is  highly 
spoken  of  by  excellent  cultivators?     The  plants  under  my  cultivation  came  direct  from 

MXATT. 

21.  Myatt's  Eleanor. — The  fruit  of  this  variety  is  of  monstrous  size,  and  looks  like  a 
cross  between  Mammoth  and  British  Queen ;  if  not  raised  from  this  source  it   may  have 

from  the  same  parent  on  one  side  as  Mammoth,  bringing  more  of  the  Pine  flavor 
the  other  parent.     Persons  acquainted  with  the  Chili  strawberry  may  observe  con- 
No.  XII. 


EUROPEAN   STRAWBERRIES. 


siderable  traces  of  it  in  this  variety,  blended,  however,  very  much  with  the  color,  shape, 
and  flavor  of  the  Pine;  it  is  the  best  attempt  I  know  to  combine  immense  size  with  flavor. 
Fruit  very  large,  crimson  scarlet,  medium  season,  an  excellent  cropper;  in  dull  weather 
this  vaiiety  becomes  very  acid,  but  in  clear  warm  sunny  weather  it  is  of  first  rate  flavor. 
In  this  fine  climate  this  strawberry  should  have  a  trial. 

22.  Myatt's  Eliza. — Sent  out  about  the  same  time  as  British  Queen,  but  at  present 
little  grown  in  England,  being  very  much  inferior  to  the  latter  in  productiveness,  size  and 
flavor.  Can  the  variety  so  highly  praised  by  Dr.  Hull  under  this  name  be  correct?  Fruit 
little  more  than  medium  size,  ovate,  deep  scarlet  color,  ripens  at  mid-season,  a  middlin"- 
bearer,  and  most  certainly  inferior  to  the  Queen  in  flavor. 

23.  MyatVs  Globe. — If  British  Queen  has  a  rival  in  England,  this  is  the  one;  and  after 
that  variety  this  is  the  best  of  Mr.  Myatt's  Seedlings.  In  foliage,  size,  color  and  flavor, 
it  resembles  the  Queen,  and  most  probably  is  a  seedling  from  it.  Fruit  of  the  largest  size, 
globular — though  slightly  elongated — very  regular  in  shape  and  size,  a  good  bearer,  and 
no  strawberry  can  excel  it  in  flavor.  Here  again  is  a  variety  which  should  have  a  liberal 
trial. 

24.  MyaWs  Mammoth. — This  variety  is  useless  save  for  seeding;  crossed  with  some  of 
the  higher  flavored  fruits  the  progeny  may  be  good,  as  flavor  would  be  united  to  size.  In 
this  is  a  great  portion  of  the  Chili  blood,  which  should  be  mixed  with  the  richest  Pine. 
Fruit  the  largest  of  all,  roundish,  crimson  in  the  sun,  in  the  shade  nearly  white,  flavor 
bad,  nearly  tasteless,  a  shy  bearer. 

25.  3IyaWs  Prince  Gilbert. — Made  its  appearance  about  the  same  time  as  British 
Queen;  at  present  it  is  not  much  cultivated  in  England,  ripening  as  it  does,  when  most 
strawberries  are  in  season,  and  second  to  many  in  size  and  flavor.  Fruit  medium  size, 
conical,  color  a  purplish  crimson,  flavor  pretty  good  though  not  equal  to  a  British  Queen; 
this  is  exceedingly  prolific — I  was  about  to  say  the  most  prolific  of  strawberries. 

26.  MyaWs  Pine. — This  delicious  old  fruit  is  now  little  cultivated  from  its  great  shy- 
ness in  producing  fruit,  other  more  productive  sorts  having  driven  it  out  of  culture.  Fruit 
large,  bright  scarlet  and  the  highest  flavor. 

27.  MyatVs  Prolific. — Very  much  in  the  way  of  Prince  Albert,  maturing  its  fruit 
about  the  same  time,  but  of  better  flavor.  Fruit  medium  size,  deep  crimson  scarlet,  coni- 
cal, rich  flavor,  and  a  prodigious  bearer. 

28.  Princess  jflice  Maud. — Raised  from  Keen's  Seedling  by  Mr.  Trollope  of  Bath, 
England;  throughout  that  country  it  has  been  extensively  disseminated  and  cultivated, 
yet  in  no  part  has  it  proved  as  fine  as  in  its  native  locality,  Bath;  here,  however,  there  is 
naturally  a  good  strawberry  soil — a  deep  rich  loam — where  nearly  all  varieties  acquire 
the  greatest  perfection.  It  is  much  hardier  than  Keen's  Seedling,  and  a  better  cropper, 
though  scarcel}'  as  good  in  flavor.  Fruit  large,  round,  purplish  crimson,  very  productive, 
good  flavor  and  early. 

29.  Red  Jllpine. — This  very  old  European  strawberry,  is  of  extremely  easy  culture, 
not  being  particular  as  to  soil  or  locality,  and  invariably  productive.  They  are  best  rais- 
ed from  seeds,  which,  if  sown  early  in  spring,  in  pans,  placed  in  a  little  heat  to  forward 
them,  pricking  ofT  into  other  pans  when  large  enough,  and  finally  into  beds  in  the  open 
air,  when  of  sufiicient  size,  by  autumn  they  will  give  a  good  crop,  and  the  following  sea- 
son bear  plentifullj^  They  should  be  renewed  in  this  way  frequently.  Fruit  small,  co- 
nical, bright  scarlet,  with  peculiar  delicate  flavor. 

0.    White  Alpine. — Requires  the  same  treatment,  and  is  in  every  respect  similar 
red,  save  color,  which  is  white. 


EUROPEAN  STRAWBERRIES. 

31.  Rostock. — An  old  fruit  of  the  Pine  class,  not  much  cultivated  of  late.  Fruit  large, 
round,  white;  middling  flavor  and  good  bearer.  The  color  of  its  fruit  appears  to  have 
been  its  chief  recommendation. 

32.  Roseherry. — A  pretty  scarlet  variety,  of  medium  size,  and  very  productive.  Fruit 
ovate;  flavor  middling;  early.  Not  now  much  cultivated,  larger  and  better  flavored  fruit 
having  displaced  it. 

33.  Swainstone  Seedling. — Originated  by  the  gardener  at  Swainston,  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  from  Keen's  Seedling.  In  England,  of  late,  its  reputation  is  on  the  decline.  An 
uncertain  bearer.     Fruit  large,  ovate,  light  crimson,  and  fine  flavor. 

34.  Wilmot's  Superb. — This  was  one  of  the  first  attempts  made  to  improve  the  Chili, 
and  when  it  made  its  appearance  cau.sed  considerable  sensation  among  strawberry  growers; 
it  was,  however,  soon  found  to  be  a  very  poor  flavor,  and  shy  bearer,  when  it  soon  became 
neglected.  Fruit  of  the  largest  size,  round,  though  much  inclined  to  become  cockscomb- 
shaped;  deep  scarlet  color,  and  ripens  about  mid-summer. 

35.  Wilmot's  New  Scarlet. — Like  the  preceding,  not  much  cultivated  of  late;  from  its 
being  a  poor  bearer,  and  second  in  flavor  to  many  others.  Fruit  large,  oval,  bright  scar- 
let.    Medium  season. 

Dr.  Hull  has,  in  a  former  No.  of  this  Journal,  noticed  a  fruit  called  Victoria;  the  name 
leads  me  to  suppose  it  to  be  English,  but  I  know  of  no  fruit  under  tliat  name.  British 
Queen  has  been  sometimes  sold  as  such.  This  present  time  a  variety  is  advertised  by  an 
English  grower,  under  this  name.  If  Dr.  Hull's  fruit  is  English,  I  have  not  the  least 
doubt,  but  that  it  is  a  synonym. 

In  1850  three  new  strawberries,  or  rather  two  new  and  one  old,  made  their  appearance, 
namely:  Myatt's  Surprise,  Wilmot's  Prince  Arthur,  and  La  Delicious;  the  two  first  are 
seedlings,  and  may  prove  useful,  but  the  last  named  is  an  old  variety  brought  into  notice 
under  a  new  name;  the  parties  who  paid  their  $15  per  hundred,  can  by  now  say  in  what 
its  superior  merits  consist. 

It  has  very  frequently  become  my  duty  to  recommend  varieties  to  growers ;  my  advice 
invariably  was  cultivate  hwifnv  varieties;  for  a  small  garden  three  sorts  are  ample,  name- 
ly. Keen's  Seedling,  British  Queen  and  Elton;  if  there  is  plenty  of  room,  and  more  vari- 
ety is  desirable,  add  Cuthill's  Black  Prince,  Princess  Alice  Maud,  and  Myatt's  Globe, 
which  will  be  sufficient  for  the  largest  garden.  This  was,  of  course,  for  an  English  soil 
and  climate,  and  for  such  there  cannot  be  better  than  those  which  I  have  named.  In  this 
country  Keen's  Seedling  and  others  may  not  succeed,  yet  among  the  remainder  something 
valuable  may  be  found. 

To  give  any  cultural  remarks  on  strawberries,  may  appear  a  work  of  supererogation  in 
this  country,  where  this  fruit  is  grown  to  such  an  unlimited  extent;  yet  a  word  or  two  on 
the  English  mode  of  culture  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

The  soil  best  suited  for  this  fruit  is  a  good  firm  loam,  though  not  of  too  adhesive  a  na- 
ture, which  should  be  trenched  from  2\  to  3  feet  in  depth,  using  plenty  of  good  rotten 
dung.  Early  in  June" — or  as  soon  as  the  runners  are  of  sufficient  strength — select  good 
strong  runners  with  fine  bold  crowns,  and  plant  them  out  in  rows  one  foot  a  part  in  the 
row,  the  weaker  grown  varieties  two  feet  from  row  to  row,  and  the  strongest  growers 
three  feet.  Some  growers  still  plant  in  beds,  but  in  general  the  best  cultivators  have 
abandoned  that  practice  and  experience  tells  me  it  is  not  a  good  one.  After  planting  they 
should  receive  frequent  waterings  until  they  are  thoroughly  established,  when  attention 
must  be  given  to  keep  the  ground  hoed  and  clean  from  weeds  though  the  summer  and 
*  We  prefer  making  new  beds  of  strawberries  in  April — with  the  runners  of  the  previous  season.    Ed 


EUROPEAN  STRAAVBERRIES. 

turan.  (In  this  climate  many  delicate  varieties  will  require  protection  in  winter.)  The 
following  summer  will  bring  an  abundant  crop.  While  progressing  in  growth  in  spring, 
keep  clean  from  weeds,  and  should  the  weather  prove  dry,  when  in  bloom  and  swelling 
the  fruit,  water  copiously — this  should  not  be  scantily,  but  when  done  well  soak  the 
ground — a  fewgoodsoakingsof  liquid  manure  at  this  season  is  of  immense  value;  all  this 
should,  however,  be  withheld  as  soon  as  the  fruit  approaches  maturity,  as  a  deterioration 
in  its  flavor  would  be  the  consequence  if  persisted  in.  When  the  crop  is  over,  if  large  size 
and  first  quality  is  wanting  for  the  next  season,  divest  the  plants  of  all  runners  as  they 
appear;  but  if  quantity,  not  size,  is  desirable,  let  all  runners  occupy  the  ground  between 
the  rows;  keep  clear  of  weeds  through  the  summer,  and  in  the  autumn  give  a  rich  top- 
dressing  of  good  dung;  through  winter  and  following  spring,  let  the  routine  be  as  in  the 
the  first  season;  when  the  fruit  now  approaches  maturity,  a  magnificent  crop  will  repay 
the  assiduous  cultivator.  When  the  second  crop  is  over,  the  best  growers  destroy  the  lot, 
having  a  fresh  one  coming  on  to  take  its  place.  They  will,  however,  bear  a  third  season 
pretty  well,  after  which  they  should  invariably  be  destroyed.  Strawberries  will  succeed 
in  different  soils  and  under  other  circumstances,  but  if  the  directions  I  have  given  are  lite- 
rally followed,  success  is  certain. 

In  the  present  day,  this  fruit  is  forced  to  a  very  great  extent,  and  with  what  success  will 
be  better  imagined,  when  I  say  I  have  seen  fruit  of  Keen's  Seedling,  British  Queen  and 
others,  as  large,  if  not  larger,  as  high  colored  and  rich  flavored,  out  of  the  forcing  house, 
as  ever  I  have  seen  grown  in  the  open  air,  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances.  Pro- 
ceed in  this  way ;  in  June  or  sooner,  if  the  runners  are  strong  enough,  take  your  pots  (about 
three  inches  in  diameter,)  to  the  strawberry  bed,  with  some  rich  light  mold;  into  those 
lay  your  strongest  runners,  one  in  a  pot,  see  that  they  have  round,  bold,  well  formed 
crowns — as  they  bloom  better  than  the  long  pointed  ones;  as  soon  as  they  have  rooted 
firmly  in  the  pots  cut  them  off,  and  shift  into  pots  eight  or  nine  inches  in  diameter,  in  good 
turfy  loam,  mixed  with  about  one-third  rotten  dung;  in  the  bottoms  of  the  pots  put  a 
handful  of  soot;  when  potted  let  them  be  stood  in  an  open  airy  situation,  but  not  plunged, 
as  they  fill  their  pots  with  roots  much  better  when  the  air  circulates  about  the  pots;  (in 
this  climate,  under  the  intense  heat  of  a  burning  sun,  they  had  better  be  placed  in  a  shady 
situation,  but  not  under  the  drip  of  trees.)  Water  occasionally  with  liquid  manure,  to 
get  them  strong  and  well  rooted,  as  on  this  will  after  success  depend.  As  September  and 
October  approach,  gradually  withhold  the  water,  and  let  them  sink  into  a  dormant  state. 
About  the  middle  of  the  latter  month  the  plants  should  be  stowed  away  in  the  following 
manner.  Mark  out  a  piece  of  ground  about  thirty  inches  broad,  and  of  any  given  length; 
then  lay  a  row  of  pots  down  each  side,  the  plants  outwards  and  the  bottoms  of  the  pots 
towards  the  center;  the  space  between  the  pots  should  be  filled  with  old  tan,  sand  or  any 
similar  material,  raising  it  a  little  above  the  level  of  the  pots;  on  this  place  another  row, 
keeping  the  rims  of  these  within  the  rims  of  the  bottom  rows;  fill  with  old  tan,  as  in  the 
first  case;  proceed  in  this  way  until  there  are  five  or  six  rows  of  pots  on  each  side,  when 
it  presents  the  appearance  of  a  ridge;  the  top  is  thatched  or  covered  with  litter,  to  throw 
off  rain  and  keep  the  roots  and  plants  dry  and  healthy.  In  frosty  weather  dry  litter 
should  be  thrown  over  the  plants  to  prevent  them  becoming  frozen,  (still  more  necessary 
here.)  They  are  also  more  easy  of  access,  and  can  be  removed  into  the  forcing-house  at 
any  time.  Many  large  growers  introduce  their  first  batch  of  plants  into  the  forcing-house 
the  middle  of  November,  which  is  followed  by  others  every  fortnight  up  to  the  end  of 
April.  But  for  more  moderate  growers  the  beginning  of  January  will  be  soon  enou 
commence;  on  their  first  introduction  keep  them  cool,  near  the  glass,  plenty  of  air, 


THE  GASES  PLANTS  FEED  UPON. 

moist  atmosphere,  until  the  plants  are  in  flower,  when  it  should  be  dry;  at  this  stage  the 
heat  by  night  should  never  be  more  than  50'';  pass  the  hand  gently  over  the  trusses  of 
bloom,  to  assist  in  the  diffusion  of  the  pollen.  After  the  fruit  is  set,  the  heat  may  be  rais- 
ed from  G0°  to  70'';  water  every  alternate  watering  with  liquid  manure,  while  in  bloora, 
and  the  fruit  swelling;  when  in  bloom  all  the  small  flowers  should  be  picked  off  to  about 
six  to  a  truss,  and  when  fairly  set  these  should  be  reduced  to  three  or  four,  which  will 
be  sufficient  to  a  truss;  syringe  them  frequently,  except  when  in  flower;  when  the  least 
sign  of  green  fly  is  perceptible,  fumigate;  as  the  fruit  approaches  maturity  discontinue 
water;  keep  a  dry  atmosphere,  with  as  much  sun-light  and  air  as  possible,  to  enhance 
flavor.  Cuthill's  Black  Prince,  Keen's  Seedling,  and  British  Queen,  are  about  the  best  for 
this  purpose.  J.  S. 

Washington,  Nov.  2,  1851, 

■*-*-¥ 

THE  GASES  PLANTS  FEED  UPON. 

BY  DR.  LINDLEY. 

Plants  play  a  very  important  part  in  the  economy  of  the  creation;  for,  independent 
of  their  relation  to  animals  as  the  real  source  of  all  food,  they  are  essential  to  the  purity 
of  the  air.  We  are  told  by  chemists,  that  the  composition  of  the  atmosphere  is  quite  con- 
stant and  uniform;  that  air,  from  whatever  place  it  is  collected,  is  always  found  to  con- 
sist of  the  same  proportions  of  oxygen  and  nitrogen  and  carbonic  acid.  This  fact  has 
now  been  established  by  a  number  of  careful  experiments,  made  by  different  observers,  in 
various  parts  of  the  globe,  and  extending  over  a  considerable  period  of  time,  so  that  it 
may  in  fact  be  considered  as  proved,  not  only  that  the  composition  of  the  air  is  uniform 
throughout,  but  also  that  it  does  not  undergo  any  appreciable  variation  in  nature  from 
year  to  year.  There  is  certainly  something  very  wonderful  in  this,  and  indeed  it  seems 
difficult  to  understand  how  it  really  can  be  the  case,  when  we  observe  the  great  chemical 
changes  which  are  at  all  times  going  on  in  the  atmosphere,  and  the  enormous  quantities 
of  certain  substances  which  are  constantly  being  poured  into  it  in  various  ways.  Night 
and  day  all  living  animals  are  consuming  the  oxygen  of  the  air,  converting  it  into  carbonic 
acid,  and  the  same  effect  is  also  constantly  being  produced  all  over  the  earth,  by  fires, 
furnaces,  lamps,  candles,  and  in  short  by  combustion  in  all  its  forms.  Decay,  putrefac- 
tion, and  fermentation,  are  also  giving  rise  to  the  evolution  of  carbonic  acid;  and  lastly, 
besides  all  these  sources,  immense  quantities  of  the  gas  in  question  are  evolved  from  fis- 
sures in  the  earth,  especially  in  what  are  termed  volcanic  districts.  There  are  then,  to  say 
nothing  of  smaller  or  more  local  causes,  at  least  half  a  dozen  great  natural  operations,  all 
tending  to  vitiate  the  air,  diminishing  the  quantity  of  oxygen  which  it  contains,  and  in- 
creasing the  proportion  of  carbonic  acid.  All  these  causes,  we  are  told,  are  exactly 
balanced  and  neutralised  by  the  decomposing  influence  of  plants,  and  the  wonderful  power 
-which  they  have  of  absorbing  the  carbon  of  carbonic  acid.  We  owe  this  remarkable  fact 
to  the  researches  of  Drs.  Priestley  and  Ingenhousz,  extended,  repeated,  and  confirmed 
by  a  host  of  other  observers. 

In  Dr.  Priestley's  first  experiments  on  carbonic  acid  or  fixed  air,  it  is  evident  that  he 
regarded  it  as  highly  poisonous  to  plants;  for  in  the  first  volume  of  his  very  interesting 
Essays  on  Air,  he  says — "  Fixed  air  is  presently  fatal  to  vegetable  life;"  and  he  goes  on 
to  show  that  plants,  in  many  cases,  were  very  soon  killed,  when  exposed  to  the  influence 
of  carbonic  acid  gas,  collected  from  the  fermenting  vat  of  a  brewery:  he  however  observes, 


THE  GASES  PLANTS  FEED  UPON. 

that  he  did  not  repeat  the  experiment  with  pure  carbonic  acid  artificially  prepared,  and 
regrets  that  he  had  not  yet  had  leisure  to  do  so.  These  experiments  were  repeated  and 
extended  by  his  friend  Dr.  Percival,  who  published  an  account  of  his  results  in  Hunter's 
"  Surgical  Essays."  The  conclusion  to  which  he  arrived,  was  just  the  contrary  of  what 
might  have  been  expected  from  Dr.  Priestley's  experiments;  for  he  states,  "  that  fixed 
air  not  only  retards  decay,  but  actually  continues  the  vegetation  of  plants,  and  aftbrds 
them  a  pabulum,  which  is  adequate  to  the  support  of  life  and  vigor  in  them  for  a  consider- 
able length  of  time."  So  satisfied  was  he  of  the  truth  of  this,  and  the  important  in- 
fluence that  the  discovery  would  have  upon  the  art  of  gardening,  that  he  goes  on  to  point 
out  how  the  florist  who  is  anxious  to  obtain  a  prize  at  some  great  meeting  held  for  the  en- 
couragement of  horticulture,  might  perhaps  avail  himself  of  the  powers  of  "fixed  air," 
either  to  quicken  the  growth  of  his  plant  if  still  immature,  or  to  preserve  it  in  all  its 
beauty,  and  retards  its  decay  if  fully  developed;  and  he  accordingly  gives  several  direc- 
tions to  gardeners  who  are  willing  to  try  the  efiect  of  carbonic  acid  gas  on  their  flowers. 
Some  years  before  this  time,  hov/ever.  Dr.  Priestley  had  observed  that  plants  grew  well 
in  air  which  had  been  vitiated  by  the  breathing  of  animals,  and  that  they  soon  restored 
such  air  to  its  original  state  of  purity;  it  seems  that  he  did  not  at  tha,t  time  very  distinct- 
ly connect  the  two  phenomena  together,  for  it  was  not  till  after  Dr.  Percival's  experi- 
ments had  been  published,  and  after  Ingenhousz  had  promulgated  his  views  upon  the 
subject,  that  carbonic  acid  began  to  be  regarded  as  essential  to  the  growth  of  plants.  It 
is  not  easy  now,  neither  in  fact  is  it  very  important,  to  decide  exactly  what  degree  of  merit 
belongs  to  each  of  these  three  philosophers.  The  experiments  of  Ingenhousz  were  the 
most  numerous  and  minute,  and  his  views  were  the  most  strongly  criticised  by  contem 
porary  naturalists;  at  the  same  time  he  distinctly  states  that  his  experiments  arose  out 
of  those  of  Dr.  Priestley. 

The  circumstance  Avhich  prevented  many  observers  from  believing  in  the  importance  of 
carbonic  acid  to  plants,  arose  from  the  fact,  that  as  in  nature  they  are  only  supplied  with 
it  very  gradually,  and  in  small  quantities,  and  as  their  organs  are  only  fitted  to  absorb  it 
when  largely  diluted  with  common  air,  so  when  placed  in  an  atmosphere  containing  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  this  gas,  they  are  alwaj'^s  more  or  less  injured;  and  it  was  difiicult 
to  understand  how,  if  carbonic  acid  in  small  quantities  was  food  and  nourishment,  that  in 
rather  large  quantities  it  would  be  hurtful  and  even  poisonous. 

Dr.  Percival's  idea  of  the  probable  value  of  carbonic  acid  as  a  powerful  agent  in  the 
hands  of  a  skillful  gardener,  is  one  which  naturally  leads  to  several  interesting  considera- 
tions, and  it  has  accordingly  produced  a  number  of  curious  experiments,  which,  though 
they  certainly  do  not  justify  his  prediction,  or,  indeed,  give  much  prospect  of  any  really 
important  direct  improvement  in  practical  gardening,  are  nevertheless,  very  curious  and 
interesting.  The  primary  question  of  course  is,  are  plants  always  able  to  absorb  as  much 
carbonic  acid  from  the  air  as  they  require,  and  would  benefit  be  derived  by  increasing  the 
proportion  of  it,  in  the  air  of  a  forcing-house  for  example?  When  Dr.  Priestley  found 
that  pure  carbonic  acid  was  hurtful  to  plants,  he  next  tried  mixtures  of  it  with  common 
air,  and  he  found  that  even  one-eighth  of  it  rendered  the  air  poisonous.  Ingenhousz, 
after  a  great  number  of  experiments,  and,  though  quite  satisfied  that  plants  really  decom- 
pose carbonic  acid,  speaks  with  great  doubt  of  the  effects  which  it  produces  when  artifi- 
cially added  to  the  air.  He  says,  "  plants  grow  tolerably  well  in  air  to  which  a  small 
quantity  of  carbonic  acid  has  been  added,  especially  if  they  are  exposed  to  the  sunshine; 
sometimes  even  they  seemed  to  grow  all  the  better  for  it;"  but  he  adds,  "  that  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  this  effect  was  really  due  to  the  presence  of  the  carbonic  acid."    A  second,  and  very 


THE  GASES  PLANTS  FEED  UPON. 

remarkable  series  of  experiments  is  described  by  De  Saussure,  the  result  of  which  show 
ed  that  the  addition  of  carbonic  acid,  where  more  than  a  tenth  was  added,  always  did  harm, 
whilst  a  twelfth  produced  a  decidedly  beneficial  effect,  if  the  plants  were  exposed  at  the 
same  time  to  the  inlluence  of  light;  there  are,  however,  unfortunately,  several  interfering 
causes  in  these  experiments,  which  Saussure  overlooked,  and  which  diminish  their  real 
value.  Three  3'ears  since  some  valuable  observations  on  this  subject  were  made  by  Dr. 
Daubent,  who  conducted  a  careful  series  of  experiments,  Avith  the  object  of  ascertaining 
what  proportion  of  carbonic  acid  in  the  air,  healthy  plants  are  able  to  endure,  without  in- 
convenience. The  result  of  his  investigations  proves  that  ten  per  cent  of  carbonic  acid  is 
not  at  all  injurious  to  plants,  and  that  it  is  sometime  before  even  rather  larger  proportions 
of  that  gas  begin  to  produce  bad  effects.  Even  as  much  as  twenty  per  cent  produced  no 
injury  in  ten  days. 

In  all  considerations  of  this  sort,  it  is  obviously  the  best  way  to  commence  by  studying 
the  natural  conditions  of  plants,  before  we  begin  to  place  them  in  new  and  unnatural  cir- 
cumstances. In  nature,  plants  are  supplied  with  an  almost  infinitely  small  quantity  of 
carbonic  acid,  and  the  effect  of  their  growth  is  to  deprive  the  air  which  surrounds  them 
of  that  carbonic  acid,  and  to  replace  it  by  an  equal  volume  of  oxygen. 

The  chief  difficulty  which  exists  in  comprehending  the  true  bearings  of  this  great  fact, 
depends  on  the  enormous  magnitude  of  the  entire  atmosphere,  and  the  almost  infinitely 
large  quantities  which  we  have  to  consider.  It  is  easy  to  form  some  idea  of  the  quantity 
of  carbonic  acid  which  is  produced  in  a  given  time  on  a  square  mile  of  the  earths's  sur- 
face, and  which  the  plants  growing  on  it  consequently  may  be  supposed  to  have  to  decom- 
pose in  the  same  period.  But  it  is  very  difficult  to  form  any  just  idea  of  the  whole  at- 
mosphere, or  to  comprehend  the  relation  which  exists  between  the  bulk  of  the  carbonic 
acid  and  that  of  the  entire  atmosphere.  Large  as  the  former  appears  to  us,  and  enor- 
mous as  its  quantity  is,  when  compared  to  the  largest  tree,  yet  it  is  a  mere  trifle,  a 
thing  of  very  little  account,  when  contrasted  with  the  bulk  of  the  whole  atmosphere. 

If,  for  example,  we  assume,  for  the  mere  purpose  of  comparison,  that  on  an  average 
each  human  being  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  gives  out,  in  the  courseof  twenty -four  hours, 
twenty-four  ounces  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  a  proportion  probably  not  very  far  from  the 
truth,  the  volume  of  the  gas  thus  expired  would  be  about  twelve  and  a  half  cubic  feet; 
and  the  entire  quantity  given  out  during  a  whole  year  at  this  rate,  would  be  4744  cubic 
feet  of  carbonic  acid  gas;  having  a  weight  of  about  547  lbs.,  very  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
ton!  If  then  we  go  a  little  further,  and  calculate  what  would  be  the  bulk  and  weight  of 
the  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  that  would  be  given  out  by  the  entire  population  of  the 
globe,  during  a  whole  year,  assuming  its  number  to  be  600  millions,  and  supposing  that 
every  individual  required  the  same  quantity  of  carbonic  acid,  we  should  then  arrive  at  the 
result  of  very  nearly  three  million  of  millions  of  cubic  feet,  or  316,266  million  cubic  yards 
of  carbonic  acid.  This  quantity  is  so  large  that  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  anj-^  just  idea  of  its 
real  volume,  and  the  consideration  is  not  rendered  much  simpler,  if  we  reduce  it  into 
cubic  miles;  we  then  find  that  it  would  amount  to  about  58  cubic  miles.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  we  calculate  the  weight  of  such  a  quantity  of  carbonic  acid,  we  are  are  nearly  as 
much  bewildered  with  high  numbers,  for  we  find  that  it  amounts  to  326,200  million  pounds, 
or  145  million  tons!  and  this,  be  it  remembered,  is  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the  car- 
bonic acid  which  plants  must  absorb  every  year. 


NOTICE  OF  TWO  LARGE  PLUMS. 


NOTICE  OF  TWO  LAEGE  PLUMS. 

BY  M.  DESPORTES,  ANGERS,  FRANCE. 

1.  English  Pond's  Sf.edling. — When  I  was  in  your  country,  two  years  ago,  I  paid 
a  visit  to  Mr.  Pond's  garden,  at  Cambridgeport,  Boston.  I  showed  him  the  portfolio 
which  contained  the  drawings  of  all  the  fruits  of  our  collection.  He  there  perceived  the 
name  of  "  Pond's  Seedling"  Pluna.  Heat 
once  exclaimed  that  the  drawing  correspond- 
ing to  this  name  was  not  the  genuine  varie- 
ty originated  by  him;  that  his  Pond's  Seed- 
ling is  smaller,  and  rounder,  and  does  not 
in  the  least  resemble  ours.  Now,  as  he  is 
the  originator  of  the  true  Pond's  Seedling, 
I  concluded  that  ours  was  false.  I  was  con- 
firmed in  this  opinion  when  I  read  the  de- 
scription you  give  of  it  in  your  "  Fruits  of 
j^merica,"  page  309.  If  we  have  not  the 
American  Pond's  Seedling,  we  have  the 
English  one,  of  which  the  JRevue  Horticole, 
(our  standard  fruit  gardening  Journal)  has 
given  a  picture  and  description  in  the  num- 
ber of  March  15th,  1847,  page  101.  This 
variety  is  very  different,  as  you  will  observe 
by  the  sketches  in  oil  which  I  send  you 
herewith,  from  the  American  one. 

The  following  is  a  description  of  the  Eng- 
lish Pond's  Seedling,  taken  from  a  fruit 
grown  in  the  nurseries  of  Mr.  Andre  Leroy, 
at  Angers. 

Fruit  oval,  2|  inches  long,  1^  inches  in 
diameter,  slightly  uneven  about  the  middle 

of  the  length;  skin  violaceous  red,  sprink-  English  Pond's  Seedling. 

led  with  many  blue  small  dots  about  the  stalk;  dusted  with  light  gray  about  the  apex; 
deeper  colored  on  the  sunny  side,  and  covered  everywhere  with  a  nice  whitish  blue  bloom; 
stalk  half  an  inch  long,  slender,  set  in  open  cavity ;  a  small  suture  divides  the  fruit  in  two 
parts,  one  of  which  is  more  swollen  than  the  other;  flesh  yellowish,  thick,  juicy,  adher- 
ing to  the  stone,  slightly  acidulous,  very  pleasant.  If  it  is  not  first  rate,  is  a  good  second 
rate. 

This  kind  is  very  fertile,  and  always  a  constant  bearer;  very  profitable  both  as  a  des- 
sert and  a  cooking  one.  It  is  the  largest  and  handsomest  plum  I  know,  not  excepting  the 
fine  Magnum  Bonum.  It  weighs  two  and  a  half  ounces.  It  ripens  from  the  end  of  Au- 
gust to  the  1st  of  September.  Tree  vigorous  grower;  the  young  wood  is  smooth,  gray 
spotted  and  dotted;  leaves  broad,  roundish,  terminated  lanceolate. 

[This  same  plum  is  known  as  Pond's  Seedling  in  England,  (see  Catalogue  of  London 
Horticultural  Society.)     It  has,  no  doubt,  occurred  by  some  error  in  sending  out  the 
riety  from  this  country.     The  question  is,  what  is  the  true  name  of  this  large  plum 


/tr? 


RENOVATING  OLD  ORCHARDS. 


description  of  the  fruit  alone  would  lead  us  to  believe  it  to  be  the  Duane^s  Purple  of  Ame 
rican  nurseries.  The  branches  of  this  tree, 
hoM'ever,  are  gra}',  and  the  young  shoots 
very  downy.  M.  Despoktes  says  gray 
but  smooth.  Still  we  incline  to  the  opin- 
ion that  it  is  Duane's  Purple.  An  impor- 
tation of  the  tree  will  settle  the  question 
speedily.     Ed.] 

2.  Plum  de  l'Inde.  — "We  received 
some  years  ago,  under  the  above  name, 
the  plum  of  which  the  description  follows : 
Tree  vigorous,  with  long  upright  branch- 
es; wood  smooth,  gray  dusted;  leaves 
roundish,  sometimes  lanceolated;  thick 
nerved,  having  two  glands  at  the  base; 
petiole  three-fourths  of  an  inch  long. — 
Fruit  large,  obovate,  larger  about  one- 
third  of  the  length,  uneven;  color  violet 
redish,  dotted  with  some  broad  gray  and 
coarse  spots;  dusted  with  small  gray  and 
blue  dots,  principally  about  the  eye;  co- 
vered with  very  nice  blue  bloom;  suture 
shallow;  skin  thick;  flesh  yellow  redish, 
firm,  juicy,  melting,  sweet,  rather  adher- 
ing to  the  stone.     This  very  handsome 


Plum  de  VInde. 


plum  is  a  good  second  rate  one,  and  well  deserves  an  extensive  cultivation.  It  resembles 
very  much  our  English  Pond's  Seedling,  but  it  differs  from  it  by  its  being  rounder,  and 
ripening  fifteen  days  later,  that  is  to  say,  about  15th  September;  it  is  also  more  red. 

Baptiste  Desportes. 

Angers,  (France,)  Sept.,   1851. 


RENOVATING  OLD  ORCHARDS. 

BY  W.  R.  COPPOCK,  BUFFALO. 

In  a  former  number  of  the  Horticulturist,  T  detailed  some  experiments  in  progress  for 
rejuvenating  an  orchard  of  old  apple  trees,  by  trenching,  special  manuring,  and  cleansing 
the  bark  by  scraping,  washing,  &c.  &c.,  (vide  Horticulturist  for  March  last.)  Another 
season's  growth  has  passed,  and  the  results  having  become  so  apparent  and  decisive,  I 
hasten  to  notice  them,  for  the  benefit  of  others  similarly  possessed. 

These  trees  are  from  twenty  to  twenty- five  years  old,  originally  forming  a  part  of  a 
large  orchard,  now  merely  divided  by  a  division  fence,  the  general  aspect  and  condition 
of  all  being  alike.  They  have  now  had  two  season's  growth  since  my  applications  began, 
and  marvellous  are  the  results. 

Not  deeming  in  the  onset,  the  fruit  in  its  varieties,  of  the  least  possible  value,  being  ex- 
tremely small,  knotty  and  bitter,  at  the  same  time  unrecognisable,  and  aiming  only  to 
make  the  trees  available,  I  grafted  each  season,  about  one-third  of  the  top  with  choice  kinds. 


EXPRESSION  IN  ARCHITECTURE. 

By  these  processes  a  thorough  metamorphosis  has  taken  place.  The  growth  of  both  new 
wood  and  grafts  have  been  extraordinary,  while  the  foliage  whicVi  before  was  small  and 
sickly,  and  usuall}'^  fell  off  at  mid-summer,  has  in  every  way  changed;  becoming  large, 
beautifully  green  and  full  of  vigor,  while  their  neighbors  on  the  other  side  of  the/<;ncc, 
untouched  by  art,  and  left  to  nature's  skill,  are  denuded  prematurely  of  their  foliage  and 
seared  by  neglect. 

From  the  impetus  given  their  growth  by  the  stimulating  cultivation  they  have  received, 
the  crop  in  quality — particularly  in  numbers — this  season  is  but  small,  while  the  fruit 
itself  has  become  entirely  changed  in  all  its  characteristics.  Before,  no  specimen  could  be 
recognized — while  now  from  amid  the  ruin,  we  find  the  Porter,  Ribstone  Pippin,  Golden 
Reinette,  Golden  Sweeting,  Swaar,  Twenty  Ounce,  Detroit  Red,  and  other  varieties  in 
the  perfection  of  size,  form  and  color! 

From  forty  trees,  some  of  which  bore  but  a  few  specimens,  thirty  barrels  of  picked 
fruit  have  been  marketed,  reserving  some  thirty  bushels  for  home  use. 

Thus  while  we  hear  of  various  persons  cutting  down  old  apple  orchards  and  delight- 
ing in  the  blazing  fire  that  does  not  "  snap,"  I  feel  amply  repaid  for  the  expense  and  la- 
bor in  the  successful  experiments  I  have  thus  made  in  the  saving  of  what  was  deemed 
useless  cumbrances,  and  producing  therefrom  a  balance  fully  equal  to  twenty  dollars  each. 

It  is  far  easier  to  cut  down  and  despoil  a  tree,  than  to  replace  one.  So  long  as  the  tree 
is  not  radically  diseased  and  rotten,  but  simply  neglected,  moss  covered,  and  unpruned — 
its  fruit  in  the  mean  time  degenerated  until  all  its  characteristics  of  size,  form,  color,  and 
flavor  are  changed,  such  trees  may  by  judicious  methods  be  so  restored  as  not  only  to  be 
profitable  in  their  own  fruit,  but  as  stocks  for  grafting,  forming  if  desirable  entirely  new 
heads. 

Already  have  some  of  my  grafts  (two  years  old)  began  to  bear,  while  all  have  taken 
such  start  that  in  a  few  seasons  the  whole  tops  will  be  blossoming  with  the  Northern  Spy, 
Wagener,  Melon,  Baldwin  and  other  valuable  kinds.  Thus  assuredly,  aside  from  pre- 
sent pleasure  and  profit,  ten  years  of  time  has  been  gained. 

Yours  truly,  "W.  R.  Coppock. 

Longsight  Place,  near  Buffulo,  Kov.  17,  1851. 


EXPRESSION    IN   ARCHITECTURE. 

FROM  THE  LONDON  BUILDER.— BY  H.  S. 

Some  are  of  opinion  that  the  beauty  of  the  human  face  consists  entirely  of  expres- 
sion; and  in  truth  the  charm  of  an  agreeable  countenance  seems  to  arise  from  thecapabili- 
ty  of  the  features  to  reveal  mental  and  moral  beauty;  and  if  expression  be  not  the  entire, 
it  is  at  least  the  soul  of  beauty.  Mere  sensuous  grace  is  perhaps  as  unimportant  in  ar- 
chitecture, which  is  little  else  than  a  lifeless  mass  if  genius  infuse  not  this  spirit  into  it; 
while  if  it  breathe  the  idea  of  the  designer  we  are  enchained  by  its  significance  and  forget 
the  inferiority  or  the  entire  absence,  as  it  may  be,  of  abstract  beauty.  Volumes  of  thought 
and  feeling  flash  from  the  eye,  and  the  various  affections  of  the  mind  exert  an  influence 
upon  the  permanent  form  of  the  countenance  and  impart  to  it  their  own  peculiar  charac- 
teristics :  could  we  have  a  better  illustration  of  the  diversitj'-  of  sentiment  which  should 
from  different  buildings  according  to  the  variety  of  their  original  and  destined  pur- 


EXPRESSION  IN  ARCHITECTURE. 

Certain  it  is,  vre  can  thus  express  ideas  by  form :  different  forms  are  suggestive  by  a 
natural  association  of  different  sentiments;  and  the  architect  must  not  so  much  aim  at 
abstract  beautj^  as  at  the  conditions  of  the  intended  expression.  If,  for  instance,  the  build- 
ing be  for  a  gay  purpose,  he  must  employ  those  forms  and  lines,  and  that  style  of  com- 
position that  will  express  gaiety.  If  for  a  solemn  purpose,  such  a  character  of  design,  and 
such  proportions,  as  will  yield  a  solemn  aspect.  And  this  gaiety  and  solemnity  are  quali- 
ties of  the  destined  use  or  purpose  of  the  work  expressed  by  the  features  of  the  building, 
as  qualities  of  the  mind  are  expressed  by  the  features  of  the  face.  Thus  rough-hewn  and 
boldly  rusticated  masonry,  harsh  angular  lines,  lofty  and  unpierced  walls,  will  give  tlie 
ideas  of  a  prison;  prison-like  strength,  combined  with  palatial  sumptuousness  of  decora- 
tion, will  characterise  a  bank;  severity  of  outline  and  form,  a  character  grave  and  solemn, 
of  patriarchal  simplicity,  in  which  nothing  is  hidden,  intricate,  or  but  partially  told,  and 
the  absence  of  all  imaginativeness,  will  distinguish  a  justice  court. 

But  architectural  qualities  must  not  be  confounded  with  moral  or  metaphysical  quali- 
ties. We  speak  of  the  "smiling  aspect  of  a  building,"  and  "the  frowning  aspect  of  a 
building;"  but  these  are  figurative  expressions:  and  Avhen  we  say  a  building  is  grave  or 
gay,  or  mirthful  or  solemn,  we  do  it  by  a  metaphor.  The  building  has  material  qualities; 
the  institution  which  it  enshrines  or  serves,  has  moral  or  mental  ones;  but  it  is  on  the 
analogy  between  these  two  classes  of  qualities  which  are  naturally  associated  in  the  mind, 
that  architecture  is  dependant  for  its  power  of  expression.  Thus  we  cannot  directly  or 
literally  express  the  mirth  or  pleasure  of  a  ball-room,  or  its  associated  ideas  of  human 
beauty  and  grace;  but  we  can  express  qualities  analogous  them, — naturally  connected 
with  them, — and  will  characterize  such  a  building  by  elegance  of  form  and  proportion, 
graceful  lines,  softness  of  light  and  shadow,  and  minuteness  and  delicacj^  of  ornament  and 
detail.  The  ideas  of  royalty  and  power  associated  with  a  regal  palace,  we  can  only  shadow 
forth  by  majestic  proportions, — by  boldness  of  composition,  with  which,  together  with 
power  of  light  and  shade,  we  secure  that  dignity  which  is  said  to  be  "  the  harness  of 
power;"  while  the  idea  of  earthly  dominion  finds  expression  in  horizontal  composition 
and  wide-spreading  dimensions.  And  what  the  architect  must  observe  is,  that  there  be 
an  analogical  correspondence  between  the  qualities  developed  by  the  design  and  composi- 
tion of  the  building,  and  those  emotions  of  the  mind  which  arise  from  the  contemplation, 
or  belong  to  the  ideas,  of  its  use  and  destination. 

This  characterizing  of  edifices,  according  to  their  purpose,  is  among  the  highest  effects 
of  mind  on  inanimate  matter,  and  is  a  more  wonderful  conversion  of  stone  into  "  golden 
visions  of  thought  and  feeling,"  than  in  sculpture  itself,  as  there  is  less  imitation  of  na- 
ture. It  is  a  source  of  pleasure,  of  interest,  of  edification,  of  refinement,  and  a  gratifica- 
tion of  the  innate  love  of  variety.* 

The  purpose  of  the  entire  building  should  not  only  be  thus  expressed,  but  each  orna- 
ment should  tend  to  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  particular  part  to  which  it  is  applied  and 
partake  of  its  general  character  and  relations.  From  the  particular  properties  of  that 
portion  originate  the  motives  of  its  design  and  combinations,  while  the  ornaments  must 

*  This  love  of  variety  in  the  human  breast  requires  thai  dwelling-houses  should  differ  in  tlicir  character  from  each 
other  ;  an  arrangement  further  dictated  by  the  analogy  of  nature  in  reference  to  their  occupants.  They  should  ex- 
press "  domestic,"  all  of  them,  as  nature  expressed  "  man"  in  the  form  and  face  of  the  human  subject;  but  they  may 
do  this  without  being  all  alike.  If  architects  would  free  their  minds  from  uimutural  shackle  and  undue  precedcjit,  we 
should  have  as  great  variety  of  houses  in  our  streets  as  of  casts  of  countenance. — a  great  relief  to  our  monotonous 
"  town-imprisoned"  life.  This  diversity  of  aspect,  form,  and  character  would  not  be  wiiliout  its  moral  effects.  A 
mau's  love  of  home,  which  is  the  parent  of  many  virtues,  would  be  stronger  when  his  house  possessed  a  proper  indi- 
viduality, a  distinct  character.  AVhen  it  is  different  from  all  other  houses  and  homes,  it  must  muke  a  greater,  a  stronger 
impression  on  his  lancy  and  imaghiation,  aiid,  through  them,  on  his  feelings. 


EXPRESSION   L\   ARCHITECTURE. 

be  in  harmony  with  the  order  of  architecture  and  the  general  expression  of  the  building. 
As  in  grammar,  a  word  or  phrase  must  correspond  to  the  genius  and  received  forms  of  the 
language;  so  in  architecture,  the  parts  must  harmonize  with  the  total, — the  main  idea  of 
which  must  illume  every  part  of  it. 

The  subject  of  expression  applies  to  the  inside  of  a  building  as  well  as  to  the  outside. 
External  expression  is  insufficient;  unless  the  whole  be  adapted  to  and  indicate  its  use, 
within  and  without:  unless  the  idea  of  its  purpose  pervade  it,  as  it  were,  it  is  not  a  true 
work,  and  the  fact  will  be  sure  to  betray  itself,  just  as  with  one  who  shall  endeavor  to 
make  his  face  express  what  he  does  not  feel.  We  soon,  in  any  case,  detect  the  look  that 
is  "  put  on."  The  grand  secret  of  eloquence,  it  has  been  said,  is  to  be  in  earnest;  and 
our  buildings  will  be  eloquent  if  we  are  sincere  and  truthful  in  designing  them, — while 
nothing  will  give  satisfaction  that  is  not  thrilled  with  the  genuine  sentiment. 

But  the  use  of  each  apartment  in  a  house  should  be  indicated  for  its  own  sake.  The 
ancients  dedicated  each  chamber  to  the  divinity  that  presided  over  the  use  to  which  it  was 
applied,  and  decorated  it  accordinglj^.  A  room  decorated,  for  instance,  to  mirth  and  en- 
joj^ment  was  so  treated  that  the  ornaments  and  every  object  had  a  tendency  to  excite 
pleasing  and  cheerful  thoughts,  and  promote  hilarity.  Sleep  has  its  emblems,  by  which 
to  characterise  an  apartmeat  devoted  to  that  use.  The  same  may  be  said  of  festivity, 
study,  literature,  art — all  have  their  emblems  or  associations  by  which  we  may  indicate 
dining-rooms,  studies,  libraries,  galleries  of  art,  &c.  For  many  of  these  there  would  be 
no  impropriety  in  drawing  upon  the  mythology,  the  Apollo,  Morpheus,  the  Muses,  and 
other  beautiful  conceptions  which  might  yield  us  considerable  aid  in  this  matter.  We 
do  not  attach  sufficient  importance  to  the  embellishment  of  the  interiors  of  our  apart- 
ments. Michael  Angclo,  Raphaelle,  and  other  great  artists,  it  should  be  remembered,  were 
wall  and  ceiling  painters  to  their  contemporaries.  Attention  to  this  subject  would  secure 
us  more  diversity  in  the  interior  of  our  houses — a  desirable  object.  The  natural  love  of 
variety  requires  a  different  form  and  character  of  decoration  and  finish  for  each  apartment, 
and  as  much  as  possible  a  different  view  or  scene  from  the  windows;  a  great  relief  to  a 
confined  invalid.  This  could  be  done  without  having  Turkish  and  Indian  libraries  and 
boudoirs  in  an  Anglo-classic  or  Italian  house.  Chinese  drawing-rooms  may  please  child- 
ren or  unthinking  persons,  but  no  man  of  taste  could  take  pleasure  in  such  puerilities. 
Here  it  may  be  observed  that,  as  in  the  exterior,  the  appropriate  expression  and  needful 
variety  would  be  in  a  great  measure  gained  interiorly,  by  having  the  shape  and  proportion, 
size  and  disposition  of  windows,  doors,  and  other  features  exactly  adapted  to  the  des- 
tined purpose  of  the  apartment.  This  would  easily  distinguish  rooms  for  pleasure  from 
those  for  domestic  service,  as  in  the  latter  uniformity  has  given  way  to  utility,  and  com- 
fort has  been  secured,  though  it  may  be  at  the  sacrifice  of  uniformity'  and  other  conditions 
of  beauty. 

There  is  a  difficulty,  I  admit,  in  the  characterising  of  some  buildings  exteriorly.  Ob- 
stacles are  too  often  flung  in  the  way  of  truthful  design.  Sometimes  two  different,  and 
almost  contrasting,  institutions  have  to  be  provided  for  under  one  roof,  rendering  suitable 
expression  on  the  outside  of  course  impossible;  as  in  the  case  of  the  Assize  Courts  and 
St.  George's  Hall,  Liverpool.  Some  buildings  of  single  purpose,  too,  it  is  difficult  to  cha- 
racterise: for  a  railway  station,  for  instance,  it  would  be  hard  to  define  the  appropriate 
style  of  expression.  Yet  even  here  a  complete  adaptation  to  its  purpose  will  go  far  to  ex- 
press its  character.  A  railway  being  for  the  transmission  of  goods  and  passengers  with 
greatest  possible  facility  and  speed,  large  sheds  are  required,  large  doors  both  for  in 
and  egress,  gateways  for  carriages  and  vehicles  of  every  description, — separate  sides 


for  departure  and  arrival;  and  these  must,  in  a  great  measure,  distinguish  the  terminus. 
And  though  we  could  scai'cely  say  what  general  style  of  decoration  for  such  a  building 
should  be  chosen,  or  what  general  form  and  proportions  it  should  have,  beyond  what  utili- 
ty would  demand,  yet  in  the  sculptural  embellishments  a  good  deal  might  be  done  towards 
indicating  its  purpose  by  means  of  symbols.  Rapid  flight,  speedy  change  of  place,  the 
annihilation  of  space  and  time,  the  unity  and  amity  of  distant  places,  and  other  associated 
ideas,  might  thus  find  ex^Dression.  But  the  difficulty  I  have  admitted  to  exist  is  of  less 
frequent  occurrence  than  is  supposed :  few  buildings  are  similarly  circumstanced  to  the 
one  I  have  referred  to.  An  ingenious  writer,  in  a  recent  work  on  the  principles  of  archi- 
tecture, has  complained,  that  to  distinguish  a  clubhouse  from  a  mansion  is  beyond  the 
power  of  architecture;  a  truth  we  must  admit,  but  without  the  slightest  disparagement 
to  the  art.  lie  has  overlooked  the  fact  that  a  clubhouse  is  a  mansion  only  for  a  larger 
family,  and  that  architecture  is  not  called  upon  to  make  a  difference  where  no  difference 
exists.  A  clubhouse  is  not  a  public,  but  a  private  building, — for  a  private  societ}';  where 
a  gentleman  can  have  the  comfort  and  accommodation  of  a  private  house,  just  as  a  cottage, 
a  villa,  or  a  mansion  is  for  the  use  of  a  familj';  and  it  is  as  far  as  the  public  are  concern- 
ed a  private  house,  or  mansion;  and  the  passing  stranger  need  not  know  that  it  is  any- 
thing else:  the  expression  of  "mansion,"  therefore,  is  not  only  what  the  clubhouse  will 
naturally  assume, — it  is  really  the  expression  it  should  have. 

But  almost  every  building  that  has  a  distinct  purpose,  may  have  its  distinct  and  corres- 
ponding expression, — is  susceptible  of  receiving  allegorical  or  other  illustrations  of  its 
purpose,  so  as  to  indicate  that  purpose;  if,  in  the  first  place,  it  be  truthfully  adapted,  and 
if  the  architect  has  the  requisite  mastery  over  the  resources  of  the  art.  If  a  Gothic  church 
in  its  perfection  is  a  petrifaction  of  religion,  a  truly  designed  college  will  be  a  similar  em- 
bodiment of  literature;  a  palace,  of  royalty;  an  exchange,  of  commerce.  Beautj',  howev- 
er, is  not  incompatible  with  anj"-,  even  with  the  needful  character  of  a  prison,  which  may 
suggest  ideas  of  durance  and  gloom,  yet  display  general  forms  and  proportions  on  Avhich 
aesthetic  feeling  has  been  exercised.  Guided  by  analogy, — a  natural  association  of  ideas, 
— we  may  find  abundant  means  of  giving  at  least  a  general  tone  to  every  edifice,  in  har- 
mony with  its  use;  among  which  may  be  enumerated  the  arrangement,  size,  and  charac- 
ter, as  simple  or  decorated,  of  doors  and  windows:  public  buildings,  not  much  divided 
internally, — consisting  chiefly  of  one  great  apartment  for  a  large  assembly  of  people,  such 
as  churches,  chapels,  public  schools,  theatres,  concert  halls,  should  have  laige  and  expan- 
sive doors  of  entrance,  which  would  not  only  be  convenient,  but  would  assist  in  characte- 
rising them,  as  such  doors  would  be  suggestive  of  the  idea  of  extensive  ingress  and  egress 
of  people.  In  places  of  worship  in  particular,  the  entrance  doors  should  be  prominent, 
rendered  by  ornament  conspicuous  and  inviting,  and  much  wider  than  they  generally  are, 
in  order  to  avoid  un.seemly  thronging  and  disorder,  during  the  discharge  of  a  congregation. 
Many  instances  of  insufficient  means  of  egress  might  be  cited,  causing  the  exercise  of  de- 
votion frequently  to  end  with  a  scene  too  much  resembling  a  Bartholomew  fair.  Windows 
are  susceptible  of  great  beauty,  great  copiousness,  and  truthfulness,  and  nice  inflexion  of 
significance;  but  in  a  religious  or  other  building  where  a  solemn  or  sublime  effect  is  con- 
templated or  sought  to  be  obtained,  windows  might  with  great  propriety  be  omitted,  or 
confined  to  internal  courts  or  gardens,  leaving  the  exterior  effect  to  those  grandest  of  ar- 
chitectural features — the  colonnade  and  dome.  The  dome  contributes  much  to  palatial 
dignity,  and  is  expressive  of  the  loftiness  and  breadth  that  should  characterise  great  na- 
tional purposes:  having  its  type  in  the  sublimest  of  ail  earthlj^  spectacles — the  firmament, 
— it  can  never  be  surjjassed  by  any  feature  of  any  style,  as  an  element  of  grandeur.     It 


EXPRESSION  IN  ARCHITECTURE. 

has  assuredly  never  been  so  applied  as  to  fully  exhibit  its  intrinsic  beaut}^  in  modern  Eu- 
ropean design. 

Towers,  though  no  longer  needed  for  defence,  are  useful  in  expression — they  signify 
strength  and  durability,  and  may  be  used  to  indicate  a  purpose  that  is  deep-laid  in  our 
nature,  paramovnit  and  indestructible.  Colonnades  are  indispensable  to  the  production  of 
tlie  more  elegant  and  magnificent  qualities.  Gables,  roofs,  and  chimneys  are  not  to  be  for- 
gotten or  neglected.  Every  necessary  part  or  feature  may  become  a  valuable  element  of 
expression  and  power.  Order  and  style  of  architecture  are  means  of  expression;  we  are 
no  more  bound  to  one  style  than  to  one  of  the  ancient  orders  of  architecture.  One  is  ge- 
nerally better  for  indicating  a  given  purpose  than  another.  I  believe  that  one  indissoluble 
chain  unites  all  true  styles  of  architecture  wherever  they  have  been  developed — which  are 
but  a  harmonious  variet}'^  of  one  type.  Those  who  suppose  that  only  the  picturesque  Tudor 
will  be  a  Hivorite  in  England  for  domestic  purposes,  forget  the  flexibility  of  the  human 
mind. 

Rustication  must  also  be  considered  as  architectural  lauguage;  and  the  prohibition  of 
its  use  would  be  an  unnecessary  and  irrational  limitation  of  the  means  of  variety  and  sig- 
nificance. Rustics  were  much  used  by  the  Romans,  among  whom  they  were  chiefly  de- 
voted to  the  grottoes  of  the  rural  deities;  and  among  us  they  may  be  made  the  means  of 
beautjr  and  power.  They  give  vitality  to  a  wall  or  pier,  and  are  susceptible  in  themselves 
of  many  shades  of  expression.  They  secure  relief  to  adjacent  pilasters,  and  give  brillian- 
cy, and  delicacy,  and  value — bj^  means  of  contrast — to  the  upper  portions  of  edifices, 
when  employed  in  basements,  to  which,  as  they  suggest  ideas  of  strength,  they  are  pecu- 
liarly fitted.  If  stones  can  be  put  together  in  a  beautiful  or  expressive  manner,  and  that 
they  can  be  and  have  been,  none  I  think  will  deny,  there  appears  to  me  no  harm  in  mak- 
ing that  manner  so  prominent  as  that  attention  will  be  drawn  to  it. 

The  character  of  a  building  depends  on  the  choice  of  material  employed,  whether  brick 
or  stone;  or  its  description,  as  texture,  color,  quality;  and  its  disposition  or  arrangement. 
Quality  of  workmanship  is  also  something  towards  indicating  a  building's  destination. 
Character  may  be  modified  b}'  the  manner  of  executing  details,  individual  mouldings,  and 
other  members.  Purel}'-  geometrical  ornament  is  expressive  and  poetic,  and  presents  a 
wide  field  for  imagination:  an  advantage  of  such  decoration  is,  its  not  being  seen  else- 
where. We  may  have  forms  by  drawings  upon  geometry  perfectly  unique,  that  do  not 
exist  entire  in  nature;  and  a  new  creation,  so  to  speak,  is  thus  called  up — 

All  independent  -world. 


Created  out  of  pure  intelligence." 

All  purposes  of  buildings  cannot  be  expressed  by  equal  beauty.  The  comprehensive- 
ness of  our  nature  enables  us  to  embrace  every  shade  of  character  and  every  phasis  of  beau- 
ty, and  fits  us  to  sympathise  with  truthful  manifestation  of  thought  and  feeling  wherever 
seen.  The  arrangement,  as  Avell  as  the  choice  and  design  of  ornaments,  is  an  important 
point.  Concentration  is  an  element  of  power,  but  whether  ornament  be  concentrated  on 
particular  and  important  features,  or  dispersed  over  the  whole  facade,  depends  upon  the 
invariable  laws  of  composition  and  design,  and  the  influence  of  the  idea  that  seeks  to  be 
expres.scd.  The  two  sister  arts  of  Painting  and  Sculpture,  in  their  higher  manifestations, 
are  also  among  the  architect's  due  resources  for  characterising  his  productions;  for  statu- 
ary, bassi  relievi,  or  pictures,  when  properly  applied  to  the  embellishment  of  architecture, 
are  part  of  the  building,  which  would  be  incomplete  without  them,  and  therefore  they  are 
tectural  members  or  features,  in  not  too  broad  a  view  of  the  art :  used  as  for  as  they 
demanded  by  the  architect  to  carry  out  his  idea,  they  are  architectural  embellishments ; 


part  of  ths  laugnage  of  the  art.  Whatever  else  Paintiag  and  ."Sculpture  may  claim  to  be, 
they  are  handmaids  of  architecture:  one  of  their  offices  is  to  administer  to  architecture: 
they  are  both  something  apart  froia  this  ministry — something  on  their  own  account, — but 
assuredly  that  is  one  of  their  provinces :  they  are  the  architect's  auxiliaries,  means  of  expres- 
sion and  power  v;hich  he  has  a  right  to  avail  himself  of,  in  giving  the  higher  tones  of  ex- 
pression to  his  design.  All  ceiling,  mural,  and  other  paintings  introduced  into  the  diffe- 
rent apartments  of  a  public  edifice, — all  sculptured  subjects,  bassi  relievi,  or  other  works, 
placed  interiorly  or  exteriorly,  should  be  so  chosen  and  adapted  as  to  further  set  forth  its 
character  and  purpose;  and  if  they  be  so  chosen,  and  harmoniously  associated  with  the 
building,  and  illustrative  of  its  use,  they  may,  I  think,  be  considered  as  architectural  or- 
naments; as  no  less  a  part  of  the  whole  than  a  modillion  or  dental  of  the  cornice.  Sculp- 
ture originated  in  combination  with,  and  in  subordination  and  subserviency  to  architec- 
ture; and  the  secret  of  the  great  success  of  the  Greeks,  as  also  of  the  mediiBval  builders, 
may  be  found,  I  think,  in  the  assistance  Avhich  each  art  rendered  to  the  other, — their  union 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  greater  force  and  significance,  like  the  different  organs  of  life, 
Avhich,  when  united,  to  borrow  a  simile,  expressed  the  idea  no  single  part  could  represent. 

S.  H. 


fxtmmB. 

Rural  Homes,  or  Sketches  of  Houses  suited  to  American  Country  Lifi,  with  original 

plans,  designs,  fyc.  :  By  Gervase  Wheeler.  (New-York,  Charles  Scribner.) 
The  multiplication  of  books  upon  Rural  Architecture,  is,  in  one  sense,  a  most  gratifying 
aspect  of  the  times — since  it  shows  conclusively  the  appetite  of  the  public  for  the  beauti- 
ful, the  tasteful,  or  at  all  events,  the  ornamental  in  their  dwellings.  Undeniably,  it  is  a 
proof  of  the  progress  of  civilization,  this  fact,  that  men  desire  to  raise  the  character  of 
their  homes;  and  clearly,  the  rural  architecture  of  the  country,  is  in  the  full  tide  of  gra- 
dual change — we  hope  amelioration — since  every  possible  notion  offered  by  real  or  false  ar- 
chitects, and  architectural  Avriters,  is  embodied  into  solid  shape  by  some  one  or  other  of 
our  countrymen. 

Our  grown  men  try  experiments  with  styles  of  building,  with  as  little  naive  or  reck- 
lessness, and  as  little  heed  as  to  the  consequences,  as  our  young  men  try  experiments  in 
"  mint  juleps"  and  "  brandy  smashes,"  and  we  fear  the  immediate  results  upon  the  con- 
stitutional taste  of  the  country,  in  one  case,  and  the  constitutional  health  of  the  individuals 
in  the  other,  are  pretty  much  the  same — that  is  to  saj',  both  exces.ses  beget  a  sort  of  flashj'- 
character,  not  very  likely  to  bear  close  criticism,  either  by  the  canons  of  taste  or  morali- 
ty. The  only  consolation  in  the  matter  is,  that  we  cannot  be  accused  of  apatliy — in 
short,  we  are  rapidly  acquiring  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  the  art  of  building,  deter- 
mined, like  the  young  man  who  was  reproved  by  his  father  for  his  "fast"  style  of  living 
— "  to  see  the  folly  of  it  for  himself !" 

We  shall  do  Mr.  Wheeler  the  justice  to  sa)"-,  in  the  outset,  that  he  has  produced  a  very 
sprightly  book  on  the  subject  of  rural  architecture.  The  volume  is  eminently  readable, 
abounds  with  many  excellent  suggestions,  especially  as  to  matters  of  taste;  shows  a  ready 
talent  for  imparting  information,  and  leaves  the  novice  who  has  perused  it,  with  the  im 
pression  that  architecture  is  a  pleasant  sort  of  accomplishment  that  may  be  tauglit 
easy  lessons,  and  practiced  for  his  own   purposes,  by  almost  every  country'  gentl 


WHEELER'S  RURAL   HOMES. 

with  the  same  facility  as  running-hand  itself.  We  are  a  little  inclined,  in  criticising  it  more 
closel}^,  to  select  as  a  text,  one  of  the  author's  own  paragraphs,  which  he  throws  out,  we 
fear,  as  the  Italians  throw  sugar  plums  at  the  carnival — not  expecting  you  to  take  them 
for  anything  more  solid  than  pleasant  jokes. 

"  Houses — says  Mr.  Wheeler — may  tell  very  well  in  advertisements,  and  speculating 
builders  know  how  to  make  them  look  sweetly  pretty  upon  paper,  but,  dearjriends,  take 
care  that  you  thoroughly  satisfy  yourselves  that  you  can  make  them  homes,  before  you 
commit  j'ourselves  to  a  choice  that  you  can  afterwards  repent." 

Amen!  we  say  to  this,  with  all  our  heart.  And  now  saying  Amen,  and  finding  that 
Mr.  Wheeler  is  an  architect  who  writes  not  merely  as  an  amateur,  since  he  loses  no  op- 
portunity to  tell  us  in  his  preface,  and  throughout  the  book,  that  "  as  an  architect  he  has 
mastered  the  rudiments,  technicalities,  and  theories  of  the  science,"  we  naturally  turn  from 
the  "  sweetly  pretty"  letter-press  of  the  work,  to  the  more  practical  consideration  of  the 
designs  themselves — as  suited  to  "American  Country  Life." 

The  Frontispiece — is  what  the  author  calls  the  Homestead,  and  which  he  defines  as  a 
"  house  suited  to  American  life,  manners,  and  climate."  It  is  amusing,  looking  at  it  in 
this  point  of  view,  to  see  how  transparent  is  the  fiction  which  covers  Mr.  Wheeler's 
English  education.  This  design  is,  in  the  first  place,  one  of  the  worst  examples  of  that 
bastard  stylo  of  Elizabethan,  which  all  true  architects  have  pronounced  the  most  debased 
of  all  styles.  The  roof  seems  to  pierce  the  sky  like  a  wedge — the  contorted  copings  of  the 
gables  have  the  uncomfortable  twist  of  an  eel  in  spasms,  and  the  parapet  to  the  tower  is  a 
copy  of  the  absurd  whimsicalities  common  to  old  English  manor-houses  of  the  time  of 
Elizabeth.  The  deep  parapet  gutters  on  the  right  elevation  of  this  house,  are  also  Eng- 
lish features,  utterly  unsuited  to  the  American  climate — and  one  which,  whenever  it  is 
adopted  here,  is  the  cause  of  endless  leaks  and  indefinite  tinker's  bills  to  the  American 
pocket.  The  only  really  American  feature  in  the  house,  is  the  broad  square  veranda  which 
Mr.  Wheeler  seems  to  have  added  to  his  English  design — and  that  it  has  been  added  as 
an  after  thought,  and  not  originally  composed  with  the  rest  of  the  design,  is  painfully  ap- 
parent from  its  total  incongruity — it  being,  in  fact,  a  broad  wing,  with  a  projecting  brack- 
etted  cornice,  and  an  almost  flat  roof,  tacked  on  to  the  steepest  roofed  edifice,  with  high 
parapets  and  the  most  meagre  of  gothic  cornices.  Oh,  Mr.  Wheeler!  this  maybe 
"sweetly  pretty,"  and  it  may  be  built  for  twelve  thousand,  but  it  is  not  a  house  suited 
to  the  American  climate. 

"  A  Country  House,"  page  60, 'is  one  of  the  best  plans,  and  most  satisfactory  and  un- 
pretending elevations — but  how  any  architect  who  has  "mastered  all  the  theories  and 
technicalities,"  could  design  a  veranda  so  poor  and  meagre  in  its  cornice  and  supports  as 
the  one  shown  in  this  elevation,  it  is  difificult  to  conceive.  Here  is,  also,  the  same  want  of 
unity  of  design  between  the  house  and  the  veranda — the  former  having  boldly  projecting 
eaves — the  latter  looking  like  a  cropped  terrier,  who  is  minus  ears  and  tail.  The  small 
window  over  the  door  in  the  wing  is  crowded  out  of  both  place  and  proportion,  and  no 
attempt  has  been  made  to  make  it  compose  properly  by  adapting  its  form  to  the  place  and 
purpose  it  fills. 

The  Gothic  Cottage,  p.  72 — which  the  author  has  built  in  Connecticut,  is,  we  suppose, 
another  illustration  of  his  talent  in  designing  houses  "  suited  to  American  country  life." 
Here  is  a  cottage  one  story  high — say  12  feet,  with  a  roof  running  up  as  steep  and  high  as 
possible — say  twenty-five  feet  more,  and  looking  like  a  tall  extinguisher  on  a  short  candle. 

is  the  inevitable  consequence?   Simply  this,  that  all  the  sleeping  rooms  in  this  house    Vnj 
tirely  under  the  roof,  and  are  thereby  ten  times   as  hot  in  our  intense  summers 


WHEELER'S  RURAL  HOMES. 

as  they  would  be  if  not  under  the  roof.*  In  a  cool  climate  like  that  of  England,  this  nest- 
ling under  the  roof,  as  a  toad  nestles  under  a  stone,  is  snug  and  comfortable — but  "woe 
to  the  Yankee  who  builds  a  "  medieval  cot"  upon  this  principle,  for  this  climate.  "  Hot 
corn  and  baked  pears,"  we  are  told,  in  a  certain  nursery  rhyme,  have  a  tendency  to 
"  knock  a  darkey  down  stairs,"  whether  from  the  excess  of  delight  or  not,  is  left  to  the 
youthful  imngination.  But  a  July  night  in  the  cock-loft  of  one  of  these  garrets  of  a  high 
peaked  English  cottage,  built  in  our  "  diggins,"  will  cause  a  poor  wretch  to  seek  the  descend- 
ing scale  of  the  house  with  emotions  more  in  harmony  with  Dante's  Inferno,  than 
what  is  befitting  and  comfortable  in  "  American  country  life." 

The  "summer  lodge"  (p.  78)  has  the  merit  of  being  simple  and  unpretending — but  is 
marked  by  the  same  boldness  and  poverty  of  detail  and  composition.  The  veranda  at  the 
side  reminds  one  of  Calvin  Edson  the  walking  skeleton,  and  the  chimneys  look  as  if  they 
had  been  "  sat-down-upon."  In  the  plan,  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  why  the  pretty 
library,  (No.  4,)  should  be  deformed  by  crowding  the  fire-place  in  the  corner — when  it 
might  as  well  have  been  ]mt  in  the  centre  of  the  side  wall.  The  door  leading  from  the 
hall  into  the  spacious  drawing-room  opens  close  to  the  fire-place — without  any  necessity 
for  it;  and  would,  if  executed  according  to  the  plan,  utterly  spoil  the  sj'^mmetry  and  pro- 
portion of  the  room. 

The  "Suburban  villa"  (p.  107)  is  a  really  good  design,  and  the  "  Southern  home"  (p.  132) 
has  points  of  merit:  but  the  "  Parsonage  house"  has  the  same  bold-corniced  porch  as 
that  we  have  already  noticed,  and  the  plan  of  the  "  small  southern  house,"  (p.  141)  with 
four  rooms  of  the  most  ugly  and  inconvenient  shapes,  has  the  fire-place  in  three  of  them 
stuck  in  the  angle  or  corner  of  the  apartment,  in  a  way  inexcusable  in  any  man  who  has 
"^  mastered  the  theories  and  technicalities"  of  his  profession. 

Mr.  Wheeler's  desire  to  please  the  American  public,  and  his  talents  for  belle  lettres, 
have  led  him  into  the  discussion  of  the  varied  beauties,  principles  and  theories  of  the  sub- 
ject, which  he  treats  in  a  manner  by  no  means  new  with  him,  but  with  suggestions  bor- 
rowed from  the  works  of  native  authors  who  have  trodden  the  same  ground  more  earnest- 
ly and  truthfully  before  him.  In  the  main,  he  presents  these  principles  fairly,  and  often 
with  point  and  elegance  of  expression.  But  it  is  entertaining  to  see  how  thin  is  his  re- 
publican disguise,  and  how  poorly  the  dress  fits  him,  notwithstanding  his  ambition  to  be 
the  model  architect  of  our  rural  homes.  The  following  extract  will  explain  our  mean- 
ing. He  has  been  describing,  with  some  gusto,  a  model  American  village — has  already 
built  the  church  and  the  school-house,  and  continues  the  tableau  as  follows : 

"  Not  far  from  this  might  be  placed  the  parsonage — such  an  one  as  exhibited  in  this 
Ijook: — unobtrusive,  solid,  and  simple,  connected  with  the  church  by  a  something  which 
distinguishes  it  from  other  dwellings,  and  yet  possessing  features  in  common  with  the 
people's  homes.  Then  could  come  houses  of  differing  size  and  character;  the  modest  cot- 
tage of  the  working-man,  with  its  gay  little  garden  plot  and  bright  flower  bed;  the  some- 
what larger  dwelling  of  the  store-keeper,  merchant,  and  professional  man ;  the  greai  house 
of  the  village  with  its  noble  woods  and  lawns,  and  everything  that  can  show  cultivation 
thereof  by  art.  The  village  inn,  no  flaunting,  plate-glass  bedizened  temple  of  Bacchus, 
but  a  cheerful,  spacious  traveller's  home,"  &c. 

Now  we  do  not  deny  that  this  is  a  "sweetly  pretty"  picture  of  a  village,  but  leaving 
out  the  "  store-keeper's"  house,  is  it  not  essentially  wn-American?  Nay,  is  it  not  essen- 
tially English?     The  single  church,  the  parsonage,  the  modest  cottages  of  the  working- 

this  reason  most  American  architects  have,  in  adapting  the  English  cottage  style  to  this  country,  introduced 
ory  for  the  chamber  floor  instead  of  the  origijial  half  story. 

No.  XII.  8. 


AVHEELER'S  RURAL  HOMES. 

men,  and,  towering  above  all,  "  the  great  house  of  the  village,  with  its  noble  woods,  and 
lawns,"  &c.  The  plain  reading  of  this  is,  simply  an  Established  Church,  a  rural  peasant- 
ry, and  a  nobleman's  seat;  instead  of  the  republican  features  of  one  of  our  prettiest  coun- 
try villages— say  a  New-England  village — with  its  numerous  places  of  worship,  its  broad 
avenues  of  Elms,  overshadowing  no  single  great  man's  house,  but  many  homes,  marked 
by  that  general  diffusion  of  comfort,  independence,  and  growing  taste,  which  is  the  clia- 
racteristic  feature  of  our  model  villages  in  this  country. 

While  we  owe  to  foreign  architects  much  that  is  beautiful  and  valuable  in  our  public  and 
private  edifices  in  this  country,  and  gladly  acknowledge  the  debt,  where  it  is  due  to  real 
talent  and  integrity,  we  have  no  toleration  of  pseudo-architects  from  abroad,  who  leave 
home  with  too  small  a  smattering  of  professional  knowledge  to  ensure  success  at  home, 
and  after  three  or  four  years  of  practice  in  this  country — marked  by  constant  proofs  of 
incapacity  to  understand  our  people  or  their  wants,  undertake  to  direct  the  popular  taste, 
as  if  they  were  thoroughly  familiar  with  our  social  habits  and  institutions.  Mr.  Wheeler 
is  one  of  this  class.  His  book  would  lead  us  to  suppose  him  the  most  accomplished  and 
most  conscientious  man  in  his  profession,  and,  if  the  reader  were  an  entire  stranger,  also 
to  believe  the  writer  to  be  a  new  world  citizen,  whose  native  talents  had  been  developed 
by  large  culture  in  the  old  world;  while  in  fact,  his  professional  practice  has,  to  our  own 
knowledge,*  been  such  as  to  leave  an  impression  most  unfavorable  to  the  reputation  of  an 
architect,  every  where  that  he  has  deigned  to  put  into  substantial  shape  any  of  the  "techni- 
calities and  theories"  that  he  has  "  mastered"  on  the  other  side  of  the  water. 

"  I  have  mentally  headed  every  page" — says  Mr.  Wheeler  in  his  preface,  "  with  a 
sentence  suggested  as  a  matin  and  even  song  to  every  architect  and  amateur — Mr.  Ran- 
kin's great  maxim,  "  Until  common  sense  finds  its  way  into  architecture,  there  can  bebut 
little  hope  for  it." 

W  hat  will  our  readers  say  to  a  man  who  writes  thus,  and  then  puts  stained  glass  into 
the  windows  of  a  stable  of  a  gentleman's  country  seat!  And  yet  this  brilliant  triumph 
of  common  sense  is  the  offspring  of  Mr.  Wheeler's  taste  and  talents  in  a  case  where  he 
had  carte  blanche  and  entire  control,  in  a  country  seat  not  a  thousand  miles  from  New- 
York. 

While  we  find  much  that  is  instructive  and  agreeable  in  this  volume  of  Rural  Homes, 
we  must  caution  our  readers  that  there  is  little  that  is  -(^mertcan  about  the  work,  and  say 
in  the  author's  own  words,  applied  to  others — they  are  "  sweetly  pretty  on  paper — but 
dear  friends,  take  care  that  you  thoroughly  satisfy  yourselves  that  you  can  make  [Ameri- 
can] homes  of  them,  before  you  commit  yourselves  to  a  choice  you  may  afterwards  repent. " 

*  The  fact,  that  in  former  works  we  have  published  one  or  two  of  Mr.  Wheeler's  designs,  must  be  taken  as  proof 
that  further  acquaintance  with  the  architect  and  his  works,  have  forced  us  to  abandon  our  earlier  impressions. 


FOREIGN  AND  mSCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


teigu  ml  MMimmm  lintitrs. 


Rural  Life  in  Hungary.— Messrs.  Editors: 
It  was  in  the  beginning  of  May  that  I  reached  a 
village  in  the  central  part  of  Hungary,  lying  in 
the  great  plain  which  stretches  from  the  Theiss 
to  the  foot  of  the  Carpathians,  on  the  eastern 
borders.  It  will  be  unadvisable,  for  obvious 
reasons,  for  me  to  give  the  name  of  the  village 
more  particularly.  Suffice  it  to  say  it  was  a 
town  in  the  very  center  of  the  land,  entirely  in- 
habited by  the  Bauer,  and  with  no  nobleman 
owning  a  foot  of  ground  in  the  limits.  It  was 
quite  probable  I  was  one  of  the  first  travelers — 
certain  the  first  American — who  had  ever  en- 
tered it.  It  was  so  far  removed  from  the  great 
routes,  that  only  two  or  three  in  the  whole 
population  could  be  found  who  even  spoke 
German.  A  better  example  of  a  sun  pie  Hun- 
garian village  could  not  probably  be  met  with 
in  the  land.  I  bad  reached  there,  as  I  travel- 
ed every  where  in  the  interior  of  Hungary,  in  a 
private  carriage  from  the  last  gentleman  whom  I 
was  visiting.  This  is  the  universal  custom  in  the 
country,  and  is  a  part  of  that  generous  hospitality 
which  comes  so  strikingly  before  the  stranger, 
everywhere  in  Hungary.  It  is  almost  a  neces- 
sary politeness,  as  the  public  conveyances  are 
few, and  it  is  not  easy  for  a  stranger  to  hire  others. 

I  was  furished  with  a  letter  to  the  clergjnnen, 
and  though  his  German  was  somewhat  limited, 
he  received  me  with  the  heartiest  welcome,  and 
by  the  aid  of  mingled  Latin,  Hungarian,  and 
gestures,  we  managed  to  understand  each  other 
moderately  well.  He  entered  at  once  heartily 
into  my  design  of  seeing  Hungary — even  the 
country  life — and  in  the  afternoon  took  me  on  a 
long  walk  through  the  village. 

It  appears  the  Bauer  here  had  never  been,  at 
least  for  many  hundred  years,  under  feudal  ex- 
actions. Though  they  were  not  allowed  till 
1818  to  vote  for  members  of  the  National  Par- 
liament, they  had  the  right  to  elect  their  own 
town-officers"  and  the  only  burdens  upon  them 
were  the  duty  of  military  service  to  the  State, 
and  certain  light  taxes.  Under  such  a  system, 
with  their  own  judges,  their  o^^^l  aldermen,  and 
managing  independently  the  affairs  of  their  town- 
ship, there  had  grown  up  a  very  sturdy,  free 
population  in  the  village .  There  were  no  nobles 
there — no  rich  landholders,  but  there  was  no 
poverty  and  no  slavishness.  As  I  walked 
around  among  them,  they  seemed  to  me  like 
men — free,  independent  men — moi-e  than  any 
population  almost  I  had  ever  met. 

As  I  learned  afterwards,  there  are  large  dis- 
tricts in  various  parts  of  Hungary,  where  the 
Bauer  have  enjoyed  such  ft-ee  institutions.  I 
had  heard  that  this  village  was  famous  for  its 

andsome  men,  and  I  found  it  did  not  at  all 

its  reputation.     In  every  part,  in  our  walk, 

tall,  vigorous,  well-formed  men,  whom 


in  any  other  land  one  would  stop  to  gaze  at, 
though  here  they  are  scarcely  remarkable. 
The  more  I  saw  of  this  people  here,  and  also  in 
other  parts  of  Inner  Hungary,  the  more  I  was 
struck  with  the  advantages  to  a  nation  of  a  free 
agricultural  life.  There  was  a  certain  richness 
and  heartiness  of  feeling,  a  certain  manliness  in 
them,  such  as  one  would  seldom  see  in  a  manu- 
facturing class.  They  came  before  me  like  the 
early  patriarchs — simple,  dignified  men,  with  a 
courteous  hospitality  and  a  poetry  too,  which 
we  must  believe  marked  those  fathers  of  our 
race.  It  was  very  striking  here,  in  this  village, 
to  see  middle-aged  men  with  their  flowing  beards, 
meeting  one  another  with  a  kiss.  Then  the 
Bauer,  wherever  we  visited,  met  us  with  such 
real  courtesy — poured  out  their  best  before  us, 
and  always  insisted  on  going  out  even  to  the 
last  gate,  to  accompany  us.  It  seems,  too,  as 
if  their  life,  on  these  vast  plains,  with  their 
herds,  so  solitary,  in  the  starry  nights,  and  amid 
such  grand  scenery — and  their  pursuits,  so  often 
in  the  free  air,  had  given  ihem  a  wild,  poetic 
turn,  which  history  shows  us  to  have  belonged 
to  the  early  shepherds  and  farmers  on  the  Chal- 
dee  plains. 

No  where  did  Kossuth's  poetic  eloquence  find 
such  a  passionate  response  as  among  these  farm- 
ing-peasants of  the  Hungarian  plain.  His  ap- 
peals to  the  great  Being  who  watches  over  the 
rights  of  his  creatures,  and  whom  he  called  the 
God  of  Hungary,  seemed  to  them  to  come 
from  some  one  almost  superhuman.  As  he 
spoke  of  freedom,  of  brotherhood,  of  the 
wrongs  of  their  fatherland,  and  the  disgrace  of 
slavery,  they  answered  with  tears  and  with 
shouts  of  enthusiasm.  Through  the  villages  of 
Central  Hungary  there  was  scarcely  a  peasant 
who  could  grasp  scythe  or  whip,  who  did  not 
march  out  at  his  call  to  join  the  Hungarian 
array. 

An  agricultural  population  usually  strikes  one 
as  inferior  to  a  manufacturing  in  activity  of 
thought ;  but  this  fault  does  not  appear  among 
these  farmers  of  the  Hungarian  plain.  The  in- 
cessant political  life  and  movement,  through 
their  whole  history,  in  Hungary,  have,  beyond 
anything,  educated  the  people.  And  one  could 
see  that  these  men  had  not  grown  dull  or  inac- 
tive at  all  in  their  secluded  life. 

But  especially  could  you  observe  the  advan- 
tage of  their  pursuits  in  their  full,  vigorous, 
manly  forms.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  look  at  men 
so  healthy,  and  enjoying  such  a  fullness  of  life, 
without  too  the  usual  sensuality  which  accom- 
panies great  strength  and  overflowing  health. 

Now  that  I  am  speaking  of  this,  I  would  say 
that  I  took  considerable  pains  in  Hungary  to 
notice  the  diet  and  habits  of  eating  of  the  peo- 
ple, as  connected  with  this  remarkable  vigor  of 


FOREIGN  AND  IvnSCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


the  race,  hoping  some  useful  hints  might  be  de- 
rived for  America  on  the  subject.  This  seemed 
more  desirable,  as  tlicre  is  no  coimtry  of  Eu- 
rope so  resembling  our  own,  or  at  least  the 
Middle  States  of  our  own,  in  climate.  The 
same  extremes  of  heat  and  cold ;  the  same  .sud- 
den, violeut  changes  of  temperature;  the  same 
clear,  stimulating  atmosphere,  which  mark  the 
American  climate,  and  distinguish  it  from  the 
usual  European.  There  are  districts  in  Hungary 
which  produce  the  most  delicious  grapes  and 
melons  and  peaches  in  summer,  which  are  bu- 
ried in  snow  in  winter,  precisely  like  the  inland 
counties  some  years  in  New- York.  And  in 
traveling  over  the  best  part  of  the  land,  I  might 
have  thought,  as  far  as  productions  were  con- 
cerned, I  was  journeying  through  the  plains  of 
inner  New-York  or  Pennsylvania ;  the  only  ex- 
ception being  the  vine,  for  the  want  of  which  in 
America  I  am  disposed  to  think  the  cause  is 
not  to  be  sought  in  the  climate. 

In  respect  to  the  habits  of  the  people,  the 
great  peculiarity  seemed  to  be  their  temperance 
in  eating  and  drinking,  and  at  the  same  time 
their  making  of  the  meals  a  pleasant  social  oc- 
casion, and  not  merely  a  means  of  filling  up 
the  stomachs.  When  I  say  they  are  "  tem- 
perate," I  mean  they  indulge  in  no  excess;  as, 
in  respect  to  wine-drinking,  there  is  scarcely  a 
man  in  the  land  who  does  not  drink  the  light 
wine  at  his  dinner  and  supper.  But  with  the 
Hungarian  the  meal-time  is  a  time  for  social 
intercourse,  when  friends  meet;  or  when  the 
children  and  relatives  all  gather  with  the  parents, 
and  have  almost  their  only  merry,  familiar 
conversation,  during  the  day.  They  sit  a  great 
while  at  table,  and  taste  of  a  great  variety  of 
dislies,  at  least  among  the  better  classes.  Still 
they  are  not  by  any  means  as  hearty  eaters  as 
the  Americans  or  English.  Indeed,  to  a  tra- 
veler with  a  keen  appetite,  or  to  one  accustom- 
ed to  the  vigorous  exploits  of  the  English  at 
the  table,the  Hungarians  seem  really  abstemious. 
They  make  much  more  use  of  fruits,  and  salads, 
and  curious  puddings,  and  the  hght  pure  wines, 
than  we  of  the  Anglo  Saxon  race.  Indeed  a 
Hungarian  would  consider  himself  in  danger  of 
becoming  a  sot,  if  he  shordd  drink  every  day 
the  strong  brandied  wines  which  every  English- 
man has  on  his  table.  The  English  in  Hungary 
too  say  it  is  impossible  in  that  clear,  oxygenated 
climate,  to  keep  up  their  habits  of  beef-eating 
and  drinking. 

The  first  meal  among  the  Hungarians  is  taken 
at  seven  or  eight  in  the  morning,  and  consists 
only  of  a  glass  of  cotfee  with  rich  milk,  and  some 
meager  cuttings  of  cold  toast  broken  up  and 
eaten  in  the  coffee. 

This  is  the  universal  breakfast  for  all  classes 
except  the  poorest  Bauer.  Between  this  and 
the  dinner,  at  one  or  two,  nothing  is  usually 
eaten  or  drank.  The  dinner,  as  I  have  said,  is 
long,  with  a  great  variety  of  dishes,  not  essen- 
differing  from  our  own,  except  that  it  is 
and  a  greater  use  is  made  of  light  wines, 
meal  is  always  followed  by  a  cup  of  coffee. 


The  only  other  meal  is  the  supper,  at  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening — a  long  meal  again ,  with 
soup,  fish,  pudding  and  wine.  Tea  is  very  little 
drank  in  the  land:  sugar,  and  sweetened  arti- 
cles, too,  are  seldom  used. 

What  especial  theory  of  diet  to  draw  from  all 
this,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  determine.  Still  the  facts 
may  be  useful  to  some  who  are  investigating  the 
matter.  The  principal  things  worthy  of  imita- 
tion,  seem  to  be  the  moderation  and  sociability 
of  the  meals,  and  the  distance  of  time  at  which 
they  are  separated — the  last  being,  no  doubt, 
very  conducive  to  health.  The  principal  cause 
of  their  vigorous  health  and  well  formed  bodies 
must  be  found,  without  doubt  in  their  open  air 
pursuits  and  manly  exercises,  to  which  they  are 
all  ardently  attached.  They  are  a  nation  of 
herdsmen  and  farmers,  and  are  enjoying  the  be- 
nefits of  their  pursuits. 

No  account  of  their  habits  would  he  complete 
without  stating  that  the  whole  population,  from 
the  nobleman  and  clergyman  down  to  the  lowest 
Bauer  ou  the  Puszta,  smoke  incessantly  from 
morning  till  night. 

However,  to  return  to  our  walk  through  the 
village.  It  was  soon  noised  abroad  that  an 
American  was  in  the  village,  and  we  found 
everywhere  groups  of  curious  gazers  at  the  first 
man  they  had  seen  from  the  Western  World. 
We  called  upon  the  judges  of  the  village, — dig- 
nified, gray  headed  old  peasants — and  every- 
where I  heard  allusions  of  thankfulness  to  the 
kindness  of  the  Americans  to  the  exiles.  One 
man  had  a  picture  and  a  long  account  in  Hun- 
garian, of  the  reception  of  the  first  Hungarians 
in  New-York.  At  last,  in  our  rambles,  we  were 
overtaken  by  a  large  two-seated  wicker  wagon, 
with  four  horses,  sent  by  the  village  authorities 
to  conduct  us  around — in  the  town.  Accord- 
ingly up  we  mounted  with  a  "crack"  Hunga- 
rian driver,  in  short  embroidered  jacket,  and 
boots  and  spurs,  on  the  box,  and  made  the  cir- 
cuit of  the  town  and  neighborhood. 

Everywhere  that  we  visited,  whether  at  his 
Majesty's  officers,  or  in  the  houses  of  the  com- 
mon people,  we  heard  the  same  account  of  bur- 
densome taxation,  of  stupid  legislation  by  the 
government.  Not  a  man — even  of  those  who 
received  the  Emperor's  pay — seemed  contented. 
They  declared  that  the  object  of  the  ministry 
was  to  completely  blot  out  the  last  traces  of  the 
old  independence  of  Hungary.  All  their  inter- 
nal municipal  constitution,  so  cheap,  so  efficient, 
which  they  had  enjoyed  for  more  than  five  hun- 
dred years,  was  utterly  destroyed.  They  said 
the  pettiest  town  officer  was  appointed  by  the 
government — and  all  the  higher  oflicers  were 
either  foreigners  or  such  Hungarians  as  no  one 
had  ever  respected.  Then  every  possible  means 
was  used  to  squeeze  money  f\-om  them  by  taxa- 
tion. They  were  taxed  personally ;  taxed  for 
their  garden;  taxed  for  their  house;  for  the 
wine ;  for  their  tobacco.  Every  deed  drawn  up 
must  be  on  taxed  (stamped)  paper.  Their  pass- 
jjorts  were  taxed ;  their  very  -permits  to  raise 
taxed  tobacco,  which  they  themselves  are  not 


FOREIGN  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  NOTICES. 


allowed  to  use,  must  pay  a  duty.  Then,  say 
they,  this  all  comes  at  the  worst  of  times,  when 
we  are  stripped  of  our  property  by  the  war,  and 
when  the  peasants,  especially,  have  lost  millions 
by  the  Kossuth  notes,  which  the  government, 
despite  its  promise,  has  never  yet  redeemed,  at 
even  a  part  of  their  value. 

The  result  of  it  was,  in  this  village,  they  all 
told  me,  that  every  man  was  limiting  his  liabili- 
ties in  every  possible  way  to  being  taxed.  The 
amount  of  wine  made  there  the  next  year,  would 
be  the  least  possible  which  they  would  want  for 
themselves.  In  tobacco,  from  which  the  Govern- 
ment had  expected  the  greatest  revenue,  know- 
ing the  universal  habit  of  the  people,  the  yield 
would  be  the  smallest  ever  known.  The  law, 
in  regard  to  the  tobacco  is  so  exacting,  and  the 
dutj'  so  heavy,  that  it  will  scarcely  repay  any 
farmer  to  sow  the  seed.  In  one  district  around 
that  village,  they  said,  where  formerly  were  five 
hundred  tobacco  plantations,  there  are  not  now 
tive!  They  have  made  too,  a  patriotic  matter 
of  it,  as  we  did  of  our  tea-tax,  and  the  govern- 
ment will  probably  gain  very  little  revenue  from 
that  duty.  In  the  course  of  our  ride  a  man 
joined  us  who  was  a  farmer  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  town.  He  spoke  German,  and  I  had  a  long 
conversation  with  him.  Though  a  middle-aged 
man,  with  a  family  in  merely  comfortable  cir- 
cumstances, his  great  desire  was,  he  told  me  pri- 
vately, to  get  over  to  America,  and  he  ques- 
tioned me  a  great  deal  about  the  expenses,  and 
the  best  situation  for  an  emigrant,  &c.,  &c.  In 
the  course  of  the  conservation  I  had  the  curi- 
osity to  ask  him  why  he  had  this  plan?  lie 
was  living  comfortably  here,  and  the  taxes, 
though  they  were  burdensome,  would  not  ruin 
him.  It  would  be  a  hard  thing  for  him  to  begin 
life  over  again  in  a  new  land. 

"  Yes,"  he  said.  •'■'  I  know  it  well — and  it  is 
like  cutting  the  heart-strings,  to  break  away 
from  the  old  place  here,  and  from  Hungary. 
But  I  cannot  live  here  a  slave.     It  is  not  Hun- 

fary  to  me,  if  it  is  not  free.  As  for  the  taxes, 
could  bear  them,  though  they  are  heavy.  But 
I  can't  see  why,  if  I  am  steady  and  industrious, 
I  should  pay  the  debts  of  my  neighbor  when  he 
is  a  spendthrift.  Of  course  I  know  that  every 
state  must  lay  taxes  to  support  itself,  but  why 
Hungary  should  pay  Austria's  six  hundred  mil- 
lion of  debt,  I  don't  see!  I  shall  wait  a  while, 
to  see  if  no  change  comes  here,  and  then,  if  no- 
thing occurs,  old  as  1  am,  I  will  leave  the  coun- 
try.    My  country  must  be  where  freedom  is." 

"VVe  rode  about  to  the  farms  of  a  great  many 
different  persons,  and  everywhere  at  once,  ac- 
cording to  the  Hungarian  usage,  the  white  and 
red  wines  were  brought  forth,  with  a  flask  of 
mineral  water,  which  they  all  seem  to  drink 
with  wine — a  water  with  a  strong  smack  of 
sulphur  and  iron.  They  appeared  to  consider 
it  such  a  violation  of  liospitality  if  one  did  not 
drink  that  at  first,  I  si])ped  a  little  at  every 
house,  but  finally  declined  altogether,  especially 
score  that  Americans  did  not  drink  wine, 
ch  house,  too,  as  we  went  away  the  peo- 


ple took  my  hand,  and  wished,  almost  solemnly, 
the  Hungarian  blessing,  '' If^len  aldjo/i  meg!" 
(May  God  bless  you  I) 

At  length,  in  tlie  evening  we  stopped,  by  the 
urgent  invitation  of  a  Bauer,  at  liis  little  house 
to  take  supper.  I  was  inlbrmed  that  there  were 
three  other  places  \vhere  we  were  engaged  to 
take  supper  beside,  and  that  I  might  as  well  give 
myself  up,  and  accordingly  with  a  sense  of  re- 
signation I  followed  the  others  in.  The  table 
was  soon  loaded,  and  though  people  were  con- 
tinually coming  in  and  eating  and  going  out,  it 
seemed  to  make  no  difference — and  dish  after 
dish  of  good  things  were  set  out  before  us. 
First  came  a  huge  tureen  of  soup,  with  little 
balls  floating  in  it  of  dough  stuffed  with  hashed 
liver.  Then  a  preparation  of  very  diminutive 
chickens,  stewed  in  red  pepper.  Then  one  of 
the  genuine  Hungarian  puddings,  of  small  bits 
of  batter,  worked  and  cut  till  they  looked  like 
fragments  of  leather — all  soaked  in  fat.  After 
this,  chickens  boiled  with  rice,  and  following  it 
a  formidable  looking  pyramid  of  cakes,  such 
as  in  Yankee  land  we  call  "  fritters,"  ex- 
cept that  they  were  cut  into  singular  shapes, 
and  piled  up  in  a  towering  mass  on  the  platter. 
Besides,  there  figured  roast  mutton  and  salad, 
and  veal  cutlets,  and  divers  other  dishes — some, 
dishes  unmentionable  in  English,  and  others 
with  names  which  I  have  forgotten.  Flasks  of 
white  and  red  wine  were  brought  in  every  few 
miimtes,  and  bottles  of  sulphur- water  and  iron- 
water,  which  the  guests  seemed  to  drink  even 
more  than  the  wine. 

At  the  end,  the  Bauer  and  his  wife  handed 
every  person  a  little  tumbler  with  coffee.  The 
talking  was  very  animated  at  table,  and  mostly 
of  America,  and  the  chances  for  the  Hunga- 
rians, if  they  should  go  there. 

Several  of  the  company  were  government  of- 
ficers, but  the  same  expressions  were  used  there, 
which  one  liears  everywhere — of  the  stupidity 
and  oppression  of  the  government,  and  that  the 
only  hope  for  them  was  to  emigrate  to  "the 
free  land."  At  length  one  of  the  principal  men 
rose  for  a  toast.  He  spoke  in  Hungarian,  with 
a  rich,  eloquent  tone,  and  they  all  listened  in 
the  deepest  silence.  I  onh'  understood  it  in 
part,  but  as  they  translated  it,  it  was,  that  my  ar- 
rival in  the  uuiiappy  land  seemed  ominous  of 
good ;  that  I  was  one  from  a  nation  who  had 
welcomed  the  Hungarian  exiles  in  their  suffer- 
ing, and  had  given  sympathy  to  their  poor  coun- 
try, and  that  he  would  propose  the  health  of 
two  of  the  statesmen  of  my  country,  whom 
every  Hungarian  knew,  "  "Webster, or  (^Vebster 
as  they  call  him,)  and  Fill.more!" 

I  was  surprised  enough  at  hearing  such  a  toast 
in  a  little  Hungarian  village,  though  I  found 
afterwards  that  very  much  was  known  indeed, 
there,  of  our  country. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  supper,  in  a  pause  of 
the  conversation,  the  wife  of  our  host,  a  pretty 
looking,  nut-brown  peasant  woman,  came  up  to 
me,  and  kissing  my  hand,  with  a  look  that  almost 
tempted  me  to  kiss  her,  said  something  very 


DOMESTIC  NOTICES. 


sweetly  in  Hungarian.  They  all  lauged,  and 
translated  it  for  me.  It  was:  "  When  you  go 
back  to  your  country  over  the  waters,  tell  Kos- 
suth that  none  of  us  will  ever  forget  him — and 
say  that  the  Hungarian  peasant  women  sent  him 
a  God's  blessing,  and  bade  him  come  back  soon 
and  save  his  dear  Hungarian  Fatherland!" 

It  appears  she  believed  Kossuth  was  in  Ame- 
rica, and  it  shows  one  instance,  of  what  I  every- 


where noticed,  the  intense  love  of  the  peasantry 
for  him,  their  benefactor  and  orator.  After  much 
lively  conversation  we  broke  up,  too  late,  great- 
ly to  my  relief,  for  the  three  other  hospitable 
tables  which  were  awaiting  us — and  I  went  to 
my  friend's  for  the  night,  not  a  little  interested 
in  these,  my  first  experiences  of  Hungarian 
country  life.  C.  L. — New- York  Independ- 
ent. 


^mmili  J(M\m. 


Church  in  the  Romanesque  Style. — [See 
Frontispiece.] — Next  to  the  Gothic  style,  the 
Romanesque  (or  Lombard,)  appears  better 
adapted  than  any  other  to  religious  edifices. 
Though  there  is,  in  its  lines,  less  of  religious  as- 
piration than  in  the  Gothic,  yet  it  is  also  equally 
removed  from  thelevelplaneof  reason  which  we 
find  in  the  Greek  architecture.  There  is  much, 
both  of  beauty  and  balance,  in  the  curved 
lines  of  its  arches,  and  it  admits  the  spire  almost 
as  naturally  as  the  Gothic  style.  Besides  this,  so 
far  as  association  is  worth  anything,  it  has  clear- 
ly the  advantage  of  the  Gothic  style — since  the 
earliest  christian  churches  were  all  round  arch- 
ed, or  Romanesque. 

This  engraving  is  a  portrait  of  an  Independ- 
ent Chapel,  at  Boston,  England,  designed  by 
Mr.  Stephen  Lewis,  and  may  afford  some  hints 
to  the  committee  ;  of  some  of  our  religious  so- 
cieties, looking  al  '■'i  for  ideas.  It  is  different 
from  most  churche  ',  in  having  a  spacious  base- 
ment room  on  the  g.  >c  id  floor,  sufficiently  ele- 
vated to  be  abundantly  ghted  and  ventilated — 
in  short,  as  healthful  an>.  agreeable  as  a  school- 
house  above  ground.  This  school  accommo- 
dates 400  boys  and  girls.  The  exterior  length 
of  the  chapel  is  62  feet,  the  width  37  feet  6  in- 
ches; the  internal  length  56  feet  8  inches,  the 
width  32  feet ;  the  hight  of  side  walls  from 
pavement,  31  feet;  the  height  of  gables  46  feet; 
the  tower  height,  62  feet;  the  spire  and  vane  48 
feet— or  total  110  feet. 

This  church  is  built  wholly  of  brick — the 
mouldings  of  doors,  windows,  &c.,  of  moulded 
brick.  The  cost  was  £1,300,  (about  $6,500.) 
As  moulded  brick  are  now  admirably  made  in 
this  country,  (some  fine  buildings  in  this  style 
been  erected  with  them  at  Providence, 
this  mode  of  building  is  worthy  the  at- 


tention of  those  who  desire  to  unite  economy 
with  good  eSect. 


The  Mildest  Climate  in  the  Northern 
States. — A  visit  to  Newport,  Rhode-Island, 
this  season,  and  a  close  examination  of  some  of 
the  grounds  and  gardens  there,  has  convinced 
us  that  the  popular  estimation  in  which  the  cli- 
mate of  Newport  is  held ,  is  based  upon  sound 
reasons,  and  is  no  popular  prejudice.  Though 
Newport  is  part  of  the  sea-coast  range  of  New- 
England,  its  climate  is  mild  and  agreeable,  to  a 
degree  known  nowhere  else  in  any  of  the  mid- 
dle or  eastern  states.  This  has  not  been  well 
explained,  but  it  is  probably  owing  to  an  elbow 
of  the  gulf  stream  which  bends  inwards  at  this 
point  of  our  coast,  and  ameliorates  the  climate 
for  some  miles  in  its  neighborhood. 

As  absolute  proof  of  the  mildness  of  the  win- 
ters, we  may  state  that  in  the  garden  of  Mr. 
Alfred  Smith,  (the  sylvan  museum  of  the 
island,)  we  saw  in  the  most  flourishing  condi- 
tion, the  Evergreen  Cypresses  of  the  south  of 
Europe,  the  Gold  Dust  tree  (^ucuba  japonica.) 
the  Arbutus  Unedo,  the  Portugal  Laurel,  the 
English  Laurel,  and  the  Chili  Pine,  {Arauca- 
ria.)  Not  one  of  these  plants  will  stand  the 
winter  well  without  any  covering  elsewhere,  (so 
far  as  we  know,)  north  of  Baltimore.  At  New- 
port they  appear  to  grow  with  the  freshness  and 
the  depth  of  verdure,  that  marks  them  in  Eng- 
land— the  finest  climate  for  evergreens ;  and  to 
carry  out  the  resemblance  of  Ne^^'port  to  the 
best  parts  of  England,  we  may  mention  also, 
that  the  Isabella  and  Catawba  grape  scarcely 
ever  ripen  in  Newport,  there  not  being  a  suffi- 
ciency of  hot  sunny  days  there — while  the  lawns 
at  Newport  for  the  same  reason,  preserve 
softness  and  depth  of  verdure  which  wi 


seen  nowhere  out  of  Great  Britain.  In  Mr. 
Smith's  garden  we  observed  the  Deodar  Cedar, 
the  Atlas  Cedar,  the  Crj-ptomeria  joponica,  all 
the  English  Hollies,  remarkably  luxuriant,  and 
showing  none  of  the  signs  of  having  been  pinch- 
ed by  winter,  which  all  those,  (except  the  De- 
odar) often  do  in  our  northern  pleasui-e  grounds. 
Many  of  the  grounds  surrounding  the  gentle- 
men's summer  cottages,  have  been  planted  late- 
ly with  quantities  of  Hollies,  Austrian  Pines, 
English  Laurels,  &c.,  and  Mr.  Smith,  who  is 
perfectly  conversant  with  all  the  gardening  ex- 
periments of  the  island,  informs  us  that  250,- 
000  ornamental  trees  have,  to  his  knowledge, 
been  planted  in  private  grounds  in  and  about 
Newport,  within  the  last  six  years.  These  have 
partly  been  procured  from  American  nurseries, 
but  great  numbers  of  evergreens  of  small  size, 
have  been  imported  from  England  and  France. 
In  ten  years  more  the  naked  shores  of  the  island 
will,  we  hope,  be  as  leafy  and  beautiful  as  those 
of  the  Isle  of  Wight — for  while  many  trees  that 
thrive  well  in  the  interior  will  not  thrive  upon 
the  salt  air  of  Newport — there  are  many,  as  we 
have  here  pointed  out,  which  the  mild  and  soft 
climate  favors,  that  will  not  thrive  so  well  in 
any  other  part  of  the  country — for  at  the  south 
— where  the  winter  temperature  is  the  same, 
the  summers  are  too  hot. 


The  Sage  Grape — A  Humbug. — Sir: — In 
Allen's  work  on  the  grape,  p.  134,  is  a  de- 
scription of  what  he  calls,  the  "  Sage  grage," 
which  is  so  highly  praised,  I  was  induced  to 
send  to  Mr.  Sage  for  some  plants.  He  sent  me 
two,  for  which  he  charged  me  $2  each, — and 
cheap  enough  at  that,  if  they  had  been  what 
they  were  represented  to  be. 

I  planted  them  with  care  in  a  rich  soil.  They 
soon  put  out  leaves,  and  immediately  I  began 
to  suspect  that  they  were  nothing  more  than 
the  common  wild  grape — so  strongly  did  the 
leaves  resemble  those  of  the  latter. 

Not  feeling  inclined  to  nurse  a  doubtful  quali- 
ty of  vine,  I  took  the  precaution  a  few  days 
since  to  send  to  Mr.  Sage  for  a  pound  or  two 
of  the  ripe  grapes,  in  order  to  test  the  quality. 
I  have  received  them,  and  now  send  a  portion 
of  them  to  you,  that  you  may  pass  your  judg- 
ment upon  them .  If  you  agree  with  me  that  it 
vile,  common  wnld  grape,  so  Foxy  (I  think 
the  term)  as  nearly  to  close  the  throat 


after  swallowing  them,  I  think  you  will  confer 
a  favor  on  the  readers  of  the  Horticulturist 
(such  as  may  be  tempted  to  buy  the  plants  by 
the  pufF  contained  in  Mr.  Allen's  book,)  by 
giving  the  grajje  its  true  character.  Mr.  Sage 
undoubtedly  believes  it  to  be  a  very  superior 
grape,  but  I  think  (and  you  probably  will  agree 
with  me,)  that  he  is  quite  mistaken.  Tours, 
very  truly,  Henry  Sheldon.  Tarrytown, 
N.  v.,  Oct.  1851. 

Kemarks. — The  grapes  which  accompanied 
this  letter  from  Mr.  Sheldon,  (one  of  our  most 
experienced  amateurs  on  the  Hudson,)  were 
most  undeniably  "  Fox  grapes" — the  large  light 
colored  varietj-,  as  big  and  as  indigestible  as 
bullets.  To  swallow  such  a  grape  requires  as 
much  fortitude  as  would  be  necessary  to  take  a 
box  of  pills  at  one  gulp — and  no  man  who  has 
ever  tasted  a  grape  that  is  a  grape  would  dream 
of  cultivating  a  vine  of  this  soi't  after  tasting 
the  fruit.  Mr.  Sage  should  be  "  sat  upon,"  as 
Dickens  says,  not  bj' the  coroner,  perhaps,  but 
by  a  committee  of  the  nearest  Horticultural 
Society,  and  have  Black  Hamburghs  adminis- 
tered to  him  every  fifteen  minutes  till  he 
awakens  to  a  consciousness  of  the  flavor  and 
quality  of  a  real  table  grape.    Ed. 


The  Color  of  Flowers. — Mr.  Dowing: — 
There  are  some  peculiarities  belonging  to  blue 
flowers  which  I  have  not  noticed"  to  have  been 
observed  by  others,  or  if  observed,  I  do  not 
recollect  to  have  seen  them  published.  Shoidd 
you  think  the  following  remarks  sufficiently  in- 
teresting, they  are  at  your  service.  One  of 
those  peculiar  traits,  is,  that  a  large  majority 
of  our  native  plants  bearing  blue  flowers,  bloom 
either  early  in  the  spring  months  or  late  in  the 
autumn  or  fall  months.  Let  any  one  take  the 
trouble  to  make  out  a  list  of  the  flowers  as  they 
begin  to  bloom  in  the  months  of  March  or  April, 
as  the  locality  north  or  south  will  require,  and 
continue  it  through  the  summer  and  fall  to 
November,  he  will  be  surprised  at  the  large 
number  of  blue  flowers  in  the  spring  and  au- 
tumn months,  and  the  small  proportion,  relative 
to  other  colors,  during  the  summer.  The  true 
cause  of  this  peculiarity  I  will  not  presume  to 
give,  but  would  suggest  the  inquiry,  does  the 
density  of  the  atmosphere  at  these  periods  have 
any  influence  in  producing  this  phenomena?  Do 
blue  flowers  require,  and  consume  more  oxygen 


than  those  of  other  colors?  We  see  that  whenever 
we  bruise  the  petals  or  express  the  juice  from 
the  petals  of  red  tlowers,  and  expose  it  to  the 
atmosphere,  it  changes  to  a  blue  color ;  is  this 
change  of  color  caused  by  the  absorption  of 
oxj'gen?  If  so,  may  not  plants  consume  a 
greater  quantity  at  the  seasons  above  alluded 
to,  than  when  in  a  morerarified  state?  Or  does 
the  intensity  of  the  solar  rays  alone  cause  a  re- 
dundancy of  the  brighter  colored  flowers  during 
the  summer  months. 

Another  peculiarity  is,  that  blue  flowering 
plants  in  their  native  state,  are  much  more  fre- 
quently found  growing  in  moist  shaded  situa- 
tions, than  in  more  exposed  or  sunny  spots. 
There  are  several  plants  whose  color  can  be 
changed  from  pale  red  to  blue,  by  employing 
swamp  mould,  and  keeijing  them  in  the  shade, 
more  especially  among  those  that  bloom  early  in 
the  spring.  By  pursuing  the  hints  thus  thrown 
out  by  the  Creator,  can  we  not  be  led  to  try  the 
experiment  of  producing  blue  flowers  upon 
plants  that  now  uniformly  bear  tho.se  of  other 
colors.  Probably  they  would  require  to  be  car- 
ried through  several  generations  before  their 
present  habits  would  give  way  to  this  artificial 
treatment.  I  have  very  little  doubt  of  success 
if  the  experiments  were  persevered  in. 

The  peculiarities  are  so  palpable  and  distinct, 
that  if  upon  experiment  the  foregoing  sugges- 
tions should  be  found  to  be  true  either  in  whole 
or  part,  by  any  person  who  may  have  more 
leisure  than  your  humble  servant  to  try  them, 
I  shall  be  amply  repaid  for  the  time  employed 
in  writing  this  fugitive  article.  J.  Van  Boren. 
ClarksvilU,  Geo.,  Oct.  17,  1851. 


PnoTECTiNG  Roses  and  Carnations. — M. 
Wood,  (Pittsburgh.)  The  hardier  China  ro- 
ses, such  as  Bourbon,  Noisettes,  &c,  will  be  suflB- 
ciently  protected  by  bending  down  the  tops  and 
covering  them  with  straw,  cornstalks, — or  what 
is  much  better,  branches  of  evergreens.  Cover 
Tea  roses  with  a  little  mound  of  tan  bark — and 
turn  a  box  over  the  tan  to  keep  the  wet  out. 


Carnations  and  picotees,  if  they  have  been  left 
in  the  beds — may  be  carried  through  the  winter 
by  turning  a  flat  box  over  the  bed — so  as  to 
cover  all  the  plants.  Raise  the  box  about  an 
inch  or  two  on  the  north  side,  by  a  stone  under 
its  edge,  and  stick  down  a  guard  of  small  sticks 
all  along  the  open  edge,  close  enough  to  keep 
out  the  mice,  but  not  so  close  as  to  keep  out  the 
air.  Do  not  touch  or  remove  the  box  till  the 
spring  fairly  opens.  This  is  the  simplest  and 
best  mode. 

Insects  in  the  Ground. — Peter  Wall.  If 
you  will  take  the  trouble  to  throw  up  the  soil 
into  ridges  under  your  plum  and  apple  trees — 
now — before  winter — extending  the  operation  as 
far  as  the  roots  go,  you  will,  by  the  help  of  Jack 
Frost,  destroy  a  large  part  of  the  curculiosand 
other  insects  that  have  taken  lodgings  there  for 
the  winter. 

EvERGRENS. — B.  P.,  (Cayuga.)  If  you  can 
remove  evergreens  with  balls  of  earth  about  the 
roots,  winter  is  the  verj-  best  time.  If  you  have 
to  loose  the  earth  from  the  roots,  then  wait  till 
the  trees  begin  to  start  in  the  spring — for  that 
is  much  the  best  time  under  the  latter  circum- 
stances. 

Tiger  Flowers. — Jas.  Culver,  (Royalton.) 
Sow  the  seeds  in  a  pot  in  February,  if  you  have 
a  green-house,  or  in  March  if  you  have  a  hot- 
bed. They  will  come  up  in  a  fortnight  and 
flower  the  next  year.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  beautiful  hybrids  may  be  raised  between 
Tigridia  conchiflora  and  T.  pavonia.  The 
roots  of  Tiger  flowers  are  such  tempting  mor- 
sels to  mice,  that  you  must  keep  them  buried 
in  sand  or  shut  up  in  a  box,  as  well  as  out  of 
the  reach  of  frost,  or  you  will  lo.se  them. 

Tan-bark. —  W.  Jones,  (New- York.)  There 
is  no  better  covering  for  beds  or  bulbs,  (such  as 
hyacinths,  and  tulips.  Ranunculus,  &c.,)  tender 
herbaceous  plants,  &c.,  than  tan  laid  over  the 
top  of  the  ground  a  couple  of  inches  thick.  A 
coat  of  this  thickness  should  be  laid  over  all 
strawberry  beds  in  parts  of  the  country  where 
the  winter  frosts  are  severe  upon  them.  And 
asparagus  beds  are  much  benefited  by  the  same 
treatment. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


A. 

Abies  smithiaiia, 241,  342 

Acer  dasycarpum, 291 

—  iiegundo, 291 

—  rubrum, 291 

Achimenes,  culture  of,.  437 

Acres,  Scotch  and  English, 487 

Actea  alba, 208 

—  rubra, 208 

jEgeria  exitiosa, 492 

Agaric  campestris,  264 

Agave  americana, 15 

Ag.  Interest,  Na.  ignorance   of,.  393 

Agricultural  Schools, 287 

Albany  University 531 

American  Plants,  Neglected.. . . .  201 

Ammonia  in  Horticulture,.. .....     96 

Anemone  nemorosa, 208 

—  thalictroides, 208 

Animals  for  p.trks. 170 

Ants,  to  destroy,. .' 342 

Aphis  persica, 492 

APPLKS — varieties : 

Baldwin, 22 

Belmont 181 

Black  Lady, 509 

Cooper, 181 

Dickson's  Emperor, 377 

Kaighn's  Spitzeiiberg, 181 

Northern  Spy, 351 

Pryor's  Red, 181 

Putnam  Russett, 181 

Red-streak, 496 

Ribstone  Pippin, 16,  292 

Rome  Beauty, 181 

Townsend. 22 

Transparent  de  Zurich, 509 

Apple  orchard.  A  little  talk  in  the,  255 

Apple  pomace, 194 

Apple  irees,  Analysis  of, 44 

Diseases  of, 122 

for  Northern  climate, 293 

Apricot  trees, 3.35 

seedling, 383 

crackings  of  the  trunk  ot", .  392 

Aquarium.  Comstock's, ....  41.3,  482 

Aquatic  plants,  culture  of, 413 

Aquilegia  canadensis, 209 

Araucaria 241 

Arbutus,  trailing, 207,  296 

ARCHITECTURE,  RURAL: 

Building,  our  progress  in,.  . .  249 
Church  in  Romanesque  style,  574 
Coltage  for  a  country  cler- 
gyman,  313 

Country  churches, 9 

E.xpression  in, 421,  562 

Freestone  coltage,  plan  of .  .  173 

Rural  church, 241 

Stable,  ornamental, 98 

School-house,  design  for  a, . .  471 

Arethu^a,  snakemouth, 210 

Arnott's  stove, jg 

Aronia  botryapium, 209 

Art,  the  beautiful  in, 463 

Artificial  Rockeries, 276 

Arum  triphyllum, 208 

—  water,  210 

Asclepia-s  grandiflora, 212 

—  tuberosa,    212 

Ashes,  unleached, 194 

Aster,    214 

Atragene  americana, 342 

Autumn  Hints, 481 

Autumn  pruning, 535 

Azalea, 209 

Azurum  canadensis,* 208 


B. 

Baccata  flore  pleno  alba, 507 

—  fructa  purpurea, 506 

oblonga, 507 

striata, 506 

—  macrocarpa, 506 

—  odorata, 507 

—  spectabilis, 5o8 

—  lran.«parent  de  Rouen, 5o8 

Beautiful  in  Art, 463 

Beech  tree, 14 

B«ees, 100,  176 

Beliwort, 208 

Berberis  japonica, .325 

Bignoniacapreolata, 147,  334 

Birds,  eloquent  plea  for, 157 

Blackberries, 296 

—  while, 440 

Bloodroot, 208 

Blue  Flag, 211 

Bluett, 209 

Blueyed  Grass, 210 

Boiling  water  for  peach  trees, . .  .   187 

Bone  earth  of  New-Jersey, 196 

Bones,  how  to  dissolve, 197 

Books  for  Horticulturists, 293 

Borer,  the, 492 

Botany,  Rough  Notes  on  th«  His- 
tory of, 311 

Box,  propagation  of, 295 

Brick  walls,  wash  for, 295 

Buckthorn, 56,  82 

Buddlea  Undleyana, 242 

Building,  Our  progress  in, 249 

Buttonwood  disease, 322,  349 

C. 

Cabbage,  Pomeranian, 376 

Cacti,  how  to  graft, 377 

Cactus,  New  Mexican, 350 

—  opuntia, 212 

California  seeds, 242 

Calla  palustris, 210 

Calopogon  pulchellum,    210 

Caltha  palustris, 208 

Camellias,    99,  103 

—  hardy  at  Boston, 242 

Campanula  rolundiiolia, 212 

Canadas,  Horticulture  in  the,. . . .  292 

Cape  Jasmine,  Fortune's, 468 

Carisbrook  Castle,    39 

Carnations, 392,  481 

—  properties  of, 184 

—  protection  for, 576 

Carrot,  value  of  the, 196 

—  white  transparent, 97 

Cassia  chamoecrista, 211 

—  nictitans, 211 

Cauliflowers,  Be.st 376 

Cattle,  sale  of  Improved, 296 

—  sale  at  Mount  Forham, 372 

Ceanotlms  dentatus, 325 

—  papillosus, ,325 

Cedar  of  Lebanon, .392 

Cercis  canadensis, 292 

—  siliquastrum, 341 

Charcoal,  refuse, 148,  ia3 

CHERRIES: 

Black  Hawk, 360 

Governor  Wood, 360 

Great  Bigarreau, 20,  193 

New  and  valuable, 440 

Robert's  Red  Heart, 21 

Two  New, 360 

preservation  from  birds, ....  336 

Cherry  trees,  disease  in, 126 

grubs  in, 197 


Chestnuts,  how  to  traasplant,  ...     81 
Chimaphila  maculata, 211 

—  umbellata, 211 

Chionanthus  virginica, 292 

Churches  in  the  country, 9 

Chrysanthemums. 392 

Cicada  septendecim, 335 

Claytonia  virginica, 208 

Clematis  virginicus, 212 

Climate  of  Newport, 574 

Climbers, 146 

—  diflerence  m, 392 

Coal  ashes, 1 04 

Cockroaches,  receipt  to  kill, 342 

Cold  on  plants,  action  of, 431 

Columbine, 209 

Commissions  of  Gardeners,  ....  288 

Convallaria, 210 

Convention,  pomological, 383 

Corcus  trestis, 513 

Corydalis  fungosa, 210 

—  glauca, 210 

Cottages  for  country  clergymen,.  313 

—  plan  of  a  freestone, 173 

Cottages,  cheap, 487 

Country  in  autumn, 553 

Country  places,  management  of,  105 

Cows  for  parks, 172 

Cowslips,  vi'aler, 208 

CRABS : 

Astracan  or  Evergreen, 508 

Currant 509 

Double  flowering, 508 

Double  white  Siberian 507 

Fragrant  flowered  Siberian,  507 

Large  Siberian, 506 

Oblong  Siberian, 507 

Purple  Siberian, 506 

Rouen  Transparent  Siberian,  507 

Showy, 508 

Striped  Siberian, 506 

Cranesbill, 211 

Cryptomeria  japonica, 241,  3.34 

Crystal  palace,  winter  garden  hi,  4.30 

what  is  to  become  of  the,.  431 

Cucumber  flea, 512 

Curculio,  destruction  of  the,  3.3,  243, 
336,  375 

—  Extirpator, .383 

—  Limewash  for  the, 525 

—  notes  on  the, .' 280,  .396 

—  Prof  Harris  on  the, 341 

—  successful  practice  against,..  .  230 

—  versus  Lime  and  Sulphur, ....  420 

Curl  in  peaches 492 

Currant,  plan  of  improving  the,. .  164 

—  Leaf, 20s 

Currants,  large, 296 

Casenta  americana, 212 

Cuttings, 104 

Cutworm,  to  destroy  the, 198 

Cypress,  deciduous, 223 

Cypripedium,    210 

D. 

Dahlias, 481 

Daphne  odora, 335 

Decorative  Gardening, 134 

Denlareadiphylla, 208 

Deodar  Cedar 241 

Detroit  River  Pear  trees, 65 

Deutzia  gracilis, 468 

Dew,  philosophy  of, 304 

Diseases  of  the  potatoe  and  But 

tonwood, 322 

Dodder, 212 

Dogs,  secret  of  perfect  itistinct  in,  155 


Draining  grounds  for  fruit  trees, .  352 

Drawing  plants, 392 

Drip  in  iVames  and  pits, 51 

Dropmore, 137 

Duration  ol' varieties  ol'plants,  472,  494 

E. 

Echinocaclus  rodophtlialmuii,. . . .  350 

Education  of  Gardeners, 215 

Edueaiion,  Reform  in  physical,. .     54 

Eglantine, 212 

Elder,  Box,   291 

Electrical  phenomena, 4S 

Elm,  white, 291 

Endogen, 17 

Endosmose,   258 

England,  letters  from,  36,83,  137,  281 

Epigtca  repeiis, 207 

Epilobium  spicatura, 213 

Erica  elegans, 419 

Erylhroniura  americaimm, 208 

Escallonia,  large  red, 4fi6 

Espalier  fruit  trees, 342 

Euchroniia  coccinea, 213 

Euonymus,  Evergreen, 242 

Evergreens,  manure  for, 334 

—  seeds  of, 56 

—  transplanting, 483 

Exogen, 17 

Exosmose, 258 

Experiments  hi  mulching, 326 

F. 

Fine  arts,  essence  of, 23 

Fire  blight, 104 

Fish  ponds, 53 

FloricuUural  perfection, 418 

Flower  beds  and  borders, 210 

Flowers  for  parlor  in  winter,.  . . .  501 

Flowers  wild,  ranibleamong, . . .  207 

—  color  of, 575 

Forest  leaf  manure, 194 

Forest  trees,  transplanting  of,...  78 

Forget-me-not, 209 

Forsythia  viridissima, 242,  288 

Fortune's  Cape  jasmine, 468 

Foxglove,  False, 213 

Frames  and  pits,  drip  in, 51 

Fringe  tree, 292 

Fruit,  degeneration  f  <; 13,  120 

Fruit  Culture,  a  few     -ords  on,.  297 

in  the  United  Si     ^s, 482 

FruitfulnessproraotedV.       tepru- 

iiiiig, 258 

Fruit  growers  crusade  a>  ithe 

Grand  Turk, 7 .         ...  33 

Fruits,  at  the  south, 64 

—  cross  breeding  of, 162 

—  Exportation  of, *..    .,  99 

—  Improvement  of, 162 

—  Importation  of, 99 

—  new  or  rare, 20 

—  preservation  of,  290,  380,  417,  437, 

439,  526 

—  Ripening  of, 439 

—  Select  list  of, 487 

—  Wayne  county, 159 

Fruit  trees,  bearing  age  of, 71 

diseases  of  at  the  West,.. .  122 

manuring, 4f-2 

pruning,., 72 

protection     from    Rabbits 

and  Hares, 479 

Removal  of, 81 

vase  or    goblet    mode    of 

training, 97 

G. 

Galereuca  vittata. 513 

Garden  of  Mrs.  Lawrence, 447 

Garden,  Renovation  of  an  old,. .     67 
Gardeners;   Commissions, 288 

—  Education  of, 245 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Gardeners,  Prospects  of, 217 

Gardenia  Florida, 468 

—  stanleyana, 418 

Gardening,  decorative, 1.34 

—  market, 377 

—  pleasures  of, 94 

Gardens,  preparing  fruit, 488 

Garden  utensils,  215 

Gases  plants  feed  on, 557 

Geese, 173 

Gentian,  Fringed, 213 

Gcntiana  crinita, 213 

Georgia  Bark,  .  104 

—  Horticulture, 195 

Geranium,  Crowfoot, 211 

—  Lucia  rosea, 325 

—  Maculatum, 211 

—  Scarlet, 535 

at  sea, 435 

Gerardia  flava, 213 

—  pedicularia, 213 

—  purpurea, 213 

—  tenuifolia, 213 

Germany,  Domestic  life  in, 43 

Ginger,  Wild 208 

Ginko  Tree,  the, 129 

Glover's  Model  Fruits, 436 

Glycine  apios, 213 

—  sinensis. 478 

Graphalum  polycephalum, 213 

—  margaritaceum, 213 

Golden  Bell  shrub,    288 

Golden  Rod, 213 

Golden  Trumpet  Flower, 14^ 

Gordonia  lasianthus, 223 

GRAPES — varieties : 

California, 517 

Cigar  box, 224 

Clinton,    487 

Diana, 64 

Isabella,  histoiy  of  the, 410 

New  varieties 49 

Ohio, .' 224 

Raisin  Royale  de  Craan,  ...     49 

Sage,  a  humbug 575 

GRAPE-VINES  : 

Borders  for, 66,  197 

Diseases  of,  120 

Foreign.  Notes  on, 12,  156 

For  New- York, 104 

For  Norlherii  climates, 293 

Grafting. 100,  198 

Gossip  on, 41 1 

In  pots 189 

Leaf  blight  in,  487 

Mammoth, 45 

New  seedlings, 527 

Notes  on, 444 

Notes  on  by  Longworth,  246, 374 

Raising  new  varieties, 516 

Rot  in, 482 

Wild,  habits  of  the, 

Grass  pink, 210 

Green-houses,  Cheap, 17 

—  cheap  coveruig  for,      525 

—  management  in, 56 

—  Plants  for, 536 

—  Plants  for  at  the  South, 232 

—  value  of,  for  invalids, 409 

Green-house  Plants,  cheap  pit  for,  470 

how  to  take  up, 488 

Ground  nut, 213 

Grub,  White, 198 

Guano, 480 

Gypsum,  Influence  of, 477 

H. 

Habenaria  fimbriata, 212 

Habrothamnus  elegans, 324 

Hairbell, 212 

Haltica  pubescens, 512 

Hamilton,  AVilliam, 129 

Hampton  Court, 285 


Hares  and  Rabits,  proteclion  of 

trees  from, 4' 

Haricot  d' Algiers, 376 

Harris,  Prof,  on  the  Curculio,  . .  341 
Hedges, 56,  82 

—  Evergreen, 197,  198 

—  Osage  orange  for, 203,  483 

Helonias  di.sica, 213 

Hepatica  acutiloba, 207 

History,  (scientific)  of  a  plant,. .   267 

Holly,  American, 52,  203,  291 

Honeysuckle,  Fly,    209 

—  Scarlet, .  .' 468 

—  wild,..' 209 

Horse  Chestnut,D'ble  Flowering,  527 
Hon.  exhibitions,  influence  of,. .  59 
at  Salem, 103 

—  Shows, 523 

HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETIES: 

Adrian,  (Mich.)  oflJcers  of,. .  295 
Alb.  and  Rens.,  officers  of. .   144 

Exhibitions  of, 387,  486 

Berkshire,  (Mass.)   meetings 

of, 389,  528 

Buffalo,  officers  of, 200 

Chester  CO.,  (Penn.)  meetings  34-t 
Cleveland,  (O.)  officers  of,.  .  344 
Cincinnati,  (O.)  officers,  of,.  295 
Genesee  Valley,  officers  of, .  145 
Hartford  co.,  (Ct.)  officers  of,  344 
London  Hort.  Soc,  (Eng.,).  379 
Maryland:  Fruit  meetings  of,  93 
Mass. :  Annual  meetuig,.  ...     91 

—  Exhibitions, 337,  289 

—  Prizes, 144 

Montreal  Bot.  Soc, officers  of,  200 
New  Bedford,  officers  of, . . .  200 

N.  .1 .,  meetings  of, 248,  438 

Oswego,  officers  of, 388 

—  meetings  of, 529 

Pennsylvania,  meetings  of,.    42, 

248,  343,  387,  4.38,  528 

—  Officers  of, 199 

Rome,  officers  of, 295 

Staten  Island,  meeting  of,.. .  5.31 
Valley  of  Lake  Champlain,  145 

—  meeting  of, 530 

Worcester     county,   annual 

meeting, 93 

Horticulture  in  the  Canadas, 292 

—  of  Georgia, 195 

—  8outhern, 71,  220 

—  State  and  prospects  of, 537 

Hotel,  model, 528 

Hot  Houses  among  the  Romans,  378 

Hot  water  apparatus, 392 

Houstonia  cerulea, 209 

Hungary,  life  in, 571 

H j'de  park, 282 

Hydrangea  involucrata, .     95 

I. 

Ice  house,  management  of, 94 

Ilex  opaca, 291 

Impatiens  pallida, 212 

Indian  pipe, 211 

Innocence, 209 

Insect  on  the  China  Rose, 188 

Invalids,  value  of  Greehhouses  to,  409 

Iris,  Boston, 211 

—  prismatica, 211 

—  versicola, 21 1 

Ivy, 146 

—  a  gigantic, 288 

J. 

Jack  in  the  Pulpit, 208 

Jewel  weed. 212 

June  berry, .' 209 

Judas  tree, 292 

K. 

Kalmia, 203 

Kensington  Gardens, 282 


li. 

Lady's  Tresses, 213 

Landscape  Gardening,  hints  on,.  489 

Landscape,  Winter, 54 

Laurel,  American, 203 

Lawns,  making  new, 191 

—  a  word  or  two  on, 234 

Lawrence,  Mrs.,  Garden  of,....  447 

Leaf  Blight, 117,  354 

Leaves,  .«ave  the  dead, 481 

Iiejnundra  virginica, 212 

lielters  from  England,  36,  83,  137,  281 

Lettuce,  Best  Summer, 376 

—  Xe;ipolilan  Cabbage, 376 

I-il'e  Everlasting, 213 

Lilium  canadeuse, 212 

—  pliiladelphicum,   212 

—  superbum, 212 

Lily  Wood, 212 

Lime,  oyster  shell, 52 

liinnea  borealis, 211 

Liriodenaron  tulipefera, 201 

List  of  plants  to  be  observed, 484 

Liverleaf, 207 

liobelia  caidinalis, 213 

—  siphilitica, 213 

Locusts,  Seventeen  year, 335 

Lonibardy  Poplar, 129 

London  Parks, 281 

Loose  strife, 211 

Lupine,  AVild, 211 

Lupinus  perennis, 211 

liycojierdon  cancellatum, 3.54 

Lysimacliia  stricta, 22,  211 

M. 

Macleania  cordala, 325 

Magnolia,  Umbrella, 334 

Magnolias 223 

Manures,  Forest  leaf, 104 

—  for  evergreens, .334 

—  philosophy  of, 428 

—  special, 198 

Maple,  red, 291 

—  white, 291 

Market  gardening, 377 

May  Apple, 209 

Melon  bug,  striped, 513 

Melons, 126 

—  culture  of, 511 

—  culture  of  at  the  north, 228 

—  how  to  plant, 194 

—  water 196 

Memoranda.  Pomologieal, 351 

Meteorological  Notes, 151 

Mice,  hurtful  to  trees, 527 

Mitella  diphylla, 208 

Mitre  wort 209 

Moccasin  flowers, 210 

Model  fruits,  Glover's, 406 

Mount  Fordham,  cattle  sale  at,..  372 
Mulching,  experiments  in, 320 

—  Importance  of, 237 

—  Tau-bark  for, 244 

Mushrooms,  how  to  grow, 264 

N. 

Naked  places, 56 

Natural  History,  register  of,....  484 

Necklace  Weed, 208 

Nectarine,  Harker 376 

—  a  smooth  peach, 243,  339 

New  Orleans,  gardening  at, 221 

New- York  Park, 345 

New- York  .State  Fair, 486 

Norfolk  Ag.  Society, 535 

Norris  Castle. 37 

North  Carolina,  foreign  vines  in,  243 

Notes  of  the  season, 151 

reform, 377 

lea  odorata, 211 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


O. 

Ohio  mineral  paint, 101 

Oleagnus  parviflorus, 384 

Olive,  IJohemiaUj 334 

Onion,  llie  acumniate, 382 

Orange  trees,  sickly, 342 

Orchards  in  New  England, 31 

—  in  Wayne  county,  N.  Y.,. . . .  159 

—  renovating  old, 561 

Orchis  speclabilis, 210 

—  Iringed 212 

Osage  Orange, 203,  483 

Osborne  House, 36 

Oxalis  boweij 377 

Oyster  shell  hrne, 52 

P. 

Paeonies,  tree,  new, 332 

Paeony,  tree,  gardens  of  in  China,  302 

Panned  cups, 213 

Painting  houses, 197 

Paint,  Ohio  mineral, 101 

Parasitic  fungi, 316 

Parlor  flowers  in  winter, 501 

Park,  New-York, 345 

Parks  in  London, 281 

Parks,  animals  for, 171 

Park,  study  of 427 

Partridge  Berry, 211 

Peach,  analysis  of  the, 102 

—  and  nectarines, 339,  437 

—  at  the  south, 64 

—  Walburton  admirable, 377 

Peach  tree,  boiling  water  for,. . .  187 

—  cause  of  decline, 392 

—  effects  of  shortening  in, 384 

—  Premature  decay  ot", 491 

Peach  worm,  new  mode  of  de- 
stroying,   109 

PEARS— varieties: 

Barronne  de  Mello, 116 

Beurre  Andusson, 154 

Beurre  Benoist, 116 

Beurre  Bretonneau, 116 

Beurre  Clairgeau  of  Nantes,  505 

Beurre  Crapaud, 293 

Beurre  de  Waterloo, 113 

Beurre  Giffard, 116 

Beurre  Langlier, 112 

Beurre  Scheidweller, 116 

Beurre  Sprin, 116 

Beurre  Sterkmann, 116 

Beurre  Superfin, 116 

Bon  Parent, 116 

Brown  Beurre, 357 

CaUnka, 116 

Doyenne  de  Nerchmann, . . .  116 
Doyeinie  du  Cornice   d' An- 
gers,   504 

Doyenne  gris  d'Hiver  nou- 

veau, 114 

Fondanle  de  Malines, 113 

Fondante  de  Millot, 116 

Howell, 115 

Inconnue  Van  Mons, 113 

Lawrence, 30 

Marechal  de  la  Cour, 116 

Nouveau  Poiteau, 112 

Sheldon, 52 

Saint  Nicholas, 114 

Smith's  Bordenave, 116 

Soldat  Laboureur, 116 

Souvenir  d'Etes, 115 

Triomphe  de  Jodoigne, 115 

Niedow, 504 

Williamson, 494 

Pear  trees,  blight  of, 193 

—  Detroit  River  trees, 65 

—  Diseases  of, 123 

—  for  Northern  Climate, 293 

—  Four  best, 194 

—  French  mode  of  pruning,. . . .  178 

—  Largest  Pear  yet, 527 


Pear  trees.  Leaf  blight, 354 

—  Modern,  Chapter  on, Ill 

—  On  the  Quince, 29,  361 

—  Orchards  of  S.  B.  Parsons,  . .     29 

—  Pyramidal  trees, 177 

—  Renovation  of  old, 425,  535 

—  Running  out  of, 480 

—  Seedling  slocks,  grafting  of,. .     56 

—  Select  list  of, 487,  536 

—  Three  new, 503 

Peas,  a  word  about  early, 290 

—  Best  late, 376 

—  Champion  of  England, 143 

—  Early, 376 

—  Knight's  Fall  Marrow, 144 

—  Prince  Albert, 143 

—  Russian  mode  of  preserving,  .  380 

Peat  earth, 198 

Pennsylvania,  trees  and  pleasure 

grounds  of, 69,  127 

People's  Park  at  Birkenhead,. . .  224 

Pepper  Root, 208 

Petunia  Eclipse, 325 

Physiology,  vegetable, 204 

Picea  cephalonica,.. 241 

Pickerel  weed, 210 

Pickneya  pubeiis, 104 

Pinetum  at  Dropmore, 1.37 

Pink  grass, 210 

Pinks,  Dwarfs  of  Verviers, 183 

Pinus  excelsa, 241 

Pitcher  plant, 210 

Pits,  drip  in, 51 

Plant,  scientific  history  of  a,    ...  267 
Plants,  how  first  distributed, ....     47 

—  neglected  American, 201 

—  notices  of  new, 324,  468 

—  to  be  observed, 484 

—  winter  beddings  of, 392 

—  roots  of, 50 

PLUMS— varieties : 

Autumn  G:ige, 133 

Bleeckcr  Gage, 132 

Blue  Imperatrice, 133 

Cloth  of  Gold, 133 

Coe's  Golden  Drop, 132 

Coe's  Late  Red, 132 

Columbia 132 

Denniston's  Red, 134 

Denniston's  Albany  Beauty,  134 

de  I'Inde, 561 

Early  Royal 133 

Emerald  Drop, 1-33 

General  Hand, 21,  187,  294 

Green  Gage, 132 

Groundacre, 294 

Gundaker, 524 

Huling's  Superb, 133 

Ickworth  Imperatrice, 134 

Imperial  Ottoman, 133 

Jefferson, 133 

Lawrence's  Favorite, 133 

Lombard, 132 

Lucomb's  Nonsuch, 133 

Marten's  Seedling, 133 

Mediterranean, 133 

Montgomery, 294,  524 

Morocco, 133 

Nectarine, 134 

Peach, 1.32 

Prince's  Imperial  Gage, 1.33 

Pond's  Seedling,  English, . . .  560 

Purple  Favorite, 134 

Purple  Gage, 134 

Purple  Magnum  Bonum, 1.33 

Red  Diaper, 133 

Red  Gage, 134 

Royal, 134 

Schenectady  Catharine, 132 

\Vashington, 133 

wild, 231 

Yellow  Magnum  Bonum, . . .  133 

Plum  trees,  curculio  on, 34 


Plum  Trees,  Diseases  of, 125 

—  For  northern  climates, 290 

—  Notes  on, 294,  376 

—  Pyramidal, 47 

—  Warts  on, 280 

Pogonia  ophioglossoides, 210 

Polygalia  paucifolia, 209 

Pomtne  o^rosciUe, 509 

Pomological  convention, 383 

Pomological  memoranda, 351 

Pomological  Congress, 180 

Pontederia  cordata, 210 

Poplar,  forest, £91 

Portulacca  new  variety  of, .  477,  596 
Potato  and  Buttonwood  diseases,  322 
Potatoes,  sweet,  culture  of. 3S4 

—  from  seed, 130 

Preservation  of  fruits, 290 

Prince's  Pine, 211 

Prime,  the  Gundaker, 524 

Pruning,  effects  of  late, 48 

—  fruit  trees, 55,     72 

—  forest  trees, 197 

—  fruitfuliiess  promoted  by  late,  268 

—  on  the  right  time  for, 255 

—  principles  of, 330 

—  theory  of, 546 

Prickly  pear, 212 

Pumpkin  Bug, 513 

Pyrola  rotundifolia, 211 

Quinces,  diseases  of, 125 

—  on  thorns, 101 

—  Scarlet  Japan,  propagation  of,  192 

R. 

Rabbits  vs.  Sulphur, 247 

Railroads  in  England, 138 

Random  notes, 147^  ]52 

Red  bud  tree, 292 

Reform,  nursery, 377 

Reform  in  village  government, . .  441 

Regents'  Park, 2*^4 

REVIEWS  : 

Barry's  Fruit  Garden, 329 

Breck's  Book  of  Flowers,  .  239 
Briiickle's  Am.  Pomologist, .  427 
•Tohnston's  Notes  on  N.  Am.  399 

Michaux's  N.  A.  Sylva, 541 

Norton's  Elements  of  Ag.,, .  41 
Russell's  Address  before  the 

Norfolk  Ag.  Soc,    518 

Treatise  on  the  Construction 

cf  Hot-houses, 41 

Ware's  Sketches  of  Europe- 
an Capitals 520 

West.  Hoi  t.  Review .'     42 

Wheeler's  Rural  Homes 567 

Rhododendron  catawbience.. . . ,  241 

Richmond  great  park 286,  386 

Rio,  the  gardens  of,. 301 

Rock  saxifrage, \  208 

Rockeries  artificial, '.   276 

Romans,  hothouses  among, .....  378 

Roots  of  plants, 50,  456,  543 

Ro.sa  rubiginosa, .'  212 

ROSES — varieties  : 

£oM?-6oni--Bouquetde  Flore,  367 

Comte  d'Eu 367 

Enfant  d'Apaccio, 367 

George  Cuvier, 368 

Grand  C.apitaine 368 

Pierre  de  St.  Cyr, 368 

Queen, 368 

Souchet, 368 

Souvenir  de  Malmaison, . .  369 
OAtnas— Archduke  Charles,.  368 

Clara  Syl  vain, 368 

Eugene  Beauharnais, 36S 

Mrs.  Bosaiiquet, 308 

Hybrid  Perpetuvls—.BaTOime 
Prevost, 367 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Roses— Dt.  Marx, 367 

Duehess  of  Sutherland, . . .  367 

Geant  de  Batailles, 367 

La  Reine, 367 

JVTadame  Laffay, 367 

Standard  of  Marengo,. . . .  367 

William  Jesse, 357 

Noisettes — Aimee  Vibert, . . .  369 

Narcisse, 369 

Ne  Plus  Ultra, 369 

Ophirie, 369 

Tea-scented — Adam, 368 

Comte  de  Paris, 368 

Devoniensis, 358 

Eliza  Sauvage, 368 

Safrano, 368 

Augusta, 436 

Fortune's  Five  Colored,  ....  287 
Prairie,  "Mrs.  Hovey,"247,  366 

Budding, 336 

Bug  on, 392 

Cream  of  the  Catalogues, . . .  366 

Free-blooming  winter, 1 04 

In  pots, 51 

In  winter, 454 

Insect  on  the  Chma, 188 

Large  trees, 182 

Perpetuals, 341 

Planting  of, 46 

Protection  for, 576 

Propagation  by  cuttings, 328 

Seedlings, 197 

Tender,  proteclion  of,. 385 

Rudbeckia  vacciniala.. . . .' 212 

Rural  Cot  of  Mr.  Knott, 254 

Rural  Hours,  by  Miss  Cooper, . .  192 

S. 

Saccalobium  Prsemorsum, 419 

Salem  Horticultural  Exhibition,.   102 

Salisburia  adaiuifolia, 129 

Salt  for  the  potato, 149 

Sanguinaria  canadensis, 208 

SanSwich  Islands,  Sketch  in,. ...  414 

Sarracenia  purpurea, 210 

Saxifraga  virginiensis, 20S 

Schnellgeiser, 215 

School  of  Design  for  Women,  . .  390 

Schools,  State  Agricultural, 387 

Seasonable  hints, 235 

Seeds  of  fruit  trees, 295 

Seeds  of  trees, 103,  394 

Sensitive  Plant,  wild. 211 

Sliad  bush, .' 209 

Slieep,  South  Downi, 173 

Shrubs  for  small  grounds, 536 

Siberian  Crab  for  Hedges, f-2 

Siberian  Crabs,  double  white,. . .  507 

Fragrant  flowered, 507 

Large, 506 

Oblong, 507 

Purple, 506 

Rouen  Transparent, 507 

Striped, 506 

Side-saddle  flower, 210 

Sisyrenchum  anceps, 210 

Skinner,  J.  S.,  death  of, 288 

Snake  mouth  Arethusa, 210 

Snowballs,  cure  of  diseased,, . . .  295 
Soils,  improvement  of  stiff  clay, .  289 

Solidago 213 

Solomon's  Seal,  210 

Spider,  Red, 342 

Spiiinach,  New  Zealand, 340 

Spiranthus  gracillia 213 

—  lortilis, .' 213 

Spirea  prunifolia  pleno, 242 

Spring  Beauty, 208 

Squash,  best  winter, l:"-; 

Stable,  design  for  ornamental,. .  .     9S 

Stands  for  flowering  plants, 60 

St.  James'  Park,  London 282  , 


STAWBERRIES— varieties : 

Alice  Maud, 357,  4,36 

Black  Prince, 357 

Buist's  Prize, 364 

Burr's  Mammoth, 364 

Burr's  New  Pine, 356,  364 

Burr's  new  varieties, 365 

Crimson  Cone, 365 

Deptford  Pine, 364 

Dr.  Briiickle's, 365 

English,  best, 377,  548 

Hovey's  Seedling, 356,  364 

Huntsman's  Pi.slillate, 364 

Jenny's  Seedlings, .357 

Lord  Spencer, 356 

McAvoy's  Superior, 383 

Mvatfs  Eliza, 364 

Myatt's  Pine, 365 

Richardson's, 365 

Roseberry, 357 

Schiller,  < 364 

Strawberries,  beds  how  to  make,  191 

—  Culture  of, 362,  545 

—  in  England. 548 

—  Fine  crops  of, 294 

—  Gigantic .383 

—  mulching, 327,  363 

—  notes  on, 62,  246,  356,  374 

—  Prize, ,3S3 

—  Staminates  productive,. .  a36,  363 

—  Tan  bark  a  covering  for,  ....  535 

—  Tannic  acid  for, 415 

Srrawberry  Hill, 510 

Stove.s 101 

Subsoiling, 148 

Suburban  Embellishments, 98 

Sulphurating  machine, 95 

Sulphur  used  against  Rabbits, . . .  247 

Sumac,  poison 392 

Superphosphate  of  lime  for  trans- 
planting,    445 

Swallow  worl, 212 

Sweet  Briar. 212 

Sweet  Corn,  Improved,  ....  53,  197 


T. 

Tan,  spent,  benefits  of, 

Tan-bark  for  mulching, 

Tannic  acid  for  strawberries,  .. 

Taste,  essay  on, 

Taxodium  semperviren.i, 

Thuya  filiformis, 

Tiarella  cordifolia,   

Tomatoes, 

Torreya  tsixifolia, 

Touch-me-not, 

Transplanting,  hints  on, 

—  Late, 

—  Sea.son  for, 

Traveller's  Joy, 

Trees,  age  of. 


Bearino-  a^e  of  fruit,  , 
Beauliml  in, 


—  Girdled, 

—  Hardy, 

—  List  of  old, 

—  mulching, 

—  of  America, 

—  Poor  soils  for, 

—  Removal  in  winter, 52, 

—  Resuscitation  of 214, 

—  Seeds  of, 

—  Streets,  for, 

—  Superphosphate  of  lime  for,.. 

—  Transplanting  forest,  ....   78, 

Tree  Primrose, 

Trenching, 

Trientalis  americana, 

Trillium  ei'Pctum, 

Turnep,  wild  or  Indian 


U. 

Ulraus  americana,. 


328 
244 
415 

73 
241 
241 
209 
488 
242 
212 
523 
296 
259 
212 

14 

71 

.55 
J  98 
241 

16 
327 
541 

56 
108 
561 
103 
488 
445 
198 
213 

57 
209 
209 
208 


Ulmus  alata 291 

—  fulva,.... 291 

—  memoralis, 291 

Unicorn  roots, 213 

University  of  Albany, 531 

Uiitensils,  garden, 215 

Uvalaria  perlbliata, 208 

—  sessilitblia, 208 

V. 

Varieties  of  plants,  limited  dura- 
tion of, 172,  492 

wearing  out, 370,  472 

Vegetables,  notices  of  several, . .  376 

—  preservation  of, 417,  437 

Vegetable  Phys.,  remarks  on,. . . .  204 

studies  in, 456,  543 

Vegetation, great  discovery  in,  153, 184 

Ventillatioi),  clieap, 101,  158 

Venus  pride, 209 

Verbenas, 100,  104 


INDEX  TO  CORRESPONDENTS. 


Verbenas,  new, 325 

Victoria  regia, 358,  450 

Villas  of  Rome, 135 

Vine  borders, 97 

Vineries, 296 

Vineries,  cheap, 17,  189 

—  construction  of, 100 

Vinery  at  IMedary, HG 

Vines,  climbing  for  trellises, 536 

Vines  foreign,  m  N.  Carolina,  243,  337 

Vineyards  of  foreign  grapes,. ...  13 

Viola  arborea, 525 

Violet,  dogtooth, 208 

—  wild, 209 

Virgilia, 342 

Virginia,  native  trees  of, 291 

Virgin's  Bower, 212 

w. 

Wake  Robin, 209 

Wash  for  brick  walls, 295 


Water,  influence  on  plants, 88 

Water  Lilly,  white, 211 

Water  Melons,  culture  of, 515 

Water  pipes, 296 

AVayne  county,  fruits  of, 159 

Wiegelea  rosea, 242 

AVight,  Isle  of, 36 

Willow  herb, 213 

Wild  flowers,  ramble  among, . . .  207 

Wines  of  the  Ohio, 156,  338 

Winter   green, 209,  211 

Woburn  abbey, 83 

Women,  education  of, 140 

Woodlands,  seat  of  Mr.  Hamilton.  192 
Wood  anemone, 203 

X. 

Xylosteum  ciliatum, 209 

Y. 

Yellows  in  Peaches, 492 


INDEX  TO  CORRESPONDENTS. 


A.,  New-Yovk  city, 152 

A.  A.  F.,  Brookline,  Mass.,- . . . .  224 

A.  D.,  New- York, 82 

Allen,  A.  B.,  New- York, 234 

Allen,  L.F.,  Black  Rock,  65,  170,  .351 
410 

A.  H.,  New-London,  Ct., 191 

A.  .1.  R.,  New-Bedford, 194 

A  Subscriber, 100 

A  Subscriber,  Middletown,  Ct.,.  173 
A  Subscriber,  Trenton,  N.  J.,. . .     55 

A.  T.,  Chester  co.,  Pa., 481 

A.  W.,  Philadelphia, 335 

B.,  Cambridge,  Mass., 69,  127 

Bacon,   W.,  Richmond,  Mass.,  101, 

152,  189.  385.  389,  520 

Balfour's  Manual  of  Botany,. ...     47 

Balmanno,  Robert,  N.  Y., 386 

Baron  Vanderstroeten,  in  .lour- 

nal  Agricole, 47g 

Bany,'?.,  Rochester, 204,  493 

Baylies,  A.,  Taunton,  Mass.,. . . .  349 

Beecher,  H.  W., gOi 

Bnigham,  J.  Hudson, 437 

Boston  Journal, 440 

Boston  Subscriber, 425 

Braithwaite,  H.  T.,  England,  ...     73 

Buchanan,  R.,  Cincinnati, 333 

Buist,  R.,  Philadelphia, 86 

C,  Flushing,  N.  Y., 288 

C.  P.,  Granville,  Ohio 246 

OS., 43 

Caboi,  J.  S  ,  Boston, 389,  439 

Casey,  J.  M., 3SS,  529 

Chandler,  Abiel,  Concord,  N.  H.,  99 
Chorlton,  W.,  Stat.  I.,.  245,  454,  516 
Collier,  A..  South  Groton.  Mass.,     78 

Comples  Rendus,   .' , .  378,  479 

Comstock,  J.  L.,  Hartford, 526 

Comstock.  Russell, 185 

Constant  Reader, 52 

Constant  Reader,  Maryland, ....  152 

Constant  Reader,  N.  Y., 392 

Cope,  Caleb,  Phila 459 

Coppock.  W.  R  ,  Buffalo,  . .   151,  326 

Corson,  A.  W.,  Pa., 22 

Cottage  Gardener, 50,  51 

James,  Royalton, 243 

s,  B,  Angers,  Fr.,.  214,  506 
J.,  Rosebank,  Canada,. .   158 


Drummond,  R.  P., 328 

E.,  New-York, 340 

E.  R.,  Boston, 2S9 

E.  S.,  Hillside,  Cayuga  co, 192 

Eaton,  Lewis,  Buffalo, 193 

Elliot,  F.  R.,  Cleveland,  O.,  360,  383 

Fairymead,  Canada  East, 437 

Fahnestock,  A.,  . .  247,  294,  311,  456 

Floral  Enthusiast,  193 

Florist,  Fruitest,  &c.,  Jan.,  1851,  435 
French,  Henry  F.,  Exeter,  N. 

H., 31,  108,  255 

G.  L.,  Gardener's  Chronicle 434 

Gardener's  Chronicle,  45,  49,'  97,  378, 
330,  428,  431,  478 

Genesee  Farmer, 44 

Glenny's  propertres  of  flowers,..  184 

Gold,  T.  S.,  Conn., 207 

Gundaker,  Samuel  E., 524 

H.,  Albany, 415 

H.,  Dayton,  Ohio, 417 

H.  K.  O.,  Lawrence,  Mass., 176 

Harris,  Prof.,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  341 
Hart,  E.  L.,  Farming-ton,  Conn.,  524 
Harwell,  Robert,  Mobile..  . .  64,  71 
Hodge,  Benjamin,  Buffalo, .  180,  203 
Hooker.  W.  E.,  Roch.,  N.  Y.,  117,  361 
Hopkins,  W.,  Brunswick,  N.  Y.,  33 
Hull,  A.  G.,  Newburgh,  N.  Y.,  362, 511 

Humphrey,  Noel,  Eng., 134 

IngersoU,  H.,  Bristol,  Penn., 146 

Irwin,  M.  E.,  Southbridge, 99 

J.  C.  W.,  Washington  co.,  Md.,.  188 
J.  F.  C.  H..  Newton  Centre,  Mass.,  280 
Jackson.  Bryan,  Bloomfield,  De- 
laware,     483 

James.  Thomas  P.,. . . .  387,  439,  528 

Jeffreys, 399 

Journal  of  Hort.  Society, 376 

Kemp,  H.  C 447 

Kirtland,  J.  P.,  Cleveland,  O.,..  .  491 

Kirtland,  B.,  Poland.  Ohio, 102 

L.,  South  Carolina. 291 

Legare,  J.  D.,  South  Carolina,. .  339 
liCroy,  Andre,  Angers,  France, .  503 
Leslie,  George,  Toronto,  Ca.,. . .  336 

Lindley,  Prof 445 

Little,  Col.,  Maine, 292 

London  Gardener's  Magazine  of 
Botany, ...  14,  59,  95,  184,  215,  350 


Longworth,  N.,  Cin.,   156,  243,  246, 
374 

Lover  of  Flowers, 289 

Lowell, 254 

Ludlow,  Thomas  W.,  Yoiikers, .  420 

M.,  Oneida  co.,  N.  Y., gl 

Marshall,  A.,  West'r.,  Pa.,.  120,  370 

Meehan,  T.,  Phila, 146,  217 

Melloni,  M., 304 

Miller,  Thomas, 94 

Monson,  A.  S.,  New-Haven,. . . .  492 

Munson,  Dr.,  New-Haven, 413 

N.  E.  Farmer. 440 

North  British  Journal  of  Hor., ...     94 

0.,Owego,  N.  Y., 230 

Ohio  Read«r, 482 

Old  Digger, 142,235 

Original  Subscriber,  N.  Y.,  ....  470 

Otto,  F.  T.  M.,  Flushing, 525 

Page,  C.  G.,  Wash.,  D.  C...  477,  526 

Pardee,  R.  G.,  Palmyra,  ^f.  Y.,    62 

159,  356,  517 

Parry,  William,  Burlington,  N.  J.,  130 

Parsons,  S.  B.,  Flushing, 29 

Paul's  Rose  Garden, 182 

Paxton,  Joseph, 434 

Paxton's  Flower  Garden, 382 

Playfair,  Prof., 183 

Practical  raulcher,  Ded'm,  Mass.,  237 
Puvis,  M.  A.,  Revue  Horticole,  .     48 

Quant,  Wm.,  Long-Island, 383 

Quinn.  John,  Troy, 67 

R.  B.  L.,  Boston, 276 

Reagles,  C,  Schenectady, 1.32 

Revue  Horticole, '. 96,  97 

^■.. 54 

S.,  Philadelphia, 337 

S.  B.  P.,  Flushing, 387 

S.  H..  from  the  Builder,  23,  421,  463 
Saul.  John,  Washington,  D.  C.,.  366 
Saunders,  W.  Baltimore,....  88,  264 

Sheldon,  Butler, 295 

Siewers,  C.  G.,  Cincinnati,.  187,  524 

Smith,  C,  Newport,  N- Y., 228 

Southside,  O.,  Staten-Island, 100 

Stevens,  Dr.,  N.  Y., 409 

Stewart,  J.,  Memphis,  Tenn,  . . .  2.32 

Subscriber  at  the  West, 385 

Sylvanus,  New-Orleans, 220 

Taylor,  Yardley,  Va., 4.36 


Thompson,  R.,  in  Jour.  Ilort.  Soc.    97 

Thorbuni,  G.  C, 336 

ToRiio,  Jos.,  AVilm'iigton,  N.  C,     12 

°  244,  327 

Townley,  John.  Wi8Con.sin,  102,  259, 

316,  354,  472,  495 

Turner,  Prof.,  Illinois   College,  .   122 

Underhill,  James  B., 438 

Valk,  W.  W.,  Fhishing,. . .  834,  444 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Van  Buren,  J.  Cl'ksville,  Ga.,  196,  396 

Van  Houtte's  Flore  des  serres,. .  96 

W.,  Boslon, 336 

W.,  Staten-lsland, 224 

W.  H.  J.,  Pennsylvania, 414 

W.  J.  W.,  Lochhaven,  Pa., 301 

Webb,  S.  H.,  Newburgh,  O., . . .  336 

Webster,  William,  Rochester, . .  1S9 

Western  Hon.  Review,.,,.,.,.  101 


"Weston,  R.,  Ashwood,  Teim.,  . .  290 
Wilder,  Marshall  P.,  Boston,....  Ill 
AVild  Flower,  New-England, ...  157 

Wood,  H.,  Long-Island, 494 

AVright,  J.  C,   Scottsville,  Va.,  169, 
437 

X.,  Virginia, 292 

Yeomaiis,  T.  G.,  Walworth,  N. 
Y., 527 


INDEX  TO  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


LIST  OF  PLATES. 


Two  Designs  for  Country 
Churches, 9 

Design  for  Carriage  House 
and  Stable, 98 

Vinery  at  Medary, 146 

Freestone  Cottage  at  Mid- 
dletown,  Conn.,. 173 


V.  Design  for  a  Rural  Gothic 

Church, 241 

VI.  Hampton  Court  Avenue,..  285 

VII.  Design  for  a  Cottage  for  a 

country  Clerg^'iTian, 313 

VIII.  Momit  Fordham,  the  seat 

of  L.  G.  Morris,  Esq.,. . .  372 


IX.  Study   of  Trees   in  Park 

Scenery, 427 

"X.  Design  for  a  village  School 

House, 471 

XI.  Strawberry  Hill, 510 

XII.  Church  in  the  Rommiesque 

Style, 574 


LIST  OF  ENGRAVINGS. 


BUILDINGS. 
Cottage  for  Clergyman,  Rear  of,  315 

—  chamber  floor  of, 315 

Freestone  Cottage,  floors  of,. . ..   174 
Greenhouse,  section  of  cheap,.. .     18 

—  Diagram  of  stove  for, 19 

FRUITS. 

Apples— Black  Lady, 509 

Cherry, 508 

Townsend, 22 

Transparent  de  Zurich, 509 

Cherries— Black  Hawk, 361 

Governor  Wood, 360 

Great  Bigarreau, 20 

Robert's  Red  Heart, 20 

Crabs — Astracan  Apple, 508 

Currant, 508 

Double  flowering, 508 

Double  White  Siberian,. . . .  507 
Fragant  flowered  Siberian, .  508 

Large  Siberian, 506 

Oblong  Siberian, 507 

Purple  Siberian, 506 


Crabs — Rouen  Trans.  Siberian,.  507 

Showy, 508 

Striped  Siberian, 506 

Pears — Beurre  Andusson, 114 

BeuiTe  Clairgeau  of  Nantes,  505 

Benrre  de  Malines, 113 

Beurre  de  Waterloo, 113 

Beurre  Langlier, 112 

Doyenne    du   cornice  d'Aji- 

gers, 504 

Doyenne   gris  d'hiver  nou- 

veau, 115 

Fondante  de  Malines, 113 

Howell, 116 

Incoimue  Van  mon?,. .,,,,..  112 

Nouveau  Poiteau, Ill 

Souvenir  d'Ete, 115 

Wiedow, 504 

Williamson, 494 

Plums— General  Hand, 21 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Cheap  ventillator, ....  158 

Curculio  in  various  states,.., ., .  397 


Flower  stands, 60 

French  mode'of  watering  plants,  216 
Illustration  of  a  fact  in  vegetable 

Physiology,. 205 

Papal  Gardens  of  the  Belvidere,  135 

Trough  for  growing  early  Peas, .  142 

Villa  of  Panfile  Doria, 136 

PLANTS. 

Agave  americana, 15 

Erica  elegans, 419 

Gardenia  stanleyaiia, 418 

Habrothamnus  elegans, 324 

New  Mexican  Cactus, 355 

Sacealobium  Prsemorsum, 419 

Victoria  Regia  in  open  Ponds,  . .  358 

TREES. 

Beech, 14 

Cappe's  Pyramidal  Pear  Tree, . .   178 
Double-Flowering  Horse  Ches't,  469 

Peach  tree,  diagram  of, 169 

Prunuig  Pear  trees, 179 

Sections  of  the  growth  ol",. ...  15,  17 


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