252 



GARDENING AS A SCIENCE. 



ture's best features, by her untutored chil- 

 dren. More than one instance do we call 

 to mind, of settlers, in districts of country 

 where there are masses and great woods of 

 trees, that the druids would have worshipped 

 for their grandeur, sweeping them all down 

 mercilessly with their axes, and then planting 

 Avith the supremest satisfaction, a straight 

 line of paltry saplings before their doors ! 

 It is like exchanging a neighborhood of 

 proud and benevolent yeomanry, honest and 

 free as the soil they spring from, for a file 

 of sentinels or gens d\irmes, that watch 

 over one's out-goings and incomings, like a 

 chief of police ! 



Most happily for our country, and its 

 beautiful rural scenery, this spirit of des- 

 truction, under the rapid development of 

 taste that is taking place among us, is very 

 fast disappearing. "Woodman, spare that 

 tree," is the choral sentiment that should 

 be instilled and taught at the agricultural 

 schools, and re-echoed by all the agricultu- 

 ral and horticultural societies in the land. 

 If we have neither old castles nor old asso- 

 ciations, we have at least, here and there, 

 old trees that can teach us lessons of anti- 



quity, not less instructive and poetical than 

 the ruins of a past age. 



Our first hint, therefore, to persons about 

 choosing a site for a country place, is, in all 

 possible cases, to look for a situation where 

 there is some natural wood. With this for 

 the warp — strong, rich, and permanent — 

 you may embroider upon it all the gold 

 threads of fruit and floral embellishment 

 with an effect equally rapid and successful. 

 Every thing done upon such a groundwork 

 will tell at once ; and since there is no end to 

 the delightful task of perfecting a country 

 place, so long as there are thirty thousand 

 species of plants known, and at least thirty 

 millions of varied combinations of landscape 

 scenery possible, we think there is little fear 

 that the possessor of a country place will 

 not find enough to employ his time, mind, 

 and purse, if he really loves the subject, 

 even though he find himself in possession 

 of the fee-simple of a pretty number of 

 acres of fine wood. 



But we have already exhausted our pre- 

 sent limits, and must leave the discussion 

 of other points to be observed in choosing a 

 country place, until a future number. 



REMARKS ON GARDENING AS A SCIENCE.— No. 6. 



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



We concluded our No. 5, by observing that 

 " water was the instrument by which all ma- 

 nuring substances are brought into a condi- 

 tion to furnish the liquid aliment that is 

 absorbed by the roots of a plant, and which 

 we term sap." 



It is quite certain, that in dry ground, 

 whatever be its condition as respects ma- 

 nure or vegetable earth, no plant can con- 

 tinue to thrive. For this reason, persons 

 might be apt to suppose, that water dis- 

 solves the manure, and conveys it in the 



state of a liquid to the roots ; and such, or 

 something very like it, was the received 

 opinion of early cultivators. But good soil, 

 that which is fit for the purposes of nutri- 

 tion, will not dissolve ; it will not yield co- 

 louring matter to water. Therefore, we 

 conclude that the plant, under the stimulus 

 of solar light, (which also operates on the 

 ground, and is absorbed — not extinguished,) 

 decoviposes the water that exists in the soil, 

 and thus induces an electric current, which 

 in its turn decomposes the manure, and 



