CRITIQUE ON THE DECEMBER HORTICULTURIST. 



353 



United States, — the first to be created by 

 law, and endowed at the expense of the 

 treasury. It will require caution in its 



plans, and in the execution of its duties, 

 until the right method of instruction be un- 

 derstood; and then, if successful agricultu- 

 ral schools are to become the chosen insti- 

 tutions for the mass of our young men, for 

 the reason that, if not absolutely necessary 

 to all, the pursuit of agriculture is so con- 

 genial to the feelings, tastes, and leisure of 

 man, that it will be regarded as an accom- 

 pliskment in the education of one's youth, 

 by our most intelligent people out of the 

 great commercial cities, and by very many 

 within them. Success to the effort ; and 

 meantime, I shall look with anxiety for the 

 report of the commissioners, who, I trust, 

 have well discharged their duty. 



The Evergreen Ivy. — Mr. Smith, you are 

 a man of true taste. I won't say more, just 

 now. How many old rookeries of houses, 

 nestled under a high rock, an ancient tree, 

 with a sparkling brook hard by, have I 

 seen, with the old ivy climbing up their di- 

 lapidated sides, and spreading over their 

 mossy roofs, that looked infinitely more 

 home-ish than the starched up, martin-box 

 affairs, in such dapper colours, on the road 

 side just beyond them. Ivys are beautiful 

 always ; and in every spot requiring seclu- 

 sion, no screen so cheap and so becoming 

 can be substituted. The American ivy is 

 hardly so rich in its drapery and foliage as 

 the English; but sufficiently so to form an 

 attractive object in almost every ground ; 

 and it is only to be wished that our country 

 people better understood its worth, not only 

 in ornamenting their own dwellings, but 

 many otherwise unsightly, yet necessary, 

 structures, which stare out in their naked 

 deformity in a thousand places, — thus giving 

 them an appearance at once graceful and 

 appropriate. 



AChapteron Birds — and by a new "Orni- 

 thologist." Welcome, my good friend, into 

 the Kind brotherhood of those who love 

 God's creatures. I am sorTy, however, you 

 don't like the wrens. Of all things, I like 

 them for their very spider eating. The 

 spiders ! Bless me, my good sir, they are 

 the bane, not exactly of my own, but all 

 summer they are of my good wife's exist- 

 ence. Why, you know nothing about it. 

 Every other day, from April to November, 

 you see her with handkerchief, tied turban 

 fashion round her head, out in the broad 

 piazza, with Tom and his brush, and Moll 

 with her stick, and the dear soul with the 

 tongs to pinch them, — all clamorous and 

 lu is v for an hour in poking out, and brush- 

 ing off the " filthy spiders." And such a 

 time! — and over the windows, and all 

 about. Why, I wish we had a thousand 

 wrens to catch the vile torments. Blue 

 birds, robins, sparrows, — all may go, if the 

 wrens will but catch the spiders. No, my 

 good sir, let us have them all. There is 

 room enough for wrens, as well as the 

 others. And they look so smart, with their 

 tails stuck up so brisk, and their funny lit- 

 tle eyes, so sharp, peering into every crack 

 and crevice for a bug, a fly, or a spider. 

 Let the larjje birds have the grubs and the 

 beetles, of which there are enough to serve 

 them a turn ; and if you love the drone of 

 the dear little humming-bird, plant a scar- 

 let monthly honeysuckle by the columns of 

 your porch, or library, or bed-room window, 

 and the tiny things will be all day boring 

 into the long cups of the Sowers, and per- 

 chance fly into the windows ; and in its 

 fright to get out again, one will dash against 

 the glass, where, in order to release it, you 

 will catch it as you would a butterfly; and 

 while holding it in your hand, and gazing 

 at its delicious plumage, will feel its tiny 

 heart throb against your fingers in its ago- 



