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ROUGH NOTES ON HORTICULTURE FROM THE WEST. 



ments ; so natural and familiar do his 

 thoughts appear. God send us more such 

 men. And perhaps my years, and my 

 western education, may plead my excuse 

 for congratulating the readers of the Hor- 

 ticulturist on the acquisition of such a 

 thinker, and such a writer, as Jeffreys. 

 To his whole January article, to all he has 

 written, I can but say, with the editor, 

 " most excellent and sensible." 



" A Note on the Cvpculio" — We are sadly 

 troubled by this "little Turk" here in the 

 west. We hear everywhere groves of the 

 native plum, where he has luxuriated time 

 immemorial. At first I thought, and so 

 wrote, that in the prairie, removed from the 

 wild plum groves, there was little to be 

 feared from his ravages. I so judged, be- 

 cause my trees nearest the grove, were in- 

 variably the greatest sufferers from the 

 curculio ; and in shaking for them, we 

 would often take ten insects from a tree 

 8 rods from a copse of wild ones, to one 

 from trees 40 rods removed. B:it I have 

 lost faith in this sort of exemption. Last 

 June, I saw a fine young plum orchard in 

 the prairie, quite remote from timber, bear- 

 ing for the first time ; and every " set" 

 bore one or more of the "crescent marks" 

 of the destroyer. I have nothing new to 

 add on the subject of this pest, except evi- 

 dence of a fact, sometimes doubted, that 

 though not inclined to travel, the curculio 

 is not necessarily bound to one spot of 

 earth. Would that he were ; and that spot 

 elsewhere than in Illinois, where I much 

 fear, even with the aid of hogs, he will 

 finally interrupt the cultivation of plums, 

 apricots and nectarines. 



"Memoirs of John Bartram," fyc. — There 

 is one such man as John Bartram now 

 living. See his portrait faithfully sketched 

 in an address, delivered in September last 

 before the New-Haven County Horticultu- 



ral Society, by S. B. Parsons. Would 

 that we had more such men. Would that 

 we had one such in the west, to encourage us 

 by his example, and aid us by his liberality. 



" Domestic Notices.'''' — Thank you, Mr. 

 Editor, for endorsing my notions with re- 

 gard to stoves. This same prairie state is 

 the land of stoves ; and we have as many 

 patterns as can be found in the Patent 

 Office. I hate the whole breed of them, 

 though, doubtless, like pork, they are use- 

 ful, and perhaps necessary in cooking. 

 But even here, I have a strange hankering 

 for the old " trammel" and hooks. And I 

 own, that I have liberally indemnified my- 

 self for the introduction of stoves elsewhere, 

 by building a real old-fashioned, capacious, 

 family fire-place in my original " log cabin," 

 which I love like an old friend, and — sooth 

 to say — have " embalmed," by surrounding 

 it with other buildings, verandas, &c, be- 

 sides a dense grove of trees, to "hide the 

 nakedness of the land." And let me as- 

 sure you, that in this primitive sitting- 

 room, with a rousing fire of dry hickory 

 logs, there is much comfort ; and with the 

 free air constantly sifting through the 

 "chinking," there is more than comfort; 

 there is pure food for the lungs, and plenty 

 of it ; and there is health, and almost en- 

 tire exemption from " colds," and "croups," 

 and " quinzies," and "all the long cata- 

 logue of ills" that infant " flesh is heir to," 

 in the air-tight rooms, heated by " air-tight 

 stoves" of our city residences. 



" Report of the Congress of Fruit-grow- 

 ers." — It would seem that the Report of 

 the " convention," at Syracuse, is full as 

 tardy in making its appearance, which I 

 much regret, though to my certain know- 

 ledge all of the " copy," and most of the 

 money collected, were in the hands of the 

 printer during September. A short time 

 since, one of the secretaries of the " con- 



