CRITIQUE ON THE MAY HORTICULTURIST. 



25 



there presented Mm. I am not disposed to 

 be too severe upon the good proprietors of 

 many of our popular nurseries, who seem to 

 be thus actuated by a vain spirit of rivalry, 

 but I fancy that if called upon to furnish spe- 

 cimens of all the choice and various samples 

 advertised, they would be sadly puzzled to 

 give the originals. Some rare stories might 

 be told of these matters, if the various appli- 

 cants for fruits, plants, and flowers, would but 

 tell their experience. 



I wish that the whole fraternity of nursery- 

 men in our country would read and apply the 

 advice of this article ; and then, instead of 

 an array of sounding names, which tend only 

 to bewilder and mislead the uninitiated, our 

 practical fruit proprietors could rely on some- 

 thing tangible and to the purpose, for their 

 wants ; for I now venture to say, that nearly, 

 if not quite one-half of the articles sent from 

 them prove nearly worthless, or have to be 

 reworked by the cultivator, before he can de- 

 rive any benefit from them. This shoa^be 

 a subject of action in your next pomological 

 congress ; and it only requires a little moral 

 courage and independence to reform what is 

 fast getting to be a crying abuse in our fruit 

 propagation. The public will, most certainly, 

 respond to it, and the nurserymen Avill as cer- 

 tainly find their account in it. 



Agricultural im-provements. — I have known 

 a man pay fifty guineas for one of Morland's 

 horse pictures, or Landscer's cattle pieces, to 

 hang up in his hall or parlor, that had no 

 more true knowledge in the originals from 

 which they were painted, than an Esquimaux 

 Indian has of growing pineapples. Of this 

 class is 7wt Lewis Gr. Morris. He loves 

 not only the 'pictures of fine cattle, to adorn 

 his dwelling, but is enthusiastically fond of 

 the animals themselves — to keep and propa- 

 gate them in all their purity and excellence, 

 as well as to embellish his park and lawns 

 with such living ornaments. 



Vol. v. 2 



I am very thankful that you have inserted 

 this notice in the Horticulturist, as it has 

 given me an opportunity to touch a subject 

 that I should hardly have ventured to intro- 

 duce by itself into your paper. But it Is one 

 as intimately connected with the furnishings 

 of a complete genteel country residence, as 

 any other — more so, in fact, than almost any 

 beyond the immediate decorations of the plea- 

 sure grounds and buildings, because of its 

 great utility, in example to the country at 

 large, as well as the beautiful Ywvag pictures 

 that nothing else will supply. 



In Great Britain, where they understa?id 

 these things — where they are educated to it — 

 where every accide?it of fortune does not as- 

 sume to give law, and tone, and sanction to 

 taste and fashion in country life and residence 

 — this matter is carried out as it should be. 

 There, no genteel country establishment, where 

 any considerable number of acres are embrac- 

 ed, is complete without its Southdown, Lei- 

 cester, or Cotswold Sheep ; its Shorthorn, 

 i^^n, or Alderney Cattle, to crop the grass 

 in its lawns and parks, and give those delight- 

 ful living touches, without which the land- 

 scape is bare and wanting. But how many 

 in this country, amid all the extravagant out- 

 lay, worse than useless in many cases, have 

 the taste and discrimination to do it? Henry 

 Clay of Ashland, Dan'l Webster of Marsh- 

 field, have done so, and ma.^ other gentlemen 

 of less note, but perhaps ot more wealth, and 

 others of less, have done so, and in this have 

 shown their true taste and patriotism, a source 

 of pleasure and gratification to themselves as 

 great as any other ; but as a rule, we Ameri- 

 cans are the veriest clod-hoppers in existence, 

 in our skill and knowledge of many varieties 

 of fine domestic animals. And yet, those 

 gentlemen are often the subject of ridicule for 

 their vulgar predilection (!) in thus indulging 

 an exalted taste, to the " 'cuter" multitude 

 who affect a superior appreciation of gentility! 



