132 



NOTES FROM THE WEST. 



Good taste in rural matters — scientific ag- 

 riculture and successful Imrticulture, are, 

 throughout the land, commensurate with the 

 dissemination of agricultural and horticultural 

 publications. There may be a few exceptions 

 to this rule, but the great truth cannot be de- 

 nied, and needs not the proofs from my note 

 book to establish its importance. 



Gentlemen, we are not throwing away our 

 efforts. We who write, as well as those who 

 add example to precept, are doing much good ; 

 we shall have our reward in the success which 

 is following our pleasurable labor. The poor- 

 ly paid publisher, and the professional editor, 

 are the only ones whose reward is inadequate, 

 for they must have bread as well as fame, and 

 the conciousness of benefits conferred. 



We are silently, but surely operating upon 

 the masses. Ours is a science that all can 

 comprehend, and most may learn ; and when 

 once initiated, the subject never grows old — 

 the interest never flags. The love of flowers, 

 of fruit trees, and delicious fruits, is a perpet- 

 ual .spring to the mind — a never failing source 

 of enjoyment, and refining and humanizing 

 employment. Who ever heard of a practical 

 horticulturist afflicted with ennui ? \\\\o has 

 known a genuine one that was either a bad or 

 an unhappy man ? Let us work on, and 

 ' hope on ; there is a good time coming," 

 and with an Agricultural Bureau, which we 

 shall get, friend Jeffreys, we will organize 

 societies through the whole interior of our 

 land, and where we cannot persuade persons 

 to subscribe for journals, or puchase books, 

 because they " are too poor," perchance, we 

 will see if we cannot induce government to do 

 so, or otherwise furnish the necessary infor- 

 mation — the scientific knowledge — which is 

 the entering wedge to burst the bonds of igno- 

 rance and prejudice, and let in the good seed 

 which we scatter, soon to germinate, and sure 

 to spread a halo of promise around the un- 

 sightly and oft-deteriorating farm-house that 



shall cover its nakedness, as the mantle of 

 spring covers the bleak prairie, and " brouse 

 old forest." 



From the commencement of the high banks, 

 or " bluffs," on the northerly side of the 

 river, below Joliet, begins one of the finest 

 localities for " The Vine," in northern Illi- 

 nois. The southerly exposure, and the dry, rich 

 soil, reaching often almost or quite to the lime 

 rock, (wliich here crops out,) the perfect drain- 

 age and other concomitants will, one day, 

 make this the vineyard of the lake region. 



This is not all mere theory — there are 

 grapes in manj^ gardens, and Mr. H. L. Bush, 

 of Ottawa, has now quite a vineyard in full 

 bearing. The Catawba grape, which with 

 me, has heretofore been rather uncertain, was 

 there, finer if anything, than the Isabella. 

 Mr. B. is also largely engaged in raising sweet 

 potatoes for the Chicago home market, on the 

 rich bottom land at the base of the bluffs. 

 I saw much good taste, and many choice flow- 

 ers and fine fruits, in the gardens about Otta- 

 wa, especially those of Messrs. Cushman and 

 Eeddick. 



Near the termination of our canal, I saw 

 the first peaches — not a degree south of here — 

 and from this point south, I saw plenty of 

 this fruit. But the plum is everywhere de- 

 stroyed by the curculio. 



Above Peoria I first saw, in damp, open 

 woods, in half-shaded prairies, a beautiful her- 

 baceous Spirea — perhaps the lohata, about 

 five feet high, with dense panicle of white 

 flowers, on a rich pink, or purplish peduncle, 

 very delicate and showy. 



In this region, there is, too, an abundance 

 of that odd little plant, the " Dutchman's 

 pipe," (Aristolochla,) the trumpet creeper, 

 (Tecomia radicans,) the Michigan rose, and 

 other vines and creepers of the greatest luxu- 

 riance, gracefully festooning the beautiful se- 

 cond growth of shrubs and trees, which are 

 everywhere springing up on the outskirts of 



