MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



217 



trunk,) to a •widtli proportionate to the size 

 of the tree, thoroughly reversing the soil, by 

 turning that which is well sweetened to the 

 bottom, and leaving the bottom, when turned, 

 on the top, rough and loose. I need not add, 

 that a drain or two will permanently mend 

 matters. Meantime, cut away the roots, as 

 in the first instance. 



Another case, may be one upon a good open 

 elevation, but the soil not deep, the bottom a 

 red clay. Here, the trees do well for a time ; 

 but at length they get stunted in growth, 

 bark-bound, the bark bursts, the fruit is not 

 good for anything, — being cracked and de- 

 formed. In such a case, trench, as in the se- 

 cond instance, substituting an equal bulk of 

 good soil for the superabundance of clay, 

 which must be taken out, cutting all roots as 

 before, and so on, according to the nature, 

 the depth, and quality of the soil. So will 

 you fiud the condition of your trees in differ- 



ent instances; by tracing the roots, you 

 will find some dead and rotting at the 

 points, some swollen to a great thickness, 

 others with two or three coats of rusty-like 

 bark ; all of which produce a bad effect upon 

 the growth and fruit of the tree, which is the 

 cause of nine out of ten of the diseases by 

 which fruit trees are so much affected at the 

 west — bark-binding and bark-bursting. I 

 never knew the bark of trees, after the second 

 year of root-pruning, give way in the slight- 

 est, even when slit with the knife, although 

 formerly the bark of the same trees open- 

 ed almost faster than the knife could pro- 

 ceed. 



Ten years' practical experience has taught 

 me the vast importance of root-pruning, on all 

 soils not naturally favorable to sound growth 

 and the production of fruit. 



James Stewart. 



Memphis, Tenn., October, 1850. 



MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



CilAT.swoRTH, the magnificent seat of the 

 Duke of Devonshire, has the unquestiona- 

 ble reputation of being the finest private 

 country residence in the world. You will 

 pardon me, then, if I bestow a few more 

 words on it, than the passing tourist is accus- 

 tomed to do. 



I ought to preface my account of it by tell- 

 ing you that the present Duke, now about 

 sixty, with an income equal to what passes 

 for a very large fortune in America, has all 

 his life-time been remarkable for his fine 

 taste, especially in gardening ; and that this 

 residence has an immense advantage over 

 most other English places, in being set down 

 in the midst of picturesque Derbyshire, in- 

 stead of an ordinary park level. In conse- 

 quence of the latter circumstance, the high- 



VoL. V. 14 



est art is contrasted and heightened by the 

 fine setting of a higher nature. 



If you enter Chatsworth, as most visitors 

 do, by the Edensor gate, you will be arrested 

 by a little village — Edensor itself; a lovely 

 lane, bordered by cottages, just within the 

 gate, that has been wholly built by the pre- 

 sent Duke. It is quite a study, and is pre- 

 cisely what everybody imagines the possibility 

 of doing, and what no one but a king or a 

 subject with a princely fortune, and a taste 

 not always born with princes, could do. In 

 short, it is such a village as a poet-architect 

 would design, if it were as easy to make 

 houses of solid materials as it is to draw them 

 on paper. There may be thirty or forty cot- 

 tages in all, and every one most tasteful in 

 form and proportions, most admirably built, 



