SPRINU MOVING, 



SPRINd MOVING. 



HY KMII.K TUK KI.DEl!, rillLADKLrHIA. 



The bustling commercial people of New York City liavo cstablislieJ the Ist of May as an 

 annual perioil for removals among its inhabitants, and we have sometimes taken the liberty 

 to doubt the wisdom or convenience of this fixed periodical exchange of residences. The 

 natTiral increased demand for carts and furniture-cars, and consequent higher tax upon 

 hoi-scflesh and men, and on the purses of those in competition, furnish no bad argument 

 against a single period for all movings, instead of permitting them to occur at any time 

 throughout the year. We can scarcely imagine a good reason in favor of the New York 

 custom, and hence rejoice that the " spring moving" we are about to tell of is of a different 

 descrii>tion, and where the proper period is fixed by the unerring laws of nature, at the first 

 swelling of spring buds in the month of April. 



Our srood family doctor, and whom we may be proud to call friend, could not content 

 himself with the mere performance of professional duties ; and yet, in a considerable prac- 

 tice, no physician was ever known to labor more arduously and punctually, or more un- 

 sparingly of himself. His benevolent heart was not satisfied with curing disease in man, 

 and relieving suflTerings through the performance of professional duty ; he had the generous 

 ambition to do good to all mankind — to bestow something philanthropically upon his race, 

 and without remuneration, except in the consciousness of being useful. lie found hours of 

 leisure in the early morning, which he could devote to plants and trees in his yard, and, 

 with an enthusiastic love of science, his knowledge of botany was readily followed by inves- 

 tigations in pomology and horticulture. 



The narrow strip of ground, about sixteen inches wide, that lies beside the division fence 

 between city plots having the usual back buildings, had for many years been the limited 

 field of the doctor's experiments in horticulture, and, more especially, perhaps, in pomology. 

 This little strip of ground, unfortunately, too, had a northern exposure, and yet, 'spite of 

 stinted space and all other difficulties, the " garden" of the doctor presented a rare and ex- 

 traordinary display of fruit, of various kinds, in season. We cannot be rery precise in 

 details, but to convey some idea of this fruit orchard in his town-yard, we inform the reader 

 that it contained one goodly size seedling apple-tree, the seed planted by the doctor fifteen 

 years iireviously, and for the first fruiting of which he still patiently waits ; then there were 

 ten pear-trees, dwarfs and standards, upon which were grafted about seventy-five varieties 

 — many that have already borne fruit, and others as yet only giving promise ; one large and 

 thrifty high-bush blackberry, that has produced a great crop of large and beautiful fruit. 

 Six or eight varieties of seedling and fine raspberries, mostly of his own creating, and that 

 have already become celebrated for their high qualities. 



Besides these plants in the ground, the yard contained over eighty boxes, filled witli 

 living trees or shrubs, grafted young trees and seedlings, to say nothing of smaller pots in 

 great numbers, a Chinese peach-tree, the Salmon Berry, or California Raspberry, &c. &c. 

 All these, foraiing the basis of numerous experiments, have from year to year accumulated, 

 and now filled the doctor's small premises, almost to the exclusion of a reasonable passage- 

 way througlL it. 



Such was the state of things in the spring of 1856, when the health of members of the 

 family induced a plan of removal to the country — at least, for two or three years — the doctor 

 remaining in the city, devoted as usual to his profession. With this scheme cauie the 

 necessity of relinquishing the ample city residence, and procuring offices for the doctor ; 

 and also came a necessity of providing a new home for the trees, and plants, and boxes. 

 Here was a sad dilemma : one in which the good pomologist was scarcely less concerned for 



