36 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[February, 



am glad, that he has brought into such pro- 

 mineut notice so important a principle in agri- 

 culture as '■ firming," or packing the earth about 

 seeds. I am persuaded that it is not practised 

 enough. Mr. Henderson, in his eminently prac- 

 tical paper before the American Association of 

 Nurserymen, at Cleveland, Ohio, June 18th last, 

 very clearly shows its neglect in New Jersey. I 

 doubt not a vast quantity of seed fail to germi- 

 nate because they are not " firmed," and the 

 seedsman gets the entire blame. By test it has 

 been found that only a certain proportion of all 

 seeds of grasses and sereals grow, but I opine 

 much is due to having the seeds too lightly cov- 

 ered. The earth must be well settled to its place, 

 that the seeds may at once appropriate its essen- 

 tial nutriment. Pressing the soil firmly about the 

 seed closes all air spaces of much size, and keeps 

 the dry winds from penetrating to it, thus greatly 

 helping to save its drying out, and the germ 

 perishing. Mr. Henderson very properly cau- 

 tions against firming when the ground is too 

 damp. It is better not to sow when it is wet. 

 The hot sun may bake as hard as a brick. The 

 nearer the condition of an ash heap the better. 

 Last Fall we drilled wheat when the dust filled 

 the air. There had been a protracted drouth. We 

 sent the roller over it immediately, with a very 

 gratifying result. The wheat sprang up at once, 

 and flourished, notwithstanding the drouth con- 

 tinued for weeks. Wheat that we did not roll, was 

 greatly inferior to it. After seeds have develop- 

 ed into plants, " firming " should be reversed. 

 The earth kept loose and friable withstands 

 drouth better and absoi*bs the fertilizing consti- 

 tuents of the atmosphere more readily. As Mr. 

 Henderson asserts, "firming" is even more 

 necessary in the case of newly set trees, the 

 same principles applying. Another advantage 

 attending it is the comminution of the soil. Pul- 

 verization sets free the growing properties of the 

 earth, to be taken up by vegetation. 



[As we noted some time ago, we had to com- 

 plain of the New York Tribune's manner of 

 treating its contemporaries, whereupon it at 

 once stopped the exchange, and we have had to 

 worry along and get its precious matter indi- 

 rectly as best we could, so that this is the first 

 knowledge we have that Mr. Henderson has 

 been "done for" in its pages. We can only, 

 therefore, take the matter as our correspondent 

 has presented it, and say that when we heard 

 Mr. Henderson's remarks at Cleveland, it seem- 

 ed to us one of the best common sense papers 



ever given to a public body, — and we should 

 have transferred it in full to our pages, only that 

 we felt it would commend itself so strongly to 

 those who have had experience, and receive so 

 wide a publication, that it would cease to be 

 " news" before we could help it along.— Ed. 

 G. M.] 



WODENETHE. 



BY PICA. 



The following notes of the beautiful country 

 seat of H. W. Sargent, Esq., of Wodenethe, were 

 contributed to the New York Evening Post: 



In the highlands of the Hudson, just above 

 West Point, in the midst of the beautiful scenery 

 which the genius of Irving has consecrated, thir- 

 t3'-eight years ago Mr. Henry Winthrop Sargent 

 bought about twenty acres of forest land, and 

 began the construction of a country seat which 

 to-day is doubtless more widely and favorably 

 knovvn than any similar place in America. 

 Wodenethe, he called it in the language of the 

 Saxons: that is to say, 'sylvan promontory.' 

 It has cost him a hundred thousand dollars 

 already. I do not know how much more money 

 it will yet absorb, but each year improvement 

 follows improvement. ' I have been painting a 

 picture,' he said, as we were strolling through the 

 grounds, ' and the finishing touches are still to 

 be given.' Students of landscape gardening 

 know Mr. Sargent as the editor of Downiug's 

 great work on the subject, as a contributor to 

 periodical literature, as an importer of rare 

 trees and shrubs, and as a propagator and im- 

 prover of the same. The author of Scott's 'Art 

 of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds of Small 

 Extent,' speaks of ' our neighbor and corre- 

 spondent, Mr. Sargent of Wodenethe on the Hud- 

 son, who passed a couple of years abroad, curi- 

 ously gleaning all clever foreign notions that 

 were really worth naturalizing at home,' and 

 adds that ' Sargent's hemlock,' a tree found 

 growing wild by Mr. Sargent on Fishkill Moun- 

 tain, and cultivated by him, 'bids fair to be one 

 of the most curious and interesting additions to 

 our stock of gardenesque evergreens — bearing the 

 same relation to the common hemlock that the 

 weeping beech does to the common beech.' 

 Another writer describes him as ' famous among 

 amateur horticulturists for introducing new ever- 

 greens from Europe, Asia, Oregon and Califor- 

 nia,' and notices his success in domesticating, 

 where others have failed, the deodars and cedars 

 of Lebanon, the silver foliage of the Pinus ex- 



