heretofore been described in its pages, has engaged attention from the oft-recurring topics of 

 the North. Biographical sketches of interesting personages connected with our subjects, 

 have enlivened its pages ; new correspondents have taken up the discussion of matters of 

 the deepest interest to all who reside on their lands, and though sensible of its many short- 

 comings, approbation has made our labor sweet. 



For the ensuing numbers, we are prepared with many things calculated to gratify the 

 thirst for knowledge, and are happy to say we have enlisted numerous co-laborers, on whose 

 information and experience our public is accustomed to rely. 



The Old Digger. — As promised in the early part of this vohime, the whole of the articles 

 written by the late A. J. Downing, and signed "An Old Digger," have now appeared in the 

 months for which they were originally written. At the time of their appearance, it was not 

 known who wrote them, and in the collected edition of his works, after the author's death, 

 they were not included ; there was a propriety, therefore, in reprinting the series here as soon 

 as it was ascertained that they came from so distinguished a pen. If this had not been the 

 case, their general excellence and practical character, coupled with the circumstance that a 

 very large proportion of our present readers did not possess the volumes containing them, 

 made their reproduction important. Tliey are now finished, and we enter upon a new year 

 untrammelled by " continuations," and with much confidence in our various correspondents, 

 and some hope that the experience gained in our two years and a half labors will conspire 

 together to make the pages of the Horticulturist at least as valuable as heretofore. 



A Gate Fastener. — In a field leading to the Tors, at this place, is a gate which opens into 

 the grounds of Mr. Shepperson's pretty Tor Cottage. All sorts of contrivances for keeping 

 it shut having been tried in vain, the 

 following simple and efiectual plan 

 was hit upon : An iron loop was driven 

 into the middle cross rail of the gate ; 

 a rope was cast over the branch of a 

 neighboring tree. A rough pole was 

 then fitted at one end, with a staple 

 long enough to work in the iron loop 

 of the gate without jumping out when 

 jarred. To this pole the rope was fixed 

 at such a distance from the other end 

 that, when suspended, and its staple 

 dropped into the iron loop, the rope 

 and pole would remain oblique when 

 the gate was shut. The accompany- 

 ing sketch explains this. When the 

 gate was open, the pole was at tlie 

 same time pushed back, but as soon 

 as a person had passed through, the 



weight of tlie pole acting upon the middle of the gate closed it again, and as the pole swung 

 freely on the rope, this could never fail to happen. The Fig. A shows how the staple and 

 iron loop fitted togetlier. — .Jael, Ilfracombe, in Gardener's Chronicle. 



To tlie two Michauxs (father and son), chiefly, are the French plantations indebted for 

 their surp:issingly rich collections of American trees and shrubs, which long since gave rise 

 to the remark tliat an American must visit France to see the productions of his native 



3«s; 



Vol. VII. — December, 1857. 



37 



