HORTICULTURE IN WESTERN NEAV-YORK. 



which they have not a single specimen of this very excellent plant. They seem to us to do 

 better upon their own bottoms, than they do worked; for sometimes we have seen a good 

 many that have gone off among a far less quantity that stood. "Whether this has arisen 

 from the stocks not being worked in a proper state, or their not being well established, we 

 have yet to learn: we have had many that have stood for years with care and proper cul- 

 ture. Young plants should be kept cool when they have once fairly started. They can- 

 not be better provided for than in a common garden-frame, with a light over them to 

 take off and put on at pleasure. The branches should be thinned if they come too thick, 

 and they want a little regulating and pruning; but it must not be forgotten that the blooms 

 come at the ends of the branches, and therefore that, although branches may be thinned 

 out, none must be shortened till after they have bloomed. When they have done flower- 

 ing, they may be trimmed into shape, and left to make their proper growth. 



ON THE PROGRESS OF HORTICULTURE IN WESTERN NEW-YORK. 



BY W. R. COPPOCK, BUFFALO 



There is probably no subject that has engaged the attention of the staid citizens of the 

 middle and western part of our Union, during the past decade, more than orcharding and 

 gardening, and that too with a business-like discriminating judgment, taking advantage of the 

 present progress of the arts and sciences, and calling to her aid these accessory auxilia- 

 ries so far as they have a bearing upon this subject. 



A peculiar feature in the character of the American, (and indeed the immigrant soon 

 feels the inductive spirit,) is to possess a homestead, whether it may be a town or village 

 lot, or larger plot, to "farm." It must be his; the fee simple is necessary to his comfort 

 and happiness. Hence it is, that in no other country are there so many owners of the 

 soil, and nowhere so few landlords. Herein lies largely the stability of our institutions 

 and the patriotism of our people. The sacreduess of these consecrated spots make men 

 jealous of their prerogative, and ardent defenders of them in time of external strife. 

 " Those shocks of eorn," said Xenophon, " inspire those who raise them with courage 

 to defend them." 



The spot possessed — the orchard and garden soon take form. The busy housewife, by 

 hook or crook, has her roses and other posies scattered hither and thither in tasteful plats, 

 while the manor lord may not so easily, but yet surely plant his fruit grounds. But at 

 the onset lies a diflBcultj^ — with what varieties? In tillage, in composting, and in drain- 

 ing the wide spread experience of the past, through the press, has become his; but, in the 

 selection of his fruit, he finds confusion worse confounded — the immensity in the cata- 

 logues bewilder his conceptions, and he applies to a friend to aid him in his dilemma. His 

 list reads: apples, Baldwin, Esopus Spitzenberg, Rhode Island Greening, &c. An Ohio 

 cousin, at this juncture drops in, and expresses the greatest consternation at the mistaken 

 selection. " Why," says he, " I and my neighbors have tried these fruits and condemn- 

 ed them long since. Your Baldwins and Spitzenbergs go off with the dry and hitter rot, 

 and my neighbor, Mr. Springer, has twenty trees of the Rhode Island Greening, twenty 

 years old, which he says are not worth twenty cents! You had better take the Cooper, 

 Belmot, and Yellow Belleflower." Hum! ! how doctors disagree; our neighbor on the 

 says the Cooper is " cornfed," and would not have it within fifty miles of his 

 and as to the Belmont and Yellow Belleflower, they will not ripen in western New- 



