CRITIQUE ON The march horticulturist. 



The Peach trees have also stood it well; the young wood was fully matured in the fall, 

 so that not a particle of it is killed. In examining the fruit buds, I find that many of them 

 exhibit the black speck in the heart; still they are not all killed, and if they are not more 

 than half destroyed, it is rather beneficial than otherwise, as the tentendy of the Peach 

 with us, is notoriously to over-bearing, and this saves thinning out. 



Now this seems rather to combat your theory of the crop being destroyed when the 

 thermometer reaches 12" below zero; under certain circumstances this may be the case, but 

 that such is not the case under all circumstances, I am confident. During the winter of 

 1849, my thermometer indicated 18" below zero. This was shown by two different instru- 

 ments, one of London, the other of Philadelphia manufacture; they hung side by side, so 

 that there could be no mistake. Many prophecied that there would be no peaches next 

 season; the season, however, showed a different result, for we were rewarded with an ex- 

 cellent crop. Respectfully yours, Wii. Adair. 



Detroit. March, 1852 



CRITIQUE ON THE MARCH HORTICULTURIST. 



BY JEFFREY.S. 



The Beautiful in Ground. — " Paint me as I am— warts and all!" said stern old Oli- 

 ver Cromwell to the artist who was taking his portrait. It is the strangest thing in the 

 world, when God has made a spot— and made it right — that men should want to spend a 

 small mint of money to pervert nature, and twist it into other shapes, merely to show that 

 they can do it. Why, anybody can mark out a chess-board, or build a flight of steps, with 

 earth, as well as with timber, although he may call one a rectangular lawn or garden, and 

 the other a line of terraces. 



There is hardly a spot of earth of any magnitude, but what has a character of its own 

 — an expression, suitable, in the hands of a sensible man, to make it agreeable and plea- 

 sant. Then why not be content with its natural capabilities, which, when only '* slicked 

 up," gives it its own peculiar beauty, beyond all the expense and conventional expression 

 which spade, plough, or shovel, will add to it? The last paragraph of the article in ques- 

 tion, is living perpetual, truth. 



The Sage Grape again. — This is a free country, and if folks prefer these hard-pulp- 

 ed, musket-ball grapes, why let them enjoy them, in all conscience. The more you tell a 

 man that his taste is bad, the more sure he is that yourself, not he, is mistaken. Hudi- 

 bras was right : 



" Convince a man against his roill, 

 He's of the same opinion still." 



The world is wide enough for all sorts of grapes — the Sage among them. I shall not, 

 however, send for it. 



Cropping Vines under Glass.—l have the more confidence in this article, because Mr. 

 Cleveland grows his oicn gi apes, instead of growing them for others. The profesional 

 gardeners are good men, many of them; but I have found a majority of them so opinion- 

 ated, that they are troublesome. A cultivator of the soil, and a horticulturist, educated 

 abroad, to be successful in this country, must be caught young. It is no proof, because 

 g, or the mode of doing a thing, succeeds abroad, that it will equally succeed in 

 ith such a difference of climates and soils. There can be no more question 



