CRITIQUE ON THE MARCH HORTICULTURIST. 



These remarks, however, are in but a partial allusion to Mr. Cousin's article, which is 

 full of sound sense, observation, and fine taste. Churches, and other public buildings, 

 got up by corporations, associations, and other congregated bodies, are to be governed by 

 different considerations in their cost, as they are often designed in given styles and for 

 particular uses, which should be fully carried out, or let alone altogether. A tawdry af- 

 fectation of a fine thing, is the sheerest folly imaginable. 



Frontispiece — Design for a Free School. — " La'-dies, hand gentle'm : the play which 

 I 'ave the 'oner to produce this hevening, is the celebrated Tragedy of 'Amlet. But, as 

 the unrivalled hactor who was to appear before you in the character of 'Amlet, has been 

 taken suddenly hill, the play will proceed with the part of 'Amlet left out!" Thus de- 

 claimed the unfortunate strolling manager before his village audience, in a calamitous di- 

 lemma. In like manner, the "Design" is here left out! When that appears, we'll talk 

 about the school house. 



Neiv and Valuable American Grape. — I have heard of a good many such fruits. New, 

 no doubt; but of the rest, the less said, the better. " Perfectly hardy in Massachusetts." 

 Good; for Massachusetts is a cold country. " Free from mildew." Still better. " And 

 ripens before the Isabella or Diana." Capital! Now, let us know how the grape tastes; 

 and if it be as good as the "Rose Chasselas," it will answer to give a certificate in its 

 favor. It must, however, be a good deal better than the Diana, to merit that — for this 

 latter grape is a \ery common thing to look at, and inferior to the Isabella in flavor. When 

 any man can produce a native " American Grape," which has the fine flavor, and soft 

 pulp of the Isabella in the latitude of Long-Island, with its vigorous growth and prolific 

 bearing; or of the delicious aroma, productiveness, and vigor of the Catawba, at Cincin- 

 nati; and the said "American" grape Avill ripen freely in latitude 43° north, that man 

 ought to make a fortune out of it; and he probably will do so, if he possess foresight 

 enough to produce, ten, twenty, or a hundred thousand plants fit for sale simultaneousl3^ 

 when startling the country with the intelligence, and giving the proof of its excellence! I 

 hope j'our correspondent is correct in his announcement. 



The past Severe Winter. — Walking up street the other day, I met " the oldest inhabi- 

 tant," and being some years acquainted with him, we had a long talk " about the weath- 

 er." As the past winter has been the most severe of any in my own recollection, I taxed 

 his memory for its equal. He could name only the winter of 1810-11. My remembrance 

 fell back to that rigorous winter, then a small boy in this city of New-York; and although 

 I was then perfectly innocent of "degrees of Fahrenheit," I well recollected how, Avith a 

 thousand other little shavers, all bundled in great coat and mittens, and ears bound in 

 tippets, we turned out to s/ide, among the larger boys who skated on the " Collect," where 

 the " Bastile" now stands in Centre street; and also heard our father complain of the high 

 price of wood — coal was not much burned in New-York then — and that the corporation 

 bought up several thousand dollars worth of hewn building timber at the lumber-yards 

 as fuel for the poor, as the wood sloops could not approach the city, for the ice. 



Still, I cannot altogether concur with Mr. Buist in his fears of the destruction of our 

 trees by the frost. " God tempers the Avind to the shorn lamb." And although the cold 

 has been extreme, it has been stead3^ An uncommon degree of cloudy Aveather has ac- 

 companied the cold, which has shut off the rays of the sun — frequently more destructive 

 in its effects, with much less frost, than we have now had. The peach, and some other 

 tender buds, may have suffered. Yet I think with all hardy fruits, there will be found 

 less destruction than in some comparatively mild winters. So far as my own observation 

 has occurred, the young Avood of our fruit trees is sound and healthy. The growth of last 



