CRITIQUE ON THE AUGUST HORTICULTURIST. 



simply water, and perhaps badly tarted at that, partaking largely of the properties of the 

 stimulant from which its size is made. The experience of every one who remarks it must 

 agree to this assertion, and for high flavor, and the real excellence of the fruit, it is not de- 

 sirable to cultivate overgrown specimens, or to get them much beyond their natural size. 

 The field strawberry — and of these there are many varieties — when grown in good locali- 

 ties, are acknowledged to be the highest flavored known; and this flavor is acquired by 

 letting nature take its own course, and perfect the fruit in its own way. Not that I would 

 advocate the field strawberry as superior to others, but merely to illustrate, that beyond 

 a certain point nature will not hejorced into the full and complete development of her 

 bounties. 



Of the virtues of tannic acid, it may still remain a doubtful point whether it is of any 

 real benefit beyond the very convenient and excellent quality it has as a mulch for the 

 strawberr}^ Field strawberries certainly get nothing of it beyond the rotten wood and 

 decayed leaves which sometimes reach them in their chance localities. That the tan-bark 

 keeps them clean, and protects them from frost and drouth, is certain, and therefore it 

 may be fully used — {spent tan) but beyond this, good old fashioned manures and stimu- 

 lants, in soil not naturally rich, are indispensable. 



Illinois Horticulture, Insects, Professor Turner, Sfc. — Doctor Kennicott is always 

 running over with good things. This very narrative of his makes one almost jump out on 

 a start for the western prairies, where he can " throw himself" into all liberty of action, 

 phase of thought, and extent of imagination. The Great West! Who can comprehend 

 it, in its vast outline, its inexhaustible luxuriance of soil, its far stretching interminable 

 streams, its grandeur of vegetation, its boundless scope, its healthful climate — its ener- 

 getic, enterprising, full-souled peojile! A century hence — and what must it be? With its 

 railways, its commerce, its cities, its farms, orchards, gardens, and, beyond all, its popu- 

 lation. Well did Bishop Berkley look with prophetic vision when he wrote: 



" Time's noblest Empire is the last.'^ 



A Talk about Pigs. — Mr. Allen seems to be associating himself largely with the aris- 

 totiacy — in the way of fivrm stock, and he is right. When such gentlemen as these he 

 names and alludes to, show such examples of liberality and public spirit in the introduc- 

 tion of improved stock to the farmers of our country, it must remain to the lasting dis- 

 grace of such farmers if they do not acknowledge the benefit they receive from it, and 

 reward such benefactors to their interests in a liberal purchase of their animals. 



Neio Hardy Cherries. — Good. We want fruits adapted to every extremity of climate 

 and soil in our countrj"-, and good fruits too. These new varieties of the different kinds, 

 as we occasionally find them from the productions of our enterprising pomnlogists, are 

 significant of the fact that we can produce the required varieties tosupplj- all our demands. 

 It is to be hoped that these new cherries of Mr. Kirtland, will do good service to the 

 public. 



Large Trees in the State of N^tv-York. — " It is much to be regretted, indeed, that we 

 have no chronicles of the grand old forest giants that have long been passing away from 

 among us. But for the occasional trunks which still remain as monuments of past ages 

 in some sections of the country, the diniensions of such enormous trees would seem al- 

 most fabulous. I have seen many an one of these 



" last of a miglity line," 



in my own wanderings, and never gazed upon their immense stems and hoary branches 



thout a feeling of profound reverence, at the majest}^ which had thus braved the storms 



thousand years. Every man whose good fortune it is to own the soil on which one 



