ON RAISING POTATOES FROM SEED. 



Didst thou expect to gather gear 

 By scUing out thy chopsticks here? 

 What a mistaken notion. 



These are said to be the largest, if not the oldest in the country; however, I do not 

 think they exceed in age the one on Boston Common, wliich was removed to its pre- 

 sent site about fourteen years ago, when the Greene estate was levelled to build Pember- 

 ton Square; it was thought at the time a great risk to remove so large and delicate a tree, 

 but it must be either moved or cut doM'n, modern improvement said, and the event has 

 proved that the attempt was judiciously made, for though it languished for several years, 

 and has probably increased but little in size since its transplantation, it is now growing, 

 its roots and branches somewhat cut away, in order to convey it through the narrow 

 streets, so that it will never vie in beauty of form with its brethren of the Woodlands. 

 Hamilton did not import and nurse up foreign trees to the exclusion of those of native 

 growth, but gathered together at the Woodlands, the most beautiful from the northern 

 and southern states: there are two noble specimens of the Fagus farugin^a now growing 

 there, probably the only ones in that section of countr3^ The Magnolia cordata was also, 

 through his means, brought from the south. It was as gardener on this estate, that PuRsn, 

 the author of Flora America Scptentrionalis, began his career in this country. His pre- 

 decessor was John Lton, also a collector of American plants, for whom a genus of the 

 Andromedete was named — Lyonia. The green-house formerly under their care, is still 

 stocked with plants; a part of it is used as a rosarium, where are blooming in great luxu- 

 riance, a variety of the queen of flowers, which are cultivated to plant out upon the graves; 

 for the Woodlands was laid out a few years ago as a cemetery. I could not but lament 

 that so fine a house, in such a lovely situation, was not still occupied by a gentleman of 

 taste and fortune; the reason given for the desertion of the place, was the prevalence of 

 the fever and ague, which is now said to have almost disappeared. 



To this lovely spot, once the resort onl}^ of the gay and fashionable, the rich and the 

 learned, the dwellers of the crowded city now come out to bury their dead — 



And nature's pleasant robe of green, 

 Humanity's appointed shroud, enwraps 

 Tlieir monuments and their memory. 



Cambridge, Mass., 1851. 



Yours. 



ON EAISINa POTATOES FROM SEED. 



BY WILLIAM PARRY, BURLINGTON CO., N. J. 



Having derived much pleasure an information from reading accounts of the experi- 

 ments recorded in the Horticulturist, I feel it right to contribute Avhat little laj's in my 

 power towards the general good, in part return for the benefits which I have received from 

 the experience of others. 



The potato being so valuable an esculent, every precaution should be used to extend its 

 usefulness, by increasing the varieties and testing the merits of each, as well in qualitj' as 

 quantity produced, that those which prove superior, either in early ripening or adaptation 

 to particular soils or climate, may be disseminated throughout the country, and those 

 which are inferior be discarded from cultivation. 



The usual mode of raising potatoes from the seed, by planting in the open garden 

 tedious and requiring several years to develop their true characters, has deterred man 



