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DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



Last full soon after the fruit dropped, I removed 

 three pear trees from ten inches to eighteen 

 inches in diameter; it took sixteen cattle to 

 move the large one. My neiglibors said it could 

 not be done, and now they are moved they say 

 they will not live. I have already proved them 

 half wrong, and this summer I intend proving 

 the other half. If they live I will tell you ; if 

 they die, I shall keep perfectly quiet about it, 

 and when I want to move big trees again, wait 

 till winter and freeze a ball of earth round the 

 roots. I much regret the silence of some of 

 your old correspondents. Has some GilBlas 

 told Jeffries he begins to flag, or what is the 

 matter? I intend writing a series of articles 

 against the selfishness of mankind in general 

 and Jefferies in particular, if Ave dont hear 

 from him in the next number. Respectfully 

 yours, A. A. F. Granite Lodge, Brookline, 

 Mats., March 17, 1851. 



[Old tan-bark — that has been exposed for a 

 year to the weather is a good viulcher, and will 

 do your trees no harm. Bark fresh from the 

 tan-vats may. We hope Jeffries will feel 

 himself called out again by the force of public 

 opinion. Ed.] 



Education OF Gardeners. — Your judicious 

 remarks respecting experimental gardens in the 

 April number of last year, are so good that you 

 deserve the thanks of every gardener in the 

 United States, who wishes to see his profession 

 advance from the miserable position in which 

 it now generally stands. If as has been before 

 said, " Man begins to build stately sooner than 

 garden finely," as if gardening were the greater 

 Ijerfection, surely America with all its grandeur 

 must be behind in the march in this respect. I 

 do not deny that there are many places which 

 will rank with some of the best kept up gardens 

 on the other side the Atlantic, but generally 

 speaking this is not the case. Yet there is suf- 

 ficient taste and desire on the part of those who 

 can afford to support such establishments. We 

 find most of our wealthy citizens keeping a 

 country house and retiring from the crowded 

 cities when Flora puts on her gay attire. We 

 see them wishing to have gardens, and those 

 few who really get them enjoying their beau- 

 ties. A further proof is in the universal love 

 flowers and the high prices that are frequent- 

 for them. Many expend thousands of 



dollars in laying out their grounds, but which 

 I am sorry to say is too often squandered by 

 men in whom they have placed confidence, who 

 have no ability for such things, who pitch, here 

 and there, a stick of a tree in a hole not large 

 enough to bury a cat, as accidentally as if they 

 had fallen from the clouds, and think they have 

 done wonders, and who instead of producing 

 beauty and grace, and thus giving satisfiiction, 

 are at last cut short by the disgust of their em- 

 ployers. If there is desire for such things, it 

 cannot be denied that the universal wish to ex- 

 cel, will prompt American gentlemen to have 

 as good gardens as most Europeans, providing 

 they can get enough of the same class of gar- 

 deners as are there found in the best conducted 

 places. Mr. Quin's comparison (in the July 

 number) between a store-sweeper's wages and 

 those of a gardener, are ill-timed and out of 

 place. Indeed it seems to me his whole argu- 

 ment will hardly bear the test of examination. 

 It is hoped that the eruption may be quenched 

 by a little common sense. 



The profession is held back by the horde of 

 pretenders who swarm all over the country, who 

 have no ability but in their impudence, who 

 can do every thing perfect in the porter house, 

 and everything imperfectly in the garden, and 

 who from their numbers, their presumption and 

 their arrogance, make the gardener's calling a 

 derision and a mockery. How are gardeners 

 to expect, (except in a few instances) better 

 remuneration than " hewers of wood and 

 drawers of water," while the present state of 

 things exists. It is the bounden duty of every 

 true gardener to set a decided stand against 

 such men, and to hold out the right hand of 

 fellowship to any one who has public influence, 

 and respond with the kindest feelings to him 

 who in his public capacity, endeavors to raise 

 gardening from its present forlorn condition, up 

 to that position which it is entitled to hold. 

 Such societies for the practical education of 

 gardeners as you advocate, would do much 

 towards bringing about so desirable a consum- 

 mation. They would be the means of testing 

 the abilities of the different men who would 

 come within their sphere, and depend upon it 

 that sphere would be a very extended one if 

 fully carried out, sufficiently so to remodel 

 gardening throughout the country. Only let 



