DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



the ijrincipal large cities have each its horticul- 

 tural society's garden, and let there be in each 

 a department for general culture. Let it be 

 known to gardeners both here and abroad that 

 they would be employed, and their abilities 

 tested by a scientific and experienced director, 

 whose recommendation could be relied on, and 

 there would be no lack of good and talented 

 men applying for admission. Such societies 

 would be a credit to the country. They would 

 be supported at very little cost; in fact they 

 might be made to be paying concerns, and garde- 

 ners abroad — real gardeners — not wheelbarrow 

 trundlers — would know that there would be 

 something in the way of an asylum for them to 

 come to, and would be induced thereby to come 

 over in greater numbers, when the host of pre- 

 tenders would fall back before the face of ex- 

 perience, and fill only the situations of the op- 

 pressor arid the penurious, and such places 

 would in their turn become a laughing stock 

 to all men of good taste. I have had some ex- 

 perience in the working of such societies in 

 England, and can assert with confidence that 

 they have done more to elevate gardening in 

 that country than anything else. They have 

 been the means during the last twenty years 

 of making English horticulture a model for the 

 world, of stimulating skill and raising a higher 

 standard of perfection. They have also been 

 the means of attracting the attention of spirited 

 observing and intelligent young men, who there- 

 by have been induced to learn the profession, 

 seeing in it something to occupy a talented 

 mind. Plenty of such young men are now 

 languishing in the nursery establishments 

 abroad at low wages, and little prospect before 

 them. These would be easily induced to come 

 over here if they knew there were any chance 

 of bettering their condition, and employing 

 their talent, but in the present position they are 

 ignorant of the true state of gardening here, 

 and those who are here and know how they 

 would be situated on landing do not like to en- 

 courage them to come out. Establish such 

 societies as the above ; let it be known that there 

 are such institutes M-here the educated garden- 

 er can find a resting place without having to 

 succumb to the degrading position (perhaps for 

 years because he has not the pretender's ef- 

 frontry) of doing all kinds of conveniences for 



every domectic about a gentleman's back door, 

 and wages in the first instance will be no object, 

 and although employers should have to pay a 

 little more for the services of such men, they 

 will generally and eventually be the gainers to 

 a large extent. AA'ishiug you every success in 

 your advocacy of the true interests of good 

 gardeners, lam yours most respectfully, Wm. 

 Chorlton, Gardener to J. C. Greene, Esq. 

 Staten Island, March 4, 1851. 



Grapes and Strawberries. — I am gratifi- 

 ed to learn that the Diana grape is of good qua- 

 lity south. The fruit in Boston is far inferior 

 to the Catawba with us. I doubt not it will be 

 improved here. I have several vines that will 

 fruit this season. 



Your correspondent errs in supposing a cut- 

 ting from a grape-vine, perfect in male and fe- 

 male organs, can become barren. I would 

 sooner believe in mesmerism than this. I have 

 raised from cuttings, 300,000 bearing plants, 

 and never a non-hearer. A cutting of a defec- 

 tive plant has got there by mistake. You cer- 

 tainly err in saying the Scuppernong of North 

 Carolina is the only native grape that is not 

 perfect in both male and female organs. In our 

 woods, I believe the greater portion of our wild 

 grapes Mill be found defective in female organs, 

 and barren. I have had the wild seedlings, 

 (the seed I presume dropped by birds,) gene- 

 rally of this character. You certainly err, also, 

 in saying, that in England no attention has 

 been paid to the sexes of the strawberry plant. 

 The strawberries they usually cultivate, are 

 hermaphrodite, and are chiefly used for forcing. 

 In the open ground, with us, their large fruit- 

 ed ones will not average a quarter of a crop of 

 perfect fruit. [Our correspondent has not seen 

 the crops of British Queen grown in England, 

 or he would not hold this opinion. Ed.] Where 

 forced, the pistils are better developed, and 

 bear more fruit. This is the character of their 

 boasted variety, Keen's Seedling. But Mr. 

 Keen himself, discovered that there were va- 

 rieties wholly defective in the male organ. He 

 says, in one of his letters to the London Horti- 

 cultural Society, published in their Transac- 

 tions, that he found one of his beds in forcing, 

 though full of blossoms, bore no fruit. He 

 examined the blossoms, and found no 

 male organs. He went to a bed perfect 



