KAMBLING NOTES. 



RAMBLING NOTES IN FEBRUARY. 



BY PISISTEATUS, PHILADELPHIA. 



Seated by a comfortable fire this very foggy day, the Horticulturist, past, present, 

 and to come, has been much the subject of contemplation ; its late editor, present in 

 vind memory, and constantly recalled by the framed portrait hanging in view. We 

 all lost a friend when Downing died ; but Napoleon had an axiom that " no man is 

 indispensable." In the case under consideration, Napoleon would be but half right ; 

 for if we profit by the seeds of taste and instruction sown by our departed teacher, 

 we shall yet get along. Good observers are left ; and it becomes every one of them, 

 as they value their instructor to clah their knowledge, and each one tell what he 

 knows to others. 



To have a good garden now-a-days requires study, reading, and practical oversight 

 and knowledge in the owner. The race of gardeners to be procured for moderate 

 wages is not extensive, and when they are good, or " promise well," they can find in 

 this gi-eat country, fields of their own. My difiiculty has been to keep a good gar- 

 dener when I had got him. The plans of one year have to be superintended by new 

 hands. If I did not keep a sharp look out, I should never know where my next 

 winter's asparagus and rhubarb, ready to be placed in the forcing beds, were to be 

 found. I would seriously advise no one to incur the expensive parapharnalia of 

 graperies, green-houses, and gardens, unless he loves them well enough to look after 

 them himself. Now and then he will have to do this. He will be a fortunate man, 

 indeed, if he does not find himself as much confined at home sometimes, as a woman 

 is who is so happy as to have an infant at the breast ! Twice during this winter I 

 have had to make the fires in the green-house ; one gardener took a railway excursion, 

 and was drowned in a canal after stopping at the hotel, and another had an " unex- 

 pected " call to get married on a monstrous cold evening. Neglect rather than 

 incapacity, too frequently deprive proprietors of the just expectations they have 

 entertained with regard to returns for their outlays. Regularity, method, and atten- 

 tion constitute the very essence of gardening, and every deviation from these prin- 

 ciples will be injurious to all concerned. 



I have amused myself for the first time, this winter, with forcing asparagus. After 

 the first trial I have been successful. My beginning was another evidence that books 

 do not always impart the whole knowledge required. I consulted the best works, got 

 up a fine frame and plenty of manure heat in the proper way, and in due time placed 

 the roots under good earth, much as I plant out-door beds of this delicious article. 

 Up soon came the article, as fine as could be wished ; but it was wonderfully "few and 

 far between." Two messes was all I got from this trial. The next was more success- 

 ful. I planted the roots so as to lap each other as much as possible, and a prodigious 

 yield is the result, so that I have actually supplied several families and my own with 

 fine bunches. This hint will be useful to beginners. The spears derive no nourish- 

 ment from the ground in this rapid forcing process ; all we get is the matter stored 



