UOETICULTUEE. 



ant growth to produce fruit spurs for next year; the mulching of the roots is seen to ; 

 the string of one of the props is adjusted, and the label which has fallen from the 

 ^'Duchesse'^ is repaired and replaced. A little digging and raking, while the children 

 run for the evening food for the poultry — our merchant, refreshed, not wearied, turns 

 to the sun to see his last setting rays, and almost to reproach him for goino- to bed 

 thus early, and oblige him to leave his favorites. Ah ! before he turns in in the 

 approaching darkness, he just takes ten minutes to adjust the net over a favorite 

 cherry tree — peeps under the leaves of his gooseberries and currants, and rejoices to 

 see the fructification of the prolific buffalo-berry, which he has planted purposely to 

 supply the frugiverous song birds. 



Can this man ever want amusement ? When fortune has smiled Uf)on his mercan- 

 tile transactions, will he be dependant upon foreign buffo singers, and sicken at the 

 thought that there may be no opera ? If fortune frowns, he has a pursuit ; he could 

 at any time change his occupation in the city and become a nursery proprietor, or 

 send to market the finest fruits and market products. 



We have already several such instances, one of which we must mention, because it 

 has originality as well as utility. In one of the crashes which mercantile communi- 

 ties are all subject to, now and then, an extensive dealer was obliged to " stop ;" the 

 particular trade he carried on was overdone, but he had enough means remainino- to 

 retain about twenty acres of good land near one of our principal cities. To this he 

 determined to devote his attention ; his taste for rural life, not neglected while in 

 prosperity, now came to his aid. This was years ago, before the great demand had 

 brought supplies, even yet inadequate, to our doors. With much tact, our rural mer- 

 chant plowed up and manured his land for the coming spring, leaving only space for 

 a kitchen garden to gratify his ftimily ; in this he planted a few fruit trees, to be 

 increased in number afterward. With the help of some old window frames, he forced 

 one or two dollars' worth of celery seed, and planted the whole of his little farm with 

 this valuable article. As it could be cultivated by the plow, principally, he had not a 

 large sum to expend in wages, and when it was ready for market some lumber and nails 

 were procured ; boxes were made by our " hero," for such we contend he was, sand was 

 dried, the celery housed and placed, a hundred stalks in each box, and with confidence 

 it was exhibited to ship-owners, ship-captains, and stewards. The w^hole was sold at 

 five dollars per box, and a surplus over the year's expenses of the family was the 

 result. Here was a great want of the human family supplied in an original mode — 

 an example was set to as many as chose to adopt his plan, and we need not advert to 

 the many dinners it made agreeable to delicate sea-faring passengers, or the scurvy 

 which this benefactor prevented. 



Instances like this are not so rare as our readers may suppose. New York has but 

 lately been supplied with grapes from Croton Point, by a gentleman of enterprise and 

 good taste, to whom it might, in our opinion, be as just to award a gold medal by 

 Congress, as to the hero of a bloody battle. 



Of late years, the attention of gardeners and amateurs has been much attracted to 

 the cultivation of dwarf fruit trees. The advantages proposed to be attainable are, a 



