ITiinuus im]} llaiutring. 



OW to prepare and apply manures is a matter in wliioh every cul- 

 tivator of the soil must feel deeply interested. It matters not to 

 what expense and trouble we go to procure the finest fruits or veo-- 

 etables, and the most beautiful trees, shrubs, and flowers ; or with 

 what excellent taste we may arrange our parterre ; unless we furnish 

 the soil with such quantities and kinds of fertihzing materials as 

 will ensure a vigorous, luxuriant, and healthy growth. The ao-ri- 

 culturist may stock his farm with the purest and best blood of 

 animals that the world can produce, or he may plant the best im- 

 proved grains and grasses or root crops that money will purchase ; but 

 without judicious and liberal feeding in the one case, and skillful, thorough 

 culture in the other, he will be no better off in the end than his neio-hbor 

 who has remained satisfied with such stock and such seeds as he could most 

 easily and most cheaply procure. This every one will cheerfully admit in theory, 

 but a great many deny it in their practice; and thus the obstinate opposers of im- 

 provement and progress have been furnished with their strongest arguments. Here 

 they say, are Mr. Brown and Squire Joxes, who have spent fortunes in collecting new 

 and fine things from all parts of the world — they have every known variety of fruit 

 and flowers — they have employed celebrated gardeners to lay out their grounds, and 

 have spent thousands upon labor ; and what have they ? Why, they have to come 

 over here to us and purchase a supply of fruit for their families ; and the old lady 

 across the way, whose garden is a mere patch, and who does all her own work, can 

 show more and finer flowers than they can any day in the year ! This is not an 

 imaginary case ; we have repeatedly heard these remarks, and had occasion to regret 

 the pernicious influence of such examples. On the other hand, we could point to 

 instances where a single example of a small garden successfully cultivated, has awak- 

 ened an entire village and neighborhood, and set them at planting and gardening with 

 the greatest enthusiasm — and upon the right principle. 



One of the very first matters that should occupy the attention of persons embarking 

 in horticulture, whether on a large or small scale, should be the preparation of his 

 soil. This ought to be the starting point ; and there is probably no other item in the 

 entire routine of culture in regard to which beginners find themselves so puzzled, or 

 so completely in the dark. If every crop and every soil could with propriety be 

 furnished with the same quantity and kind of manures or fertilizers, it would be a 

 simjile matter; but such is far from being the fact. What may be fit and proper for 

 one soil and one sort of crop, may be utterly ruinous to others ; and therefore a great 

 degree of judgment and discrimination becomes necessary. Much may be o-athered 

 from the instruction of books and the experience of others ; but local circumstances 

 apparently trivial, exert such a weighty influence that nothing save actual experience 



December 1, 1853. 



No. XII. 



