before the close of November, is not to be trifled with. Timely and thorough i)rci)arations 

 lunst be made for it by those who wish to escape loss. 



Tlie dry summer lias produced sonic effects on vegetation that have been considered very 

 wonderful. Many of the newspapers have recorded the flowering of fruit and other trees 

 late in the autumn. The dry summer wjis a jieriod of almost entire rest to many trees i 

 and when the fall rains came, accomiianied with mild spring-like weather, the fully matured 

 llower-buds expanded as though it were April. Many trees, both fruit and ornamental, 

 iiave flowered in our own grounds during the months of September and October. The 

 Spiraa pruni/oUa bloomed quite jirofusely. 



They get two or throe crops of Strawberries, in the south, because their warm and long 

 seasons bring early runners — young plants, formed in March or April — to a fruiting condition 

 in July. In our climate it takes the whole summer. Our drouth illustrates the principle of 

 growth on which the ever-bearing character of the Strawberry in the south depends. If 

 we were eight or ten degrees further south, we might get two crops of Strawberries in one 

 season. But to sui)pose that water will make up for this difference of climate, is a singular 

 delusion. 



The weather during the past summer, in the west and southwest, generally, excepting a 

 portion of Wisconsin, was the dryest ever known. lu many cases the earth was dry as 

 powder several feet down ; and notwithstanding pretty abundant rains, it has hardly been 

 possible to plant trees in many places. The rivers, up to this time even, are unusually low. 

 A gentleman writes us from Marietta, Nov. 8, that " the Ohio is confined to its bed, and 

 has been all summer, and boots are now passing up and down the Muskingum dry." In 

 some parts of the southwest, as in Iowa, Missouri, Tennesee, &c., the drouth set in early, 

 and was quite disastrous. We have heard of two or three instances where persons who 

 had commenced the nm-sery business lost all they had, and were compelled to abandon 

 their enterprize ; their whole stock, in which their means were invested, having been 

 totally ruined by the drouth ! Young nurserymen should always bear in mind the contin- 

 gencies of the trade, and provide for them as far as may be in their power. People are 

 now talking more seriously than ever, of irrigation, and of providing appliances for raising 

 and distributing water. Experience is a good teacher, though often expensive. 



Those who hold that an equilibrium of moisture must be maintained, are predicting 

 heavy falls of rain or snow, or both, during the ensuing winter. We may as well prepare for 

 it whether it come or not. 



The year 1854 is about closing; and, as we look bade, we feel that, all in all, it Las been 

 a prosperous and important year for American horticulture. With all the drouth, the 

 fruit crop has generally been abundant and fine. In a few circumscribed localities only has 

 it failed. The exhibitions from Maine to Texas, and we might say to the far-ofT Pacific, 

 have been numerous and successful ; giving ample proof that we are making rapid progress. 

 The Pomological meeting at Boston was a great affair ; and the doings of that body, and 

 the reports which will appear in its proceedings, will show what a fruit-growing spirit has 

 been awakened in the United States. Ornamental gardening, too, is brightening up. 

 Landscape gardening is written about, and talked and read about, with increasing interest, 

 and professors of that most useful and delightful of arts, — fine arts, if you please — are 

 becoming numerous, as our advertising pages will show. All this omens well for our 

 country. 



preceding notes were intended for tlie December number, but were, in company 

 other items ot more importance, crowded out. Between that date (November 22d) 



