144 EDITOK'3 TABLK 



all tbftt time. I have been planting lately in my chickcn-yarJ, hoping thereby to save some, 

 and am !»i)mc\vliat encouraged by the fact of one young tree ripening its entire crop of fifty 

 riiims; wiiich, however, may have been accidental. I will bo better able to judge next season, 

 a^ several others will then come into bearing. I had intended saying something about Strawber- 

 ries, grafting, A'c., but as I dislike long articles, will defer it to some other occasion. 



Since writing the above, we have had an abundance of rain and a considerable quantity of 

 enow. T. V. rETicoL.\9. — Moimt Cannel, Clermont Co., Ohio., Jan., 1855. 



Notifts of 33oot5, |3ainpf)Ittj5, t(t. 



OcT-DOOits AT Idlewild. By N. P. "Willis. Now York. 1S55. 



Rural neighborhoods ought to be very much indebted to Mr. "Willis for tins sprightly 

 and enlivening book, consisting of the letters published originally in the Home Journal, 

 The author possesses more tlian the average knowledge of the duties of a country villa, 

 for he has once before resided on the Susquehanna. But we may as well say at once, tliat 

 the horticulturist will learn very little from the city editor and poet, in the way of either 

 planting or raising fruit ; but he may become more genial in his feelings, and have a keener 

 relish for the society of trees, and water, and scenery, and the numerous etceteras of 

 changing landscapes ; l^e avIII love nature better, and perhaps solitude more. Are not 

 these great attainments? The failures that are so often experienced by citizens retiring to 

 the country, may be attributed to a lack of that natural education which can extract from 

 a changing cloud, the ever-varying aspect of rural Scenes, and especially from rural work, 

 the means of employment of the mind and hand. Something to do is too often felt to be 

 absent. An observer of the new comer to the country too frequently sees a resort to 

 occupations for which the country was never fitted. "Where preparations for a country life 

 has not been made by a study of its enjoyments and pursuits, how often do we find the 

 experiment of removing from Broadway and Wall street an utter failure, and return inev- 

 itable. Good excuses are soon found — the children cannot be educated, or it is too lone- 

 some ! Let no one attempt rural life till these and other considerations have been fully 

 weighed. Life itself is but a rainbow of fitful changes, to which it is vain to attempt to 

 give permanence ; but the man who does not enjoy the growth and the results of a kitchen 

 garden or grapery, who has no pleasure in the study of the habits of insects, and who can 

 not enjoy the frolics of a favorite dog and the attachment which should grow up between 

 himself and his domestic animals, had better stay nearer to the theatre and the bank. 



These reflections are elicited by the privilege our author has indulged us with, of an inti- 

 mate acquaintance with his out-door doings at his seat near to the residence of our late 

 friend Downing on the Hudson. The descrijjtion of his demesne is highly graphic and 

 charming; the capabilities of his farm must be every way such as would deliglit tlie 

 improver and the lover of landscape. The mind to enjoy, and the rarer talent to describe, 

 the love of country scenes are happily combined in the sketcher ; and we are free to say 

 that a more agreeable volume of its kind has not for many a day been laid on our table. 

 Take the following and study it, all ye pent up denizens of a crowded city: 



'■'April, 1853. — "We are not particular about the coming of spring, at Idlewild. It is impa- 

 tiently waited for among shrubberies and fruit trees, and on gravel walks only shaded in sum- 

 mer. But, lose yourself (as you may) in our waterfall wilderness, and you would not know 

 April from June. It is a little seventy-acre world of rocks, foam, rapids, and pathless woods, 



