1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST, 



123 



grounds, and other prominent points calculated 

 to give us a good view of the horticultural ad- 

 vantages and products. The vegetable and fruit 

 markets were particularly attractive, all our 

 spring vegetables being in great abundance, and 

 charming the heart of the writer's good wife, who 

 regards herself as a particularly good judge as to 

 what is perfection in that line. The new potatoes 

 really did look excellent. The strawberries were 

 not abundant, and though they are often spoken 

 of as among the great achievements of the 

 Southern winters, neither in quality or appear- 

 ance were they equal to our Northern fruit. 



The great Southern exposition, which has been 

 so extensively advertised, was being held, but 

 there was not much to interest the horticulturist, 

 though in agriculture and the mechanic arts it 

 was particularly attractive; but this was more 

 than made up in the horticulture of the Fair 

 ground itself, which gave us a treat which, had 

 we seen nothing else, it would have paid us well 

 alone to see. 



Here were specimens of rare plants, which for 

 years we had known only as rare things, coddled 

 up in pots and tubs in hot-houses, growing to 

 majestic proportions in the open air. There 

 were also greenhouses with plants which thrive 

 better there than in the open ground, though, 

 perhaps, hardy in the main, forming small trees 

 of large size. The curious Carolina princeps and 

 the Astrapsea Wallichii, which noAV and then 

 flower in our conservatories, were here in mag- 

 nificent blossom. Huge Raphiolepis and other 

 winter-blooming shrubs were covered with 

 blossom, and among the out-door things, Cu- 

 pressus torulosa, and others of this class, ten- 

 der with us, made pictures of beauty we shall 

 never forget. Best of all here was to find in the 

 gardener, Mr. Mliller, one of whom the profession 

 may be proud. We so often meet with "garden- 

 ers" who are mere pretenders, and Avho get into 

 good places by mere luck, while real sound men 

 of modest worth are left out in the cold, that it 

 was a real treat to find so intelligent a gentleman 

 in charge here, and we cannot help making a 

 note thereof. 



Our liimits are too cramped to make any ex- 

 tended notice of our long trip in this formal way- 

 From time to time we hope to benefit our read- 

 ers by what we have seen. We will only offer 

 our best thanks to our numerous Southern 

 friends, by whose urgent invitations we Avere 

 tempted to take the trip, and to whose generous 

 and warm-hearted attentions we are indebted in 



so many States for pleasures we shall not soon 

 forget. We cannot, however, close these notes 

 without a brief reference to the beautiful grounds 

 of Mr. Nelson, of the Magnolia Nurseries, on 

 which the Deodar cedars, Torreyas, Cupressus, 

 and many other plants, were grown into speci- 

 mens of more than striking beauty. 



A Few Suggestions on Tree Planting, by 

 Pkof. C. S. Sargent, of Harvard University. 

 — This is a plea for forest tree planting, and a 

 plea urged with great ability. He gives an ac- 

 count of the plantations of Mr. Richard Fay, 

 near Lynn, in Essex Co., Mass., of two hundred 

 acres, in 1846, mostly European Larch. There 

 are now some of them fifty feet high and fifteen 

 inches in diameter. Seven hundred cords of 

 firewood have been cut at various times, besides 

 all the fencing material for the vast estate. 

 Thousands of dollars worth could be cut to-day. 

 The land was excessively poor when planted. 



Another gentleman, J. S. Fay, Larch and Scotch 

 pine set out in 1853 are now 40 feet high, and 10 to 

 12 inches in diameter one foot from the ground, 

 and this in the poorest kind of huckleberry- 

 ground. 



Mr. Sargent then goes into a large number of 

 facts and figures to show that even from the ear- 

 liest stages of forest tree planting in most places 

 a profit may be made, and that one need not feel 

 that in planting trees for posterity nothing is to 

 be made at once for oneself. We are sure many 

 will be startled by the good case for tree culture 

 made out by Mr. Sargent, and yet we are sure 

 that he has rather under than over stated the 

 case, and that if anyone who truly understood 

 the business of forest tree culture, and united 

 with this knowledge, ordinary tact and business 

 prudence, he could make even considerably more 

 out of the business than Mr. Sargent puts it, fa- 

 vorable as his statement is. 



The contribution to arboriculture is timely, 

 and we are sure will do an immense amount of 



" Subscriber " on Mushrooms.— We have from 

 Mr. Henderson the article on Mushrooms de- 

 sired, and hope to be able to give it in our next. 



Proceedings of the Western New York 

 Horticultural Society, January, 1876 — from 

 R. C. Reynolds, secretary, Rochester, New York. 

 This is the earliest in the field, most of these 

 documents not appearing till near a year after 

 the time of meeting. We notice that Mr. J. J. 

 Thomas corrects the published report of his re- 



