DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



351 



I stood the other Jay by the bench of an English 

 mechanic, whose remarkable skill I was admiring, 

 and the genius of whose youthful son in his work I 

 was noticing, when the father took from the draw- 

 er some beautiful crayon and pencil sketches which 

 this working boy had made. '" Ah ! sir," said the 

 father, '-this is America. My boy was taught all this 

 for nothing, atyour public school. Had I stayed at 

 home, he would have lived and died unnoticed at 

 the bench. Here he may take a stand and be 

 honored and encouraged." Yes, and this is but 

 one of the multitude of instances of illustrations, 

 which a knowledge of facts would bring out, of the 

 encouragement which American freedom gives to 

 innate talent. 



I know a poor English carpenter, who with the 

 utmost difficulty gathered the needful bread for 

 his family. His children were placed in the pub- 

 lic schools of a neighboring city. His eldest son, 

 having no chance of education before, laid hold of 

 his opportunity greedily, passed with honor through 

 all the stages of public education, at the public 

 expense; and on his graduating at the summit of 

 the career of the city's provision, was immediately 

 appointed a teacher, and is now a professor of 

 ancient languages in one of the highest institu- 

 tions — and honored the more for the industry which 

 has made him, from neglected poverty, what he 

 is. This is America. That boy might have lived 

 and died a beggar in the streets of London, and no 

 titled man have taken him by the hand, to bring 

 out, in an elevating education, the noble powers 

 his Creatorhad implanted within him. — Dr. Tyng's 

 Address before the .American Institute. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Strawberries. — P. W. E., (Charleston.) If 

 you will consult vol. 2d, p. 133, you will find ex- 

 cellent practical details for the culture of this 

 fruit. Also, at p. 114, of the present volume, are 

 some highly interesting remarks, (by B., of Pough- 

 keepsie,) on the field culture of strawberries. 

 One hundred bushels to the acre are frequently 

 grown here by the market gardeners. The Eng- 

 lish White Wood strawberry is the only white one 

 cultivated here ; it is an excellent sort for family 

 US3, bears moderate but regular crops, and con- 

 tinues eominir in for a long time. Culture very 

 easy. The Hudson is the most profitable market 

 strawberry, in all soils. 



Forcing Fruits. — D. L., (Roxbury, Mass.) 

 Fifteen-inch pots are usually preferred to boxes 

 for forcing fruit trees. We think the fig would do 

 better in boxes of a larger size. Peaches, necta- 

 rines, and other hardy fruit trees, forced in pots, 

 ought to be taken out of the house as soon as the 

 crop is gathered, placed in a partially shaded situ- 

 ation, and the pots plunged in old tan, sawdust, or 

 the like, to keep them cool and moist. Here they 

 should be sulTered to be till the forcing season 

 commences, unless the frost should sit in very se- 

 vere, when they should be carried into a oool airy 

 shed till the forcing season. 



Vine borders, that are wholly inside, should be 

 well soiked with water in the autumn at the fall 

 of the leaf. They will then not need any more 

 till towards the time of growth, unless they get 

 dry, which should not be allowed. 



Osage Orange Hedges. — D. Redmond, (Utica, 

 Y.) You will find some remarks on this plant, in 

 another column. We do not think it will prove 

 hardy in Utica. Plants may be had of A. 

 Saul &, Co., of this place — and as all trees resist 

 the winter better when clipped annually, as a hedge 

 must be, it is worth your while to plant a small 

 quantity for trial. It grows three times as fast as 

 the Hawthorn, and faster for the first two years, 

 than the Buckthorn. 



Araucaria. — A Lover of Evergreens, (Pitts- 

 burgh, Pa.) Araucaria imbricata appears to be 

 quite hardy about New York. Dr. Valk, of 

 Flushing, in a note before us, says, "my Arauca- 

 ria imbricata has been in the open ground four 

 years. Though yet a little tree it does not appear 

 to mind " Jack Frost" at all, and has grown finely 

 the past summer." 



Books. — A New York Subscriber. A new edi- 

 tion o( Michaux's Forest trees, edited by Nuttall, 

 has just been put to press in Philadelphia : The 

 original Michaux, with 156 colored plates, 3 vols, 

 for $23, and Nuttall's continuation, 3 vols., 124 

 colored plates, for $26. We shall give a list with 

 prices of the other works, in our next number. 



Stocks. — J. Fulton, jr., (Chester co., Pa.) 

 The " horse plum" is not a damson, but a common 

 blue freestone variety, allied to the Orleans, which 

 reproduces itself freely from seed. It takes the bud 

 readily, which the damson does not. The seeds 

 can be had in abundance in New York, or on the 

 Hudson, in the autumn, but we imagine not now. 

 Plum stocks are advertised in quantities, by Mr. 

 Gustin, of Morristown, N. J. 



Manures. — D. L., (Roxbury.) We have not 

 found anthracite ashes of the slighest possible ben- 

 efit when applied to kitchen garden crops — but 

 some fruit trees, as the cherry and grape, are deci- 

 dedly improved in growth and health by their ap- 

 plication. 



Aa Original Subscriber, (New Haven.) Place 

 your heap of charcoal dust behind or near the privy, 

 and have the "chamber lye" poured upon it daily. 

 It will take up all the ammonia and other salts, 

 and be ten times more valuable as a manure, than 

 before. 



Green-houses. — An Amateur, (Bulfalo.) The 

 cost of such a green-house as you propose, well 

 built, here, with a brick wall and a furnace and 

 flues, would be about $S per running foot, (i. e. 

 for one 30 feet long, $240.) With you, where 

 lumber is cheaper, if, for the wall, you substitute 

 cedar posts, lined on both sides with plank, and 

 the space filled in with dry tan or charcoal dust, 

 and instead of the flue, a polmaise stove, as de- 

 scribed in our last month's leader, it would probak-^ 

 bly cost about half this sum. 



