326 



ARCHITECTURE AND GARDENING OF THE EASTERN STATES. 



Great Britain. Experience has demon- 

 strated, hundreds of times, that it mellows 

 the soil, destroys the eggs of insects, and 

 drives out any acids or excrementitious 

 matters that exist in old soils to the detri- 

 ment of the succession of annual crops. 

 Indeed, many old gardens that are quite 

 unproductive, if left alone in this particular, 

 are kept in capital condition by constantly 

 attending to it. 



The ridges ought to be thrown up a foot 

 and a half high, in the diiiection of the 

 slope of the ground, so that the water will 

 run off, and not stand in the trenches. 

 They may be as close together as they can 

 be made, bearing in mind to keep the tops 

 of the ridges 18 inches high, I consider it 



a great advantage to turn up a little of the 

 subsoil — say a couple of inches each sea- 

 son — at the time of ridging. This brings 

 a little fresh loam to the surface ; and after 

 being acted upon by the atmosphere, it 

 mixes very kindly with the top-soil, and 

 helps much to keep up the fertility of the 

 garden. 



If you have fresh stable manure at hand, 

 it is well to give the top-spit a good coat, 

 and mix it through the soil when ridging 

 up. It will be found to put the soil in 

 good condition for spring crops of vegeta- 

 bles ; and it is by far the best mode of ap- 

 plying coarse manure to the kitchen garden. 

 Yours respectfully, A Scotch Gardener. 



Boston, Nov., 184S. 



NOTES on the ARCHITECTURE AND GARDENING of the EASTERN STATES. 



BY W. H. SCOTT, TOLRDO, OHIO. 



I THINK, when I saw you in your lovely 

 Highland home, last July, you partly eli- 

 cited a promise to give, in a future number 

 of the Horticulturist, some impressions of 

 a rather hasty visit to New-England. I 

 have read several interesting numbers of 

 the Horticulturist since then, and have cer- 

 tainly derived more benefit from their pe- 

 rusal than if a part of the space had been 

 occupied by any observations of mine. A 

 western man, whatever may be his pride 

 of home, and attachment to a country pos- 

 sessing so many natural advantages, can 

 hardly avoid cherishing some slight covet- 

 ous feelings, while contrasting it with one 

 which age and wealth have subdued and 

 beautified ; but this is somewhat alleviated 

 by the idea of a smoother and speedier 

 road to arrive at such a stage of improve- 

 ment. 



Perhaps in no one aspect does New- 



England {old, as she appears to us,) exhibit 

 so great a superiority over the untamed 

 west, as in her rural architecture. In 

 passing through its more southern portions, 

 the pleasantest ideas of the comforts of its 

 houses, are awakened. 



The general adaptation of these to the 

 purposes for which they were designed, is 

 one of the most material sources of plea- 

 sure. The observer will occasionally see 

 ostentatious displays of bad taste, where 

 show has been the grand object of a pro- 

 prietor, influenced in a great degree, per- 

 haps, by an ambitious but ignorant archi- 

 tect. Snug little thirty-by-forty parthe- 

 Tions, stubbornly intrude themselves upon 

 the notice, as if insisting upon an attention 

 which their owners imagine so much splen- 

 dor of column should command. 



Something of the same spirit pervades 

 building humanity now, that De Tocque- 



