328 



ARCHITECTURE AND GARDENING OF THE EASTERN STATES. 



RanletCs ''Architect." There are many 

 buildings delineated there, with an ap- 

 pearance so attractive, and at an expense 

 so moderate, that they would be considered 

 just the thing, were it not that the outside 

 once seen, there is a very natural inclina- 

 tion awakened to peer into the excellencies 

 of what is within. When it comes to this, 

 we are quite as naturally disappointed to 

 find rooms inconveniently contracted, — in 

 many of the houses, so small that one with 

 half the means allowed in the specifica- 

 tion would hardly be willing to live in 

 them. For those, then, for whom it is in- 

 tended, the work is ')U)t just what is wanted. 

 The greater portion of those who build, in 

 this country, lay out from nine hundred to 

 two thousand dollars in the construction of 

 their dwellings. 



For a more expensive class you have 

 provided. But if the question can be satis- 

 factorily answered, as to the equal ability 

 of that less ambitious class to buy and read 

 a book better adapted to their wants, who 

 is to provide it ? * 



The description of the horticultural fes- 

 tival at Boston, in the November number, 

 was delightful, leaving a most refreshing 

 impression upon the mind. Such a con- 

 gregation, of the best talent and truest 

 spirits of the country, as met in old Fa- 

 neuilHall, is seldom witnessed; and never, 

 I may safely say, with more disinterested 

 purpose, or closer community of feeling. 

 Those Bostonians are grand punsters. The 

 many chaste and sparkling sentiments, 

 which the occasion called out, were to the 

 point ; but additional interest was awaken- 

 ed by the delicate play upon words which 

 characterised many of them, and especially 

 some given by the two Quincys, who are 

 somewhat celebrated that way. 



* Our new work on Country Houses, now in preparation, 

 will include designs for cottages of very moderate cost Ed. 



I see that the Clinton grape is recom- 

 mended by you, and some others, as a 

 good grape for the northern portion of the 

 country; but it is not among your varieties 

 in the " Fruits and Fruit Trees." In some 

 respects, it is more worthy of cultivation 

 than the Isabella. It is a strong grower, 

 early — ripening here nearly two weeks 

 before that variety — a good bearer, and 

 much more hardy. Last year both made 

 a luxuriant growth in my vineyard. On 

 the fourteenth of September, 1847, there 

 was an unusually severe frost, and my Isa- 

 bella vines on two rows of trellis, were 

 nearly all killed to the ground, while an 

 equal number of Clintons escaped without 

 injury. . 



I had supposed, until this fall, that graft- 

 ing the pear upon the white thorn neces- 

 sarily rendered the tree somewhat dwarf- 

 ish in its character. An experiment ha» 

 shown me that such is not always the re- 

 sult. 



Two years ago last spring I grafted 

 twenty-five or thirty pear scions into white 

 thorn roots, which I had taken up for the 

 purpose. The root was put in the ground, 

 so that the split should be about on a level 

 with the surface of the earth. As the 

 grafts grew, a little extra earth was thrown 

 around them to prevent the wind from 

 breaking them off. Last October I had 

 occasion to take up some of them for the 

 orchard. When they were lifted, I was 

 surprised to find that all the young trees 

 had parted company with the old roots, 

 which had given them their first suste- 

 nance, leaving the top of the stump as 

 smooth as when first sawed off, and the 

 cleft, from which all traces of the pear 

 tree had vanished, with the same appear- 

 ance as when the grafting was done. The 

 trees had no other than fine thrifty pear 

 roots. 



