414 



EXPERIMENTS IN HORTICULTURE. 



Daniels, in taking prizes at our horticul- 

 tural exhibitions. His industry, intelli- 

 gence, and excellent management are visi- 

 bly stamped in every spot and every de- 

 partment of the estate. I will leave your 

 readers to judge if the horticultural attrac- 

 tions of Syringbroolc are excelled by those 

 of any other country seat in the Union. 

 All having been got up within six years, 

 without the least flourish of trumpets, but 

 \vith that quiet enterprise and taste, so 



characteristic of the broad brimmed fathers 

 of our city. 



I forbear any details of the mansion, 

 dairy, or farm, where 12,000 drain tile 

 have been laid to great advantage, afford- 

 ing occular evidence to our farmers v/hat 

 can be done to fertilize any wet, unproduc- 

 tive land. I have also overlooked many 

 details and embellishments of the pleasure 

 grounds, till you can realize the effect for 

 yourself. With regards of Justicia. 



EXPERIMENTS IN HORTICULTURE— NO. 2. 



BY B., POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 



Pears. — My grounds contain about six 

 hundred pear trees, comprising ninety va- 

 rieties. They have been planted succes- 

 sively, some every year, since 1836 ; al- 

 diough most of them have been planted 

 within the last two years. My first plant- 

 ing was in 1837, and consisted of Bartlett, 

 White Doyenne or Virgalieu, Seckel, Ur- 

 baniste, Bloodgood, and Easter Beurre. 

 They were set into the ground by an Irish 

 laborer, after the approved fashion, " like 

 post^y Of course, they grew like posts for 

 a few years, until experience taught the 

 necessity of bestowing extra care and at- 

 tention, in order to resuscitate them. The 

 Seckel, Bartlett and Virgalieu, now bear 

 tolerable crops of fair fruit ; but the Blood- 

 good has not ripened more than half a 

 dozen pears, and the Urbaniste has never 

 produced even a blossom. 



In the spring of 1842, I planted another 

 lot of trees of the same varieties. The 

 holes were dug six feet in diameter and 

 two feet deep. One-third of a load of 

 Btabie manure was then thrown in and 

 mixed with the soil, which was naturally 

 rather heavy. In 1847, when these last 



had been planted five years, and the first, 

 teiL years, I compared them, and found those 

 planted in 1842, to be considerably the 

 largest and finest trees in all respects, and 

 bearing more and better fruit. Since that, 

 I have made it an invariable rule, never to 

 plant a tree of any kind (except peaches,) 

 without preparing the ground thoroughlj''. 

 It is decidedl}^ cheaper to spend a dollar in 

 planting a tree thus, than to have it planted 

 for nothing on the old system. If a tree is 

 not worth the trifling care and expense of 

 being planted properly, it is not worth 

 planting at all. 



In the winter of 1847, I imported from 

 France, thirty pear trees, on qui7ice stocks, 

 two of each, of fifteen choice varieties. 

 They arrived in New- York about the first 

 of January, and remained there in a count- 

 ing-house until March, when they were for- 

 warded to Poughkeepsie. When opened, 

 although packed in the very best manner, 

 they were much shrivelled, and apparently 

 dead. I caused them to be put into a cel- 

 lar and kept covered with wet straw until 

 April, and then planted them eight feet 

 apart. Contrary to my expectations, and 



