FOREIGN NOTICES. 



573 



and the work being substantially the same, 

 there is no necessity of our repeating our 

 praises of the ability with which it is writ- 

 ten, in all that relates to agriculture. 



The author, since that period, having re- 

 sided nearly the whole time at the Soulh, 

 has been able to add considerably to the 

 departments of the work relating to south- 

 ern agriculture, which cannot fail to in- 

 crease its value south of the Potomac. 



We commend the volume to all those 

 who wish to improve themselves in the 

 science and art of cuFtivating a farm well 

 and wisely. 



The Columbian Drawing Book, adapted from 

 sketches of the first inasters. By C. Kkrchel. 

 With directions for the use of the student. By 

 G. Wheeler. Hartford, 1849. 



Every intelligent man who lives in the 

 country, whether he is a lover of nature 

 and art, and therefore desires to write down 



fragments of her language of beauty, by 

 means of what artists call drawing, or 

 whether he is a mere creature of facts, and 

 therefore finds it useful to know how to copy 

 the plan of a house, or draw out the figure 

 of a plough, must equally have felt many 

 times in his life that the importance of 

 being able to represent the figure und ap- 

 pearance of things by the proce s culled 

 drawing, is scarcely less valuable than that 

 of representing words or ideas by the pro- 

 cess called writing. 



We are induced to recommend to such 

 persons the use of such works as the pre- 

 sent, by the aid of which, even without 

 any teacher, and only with a little patience 

 and industry, they may speedily be able to 

 achieve the very desirable result of being 

 able by a few strokes to perpetuate or pro- 

 duce all beautiful and useful forms at their 

 own pleasure. 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



[From late letters of our foreign correspondent, 

 though not intended for publication, we venture 

 to extract some passages referring to English 

 places and English landscape gardening, which 

 cannot fail to interest many of our readers. Ed.] 

 Torquiiy, Devonshire, ^pril 12, 1849. — I send 

 you in this letter a vignette showing a front view 

 of Luscomb House, belonging to the Hon. Mr. 



H , M'hich has pleased me as much as any 



place I have seen yet, as the best part of it has 

 been made within fourteen years, and the trees 

 and shrubs are therefore of an intelligible age 

 to an American. * * » About fourteen 

 years ago, was planted the " American garden," 

 (one of the most interesting features of this place,) 

 which the late Mr. Loudon, the year before his 

 death, said was the finest in England. The size 

 of the trees in this garden is truly remarkable for 

 their age. This portion, therefore, pleased me 

 the most; but before describing it, I will go back 

 a moment to the house. In the vignette you see 

 about half of the house. In addition to the part 

 upon the left, come the stables, and a beautiful 

 dairy, all in conection. The house itself stands 

 in a long, narrow valley, witb a hill rising in 



front, well planted with groups and masses of 

 trees, and stretching away three hundred acres, 

 either side, from the house. The hill-side, whicli 

 rises immediately in the rear, is planted in a 

 dense mass of Rhododendrons, for more than half 

 a mile long, and about four hundred feet wide. 

 (You may imagine the cflect when in bloom.) 

 Above this comes a strip of lawn, about the samo 

 lengtli and twice the breadth of the Rhoiloden- 

 dron bank, surrounded by gravel walks, and 

 planted in clumps, masses and single trees, with 

 every species of rare foreign and American ever- 

 greens. Above this again, a dense, picturesque 

 hedge of holly, laurel and Rhododendron, shuts out 

 the American garden from one of the park roads. 

 All the sod was laid, and everj' tree and shrub 

 planted in 1835, except one clump of nine cedars 

 of Lebanon, planted in 1804, — the finest and most 

 finished specimens, for their years, I have seen. 



I will now mention the trees, or some of them, 

 that you may compare them in growth with simi- 

 lar varieties, or in fact, any varieties planted in 

 an equal number of years, in the United States. 

 In the first place, the deciduous Cypress, and 

 thrco or four magnolias, are the only deciduous 



