September 23, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUKB AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



235 



river, which encompasses the lauJ the distance above men- 

 tioned (ten miles), is well suppliecl with various kinds of fish 

 at all seasons of the year, such as shad, herrings, bass, carp, 

 perch, sturgeons, Ac, and several valuable fisheries appertain 

 to the estate — the whole shore, in short, is one entire fishery." 

 The separate farms were divided into fields, numbered from 

 one to seven, the better to enable him to carry on the wise 

 system of rotation in crops to which he so rigidly adhered. 

 Having arrived at some conception of the topographical and 

 other advantages possessed by the Mount Vernon estate, it 

 <;annot fail to interest this assembly to know how it was 

 stocked at the date above mentioned. In the letter already 

 quoted he says on the four farms there are forty-five draught 

 horses, twelve mules, 317 cattle, oxen included, 63i sheep, and 

 " many hogs ;" " but," says he, " as these run pretty much in 

 the woodland, which is under fence, their number is uncertain." 

 Such was the estate. Of its illustrious owner I shall presently 

 speak, but only in his character of Cincinnatus at the plough, 

 an instrument, by the way, which he was known to fashion on 

 one occasion with his own hands in order to instruct his 

 smith. 



But before going further, gentlemen, permit me to indulge 

 in abrief episode. I think it can hardly fail to interest you, as 

 you are aU absorbed in a study of the great question of labour 

 and immigration. At that date (1793) a movement looking 

 to the introduction of EngUsh-speaking settlers in Virginia 

 was on foot in lireat Britain, and Washington's correspondent, 

 to whom the General wrote the letter I have just quoted, ad- 

 dressed him on this subject. In the reply to his foreign cor- 

 respondent the General says: — "Few ships of late have 

 arrived from any part of Great Britain or Ii-eland without a 

 number of emigrants, and some of them, by report, very full- 

 handed farmers." But, at that time eligible lauds in the 

 settled parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, com- 

 manded prices ranging from *20 to §40 per acre, which I gather 

 from a letter of his to Sir John Sinclair. This price, I fancy 

 was more than the yeomen cared to pay in any number, while 

 the labourers were driven oil by a consideration suggested 

 •when the General remarked, with far-reaching sagacity ; — "It 

 deserves consideration if the mixing of whites and blacks is 

 advisable." And here by way of illustrating the price of land 

 in Virginia in '94, I pause a moment to light up my dry detaOs 

 and badly adjusted quotations with a little gleam of romantic 

 history. " Within full view of Mount Vernon," writes the 

 General, " separated therefrom by water only, is one of the 

 most beautiful seats on the river for sale, but of greater mag- 

 nitude than you seem to have contemplated. It is called 

 Belvoir, and belonged to George W. Fairfax, who, were he now 

 living, would be Baron of Cameron, as his younger brother 

 now is, though he does not take upon himself the title." Thus 

 you see, gentlemen, that a kinsman of the gallaut guardsman, 

 the Lord of Greenway Court, who ended his eventful life in 

 "Virginia, abandoned his rank, and renounced a title among 

 the most honourable of the British Empire. The prose of this 

 story is found in the fact that this estate was then in the 

 market at $33.33 per acre, a sum equal to at least JlOO of our 

 currency. 



For his daily life and habits at Mount Vernon I must refer 

 you to the pages of Irving, where all the life and movement and 

 colouring which I exclude from this paper will be found com- 

 bined in a vivid picture. I only remark thatUke a good farmer 

 he rose at dawn, and was one of the very few grandees in the 

 colony or infant Republic who personally looked after his own 

 affairs. He was fond of field sports, and kept a pack of hounds, 

 which he followed with hearty enjoyment ; but this exhilirating 

 sport was always made a matter of incidental amusement and 

 not a pursuit, as was unfortunately but too common with the 

 gentry of that period. 



I have shown you the magnitude of the estate on which ho 

 lived, and I now, by your permission, will show you how ho 

 systematically increased its area and productiveness. This ho 

 <Ud by reclaiming heads of creeks and inlets just as we may do 

 here. In his directions for managing Union farm, ho says: 

 " Although I may find myself mistaken, I am incUned to put 

 the other prong of this swamp into meadow, and have directed 

 the mode to be pursued to accomplish it. Next to this let as 

 much of the inlet in [field] No. 2, as can be laid dry for the 

 purpose be put in com, and when this is effected, planted in 

 grass. As the field comes round all the inlets may be prepared 

 for grass if circumstances will permit. The inlets at the ferry 

 might be brought into excellent meadows at very little expense ; 

 but to dwell on the advantages of these would be a mere waste 



of time." So also in speaking of the River farm he said : "And 

 as the fields come into cultivation, or as the labour can be 

 spared from other work, the heads of aU the inlets in them 

 must be reclaimed and laid to grass, whether they be large or 

 small." This gives yon some idea of his judicious system. But 

 on this point let the great farmer speak in his own language : 

 "A system," he says, "a system closely pursued, although 

 it may not in all its parts be the best that could be devised, 

 is attended with innumerable advantages. The conductor of 

 the busiuessin this case can never be in any dilemma." Again 

 he writes : " Nothing can so effectually obviate the evil of mis- 

 directed labour, or lost time, as an established system made 

 known to all who are actors in it." 



In ordering the construction of a barn at Dogue Run, a barn 

 said to have been the best in America, he issued this order : 

 " Make the bricks at the place and in the manner directed, and 

 let there be no salmon bricks in that building." Thus you see 

 from great questions of statesmanship and the growth of the 

 largest tobacco crops — crops grown on the York and on the 

 Shenandoah, and the Potomac — down to the smallest matter, 

 he was full of careful thought. On this subject General Wash- 

 ington says in his directions to his nephew, George A. Wash- 

 ington, in 1787 : " It would be of great advantage if a certain 

 part of the force of each plantation could be appropriated in 

 the summer, or early part of autumn, to the purpose of getting 

 up mud to be ameliorated by the frosts of winter for the spring 

 crops which are to foUow." 



But with all this minute care, judicious economy, and accu- 

 rate utilitarianism, Washington had an eye to the beautiful, 

 as is shown by his love of trees and flowering shrubs, for as we 

 learn from a letter of his to Mr. Jefferson, he had a botanical 

 garden of his own, to which he was greatly devoted. la 

 evidence of his fondness for trees we find him writing an order 

 to one of his managers to save him all the honey locusts possi- 

 ble, and in the fall to plant them on the ditches, where they 

 are to remain, says he, about 6 inches apart, one seed from 

 another. Again in directing certain work, he says : " The 

 Cedars are not to be cut down, but only trimmed, and other 

 trees left here and there for shade." 



Again he writes : " In clearing the whole of this ground let 

 all the Ivy and flowering shrubs remain on it over and above 

 the clumps and other single trees where they may be thought 

 requisite for ornameiit." I might go on thus, gentlemen, at 

 great length iu my quotations ; but in reproducing the words of 

 Washington it is not necessary to multiply them ou this or any 

 other subject. — {Prairie Farmer.) 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



The following satire in the Ann'rican Agriculturist is well- 

 deserved : — " We are not, after all, up to our English brethren 

 in devising names for horticultural fixtures and appliances. 

 Does frost injure your Peach trees? Then grow them under 

 the ' Portable Fruit-tree Crymobouthus.' If this is not suffi- 

 cient protection, cover the glass with ' Frigi-domo,' and in- 

 crease the temperature inside by means of a ' Calorigen.' 

 Should the trees grow out of bounds, you can shorten them 

 with an ' Averruncator; ' and should scale, mealy bug, and the 

 like molest, you have only to apply some ' Phytosmegma.' " 



We regret to have to announce the de.its of M. Baeil- 



let-Deschami'S, the eminent French landscape gardener, who, 

 under M. .\lphande, conducted the garden embellishments of 

 modern Paris. The event took place at Vichy ou the 12th 

 inst., and was caused by disease of the heart, from which he 

 had been long suffering. 



FLOWERS FOR OUR BORDERS.— No. 17. 



SOLLTA LINEARIS (LlNEAK-LEAVED Sollva). 



The Sollyas are by no means the most striking features in 

 the flora of the Australian continent ; but they are neat in 

 their habit, and of easy management. They are all of scan- 

 dent growth, but do not generally exceed 5 or G feet, and may 

 easily, if thought desirable, be kept down to 2 or 3 feet by 

 stopping. Their evergreen character gives them an additional 

 value, and their lively blue flowers are so freely produced from 

 the end of May up to a late period, that one is surprised they 

 are not more generally seen by the side of the Fuchsia and 

 Geranium. The oldest and best known species is the S. hetero- 

 phylla, with leaves considerably broader than those of linearis, 

 but with smaller and paler flowers. The only other species with 

 wliich we ai'e acquainted, in addition to the thi'ee first named, 



