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JOUENAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t December 17, 1868. 



It, too, has a pit in the centre, and what I call the everlasting 

 side shelves covered with Derbyshire spar. 



The eastern division is devoted to ornamental- foliaged green- 

 house plants, and contained some very promising specimens 

 of Phormium tcnax variegatum (the variegated New Zealand 

 Flax), a splendid pair of the beaiitiful and very rare Yucca albo- 

 spica, a handsome pair of Aralia Sieboldi variegata, and several 

 o£ the Australian Dracainas and Cordjlines, C. Macarthuri 

 being very conspicuous. 



The second division is called the Ixora house, having been 

 constructed expressly for the cultivation of plants of that genus ; 

 and the third or west division, the AUamanda house, being 

 intended for AUamandas and Dipladenias. On each side of 

 this house is a very useful pit, which, like most of those at- 

 tached to the houses, is heated by hot water. Such pits are 

 invaluable for stowing away large numbers of plants, and for 

 the encouragement of young specimens. 



The three Orchid houses in this block, together with the two 

 magnificent ferneries on the east side of the grounds, being 

 under the management of Mr. W. Milford, I pass over their 

 contents at present. — J. Wills, F.R.H.S. 

 (To be continued.) 



GARDENING IN THE WEST.— No. 2. 



Thu most important difference between the climate of Great 

 Britain at large and that of the middle States of America 

 (Lat. 40° to 43°), is not the most obvious to the senses. The 

 intensities of temperature are strikingly apparent, but the fre- 

 quent extreme dryness of the air, if more obscure, is perhaps 

 on that account all the more powerful and hurtful. What we 

 do not see or feel we do not readily suspect. Even Dr. Frank- 

 lin, eminently close observer of natural phenomena as he was, 

 does not seem to have had his attention drawn to this feature 

 of the American climate until the inquiry arose in his mind, 

 What influence caused some wooden drawers that were made 

 in England, and fitted very tightly there, to be quite loose in 

 Philadelphia ? 



This want of vapour in the air is perhaps as common in 

 winter as in summer, and greatest among the mountains of 

 the Alleghany range, and away from the influence of the great 

 lakes, &o. In the summer there are terms of tropical heat, 

 and the air licks up with avidity every drop of moisture which 

 it can reach. It will be remembered how greatly the capacity 

 of air for vapour increases as its temperature rises. I have 

 sometimes observed how long my hands would remain wet 

 ■when simply held in the air after washing : in two minutes 

 every trace of moisture has disappeared. The escaping steam 

 from engines within view affords a very good indication of the 

 degree of aurial thirst. In parching weather the steam escaping 

 from a locomotive vanishes as instantaneously as from a tea- 

 kettle in the heated air of a chimney. Usrally the air is ex- 

 tremely clear and bright when so drained of yapour, but some- 

 times a smoky haze attends it. 



In winter and early in spring strong north-west winds sud- 

 denly sweep the sky as with a broom. All fog and haze disap- 

 pear, leaving a beautiful but dazzling brightness. These winds 

 dry themselves on their way over sheets of snow that cover 

 more than half the continent, and when they reach the icy 

 crests of the AUeghanies they leave condensed upon them the 

 last drops of their moisture. Being somewhat warmed while 

 passing through the sunny valleys on the south and east of the 

 mountains, these winds again derive moisture from the ice 

 itself. In these valleys, probably, the extremes of hygrometrical 

 variations occur. When the south and east winds come they 

 are loaded with vapour from the Gulf Stream off the coast, and 

 this is freely deposited among the cool mountains. Such 

 visitations are not frequent. They are very uncommon in the 

 summer, when thousands of cultivators would welcome their 

 genial influences. 



Under the influences of these rough, vapourless north-westers, 

 the native vegetation on open dry plains is, of course, very 

 different from what is found near open water, and especially in 

 the lee of the great lakes. The open dry plateaus east of the 

 mountains used to be called " barrens ;" they had the appear- 

 ance of sterility, and were avoided by settlers as worthless. 

 Only the very hardiest and most rugged trees grew on them ; 

 Scrub or Chinquapin Oaks, and dwarf Pines, growing slowly, 

 because continually pinched by the abstraction of moisture 

 from their leaves and stems. It was found, however, that the 

 soil of these plateaus had far greater capabilities than was 

 supposed, and they are now among the best grain-growing dis- 



tricts in the country. Red Clover serves for grass, there being 

 no permanent meadows. Deep culture, to secure a supply o{ 

 moisture for the roots, gives glorious crops of Indian Com 

 and of vegetables ; while Wheat, although hurried so as to have 

 little more than four months of actual growth, wants but a 

 screen of snow through the winter and the opening of spring 

 to ripen bountifully, in the first week of July, superior grain. 

 If, however, neglectful culture, or injury from climate or insect, 

 makes the ripening later than about July 10, the blades and 

 stems of the plant rust, and the crop succumbs under the 

 fierce temperature of the summer. 



A notable change in the climate of the middle States has 

 been observed since the north-western States have been settled. 

 Peach and (Juince trees, and other trees and shrubs of tender 

 constitution, now fail to bear fruit, or even to live, where once 

 they flourished. In those early days the western winds pre- 

 vailed as they do now, but they were supplied with moisture, 

 and softened by passing through and over almost boundless 

 forests. 



The advantage of a sheltering belt of leafy trees on the north 

 and west sides of fields and buildings is very great. Farms so 

 situated are valued by good judges at 25 per cent, more than 

 land of the same description on the open unsheltered plain, 

 where every March the attacks of the sun and the wind are 

 renewed ; for there the sim has at that time an equal altitude 

 to that of our " EngUsh sun " in June and July, and it has 

 greater power. At the same time keen northern blasts often 

 drive over the district, continuing one, two, three days, or even 

 more, and carrying into every cranny a temperature often 

 below zero. If the wind and sun strip off the mantle of snow 

 from the Wheat fields, the Strawberry beds, or the Clover 

 fields, the unprotected plants perish under the alternate charges 

 of heat and cold. 



It is one duty of the gardener to teach the planting of shel- 

 tering belts. The American is disinclined to begin to do what 

 he has laboured so hard and so long to undo. He has been 

 bred to the duty of killing off and clearing all native growth ; 

 he prides himself on the complete absence of sprouts or shoots 

 from his fields. Very often there is not a shading tree to screen 

 the reapers at their lunch, or the cattle at their siesta. The 

 fences of dead rails are no protection. 



The glorious sun eventually conquers, and wonderfully re- 

 pairs and beautifies the scene for summer. As walls are re- 

 quired in England to retain and accumulate sun heat, trees 

 are wanted in America to divide, moisten, and soften the drying 

 blasts. 



Good illustrations of the genial effect of foliage on the air 

 are supplied by the native Grape Vines, which never appear 

 so healthy, or bear fair fruit so abundantly, as when their 

 foliage is intermingled with that of some luxuriant tree, and 

 bathed continually in the moisture of its exhalations. The 

 thin leaves of young Pear trees often endure, and feed the stem 

 that carries them the season through, if sheltered closely by 

 some more robust nurse tree ; while similar plants standing out 

 separately lose their leaves in July, and become poor, feeble, 

 and consumptive. Peach trees among the thick, damp Pine 

 forests of the western slope of the Alleghany mountains, are 

 healthier and more productive in a temperature which often 

 sinks to 20° below zero, and in cold wet soil, than they are in 

 the open valleys eastward, where the warmth of both the air 

 and the soil are much greater, and where every condition is 

 more favourable, excepting the frequent atmospheric dryness. 

 So Gooseberries, which almost uniformly perish with mildew 

 in open clear culture, often ripen fair fruit among weeds or 

 grass. Even the native forest trees do not endure the strain 

 if their fellows are cut away, and the tall bare stem of the solitary 

 tree is fully exposed. Unless shoots issue to clothe the stem 

 with foliage the tree soon begins to decay at the summit, and 

 eventually perishes. 



In another article some of the means used, out of doors and 

 in, to avoid the evils and secure the good of this feature of the 

 American climate will be noticed. — Pennsxlvanu. 



THE ROYAL ASCOT GRAPE. 

 In answer to the letter which appeared in your number 

 published on the 3rd inst., from Mr. Thomas Record, relative 

 to the keeping qualities of the Royal Ascot Grape, we have to 

 state that as yet no one b"*. ourselves has had the opportunity 

 of testing its merits in is particular point. From our own 

 experience, however, wc .^ave no hesitation in stating that it 



