1736-7.] TO JOHN BARTRAM. 93 



Pray remember specimens of Sugar Maple, in flower. The 

 Berry Tree in the Jerseys are come up freely ; it is real Lotus. 



I believe thee forgot to send the large specimens of White 

 Cedar, with the cones on them. I take it, your Spruce is certainly 

 Dudley's Hemlock Fir, which is called here the Yew-leafed Fir. 

 I believe that tree in the Jerseys, by thy account of it, must be 

 the Carolina Cypress. It is a noble, quick-growing tree, and 

 thrives well here. 



In thine of September 4th, thee gives a very particular ac- 

 count how your Plums are destroyed by an insect. Pray change 

 the stock, and graft Plums and Nectarines on Peach stocks, which, 

 being a vigorous, free stock, and not liable to these insects, may 

 succeed better. Pray try ; I have a great opinion of its suc- 

 ceeding. 



What thou observes on the vines and their culture, ought not to 

 discourage (nor will not,) the indefatigable man. Patience and 

 perseverance overcome the hardest things. In time, no doubt but 

 a vineyard may be raised, of the select sorts of your country 

 grapes. From one vine the branches may be laid down on every 

 side ; and in a few years a large spot may be run over. One 

 quarter of an acre, or half an acre, with us will yield five and ten 

 hogsheads [?] per year, which is enough to make the experiment. 

 But the great art, beside planting, is pruning. A person well 

 skilled will never want fruit, if the seasons permit. 



Some of the living creatures thou mentions in particular the 

 large squirrels, to turn loose in his lordship's woods : but this 

 we must leave till we can find a captain that will take care of them. 

 If our friend Chakles Reed's son Charles should have a ship, 

 we might have some hopes : but to send red-birds or anything else, 

 till we have a proper conveyance, is great time and trouble lost. But 

 this, I think, may be easily done, to send terrapins ; but put them 

 into a cask, with earth at bottom, and holes all round ; but this 

 must be in the autumn, after they have had their summer's feed. 

 And your water-turtles, no doubt, may be sent the same way, and 

 at the same time of year, being taken before they hide them- 

 selves in the ground ; and then they will live without food, and 

 have a chance of coming safe to us, for the last were all washed 

 overboard. 



Dear friend, thy entertaining letters of June 5th and 15th, I 

 should have taken notice of sooner, but they have been out of my 



