358 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



flavor superior, to any which I have seen brought directly from their 

 own native region, for the reason, perhaps, that the latter, as is 

 understood, are gathered in a green state, and are left to ripen on 

 the passage, usually crowded in bulk in the hold of a vessel. 

 The grapes are magnificent in size, and delicious in taste. I 

 cannot say that there are no native grapes, and none growing in 

 the open air ; but I do not recollect meeting with any. It seems 

 to me to be the humidity of the climate of England, rather than 

 its low temperature, which prevents the ripening of many fruits 

 and plants, which can be grown in an equally high latitude on 

 the western continent. It remains to be seen what will be the 

 result of that remarkable system of drainage, which is here pros 

 ecuted in different parts of the country with great spirit and 

 resolution, and which bids fair, as soon as any such great opera 

 tion can be expected to be effected, to become general, if not 

 universal. Its sanatary effects upon the human, as well as the 

 brute animal, are said to be already in some places determined. 



The smaller fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, gooseber 

 ries, and currants are cultivated with great success. Of a kind 

 of strawberries, called the Alpine Pine, and more properly the 

 Elton Pine, the size is most remarkable, ten of them, as I saw in 

 the market of Dundee, where they are cultivated in perfection, 

 actually weighing a pound avoirdupois. I saw others as large at 

 the horticultural exhibitions, called by a different name ; but 

 those were forced in pots in greenhouses. 



The gooseberries which I have seen on private tables, and in 

 the markets, are of a very extraordinary size, the purple varieties 

 being preferred. I cannot learn that they are as much subject, 

 as in New England, to a species of mildew, or bluish mould, 

 which soon becomes black, and ruins the fruit. Here they are 

 always cultivated upon a single stem, in the form of a small tree, 

 kept trimmed high, and entirely clear of all rubbish or weeds at 

 the bottom. The disease, or blight, to which I refer, is not un 

 known here, but it is not common ; and the fruit is grown in the 

 highest perfection. This disease may come from an unhealthy 

 condition of the soil, or the application of improper manure ; but 

 the general and most probable conclusion is, that it is atmos 

 pherical. It has appeared to me, that the climate of England, 

 where they have far less sunshine, and much more dampness, than 

 in the Northern United States, does not produce mould in the 



