Q^ueries, Criticisms, &fc. 117 



[It will be long, unless our Dalili;is hlnom more p"ofusely tlian theyhave 

 for the last two yeurs, before our exhibitions will present sueh a display of 

 this " King oi" Flowers." — Conds.] 



Art. III. Cilleries, Criticisms, Sfc. 



Gentlemen, 



In the last number of yotu" valuable Jilaga/.ine (N». 2, for February), at 

 jnige 64, and in a Review oC tlie " Horticultural Register and Gardener's Mag- 

 azine," for January, 1835, I observe a notice of an article "On the Grape 

 Vine," in which, in the p;irentliesis, which includes your Review, you have 

 a remark as follows: — " But the snbstauce of the communication has been 

 published in the New England Farmer — translated trom a French work by 

 the Hon. John I-owell — vol. vi. pp. 73, 118, and by Mr. Kenrick, in his useful 

 work, the New American Orchardist." Although there appears to be some 

 little ambiguity in the mode of expression, ye: the more obvious meaning 

 would appear to be, that the sid^stance of this article had been twice before 

 published : — 1st, by the Hon. John Lowell, in the New England Farmer, as 

 before stated; and 2d, in the New American Orchardist. 



With respect to original matter, a little retiection will serve to convince lis, 

 that some of those new and improved modes of jjractice or inventions, which 

 may have alreadj'^ been successftilly ado[)ted i)y other nations, and in other 

 countries, deserve a prior claim to any new or untried invention or commu- 

 nication, however original. And all important inventions or improvements, 

 whether physical or moral, which require time and jierseverance, and ex- 

 |)ense in their application to the test, — and all that is new, being regarded as 

 innovation, and having to contend with all that is ancient and long-establish- 

 ed, they require to be presented often to the public view, and in every new 

 shape and original form, until they are enabled to surmount every obstacle 

 which the ingenuity of men is so prone to devise, and until their final and 

 successful adoption in practice. 



The coimnunications of Mr. Lowell, to which yon have referred, are con- 

 fined exclusively to two systems, or modts of managing the vine. 1st, the 

 system as practised at Thomery, a village in the forest of Fontainbleau, near 

 Paris. And 2d, as connected with the first. — On the system of close |)lant- 

 ing, and short pruning. I might have spoken of the system practised at 

 Thomery, as serving to illnstrate laws of nature, which are alike applicable 

 to other trees and plants, and other systems too; this being the combined 

 system of other most jMnfect systems, whose principles may all here !)e found, 

 disclosed. The first introduction of this system to the notice of the Ameri- 

 can public, is justly due to Mr. Lowell, [which we stated. — C'oiicls.] His ac- 

 count, which was inserted in the volmne and pages of the New England Far- 

 mer above referred to, was a translation by him from the Bon Janiiiiier, for 

 1827, a work of 1000 pages, edited M. M. Poiieau and Vilmoriu, which has 

 been i)ublished annually, at Paris, for 70 years. In that work this system, 

 and tliis system alone, is described by the resjiectable editors, tliis being con- 

 pidered by them, as the combined essence of all and of every perfect sys- 

 tem. This system has since been introduced to notice in England, with 

 more important particulars, by Mr. Robertson ; and his account in the Lon- 

 don Hort. Trans., is from the Sow JrtWmier, and the Pomone Francaise of the 

 Comte Lelieur, and from other sources. My accomit in the New Anierican 

 Orchardist, to which you have referred, is from all these sources combined, 

 which were accessible, and had come to hand; to all whom, individually and 

 by name, full credit has been there assigned. Yours, William Kenrick. 



J^eidon, Fchruary lOth, 1835. 



