14 Progress of Horticulture in the United States. 



Commercial Gardening. 



The increase of nurseries in all parts of the country and 

 increased attention given to planting, are the best indications 

 of success. Notwithstanding the abundant stock which our 

 own nurserymen are able to supply, large quantities of trees 

 are imported from France and England. When received in 

 fine order these are generally excellent trees, but as a great 

 many of them get bruised and broken in the packing, and 

 are often heated in the bundles, the results are, we believe, 

 fully as expensive a way of purchasing trees as if they were 

 obtained at home. Still we like to see trees planted, come 

 from whence they may, and while such importations will do 

 our home nurserymen no injury, they will often, by their 

 cheapness, induce those who once try, to look a second time 

 for better results. 



We hinted, last year, at the propriety of seeking some pro- 

 tection, in case of a revision of the tariff, for the nurseryman 

 as well as the manufacturer, and our remarks called forth one 

 or two replies from some of our cultivators, some arguing in 

 favor and some against the measure. There is not much 

 danger of such a thing being effected if it was desired ; and, 

 on the whole, though not yet imbued with the "free trade" 

 policy, we think on reflection that it would be of no great ben- 

 efit to lay a specific duty upon trees. 



Our nurserymen are yearly becoming more systematic in 

 their profession ; the practice of setting out specimen trees of 

 all kinds, which we have, from time to timC; urged as of so 

 much importance, seems to be generally acted upon by ex- 

 tensive dealers, and we have no doubt, a few years hence, no 

 nurseryman of any reputation will be without a larger or 

 smaller collection of specimen trees. 



Horticultural Literature. 



But few new works have appeared the past year. The 

 Flower Garden^ or Breck's Book of Annuals ; the Fruit Gar- 

 den^ by P. Barry ; and the Gardener'' s Text Book, by Mr. 

 Schenck, all reviewed in our last volume. Rural Homes, 



