JANUARY. 



ARBORICULTURE. 



This, just now, is the most interesting department of cul- 

 tivation. The desire for fine hardy trees and shrubs is rap- 

 idly increasing, and the principal nurserymen are actively 

 engaged in adding all the more rare sorts, which possess any 

 beauty, to their collections. Our amateur planters are at last 

 becoming aware that there are other trees besides elms and 

 limes, and Norway spruces and arborvita3S. It is now no un- 

 common thing to find the rarer trees scattered sparingly 

 along the plantations of our reading and thinking amateurs. 

 We have made it an especial object to describe and make 

 known all the hardy trees of our own climate, that they 

 might everywhere be introduced when they could be easily 

 obtained ; but as yet our nurseries are not able to supply the 

 less common trees and shrubs, and consequently their intro- 

 duction must be slow. In this respect, we believe the popu- 

 lar taste is almost in advance of the state of cultivation of 

 many kinds of trees, and it will be some time before they can 

 be had in any quantity. 



Our New England climate is so much more severe tha>i 

 that of the Middle States, that no dependence can be placed 

 upon the experiments which are made in the latter, for our 

 locality. Some time since, we published a list of the Ever- 

 greens which stood the last winter uninjured on the Hud- 

 son ; but we are satisfied that many of the sorts which lived 

 safely there, would die outright here. The Deodar was 

 sadly cut up on the grounds of Mr. Fay, at Lynn, as well as 

 in our own collection, and we fear will always suffer in such 

 a severe winter, though in milder ones it does not appear 

 hurt. We must proceed cautiously in pronouncing upon the 

 hardiness of evergreen trees ; for to consider those hardy 

 which are subject to be nearly destroyed the first very severe 

 winter, will only end in disappointment to the planter. We 

 shall therefore, at the earliest opportunity^ give a list of such 

 as we have found perfectly safe after the winter of 1853 and 

 '54, and add hereafter to the list, as they stand the test of a 

 similar winter. 



VOL. XXI. NO. I. 2 



