176 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



common dwelling-houses may at last be found among those 

 which were built without reference to anything except utility 

 and convenience by some plain and honest citizen. The 

 public will soon discover that it is not the most showy house, 

 nor always the most beautiful house, which is in all situations 

 most pleasing to behold ; but that many very plain houses 

 affect the minds of intelligent observers with the greatest 

 pleasure, on account of the expression that pervades them, in 

 connection with the grounds and the general scenes and 

 objects around them. 



THE SEASON OF 1854, WITH NOTES ON SOME OF THE 

 NEWER FRUITS. 



BY THE HON. J. S. CABOT, PRES. OF THE MASS. HORT. SOOIETr. 



The following remarks in relation to the year 1854, and 

 some of its more noticeable phenomena, have been prepared 

 for the Magazine of Horticulture. The publication from 

 year to year of a brief summary of the season, including 

 therein such of the meteorological and atmospheric phenom- 

 ena as seem worthy of notice, as well as its results, with 

 respect to horticultural productions, is not without its uses, 

 and seems not out of place in a periodical of the character of 

 this magazine. Its uses are, that opportunity is thereby afforded 

 for a comparison of one season with another, of seeing 

 how far similar states of the atmosphere are succeedecl by 

 similar results; "and thereby, in some degree at least, from 

 observing of effects bringing about a knowledge of causes, 

 and with that knowledge the means of directing or control- 

 ling them. If, for instance, it is found that the destruction 

 or serious injury of dwarf pear trees usually succeeds a win- 

 ter of unusual severity, with the absence of snow, it is reason- 

 able to assume this as the cause of the injury, and to seek a 

 protection from it by a warm covering of the roots. This is 

 a subject — the protection of the roots of fruit trees — as 

 influencing both the vigor of the tree and the quality of the 



