552 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 9 



above enumerated, and to aofreat variety of plants 

 deservintr of culture for their beauty alone. As 

 soon as tiiey are cominitled to the earth, they 

 begin to repay the labors of plantinir, by the ra- 

 pidity oftheir growth. A few years would suffice 

 to effect a wonderful change; as an impulse has 

 been given to the work, by the example as well 

 as writings of men of tasle and science, it is ex- 

 pected that it will not be long before the arts of 

 horticulture are more generally practised. Noth- 

 ins: exercises a more ftivorable influence on its ad- 

 vancement than the establishment of nurseries. 

 They naturally create a desire for the possession 

 of fine plants and fruits, by affording the ready 



people. In the neighborhood of cities, they are 

 sometimes, though not invariably, the objects of 

 some care — reluctant though it be; but in the 

 country, those of a private as well as public de- 

 scription are either filled with briers or other nox- 

 ious plants, or exposed to the continual intrusion of 

 CHitle. A better feeling has prevailed in New 

 York, where a public burying ground is laid off 

 for the use of every township, and a particular ap- 

 propriation made to preserve it fi-om injury. Aa 

 far as the duties of the sexton exteijd, they appear 

 to be performed with commendable fidelity — no 

 mounds of fresh earth indicating the recent inter- 

 ments: but the beauty of these lovely spots would 



means of gratification. As yet, the number of be sreatly enhanced by being set with a suitable 

 these is inconsiderable, so far as any information number of appropriate trees. These simple and 

 could be obtained; but that of Asa Rowe, near | natural emblems have, fi'om time immemorial, been 

 Rochester is of considerable extent, and conduct- | recognized as peculiarly adapted to the solemnity 

 ed with great neatness and taste. At Albany, the of such scenes. The cemeteries of Turkey, cov- 

 long-established nurseries of Buel and Wilson, ered with the mournful cypress which is planted 

 are well known, and are capable of supplving an j by the priest on every ffrave, have suirtrested the 

 extensive demand. The fidelity of all these gen- | plan of the celebrated /*ere la Chaise in Paris, from 



tlemen is unqueslioned. The nursery business, 

 however, as conducted in the United Stares, is 

 not always managed with that precision by which 

 it should be characterized. New fruits are exten- 

 sively propagated and sold under imposing names 

 without allowing time to ascertain their merits; 

 :and even the older varieties are not at all times 

 propagating from fruit- bearing trees. After the 

 lapse of a few years, when the young trees have 

 been distributed over the county and nursed with 

 the greatest care — and when anticipation is to be 

 succeeded by enjoyment — ihey are oftentimes 

 found to be of so little value, as to be an actual 

 €umbrance to the ground. By such a loose prac- 

 tice, the vender, who imprudently commits him- 

 self on the faith of another, inflicts an injury on 

 his customers, which it is impossible to repair. 

 There are probably h\v extensive nurseries in 

 this country, which can guarantee the identity of 

 their fruits. The general distrust in their accu- 

 racy, has probably contributed not a little to re- 

 tard tiie extension of horticultural enterprise. 

 If the business were elevated to that state, which 

 its importance justifies and demands, no species 

 of fruit would be sold until its merits had been 

 actually tested; and standard trees of every vari- 

 ety would be cultivated on the (grounds of the nur- 

 seryman from which alone his scions would be 

 taken. If this should be thought too tardy a pro- 

 cess for the impatience of the seller, as well as the 

 purchaser, yet it must be confessed, there is no 

 safety in any other course; and the nurseryman 

 who established his reputation on his fidelity and 

 accuracy, will ultimately find it to redound to his 

 own interest, to adopt this system, not less than 

 to the interests of those who entrust him with the 

 execution of their orders. 



Amongst the numerous objects which claim 

 some share of horticultural taste, may be enumer- 

 ated the public burial grounds, which are situated 

 on the sides of the roads, neatly enclosed and cov- 

 ered with a luxuriant sod. NotwithstandinfT the 

 melancholy purpose to which these spots aie ded- 

 icated, their neatness, and cleanliness from all 

 weeds and unseemly plants, make it pleasant to 

 look upon them, and witness the attention that is 

 bestowed to keep them in order. The neglected 

 state of the repositories of the dead in nearly all 

 parts of our country, is a reproach to a civilized 



whence has been subsequently derived the model 

 of those of JVIount Auburn and Laurel Hill, at 

 Boston and Philadelphia. There is a melancholy 

 pleasure induced by the contemplation of the pen- 

 dent willow and ever verdant trees flourishingover 

 the remains of moitality; and the mind, instead of 

 being repulsed, turns with a pious interest to the 

 sacred repository so nearly connected with the in- 

 extinguishable affections of our nature — which in 

 a few short years is to offer an asylum of rest to 

 our own wearied and exhausted limbs. 



[After tfie first part of our correspondent's com- 

 numication, in No. 7, had been printed, we received 

 from liim, as specimens of tlie small pebbles wliich 

 form a large part of the very singular ridge, soutli of 

 the Lake Ontario, and which is described in the sec- 

 ond column of page 441. Tfie pebbles were com- 

 pletely encrusted with a thin hard coating of carbon- 

 ate of lime (tested by its solution in acid,) — and the 

 same substance had even penetrated and filled the in- 

 terior pores of two of them, which were of a porous 

 and soft texture. Another was a close and hard sili- 

 cious pebble, of which the lime only covered the sur- 

 face. The accompanying note of our eorrespoiident, 

 state that " the quantity of lime deposited on them ex- 

 tends through the whole mass, [of the ridge,] as far 

 as I had an opportunity of observing. I think we 

 may suppose that the adjoining lands received quite 

 as great a deposito. But this, however is not from the 

 limestone region of the state." 



The inference of our corrrespondenf, that all the ad- 

 jacent lands, of a higher elevation, must have been 

 equally furnished with calcareous matter, by the then 

 covering limestone waters, is inevitable. And the curi- 

 ous fact serves to show, on a large scale, how nature 

 has operated to give to the soils of some regions the 

 ingredient of lime, so necessary to productiveness. If 

 the contiguous arable soil was examined by chemical 

 tests, we presume that it would be found that none of 

 the carbonate of lime now remains; and this would 

 furnish an additional and very striking proof of the 

 truth of our doctrine of the disappearance of that form 

 of lime, and of the formation and constitution of neu- 

 tral soils. See 'Essay on Calcareous Manures,' 2nd ed. 

 ch. vii. — Ed. Far. Reg ] 



