1847.] Transactions of the State Jlgricultural Society. 29 



On the Choice of Tkees and Shrubs, for Cities and Rural Towns: 



By D. J. Brown. 



The cultivation of trees and shrubs indicates a man of taste, and 

 we think, too, an honest man. The cultivation of flowers indi- 

 cates a lady of taste, and, we think, one of a pure mind. The 

 contemplation of the work of one's hands, in planting trees and 

 raising shrubs and flowers, leads the mind to entertain sentiments 

 full of kindness and love. A rascal, a knave or a poltroon, never 

 sets out a tree or cultivates a rose. It may be, it is true, that there 

 are persons who cultivate trees and flowers whose ideas, all taken 

 together, might be confined in a fair sized snuff box; yet it will 

 always be found that their ideas will be commendable in kind. Mr. 

 Brown gives a long list of trees and shrubs which are worthy of 

 cultivation. We like them all, and dislike in all cases invidious 

 distinctions. Every tree fills a place, and if our grounds are am- 

 ple enough, the entire American sylva should be planted there. 



Prize Essay on the Canada Thistle: By A. Stevens. (With 



a plate.) 



Mr. Stevens takes a rational and common sense view of this 

 prickly pest. 



Mr. S. enters with much spirit and length into the history of 

 this plant, which in itself is quite interesting. We cannot, how- 

 ever, find space to give more of Mr. Stevens' essay than what he 

 terms deductions, p. 427: 



" From a collation of what others have done, and from the ex- 

 periments above detailed, the following conclusions may be de- 

 duced. 



Whatever will effectually exclude the plant from the light and 

 air will destroy it. This may be done by plowing, in some soils, 

 and in others by a close grass sod. Plowing, if repeated frequently 

 in soils, where the root does not descend beyond the reach of the 

 plowing, will, in dry seasons, always destroy the thistle, and often 

 in moist ones. In soils which are light, deep, rich, friable, and 

 of course permeable to the air, and are in some measure always 

 moist, plowing will always fail. 



Wherever a dense sod can be formed, the thistle may be de- 

 stroyed by seeding. The grasses, wdierever they are adapted to 

 the purpose, will be found the easiest means of destruction; al- 

 though not so rapid as plowing, hoeing, salting or burning, where 

 these latter are available. 



In all uplands, where the soil is of a depth admitting the root 

 to be reached and effected in its whole extent by the plow, hoe, 

 fire or salt, the thistle may be destroyed by these means, and they 

 will be found the most rapid ones. 



In all bottom lands where the root descends deep, and the so 



