Obituary. 255 



Observations. — Having been favoured by open moderate weather 

 throughout the winter months, our supplies at market have been very 

 regular, and the prices consequently moderate. From the present state of 

 the soil, which has been kept cold by the general absence of solar heat, the 

 spring may be expected to be late ; and as the winter supplies of vegetables 

 have been regularly consumed, it is highly probable that the prices for the 

 ensuing month will be higher; and that the forced vegetables will be 

 more in demand, such as asparagus, sea-kale, radishes, rhubarb, &c. &c. 

 Cabbages of excellent quality have been already furnished in good supply, 

 and at a moderate price ; broccoli of the fine early white variety has been 

 abundant, and as the whole crop remains uninjured by frost, it may be ex- 

 pected in still farther quantity, which, with the purple and brimstone 

 varieties, so extensively cultivated, will make up for the late coming in of 

 the general crop of spring vegetables. Onions still support a uniform price, 

 contrary to a general impression that they are dearer in frosty weather. 

 Turnips still continue to be excellent in quality, owing to their not having 

 run off so readily to tops, which have not been so abundant as usual, and 

 have been disposed of freely, and to advantage. Our supply of foreign 

 fruit has been very limited, and at rather high prices, as may be observed 

 on referring to the list. Apples, the produce of our own soil, are extremely 

 scarce, a few bushels only from time to time coming to hand ; as the growers 

 can realise more for them in the countr)', the prices here being much re- 

 duced by the importation of foreign fruit. 



Our stock of winter pears is very small ; indeed, we are, in the market, 

 altogether wanting a supply of the better varieties. As yet the culture of 

 the new French sorts has not become general, nor do the growers feel 

 justified in holding them over, in the fear of a supply from abroad. Pota- 

 toes are extremely abundant and cheap ; a supply could be obtained equal 

 to any demand, did the prices afford remuneration to the growers and 

 shippers ; but the expenses of freight, &c., from the distant counties, and 

 from Scotland, from which we now obtain the most extensive supplies, is 

 so high as almost to insure a total loss of price to the cultivator. — G. C, 

 March 20. 1831. 



Art. IX. Obituary. 



Died, on the 16th of July, 1831, Johann Martin Fle'ischnann, chief su- 

 perintendent of vineyards, and the Nestor of the writers of Saxony. He 

 was in the eighty-fourth year of his age, fifty-seven of which he had passed 

 in official service. He was born in 1747, at Schwarza in the Grafschaftof 

 StoUberg-Werningerode, where his father was a merchant. He devoted 

 himself to gardening, and received instructions in that art from Putmann, 

 court-gardener at Meiningen. He afterwards travelled over a great part of 

 Germany, and in 1775 was appointed court-gardener of what is called the 

 Japanese garden at Dresden. The extensive information respecting the 

 cultivation of the vine which he had acquired in his travels, especially in 

 the districts of the Rhine, induced the Electoral Prince, in 1793, to appoint 

 him superintendent of vineyards. In 1799 he founded the Meissen Society 

 for the Cultivation of the Vine. His writings are chiefly on botany, the 

 cultivation of the vine, the growing of wood, and the rearing of the silk- 

 worm. That insect, he conceived, might be naturalised in Saxony. He 

 also published several treatises on the mulberry tree ; and, conjointly with 

 Nicolai and Riem, translated the celebrated work of Count Landriani on 

 the rearing of the silkworm, accompanied by notes. {From a German 

 Paper.) 



