1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



13 



take a broad-pronged foi'k, which should be used 

 in every garden, and fork over the bed, being 

 careful not to injure the crown of the plants, 

 and apply a top-dresSing of rich, short stable 

 manure. Let this remain until the frost is out 

 of the ground in the spring, when the loose top 

 should be raked off, and the remainder forked in< 

 About the first of April sprinkle over each bed 

 a dressing of cheap salt to the extent that no 

 portion of the ground can be seen. This is all 

 that Mill be required until the ensuing fall. A 

 bed of asparagus, properly made in the fia-st in- 

 stance, and cared for in this way afterward, will 

 last for twenty-five years. — Germantown Tele- 

 graph. 



For the New England Fanner. 

 SWITZERLAND. 

 LETTER FROM MR. FRENCH. 



From Heidelberg, which is in the Duchy of 

 Baden, we took train for Baden-Baden, the place 

 famous over all the world for its mineral springs 

 and fashionable society, and infamous for its 

 gambling saloons and dissipation. Beautiful and 

 elegantly di'essed ladies, in the evening, stood 

 or sat in the magnificent public rooms of the 

 "conversation-house," around the gaming tables, 

 losing and winning hundreds of dollars at a single 

 turn of the roulette. It was a sight to make one 

 shudder to see the coolness with which they risk- 

 ed body and soul with their gold, to gratify this 

 insane passion for games of chance. We drove 

 to what is called the New Castle, which was for- 

 merly the seat of one of the secret tribunals, where 

 all the terrors and tortures of the Inquisition were 

 suffered by the poor victims of political or relig- 

 ious persecution. We descended into dungeons, 

 closed by heavy stone doors, and into which the 

 victims were let down by ropes from above, 

 through trap doors, and saw the rings and racks 

 and other instruments of toi'ture, and the subter- 

 ranean halls of judgment, where the prisoners 

 were tried and sentenced. Then we visited what 

 is called the Old Castle, some miles distant, a fine 

 ruin of what was formerly a stronghold in war. 

 It is in the midst of a heavy growth of wood, a 

 part of the Black Forest, which extends, I think, 

 from Heidelberg across, some forty miles. The 

 hills around Baden are, in the grim poetic lan- 

 guage of German taste, called the Children of the 

 Black Forest. This forest is different from any- 

 thing I have seen since I left New England. It is 

 composed principally of oak, maple and hemlock, 

 of very large size, and in the neighborhood of 

 Baden the white pine is found, in its natural 

 growth. No white pine gi-ows in Great Britain, 

 so far as I have observed, excopt small sr;ecim"nr 

 planted in ornamental grounds, and those were 

 so unlike our native growth that I could distin- 

 guish them only by careful examination of their 

 leaves. For the information of our readers who 



may not have observed or studied such trifles, it 

 may be suggested that our three most common 

 species of pine may be always distinguished, 

 however distorted by unnatural culture, by the 

 number of leaves in a tassel or bunch, the white 

 pine always growing in fives, the yellow or pitch 

 pine in threes, and the Norway pine in twos. 

 And, by the way, let me say that of all the ever- 

 greens I have yet seen, and I must now have seen 

 them all, for beautiful effect in grouping, or in 

 masses for grounds of wide extent, our common 

 white pine, so common as to be almost despised, 

 is in my opinion the most beautiful, and our hem- 

 lock, whether grown single or in clumps, is a far 

 filler tree than any of the far-fetched furs or 

 spruces. When I have leisure to write on this 

 subject, I have some foreign trees to re- 

 commend which are uncommon if not unknown 

 to New England. In the Black Forest of Baden 

 the old hemlocks seemed to nod to me as an old 

 friend, and the white pines, with their peculiar 

 rustle in the wind and their balsamic fragrance, 

 almost carried me back to old Exeter. 



From Baden we went to Basle, and thence to 

 Lucerne, all the way, about two hundred miles, by 

 rail, except about one hour in a diligence, over 

 a mountain, where the railway was not completed. 

 All along this route we observed fine crops of to- 

 bacco and oats, with some poor dried up crops of 

 Indian corn. Here again we saw large hills, 

 smooth and free from stones, covel-ed, thousands 

 of acres, with the grape. Here, too, we saw the 

 storks, wading sometimes in the rivers, sometimes 

 walking about among the laborers in the fields, 

 as tame as hens and chickens, sometimes resting, 

 apparantly asleep, on one leg, on little islands in 

 the stream. They are seen flying over the villa- 

 ges, resting on the house-tops, and they some- 

 times build on the top of an old chimney, being 

 regarded by the people as almost a sacred bird. 

 The labor along this route is performed by single 

 oxen or cows in carts, harnessed sometimes in 

 collars like horses, sometimes by the hams, and 

 most frequently driven by women. The sugar 

 beet is extensively grown here, also, as through 

 most of the continent. Between Basle and Lu- 

 cerne apple and pear trees loaded with fruit are 

 abundant, and apricot and cherry trees are almost 

 always in sight. The horse beans, such as are 

 so extensively cultivated for animals in England, 

 are growing here to some extent. Of the archi- 

 tecture of Switzerland, with its picturesque curv- 

 ed roof, sweeping so gracefully almost to the 

 ground, and its other peculiar features, I will not 

 attempt yet to speak fully, leaving the topic for 

 separate consideration in the future. 



For the first time since I kl't America, I found 

 on the route to Lucerne, railway cars like those in 

 use in the United States. Throughout England 



