Vol. X.- 



Xm) HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



51 



■dispositidii of tlie Socieiy. Tin; iistoiiisliiiig expe- 

 dment wliich Doct. Van Moiis states lie has made, 

 with scions Iwn years and a half old, wairaots ii 

 repetition, with thos« he has mi kindly tiaMsniitle<l. 

 They should lie soukcti, no doiilit. In soft water, he- 

 fore they are engrafted. The grafting hy Copula- 

 iion, is oidy performed on yonng stalks or the shoots 

 of trees whii h are of the .'<ize of the scions, and is 

 a kind oS' splice. — The sci'Mi and stalk, or hranch, 

 heing each cut half through ahoni an inch from tin; 

 ends and the piece split off so that the reinaiidng 

 parts heing reversed occupy the spaces thus left and i 

 make a secure joint ; or each rtniy be cut off slop- I 

 ing, about an inch and united, so that the parts are 

 in contact to the extent of the slope. They are to 

 be secured hy bandages like huds. Engravings of 

 the mode of grafting may he seen in the 7th vol. 

 of the NoveaiiConrsD'Agricultiu-e, page487 and in 

 the Atlas of the Cours De Culture by Andre Thouin, 

 plate 55, letter R. ' I will trv' was the remark of 

 one of our gallant officers, when ordered to storm 

 a battery. Respectfully submitted, 



H. A. S. DEARBORN, 



Pies. Mas3. Hon. Soc. 

 Horticultural H;ill, August, 27 1831. 



Resolved, that the thanks of the Society be pre- 

 sented to Uoct. Van Mons, of Lovain, in Belgium for 

 the scions and portions of his Pomographie Belgi- 

 xjue Moderne wliich he has been so kind as to trans- 

 mit. 



Resolved, that the scions sent by Doct. Van Mens 

 lie placed in charge of Mr Manning of Salem, Messrs 

 Winships of Brighton, Mr Kenrick of Newton and 

 Mr Davenport of Milton, with a request that they 

 engraft them in the manner named by Doct. Van 

 Mons and make a report of the result to the Society. 



Mr Fessenden — I send you a few extracts 

 from some of the recently received numbers of 

 the Annahs D'Horticulture. 



The experiment on the peach made byMrOdart 

 promises most interesting results, and is well wor- 

 thy of repeating on all the varieties of fruit trees ; 

 but it is too late to attemiit it this season. 



The cultivators of the silk-worm in the United 

 States, may find it expedient (o adopt the mode 

 suggested by Mr Audihert, of rearing the tnorus 

 multieaulis. Yours, &c, 



H. A. S. Dearbork. 



EXTRACT NO. XXXV. 

 Fiom Ihe Aimalcs ,[<• la Sotiete D'Horticuluirp de Paris. 



JVoit upon the observaltons of Mr Odarl in re- 

 lation to ti mtthod of increasing the size of fruits 

 hy Professor Poiteau. 



If the following experiment is confirmed, it will 

 singularly enlarge our physiological ideas, and be- 

 come a mine of prosperity to our pomologists. 

 M. Odart observes : Having made ten years 

 since, an annular incision, or in a single word, a 

 eircumcisioip, on the branch of a peach, the usual 

 result was a great precocity, and an increase of 

 the size, of all the fruit which it bore. 1 was induc- 

 ed the same year, to take a bud from this branch and 

 inoculate it upon an almond stock, and it having ta- 

 ken, I trained the tree as an espalier the following 

 season. This tree has constantly produced fruit, as 

 beautiful as that which grew upon the circumcised 

 brancli, and consequently superior to that which 

 grew naturally on the other (larts of the same tree ; 

 they have preserved their firmness, which is an 

 effect of the circumcision, and lost their bitter- 

 ness, which is also an effect of this operation on 

 .the peach. 



h is iimeh to be rcgrelted that M. Odart had not 

 circumcised a branch of this new peach tree, in 

 order to obtain still larger fruit, and that he had 

 not taken a bud from this circumcised branch to 

 olitain a third tree, with still larger fruit and so in 

 succession, to ascertain how far nature would lend 

 her aid in ths gradual increase of the size of 

 peaches. PoiteaU. 



EXTRACT NO. XXXVI. 



Extract from a letter of Mr Audihert to Doct. Loi.ii- 

 leur Deslongchamps, member of the Committee 

 on economical and medicinal plants. 



Oct. 17, 1830. 

 The Mulberry of the Philippines, or morus 

 multieaulis, having a more active and prolonged 

 veiretation has suffered a little more from the severe 

 cold of the last winter, than the other varieties of 

 the mulberry ; still we have plants fifteen feet 

 high, in a dry situation, whose sap was sufficiently 

 arrested on the arrival of the cold weather, as not 

 to have been the least injured. Now I think of 

 it, let me inform you, that they produced this year 

 a great abundance of long black, and sufficiently 

 bentitifiil fruit, which is very good to eat, not being 

 so insipid as the white mulberry, but having a 

 taste intermediate between the red and black mul- 

 berry. Thus the iriulberry of the Philippines pre- 

 sents a double advantage, as it can be cultivated 

 as a fruit tree, and also as very useful for the nur- 

 ture of silk worms ; but nevertheless for the lat- 

 ter ])urpose it is not expedient ill our climate, to 

 raise tall trees, because the large and tender leaves 

 present too great an obstruction to the wind, which 

 so lacerates and injures them, that the best mode 

 of cultivating the morus multieaulis, for the sup- 

 port of silk worms, is in hedges with low stocks. 



AUDIBERT. 



EXTRACT NO. XXXVII. 

 NEW CAMELLIAS. 



The taste of enlightened amateurs for the mag- 

 nificent flowers of the Camellia, increases so rap- 

 idly that we consider it a duty to inform them, 

 thiit M. Noisette having formed a seminary in 

 1821, several of the jilants raised from the seed 

 bloomed this year, and that four of them deserve 

 a distinguishetl place among the varieties which 

 constitute so great an ornament of the garden, 

 and merit a participation in the admiration they 

 receive. 



The following names, and principal distinctive 

 characteristics have been given by M. Noisette. 



1. Camellia spiralis. Flowers iinmeroiis, very 

 double, clear red, mean size, petals considerably 

 rounded, concave and disposed in sjiirals, which is 

 a curious novelty. 



2. Camellia floribunda. Flowers of a deep 

 rose color, very numerous, three inches in diam- 

 eter, having in the centre some stamens elegantly 

 mingled with the petals, of different forms, the 

 most of them striped with white longitudinal lines, 



3' Camellia atrovircns. This derives its name, 

 from the very dark green color of the leaves ; 

 the flowers are semi-double, flame red, and at 

 least three times as large as those of the common 

 single camellia. 



4. Camellia minima. Flowers small, and of a 

 deep rose color, having the petals of the centre 

 formed into an elongated cornet, which gives to the 

 flower in other respects a very beautiful and sin- 

 gtilai' appearance. 



UNERDRAINING. 



Mr Fessenden — 1 have become so deejily im- 

 pressed with the uiility of iinderdraining, that I 

 venture to trouble you with a few remarks on the 

 subject, in the hope that they may be useful to 

 some portion of your readers. 



My farm is a sand loam, reposing generally upon 

 clay, with a gentle undulating surface. I have 

 several swah.'s, where in the process of time, the 

 upper strata has been washed away, and through 

 which there are running waters requiring open 

 drains. In the spring of the year, and in wet 

 summers, the surface water penetrates the soil 

 of the higher grounds to the clay strata, and fol- 

 lowing the inclinalionof this to the swales, breaks 

 forth in numerous places, saturates the grounds be- 

 low, renders them wet, cold and poachy, and un- 

 fits them as well for the finer nutritious grasses, as 

 for the purposes of tillage. Thus those parts of 

 my farm which were intrinsically the best soil, 

 were in a manner useless. To remedy the evil 1 

 resorted to underdraining ; and the result has great- 

 ly exceeded my expectations. Being wholly des- 

 titute of stone, the proper material for underdrain- 

 ing, 1 have been obliged to use saplings and brush 

 as a substitute. The first object is to mark out the 

 line on the slope of the swale, at which the water 

 first shows itself at the surface, which is best done 

 after the ground has been ploughed and harrowed 

 in the sjning, then cut a trench, with a sufficient 

 inclination to carry off the water, above Ike marked 

 line, from three to four feet deep. I collect green 

 saplings, from two to six inches in diameter at the 

 butt, with the tops and branches entire, fl prefer 

 and generally use evergreens) and cut them into 

 lengths somewhat exceeding the depth of the 

 trench. I then begin at the head of the trench to 

 lay them in,bnts down, and sloping towards the low 

 grounds; one man handsthe brush, and another fits 

 and treads lliem down, until the trench is literally 

 filled. The earth is then thrown on, taking care to 

 bring all the brush within the edges of the ditch, that 

 it may settle evenly. In a short time the whole of 

 the brush is found to have settled below the reach 

 of the plough. I estimate the duration of tills kind 

 of drains at from 12 to 15 years, and there is no 

 doubt of their proving efficient when well construct- 

 ed, particularly when water is conslantly passing 

 through them. I omitted to state that the whole of 

 the excavated earth is thrown back upon the brush, 

 forming a ridge, which in a short time settles to 

 near the ordinary level, and which, in grass grounds 

 is sown in autumn with seeds. 



In the experiments I have made, the increased 

 value of the first, or at all events that of the two 

 first crops, has afforded ample remuneration for the 

 expense of underdraining. I am this day (Aug 21,) 

 bringing in my second crop of hay and a good one 

 from an acre of ground reclaimed by unilerdraining, 

 on which, beforn this process, the ]iroduct never 

 compensated for labor. 



The expense will vary according to circumstan- 

 ces; but as tiie labor may all be done by the ordi. 

 nary vvorkinen on a farm, iind at times of most 

 leisure, it is matter of but secondary con.-ideration. 

 To give some data however, I will state, that I paid 

 to one man, it being his asking price, at the rate of 

 ' 62J cents for completing 28 yards, the brush being 

 I furnished him on tlies|)ot. Another man now in 

 my employ, made 40 yards of trench in a day, 

 averaging 3| feet deep, and hy 9 o'clock on the 

 j second day, the brush being cut and handed to him 

 j he had the same covered and completed. EsU' 



