156 



NEW ENGLAx>}D FARMER, 



Nov. 30, 1831. 



Slorticultural. 



Proceedings of the Executive Committee of the Mass. 



Hort. Society, at a meeting held at the Hall 



of the Institution, on Saturday, the 19(/i of j\0' 



vernier, 1831. 



The following report was maJe by the Presi- 

 dent, U. A. S. Dearborn. 



Since the last meeting the following letter from 

 J. II. Van Zandt, Esq. of Albany, has been re- 

 ceived. 



Albany, Ocl.31, 1831. 



H. A. S. Dearbor.-i, Esq. 



Dkar Sik — I have shipped by tlie Schooner 

 Grecian for Boston and to the care of the agent of 

 your society, IMr J. 13. Russell, a box of seeds &c, 

 of the choicest kind we could collect in our neigh- 

 borhood, and have also sent by Mr Tucker of Bos- 

 ton, 5 ears of the large early White Corn, raised 

 by Mr Thomas Hillhouse, of this county, and is 

 highly esteemed by us. 



I have also sent a few Black potatoes of a new 

 kind among us ; they are an excellent Potato to 

 keeji. 



Should you find any of the articles sent worthy 

 of a trial in your new Garden of Experiment I shall 

 be much gratified. 



Permit me, sir, at this time, to express to you 

 and to the Society the high sense and estimation 

 with which I hold the honor conferred on me, by 

 being constituted an honorary ineuiber of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



Accept my best wishes for your health and 

 happiness, and for the prosperity and duration of 

 the Society. 



I remain, dear sir. 



Most respectfuUv yours, 



J. R.' Van Zandt. 

 The subjoined e.'itract of a letter from Col. 

 Thomas H. Perkins, I obtained permission to lay 

 before the Society, although it was not written 

 with any other view, than to ilo me a kiinlness. 

 Having some years since built a Vinery three hun- 

 dred feet in length, where he has inostsuccesslully 

 cultivated a great variety of grape.*, as well as 

 poaches and nectarines, he has during the past 

 summer erected another edifice two hundred and 

 ninetysix feet long, combining vineries, peachcr- 

 ies and a green house, on the tnost approved plan , 

 and as it is highly important that such extensive 

 experiments should be generally known, tlial others 

 who may be induced to imitate the example, 

 mi"ht avail of the information which Col. Perkins 

 has acquired, I believed that all persons interested 

 in horticultural pursuits would be pleased to read 

 the extract, which I have been allowed to make. 

 Col. Perkins has made great successful eflbrts 

 to advance the culture of choice fruits, as well as 

 to encourage a taste for ornamental gardening, as 

 is well known by those who liave visited his beau- 

 tiful grounds. From his extended commercial 

 intercourse with all parts of the world, he has been 

 enabled to collect numerous rare and valuable 

 trees and plants; and with that liberality, for 

 which he is distinguished, he has freely distributed 

 them throughout the country. Such munificent 

 patrons of useful and ornamental planting, not 

 only accelerate the progress of horticulture, in 

 tlieir immediate vicinity, but the influence of their 

 practical operations is extended over the Repub- 

 lic, and will be gratefully remembered by their 

 fellow citizens. 



Ellracl of a Idler from Col. Ttiomas H. t'erkins. 



Bosloii, VVedin-sila.v Eve. 

 My Dear Sir — I shall call on you in the 

 morning to take you to Brookline, and save you 

 the trouble of making memorandums in relalioYi 

 to the mode of heating hot houses by hot, not boil- 

 ing water which would raise steam. The water 

 is not heated ab(^fcl90 ilegrees. I gave you the 

 principles upon wTiich the present mode of heat- 

 ing is based. — .-Vt one end of a house of 56 feet, 

 intended as a hon.se for exotic plants, I have a 

 boiler of about 80 gallons ; into the upper part of 

 this boiler is introduceil a pipe of cast iron of 4J 

 inch bore ;this pipe is introduced at the angle of the 

 house into an elbow, from whence it is taketi by 

 two pipes of same dimensions iiuo a reservoir at 

 the end of the house of the same size of the boiler. 

 The reservoir is of thick Russia Iron, with a 

 cover; the pipes run horizontally fom within 3 

 inches of the top of the boiler to the same level in 

 the reservoir. At the lowest point of the reservoir 

 the water is returned through a third pipe from the 

 receiver to the boiler on the same level. The ex- 

 pansion of the umter by heat, ilrives the water from 

 the boiler through the upper set of pipes into the 

 reservoir, and from thence it is taken by the low- 

 er set of pipes again to the boiler, where it is heat- 

 ed and is thus perpetually circulated, giving off an 

 equable heat competent to all tlie Vrarmth required. 

 The advantage of this mode of heating over flues 

 or steam a| paratus is great; iti flues the fires 

 iimst be carefully kept up through frosty nights, or 

 your plants are in danger; with steam, though the 

 heat is soon up, yet when the water is below the 

 boiling i)oint the heat is soon lost. With hot water 

 not above 190 ileg. of Fah. left by the gardener at 8 

 o'clock in the evening, heated by -Anthracite Coal 

 and with the dampers nearly closed, the state of 

 the house if ordinarily tight, will be found in the 

 morniiig within a very few degrees of the state in 

 which it was left twelve hours before. — This 

 mode of heating houses was suggested and put 

 in practice first by Atkinson, from whom I had 

 my watering plans and directions. It is said tljcy 



is 15 feet within, the same width without the house, 

 and filled the space with old stable and slaughter 

 house manure with an equal quantity of virgin 

 soil and sods — this has been trenched the whole 

 width three timed to the extreme depth. 



Tlie other end of the house I treated in the same 

 manner, except that in place of rich manure, I |)ut 

 iTierely good soil though not rich — this was done 

 to the same width as the other end of the house. 

 The centre house is filled with stone except the 

 place occupied by the pipes and the cistern and a 

 bonier for creeping plants. 1 used 201 thousand 

 bricks ill the Widls — between 26 and 27 thousaml 

 stpiarcs of 6 inch Crown glass — the sashes weigh 

 aliout 2400 lbs.; the glass is lapped only one eighth 

 of an inch, and without putty between. 

 Your frieiul and servant, 



T. II. Perkins. 

 It being desirable to extend our correspondence 

 over every portion of the globe, I have endeavor- 

 ed to ascertain who were the most conspicuous 

 for their devotion to the cultivation of the soil in 

 the various co\nitries, with which we have a di- 

 rect intercourse, and through the mediation of a 

 frieiul have been made acquainted with the char- 

 acter of Don Francisco Agiiilar of Maldonado, in 

 the Banda Oriental, South America. He is dis- 

 tinguished fi>r his attention to the cultivation of. all 

 the varieties of fruit trees, and economical plants, 

 which will flourish in that delightful climate. He 

 has recently sent orders for many of our fruit trees. 

 Cereal grains and seeds of esculent vegetables, 

 and has forwarded grape vines, and numerous 

 kind of seeds, of that region, to several gentle- 

 men of this Commonwealth, who stale that he is 

 desirous of opening a correspondence, and to in- 

 tcrc.'iange the vegetable productions of the two 

 Americns. 



iieing extensively engaged in ngricitltural and 

 liorticnltnral pursuits aiul largely concerned in the 

 commerce between this country and the territories 

 bordering on the Rio de la Plata and Paraguay, 

 and holding the office of Consul of the United 

 States, it would lie highly beneficial to the Socie- 



have been improved upon by Tredgold. I have 



seen Atkinson's plan most successfully operated l <.V- to "»'»'' 'f his services, and it is recommended 



upon by gentlemen both on the continent and in O. 



Britain — there may be improvements ; I know of 



none which I think such. It is thought one fire will 



heat the length of a house of 75 fi;et of moderate 



height. The house I have heated is o6 feet anil the 



length of pipes 150 feet, being two upper and one 

 lower pipe, and my |)ipe retnrns double on the 

 ends of twenty feet, working the whole length 190. 

 The whole extent of my house is a few feet short 

 of 300 — the centre 20 feet wide and the back wall 

 20 feet high, is intended for a green house ; the 

 water from the whole extent of glass is collected 

 in a cistern, which contain 70 hogsheads of water, 

 say 7000 gallons — a copper pump raises the water 

 is a cistern, from whence it is distributed, by the 

 medium of leaden pipes, with occasional oftset 

 pipes at every part of the entire house. About 120 

 feet at each end of the green house composes a 

 grape house, or rather two grape houses of 60 feel 

 each and peach houses divided in the same man- 

 ner, making 240 feet, which is 15 feet wide within 

 the walls ; the back wall 17 feet high, except in the 

 rear of the green house where it is 20 feet, the front 

 wall is about 3 feet above ground exclusive of three 

 feet of glazed sashes and stands on brick piers 3.^ 

 feet apart to give the roots fair range. — lu that por- 

 tion of the house intended for grapes, I displaced 

 the old soil 41 feet deep and thirty feet wide, that 



that he be elected a corresponding membe 



The following books have been recently receiv- 

 ed from our attentive and most valuable agent and 

 fellow member. Col. Thomas Aspinwall, Consul 

 of the U. S. in London. 



1st. A guide 10 the orchard and Kitchen Gar- 

 ilen, by George Liudley, C. M. H. S. 8vo. price 13 

 shil. ster. 



Tlii.s work was published last July. The author 

 was occupied during nearly forty years, in prepar- 

 ing the materials for the press, and was aided in 

 the editorial department by John Liiiilley, Enq. 

 .Assistant Secretary of the liorticnltnral Society of 

 London. It contains a complete account of tlie 

 fruit trens and vegetables cultivated in Great Biv 

 tain, and in a form so conden^^ed as to compre- 

 hend the greatest quantity of information in the 

 smallest compass, and which at the same time is 

 siifliciently dilTuse to reinler it possible for the 

 reader to acquire as much knowledge as is either 

 important, or inilispensaWe, in regard to any particu- 

 lar variety. Those points, which are so peculiarly 

 interesting to the |)ractical operations of garden- 

 ing, have been in all cases treated with especial 

 care; such as the kind of soil upon which a 

 given variety of fruit will best succeed. The com- 

 parative value of each kind, — the aspect that it 

 requires, — the different names under which it ig 



