Vol. X.— Nn. 20. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL, 



157 



known in Eiigland, or elsewhere, — the book in 

 whicli a tuitlitul figure nsiy be fdund, — tlie pur- 

 poses f.ir whi(!h it is iuhipteil, — the seasons vvlien 

 ill the greatest perfection, — ;ind the mode of pro- 

 pagating, pruning and training. 



Tliere are exact descriptions of the following' 

 fruits. 



Almonds, 3 varieties. 



Apples, 214 « 



Apricots 14 " 



Cherries, 28 " 



Currants, 6 



Figs, 27 " 



Gooseberries, 24 " with a catulogue of 



722 kinds. 



Grapes, 62 varieties. 



Melons, 24 " 



Peaches, 60 " 



Nectarines, 28 " 



Nuts, 8 " 



Pears, 162 « 



Pine-apples, 37 " 



Plums 60 " 



Quinces, 3 " 



Raspberries, 22 " 



Strawberries, 62 '' 



Total, 724 varieties. 



The best varieties of esculent vegetables for the 

 Kitchen Garden are enumerated and the most ap- 

 proved mannerof cullivaling them lucidly treated; 

 and there is a very instructive Kulendar of work 

 to be done in the Fruit Garden for each month in 

 the year. 



Tills work is an invaluable addition to our libra- 

 ry and should be reprinted in this country, for 

 there is no book that would be so universally ac- 

 ceptable to the cultivators of fruits, and the pro- 

 prietors of public and private gardens. 



2d. Pyins Mains Brentfordiensis, or a Concise 

 Description of Selected Apples, by Hugh RonaMs, 

 F. II. S. Nursery man, Brentford, with a figure of 

 each sort drawn from nature ; 4to, price five 

 guineas. 



Mr Ronalds says, in the introduction, ' that after 

 more than half a centary of constant practical 

 attention, to their production, I have ventured to 

 publish a ilescriptive catalogue of those varieties 

 of the Apples, which I have thought most e.xcel- 

 lent, assisted by my daughter Elizabeth, who has 

 drawn them on stone, from S|)ecimens of my own 

 growth.' 



The descriptions are concise, and disposed to 

 point out, in a plain way, the distinct characters 

 and qualities of each kind, with the name by 

 whicli each is most generally known. The habit 

 of the tree is given, with its history. Lists are 

 added fur the orchard, extensive and smaller gar- 

 dens, fur Paradise Stocks, for the purpose of sale 

 and for walls. 



This is truly a magnificent work. Tliere are for- 

 tytwo plates on which are delineated one hundred 

 and ninety varieties of Apples, drawn and colored 

 in the most accurate and beautiful manner, jire- 

 senting a meritorious example of female taste, 

 I skill and industry. 



i Miss Ronalds has thus erected a splendid orna- 

 ment to Pomona, which is honorable to her coun- 

 try and will perpetuate her name among the 

 votaries of Horticulture, in every region of the 

 globe. IIow glorious for the age, that ladies 

 : ihould be contending for the jirize of renown, in 

 Bcience and the arts, and assuming that exalted 



station in society, for which they were destined, 

 by the God of their creation. With minds capa- 

 cious and brilliant, and hearts more ardent and 

 sensitive than man, they have an illustrious exiitn- 

 ple of genius and talent in Miss Ronalds, which 

 cannot fail of producing admirable results, in every 

 civilized country. In letters how rapidly has 

 the female character been elevated, and more 

 cheering indications of its progress, in the highest 

 intellectual attainments. What the lords of crea- 

 tion can perform, woman can equal in either Jihy- 

 sical or moral achievements, and if we are not 

 derelict in duty, the period is not distant when 

 she will exhibit all her long neglected, but most 

 valuable qualities of admiration, the splendid de- 

 velopments of the mind. Psyche will resume 

 her sceptre, and the rival goddess of personal 

 charms be compelled to do homage to the more 

 lovely divinity of the soul. 



Respectfully submitted by 



H. A. S. Dearborn, 



Pies. Mass. Hon. Soc. 

 Brinley rincc, I 

 Nov. 18, 1831. i 



Resolved, that the thanks of the Society be 

 presented to J. R. Van Zandt, Esq. for his valuable 

 donation of seeds, ;^nd that they be divided anion"- 

 the members, on Saturday next. 



Don Francisco Aquilar, Vice Consul of the Uni- 

 ted States at Maldoiiado, in the Banda Oriental, 

 South America, was admitted, corresponding mem- 

 ber. 



Although the following article was published 

 in the Plough Boy eight or ten years ago, and a 

 long controversy ensued, still we find many per- 

 sons of much respectability, very positive that 

 chess is the production of wheat. They eay thoy 

 have examined it closely, and almost detected it 

 in the very act of turning into chess. In the 

 hopes of leading farmers to more careful experi- 

 ments, we continue the subject, and recommend the 

 following to their attentive perusal. — AT.Y.Farmer. 

 ErtiacI from an ^Iddress delivered before the 



Jlf^ricultural Society of Cayuga County. Bv 



David Thomas. 



'I should greatly regret that the quantities of 

 tvheat and barley cannot be so expeditiously and 

 accurately deiermined, were it not that the quality 

 ratlier than the quantity ought to be the criterion 

 'of merit. Although good crops are greatly de- 

 ^ pendent on the hand of industry, yet wheat and 

 barky are less so than any others and sometimes 

 these apjiear so capricious, that were we reo-ulatecl 

 only by the quantity we should adjudge our jueini- 

 um to tlie undeserving. There are other methods 

 however, by which the careful farmer may be 

 distinguished. The cockle, the chess, and various 

 other weeds which i)olliite and impoverish the 

 crop, will stand witnesses against the former class 

 of ciiliivators; and I earnestly recommend that no 

 premium be adjudged to him who may permit either 

 of those two nuisances to remain in his f elds. I 

 trust there are not many who will think these 

 conditions unreasonable. On a former occasion 

 I called your attention to the subject of cockle. It 

 was shown that the seed will lie for years, if not 

 for ages, in pasture land ; and I suggested that our 

 care ought chiefly to be extended to this plant 

 before it attain maturity. The employment of the 

 rolling screen, as a precautionary measure, may 

 also prove important. But whatever means the 

 farmer may adopt totally to extirpate this plant, 

 he will be encouraged during its prosecution, by 



the conviction that the perverted vigor of no other 

 seed wilt reproduce it. 



' I wish for the credit of some farmers that they 

 could feel the same confidence of destroying c/iess. 

 The vulgar opinion respecting the origin of this 

 plant is too well 'known to need a recital, but 

 perhaps all of you do not know that some are 

 inditrerent about its mixing with seed vvlieat or 

 seed rye, alleging that it is never produced by its 

 own seed. When error of opinion results in a 

 liractice so preposterous, it is time to enter our 

 protest. Perhaps we have all been told of the 

 appearance of this plant in fields of grain where it 

 was never sown ; but this seed is so small as to ren- 

 der its dilection by a careless observer improbable. It 

 is trne that botanists have given us long lists of 

 niule or hybrid plants ; but chess has never had a 

 place assigned in this catalogue. It is not even 

 pretended by the advocates of this notion that the 

 seed wheat from which this monster is said to 

 rise, was the offspring of vegetable adultery ; they 

 admit that the wheat may rise perfect bom the 

 ground, but after being injured by cattle, or in 

 unfavorable situations, its nature becomes changed, 

 and the stalk instead of being crowned with the 

 golden grain is only burdened with the shrivelled 

 chess. Now, it would be safe to assert that noth- 

 ing analagous to such transformation can be pro- 

 duced from the vegetable kingdom. It may not 

 be irrelevant however, to remark that chess, though 

 a weaker plant than wheat is yet more hardy ; and 

 accordingly, where wheal is thick, and Jlourishing 

 the chess droops among the stubble ; lint, whert 

 cattle or excessive moisture have injured the wheat, 

 chess springs with renewed vigor and fills the 

 vacancy. 



' But I am well aware of the inefiicacy of reason 

 in combatting inveterate prejudices which have 

 been cherished fiom infancy; and to convince the 

 believers of that doctrine that it is founded in 

 mistake, and uiiworlhy of enlightened minds, 1 

 shall refer to facts that admit not of contra- 

 diction. The chess is a perfect plant, as difierent 

 froiTi wheat, as the latter is from rye or barley, — 

 with seed completely capable of vegetating, and 

 known in science by the name of Bramus Sa- 

 calinus. The. botanist, who examines things with 

 inconi[)arably more care than the asserters of 

 this doctrine, — would no sooner admit this plant 

 to be ii degeneracy of nature, because it grows 

 in our wheal field, — than the zoologist would 

 admit the sheep to be the degenerate offspring 

 of the cow, because it feeds in the same |)a-ture. 



' I shall mention another circumstance which 

 to some may appear still more conclusive. jJ 

 farmer who lives in the vicinity of Philadelphia, 

 and tvhose veracity, I have known by long inter- 

 course to be unimpeachable, InleUj assured me that 

 for many years not one stalk of chess had appeared 

 in his grain fields.' 



Large Fruit. — We have never seen apples of 

 such enormous size, as have been brought to this 

 market this fall. It has not been uncommon to 

 see loads which would weigh from twelve to 

 twenty ounces each ; and in some cases, they 

 have been selected which would weigh tucntytwo, 

 three and four ounces. A pear was raised in 

 Pittsford, which weighed fortynine ounces and 

 a half. We doubt whether any part of the Uni- 

 ted States has produced fruit of the same varie- 

 ty, of greater size and better quality than old 

 Genesee Gen. Farmer. 



