Vol. X.-No. 30. 



AN!) HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



283 



ons in Bliiy, or oiicuiiibcrs in Maicli ; can we say 

 it is absolutely of " uo uliJity !" I hope not. But 

 what says your correspondent ? " I should he glad 

 to learn of what value to us here, is the skill used 

 in forcing melons, that a high preuuuin should be 

 offered for it?" Of what use is horticulture? lie 

 might as jjroperly ask. Dr M. A. Ward, in his 

 excellent address before the Horticultural Society, 

 has given a true synopsis of the word horticulture; 

 and if your correspondent will turn to it, he will 

 find it completely elucidated. 



I would be one, to give the sum which is now 

 offered as a premium for forced cucumbers, to- 

 wards one of five or ten times the amount, to the 

 individiuil who should produce the best melons, 

 excelling in all qualities, during the month of May; 

 or for a cucumber, a good bunch of asparagus, or 

 a dish of strawberries by the first of April, all of 

 good size and excellent qualities. Is it showin 

 love for improvement, to depreciate the raising of 

 these at this season ? I look forward to the time 

 when we shall rival our transatlantic friends ; to 

 the time when every man who has amassed any- 

 thing over the necessities and conveniences of life, 

 will have his pinery, vinery, peach-house, fig- 

 house, cherry-house, strawberry pits, melon pits, 

 cucumber pits, and his aviary, apiary, ])ark, lawns, 

 &c. The work has begun, and we look forward 

 with pleasing reflections, to the time when it shall 

 be incorporated with all our necessaries iuducive 

 to hajipinoss. 



As to the growing of grapes and the observa- 

 tions on flowers, he will find an answer (which it 

 ■would be unnecessary to repeat) in my last, if it 

 meets his eye. It is said, there is " no accountina- 

 for tastes," and perhaps it is well there is not. If 

 lie can make himself content by living on carrots, 

 beets, and other vegetables, till the season for mel 

 ons, cucumbers, &c, comes in, he has an undoubt 

 ed right so to do; and without the thought of be- 

 ing " chilled." But your correspondent seems to 

 comment very severely on the system which I 

 proposed (he says, I did not,) as a remedy ; he 

 says, "Is this the system we want? those who 

 award the ])remiums must be incoi-rigibly stupid, 

 if they do not go right with this luminous system." 

 What system ? What system is he speaking of? 

 Certainly I do not understand him, unless he means 

 the one I recommended. He has thought, he 

 says, that it was rather difficult to decide correct- 

 ly on premiums, because he read in a late num- 

 ber of Loudon's Magazine, that some society had 

 adopted general rides. This is all true. But are 

 we advanced far enough to decide in this manner? 

 Indeed I think not. And in particular, if we should 

 follow his directions, we sliotdd never find one ca- 

 pable of telling the qualities of a forced melon 

 fcom a pumpkin. 



I should not have gone at such length in my 

 remarks, were it not for the reasons stated ; and 

 the only apology I have to make is, that in what 

 little I have written, I have not conveyed my ideas 

 so minutely, as your correspondent's " essay " re- 

 quired. Yours with much respect, 



Cambridge, March 7, 1«:J2. RUSTICUS. 



Boxwood a suhstitvte fur Hops. — M. Du Petit 

 lately stated to the Philomathic Socictv of Paris, 

 that more boxwood than hops was emi)loyed in 

 making almost all the beer brewed in Paris. Box- 

 wood contains a powerful sudorific principle, with 

 a bitter taste, which has lately been se))arate(l and 

 is known under the name of buxina. — Bull. Un. 



Ciirdining mid Gardeners in America. — A writer 

 for the Gardener's Magazine, who signs "P. C. 

 near Philadelphia," says, It is uo less strange 

 than true, that we have few or none of our natives, 

 gardeners. Even when brought up in our gar- 

 dens, they almost invr.riably ])refer the plough and 

 farming work, and have a strong dislike to weed- 

 ing, &c, &c. They are generally very dextrous 

 and handy with tools, and can do almost anything 

 required in the use of them. On the contrary, the 

 Eiuopean gardeners who come here, are generally 

 unaccustomed to any tools but the spade and hoe, 

 and care but little to learn the use of others. If 

 any alteration is required or mending wanted, 

 they immediately require the assistance of the 

 carpenter or the smith for trifling things, that one 

 of our boys could do with a hatchet and knife if 

 he could not procure other tools. This heli)less- 

 ness renders them the laughing stock of our work- 

 men ; particularly when they assume such impor- 

 tance, and consequentalairs, as they most general- 

 ly do on their first arrival here. A few years 

 since, a young gardener arrived here from Ireland, 

 without a friend or acquaintance, and having ])aid 

 his last guinea for his passage, I gave him em- 

 l)loyment until I procured a very good situation 

 for him, at one hundred and eighty dollars pei- 

 year, and board and lodging. His employe)- was a 

 quaker gentleman, who was nmch pleased with 

 him and treated him very kindly. His only care 

 was a small vegetable garden for the use of the 

 family ; and indeed it was the only branch of gar- 

 dening for which he was competent. Unfortu- 

 nately a tavern was too near, and here liquor is 

 too cheap ; he soon began to tip])le and neglect 

 his work. He had soon accunndated a hundred 

 dollars ; and had a crop of fine early potatoes, 

 amongst other things in his garden. Some friends 

 having arrived to dine with his employer, the <rar- 

 dener was requested to dig a few of his fine [)ota- 

 toes for dinner, as the boy was absent. The gar- 

 dener replied, swelling with indignation, " Is it 

 me. Sir, a thorough bred gardener, that you would 

 ask to dig potatoes ?" " Surely friend," replied 

 his employer, " thee hast toiled to raise them, and 

 it can be no disgrace to dig a few for one dinner ; 

 howevei', give me the hoe, and I will dig them 

 myself." The next morning he i)aid him oft' and 

 discharged him. This, Sir, is the manner in which 

 many of your gardeners conduct themselves, 

 on their arrival here ; and they are very frequent- 

 ly ignorant of their business. Still we are verv 

 far behind you in gardening, and willing to learn 

 all we can from such as come here. In this coun- 

 try, no white man calls another " master," * and 

 land is so cheap that a few years' wages is suffi- 

 cient to purchase a snug farm and stock it. The 

 natural love of independence and comfort, carries 

 nearly all the good gardeners to the western coun- 

 try, where they settle as farmers. 



• In menlioning this term " master," which Is obsolete 

 here, i may remnrk, that I never knew a native Ameii- 

 can who wore a livery ; nor could extra wage* induce 

 them to put it on. I have frequently made the inquiry, 

 but always found that those in liveries were foreicrners. 

 Neither are there in America any steerage passengers 

 in the packet boats; there is one cabin for the ladies and 

 another for the gentlemen, in which all. whether master 

 or servant, mix on a fooling of perfect equality. It is the 

 same as to stage coaches, which have only one fare, and 

 neither (he coachman nor any of the servants at the inns, 

 receives a faitbing from the passengers or customers. — 

 All that lakes place between man and man in this coun- 

 try, is on llie principle of equitable exchange ; there is 

 considered to be no obligation on either side. 



From thj Gardeiiei '3 Magazine. 



CAUSE AND CURE OF THE AMERICAN 

 BLIGHT; in answer to Judge Buel. 

 Sill — Your respectable correspondent, Jesse 

 Bud, Esq. treating of trees and their diseases, so- 

 licits information respecting the causes of these 

 diseases aud their cures. He says, " We have 

 lost many of our pear trees, by what is termed the 

 blight." Now, what our English gardeners de- 

 scribe as the " American blight," and which here 

 particularly affects apple and pear trees, is evi- 

 dently thelarvEB of some insect, enveloped in a sub- 

 stance like white cotton ; but which larvse, I sus- 

 pect, are the consequence and not the cause ofthe 

 disease he writes upon ; that is, I believe the 

 blight never fixes, except upon parts of the tree 

 where the sap has exuded through or under the 

 bark, or where the tree has been cut or bruised, 

 aud has put on the ap])earance he describes, viz. 

 'tlie bark becomes dead in irregular blotches, con- 

 tracts, and ultimately separates from the wood.' 

 He says, farther, ' aiuything you can offer on the 

 subject ofthe preceding remarks, will be partic- 

 ularly interesting to your American readers.' 

 This leads me to mention, that about twentyfive 

 years since, I planted on the east border of my 

 garden, which was newly-raised land, a row of ap- 

 ple and peat trees, chiefly the former ; and found 

 that they all soon became affected with the disease 

 above described. The subsoil being, particularly 

 in winter, a morass, I planted the trees as high as 

 possible; but some plants of the same kind and 

 from the same nursery, planted in another and 

 drier situation, being exempt from the disease, I 

 considered that the other trees had become infect- 

 ed, from the absorption ofthe roots of too much 

 moisture. To obviate this, I planted within three 

 or four feet of them a row of willow stakes, which 

 soon became bushes and now are trees. I could 

 in a short time trace the roots of these willows, 

 completely under the fruit trees, and as thick, gen- 

 erally, as a mat. I began, consequently, to fear 

 that they would ultimately destroy them ; but I 

 was agreeably surprised by finding, from the peri- 

 od the roots became intermixed with those of the 

 apple and pear trees, that this disease in the fruit 

 trees giadually and I may say entirely disappear- 

 ed ; and for the last twenty years they have borne 

 plenty of fine fruit. Now, as Judge Buel consid- 

 ers his trees to be thus diseased, from the elabora- 

 ted sap, and to be most prejudiced in wet seasons, 

 I think I am justified in supposing we botliallude 

 to the same disease, and I shall be haB}gfifthe 

 remedial hint here given, should prove" successful 

 in America. ROBERT CAMELL, M. D. 



Bungay, Sept. 20, 18.33. 



The Wire Worm. — A writer for an English pa- 

 per, called the Country Times, states in suljstance, 

 that he has ascertained by repeated ex|)eriments on 

 a large scale, that by raising a drilled and hoed 

 crop of white mustard seed on a field infested by 

 the wire-worm, and keeping the ground clean by 

 hoeing, the insect may he extirpated. 



The conductor of the Gardener's Magazine, 

 says, " The reason seems to be, that the wire-worm 

 cannot eat the roots ofthe mustard, most probably 

 from their acridity ; and there being no other 

 roots in the soil for them to live on, and no weeds 

 or other plants than mustard, permitted to grow 

 during the season, the insects necessarily die of 

 famine." 



