1819. 



THE GENESEE PARMER. 



97 



HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



EDITED I'.V P BARRY 



PROGRESS OF HORTICULTURE IN EUROPE. 



That the two months we m j the Gar- 



and Green-h mses of England, France and 

 Belgium were pleasant ones to u-, no on i will doubt. 

 Winter as il was, we found thousands of ran' and 

 beautiful things, the sight of which would repay us 

 for a journey much more tedious ami hazardous than 

 the Ulanti :, even in win- 

 It is somewhat strange that amidst all the revolu- 

 tions and political excitements — all the want and 

 downright starvation — all the fluctuation in commer- 

 cial affairs, thai have for a few years kept European 

 ii nt. bordering on and in many cases 

 ting in actual explosion — HORTICULTURE flour- 

 ishes and that beyond all precedent. At no period 

 in the history of European civilization have horticul- 

 tural pursuits attracted so much public attention. 

 Prom the prince to the humblest peasant we find the 

 len the object of the greatest solicitude. Everv- 

 • a new spirit seems to be awakened — public 

 grounds are being enlarged and improved — collectors 

 are sent at enormous expense to all unfrequented or 

 plored parts of the world, exposing themselves 

 11 manner of hardships and privations to bring to 

 whatever there may be new, curious or beau- 

 Commercial Nursery establishments are ex- 

 tending and multiplying rapidly, and these too, are 

 sending out, on their own account, their collectors to 

 China and California, to South America and the 

 Tropics, in search of new plants to enrich their col- 

 lections. The prices at which new plants are sold 

 is perfectly amazing: for instance, the elegant new 

 Japan Cedar, (Cryptomeria Japonica) two to three 

 feet high, cannot be bought at private sale for less 

 than five guineas ; five feet, and there are few of that 

 size, ten guineas. So with the new and rare Pines 

 and Firs from California, Mexico and India. Plants 

 of many of them 1 to 2 feet in height cannot be 

 bought for less than from 1 to 5 guineas. With 

 Orchideous plants the same; 10, 20 and 50 guineas 

 are common prices for these, and that too at public 

 sale. The same is true of all other new" and rare 

 plants of whatever class or character. 



The production of new flowers, by hybridization, 

 such as Roses, Dahlias, Pseonies, Phloxes, Chrysan- 

 thums, Camelias, fcc, is carried on in the same 

 spirit. Efforts such as have never been previously 

 attempted, are now being made by hundreds of scien- 

 tific and practical men to reduce this most interesting 

 department to a science, and to base it upon compe- 

 tent laws and regulations, and some ably conducted 

 journals are solely devoted to its advancement. 



In the culture of fruits there is no less interest. In 

 all the English horticultural journals no topic at the 

 present moment is more frequently discussed, or calls 

 forth more experiment and investigation than the 

 culture of fruits. The. formation of fruit borders, 

 manures, composition of the soil, exposure, pruning 

 and training, are continually discussed with as much 

 interest and animation as if they were entirely new 

 subjects. So it is in respect to the construction and 

 heating of houses, pits, &c., for the shelter and 

 growth of plants, and for the protection and forcing 

 of fruits and vegetables. 



The quality of particular varieties of fruits is also 

 attracting unusual attention. Gardeners who never 

 before thoughl of inquiring whether their fruits were 



Correctly named or not, Or whether they had any 

 names, are diligently comparing and testing, appTOV- 



nd rejecting. Nurserymen, particularly on the 

 Continent, who have grown trees for .air' for fifty 

 . . without seeing their fruit, and who did not 

 know by sight hall a dozen varieties of the hun 

 in tin : rue, are just planting specimen orch- 



ards to test them, and are beginning to read, i 



□ ftes and memorandums as to quality, 



growth, he 1 was astonished to find in SOT 

 the oldest Belgian and French nurseries specimen 

 grounds neither so extensive nor so mature as our 

 own, and in many just a beginning. Heretofore 

 they have considered it their business just to grow 

 the trees. In a celebrated Belgian horticultural 

 establishment, where an immense fruit Catalogue is 

 annually published, and the proprietor of which has 

 been generally supposed a pomologist, we found not 

 a single tree, nor does the proprietor know half a 

 dozen fruits probably of all that are cultivated. Land 

 we were told had just been purchased for a nursery, 

 and some trees planted last autumn. And yet we 

 have seen a nurserymen in this state take especial 

 pains to advertise that his trees were procured from 

 this source. All the trees ever sent by that estab- 

 lishment to this country were purchased from less 

 noted and equally ill-informed growers. This pur- 

 chasing of ignorant, irresponsible parties, did well 

 enough in times past; but lately got him into great 

 trouble, and has fairly compelled him to grow trees 

 and study pomology. 



The only men to be found, having a critical know- 

 ledge of fruits and fruit trees, such as every well-in- 

 formed nurseryman in America already possesses r 

 were the directors of the fruit department in the pub- 

 lic gardens, such as the London Horticultural So- 

 ciety's, the Jardin des Plants at Paris, Rouen, 

 Brussels, fee, and a few enthusiastic amateurs. 

 The growers of trees did not aspire to be pomologists; 

 and here is the great cause of the thousand and one 

 blunders tuey have made, and have compelled their 

 kind customers in America to make. But they have 

 now woke up; and here I must say that the Ameri- 

 can trade has exercised a very beneficial influence 

 upon them. Indeed, they have been compelled by 

 their American customers to commence the inves- 

 tigation and correction of their numerous and long 

 standing errors. Year after year they have been 

 censuring them for mistakes and explaining their 

 nature to them. Orders upon orders have been sent 

 out for particular varieties, and these to be positinly 

 correct — in many cases the purchaser going into a 

 a minute description of the fruit as well as trie tree, 

 in order to enable them to send the genuine article. 

 This has naturally led to the course which we rind 

 now very generally adopted, of forming specimen 

 grounds, and testing varieties as we do here. Ameri- 

 can nurserymen, therefore, may claim the credit of 

 setting men, who are greatly their seniors in culti- 

 vation, right in this the most important branch of 

 their business. In future, more reliance can be 

 placed upon the correctness of what we receive 

 from them. 



In the culture and management of trees, and par- 

 ticularly garden trees, we have much to learn from 

 the Continental gardeners. It is in Belgium and 

 France we can study how to grow many trees in 



