1849. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



217 



HORTICULTURAL MATTERS IN CANADA. 



A short time ago we made a journey across Lake 

 Ontario and down the St. Lawrence to Lower Can- 

 ada, and intended to notice Borne interesting matters 

 that attracted our attention at the various towns we 

 visited by the way. Indeed, we had notes pretty 

 fully written out for the last number, but they were 



necessarily set aside: now many of them are out ol 

 season, and we can only e\traet a portion. We 



cannot omit Baying that a more delightful mid-sum- 

 mer trip than this cannot be made. The St, Law- 

 rence pr< sents such an exciting and charming variety. 



At one place, it is broad and placid, like a calm lake 

 — at another, narrow and fearfully rapid. In one 

 place it seems to he carrying you through an old and 

 populous country — houses, gardens and green fields 

 to the very water's edge. In other places the unbro- 

 ken forest only is seen, with a rude canoe, perhaps, 

 darting over the water, and you are then reminded of 

 forest lite. The "Thousand Isles,'' of which every 

 body has heard, are alone worth a visit. They are 

 not rocky, forbidding looking islands, but spots of 

 delightful, refreshing verdure, like the outskirts of a 

 well kepi park. 



At Kingston we noted many interesting things. 

 It is unfavorably situated for gardening purposes; 

 generally speaking, the ground is rocky and unge- 

 nial, hut on the road leading along the lake shore, 

 win re most of the Government offices and institu- 

 tions are located, there aro many gentlemen's resi- 

 dences kept in elegant order. Here we saw some as 

 fine thorn hedges as we have any where seen in 

 America. Three miles out in this direction we 

 visited the residence of the present collector of the 

 port, Jas. Hopkirk, Esq., who is well known as 

 quite an enthusiast in gardening matters. The 

 management of his place might serve well as a 

 model for many. Some five or six years ago he 

 purchased this place — 20 acres of land, and an old, 

 dilapidated frame dwelling. The ground about the 

 house, and between the house and street, was a bare 

 rock — not a tree had been planted; the whole afi'air, 

 judging from a drawing made by Mr. II., presented 

 the most dreary and forbidding aspect. Now, that 

 bare rock is a very pretty plantation of forest trees, 

 and a lawn, through which the carriage road leads 

 to the house. The soil which covers the rock was 

 taken from other places, where excavations were 

 necessary, and was done gradually with the ordinary 

 help of the farm. The trees were mostly taken from 

 the woods, of large size, but so carefully that all 

 have grown well, and look like a plantation of some 

 twelve or fifteen years growth. The dwelling has 

 been remodeled. An old verandah is converted into 

 a green-house, now well stocked with plants; several 

 additions have been made to it, and all around are 

 cheap and simple rustic verandahs, the pillars of which 

 are garnished with climbing plants of various sorts. 

 In addition to the verandahs of the house are several 

 little arbors, erected for comfortable promenades in 

 hot weather, as well as for protection to plants that 

 require it. Mr. II. showed us a drawing made by 

 himself, of the place as it now is, and it really was a 

 pretty picture; and all this has been accomplished by 

 the simplest and cheapest means, and this it was that 

 chiefly struck us. With less taste it would have 

 cost a vast sum of money to have worked such beauty 

 and comfort out of a very desert. There are thou- 

 sands of persons all over the country, who might, at 



the cost of a lew days or weeks work, ell'ecl Wonder- 

 ful change in their residences, and such changes as 



would give themselves greal satisfaction and be the 

 means of inculcating a taste for the beautiful in their 



la in I lies. 



Montreal. — The land around this city, unlike 

 that in the neighborhood of Kingston, is very fertile 

 and well adapted to gardening: indeed, the island <>n 

 which Montreal is situated, formed bj the Si. Law- 

 rence and Ottawa rivers, has been usually called the 



"Garden «f Canada." There are Bome fine gardens 

 about the city, those of private gentlemen, at well as 

 those connected with the religious institul 

 naries, be.; but gardening has hern greatly retarded 



by the continued agitation of violent opposing politi- 

 cal parties. Hundreds of gentlemen have, from year 

 to year, been deterred from carrying out their desired 

 and contemplated improvements. A Horticultural 

 Society was recently organized, and we believe is 

 tolerably well sustained. At the time of our visit, 

 vegetation was suffering from a severe drouth. Be- 

 hind the city there is a mountain, some 500 feet high 

 or upwards, and a drive around this mountain is 

 really delightful; no stranger can with propriety 

 dispense with it. The view' from its summit is 

 extremely grand and picturesque — a charming pano- 

 rama. There you look down on the whole city and 

 suburbs, with its many glittering roofs and spires; 

 and see the St. Lawrence ior miles above and below 

 the city. You see many villages on the other side 

 of the river; and, away, far in the distance, the 

 mountains of Vermont. and the northern part of this 

 State. Around the base of this mountain, the chief 

 improvements in the way of gardening seem to be 

 going on. Several gentlemen of taste have erected 

 themselves dwellings here, and many others are now 

 building, so that in a lew years the fine situations 

 that are now lying unoccupied will be covered with 

 suburban dwellings and rich gardens. Nature seems 

 to have intended the place for such purposi 



An acquaintance of ours, Robert McKay, Esq., 

 who has just completed an elegant and commodious 

 residence here, and has his grounds already in fine 

 order, informed us that the top of his terrace in front 

 of his house was 30 feet higher than the towers of 

 the Cathedral, which are 220 feet high. Mr. McKay 

 is a sort of pioneer in this mountain settlement. His 

 friends wondered what he meant when he first talked 

 of building here; but now they know what he meant. 

 They have seen how much of beauty and of comfort 

 he has assembled around him — what a charming 

 prospect and what pure air he enjoys — and they are 

 fast following him. The style and finish of Mr. 

 McKay's house, outside and in — his ground.-, gar- 

 dener's cottage and all, are in excellent taste, and if 

 we had space now to spare, we should speak of them 

 in detail, for the benefit of those who may purpose 

 building or improving. 



J. E. Guilbault, Esq., who has for many years 

 carried on the Gardening and Nursery business in 

 the city, has removed to his farm at Cote de JYcige, 

 over the mountain. He has a fine collection of 

 poultry there, and intends to cultivate trees and 

 plants as heretofore. 



The principal seed business is carried on by Mr. 

 Geo. Sheppard, who has a fine establishment in 

 Notre Dame street, and enjoys largely, as he deserves, 

 the confidence of the public 



Attend to your strawberry beds, this month. 



