No. 8. 



PrQ2;ress of Horticulture in Indiana. 



237 



covered with stones, that there was not an 

 acre in the whole tract which seemed capa- 

 ble of being- successfully cultivated ; and 

 though formerly occupied by enterprising- 

 farmers, it had long been abandoned. A 

 homestead which they had built was in 

 ruins, and the barns and sheds in the last 

 stage of decay. Upon this unpromising^ 

 farm M. Ferrus fixed, and by the end of 

 1832, several of the Bicetre patients were 

 set to work to enclose about ten acres of the 

 least barren portion. This enclosure was 

 cleared and levelled with such success, that 

 its first year's produce was sold for about 

 Xo7, nearly ten pounds more than the an- 

 nual rent of the entire farm. Encouragec 

 by this result, M. Ferrus applied to the ad 

 ministration des hospiteaux to have the pa- 

 tients transferred from the Bicetre altoge 

 ther, that they might live entirely on the 

 farm. The ruined house and the want of 

 funds at head-quarters applicable to its re- 

 pair, seemed at first powerful objections to 

 this measure; but M. Ferrus, having good 

 ■woikmen at his command, overcame them. 

 He got the government to supply tools — as 

 it had previously done for the farming ope- 

 rations — the homestead was soon put into a 

 habitable stale by those for whose occupation 

 it was designed, and in 1635 was tenanted 

 by a number of the insane. The farm was 

 now regularly organized ; an experienced 

 agriculturist, M. Beguin, was engaged to 

 direct and superintend the operations of the 

 labourers; the whole of the land belonging 

 to the estate was taken into the original 

 enclosure, and each succeeding year has 

 been crowned with not only an increase of 

 agricultural produce, but with an increase 

 in the list of cures amongst the patients. 

 The only inconvenience the managers of 

 the farm have to contend with, arises from 

 any accidental want of employment which 

 may happen. So anxious are the majority 

 of the unfortunates for work, that they be- 

 come troublesome when they do not obtain 

 it. This was most felt in -winter, when 

 farminjj operations are for a time suspended ; 

 but to fill up this blank space, the farmers of 

 St Anne are annually set to bleach the 

 whole of the linen used in the two hospitals; 

 a task which they perform clieerfully and 

 well, saving to those establishments up- 

 wards of £400 pounds per annum. 



Besides the excellent efl^ects which have 

 been produced on those patients employed 

 and residing on the St. Anne farm, it has 

 been found of the utmost benefit to less con- 

 valescent inmates of the insane hospitals, 

 By allowing ihem, at first, to see the others 

 at work, they scon get a desire to join in it, 

 which, when the medical officers deem them 



well enough, they are allowed to do. In 

 short, the'eflccts of such a healthful em- 

 ployment as that necessary to the culture of 

 land, has been found of the utmost benefit 

 to all classes of insane patients. The suc- 

 cess of the French farm will, we trust, en- 

 courage the directors of our native lunatic 

 asylums to adopt similar methods of cure; 

 which, properly managed, appear to be as 

 profitable as they are efficacious. — Cham- 

 bers'' Journal. 



From Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture. 

 Progress of Horticulture in Indiana. 



By the Rev. H. W. Beecher, Indianapolis, Indiana. 



The Horticultural Society's Fair is held 

 annually, on the 4th and 5th of October. 

 Experience has shown that it should be 

 earlier; for, although a better assortment 

 of late fruits, in which, hitherto, we have 

 chiefly excelled, is secured, it is at the ex- 

 pense of small fruits and flowers. The 

 floral exhibition was meagre — the frost hav- 

 ing already visited and despoiled oar gar- 

 dens. The chief attraction, as, in an agri- 

 cultural community, it must long continue 

 to be, was the exhibition of fruit. My re- 

 collection of New England fruits, after an 

 absence of more than ten years, is not dis- 

 tinct; but my impression is, that so fine a 

 collection of fruits could scarcely be shown 

 there. The luxuriance of the peach, the 

 plum, the pear and the apple, is such, in 

 this region, as to afford the most perfect 

 possible specimens. The vigor of fruit 

 trees, in such a soil and under a heaven so 

 congenial, produces fruits which are very 

 large without being coarse-fleshed; the fla- 

 vor'' concentrated, and the colour very high. 

 It is the constant remark of emigrants from 

 the east, that our apples surpass those to 

 which they have been accustomed. Many 

 fruits which I remember in Connecticut as 

 light-coloured, appear with us almost reful- 

 gent. All summer and early fall apples 

 were gone before our exhibition ; but be- 

 tween seventy and a hundred varieties of 

 winter apples were exhibited. We never 

 expect to see finer. Our most popular win- 

 ter apples are: Yellow Bellflower; White 

 Belifiower; [called Detroit by the gentle- 

 men of Cincinnati Horticultural Society, — 

 but for reasons which are not satisfactory to 

 my mind. What has become of the White 

 Bellflower of Coxe, if this is not iti] New- 

 town Spitzenberc-, exceedingly fine with us; 

 Canfield, Jennetin or Neverfail, escaping 

 spring frosts by late blossoming, very hardy, 

 a gre'at bearer every year; the fruit comes 

 into eating in February, is tender, juicy, 



