Vol. 1.— No- 2. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



13 



SUMMER FALLOWS. 

 To summer fallow, sward land is a com- 

 mon practice in this section of country, bat 

 we are convinced from our own observation, 

 that this is not the most economical method. 

 After the crop of wheat, the stubble ground 

 is often planted with corn ; now this is get- 

 ting the cart before the horse Let your 

 sward land be ploughed late in the fall or ear- 

 ly in the spring, and made ready for corn. If 

 the corn is well tended, the grass will all be 

 killed, and the decomposing vegetable matter 

 will furnish its greatest supply of food to the 

 roots, at the time the ears are filling out ; and 

 as a general rule, we get the finest yield of 

 corn from turf ground, although we do not 

 get as large a growth of stalks. This is as it 

 should be, to get the most corn with the least 

 oxpense of soil. The contrary is the case, 

 wben we plant stubble land— we get larger 

 stalks, but less corn, as the greatest quantity 

 of vegetable nutrition, from the decaying turf, 

 is furnished the roots in the fore part of sum- 

 mer and there seems a lack af it at the time 

 the ears are filling out. Itwill eo fbund by obser 

 vation, that corn raised on sward land, where 

 it is well tended, is laways 'more full at the 

 points of the ears, than that raised upon stub- 

 ble land. Again, when sward land is summer 

 fallowed, unless the season is very favorable, 

 the roots of grass are not entirely killed, and 

 it will be found upon examination, that most 

 of the sods which lie upon the surface in the 

 spring after the wheat is sowed, have roots 

 and runners of gi ass leading out from them 

 in every direction, claiming the right of pri- 

 mogeniture, over the wheat, and depriving it 

 of a share of vegetable nuirition ; and it will 

 be found by actual calculation, in many instan- 

 ces, that tbese sods and roots extend over one 

 quarter of the surface; and it is from this cir- 

 cumstance, that many pieces of stubble land 

 produce so much pasturage after the wheat is 

 taken oft', where they have not been seeded 

 with grass or clover ; which sometimes ren- 

 ders the hoeing of the succeeding corn crop 

 more difficult than when it succeeds the sward. 

 When corn is made the first crop, the land is 

 in a state of fallowing all summer ; that is, the 

 hoeing in the fore part of llio season, and the 

 shading from the corn, in the latter part, is as 

 effectual in subduing the roots of the jrass, as 

 summer fallowing would have been, continued 

 Tor the same length of time. By making 

 wheat the second crop, ar.d summer fallowing 

 •he stalk ground, tho subduing process iscon- 

 'inued twice as long as it would have been incase 

 vou had made wheat the first. The breaking 

 up of your stalk ground, does not require as 

 much strength of team, (and team-work at this 

 faintt season of the year, is important,) neither 

 do the after ploughings, as when the crops are 

 reversed. Your grounds become completely 

 subdued, the grass roots nil dead, and such 

 seeds as were in the ground, have had an op-> 

 portunity ta vegetate, and are destroyed, and 

 the whole surface prepared to give nutrition 

 to the wheat alone. It often happens that 

 mowing lands are of prime importance, and 

 tbat a rotation of crops are resorted to as ren- 

 ovators for such lands, and it is desirable to re- 

 turn them to grass as soon as possible after the 

 surface is made fine and smooth. This can 

 fte done by stocking with the wheat ; but SI 



wheat was the first, then corn, it would require 

 a third crop before it could be returned to 

 grass. Now if the farmers will give this a 

 fair trial, they will find that the saving of la- 

 bor will be about one quarter, and the increase 

 in the two crops will be in an inverse latio, or 

 an average gain of twenty-five per cent, over 

 the method commonly practiced for the two 

 crops- 



DOMESTIC HORTICULTURAL SOCIE- 

 TY OF THE WESTERN PART OP NEW YORK. 



This Society was formed at Geneva, 27th 

 November, 1828. and was designed to include 

 the counties of Onondaga, Cayuga, Tompkins, 

 Seneca, Ontario, Yates, Wayne, Livingston, 

 Monroe and Genesee. They held their autum- 

 nal exhibition for 1829, at the village of Lyons, 

 and for 1830, at Geneva. The officers, for the 

 current year, are. 



John Greig, President 



James K. Guernsey, ~) 



William S. De Zeng, 



David Thomas, j Vice 



James Wadsworth, } Presidents. 



Wm. H. Adams, 



Alexander Duncan, J 



Joseph Fellows, Treasurer, 



Myron Holley, Corresponding Sec'y. 



Z. Barton Stout, Recording Sec'y. 

 At their meeting at Geneva, Sept. 28, 1830, 

 the following Address was delivered by Z. Bar- 

 ton Stout, Esq., which we trust will be read 

 with much pleasure by all the friends of Horti- 

 culture. 

 Gentlemen of the Society: 



The progress made, during the two years of 

 the existence of the Domestic Horticultural 

 Society of the Western Part of New York, has 

 been gratifying and encouraging. 



The autumnal exhibition at Lyons, a yoar a- 

 go, of fruits, flowers, and culinary vegetables, 

 was as such might have competed success- 

 fully, with the supplies of the best markets of 

 our oldest cities. The recent summer exhibi- 

 tion at Canandaigua, though the early season 

 had been particularly unfavorable, afforded tin 

 exulting proof «if the triumph c,f horticultural 

 taste and skill. And the various and excellent 

 collection of the " kindly fruits of the earth," 

 brought together to-day shows, that zeal in 

 the cause has not diminished, nor industry re- 

 laxed. 



May wo not therefore conclude, that we are 

 bid to " go on rind prosper;" that the laudable 

 objects had in view in the formation of this So- 

 ciety, are likely to be realized; and that wes- 

 tern New York is becoming, by improvement, 

 what it was evidently designed to be, by na- 

 ture, nml what we have often heard it called, 

 one of the garden spots of the nation. Our 

 social ion has already been honored with the 

 friendly correspondence or' a number of the 

 most distinguished botanists and (horticulturists 

 of the United States. Several of our membprs 

 cultivate gardens, which, for the variety and 

 excellence of their products, would be highly 

 creditable to older countries. It will not be 

 deemed indelicate, now that our respected 

 President is absent with his family in Europe, 

 to recall to your recollection, that while this 

 eouutry was scarcely reclaimed from its wil- 

 derness state, he was distinguished for his taste 

 iH horticulture, as lie has ever been for the a- 

 miable courtesies of social life. Altogether 

 then, our Society has been commenced under 

 favorable auspices, has already been rewarded 

 with flattering encouragements, and has (ob- 

 tained successes, that should stimulate the 

 members to untiring future exertion. 



In the late able address before the Society, 

 at Canandaigua, a common botanioal and ex- 

 perimental garden, to belong to the Society, 

 was spoken of; and on the whole, discourag- 

 ingly — the orator deeming that individual expe- 



riments would belter secure the expected ben- 

 efits. As, owing to the various professions 

 and pursuits of the members, horticulture can 

 have but the occasional attention of most of 

 them, and will be deemed rather an ele»ant 

 and useful recreation, than a business it strikes 

 me, that all the advantages to be derived from 

 experimental culture, will hardly be obtained 

 by such scattered exertions. Much doubtless 

 may be done by the practice and observations 

 of the members, regularly communicated to 

 the Society, at its stated meetings; but the 

 fullest success would be most likely to attend 

 the skillful industry of some competent mem- 

 ber, who would make horticulture his princi- 

 pal study and occupation. The chief reason, 

 probably, why an experimental garden of the 

 Sociejy would not prove all we could wish, is, 

 that it would be a sort of common domain, un- 

 watched by the vigilant eye of private interest. 

 I will, with due reference, suggest to the mem 

 bers a plan, which may afford them the facilities 

 and advantages of a society garden, under the 

 fostering security of individual vigilance : That 

 they create the office of chief gardener to the 

 Horticultural Society; that they select, to fill 

 this office, some member of suitable botanical 

 knowledge and skill, who will engage to make 

 the cultivation of an extensive botanical and 

 experimental garden, his chief business. The 

 members of the Society always to have the pre- 

 ference as purchasers of the various trees, 

 piants, roots and flo'wers, he may have for sale. 

 The Society to engage him its patronage; and 

 the members to furnish him gratis with any 

 rare seeds, plants, &c. that may come into 

 their possession. Such an establishment, situ- 

 ated at, or adjaceut to some one of the villages 

 where our meetings are held, would place the 

 means of improving and ornamenting our pri- 

 vate gardens immediately within our reach, and 

 could not fail to prove of great public utility. 



A garden of this kind has been successfully 

 established near Albany. Several in the vicin- 

 ity of New York are very flourishing. 



The neighborhood of Philadelphia mav boast 

 of a number of beautiful gardens, equal to any 

 in the United States. Landreth's and Bar- 

 tram's are of the kind and for the purposes, I 

 I have been recommending. 



The Woodlands and Lemon Hill are private 

 establishments, on the most tasteful and munif- 

 icent scale. The latter of these, once the 

 country seat of the celebrated Robert Morris, 

 now better known by the appellation of Pratt's 

 ;ardcn, contains a most extensive collection, 

 indigenous and exotic, which is freely submit- 

 ted, by the liberality of the proprietor, to the 

 examination, the study and the enjoyment of all 

 respectable visitors. And crowds avail them- 

 selves of this liberality, enjoying its beauties, 

 with intense delight, 



" Along the blushing borders, bright with dew, 

 And iu the mingled wilderness of flowers." 



Bartram's, the above mentioned, is, perhaps, 

 the very oldest botanic garden in the United 

 Slates. 1: is situated on the right bank of the 

 Schuylkill, a few miles below ihe city, and was 

 begun more than a hundred years ago, by John 

 IWtram the elder. He was early encouraged 

 in his unlerprize by scientific gentlemen in 

 England, membars of the Royal Sooiety, and 

 others ; and Ins garden was the nursery, whence 

 were distributed over the Old world, the pecu- 

 liar vegetables of the New. Bartram, the son. 

 known to the readers of the last generation by 

 his travels in Florida and Georgia, continued 

 through a long life, terminated but a few years 

 ago, to cultivate and improve the garden. His 

 eyes though dimmed with the lapse of more 

 than four score years, brtghteoed, as he once 

 pointed out to me, a stately elm, which, when 

 a small sapling, and he a little boy, he had held 

 for his falher to plant. It had attained the size 

 of forest tree. lie was taking the last steps ol 

 the downhill of life. This garden ha9 long 

 been the improving icsort of the professors an(i 

 students of botany, rhymistry, and materia 

 mediea. Though not so highly and expensive- 



