1 84 Notes and Gleanings. 



cultivator, such stock as this could only find a parallel in Patent-office importa- 

 tions under the old regii/ie. 



It was, as I understand it, to put a stop to such unprincipled foreign specjla- 

 tion, as well as for other reasons, that, in response to a petition from some of our 

 nursery-men and tree-growers, Congress, a few years since, imposed the thirty- 

 per-cent duty which it is now proposed to repeal. The advantage of this im- 

 post has been manifest. It has acted as a check upon the selfish interests of 

 those importers who were flooding the country with worthless trash, and led 

 them to seek articles of real value, on which they could afford to pay the duty, 

 and which they could sell at prices both remunerative and reasonable. 



Another valuable result from the impost has been to develop the resources of 

 our own country, by the home production of certain kinds of stock which were 

 formerly obtained almost wholly by importation. Witness the large increase in 

 the culture and sale of home-grown evergreens, which have been produced in 

 immense quantities within the past few years by growers in the West, exhibit- 

 ing capabilities of our soil and climate which might never have been realized 

 had not the increased duty price of the imported stock led our enterprising cul- 

 tivators to develop home resources for the cheaper production of a better article. 

 See also the marked advance in the home-culture of fruit and forest tree seed- 

 lings ; which have always been a most prominent article of importation, but are 

 now produced on our own soil in largely increasing quantities from year to year, 

 and with the most promising and satisfactory success. Who can question but 

 that, in this respect, the duty has given a most effectual impulse to the progress 

 of our horticulture ? and who could doubt but that a continuance of the present 

 tariff would tend most surely to encourage and foster the healthful enterprises 

 which it called into operation ? 



From the limited experience we have had, it would seem, that, far from acting 

 as a prohibition, the present duty has proved a most salutary incentive and en- 

 couragement to all judicious and desirable importations ; while, at the same time, 

 it has protected our honest dealers in this branch of trade by shielding them from 

 unprincipled competition, and protected some of the best interests of our horti- 

 culture by closing up a broad avenue for the inroads of undesirable and worth- 

 less products, and leading planters to look for their stock to safe and reliable 

 sources. Old Castle. 



Geneva, N.Y., Aug. 12, 1868. 



[We publish willingly the above communication from our correspondent, and, 

 as it is a subject upon which much maybe said on both sides, invite discussion.] 



Fruits ix Florida. — Piitnam County., Fla. — Before the war, the lands 

 of this county were not much cultivated. The hummock-lands were not suited 

 to the growth of cotton, and the agricultural interests were confined mainly to 

 stock-raising. Since the war, however, a new system of agriculture has been 

 introduced ; and the attention of our people is now directed to the culture of 

 fruits and vegetables, particularly upon the lands bordering on the St. John's 

 River. The other lands remain in about the same condition as before the war. 

 The culture of vegetables for the early Northern markets is a new experiment, 



