European Agriculture and Rural Economy. 425 



filled with the choicest varieties of flowering shrubs and plants, are at the 

 side of, and immediately accessible to the drawing-rooms of the houses, fur- 

 nishing, besides the most beautiful objects of sight, an attractive recreation 

 and delight to the female members of the household, and a refreshing re- 

 treat from the dissipations of society, or the harassing cares of domestic life. 



The hothouse or greenhouse productions of England (such as pine-apples 

 and grapes, the natives of climates of a higher temperature) are not surpass- 

 ed by any which I have ever tasted. The pines, or pine apples, appear to 

 me in size quite equal, and in flavor superior, to any which I have seen 

 brought directly from their own native region, — for the reason, perhaps, 

 that the latter, as is understood, are gathered in a green state, and are left 

 to ripen on the passage, usually crowded in bulk in the hold of a vessel. 

 The grapes are magnificent in size, and delicious in taste. I cannot say 

 that there are no native grapes, and none growing in the open air ; but I do 

 not recollect meeting with any. It seems to me to be the humidity of the 

 climate of England, rather than its low temperature, which prevents the 

 ripening of many fruits and plants, which can be grown in an equally high 

 latitude on the western continent. It remains to be seen what will be the 

 result of that remarkable system of drainage, which is liere prosecuted in 

 different parts of the country with great spirit and resolution, and which bids 

 fair, as soon as any such great operation can be expected to be effected, to be- 

 come general, if not universal. Its sanatary eflTects upon the human, as 

 well as the brute animal, are said to be already in some places determined. 



The smaller fruits — such as strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and 

 currants — are cultivated with great success. Of a kind of strawberries, 

 called the Alpine Pine, and more properly the Elton Pine, the size is 

 most remarkable, ten of them, as I saw in the market of Dundee, where 

 they are cultivated in perfection, actually weighing a pound avoirdupois. I 

 saw others as large at the horticultural exhibitions, called by a different 

 name ; but those were forced in pots in greenhouses. 



The gooseberries which I have seen on private tables, and in the markets, 

 are of a very extraordinary size, the purple varieties being preferred. I can- 

 not learn that they are as much subject as in New England, to a species of 

 mildew, or bluish mould, which soon becomes black, and ruins the fruit. 

 Here they are always cultivated upon a single stem, in the form of a small 

 tree, kept trimmed high, and entirely clear of all rubbish or weeds at the 

 bottom. The disease, or blight, to which I refer, is not unknown here, but 

 it is not common ; and the fruit is grown in the highest perfection. This 

 disease may come from an unhealthy condition of the soil, or the applica- 

 tion of improper manure ; but the general and most probable conclusion is, 

 that it is atmospherical. It has appeared to me that the climate of England, 

 where they have far less sunshine, and much more dampness, than in the 

 Northern United States, does not produce mould in the houses upon plate, 

 furniture and books, so soon as it does with us, and provisions, both raw 

 and cooked, appear "to keep sweet" longer. I do not undertake to give 

 any scientific reason for this ; but it seems probable, that it arises from a 



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