No. 216.] 49 



lime is spent in testing their correctness, and the results of his study 

 are often far from satisfactory, even to himselfj whereas the tillage 

 of the soil invigorates man's mental as well as his bodily powers, 

 and elicits more deep science, and more observation, and more 

 general acquaintance with Nature, whose laws cannot be violated 

 with impunity, than any other pursuit in life 



It should be borne in mind that the products of our fields, and 

 gardens are natives of all the various climates and soils of the earth, 

 each requiring its peculiar aliment. How preposterous, then, the 

 expectations of people in general to raise whatever they may fancy, 

 without reference to soil, season, or other important considerations. 

 Such plants as require heat, will grow best in hot summer weather, 

 while those vegetables whose most essential nutriment is moisture, 

 must in cold climates, be raised either in the spring or autumn, and 

 in our Southern States in the winter. Our object should, therefore, 

 be to improve the various seasons as they pass, in the cultivation of 

 such productions as can be brought nearest to perfection, in what- 

 ever situation we may be placed. 



I have been led to the discussion of this subject from the efforts of 

 zealous and patriotic theorists to introduce productions of tropical 

 climates into our gardens as substitutes for the potato. As well might 

 we expect to see the fields of England waving W'ith Indian corn or 

 cotton, as to witness the plants indigenous to tropical climates, attain 

 perfection in the variable temperature of the Eastern and Middle 

 States of North America. 



The effect of climate cannot be better demonstrated than in the 

 growth of the turnip, which requires great moisture for its perfection. 

 As an instance: Mr. R. Rowley, of Hastings, Weschestcr county, 

 exhibited at the Fair, four turnips averaging twenty inches in circum- 

 ference, being one-third larger than the same variety generally at- 

 tains in this country, and which were regarded as giants by many a 

 visitor; but they were dwarfs, when compared with the turnips 

 grown in the humid fields of "merry England." To evade the laws, 

 poachers have been known to scoop out this vegetable, and to pack a 

 hare, a rabbit, a pheasant, and other prohibited game, in the rind — 

 enough to supply a good round family w'ith an ample repast at the 

 Christmas season, so well depicted by Dickens in his " Cricket on 

 the Hearth.'' Two or three of these turnips mashed, furnish, with 

 caper sauce, sufficient " trimmings" for an English leg of mutton, 



[Am. Ins.J D 



