208 Notices — Australasia. 



bear fruit, good or bad, is the same to him. His son has planted a con- 

 siderable orchard (about six acres) and has taken the pains to graft the best 

 kind of apples he could procure. I have also forwarded by this conveyance 

 half a dozen trees in a box, viz. two of No. . two of No. . and two of a 

 seedling apple, which was reared by Mr. Gunning, a neighbour of mine ; it 

 has borne only twice, and I unfortunately could not get one to have it 

 painted ; it is a handsome conical shaped fruit, brownish green, and above 

 the medium size, something in the shape like No. . We have twelve or 

 fifteen kinds of seedling apples, of very tolerable sorts, and scores that are 

 worth nothing. I have raised several, but not one I can call decent. 

 Another year I may be able to send you a greater variety, and better speci- 

 mens, as the last summer was so excessively hot and dry, the fruit did not 

 swell to its proper size. 



You will probably expect to have a description of the state of Horticul- 

 ture in Van Diemen's Land, but when I tell you, that I do not know one 

 scientific gardener in all our importations {to the credit of the craft), you 

 must think we make but a poor show. The gardener which I have is by 

 trade a Leicestershire stocking weaver, but. a very clever fellow with a 

 spade or a hoe, and can observe any directions I may give him. All plants 

 of the brassica tribe are grown in great perfection, as are all root 

 crops. Peas and kidney beans are very prolific, but commoq garden 

 beans are very bad bearers : the white blossomed bean is the best, 

 but that hardly worth cultivating. Onions grow well, particularly the 

 potatoe onion, and in this climate we can rear any quantity of onion seed, 

 which cannot be done in New South Wales. We want varieties, the 

 Globe and the Strasburg. It is now upwards of twenty-four years since I 

 saw an asparagus bed in England, and not being then much accustomed to 

 a garden, my recollection of one may not be very good, but I cannot con- 

 ceive any thing of the kind can be superior to what we can show here. I 

 durst almost challenge Mr. Judd. Sea kale grows very luxuriantly here, but 

 is too troublesome (we have no potteries), and it does not precede the 

 asparagus above a week. Of fruits, we have apples, pears (only two kinds), 

 quinces, gooseberries a few varieties, currants, raspberries, strawberries; 

 these last do not bear well, all the others most abundantly ; grapes bear 

 well, and ripen tolerably in good situations, also peaches and nectarines; 

 of the last we have only one kind : I certainly never saw finer in New 

 South Wales ; they are very large, and deep blood red; only one plum, a 

 kind of green gage; cherries, two kinds, the small Kentish, and May duke ; 

 they bear most abundantly. We have imported no apricots until the last 

 year or two, when Mr. Frazer, the colonial botanist at Sydney, sent me a 

 few scions of the Moor Park, but there are several bearing trees in the 

 colony, reared from stones : I do not think they are worth much, but 

 might be improved by proper culture. I do not know whether you will 

 give credit to what I am about to relate, but the farmer who reared the 

 apples positively asserts, that after eating a peach in his garden, he imme- 

 diately planted the stone, which has produced a nectarine ; I shall ascertain 

 the fact, if possible, the next summer : from what I read in Loudon's En- 

 cyclopaedia of Gardening, I should conceive it not impossible. 



It gives me great pleasure in having an opportunity, direct from this 

 port, of sending this, and should you consider it worth your perusal and 

 acceptance, I shall be still more gratified, and in return, may I request you 

 to procure me a couple of sacks of the best kind of potatoes, for a general 

 crop, which Captain Carnes, of the ship Cumberland, will bring out to me. 

 I should have requested him to execute this commission, but he might 

 be imposed on by an old worn-out sort. Our potatoes are all gone that 

 were good for any thing, and though we have reared a good many from 

 seed, yet we have not what I call a good kind ; they may improve another 

 year. 



