State of Gardening in Ireland. 261 



ready for taking up. Some have a few beans and white pease, 

 and others a small plot of onions, leeks, and carrots. In short, 

 the whole garden is constantly under crop, and parts of it often 

 carry two crops in the year ; the ground which carried potatoes 

 being generally digged and planted with Scotch or curled kail, 

 as fast as the potatoes are removed. Under these circum- 

 stances, a kitchen-garden is of immense benefit to a Scottish 

 family, especially when the owner has a taste for dressing it 

 sufficiently, of which the farm servants in Scotland are seldom 

 destitute. Indeed, a Scotchman obtains from his garden what 

 an Englishman, in his case, commonly seeks at the ale-house. 

 In this respect the fashions of the two countries differ so widely, 

 that it is not easy to say which is best; therefore, without pro- 

 nouncing judgment, the whole shall be left to the determination 



of your readers. , 



1 am, &c. 



Berwickshire, 4>th March, 1826. Verus. 



The description of papers alluded to by Verus we consider 

 as perfectly suitable, and we invite our readers, and especially 

 our much esteemed friend himself, to supply them. They 

 will be particularly interesting to such gardeners as are also 

 Agronomes. — Cond. 



Art. V. On the present State of Gardening in Ireland, 'with 

 Hints for its future Improvement. By Mr. James Fraser, 

 Author of a Letter to the President and Vice-President of 

 the Horticultural Society of Ireland. 



{Continued from No. I. p. 14.) 



Overhanging Merville is Mount Merrion, the residence 



of Verschoyle, Esq., the most conspicuous seat in the 



vicinity of the metropolis. It is interesting as a place of former 

 days, and from the finely-grown trees and evergreens by which 

 it is adorned. The style of the demesne is antique and plain, 

 but the garden has been long remarkable for its excellent pro- 

 ductions under the management of Mr. Egan. This demesne, 

 from its extent, elevated situation, and large ornamental trees, 

 is susceptible of much improvement ; commanding a full view 

 of the town, the bay, and the mountains ; looking down on 

 the innumerable villas, rising in all the endless variety of 

 architectural design, with which the environs of Dublin are so 

 thickly studded, and forming, as it were, one of the principal 

 features in the landscape of the smaller residences south of 

 the city. While in this neighbourhood we will notice Ann- 

 field, the villa of Dr. Percival, in the management of which 

 this venerable physician emploj^s his few leisure moments. 



