Notices. — North America. 329 



serted in a plum-stock close to the ground, are eight feet high, and one of 

 them has an almond set upon it. 



Wild plums are very ahundant with us, and some of them very good, 

 different from any I ever before tasted, the pulp of them leaving the skin as 

 freely as a gooseberry, to which they also bear some resemblance in taste. 

 We have filberts, Barcelona nuts, and walnuts, in the nursery, but not in 

 bearing. Of all the nuts, seeds, &c. which came from England with the 

 trunk, not one has vegetated. Should you send any more, pack them 

 in sugar, which I understand to be the best preservative. [No. See 

 Mr. Lindley's directions, p. 535.] Of pears we have specimens of the 

 best varieties; but not being able to procure pear pips, we have been 

 obliged to graft and bud them upon apple- stocks. They have shot very 

 vigorously the first year, but whether they will continue to thrive remains 

 to be seen. I come now to the apple ; the fruit, after all, of the greatest 

 importance. All the orchards hitherto planted, to which common at- 

 tention has been paid, thrive remarkably well. The first, which was 

 planted in the Spring of 1818, has now trees in it large enough to bear fruit 

 sufficient to make a barrel of cyder each; but, with the exception of about 

 five acres of Mr. Pell's orchard, and some trees of mine, are the only apples 

 yet planted from seed. We have a good selection - of the best kinds in the 

 nursery, particularly three of the best sorts of the celebrated Newark cyder 

 apples, of which, and some others, I mean to train about 200 trees, to plant 

 five acres adjoining the south side of my garden fence. This situation is ex- 

 ceedingly well adapted for an orchard, and if properly attended to, there is 

 no doubt there will be one there, to which very few, if any, will be superior. 

 You will by this time, perhaps, think I have said quite enough upon the 

 subject of fruit trees ; I shall now quit it, and, after giving you a short ac- 

 count of our method of budding and grafting here, proceed to that of vege- 

 tables. In budding we differ from the manner which used to be practised in 

 the " old country," in not extracting any part of the wood from the bud, 

 but inserting it in the stock in the same state in which it was cut from the 

 shoot. In grafting we get rid of the disagreeable operation of claying, by 

 putting on the graft close to the root of the stock, and earthing it up after. 

 This mode we find so successful, that not one bud or graft in twenty-five fails. 

 When I came here I heard of no one who understood budding. I taught 

 Mr. Pell, but the method of inserting the bud without taking out the wood 

 was his own discovery ; not being able to assign any satisfactory reason for 

 so doing, he omitted it, and the result proving successful we have since 

 continued the practice. 



But now to the subject of vegetables. You will see some put down in 

 the plan of which you know nothing but the name, and one, the ochra, 

 of which before you perhaps have not even heard. We cultivate this plant 

 chiefly as a substitute for coffee, to which it is little inferior ; it is also used 

 in its unripe state in soups, like green peas. The seed is about the size of 

 a small pea, and grows in a singular kind of pod, to which I know nothing 

 similar. The flower bears a resemblance to the cotton and the althea, and 

 is very ornamental. It is a large spreading plant, very productive, and 

 should stand, at least, four feet apart. 



The Lima, or butter-bean, is a very fine vegetable ; it grows like a scar- 

 let-runner, *and requires poles ; it is used like the broad bean in England, 

 which it resembles in shape, is not so large, quite white, and is very 

 good in its dry state, as well as its green. I prize this bean much, and it 

 makes ample amends for the want of the Windsor bean, which does not suit 

 this climate. I have tried it more than once, but never could get more than 

 the seed again ; whereas the Lima is exceedingly productive. The sweet 

 potatoe is another plant which requires a warmer climate than yours to 

 bring it to perfection. This is a species of convolvulus, and resembles what 



