ME. TUDOR S GARDEN AT NAHANT. 189 



his efforts, we must recall to mind that, frequently, in high winds, 

 the salt spray drives over the whole of Nahant ; that, until Mr. 

 Tudor began his improvements, not even a bush grew naturally on 

 the whole of its area, and that the east winds, which blow from the 

 Atlantic in the spring, are sxifficient to render all gardening possi- 

 bilities in the usual way nearly as chimerical as cultivating the vol- 

 canoes of the moon. 



Mr. Tudor's residence there now, is a curious and striking illus- 

 tration of the triumph of art over nature, and as it involves some 

 points that we think 'most instructive to horticulturists, we trust he 

 will pardon us for drawing the attention of our readers ,to it at the 

 present time. Our first visit to his grounds was made in July, 1845, 

 pne of the driest and most unfavorable seasons for the growth of 

 trees and plants that we remember. But at that time, perhaps the 

 best possible one to test the merits of the mode of cultivation 

 adopted, we found Mr. Tudor's garden in a more flourishing condi- 

 tion than any one of the celebrated places about Boston. The 

 average growth of the thriftiest standard fruit-trees about Boston, 

 at that time, was little more than six inches to a foot. In this Na- 

 hant garden it was two feet, and we measured shoots on some of 

 the standard trees three feet in length. By far the largest and finest 

 cherries we tasted that season, were from trees growiiig there ; and 

 there was an apparent health and vigor about every species within 

 its boundary, which would have been creditable any where, but 

 which at Nahant, and in a season so unfavorable, quite astonished us. 



The two strong points in this gentleman's gardening operations 

 at Nahant, appear to us to be the following : First, the employment 

 of screens to break the force of the wind, producing thereby an ar- 

 tificial climate ; and second, the thorough preparation of the soil by 

 trenching land manuring. 



Of course, even the idea of a place worthy of the name of a 

 garden in this bald, sea-girt cape, was out of the question, unless 

 some mode of overcoming the violence of the gales, and the bad 

 effects of the salt spray, could be devised. The plan Mr. Tudor haS' 

 adopted is, w6 believe, original with him, and is at once extremely 

 simple, and perfectly effective. 



It consists merely of two, or at most three, parallel rows of high 



