120 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



round, though they are sad ones." Evidently round 

 pales or pickets were very little to his liking, for some 

 reason or other! 



The nineteenth of the third month, 1685, he writes, 

 "I like all thou hast sent me, I hope they go on with 

 the houses and the gardens and let them finish all 

 that which is built as fast as they can. . . . Let 

 Ralph this fall get twenty young poplars of about 18 

 inches round, beheaded to twenty feet, to plant in the 

 walk below the steps to the water." Two months 

 later, "tell Ralph I must depend on his perfecting his 

 gardens — ^hay dust" (seed*?) "from Long Island, such 

 as I sowed in my courtyard, is the best for our fields. 

 I will send divers seeds for gardens and fields. About 

 the house may be laid out into fields and grass which 

 is sweet and pleasant." Three months go by and then 

 he writes, "I hear poor Ralph is dead. Let Nicholas 

 then follow it diligently and I will reward him. 

 . . . . By this ship I purpose to send some haws, 

 hazle-nuts, walnuts, garden seeds, &c." 



Another letter says, "I would have Nicholas have 

 as many roots and flowers next spring by transplant- 

 ing them out of the woods, as he can." This bit of 

 direction is especially interesting as being the first evi- 

 dence of the use, in any garden, of the wild native 

 flowers which grew in such profusion. Penn appre- 

 ciated the beauty of these so keenly, however, upon 



