128 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



brought to a reservoir wherein they were enriched 

 with old lime, ashes, manure, etc. "Twice a week," 

 to use his own words, "I let it run, thus impregnated." 

 Also he explains that he regularly spreads "on this 

 ground, old hay, straw and whatever damaged fodder 

 I have about my barn." Under this system his land 

 was remarkably fruitful, at which those who had 

 known it before he developed it, marveled greatly. 



A popular flower of to-day came to America, it 

 would seem, through his hands, for in 1735 a letter 

 from P. Collinson in England contains this interest- 

 ing paragraph; "The China Aster is the noblest and 

 finest plant thee ever saw of that tribe. It was sent 

 per the Jesuits from China to France; from thence to 

 us; it is an annual. Sow it in rich mould immedi- 

 ately" (the letter dated February 12 would reach 

 Bartram about the first of April, under favorable con- 

 ditions), "and when it has half a dozen leaves, trans- 

 plant in the borders." 



Gardens were of course growing common by this 

 time, and nearly every writer of either a journal or 

 travels has something to say about them. Several 

 places are mentioned by Brissot, who journeyed about 

 here in the year 1788. One item tells of a visit to 

 "the country house of Mr. Temple Franklin. He is 

 the grandson of the celebrated Franklin. . . . 

 His house is five miles from Burlington, on a sandy 



