888 



your most indignant protest will not save you from 

 being thrust into a cloud of the vilest kind of 

 tobacco smoke. Our protest at last got us into 

 another car, — but who likes to be frowned on as if 

 opposed to the innocent enjoyments of other peo- 

 ple? In short, one who "does not like to com- 

 plain" had better not travel this road. The road 

 winds along rivers and creeks the ^hole way to 

 Columbus. Cross creek, the Conelton, the Still- 

 water, one of the feeders of the Tuscarawas, which 

 is a branch of the Muskingum with which it unites 

 at Coshocton. 



The elevated, and in many cases rocky banks of 

 these streams are clothed with oak, maple and 

 other trees, but which do not grow to any thing 

 near the height or diameter of the same kinds ii, 

 Pennsylvania or further west. The hemlock and 

 pine were very small, but this is natural for them 

 at getting below their natural latitude, But the 

 buttonwoods and elms along the creek bottoms 

 were mere pigmies, instead of being as they should 

 be in favorable soils, amongst the monarch of the 

 arboreal world. 



Wheat had been grown largely in the past, but 

 this had been in great part abandoned, and the 

 country generally given up to sheep or cattle rais- 

 ing. 



Improved farms along this part of the route 

 brought about $50 or $75 per acre, if within one 

 mile of the railroad, but beyond that they ranged 

 at mere "nominal" rates. 



There are a few coal openings along the route, 

 but beyond this little enterprise-^no fruit trees, live 

 fences, improved far n buildings, comfortable dwel- 

 ling-houses, or any thing to indicate that a live 

 people lived there, — while the water-power rolls 

 its wort less life away to the ocean, and yet mur- 

 muring to every passer by that it wished to be made 

 use of. 



Coshocton shows more horticultural enterprise, — 

 and onward to Columbus every thing seems more 

 prosperous. Immense crops of corn and sorghum 

 covered the rich sandy plains through which, along 

 the river routes, the railroad passes. Enterprise 

 had, however, an early start in this direction. 

 Many years since a Virginian, disheartened by 

 prospects at home, freed all his slaves and settled 

 in these parts, devoting all his wealth to agricul- 

 ture on a large scale, and the development of in- 

 dustral enterprise. The Black Run Canal, Adams' 

 Mills and other well known improvements along 

 this section shows what one intelligent and deter- 

 mined man can do. 



Arrivmg at Columbus, we set ourselves at once 



to explore the horticulture of the place. To every 

 enquiry where we should see the best gardening, 

 we received from the citizens the one universal an- 

 swer," Hanford's," so to Hanford's we went. What 

 we learned there we will tell further next month. 



HORTICULTURAL PATENTS. 



So many inquiries reach us as to what is the 

 "Griffiths Patent" for propagating grape vines, 

 that in another column we give the whole matter 

 entire. It will be seen that it is substantially the 

 same as Mr. Barnett's idea, namely, that the dis- 

 covery of successfully getting out roots before the 

 buds burst is a novelty for the knowledge of which 

 the public should pay these gentlemen handsomely. 



It is a very remarkable circumstance that all these 

 "new discoveries" come from those whose horticul- 

 tural experience is a recent formation, and yet it is 

 not perhaps remarkable for it is just from this class 

 that such novelties may be expected. After awhile 

 they find "the more they learn the less they know. " 

 The using of a mulch over cuttings during the win- 

 ter is of universal practice. The idea has been that 

 it prevented the cuttings from being thawed out, 

 and kept down changes of temperature until the 

 regular spring time came. Mr. Gr., takes the same 

 facts, but attempts another explanation, which is 

 just asunphilosphic as the practice is stale. If the 

 theory had been the object of the patent, instead o^ 

 the practice, no one could object to its novelty. 



We rather suspect, however, that friend Griffiths 

 whom we believe to be a very amiable and clever 

 gentleman, has himself no intention of claiming any- 

 thing from the patent. He cannot possibly believe 

 that a principle and a pri.ctice, which have been 

 well understood by every professional propagator 

 for generations, originated with him. We prefer 

 to suppose that it is merely a specimen of advertising 

 of a "flanking" character, which those who under- 

 stand the science of advertising know well how to 

 employ. A "Patent" or any similar movement will 

 often get one prominently before the public, much 

 better than the heaviest "front" attack in regular 

 advertising way would do. Mr. Griffiths, for instance, 

 might never have been honored by anEditorial notice 

 in these pages,butfor this tactical skill ; and for this 

 we give him full credit, if we cannot do so for the 

 novelty of his patent. 



