ROUGH NOTES BY THE WAY. 
S71 
swering for the " humps.'' Perhaps a better dray 
for all purposes cannot be found, than those in 
use in New York. They would be very con- 
venient farming implements. 
ROUGH NOTES BY THE WAY. 
I am astonished as I pass around the country 
and behold how much apathy and total neglect 
there is in the important branches of horticul- 
ture and fruit; and this leads me to a little inci- 
dent I met with the other day while on a visit to 
the house of a friend. He invited me to visit a 
nursery far up on the side of one of the Fish- 
kill Mountains, situated in East Fishkill, about 
eight miles east of Nevvburgh. Mr. Burrows is 
the owner and cultivator of these trees and 
fruits, as well as garden vegetables and flowers, 
well worth the attention of all cultivators of the 
soil. The grounds are situated on the southern 
declivity of a high and rocky mountain. He 
has for sale a large assortment of fruit trees of 
very healthy appearance and but recent growth ; 
and the fruit, peaches in particular, is of the 
finest flavor, and command the highest prices 
of any in the New- York Market. 
The altitude of his location almost perfectly 
secures him from blighting frosts, and at the 
same time matures his crops about ten days la- 
ter than the same varieties mature on the banks 
of the Hudson, in the same latitude, thus afford- 
ing a good market for his early crop while oth- 
ers have entirely disappeared. 
The site of his finest and most productive 
grounds, a few years since, consisted of a stag- 
nant frog pond, ledges of ponderous rocks, bogs, 
and bushes. He planted a lot of peach stones 
at first for his own use, without thinking of go- 
ing into the nursery business. Their fine ap- 
pearance prompted his neighbors to purchase 
them. The second attempt was followed by a 
like demand. This accidental circumstance di- 
rected all his energies toward a nursery. He 
has most admirably succeeded ; and by his indus- 
try and enterprise, has converted the mass of the 
crudest and most forbidding materials that had 
laid for centuries neglected upon the mountain 
top, into gardens of the greatest fertility cover- 
ed with luxuriant trees, shrubbery, and flowers. 
It is a place of considerable resort in the fruit 
season; and while the visitor is refreshed by 
the air, his eye is feasted by the extended view 
of the surrounding country ; and his palate grat- 
ified with the choicest fruit the land produces. 
A single glance at these grounds associates with 
the name of Mr. Burrows the idea of industry, 
skill, and enterprise, very creditable to himself ; 
and his whole plan is an abiding example of 
rewarded perseverance, earnestly inviting oth- 
ers to go into the mountains, or rather on better 
lands, and do likewise. Tradition says that the 
man who first settled on this spot was seized 
upon by the evolves and carried upon the high- 
est peak of the mountain, and on examining 
his bones, they found them too poor to pick, and 
so brought him back again ! Mind 1 do not 
vouch for the truth of this legend. 
Dutchess is a splendid farming district, per- 
haps the best county in the state; but it is sus- 
ceptible of much greater improvement than at 
present. The farms are too large, especially in 
the eastern part of it. High farming and deep 
culture is out of the question, and the paying 
for or reading an agricultural paper is by many 
considered time and money thrown away. Hon- 
orable exceptions to the above are numerous, 
however. In passing a large farm in one of my 
excursions, I found the road strewed with 
weeds, which, on examination, I found to consist 
of wild carrot, Canada thistle, daisy, and snap- 
draggon. Very soon I came to an intelligent 
3'oung man digging and throwing them into the 
middle of the road, to be destroyed by teams 
and carriages passing over them. I inquired 
and 'found he was employed by the owner of 
the farm, who, he said, would allow nothing of 
the kind to grow upon his premises. Well 
would it be for our country if all were like him>. 
Several articles appeared in the Agriculturist a 
few years since upon the injustice of one neigh- 
bor, suffering obnoxious weeds to cast their 
seeds upon the lands of one who is so careful 
to destroy them — it is a trespass of the worst 
kind. 1 am told there is an act in the statute of 
New York making it the duty of the road mas- 
ter to cut up and destroy all obnoxious weeds in 
his district. Is it so ? I wish rather than hope, 
to see the day when all men will do as they 
wish others to do by them. Samuel Allen. 
New York, Oct., 1850. 
THE MONTEZUMA MARSHES. 
We have often inquired, when passing these 
widely-extended domains, which, like the Cam- 
pagna or Pontine marshes of Italy, for miles 
encircle the eternal city, spreading malaria, 
desolation, and death, whether this unreclaim- 
ed and almost unexplored kingdom of the crane 
and the flypoke, the frog and the mud turtle, 
was not susceptible of drainage. The answer 
to this inquiry has always been in the negative ; 
and yet, as we coasted along down the borders 
of the Oswego River, with its rapid descending 
current, constituting a ready discharge for the 
waters of these lowlands, we always distrusted 
the thoroughness of these surveys. We are 
glad to find our conjecture verified by more re- 
cent explorations, and that, by taking a short 
cut of nine miles, only, to Sodus Bay, the level 
of Ontario is reached, instead of through a dis- 
tance of 40 miles, by the windings of the Oswego. 
A canal, by this new route, will tap these pesti- 
lent waters at their lowest point, and reclaim 
thousands of acres of the richest land for the 
use of the husbandman. We hope to see this 
project followed up, and if practicable, at once 
undertaken. 
»•-• • 
School of Applied Chemistry. — In referring to 
Professor Norton's advertisement, page 383, we 
are happy to say, that his school is in a flour- 
ishing condition, the number of students in- 
creasing, and the facilities for instruction also. 
As fast as the students are ready, they get good 
places; for the demand increases far moi'e rap- 
idly than the supply. This shows that the spir- 
it of agricultural improvement is slowly on the 
march. We hope its pace will be gradually 
accelerated. 
