CHOICE OF TREES AND SHRUBS FOR CITIES AND RURAL TOWNS -NO. 2. 
247 
them, may be converted into rich grazing lands, I 
without subjecting them to a previous succession of 
cleansing crops, and thus the farmer could make 
ample provision for his cattle and other animals, 
without grazing lands devoted to wheat, corn, &c. 
The cost of restoring such land as that mentioned 
above to fertility, by marling and applying clover- 
seed, would be from five to seven dollars per acre, 
and this cannot be considered “ paying too dear for 
the whistle,” when it is recollected that the land, 
after the process, would be cheaper at thirty dollars 
per acre, than it would be at two dollars if left in 
its previous impoverished condition. In the last 
mentioned state, it would bring the cultivator in 
debt; but when improved, it would not only yield 
enough to meet the expense of cultivating and 
securing the crops, but would also pay a handsome 
profit in the investment if valued at thirty dollars 
per acre. 
The land on which this experiment was made is 
hilly, with a southwestern aspect. I have another 
acre of clover on a hill with a northwestern aspect 
which will come to maturity in June, 1848; and as 
many would regard a luxuriant growth of red clover, 
produced on such a soil without previous cultiva¬ 
tion, as the eighth wonder of the world, I now in¬ 
vite all who feel interested in the matter, to visit 
Potomac Church about the middle of June, 1848. 
This laud lies about half a mile distant from the 
Richmond, Fredericksburgb, and Potomac Railroad, 
six miles from Fredericksburgh, five miles from 
Aquia Creek, and within six hours’ travel of Rich¬ 
mond, Va., by railroad; and five hours from Wash¬ 
ington by railroad and steam-boat. In this region 
the blue marl abounds, and lands capable of rapid 
improvement by its use, can now be purchased at 
moderate prices. If any of our northern friends 
are on the eve of departing for Oregon or California, 
it would be well for them to give this part of Vir¬ 
ginia an examination before they pull up stakes 
and bid a final adieu to their native homes. 
There is another consideration which should op¬ 
erate as an inducement to bring emigrants to this 
region. 
A work is now progressing on the Rappahan¬ 
nock River, that will, it is supposed, at no distant 
period, bring into profitable use the extensive.wa¬ 
ter-power of the Rappahannock, which would re¬ 
sult in a large addition to the business and popula¬ 
tion of Fredericksburgh. In that event the unoc¬ 
cupied land in the vicinity of Fredericksburgh, 
which can now be purchased at low prices, will 
advance in price from one hundred to three hun¬ 
dred per cent. The prospective value of western 
lands is inducing thousands to go thither, encoun¬ 
tering the diseases and other hardships incident to 
unsettled regions; and as there exists a reasonable 
prospect that lands in this part of Virginia will ere 
long be greatly enhanced in value, this considera¬ 
tion should operate here with much greater force, 
because of the advantagesarising from the nearness 
of good markets for the products of the soil, con¬ 
venient access to means of education, &c. If per¬ 
sons desirous of examining lands in this part of 
Virginia, will call on me at Fredericksburgh, I will 
with pleasure render them all the aid in my power. 
Layton Y. Atkins. 
Fredericksburgh , VaJune , 1847. j 
I CHOICE OF TREES AND SHRUBS FOR 
CITIES AND RURAL TOWNS.—NO. 2. 
Tree-culture, like music, architecture, dress, 
&c., has its style, and consequently its rise and de¬ 
cline, according to the age and country in which it 
may prevail. For instance, the box-tree was much 
employed in verdant sculpture and close-clipped 
hedges, in the gardens of Roman villas in the Au¬ 
gustan age. Pliny describes his “ Tusculan villa,” 
as having a lawn adorned with figures of animals 
cut out in box-trees, answering alternately to one 
another. This lawn was again surrounded by a 
walk enclosed with evergreen shrubs, sheared into 
a variety of forms. Beyond this was a place for 
exercise, of a circular form, ornamented in the 
middle with box-trees, sheared as above into nume¬ 
rous devices ; and the whole was surrounded by a 
sloping bank, covered with box, and rising in steps 
to the top. In another part of the grounds of the 
same villa, the box is mentioned as having been cut 
into a variety of shapes and letters; some expres¬ 
sing the name of the master, and others that of the 
artificer. The same practice is still followed in 
several Roman gardens. In that of the Vatican, 
for instance, a few years since, the name of the 
Pope, the date of his election, &c., might be read 
from the windows of the palace, in letters of box. 
About the middle of the seventeenth century, the 
taste for verdant sculpture was at its height in Eng¬ 
land ; and about a hundred years since it afforded a 
subject of raillery for the wits of the day, and soon 
afterwards began to decline. The following lines 
by West, convey a good idea of a topiary garden : 
“ There likewise mote be seen on every side 
The shapely box. of all its branching pride 
Ungently shorne, and with preposterous skill, 
To various beasts, and birds of sundry quill, 
Transform’d, and human shapes of monstrous size. 
* * * * * * 
Also other wonders of the sportive shears, 
Fair Nature mis-adorning, there were found ; 
Globes, spiral columns, pyramids, and piers 
With spouting urns and budding statues crown’d ; 
And horizontal dials on the ground, 
In living box, by cunning artists traced; 
And galleys trim, on no long voyages bound, 
But by their roots there ever anchor’d fast.” 
The subject has been more or less revived within 
the last forty years, and fine specimens of archi¬ 
tectural gardening may be seen at Whim, near Ed¬ 
inburgh, and in some of the public grounds in the 
vicinity of Amsterdam, and of Paris, where there 
are numerous colonnades, arcades, walls, pyramids, 
and other architectural masses, which produce an 
imposing effect.* 
Soon after the introduction of the Lombardy pop¬ 
lar, by Hamilton, in 1784, it uninterruptedly spread 
throughout the country, and by the end of the 
second decade of the present century (1819), it had 
multiplied to such an extent that, stiff, formal rows 
of it were to be seen growing in front of dwellings 
and along the borders of fields and road-sides in 
almost every civilized town in the Union. But 
owing to the monotony and whimsical effect it usu¬ 
ally produced in the scenery, and to its long creep¬ 
ing roots, which insinuated themselves below the 
surface of the ground, often to the distance of twice 
the height of its summit, forcing asunder pavements 
* Vide Trees of America, pp. 46 and 433; also Loudon’s Ar« 
| boretum Britaunicum, pp. 370, 4334 et 2306. 
