22 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
fjcrtintltHral gqrarfmcnt. 
To Horticulturists. •—Our weekly issue of 
so large a journal, gives us ample room to devote 
to the different departments of cultivation, and 
we have commenced with this volume, to allot a 
separate space to Horticulture. TVe have secured 
additional efficient aid in its conduction, and we 
invite horticulturists generally, to send in their 
contributions on all subjects interesting and in¬ 
structive to those engaged in similar pursuits 
with themselves. TVe are receiving the leading 
foreign and domestic horticultural journals, and 
shall be abundantly able to bring promptly be¬ 
fore our readers all that transpires, which may 
be new and useful. 
EARLY SPRING WORK IN THE GARDEN. 
First, remove all litter from the garden, to¬ 
gether with all undecomposed manures, except 
such as are needed for mulching. TVe would be 
very careful not to allow manure at any time to 
become incorporated in our garden soils, ex¬ 
cept such as had been completely composted, 
unless in stiff soils. 
Do not disturb the soil until sufficiently dry, 
then spade it deep, and thoroughly pulverize it. 
As soon as may be, sow radishes, lettuce, onions, 
beets, and plant early potatoes and peas. After 
experimenting with almost every variety of peas, 
during the last five years or more, we prefer, 
all thing's considered, for an early pea, the 
Early Emperor and Prince Albert; for the best 
pea a little later, the Champion of England; 
and later still, the best and most productive of 
all peas, we think is Hair’s New Mammoth 
Dwarf Marrow. The London Gardeners' Chron¬ 
icle , in its reports for several years past, has 
given this pea the decided preference there. 
So it has also repeatedly proved here. None of 
these peas grow vines higher than about two 
and a half feet, and we very much prefer them 
to Stanley’s Marrow, or other four to six feet 
varieties. 
Put your strawberry beds in a good condi¬ 
tion, but leave on the ground all the clean litter 
you can without incommoding the plants. They 
need thorough mulching, and this will assist in 
so doing. A friend, who is a successful cultiva¬ 
tor, writes us, strongly recommends the follow¬ 
ing treatment: 
“When the growing spring weather fairly 
commences, take a pound each of sulphate 
of potash, soda, and (Glauber salts,) and one 
quarter pound of sal-ammonia, dissolved in six 
gallons of water, and water freely every straw¬ 
berry plant just at evening. Continue this 
every tenth day until the blossoms appear, and 
then apply pure water freely every dry day un¬ 
til the season passes by, and you will probably 
receive a larger quantity, and larger strawber¬ 
ries, than you have been accustomed to see.” 
This is also the time to prune your rose 
bushes, and most varieties of shrubs and young 
trees. Prune freely, and have an eye to the 
comely shape of the tree or shrub after you 
have done with it. We would not allow an ill¬ 
shaped tree, nor a conspicuous crooked limb to 
deform any tree, shrub, or plant in our garden. 
If our city fathers had attended to this simple 
thing, those noble trees in the park fronting 
our City Hall would not present such deformi¬ 
ties. Nature never puts on foliage in that way, 
as the noble elms and maples in our country 
towns, where they have been allowed to grow 
unmolested, abundantly verify. Even the apple 
and Peach tree should be trained to grow of 
beautiful form. A very little taste and care 
will accomplish it. 
We wish men fitted to the task, would go 
over our whole country, giving lectures to all 
the people on the important and delightful art 
of pruning. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF MASS.' 
COMMITTEE ON FRUITS. 
A few weeks since, we received the Annual 
Report for 1853, of this excellent Society, which 
centers in and radiates out from Boston, but we 
have not found time till now to give it a thor¬ 
ough examination, so as to present to our readers 
a synopsis of such of their doings as are of gen¬ 
eral interest. The results of the year’s labors 
of this Society are of peculiar interest at the pre¬ 
sent season. 
The committee on fruits during the past year, 
awarded the first premium on summer apples to 
William’s Favorite. The best autumn was de¬ 
clared to be Ilubardston’s Nonsuch. The best 
winter to be the Baldwin, while at the Annual 
Meeting the first premium was awarded to the 
Gravenstcin. 
Rostiezer bore oft’ the first premium for sum¬ 
mer Pears. Beurre Bose or autumn, and East¬ 
er Beurre or Winter Pears, while at the annual 
meeting, Flemish Beauty was declared the best 
dish, Seckel the second, Louise Bonne de Jer¬ 
sey third, and Dunmore fourth. 
The first Premium on Currants was awarded 
to the Red Gondouin. On Peaches, to the Early 
Crawford; on Plums, to the Green Gage; on 
Strawberries, the first and second premium, to 
Hovey’s Seedling, and the third to a new seed¬ 
ling called Durfee’s Seedling, of which the Com¬ 
mittee say, “ It is of a rich sparkling flavor, with 
berries of an extra large size.” A gratuity was 
also awarded Mr. J. Fay, for “ numerous baskets 
of his seedling strawberry ‘Jenny Lind,’ said 
by the producer to be quite productive, of good 
size and fine flavor. Should it continue to 
maintain the character of productiveness it will 
prove a desirable variety.” 
A large premium of twenty dollars was 
awarded to N. Collins, for the introduction of 
the “Collins” Pear; and the same to Messrs. 
Hovey for their new Seedling Pear, the “Boston.” 
They also awarded the Appleton Gold Medal, 
valued at $40, to Messrs. Hovey & Co., for their 
new Seedling Cherry, the “Hovey.” 
The committee remark that “ the only variety 
of apple worthy of particular note, exhibited the 
past season, was the ‘ Size,’ a seedling from W. 
A. Andrews, Dover, N. II., (by Messrs. Hovey 
& Co.,) of which a few dozen were offered, and 
of so rich a coloring as to prove a great attrac¬ 
tion in the fruit department. On testing it,^21st 
May, it proved abundantly juicy, and of a rich 
flavor. It is a late keeping variety. In size it 
is above medium; a high warm, rich red on a 
yellow ground; deep red to the sun, and for its 
great beauty alone , must prove a desirable table 
fruit.” Mr. M. P. Wilder, exhibited twenty 
varieties of strawberries from imported vines, of 
which only three were considered by him as 
worthy of cultivation; among which was 
“Barnes’ New Large White, which, as exhibited, 
certainly proves to be the largest and finest of 
the white varieties.” 
Of Raspberries, the committee say the best 
exhibition “decidedly, has been made with Kne- 
vett’s Giant.” In a future number we will re¬ 
fer to other reports of this Society. 
REVIEW. 
Elliott’s Fruit Book ; or the American Fruit 
Growers’ Guide. C. M. Saxton, New-York. 
Our first general impression of this book is a 
favorable one. There is an air of independence 
and freshness about it which is decidedly agree¬ 
able. Besides it is from the West—the great, 
the growing West. The movements in Fruit 
Culture, and Fruit Books in our country during 
the last few years are of a remarkable charac¬ 
ter. Not to mention Kenrick Cole and others, 
we may rank first in importance Downing’s 
Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. Next ap¬ 
peared that accurate work of Tiiomas, the Fruit 
Culturist, after which we received Barry’s Prac¬ 
tical Fruit Garden embracing minute description 
of the best mode of cultivating those garden 
gems—dwarf fruit trees—and now here comes 
another work more on the general plan of 
Downing, and yet distinct and improved 
somewhat in its arrangement. 
We are glad the Buckeye State has spoken so 
emphatically on this subject. 
Of course the experience of cultivators at 
the east will somewhat differ from the western 
description of some of the fruits, yet this ren¬ 
ders the work only the more valuable to all, for 
comparison. 
The work evinces a good degree of labor, and 
deserves a large circulation, especially at the 
West. We shall recur to it more critically at 
an early period. 
- 0 ©O - 
SETTING OUT TREES. 
On the opening of early spring, a large pro¬ 
portion of our readers are particularly interest¬ 
ed in any plain, simple directions as to the best 
manner of setting out trees, and especially so, 
where in that way, common and fatal errors are 
easily avoided. Let us therefore suggest 
1. Do not set them too deep. This is the 
secret of the grand discovery of the great law 
of vegetation, for which Russel Comstock asked 
the small sum of one hundred and fifty thou¬ 
sand dollars, viz.: 
“ That the ‘ seat of life’ in a tree or plant is 
just at the point where the earth should cease 
to cover the foot of the tree. If covered deep¬ 
er it strangled the tree at said seat of life, 
or forced it into sending forth suckers, which 
stifled all healthy progress in the tree.” 
N ow, the discovery is not a new one, that trees 
must not be too deeply planted ; certainly no 
deeper than they were, when growing in the 
earth previously. Without doubt thousands of 
dollars, worth of trees are annually lost to our 
country by this simple error. 
2. Put nothing but pure and finely pulve¬ 
rized earth around the roots. Many persons are 
told their land wants manure, ashes, &c., and 
not having time to manure and ash their whole 
field, they, as a substitute, put these sub¬ 
stances into the hole for the tree, and mingle it 
in the earth with which they cover the roots. 
This is all wrong. The soil may need manure 
and ashes, but these should be completely com- 
