278 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Ifarlttultural gqrartmetti 
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. We 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 
vith themselves. We 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. 
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ADVANTAGES OE DEPRIVING PLANTS OF 
THE SOFT WOODED CLASS OF THEIR 
EARLY FLOWER-BUDS. 
We commend to our floral readers, the fol¬ 
lowing excellent — we would almost say, indis¬ 
pensable directions, in the cultivation of fine 
plants and flowers, which we take from the 
London Floricultural Cabinet. We have ex¬ 
perimented somewhat during the past two years, 
in the way here indicated, with marked success. 
In an article on the double Chinese Primroses, 
I expressed a probability of resuming my re¬ 
marks on the above subject, to which you were 
pleased to invite me. In now reverting thereto, 
I must disclaim any pretensions to reducing 
such operations to a rule, and content myself 
by an endeavor to awaken an inquiry that may 
add another link to the chain of culture, by 
which many flowering plants may be brought 
to exceed even their present excellence. In my 
treatment of the above plants it was my aim to 
retard the production of flowers , until the 
plant shall have attained a luxuriance of 
growth sufficient to support the most ample dis¬ 
play of blossom. In order to effect this in any 
flowering plant , it will be necessary to check too 
early flower ing by immediately removing every 
flower-bud that may appear until the greatest 
expansion of foliage be insured. I fear this is 
too often neglected by amateurs, to whom only 
these remarks are addressed ; and the penalty 
of early pubescence is defective bloom, if not 
total abortiveness. Permit me here to repeat 
the words of Mr. Joseph Hayward, that “the 
leaves form the excretory organs of plants and 
trees, and whether the supply of food be great 
or small, a plant or tree cannot attain, nor sus¬ 
tain itself in, a perfect state of fructification 
until it is furnished with a surface of leaves 
duly proportioned to the sap supplied by the 
roots.” This axiom is so good, so esssntial to 
a high state of culture, and so desirable to be 
borne in mind by the horticulturist, that he 
should adopt it as his motto. Ample foliage 
before the production of flowers is the deside¬ 
ratum ; let the cultivator then, by the strictest 
observation, seek the best means of promoting 
it; he will generally find a vigorous growth 
adverse to the production of flowers, so long as 
such a state shall be sustained ; but it will act 
conversely when it shall have reached its max¬ 
imum ; therefore, let him use his best endeavors 
to promote luxuriance until the plant shall have 
attained its standard of perfection; but if, dur¬ 
ing its progress there should be any disposition 
to dilate the incipient flower-bud let it be re¬ 
moved, and, if it be not in the nature of the 
plant to reproduce blossom-buds the same sea¬ 
son, it will be better to lose a year than to have 
a premature and puny blossom ; one plant well 
cultivated is worth any'number badly grown. 
Some cultivators, in order to effect a lofty 
growth, lop away all the under branches, so as 
t® force the sap upwards. Better that the plant 
be allowed to follow, as far as may be, its natural 
habit, removing only such shoots as appear 
stunted or misplaced; this will give girth to 
the stem, and preserve a more perfect symme¬ 
try. I will here instance the Fuchsia. If the 
taller sorts be so treated, and regularly stripped 
of their flower-buds, until they have made their 
desired growth, they may be made to attain their 
greatest altitude with a pyramidal form, sustain¬ 
ing themselves without any support, their bot¬ 
tom branches sweeping the ground, the others 
rising branch over branch; when clothed with 
their bright, crimson, pendulous blossoms, they 
present a picture of floral beauty. Many are 
the plants that present a stunted or straggling 
appearance that, by like treatment, might be 
caused to assume the same symmetry. The 
dahlia, too, might, I think, be much improved 
in the quality of its blossom, whether for the 
border or as a show flower, if, instead of the 
unsparing lopping away of its branches, these 
were carefully preserved, and the blossom-buds 
more fully displayed; this is borne out by the 
Chrysanthemum and many other plants, from 
which, in order to produce fine blooms, we re¬ 
move most of the flower-buds, while we scru¬ 
pulously preserve every particle of foliage. 
I shall pass from this Leviathan of flowers to 
the more modest but equally well-known Mig- 
nionette. How to produce the tree is, I believe, 
generally understood; but as it will exemplify 
the subject, I will merely glance at the practice 
of depriving its leading shoot of its flower-bud; 
it is again surmounted by another shoot, from 
which the flower is again displaced; the same 
routine goes on till the plant has reached the 
prescribed height, when it is allowed to shoot 
freely, and is clothed with its fragrant bloom. 
By a very similar treatment, the Verbenas may 
be made either to spread with greater luxuri¬ 
ance on the ground, to trail over the vase, or to 
climb the trellis; for any of these purposes we 
have only to persevere in removing the flower- 
buds, from time to time as they are produced, 
and new shoots will be emitted, elongating to a 
considerable extent, at the same time multiply¬ 
ing in number so as to cover a much greater 
space. If these be allowed to fall negligently 
over a vase, or be carefully entwined round a 
trellis, attached to a flower-pot, the effect will 
be in either case exceedingly ornamental. The 
Anagallis, Petunia, Heliotrope, and various 
other plants, if subjected to a like training are 
capable of the same effect. The Heliotrope I 
once saw trained round a pillow in a greenhouse 
12 feet high, clothed with flowers from nearly 
the bottom to the top. Thunbergias, Mauran- 
dias, Rhodochitons, and the whole race of dwarf 
climbers, will be much improved in growth by 
removing, as soon as visible, the early flower- 
buds. If the Balsam be allowed to expand its 
first flush of flower-buds , the blossoms will 
neither be so large or so double as they will 
if the early buds be plucked off. This will 
create a more luxuriant development of the 
plant , and the succeeding buds, will be produced 
all over the plant in the greatest abundance, 
covering it with a profusion of double flowers, 
very superior to what would have been the 
effect if the plant had been allowed to expand 
its blossom while yet in its infant state. The 
Schizanthus and most annuals may be much im¬ 
proved by removing the first flower-buds. The 
cultivator will be amply repaid by sowing them 
(annuals) early in August, pinching off any 
flowers that may be produced the same year, 
and thus transferring them to the biennial list. 
Lobelias, particularly Cardinalis, fulgens, ignea, 
and others of that section, by having the center 
shoot pinched out, will produce a number of 
laterals, clothed with olegant flowers for nearly 
their whole length, instead of one long and al¬ 
most flowerless stem. Pentstemon gentianoides 
and others, Campanula pyramidalis, and a va¬ 
riety of the like plants, are subject to the same 
remark. The Erysimum Peroffskianum is a 
striking instance of this treatment; if left to 
flower its center shoot, although the novel color, 
under any treatment, renders it pretty, it will, 
nevertheless, have a straggling appearance; 
but let this be pinched out, and the consequent 
radiation of shoots will display a dense patch of 
rich and dazzling flowers. Many bulbs, as 
Hyacinths, Tulips, &c., after having been grown 
in rooms, in glasses and flower-pots, are reduced 
to a state of great degeneracy; if these be 
planted in the free soil, and deprived of the 
languid flowers that will be produced the suc¬ 
ceeding year, the bulbs will be invigorated, and 
thus prepared to flower well every alternate 
year, so long as this treatment be continued. 
To enumerate all the flowering plants that 
might be improved by a judicious removal of 
the early flower-buds would be a recapitulation 
of nearly the whole vocabulary of plants. 
Thus having redeemed my promise and res¬ 
ponded to your invitation, I trust I have said 
enough to induce inquiry, and feel assured that 
investigation will lead to a more general practice 
of deprivingTplants of their premature flower- 
buds. James Smith. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
THE AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Centralization is a useful and efficacious 
principle, in many public undertakings. Popu¬ 
lar organizations, for the promotion or advance¬ 
ment of either art or science, effect what the 
residents of a township, or county, or even State, 
have failed for years to realize; notwithstanding 
that enthusiasm, energy, and perseverance have 
not been wanting. I should be unwilling here 
to recapitulate the many failures which have 
been chronicled in the cause of horticultural im¬ 
provement ; that, would be to recall unnecessa¬ 
rily to mind the humiliating fact that there have 
been such failures. I shall not now individu¬ 
alize many, at least several societies, Agricul¬ 
tural, Horticultural, and Botanical—if any there 
be of the latter, now in existence on this vast 
continent—which are lingering, dragging along 
a valueless existence, nothing less than a bar¬ 
rier in the path of horticulture. I only propose 
to inquire what are the prospects of the perma¬ 
nent utility, and prospective benefits likely to 
be secured by the influence and operations of 
the Society whose title I have set forth above. 
I will not stop and pray our friends and read¬ 
ers not to arrest an inquiry, to cavil over 
the claims to its inception which are ostentati¬ 
ously advanced by many very nice men and 
profound pomologists. Enough for us to know 
that such a society exists in working order; 
that a pamphlet containing much useful infor¬ 
mation, together with a valuable and reliable 
list of select fruits, has already been issued by 
the Society; and that, should the members, and 
friends of rural taste generally, as well the farm¬ 
ers of the Union, who are really the parties to 
be most benefited—exert themselves, coope¬ 
rate, and not remain like a drag upon the enter¬ 
prise of a few, we shall have an organized i 
body of scientific cultivators in this country 
which shall astonish those self-conceited men 
who imagine that beyond the precincts of The 
London Horticultural Society’s Garden, all are 
'■'■Know Nothings" as far as horticulture is con¬ 
cerned. But the Society must attain a reputa¬ 
tion for liberality and freedom of action. There 
must be no wire-pulling or packing committees 
of nomination, &c.; but all good men must have 
a fair chance to serve the public in this labor of 
love, and the results will be encouraging. 
Philadelphia. 8. 
-•-*« - 
The San Francisco Sun thus parses, the dig¬ 
gings. Positive mine; comparative min ; su¬ 
perlative minus. 
