294 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST?. 
ture, as the more valuable manuring matters 
were held in solution and carried off in the 
pellucid liquid, while the precipitate was 
comparatively an inert mass. 
Mechanic’s Magazine. 
ortiotltaral Jtprttwiti 
BROOKLYN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The monthly meeting of the Brooklyn 
Horticultural Society was held at the Athe- 
mm, on Thursday evening, the 4th of Jan¬ 
uary, the President, John W.Degrauw, in the 
chair. Mr. Joseph Lees, recording secretary, 
made some very appropriate remarks in as¬ 
suming the duties of his office. 
Mr. J. E. Rauch urged the importance of 
adding to the society’s library, and moved 
that the library committee subscribe to the 
amount of fifty dollars for American and for¬ 
eign periodicals, which was unanimously 
adopted. 
Peter B. Mead, Esq., was most happy in 
his remarks on the importance of extending 
the number of volumes in the library. He 
remarked that the gardener should be pro¬ 
vided with every work that tended to increase 
and added to their improvement in the cul¬ 
ture of plants. It was a science that was 
constantly progressive, and subject to con¬ 
tinued improvement. Many periodicals were 
disseminating new methods by tried experi¬ 
ments, and presenting the most interesting 
details for all that felt the importance of ex¬ 
tending their knowledge ; and that they were 
not confined to scientific researches, but con¬ 
tained much information, well calculated to 
give a far higher tone to the moral and intel¬ 
lectual condition of society. 
The Treasurer, Mr. W. S. Dunham, refer¬ 
red to the suggestion of the President in his 
annual address, on the importance of estab¬ 
lishing a botanical garden. After some 
eloquent remarks on the great benefits to be 
derived from such an institution, not only to 
the city of Brooklyn, but in promoting a sci¬ 
ence of the greatest utility to the whole 
country, he offered the following resolution, 
which was unanimously adopted : 
Resolved , That a committee of five be ap¬ 
pointed, to report at a subsequent meeting, 
on the best method to be adopted to carry 
out this most desirable object. 
The committee chosen under the resolu¬ 
tion are J. W. Degrauw, W. S. Dunham, H. 
A. Graef, John W. Towl, and John Maxwell. 
J. E. Rauch presented several valuable 
works on Horticulture, rvhich were accept¬ 
ed, with the thanks of the society. 
Mr. Collopy, gardener to James H. Pren¬ 
tice, Esq., exhibited two plants, grandifo- 
lias ; also rhodostemma gardemoides, which, 
being a new plant, attracted much attention, 
both from the beauty of the flower as well as 
its fragrance. Mr. Pointer presented sev¬ 
eral varieties of double and single primroses; 
also some new varieties of fuchsias. Mr. 
Weir, of Bay Ridge, exhibited a most splen¬ 
did boquet. A variety of other plants were 
on exhibition. 
Thirty-three members have been proposed 
and elected since the last meeting in De¬ 
cember. 
REVIEW. 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD SESSION of the 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, held in 
Boston, September, 1854. Reported by Alexander C. 
Felton. 
We have risen from the reading of this 
elaborate production of two hundred and fifty 
pages with great satisfaction. It is the first 
extended and carefully prepared report that 
has ever emanated from the Society, now, 
and hereafter to remain, we trust, the prom¬ 
inent institution of the country in the cause 
of progressive Pomology. 
The meeting of the Society was a large 
one, composed of many of the well known, 
experienced pomologists of the United 
States; their proceedings were interesting 
throughout; the notes of their discussions 
were taken, as they progressed, by an ac¬ 
complished reporter; all embodied under 
the direct supervision of the indefatigable 
President of the Society, Hon. Marshall P. 
Wilder, of Boston. Under such auspices, we 
have an abundant guaranty for the fidelity of 
the work. 
The opening address of the President is 
the best and most practical thing of the kind 
that has yet been made on a like occasion; 
embodying the opinions and experience of 
many years of enthusiastic pursuit in a pro¬ 
fession which the distinguished author has 
adopted, chiefly as a recreation and amuse¬ 
ment for the time that he has spared from 
important commercial pursuits, and now 
turned over to the benefit of the public. The 
argument of the address is chiefly to enforce 
on American cultivators of fruit the selec¬ 
tion and propagation of fruits best adapted 
to the localities, soils, and climates where 
they are grown. Their improvement, by the 
use of the best, and perfectly matured seeds, 
careful cultivation, appropriate fertilizers, 
mulching, pruning, the preservation and 
ripening of the fruits ; and enforcing all with 
the remark, that “ Eternal vigilance is an in¬ 
dispensable condition of success.'' 1 Every 
word of this discourse should be attentively 
read and pondered by every pomologist 
throughout the country. The examination 
of physiological principles as applied to the 
successful propagation of trees, in order to 
develop their fruits in perfection, we con¬ 
sider one of the best parts of this address ; 
possibly, perhaps, from the fact that we 
have frequently striven to enforce the like 
principles in previous remarks of our own ; 
but which, we regret to say, have sometimes 
been assailed as absurd in their application 
to vegetable life, to which we have neverthe¬ 
less adhered, and are now more confirmed 
in our belief by the testimony of the author¬ 
ity before us. We fear there has been too 
much of the private interest among the prop¬ 
agators of fruits to give this branch of their 
profession the full weight to which it is en¬ 
titled. Its correction can only be made by a 
better understanding of the subject on the 
part of the public who buy of them, and who 
should insist on a thorough propagation of 
what they want on true principles. We 
hope for a marked improvement in this, the 
organic principle of success in fruit produc¬ 
tion. 
The several fruit reports from State Com¬ 
mittees are interesting. Some of them are 
full and elaborate, others brief and meager; 
but most of them tending to the fact that our 
best fruits are partial in their application to 
soils, climates, and atmospheric influences. 
A prominent feature of them is, the reitera¬ 
tion of the fact that our own soils have orig¬ 
inated some of the best and most successful 
fruits for their own localities, and, with a few 
exceptions, the most reliable for permanent 
cultivation in such localities. Some of these 
have been the results of accidental growth, 
others of careful hybridization from seeds ; 
and from what has already been done, they 
are full of encouraging promise to further 
endeavors. The examination and study of 
this branch of pomological practice can not 
be too strongly impressed upon all cultiva¬ 
tors throughout the United States. 
The various “ discussions ” which follow 
the above-named reports, in which particu¬ 
lar fruits are examined, and the various 
opinions of their value, based on their culti¬ 
vation, are given, tend strongly to confirm 
the fact, as suggested in these State reports, 
that almost all the approved varieties of our 
fruits are capricious in their choice of local¬ 
ity ; some, with meagre cultivation, spring¬ 
ing up into rapid growth, abundant bearing, 
and the highest development of flavor ; oth¬ 
ers, with the utmost pains-taking of the cul¬ 
tivator, turning out apparently worthless. 
These various discussions have interested 
us much. They are sharp, discriminating, 
and chiefly to the point; but sometimes 
smacking too much of “ the shop,” among 
the nurserymen, as if too intent on selling 
their own wares. Yet, on the whole, they 
were fair, if sufficient allowance be made for 
personal partiality, taste, and prejudice. Ad¬ 
ditional varieties of fruits, particularly pears, 
have been added to the rejected lists, which, 
although amounting to several hundreds, 
may be yet enlarged with profit, with now 
and then an exception, to particular locali¬ 
ties. New varieties have also been placed 
on the list recommended for general cultiva¬ 
tion ; others added to the list which “ prom¬ 
ise well.” Some in the latter have been 
postponed to a further probation, while oth¬ 
ers have been promoted to a place in the 
former; while a very few others still, are 
set apart “for particular localities” only. 
A pretty full and quite an animated discur- 
sion was had upon the merits of the Concord 
grape, somewhat amusing to an outsider, 
from the indications of a little cliqueism and 
personal feeling among the Doctors in the 
vicinity of Boston, near where the grape 
originated, but which, we think, after all, will 
turn out a valuable acquisition in our north¬ 
ern climate where the Catawba and Isabella 
do not ripen. The Concord is placed among 
those which “ promise well.” 
With an innate conviction in our own mind 
that our most successful fruit achievements 
in the future will be among fruits of native 
origin, we think too much prominenc has been 
given to new varieties from abroad, particu¬ 
larly pears—a large number of which have 
been added to the lists for cultivation in their 
several departments—for the reason that, 
they have not been sufficiently long tried , 
