HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 
287 
beds, as their roots will extend under the veg¬ 
etables, and rob them of their food. 
A walk, alley, or cartway on the sides of the 
garden is always better next to the fence than to 
fill that space with anything else, as it is usually 
shaded for a portion of the day, and may be 
better afforded for such waste purposes than the 
open, sunny ground within. 
It will be observed that market gardeners , men 
who always strive to make the most profit from 
their land and labor, and obtain the best veg¬ 
etables, cultivate them in open fields. Not a 
tree, nor even a bush is permitted to stand near 
the growing crop, if they can prevent it; and 
where one is not stinted in the area of his do¬ 
main, their example should be followed. 
A word upon plowing gardens. Clays or clayey 
loams should always be manured and plowed 
in the fall just before the setting in of the win¬ 
ter frosts. A world of pounding and hammering 
of lumps to make them fine in spring is saved 
by fall plowing, besides incorporating the ma¬ 
nure more thoroughly with the soil, as well as 
freezing out and destroying the eggs of worms 
and insects which infest it. Thrown up deeply 
and roughly with the plow or spade, the frosts 
act mechanically upon the soil, and slack and 
pulverise it so thoroughly that a heavy raking 
in early spring is all that becomes necessary 
to put it in the finest condition for seeds, and 
make it perhaps the very best and most produc¬ 
tive of all garden soils whatever. A light sandy t 
loam is better to lie compact in winter, and ma¬ 
nured and turned up in early spring. Its friable 
nature leaves it always open and light, and at 
all times in the absence of frost, accessible to 
the spade or the hoe. On these accounts, it is 
usually the most desirable and convenient soil 
for the kitchen garden, and on the whole, gen¬ 
erally preferred where either kind may be a 
matter simply of choice. 
REVIEW. 
The Fruit Garden; by P. Barry, of the Mount- 
Hope Nurseries, Rochester, N. Y. 
Mr. Barry has written a good book. We say 
written—because, like too many efforts of this 
kind, this is not a compilation of the writings of 
others, solely—but an arrangement of the entire 
subject of fruit culture, from the seed to the 
bearing tree, the growing of the fruit, picking, 
and packing for market, &c., &c., in a concise, 
perspicuous, and plain manner. At this period 
in the science of pomology, it is difficult for any 
one to write an original treatise on the cultiva¬ 
tion of fruits or fruit trees. The science of veg¬ 
etable physiology is in a degree as old as Pliny 
or king Solomon; and with the discoveries 
which have been made within the last two cen¬ 
turies of the properties of fruit-bearing trees, 
their habits, and capabilities , we have at the pres¬ 
ent moment a mine of exceeding wealth, into 
which the pomologist and vegetable physiologist 
only have to explore to dig up most brilliant and 
valuable practical treasures. 
Until within the last 15 or 20 years, fruit cul¬ 
ture, as an object of pursuit, or a subject for sci¬ 
entific inquiry in America, stood nowhere. In 
and about New York, Old Mr. William Prince 
and Mr. Bloodgood, of Flushing, were the “ Court 
of Appeals ” on all pomological questions ; and 
Michael Floy and Mr. Hogg, who lived some¬ 
where up the Bowery, were the chief florists of 
the day, while the old friend of our boyhood, 
Laurie Todd, of Grant-Thorburn memory, from 
his little walled garden and quaint old shop in 
Liberty street, furnished all the pots, flowers, 
garden seeds, and posey seeds, that the people 
of this extensive neighborhood required. The 
late Andrew Parmentier, who near 30 years 
ago emigrated from France, and established a 
nursery in Brooklyn, gave perhaps the first new 
impulse to extensive fruit and ornamental tree 
planting in this region of the state. He had an 
extensive and well-selected nursery where now 
stands a compact part of that city, and for a 
few years prosecuted a flourishing business. 
He introduced the subject of landscape garden¬ 
ing to the attention of our suburban citizens, and 
wrote and published many valuable hints on 
plantations in ornamental grounds. After a re¬ 
sidence of only a few years, Mr. Parmentier 
died. No surviving member of his family in¬ 
clining to carry on the nursery, and a demand 
for his extensive grounds for town lots spring¬ 
ing up, the establishment was broken up and 
sold, and the grounds devoted to building pur¬ 
poses. Since then, new nurseries both of fruit 
and ornamental trees have sprung up and been 
enlarged, not only in the neighborhood of New 
York, but extended into other parts of the state, 
even the most remote, in great numbers; and at 
this time, hardly a county in the state but may 
boast of one or more extensive nurseries, with 
large assortments of fruit and ornamental trees, 
flowering shrubs, and plants of great variety, 
suited to the climate. 
All these show a rapidly increasing taste and 
demand throughout the country. With their 
cultivation, has the demand also increased for 
books of instruction touching their propagation, 
cultivation, and treatment. We never shall 
