[Entered according to Act of Codki-obh, in the year 1877, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the ofltce of the Librarian of OouKresB at Washington. | 
THE WEEPING HEMLOCK. 
(Abies Canadensis pendula.) 
Probably if an election were instituted to as¬ 
certain which of all evergreen trees is prized 
most highly for this climate, the Hemlock would 
receive a majority of votes. It has not the rig¬ 
idity—the inelasticity, so to say, of the Norway 
Spruce, which would perhaps prove its most for¬ 
midable opponent in an election. The leaves 
and spray of the Hemlock respond to every 
breeze as if happy to bo fauned, while they yield 
to stronger winds with the grace of a Weeping 
Willow, and without its liability to injury. More 
than any ether tree, perhaps, it combines the 
charms of both deciduous and evergreen troos, 
and is for this reason especially attractive during 
the seven colder months of tho year. 
Grace is not an adjective often serviceable in 
descriptions of Evergreens, but it is the first that 
comes to mind in any attempt at describing 
the Weoping variety of tbo Hemlock Spruce. 
The variety is comparatively new and its history 
interesting. The original tree was, as wo learn, 
in the possession of an old gentleman named 
Burrow. Mr. J. It. Trtuwpy, the 
well-known propagator of one of 
the Parsons of Flushing, heard 
about it, and visited Burrow for 
the purpose of purchasing the 
tree. But Burrow would not 
sell. Mr. Trumpv, thus disap¬ 
pointed, and having a desire to 
possess so promising a novelty, 
which only those who have their 
hearts in their busincsss can un¬ 
derstand, set out for Mr. H. W. 
Saroext’s (Flahkill, N. Y.) t who, 
he had been informed, was pos¬ 
sessed of a small specimen which, 
either from a layer or graft, was 
derived from the original tree of 
Mr. Burrow’s. Mr. Sargent was 
gracious to the enthusiastic 
Trumpy, who left him with a 
pocketful of cions, and from this 
start the Weeping Hemlock was 
propagated and disseminated. 
The habit is so decidedly weep- ** 
ing and the leaves and branches 
so thick, that it was at once sug¬ 
gested to graft it upon high 
stocks, about the same, for in¬ 
stance, as tho Kilmarnock Weep¬ 
ing Willow is worked upon the 
stock of which it is a variety, viz., - 
Salix oaprea. But the great ex- 
pectations of securing an ever- 
green tree-form of unique and 
incomparable grace, thus reason- 
ably entertained, have not been 
fulfilled. 
The accompanying engraving 
gives a sketch of the best speci" 
men of the Weeping Hemlock, ■*= 
worked high, of which we have 
any knowledge, and little hope is : ^X 
entertained that it will ever be- : 
come the perfect beauty which 
was hoped for it. 
Mr. Samuel Parsons writes J" > 
us:—‘‘We graft it readily upon -''N. 
high stocks in the nursery, but — 
it does not thrive as well—the 
naked stem cracks and suffers 
and the massive foliage, like 
most evergreens perched on 
high stems, iH too heavy for _ 
grace and proportion, and is 
beaten and tossed by the winds.” — 
Evergreens are apparently in¬ 
jured by an oxposnro of their main stem 
to sun and weather, and, unliko deciduous 
trees, novor seem to develop above more vig¬ 
orously for being pruned underneath. Witness 
the Red Cedars of our fields that, under nursery 
management, are at loast as pretty, and certainly 
more hardy than either the Irish or Hootch Juni¬ 
pers. In the fields they loso then’ lower foliage 
as they increase in Inght. Bnt tho tops look as 
if morely the young tree were carried up higher 
and higher. So with the Norway Sprue®, Arbor 
Vitfe, and, in fact, with evergreens as a rule; if 
robbed of their lowermost and lower branches, 
the tree, as if deprived of all hopo aud pride, 
never makes another effort at rehalnlltatiou. 
We cannot sufficiently impress upon our frionds 
the necessity of pruning Evergreens from the 
top downwards. If any part bo left uupruned, 
let it bo tho bottom. Every terminal branch 
cut off, it is true, is a loss to that branch of one 
year's growth. But lateral buds push instead, 
and a busbiness is thus induced, procurable by 
no arts of high cultivation. Instead of prun¬ 
ing, disbudding may bo rosorted to with loss in¬ 
jury to the tree’s appearance. 
Perhaps tho Weeping Hemlock, worked high, 
may yet by some method or other bo made a fine 
success. We merely show by our engraving the 
progress thus far made. 
<#arm <£conoini). 
ENGLISH HARVEST HOMES. 
Among tho social gathoringR in which the Brit¬ 
ish poor participate, and which are provided for 
their special benefit by those above them, there 
is, perhaps, uono more thoroughly enjoyable 
than tho rural Harvest Home. Here, for one 
day, tho rich and poor, landlord and tenant, 
squire and cottager, clergy and laity, assemble 
and mingle promiscuously with one another. In 
ono place the Bwarthy laborer Jostles tho County 
Member of Parliament, or it may bo even a peer 
of tho realm, while in another the rustic church 
warden enjoys a tete-a-tete with Ids bishop; while 
churchman aud nonconformist, oormorvativo and 
ultra-radical moot and sink all differences tn the 
laudable endeavor to procure a day of unalloy¬ 
ed pleasure for the hard-working “ sous of tho 
soil." 
When such a festivity is in any place project¬ 
ed, the influential resident aud non-resident cap¬ 
italists subHoribo funds enough to pay tho ex¬ 
penses of tho undertaking; a committee is ap¬ 
pointed to superintend the details, a large tent 
capable of containing sometimes as many as two 
•• '-W - 
_——- - r- - s > 5 
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rYr' • SHirdl I 
WoOr 
thousand persons, is procured and erected in 
a field as contiguous as may be to tho parish 
church, for religious service forms by no means 
an unimportant feature in tho day’s programme. 
Tho work of decoration then commences. Assist¬ 
ed by a competent corps of the stronger sex, tho 
ladioB foHtoon tho wholo with flowers and gar¬ 
lands, to procure winch ovory garden aud con¬ 
servatory, for miles around, has been stripped 
of its blooming treasures. Moreover tho tent is 
literally draped with Hags and banners, bearing 
various loyal, patrlotie and appropriate inscrip¬ 
tions. Flags float from ovory conceivable and 
inconceivable coigno of vantage, from tho ivy- 
clad tower to the wayside olm, and triumphal 
arches, formed bf evergreens and decked with 
ours of grain, flowers, fruit and hunting, span 
the roads in all directions. 
On tho morning or tho fete, a commodious 
four-in-hand heads a procession, composed of 
vehicles of all descriptions, ancient, modern, 
and modiioval, in the foremost of which are two 
or three bauds of music. This parados tho stroots 
of tho village, from end to end, pausing over and 
anon to satisfy the thirsty demands of the inner 
man, and finally drawing up at tho manse, shortly 
before the hour assigned for Divine sorvico. 
Thence, still headed by the band, and slowly fol¬ 
lowed by the clergymen in full canonicals, the 
procession, Hanked on either side 
by hundreds of curious sight- 
soora, winds its way on foot to 
tho door of the sacred edifice. 
Hero are stationed a couple of 
policomeu to prevent the intrusion 
of strangers Into thobnilding un¬ 
til all parishioners, holding Bit 
tings, shall have been accommo¬ 
dated; after which, the chock on 
outsiders is withdrawn, tho doors 
flung open, and ovory aisle and 
other available spot crowded to its 
utmost capacity. Tho service is 
short but very elaborate, the 
bands joining with the organs in 
the hymns arid canticles, and the 
officiating minis ter intoning the 
prayers. Tho sermon, usually de¬ 
livered by some noted and elo¬ 
quent man, is appropriate to tho 
occasion, and as tho clock strikes 
•#r twelve, the throng slowly issues 
from the door. 
Again led by the nmsioiaUB, the 
procession reforms and with 
measured puce marches to the 
monster tent where, in the lan¬ 
guage of local reporters, “ the 
tables fairly groan undor their 
load of tempting edibles." Tiers 
j|> waiters, in their short sleeves, 
decorated with rosettes, as dis- 
tinguishing markB, fly around, 
bearing cans of cider, ale, beer, 
LgSlSopife; porter, and other tempting li- 
quids, which they distribute to 
. the thirsty multitude, while oth- 
~—^ era more sedately attend to tho 
?j -r~ ‘ heavier department of gastrono¬ 
mer — my. A fter tho first ooiuso—con¬ 
sisting of meats, vegetables, etc., 
. —has been demolished, aud tho 
P^ a ^ 0B removed, then, heralded by 
-r martial strains and preceded by a 
_ bevy of little girls with flags, a 
> JrV / procession of fair ladies carry- 
ing the national plum-pudding, 
enters the tent, and marching up 
— an d down between tho tables, dis¬ 
pense their burdens among the 
crowd. Next come four men bear- 
~ ing, on a board upon their shoul¬ 
ders, a mammoth cheese, which 
they deposit before tho chairman, 
while another quartette lay a loaf 
T'9 
NEW YORK CITY, JULY 21, 1877. 
FRICK SIX CENTS. 
»2.S0 I’ER YKAIt.l 
