THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 25. 
402 
Geraniums, &c. I never saw so much variety given to 
a small piece of water and its accompaniments before. It 
is impossible to move a dozen strides, in any direction, 
but you have a fresh picture—fresh combinations. I 
have dwelt the longer on this part of the subject, in 
order to draw attention to what 1 suppose I may venture 
to call the picturesque in style, feeling assured, that in 
the rage for mere modern styles we are in danger of 
losing our taste for those more natural beauties which 
give life to the landscape. 
Some interesting relics are contained within the 
cavernous recesses of the rocks, roots, &c., which border 
this water in places; amongst the rest, stones from some 
Roman way;—I think I understood the Appian. There 
are, also, calcined human bones, from the same quarter, 
sundry Roman tablets, with their superscriptions. 
I may here observe, that the gardener, Mr. Sherratt, 
a young man, from whom I received an unlooked-for 
amount of civilities, lias been eminently successful in 
transplanting large evergreens. Yews, Hollies, the deci¬ 
duous Cypress, Laurels, and other evergreens, may be j 
seen here by scores, moved, from eight to twelve feet in 
height, and of corresponding bulk, and they do not 
appear to have received the least damage. Mr. Sherratt 
is an ardent lover of plants for their own sake; and has 
great success with Orchids, of which he has a nice 
selection. I may here mention that he has the Epi- 
dendrum, Skinneri, Lcelia superbiens, Barkeria specta- 
bilis, and such mifl'y things, growing as vigorously as the 
most luxuriant Orchid I ever saw. It has been sup¬ 
posed, by some, that there would ever exist a necessity 
for reimporting such things periodically; but one glanco 
at Mr. Sherratt’s will speedily disabuse the mind of any 
one as to this. Mr. Sherratt simply attaches them to | 
naked blocks, or masses of sticks, and suspends them j 
close to the front sashes of a Vinery, where the wind j 
can blow on them occasionally; taking care to syringe [ 
them three or four times a day. He thus treats Vanda 
ccertdea also; and, in addition, he winters these things 
in a common greenhouse, under a temperature little 
above freezing occasionally. He has a collection of 
the most choice Sikkim Rhododendrons, obtained, 1 
believe, from Mr. Nuttall himself. They have already, I 
am told, proved a considerable portion of the Sikkims 
to be perfectly hardy. 
I must now conclude my report by observing, that | 
Mr. Sherratt has many interesting things which I had j 
not time to take a note of, and that he appears a very | 
persevering gardener. R. Ebrington. 
The Largest Nursery in the World. —It has been 
some years since Rochester has become the head quarters 
for nurseries in America. From only a few acres in 
extent, as they existed fifteen or twenty years since, 
the nurseries within ten miles of the city now cover at j 
least one thousand densely planted acres. 
The cost and annual product of these nurseries may 1 
be reckoned with some degree of accuracy, by taking 
as the basis of calculation the estimates of several in- i 
telligent nurseryman of that place,—that a well managed 
acre would yield as an annual average from two to three 
hundred dollars—the expenses varying from fifty to 
seventy-five per cent of this amount. It would, of 
course, be greatly controlled by the kind of trees raised, 
the proportion of ornamentals, &c., but still more by 
the judgment, energy, and skill exercised by the 
manager,—for under the direction of some the cost 
exceeds the profits, and the business, consequently, soon 
comes to an eud. 
Rut it is not our present object to pursue this inquiry, 
but to give to our readers the results of a few hours 
personal observation of ono of the establishments to 
which we have alluded,—namely, that of Ellwanger 
and Barry, who now have about two hundred and 
seventy-jive acres actually occupied with their nurseries. 
These are not all in one contiguous piece of ground, but 
are comprised in four principal detached portions, of 
fifty to a hundred acres each, lying near each other. 
For extent and perfection combined, there is none in 
America that nearly approaches this establishment, and 
we have not been able to ascertain, from satisfactory 
sources, that there is any in Europe—although there 
may possibly be a greater number of hands employed 
in some European nurseries, where labour is cheap and 
economy not studied. 
Ellwanger and Barry had in regular employ, at the 
time of our visit, over one hundred hands. In the 
spring they have two or three hundred. Being in the 
midst of the budding season, they had sixteen active 
budders at work, with boys to tie after them, and other 
bands to precede them in preparing the stocks. These, 
added to such as were occupied in providing the buds, 
and in removing the ligatures, amounted to about sixty 
in all counected with, this department of operations. 
The buds are all cut by the proprietors themselves, and 
every pains taken to secure the greatest accuracy 
throughout this mammoth establishment—about twenty- 
five thousand buds are inserted daily; and eight persons 
are required in connection with the persons who cut 
the buds, to remove the leaves from them on the spot. 
They employ twenty-five horses. During all the 
early part of the season these v. r ere all required in 
cultivating the rows—at present only eighteen are 
needed for this purpose. 
We observed single fields, of thirty or forty acres each, 
out of the many which constituted their establishment, 
which alone would be regarded as large for an entire 
nursery. A block of ninety thousand (UO.OOO) Cherry- 
trees, one year from the bud, was especially noticed for 
its beautiful growth, most of the trees being already 
about five feet high, and as even along the tops as if 
they had been sheared. A half-acre of seedling Pears 
had as fine a growth as any we have ever seen, although 
they numbered at least one million. They must be 
worth, at market prices, more than ten thousand dollars. 
Two hundred thousand were picked out from them early 
in the summer, without any sensible diminution of 
their numbers. As nearly as we could estimate, there 
were at least two hundred thousand Norway Firs, two 
feet or more in height, and covering many acres. 
Their ornamental department is on a very large scale. 
They have five hundred feet in length of glass pro¬ 
pagating houses—seven acres in Roses—and about half- 
an-acre densely planted with Dahlias. They have a 
very rare collection of the celebrated new Californian 
tree, the 'Wellingtonia gigantea, being no less than five 
thousand fine young plants of this tree, grown from 
seed collected in California, and which were procured 
by gathering such as the squirrels had thrown down in 
their depredations. A year ago, these plants sold for 
a guinea each—at only one dollar now, here was a 
space of twenty feet square worth a valuable farm. 
In their Grape houses they have over ten thousand 
Exotic Grapes of fine growth for sale. Their collection 
of bearing specimen Pear-trees is unequalled in this 
country—they have from five to six thousand, most of 
which are handsomely trained pyramids, comprising 
about four hundred sorts. 
In such an immense establishment our readers will 
naturally suppose there must be a great deal of confu¬ 
sion and much bad growth and bad cultivation. But 
the reverse is true in a striking degree. An excellent 
system appears to pervade the whole; and, as many 
have remarked, they are remarkably successful in all 
they undertake, from the most delicate hothouse plants, 
to their vast plantations of large and thrifty fruit-trees. 
