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3S3 
,mdl the heat of our summers greater than seems to be required by many 
plants, cultivated in the garden at least. The currant, gooseberry, rasp¬ 
berry, and strawberry, thrive better if so situated as not to be fully ex¬ 
posed to the sun throughout the day. A man who really deserved to bo 
considered a gardener, who possessed a knowledge of the general princi¬ 
ples of his art, which gardeners now-a-days have great facilities for ac¬ 
quiring, ought to know that in commencing operations in a country new 
to him, one of the first things demanding his attention and study is the 
character of the climate, and what modifications in culture and manage¬ 
ment are required to enable him to produce his flowers, fruit and vege¬ 
tables in the highest state of perfection. Even in the limited range of 
the climate of England, modifications in practice are required to obtain 
a certain result. In one of my visits to the London Horticultural Society’s 
garden, when conversing on climatal influences with Robert Thompson, 
the intelligent superintendent of the fruit department, and of the meteor¬ 
ological observations, which for many years have been made in the gar¬ 
den, he stated as an instance that the same mode of training by which 
the artizans of Lancashire produce gooseberries of an enormous size was 
proved, when tried in the garden of the Society, to be hurtful to the 
trees rather than otherwise. A hi Mi ranjje of hills runs through Lan- 
cashire, and owing to this cause and to its proximity to the sea on the 
west, from which quarter most rain usually comes in that country, it is 
somewhat remarkable among the counties of England, for the amount of 
rain Which falls annually. The horizontal mode of training the goose¬ 
berry bushes so as to expose the greatest amount of foliage to the light, 
succeeded admirably in the moist and cloudy climate of Lancashire, while 
in the drier and sunnier climate of London, the best results were obtain¬ 
ed when the branches were allowed to grow in their naturally erect or 
slightly spreading position. This also is a most important subject of in¬ 
quiry; and it is to be hoped that the useful observations of Mr. Phoenix, 
in the first volume of the Transactions, will be followed by others from 
farmers and nurserymen in different parts of the State. We may be as¬ 
sured that we have much to learn yet respecting the suitableness of 
different varieties of fruit, grain, and vegetables, to our soil and climate, 
and of the modifications in practice which the peculiar conditions of cli¬ 
mate require. 
