O^' "^ ^ * A ^^ -^.o^ x^' s^ 0,V .V ^' - <^' \^^^ % .^ ^<^ "?=:, :^; o^ '"^v- '" '^i-^" "^ K ,^Ho, .^ : li ^ •^'n .AT ^ JH^ "-^- '1- "rfvl^^: ' * « s "^ Vv> H Q .V ^ .^^. v^' ^^^a^^a: \0 ^^^& %.^ ,>^#^;. V^ ^>^^K^ % ^ r>S£/% ^^" N^ ,^> ^ iS- CK > aH O. ^-.^^' #^ t * ^ ^t^ V NJ- ^ " / ^ ^^'^ "^ V^\>-»/% /iAiC^^'^ <^^ .*^: -^<^^ f^^. - m ^^ <^o^ A ^^ ■3 >^ ■■ .^^. ./''^ %>5£V' ^'^ -'.^^.'^ s- -^^ ■^j.o'' -^^ ,.^^ ^.o^ :^'^Ki ^^o^ THE AMERICAN GARDENER: A TREATISE ON THE SITUATION, SOIL, AND LAYING OUT OF GARDENS. ON THE MAKING AND MANAGING OF HOT-BEDS AND GREEN-HOUSES; A.ND ON THE PROPAGATION AND CULTIVATION OF THE SEVERAL SORTS OF VEGETABLES, HERBS, FRUITS, AND PLOWERS. BY WILLIAM COBBETTe n NEW YORK: CM. SAXTON & COMPANY, No. 140 FULTON STREET. 1856. <^ o V garden may, besides its in- trinsic utility, be mdcie to be a most valuable help« mate to the Farm,. PREFACE. 4. It is impossible to write a book that shall ex- elusively apply to every particular case. Some per- sons have need of large, while others want only small gardens ; but, as to Situation, Soil, and Fencing, the rules will apply to all cases. Those who want nei- ther Hot-Beds nor Green-Houses^ may read the part treating of them, or leave it unread, just as they please ; but, I think, that it will not require much to be said to convince every American Farmer, North of Carolina, at least, that he ought to have a Hot-Bed in the Spring. 5. I have divided the matters, treated of, thus : The first Chapter treats of the Situation, Soil, Fenc- ing, and Laying-out of Gardens ; the second, of the making and managing of Hot-Beds and Green- Houses ; the third, of Propagation and Cultivation generally ; the three remaining Chapters treat of the raising and managing of the several plants, each un- der its particular name, classed under the heads. Vegetables and Herbs ; Fruits ; Flowers. In each of these last three Chapters, I have, in arranging my matter, followed the Alphabetical Order of the names of the several plants, which mode of arrange- ment must naturally tend to iTiake the work of re- ference easy. But, as very frequent reference must be necessary, and, as the utility of the work must, in some degree, depend on the facility with which the several parts of it can be referred to, there are two Indexes at the end, one of the names of the se- veral plants, dind, the other, of the matters generally. For the same reason, I have numbered the para- graphs throughout the work, A more proper term might have been found than that of Vegetables, see- ing, that, strictly speaking, that word applies to all things that grow from the earth. But, as we call those products of the garden, which we use, in their Q PREFACE. natural shape, as human food ; as we generally call these only by the name oi vegetables^ I have chosen that word in preference to one, which, though more strictly proper, would be l^ss generally understood. Nearly the same may be said of the word Herbs. 6. Some persons may think, that Flowers are things of no use ; that they are nonsensical things. The same may be, and, perhaps, with more reason, said of! ptcti^res. An Italian, while he gives his for- tune for a picture, will laugh to scorn a Hollander, who leaves a tulip-root as a fortune to his son- For my part, as a thing to keep and not to sell ; as a thing, the possession of which is to give me pleasure, I he- sitate not a moment to prefer the plant of a fine car- nation to a gold watch set with diamonds. 7. The territory of the United States includes such a variety of climates ; degrees of heat and cold so different at the same period of the year ; that it i& impossible to give instructions, as relating to timet for sowiog, planting, and so forth, that shall be ap- plicable to every part of the country. I, therefore, for the most part, make my direction-s applicable to seasons, or states of the weather, rather than to- dates. When I make no particular mention as to times of the year, or month, it is to be understood, that I am supposing myself at, or near, the City of New York, and that I am speaking of what ought to- be done there. With thi'S clearly bx)rn'e in mind, the reader, who will know the difference in the degrees of heat and cold in the different parts of the country^ will know how to apply the instructions accordingly. 8. Those persons, who perform their garden work themselves, will need no caution with respect to men that they employ as Gardeners ; but, those who em- ploy Gardeners ought by no means to leave them to do as they please. Their practieal experience m PREFACE. / i^rorth something ; but, if they are generally found jrery deficient in knowledge of their business in Eng land, what must those of them be who come to America ? Every man, who can dig and hoe and rake, calls himself a Gardener as soon as he lands here from England. This description of persons are generally handy men, and, having been used to spade-work, they, from habit, do things well and neatly. But as to the art of gardening, they gene- rally know nothing of it. I wished to carry the nicer parts of gardening to perfection, at Botley. I succeeded. But I took care to employ no man who called himself a gardener, I selected handy and clear-headed farm-labourers. They did what I or- dered them to do ; and offered me none of their ad- vice or opinions. 9. There is a foible of human nature, which great- ly contributes to establish and perpetuate the power ^nd the mischief of pretended gardeners. Tell a gentleman, that this is wrong, or that is wrong, in the management of his garden, and he instantly and half-angrily replies, ihnt his gardener is a very skil- ful man. " That may be," said I once to a friend, who, at an enormous expense, had got two or three poor little melons, while I, at hardly any expense =it all, had large quantities of very fine ones : " That cnay be," said I, " for skill may consist in getting you to expend your money without getting you any fruit." The truth is, however, that it is not a desire to be deceived, that produces this species of per- verseness : it is a desire not to be thought foolish. The gentleman has chosen the gardener ; and, the reason why he stickles for him is, that, if he allow the gardener to be a bad one, he himself has made a had choice ; and that would be an imputation on his understanding, rather than allow which to be 8 PREFACE. just, he will cheerfully bleed from his purse pretty freely. 10. The best security against the effects of this foible of human nature, is, for the owner of the gar- den to be head gardener himself ; and, I hope that this work may assist in rendering this office easy and pleasant. But, to perform the office well, the owner must be diligent as well as skilful. He must \ook forward. It is a very good way to look atten- tively at every part of the garden every Saturday, and to write down some, at least, of the things to be done during the next week. This tends to pre- vent those omissions, which, when they have once taken place, are not easily compensated for. Sea- sons wait for no man. Nature makes us her offers freely ; but she will be taken at her word. 11. I cannot help, in conclusion of this preface, expressing my hope, that this work may tend to the increasing, in some degree, of a taste for gardening in America. It is a source of much greater profit than is generally imagined ; and, merely as an amusement, or recreation, it is one of the most ra- tional and most conducive to health. It is a pursuit, not only compatible with, but favourable to, the study of any art or science. It tends to turn the minds of youth from amusements and attachments of a frivo- lous or vicious nature. It is indulged at home. It tends to make home pleasant ; and to endear to us the spot on which it is our lot to live. Wm. cobbett. North Hempstead, Long Island, 1819. CHAPTER I. )n the Situation^ Soil, Fencing, and Laying-out of Gardens, SITUATION. 12. Those who have gardens already formed and planted, have, of course, not the situation to choose. But, I am to suppose, that new gardens will, in a country like this, be continually to be formed ; and, therefore, it is an essential part of my duty to point out what situations are best, as well with respect to the aspect as to the other circum- stances. 13. The ground should be as nearly on a level as possible ; because, if the slope be considerable, the heavy rains do great injury, by washing away the soil. However, it is not always in our power to choose a level spot; but, if there be a slope in the ground, it ought, if possible, to be towards the South. For, though such a direction adds to the heat in summer, this is more than counterbalanced by the earliness which it causes in the spring. By all means avoid an inclination towards the North, or West, and towards any of the points between North and West. After all, it may not be in our power to have a level spot, nor even a spot nearly level ; and then we must do our best with what we have. 14. I am speaking here solely of a Kitchen-gar- den. Oi ornamental Gardening I shall speak a lit- tk in the Chapter on Flowers. From a Kitchen^ 10 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chaj garden all large trees ought to be kept at a distancf of thirty or forty yards. For, the shade of them i injurious, and their roots a great deal more mjuri ous, to every plant growing within the influence oJ those roots. It is a common but very erroneous notion, in England, that the trees, which grow m the hedges that divide the fields, do injury by theii shade only. I had a field of transplanted Ruts Baga, in the hedge on the North West side of which there were five large spreading oak-trees, at some distance from each other. Opposite each of thest trees, which could not shade the Ruta Baga much, there was a piece of the Ruta Baga, in nearly a semi-circular form, in which the plants never grew to any size, though those in all the rest of the field were so fine as to draw people from a great distance to look at them. One gentleman, who came out of Sussex, and who had ^een a farmer all his life-time, was struck with the sight of these semi-circles ; and, looking over the hedge, into a field of wheat, which had a ditch between it and the hedge, and seeing that the wheat, though shaded by the trees, was very little afifected by them, he discovered, that it was the roots and not the branches that produced the mischief. The ditch, which had been for ages in the same place, had prevented the roots of the trees from going into the field where the wheat was growing. The ground where the Ruta Baga was growing had been well ploughed and manured ; and the plants had not been in the ground more than three months; yet, such was the power of the roots of the trees, and so quickly did it operate, that it almost wholly destroyed the Ruta Baga that stood within its reach. Grass, which matts the ground all over with its roots, and does not demand much food from any depth, does not sufier much from tbf I.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 11 roots of trees; but, every other plant does. A Kitchen-garden should, therefore, have no large trees near it. In the spring and fall tall trees do great harm even by their shade, which robs the garden of the early and the parting rays of the sun. It is, therefore, on all accounts, desirable to keep all such trees at a distance. 15. If it be practicable, without sacrificing too much in other respects, to make a garden near to running water, and especially to water that may be turned into the garden, the advantage ought to be profited of; but as to watering- with a watering pot, it is seldom of much use, and it cannot be prac- tised upon a large scale. It is better to trust to ju- dicious tillage and to the dews and rains. The mois- ture which these do not supply cannot be furnished, to any extent, by the watering-pot. A man will raise more moisture, with a hoe or spade, in a day, than he can pour on the earth out of a watering-pot in a month. SOIL. 16. The plants, which grow in a garden, prefer, like most other plants, the best soil that is to be found. The best is, loam of several feet deep, with ,1 bed of lime-stone, sand-stone, or sand, below. But, we must take what we find, or, rather, what we happen to have. If we have a choice, vye ought to take that which comes nearest to perfection, and, if we possibly can, we ought to reject clay, and gra- vel, not only as a top soil, but as a bottom soil, however great their distance from the surface. See paragraph 109. 17. Oak-trees love clay, and the finest and heavi- est wheat grows in land with a bottom of clay ; but, 'f there be clay within even six feet of the surface, here will be a coldness in the land, which will, in 12 THE AMKRICAN GARDENER. [Chap spite of all you can do, keep your spring crops a week or ten days behind those upon land which hi-.?-- not a bottom of clay. Gravel is warm, and it wouid be very desirable, if you could exchange it for sonif other early in June ; but, since you cannot do this, you must submit to be burnt up in summer, if ycii have the benefit of a gravelly bottom in the spring 18. If the land, where you like to have a garden, has rocks, great or small, they, of course, are to 1 e carried off; but, if you have a stony soil, that is !»' say, little short of gravel to the very surface, ani. if you can get no other spot, you must e'en hai.i mer your tools to pieces amongst the stones ; for w lias been amply proved by experience, that to cany away stones of the flint ov gravel kind impoverishes the land. However, v^^e are not to frame out plans upon the supposition of meeting with obstacles of this extraordinary nature. We are not to suppojse, that, in a country where men have had to choose. and have still to choose, they will have built, and yet will build, their houses on spots peculiarly steril. We must suppose the contrary, and, upon that supposition we ought to proceed. 19. Having fixed upon the spot for the garden, the next thing is to prepare the ground. This may be done by ploughing and harrowing, until the ground, at top, be perfectly clean ; and, then, by double ploughings : that is to say, by going, with a strong plough that turns a large furrow and turns it cleanly, twice in the same place, and thus moving the ground to the depth of fourteen or sixteen inches, for, the advantage of deeply moving the ground is very great indeed. When this has been done in one direction ; it ought to be done across, and then the ground will have been well and truly moved. The ploughing ought to be done with four oxen I.j THE A?.Tr.i ica:,- gardener. 13 and the plough ought to be held by a strong and careful ploughman. 20. This is as much as I shall, probably, be able to persuade any body to do in the way of preparing the ground. But, this is not all that ought to be done ; and it is proper to give directions for the hest way of doing this and every thing else. The best way is, then, to trench the ground ; which is performed in this manner. At one end of the piece of ground, intended for the garden, you make, with a spade, a trench, all along, two feet wide and two feet deep. You throw the earth out on the side away from the garden that is to be. You shovel out the bottom clean, and make the sides of the trench as nearly perpendicular as possible. Thus you liave a clean open trench, running all along one end of your garden-ground. You then take an- other piece all along, two feet wide, and put the farth that this new piece contains into the trench taking oif the top of tlie new two feet wide, and turning that top down into the bottom of the trench, and then takino; the remainder of the earth of the new two feet, and placing it on the top of the earth just turned into the bottom of the trench. Thus, when you have again shovelled out the bottom, and put it on the top of the whole that you have put into the trench, you have another clean trench two feet wide and two deep. You thus proceed, till the whole of your garden-ground be trenched ; and then it will have been cleanly turned over to the depth of two feet. 21. As to the expense of this preparatory opera tion, a man that knows how to use a spade, v/il trench four rod in a day very easily in the month c October, or in the month of November if the grour be not frozen. Supposing the garden to cont<^- 2 14 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Ohap. an acre, and the labourer to earn a dollar a day, the cost of this operation will, of course, be forty dollars; which, perhaps, would be twenty dollars above the expense of the various ploughings and ha rro wings, necessary in the other way ; but, the difference in the value of the two operations is be- yond all calculation. There is no point of greater importance than this. Poor ground deeply moved is preferable, in many cases, to rich ground with shallow tillage ; and when the ground has been deeply moved ojice, it feels the benefit for ever after. A garden is made to last for ages ; what, then, in such a case, is the amount of twenty dol- lars ? It is well known to all who have had experi- ence on the subject, that of two plants of almost any kind that stand for the space of three months in top soil of the same quality, one being on ground deeply moved, and the other on ground moved no deeper than is usual, the former will exceed the lat- ter one half in bulk. And, as to trees, oi all de- scriptions, from the pear-tree down to the currant- bush, the difference is so great, that there is room for no comparison. It is a notion with some per- sons, that it is of no use to move the ground deeper than the roots of the plant penetrate. But, in the first place, the roots go much deeper than we gene- rally suppose. When we pull up a cabbage, for "nstance, we see no roots more than a foot long ; cut, if we were carefully to pursue the roots to 'heir utmost point, even as far as our eye would r.ssist us, we should find the roots a great deal longer, and the extremities of the roots are much too fine to be seen by the naked eye. Upon pulling i:p a common turnip, who would imagine, that the «ide, or horizontal roots, extend to several feet ? Vet I have traced them to the length of four I.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 15 feet ; and Mr. Tull proved, that they extended to six feet^ though he could not see them to that ex- tent with his naked eye. But, though the roots should not extend nearly to the bottom of the moved ground, the plants are affected by the unmoved ground being near at hand. If this were not the case, plants with very short roots might be culti- vated on a brick pavement with earth laid upon it to the thickness of a foot ; and yet, no plant will live and thrive in such a state, while it will do very well in ground along side the pavement, though moved only a foot deep. Plants require a commu- nication with, and an assistance from, beneath as well as fro*m above, in order to give them vigour and fecundity. Plants will live^ and will grow to a certain extent in earthen pots^ or in boxes made of wood ; but, there must be holes in the bottom of both, or the plants will die. See paragraphs 108 and 109. 22. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance, that the ground be moved to a good depth, and, he who is about to make a garden should remember, that he is about to do that, the effects of which are to be felt /or ages. There is, however, one objec- tion to trenchino: in certain cases. The soil ma ' not only not be good to the depth of two feet, bi • it may be bad long before you come to that depth . and, in this case, the trenching, in putting the gooc soil at bottom, might bring a hungry sand, or even a gravel or clay to the top, which must not be done by any means ; for, even in the case of trees, they would perish, or become stunted, because their roots would not find their way from the bad soil to the good. In such cases the top soil must, in the trenching, be kept at the top ; and, in order to effect this, your mode of proceeding, in the trenching, 16 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. must be somewhat different from that described in paragraph 20. 23. YouY first trench must be opened in the man- ner described in that paragraph ; but you must not then proceed to turn the top of the next two feet into the bottom of the trench. Let us suppose, now, that you have your first trench, two feet wide as before directed, open and clean. This being the case, take a foot deep of the next two feet all the way along, and, for this once, throw it over the open trench to add to the earth that you have already thrown out of that trench. Then you will have the bottom foot of earth left. Dig out this and turn it into the bottom of your open trench, and then the first trench will be half filled up, and you will have got your second trench open. Then go to a 7iew two ieet wide, that is the third two feet. Take the top foot deep ofiffrom this, and throw it on the top of the earth that you have just turned into the first trench ; and then, where that first trench was there will be earth two feet deep ; the bad soil at bottom and the good soil at top. Then you go on regu- larly. The bottom foot of the fourth two feet wide piece you turn into the bottom of the second trench, and the top foot of the third two feet wide piece you throw on the top of the earth which is at the bottom of the second trench. And, thus, when you have done, you will have moved all your ground two feet deep, and will have the bad soil at bottom and the good at top. 24. At the end of your work, you will, of course, have an open trench and a half; and this must be filled up by carrying the earth, which came out of the first trench, round in a cart or wheel-barrow, and putting it into the space that you will have open at last. For trees and asparagus, you ought to I.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 17 do siill more. See Asparagus in Chapter IV. 25. It must be observed, however, that, though the soil be good in its nature down to two feet deep, that which comes to the top in the first mode of trenching, will not be, immediately, so good for use, as the soil which has been at top for ages. It is, in such a case, of great advantage to place the old top soil at the bottom ; because when roots find the soil good to such a depth, the plants and tree? thrive and bear surprizingly. But, then, the new top soil must be exceedingly well worked and well and judiciously manured, in order to make it equal to the old top soil : which object is, however, very soon accomplished, if the proper means be made use of 26. The ground being trenched, in October, ought to be well manured at top with good well-rotted dung, or with soap-boiler's ashes, or some other good manure; and this might be ploughed, or dug in shallowly. Before the frost is gone in the spring, another good coat of manure should be put on ; well-rotted manure from the yard; ashes; or, ra ther, if ready, from a good com.post. Then, when the frost is gone, the ground will be instantly fit foi digging and planting; and, it will bear almost an} thing that can be put into it. 27. Thus will the ground be prepared ; and here I close my directions with regard to the nature and preparation of the soil. But, it seems necessary to add a few words on the subject of manures as adapted to a garden. It is generally thought, and, I believe, truly, that dung, of any sort, is not what ought to be used in the raising of garden vegetables It is very certain, that they are coarse and grosf^ when produced with aid of that sort of manure, compared to what they are when raised with the aid 2* 18 THE AMERICAN GARDENIR. [Chap. of ashes, lime, Tags, and composts. And, besides, dung, in hot soils and hot climates, adds to the heat; while ashes, lime, rags and composts do not; but, on the contrary, they attract, and cause the earth to retain, moisture. 38. All the ground in a garden ought always to be good ; and it will be kept in this state if it be well manured once every year. Perhaps it will scarcely ever be convenient to any one to manure the whole garden at one time : and this is not of so much importance. Clay, or any earth, burnt, is excellent manure for a garden. It has no seeds of weeds or g-rass in it. A compost, made of such ashes, some wood-ashes, a small portion of horse- dung, rotten leaves, and mould shovelled up under trees, round buildings, or on the sides of roads. All these together, put into a heap, and turned over several times, make the best manure for a garden. 29. A great deal more is done by the fermenta- tion of manures than people generally imagine. In the month of June take twenty cart loads of earth, which has been shovelled off the surface of a grassy lane, or by a road side, or round about barns, stables, and the like. Lay these twenty loads about a foot thick on some convenient spot. Go and cut up twenty good cart-loads of weeds of any sort, and lay these well shaken up, on the earth. Then cover the weeds with twenty more cart-loads of earth like the former, throwing the earth on lightly. In three days you will see the heap smoke as if on fire. If you put your hand into the earth, you will find it too hot to be endured. In a, few days the heat will decline, and you will perceive the heap sink. Let it remain a week after this, and then turn it very carefully. This will mix the whole -wfell together. You will find the weeds and grass in a putrid state. I,] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 19 Another heating will take place, but less furious than the former. Turn it a second time in seven days : and a third time in neven days more. And by this time you will have forty cart loads of ma ure, equal in strength to twenty of yard dung, anc a vast deal better for a garden, or, indeed, for anv other land. It is not expensive to obtain this son of manure ; and such a heap, or part of such a heap, might at all times be ready for the use of the gai ' den. When such a heap were once formed, some ashes, fish-shells or bones reduced to powder, oi other enlivening matter, might be added to it, an(' mixed well with it ; and ihus would a store be al ways at hand for any part of the garden that mighi want it. FENCING. 30. Here, as in the case of Situation, I am sup- posing the garden about to be made. Those whc already have gardens, have fences. They may im- prove them, indeed, upon my plan ; but, I am sup- posing the case of a new garden ; and, I am also supposing a garden to be made in what I deem per' fection. Those who cannot, from whatever circum- stance, attain to this perfection, may, nevertheless, profit from these instructions ^s far as circumstances will allow. 31. The fence of a garden is an important mat- ter ; for, we have to view it not only as giving pro- tection against intruders, two-legged as well as four- legged, but as affording shelter in cold weather and shade in hot, in both which respects a fence may be made of great utility in an American Garden, where cold and heat are experienced in an extreme degree. 32. In England the kitchen-gardens of gentlemen are enclosed with walls from ten to sixteen feet high; but this, though it is useful, and indeed ne* 20 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap, cessary, in the way of protection against two-leo-ged intruders, is intended chiefly to afford the means of raising the fruit of Peaches^ Nectarines^ Apricots^ and Vines, which cannot, in England, be brought to perfection without walls to train them against ; for, though the trees will all grow very \Ye\\, and though a small sort of Apricots will sometimes ripen their fruit away from a wall, these fruits can- not, to any extent, be obtained, in England, nor the Peaches and Nectarines, even in France, north of the middle ol that country, without the aid of walls. Hence, in England, Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, and Grapes, are called Wall-Fruit. Cherries, Plums, and Pears, are also very frequently placed against walls ; and they are always the finer for it ; but, a wall is indispensably necessary to the four former. 33. In America a fence is not wanted for this pur- pose ; but it is very necessary for protection ; for shelter ; and for shade. As to the first, gardeners may scold as long as they please, and law-makers may enact as long as they please, mankind never will look upon taking fruit in an orchard or a gar- den diS felony nor even as trespass. Besides, there are, in all countries, such things as boys ; and every man remembers, if he be not very forgetful, that he himself was once a boy. So that, if you have a mind to have for your own use v/hat you grow in your garden, the only effectual security is an insur- mountable fence. This prevents the existence of temptation., in all cases dangerous, and particularly in that of forbidden fruit : therefore the matter re- duces itself to this very simple alternative : share the produce of your garden good-humouredly with the boys of the whole neighbourhood ; or, keep it for your own use by a fence which they cannot get I.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 21 through, under, or over. Such a fence, however it is no trifling matter to make. It must be pretty high ; and must present some formidable obstacles besides its height. 34. With regard to the second point ; the shelter ; this is of great consequence ; for, it is very well known, that, on the south side of a good high fence, you can have peas, lettuces, radish, and many other things, full ten days earlier in the spring, than you can have them in the unsheltered ground. Indeed, this is a capital consideration ; for you have, by this means, ten days more of spring than you could have without it. 35. The shade, during the s' nmer, is also valu- able. Peas will thrive in the snade long after they will no longer produce in the sun. Currant trees and Gooseberry trees will not do well in this cli- mate unless they be in the shade. Raspberries also are best in the shade ; and, during the heat of sum- mer, lettuces, radishes, and many < iher things, thrive best in the shade. 36. It will be seen presently, when I come to speak of the form of a garden, that I have fixed on an Oblong Square, twice as long as it is wide. This gives me a long fence on the North side and also on the South side. The form gives me a fine, warm extensive border in the spring, and the latter a border equally extensive and as cool as I can get it, in the heat of summer. Of the various benefits of this shelter and this shade I shall, of course, speak fully, when I come to treat of the cul- tivation of the several plants. At present I shall confine myself to the sort of fence that I would re- commend. 37. I am aware of the difficulty of overcoming long habit, and of introducing any thing that is new. 22 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap Yet, amongst a sensible people, such as those, for whose use this work is intended, one need not be afraid of ultimate success ; and I, above all men, ought not to entertain such fear, after what I have seen with regard to the Ruta Baga. The people of this country listen patiently ; and if they be not in haste to decide, they generally decide wisely at last. Besides, it is obvious to every one, that the lands, in the populous parts of the country, must be provided with a difi'erent sort of fence from that which is now in use; or, that they must be, in a few years, suffered to lay waste. 38. Yet, with all these circumstances in my fa- vour, I proceed with faultering accent to propose, even for a garden, a live fence, especially when I have to notice, that I know not how to get the plants, unless I, in the outset, bring them, or their seeds, from' England ! However, I must suppose this difficulty surmounted ; then proceed to describe this fence that I would have, if I could. 39. In England it is called a Quick-Set Hedge. The truth is, however, that it ought rather to be called an Everlasting Hedge ; for, it is not, as will be seen by-and-by, so i->ery quickly set ; or, at least, so very quickly raised. If I could carry my read- ers into Surrey, in England, and show them quick- set hedges, I might stop here, and only provide the seeds or plants. But, not being able to do that, I must, as well as I can, describe the thing on paper. The plants are those of the White Thorn. This thorn will, if it be left to grow singly, attain the hulk and height of an apple-tree. It bears while flowers in great abundance, of a very fragrant smell, which are succeeded by a little berry, which, when it is ripe in the fall, is of a red colour. Within the red pulp is a small stone : and this stone, being put I.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 23 in the ground, produces a plant, or tree, in the same manner that a cherry-stone does. The red berries are called haws ; whence this thorn is sometimes called the haw-thorn ; as in Goldsmith's Deserted Village : " The haw-thorn bush, with seats beneath the shade." The leaf is precisely like the Goose- berry leaf, only a little smaller ; the branches are every where armed with sharp thorns ; and the wood is very flexible and very tough. 40. The haws are sown in drills, like peas, and they are taken from that situation and planted very thick in rows, in a nursery, where they stand a year or two, if not wanted the first year. Then they are ready to be planted to become a hedge. in England there are two ways of planting a hedge, as to position of ground. One on a hank, with a ditch on the side : the other on the level ground. The latter is that, of which I have now to speak. 41. The ground for the Garden being prepared, in the manner before described under the head of Soil, you take up your quick-set plants, prune their roots to within four inches of the part that was at the top of the ground ; or, in other words, leave the root but four inches long, taking care to cut away all the fibres, for they always die ; and they do harm if they be left. Make the ground very fine and nice all round the edges of the piece intended for the garden. Work it well with a spade and make it very fine, which will demand but very little labour. Then place a line along very truly ; for, mind, you are planting for generations to come ! Take the spade, put the edge of it against the line ; drive it down eight or ten inches deep ; pull the eye of the spade towards you, and thus you make, all along a little open cut to receive the roots of the plants, which you will then put into the cut. 34 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap very upright, and then put the earth against them with your hand, taking care not to plant them deeper in the ground than they stood before you took them up from the nursery. The distance between each plant is twelve inches. When this line is done, plant another line all the way along by the side of it, and at six inches from it, in exactly the same manner : but, mind, in this second line, the plants are not to stand opposite the plants in the first line, but opposite the middles of the intervals. When both lines are planted, tread gently between them and also on the outsides of them, and then hoe the ground a little, and leave it nice and neat. 42. This work should be done in the first or se- cond week of October, even though the leaves should yet be on the plants. For, their roots will strike in this fine month, and the plants will be ready to start off in the spring in a vigorous manner. If you cannot do it in the fall, do it the moment the ground is fit in the spring; because, if you delay it too long, the heat and drought comes, and the plants cannot thrive so well. 43. In both cases the plants must be cut down almost close to the ground. If you plant in the fall, cut them down as soon as the frost is out of the ground in the spring, and before the buds begin to swell; and, if you plant in the spring, cut down as soon as you have planted. This operation is oi in- dispensable necessity ; for, without it you will have no hedge. This cutting down to within half an inch of the ground will cause the plants to send out shoots that will, in good ground, mount up to the length of three or four feet, during the summer. But, you must keep the ground between them and all about them very clean and frequently hoed; I.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 25 for the quick-sets love good culture as well as other plants. 44. Some people cut down again the next spring; but, this is not the best way. Let the plants stand two summers and three winters, and cut them all close down to the ground as you can in the spring, and the shoots will come out so thick and so strong, that you need never cut down any more. 45. But, you must, this year, begin to clip. At Midsummer, or rather, about the middle of July, you must clip off the top a little and the sides near the top, leaving the bottom not much clipped ; so that the side of the hedge may slope like the side of a pyramid. The hedge will shoot again imme- diately, and will have shoots six inches long, per- haps, by October. Then, before winter, you must clip it again, leaving some part of the new shoots, that is to say, not cutting down to your last cut, but keeping the side always in a pyramidical slope, so that the hedge may always be wide at bottom and sharp at the top. And thus the hedge will go on getting higher and higher, and wider and wider and wider, till you have it at the height and thick- mess that you wish ; and when it arrives at that point, there you may keep it. Ten feet high, and five feet through at bottom, is what I should choose; because then I have/e?ice, shelter and shade ; but, in the way of fence, five feet high will keep the boldest boy off from trees loaded with fine ripe peaches, or from a patch of ripe water-melons ; and, if it will do that, nothing further need be said upon the subject! The height is not great; but, unless the assailant have wings, he must be content with feasting his eyes ; for, if he attempt to climb the hedge, his hands and arms and legs are full of thorns in a moment; and he retreats as the fox did from 3 26 THE AMEKICAN GARDENER. [Chap, the grapes, only with pain of body in addition to that of a disappointed longing. I really feel some remorse in thus plotting against the poor fellows ; but, the worst of it is, they will not be content with fair play : they will have the earliest in the season, and the best as long as the season lasts; and, there- fore, I must, however reluctantly, shut them out altogether. 46. A hedge five clear feet high may be got in six years from the day of planting. And, now let us see what it has cost to get this fence round my proposed garden, which, as will be seen under the next head, is to be 300 feet long and 150 feet wide, and which is, of course, to have 900 feet length of hedge. The plants are to be a foot apart in the line, and there are to be two lines; consequently, there will be required 1800 plants, or suppose it to be two thousand. I think it will be strange indeed, if those plants cannot be raised and sold, at two years old, for two dollars a thousand. I mean fine stout plants ; for, if your plants be poor, little slen- der things that have never been transplanted, but just pulled up out of the spot where they were sown, your hedge will be a year longer before it come to a fence, and will never, without extraordi- nary care, be so good a hedge; for, the plants' ought all to be as nearly as possible of equal size ; else some get the start of others, subdue them, and keep them down, and this makes an uneven hedge, with weak parts in it. And, when the plants are first pulled up out of the seed-bed, they are too small to enable you clearly to ascertain this ine^ quality of size. When the plants are taken out of the seed-bed and transplanted into a nursery^ they are assorted by the nursery men, who are used to the business. The strong ones are transplanted I,] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. '47 into one place, and the weak ones into another: so that, when they come to be used for a hedge, they are already equalized. If you can get plants three years old they are still better. They will make a complete hedge sooner ; but, if they be two years old, have been transplanted, and, are at the bottom, as big as a large goose quill, they are every thing that is required. 47. The cost of the plants is, then, four dollars. The pruning of the roots and the planting is done, in England, for about three half pence a rod; that is to say, about three cents. Let us dtWow twelve cents here. I think I could earn two dollars a day at this work; but, let us allow enough! In 900 feet there are 54 rod and a few feet over : and, therefore, the planting of the hedge would cost about seven dollars, To keep it clean from weeds would require about two days work in a year for five oi six years : twelve dollars more. To do the necessary clipping during the same time, would re- quire about thirty dollars, if it were done in an ex- traordinary good manner, and with a pair of Garden Shears. So tliat the expenses to get a complete hedge round the garden would be as follows : D. c. Plants .... 4 00 Planting ... 7 00 Cultivation . . 12 00 Clipping ... 30 00 Total . . 53 00 48. And thus are a fence, shelter and shade, of everlasting duration, for a garden, containing an acre of land, to be obtained for this trifling sum ! Of the beauty of such a hedge it is impossible for any one, who has not seen it, to form an idea: con- 28 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap trasted with a wooden, or even a brick fence, it is like the land of Canaan compared with the deserts of Arabia. The leaf is beautiful in hue as well as in shape. It is one of the very earliest in the spring. It preserves its bright green during the summer heats. The branches grow so thick and present thorns so numerous, and those so sharp, as to make the fence wholly impenetrable. The shelter it gives in the early part of spring, and the shade it gives (on the other side of the garden) in the heat of summer, are so .much more efiectual than those given by wood or brick or stone fences, that there is no comparison between them. The Primrose and the 'Violet^ which are the earliest of all the flowers of the fields in England, always make their first appearance under the wings of the Haw-Thorn. Goldsmith, in describing female innocence and sim- plicity, says : " Sweet as Primrose peeps beneatii the Thorn." This Haw-Thorn is the favourite plant of England : it is seen as a flowering shrub in all gentlemen's pleasure-grounds ; it is the con- stant ornament of paddocks and parks ; the first ap- pearance of its blossoms is hailed by old and young as the sign of pleasant weather ; its branches of flowers are emphatically called " May," because, according to the Old Style, its time of blooming was about the first of May, which, in England is called *' May-Day ;" in short, take away the Haw-Thorn, and you take away the greatest beauty of the En- glish fields and gardens, and not a small one from English rural poetry. 49. And why should America not possess this most beautiful and useful plant ? She has English gew-gaws, English Play-Actors, English Cards and English Dice and Billiards ; English fooleries and English vices enough in all conscience ; and why I.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 29 not English Hedges^ instead of post-and-rail and board fences? If, instead of these steril-lookingand cheerless enclosures the gardens and meadows and fields, in tKe neighbourhood of New York and other cities and towns, were divided by quick-set hedges, what a difference would the alteration make in the look, and in the real value too, of those gardens, meadows and fields! 50. It may be said, perhaps, that, after you have got your hedge to the desired height, it must still be kept clipped twice in the summer ; and that, therefore, if the fence is everla.'^tijig, the trouble of it is also everlasting. But, in the first place, you can have nothing good from the earth without an- nual care. In the next place, a wooden fence will soon want nailing and patching annually, during the years of its comparatively short duration. And, lastly, what is the annual expense of clipping, when you have got your hedge to its proper height and width, and when the work may be done with a long- handled hook instead of a pair of shears, which is necessary at first? In England such work is done for a penny a rod, twice in the summer. Allow three times as much in America, and then the an- nual expense of the garden liedge will be less than four dollars a year. 51. Thus, then, at the end of the first twenty years, the hedge would have cost a hundred and nine dollars. And, for ever after, it would cost only eighty dollars in twenty years. Now, can a neat boarded fence, if only eight feet high, an^I to last twenty years, be put up for less that six dol- lars a rod? I am convinced that it cannot; and, then, here is an expense for every twenty years, of three hundred and forty-eight dollars. A Locust fence, I allow, will last for ever ; but, then, what 3* 30 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap will a. fehce all of Locust^ cost ? Besides the differ' eiice in the look of the tiling ; besides the vast dif- ference in tiie naiure and effect of the shelter and the shade ; and besides, that, after all, you have, in the wooden lence, no effectual protection against invaders. 52. However, there is one thing, which must not be omitted; and that is, that the hedge will not be a. fence, or, at least, I would not look upon it as such, until it had been planted six years. During these six years, there must be a fence all round on the outside of it, to keep ofi' pigs, sheep and cattle: for, as to the two-legged assailants nothing will keep them off except a quick-set hedge. If I had to make this temporory fence, it should be a dead hedge, made of split hickory rods, like those that hoops are made of, and with stakes? of the stoutest parts of the same rods, or of oak saplings, or some such things. The workmanship of this, if I had a Hampshire or Sussex hedger, would not cost me more than six cents a rod : perhaps, the stuff would not cost more than a quarter of a dollar a rod ; and this fence would last, with a little mending, as long as I should want it. But, as few good hedgers come from England, and as those who do come appear to think, that they have done enough of hedging in their own country, or, if they be set to hedging here, seem to look upon themselves as a sort of conjurors, and to expect to be paid and treated accordingly, the best way, probably, is, to put up a temporary pos*-and-riil fence, sufficient to keep out a sucking pig : and to keep this fence standing until the hedge has arrived at the age of six years, as before men- tioned. 53. There yet remains one advantage, and that not a small one, that a quick-set hedge possesses I.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 31 over every other sort of fence ; and that is, that it eflectually keeps out poultry^ the depreciations of which, in a nice garden, are so intolerable, that it frequently becomes a question, whether the garden shall be abandoned, or the poultry destroyed. Fowls seldom, or never, fly over a fence. They, from mo- tives of prudence, first alight upon it, and then drop down on the other side ; or, if they perceive dan- ger, turn short about, and drop back again, making a noise expressive of their disappointment. Now, Fowls will alight on wooden, brick, or stone fences; but never on a quick-set hedge, which affords no steady lodgment for their feet, and which wounds their legs and thighs and bodies with its thorns. 54. What has been said here of forming a hedge applies to meadows and fields as well as to gardens ; observing, however, that, in all cases, the ground ought to be well prepared, and cattle, sheep and pigs kept effectually off, until the hedge arrive at its sixth year. 55. If I am asked how the white thorn plants are to be had in America, I answer, that I saw a Tree of Hawthorn at McAUister^s Tavern, near Harris- burg, in Pennsylvania, loaded with red berries. In short, one large tree, or bush, would soon stock the whole country ; and they may be brought from England, either in plant or in berry. But, there are many here already. If more are wanted, they can be had any month of December, being shipped from England, in barrels, half sand and half berries in November. The berries, which are called haws are ripe in November. They are beaten down from the tree, and cleared from leaves and bits of wood. Then they are mixed with sand, or earth, four bushels of sand, or of earth, to a bushel of haws. They are thus put into a cellar, or other cool place ; 32 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. and here they remain, always about as moist as common earth, until sixteen months after ihey are put in ; that is to say, through a winter, a summer^ and another winter ; and then they are sown (in America) as soon as the frost is clean out of the ground. They ought to be sown in little drills ; the drills a foot a part, and the haws about as thick as peas in the drills. Here they come up ; and, when they have stood 'till the next year, you pro- ceed with them in the manner pointed out in para- graph 40. 56. These haws may be had from Liverpool, from London, or from almost any port in Great Britain or Ireland. But, they can be had only in the months of November and December. Seldom in the latter ; for, the birds eat them at a very early period. They are ripe early in November ; and, half haws half sand, may be had, I dare say, for two dollars a bar- rel, at any place. Three barrels would fence a farm ! And, as America owes to Europe her Wheats why be ashamed to add fences to the debt ? But (and with this I conclude,) if there be a resolution formed to throv/ all lands to common, rather than take the trifling trouble to make live fences, I do hope that my good neighbours will not ascribe these remarks to any disposition in me to call in question the wisdom of that resolution. Figure I, in Plate IV. exhibits a piece of the Garden-Hedge in eleva- tion, in the winter season. See this Plate IV. in Chapter V. LAYING-OUT. 57. The Laying-out of a Garden consists in the division of it into several parts, and in the allotting of those several parts to the several purposes for which a garden is made. These parts consist of I.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 33 34 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. Walks, Paths, Plats, Borders and a Hot-Bed Ground. 58. To render my directions more clear as well as more brief, I have given a plan of my proposed garden, Plate I. This is not, strictly speaking, a plan ; because it exhibits trees in elevation; but it will answer the purpose. Of the sorts of which these trees are, and of other circumstances belong- ing to them, I shall speak fully under the head of Fruits. The precise description of the Hot-Beds will be found under that head. At present my ob- ject is to explain the mode of Laying-out the Ground. 59. The length of the Garden is 100 yards, the breadth 50 yards, and the area contains a statute acre ; that is, 160 Rods of 16^ feet to the Rod. In order to bring my length and breadth within round numbers, I have been obliged to add 6 rod and 58 square feet ; but, with this trifling addition here is a spot containing an acre of land. Before, how- ever, I proceed further, let me give my reasons for choosing an Oblong Square, instead of a Square of equal sides. It will be seen, that the length of my garden is from East to West. By leaving a greater length in this direction than from North to South, three important advantages are secured. First, we get a long and warm border under the North fence for the rearing of things early in the spring. Se- cond, we get a long and cool border under the South fence for shading, during the great heats, things, to which a burning sun is injurious. Fourth, by this shape of the area of the Garden a larger portion of the whole is sheltered, during winter and spring, from the bleak winds. 60. Having such a spot before us, little difficulty can arise in Laying it out^ Indeed, it is only ne- cessary to state the dimensions. The several parts I.] hK AMERrCAN GARDENER. 30 are distinguished by niimhers. The long walk, ruining from East to West, is 6 feet wide, as is also the cross walk, in the middle. All the paths are 3 feet wide. The borders, Nos. 2 and 3, are 9 feet wide. The dimensions of the Plats Nos. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, are (each) 70 feet from East to "West and 56 from North to South. Plat, No. 6, is 56 feet by 50. Plat, No. 4, is 60 feet by 36. The Hot-bed Ground, No. 1, is 70 feet by 36. I leave trilling fractions unnoticed. In the English garden- ing books, they call those parts of the garden " Quarters,'''' which I call Plats ; but, for what rea- scii they so call them it would be difficult to conjec- ture. I call them plats, which is the proper word, and a word, too, universally understood. A plat is a piece of ground : and it implies, that the piece is small, compared with other larger portions, such as fields, lots, and the like. I will just anticipate here, that when beds for asparagus, onions, and other things, are made, they should run across the plats from North to South ; and that rows of Corn, Peas, and Beans, and other larger things in rows, should have the same direction. But, when beds are sown with smaller things, the rows of those things must go across the beds ; as will be seen when we come to speak of sowing. 61. As to the art of Laying-out, it would be to insult the understanding of an American Farmer to suppose him to stand in need of any instructions. A chain, or a line, and pole, are all he can want for the purpose, and those he has always at hand. To form the walks and paths, is, in fact, to lay out the Garden ; but, the walks and paths must be made not only visible, but must be dug out. The way is to take out the earth about four inches deep, and spread it over the adjoining ground, some on each 36 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap side of the walk or path, taking care to fling, or carry, the earth, so dug out, to such a distance, that every part of the ground, which is not walk or path, receive an equal proportion of what is thus dug out. Gravel may be put in the walks and paths : it makes the whole look neater ; but, in a country where the frost is so hard in winter and the ground so dry in r^ummer, gravel can hardly be said to be necessary^ while it may be troublesome ; for, in spite of all you can do, a part of it will get into the borders ; and, there it must do harm. 62. It will be seen, that about a third part of the Garden is appropriated to Fruit Trees. The rea- son for this, and the uses of the other parts of the ground, will be fully stated in the Chapters on Cul- tivation. I have here treated merely of the form and the dimensions, and of the division, of the Gar- den. It is in treating of the cultivation of the seve- ral sorts of plants that our attention will be brought back to a close contemplation of the several parts included in this division. CHAPTER II. On the Making and Managing of Hot Beds and Green-houses. HOT-BEDS. 63. I AM not about to lay down rules for persons who can afford to have cucumbers in March. This amounts to something little short oi folly in Eng- land : in America, it would be something worse. But, Hot-Beds, as things of real use, are more ne- cessary in America than in England ; because in the former country, the winter will not suffer to exist 11.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 37 in the open air many plants, which are wanted to start with the warm sun, and which plants the win- ter will suffer to exist in the open air in England. The American Spring bears no resemblance to that of England, which comes on by degrees from the end of February to the beginning of June ; while the American Spring cannot be said to be of a fort- night's duration. There is, in fact, no Spring : there is a Winter, a Summer and an Autumn, but no Spring; and none would ever have been thought of, if the word had not come from Europe along with many others equally inapplicable. 64. Tliis sudden transition from a winter, which not only puts a total stop to, but effaces all traces of, vegetation, to a summer, which, in an instant, creates swarms of insects, or warms them into life, sets the sap in rapid motion, and, in six days, turns a brown rye-field into a sheet of the gayest ver- dure ; this sudden transition presents the gardener, or the farmer, with ground well chastened by the frost, smoking with fermentation, and with a sun ready to push forward every plant ; but, alas ! he has no plants ! I know, that there are persons, who do preserve lettuce, cabbage, and other plants, during the winter, and that there are persons, who rear them on Hot-beds in the Spring ; but, what I aim at, is, to render the work easy to - farmers in particular ; not only as the means of supplying their tables, but the stalls of their cattle, and the yards of their sheep and pigs. In the summer (a cruelly dry one) of 1819, who, within many miles of my house in Long Island, had a loaved cabbage, except myself? During June, July and August, I allowed fifteen a day for my own family : I gave ten a. day to one neighbour ; to others I gave about five hundred, perhaps, first and last ; and, the plants 4 38 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. were all raised in one single light, four feet by three and a half on a hot-bed, made on the I9th of March. The hot-bed had six lights altogether, and was about twenty feet long ; but, the part appro- priated to these cabbages was only four feet by three and a half The plants came out of this bed on the 20th of April and were planted three inches apart on another bed, without glass, but covered at night with a cloth. On the 20th of May, they were planted out in the open ground ; and, on the llth of June we began to eat them. All these cabbages, Early Dwarfs, Early Yorks, Sugar Loaves, and Battersea, (coming in one sort after the other) amounting to about/o?/r thousand in number, stood, when planted out, upon rather less than thirty rods of ground ; and the earliest sorts, while we were using them so liberally, were selling in New York market at from 6 to 4 pence a piece. 65. To preserve, during Winter, such a number of plants, or, indeed, any number, however small, is a work of great difficulty, and is merely chance- work after all. Besides, fall-sown plants are not so good as spring-sown. They become stunted ; and they very frequently go off to seed, instead of pro- ducing loaves. However, it is not my business to treat here of cultivation : I am here lo speak of the Making and- Managing of hot-beds. This must, of course, include a description of tlie Wood and Glass, when formed into Frames and Lights. But, first of all, I must treat of the making of the bed. f)6. The materials of which the bed is to be com- posed, and the manner of preparing those mate- rials, are first to be spoken of 67. Dung of horses, cattle, sheep or pigs, is used to make the bed of. Either nay be made to da. 11] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 39 with a greater or less degree of care and trouble ; Diit, the best possible thing is dung from the stable, taken away before it has been rotted, short and long promiscuously, but raiher long than short. If there be a large proportion of short, it may have any lit- ter added to it ; any broken straw or hay or corn stalks, in order to make a due mixture of long and short. 68. This choosing of the materials being a very important point, I shall, in order to make my in- structions clear, suppose a case, and such a case as will be very clear to every American Farmer. 69. By the month of March he has always a heap of dung, which has, from time to time, been thrown out of his stable, during the winter and fall. This is so?iie long and some short. Let the whole of this (supposing there to be three horses kept) be taken ; and, in addition, a pretty good wagon load of long stained stuff from the cow-yard, or sheep- yard. Toss it down in a heap, near where you are going to make the bed. Then begin on one side of ft, and take the stuff and begin making a fresh heap of it. Shake every fork full well to pieces, and mix well the long with the short; and thus go on, till you have the whole in a round heap rising to a point. 70. The second day after this heap is made it will begin to send {orth steam. Let it remain three days in this state ; that is to say, four clear days after the day of making the heap. Then turn the heap back again ; shaking all well to pieces, as be- fore, and bringing to the inside that part of the stuff which was before on the outside of the heap. Let it remain now three clear days after the day of turn- ing. Then turn it again ; shaking well to pieces, as before, and bringing again the outside stuff tc 40 THE AMERICAN GARDENl R. [Chap the inside. When it has remained two clear days in this state, it is fit to make the bed with. 71. In the making the bed you will proceed as directed below; but I must first describe the Frame and the Lights. Were I speaking to persons liv ing in a country, where there is no such thing as a hot-bed frame, I should be obliged to enter into a detailed mechanical description. But, as Frames and Lights are to be seen in almost every consider- able town in America ; and, as I have known very few American Farmers, who are not able to make both with their own hands, without any help from either carpenter or glazier, it will be necessary merely for me to say, that the Frame is of the best shape when it is eighteen inches deep at the hack, and nine inches deep at the front. This gives slope enough, and especially in a country where there is so little rainy weather. The Frame is the wood work, on which the Lights, or glass-work, are laid. There needs no more than a good look at a thing of this sort to know how to make it, or to order it to be made. And, as it is useless to make a hot-bed without having the Frame and the Lights ready, I shall suppose them to be prepared. I suppose a three-light Frame, four feet wide and nine feet long, which, of course, will make every Light three feet wide and /o-wr long ; because, the long way of the Light fits, of course, the cross way of the Frame. 72. Now, then, to the work of m,aking the bed. The front of the bed is, of course, to be full South, so that the noon sun may come right upon the glass. The length and width of the bed mvst be those ot the Frame. Therefore, take the Frame itself, and place it on the spot which you mean the bed to stand on. See that you have it rightly placed ; and then, 11.] THE AMERI^JAN GARDENER. 41 with a pointed stick, make a mark in the ground all round the outside of the Frame. Then take the Frame away. Then take some sharp-pomted straight stakes, and drive them in the ground, at each corner of tliis marked-out place for the bed, and one or two on the back and on the front side. Let these be about four feet high. They are to be your guides in building the bed ; and, they ought, there- fore, to be very straight, and to be placed perfectly upright. Each stake may be placed about an mch further out than the mark on the ground ; for fear of having the bed too narrow ; though, observe, the bed should be as nearly the same length and breadth as the Frame as it is practicable to make it. 73. In order to begin the work well, it is a very ffoodway, to put some boards on iheir edges, on the ground, at the ends and sides, on the insides of the stakes ; so as to have a sort of open box to be- gin to make the bed in. The eye of a gardener scorns such assistance ; but it is very useful to per- sons unused to the work. 74. Thus, all being prepared, you begin making the bed. Begin taking the dung on the side of your heap nearf St to the spot where you are building the bed. Keep taking up clean to the ground. Have shovel as well as fork. Take long and short fairly, and mix them well as you put them in. Shake the stuff in such a way as not to suffer any lumps. Shake every straw from every other straw. Let the bed rise in all parts together as nearly as possible. That is to say, do not put mMch in one part at one time. Beat the whole down with the fork as you proceed. When you have shaken on dung to the thickness of four or five inches, beat all over well again ; and so on, till the work be finished. But mind: you must be very careful to keep the edges 4* 42 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. of the bed well beaten ; or else they will be more hollow^ and wiJl sink more, tliati the rest, and then the earth on the bed will crack in the middle. Beat them well ; keep them well up as you proceed ; beat well the sides of the bed, as it goes on rising. Comb the sides frequently down with the spanes of the fork. And, in short, make the sides upright, and smooth and neat as a wall. As you proceed, measure the height frequently ; in the different parts of the bed, to see that you are keeping the height every where the same. At last, shovel and sweep up all the short earthy stuff round the bed and where your dung-heap was, and lay it very smoothly on the top of the bed ; and make all as smooth and as level as a die with the back of your shovel. 75. Thus the bed is made. Then put on the Frame, and fix it nicely. Then put the Light*; upon the Frame. If you finish your bed by noon, the heat will begin to rise by the next morning ; and, by the noon of the second day after the bed is made, the heat will be up. Poke your finger as deep as you can into the middle of the bed, when you have taken off one of the Lights. If the heal be so great as to burn your linger ; that is to say, if you cannot endure the heat; then it is too great to receive the earth ; hvn, if not, pzit on the earth all over the bed. If the heat be too great, give the bed a little air, and wait till a little of the heat be gone off. 76. The earth should be dry ; not like dust ; but, not wet. I made provision for my bed, by putting earth in my cellar, in November. It is not much that is v/anted. The bed is to be covered all over, about six inches deep. When the earth has been on twenty-four hours, take off the lights, and stii II.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 43 tlie earth well with your hands ; for, hands are the only tools used in a hot-bed. When you have stirred the earth well, and made it level and smooth, you may sow your seed, if you do not find the earth too hot. But, observe, the earth is to be level, and not sloping like the glass. The glass is sloping to meet the sun, and to turn off the wet ; but, the earth must lie perfectly level ; and this, you will observe, is a very great point. 77. Next comes the act of sowing. The more handsomely this is done, the better it is done. A handsome dress is better than an ugly one, not be- cause it is warmer, or cooler, but because, liking it better, being more pleased with it, we take more care of it. Those who have seen two or three wo- men together, crossing dirty streets, or in danger from horses or carriages, where the volunteer as- sistance of men became useful ; those philosophers, who have been spectators of scenes like this, cannot have failed to discover, that humanity, like smote, is very apt to fly to the fairest ; and I much ques- tion whether Nicodemus Broadbrim himself, if he saw a pretty girl and an ugly one stuck in the mud, would not give his hand to the former. He would hand them both out to a certainty ; but, he would extricate the pretty one first. There is a great deal in the look of our gardens and fields ; and, surely, in so diminutive a concern as a hot-bed, all ought to be neat and regular. Seeds are great tell- tales ; for, when they come up, we discover all the carelessness that may have prevailed at the sowing of them. 78. When you have taken ofl^all the lights, make little drills with your finger, from the back of the bed to the front, half an inch deep and about an inch apart. Make them equi-distant, parallel, and 44 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. straight. Then drop in your Cabbage seeds along the drills, very ihin ; but, twenty seeds, perhaps in an inch ; for, some Avill not grow, and some may be pulled up when they appear. It is better to have rather too many than too few. When you have dropped in your seeds all over the bed, and distin- guished the several sorts of Cabbages by names, or numbers, written on a bit of paper, and put into the cleft of a little stick, stuck in the ground ; then cover all the seeds over neatly and smoothly. Put on the lights ; and look upon your spring work as happily begun. 79. But, now we come to the management of a hot-bed. And, observe, that the main principle is, always to give as much air as the plants will en- dure. I have always observed, that the great and prevalent error is, an endeavour to obtain^ by exclu- sion of air, something to make up for the want of bottom heat. It is not thus that nature operates. She gives the air as well as the heat ; and, without the former she gives nothing. I suppose the hot- bed, made as above, to be about four feet high, when just finished. It will sink as it heats ; and will, at last, come to about a foot and a half. Its heat will gradually diminish ; but, it will give a great heat for about six weeks ; and some heat for four months. It is this bottom heat that makes things grow. The sun is often hot in May ; but, it is not till the earth is warm that vegetation ad- vances with rapidity. 80. Having secured the bottom heat, make free with the air. Even before the seeds begin to ap- pear, give air to the bed e/ery day, unless it be very cold weather indeed. The usual way of giving air is by bits of thick board, cut in the shape of a tri- angle, or, rather, like a wedge, broad at one end, II.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 45 and coming to a point at the other. Each light is lifted up, either at back or front of the frame, as the wind may be, and the wedge, or filter, as it is called, is put in, to hold the light up. But, if more air be wanted, the lights may be shoved up, or down ; and, in a fine day, actually taken off. 81. When the plants come up, they will soon tell you all about air ; for, if they have not enough, they will draw up long-legged, and will have small seed leaves, and, indeed, if too much deprived of air, will drop down and die. Take care in time to prevent this. Let them grow strong rather than tall. Short stems, broad seed leaves, very green ; these are the signs of good plants and proper ma- nagement. 82. It will be necessary to water. Take off a light at a time, and water with a watering pot that does not pour out heavily. Water just about sun- set : and then shut down the lights ; and the heat will then rise, and make the plants grow prodi- giously. 83. As soon as the plants are fairly up, thin them, leaving four in an inch; and stir the ground about, at the same time with your finger. This will leave in the frame from twenty-five to thirty thousand plants. If you want less, sow in wide rows and thinner in the row. But, above all things, give air enough. Do not attempt to make the Y>\anis grow fast. You are sure to destroy them, if you make this attempt. Have patience. The plants will be ready soon enough. Get them strong and green ; and, to do this, you must give them plenty of air. Remember, that, out of a thousand failures in hot-bed culture, nine hundred and ninety- nine arise from the giving of too little air. 84 Before I p oceed to the time of taking the 46 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap plants out of the bed, I must make a remark or two respecting shelter for hot-beds ; and this leads me back to the Plan of the Garden. In that plan (Plate I.) is the Hot-bed Ground, No. 1, which is 70 feet by 36. The fence to the North and West is the hedge, and that to the South and East ought to be made of Broom Corn Stalks, in this manner : Put some Locust-Posts along at eight or ten feet apart. Let these posts be ten feet high and squared To three inches by three inches. Lay a bed of bricks, or smooth stones, along the ground from post to post, and let this bed be about seven or eight inches wide. This bed is for the bottoms of the Broom-Corn Stalks to stand on. Go on one side of the row of posts, and nail three rows of strips, or laths (best of Locust,) to the posts. The first row at a foot and a half from the ground ; the second row at six feet from the ground ; and third row within six inches of the top of the posts. Then do the same on the other side of the posts. Thus you will have a space of three inches wide, all the way along, between these op- posite rows of strips. Then take tine, long, straight Broom-Corn Stalks, and fill up this space with them, full and tight, putting them, of course, bottoms downwards, and placing these bottoms upon the bricks. WJien the whole is nicely filled, strain a line from top of post to top of post, and according to that line, cut off the tops of the Broom-Corn Stalks ; and, while the fence will look very hand- some, it will be a shelter much more effectual than pales or a wall ; and, in my opinion, will last as long as the former, unless the former be made wholly of Locust. Stalks, rushes, reeds, straw, twigs, bows, any thing of this kind, formed into a fence, or put up as shelter, is preferable to any n .1 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 47 thing smooth and solid. Grass will shoot earlier under a biish<, than under a wall, or even a house. A wall will not save your ears from the sharp winds so effectually as even a thin hedge. The American farmer knows well the warmth that walls of Corn- Stalks afford. 85. However, it is not to be presumed, that a Hot-Bed Ground will be made by every farmer ; and, therefore, before I proceed further with my mstructions about it, let me proceed upon the sup- position, that the aforementioned bed is made in some open place. In this case it will be necessary to use some precautions as to shelter. 86. While the dung is working, before it be made into the bed, it must, in case of very sharp frost, be covered, especially on the North and North West sides. If it be not, it will freeze on these sides, and, of course, will not ferment. However, this is no troublesome job : you have only to throw on a parcel of straw, or stalks ; and take them off* again, when the frost relaxes. When the bed is made, this is what I did. I drove some stakes down, four feet distant from the bed, opposite the North Side and the West End. I tacked a pole from stake to stake ; and then I placed up along against this pole, three or four rows of sheaves of tall Corn-Stalks. This sheltered the bed from the North West winds, and prevented it from freezing on that quarter. Some sheaves might, besides, if necessary, be laid against the bed itself. But, ob- serve, you must be able to get at the Lights con- stantly to give air, and to see how things go on ; and, therefore, it is better to have your shelter at some feet distance from the bed. 87. We now return to the bed and the plants. I suppose the seed to have been sown on the 10th of 48 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Cliap, March {Long Island^ mind,) and that you have been very attentive to give air and water. By tlie 10th of April, the plants will have eight leaves, and they will form one solid patch of green. They will be a little drawn up, though you have given them plenty of air. And now thqv must be re- moved into a new bed. Dig out the ground a foot deep, four feet wide, and to as great a length as is required by your number of plants. Fill this hol- low up with the best dung you have, cover it over with four inches of good earth ; and plant your plants upon it in rows four inches apart, and two inches apart in the row. When you have put out the plants, water them lightly ; and shade them for two or three days from the sun. They must also be sheltered every night, in this manner. Take some rods, put one end of each rod into the ground on one side of the bed, and the other end on the other side ; put these rods at about two feet asunder all along the bed ; then tie some rods long ways to these arched rods ; so that, when you have done, your bed has an arch over it formed by these rods. Every evening about sun-set, cover this arch with mats, with old carpets, or with a slight covering ot any sort, which take off again at sun-rise in the morning. 88. To put out all your plants in this way will require a very long bed, or many short ones. If, therefore, your number of plants be very large, the best way will be to put out a part of them in this way, leave the remainder in the hot bed a week longer, (taking off the lights in the day time,) and then to plant all the remainder out in beds of fine rich earth, in the natural ground, and without any covering. 89. Now here we drop, for the present, the II.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 49 subject of Cabbage-Plants ; because I am to speak of their culture, under the word, Cabbage^ in that part of the work, which will treat of the cultiva- tion of Vegetables. I am, in this part of my work, to confine myself to the making and managing of Hot-Beds ; and, I have selected the Cabbage-Plant^ as a subject for explaining my meaning, because 1 think that the raising of that plant is one of the most useful purposes, to which a hot-bed can be applied in America. 90. But, a Hot-Bed may be applied to many other purposes. Lettuces may be raised in it. Pepper- grass, Radishes, young Onions, may be raised. Parsley-roots may be put in, and fine parsley ob- tained in March. Asparagus may be raised in this way. It is not worth while to attempt to bring Cucumbers and Melons to fruit m a hot-bed : but the plants may be raised there, and afterwards put out in the ground with great advantage in point of time. Several sorts of annual j?02z;er5 and oi Green- house plants may he got forward by a hot-bed, which, without it, can hardly be got at all to any great degree oi perfection. Of the management of these sorts of plants in a hot-bed I shall speak under their several names ; hni^ on the manage- ment of hot-beds, there yet remain to be made some observations, which have a general applica- tion. 91. As to heat and air it will demand but little attention to manage well. But, a little Termo- metre, hung up, or laid down, in the bed, will be of use. The heat should not exceed seventy-five degrees in the day time, and sixty at night. If it come down to fifty at night it is better. If you cannot keep it down to sixty without giving a little air at night, give it, by putting something under a 5 50. THE AMERICAN GARDENER, fChap. light, or two lights, to let in a little of the cold. For, always bear in mind, that, when plants, of whatever kind, be drawn up, they are nearly spoiled. 92. When the Sun comes upon the glass, it soon augments the heat ; and the air must be given im- mediately if possible, so as to keep down the heat. Changes are very sudden in March, April, and May; and, ihevelove, somebody should always be at hand to attend to the hot-bed. But, if the mas- ter be from home, there is, surely, some man ; or, at any rate, a wife, a son, or a daughter. The la- bour is nothing, the trouble very little indeed, and all that is wanted is a small portion of care. 93. It may happen that the bed will get too cool. It may lose its heat sooner than you could wish, especially if you use it for Cucumber and Melon- plants after you have used it for things that you want earlier ; and, I shall show, that this may be very useful in certain cases. Now, if the heat be too much diminished, you may easily restore it, thus : make a little narrow hot-bed, a foot and a half wide, all round the bed. Put the dung together as before ; place it close to the bed ; beat it well ; and build it up, all round, as high as the top of the Frame. This is called lining ; and it will give the bed nearly as much heat as it had at first. If you do not want so much heat, line only the ha<:k of the bed ; or the back and the tiuo ends. In short, take as much heat as you may want. 94. Before I dismiss the subject of hot-beds, I must notice, that there are other contrivances than frames resorted to in this kind of garden work. A frame is, as we here see, a wooden construction, for lights of glass to be placed on. For smaller concerns there are very convenient things, callp-J hand-lights, or hand-glasses. A hand-glass is > II.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. , 51 square glass-house in miniature. Its sides are about eight inches high from the ground to the eves. The roof rises from each side in a triangular form, so that it comes to a point at the top, as a pyramid does, the base of which is a square. At this point is a stout ring, to lift the hand-glass about by. The panes of glass are fixed in lead ; and the rim round the bottom is made of iron or of wood. Any glazier can make these hand-lights, and they are by no means expensive. Here, where the tax upon glass is so slight, they cannot be more ex- pensive than in England ; and there they do not cost much more than a dollar each. They may be made of almost any size. About 18 inches square at the base is a very good size. In «the gardens near London there are acres of ground covered with such glasses. It is the custom there to plant out cauliflowers in the fall, and to cover them, in severe weather, during winter, with hand-glasses. A hand-glass may, in April, be put over a hot-bed made with a wheel-harrow full of dung. It would bring on cabbage plants enough for two or three gardens. It is handy to sow things under in the natural ground, in the spring, especially flowers that are to be transplanted ; for, on the natural ground, it adds to the heat in the day, and keeps off* cold and slight frost in the night. Air is given, by putting a brick, or bit of wood, under one of the sides of the hand-glass. 95. Now, look back at the Plan of the garden. No. I, is the Hot-bed Ground. It is seventy feet long and thirty-six wide. It is wide enough to con- tain four rows of hot-beds, with room for linings. But, though a tenth part of this should not be wanted, the place is a warm place, and is better for tender things than a colder place. The entrance to 63 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Cliap. it from the Western door of the garden is conve- nient for the carrying in of dung, and for carrying it out again for the use of the garden. 96. Here would be room for a greal deal more beds, certainly, than can ever be wanted even in a gentleman's garden. But, observe, the room is no evil. Whatever is not used for hot-beds may be applied to other purposes. This is a sheltered spot ; and, it will, by and by, be seen, that, even if not used for hot-beds at all ; such a spot must be of great utility. GREEN-HOUSES. 97. My object is not to treat of any thing very expensive, or very curious. There are persons, whose taste greatly differs from mine in regard to shrubs and flowers ; and I by no means pretend to say that mine is the best. But, I can treat of no- thing that I do not U7iderstand, that is to say, of nothing with regard to which I have not had expe- rience. My study, as to gardening, has always been directed towards things that please the senses : in vegetables, things that please the palate, and that, to use the common saying, are good to eat : in shrubs and flowers, things that delight the sight, or the smell. Mere botanical curiosities, as they are call- ed, I never took delight in. If the merit of a plant or a flower is not to be discovered without close and somewhat painful examination, it has always appeared to me not worth the looking for. There is, in fact, nothing more curious in one plant, or flower, than in another. They are all equally cu- rious ; they are equally objects of wonder. There is more of rareness, in England, in the Indian Corn than in the Cowslip ; but here, the Cowslip would have the merit of rareness. The ice-plant, the egg- olant, and many others, have oddity to recommend II.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 53 them ; but, after all, oddity is but a poor recom- mendation. What are thousands of these when compared to a single rose bush in bloom ! 98. I am rather anticipating here ; but, I wished to explain why I do not recommend any very great pains in the affair of a green-house. The plants to keep in such a place I will talk of hereafter. At present I am to speak of the 7naking and the ma- naging of such a place. 99. A green-house is for the purpose of having plants and flowers flourishing, or, at least, in ver- dure and in bloom, in winter. The best place for a green-house, is, near the dwelling house, and, it should be actually joined to the dwelling house, one of the rooms of which should have windows looking into the green-house, which latter, how- ever, must face the South. When the thing can be thus contrived, it is very pretty. It renders a long winter shorter in appearance ; and, in such cases, appearances are realities. A door, opening from a parlour into a green-house, makes the thing very pleasant and especially in a country like America, where, for six months, every thing like verdure is completely absent from the fields and gardens. And, if the expense be but small, such a pleasure may, surely, be afl^orded to the females of a family, though, to afl'ord it, may demand some deduction in the expenditure for the bottle, in the pleasures of which (if, alas! pleasures they be !) the amiable la- dies of this country do not partake. 100. I hope, thtit no man, who has the means to provide such pleasures for his wife, or daughters, will talk to me about the uselessness of a green- house. Of what use, then, is fine linen, when coarse is cheaper and will last longer ? Of what use is beauty in a horse, a house, or in any thing else ? 5* 54 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. (Chap. Of what use are sporting dogs and guns ? The use of these things is, that they give pleasure ; that they render life pleasanter than it would be without them. And, why not, on the same principle, call a gveen-hoMSQ useful? Of what wse is money, that thing which every one seeks to possess ? Of what use indeed, but to be expended on things, which tend to make life easy and pleasant ? Therefore, a green-house comes fairly within the scope of use- fulness ; for, from it the females of a family would receive constant amusement and delight, during a season when they are cut off from almost all other recreation. 101. Let me not, however, in using these argu- ments, be supposed to doubt of the disposition of American husbands to gratify their wives in this respect ; for, many and striking as are the traits, that distinguish the American character, none is so striking, and none exalts it so much, as the respect and deference of the male towards the female sex. They talk to us about French politeness ; and we near enough of the sentimental trash of romances, where Princes and Nobles are the heroes. But, in no part of this whole world are the women so kind- ly and so respectfully treated by the men as in America. Here women, in no state of life, are treated badly or churlishly. To insure indulgence, assistance, forbearance, from every man^ and under any circumstances, it is sufficient that the party is a woman. In this respect no country on earth will bear a comparison with America. This is, too, the natural bent of the human heart when uncorrupted by vicious courses and unhardened by penury. For, count our real pleasures ; count the things that de- light us through life : and you will find, that ninety- nine out of every hundred are derived from wome3«. li ! THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 55 Tv be tli<3 object of no womaii's care or good A'islies is a sentence the most severe that can be pro- nounced upon man. 102. As to the erection of a green-house, carpen- ters and glaziers are never wanted, and, where Lo- cust wood, for the sills, is every where to be had, and glass with scarcely any tax, how elegant, how cheap, and how durable, may such a thing as a green-house be ! 103. In America there must be heat ; but, how easily will any of the ingenious men in this country find the means of furnishing the necessary heat with hardly any expense or trouble ! In most cases the warmth might go from the parlour fire place ; for, all that is wanted, is completely to keep out frost. There is, here, no want of Sun even in the coldest weather ; and, if the green-house were on the Eastern side of the dwelling-house, the cold would not be any great annoyance. But, at any rate, the heat necessary to keep out frost might easily be obtained. A Termometre should be kept in the green-house. The heat should be about sixty degrees in the day time, and forty-five in the night. 104. In England they need very little fire in their green-houses, except in very cold v\^eather, which, indeed, they seldom have. Their great want is that o{ sun ; for, nothing will do well without sun ; and America has plenty of this even in the coldest wea- ther. So that, if the frost were effectually kept out, that alone would give beautiful plants in winter. By an additional heat, a growth and a bloom would be constantly kept up ; and a green-house might be made one of the most beautiful and most pleasant things in t^je world. 105. 01 the different plants suitable for a green- house, and of the particular treatment of each, I 56 THE A?.rr.RicAN GARDENER. [Chap shall speak under the Iiead of Flowers ; and shalA, in this place, only add some directions as to mo- nagement, which are applicable to the whole atr- semblage. 106. Air is the main thing, after the keeping out of the frost. Air is given by pushing up, or draw- ing down, the Lights, which form the top or roof of the green-house. Always give air, when there is no fear of frost. Give heat and air at the same time, if the weather be not mild enough to dispense with the heat. For, without air, the plants will be- come sickly. They have lungs as well as we ; and, though they may live, for a while, without air, they will be an eye-sore instead of a delight to the be- holder. If the sides and front, as well as the topy of the green-house, be of glass, (which is best,) then air maybe given there, instead of giving it by push- ing up, or pulling down, the lights at top. 107. The plants, of whatever sort or size, must be in what the English call pots, and what the Americans caU jars. Perhaps I may as well speak, once for all, about the shape and size, and manner of planting in, these pots. The shape is generally well known ; but, the pots ought never to he glazed. Plain earthen pots are best as well as cheapest. There must be a hole in the middle of the bottom of every pot, or no plant will live in it for any con- siderable length of time, and will never grow in it at all. This hole should be in proportion to the size of the pot ; and the pots may be from 4 inches to IS inches over at top, and from 4 inches to 18 inches deep ; being one third less across at bottom than at the top. The smallest hole ought to be of the size of half a dollar. 108. Besides the pot, there is what the English call a pan, for l!ic po; to stand in, which should be II.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 57 about 2 inches deep, and as wide over as the top of the pot, and, of course, a third part wider than the bottom of the pot. This pan shouh^ be made of the same materials with the pot itself. 109. I have, in paragraph 21, mentioned, inci- dentally, wooden boxes, as things wherein to place plants ; but, I must here caution the reader against the practice, wherever it can be avoided, especially for small plants. We see plants, thus cultivated, placed on window sills ; and they sometimes grow there pretty well. Orange Trees, Large Myrtles, and other large exotics, are planted in tubs. There would be great difficulty in getting earthen things of sufficient dimensions for these purposes ; be- sides the constant danger of breaking. But, I am quite satisfied, that where earthenware can be got and used, it is greatly preferable to wood ; and this opinion is founded on actual experience. In my hot-bed of 1819, I sowed several sorts of seeds in little wooden boxes. I had no pots at hand, and to get them from New York required more time than I was willing to spare. The seeds all ca7ne up ; but, by the time that they were an inch or two high, they rotted at the stem, and fell down. They were not less than twenty sorts of seeds ; some of culi- nary vegetables, some of field-plants, and some of forest-trees. They all died. In one box there were planted some geranium-cuttings. They came out into bud and leaf; but died soon afterwards. I had soon afterwards got some pots. I repeated my sow- ing and planting ; all the seeds and plants grew and flourished. And, let it be observed, that the boxes stood in the same bed, where cabbages and cauli- flowers were sown without either pots or boxes ; and that the plants of these grew, and flourished exceedingly. The cause of the plants rotting n 58 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. the boxes was tliis : thougli there were several holes at the bottom of each box, and though these were properly covered with oyster-shells, the wood itself^ sides as well as bottom, imhihed, and retain- ed too long, part of the water poured on the top, and, as the boxes were plunged into the earth of the bed, they imbibed moisture from the*watering of the bed also. There was constantly stagnant and sour water near the roots of the plants, and this killed them. These boxes were of deal. If tubs, or boxes, must be resorted to, they ought to be of Locust, or some other hard and close wood. Locust is best, because imperishable. See para- graph 16. 110. Some care is necessary in sowing and plant- ing in pots. The mould should be good, and made very fine. The first thing is to put an oyster shell, or piece of broken earthen ware, into the pot, to cover the hole at the bottom, ; and the hollow part of the shell, or other thing, sliould be downwards. The use of this is, to keep the hole open, that the water may find iis way out of the pot, and not lie stagnant at tlie bottom, where it would become sour and injure, if not kill, the plant. The earth, if there were no shell, would fill up the hole, and, would, in time, become solid, and thus prevent the water from getting out. The shell, or broken earthen ware, keeps the earth hollow, and the water creeps under the edges of it, and thus escapes into the pan, whence it evaporates. In fields, we al- ways desire an open undersoil; and, in a rainy season, you will see the crops stunted and looking yellow, where there is a bottom of clay, while, at the very same time, a bottom of sand, gravel, lime stone, or other open matter, exhibits them green and flourishing. It is upon this principle, founded II.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 59 on experience, that holes have been made in the bottom of flower-pots. The uses of pans, are, first, to prevent the water from running about the places where pots are placed ; and next to hold the water up to a level with the roots, in hot situations, a little longer than it would otherwise remain up to that level. See paragraph 21. 111. As to the mere operation of sowing, or planting, things in pots, though a simple operation enough, some little attention to method is necessa- ry. Your mould always ought to he fine, and even sifted, if convenient ; for, when the quantity is to be reckoned by gallons, the labour cannot be great ; and the desire to possess green-house plants neces- sarily implies pleasure, rather than pain, in employ- ing the means to obtain them. In order to make myself clearly understood, I shall suppose an in- stance of soloing' and one of planting. 112. Suppose. you have the seeds of Stocks to sow. Put earth into the pot enough to fill it to within an inch of the top, and make the top of the earth very smooth. Then scatter your seeds upon it, and not too thickly. Then crumble some earth over the seeds to the depth of about half an inch. Make the top very smooth again. Then take the pot in your two hands, and give five or six gentle taps with the bottom of the pot upon the ground, or upon a block, or some solid thing. This settles the earth down ; and it needs no pressing at the top, nor any other thing done to it. After this settling, the top of the earth should be about an inch lower than the top of the pot ; else you could not, when necessary, give water ; for the water would run off, there being no place to hold it. 113. Suppose you have a Geranium to plant, which has been raised from a cutting, and the root CO THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap, of which cannot be very large. Put some earth in the pot. Hold the root of the plant upon it to see that it will be of the ri^lit depth, if its root stand on that earth. Then, when you have got the earth to the right height, hold the plant with one hand, and fill up the pot, round the plant, with the other. Then, tap the bottom of the pot on some solid thing, as before mentioned, leaving the earth, as be- fore, an inch lower than the top of the pot. Put the pot in the pan ; and, in this case, wafer the plant moderately ; for, observe, that a plant in a pot has not an under-soil and dews and a mass of ferment- ing earth to supply it with moisture, as a plant in the open air has. Yet, even in the case of pots, it is best, unless the plant be of a very juicy nature, to suffer the ground to get dry at top hefore you water ; because, water falling upon freshly-moved earth, always makes it hake hard at top, which is very injurious to every kind of plant. 114. These two instances will suffice for the ope- ration of sowing and planting in pots ; for, though some seeds and some plants will be larger, or smaller, than those here mentioned, the principle is the same, and the difference in minute particulars will point itself out. If, for instance, you have stocks, or other little things, to transplant into pots, you will nearly fill the pot with earth, and then make holes with a little stick, or with a finger, to put in the roots ; and then proceed as before, and settle down the earth. Such little things, being nearly all juice, will require water directly, and shading for a day or two. But, about these matters I shall say more by-and-by, when I come to the cultivation of the several sorts of plants and flowers. 115. The benches of the green house remain to be spoken of They should rise one above another. II.] IHE AMERICAN GARDENER. 61 like the steps of a stairs, that the whole of the plants may share in the benefit bestowed by the sun ; but, there may be some on the ground, or floor ; and, indeed, the precise arrangement must be left to the taste of the owner. The arrangement ought, howev^er, to be such as to make it convenient to get at every pot ; not only for the purpose of watering, but for that of picking off the dead, or dying leaves ; for that of stirring the earth frequent- ly round the stems of the plants ; and for that of sweeping, and even washing, the benches and the floor. For, let it be observed, that, besides the neatness of keeping, due to so choice and elegant a matter as a green-house, cleanliness is greatly con- ducive to the health of plants in a confined situa- tion. In short, it is beauty that is here sought ; and, can there be beauty without cleanliness ! 116. In the month oi June (Long Island, observe) the plants come out of this their winter abode. How they are then to be disposed of will be treated of hereafter, under the head of flowers ; where it will be seen, that the green-house, besides being a most charming object in winter, when all without is dreariness, is the best security for giving you a beautiful garden in summer; and that without a green-house, or, at least, a hot-bed, it is quite im- possible to have in perfection, either in America or in England, certain plants and flowers, some of which are the very greatest beauties of the beauti- ful family of Flora. 117. Nor must we forget some things, with regard to Avhich a green-house would be of great use, even according to the most vulgar notions of utility. All sorts of Herbs might be potted, and kept green and growing in the green-house during the winter. Some Herbs dry well ; but, none of them are quite so good 6 ty3 THE AMERICAN GARDENER [Chap. as when green ; and, as to Parsley, which is wanted, almost every day in the year, it loses all its virtu^ . in the drying, smell and all. Six large pots oif parsley, the plants taken out of the ground and put in pots in September, and put into the green-house in November, will supply a large family well ; and this is no trifling thing, when, for love or money, a sprig of parsley is not to be got for months. A Sage tree, a tree of Rue, one of Rosemary, one of La- vender, a root of Hyssop, Thyme, Penny-royal, some Mint, and, indeed, of every pot and medicinal Herb, that is usually grown in the garden, would^ be useful, as well as pleasant to the eye, during. . winter. 118. Even when the plants are out of the green- house, the latter is of use. An excellent place for the drying" of cherries, apples, pears, quinces, peaches, and other fruits ; and also for the drying oi yeast-cakes, one of the most useful articles that sensible and provident house-wives ever invented. 119. All this work of drying can, indeed, be per- formed by the help of the fine hot sun,, in the open air ; but, then, wet days come ; and, som.etimes, the being compelled to take the things into the house, to place them in a confined space, and in the shade, at best, and away from strong light, greatly injures, and, sometimes, spoils them ; and, at any rate, they must always be taken in at night and put out again in the day time. All these are impedi- ments ; and all these impediments would be, at once, removed by having a green-house. Once the articles were placed properly in that, the process of drying would be completed without more trouble, and in about half the time required to obtain even an imperfect operation in the open air. 120 For these purposes, too, only on a smaller n.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. f)3 scale, a hot-hed frame, when done with, for raisintf plants for the year, would be useful. The framb and lights might be placed upon hoards, and the fruits, or cakes, put upon these boards. Being shut in, neither rains nor dews could affect them. They would be dried quicker, more effectually, and with a tenth part of the trouble that attends the dry- ing in the open air. 121. Thus, then, I think, that there is use, even ill the vulvar sense of the word, as well as orna- ment, in a green-house. But, I must confess, that its value, in my eyes, consists in its moral effects. It is a source of pleasure to the Mistress of the mansion ; to her, who has so strong a claim to at- tention and indulgence. I will not praise pursuits like these, with Lord Bacon, because, " God Al- mighty first planted a garden;'''' nor with Cowley, because " a garden is like Heaven ;" nor with Ad- dison, because " a garden was the habitation of our first parents before the fall;''"' all which is rather far-fetched, and puts one in mind of the grave dis- pute between the Gardeners and Tailors, as to the antiquity of their respective callings ; the former contending that the planting of tlie garden took place before the sewing of the fig-leaves together ; and the latter contending, that there was no garden- ing at all, till Adam was expelled and compelled to work ; but, that the sewing was a real and bona nde act of tailoring- This is vulgar work to be sure ; it is grovelling ; but, who can blame such persons, when they have Lord Bacon to furnish them with a precedent ? 122. I like, a great deal better than these writers, Sir William, who so ardently and yet so ration- ally ^r\d un a jfe at edly praises the pursuits ofgarden- •ng, iji which he delighted from his youth to his old 64 THE AMERICAN GARDENER [Cliaj' ao^e. But, I look still further, as to effects. There must be amusements in every family. Children ob- serve and follow their parents in almost every thing. How much better, during a long and dreary winter, for daughters, and even sons, to assist, or attend, their mother in a green-house, than to be seated with her at cards, or at any other amusement that can be conceived ! How much more innocent, more pleasant, more free from temptation to evil, this amusement than any other I How much more in- structive too ! " Bend the twig when young :" but, here, there needs no force; nay, not even persua- sion. The thing is so pleasant in itself; it so natu- rally meets the wishes ; that the taste is fixed at once, and it remains, to the exclusion of cards and dice, to the end of life. 123. This is, with me, far more than sufficient to outweigh even a plausible objection on the score ol expense. Such husbands and fathers as are acces- sible by arguments like these, will need nothing more to induce them to yield to my recommenda- tion • with such as are not, no arguments within the reach of my capacity w ould be of any avail. CHAPTER HI. On Propagation and Cultivation in general. 124. In order to have good Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Flowers, we must be careful and dili- gent in the Propagation and Cultivation of the several plants ; for, though na ure does much, she will not do all. He, who trusts to chance for a crop, deserves none, and he generally has what he deserves. 125. The Propagation of plants is the bringing til] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 65 of them forth, or the increasing and 7nultij)lying of them. This is effected in several different ways : by seed, by suckers, by offsets, by layers, by cuttings. But, bear in mind, that all plants, from the Radish to the Oak, may be propagated by the means of seed ; while there are many plants which can be propagated by no other means ; and, of these, the Radish and the Oak are two. Let me just qualify, here, by observing, that I enter not into the deep question (v/hich so many have puz- zled their heads with) of equivocal generation. I confine myself to things of which we have a cer- tain knowledge. With regard to Propagation by means other than that of seed, I shall speak of it fully enough under the names of the several plants, which are, as to the way of propagating them, to be considered as exceptions to the general rule. Therefore, I shall, in the present Chapter, treat of propagation by seed only. 126. Cultivation must, of course, differ in some respects, to suit itself to certain differences in the plants to be cultivated ; but, there are some prin- ciples and rules, which apply to the cultivation of all plants ; and it is of these only that I propose to speak in the present Chapter. 127. It is quite useless, indeed it is grossly ab- surd, to prepare land, and to incur trouble and ex- pense, without duly, and even very carefully, at- tending to the seed that we are going to sow. The sort, the genuineness, the soundness, are all mat- ters to be attended to, if we mean to avoid morti- fication and loss. Therefore, the first thing is, the SORT OF SEED. 128. We should make sure here ; for, what a loss o have late cnbbagAs instead of early ones ! As to 66 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap beans, peas, and many otlier things, there cannot easily be mistake or deception. But, as to cab- bages, cauliflowers, turnips, radishes, lettuces, onions, leeks, and numerous others, the eye is no guide at all. If, therefore, you do not save yQ%r own seed, (of the manner of doing which I shall speak by and by,) you ought to be very careful as to whom you purchase of; and, though the seller be a person of perfect probity, he may be deceived himself. If you do not save your own seed, which, as will be seen, cannot always be done with safety, all you can do, is, to take every precaution in your power when you purchase. Be very particular, very full and clear, in the order you give for seed. Know the seedsman well, if possible. Speak to' him yourself, on the subject, if you can *, and, in short, take every precaution in your power, in order to avoid the mortifications like those of having one sort of cabbage, when you expected another, and ol having rape when you expected turnips or ruta-baga. TRUE SEED. 129. But, besides the kind, there is the genuine- ness to be considered. For instance, you want su- gar-loaf cahhage. The seed you sow nray be cah- hage : it may, too, be sugar-loaf, or more that than any thing else : but, still, it may not be true to its kind. It may have become degenerate ; it may have become mixed, or crossed, in generating. And thus, the plants may very much disappoint you. True seed is a great thing : for, not only the time of the crop coming in, but the quantity and quality of it, greatly depend upon the trucness of the seed. You have plants, to be sure ; that is to say, you have something grow ; but you will not, if the seed be not true, have the thing you want. 130. To insure truth in seed, you must, if you I III.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 67 purchase, take all the precautions recommended as to sort of seed. It will be seen presently, that, to save true seed yourself, is by no means an easy mat- ter. And, therefore, you must sometimes purchase. Find a seedsman that does not deceive you, and stick to him. But, observe, that no seedsman can always be sure. He cannot raise all his seeds him- self. He must trust to others. Of course, he may himself, be deceived. Some kinds of seed will keep a good many years ; and, therefore, when you find that you have got some very true seed of any sort, get some more of it : get as much as will last you for the number of years that such seed will keep ; and, to know how many years the seeds of vegeta- bles and herbs wnll keep, see paragraph 150. SOUNDNESS OF SEED. 131. Seed may be of the right sort ; it may be true to its sort ; and, yet, if it be unsound, it will not grow, and, of course, is a great deal worse than useless, because the sowing of it occasions loss of time, loss of cost of seed, loss of use of land, and loss of labour, to say nothing about the disappoint- ment and mortification. Here, again, if you pur- chase, you must rely on the seedsman ; and, there- fore, all the aforementioned precautions are neces- sary as to this point also. In this case (especially if the sowing be extensive) the injury may bfe very great; and, there is no redress. If a man sell you one sort of seed for another ; or, if he sell you un- true seed ; the law will give you redress to the full extent of the injury proved ; and the proof can be produced. But, if the seed does not come up, what proof have you ? You may prove the sowing ; but, Avho is to prove that the seed was not cliilled, or scorched in the ground? That H was not eaten by 68 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap, insects there ? That it was not destroyed in coming up, or in germinating ? 132. There are, however, rneans of ascertaining, whether seed be sound, or not, before you sow it in the ground. I know of no seed, which, if sound and really good, will not sink in water. The un- soundness of seed arises from several causes. Un- ripeness, Might, mouldine-ss, and age, are the most frequent of these causes. The two first, if exces- sive, prevent the seed from ever having the germi- nating quality in them. Mouldiness arises from the seed being kept in a damp place, or from its having heated. When dried again it becomes light. Age will cause the germinating quality to evaporate ; though, where there is a great proportion of oil in the seed, this quality will remain in it many years, as will be seen in paragraph 150. 133. The way to try seed is this. Put a small quantity of it in luke-warm water, and let the wa- ter be four or five inches deep. A mug, or basin, will do, but a large tumbler glass is best; for then you can see the bottom as well as top. Some seeds, such as those of cabbage, radish, and turnip, will, if good, go to the bottom at once. Cucumber, Me- lon, Lettuce, Endive, and many others, require a iew minutes. Parsnip and Carrot, and all the winged seeds, require to be worked by your fingers in a little water, and well wetted, before you put them into the glass; and the carrot should be rubbed, so as to get ofi'part of the hairs, which would other- wise act as the feathers do as to a duck. The seed of Beet and Mangel Wurzel are in a case, or shell. The rough things that we sow are not the seeds, but the cases in which the seeds are contained, each case containing from one to Jive seeds. Therefore the trial by water is not, is to these two seeds, con- HI.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 69 elusive., tlioiigh, if the seed be very good ; if there be four or live in a case, shell and all will sink in water, after being in the glass an hour. And, as it is a matter of such great importance, that every seed should grow in a case where the plants stand so far apart ; as gaps in rows of Beet and Mangel Wurzel are so very injurious, the best way is to re- ject all seed that will not sink case and all, after being put into warm water and remaining there an hour. 134. But, seeds of all sorts, are, sometimes, if not always, part sound and part unsound; and, as the former is not to be rejected on account of the latter, the proportion of each should be ascertained, if a separation be not made. Count then a hundred seeds, taken promiscuo-usly, and put them into wa- ter as before directed. If fifty sink and fifty swim, half your seed is bad and half good ; and so, in proportion, as to other numbers of sinkers and swimmers. There may be plants, the sound seeds of which will not sink ; but I know of none. If to be found in any instance, they would, I think, be found in those of the Tulip-tree, the Ash, the Birch, and the Parsnip, all of which are furnished with so large a portion of wing. Yet all these, if sound, will sink, if put into warm water, with the wet worked a little into the wings first. 135. There is, however, another way of ascer taining this important fact, the soundness, or un soundness of seed ; and that is, by sowing them. If you have a hot-bed ; or, if not, how easy to make one for a hand-glass (see Paragraph 94), put a hundred seeds, taken as before directed, sow them in a flower pot, and plunge the pot in the earth, under the glass, in the hot-bed, or hand-glass. The climate, under the glass, is warm ; and a verv 70 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. few days will tell you what proportion of your seed is sound. But, there is this to be said .] that, with strong heat under, and with such complete pro- tection above, seeds may come up that would not come up in the open ground. There may be enough of the germinating principle to cause vegetation in a hot-bed, and not enough to cause it in the open air and cold ground. Therefore I incline to the opinion that we should try seeds as our ancestors tried Witches ; not by fire, but by water ; and that, following up their practice, we should reprobate and destroy all that do not readily sink. SAVING AND PRESERVING SEED. 136. This is a most important branch of the Gar- dener's business. There are rules applicable to particular plants. Those will be given in their pro- per places. It is my business here to speak of such as are applicable to all plants. 137. First, as to the saving of seed, the truest plants should be selected ; that is to say, such as one of the most perfect shape and quality. In the Cabbage we seek small stem, well-formed loaf, iew spare, or loose, leaves ; in the Turnip, large bulb, small neck, slender-stalked leaves, solid flesh, or pulp ; in the Radish, high colour (if red or scarlet,) small neck, few and short leaves, and long top, the marks of perfection are well known, and none but perfect plants should be saved for seed. The case is somewhat different as to plants, which are some male and others female, but, these present ex- ceptions to be noticed under the names of such plants. 138. Of plants, the early coming of which is a circumstance of importance, the very earliest should be chosen for seed ; for, they will almost always be ibund to include the highest degree of perfection in other respects. They should have great pains taken 111.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 71 with them ; the soil and situation should be good ; and they should be carefully cultiA^ated, during the time that they are carrying on their seed to per- fection. 139. But, cfiectual means must be taken to pre- vent a wixing of the sorts, or, to speak in the lan- guage of farmers, a crossing of the breeds. There can be no cross between the sheep and the dog : but there can be between the dog and the wolf : and, we daily see it, between the greyhound and the hound ; each valuable when true to his kind : and a cross between the two, fit for nothing but the rope ; a word which, on this occasion, I usej in pre- ference to that of halter^ out of respect for the mo- dern laws and usages of my native country. 140. There can be no cross between a cabbage and a carrot : but there can be, between a cabbage and a turnip ; between a cabbage and a caiiliflower nothing is more common ; and, as to the different sorts of cabbages, they will produce crosses, pre- senting twenty, and perhaps a thousand, degrees, from the Early York to the Savoy. Turnips will mix with radishes and ruta-baga ; all these with rape ; the result will mix with cabbages and cauli- flowers ; so that, if nothing were done to preserve plants true to their kind, our gardens would soon present lis with little besides mere herbage. 141. As to the causes, I pretend not to dive into them. As to the " affectionate feelings'''' from which the effect arises, I leave that to those who have studied the "loves of the plants." But, as to the effect itself I can spe^ik positively ; for, I have now on the table before me an ear of Indian Corn having in it grains of three distinct sorts ; White Corn, that is to say, colour of bright rye-straw ; Yellow CoeIv% that is to say, colour of a deep 72 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap coloured orange ; Sweet Corn, that is to say, co- lour of drah, and deep-wrinkled, while the other two are plump, and smooth as polished ivory. The plant was from a grain of White Corn ; but, there were Yellow, and Sweet, growing in the same field, though neither at less than three hundred yards dis- tant from the white. The whole, or, at least, the greater part, of the White Corn that grew in the patch was mixed (some ears more and some less) in the same way ; and each of the three sorts were mixed with the other two, in much about the same proportion that the White Corn was. 142. Here we have the different sorts assembled in the same ear, each grain retaining all its distinc- tive marks, and all the qualities, too, that distin- guish it from the other two. Sometimes, however, the mixture takes place in a different way, and the different colours present themselves in streaks in all the grains of the ear, rendering the colour of the grains variegated instead of their being one- coloured. 143. It is very well known, that effects like this are never perceived, unless in cases where different sorts of Indian Corn groxo at no great distance from each other. Probably, too, to produce this intermixture, the plants of the several sorts must be all of the same age ; must all be equal in point of time of blowing and kerning. But, be this as it may, the fact of intermixture is certain : and, we have only to know the fact to be induced to take effectual measures to provide against it. 144. As to hees carrying the matter, and impreg- nating plants with it, the idea appears nonsensical ; for, how comes it that luhole fields of Indian Corn are thus mixed ? And, in the Indian Corn, let it be observed, the ear, that is to say, the s:rain-stalJ{., is III.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 73 at ra6-coloured dwarf bean, is the earli- est. The same ground will bear and ripen two crops in one year, the last from the seed of the first The Yellow ; the Black; the Speckled ; the Painted, white and red : these are all dwarfs ; but there are a great many others. Amongst runners, or pole- beans, there are the Scarlet-hlossom, the seed of which is red and black and the seed-pod rough There is a White bean precisely like the former, except that the bean and blossom are white. The Case-knife bean, which, in England, is called the Dutch-runner : this is the best bean of all to eat green. Then there is the Cranberry-hesin of vari- ous colours as to seed. The Lima-hean, which is never eaten green (that is, the pod is never eaten,) and which is sometimes called the hutter-hean, has a broad, flat and thin seed of a yellowish-white co- lour. This bean must never be sown till the ground is right warm. The other sorts will grow and bear well in England ; but this sort will not. I raised good and ripe Indian Corn at Botley ; but, I never could bring a Lima-bean to perfection, though I put it in the hottest spot I could find, and though cu- cumbers produced very well in the natural ground at a yard or two from it. — For the raising of dwarf beans on a large scale, see Paragraphs 163 and 1G4. The pole-beans may be raised in the same way, only with larger spaces (six feet perhaps) betweei/ the rows, and without any poles at all. The seed for sale is raised in this way even in England, where the climate is so cold and v/et compared to this. The poling is a great plague and expense ; and, if large quantities be raised, it may be dis- pensed with : nay, it may be dispensed with in a 10 no THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap garden ; for poJes look ugly there ; they intercept tJie view ; and the addition they make to the crop is not a compensation even for ill look, especially under this bright sun, where the ground is almost constantly dry. — Let it be observed, that every sort of Kidney-bean must have rich ground to produce a large crop. 198. BEET. — This vegetable, which is little used in England, is here in as common use as carrots are there. It should be sown in the fall (see Paragraph 159 ;) but, if not, as soon as the ground is free from frost, and is dry, in the spring. The rows a foot apart, and the plants eight inches apart in the rows. In order to hasten the seed up in the spring (if sown then) soak it four days and nights in rain water be- fore you sow it. Put it two inches deep, cover it well, and press the earth hard down upon it. Sow the seed pretty thick all along the drill ; and, when the plants come up, thin them to eight inches apart. Hoe between the plants frequently : but, not very deep ; because these tap-rooted things are apt to fork if the ground be made loose very low down while they are growing. — There are yellow and white Beets, as well as red ; but the red is the true kind : the others are degenerate. There is, how- ever, round or turnip-rooted, red beet, which is equally good with the tap-rooted red-beet. — The ground should be rich, but not fresh dunged. Ashes of wood, or compost mould, is best ; and the dig- ging ought to be very deep and all the clods ought to be broken into fine earth ; because the clods turn the point of the root aside, and make the tap short, or forked. Fresh dung, which, of course, lies in unequal quantities in the ground, invites the tap root, or some of the side roots to it, and thus causes a short or forked beet, which, for several reasons. IV.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. HI is not so good as a long- and smooth one. — As to the preserving of beets during the winter, it is well known, that the way is to put them in a dry cellar, with dry sand between them, or indeed, without sand or any thing at all betwe-en them. They may, if in large quantities, and not wanted till spring, be preserved out of doors, thus : Take them up three weeks before the hard frost is to come. Cut of! their leaves ; let them lay two or three days upon straw, or boards, to dry in the sun ; then lay a little straw upon the ground, and, in a fine dry day, place ten bushels of beets (picking out alf the cut or bruised ones) upon it in a conical form. Put a lit- tle straw smoothly over the heap ; then cover the whole with six or eight inches of earth ; and place a green turf at the top to prevent the earth from be- ing washed, by rain, from the point, before the frost set in. All the whole heap will freeze during the winter ; but, the frost will not injure the beets, nor will it injure Carrots, preserved in the same way. — If you have more than ten bushels, make another heap, or other heaps ; for fear of heating before Jhe frost comes. When that comes, all is safe till spring ; and, it is in the spring, that season oi scar- citij, for which we ought to provide. How many bushels of beets are flung about and wasted in the fall, the smallest of which would be a treat in the month of May ! — As to the quantity to be raised for a family, eighteen rows, planted as above, across one of the Plats (little more than two perches of ground) will produce 812 beets, or nearly /our /or each day, from the first of November to "the last of May; and, if they are of the size that they ought to be, here are much more than enough. Beets may be transplanted, and will, in that way, get to a good size. See Transplanting, Paragraph 169. 112 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. 199. BROCOLI.— This plant is not much culti- vated in America ; and, indeed, scarcely at all. In England it is grown in great quantities, especially near London. It is there sown in the spring, and eaten in the fall and during the winter, even unti'. spring. It is of the nature of the Cauliflower which see. One sort has a whitish head, and i? like a cauliflower, except that the white is a yellow- white. Another sort has a purple head ; and there is another of a greenish hue. It is cultivated, in all respects like a Cabbage (which see ;) but, as it is large, it must be placed at wider distances, not less than two feet and a half each way. If raised very early in the spring and planted out in June, and in good ground, as cool as can be got, it will have heads in October ; and, if any of the plants have not then perfected their heads, when the hard frost is coming, they may be treated like those of the spring-sown cauliflowers which have not per- fected their heads at this season. — Fifty of this plant, for the fall, may be enough ; and they ought to be planted out in the South Border in order to be kept as cool as possible. The white sort is deemed the handsomest ; but, the others are more hardy. — To have Brocoli in the spring ; that is to say, in May (for New York) is the thing ! The thing may be done ; for I had some pretty good in May 1818. — Sow in June. Transplant in July ; put the plants at 2j feet apart. Till well between ; and earth up the stems of the plants in August. They will be very tall and stout, in good ground, in No- vember ; and a sharp frost or two will not hurt them. But, to keep them through the lointer is a troublesome thing. Nevertheless, to have them at New York or Boston in May, and, at Philadelphia late in April; to have something little short o^ a IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 113 cauliflower at that season, is worth some trouble, and even some expense ; for, at that very season, the people of New York, are carrying home wild dock leaves from market, bought at three or four cents a handful ! This is the w^ay to go to work to have Brocoli at this season. Five rows, across one of the Plats in the garden, will contain 110 plants. The space they will occupy will be 56 feet long, and 10 f feet wide from out-side row to out-side row. Now, all this space must have a covering during the time that the ground is completely locked up by the frost. And this is the way to cover it. Before the ground be hard frozen, put some stout stakes in the ground on both out-sides of the out-side rows, and at about a foot from the stems of the plants. Let these stakes be about a foot higher than the tops of the leaves of the plants ; and that will make the stakes about four feet high. Let these stakes (which should not be less than three inches through) have a. fork at the upper end to lodge a pole upon to go from stake to stake across the plantation. That these poles may not bend in the middle, by- and-by, when the covering is put on, put another row of forked stakes alon^ the middle, or near the middle of the plantation. From out-side row of stakes to out-side row of stakes will be twelve feet and a half. The stakes are to be four feet asunder in the long rows, and they will be about six feet asunder across the plantation. Lay stout poles across, and let each pole rest in the forks of the three stakes. Then tie some stout rods longways upon the poles, at about nine inches from each other. Then some small rods across them at nine inches from each other. Then tie small rods along the sides and at the' ends from stake to stake, nine inches apart, and upright rods against these, nine 10* 114 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. inches apart. Thus you hav^e a sort of net-work over the whole plantation. And, there let it stand, till the rains are over, and until the winter is /azVZy set in, which, at New York, ma} be about Christ- mas. When all is frozen hard up, cover close over the lattice work a foot thick with straw, at the leasts and lay on something to prevent the stravv^ from moving. Then set up straw, or corn stalks, against the sides and the ends of the erection. Place the stravv or stalks a foot thick at least, and fasten them well up, so as to keep out, not the frost, but all light and all occasional thaws from entering. Thus let the whole -remain till the breaking up of the frost : and then take all aiuay. Do not wait till the frost is out of the ground ; but, take away as soon as the grand breaking up comes. You will find the plantation as green as it was when you closed it up. This will be about the middle of March (Loiig Island ;) and though there will be many and sharp frosts after this, these will not injure the plants. As soon as the ground is dry at top, hoe deep amongst the plants ; hoe again in about ten days ; and again in another ten days ; and, about the first week in May, or in the second at latest, you will begin to cut Brocoli to eat. The heads will come in one after another ; and, recollect, that you have 110 heads, which is nearly 4 a day for a month; and this, you will observe, at a season, when people are glad to buy dock-leaves to eat ! When we talk of trouble, what is trouble but la- bour ; and what is Itibour but a thing to be bought ? I am supposing a case where a gardener is kept; and, pray, what has he else to do ? But, suppose a man to be hired expressly, would he not go to the wood and get the materials and make the lauice work in a day? Would it take him more than an- IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 115 other day to lay on the straw ! Here, then, are two dollars; and, supposing the straw and the stakes and poles and rods to be bought^ the straw would be nearly as good foi litter afterwards, and the poles, stakes and rods would last for many years, if tied up in bundles and laid safely away from winter to winter. 200. BURNET is a well known grass, or cattle plant. It is used by some in salads. When bruised, or cut, it smells like cucumber. It is a perennial, and a very poor thing. 201. CABBAGE.— The way to raise Cabbage- Plants in a hot-bed has been given in Paragraphs 77 to 96. — In the open ground you may put your seed rows at six inches distance, and put the seeds thin in the row. As soon as up, thin the plants to three inches in the row. The next thing is transplant- ing ; and I will speak of that before I speak of seasons, sorts, and preserving during winter. — Of the preparation and state of the ground, and of the proper weather for transplanting, I have spoken in Paragraphs 169 to 175. Read those paragraphs carefully again, and bear their contents in mind. But, to have fine cabbages, of any sort, the plants must be twice transplanted. First, they should be taken from the seed bed (where they have been sown in drills near to each other,) and ^ut out into fresh-dug, well broken ground, at six inches apart every w^ay. This is called pricking out. By stand- ing here about fifteen or twenty days, they get straight and strong, stand erect, and have a straight and stout stem. Out of this plantation they come nearly all of a size ; the roots of all are in the same state ; and, they strike quicker into the ground where they are to stand for a crop. — But, if you do not, whether from negligence or want of time, prick 116 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. your plants out, choose the strongest, if you do not want them all ; and, at any rate, do not plant strong and weak promiscuously, but put each by them- sejves. If you do not intend to prick out, leave the plants thinner in the seed bed, and hoe deep be- tween them while they stand there. Besides this you may pass a sharp spade along under the rows, and cut off the top-roots ; for they must be short- ened when the plants are transplanted. This, if done a week or ten days before transplanting will give the plants a more bushy root ; and will, in some measure, supply the place of pricking out. — Having the plants ready for transplanting ; and hav- ing the ground and weather as described in Para- graph 170, you proceed to your work, thus : dig the plants up, that is, loosen the ground under them with a spade, to prevent their being stripped too much of their roots. Put them in rows of course. The setting-stick should be the upper part of a spade or shovel handle. The eye of the spade is the handle of the stick. From the bottom of the eye to the point of the stick should be about nine inches in length. The stick should not be tapering ; but nearly of equal thickness all the way down, to within an inch and a half of the point, where it must be tapered off to the point. If the wood be cut away all raund, to the thickness of a dollar, and iron put round in its stead, it makes a very com- plete tool. The iron becomes bright, and the earth does not adhere to it, as it does to wood. Having the plant in one hand, and the stick in the other, make a hole suitable to the root that it is to receive. Put in the root in such way as that the earth, when pressed in, will be on a level with the butt-ends of the lower, or outward, leaves of the plant. Let the plant be rather higher than lower than this ; for, care IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 117 must be taken not to put the plant so low as fur the earth to fall, or be washed, into the heart of the plant, nor even into the inside of the bottom leaves. The stem of a cabbage, and stems of all the cabbage kind, send out roots fron; all the parts of them that are put beneath the surface of the ground. It is good, therefore, to plant as deep as you can without injury to the leaves. — The next consideration is, the fastening of the plant in the ground. I can- not do better than repeat here what I have said in my Year's Residence, Paragraphs 83 and 84. *' The hole is made deeper than the length of the roots ; but the root should not be hent at the point, if it can be avoided. Then, while one hand holds the plant, with its root in the hole, the other hand applies the setting stick to the earth on one side of the hole, the stick being held in such a way as to form a sharp triangle with the plant. Then, push- ing the stick down, so that its point go a little deeper thaii the point of the root, and giving it a little twist, it presses the earth against the point, or bottom of the root." And thus all is safe, and the plant is sure to grow. The general, and almost universal, fault, is, that the planter, when he has put the root into the hole, draws the earth up against the upper part of the root, and, if he press pretty well there, he thinks that the planting is well done. But, it is the point of the root against which the earth ought to be pressed, for there the fibres are ; and, if they do not touch the earth closely, the plant will not thrive. To know, whether you have fastened the plant well in the ground, take the tip of one of the leaves of the plant between your finger and thumb. Give a pull. If the plant resist the pull, so far as for the bit of leaf to come away, the plant is properly fastened 118 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. in the ground ; but, if the pull bring- up the plant ; then you may be sure that the planting is not well done. The point of the stick ought to twist and press the earth up close to the point of the root , so that there be no hollow there. Pressing the earth up against the stem of the plant is of little use. As to distances they must be proportioned to the size which the cabbages usually come to ; and the size (difference of soil out of the question) varies with the sort. However, for the very small sorts, the Early Dwarf, and the Early Sea-Green, a foot apart in all directions is enough ; for there is no occasion to waste garden ground ; and you do npt want such things to stand long, and the plants are in plenty as to number. The next size is the Early York, which may have 16 inches every way. The Sugar-loaf may have 20 inches. The Bat- tersea and Savoy two feet and a half. The large sorts, as the Drum-head and others, 3 feet at least. Now, with regard to tillage, keep the ground clear of weeds. But, whether there be weeds or not, hoe between the plants in ten days after they are planted. The reasons for this are amply stated in Paragraphs 176 to 186. You cannot dig between the plants, which stand at the smallest distances ; but you may, and ought, to dig once, if not twice, during their growth, between all the rest. To pre- vent a sudden check by breaking all the roots at once, in hot weather, dig every other interval, leave the rest, and dig them a week later. All the larger sorts of cabbages should, about the time that their heads are beginning to form, be earthed up ; that is, have the earth from the surface draw up against the stem ; and, the taller the plants are, the more ne- cessary this is, and the higher should the earth be drawn. After the earth has been thus drawn up IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. IK^ from the surface, dig-, or hoe deep, the rest of the ground. — Thus the crop will be brought to perfec- tion. — As to sorts, the earliest is the Early Dwarf, (sometimes called the Early Salisbury ;) the next is the Early Sea Green ; then comes the Early York. Perhaps any one of them may do ; but the first will head ten days sooner than the last. The Sugar-loaf, sweetest and richest of all cabbages, if sown and transplanted when Early Yorks are, will head nearly a month later. It is an excellent cab- bage to come in in July and August. Some sown three weeks later will carry you through Septem- ber and October ; and some sown in June and transplanted in July, will carry you on till Christ- mas. For the winter use, there really needs no- thing but the Dwarf Green Savoy. Vv hen good and true to kind it is very much curled and of a very deep green. It should be sown as soon as the ground is at all warm, and planted out as soon as stout enough. By November it will have large and close heads weighing from 5 to 8 pounds each. This is the best of all winter-cabbages. If you have Drum-heads, or other large cabbages, the time of sowing and that of transplanting are the same as those for the Savoy. But, let me observe here, that the early sorts of cabbage keep, during winter, as well as the large, late sorts. It is an error to suppose, that those cabbages only, which will not come to perfection till the approach of winter, will keep well. The Early York, sou n in June, will be right hard in November, and will keep as well as the Drum-head, or any of the coarse and strong- smelling cabbages. The Early Yorks are not so hig as the Drum-heads ; but, observe, that as the former require but 16 inches distance, and the latter 3 feet, five of the former stand on S20 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Cliap. ^he ground oi one of the latter. So that, perhaps, the Early Yorks will be the largest crop after all. I have tried the keeping of both ; and I know that the fine Cabbages keep as well as the coarse ones. The Red Cabbage is raised and cultivated in the same season and same manner as the Green Savoy. There are many other sorts of cabbage, early as well as late ; and they may be tried ; but those above-mentioned are certainly sorts enough for any family. — The preserving of cabbages during the winter is all that remains to be treated of under the word cabbage ; but, as every reader must know, it is a matter of great importance ; for on it depends the supply of cabbages {or four months in the year, North of Virginia and South of Boston, and (or six months in the year when you get as far North as the Province of New Brunswick. — The cellar is a poor place. The barn is worse. The cabbages get putrid parts about them. If green vegetables be not fed from the earth, and be in an unfrozen state, they will either loither or rot. Nothing is wdiSiiev i\\diXi putrid cabbage; and one rotten cab- bage will communicate its offensiveness to a whole parcel. Pits you cannot open in winter. To turn the heads down and cover them with earth while the root stands up in the air, is liable to the same objection. The cabbages are pretty safe ; but you cannot get at them during the winter. I have tried all the ways that I ever saw practised, or that I ever heard of; and the following method I found to answer every purpose ; it is the surest preserva- tion, and gives the least trouble, whether in the putting together or in the taking away for use. — Lay out a piece of ground, four feet wide, and in length proportioned to your quantity of cabbages to be preserved. Dig, on each side oi it, a little IV.j THE AMERICAN GARDENER, 121 trench, a foot deep, and throw the earth up on the four-feet bed. Make the top of the bed level and smooth. Lay some poles, or old rails, at a foot apart, long-ways, upon the bed. Then put some smaller poles, or stout sticks cross ways on the rails or poles, and put these last at five or six in- ches apart. Upon these lay, corn-stalks, broom- corn stalks, or twigs or brush of trees, not very thicks but sufficiently thick just to cover all over. Make the top flat and smooth. Then, just as the frost is about to lock up the earth, take up the cab- bages, knock all dirt out of their roots, take ofli'aU dead or yellow looking leaves, and some of the out- side leaves besides ; put the cabbages, head down- wards, upon the bed, with their roots sticking up; and cover them with straw so thick as for the straw to come up nearly to the root of the cabbage. Do not pack them quite close. It is better if they do ^not touch each other much. Lay some bits of wood, or brush-wood, to prevent the straw from blowing off". If the frost catch you, before you have got the cabbages up, cut them ofFclose to the ground, and let the stumps, instead of the roots, stick up through the straw. — Out of this stack you will take your cab- baires perfectly green and good in the spring, when the frost breaks up ; and to this stack you can, at all times in the winter, go, with the greatest facility, and get your cabbages for use, which you can to no other species of conservatory that I ever saw or heard of. The hollow part below the cabbages takes away all wet that may come from occasional rains or meltings of snow ; and the little ditches on the sides of the bed keep the bed itself free from being soaked with wet. Even if deep snows come and lie for months, as in Nova-Scotia, New Bruns- wick, and Canada, it is onlv removing the snow a II rj2 THE AMERICAN GARSESER. [Chaj . little ; and here are the cabbages always /resA an i good. — Immense quantities, particularly in woody countries, may be stacked and preserved in this way, at a very trifling expense. In fields the side trenches would be made with the plough; poles, in such a case, are of all sizes, always at hand ; and, small brush wood might do very well instead of straw, /?'-boughs, laurel-houghs^ or ceJar-boughs, would certainly do better than straw ; and where is the spot in America,, which has not one of these three ? — Cabbage Stumps are also to be preserved ; for they are very useful in the spring. You have been cutting cabbages to eat in October and No- vember. You leave the stumns standing, no matter what be the sort. Take them up before the frost sets in ; trim off the long roots, and lay the stumpg in the ground, in a sloping direction, row behind row, with their heads four or five inches out oi ground. When the frost has just set in in earnest, and not before, cover the stumps all over a foot thick or more, with straw, with corn-stalks, or with ever-green boughs of some sort. As soon as the breaking-up comes, take off the covering, and stir the ground (as soon as dry,) by hoeing amongst the stumps. They should be placed in an early spot ; in one of the warmest places you have ; and they will give you (at New York) an abundance of fine greens towards the end of April, when a handful of wild docJc-leavcs sells in New York market for six- pence York money, which is rather more than an English three pence. — Lastly^ as to the saving of cabbage seed. The cabbage is a biennial. It brings its flower and its seed the second year. To have cabbage seed, therefore, you must preserve the cabbage, head, root and all, throughout the win- ter ; and this must be done, either in a cellar, or IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 133 under covering of some sort out of doors ; for, the root must be kept in the groiLiid all winter. It is possible, and, I think, likely, that seed from the stum,p is just as good as any ; but as one single cabbage will give seed enough for any garden for three, four, or live years, the little pains that the preservation can require is not worth the smallest risk. — As to the quantity of cabbages wanted for a family, it must depend on the size of the family and on their taste. , 202. CALABASH.— An annual. Cultivated like the cucumber^ which see. 203. CALE.— This is of the cabbage kind. There are several sorts of it: and, it is, in all respects, propagated and cultivated like the Green Savoy, which see under Cabbage. — The Cale does not head, or loave, but sends forth a loose, open top, which in England, is used after the frost has pinched it, and then it sends out side-shoots from its tall stem, which it continues to do, if kept cropped, till May. In mild winter climates it is very useful and pleasant. It does not get rotted by the successive freezings and thawings, as cabbages do. It is al- ways green and fresh. Backward-planted savoys, may, perhaps, be as good ; but the Cale is very good too. It will, I dare say, stand throughout some winters as far North as Philadelphia. It is worth trying ; for greens are very pleasant in win- ter. — The Curled Cale is the best. — Its seed is saved like that of the cabbage. — There is a sort of Cale called Boorcole, and a whole list of things of .somewhat the same kind, but to name them would !)e of no use. 204. CALE (Sea.) — This is a capital article. In- ferior in point of quality to no vegetable but the Asparagus, superior to that in the merit of earli- 124 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. ness ; and, though of the easiest possible propaga- tion and cultivation, I have never seen any of it in A.merica. — It is propagated by seed, and also by offsets. The seeds may be sown, or the young plants (at a year old) planted, or the offsets (for lit- tle shoots from the sides of the stems) planted, on the spot where the crop is to be produced. — The mode of cultivation is in beds, precisely the same in all respects as Asparagus ; except, that the Cale may be begun upon the second year. Cover the beds thick with litter in winter ; so that the frost may not enter very deep; and, in April (Long Island) you will have plenty. — The moment it peeps out, cut it, and you have a v/hite stalk seven or eight inches long, which is cooked just as asparagus is, and is all eaten from top to bottom. This plant is a native of the sea beach ; and is as hardy as any weed that grows. Instead of earth, you may, if convenient, lay sand (and especially sea sand) for it to shoot up through. It may be moved at any age of the plant. Any old stump of it will grow. After you leave off cutting it in the spring, it goes shooting on, and, during the summer it bears seed. In the fall the stalks are cut down, and you proceed with the beds as with those of Asparagus. — Two beds across any one of the plats are enough for any family. — This is, unquestionably, (after the Aspara- gus,) the very best garden vegetable that grows. Sea Cale may be had at any time in winter, as easily as Asparagus (which see,) and with less care. The roots may be dug up in the fall and thrown under any shed with litter, or straw, over them, till you want them. The earth in the hot-bed must be deeper than for Asparagus : that is all the difference. — The seed is saved as easily as that of Asparagus, 205. CAMOMJ.LE is a medicinal herb of great IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 125 use. It is a perennial, and, though it may be pro- pagated from seed, it is easiest propagated by part- ing the roots. One little bit of root will soon make a bed sufficient for a garden. The flowers are used in medicine. They should be gathered before they begin to fade : and be dried in a gentle sun, or in shade ; and then put by, in paper bags, in a dry place. 206. CAPSICUM (or Peppers.)— An annual plant, sown early in fine earth, in drills a foot apart, and at six inches apart in the drills. It is hand- some as a. flower, and its pods aje used as a pickle. 207. CARAWAY. — The seeds are used in cakes. The plant is an annual. Sow in the spring, in fine rich ground, and leave the plants eight inches apart each way. 208. CARROT.— Read the Article Beet; for, the same season, same soil, same manure, same pre- paration for sowing, same distances, same inter- cultivation, same time of taking up, and mode of preserving the crop, all belong to the Carrot. — About the same quantity also is enough for a large family. — Some fine roots may be carefully preserv- ed to plant out for seed in the spring ; and the seed should be taken only from the centre seed-stalks of the carrots ; for that is the finest. — The mark of a good kind of seed, is, deep-red. colour of the tap. The paler ones are degenerate ; and the yellow ones are fast going back to the wild carrot. Some peo- ple consider that there are two sorts : I never could discover any difference in the plants coming from seed of what has been called the two sorts. A Cow will nearly double her milk, if taken from common pasture in October, and led well on carrot-greens. or tops ; and they may, at this season, be cut off for that purpose. They will shoot a little again be- 11* 126 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. fore the time for taking the carrots up ; but, that is of no consequence. These shoots can be cut off before the carrots be put away for winter. Carrots will transplant like Beets ; but, they grow still more forked than the Beet in this case. They do, how- ever, grow large and heavy in this way. I have had some weigh more than three pounds. 209. CAULIFLOWER.— It is not without some difficulty, that this plant is brought to perfection in any country, where the frost is severe in winter, and especially where the summers are as hot as they are in every part of the United States. Still it may be brought to perfection. — It is a cabbage, and the French call it the flower-cabbage. Its head is a lump of rich pulp, instead of being, as a cabbage-head is, a parcel of leaves folding in to- wards a centre, and lapping over each other. The Cauliflower is an annual plant. It blows, and ri- pens its seed, during the year that it is sown ; and, in fact, the part which is eaten is not, as in the cab- bage, a lump of leaves, but the seed stalks, pods, and blossoms, in their embryo and compact state, before they expand. — It is the same v/ith Brocoli. — Cauliflowers maybe had to eat in the fall, or in the spring. The last is the most difficult to accom- plish ; and I will, therefore, treat first of the means of accomplishing that. — To have Cauliflowers to eat in the spring, that is to say, in June, you must sow them in the fall ; for, they will have a certain age before their heads will come. Yet, they are very tender. They will not endure a South of England winter without a covering, occasionally at least, of some sort; and the covering is, almost al- ways, glass, either on frames or in a hand-light. So that, to keep them through an American winter, there must not only be p-lass, but that glass (except IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 127 where you have a green-house to be kept warm by fire) must have a covering in severe weather. — They require age, and yet, you must not sow them too early in the fall ; for, if you do, they will have little heads about the size of a dollar, and go off ?o seed at once without coming to a large head at all. If you be too backward in sowing, the heads do not begin before the great heat comes ; and, in that case, they will not head till the fall. — All these cir- cumstances make the raising of them for spring use very difficult. — Sow (Long Island) first week, or second week, in Septem^ber, in the same manner that ycu sow cabbages. When the plants have eight leaves, put them in a warm place, in the natural ground, and do not put much dung in the ground. The back part of the Hot-bed ground would be the place. Plant them six inches asunder upon a piece of ground that your frame will cover ; but do not put on the fram.e, till sharpish frosts begin to come. Then put it on, and, whenever you expect a frost, put over the lights at night. If there be much rain, keep the lights on, but give plenty of air. Take the lights off whenever you can. When the hard frost comes, put long dung from the tr^table very thick all round the frame up to the very top of it, and extending a yard wide ; and, in severe wea- ther, cover the glass with a mat, or old carpet first ; then put straw upon the mat ; and then cover the straw wiih another mat. But, mind, they must be kept in the dark as little as possible. When the sun is out, they must have it; and, in mild days, they must have a great deal of air. When there is an occasional thawing day, take the lights off, and lioe and stir the ground ; for, they want strength as well as protection ; and they must have all the air you can, with safety to their lives, give them.— 128 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. Thus you go on till within about three weeks of the general Indian-Corn planting season. By this time you may leave the lights off day and night. Ten days before Corn-planting get your ground ready, deeply dug and full of rich manure. Make holes with a spade ; remove each plant with u ball of earth about the roots ; fix the plants well in the holes at two feet asunder; leave a little dish round each ; water them with water that runs out of a yard where cattle are kept. They love moisture, especially under a hot sun. Give them this sort of water, or muddy, stagnant water, every three days in hot weather; hoe and dig between them also ; and, you will have Cauliflowers in June. — If you have a Green-house, the trouble is little. Sow as before. Put about four plants in a flower-pot a foot diameter at top, instead of putting under a frame. They will live in the Green-house like other plants ; and will be ready to put out as above-mentioned. Fifty plants are enough. They are very fine ve- getables ; but they come not earlier than green peas. — To have Cauliflowers to eat in the fall ii a much easier matter, and then they are, in my opi- nion, 7nore valuable than in the spring. Sow at the same time and in the same manner as you sow early cabbages. Treat the plants in the same way ; put them at two feet and a half distance ; you need not now water them ; they will begin to come early in October; and, if any of them have not perfected their heads when the sharp frosts come, take them up by the root, hang them up by the heels in a warm part of a barn, or in a cellar ; they will get tole- rably good heads; and you will have some of those heads to eat at Christmas. — The seed, on account of the heat, is extremely difficult to save in Ame- rica ; but, if a fall Cauliflower were kept in a fV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 129 Green-house during winter, and put out three weeks before corn-planting time, I am persuaded, it would bring good seed in June. — The quantity of this plant must depend upon the taste for it; but it is so much better than the very best of cabbages, that it is worth some trouble to get it. 210. CELERY.— The qualities of this plant are universally known. There are three or four sorts. The ivhite, the red, the hollow, and the solid. The hollow white is the best ; but the propagation and cultivation of all are the same. The whole of that part of the year, during which the frost is out of the ground, is not a bit too long for the getting of fine Celery. The seed, sown in the cold ground, in April, will lie six weeks before it come up. A wheel-barrow full of hot dung, put in a hole in the ground against a wall, or any fence, facing the south, and covered with rich and fine mould, will bring the seed up in tioo weeks. If you have a hot- bed frame, or a hand-light, the thing is easy. A large flower-pot will bring up out of ground, plants enough for any family. As soon as the plants are three inches high, and it scarcely matters how thick they stand, make a nice little bed in open free air ; make the ground rich and the earth very fine. Here prick out the plants at 4 inches apart; and, of course, 9 in a square foot. They are so very small, that this must be carefully done ; and they should be gently watered once, and shaded 2 days. A bed 10 feet long and 4 wide will contain 360 plants : and, if they be well cultivated, they are more than any common-sized family can want from November till May. — In this bed the plants stand till the middle of July, or thereabouts, when they are to go out into trenches. Make the trenches a foot deep and a foot wide, and put them not less than five feet 130 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [ChaDc asunder. Tiie ground that you make the trenches in should not be tVesh-dng ; but be in a solid state, which very conveniently maybe ; for Celery comes on just as the Peas and early Cabbages and Cauli- flowers Lave gone off. Lay the earth that you take out in the middle of the space between the trenches, so that it may not be washed into them by the heavy rains ; for it will, in such case, cover the hearts of the plants, and will go very nearly to destroy them. — When you have made your trench, put along it some good rich compost manure, partly consist- ing of wood ashes. Not dung; or, at least, not dung fresh from the yard ; for, if you use that, the celery will be rank and pipy, and will not keep nearly so long or so well. — Dig this manure in, and break all the earth very fine as you go. — Then take up your plants, and trim off the long roots. You will find, that every plant has offsets to it, coming up by the side of the main stem. Pull all these off, and leave only the single stem. Cut the leaves ofl so as to leave the whole plant about six inches long. — Plant them, six inches apart, and fix them in the manner so minutely dwelt on under the arti cle. Cabbage, keeping, as you are at work, youi feet close to the outside edges of the trench. Do not water the plants ; and, if you plant in fresh-dug ground, and fix your plants well, none of the trou- blesome and cumbrous business of shading is at all necessary ; for the plant is naturally hardy, and, f it has heat to wither it above, it has also that heat eneath to cause its roots to strike out almost in- stantly. — When the plants begin to grow, which they quickly will do, hoe on each side and between them with a small hoe. As they grow up, earth their stems ; that is, put the earth up to them, but not too much at a time ; and let the earth that you lY.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 131 put up be finely broken, and not at all cloddy. While you do this, keep the stalks of the outside leaves close up to prevent the earth from getting between the stems of the outside leaves and the inner ones ; for, if it get there it checks the plant and makes the celery bad. — When you begin the earthing take first the edges of the trenches ; and do not go into the middle of the intervals for the earth that you took out of the trenches. Keep working backwards, time after time, that is earth- ing after earthing, till 5^ou come to the earth that you dug out of the trenches ; and, by this time the earth against the plants will be above the level of the land. Then you take the earth out of the mid- dle, till, at last the earth against the plants form a ridge and the middle of each interval a sort of gut- ter. Earth up very often, and not put much at a time. Every week a little earth to be put up. — Thus, in October, you will have four ridges of Ce- lery across one of the Plats, each containing 168 plants. I shall suppose one of these ridges to be wanted for use before the frost sets in for good. Leave another ridge to be lock-up by the frost, a much safer guardian than your cellar or barn-door. But, you must cover this ridge over in such a way that the wet will not get down into the hearts of the celery. Two boards, a foot wide each, their edges on one side laid upon the earth of the ridge, formed into a roof over the point of the ridge, the upper edge of one board going an inch over the upper edge of the other, and the boards fastened well with pegs, will do the business completely; for it is not the frost, but the occasional thaios that you have to fear, and the wet and rot that they produce. — For the celery that is to serve from the setting in to the breaking up of the frost, you must have a bed 132 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap of sand, or light earth, in a warm part of a barn, or in a cellar ; and there you must lay it in, row after row, not covering the points of the leaves. — To have seed, take one plant, in spring, out of the ridge left in the garden. Plant it in an open place, and you will have seed enough to serve a whole township. For soup, the seed bruised is as good as the plant itself. For the number of years that the seed will keep good, see Paragraph 150. 211. CHERVIL is an annual plant. Its leaves are a good deal like those of double parsley. They are used in salads. A small patch, sown in rows, like parsley, is enough. 212. CIVES, a little sort of onion, which is pe- rennial. The greens only are used. A small quan- tity is sufficient for a garden. This plant may be propagated from seed, or from offsets. 213. CORIANDER is an annual plant that some persons use in soups and salads. It is sovi^n in spring. The seed is also used as a medicine. A small patch, probably two square yards, will be enough. 214. CORN (Indian.) — To have some early, the early sorts must be got. A dozen or two of plants may be easily raised in pots, as directed for Cu- cuinhers. See Cucumber. 215. CORN-SALAD.—This is a little insignifi- cant annual plant that some persons use in salads, though it can hardly be of any real use, where let- tuce seed is to be had. It is a mere weed. 216. CRESS (or Pepper-Grass) is very good in salads along with lettuces, white mustard, or rape. It should be sown in little drills, very thick (as should the white mustard and the rape) and cut be- fore it comes into rough leaf. A small quantity, in the salad-season, should be sown every six days IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 133 This salad, as well as the mustard and the rape, may be very conveniently raised in a corner of a hot-bed made for radishes or cabbage-plants. 217. CUCUMBER.— To give minute rules for the propagation and cultivation of this plant, in a country like this, would be waste of time. How- ever, if you wish to have them a month earlier than the natural ground will bring them, do this. Make a hole, and put into it a little hot dung ; let the hole be under a warm fence. Put 6 inches deep of fine rich earth on the dung. Sow a parcel of seeds in this earth ; and cover at night with a bit of carpet, or sail cloth, having first fixed some hoops over this little bed. — Before the plants show the rough leaf, plant two into a little flower pot, and fill as many pots in this way as you please. — Have a larger bed ready to put the pots into, and covered with earth so that the pots may be plunged in the earth up to their tops. Cover this bed like the last. — When the plants have got two rough leaves out, they will begin to make a shoot in the middle. Pinch that short off. — Let them stand in this bed, till your cucumbers sown in the natural ground come up ; then make some little holes in good rich land, and taking a pot at a time, turn out the hall and fix it in the hole. These plants will bear a month sooner than those sown in the natural ground ; and a square yard will contain 36 pots, and will of course, fur- nish plants for 36 hills of cucumbers, which, if well managed, will keep on bearing till Septem- ber.— Those who have hot-hed frames, or hand' lights, will do this matter very easily. — The cucum- ber plant is very tender and juicy ; and, therefore, when the seedlings are put into the pots, they should be watered, and shaded for a day or two ; when the balls are turned into the ground, they should be 12 -« 134 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. Chap. watered, and shaded with a bough for one day. That will be enougli. I have one observation tc make upon the cultivation of cucumbers, melons of all sorts, and that of all the pumpkin and squash tribe ; and that is, that it is a great error to sow them too thick. One plant in a hill is enough ; and I would put two into a pot, merely as a bar against accidents. One will bring more weight of fruit than two (if standing near each other,) two more than three, and so on, till you come to fifty in a square foot; and then you will have no fruit at all! Le' any one make the experiment, and he will find thi? observation mathematically true. "When cucum- bers are left eight or ten plants in a hill, they never shoot strongly. Their vines are poor and weak, the leaves become yellow, and, if they bear at all, it is poor tasteless fruit that they produce. Their bearing is over in a few weeks. Whereas, a single plant, in the same space, will send its fine green vines all around it to a great distance, and, if nc fruit be left to ripen, will keep bearing till the white frosts come in the fall. — The roots of a cucumber will go ten feet, in fine earth, in every direction Judge, then, how ten plants, standing close to one another, must produce mutual starvation ! — If yoi save a cucumber for seed, let it be the first fine frui. that appears on the plant. The plant will cease to bear much after this fruit becomes yellowish. — 1 have said enough, under the head oi Saving Seeds, (Paragraphs, 139 to 146) to make you take care, that nothing of the melon, pumpkin or squash kind grow near a seed-bearing cucumber plant ; and that all cucumbers of a different sort from that bearing the seed be kept at a great distance. — There are many sorts of cucumbers : the Long Prickly, the Short Prickly, the Cluster, and many others ; but, j IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 135 s*^ the yji'opagation and cultivation of all the sorts are '4 ^^^^ same. 218. DANDELION.— This is a well-known and most wicked garden 2veed, in this country as well as in England ; and I am lialf afraid to speak of using il as food, lest I should encourage laziness. But, there may be people without gardens, and without the means of purchasing greens in the spring ; and to them what I am about to say may be of use. The Dandelion is as early as the earliest o( grass ; and, it is one of the very best of greens, when it is young. It is a sort of wild Endive. The French, ' who call it (from the shape of its leave) Dent de lion, or Lion''s tooth, use it, bleached, as salad, and, if fine, large and well bleached, it is better than Endive, much more tender, and of a better flavour. it is very common in rich pasture land in England ; and cattle and sheep, particularly the former, pre- fer it, as far as my observation has gone, to every other plant in the pastures. It is full of milk-co- loured juice, and fuller of it than either the Endive or the Lettuce. In the spring (June) 1817, when I came to Long Island, and when nothing in the shape &{ greens was to be had for love or money. Dan- delions were our resource ; and I have always, since that time, looked at this weed with a more friendly eye. 219. DOCK. — I have frequently mentioned the 3 leaves of this weed as being sold in the market at New York. This weed and the Dandelion are the gardener's two vegetable devils. Nothing but ab- ^: solute burning, or a sun that will reduce them to J powder, will kill their roots, any little bit of which ^. will grow, and that, too, whether lying on, or in, »j the ground. Both bear seed in prodigious quanti- ^ ties. — -The Dock (which is the wild Rhubarb) puts r^ ■ f r ^ •■K,. 1 r> ;!>. r t^ r -% i 130 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Cliap. forth its leaves very quickly after the Dandelion ; and hence it is that it is resorted to as greens in the spring. This is, however, a coarse green com- pared with the Dandelion. However, it is better than no greens at all after five months of winter, which has left nothing green upon the face of the earth. — If a rod or two of ground, on the south side of a wood, were trenched and made rich, and plant- ed with Docks, or Dandelions, the owner, even though he had no garden, would not be in want of early greens ; and, it would be better to do this than to have to go upon the hunt after these vegetables, which, though weeds, are not, in every place, to be found in any considerable quantity ; or, at least, not without spending a good deal of time in the pursuit. — The Dock-leaf is very wholesome, as is also that of the Dandelion. They do not produce gripings as the greater part of the cabbage kinds are apt to do. — See Rhubarb. 220. ENDIVE.— This is a salad-plant, though, like the Dandelion, it may be eaten as greens. — There are two sorts, the curled and the plain, just as there are of the Dandelion, which, as I observed before, is a sort of Endive. — The curled is prettiest, and is, therefore, generally preferred ; but, the plain is the best. — Sow Endive in drills a foot apart ; when the plants come up, thin them to a foot apart in the row, if they be not to be removed by trans- plantation ; keep the ground clean, and hoe deep and frequently between the plants. When they get to a good size, they are to be bleached before they can be used as salad ; for, while green, they are bitter and not very crisp. In order to bleach them, you must take them when quite dry ; gather all the leaves carefully up with your hands ; draw them into a conical form, and tie them round with IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 137 matting or soft string, or little splinters of white oak. When they have remained in this state for about a fortnight, they will be bleached and fit for use. — The time of sowing may be as early as the weather will permit in the spring, and there may be another sowing for summer ; but, it is for winter and spring use that Endive is most wanted ; so that, the late sowings are of the most importance. Sow about the end of July, in fine rich ground. If you do not transplant^ leave the plants at the distances before-mentioned ; if you do, transplant at the same distances (a foot every way;) do it when the plants have ten leaves, and tip off both leaves and roots when you transplant. Fix the roots well as direct- ed in the case of cabbage ; and, as the plant is very juicy, and the weather hot, plant in the evening, or early in the morning, water a little, and lay some bows over to shade for two days, but take the bows off at night. — The best place for Endive would be the shady border. The plants will come in for use in October, November, and December. Some sown a little later must be preserved for winter use. Be- fore the frost sfts in, tiiey must be tied up in a co- nical form, as before directed, and all dead, or yel- low, leaves must be taken oW. Then dig them up, with a ball of earth to each, and put them into light earth in a cellar or some warm building. Put only the roots into the earth; do not sufTer the plants to touch each other ; and pour a little water round the roots after you have put them in the earth. If they be 'perfectly dry when tied up, they will keep well till spring. — To have them as early as possible in the spring, sov/ in the third week of August, and do not transplant. When the hard frost 'is come, cover the whole of the ground over with straw six inches deep, and throw (if at hand) some leaves of 12* 138 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. trees over the straw, and some sticks to keep the leaves from blowing away. But, the best covering of all, in this case is, boughs of cedar, or o(fir, or laurel; though these boughs must be, for this pur- pose, cut up into small parts, so that they will lie close and compact and keep out the light. Some ever-green boughs, and some leaves of trees thrown over them, form, perhaps, the best covering in the world for plants of this description. But, observe ; you must let the frost come. The ground must be right hard when you put the covering on ; or else, the plants will rot. They must see the sun no more till spring. — When the frost breaks up, take off the covering; hoe the ground as soon as dry, and pro- ceed to perfect the plants in the manner before de- scribed. — One of these plants will produce seed enough to last you for five years. — There need not be many of these plants. Lettuces are their rivals, and are a great deal better. — I have mentioned mat- ting in this article, as a thing to tie with. This matting is nothing more than the threads of those large things, in which foreign goods sometimes come packed up. These things are in England called Mats, and the threads of which they are composed, are by gardeners, called matting. The gardeners use this for ties to Espalier trees ; they tie on their grafts with it ; they tie up their flowers with it ; and, in short, it is the string of the gar- deners. The Mats, thousands of bales of which are* imported into England from Russia, are used to co- ver the hot-beds with, and for various other pur- poses. — But, matting is to be had, and with very little trouble, without sending to Russia for it. Any one who iias a spare tree may have plenty of mat- ting. When I came to Long Island, I cut down a chestnut, of about a foot diameter, and that furnished IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 139 me with a store of matting ties. The tree was cut in June; the outer bark talu-n off; and then the imier-hiirk came ofV in ]ong flakes, some broad and some narrow, the whole length of the clear trunk, which was about 15 feet. 1 just iiung this up to dry ; and that was mattmg, to be cut into any length, and ready to use for any tie, where much strength was not required. The only precautions are: keep the matting in the dry, and when you use it dip it in water first for a few minutes, and take it out of the water as you use it. If you have put more into the water than you want for that time, take it out and hang it up in the dry again ; and it will receive no injury. 221. FENNEL. — Fennel is a perennial plant; propagated from seed, or from offsets; and sown, or planted, either in spring or fall. The plants should stand about a foot asunder. It is a tall plant with ^f/iV?/ leaves. Its leaves are used in salads, are chopped up fine to put in melted butter eaten with fish ; they are boiled with fish to give the fish a fla- vour, and, they are tied round mackerel, particu- larly, when these are broiled. The French, who excel in the cooking of fish, always do this. The leaves, thus broiled, become crisp ; and, they are then of a very fine flavour. In winter, the seed, bruised, gives fish the same flavour as the leaves do ^ in summer ; and, to my taste, butter, seasoned with * Fennel, is better than any of the fish sauces, bought at the shops. — It is a very hardy plant. Two yards squave will contain enough for any family ; and, once in the ground, it will stand there for an age, or ten ages, as far as I know. 222. GARLICK. — Almost all nations except the English, the Americans, and the French, make great and constant use of Garlick ; and, even the French 140 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap use it, frequently, to an extent that would drive us from the table. — It is propagated from seed, or from offsets : and is sown, or planted, either in spring or fall. For winter-use, the roots are taken up and kept in the dry, as onions are. 223. GOURD. — I do not know any use that it is of. See Pumpkin. 224. HOP. — To range the Hop amongst Veget- ables may appear odd ; but, it is a garden-plant in America, and does give you, if you like to have it, a very good dish for the table. It is wanted to pro- duce its fruit for the making of yeast., or Jeer, or both ; and, to get good hops, there should be some cultivation. Any bit of a root will grow and be- come a plant. The young plants should be planted in the fall, three or four together in a clump, or hill, and the hills should be from seven to ten feet apart. The first year of planting, put four rods, or little poles, to each hill, and let two vines go up each pole, treading the rest of the vines down to creep about the ground. In a month after the vines be- gin to mount the poles, cut off all the creeping vines ; and draw up a hill of earth against the poles all round, and cover all the crowns of the plants. In short, make a hill a foot high with a flattish top, and then fork up the ground between the hills and break it fine. When weeds begin to appear, hoe the ground clean ; and, at the end of another month draw some more earth up, and make the hill bigger and higher. — When the fall comes, cut off the vines that have gone up the pole a foot from the ground ; take down the poles ; dig down the hills, and, with a corn-hoe, open the ground all round the crowns of the plants ; and, before winter sets in, cut all close down to the very crowns, and then cover the crowns over with earth three or four inches thick, IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 141 Through this earth the hop-shoots will start in the spring. You will want but eight of them to go up your four poles ; and the rest, w^hen three inches long, you may cut, and eat as asparagus ; cook them in the same manner, and you will find them a very delightful vegetable. — This year you put poles 20 feet long to your hops. Proceed the same as before, only make the hills larger ; and this year you will have plenty of hops to gather for use. — The next, and every succeeding year, you may put poles 40 or 50 feet long ; but they must not be too large at bottom-. Be sure to open the ground every fall, and to cut all off close down to the crown of the plants, which, when pared off w^ith a sharp knife, will look like a piece of cork. — In England, where there are more hops used than in all the rest of the world, it requires /om?' or five years to bring a hop hill to perfection. Even then, a pole from 15 to 20 feet long is generally long enough ; and the crop of thirty hills is, upon an average, not more than equal to that of one hill in the hop-plan- tations on the Susquehannah ; notwitlistanding that, on the Susquehannah, they merely plough the ground in spring ; never open the crowns and pare them down, leave the loose creeping vines together with the weeds and grass to be eaten, in summer, by sheep, which also eat the leaves of the mounting vines as far as they, by putting their fore feet against the poles, can reach up ; and yet, in England, the Hop-lands are called hop-gardens, and are culti- vated and kept in a garden state. — But, hops are to be preserved. They are fit to gather, when you see, upon opening the leaves of the hop, a good deal of: yellow dust, and when the seeds, which you will find at the sockets of the leaves of the hop, begin to be plump. — Gather them nirjely, and let no 142 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. leaves or stalks be amongst them ; and lay them out on a cloth to dry in the sun, taking care that no rain fall upon them, and that they be not out in the dew. — When perfectly dry, put them, very hardly and closely pressed, into a new bag, made of thick Russia linen, such as they make strong trowsers of. And, in this state, they will, if necessary, keep goo4 and fit for use (if kept in a dry place) for twenty years, or, perhaps, three times twenty. I have used hops, for brewing, at ten years old, and found them just as efficient as new hops of the same original quality. However, people say that the fresh hops have a more lively flavour ; and, as any stick will, in America, carry enough to supply a family with hops for the making of yeast-cakes, it must be shocking laziness not to put a few by every year. 225. HORSE-RADISH. Like every other plant, this bears seed ; but it is best propagated by cutting bits of its roots into lengths of two inches, and putting them, spring or fall, into the ground about a foot deep with a setting stick. They will find their way up the first year ; and the second they will be fine large roots, if the ground be trenched deeply and made pretty good. Half a square perch of ground, planted at a foot apart every way, will, if kept clear of weeds, produce enough for a family that eats roast-beef every day of their lives. You must take care that the Horse-radish roots do not spread, and that bits of them be not flung about the ground ; for, when once in, no tillage will get them out. They must be, like the Dock and Dandelion roots, absolutely burnt by fire, or by a sun that will reduce them to a state of a diy stick; or must be taken up and carried away from the spot. Though a very valuable and wholesome article of diet, it is a most pernicious weed l\.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. l43 226. HYSSOP is a sort of shrub, the flower- spikes of which are used, fresh or dried, for medi- cinal purposes. It is propagated from seed, or from ofi'sets. A very little of it is enough for any garden. 227. JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE.— This plant bears at the root, like a potatoe, which, to the great degradation of many of the human race, is every where well known. But, this Artichoke, which is also dug up and cooked like a potatoe, has, at any rate, the merit of giving no trouble either in the propagation or the cultivation. A handful of the bits of its fruit, or even of its roots, flung about a piece of ground of any sort, will keep bearing for ever, in spite of grass and of weeds ; the difliculty being, not to get it to grow, but to get the ground free from it, when once it has taken to growing. It is a very poor, insipid vegetable; but, if you wish to have it, now and then, the best way is to keep it out of the garden ; and to dig up the corner of some field, and throw some seed or some roots into it. 228. LAVENDER.— A beautiful little well known shrub of uses equally well known. Hundreds of acres are cultivated in England for the flowers to be used in distillation. It may be propagated from seed ; but is easiest propagated from slips, taken ofl' in the spring, and planted in good moist ground in the shade. When planted out it should be in rows three feet apart and two feet apart in the rows. If the flowers be to be preserved, the flower-stalks should be cut ofl" before the blossoms begin to fade at all. 229. LEEK. — There are two sorts; the narroW' leaved, and the flag- -leek, the latter of which is by much the best — Some people like leeks better than onions; and they are better in soup. — Sow in the fall, or, as early in the spring as you can. — Abou': 144 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Cliap four yards square is enough. Put the rows eiglil inches asunder, and th^n the plants to three inches apart in the row. He e deeply and frequently be- tween the plants till the middle of July, and then take the plants up, cut their roots oft' to an inch long, and cut oft" the leaves also a good way down. Make trenches, like those for Celery (which see.) only not more than half a^ deep, and half as wide apart. Manure the trenches with rotten dung, or other rich manure. Put in the plants as you do the Celery plants, and plant about five inches asunder. As the Leeks grow, earth them up by degrees like Celery ; and, at last, you will have Leeks 18 inches long under ground, and as thick as your wrist. One of these is worth a dozen of poor little hard things. If you have a row across one of the Plats it will be plenty, perhaps. Such row will contain about a hundred and sixty. One third may be used, perhaps, before the winter sets in : another third taken up and put by for winter, in precisely the same way that Celery is ; the other third, covered in the same way that Celery is, will be ready for spring use. — See Celery. — Three Leeks planted out for seed, will ripen their seed in August, and will give you seed enough for the next year, and some to give to five or six neighbours. 230. LETTUCE.— This great article of the gar- den is milky, refreshing, and pleasanter to a majority of tastes than any other plant, the Asparagus hardly excepted. So necessary is it as the principal ingre- dient of a good salad, that it is, both in France and England, called " salad" by great numbers of peo- ple. It is good in stews ; good boiled with green- peas ; and, even as a dish boiled as cabbage is, it is an excellent vegetable. Yet, I never saw a really fine Lettuce in America. The obstacles are, the IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 145 complete impossibility of preserving plants of the fine sorts in the natural ground during the winter j and the great heat, which will not sufler those sorts to have, if they be sowed in the natural ground in the spring. — The hardy sorts are the green cab- bage-lettuce (or hardy green,) and the brown-cab- bage. These are /a^ plants. Their outside leaves spread forth upon the ground, and they curl into a sort of loaf in the centre. The plants of these may foe preserved through the winter in the natural ground, in the manner directed for Endive plants, (which see under Endive) and may be sowed at the same time for that purpose. But these are very poor things. They have, though bleached at the heart, a slimy feel in the mouth; and are not crisp and refreshing. There are, I believe, twenty sorts, two of which only it v.ill be enough to mention, green-coss and white-coss, the former of which is of a darker green than the latter, is rather hardier, and not quite so good. These, when true to their kind and in a proper situation, rise up, and fold in their leaves to a solid loaf, like a sugar-loaf cabbage, and, in rich land, with good management, they will be- come nearly as large. When you cut one of these from the stem, and pull off its outside leaves, you have a large lunip of white enough for a salad for ten people, unless they be French, and, then you must have a lettuce to every person. Every body knows how to sow lettuce-seed along a drill, in the spring, to let the plants stand as thick as grass, and to cut it along with a knife, and gather it up by handfuls. But, this is not lettuce. It is herbage. and really fit only for pigs and cows. It is a raw, green. Dandelion, and is not quite so good. — The plants of these fine sorts may, indeed, be kept dirough the winter in the same manner, and with 146 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap the game care, as Cauliflower plants (which see in Paragraph 209 ;) but, if this be not done, you must raise them in the spring in precisely the same way as the very earliest cabbage-plants, for which see Paragraph from 77 to 94. — Put the plants out into the natural ground, about a fortnight before the ge- neral Corn-planting time. Do not put them in a place /wZZ to the sun ; but in the east borders, or in the west border. Make the ground rich^ right strongs break it well, and, in transplanting, keep as much earth as you can about the roots, and give a little water ; and transplant in the evening. — These plants will loave about the time of the early cabbages, and some of them will not go off to seecf for six weeks after they are loaved. So that, about two square feet of a hot-bed will give you a great quantity of real lettuces. — Let one plant (a very fine one) stand for seed; and it will give you plenty of seed for a year or two. — Whenever you trans- plant Lettuces, give them a little water, and, if ii be a small bed, shade them a little. If you sow in the natural ground in the spring, be sure to trans plant into the shady borders. — And be sure always to make the ground rich for these fine Lettuces. 231. MANGEL-WURZEL.— This may be called Cattle-beet. Some persons plant it in gardens. It is a coarse Beet, and is cultivated and preserved us the Beet is. 232. MARJORAM. — One sort is annual ami one perennial. The former is called summer ami the latter winter. The first sown as •:*arly as pos- sible in the spring; and, the latter propagated by offsets ; that is, by parting the roots. The plants may stand pretty close. As the winter sort cannot be got at in winter, some of both oughr to be pre- served by drying. Cut it just before it ".Qmt^z ou,t IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 14? into bloom, hang it up in little bunches to dry, first, for a day, in the sun ; then in the shade ; and, when quite dry, put it in paper bags, tied up, and the bags hung up in a dry place. 233. MARIGOLD.^-An ANNUAL plant. Sow the seed, spring or fall ; when the bloom is at full, gather the flowers ; pull the leaves of the flower out of their sockets ; lay them on paper to dry, in the shade. When dry put them into paper bags. They are excellent in broths and soups and stews. Two square yards planted with Marigolds will be sufli- cient. It is the single Marigold that ought to be cultivated for culinary purposes. The double one is an ornamental flower, and a very mean one indeed. 234. MELON.— There are, all the world knows, two distinct tribes : the Musk, and the Water. Of the former the sorts are endless, and, indeed, of the latter also. Some of both tribes are globular and others oblong ; and, in both tribes there are difier- ent colours, as well with regard to flesh as to rind — In this fine country, where they all come to perfec- tion in the natural ground, no distinction is made as to earliness, or lateness in sorts ; and, in other respects, some like one sort best and some another. Amongst the Musk melons, the Citron is, according to my taste, the finest by far; and the finest Water melons that I have ever tasted were raised from seed that came out of melons grown in Georgia. As to the manner of propagating, cultivating, and sowing the seed of melons, see Cucumber, and only observe, that all that is there said applies to melons as well as to cucumbers. To have melons a month earlier than the natural ground sowings will pro- duce them is an object of much greater importance than to have cucumbers so much earlier; and, to 148 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. accomplish that object, you have only to use the same means, in every respect, that I have described for the getting of early cucumbers. The soil should be rich for melons ; but it ought not to be freshly dunged ; for that is apt to rot the plants, especially in a wet year. They like a light and rather sandy soil* and, any where near the sea, wood ashes, or sopers' ashes, is, probably, the best manure, and especially in dry-bottomed land ; for ashes attract and retain the moisture of the atmosphere. It is a great mistake to suppose, that ashes are of a hum- ing quality. They always produce the most and best effect in dry bottomed land. — Melons should be cultivated weW You should leave but one plant in a hill; and should till the ground between the plants, while they are growing, until it be covered by the vines. If the plants stand too close, the vines will be weak, and fruit small, thick-rinded, and poor as to flavour. 235. MINT. — There are two sorts ; one is of a darker green than the other : the former is railed pepper-wint, and is generally used for distilling- to make mint water : the latter, which is called spear- mint, is used for the table, in many ways. Tlie French snip a little into their salads ; we boil a bunch amongst green peas, to which it gives a plea sant flavour ; chopped up small, and put, along with sugar, into vinegar, we use it as sauce for roasted lamb ; and a very pleasant sauce it is. — Mint may be propagated from seed : but. a few bits of its roots will spread into a bed in a year. — To have it in winter, preserve it precisely like Marjoram (which see,) and, instead of chopping it for sauce, crumble it between your fingers. 236. MUSTARD — Th^re is a white s>?ed-d .«ort and a brown seeded. The white mustard is u&eiS in TV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 149 salads along with the CresSj or Pepper-Grass, and is sown and cultivated in the same way- (See Cress.) The black is that which table-mustard is made of. — It is sown in rows, two feet apart, early in the spring. The plants ought to be thinned to four or five inches apart. Good tillage between the rows. The seed will be ripe in July, and then the stalks should be cut off, and, when quite dry, the seed threshed out, and put by for use. — "Why should any man that has a garden buy mustard ? "Why should he want the English to send him out, in a bottle, and sell him for a quarter of a dollar, less and worse mustard than he can raise in his garden for a penny ? The English mustard is, in general, a thing fabricated, and is as false as the glazed and pasted goods, sent out by the fraudulent fabricators of Manchester. It is a composition oi baked bones reduced to powder, some wheat fiovr, some colour- ing, and a drug of some sort that gives the pun gent taste. Whoever uses that mustard freely will find a burning in his inside long after he has swal- lowed the mustard. Why should any man, who has a garden, buy this poisonous stufl? The mus- tard-seed ground in a little mvstard mill is what he ought to use. He will have bran and all ; and his mustard will not look yellow like the English composition ; but, we do not object to Rye-bread on account of its colour I Ten pounds of seed will grow upon a perch of ground ; and ten pounds of mustard is more than any man can want in a year. The plants do not occupy the ground more than fourteen weeks, and may be followed by another crop of any plant, and even of n;ustard if you like. This, therefore, is a very useful plant, and ougjit to be cultivated by every farmer, and every man wb© has a gan^.en. 19>* 150 THE AMERICAN GARPENSR. [Chap. 237. NASTURTIUM.— An annual plant, with a half-red half-yellow flower, which has an offen- sive smell ; but, it bears a seed enveloped in a fleshy pod, and that pod, taken before the seed becomes ripe, is used as a thing to pickle. — The seeds should be sown in the fall, or very early in the spring. The plants should have pretty long bushy sticks put to them ; and four or five of them will bear a great quantity of pods. — They will grow in almost any ground ; but, the better the ground the fewer of them are necessary. 238. ONION. — This is one of the main vegeta- bles. Its uses are many, and they are all well known. The modes of cultivation for crop are various. Three I shall mention, and by either a good crop may be raised. — Sow in the fall (See Pa- ragraph 159,) or early in the Spring. Let the ground be rich, bi?t not from fresh dung. Make the ground \e\'y fine; make the rows a foot apart, and scatter tlie seed thinly along a drill two inches deep. Then fill in the drills ; and then press the earth down upon the seed by treading the ground all over. Then give the ground a very slight smoothing over with a rake. — When the plants get to be three inches high, thin them to four inches, or to eight inches if you wish to have very large onions. — Keep the ground clear of weeds hy hoeing; but, do not hoe deep, nor raise earth about the plants ; for these make them run to 7ieck and not to bulk. — When the tips of the leaves begin to be brown, bend down the necks, so that the leaves lie flat with the ground. When the leaves are nearly dead, pull up the onions, and lay them to dry, in order to be put away for winter use. — Some per- sons, instead of sowing the onions all along the drill d^op four or five seeds at every six or seveB IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 151 inches distance ; and leave the onions to grow thus, in clumps ; and this is not a bad way ; for, they will squeeze each other out. They will not be large; bnt, they will be ripe earlier^ and will not run to neck. — The third mode of cultivation is as follows: sow the onions any time between April and the middle of June, in drills six inches apart, and put the seed very thick along the drills. Let all the plants stand, and they will get to be about as big round as the top of your little finger. Then the leaves will get yellow, and, when that is the case, pull up the onions and lay them on a board, till the sun have withered up the leaves. Then take these diminutive onions, put them in a bag, and hang them up in a dry place till spring. As soon as the frost is gone, and the ground dry, plant out these onions in good and fine ground, in rows a foot apart. Make, not drills^ but little marks along the ground; and put the onions at six or eight inches apart. Do not cover them with the earth ; but just press them down upon the mark with your thumb and fore- finger. The ground ought to be trodden and slight- ly raked again before you make the marks ; for no earth should rise up, about the plants. — Proceed after this as with sown onions; only observe, that, if any should be running up to seed, you must twist down the neck as soon as you perceive it. But, observe this : the shorter the time that these onions have been in the ground the year before, the less likely will they he to run to seed. — Preserving onions is an easy matter. Frost never hurts them, unless you move them during the time that they are frozen. Any dry, airy place, will, therefore, do. They should not be kept in a warm place ; for they w'lWheat and grow. The neatest way is to tie them up in ropes ; that is to say, to tie them round sticks, 152 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. or straight straw, with matting (See Endive.) — For seed, pick out the finest onions, and plant them out in rich land, in the spring. — To grow this seed upon a large scale, plough the land into four feet ridges, lay plenty of dung along the furrows, plough the ground back over the dung, flatten the top of the ridge a little, and put along, on the top of the ridge two rows of onions, the rows seven inches apart, and the onions seven inches apart in the rows. "When the weeds come, hoe the tops of the ridges with a small hoe, and plough first from and then to the ridges, two or three times, at the distance of two or three weeks, as in the case of Ruta Baga^ cultivated in the field. — When the seed is ripe, cut off the heads and collect them in such a way as not to scatter, the seed. Lay them on cloths, in the sun, till dry as dust ; and then thresh out the seed, winnow it, and put it away. The seed will be dead ripe in August, and transplanted Ruta Baga, or Early York Cabbages, or even Kidney dwarf beans, or, perhaps. Buckwheat, may follow upon the same ground, the same year. — In a garden there always ought to be a crop to succeed seed-onions the same summer. 239. PARSLEY, — Known to every human be- ing to bear its seed the second year, and, after that, to die away. It may be sown at any season when the frost is out of the ground. The best way is to sow it in spring, and in very clean ground ; because the seed lies long in the ground, and, if the ground be foul, the weeds choak the plants at their coming up. — A bed of six feet long and four wide, the seed sown in drills at eight inches apart, is enough for any family in the world. — But, every body likes parsley, and where the winter is so long and so sharp as it is in this country, the main thing is to IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 153 be able to keep parsley through the winter. It can not be preserved dry, with success, \\ke Mint, Mar- joram, and the rest of the pot-herbs. It is possible to preserve it green, because I have done it ; but, it loses its smell and flavour. Therefore, to have Parsley in winter, you must keep it alive. If you have a Green-house (or you may do it even in any of the window seats of a house) half a dozen flower- pots, planted with stout plants in September, and taken into the house in November, will be suflScient. As soon as winter breaks up, put them out in the natural ground ; and thus you have plenty of Pars- ley all the year round. However, Parsley may be preserved in the natural ground. You have only to put straw, or leaves of trees, or long litter, six inches thick on the bed, and to lay on something to prevent the covering from being blown oft". (See Endive.) This will preserve its leaves from being destroyed ; and, when you go to get it, you must lift up the covering, of a part of the bed, and put it down again. 240. PARSNIP. — As to season of sowing, sort of land, preparation of ground, distances, and cul- tivation and tillage, precisely the same as the Car- rot, which see, Paragraph 208. But, as to preser- vation during winter, and for spring use, the Pars- nip stands all frost without injury, and even with benefit. So that, all you want is to put up for win- ter as many as you want during the hard frost ; and these you may put up in the same manner as directed for Carrots and Beets. — The greens of Parsnips are as good for cow feed as those of Carrots ; but, if the Parsnips be to stand out in the ground all the winter, the greens should not be cut ofl" in the fall. 241. PEA. — This is one of those vegetables 154 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. which all men most like. Its culture is universal, where people have the means of growing it. The sorts of peas are very numerous ; and I will men- tion a few of them presently. — The soil should be good^ and fresh dung is good manure for them. Ashes, and compost, very good ; but peas, like In- dian Corn, will bear to be actually sown upon dung. Never were finer peas grown than there are grown in the United States ; and, as we shall presently see, ihey may be had, in the open ground, in Long Island, from first of June till the sharp frosts set in. — The sorts are numerous, one class is of a small size and the other large. The latter grow taller^ and are longer in coming to perfection, than the former. The earliest of all is the little white pea, called, in Long Island, the May-Pea, and, in Eng- land, the early frame-pea. Then come the early Charleton, the Hotspur, the Blue Pea, the Dwarf and Tall Marrowfats ; and several others, espe- cially the Knight Pea, the seed of which is rough, uneven shaped and shrivelled, and the plant of which grows very tall. — All the sorts may be grown in America, without sticks, and even better than with. I have this year (1819) the finest peas I ever saw, and the crop the most abundant. And this is the manner, in which I have sown and cultivated them. I ploughed the ground into ridges, the tops of which (for the dwarf sorts) were four feet apart. I then put a good parcel of yard-dung into the fur- rows ; and ploughed the earth back upon the dung. I then levelled the top of the ridge a little, and dre\f two drills along upon it at six inches distant from each other. In these I sowed the peas. When the peas were about three inches high, I hoed the ground deep and well between the rows and on each outside of them. I then ploughed the ground from IV. 1 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 155 them, and to them again, in the same way as in the case of Swedish Turnips. In a week or two after- wards they had another ploughing; and soon after this they fell, and lay down the sides of the ridges. This was the way in which I managed all the sorts, only in the case of the Knight Pea I put the ridges at six feet asunder. — This was, of every sort, tht very finest crop of peas I ever saw in my life When not sticked, and sown upon level ground, peas fall about irregularly^ and, in case of much wet, the under pods rot ; but, from the ridges they fall regularly, and the wet does not lodge about them You walk up the furrows to gather the peas ; and nothing can be more beautiful, or more conve- nient. The culture in the garden may be the same, except that the work which is done with the plough in the field, must, in the garden, be done with the spade. — As to seasons, the early pea may be sown in the fall. See Paragraph 159. But, in this case, care must be taken to guard against mice. Sow about four inches deep, and tread the ground well down. When the frost sets in, all is safe till winter breaks up. These peas will be earlier by ten or fifteen days than any that you can sow in the spring. — If you sow in the spring, do it as soon as the ground is dry enough to go upon. Sow the May Pea, some Charletons, some Hotspurs, some Blue Peas, some Marrowfats, and some Knight Pea, all at the same time, and they will come one after another, so as to give you green peas till nearly August. In June (about the middle) sow some early pea again and also some Marrowfiits and Knight Pea ; and these Mdil give you peas till Sep- tember. Sow some of each sort middle of August, and they will give you green peas till the hardisk frosts come. — But, these two last sowings (Junp. 156 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. and August) ought to be under the South fence, so as to get as much coolness as possible. 242. PENNYROYAL. — A medicinal herb. It is perennial. A little patch, a foot square, is enough. 243. PEPPER. See Capsicum. 244. PEPPER GRASS. See Cress. 245. POTATOE. — Every body knows how to cultivate this plant ; and, as to its preservation during winter, if you can ascertain the degree of warmth necessary to keep a baby from perishing, you know precisely the precautions required to pre- serve a potatoe. — As to sorts, they are as numerous as the stones of a pavement in a large city ; but, there is one sort earlier than all others. It is a small, round, ^vhite potatoe, that has no blossom^ and the leaf of which is of a pale green, very thin, very smooth, and nearly of the shape and size of the inside of a lemon cut asunder longways. This potatoe, if planted with other sorts in the spring, v/ill be ripe six weeks sooner than any other sort. I have had tivo crops of this potatoe ripen on the same ground in the same year, in England, the se- cond crop from potatoes of the first. Two crops could be raised in America with the greatest facili- ty. — But, if you once get this sort, and wish to keep it, you must take care that no other sort grow with it, or near it ; for, potatoes of this kind mix the breed more readily than any thing else, though they have no bloom ! If some plants of this blos- somless kind grow with or near the other kinds, they will produce plants with a rough leaf, some of them will even bloiD, and they will lose their quali- ty of earliness. This is quite enough to prove the fallacy of the doctrine of a communication of the farina of the flowers of plants. 246. POTATOE (Sweet.)— This plant is culti- IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 157 vated in much the same way as the last. Heat is what it chiefly wants ; and great care indeed must be taken to preserve it in winter. 247. PUMPKIN.— See Cucumber. The culti- vation is the same, and every body knows the dif- ferent qualities of the different sorts, and how to preserve and use them all. 248. PURSLANE.— A mischievous weed that Frenchmen and pigs eat when they can get nothing else. Both use it in salad, that is to say, raw. 249. RADISH. — A great variety of sorts. Sown thin in little drills six inches asunder. Sown as early as possible in the spring, and a little bed every three weeks all summer long. The early scarlet is the best. Radishes may be raised early in a hot-bed precisely as cabbage-plants are. 250. RAMPION. — This is the smallest seed of which we have any knowledge. A thimble full, properly distributed, would sow an acre of land. It is sown in the spring, in very fine earth. Its roots are used in soups and salads. Its leaves are also used in salads. A yard square is enough for any garden. 251. RAPE. — This is a field-plant for sheep ; but it is very good to sow like White Mustard, to use as salad, and it is sown and raised in the same way. 2.52. RHUBARB.— This is one of the capital articles of the garden, though I have neven seen it in America. The Dock is the wild Rhubarb, and if you look at, and taste, the root, you will see the proof of it. The Rhubarb plant has leaves as broad and long as those of the hurrdock. Its comes forth, like the dock, very early in the spring. When its leaves are pretty large, you cut them off close to the stem, and, if the plant be fine, the stalk of the 14 lOS THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. leaf will be from eight inches to a foot long. You peel the outside skin from these stalks^ and then cut the stalks up into bits about as big as the first joint of a lady's third finger. You put these into puddings, pies, tarts, just as you would green goose- berries and green currants, and some people think they are better than either : at any rate, they are full six weeks earlier. — The plant, like the dock, is hardy, is raised from seed, from the roots, will grow in any ground, though best in rich ground ; and the same plants will last for an age. It is a very valu- able plant, and no garden ought to be without it. I should think, that a hundred wagon-loads of the stalks are yearly sold in London. A bunch which you can clasp with your two hands sells for a shil- ling or two in the very early part of the season ; and that is nearly half a dollar. This circumstance sufficiently speaks its praise. 253. ROSEMARY is a beautiful little shrub. One of them may be enough in a garden. It is pro- pagated from slips, taken ofl^ in the spring and planted in a cool place. 254. RUE. — Still more beautiful. Propagated in the same manner. One plant of the kind is enough. 255. RUTABAGA.— (See Turnip.) 256. SAGE is raised from seed, or from slips. To have it at hand for winter it is necessary to dry it ; and it ought to be cut, for this purpose, before it comes out into bloom, as, indeed, is the case with all other herbs. 257. SALSAFY, called, by some, oyster plant, is good in soups, or to eat like the parsnip. It is cultivated like the parsnip, and, like it, stands out the whole of an American winter. 258. SAMPHIRE is propagated from seed, or IV ', THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 159 from offsets. It is perennial, and is sometimes used as a pickle, or in salads. 259. SAVORY. — Two sorts, summer and win- ter. The former is annual, and the latter perennial. 260. SAVOY.— See Cabbage, Paragraph 201. 261. SCORZENERA.— This is only another kind of Salsafy. It is cultivated a)jd used in the same manner as Salsafy is. 262. SHALOT.— A little sort of Onion, \vhich is taken up in the fall and kept for winter use. Each plant multiplies itself in the summer by add- ing offsets all round it. One of them is a plant to put out in the spring to produce other offsets for use and for planting out again. They should be planted in rows six inches apart, and four inches apart in the rows. The ground should not be wet at bottom, and should be kept very clean during the summer. ^ 263. SKIRRET is cultivated for its root, which is used in soups. It may be raised from seed, or from offsets. It is perennial, and a very small patch may suffice. 264. SORREL.— This is no other than the wild sorrel cultivated. It is propagated from seed, or from offsets. It is perennial. The French make large messes of it ; but a foot square may suffice for an American garden. 265. SPINACH. — Every one knows how good and useful a plant this is. It is certainly preferable to any of the cabbage kind in point of wholesome- ness, and it is of very easy cultivation. There is, in fact, but one sort, that I know any thing of, though the seed is sometimes more prickly than at other times. To have spinach very early in the spring, sow (Long Island) on or about the first week of September, in drills a foot apart, and, when the 160 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap plants are well up, thin them to six inches. They will be fine and strong by the time that the winter sets in ; and, as soon as that time comes, cover them over well with straw, and keep the straw on till the breaking up of the frost. — Sow more aa soon as the frost is out of the ground ; and this will be in perfection in June. — You may sow again in May ; but the plants will go off to seed before they attain to much size. — If you save seed, save it from plants that have stood the winter. 266. SQUASH is, in all its varieties, cultivated like the Cucumber, which see. 267. TANSY, a perennial culinary and medici- nal herb, propagated from seed, or offsets. One root in a garden is enough. 268. TARRAGON is a very hot, peppery herb. It is used in soup and salads. It is perennial, and may be propagated from seed, or from offsets, or slips, put out in spring. Its young and tender tops only are used. It is eaten with beef-steaks in com- pany with minced shalots:'. A man may live very well without it ; but, an Englishman once told me, that he and six others once eat some beef-steaks with Shalots and Tarragon, and that " they voted unanimously, that beef-steaks never were so eaten !" It must be dried, like mint, for winter use. 269. THYME. — There are two distinct sorts. Both are perennial, and both may be propagated either from seed, or from offsets. 270. TOMATUM.—This plant comes from the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. In England it requires to be raised in artificial heat, and to be planted out against warm walls. Here it would require neither. It climbs up very high, and would require bushy sticks. It bears a sort of apple about as big as a black walnut with its green IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 161 husk on. This fruit is used to thicken stews and soups, and great quantities are sold in London. It is raised from seed only, being an annual ; and the seed should be sown at a great distance, seeing that the plants occupy a good deal of room. 271. TURNIP. — It is useless to attempt to raise them by sowing in the spring : they are never good till the fall. — The sorts of Turnips are numerous, but, for a garden, it is quite sufficient to notice three ; the early white, the fiat yellow, and the Swedish, or Rutabaga, which last is a very differ- ent plant indeed from the other two. — The two for- mer sorts should be sown about the end of July, in rows (in a garden) two feet apart, and thinned dtit to a foot distance in the rows. Good and deep hoe- ing and one digging should take place during their growth ; for, a large turnip of the same age is bet- ter, weight for weight, than a small one, just as the largest apples, or peaches, growing upon the same tree, are better than the small ones growing on it the same year. — The Swedish turnip, so generally preferred for table use here, and so seldom used for the table in England, ought to be sown early in June, in rows at a foot apart and thinned to three inches in the rows. About the m.iddle of July they ought to be transplanted upon ridges three fee part (in a garden,) and during their growth, ough' tO be kept clean, and to be dug between twice at least, as deep as a good spade can be made to go. — As to the preserving of tu^niips during the winter, follow precisely the directions given for the pre- serving of Beets. See Beet. — But the Swedish Turnip is of further use as producing most excel- ent greens in the spring, and at a very early sea- son. To draw this benefit from them, the best way is, te leave a row o'- two in the ground, and, wher 14* 163 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap, the winter is about to set in, cover them all over with straw or cedar boughs. Take these off when the winter breaks up, and you will have very early and most excellent greens ; and, when you have done with the greens, the Turnips are very good to eat. 272. WORMWOOD is an herb purely medicinal. It may be propagated from seed, from slips, or from offsets. It ought not to occupy a space of more than a foot square. It must be dried and put by in bags for winter use. CHAPTER V. FRUITS. Propagation, Planting, Cultivation. PROPAGATION. 273. All the Fruits to be treated of here, except the Strawberry, are the produce of trees or of woody plants. All these may be propagated from seed, and some are so propagated. But others are usually propagated by cuttings, slips, layers, or suckers : or by budding or grafting upon stocks. 274. The methods of propagation, best suited to each kind, will be mentioned under the name of the kinds respectively ; and, therefore, in this place I am to describe the several methods generally, and the management suited to each. 275. When the propagation is from seed, the sowing should be in good ground, finely broken, and the seed should by no means be sown too thick. How to save and preserve the seed will be spoken of under the names of the several trees. But, the v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 163 seed being good, it should be well sown, well co vered, and carefully preserved from mice and other vermin. 276. CUTTINGS are short pieces, cut in the spring, from shoots of the last year, and it is, in most cases, best, if they have a joint or two of the former year''s iDOod, at the bottom of them. The cutting should have altogether, about six joints, or buds ; and three of these should be under ground when planted. The cuts should be performed with a sharp knife, so that there may be nothing ragged or bruised about either wood or bark. The time Tor taking off cuttings is that of the breaking up of the frost. They should be planted in a shady place, and watered with rain water, in dry weather, until they have got shoots several inches long. When they have such shoots they have roots, and when they have these, no more watering is necessary. Besides these occasional waterings, tne ground should, especially in hot countries, be covered with leaves of trees, or muck, or something that will keep the ground cool during the hot and dry weather. 277. SLIPS differ from cuttings in this, that the fcmer are not cut, but pulled, from the tree. You take a shoot of the last year, and pull it down- wards, and thus slip it off. You trim the ragged back off; then shorten the shoot so that it have six joints left; and then plant it and manage it in the same manner as directed for cuttings. The season for the work is also the same. 278. LAYERS.— You take a limb, or branch of a tree, in the fall, or early in Spring, and pull it down in such a way as to cause its top, or small shoots and twigs to lie upon the ground. Then fasten the limb down by a peg or two, so that its own force will not raise it up. Then prune off all 164 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. the small branches and shoots that stick upright ^ and, having a parcel of shoots lying horizontally, lay earth upon the whole, all along upon the limb from the point where it begins to touch the ground, and also upon all the bottoms of all the shoots. Then cut the shoots off at the points, leaving only two or three joints or buds beyond the earth. The earth, laid on should be good, and the ground should be fresh-digged and made very fine and smooth be- fore the branches be laid upon it. The earth, laid on, should be from six inches to a foot thick. If the limb, or mother branch, be very stubborn, a lit- tle cut on the lower side of it will make it the more easy to be held down. The ground should be kept clean from weeds, and as cool as possible in hot weather. Perhaps rocks or stones (not large) are the best and coolest covering. These layers will be ready to take up and plant out as trees after they have been laid a year. 279. SUCKERS are, in general, but poor things, whether in the forest, or in the fruit garden. They are shoots that come up fro7ji the roots, at a dis- tance from the stem of the tree, or, at least, they do not come out of that stem. They run to wood and to suckers more than trees do that are raised in any other way. Fruit trees raised from suckers do not bear so abundantly, and such good fruit, as trees raised from cuttings, slips or layers. A suck- er is, in fact, a little tree with more or less of root to it, and is, of course, to be treated as a tree. 280. BUDDING.— To have fruit trees by this method, or by that of grafting, you must first have stocks ; that is to say, a young tree to bud or graft upon. What are the sorts of stocks proper foi the sorts of fruit-trees respectively will be men- tioned under the names of the latter. The stoct V.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 165 is a young tree of some sort or other, and the hud is put into the bark on the side of this young tree during the summer ; and not before the bud be full and plump. The work may generally be done all through the months of July and August, and, per- haps, later. 281. GRAFTING is the joining of a cutting of one to another tree in such a way as that the tree, on which the cutting is placed, sends up its sap into the cutting, and makes it grow and become a tree. ^ Now, as to the way, in which this, and the way in which budding, is done, they cannot upon any principle consistent with common sense, be- come matter of written description. Each is a mechanical operation, embracing numerous move- ments of the arms, hands, and fingers, and is no more to be taught by written directions than the making of a chest of drawers is. To read a full and minute account of the acts of budding and grafting would require ten times the space of time that it requires to go to a neighbour's and learn, from a sight of the operation, that which, after all, no written directions would ever teach. To bud and graft, in all the various modes, form a much nicer and more complicated operation than that of making a shoe ; and I defy any human being to describe adequately all the several acts in the making of a shoe, in less than two volumes, each larger than this. The season for taking of the cut- tings for grafts, is any time between Christmas and March. Any time after the sap is completely in a quiescent state and before it be again in motion. When cut off they will keep several months. I cut some here in January last (1819.) They reached England in March; and, I hear that they were growing well in June. A great deal has been 166 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap said about the season for grafthig, and Mr. Mar- shall tells the English, that it must not be done till the sap in the stock is just ready to fiow freely. He has never seen an American Negro-man sitting by a hot six-plate stove, grafting apple-trees in the month of January, and then putting them away in his cave, to be brought out and planted in April ! I have seen this ; and my opinion is, that the work may be done at any time between Oc- tober and May : nay, I am not sure, that it may not be done all the summer long. The cuttings too, may be taken off, and put on directly ; and, the sooner the better ; but, in the winter months, they will keep good off the tree for several months, 282. STOCKS must be of diflerent ages and sizes in different cases ; and even the propagation of the stocks themselves is not to be over-looked. Stocks are formed out of suckers, or raised from the seed ; and the latter is by far the best ; for suckers produce suckers, and do not grow to a handsome stem, or trunk. Crabs are generally the stocks for Apple-grafts, and Plumbs for Pears, Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots. However, we shall speak of the sorts of Stocks, suitable to each sort of fruit-tree by and by : at present we have to speak of the raising of Stocks. If the stocks be to be of crabs or apples, the seeds of these should be collected in the fall when the fruit is ripe. They are generally got out by mashing the crabs, or apples. When the seeds are collected, put them immediately into fine earth ; or sow them at once. It may not, however, be convenient to sow them at once ; and, perhaps, the best way is to sow very early in the spring. If the stocks be to be of etone fruit, the stones, as of cherries, plumbs, ^.j THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 167 peaches, and others, must be got when the fniit \b ripe. The best way is to put them into fine earth, and keep them there till spring. The earth may be placed in a cellar ; or put into a barrel ; or, a little pit may be made in the ground, and it may be placed there. When the winter breaks up, dig a piece of ground deep and make it rich ; make it very fine ; form it into beds, three feet wide ; draw drills across it at 8 inches distance; make them from two to three inches deep ; put in the seeds pretty thick (for they cost little ;) cover them com- pletely ; tread the earth down upon them ; and then smooth the surface. When the plants come up, thin them to about 3 inches apart ; and keep the ground between them perfectly clean during the summer. Hoe frequently ; but not deep near the plants ; for, we are speaking of trees here ; and trees do not renew their roots quickly as a cabbage, or a turnip, does. These young trees should be kept, during the first summer, as moist as possible, without watering ; and the way to keep them as moist as possible is to keep the ground perfectly clean, and to hoe it frequently. I cannot help ob- serving here upon an observation of Mr. Mar- shall : " as to weeding,'*'' says he, " though seed- ling trees" must not be smothered, yet some small weeds may be suffered to grow in summer, as they help to shade the plants and keep the ground cool.'''' Mercy on this Gentleman's readers ! Mr. Marshall had not read Tull ; if he had, he never would Jiave written this very erroneous sentence. It is the root of the weed that does the mischief. Let there be a rod of ground well set with even '■'■ small oeecfs," and another rod kept weeded. Let them idjoin each other. Go, after 15 or 20 days of dry weather ; examine the two ; and you will find the 168 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. iChap weedless ground moist and fresh, while the otiicr is dry as dust to a foot deep. The root of the weed sucks up every particle of moisture. What pretty thins^s they are, then, to keep seedling trees cool ! — To proceed : these seedlings, if well ma- naged, will be eight inches high, and some higher, at the end of the first summer. The next spring they should be taken up ; or, this may be done in the fall. They should be planted in rows, four feet apart, to give room to turn about amongst them ; and at two feet apart in the rows, if intend- ed to be grafted or budded without being again re- moved. If intended to be again removed, before grafting or budding, they may be put at a foot apart. They should be kept clean by hoeing between them, and the ground between them should be dug in the fall, but not at any other season of the year. — The plants will grow fast or slowly according to the soil and management ; and, he who knows how to bud or to graft, will know when the stock is arrived at the proper size for each purpose. — To speak ot the kind of stocks, most suitable to the different kinds of fruit trees, is reserved till we come to speak of the trees themselves ; but there are some re- marks to be made here, which have a general ap- plication, relative to the kinds of stocks. — It is supposed by some persons, that the nature of the stock affects the nature of the fruit ; that is to say, that the fruit growing on branches, proceeding from a bud, or a graft, partakes, more or less of the flavour of the fruit which would have grown on the stock, if the stock had been suffered to grow to a tree and to bear fruit. This is Mr. Marshall's notion. But, how erroneous it is must be manifest to every one when he reflects, that the stock for the pear tree is frequently the white-thorn. Can a v.] THE AMERrcAN GARDENER. 169 pear partake of the nature of the kmo, which grows upon the thorn, and which is a stone-fruit too ? If this notion were correct, there could be hardly a single apple-orchard in all England : for. they graft upon crab-stocks ; and, of course, all the apples, in the course of years, would become crabs. Apricots and Peaches are, in England, al- ways put on plum-stocks ; yet, after centuries of this practice, they do not become plumbs. If the fruit of the graft partake of the nature of the stock, why not the wood and leaves 1 Yet, is it not visible to all eyes, that neither ever does so par- take ? — This, then, like the carrying of the farina from the male to ih^ female flov.-er, is a mere whim, or dream. The bud, or graft, retains its own na- ture, wholly unchanged by the stock ; and, all that is of consequence, as to the kind of stock, is, whe- ther it be such as will last long, and supply the tree with a suitable quantify of wood. This is a matter of great importance ; for, though peach will grow on peach, and apple on apple, the trees are not nearly so vigorous and durable as if the peach were put on the plum and the apple on the crab. In ISOO, I sent several trees from England to Messrs. James and Thomas Paul, at Busleton, in Pennsylvania. There was a Nectarine amongst these. It is well known, that, in 1817, there had been so great a mortality in the peach orchards, that they had become almost wholly extinct. At Busleton there had been as great a mortality as in any other part. Yet I, that year, saw the Nectarine tree large, sound in every part, fine and, flourish- ing. It is very well known, that the peach trees here are very short-lived. Six, seven, or eight years, seem to be the duration of their life. This Nectarine had stood seventeen years, and waa 170 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Cfiap likely to stand twice as long yet to come. It is now growing in the garden of the late Mr. Jame9 Paul, in Lower Dublin Township ; and there any one may see it. — It is clear to me, therefore, that the short life of the peach-orchards is owing to the stock being peach. No small part of the peach- trees are raised from the stone. Nothing is more frequent than to see a farmer, or his wife, when he or she has eaten a good peach, go and make a little hole and jiut the stone in the ground^ m order to have a peach tree of the same sort I Not consider- ing, that the stone never, except by rnere accident^ produces fruit of the same quality as that within which it was contained, any more than the seed of a carnation produces flowers like those from which they proceeded. — The peaches in America are^ when l>udded, put on peach-stocks ; and this, I think, is the cause of their swift decay. They should be put on plum-stocks ; for, to what other cause are we to ascribe the long life and vigorous sitate of the Nectarine at Mr. Paul's ? The plum is a closer and harder wood than the peach. The peach-trees are destroyed by a worm., or, rather, a sort of maggot, that eats into the bark at the stem^ The insects do not like the plum bark ; and, be- sides, the plum is a more hardy and vigorous tree than the peach, and, observe, it is frequently, and most frequently, the feebleness, or sicklinessr of the tree that creates the insects, and not the insects that create the feebleness and sickliness. There are thousands of peach trees in England and France that are fifty years old, and that are still iu vigorous fruitfulness. There is a good deal in cli- mate, to be sure ; but, I am convinced, that there is a great deal in the stock. — Before I quit the sub- zi of stocks, let me beg the reader never, if he v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 171 (;^n avoid it, to make use of suckers^ particularly for an apple or pear-orchard, which almost neces- sarily is to become pasture. Stocks formed out ot suckers produce suckers ; and, if the ground re- main in grass for a few years, there, will arise a young wood all over the ground ; and this wood, if not torn up by the plough, will, in a short time, destroy the trees, and will in still less time, deprive them of their fruitfulness. Besides this, suckers, being originally excrescences, and unnaturally vig- oroiis, make wood too fast, make too much wood; and, where this is the case, the fruit is scanty in quantity. " Haste makes waste" in most cases ; but, perhaps, in nothing so much as in the use of suckers as stocks. By waiting a year longer and bestowing a little care, you obtain seedling stocks ; and, really, if a man has not the trifling portion of patience and industry that is here required, he is unworthy of the good fruit and tlie abundant crops, which with proper management, are sure, in this country, to be the reward of his pains. — Look at England, in the spring ! There you see fruit trees of all sorts covered with bloom ; and from all of it there sometimes comes, at last, not a single fruit. Here, is this favoured country, to count the blos- soms is to count the fruit ! The way to show our gratitude to God for such a blessing, is, to act well our part in turning the blessing to the best account. PLANTING. 283. I am not to speak here of the situation for planting, of the aspect, of the nature of the soil, of the preparation of the soil ; for these have all been described in Chapter I, Paragraph 20, save and except, that, for trees, the ground should be pre- pared as directed for Asparagus, which see in its Alphabetical place, in Chapter IV. 172 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. 284. Before the reader proceed further, he shouW read very attentively what is said of transplanting generally^ in Chapter III, Paragraph 109 ana on- wards. He will there perceive the absolute neces- sity of the ground, to be planted in, being made perfectly fine, and that no clods, great or small, ought to be tumbled in about the roots. This is so capital a point, that I must request the reader to pay particular attention to it. To remove a tree<, though young, is an operation that puts the vegeta- tive faculties to a severe test ; and, therefore, every thing should be done to render the shock as little injurious as possible. 285. The tree to be planted should be as young as circumstances will allow. The season is just when the leaves become yellow, or, as early as pos- sible in the spring. The ground being prepared, and the tree taken up, prune the roots 'with a sharp knife so as to leave none more than about a foot long ; and, if any have been torn off nearer to the stem, prune the part, so that no bruises or ragged parts remain. Cut off all the fibres close to the roots; for, they never live, and they mould, and do great injury. If cut off, their place is supplied by other fibres more quickly. Dig the hole to plant in three times as wide, and six inches deeper, than the roots actually need as mere room. And now, be- sides the fine earth generally, have some good mould sifted. Lay some of this six inches deep at the bottom of the hole. Place the roots upon this in their natural order, and hold the tree perfectly upright, while you put more sifted earth on the roots. Sway the tree backward and forward a lit- tle, and give it a gentle lift and shake, so that the fine earth may find its way amongst the roots and leave not the smallest cavity. Every root should V.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 173 be closely touched by the earth in every part. When you have covered all the roots with the sifted earth, and have seen that your tree stands just as high with regard to the level of the ground as it did in the place where it before stood, allowing about 3 inches for sinking, fill up the rest of ihe hole with the common earth of the plat, and when you have about half filled it, tread the earth that you put in, but not very hard. Put on the rest of the earth, and leave the surface perfectly smooth. Do not wa- ter by any means. Water, poured on, in this case, sinks rapidly down, and makes cavities amongst the roots. Lets'in air. Mould and canker follow ; and great injury is done. 286. If the tree be planted in the fall, as soon as the leaf begins to be yellow ; that Is to say, in Oc- tober early, it will have struck out new roots to the length of some inches before the winter sets in. And this is certainly the best time for doing the bu- siness. But, mind, the roots should be out of ground as short a lime as possible ; and should by no means be permitted to get dry, if you can avoid it ; for, though some trees will live after having been a long while out of ground, the shorter the time out of ground the sooner the roots strike; and, if the roots should get dry before planting, they ought to be soaked in water, rain or pond, for half a day before the tree be planted. 287. If the tree be for an orchard, it must be five or six feet high, unless cattle are to be kept out for two or three years. And, in this case, the head ol the tree must be pruned short, to prevent it from swaying about from the force of the wind. Even when pruned, it will be exposed to be loosened by this cause, and must be kept steady by a stake ; but, it must not be fastened to a stdke, until rata 15* 174 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap has come to settle the ground ; for, such fastening would prevent it from sinking with the earth. The earth would sink from it, and leave cavities about the roots. 288. When the trees are short, they will require no stakes. They may be planted the second year after budding, and the first after grafting; and these are the best times. If planted in the fall, the tree should be shortened very early in the spring, and in such a way as to answer the ends to be pointed out more particularly when we come to speak of pruning. 289. If you plant in the spring, it should be as early as the ground will bear moving ; only, bear in mind, that the ground must always be dry at top when you plant. In this case, the nev/ roots will strike out almost immediately ; and as soon as the buds begin to swell, shorten the head of the tree. After a spring-planting, it may be necessary to guard against drought ; and the best protection is the laying of small stones of any sort round the tree, so as to cover the area of a circle of three feet in diameter, of which circle the stem of the tree is the centre. This will keep the ground cooler than any thing else that you can put upon it. 290. As to the distances, at which trees ought to be planted, that must depend on the sort of tree, and on other circumstances. It will be seen by looking at the plan of the garden [Plate 1,) that I make provision for 70 trees, and for a row of grape vines extending the length of two of the plats. The trees will have a space of 14 feet square each. But, in orchards, the distances for apples and pears must be much greater ; otherwise the trees will soon run their branches into, and injure each other. y.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 175 CULTIVATION. 291. The Cultivation of fruit trees divides itself into two distinct parts ; the management of the tree itself, which consists of pruning and tying; and the management of the ground where the trees grow, which consists of digging, hoeing, and ma- nuring. The management of the tree itself differs with the sort of tree ; and, therefore, I shall treat of the management of each sort under its own par- ticular name. But the management of the ground where trees grow is the same in the case of all the larger trees ; and, for that reason, I shall here give directions concerning it. 292. In the first place, the ground is always to be kept clear of weeds ; for, whatever they take is just so much taken from the fruit, either in quantity, or in quality, or in both. It is true, that very fine orchards have grass covering all the ground be- neath the trees ; but, these orchards would be still finer if the ground were kept clear from all plants whatever except the trees. Such a piece of ground is, at once, an Orchard and a Pasture : what is lost one way is, probably, gained the other. But, if we come to fine and choice fruits, there can be nothing that can grow beneath to balance against the injury done to the trees. 293. The roots of trees go deep ; but, the prin- cipal part of their nourishment comes from the top- soil. The ground should be loose to a good depth, which is the certain cause of constant moisture ; but trees draw downwards as well as upwards, and draAV more nourishment in the former than in the latter direction. Vineyards, as Tull observes, must always be tilled, in some way or other ; or they will produce nothing of value. He adds, that Mr. Evelyn says, that " when the soil, wherein no THE AMERICAN GAKDENER. [Chap. Jruit-trees are planted, is constantly kept in tillage, they grow up to an Orchard in half the time, they would do, if the soil were not tilled." Therefore, tillage is useful ; but, it were better, that there were tillage without under crops; for these crops take away a great part of the strength that the manure and tillage bring. 294. Now, then, as to the trees in my garden ; they are to be choice peaches, nectarines, apricots^ plums, cherries, and grape vines, with a very few apples and pears. The sorts will be mentioned hereafter in the Alphabetical list ; but, the tillage for all except the grape vines^ is the same ; and the nature of that exception will be particularly stated under the name of grape. 295. It was observed before, that the ground is always to be kept clear of weeds. From the spring to the fall frequent hoeing all the ground over, not only to keep away weeds but to keep the ground moist in hot and dry weather, taking care never to hoe but when the ground is dry at top. This hoeing should not go deeper than four or five mches ; for, there is a great difference between trees and herbaceous plants as to the renewal of their roots respectively. Cut off the lateral root« of a cabbage, or a turnip, of a wheat or a rye or an Indian-corn plant, and new roots, from the parts that remain, come out in 12 hours, and the opera- tion, by multiplying the mouths of the feeders O'f the plant, gives it additional force. But, the roots of a tree consist of wood, more or less hard ; they do not quickly renew themselves : they are of a permanent nature: and they must not be much mu- tilated during the time that the sap is in the flow. 296. Therefore, the ploughing between trees or the digging between trees ought to take place only v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 177 in the fall ^ ^vhich gives time for a renewal, or new supply, of roots before the sap be again in motion. For this reason, if crops be grown under trees in orchards, they should be of wheat, rye, winter- barley, or of something that does not demand a ploughing of the ground in the spring. In the gar- den, dig the ground well and clean, with a fork, late in November. Go close to the stems of the trees ; but do not bruise the large roots. Clean and clear all well close round the stem. Malie the ground smooth just there. Ascertain whether there be in- sects there of any sort. And, if there be, take care to destroy them. Pull, or scrape, off all rough bark at the bottom of the stem. If you even peel off the outside bark a foot or two up, in case there be in- sects, it w*ill be the better. Wash the stems with water, in which tobacco has been soaked ; and do this, whether you find insects or not. Put the to- bacco into hot water, and let it soak 24 hours, be- fore you use the water. This will destroy, or drive away, all insects. 297. But, though, for the purpose of removing all harbour for insects, you make the ground smooth just round the stem of the tree, let the rest of the ground lay as rough as you can ; for the rougher it lies the more will it be broken by the frost, which is a great enricher of all land. When the spring comes, and the ground is dry at the top, give the whole of the ground a good deep hoeing, Which will make it level and smooth enough. Then go on again hoeing throughout the summer, and watching well all attempts of insects on the stems and bark of the trees. 298. Diseases of trees are various in their kind ; but, nine times out of ten they proceed from the rod. Insects are much more frequently an effect 178 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap than a cause. If the disease proceed from Mighty there is no prevention, except that which is suggest- ed by the fact, that feeble and sickly trees are fre- quently blighted when healthy ones are not ; but, when the insects come, they add greatly to the evil. They are generally produced by the disease, as maggots are by putrefaction. The ants are the only active insect for which there is not a cure ; and I know of no means of destroying them, but finding out their nests, and pouring boiling water on them. A line dipped in tar tied round the stem, will keep them from climbing the tree : but they are still alive. As to the diminutive creatures that ap- pear as specks in the bark ; the best, and perhaps, he only remedy against the species of ^disease ol »vhich they are the symptoms, consists of good ^ants, good planting and good tillage. When or- ^ards are seized with diseases that pervade the whole of the trees, or nearly the whole, the best way is to cut them down : they are more plague than profit, and, as long as they exist, they are a source of nothing but constantly-returning disap- pointment and mortification. However, as there are persons who have a delight in quackery, who are never so happy as when they have some specific to apply, and to whom rosy cheeks and ruby lips are almost an eye-sore, it is, perhaps, fortunate, that the vegetable world presents them with pa- tients; and thus, even in the cotton-blight oi can- ker, we see an evil, which we may be led to hope is not altogether unaccompanied Avith good. LIST OF FRUITS. 299. Having, in the former parts of this Chap- ter, treated of the propagation, planting, and cul- tivation of all fruit trees (the grape vine only ex- cepted) it would remain for me merely to give a V.J THB AMERICAN GARDENER. \^9 List of the several fruits ; to speak of the different sorts of each ; and of the mode of preserving them ; but the stocks and pruning vary, in some cases ; and, therefore, as I go along, I shall have to speak of them. Before, however, I enter on this Alpha- betical List, let me observe, that only a part of the fruits mentioned in it are proposed to be raised in the garden ; and that the 70 trees, shown in the Plate I, are intended to mark the paces, and, in some degree, the form, of 6 Apple trees, 6 Apricots, 6 Cherries, 6 Nectarines, 30 Peaches, 6 Pears, and 10 Plums ; and, that the trelises, on the Southern gides of Plats, No. 8 and 9, are intended to mark the places for 4 Grape-Vines, there being another Plate to explain more fully the object and dimen- sions of this trelis work. 300. APPLE. — Apples are usually grafted on crab-stocks (See Paragraph 281 ;) but, when you do not want the trees to grow tall and large, it is bet- ter to raise stocks from the seed of some Apple not much given to produce large wood. Perhaps the • Fall-Pippin seed may be as good as any. When you have planted the tree, as directed in Paragraphs 2S3 to 289, and when the time comes for shorten- ing the head, cut it off so as to leave only five or six joints or buds. These will send out shoots, which will become lirnbs. The tree will be what they call, in England, a divarf standard ; and, ot this description are to be all the 70 trees in the garden. — As to pruning, see Peach ; for, the pru- ning of all these dwarf standards is nearly the same. — The sorts of Apples are numerous, and every body knows, pretty well, which are the best. In my garden I should only have six apple trees ; and, theref re, they sho'uld be of the finest for the season atwnich they are eaten. The earliest apple 180 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap, is the Junating, the next the Summer Pearmain, Besides these I would have a Doctor-apple, a Fall- Pippin, a Newtown Pippin and a Greening. The quantity would not be very large that six trees would produce ; yet it would be considerable, and the quality would be exquisitely fine. I would not suffer too great a number of fruit to remain on the tree ; and, I would be bound to have the three last- named sorts weighing, on an average, 12 ounce&. I have seen a Fall-Pippin that weighed a pound. — To preserve apples, in their whole state, observe this, ihdii frost does not much injure them, provided they be kept in total darkness during the frost and until they be used, and proiided they be perfectly dry when put away. If put together in large par- cels, and kept from the frost, they heat, and then they ro^ ; and, those of them that happen not to rot, lose their flavour, become vapid, and are, indeed, good for little. This is the case with the Newtowr Pippins that are sent to England, which are hat lost by rot, while the remainder are poor tasteless stuff, very little better than the English apples, the far greater part of which are either sour or mawk- ish. The apples thus sent, have every possible dis- advantage. They are gathered carelessly ; tossed into baskets and tumbled into barrels at once, and without any packing stuff between them ; the bar rels are flung into and out of wagons ; they are rolled along upon pavements ; they are put in the hold, or between the decks, of the ship : and, is it any wonder, that a barrel of pomace, instead of apples, arrive at Liverpool or London ? If, instead of this careless work, the apples were gathered {a week hefore ripe ;) not bruised at all in the gather- ing ; laid in the sun, on boards or cloths, three days, to let the watery particles evaporate a little ; v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENEIl. 181 put into barrels with fine-cut straw-chaff, in such a way as that no apple touched another ; carefully carried to the ship and put on board, and as care- fully landed ; and if this were the mode, one bar- rel, though it would contain only half the quantity, would sell for as much as, upon an average, taking in loss by total destruction, twenty barrels sell for now. On the deck is the best part of the ship for apples ; but, if managed as I have directed, between decks would do very well. — In the keeping of ap- ples for market, or for home-use, the same precau- tions ought to be observed as to gathering and lay- ing out to dry ; and, perhaps, to pack in the same way also is the best mode that can be discovered. Dried Apples is an article of great and general use. Every body knows, that the apples are peel- ed, cut into about eight pieces, the core taken out, and the pieces put in the sun till they become dry and tough. They are then put by in bags, or boxes, in a dry place. But, the flesh of the apple does not change its nature in the drying; and, therefore, the ■finest, and not the coarsest, apples should have all this trouble bestowed upon them. 301. APRICOT.— This is a very delightful fruit. It comes earlier than the peach : and some like it better. It is a hardier tree, bears as well as the peach, and the green fruit, when the size of a hickory-nut, makes a very good tart. When ripe, or nearly ripe, it makes a better pie than the peach ; and the tree, when well raised, planted, and culti- vated, will last a century, — Apricots are budded or grafted upon plum, stocks, or upon stocks raised from Apricot-stones. They do not bear so soon as the peach by one year. For the pruning of them, see Peach. — There are many sorts of Apricots some come earlier, some are larger, and some finer 16 182 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. than others. It may be sufficient to name the Brus- sels, the Moore-Park, and the Turkey. The first carries most fruit as to number ; but, the others arc larger and of finer flavour. Perhaps two trees ol each of these sorts would be the most judicious se- lection. T have heard, that the Apricot does not do in this country ! That is to say, I suppose, it will not do of its own accord, like a peach, by having the stone flung upon the ground, which it certainly Vv'ili not; and it is very much to be commended for refusing to do in this way. But, properly managed, I know it will do, for I never tasted finer Apricots than I have in America ; and, indeed, who can be- lieve that it will not do in a country, where there are no blights of fruit trees worth speaking of, and where melons ripen to such perfection in the natu ral ground and almost without care ? 302. BARBERRY.— This fruit is well known. The tree, or shrub, on which it grows, is raised from the seed, or from suckers, or layers. Its place ought to be in the South Border ; for, the hot sun is rather against its fruit growing large. 303. CHERRY. — Cherries are budded or grafted upon stocks raised from cherry-stones of any sort. If you want the tree tall and large, the stock should come from the small black cherry tree that grows wnld in the woods. If you want it dwarf, sow the stones of a morello or a May-duke. The sorts of cherries are very numerous ; but, the six trees for my garden should be, a May-cherry, a May-duke, a black-heart, a white-heart, and two higeroons The four former are well known in America, but I never saw but two trees of the last, and those I sent from England to Bustleton, in Pennsylvania, in the year 1800. They are now growing there, in the gardens of the two Messrs. Paul's. Cuttings from v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER 183 them have been carried and used as grafts all round the country. During the few days that I was at Mr. James Paul' s,in 181 7, several persons came for grafts; so that these trees must be pretty famous. The fruit is large, thin skinned, small stone, and fine colour and flavour, and the tree grows freely and in beauti- ful form—For Pri/??27?^, see Peach.— To preserve cherries, gather them without bruising ; take off the tails ; lay them in the sun on dry deal boards ; when quite dry put th<-ni by in bags in a dry place. They form a variety in the tart-making way. 304. CHESTNUT. — This is an inhabitant of the woods ; and, as to its fruit, I have only to say, that the American is as much better than the Span- ish as the tree is a finer tree.— To preserve chest- nuts, so as to have them to sow^ in the spring, or to eat through the winter, you must put them into a Dox, or barrel, mixed with, and covered over by, \ne dry sand. If there be maggots in any of the rhestnuts, they will w^ork up through the sand, to get to air ; and, thus, you have your chestnuts sweet and sound and fresh. To know whether chestnuts will grow, toss them into water. If they swim., thev will Hot grow. 305. CRANBERRY.— This is one of the best fruits in the world. All tarts sink out of sight in point of merit, when compared with that made of the American Cranberry. There is a little dark red thing, about as big as a large pea, sent to Eng- land from the North of Europe, and is called a Cranberry ; but, it does not resemble the American in taste anv more than in bulk. — It is well known that this valuable fruit is, in many parts of this country, spread over the low lands in great profu- sion ; and that the mere gathering of it is ail that bountiful nature requires at our hands. — This fruit 184 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. is preserved all the year, by stewing and putting into jars, and when taken thence is better than cur- rant jelly. Tlie fruit, in its whole state, laid in a heap, in a dry room, will keep sound and perfectly good for six months. It will freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw again without receiving any in- jury. It may, if you choose, be kept in water all the while, without any injury. I received a barrel in England, mixed with water, as good and as fresh as I ever tasted at New York or Philadelphia. 306. CURRANT.—There are red, white and black, all well known. Some persons like one best, and some another. The propagation and cul- tivation of all the sorts are the same. The currant tree is propagated from cuttings ; and the cuttings are treated as has been seen in Paragraph 275. When the tree has stood two years in the Nursery, plant it where it is to stand ; and take care that it has only one stem. Let no limbs come out to grow nearer than six inches of the ori'ound. Prune the tree every year. Keep it thin of wood. Keep the middle open and the limbs extended ; and when these get to about three feet in length, cut off, every winter, all the last yearns shoots. If you do not attend to this, the tree will be nothing but a great bunch of twigs, and you will have very little fruit. Cultivate and manure the ground as for other fruit trees. See Paragraphs 289 to 296. In this coun- try the currant requires shade in summer. If ex- posed to the full sun, the fruit is apt to become too sour. Plant it, therefore, in the South Border. 307. FIG. — There are several sorts of Figs, but all would ripen in this country. The only difficulty must be to protect the trees in winter, which can hardly be done without covering pretty closely. Figs are raised either from cutting's or layers^ v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 185 which are treated as other cuttings and layers are. See Paragraphs 275 and 277. The fig is a mawkish thing at best ; and, amongst such quantities of fine fruit as this country produces, it can, from mere curiosity only, be thought worth raising at all, and especially at great trouble. 308. FILBERD.— This is a sort of Nut, oblong in shape, very thin in the shell, and in flavour as much superior \o the common nut as a Water- melon is to a pumpkin. The American nut tree is a dio arf shvuh. The Filberd is a tall one, and will, under favourable circumstances, reach the height of thirty feet. I never saw any Filberd trees in this country, except those that I sent from England in 1800. They are six in number, and they are now growing in the garden of the late Mr. James Paul, of Lower Dublin Township, in Philadelphia county. I saw them in 1817, when they were, I should suppose, about 20 feet high. They had al- ways borne, I was told, very large quantities, never failing. Perhaps five or six bushels a year, mea- sured in the husk, a produce very seldom witnessea in England ; so that, there is no doubt that the cli- mate is extremely favourable to them. Indeed to what, that is good for man, is it not favourable ? — The Filberd is propagated from layers, or from suckers, of which latter it sends forth great abun- dance. The layers are treated like other layers, (See Paragraph 276,) and they very soon become trees. The suckers are also treated like other suckers. (See Paragraph 277;) but, layers are preferable, for the reasons before stated. — This tree cannot be propagated from seed to bear Fil- herds. The seed, if sown, will produce trees; but, those trees will bear poor thick-shelled nuts, except it be by mere accident. It is useful to know how 16* 186 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap to preserve tlie fruit ; for it is very pleasant to have it all the .vinter lon^. Always let the iilberds hang on the tree till qvitc ripe, and that is ascertained by their coming out of the husk without any effort, rhey are then hroxvn, and the butt ends of ihern white. Lay them in the sun for a day to dry ; then put them in a box, or jar, or barrel, with very fine dry sand. Four limes as much gand as filberds, and put them in any dry place. Here they will keep well till April or May ; and, perhaps, longer This is better a great deal than putting them, as they do in England, into jars, and the jars into a cellar ; for if they do not mould in that situation, they lose much of their sweetness in a few monttis. The burning sun is apt to scorch up the leaves of the Filberd tree. I would, therefore, plant a row of them as near as possible to the South fejice. Ten trees at eight feet apart might be enough — The Filberd will do very well under the shade of lofty trees, if those trees do not stand too thick. And it is by no means an ugly shrub, while the wood of it is, as w^ell as the nut v»''ood, which is, in England, called hazel, and is a very good wood. In the oak-woods there, hazel is very frequently the underwood ; and it makes small hoops, and is applied to various other purposes. — I cannot dis- miss this article without exhorting the American farmer to provide himself with some of this sort of tree, which, when small, is easily conveyed to any distance in winter, and got ready to plant out in the spring. Those that are growing at Mr. Paul's were dug up, in England, in January, shipped to New York, carried on the top of the stage, in the dead of winter to Busleton, kept in a cellar till spring, and then planted out. These were the first trees of the kind, as far as I have been able to Y.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER, 187 learn, tliat ever found their way to this country. I hear that Mr. Stephen Girard takes to him- self the act of first introduction, from France. But, I must deny him this. He, I am told, brought his trees several years later than I sent mine. 309. GOOSEBERRY.— Various are the sorts, and no one that is not good. The shrub is pro- pagated precisely like that of the currant. I can- not tell the cause that it is so little cultivated in America. I should think (though I am by no means sure of the fact) that it would do very well under the shade of a South Fence. However, as far as the fruit is useful in its green state, for tarts, the Rhubarb supplies its place very well. The fruit is excellent when well raised. They have gooseberries in England nearly as large as pigeon's eggs, and the crops that the trees bear are pro- digious. 310. GRAPE. — This is a very important article ; and, before I proceed to treat of the culture of the grape-vine, I must notice the astonishing circum- stance, that that culture should be almost wholly unknown in this country oi fine^su'/i. I have asked the reason of this, seeing that the fruit is so good, the crop so certain, and culture so easy. The only answer that I have received i&, that the rose-bug destroys the fruit. Now, this I know, that I had a grape vine in my court-yard at Philadelphia ; that it bore nothing the first year ; that I made an arched trelis for it to run over ; and that I had hundreds of pounds of fine grapes hanging down in large bunches. Yes, I am told, but this was in a city ; and amongst houses, and there the grapes do very well. Then, 1799, I saw, at Spring Mills, on the banks of the Schuylkill, in Pennsyl- vania, the -Vineyard of Mr. Le Gau, which covered 188 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap about two acres of ground, and the vines of which were loaded with fine grapes of, at least, twenty different sorts. The vineyard was on the side of "a little hill ; on the top of the hill was a corn-field, and in the front of it, across a little valley, and on the side of another little hill, was a wood of lofty trees; the country in general, being very much covered with woods. Mr. La Gau made wine from this Vineyard. The vines are planted at about four feet apart, grew upright, and were iied to sticks about five feet high, after the manner of some, at least, of the vineyards of France. — Now, are not these facts alone decisive in the negative of the proposition, that there is a generally preva- lent obstacle to the growing of grapes in this country? — Mr. Hulme, in his Journal to the West (See my Year's Residence, Paragraph 892,) gives an account of the Vineyards and oiihe wine made, at Vevay, on the Ohio. He says, that, that year, about jive thousand gallons of wine were made ; and, he observes, what more can be wanted for the grape-vine, than rich land and hot sun. — Besides, is not the grape-vine a native here ? There are many different sorts of grapes, that grow in the woods, climb the trees, cover some of them over, and bear and ripen their fruit. How often do we meet with a vine, in the autumn, with Grapes, called chicken grapes, hanging on it from every bough of an oak or some other timber-tree ! This grape resembles, ag nearly as possible, what is, in England, called the Black cluster ; and, unquestionably, only wants cultivation to give it as good a flavour. Does the Rose bug" prevent these vines from bearing, or from ripening their fruit ?— Taking it for granted, then, that this obstacle is imaginary, rather than real, I shall now proceed to speak of the propagation and V.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 189 cultivation of the grape-vine in the open ground of a garden, and, in doing this, I shall have fre- quently to refer to Plate III. — The grape-vine is raised from cuttings^ or from layers. As to the first, you cut off, as early as the ground is open in the spring, a piece of the last year's wood ; that is to say, a piece of a shoot, which grew during the last summer. This cutting should, if convenient, have an inch or two of the former year's wood at the bottom of it ; but, this is by no means abso- lutely necessary. The cutting should have/owr or five buds or joints. Make the ground rich, move it deep, and make it fine. Then put in the cutting with a setting-stick, leaving only two buds, or joints, above ground ; fasten the cutting well in the ground ; and, then, as to keeping it cool and moist, see cut- tings, in Paragraph 275. — Layers from grave-vines are obtained with great ease. You have only to lay a shoot, or limb, however young or old, upon the ground, and cover any part of it with earth, it will strike out roots the first summer, and will become a vine, to be carried and planted in any other place. But, observe, vines do not transplant well. For this reason, both cuttings and layers, if intended to be removed, are usually set, or layed, in flower-pots, out of which they are turned, with the ball of earth along with them, into the earth where they are in- tended to grow and produce their fruit. — I have now to speak more particularly of the vines of my garden. Plate I. represents, or, at least, I mean it to represent, on the south side of the Plats No. 8 and No. 9, two trelis works for vines. These are to he five feet high, and are to consist of two rows of little upright bars two inches and a half by two inches, put two feet into the ground, and made of Locust, and then they will, as you well know. 190 THE AMERICAIsr GARDENER. [Chap v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 191 last /or ever, with-out paint and without any kind of trouble. — Now, then, bear in mine], that each of these Plats, is, from East to West, 70 feet long, Each will, therefore, take four vines, allowing to each vine an extent of 16 feet, and something more for overrunning branches. — Look, now, at Plate III, which exhibits, in all its dimevsions, the cut- ting become a plant, Fig. 1. The first year of its being a vine after the leaves are off and before pruning, Fic. 2. The same year's vine pruned in winter, Fig. 3. The vine, in the next summer, with shoots, leaves, and grapes. Fig. 4. — Having measured your distances, put in a cutting at each place where there is to be a vine. You are to leave two joints or buds out of ground. From these will come tico shoots perhaps ; and, if two come, rub off the top one and leave the bottom one, and, in t\'inter, cut off the bit of dead wood which will, in this case, stand above the bottom shoot. Choose, jowever, the upper one to remain, if the lower one be very weak. Or, a better way is, to put in two or three cuttings within an inch or two of each other, leavins^ only one bud to each out of ground, and taking away, in the fall, the cuttings that send up the weakest shoots. The object is to get one good shoot coming out as near to the ground as possible. — This shoot you tie to an upright stick, letting it ^row its full length. "When winter comes, cut this shoot down to the bud nearest to the ground. — The next year another, and a much stronger shsoot will come out ; and, when the leaves are ofl', in the fall, this shoot will be eight or ten feet long, having been tied to a stake as it rose, and will present what is described in Fig. 1, Plate III. You must make your trelis ; that is, put in youi upright Locust-bars to tie the next summer's 192 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. shoots to. You will want (See Fig. 2.) eight shoots to come out to run horizontally, to be tied to these bars. You must now, then, in winter, cut off your vine, leaving eight buds, or joints. You see there is a mark for this cut, at a, fig. 1. During summer 8 shoots will come, and, as they proceed on, they must be tied with matting, or something soft, to the bars. The whole vine, both ways included, is sup- posed to go 16 feet ; but, if your tillage be good, it will go much further, and then the ends must be cut off in winter. — Now, then, winter presents you your vine as in fig. 2 ; and now you must prune, which is the all-important part of the business. — Observe, and bear in mind, that little or no fruit ever comes on a grape-vine, except on young shoots that come out of wood of the last year. All the four last year's shoots that you find in fig. 2, would send out bearers ; but, if you suffer that, you will have a great parcel of small wood, and little or no fruit next year. Therefore, cut off 4 of the last year's shoots, as at b. {Fig. 3.) leaving only one bud. The four other shoots will send out a shoot from every one of their buds, and, if the vine be strong, there will be tiuo bunches of grapes on each of these young shoots ; and, as the last year's shoots are supposed to be each 8 feet long:, and as there generally is a bud at, or about, every half foot, every last year's shoot will produce 32 bunches of grapes ; every vine 128 bunches ; and the 8 vines 512 ; and, possibly, nay, probably, so many pounds of grapes ! Is this incredible ? Take* then, this well known fact, that there is a grape vine, a single vine, with only one stem, in the King of England's Gardens at his palace of Hampton Court, which has, for, perhaps, half a century, produced on an average annually, a ton of grapes; that is to V J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 193 say, 2,240 pounds Avoirdupois weight. That vine covers a space of about 40 feet in length and 20 in breadth. And your two trelises, being, together, 128 feet long, and 4 deep, would form a space of more than half the dimensions of the vine of Hampton Court. However, suppose you have only di fifth part of what you might have, a hun- dred bunches of grapes are worth a great deal more than the annual trouble, which is, indeed, very little. Fig. 4 shows a vine in summer. You see the four shoots hearings and four other shoots coming on for the next year, from the butts left at the winter pruning, as at h. These four latter you are to tie to the bars as they advance on during the summer. — When winter comes again, you are to cut off the four shoots that sent out the bearers during the summer^ and leave the four that grew out of the butts. Cut the four old shoots that have borne, so as to leave but one bud at the butt. And they will then be sending out wood, while the other four will be sending out fruit. ^And thus you go on year after year for your life ; for, as to the vine, i-t will, if well treated, outlive you and your children to the third and even thirtieth generation. I think they say, that the vine at Hampton Court was planted in the reign of King William. — During the summer there are two things to be observed, as to pruning. Each of the last yearns shoots has 32 buds, and, of course, it sends out 32 shoots with the grapes on them, for the grapes come out of the 2 first fair bt.'s of these shoots. So that here would be an enormous quantity of wood, if it were all left till the end of summer. But, this must not be. When the grapes get as big as peas, cut off the green shoots that bear them, at tivo buds dis- tance from the fruit. This is necessarv in order to 17 194 THE AMERICAN GARDENER* [Chap* clear the vine of confusion of branches, and also to keep the sap back for the supply of the fruit. These new shoots, that have the bunches on, must be kept tied to the trelis, or else the wind would tear them off. The other thing is, to take care to keep nicely tied to the bars the shoots that are to send forth bearers the next year ; and, if you observe any little side-shoots coming out of them to crop these off as soon as they appear, leaving nothing but the clear, clean shoot. It may be re- marked, that the butt, as at b, when it is cut off the next time, will be longer by a bud. That will be so ; but, by the third year the vine will be so strong, that you may safely cut the shoots back to within six inches of the main trunk, leaving the new shoots to come out of it where they will ; taking care to let but one grow for the summer. If shoots start out of the main trunk irregularly, rub them off as soon as they appear, and never suffer your vine to have any more than its regular number ot shoots. As to cultivation of the ground, the ground should not only be deeply dug in the fall, but, with a fork, two or three times during the summer. They plough between them in Langue- doc, as we do between the Indian Corn. The ground should be m.anured every fall, with good rich manure. Blood of any kind is excellent for vines. But, in a word, the tillage and the manuring cannot be too good. All that now remains is to speak of the sorts of grapes. The climate of this country will ripen any sort of grape. But, it may be as well to have some that come early. The Black July grape, as it is called in England, or, as it is called in France, the Noi?' Hatif, is the earliest of all. I would have this for one of my eight vines ; and, for the other seven I would have, the V.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 195 Chasseias ; the Burgundy ; the Black Muscadine ; the Black Frontinac ; the Red Frontinac ; the White Sweet Water; and the Black Hamburgh, which is the sort of the Hampton-Court Vine. In cases where grapes are to be grown against houses, or to be trained over bowers, the principle is the same, though the form may differ. If against the side of a house, the main stem of the vine might, by degrees, be made to go, I dare say, a hundred feet high. Suppose 40 feet. In that case, it would be forty instead of four ; but the side shoots, or alter- nate bearing limbs, would still come out in the same manner. The stem, or side limbs, may, with the greatest ease, be made to accommodate themselves to windows, or to any interruptions of smoothness on the surface. If the side of the house, or place, be not very high, not more than 15 or 20 feet ; the best way is to plant the vine in the middle of your space, and, instead of training an upright stem, take the two lowest shoots and lead them along, one from each side of the plant, to become stems,' to he along within six inches or a foot of the ground. These will, of course, send out shoots, which you will train upright against the building, and which you will cut out alternately, as directed in the other case. 311. HUCKLEBERRY— It is well known that It grows wild m great abundance, in many parts, and especially in Long Island, where it gives rise to a holiday, called Huckleberry Monday. It is a very good fruit for tarts mixed with Currants ; and by no means bad to eat in its raw state. 312 MADEIRA NUT.— See Walnut. 313. MEDLAR.— A very poor thing indeed. The Medlar is propagated by grafting on crab-stocks, or pear-stocks. It is, at any rate, especially in this 196 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. country, a thing not worthy of a place in a garden. At best, it is only one degree better than a rotten apple. 314. MELON.— See Melon in Chapter IV. 315. MULBERRY.— This tree is raised from cuttings or from layers. See Paragraphs 275 and 377. The White-Mulberry, which is the finest, and which the Silk worm feeds on, grows wild, and bears well, at two miles from the spot where I am now writing. 316. NECTARINE.— As to propagation, planting and cultivation, the Nectarine is, in all respects, the same as the peach, which, therefore, see. It is certam]y a finer fruit, especially the FzoZe^ Nec- tarine ; but, it is not grown, or, but very little, in America. I cannot believe, that there is any in- surmountable obstacle in the way. It is grown in England very well. The White French would certainly do here ; and it is the most beautiful of fruit, and a greater bearer, though not so fine in flavour, as the Violet. The Newington, the RomaUj are by no means so good. I would have in the Garden three trees of each of the two former. 317. NUT.— Grows wild. Not worthy of a place in the Garden. Is propagated, and the fruit preserved, like Filherd, which see. 318. PEACH. — The peach being the principal tree for the garden, I shall, under this head, give directions for pruning and forming the tree. — Peaches are propagated by budding. The stock should be of plum, for the reasons given in Para- graph 281. — The tree is to be planted, agreeably to the directions in Paragraphs 282 to 288. And now for the pruning and forming the tree. Look at Plate IV. fig. 2, and fig. 3. The first is a peach tree such as I would have it at four or five years, v.] THE A!\!r:RICAN GARDENER. 197 198 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap old ; the last, is a peach tree such as we generally see at that age. The practice is to plant the tree, and to let it grow in its own way. The conse- quence is, that, in a few years, it runs up to a long naked stem with two or three long naked limbs, having some little weak boughs at the tops, ap.d» the tree being top-heavy, is, nineteen times out of twenty,'leaning on one side ; and, it presents, alto- gether, a figure by no means handsome in itself or creditable to the owner. — This is fig. 3. — Now, to have fig. 2, the following is the way. — The tree should, in the first place, be budded very near to the ground. After it be planted, cut it down to within a foot and a half of the ground, and always cut sloping close to a bud. In this foot and a half, there will be many buds, and they will, the first summer, send out many shoots. Now, when shoots begin to appear, rub them all oflf but three, leave the top one, and one 07i each side, at suitable distances lower down. These will, in time become limbs. The next year, top the upright shoot (that came out of the top bud) again, so as to bring out other horizontal limbs, pointing in a different direction from those that came out the last year. Thus the tree will get a spread. After this, you must keep down the aspiring shoots ; and, every winter, cut out some of the weak wood, that the tree may not be over-burdened w^ith wood. If, in time, the tree be getting thin of bearing wood towards the trunk, cut some of the limbs back, and they will then send out many shoots, and fill up the naked places. The lowest limb of the tree, should come out of the trunk at not more than 9 or 10 inches from the ground. The greater part of the tree will be within the reach of a man from the ground ; and a short step-ladder reaches the rest. — By tliis management V.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 199 the tree is always in a state of full bearinir. Always young. To talk of a tree's being worn out is non- sense. But, without pruning, it will soon wear out. It is the pruning that makes it always young. In the ^'- Ecole du Jardin Potagur,^^ by Monsieur De CoMBLES, there is an account of peach trees in full bearing at ffty years old. And, little do people here imagine to what a distance a peach tree will, if properly managed, extend. Mr. De Combleb speaks of numerous peach trees extending to more than fifty feet in length on the trelis, and twelve feet in breadth, or height, and in full bearing in every part. Here is a space of six hundred square feet, and, in case of a good crop, four peaches at least in every square foot, making, in the whole, 2,400 peaches, which would fill little short of ten or twelve bushels. This is to be seen any year at Mont- reuil in France. To be sure, these trees are tied to trelises, and have walls at their back ; but, this climate requires neither ; and, surely, fine trees and fine fruit and large crops may be had in a country where blights are almost unknown, and where the young fruit is never cut off by frosts, as it is in England and France. To preserve theyoung fruit in those countries, people are compelled to cover the trees by some means or other, in March and April. Here there needs no such thing When you see the blossom, you know that the fruit is to follow. By looking at the Plan of the Garden, Plate I, you will see, that the Plats, No, 8 and 9, contain 30 trees and the two vine-trelises. The Plats are, you will remember, 70 feet long and 56 wide. Of course, putting 5 trees one way and 4 the other, each tree has a space of 14 feet, so that the branches may extend horizontally 7 feet from the trunk oC the tree, before they meet. In these iiOO THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. two Plats 14 feet wide is left clear for the grape vines. — These 30 Peach-trees, properly managed, would yield more fruit, even in hulk, than a large orchard in the common way; and ten 'times as much in point of value ; the size as well as the flavour of the fruit are greatly improved by this mode of cul- ture. — However, the sort is of very great conse- quence. It is curious enough, that people in gene- ral think littl-e of the sort in the ease of peaches, though they are so choice in the case of apples. A peach is a peach, it seems, though I know of no ap- ples between which there is more difference than there is between different sorts of peaches, some of which melt in the mouth, while others are little better than a white turnip. — The sort is, then, a matter of the first importance ; and, though the sorts are very numerous, the thirty trees that I would have should be as follows : — 1 Violette Ha- live, 6 Early Montauhon, 1 Vanguard, 6 Royul George, 6 Grosse Mignonne, 4 Early Noblesse^ 3 Gallande, 2 Bellgarde, 2 Late Noblesse. These are all to be had of Mr. Prince, of Flushing, in this island, and, as to his word, every body knows that it may be safely relied on. What is the trifling ex- pense of 30 trees \ And, when you once have them, you propagate from them for your life. Even for the fee-ding of hogs, a gallon of peaches of either of the above sorts is worth twenty gallons of the poor, pale, tasteless things that we see brought to market. — As to dried peaches, every body knows that they are managed as dried apples are ; onlv that they must be gathered for this purpose befor« they be soft. 319. PEAR. — Pears are grafted on pear-stocJcf on quince-stocks, or on those of the white-thorr The last is best, because most durable, and, ft v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 201 dwarf trees, much the best, because they do not throw up wood so big and so lofty. For orchards, pear-stocks are best ; but not from suckers on any account. They are sure to fill the orchard with suckers. — The pruning for your pear trees in the garden should be that of the peach. The pears will grow higher; but they maybe made to spread at bottom, and that will keep them from towering too much. They should stand together, in one of the Plats, 10 or 11. — The sorts of pears are numerous ; the six that I should choose are, the Vergalouse, the Winter Bergamot, the D^Auche, the Beurre, the Chaumontelle, the Winter Bonchretian. 320. PLUMS. — How is it that we see so few plums in America, when the markets are supplied with cart-loads in such a chilly, shady, and blighty country as England. A Green-gage Plum is very little inferior to the very finest peach ; and I never tasted a better Green-gage than I have at New York. It must, therefore, be negligence. But Plums are prodigious bearers, too ; and would be very good for hogs as well as peaches. — This tree is grafted upon plum-stocks, raised from stones by all means ; for suckers send out a forest of suckers. — The pru ning is precisely that of the peach. — The six trees that I would have in the garden should be 4 Green gages, 1 OrJean, 1 Blue Perdigron. 321. QUINCE. — Should grow in a moist place and in very rich ground. It is raised from cuttings, or layers, and these are treated like other cuttings and layers. — Quinces are dried like apples. 322."' RASPBERRY.— A sort of woody herb, but produces fruit that vies, in point of crop as well as flavour, with that of the proudest tree. I have ne- ver seen them fine in America since I saw them co- vering hundreds of thousands of acres of ground in 202 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. the Province of New Brunswick. They come there even in the interstices of the rocks, and, when the August sun has parched up the leaves, the land«5cape is red with the fruit. Where woods have been burnt down, the raspberry and the huckle-berry in- stantly spring up, divide the surface between them, and furnish autumnal food for flocks of pigeons thai darken the earth beneath their flight. Whence these plants come, and cover spots thirty or forty miles square, which have been covered with woods for ages upon ages, I leave for philosophers to say, contenting myself with relating how they come and how they are treated in gardens. — They are raised from suckers, though they may be raised from cut- tings. The suckers of this year, are planted out in rows, six feet apart, and the plants two feet apart in the rows. This is done in the fall, or early in the spring. At the time of planting they should be cut down to within afoot of the ground. They will bear a little, and they will send out several suckers which will bear the next year. — About four is enough to leave, and those of the strongest. These should be cut off" in the fall, or early in spring, to within four feet of the ground, and should be tied to a small stake. A straight branch of Lo- cust is best, and then the stake lasts a life-time at least, let the life be as long as it may. The next yrar more suckers come up, which are treated in the same way. — Fifty chimps are enough, if well managed. — There are white and red, some like one best and some the other. To have them fine, you must dig in manure in the Autumn, and keep the ground clean during the Summer byhoeing. — I have tried to dry the fruit ; but it lost its flavour. Rasp- herry-Jani is a deep-red sugar ; and raspberry- wine is red brandy, rum, or whiskey ; neither hav- v.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 203 ing the taste of the fruit. To cat cherries, pre served m spirits, is only an apology, and a very poor and mean one, for dram-drinking ; a practice which every man ought to avoid, and the very thought of giving way to which ought to make the cheek of a woman redden with shame. 323. STRAWBERRY.— This plant is a native of the fields and woods here, as it is in Europe. There are many sorts, and all are improved by cul- tivation. The Scarlet, the Alpine, the Turkey, the Haut-hois, or high-stalked, and many others, some of which are white, and some of so deep a red as to approach towards a black. To say which sort is best is very difficult. A variety of sorts is best. — They are propagated from young plants that grow out of the old ones. In the summer the plant sends forth runners. Where these touch the ground, at a certain distance from the plant, come roots, and from these roots, a plant springs up. This plant is put out early in the fall. It takes root before win- ter ; and the next year it will hear a little ; and send out runners of its own. — To make a Strawberry- bea, plant three rows a foot apart, and at 8 inches apart in the rows. Keep the ground clean, and the new plants, coming from runners, will fill up the whole of the ground, and will extend the bed on the sides. — Cut ofi* the runners at six inches dis- tance from the sides, and then you have a bed three feel wide, covering all the ground; and this is the best way ; for the fruit then lodges on the stems anil leaves, and is not beaten into the dirt by heavy rains, which it is if the plants stand in clumps with clear ground between them. — If you have more beds than one, there should be a clear space of two feet wide between them, and this space should be well manured and deeply digged every fall, and kept 204 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. |Chap. clean by hoeing in the summer. If weeds come up in the beds, they should be carefully pulled out. — In November utiful flower. The plant is also beauti- ful. It is a climber, like the Honeysuckle; and, like that, has a s^iccession of blossoms that keep it in bloom a long while. It is raised from cuttings, which, treated as other cuttings are, easily taken root. 374. PCEONY. — A perennial that may be raised from seed or offsets. A grand flower for shrubbe- ries. Each flower is usually as big as a tea-cup, and one plant will sometimes produce twenty or thirty. 375. PEA (Sweet.) — There are a great variety in the annual sorts as to colour of blossom, and, there is a perennial sort, called everlasting pea. This stands, of course, year after year. The others are sown and cultivated like the common garden pea. They should have some sticks to keep them up. This is a very showy flower, and remains in bloom a long while. 376. PINK. — This flower is too well known to need describing here. There are a great variety of sorts, as to the flower ; but all are cultivated in the same way ; exactly as directed for the Clove, which see. The Pink root will last a great many years ; but, the flower is seldom so fine as the first year of the plant's blowing. 377. POLYANTHUS.— Every thing that has been said of the Auricula (which see) maybe said of the Polyanthus. It is a very pretty flower, and universally esteemed. It blows finest out of the hot sun. Polyanthuses are best in beds ; for a great part of their merit consists of the endless variety which they present to the eye. The Polyanthus has a de- licately sweet smell, like that of the Cowslip. 378. POPPY.— A very bad smell, but still is to be sought for on account of its very great variety VI.\ THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 221 in size, height, and in flower ; and on account of the gayness of that flower. The seed pods of some are of the bulk of a three pound weight, while those of others are not so big as even a small pea. The smallest, however, contains about a thousand seeds, and these come up, and the plants flourish, with very- little care. A pretty large bed, with two or three Hundred sorts in it, is a spectacle hardly surpassed in beauty by any thing in the vegetable creation. It is an annual, of course. It is well known as a me- dicinal plant ; but, it is not so well known as a plant from the seed of which sallad-oil is sometimes made I The Germans, on the Rhine, cultivate whole fields of it for this purpose. It may be as well, therefore, for us to take care not to use German Sallad-Oil, which, however, can with great difliculty be distinguished from oil of olives. 379. PRIMROSE.— A beautiful little flower of a pale yellow and delicate smell. It comes very early in the spring; and continues a good while in bloom. Of the fibrous rooted flowers it is the next to the Daisy in point of earliness. It is a universal fa- vourite ; and, in England, it comes abundantly in woods, pastures and banks. It is perennial like the Cowslip, and is propagated in the same manner. How beautiful a Long Island wood would look in April, the ground beneath the trees being decked with Primroses ! 380. RANUNCULUS.— Is a flower of the nature of the Aneinone, which see. It is propagated and cultivated in the same manner. These two flowers are usually planted out in beds, where they make a very fine show. 381 RHODODENDRON.— It never occurred, perhaps, to any American to give this fine name to the laurel with a long narrow leaf and great bunches 19* 222 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Clmp of blue, pink, or while flowers, the balls, or pods, containing which, appear the year before the flower. It is, however, a beautiful shrub, and not less beau- tiful on account of its frequently covering scores of acres of rocky sides of hills, or on account of En- glish Gardeners believing that it requires bog-earth (though fetched from many miles distance, at vast expense) to make it grow and blow ! SS2. ROSES. — A volume larger than this would not describe the differences in all the sorts of this, which has, for ages, been considered as the Queen of Flowers, the excellences of which to attempt to describe would be to insult the taste of every reader. I shall, therefore, merely speak of the propagation and the management of the plant. All roses way be propagated from seed ; but, as the seed seldom comes up till the second year, and as the plants come to perfection slowly, the usual mode of pro- pagation of all sorts, except the China Rose, is by suckers. These come out near old stems, during the summer ; they are dug up m the fall and planted out. In the spring they are cut down near to the ground, and, the next year, they blow. — The China Rose is so easily raised from cuttings, that little bits, put in the ground in spring, will be trees, and have a profusion of bloom before the fall. This Rose is in bloom, in England, from May till Janu- ary, if the soil and situation both be good. — It is very strange that Mr. Marshall should set this down amongst " tender shrubs,''"' and say, that " it will not do abroad, except in the sumraer months.^'' It stands the winter as well as the oak, and, I have, for years, had it, against the front of my house, blowing finely at Christ7nas, without any attempt at cover- ing. In America, in the open air, it might not be in bloom at Christmas ; but it stands the winter as well VI.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 223 as any tree that can be nam«cd. It is beautiful for the Green-house ; for there it, mixed with Gerani- ums, blow beautifully all the winter long. As to the management of roses; the ground should be good, and dug every autumn as directed far fruit trees, and should be manured frequently. They should (except when trained against walls or over bowers) be kept eut down low; for, when they get long stems and limbs, they, like peach trees, not only look ugly, but bear but few Eowers, and those very mean ones. They should, therefore, be cut to within a foot, or less, of the ground ; and all dead or weak wood should be pruned out close, without leaving any ugly stubs. 383. SIBERIAN CRAB.— This Shrub is, by some, esteemed for its fruity of which they make a conserve, more, I imagine, to gratify the si^ht than to gratify the palat-e. But, as a tall shruh, it yields, for the time, to very few. There is the red-blos- somed and the white-blossomed. The branches of both, when in bloom, present ropes of flowers, while the trunk, the limbs, the branches and the leaves,"^ are all delicate in form and in hue. 384. SNOW DROP.— Is the earliest of all flow- ers. In England it blows in January. Once in the ground it is not very easy to get it out again. No- thing but carrying it away, or actually consuming it with fire will rid you of it. No sun, not even an American sun, will kill a Snow-Drop bulb, if it touch the ground. 385. STOCK. — There are annuals and biennials of this name ; and, if I were to choose amongst all the annuals and biennials, I should certainly choose the Stock. Elegant leaf, elegant plant, beautiful, showy, and most fragrant flower ; and, with suit- able attention, bloom, even in the natural ground, from May to November in England, and from June 224 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. to November here. — The annuals are called ten- week Stocks. And of these there are, with a pea- green leaf, the Red^ White, Purple and Scarlet, and, then, there are all the same colours with a Wall-flower or Sea-Green leaf. So that there are eight sorts of the annual Stock. — Of the biennials, there are the Brompton, of which there are the Scarlet and the White ; the Dutch, which is Red ; the Queen's, of which there are the Red and the White ; and the Twickenham, which is Purple. — As to propagation, it is, of course, by seed only. II there be nothing but the natural ground to rely on, the sowing must be early ; the earth yery fine and very ric^. The seed is small and thin, and does not easily come up in coarse earth. If the plants come up thick, thin them, when very young. And do not leave them nearer together than six inches. They, however, transplant very well ; and those that have not place to blow in may be removed, and a succession of bloom is thus secured. If you have a green-house, glass frame, or hand-glass, you get flowers six weeks earlier. — The biennials are sown at the same time, and treated in the same way. They blow the second year ; but, if there be great difficulty in preserving them, in the natura'l ground, through the winter in England, what must it be here ! Indeed, it cannot be done ; and yet, they are so fine ; so lofty ; such masses of beautiful and fra- grant flowers ; and they continue so long in bloom, that they are v»^orth any care and any trouble. There is but one way: the plants, when they get ten or a dozen leaves, must be put into flower-pots. These may be sunk in the earth, in the open ground, till November (Long Island,) and^whenthe sharp frosts come, the pots must be taken up, and placed out oj" the reach of hard frost., and where there is, however, VI.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 22b iun and air. When the spring comes, the pots may be put out into the natural ground again ; or, which is better, the balls of earth may be put into a hole made for the purpose ; and thus the plants will be in the natural ground to Mow. In this country they should be placed in the shade when put out again ; for a very hot sun is apt to tarnish the bloom. 386. SYRINGA, ov Mock-Orange.— k\'ery ^ioui shrub, with blossoms much like that of the orange, and with a powerful smell. It is propagated from suckers, of which it sends out a great many. 387. SWEET WILLI AM.— A very pretty flower. Makes a fine show. Comes Double by chance ; and is very handsome whether double or single. It is propagated from seed, the plants coming from which do not blow till the second year. The Sweet Wil- liam root does not last many years. It may be pro- pagated by parting the roots ; and this wMsthe done to have the same flower again to a certainty, because the seed do not, except by chance, produce flowers like those of the mother plant. 388. TUBEROSE.— This is a bulbuous-rooted plant that sends up a beautiful and most fragrant flower. But, even in England, it cannot be brought to perfection without artificial heat in the spring. If got forward in a green-house, or hot-bed, and put out about the middle of June, it would blow beauti- fully in America. It is a native of Italy, and the roots are brought to England and sold there in the shops. It is propagated and managed precisely like the Hyacinth, which see. 389. TULIP.— Beds of Tulips vie with those of Carnations and Auriculas. They are made shows of in England, and a single root is sometimes sold for two or three hundred guineas. And, why not ; as well as make shows of pictures, and sell them 22(5 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. for large sums ? There is an endless variety in tho - o lours of the tulip. The bulbs, to have the flowers nne^ must be treated like those of the Hyacinth. The tulip may be raised from seed ; but it is, as in the case ol the Hyacinth, a thousand to one against getting from seed a flower like that of the mother plant. 390. VIOLET.— This is one of the four favour- ites of the Spring in England. It is a little creeping plant, that comes on banks under the shelter of warm hedges. The flower is so well known to excel in sweetness, that, " as sweet as a violef is a phrase as common as any in the English language. There is a purple and a white. Abundance of seed is borne annually by both ; and the plant is perennial. If you propagate from seed, the flower does not come till the second year; but, one plant, taken from an old root, will fill a rod of ground in a few years. — There is a little plant in these woods in Long Island, with a flower precisely like that of the purple violet; but, the leaf is a narrow oblong, instead of being, as the English is, in the shape of a heart ; the plant does not creep ; and the flower has no smell. 391. WALL-FLOWER.— It is so called, because it will grow, sow itself, and furnish bloom in this way, by a succession of plants, for ever, upon old walls, where it makes a beautiful show. It bears abundance of seed, plants from which produce flow- ers the second year. Some come double, sometimes. If you wish to be sure of double flowers, you must propagate by slips of double-flowering plants. There are the yellow and the mixed, partly yellow and partly red. All have a delightful smell, blow early, and are generally great favourites. I am afraid this plant, even with covering, will not stand the winter out of doors in America, unless in the south front of a building, and covered tooin severe weather; for, even in England, it is sometimes killed by the frosts. 227 INDEX TO VEGETABLES AND HERBS, FRUITS AND FLOWERS. VEGETABLES AND HERBS. Paragraph. Artichoke - - 192 Asparagus - 193 Balm - - - 194 Basil . 195 Bean - . - 196' Bean (Kidney) - 197 Beet - - 198 Brocoli - 199 Burnet - . - 200 Cabbage - - 201 Calabash - - 202 Cale - 203 Cale(Sea) - - - 204 Camomile - 205 Capsicum - - 206 Caraway - - 207 Carrot - - - 208 Cauliflower - 209 Celery - - - 210 Chervil - - 211 Cives - - - 212 Coriander - 213 Corn . - 214 Corn-Salad - 215 Cress (Pepper Grass) - 216 Cucumber - 217 Dandelion - - 218 Dock . 219 Endive - - - 220 Fennel - 221 Garlick - . - 222 Gourd . 223 Hop - - 224 Horse-Radish - - 225 Hyssoj) ... Jerusalem Artichoke Lavender - - - Leek . . - Lettuce - . - Mangel Wurzel Marjoram - - - Marigold - Melon . - - - Mint Mustard - - . Nasturtium Onion - - - - Parsley Parsnip _ . . Pea - - - - Pennyroyal - - - Pepper — see Capsicum. Pepper-grass — see Cress. Potatoe - - - Potatoe (Sweet) - Pumpkin - . - Purslane . - - Radish Rampion _ - - Rape - - - Rhubarb . - . Rosemary Rue - . . . Ruta-Baga — see Turnip. Sage - - Salsafy - . - Samphire - - . Savory - - - Paragraph. - 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 256 257 258 ^9 328 INDEX. Paragraph. 1 Paragraph. Savroy - - 269 Tansy - - - 267 Scorzenera 261 Tarragon - 268 Shalot - - 262 Thyme - 269 Skirret - 263 Tomatum . 270 Sorrel - - 264 Turnip - - - 271 Spinage - 265 Wormwood - - 272 Squash - - 266 FRUITS. Apple - - 300 Medlar - . - - 313 Apricot 301 Melon 314 Barberry - - 302 Mulberry - 315 Cherry 303 Nectarine 316 Chestnut - 304 Nut - - - - 317 Cranberry 305 Peach - - - 318 Currant - 306 Pear - - - - 319 Fi- - 307 Plums _ - _ 320 Filberd - - 308 Gluince - - - - 321 Gooseberry 309 Raspberry 322 Grape - - 310 Strawberry - - 323 Huckleberry 311 Vine — see Grape. Madeira Nut — see Walnut. Walnut - 325 FLOWERS. Althea Frutex - 333 Heart's-ease (Pansey) 352 Anemone - 334 Heath - - 353 Arbutus - 335 Hollyhock 354 Astre (China) - 336 Hollyhock (Chinese) - 355 Auricula - 337 Honeysuckle - 356 Azalia 338 Hyacinth - 357 Balsam - 339 Jasmin - - - 358 Briar (Sweet) - 340 Jonquil - 359 Camilla - 341 Kalmia - - - 360 Carnation 342 Kill-calf - 361 Catalpha - 843 Laburnham 362 Clove 344 Larkspur - 363 Columbine - - 345 Lilac - . _ 364 Cowslip - 346 Lily of the Valley - 365 Crocus - - 347 Locust - - . 366 Daisy 348 Lupin - - - - 367 Geranium - 349 Magnolia 368 Guelder-Rose - 350 Mignonette - - 369 Hawthorn - - 351 Morning- Star - 370 229 INDEX TO THE GENERAL MATTER. [ The Figv/res refer to tke Paragraphs, and not to Pages.] Paragraph Addison - - - 121 Boxes, earthen-ware preferable to, for plants - - 109 Bacon, Lord -^-------121 Cultivation, in general ----- 126, 176 as relates to Fruits - - - , - - 291 Curwen, Mr. John Christian ----- 183 Cowley .--- 121 Drilling, mode of ----- - 162, 163 Diseases of Trees --- 298 Dryden - 348 Fencing .-.------30 for shade and shelter - - - " - - 33, 48 expense of 47, 50, 51 seed for, how to procure . - - - 55 Gluick-set, described ----- 39 Garden, its praises, the produce and pleasures de- rived from _ - - - - 2, 3, 121 Grreen-houses .-----■^-97 the usefulness of - - 100, 117, 118, 121 Girard, Mr. Stephen 308 Hot-beds " " " ^^ frames for common in America - - - 71 hand-glasses useful 94 Herbs, preserving and forcing of them - - . 117 Hampton Court, vine at- - - - - - 310 flowers at - - - - - - 331 Hulme,Mr. 310 Laying out of gardens -------57 LeGau, Mr. 310 Lucern, depth of its roots ------ 193 Loves of the plants - ___--- 141 Manures 28,29 Missing, Mr. 188 Marshall, Rev. Mr. - - - - 145, 281, 282, 382 M'Allister, Mr. 55 Piautmg --------- 283 Pro')a<'ation in general ------ 125 as relates to fruits ----- 273 of cuttings ------ 276 of slip? - - - ... 277 230 INDEX. Paragraph Propagation of layers ------- 278 suckers ------ 279 grafting - - - - - - -281 stocks 282 Paul, Messrs. 282, 308 Situation for a garden ------ 12 Soil - - 16 Sowing --------- 155 and planting in pots - - - 110 to 114 Seed, sorts of------ - 128 when true -------- 129 v/hen sound ------- 131 saving and preserving of - - - - 136 table of duiation of ----- 150 Sorts of plants, error respecting changes of - - - 188 Setting of fruit, an erroneous notion - - 141 to 145 Trenching, best mode of - - - _ - 20 Transplanting -------- 169 Temple, Sir William 122 Tull, Mr. 182 to 183 Roots, to find their length horizontally - - - - 184 Walls, not necessary for fruit ----- 32 Watering of plants, not recommended - - - - 187 Women, duly appreciated in America - - - 101 Myrtle - 371 Narcissus - - -.- - - - - - 372 Passion-Flower -------- 373 Poeony --------- 374 Pea (Sweet) " - 375 Pink 378 Polyanthus --------- 377 Poppy --------- 378 Primrose --------- 379 Ranunculus -------- 380 Rhododendron -- - - - - - - 381 Roses --------- 382 Siberian Crab -------- 383 Snow Drop -------- 384 Stock 385 Syringa (Mock Orange) ------ 386 Sweet William 387 Tuberose -- ------ 388 Tulip 389 Violet 390 Wall-Flower 391 AH the Books on this Catalogue sent hy mail, to any imrt of the Union, postage paid BOOKS FOR THE COUNTRY, PUBLISHED BY C. M. SAXTON & CO., 140 FULTON STREET, ^EW YORK, SUITABLE FOB SCHOOL, TOW^. AGRICTJLTUKAL, AND PRIVATE LIBEARIES. Downing's (A. J.) Landscape Gardening. A Treatise on the Theoiy and Practice of Landscape Gardening. Adapted to North America, with a view to the Improvement of Country Residences, comprising His- torical Notices ami General Principles of the Art, Directions for Laying out Grounds and Arranging Plantations, the Description and Cultivation of Hardy Trees, Decora- tion Accompaniments to the House and Ground, the Formation of Pieces of Artificinl Water, Flower Gardens, etc., with Eemsrks on Kural Architecture. Elegantly illus- trated, with a Portrait of the Author., By A. J, Downing. Price $3 50. Downing's (A. J.) Knral Essays. On Horticulture, Landscape Gardening, Rural Architecture, Trees, Agriculture, Fruit, with his Letters from England. Edited, with a Memoir of the Author, by George Wm. Curtis, and a letter to his friends by Frederika Bremer; and an elegant steel Portrait of the Author. Price $3. The Practical Fruit, Flower, and Kitchen Gardener's Com- panion, with a Calendar. By Patrick Neill, LL. D., F. E. S. E., Secretary to the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. Adapted to the United States, from the fourth edition, revised and improved by the author. Edited by G. Emerson, M. D., Editor (.f "Johnson's Farmer's Encyclopedia." With Notes and Additions by R. G. Pardee author of '-Manual of the Strawberry Culture." With illustrations. Price $1. Munn's (B.) Practical Land Drainer; B-. inir a Treatise on Draining Land, in which the most approved systems of Lrai.iaca are exp'ained, and tlieir differences and comparative merits discussed; wiih I'uli IMreciions for the Cutting and Making of Drains, with Remarks upon the vai--o::3 Materials of whicU they may bo composed. With many illustrations. Ry B. Mum,, Liir.ilicape Gardener. Price 50 cts, Llliot's (F. R.) American Fruit-Grower's Guide in Orchard and Gard-n: being a Compend of the History, Modes of Propagation.. CaUur--, &o., of Frui*, '^roes, and Shrubs, with descriptions of nearly all the varieties of Fruits cr.l- tlva!>»d *•, i-bis country; and Notes of their adaptation to localities, soils, and a coid- (>!«'«' '.a« -f Fruits worthy of cultivation. By F. B. Flliot, Po;2:;olog;st, Price %\ 25 1 2 Books Published by C. M. Saxton <& Co. Pardee CR. G.) on Strawberry Culture. A Com[ilete Mnnual for the Cultivation of the Stra^vberry; '^ith a description of tli« best varieties. Alsd, Notices of the Kaspberry, Blackberry, Currant, Gooseberry, and Grape; ■wiili directions for their cultivation, and the selection of the best varieties. "E'fry pr >• cess here recommended has been proved, the plans of others tried, and the re.-uii ij here given." "With a valuable Appendix, containing the observations and experieis.-* of eome of th e most successful cultivators of these fruits in our country. Price 6i ci i. b Dana's Muck Manual for the use of Farmers. A Treatise on the Physical and Chemical Properties of Soils, the Chemistry of Manures ; including also the subjects of composts, artificial manures and irrigatils. riice25cls. ; Johnston's (James F. W.) Agricultural Chemistry. J.cctUK'..-- in t!:c Apijiicar'c.M of Chemistry and Geology to Agriculture. New edition, •svilh an Api en) managing this lust-ct, throutih every branch cf its Culture; the result of many years' exjeiience Illustrated with many engravings. By T, B. Miner. Cloth, $L The Cottage and Farm Bee-keeper; A Practical Work, by a Country Cura'e, 50 cents. Weeks (John M.) on Bees.— A Manual; Or, an Easy Method of Managing Bees in the most profitable manner to their owner; with infallible rules to prevent their destruction by the Moth. With an Appendix by Wooster A. Flanders. Price 50 cts. The Eose; Being a Practical Treatise on the Propagation, Cultivation, and Management of th« Rose in all Seasons; with a List of Choice and Approved Varieties, adapted to tha Climare of the United States; to v/hich is added Full Directions for the Treatment ol the Dahlia. Illustrated by engravings. Cloth, 50 cts. Buist's (Eobert) American Flower-Garden Directory; Containing Practical Directions for the Culture of Plants, in the Flowei--Garden, Hot- House. Green-House, Rooms, or Parlor "Windows, for every Month in the Year; with a description of the Plants most desirable in each, the Nature of the Soil an-l Situation best adapted to their Growth, the Pro;>er Season for Transplanting. &c.; with Instruc- tions fur erecting a llot-lfouse, Green-House, and Layingout a Flower-Garden; the whole adopted to either large or small Gardens; with Instructions for Preparing tha Soil. Propagating, Planting, Pruning, Traini.ng, and Fruiting the Grape Vine. Price t-\ 25. Buists' lEobsrt) Family Kitchen Gardener; C'ontd-nii,:,' I'lain and Accurate Descriptions of all the dilferent Species and Varieties of Culinary Vegetables, with their Botanical, Eng'i>h, French, and German mimes, alphabetically arranged, and tlie best mode of cul.ivating them in the gaiden or undor glass; alf«>, Descriptions and Character of the most Select Fruits, their Managenienr., Pr.pMgation, &c. By Robert Bnist, author of the "American Flower-Garde u iJirtc tory," &a Cloth, 75 cts. ; paper 50 cts. The American Florist's Gmae; 0)iii[.ri8ing the Au rican P.osc C.dturist and Every Lady her own Flower Gardena* Half cloth. 75 cts. Books Published by C. M. Saxion <^: Co. Every Lady Her own Flower Gardener; Addroaseil to the Industrious and EconomicHl only ; containing 8imi)lo and PnwitlciJ Dirccti ins for Cultivating Plants and Flowers; also, Hints for the Managcim.-iit ol Flow jrs in Itoom-', with brief Dotanical Descriptions of Plants and Flowers. Tlio wliole in plain and simple language. By Louisa Johnson. Cloth, ^ • ^e 50 cts. The A.nisrican Agriculturist; i'.oing a Colection of Original Ariicles on the Various Subjects connected with tL« I'arin, in tea vols. 8vo., containing nearly four thousand pages. $10. The Complete Farmer and American Gardener, Iiural Kconowiist, aiul New Ainericai: G-arclener, contiiining a Compendious Epitome of the most Important Branches of A-rricultural and liural Economy; with Practical Di- rections on the Cultivation of Fruits and Vegetables; including Landscape and Orna- mental Gardening. By Thomas G. Fessenden. 2 vols, in one, $1 25. Fessenclen's (T G) American Kitchen Gardener; Ciintaining Directions for the Cultivation of Vegetables and Garden Fruits. Goth, price 50 cts. Dadd's (Geo. H.) American Cattle Doctor; Containing the neressary inf )rniation for preserving the health and curing the diseases of Oxen. Cows Sheep, and Swine, with a great variety of original receipts, and valu- able information in reference to Farm and Dairy management, whereby every man can be liis own Cattle Doctor. The principles taught In this work are. that all medi- cation hhall be subservient to nature— tliat all ine'licines nmst be sanative in their operation, and administere 1 with a view of aiding the vital powers, instead of dei)re8« sing, as heretofore, with the lai.cct or by poi.-on. By G. H. Dadd, M. D., Veterinary Practitioner. Price .^1. Browne's (D. Jay) Field Book of Manures : Or, American Muck Beck; treating of the Nature, Properties, Sources. History, and Operations of all tlie Principal Fertilizers and Manures In Common Use, with Specifia Directions for their Preservation, and Application to the Soil and to Crop-; drawa from Authentic Sonrces, Act'tal Experience, and Personal Observatian, as com- bined with the leading Principles of Practical and Seientiflc Agriculture. By D. J»y Browne. $1 25. Eandall's (H. S.) Sheep Husbandry; ■^'Ith an account of the different breeds, and general directions in regard to Suinmcr and Winter manrtgenient, breeding, an.l the treatment of dise:ise8, with j.ortraits K;.d other engravings. By Henry 8. Randall. Price $1 25. Blake's (Rev. John L.) Farmer at Home. A Family Text Book for the Country; be ng a Cyclopaedia of Agricultural Implcv iiientsand Prod actions, and of tha more Important Topics in Domestic Economy. Science and Literature; adapted to Rural Life. By Eev. John L. Blake, D. li OJ 25. Books PiiUhhcd hy C. M. Saxton d Co. Youatt and Martin on Cattle ; Being a Trea'ise on tlieii Breeds, MmaLrement, and Diseases, comprising a full IF story Of tlie Vaiious Races; their Origm, Breeding, and Merits; their capacity for Beef and IWv i^.> W. Touatt and W. C. L. Martin. The whole forming a complete Guide for rlie Farmer, the Amateur, and the Veterinary Surgeon, with 100 illustrations. Edited by Ambrose Stevens. $1 25. ^ouatt on the Horse. Yoiiatt on the Structure and Diseases of the Horse, with their Remedies. Also, Prao- tical Pailes for Bayers, Breeders, Smiths, &c. Edited by W. C. Spooner. M. R. C. V. 8. With an account of the Breeds in the United States, by Henry 8. Randall. $1 25. Youatt and Martin on the Hog. A Treatise on the Breeds, Management and Medical Treatment of Swine, with dire*, tion^ for Salting Pork and Curing Bacon and Hami. By Wm. Youatt, R. 8 and W- C. L. Martin. Edited by Ambrose Stevens. Illustrated with engravings drawn from life. To cts. Youatt on Sheep; Their Breed, Management, and Di^ea=es, with illustrative engravings; to which are added Remarks on the Breeds and Management of Sheep in the United States, and on the Culture of Fine Wool in Silesia. By William Youatt. 75 cts. American Architect. The American Architect, comprising Original Desi-ns of cheap Country and Village Eesidences, with Details, Specifications, Plans, and Directions, and an estimate of the Cost of each Design. By John W. Ritch, Architect. First and Second Series, quarto bound in 1 vol., half roan, $6 Domestic Medicine. Gunn's I'oinestic Medicine, or Poor Man's Friend, in the Hours of Affliction, Pain, and Sickne&s, Raymond's new revised edition, improved and enlarged by John C. Gunn, 8vo. Sheep, $3. Pedder's (James) Farmer's Land Measurer; Or, Pocl iTE* er." Price f 1. Morgan Horses; their History, Management, Breeding, &e., &c. By D. C. LInsley. With PortraltB. Price, $1 25. SAXTON'S iani §fl0!is flf Sural anii gomcsiit (!E«ii0ing. ^M arranged and adapted to the Use of Amencan Fanners. Price 25 Cents eacb. Hogs; Tiieir Origin and Varieties ; Management, witli a View to TroSt, and Treatmont un.lvii. Disease; also, Plain Directions relative to the most approved modes of i.reservinu'tlit!!:! Flesh. By H. D. Richardson, autlior of "Tlie Hivo and the II..ney BccVVi<-., At With illustrations— 12mo. The Hive and the Honey Bee ; V7ith plain directions for obtaining a considerable Annu&l Income fr -m VA< branch o Kural Economy; also an Account of the Diseases of Bees, an-l their lU-inodies mh Eemarks as to their Enemies, and the best mode of protecting the Hives from thel? «t taclis. By H. D. Richardson. "With illustrations. Domestic Fowls; Their Natural History, Breeding, Rearing, and General Management. By U. Ji Richardson, author of "The Natural History of the Fossil Deer," &c. With lUas trations. The Horse; . „ .. t> , J Tlieir Origin and Varieties ; with Plain Directions as to the Breeding, Rearing, an General Management, with Instructions as to the Treatment of Disease. Uandsomel, j Illustrated— 12mo. By H. D. Richardson. The Kose ; ^. ^ _ , The American Rose Culturist; being a Practical Treatise oa the Propagation, Cultivii tion, and Management in all Seasons, &c. With full directions for the Treatment «| the Dahlia. The Pests of the Farm; | With Instructions fur their Extirpation; being a Manual of Plain Directions for tli| certain Destruction of every description of Vermin. With numerous illustrations a| Wood. An Essay on Manures; . . u Submitted to the Trustees of the Massacliusetts Society for Promoting Agricultm for their Premium. By Samuel H. Dana. The American Bird Fancier ; Considered with reference to the Breeding, Rearing, Feeding, Management, &n.i 1' cnliarities of Cage and House Birds. Ulustrated with Engravings. Uy D. Jt Browne. Chemistry Made Easy. Tor the Use of Farmers. By J. Topham. Elements of Agriculture. Tr .nslatod from the French, and Adapted to the use of American t armors, l.y i' Skinner. The American Kitchen Gardener; Containing Directions for the Cultivation of Vegctablas-and Gwden Fruits, l.y i. Fessenden. ^ „ i 1 ^ ' ■%-. K# V 1 fl ^ p^ ^•^ ^. r^ .d^..„.c ^o:*'^"':^^^ f'* ^o'' rS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0PDDT33Q112