American versus British Borticulture.

WHEN a man goes into a country without understanding its language--merely as a traveller-be is likely to comprehend little of the real character of that country; when he settles in it, and persists in not understanding its language, manners, or customs -and stubbornly adheres to his own, there is little probability of his ever being a contented or successful citizen. In such a country as this, its very spirit of liberty and progress, its freedom from old prejudices, and the boundless life and energy that make the pulses of its true citizens-either native or adopted-beat with health and exultation, only serve to vex and chafe that alien in a strange land, who vainly tries to live in the new world, with all his old-world prejudices and customs.

We are led into this train of reflection by being constantly reminded, as we are in our various journeyings through the country, of the heavy impediment existing-the lion lying in the path of our progress in horticulture, all over the country, in the circumstance that our practical gardening is almost entirely in the hands of foreign gardeners. The statistics of the gardening class, if carefully collected, would, we imagine, show that not three per cent of all the working gardeners in the United States, are either native or naturalised citizens. They are, for the most part, natives of Ireland, with a few Scotchmen, and a still smaller proportion of English and Germans.

We suppose we have had as much to do, for the last sixteen or eighteen years, with the employment of gardeners, as almost any person in America, and we never remember an instance of an American offering himself as a professional gardener. Our own rural workmen confine themselves wholly to the farm, knowing nothing, or next to nothing, of the more refined and careful operations of the garden. We may, therefore, thank foreigners for nearly all the gardening skill that we have in the country, and we are by no means inclined to underrate the value of their labors. Among them there are, as we well know, many most excellent men, who deserve the highest commendations for skill, taste, and adaptation-though, on the other hand, there are a

JUNE 1, 1852.

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great many who have been gardeners, (if we may trust their word for it,) to the Duke and the Marquis of ——, but who would make us pity his grace or his lordship, if we could believe he ever depended on Paddy for any other exotics than potatoes and cabbages.

But taking it for granted that our gardeners are wholly foreigners, and mostly British, they all have the disadvantage of coming to us, even the best educated of them, with their practice wholly founded upon a climate the very opposite to ours. Finding how little the "natives" know of their favorite art, and being, therefore, by no means disposed to take advice of them, or unlearn any of their old-world knowledge here, are they not, as a class, placed very much in the condition of the aliens in a foreign country, we have just alluded to, who refuse, for the most part, either to learn its language, or adapt themselves to the institutions of that country? We think so; for in fact, no two languages can be more different than the gardening tongues of England and America. The ugly words of English gardening, are damp, wet, want of sunshine, canker. Our bugbears are drouth, hot sunshine, great stimulus to growth, and blights and diseases resulting from sudden checks. An English gardener, therefore, is very naturally taught, as soon as he can lisp, to avoid cool and damp aspects, to nestle like a lizard, on the sunny side of south walls, to be perpetually guarding the roots of plants against wet, and continually opening the heads of his trees and shrubs, by thinning out the branches, to let the light in. He raises even his flower beds, to shed off the too abundant rain; trains his fruit trees upon trellises, to expose every leaf to the sunshine, and is continually endeavoring to extract "sunshine from cucumbers," in a climate where nothing grows golden and ripe without coaxing nature's smiles under glass houses!

For theorists, who know little of human nature, it is easy to answer-"well, when British gardeners come to a climate totally different from their own-where sunshine is so plenty that they can raise melons and peaches as eaeily as they once did cauliflowers and gooseberries-why, they will open their eyes to such glaring facts, and alter their practice accordingly." Very good reasoning, indeed. But anybody who knows the effect of habit and education on character, knows that it is as difficult for an Irishman to make due allowance for American sunshine and heat, as for a German to forget sour-krout, or a Yankee to feel an instinctive reverence for royalty. There is a whole lifetime of education, national habit, daily practice, to overcome, and reason seldom has complete sway over the minds of men rather in the habit of practicing a system, than referring to principles, in their every day labors.

Rapid as the progress of horticulture is at the present time in the United States, there can be no doubt that it is immensely retarded by this disadvantage, that all our gardeners have been educated in the school of British horticulture. It is their misfortune, since they have the constant obstacle to contend with, of not understanding the necessities of our climate, and therefore endeavoring to carry out a practice admirably well suited where they learned it—but most ill suited to the country where they are to practice it. It is our misfortune, because we suffer doubly by their mistakes-first, in the needless money they spend in their failures-and second, in the discouragement they

throw upon the growing taste for gardening among us. A gentleman who is himself ignorant of gardening, establishes himself at a country seat. He engages the best gardener he can find. The latter fails in one half that he attempts, and the proprietor, knowing nothing of the reason of the failures, attributes to the difficulties of the thing itself, what should be attributed to the want of knowledge, or experience of the soil and climate, in the gardener.

A case of this kind, which has recently come under our notice, is too striking an illustration not to be worth mentioning here. In one of our large cities south of NewYork, where the soil and climate are particularly fine for fruit-growing-where the most delicious peaches, pears, and apricots grow almost as easily as the apple at the north, it was confidently stated to us by several amateurs, that the foreign grape could not be cultivated in vineries there-" several had tried it and failed." We were, of course, as incredulous as if we had been told that the peach would not ripen in Persia, or the fig in Spain. But our incredulity was answered by a promise to show us the next day, that the thing had been well tried.

We were accordingly shown: and the exhibition, as we suspected, amounted to this. The vineries were in all cases placed and treated, in that bright, powerful sunshine, just as they would have been placed and treated in Britain-that is, facing due south, and generally under the shelter of a warm bank. Besides this, not half provision enough was made, either for ventilation or water. The result was perfectly natural. The vines were burned up by excess of light and heat, and starved for want of air and water. We pointed out how the same money, (no small amount, for one of the ranges was 200 feet long,) applied in building a span-roofed house, on a perfectly open exposure, and running on a north and south, instead of an east and west line, and treated by a person who would open his eyes to the fact, that he was no longer gardening in the old, but the new world—would have given tons of grapes, where only pounds had been obtained.

The same thing is seen on a smaller scale, in almost every fruit garden that is laid out. Tender fruit trees are planted on the south side of fences or walls, for sun, when they ought always to be put on the north, for shade; and foliage is constantly thinned out, to let the sun in to the fruit, when it ought to be encouraged to grow thicker, to protect it from the solar rays.*

But, in fact, the whole routine of practice in American and British horticulture, is, and must be essentially different. We give to Boston, Salem, and the eastern cities, the credit of bearing off the palm of horticultural skill; and we must not conceal the fact, that the superiority of the fruits and flowers there, in a climate more unfavorable than that of the middle states, has been owing, not to the superiority of the foreign gardeners which they employ-but to the greater knowledge and interest in horticulture taken there by the proprietors of gardens, themselves. There is really a native school of horticulture about Boston, and even foreign gardeners there, are obliged to yield to its influence.

* If we were asked to say what practice, founded on principle, had been most bencficially introduced into our horticulture-we should answer mulching-mulching suggested by the need of moisture in our dry climate, and the difficulty of preserving it about the roots of plants.

We have spoken out our thoughts on this subject plainly, in the hope of benefitting both gardeners and employers among us. Every right-minded, and intelligent foreign gardener, will agree with us in deploring the ignorance of many of his brethren, and we hope will, by his influence and example, help to banish it. The evil we complain of has grown to be a very serious one, and it can only be cured by continually urging upon gardeners that British horticulture will not suit America, without great modification, and by continually insisting upon employers learning for themselves, the principles of gardening as it must be practiced, to obtain any good results. This sowing good seed, and gathering tares, is an insult to Providence, in a country that, in its soil and climate, invites a whole population to a feast of Flora and Pomona.

A NOTE ON VINE CULTURE.

BY WILLIAM CHORLTON, STATEN-ISLAND, N. Y.

DEAR SIR-I suspect your correspondent, H. B., has got the prying faculties very largely developed, as he inquires so very particularly about the "two stoves" which were used in the cold vinery at this place, in the earlier part of last season; and as persons of this description are apt to be uneasy until their wishes are gratified, I hasten to relieve him of his unpleasant anxiety. As I have no secrets in my practical working, and do not wish to conceal any minutiae in my operations, that will be of service in disseminating useful information, I feel obliged to him for reminding me of an omission, (if it can be construed into such a form,) but the matter was of so trifling a character, that I did not think it of sufficient importance in the detailed account sent you. When writing that account, I had embodied a few general remarks on cold graperies, in which were mentioned explicitly, these two stoves; but as the article seemed swelled out into an inconvenient length, these remarks were extracted from it, with the intention of sending them at a future opportunity, thinking that your readers, who he says "are interested in the matter," might be more benefitted by it in that form-and as I do not like to occupy at the present too much of your valuable space-I will extract the passage, (with your permission,) from manuscript in which the two stoves are mentioned, and which runs as follows:

"I would remark, that however long we may try to retard vegetation, the buds of the carlier kinds will begin to burst before the occasional frosty nights and north-east storms of the latter part of April, are past, and for safety, a temporary heating apparatus of some kind will be of service at this time, merely to be ready in case of need. To answer this purpose, there were put up in the house at this place, two common stoves, which enabled me to raise the temperature five or six degrees during several frosty nights, and also once in the day, when there was snow and frosty wind all day. It would also be of service in cloudy, damp weather, during November and December, to dry the air of the house, and prevent mouldiness in the grapes. At no other is it required, as we have natural heat and light sufficient, if made good use of, to ripen the grape perfectly."

These two stoves stood in the house about three weeks, but were not lighted more than six times during that time, and only when the thermometer outside sunk to the freezing point; they were only used once in the day time, when there was a severe snow storm, with frosty wind, and it was only to keep the frost from killing the bursting buds, that the idea

of having them was suggested. There was not consumed more than 150 pounds of coal, and as I employ my time as usefully as possible, and have no opportunity to trifle, I send H. B. the dimensions of the house in which 150 pounds of coal was consumed: it is 74 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 14 feet high, with glass on all sides, and ask him to be kind enough to work out the mathematical problem of how far it will give "artificial heat, and to what degree on an average." That he may not err in his calculations, he must allow for the exposed situation of the house, which, if I am not greatly mistaken, he is aware of.

As to the point at issue, viz-cutting ripe grapes on the second of August, (not, as he erroneously states, the first,) without artificial heat, it is the most simple part of the business; and it strikes me forcibly that he writes without much experience, or he would well know that the kinds mentioned, (Malvasia, and Joslin's St. Albans,) may be ripened so early without any fire heat whatever. Those same grapes were ready to cut a week earlier, but as my employer was from home at the time, they were reserved till his return; so that allowing for the six nights and one day that the stoves were lighted, the argument will stand about "zero" in his favor. The season in which the vines were planted, 1850, no stoves were used, and I cut several bunches from tubs planted the same spring, the latter part of July. There has not been either, any fire heat of any kind, this season, and the vines are growing very vigorous, and many have shown from fifty to over sixty bunches, generally speaking, stronger than last year. Hoping I have explained all to the satisfaction of your correspondent, I am yours respectfully, WM. CHORLTON, Gardener to J. C. Green, Esq., New-Brighton, Staten-Island.

May 1, 1852.

A LIQUID FERTILIZER FOR CHOICE PLANTS.

BY AN AMATEUR, NEW-YORK.

DEAR SIR-I am confident that there are many of your lady readers, and perhaps many of the other sex, who are puzzed among the many new manures, and having failed with some, and injured their plants with others, they end by raising only sickly and meagre plants, when they might have them presenting a luxuriant and satisfactory appearance— with leaves of the darkest green, and flowers or fruit of double the usual size.

Having made a trial for three years past, with a perfectly safe and satisfactory liquid fertilizer, which appears to suit all kinds of vegetation, which is clean and easily applied, and procured without difficulty, in any town, I confidently recommend it to your readers, especially those who wish to give especial pains to, and get uncommon results from, certain favorite plants—either in pots, or in the open garden-plants whose roots are within such a moderate compass, that they can be reached two or three times a week, if not oftener by the watering-pot.

This liquid fertilizer is made by dissolving half an ounce of sulphate of ammonia in a gallon of water.

Nothing so good can be cheaper, and the substance may be obtained at almost any apothecary's.

Now for the mode of using it. I may say, at the outset, that weak as this solution appears to be, and is, if plants are watered with it daily, they will die-just as certainly as a man will who drinks nothing but pure brandy.