has some hedges commenced right—they turn chickens, and would almost turn a rat now --and hereafter they bid fair to be as impenetrable as a brick wall, and as formidable as a hedge of Cherokee rose, in Louisiana.

The great fault every where committed, is in not cutting back enough. The hedge looks dense and formidable at two or three years old, and the proprietors “hate to mutilate it." But they must cut and keep cutting, or they will never have a fence—that is clear to me and yet, except upon Prof. TURNER's grounds, I did not see ten hedges that had been half cut-nor three that had been cut enough. [Quite right-for the first three years the only thing is to cut down the hedge, till it gets thick at the bottom. ED.]

There were, as near as I can learn, about 30,000,000 of this hedge plant raised in Illinois, last season, and there will be perhaps fifty millions this-and these will make a " right smart chance of fence, if well, planted and severely cut back—but I fear ten planters will curse the plant grower, where one will bless him; and all from their own neglect or folly-for I know that most dealers in hedge plants are very particular in their directions to "cut and keep on cutting." Almost every promising native or foreign plant has been tried for hedging and all abandoned, or nearly so, except the Osage Orange; and I fear the majority of the existing hedges of that will prove a failure, from the fact above stated, and not from any fault as yet discovered, in the nature of the plant itself, or in our soil or climate as regards its cultivation.

I noticed among trees that had been parts of a hedge once, the Honey Locust, (Gleditschia,) and in Prof. TURNER'S grounds are several tall specimens of the thornless variety—a half picturesque and very desirable tree. I did not see it with the moon-beams sifting through its feathery foliage, but the Professor described the sparkling shower of light thus produced, as most delicious, and entirely unequalled in its singular appearance. This variety should be oftener planted.

The architecture in Jacksonville, I ought to say before closing, is not of a high order. Many faults, and some bad ones, in the old public edifices-but better taste, and more knowledge, are shown in the new.

There are many new suburban cottages, a credit to the place. I asked the origin of so much taste, and was told that all might be traced directly to your COTTAGE RESIDENCES and the HORTICULTURIST. A compliment to you, Mr. Editor, and well deserved. Truly your friend, JOHN A. KENNICOTT.

The Grove, IL, July 10, 1852.

GREEN CROPS FOR MANURE.

BY JAMES GOWEN, MT. AIRY, PHILADELPHIA.

A. J. DOWNING, Esq.-Dear Sir: On the score of sound practice in agriculture, rather than of courtesy to me, I claim the privilege of saying a word in relation to the strictures in your last number, upon my remarks on "Green Crops as a Manure." I do not complain that you took occasion to animadvert upon anything thing you found worthy of noting in my Agricultural Address at Lancaster, being well aware that it was perfectly at your option to single out for comment, whatever you might deem objectionable. Acknowledging, also, that I have no right to expect every one should concur in my views, upon a matter as susceptible of a difference of opinion, as the condition of farms and the position of farmers differ--the circumstances being the rule by which to determine the necessity or propriety of turning in a crop to serve as manure.

In my address, in which the turning in of green crops was merely incidental, it could not be expected that the special cases, justifying a resort to such manuring, could be enumerated—I could but deal with the subject in a broad and general sense, and from a long and close observation on the practice of husbandry, a sense of duty constrained me to denounce the custom of raising crops to be plowed under, as "time wasting and land cheating." No one, not even yourself, Mr. Editor, can have a higher appreciation of vegetable mold than I have, and I challenge New-York, or any farm in Pennsylvania, to show better sods on uplands, after having yielded for as many years, heavy crops of hay, than I can now show upon my place; and may safely add, that I am yet to meet the man who would rejoice more in having such a sod to turn under, when it becomes necessary to break it up; but with all this appreciation, I would not rely upon it to bring me a crop of grain, potatoes, &c., without the addition of what is known among farmers as "barnyard manure," notwithstanding such a sod would be richer and more enduring than the "scant crops of partly grown clover, buckwheat, &c," which I pointed at as unworthy the name of manure. Had these fields I have mown for some seven or eight years, been laid down in 1833 and 4, with only clover or buckwheat, and the like, turned in, would they, as they did, have yielded forty to forty-five bushels of wheat to the acre, as first crops, and cut ever since close on two tons of fine hay, on an average, to the acre? Assuredly not. In the course of two or three years at farthest, the crop of clover growing, would be required to turn under, to serve as manure for a grain or some other crop, involving prematurely the labor of breaking up, seeding, &c.; and what would be the condition of the land, and the character of the crops, after another two or three years shift under such a practice-I allude to such soils as we cultivate? It was in view of this system that I said, "in whatever place it is practiced, however strong the land may be at the start, the system, if persevered in, must inevitably bring the land, its owners, and the country, into a state of poverty. No good husbandman would think of pursuing such

a course."

If the address had been fairly read, its general bearing and scope properly considered, it might, perhaps, have saved you and others from drawing the inference, that I held clover and other green crops worthless as fertilizers. I never so thought, nor did I intend to be so understood. I knew clover would in some degree serve the purpose of manure, and so would potatoes, wheat, rye, barley, &c. &c., but I knew also that these, as clover, would be costly and but indifferent manures, compared to barn yard manure, peat, and putrescent substances, which if not used to enrich the land, would become pestilential nuisances; for we must have cattle and other live stock-while offal and other offensive matter would be constantly accumulating. Insisting, as I did, upon the crops going to the barn, to be put to their proper use, and the offensive matters applied, as they should be, to the land; and in this, who shall be so unthinking as to say, I was wrong? Moreover, I had been grieved to perceive a germ of quackery springing up with our efforts at scientific agriculture, and while I attempted to awaken the good farmers of Lancaster to a proper spirit of improvement, I took occasion, husbandınan like, to caution them against nostrums and humbug, urging a chief reliance upon the cheap and excellent manures so easily obtained in and about their barn yard and premises.

To the question whether I have seen the statement of Mr. MORE, in regard to his premium farm-I answer that I have; and, instead of condemning his practice, have simply to say, that had I been in his situation, I might, perhaps, have resorted to the same means, he had recourse to for the improvement of his land. But did Mr. MORE depend solely upon the turning in of green crops, pending the process of renovating it? I presume he

used other manures, which with gypsum, aiding in restoring his farm to good condition. But this case, and and others I have heard of, do not affect the force of the injunction against a persevering system of turning in grain crops as a substitute for manure. It may be that this very land that Mr. MORE found so wretchedly impoverished, when he took possession of it, owed much of its poverty to his predecessor having followed more closely the appliances of clover, buckwheat, &c., by way of manure than Mr. MORE did-one thing at least is certain, and that is, the impoverishment was not owing to the former owner or tenant having been too liberal in the application of barn yard manure.

Now the best way to test the soundness of my views, as to the system I so deprecated, would be, for some one having a farm in such good condition as Mr. MORE's is now found to be in, to follow the green crop system thoroughly for five years, discarding the vulgar practice, if you please, of husbanding barn yard and stable manure. To note the seasons consumed in raising the crops to be turned under, to produce the "carbon," " oxygen," "nitrogen," &c.-the simon pure fertilizers required to grow the wheat, rye, corn, potatoes, &c. &c., for the barn-to keep an exact account of the value of the crops so housed, together with the sum total of the expenses of the farm, and then to exhibit the net gain in the "yellow boys" that are now jingled in "Mr. GowEN's" ears, to convince him of the profits resulting from the turning in green crops instead of manure; and if such a system, on such a farm, at the end of five years, leaves the purse well filled and the land in as high condition as at the beginning, I shall not only confess that I was wrong, but be willing to pay a premium of half the value of the farm to the husbandman who had worked such a miracle.

Let it be rembered that it was such land, as this, not worn out land that I had in view, as may easily be perceived by my remarks, for how could the land be brought "into a state of poverty," that had not been rich, but in poverty already? If, Mr. Editor, you will take the trouble to again glance at the address, from which you have predicted that if I go on at the rate you infer I am going, I will, as you say, "demonstrate that there is no warmth begotten by sunshine," you will be led to believe at least, that I am in but little danger of dealing in moonshine. Your obedient servant, JAMES GOWEN.

Mount Airy, Philadelphia, July 19th, 1852.

REMARKS.-We like the straight-forward spirit of Mr. GowEN's remarks, and find by them, that in the main point at issue we are entirely agreed That is to say, if Mr. GowEN simply wishes to affirm that there is no comparison in the value of barn-yard manure for keeping a farm in heart, and green crops, we say Amen, with all our heart. No person has a firmer faith in the value of barn-yard manure, than ourself, as we believe that with plenty of it, and the knowledge how to use it, one might smile, even at the bottom lands of the west. But, as Mr. GoWEN will not deny, that the said bottom lands are the most fertile lands in America, will he do us the favor to ask himself how they became such a store house of fertility? By the deposit and decay of animal remains? No. By the annual deposit for hundreds of years, of vegetable remains? Assuredly. Nature has been plowing in green crops every year, on those bottom lands, till they are most undeniably rich.

So far we think Mr. GowEN will agree with us-that there is virtue in decaying and decayed vegetation buried in the soil, whether in the shape of clover plowed in or other wise. But we now suppose from reading his remarks, with which he has favored us, in the above communication, that we have probably misapprehended him in another way. Mr. Gowen is not only a good practical farmer, but an excellent teacher of husbandry, and in Pennsylvania and the states south of it he notices that farmers neglect their barn

yard manure to follow the new fangled fancies of plowing in green crops, using mineral manure, &c. He accordingly tells them that green crops, under such circumstances, are not worth their attention, which ought to be devoted to the permanent enrichment of their lands by the use of animal manure. And the advice is the best of advice. We look upon barn yard manure as the solid bullion, green crops, gypsum, lime, &c., as the paper currency of husbandry. But in many parts, we were going to say most parts of the country, the bullion is scarce-is only to be had in very limited quantities-so that not a half or third of the farm lands can be well manured with it. In such a condition of things a farmer who wishes to mend his land and not lose his profit, will, we think, occasionally employ the paper currency to maintain and restore the credit of certain fields that would come to a beggared condition, if they had to wait for the bullion. Barn yard manure, we say with Mr. GoWEN, before everything, but if we can't get enough of it, then we must not despise what the experience of so many good husbandmen has proved of decided benefit-green crops ploughed in. ED.

A TALK ABOUT PIGS.

BY L. F. ALLEN, BLACK ROCK, N. Y.

"PIGS! And what, I should like to know, have pigs to do with horticulture?" says an intelligent reader. Why a good deal to do with it, when a sharp-nosed street grunter of the Alligator tribe creeps under your fence, or through your gate, which some straggler has, perhaps, left half way open, and roots up a fine growing border of Dahlias just getting into bloom, or a bed of choice Tulips in the full opening of their luxuriant colors; or, in a better way, the domestic, quiet dam, and half a dozen little chubby responsibilities which you have turned into your plum orchard to destroy the Curculio's which so incessantly murder your fruit. In this last employment, your well-bred pig is a useful creature, and well tended, and properly secured from mischief, is rather an interesting animal than otherwise.

Pigs have been wonderfully improved in England within the last fifty years, and England is the country, except in fine wooled sheep, where the best of all our domestic farm stock is obtained. Lei it be known, also, that many of our merchants and gentleman who live in cities, and have fine country places, have shown much more spirit and liberality in sending abroad, and getting such things for the improvement and benefit of the farmer, than a thonsand of the very farmers so benefitted would show of themselves, and who usually give little thanks, even while acknowledging the benefit, to those who confer it upon them. For myself, however, I intend to make an exception to this truth, in the case now in hand.

Among my friends and acquaintances in New-York, is a merchant, an Englishman, but who has complimented the land of his adoption in the highest possible way, by marrying an American wife, and cultivating a beautiful little farm in Newtown, on Long-Island, where he resides. This gentleman has a taste for fine animals, and next to his carriage horses, nothing composing his outside family gives him so much pleasure, as to look upon his beautiful Short-horn cows, of which he has several, his Middlesex pigs, and his Dorking fowls. In returning a visit of his of some months previous, I last winter drove over with my friend, and spent a night at his most agreeable home. Being an active business

man in the city, I little dreamed that he had cultivated so nice and discriminating a taste for farm stock, and supposed that I should meet with some very tolerable things at his place, in the way of cattle, pigs and chickens; yet the last I knew to be good, for he had among them some of the choicest of a previous importation of my own. The first I also knew were fine, for he had selected some choice creatures from a herd into which I, myself, had dipped at a high figure. These were examined, commented upon, and praised as they deserved; but usually regarding a pig as a thing to be kept in a pen, out of sight, fatted, slaughtered, and put out of the way, I took less interest in them; yet learning they were remarkable in their way, I went with my friend to their stye-a proper, well arranged apartment, adjoining the stables; and what a sight! I no longer wondered that PRINCE ALBERT, the illustrious spouse of England's Queen, breeds Middlesex pigs, and takes prizes with them at the Royal Cattle Shows. There were the original pair imported the previous year, with their brood of nine young ones, fat as squabs, white as pigs could be, and more beautiful in shape, and more perfect in style, than one would suppose a pig could be bred-all of the true "Prince Albert" stock. Why they really looked innocent, and in no manner of descent from the herd which ran into the Sea of Galilee when possessed of the devil, some eighteen hundred and odd years ago!

It is needless to talk further about the pigs, for I fell so much in love with them that I dreamed of them half the night, and nought would do but my friend would have me accept one of them to take to my own place, with which to improve my own stock, although I had thought that my own were about good enough. The matter was soon settled, and a pig I was to have, when the navigation opened, and he could be safely sent to me. In due time I received him, and although I had never looked upon a thing of the swine family with particular complacency, the quiet temper, docility, and beauty of the creature has now won all my prejudices, and my pig is one of the prime favorites among my farm stock.

Finding his stock too large for his farm, my friend, a few months afterwards, sold his imported pair, and a part of the young ones to Col. J. M. SHERWOOD, of Auburn, who now keeps them, and declares that, although he had the best of pigs before, he never saw anything to compare with them. For introducing these beautiful pigs into the country, Mr. JOHN C. JACKSON-for that is the name of the gentleman-deserves more credit for good works than half the politicians in the country put together.

Now, as the pig, or a family of pigs, are useful things on every country place, be it a farm proper or country seat, with only its garden and fruit yard, let every one who requires a creature of the kind, see that he select good ones of an improved race, easy kept, and quite tempered; and if he want their services in his fruit orchard, they will not then root out his trees, or rasp off their bark, as the common ill bred brutes of the country are sure to do if they get access to them, thus effectually destroying curculio, fruit, and tree; whereas, your quiet little "Tussers" will graze among the trees, nosing over the fruit, and "using up" the grub.

After reading this paper, I beg your readers not to suppose that I have these, or any other pigs to sell, as I have not. I write this solely pro bono publico, and to do justice to the good taste of my friend, Mr. JACKSON, as well as to advise all my horticultural friends to get good pigs when they get any. Your Suffolk pig, and your Essex pig are also quiet, gentle creatures, and well deserve all the patronage bestowed upon them; but in all my pig knowledge, I have never met with the beauty and perfection of the Middlesex pigs imported and bred by Mr. JACKSON. LEWIS F. ALLEN.

Black Rock, July, 1852.