walking-stick through the body of the flower just above the pot, and found that both ends of the stick, (which is within half an inch of three feet in length,) were concealed by the foliage. This was from front to back of the plant; the width was at least a foot greater in extent; so that some idea may be formed of the mass of magnificence which is presented to the eye. It was not, nevertheless, the size of the plant that gave it its importance so much as the more than ordinarily large quantity of flowers which had expanded at once. In point of size, other genariums both at that and many other exhibitions of the time were to be found. They were grown in very large pots, and indeed took up, from their magnitude so great an extent of space on the exhibition tables, that the two principal Horticultural Societies at London, about that time limited the size of the pots for the prizes offered for Pelargoniums, to eight or nine inches, with the view to discourage the continued extension of their magnitude, which was intruding too materially upon the claims of other families of plants, for room to exhibit their beauties.

To return from this digression to my historical sketch. Mr. Foster's success having as I have remarked, set others upon the scent, it was not long before they, like him, were rewarded by the addition of fine varieties. Mr. GAINES, a nurseryman, brought out many new varieties, some of which were very good, but many of little value, among which was one in his catalogue for 1838, now before me, he sent out at five guineas, a price that I well remember was thought at the time far beyond its merits. A clergyman of the name of GARTH, was one of the most fortunate; his “Perfection" was a much esteemed variety, and the circumstance of its flowers being supported upon stiff foot-stalks, which held them up erect above the foliage, a quality wanting in many of Foster's early flowers, which consequently had to be held in position by sticks, was a valuable acquisition. Every year now brought forward several really fine and distinct new varieties; and the emulation which arose between these, the two fathers of modern geranium growing, as they are fully entitled to be called, Foster and Garth, occasioned much interest to their admirers, as I doubt not it did to themselves.

So matters went on until it was first whispered (about in 1840,) and then announced by Foster's "publisher," (as we should say had it been a book,) in a flaming advertisement, that the philosopher's stone was discovered; that Mr. Foster had outdone himself, and that he had produced a flower that was the ne plus ultra of perfection. Intense was the interest and anxiety to see it; the price at which it was to come out, five guineas, was only calculated to add fire to the flame of the enthusiasm; while the name "The Sylph," served to re-engage in aid of his favorite pursuit, all the tender feelings which the amateur had been able to steal from his floricultural affection, to devote to the softer sex! I, for one, went off to Catleugh's place, (that was the name of Foster's nurseryman,) and never shall I forget the pleasure with which I first gazed on the mass of plants of the "Sylph," which he had congregated together, and which filled up a large space in one of his long green-houses. The character of the flower was decidedly new, the colors also, while the habit of the plant, when well grown, was unexceptional. At length this variety got into general cultivation, and great were the disputes as to its merits. While one part of the amateurs lauded it to the skies, another as unqualifiedly condemned it. The truth, as is often the case in a war of opinions, rested between the two. It was undoubtedly in many points a most desirable flower, and it had so distinct a character also, that its good qualities became the more valuable. On the other hand, while it flourished most luxuriantly with some, others could not get it to throw a good head of bloom. This arose principally, from its requiring rather more warmth than most geraniums, at one period of its growth.

It would be tedious to enumerate the names of one in twenty of the flowers, which succeeding years have introduced, but those I have above referred to, may be deemed to mark epochs in the history of the improvements of this splendid and now gorgeous family. I shall, in conclusion, do little more than record the names of the persons to whose industry and love for it we are principally indebted for the advanced state of beauty in which we possess it at present, by the ardor for carrying on, which I am glad to announce is in no way declining; for I am continually receiving from my old geranium friends in England, news of the "good things coming."

The next remarkable era, was the appearance of BECK, of Isleworth, then a new name to the admirers of the flower, but one which soon made itself respected. For Mr. Beck had a mest fortunate run of success, and for some three or four years he originated varieties, which in a great measure, threw into the shade even Mr. Foster and Mr. Garth's productions; and he has from his first start, maintained up to the present time his standard of excellence. Mr. Foster, however, like a "good man and true," did not allow the more than ordinary success of his worthy competitor to damp his courage, and by steady perseverance he has regained his position, as one of the foremost champions of the present day, as he is the veteran who has uniformily borne the brunt and heat of the battle. During the last three or four years, he has brought forward some splendid sorts. One more name demands honorable mention too meritoriously, to be passed by. I mean Mr HOYLE. He has produced many excellent varieties; and the man who has given to the floricultural world such a flower as "Hoyle's Crusader," can well afford to rest upon his laurels and let others gather a wreath for themselves.

There are numerous others and very deserving growers, who well merit the large share of success that has attended their efforts; but having referred to the leading friends of the geranium, I must draw my remarks to a close. B.

APPLE ORCHARDS IN ENGLAND.

BY FRED. LAW OLMSTED.*

There are but few orchards in England, except in certain districts, and in these they abound, and are often very extensive. The inquiry naturally arises, What has given those districts their distinction in this respect? Have they any natural advantages which makes orcharding more profitable in them than in other parts of the country? In reply, I learn that the orchard districts are all distinguished for a comparatively mild climate. They are nearly all in the south and south-western counties, while in the northern and eastern counties I do not know of any. Hereford is a a somewhat hilly county, and, as I have remarked, where the hills are too steep for easy cultivation, it is usual to plant orchards; but the south side of such hills is preferred to the north, and, even here, a crop is sometimes entirely lost by a late and severe spring frost. A south-east slope is preferred, the south-east winds being the driest. I suspect another reason why it is found better, is that the southwest winds, coming off the ocean, are the stronger. My own observation has led me to think that the apple-tree is much affected by an exposure to severe winds. Most sorts of trees do not thrive very well upon the sea-shore, and this is usually laid to the account of salt spray or "salt in the air." It will be found, however, that trees grown inland

* From second series of "Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England."

upon very exposed sites, have the same peculiarities with those in the vicinity of the sea; that is, they are slow of growth and scrubby.

Another important circumstance to be noticed, as distinguishing the apple districts, is in the nature of their soils. These are found, however, varying otherwise, invariably to have a large proportion of lime, and generally of potash, in their chemical composition. With reference to this I quote the observations of Mr. Frederic Falkner.*

"Great light has been lately thrown upon the adaptation of soils to particular plants, and it is now easy to account for the predilection, so to speak, of the apple-tree for soils that abound in clays and marls. All deciduous trees require a considerable proportion of potash for the elaboration of their juices in the leaves, and are prosperous, or otherwise, in proportion to the plentiful or scanty supply of that substance in the soil. Liebig has shown, that the acids generated in plants are always in union with alkaline or earthy bases, and cannot be produced without their presence. Now the apple-tree,

during its development, produces a great quantity of acid; and therefore, in a corresponding degree, requires alkaline, and, probably, earthy bases also, as an indispensable condition to the existence of fruit."

Again, the same writer:

"It cannot be denied that ammonia, and also the humus of decaying dung, must have some influence on the growth of the tree in such soils, and also in the development of the fruit; but it is most certain, at the same time, that these alone would be perfectly inefficient for the production of the fruit without the co-operation of (the alkaline bases.) The size and perhaps the flavor of the fruit may be somewhat affected by the organic part of the manure, but its very existence depends upon the presence in the soil of a sufficient quantity of those inorganic or mineral substances which are indispensable to the formation of acids."

But it is also found by analysis that lime enters into the composition of the wood of the apple-tree in very large proportions. By the analysis of Fresenius, the ash of the wood of the apple contains 45.19 per cent. of lime and 13.67 per cent. of potash. By the analysis of Dr. Emmons, of Albany, N. Y., the ash of the sap-wood of the apple contains of lime 18.63 per cent. and 17.50 per cent. of phosphate of lime.

But it is not wherever soils of the sort I have described (calcareous sandstones and marly clays) abound in a district, that you find that the farmers have discovered that it is for their interest to have orchards; nor are they common in all the milder latitudes of England; but wherever you find a favorable climate, conjoined with a strongly calcareous and moderately aluminous soil of a sufficient depth, there you will find that for centuries the apple-tree has been extensively cultivated. Evelyn speaks, 1676, of the apples of Herefordshire, and says there were then 50,000 hogsheads of cider produced in that county yearly. The ancient capital of modern Somersetshire, one of the present "Cider Counties," was known by the Romans as Avallonia, (the town of the apple orchards.) It would not be unlikely that the universal ceremony in Devonshire, of "shooting at the apple tree," (hereafter described,) originated in some heathen rite of its ancient orchardists.

To obtain choice dessert fruit, the apple in England is everywhere trained on walls, and in the colder parts it is usual to screen a standard orchard on the north by a plantation of firs. There is no part of the United States where the natural summer is not long enough for most varieties of the apple to perfect their fruit. In Maine, and the north of New-Hampshire and Vermont, the assortment of varieties is rather more limited than elsewhere, I believe; but I have eaten a better apple from an orchard at Burlington,

* Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. iv. p. 381.

Vermont, than was ever grown even in the south of England. We may congratulate ourselves then, that all that we need to raise the best apples in the world, any where in the northern United States, is fortunately to be procured much more cheaply than a long summer would be, if that were wanting. The other thing needful, judging from the experience of England for a length of time past record, in addition to the usual requisites for the cultivation of ordinary farm crops, is abundance of lime. This is experience; and science confirms it with two very satisfactory reasons: first, that apple-tree wood is made up in a large part of lime, which must be taken from the soil; and, second, that before the apple-tree can turn other materials which it may collect from the soil and atmosphere into fruit, it must be furnished with a considerable amount of some sort of alkali, which requisite may be supplied by lime.

There is but little else that we can learn from the English orchardists, except what to avoid of their practices. The cider orchards, in general, are in every way miserably managed, and the greater number of those that I saw in Herefordshire were, in almost every respect, worse than the worst I ever saw in New England. The apple in England is more subject to disease; and I should judge, from what was told me, that in a course of years it suffered more from the attacks of insects and worms than in America. The most deplorable disease is canker. This malady is attributed sometimes to a "cold, sour” soil, sometimes to the want of some ingredients in the soil that are necessary to enable the tree to carry on its healthy functions, sometimes to the general barrenness of the soil, and sometimes to the "wearing out of the varieties." The precaution and remedies used by gardeners (rarely by orchardists) for it, are generally those that would secure or restore a vigorous growth to a tree. The first of these is deepening and drying the soil, or deep draining and trenching. The strongest and most fruitful orchards, it is well known, are those which have been planted upon old hop-grounds, where the soil has been deeply tilled and manured for a series of years, with substances that contain a considerable amouut of phosphorous, such as woolen rags and bones. The roots of the hop also descend far below the deepest tillage that can be given it; (in a calcareous gravelly subsoil they have been traced ten feet from the surface;) a kind of subsoiling is thus prepared for the apple by the decay of the hop roots. In some parts it is the custom to introduce the hop culture upon the planting of a young orchard, the hops occupying the intervals until the branches of the trees interfere with them. Nothing is more likely than this to ensure a rapid and healthy growth of the trees.

I recommend to those who intend planting an orchard, to have the ground for it in a state of even, deep, fine tilth beforehand, and to plant in the intervals between apple or pear trees some crop, which, like hops, will be likely to get for itself good feeding and culture for several years. Peach trees, and dwarf apples (on Doucain stocks) and pears (on quince stocks,) answer very well for this, and will make a handsome return some years before the standard apples and pears come into bearing.

With regard to the richness of the soil, however, it is said that "although high and exciting modes of cultivation may flatter for a while by specious appearances, it is a grave consideration whether they do not carry serious evils in their train." This caution will remind the American horticulturist of Mr. Downing's recommendation to those planting orchards on the over-deep and rich Western alluvial soils, to set the trees upon hillocks. The danger apprehended is in both cases the same, that of too succulent growth. Mr. Williams, of Pitmaston, a distinguished English horticulturist, has found deficient ripeness of the young wood to be the prime predisposing cause of the canker. He recommends every year the shortening in of each shoot of the young unripened wood, which

he says will preserve trees of old "worn out" varieties, as "perfectly free from canker as those of any new variety."

An impenetrable bottom of stone, at not more than three feet from the surface, is frequently made as a precaution against canker. I have been told that in the ancient orchards attached to monasteries, such a flagging of brick or stone is often found under the whole area of the orchard. This would seem at first sight to be directly opposed to the other precaution, of thorough-draining and deepening the surface soil; but it may be considered that the injury which stagnant water would effect is in a degree counteracted when the roots do not descend below the influence of the atmosphere and the heat of the sun. It is not unlikely that these influences would extend to a depth of three feet from the surface, in a soil that had been so thoroughly trenched and lightened up as it necessarily must be to allow of a paving to be made under it. The paving does not probably much retard the natural descent of water from the surface, nor does it interfere with its capilliary ascent; the trenching makes the descent of super-abundant water from the surface morc rapid, while the increased porosity of the trenched soil gives it increased power of absorption, both from the subsoil and the atmosphere, as well as of retention of a healthy supply of moisture. The paving also prevents the roots from descending below where this most favorable condition of the soil has been made to exist. The effect would doubtless be greatly better if thorough-draining were given in addition; but so far as it goes, the under paving and trenching is calculated to effect the same purpose as deep drainage; to secure a healthy supply of heat, light, and moisture to all the roots.

It is evident that the precautions and remedies which have been found of service against canker, whether operations upon the roots or the foliage, are all such as are calculated to establish or replace the tree in circumstances favorable to its general thriving, healthy condition.

This suggests the idea that canker may be the result of a general constitutional debility of the tree, not occasioned by any one cause or set of causes, but resultant from all and any circumstances unfavorable to the healthy growth of a tree; and it is a question whether the same may not be thought of the peculiar diseases of other trees, the peach, the pear, the plum, the sycamore, and perhaps even of the rot of the potato.

ON INDIAN CORN AND THE IMPROVED CULTIVATION OF LAND.

In Agriculture and Horticulture, as in all other sciences, nothing is so well calculated to reward the practical man with a remunerating profit for his labor, as is thorough examination of the subject of cultivation, which, for the time, engages his attention. This observation will appear, possibly to many, to involve such a self-evident truism, as to be needless. It is nevertheless not so: for although it is quite true that every one engaged in the culture of land intends to give full thought and proper consideration to his subject, and supposes that he not only intends but actually does it, yet frequently this is far from being, in point of fact, the case.

In this rich country we possess thousands of acres of land, which require but little care to return us crops with which the grower is satisfied, as he gets a fair profit. And with this he is content. But this should not be all. The question is, does he get from his land all that, with the time, labor and capital employed, it is capable of giving him?