Rural essays ...

Front matter

JSTew-York :

RURAL ESSAYS.

;^ V BY

Contents

MEMOIRS xi

LETTER FROM MISS BREMER Ld

HORTICULTURK

I. Introductory

BRIGHT and beautiful June! Embroidered with clusters of odorous roses, and laden with ruddy cherries and strawberries ; rich with the freshness of spring, and the luxuriance of summer, — leafy June ! K any one's heart does not swell with the unwritten thoughts that belong to this season, then is he only fit for " treasons, stratagems and spoils." He does not practically believe that " God made the country ^^

Flora and Pomona, from amid the blossoming gardens and orchards of June, smile graciously as we write these few introductory words to their circle of devotees. Happy are we to know that it is not to us a new or strange circle, but to feel that large numbers of our readers are already congenial and familiar spirits. Angry volumes of politics have we written none; but peaceful books, humbly aiming to weave something more into the fair garland of the "beautiful and useful, that encircles this excellent old Earth.

To the thousands, who have kindly made our rural volumes part of their household library, we offer this new production, which begins to unfold itself now, in the midsummer of the year. In its pages, from month to month, we shall give them a collection of all that can most interest those whose feelings are firmly rooted in the soil, and its kindred avocations. The garden and the orchard ; the hot-house and the conservatory ; the park and the pleasure-grounds ; all, if. we can read them rightly, shall be made to preach useful lessons in our pages. All fruitful and luxuriant grounds shall we revel in, and delight to honor. Blooming trees, and fruitful vines, we shall open our lips to praise. And if nature has been over-partial to any one part of the globe, either in good gardens, fair flowers, or good fruits, — -if she has any where lavished secret vegetable treasures that our cultivators have not yet made prizes of, we promise our readers to watch closely, and to give a faithful account of them. Skilful cultivators promise to make these sheets the repository of their knowledge. Sound practice, and ingenious theory will be continually developed and illustrated. The humblest cottage kitchen garden, as well as the most extended pleasure-grounds, Avill occupy the attention of the pens in our service. Beautiful flowers shall picture themselves in our columns, till even our sterner utilitarians shall be tempted to admire and cultivate them ; and the honeyed, juicy gifts of Pomona shall be treated of till every one who reads shall discover that the most delicious products of our soil are no longer forbidden fruits.

Fewer, perhaps, are there, who have watched as closely as ourselves the zeal and enthusiasm which the last five years have begotten in American Horticulture. Every where, on both sides of the Alleghanies, are our friends rapidly turning the fertile soil into luxuriant gardens, and crying out loudly for more light and niore' knowledge. Already do the readers of rural works in the United States number more than in any cisatlantic country, except gardening England. Already do our orchards cover more acres than those of any other country. Already are the banks of the Ohio becoming femous for their delicate wines. Already are the suburbs of our cities, and the banks of our broad and picturesque rivers, studded with the tasteful villa and cottage, where a charming taste in ornamental gardening is rapidly developing itself. The patient toil of the pioneer and settler has no sooner fairly ceased, than our people begin to enter with the same zeal and spirit into the refinements and enjoyments which belong to a country life, and a country

INTRODUCTORY.

home. A fortunate range of climate — lands fertile and easily acquired, tempt persons even of little means and leisure into the delights of gardening. Where peaches and melons, the richest fruits of the tropics, are raised without walls — where apples and pears, the pride of the temperate zones, are often grown with little more than the trouble of planting them — who would not be tempted to join in the enthusiasm of the exclamation,

Behold us then, with all this growing zeal of our countrymen for our beautiful and favorite art, unable to resist the temptation of commencing new labors in its behalf Whatever our own feeble eflforts can achieve, whatever our more intelligent correspondents can accomplish, shall be done to render worthy this monthly record of the progress of horticulture and its kindred pursuits. If it is a laudable ambition to " make two blades of grass grow where only one grew before," we shall hope for the encouragement, and assistance, and sympathy of all those who would see our vast territory made smiling with gardens, and rich in all that makes one's country worth living and dying for.

II. Hints On Flower-gardens

WE are once more unlocked from the chilling embraces of the Ice-King! April, full of soft airs, balm -dropping showers, and fitful gleams of sunshine, brings life and animation to the millions of embryo leaves and blossoms, that, quietly folded up in the bud, have slept the mesmeric sleep of a northern winter — April, that first gives us of the Northern States our proper spring flowers, which seem to succeed almost by magic to the barrenness of the month gone by. A few pale snowdrops, sun-bright crocuses, and timidly blushing mezereums, have already gladdened us, like the few faint bars of golden and ruddy light that usher in the full radiance of sunrise ; but April scatters in her train as she goes out, the fii'st richness and beauty that really belong to a temperate spiing. Hyacinths, and daffodils, and violets, bespread her lap and fill the air with fragrance, and the husbandman beholds with joy his orchards gay with the thousand blossoms — beautiful harbingers of luscious and abundant crops.

All this resurrection of sweetness and beauty, inspires us with a desire to look into the Flower- Garden, and to say a few words about it and the flowers themselves. We trust there are none of " our parish," who, though they may not make flower-gardens, can turn away with impatient or unsympathizing hearts from flowers themselves. If there are such, we must, at the very threshhold of the matter, borrow a homily for them from that pure and eloquent preacher, Mary Howitt :

HINTS ON FLOWER-GARDENS. *J

" God might have made the earth bi-ing forth Enough for great and small, The oak tree and the cedar tree, Without a flower at all.

" Our outward life requires them not — Then wherefore had they birth ?

To minister delight to man, To beautify the earth.

"To comfort man, to whisper hope Whene'er his faith is dim ; For who so careth for the flowers, Will much more care for him ! "

Now, there are many genuine lovers of flowei's who have attempted to make flower-gardens — in the simphcity of their hearts beHe\dng it to be the easiest thing in the world to arrange so many beautiful annuals and perennials into " a living knot of wonders " — who have quite failed in realizing all that they conceived of and fairly expected when they first set about it. It is easy enough to draw upon paper a pleasing plan of a flower-garden, whether in the geometric J or the natural, or the '■'■ c/ardenesque ^'' style, that shall satisfy the eye of the beholder. But it is far more difiicult to plant and arrange a garden of this kind in such a way as to afford a constant succession of beauty, both in blossom and leaf Indeed, among the hundreds of avowed flower-gardens which we have seen in different parts of the country, public and private, we cannot name half-a-dozen which are in any considerable degree satisfactory.

The two leading faults in all our flower-gardens, are the want of lirojicr selection in the plants themselves, and a faulty arrangement, by which as much surface of bare soil meets the eye as is clothed with verdure and blossoms.

Regarding the first effect, it seems to us that the entire beauty of a flower-garden almost depends upon it. However elegant or striking may be the design of a garden, that design is made poor or valueless, when it is badly planted so as to conceal its merits, or filled with a selection of unsuitable plants, which, from their coarse or ragged habit of growth, or their remaining in bloom but a short

.IB HORTICULTURE.

time, give the whole a confused and meagre effect. A flower-garden, deserving the name, should, if jjossible, be as rich as a piece of embroidery, during the whole summer and autumn. In a botanical gai'den, or the collection of a curious amateur, one expects to see variety of species, plants of all known forms, at the expense of every thing else. But in a flower-garden, properly so called, the whole object of which is to afford a continual display of beautiful colors and delicious odors, we conceive that every thing should be rejected (or only most sparingly introduced), which does not combine almost perpetual blooming, with neat and agreeable habit of growth.

The passion for novelty and variety among the lovers of flowers, is as great as in any other enthusiasts. But as some of the greatest of the old painters are said to owe the success of their master-pieces to the few colors they employed, so we are confident the most beautiful flower-gardens are those where but few sjiecies are introduced, and those only such as possess the important qualities we have alluded to.

Thus among flowering shrubs, taking for illustration the tribe of Roses, we would reject, in our choice flower-garden, nearly all the old class of roses, which are in bloom for a few days and but once a year, and exhibit during the rest of the season, for the most part, meagre stems and dingy foliage. We would supply their jjlace by Bourbons, Perpetuals, Bengals, etc., roses which offer an abundance of blossoms and fine fresh foliage during the whole growing season. Among annuals, we would reject every thing short-lived, and introduce only those like the Portulaccas, Verbenas, Petunias, Mignonette, Phlox Drummondii, and the like, which are always in bloom, and fresh and pretty in habit.*

After this we would add to the effect of our selection of pei-petual blooming plants, by abandoning altogether the old method of interminrjling species and varieties of all colors and habits of growth,

* Some of the most beautiful of the perpetual blooming plants for the flower-garden, are the Salvia.i, Bouvardias, Scarlet Geraniums, <&c., propei'ly green-house plants, and requiring protection in a pit or warm cellar in win ten " Bedded out " in May, they form rich flowing masses till the frosts of autumn.

HINTS ON FLOWER-GARDENS. 9

and substitute for it the opposite mode of grouping or massing colors and particular species of plants, Masses of crimson and white, of yellow and purple, and the other colors and shades, brought boldly into contrast, or disposed so as to form an agi-eeable harmony, will attract the eye, and make a much more forcible and delightful impression, than can ever be produced by a confused mixture of shades and colors, nowhere distinct enough to give any decided effect to the whole. The effect of thus collecting masses of colors in a flower-garden in this way, is to give it what the painters call breadth of effect^ which in the other mode is entirely frittered away and destroyed.

This arranging plants in patches or masses, each composed of the same species, also contributes to do away in a great degree with the second fault which we have alluded to as a grievous one in most of our flower-gardens — that of the exhibition of bai'e surface of soil — parts of beds not covered by foliage and flowers.

In a hot climate, like that of our summers, nothing is more unpleasing to the eyes or more destructive to that expression of softness, verdure, and gayety, that should exist in the flower-garden, than to behold the surface of the soil in any of the beds or parterres unclothed with plants. The dryness and parched appearance of such portions goes far to impair whatever air of freshness and beauty may be imparted by the flowers themselves. Now whenever beds are planted with a heterogeneous mixture of plants, tall and short, spreading and straggling, it is nearly impossible that considerable parts of the surface of the soil should not be visible. On the contraiy, where species and varieties of plants, chosen for their excellent habits of growth and flowering, are planted in masses, almost every part of the surface of the beds may be hidden from the eye, which we consider almost a sine qua non in all good flower-gardens.

Following out this principle — on the whole perhaps the most important in all flower-gardens in this country — that there should, if possible, be no bare surface soil visible, our own taste leads us to prefer the modern English style of laying out flower-gardens upon a groundwork of grass or turf, kept scrupulously short. Its advantage over a flower-garden composed only of beds with a narrow edging and gravel walks, consists in the greater softness, freshness and verdure of the green turf, which serves as a setting to the flower beds, and heightens the briUiancy of the flowers themselves. Still, both these modes have their merits, and each is best adapted to certain situations, and harmonizes best with its appropriate scenery.

There are two other defects in many of our flower-gardens, easily remedied, and about which we must say a word or two in passing.

One of these is the common practice, brought over here by gardeners from England, of forming raised convex beds for flowering plants. This is a very unmeaning and injurious practice in this country, as a moment's reference to the philosophy of the thing will convince any one. In a damp climate, like that of England, a bed with a high convex surface, by throwing oft' the superfluous water, keeps the plants from suffering by excess of wet, and the form is an excellent one. In this country, where most frequently our flower-gardens fail from drouth, what sound reason can be given for forming the beds with a raised and rounded surface of six inches in eveiy three feet, so as to throw off four-fifths of every shower ? The true mode, as a little reflection and experience will convince any one, is to form the surface of the bed nearly level, so that it may retain its due proportion of the rains that fall.

Next to this is the defect of not keeping the walks in flower-gardens full of gravel. In many instances that we could name, the level of the gravel in the walk is six inches below that of the adjoining bed or border of turf. This gives a harsh and ditch-like character to the walks, quite at variance with the smoothness and perfection of details which ought especially to characterize so ele- , gant a portion of the grounds as this in question. " Keep the walks brimful of gravel," was one of the maxims most strongly insisted on by the late Mr. Loudon, and one to which we fully subscribe.

We insert here a copy of the plan of the celebrated flower-garden of Baron Von Hugel, near Vienna. This gentleman is one of the most enthusiastic devotees to Horticulture in Germany. In the Algemeine Garten Zeittmg, a detailed account is given, by the Secretary of the Imperial Horticultural Society of Vienna, of the residence and grounds of the Baron, from which we gather that they

The Roccoco Garden of Baron Hugel, near Vienna.

HINTS ON FLOWER-GARDENS. 11

are not surpassed in the richness and variety of their botanical treasures by any private collection on the Continent. "A forest of Camellias almost makes one believe that he is in Japan." Some of these are 22 feet high, and altogether the collection numbers 1000 varieties. The hot^house devoted to orchids, or air plants, contains 200 varieties, and the various green-houses include equally rich collections of the exotics of various climates. Regarding the Baron's flower-garden itself, we quote the words of M. Peinter.

" But still another most delightful scene is reserved, which is a mosaic picture of flowers, a so-called Rococo garden. We have to thank Baron Von Iliigel for giving the first example of a style, since pretty largely copied, both here and in the adjacent country. A garden, laid out in this manner, demands much cleverness and skill in the gardener, both in the choice and the arrangement of the flowers. He must also take care that, during the whole summer, there are no portions destitute of flowering plants. It is but justice to the Baron's head gardener, to aflSrm that he has completely accomplished this task, and has been entirely successful in carryingout the design or purjiose of this garden. The connoisseur does not indeed see the usual collection of ornamental plants in this sea of flowers, but a great many varieties ; and, in short, here, as everywhere else, the aesthetic taste of the Baron predominates. Beautiful is this garden within a garden, and hence it has become the model garden of Austria. Around it the most charming landscape opens to the view, gently swelling hills, interspersed with pretty villages, gardens and grounds."

In the plan of the garden, a and b are masses of shrubs ; c, circular beds, separated by a border or belt of turf, e, from the serpentine bed, d. The whole of this running pattern is surrounded by a border of turf, /; ff and h are gravel walks ; ^, beds, with pedestal and statue in the centre ; k, small oval beds, separated from the bed, I, by a border of turf"; m, w, o, p, irregular or arabesque beds, set in turf.

As a good deal of the interest of such a flower-garden as this, depends on the plan itself, it is e\adent that the beds should be filled with groups or masses, composed mostly of low growing flowers, as tall ones would interfere with, or break up its effect as a whole. Mr. Loudon, in some criticisms on this garden, in the Gardener's Magazine^ says, that the running chain pattern of beds, which forms the outer border to the design, was originated in England, by the Duchess of Bedford, about the year 1800. "It is," he remarks, " capable of producing a very brilliant effect, by planting the circular beds, c, with bright colors, each alternating with white. For example, beginning at c, and proceeding to the right, we might have dark red, white, blue, ivhite, yellow, white, scarlet, white, purple, white, and so on. The interlacing beds, d, might be planted on exactly the same principle, but omitting white. Proc;eeding to the right from the bed, d, which may be yellow, the next may be crimson, the next purple, the next orange, and so on."

This plan is by no means faultless, yet as it is admirably planted with ever-blooming flowers, and kept in the highest order, it is said to attract universal admiration, and is worthy of the examination of om- floral friends. We should imagine it much inferior, in design and general effect, to the very beautiful new flower-garden at Montgomerij Place, the seat of Mrs. Edward Li\dngston, on the Hudson, which is about double its size, and is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and most tastefully managed examples of a flower-garden in America.

III. Influence Of Horticulture

THE multiplication of Horticultural Societies is taking place so rapidly of late, in various parts of the country, as to lead one to reflect somewhat on their influence, and that of the art they foster, upon the character of our people.

Most persons, no doubt, look upon them as performing a work of some usefulness and elegance, by promoting the culture of fruits and flowers, and introducing to all parts of the country the finer species of vegetable productions. In other words, they are thought to add very considerably to the amount of physical gratifications which every American citizen endeavors, and has a right to endeavor, to assemble around him.

Granting all the foregoing, we are inclined to claim also, for horticultural pursuits, a political and moral influence vastly more significant and important than the mere gratification of the senses. We think, then, in a few words, that Horticulture and its kindred arts, tend strongly to fix the habits, and elevate the character, of our whole rural population.

One does not need to be much of a philosopher to remark that one of the most striking of our national traits, is the spirit of unrest. It is the grand energetic element which leads us to clear vast forests, and settle new States, with a rapidity unparalleled in the world's histoiy ; the spirit, possessed with which, our yet comparatively scanty people do not find elbow-room enough in a territory already in their possession, and vast enough to hold the greatest of ancient empires ; whicli drives the emigrant's wagon across vast sandy deserts to California, and over Rocky Mountains to Oregon and the Pacific ; which builds up a great State like Ohio in 30 years, so populous, civilized and productive, that the bare recital of its growth sounds like a genuine miracle to European ears ; and which overruns and takes possession of a whole empire, like that of Mexico, while the cabinets of old monarchies are debating whether or not it is necessary to interfere and restore the balance of power in the new world as in the old.

This is the grand and exciting side of the picture. Turn it in another light, and study it, and the effect is by no means so agreeable to the reflective mind. The spirit of unrest, followed into the bosom of society, makes of man a feverish being, in whose Tantalus' cup repose is the unattainable drop. Unable to take root any where, he leads, socially and physically, the uncertain life of a tree transplanted from place to place, and shifted to a different soil every season.

It has been shrewdly said that what qualities we do not possess, are always in our mouths. Our countrymen, it seems to us, are fonder of no one Anglo-Saxon word than the term settle* It was the great object of our forefathers to find a proper spot to settle. Every year, large numbers of our population from the older States go west to settle ; while those already \ye?,i,pull up, with a kind of desperate joy, their yet new-set stakes, and go farther west to settle again. So truly national is the word, that all the business of the country, from State debts to the products of a " truck farm," are not satisfactorily adjusted till they are " settled ; " and no sooner is a passenger fairly on board one of our river steamers, than he is politely and emphatically invited by a sable representative of its executive power, to " call at the captain's office and settle ! "

Yet, as a people, we are never settled. It is one of the first points that strikes a citizen of the old world, where something of the dignity of repose, as well as the value of action, enters into their ideal of life. De Tocqueville says, in speaking of our national trait :

* Anglo-Saxon sath-lian, from the verb settan, to set^ to cease from motion, to fix a dwelling-place, to repose, etc.

INFLUENCE OF HORTICULTURE. 15

" At first sight, there is something surprising in this strange unrest of so many happy men, restless in the midst of abundance. The spectacle itself is, however, as old as the world. The novelty is to see a whole 'people furnish an exemplification of it.

" In the United States a man builds a house to spend his latter years in, and sells it before the roof is on ; he brings a field into tillage, and leave other men to gather the crops ; he embraces a profession, and gives it up ; he settles in a place, which he soon after leaves, in order to carry his changeable longings elsewhere. If his private affairs leave him any leisure he instantly plunges into the vortex of politics ; and if at the end of a year of unremitting labor, he finds he has a few days' vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him over the vast extent of the United States, and he will travel fifteen hundred miles in a few days, to shake off his happiness."

Much as. we admire the energy of our people, we value no less the love of order, the obedience to law, the security and repose of society, the love of home, and the partiality to localities endeared by birth or association, of which it is in some degree the antagonist. And we are therefore deeply convinced that whatever tends, without checking due energy of character, but to develops along with it certain \4rtues that will keep it within due bounds, may be looked upon as a boon to the nation.

Now the difference between the son of Ishmael, who lives in tents, and that man who has the strongest attachment to the home of his fathers, is, in the beginning, one mainly of outward circumstances. He whose sole property is a tent and a camel, whose ties to one spot are no stronger than the cords which confine his habitation to the sandy floor of the desert, who can break up his encampment at an hour's notice, and choose a new and equally agreeable site, fifty miles distant, the next day — such a person is very little likely to become much more strongly attached to any one spot of earth than another.

The condition of a western emigrant is not greatly dissimilar. That long covered wagon, which is the Noah's ark of his preservation, is also the concrete essence of house and home to him. He emigrates, he " squats," he " locates," but before he can be fairly said to have a fixed home, the spirit of unrest besets him ; he sells

;h his " digging " to some less adventurous pioneer, and tackling the wagon of the wilderness, migrates once more.

It must not be supposed, large as is the infusion of restlessness in our people that there are not also large exceptions to the general rule. Else there would never be growing villages and prosperous towns. Nay, it cannot be overlooked by a careful observer, that the tendency "to settle" is slowly but gradually on the increase, and that there is, in all the older portions of the country, growing evidence that the Anglo-Saxon love of home is gradually developing itself out of the Anglo-American love of change.

It is not difficult to see how sti'ongly horticulture contributes to the development of local attachments. In it lies the most powerful philtre that civilized man has yet found to charm him to one spot of earth. It transforms what is only a tame meadow and a bleak aspect, into an Eden of interest and delights. It makes all the difterence between "Araby the blest," and a pine barren. It gives a bit of soil, too insignificant to find a place in the geography of the earth's surface, such an importance in the eyes of its possessor, that he finds it more attractive than countless acres of unknown and unexplored "territory." In other words, it contains the mind and soul of the man, materialized in many of the fairest and richest forms of nature, so that he looks upon it as tearing himself up, root and branch, to ask him to move a mile to the right or the left. Do we need to say more, to jirove that it is the panacea that really " settles " mankind ?

It is not, therefore, without much pleasurable emotion, that we have had notice lately of the formation of five new Horticultural societies, the last at St. Louis, and most of them west of the Alleghanies. Whoever lives to see the end of the next cycle of our race, will see the great valleys of the West the garden of the world ; and we watch with interest the first development, in the midst of the busy fermentation of its active masses, of that beautiful and quiet spirit, of the joint culture of the earth and the heart, that is destined to give a tone to the future character of its untold millions.

The increased love of home and the garden, in the older States, is a matter of every -day remark ; and it is not a little curious, that just in proportion to the intelligence and settled character of its popu-

INFLUENCE OF HORTICULTURE. 17

lation, is the amount of interest manifested in horticultm'e. Thus, the three most settled of the original States, we suppose to be Massachusetts, New- York and Pennsylvania ; and in these States horticulture is more eagerly pursued than in any others. The first named State has now seven horticultural societies ; the second, seven ; the third, three. Following out the comparison in the cities, we should say that Boston had the most settled population, Philadelphia the next, and New- York the least so of any city in the Union ; and it is well known that the horticultural society of Boston is at this moment the most energetic one in the country, and that it is stimulated by the interest excited by societies in all its neighboring towns. The Philadelphia society is exceedingly prosperous ; while in New- York, we regret to say, that the numerous efibrts that have been made to establish firmly a society of this kind have not, up to this time, resulted in any success whatever. Its mighty tide of people is as yet too much possessed with the spirit of business and of unrest." *