The

construct fences; and the nuts are very delicious. Castanea pumila, or Chinquapin nut, is a small tree, or rather shrub, growing to the height of thirty feet in the Southern States, but seldom exceeding ten in cold latitudes. The fruit is very sweet and agreeable to eat.

There is a variety with striped leaves, which is very ornamental. The most esteemed of the French kinds are called Marron. Some excellent fruit-bearing varieties are cultivated in England, France, Italy, and Spain, as also in other parts of Europe.

MANNER OF PROPAGATING.

Chestnuts are increased by grafting or budding in the usual methods; but the plants for coppice wood, or timber, are best raised from nuts. Some varieties ripen their fruit a few days earlier than others; but none of these have been fixed on or perpetuated by nursery-men so as to render them available to purchasers. The fruit is a desirable nut for autumn or winter, and is eaten roasted with salt, and sometimes raw; and in some countries it is not only boiled and roasted, but ground into meal; and puddings, cakes, and bread are made from it.

Chestnut-trees will not succeed on wet, nor on heavy soils. The largest and finest trees are found on high ridges of clayey loam, gravelly loam, or sandy loam. By pruning the trees and keeping the soil cultivated around them, as far, or farther than the lateral branches extend, the fruit may be greatly increased both in quantity and quality.

In order to raise trees from the nuts, select the largest and fairest specimens as soon as they fall from the tree, and keep them where they will not become very dry until late autumn, when the nuts must be planted in well prepared soil in drills, and covered two inches deep with mould or fine street dirt. If the nuts are allowed to dry, their vitality will be destroyed. It is essential to their vegetation that the nuts freeze and thaw during winter. The fruit is better to remain on the trees till the frost has opened the burrs.

Although Almonds are not much cultivated in this part of our country, they are entitled to notice. The species are fruittrees, or ornamental trees and shrubs, both much esteemed for

the gay color and early appearance of their flowers. These vary in their color from the fine blush of the apple-blossom to a snowy whiteness. The chief obvious distinction is in the fruit, which is flatter, with a coriaceous covering, instead of the rich pulp of the Peach and Nectarine, opening spontaneously when the kernel is ripe. It is a native of Barbary, China, and most eastern countries. There are twelve sorts described in the catalogue of the Linnæan Botanic Garden at Flushing; some of which are represented as new varieties from France and Italy, where they are cultivated extensively for their fruit.

In France, they have above a dozen species or varieties, besides a hybrid called the Almond Peach. The common and bitter Almond are only to be distinguished by the taste of the kernels of their fruit, which is the only part used. The tendershelled is in the greatest esteem, and next, the Sweet and Jordan. The bitter cuticle or skin of Almonds is taken off by immersion in boiling water. The sweet Almond and other varieties are used as a dessert in a green or imperfectly ripe, and also in a ripe or dried state. They are much used in cookery, confectionery, perfumery, and medicine.

The Almond is propagated by seed for varieties or for stocks; and by budding on its own or on Plum-stocks for continuing varieties. The Almond-tree bears chiefly on the young wood of the previous year, and in part upon small spurs or minor branches. It is therefore pruned like the Apricot and Peach, and its culture in other respects is the same.

CRANBERRY.

CANNEBERGE. Oxycoccus.

This genus of plants is well distinguished from the Vaccinium, or Whortleberry, by the narrow revolute segments of corolla; and are pretty little trailing evergreen plants, to which a peat soil or rather moist situations are absolutely necessary. They are very little changed by culture.

The Oxycoccus macrocarpus is a red acid fruit, highly valued as a sweetmeat, or for tarts. It is well known that this excellent fruit grows in many parts of our country spontaneously, and that the mere gathering of it is all that bountiful nature requires at our hands; but it is well worth cultivating where there are none. This fruit will keep a whole year, if properly preserved in closely covered stone jars, and is considered by many as superior to the best currant jelly, and may be kept for many months in a raw state without injury.

The Oxycoccus palustris bears edible berries, which are gathered wild both in England and Scotland, and made into tarts. Lightfoot says, that twenty or thirty pounds' worth are sold each market-day, for five or six weeks together, in the town of Langtown, on the borders of Cumberland. Nicol says the American species is more easily cultivated than the English, but is inferior to it in flavor. There is reason to believe that the quality of fruit of each of these species is subject to variations, which have not yet been practically distinguished. Their cultivation is now so well understood that both may be considered with propriety as inmates of the fruitgarden. Some raise them from seed sown early in the spring; but it is best to set out plants, and lay the runners as they progress in growth.

It is customary in England to prepare beds on the edges of ponds, which are banked up so as to admit of the wet getting underneath them; bog or peat-earth is considered essential for the roots to run in; but it has been discovered that they can be cultivated in damp situations in a garden, with a top-dress

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ing of peat or bog-earth; and if they are once suited as to the soil, the plants will multiply so as to cover the bed in the course of a year or two, by means of their long runners, which take root at different points. From a very small space a very large quantity of Cranberries may be gathered; and they prove a remarkably regular crop, scarcely affected by the state of the weather, and not subject to the attacks of insects. Joseph Banks gives an account of his success in cultivating this fruit. "In one year, from 326 square feet, or a bed about eighteen feet square, three and a half Winchester bushels of berries were produced, which, at five bottles to the gallon, gives one hundred and forty bottles, each sufficient for one Cranberry-pie, from two and a half square feet."

Cranberries thrive best in a wet soil, but will grow on almost any land, by giving it a top-dressing of peat, bog, or swampearth. As soon as such ground can be brought into tillable condition, get plants that were produced from layers of the last season, and set them out in rows about two feet apart; they will soon cover the ground by their runners, which, on being laid, will produce an abundance of plants well adapted for additional plantations in succeeding years.

This is a genus of well-known shrubs, much cultivated for the fruit. It is a native of the northern parts of Europe, and found in hedges and woods in England; and there are some species indigenous in America. The fruit, being of an agreeable subacid taste, is generally relished both as a dessert and in pies and tarts. It is also much used in making wine, and is grown to a considerable extent for that purpose. There are ten species

cultivated in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London, comprising twelve varieties of red, ten of white, five kinds of black, together with a champagne, mountain, rock, upright, and Pennsylvanian. Any number of varieties of the red and white

Red Dutch Currants.

may be procured from sowing the seed; but they are generally propagated by cuttings of the last year's wood, which should be of sufficient length to form handsome plants, with a clear stem ten inches high, which may be planted immediately upon losing their leaves in autumn, or very early the ensuing spring.

The Currant will grow in almost every soil, but succeeds best in one loamy and rich. The best flavored fruit is produced from plants in an open situation; but they will grow under the shades of walls or trees, and either as low bushes, or trained as espaliers. They bear chiefly on spurs, and on young wood of from one to three years' growth; and therefore, in pruning, most of the young wood should be cut to within two or three buds of that where it originated. After the plants are furnished with full heads they produce many superfluous and irregular shoots every summer, crowding the general bearers, so as to require regulating and curtailing, both in the young growth of the year and in older wood.

The principal part of the work may be done in winter, or early in spring; but a preparatory part should be performed in summer, to eradicate suckers, and thin the superfluous shoots of the year, where they are so crowded as to exclude the sun