CULTIVATING FRUIT TREES, THE GRAPE VINE, &c.; TO WHICH IS ADDED, A CALENDAR, Showing the Work necessary to be done in the various departments EIGHTH EDITION, IMPROVED. BY T. BRIDGEMAN, GARDENER, SEEDSMAN, AND FLORIST, NEW-YORK. "The end of all instruction should be the attainment of useful knowledge." NEW-YORK: For sale by T. Bridgeman, corner 18th st. and Broadway, immediately north of Union Hovey B8 Erift of C. H. Hovey AGRICULTURE 1840 CYTŁOKM [Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and Forty, by THOMAS BRIDGEMAN, in the Clerk's Office, of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of NewYork. PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION. THE primary object in first publishing The Young Gardener's Assistant, was to enable our respectable seedsmen, while furnishing a catalogue of seeds for the use of the Kitchen and Flower Garden, to afford instructions, at a trifling expense, to such of their customers as may not have a regular gardener, and thereby save themselves the blame of those who may not have given their seeds a fair trial, for want of knowing how to dispose of them in the ground. In appearing before the public with this eighth edition of the work, the Author cannot forbear to express his sense of obligation to his patrons in general, and to his fellow-seedsmen of New-York in particular, each of whom having by the interest they have taken in circulating the book, evinced their approbation of this humble attempt to serve both the seedsman and the gardener, in supplying directions for the management of a garden, in a manner calculated to insure success. Within the last ten years, upwards of ten thousand copies of previous editions have been issued from the seed store of Mr. G. C. THORBURN, who has liberally subscribed for fifteen hundred copies of this edition. The Boston and Philadelphia seedsmen have also contributed largely to its circulation; and the Author has been gratified by learning that his labours are appreciated by eminent horticulturists, as the following extracts will demonstrate : "DEAR SIR,—You will see by the next month's New York Farmer, if you have not already seen by the Albany papers, that several copies of your Young Gardener's Assistant were given as PREMIUMS by the State Agricultural Society. Mr. D. B. Slingerland and myself were on the 668574 committee for awarding premiums, and thought your work was deserving encouragement, and, that even in this small way, we might be of service in bringing it before the public as WORTHY OF BEING GIVEN AS PREMIUMS. "Yours, very respectfully, "ALEXANDER WALSH. "Lansingburgh, November, 1835. Extract from a review of this work in the Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, &c. published by Hovey & Co. Boston: "The work is written in plain language, easily to be understood by the young beginner in gardening, who will find it a great help; and its value, even to the partly experienced person, is by no means of an ordinary character. IT IS ADAPTED TO OUR CLIMATE, and unlike compilations from English works, the novice is not led into disappointment by following the rules there laid down, as he generally is, when following the advice of the latter. We repeat, that as far as the book pretends, IT IS WORTH ALL OTHERS OF A SIMILAR CHARACTER THAT HAVE EVER BEEN PUBLISHED IN THIS COUNTRY; and its cheapness should place it in the hands of all new beginners. It appears from an article in the New-York Farmer and Horticultural Repository that the first edition of the work was noticed in France. The Editor informs us, in page 295 of the fourth volume, "That one of the leading articles in the second number of the present volume of the Annales de L'Institute, Royal Horticole de Fromont, is a long notice. of the Young Gardener's Assistant, by Mr. T. Bridgeman of this city. The editor, Le Chevalier Soulange Bodin, speaks of the little work in very commendable terms." Numerous other proofs could be adduced of the kind reception the work has met. Suffice it to state, that it has been extensively noticed, and recommended to public patronage, by editors of literary periodicals, and in many of those publications devoted to agricultural and horticulturak pursuits, in various parts of this and other countries. As the simplicity of cultivating the soil may lead many to think, that a wayfaring man though a fool, could not easily err therein," it may be necessary to remind such, that the vegetable productions of the earth, being natives of various soils and climates, require peculiar management when cultivated in climates different to those in which nature first produced them; and, that although many species of plants in common use with us, will endure the heat of our summers, others can only be raised in perfection during mild and temperate weather, and some require artificial means to be used out of the ordinary seasons for gardening operations. In the following pages, no efforts have been spared to impart useful information on the several branches of horticulture. The directions for the cultivation of vegetables are the result of twenty years' assiduous practice and observation as a market gardener; and it is presumed that the Author's experience in other departments of gardening has been sufficient to warrant him in this attempt to instruct those who have not hitherto become acquainted with the art. The Author considers it not derogatory to acknowledge, that he has frequently compared his ideas with those of other Authors, and that he has in some instances availed himself of the benefit of their instructions; but he is not aware that in so doing, he has adopted any ideas merely speculative; to avoid which, he has invariably submitted such manuscript to the scrutiny of experienced gardeners of his acquaintance, and the result has generally been such as to confirm him in his original positions. It must appear evident to the reader, on a review of this work, that the Author in adopting the catalogue form, has been enabled to give as much information as is necessary to the cultivation of each particular kind of vegetable, in a condensed form; whereas, had he pursued the same course as most of his predecessors have done, his book would have been considerably larger, and the reader must have been at the trouble of perusing the greater part of it, at least twelve times in the course of a year. The Author, however, being aware of the convenience of a calendar, has in this edition annexed one, which he presumes is well calculated not only |