The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-08-17
ynnkes Tree. and shruhs.

nv" f"Ht "fFhaN w SOCfHfRcbk-oAk
AND HICKORY SELDOM SEEN; cRIxQUerIN
USkNowN-BLscKBERRI. NOT YET RIPE
GARDEN PATCHES.
fGcrrcsponcence OF the Baltimore SUM-
LircuffRLp, Conn.,, August III, 1880.
All the way along Won have seen
The weeds and wild flowers that you see on
the roadsides OF your native land. The
golden rod may be new TO you, hut even The
mullen Is here. and In one place saw a
"jimson weed. The "bard hack" with
It's yellow flowers aud its tough, stunted
FORM, VIII attract your attention. II Is the
pest OF this country. combining In
itself the vices Of the ox-eyed dali
~ and the sassafras bush. The OK
eye IL here. but Is not abundant; the
sa. safras Is wanting, and so IL the blue this
tie. Wbite-pibe replaces the yelIow-pine
Of our country, grows up as rapidly AZ our
:" old field" pine. IL even more resinous, and
equally worthless for building purposes.
Though II be high and straight enough TO
N axe the mast OF "some tall admiial,o
(Mil on has 1t "amiral," believe,) yet the
white-pin Is OF little commercial value.
Coat IL an inch thick with paint, the resin
will still exude from IL on the first hot day.
Beautiful as the hemlock is, It's gentlemanIy
figure clad in riflemaD's green, IL is never
theless tree for ornament, not for use.
The oak and The hickory are seldom seen.
The common hickory-nut Is here called wal
nut, and the she'll or scalybark is here the
sbag. bark walnut. In some OF the yards
are locusts and aspenS, the former, when
old, sometimes attaining greater height
than I'm our most favored localities. Butter
nuts arc plentiful; the horse chestnut is
oilen seen In the woods as well as I'm
yards; the ash is occasionally seen so is the
chestnut; syclmOres are comparatively rare;
The chinquepin unknown, but the beautiful
white birch, with trunk as fair almost as
Parian marble or alabasler, Is very plentiful.
WHY il Is not grown rs Il shade-tree is a mat
ter OF wonder. Along the streams the
witch hazel and the brook-wIlow abound;
but the inspected water, fouled by no mud
even in time of freshets, loves best the dark
rocks in the hemlOck-reofed ravines. The
wild cherrv-heTe called the choke cherry
is smaller in size, grows on smaller tree,
and il more bitter, fuller OF prussic acid,
than with us. You see The II he crab-apple-
very small, round, and red-eaSily, and, in
deed. constantly, mistaken by the stranger
for the cherry. There Is a tendency in trees
OF like kind TO cluster together. groves OF
pines, of hemlocks, OF bircb 1.-THE white birch
more particularly, and groups OF naples
and elns growing naturally together. Late
in the season as II is, the blackberry is not
vet fully ripe, nor is the huckleberry-iime at
its height. ! think it has been stated in
former letter that the blackberry is
distinguished from the dewberry or the
:. high bush" blackberry, aud has the flavor
OF the raspberry. Cat-iails" you see in
moist spots, as with uS, hut the pOnd-lly -
| infrequent Just here. Along the palings OF
one OF the old gardens there are currants
by the buShcI. Gardens having favorable
exposure are covered with vegetables OF all
the kinds known and used by us. One III
the gorge yonder is so covered with vege-
tables that the ground is nowhere visible.
Sduashes differ in shape from ours, as their
name "crook.r eck" implies, and are made
into pies. have not tried said pies.
Taking all the roads together, we have
travelled fifteen or twenty miles, and what
is the upSbot of it all? 1t is this: Even
upon the best farms we have nowhere seen
what we In the South would call q fetd Of
anything whatsoever. In the rockfenced
plais OF few acres tive or six, let Us say,
make il eight or ten, ii you VIII, although
this size is rare). the enclosure is rarely
planted over with any one thing. In 1t
YOU will find patch Of corn, patch OF
oats or rye, a patch Of potatoe>-what you
will; and then vacant space, sometimes
large, not planted at all, but given up, ADD
occasionally wholly given up, TO weeds and
brush, or at best light fallow. 1t seems
land OF patches, much like an old negro
mans breecbes or, II that be deemed un-
friendly. like quilt, a great, solemn, rock
bordercd quilt. Nothing appears to be
raised for sae-nothlng but hay, which re-
appears in the form OF milk, butter, or
cheese One would say that little or no
corn, except in the shape OF fodder, is fed
to the cattle; TOO little OF it Is grown for
that, and warm mashes of many kinds take
is nlace. Is.