blinds is a pretty one, but they are too often trained in stiff and straight lines; a poetical idea, tirée à quatre épingles. Frequently we see a cottage with a door in the centre, and one window on each side, and vines trained over the sashes in this way, which gives it an odd look, like a house in green spectacles, as it were. When hop-vines are used for screening the windows, which is often the case, the plant is not so easily restrained; and throwing out its luxuriant branches right and left, takes care of itself.
Currants are almost the only fruit seen in the smaller gardens of our neighborhood; even gooseberries are not so general; both raspberries and strawberries grow wild here in such profusion that few persons cultivate them. Currants, by-the-by, both black and red, are also native plants; the black currant is by no means rare in this State, and very much resembles the varieties cultivated in gardens; the wild red currant is chiefly confined to the northern parts of the country, and it is precisely like that which we cultivate. Both purple and green gooseberries are also found wild in our woods.
It is often a matter of surprise and regret that fruit should not be more cultivated among us in gardens of all sizes; but the indifferent common cherry is almost the only fruit-tree found here in cottage gardens. Even the farmers neglect cherries, and plums, and pears, surprisingly. Peaches and grapes seldom ripen here in the open air; they might probably be cultivated as wall fruit, but it is so easy now to procure them by railroad from other counties, that few persons care to try experiments of this kind. Peaches, and melons, and plums, brought from a distance, are carried about the village for sale, throughout the season, as a matter of course.
