On the 20th inst. it was my privilege to pay a brief visit to the fine estate of that enterprising and successful cultivator, Dr. John H. Batnb, of Prince Edward county, Maryland.

For many years, he has, by a thorough course of observation and experiment, cultivated a portion of his beautiful grounds, and attained to great skill in almost all departments.

The location is a favorable one for rewarding his efforts, it being only some eight miles from Washington, D. C, which furnishes one of the finest markets in the country. The situation is picturesque and delightful, comprising a variety of scenery - hills and valleys, with all the varieties of soil, from a sandy loam to a coarse gravel and clay.

Some of his lands, which two years ago were worn out and barren commons, I now found laden with the richest fruits. Over fifteen thousand fruit trees, in the finest condition, and comprising the greatest variety, may be seen at Dr. Bayne's, of which some 8,000 are peach trees, which exhibit a vigorous growth and health which would do honor to Delaware, or Western New-York. His crop of peaches this year must be immense, and his income from them very large.

I noticed, also, a very large stock of pears, comprising a great variety. The pear blight has done him great damage in the low grounds and hill sides, while all on the crown of the hills have for years escaped.

The cherry trees seem to be in fine gr6wth and bearing, but I do not think that the noblest of all our fruits, the apple, in all its fine varieties, has yet received that peculiar care in this region, we are accustomed to give it in this vicinity.

The strawberry is most successfully cultivated here, and proves to be a fine source of revenue. Dr. B. has several acres in bearing, comprising the Early Virginia, the Large Early Scarlet, Princess Alice Maud, [and this sort is very fine about Washington. Ed.] and Hovey's Seedling.

The first named is cultivated mainly because it is the earliest, but is evidently very different and inferior to the large Early Scarlet which is a little later. The Alice Maud is a great favorite in this region, being almost as early as the preceding kinds, and much larger and more productive; for the late varieties, Hovey's Seedling is preferred.

It is a great object in that region to obtain the earliest variety, for on the 17th May, in Washington, strawberries brought $1 per quart. Four days later they had fallen to 50 cents, and four days later still, the price had receded to 25 cents.

I noticed in all that region, the almost universal error prevalent in the cultivation of this fine fruit, viz: an over-feeding of the vines, but a scanty supply of the essential elements which go to compose the fruit, which, if judiciously applied, I am persuaded, would very generally double the strawberry crop, at a trifling expense.

I was particularly interested to observe the manner by which Doctor B. succeeds in bringing the earliest strawberries into market. He selects a coarse, gravel soil side-bill, with a full exposure to the south, and then shelters the field from chill winds, by fences on the rear, and often intermediate, not far distant, closely filled in with evergreen boughs.

A great variety and quantity of vegetables are here produced, among which were 30,000 cabbages, just coming into head, and for which an offer of five dollars per hundred had just been refused, for the whole lot on the ground.

I was surprised to learn that these cabbages were sown last September, and had stood out unprotected and uninjured last winter, where the thermometer touched 8° below zero, (the coldest winter for twenty years.) This was the lowest point the thermometer reached with us last winter. Tea and Noisette Roses I also saw at Dr. Baynk's, growing finely, which had remained out unprotected - while with us, if the thermometer reached to zero, we should hardly have saved a plant. Why is this? Is it because our atmosphere is more humid? R. G. Pardee.

Palmyra, May 15,1809

Fruit-Growing At The South #1

By "South," I suppose is here meant any territory below Mason and Dixon's line, for the neighborhood of Washington is not farther south than Cincinnati, which at the real " south," is called " north." It is a most refreshing idea to one who has the true feelings of an American about him, that there is a spirit waking up for good cultivation of any thing in that hitherto tabooed District of Columbia - as if it was not enough that the political bile of the country should concentrate there for its annual eruptions, but that its influence should keep one of the naturally loveliest spots on the globe, about it in a state of sterility. To foreigners, familiar with the capitals of their own country, after visiting Boston, New-York, and Philadelphia, Washington must look like a city of magnificent conceptions, wholly blocked out, partially built up, and then newly caught and squatted down into one of the most forbidding soils in the whole compass of the American continent. Instead of a place where the good taste and high cultivation of the several states should congregate and plant itself, to embellish the national capitol, every thing of the kind seems to have shunned it as they would an atmosphere of pestilence.

I first knew Washington when a boy. . Its market was then supplied with miserable vegetables, raised by the neighboring "niggers," and who " trucked" their commodities to market in the oddest and most incongruous ways possible. A mule harnessed by the side of a broken down horse, or one of them "spiked" before a pair of the wretchedest " steers" on a miserable cart, or a worse waggon, and driven by an equally well conditioned " plantation hand," was the usual mode of transportation to the " city;" and these vehicles, with their appendages - that is, the jackasses and the " nigger" - standing in the open streets, were the "market houses" of the day. Starvelling poultry, and poor meats, were the companions of the meagre vegetables, and as for fruits, paw-paws wouldn't grow there, and persimmons were only in eating " after frost".

It is better now, somewhat, but Washington, in all these things, is a full century behind any other well conditioned town in America. It is a disgrace to somebody, that there is not higher and more abundant cultivation of fruits and vegetables in and about the place. The climate is delightful; bland as Italy, and inviting a world of vegetable wealth to its embrace. Prices are good, the demand for all edibles is Steady and increasing, and why should not the country within sight of the capitol be a continuous and a perfect garden? I might guess, but that my solution might be offensive in some quarters; so I'll drop the subject. It is a good indication, however, that Dr. Bayne has so spiritedly gone into fruit culture, and I hope that he will not only persevere, but that others will join him in such an important enterprise.