A rancid sort of spirit is distilled from them, known here by the name of peach brandy. Cherries are small. The earliest this season at Cincinnati, were ripe on the 22d of May. Wild cherry trees grow to a great height in the woods; the timber is of a red colour, and is used in making tables, bureaus, &c. and forms a tolerable substitute for mahogany. Ornamental gardening is a pursuit little attended to, and perhaps will not soon be generally exhibited. The soil of the best land being soft, the torrents of rain which almost instantaneously deluge the surface convert it into a paste of a very unsightly appearance. Where the ground has even a slight declivity, it is liable to have deep ruts washed in it. Low walks and other hollows, are {229} often filled with the soil carried down from higher parts of the ground. The severity of the winter is another obstacle; it being difficult to preserve some perennial and biennial plants, or to procure culinary vegetables in the spring. The stock of cultivated flower roots is very small, and these not well selected. Gooseberries and currants are scarce and small. Cucumbers, melons, and a variety of products that require artificial heat in Britain, grow here vigorously in the open air. Several species of forest trees furnish excellent timber. The white oak is at once tough, dense, flexible, and easily split. The black locust is strong, heavy, not much subject to warping, and resists the effects of the weather for a long period of time. This sort of timber resembles laburnum more than any that you are acquainted with. White hickory is tough and elastic in a high degree, and is the wood in general use for handles to axes, and other tools. Black walnut grows to a great size, and is considered a mark of the excellence of the soil on which it grows. It is lighter, less curled in its texture, and probably weaker than that of England. The sugar-maple is curled in its fibre, and is used in making stocks for rifles. White or water maple is also curled, of a fine straw-colour, and is sometimes introduced in cabinet-work with much effect. White and blue ash trees are easily split, pliant, and readily smoothed, but less fit to bear exposure to the weather than the ash of Europe. Poplar grows to a great size, and is easily converted into boards or scantling. Red cedar is exceedingly durable as posts of rail-fences, and grows in great abundance by Kentucky river. White and yellow pines, similar to those of Canada, are brought from Allegany river, and are now sold here, in boards, at a cent per square foot.