No. 63.J 269 



HINTS ON DESCRIBING FRUITS. 



BY JOHN J. THOMAS, MACEDON. 



It is a source of much gratification that the culture of fruit is recei- 

 ving in some measure its proportion of the increased attention to ru- 

 ral pursuits. Great neglect, it is true, still exists; a good fruit gar- 

 den, properly so called, is at the present momenta great rarity in 

 most parts of our country. There are indeed many collections which 

 contain some fine fruits, but very lew which consist entirely of selec- 

 tions from first rate kinds, and which afford an uninterrupted succes- 

 sion of the best throughout the whole year. 



A part of this deficiency is owing to apathy, and a part to the dif- 

 ficulties in the introduction of the best varieties. Among these diffi- 

 culties, are the numerous errors in the names of fruits, existing all 

 over the country, and the consequent perplexity in procuring those 

 which are genuine; the multiplication of new varieties differing but 

 slightly from old and celebrated ones; the limited and local know- 

 ledge of such varieties, whose adaptation to other regions has never 

 been proved, and the disappointment when they are transplanted to 

 other and ungenial climates; and not least, the meagreness, looseness, 

 and inaccuracy of nearly all books of descriptions which have yet 

 been published. To remedy these difficulties, it is obvious that nu- 

 merous experiments must be resorted to. Extensive collections of 

 fruit must be made from all practicable sources, and their adaptation 

 to the various soils, situations and climates of our country, thoroughly 

 tested. 



The importance of attention to the variation in fruit caused by a 

 change in soil and climate, appears to be much underrated. We 

 have been too much governed in our reasoning and practice in this as 

 in other matters of culture, by the practice on the other side of the 

 Atlantic. The London Horticultural Society made a collection of 

 some thousands of varieties, and a minute and careful examination of 

 these for several successive years, afforded the means of deciding on 

 their merits, names and synonyms. In a country so limited in extent 

 as England, these experiments, and the descriptions and characters 

 resulting from them, were applicable without much variation to every 

 part. But the climate of America is greatly different. Hence we 

 find that European fruits of the highest quality, when introduced here, 

 become in most cases of little value. Probably not half a dozen of 

 the whole British catalogue of apples, when grown in this country, 

 will bear any comparison with such of our finest table fruits as the 

 Swaar, Spitzenburg, and Rhode Island Greening. Yet in the face of 

 these facts, many of our books of fruits copy the English descriptions 

 without a word of variation. The same change in quality results in 

 some degree from a change of locality here. The extreme portions 

 of the United States are almost as remote from each other as Norway 

 and the Great Desert in the old world; and fruit well adapted to one 

 portion, may be wholly unfit for another, even in the same latitude. 



