t869.] horticulture IN AMERICA. 529 



the time of Pliny and Columella is infinite. From the fall of the Roman Empire 

 to the close of the seventeenth contury, it is true, we know but little of its pro- 

 gress ; for this, like all other arts and sciences, was hidden by the darkness 

 which enveloped the ages during so large a part of these years. Pomology, like 

 other refined pursuits, found an asylum in the only sanctuary then known for 

 the arts of peace — the monastery. In these quiet retreats were cultivated and 

 perfected the best varieties of fruits ; and doubtless some which they have trans- 

 mitted to us have been produced from seed under their patient care and nurture. 

 Although the records of pomology during these years are but few, still we may 

 glean some idea of the manner in which the art was preserved, from incidental 

 notices, from the old trees still found growing amidst the remains of these insti- 

 tutions, and from the new and fine varieties whose origin is traced to them, and 

 whose names they often bear. Nor do we doubt that the Grape, now exciting 

 so much attention, received especial care, not only for the rich clusters which 

 crowned the dessert, but also for the "wine which maketh glad the heart of 

 man." 



But how meagre the list of good fruits which have been handed down from 

 them when compared with those of later times ! If any of the Pears of Roman 

 origin yet remain, they are only to be found among the cooking varieties, or else 

 they are so dry, coarse, and inferior, as to merit a place only in the pages of the 

 writers of two centuries ago. Now we have collections consisting of ten to fifteen 

 hundred varieties, among which are many embracing in the highest degree all the 

 characteristics of size, beauty, flavour, and form, which constitute a perfect fruit; 

 and instead of fruits confined to a short period of use, the art of the cultivator 

 has extended the season of maturity over the greater portion of the year. Think 

 what Governor Endicott of Salem or Governor Stuyvesant of New York would 

 have said, if they had been told that their example in the first planting of a single 

 Pear-tree would be multiplied into thousands of orchards, and that, instead of a 

 few Pears for the summer season, every month in the year would be supplied 

 with its appropriate sort ; or what was then considered an aristocratic tree, to be 

 trained and nursed only in the gardens of the opulent, should be planted in or- 

 chards of five or more thousands of a single variety, and be enjoyed by the 

 Western pioneers as well as by the Eastern magistrates ! 



How would the soul of the generous Peregrine White, of Pilgrim memory, have 

 swelled with joy had he known that, in a little more than two centuries from the 

 time of planting his Apple-tree at Plymouth, this fruit would become almost an 

 article of daily food ; or that his orchard of one tree would be magnified into 

 orchards of twenty thousand or more trees of a single variety, as in the case of 

 Mr Pell's Newtown Pippin ! And although it is recorded, some years after, that 

 Governor Winthrop had a good store of Pippins in his garden, yet neither of 

 these gentlemen could have foreseen the influence of their ex^imple in New Eng- 

 land, to say nothing of the three counties of Western New York, then and for 

 more than a hundred and fifty years afterwards a wilderness, from which there 

 have been sent annually to market five hundred thousand barrels of Apples, in 

 addition to what were retained at home for consumption ; or the new orchards of 

 our youthful State of Nebraska, some of which contain seven thousand trees, 

 mostly in bearing at the age of six or eight years ; or the other millions of trees 

 planted, sufficient to regale the appetites of every man, woman, and child in the 

 United States with their fruit. 



What would the Csesars, with all their luxuries, have thought of their half- 

 formed mongrel Peaches, so deleterious to health, when compared with the deli- 

 cious varieties into which they have been developed by the hand of skill, guiding 



