PROCEEDINGS OF THE N. A. POMOLOGICAL CONVENTION, &c. 475 



and a favorite apricot, that had been failing 

 for a couple of seasons — often thought be- 

 fore that very serviceable trees. They had 

 been rather badly treated by the worm, to 

 be sure, but that had been attended to in 

 time, and the roots appeared to be in ve- 

 ry fair condition. Still, the trees dwin- 

 dled, looked sickly, and bore little or no 

 fruit. As a desperate remedy, I resolved on 

 a trial of hot water. I removed the soil 

 directly round the neck of the tree, making 

 a basin three inches deep and twenty inches 



across. Into this I poured twelve gallons of 

 boiling water. 



To my great satisfaction the trees, in- 

 stead of dying, immediately pushed out 

 vigorous shoots, took a healthy appearance, 

 and made a fine growth of wood, and have 

 since borne two crops of delicious fruit. I 

 experimented last year, again, with equal 

 success, and now am ready, like old Doctor 

 Sangrado, to prescribe hot water in all des- 

 perate cases. Yours. 



An Old Diggee. 



REVIEW. 



Proctedings of the N. A. Pomological Con- 

 vention, held at Syracuse, September 14, 1849. 

 Pamphlet — 64 pages. 



Report of the Ohio Nurserymen and Fruit- 

 growers' Convention, held at Columbus, Dec. 

 1849. 



" I made me gardens and orchards, and 



planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit," 

 said the wise man of the old world, thou- 

 sands of years ago ; and this, we see, is 

 precisely what the people of this young 

 country are busying themselves about at 

 the present moment. Now and then they, 

 too, are led, not by world-weariness, but by 

 the "curculio" and the "blight," to ex- 

 claim — all is " vexation of spirit ;" but in 

 the main, they are better contented with 

 their orchards and gardens than Solomon 

 was with his, mainly because they are 

 seeking after the utility rather than the 

 mere personal pleasure of the thing. 



Here are two goodly pamphlets, which 

 are practical demonstrations that our people 

 are wide awake ; not that they do content 

 themselves with crab apples, but will fill 

 their orchards with none but the best. 

 Oddly enough, as the novice would think, 

 the great difficulty with them, is to find out 

 what the " best fruits" are. Had the Uni- 



ted States covered no more territory than 

 England, we should have arrived at the 

 solution of the question long ago ; for it is 

 no problem to a horticulturist at Boston, 

 New-York, or Philadelphia ; but in a coun- 

 try that embraces the two zones, with the 

 thermometer in Maine and Iowa falling to 

 20 degrees below zero, while people in 

 New-Orleans are feasting on green peas 

 and strawberries, it is plain that experiment 

 after experiment must be made in each dis- 

 trict, or portion of the country, till the need- 

 ful answers are obtained from all our vari- 

 ous soils and climates. 



The Report of the convention at Syra- 

 cuse embraces a series of facts, especially 

 adapted to, and especially valuable to the 

 extreme northern and western portions of the 

 Union; especially that belt including north- 

 ern and western New- York, and all the dis- 

 trict of western country bordering on the 

 great lakes and the upper Mississippi. 



The principal business of the convention 

 was the discussion of fruits ; and the po- 

 mologist and fruit-grower will find a good 

 deal of interesting individual opinion, re- 

 garding the different varieties contained in 



