MR. BARRY'S ADDRESS. 



horticultural journals, I have often been surprised, of late, at the number of per- 

 sons who are particular and discriminating. 



" One man writes, on reception of some trees he has purchased, such and such 

 a variety has dark shoots — the books say they ought to be light. Another says 

 the habit, or the foliage, or the flowers, of his trees do not answer the description. 

 A third says his strawberries are staminate — they ought to be pistillate ; and so 

 on. These are all indications of that spirit of inquiry and observation which is a 

 sure presage of intelligent and successful culture. Tlie time has come when 

 nurserymen must be observing and accurate, or they will lose their business charac- 

 ter and customers both. They must plant specimen orchards, test and compare 

 their varieties, read and study, attend exhibitions and meetings, such as this, and 

 by these means acquire such knowledge of their profession as will enable them to 

 prosecute it successfully and honorably. The facilities which dwarf trees now 

 offer for testing a large collection rapidly, on a small plat of ground, and at a 

 moderate expense, leave no excuse whatever for the neglect of this work. 



" The cultivation and management of trees in orchards and gardens are im- 

 proving rapidly, but much yet remains to be done before we attain even mediocrity. 

 The loss which the United States sustain annually in the careless and unskilful plant- 

 ing and miinagement of trees, if accurately summed up, would be almost incredible. 



" At the Fruit Growers' Meeting in Western New York, a few days ago, the 

 question was raised : What becomes of all the trees that are propagated and sold 

 in the nurseries of that section ? 



" The opinion of the meeting, as expressed in the discussion, was, that although 

 many trees were lost and worthless from defective or improper treatment in the 

 nursery, and many from damage sustained in transportation, yet more were lost 

 by unskilful planting, and neglect afterwards, than from any and all other causes 

 combined. 



" This I believe to be the case. In all ray observations of travel, I think I can 

 safely say that I have not seen one orchard or one garden in a hundred even tole- 

 rably managed. By far the greater number look as though the proprietor had 

 abandoned his trees to ruin. 



" Blown over to one side, anchored in a tough grass sod, buried up in groves 

 of cornstalks, torn and broken by cattle, barked and bruised with the plough, 

 pruned with an axe — thus they perish in their youth, or become old, deformed, 

 covered with lichens, and a prey to swarms of insects, before they have yielded 

 their first fruits. What folly it is in men to invest their money in trees, and then 

 wilfully ruin them in this way 1 In Western New York, where cultivation is about 

 as good as in any other section, a man who cultivates his orchard or his garden 

 thoroughly, whose trees are healthy and handsome, making vigorous growth, and 

 yielding fine fruit, is talked of as a rarity — and so he is. 



" The specimen trees in the establishment with which I am connected, are but 

 tolerably well managed ; the ground is kept clean around them, and is occasion- 

 ally dressed with manure or compost ; so that, in all seasons, we get a fair growth 

 and a fair crop — but amateurs might have theirs vastly better. Yet we are daily 

 asked what we do to our trees ? and many seem to think that we have some secret 

 art — some system of 'terra-culture' — with which the world at large is unacquainted. 



" We need a complete revolution in these matters. I cannot now detain you 

 to go into the details of planting, and pruning, and mulching ; but I beg you 

 who understand these matters, to constitute yourselves missionaries, and preach 

 this doctrine of high cultivation zealously in your respective jiarishcs, and give 

 examples of it in your own grounds, that your practice may correspond with 

 precept." 



