10 



NOTES ON SUPEUIOU FRUMS. 



products of our soil are no longer forbidden 

 fruits. 



Fewer, perhaps, arc there, who liave 

 watched as closely as ourselves, the zeal and 

 enthusiasm which the last five years have 

 begotten in American Horticulture. Every 

 where, on both sides of the Allcganies, are 

 ciur friends rajiidly turning the fertile soil 

 into luxuriant gardens, and crying out loudly 

 for more light, and more knowledge. Al- 

 ready do the readers of rural works in the 

 United Slates number more than in any Cis- 

 atlantic country, except gardening England. 

 Already do our orchards rover more acres 

 than those of any other countr)\ Already 

 are the banks of the Ohio becoming famous 

 for their delicate wines. Already are the 

 suburbs of our cities, and the banks of our 

 broad and picturesque rivers, studded with 

 the tasteful villa and cottage, where a 

 charming taste in ornamental gardening is 

 rapidly developing itself. The patient toil 

 of the pioneer and settler has no sooner 

 fairly ceased, than our people begin to enter 

 with the same zeal and spirit into the re- 

 finements and enjoyments which belong to 

 a country life, and a country home. A for- 

 tunate rancfo of climate — lands fertile and 



easily acquired, tempt persons even of little 

 means and leisure into the delights of gar- 

 dening. Where peaches and melons, the 

 richest fruits of the tropics, are raised with- 

 out walls — where apples and pears, the 

 pride of the temperate zones, are often grown 

 with little more than the trouble of planting 

 them, — who would not be tempted to join in 

 the enthusiasm of the exclamation 



" Allons mcs amis, il faul ciiltivcr nos janlins!" 



Behold us then, with all tliis growing 

 zeal of our countrymen for our beauiilul 

 and favorite art, unable to resist the temp- 

 tation of commencing new labors in its be- 

 half. Whatever our own feeble efforts can 

 achieve, whatever our more intelligent cor- 

 respondents can accomplish, shall be done 

 to render worthy this monthly record of the 

 progress of horticulture and its kindred 

 pursuits. If it is a laudable ambition to 

 " make two blades of grass grow where 

 only one grew before," we shall hope for 

 the encouragement and assistance and sym- 

 pathy of all those who would see our vast 

 territory made smiling with gardens, and 

 rich in all that makes one's country worth 

 living and dying for. 



NOTES ON A FEW FRUITS OF SUPERIOR EXCELLENCE. 



Such a vast number of new fruits have 

 been introduced into our gardens lately, 

 that the novice is quite bewildered how to 

 choose; and the more experienced cultiva- 

 tor is forced to pause and consider, when 

 asked " which are the best ?" 



There are, meanwhile, a few sorts which 

 the experience of the last ten years has 

 proved to be so highly valuable that we 

 shall refer to them, in order more particu- 



larly to point them out to many whom we 

 know to be still ignorant of their merits. 



There is a large class of very fine fruits 

 which have only a local value. They be- 

 long to a certain small district where they 

 have originated, where their qualities attain 

 the highest perfection, and beyond which 

 they deteriorate. Among such, must be 

 numbered those surpassingly fine fruits, the 

 Newtown Pippin and the Esopus Spitzen- 



