JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



(De tjif Sinprnnniirat nf ^rgrtabl^ txwm, 



WOTWITHSTANDING- all the drawbacks of the violent extremes of climate, the 

 ^ * United States, and especially all that belt of country lying between the Mohawk 

 and the James rivers, is probably as good a fruit country as can be found in the world. 

 Whilst every American, travelling in the north of Europe, observes that very choice 

 fruit; grown at great cost, and with the utmost care, is more certainly to be found in 

 the gardens of the wealthy, than with us, he also notices that the broad-cast pro- 

 duction of tolerably good fruit in orchards and gardens, is almost nothing in Europe, 

 when compared to what is seen in America. As we have already stated, one-fourth 

 of the skill and care expended on fruit culture in the north of Europe, bestowed in 

 America, would absolutely load every table with the finest fruits of temperate cli- 

 mates. 



As yet, however, we have not made any progress beyond common orchard culture. 

 In the majority of cases, the orchard is planted, cultivated two or three years with the 

 plough, pruned badly three or four times, and then left to itself. It is very true, that 

 in the fruit gardens, which begin to surround some of our older cities, the well pre- 

 pared soil, careful selection of varieties, judicious culture and pruning, have begun to 

 awaken in the minds of the old fashioned cultivators a sense of astonishment as to the 

 size and perfection to which certain fruits can be brought, which begins to react on the 

 country at large. Little by little, the orchardists are beginning to be aware that it is 

 better to plant fifty trees carefully, in well prepared soil, than to stick in five hundred, 

 by thrusting the roots in narrow holes, to struggle out an imperfect existence ; little 

 by little, the horticultural shows and the markets, have proved that while fruit trees of 

 the best standard sorts, cost no more than those of indifferent quality — the fruit they 

 bear is worth ten times as much ; and thus by degrees, the indifferent orchards are 

 being renovated by grafting, manuring, or altogether displaced by new ones of 

 rior quality. 



April 1, 1852. 



No. IV. 



