WAYNE COUNTY— THE ORCHARD OF NEW-YORK. 



Lyons, Newark and Clj^de, to ship their quota. Mr. Wm. H. Rogers, of Williamson, 

 one of our lake towns, who obtained the first premium of a silver medal and diploma, at 

 the late annual meeting of the New-York State Agricultural Society, at Albany, for the 

 best and largest (134 varieties) collection of winter apples — is a young and enterprising 

 farmer, occupying about one hundred acres of land, on forty-five of which he has grow- 

 ing in the finest condition, over seventeen hundred trees, comprising sixty to seventy va- 

 rieties of the choicest apples. Other farmers have immense orchards, which yield up their 

 products to them with no sparing hand. A few seasons since, one of my neighbors had 

 two thousand grafts set in one spring, on a farm he had recently bought. Among the ear 

 liest pioneers of Wayne county, were the Foster and Reeve families of this town, who 

 penetrated this then unbroken wilderness, selected their location, marked their " pre- 

 emption tree," and at the foot of the tree cleared away a few feet of ground, and sowed 

 first some apple seeds for a nursery, and returned east to Long-Island, after securing their 

 title to their soil. 



The following season they returned with their families, and brought and introduced 

 into their small nursery, grafts of the Esopus Spitzenburgh, Rhode Island Greening, and 

 Roxbury Russet Apples, and from this small beginning these varieties spread in every di- 

 rection, so that now these three standard varieties seem to predominate in our market. 



I was quite surprised two years ago, on examining the last report of the canal commis- 

 sioners, to find in the returns for that year, that the collectors' offices of Palmyra and 

 Lyons, in our retired county, had shipped during the year, more dried fruit, by more than 

 thirty per cent, than the entire state west of us, including Rochester and Buffalo, and of 

 course, including the Ohio fruit via Buff'alo; and also fifteen per cent, more than the en- 

 tire state east of us to Albany. All the offices east cleared six hundred and ten thousand 

 pounds; those west cleared five hundred and thirty-eight thousand pounds, while Lyons 

 and Palmyra cleared seven hundred and eight thousand pounds. 



And 3'et it seems quite certain, that fruit raising in our county was never so popular as 

 at the present time, or were there ever so many practically engaged urging it forward. It 

 is made apparent to every one here, that to enjoy in profusion the finest fruits the world 

 produces, costs really very little besides the pleasure of its cultivation; but the enthusi- 

 asm excited on the subject, causes fruit to be cultivated in many quarters, with most ex- 

 traordinary care, and liberality of expenditure. Among men of various pursuits, I might 

 instance Messrs. Lovett & Rogers, merchants of this village, Mr. M. Mackie, a 

 farmer of Galen, and Mr. H. G. Dickenson of Lyons, an enterprising and intelligent me- 

 chanic, who has already over fifteen hundred fruit trees growing on his beautiful grounds. 



Our sister village of Lyons started very early in the pursuit of raising rare fruits, and 

 now can exhibit fruit gardens and orchards of great size and excellence. 



Wayne county is under lasting obligations to our truly esteemed friends, John J. Tho- 

 mas and Wm. R. Smith of Maccdon, for their liberal exhibition of the choicest and most 

 approved varieties of fruits, and also for supplying us with reliable kinds at cheap rates. 

 I believe I can say in the name of Wayne county, they have never deceived us, which is 

 a rare testimony for nurserymen, who with all their care are often liable to be deceived 

 themselves. 



Our Rochester friends, and Albany friends, and Flushing friends, and particularly our 

 Newburgh friends, justly cfaim our acknowledgments, also, on behalf of their respective 

 nurseries. 



yet the desire to increase our fine fruits, was never greater than at present 

 a farmer, north, sold and delivered in the northern range of two or three 



