A FEW WORDS ON FRUIT CULTURE. 



cultivated, manured, pruned, and properly cared for, annually, would give a larger 

 product of really delicious and handsome fruit, than is now obtained from double the 

 number of trees, and thrice the area of ground. The difficulty usually lies in the 

 want of knowledge and the high price of labor. But the horticultural societies in all 

 parts of the country, are gradually raising the criterion of excellence among amateurs, 

 and the double and treble prices paid lately by confectioners for finely-grown speci- 

 mens, over the market value of ordinary fruit, are opening the eyes of market grow- 

 ers to the pecuniar}' advantages of high cultivation. 



Perhaps the greatest advance in fruit growing of the last half dozen years, is in the 

 culture of foreign grapes. So long as it was believed that our climate, which is warm 

 enough to give us the finest melons in abundance, is also sufficient to produce the for- 

 eign grape in perfection, endless experiments were tried in the open garden. But as 

 all these experiments were unsatisfactory or fruitless, not only at the north but at the 

 south — it has finally come to be admitted that the difficulty lies in the variableness, 

 rather than the want of heat, in the United States. This once conceded, our horticul- 

 turists have turned their attention to vineries for raising this delicious fruit under 

 glass — and at the present time, so much have both private and market vineries increas- 

 ed, the finest Hamburgh, Chasselas, and Muscat grapes, may be had in abundance at 

 moderate prices, in the markets of Boston, New- York and Philadelphia. For a Sep- 

 tember crop of the finest foreign grapes, the heat of the sun accumulated in one of the 

 so called cold vineries — (i. e. — a vinery without artificial heat, and the regular tempe- 

 rature insured by the vinery itself,) are amply sufficient. A cold vinery is construct- 

 ed at so moderate a cost, that it is now fast becoming the appendage of every good 

 garden, and some of our wealthiest amateurs, taking advantage of our bright and sunny 

 climate, have grapes on their tables from April to Christmas — the earlier crops forced 

 — the late ones slightly retarded in cold vineries. From all that we saw of the best 

 private gardens in England, last summer, we are confident that we raise foreign grapes 

 under glass in the United States, of higher flavor, and at far less trouble, than they 

 are usually produced in England. Indeed, we have seen excellent Black Ilam- 

 burghs grown in a large pit made by covering the vines trained on a high board fence, 

 with the common sash of a large hot-bed. 



On the Ohio, the native grapes — especially the Catawba — have risen to a kind of 

 national importance. The numerous vineries which border that river, particularly 

 about Cincinnati, have begun to yield abundant vintages of pure light wine, which 

 takes rank Avith foreign wine of established reputation, and commands a high price in 

 the market. Now that the Ohio is certain to give us Hock and Claret, what we hear 

 of the grapes and wine of Texas and New-Mexico, leads us to believe that the future 

 vineyards of New-AVorld Sherry and Madeira may spring up in that quarter of our 

 widely extended country. 



New--Jersey, so long famous for her prolific peach orchards, begins to show the ef- 



of a careless system of culture. Every year, the natural elements of the 

 dful to the production of the finest peaches, are becoming scarcer and scarcer 



