402 



FRUIT TREES AND THE BEST MANURES FOR THEM. 



the difference in the value of the crop may 

 be an hundred dollars. 



What then is the secret of good cultiva- 

 tion ? What steps must he taken to ensure 

 success, either to him who wishes fine fruit 

 for home consumption, or regular and abun- 

 dant crops for market ? 



Such is the substance of the numerous 

 queries to which we have alluded ; and we 

 shall throw out a few suggestions to meet 

 them. 



The first secret of success, is to plant only 

 the best sorts. 



This -yould appear to be a matter as plain 

 as a pike-staff'; and yet, there are very few 

 planters who carefully attend to it. There 

 is such a passion for novelty and variety in 

 the minds of most men, that they are not 

 content with what is really knoimi to be ex- 

 cellent. They must try everything that is 

 said to be better than excellent. Hence, 

 more than half our fruit gardens are filled 

 up with trashy tree^, that have no other 

 merit than high sounding names. Hence, 

 no one is satisfied with twenty pears, 

 though this may comprise all those of 

 the very finest quality. They must have 

 an hundred, at least ; and the consequence 

 is that, at last, they gather five bushels of 

 most indifferent fruit to a peck of the finest 

 quality, when they might have gathered 

 the latter only. But only time and trial 

 will cure this mania for making every pri- 

 vate orchard and garden a pornological spe- 

 cimen ground. The feeling is so rife at 

 present, that a writer, or a society, that re- 

 commends a list of only a dozen or two 

 fruits of each sort, is looked upon as behind 

 the age. Now the real truth is just this : 

 that when a fruit garden contains the Green 

 Gage and the Jefferson plum, the Seckel and 

 the White Doyennj pear, the Early Harvest 

 and the Newtown Pippin apple, the George 

 the Fourth and the Grosse Mignonne peach, 



it contains the concentrated excellence of a 

 catalogue of a thousand varieties. The 

 question, therefore, after this, is not how to 

 get better sorts, but how to get a sufficient 

 number of other fine sorts, to make out the 

 season from early to late ; and having done 

 this, we think it far better to multiply twice > 

 ten, or twenty times, really excellent sorts, of 

 established .reputation, than to plant all 

 sorts of novelties in an orchard or fruit 

 garden Avhere enjoyment or profit, and not 

 curiosity, is the object in view. Zealous 

 amateurs are now abundant, who are en- 

 gaged, in a most praiseworthy manner, in 

 importing, collecting, and testing every- 

 thing that can be heard of. There is a 

 great interest and pleasure in this, as we 

 have satisfied ourselves by years of trial ; but 

 it is a vast waste of time, money and ground, 

 for those v,'ho only want a supply of the 

 finest fruits, to be ransacking all the new 

 catalogues for "eminent varieties." Let 

 them find out what are ten of the best sorts 

 of any such fruits as the apple and peair, 

 and plant those ten sorts till their grounds 

 are filled, rather than hunt for fifty or an 

 hundred varieties. 



There is something ver}' fascinating in a 

 name. It appears to be verj" hard for a 

 novice, who is making out his order from a 

 grand catalogue, to give the cold shoulder 

 to Duchesses, Kings, and Princes Royal, 

 and order a tree, with such a plain look- 

 ing name as the Dix, or the Heathcot. 

 That huge, coarse apple, the Gloria Mundi, 

 (glory of the world,) has owed its existence, 

 in hundreds of gardens, solely to its superb 

 title; and the "Green Sugar of Hoyer- 

 swerda," has disappointed, in its treache- 

 rous, rotten flavor, dozens who had prepared 

 their mouths for something akin to genuine 

 nectar and ambrosia. Nay, a friend of 

 ours, who planted a tree of the " Great 

 t^itron of Bohemia," assured us that he ex- 



