POHOLOGICAL CONVENTIONS. 



421 



editorial friend in Boston, who, if we re- 

 member rightly, has denominated our own 

 efforts, and those of others, toward awa- 

 kening public interest to the value of inor- 

 ganic manures, "quackery,") to examine 

 Mr. Elliott's account of the direct and 

 distinct result of experiments with lime 

 and wood ashes. As we have before stated, 

 we have no doubt that, in nine cases out of 

 ten, where a variety of fruit which once 

 flourished in a given soil, has ceased to 

 flourish and perfect fine fruit there, it is be- 

 cause the soil has become destitute of the 

 necessary mi7ieral manures ; and in nearly 

 all such cases, the plentiful application of 

 wood ashes alone, or wood ashes and lime, 

 will restore the healthy condition of the 

 trees. 



Our correspondent, in his remarks on the 

 supposed influence of climate on certain 

 varieties, no doubt alludes to our own work 

 on Fruits. We candidly own that we were 

 wrong. We were satisfied, more than a 

 year ago, that we had attached too much 

 importance to the effects of climate in de- 

 terioraiing varieties ; and accordingly re- 

 wrote and altered (in the eighth and subse- 



quent editions,) all that portion of the j^p- 

 pendix, etc., in our work on Fruits, relating 

 to this subject. A larger observation of the 

 effects of the composition of soils, within the 

 last two or three years, convinced us that 

 much of what we attributed to climate vi^as 

 simply owing to a want of the necessary 

 inorganic, or mineral manures in the soil ; 

 and as we are always ready to abandon a 

 wrong opinion the moment it is plain to us 

 that it is an error, we beg those who have 

 only the earlier editions of our work to do 

 us the justice to remember this correction. 

 At the sam.e time, we think climate often 

 has an effect upon the quality of a given 

 fruit, though not upon the deterioration. 

 Thus, the Ribston Pippin is a fair and beau- 

 tiful apple on the Hudson ; but it is of little 

 or no value, either in point of flavor or 

 keeping quality, as compared with the same 

 fruit grown in the colder climate of Maine ; 

 and the comparison of notes with Mr. Al- 

 len, the intelligent president of the St. 

 Louis Horticultural Society, has proved to 

 us that many of our finest fruits are only of 

 second quality in Missouri, merely from 

 the effects of climate. Ed. 



POMOLOGICAL CONVENTIONS. 



Any one at all conversant vv-ith the horti- 

 culture of this country, can easilj^ see that 

 not only fruit-growing for pleasure and 

 profit, but pomologj'' as a study and a sci- 

 ence, are becoming matters of larger inte- 

 rest here than in any other part of the 

 world. The superior quality of the best 

 American fruit, and the large crops which 

 now find a market, both at home and 

 abroad ; the constant demand made upon 

 nurserymen for the best trees, and upon 

 experienced writers for works on fruits ; 

 these are all strong proofs of the awakened 



state of the jiublic mind regarding this 

 branch of horticulture. 



Perhaps a more decided and significant 

 evidence of the interest in pomological sci- 

 ence is, however, witnessed in the assem- 

 bling of pomological co7iventions in different 

 parts of the country, with a view of com- 

 paring varieties, correcting errors, and dis- 

 seminating knowledge on all pomological 

 subjects. Such excellent movements are 

 the conventions held for two years past in 

 Ohio ; and, during the past year, at Buffalo 

 and New- York. 



