TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 45 



bounties of Providence, and the most humble cottage is rarely 

 without a fruit-tree or a grape-vine. 



Our country has taken a leading part in this enterprise. 

 Native fruits are fast superseding foreign varieties. The trees 

 and plants of a country flourish better at home than elsewhere ; 

 hence all our efforts are being, and should be, put forth, to get 

 new native sorts of first quality. Of the 36 kinds of apples 

 recommended by the American Pomological Society for gene 

 ral cultivation, 30 are natives ; so are 10 out of the 14 plums, 

 half the pears, and all the strawberries. Formerly our only 

 native grapes were the Catawba and Isabella ; now they are re 

 ceived in such quantities from the South and West, that a 

 Boston dealar buys two and a half tons at one time for his own 

 trade. A mania now exists for American sorts, some of which 

 will doubtless prove excellent. 



A kindred subject is the manufacture of native wine. A Bos 

 ton manufacturer produces annually, from the wild grapes 

 grown on the banks of Charles river, 20,000 gallons; Con 

 necticut manufactures annually 200,000 gallons ; Ohio, 800,000 

 gallons ; and one vine-grower at Los Angelos, Cal., manu 

 factures annnally 2,000 barrels from his own vineyard. Mis 

 souri, in addition to her vineyards, has five millions of acres 

 suited to grape culture. 



All the strawberries used to be brought from the fields, and 

 not a single American variety had been raised by hybridiza 

 tion ; now a cultivator in Massachusetts produces 160 bushels, 

 valued at $1,300 per acre, and another in Connecticut more 

 yet, from new sorts produced from seed. Other parts of the 

 country have improved equally with the East. A Boston 

 apple dealer received last autumn 20,000 barrels of apples from 

 Niagara county, N. Y. In the fall and winter of 1858-9, Bos 

 ton exported 120,000 barrels, mostly Baldwins. The progress 

 of fruit culture is well illustrated in the returns of the fruit 

 crop of Massachusetts. In 1845 it was valued at $744,000 ; in 

 1855 at $1,300,000, and in 1860 it will be $2,000,000, or over. 



