4 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



though in some localities abundant. Plums and cherries suf- 

 fered in common with pears and peaches. Grapes, on the 

 contrary, budding out late in the season, suffered none, and 

 the very dry and warm weather, so prejudicial to other fruits, 

 appeared highly favorable to them : Isabellas and Catawbas, 

 which rarely attain to their full maturity in this latitude, 

 ripened better than we have known them for years. 



HORTICULTURE. 



The science of Fruit culture is yearly attracting more at- 

 tention, and has now become a subject of leading importance. 

 Formerly trees were planted without any particular prepara- 

 tion of the soil, left mostly to the care of themselves, and 

 produced a fair crop of fruit, with which the cultivator was 

 well satisfied. This, however, is not the case now. It has 

 been ascertained that fruits, particularly pears, are susceptible 

 of great improvement over the ordinary mode of treatment just 

 alluded to, and that when properly cultivated, they not only 

 afford far richer specimens of this delicious fruit, but, from 

 their superior beauty and excellence, they command double, 

 and in some instances quadruple, the price of ordinary sam- 

 ples ; indeed, rendering the latter comparatively worthless, 

 when the former are to be had. To attain this superiority 

 of culture is, therefore, the object of every intelligent culti- 

 vator ; for without it he cannot raise fruit creditable to his 

 skill as an amateur, or such as will afford him any satisfactory 

 profit for the market. When once the public taste is raised 

 to that point, to appreciate fruit of fine quality, that of ordi- 

 nary growth becomes less and less valuable, and is reluc- 

 tantly purchased only by those who are yet unacquainted 

 with the great difference between the two. Our exhibitions 

 of fine fruit have continued to increase in the beauty of the 

 specimens, from year to year, till it would seem there could be 

 none more perfect raised ; and the influence of such exhibi- 

 tions has been to render cultivators dissatisfied with any- 

 thing short of the greatest perfection in their growth. Hence 

 the great interest everywhere manifested in the Science of 

 Cultivation, and the desire for information leading to its full- 

 est accomplishment. 



