286 



Unfortunately for the moral character of our population,, 

 fruit is too generally considered lawful plunder. The 

 culturist is allowed to have a full and exclusive right to 

 his corn and potatoes it would be infamy to steal them ; 

 but no exclusive right to his fruit if they can get it. 

 Thousands of honorable eyceptions to this charge may be 

 found, but it is not the less true that a part of our popula- 

 tion is tainted, and deserves to be branded with reproach. 



The native fruit of a thinly populated country, growing 

 without culture, and free for all has doubtless had its 

 share in producing this laxity of morals. " I would sooner 

 have a hundred Irishmen round me than one Yankee,'* 

 was the declaration of a sufferer, whose fruit had been 

 plundered near the line of the Erie canal, when that 

 great work was in progress. But Europeans are generally 

 more exemplary on this point than Americans shame on 

 us ! When Professor Stowe was in Prussia, where the 

 roads are lined with fruit trees by order of the government, 

 he observed a wisp of straw, attached to particular trees, 

 to protect the fruit : a sufficient guard ; but he suggested 

 to the coachman that in America, it might only prove an 

 invitation to plunder. " Have you no schools ?" was the 

 significant reply. 



One thing is worth bearing in mind by those who pur- 

 chase fruit trees : the best kinds are generally as hardy as 

 the worst, and the difference in price fades into nothing 

 when compared with the difference in quality. Nobody 

 is satisfied with mean fruit after tasting better. 



For a fruit garden, a western aspect is generally best, 

 because it is the least subject to sudden transitions of tem- 

 perature. Severe vernal frosts often prove injurious, or 

 otherwise, according to the weather that follows. If the 

 sky be overcast in the morning, and the air continues cold, 

 little or no damage occurs ; but when the sun breaks out 

 warm, the injury is the greatest ; and the most so, where 



