764 



HORTICULTURE 



ing of apples since the first settlement of the country. 

 Early in the last century there appears to have been a 

 great abundance of the fruit; but in 1821 Tbacher de- 

 clared that "it is a remarkable fact that the first 

 planters bequeathed to their posterity a greater number 

 of orchards, in proportion to their population, than are 

 now to be found in the old colony," and he attributes 

 the decline in orcharding largely to the encroachment 

 of the "poisonous liquor" of the later times. Under the 

 inspiration of Thacher, Coxe, Kenrick, Prince, Manning, 

 and the Downings, orchards were again planted, and we 

 are just now in another period of decline in the East, 

 following the decay of these plantations. 



Apples were carried far into the frontiers by the In- 

 dians and probably also by the French missionaries, and 

 the " Indian apple orchards " are still known in many 

 localities even east of the Mississippi (see also. Apjile- 

 mi'il. ./nil II III/). At the opening of the century, the 

 Earl\' IIar\'est, Newtown Pippin, Swaar, Spitzenberg. 

 Rliode Ishiiul Greening, Yellow Bellefieur, Roxbury 

 Russet, and other familiar apples of American origin 

 were widely disseminated and much esteemed. Apples 

 had begun to be planted by settlers in Ohio before 1800. 

 In 1817, Coxe could recommend a list of "one hundred 

 kinds of the most estimable apples cultivated in our 

 country;" and in 1825 William Prince offered 116 varie- 

 ties for sale— at 37% cents per tree— of which 17 were 

 set aside — after the fashion of the time— as particularly 

 adapted to the making of cider. Of these 1 1(J varieties, 

 61 were considered to be of American origin. In 1872, 

 Downing's list of apples which had been fruited and 

 described in America, had swelled to 18.56 varieties, of 

 which 1099 were of known American origin. Of this 

 great inventory, probably not over a third were actually 

 in cultivation at any one time, and very many of them 

 are now lost. Yet the apple is still our most important 

 fruit, and 878 varieties were actually offered for sale by 

 the nurserymen of North America in 1892. 



There has been a most noticeable tendency towards the 

 origination of varieties of apples in this country, and 

 the consequent exclusion of varieties of European ori- 

 gin. As early as 1760, cions of American varieties were 

 sent to England. Before the Revolution, apples were 

 exported. The origination of indigenous varieties was 

 of course, an accidental one, and was a necessary result 

 of the universal method of growing apple trees directly 

 from seeds, and top-grafting them in case they should 

 turn out profitless. A critical study of American Horti- 

 culture will show that all species of plants which have 

 been widely cultivated In this country have gradually 

 run into indigenous varieties, and the whole body of our 

 domesticated flora has undergone a progressive evohi- 



HORTICULTURE 



tion and adaptation without our knowing it. By far the 

 greater number of the apples of the older apple-growing 

 regions of the country are indigenous varieties, and the 

 same process is now operating in the Northwest, where 

 the American seedlings of the Russian .stock are prov- 

 ing to be more valuable than the original importations. 



s cider mill, a relic of the last century. 



It is said that the apples were placed in the circular groove 

 in the rock .ind cmshed by means ot a weight rolling over 

 them. The juice ran out the gutter at the farther side and 

 was caught in a rock-hewn cistern. 



Pears were amongst the earliest fruits introduced into 

 the New World, and the French, particularly, dissemi- 

 nated them far and wi(ie along the waterways, as wit- 

 nessed by the patriarchi^l trees of the Detroit river and 

 portions of the Mississippi system. John Bartram's 

 Petre pear (Fig. 1080) is one of the patriarchs of the 

 last century, although the tree is not large. The first 

 book devoted exclusively to the pear was Field's, pub- 

 lished in 1859. The Japanese type of pears had been 

 brought into the country from two and perhaps three 

 separate introductions, early in the fifties, but they had 

 not gained suflicieut prominence to attract Field's atten- 

 tion. Prom this oriental stock has come a race of prom- 

 ising hybrids with the common pear, represented chiefly 

 by the Kieffer, Le Conte and Gar- 

 ber. 



Peaches were early introduced 

 into the New World by various 

 colonists, and they thrived so well 

 that they soon became spontaneous 

 Nuttall found them naturalized in 

 the forests of Arkansas in 1819, and 

 the species now grows with all the 

 luxurious abandon of a native in 

 waste and forest lands from Georgia 

 and the Carolinas to the westward 

 of the Mississippi. There is prob- 

 ably no country in the world in 

 which peaches grow and bear so 

 freely as in the United states. The 

 old Spanish or .Melocoton type is 

 now the most popular race of 

 peaches, giving rise to the Craw- 

 fords and their derivatives. 



Of late years there has been a 

 contraction of the original peach 

 areas, and many good people have 

 thought that the climate is grow- 

 ing uncongenial, but it is only the 

 natural result of the civilizaticm of 

 the country and the chauge in 

 methods of Horticulture. Pe.aches 

 had never been an industry, but 

 1086. Dufour's picture of Grape training (1826). the orchards were planted here and 



Patterned after the South-European fashion of employing mulberry trees for supports, there as very minor appendages to 



