406 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



turnip, we may expect a still more extended culture, and I trust 

 with at least equally profitable returns. 



If we turn from roots to fruits, I apprehend we shall find 

 that anything appropriately called systematic and general cul- 

 tivation^ in the State, is the product of the last half century. 

 Fifty years ago, there were some tolerable orchards, but they 

 were largely engrossed with " cider apples," and nothing was 

 done to keep or replenish them. Little fruit was cultivated, 

 except the apple. Some varieties of the cherry and the pear 

 existed^ but the answer of the neglected boy to the traveller's 

 enquiry, who brought him up, " that he came up by himself a- 

 foot," would pretty nearly describe their isolation and condition. 

 Nurseries for the selection and sale of trees, and making it a 

 business, had no existence. The apple trees set out, were gen- 

 erally the spontaneous production of the pomace of the cider 

 mill, thrown out upon the land. The practice of grafting and 

 budding, was little understood, or prevalent ; while the idea, 

 that a man of middle life could set out a pear, cherry, or apple 

 tree with the reasonable expectation that anybody but his chil- 

 dren or grandchildren would pluck its fruits, was not enter- 

 tained. 



The institution of horticultural societies has diffused infor- 

 mation, and created a taste that has changed all this. The 

 old cider press has yielded to that wholesome reform, which has 

 expelled " the arfer," but left " the apples,''^ at the farm house 

 fireside. With this has gone most of that fruit for which it 

 furnished a demand. In its place we have all the varieties of 

 modern pomology, cultivated with all the science and skill a 

 pomological congress, or a host of horticultural writers, in all 

 countries, can collect and diffuse. In our gardens grow " every 

 tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food." It is no 

 longer doubted, that man, even far down in the vale of life, 

 may plant the tree, and expect to pluck the fruit. Fine or- 

 chards are springing up all over the State, and bear ample testi- 

 mony to the care and skill with which they have been selected 

 and reared. The cherry, the pear, the peach, the plum have 

 all obtained their place in them, and in numerous varieties. 

 Beyond this, the strawberry, the raspberry, the currant, the 



