70 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



ornament our plains, and fill our valleys, with a rich proportion 

 and pleasing varieties of the forest trees — mixing those that put 

 forth their freshness in the spring, with those which, by their 

 evergreen foliage, maintain, in winter season, a pleasing contrast 

 with the whiteness of the drifting snow. With such an inherit- 

 ance handed down to them, our children's children, made glad 

 by the glory and beauty which they see around, will say that 

 we, their fathers, were a wise and understanding people. 



Selections from an Essay on the Cultivation of the Apple. 



BY JOHN M. IVES. 



This fruit is unquestionably the most profitable, as well as 

 easiest of culture, for the farmer. The earliness of some varie- 

 ties, and the long-keeping properties of others, render the apple 

 one of the choicest gifts of nature. One of the first and most 

 successful cultivators of this fruit in our country, was William 

 Coxe, of Burlington, in New Jersey, who had in his orchard, 

 some thirty years since, upward of one hundred sorts ; many of 

 these trees are now in a thrifty state, particularly those that 

 were engrafted upon suckers. We have for some time been con- 

 vinced that suckers make good stocks ; and the above, in relation 

 to Coxe's orchards of the apple, (as we were informed during 

 a recent visit to Burlington,) seems to corroborate this. The 

 roots of suckers are more inclined to take a horizontal direction 

 than seedlings, which are apt to extend downwards into a cold 

 sub-soil. Liebig's (the great agricultural chemist,) leading prin- 

 ciple is, that the carbon of plants is chiefly derived from the at- 

 mosphere ; which suggests the importance of admitting air to 

 the roots of plants, by inviting them to the surface. The sup- 

 ply of suckers, however, is so limited, (as at least one half of those 

 taken from around trees have not sufficient roots, and many of 

 them crooked stems,) we must propagate from seed ; usually ob- 

 tained from the pomace of the cider-mill. 



Sowing seed. The seed must be sowed in autumn, in drills 

 in well-pulverized soil; keeping the surface loose and free from 



