NEW ENG^LA^'B 



Published by John B. Rcssell, at the corner of Cbnerpss aiiii^ LindnU Sl-ftn's ^Thov < 



.nKT). JSflitor 



VOL. iV. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, MAY It), 18'2(>. 



N.). 4:^ 



ORIGINAL PAPERS. 



: giiishea agricii!turi=l) as " haviug evidently pussed tution trou, I'liiliij.s ks its Ibllo^vj : " toy bouu- ys 

 I their prime, and tlie fruii and wood, proiiacratsd by pn^t it has been stated by several iiigeidcs v. 



ejrs 

 rit- 

 ON THE DURABILITV OF FRUITS. j buds and grafts, ;ire mors diseased than tbrmeriy." ; ers that many of our hes,-, varieties of apples i;oiiid 

 (Concluded from pao;e.3;i().) j In my former coiimiumcation I meationed U.e pear- ' i,o lonj^er he ciiUivatcd with success ;.- lh;it by 



The Essex Register-writer proceeds, " We have , ">'""' ""<'<^ so celebrated, and 50 or tH) years ago ; jeng th of time tiif-y have hpcome deironeruted and 

 not yet given quite all of Mr Knight's hypotliesis ;" , decidedly our best apple, much superior to what ! v.-orn out. Mr Kniglit. the President of tiie IJor- 

 and introduces him as saying: " No new life is /'^'^ Baldwin is now, «s having runout: and in ' tir-nitural Society, soonis to havo been the lirst 

 here generated, and the icraft, the %ec, and the ' confirmation of my own statement of its being un- ; „.l,o gave birtii to tliis idc-i." iSo it appears th.-.t 

 ruWing, appear to possess' the youth .and vigor, or productive, gave tiie information received from a | Mr Knight does not stand alone, in niamtainnij,' 

 age and debility of the plant of wliicdi they have '"'"er in Danvers. I have since seen hLs son, i lii<; theory. And to overthrow it, Phillips says — 

 formed a part."' — Here the E. R.-writer remarks, ' '^^'h'' inherits the same farm; and lie says the same " Having cb^rved in Cove it Gr.rdeu market, in 



" It is only necessary to state this proposition for pearmain trees continue unproductive, and are 

 its own refutation ; for mulberries, currants, and , ''eally of no value, e.xcept as wood for fuel, 

 gooseberries have been propagated in France. I I" Massachusetts several new and valuable va- 



IHU), a great quantity of the real Golden Pippin, 

 in a perfect state, the autJior was induced to nialto 

 particular inquiries respectin<i this fruit and has 



England, and the United states, by tliis method ; ; pieties of apples have appeared, which evidently received satisfactory accounts from all quarttrs, 



and yet, whoever was able to show, that sucli has 

 been the result, as the hypothesis requires ? N.ay, 

 these plants, as well as the apple and pear, have 

 been propagated by cuttings and graftings, ever 

 since the time of iho Romans ; and whoever ob- 

 served that they suddenly every where decayed ? 

 Currants and gooseberries are not long lived 

 plants, and yet we go on propagating tliem from 

 cuttings to all appearance ad iiifinHum." 



These remarks of the E. R.-writer are made 

 with an air of triumph, for an imnginart) victory 

 over a man of an enlightened mind, an assiduous 

 student of nature, an eminent philosopher, and ofi 

 hi-ger and longer experience in the subject under 

 discu.ssion than prouably any man now living! 



But to be entitled to a real triumph, the E. R.- 

 writer is wanting in one important fact. Trees, 

 shrubs, bushes, and tbe vine, bearing fruits, have 

 doubtless been propagtTted by cuttings and gruft- 

 ings, from the time of the Romans, and probably 

 for a period long anterior to them. But to avail liiai- 

 self of this fact as an argument against Mr 

 Knight's theory, tlie E. R.-writer sliould show 

 that the same plj^nts had never, in all that time, 

 been propagated by seed, and by that i eans been 

 renewed : or that other vf/ruties of the same species 

 of fruits, of equal or superior qualities, liad not 

 been obtained to supply the ])iaces of such as were 

 worn out with age. But of this essential requisite 

 neither he nor any other person can produce any 

 proof. On the contrary, it is most probable, that 

 in all ages, fruits, in all the varieties wlji'-h have 

 been subjects of cultivation, have sprung from 

 seeds ; and have endured, according to their seve- 

 ral native constitutions, different lengths of time ; 

 and on their failures from age, val'iable kin Is, 

 springing from seeds of young and healthy stocks, 

 have supplied their places. In every part of our 

 own country, some new varieties of apples, in liigh 

 estimation, liave appeared, manifestly springing 

 from seeds ; for they sre not traced to any other 

 source. Among these, may be mentioned, the 

 Newton pippin, first discovered in a single tree in 

 Newton on Long Island ; — tlie Spitzenburjh. for- 

 merly called the Escpus Spitzenburgh, where it 

 was said to have originated. These two varieties 

 growing in the state of New York, were, I well re- 

 member, in great perfection, in the time of the 

 Revolutionary war ; but the latter, and another 

 excellent apple called the Swaar, are now Aated 

 by a writer in the N. E. Farmer, of the 17th of 

 March, under the signature of Rusticus, (who I am 

 assured is .Iisss Buel, Esq. of Albany, a distin- 



sprnng from seeds. The BnhU'. in or Woodpecker ; tiiat these trees are fast recovering from a lisease 

 apple is one of them. In Wenliani is an excellent ; or canker, which appears to have been Lrouuht on 

 ftill apple, large, rich, and a constant bearer. I j by a .succession of unpropitious sei'sons ; but that 

 have seen it no where else. It goes there by the j the summer of 1818, and the tollovving year, have 

 name of Kilham Hill, from the name I suppose, of! greatly improved tliem." A notable proof this of 

 the original owner on wliose hill it was discover- j tlie falseness of Knight's theory, a theory founded 

 ed. Probably there are few large farms in the , nu/(U-(.'!, the result of mafty years of careful obser- 

 state in whicli new and valuable varieties may not | valion, and of ni.nierous experiments made with 

 be found. Look into any American catalogue of, distinguiehed skill, by an eminent Naturalist, Ag- 



apple trees and there will be seen a variety of ap- 

 ples, whose local names indicate their American 

 origin, and wliose good qualities have recom- 

 mended their cultivatiooi. Henrc we need not re- 

 pine at the extinction of old favourites, seeing 

 others as good, or better, may be obtained from 

 seeds, in all fnturr' time. 



The Essex Register-writer thinks the common 

 practice of propagating mulberries, goq»eberries 

 and currants, being by cutting's, that therefore 

 they may be so continued, and in perfection, for- 

 ever. Forsyth remarks, that these three fruits are 

 propagated by seeds or cuttings. In my first com- 

 munication to you on this subject, I mentioned the 

 improrernents in tlie propagation oi' gooseberries 

 in Loucaahire (which I observe was printed Lin- 

 colnshire) in England from the seeds. And from 

 the est,ima.tion in which these varieties are held, it 

 is probable that few of the old sorts remain. The 

 same process with currants has doubtless produc- 

 ed the large red and white Dutch currants, which 

 a few years since were introduced from England, 

 and which are so vastly superior to those before 

 in the country. Forsyth advises the culture of 

 young plants raised from the seed, in order to ob- 

 tain some fine varieties. And there can be no 

 reasonable doubt, but that in ,all .ages fruit bearing 

 trees and plants of all kinds have been raised from 

 seeds purposely sown, or which had fallen from ripe 

 fruits. 



The E. R.-writer, in his third publication, af- 

 fects to sneer at Mr Knight, and at all who adopt 

 and support ids theory. But either he does not 

 yet understand that theory, or wilfully perverts it, 

 and mistates his facts. It was in this third piece 

 that the writer promised " to bring forward such 

 proofs as shall to an unprejudiced mind, totally 

 destroy all credit in so strange a notion as Mr 

 Knight has advanced." — I have looked for these 

 overwhelming proofs — but do not find them. His 

 first authority i,.; that of a "Mr Henry Phillips,"wli*' 

 having- F. H. S. added to his name, may be a fel- 

 low of the Horticultural Sosiety of London, of 

 which Mr Knight is the President. The first quo- 



riculturist, and I'orticulturist, anxsiusly tryiu'^ 

 every metho<l which ingenuity could devise, to Cs^ 

 cover the means of renewing and continuing the 

 Old ce'iphrated apple trees in a prodiictiye state ; 

 but in wliich he totally failed : excepting TyhehdiO 

 changed their climate ; for he had before observ- 

 sd, " tHat rnot the golden piopin only, but] all 

 the (yld Jhtits were free from disease when trained 

 agains^j.a so«th wall." — But Mr Knight'i; great 

 object, "iiJ'hw experiments, was, not to provide the 

 luxury of fine fruits for the wealthy, bnt standard 

 trees for the farmers orchard : and here he fonnil 

 all his patientlabonrs were fruitless. Mr Knight's 

 established character is enough to repel the hear- 

 say evidence of Mr Phillips, with his news •' from 

 all quarters." And " the real golden pij.pins" 

 which he saw in Covent Garden market, were 

 probably raised -against south-walls — the very po- 

 sition in v.diich Mr Knight says he also succeed- 

 ed.* 



Mr Phillips' next proof is this. " He waited on 

 some gentlemen who are well known in all part:! 

 of the vorld for their practical knowledge in tlie 

 cultivation of apples. Mr Hugh Ronalds, Jun. of 

 Brentford informed him that he had lately seen a 

 tree [one tree ! and this not a golden pippin, but 

 only] of the golden pippin kind, ■ • Ich had bepn 

 planted against a umll in a smith aspect, which was 

 in a thriving condition, and the frsdt in a perfect 

 state." But this, again, if a crenuine golden pip- 

 pin merely corresponds with Mr Knight's own ex- 

 periment. 



Mr Phillips's third proof: — "Mr Lee of Hammer- 

 smith, who showed me five hundred various kinds 

 of apples, was decidedly o/ opinion that the appar- 

 ent decay of some trees was owing to the unfavor- 

 able springs we have had for several year.^. But 



* It is the expensive modes of raising fruits in the 

 rool climate of England, to plea?e (he palates of the 

 .weallhy, (hat cause their high prices. In (he tzii.e 

 Covent Garden market, there are apples, whose aver- 

 age prices, from .November to March, are from thiMyfo 

 forty-eight Jhillings sterling (from six (o ttn dollars) a 

 hiisbel. Thi« is stated id LoHitoQ's Encyclopedia ot- 

 Gardening. 



