316 Amelioration of Fruit Trees. 



to feed dieir young. This prepaiation is equally efficacious 

 for crickets. 



Gentlemen and gardeners should be aware that this mer- 

 curial poison is equally fatal to vegetable as animal life. Should 

 it be laid on the surface of the soil, round the stem of an 

 orange tree or other plant, it will corrode the bark and albur- 

 num, to the certain destruction of the plant. This 1 know 

 from experience 



Yours, &c. 

 Welhech, Feb. 1831. J. Thompson, Jun. 



Art. XXI. On the Amelioration of Fruit Trees. By J. L., of 

 York, Pennsylvania. 



Sir, 



M. PoiTEAU, in a paper on the amelioration of fruits, read 

 before the Societe d' Horticulture de Paris, refers to this 

 country as " the grand laboratory of nature to produce new 

 ameliorated fruits." " The colonists," says M. Poiteau, 

 *' brought with them some of the ameliorated fruits of Europe ; 

 but, as they were occupied with the more important cares 

 incident to their situation, these fruits were not propagated by 

 grafting, but only by seed ; in consequence, they found them- 

 selves in time possessed only of sour crabs, unfit for the table. 

 In the mean time, a second generation of fruit took place, 

 which were little superior to those of the first. After a third, 

 a fourth, and a fifth generation had succeeded the first, the 

 inhabitants began to perceive some fruits better than those of 

 the preceding generations." He refers for these facts to a 

 tradition communicated to him in Virginia, in 1800. (Vol. II. 

 p. 62.) If I correctly comprehend the theory attempted to be 

 established, it is this : that the seedling of any variety of ame- 

 liorated fruit will only produce the sour crab from which it 

 originated ; that a second generation will exhibit appearances 

 of improvement ; that the third generation will be superior to 

 the second; and that in this manner the improvement will 

 progress, until a fruit is obtained superior to that upon which 

 the experiment commenced. This theory has been occasion- 

 ally adverted to by the correspondents of the Gardener's Ma- 

 gazine; one of whom, if I mistake not, has stated that, of the 

 seeds in a particular apple, those which are round in shape 

 will invariably produce ameliorated fruit, while that from the 

 others will be but the original crab. (Vol. I. p. 223.) 



This is a very interesting subject, and one of no little im- 

 portance ; it is, therefore, much to be wished that it had been 



