Amelioratioji of Fruit Trees. SI 7 



in the power of M. Poiteau to have furnished us with some 

 other evidence in support of his theory than the Vircrinian tra- 

 dition. There is nothing in the history of this country to 

 justify the conclusions which he has drawn. Some of our 

 native fruits have been sent to Europe. I will call your 

 attention to two of these varieties : the Spitzemberg apple of 

 New York, and the Baldwin of Massachusetts; both, in all 

 probability, seedlings of the first generation from the ame- 

 liorated fruits of Europe. Can it be said of these apples that 

 they are " sour crabs, unfit for the table ? " Of the countless 

 thousands of seedling apple trees now bearing fruit in the 

 United States, it is likely that many of a later generation may 

 be found, producing fruit of equal goodness, though I doubt 

 if there is any much superior. More varieties of good fruit 

 have certainly been originated from later generations ; but, I 

 apprehend, not because any progressive tendency to improve- 

 ment exists in the seedling, but because the " laboratory of 

 nature " has been extended. For every seedling tree bearing 

 fruit in 1600, there were in 1700 one hundred; and in 1800 

 at least one thousand. In something like this proportion have 

 the better fruits been originated. The ameliorated fruits 

 brought from Europe, on the settlement of the country, were 

 but little propagated by budding and grafting, as the people 

 were not skilled in those arts. Many years elapsed before 

 nurseries were established, even in the Atlantic country. In 

 1800, three fourths of all the trees bearing fruit in the United 

 States were seedlings. Nurseries have been subsequently 

 established in all parts of the country, and none but the best 

 of grafted fruit is now planted ; which, in the interior, can be 

 had in any quantity, at eight or ten dollars per hundred trees. 

 Formerly but little attention was in general paid to fruit. 

 Every farm had its orchard of six or ten acres ; and, as you 

 know, our farms are small (say they average 100 acres), the 

 consequence of the equal distribution of property under our 

 intestate laws. In an orchard of this size, of seedling trees, 

 there will always be two or three trees producing sufficient 

 fruit of medium goodness to supply the table of the owner ; 

 and, as there was no demand at market for the residue, it 

 would only go to feed the hogs. Under these circumstances, 

 it would scarcely be considered worth while to send some 

 hundred miles to the Atlantic country for grafted trees. The 

 nurseries in the interior are small estabHshments, and propa- 

 gate such varieties as are most esteemed in their immediate 

 neighbourhoods. Perhaps in Pennsylvania the Rambo (which 

 is in the Chiswick garden, I believe) has been latterly more 

 extensively planted than any other variety, though I do not 

 know that it has much more than fashion to recommend it. 



