AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUliLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STRELCT, (Agiucultural Waeehou3E.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOL. MX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVF:NING, JUNE 16, 1841. 



ITSO. 60. 



N. E. F ARME 



INDUCEMENTS OF HORTICULTURE AS 



AN OCCUPATION. 



{Extracted from J. Breck's Milress before the Jf'tst- 



boru' .'If^rlcutturnl Society.) 



Tliere aro many inducements to pursue tlio art 

 of Horticulture, souk; of which will ba considered. 



It is a source of profit. Good fruit, as an ali- 

 ment, is conducive to health. 



It is a source of much innocent pleasure. It lias 

 a good moral influence. 



As to the profit — I think you must all aclniow- 

 ledge that this alone is a sutHcient inducement for 

 you to be up and doing. Your prospects are ma- 

 terially changed from what they were ten years 

 ago. You are now within two hours of tlie best 

 market in the United States, and can transport the 

 most delicate fruit without the least injury. I 

 would inquire how an acre of ground can be made 

 to produce so much as when devoted to fruit .' A 

 neighbor of mine purchased a piece of ground — 

 about an acre — for which he paid $300; it was 

 covered with apple trees in their full vigor, of the 

 best varieties of Iruit : he informed me that he 

 sold in one year, enough to pay for it. I do not 

 believe there is any crop that will pay so well as 

 fruit. Fine fruit always commands the highest 

 price in Boston; so high, indeed, that none but the 

 affluent can afford it. I will give you the prices 

 of a few varieties, the present season — [1840.] — 

 Bartlett pears, 37 1-3 to .50 cents per dozen, and 

 St. Michael at 50 cents to I dollar, according to 

 size and fairness. Peaches, such as I used to raise 

 bushels of, from 35 cents to 75 cents per dozen ; 

 and small, miserable things, not fit to eat, for 13 

 1-2 cents. Plums, 25 cents to 75 cents per box, 

 of about one quart. Strawberries and Antwerp 

 Raspberries, hardly ever less than 37 1-2 cents per 

 bo.x, unless they had begun to decay ; and some 

 magnificent varieties, 75 cents to .$1 perbo.\. Isa- 

 bella grapes, from 12 1-2 cents to 25 cents per lb. 

 A few years since, Mr Samuel Johnson, of Charles- 

 town, received the sum of $49 29 for the produce 

 of a single plum tree of tlie White (Jage species, 

 the growth of one season. It should be re- 

 membered, however, that these are the retail pri- 

 ces But supposing the retailer makes 100 per cent., 

 it will leave a generous price lor the grower. — 

 Good peaches have readily sold this season from 2 

 to 4 dollars per bushel. Porter apples 1 25 to 

 $1 50 per bushel, and all other fine eating varie- 

 ties in proportion. The large Iron pear, for bak- 

 ing, is hardly ever less than $i per barrel, and I 

 have known them as high as 6 or $8, and nearly 

 IS easily raised as Baldwin apples. There are 

 many varieties of winter pears now cultivated in 

 the neighborhood of Boston, equal in flavor to any 

 of the fall varieties, which will bring almost any 

 price asked. An Isabella grape vine trained to an 

 humble cottage that has fallen under my notice, 

 yields bushels of fruit annually — not only supply- 

 ing the family, buL leaving a surplus for sale, or 

 distribution among friends. This combines the 



useful with the ornamental, as the vine loaded with 

 its rich fruit is highly ornamental and grateful to 

 the eye. There arc individuals in Boston, with 

 hardly a rod of land, whose income from grape 

 vini's trained to the house, yield sufficient to pay 

 their taxes, amounting from 25 to $40 per year, 

 and still reserving enough for their table and 

 friends. 



I was on the farm of Elias Pliinncy, Esq., of Lex- 

 ington, a few weeks sinci;, and observed a fine 

 orchard of peach trees of about one acre : the 

 ground between the trees had been cultivated from 

 the time they were planfed, which accounted for 

 the very fine, fair fruit, by which the trees were 

 bending to the ground. I was informed that the 

 crops raised between the trees had paid from year 

 to year the cost of cultivation and other expenses, 

 leaving the receipts from the fruit a net gain. I 

 have been informed from good authority that the 

 sales from this orcliErd in one week amounted to 

 more than one hundred dollars, at wholesale pri- 

 ces ; what the total amount of sales has been, I 

 know not ; but it must have been three times that 

 sum. This farm is 13 miles, or two hours from 

 Boston ; so you will perceive it is the same dis- 

 tance, in one sense, as from Westboro' to Boston. 

 I have already given a description of Mr Phinney's 

 apple orchard, in the New England Farmer, which 

 some of you take. It consists of about 4 or 500 

 trees on ten acres of land, planted 16 years ago; 

 the ground has always been cultivated from the 

 time the trees were planted. The fruit is' mostly 

 winter, a great majority of it the Baldwin. Two 

 years ago he sold 700 barrels of good sound ap- 

 ples from it, and upon a rough guess, should say 

 that this year it would exceed one thousand. Ap- 

 ples are now worth in the market at least •$! 50 

 per barrel : we bought some a few days since for 

 a customer in St. Johns, and had to pay $1 7.5. 



There need be no fear of overstocking the mar- 

 ket with good fruit. There is always bad enough 

 in all conscience. Our market has been crowded 

 all summer with fruit prematin'ely picked, and trans- 

 ported by steam conveyance from New York, New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, and oven as far south as 

 Norfolk, Va. By the time it reaches us, it is in a 

 decaying state, and consequently unwholesome and 

 not fit for a rational creature to eat : yet it has 

 found a ready sale at high prices and in large 

 quantities. By steam communication fruit i» con- 

 veyed from Boston to Maine and the British Prov- 

 inces, and oven to England. For under the genial 

 influences of our sun, our fruit is much superior to 

 theirs, and brings a higher price. The facilities 

 the steam ships now give, will greatly extend our 

 market, and all the surplus fruit that will be raised 

 for an age to cnme, will meet with a leady sale. 



There can be no doubt in regard to the profit 

 which may be derived from raising good fruit. 

 Even the common cider apples are now generally 

 allowed to be more profitable for feeding swine 

 and other stock than for converting into cider. If 

 they were not, I would advocate the plan which 

 some have inconsiderately carried into eflT2Ct, that 

 is of cutting down their orchards. The cider busi- 



ness, as formerly conducted, must have been a 

 hard one, whether the cider was "hard" or not. 

 The idea of picking apples and making them into 

 cider, and then selling it at 75 cents per barrel, or 

 laying up 20 or 30 barrels for family use, drinking 

 as much more converted into cider brandy, as I 

 have known a family do, is not so very agreeable. 

 The best policy is to have none but the very finest 

 varieties of fruit on the place, such as will find a 

 ready sale at the beat prices. The wind-falls 

 and unsound fruit should be fed to the swine or 

 converted into cider for vinegar. Orchards may 

 be set out expressly for the use of swine and other 

 stock. We know of a number of fine, thrifty 

 young orchards of sweet apples, set out by men 

 who have long used them to great advantage for 

 feeding their swine, and who consider a bushel of 

 them equal to a bushel of potatoes: they are valua- 

 ble also for cows and horses ; and if time permit- 

 ted, could give accounts of many interesting expe- 

 riments proving their value for this purpose ; but 

 must pass to the consideration of other mduce- 

 ments to pursue this pleasant occupation. 



One great advantage arising from the cultiva- 

 tion of fine fruit is, that a free use of it is favorable 

 to health. In the Annals of Horticulture, the ad- 

 vantages of it are set forth in the following lan- 

 guage : 



" One of the best aliments and the best appropri- 

 ated, to the different ages of life, is that which our 

 fruit aflibrds. They present to man a light nour- 

 ishment, of easy digestion, and produce a chyle 

 admirably adapted to the functions of the human 

 body. Thoroughly ripe fruit eaten with bread, is 

 perhaps the most innocent of all aliments, and will 

 even insure health and strength." 



" I'here are fruits which, when perfectly ripe, 

 can be eaten to excess, without inconvenience, 

 such as grapes, cherries and currants; the other 

 kinds never occasion ill consequences, if they are 

 eaten only to satisfy the demands of nature." 



As far as my own observation goes, I fully agree 

 with the above writer. For, not having had the 

 taste vitiated by tobacco or ardent spirits, I have al- 

 ways retained the high relish for fruits, which 

 seems to be inherent to ( ur natures, and have ha- 

 bitually used it freely when it has been in my pow- 

 er to obtain it. When toiling in the sua in our 

 warm summer days, I have found there was noth- 

 ing ao grateful or refreshing as fruit. A plate of 

 strawberries, currants, cherries or a melon, with a 

 little bread and cheese, for a lunch, taken under a 

 tree, fanned by the pure country air, is a luxury 

 indeed ; and will be found more effectual in re- 

 cruiting the exhausted fraine and quenching the 

 parching thirst, than any thing else that can be 

 named, even were the whole list of aliments or 

 stimulating drinks called over. With fruit, a very 

 little drink, even of cold water will be found ne- 

 cessary. Having had an abundance of cherries 

 for a number of years past, I have eaten them in 

 their season almost to excess, and found that 

 health was improved by the use. I have eat them 

 in the morning as soon as I have risen and could 

 get to the trees, and at all times of the day. I 



