84 



Dtyivning^s Booh on Fruit Trees, S^c. 



Vol. X. 



jurious in a great degree. In a retentive 

 clay soil this must inevitably remain, but in 

 a porous, gravelly soil, the rain has free ac- 

 cess to the roots, and washes away the inju- 

 rious matter before it can produce any evil 

 effect. The soil of Dr. Rhinelander, of 

 Huntingdon, L. I., is of this nature, and he 

 is remarkably successful in the cultivation 

 of every variety of fruit. I do not recollect 

 ever to have seen finer peaches, plums, apri- 

 cots, and nectarines, than I tasted in his 

 grounds the last year. 



The author asserts that a large number of 

 pears have deteriorated on the seaboard. I 

 cannot speak of Boston, but as applied to 

 Long Island, those assertions are entirely 

 incorrect. We know of but two varieties 

 of fruit that have at all deteriorated, — the 

 Virgouleuse and St. Germain pears ; while 

 we have originated several new vaiieties, of 

 which the Lawrence pear, a winter fruit, 

 equals the best foreign varieties. This de- 

 terioration is, we are satisfied, caused by an 

 insect which attacks the tree in certain lo- 

 calities, but whose ravages are prevented 

 by high cultivation and thinning of fruit, for 

 it is well known that many insects will 

 rarely attack thrift,y shoots and fruit, and 

 during a season of rapid vegetation and poor 

 fruit crops, many of our Virgouleuse pears 

 were fine and sound. The same appear- 

 ance of disease was shown some years since 

 among our Newtown pippins, which the au- 

 thor's brother informed us also appeared 

 among their own. We immediately culti- 

 vated and manured the orchard very highly, 

 and the year after were rewarded with per- 

 fectly sound apples of unusual size and fine 

 flavor. I have not heard that this appear- 

 ance of disease has disappeared from the 

 Hudson river, but am convinced that high 

 cultivation would effect that object. As the 

 author observes, every fruit has its locality, 

 and may be often inferior elsewhere, as the 

 peach is attacked by insects and disease in 

 New Jersey, while it is free from them in 

 more Southern States. We think we have 

 satisfactorily shown, however, that these 

 casualties are owing neither to soil nor cli- 

 mate, for we have every variety of the 

 former, and the latter has but little influ- 

 ence. They are owing to some of those in- 

 explicable causes which still puzzle the best 

 vegetable physiologists. 



The author goes on to state that on the 

 seaboard pears are propagated on unhealthy 

 stocks. If he had visited our own nursery, 

 or that of Hovey & Co., he would have dis- 

 covered that healthy imported pear stocks 

 from the wild seed are uniformly used, and 

 that suckers are entirely discarded. They 

 may be also discarded in the interior, but we 



recollect some two years since seeing some 

 pears on suckers which Hovey & Co. had 

 obtained from an inland nursery, of the ap- 

 pearance of which, we do not wish to speak. 

 Respecting the peach, it is always our cus- 

 tom to obtain the stones from those parts of 

 the South not materially affected by disease, 

 and also to inoculate the peach, apricot, and 

 nectarine, on the healthy stocks of a wild 

 plum, on which they are more hardy and 

 longer lived. 



The author also quotes a cultivator from 

 Ohio, to prove that one tree taken from the 

 seacoast soon decayed, while another from 

 the interior, and by implication from the 

 Highland Botanic Garden, preserved its 

 good qualities. We do not wish to call in 

 question any of the author's y«c/s unneces- 

 sarily, but cannot avoid thinking that if 

 such is the case, it is somewhat singular 

 that nurserymen from Ohio and Kentucky, 

 and some from Orange county, N. Y., men 

 too of knowledge and experience, after ex- 

 amining all the principal inland nurseries, 

 have for years purchased, and continue to 

 purchase, of the Long Island nui series. I 

 need say but little when knowledge and ex- 

 perience thus manifest their judgment. As 

 all the author's statements are founded upon 

 his estimate of the quality of seaboard soil, 

 which estimate it is in our power to prove 

 totally erroneous, we trust that the error of 

 those statements will be fully manifest. We 

 have stated we possessed every variety of 

 soil ; that we know of no pears having the 

 appearance' of disease here, excepting the 

 Virgouleuse and St. Germain, our stock of 

 the former of w^hich is only from buds fur- 

 nished us by the author some yeas since ; 

 that the Newtown pippin was sound and 

 good here, which at our latest accounts from 

 Newburgh, was there decaying; and that 

 we inoculate on seedling pear stocks only, 

 and on peaches from comparatively healthy 

 sections. 



We have, therefore, as far as Long Island 

 is concerned, stated respectfully but une- 

 quivocally, that the author's statements on 

 this head are totally erroneous. While with 

 our high esteem for the author is mingled a 

 feeling of regret that he has impaired the 

 usefulness of his work by employing it indi- 

 rectly as an advertising medium, a some- 

 what stronger feeling is excited by his 

 manifest endeavour to convey erroneous im- 

 pressions respecting other establishments 

 similar to his own. Should the work be so 

 successful as to reach a second edition, we 

 trust that the author's sense of justice will 

 lead him to correct the impression by the 

 only means now in his power. — Hovey'' s 

 Magazine of Horticvllure. 



