1849. 



TllK GENESEE FARMER. 



265 



HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



EDITED \\\ P. BARRY 



THE CONTENTION OF FRUIT GROWERS. 



This body assembled in New York on the 2d of 



Ocl >ber, and held b session of two days. The at- 



ince was not quite so large as last year, but was 



made up of men well informed on the subject, from 



many parts of the Union. The collection of fruits 



was much larger and better than we had reason to 

 anticipate, but still greatly behind that of last year. 

 The subject of a union between this body and the 

 "North American Pomological Convention," was 

 brought forward at an early stage of the proceedings, 

 and alter a conference between committees from 

 each, it was unanimously resolved that the Associa- 

 tions be united under the name of the American 

 Pomological Congress — that the first meeting be 

 held at Cincinnati, in 1850, and that the meetings 

 afterwards be held biennially — Philadelphia being 

 designated for 1852. 



The chairman of the General Fruit Committee 

 reported a long list of rejected fruits, besides a list of 

 varieties for general cultivation. We intended to 

 give this list In the present number, but have not 

 been able to get it in a complete form. We shall 

 give it in our next, with further remarks on the 

 doings of the Convention. The proceedings were 

 marked throughout with regularity and harmony, 

 and now that this Congress is so well organized, it 

 cannot fail to render great service to the country in 

 this important branch of culture. 



PEACH CULTURE. 



The peach crop through many parts of New Jer- 

 sey and Delaware has been very good the past season. 

 We saw it stated in the Journal of Commerce, some 

 time in September, that 15,000 baskets were brought 

 in one week, by one steamer alone, from New Bruns- 

 wick, and an equal number by others; and in one 

 day 3474 baskets at an average price 70 cents per 

 basket. Manv of the farmers have netted from one 

 to $2,000. In the last of September, when we 

 were in New York and Philadelphia, a basket of 

 about three pecks of Heath's Cling, or Crawford's 

 Late Melocolon, could not be bought from the mar- 

 ket dealers for less than $4. Fine late peaches 

 were both scarce and dear in our markets, and our 

 cultivators would do well to turn some attention to 

 this point. At present few, except early varieties, 

 arc grown to any extent. 



In answer to inquiries from a Staten Island corres- 

 pondent, on this subject, the editor of the Horticultu- 

 rist says: — 



" The choicest late peaches for profitable market 

 culture are the following: Morris White, Crawford's 

 Late, Heath Cling, Druid Hill, Snow Peach, Old 

 Mixon Freestone, La Grange, and Ward's Late 

 Free. In planting an orchard of 2000 trees in your 

 neighborhood, we should choose the above in about 

 equal proportions, giving the preference to Morris 

 White and Crawford's Late, as the most uniformly 

 productive. Sixteen or eighteen feet apart ea< h 

 way, is the usual distance; but you may plant them 

 twelve feet, if you keep them low and bushy, and 

 shorten-in the tops every year, by which means you 

 will have the finest fruit. Above all, be careful to 



get tr titution, free from all hered- 

 itary suspicion of the yellows. I ■■ — and qual- 

 ity of your fruit d nost wholly on the depth 



and goi your soil.'' 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



We hav matters of this kind on hand, 



that ought to have been atfo tided to this montl , 

 we have bi en .- i much from home an h en- 



i when al home, that we have found it. really 

 ible to give them proper attenti m. S 

 <■ mmu - are on hand also, and will receive 



attention next month. 



Wintering Verbenas, Carnation.-; Salvias 

 other Tender Plants. — (F. K. P., Wisconsin.) 

 Where there is no green-house, a cold fi ■ 

 answer the purpose. Take a common hoi 

 — dig a pit two to three feet deep, in a 

 dry soil, and set the frame in it and fill in the 

 around perfectly close, and put some mam 

 to exclude the frost; have the sashes to B 

 and cover all with leaves, pine branches, See. 

 feet deep. Plants will winter well in this . 

 They should be aired in fine, mild rid a 



sharp look out be kept for mice. Next to tl 

 good dry cool cellar, where there is some light ad- 

 mitted occasionally, will answer. The] 

 be stored away dry, and be kept as fr 

 from moisture or decaying portions of leaves or 



Your other questions will be answ< 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 



Our thanks are due to Stephen Hull, 

 Clyde, for some grains of an early' while table corn. 

 which he says is very superior — and for remark 

 the culture of the pea nut, which we shall give in 

 next, or a future number. 



— To E. A. McKay, Esq., of Naples, Ontario Co., 

 for a box of Isabella Grapes, from his vineyard. 



— To Jas. H. Watts, Esq., for fine specimens of 

 Ribston Pippin and other apples. 



— To Mr. Ira Thurston, of Hemlock Lake, for 

 very fme specimens of White Doyenne pear. 



— To W. G. Verplanck, Esq., of Geneva, for 

 half a bushel of White Doyenne pears, as tine as 

 we have ever seen. This fruit attains its highest 

 perfection in that vicinity, and is cultivated more 

 extensively there than in any other part of the State. 



Apples as an Article of Human Food. — The 



importance of apples, as food, has not hitherto been 

 sufficiently estimated in this country nor understood. 

 Besides contributing a large portion of sugar, mucil- 

 age, and other nutritive matter, in the form of - 

 they contain such a fine combination of vegetable 

 acids, extractive substances and aromatic principles, 

 with the nutritive matter, as to act powerfully in the 

 capacity of refrigerants, tonics and antiseptics; and 

 when freely used at the season of ripeness, by rural 

 laborers and others, they prevenl debility, strengthen 

 digestion, correct the putrefactive tendencies of ni- 

 trogenous food, avert scurvy, and probably maintain 

 and strengthen the powers of productive labor. 



The French and Germans use apples extensively: 

 indeed, it is rare that they sit down, in the rural dis- 

 tricts, without them in somi c other, even at 

 the best tables. The laborers and mechanics depend 

 on them, to a very great extent as an article of food. 

 — Selected. 



