DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE IND ALL ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES 



NATIVE AND FOREIGN FRUITS. 



GE>fER\LLY our nativG fruits are superior to foreign, 

 both in vigoi- of tree and hardiness ; and in many 

 cases, our native fruits are equal to the foreign in 

 quality. We have but very few foreign apples that 

 are worth cultivating ; nearly all our best standard 

 kinds arc natives. 



The greater part of the foreign pears cultivated in 

 this countrj' arc only adapted to the garden, or other 

 sheltered locations, and the trees are generally of a 

 dwarfish habit. They will not flourish under com- 

 juon orchard management and exposure. They often 

 dwindle av/ay under the rigor of our cold winters 

 and hot summers. But our native pears arc gen- 

 erally vigorous, long-lived, hardy, and productive ; 

 and many of them are first-rate fruits. Some of 

 them, that have endured the storms of one or two 

 hundred winters, are still standing as firm monu- 

 ments of the hardiness of our native pears. 



Some of our native pear- trees have borne ten or 

 twelve barrels of fruit in one season, and a few have 

 produced far more. We have seen a Ilai-vard pear- 

 tree that yielded nine barrels of fruit in one year, 

 which was sold at .f o 00 per barrel. We have an 

 old tree, from which we gathered eleven bushels of 

 fruit, after cutting off its toj) very liberally for two 

 years, for the purpose of grafting. None of the fine 

 varieties that have been imported, will compare in 

 size with these venerable standards of the past and 

 present age. Generally, in New England, we must 

 rely mostly on our native pears, or do as we now are 

 under the iieces.sity of doing, after spending a great 

 deal of time and money on pears — go without them. 

 As this is unpleasant, we get neither profit nor 

 pleasure for this fancy work. 



Wc have native peaches equal in qiuditj' to the 

 best imported kinds, and they are far more hardy for 

 northern culture. When our horticulturists learn 

 the importance of cultivating not only native kinds, 

 but natives of the north, they will not complain so 

 much of the failure of this crop. 



A good share of our finest cherries and plums are 

 natives, and the natives are forming our largest and 

 longer-lived trees. They are becoming stately orna- 



ments to rural Scenery, vi'hile many of the foreign 

 varieties, though freqiiently vigorous for a few years, 

 are comparative dwarfs. 



Nearly all our valuable strawberries are natives. 

 Houghton's gooseberry not only far excels any foreign 

 variety, but some cultivators consider it so much bet- 

 ter, that they have excluded all other kinds from 

 their grounds. We feel the want of more native 

 small fruits, that we may have varieties adapted to 

 our climate ; and the enterprising spirit that now 

 prevails will soon produce them. 



Too much attention has been given to foreign 

 fruits, to the neglect of our native varieties. Some 

 horticiilturists have ransacked all Europe for new 

 fruits, while native kinds have sprung up, flourished 

 for many years within half an hour's walk of their 

 dwellings, yielding fruits equal, and trees far superior 

 in hardiness, to the foreign kinds that have been 

 imported and sold at high prices. This zeal for 

 foreign kinds of fruit would have a good effect, if 

 there was a corresponding attention given to our 

 natives, that they might be brought to public notice, 

 and duly compared with exotics. Or if new foreign 

 fi-uits, of high pretensions, were introduced merely 

 for experiment, and not for speculation, attention to 

 the subject would be commendable. But the sale of 

 trees at enormous prices, which on trial prove worth- 

 less, has a very discouraging effect, especially on 

 bcErinners in fruit culture. 



DEPTH OF COVERING SEEDS. 



As to the proper depth Avhich seeds should be cov- 

 ered, much depends on circumstances. Hard scCvU, 

 such as onion, carrot, beet, parsnip, &c., that vege- 

 tate slowly, should be covered deeper than turnip, 

 cabbage, mustard seed, and other kinds that vegetate 

 (luickly. If hard seeds are sown late in the season, 

 on dry soil, and the covering Is shallow, there is dan- 

 ger of the earth drying down to the seed before it 



starts. 



But besides the differences in the peculiar naturo 

 of seeds, there are other circumstances that have a 

 great effect, and require that the same apeciea of 



