"^^^RICAN HERD-BOOTi 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the foundation of all trade and industry. — Liebio. 



Vol. VIII — No. 1.] 



8th mo. (August) 15th, 1843. 



[Whole No. 103. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY JOSIAII TATUM, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page, 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Fruit Trees. 



The very superior apples whicli are grown 

 in the State ot" Ohio, have attracted me at- 

 tention of those who have had an opportu- 

 nity of examining them ; they are said to be 

 finer and fairer, and are produced in greater 

 abundance than those of similar kinds in the 

 Atlantic States. The orchards are also said 

 to possess a much more youthful appearance 

 than those in the Atlantic States, where tiie 

 trees have not been longer transplanted. 

 Some have supposed that their superiority 

 arose from soil and climate, but it would be 

 well to consider whether the difference does 

 not arise from their much more recent de- 

 rivation from seedlings. The early settlers 

 in the West, carried with them seeds of va- 

 rious kinds, and amongst them apple seeds 

 of the most esteemed varieties ; these were 

 planted, and produced numerous seedling 

 varieties, more or less differing in character 

 from those they were taken from, as is gene- 

 rally the case, in consequence of the mixture 

 of the pollen of different kinds, during the 



Cab.— Vol. VIIL— No. 1. 



period of flowering. Those of a very supe- 

 rior character, have been extended and pro- 

 pagated, by grafting, so as to furnish the fine 

 fruit which is extensively cultivated in the 

 West, and the inferior sorts suffered to run 

 out and decay. The celebrated horticultu- 

 rist, T. A. Knight, reasoning from the fact, 

 that many fine varieties of the apple have 

 greatly degenerated or disappeared, thinks 

 he is justified in the conclusion, that "all 

 plants of one species, however propagated 

 from the same stock, partake, in some de- 

 jgree, of the same life, and will attend tlie 

 j progress of that life in the habits of its 

 fyouth, its maturity, and its decay; though 

 ;they will not be any way affected by any- 

 accidental injury the parent tree may sus- 

 tain after they are detached from it." If 

 this theory be sound, and there seems to be 

 but little difficulty in reconciling it with our 

 lObservations on the gradual disappearance 

 land decline of some of our most esteemed 

 jvarieties of fruits; it would be well to re- 

 sort to more recent seedling varieties of 

 'valuable sorts, to renovate our orchards. 

 I The age of an apple tree should be dated 

 jfrom the period of planting the seed, and 

 not from the time of inserting the graft or 

 applying the bud to the stock. Knight sup- 

 posed the age of the apple tree to be about 

 two hundred years, and of course those es- 

 teemed varieties which were introduced into 

 'this country by the early settlers, and which 

 were probably not then young varieties, may 

 'be expected to disappear rapidly. Hence 



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