56 



SeedUns Fruit Trees. — Broom Corn. 



Vol. VIII. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Seedling Fruit Trees. 



Your correspondent Poma, in the last 

 number of tlie Cabinet, has introduced a 

 subject of very great moment to every lover 

 of good fruit. It U well known that some 

 of the best varieties of fruit that are to be 

 obtained at cur nurseries — the apple in par- 

 ticular, — liave, in common lanouage, seen 

 their best days : some indeed, have quite 

 run out, while others are decidedly on the 

 decline. That this inconvenience should, if 

 possible, be remedied, we are all ready to 

 acknowledge; and I have not seen any 

 plausible mode suggested, but that of Poma: 

 namely, to seek new varieties from seed- 

 lings. We are all interested in persuading 

 the nurseryman, — the horticulturist, and the 

 farmer, to turn their attention to the subject, 

 that so, by their care and good judgment, 

 we may continue to have a succession of 

 fine fruit — especially of the apple, the peach, 

 the plum, and the pear. 



Maiind is high authority among the living 

 horticulturists of Great Britain ; and I find 

 some remarks of his very appropriate to our 

 subject, in the first part of the Auctarium of 

 the Botanic Garden. " The decay of the 

 best varieties of fruit-bearing trees," says he, 

 "which have been distributed through the 

 country by grafts, is a circumstance of great 

 importance. There is no mode of preserving 

 them ; and no resource, e.xcept that of rais- 

 ing new varieties from seeds. Where a 

 species has been ameliorated by culture, the 

 seeds it affords, other circumstances being- 

 similar, produce more vigorous and perfect 

 plants; and in this way the great improve- 

 ments in the production of our fields and 

 gardens, seem to have been occasioned. 



" Wheat, in its indigenous state, as a na- 

 tural production of the soil, appears to have 

 been a very small grass; and the case is 

 still more remarkable with the apple and 

 plum. The crab seems to have been the 

 parent of all our apples. And two fruits 

 can scarcely be conceived more diflferent, 

 in size, colour, and appearance, than the 

 wild plum and the rich magnum bonum. 



" The seeds of plants e.xalted by cultiva- 

 tion, always fiirnish large and improved va- 

 rieties; but the flavour, and even the colour 

 of the fruit, seem to be a matter of accident. 

 Thus a hundred seeds of the golden pippin, 

 will all produce fine large-leaved apple-trees, 

 bearing fruit of a considerable size ; but the 

 tastes and colours of the apples from each 

 will be different, and none will be the same 

 in kind as those of the pippin itself. Some 

 will be sweet, some sour, some bitter, some 



mawkish, some aromatic; some yellow, some 

 green, some red, and some streaked. All 

 the apples will, however, be much more per- 

 fect tlian those from the seeds of a crab, 

 whicli produce trees all of the same kind, 

 and all bearing sour and diminutive fruit. 



" Tlie larger and thicker the leaves of a 

 seedling, and the more expanded its blos- 

 soms, the more it is likely to produce a good 

 variety of fruit. Short-leaved trees should 

 never be selected; for these approach nearer 

 to the original standard ; whereas the other 

 qualities indicate the influence of cultivation. 



" Seeds should be chosen from the most 

 highly cultivated varieties, as they give the 

 most vigorous produce." 



The above extract contains valuable hints, 

 as well as a statement of interesting facts. 

 It requires no more labour to plant and to 

 nurse a good fruit-tree, than an indiflerent 

 one : and I was pleased to see the article 

 directing attention to the subject. If our 

 fine apples owe their origin to the crab, and 

 the rich magnum bonum and gage, owe 

 theirs to the common wild plum, there is 

 certainly great encouragement to persevere 

 in cultivation, and to endeavour to keep up 

 from seedlings, a supply of the luxuries 

 which our American orchards are capable 

 of supplying us with. It is said the al- 

 mond even, with its rough and unyielding 

 shell, is the original of the peach ; nature 

 having been persuaded, by long cultivation, 

 to clothe the husk of the former, with the 

 beautiful, and soft, and delicious pulp of the 

 latter. A. R. 



Broom Corn is much cultivated, and with 

 success, in some towns on the Connecticut 

 river, in Massachusetts. The amount pro- 

 duced on one acre, varies from eight hun- 

 dred to one thousand pounds, besides sixty or 

 seventy bushels of seed. The brush is said 

 to be worth four or five cents per pound ; in 

 1837, it was worth twelve and a half cents 

 per pound. The seed on an acre, at thirty- 

 three cents a bushel, is said to be equal to a 

 crop of oats. In Northampton and its vi- 

 cinity, not less than one thou.sand three hun- 

 dred acres are thus cultivated, worth, for the 

 brush and seed, »! 1 00,000. The seed usu- 

 ally weighs forty pounds per bushel. The 

 manufacture of brooms in a small town, 

 Hadley, in Massachusetts, is estimated at 

 i^lBOtOOO; eighty thousand brooms were 

 manufactured by one man in a year. To a 

 limited extent, this culture of the broom 

 corn and its manufacture, might be yet more 

 extensively engaged in with advantage. The 

 process of cultivation is similar to that of 

 maize or Indian com. — Berkshire Farmer. 



