VOLUME 1. 



ROCHESTER, MARCH 19, 1831. 



IN UMBER 11- 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 

 Devoted to Agriculture. Horticulture, Domestic Ecouo 

 my. itc. lie. 

 Published on Saturdays, at $2 50 per annum. 

 payable in six months, or at $2 00, if paid at ilie 

 lime of subscribing, by Luther Tucker, at 

 rfio office of the Rochester Daily Advertiser. 



3f. GOODSELL, EDITOR. 



COHiaiXJaTICATIOiWS. 



FOR TUB GENESEE FARMER. 



I was gratified by the editorial remarks in 

 number 4, on the opinion that the life of a 

 grafted tree is dependant on the life of the o- 

 riginal seedling whence the graft had been ta 

 ken; that the graft, lioicever vigorous may be 

 the slock on which it stands, wilt not long sur- 

 vive its -parent tree ; and that it is unsafe to 

 set grafts loilhout first knowing that the ori- 

 ginal seedling remains in a healthy condition. 

 Not believing in this matter, I was pleased to 

 find a coincidence of sentiment in one so expe- 

 rienced as the writer of that article. 



In the manner of discussing subjects of this 

 nature, I have sometimes seen much that was 

 improper. Some people seem to think it 

 a personal affront if another holds a different 

 opinion, as if none had eyes to observe, or a 

 right to judge, but themselves ; yet which of 

 their/newt's does not differ from them in some 

 point of the wide circle of speculative opinion i 

 J mako these remarks partly in reference to 

 the ill-humor that stained some columns of the 

 American Farmer, a few years ago, in a des- 

 cant on this very subject. Abuse is seldom 

 employed but where argument is wanting. 



Among those who assert that a tree only 

 Jives through adeterviinate pcriod,havc appea- 

 red men of great eminence. Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, the venerable pres't o{ the Horticultu- 

 ral Society of London, has distinguished him 

 self on this side, and has brought in its favour 

 all the weight of a great name. However, 

 i hough we are bound to receive his opinions 

 with duo respect, we are not bound to surren 

 der our own. 



The duration of some plants is very clearly 

 defined. The life of the annual, and of the 

 biennial, can only be prolonged by preventing 

 them fcom seeding, by torpor from cold, by 

 debility induced by heat, by excision of the 

 H*ing 6tem, or by a division of the plant. The 

 imperfect perennial is of more uncertain dura- 

 tion, and ceases to vegetate when the dead 

 ■parts ot the plant, annually accumulating, pre- 

 vent the extensien of vigorous fibres. 



In regard lo perfect perennials, Ihe learned 

 and scientific Mir,bel remarks, that " a due 

 Consideration leads us to distinguish — the new 

 part which actually lives and grows, from the 

 old part which has ceased to grow, and is dead. 

 When vegetation revives in the woody plant, 

 on the return of spring, it is because a new li- 

 ber, endowed with all the p'roperties of a young 

 herbaceous plant, has replaced under the cor- 

 fex or rind, the liber of the preceding year, 

 which has hardened and become wood. 



" The Yews of Surrey, which are supposed 

 Co have stood from the time of Julius Caesar, 

 and are now two yards in diameter ; the Cedars 

 on !\J.ount Lebanon, nine yards in girth ; the fig 

 free of Malabar, usuallf from sixteen ts seven 

 teon yards round ; the stupendous chesnuts 

 On M"unt JEtna, one of which measured 17 

 yaixis in circumference ; the Ceibas of the eas. 

 ?e»n cotfst of Africa, o' 6UcJi bulk and height 

 that a single stick is capable of being transfor 

 med into a periogua or sailing vessel, c*f eigh- 

 ffeen or twenty yajds from stem to stern, and 

 of three or four yards in the waist ; the baobab 

 of Senegal, of ten or twelve yards in girth, 

 •2~.? c0 "!^' n S5 to 'he computation of Adamson 



•Hm M C0G0 years ! old . d h at^gimtis.as t/tey IfrASBtorf&S ^/vbSVff^ 



are, vegetate as does the humblest bush, solely 

 by the thin herbaceous layer of the liber, annu 

 ally produced at the inner surface of theb 

 bark. The concentric layers of preceding libers 

 constitute the, mass of the wood, a lifeless ske 

 leton, serving solely to snppert the new formed 

 parts, and to conduct to them the juices by 

 which they are fed ; nor is it even necessary 

 for these functions, that this should be in an 

 entire state. Willows and chesnuts,* when 

 quite hollow at the heart, still continue to grow 

 with vigour; but in their soundest state, strip 

 them of their bark, and they quickly perish 



" The liber which is formed on the stem of 

 a tree of centuries old, if the tree has met 

 with no accidental injury to affect its health, 

 enjoys the vegetative power in as full forco as 

 the liber which is formed on that of the sap- 

 ling ; and that a sound well grown scion from 

 the aged but healthy tree, affords as good a 

 cutting for propagation as that taken from the 

 young one, so that the race might be perpetua 

 led by cuttings alone, without the assistance 

 of seeds. 



" From this we are entitled to conclude thai 

 according to the course of Nature, the prog- 

 ress of regeneration by continuous evolution, 

 would never be arrested, if the overgrown size 

 of the branches and stem, the hardening of 

 the wood, and the obstructions of the chan- 

 nels that penetrate it, did not impede the cir- 

 culation ot the sap, and consequently its ac- 

 ctss to the liber. 



In fine, what we call death by old age, in a 

 tret, to speak correctly, is the extinction of 

 that portion of a race which has been carried 

 on by continuous evolution ; the inevitable re 

 suit of an incdental death in the liber, occa- 

 oned by the privation of nourishment." 

 These extracts present to my mind, a clear 

 view of the subject in controversy. I have not 

 been able to discover why a scion taken from » 

 healthy tree, and grafted on a healthy stock of 

 its own kind, should not produce healthy and 

 vigorous branches ; nor why this operation 

 may not be continually and successfully re- 

 peated for centuries. 



The only cause of death that I can discern, 

 belongs to incidental diseases, arising from 

 unfavorable localities, climates, &c. Like o- 

 ther organized bodies, plants are subject to 

 constitutional injuries, — witness the white or 

 yellow blotches in the holly, the box and the 

 jasmine ; or the yellows in the peach tree ; 

 nd if a diseased scion be grafted, that debility 

 may extend through all its branches and rami- 

 fications ; but a scion selected while the parent 

 was in health, cannot be affected by the disease 

 which that parent may afterwards contract. 



It is probably that scions of tho same tree, 

 taken to different countries, may continue 

 healthy and productive in one climate, and be- 

 come diseased and worthless in another. I 

 doabt not indeed, but some kinds are no lon- 

 ger worth cultivating ; but if this be fully pro- 

 ved, it by no ujetms affects or impairs the gen- 

 eral proposition, that no lurking principle of 

 ieath exists in a healthy tree. 



It may be fairly questioned, however, whe- 

 ther those are qualified to determine the dura- 

 tion of a plant, who only observe it as an ex- 

 otic sxurcety acclimated — or at lea.-t scarcely 

 bringing its fruit to perfect maturity for years 

 in succession. Yet sush is the sta,te of the 

 apple tree, in England, if we may place confi- 

 dence in some accounts written and published 

 n that country. I give one extract : 



"The apple has of late years scarcely ripen- 

 ed. Indeed, we are informed upon good au- 

 thority, that it is now [1818] sixteen years 

 since the orchards have afforded a plentiful 

 orop."( 



Jntrys ■fioimti'y trie Bullt/i icood una tire senir guiii, 

 are tjtitt more rejnurkable examples. 

 t Journal of Science and the Arts, ertite'd at trtfi Jl'oy-. 



And this accords with their importations of 

 American apples, and with their ideas of the 

 rich treat, which our apples afford. 



' I have seen an apple tree one hundred 

 years old, still thrifty and vigorous. When 

 the upper branches became mossy and died, 

 the wood was so brittle as to be broken off by 

 high winds; an opening was made fur new- 

 branches, which rose and fell in suecessionf 

 while the canker which began in the twigs o 

 its surrounding contemporaries, spread down 

 to the roots and destroyed them. Now if no 

 storms had arisen to trim the old tree, and if. 

 had died of canker, would its grafts ten miles 

 off have died at the same time V 



It may bo said this would have been a case 

 of incidental death, and not a death by oldaoe. 

 With this opinion I would concur. 



One writer in favor of rejecting grafted trees 

 of established reputation, proposed to select 

 scions from seedlings not more than twenty or 

 thirty years oid, evidently because older trees 

 have only a short remnant of existence. In 

 Lawrence's Treatise on Gardening, printed in 

 1717, however, I find tho following varieties 

 mentioned, which appear to be still in high re- 

 pute; and I can attest that many of them in 

 my grounds, even at this distant period, show 

 no symptoms of decline. How old these va- 

 rieties were at that time, I have not discover- 

 ed; but it is remarkable that the Old Kewing- 

 ton Peach was then called old. 



Pears — Windsor, Summer bon Chretien, Ver* 

 te tongue, Rovsselet, Bergamot, Swan's Egg, 

 Winter Thorn, Pound, St. Germaine, St. Catha- 

 rine, Spanish bon Chretien, Colmar, Ambrettc 

 Winter bon Chretien. [Buree du roy, Chrysan 

 and Black Pear of Worcester.are also named.]* 

 Cherries — May Duke, Orleans, Morello. 

 (common Flemish also named.)* 



Plums — Drop of gold, Mrlonum bonum, Foth- 

 erjng[bam], Orleans, Muscle, Roch Courbon, Vi- 

 olet, Royale, White Perdrigon, Blue Perdrigon-* 

 Damascene, (Queen Mother, and pear plum; 

 also named.)* 



Apricots, — Masculine, Orange, (No other 

 named.) 



Peaches— While Magdalen, Minion, [Mig- 

 non ?] Old Ntwington, Admirable, Chevreux, 

 [Nivet, also uamed.)* 



Nectarines — Red Roman, (the only one na- 

 med. EP No list of apples was given.) 



Although Ieaunot adopt the hypothesis that 

 the graft and its parent tree must perish near 

 the same time ; yet if we owe to this notion 

 the plan of originating new varieties of fruit, and 

 tUepcrseveraJicew'ilh which it has been so suc- 

 cessfully oondacted by President Knight, and 

 Professor Va:i Mons, we can scarcely regret 

 the speculative error, so great has been ttieprac* 

 tieal good ; for theirs indeed, rank among tire 

 great achievements of horticultural science. 

 D. T. 



Which I have not noticed in modani catalogues* 



RHUBARB AND SEA-KJVkJE. 



The season has arrived to commence the forcing- 

 and blanching of these fine garden productions. 

 Put three or four barrels, divested of one hend>, 

 or having no head, over so many stools of rhu- 

 barb (pie-plant.) and sutrouad and eover them 

 with recent stable or horse dung. The neat» 

 generated by the fermentation of the manure 

 will cause the plants to grow vigorously, and 



n from U to 5J8 days they will have reached 

 the top of the cask, when the stocks may Ue 



akenofffor pies and tarts. 



Sea Kale may he forced in tlie s-ame way, 

 taking small boxes, pots or kegs, to place o>er 

 the plants, and taking care not lv give too in*ich 

 heat. To blanch Qhly, the stools shoujd be 

 covered with close pots, or wi'h a small pyra. 

 mid of sand. The rhubarb reVju-ire* a rich 



oil. The sea-kale is finest ttpop a l%ht__sa.rid» 

 without manure. B. 



MarchU. 1881. 



