n\ 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



September 3, 163J 



slow fire and boiled for ten or twelve hours. It 

 is eaten with butter and sugar, or with milk, as 

 suits the taste, and is altogether different from the 

 common dish prepared with us from the yellow 

 '■orn of the country. 



WINE. 

 It will have been noticed from an article in the 

 last number of the Farmer, Lhat a very good wine 

 has been made by a person signing himself a 

 "Groveland Farmer," from the native chicken 

 grape of this section of country. As these grapes 

 are produced in abundance in some of our neigh- 

 borhoods, any person having a quantity of them 

 upon their lands which they do not wish to man- 

 ufacture into wine may find a ready market for 

 them by sending a note to the editor, specifying 

 the quantity they can furnish and at what price, 

 delivered in this village. 



allowed unless the full quantity above required be 

 produced : and premiums will be awarded to mem- 

 bers of the socif.'y only, or some person in their 

 families. Dated Lyons, August 25, 1831. 



W. H. ADAMS, 



S. HECOX, 



G. H. CHAPIN, 



E.C.HOWARD, 

 A steam cotton factory of 4300 spindles is erec- 

 ting at Providence, and a similar one at Newport; 

 both of which it is expected, will commence oper- 

 ation the present year. 



> Committee. 



$1,00 

 1,00 

 2,00 

 1,00 

 2,00 

 1,00 

 1,00 

 1,00 



2,00 



1,00 



2,00 



1,00 



• 3,00 



0,50 

 0,50 



1,00 

 1.00 

 0,50 

 1,00 

 1,00 

 0,50 

 1,00 

 1,00 



r V 1,0 



A Westchester, Penn. paper of Aug. 10th, says, 

 the 6th inst. two apples were presented to us by 

 Mr. William Bennet, from his orchard, weighing 

 together 26 oz. 



DOMESTIC 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Premiums offered by the " Domestic Horticultu- 

 ral Society of the Westernpartof the State of New- 

 York," to be adjudged at their staled meeting, to 

 be held at Lyons, on the 21st of September next, 

 for specimens to be presented at the meeting, viz : 



FRUITS. 



For the best doz. of Apples for table. 



For the best doz. of Winter Apples, 



For the best doz. of Pears for table, 



For the best doz. of Winter Pears, 



For the best doz. of Peaches, 

 " " 2d do. doz. " do. 



For the best doz. of plums, 



For the best doz. of duinces, 



For the best specimen of table ) 

 Grapes, not less than 2 lbs. $ 



For the 2d best Table Grapes, 



For the greatest variety of Table 

 and Wine Grapes, 



For the best specimen of native grapes, 



For collecting and presenting the greatest 

 variety of Native Grapes, Uncultivated 

 with a specimen of the branch and 

 leaves of each, not less than 6 varieties, 



For the' best Watermelon, 



For the best Muskmelon, 



CULINARY VEOETABLES. 



For the best Cauliflower 2 plants, 



For the best Brocoli do., 



For the best Cabbage, 



For the best half peck of Potatoes, 



For the six oest Blood Beets, 



For the six best Carrots, 



For the four best plants of Celery, 



For the best quart of Beans, shelled, 



FLOWERS. 



For the most beautiful specimens of Flow- 

 ers, whether of herbaceous plants or ^ 1,00 

 shrubs extending to three sorts, each. J 

 Discretionary premiums to be awarded for any 

 valuable fruit, culinary vegetables or flowers, not 

 exceeding three in number. 



Every specimen offered of fruits, culinary veg- 

 »t*bles and flowers, must have been cultivated by 

 iho person claiming the Premium, or by some 

 .■neialjeT of his family ; and no premium cm be 



Considerations on the process employed by 

 Nurserymen for obtaining better sorts of 

 Fruits, and on the means by which Nature 

 appears to accomplish the result. 



By M Pioteau. 

 The author observes, it is but rarely that 

 improved varieties of our cultivated fruits 

 originate with nurserymen ; they are gener- 

 ally ihe production of chance, found in the 

 woods or hedges or from distant corners of 

 provinces, wheie the finer sorts are hardly 

 known, and where the sorts they have are 

 mismanaged or neglected. That " like be- 

 gets or produces like," has long been consid 

 ered a law of nature among animals and 

 some vegetables ; but this law is not always 

 uniform, especially among domesticated ani- 

 mals or highly cultivated plants. Yet on 

 this principle, our nurserymen have acted 

 in their endeavors to obtain better kinds of 

 fruit, by sowing seeds of the best, in the hope 

 that they would raise something still better. 

 It is well known that in this process they 

 have failed. The celebrated Duhamel and 

 his contemporaries failed in the same nay. 

 From these and other instances, the author 

 concludes that practitioners are wrong in 

 their expectations of obtaining at once what 

 can only be the result of time. He seems 

 to infer that seedlings, apples or pears, for 

 example, require some years and some 

 cultivation, while they are passing from one 

 stage of infancy to another, before they can 

 show their inherent qualities. 



As proof of this conjecture, he instances 

 the case of the fruit trees of the United 

 States of America at this time. There, it 

 appears, they have little trouble in procuring 

 superior fruits from seed ; and, that they have 

 many excellent new kinds, their lists suffi- 

 ciently testify. The cause of this he con- 

 ceives to be, that the first imported fruits, 

 which the colonists received from Europe 

 300 years ago, were, amidst the bustle of es- 

 tablishing and securing themselves in a new 

 country, lost, from neglect or ignorance of 

 the art of grafting; and lhat they only bad 

 recourse to seeds for perpetuating the kinds. 

 These seedlings have passed through sev- 

 eral generations, and are now arrived at that 

 period of their existence in which their in 

 herein qualities are fully developed. 



The Americans, M. Poiteau adds, attrib- 

 ute this to another cause, namely, thai in 

 proportion as their newly broken up lands 

 are ameliorated by cultivation, &tc. so, in like 

 proportion, are the qualities of their fruit. It 

 is a common saying in Virginia, that the 

 fruits of such or such an orchard " begin to 

 change for the better." But this can hardly 

 be admitted ; for though such circumstance 

 may improve the quality, it cannot change 

 the physical characters of fruit. 



After noticing the fact proved by Mr. 

 Knight, F, H. R.. S, thai a crab, fecundated 



by the pollen of a good fruit, produces bet- 

 ter kinds from seed than can be had from 

 seeds of improved fruit, he proceeds to de- 

 describe the method used by the Flemish or- 

 chardists to obtain new sorts, and which is giv- 

 en on the authority of M. Van Mons. The 

 Belgians, he says, do not prefer the seeds 

 of ameliorated fruit. When the seedlings 

 appear, they do not, as others do choose such 

 - are free from spines, having large 

 leaves, nnd remarkable for the thickness and 

 beauty of their wood; but, on the contrary, 

 such as are most spinous, provided the spines 

 are long, and well furnished with buds or 

 eves placed near together. This last circum- 

 stance they consider as an indication lhat 

 they will soon show fruit. Individuals hav- 

 ing such properties are grafted, apples on 

 paradise, and pears on quince stocks, to has- 

 ten fructification. The first fruits of these 

 grafts are generally bad ; but whatever they 

 are the seeds are carefully saved and sown. 

 The second* generation, treated in like man- 

 ner, begins to show improvement. Through 

 a third and fourth the process is continued, 

 till they arrive at a point which gives fruit 

 worthy of being preserved. Peaches and a- 

 pricots, treated in the same way, yield ex- 

 cellent fruit the third .generation ; apples re- 

 quire four" or five, and the pear about six 

 transitions. This process, concludes M. Po- 

 iteau, is only an imitation of that of nature 

 exemplified in America. — Annales. Soc, de 

 Hor. de Paris. 



To the foregoing observations of M. Poiteau, 

 we are not disposed to subscibe. We must es- 

 tablish something like theory m this matter or a- 

 bandon all to blind chance. It appears to us that 

 M. Poiteau has mixed both together, adding a 

 little of the marvellous. If the present approved 

 theory of the fructification of pants is correct, that 

 is, that the new plant partakes of the nature of 

 both the parent stocks or is a hybrid between lire 

 two ; then it follows that when a flower of a small 

 and bad kind of fruit is impregnated with the fa- 

 rina from another sort equally small and bad. 

 that the new plant partaking of the nature of both, 

 will be bad also. But M. Poiteau would con- 

 vince us that this is the sure way to produce good 

 fruit. He seems to admit that " like begets or 

 produces like" with few exceptions, and we be- 

 lieve that most laws are deviated from, more or 

 less ; but it would be absurd to say that the i le 

 viations from any given law were more frequent 

 than conformity to it ; for in that case we would 

 say that there was evidently a mistake, and thai 

 what were called deviations were in fact the law, 

 and what was admitted as the law was only ex- 

 ceptions to the general rule. We consider this to 

 be exactly the case with M. Poiteau that he has 

 mistaken the exceptions for the law. If the hy- 

 brid fruit or plant partakes of the nature of both 

 the parent plants (as we have reason to believe 

 it docs) how are we to expect a large fruit from 

 the mixed impregnation of two small ones or how 

 are we to expect a rich delicious fruit where both 

 the parents produced only those of austere or in- 

 sipid qualities. We are disposed to admit that 

 in many things the scientific men of Europe have 

 such advantages over us, lhat their opinions are 

 to be respected, but we ore not disposed to receive 

 every opinion coming from them as correct, be- 

 cause it is imported and comes from high author 

 ity, without the privilege fcf investigating it for our- 

 selves. 



