5d 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Feb. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE AURORA HORTICULTU- 

 RAL SOCIETY, September 1, 1846 : By David 

 Thomas, President. 



We give a hearty welcome to the Annual 

 Message of this excellent and flourishing Socie- 

 ty, and congratulate the people of Aurora and 

 that section of country on the success which has 

 ao far rewarded their enlightened and public 

 spirited efforts. May it be no less, but much 

 greater in future. 



The address of its President, before us, is 

 brief and confined wholly to the subject of Fruit; 

 but like all of Mr. Thomas' productions, it is 

 every word to the point. His intimate knowl- 

 edge of the condition of Fruit Culture in this 

 country, and of the difficulties that lie in the 

 way of collecting and cultivating choice varie- 

 ties, enables him to treat on these points in such 

 a manner as cannot fail to interest and instruct 

 those who can be interested on such subjects. — 

 I..et us quote a few paragraphs : 



How many of the inhabitants of this blessed land of ours 

 — under such glorious skies — raise any thing of the kind 

 better than the old pie cherry, or the sour morello? — than 

 the horse plum or the little damson ? How many feast, 

 during the proper season, on apricots, the better class of 

 peaches, and on the seckel and virgalieu pears ? There is 

 not one in a hundred — probably not one in a thousand — 

 who has a full supply of the finer fruits. 



In bringing about a better state of things, however, there 

 are many difficulties to encounter. Trees cannot be had 

 without some exertion : we may be cheated with spurious 

 kinds, or they may die in transplanting ; they may be in- 

 fected by disease, or infested by insects ; the fruit when 

 young may be destroyed by frost, or when ripe, by plun- 

 derers ; and under a view of all these discouragements, 

 would it not be better and cheaper to buy our fruit? Here 

 let us pause a moment, and ask. Of whom could we buy? 

 if all the fruit of the country was divided amongst us, we 

 should have so little, and that little so dear, (apricots three 

 cents a piece at Rochester,) that we should only be tan- 

 talized, and never satisfied. No — to have plenty, we 

 Must raise it ourselves. 



The first step, then, is to select the best kinds ; and on 

 this point we cannot be too carfful. Differences of cli- 

 mate, even on some hardy sorts, is very great ; and three 

 degrees of latitude may produce more than three degrees of 

 Savor ; so that the excellent somewhere else, may not be 

 ■excellent here. As an instance : the Bezy de la Motte pear 

 fe very fine at Philadelphia, while with us, it is unsuited 

 to human lips in four seasons out of five. Let me give 

 another instance : From nearly twenty kinds of peaches — 

 fiae on the sands of New Jersey, whence I procured them 

 — I shall not have more than three or four well suited to 

 (his district. But what a loss we sustain in trying such ex- 

 periments I It is far better to get such sorts of high char- 

 acter as have been fully proved to be adapted to this par- 

 ticular climate, though the trees may be obtained from the 

 aouth, east, or west. 



1 once travelled on a steamboat with a gentleman from 

 another state ; and in the course of conversation, he said. 

 " You can't raise as good peaches in New York as we do in 

 the south." What is the proof? "I never met with any 

 38 good." Where were they obtained ? " In the market." 

 Why, that is not the place to find the best peaches. They 

 are gathered while they are hard enough to bear transpor- 

 tation ; but stone fruit improves by hanging on the tree — 

 the longer th(; better. I might have added another reason ; 

 Market men want the most showy or productive kinds ; 

 and fine flavor is only a secondary object. Many sorts ol 

 peaches, indeed, do better in the south, for this fruit never 

 attains its highest flavor in cool weather ; but I am satis- 

 fied that we — north of the Alleghany — have varieties equal 

 to their best. To have the best in the best condition, how- 

 ever, we mu t raise it ourselves. 



It is not desirable to have many varieties in a fruit gar- 

 den, but we want the very best : and we want them to 

 ripen in succession. People often inquire for the earliest 



fruit, — that is right ; but I should like to have some when 

 the earliest were gone. 



Flavor, productiveness, and size, are three points of the 

 greatest importance in the character of fruit. At the head 

 stands Jlavor, — for without it fruit is worthless. Next 

 stands productiveness, — for if the tree is a poor bearer, it is 

 of little value. Size is the third in importance ; and still 

 lower down in the scale is beauty, iiic\\iA\ngshape&x\Acolor. 

 Many cultivators, however, reverse this order, recommend- 

 ing large and showy sorts, chiefly because they are large 

 and showy. The Monthly Reviewer once wittily said, " I 

 prefer a peach to a pumpkin ;" and I conclude that a simi- 

 lar preference has prevailed when I see small varieties cul- 

 tivated. This is finely illustrated by the Seckel pear- 

 small, but very superior. 



The closing paragraph of the address, though 

 a perfect truism, cannot be too strongly or too 

 frequently urged on all engaged in growing 

 fruit. We know many, very many, who will 

 take a world of pains to procure new and rare 

 sorts, and when they have got them, starve them 

 to death. Mr. Thomas says : 



I wish to make one more remark. Though we have the 

 finest varieties, the finest soil, and the finest seasons, yet 

 we cannot have the finest fruit, unless the ground be well 

 cultivated, — ready to catch and detain every shower, or to 

 attract moisture from the air in time of drought. General- 

 ly, the largest specimens of any one variety, are the high- 

 est flavored ; and some sorts are worthless unless they are 

 well grown. This is particularly so with some kinds of 

 pears. Wc should therefore remember that the better the 

 culture the greener the leaves : and the greener and health- 

 ier the leav( s the richer the juices, swelling into richer and 

 finer fruit. To dig a wide circle round the tree, wUl do 

 much good ; tut the whole soil, as in a potatoe patch, 

 ought to be rcLUce 1 to a fine tilth. 



Entomology. 



We have been favored with a very interesting 

 letter touching upon various odds and ends of 

 fruits and fruit culture, from our friend A. 

 HuiDKKOPER, Esq., of Meadville, Pa., an ama- 

 teur Horticulturist of the right spirit. We take 

 the liberty of e.xtracting from it the following re- 

 marks and queries in relation to Entomology, as 

 likely to draw some attention to a subject of vi- 

 tal import to Horticulture : 



I observe Downing, in his work on Fruit Trees, page 66, 

 speaks of the woolly aphis, or American blight, as a dread- 

 ful disease of the apple abroad. The woolly aphis has 

 been very common in our country, for many years, and 

 large tufts or branches of it may be seen in the forest at any 

 time, in the f dl on the limbs of the alder and beach trees 

 — but I have not noticed it upon the apple trees until with- 

 in two years past — though it might have existed and not 

 been observed. I have observed more little tufts of this 

 insect in the crevices of the apple trees this year than there 

 were last; but as the insect does not attain its winged state, 

 or show any signs of locomotion until about November, 

 when the frosts chill it, I hav3 not observed any evil con- 

 sequences from its existence. Have you any trouble from 

 itwiihj'ou? 



The apple borer, which has been so destructive of fruit 

 for some years past, first made its appearance in any great 

 numbers in this country in 1839, until then we were nearly 

 free from it. This year it has been less troublesome than 

 usual, and the Hornet and Yellow Jacket much moreso. 



We will defer any remarks of our own, at 

 present, as we have been given to understand, 

 that the Committee of the Horticultural Society 

 here, who has had the subject under investiga- 

 tion during the past year, intend soon to present 

 a full report. We are glad our Society hafe 

 taken this matter in hand, and we trust it will 



