298 



GENESEE FARMER. 



De€. 



HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



CONDUCTED BY P. BARRY. 



We wrsH to say a few words concerning 

 the duties of tlie standing Fruit Committee ap- 

 pointed at the recent Convention of Fruit Grow- 

 ers in New York. And in doing so, we do not 

 wish to be understood as presuming to dictate to 

 that intelligent body, with a distinguished pomo- 

 logist at its head, for we are perfectly satisfied 

 that every member of it understands his duty, 

 and will perform it well. Our wish simply is, to 

 direct public attention more fully and minutely 

 to the duties of this committee, and what results 

 may be expected from their labors. 



The great objects to be attained, are — First, to 

 detect synonyms, (the various erroneous names 

 under which fruits are cultivated in different 

 parts of the country,) by which purchasers are 

 deceived and disappointed, getting the same va- 

 riety under different names from difTerent 

 sources. Second, to ascertain by actual expe- 

 rience what are the best varieties for the various 

 latitudes, soils, situations, and modes of culture. 

 No considerable amount of reliable information, 

 on this head, has yet been collected ; hence 

 every inexperienced planter is compelled to be 

 an experimenter — for this, at least, is well as- 

 certained, that varieties that flourish in some 

 sections, and are there the very lest, are in oth- 

 ers inferior, if not worthless. This was felt in 

 its full force by the committee who sat down to 

 report to the New York Convention a list of 

 fruits worthy of general cultivation. An unani- 

 mous vote could be scarcely obtained for even 

 one variety of any of the fruits. Here, it must 

 be obvious, is a vast amount of labor to be per- 

 formed to obtain anything like profitable results. 

 Every member of that committee who wishes 

 to contribute his full quota to the report, must at 

 once enter upon his investigations. There is 

 not a moment to be lost. During the ensuing 

 winter the fruits in season should be examined, 

 and all the facts required concerning them care- 

 fully noted down. 



The sphere of each member will not be con- 

 fined to his own immediate neighborhood. It 

 may, and in many cases must extend far beyond 

 it ; and hence he must open a correspondence 

 with the best cultivators and the most skilful po- 

 mologists of the district or state to which he 

 belongs. Specimens may be collected and com- 

 pared — as well as all the facts regarding soil, 

 manure, culture, the various kinds of stocks, 

 pruning, planting, training, and in abort, every 

 thing that makes the sum total of cultivation, tf 

 this system of research is faithfully pursued by 

 each member of the committee, (and we trust it 

 will, although involving much labor and care,) 

 from this time steadily until next October, there 

 will be such a mass of facts and statistics collected 



as will render practicable to a considerable extent, 

 that which is now impossible, viz : the recom- 

 mendation of a list of fruits adapted to the va- 

 ried circumstances of the fruit growing regions 

 of this extended country. The names of this 

 committee have been published, and we would 

 suggest to the friends of this great and much 

 needed investigation to furnish, without solicita- 

 tion, to any member, such facts as may be in 

 their possession calculated to aid in accomplish- 

 ing the ends in view. 



The Apple on Paradise Stocks. 



A standard apple tree requires at least 25 

 or 30 feet of grou*d. It is therefore obvious 

 that in a small garden of say 100 feet square, or 

 even in a garden of half an acre, such an object 

 must be entirely inadmissable, either on the 

 score of profit or beauty. Hence, if no other 

 form were adopted for the apple than the standard, 

 the thousands of proprietors of small gardens in 

 the neighborhood of all our cities and villages, 

 and throughout the entire country, would be com- 

 pelled to exclude the apple from their list of 

 garden fruits. This would be a great sacrifice, 

 for although apples may be purchased in most 

 parts of the country at low rates, yet there are 

 choice kinds that cannot easily be obtained, and 

 there are no fruits so precious as those of our 

 own gardens, produced by the labor of our own 

 hands. 



The Dwarf Apple, produced by grafting or 

 inoculating on the Paradise stock, is therefore a 

 great desideratum for small gardens, and for all 

 gardens. It requires not much more space than 

 a currant or gooseberry bush. It bears early and 

 abundantly, and the fruit i*s uniformly larger and 

 finer than standard trees. The fruit is never 

 blown off prematurely by high winds, and is 

 easily gathered. The trees are within reach of 

 the cultivator, without the use of ladders, easily 

 pruned, manured grnd otherwise tended, and if 

 necessary may at any time be removed from 

 one place to another, at any age, without inter- 

 rupting seriously their productiveness. Besides, 

 these miniature apple trees are among tho chief 

 beauties of the fruit garden. They strike us at 

 once as being adapted to the place, and in adapt- 

 ation alone there is a great deal of beauty. 



The. cultivation of the apple in this form has, 

 up to the [)resent time, received little attention 

 in this country. Indeed such a thing was en- 

 tirely unknown until within a year or two, 

 except to nurserymen and a kvf amateur culti- 

 vators around some of the older cities. Public 

 attention seems now, however, to be turning to 

 the subject, and we have no doubt but that, as 

 fast as they canj be propagated, every little gar- 

 den in the country will be enriched with them. 

 The Paradise stocks used in this country are usu- 

 ally imported from France, and consequently 



