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r ) 218 THE GENESEE FAEMEK.. ( ^ 



l3artiriiltnral Dejinrtnietil 



COKDUCTED BY P. BAEET, 



RAISING FRUITS FROM SEED. 



We know of no subject on which we can more profitably offer a few observations at this 

 time of the year 'than that of raising fruit from seed. We are every year ransacking 

 foi'eign countries for new varieties ; we are not satisfied with what we have, and we 

 never shall be. It is in the nature of man to seek for novelties; and it is well, on the 

 whole, that it is so. We shall not say a word against this, but we wish to commend to 

 people's attention the abundant means which nature has placed within our reach to 

 produce new varieties here, at home, on our own soil. 



Shall we neglect these ? We hope not. There seems, fortunately, at the present 

 time, a disposition in the public mind favorable to the improvement of home resources 

 in a gardening sense, and the raising of seedling fruit is certainly one of the most 

 important. Just enough has been already done to show what we may do, and afford 

 us encouragement to proceed. Dr. Kirtland's cherries, Dr. Brixkle's raspberries, and 

 many varieties of strawberries, all of much merit, are recent additions to our lists of 

 fruits, raised from seed in the simplest manner, without any regard to the niceties of 

 hybridization ; so we can count up fifteen or twenty first rate American seedling pears, 

 and every locality can boast of its favorite and peculiar seedling apples, some of which, 

 and indeed many of which have a national reputation, all grown from chance seedlings. 



Now. in fruit growing it is of the highest importance that every man cultivate such 

 varieties as are best adapted to his soil and climate. One of the great problems which 

 pomologists uow-a-days are endeavoring to solve relates to this very point. As bota-- 

 nists have divided the surface of the earth into zones of vegetation, each of which is 

 characterized by a peculiar flora, by the prevalence of certain trees, and shrubs, and 

 plants that flourish there, and there only ; so in fruit culture it is believed necessary 

 to map off this great country of ours, embracing such a variety of climate, into pomo- 

 logical zones, in each of which certain fruits will succeed better than elsewhere. On 

 this pomological chart, which our American Pomological Society, if it live and thrive, 

 will one day appoint a commission to draw up, we shall see clearly defined the exact 

 limits of successful cultivation of our Bartletts, SccMes, and Virgalieus. our Neiotoicn 

 Pippins, Baldwins, and Spys ; and this will certainly be a most interesting and valua- 

 ble map ; but it may be a long time yet before it be completed, or before we shall have 

 collected the great mass of facts and statistics which the execution of the work will 

 demand. 



Meantime, we must urge upon fruit growers, both professional and amateur, every 

 man or woman, every boy ox girl, who can obtain seeds of fine fruits, to plant them and 

 rear them into bearing trees. We think it scarcely admits of a doubt but that this is 

 the true way — we had almost said the onhj way to obtain varieties completely adapted 

 t-o all local circumstances ; we can read this plainly in the history of nearly alF our 

 native fruits. As a general thing, their culture is most successful in the region of their 

 origin. Some, like certain genera of plants, are confined to nari-ow limits, beyond which 

 they do not appear to prosper ; others admit of a greater diffusion, and adapt them- 

 selves to a greater variety of circumstances. 



We find the most forcible illustration of this in the case of northern and southern 

 fruits. The Fameuse, Pomme grise, and some other apples of the north, are best in the 

 -, . coldest latitudes, and fail as they go south, until they become Avorthle^s before they . p 



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