THE GENESEE FAEMEE. 



reach the Mississippi. So with southern fruits ; like the Rawles' Janet, Tewkeshurij 

 Winter Blush, &c., that succeed only where the seasons are very long, and are entirely 

 worthless in the north, where the spring opens about the first of May, and autumnal 

 frosts come as early as the first of October. We believe the Porter and Baldwin are 

 no where so good as in Massachusetts ; the Newtown Pippin is best on Long Island and 

 the Hudson ; the Spitzenburgh in New York, &c. 



Aside from the unquestionable facts of the case, it is clearly natural that this should 

 be so. A variety springing up from seed in any given locality, is, in the course of its 

 production, endowed with a constitutional vigor and habits adapted to that locality in a 

 particular manner — just as men are more at home in the climate and mode of life of 

 their native country than in any other, and are, in a measure, proof against local diseases 

 that strangers would immediately fall victims to. This is all in strict conformity to the 

 wise harmonious laws that regulate and govern all Nature, animate and inanimate. 



Now, we are an impatient people — a "fast" people, to use a current term — and we 

 are quite • loth to embark in any thing that does not promise immediate results. 

 Our young men now-a-days greatly prefer hazarding their lives for the chance of securing 

 a lump of California gold to working a fortune patiently but surely out of their paternal 

 acres. To such people, -raising new and fine fruits from seed, where, perhaps, not more 

 than one in ten thousand may be a prize, is a slow business, and any thing we may say 

 will probably fail to convince them that it is not quite so slow as they imagine. But 

 we shall try, nevertheless. 



Suppose, for instance, we wish to produce some seedling strawberries ; we take the 

 finest berries of the best kinds we can procure ; they must be perfectly ripe ; we either 

 wash the seeds out of the pulp, or we crush the berries and spread out pulp, seeds, and 

 all to dry. We then sow either the clean seeds, or dried pulp and seed, in light earth, 

 and by autumn we have nice plants. These we protect during winter with a covering of 

 leaves, and next spring we plant out into beds ; the following season they will bear, and 

 we will be able to see whether we have gained a prize or not. Raspberries, currents, 

 and gooseberries, are managed exactly in the same way, and will fruit in the same time. 

 This is not a tedious process. Three years or four enables us to arrive at some 

 results with these small fruits, and very important fruits they are. Now it would take 

 as long as this to raise a colt fit for market, and a first rate new strawberry, currant, or 

 raspberry, is worth two or three good colts at least, and it might be half a dozen. 



Peaches are easily raised from seed, and come quickly into bearing. Every one knows 

 how to raise peaches from seed. The fresh pits may be transferred at once from the 

 pulp to the ground ; and in three or four years it will yield fruit. Pears and apples are 

 more tedious ; but there is a way to manage these to obtain early results. vSuppose, 

 now, in 1853 we collect seeds of the finest apples and pears; as we take them from 

 the fruits we place them in sand or earth until we have done collecting ; we then plant 

 them in fine, well prepared eai-th. Next spring they will grow, and in the autumn of 

 1854 we shall have yearhng plants. While yet in leaf we select the most promising- 

 subjects — such as show in their features the greatest degree of refinement ; then, instead 

 of waiting for these to bear, which would not "happen for ten years, perhaps, we graft or 

 bud iVjpm them into bearing trees — dwarfs, if we have them — and in two years or so 

 we will fruit them. Plums and cherries are managed in the same way. 



Now we think that n-o reasonable person who has patience enough to wait for the 

 ordinary seed time and harvest, could call this a very tedious process. Aside from the 

 advantages which it ofi"ers, the raising of seedling fruits is full of instruction and intensely 

 interesting, as every one can testify who has given it a tiial. We shall have more to say 

 on this subject hereafter. 



