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THE GESTSEE FAEilEE. 813 



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CVrled Leaf ix the Peach. — Your August number has been placed in mv hands 

 by niT neighbor, Mr. Merriam, who is an intelligent horticulturist, and we have com- 

 pared notes on the subject of " curled leaf in the peach." We agree with you in your 

 belief that this disease arises, mainly, '• ia sudden changes, from genial spring weather 

 to cold and rainy, with slight frosts, which arrests the developement of the young shoots 

 and leaves, by which the sap becomes stagnant and diseased." You ask, '• Has any one 

 se^in it in warm weather — say in June or July ?" In reply I would state, that the last 

 month — about the middle. I believe — we had a cold north-west wind, and just escaped 

 a frost ; the result on an Early York of Mr. Merriam's was, that the leaves curled up, 

 and generally all dr<>pped, so as to almost cover the ground. This led Mr. Merriam to 

 observe that several of his other innoculated Peach trees were affected. My experience 

 for eight years with the peach in this latitude, 43 deg. 30 min., and within four miles 

 of lake OnUirio, is, that we do not succeed oftener than one year in three with this fruit 

 in the grafted varieties, whiie the natural is hardy, and bears almost every year, I agree 

 with you that the Mdocoton, Crawford's Earbj^ Cooledge's Favorite, are more hardy 

 and have suffered less from the curled leaf than other grafted varieties. They suffer 

 less when near the house, and sheltered from the north-west winds. My most vigorous 

 trees, and on the richest soil, have suffered the most ; the last three years they have 

 hardly produced a peach, t expect we shall have to depend on our natural and mor« 

 hardy peach trees. 



We have a great promise of grapes this year ; crop of strawberries light ; goose- 

 berries and raspberries abundant ; apples and pears promise well. There is more 

 attention given in this county to apples and pears than formerly. The demand for the 

 Xew York market — almost in any producable quantity — with the facilities of railways 

 for its conveyance, is making it profitable to the farmer to set out orchards in this 

 genial region to both these fruits. The pear succeeds remarkably well. J. A. B. — 

 Mexico, Ostcego county, JT. P". 



OsKALOOSA, Iowa. — This is a beautiful country, and the amount of improvement, 

 when we consider the age of the country, is truly astonishing. Here stands a flourish- 

 inof citv. containing some twelve or fifteen hundred inhabitants, where ten years ago not 

 otie humau habitation could be seen. The Indians gave possession of this country in 

 1843. j^ow you m.^y stand upon the top of a large brick house in Oskaloosa, and see 

 at one view thousands of acres of the richest land, all enclosed with good fences, rolling 

 in gentle undulations as far as the eye can reach, and covered, principally, with dark 

 green com, here and there interspersed with small patches (as appearing in the distance, 

 though many of these patches contain forty or fifty acres,) of golden stubble, from which 

 are being taken wheat, oats, and hay, which may be seen rising up into groups of stacks, 

 presenting their yellow tops above the green corn in all directions. Dozens of neat and 

 newly painted farm houses may also be seen scattered over the prairie. 



A number of young apple orchards are just beginning to bear in this vicinity, and I 

 saw, a few days ago, some beautiful specimens of the Found Royal, Belfloirer, Warren, 

 or Hollow Cored, Fippin, Fawles' Janette, Wells' Gate, etc., all large and smooth, 

 without spot or blemish ; and finer Isabellas and Cataichas I have never seen, than are 

 hanging on the vines in several of the gardens in this place. "We have a flourishing 

 agricultural society in this county, which holds its next fair at this place on the 15th of 

 October. " What !"' you are ready to exclaim. '• all this in the ' back woods,' one hun- 

 dred miles west of the Mississippi river .'" 2N ot a bit of '• back woods" about it, sir ; 

 for you will see more taste, intelligence, and refinement here than you will find in many 

 places in the older States, where the country has been setded fifty years. Don't say 

 " back woods" to us — we are beyond the '• back woods." R- Seevzrs. 



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