330 HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 



Fruit Trees. 



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In the growing of fruit trees, two things are mainly import- 

 ant ; the Jirst is to secure healthy stocks ; the second, good 

 fruit. It is of as great importance to begin right in this as in 

 any other enterprise. A mistake here, will carry defeat through 

 every subsequent part of the work. It needs no argument to 

 prove that the future beauty, health, fruitfulness and longevity 

 of the tree, depends essentially upon the quality of the seed 

 from which it springs. In this particular there has been almost 

 entire neglect. No farmer would take his seed corn from a 

 heap of threshed corn, of which there had been so selection of 

 ears. But, in planting a nursery the usual practice has been, 

 to go where apples are made into cider, and obtain a quantity 

 of pomace, some of which is from apples of the worst quality, 

 or only half ripe, or from old, decayed, ill-shaped and sickly 

 trees. One might as well expect that the generous courser 

 could be bred from the foundered jade, as that good trees 

 could be grown from such seeds. 



And where this is known, very few are found willing to pay 

 it much regard. Most people are for doing things in the 

 cheapest way. The nursery man is aware, that if he should 

 be at the necessary outlay in procuring his seeds from the best 

 fruit, of the most healthy trees, that he could not sell his trees 

 so as to make himself whole — that his next neighbor, who ob- 

 tains his seed with almost no expense, would undersell him 

 in the market. To give a case in point. In one of our cities, 

 not long since, a very large quantity of seedling trees, from 

 common pomace, and which were as miserable in all respects 

 as trees could be, were brought into market and sold for eight 

 cents a piece, by the thousand. Very fortunately, they almost 

 all died from ill treatment. When at the same time, well 

 worked, healthy trees, of the first quality, might have been 

 bought in the immediate neighborhood, for twelve and a half 

 cents a piece. But most purchasers never think of asking a 

 single question about the origin of the trees they buy. The 

 miserable effects of this practice are manifested in every kind 

 of trees, and especially in the peach tree. Everywhere we 

 hear the complaint that peach trees are sickly ; that they sel- 



