HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 331 



dom bear delicious fruit ; and that in a few years they decay and 

 die ; and this is just what might be expected from the manner 

 in which they are grown. It is from these sickly, decaying, 

 miserable bearers that peach stones are collected for new trees. 

 But if it is a law of nature, that like produces like, we may 

 know before hand what sort of trees we shall have. Here is 

 much room for reform. In those instances in which individ- 

 uals have actually engaged in it, it is found by actual experi- 

 ment that in many localities peach trees may be kept in a 

 healthy and bearing state for fifteen or twenty years. Too 

 much attention cannot be paid in the selection of such seeds 

 as are fit for stocks. The old custom of taking such seeds as 

 first come to hand, must be abandoned. And we are happy 

 to state, that this subject is beginning to be appreciated as it 

 ought by some of our best nursery men, whose example, it is 

 hoped, will soon be followed by all. 



After securing healthy stocks, the next object is to have 

 good and delicious fruit. The finest trees which produce no 

 fruit, or that which is not fit for family use, are of no value 

 except for shade or fuel. This can be done only by grafting, 

 budding, &c. The first trees planted in this country were 

 nearly all natural or ungrafted trees ; very few of which pro- 

 duced what might be called good fruit. And this was consid- 

 ered no great matter of regret; for by the first settlers, fruit 

 was not much used, or even thought of as an article of daily 

 food. Apples, in those early times, were grown only for cider, 

 which the people soon learned to convert into cider brandy. 

 And they rightly judged that bitter or crab-apples were as 

 good for this use as any. But since this pernicious practice 

 has been abandoned, tliere has been a demand for more deli- 

 cious fruit, such as may be made an article of daily food ; nor 

 would your committee too severely censure those who were 

 pioneers in the settlement of this country. In the first place, 

 they had not the means of procuring the best kind of trees ; 

 and farther, such rich varieties as now exist, could not, in that 

 time, have been obtained at any price. Fortunately, people 

 have come to understand this subject better than formerly. 

 Fruit for the table has come into general use, and the amount 

 used is every year increasing. Extensive nurseries have lately 

 been planted, in order to secure such trees as are wanted ; and 



