1 66 Notes and Gleanings. 



winds, cannot possibly benefit the most important fruit of our country, the apple ; 

 and yet we do know, as a fact, tiiat there are conditions in our soil and climate 

 which have enabled us to establish an enviable reputation for our crops of this 

 fruit. We cannot, therefore, admit the premise, that the climate of Europe, 

 when considered in all its elements, is superior; and consequently, of course, we 

 cannot admit the inference which Mr. Cabot draws, that hardy fruits are there- 

 fore cultivated with more success and brought to greater perfection than 

 with us. 



So much for theory. Now, then, let us turn with him to the facts in the case. 

 First he tak^s up the strawberry. This is a fruit of spring and early summer 

 growth : it cannot bear the heat of July and August. We should expect it to 

 develop magnificently under the slow and sure advance of an English spring. 

 And Mr. Cabot compels us to a comparison in its best estate in a chosen local- 

 ity. No one can deny that specimens of the English strawberry are superb, 

 generally exceeding the American in size ; but do they exceed in productive- 

 ness .'' The price in Covent-garden Market is not a test ; for we know that 

 labor is cheap, and that the price of most vegetables is far below our own. 

 Upon this question I can add nothing from my own observation ; but I have 

 been interested in the statement of Mr. George S. Harwood of Newton, an intel- 

 ligent and careful observer and enthusiastic cultivator. On a certain morning in 

 June, Mr. Harwood tells me he made a hasty breakfast of Triomphe de Gand 

 strawberries from his garden, and, on the same day, started for his old home 

 near London. After a quick run, on the tenth day he ate the same variety at his 

 father's table, just in its prime, and pronounced the fruit of his adopted State 

 incomparably superior in qualit)-. The slow advance to maturity, the humid 

 atmosphere of England, had given large size and fine appearance ; but there was 

 a lack of character and high flavor which Mr. Harwood well remembered as dis- 

 tinguishing his fruit at Newton. As an impartial witness, his opinion is encour- 

 aging, when he states, that, with equally careful culture, better results in quantity 

 and quality attend the American than the European cultivator of the straw- 

 berry. 



For good samples of the cherry, Mr. Cabot takes us over to Germany ; and 

 it must be confessed that the beauty and abundance of these specimens quite 

 exceed our own. We are in a transition period : we have grown the finest varie- 

 ties in the greatest perfection and abundance. The curculio has come in upon 

 us like a flood ; and the more tender kinds like Black Tartarean have been in- 

 jured by the severity of an extreme winter a few years since. In this connec- 

 tion, and in reference to the minor fruits, such as apricots and plums, which, with 

 the cherry, are seriously affected by insects, it is fair to consider that they are, as 

 was said, in a transition state. Emphatically so is the whole country in refer- 

 ence to fruit-culture. We have cleared our forests, thereby not only greatly 

 changing the character of our atmosphere, rendering ourselves subject to high, 

 winds, great aridity, and great extremes of heat and cold, but also greatly redu- 

 cing the number of our feathered friends, whose work may seem insignificant, 

 and yet by the ceasing of whose work the vast tribes of insect-life come swarm- 

 ing upon us. It is no trifling warfare to meet this myriad force of minute insect- 



