Notes and Gleanings. 293 



for thirteen hundred dolhirs per acre in 185 1. Mouton sold, in 1853, at thirty- 

 six hundred and twenty-nine dollars per acre. These are in the Bordeaux dis- 

 trict. Favorite localities on the Rhine are seldom sold, but are estimated as 

 high as eight thousand to ten thousand dollars per acre in the settlement of 

 estates. If, then, there is such a determined value for the choice spots exactly 

 suited for the requirements of the vine in Europe, why should we not seek for 

 and prize the sunny hillside ledges, of which there are thousands in our Com- 

 monwealth, similar to Mr. Clark's, which could be made, with equal certainty, to 

 produce similar results ? 



" Nor is this suggestion applicable to the grape alone. Every fruit has its con- 

 ditions. And it is only by a careful study of the peculiarities and requirements 

 of each that the highest results and the most complete success can be attained. 

 Though this truth is so oljvious, yet it is also true that very few perfect trials in 

 fruit-culture have yet been made in this country. This work has generally been 

 subordinate to other occupations ; and the orchard has been located on the 

 homestead, without special regard to the fitness of the means to the end in view. 

 A prominent example may illustrate this fact. Ex-President Wilder has given 

 his pear-orchard a reputation the country over, and he has made his experiment a 

 decided success. Yet he located his orchard on a hard, rocky soil, by no means 

 naturally adapted to the pear, and he has always said that the fruit obtained from 

 his soil has come by main force. The location was chosen because of its nearness 

 to his residence. His, then, is by no means a full illustration of what can be 

 done with the pear. In order to the best results with the pear, ihe precise soil 

 — a clay loam, retentive yet friable, with a porous, or else a most thorough and 

 deeply-drained subsoil, a level, humid tract, not exposed to dry and exhausting 

 winds in short, the precise spot — is to be chosen, without regard to convenience 

 and nearness to the homestead. Herein lies the secret of the fact that Cambridge 

 carries away three-fourths of our pear prizes, year after year. Her soil, her 

 low, level tract so near to the water, and yet so well drained, secure to her such 

 advantages, that only good culture is necessary to produce the largest results. 



" Now, the conclusion from this is not that the general culture of a variety of 

 fruits is impracticable and must be abandoned. Very far from this. Our soil 

 and our climate permit a fair degree of success wherever ordinary opportuni- 

 ties are secured. Again : the great proportion of home-grown fruit is for home 

 use, and the producer is more than content with ordinary size and average suc- 

 cess. Probably it is a more general custom in Massachusetts than in any other 

 Stale of our country, that each owner of a freehold has a few pear and apple 

 trees, two or three grape-vines, and the complement of small fruits. This is a 

 wise economy, resulting in moral and social, as well as pecuniary gain. Still it 

 is desirable for our large city-markets that the most extensive, practical, and 

 scientific experiments in fruit-culture be attempted. With the apple, for exam- 

 ple (a long and too tedious experiment for most men of enterprise), how desira- 

 ble is it that men of capital should select some extensive pasture slopes, of 

 which our State furnishes an ample supply, such as are just suited for this fruit; 

 so far removed from city precincts as never to be endangered by the fever of 

 land speculations ! An orchard planted on a site thus selected, and being suffi- 



