14: INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



most congenial to the kindly growth and fruitfulness of the trees, 

 Perfectly thorough drainage is, in all cases, absolutely essential to 

 productiveness. 



Some of the most valuable orchards we have ever st,en, stood on a 

 thin, light, loamy soil, on a basis of rock, and constantly pastured. 

 An elevated situation, with a light, loamy soil, will produce the most 

 healthy and fruitful trees, as all fruit trees are more prolific when their 

 growth is moderate ; but it will not grow trees as rapidly as the 

 more level, deeper, and richer soils, and would, therefore, be unsuited 

 to the commercial nurseryman. 



The increase of the curculio, aegeria, codling moth, and other insects, 

 which are treated of under their appropriate heads, is a subject which 

 has called forth more of ingenuity, practical tact, and scientific experi- 

 ment, than perhaps any other connected with fruit-growing. The 

 early settlements of the Western States were comparatively exempt 

 for a few years, but the transit of insects is so rapid, that they are 

 soon overrun. This may, perhaps, be termed the " dark side," in 

 fruit culture, and is to be met only by a general diffusion of know- 

 ledge. 



The Eastern States being possessed of great advantages and faci- 

 lities for obtaining trees, with various treatises upon fruits, and 

 numerous journals, devoted, in part, to this branch of horticulture, 

 have, until within a few years, been looked to by the South and 

 West for such information and knowledge as was requisite to the 

 successful culture of fruit trees. Experience has proved that such 

 knowledge was often erroneous, when applied in a different climate 

 and soil. It is presumed that this has induced, in the new States, 

 much more attention and discussion than would have occurred under 

 other circumstances. 



At this time, horticulturists number in their ranks some of the 

 most intelligent and devoted men from nearly every State in the 

 Union, and their annual and biennial assemblings are diffusing the 

 knowledge acquired by the practice of skillful persons, rendering it 

 accessible to all. 



Previous to 1796, there was very little other than the natural 

 fruit of the soil cultivated in Ohio ; and not until about 1820 or 

 '22 was there any considerable introduction and planting of " grafted 

 fruits" in the north part of the State. At that time, the nursery of 

 William Coxe, Esq., Burlington, New Jersey, seemed the nearest 

 from which to obtain trees, and, therefore, from thence came most of 

 the first plantations of good fruits. Later, the nurseries of Prince, 

 Kenrick, and Buel, supplied our Northern pioneers ; and from these, 

 with the liberal hand which always characterises a fruit-culturist, 

 grafts were distributed freely to whoever would. As early as 1796, 

 or 1797, Israel Putnam introduced and propagated many of the older 

 and best Eastern varieties on the borders of the Ohio river, and 



