HORTICrLTURE 



other. Some of the later books have more nearly caught 

 the right point of view. . ,. . j ■ 



The earliest separate grape book was published in 

 Washington in 1823, by the prophetic Adlum,"A Memoir 

 on the Cultivation of the Vine in America." This went 

 to a second edition in 1828 (see Adlnm and Plate II). 

 Before this time (1806), S. W. Johnson had devoted 

 ch space to the grape in his "Rural Economy," pub- 



HORTICULTURE 



763 



the 



lished at New Brunswick, N. J., and he publish 



first pictures of grape training (Fig. 1085). Adlu 



book was followed in 1826 by the 



"American Vine Dresser's Guide," 



by the unprophetic Dufour. This 



work also gave pictures of grape 



training, oue of which is reproduced 



in Fig. 1086. The larger part of the 



grape literature appeared before 



the close of the Civil War, although 



the larger part of the development 



of the subject has taken place since 



that time. 



General Remaeks on Frott- 

 Growing. — Horticulture, in its 

 commercial aspects, was nothing 

 more than an incidental feature of 

 farm management at the opening of 

 the century. In fact, it is only in 

 the present generation that the held 

 cultivation of horticultural crops 

 has come to assume any general im- 

 portance in the rural economy of 

 the nation. And even now, horti- 

 cultural operations which are pro- 

 jected as a fundamental conception 

 of land occupation are confined to 

 few parts of the country. It is still 

 the original or first conception of 

 the farmer's boy, when he pro- 

 poses to occupy lanil of his uwn, 

 that he raise trr.nii .ml Ir.r, ;,inl 

 stock, and add tli' ' l» r 



horticultural crnp- ! ■ : il. 



It is only in pavti' . n ■ : . i \,v 

 country that the larm. i -..in- nut 

 with Horticultui-.' ,i^ :, i.:i-r, 

 with grain and st." !, iml Im 

 accessories: ami ■•v], in i 



still dr:,«lM:; .1,. M , 



the rea-- - <• '■ ■< 



one general liortinili ;ir,i I r.,u,\u,:[- 

 ity, at least in tin- ikmi Inrn -i.ii. -. 

 a hundred years ;i-.'. nml tli;it \v:i^ 

 the apple. Pears, ]h a.h.s, ,li, r- 

 ries, quinces and some other fruits 

 were common, but there was little 

 thought of marketing them. Even 

 the apple was generally an acci- 

 dental crop. Little care was given 

 the trees, and the varieties were 

 few, and they were rarely selected 



with reference to particular uses, beyond their adapta- 

 bility to cider and the home consuiuption. 



Tliacher, writiiiL' tn'in l>lviii..uth in 1821, says that 

 "the most palpalil' m -li .t jik \ nils in respect of proper 

 pruning, cleaning', ainl iii:ininin^ round the roots of 

 trees, and of perpituatin^- .It. .!.■,■ fruits, by engrafting 

 from it on other stocks. Uld orchards are, in general, 

 in a state of rapid decay; and it is not uncommon to see 

 valuable and thrifty trees exposed to the depredations 

 of cattle and sheep, and their foliage annoyed by cater- 

 pillars and other destructive insects. In fact, we know 

 of no branch of agriculture so unaccountably and so 

 culpably disregarded." Were it not for the date of 

 Thaoher's writing, we should mistake this picture for 

 one drawn at the present day. 



If one may judge from the frequent and particular 

 references to cider in the old accounts, it does not seem 

 too much to say that this sprightly commodity was held 

 in greater estimation by our ancestors than by our- 

 selves. In fact, the cider barrel seems to have been the 



chief and proper end of the apple. Of his thirty chap- 

 ters on fruit-growing, Coxe (1817) devotes nine to 

 cider, or 42 pages out of 253. John Taylor's single epis- 

 tle devoted to horticultural matters in the sixty and 

 more letters of his "Arator" is upon "Orchards," but it 

 is mostly a vehement plea for more cider. "Good cider," 

 he says, "would be a national saving of wealth, by ex- 

 pelling foreign liquors; and of life, by expelling the 

 use of ardent spirits." In Virginia, in Taylor's day, ap- 

 ples were "the only species of orc-harda, at a distance 



from cities, capable of prod 

 comfort to become a cmisidi 

 Distilling from fruit i- |.i^.: 

 and out of his pr"\ i i ' 



some food for ho^^s. :i I , 

 and a healthy liqti'n- i i : i 

 year. Independent "i : 

 it is an object of s.ilnl 

 early as 1647, tweiit\ ' 

 ginia by one pers.ni. !: 

 writes of a small ti>\', :i i ■ n 

 forty families, wliicli iikhIc- n- 



families. 

 Barrels.'' 

 ent day, is 



' were made in Vir- 

 : I nmt. Paul Dudley 

 : r,..i'iii, containing about 

 n.urlv 3.000 barrels of cider 

 er New England town of 200 

 pif with "near ten Thousand 

 Mill, as it exists at the pres- 

 087. It was not until well 



„_ present century that people seem to have es- 

 caped the European notion that fruit is to be drunk. 



There are evidences that there have been several 

 marked alternations of fervor and neglect in the plant- 



