232 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



cious appearance of our orcliards. Tlie evils whicli we 

 have to fear are not shown forth in the early history of a 

 tree or an orchard. On the contrary, the appearance will 

 be flattering. The apple is a more hardy tree than the 

 pear, and will endure greater mismanagement ; but in the 

 long run we shall have to pay for our greedy cultivation, 

 even in the apple family. Our pear-trees are already 

 evincing the evils of a too luxuriant habit ; and if the West 

 is ever to become the pear-region of America, the culture 

 of this tree must be adapted to the peculiarities of western 

 soil and climate. 



It will be borne in mind that our remarks upon the culti- 

 vation of fruit-trees are not applicable to the processes of 

 art employed in experimental gardens, or in climates 

 requiring a highly artificial culture, but to gardens and 

 open orchards of the pear and apple in the middle and 

 Western States. 



Our climate and soil predispose fruit-trees to excessive 

 growth. There is, in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 

 and in the thickly settled portions of Missouri and Ken- 

 tucky, very little poor soil. Limestone lands, clay lands, 

 sandy loams and alluvions, afford not only variety of soil, 

 but the strongest and most fertile. The forest trees of the 

 West compared with the same species east of the Alleghany 

 ridge, exhibit the difference of soils. Artificial processes 

 may produce better soils, it may be, but there is not pro- 

 bably on earth so large a body of land which is, as 

 uniformly, deep, strong, quick, and rich in all mineral and 

 vegetable substances. It is cultivated under a climate most 

 congenial to vegetation, both in respect to length and tem- 

 perature. Our spring is early. In 1835 we gathered 

 flowers from the woods, near Cincinnati, on the 22d of 

 February. In 1839 we gathered them at Lawrenccburgh, 

 in the last week of February. We find in our garden 

 journal at Indianapolis, latitude 39°55' north, March 11, 

 1840, "rose-bushes, honey-suckles, and willow trees had 



