STATE AND PROSPECTS OP HORTICULTURE. Y9 



uiilEons of dollars. The planting of orchards and fruit-gardens 

 within the last five years has been more than three times as great as 

 in any previous five years, and as soon as these trees come into 

 bearing, the annual value of their products cannot fall short of 

 twenty-five or thirty millions of dollars. American apples are uni- 

 versally admitted to be the finest in the world, and our pippins and 

 Baldwins have taken their place among the regular exports of the 

 country. In five years more we confidently expect to see our fine 

 late pears taking the same rank, and from the great success which 

 has begun to attend their extensive culture in Western New- York, 

 there can be little doubt that that region will come to be considered 

 the centre of the pear culture of this country. 



The improvements of the last few years in fruit-tree culture have 

 been very great, and are very easily extended. From having been 

 pursued in the most careless and slovenly manner possible, it is now 

 perhaps the best understood of any branch of horticulture in 

 America. The importance of deep trenching, mulching, a correct 

 system of pruning, and the proper manures, have come to be pretty 

 generally acknowledged, so that our horticultural shows, especially, 

 and the larger markets, to a certain extent, begin to show decided 

 evidences of progress in the art of raising good fruits. Our nursery- 

 men and amateurs, after having made trial of hundreds of highly* 

 rated foreign sorts, and found but few of them really valuable, are 

 turning their attention to the propagation and dissemination of 

 those really good, and to the increase of the number mainly by 

 selections from the numerous good native varieties now springing 

 into existence. 



The greatest acquisition to the amateur's fruit garden, w^hin the 

 last few years, has been the cold vinery, a cheap glass structure by 

 the aid of which, without any fire heat, the finest foreign grapes can 

 be fully ripened, almost to the extreme northern parts of the Union. 

 These vineries have astonishingly multiplied within the last four 

 years, so that instead of being confined to the gardens of the very 

 wealthy, they are now to be found in the environs of all our larger 

 towns and a necessary accompaniment to every considerable 

 country place. As a matter of luxury, in fruit gardening, they per- 

 haps afford more satisfaction and enjoyment than any other single 



