436 FRUIT. 



that not one man in a hundred tastes peaches in a season, on the 

 other side of the water, while during the month of September, they 

 are the daily food of our whole population. 



Within the last five years, the planting of orchards has, in the 

 United States, been carried to an extent never known before. In 

 the northern half of the Union, apple-trees, in orchards, have been 

 planted by thousands and hundreds of thousands, in almost every 

 State. The rapid communication established by means of railroads 

 and steamboats in all parts of the country, has operated most favor- 

 ably on all the lighter branches of agriculture, and so many farmers 

 have found their orchards the most profitable, because least expen- 

 sive part of their farms, that orcharding has become in some parts 

 of the West, almost an absolute distinct species of husbandry. Dried 

 apples are a large article of export from one part of the country to 

 another, and the shipment of American apples of the finest quality 

 to England, is now a regular and profitable branch of commerce. 

 No apple that is sent from any part of the Continent will command 

 more than half the price in Covent Garden market, that is readily 

 paid for the Newtown pippin. 



The pear succeeds admirably in many parts of the United States 

 but it also fails as a market fruit in many others and, though 

 large orchards have been planted in various parts of the country, 

 we do not think the result, as yet, warrants the belief that the 

 orchard culture of pears will be profitable generally. In certain 

 deep soils abounding with lime, potash, and phosphates, naturally, 

 as in central New-York, the finest pears grow and bear like apples, 

 and produce very large profits to their cultivators. Mr. Pardee's 

 communication on this subject, in a former number, shows how 

 largely the pear is grown as an orchard fruit in the State of New- 

 York, and how profitable a branch of culture it has already 

 become. 



In the main, however, we believe the experience of the last five 

 years has led most cultivators particularly those not in a region 

 naturally favorable in its soil to look upon a pear as a tree rather 

 to be confined to the fruit-garden than the orchard ; as a tree not so 

 hardy as the apple, but sufficiently hardy to give its finest fruit, pro- 

 vided the soil is deep, and the aspect one not too much exposed to 



