A FEW WORDS ON FRUIT CULTURE. 439 



Claret, what we hear of the grapes and wine of Texas and New 

 Mexico, leads us to believe that the future vineyards of New World 

 Sherry and Madeira may spring up in that quarter of our widely 

 extended country. 



New Jersey, so long famous for her prolific peach orchards, be- 

 gins to show the effects of a careless system of culture. Every year, 

 the natural elements of the soil needful to the production of the finest 

 peaches, are becoming scarcer and scarcer, and nothing but deeper 

 cultivation, and a closer attention to the inorganic necessities of 

 vegetable growth, will enable the orchardists of that State long to 

 hold their ground in the production of good fruit At the present 

 moment, the peaches of Cincinnati and Rochester are far superior, 

 both in beauty and flavor, to those of the New- York market though 

 in quantity the latter beats the world. The consequence is, that we 

 shall soon find the peaches of Lake Ontario outselling those of Long 

 Island and New Jersey in the same market, unless the orchardists 

 of the latter State abandon Malagatunes and the yellows, and shal- 

 low ploughing. 



The fruit that most completely baffles general cultivation in the 

 United States, is the plum. It is a tree that grows and blossoms 

 well enough in all parts of the country, but almost every where it 

 has for its companion the curculio, the most destructive and the 

 least vulnerable of all enemies to fruit. In certain parts of the Hud- 

 son, of central New- York, and at the West, where the soil is a stiff, 

 fat clay, the curculio finds such poor quarters in the soil, and the 

 tree thrives so well, that the fruit is most delicious. But in light, 

 sandy soils, its culture is only an aggravation to the gardener. In 

 such sites, here and there only a tree escapes, which stands in some 

 pavement or some walk for ever hard by the pressure of constant 

 passing. No method has proved effectual but placing the trees in 

 the midst of the pig and poultry yard ; and notwithstanding the 

 numerous remedies that have been proposed in our pages since the 

 commencement of this work, this proves the only one that has not 

 failed more frequently than it has succeeded. 



The multiplication of insects seems more rapid, if possible, than 

 that of gardens and orchards in this country. Every where the cul- 

 ture of fruit appears, at first sight, the easiest possible matter, and 



