no Retrospective Criticism. 



cultivated for sale, by persons engaged in other pursuits, and who make no 

 pretensions to much system or precision.) Most of our nurserymen are 

 engaged, practically, in their pursuits, and cultivate their trees with their 

 own hands, and generally with the greatest care and exactness, such indeed 

 as is scarcely possible in large establishments, where the labor is entrusted 

 to a multitude of hands ; this we know by experience. Errors may and 

 will be committed by all. We have had trees from the best establishments 

 in the country, and have been deceived, but this has not shaken our confi- 

 dence : we expect such things. 



"I would add that, in western New York, we have fruits that will not 

 suffer by comparison with those of any other section of the United States — 

 particularly our apples, peaches, plums and cherries ; in pears we are defi- 

 cient, but within the last few years great efforts have been made to introduce 

 the choicest varieties of these. All the finer and most approved varieties 

 cultivated in the eastern nurseries have been brought here, many are now 

 bearing, and importations of the best continental varieties have recently 

 been imported directly from Europe. This much I feel called upon to say 

 in defence of our nurseries, and would conclude by saying that, if they are 

 not all that they might be, yet they are not discreditable to our country, but 

 have done and are doing great things for the cause of general improvement. 

 — Yours, Western New York, February, 1845." 



[We believe we have before stated that it is a rule we have adopted, never 

 to insert an anonymous communication in answer to one under the author's 

 real signature ; and we only do so in this case, because we know the writer, 

 and from the fact that we are not certain that Mr. Phcenix intended we 

 should publish his entire letter. If any other communications appear, they 

 must be under the writer's own name. 



Mr. Phoenix's letter was partly private, and his remark in relation to the 

 nurseries of western New York may have not been intended for the Maga- 

 zine. But if it were, we think Western New York, has given to it too 

 much importance. Mr. Phcenix does not say that he supposed the errors 

 were intentional, but that there was room for doubting the genuineness of 

 some of the trees. This is natural enough in a section of country where 

 but a very limited number of the new kinds have yet fruited, and the pro- 

 pagation is wholly made from trees received from various sources where, 

 perhaps, they have never proved the fruits. 



Western New York is not alone in this respect, but the remark applies 

 more or less in many other places. The truth is, our nurserymen read too 

 little, and are apt to place too much confidence in their own practical infor- 

 mation. How many of all the nurserymen in the country possess the Lon- 

 don Horticultural Society's Catalogue of Fruits, a book indispensable to all 

 who aim at correct nomenclature? We venture to say not one in ten of 

 those who sell trees. Neither do we think one out of ten possesses a sin- 

 o-le copy of our Magazine, from which all the information may be gleaned 

 relative to new fruits in the middle and eastern States. When such is the 

 case, how much more reason is there to doubt, than among those who pos- 

 sess all the information to be obtained on the subject ! 



