Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. 303 



in transplanting when trees were nearly in leaf, avow that to be the best 

 season ; not taking into account, that their success was probably entirely 

 owing to a fortunately damp state of the atmosphere at the time, and abun- 

 dant rains after the experiment was performed. In the middle States, we 

 are frequently liable to a dry period in early summer, directly following the 

 season of removal, and if transplanting is deferred to a late period in spring, 

 many of the trees will perish from drought, before their roots become es- 

 tablished in the soil. Spring planting should, therefore, always be per- 

 formed as soon as possible, that the roots may have the great benefit of the 

 early and abundant rains of that season, and get well started before the 

 heat of summer commences. For the neighborhood of New York, there- 

 fore, the best periods are, from the fall of the leaf, to the middle of Novem- 

 ber, in autumn ; and, from the close of winter, to the middle of April, in 

 the spring; though commonly, the seasons of removal are frequently ex- 

 tended a month beyond these limits." — pp. 41, 42. 



The following, in reference to soil and aspect, at once ex- 

 plains the difference of climate in the same latitude : — 



" Deep valleys, with small streams of water, are the worst situations for 

 fruit trees, as the cold air settles down in these valleys in a calm frosty night, 

 and buds and blossoms are very frequently destroyed. We know a rich 

 and farrile valley of this kind in Connecticut, where the cherry will scarce- 

 ly grow, and a crop of the apple, or the pear, is not obtained once in ten 

 years ; while the adjacent hill tops and high country, a couple or three 

 miles distant, yield abundant crops annually. On the other hand the bor- 

 ders of large rivers, as the Hudson, or of some of our large inland lakes, 

 are the most favorable situations for fruit trees, as the climate is rendered 

 milder by large bodies of water. In the garden where we write, a fourth 

 of a mile from the Hudson, we have frequently seen ice formed during the 

 night, of the thickness of a dollar, when the blossoms of the apricot were 

 fully expanded, without doing the least harm to that tender fruit. This is 

 owing to the slight fog rising from the river in the morning, which, soften- 

 ing the rays of the sun, and dissolving gradually the frost, prevents the in- 

 jurious effects of sudden thawing. At the same time, a couple of miles 

 from the shores, this fruit will often be quite destroyed. In short, the sea- 

 son on the lower half of the Hudson, may, from the ameliorating influence 

 of the river, be said to be a month longer — a fortnight earlier in spring, and 

 later in autumn, than in the same latitude a few miles distant ; and crops of 

 the more tender fruits are, therefore, much more certain on the banks of 

 large rivers or lakes, than in inland districts of the same climate." — p. 51. 



Commencing with the apple, one hundred and ninety kinds 

 are described : apricots, sixteen : cherry, seventy-six : grapes, 

 thirty-five foreign, and twelve native: plum, twenty-seven: 

 pea , two hundred and thirty-three : peach, seventy-five : 



