310 Retrospective Criticism. 



better in the seaboard orchards, and then very skilfully leaves the reader to 

 draw the inference that it is only safe to obtain trees from the inland nurse- 

 ries, and more particularly of the Highland Botanic Garden. On page 

 555, he says,'" all along the seacoast lohere the climate is rude and the soil 

 rather sandy, as upon Long Island, in New Jersey, near Hartford, and 

 around Boston, many sorts of pears that once flourished well, are now 

 feeble, and the fruit is often blighted." 



We do not object to his statement that our climate is rude, for we have 

 always admitted that the exposed situation of the Long Island and Boston 

 nurseries, rendered the trees grown there very hardy, and peculiarly eligi- 

 ble for removal to any latitude. It is well known that the cold is more in- 

 tense on the seaboard than in a much higher latitude far from the sea, and 

 that the sudden changes experienced in Boston and Long Island, have a 

 very hardening effect on those trees which survive it. This seems corrobo- 

 rated by a fact stated on page 260, that the black Mulberry thrives well and 

 bears good crops at Hyde Park, on the Hudson, 80 miles north of New 

 York, while it is frequently killed on Long Island ; and we have almost 

 abandoned its cultivation. To this part of the author's statement, there- 

 fore, we have no objection ; but we are much surprised that without proper 

 inquiry, he has stated that the soil of Boston and of Long Island is " rather 

 sandy." We do not wish to say that he stated what he knew was wrong, 

 but we think that ignorance is much to be regretted in a work where cor- 

 rectness is indispensable. 



I cannot speak advisedly of the whole vicinity of Boston, but must leave 

 that to the editors. I am quite decided, however, in the opinion, that the 

 soil in the nurseries of Hovey & Co., — Winships, Kenrick, and others, is 

 quite far from being sandy. Respecting Long Island, his remarks must be 

 intended not for the south side, but for the roUing country which character- 

 izes all the north side, and where alone nurseries are found, and good fruit 

 to any extent is produced. There, and more particularly in the vicinity of 

 Flushing, exists every variety of soil, excepting sand. The heaviest clay, 

 porous, gravelly soil, and occasionally a spot of sandy loam are found, but 

 the most prevailing is a rich loam. In the land attached to our establish- 

 ment, (about 250 acres), we have a great variety of soil, a portion being 

 gravelly loam, other parts heavy clay, and a large portion of that planted 

 with trees, a rich loam. Although we have abundance of clay soil for all 

 our purposes, we rarely use it, for our own experience strengthens the opin- 

 ions of others that a clay soil is superior to a loam for no class of trees, and 

 decidedly injurious to many. Mcintosh, the best practical writer on the 

 cultivation of fruits, says that peaches and apricots "require a somewhat 

 rich and mellow soil, richer than that for the apple, and much lighter than 

 that for the pear;" that " apples delight in a soft hazel loam, containing a 

 small portion of sand ;" that "the cherry delights in a dry, light, and 

 rather sandy soil ;" that " plums are found to flourish best in a soil neither 

 too light, nor too heavy and wet ;" and that " a dry, deep loam is the best 

 soil for the pear tree, when upon a stock of its own species : a gravelly bot- 

 tom is good, provided there be sufficient depth of mould over it, and a 



