Remarks on the Apple Culture in America. 445 



horticulturists generally in the United States, is not a little 

 impaired, upon intimate perusal, by the many heresies in 

 theory, and mistakes in matter of fact, which it is found to 

 contain. To this category, the following, from page 69 of 

 the book, appears to me to belong. 



" The great natural centre of the apple culture in America, 

 is between Massachusetts Bay and the Delaware River, where 

 the Newtown Pippin, the Spitzemberg,* the Swaar, the Bald- 

 win, and the Yellow BelleFleur, have originated, and are 

 grown in the greatest perfection. The apples raised on the 

 very fertile bottoms of the Western States, are very large and 

 beautiful, but, as yet, owing to the excessive luxuriance of 

 growth, are far inferior in flavor to those of the same quality, 

 raised on the strong, gravelly, or sandy loams of this" (his 

 own) " section of country." 



Now, the region defined is no more the "centre of the ap- 

 ple culture" than is Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, 

 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, or the Territories ; 

 nor are the varieties named grown there in any greater per- 

 fection than in some, if not all, of the States referred to. It 

 seems to me, that our author has admitted his conclusions 

 too easily, and without sufficiently considering the grounds, 

 if he has any grounds at all, which have led him to adopt 

 them. There are but two ways, that I can discern, by which 

 he could know the facts, so authoritatively advanced, to be 

 true : his own actual observation, or the actual observation 

 of others, communicated to him by them. And, if his con- 

 clusions have been arrived at in either of these ways, it is 

 certainly due to the public to apprise them of it, so that all 

 may know his data before proceeding to adopt them, — the 

 rather, as so many are found ready to adopt what they find 

 printed, without inquiry. 



On this subject, I must give the testimony of my experi- 

 ence, so far as it goes, and I confess it to be limited, against 

 this theory. But, I am the more confident, because, all who 



* Spitzemberg — Is not the true spelling Spitzenburgh ? I think it is so in Thatcher 

 and all the old works and catalogues. Downing, in his description of the fruits, spells it 

 so : but in the remarks quoted above he has it Spitzemberg, and so Thompson. Where 

 the same name is spelled differently in the same work, it is not contributing much to 

 uniformity. Perhaps he was puzzled to know which is right, and so has it both 

 ways. He should have decided upon one or the other. — T. S. H. 



