170 [Assembly 



Annales de la Societe Imperiale d'Horticulture, Paris, 1853. 



Remarks of Mons. Bossin upon the possibility of giving to Pomo- 

 logy new species of stone fruits of late flowerings to escape frost. 



Pomology is, without contradiction, one of the branches of hor- 

 ticulture which have in our day made the most remarkable pro- 

 gress. Most of the labors ot pomologists heretofore have been 

 employed in the making fruits of finer flavor, larger size, their 

 successive ripening, and they have had good success in these ef- 

 forts during the last half century. Colonel Leconteur wrote from 

 the island of Jersey in 1845, "I shall not cease to plant and to 

 labor in propagating good fruits until I have gained fifty-two good 

 ones, ripening one after the other each week of the whole year, 

 so that I can have a change of fruit on my table every Sunday." 



Every year we feel the disastrous efi'ects of frost in two-thirds 

 of the departments of France. Some years we are thus deprived 

 of all our prunes, almonds, cherries, peaches and apricots — of 

 the latter much oftener than of the former. 



Now, my iilea is to attain a remedy. That every year — in all 

 parts of France, Europe, and in the whole civilized world, there 

 should be planted nuts of the first four or five named sorts, name- 

 ly, prunes, almonds, cherries, peaches and apricots — all, in every 

 place, on the same day, so that we can have trees that will not 

 blossom in France until some fif(een days later than our native 

 trees do, and so totally escape the frost. 



The nuts of such irees as are latest in flowering should be plant- 

 ed. It is said that the sage olive of the Spanish Pyrenees is very 

 late in blossoming — is never frost hurt. In some parts of Norman- 

 dy preference is given to apple trees of tardy bloom. 



Much is due to the position of the trees in our gardens. Peach 

 and apricot trees placed in the lower and cooler part of a garden 

 have been known to bloom richly and sooner than those at the top 

 of the inclined garden, but bore poorly, while the latter bloomed 

 from fifteen days to three weeks later, and bore good crops. 



Our losses for want of true knowledge and management are 

 enormous. One proprietor in the Commune ot Fouzerolles, be- 



