1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



123 



known in their vocabulary. Masters in Chancery 

 would do a miserable business, if they had no 

 other than what comes from honest farmers. I say 

 honest formers, because from my experience in 

 the world, and it is not short, honesty is more 

 ikely to be found pure and undefiletl in this class 

 of citizens than any other, though some of these 

 occasionally strike their corn with a jerk, or shake 

 down their milk, because it is apt "to heap a lit- 

 tle." Nevertheless, I am happy to bear testimony, 

 that there are honest farmers, and thank God 

 that I was born of such stock, and only regret 

 that I ever strayed from their abode. p. 



December 12, 1859. 



LEGISLATIVE AGHICHLTTJKAL 

 MEETIITG-. 



[Reported for the New Englanii Farmer by Thos. Bradley.] 



The third meeting of the present series of the 

 Legislative Agricultural Society was held in the 

 Representatives' Hall at the State House, on 

 Monday evening. The attendance was larger than 

 at the previous meetings, the hall being nearly 

 filled, and the company frequently applauded the 

 remarks of the speakers. The meeting was called 

 to order by Hon. Simon Brown, who introduced 

 Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, as Chairman of the 

 evening, in a few happy and appropriate remarks. 

 The subject for discussion, was ^'Fruit and Fruit 

 Culture.'" 



On taking the chair, Mr. Wilder said he should 

 speak on the question for discussion principally 

 from matters that had occurred in his own expe- 

 rience, or of which he had some knowledge. — 

 He said there were few subjects that had marked 

 the progress of civilization more or better than 

 the culture of fine fruits. Ancient writ-^rs, said 

 he, speak of apples, pears, plums, cherries and 

 others, but I am satisfied the fruits of those times 

 bear no comparison with the fruits of our day. 

 From the time of the writings he had alluded to, 

 to the close of the seventeenth century, we knew 

 little of fruit, although in some monasteries there 

 were accounts of several varieties of pears, and in 

 1680, the gardener of Louis XIV. had three hun- 

 dred varieties, of Avhich he said sixty-five were 

 excellent, yet only two of these are now consid- 

 ered M'orthy of cultivation. This he mentioned 

 to show the improvements that had been made in 

 the cultivation of this fruit. 



Li 1817, Mr. Wilder said that Coxe, of New 

 Jersey, the principal fruit-grower then in the coun- 

 try, had sixty-five varieties of pears in his cata- 

 logue, while of these we have now only two. 

 The speaker then alluded to the growth of in- 

 terest in fruit culture from the establishment of 

 the London Pomological Society in 180j,the Par- 

 is Horticultural Society formed in 1826, to the 

 establishment of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, in 1829. 



He alluded to the first exhibition of the latter 

 society, when Mr. Manning, of Salem, showed 

 only two bushels of peaches, but during his life 

 he proved 80 varieties of apples and 60 varieties 

 of pears, recommended by the American Pomo- 

 logical Society, and said that now there were men 

 who had from 800 to 1000 varieties of pears, and 

 who had exhibit-ed nearly 400 on a single occasion. 

 He said that on the formation of the Massachu- 

 setts Society, there were only three or four nurse- 

 ries in this region, while now they were numerous 

 and cultivated in the very best manner, covering 

 hundreds of acres. In Rochester, N. Y., there 

 were nurseries each covering 300 or 400 acres, 

 and in tliree counties there were fifty milhons of 

 trees for sale, the scions of many of these having 

 been sent out originally by the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society. 



Mr. Wilder then spoke of glass structures in 

 connection with fruit raising, saying that formerly 

 there were few m New England, now they were 

 numerous. He said that there were 40,000 

 pounds of the foreign grape grown annually with- 

 in thirty miles of Boston. From this he passed to 

 the consideration of the native grape, asserting 

 that the Catawba had driven the Malaga from the 

 market, solely through its superior quality, and 

 he had been informed by one man who kept a stall 

 in Faneuil Hall Market, that he had sold two 

 and a half tons of Catawba gi-apes during last 

 season, having received them from the West. 



Our seedlings were then alluded to, and the 

 speaker praised these highly, arguing that the aro- 

 ma is to be the test of the grape, and that the 

 flavor will be what will distinguish them above 

 the European in the making of wine. He men- 

 tioned some crosses of the grape which had 

 been produced, and he felt satisfied that the day 

 was not far distant when our hardy grapes will be 

 preferred to the foreign sorts. 



Wines were then considered, and the gentleman 

 said that there was one firm in this city who nov/- 

 manufactured 20,000 gallons annually from grapes 

 grown along the Charles River, while hundreds of 

 thousands of gallons were made in Connecticut 

 and Ohio, and other States, and California could 

 make enough to supply the whole world. 



Mr. Wilder next spoke of the cultivation of the 

 strawberry Avhich Avas almost unknown here in 

 1829, and which had grown to be so important 

 and profitable a fruit. He illustrated this by 

 stating the product of two-fifths of an acre of 

 ground in Belmont, last season, which yielded at 

 the rate of §1300 per acre, and said this was not 

 a solitary instance of the immense profit made. 



The apple, said the gentleman, is the great pro- 

 duct of the farmer, and on the cultivation of this 

 he would speak, first correcting an error he had 

 made at a previous meeting in relation to the 



