1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



531 



CUIiTUBS O^ TKBES. 



1. The healthful development of fruit trees, as 

 of other living substances, depends on the regular 

 reception of a ci-rtain quantity of appropriate food. 

 This food, whether derived from the earth, air, 

 water, or other natural elements, is conveyed 

 through the medium of the atmosphere and the 

 soil. While we have only an indirect and imper- 

 fect control of the atmosphere and other meteor- 

 ological agents, the Great Arbiter of Nature has 

 committed the soil directly to our care and treat- 

 ment. 



2. To this I may add the general sentiment in 

 favor of thorough and perfect drainage, beneficial 

 to all cultivators, but indispensable to the fruit- 

 grower. 



3. Not less uniform is the experience of the 

 salutary effects of a proper preparation of the soil 

 for fruit trees, both in the nursery and in the 

 orchard. ' 



These principles are settled in the minds of all 

 intelligent fruit-growers ; but they need to be 

 often promulgated and enforced. It should be 

 equally well understood that success depends upon 

 the adaptation of the habits of the tree to the con- 

 stituents of the soil, the location, and aspect or 

 exposure. A disregard of this principle, and the 

 fickleness of seasons, are among the most com- 

 mon causes of failure, not only among inexperi- 

 enced cultivators, but amongst professed pomol- 

 ogists. 



More attention should be given not only to the 

 location, but especially the aspect of trees. A 

 common error is to disregard the tmie of ripen- 

 ing. * * * 



The sentiments contained in the communica- 

 tion of Mr. J. J. Thomas, at our last session, 

 against the growth of any other crop in orchards, 

 especially against relying upon small circles dug 

 around trees in grass ground, as a method of cul- 

 ture, deserves to be h:ld in perpetual remem- 

 brance. Equally injurious, in my own opinion, 

 is the habit of deep digging or plowing among 

 fruit trees, thereby cutting off the roots, and de- 

 stroying the fibrous feeders, which frequently ex- 

 tend beyond the sweep of the branches. However 

 necessary the practice may be of cutting off roots 

 in old orchards, in the process of renovation, it 

 should be carefully avoided in grounds properly 

 prepared, and where the trees are in a healthy or 

 bearing condition. From experiment and obser- 

 vation, I am persuaded that working the soil 

 among fruit trees, to the depth of more than three 

 or four inches, should be carefully avoided. The 

 surface should only be worked with a hoe, or sca- 

 rifier, for the purpose of stirring the soil, and 

 keeping out the weeds. * # * 



NEW NATIVE FKUITS. 

 Changes of opinion have also taken place in 

 regard to the acquisition of new sorts of fruits. 

 Formerly we looked to other countries ; now we 

 rely more especially on our own seedlings for the 

 best results. When we reflect upon the great 

 number of new varieties which have, in our time, 

 been raised from seed, and the progress which 

 has thereby been made, no apology need be of- 

 fored for repeating what has been said in former 

 addresses in commendation of this branch of po- 

 mology. It was my first, so it shall be my contin- 

 ual and last advice: "Plant the most mature and 



perfect seed of the most hardy, vigorous and val- 

 uable varieties, and, as a shorter process, ensur- 

 ing more certain and happy results, cross or hy- 

 bridize your best fruits." 



What wonders this art has already accomplished 

 in the production of new and improved varieties 

 in the vegetable kingdom ! How much it has 

 done for the potato, the turnip, and other vegeta- 

 bles, — producing, from a parent stock of inferior 

 grade, numberless varieties of great excellence ! 

 How it has brought forth, from the hard, acrid, 

 and foxy grape of the woods, the delicious varie- 

 ties that are now obtaining notoriety and exten- 

 sion ; from the bitter almond, the luscious peach 

 and nectarine ; from the austere button-pear of 

 the forest, the splendid varieties that command 

 our admiration ; from the sour crab, the magnifi- 

 cent apples which now constitute the dessert of 

 our tables ; from the wild raspberry and black- 

 berry of the hedge, from the native strawberries 

 of the pasture, those superb varieties which crown 

 the tables at our exhibitions. We believe it is 

 now admitted that our native varieties are more 

 hardy, vigorous, productive, and free from disease 

 than most foreign sorts. Thus we have seedling 

 gooseberries free from mildew, and pears that 

 never crack. AVhy can we not breed out the black 

 wart from the plum ? * * * 



Truly we live in an age of transition and won- 

 der ! The invention of to-day supersedes that of 

 yesterday, and in its turn is to be supplanted by 

 "that of to-morrow. No enterprise, however bold, 

 adventurous, or vast, whether the construction of 

 a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; the 

 laying of the mystic wire in old ocean's bed, or 

 threading it through Behrlng's Straits and wind- 

 ing it around the globe, is too great for the capi- 

 tal, energy, or intelligence of the present genera- 

 tion. * * * 



Discoveries, inventions, and improvements 

 equally remarkable characterize all the arts of 

 husbandry. Witness, in place of the forked stick 

 of the ancients, or the wooden plow of our boy- 

 hood, the improved iron plow of every model, and 

 adapted to all kinds of soil and situation ; and, 

 still more marvellous, the vSteam Plow, moving 

 as a thing of life across the broad prairie, turning 

 up its numerous furrows at once, and leaving be- 

 hind it a wake like that of a majestic ship. Wit- 

 ness, also, instead of the rude hook, the sickle, or 

 the scythe of the farmer, slowly and tjdiously 

 gathering his crops, our mighty mowing and 

 reaping machine, cutting down its ten to twenty 

 acres per day. 



The great industrial pursuit which this Society 

 seeks to promote furnishes testimony of progress 

 not a whit behind the most favored of the arts. 



Behold the improved methods of cultivation ; 

 the vast number of nurseries and orchards, 

 springing up everywhere, as by enchantment ; the 

 novel processes of reproduction, multiplying 

 plants in endless profusion, and as by the stroke 

 of a magician's wand. Witness the interminable 

 lists of varieties now in cultivation, increasing 

 with each revolving year, the restless and anxious 

 desire to obtain everything new and promising 

 from whatever country and sea-girt isle it comes; 

 the refined taste for choice fruits rapidly extend- 

 ing through every gradation of society ; the stand- 

 ard of pomology, like the star of empire rising in 

 the east, moving still onward to the west, and ex- 



