196 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUE. 



of several miles, to examine the soil and witness the productions. Did not 

 see any good land — land that would in its natural state produce good crops 

 of grain or grass without help. It is beautifully rolling, particularly along 

 Landis avenue, and is susceptible of improvement, but would be attended 

 with great expense to improve it sufficiently to produce truck or small 

 fruits to profit. There is some nice truck land half a mile v/est of the 

 depot, without gravel and without improvements. Was on one field that 

 had been in wheat; the stubble was the finest certainly I had ever seen; 

 corn was small; the best wculd yield probably twenty to twenty-five bush- 

 els per acre. That in the village was very poor. Round potatoes did not 

 look promising; neither did clover sowed to fertilize the land; the under- 

 growth of scrub oaks had taken possession; sweet potatoes were more 

 promising; dwarf pear trees and grapevines the most promising; peach 

 trees showed signs of decay; standard pears and apple trees will probably 

 succeed because they delight in a Clay subsoil. The summer has been very 

 dry, which will account in a measure for the failure of crops. There is 

 land in Salem county, where it was equally dry last summer, that produced 

 thirty-five bushels of wheat, sixty bushels of oats, and sixty bushels of 

 corn per acre. 



"fruits in south jersey. 



" If your Club will visit the grapery of Wm. S. Sharp, printer, Salem, 

 New Jersey, they may see some thirty varieties of vines more flourishing, 

 I have no doubt, tlian they ever imagined for South Jersey, if not in their 

 most favored localities. Pears grow quite as large and fair here as they 

 do about Rochester, if those brought from there to our first exhiiDition are 

 fair samples. I have seven hundred pear trees coming into bea:ing, half 

 of them standards. Have had Belle Lucratives to weigh nine ounces each, 

 and they the smallest of twenty-five varieties of good pears — the Bartlett 

 being the poorest. If I were to assert tliat there have more varieties of 

 good apples originated in the country in South Jersey bordering on the 

 Delaware, than in all our country besides, j^ou might think it great arro- 

 gance in me; and yet, if we take our pomological societies' proceedings, 

 and our nurserymen's catalogues as guides — as producing the best — with 

 Downing and Cox as authors, that assertion would certainl}' come within 

 the bounds of truth; and a country that can originate such good fruit can 

 grow that fruit in the greatest perfection; and yet, v^ith all their advan- 

 tages, not a fit residence for any respectable white man ! 



" I had intended to sa}-- a few words about a remedy that I discovered 

 last spring for the yellows in the peach tree — or rather a cure. But per- 

 haps Ihave said too much already. I will just add — the trees I operated 

 on were nearly dead, apparently past recovery. They were in blossom at 

 the time. They soon after put on a green color, and formed plenty of buds 

 for another year, and the fruit hung on the trees a mo}ith after the usual 

 time for ripening. If the trees continue to do well next spring I will write 

 you the particulars. The remedy is within the reach of all who plant peach 

 trees." 



The reading of this letter was listened to with marked attention, and the 

 good-natm-ed hard hits of the writer were received with equal good nature. 



