316 Amelioration of Fruit Trees. 



to feed dieir young. This prepai-ation is equally efficacious 

 for crickets. 



Gentlemen and gardeners should be aware that this mer- 

 curial poison is equally fatal to vegetable as animal life. Should 

 it be laid on the surface of the soil, round the stem of an 

 orano-e tree or other plant, it will corrode the bark and albur- 

 num,^ to the certain destruction of the plant. This 1 know 

 from experience. 



Yours, &c. 

 Welheck, Feb. 1831. J. Thompson, Jun. 



Art. XXI. On the Amelioration of Fruit Trees. By J. L., of 

 York, Pennsylvania. 



Sir, 

 M. PoiTEAU, in a paper on the amelioration of fruits, read 

 before the Societe d' Horticulture de Paris, refers to this 

 country as " the grand laboratory of nature to produce new 

 ameliorated fruits." " The colonists," says M. Poiteau, 

 *' brought with them some of the ameliorated fruits of Europe ; 

 but, as they were occupied with the more important cares 

 incident to their situation, these fruits were not propagated by 

 grafting, but only by seed ; in consequence, they found them- 

 selves in time possessed only of sour crabs, unfit for the table. 

 In the mean time, a second generation of fruit took place, 

 which were little superior to those of the first. After a third, 

 a fourth, and a fifth generation had succeeded the first, the 

 inhabitants began to perceive some fruits better than those of 

 the preceding generations." He refers for these facts to a 

 tradition communicated to him in Virginia, in 1800. (Vol. II. 

 p. 62.) If I correctly comprehend the theory attempted to be 

 established, it is this : that the seedling of any variety of ame- 

 liorated fruit will only produce the sour crab from which it 

 originated ; that a second generation will exhibit appearances 

 of improvement ; that the third generation will be superior to 

 the second; and that in this manner the improvement will 

 progress, until a fruit is obtained superior to that upon which 

 the experiment commenced. This theory has been occasion- 

 ally adverted to by the correspondents of the Gardener's Ma- 

 gazine; one of whom, if I mistake not, has stated that, of the 

 seeds in a particular apple, those which are round in shape 

 will invariably produce ameliorated fi^-uit, while that from the 

 others will be but the original crab. (Vol. I. p. 223.) 



This is a very interesting subject, and one of no little im- 

 portance ; it is, therefore, much to be wished that it had been 



