16 



NEW- YORK FARMER AXD 



[For the New-York Farmer and Horticultural Repository.] 

 ART. 12. — Letter to the Editor, from Mr. M. 

 Floy, on the Peach denominated by him " Emperor of 

 "Russia." 



Dear Sir, — In a late number of the New-England 

 Farmer, p. 178, I observed a letter from Mr. Prince, 

 giving some extracts from an Horticultural work about 

 to be published by this gentleman. Under the hcadSi/no- 

 nyms in Fruits, he observes: "I have also noticed 

 ihat a peach which is now selling as a new variety, by 

 the high sounding name of Emperor of Russia, is the 

 same fruit known for thirty years past under the unpre- 

 tending title of serrated leaved peach." 



As this remark appears to be a sort of oblique hit at 

 me, I shall observe that both the " unpretending title," 

 and the "high sounding name," of this fruit and its va- 

 riety, were given by me and have been in my catalogue 

 a number of years ; and to clear myself from the impu- 

 tation of "giving new names to old and well known 

 fruit," I shall give you the history of this fruit as far as 

 f know it. In the summer of 1803, I was over in the 

 Jersey, at the English neighborhood at Mr. Paul Sau- 

 nicr's place, and in the rear of his house, and near the 

 edge of a swamp, I observed a natural seedling peach ; 

 the leaves were very deeply and doubly serrated, differ- 

 ing from any peach I had hitherto seen. I was induced 

 1 o take a shoot from it, and inoculate a few trees in 

 my nursery, and called it by the name of serrated leaved 

 peach. This name was not to my knowledge in any other 

 catalogue at ihat time. I had not then seen the fruit, 

 the original tree being very young. I esteemed it as a 

 furious variety only. In the summer of 1810, Mr. Saa- 

 nier called over and informed me that the fruit of this 

 serrated leaved peach was very fine, and was without 

 any doubt a new sort of peach, differing in all its char- 

 acters from any peach he ever knew of. And I here 

 wish to remark that Mr. Saunicr was a French garden- 

 er and a good judge of fruit, as well as a good practical 

 botanist. It however remained hi my catalogue by its 

 former name. I raised many trees of this kind from 

 seed all of which retained the character of the original, 

 in the deep serrature of the leaf. Among these seed- 

 lings, was a very fine variety, the fruit being "better than 

 the original in many respects ; and as all the others were 

 inferior, I rejected them. And this new seedling variety 

 happening to come in about the time of the fatal disas- 

 ter of the French army at Moscow, it appeared soon af- 

 ter in my catalogue by the name of the Emperor of Rus- 

 sia. I inoculated many of them, and sold them in 

 IS 15, by that name, as my catalogue of that date will 

 show. I have been thus particular in the history of this 

 fruit, not for the sake of argument and dispute, but for 

 the sake of information, as it regards the original name; 

 and shall consider that I had the right to give both the 

 names myself until better informed. If it was so called 

 ■^T years ago. it was unknown to me, although it is not 



impossible ; but it maybe so: yetifitwas so, undoubtedly 

 some catalogue can be produced to prove this fart : and 

 I expect this proof, or shall conclude it was not the rase. 



I wish also to observe that in the spring of 1810, 1 

 sent some of the trees of the former variety, to Messrs . 

 Lee & and Kennedy of Hammersmith ; and in 1822, 1 

 sent some of the latter variety to the London Horticul- 

 tural Society, which appears in their transactions, and in 

 their catalogue, by the name I gave it. I perfectly agree 

 with Mr. Prince, that the " re-christening" of old and 

 well known fruits, is a bad practice, and generally arises 

 from ignorance of the character of fruits ; yet I do not 

 pretend to say that every man who is a private cultivate . r, 

 may not call his fruit by what name he pleases; not know- 

 ing the proper name. Bat surely practical and experi- 

 enced nurserymen, ought not to fill up their catalogues 

 with these fanciful names. It ought to be presumed that 

 they would be cautious of new names, until they nave 

 proved the fruit, and examined it very carefully. 

 I remain, dear Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



Michael Floy- 



Nsw-Yorlc, January oih, 1828. 



— ...,9@»«,.— 



[From tlie Agricultural Reader.] 

 ART. 13. — Systematic Agriculture. 



Every vegetable in growing takes something from 

 the earth which makes it the poorer. Every vegetable 

 in dying and mouldering back again to dust, adds 

 something to the earth which makes it the richer. It 

 is the same when an animal dies. Dust thou art, says 

 God, and unto dust shalt thou return. Every thing 

 which has possessed life, whether animal or vegetable, 

 having undergone putrefaction and being returned back 

 again to dust, becomes food for the support of vegeta- 

 ble life. 



This is the reason that newly cleared lands produce 

 so abundantly. " Hitherto," says Dr. Mitchell, " the 

 American husbandman has cultivated a soil, enriched 

 for ages by the yearly addition of a fresh stratum of 

 mould. From the first existence of vegetation upon 

 the dry land, decayed plants have continually furnished 

 a supply of manure which the winds and the rain have 

 liberally spread abroad. 



" As the supply was annually greater than the con- 

 sumption, the earth, unexhausted by its productions, 

 increased in fertility. The thick layer of vegetable 

 mould which covered the face of the earth was a store- 

 house of food for plants, and the quantity was greatly 

 increased by the conversion of wood into ashes bv 

 clearing. It is not wonderful then, that for some years 

 newly cleared settlements should abound in produce, 

 and require little more labor than that of ploughing 

 and reaping ; for during this period the provision is 

 wasting, which for centuries had been accumulating- 



