368 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
It can put all its early products into these mar- 
kets in the best condition, and realize very 
high prices for them. Then the soil about 
Norfolk is a sandy loam, and matures its 
products with great rapidity. A glance at the 
map will show that the bay has many arms and 
creeks running up into the land for several miles. 
These creeks are navigable for scows and light- 
ers, so that it is very easy for a farmer having 
a front upon the water to transport his vege- 
tables many miles, and put them immediately 
on board the steamer, within a few hours of the 
time of her sailing. This materially diminish- 
es the cost of marketing. Such rare natural 
advantages have been to some extent appre- 
ciated, and a large business has been done. 
But the demand for early vegetables and fruits 
is so great, and the prices are so remunerative 
that, with sufficient skill and capital, the busi- 
ness may be increased many fold, to the advan- 
tage of both consumer and producer. 
Owing to the desolations of the war and the 
uncertainty that has hung over Virginia poli- 
tics, land is still cheap in this region. It can 
be bought sufficiently near the city for truck 
farming from $50 to $900 an acre, according to 
the character of the improvements upon it. 
Land can be rented for about ten dollars an acre, 
though the owners general]}' prefer to sell. Cul- 
tivators need both more skill and more capital to 
make their business pay better. The season of 
renting begins with the year, and the plowing 
and other preparations for a crop commence as 
soon after as the weather will admit. The 
plowing is performed in pleasant weather all 
through the winter. The manure most used is 
of the most expensive kind, street and stable 
manure, and much of it is brought from Balti- 
more iu vessels. This is applied at the rate of 
about five full cords to the acre. As this arti- 
cle costs a dollar and a quarter a load in Balti- 
more, and as much more for freight, it becomes 
a very expensive fertilizer by the time it is de- 
livered upon the field. Stable manure can be 
had in Portsmouth and in Norfolk for about a 
dollar and a quarter a load, the carting to be 
done by the purchaser, but the supply is quite 
limited. Guano is sometimes used for forcing, 
and bone-dust on special crops, which pays well. 
A good article of superphosphate and fish 
guano would pay much better on these lands 
than stable manure. Night soil, sea weed, and 
sea mud, which might be had easily, are not 
much used. The great want of this whole 
region is more manure and of better quality. 
The planting season opens early in February, 
and peas are put in as soon as the soil is fit, and 
early potatoes immediately follow. These, with 
cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, cabbages, squash- 
es, and strawberries, are the crops most largely 
raised. Melons are grown a good deal, but are 
exceedingly liable to depredations on the way. 
The farmer begins to forward articles to market 
by the 1st of May, and by the 15th of August 
the season is mainly over, and he begins to 
look around him and plan for another year. 
Hay, oats, and corn, do well enough, and there 
is no difficulty in growing what forage is need- 
ed for stock. The products of the farm are 
generally sold in the cities that we have named, 
on about ten per cent, commission, and the 
commission merchant makes his returns once a 
week. This makes a cash business, and the 
farmer is not out of pocket for his outlay in 
manures more than four or five months. A 
part of the help is employed by the year, but in 
the picking season large numbers of women 
and children are employed by the job. Good 
laborers can be had for about twenty dollars 
per month, with house-rent and fire-wood. 
Horses and mules are principally used for 
teams. There are many details of the business 
that vary so much with different individuals, 
that no satisfactory account of them can be 
given here. The profits are considered very 
satisfactory by those engaged in the business. 
Where is the Mixing of Varieties Shown ? 
Some remarks on this subject iu the August 
Agriculturist, have called out the following 
note from the botanist whose initials will be 
readily recognized. We know of no one more 
able to tk oroughty investigate this subject, and 
hope it will receive his attention. It is one of im- 
mediate practical interest to eveiy fruit grower. 
" As to where the mixing of varieties is shown, 
I would first ask, why should it be in the 
seed rather than in the seed-vessel or fruit ? 
Of course we expect the mixture to be shown 
in the offspring, that is, in the next generation, 
the principle being that the offspring inherits 
from both parents. But the seed is not the 
offspring ; it only contains the offspring in an 
embryo state. If the alien pollen may impress 
some peculiarity on the coats of a seed — which 
are a part of the mother-plant — why not upon 
the seed-vessel as well ? 
So much for the likelihood of the case. It 
appears to be well settled that the coats of beans 
are thus affected. It is generally supposed that 
the fruits or seed-vessels of melons and squash- 
es are similarly effected. Careful observation 
and experiment ought to determine the question. 
Now in the case of certain plants of the squash 
family, Naudin found, if I remember correctly, 
that alien pollen which would not act on the 
ovules so as to cause an embryo to be produced 
at all, would yet cause the fruit to set and grow 
apparently to full size, though not a seed ma- 
tured within. Does not this prove that the 
pollen may somehow act on the ovary or pistil 
as well as on the contained ovules ?" A. G. 
Apples— American Pomology. 
BY LEWIS F. ALLEN, BLACK ROCK, N. T. 
As Doct. Warder's work on Apples was pub- 
lished by the proprietors of the Agriculturist, 
we have not noticed it at the length its import- 
ance demands, and we give place to the follow- 
ing communication from so well-known a writer 
as the Hon. L. F. Allen, the more readily, that 
while it is an entirely unsolicited tribute to the 
value of the work, it is a forcible and seasona- 
ble plea for apple culture. 
" We like this book — for several reasons : It 
is written by one who knows whereof he writes ; 
it takes the seed, and plants, grows, and culti- 
vates it into a tree for transplanting ; it selects 
the soil, prepares it in the proper way, takes the 
tree from the nursery, plants it and trains it 
until it bears ; it then shows to what particu- 
lar uses either variety of the fruit is best applied, 
how to pick it, and how to preserve it till it is 
used. All these are told in a practical, thorough 
manner, that the merest neophyte may under- 
stand, and work upon. It also describes the prop- 
er soils, elevations, and positions for orchards, — 
the modes of draining, where it is needed, 
and the whole system in all its minutest parts. 
The book also talks of insects ; and not only 
talks of, but describes them, and the best ways of 
preventing, or getting rid of them. It classi- 
fies the different varieties of the fruits as to size, 
shape, color, taste, and quality, and also the 
habits of the different trees — all essential to be 
understood by the orchardist. In short, it tells 
the whole story throughout, in all that is neces- 
saiy to be known by either the professed grow- 
er of apples for market, the amateur, or the 
small lot owner who grows only for family use. 
This is an apple book only, and we like it all 
the better for that, because it is mixed with noth- 
ing else, and one's attention in reading is not 
diverted to a dozen or twenty other fruits, which, 
in our opinion, are much better to be treated 
distinctly, by themselves. Apples are not only 
an important staple in our agricultural produc- 
tions, but are growing more important eveiy 
year; and the time is not far distant when even 
large farmers in our country will make orchards 
their specialty, and rely upon them, as others 
do on their grain crops, their neat stock, their 
wool, and their dairies, for a living and revenue. 
There are already well known sections of our 
wide spread country where apple orchards are 
much more productive, to the acre, and steadily 
productive too, than any other crops the farmer 
can raise, let the crop or the price fluctuate as 
it may ; and knowing these facts, the fortunate 
holders of such land will appropriate consider- 
able portions of them to apple growing. There 
are also other extended regions where apples 
are a precarious or contingent crop, and where 
they will only be grown for family use. Or- 
chards, as a crop, will pay little or nothing on 
such soils, and with such fitful bearing that it 
will be no object to attend to them. These 
facts, with observation and experience, will be- 
come better known than now, and the more 
men observe, and read, the sooner will they 
know to what extent, and with what success 
and profit they can cultivate them. 
Tocome to the thing practically, he who lives 
far from water communication, or a rail-way, 
or where rail-ways are not likely to be made — 
no matter how applicable his soil and climate 
may be for the purpose, will not go extensively 
into apple growing, \mless for cider or vinegar, 
for the reason that he cannot get his fruit to 
market cheaply, nor, from the jolting of wagons, 
with safety to its good keeping ; while he who 
enjoyssuch advantages can just as safely embark 
in the business as in any other branch of cultiva- 
tion. Every one need not suppose he can do 
so successfully, even with the best advantages 
of soil and locality. Every one has not a taste 
for the pursuit. A good pomologist must be 
somewhat of an enthusiast. He must have a 
natural taste for the pursuit primarily, and then 
a fund of acquired knowledge to be a success- 
ful apple grower. He must know what varie- 
ties best suit his soil, and that is to be ascer- 
tained by observation and trial. Let him see 
what good varieties flourish and give the best 
and surest crop in his vicinity. Some kinds 
flourish well in one soil and position, while oth- 
ers, perhaps equally good, do not succeed at all. 
The apple, in many of its best varieties, like 
almost every kind of fruit, is somewhat capri- 
cious in its preference, not only of soil, but of 
position, and climate ; and of this fact too many 
of those who strive to he orchardists on a con- 
siderable scale, appear to have been profoundly 
ignorant in their early attempts at planting. 
They looked upon an apple simply as an apple, 
irrespective of what variety i t might be, or in 
what climate or soil it originated. Our best 
varieties have originated in various parts of the 
United States. Pretty much all of them were 
Araenmn seedlings, for we have not a dozen 
kinds which came across the Atlantic that are 
