TO WOOL-GROWERS. 
235 
Kitchen Garden. — Sow beets, carrots, dwarf, ear- 
ly and pole beans, southern and northern cab- 
bages, cauliflower, lettuces, turnips, broad-leaved 
endive, lentils, mustard, roquet, parsneps, radishes, 
(long and round,) spinach, peas, and split onions. 
Transplant cabbages, tomatoes, and celery. Water 
them in the evening, if the weather be dry. 
Fruit Garden, Shrubbery, fyc. — Inoculate fruit 
trees of this year's growth ; procure none but the 
best and the choicest varieties. Prune peach trees 
and other stone fruits. Plant out fig trees, and 
shade their roots with straw. 
TO WOOL GROWERS. 
A purse of $100 having been offered for the 25 
best Merino ewes, and the 25 best Merino lambs, 
under one year old, by a private gentleman, the ex- 
hibition to be at the Fair of the New-York State 
Agricultural Society, I purpose to be a competitor 
in that exhibition, against any and all flocks of 
Merino sheep that may be brought against me. I 
give this out, not as a challenge, but simply as a 
proposition, which shall call forth my brother far- 
mers throughout the length and breadth of the 
land. My object is to convince myself where the 
best Merino sheep are. If I have not got them, I 
must have them ; for I am resolved to improve from 
the best, whatever may be the cost. By a fair and 
manly competition, we may compare the best spe- 
cimens from the best flocks ; and by that means 
learn where the best sheep are to be found. 
For a series of years, I have spared no pains and 
expense to possess myself of the best sheep of the 
pure Merino race, the United States could afford, or 
to be found in the Old World. It remains to be 
seen whether these efforts have been successful ; 
and to this end, I earnestly invite the Merino wool 
growers, throughout the Union, to meet me on the 
show ground, at Syracuse, next September, in hon- 
orable competition, to compare the 25 best ewes, 
and the same number of lambs from our respective 
flocks, and thus add another feature to this some- 
what national exhibition, which will be made at 
the New- York State Fair. A. L. Bingham. 
Cornwall, Vt., July 16th, 1849. 
NATIONAL CONVENTIONS OF FRUIT GROWERS 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
We have noticed a good deal of personal feeling 
on the subject of the title claimed by two very 
worthy assemblages of fruit growers, one of which 
met in Buffalo, N. Y., in September, and the other 
in the city of New York, in October last. Two 
Hotspurs are already in the field, and if the spirit 
continues, we may soon have enough to tax all the 
valor of Jack Falstaff to «' pepper," into silence. 
For our own part, we say, let them both be Na- 
tionals, " an' they will." We have not less than ten 
thousand Generals, thrice the number of Colonels, 
and any quantity of Majors, Captains, &c. Then, 
why not two or more National bodies of fruit 
growers 1 
But badinage apart. We think, of all absurdities, 
this idea of a set of enterprising, liberal-minded 
horticulturists, getting by the ears about a name, is 
the most ridiculous. The peculiar folly we note 
about it, (and it is an egregious one,) is, that any 
intelligent set of men should have adopted it at all. 
We might with equal propriety get up a National' 
Society of the occupants of Latitude 40° to 41° 
inclusive, or 30° to 35°. The state of Rhode Is- 
land, which embraces a territory of about 40 miles 
square, (we think our juvenile geographies gave it 
as 37 by 47,) might very well have its State Con- 
vention for growing fruit, without committing any 
great error, and, perhaps, Delaware. But Massa- 
chusetts could not consistently, much less NewYork, 
nor the whole of any two adjoining states. 
This is self-evident to any person of intelligence 
and observation. Take for instance, the grape in 
its most favorite clime. You will find it in one 
vineyard, producing a wine quite unlike that in one 
adjoining, though of the same variety; and the 
ripened fruit on one side of a hill would hardly be 
recognized as the same grown upon its opposite. 
This is true of the peach, when produced at the north 
and south, in our own country. Scarcely any ap- 
ple is more tempting than the Rhode-Island Green- 
ing, of New England, yet we have seen many of 
them in western New York, that were utterly insipid 
and worthless as a delicacy or luxury to a practised 
taste. 
Nothing is more certainly established by the ac- 
tual experience of every intelligent man, who has 
travelled through our country, or even had much 
experience on his own farm, than the constantly 
varying character of many of our fruits. A tree 
will change materially in the flavor of its product, 
even when standing still. Youth, maturity, and 
age, in the tree, each make a difference— its health 
or disease — seasons — richness or poverty of the soil 
— peculiarity of manures, &c. It is true, that amid 
all these changes and vibrations in fruit, there are 
still numberless general characteristics and princi- 
ples, which are applicable, with slight modifications, 
throughoutthe country, and to ascertain and clearly 
define these would certainly be a desirable object, 
if there be sufficient leisure in such a body, as 
would be likely to be brought together. But we 
should much prefer relying on the deliberate opin- 
ions and researches of one man of science and ex- 
perience, who could weigh his own opinions care- 
fully, and who would assume the entire responsi- 
bility of giving them to the public, than on the 
hurried decisions that were made in a mixed 
assembly, viva voce or by ballot. Whenever we 
come to define the exact character or compara- 
tive value of any one species of fruit, for all parts 
of the Union, we shall have approached the very 
climax of absurdity. 
We say then, nor claim oracular wisdom by the 
assertion, but only the expression of the most ordi- 
nary and obvious common sense, let there be as 
many conventions as there is spirit or zeal for as- 
sembling ; but let each give to itself a name in- 
dicative of its locality and the specific objects for 
which it is called together. Tell us whence the 
delegates come, and the relative value of the differ- 
ent varieties of fruit in particular sections. Let 
them give us their experience for certain latitudes 
and longitudes; describe to us the latitude, soil 
and treatment ; and if this shall have been intelli- 
gently and carefully done, we shall have precise, 
definite, and local data, which will be of vast gene- 
ral and national benefit, because it has been both local 
and detailed. 
