158 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
From llie Genc'ee Farmer. 
The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. 
Ey A. J. Downing, of Newburgh, N. Y. 
This work, for which we have been looking 
wish considerable anxiety for some time past, 
hasat length made its appearance; and from 
the rather cursory examination which we have 
given it, we can say that it is the most com- 
plete and use.ful book o! the kind yet produced 
in this country. 
This was to be expected, not so much on ac- 
count of the peculiar qualifications of Mr. 
Doxvninv, as of the great facilities afForded for 
the compilation of such a work, by the recent 
careful and systematic investigations of Euro- 
pean as well as American Honicuhiiral Socie- 
ties, and the increased general attention given 
to fruit culture everywhere. 
The work has evidently been prepared with a 
great deal of labor and care, and with a view to 
make it as perfect as possible at the present 
stage of ilmerican experience in this depart- 
ment. We cannot convey to our readers an 
idea of the importance of the work any better 
than hv giving a sketch of the various subjects 
of which it treats. 
Chapter 1. Treats of the production of new 
varieties of Irtiit. 
2. Propagation of varieties, grafting, bud- 
ding, &c. 
3. Pruning. 
4. Training. 
5. Transplanting. 
f). Position of fruit trees, soil and aspect. j 
7. General remarks cn insects injurious to j 
fruit i'-'s. i 
8. T.ie Apple — history, uses, propagation, 
planting, pruning, insects injurious to it, gather- 
ing, keeping the iruif,-cider making; and a de- 
scri ’ ion of 186 varieties, with engraved out- 
lin' natural size, of upwards of 30 varieties. 
'J The Almond — history, uses, cu'ture, &c. ; 
with a description of 7 fruit bearing and 2 or- 
namental varieties. 
10. The Ayriccif— historv, uses, cultivation 
and diseases, with a description of 16 varieties. 
11. The Baberrp — uses, culture, &c., and de- 
scription of 4 varieties. 
12. The Cherry— 'ns history, uses, cultivation, 
training, g-athering the fruit ; with a description 
of the several classes, and of 37 varieties, with 
engraved outlines of 3! varieties. 
13. The Cv.rra.nf — uses , propagation and cul- 
ture; with a description of lO fruit-beating and 
several ornamental varieties. 
14. The Cramherrv —general remarks on its 
localities, culture, uses, &c. 
15. The P'ls — historv, propagation, culture ; 
with a description of 15 varieties. 
!6. The Gooseberry — its history, uses, propa- 
gation and cultivation; with a description of 40 
sorts, esteemed by Mr. Dov ning as most valua- 
ble. 
17. The Grape — its history, uses, soil adapt- 
ed to its culture, propagation, cultivation under 
glas.s, with and without heat — descriptive fi- 
gure of a vinery — insects and diseases peculiar 
to the grape — a description of 35 varieties 
of foreign grapes, 3 of them figured in outline: 
Black Hanihnrsh, Noyal Aluscadine and White 
Alnsca.t of Alexn.ndr'ia. Also a chapter on the 
cultivation of the native grn.pes in the garden 
and vinevard — remarks on the diseases to which 
thev are liable, and a description of 12 varieties, 
5 of them figured in outline, natui'al size, viz: 
the Bland, Cutawba, Elsinburgh, Isabella and 
Ohio. 
18. The Mul>)crry. 
16. The Nut - — Description and cultivation 
of the walnut, hickory nut, filbert, &c. 
20, I’he Phiin . — Its history, uses, propaga- 
tion and culture — soil adapted to it — insects 
and diseases which attaclr it, with speculations 
on their causes, preventives and remedies, and 
description of 97 varieties, 26 of them figured 
in outline, natural size. 
21. The Pear, as the author says, “the fa- 
vorite fruit of modern times and modern culti- 
vators.” — Its history, i?.ses, gathering and keep- 
ing the fruit, propagation, soil, culture, disea-s- 
es; with a description of 233 varieties, SO ot 
them represented in outline figures, natural 
size. 
22. The Peach. — Its history, uses, propaga- 
tion, soil and situation — pruning, training, in-' 
sects and diseases, with quite an elaborate dis- 
quisition on the yellows; in which the author 
seems inclined to advocate the belief that this 
is a “constitutional taint,” existing in many 
American varieties of the peach, and pioduced 
in the first place by bad cultivation, instead of 
being, as many suppose, a “ contagious disease” 
— to which is adde.d, remarks on the di.slinctive 
characters ol the leaves of classes, and descrip- 
tions of 79 varieties. 
23. The Necto.riue. — History, culture, &c., 
and description of 19 varieties. 
24. The Quince. — History, uses, propaga- 
tion soil and culture, and description of 5 varie- 
ties, 3 fruit-bearing and 2 ornamental. 
95. The Ra'^pberry and Blackbarry. 
26. The Strawberry . — History, cultu.'’e, &c.— 
a description ol 36 varieties, with figures of the 
two newest and best American seedlings : Ho- 
vey’s and Ross’s. 
27. I’he MusJi ATelnn. 
28. The Wa’er Melon. 
29 The Orange Family. 
30. The Olive. 
31. The Pomegranate. 
Tlien follows an essay on the “Duration of 
varieties of Fruit Trees,” and the book closes 
with a very useful appendage: a key to the pro- 
nunciation of French names. 
Jfo one Tastes so Good Fruit as lie who 
liaises Them. 
This is particularly true as regards the small 
fruits of summer. The black mulberry, it is 
stated in the Encyclopaedia Americana, is in 
perlection only a few moments, and that at the 
time when it can be detached from the tree by 
a slight shake of the branches. “All the fruit,” 
says Dr. Alcot “ but more particularly the ber- 
ries, are more or less subject to the same law.” 
The perfection of the strawberry lasts but an 
hour or two ; and even the pea, the bean, and 
Indian corn, lose much of their freshness and 
flavor, by being plucked the day before they are 
used. Those who raise fruits, therefore, may 
pluck and eat them when they are at perfect 
maturity, when they are more grateful to the 
palate, and most conducive to health. Those 
who buy them, on the contrary, must buy those 
that are prematurely gathered, or which have 
pa.ssed their best state, and are in the incipient 
process of decay. In general, part ol these 
objections lie against the summer fruits which 
are sold in the market— they are gathered be- 
j tore they are ripe, and they are in the progress 
I ot decay, flow important is it, therefore, that 
! the lovers of good fruit, should take care to have 
it in perfection by selecting and cultivating the 
choice varieties. 
“The juices of all green fruits,” says Dr. 
Alcol, “are different from those of ripe ones. 
Their acids are less wholesome than after they 
are changed by the action of the sun in ripen- 
ing, nor does the addition of saccharine sub- 
stance in preparing them, at all change their 
real nature. They are onl" concealed. The 
oxalic acid is still oxalic acid, cook green fruit 
as you will. No culinary process, I repeat, can 
! be substituted for, or produce the effect of the 
solar action. The Creator, in many instances, 
by means of the sun, performs the most perfect 
culinary processes, and nature is often the best 
kitchen and cook. 
The use of ripe fruits is admirably adapted 
to allay the feverish irritation of the stomach 
and bowels, at the seasons when they severally 
come to maturity; but unripe fruits, or those in 
the icipient stages of decay, ate calculated to in- 
crease these excitements,' and to generate dis- 
ease. Fruits should always become ripe in 
their natural way, and be eaten when they are 
in their hig'nest perfection.— Cultivator. 
Elevation of Agriculture as a Pursuit and 
a Profession. 
The pursuit of agricullure is almost univer- 
sally cemsideren as merely a profe.ssion of com- 
merce or trade, the farmer looking wholly to its 
pecuniary results. In a trading community, 
pecuniaiy considerations are always liable to 
control the judsment and predominate over 
every other consideration. Where the means 
are limited, and the farm must be cultivated as 
the only sou.''ce of subsistence, pecuniary re- 
turns must, of course, be the main object. 
Where, as in England, the cultivator is not the 
owner ot the soil, but an annual rent must be 
paid; and he is liable, as in most cases, to be 
compelled to quit his occupancy at the pleasure 
or the caprice of his landlord, farming must be 
conducted merely, as a matter of business, and 
there is no inducement to pursue the profession 
as a matter ot taste or sentiment. In many 
cases in my own country, it must, of necessity, 
be followed wholly as a means of support and 
of profit, and in some cases as a struggle for life. 
But there are innumerable other cases, in 
which men have the power, under the most fa- 
vorable circumstances, and 1 am most anxious 
they should have likew ise the disposition to de- 
vote them.selves to it as an elegant and litieral 
profession, worthy of a mind gifted even with 
the finest taste, and enriched by the highest cul- 
tivation. The United States present not many 
examples of very great wealth, at least when es* 
timated by the standard of wealth which pre- 
vails in England, where, indeed, are to be found 
individual accumulations which distance all 
the dreams of oriental magnificence. But, on 
the other hand, no country upon the globe, afid 
DO condition of things since the establishment 
of society, ever presented more favorably op- 
portunities than the United States for any one, 
by active and wholesome industry and a proper 
frugality, to acquire a competence, and that re- 
spectable independence, in which, with a full 
supply for the necessities of life, and an abun- 
dant provision for its comforts, there will be 
found within reach as many of the elegancies, 
and ornaments, and luxuries ot life, as a well- 
disciplined and healthful state of mind can re- 
quire. I have seen too frequently such beauti- 
ful examples in our country villages, and scat- 
tered over several parts of a land in many re- 
spects favored by Heaven above every other, 
not to be deepljr impressed wnth a condition of 
life which, where its blessings are properly and 
gratefully appreciated, seems to leave little 
more on earth for a rational and reflecting, a 
benevolent and truly religious mind, to ask. 
Happy is it w^here its waters are not poisoned 
by ati insatiate avarice, nor disturbed and 
thrown into confusion by ambition of political 
office or distinction, or a feverish thirst for no- 
toriety and excitement ; but in a quiet, yet not 
stagnant renose, they reflect everywhere the to- 
kens of that divine goodness, which seems in 
surh examples to have poured out its- richest 
earthly treasures. Now, 1 am anxious that ag- 
riculture should occupy that place among the 
liberal professions to which u can be raised, and 
to which, from its importance, it is entitled. 
But this can only be done by improving the edu- 
cation of farmers as a class— by multiplying, 
hrough the means ol a most liberal and extend- 
ed education, the charms of the country, and the 
subjects of interest whifh would be constantly' 
more and more developed to a cultivated and 
inquisitive mind ; and by showing that its suc- 
cessful pursuit, either as a matter of business 
or recreation, where a moderate fortune is pos- 
sessed or a moderate professional income is se- 
cured, is not incompatible with the highest im- 
provement of taste, and even a vigorous and 
successful pursuit of learning; and that, where 
so pursued, under favorable circumstances, it 
affords as fair a chance of rational enjoyment 
and quiet usefulness, as any situation which the 
mo.st lucrative trade, or the most successful po- 
litical ambition, or even the highest professional 
eminence, can command. 
But 1 fear, how much soever I may satisfy 
