66 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
or Red June almost uniformly bears a second crop, and not 
unfrequently of fair and medium size. The same with Eng- 
lish Jargonelle and Belle Lucrative pears, together with 
s@me of the cherries. Whilst Mr. Peabody has succeeded 
in producing a continuous crop of strawberries, may we 
not reasonably expect from existing facts, that even apples, 
pears, and other fruits will be found ripening in the region 
of New Orleans as late as January'? Dr. Baldwin, of 
Montgomery, Ala., has succeeded in raising a peach, 
which ripens as late as the first of November, and which 
we are informed can be kept until Christmas. This is a 
fact which those to the . South of us should bear in mind, 
and at once begin raising seedlings of apples, pears, 
cherries, and other fruits. 
A short time since, we had presented to us by a friend 
in Athens, Ga , some apples fresh from the county of 
Delaware, New York State. Amongst them were our old 
and particular favorites, the Spitzenberg, Rhode Island 
Greening, Vandevere and others ; these we have compared 
side by side, and taste by taste, with our Nickajack and 
Cullasaga, and in all points, even to size, have written 
them down, wanting. What effect the climate and soil 
of New York may have on our Southern seedling varie- 
ties, we will not attempt to predict; neither does “C. D.” 
know. Our winter varieties probably would not ripen 
there any more than would our corn. Their season of 
warm weather is too short. “C. D.” thinks the world 
cannot produce such apples as their Newtown Pippin. 
We too once thought so, but have found out there are such 
places in the world as the Carolinas and Georgia, and 
that there are such apples as Julien, Cuilasaga, and others, 
equal in flavor, superior in size, and that will keep as 
well as the Newtown Pippin, or any other. 
“C. D.” can hardly be competent to judge of the relative 
merits of Northern and Southern apples. From his own 
showing, he knows little about the latter. We will run 
the risk of saying he never saw or tasted one of the kinds 
we have mentioned, nor probably any other seedling va- 
riety originated at the South. 
We speak advisedly, although we may err in taste and 
judgment, as to their relative qualities. We have spent 
thirty-six years of our life in New York, and fifteen years 
in Georgia ; and have had ample opportunity to compare 
both Northern and Southern varieties together, and now 
again reiterate what we have before said — we can beat 
your best varieties ; you to grow yours in New York, 
we ours in Georgia ; you to select your favorite varieties, 
•and we to be allowed the same privilege. For the last 
five or six years, we have maintained that we could not 
.grow your Northern varieties successfully here, nor shall 
we make an attempt to enter into competition in such a 
■futile project. 
There now appears to be an attempt to create an im- 
pression (by Northerners, or more particularly by some 
living at the North,) that our climate is adverse to the pro- 
duction of fine fruit. Why is this so "I If they can make 
our people believe our climate is prejudicial to it, the en- 
terprise of growing fruit here would then be at an end, 
because the defect would be incurable, and we still, as 
heretofore, dependent on them for our supply. Now 
here we would take occasion to say, climate has very lit- 
tle to do either with your success or failures. That our 
soil is generally poorer than that of New York, we are 
willing to allow ; but that is a curable defect, and one 
we are pleased to see is daily becoming more and more 
appreciated. 
The most material and palpable effect we can antici- 
pate our climate to produce in contradistinction to a cold- 
-er one, in the cultivation of fruit, is, that ours will be 
more aromatic and saccharine than those of a higher lati- 
tude It can hardly be otherwise, reasoniag from analogy, 
that the land of Oranges, Lemons, Pine Apples and Spices, 
should produce fruit superior rather than inferior to that of 
Pumpkins and Irish Potatoes. 
Before we make our adieu, we will take occasion to 
say to the senior editor of the Southern Cidtivator, that 
on taking a retrospective examination of our article in 
the August number of that paper, we are unable to discover 
the intimation of so great a chemical heresy, as to identify 
the aromatic property or principle with that of the sacch- 
arine. Forty years ago we might possibly have done so ; 
but not since our Sophomore days. 
J, Van Buren. 
Clarksville, Ga., January, 1855. 
Note. — Since writing the foregoing article, I have re- 
ceived a letter from that ardent, enterpirsing, and success- 
ful pomologist. Dr. W. 0. Baldwin, of Montgomery, Ala., 
giving the history of three seedling apples, which were 
doubtless produced by the Creek Indians near that place. 
One of these is nameless, or rather known by the name of 
every man who has last cultivated it ; the others are 
known as the Red Warrior and the Carter apple. The 
latter. Dr. Baldwin informs us, ripens and hangs upon 
the tree until January ; thus verifying our prediction be- 
fore the ink had dried, which was, that varieties of apples 
would be produced to the south of us, ripening as late as 
the month of January. Although fruit cannot be kept, 
after it is gathered, as long with us as in New York, from 
the fact of our climate being warmer, and hastening fer- 
mentation more rapidly than theirs, yet we can have ap- 
ples more months in the year than in New York, taking 
into account the time of our earliest ripening varieties, up 
to that of our latest lipening varieties. And, moreover, 
our apples liave no greater disposition to decay here than 
those imported from New York. J. V. B. 
FRUIT CULTURE IN THE SOUTH. 
No. 3. 
[Concluded from our last.l 
Mr. Editor — In planting an orchard of fruit trees, the 
importanee of deepening the soil by trench plowing is so 
obvious, that no one should think of planting without this 
preliminary step. Not less important, in event tlie land 
has been long cropped, is to restore to the soil the mineral 
manures so essential to success in fruit growing, viz : the 
potash, phosphates and lime, which may have been taken 
up in the cultivation of corn and cotton. Chemical analy- 
sis has shown that phosphorus and potash, and lime, 
enter largely into the ash of those last named plants; and 
these being the mineral substances essential to the healthy 
growth of the peach, the pear, and the apple, it follows, or 
may be inferred, that any soil which will grow cotton or 
corn in luxuriance, will be well adapted to the growth of 
fruit trees. If the soil then is not naturally a rich one, it 
should be made so by the compost heap. This compost 
should have for its basis, muck or black mould, into which 
stable manure, and ashes, and disolved or broken bones, 
and charcoal, should enter largely ; all to be thoroughly 
intermixed and decomposed before putting it in the soil. 
My plan in preparing for an orchard has been, first, to 
select land that has been mellowed by root crops — next, 
to enclose it with so substantial a fence as effectually to 
exclude all domestic animals) — next, to spread the com- 
post two inches in depth over the surface of the land — • 
next, to deepen the soil by trench plowing, (running the 
plow twice in the same furrows) — followed by the sub- 
soil plow — next, to plant only home grown trees, or those 
from nurseries in the South, and until the trees grow large 
enough to shade their own roots, to keep them well mulch- 
ed with straw or leaves ; and lastly, to keep the orchard in 
cultivation, (root crops are best,) and annually enriched 
