4 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
FRUITS AND THEIR VARIETIES. 
The season is now fast arriving for planting 
fruit trees. The object of every one in planting 
trees is, or should bo, the production of the best 
fruits of their kind in the proper seasons. Now, 
there are soveral requirements that make up the 
quality of the “best” fruits. We will enume¬ 
rate some, and the chief of them: 
1st. Suitableness to the climate where they 
are to grow, and their abil'ty to withstand the 
rigor and change of temperature. This quality 
may also be termed hardiness. 
2d. Vigorous and healthful growth, with good 
constitution. 
3d. Proper shape of head, and spread of 
branches in the tree in its natural habit. 
4th. A proper distribution of the fruit through¬ 
out the branches in single bearing — not in clus¬ 
ters, like cherries. This open habit of bearing 
or distributing the fruit gives it a freer growth 
without interference with its fellows, holds it 
stronger on the twig, and renders it fairer and 
better grown than when huddled in clusters. 
Some apples and pears have this last habit in a 
very injurious degree. 
5th. Constant bearing—or, as near constant 
(annual) bearing as possible, in order to give 
a regular supply of the same fruits every year.. 
6 th. Good size, fairness of exterior, and ex¬ 
cellence of flavor for the various edible purposes 
to which the fruit is to be devoted. 
The affimative of these qualities makes up the 
merits which, as near as possible, every planter 
should provide in the fruits he plants. 
Fruits otherwise may be sub-divided into two 
classes: for the table or dessert in their natural 
condition, and for cooking. For these two ob¬ 
jects combined, few fruits are equally well 
adapted. The best table fruits are such as re¬ 
ceive their full measure of excellence in flavor 
in their natural growth on the tree, while some 
of the best cooking varieties are stringent and 
unpalatable while raw, and only develop their 
full excellence under the cooking process. 
Every house-keeper experienced in fruits know 
this. Therefore, every one planting fruit trees 
for family use, should understand that he needs 
not only the best varieties for the table and des¬ 
sert, but the best kitchen or cooking varieties. 
Without these last, his fruit garden must be im¬ 
perfect. And how is he to get the knowledge 
to guide him in the matter ? 
We shall not answer this question directly, 
but make a remark or two by way of caution 
before starting. 
It is the most natural thing in the world for 
one who is about to plant fruit trees, to send for 
a nursery catalogue of repute, and consult it, to 
ascertain what are the best kinds for him to 
select. He takes it up, finds a hundred or two 
kinds of apples and pears, or twice that num¬ 
ber, half as many cherries, plums, and peaches, 
half a dozen quinces, currants, and raspberries, 
besides scores of gooseberries, and grapes, if he 
happen to want these latter. Looking at the 
different names among the several varieties of 
the fruits, and the remarks carried out opposite 
to them, our young planter finds them all 
“good,” “excellent,” “productive,” “great- 
bearer,” “delicious,” “hardy,” “best for mar¬ 
ket,” &c., with adjectives piled up in the highest 
excellentissimo style, so bewildering to his im¬ 
agination, that it is a miracle if he rises from 
their perusal without sighing that he has not 
land enough to plant the entire catalogue with 
such wonder-working fruits. The upshot of 
this examination is, that ho is quite as much at 
fault as before he commenced his selection; and 
among the multitude of varieties, in all, that he 
has looked at, perhaps only a dozen or twenty 
of each, on examination will be found to be suita¬ 
ble to his wants, the quality of his soil, its cli¬ 
mate, and position. Now, what is the poor man 
to do ? He is buried in a labyrinth of apparent 
delicacies—made so by the zeal of the nursery¬ 
man, who will, of course, recommend his own 
wares—and trusting to his own choice, if not 
experienced, which not one in a hundred of our 
modern fruit-growers are, the chances are three 
or four to one that he chooses wwong. 
There is hardly a locality embracing an area 
or stretch of country containing essentially the 
same soils, climate, latitude, and altitude in any 
of the old States, but what has one or more va¬ 
rieties of fruit of several kinds, particularly ap¬ 
ples, more or less natural to that territory; pro¬ 
bably originating therein, and flourishing in 
higher perfection of growth and flavor than any 
other variety in that particular place, or perhaps 
than any where else, although doing quite well 
in other localities and positions. We need in¬ 
stance only a few celebrated fruits to establish 
this fact fully. The Baldwin apple in Eastern 
Massachusetts; the Westfield Seek-no-further, 
between Hartford and Northampton in the Con 
necticut valley ; the Rhode Island Greening, in 
Rhode Island and Connecticut; the Raymond, 
or Winter Peannain, in the latter State; the New¬ 
town Pippin on Western Long Island, Eastern 
New-Jersey, and up and down the Hudson 
River; the Esopus Spitzenburgh at and about 
Kingston, in Ulster county, N. Y.; the Philip 
Rick or Jonathan, in the same locality; and many 
other celebrated local fruits, that may be named 
in almost every one of our States where fruits 
have been long cultivated. Many of these fruits, 
particularly some of the above-named, flourish 
nearly as well as at the place of their origin, in 
some other localities, particularly in natural 
fruit soils—for there are such, preeminently so, 
in our country—while in other places equally 
favorable to their own local fruits, these we have 
mentioned, fail altogether. This important fact 
establishes the necessity of fully understanding 
what fruits will, and what will not flourish in 
the very spot where one is desirous to establish 
his plantation. 
To one who does not know practically what 
he really w r ants, we advise him to consult some 
successful fruit-grower in his own immediate 
vicinity, and ascertain what good varieties fioux - - 
ish surely , and then to adopt them without 
further delay. Such should be the case for his 
main reliance. If he choose to experiment on 
others, untried as yet in his locality, he may 
adopt them sparingly, a specimen ti - ee or two of 
each variety, but we would not advise a rash 
and indiscriminate planting of any thing at all 
doubtful. We have witnessed lamentable fail¬ 
ures from the want of this very caution. A man 
who would plant an orchard of Newtown Pip¬ 
pins in Western New-York, would lose both his 
time and money, but with Baldwins or Spitzen- 
burgs he might realize a fortune in time; while 
the pomologist on the Hudson River could not 
plant any thing half so pi'ofitablc as the New¬ 
town Pippin, or Spitzenburgh, and discard the 
Baldwin altogether. So, in view of what has 
been remarked, it may be taken as a general 
rule by every planter, that a local fruit , if it 
be what he wants , to the extent required , should 
be adopted in preference to any others. This 
rule applies to pears, cherries, plums, &c-, as 
fully as to apples, and some varieties of each 
might be named; but presuming that our 
readers have brains of their own, we wish not 
to spin out a tedious detail of wdxat each wfill 
understand for himself, acting on the rule we 
have premised. 
There is another thing which will be well to 
x'ecollect in these days of new fruits, as well as 
new every-things. Very many of the new fruits 
which are imported across the water, with great 
names and high recommendations, let them have 
been truly valuable abroad, are worthless here. 
Some of them are adapted only to the localities 
whence they spring; others have been so 
“highly bred”—to use a term applied to animal 
instead of vegetable life—that they have neither 
constitution nor growth, the want of cither of 
which would be fatal as profitable trees. All 
such had better remain in the hands of the im¬ 
porters, or nurserymen until their merits have 
been thoroughly tried, not at all feai-ing but 
that those we now have will serve us bounti¬ 
fully till their period of probation shall have 
passed. 
We have much more at a futui’c time to say 
in relation to fruits, which we intend to make a 
prominent branch of our labors; but for the mo¬ 
ment, wfill content our readers with a brief cat¬ 
alogue of reliable varieties in their several kinds 
for general cultivation, requesting them, mean¬ 
time, if either of them have proved unsuccessful 
in their own locality, to discard it, and adopt in 
its place such approved local variety as will 
answer their purpose. 
Apples. — Early. —Yellow Harvest, (sub-acid,) 
Large Yellow Bough, (sw'ect)—both of them 
sure, annual bearers, of modci'atc growth of 
w r ood, but hardy and pi'olific. The last fine for 
baking. 
Early Autumn. —Golden Sweeting, Keswick 
Codlin, (sub-acid, for cooking,) constant bearers, 
and thrifty growers. 
Later Autumn. —Cooper, Rambo, and Bel¬ 
mont, (the first for Southern and Central Ohio, 
the two last for Northern Ohio—all sub-acid,) 
Fall Pippin, Gravenstein, Jersey Sweet, Lyman’s 
Pumpkin Sweet, (for baking, it wfill keep into 
winter also,) Porter—perhaps the very best pie- 
apple of the season, as it will cook both early 
and late, and Fameuse, Pomme De Neige, or 
Snow apple—for it goes by all three names — 
ripening late in the fall and keeping till January. 
Winter. —Baldwin, Hubbardston Nonsuch, 
Newtown Pippin, (whei’e it will grow,) Northern 
Spy, (in Western New-York,) Rhode Island 
Greening, Roxbury Russet, Poughkeepsie or 
English Russet, Swaar, (in Western New-York,) 
Westfield Sceknofurther, Esopus Spitzenburgh, 
Talman Sweeting, (for baking, and it is equal to 
a sweetmeat when baked,) and Vandervere, 
(which we think the very highest flavored and 
richest apple known, wfiierc it will grow fair and 
perfect.) 
Pears. — Early. —Madelaine, (very early, but 
not a vigorous grower, or great bearer,) Blood* 
