AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
FOR THE 
Farm, Grarden, and. HonseliolcL. 
“ AGRICULTURE IS TIIE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.”-Wx.m»oio». 
ORANGE jrui>l>, A.M., i FSTA"RT'RTTFn TIM" IRAQ j»i.oo pee ahnum, in advajtce. 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. ) J-KO J.RDDIOJUjU 1±M lO^, j SINGLE NUMBER, 10 CENTS. 
VOLUME XX No. 10 . NEW-YORK, OCTOBER, 1861. NEW SERIES-No. 177 . 
Office at 41 Park-Row, (Times Buildings). 
OP Contents, Terms, &. C ., on pp. 317-20. 
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1861, 
by Orange Judd, in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
Court of the United States for the Southern District of 
New-York. USpN. B.—Every Journal is invited freely 
to copy any desirable articles, if each article or illustration 
copied, be duly accredited to the American Agriculturist. 
Slutcvicfltt SlqvicuUuvtft in ©cvmau. 
The AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST is published in 
both the English and German Languages, Both Editions 
are of the same size, and contain, as nearly as possible, 
the same Articles and Illustrations. The German Edition 
Is furnished at the same rates as the English, singly or in 
clubs. A club may be part English, and part German. 
October. 
“ But farmer, look, where full-eared sheaves of rye 
Grow heavy on the tilth, that soil select 
For apples ; thence thy industry shall gain 
Ten-fold reward ; thy garners, thence with store 
Surcharged, shall burst; thy press with purest juice 
Shall flow, which, in revolving years, may try 
Thy feeble feet, and bind thy flattering tongue. 
Whoe’er expects his laboring trees should bend 
With fruitage, and a kindly harvest yield, 
Be this his first concern: to find a tract 
Impervious to the winds, begirt with hills, 
That intercept the Hyperborean blasts 
Tempestuous, and cold Eurus’ nipping force, 
Noxious to feeble buds.”- Philip’s “ Cider.” 
Brown October is here with its bursting bams 
and full granaries, its falling leaves and fruit. 
The season admonishes us to plant fruit trees, 
as well as to gather in the fruit harvest. Why 
is it, that so many farmers’ families are content 
to go without fruit, in a land whose soil and cli¬ 
mate are so congenial to fruit that the humblest 
efforts at horticulture are rewarded with suc¬ 
cess? Intelligent pomologists, who have seen 
the fruit shows of Europe, tell 113 that they do 
not excel our own, notwithstanding their larger 
experience and skill. The apple grows almost 
every where in our broad land, and most of the 
.arge fruits have quite as wide a range of soil 
and climate, though they are much less abund¬ 
ant. Apples have been most common, probably 
because they were the most common fruit of 
the father land, and were planted by the first 
settlers of the country. They were found to 
flourish much better here than there, and the 
seedlings which were soon originated upon 
American soil, were improvements upon any 
thing ever seen in England. In a virgin soil, 
the tree would grow anywhere with luxuriance, 
and only needed to have a clear field to yield 
abundant fruit. The pear was rather an aristo¬ 
cratic tree, and needed much more careful cul¬ 
ture in England than the apple-tree. Here the 
standards flourish quite as well as the apple tree, 
and seem to have fewer enemies, and to be quite 
as productive. Yet the market has never been 
adequately supplied, and the finer varieties of 
pears bring two and three times as much as 
the best varieties of apples. A pear orchard of 
any considerable extent is still a novelty even 
in the oldest parts of the country. Apple or¬ 
chards, though common, are still far below the 
wants of the country. Hundreds of farms where 
the apple is as hardy as the forest oak, are still 
without a good orchard.-It is somewhat 
amusing to hear the reasons assigned by thriv¬ 
ing farmers, for the great mistake in their hus¬ 
bandry, of not planting an orchard ? 
It is never admitted that they do not love 
fruit. There is hardly a man or woman in a 
thousand that is not fond of every variety of 
fruit. Every boy sighs for his neighbor’s apples 
and pear trees, and not only breaks the tenth, 
but the eighth commandment, in the eagerness 
of his desire. Watermelon patches are proverb¬ 
ial plunder on moonlight nights. With many 
the reason of this failure is their unsettled con¬ 
dition. They do not own the soil they culti¬ 
vate, or they are expecting soon to sell pat and 
emigrate. The planting of an orchard is re¬ 
garded as a work for another generation. 
Others do not believe that the raising of fruit 
pays as well as other departments of husbandry. 
In the first place, one has to wait several yearn 
before he can expect any returns whatever, for 
his labor. In raising corn and potatoes there is 
something to sell every Fall. Fruit has many 
enemies not only in the shape of insects but of 
bipeds, who seriously interfere with the profits 
of the orchard. Some are remote from a good 
market, and though the depot is within an hour’s 
ride of the farm, they have never thought of 
railroad conveyance to a market. Others admit 
the advantage of planting an orchard, and have 
always been intending to do it, but they have 
had so much work upon their hands that they 
have never quite got ready. Money is scarce, 
and the nurseryman w T ants cash. These objec¬ 
tions, however unsubstantial, are real to many 
farmers, and possibly to some of our readers. 
We have been eating fruit for three years, 
from apple trees planted only eight years ago, 
and from pear trees planted much more recently. 
They bear with increasing abundance every 
year, and it seems to us so feasible and so profit¬ 
able, to stock an acre or two with fruit trees, 
that we can not let the season of tree planting 
pass without a word of exhortation. 
A home surrounded with well grown fruit 
trees and vines adapted to the soil and climate, 
is one of the most beautiful objects we meet with 
at this season of the year. Every one admires 
the dwelling however humble, that looks out 
upon the street, through shaded walks, through 
fruitful gardens and orchards. What can be 
finer than a well grown pear tree, hung with its 
yellow fruit, an apple whose boughs are bending 
to the ground with their ruddy burden, or a vine 
loaded with its purple clusters. These are cheap 
and substantial ornaments, that any man may 
plant around his home. The green upon his 
window, and the paint on the dwelling will re¬ 
quire frequent expensive renewal; every return¬ 
ing Spring will bring out the living ornaments 
in new dress without money and without price. 
There is no greater misconception than the 
popular notion that fruit growing does not pay 
as well as other branches of husbandry. It re¬ 
requires some capital, some skill and patience, 
to. wait for returns. But capital and skill in¬ 
vested here are certain to have their reward. It 
is no uncommon return for an acre in apple 
trees to yield a hundred dollars, while under 
favorable circumstances and high cultivation, 
the yield is wo or three times greater. Farmers 
who haurf gone most largely into fruit culture, 
are generally the best satisfied with it. It fur- 
niafles something to sell from August until 
March. The early apples have to be marketed 
in their season, but the Winter varieties can Avail 
for good prices from three to six months Avithout 
damage to their quality. Pears though more 
perishable than apples, and requiring more skill 
in their handling and ripening, are enough high¬ 
er in price to make them profitable. 
Not the least advantage of an abundant supply 
of fruits in the family, is their influence upon 
health. At this season of the year they are a 
great safeguard against fevers and diseases of 
the bowels, and Avere they freely eaten in all our 
families, the sick list Avould be greatly diminish¬ 
ed. The craving of children for fruit, almost 
universal, is not so much an evidence of total 
depravity, as the Avorking of instinct, seeking 
what it does not find in bread and meat. 
Then, as we have referred to the children, 
and mean to say a good word for them, there is 
no tie to bind them to the old homestead, out¬ 
side of the warm currents of domestic love, like 
the fruit yard and orchard. Who does not re¬ 
call among the happy memories of his childhood, 
if he were so highly favored, the old trees whose 
shade was his play ground and whose fruits 
were his daily food, the garden Avalks lined Avitk 
berries, and the vines upon the arbor and house- 
side that grew purple in the October sun. 
