AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
83 
independent plant, and may be made to produce 
one. Now, if it be objected that the inner parts 
of the tree die, or at least become inactive heart- 
wood, yet the outer parts do not : individuals 
may perish, but the community does not, for it is 
renewed and increased every year. 
Trees have been happily compared to the 
“ branching or arborescent coral.” This structure 
is built up by the combined labors of a multitude 
of individuals—“ the successive labors of a great 
number of generations. The surface or the re¬ 
cent shoots alone are alive : all underneath con¬ 
sists of the dead remains of former generations. 
It is the same with the vegetable, except that it 
makes a downward growth also, and by constant 
renewal of fresh tissues, maintains the communi¬ 
cation between the two growing extremities, the 
buds and the rootlets.” (Dr. Gray.) As the 
eoral structure, considered as a mass, lives on in¬ 
definitely, though the individuals composing it 
perish, so a tree considered as a composite struct¬ 
ure may live on in the same way, without any 
assignable limit to its life. Every joint in the 
root, and every bud from its branches might be 
taken off, and set up by itself to form a separate 
and independent tree ; but if they all choose to 
stay on the homestead, need they and the family 
die out 1 
—So much for theory. We shall present some 
facts next month. 
Hints on Evergreens- 
There seems to be less general information in 
the community on the subject of evergreen, than 
of deciduous trees. One reason is, that the 
former don’t bear fruit. Did only pumpkins, ap¬ 
ples, or potatoes, grow upon them, they would be 
more popular and better understood. But gener¬ 
ally they are considered as merely ornamental 
trees, and that is enough to condemn them with 
many people. Another reason is, that compara¬ 
tively little has been written about them Mee¬ 
han’s Hand Book and Downing’s Landscape Gar¬ 
dening, give some information concerning them, 
but do not treat the subject fully. The recent vol¬ 
ume of Dr. Warder, on Hedges and Evergreens, 
adds to our knowledge in this department, and will 
lead to a more general planting of evergreens. 
This writer shows what we have often set forth, 
viz., that this class of trees should be planted for 
economy, as they afford excellent shelter in Win¬ 
ter to houses, barns, grain-fields, orchards, and 
gardens. This consideration is important in every 
part of the country, but chiefly on the Western 
prairies. The value of evergreens for timber, is 
also an item not to be ovei looked. 
Dr. Warder happily sets forth the ornamental 
character of evergreens. When properly grown, 
they are very symmetrical, they present a greater 
variety of shades of color than is often supposed, 
and they retain their beauty with only a slight 
diminution throughout the year. What a strik¬ 
ing contrast do their forms and colors present to 
those of deciduous trees even in Summer ! They 
give a depth and richness to the landscape which 
is peculiarly pleasing to the cultivated eye, and 
which no combination of deciduous trees alone 
could possibly effect. 
One of the greatest mistakes made in planting 
evergreens, is that of setting them so near to 
walks and carriage-roads, fences and buildings, 
that they soon outgrow their limits, and have to 
be cut down or badly mutilated. In reference to 
this. Dr. W. very justly says : “ When first ob¬ 
tained from the nursery or forest, the plant will 
have cost something either in money or labor ; 
it is often a wee thing, and certainly, if well 
shaped, it is a very pretty ohject; hence it is 
jealously set close to the window. Were it al¬ 
ways to remain a sort of parlor-pet, this position 
might answer very well; but it is to grow and 
develop itselfinto a large tree, and in so doing, it 
should preserve its fair proportions: for this, 
space is required ; if crowded against the house, 
its beauty will be marred, and instead of being of 
service, and a beautiful object, it will become an 
eyesore and a nuisance.” 
For trees which look unhealthy and fail to grow, 
this author recommends a top-dressing of ashes, 
or old, well-rotted manure mixed with sand and 
ashes. Some of the statements in this book in 
reference to the hardiness of certain trees, will 
need a grain of qualification for latitudes north of 
Cincinnati. For instance, Abies Mcnzicsii and 
Pinus excelsa are styled “ perfectly hardy,” which 
is certainly not the case north of Albany, N. Y. 
Taxodium distichum endures the Winter further 
north than he mentions. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
American Fruits—Past and Present. 
By LEWIS F. ALLEN-ERIE COUNTV, N. Y. 
The fruit producing capacity of our older States 
was either much greater, the skill applied to the 
cultivation of the greater variety of fruits was 
better exercised—or, soils, climates, insects, or 
other adverse influences have since combined, 
constantly and gradually to act prejudicially upon 
them ; for, it is certainly more difficult to rear the 
trees and obtain good crops in the late years pre¬ 
ceding 1859, than it was in the years preceding 
1810, and for many years afterwards. I admit 
that the standard of taste for most kinds of our 
cultivated fruits, id* much higher now than it was 
forty or fifty years ago, except in Apples, the most 
approved kinds of which were then, as they now 
are, pretty much the same in most localities ; and 
I believe also that the standard of skill and intel¬ 
ligence in fruit cultivation is higher now, than 
then. 
A chronological history of American fruit cul¬ 
ture, from the early settlement of the United 
States to the present day, kept by a succession 
of accurate observations would be a most inter¬ 
esting subject of study to a pomologist of the 
present day, could such a record be found ; but, 
unfortunately, our fathers had no horticultural or 
pomological magazine in their day, nor agricul¬ 
tural publications of any kind ; and the only po¬ 
mological records of the two centuries before the 
present that we have, are to be found in the fu¬ 
gitive notices scattered through the books of the 
time, and in the memories of those now living, 
whose recollections extend into the latter part of 
the last century. We have had no agricultural, 
much less pomological literature to speak of, until 
within the last thirty years—the little which ex¬ 
isted previous to that date, being mostly fugitive 
and temporary. 
I propose to throw together a few facts, some 
of which I have drawn from old books, and others 
from my own recollection, touching the facts and 
progress of fruit culture in the northern States ; 
not that they have any particular value, as bear¬ 
ing upon present fruit cultivation and prospects, 
but as comparing what once existed within a com¬ 
paratively recent period, with what now exists ; 
and if for illustration, a little self-history, or ego¬ 
tism is displayed, the value of the subject itself 
must excuse it. An actor in the drama, although 
not the hero of it, can scarcely keep himself al¬ 
together out of sight. 
Born in the first decade of the present century, 
my earliest recollections are of the scenes of my 
birth place, and seven first years of my boyhqod, 
on a large rocky farm lying near the base, anfi on 
the south-easterly slope of a huge mountain, in 
Southern Massachusetts, a few miles west of the 
Connecticut river. Across the lower part of that 
farm, the Boston and Albany rail-way now runs, 
in latitude about 42 i° north There my Grand¬ 
father had established himself soon after the war 
of the Revolution in which he had been an active 
commissioned officer, and connected with his ag¬ 
ricultural pursuits, mills and other mechanical 
operations. He had large orchards of the finest 
grafted apples—some of them among the most 
popular of the present day. Peaches grew, and 
bore crops in the greatest abundance, all over the 
farm, of the finest varieties of rare-ripe and melo- 
coton. Pears were abundant, and in good variety. 
Plums of choice kinds, and Cherries of the com¬ 
mon sorts flourished. Quinces grew well. The 
smaller garden fruits were in profusion ; and even 
a delicate white Sweetwater grape clambered 
over a ledge of rocks near the house, and gave 
its annual yield of fruit in hundreds of delicious 
clusters. To say that the founder of all this po¬ 
mological wealth was a man of decided taste and 
energy in that line is scarcely necessary. He 
had a passion for fruit and its cultivation. His 
farm was new, for he had mainly cleared it up 
himself. The soil, though not exceedingly fer¬ 
tile was of primitive formation, open and warm, 
and its position sunny, and sheltered from the 
sweeping northwest winds. In short, it was a 
natural fruit producing place. 
Forty odd years ago, the proprietor of that farm 
died. His sons had gone away and engaged in 
other pursuits, excepting one who remained at 
the homestead. There was no market at all in 
the neighboring towns for the fruits. The son 
who was left on the farm disliked its rocks, and 
the slavish labor of cultivating it, and in a few 
years afterwards sold it, and removed to the more 
genial soil and climate of a then far-off western 
State. Had the present rail road facilities then 
existed, or would the farm now produce in fruits 
what it then did, an income of several thousand 
dollars could have been received annually from 
the fruits alone, leaving the agricultural crops un¬ 
noticed. It is more than thirty years since I have 
set foot on that farm—an act of filial impiety for 
which I mean ere long to atone by once more 
visiting it; but I am told that the fruits have 
mostly disappeared ; the trees even all gone, ex¬ 
cepting the apple orchards, and they in the last 
stages of decrepitude and decay. 
And this place which I have described is but a 
sample of numerous farms and orchards which 
then existed in Massachusetts, Connecticut and 
Rhode Island, as well as in eastern and southern 
New-York, New-Jersey, eastern and central 
Pennsylvania, if not in other States south of them, 
if tradition, history and the memories of living 
men are not at fault. One would imagine that 
nurseries to supply the trees for such abundance 
of fruit, must have been both laige and frequent. 
Not so. “ Commercial Nurseries,” as now, were 
scarcely known. Private nurseries, liowevei, 
supplied their places. My grandfather bad one, 
from which his own orchards were supplied, and 
it contributed thousands of trees to his own plan 
tatioas. Other orchardists did the same, and the 
nurseries of modern date substantially took their 
rise after the year 1825, since canals and rail¬ 
roads have so extensively come into use, and dis¬ 
tant transportation is so easily effected. 
APPLES. 
The comparative amount of choice or “worked” 
fruits was much less in those days than now. In 
the abundance of apple orcharding particularly, 
