The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-04-30
Fruit Culture


| out labor;;" to which we may add, that the
most valuable products of the earth generally
cost the largest amount of labor Worthless
fruits are produced spontaneously. No great
| excellence, indeed, can be acquired in any
| thing, physical or mental, without patient toll
and care. weeds IN IN gardens and bad habits
in men, grow very naturally; but valuable
plants in the one and virtues in the other,
| must receive attentive cultivation in order to
succeed. The rifle has but a very few excep-
! tions, that the more choice and valuable pre-
duction is, the more care must be bestowed
upon it, and greater number Of enemies
must be encountered. -' ''.u ~
In no department Of human labor is this
more manifest than in that of horticulture
Fruits and flowers of all degrees of excel
lencc exist, from the spontaneous productions
Of the uncultivated waste, to the tender plants
of the greenhouse; and in all these advances
towards perfection, there will be found an in
creasing liability to disease or decay. In the
pear, for instance: we find natures varieties,
that spring up in fields, or by the roadside,
producing a nearly worthless fruit which
fiour;shes. for centuries without care; while
| OF the choice kinds, which the skill of the
| gardener has succeeded in producing, diseases
| and casualties not unfrequently cut them of
within the first ten years. Many varieties are
greatly improved by being worked on the
ounce stock; they are, too, produced upon
dwarf trees apd are earlier brought into bear
ing; but whilst enjoying these advantages,
there is in them greater tendency to disease
and shorter periods of life. We have seen a
dwarf pear tree one season heavily loaded
with the choicest fruit; and the next year we
have seen it fatally blighted, with its leaves
scorched and withefed as if by fire. .si's4t
The same fact exists in cherries, though a
much harder fruit and less liable to disease
than the pear. The highly cultivated Digar-
reau and Heart cherries are much more sub
ject to misfortune than the native and COM
paratively worthless sorts. The latter will
live and flourish neglected and unprotected !;
whilst great care is required to render the 9TH
er successful. The wild native grape of our
forest propagates itself and lives through
snow and frost; when the magnificent Ham
burg and the unsurpassed Chasselas exhaust
the skill and watchfulness Of the gardener to
bring them to the highest perfection. So it is
in other departments of fruit culture, not even
excepting the apple. The more worthless the
apple, the greater is the tenacity of the tree
to life. It defes the assaults of its thousand
enemies to destroy it, as it also exhausts the
efforts of its friends TO improve its quality.-
Graft the stock with some other variety, then
treat it with the same neglect as before, and
the tree will perish. 9 93 aiipit Eab if1a.
There are many kinds of enemies to the TO-
liage and trunks of choice fruit trees, which
call for constant vigilance on the part of the
cultivator. Yet every person who has ever
reared tree of choice fruit, and brought it
toward perfection, feels amply rewarded for
his pains. The very care which he has be-
slowed upon it produces kind of paternal
affection fos the object of his sol;citude. and
he watches the unfolding of its buds and the
swelling and ripening of Its fruit with a thou
sand times more qualification than its pecuni-
airy value is capable of producing in any other
way ag 2nii'1isli 't4' 40 1oomnH 9hi - II.
Almost every person who owns house
has room for at least small number Of fruit
trees, and it is surprising to see how little at
tention is paid to their cultivation by many of
our citizens. A few of the most hardy and
inferior kinds are permitted to exist, and the
measre returns from them must answer all
purposes, when knowledge of fruit culture,
carry acquired, and an amount of care amply
y, by the results, would furnish
large return. - - --- -. :
Two OF my heishbors, few years AGO. came
into possession of village homes each bovino
small fruit garden. Both had severa, -
pear trees which were young and vioorou.
and limited number of cherry. plum troas
&c. The dwarfs Of one bore profusely for .
year or two, and then nearly all.of the trees
per'shed by the blight. The same malady at