exists in the soil, the orchards are generally healthy; in other portions, where there is little or no lime, the orchards, to use a farmer's phrase, have "run out;" but in all such places, with proper culture, and lime or ashes freely applied, they grow with renewed vigor.

There are many favorite seedling apples cultivated, known only by local names. Some very superior; also many Foreign varieties introduced from Canada by early settlers, many of which are known by names given them by the growers. The oldest trees on Lake Champlain are at Chimney Point, opposite the old fort of Crown Point. These were planted by the French, more than a century since, and in the only place on the east or Vermont side of the Lake, occupied by the French while Canada was a province of France.

Scions from these trees have been extensively scattered under the name of the "chimney apples," and prove identical with the Faneuse, Pomme de Aeije, or Snow Apple.

It seems hardly probable, that an apple originating in Montreal, should have acquired such a reputation one hundred years since as to be propagated abroad. Among apples generally cultivated in Vermont, are many seedlings of merit; also Foreign varieties with the true name unknown. Of apples well known, and which have been sufficiently tested to speak with confidence, the following may be called first rate in our climate:

Among our favorite apples are the Esopus Spitzenburgh and Newtown Pippin; the first is one of the most common, but is apt to be spotted. The climate in most of Vermont seems not adapted to them. In favorable locations and good seasons both are first rate. No apple grows better than the Northern Spy, or appears more hardy; it is

not yet fruited. The varieties lately introduced are very numerous, a large portion of which have not fruited, or not sufficiently and long enough to fully try them.

OF PEARS, the White Doyenne stands at the head in all parts of the State, where pears are grown. In this town the Spanish Bon Chrestian is one of the most common; introducing among the first from Montreal. Until a few years it has been very productive and fair, but it has become small, spotted, and cracked, so as to be worthless in most gardens, in the same manner as the White Doyenne in other parts of the country. No "special manures" seem to remedy it. I have six trees of this variety which I have partially grafted with other varieties, and while the Bon Chrestian is spotted and cracked, worthless and not one-fourth as large as ten years since, the Bloodsword, Bartlet, White Doyenne, Belle Lucretia Glout, Morcian, Frederick of Wirtenburgh and Flemish Beauty, on the same are large and fair, Beurre Gris, poor. These are all the varieties which I have tried on them which have fruited.

es,

There are numerous seedling pears which are favorites in their several localities, in most cases from want of knowledge of better ones. Some of these are decidedly first rate. 'But few pears have been cultivated here long enough to fully test them. Among those that mise well-some of which have fruited many years-the

Bartlet
Bloodgood,

Dearborn Seedling,
Winter Nellis,

pro

Beurre Bose,

Vicar Wakefield,

are among the best. I have fine specimens of the Dix Pear growing on grafts but four years old.

OF PLUMS.-The Burlington Gage, a seedling of Burlington, a medium size blue plum. The Lombard and the Blue Imperatrice are the three best for general culture, as we generally have good crops of them when most others fail. The Canada, or wild plum, grows spontaneously in many parts of the State, and proves a valuable stock for rafting. The climate is favorable for the plum tree, and of more

than forty varieties here found, but one (the Peach Plum) which could not grow successfully; for this our climate seems too cold. Our trees are free from disease, and the curculio our principal enemy.

PEACHES AND QUINCIS are hardly worth cultivating, though fair crops of both in the most favorable locations are not uncommon. CHERRIES generally grow well. The lack Tartarian is our best variety.

OF GRAPES.-The native varieties of New England, with numerous local names, are mostly grown, and are now much sought after. The Isabella, White Crossillas or Sweet Water, Miller's Burgundy, and others, ripen their fruit in ood iccations, but need protection in the winter. The Catawis noe har y, but our seasons are too short for it to ripen well.

こ

GOOSEBERRIES are easily grown, and produce with proper attention, great crops, uniformly. The Green Walnut, for an early, and the Cronn Bof, for a late, are the two best sorts. When refuse hay or straw, dipped in a strong brine, has been spread in the spring, about two inches thick under the bushes, I have never seen any mildew.

OF RASPBERRIES.-The Franconia is our best, hardy and great bearer. The Antwerp (yellow and red) gro✓ W and the canes do not winter kill, but the cold weather seems to injure their fruit bearing qualities.

STRAWBERRIES are so common in fields that they are as yet but little grown in gardens; but produce abundantly with ordinary culture.

The past season has been rather cold and showery until about the 1st of August, since : t time to the 1st of Se tember, dry. Apples are less abundant, and generally not as good quality as last year. Of Pears there is a full average crop. Some varieties of Plum are abundant, while of others there are none.

There is some mildew among

grapes, but not generally. As a whole, the amount of fruit in the State is below an average in quality and quantity.

C. GOODRICH,

Ch'n of Fruit Com. of Vermont Pom'l Con.

Burlington, Sept. 2, 1850.

REPORT OF THE STATE FRUIT COMMITTEE OF KENTUCKY.

The committee, to whom was assigned the duty of digesting and reporting the information received from correspondents, in relation to fruit culture, beg leave to offer the result of their labors to the Kentucky Horticultural Society, and, through that institution, to the Pomological Congress.

The committee remark that a set of inquiries, similar in character to those propounded by the chairman of the general fruit committee of the Pomological Congress, was distributed by circular throughout the State, and the persons addressed were solicited to respond to said inquiries; and they state that although fewer responses have been received than the importance of the subject ought to have drawn out, yet they are of opinion many facts will, in this way have been gathered highly useful to the cultivator.

Location and aspect of Orchards.-Perhaps nothing would be more serviceable to the inexperienced cultivator, than the power of knowing in advance, the capabilities of any grounds he might design to appropriate to orchard culture. Inclining strongly to this opinion, the committee have gone somewhat into detail upon facts tending to shed light upon this subject. They are clearly of opinion that, if heretofore there was any doubt upon the subject, the facts now before them warrant the assertion that, other things being equal, the highest grounds are best fitted for success in orchard culture. Those of great elevation being subjected to such increased cold as keeps vegetation back in the spring till the danger from frost passes by; whilst smaller undulations upon the surface and the higher strata of the hill sides are supposed to part with less of their surface heat by radiation than the more moist low lands. The committee are in possession of a well authenticated instance of the effect of absolute height, furnished by a gentleman of high standing, and of the most competent ability to form an opinion on such a subject. This gentleman has ', and had cu tivated for many rs, a farm, lying within the peach district; his own orchards occupying parts of the slopes of hills of no great height, inclining gently toward a river, distant only a few hundred yards. His success has been marked with

the uncertainty common to a fickle western climate-that is, a fruit year and a failure, or perhaps two years of productiveness and three of disappointment in every five. Within five miles of his farm, however, is located a hill six hundred feet high, and which is thereby made visible at farm. Upo this hill the peach crop has not

failed since he first knew it.

In far the greater number of cases, the cultivator has to choose between places varying in height only a few feet; under which circumstances, it appears that elevation secures a greater amount of heat, by keeping the surface within range of the moving strata of air, and from other causes, than is experienced in the bottoms or depressions.

That they may be the better understood, the committee quote freely from a topographical survey of his orchard grounds, executed by one of their correspondents. This gentleman's site occupies the midst of a plain 250 feet above the level of the Ohio Valley; its figure is parallelogram, the long sides running north-east or south-west 100 rods; the short at right angles thereto, in length 75 poles. A valley heads at the eastern short boundary about the mic, and runs through the midst of the orchard, crossing the lower or western boundary at a depression of 52 feet below the summit.

The sides of this valley include a large portion of his bearing trees. The map of this survey is marked by horizontal lines at every ten feet depressiu, counting downward om the summit, so that one sees at a glance how much each tree on the slopes of the valley falls below the summit of the plain. The author of this survey remarks, that trees situated near the horizontal line of 30 feet, counting from the summit downward, lost many of their fruit buds on the lower branches during the winter of 1849-'50, while other trees of the same varieties, at higher elevations, preserved their fruit buds unhurt, Again, that, after blooming in the spring, the same trees were more or less affected by frost, as they were above or below said horizontal line of 30 feet-whilst, moreover, as the depression deepened towards the lowest point in the valley, the injury from cold increased, until not only the fruit buds were killed in 1849-'50, but also the small branches or spurs themselves on which the buds were growing.

42-AG. REP.