Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/154



subject has engrossed the attention of scientific and practical men for the last four hundred years. We do not presume to enter into their speculations and investigations; our object is a much humbler one—to give a few simple and practical hints on the subject of fruit culture, culled from our own experience, and that of one or two individuals upon whose judgment we can place reliance. There are few, even of those who have studied the nature and character of fruits, that, out of their own collection, know, at first sight, many varieties; and such is the diversity of taste, that we greatly question if five individuals out of one hundred could be procured that would agree as to the best six Apples, Pears, Peaches or Grapes. This incongruity entirely disconcerts the inquiring amateur, gardener, or farmer; but the reason of it is evident. The slight differences that distinguish some varieties; the alterative effects that soil has upon the growth and flavor of others; as well as the favorable and unfavorable results from situation, causing trees grafted from the same stock frequently to mature fruits so entirely dissimilar that they are inconsiderately noticed as being something new. This desire for new fruit has become such a mania, that it greatly encourages the introduction, both at home and from abroad, of sorts that are worthless, compared with our old well-tried kinds. These are