This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
How great the subject! How vast the country! What multitudes are daily rushing to fill up its vast plains, its prairies, and its forests! And what a field is presented for the labors of the agriculturist, horticulturist, and pomologist:!
The genius of Downing has given to the Northeastern States what the West now demands - a book of the fruits and fruit-trees of the Mississippi Valley. The confusion in the nomenclature of the fruits of this vast section of country, is rapidly increasing; the reasons are, first, because nurserymen, ignorant of the importance of the subject, are selling trees, either not correctly named, or else knowing nothing of the fruit they are disseminating beyond the local name, have never thought it worth their attention to inquire; secondly, because (alas! for human frailty) many nurserymen do not care whether they impose upon the public or not; the consideration with them is, to sell trees, and pocket the money of those who rely upon their honesty to sell them good fruit. But I fear, the greater reason is, purchasers are not, in the main, sufficiently particular; they will buy where they can get the cheapest trees, and some of them think, if they get grafted trees, that will insure them good fruit.
From these and many other causes, the pomology of the West demands the • attention which its importance merits. It is true, many of the leading fruits of the West are noticed in the works now published, but it is merely a notice. A Kentuckian opens Downing's great work on fruits, and reads the glowing descriptions of Northern apples; he thinks he has been cultivating nothing but worthless seedlings all his life; he sends to an Eastern nursery for trees; after years of labor and care, he reaps nothing but disappointment. Who will say they ever saw in Kentucky a Baldwin Apple equal to a Pryor's Red, or a Northern Spy as good as a Jennetting? Yet there are many persons in the West who will buy trees of itinerant agents of irresponsible Northern nurseries; and verily, they shall reap their reward.
In passing through the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, during the fall, you will see in shops and fruit-seller's baskets, beautiful apples of every color. If you inquire the name, no one can tell, or they tell you that fine red apple is the Lady Finger. The apples are fine, you get some grafts, go home, and examine your book on fruits, and the Lady Finger is not a red apple, if, indeed, you find it at all. You think, at least, it is a good apple, and you propagate it as Lady Finger, and disseminate it among your friends. And thus it is, confusion becomes worse confounded. What Downing did for the fruits of New York, the New England States, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, is just what we want, and must have, before we can take our proper stand as fruit growers, and before our excellent fruits can be properly appreciated.
 
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