CHAPTER XII.

Fruits. Effect of Soil, Climate.-Shape of, Color, Flavor, Specific Gravity. -Fruit-trees; selecting Varieties, bearing Qualities, new Kinds.

FRUITS.

"Good for food, and pleasant to the eyes."

FRUITS always commend themselves to the natural taste, and their free use in the ripe state, whether raw or cooked, is pleasant, economical, and highly conducive to health. In some fruits a simple statement of the grade of their quality is sufficient; but in several of the more important classes, as apples and pears, there are general divisions which it is important to notice, as summer and winter fruits, sweet, subacid, vinous, sour, melting, buttery, firm, mealy, gritty, &c.; and in plums and peaches, clings or freestones. Various persons prefer fruit with one or other of these peculiarities, according to diversity of taste, or for special seasons or uses: melting, buttery, subacid or sweet, and freestone fruits for eating out of hand; clingstone, sour, and firm fruits for preserving the sweet fruits preserved or stewed being usually flat, though occasionally a subacid fruit is found which, with little sugar, is yet lively, the acid developing with the process of cooking; as also sour fruit, when cooked, is more acid than when raw.

Most of these peculiarities in fruits are modified by various causes, as soil, climate, &c., in some cases deteriorating good kinds till they become almost worthless.

EFFECT OF SOIL.

A wet and cold soil, whether it be poor or rich, tends to increase the rough acidity of fruits; a warm, dry soil, on the other hand, naturally heightens the flavor, and limits and refines the acidity.

Fruits raised in very rich soil, other things being equal, are

larger, but less rich, both in flavor and saccharum, than the same fruits raised with less luxuriance of growth on poorer soil. Our Western apples are beautiful in appearance, but do not command the price of those raised upon the hills that border the Hudson, either in domestic or foreign markets. The vineyards of the hills, and not of the level and fertile valleys of France, make the richest qualities of wines.

EFFECT OF CLIMATE.

Speaking generally, fruits gradually increase in richness and variety as we proceed from the north southward to the tropics. But the natural boundaries of the various families of fruits are limited, having probably as their centre a line of perfection, of greater or less width, for each particular tribe, which, as we diverge from that line, deteriorates under our hand. As an illustration merely, we may assume the latitude of 42° to be the line of perfection for the apple, 38° or 40° for the pear and cherry, and 30° or 35° for the vine. But certain kinds of any given class of fruits are also better suited than others to the

particular varieties of climate found within these natural boundaries, and we say therefore of one apple it is a Northern, and of another it is a Southern fruit, and we make lists of them as they are supposed to be suited to the colder or warmer regions of the zone to which the family belongs.

We may also conclude ordinarily that the varieties of fruits best suited to a given region will be those which have originated in it or in some other region of like location. The Newtown pippin, which is the chief of apples where it can be properly matured, attains its perfection only near the line of latitude in which it originated, and when exempted from the influence of a too cold or humid soil. The Rhode Island greening, lively and piquant in its proper latitude, becomes flat and worthless in a Southern climate.

As we bring varieties toward the central line of perfection from the North, the influence of the change of climate is similar to that of a single particularly long and warm summer in their native region, or of transfer to a warmer soil, or to a locality where the temperature is modified by a river or body of water, or

of a system of very open trimming, or of planting the individual tree in an especially warm exposure, all of which are merely temporary or local modifications of climate. But this change for the better in the character of the fruit is usually accompanied by another of a different kind. The fruit not only ripens higher, but it ripens earlier, and as ripeness is always the precursor of rottenness, it will not keep so well. The Rhode Island greening and the Baldwin, raised in Massachusetts, are less perishable than the same varieties raised in New Jersey. It is important to take this into account when we are transferring varieties to new localities, otherwise we may fail to secure in the fruit the very qualities for which we have esteemed it.

SHAPE OF FRUITS.

The form of fruits is seldom of much importance, but in apples it affords a general indication of quality. The flattened and globular, and the obtuse conical forms are mostly pretty close at the core, and all the very best varieties of apples belong to these forms. The long-shaped apples have generally large, open, "rattle-box" cores; and while many of them are distinguished by pleasant peculiarities of flavor, as the gilliflower, there are very few, if any, first-class fruits among them. Fruits of an oblique or one-sided form, as the Chandler (see p. 309), are apt to run defective on the shrunken side in seasons that may be even but slightly unfavorable, and, in general, all fruits with an irregular or disproportioned development of form are liable to similar imperfections.

COLOR.

Fruits with a large proportion of bright red, or with at least a full, deep blush cheek, or of a deep golden yellow color, always strike the eye as more beautiful, and find a readier market than others of only equal quality and less color.

FLAVOR.

Of the various flavors found in fruits of the same family, some seem to be produced simply by a happy combination of clear, pleasant acid, with a due proportion of sugar, and are

abiding, and suit all palates; others are in the nature of an aroma or spiciness, which is well developed only in very favorable circumstances, and in most cases is so fugitive that it must be enjoyed at the very moment of perfect ripening, or it is lost, and in reference to which tastes vary greatly. Such may be chosen for special culture, but not for the general purposes of life or profits of business. For the effect of soil and climate upon flavor, see those heads.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY.

Other things being equal, the comparative value of any fruit may be instantly determined, like the value of gold, by its superior specific gravity, or "heft," as we say familiarly. This indicates with precision its richness in saccharum, and may guide the manufacturer of vinegar in his choice of fruits for this purpose, though for cooking or eating we need to inquire farther as to flavor, &c.

FRUIT-TREES.

SELECTING VARIETIES.

In making a selection of fruits, choose mainly from such varieties as are known to succeed in your own locality, either as having originated there or become wonted. If you seek to introduce improved varieties, never depend on their reputation in other localities, but study their intrinsic character. If you transfer the Boston russet or the Baldwin to New Jersey or Delaware merely with a view to home consumption, you may succeed; but if with the idea of raising apples for shipping, you will be disappointed. If, however, you find in Canada or New England an apple of good color, shape, and heft, but indicating by its excess of acid that the season in those latitudes is not long enough to perfect it, you may move it southward with a probability amounting almost to certainty that you will obtain a valuable fruit.

Perhaps the general rule may be expressed thus: Fruits that ripen very late, or do not ripen at all in a given latitude, will improve by moving South; and fruits that in a more southerly location ripen early, may be moved northward with

out being injured. For the mode of producing and treating seedling fruits, see those heads, pages 194 and 204.

There is a difference in the period of blossoming of different varieties in the same orchard, which is sometimes due to inherent natural diversity, but often, also, is the effect of climate, the habit of the tree, formed in a warmer or colder latitude, adhering to it. Sometimes the season's crop is lost by the spring frost killing the too early blossoms of a southern tree, and at others injury is avoided and a crop gained by the tardy blossoming of a northern one.

It is sometimes worth while to choose kinds that may be readily identified by the peculiar appearance of the young branches, as the snow peach by its white shoots, the Napoleon pear by its slate color, and the Dix by its slender willowy yellow ones, and the Bergamotte Suisse by its striped bark, with which the stripes upon the fruit have a general correspondence. It is, however, much more important to attend to the mode of growth which distinguishes each particular variety you propose to plant, as whether its habit be erect or drooping; whether, like the peach, it throw out its branches at acute angles, with a weak joint, and is therefore liable to be split by winds or broken down by its crop of fruit, or at obtuse angles, or horizontally, as the Rhode Island greening and Gravenstein among apples, and the hickory among forest trees, and is therefore strong to bear both wind and fruit. Also, whether it has a habit of forming a snug, well-shaped head, as the Seckel or Lodge pears, from which the fruit may be gathered easily, or long, straggling, or upright branches, which can not be climbed, and can scarcely be reached by a ladder, and for which the fruit-gatherer becomes necessary.

BEARING QUALITIES.

Certain kinds are better bearers than others under equally favorable circumstances, as among apples the Rhode Island greening is superior in this respect to the Pound sweet or the Vanderveer. Certain other varieties always bear heavily, but only in alternate years, as the Jersey sweeting and the common or Poughkeepsie russeting. In some trees the fruit spurs,

I