THE AMERICAN ORCHARDIST; OR PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF APPLE AND OTHER FRUIT TREES, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISEASES TO WHICH THEY ARE Adapted to the use of AMERICAN FARMERS, AND ALL LOVERS AND CULTIVATORS OF FINE FRUIT. BY JAMES THACHER, M. D. SECOND EDITION, MUCH IMPROVED. "Nature in her teaching speaks in very intelligible language, PLYMOUTH, MASS. PUBLISHED BY EZRA COLLIER. 1825. MAIN. LIBRARY aad 'I DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT : DISTRICT CLERK'S OFFICE. Be it remembered, That on the twenty-fourth day of October, A. D. 1825, in the fiftieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Ezra Collier, of the said District, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "The American Orchardist; or a practical treatise on the culture and management of apple and other fruit trees, with observations on the diseases to which they are liable, and their remedies. To which is added the most approved method of manufacturing and preserving cider, and also wine from apple juice and currants. Adapted to the use of American Farmers, and all lovers and cultivators of fine fruit. By James Thacher, M. D. Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Honorary Member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and the New-York Horticultural Society, &c. Second edition, much improved. 'Nature in her teaching speaks in very intelligible language, and that language is conveyed by experience and observation."" In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned :" and also to an act, entitled "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical and other Prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts. Allen Danforth, Printer. 51355 735 1825 TO THE PRESIDENT AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. GENTLEMEN: PRESUMING upon your acquiesence, I introduce to your no tice this little practical treatise upon one of the most interesting and pleasing branches pertaining to the science of agriculture. The utility of a cheap publication of this kind, for the information and encouragement of our farmers, is unquestionable. If this humble attempt should meet your approbation, and be found to possess a degree of merit calculated to co-operate with your zealous efforts to promote agricultural pursuits and improvements in our country, a knowledge of your character is an ample pledge that you will not withhold your patronage and favour. If, however, it shall appear that I have subjected myself to the accusation of having stepped beyond the limits, within which my actual knowledge should be confined, then will a consciousness of laudable motives, of assiduity and fidelity in the collection of experimental facts, remain as my only consolation. I am not unapprized of the almost invincible prejudice, which prevails among our farmers, against what they term "book-farming," "book-knowledge," &c. &c.; and the anecdote is fresh in my memory, of an honest farmer, who, on being inquired of Why his neighbour's farm was not productive, replied, "because he has booked it to death." These prejudices exist chiefly among those, whose minds are unenlightened, and views unexpanded by that useful knowledge, which is only to be acquired by reading. It must be conceded that almost all improvements are derived from the records of practice and observation; and when we have reason and experience to support, and plain facts to confirm, we may become less tenacious of the rules of our fathers, believing that it may be the reserved privilege of the children, to acquire the skill of producing two spires of grass where their fathers produced but one. It is a remarkable fact that the first planters bequeathed to their posterity a greater number of or M743850 chards, in proportion to their population, than are now to be found in the old colony; and it is no less notorious that the children have substituted a poisonous liquor for the salutary beverage, which almost exclusively cheered the hearts of their virtuous ancestors. The views of men are often materially affected through mere indolence of temper, no less than through the cloud of prejudice. Averse to the labour of reading and inquiry, they adhere pertinaciously to the routine of their predecessors, and treat with equal contempt the lessons of experience, and all suggestions of improvement. It is not, however, desirable that former modes of practice in husbandry should be abandoned until it shall be incontestably proved, that a system more adapted to our circumstances, and in all respects of superiour utility, can be founded on the surest basis. It is not to be required of our farmers to subject themselves to the expense and uncertainty of novel experiments; but he who possesses capital and leisure, and who, in the spirit of investigation, shall put in execution a hundred new projects, although in ten only shall he be successful in the acquisition of useful khowledge, will be entitled to public praise and respect. These pages contain no speculative or visionary projects, nor recommend any untried experiments. Although a portion of information is derived from European authors, no inconsiderable part of it has been collected from the practical experiments and observations of our own countrymen. There is, therefore, no part of this production but what may be adopted as applicable to our climate, and calculated to promote the interests of the cultivators of our soil. The knowledge respecting the proper management of fruit trees is contained in numerous volumes, and in incidental papers, published in periodical works. My object has been to collate and embrace all the principal circumstances relative to the subject, and condense the whole into a small compass, that shall be accessible both to the pecuniary means of all, and to the intellectual powers of the most ordinary capacity. The authorities to which I am chiefly indebted, are the several Encyclopedias, Forsyth on Fruit Trees, and the valuable periodical publications of your society, and various other similar productions. If, in a few instances, it shall appear that I have employed borrowed language without marks of quotation, my apology is, that I have copied from minutes collected at various times, without reference to the source whence derived; not that I would wittingly pilfer the cultivated fruit of others, and impose it upon my guests as the result of my own industry. Nothing can be more irksome to a reflecting mind than a state |