|
This is one of the best fruits in the world. All tarts sink out of sight in point of merit, when compared with that made of the American Cranberry. There is a little dark red thing, about as big as a large pea, sent to England from the North of Europe, and is called a Cranberry; but, it does not resemble the American in taste any more than in bulk.
It is well known that this valuable fruit is, in many parts of this country, spread over the low lands in great profusion; and that the mere gathering of it is all that bountiful nature requires at our hands.
This fruit is preserved all the year, by stewing and putting into jars, and when taken thence is better than currant jelly. The fruit, in its whole state, laid in a heap, in a dry room, will keep sound and perfectly good for six months. It will freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw again without receiving any injury. It may, if you choose, be kept in water all the while, without any injury. I received a barrel in England, mixed with water, as good and as fresh as I ever tasted at New York or Philadelphia.
CURRANT
There are red, white and black, all well known. Some persons like one best, and some another. The propagation and cultivation of all the sorts are the same. The currant tree is propagated from cuttings.
When the tree has stood two years in the Nursery, plant it where it is to stand; and take care that it has only one stem. Let no limbs come out to grow nearer than six inches of the ground. Prune the tree every year. Keep it thin of wood. Keep the middle open and the limbs extended; and when these get to about three feet in length, cut off, every winter, all the last year's shoots. If you do not attend to this, the tree will be nothing but a great bunch of twigs, and you will have very little fruit.
Cultivate and manure the ground as for other fruit trees. In this country the currant requires shade in summer. If exposed to the full sun, the fruit is apt to become too sour. Plant it, therefore, in the South Border.
FIG
There are several sorts of Figs, but all would ripen in this country. The only difficulty must be to protect the trees in winter, which can hardly be done
without covering pretty closely. Figs are raised either from cuttings or layers, which are treated as other cuttings and layers are.
The fig is a mawkish thing at best; and, amongst such quantities of fine fruit as this country produces, it can, from mere curiosity only, be thought worth raising at all, and especially at great trouble.
FILBERD
This is a sort of Nut, oblong in shape, very thin in the shell, and in flavor as much superior to the common nut as a Watermelon is to a pumpkin. The American nut tree is a dwarf shrub.
The Filberd is a tall one, and will, under favorable circumstances, reach the height of thirty feet. I never saw any Filberd trees in this country, except those that I sent from England in 1800. They are six in number, and they are now growing in the garden of the late Mr. JAMES PAUL, of Lower Dublin Township, in Philadelphia county.
I saw them in 1817, when they were, I should suppose, about 20 feet high. They had always borne, I was told, very large quantities, never failing. Perhaps five or six bushels a year, measured in the husk, a produce very seldom witnesses in England; so that, there is no doubt that the climate is extremely favorable to them.
Indeed to what, that is good for man, is it not favorable? The Filberd is propagated from layers, or from suckers, of which latter it sends forth great abundance. The layers are treated like other layers and they very soon become trees. The suckers are also treated like other suckers, but, layers are preferable, for the reasons before stated.
This tree cannot be propagated from seed to bear Filberds. The seed, if sown, will produce trees; but, those trees will bear poor thick shelled nuts, except it be by mere accident. It is useful to know how to preserve the fruit; for it is very pleasant to have it all the winter long.
Always let the filberds hang on the tree till quite ripe, and that is ascertained by their coming out of the husk without any effort. They are then brown, and the butt ends of them white. Lay them in the sun for a day to dry; then put them in a box, or jar, or barrel, with very fine dry sand. Four times as much sand as filberds, and put them in any dry place. Here they will keep well till April or May; and, perhaps, longer.
This is better a great deal than putting them, as they do in England, into jars, and the jars into a cellar; for if they do not mould in that situation, they lose much of their sweetness in a few months. The burning sun is apt to scorch up the
leaves of the Filberd tree. I would, therefore, plant a row of them as near as possible to the South fence.
Ten trees at eight feet apart might be enough. The Filberd will do very well under the shade of lofty trees, if those trees do not stand too thick. And it is by no means an ugly shrub, while the wood of it is, as well as the nut wood, which is, in England, called hazel, and is a very good wood.
In the oak woods there, hazel is very frequently the underwood; and it makes small hoops, and is applied to various other purposes. I cannot dismiss this article without exhorting the American farmer to provide himself with some of this sort of tree, which, when small, is easily conveyed to any distance in winter, and got ready to plant out in the spring. Those that are growing at Mr. PAUL'S were dug up, in England, in January, shipped to New York, carried on the top of the stage, in the dead of winter to B13usleton, kept in a cellar till spring, and then planted out. These were the first trees of the kind, as far as I have been able to learn, that ever found their way to this country.
I hear that Mr. STEPHEN GIRARD takes to himself the act of first introduction, from France. But, I must deny him this. He, I am told, brought his trees several years later than I sent mine.
To learn about lipstick plant and curry plant, visit the Plants And Flowers website.
|
|
SIGN
UP FOR FREE
