On the Cultivation of Fruits: Recognition of Dr John H Bayne of Salubria, Prince George's County, Maryland

ON THE CULTIVATION OF FRUITS.


 
    Thirty years since, "Horticulture" was a prominent feature in the title of the paper commenced in Baltimore, by the senior Editor of the Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil, under every discouragement, for the advancement of all branches of rural industry. From that day to this, we have never ceased to apply every incitement we could think of, in the way of argument and example, of denunciation and praise, to shame the negligent and to encourage those who are attentive to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables.

    If we had our way, in doing what we believe would best promote the true welfare of society, we would have Congress vote a gold medal, or a pension, sooner to the man who, like Doctor Bayne, leads the way in horticulture, in the midst of a country neglectful of that elegant, innocent, and useful art, than to reward in that way the slayer often thousand guerillas. And were we President of the United States, so help us Heaven! we would feel bound to select such a man, for such a service to his fellow-men, for the governorship of a province, sooner than we would one who could say in a public despatch (we care not what may be his party politics) that "the most beautiful scene he had ever beheld was when, by moonlight, he could see and hear the crash of the houses in the thickest settled part of a Mexican town, falling under the force of his well-directed cannon-balls," destroying doubtless the lives of hundreds of women and children.

    But in all the examples we have seen to excite the proprietor of land to a closer attention to horticulture, here are strung together the greatest number of remarkable instances of the profit of fruit culture: for it seems, after all, that if men are to be moved you must touch them in the "pocket nerve." Much more beautiful, however, is it to see a gentleman or lady prompted to the care of fruit and flowers, under the refining inspiration of a love of such pursuits, for their innocence and their amusing nature, and for the enjoyments they afford them the means of imparting to their family and friends. Who believes, for instance, that when Wilder is watching the budding and the fruiting of a new pear, or the blowing of a new japonica; or Mrs. George Law, of Baltimore, is busy among her vines, or in her green-house, and beautiful shrubbery; that their pure delights are contaminated by sordid calculations of pecuniary interest ? For the mass of mankind, however, it is true there is not so much—though with all there is some—time and means that may be given con amore to such objects. With those, then, who are compelled by necessity, or led by a coarser nature, to heed only such occupation of time as will tend to fill the purse, the following may have its weight.

    We may add a case of a single vine of the Isabella grape, growing in the rear of the office we lately occupied, which, spreading over a surface of some twenty-five feet by ten, bore six hundred bunches of fine grapes—enough to give to the family table twenty bunches a day for thirty days! Yet how many—nay, how few, there are of farmers on a scale of 500 acres or more, who have it in them to provide a single bunch of grapes, or an apricot, or even a really good apple or pear in the whole year!


 
The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil, Volume 1. 1848. J.S. Skinner & Son