One of our leading horticulturists has long been and is now gathering material for a record of the history of fruit culture in this country, together with short accounts of the most prominent men whose liberal minds and energetic actions have assisted in originating, introducing, improving, and disseminating the choicest fruits of the earth so widely and so cheaply that there is no man, owner of a half-acre lot, so poor but he can and does grow some of them.

We have been permitted, at this time, to make a few extracts from the compiler's collection, and hope to get liberty to continue them, as we believe all that relates to our pomological history will be received with pleasure by our readers.

"The earliest nursery of trees for sale in this country (according to William R. Prince, of Flushing, N. Y.) was established in 1732, by his great-grandfather, William Prince, and it was by him that the Newtown Pippin apple was extensively propa-agated and disseminated. His footsteps were ably filled by his son, William Prince, whose fair and honest dealings were proverbial and yet in the memory of many people, as the trees of his growing are yet in their orchards, yielding fruit correct to name. * * *

"The first nursery established in Massachusetts was at Newton, byEenrick.

The first in New Jersey was by William Coxe, and the first in Maryland by William Sinclair. * * *

"One of the most liberal of the early pioneers of horticulture in Maine was Benjamin Vaughn, who in early life was a member of the British Parliament, but for republican sentiments expressed, was censured, and at the close of the Revolutionary war he settled at Hallowell, where he imported, propagated, and distributed freely trees, plants, and seeds, contributing largely toward diffusing a taste for fruit culture. Ephraim Goodale settled at what is now the town of Orrington, Maine, in about 1808, and at once planted an orchard and a nursery, sparing no trouble or expense toward obtaining the best fruits then known, and freely distributing his knowledge in aid of others.

"The old cherry-trees just out of New Haven, Conn., so well known by many horticulturists - the Black Heart, Honey Heart, May Duke, etc. - were, some of them, planted in 1775 by Benjamin Douglass, a lawyer of New Haven. Fruit by the bushels was gathered in after years from the May Duke as early in the season as the 10th of June.

"Jonah Hotchkiss in 1780 introduced grafts of the Delancey pear from Red Hook, Long Island; and as he brought no name with the grafts, it took the one of Jonah, by which many persons yet recognize it.

"Nathan Beers was a nurseryman previous to 1779, and cultivated many choice varieties of fruits yet counted as among the best - St. Michael or White Doyenne, Catherine, etc.

"Nathan Beers, 2d, followed the occupation of his father, dying in 1849, at the ripe age of seventy-nine years.

"Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College, was the first to cultivate strawberries and assist in bringing them into gardens as a valuable fruit.

" James Hillhouse, a lawyer by profession, cultivated fruit largely, and at one time received a large collection of apple and pear grafts from the king's garden, in France. To him especially New Haven owes the noble elms that adorn many of its streets, for he assisted in planting them.

"Henry W. Edwards, at one time Governor of the State, planted pear seeds in 1817, from which sprang many new sorts that are now of high repute, as Henrietta, Dallas, Elizabeth, etc.

"Noyes Darling was a man of enthusiasm in fruit culture, and gave great attention to insects and diseases of fruits. His researches have been in part published".

Skipping over a number of records, we find - "David Thomas as early as about 1810 was propagating and disseminating trees and plants in western or central New York, and that about 1820 or 21 he had quite an extensive nursery".

The extent and value of his teachings are yet well known and remembered with warm and kind appreciation in all of western New York, and even into other States, where he is at this day quoted as authority in principles of cultivation as well as in correctness of names.

As we said, we hope to be able hereafter to continue these notes ere they appear in full, as now proposed.