DECEMBER. 361 



killed back, and, with the loss of the leaders, will be thrown back a 

 season, and in some cases very valuable plants, considered hardy, have 

 been much injured. These early frosts have brought down the iolmge of 

 trees rapidly, and during this autumn we have experienced none of 'those 

 delightful transitions of colour in the decaying foliage of the Beech, 

 Oak, and Maple, which in other seasons, when their decay has been 

 gradual, have beautified the landscape. 



The rapid increase of the Pomological Society, and the interesting 

 reports of its proceedings, are exciting much interest. The exertions 

 of the committee in classifying and reporting on the fruits submitted to 

 them at their meetings merit the thanks of fruit growers, and have 

 already given great impulse to fruit growing. But they evidently want 

 local secretaries in each fruit-producing district, and more correspondence 

 on fruit matters ; and it is thought, even by some of their own members, 

 that a jury of some 20 or 30 individuals, some of whom are but 

 partially informed on the subject, is not the best medium for getting 

 at a right decision on the fruits submitted. Would it not be better to 

 elect proper censors, and let them award the prizes, instead of putting 

 the matter to the vote of the whole meeting ; and, as the number of 

 fruits to be adjudicated upon is now large, the censorship might take 

 place the day before, or on the morning previous tc the meeting, at 

 which a short lecture and discussion might take place on the suhjects 

 present. We name this with the most friendly feeling towards the 

 society. The fruit and floral committees of the Horticultural Society are 

 also proceeding with zeal and vigour. We shall expect much from 

 these committees, more especially now that their means of doing good 

 will be enlarged, through the general prosperity of the main body. 

 The publication of the monthly proceedings is a step in the right 

 direction, and we are glad to notice that experiments on vegetables have 

 not been given up. 



G. F. 



MR. McEWEN'S WORK ON THE PEACH. 

 Your favourable notice of this, at page 315, has surprised not only 

 myself but others of your readers, who, having read over the work, 

 fail to discover anything either new in practice or sound in prin- 

 ciple in its pages. To me, it appears most unfortunate for Mr. Cox, 

 that he should have made any additions at all to Mr. McEwen's 

 manuscript, for, on reading the work, we find that nearly in every 

 instance where the editor's notes are inserted, they contradict the 

 original matter. Mr. Cox's labour in the matter may have been one of 

 love (as he informs us in the preface was the case), and it was no doubt a 

 congenial one ; but the public now-a-days expect to get some informa- 

 tion when they buy a new work, particularly when two such practical 

 names as those of the author and editor are attached to it. 



At page 7 we are told that all outside borders should be repeatedly 

 forked over in hot sunny weather; and at page 18 — "That when the 

 weather is dry, and evaporation excessive, I frequently tread over open 



