COE'S TRANSPARENT CHERRY. 



71 



the last paragraph of your " constant " 

 friend. Can we always find " soil and loca- 

 lity in every respect suitable " to the growth 

 of foreign varieties of pears ? Is not our 

 method of placing them against walls and 

 espalier rails, etc., "unnatural?" The peach 

 tree, which, in the United States, in a na- 

 tural state, bears such enormous crops, bears 

 here at least equally fine fruit, but in most 

 " unnatural " places. My root-pruned pear 

 trees, many of them, I have purposely made 

 to contend against nature; in a soil that is na- 

 turally death to them, I make them flourish. 

 To use the oft-quoted sentence, "A man 

 that can make a blade of grass to grow,'' 

 etc., is a benefactor to his race, and if lean, 

 by precept and example, enable the nume- 

 rous occupiers of small gardens to grow 

 pears and apples for their dessert nine 

 months in the year, and plums and cherries 

 during the summer, shall I not also be a 

 benefactor in an humble way ? I hope so. 

 Allow me to advise your correspondent to 

 visit the horticultural gardens at Chiswick ; 

 he may there see pear trees of some twen- 



ty-five years' growth on the quince stock, 

 with roots protruding from the stock close 

 to its junction with the graft. Pictures of 

 health and fertility, they have borne many 

 bushels of fruit, and yet I have never heard 

 the Fellows of the Horticultural Society 

 complain that they tasted like quinces. Some 

 fine trees of about the same age on the 

 quince, are also in the border. These were 

 all removed about two years since, and of 

 course their roots were pruned ; on them 

 may therefore be seen the effects of root- 

 pruning. 



I will conclude with the words of " Dod- 

 man :" " a very little care and judicious se- 

 lection of sorts would insure them (pears) 

 daily, from the end of July till May. I 

 may add, that any garden ten yards square, 

 or even less, will, with the quince stock for 

 pears, the Paradise stock for apples, the 

 Cerasus Mahaleb as a stock for cherries, 

 judicious root pruning and surface culture, 

 supply a very ample dessert of delicious 

 fruits. Thomas Kivers. 



Saxvbridgeivorth, Herts., June 5, 1847. 



COE'S TRANSPARENT CHERRY. 



Having heard, for the last two years, very 

 high eulogiums passed upon this new seed- 

 ling cherry, raised in the interior of Con- 

 necticut, we procured, through the kindness 

 of a friend and neighbor, who made a spe- 

 cial visit to the original tree in June, when 

 the fruit was in perfection, specimens in a 

 perfect state of maturity. 



We are, therefore, able to give an accu- 

 rate outline and description of this new va- 

 riety, and to assure our readers, at the same 

 time, that it is undoubtedly, with the ex- 

 ception of Downer's Late, the finest Ameri- 

 can Cherry that we have yet tasted. 



Its merits appear to be, first, earliness — 

 the season of its maturity being just before 

 that of the Black Tartarian ; second, unu- 

 sual beauty of appearance and delicacy of 



flavor ; third, great hardiness and produc- 

 tiveness. 



The growth of the tree, and the flavor 

 of the fruit, place it in the class of Heart 

 cherries ; but the fruit is, in appearance, 

 something between Belle de Choisy and 

 Downer's Late — rather larger than either, 

 and with much of the beautiful semi-trans- 

 lucent appearance of the former. It is 

 more thrifty and productive than the Belle 

 de Choisy, and we learn from those who 

 have observed the original tree in bearing 

 for several years, that its fruit continues 

 ripening gradually for a rather longer pe- 

 riod than is usual with other varieties. The 

 tree is of thrifty upright growth, and forms 

 a head much like that of Downer's Late. 



The name was given it by Mr. Curtis 



