ARE THE OLD PEAKS EXTINCT ? 



423 



the baffled practical man, very properly at- 

 tributes it to so?ne itiherent defect in the soil, 

 and looks to the Chemist for aid," I here- 

 with send you the analysis of the virgin soil 

 of the Brandenburg Nursery. That upon 

 which the stocks and grafts grew, has been 

 in cultivation, perhaps twenty years, and 

 lately with the application of good dressings 

 of stable manure and ashes. 



Analysis by Chas. Whittlesey, 

 " Color, dark yellow — no gravel, easily 

 pulverized, all passes the sieve. 



Carbonate of lime, 3.10 



Oxide of iron, 4.21 



Vegetable matter,* 3.53 



Water, (not expelled,) ... 2.13 



Sand and Clay, 86.50 



Loss,. 43 



100.00" 

 Is it not possible that in growing pear 

 seedlings as thickly as is the custom, that 

 some important element of the soil is ex- 

 hausted before the close of the season ? 

 Very respectfully yours, &c., 



H. P. Byram. 



[Remarks. — This h a valuable statement. 

 The analysis of the soil, in Mr. Byram's 

 Brandenburg grounds, shows at a glanre, 

 why the pear and apple succeed so well there. 

 It contains a large proportion of lime, and a 

 large proportion of oxide of iro?i. He is al- 

 so in the habit of using ashes as manure. 



The lime is most essential to the growth 

 of the apple and pear tree, and if our views 

 are correct, (see vol. 1, p. 318,) iron is also 

 essential to give health to the foliage. To 

 the presence of the latter, in the Branden- 

 burg soil, we are inclined to attribute the ab- 

 sence of the leaf blight, so troublesome at 

 Louisville and many other parts of the coun- 

 try. 



Wood Ashes, leached, is probably safest; 

 is certainly one of the very best manures for 

 the pear tree, as it contains both lime and 

 phosphate. To prevent the leaf blight, in 

 raising seedlings, we again repeat our re- 

 commendation to water with weak copperas- 

 water, or to mix the cinders of the black- 

 smith-shop with the soil of the seed-bed — 

 say at the rate of a bushel of cinders to a 

 bed ten feet by four. — Ed.] 



ARE THE OLD PEARS EXTINCT? 



BY J. J. THOMAS, MACEDON, N. Y. 



[Some of our Boston friends are still unwil- 

 ling to abandon the idea, that many of the 

 finest old varieties of fruits have run out, 

 and are no longer worthy of cultivation. 

 Thus we find, in the first number of the 

 Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, Gen, Dearborn speaks of them 

 in the following terms, in his learned arti- 

 cle on the pear : 



" From some inexplicable cause, the St. 

 Germain, St. Michael, (Doyenne or Virga- 



* In procuring this specimen of soil, I mingleil a portion from 

 near tlie subsoil, which leaves in the analysis a smaller portion 

 of vegetable matter than would be found otherwise. 



lieu,) Brown Beurre, Messire Jean, and 

 several others of the best old varieties of 

 pears, have either disappeared, or are so 

 deteriorated as to be no longer worthy of 

 cultivation. This lamentable decadence, 

 however, is not confined to this country, 

 but is experienced in France, the probable 

 birth-place of most of the pears, bearing 

 the highest reputation, formerly known in 

 the gardens and orchards of both England 

 and the United States." 



It would appear from the above, that it is 

 taken for granted that such pears as the 



