450 



GARDENING AS A SCIENCE. 



dant crops of fine fruit. Muscat Robert 

 "bore for the first time, and was loaded. My 

 English Jargonelle^ (upon the quince stock) 

 a tree of seven inches diameter at a foot 

 from the ground, bore fruit large and per- 

 fect of its kind, and fine if not first rate. 

 They were in eating from the middle to the 

 26th of July. Golden Beiirre of Bilhoa, ri- 

 pened with me on the 24th of August. 



My St. Gerwam trees (two standards and 

 one dwarf) were loaded with large and perfect 

 fruit, (I send you an outline of one of them 

 in this letter.) I will not say that this was 

 the average size, but I had several larger, 

 and one that weighed 1 lb. 1 oz. This, of 

 which I send you the outline, weighed a- 

 bout one pound. [The outline shows a St. 

 Germain of common size, 11 inches in cir- 

 cumference the smallest way, and 5 1-2 inch- 

 es in diameter the longest way. — Ed.] They 

 began to drop from the tree early in Octo- 

 ber, and have been in eating up to January. 

 The variety, ever since it began to bear, 

 three or four years since, has never failed 

 to bear regularly and abundantly, and keeps 

 later than any late sort I have 3^et fruited. 

 The winter Bonchretien has borne cracked 

 and imperfect fruit the past summer, for the 

 first time since it commenced fruiting with 



me. I think the fruit rather better than 

 the St. Germain — both are in eating at the 

 same season. 



I have one hundred varieties of pears ; 

 many of them I have collected from various 

 sources abroad, and have, as yet, seen no 

 description of a part of them. I expect a 

 large number to come into bearing the com- 

 ing season, if it is a favorable one. I would 

 be glad to send you samples for comparison 

 with the same fruits in your climate. 



We are not so much behind the age in 

 the cultivation of fruits as one would be led 

 to suppose, from not seeing any South Car- 

 olinian quoted among the Pomologists in 

 your book, though we are much more so 

 than we ought to be. However, a change 

 is rapidly taking place, and we are becom- 

 ing better farmers, better gardeners, and 

 better planters. A taste for Horticulture is 

 very much on the increase. 

 I am with respect, 



Your ob'd't servant, 



Rob't Chisholm. 



Palmetto Hall, near Bean/cm, S. €., Feb. 1848. 



[We shall be glad to hear again from our 

 correspondent, who is one of the most zeal- 

 ous devotees of horticulture among south- 

 ern planters. — Ed.] 



REMARKS ON GARDENING AS A SCIENCE— NO. 8. 



BY DR. WM. W. VALK, FLUSHING, L. I. 



Light. — In our last article, the question was 

 asked, at its conclusion — "whether, as a 

 general thing, we are not at infinite pains 

 to ventilate our plant houses, with no other 

 or better result than incurring much trouble 

 without any sort of advantage ? " The edi- 

 tor correctly supposes that we do not " de- 

 ny the superior growth and luxuriance of 

 plants in houses heated in the ' Polmaise' 

 mode." We simply question the necessity 



or utility of ventilation, as usually practiced. 

 Light is an agent of wonderful power in 

 its efiects upon vegetable life ; but it is not 

 our purpose to investigate this most myste- 

 rious principle, beyond the influence exert- 

 ed by it upon the organic structure and de- 

 velopments of plants. By Sir Isaac New- 

 ton, and the late Sir Wm. Heeschell, ma- 

 ny interesting experiments were made to 

 prove the divisibility or decomposition of 



