GOSSIP FROM THE NORTHWEST. 



or climate affect the result. If not, the discovery — if such it be — may be regarded 

 as one likely to prove highly beneficial. One of our most eminent savans was 

 offered a leg of mutton on his departure from Paris, that he might convince his 

 friends in England of the reality of the process for preservation. What the 

 process is, remains a secret ; but we have heard whispered by a distinguished 

 chemist that it consists in nothing more than brief immersion in very weak 

 sulphuric acid. The acid, it is said, so coagulates the albumen, that a coat is 

 formed on the surface of the joints, impervious to the air, and without affecting 

 the flavor. 



GOSSIP FROM THE NORTHWEST. 



BY J. F. TALLANT, M. D., BURLINGTON, IOWA. 



Dear Sir : Many of your friends and readers here, in what was once the " Far 

 West," are disposed to pick a crow with you for preferring the cram and jam of 

 the Illinois State Fair, in Chicago, last October, to the cosy and quiet chat which 

 you might have enjoyed with a dozen or two harmless enthusiasts in pomology, 

 had you accepted the pressing invitation which was sent you to mingle with us at 

 the meeting of the Northwestern Fruit Growers' Association, in September last. 

 Very certain we are that you would have seen much more comfort and enjoyment 

 here than among the almost terrific multitude which was gathered together in 

 Chicago. 



Your predecessor, Mr. Barry, is kindly disposed to praise us somewhat in your 

 November number, and to intimate that some of our trees, and pears in particular, 

 grow luxuriantly and bear rather large fruit. With his large experience, having 

 visited most of the pear-growing regions of Europe, he ought to know, after so 

 favorable an opportunity of inspecting specimens as was afforded at the meeting 

 of the Fruit-Growers' Society, though we were not aware of the fact before, 

 except as informed by Eastern cultivators. I have now before me a shoot taken 

 from a Bloodgood pear-tree dwarfed on quince, that is upwards of an inch in 

 diameter at the base, and more than seven feet in length, being crowned with 

 large branching limbs. It is of this summer's growth, and was a truant, not 

 having been detected among the foliage of the tree till the leaves had dropped. 

 Is such a growth common with this variety ? 



Many of the trees in the garden from which this was taken, are upwards of 

 eleven inches in circumference at the surface of the ground, and more than fifteen 

 feet in height ; well furnished with limbs from base to pinnacle of the pyramid or 

 cone, and are by no means the "bony" specimens you have doubtless seen in 

 many gardens. They are on Anglers quince, were one year from the bud when 

 out in the spring of 1851, and have borne fruit of unusual size and beauty 



