in addition to the door, with mattings of straw. There are 8 sashes of 6 by 8 glass, with 

 straw mats, and half-inch board covers. 



There is one shelf on the interior front, running the whole length for small pots, and 

 behind, three shelves of half the length of the pit, to allow room for the largest plants to 

 stand on the ground. 



This pit should be drained in some way, say by digging down to sand, but if that is im- 

 practicable, dig one or more holes and fill them with broken stones, to keep the bottom dry. 



Again, as to graperies : Lean-to houses are considered better adapted for forcing-houses 

 than those having span roofs, not so much in respect to the quantity of light which passes 

 into them, as in their longer retention of the heat which enters with light, and which, as 

 every gardener knows, escapes more rapidly from houses having glass on all sides, than 

 from those having only one side, and that facing the south. To carry out, says an authority 

 on this topic, the ripening of fruit to its highest point of excellence, the leaves, from their 

 earliest development, must be kept fully exposed to light, to insure the healthy action of 

 their organs in furnishing an abundant supply of the necessary food for the fruit while in a 

 young and growing state ; and as the fruit approaches maturity, light, and a more full 

 exposure to air than what may even be necessary during the period of growth, should be 

 admitted, to enable the vital force within the fruit itself to perform the changes requisite to 

 give flavor and proper consistence to its component parts. To effect this, forced fruits 

 should be allowed to ripen slowly, that the processes whereby their characteristic qualities 

 are obtained, may be formed without being hurried, and the fniit consequently may attain 

 its fullest development of size, color, and flavor. 



Pears in New Jersey. — E. B. Edwards gives us as his experience of pears, in the neigh- 

 borhood of Haddonfield, N. J., as follows : — 



Duchess d'Angouleme (dwarfs), prolific bearers. 

 Louise Bonne de Jersey, " " " 



Honey Pear, ripe in August (dwarfs), prolific bearers. 

 Belle Lucrative, " " " 



Doyenne Robin (first season), " very full of pears. 



" Boussock, " moderate bearer. 



Glout Morceau (five years from bud), dwarf; no fruit. 

 Doyenne Gouliault, dwarf; fair show of fruit. 

 Columbia, dwarf (five years from bud), no fruit. 



I have between forty and fifty kinds of dwarf pears, about half of them obtained four 

 years ago ; the remainder last fall. The Doyenne Boussock, described by Downing as Gray 

 Doyenne, we kept till Christmas, and thought it unsurpassed, in flavor, by any pear. 



The MicnifiAN State Agricultural Society will hold its eighth annual fair at Detroit, Sept. 

 30th, Oct. 1st, 2d, and 3d. "We have examined the premium list which embraces a wide 

 range of subjects, and is on a liberal scale. The Michigan Society is very far from being 

 on the " old fogy" list alluded to with justice by Jeffreys, in August. 



Lombardy Poplar. — A gentleman of Illinois writes us as follows : "Please record my vote 

 for Mr. Allen, on the Lombardy Poplar quistion, with an express restriction, by way of 

 amendment, that planters are not to set them out h la ten-pin alley. There is no tree, native 

 or foreign, that will flourish in this climate, and exactly fill the place of the Lombardy 

 Poplar for a break in the scenery of low, flat tracts. When set from cuttings, as it ought 

 to be, it will never sucker. The L. Poplar man has lazily i^lanted a sucker, grown from a 

 that suckered by reason of its lower buds not being removed from the cuttin; 

 has naturally suckered again. 



