CRITIQUE ON AUGUST HORTICULTURIST. 461 



in the nursery. There they stand in long, straight rows, three to six feet high, 

 full, thrifty, luxuriant, and frequently with luscious samples of fruit upon them, 

 enough to tempt the palate of an anchorite. That is true, and very well while 

 they stand there, not exceeding three or four years from the bud. But transplant 

 them, no matter where, and cultivate them to your best. A fire-blight strikes 

 one, a cankered bark shows itself on another, a heavy wind thrashes off a score of 

 them from the junction of the two stocks, and a sort of tree consumption takes a 

 dozen more, while a few flourish and bear fruit, perhaps equal to our fullest ex- 

 pectations, till some accident or disease finishes them. That is the way they go ; 

 and so they can be seen in every orchard and garden throughout the country. 

 Such is my own experience, and such is the experience of many others, who, like my- 

 self, have gone into dwarf pears on quite a large scale as well as in the more limited 

 garden. I have grown the quince, as a fruit, for many years ; the pear, also, on 

 their own stocks. My soil is good for both. They have succeeded well as such 

 fruits go, yet I have tried the dwarf pears side by side with the others, under in- 

 finitely better cultivation, and, in the main, it has proved a failure. And so with 

 my neighbors. I went into a garden, the other day, filled with nice fruits. Its 

 owner is a man of care ; attends to things himself, and understands them. He 

 had, perhaps, fifty dwarf pears, of a dozen varieties, standing around, all well 

 trained and cultivated. A few flourished and bore fruit ; some had never grown 

 afoot during the several years they stood there; while others were dead, and 

 dying ; and that is but a sample of all around me. I fully believe, if the testimony 

 of our dwarf pear experimenters at large could be taken, such would be the result 

 of their experience. 



It is with exceeding regret, and after much pecuniary sacrifice, that I come to 

 these conclusions. I wish to injure no one's business, nor to diminish any one's 

 hopes ; but after years of painstaking and solicitude, I chronicle these remarks 

 as the deliberate convictions of my own observation and trials. I would not dis- 

 courage any one, who has a good soil for them, from cultivating a few choice dwarf 

 pears, when the kinds are such as have been successfully tried ; but they should 

 be confined to the garden alone ; and then, at a large price for his fruit, provided 

 he pays proper attention to them, he may gratify his own taste, and that of his 

 family and friends, to an occasional ti'eat of a well-grown pear. 



Kestalrig House, and Mr. R. Morris Smith, Architect. — This gentleman mistakes 

 me, and my meaning, in my random remarks on his houses. Mr. Smith's houses 

 are just as good as any other architect's houses — of the kind. And, as I am now 

 taking leave of these pages, for the time, as a contributor, I will, with all kind 

 regards to Mr. Smith and his useful profession, drop a word or two on this style 

 of building — the Italian — for American country houses. And, be it understood, 

 I speak not as an architect, for I am not one, but as a simple looker-on, with 

 admiration of every real improvement introduced in anything. 



The house architecture of any country should, in the main, conform to its climate, 

 and always to the domestic convenience of the people. It is unnecessary to say 

 that our country architecture, previous to the last twenty years, has, as a rule, been 

 uncouth and inappropriate to its objects. A reform has been introduced ; yet, as 

 in most other reforms, absurdities have crept in with it. Gothic, Swiss, Moorish, 

 Norman, Egyptian, even, as well as other preposterous things, have been recom- 

 mended by our house architects, inappropriate, enormously expensive, for the 

 accommodation they give, and unsatisfactory any way. The Italian, as a style, 

 is the most appropriate for American purjjoses, provided the steep roof is added, 

 which is an absolute necessity of our rainy, snowy, and frosty climates. The 

 shelter afforded by the overhanging roofs and verandas, render the Italian 



