1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



49 



Winter Tomatoes.— The forcing-houses at 

 Senator Cameron's, at Lochiel, near Harrisburg, 

 have their usual Winter's attractions in Cucum- 

 bers, Tomatoes, etc. On the 8th of January a 

 visitor informs us at least a bushel of ripe Toma- 

 toes could be had at one picking, not one of 

 the fruit being less than ten inches round. The 

 flavor of these forced tomatoes is singularly deli- 

 cate, and the flesh mealy. It is amazing that 

 more of our wealthy people do not have these 

 luxuries. Of course it takes skilled gardeners 

 like Mr. John Paget to do the 

 thing cheaply and well, — but such 

 good gardeners are generally to 

 be had if the proper steps are 

 taken towards finding them. 



The Kieffer Pear. — A con- 

 temporary asks what evidence 

 there is that this is a hybrid be- 

 tween the Chinese Sand Pear, 

 and the ordinary garden variety? 

 We like to have such questions, 

 for the guesses about hybrid fruits 

 generally have but slender ground 

 to rest on. It would be much 

 better if such plain questions were 

 more often put. In this case it 

 must be admitted that the evi- 

 dence is wholly circumstantial. 

 The Sand Pear has been raised 

 from seed about Philadelphia for 

 a great number of years, and as 

 far as we know never varied much 

 in its character which is that of 

 a large oval fruit, with the color, 

 form, and tough leathery tex- 

 ture of a quince. Xow, among 

 Mr. Kieflfer's seedlings, with the 

 leaves and general habit, as all 

 the seedlings have, of the Sand 

 Pear, it produces a fruit with 

 the form of the annexed cut, the rich glowing red 

 cheek of a first class Flemish Beauty, the delicious 

 perfume of the Sand Pear, and the rich melting 

 flesh of our best Garden Pears. Xow it may pos- 

 sibly be that this is one of those sports of nature 

 which sometimes occur, and which in the past re- 

 sulted in the production of a Nectarine from a 

 Peach. It may be a question of great scientific in- 

 terest to decide whether it is a sport or a hybrid. 

 One thing is certain, it is just as different from the 

 ordinary SandPear, asif it were positively known 

 to be a hybrid, so that practically the question 



is one of little moment. As amere matter of opin- 

 ion, seeing how closely the original parent tree 

 and the ordinary Garden Pears were intertwined 

 we incline to the belief that it is a hvbrid. 



SCRAPS AXD QUERIES. 



Yellows in the Peach. — A Michigan 

 friend says : " You will see by the proceedings 

 of the Washtenaw County Pomological Society, 

 that your views on the Yellows are somewhat 



THE K.iKt ir l,J:; i LAt;. 



misunderstood as I think. I send 3'ou the Michi- 

 gan Farmer of the 9th inst., containing their pro- 

 ceedings. If you could find time to write out 

 what you think on the subject, or what you have 

 found out, it would be doing our fruit interest 

 some service and put an end to much useless 

 talk, a sort of epidemic from which editors sufl"er 

 a great deal." 



[It seems scarcely possible that regular readers 

 of the Gardener's Monthly can misunder- 

 stand the editor's views of the disease known as 

 " yellows" in the peach, and it is useless to follow 



