272 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[September, 



Bastian's, and he has the old Seckel, if't has'nt 

 blowed over. But stop, mister, tha' don't ripen 

 jist yit, if that's wot yer goin' fer. 



To think I should reach Mecca in this unsenti- 

 mental way, and not on a cloud, or the back of 

 a camel ! 



I found Mr. Bastian sitting on his porch. He 

 received me very kindly, and directed me to the 

 identical spot. Sure enough, there stood the 

 ancient of days and its surroundings, " the old 

 stone house, the sloping meadow and the ditch." 

 Eureka ! 



The half trunk was a mere shell when Mr. 

 Bastian first knew it forty years ago, and he says 

 it was "much the same as now." At least half 

 the circumference is gone. At 3 feet 6 inches 

 from the ground, it measures 5 feet 4 J inches 

 around the half trunk and across the exposed 

 diameter. The diameter, Irom bark to bark 

 is 23j inches. I estimate the full circumfer- 

 ence when whole and sound, as having been 

 at least 6 feet 6 inches, 3J feet from the ground. 

 The fraction of all that remains of the old storm- 

 beaten, ancestral Seckel Pear is 26 feet in height. 

 It had about one peck of pears, when I saw it. 



The old stone house must be one hundred and 

 fifty years old. It is of one storj'' and attic, and 

 the walls are like a fort in thickness. Mr. Bas- 

 tian now lives in his more commodious mansion 

 near by on a rising ground. His son, who was 

 born in the old stone homestead, lives there now 

 with his family. There are many very old 

 homesteads all through the Neck. They are 

 perhaps, with the exception of the old Swedes 

 • Church, among the oldest buildings remaining 

 in the city. Mr. Bastian has 'owned the old 

 Seckel farm forty years. At the time he moved 

 there the late Thomas P. Cope told him that the 

 Seckel family had known the old tree for eighty 

 jears. Eighty plus forty makes one hundred 

 and twenty years to begin on. Perhaps some 

 one reading this article can furnish data of an 

 earlier experience, going backward from the 

 year 1760, which this gives us, — and so verify the 

 tradition of " more than one hundred and fifty 

 years and perhaps two hundred." 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Ripening of Raspberry Canes.— When we come 

 to inquire whether a Raspberry or Blackberry 

 is hardy, it simply comes to asking whether any 

 grower's plants are healthy. The Raspberry and 



Blackberry are naturally natives of very cold 

 countries, and if the plants have their natural 

 vital powers, are able to stand any degree of tem- 

 perature they are likely to meet with in most 

 parts of the United States. It is only when 

 these vital powers become enfeebled that they 

 succumb, and when thus enfeebled, even a white 

 frost may be enough to render them " not 

 hardy." Unfortunately this fact has not been 

 made prominent, and hence little is known of 

 those enfeebling causes. Yet it has been long 

 enough known that kinds perfectly hardy in the 

 severest weather come in time to be very tender; 

 and this is especially true of those kinds related 

 to the Rubus Idseus of Europe. Sometimes the 

 vital power is weakened by the attacks of fungi on 

 the leaves, at others on the roots, and then in- 

 sects on the roots may be as bad as fungi. 



LiTiz Apple. — This was distributed some 

 twelve years ago by Jacob Miller of Litiz, Pa. 

 A specimen before us, Aug. 4th, shows it to be a 

 very good summer apple. It is medium size, 

 and belongs to the class of light colored apples, 

 of which Primate, Cooper's Early, and Carver 

 are illustrations. 



Mexican Vegetables, — Mr. W. H. Dougherty, 

 of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 brought from Mexico, last winter, some dried 

 specimens of a fruit known in Mexican markets 

 as Chiote. It was about the size of one's fist, 

 prickly on the outside, and contained one or two 

 seeds as large as a Lima bean. It belongs to 

 to the Cucumber fomily, and proved to be the 

 Hanburia Mexicana of botanists. There are 

 probably many of these Mexican vegetables 

 that would be worth introducing here. 



The vSusquehanna Peach. — As showing the 

 variation in the great fruit belt of the United 

 States, it may be noted that the Susquehanna 

 peach, which in its native home in Central 

 Pennsylvania is a September peach, is ripe at 

 the end of July in southern Georgia. 



The Seckel Pear. — There are few who eat a 

 Seckel pear but feel a sort of gratitude to the 

 originators for the delicious morsel, and a natu- 

 ral desire to know ali possible about its origin. 

 A correspondent favors us with a sketch of the 

 original tree, and an account of his pilgrimage to 

 the place of its birth, which we are sure will be 

 read with great interest. Our publisher has had 

 the old seckel pear tree photographed, and an 

 engraving made from it for this number. 



