DECUEPITUDE OF THE PEAR-TREE. 



floor, where arc four bccl-rooins and a dressing-room over tlie main part, with a 

 bath-room and two servants' bedrooms over the kitchen wing. 



The house is to be built of good briclv, with cut-stone dressings, and is to be 

 left unpainted. The mortar used is to be darkened, in order to avoid the white 

 lines which give so cold and disagreeable an ap])earance to ordinary brick work. 

 Tiiere arc many reasons why we should leave brick houses unpainted. Their color, 

 when bricks of good quality are used, is not unpleasant, and time softens and 

 varies the natural tints in a very agreeable manner. Vines, such as the American 

 ami English Ivies, cling with friendly tenacity to the surface of brick, while nothing 

 can be more charming than the contrast of the soft tints of red with the delicuie 

 greens and browns of the foliage. No house in the country should be without its 

 mantle of creepers, which, in sjjitc of all that has been said to the contrary, pro- 

 tects what it hides from decay; and yet, nothing is more discouraging than the 

 attempt to make these creepers cling to painted brick and its wood. Lastly, it 

 is not only better, on the score of beauty, to leave the bricks in their natural state, 

 but it is also more economical. The cost of a new coat of paint every two or 

 three years, particularly on a house so large as the one w^e have been examining, 

 is an item seriously to be considered. It is not necessary that the bricks used 

 should be of the very best quality ; still less need they be pressed. Only let them 

 be well laid, with the joints well pointed, and well clothed with vines. Time, the 

 beautifier, will do the rest. 



The roofs are to be covered with Vermont slate. The cost of the whole, in- 

 cluding furnace, grates, &c., will not exceed $10,000. 



DECREPITUDE OF THE PEAR-TREE. 



BY J. DE JONGE, BRUSSELS. 



Every individual being, whether of an animal or vegetable nature, has its ave- 

 rage period of existence, during which it passes through all its stages, falls into 

 decay, and, arrived at its limit, disappears from the face of the earth. As many 

 years as a seedling Pear-tree requires to arrive at its full growth, so many years 

 it takes to decay and die ofi". The age depends on the particular race, its degree 

 of acclimation, the conditions, more or less favorable, under which the tree has 

 been planted, and the care with which it has been subsequently managed. 



Of all fruit-trees, the Pear, when sprung from a good race, attains the greatest 

 age. This age varies from one hundred or one hundred and fifty up to three 

 hundred years, or more. It is easy to ascertain its age by examining, when the 

 tree has been sawed over by the ground, the annual layers, which show the pro- 

 gress of its growth, its stoppage, and decline. These layers, very large near the 

 centre, become smaller and smaller towards the circumference, where they are 

 almost imperceptible. It is in accidental situations that trees attaining the great- 

 est age are found ; but the soil must be rich, deep, and free from stagnant water. 

 From these observations, the truth of which may be corroborated by every care- 

 ful observer, it will be understood how necessary it is, in our cold and variable 

 climates, when it is intended that the trees should attain a great age, only to 

 plant stocks raised from seeds of hardy and vigorous sorts. In raising from seed, 

 there are always some seedlings which have no similarity to their parents. For 

 this reason, it is necessary to make a careful selection in the second year of their 

 growth. All the seedlings having a smooth bark, of an olive-green color, spotted 



ith gray, and a stem that! naturally grows straight and upright, may be considered 



possess the characteristics indicative of firmness of growth and long duration. 



