editor's table. 



A FINK Portrait of F. A. MicHAnx, engraved on steel, will ornament our December uuiu- 

 bor, anil form an admirable frontispiece to the year's volume. 



A Portrait of Du. Bkincklk, extremely well executed in photograidi, has been laid on 

 our table. Long may the able pomologist live to benefit his raco. 



Indian Summer. — De Quincey, in the new edition of the Confessions of an English Opium 

 Eater, has described the advent of Indian summer, in the following passage, more beauti- 

 fully than any master of the English language : — 



" It was a day belonging to a brief and pathetic season of farewell summer resurrection, 

 which, under one name or other, is known almost everywhere. It is that last brief resur- 

 rection of summer in its most brilliant memorials — a resurrection that has no root in the 

 past, nor steady hold upon the future, like the lambent and fitful gleams from an expiring 

 lamp, mimicking what is called the ' lightning before death' in sick patients, when close 

 upon their end. There is a feeling of the conflict that has been going on between the lin- 

 gering powers of summer and the strengthening powers of winter, not unlike that which 

 moves by antagonist forces in some deadly inflammation, hurrying forwards, through fierce 

 struggles, into the final repose of mortification. For a time, the eijuilibrium has been main- 

 tained between the hostile forces ; but at last, the antagonism is overthrown ; the victory 

 is accomplished for the powers that fight on the side of death. Simultaneously with the 

 conflict, the pain of conflict has departed ; and thenceforward, the gentle process of collapsing 

 life, no longer fretted by counter-movements, slips away with holy peace into the noiseless 

 deeps of the Infinite. So sweet, so ghostly, in its soft, golden smiles, silent as a dream, and 

 quiet as the dying trance of a saint, faded through all its transient stages this departing 

 day." 



Ontario Pear. — We are much pleased with the appearance and qualities of the Ontario 

 Pear, from the nurseries of W. T. k E. Smith, Geneva, N. Y. They first introduced it at 

 the American Pomological Society of Rochester, in 1856, where it was highly approved. 

 Size, medium. Color, a beautiful pale lemon. Of very rich, buttery, sweet, and excellent 

 flavor. Ripens, end of September and early in October. Undoubtedly, a good market 

 variety, which we advise planters at once to procure. There has not been, as far as we can 

 ascertain, a bushel of as good-looking pears in the Philadelphia market, the present season. 



Gapes in Chickens are said to be cured by the use of salt. The disease is a worm in the 

 throat of the bird ; if lumps of salt are left in their way, or a little box of common salt in 

 a convenient place, the chickens will take enough of it to prevent or cure the malady. 

 When they are very sick, and gaping piteously, the best thing to do is to spirt a little salt 

 and water into their throats. Some use an aromatic decoction of cinnamon, pepper, &c., a 

 drop or two of which is put into the bird's throat with excellent efi"ect ; but salt is the great 

 vermifuge of creation. Instinct seems intended to act as a safeguard against those para- 

 sites, which, if let alone, would soon be as fatal to our own peace and comfort as those of 

 old Timon, of Athens, were to his. 



The Sewing Machine of Grover & Baker, advertised in the accompanying sheet, is spoken 

 of by those in whom we have confidence, as doing everything it promises, and we therefore 

 refer housekeepers, &c., to it. 



AT IS Exhibited and Reported. — We think every one who reads the following paragraph 

 New York daily paper, respecting the horticultural exhibition in that city, must have 



