ORANGE PEAR— ORCHARDS NEAR NIAGARA. 



only verj' slightl}' covered. When the spring opens (unless the winter has been very se- 

 vere) you will find the barrels quite filled with nice tender stalks and leaves — the stalks 

 much more tender than when grown out of doors. In this way you get a good cutting 

 of Rhubarb full one month before you get it out of doors, especially if your Rhubarb 

 patch is on a sloping south bit of ground. The manure between the barrels keeps the 

 frost out of the ground, while the heat forces the plants to grow inside. When you have 

 cut the stalks twice, the leaves should be allowed to grow, and the barrels and manure 

 cleared away, (a good dressing of the latter being dug in,) so as to let the plants get 

 strength for another season. A Working Man. 



THE ORANGE PEAR— LARGE ORCHARDS NEAR NIAGARA. 



BY B. HODGE, BUFFALO. 



A. J. Downing, Esq. — It is quite possible that the readers of the Horticulturist will 

 demand at my hands, some explanation in relation to the Orange Pear, so pathetically al- 

 luded to by my friend Allen, in the March number of the Horticulturist. Well, I am at 

 all times ready to make the amende honorable, and more particularly so, when one of my 

 good friends seem to demand it. Now Mr. A. and myself partake something of the cha- 

 racter of the legal profession; we speak and write rather pointedly, sometimes; a little 

 sparring occasionally. But it is merely the spice of life, very like the Paddy and his wife — 

 "a little bit of ajar now and then, makes us better friends." 



But I must give the history of this Orange Pear. It was introduced here some forty 

 years ago, by an " itinerant" grafting man. And here I must be permitted to tell a short 

 story. The man had engaged to set a few apple .scions for my father, and when the job was 

 about completed, he .said, would you like to have a few pear .scions set? " No," .says my 

 father, (then about 55 years old,) " I never shall live to see them bear." " But," says the 

 man, " perhaps some of your children may." Well, a few pear scions were set in the 

 roots of the common thorn. Three of these grew, and in time become stately trees. Two 

 of them were the Orange Pear, and the other the " Autumn Pear." The Autumn Pear 

 proved to be very good, of medium size, and one of the most productive I ever saw. My 

 father died in the winter of 1837, and in the autumn previous, he gathered from that one 

 tree, thirt3^-flve bushels of pears, which he sold at one dollar per bushel. The two Orange 

 pear trees also, soon become very productive. I purchased a part of the estate, including 

 one of the Orange pear trees. The other stood only some three feet from my line. I of- 

 fered $100 for the tree, with a line of a rod square of land around it, during the life of the 

 tree. My offer was rejected. Well, the trees produced fine crops, and the fruit was th^'n 

 " the best in the market." Two of these noble trees yet survive, and it does one good to 

 look at them. The Autumn pear tree has produced forty bushels of pears in a season. 

 But my poor Orange pear tree has since died. In the autumn I noticed that the leaves 

 seemed to be drooping, as though suffering from drouth. As the ground was very moist 

 at the time, I could not account for the appearance of the tree. The next spring it put 

 forth its leaves, and seemed to be as vigorous as ever, but before midsummer it withered 

 away, and was dead, root and branch. Was this fire blight.? It was a great loss, and I 

 would almost apply to myself, the pathetic lines quoted by Mr. Allen — " I never nursed 

 a dear Gazelle, &c." 



But I have wandered from the main subject. But no matter. These two varieties of 



