Book as a New Hampshire seedling, "large, 

 fair, handsome, profitable for market — flesh 

 rather coarse and dry, but sweet and pleasant," 

 and in Coxe's View as the BcUissime d'ete or 

 Supreme, ''a singularly beautiful fruit," and if 

 picked before too ripe, ''a pretty good early 

 pear," is no other than tli? French Jargo- 

 nelle, one of the rejected pears of the American 

 Pumological Congress. The specimens sent 

 were very fine ones for this sort, Mhich evident- 

 ly succeeds better in New Hampshire than in 

 many other places, but we regard it as entirely 

 superceded. TJie English Jargonelle, although 

 less handsome, is much better, and rii)ens at 

 the same time ; closely succeeded by Bloodgood, 

 Osband's Summer, Dearborn's Seedling and 

 Rostiezcr, and these again by Bartlett, Heath- 

 cot, Washington, Belle Lucrative, &.c., all of 

 M'hich possess excellent flavor. 



Pie Plant and Asparagus. — A " Farmer's 

 wife" wishes to know if the large stalks of the 

 pie plant are the result of cultivation or of se- 

 lecting a large sort — the time for manuring — 

 distance asunder in planting — and number of 

 leaves to be left to each root. Also the time to 

 transplant asparagus, and best mode of culture. 

 An answer to these inquiries has been acciden- 

 tally delayed a few months. 



Rows four feet apart, and plants two feet in 

 the row, is a suitable distance for the piejilant. 

 If the sort is large and the soil deep and fertile, 

 they will need all this space. The '' large 

 stalks" are the combined result of good culti- 

 vation and selecting such large varieties as 

 " Giant," a green sort with round stalks, which 

 sometimes grow to the thickness of a man's 

 wrist; •' Victoria,'' red, equally large, earlier, 

 and better in quality; and " Downing's Colos- 

 sal," regarded by many as the best of all. 

 There are some smaller and earlier varieties. 

 The plantation should be covered with manure 

 late in autumn, and this should he spaded in 

 early in spring. All the leaves are usually al- 

 lowed to grow. 



Asparagus seed is sown in autumn or early 

 in spring in drills about Iialf an inch deep in 

 heavy soil, and an inch in light soil, tlie ground 

 being rich and highly manured. The seedlings 

 should be set out at a year old, very early in 

 or as soon as the ground can be worked, 

 which has been trenched or subsoiled and 



made very rich to a depth of nearly two feet. 

 Set the plants two inches below the surface, in 

 rows two feet apart and a foot asunder in the 

 row. The next autumn cover the plants three 

 inches with manure. For two years, let the 

 stalks grow to strengthen the roots, keeping the 

 beds clean, raking off the dead stalks in autumn 

 and covering with manure, to be forked in early 

 in the spring. Some earth will perhaps need 

 an annual replacing, or the plants will come too 

 near the surface by the dressing they get. The 

 third or fourth year will give fine crops, which 

 will continue for many years. 



It is usual to make very rich beds two or three 

 feet deej), an excellent practice; and to plant 

 them very thicidy with plants, a very poor one 

 — for the stalks can never grow so large when 

 crowded. We have seen as large asparagus 

 raised on ordinary corn ground, six inches deep, 

 in drills three feet apart for horse cultivation, 

 as in a bed three feet deep and half manure, 

 with plants placed closely together. The finest 

 stalks are always obtained by distance and depth 

 combined. Asparagus, being usually increased 

 by seed, runs somewhat into varieties, and a 

 " Giant" variety is much lauded; but the size 

 depends mainly, if not wholly, on the cultiva- 

 tion which is given. A bed of earth and manure 

 well ■mixed, two feet deep, and with plants a 

 foot by two feet, will convert any asparagus 

 plants into giants. Salt is a good manure, 

 which we have seen applied in sufBcient quanti- 

 ties to kill the weeds without injuring the 

 plants. 



Synonyms of Pears. — The following state- 

 ment relative to the synonyms of some well 

 known pears, is an extract from a letter of An- 

 dre Leroy, dated Angers. Aug. 18, 1852, and 

 although furnishing information well known to 

 our eminent pomologists, may be of interest to 

 others: "The Beurre d' Anjou, we find is the 

 same as Ne plus Meuris; Duchesse d' Orleans 

 is our Beurre St. Nicholas, raised at Angers, 

 and very well known to every nurseryman of 

 our country. The Louise d' Orleans is the same 

 as tlie Urbaniste, well known also. We have 

 received the Flemish Beauty under thirteen dif- 

 ferent names. Why is it that the English and 

 Belgian Pomologists do not accept our name of 

 Beurre d' Aremberg for the pear that the 

 call Glout Morceau? And our Orpheline 



