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EDITOR'S TABLE. 



AncniTEfTruE, &c. — We took up the otlicr day a handsonio volume witli tlie followlnj. 

 title: "The Auiericnn Cottiigc Builder; a scries of designs, jdans and sjiecilications, from 

 $200 to $20,000, for Homes for the Peoplo. By John Iki.i.ocK. New York : Stuingkk & 

 TowNSEXD, 185-1/' The work is embellished and handsomely printed, but from internal 

 evidence is a rehash of an English publication. We first turned to the chapter on Land- 

 sciipo Gardening, and found it to contain directions how to treat chalk pits and cliffs, &c. 

 Now as no chalk has been found in America, would it not have been as well for the editor 

 or publishers to tell us at once that it was the production of one or more Englishmen, and 

 not by silence, and the insertion of a copy-right page, have led us to believe it was from 

 an American pen ? Many of the suggestions are good, but when we saw planters advised 

 to make their principal effects with Portugal and English laurels, which are not hardy 

 here, we laid the volume away. It has no claim to its title of '■'■ American^ 



English Pomolooical Society. — A Pomological Society is about to be established in 

 England to promote the culture and classification of hardy fruits. Sir Joseph Paxton has 

 consented to become President. Since the Presidency of Knight, the London Ilorticul- 

 tural Society has given most of its attention to otlier departments of culture. 



Gardens Around Boston. — The editor of the Practical Farmer, Wm. S. King, accom- 

 panied the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Committee on Gardens, in their oflBcial 

 visits, and has made some free and easy notes and comments on what he saw. We copy 

 the following account of the garden of Mr. Austin — Black Wart, Pear Trees, «kc. 



" The Garden of Wm. R. Austin, Dorchester. — Mr. Austin, though admiring, and to a con- 

 siderable extent cultivating, flowers and ornamental shrubs, has devoted himself, especially, to 

 the growing of fruit, the Pear in particular ; in the cultivation and treatment of which he has 

 been singularly successful 



"The grounds contain two acres, one-half acre of which is occupied by buildings, ornamental 

 trees, hedges, <fec., «fec., — leaving one acre and a half for fruit trees — in number about 600. Of 

 these, some 500 are dwarf Pear trees, about two dozen standards, as many, each, of Cherry 

 and Peach, eight Apple trees, and six Plum trees — which last Mr. Austin is about to attempt to 

 cure of the black-wart, by heading down two or three inches above the surface of the ground, 

 and digging out every trace of root. This he considers a radical cure for the black-wart From 

 our experience of this pest, we doubt if he gets rid of it so easily, — it may break out again, on 

 the pump-handle, or the cord wood in the cellar — there is no knowing where ! We once headed 

 down a Plum tree (not quite so low down as Austin proposes to do), and forth came a vigorous 

 young growth, that, the first season, made a fine new head for the decapitated tree; but, bless 

 your sympathizing souls! every branch, and limb, and twig, — fresh and green as they were, — 

 were coated with excrescences, as is the bottom of an old ship with barnacles ; — some small and 

 round, like peas — some extending along a limb for several inches, and completely enveloping it 

 — some smooth and swelling, like a young boil — others cracking open, like an over-ripe nutmeg 

 melon; — the whole head looking as if it had the goitre, the kings-evil, the mumps, and the hy- 

 drocephalus, besides being badly effected with boils, carbuncles, pimples, and erysipelas, diver- 

 sified by a profuse scattering of warts and wens. This experience convinced us that there was 

 no worm in the case, unless it be a * worm in the tail ' o.f the tree. 



" But it is with Mr. Austin's Pear trees that we have now to do. The Pear plantations (500 

 trees) contain forty-five varieties of Pears, and of these fully one-half — about 800 — are of the 

 nine sorts following: — Louise Bonne de Jersey, Duchesse d" Angouleme, Beurre Diel, Urbaniste, Bart- 

 letf, Hear of Winkjield. Glout Morceau, Fosse C'olmar, and Easter Beurre. A few of these trees 



