^?s 



EDITOK'S TABLE. 353 



And now, for the great point of worth, and the wonder of all — except my first favorite, the 

 Mammoth, which is a poor bearer, and possibly two or three others, not j^et before the public — 

 all of these thirty or forty seedlings are the most prolific of Cherries, beating the old sorts out of 

 all corapariison, in many instances, and beating them sufficiently in every case. The limbs were 

 literally massed with fruit — and such fruit ! Oh ! you should have been there, friend Barry, for 

 — although you are not in the habit of going ofif in ecstasies over every new thing — you are 

 capable of appreciating excellence, and giving others just and sensible notions of the worthies of 

 the day — among which I am inclined to rank the Kirtland Cherries pretty near the head of the 

 list in pomology. I feel grateful to friend Elliott for the chance of seeing (and eating to reple- 

 tion) these delieous productions of the West, and I assure him — as I now do you — that should 

 his forthcoming book not go beyond the Cuerrles, even, it can not fail of interestiug pomologists, 



the Union over. 



♦ 



Satixg Seeds— Vitality of Seeds, &c. — A horticultural friend in Canada writes us a 

 pleasant letter, from which we extract the foEowing hints. They may be useful to some one. 



"The early part of my life was passed in wandering about the earth. My boyhood was 

 devoted to the military profession, under the ' Iron Duke,' in Spain and France, and you know 

 the old English observation — ' if a lad has no brains, put him into the army.' However, about 

 1826 I retired on half-pay, domiciled on the banks of the Detroit, and took, by way of passing 

 time, to gardening and fruit-growing, of which I knew about as much as the babe just born. 

 I found it necesary, therefore, to keep a journal and register the results of my blunders as a 

 warning ; they do afford me amusement sometimes. I had been for years in the habit of selecting 

 my seed — that is, for instance : I have, during that period, never sown a pea that was the produce 

 of a pod containing less than six or seven in it. By this means I have, as I think, improved 

 them. I reserve the most promising rows for seed the ensuing year, and pick off for eating all 

 pods that seem defective in number from these rows ; of course, this would be too much work 

 except for a garden. From carrots, parsnips, <fcc., when put out for seed, I pinch off all side 

 blossoms, leaving only those on the main stem, abstractmg even from these last the side blossoms, 

 and, in my opinion, the seed is very much improved. 



The vitality of seed I find of greater duration than is usually supposed ; but then, it must be 

 saved with some degi-ee of care. To prevent any mistake, I always label the year in which the 

 seed is gathered. On referring to my book, I observe that I sowed in 1851 double curled Ptrsley 

 and Asparagus Beans, the produce of 1845 ; and on the 24th of May, 1850, yellow turnip Eadish 

 of 1839. On the 25th of August, 1851, I sowed black Spanish Radish seed gathered in 1838. 

 On the 30th of the same month these Radishes appeared above ground, and there is this observa- 

 tion in the margin: 'The Radishes of 1838 grew very welL' This season was very dry, but the 

 Radishes were watered." C. R — Sandwich, county of Essex, C. W, 



A DE-STErcTivE IxsECT. — ^We find in all the eastern journals accounts of a caterpillar, 

 or worm, that has rarely before made its appearance. It is much more destructive and 

 difficult to destroy than the common caterpillar. A correspondent of the Trihiine^ writing 

 from Maine, says : 



"Feai-s are entertained that the crop of apples, and other fruit which ripens late in the summer 

 and in the autumn, will be entirely cut off, from the ravages of bugs and caterpillars of an entirely 

 new kind. These caterpillai-s infest fruit trees, and even forest trees in swarms, feeding upon the 

 leaves, and in some instances almost riddling the trees of the leaves, which must injure them very 

 much, if it does not destroy them. I have inquired of the farmers here about these caterpillars, 

 and no one has ever seen anything of the kind, though perhaps others have. Eacli caterpillar, 

 unlike those commonly infesting Apple trees, attacks a leaf by himself; and when the 

 struck, they will suddenly drop two or three feet from every part of the tree in thousands, 



