ne 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[JUNB, 



[We thought that it was well settled by the 

 letters of Mr. Hance and others in our columns, 

 that the wild goose plum was not a round plum, 

 but an oblong or oval one. So clear did we all 

 think this that Mr. Hance even went so far as to 

 deprecate the Rochester firm that sent him the 

 illustration representing it as " round " and an 

 "inch and a half or two inches in diameter." 

 Now Mr. Transou, whom we should look on as 

 among the best authorities on a question of this 

 kind, takes us back to that identical thing! All 

 wc can say is that perhaps after a while we shall 

 see what we shall see. — Ed. G. M.] 



QUERIES. 



Natural Peach Stones. — A correspondent 

 from South-eastern Tennessee confirms our re- 

 mark in regard to the rareness oitrue "natural" 

 stones in market, — and says that though three- 

 fourths of the peach trees of that section are 

 seedlings, there is no trade in the stones. Some 

 are dried, but for the most part hogs are turned 

 into the orchards, and "Sambo with a long pole 

 beats off the fruit, while piggic picks it up." He 

 thinks it strange they should still plant these 

 things, fine grafted fruit, bringing two dollars and 

 a half a bushel, while the " natural " bring only 

 from fifty to seventy-five cents, — and all within 

 a few days of the appearance of each in market. 

 We should be glad to know from our corres- 

 pondent if these seedlings have always very 

 small seed, all of an uniform size, — or whether 

 there are large and small ones, — various sizes — 

 as we should suppose. We should suppose that 

 those who intended to depend on seedlings', 

 would at least save from the largest and best, 

 and these would give stones of a fair average 

 size. What we have seen as " naturals " were of 



small size, and we are almost sure were early 

 York or small fruited peaches of some kind. 



American Apples in England. — We are very 

 much indebted to Mr. Robinson, for the follow- 

 ing correction. 



" There is a mistake in the Monthly as regards 

 what I said of the fine^ collection of American 

 apples sent us by Messrs Ellwanger & Barry. I 

 did not say that Talman's sweet had the finest 

 flavor of all. I described it as very sweet, but a 

 great many sweet things are verj* sickly too, and 

 I should much prefer a French Crab to any of 

 those 'sweet' apples. It was among the so- 

 called ' sour ' apples that we found the high 

 pine-apple-like and delicious flavor, that makes 

 a good American apple one of the finest fruits 

 ever ripened by the sun. 



" I fancy America is destined to supply the 

 world with good apples. If you now send them 

 in quantity to us, who are supposed to grow 

 good apples, and from whom you originally 

 obtained your parent kinds, you ought in the 

 future to send them in greater numbers to coun- 

 tries where the apple does not gi-ow well, or is 

 badly cultivated. Only tell them not to put all 

 the little and bad Newtowns in the middle of the 

 barrel. There was a good deal of grumbling 

 about this during the late apple season in Covent 

 Garden. The practice most hurts the packer 

 and his fellows in the end." 



Small fruits. — A. B. C. The article did not 

 appear, because, while there were here and there 

 an item that might interest some people, — on 

 the whole it was a bare-faced advertisement. 

 We might have selected the news, and let the 

 other go, only for the request to "publish a3 

 written." We regard it as an injustice to those 

 who pay honestly for their advertising, to allow 

 another to get in a free advertisement under the 

 guise of an "article." 



:ORESTRY. 



C0M31UN1CATI0ISS. nial Commission of this State is alive to the 



THE FOREST t'^ES OF DELAWARE. ' advantage of having one of the most important 



I resources ot Delaware x^i'opcrly displayed at the 



BY w. M. CANBY, WILMINGTON, UEL. ) approaching exhibition. I allude to the state- 



A brief item in the Wilmington Covimerdal\mcr\i that Col. H. B. Fiddeman has found that 



shows, that at least one member of the Centen- 1 we have " twenty-nine varieties" of native trees, 



