156 JSdltorial JVotcs. 



Winter I'eur.t. 



The subject of Winter Pears we think will bear much fuller discussions in our 

 horticultural meetings than it has done. We arc not perfectly satisfied that the ne 

 plus ultra has yet been discovered, although we have now some most admirable sorts. 

 The Beui-re d'Anjou seems to us to have one fault, it is not productive enough. 

 Wherever we go we make close inquiries, and find one general remark, " it does not 

 come up to expectations." In all else it is fine, and brings high prices. The 

 Lawrence is best yet of all late sorts, but it is long in coming into bearing. The 

 Mount Vernon is desirable, but we do not know enough about its bearing qualities. 

 Even the Beurre Bosc is a better bearer than the d'Anjou, and yet it is not late 

 enough. The Winter Nelis does not grow everywhere. The Josephine de Malines, 

 and the Doyenne d'Alencon, we believe are much superior. A recent article by 

 John J. Thomas, in the Country Gentleman, gives some hints aliout their varieties. 

 Very much depends on the manner in which these fruits are kept, and the fitness 

 of the apartments for storing them. Keep the specimens in as cool a place as 

 possible after they are gathered, and before they are placed in the cellar. A cool 

 out-house, or a suitable apartment in a carriage house, fronting the north, answers a 

 good purpose. A fruit room built above ground on purpose, is best where there are 

 large quantities to be stored ; or in the absence of this building, an apartment may be 

 divided off by double boarding in some other building, and covering the boxes in 

 which the fruit is packed with chaff or fine straw. This protection will often be 

 sufficient until the time has far advanced into December; and there will be no 

 danger till intensely cold weather sets in, and it will be some days before the frost 

 can pass the barrier of double partitions and the thick stratum of chafi". After they 

 go to the cellar, keep the apartment well ventilated and regulated to a low tem- 

 perature above freezing by a thermometer. 



We have mentioned the Anjou as the best early winter pear. If kept in a warm 

 apartment, it will ripen in autumn, even as early as the first of October; but by 

 keeping cool, according to the mode just mentioned, they may be had even as late as 

 the first of the year. There will be some variation in different seasons. We have 

 known the Winter Nelis to ripen fully in November, when the autumn had been 

 warm, but the period was retarded some weeks by keeping the pears in a cool place- 

 After the Anjou, Winter Nelis and Lawrence, the Josephine de Malines is the 

 best, ripening in January, and keeping till February. Doyenne d'Alencon ripens 

 about the same time, but is not quite so good in quality. It is, however, a hardy 

 tree and good bearer, and is on the whole a desirable sort. The Easter Beurre, 

 when it matures well, will keep into April, and ripen into a delicious fruit, but on 

 the whole it is rather an uncertain sort. Josephine de Malines is poor in some 

 places, but is mostly delicious and excellent. It grows well on quince. 



We should not omit the name of the Vicar of Winkfield as an early or mid-winter 

 pear of value. It is a free grower and a prodigious bearer — the fruit large and fair. 

 It is occassionally, when well grown and ripened, of good quality for the table, being 

 pleasant and agreeable, although not rich ; but its chief value is for baking and 

 stewing. The principal reason why the fruit is so often poor is that it is allowed to 

 overbear. 



Carbolic Sonji for Tnsects. 



Mr. Fuller has also experimented a little with this article in killing insects upon 

 greenhouse plants, particularly the green fly (Aphis), which, as everybody knows, is 

 a great pest, and one not readily destroyed, except by fumigating with tobacco — not 

 a very agreeable operation to perform upon parlor plants or in a conservatory 

 attached to a dwelling. My first experiment with this soap was a decided success, 

 operating upon two hundred roses just in bloom, and it was conducted as follows: 

 Into a pail of warm water I put a lump of soap the size of a small hen's egg. The 

 soap was cut up into small pieces and the water agitated until it was all dissolved, 

 forming a warm suds. The water should not be too hot, but if not above 120° or 



