1882.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



17 



ment that Glout Morceau is the same as Beurre 

 d'Arenberg, and gives it as but a synonym of the 

 latter name. Years ago this was discussed in 

 America, and the conclusion reached that they 

 were different fruits. Yet it is remarkable that 

 no one is able to give any separate history to the 

 Glout Morceau. It is said that Parmentier gave 

 it the name temporarily^, because the original 

 name was lost. 



Bees .\nd Grapes. — The honey bees, like many 

 other creatures, seem to profit by experience^ 

 and grow wise in their generations. Every year 

 there is increasing trouble in Germantown gar- 

 dens from the ravages of bees on grapes. We 

 never knew the fruit to be so badly injured as 

 last year by them. It may be that the very dry 

 season was unfavorable to clover, and other blos- 

 soms, and they were driven by necessity to feed 

 on the grape. But however this may be, we 

 fear they will not forget in the future how good 

 grapes are. To be sure, a bee only lives one 

 season, but we suppose an acquired habit is in 

 some degree hereditary. 



Curing the Yellows in the Peach. — There is 

 a prevalent belief that when a tree once has the 

 disease known as the Yellows, it can never be 

 cured. Yet we frequently read of apparently 

 well authenticated cases of cure. When these 

 are brought to the attention of practical men, 

 they shrug their shoulders and s.ay, "The tree 

 probably had yellow leaves from starvation, or 

 from injuries from the borer, and not the disease 

 known as the Yellows." Does any one know of 

 a case , recognized by those who know, as being 

 diseased, that ever recovered, either by being left 

 to nature or through any supposed treatment? 



Improved Cranberries. — Few fruits have 

 greater commercial importance than the Cran- 

 berry. Those who labor for improvement in 

 them deserve credit. Some varieties are better 

 able to resist unfavorable circumstances than 

 others. Some are earlier, some larger, and oth- 

 ers again more productive. There are many 

 fields in which improvements may be worked 

 out. Among varieties well spoken of, are " Ea- 

 ton's Bell" and "Mansfield Creeper." The 

 former ripens in Connecticut by the 5th of Sep- 

 tember. 



New Varieties of Fruit.— Mr. M. S. Combs, 

 in a paper read before the Kentucky Horticultu- 

 ral Society, asserts that it is far better to spend a 

 little pains in crossing, than to rely on chance 



seedlings for the improvement of the varieties of 

 fruit. 



Wearing Out op Soil.— Our farmers and 

 gardeners in the West who regard the soil worn 

 out after they have taken twenty years of crops 

 without manure, from them, must not lose heart. 

 An exchange says that around Shanghai in Chi- 

 na, the ground has been cropped for " countless 

 generations," and is as good or even better to- 

 day than it ever was. When nature has done 

 with the ground, art can recover it always. Man 

 is greater than nature when he sets himself to 

 work. 



Peach Yellows.— W. K. Higley contributes to 

 the Am. Naturalists paper on the scientific study 

 of the disease known as the "Yellows," in the 

 peach. His conclusions, however, do not seem 

 to have any direct connection with his experi- 

 ments. '' Care must be exercised in cultivation, 

 pruning, &c.," and the yellows come ''from a 

 lack of phosphoric acid and potash." Just what 

 this " care " is to be ; what kind of " cultivation " 

 is to be practiced ; how the " pruning " is to be 

 done ; or what the ''e< cetera " is to cover, is not 

 quite clear, and it is just possible, though this 

 paper appears as a contribution to science in an 

 able scientific serial, that the author does not 

 quite know himself what he means. Certainly 

 we do not. 



Henderson on Delusions.— Few men keep 

 doing so much for horticulture as Mr. Peter 

 Henderson does, by his shrewd, practical com- 

 mon sense. He may sometimes get wrong, but 

 he is generally right, and always does good. In 

 a recent paper on " Delusions," he shows up the 

 notion that plants in sleeping rooms are inju- 

 rious ; that money is to be made from the busi- 

 ness without practical knowledge of the business ; 

 that there is much special virtue in special 

 manures for special crops; that plants take more 

 nitrogen from insects than they can get from the 

 atmosphere in the ordinary way; that the pro- 

 duction of variegated leaves by inoculation is a 

 proof of the truth of graft-hybridism, and some 

 other notions of similar character. Let us hope 

 that Mr. Henderson will keep at it. There is 

 plenty of such work to be done yet. 



The Keiffer Pear. — We are watching with 

 some interest the behavior of this interesting 

 hybrid, as it comes into bearing in other than its 

 original locality. The editor of the Germantown 

 Telegraph reports on some which he has had this 

 season, and which he reports favorably, as to 



