24 PEARS, PEACH KS, ETC. 



might be raised, grown, and offered in quantities as cheap as 

 Portugal Laurels. 



If this tree looks grand in sequestered spots, will it not also 

 prove effective in masses or clumps in the garden, the shrubbery, 

 or the extensive park? There it would be at home, giving a mas- 

 siveness and boldness to the landscape. 



J II. — Pears, Peaches, etc., at Oulton Park, Tarporeey, 

 Cheshire. By Ptobert Errington, C.M.H.S., Gardener 

 to Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bt., F.H.S. 



(Communicated December 7th, 1852.) 



This has been the best season for Pears and Peaches I ever 

 knew ; they have been unusually abundant, of fine size, and 

 excellent in quality for a northern climate. There is one feature 

 in the autumn worthy of particular remark, and that is the 

 unusually protracted mildness of it, as compared with the majority 

 of autumns. Up to this period, December 4th, we have had in 

 the main what may fairly be termed September weather ; and no 

 doubt the average of the thermometer would range some 6° or 8° 

 over ordinary seasons. Now, if this be correct and Pears are 

 finer flavoured than usual, to what does it point but the propriety 

 of using a little artificial warmth, under ordinary autumnal condi- 

 tions, to promote those 'chemical changes in the fruit at that 

 critical period when nature intended them to ripen : for, doubt- 

 less, every fruit has one period more fitting than another. 



I, for one, have for years contended for a small artificially 

 warmed room, to ripen off and do justice to fruits ; and experience 

 only confirms the opinion. But my chief purpose in these 

 remarks is to point to a few useful practical facts which concern 

 every fruit-grower in the kingdom. 



It is now more than twenty years since I drew attention to the 

 propriety of shallow soils for tender fruit-trees, taking as the 

 basis of my recommendation the ripening of the wood, which 

 indeed constitutes in itself the only solid foundation for all prac- 

 tice. Since then I have had ample opportunities of confirming 

 the soundness of such views ; this year more than usual. I have 

 a flat table of Pears here, about thirty yards in length, which was 

 a perfect picture, and which produced some of the fiuest Pears in 



