JVotcs and Gleanings. 241 



Pear Growing in France. — So much has been said lately on the profit 

 of pear cuhure on standards and trained trees, that we think our readers will be 

 interested in what a correspondent of the English Journal of Horticulture says 

 on this question in France. He gives an account of a visit to the garden of 

 M. Chardin, an amateur, where he saw " pears, pears everywhere ; pears trained 

 in all sorts of ways — palmette, p)Tamid, upright cordon, oblique cordon, all are 

 there — on walls, on treUises, alongside of walks, trained over walks, forming 

 arbors, in fact, in every possible way that pears can be grown. They are grown 

 alongside of the walks ; about four feet from the path, iron trellises are run, some- 

 times reaching twelve or thirteen feet in height, and up these the pears are 

 trained ; then some shoots are allowed to lengthen, and are trained overhead. 

 It may be at once gathered from this that the garden is in a very sheltered posi- 

 tion. It has, moreover, a thorough pear soil, that rich, unctuous loam in which 

 the pear rejoices, so that M. Chardin has every advantage. Moreover, he is an 

 enthusiast ; his garden is his child ; it receives his first attentions in the morn- 

 ing, his last at night. At four and five A. M. he is in it, and is only driven 

 out by the darkness. For neatness, for beauty of training, and for general effect 

 in its own peculiar way, this garden is unique." 



He also visited the garden of M. Nallet, at Bronoy, where "the collection of 

 pears is very numerous, and the various systems of training are carried out in 

 great perfection. Perhaps the most interesting were the pyramids in the form of 

 a crinoline, where stout iron rods are used to give the shape, and the branches 

 are tied as they grow to the iron framework. This gives a greater current of air 

 and more light than when pyramids are grown in the ordinary method. The 

 palmette Verrier is a beautiful and favorite form of tree ; and from what I saw, 

 we might advantageously copy it either on trellises or walls. But after all, the 

 question which most concerns us is this : Does this system pay ? Do all the pains, 

 care, and skill bestowed on these trees return to their owner an adequate recom- 

 pense .'' Now, on this I have conclusive evidence. M. Nallet, when I asked 

 him this question, said, ' Decidedly not. If,' he said, ' I could grow only such 

 kinds as Doyenne d'Hiver (Easter Beurre), and Bergamotte Esperen, which 

 would come in late in the season, then they might ; but I cannot grow these, ex- 

 cept on the wall. When I send pears in early in the season, the market is so 



full that I get nothing for them.' And in talking to M. , in the Rue du 



Marche St. Honore, he distinctly said that the finest fruit that he had to sell did 

 not come from these highly-trained trees ; in fact, it is not the neighborhood of 

 Paris that supplies the fine fruit that we see in the fruiterers' shops in Paris, or that 

 come over to our own Coveiit Garden ; we must go farther south — to Tourraine 

 or Anjou. When I was at Angers some years ago, in the month of October, I 

 saw immense quantities of splendid fruit, which were being gathered for transport to 

 Germany, Russia, and even America ; and M. Leroy, I remember, told me some 

 astonishing statistics of the number of tons' weight of pears annually exported 

 from that part of France. There, with a brighter sun and more favored atmos- 

 phere, the finest varieties ripen on pyramids and bushes." 



The Kittatinny and Wilson's Early are advertised by a London nur- 

 sery as " new American blackberries, plants in pots." 



