182 Domestic Notices. 



than dailj' dribblings, which, in my opinion, do more harm llian good. 

 Were I so disposed, I have no doubt I could grow this Celery double the 

 size of that sent ; and to effect this I should prepare the plants as before 

 directed, excavate the trenches eighteen inches deep, and the same in 

 width, and fill them with a compost consisting of good turfy loam, peat, and 

 leaf-mould, or thoroughly decomposed cow-dung, in about equal quantities. 

 Very rich dung is not good for Celery, and strong manure-water should 

 also be avoided. To grow large Celery, it would be necessary to place 

 the plants eighteen inches apart in the row, and the ground should 

 be kept constantly stirred about the plants, taking great care, however, to 

 prevent the soil getting into the hearts of the plants during the operations. 

 In a late number of the "Journal of the Horticultural Society," I perceive 

 Mr. Errington attributes the coarse and bad quality of the large Celery 

 grown for market, to the luxuriance of its growth. Here, I venture to as- 

 sert, he is wrong. The bad quality of the Celery is attributable to the bad 

 kinds grown, as I am quite sure no person could grow this kind of Celery, 

 which has been named Cole's superb Red, so as to either make it either pipy 

 or stringy, or inferior in flavor. Late earthing has more to do with making 

 Celery stringy than any thing else, as it is quite certain, if the leaves of 

 Celery are exposed to full light and dry air for a length of time, the tissue 

 will become harder than if the leaves were grown in comparative darkness. 

 We need no stronger proof of this than the acrid flavor of the outer as 

 compared with the inner leaves of the same Celery, a fact demonstrating 

 that, if the leaves are exposed for a long time, they acquire an acrid flavor 

 which no blanching can wholly remove. For an early crop of Celery, I 

 sow in heat, early in January, and prick the plants out upon a slight hot- 

 bed ; for a second crop, in February, in heat, as before directed, and for a 

 late crop inMarch, in the open garden.— (Gart^. Chron., 1849, p. 23.) 



Art. II. Domestic Notices. 



Summer Pruning Dwarf Pear Tr'ees. — I have some fifty varieties of 

 Dwarf pear trees, and I have been in great doubt as to the best mode of pru- 

 ning them ; and, though I have read, with much pleasure and profit, the ar- 

 ticles which have been published in your Magazine on the subject, my doubts 

 have not been removed. Most of my trees have only been set one year, 

 and the others, but two. I have, therefore, but little experimental knowl- 

 edge on this subject. Last spring, I concluded to adopt the mode recommend- 

 ed by your correspondent, Carmichael, in his article published in the volume 

 of your Magazine for 1814 ; that of stopping the shoots, when about one foot 

 long, but I found that they would push again and again. In your remarks 

 upon Mr. Bissell's article, on page 551, of the last December number of 

 your Magazine, you say, that the side-shoots should be nipped off, to one or 

 two buds, and these shoots then become covered with fruit-buds. If I were 

 to nip mine so, I am sure that both buds would push : they did last sum- 

 mer, almost invariably, although left ten or eleven inches long. How can 

 these side -shoots become covered with fruit-buds, if both buds left push 1 But 



