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tfEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



very smooth and green till fully ripened, when it 

 assumes a most beautiful and clear straw color. 

 These three last named varieties are the best table 

 winter pears. 



The Vicar of Wink field is extensively cultivated, 

 for a new pear, but is not first rate in quality. 

 Yet it is large, handsome, a great bearer, holds to 

 the tree well, and is a late keeper. It is therefore 

 profitable. "We saw some of the most beautiful 

 specimens in this city this spring, picked from a 

 dwarf tree, that were selling from 20 to 50 cents 

 each. The shape of this pear is long and sym- 

 metrical, of a smooth greenish yellow, frequently 

 with a beautiful blush. Excellent for cooking, 

 sometimes fair for the table — more especially when 

 pears are scarce. 



Beurre Diel is a large autumn pear; turb urate, 

 russety yellow, coarse, melting and sugary, when 

 brought to perfection. Needs a warm location — 

 showy and sells well in market. 



The Belle Lucrative has received high com- 

 mendations since its introduction into this country, 

 and is said to have but fiw equals. The fruit is 

 of medical size, turbinate, pale yellowish green, 

 rather rough ; flesh white, fine, sweet and excel- 

 lent. A vigorous grower and good bearer on 

 quince or pear. Requires a warm sandy loam. 

 Sept. and Oct. (See engraving, vol. I. page 361. 



Fulton. — This is an American pear, raised in 

 Maine, and one of the best and most beautiful of 

 small fall pears — a little gem, which occupies the 

 same place among pears that the brilliant Fameuse 

 does among the apples. It is plump, uniformly of 

 cinnamon color, flesh white, juicy and rich. It 

 grows fair is a prodigious bearer, matures well, 

 and is admirably fitted for orchard culture. Last 

 autumn we saw a medium sized tree of this kind 

 in the garden of the late Capt. Manning, of Salem, 

 that was one brown mass of fruit. 



The Dix is a rather large and excellent native 

 pear, yellowish russet, with a blush, and keeps 

 late ; but very difficult to raise. As it bears late 

 on the pear stock, the quince is preferable. Samu- 

 el Walker, Esq., of Roxbury, says it will yet be as 

 popular as the Bartlett. The French cultivate 

 this Boston pear, and send us their trees. 



The Blood good is a fine, medial -sized early pear, 

 (Aug. into Sept.) and is generally preferred to the 

 Jargonelle by those who are acquainted with it. 



The above-named pears I consider valuable in 

 a large collection, and perhaps they embrace the 

 best for a smaller collection. There are many 

 other new varieties — both foreign and native — 

 which promise well, and would deserve notice, if 

 space permitted. Swan's Orange is extravagantly 

 praised by C. M. Hovey, Esq. ; and hardly a less 

 enconium was bestowed upon the Van Mons Leon 

 le Clerc by Mr. Walker, in 1847. But pears vary 

 in different years, and so, perhaps, do men's tastes. 

 That we have an excellent variety of them under 

 cultivation no one can deny ; nor can any one 

 wish to increase the list ; but, in the nature of 

 things, it will be increased, while some of its num- 

 ber will be discarded. 



rot. The seed can be had at most of our seed- 

 stores. — Germantown Telegraph. 



Carrots. — We hope our farmers will not let the 

 present season pass without putting in a quarter 

 or half acre of the Orange Carrot. We know of 

 no crop, occupying so small a space of the farm, or 

 demanding so little of the labor of the cultivator, 

 affording such valuable results, as that of the car- 



NUMBER OP PLANTS ON AN ACRE. 



The following table shows the number of plants 

 contained in an acre, planted at the several dis- 

 tances specified in the columns marked "feet 

 apart." For example, an acre will contain 10,890 

 corn-hills two feet apart ; 2,151 four and a half 

 apart, &c. These numbers are obtained by di- 

 viding 43,560, the number of square feet in an 

 acre, by the square of the number of feet the 

 plants are distant from each other ; thus — the 

 square of 2 is 4, and 43,560 divided by 4 gives 

 10,890, as above. If the plants be set in an ob- 

 long form, as five feet by six apart, multiply the 

 two distances together, and divide 43,560 by their 

 product, for the answer. When setting out trees, 

 farmers generally name the distance in yards. In 

 this case, divide 4840, the square yards in an acre, 

 by the square of distances apart, if they be equal, 

 or by their product if they be unequal, and the 

 quotient will be the number of trees in an acre. 

 For example : at 7 yards apart, an acre contains 

 98 trees ; for the square of 7 is 49, and 4840 di- 

 vided by 49 gives 98, the nearest whole number. 

 If the distances be 7 and 10, their product is 70, 

 and 4840 divided by 70 gives 69 trees. — Neicbern 

 Spectator. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE STRAWBERRY. 



Messrs. Editors : — I have been a constant read- 

 er of your paper from the commencement of its 

 publication in pamphlet form. As I have not seen 

 much on the strawberry culture in its pages, I will 

 write out some of my thoughts, and give you some 

 details of my experience in strawberry culture. 



Mr. Downing, in his book on fruit and fruit trees 

 of America, says, it occasionally happens from 

 carelessness, that only imperfect or half-sterile 

 plants of a sort are cultivated in some neighbor- 

 hood or in a whole county ; and this arises from 

 the fact that none but imperfect plants may have 

 been received by a person ordering a now sort. 

 In this case, either the sort may be rejected — per- 

 haps the better course — or resort must be hau to 

 other plants, having stamens in abundance, to grow 

 with it and fertilize it. Hence the fault found by 

 many persons with the poorness and unproductive- 

 ness of some celebrated sorts, which we all knew 

 were perfect in their blossoms at first ; they have 

 only received imperfect or sterile plants. He 

 says, if a bed has become entirely sterile, it is 

 better to destroy it, and get a fresh stock ; and 

 when this is obtained, to preserve it in a bearing 

 state, by selecting the runners only from perfect 

 plants. 



Mr. Longworth says that a plant, be it staminate 

 or pistillate, never changes its character by run- 



