1855. 



NEW EXGL.\ND FARMER. 



561 



are filled to the top, the lid is closed and locked, and 

 the boxes are ready for shipment. 



The season lasts about six weeks, and this period 

 is one continual round of business, the berries being 

 sent off to New York every night except Saturday, 

 (there being no sale for them on Sunday.) 



The berries were all picked about six o'clock, and 

 after supper they were conveyed to the landing, the 

 baskets making two very heavy horse loads, and as 

 near as we could calculate, the steamboat took off 

 about 6(),00() baskets that night, making about 20 

 tons of berries, exclusive of the weight of boxes and 

 baskets. 



The baskets arc imported from 

 France by hundreds of thousands eve- 

 ry year, and although such quantities 

 are manufactured every year, the sup- 

 ply is inadequate to the demand, the 

 latter exceecfing the former by about 

 one-half. 



The culture of the plants requires 

 the ser\-ices of a large number of peo- 

 ple. 



The pickers constitute a small ar- 

 my, there being from five to ten, and 

 often more required for each acre, ac- 

 cording to the time in the season, 

 which was at its height this year about 

 the second week in July. 



The jmanufacture of the boxes in 

 which the baskets of berries are pack- 

 ed is no small item, and the steam- 

 boats that carry this extra freight are 

 obliged to emj^loy extra men to han- 

 dle it. 



This business, though at first view 

 it seems small, gives employment to, 

 and distributes its gains among thou- 

 sands of persons. 



From the Milton landing, the av- 

 erage daily export is 10,000 baskets, 

 and the retail price in New York av- 

 erages about ten cents per basket ; 

 thus the product of 100 acres amounts 

 to $1,000 per day, or .$42,000 per 

 season. "VVe call to mind no other 

 croj) which produces as much per acre, or which 

 gives employment to so many. 



THE ROSTIEZER PEAR. 



AVe are hajjpy to acknowledge our obligations to 

 Ja:mes IIypi-: & Sox, of Ne\rton Centre, for the 

 fruit from which our engraving was sketched. — 

 When Downing wrote of it in 1845, it had not been 

 sufficiently ])roved to enable him to speak confident- 

 ly of its merits ; but we believe the Messrs. Hyue, 

 and other cultivators, have found it to be an excel- 

 lent variety. It is a German pear, and was received 

 from the nursery of the brothers Baumann, of Eal- 

 willer, on the Rhine. 



Bulbous Roots. — The Magazine of Horticul- 

 ture says, what is in com mon language termed a 

 bulbous root is by Linnaeus termed the Hybernacle, 

 or Winter Lodge of the young plant. These bulbs, 

 in every resjject, resemble buds, except in being 

 produced under ground, and include the leaves and 

 fiower in miniatiu'e, which are to be expanded in 

 the ensuing sj)riiig. By cautiously cutting, in the 

 early spring, tlu'ougli the concentric coats of a tuli]j 

 root, longitudinally from the top to the base, and 

 talking them oiT successively, the whole fiower of 

 the next summer's tulip is lieautifuUy seen by the 

 naked eye, with its petals, pistil and stamens ; the 

 flowers exist in otlier ])ulbs, in the same manner, 

 but the individual flowers of others being less, they 

 are not so easily dissected, or so conspicuous to the 

 naked eye. In the buds of the Daphne Mezeron, 

 and in those of the Hcpatica, and at the base of the 

 Osmunda lunaria, a perfect plant of the future year 

 may be found, complete in all its parts. 



It bears abundantly. Fruit of medium size, ob-< 

 long-pyriform. Skin a dull yellowish green, with a 

 reddish-brown cheek, and whitish dots, light russet. 

 Stalk veiy long, nearly two inches, irregular, slen- 

 der, set ^vith very little depression. Calyx ojjen, 

 but little sunk. I'lesh juicy, a little coarse, but 

 very melting, sweet and delicious, with a rich per- 

 fume. August and September. 



AGRICULTURE THE PROPER CALLING. 



A most sensible writer in tlie Coitntnj Gentle- 

 man sa} s : 



All other pursuits are jiroper in there places, but 

 when carried to too great an extent, produce ])over- 

 ty, distress, and misery. The more agriculture is 

 jiursucd, the greater is the benefit to the human 

 race. Here is a field for the ])hilanthropist. Es- 

 tablish agriculture ui)ou a good liasis — the basis of 

 intelligence — and you will do much to clase M'hat 

 are now flood-gates of misery to society. Our city 

 poor, our merchant clerlvs, our emigrant-poor, and 

 our country poor, all call for relief; and here alone 



