154 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



them in the ground at the time of sowing, and thus avoid 

 the risk of disturbing the plants after they are up." 



"A fork with five flat tines is better than a spade for 

 most garden purposes. It breaks up the soil equally well 

 and with less labor. Among trees, it is greatly to be pre- 

 ferred to the spade, as it does not cut off the roots. 

 Grapes especially are often injured by spading the ground, 

 «ven at a considerable distance from the vines. Few peo- 

 ple have any idea how far the roots of the vines extend— 

 or, for matter of that, of any other plant or tree. If cut 

 off at this season, the roots of the grape will bleed as 

 profusely as the canes. The Dutch hoe or scuffle and the 

 digging fork should be more generally introduced into 

 American gardens." 



"But, excuse me, the sun is coming out, and I must go 

 and cover over the glass of the hot-bed, and give a little 

 more air." 



FLOWERING OF THE COCO-NUT PALM. 



A vert great aud wholly unexpected event, says the 

 ■Gardeners' Chronicle, has occurred in English horticul- 

 ture. The Coco-nut Palm has flowered. At Syon, where 

 so many fine things have been produced which no other 

 garden has seen, where the almost uncultivatable Man- 

 gosteen has ripened its fruit in perfection, this the most 

 valuable of all the products of the vegetable world pro- 

 vided by an all bountiful Providence for the support of 

 man, has expanded its flowers. Not however on that 

 lofty Palm tree which Rcmphius called the Arbor Calap- 

 pus sive Cocbifera altissima, but on a specimen of the 

 pigmy breed from the neighborhood of Galle, in Ceylon. 

 The trunk of the Palm at Syon is not, we should say 

 above two feet high, and it is from among the magnificent 

 leaves that form a bright green plume of unrivalled 

 stateliness that the yellow blossoms have sprouted out. 

 It must be highly gratifying to the noble Duke in whose 

 celebrated garden this success has been achieved, to find 

 that he alone in Europe is the possessor of so rare a 



specimen. 



AMERICAN APPLES FOR ENGLAND. 



A P0M0LOGICAL MAP. 



Walter Elder, who visited Great Britain last year, 

 furnishes the Farmer and Gardener some interesting ob- 

 servations on the agriculture of that country. We copy 

 what he says about raising apples for the English market. 



Apples all over Great Britain are far inferior to ours. 

 If numbers of farmers near to railway stations or steam- 

 boat lauding were to plant ten or twenty acres each with 

 apple trees, and give them good culture, for the sole pur- 

 pose of exporting them to Great Britain, it would be the 

 most lucrative speculation they could enter into. They 

 could be landed in Liverpool, in a fortnight after they 

 were picked from the trees, and in twenty-four hours 

 more they would be transported to any part of the 

 United' Kingdom. Agencies could be made in our princi- 

 pal cities and in Liverpool, so that farmers would get 

 ready cash for them as easily as they now get it for their 

 grain. Indeed, if the thing were fairly begun, merchants 

 would go and buy them upon the trees aud take them 

 away. 



Hedges. — A correspondent of the London Farmer's 

 Magazine says one of the great errors in planting hedges 

 is the neglect of the subsoil. No matter how well the 

 surface is prepared and the weeds kept, out, if the subsoil 

 is not right, the hedge can not be durable. 



Mr. William Ingham, a correspondent of the London 

 Florist, in a short article ou the influence of soil and 

 climate on pears, which he says are more susceptible to 

 these influences than any other fruit, suggests that a Po- 

 mological Map of Great Britain should be formed, so that 

 persons desiring to plant fruit trees may readily obtain 

 information to guide them in the selection of varieties 

 suitable for the section of country in which they reside. 

 This would be fully as useful with us as in England. In- 

 deed, even more so ; for our country is still more variable 

 as to soil and climate. 



The complaint is often made that it is impossible to 

 succeed in pear-culture, and undoubtedly one reason is 

 that in purchasing trees no allowance is made for the 

 peculiarities of the locality, where they are recommended, 

 in transplanting them to other places. Mr. Ingram men- 

 tions two places, onl}' twenty-five miles distant, where 

 the pears which in one are excellent, in the other are 

 utterly worthless — scarcely one variety being equally 

 good in both. Most fruit-growers know that they have 

 often, in reading a list of fruits recommended by some 

 local society, been astonished to find the names of pears 

 which they had tried and knew to be tasteless and in 

 every way poor, connected with such adjectives as 

 " sweet, juicy, melting, aromatic, delicious;" and among 

 the condemned list to find their favorites. 



For nurserymen more accurate information on this sub- 

 ject would be invaluable, and would relieve them from 

 much of the opprobrium which is now cast upon them by 

 those whose trees prove a failure. There is so much in- 

 terest now in pomology that it would not be difficult for 

 the American Pomological Society to gather the necessary 

 information for such a map as Mr. Ingram suggests, if all 

 the local societies would do tbejr part in collecting aud 

 arranging the observations of experienced fruitgrowers 

 in their neighborhoods. Horticulturists are proverbially 

 liberal in imparting information, and no one at all in- 

 terested in the subject would hesitate to take the trouble 

 to make the necessary record to promote this object. 



Duchesse d'hiver, or Tardive de Toulouse Pear. — 

 This new pear, an article or. which, from the Iievue Hor- 

 tieole, we gave in the July number of the Genesee Farmer 

 last year, has borne the test of another season with great 

 success, and appears destined to become a popular and 

 useful fruit. A late number of the journal above men- 

 tioned publishes a colored plate of it. The specimen 

 which is there represented is about four and a half inches 

 in diameter, both transversely and longitudinally, being 

 nearly spherical. "The grained skin of a clear green, 

 sprinkled with fawn colored dots, is orange red in the 

 sun, and at maturity takes a general color of pale yel- 

 low." A winter pear having the qualities ascribed to this 

 one, must be of great value, and we hope that next year 

 it will be introduced into this countrv. 



Low-Headed Trees. — The IllinoiD Farmer says': "The 

 system of low heads is bound to win, as one after another 

 gives in his adhesion to it. It is certain that with high 

 heads, the fruit crop is not only tardy, but uncertain ; 

 with low heads, we can not be any worse off, and may be 

 much better. Let us give it a thorough trial." 



