Vol.Vnt.— No.7- 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



51 



vigorous growth. I should think this summer 

 pear, on account of its good quuMties and recent 

 origin, worthy of reconnnending to our nurserie 

 and the puhlic. It is in eating by the middle of 

 August, being a little sooner than the old kind, 

 which has been declining for some years, although 

 it has done better this season. 



This I'ear may with propriety be called the 

 Clapp Pear, from the proprietor, Ca])t. William 

 Clapp, who has raised it. 



The above description is taken from the fruit 

 plucked a day or two before ripe on the tree, and 

 softened in the house. 



NATIVE SEEDLING PEAR. 

 Mr Editor — In compliance with your request, 

 end you a description, with the outlines of the 

 pp Pear. The cut gives the correct outlines of 

 form and size. Since the pear was examined 

 the Hall of the Society, 15th August, I have 

 n some scions of the tree, which were grafted 

 .fear from last April; the growth was very 

 at, from five to seven feet in height, and from 

 r to five inches round : but notwithstanding the 

 id growth the last season, followed by so severe 

 inter, the whole of the scion remained unin- 

 d from the cold. The tree, at this early period 

 he season, is nearly leafless, and the leaves on 

 scions are turuhig yellow and commence fall- 



S. DOWNER. 

 Jorchester, Aug. 24, 1829. 



From ihe Gardener's .Magazine. 



On the Culture of the Sweet Potato, (Convolvulus 

 Batatas,) as practised in the neighborhood ofj^ttio 

 York. By 15. W. Strong, Esq. Comnninica- 

 ted by Messrs G. Thorburn and Son, Nursery- 

 men, New York. 



Sir — We subjoin a f«w remarks on the culti- 

 vatio.i of this plant, as communicated to us by a 

 friend on Long Island, B. W. Strong, Esq., a gen- 

 tleman who is unwearied in his exertions to im- 

 prove the quality of the vegetables cultivated for 

 the New York market. 



'• Good crops of sweet potatoes may be raised 

 in the neighborhood of New York, by a little at- 

 tention to the nature of the plants. Sweet pota- 

 toes are produced from the joints of the vine, and 

 not from tlie old potato. To make them fruitful, 

 these joints must be covered with earth, and the 

 potato forms there. Towards the end of Apiil, 

 make a hotbed of horse manure, about 18 inches 

 thick ; on the manure put 3 inches of earth ; on 

 this earth plant the seed potatoes 3 inches apart, 

 and cover them four inches deep with earth ; when 

 the sprouts they send up are 3 inches above the 

 ground, draw them out with the hand, and trans- 

 plant them (as you would cabbage plants) in soft, 

 warm, rich ground in rows, 4 feet apart, and put 

 the plants about one foot apart in the rows ; keep 

 them clear of weeds until the vines begin to cover 

 the ground, after which their leafy nature will 

 enable them to smother all weeds. If the hotbed 

 be made early in April, the early sprouts will be 

 ready for transplanting by the 10th of May; the 

 bed will continue to throw up a second and third 



jl Description of a Seedling Pear, reared by Capl. 

 Ij, yUliam Clapp, Dorchester, 



,11 Size, rather under medium ^ color, yellowish 'i^ggggion of sprouts, all of vvhich will afford good 

 en, with a little brown blush on the sunny side ; ! potatoes, if planted out any time before the end of 



n, long and bending over, set on the top, witi 

 tie rising round the bottom of the stem ; eye 

 )lossom end a little indented, and comnionsize ; 

 ), whitish, buttery andjuicy, hasa high aromatic 

 jsl or, and is a little musky, resembling very much 

 old fashioned August Catharines or " Kat- 

 s" in taste, but a little more sprightly ; form and 

 earance being however one quarter larger ; 

 e free from blast or black spots, and the brown 

 lot so deep a shade. The tree grows vigor- 

 y, branches upright, leaves dark green, rather 

 id and flat, and finely serrated ; color of the 

 d, brownish, with long thorn:; — The leaves 

 yellow and commence falling as the fruit ri- 

 , and in a short time the tree becomes nearly 

 ! of foliage. There is no doubt of this tree 

 g a seedling ; and I should judge from its re- 

 blance, that the Catharine above alluded to, 

 one of its parents. It cnrne up by chance 

 : the house, and has never been moved. It is 

 ien years old ; is thirty feet high, and seven 

 ^51 es in diameter ; has borne constantly for the 

 four or five seasons pretty full, considering its 



June. A hotbed 5 feet sipiare, with a half i)ecli 

 of sweet ])otatoes, produced last season a succes- 

 sion of sprouts which yielded 15 bushels of sweet 

 potatoes." 



The way the slips are preserved through the 

 winter, and which are procured by planting late, 

 (as is done for small onions to set out for an early 

 crop,) is thus : — They are taken up in the aulnnni 

 before severe frosts, and, as we have been told by 

 some of our Carolina friends, placed in a pit dug 

 in front of the kitchen hearth, and very carefully 

 buried in sand made perfectly dry. 



We cannot see why, with a little attention, the 

 sweet potato should not be grown with success in 

 the south of England. At all events, we think the 

 experiment worth making, and should they not 

 succeed to perfection, they wouhl no donht gratify 

 the eye with their luxuriant foliage, and beautiful 

 flowers. We remain. Sir, yours, &c. 



G. Thorburn and Son. 



JVeio York, April 16, 1829. 



The sweet potato is cultivated in several gar- 

 dens in the neighborhood of Paris with perfect 



success, and the tubers sold in the market, and in 

 the fruit shops. The best crops we raw were in 

 Admiral Tcliitchigofli''s garden at Sceaux. The 

 tubers are planted in February, or earlier or later 

 at pleasure, in the |)ine stove, or in a small hotbed ; 

 and the shoots they produce are taken ofl", and 

 planted a foot apart every way, on dung beds, 

 covered with 15 inches of earth, and |)rotected by 

 hoops and mats in the manner of ridged cucum- 

 bers. This may be done any time from April to 

 June, and the shoots are not dibbled in, but laid 

 down in drills about 3 inches deep, keeping 2 

 inches of liie point of the shoot above the earth. 

 Ik about two months after transplanting, some of 

 the tubers will be fit to take off for use, and the 

 plants will continue producing till they are de- 

 stroyed by frost. To jireserve the tubers through 

 the winter, the greatest care is required. In the 

 king's forcing-gardens at Versailles, they are kept 

 in a growing state all the winter in the ])ine stoves. 

 With the exception of this difficulty of preserving 

 the tubers through the winter, the sweet potato is 

 just as easily cultivated as the mealy potato. 

 Though the shoots are naturally ascending and 

 twining like those of Tamus communis, the plants 

 are not sticked, and therefore the shoots cover 

 the ground, and form over it a thick matting of 

 dark green smooth foliage. In the early ))art of 

 the season, the tubers are taken off as they attain 

 the size of early kidney potatoes ; later the whole 

 crop is dug up. If the sweet potato were once 

 fairly introduced into first rate gardens, we liave 

 no doubt it would form an article of regular cul- 

 ture there. 



Since writing the above, we observe, in the last 

 edition of the Boti Jardinier, that the sweet potato 

 is cultivated in the south of France, where the 

 shoots and leaves are reckoned excellent forage 

 tor cows and horses, and that some people eat 

 them as spinach. Directions are given for pre- 

 serving the tubers through the winter in layers in 

 a box of very dry sand, no one tuber touching 

 another; the box closed and surrounded by a good 

 thickness of straw, and the whole put in another 

 box, and jilaced under a heap of straw, so as to 

 prevent the tubers from undergoing any change 

 of temiieratme. — Conductor. 



The process of boring for water has been prac- 

 tised « ith great effect in Paris. Two sheets of 

 water have been ascertained to flow beneath the 

 Paris basin ; one between the chalk and the green 

 sand, the other at a greater depth. From the 

 last of these, the water is discharged at St. Ouen, 

 to the height of 10 or 12 feet, and the <]uantity 

 8656 gallons daily. The singular fact that wells 

 are affected by the tide is confirmed by observa- 

 tion on those above mentioned. — London Weekly 

 Review. 



Six yotnig Africans, from the most distant [larts 

 of Ethiopia, are now receiving education in Pa- 

 ris. — London Mas-. 



Hungarian Gardener^s Song. — " Oh, that I had 

 a large garden, well stocked with fruit ; a farm 

 well stocked with cattle ; and a young and beau- 

 tiful wife I" — Bucke's Beauties ofj^ature. 



Fruit. — Notwithstaniliiig the singular and 

 changeable weather in the early part of the season, 

 fruit of all kinds was never known to be so abund- 

 ant in New Orleans, as at this time — peaclieB, 

 plums, and figs, in particular. 



