No. 12. 



The Chaumontelle Pear. 



365 



cnmstances. It will sometimes, therefore, 

 be greater, and sometimes less than is above 

 stated. It may be received as a rule — not 

 without exceptions perhaps, yet still as a 

 general rule — that whatever causes an in- 

 creased produce above ground, will cause a 

 corresponding increase in the growth of 

 roots. Thus nitrate of soda, which gives 

 us a larger yield of hay, makes the roots 

 also stronger and deeper, and the sward 

 tougher and more difficult to plough. Hence 

 it is, that the farmer is anxious that his clo- 

 ver crop should succeed, not merely for the 

 increased amount of green food or of hay it 

 will give him, but because it will secure him 

 also a better after crop of corn. 



This burying of recent vegetable matter 

 in the soil, in the form of living and dead 

 roots of plants, is one of those important 

 ameliorating operations of nature, which are 

 always to some extent going on, wherever 

 vegetation proceeds. It is one by which the 

 practical man is often benefited unawares, 

 and of which — too often, without understand- 

 ing the source from whence the advantage 

 comes — he systematically avails himself in 

 some of the most skilful steps he takes, with 

 a view to the improvement of his land. — 

 Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



The Chaumontelle Pear. 



In the Massachusetts Ploughman, the 

 Hon. B. V. French, makes mention of the 

 Chaumontelle pear, being "an indifferent 

 fruit on a gravel soil, but on a rich, moist 

 soil, it has sometimes grown delicious." 

 Now here is convincing evidence that much 

 indeed depends on climate, soil and situa- 

 tion, for this variety of the pear, in France, 

 and particularly in the island of Jersey — 

 where it is said to rain 365 times a year, is 

 acknowledged to be the very finest of all 

 the tribe, the best bearer, the most valuable 

 at market, and withal so delicate, that they 

 will not bear their own weight in transporta- 

 tion, without crushing. It is customary to 

 send from Jersey great quantities of this de- 

 licious fruit, to England and elsewhere, and 

 the mode they adopt to fix the price per pear, 

 is curious: they have a board with different 

 sized holes through it, each hole being 

 marked with the price at which the pear — 

 which will fill it in passing through, shall 

 be charged in the market; the largest bring- 

 ing twenty-five cents each, by the hundred, 

 and that readily. They have also a singu- 

 lar mode of packing them for exportation : a 

 flat box is prepared with a number of small 

 hooks driven into the inside of the cover ; to 

 these the pears are tied by their stems sin- 



gly, so they swing with the motion of car- 

 riage, free of each other: they would crush 

 with their own weight, were they to lie on 

 their sides. 



It is customary for the military governor 

 of the island, to send every year, a hand- 

 some present of these pears to the royal 

 family: one year they were late in ripening, 

 when the governor received a note from the 

 princesses, the daughters of George the III., 

 saying they had not forgotten The annual 

 tribute, and hoped that he would remem- 

 ber it. 



My wish in this communication is, to as- 

 certain if any of the readers of the Cabinet, 

 have this delicious pear in cultivation, and 

 if grafts could be obtained another year? I 

 have an idea that they might be made to 

 flourish and bear " delicious fruit" always, 

 in some portion of our fine country — possi- 

 bly on the other side of the Alleghaneys, or 

 even amongst us on the seaboard, if a "moist 

 rich soil," prepared too, by excavating the 

 subsoil, and partially filling with stones: — 

 (the island of Jersey is of primary formation, 

 a solid rock of granite,) and perhaps adding 

 a pavement of the same around their trunks, 

 according to the mode adopted by Mr. Jabez 

 Jenkins, of West Whiteland. In conclu- 

 sion, I would ask, with all due deference, 

 do we not cultivate a greater variety of 

 fruits than is necessary, or even profitable? 

 In our catalogues of trees for sale, we often 

 find great numbers advertised, of secondary, 

 and even of inferior quality, admitted even 

 so, by the cultivators themselves; and for 

 what earthly purpose, no one can tell : for 

 the best must be the best, and there is an 

 abundant number of those, sufficient to sat- 

 isfy the most fastidious, as well as to suit all 

 soils, and climates, and situations. In the 

 peach, this rage for variety has been carried 

 to excess, as we see in the great quantity of" 

 inferior fruit that is brought to market in 

 kindly seasons. It is asserted, that at a sin- 

 gle horticultural establishment, there are no- 

 less than 2165 different varieties of fruit, 

 viz. : 910 apples, 510 pears, 160 plums, 60' 

 cherries, 30 peaches, 20 nectarines, 14 apri- 

 cots, 115 grapes, 50 figs, 24 nuts, 230 goose- 

 berries, 10 currants, 8 raspberries, and 24 

 strawberries. Would it be uncharitable to 

 suppose that two-thirds of this number must 

 be worthless? C. W. 



Mr. Scott, of South Carolina, has suc- 

 ceeded in engrafting the lilac on the ash ;. 

 this is done in France with perfect success, 

 and nothing can be more beautiful than the- 

 drooping ash, hung with the elegant flowers, 

 of the lilac. 



