Notes and Gleanings. 87 



Report of the Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society. — This pam- 

 phlet contains the proceedings for 1867, '68, '69, and '70. The address of Presi- 

 dent Hoopes at the meeting of 1870 is of great interest, comprising a sketch of 

 the history of the society, remarks on sterility in fruits, on experiments with 

 pollen, on the essential organs of plants, on fungi and their structure and uses, 

 on fungoid diseases and their remedies, and on the fruits of California. At the 

 same meeting, an address on pruning, with reference to fruit production, was 

 dehvered by William Saunders, who advised to prune closely when planting, and 

 the next fall to cut back so as to establish a proper spread of branches, after 

 which all pruning should be dispensed with, except to remove branches which 

 crowded others. Mr. Meehan gave an address on fruit culture, and Mr. Jacob 

 Stauffer a paper on pear trees. Mr. S. S. Rathvon read an essay on injurious 

 insects, which is illustrated with two excellent lithographic plates. We are in- 

 debted to President Hoopes for a copy of this interesting book, and regret that we 

 were unable to accept his kind invitation to attend the meeting the present year. 



The Southern Almanac, issued for subscribers to the Rural Carolinian, 

 Charleston, S. C, contains a calendar of garden and plantation work for every 

 month in the year. The gardener's work for March is to " Plant bush squash, 

 pumpkins, water and musk melons, okra, Guinea squash, or egg-plant, sugar 

 beets, carrots, beans, peas, radishes, lettuce, corn, celery (first crop), tanyah, and 

 mangoes in the low ground, and elsewhere as soon as danger from frost is over. 

 The vegetables in season there in March are ground artichoke, lettuce, spinach, 

 asparagus, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, salsify." 



The Report of the Department of Agriculture for 1869 is received, 

 and shows a continued improvement over former reports. Among the most in- 

 teresting papers contained in it is the report of our correspondent, William 

 Saunders, superintendent of the garden, in which he gives, besides other infor- 

 mation, a classification of the varieties of grapes, with engravings showing the 

 different species ; a paper on apples for the Southern States, with engravings of 

 many kinds ; remarks on pear culture, on the cranberry interest, on tea culture 

 in the United States ; a paper on the progress of industrial education ; and 

 notices of the more prominent agricultural and horticultural books of the year, 

 etc. Probably this is the most widely circulated agricultural work in the coun- 

 try, 225,000 copies being printed by order of Congress ; and it is matter for con- 

 gratulation that the department is now under the control of a commissioner who 

 sends out a report worthy of circulation, 



A Big Pear. — The largest pear we have ever seen is a specimen of the 

 Uvedale's St. Germain, or Pound, known also as Belle Angevine, exhibited at 

 the rooms of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society by Hon. Marshall P. Wil- 

 der. It was grown in the orchard of A. P. Smith, Esq., at Sacramento, Cal., 

 and weighed four pounds and nine ounces, measuring twenty-one inches around 

 the stem and eye, and eighteen inches transversely. It has been preserved in 

 alcohol. 



