Notes and Gleanings. 279 



Downing's Selected Fruits for the Garden and Market. — We 

 have received the promised abridgment of Mr. Downing's " Fruits and Fruit 

 Trees of America," in a neat duodecimo volume, of less than seven hundred 

 pages, in place of the bulky octavo of more than eleven hundred. The selec- 

 tion of apples comprises about two hundred kinds ; cherries, fortj^-three ; foreign 

 grapes, twenty-nine ; native grapes, thirty-eight ; jseaches, fifty-five ; pears, one 

 hundred and forty-three; and plums, forty-nine — enough, it would seem, to 

 ai^brd sufficient variety to the most ardent lovers of that " spice of life." Yet 

 of these fruits alone, to say nothing of the currants, strawberries, raspberries, 

 etc., the number omi'.ted from the larger work is more than three thousand. Of 

 the new fruits added, we can only speak with precision of the pears, which we 

 have carefully compared with the larger work, and find only three, viz., the Eas- 

 tern Belle, Petite Marguerite, and Sam Brown ; and we suppose that Mr. Down- 

 ing has been as cautious in adding to the other fruits. Doubtless other new 

 fruits might have been found as good as some of those included, but it must be 

 remembered that it is much easier to exclude new ones which fail to come up to 

 the highest standard than those which have already gained a place ; and readers 

 who think the selection might have been still further condensed, should also bear 

 in mind that it is infinitely more difficult to make a selection than a collection. 

 The volume is illustrated with a large additional number of outlines of fruits, 

 which greatly increase its value, all the apples, pears, and plums, and many of 

 the cherries and native grapes, being thus illustrated. The directions for culti- 

 vation, etc., so far as we have observed, remain unchanged. 



The Grape Crop in the West is so large this season, that the price ob- 

 tained for grajjes when put upon the market hardly pays the cost of picking, 

 packing, and transportation. Consignments by rail sell as low as three cents per 

 pound. The grapes from the local vineyards near St. Louis are sold to hucksters 

 for four and five cents per pound, and are retailed for six and seven c^nts. 



Boston Daily Advertiser. 



Peaches in Central Illinois. — The Chicago Tribune says the enormous 

 yield of peaches is not extended over a large district, and is, to some extent, 

 due to the new method of catching the curculio on what is called the Ransom's 

 plan, and to the better management of the crop. 



Peach Baskets. — People outside of the fruit districts of the country have 

 nothing like a true idea of the magnitude of the trade in fruit baskets. Accord- 

 ing to the Benton Harbor Palladium, one firm in that place is turning out from 

 3000 to 4000 peach baskets per day. Last year one firm at the place made 

 300,000 baskets, and another made 60,000; at St. Joseph, 160,000 were made; 

 at Dowagiac, 150,000; and at Colvala, 80,000 were made. Other parties also 

 made large numbers. 



A Bouquet of Apricots. — The Sacramento (Cal.) Union acknowledges 

 the presentation of the limb of an apricot tree a little over three feet in length, 

 containing two hundred and fifty full-grown apricots. 



