236 Notes and Gleanings. 



Tremendous Storm. — We have to record the occurrence, on the 8th of 

 September, of the most terrific hurricane known since the great gale of Sept. 23, 

 181 5. Though of shorter duration than that memorable storm, it is thought to 

 have been even more violent. The day was sultry and oppressive in the extreme 

 until about half-past four in the afternoon, when the storm commenced, blowing 

 with the utmost fury from the south-east, afterwards changing to the south-west, 

 and accompanied with torrents of rain, reminding one of the accounts given of 

 tropical hurricanes. Trees and buildings, especially churches, were prostrated; 

 and the damage to the fruit-crop was unprecedented, as, during similar pre- 

 vious storms, the cultivation of fruit was far less extensive. We visited Mr. 

 Wilder's grounds the next morning, and found about four hundred bushels of 

 pears on the ground ; and probably Mr. Hovey had about the same quantity, 

 having had eight men at work picking up from Wednesday to Saturday. The 

 storm extended from Long-Island Sound to the Penobscot River, but only a 

 small distance inland ; and will long be memorable as the great gale of 1869. 



A\ Impositiox on the Puulic. — Why is it that no new fruit can be sent out 

 by a person who controls the entire stock but forthwith dishonest men put out 

 advertisements offering to supply the same, though they have not a single plant? 

 All who are engaged in horticulture must be acquainted with such instances; 

 and the evil is increasing to such an extent, that purchasers of new productions 

 must exercise the greatest circumspection in sending their orders. The course 

 alluded to is an imposition, both on the owners of new fruits and on the public, 

 which cannot be too strongly condemned ; and we repeat, that the best way to 

 check it is to buy only from what they know to be trustworthy sources. But 

 there are people who love to be humbugged, and will always save five or ten per 

 cent on the cost of a plant, no matter whom they buy of, and, in the sequel, 

 find they have lost not only their money, but years of time more valuable than 

 money. 



Fresh Grapes from California were received in Boston Sept. 13. They 

 are of the variety known as the Mission, a black grape with a loose bunch, 

 having very large shoulders ; berries small, with sprightly flavor; the skin quite 

 sweet. They were retailed at thirty-two cents per pound. 



Pear-Growing in Delaware. — Against my own judgment, I left a few 

 pear-trees in variety without cultivation. They have not done half as well as 

 when I cultivate, and the fruit will only average about one-third the size. I 

 have an orchard of sixteen thousand pear-trees on my farm in Newark, Del., 

 one-half standards and one-half dwarfs, four, five, and six years in orchard this 

 spring. My Bartletts and Belle Lucratives are producing from a h^.lf-peck up 

 to a bushel to the tree. Fire-blight is the great drawback to the planting of 

 pear-orchards in this and other sections. I have not lost, I believe, one tree 

 by fire-blight in my orchard of ten thousand trees. The seventeen-year locusts 

 destroyed some for me last summer. I should have been pleased for some of 

 your Boston pear-men to have seen my orchard in fruit. 



Yours truly, Randolph Peters. 



WiLMiKGTON, Del., Aug. 23, i86q. 



