362 Notes and Gleanings. 



tions to understand that every man brings in his best specimens ; and so nobody 

 is deceived. What would tlie doctor have ? If average specimens were required, 

 everybody might not agree with the grower as to what were average specimens 

 of his crop ; but if every one selects the best, or what he thinks the best, every 

 one is so far on an equality. We have known people to remark, that " they have 

 a good deal better ones left at home;" but the rejoinder is apt to be, "Why 

 didn't you bring them," and there the conversation generally ends. 



Dr. Houghton informs us that "such things as old standard pear-trees, 

 pruned or unpruned, growing in grass-covered fields, producing large crops of 

 fine fruit fitted for exhibition-purposes, even Boston has not seen ; " and he 

 also informs us, that, even in France, " men cannot gather grapes of thorns, nor 

 figs of thistles ; " and one piece of information is about as novel as the other. 

 We do not, however, object to a statement, that it has been made before ; but 

 we do object to having truisms put forth oracularly as new discoveries. 



It seems, however, that there once was a man in Philadelphia who could 

 raise good pears, if there is none now, — the late Isaac P. Baxter ; but we are 

 surprised to hear that his pears were " pow-wowed " and " magnetized." We 

 don't know what these operations are ; but we are afraid they are rather ques- 

 tionable ; and we should never have suspected Father Baxter, whom we remem- 

 ber as a most amiable old gentleman, of any thing of that kind. At any rate, 

 we are quite sure they have never been practised on pear-trees in Boston, or 

 even in Salem, where some good pears have been raised, though they had queer 

 doings there in old times. 



We should be doing injustice to Dr. Houghton if we did not state that his 

 paper contains many excellent ideas forcibly stated; but we object to his push- 

 ing his conclusions to such extremes. It is no doubt true that pear trees suc- 

 ceed best in sheltered city gardens ; or, as Dr. Van Mons well expresses it in a 

 letter which we cannot lay our hands on at this moment, though we think we 

 have his exact words, "the pear-tree is a tree of society, and pleads to live in 

 town : " but when told, that if Mr. Bixter's trees had been planted six miles out 

 of the city in similar soil, with even better culture, the fruit would have been 

 cracked, spotted with fungus, and disfigured by the attacks of insects to such a de- 

 gree as to be unfit for sale, or even for eating, — why, we must dissent. This might 

 have proved true of a few kinds, but not of the majority ; and the lesson to be 

 learned is, not to plant those kinds in the open ground. The others might not 

 produce as fair fruit as in the city ; but, if not " best," there is no reason why it 

 should not be " very good " in appearance, as well as of first quality for eating. 



So, too, when he says, " that, to obtain the finest fruit, we must look to the 

 constant production of new wood and new truit-spurs ; I feel assured that the 

 best fruit cannot be produced upon very old, long, slender shoots, and old 

 stunted fruit-spurs ; the fruiting-wood and fruit-spurs should not be more than 

 four to six years old," — his ideas are excellent, and excellently put, and worthy 

 of perpetual remembrance by all pear-growers. But for everybody to keep their 

 wood in just that condition is simply impossible : it is impossible for the great 

 body of cultivators. But do not jump to the conclusion, that they will not raise 

 an eatable pear. The superiority of the fruit from grafts, to which Dr. Houghton 



