Notes and Gleanings. 363 



more than once alludes, is due to the youth and vigor of the wood, and not to 

 the fact that they were " double-worked." 



It is true that Dr. Houghton does admit in one paragraph that "the pear 

 may be cultivated on a large scale in the open field or garden, and that large 

 quantities of good fruit may be produced on standard trees in open orchards ; " 

 but the whole tone of his paper is opposed to this view, and one passage 

 quoted above is entirely irreconcilable with it. We refer to the place where he 

 speaks of the effect of removing trees from a city garden to one only six miles 

 away. 



Dr, Houghton alludes to a system of improper pruning and management 

 which he has practised in the past ; but he believes he is right now, and appar- 

 ently deems himself just on the eve of success. We hope he may not be dis- 

 appointed : we hope his trees will not serve him such a shabby trick as the old 

 horse did his master, who had with infinite pains taught him to live without eat- 

 ing, by dying just as the lesson was learned. It would be a pity for the doctor's 

 trees to die just as he is on the point of discovering the secret of how to grow 

 a crop of pears with none but large and perfect specimens ; but wd" should not 

 be surprised if his dwarfs at least were ungrateful enough to do just such a 

 mean thing. 



But we have had enough of combating these arguments : and perhaps it is 

 hardly worth while for us to say any thing at all ; for our good friend the accom- 

 plished editor of "The Gardener's Monthly," in which this extraordinary article 

 is published, informs us in advance that the paper is worth more than any objec- 

 tion that the most critical may make against it ; and also remarks, that the knowl- 

 edge and skill which have directed pear-culture to this day are merely empirical, 

 having no foundation in science, and no success in practice, to recommend them ; 

 and that we have the whole subject to begin anew, and the hard lesson to learn 

 over again. He does not even give us the poor credit of having learned any 

 thing by failure. 



Now, we confess it was news to us to learn that we had been cultivating pears, 

 some of us for a quarter of a century, some more and some less, and learned 

 absolutely nothing. We thought there were at least a few men who knew some- 

 thing about it ; and we think so still. 



Utilizing Weeds. — The almost universal practice of removing weeds from 

 the garden is certainly wrong. It is poor economy to allow their growth in the 

 first place ; but to collect them on some barren, unoccupied spot, or perhaps con- 

 sign them to the street to be dried and wasted, is impoverishing in the extreme. 

 Properly managed, so far from exhausting the soil, they make one of the best 

 of fertilizers. Immediately after hoeing, rake all together, and bury them as 

 compactly as possibly five or six inches below the surface of the ground. Thus 

 treated, not only are all the benefits deriVed from green-soiling secured, but, in 

 the fermentation which will follow, the vitality of the seeds contained will gener- 

 ally be destroyed. Experience has proved the great utility of such a course ; and 

 those who may adopt it will find the old and seemingly paradoxical proverb 

 verified, " There is that tendeth to poverty, and yet maketh rich." 



