4 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



HORTICULTURE. 



The subject which has most absorbed the attention of cul- 

 tivators has been the growth and management of fruit trees, 

 more particularly the pear. Even with all that has been 

 written in reference to the latter, and with all the additional 

 information which longer experience has enabled us to gather 

 together, we have as yet made but little progress in the suc- 

 cessful treatment of this delicious fruit. True, there are 

 some amateurs and zealous nurserymen, who produce very 

 fine specimens, aud no doubt there is a very general improve- 

 ment in its more extended cultivation. But the mass of 

 those who have commenced its growth have yet much to 

 learn before they can successfully produce abundant crops. 

 The selection of varieties worthy of general culture — the 

 kind of stock on which they flourish well — and especially the 

 proper period of gathering, as well as the manner of ripening 

 the later kinds, are each subjects which for a long time must 

 command attention, and upon which there is a great deal to 

 be learnt. 



As indicating the success of foreign cultivators, particularly 

 the Belgians, where so much attention has been bestowed 

 upon the pear, and where, by the labors of Van Mons and 

 other amateurs, so many superior seedlings have been pro- 

 duced, we have copied somewhat largely the experience of 

 one of their prominent cultivators, M. de Jonghe, of Brussels, 

 on the mode of growing trees in that country. 



A reference to his articles will show that even in the mild 

 climate of Belgium, some of the older and finer pears can 

 only be raised in perfection upon walls, or in favorable local- 

 ities. The White Doyenne, Brown Beurre, and some others, 

 suffer, as they have with us, when fully exposed in a climate 

 warm and favorable when compared with our own. 



We have already given some account of the formation of a 

 British Pomological Society. Such an association must con- 

 fer important benefits upon the public, if there should be a 

 zealous cooperation among its members, and essentially aid in 

 correcting the nomenclature of fruits, now in apparently great 

 confusion. The results of its labors, however, would be much 



