444 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



know that the Easter Beiirre, Chaumontelle, and some other 

 sorts of foreign origin which require a warm soil and long 

 season, do not ; hence the difficulty of keepiiig them. In 

 the Island of Jersey, the Chaumontelle grows to the immense 

 weight of thirty or forty ounces, and is sent to the London 

 market in January and February in the highest state of per- 

 fection ; but, with the best culture we can give it, we think 

 we may say a twelve or fifteen ounce specimen is extremely 

 rare. Still, these small Chaumontelles and Easter Beurres, if 

 kept in barrels, will all mature as fresh and plump as when 

 gathered ; while, if the attempt is made to ripen them on 

 open shelves, they will as assuredly shrivel up. 



One case in proof of our views we give. Last winter an 

 amateur cultivator placed before us some superb Glout Mor- 

 ceaus, about the first of March. We were surprised at their 

 beauty ; they were as yellow as a lemon, and retained all the 

 freshness of juice and exquisite flavor for which they are so 

 celebrated. We inquired what was the secret of his success. 

 Risking a laugh at our expense, he claimed he had a new 

 process, which he thought as valuable and skilful as other 

 methods which had been made a monstrous secret of. How- 

 ever, not wishing to make anything of his art, he stated that 

 he had one tree which produced about half a bushel of pears. 

 Having no good place to preserve them, according to the old 

 system, without making a fruit-room, which he did not wish 

 to do for half a bushel of fruit, he devised the following plan. 

 He took a good clean barrel and put into it one bushel of 

 Russet apples ; then added the Glout Morceau pears, and 

 filled up the barrel with more Russet apples, and then rolled 

 it into the cellar with the rest of his fruit. About the mid- 

 dle of February he opened the barrel and the pears were still 

 green ; thinking it time for them to mature, he placed them 

 in a warm room, and in the course of ten days they were just 

 in a fit state to be eaten. 



This appeared to us a complete illustration of the theory 

 we had thought the true one for the preservation of our winter 

 pears, viz., that there is a natural moisture in bodies of fruit 

 which enables them to maintain their freshness to their period 



