Q Retrospective View of the 



never been seen before ; they have indeed given a renewed 

 impulse to the culture of this delicious fruit. 



The two things necessary, as we have said, to a thorough 

 knowledge of any fruit, are skilful cultivation and proper 

 ripening. Of the former, every volume of our Magazine 

 contains a fund of information. Of the latter, but little is 

 known, and we are but just beginning to appreciate the im- 

 portance of giving more attention to it. We have, therefore, 

 in our last volume, collected all the information we could 

 upon it. Two excellent articles (pp. 15, 116,) from foreign 

 journals, have been published, giving the details of the con- 

 struction of fruit-rooms, and the best mode of keeping fruit : 

 accompanied with such engravings as will convey all the in- 

 formation necessary to erect similar buildings. More infor- 

 mation will appear in our present volume, and engravings 

 wiU be given of fruit-rooms which have been erected by 

 some of our amateur cultivators in the neighborhood. We 

 have completed one for ourselves, which so far succeeds 

 admirably. We have all the winter pears now, as hard 

 and fresh as when gathered from the tree ; and we see no 

 reason why the Glout Morceau should not keep till February 

 and March. 



The somewhat important question of special manures, does 

 not seem to have attracted so much notice the last year as 

 heretofore. Valuable to a certain extent, they have been car- 

 ried to such extremes by some of their advocates, that they 

 smack of what Mr. Russell calls that "unjustly insulted 

 word " — humbug, A specimen of this is the experiments of 

 Dr. Hull, of Newburg, N. Y., which we are glad to see have 

 been pretty well sifted by Mr. S. W. Johnson, a student in 

 the laboratory of the late Prof. Norton. The lemonade and 

 cider which the Dr. gave his strawberries, as specific ma- 

 nures, seem odd substances enough to administer to plants, 

 and the tannic acid of Prof. Mapes appears but little better. 

 Mr. Johnson, in summing up his remarks, says that " tannic 

 acid is adduced by Dr. Hull as one of the substances that 

 is demanded as an increased correspondent and specific nu- 

 trition, and bears no proportion to the exact analysis," 



