8 A Retrospective View of the Progress of 



stocks is thrown aside to make room for a new one, cer- 

 tainly not less odd ; and Mr. Downing tells us, with as much 

 dignity as he asserted the hermaphrodite character of Hov- 

 ey's Seedling Strawberry, — when he sent the dozen pots of 

 spurious plants to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, — 

 that the sole cause of the cracking of the Doyenne pear is 

 from the fact that the soil is exhausted of its mineral sub- 

 stances ; and that a bushel of peat, half a bushel of wood 

 ashes, and a few bones, with perhaps a little iron, will quite 

 renovate a tree. This theory may answer very well for new 

 beginners in gardening ; but every practical man knows that, 

 in Boston, the White Doyenne and Brown Beurre are pro- 

 duced in greater perfection, at the present moment, than even 

 in Western New York, where their excellence is attributed 

 to the newness of the soil ; and yet the same trees which 

 produce such fine pears here, have been growing more than 

 half a century in the same spot, and in some instances under 

 a paved yard, where the exhaustion of the soil must have 

 been complete, from the inconvenience and apparent unim- 

 portance of supplying manure or other matters to the soil, 

 the fruit being always abundant and excellent. The '' ex- 

 haustion " theory has full as much tenability as that of " dis- 

 eased stocks," and at another time we shall revert to this 

 subject at greater length, in confirmation of our opinion. 



The very few fruits of which we can give any information 

 from the experience of the year, are as follows : — Swan's 

 Orange has fruited around Boston in several collections, and 

 proves all that we have said of it ; Knight's Monarch has 

 also proved to be a fine acquisition ; the Howell, and Pratt, 

 excellent ; Belle apres Noel, fine ; Josephine de Malines, and 

 Beurre Goubault, promise well ; Brando's St. Germain, very 

 fine. Another year's experience of the McLaughlin plum 

 proves it to be nearly or quite equal to the Green Gage ; the 

 Reine Claude de Bavay has fruited, and promises well ; De- 

 can's Superb grape, handsome and good ; and the Diana, one 

 of the most valuable acquisitions which has yet been made 

 to our native grapes. Some other fruits which have come 

 under our notice will be mentioned in our '' Pomological 

 Gossip." 



