AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BV JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Ac 



RE.) 



VOL,. XVH.3 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 19, 1838. 



[NO. 11. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



For tlie N'ew England Farmer. 



RosBURY, Sept. 14, 1838. 



Mr Editor : — I pejceive by your valuable pa- 

 per that Mr Ives of Salem presented to the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, a pear which the 

 Chairman of the Fruit Committee, Mr Wm. Ken- 

 rick, calls the " Roi de Wirtemhurg, formerly mis- 

 calhd Capiaumoiit." 



I beg to inquire by whom it was \hus miscalled'} 

 Was it not by the first Pomologist in Europe, the 

 President of the London Horticultural Society, 

 Thomas Andrew Knight lately deceased ? Nor is 

 this all, the pear he sent by that name agrees pre- 

 cisthj with the description of the Capiaumont in the 

 London Horticultural Tmnsadions. Now I am a 

 friend to/cee inquiry, find no fault with our Horti- 

 culturists in correcting the errors of Mr Kniglit 

 No name is so great with me, as to induce me to 

 prefer its authoritij to truth. But I think the term 

 "miscalled" ratlier too strong to use on the occa- 

 sion, and I therefore humbly, and respectfully beg 

 Mr Kenrick to lay before the Horticultural public, 

 his authority for deciding, that Mr Knight did " mis- 

 call " that pear. I beg to put to him the following 

 queries : 



1. There was a Beurre Capiaumont in the cata- 

 alogues, long before uRoide Wirtemhurg appeared. 

 Have you got it ? Have you seen the real Beurre 

 Capiaumont ripe in this countn/ ? 



2. Are you sure, that the Roi de Wirtemberg is 

 not a change of name merely, or what is called a 

 synonyme .' 



3. Will you state the form, size, and qualities of 

 what yoti say is the true Beurre Capiauinont '? We 

 may then see in what it differs from the Capiaumont 

 of Mr Knight. 



I cannot bring myself to believe, that gentlemen 

 of our Society woul(J ever distract and confuse all 

 our cultivators, merely on the ground, that the 

 " Capiaumont " is noio called Rio de Wirtemberg. 

 It would be puerile, to change our names every 

 time it pleases the sellers of fruit to give a new 

 name. What I want distinctly to know, is, whetlier 

 tliey have ripened, and tasted two distinct pears, one 

 called Capiaumont and the other Roi de Wirtem- 

 berg, and that they differ, and in wliat particulars 

 they differ. 



I am the more particular on this point, because 

 the Chevalier Joseph Parmentier, who received a 

 gold medal for his excellent catalogue (and it de- 

 served it,) has the Capiaumont in his list, but has 

 not the Roi de Wirtemberg. I suspect, therefore, 

 that the charge has been made by a seller of trees, 

 I, who have suffered for fifty years severely, by new 

 names to old thino'S in pomology and floriculture 

 dread these novelties as a burnt child dreads the 

 fire. Many times have I nursed a bantling with 

 care and at great expense, and v.-hen it came to 

 flower, or give fruit, I have found that I have 

 nursed an old and discarded friend with a neiv name. 

 Hence probably my desire to protect my neighbors, 



by checking the propensity to change names. I. 

 have often mentioned to my friends, the case of 

 Monzoa incisifolia, which in 20 years I have actu- 

 ally bought four times over under different names. 

 It is ratlier a severe tax on one's good humor, and 

 purse. JOHN LOWELL. 



M)te Bene. — I beg it to be understood, that I 

 have a higli respect for Mr Kenrick's opinion. I 

 have personally known his efforts to acquire, and 

 transmit correct knowledge ; but there is a wide 

 difference, between changing names according to 

 honest conviction, and speaking in terms so sharp of 

 a man, whom no European cultivator would speak 

 of, but with profound respect. I have seen no ev- 

 idence, as yet, that Mr Knight ever "miscalled" 

 the Capiaumont. I am, however, perfectly open to 

 conviction. 



There are probably now in fruit 10,000 Capiau- 

 mont Pear trees between Bangor in Maine, and 

 Cincinnati in Ohio. They have gone from me to 

 both those cities and to 200 towns between them. 

 They have been called by that name for 13 years. 

 Mr Kenrick's own celebrated work so calls them. 

 Why tlien change tlie name ? It is bringing con- 

 fusion into our names instead of order. 



From Parkinson's Treatise on Live Stock. 



SLUT. 



Of this most extraordinary animal, will here be 

 stated a short history, to the veracity of which there 

 are hundreds of living witnesses. — Slut was bred 

 in, and was of that sort which maintain tJiemselves 

 in the New Forest, without regular feeding, ex- 

 cept when they have young, and then but for a 

 few weeks, and was given, when about three months 

 old, to be a breeding sow, by Mr Thomas to Mr 

 Richard Toomar, both at that time keepers in the 

 forest 



From having no young, she was not fed, or taken 

 very little notice of, until about eighteen months 

 old; was seldom observed near the lodge, but 

 chanced to be seen one day when Mr Edward 

 Toomar was there. The brothers were concerned 

 together in breaking pointers and setters, some of 

 their own breeding, and others which were sent to 

 be broke by different gentlemen : of the latter, al- 

 though they would stand and back, many were so 

 indifferent, that they would neither hunt nor ex- 

 press any satisfaction when birds were killed and 

 put before them. The slackness in these dogs first 

 suggested tlie idea, that by the same method any 

 other animal might be made to stand and do as 

 well as one of those huntless and inactive pointers. 

 At this instant the sow passed by, and was remark- 

 ed as being handsome : R. Toomer threw ller a 

 piece or two of oatmeal roll, for which she appear- 

 ed grateful, and approached very near ; from that 

 time they were determined to make a sporting pig 

 of her. The first step v,as to give her a name, and 

 that of slut (given in consequence of her soiling 

 herself in a bog,) she acknowledged in the course 

 of a day, and never afterwards forgot. Within a 

 fortnight she would find and point patridges or rab- 



bits, and her training was much forwarded by the 

 abundance of both, wliich were near the lodge ; 

 she daily improved, and in a few weeks would re- 

 trieve birds that had run as well as the best point- 

 ers, nay, her nose was superior to any pointer they 

 ever possessed, and no two men in England had 

 better. They hunted her principally on the moor's 

 and heath's. Slut has stood partridges, black game, 

 pheasants, snipes, and rabbits, in the same day ; 

 but was never known to point a hare. She was 

 seldom taken by choice more than a mile or two 

 from the lodge, but has frequently joined them 

 wh"n oi t with their pointers, and continued with 

 them several hours. She has sometimes stood a 

 jack-snipe, when all the pointers had passed by it ; 

 she would back the dogs when they pointed, but 

 the dogs refused to back her until spoken to ; their 

 dogs being all trained to make a general halt when 

 the word was given, whether any dog pointed or 

 not, so that she has been frequently standing in the 

 midst of a field of pointers. In consequence of 

 the dogs not liking to hunt when she was with them 

 (for they dropped their sterns, and shewed symp- 

 toms of jealousy), she did not very often accompa- 

 ny them, e.'fcept for the novelty, or when she ac- 

 cidentally joined them in the forest. 



Her pafR was mostly a trot, was seldom known 

 to gallop, except when called to go out shooting ; 

 she would then come off the forest at full stretch 

 (for she was never shut up to prevent her being 

 out of the sound of the call or whistle when a 

 party of gentlemen had appointed to see her out 

 the ni-tt ilay, and which call she obeyed as readily 

 as a dog,) and be as much elated as a dog, upon 

 being shown the gun. She always expressed great 

 pleasure when game, 'either dead or alive, was 

 placed before her. She has frequently stood a sin- 

 gle partridge at forty yards distance, her nose in a 

 direct line to the bird : after standing some con- 

 siderable time, she would drop like a setter, still 

 keeping her nose in an exact line and would con- 

 tinue in that position until the game moved ; if it 

 took wing, she would come up to the place, and 

 draw slowly after it ; and when the bird stopped, 

 she would stand as before. The two Mr Toomers 

 lived about seven miles apart, at Rhinefield and 

 Broomey lodges. Slut has many times gone by 

 herself from one lodge to the other, as if to court 

 the being taken out shooting. She was about five 

 years old when her master died; and at the auc- 

 tion of his pointers, &c. was included in the sale, 

 and bought in at ten guineas. 



Sir H. Mildmay having expressed a wish to have 

 her, she was sent to Dogmersfield park, where she 

 remained some years. She was last in the posses- 

 sion of Colonel Sikes, and she was then ten years 

 old, had become fat and slothful, but would point 

 game as well as before. When killed she was at 

 Bassilden House. Slut weighed 700 lbs. Her 

 death, to those who possess common feelings of 

 humanity, appears (if one may use the expression,) 

 at least animal murder : it would have cost but a 

 trifling sum to have fed and sheltered her in the 

 winter, and the park would have supplied her wants 

 at no expense. 



