THE CANADIAN HORTICCLTCRIST. 



283 



Best table Pears. — The Country GentJe- 

 maa gives the following list of pears 

 selected with i-egard to flavoi*, and re- 

 gardless of productiveness or market 

 value : Seckel, Bosc, Belle, Lucrative, 

 Sheldon, Josephine de Malines, Dana's 

 Hovey and Grey Doyenne. The Eos- 

 tiezer is classed as almost equal to the 

 above list, a pear which in our opinion 

 is fully equal in quality to any one of 

 them . 



Peaches for Succession. — The same Jour- 

 nal gives the following list of peaches 

 which were grown at Albany, and gave 

 a constant succession of ripe fruit each 

 day from the 25th of July until the 

 middle of October : Waterloo, Alexan- 

 der, Briggs Red, Early Beatrice, Early 

 Elvers, Hales Early, Early York, Coo- 

 ledge, Troth, Morris White, Crawford's 

 Enrly, Foster, Old Mixon Free, Stump, 

 Crawford's Late, Ward's Late, Smock, 

 Salwav. 



HORTICULTURE FOR WOMEN. 



Miss Sara Smith read a paper on 

 this subject before the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society on the 29th of 

 January last. She said among other 

 things : — 



"Do we think, when walking in our 

 beautiful gardens, of the many New Eng- 

 land farms and homes without gardens ? 

 Do we think that there are daughters to 

 inherit these places who are not taught as 

 we are every day by the beauties around 

 us, and who do not learn to know and love 

 them ? 



"School days over, the excitement of 

 graduation, the crowded house, the ap- 

 plause, all are ended, never to return. 

 No more city life, no more railroad rides, 

 no more excitement. A quiet coming 

 home, and to a home which perchance 

 may not be the home of beauty, of luxury, 

 of comfort, or pleasure, that many can 

 welcome their daughters to, but a home 

 such as we know hundreds of our brothers 

 have on these bleak though beautiful hills, 

 and damp yet smiling valleys of New Eng- 



land. Totally ignorant of what might 

 make such homes abodes of pleasure, it 

 seems a coming to a round of cooking and 

 cleaning and small economies that fret 

 day by day. What a dull routine ! Sel- 

 dom company to enliven, no monej' except 

 for the most essential needs — a weary, 

 dreary home — a tired mother, a silent 

 father, an absent, or worse, an indifferent 

 brother, work that crowds, no luxuries, 

 no garden, even the songs of the birds re- 

 call the songsters of the city parks and 

 have a homesick sound to her, and so 

 comes the sad, final break with home. 



In all the culture of soil and fruit and 

 flower and flocks, is there no pleasant 

 place, no welcome duty for these daughters 

 hands ? Is there no way that they may 

 be taught that they, too, have a mission 

 — a heaven-given mission — on a farm I 



What we want now is not this higher 

 education ; it is a neAv one ; an education 

 in horticidture and home culture that 

 shall make a happier girlhood ; happier 

 because hands are full and bodies healthy, 

 and brains less strained for book lore ; 

 more alive to Nature's truths and vivified 

 with a pi'actical knowledge of Avhat goes 

 to make health, hai)pine3S, home and 

 wealth. Among all the schools of our 

 land there is not one to offer our girls 

 this." 



The tendency of our age is toward 

 extremes ; and every girl in our land 

 is expected to go through the same 

 round of French, Music, etc., whether 

 fitted by taste for these studies or not. 



No doubt very many of these would 

 be happier and more useful if a portion 

 of the time spent in the study of ac- 

 complishments for which they have no 

 taste, were devoted to the pi-actical 

 study of the care and culture of flow- 

 ers and trees, and to the kindred 

 science of Botany. 



Scott's Winter.— Mr. Charles Gibb, of 

 Abbotsford, sends a sample of this veiy 

 ])romising winter apple for the North. 

 It is a veiy handsome apple, and a 

 native of Newport, Yt. Dr. Hoskins 

 of that place says of it : " The value of 



