General Notices. 229 



succeeding spring, before vegetation commences, all such redundant growth to 

 be cut out closely, and the graft alone permitted to push in freedom. Its 

 growth will be luxuriant. (R. A. Hornby, in Proceedings of Hort. Soc.for 1840, 

 p. 183.) 



With reference to the above communication, the following observation was 

 made by the vice-secretary :■ — 



We have long ago tried some experiments upon the mountain ash as a stock 

 for pear trees, it having been one amongst the various kinds of stocks on which 

 the pear was grafted in the garden of the Society. The trees grew very well, 

 but scarcely so vigorously as those on the pear stock, or even on the quince. 

 The fruit was produced at an earlier age, of good size, and there was no per- 

 ceptible difference in the flavour, when compared with those produced under 

 similar circumstances, but on pear stocks. We did not observe the blossoms 

 retarded. The trees, however, did not seem as if they would be long-lived, 

 owing to the unequal swelling of the respective species. The pear increased 

 in diameter more rapidly than the mountain ash. But as the latter species is 

 more hardy than the quince, and will thrive in almost any soil, it might be 

 used advantageously in some situations. (Ibid.) 



Treatment of Pear Trees. — I beg to offer to the Horticultural Society a few 

 Marie Louise pears, which I have been enabled to keep to this late period by 

 a system of treatment, a short account of which I here annex. I selected a 

 tree trained downwards, in the balloon style, and in the winter, as is my usual 

 custom, I cut round the roots, about 3 ft. from the stem, extending each year 

 the length of cutting (in consequence of having only 9 in. of natural earth 

 above a rank gravelly clay). About June I covered the ground round the 

 tree with rotten manure, and occasionally watered it through the manure until 

 the month of October. In August I cut off the whole of the upright strong 

 shoots of this year's growth, by which plan it appears to me that I throw the 

 whole strength of the tree into the fruit. At the same time, being much an- 

 noyed by the birds, I netted the tree, with some very fine fruit on it. About 

 the first of October I matted up the south and west sides of the tree, leaving 

 it open to the north-east. The tree was then in full foliage, and continued so 

 nearly three weeks later than the other trees of the same kind. The fruit con- 

 tinued on it until the 20th of November, when, from the continued hurricanes 

 which prevailed, I was compelled to gather them, as they were more than half 

 destroyed by being whipped by the branches, in defiance of my training, net- 

 ting, and matting. Had it not been for this tempestuous weather, I have no 

 doubt some specimens would have been on the tree until this present time. 

 Some of the pears were as fine as any I have ever seen grown on walls, and 

 the smaller ones, I have no doubt, will enable me to have Marie Louise pears 

 on my table on Christmas day. To some it may appear strange, that on a clay 

 soil I should water my trees, but having, in the making of my garden (the re- 

 fuse corner of a brick-field when I took it), placed brick drains within 20 ft. 

 of each other, directly across the garden, I have no stagnant water, but am 

 perfectly dry, and in the summer months I invariably cover with manure the 

 roots of all trees which have a full crop, and water through it, for which 

 trouble I am abundantly repaid, both in the size and quality of my fruit. (H. 

 Crace, in Proceedings of Hort. Soc.for 1840, p. 195.) 



Packing of Fruit. — Mr. Thompson reported from the fruit department that 

 the packing of fruit in baskets lined with kiln-dried straw had been found to 

 answer well with such varieties as had kept up to the present period. The 

 straw so dried that it will scarcely bend without breaking does not com- 

 municate that musty flavour which is perceived when hay or straw retaining 

 their natural juices is employed. (Proceedings of Hort. Soc.for 1840, p. 197.) 



A new Description of Indian Corn. — We have received from a friend settled 

 in the state of New York a communication relative to a description of Indian 

 corn recently cultivated to some extent in the United States of America, 

 The new variety is termed the Chinese Tree Corn, and, it would appear, 

 yields a very extraordinary return. A piece of land, something less than an acre 



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