February 21, 1861. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



143 











WEEKLY CALENDAR. 















M 'nth 



Day 



of 

 Week. 



FEBEUAEY 21—27, 1865. 



Average Temperature 

 near Londoii. 



Rain In 



last 

 38 years. 



Sun 



Rises. 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 



Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 



Sun. 



Day of 

 Year. 



21 

 32 

 2S 

 2i 

 26 

 36 

 27 



Tu 

 W 

 Tn 



F 



S 

 SnN 

 M 



Daisy flowers 

 Vinca minor flowers. 

 Caasalpinus died, 1603. 

 St. Matthias. 

 Alder flowers. 

 Shrovk Sunday. 

 Evelyn died, 1705. 



Day. 



46.8 

 46.5 

 47.2 

 46.8 

 47.1 

 47.3 

 48.0 



NiKht. 

 32.3 

 32.2 

 31.8 

 32.7 

 32.7 

 33.4 

 33.6 



Mean. 

 39.5 

 39.3 

 39.5 

 39.8 

 40.1 

 40.H 

 40.S 



Days. 

 18 

 17 

 13 



17 

 19 

 20 

 18 



m. h. 



4af 7 



2 7 



7 



58 6 



56 6 



54 6 



52 6 



m. h. 

 24af5 



26 6 



27 5 

 29 5 

 31 5 



33 6 



34 5 



ra, h. 

 39 3 

 28 4 

 9 5 



46 5 

 18 6 



47 6 

 17 7 



m. h. 



after. 

 35 1 

 48 2 

 9 4 

 31 5 

 54 6 

 17 8 



25 

 26 

 27 

 28 



« 

 1 

 2 



m. 9. 

 13 51 

 18 4.1 

 13 35 

 13 26 

 13 16 

 13 6 

 12 55 



52 



53 

 54 

 55 

 56 

 57 

 58 



♦«™ J/,"? "''^17",''°'''!,*''^'' "^"^ London during the last thirtv-eiEht years, the average day temperature of the week is 47.6', and its night 

 92 fuch ' Bi^eatest heat was 62<' ou the 27th, 1846; aud the lowest cold, 13', on the 2iib, 1860. The greatest fall of rain waa 



PEAES ON THE QUmCE STOCK. 



AST year Mr. Eivers kindly gave me 

 twelve Pear trees on tlie quince 

 stock, and also his " Miniature 

 Fruit Garden," which I found very 

 valuable in aiding me to manage 

 them. The sorts which he sent 

 were — 1, Beurre Superfin ; 

 2, Josephine de Malines (two 

 plants) ; 3, Doyenne d'Alen- 

 con ; 4, Beurre Diel ; 5, Beurre 

 Hardy ; 6, Beurre Defais ; 

 7, Madame Millet ; 8, Beurre 

 Beymont ; 9, Beurre d'Arem- 

 berg ; 10, Passe Colmar ; 11, 

 Doyenne d'Ete ; 12, Berga- 

 motte d'Esperen. The above 

 were planted about 2 feet 

 from a south waU, ou the 26th 

 of March, and the 9th of 

 AprU, 1864 ; and the following 

 is a reliable account of them. 

 1, 2, 3, were the best, and 

 quite first-rate ; 4, was first- 

 rate, but not quite equal to the 

 others ; 8 (a great cropper), 

 and 9, 10, and 11 were all delicious and very good ; 

 5, 6, 7, and 12 either had no blooms or dropped their 

 crop ; 7, had an enormous crop, but they were, though 

 covered at night with cloth, frosted at the stem and 

 dropped their fruit. The next lot were in a yard a little 

 in advance of an east-aspect wall — 13, Beurre Mauxion ; 

 14, Comte de Lamy ; 15, Marie Louise d'TJocle ; 

 16, Duchesse d'Angouleme ; 17, Duchesse d'Orleans ; 

 18, Doyenne Oris ; 19, Beurre Bachelier. 



1, 2, and 3 bore a great crop. AH were good Pears ; 

 the last was veiy handsome, delicious, and first-rate ; 

 4, was very large (25 ozs. the three Pears) and hand- 

 some, but insipid. In flavour and texture it was the 

 only inferior one. It is probable, that had it been against 

 a south wall it would have been good. 5, dropped its 

 fruit; 6 and 7, had no blooms, or dropped them. I 

 expected to take six fruit per tree. I gathered eighty- 

 two from the thirteen trees. 



I should, doubtless, have had more had I not disfruited 

 so largely. I shall in future let Nature disfruit my 

 Pears, as the Pears we leave on, usually the largest, are 

 not the best. They are generally the wormy ones. The 

 trees are nicely furnished ivith buds for 1865. As ex- 

 amples of abundant blooming I may mention especially, 

 Madame Millet, Doyenne d'Ete, JBeurre Diel, Beurre 

 d'Aremberg, Beurre Mauxion, Comte de Lamy, Marie 

 Louise d'Ucele, and Beurre Beymont. The last is a 

 fine cropper, very healthy and vigorous, and very deli- 

 cious. 1 think it wiU be placed next year in the first 

 class. These trees, when in flower, put me in mind of i 

 Mr. Turner's Modestum Pelargonium. Gentlemen ad- 

 No. 204.— Yoi. VIII,, New Series. 



mired them, and ladies pronounced them " ducks." The 

 " ducks " drank up no end of pump water. 



Mr. Rivers wished me this spring to select any of the 

 sorts in his list. I chose another Beurre Superfin, and 

 three that I did not possess — viz., Beurre Giffard, Beurre 

 de Ranee, and Thompson's. With this lot he was so 

 good as to send me, with six duplicates of sorts sent last 

 year, the following (making thirty-two trees), of his own 

 selection, hereafter to be reported on. I suppose they 

 are good, for he says, " I will make you as great in Pears 

 as you are in Roses." That may be easily done ! The 

 sorts sent were these — Bezi d'Esperen, Beurre d'Amanlis, 

 Louise Bonne of Jersey, Comte de Flandres, Eondante 

 d'Automne, Winter Nelis, Baronne de Mello, Williams's 

 Bon Chretien, Aglaij Gregoire, Vineuse, Beurre Sterck- 

 mans. Prince Albert, Fondantc de Mars, Peach Pear, 

 Dp. Trousseau, Glou Moreeau, Napoleon, Albertine, St. 

 Michel Archange, Avocat Nelis, and Ii-is Gregoire. The 

 last three Mr. Rivers says are new, and believed to be 

 good. Thompson's and Beurre de Ranee require to be 

 double worked, and were so sent. 



I do not send this article to instruct old hands, who 

 have forgotten more tlian I know, but to encourage 

 others, who, like myself, are young in Pear-growing. To 

 such I say. Buy these, they are, indeed, first-rate — 1, 2, 3, 

 4, aud 15, Winter Nelis, Beurre de Ranee, and Marie 

 Louise. If more are wanted add 13, 14, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 

 7, which last, though not yet proven here, is known to 

 be first-rate ; 11, is the best early Pear (July). 



With regard to Pears on the quince stock, I must 

 make some observations. They require a light soil and 

 cool subsoil. If land is strong it must be made light. 

 They require biennial removal, if the garden is small, not 

 otherwise, renewal of the soil, and root-pruning. They 

 also require to be planted up to but not above the point of . 

 union. The soil should not touch the junction of the bud 

 with the stock, or the budded part will root into the soil 

 and destroy the effect of the stoclf, which should not be. 

 If they are grafted high, earth should be raised like a 

 mole-hill to the point of union. They require pinching 

 rather than pruning. I keep mine like shrubby Calceo- 

 larias, with their shoots pinched to three leaves in July. 

 If large pyramids are required, the leader, of course, 

 must be allowed to go up. If the pyramids are too large 

 to be removed biennially, they may be root-pruned in loco, 

 in a radius of 18 or 36 inches, according to the bulk and 

 height of the tree. Root-pruning is not sufficiently 

 practised. 



Young Peach trees would come into bearing sooner if 

 they were cut less at their heads and more at their roots. 

 People plant and treat things wrongly, and then cry out 

 lustily, " It is all humbug." They bury rather than plant 

 trees, and " stick and dab " them ia ; but Nature never 

 was a sexton or a bricklayer. Both are wrong ; the first, 

 because the roots are too far removed from the action 

 of the sun and atmosphere ; the last, because the roots 

 cannot run in concrete. Nature casts her seeds on the 

 ground, hence the trees have abundant surface roots. It 

 is better to plant shallow, and mulch and water in burning 

 No. 856.— Vot. XXXIII., Old Sbries, 



