30 i 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 13, 1877. 



fresher and stronger. Runners from my fine Presidents pro- 

 duced insignificant crops in the rector's garden, while plants 

 raised from my comparatively poor Amateurs yielded abun- 

 dantly there, and La Constante was equally good when similarly 

 removed. Would it not have been a mistake on the part of 

 the rector and myself to have incurred both labour and ex- 

 pense in attempting to grow sorts which proved themselves 

 unmanageable by local peculiarities, while we had other good 

 varieties which flourished well with ordinary cultural care? — 

 A YoBKsnntEiUN. 



A PAPER FLOWER BASKET. 

 All who have a garden know how gratefully those not simi- 

 larly circumstanced welcome the gift of a few flowers to take 

 away with them. The difficulty is how to take them. They 

 are either made up into a wisp and carried in a worm hand to 

 wither and die, or else a basket is lent with the doubt, too 





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Fig. 58. — Pattern for Makiag Paper Flower Basket 



often a certainty, as to whether the owner will ever see it again. 

 I send you herewith directions and a pattern by which anyone 



Fig. 59.— Paper Flower Basket. 



may in a few minutes make out of Btrong brown paper a basket 

 that will answer the purpose, and concerning the returning of 

 which there need be no questioning. My daughter has found 

 such a basket very useful, and I have no doubt it will be a 

 boon to many who wish to distribute their floral favours 



the pattern ; then spread it open and fold in again where the 

 dotted lines are, making the single fold the bottom, the double 

 the sides ; then lay it Sat again — this time it will be divicel 

 in three pieces — and fold for the ends where the double dotted 

 line is. Now take the two ends and bend them up to meet 

 each other, folding the middle pi ce in at the ends according 

 to dotted lines as shown there. Oje end will now fit in to the 

 other, and must be secured by a few Btitches. A strip of 

 paper will be wanted for the handle 16 inches long, 4 or 5 wide ; 

 fold it four times and join underneath the basket, and secure 

 it at the side in the same way as the basket. Of course the 

 basket can be any Bize ; these are Bimply right proportions, 

 — D., Deal. 



JOTTINGS ABOUT PEARS IN THE NORTH. 



This being the commencement of the planting season, what 

 to plant is of importance, and it may be the more worth know- 

 ing when I state that of thirty-eight 

 varieties of Pears eight of one variety 

 were all that had any pretence to a 

 crop, and many of these dropped 

 midway in the season. That my re- 

 marks may be valued for just so 

 much as they are worth, I may be 

 permitted to state that, a little over 

 two years ago a fine old pasture field 

 of two and a quarter acres being 

 offered for sale within a quarter of a, 

 mile of where my father for over 

 thirty years laboured as a market 

 gardener, I decided to throw up my 

 trade as joiner and builder and com- 

 mence the occupation more after my 

 heart — a fruit-grower. I decided with 

 hardy outdoor fruit to secure every 

 variety recommended, and then at 

 the earliest possible opportunity to 

 reduce the number to ODly those 

 which did beBt in the locality. This, 

 as stated, found me last spriDg with 

 the number of Pears named, and with 

 the exception of Beurie de 1'AsEump- 

 tion and Souvenir du Congies, which 

 I had only as maidens or trained, 

 they were all well set with fruit buds, 

 The third week in January threatened 

 to see many of them in bloom, and 

 the bloom would have been strong 

 and promising. The third week in May 

 found them in bloom, but blighted 

 and miserable-looking ; and seeing 

 that we had not the severe frosts in the county of Durham 

 in May which there were in the south of England (my own 

 glaaa never registering more than 5°), I attribute the failure 

 here, not to frost but to the embryo blossom having perished 

 during the great length of time it hung in the half-expanded 

 state. When we had frost it was always after a dry day, 

 but for weeks together we had little but rain, and rain, and 

 clouds, and cold. I carefully, night after night, wrapped large 

 sheets of paper around one and more trees of every variety; but 

 the result was no perceptible difference between the covered 

 and the uncovered trees. The most healthy-looking bloom was 

 on eight trees of Pitmaston Duchess : it was not thickly set, but 

 remarkably promising. The most miserable-looking were eight 

 trees of Durandeau, and on these trees every leaf perished ; 

 but singular, these were of the variety that set fruit, and they 

 have also Bet a second crop, but, of course, of no value. What 

 I bought for Alexandre Bivort is the third variety, but both 

 last year and this the fruit has been smaller than I expected. 

 Of over twenty trees of Louise Bonne of Jersey, and which is 

 admitted to be one of the hardiest, neither on my protected or 

 unprotected trees had I a single fruit ; neither had I one on 

 eight and more trees of any of the following : — Baronne de 

 Mello, Beurre Baehelier, Beurro d'Amanlis, Beurre Hardy, 

 Beurie Superfin, Williams' Bon Chit-tien, Marechal de Cour, 

 Doyenne du Cornice, Josephine de Malines, Madame Treyve 

 or Olivier de Serres ; one on Marie Louise, whilst of Marie 

 Louise d'Uccle I havo a fair crop. My Hessles even failed to 

 set a fruit, but with them it was hardly a fair trial, and, judg- 



amongst their friends 



Instructions for Making the Basket. — Take a piece of brown j ing by my neighbours' trees, my unhesitating opinion is that 

 paper 13 inches by 11, and fold it in five equal portions like Marie Louise d'Uccle is as hard as the Hesele, and is destined 



