404 



Garden and Forest. 



[August 21, 1889. 



twice the size of the preceding, and of iin entirely different 

 character, Hght-green, jnicy, and sliglitly acid, and more 

 refreshing in cliaracter on this account, but its season is very 

 sliort. It decays at the core so quiclvly that it is gone before 

 one is aware of it. Tiie tree is a good grower and an early 

 bearer. 



The Bloodgood is another of the small sumnier Pears, and 

 is better in quality than eitlier of the foregoing, but my tree 

 has never done well. The fruit is yellow, sweet, and of excel- 

 lent flavor. Were I to plant again simply for family use, I 

 would group these three, if not more, on one tree, by grafting. 

 This at ten or fifteen years old would yield enough to answer 

 the purpose of an early desert fruit and at the same time give 

 a variety. 



Following these comes Giffard, a larger, better Pear, of 

 short duration, The tree is a slender grower, and succeeds 

 best when top-grafted on a more vigorous variety. The next 

 to ripen with me is Clapp's Favorite, a handsome Pear, fully 

 as large as the Bartlett, and in its prime now (August 12th); 

 not a rich or high-flavored Pear, but juicy and agreeable. The 

 tree is a strong grower and an abundant bearer. It is in 

 season about a week, and like all Pears must be gathered 

 while hard, and house-ripened to get at its real merits, and 

 when fit to eat it must be eaten. When Pears reach maturity 

 no days of grace are added. After ripeness comes sudden 

 " heart-failure." No one ever enjoys a perfect Pear who waits 

 for it to ripen on the tree. 



My next Pear is the Tyson, a sweet, rich, juicy Pear, about 

 lialf as large as the Giffard, but better in quality and in keeping. 

 The tree is a good grower, and is generally tardy in coming 

 into bearing, but when it commences business it attends to it, 

 yielding abundantly in alternate seasons, and seldom missing a 

 fair crop on the off year. A city friend asked my advice about 

 grafting over a tree of this variety a few years ago. He said 

 it never bore anything, and he was tired of waiting. I suggested 

 that it might reward him in time, and advised him to confine 

 his grafts to a few limbs. This might tend to induce earlier 

 fruitfulness in the tree, and then he could judge better as to 

 the probable advantage of further changes. Last year the tree 

 commenced declaring dividends, and this season it is loaded, 

 and so well is the owner pleased with it that he has decided to 

 spare it, and if any limbs are cut it will be the grafted ones. 



Ott comes next, a seedling of the Seckel, a very sweet, good 

 Pear of about tlie same size. The tree is healthy, a good 

 bearer, and very much like the Seckel in growth. 



I mention the Rostiezer because nearly all authorities do, 

 but it is not a favorite of mine, and it does not deserve, in my 

 opinion, the commendations often bestowed on it. The tree 

 is a healthy, sprawling grower, and bears well. The fruit is 

 small, hardly averaging as large as Madeleine, with a coarse, 

 gritty flesh, covered with a dark thick skin, often with a 

 ruddy cheek, sweet, and in good specimens tolerably high- 

 flavored. Tiiese, however, are the exception ; they usually 

 rot before presenting any appearance of ripeness. With me 

 they seldom present such an appearance, and are altogether 

 unattractive. 



I might mention also the Rousselet Stutgart, a very good 

 Pear, with a peculiar spicy Havor, and generally much admired. 

 It is of far better quality than the Rostiezer, but it has the same 

 fault of most of our summer Pears — soon ripe, soon rotten. 

 The tree, however, is healthy and productive. 



Next comes Boussock, a large, handsome yellow Pear of 

 good quality, with flesh a little coarse, but juicy. The tree 

 bears abundantly of fruit that is generally fair. 



Now comes the Bartlett, the universal favorite, so well 

 known that a description is unnecessary. Some seasons it 

 develops a musky flavor, not agreeable in a dessert fruit to 

 many palates ; but it is the universal favorite for canning, and 

 so firmly has its name and reputation become fixed in the 

 minds of the people that they will call for it out of season, and 

 unscrupulous venders will not hesitate to palm off on those 

 who know no better not only other Pears, but other trees, too, 

 when opportunity offers. It is really an autumn fruit here, 

 ripening in September. 



Then there is the Souvenir du Congres, an early, handsome 

 Pear, and larger than any I have named, but quite inferior for 

 dessert purposes. It answers for cooking, and I occasionallv 

 sell Pears of this variety, hoping, however, that purchasers will 

 not try to eat them. 



And what about the Comet-Lawson ? Well, it is said to be 

 early, and as pretty as a Pink. But my grafts have all died ; 

 and there are Pears in the above list that will answer every 

 purpose better. 



Manning's Elizabeth is a Pear which, according to a recent 

 authority, is the best early Pear. I have failed, however, to find 



any merit in it that would justify me in keeping a tree of it, and 

 have grafted over the only one I have. It is not as early as 

 the above-named, and about as poor an apology for a Pear 

 on my ground as can be conceived. Perhaps it would do 

 better on light soils. I might add notes on Washington, 

 Catherine Sterling, Miller's Early, and many more, not omit- 

 ting the Summer Bell (Windsor), an excellent old-tmie favorite 

 for cooking, and still as good as ever for that purpose; but the 

 list is sufficiently long for the summer kinds. Pears for autumn 

 will be spoken of in another paper. 



Montclair, N.J. £■ IVtlHams. 



Memoranda from a Northern Garden. 



T"HE cool, wet season, especially at the north, while un- 

 friendly to the Potato-crop, has been very favorable to the 

 true root-crops. In no recent year have Beets, Turnips, Car- 

 rots and Parsnips made a finer growth. 



The lessons of this season are many, and those who have 

 lost by their crops may, in some degree, make it up by the 

 teachings of experience. Rust and blight of the Potato are 

 fungoid diseases ; but the fungi are destructive in proportion 

 as a favorable nidus, as well as a favorable season, attends 

 them. Early-planted Potatoes of early kinds, well fed with fer- 

 tilizers, on light land, sloping enough to prevent water from 

 standing, are yielding excellent and well-ripened crops, where, 

 just in proportion as these condifions fail, the crop fails, too. 



Long-rooted Parsnips, Carrots and Beets are getting yearly 

 more out of favor, apparently quite as much with buyers as 

 with growers. Still, they make a good appearance at vegeta- 

 ble-shows ; and there is some sale for them, in spite of their 

 inconveniences. To get the finest specimens, the soil should 

 be evenly and deeply dug, and enriched with fine manure or 

 fertilizer. I have found the best specimens where the rows 

 crossed the spots at which roots had been pitted the winter 

 before. They went to the bottom of the excavation — large, 

 straight and with a perfect taper. 



The advent and increase of many foreign insects, as well as 

 some hitherto localized native species, like the Potato-beetle, 

 have added greatly to the biu'den of garden-work. Where any 

 advantage is seen, it has been for the benefit of commercial 

 growers, at the expense of private gardeners, a large number 

 of whom have given up the culture of fruits and vegetables so 

 attacked. In small village gardens, Currants and Gooseberries, 

 Onions, Cabbages, Turnips, Radishes and Potatoes have been 

 in many cases abandoned ; and the interest in this sort of gar- 

 dening is greatly cooled l)y the troubles incident to insect- 

 fighting. 



Amateur gardeners, engaged in a contest with insects, com- 

 monly fail in not applying the remedies promptly at their first 

 appearance. The Currant and Gooseberry worm must be met 

 with the hellebore douche at the first hatching of the eggs, 

 which is contemporary with the first bloom. As for the 

 various root-worms of the anthyomia race that attack all the 

 cruciferous and alliaceous vegetables, no practical methods 

 suited to small gardens seem to answer, though lime-water, 

 freely applied, or weak lye of wood-ashes, can sometimes be 

 made to succeed. 



Undoubtedly a rapid growth, secured by ample and deep 

 fertilization, and aided by irrigation, enables the niarket- 

 grower to get pretty good crops of Cabbages, Turnips, etc.; 

 but even these are glad, when they can, to get hold of spots of 

 fresh ground, or a new "burn," where they can take a few 

 crops before the enemy has found them out. It seems a pity 

 that crops once so easily and cheaply grown, should now have 

 become costly, far beyond their intrinsic value to the buyer, 

 on account of these difticulties. 



The worst of these insects are imported, and most of them 

 did not reach our shores until after the advent of the trans- 

 Atlantic steam service. They were brought over in the stew- 

 ard's stores, the waste froni which was thrown out at landing. 

 In this way we got the Currant-worm and the Cabbage-worm, 

 by the way of Quebec. Both of these have reached northern 

 New England, and spread southward within the l&st twenty 

 years, while, unfortunately, the parasites that keep them down 

 in their old home did not come with them. 



We have heard a good deal about importing these parasites, 

 and it does seem as if it might be successfully done at no great 

 expense, considering the ravages now made in our gardens by 

 the unchecked enemies. English readers of this journal, or 

 European entomologists, at least, should be able to give some 

 practical information on this suiiject, which, so far, seems 

 to have been inefficiently and unintelligently met on this 

 continent. 

 Newport, vt. T. H. Hoskins. 



