HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 301 



principally injuring them. The same remarks apply to lettuce intended to 

 be kept over winter for spring use, though the sun is less destructive to them 

 than to the cabbage. 



Forcing vegetables, wherever the least command of heat can be had, is the 

 most interesting and useful pa>rt of gardening. It is not by any means what 

 it is often considered, an operation by which you pay a dollar for every 

 mouthful. The Asparagus, Sea Kale, Lettuce, Radish and Cauliflower can 

 be had for months earlier than in the open ground, wherever a regular tem- 

 perature of 55° can be obtained, with, of course, the proper amount of air, 

 moisture, &c. Asparagus can be had under a greenhouse stage, though of 

 course the tops will not be so green, nor will it be much else but indifferent 

 under such circumstances, as it would be in the full light. 



Radishes require an abundance of air, and Lettuce light. Cauliflowers, if 

 kept for some months with all the light and air possible, at a temperature of 

 50 or 55°, may have it gradually raised to 60 or 65, and even 70°, and thus 

 come into use in February, when there is no vegetable more desirable. 



Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Beans require a temperature of at least 65° to 

 begin with. If a temperature of 70 can be maintained in the coldest wea- 

 ther, a few of these might be sown by the end of the month, which will pro- 

 duce some very acceptable dishes about New Year's day. Rhubarb, if care- 

 fully taken up at the fall of the leaf and potted, or put into boxes, will also 

 come forward well if put under the stage in a house of the last temperature. 



T.J. 



FRUIT. 



Pear Trees on Quince. — This method of Pear cultivation is rapidly in- 

 creasing and gaining in public estimation, although there is still much oppo- 

 sition to its introduction. No doubt failures will occur, but a few isolated 

 cases are not to be taken as conclusive proof either for or against any system. 

 It may serve a good purpose to note some of the reasons we h?ve lately heard 

 advanced against the above, or rather show the circumstances which led to 

 its being unprofitable. In one case lately examined the trees were dying 

 out by degrees, whole limbs suddenly withering and drooping, occasioning 

 much trouble and anxiety as to their ultimate fate. The unsuitableness of 

 the stock was the supposed cause of failure, and this conclusion had been ar- 

 rived at in the face of evident facts to the contrary. The soil was a thin, 

 gravelly clay, resting on a hard clayey subsoil ; when wet it became so soft 

 and yielding that trees could with difficulty be kept upright in it when in this 

 condition. The retentive sub-soil preventing the downward escape of water; 

 in fact, holding it like a basin, until it was again dried to solidity by surface 

 evaporation— conditions evident to the most casual observer quite opposed to 

 favorable growth. The "evident facts to the contrary" were apparent in the 



