AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
5 
good, (bear well every other year, and a good 
grower—we prefer thin to the Madelaine, if 
we had but the one,) Bartlett, (succeeds the 
others, and the very best, large, early pear.) 
To these we will add Osband’s Summer, a deli¬ 
cious and beautiful little pear of Western New- 
York, ripe just before the Bartlett. 
Autumn. —Steven’s Genesee, (succeeds the 
Bartlett,) a tree or two, with rich cultivation, of 
the Brown Beurre, (in perfection one of the 
richest and most delicious of pears,) White 
Doyenne, or Virgalieu, Gray Doyenne, or Gray 
Virgalieu, Louise Bonne de Jersey, and Seckle. 
Winter .—Beurre D’Aremberg, Easter Beurre, 
(keeps till spring,) Glout Morceau, Winter Nel¬ 
lis, and St. Lawrence, (this last is a new Long 
Island pear, and has to be tested elsewhere.) 
Quinces. —The Orange is the best variety, and 
the only one we can recommend as really good, 
and always reliable. 
Apricots. —Breda and Dubois’ Golden, (the 
latter for its hardiness and productiveness.) 
Cherries.— Baumann’s May, (very early,) 
Black Heart, (very vigorous growth, and prolific 
bearer,) Black Tartarian, Elton, Yellow Spanish, 
or Bigarreau, Elkhorn, May Duke, Late Duke, 
and the Common red, Kentish, or Pie Cherry, 
(really the best cooking cherry in its season 
that we have.) 
Nectarines. —Downton and Early Violet. 
(These are such very delicate fruits as hardly to 
be worth cultivation in most places.) 
Peaches. —These are so fluctuating in quality 
in various localities, that the surest way is to 
look about you and see the best that your neigh¬ 
bors have, if good, and copy after them. If 
your locality be well fitted for them, we recom¬ 
mend the Bed and Yellow Rareripes, Crawford’s 
Early, and Late Melocotons, (coarse but large 
and showy,) George the Fourth, (very fine,) 
Royal Kensington, (delicious.) 
Plums. —Bleeker’s Gage, Frost Gage, (late, 
and fit for preserving only,) Green Gage, (the 
very best, but hard to propagate,) Lombard, 
(very prolific, and good market plums,) Smith’s 
Orleans, Washington, and Yellow Gage. To 
these may be added some varieties of the com¬ 
mon Blue, or Horse plum, which are very good 
for cooking. 
Currants.— The large Red, and White Dutch 
with good cultivation, are altogether the best, 
and answer all the requirements of the Currant 
tribe for edible or house-keeping use. The 
Black English Currant, however, makes a rich 
jelly, and is a grateful relish in cool drinks in 
sickness. We would always have it in the gar¬ 
den. 
Gooseberry. —These are hardly worth garden 
cultivation when we can cultivate the Rhubarb 
so freely for tarts; but if one is disposed to 
combat mildew, and its other enemies in this 
country, for the sake of so poor a fruit, we name 
the Swelling’s Crown Bob, and White-Smith, as 
the best among the foreign, and Houghton’s 
Seedling, an American variety. 
Raspberries. —The Red and Yellow Antwerps 
are the best of the finer kinds. Knevet’s Giant 
is said to be somewhat hardier. 
Strawberries. —The variety of these is getting 
to bo “ legion.” Almost every locality has its 
particular favorite. We would never be without 
the early Scarlet. It is always reliable, and the 
earliest of the season. To this we will add 
Hovey’s Seedling, Burr’s New-pine, and Rival 
Hudson. But we frankly admit,-although these 
are our favorites, there may be others quite as 
good — possibly better for some places. 
The above-named fruits embrace almost 
every thing in common cultivation, except the 
grape; and where the climate will admit of 
their ripening in out-door culture, the Isabella 
and Catawba are altogether the best we have 
known. If the new Concord grape, noticed in 
our paper a few weeks since, succeeds, as we 
hope it will, it will prove a desideratum for 
northern cultivation, for at present we honestly 
confess, compared with the Isabella and Cataw¬ 
ba, we do not know of a grape worth cultivating 
out of doors by their side. 
After all we have now written, we earnestly 
advise those who are about to plant fruit trees, 
or having already planted, and without them, to 
provide themselves at once with the fruit trea¬ 
tises of either Downing, Thomas, or Barry —or 
all of them, and study their pages closely. The 
subject is too diffuse in its various details to be 
fully treated in a single article in any one peri¬ 
odical whatever. 
Mr. Elliott has a new work now passing- 
through Mr. Saxton’s press, at 152 Fulton 
street, New-York. He informs us it will treat 
more fully on new varieties and the western 
fruits, than either of the above publications. 
Mr. Elliott has been long a resident of Cleve¬ 
land, Ohio, and has assiduousty devoted several 
years to the study and practical cultivation of 
fruits. 
THE PRESERVATION OF FRUITS. 
The unusual interest that is every where ap¬ 
parent at the present time on the subject of the 
preservation of fruit, is very appropriate, and 
suggests a topic for a brief practical article, es¬ 
pecially as we have recently received several 
letters of inquiry on this subject from our sub¬ 
scribers. 
Millions of dollars are annually lost to our 
country, and there is a deprivation of one of our 
choicest luxuries to the million, by the careless¬ 
ness or ignorance that so generally prevails in 
regard to it. A little attention and knowledge 
of the simplest general principles would pro¬ 
long the fruit-enjoying season to nearly double 
the present time. The following rules are 
alike applicable to the apple, pear, grapes, &c.: 
Gather the fruit just before it becomes fully 
ripe, between the hours of 10 A. M. and 5 P. M., 
on a clear dry day, and remove ali|the unripe, 
bruised, and imperfect fruit. Place the fruit on 
the floor of a cool chamber from six to twelve 
inches deep, where it should remain to sweat 
for a week or ten days. If more convenient to 
hasten the sweating process, place a thin layer 
of clean straw over the fruit for a day or two. 
Then place the fruit in dry barrels or boxes 
which close tightly, and store in the coldest dry 
place that can be found free from frost. We 
have often preserved apples, pears, and grapes 
very well in layers of paper, cotton, &c.; but 
we are not sure they will not keep better, and 
their flavor be the better preserved without any 
thing around them. Cotton absorbs moisture 
and impairs the flavor. 
A strict adherence to the above will doubtless 
largely contribute to the preservation of fruit 
and the excellence of its flavor. 
The more perfect French method of preserv¬ 
ing tender fruits for many months, consists in 
placing them in a house prepared for the pur¬ 
pose, by building a small room on a dry, well- 
drained soil. The walls are of clay or sun¬ 
burned brick, twelve inches in thickness, on 
the outside of which, leaving one foot space, 
another wall of the same description is built. 
The roof is of similar make, filled in with tan- 
bark, and the whole covered with a board roof 
for protection, after leaving a slight ventilation 
in the roof and small windows. The tempera¬ 
ture of such a house, it is said, will remain nearly 
the same during all the variations of climate the 
year round, and preserve the most tender pears, 
peaches, and even the strawberry in the perfec¬ 
tion of its flavor. 
Another mode of preserving fruits, which is 
attracting much attention at the present time, 
is that of putting them in glass jars or cans, her¬ 
metically sealed, after the expulsion of air, by 
immersing them in boiling water for that pur¬ 
pose. We have attained the same object by ex¬ 
tracting the air with a force pump. 
Cherries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseber¬ 
ries, and currants may be preserved easily and 
in great perfection in this manner; but it is 
quite difficult to preserve the delicate flavor of 
the peach; and quite impossible, as far as our 
experiment and observation go, to preserve the 
strawberry in this way. This process requires 
great care and skill, and even then it sometimes 
fails in part to succeed. 
The first plan we have described is the sim¬ 
plest, and for general use doubtless the best. In 
this way the Rhode Island Greening and Spit- 
zenburg'n can be retained in all their perfection 
until July; and the Northern Spy, Newtown 
Pippin, and Golden Russet, until September or 
later. If one-half of the winter fruit put up in 
the usual careless manner becomes worthless in 
flavor or rotten by the first of April, and the 
above process will remedy the evil, surely, it is 
well worthy of the little care and attention re¬ 
quired. 
-- 
CULTIVATION OF 'PEARS 
Mr. Hovey has a long article on the cultiva¬ 
tion of pears in his Magazine for March, in 
which the subject is discussed more particularly 
in reference to the difference in climate existing 
between America and Europe. Where the pear 
is most grown in the latter country, and whence 
we have derived our principal stocks, the climate 
is more equable and more humid than in the 
United States. Mr. Hovey proposes obviating 
this difference of climate by “deep and thorough 
trenching of the soil, which will supply an 
abundance of moisture, and counteract these 
atmospheric influences; and whoever wishes to 
produce tho larger and’finer foreign pears must 
take this course.” 
We will add that deep trenching is highly 
beneficial to all other fruits, whetherrgrown on 
trees, shrubs, or vines; and this should inva¬ 
riably be done before planting, unless the land 
has just been cleared of a forest, or is particu¬ 
larly rocky. 
-*t«- 
THE CRANBERRY. 
The interest in this valuable fruit has become 
so general, and the desire for information, now 
scattered and inaccessible to tho majority of in¬ 
quirers is so great, that particular attention has 
been given to the collection of all that can be 
