146 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
all the cold season, they have appealed pleasantly 
to the ear, as well as to the eye ; for the sound of 
the wind through their branches was a soft, sil¬ 
very murmur, while in deciduous trees, it was a 
cold whistle. They have appealed to the heart, 
likewise, by their steadfast verdure. Such is 
friendship, we have said, the same in all weathers 
and throughout all the year. 
They address, also, the taste. What symmetry, 
and yet what gracefulness ; how this one vaults 
up from the ground, and throws abroad his giant 
arms in the air ; how the branches of that one 
droop and sway about, with the least motion of 
the wind ! What depth and richness they give to 
the coloring of the landscape ! Our private grounds 
and our general scenery would be tame and mo¬ 
notonous, if they were destitute of this class of 
trees. 
A second 1 iok, to see which we like best. But 
it will take a long look fully to settle that ques¬ 
tion. We can say, however, almost at first sight, 
that we don’t like the tender ones. Some of the 
delicate creatures are very beautiful, when grow¬ 
ing in their native climates, or when nursed, as 
small bushes, in a green-house. But to see them 
pinched and frost-bitten and half-killed by our 
boisterous Northern Winters, gives the beholder 
a feeling of positive discomfort, and sorrowful 
pity. There is a felt incongruity in their situa¬ 
tion. If one has no sympathy for the poor things, 
he must at least see that they lose much of their 
beauty by being frozen nearly to death every Win¬ 
ter. What a forlorn object is this one with its 
leader cut off, and that with its branches dead on 
one side, and that with nearly all its foliage as 
brown as sole leather! No : give us the hardy 
ones, those which can rough it through the cold¬ 
est Winters. And of this sort there are enough 
in every latitude to give needful variety. 
But, sir, says some inexperienced planter, please 
look a third time, and long enough to tell us the 
names of some of the hesUiardy ones. Here, then, 
is a list of the best evergreens which may be re¬ 
lied on as hardy as far North as Albany : 
Pines : White or Weymouth, Scotch, Austri¬ 
an, Oemhrian, Norway, Corsican, Dwarf or humi- 
lis . l J mus yonderosa, and Sabiniana. Pinus cxcelsa, 
or Bhutan pine, is a beautiful variety from the 
Himalaya mountains, of a silvery hue, and a waiv¬ 
ing, graceful habit, but will not be found hardy 
North of New-York. The Scotch and Austrian, 
retain their colors in Winter better than the na¬ 
tive white, but their foliage is not as soft and 
agreeable to the eye. 
Arbor Vit.es : The American and Siberian. 
The American is often, but improperly, called 
White cedar. The white cedar is as distinct from 
the arhor vitae as the Red cedar is. The Ameri¬ 
can arbor vitae is a very useful tree for screens, 
and is sometimes handsome enough for an orna¬ 
mental tree; but its commonness and its rusty 
look in Winter, make it objectionable to many 
eyes. The Siberian is better than the American, 
being equally hardy, more compact in its foliage, 
and retaining its greenness better throughout the 
Winter. For an ornamental screen, it is second 
only to the hemlock. 
Junipers • The Swedish, common American 
and Red ced^r. Ttiese all make medium-sized 
trees. The foliage of the first two is light green, 
with a bluish tinge Some specimens are com¬ 
pact and pyramidal, others loose and spreading. 
By a little tying-in and pruning of the branches, 
they can nearly all he made into dense columns 
of verdure, resembling a miniature Italian poplar. 
The Red cedar belongs to the juniper family. It 
is not always a well-formed tree ; but in some lo¬ 
calities—as, for example, on the shores of the 
Hudson river—it often becomes very beautiful. 
The Savin and the Trailing Juniper, are undoubt¬ 
edly hardy, but have little else to recommend 
them. 
Firs : Common Balsam Fir. The European 
Silver fir is a neat, symmetrical tree. It is supe¬ 
rior. to the native fir in at least one respect, that 
it retains its foliage throughout its entire extent, 
better in old age. But its leading shoot is often 
killed in Winter, and where this happens frequent¬ 
ly, it of course despoils the tree of its beauty. It 
can hardly be recommended for the latitude of 
Albany. 
Spruces : Norway, Black, White, Red, and 
Hemlock Spruces, are all hardy and worthy of 
planting. The Norway is fast becoming the most 
popular evergreen in the Northern States, and de¬ 
servedly so. It needs no recommendation from 
us. The Hemlock is also winning its way into 
the hearts of amateurs, as being, on the whole, 
the most beautiful of all evergreens. We shall have 
more to say about this, our favorite tree, at anoth¬ 
er time. 
Yews : The American, the English and Irish 
yews may be carried through the Winter, by giv¬ 
ing them a protection of cedar boughs orofstraw, 
but they come out in Spring more or less “ cut up.” 
The American is tough as an oak, and with a lit¬ 
tle training, makes a neat, small tree. It retains 
its greenness best in Winter, when planted in the 
shade. 
If, now, any of our readers can testify/rom cer¬ 
tain knowledge, of the hardiness of any other ever¬ 
greens along the parallel of latitude we have taken 
for a standard, we should be glad to hear from 
them. There has long been a lack of definite and 
reliable information on this subject, and those who 
know anything on the subject have acquired their 
knowledge by costly experience. Many new con¬ 
ifers, lately introduced from Northern Europe and 
Asia, and California and Oregon, promise to be 
great acquisitions. It must, however, be several 
years, before their hardiness is settled beyond a 
doubt. 
—-— ---aO»-- —-— 
The Orchard—V. 
AMERICAN PEARS. 
[Continued from page 115 ] 
Taken altogether, those varieties which have 
originated on our own soils have, thus far, proved 
most promising for orchard cultivation. The 
Seckel is, perhaps, the best pear tee know—better 
even, than the Vergalieu, whose European origin 
dates “ far back in the ages,” and until the Seckel 
was discovered, excelled in flavor any other pear 
known. This superb variety, by fatality—the 
cause, and remedy yet undiscovered—has taken 
a disease which for some years past has rendered 
it, in most localities, worthless, and discouraged 
us from attempting its cultivation in the future, 
bating all the nostrums which pomologists, geolo¬ 
gists, and the whole community of savans have 
prescribed for its relief. The Tyson, the Blood- 
good, the Osband’s Summer, the Sheldon, the 
Fulton, the Buflfum, the Lawrence, and many oth¬ 
ers, taking their type in flavor and excellence 
from well known foreign varieties, crosses of 
which they probably are, yet re-invigorated, as 
seedlings, in American soil, supply all the nicer 
qualities of our European importations, and in their 
superior native vigor and hardihood, bid fair to 
supplant the foreign varieties which w-e have 
heretofore cultivated, and for future generations, 
supply us with all that the most fastidious palate 
can demand in a perfectly luxurious pear. To 
them, and them only, with perhaps a few foreign 
exceptions, we would resort for successful cultiva¬ 
tion in the orchard. We do not name the locali¬ 
ties where they can best be placed, leaving them, 
as with certain varieties of ihe apple, for individ¬ 
ual experience, and observation to decide. 
THE QUINCE STOCK, OR DWARF PEAR. 
In discussing this, we may tread on somebody’s 
bunions, for which we certainly have no particu¬ 
lar inclination, and shall regret it if such be the 
fact. Neveitheless, as it belongs to our subject, 
and having an opinion, we shall not hesitate to 
disclose it. For elucidation, let us recur to a scrap 
of recent history. Thirty, forty, or perhaps fifty 
years ago, dwarf pears, worked low on the Quince 
stock, were imported into Boston, Massachusetts 
—possibly a few other towns, and cultivated with 
more or less success, in the choice grounds of a 
few amateurs. Of these the public knew little, or 
nothing. In the year 1846, the late Andrew J. 
Downing, the fragrant odor of whose memorj 
will long survive in the remembrance of every 
true pomologist, commenced his admirable jour¬ 
nal, “ The Horticulturist,” and in a short time 
afterwards brought the fact of the existence and 
success of these dwarf pears into notice, with 
high encomiums on their excellence, and a recom¬ 
mendation of them to public favor. With the late¬ 
ly growing pomological taste of our American 
people, now spurred on to increasing efforts by 
the action and intelligent mind and pen of Down¬ 
ing, an intensity of appetite, little short of a furor, 
was created among our pomologists, and, young 
America like, they “ pitched in ” to “ dwarf ” 
culture with a spasmodic activity scarce exceeded 
by the eager scuffling for precedence and posses¬ 
sion which the discovery of the mines of California 
a year or two later developed. Nurseryman, ama¬ 
teur, layman—if such last term can be, in pomol¬ 
ogy—went incontinently into their propagation 
and in less than five years dwarf pears enough 
existed in the country, if successfully planted out, 
and cultivated, to supply every decent family in 
the United Slates, at its daily dinner table, 
throughout the entire pear season. Yet, when the 
stern lessons of experience had began to cool 
down the ardor of experiment, three or four years 
later, it was ascertained that but few varieties 
would succeed on the Quince; that the common 
Apple Quince Stock of the country was unfitted 
for working them, and that the “Angers” was 
the ordy wood, in its stout and vigorous growth, 
which would sustain the pear at all. The nursery¬ 
men had dipped in largely, of course, and the un¬ 
suspicious public, taking all as gospel which “the 
papers ” had said about the dwarfs, gave them a 
capital benefit, reserving only to themselves the 
privilege, “ solitary and alone,” of leisurely chew¬ 
ing the cud of repentence over their fading invest¬ 
ments, and agreeable anticipations, afterwards. 
Followingthe discovery that the Angers wasthe 
only Quince Stock on which the pear could suc¬ 
ceed, it was soon after found that but a few vari¬ 
eties of pear would even adhere on them and grow 
to successful bearing, while the appaling fact was 
promulged, that Rivers, the celebrated pear grow 
er of Sawbridgeworth, near London, could name 
only four—and but one or two of them a really 
choice variety—which he would dare to cultivate ! 
Our pomological doctors soon set to work, through 
the oracular machinery of their still ubiquitorial 
conventions, to rectify their previous error, gave 
some recognition of the wisdom of Sawbridge¬ 
worth, and sought to make new schedules of the 
“ refractory,” and gave still further license and 
encouragement to “successful’’ varieties,” sure ” 
on the quince. One, and another of these deliber¬ 
ative bodies of savans adjourned, each self-con¬ 
vinced that it was “ sound on the goose,” and 
gave, through the publication of their “pro- 
