282 
AMEETOAI^ AGEIOULTUEIST, 
[July, 
standard of excellence. Though it commands a 
ready sale, and is an abundant and regular bearer, 
yet it is peculiarly subject to blight. Can we 
afford to plant a pear so universally short lived ? 
A mortality of twelve per cent annually, is a very 
serious loss, amounting to an entire renewal of an 
orchard every ninth year. Under the most favora¬ 
ble circumstances, with these figures, not more than 
four crops could be expected, even if the treeslived 
the full term of nine years. Would this amount of 
fruit be a sufficient remuneration for the cost of 
the tree, its planting and cultivation for the other 
five years ? A much larger number of Bartletts 
are planted than of any other variety ; is the prac¬ 
tice to be recommended ? A superabundance of 
one variety will make a glut in any market. Would 
it not be better to partly substitute Duchess that is 
subject to a loss of only two per cent ? This would 
be of assistance in time of a glut, and materially de¬ 
crease death by blight. Theodore Goodrich. 
Gooseberries.—New Variety. 
The English gooseberries, noted for their great 
size and fine quality, are rareiy seen in our mar¬ 
kets. They are so subject to mildew that only a 
few fanciers, mainly Englishmen, endeavor to cui- 
tivate them, and by a constant fight with the mil¬ 
dew, manage to secure dearly earned small crops of 
their favorite fruit. The varieties grown for mar¬ 
ket are American seedlings. The first of these, the 
“Houghton,” was many years ago raised at Lynn, 
Mass., and in spite of its small size, its freedom 
from mildew, and the abundance of its fruit, caused 
it to be widely cultivated. Numerous seedlings 
were raised from the “ Houghton several with 
larger fruit than the original, are on that account 
preferable to it. The best of these originated 
with Charles Downing, and is known by his name. 
Probably nine-tenths of all the gooseberries pro¬ 
duced for market are gathered and sold while green, 
and are used for cooking. When ripe they are not 
large enough or of sufldcientl 3 ' good quality to be a 
satisfactory desert fruit. A good gooseberry is so 
desirable, it is not surprising that fruit-growers 
should tost the new varieties which are produced 
abroad, in the hope of finding one that can be 
grower, and immense yielder, and as showing no 
signs of mildew. The size of the fruit is shown in 
the engraving ; the color is dark red, skin some¬ 
what hairy, and the fruit is said to be of pleasant, 
rich flavor. We shall look upon the future of this 
berry with interest, and hope it may prove to be 
the fruit so long desired by the lovers of goose¬ 
berries, in all portions of the United States. 
California Lemons and Limes. 
A NEW GOOSEBERRV—“ INDUSTRY.” 
grown in our climate. A new foreign vaiiety, the 
“ Industry,” has been offered this year by a nursery, 
the proprietors of which aie well known pomolo- 
gists, and when they say that they think “ it is 
destined to revolutionize goosebeny culture in this 
country,” we are sure that they have good grounds 
for the belief. The bush is described as a vigorous 
Among the institutions peculiar to Southern Cal¬ 
ifornia are the Citrus Fairs, held annually in differ¬ 
ent cities. At these fairs, 
in addition to the many 
varieties of oranges with 
which the halls are crowd¬ 
ed, there are exhibited a y, 
great quantity of lemons 
and limes. At a recent 
CitiTis Fair, held near San 
Diego, twenty-six varieties 
of lemons were shown, 
with sixteen of limes. 
Many of the lemon-clusters 
suspended from the ceiling 
were very fine, as were 
also the pyramids and traj's 
of this fruit exhibited on 
the tables. The “Eureka” 
lemon took the prize at 
this Fair for the best bud¬ 
ded fruit.—About one hun¬ 
dred and forty thousand 
•lemon trees are now grow¬ 
ing.'in the orchards of 
California. Around San 
Fr.ancisco Bay'the lemon is 
often planted in the open 
air, where it sometimes 
grows to be seven or eight feet high, and bear fruit; 
but the southern portion of the State is better 
adapted to it. In Los Angeles County, alone, the 
number of lemon trees, according to the assessment 
roll of 1S83, was fifty thousand, five hundred and 
S'xty-flve. At Riverside, in San Bernadino County, 
there ai-e twenty thousand trees, and the crop of 
1881-82 amounted to three 
thousand eight hundred 
boxes of lemons, and five 
thousand of limes. Lemons 
and limes are also cultivated 
in Santa Clara, Stanislaus, 
Fresno, San Luis Obispo, 
Ventura, and San Diego 
counties. The Sicily and 
Malaga lemons are the va¬ 
rieties most cultivated, al¬ 
though the Chinese is very 
prolific. This lemon is very 
hardy, but never becomes a 
tree of more than ten feet 
high. Lemons do not re¬ 
quire more than a third as 
much water as oranges, and 
for this reason the two are 
rarely planted together. 
Many farmers surround 
their lemon orchards with 
hedges of limes as wind¬ 
breaks. As the limes sel¬ 
dom grow to be more than 
bushes of from four to about 
ten feet high, they an¬ 
swer the purpose of a hedge. 
In many parts of Southern 
California limes are so com¬ 
mon, that every year great 
quantities of the fruit drop 
to the ground and are allow¬ 
ed to decay. Among those who have regular lime 
plantations,from one to two hundred bushes occupy 
an acre. There are two crops yearly for the limes, 
one in January and the other in June. Lemons are 
generally more profitable than oranges. When in 
good bearing, a lemon tree will yield about fifteen 
hundred lemons per season. The cost of gather¬ 
ing the fruit and shipping it from tlie southern 
part of California to San Francisco, is about five 
dollars per thousand. About the same amount 
must be paid for water per acre. The general 
estimate is, that the ordinary yearly profit of an 
acre of lemon trees in good bearing amounts to 
one thousand dollars. The chief objection to the 
lemon as a fruit tree is its slowness in coming into 
good bearing. For the first ten or a dozen years, 
the tree does not bear heavily, but after that the 
profit is sure. One fifteen-year-old tree in Los 
Angeles, a few years ago bore two thousand lemons, 
which sold in San Francisco for sixty dollars,'and 
at the recent Citrus Fair, one of the exhibitors 
NEW BLACKBERRY—“EARLY HARVEST.’ 
stated, that he had sold this season from one tree, 
within three months, fourteen hundred lemons, 
and still the tree was well loaded with fine fruit. 
The lemon is as easily propagated from seed, 
cuttings, or suckers, as tlie orange. About 
eighty trees are planted on an acre. A lemon or¬ 
chard does not present so beautiful an appear^ince 
as one of orange trees, for the foliage is less luxuri¬ 
ant and the branches are irregular. The lemon 
blooms here about the first of March or April, the 
first crop being then on the tree. The second crop 
comes iu the summer, and the third in the autumn. 
New Blackberries.—Early Harvest. 
There appears to be “ a boom ” among blackber¬ 
ries, more new varieties having come forward during 
the past two years than during any corresponding 
period. Cultivators appear to be working iu the di¬ 
rection of earliness, and to “Wilson’s Early” and 
“Early Cluster,” they add the “ Early Harvest.” 
Is great earliness desirable in a blackbeiTy ? It is 
of importance to the fruit-grower to have the fruits 
follow one another in regular succession, and 
blackberries are not wanted until the raspberry crop 
is out of the way. It is claimed for the “ Early Har¬ 
vest ” that it is the earliest of blackberries, being 
ten days in advance of the “Early Wilson.” It 
strikes us that while extreme earliness is not de¬ 
sirable, there are directions in which the blackberry- 
may still be improved. As to quality, it there is a 
berry superior to a well ripened “ Kittatinny,” we 
have not seen it. What is now especially needed 
is, a blackberiy that will be ripe when it is black, 
and which, after being picked will retain its brilliant 
jet-black color, without becoming dull and brown¬ 
ish after a few hours’ exposure. It is said that the 
“Early Harvest” originated in Illinois, and has 
been cultivated to some extent for the Chicago and 
other markets. The few who have tested it at the 
East, report in similar terms with the western grow¬ 
ers, viz : that it is a very hardy and prolific variety; 
the fruit ships well, and it is thus far the earli¬ 
est of all the blackberries. As the “ Early Harvest ” 
has been largely planted for market at the East, we 
shall soon learn its value as a market fruit there. 
