69 i 
AMERICAN AGRlCULTtUBIST. 
an him [■■in— him i—ii» 11— ii nt iiiMi ■ — wiHiniwii i i M r i ■ in—inn — " i- ... . . • ■ r 
winter very well, and most kinds of lettuce, 
if properly planted, are unharmed through 
the winter. We are thus enabled to pro¬ 
duce a fine supply of early vegetables. Peas 
and other spring growing vegetables will 
allow of being sown .much earlier than can 
be done in the northern States. 
But there are many difficulties to contend 
with, one of the greatest of which is, the dry 
weather that often prevails just at the proper 
season for sowing seeds. We experienced 
a drouth in August and September last, 
which has had a peculiar effect on the Nor¬ 
folk Globe turnip, turning the hearts per¬ 
fectly black, although to outward appear¬ 
ance they are very fine turnips. It has not 
had the same effect on the White Globe or 
Red Top, which are really good turnips. 
I have tried guano with turnips, but the 
bulbs are hard and coarse, and even two 
hours boiling will not make them eatable. 
Cow manure, with the same seed as the 
former, produced splendid turnips, juicy and 
very tender. Those sown on corn land, 
without manure, are altogether superior to 
those sown with guano. My own opinion of 
guano is, that if applied for four successive 
years to all crops taken off, the ground will 
not afterwards produce a crop of buckwheat. 
It is one of the most admirable manures that 
can be applied, if care be exercised; but if 
applied to ground constantly, as many are 
now doing, without change, it is capable of 
spoiling the best ground until after leaving 
off the use of it for two seasons, and apply¬ 
ing other manure. W. SUMMKKSBEY. 
THE DWARF PEAR QUESTION. 
We have repeated and almost constant in¬ 
quiries in relation to the value of the pear on 
quince stocks. Are dwarf pears going to 
answer 1 Are they not a humbug? Are 
they as good as standards ? Would you 
rather have a tree on pear or quince root ? 
These are some of the questions that are 
continually asked; and the conflicting an¬ 
swers that are given do not help to clear up 
the question. 
Yet it is a very simple one, and very easily 
understood when cleared of the fog which 
partial observers and interested persons 
have thrown around it. To say which is 
best under all circumstances, would be like 
attempting to answer the question, ‘ Do you 
think the watermelon as good as the straw¬ 
berry? Shall we notconfine ourselves here¬ 
after to the best of these two, and discard the 
other as a humbug?’ 
Dwarf and standard pears are each excel¬ 
lent in their places. The standard pear, as 
a general rule grows to be a much larger 
tree, requires more time, needs more room, 
ultimately bears more per tree, will endure 
more neglect, and in most cases live to a 
greater age. The dwarf will come sooner 
into bearing, will occupy less space, and will 
not bear neglect, but requires good cultiva¬ 
tion. We are not sure but the last quality is 
a positive recommendation; for planters 
certainly need the stimulus of necessity to 
induce them to take better care of their trees. 
A standard will indeed grow and bear under 
ordinary circumstances ; but give it the best 
chance, and the fruit will be so much im¬ 
proved, as sometimes to be scarcely recog¬ 
nized. The dwarf is emphatically Ihe tree 
of the garden, where two hundred may be 
planted on a quarter acre, instead of but 
twenty-five standards, and where no diffi¬ 
culty exists in giving them the best soil and 
treatment. Those who are about occupying 
new places, may secure for themselves a 
supply of fruit in two or three years by plant¬ 
ing three year dwarfs ; and pomologists may 
get the fruit of new kinds the first or second 
year. 
One leading reason why some have pro¬ 
nounced dwarfs a failure, is the attempt to 
raise too many kinds on the quince. There 
are a few sorts that are entirely at home on 
this stock, and are always seen in a flourish¬ 
ing state, under anything like favorable in¬ 
fluences, among which sorts may be men¬ 
tioned Louise Bonne of Jersey, Duchess of 
Angouleme, Glout Morceau, and Vicar of 
Winkfield, trees of which, twenty or thirty 
years old, are now productive and vigorous, 
and will probably live to a hundred. Some 
of these, and especially the Jersey and Wink- 
field, seem to grow well on almost any kind 
of quince. But all do best on the French 
stock, and this only should be used. The 
Angouleme appears to be the hardiest dwarf 
under neglect. We have just examined an 
orchard of these, about nine years planted, 
which until the present year, had been al¬ 
most totally neglected for five or six seasons, 
and enveloped in weeds and grass, and grow¬ 
ing on a hard stony soil. The present sea¬ 
son they have been cultivated but not ma¬ 
nured, and they all show a thrifty appear¬ 
ance, and are bending under their load of 
magnificent fruit. The trees are about two 
and a half to three inches in diameter, and 
stand erect, although allowed to run up as 
standards, without pruning. They bore very 
little while neglected. As a proof of their 
superior hardiness, all or nearly all of 
those originally planted are flourishing, while 
other dwarfs, interspersed, have nearly all 
died out from neglect. 
There are several sorts of the pear that 
usually do well and live long on the quince, 
if enriched and cultivated annually, but not 
otherwise.—Country Gent. 
COLLECT LEAVES FOR LITTER. 
After the harvest is over, and before the 
snows cover the ground, a day or two spent 
by the farmer and his hands in collecting the 
fallen leaves of the forest will be productive 
of a good store of excellent litter, and the 
expenses amply repaid. A good collection 
of such materials is not always made in the 
fall by those who could do it easily. Indeed, 
this prudent foresight for litter with which 
to bed down cattle, horses, and other stock, 
during the winter, is not sufficiently prac¬ 
tised among us. It not only insures a great 
amount of comfort to your cattle, by giving 
an easy and warm bed, but it saves, indi¬ 
rectly, much fodder, in consequence of the 
warmth thus obtained—cattle eating much 
less when they are kept warm and cleanly. 
The leaf harvest, then, is one of impor¬ 
tance to the farmer, if he will avail himself 
of it. A calm day or two spent in this busi¬ 
ness, with his boys and oxen, and hay rack, 
will enable him to get together a large pile 
of these fallen leaves, and if stowed in a dry 
place lie will experience the good effects of 
them in the improved condition of his stock, 
compared with those which are suffered to 
lie down, and perhaps be frozen down in their 
own filth. The fertilizing material of leaves 
also adds essentially to the enriching quali¬ 
ties of the manure heap. Gardeners prize 
highly a compost made in part of decom¬ 
posed leaves. 
As the leaf harvest is the last harverst of 
the year, let it be attended to, when its time 
comes.—Maine Farmer. 
TREE PLANTING. 
We notice among the munificent bequests 
of Elliott Cressen, a legacy of $5,000 to be 
employed in planting trees in Philadelphia. 
There is something touching in this gift. It 
is fragrant of good taste and friendly feeling. 
It seems to express gratitude for the com¬ 
forting shade of some old tree under which 
the weary philanthropist had meditated his 
schemes of usefulness; and of considerate 
interest for the health and pleasure of future 
generations, who are to people the city of 
his birth. And when monuments of marble 
and of bronze shall crumble, the broad arms 
of the elm and the oak shall stand out against 
the sky as the befitting memento of the liber¬ 
ality and the taste of the tree-loving Phila¬ 
delphian. 
Every one should plant trees. No object 
is more beautiful than a spreading elm, or a 
lively evergreen ; none more productive than 
the apple or the luscious pear. Half the la¬ 
bor bestowed on a single crop of potatoes, 
would originate an orchard, the product of 
which in a few years would be equal in value 
annually, to the potato crop, yet with but 
little labor beyond the harvesting. A fort¬ 
night’s toil in the spring or autumn, in trans¬ 
planting choice fruit-trees to the roadside, or 
tastefully grouping them on the lawn, will 
ultimately add more to the value of the place 
than twice the time employed in building or 
fencing. For their owncomfort,forthe sake 
of their descendants, for the taste and im¬ 
provement of the country, plant trees—let 
everybody plant trees. 
That bald, naked church, tasteless, tree¬ 
less ! W T ho will have compassion on the 
worshipers, and surround it with trees? 
That district school house, bare and unsight¬ 
ly ; who will interest the boys in planting 
and protecting shrubs and trees that will 
make it an attractive and beautiful spot? 
Those verdureless villages, with their houses 
thrust upon the street—who will distribute 
honey-suckles, and Virginia creepers and 
prairie roses, that they may be turned into 
civilized habitations ? 
There is a softening, humanizing influence 
in horticulture and tree-planting, that we 
could wish were more general. There is tco 
much danger of the gross and sensual and 
selfish in our national character ; and while 
our reliance must be on religious and educa- 
