AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
355 
able results. Besides, at least one-third of the 
ground may be used for potatoes, carrots, cabba¬ 
ges or other crops. Dr. Underhill once informed 
me that when he commenced cultivating grapes 
the fruit sold for six and eight cents per pound in 
New-York, while now, with an immense in¬ 
crease of vineyards, his grapes sell for 15 to 18 
cents per pound. The reason is obvious—they 
have become an article of general diet, and when 
every family wants a fruit it will pay. In and 
around Paris, pear trees are cultivated to an im¬ 
mense extent, and yet in that city good pears al 
ways sell for from ten to thirty cents each. I paid 
in Paris one dollar apiece for select specimens. 
Pears will still remain for a long time an aristo¬ 
cratic fruit in Europe. 
You ask “ what soils and locations are most 
promising for pears 1” The pear will grow on al¬ 
most all soils and locations, excepting bare sands, 
swamps, shallow vegetable soil on rocks, and per¬ 
haps the too much exposed summits of mountains, 
if proper attention be paid to the varieties suited 
to these different soils and conditions. The 
neighborhood of the sea is no objection. The 
best soil is a naturally or artificially drained sandy 
loam. By natural draining, I understand, break¬ 
ing through the compact substratas underlaying 
the vegetable soil, till a more permeable subsoil 
i.^ reached. Artificial draining must never be less 
than 2$- feet deep for the quince, and at least 3 
feet for the pear stock. 
In reply to another of your questions, I will 
state that the list of varieties in my first article 
seems to be the best lor the sea-board, north, mid¬ 
dle, and south. In Georgia, they have just as 
fair specimens of Bartletts, Belle Lucrative, 
Seckle, and Duchesse d’Angoule'me, &c., as they 
have in New Hampshire and Ohio. My personal ob¬ 
servation, experience and correspondence, have 
satisfied me that the soil, the cultivation, and the 
selection of proper localities, have more to do 
with the success of the pear crop, than latitudes 
and longitudes. Of course the far north cannot 
expect the same number of good varieties as we 
can in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 
But the south, or south-west, can bring to perfec¬ 
tion such varieties as generally prove inferior in 
Massachusets and New-York. I have tasted in 
Cincinnati, the old Bezi de la Motte, in full per¬ 
fection, and in Georgia, the Belle Lucrative, bet¬ 
ter if possible, and a great deal larger than it is 
here. 
The best time Jor setting out trees in different local¬ 
ities 1 A good dry fall, with protection on the 
foot of the tree for winter, say mulching, brush, 
stones or coarse stable manure ; or, the early 
spring, when the soil has been prepared the year 
before, and is, of course, in good condition. The 
fall affords more leisure, and a longer season; 
but for a few trees only, well taken up and safely 
transported, I should prefer the spring. 
Digging holes is the best of the bad modes of 
planting, unless those holes are connected with 
each other by a drain of rough stones or tiles, so 
as to lead off the stagnant waters to the lowest 
parts of the ground. A hole dug in the middle of 
a bed of clay is a tub where all the surrounding 
waters collect, and as nothing is more injurious 
to the roots of any fruit tree than stagnant waters, 
in all seasons of the year, it follows that the very 
thing intended for good purposes, proves the most 
injurious, unless, ia digging the holes, a very per¬ 
meable gravel or subsoil has been reached. When 
the hole is made, break in the edges with pick-axe 
or spade. 
These, Mr. Editor, are the shortest answers I 
can give to your inquiries. If they prove of any 
use to your readers, I shall gladly comply with 
your other j requests. 
“IDid as the Rest Did.” —This tame 
yielding Spirit—this doing “ as the rest 
did”—has ruined thousands. 
A young man is invited by vicious com¬ 
panions to visit the tavern or the gambling 
room, or other haunts of licentiousness. He 
becomes dissipated, spends his time, loses 
his credit, squanders his property, and at 
last sinks into an untimely grave. What 
ruined him 1 Simply “doing what the rest 
did.” 
A father has a family of sons. He is 
wealthy, other children in the same situation 
of life do so and so, are indulged in this thing 
and that. He indulges his own in the same 
w r ay. They grow up idlers, triflers, and 
fops. 
The father wonders why his children do 
not succeed better. He has spent so much 
money on their education, has given them 
great advantages; but alas !. they are only 
a source of vexation and trouble. Poor 
man, he is just paying the penalty of “ do¬ 
ing as the rest did.” 
This poor mother strives hard to bring up 
her daughters genteelly. They learn, what 
others do, to paint, to sing, to play, to dance, 
and several other useless matters. In time, 
they marry. Their husbands are unable to 
support their extravagance, and they are 
soon reduced to poverty and wretchedness. 
The good woman is astonished. “ Truly,’ 
says she,“ I did as the rest did.” 
Warranted. —A church collector with a 
long nasal appendage had the misfortune to 
bruise the end of it and he applied a circular 
piece of “ court plaster.” When he com¬ 
menced passing the contribution box on the 
Sabbath he was observed to stoop and pick 
something from the floor, wet it and apply it 
to the “ sore spot.” As he passed on a 
general smile and twitter pervaded the con¬ 
gregation much to his discomfeiture. “ It 
came out ” that instead of picking up the 
fallen plaster, he took up a label from the 
end of a thread spool, and upon his long 
nose was plainly marked— 
Warranted 
200 
yards. 
To go through Smoke. —Wet a silk hand¬ 
kerchief and place it over the face. The air 
coming through the wet silk will have much 
of the suffocating material removed from it. 
The carbonic acid however will not be stop¬ 
ped, and on this account this remedy may 
often fail.— Ed. 
Good in other Cases. —A termagant 
having threatened her husband wi^h a blow 
up—*' My dearest blossom,” said he, “ com¬ 
mit your remarks to paper and read them to 
me.” 
A French woman marries by calculation, 
an English woman from custom, and a Ger¬ 
man from love. A French woman loves to 
the end of the honey-moon, an English 
woman for life, a German forever. 
When a lazy man says, “ I’ll do it at my 
leisure,” you may take it for granted he’ll 
never do it at all.” 
HOW TO AVOID FIRES. 
In New-York City, there is a special Fire 
Marshal, whose sole business is to inquire in¬ 
to the cause of every fire that occurs. After 
a long investigation of this subject, he has 
drawn up a setof precautionary rules, which 
are printed on cards and hung up all through 
the city. These rules are valuable to all, 
and we hang them up in this column for you 
reader. 
“ Keep matches in metal boxes, and out of 
the reach of children. 
Wax matches are particularly dangerous, 
and should be kept out of the way of rats 
and mice. 
Fill fluid or campbene lamps only by day¬ 
light, and never near a fire or light. 
Do not deposit coal or wood ashes in 
wooden vessels, and be sure burning cin¬ 
ders are extinguished before deposited. 
Never place a light or ashes under a stair¬ 
case. 
Never take a light to examine a gas meter. 
Be careful never to place gas or other 
lights near curtains. 
Never take a light into a closet. 
Do not read in bed by candle or lamp light. 
Place glass shades over gas lights in show 
windows, and do not crowd goods near 
them. 
No smoking should be permitted in 
warehouses, particularly where goods are 
packed, or cotton stored. 
Where furnaces are used, the principal 
register should always be fastened open. 
Stove pipes should be at least four inches 
from woodwork, and guarded by tin.” 
WEATHER, &c., IN UPPER CANADA. 
Rev. A. Dixon writes us from St. Catharines, 
C. W., Nov. 20: This Niagara District, situated 
between the Lakes Ontario and Erie, is remarka¬ 
bly fitted by nature for the growth of fruit and 
flowers. The climate, owing to its proximity to 
large bodies of water, is more temperate than al¬ 
most any other part of Canada, or the State of 
New-York. The hard and soft-shelled almonds 
come to perfection in this neighborhood, and the 
hedges of the “ three-thorned Acacia ” are not 
injured by the winter. The Isabella and Sweet 
water Grapes grow luxuriously without any pro¬ 
tection. Apricots ripen well, but it is difficult to 
get a crop of them, or of Nectarines, or of choice 
plums, owing to the ravages of the Curculio. We 
have had very heavy storms this fall, but little 
frost, and one or two slight sprinklings of snow. 
The Chrysanthemums are still in full bloom, and 
last year continued so until late in December. 
The railroads in Western Canada were not ob¬ 
structed by the heavy falls of snow 24 hours the 
whole of last winter 
We are glad to hear from the “ Niagara 
District,” for on a farm in that very district, 
on this side of the river, we had a “ hand in ” 
farm operations from our “ earliest recollec- 
tion”until 1841. If we remember rightly some 
of Mr. Dixon’s neighbors’ sons were our 
winter school-mates at the old Lewiston 
Academy, in auld lang syne \— Ed. 
Mr. Coffin’s Sale of Stock. —This sale 
noticed in our last, came off at Amenia, N. 
Y., on the 12th ult. The attendance was 
large, the bidding spirited, and the prices 
realized generally satisfactory to Mr. C., we 
