134 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
porticuftunt! gepitimtf. 
A HORTICULTURAL NUISANCE. 
We notice that the Charter Oak grape is 
again widely advertised and puffed in the 
papers in this city—a regular thing by the 
way every autumn—as decidedly the “best” 
grape ever cultivated ! 
It has never received the favorable notice, 
that we are aware of, of any horticultural 
society. We are certain that no fruit grower, 
who had any reputation at stake, would re¬ 
commend it as worthy of cultivation. We 
have had it two years in our garden, and it 
has fruited twice. If it took the name of 
Charter Oak from the resemblance of its 
pulp to that very rough wood, that name was 
not unworthily bestowed. We pronounce the 
Charter Oak grape an unmitigated humbug, 
and its sale to any man an imposition. We 
paid two dollars, cash, and gave two years 
of attention to the cultivation of the vine for 
our knowledge. Our readers now have what 
we know of it gratis. If they purchase that 
worthless shrub, they do it on their own re¬ 
sponsibility. 
----J ■ - 
THE HUMBUG OF MANY VARIETIES- 
BY GEORGE JAQUES. 
We have, in our grounds, some three hun¬ 
dred pear trees, more or less, comprising 
about seventy varieties of the fruit. The 
trees are of such size as nurserymen usu 
ally retail at from one to three or four dollars 
apiece. Calling these trees worth five hun¬ 
dred dollars, in their present condition, if by 
some conjurer’s art, their number of varieties 
could be reduced to about a dozen of what 
we consider the most valuable sorts, we 
should then estimate the same trees to be 
worth at least eight hundred dollars. In 
mercantile phraseology, Profit and Loss 
stands Dr. in the sum of $300—to the repu 
tation of having seventy instead of a dozen 
varieties of pears. In illustration of this 
amount of trash accumulated on our hands, 
we have among our trees the Lewis, the 
Passas du Portugal, Beurre de Mons and 
others about the size of blackberries, Avhich 
—if they ever mortify us by fruiting again 
we intend to eat with a spoon after the fash¬ 
ion of strawberries and cream, hoping 
only that we may have a great deal of cream 
and very few of the pears. 
Next we have a class of pears beautiful 
as the fabled fruits of the Hesperides, but 
needing no hydra-headed monster to guard 
them against the depredations of those who 
have tasted them once. Of this class Chelms¬ 
ford is a type, Pope’s Scarlet Major another, 
the Heine des Poires another, &c., &c. 
Then we have a lot which “ came highly re¬ 
commended,” such as the Bleecher’s Mead 
ow, the Dunmore, &c., which our pigs 
always refuse, except on those occasions 
when his darlint of an Irish keeper has for¬ 
gotten “ intirely" to feed him for a day or 
two in succession. A fourth class were re¬ 
ceived under the prestige of such high- 
sounding names tlint we feel certain they 
must be something. But of this class we 
must sorrowfully say—“ stat magni nominis 
umbra." Their fine names contrasted with 
their miserable plight have been sneered at, 
at horticultural exhibitions, their owner’s 
taste called into question, and their history 
concluded by starving poor piggy into an ap¬ 
preciation of their otherwise latent excel¬ 
lence. To this class properly belongs cer¬ 
tain winter varieties, which we shall desig¬ 
nate as the shrivellers. Then comes some 
for which we paid smartly, among them, the 
Colmar d’Aremberg. This, we will admit, 
has proved tolerably palatable some years, 
but we do not think the pleasurable moments 
of our life would be much abridged if we and 
Colmar d’Aremberg were never more to 
meet in our mortal pilgrimage. 
Again, we have from time to time become 
the proprietor of certain other “ very new” 
varieties— cheap enough now—but so scarce 
when we purchased them that we were only 
able to purchase a single little miserable 
specimen tree—granted to us as a special 
favor at the moderate price of five dollars ! 
The Grosse Calabasse heads the list of these; 
the Eyewood is not much too good to follow 
after, and—but we don’t care to prosecute 
this subject further. 
If the art of grafting has not lost its vir¬ 
tues next spring, we shall feel strongly 
tempted to put ourselves in a way to remain 
in blissful ignorance of all the rest of these 
same new varieties, and at the same time 
complete our education in regard to all the 
others above named. 
We want pears that our friends and our¬ 
selves can enjoy—to eat, not to exhibit at 
horticultural fairs! What is it to be able to 
show a hundred varieties of pairs at an ex¬ 
hibition compared to having the finest and 
choicest of this fruit to set before one’s 
friends ! Where is the profit or honor, or plea¬ 
sure, of these same varieties thus displayed, 
if; the final destination of three-fourths 
of them is the pig-stye? And because, 
if our “ more enterprising” (?) neighhor, 
Snooks, happens to get out one hundred and 
one varieties, he wins the laurels, and we 
are at once left in the lurch, with only the 
miserable consolation of going home to share 
with our pig in what other gratification our 
pears may be capable of affording. 
As of pears, so in less degree of all our 
fruits. We remember to have paid a dollar 
and a half for the Carter grapes—a miser¬ 
able savage tree from iis native wood! Per¬ 
haps, though, we are too severe—having 
never actually tasted this fruit; for we do 
assure you, gentle reader, that we—that is, 
ourselves and our pig—have neither of us 
succeeded, up to these present writings, in 
getting the monstrous pulp of this grape far 
enough down our throats to be able to know 
how it would lie in our stomachs. New- 
land’s strawberry we fortunately escaped ; 
also several of the patent currants, &c. 
We might go on this way through the 
whole circle of fruits and ornamental trees 
and plants, but we have already arrived in 
sight of an objection which we knew 
Ave should have to meet. We shall be 
asked: If some one had not experimented 
with new varieties, Iioav would you have 
been supplied Avith such fruit as your Para¬ 
dise d’Automne, Rostezier, Beurre d’Anjou; 
your Leland’s Pippins, your Dutch Currants, 
your Hovey strawberries, &c., &c. ? True, 
very true ; but Ave think Ave can answer—at 
least interrogatively, after the most approved 
Yankee fashion. 
If Columbus had never discovered Amer¬ 
ica, how Avould our politicians ever have op¬ 
portunity to manifest their benevolence in 
saving the Union? It is very well, it is im¬ 
portant, indeed, that somebody should give 
attention to the rlaising and testing of 
netv varieties of fruits; but is that any 
reason Avhy every one Avho may have 
a bit of ground, should fill it up Avith all 
manner of netv trashy fruits Avhich nobody 
has fairly tested ? The wholesale nursery¬ 
man, the Avealthy amateur, horticultural so¬ 
cieties Avho have experimental gardens, men 
very fond of and Avilling to pay for distinc¬ 
tions at horticultural exhibitions, should be 
our experimenters, our pioneers on the 
western frontiers of horticulture. As for 
the rest of us, Ave can better afford to buy 
their experience than to take a share in it. 
If no better plan can be devised, let the 
members of the horticultural society each 
agree to test one or two neAv and different 
varieties in a season, and the work of im¬ 
provement Avould progress rapidly enough 
for all valuable purposes. At any rate our 
dearly bought experience has taught us to be 
shy of the neAv varieties. We ought to be. 
Ave hope Ave are Avilling to do our part; but 
we confess Ave have not much enthusiasm 
for doing more. [Practical Farmer. 
GARDEN HINTS FOR THE SEASON 
Noav that the busy time in this department 
is Avell nigh over for the present season, a 
good opportunity presents itself to make any 
needful improvements or alterations Avhich 
past experience may have suggested. 
The past season has been an excellent one 
for observing the Avonderful effects of Avell 
drained, over wet, or under-drained lands, 
and should be a lesson to those who have 
wet lands to at once set about drainingthem. 
Good hard walks are another necessary 
adjunct to a kitchen garden—walks that will 
be dry in all weathers, and sufficiently hard 
to bear the necessary Avheeling on them. 
The slate rock certainly ansAvers the best 
for this purpose of anything we knoAv of in 
this neighborhood. It should be blasted and 
got in the fall, and if partially broken up and 
laid in heaps or on the walks themselves, 
will by the action of the sun and frost dur¬ 
ing Avinter, be nicely pulverized. 
It is not an unfrequent occurrence to see 
kitchen gardens smothered up with fruit or 
other trees. This is a great evil, Avhere a 
full supply of vegetables is required, as it is 
impossible to hayg top and bottom except it 
may be in a very feAv instances. If it is 
wished to have fruit trees within this de¬ 
partment, they should be either espalier 
trained or the more modern pyrimidal; at 
any rate they should be dwarf, and if planted 
to form a sort of avenue to the Avalks, they 
may be made to assume a pretty feature. 
But to look Avell in this place, they require 
to be kept in good order and properly 
trained, or they soon become too large for 
the place, and are often permitted to groAv on 
until it is too late to keep them Avithin the 
bounds of dAvarfs, and because they bear 
some fruits, are alloAved to remain to the 
great injury of the crops of vegetables. 
Asparagus. —This useful culinary vegeta¬ 
ble should, as soon as the foliage is turning 
yelloAv, be cut off close to the soil, and the 
beds prepared for the Avinter. This consists 
in slightly forking up the soil, and spreading 
a coat of long manure all over the beds, 
three inches thick. The alleys should then 
be dug up and a portion of the mould from 
the alleys be scattered over the entire beds, 
Avhich assists in keeping the manure in its 
place as Avell as making the Avhole look neat. 
In the spring the beds should receive a gentle 
forking and raking all over, as soon after the 
Aveather breaks as it can be Avorked. Some 
seed should be saved and cleaned, ready for 
sowing in the spring to fill up vacancies or 
make neAv plantations. With good care 
plantations Avill last many years. 
Countrv Gentleman. E. SANDERS. 
Guilt, though it may attain temporal splen¬ 
dor, can never confer real happiness. The 
evil consequences of our crimes long survive 
their commission, and, like the ghosts of the 
murdered, forever haunt the steps of the 
malefactor. 
