MAY 26 
to Seckel; not profitable for market. Last 
of August. 
Clapp’s Favorite: a good grower and 
bearer; fruit large. Unfortunately it is not 
a good keeper, and Southern Rartletts come 
in with it. Last of August. 
Bartlett : the pear to plant; does well on 
quince if once starter], or I should expect 
good results if it were double-worked; the 
trouble is the Bartlett and quince do not more 
than half the time make a good union, and are 
prone to break apart. Tree an early and 
great bearer on either stock; it beam so early 
on pear root that working it ou the quince is 
no advantage. It would pay best to set trees 
of tliis variety about 16 feet apart, as it never 
makes a large tree. It fruits too heavily. 
September. 
Parsonage in appearance resembles the 
Bartlett; quality poor—good to cook and that 
is all. I presume its appearance would sell 
the fruit for Bartletfcs; tree a strong grower. 
T .ast. of September. 
THE PEAR—WHAT TO PLANT. 
Twenty-five years ago all varieties of 
peam were tried on the quince. As with re¬ 
gard to all other fruits there was a variety 
mania in pears. It is about 40 years since the 
first, Bartlett tree came in this neighborhood 
and about 80 years since tbe j>ear fever 
started. It was common at that time for 
Bartlett and Virgouleuse to bring $15 per bar¬ 
rel, and they were very profitable. Crafting 
the pear on the quince was the way to for¬ 
tune; but the majority of planters soon con¬ 
cluded it was the way to lose money, and it 
truly was a losing business. With a good soil, 
and Duchesse or Vicar, I think the quince offers 
great inducements. The Duchesse is a great 
deal better^on quince than on pear, and we 
know it has paid us well even at low prices. 
The gilt edge is off of the pear and $5 per bar¬ 
rel is now as good a price as $15 used to be. At 4s 
the preseut price, if wo have a dry, deep soil (-Q 
that stands the dry weather, and where the tjgj 
tree ripens well sq as to to give a prospect of 
exemption from the blight, I see no reason 
why pear growing will not pay. The list of 
varieties is long. I will give a few that we 
think best, and several more that are perhaps « 
not worth growing. 
Doyenne d'Ete: early and very small; one 
tree is enough for family use. July. 
Madeleine: small and green; only valuable jfl 
for family use. A strong grower. July. 
Passans dc Portugal, a small, green pear 
of the very highest flavor; tree a great and 
early bearer; fruit among the best for family 
use; too small for market; has paid well; 
cracks sometimes. August. 
Manning’s Elizabeth: a small pear, good 
for home use; too small for market; tree grows 
and bears well. August* 
Early Catherine: a strong grower and 
productive: fruit small; hard to gather; fla¬ 
vor poor. Tree blights; has had its day. I am S[[FNE PE!fDCLA „ Zl , LA Kinq ..,. Fi0 . m .. FR0M nature' 
not much in favor of working over trees after 
they get to some size, yet this variety I would 
treat just that way. August. 
Kirtland: ripens with the Early Catherine, 
and if those who grow Catherine will try 
Kirtland they will find they have about the 
pear of the season for size and quality, produc¬ 
tiveness and thrifty growth; almost large 
enough to compete with the Bartlett and just 
ahead in ripening. Last of August. 
Bloodgood : early and productive; not valu¬ 
able. August. 
Dearborn’s Seedling: a small,yellow pear 
of fair quality. Its size ruins it. September. 
Belle Lucrative; or, Fondante d’Ao- 
tomne: of medium size; to those who like a 
sweet pear, quality superior; not profitable for 
market. Tree productive to a fault. September. 
Des Nonnes (Beam 5 des Brignais): a me¬ 
dium-sized, green pear; sweet and very juicy 
Tree early and a great bearer; grows well; 
fruit will not sell. September. 
Becrr£ Sdperfin: a fair grower and a 
good and early bearer: fruit large, and with 
a peculiar acid flavor that is liked by most 
people. September and October. 
Duchesse d’Anooulemk is the great pear 
on quince; in fact, it is much better on quince 
than on pear stock. When grown ou the lat¬ 
ter the fruit drops to a considerable extent be¬ 
fore ripening and lacks the flavor of the 
fruit grown on quince. This is best of all 
that we have tried, and the only one that is 
better on quince than on pear. We have 
been successful to a greater degree with this 
fruit on the quince root than with any other 
variety we have grown, whether on pear or 
quince; and we have no hesitation in recom¬ 
mending it for orchard culture ou the quince. 
With ordinary culture it will pay. Septem¬ 
ber and October. 
Buffum; a good grower and productive; 
fruit not high-flavored, and too small. Sep¬ 
tember and October. 
Seckel: of this everybody wants a tree or 
two. It is the standard for high flavor; not 
very profitable; costs too much to nick; tree 
a slow, thrifty grower and a good bearer. 
September. 
Beurr£Deil: on rich land the tree grows 
well; but very slowly where the soil is thin; 
fruit large and fair. Would be a pretty good 
pear were it not that, Duchesse d’Angouleme 
and Beuird d’Anjou are so much superior. 
September aud October. 
Lawrence: tree a good grower and thrifty; 
fruit ripens with Beurre d r Anjou, but is in¬ 
ferior. 
White Doyenne: cracks; has been good; a 
failure now. September and October. 
Beurre Goubalt: tree very productive of 
small pears that are sometimes very liigh- 
flavored; not worth planting. September. 
Rostikzkr : a straggling grower aud early 
bearer of small, green pears of a quality equal 
KingsessinG: tree a fair grower; nothing to 
recommend it. September. 
Beurre Clairgeau ; a fair grower and pro¬ 
ductive; veiy variable—sometimes good, of- 
ten poor. I have au idea that this pear wants 
very dry land; in wet seasons it is worthless 
with us, while in dry seasons it is good. Sep¬ 
tember and October. 
Onondaga : there is only one thing wrong 
with this fine pear—the fruit is large and good 
but tbe tree blights badly. September and 
October. 
Howell: a fair grower and productive of 
fair fruit; not profitable, September. 
Washington: a slow grower; but great 
bearer. The amateur can hardly do without 
this fruit; ripens with the Bartlett.. 
Flemish Beauty: tree grows as well as the 
best; fruit, fair to the eye; must be gathered 
early or it rots at the core. This and Beurre 
Clairgeau and Bourn 5 Diel have a habit of 
dropping the leaves too soon: not profitable, 
September and October. 
Louise Bonne de Jersey has been a failure 
with us; out of SO trees ouly a few are left— 
all winter-killed. Tree beai-s well; fruit not very 
good. September and October. 
Beurr£ d’Anjou has been said to be the 
best pear in cultivation, which is about 
true. Tree a rathe)' tardy bearer, as slow 
on quince as on pear. Plant on pear root, 
and with care and patience and a good soij 
it will pay. Particularly exempt from blight, 
and from what I know of tbe Kieffer, I 
would rather have tbe Beurre d’ Anjou. 
The Kieffer is not so tremendous a grower 
as to excel all others: the fruit may cook 
pretty well; but what fruit 1 have seen 
was not good, and it will not do to raise jioor 
peai-s thinking that the buyers will always 
go by r looks, although appearance is the first 
point in fruit that attracts the buyer. We 
have not fruited the Kieffer ourselves—we can 
wait a while yet. 
Pound: tree gl ows well and bears fine pears 
for cooking that keep pretty well. 
Sheldon: tree grows fairly aud hem's well; 
the color of the fruit is not attractive; may 
t hink better of this pear after fruiting it 
more. October. 
Winter Nelis: good for the amateur; 
fruit too small; tree slender and a poor grower. 
Doyenne d’ Alencon: tree grows aud bears 
tolerably' well; fruit small to medium; ripens 
from December to March; of fair quality, con¬ 
sidering that pears are scarce at that time; 
color green; nothing attractive about tbe looks 
of this fruit, yet every orchard ought to have 
some trees to keep up the supply late in the 
season. 
Vicar of Winkfield: tree a good grower; 
very liable to blight; a great bearer of good- 
sized pears that are sometimes edible without 
cooking; the best for cooking, aud good 
specimens are excellent canned. We have 
found this profitable on quince, and of late 
y'ears think it pays best of all pears. Decem¬ 
ber to January. 
I have now gone through the list that we 
have tried for market. Let us pick out a few 
of the best—the kinds that promise to pay for 
the labor bestowed upon the trees, and that 
grow andbearfroit that, will sell. We findthat 
pears grow from the Gulf States to the Lakes. 
The Bartlett ripens iu Georgia in July; in 
Canada the last of September. As a market 
fruit it has no superior at the present time. 
We find practically that no other pear can 
compete with the Bartlett from July' until 
October, so that the profitable list, for market 
is reduced to pears that ripen after October. 
The Beurre 5 d’ Anjou, has the most good points 
of the pears that ripen from October until 
Chiistmas, but it has two faults—it bears 
tardily, and does not color; yet on pear root it 
excels all others. This reduces the Fall pears 
to a short list. Duchesse d’Angouleme is the 
best on quince; in fact it is altout the only 
variety desirable to grow on quince, anil it 
fills the October market. Sure to pay 
when proper conditions arc given. The Vicar 
is the best for cooking, iu whatever shape; 
it beai-s to excess; it grows well (except 
when it blights); the fruit sells high; does wel 
on quince but better on pear. 
The young man that starts in this section 
with a good soil properly situated so that it 
can be perfectly drained (for the pear detests 
wet feet), gives good cultivation aud manure, 
and selects these four varieties, or any' one of 
them, has a prospect of success. Let him try' 
the different varieties mentioned, and he w ill 
be old before he is rich. The best always pay; 
the poor never. Ira. J. Blackwell. 
Titusville, N. J. 
flurkiiltiiml. 
GARDEN CATCHFLYS. 
The Catchflys, botanieally known as Silene, 
comprise some brilliant and beautiful an¬ 
nual and perennial plants which are deserv¬ 
edly favorites in our gardens. They also in¬ 
clude a number of ungainly weeds; for in¬ 
stance, the Bladder Campion. 
^Silene pendula, subject of a illustration, 
is a pretty little annual species, a native 
of Southern Europe, and of all shades of color 
from w'hite to pink and crimson, and there 
are also double-flowered varieties. It. is very 
easily raised from seeds, which may be sown 
out-of-doors where it is to bloom, and the thin¬ 
nings may be transplanted elsewhere if requir¬ 
ed, or it may be grown in a lmt-bed or in boxes 
in the window. It blossoms freely during the 
early' Summer and especially' so in a cool, 
moist place; but in w'arin, sunny Summer 
weather it succumbs to the heat or drought. 
Zulu King is a new lbnn of this same Catclilly, 
in which, instead of there being- one blossom 
inside of each bladder-like calyx, as is the case 
in the older forms, there are several. 
The perennial Catchflys furnish us with 
many choice gardeu flowers, aud some of the 
brightest aud best of them are indigenous to 
our own country; for instance, what can be 
brighter than the Virginia Fire Pink or more 
profuse than the Pennsylvania Catch fly i And 
we have the round-lea veil Silene from the 
Southern States, aud the handsome scarlet 
Royal Catchfly of the West. The Moss Cam¬ 
pion of the Alpine summits of the White 
Mountains is also a Silene, a little tufted 
beauty, much sought for rockeries in Euro¬ 
pean gardens, but unless in exceptional cases, of 
no avail in American gardens. Among foreign 
species the Japanese, S. grandiflora aud its nu¬ 
merous varieties are among the most servicea¬ 
ble. They are perennial, hurdy, showy, late- 
bloomiug and v ary in color from white to deep 
crimson. They are easily raised from seeds. 
Some other kinds, as the Fringed Catchfly', 
white; the Oriental Catchfly, rose; and the 
Sea Catchfly, w'hite, are also well worth grow¬ 
ing. Some of the most charming of all are 
Alpine, Elizabeths, Scliafta aud Pigmy; they 
grow in little mats or tufts aud are suited for 
moist rockwork, but unfit for open border 
cultivation. 
fHifijcellancous. 
NOTES ON BACK NUMBERS. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M.D. 
Rural, April 21.—“ Fear is the source of 
nine-tenths of the misconduct of brutes,” says 
Mr. Stahl of Illinois (page 246), meaning our 
domestic “ brutes,” and no truer words were 
ever penned. These quadruped dependants of 
ours will always love us, and love to obey us, 
if we give them a chuilce. 
“ Every particle is oaten,” (J. T. A., pages 
247-48) is a sentence that tells the story of en¬ 
silage and its popularity. Dr. Sturtevant is 
strongly contradicted by Vermont, farmers 
(and I see that president Prince of the Maine 
State Agricultural Society joins them) wheu 
he says that ensilage feed does not increase 
the yield of butter. But a main point is that 
ensilage butter has a much better natural 
color than hay or corn-fodder butter. 1 be¬ 
lieve it is the chlorophyl (green-coloring mat¬ 
ter) that gives the yellow color to butter, and 
when this is destroyed (as it always is in 
corn-fodder, and in all but the most rapidly' 
cured, early cut hay) the butter lacks color. 
It is a mere figment of the imagination to 
claim that roots, even carrots, or y'ellow corn- 
meal, impart color to butter. Only feed in 
which the natural green color of the stem and 
leaves is preserved will do it, and that is pre¬ 
served in good ensilage. 
In “Blackberries” (page 248) I am sorry 
not to see a notice of “ Sable Queen,” which is 
superior to Snyder in every way, and quite 
as hardy here in Northern Vermont, where 
no sort is perfectly hardy when not covered 
in Winter, either by' snow or otherwise. This 
Spring every last bud is starting, though we 
have had the coldest Winter but one in 20 
years. But we have had plenty of snow. 
[We have never tried it.—E ds.) 
The notes on “Grasses in Kansas” (page 
240) are interesting. Red Clover does not 
“run out” in all parts of New England, as 
Prof. Shelton thinks. In the northern parts 
of Vermont and Maine it is only destroyed by 
exceptionally open Winters. Otherwise it re¬ 
mains, and seeds itself as in Kansas, Orchard 
Grass has all the merits accorded to it, but 
writers will praise it in vain unless the seed 
can be had cheaper. 
Does the writer iu the Homestead (Samples 
and Comments, p. 249) think he loses the fer¬ 
tilizing material of cobs in feeding them to his 
stock, that he prefers to burn them and use 
ashes( If fertilizing material is what he is 
after, he will get more of it by feeding—if he 
takes care of his liquid aswell as solid manure* 
Perhaps a serious answer to the question 
“ how much will potatoes shrink from Fall to 
Spring;” may be useful. In one trial made by' 
myself it was 17 per cent., without any loss by 
rotting or vermin. 
Glad to see you get Prof. Budd, of the Iowa 
Agricultural College to answer questions about 
Northwestern fruits. Growers can as thor¬ 
oughly rely on his judgment for that section 
as on Mr. Downing’s for the Northeastern 
States, or Mr. Berckman’s for the South. 
Rural, April 28.—Mr. Caywood’s grape 
trellis (p. 262) is excellent, but not original. I 
saw them made the same way, years ago, in 
Maine, but with hinged uprights, to allow 
laying down hi Winter. Slats were used ‘in 
place of wires. 
