174 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
Somestic (Homsponbence. 
RABBITS. 
Mr. Tucker —In your last November number, you in¬ 
timated that if any of your readers had had experi¬ 
ence in breeding and rearing rabbits, you would like to 
hear from them. The result of my experience you can 
have in a few words. 
A few years since I purchased a pair in the month of 
May, and before the next winter, the doe produced twen¬ 
ty-eight young ones that lived and were fatted, besides a 
number of others that died. Since that, I have kept a 
supply all the time, and can assure your readers that a 
fat rabbit, stuffed and roasted, is not bad to take at any 
time. One rabbit has about as much meat as two full 
grown fowls, and the trouble of taking care of them is 
very trifling. Finding that, like some bipeds, they were 
sometimes disposed to make a bat! use of their liberty, I 
constructed a pen of rough boards 10 by 14 feet, and 3 
feet high, with a floor and roof. This I divided into 
three apartments, and put in them a number of tea, can¬ 
dle and glass boxes, with a hole in each large enough to 
admit a rabbit, and sprinkled in a little hay or straw. For 
food, I give them through the summer little else but the 
weeds of the garden; and in the winter, the refuse beets, 
•carrots and cabbages, with a little bran or oats. In this 
way, attended mostly by children, to whom they afford 
much pleasure, they grow fat and multiply surprisingly; 
and their skins supply all the little girls with pretty muffs 
and various trimmings for their clothes. On the whole, 
Mr. Editor, I would recommend the keeping of a few 
rabbits as a source of profit and pleasure; and especially 
as the outlay, the cost of food, and the trouble, are hardly 
worth naming. The breeding of them on a large scale 
for market, might doubtless be made profitable, for the 
supply is seldom equal to the demand. 
Your correspondent, W. J. Powell, of Marshall, Mi¬ 
chigan, inquires in your January number, what course of 
treatment will produce a large crop of grass on lands in 
his vicinity, “ admirably adapted to the growth of wheat 
and other grains .” I think the answer may be given in 
a few words, soiv a much larger quantity of seed. A soil 
good for wheat, possesses all the constituents for produ¬ 
cing an abundant crop of grass; and he admits that clo¬ 
ver and timothy readily take root and become very tena¬ 
cious in the soil. Sow your seed plentifully then, and 
other requisites being attended to, a large crop is ensu¬ 
red, H. A. P. 
SEEDLING PEARS. 
Hon. H. W. Edwards, late Governor of this State, hav¬ 
ing in his garden some seedling pears of great excel¬ 
lence, was requested by the Pomological Society of New- 
Haven, to give an account of the process which he pur¬ 
sued in obtaining them. He accordingly read to the So¬ 
ciety some memoranda made by him in 1839. 
The success of his experiment is well calculated to 
encourage others to “go and do likewise.” I propose 
to lay before your readers a few of the details of Gov. 
Edwards’ management, as given by him, and a brief de¬ 
scription of some of his pears, furnished mostly by the 
kindness of Dr. V. M. Dow, Secretary of our Society. 
The seeds were planted in the summer and fall of 
1817, and spring of 1818; some when the fruit was ripe, 
some late in the fall, and some early in spring. In some 
instances, the core was planted with all the seeds in. He 
planted none but the seeds of good pears. They were in¬ 
serted from one to two inches deep in the earth. No 
particular difference was observed in the growth, arising 
from the difference in the time or manner of planting. 
When the whole core was planted, the trees came up in 
clusters, and soon after they came up were transplanted 
to a few inches from each other, in rows far enough 
apart for the hoe to be used. All the trees were trans¬ 
planted at two years old to about a foot apart. The 
ground was kept clear of weeds, and manured occasion¬ 
ally. At six years old, about 25 were transplanted, the 
8th of March, to different parts of the garden, where they 
now stand. About 20 were left in the nursery. Some 
of the trees commenced bearing in ten years from the 
seed; others have come in bearing in succession up to 
1844. No two trees bear fruit exactly of the same kind, 
and no one tree bears fruit exactly like any other known. 
In some instances, the resemblance is sufficient to indi¬ 
cate their origin; and when this can be traced, they 
prove in some cases superior, and in others, inferior to 
the original. 
1. Edwards. 
Ripe about the 1st of September, weighs 7 ounces. 
Flesh rich, juicy, half-melting, high flavored and sweet; 
of first rate excellence among pears ripe at this season^ 
considering its size and qualities together. 
2. Hen¬ 
rietta.— 
Ripe about 
the first of 
September, 
weighs 3| 
ounces; co¬ 
lor green, 
with some¬ 
times a cop¬ 
pery blush 
on the sun¬ 
ny side; jui¬ 
cy, melt¬ 
ing, sweet, 
sub-acid & 
rich. Skin 
smooth and 
form regu¬ 
lar. A first 
rate pear. 
3. Citron. 
Ripe from 
1st to 15th 
of Seplem. 
weighs 3 to 
5 ounces; 
larger than 
the Seckel 
pear; flesh 
melting,jui¬ 
cy, very 
2. Henrietta. sweet and 
