52 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Fee. 
HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMEUT* 
CONDUCTED BY J. J. THOMAS. 
Downing’s Fruits and Fruit Trees, 
WITH COLORED PLATES. 
This is truly a splendid and valuable work. It con¬ 
tains seventy colored plates, with representations of 
eighty-six different varieties of fruit. Seventeen of 
these are apples; twenty-four , pears; twenty, cherries; 
two, apricots; seventeen, plums; three, peaches; one, 
raspberry; and one strawberry. They are the finest 
style of lithographic prints, colored by hand. In nearly 
all cases, they are remarkably accurate delineations of 
nature; and they have the excellence of being entirely 
free from the over-coloring which is so prevalent among 
illustrated works of the kind. Gorgeous daubings of 
the most brilliant paints, afe infinitely inferior to the 
softened lights and shades of the skilful copier of na¬ 
ture. As paintings, however, they will not take the 
highest rank; neither indeed should they; for in that 
case it would be necessary to represent them in too 
strong a light, relieved by too heavy shades, to be well 
adapted to close viewing, as in a book held in the hand. 
The light and shade is mild, so that the true colors of 
the specimens are not obscured by heavy shadows. 
There is much uniformity in the excellence of the 
coloring throughout the volume—the accuracy with 
which the peculiar shade of color, of nice distinctive 
tint of each variety is given, in most cases, is admira¬ 
ble; yet in the copy before us, we are particularly 
pleased with the figure of the Columbia, Lawrence’s 
Favorite, and Duane’s purple plums, the Bilboa and 
Marie Louise pears; and that of the Fastolff raspberry 
is extremely fine and natural, the soft pulpy juiciness 
of the berries being quite conspicuous. On the other 
hand, we should regard the figures of the Bloodgood 
and Bezi de la Motte pears, and Bullock’s pippin, 
though good pictures, as of a greener hue than is 
usually found in the real specimens. The drawing of 
Baumann’s May, appears to have been made from an 
immature specimen;—w T hen fully ripe, this cherry is 
nearly black, and comparatively round and plump, the 
angles disappearing as it ripens. The Seckel pear 
hardly exhibits enough of the brownish russet which 
marks this variety. The Winter Nelis, also, we should 
think, should be more generally overspread with the 
russet streaks, found on the average of specimens. 
In addition to the plates, this volume has all the out¬ 
line figures, and all the corrections of the seventh com¬ 
mon edition. The typography and binding are of the 
highest order; and the work taken altogether is unsur¬ 
passed. We should have been glad if the binder had 
relieved us from the necessity of so frequent a resort 
to the paper-knife. 
Quince Stocks for Pears. 
Much attention has been lately directed towards the 
use of the quince as stocks for the pear. The former 
opinion, of the extremely short duration of pear trees 
on the quince, seems to have been in part, founded in 
error. The late S. G. Perkins of Brookline, Mass., 
had perfectly healthy and productive trees, which had 
been transplanted more than twenty years. T. Rivers 
states that at the celebrated Chiswick Garden, Eng¬ 
land, there are trees twenty-five years old, w T hich are 
“ pictures of good health and fertility.” A n( l we are 
assured on good authority that in Germany there are 
healthy trees of far greater duration. 
A great advantage in the use of the quince stock, is 
early productiveness, only two or three years being 
required from the time of grafting before the tree 
commences bearing. Another, is the little room they 
occupy, from the character of dwarfs which they as¬ 
sume, and they may be planted within ten feet of each 
other. Hence they are admirably adapted to limited 
gardens, where it is desired to cultivate for crops the 
intervening soil; for branching within a foot of the 
ground, and rising only eight or ten feet high, they 
shade the surface and exhaust the earth but slightly. 
They, however, need a rich soil and good cultivation, 
and are hence unfit for the grassy orchard, where such 
treatment is not given. And yet we ean by no means 
say that they are not in some localities, well adapted 
for market products; for an eminent English cultivator, 
T. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, who has had abundant 
experience in their cultivation, had last summer a 
plantation of no less than 1500 trees of the Louise - 
Bonne de Jersey alone, for supplying the London mar¬ 
ket, and intended the past autumn, to increase the 
number to 3000. 
All pears, it is well known, do not succeed equally 
well when treated in this way. A large portion of the 
varieties appear to be but little changed in size and 
quality; but a few are vastly improved, and on the 
the other hand some do not succe.ed at all, when graft¬ 
ed or budded directly upon the quince. Experiments 
are much needed; and with the hope of encouraging 
their increase, a few results, with some of the most ce¬ 
lebrated varieties, are given. 
The Duchesse d’ Angouleme has long been known to 
be incomparably improved on quince, and its culture at 
present is hardly attempted by good cultivators on the 
pear. Beurre Biel is much higher flavored; Rivers 
says u this pear seldom ripens well on the pear stock; 
on the quince the fruit are larger, more handsome, of 
perfect flavor, and they invariably ripen well.” He 
also states the following fact relative to the Beurre d? 
Aremherg : — “ Of this, I ate my best specimens about 
the middle of last April; they were vinous, juicy and de¬ 
licious, from plants on the quince. Specimens from 
plants on the pear stock, kept only till the end of Feb¬ 
ruary.” It has also been found in this country to suc¬ 
ceed finely on the quince. Of the Glout Morceau his 
report is highly favorable:—“ Grows freely on the pear 
stock and blooms freely; but seldom bears any clear 
fruit ; they are generally full of spots, and often do not 
ripen at all kindly. On the quince stock it bears clear 
handsome fruit, which invariably ripen, and are very 
highly flavored.” M. P. Wilder, of Boston, says, 
“ Few varieties succeed so well on the quince as the 
Glout Morceau; a tree of which, in my own ground, 
annually produces a barrel of large, perfect fruit. In 
growth, it is more luxuriant on the quince.” Manning 
says of the Easter Beurre, “ it bears abundant crops, 
grafted either on the pear or quince;” but Rivers as¬ 
serts that “on the pear stock [in open ground] it is a 
most crab-like pear, bearing but very seldom and never 
ripening; on the quince it bears well, is of high flavor 
and always ripens in April and May; it is, however, 
inclined to be gritty at the core, the only pear I have 
found to be so on quince stock.” This unfavorable 
report of the Easter Beurre, when on pear roots, 
we fear will be found to apply to a considerable ex¬ 
tent in most localities here. It is on this aecount that 
M. P. Wilder excludes it from his list of the “ five best 
winter pears ” in the Horticulturist; although he re¬ 
marks it succeeds better on the quince. A writer in 
the Prairie Farmer states, however, that he has fmm4 
