22 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Jan. 
usually entirely destroyed by this insect—but that 
keeping swine in the plum yard, after five years 
trial, proves very successful. J. C. Holmes, of 
Michigan, saves effectually his rarer sorts, by bags 
of mosquito netting. 
Smokehouse Apple. —For Pennsylvania general¬ 
ly, and for some parts of Virginia, the Smoke¬ 
house Apple is spoken of in the highest terms by 
many cultivators ; the growth of the tree in the 
nursery is, however, pronounced crooked in the 
extreme. The Republican Pippin is reported to 
be a poor bearer. 
White Doyenne in Delaware. —In the excellent 
Report on Pears, by E. Tatnall, of Delaware, 
we are informed that this variety, on pear stock, 
is an entire failure, cracking before half grown, 
and becoming perfectly worthless; while the tree 
is more subject to the blight than any other. 
(This latter defect is the more remarkable, as in 
Western New-York, and some other regions, 
where it succeeds so well, the tree is unusually 
free from blight.) On quince stock, in wet or 
cold soils, it is no better; but on high, dry, and 
rich soils, it is almost wholly free from crack or 
blight, and grows vigorously. This disease is the 
same (on pear stock,) from whatever source the 
trees are received; while cases have occurred 
where trees on quince have been all received from 
the same nursery, and were modified into good or 
bad, entirely in conformity to the soils on which 
they were placed—all showing conclusively that 
the diseased stock theory is incorrect. 
Productive Strawberries. —Joshua Pierce, of 
Washington, furnishes the statement of John Sla¬ 
ter, of the amount of a crop of Alice Maude 
Strawberries. This variety is stated to be at least 
twice the size of Hovey’s Seedling, at that locali¬ 
ty. The bed contained about 30 square rods—it 
furnished about 40 bushels of strawberries, (over 
1,200 quarts,) or at the rate of 213 bushels per 
acre. The rows in the beds were 2 feet apart, and 
the plants 8 to 12 inches asunder in the rows; 
and they were kept clear of weeds and runners. 
Severe Cold in Virginia. —The report of Yard- 
ley Taylor, of Loudon county, states that the 
thermometer sunk there, the past winter, to 10° 
to 14° below zero, destroying at least one-half the 
peach buds. 
Prof. Turner's Theory of Pear Blight. —The 
professor comes out again at some length, in de¬ 
fence of his position, advanced some months since 
in the horticultural journals, that the pear blight 
is caused by a peculiar insect. Further observa¬ 
tion satisfies him that he is correct so far as that 
region of country is concerned. A remedy, found¬ 
ed on his observations, he hopes, (and only 
hopes,) may prove of lasting efficacy. 
Trees on his own grounds, 11 promptly treated 
with soap and tobacco water, spirits of turpentine 
and lampblack, are thoroughly restored; while a 
single row, omitted for want of time, until the 
insects had hatched and gone into the bark, 
is still as badly diseased as ever. On the contra¬ 
ry, one gentleman, one mile from me, omitted all 
care of his trees; they were about 10 or 12 inches 
through, and the finest in the country. But they 
are all now dead, or worse than dead. Another 
gentleman, two miles distant, sceptical at first, 
applied whale-oil soap to the blighted trees, with 
a caustic alkali to dissolve it afterwards, and all 
his trees are now, as he informs me, perfectly free 
from blight.” Soap suds, it is stated, effected as 
great a change in an apple orchard. These are 
very strong cases, so much so as to induce a shade 
of fear that Prof. Turner may have been deceived. 
At all events, we do not see the necessity of a 
caustic alkali to dissolve whale-oil soap, as we have 
always found water alone quite sufficient. What¬ 
ever effect turpentine and lampblack may have 
had, it would be very imprudent to leave this 
mixture for a long period on the trunks of trees 
in the State of New-York, as the hot sun on the 
lampblack combined with the influence of the 
turpentine, would, to speak colloquially, soon 
“ finish the job.” 
Species and Varieties Explained. 
In the Review of Thatcher’s American Orchard- 
ist—(old) Genesee Farmer, vol. 4, p. 65, the fol¬ 
lowing quotation occurs: ‘ ‘Trees raised from seed, 
rarely produce the same species of fruit with that 
from which the kernels were taken;” to which 
the reviewer appends these remarks : 
“ We are the more willing to notice this sen¬ 
tence because the writer is not alone in the mis¬ 
use of the word in italics; and we recommend it 
to all those who have occasion to write on the 
subject of plants, to learn the precise meaning of 
the words, species and variety. It is well worth a 
study of five minutes. All the plants that origi¬ 
nate from the same kind of seed, untainted by 
adulteration, are of the same species. Thus the 
seed of the common apple never produces a pear, 
a quince, or a crab; but seeds of the common ap¬ 
ple produce different trees that vary in the quali¬ 
ties of their fruit, the size of their leaves and 
the appearance of their branches,—as the Fall 
Pippin, the Russett, and the Spitzenburgh. These 
are varieties .” 
It is now more than eighteen years since I wrote 
that review; and think it might be useful to re¬ 
peat those precepts. To florists, I would give 
another view of the subject,—first presenting N. 
Webster’s definition: “ Species are capable of uni- 
