72 
. Reviews and Extracts, 
black. lie has known them to weigh from six to seven ami a halfounce.s each, 
and seldom to fail of a good crop. Mr. Pearson’s manner of treating them is this.— 
About the middle of November he prunes and nails them, being careful to cut 
away all those shoots which have reached the top of the wall, on purpose to give 
those place that are in the rear. By this means a good supply of young wood is 
kept throughout the whole tree,by laying in the branches thin and regular^ when 
the nailing is finished, he then procures a cpiantity of spruce fir branches, and 
covers the trees all over, one branch thick—the foliage of these branches falling 
off towards spring, and gradually naturalizing the tree to the season; by the 
10th of May every leaf has left them, just when the fig begins to put forth its 
leaves; he then removes the skeleton branches, and gives the trees a complete 
washing with water, by means of a garden engine, to clear them of all the decayed 
leaves of the fir which lodge about them. In July, he proceeds to the summer 
pruning and nailing, cutting away all the shoots that will not he wanted to furni.sh 
the tree at the winter nailing; the rest of the young wood he nails close to the 
wall, exposing the fruit as much as possible to the sun. It is the firm opinion of 
Mr. Pearson that they cannot he brought to perfection without a very plentiful 
supply of water to the roots, as he considers them partly aquatic ;—soapy water 
from the wash-house he thinks is preferable. 
Art. 26.—Page 327.— On the Culture of the Fear. By Mr. B. Saunders, Nur¬ 
seryman, Jersey. 
Mr Saunders believes the common mode of shortening- the breast-wood in summer 
to two or three eyes, occasions fresh shoots and impoverishes the tree to no purpose ; 
he says, abetter plan is, either to displace them entirely when young, or (where 
there is a deficiency of fruit .spurs) to break in the month of July, the fore-right 
shoots nearly through, to within five or six eyes of the bottom, leaving the upper 
extremity suspended, six or eight weeks. This impedes the communication of the 
two saps, and prevents a second shoot: the eyes at the base most frequently forming 
themselves into fruit-hearing spurs, for the following season. 
Art. 28.—Page 332.— On the Hop, its Blight, and Remedy. By John Murray, 
Esq. F.S.A., F.L.S., &c. 
“The leaf and flower of the hop, (says the writer,) are affected with the honey- 
dew, under peculiar circumstances; and is a phenomenon standing in some relation 
to specific changes in the atmosphere.” After speaking of the various opinions 
relative to the causes and effects of this disease, he goes on to say, that “ When the 
hop is struck by the fly, as it is called by hop growers, it will he found, on accu¬ 
rate investigation, to he consecutive on some morbid change in the hop-bine itself, 
an effect produced by some previous vicissitude in the atmosphere. Perhaps, 
therefore, the truth will be found to be this.—The plant is blighted, as it is termed, 
by the wind, or some destructive vicissitude in the atmosphere, and the tran.s- 
udation of the saccharine matter is the consequence of the morbid change thus 
superinduced. This saccharine secretion becomes the lure to the imag'o of the 
insect; here its ova are deposited : these, again, in process of time, become larv*, 
that, like the Egyptian locust, devour every green thing. In this view of it, 
(the writer conceives) the principal thing to be attended to is the prevention of 
this morbid change, by controlling and modifying the condition of tlie atmosphere, 
in all probability the proximate or immediate cause. 
“The fact that plants grow most luxuriantly near a lightning conductor, and 
are there maintained in a healthier condition than elsewhere, proves that the 
maintenance of the electric current between the earth and the heavens, becomes 
