COUNTRY (3ENTLE^rAN^S CO:\TI’ANlON. 
jANUAny 1. 
is ill a dormant sfato; it would prove too powerful 
when the tree is in leaf. 
The lied Sjiider sometimes attacks the Pear; hut 
this may be dealt with as in the ease of the Apple, and 
wo need not re))eat it here. Whilst on tliis part of our 
subject, I may observe that the Scale also attack's the 
Apjtle, and may, in its turn, receive the treatment here 
laid down. 
About the end of Juno, T have, for three years, received 
a singular visitation on a Pear-tree, here and there, in 
the shape of a kind of //oan/iUir, for which T never 
could discover any adequate cause. Certainly, I have 
aeon myriads of white '.I’lirips, of a sort of triangular 
character, light as gossamer, and bouncing about in a 
most thripish sort of way. Whether these produce this 
e.vudation, t am unable to say, but think it very pro¬ 
bable. Tt is very injurious to the foliage. The wasps 
congregate about these trees as their chief delight, with 
hosts of big flies; and knowing labourers, who receive 
a penny for wasps, make a point of keeping an eye on 
these infested Pears. I found, that a universal wasli of 
soap-water and stable liquid, made as thick with clay 
as could be done, put on in 185 t, cleared the trees from 
this nuisance. 
Next, I have had before now serious visitations from 
a fungus which produces pimply warts or 2 ^ucJcers on 
the leaves. I forget the name of this—perhaps the 
greatest enemy of the Pear—and know of no remedy, 
but the moment such foliage appears to j)luck it away ; 
and that course to be rejieated as long as it appears. 
Another most serious enemy, one which may happen 
about July or August, is a caterpillar, hatebed in 
the interior of the leaf, after the manner in which 
Celery and the Holly-tree are apt to be infested. I 
remember, several years since, seeing the majority of 
the trees in a celebrated garden, not very far from 
Liverpool, and then noted for fine Pears, nearly stripi)ed 
of their foliage in the prime of summer. I never had a 
visitation from this evil; and I have never heard of any 
thing effective to prevent its appearance. Of course, 
there would bo no proceeding against the caterpillar; 
it should bo dealt with in a previous stage. 
Within the last three years another serious visitation 
has occurred just whilst th.e fruit is ripening; this con¬ 
sists in the foliage turning llach of a sudden, as though 
scalded with boiling water. This takes place in a very few 
hours. I have no idea what the cause really is; but am 
driven to suppose it is one of those minute fungi—those 
scavengers of the vegetable world, which are so dan¬ 
gerous, because so insiduous and obscure. This strange 
visitation, although it cannot well injure the blossoms 
of the ensuning year, seriously compromises the excel¬ 
lence of the fruit, which at that period is completing its 
flavour. I have tried no remedial measures, for it has 
ever given too short a notice. I am of opinion, how¬ 
ever, that it must, for the present, be handled on the 
preventive system. Eor my own part, as long as I can 
obtain labour to accomplish it, I shall make a point of 
sousing every wall and every trained tree, each suc¬ 
ceeding spring, with a universal wash; believing that 
one good blow thus dealt out will be better than all 
the summer fiddle-faddle possible. 
I am not aware of many more evils of any grave con¬ 
sideration which befall the Pear; doubtless, there are 
others, but I, of course, am not acquainted with all. 
I intend continuing my remarks on other fruits; and, 
as I proceed, memory may, perhaps, call loudly for a 
postscript, and, if needed, it shall be produced. 
R. EqaiNqTON. 
WINTER, STORING AND SUMMER RESTING 
GERANIUMS. 
Weli., to-morrow is Christmas-day, and this is the 
fittest day we have had this winter; but we wenj; through 
a very severe and damaging frost for the last ten davs, j 
and more so round London, and in all places not covered ; 
with a little snow. We experienced 18° of frost one i 
day, and 15^, 12°, and 10® on other days, with a cutting ' 
east wind ; but there was but little sun, so that small ! 
injury has yet been felt in the kitchen-garden. When ! 
the glass ranged from 10° to 15° of frost, the leaves and ! 
stems of my out-ofdoors Pompones dried up as if 
scorched, but some of tbe kinds which were on a 
north aspect hold up the llowers still, just as if they, 
the llowers, were everlastings. Fiancee, Fenclla, 'I'oison 
I d'or, and Oolibri, stood it the best; and I am going to 
cut a handful of these blooms and some large llower- 
buds on the Oloiro de Fosamene Rose to-morrow, for a 
Christmas nosegay. Last Saturday I cut about two 
do'/en of trusses of my last Scarlet Ocranium for the 
season. There were thirty-four trusses on the same 
plant, and from six to ten open flowers in each truss; 
but the cutting wind for the last two or three days 
spoiled so many of the flowers that I could not use the 
whole of the trusses for the nosegays; still, you see the 
possibility, without a hand-glass, frame, pit, or green¬ 
house, of being able to have cut-flowers for the Christinas- 
dinner from Pompones and an Autumnal Rose, after a 
bad November for flowers, and an unusually severe be¬ 
ginning to the winter. 
I put the Scailet Geranium out of the question, for, 
without a cool glass-case of some kind or other, no one 
would be able to have flowers of the Scarlet Geraniums 
so late as this. In a living room the flowers must have 
gone mucli sooner. I had been satisfied, in my own 
I mind, for many yeai’s, that wo never hit upon a proper 
system, or say the best system, for having Scarlet Gera¬ 
niums down to Christmas, and much later, or till 
Geiamiums “came again;” like having old Grapes till 
the new ones came in; but all that time I- was all 
but confident that such might bo done, and done 
handsomely too. 
I used, every autumn, to pot so many old Geraniums, 
on purpose to come in next autumn for late bloom, with 
the intention of trying such and such experiments on 
them, to find out the simplest plan of managing the 
thing. 
But, alas, for gardening! No man can carry out a set 
of experiments, or resolves, in a fashionable establish¬ 
ment, however useful they might be to himself and 
others. Fashion is more desjiotic than a tyrant, and 
1 every man, woman, and thing, within its influence must 
give way to it, and go to the wall without the power to 
! resist it. 
; IMy yearly pottings for specimen Geraniums to flower 
during the following winter could not be hid in a corner; 
I and every visible thing, plants among the rest, had to 
, be displayed out in full array to satisfy the demands of 
fashion, without the slightest regard to this or that kind 
I of future use and management. “ The so-and-so are coming 
: next week, or the week after, and you must put tlio best 
I foot foremost, look apple-pie order, and trust to, good- 
■ ness knows what, for the fulfilment of your great jiro- 
I jects for the future, which may be all good and well 
j when I am dead and gone ; but which would deprive us 
[ now of the best arm in our service.” Oh, these we's and 
: ourses, with smiles and suavity, no mere flesh and blood 
j could resist them ! Decrees and ukases are not lialf so 
imperious over the will of man. All my best pot-plants 
for experimenting on would have to “ go out this time,” 
! and I must console myself with the hope of better li'.ck 
next time; were it not for thus hoping agaiqst hope, 1 
know some of our very best gardeners would knock their 
heads against the Peach-wall. But when a man gets 
i over fifty, the ruling passion is not quite so strong; lie 
will undertake things more slowly and more cautiously, 
and is apt to be satisfied with less than an average of 
success, or returns for what he is engaged on; that may 
