April 10. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 19 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
M 
D 
W 
APRIL 10—16, 1855. 
Weather near London in 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
1853. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 1 
1 10 
To 
Easter Tuesday. 
30.214—30.130 
54—30 
E. 
_ 
18 a 5 
45 a 6 
3 
8 
23 
1 
26 
100 
1 11 
W 
Clivina sanguinea. 
30.201 — 30.110 
64—37 
N.E. 
— 
16 
46 
3 
45 
24 
1 
0 
101 
12 
Th 
Demetrias monostigma. 
1 30.35G—30.320 
60—44 
E. 
01 
14 
48 
4 
11 
25 
0 
53 
102 
13 
F 
Haliplus ferrugineus. 
30.346-30.250 
61—26 
E. 
— 
12 
50 
L 4 
30 
26 
0 
37 
103 
14 
s 
Haliplus flavicollis. 
30.171—30.053 
66-29 
E. 
— 
9 
52 
4 
46 
27 
0 
22 
104 
1 13 
Son 
1st, or Low Sunday. 
30.027—29.990 
67—26 
N.E. 
01 
7 
53 
5 
1 
28 
0 
7 
105 
16 
M 
Haliplus ruficollis. 
30.195—30.103 
64—40 
N.E. 
— 
5 
65 
sets. 
© 
oaf. 8 
106 
—-- 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest tem- 
| peratures of these days are 56°, and 36.5°, respectively. The greatest heat, 73°, occurred on the 11th, in 1852; and the lowest cold 20°, 
j on the 16th, in ’.S47. During the period 102 days were fine, and on 94 rain fell. 
Let every one of our readers interested in the culti¬ 
vation of fruits, and who has a shilling to spare, become 
a purchaser of the first number of The Transactions of 
the British Bornological Society, which has just issued 
from the press.* It does not contain, as we are informed 
future numbers will, communications relative to fruit- 
culture, yet it contains such an abundance of sound in¬ 
struction derived from the fruits exhibited to the Society, 
as cannot be found in any Pomological work recently 
published in England. 
The following are specimens of the contents:— 
“ Beurre Diel. —The specimens from Mr. M'Ewen, of 
Arundel Castle, which were grown against a wall, were very 
large and beautifully coloured, but the flesh was coarse¬ 
grained, and did not possess the delicate buttery texture 
and rich and aromatic flavour of this variety when in 
perfection. In a communication from Mr. M‘Ewen, he 
says, ‘ Our soil is loam of a heavy texture, and liberally 
mixed with flint, substratum chalk. We are three miles 
from the sea, and when I say that along the south coast we 
can manage to have abundant good crops of Figs from 
standards in ordinary seasons, it will be seen that we are 
most favourably situated. But in this part of Sussex, the 
Beurre Diel, Beurre Bose, and the Duchesse d’Augouleme, 
never exceed second-class, and I have them in different 
situations.’ Those sent by Mr. M. Saul, of Stourton Park, 
near Knaresboro’, were grown on standards in an exposed 
situation, and the soil gravelly loam. The fruit was of good 
size and colour; flesh tender, buttery and melting, richly 
flavoured, vinous and musky—very excellent. The same 
may be said of the beautifully coloured and well-grown 
specimens from standard trees, contributed by Mr. Breadley, 
of Somerleyton Hall, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, where he 
says, ‘ the situation is the most eastern point of England, 
eighty feet above the level of the sea, three miles distant 
j from it, and exposed to east, south, and west. The soil to 
the depth of one foot is stiff loam, from one foot to three 
feet strong yellow clay, and from three feet to ten feet strong 
blue clay.’ Grown under such circumstances, the specimens 
of Beurre Diel were very tender, buttery and melting, rich, 
sugary, and highly perfumed. 
“It is worthy of observation that the specimens from 
Stourton Park and Somerleyton Hall, though grown on 
standards, and in situations much more unfavourable than 
those from Arundel, were infinitely superior in quality, 
though considerably smaller in size. In the case of the 
former, the soil is a ‘ sandy ’ loam, while both at Somerleyton 
and Arundel, it is of a ‘ stiff’ or ‘ heavy ’ character, the 
! only difference between the two being, the mixture of flints 
and the substratum of chalk at Arundel. It would therefore 
appear that the mixture of flints and the substratum of 
chalk, notwithstanding the superior climate, is unfavourable 
to the successful cultivation of Beurre Diel. 
“ Specimens of Beurre Diel from M. G. Tboyts, Esq , of 
Sulhamstead, Berks, grown on a stiff clay soil, with gravelly 
bottom, were of immense size and very highly coloured, three 
of them weighed 3Jibs.; but as they were not allowed to 
be cut, the Society had no opportunity of ascertaining their 
* Transactions of the British Pomological Society. J. Ridgway. 
Piccadilly, London. Price one shilling. With two woodcuts of Pears. 
merits. Those grown by Wm. Gabbett, Esq., of Catherline, 
near Limerick, were also of large size, weighing on an 
average 141 ounces. 
“ There were also specimens of this variety from Berwick¬ 
shire, contributed by Mr. Thomas Hogg, of Coldstream. 
These from Wedderburn, near Dunse, grown on a south 
wall, and in a soil of ‘ clayish loam ’ were full sized, well 
coloured, and of excellent flavour. From Nisbet, in the 
same neighbourhood, and from a west wall, they were 
equal in every respect to the former. And from Manderston, 
likewise in the same locality, but grown on a standard, 
they were of good size, very much covered with coarse 
rough russet, the flesh fine-grained and buttery, but not so 
juicy as either of the above; still they were very sugary, 
and altogether very good to have been grown on a standard 
in that locality. The soil in these three instances being 
the same, it would appear that, so far north and in such soils, 
it is better adapted for wall culture than for standards.” 
“ Beurre Superfin, —This very fine new Pear was re¬ 
ceived from M. Langelier, of St. Heliers, Jersey'. It is 
considerably above the medium size, obovate in shape, and 
symmetrical in its outline. The skin is a beautiful lemon 
colour, but considerably covered with thin cinnamon-coloured 
russet, particularly on the side exposed to the sun, where it 
is so much so as to leave little or none of the ground colour 
visible. The flesh is very fine-grained, buttery, melting, and 
very juicy, with an exceeding brisk and picquant flavour, 
which is peculiar to this variety, and with so delicate a 
perfume of musk as not to offend the taste of the most 
fastidious who object to that flavour. This is a dessert Pear 
of the first quality. It ripens at the end of September and 
beginning of October. 
“ It may be well to mention that there is a Pear cultivated 
in Belgium, under the name of Cumberland, which the 
Belgians suppose to be the same as Beurre Supertin. This 
Cumberland Pear they say was raised by Dr. Van Mons, at 
Louvain, but the Beurre Superfin was raised by M. Goubault 
at Angers, where, according to a communication received by 
the Society from a respectable authority in that city, the 
seedling tree is still existing in the garden where it 
originated in 1837. The Cumberland Pear of Louvain, 
therefore, cannot be the same as the Beurre Superfin of 
Angers.” 
Such solid success as has been attained by this very 
young Society, for it is only nine months old, is good 
ernest of the benefits it will confer upon our national 
fruit-culture, and we rejoice to see that its future pro¬ 
mises to be brighter even than its past. The prospect 
of a Library, a Museum of modeled fruits, an Orchard, 
and Orchard-houses, are within its horizon, and we 
hope that they will soon be among its things accom¬ 
plished. 
Its objects widen and multiply, too, as it advances. 
The classification of fruits, some Linmean arrangement, 
to facilitate ascertaining the name of a variety not only 
by its fruit, but by its blossoms and leaves, by its wood 
and buds, are not visionary. We believe that by the 
blossoms and leaves alone, and by the wood and buds 
No. CCCXLI. Vol. XIV. 
