June 5. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 155 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
M 
D 
W 
Weather near London in 1853. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. &S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
JUNE 5—12, 1855. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
5 
Tu 
Elater pectinicornis. 
30.110—30.038 
62—49 
N.E. 
. 
48 a 3 
8a 8 
0 
21 
20 
1 
56 
156 
6 
W 
Elater cupreus. 
30.083—30.040 
59-47 
N.E. 
— 
47 
9 
0 
44 
21 
1 
46 
157 
7 
Th 
Elater ferrugineus. 
30.070—30.043 
57—45 
N.E. 
— 
47 
10 
1 
a 
G 
1 
35 
158 
8 
F 
Elater ephippium. 
30.073—29.980 
65—48 
N.E. 
— 
46 
11 
1 
16 
23 
1 
24 
159 
9 
S 
Elater rufipennis. 
29.961—29.929 
64—4fi 
N.W. 
— 
46 
12 
1 
29 
24 
1 
13 
160 
10 
Son 
1 SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
20.008—29.881 
66-40 
W. 
— 
45 
13 
1 
42 
25 
1 
1 
161 
11 
M 
St. Barnabas. 
29.870—29.654 
65—55 
s.w. 
01 
45 
13 
1 
59 
26 
0 
49 
162 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest tern- 
peratures of these days are 70.2°, and 47.7°, respectively. The greatest heat, 90°, occurred on the 7th, in 1846 j and the lowest cold, 35°, 
on the 8th, in 1638. During the period 109 days were fine, and on 87 rain fell. 
We have always been opposed to Emigration as a 
system for reducing the amount of our labouring popu¬ 
lation. It may for a time mitigate distress and dis¬ 
content, but it can be only for a time. The crop of 
children will annually come forward, and bring about 
the superfluity of population. Let all statesmen re¬ 
member, also, that every family removed to Australia, 
America, or elsewhere, is not merely a fractional re¬ 
duction of our country’s strength, but weakens the love 
for that country of far many more who remain behind. 
They who have children, and brothers, and sisters, and 
old neighbours, settled happily on the other side of the 
Atlantic, care less for remaining on this side. Emi¬ 
gration, beyond all dispute, weakens patriotism. 
We have always considered education—that sound 
discipline and instruction which promotes provident 
habits and checks early marriages—to be one of the most 
legitimate regulators of population. If to this were 
added an enlarged system of reclaiming our waste land, 
there would be no need of Emigration—no thinniug and 
weakening of our labouring classes—for many genera¬ 
tions yet unborn. 
In England, Scotland, and Wales, according to the 
statement made to a Committee of the Plouse of 
Commons, there are only about 14,000,000 of acres 
of arable and garden ground in cultivation, whilst 
10,000,000 of acres remain waste, yet capable of im¬ 
provement. That it is capable of improvement, we have 
this week a statement of what has been effected on a 
portion of Dartmoor , one of the wildest wastes of 
England. Mr. Fowler, of Prince Hall, who farms 
extensively, and has reclaimed many acres of land on 
the Dartmoor Hills, held an auction, recently, for 
letting bis grass lands. There was a spirited com¬ 
petition for them, and it concluded in twenty acres of 
grass, in two lots, being let for ,£54 10s., from the 
beginning of May until the 8th of November next. 
This same land, which Mr. Fowler has reclaimed from 
the waste, let in 1846 for only seventy shillings ! 
Ireland has a still greater proportionate surface of 
cultivatable waste than the other parts of the British 
Isles, her number of cultivated acres being about 
12,000,000, and of reclaimable waste, nearly 5,000,000. 
MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS ON FRUITS. 
By the time these remarks reach the readers of The 
Cottage Gardener most persons will be in a position 
to guess as to their fruit prospects for the present year. 
I have been looking closely over mine this morning, 
May 27th, and find much to rejoice in, — something 
to lament, and something to doubt. On the whole, I 
am of opinion that we shall have what is called a fruit 
year; but by this, I do not for a moment mean plenty of 
all kinds of fruit. It is most probable that there will 
be heavy crops, in places, of Apples, Pears, and Plums; 
as for bush fruit, they have with us escaped almost 
unhurt, although we had a thermometer all but at zero. 
But herein we northerns have one point in our favour, 
as compared with our southern counties; we blossom 
later; and if I be right in affirming this, it just proves 
that the artificial retardation of the blossom is a prin¬ 
ciple which must not be lost sight of. 
Here I cannot forbear pointing to one of our now 
nostrums used to promote the setting of Pears, 
which consists in getting possession of a good pair of 
scissors, and not being particularly shy in the use of 
them. Some French gentleman, I am told, has dis¬ 
covered that one of the chief reasons why Pears do not 
set their blossoms, is because the blossoms are too 
thick; they cannot all be suckled. This does, indeed, 
seem strange; and the first question it gave rise to in my 
mind, on hearing the news, was—How is it our huge, 
old orchard Pear-trees, which have stood the pitiless 
blast for a century or more, and which produce an¬ 
nually bushels of fruit, and thousands of spurs for the 
future crop; how is it, I repeat, that they continue to 
cause so much trouble in gathering their produce? Of 
course, such are not to be met with very commonly within 
the sound of Bow bells ; but if the good people of Bow 
would take a six hour’s ride by the Great Western or 
the North Western, they might soon drop on hundreds 
of cases of a most satisfactory character. 
Now, this thinning-out of the blossoms must surely 
have some connection with the Quince tock question; 
for I must confess, that with every desire to see the 
Quince stock superseding the free stock in all kitchen- 
gardens, I must, at the same time, bear witness to 
certain infirmities incident to that stock. I have, indeed, 
known cases in which I should not doubt that thinning- 
out the blossom-buds would have a beneficial effect; 
but I cannot say that I ever knew this with a Pear, or 
the free stock, unless it was in a sickly condition. 
Another sad fault of the Quince stock, and one which 
I have named before in these columns, is this—the 
Quince stock forces the blossom out earlier than the free 
stock. This I feel assured of; and as we cottage gar¬ 
deners have a duty to perform to the public, irrespective 
of this man or that in stating such things, we must say, 
that if the principle of artificial retardation be admitted, 
this is another drawback on the Quince. I have closely 
watched the development of fruit-blossoms here of all 
kinds, since the blossoming commenced, and on that 
memorable night, the 4th of May, when the thermometer 
indicated at least ten degrees of frost, and when we 
had ice a quarter-of-an-inch in thickness in a few hours, 
all the blossoms of Cherries, Pears, Plums, &c., which 
No. CCCXLIX. Vol XIV. 
