SEPTEMBER: © AES 
vinelg yhiad ec NOTES ON THE’ MONTE. 
‘Tie ‘watery atmosphere of the present summer has tinged our country 
‘with gloom and sadness. ain has. followed rain in quick succession, 
‘and, with the exception of about fourteen days early in July, there has 
not been two consecutive dry days since the middle of May. We are old 
enough to remember the wet season of 1816, when the “‘lodged”’ corn 
sprouted and grew into a green-tangled mass before it could be cut, 
‘and when our loaves were like a compound of half-baked. rye bread 
mixed ‘with treacle, Thanks to free trade; such a state of things could 
be altered now, but’at what an expense? and eyen now the privations 
‘of the poor, this coming winter, will be great unless a favourable autumn 
erowns the year with joy and gladness. 
‘The season has been a disastrous one for the farmer, with half his 
hay crop spoilt, with his land overrun with weeds, with but few if any 
Swedes, and only a moderate crop of T'urnips, owing to the impossibility 
of clearing land in time. The prospects of the coming winter are 
by no means cheering. Stock keep must be a scarce article, and the 
uncertainty of the weather for harvesting Corn makes all feel a desponding 
gloom. Let us hope, however, for the best. 
In the garden, matters, though not on the same scale of importance, 
look serious enough. The incessant rain has saturated the soil. far 
beyond any former precedent in late years. All our exotic fruit trees. 
are suffering. Peach walls, in many places, are naked, excepting green 
tufts of foliage under the coping of the walls. Apricots do not ripen, 
but crack and fall off Plums:and Cherries have been smothered 
with blight. I*unguses and Cryptogamic plants are covering every leaf, 
closing the pores, and affording a nidus for insects. Pears and Apples, 
though abundant, do not swell freely, bearing evidence to the want of 
solar light. Grapes which never shanked betore shank now, and rather 
astonish some confident gardeners; and the mischief already incurred 
will take some seasons of favourable weather to overcome. Plants which 
delight in a moist climate show, however, that they approve of the 
weather. American plants, Arbutus and some other similar shrubs, 
are making an extraordinary growth. Oak woods have all the appear- 
ance of May, the trees being profusely covered with secondary. shoots. 
What effect will this have on the quality of timber? Our answer is 
that it will increase the sap wood considerably, and that the solid matter 
added to the timber this season will be small. : 
Let us turn from general questions to local ones, and ask what. is 
going to be done with the Pomological Society, which appears hopelessly 
in debt just as we thought it had established itself as a public institution ? 
What do you answer me Mr. Editor? Gia: 
[ The Pomological Society, as our correspondent remarks, is in debt 
simply because the executive of that body have for reasons best known 
to themselves broken one of the fundamental rules which the Society 
adopted when first established, that of not giving money prizes, but 
commendatory cards only, to articles exhibited before them. This 
error, added to others of less importance, but indicating a lax system 
of management, has led to their present state, for which, however, we 
VOL. XIV., NO. CLIII. oe 
