January  L2,  1S03. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
81 
Pear,  Marie  Louise. 
Pear,  Marie  Louise. 
This  variety  of  des.sert  Pear  is  cultivated  in  almost  every 
gentle-man’.s  garden,  and  opinions  are  •unanimous  in  proclaiming 
its  fruits  to  be  of  the  finest  flavour,  though  its  cropping 
qualities  are  less  certain  tlian  some  others  also  distinguished 
for  flavour.  Our  photograph  of  a  fruiting  branch  leaves  nothing 
to  be  desired  in  point  of  prolificacy,  and  this  picture  was  sent 
to  us  by  Mr.  C.  Jones,  of  Ote  Hall,  Burgess  Hill,  Sussex. 
It  is  useful  to  compare  the  statements  made  of  this  Pear 
by  authorities,  and  of  these  we  place  Dr.  Hogg’s  description 
foremost,  and  he  says  of  it,  after  de.scribing  its  form  and 
appearances :  “  Flesh  white,  delicate,  buttery,  with  an  ex¬ 
ceedingly  rich,  sweet,  and  -vinous  flavour.”  The  author  of  “  The 
Fruit  Manual  ”  proceeds  to  say  that  it  is  “  a  dessert  Pear  of  the 
highest  merit;  ripe  in  October  and  November.  The  tree  is 
hardy,  vigorous,  and  succeeds  well  either  as  a  standard  or 
against  a  wall,  and  though  the  fimit  is  smaller  from  a  standard 
than  frojn  a  wall,  it  is  richer  in  flavour.  It  is  an  uncertain 
bearer,  and  produces  a  great  profusion  of  bloom,  which  tends 
to  weaken  the  development  of  fruit.  It  has,  therefore,  been 
recommended  to  thin  out  all  the  small  blooms  with  a  pair  of 
scissors,  leaving  only  two  or  three  on  each  spur.  This  excellent 
variety  was  raised  in  1809  by  Abbe  Duquesne,  and  named  in 
honour  of  Marie  Louise,  the  consort  of  Napoleon.  It  was  sent 
to  this  country  in  1816,  by  Dr.  Van  Mons.  to  Mr.  Praddick,  of 
Thames  Ditton,  without  a.  name,  and  he  planted  it  in  a  field  as 
an  open  standard,  where  it  succeeded  so  well  and  produced  fruit 
so  different  in  appearance  to  those  growing  against  a  wall  that 
it  Avas  considered  a  distinct  variety,  and  was  named  Braddick’s 
Field  Standard.” 
Mr.  Geo.  Bunyard’s  opinion  on  hardy  fruit  is  always  of 
value.  His  fruit  catalogue  contains  this  description :  “  Large 
to  medium,  one  of  the  best  Pears  for  walls;  succeeds  in  all  soils 
and  situations  (except  cold  moist  places),  is  best  flavoured  from 
open  trees,  requires  frequent  root-pruning,  as  it  is  a  rapid 
grower;  richly  flavoured,  but  uncertain  in  bearing.  Double 
grafted,  or  on  Quince.”  He  makes  a  reference  to  Emile  d’Keyst, 
of  which  he  says :  “  It  equals  Marie  Louise  in  quality,  is  hardier, 
and  bears  very  much  better.” 
Turning  to  Messrs.  J.  Veitch  and  Sons’  opinion,  we  find  it 
stated  that  this  is  “  one  of  the  finest  Pears  grown,  best  on  a 
wall,  but  thrives  as  an  orchard  tree.”  Other  opinions  reiterate 
these  remarks. 
Birds  V.  Gardening, 
{Concluded  from  page  9.' 
A  common  plea  in  mitigation  of  the  sentence  upon  the 
above-enumerated  seed  destroyers  is  that  though  they  devour 
our  choicest  garden  seeds  they  almost  balance  the  account 
by  eating  large  quantities  of  weed  seed.  This  argument 
has  been  advanced  by  almost  every  writer  in  favour  of  birds, 
but  I  must  say  that  I  think  a  great  deal  too  much  has  been 
made  of  it.  A  weed  left  to  itself  sheds  perhaps  some 
thousands  of  seeds  in  its  immediate  neighbourhood,  which 
come  up  in  a  mass  so  numerous  that  their  very  number  tends 
to  smothering  and  weakness  rather  than  healthy  growth  and 
further  increase.  Watch  a  bird  attack  that  plant ;  he  tousles 
it  about  and  scatters  the  seeds  over  four  times  the  area  they 
would  naturally  have  covered,  and  though  he  may  perhaps 
account  for  50  or  even  75  per  cent,  of  the  crop  seeds,  the 
remainder,  thanks  to  his  efforts,  will  have  a  better  chance  of 
coming  to  perfection  than  wind  and  weather  unaided  would 
have  given  it.  I  have  spoken  of  some  troubles  of  the 
gardener  early  in  the  season  ;  but  perhaps  that  which  touches 
many  people  most  nearly  is  the  theft  and  damage  done  to 
ripening  fruit  Avhen,  after  much  trouble  and  many  dangers, 
the  crop  is  almost  within  their  reach. 
Among  fruit  robbers  the  blackbird  is  the  king,  being 
raised  “  to  that  bad  eminence  ”  by  his  appetite  and  the 
catholicity  of  his  tastes.  Every  kind  of  small  fruit  suffers 
from  the  blackbird’s  attentions,  and  when  these  fail  it 
attacks  the  Apples  and  Pears,  especially  fruits  growing  on 
bushes  or  espaliers  which  are  low  enough  to  be  reached 
from  the  ground.  We  have  had  to  trap  them  by  hundreds 
the  last  year  or  two  to  save  any  fruit  at  all  for  ourselves  from 
the  nurseries,  the  dry  summers  we  have  lately  experienced 
having  made  them  unusually  troublesome.  When  the  Goose¬ 
berries  ripen  at  Lowdham  the  blackbirds  are  reinforced  by 
flocks  of  missel-thrushes,  which  are  more  numerous  there 
than  in  any  place  I  have  seen  ;  in  fact  before  we  moved  to 
Lowdham  I  had  never  known  the  missel-thrush  to  be  at  all 
troublesome. 
Game  birds  are  not  usually  included  in  a  list  of  garden 
denizens,  but  in  some  of  those  attached  to  country  mansions 
pheasants  are  a  serious  nuisance,  pulling  up  Tulips  and  other 
bulbs  and  pecking  things  to  pieces,  often  apparently  from 
mere  curiosity  ;  they  are  also  rather  clumsy  walkers,  tramp¬ 
ling  under  foot  tender  and  brittle  plants.  Partridges,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  quite  harmless,  though  not  often  seen  in  a 
garden.  I  had  last  autumn  great  pleasure  in  watching  a 
covey  of  thirteen  which  visited  my  garden  regularly  without 
any  fear  as  to  evil  resulting  from  their  presence.  Peafowl 
add  a  grace  to  ancient  gardens,  but  none  to  the  gardener 
(unless  fluency  in  “  language  ”  be  described  as  such),  being 
far  more  destructive  than  pheasants.  I  was  reminded  this 
afternoon  not  to  forget  the  lark  in  my  list  of  feathered 
enemies,  and  I  regret  to  say  that  there  is  some  reason  for  its 
inclusion  as  it  makes  great  havoc  among  Clover  in  the  winter 
and  early  spring,  eating  all  the  heart  out  of  the  plants.  This 
is  a  farmer’s  trouble,  but  it  also  visits  the  garden  and  com¬ 
pletely  skeletonises  all  the  spring  Cabbage.  No  one  would 
be  Philistine  enough  to  Avish  to  lose  the  "  fine  careless 
rapture  ”  of  the  skylark’s  song,  but  at  the  same  time  one  is 
led  to  regard  the  slight  annual  thinning  of  its  numbers  for 
table  purposes  as  so  far  beneficial  as  not  to  call  for  dis¬ 
couragement. 
Turning  now  to  the  brighter  side  of  the  picture,  one  is 
glad  to  be  able  to  chronicle  a  small  army  of  friends  whose 
manner  of  life  causes  the  gardener  to  regard  them  with  un¬ 
mixed  benevolence.  These  are  the  purely  insectivorous 
birds,  including,  among  residents,  the  modest  hedge- 
sparrow.  the  graceful  wagtail,  the  lively  wren,  and  the 
robin.  This  last,  though  sanctified  by  common  sentiment  in 
this  country,  is  a  pugnacious  little  rascal,  fighting  to  the 
