By the way-should you deem this article worthy of publication—I would remark that the time to cut out the plum knot is the latter part of June, when the green knots begin

to appear; if then cut out ning up and down all removthe scars on my trees, but are dead or dying.

thoroughly, (that is the black line runed,) they will never return. I have not a single knot-my neighbor's trees

W.

THE LARGEST DESSERT PEAR.

FEW of the French pears, imported into this coun-
try fifteen or twenty years ago, have so well stood
their ground in the public estimation, as the Dutch
ess of Angouleme. A natural seedling found grow-
ing in a hedge in a piece of woods near Angers, it has a
robust habit of growth, and is well adapted to all the
middle states, the west and the south. It should always
be borne in mind, however, that the fruit never attains
its highest flavor, at least in our gardens on this side of
the Atlantic, except when the sort is grafted on a quince
stock. Besides this, the large size of the fruit renders it
much more likely to be blown off when grown standard high,
on a pear stock, than when dwarfed on the quince.

We believe no fine flavored pear attains anything like the size of this: only the Catillac and one or two other cooking pears equalling it in this respect.

One object in referring to this variety at present, is to call attention to the perfection to which it is grown about Boston. Many cultivators there, train this variety upon an upright trellis, by which the utmost perfection of size and flavored is obtained. The cut herewith presented is an exact outline of a specimen grown by S. LEEDS, Esq., of Boston, and would not be considered of unusual size at the Horticultural Shows in that city. It weighed exactly one pound nine ounces, was of a deep golden yellow, with reddish brown specks on the surface of the skin, and excellent flavor.

OUTLINE OF A DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME Pear, raised at Boston.

CRITIQUE ON THE JANUARY HORTICULTURIST

BY JEFFREYS.

MR. EDITOR-A long interregnum has passed since my pen laid aside its meddling with your pages. Bodily ailments, a gouty limb-I do confess to a twinge of the gout, now and then, with other infirmities-and some little necessary travelling, have prevented my responses to the frequent calls of your correspondents, to whom, I trust my random scribblings have given less pain than pleasure. Should the former sensation at any future moment preponderate, or even a symptom of lassitude come over their spirits, in reading me, exeunt omnes will, in the phrase of the play, shut my further intrusion from their sight. The Home Education of the Rural Districts.--This article speaks for itself-Major PATRICK included. "O that I (not mine enemy,) could write a book." That book should be on domestic education-not boarding-school dissipation, miscalled by the true term, instead! How I would score up the paltry, narrow pride of thousands of parents, who think -and act upon the thought-that the education of their daughters is accomplished only when they have taken a degree at some distant "Female Institute," fashionable "Seminary," or other fantastic place, (the schools are not all so, however,) where girls are spoiled in having all sorts of superficial nonsense put into their heads, instead of good, sound knowledge, and every-day common sense, which should fit them to excel in the sphere which Providence has marked out for them: and that of their boys, when sent to some equally improper place, to learn that for which they have no natural taste; but instead, do acquire notions that turn their heads all topsey-turvey, into exalted fancies which they can never realize, and from thence graduate into professional offices, town trade, California, or to the a nameless gentleman, where, in vulgar parlance, many an otherwise clever boy, brings up at last. No, no, No, as Mr. DANIEL WEBSTER says; that is not the right way. "But the world is progressing," says the kind, misjudging parent. So it is, in steam-engines, railways, telegraph-wires, all sorts of domestic extravagance, and French revolutions. But in the way of mind, and attention to the homely, agreeable duties of life, I incline to the opinions of an old fashioned author, not much consulted in these progressive days. I fear that "there is nothing new under the sun." I cannot now go into this subject as I would; but to my thinking, they manage these things much better at the south, and west, than they do at the north. There, Planters and Farmers are not ashamed of their profession. Here, cultivators of the soil are. If we are not thus ashamed, why not bring up our children to an honest, manly appreciation of our own calling, instead of encouraging them to sneak away into everything else, reputable or not, so long as they can make money by it, and thus shirk honest labor, and the true dignity of agricultural life?

Do, my kind, rural friends, read this chapter once a month for the coming year, and practice upon its teachings. Your children will forever thank you for it, notwithstanding a little domestic rebellion in the outset.

The True Soldat Laboreur Pear.-Why is it that so many foreign pears come to us under wrong names? Great confusion has been caused among our Pomologists in this way. Mr. OLMSTED appears to have got hold of a good fruit, and I hope we shall hear from it hereafter. A single bearing, however, is not always a correct test. He is considerate enough to tell us the soil on which it grows, which is always important, to enable us to judge of the quality of a fruit. A deep, clayey loam is the only soil on which accurately

to test the pear. This, with enough of lime, ashes, and the phosphates in it-artificially applied, if these ingredients are naturally lacking, or have been exhausted-will show us what the fruit really is.

The Color of Buildings in Rural Scenery.-Mr. COOPER, in his foreign travel, if not in his home education, had an opportunity to cultivate a high and a correct taste in what constitutes propriety and truth of color in rural buildings. All who have sojourned in, or passed through the charming and picturesque village of Cooperstown, at the foot of Otsego lake, must have admired the fine baronial style of his dwelling, and its broad lawn of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubbery-the fit repose of a ripe scholar, and an accomplished man. The mature taste of one who has fixed his home in the midst of such striking scenery, and whose life, for thirty years, had been in perpetual communion with its most attractive objects, is well worth the heed of all builders, and dwellers in the country. The judgment, and the taste of our people, is fast improving in the color of their buildings, although broad mistakes are now and then made in escaping from the old fashioned white, into some of the new-fangled colors which we see mis-applied to newly got-up houses. Observation and experience will correct this; and we shall, it is hoped, work down into appropriate tones of color and shade for our buildings.

The California Grape.-We must see about this. There are, no doubt, good native grapes in California; and when other subjects than gold seeking, and speculation, creep into the brains of her people, I have little doubt that the soil and climate of that wide belt of Pacific territory, will yield us both grapes and wine, of a character not yet produced in the Ohio valleys, and perhaps of equal quality and like flavor to the best of European wines.

It is nowise certain, however, that any grape from California will prove the same identical fruit, if transplanted here, and subjected to the influences of our widely different climate and soils. An indigenous production of any kind, of good quality in its native soil, and matured under the influences of its own sun and air, will not always develop its fine peculiar qualities in other soils, and under sunshine less propitious. We witness that in many familiar fruits in our own localities, but a short distance apart, and in nothing more striking than in the European grapes subjected to out-door culture here. Still, I would not discourage the transfer of a really good grape from California into our soils. Something good may come out of it; and when the thing can be so cheaply tried, it would be a matter of public interest that it should be done in a thorough way.

Notes on Evergreen Trees.-Most comforting words to the nurserymen!—“ the most hardy, the most beautiful, and the most rapid growing of them all"—the evergreens. Pretty high praise that, Mr. DoWNING. My good old father used to say just so, when I was a boy, about the Lombardy Poplars. Yet folks don't think so now. It may be all true, however, about the Deodar; and if it shall so prove, it will be perfectly magnificentfor to excel our pines and hemlocks, in their stately and majestic growth in the open lands, will be both a lofty and a spreading merit in its character. Let us have a Deodar Cedar thirty feet high, and then we'll look at it, and pass a judgment upon its excellence.

A saving clause, however, guards your eulogium-" the most popular of all the new evergreens yet proved in this country." Good. My dear sir, the Pines, the Hemlocks, the Firs and the Spruces, of North America, are unrivalled in breadth and grandeur, by any evergreens in the whole universe.

"The piny top of Ida,"

of which THOMPSON sung in his gorgeous Summer tale of Damon and Musidora, would shrink into insignificance by the side of many of our pine-capped American hills. You do

well to praise the Pines and Hemlocks; and our country dwellers-on propitious soilswill do equally well to plant, and train them to the finest development of their luxuriance and beauty.

A new Strawberry from the South.-New-Orleans is a good ways off, and this is a pretty big story, Mr. PARDEe. "Six months" of steady bearing is great work for a strawberry. I don't doubt it, however; I don't doubt anything in the strawberry line— till I see it. When your strawberry gets well into bearing, my good sir, just send me word, and I'll take a morning run up to Palmyra, and look at it.

On the Prizes at our Horticultural Shows.-Your "Working Gardener" talks both sensibly and practically on the subject. Frequent and manifest injustice is practiced by the "judges," or viewing committees, at all our exhibitions, both horticultural and agricultural. One difficulty, I imagine, arises from the want of a standard by which to judge of the just properties of the thing in competition, which is the fault of the managers of the concern yet not always their fault, for they do often try to establish that standard. But the main difficulty is, in obtaining disinterested and competent judges of the article under examination. And this, in the present low state of the requisite judgment in such matters, in this country, is hard to be corrected. We are improving somewhat in this particular, but it is a most difficult thing, now, to select competent to judges, as those who are at all experienced in these exhibitions, are aware. When we shall have educated a sufficient number of our people to understand what the proper qualities and characteristics of the articles which come under their review should be, then we shall have something like truth and justice in their awards;-but not till then. True, there are many such in attendance upon our exhibitions; but they are usually professional men, who are either competitors, or if not so, are directly or remotely interested in the success of certain things exhibited, and thus are disqualified in the minds of more or less of the competitors, from passing an opinion.

The proper indviduals to settle all such questions, are amateurs, who possess sufficient knowledge and taste in the various subjects of display, to decide upon correct principles. Their position and judgment would then give to their decisions an authority quite satisfactory to all fair competitors.

A Chapter on Dogs. I haven't been "Coon hunting" for many years. I never follow the hounds after fox or deer-the only trailing game we have in this country, save now and then a wolf or bear, in the new settlements. Neither do I go out shooting, except to exercise my old fowling piece at a henhawk, or that viler brute, the carrion crow. I love dogs, however, and always keep a useful one of true breed, by me. The common curs that are kept in such quantities in every straggling village, and on many of our farms, are a standing nuisance, which ought to be abated. But it won't be, so long as there are neighbor's sheep to kill, and pigs to run at large, where a dog fence is necessary.

Landscape Gardening in New-England.—Mr. JAQUES is a bold man, and talks to the point. Our Yankee friends are getting on however. There have been great improvements in lawn-dressing in New-England, within twenty years past. But they know, practically, nothing of parks, nor will they, until they give up that universal habit they have, of squatting themseves right on to the highway, as if no one could be content without knowing who passed his door overy hour of the day. Mr. JAQUES can discourse further on this subject, with profit to all who have to do with ornamental grounds.

Heat and Ventilation of Houses.-This subject will bear a good, sound chapter in your pages, as often as once a quarter, at least, to the great edification of your readers. I went into a country church, the other day, at the afternoon service, and I was almost stifled with

the offensive atmosphere which the morning congregation had left in it. There was a stove-heat and no ventilation; and the sexton did'nt know enough to let down the top sash of a gallery window on each side, to let out the pestilent stuff between services. On no one subject can the "schoolmaster" start out on his travels, to more advantage than this. Artificial Feeding of Fish.—It is a matter of surprise that our country residents pay so little attention to the cultivation of fish, in a thousand places where they might conduct their fine little hill-brooks and springs into beautiful ponds, which would cost next to nothing in their construction. Not to speak of the profit, or the convenience of having a fine mess of fish now and then for the table, the amusement of breeding and tending the fish, would be ample compensation for the trouble. It is not a difficult thing at all. Trout, to be sure, cannot be bred in every stream, particularly in limestone waters. But perch can be bred everywhere, and they are a beautiful docile fish, and fine for the table. Boys, and girls, and "old folks," can attend to this,-the first to keep them out of mischief, and the others for amusement. Actual labor, there is little of, in connection with it. Fish breeding is one of the round of interesting objects that make up the variety in home attractions in the country; and wherever the water can be commanded, a fish pond should as much be one of the appurtenances of a country-house, as the chicken-coop, or the pigstye.

A Country School-house.-A very neat design-picturesque, cheap, and tasteful. This model cannot be too extensively practiced upon. What a beautiful array of station-houses, something in this style, the Harlem and some other of our railroads, have along their lines. If people only knew how much the style of their school-houses, and other buildings of a public character, have to do with the pleasure they give to those who look upon them, and the improvement they add to the places they occupy, they certainly would study to put up better ones, architecturally, than they do.

Agricultural Education.-We believe the Editors of the Evening Post belong to that class of politicians who imagine that government has nothing to do but collect taxes and pay its own salaries, and let the people take care of themselves. Very well. Then sponge out at one sweeping dash, all government connection with, or care of, all institutes and seminaries of learning of every kind, whatever, and let those who want them, get them up, as these editors think the farmers can get up agricultural schools—on their own hook. We don't object to that, provided all interests shall be served alike. One would suppose that men as observant of our institutions as the Editors of the Post, would know that no such political teachings as are practiced in the Prussian Agricultural Schools, could be taught in the schools of this country, under any circumstances. It is just such stuff as this that pervades the minds of many of the farmers themselves, and has prevented our having, years ago, at least one leading agricultural school in this boasted "Empire" State of New-York. Every winter, for years past, a proposition has been introduced into our legislature to create an institution of this kind; and at once, a majority of the farmer members, like the old rat in the fable, discover "a cat in the white heap yonder." Thus, year after year, our great agricultural interest is cheated by its own guardians, out of its equal share in the common property of the state, for its own improvement. When we see anything better, it will be, probably, when a new generation of farmer legislators rise up, who, knowing what their true interests are, will have the courage to serve them. The measure could now, in three weeks time, be accomplished, if our farmers in the legislature would only say the word. But they prefer lending their aid to the "soulless corporations" of the non-producers, to doing anything for the benefit of the wide-spread, and long-neglected class to which they, themselves, belong.