How It Is Done

In answer to my inquiry, how such handsome pear trees were produced, I was told by the proprietor, that the secret of his success consisted of four requisites: 1st. Suitable soil - good strong loam, not wet nor too dry, and that has not been previously used for trees; 2d. Deep and thorough preparation and enriching; 3d. Planting none but the largest and best of imported stocks, whatever their cost; 4th. Good culture and training.

He did not claim that there was any secret in the matter, but, in view of his remarkable success, I think that many of the Western Nurserymen may be profited by adopting his practice more strictly than they have heretofore done Painesville, O.

How Long Will Asparague Beds Last?

As long as they are well taken care of. On the Mt. Pleasant property, in Amherst, Mass., there is an asparagus bed which has been in bearing for lully thirty years past, and in other sections of the country beds have been known to live for fifty and seventy-five years. In the vicinity of London the gardeners renew their beds every twenty years.

How Many Baskets Are Wanted

Crates and baskets should be ordered in time to be on hand before commencing to gather the fruit. Quarts and pints are the most suitable sizes. It will be necessary to procure at least three times as many as will be needed at any one time for picking, so as to allow for one set to bo in market while the second lot is going, and a third in the patch being filled. Allowing the crop to yield 2,500 quarts, or seventy-eight bushels per acre, to be gathered at six pickings of about four hundred quarts each time, it will require twelve hundred quart baskets, which, with crates of the best make, may be rated at about fifty dollars per annum. But as the same baskets and crates will answer for raspberries and blackberries, and with proper care will last for several years, ten dollars per acre is sufficient to charge each crop for the use of baskets and crates.

How Plants Spread

Nature says: As an instance of rapidity with which introduced plants spread, when, soil and climate are congenial to their habits, we may point to the Euphorbia prostrata, Ait, a little animal weed in Jamaica and Trinidad, which became introduced by chance, about ten years since, into a garden in Madeira, situated some 400 feet above the sea ; from this spot it has rapidly spread down the steep road to the town ; while up the other hills, separated by deep ravines from that down which it came, it has scarcely crawled at all, a downward course, apparently, being far easier for it than an upward one. It has, however, slowly crept up another hill at the rate of about ten feet a year. The seeds are well adapted for sticking to the clothes of travelers, and to be carried about, so that we might well expect the plant to crop up in all directions. Mr. Lowe says that it is now to be found everywhere in Funchal below 500 feet.

How The Doctors "Dew" Disagree

At a meeting of the Alton 111., Horticultural Society, Mr. Hyde took decided issue with Dr. Hull on the apple question; would not raise a Newtown Pippin - could get two bushels of Willow Twigs where he could get one bushel of the Pippins; was in for the paying apples; Willow Twig would fetch double the money, though inferior in quality.

Long: Had trouble in selling the Newtown Pippin before its quality was known, but now it sold with him more readily than any other apple.

Starr: Found no money in the Newtown Pippin - Ben Davis filled the bill with him.