KINGSESSING PEAR. This variety originated near Philadelphia, and is an excellent sort. It is a fruit of good size, rich, and high flavored; color green. The tree is a vigorous and upright grower. Fruit drops easily. We have found the tree to be quite thrifty and healthy, never having seen the least indication of fire-blight. It will never be a highly-popular market-pear, on account of its lack of color. THE TOMATO AND ITS VARIETIES. - The great interest which appears to be taken in America in the cultivation of tomatoes, and the numerous varieties mentioned in their garden-publications, suggested to the authorities at Cheswick that it would be desirable to institute a trial of them here. Accordingly, in the spring of the present year, a large collection of varieties was procured from Messrs. Thorburn & Co. of New York; Messrs. Barr & Sugden (who obtained a collection from Germany); and Messrs. Veitch, Vilmorin, Carter, and Williams. All the varieties were grown and fruited in pots under glass, which has afforded an excellent opportunity of seeing them all in their true character. They were likewise grown in the open air against a south wall, where some of the later varieties, such as the Tomato de Laye, Fiji Island, and Tilden, have not done well this cold season. Grown in pots, the tomato makes a very handsome decorative plant; the cherry, plum, and other small-fruited sorts, especially so. Few plants are more strikingly ornamental in the autumn months than these, when well grown, and laden with their numerous clusters of brilliantly-colored fruits. The Round Red Tomato of Barr & Sugden (Extra Early Red, Thorburn ; Sims's Mammoth, Barr & Sugden) is a few days later than the yellow plum tomato. The fruits are red, roundish, ovate, and smooth, about the size of a Washington plum. It is very prolific. The Large Red Italian of Barr & Sugden (Orangefield of Williams) is the earliest of the large-fruited sorts. It is very dwarf and prolific, bearing fine fruit within six inches of the ground. The fruits are very large, broad, red, and deeply corrugated, or ribbed. It is an excellent variety, and one of the best in the collection. Keyes's Early Prolific of Carter is a tall-growing variety, with the divisions of the leaves larger and fewer in number, and also of a lighter color, than in any of the other sorts. The fruit is medium-sized, roundish, pale-red, slightly corrugated, somewhat later than the Orangefield, and very productive. It is altogether a first-class variety. The Great Mammoth of Barr & Sugden (Large Red Thorburn) has smaller and more finely-cut leaves, with the fruits very similar to those of Grosse rouge hâtive. The Large Red of Veitch is synonymous with Powell's Prolific. The fruits are medium-sized, roundish, and slightly corrugated; and the plants are very prolific. The New Giant of Barr & Sugden is a very large and coarse late variety. The fruits are red, very deeply corrugated, and irregular. The plant is robust, and not very prolific. The Tilden of Thorburn (Red Valencia Cluster) is a very strong-growing variety, much praised in America. The fruits are large, full, roundish, slightly corrugated near to the stalk, only of a deep-red color. The leaves are deep green. It is rather late, and not so prolific as others, but very excellent. The Fiji Island (Lester's Perfected, Thorburn) is very similar in all its characters to the Tilden, excepting that its fruits are of a decided crimson, — quite a distinct color among tomatoes. The fruits are large and very fine, both of this and of the preceding variety. The Large Yellow of Veitch is the same as the common large red, excepting that the fruits are yellow. They are large, and deeply corrugated; and the plant is very prolific. — A. F. B., in Florist and Pomologist. GRAPES IN TREES. - For some months past, an article relating to raising grapes on elms has been going the rounds of the press. The method is entirely at variance with the approved plans recommended by the modern writers of grape-books. In confirmation of the theory advanced in favor of raising grapes in this way, we give some account of our own experience. Some years ago, we had an Isabella grape-vine that ran up into a tall plum-tree, which stood in an angle of our house, with a north-east exposure, and in such a position, that it did not have more than three or four hours of morning sun. Yet the fruit on this - vine a variety that did not ripen well in other locations never failed to ripen most perfectly, though few bunches of the fruit ever saw the sun; for the foliage of the tree was quite dense. Some years later, we planted a grape-vine beside a wild-cherry-tree, and allowed it to run rampant through and over the tree. It has never failed, since it first produced fruit, to give perfectly ripe clusters; though it has received no care beyond a limited supply of old, well-rotted manure. From this vine we have yearly sold the grapes for a good sum, and there is every prospect that it will be good for many years to come: whereas, within a few feet, the new and approved sorts, cultivated on the new and approved principles, were nearly or quite a failure the past year; and, in years before, they never have done so well as the vine in the tree. In Italy, it is said they train their vines in trees, and find it to be an economical arrangement. There is another great advantage to be derived from this training in trees, or rather allowing the vine to run into trees, they are not exposed, nor do they suffer onetenth part so much from blight, and mildew of leaf, or rot of fruit, as the vines standing in the vineyard trained to posts or trellises. It is more natural for the vine; for, go where we will in the forests, we find grape-vines pushing their way even to the very tops of the tallest trees, and spreading themselves out among the branches where they can mature their purple clusters. Again: we find them clambering over fences and bushes by the roadside, delighting the traveller by their fragrance while in blossom, and pleasing the eye and the taste of those who relish them when ripe. This plan will be objected to, because it injures, and in time destroys, the tree. We are not prepared to advise the planting of trees for this purpose, or, if any, not fruit-trees; but will simply advise those having trees that they do not value very highly, and are willing to devote to raising grapes, to plant a vine or vines beside them, and manure well, and they will be pleased with the results. SEED FOR LAWNS: QUANTITY and Kinds. - In a former number, we gave an article, from one of our correspondents well versed in grasses, upon the subject of a lawn and its seeding. Another of our correspondents, whose knowledge is not to be disregarded, objected to some features advised in the first article; and, from time to time during the season, we have had letters of inquiry in relation thereto. While we generally concede to our correspondents all knowledge, we confess that neither of these writers advised just as we should do, and have done during a quarter-century of practice, in the making of many dozens of beautiful lawn-grounds. To meet the questions of our inquiring friends, we will give our practice; which is, first to trench our ground for the lawn proper, not less than eighteen inches deep, either with spade or plough, according to its extent. In this trenching, if we can, we bury a heavy dressing of manure at the bottom; we make sure of at least ten inches, and the more the better, of true soil (not manure or weed trash) at the top. We rake all smooth, and leave it to settle for a week or two, or, at any rate, until we have one good, hard rain; then we go over it, and dress up with additional soil such places as have settled out of line or level; next we use two bushels of blue-grass, two bushels of red-top, one bushel of creeping bent grass, and twenty pounds of white clover, to each acre. We mix our seed, and then divide it into three equal portions, sowing first one portion, raking it in ; then another portion, going crosswise in our sowing and raking; then sow our third and last portion, and roll down with as heavy a roller as two men can drag. In this way, we have made good lawns by seeding in September, October, March, April, and May, lawns that required frequent mowing early in July. In our practice, we have found all grains sown with grass-seed to be injurious rather than beneficial. We once used the sweet-scented vernal grass; but the aroma from it does not compensate for its coarse, strong habit, which often destroys the small and more valuable plants. Again we use the quantity of seed given, because we find that it is cheaper to supply plenty of grass-seed, and fill up the ground therewith, than to spend a summer's labor of one, two, or more hands in pulling weeds; for, if the ground is not full of one thing, it will be of another, - at least, until the season's growth has tillered out the grass-roots to cover it. - - F. R. E. THE LARGE-FLOWERED BLUE CLEMATIS. Clematis azurea grandiflora is one of the most splendid of hardy climbers. It grows eight or nine feet high. We have two of them against a sunny wall, where they have stood for ten years, bearing annually hundreds of their large, blue, star-shaped blossoms. These are four or five inches in diameter, and consist of five or six petals radiating from the centre. The plants have usually had no other protection than a little straw and litter thrown about the roots, which have never been injured in the hardest winter. The tops have generally escaped unhurt; though at times the ends of the shoots are killed back for a foot or two, which does not prevent a profuse summer bloom. Clematis Sophia is another variety of still more vigorous growth, and somewhat larger flowers, a shade lighter in color. Both grow well in any light soil, enriched with thoroughly-rotted animal or vegetable manure. F. P. To the Editors of "The Journal of Horticulture." HEATING WARDIAN CASES. — I have used for several years a Wardian case constructed on the plan given in Rand's “Flowers for the Parlor and Garden," p. 265, except that the ends are of wood. The dimensions are two feet by four : the top is raised by hinges. I keep my plants, without any heat in the case, in a room at a low temperature. Last spring, a gentleman of our city invented a heating apparatus, much more simple, and less expensive, than the one described on pp. 266 and 267 of the book before referred to. The heat is produced by a small kerosene lamp, at a cost of twenty-eight cents a week. With it I propagated all the plants, by cuttings and seeds, that I wanted for my garden. After this work was done, I removed the heating apparatus, and put it aside for the next spring; and my Wardian case was again ready to receive my plants this fall, to be again in the spring, in a few moments, converted into a Waltonian case for propagating. It is surprising, the amount of work accomplished by means of so small a case. Mrs. J. A. Newhall. [The Editors would be pleased to have a description of the heating apparatus.] MEALY-BUG. — In a recent number of the Journal we read, "We know of no means of destroying the mealy-bug, except constant washing with soap or glue-water; and that will only keep the pest under a little.” Now, we will tell your readers what will kill mealy-bug, — kerosene. The least possible touch of kerosene, and mealy-bug never moves again. "But," say your readers, "it will kill my plants too." Not a bit of it, if you will use a little thought. In the first place, as a general rule, fully-developed foliage of almost all things grown under glass is not injured with its application; but soft, very sappy, green, tender leaves, when in a growing state, are injured if the kerosene be used in a pure state. Now, to avoid this injury, it should be diluted with water, say one part kerosene with two parts water; and, if things acted on are very delicate, use more water. Now, water and kerosene will not mix! What is to be done now? Add soap to the kerosene first, and then add the water, and the combination will be complete. Kerosene pure on a bunch of green or ripe grapes won't injure it nor its foliage when the fruit is ripe. It will not injure full-grown camellia-leaves, and a host of other things we can mention, if you know when to apply it; and this we have hinted at, and leave the rest in the hands of gardeners and amateurs. Whale-oil soap, perhaps, is the best to be used as an alkali for the kerosene ingrediation, with water. Now, in plant-houses which are much infested with mealy-bug, and when it is found necessary to paint such, in place of using the ordinary linseed-oil, use kerosene with the lead. Wash all wood-work with kerosene when an opportunity presents itself. Vines after pruning, washed with pure kerosene, are not injured, and the kerosene will penetrate where other washes prove unable. Orange and lemon trees stand the pure kerosene well when the growth is fully hardened. For Combretum purpureum, Bignonia venusta, Stephanotus floribunda, and a host of such plants, kerosene can be used pure with impunity. Now, we hope your readers will not go blindly to work, and then lay the fault of injudicious management on our shoulders. John Ellis. SPECIALTIES IN HORTICULTURE. The distinguished agricultural editor of a leading paper recently made the following denunciation of all specialties in agriculture : "We protest against young men getting land, and going to work with one idea. The age calls for a full development of their minds; and, to secure it, their labors and aims must be diversified. The instances where men are either satisfied or successful in special farming are very few. Even dairy-farming, which is more successful than any other, gives the house a look of dilapidation; and frequently there are grease-spots on the front-door. Notoriously special fruit-growers are disappointed; and we have yet to see a dozen who have got rich at the business, while there are tens and tens of thousands of general farmers who have accumulated from ten to fifty thousand dollars each." The writer of this extraordinary paragraph must have spent his life upon the prairies, or in the forest, or somewhere away from the great centres of population; and hence has never been witness to the countless illustrations of that special terra-culture which is practised upon thousands of acres around every great city, and without which the population of those cities would perish of famine. I cannot imagine how so much oblivion of well-known facts could exist, except from gross ignorance of the subject on which he writes so positively, and of which one who sets up to be a teacher of others should be better informed. There is a cloud of witnesses, in a thousand localities all over this broad land, whose lifelong experience contradicts him. It is a mistake to say that there are very few "instances where men are either satisfied or successful in special farming." What is raising stock but special farming? and how would the people of this country be fed if stock-raising as a specialty were abandoned? If it were not successful and satisfactory to those engaged in it, why do they continue it as such? It is notorious that great fortunes have resulted from attention to this branch of farming to the exclusion of all others. It has been so from the days of the patriarchs to the present time. What is the enormous nursery-business now carried on in almost every State but special farming, - the appropriation of land to the single purpose of producing plants? Thirty years ago, two-thirds of the present nurseries had no existence those then in operation were insignificant establishments. But the nurseries of the present day are colossal enterprises; a single one embracing more ground than twenty of the older ones, and crowded with hundreds of new and valuable varieties of trees and shrubbery. Capital without stint is invested in them. Where, in former years, there was a solitary row of cheap hot-beds, there are now long ranges of elaborate forcing-houses; a single establishment having acres under glass. During the past year, from Rochester and Syracuse alone, five thousand tons of trees were freighted over the Central Railroad, the net value of which was a million of dollars. A single nursery at Rochester contains over four hundred acres, and employs a hundred and forty men. Seven others in the same vicinity contain nearly thirteen hundred acres more. All these are instances of strictly special farming. Are the proprietors of these establishments "satisfied or successful"? and, if not, why do they continue them? Can any other seventeen hundred acres be found, in this country, which yield a mil |