with ground plaster without any stint. He applied about two tons to as many acres ; which had the desired effect.

With the directions given in this article, I will warrant to any gentleman what his eyes will delight to look upon, and his feet to tread all the

season.

PINE GROSSBEAK.

THE number of these birds that have visited the Canadas and various parts of New England during the winter has been a subject of general comment. So far from being rare, or occasionally seen as stragglers, as they usually have been, they appear in frequent flocks of twenty or thirty together, foraging about gardens and orchards, feasting on the decaying fruit and the seeds contained therein, and, we are sorry to add, finding an acceptable morsel in the blossom-buds of the pear and apple.

Not having the fear of man before their eyes, they pursue their labors with the most provoking indifference to all efforts made to check them in their work of destruction. Sods and other missiles cast among the branches they appear to regard as something curious or amusing; and the sound of our voice had as much influence as the wind that swayed the branches on which they were resting.

In view of their extreme beauty, and a certain archness of air and manner, that had in it so much of the "hurt me if you dare, we have nothing to fear from you," we could resort to no harsher method. Our only alternative was to clap our hands, beg them to take once for all whatever they desired, and beseech them to divide the honors and expense attendant on their sojourn in New England by visiting some other section.

Fearing Burr.

NEW PEPPER.

Monstrous.-This variety is of French origin; and, for many of the pur

superior.

It was introduced to notice by the Messrs. Hovey & Co., and exhibited by them for the first time at the annual exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in September, 1867, where, from its great size and other promising qualities, it attracted considerable notice.

The plant is two feet and upwards in height, strong and vigorous; stem stout and branching, with dark-green foliage; the pods are of mammoth proportions, often measuring five inches in length, with a diameter of four inches; color dark green; form irregular; flesh thick, with a hard and firm texture, and sufficient pungency to make a first-rate pickle, as we can testify from our own experience. It has so much substance, that it can be kept in salt without going to pieces; as many of the large, thin-fleshed varieties are liable to do, especially if gathered before they become sufficiently

mature.

The variety is late, and, where the raising of seed is an object, should be sown by the middle of March in a hot-bed prepared for the purpose. If the sowing be delayed until April, a fair crop of the green pods may be expected suitable for picking, but no seed. We consider this pepper a valuable one, and worthy of cultivation. C. N. B.

NEWTON, February, 1869.

THE CROTON GRAPE.

THE Croton Grape, which we figure this month, was grown by Stephen Underhill of Croton Point, N. Y., who favors us with the following description: :

"The white grape named the 'Croton' was raised, with a number of others, from Delaware-seed produced by fertilizing the blossom of the Delaware-vine with pollen from the Chasselas de Fontainebleau, in the open vineyard. The seed was planted in the spring of 1863, and the resulting seedling bore its first fruit in 1865. The vine has borne good crops every year since, ripening with the Hartford Prolific. It is a vigorous grower, and holds its foliage remarkably well, preserving its leaves the present season among Isabella-vines that had lost most of theirs."

Several of Mr. Underhill's seedlings, including the Croton, were shown by their originator at the last annual exhibition of the Massachusetts Hor

ticultural Society, and attracted great attention, as well on account of their

size and beauty as on account of their excellent quality.

MR. EDITOR, -You will not be surprised, that, having been a constant reader of your Journal from the beginning, I have been impelled to put on paper some of my ideas in regard to your last number; and, if acceptable, perhaps I may hereafter send you my views of future numbers.

And, first, let me rejoice with you and all your readers over the re-appearance in the field of the veteran who has so long stood at the head of American pomologists. Here we have an account of the notabilities of Southern horticulture, such as could only have been given from actual observation, by Mr. Wilder and the keen-eyed horticulturists who accompanied him. Some of his accounts are rather startling to us among our frosts and snows. Think of a camellia-tree in the open air spreading twenty-five feet, and bearing ten thousand flowers; and a Cloth-of-Gold rose covering one-fifth of an acre of wall!

And then, too, imagine a grape-vine whose stem is six inches in diameter, and whose branches cover a trellis forty feet square! Why, sir, it makes one ask in all seriousness whether the vine is really hardy with us, or adapted to the climate of New England and the cooler sections of the United States; for I confess the statement produced a twinge of doubt, if not of discontent. After all our efforts for improvement and for the production of hardy, early sorts, is the vine with us to become no nearer such a specimen than it is at present? I don't like to think of it.

Cannot you, Mr. Editor, induce your Southern friends to tell us more about the wonderful products of that region, to which so many eyes are now turned?

The article on "The Improvement of the Native Plum" is most timely; for, at the rate they go on, our best plums will soon exist only in history. Our native plums are not more inferior to the Green-Gage than was the Sloe, from which the

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