induced to communicate the results of their thought and experience. And I would urge upon those who are engaged in raising new varieties of pears from seed, the importance of directing their efforts to obtaining sorts which may be kept through the winter as easily and certainly as apples are now.

PRUNING TREES.

SET a green hand to prune trees where limbs of any size are to be removed, and the chances are, ten to one, that he will commence at the top, and saw through the limb, until it falls by its own weight; tearing down the bark and wood, inflicting a great, ugly wound, which may require years to heal, and which, if not carefully protected from the weather, will cause such decay as to destroy the tree. The method commonly recommended to prevent such injury is to begin at the bottom, and cut half-way through, and then finish from the top, or, with very large limbs, to have them supported by a crotched pole or pitchfork held by an assistant below; but we have found a better plan, and quite as easy, to be to make two cuts, the first at a convenient distance, say a foot, from the point where we wish the limb removed. This short stump can, except in the case of very large limbs, be easily held in one hand, while the final cut is made with the other.

After a large limb is sawed off, the surface should be pared smooth; and, for this purpose, we have frequently found a common carpenter's chisel, about two inches wide, much more convenient than a pruning-knife. To prevent decay, there is nothing better than one or two coats of good oilpaint; and it should be as near the color of the bark as possible, so as not to disfigure the tree. All tools used in pruning should be of the best quality, and kept as sharp as possible: it is poor economy to use any others. Limbs are sometimes cut too close; but for every such one there are a hundred not cut close enough. Every cut, large or small, should be made in a smooth, clean, workmanlike manner; a poor workman is soon known by hacking off a limb with a dull knife, leaving as many facets as on a multiplying glass.

THE STORY OF VINELAND.

ONE autumn morning, a youthful lawyer left his cobwebbed office in Philadelphia, and took passage on the railroad which links that ancient city and the Cape-May coast. Thirty-four miles away from the home of the broadbrims, he stepped from the cars, and looked around. It was no Arcadian landscape that met his view. There was not even a faint suggestion of the Happy Valley of Amhara, which the policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of Abyssinian princes. There were no dainty bits of rural beauty, of silver stream, or grassy hillside, spattered with shadows of wide-spreading elms. Far otherwise. A great plain stretched out before him on every side. Climbing to the top of a spindling pine-tree, he could look off on miles and miles of stunted forest. To the northward, nothing but boundless shade; to the east, boundless shade; to the west and south, the same low line of horizon, mingling dimly with melancholy boughs. Here and there, he saw blue smoke rising from the hut of a coalburner, and curling lazily into the upper air. Now the broad expanse which lies just under his eye is not popular, and it really does not appear to possess any attractive feature. The soil is light, and generally believed to be almost useless for purposes of agriculture. It has never been occupied, so far as known, save by roving hunters; and the only sounds that infrequently disturb the long reign of silence are the shots .of riflemen, or echoes of the woodman's axe. But our recreant disciple of Coke and Blackstone happens to be owner of thirty thousand acres, more or less, of this vast wilderness. What will he do with it?

Walking along a winding pathway, obscure, and so sandy that deep footprints are made at every step, and so narrow that the underbrush catches at his clothing, he comes at last upon a small house, with a bit of cleared space around it. This shall be his headquarters; and he sits, that first evening, in the little room, perfecting his plans. He is firm in the faith that this scouted section may be made productive and populous. He thinks it especially adapted to small fruits; and he believes that there are hundreds of people who can be induced to try the experiment. He does not forget that his friends endeavored to dissuade him from the purchase ;

and he thinks it quite likely that many persons will quietly smile at his folly, and gently put the idea aside with flippant fingers. "But we shall see," he says.

He must reach the public. He is wise enough to know that printer's ink is the Archimedean lever. He tells his story; and multitudes of readers, and "all wanting farms," are invited to address Charles K. Landis, Vineland, Cumberland County, N.J.,—a post-office, by the way, which, previous to this time (1861), had not appeared in the directory.

In such a world, as Cowper remarks, there are always enough who are wide awake to the newest suggestion, especially if it promise an improved condition or a chance for the blessed privilege of independence. Hence letters began to be received at the little one-story house in the forest further information was asked for, and circulars were distributed describing the locality and the scheme of colonization. Meanwhile the projector was busy in opening up avenues and grading streets, and never paused in his advertising bombardment. Soon carpet-baggers began to arrive. Some were sensible young men from the cities, who wanted breathing-space; many were brown-faced farmers from the rock-bound neighborhoods of New England. Occasionally there came a wild-eyed reformer, who looked seedy, and wore long hair, and thought he discovered in the enterprise an embryo Atlantis. Travellers to the new field. grew so numerous, that the railroad-managers issued excursion-tickets "From Philadelphia to Vineland, and return." But quite a good many concluded to remain. Dwellings were hastily constructed; cleared spaces increased in number. Ere long, the head-centre could remark, "We have a hundred inhabitants on the tract." This was seven years ago. To-day there are twelve thousand people in Vineland; and still the wonder grows.

And verily it is a wonder. To be sure, other places have worn the seven-league boots but they were located along the margin of the great tide of emigration that flows unceasingly westward; and they had only to hold out their cups, and find them filled. But the magic town of which we write was entirely outside the influence of the star of empire. Furthermore, as has been hinted, the situation lay under ban of deep-seated prejudice touching the soil; and the views were certainly not enticing. For generations, the "Jersey Barrens," of which there are still hundreds of

thousands of acres uninhabited, and of which the Vineland-tract formed a part, had been given over to coal-burners and manufacturers of glass: and thus the forest-growth was kept down; and, naturally enough, one received the impression that the land was incapable of better things, and consequently must be poor. What, then, is the secret? How did it happen, that, despite these drawbacks, the colony advanced with such giant strides? Well, in the first place, the enterprise had the charm of novelty. Again: at the outset, actual experiment proved the fallacy of the idea that crops could not be produced. Crops were produced. Furthermore, the land was sold at low rates and on easy terms of payment; thus enabling men of very limited means to undertake the establishment of homes. Again: the situation was available. One could pack up and go to Vineland without feeling that he was sundering the old associations; and many who would hesitate long before starting for Kansas or Minnesota, or who would never leave for those distant points at all, would venture a change of residence if only a day's journey separated the new from the old. Again: the climate was known to be exceedingly healthful. Again: there is the fascination, and the supreme advantage to the poor, of growing up with a place where one may live plainly, and wear cheap clothing, and never be disturbed thereby, because all are in like condition : and each may say to the other, "It is a little disagreeable just now, to be sure; but we shall have pleasant times by and by." A portion of the considerations named are common, and, of course, have influence in new colonies generally; but there were other influences brought to bear in Vineland, which were radical and entirely original, and without which the progress, the prosperity, and the promise of the settlement must have been very materially reduced. These reformatory movements were not akin to those in which too much is attempted. Mr. Landis indulged in no Utopian dreams: he was too well bred for that. He did not think to inaugurate a system in which the course of true love should never run rough, and in which virtue and heroism should always find reward. He did not hope even to smooth at once all the ruts in the old road hardened by a thousand years of travel. He only ventured on advance movements which appeared to lie within the compass of possibility. Foremost of these was the prohibition of liquor-selling. He adopted this restriction in the beginning, not as a philanthropic

measure merely, but as an economic measure as well; believing it the best plan as a matter of policy alone. As was expected, the consequences have proved most happy. The class of people attracted thereby are the best class of people; and those who were kept away are those whose presence would have been a disadvantage. It is estimated that the total saving of money thus insured is at least five hundred thousand dollars per annum ; and the percentage of pauperage and crime in the place is much lower than in any other community of equal numbers. The great and far-reaching moral effects, which, as time goes on, must result, are pleasant to think of, but quite too vast to compute; and the founder of Vineland, if he has done nothing else, merits applause for his sagacity in instituting, and for the steady determination with which he resisted some early attempts to break down, this defence.

But he has done something else. Further to promote the physical and mental improvement and happiness of the people, he organized an educational system on liberal principles, which, in due time, led to the formation of numerous societies and schools, through whose efforts much of the desired good has been made attainable. A. B. Crandell.

(To be continued.)

COMTESSE DE CHABRILLAND ROSE.

By FRANCIS PARKMAN, Jamaica Plain, Mass.

ONE of the best, though not one of the newest, of the so-called “ 'perpetual roses.' There is none of more perfect form and more delicate coloring. If we said that there was none of more vigorous constitution, we should exceed the truth; though, in this respect, the Comtesse de Chabrilland is quite equal to many other perpetuals. It grows very well on the Manetti stock; but we have found it less long-lived than some other varieties. Its shape is so perfect, and its soft, clear flesh-color so attractive, that it is always a favorite flower with the English exhibiters of roses; and that vivacious and entertaining amateur, the Rev. Mr. Radclyffe, seems never tired of extolling its attractions. The crowd of new roses which make their début every spring from the prolific gardens of the French rose-growers rapidly eclipse, by the mere power of youth and novelty, the favorites