would treat them as useful plants. I am no enemy to nurserymen, for I am confident we could not do without them. I am a root-grown gardener, and my greatest delight is to see the business, in all its branches, flourish. I don't ask nurserymen to give gardeners extravagant wages, but merely as much as they can subsist on, till they meet with a situation, and which would prevent gentlemen from taking advantage of their absolute necessity. I wish nurserymen and gardeners united, for the good of all, but not combined to impose upon gentlemen. I wish all gentlemen well served, nurserymen as well paid as they have been, and gardeners better paid, for "none but gardeners know a gardener's care." Yorkshire, August 14. 1826. ART. XVI. A simple and effectual Method of destroying the Red Spider. By Mr. ALFRED KENDALL, Gardener to the Reverend H. Palmer, Carleton Curlieu, Leicestershire. Dear Sir, As the avowed principle of the Gardener's Magazine is the advancement of horticultural knowledge, more particularly among practical men, every gardener ought to consider himself bound to contribute any thing in his power that may in any way further so useful a design. Let not the young gardener, therefore, be discouraged in making any communication, at the idea of being laughed at by his more scientific brethren; for whilst the work in question continues to be ably conducted, no article will meet the eye of the public that the young gardener will ever live to be ashamed of; and let me add, that chance sometimes detects what has escaped the most scientific exertions. In contributing my mite towards furthering this object, I think nothing will be more acceptable to the practical gardener than a simple, easy, safe, and effectual remedy for that destructive enemy to vegetation, the red spider. Every gardener must have experienced its destructive effects, but few, comparatively speaking, know how to counteract them. Sulphur is often applied with advantage; but to some plants that remedy is worse than the disease; for though it does not injure the peach or the vine, it is death to the melon, and there is no plant so high in esteem, more subject to the attack, nor more susceptible of the injurious effects of that pernicious insect. In making this communication, I by no means lay any claim to the discovery of so excellent a remedy: my only wish is to make it more generally known, as I have never seen it noticed in any publication, not even in that excellent work, the Encyclopædia of Gardening, which work ought to be in the hands of every gardener that has any wish to excel in his profession. To one gallon of rain water add six ounces of soft soap, which is to be completely dissolved before using. When used, it is to be beaten into a fine lather, (a common hearth-brush, I find, answers the purpose best.) The lather only is then to be taken in each hand, and carefully applied to the upper and under side of every leaf that is infected. If the disease is not violent, one dressing will be sufficient; but where every part of the plant is infected, two dressings will be required, as it will only kill those insects that are actually immersed in the fluid. The best time for applying this remedy is in the evening, after which the glasses are to be close shut down for the night. The reason for using the lather only is, the insects are immersed a much longer time in the fluid than they would be by the application of plain soap and water. This remedy may at first appear a tedious one, but I can assure you, from my own experience, it is not so; for any person may dress a three light frame, where the plants are properly thinned, and where every leaf requires to be dressed, in one hour; and where is the gardener that would grudge even a day to preserve the flavour of his fruit, and save his plants from certain destruction? The above receipt is not confined to melons only, for no plant, however tender, to which I have applied it, appears to be in the least degree injured by it. If the foregoing article should be found worthy a place in your excellent Magazine, I shall consider myself happy in having contributed something useful to my profession; and that every gardener may be equally ready to promote the advancement of gardening, is the ardent wish of your well-wisher and humble servant, Carleton, Curlieu Hall, near Kibworth, ALFRED KEndall. ART. XVII. Some Account of the Henri-Quatre, Urbaniste, and other new Pears, introduced and fruited by John Braddick, Esq. F.H.S. Communicated by Mr. Braddick. Dear Sir, I HEREWITH send you specimens of two new pears, both prematurely (September 13.) blown from standard trees planted in an exposed situation. The first (fig. 14.) is called Henri Quatre, by M. Van Mons, of Louvaine; the other 14 15 (fig. 15.) is the Urbaniste, raised by the late Count Coloma of Malines; this was his favourite pear, selected from all that he raised. The fruits from those trees were exhibited by me, before I left Surrey, at the Horticultural Society's meetings; the trees having been recently moved, the fruit can scarcely be expected to be of the size and quality that they will attain to, in two or three years' time. I however judge, that you will accord with me, after tasting the Urbaniste, and making proper allowance for its not staying on the tree till ripe, in pronouncing it to be a pear of the first class, and one that will be of the greatest benefit to our market gardeners and fruit growers; for what these people stand in need of is, a pear that will, if prematurely gathered, ripen in their baskets, acquire a good flavour by being so treated, keep a long time in their hands, and die like a good Christian with a sound heart at last; all of which good qualities I venture to pronounce that the Urbaniste pear possesses, when grown on a standard tree in our country: much farther south it is probable it would not be so good, for I find by experience, as no doubt many others do, that every fruit of the apple and pear kind has its favourite latitude. When I first brought buds of the Urbaniste to England, I gave them liberally away to many nurserymen, some of whom must have plants for sale by this time. Boughton Mount, Sept. 13th, 1826. JOHN BRADDick. The Urbaniste, after being kept till the 20th September, began to yield to the pressure of the thumb near the stem; we then tasted it, and found it, as we think, about as good as the Swan's Egg. The specimen of Henri Quatre was partly decayed before it was received. - Cond. Nov. 15. We have received, at different times this season, specimens of upwards of a dozen sorts of new pears from Mr. Braddick; but as the late rains succeeding to so very dry a summer have materially injured both the flavour and keeping property of hardy fruits, we forbear reporting on them till we shall have tasted them under more favourable circumstances. The following extract from one of Mr. B.'s letters, dated Oct. 31., contains some important hints. "Pears do not keep well this year; the two last parcels I sent you, (*Beurré d'Hiver, Gros Dillen, Josephine, and King of Pears, and Egg Pear, *Passe Colmar, *Beurré d'Aremberg, and *Poire d'Ananas), have become fit for table full two months earlier than usual. This, I conceive, is occasioned by the dry summer being followed by rain just before the keeping fruit ripened; this rain has surcharged their juices with water, and consequently induces premature decay. I have received buds of Merveille de la Nature Pear, (Vol. i. p. 472.), late in the season; they have every appearance of having taken, and as soon as they make wood, I shall be glad to share it with any horticulturist that desires to participate in the experiment of making trial of its good or bad qualities when grown in our climate: for I am firmly of opinion that no judgment can be formed of fruit raised in one country, when grown in another of ever so little difference of climate and soil, until a fair trial has been made in various ways; such as growing in exposed and sheltered situations, on wall, espalier, and standard trees, gathering early and late, &c. &c. The Alpha pears this year, which I gathered, to disburthen the newly-raised young trees, about the 15th of September, kept well, although a little shrivelled, and came to table with good flavour last week, when the fruit of the same tree, which I let hang till the 5th of October, all turned mealy before the 20th of the same month; indeed, their flavour was by no means equal to the windfalls, which were blown from the tree before the rains came. As to your correspondent wondering at my having built my cellars so deep, you may tell him that I should not have done so, had it not been for the temptation of the fine stone which I found and obtained at an easy expense by so doing. Fruit put away completely dry, and excluded from atmospheric changes, and consequently frost, in a dry situation, I conceive will keep as well in any other place as in my deep cellar. At Ditton, I used to keep it in the middle of the house, in a closet surrounded by three walls and three doors, not being able there to go much under ground." "Boughton Mount, Oct. 31st, 1826." The same effect which Mr. Braddick notices as being produced on keeping fruits by copious rains after a very dry summer, every farmer knows is also produced on bread corn, potatoes, and roots, as well as to a certain extent upon hay and straw, and doubtless also upon coppice-wood and basket willows. A sort of second sap seems to have come into many trees from the same cause, which, though it has not produced shoots, yet the leaves, instead of falling off at the usual time, though they have become black with the late frosts, yet still adhere. Of the pears enumerated above, those marked (*) are decidedly the best. Among the summer pears sent, the Belle Lucrative and Beurré Kirke were remarkably handsome. In our next we propose to give a descriptive list of twenty sorts of pears, introduced and fruited by Mr. Braddick; plants of nearly all of which, it is believed, may now be had in the nurseries, owing to the very liberal und truly patriotic manner in which our highly-valued correspondent shares every novelty he receives with those whose interest it is to increase and disseminate such novelties. This, in our opinion, is the true and legitimate, and in fact the only real and permanent mode of effecting improvements; it is the natural, and, if the expression may be used, healthy way of introducing them, in which supply and demand are reciprocal. It is quite possible, that, by extraordinary exertions, new things and new ideas may be introduced faster than they can be incorporated with the old. In the same way, that, by the use of stimulants, an artificial appetite may be created, and more food taken into the stomach than can be digested. We think it much more consonant with sound principles of policy, and especially in a free and wealthy country such as Britain, that improvements should be made by individuals, rather than public bodies. The latter, in our opinion, will do most good by seconding the efforts of private persons; by removing the impediments in their way, and bringing obscure men into notice. When public bodies attempt improvements themselves, unless these improvements be such as no individual can undertake, the effect is to discourage individuals, which must end in injuring the |