Dear Sir: - I am a great admirer of your excellent journal, and though but the possessor of what you, perhaps, would call a very small garden, I reap a rich harvest from the field of your pomological and floricultural labors. I am chiefly interested in fruits. Though I have not the great collections I read of in the reports of the chief societies and conventions, I have endeavored to command a select list of good varieties, and derive a great deal of pleasure from their cultivation. My chief interest, however, is for my Pears, on which I have bestowed really a great deal of attention. I think there was nothing induced me to go into Pear culture so enthusiastically as some supremely delicious Butter Pears I once bought in the Philadelphia market, and one of my first purchases consisted of six specimens of that variety. When they commenced to bear, now six years ago, I was surprised to find the fruit all cracked and knotty, and unfit for a hog to eat. I was not then aware how extensively this disease prevailed, but soon learned from some friends, better posted than I was then, and also found that every one had his own special way of accounting for it.

Every year since, as they increase in useless and virtue trying productiveness, I have half resolved to dig up and discard them, but have so far continued to hold on in the hope that I might by observation discover a remedy; or learm of some other person's success through some friendly correspondent of the Horticulturist. But I can discover no cause that satisfies me, and I learn nothing from others; I have therefore decided to take oat all but one next season, and in the mean time thought I would beg your indulgence to inquire of your correspondents if anything has been discovered in relation to the disease. I have watched them very closely, and invariably notice spots of brown, which under a powerful pocket lens, appear to be fungi, to make their appearance a few weeks before the fruit cracks. It seems as if it destroyed the vital power of the skin wherever it is produced, and as it thus ceases to grow it has no alternative but to crack open as the other parts grow and expand in its vicinity. The experience of the past two seasons seems to confirm this view of the cause.

The season before the past was a very dry one; and I think there were fewer cracks than I ever observed before, and some half dozen fruit were perfect; this year being an unusually wet one, the fruit is cracked in every direction, and nearly to the core. Now I suspect that if the skin has been indurated by the fungus I have described, the wet weather being favorable to the swelling of fruit, would necessarily make the cracks deeper than they would be in a dry one. I would like to know whether any of your correspondents have had similar ideas. On the one specimen I propose to save, I intend next season to try the effect of some of the washes of sulphur found so efficacious by grape growers in destroying the vine mildew, which, I think, will test fully whether the disease is or is not caused by a fungus. I fear it will spread to other kinds. I have a young specimen of Passe Colmar which is now in its first bearing year with less than a dozen fruit, and all cracked, though not badly. I never heard of this variety cracking before, and began to be a little alarmed; but a Mend tells me that in wet seasons some pears are liable to crack somewhat, especially Winter Nelis, without, however, injuring them to any great degree.

In supposing it passible that a fungus may cause the cracking of the butter pear, I am aware that I am opposing the belief of all the scientific men of our country, whom I think invariably believe that fungi are the consequence and not the cause of the disease; but so far as I have read the history of the vine disease in Europe, 1 think it is granted there quite generally, that it is caused by a small mould they call Oidium Tuckeri; and I cannot help thinking that there appears little disease in the fruit of oar Cockspur Hawthorn previous to the attack of the yellow fungus which so disfigures them.

The Cracking Of The Pear #1

Mr. Editor: Permit me, through your valuable journal, for the benefit of your correspondent "Terra," and others, to give my experience with the so-called " Butter Pear." From the description that he gives of it, I presume he means the pear here known as White Doyenne*, or Virgalieu. In this particular locality, it formerly was productive, and highly esteemed, till about the year 1849; in other places not many miles distant, it has been known to crack for a quarter of a century, or longer. About ten years since, I embarked in pear culture. As my soil seemed to be well adapted to this fruit, I planted the Doyennl quite extensively. A lot of old trees on my farm at that time, made an annual dividend of noble fruit, which always sold at a high price. Not many years after this, to my no small mortification, I discovered unmistakable signs in my orchard of the disease winch had proved so troublesome elsewhere. At first, it was confined to trees in a weak or neglected condition, but it kept on increasing, year after year, till finally it overran the whole orehard.

Downing and others, at that time, supposed that the cracking of the frnit was owing to some deficiency of mineral manures in the soil, and various things were recommended to renovate this pear, of which I tried lime, bone dust, wood ashes, potash, Ac., all to no purpose, and finally abandoned its culture. Ton perhaps would ask, did I "dig out" my trees? By no means. By reading the Horticulturist, I learned that the Bartlett was noted everywhere for its productiveness, superior quality, and total exemption from the disease which is so ruinous to the " Doyenne" I resolved to work them all with " Bartletts." The old trees were cleft grafted, and the young ones carefully budded in the leading branches, and this season they bore an abundant crop of noble pears, from which I have realized a nice sum of money. Friend "Terra" says he went into " pear culture enthusiastically," from which I infer that he planted them in the best manner, and gave them the best of care. He says they commenced bearing " six years ago." They were probably planted six years previous to their fruiting, which would make them now twelve "years old.

In my mind's eye, I picture to myself his trees as fine, healthy fellows, with smooth bark, branching out within three feet of the ground, and large enough to produce a bushel of pears each.

Friend " Terra," if you value time, stay your hand; don't destroy the pets that you have been twelve years rearing, when, in so short a period, you can convert them into some other variety which is noted for its exemption from the disease that has been so disastrous to your most cherished hopes. Many of my trees that have been worked only three years, have borne abundantly this season.

An unusual scarcity of apples prevails throughout the eastern portion of this State. Currants, strawberries, pears, raspberries, and grapes, have been abundant.