W. Riley, (Alma,0.) The best wash for brickwalls is the following. Take a barrel, and slake in it

Design for a Cottage tor a Country Clergymar.

Hort: July, 1861.

A few words on fruit culture.

BY far the most important branch of horticulture at the present moment in this country, is the cultivation of Fruit. The soil and climate of the United States are, on the whole, as favorable to the production of hardy fruits as those of any other country - and our northern states, owing to the warmth of the summer and the clearness of the atmosphere, are far more prolific of fine fruits than the north of Europe. The American farmer south of the Mohawk, has the finest peaches for the trouble of planting and gathering - while in England they are luxuries only within the reach of men of fortune, and even in Paris, they can only be ripened upon walls. By late reports of the markets of London, Paris and New-York, we find that the latter city is far more abundantly supplied with fruit than either of the former - though finer specimens of almost any fruit may be found at very high prices, at all times, in London and Paris, than in New-York. The fruit grower abroad, depends upon extra size, beauty, and scarcity for his remuneration, and asks, sometimes, a guinea a dozen for peaches, while the orchardist of New York will sell you a dozen baskets for the same money.

The result is, that while you may more easily find superb fruit in London and Paris than in New York - if you can afford to pay for it - you know that not one man in a hundred tastes peaches in a season, on the other side of the water, while during the month of September, they are the daily food of our whole population.

Within the last five years, the planting of orchards has, in the United States, been carried to an extent never known before. In the northern half of the Union, apple trees, in orchards, have been planted by thousands and hundreds of thousands, in almost every state. The rapid communication established by means of railroads and steamboats in all parts of the country, has operated most favorably on all the lighter branches of agriculture, and so many farmers have found their orchards the most profitable, because least expensive part of their farms, that orcharding has become in some parts of the west, almost an absolute distinct species of husbandry. Dried apples are a large article of export from one part of the country to another, and the shipment of American apples of the finest quality to England, is now a regular and profitable branch of commerce. No apple that is sent from any part of the Continent will command more than half the price in Covent Garden market, that is readily paid for the Newtown Pippin.

The pear succeeds admirably in many parts of the United States - but it also fails as a market fruit in many others - and, though large orchards have been planted in various parts of the country, we do not think the result, as yet, warrants the belief that the orchard culture of pears will be profitable generally. In certain deep soils - abounding with lime, potash and phosphates, naturally, as in central New-York, the finest pears grow and bear like apples, and produce very large profits to their cultivators. Mr. Pardee's communication on this subject, in a former number, shows how largely the pear is grown as an orchard fruit in the state of New-York, and bow profitable a branch of culture it has already become.

In the main, however, we believe the experience of the last five years has lei most cultivators - particularly those not in a region naturally favorable in its soil - to look upon the pear as a tree rather to be confined to the fruit-garden than the orchard; as a tree not so hardy as the apple, but sufficiently hardy to give its finest fruit, provided the soil is deep, the aspect one not too much exposed to violent changes of temperature. As the pear tree, (in its finer varieties,) is more delicate in its bark than any other fruit tree excepting the apricot, the best cultivators now agree as to the utility of sheathing the stem from the action of the sun all the year round - either by keeping the branches low and thick, so as to shade the trunk and principal limbs - the best mode - or by sheathing the stems with straw - thus preserving a uniform temperature. In all soils and climates naturally unfavorable to the pear, the culture of this tree is far easier upon the quince stock than upon the pear stock; and this, added to compactness and economy of space for small gardens, has trebled the demand for dwarf pears within the last half dozen years.

The finest pears that make their appearance in our markets, are still the White Doyenne, (or Virgalieu,) and the Bartlett. In Philadelphia the Seckel is abundant, but of late years the fruit is small and inferior, for want of the high culture and manuring which this pear demands.

If wo except the neighborhood of Rochester and a part of central New York - (probably the future Belgium of America, as regards the production of pears,) the best fruit of this kind yet produced in the United States, is still to be found in the neighborhood of Boston. Neither climate nor soil are naturally favorable there, but the great pomo-logical knowledge and skill of the amateur and professional cultivators of Massachusetts, have enabled them to make finer shows of pears, both as regards quality and variety, than have been seen in any part of the world. And this leads us to observe that the very facility with which fruit is cultivated in America - consisting for the most part only in planting the trees, and gathering the crop - leads us into an error as to the standard of size and flavor attainable generally. One half the number of trees well cultivated, manured, pruned, and properly cared for, annually, would give a larger product of really delicious and handsome fruit, than is now obtained from double me number of trees, and thrice the area of ground. The difficulty usually lies in the want of knowledge and the high price of labor.