"Excelsior" desires to know "what there is in the big pears* or big apples, that the Gardeners' Monthly loves to record their weight so much. For my part I would sooner have a small Seckel Fear, or a small Lady Apple, than the largest turnipy thing that could be offered me." So probably would anybody, - certainly so would the Gardeners' Monthly. But that is not the question. Would our correspondent select in a basket of Seckel Pears, the smallest and scrubbiest specimen, or one that is large, rosy-cheeked, russetty and luscious ? If offered his chance, it would really be " Excelsior " with him. In everything size will always be one of the cri-terions of excellence, and it should always be. The first principles of economy start here. There is not half the waste in peeling in a bushel of large potatoes, that there is in a bushel of small ones; and there is double the waste in rind and core in a bushel of Lady Apples over a bushel of Baldwins. Of course, size should not be the only consideration in the recommendation of an article, and we do not know that it ever is regarded as the only one.

It is simply one great merit, and it seems to us deservedly so.