124 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



3L\ Berchnans, of Georgia — At our last meeting we classified 

 the LeConte not very high in quality. Afterwards Mr. Albert Man- 

 ning told me that in 1876 the LeConte sold in Boston for $16.00 a 

 barrel. 



Mr. Baldwin, of Michigan — Saveral barrels that sold as low as 

 $2.00 a barrel were sent to the evaporator, in North Georgia, and 

 they made eight pounds to the bushel. The owner was offered 30 

 cents, but he declined. They were afterwards sold in New York 

 at 40 cents a pound. They make as fine fruit as I ever saw A 

 gentleman I know is president of a company that is now planting 

 one hundred acres of trees of this variety. There are some 

 LeConte pear orchards which I would not give anything for, but 

 they had been neglected. The gentlemen I saw, however, were 

 thorough cultivators. You can stand and look down a row of one 

 hundred trees and you can hardly tell the difference, they are so 

 nearly alike. One of the ten years old trees bore last year thirty- 

 two bushels. Mr. Sandford told me that there were thirty bushels 

 of these marketable. A gentleman has twelve trees which have 

 netted him a little over |400 in one year. 



The President — What is it that makes it sell, its beauty or its 

 quality ? 



3Ir. Berchnans, of Georgia — I am unable to say exactly. 



The President — What is its quality as a table fruit ? 



Mr. Berckmans— It is about good. 



The President — Is it a very handsome pear ? 



Mr. J^erckmans — Yes, sir. It is smooth and fine. This year my 

 opinion of the LeConte has undergone a favorable change. I used 

 to be prejudiced against it, but the quality this year was so much 

 sweeter that I changed my opinion of it. 



The President — Will it be successful to any extent in the latitude 

 of Cincinnati and St. Louis? 



Mr. Berckmans — If I can judge from the results in New York 

 and New Jersey, I would say, yes. 



The President — If all of these premises are correct, we ought to 

 plant a great many LeConte pears. 



Mr. Baldwin, of Michigan — These gentlemen told me that they 

 had never had a tree blighted. 



