132 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



fers superior inducements for experiment in that direction. If it possessed 

 the one element of tine quality, I would, unhesitatingly, call it the most de- 

 sirable pear known. But this defect is a most serious one. 



At present, however, it is my most profitable variety, having little or no 

 competition on account of its earliness: but it takes the tree some time to 

 come into profitable bearing, and a pear of good size same season, and even 

 moderate quality (which in this progressive age we are likelj- to have soon), 

 would drive it at once from the market, so that I can not recommend it for 

 general cultivation. There are several new candidates for public favor, con- 

 spicuous among which are the LeConte and Kietfer, represented as being 

 blight-proof, and coming early into bearing. LeConte is planted extensively 

 in Southeastern Georgia and with encouraging results. There is an old adage 

 concerning pear culture, that " He who plants pears, plants for his heirs,'" 

 and when a variety comes forward claiming to bear even earlier than the 

 apple, almost as early as the peach, and add to this the other important merit 

 of being blight-proof, thus covering the two leading defects of pears gener- 

 ally, it is likely to bs hailed with enthusiasm. Both LeConte and KiefFer set 

 up these claims, and are being tested pretty generally over the South: with 

 what results we shall soon know. There may. however, be wisdom in the 

 application here of the advice of Polonius : " The friends thou hast, and 

 their affections tried, grapple them to thj-self with hooks of steel, but do not 

 dull thy palm with each new-hatched, unfledged comrade." I see before me 

 many who are interested in fruit growing as a business, and the question of 

 interest to them is, will pear growing in the South pay? I answer, yes, 

 if a judicious selection of varieties is made in the beginning, and the same 

 care and attention given which is essential to success in growing other 

 fruits, such as the apple, peach, etc. 



Beginning as an amateur some twent\'-five j'ears since, I began some five 

 years later to grow for market; not a man of my acquaintance could tell me 

 what to plant. Among other kinds I grew Vicar of Winkfield, or Le Cure, 

 seeing it recommended in Europe, and some parts of this coimtry, as a 

 profitable late pear. I cultivated some five hundred trees of this, mostly as 

 dwarfs, and a few standards.- They grew of will, and after five or six years 

 began to bear heavily. In August or September, however, the fruit com- 

 menced rotting and I never obtained a single perfect specimen. A year or 

 two afterwards they were swept off by the blight. Some other kinds fared 

 not much better. I would, if possible, save others such a costly experience. 

 The grower for market does not need many varieties ; five or six being gen- 

 erally sufficient, and a smaller number might do even better. I have already 

 given my experience with the Jefterson. For six kinds of the older and better 

 pears I would name, for my locality, Duchesse dAngouleme, Bartlett, Ju- 

 lienne, Howell, Buftum and, perhaps, Kirtland or Doyenne Boussock, as 

 profitable in the order mentioned. Another Southern cultivator of large expe- 

 rience would select Bartlett, Duchesse, Doyenne. Butium, Beurre d'Anjou 

 and Beurre Gitlkrd, giving large prominence to the Bartlett. The next 



