Pears and- their Culture in the South. 125 



Mr. Berckmans, of Georgia — They say it is blight-proof, but T 

 do not believe that. I do not believe that any pear is blight-proof. 

 The LeConte may be more nearly so than any other kind. I be- 

 lieve that it has been reported blighted in Southwestern Georgia. 



Prof. Colmant, of Mississippi — I have had a few hundred LeConte 

 pears in cultivation, and my opinion has been about the same as 

 Mr. Berckmans'. I have seen it blighted, but I have seen it re- 

 sist blight. It is different from all the other pears in its habits. 

 Our experience has been that the strongest growing pears were sub- 

 ject most to blight. The LeConte has been less subject to it than 

 any variety I have ever cultivated. 



Col. R. W. Gillespie, of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, was then 

 introduced to the Society, who said that he came on the part of his 

 own road and the Louisville and Nashville road to extend an invi- 

 tation to the Society. The L. & N. offered them an excursion to 

 Mobile and back, or transportation to Mobile, if they accepted the 

 invitation of the M. & O., which was to give them a special train 

 from Mobile to Cairo. 



The President said that this was the most generous hospitality he 

 had ever heard tendered to a society, and thanked Mr. Gillespie 

 therefor. 



After some discussion upon these proposals, Mr. W. H. Cassoll, 

 of Mississippi, a gentleman of long experience in growing pears at 

 the South, read the following paper on ''Pear Culture" : 



PEARS AND TBEIR CULTURE IX THE SOUTH. 



BY W. H. CASSELL, OF MISSISSDPPI. 



In the discussion of this subject, we are met first by the, questions of lati- 

 tude and longitude, and suppose that the Society will generally construe 

 these to embrace that part of the United States between the Rocky Moun- 

 tains on the west, and the Atlantic on the east, for longitude, and extending, 

 in latitude, from the southern limits of the United States to the northern 

 limits of the Cotton Belt, embracing some six or seven degrees of latitude. 

 This opens up a large territory, varied considerably as to climate, and greatly 

 as to soil, embracing almost every variety of the latter. But we find this (the 

 favorite fruit of the writer) adapting itself, with considerable success, to the 

 different conditions which these cRversities of soil and climate necessarily 

 impose upon it, so that from all quarters comes the report that some varie- 



