226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



making perry and to furnish seeds for healthy, hardy stocks ; but 

 undoubtedly capable, by grafting, of being made to produce fruit 

 as buttery, melting and delicious, as their present product is choky 

 and austere. Have we not, in this fact, ample and conclusive 

 proof that if we can. furnish suitable location and food, and can find 

 varieties at once hardy enough and good enough, we can compete 

 with any portion of the world in the cultivation of pears ? It 

 would certainly seem so, and in the absence of any evidence to 

 the.contrarv, we have here a sufficient warrant for strenuous exer- 

 tions to attain so desirable a result. Several varieties, bearing 

 a high character among cultivators generally, originated here, 

 as for instance, the Fulton, which first grew from the seed in Bow- 

 doiuham, Sagadahoc county, and the McLaughlin, which cannot 

 be traced beyond Scarboro', and is believed to have originated 

 in Cumberland county, and more recently', a seedling shown bj'' 

 Mr. Nickerson, of Readfield, in Kennebec county, and named for 

 him, gives i^romise of great value from its combined hardiness, 

 productiveness, vigor, beauty, and fine flavor. 



It is believed that more time, money, labor and care have been 

 bestowed on pear culture in the vicinity of Boston during the past 

 twenty years than upon any other spot in the world, and it might 

 naturally be supposed that so much painstaking would afibrd us 

 reliable results, definite conclusions by which to be guided implic- 

 .-iitly ; but this does not prove to be the fact. One reason for this 

 ^is, because the interest there manifested has been so largely direct- 

 ed to the collection of numerous varieties. Every town, village, 

 . and quiet nook on the earth's surface, where the pear is grown, 

 seems to have been searched for new sorts, and when obtained they 

 have been put to proof of their qualities under the highest possible 

 culture. Comparatively little attention has been given to a thor- 

 ough testing of the more promising sorts under the conditions of 

 simply good orchard treatment. The value of these immense col- 

 lections is by no means to be under-estimated, for in no other pos- 

 sible way could the best be obtained, proved and compared one 

 with another, and the labors of such men as Col. Wilder, Messrs. 



feet six inclics in diameter. It has always borne well, bore ten bushels the past 

 seaeon, and made new shoots of from one to two feet in length. An old saying is, 

 'He that plants pears plants for his heirs,' but it is not so. on the quince root. My 

 orchard of eighty dwarf pears, planted in 1850, has borne well for ten years, and 

 axo in good healthy condition ; some of the pears weighed twelve ounces this year." 



