SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 349 



headed up. A fruit-house, thus arranged and managed would be 

 a profitable adjunct to a f ruitery. But for most amateurs, a dark 

 closet in the house, or a room fitted up in the cellar, or even 

 the cellar itself, kept cleanly and sweet will suffice. For small 

 quantities of pears, cheese-boxes with covers, have been found 

 cheap and convenient. These should be always freed from the 

 odor of cheese, by cleansing in hot water, with soda or potash. 

 Mr. Barry, the eminent pear culturist, after many years of experi- 

 ence, found the most effective means of preserving winter pears 

 to be : late gathering, packing away carefully none but sound 

 fruit, in close barrels, leaving them in an open shed, only pro- 

 tected from rain and rays of the sun, as long as the tempera- 

 ture is above freezing point. There are many forms of fruit- 

 rooms. The structure may be on a large scale, or only a small 

 room, of but a few feet in size. The side walls, and the lower 

 and upper floors are made double, being filled in with sawdust. 

 The upper floor, consisting of a single layer of boards, nailed on 

 the underside of the joists, with sawdust piled on loosely, a foot 

 or more in thickness. Above this, is an open space or garret, 

 under rafters and roof, with holes in each gable end, to admit a 

 free circulation of air. The main room is divided into two com- 

 partments. The fruit-room and ice-room by a partition. The 

 partition unites the walls on both front and rear, but a small 

 opening of a few inches, is left both above and below it — that is, 

 between the whole length of the lower and upper edges, and the 

 floor and ceiling. The ice, as represented, is piled up in a com- 

 pact mass, in the right division and covered in the usual manner 

 with straw. 



DISCUSSION. 



It will be seen from reading over Mr. Edwards' and Dr. Bal- 

 lou's papers, that there is some difference of opinion regard- 

 ing the success of the pear. This comes from the fact, no 

 doubt, that there are certain localities in Northern Illinois in 

 which the soil and surroundings seem to be adapted to the 

 growing of the pear. No doubt Dr. Ballou is situated in one of 

 those places, as he has evidently been quite successful. There is 

 also a small pear orchard about a mile and a half north of Sand- 

 wich, of twenty-five or thirty trees, which has been in existence 

 for twenty-five years or more and has borne more or less every 

 year, but a good many of the trees have been replaced from time 

 to time. Some of the first trees planted in the orchard are still 

 there and they bore a full crop this year. Mr. Pratt, the owner, 

 sold over $80 worth of fruit from the orchard this year, one tree 

 having borne eighteen bushels. 



