150 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



may crown our tables, in qualities to please every taste, with the fairest 

 and most delightful of fruits! Shall we not soon begin to wish that we 

 lived 'at Rochester or Boston, as our cherished trees, with the most 

 sonorous names and the rarest excellences, rapidly perish in our mei'ciless 

 winters, and we learn a lesson not set down in the books, that nine out 

 of ten of all these varieties are only exotic in a western climate? My 

 friends, I speak from the sadness of experience. I have tried the two 

 hundred kinds, and more, and am now ready to divide that ambitious 

 number by twenty, and then subtract some, to find the list I would 

 advise a friend to plant. 



The conditions which restrict us to a few varieties differ materially 

 in the many different soils and climates of our State, but I am acquainted 

 vvrith no locality where many dozen kinds have proved successful. In 

 the north this limitation consists mainly in the tenderness of trees in 

 winter; in the south this is combined with premature defoliation. I 

 judge that the Flemish Beauty has proved the most generally hardy in 

 the north, although it blights badly, and that it and the Bartlett have 

 given the gi'eatest satisfaction in crops; but the Flemish Beaut}' entirelv 

 fails in health of foliage in most places in the south, and it is rare to find 

 a crop perfectly ripened on any tree. Still it often bears immense crops, 

 which in some cases have yielded more profit, to the tree, than any other 

 sort, and it is very widely, if not largely planted. The Bartlett is not 

 reliably hardy either north or south, but its great merits of tree and fruit 

 overbalance all its faults, and it is pre-eminently the pear of the State, 

 as of the whole country. For average weight of crops and prices, it 

 considerably surpasses any other variety. All markets prefer it, and if 

 we could have it in ripening from June till January, most men's pear 

 lists would be reduced to this one variety. Indeed, with some planters 

 all considerations of season have yielded to the Bartlett passion, and they 

 are likely to meet the views of those Chicago dealers who declare there 

 are but two kinds of pears, " Bartlett pears " and " Fears," and they say 

 the last variety don't amount to much! 



The Howell is better known in the south than in the north. I have 

 not often seen it north of Alton, but it is well worthy of wide planting, 

 for while it may fail oftener than some others from too early blooming, 

 yet its vigorous and hardy habit as a tree, with the superb nature of its 

 fruit, should place it in every list. I find the Belle Lucrative extensively 

 planted, and apparently well adapted to the climate everywhere. It is 

 one of our most prolific bearers, and has few equals in quality, and it is 

 one of the three or four best in respect to health of foliage; in fact I 

 sometimes think it stands at the head of the list in this important par- 

 ticular. But its color on rich soils is a dull unsalable green, while on 

 poor land it often attains perfection of form and most exquisite pencilings 

 of color. This is one of the two varieties I would prefer on quince 

 stocks — the other being the Duchesse d'Angouleme. This last kind 

 possesses great value for market, under favorable circumstances. I find 

 it everywhere regai'ded as one of the healthiest of trees. It is the one 

 variety which to-day redeems a once very large orchard planted on the 



