82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and forty dollars for the crop of the half acre, or twelve 

 hundred and eighty dollars per acre. Another instance is 

 that of Mr. T. G. Yeomans, of Walworth, N. Y., who, from 

 one-third of an acre, containing one hundred and forty dwarf 

 trees, gathered thirty barrels of the Duchesse d'Angouleme 

 pears, which sold for five hundred dollars, or at the rate 

 of fifteen hundred dollars per acre. Those varieties suited to 

 this stock are now preferred on the quince by the most skilful 

 and experienced cultivators, and they are being planted on the 

 most extensive scale. A gentleman in the South, of great 

 knowledge, has planted an orchard of five thousand ; another, 

 in the West, one of twenty-five hundred ; and others in various 

 parts of our country on a more limited scale. 



In the vicinity of Boston there are many instances of similar 

 success. One gentleman has an acre of dwarf pear trees, from 

 which he has received about forty-five hundred dollars in 

 nine years, while from thirty pear trees of the same age, on 

 their own root, he has not gathered one hundred dollars worth 

 of fruit. Among those who formerly denounced the pear upon 

 the quince as a failur^there are some now who are its eloquent 

 advocates. 



In a word, our largest profits in pear cultivation have been 

 from dwarf trees. The best fruits of our exhibitions are from 

 the same source, and with appropriate soil, the right selection 

 of kinds, judicious pruning, high cultivation, and a reasonable 

 share of experience and enterprise, success is as certain as 

 with any other crop. 



VII. — The Preservation and Ripening of Fr nil . 



Much progress has been made in this art within a few years, 

 • and important results have been attained. The principle has 

 been settled, that the ripening process can be controlled. 

 Autumnal fruits have been kept and exhibited the succeeding 

 spring. We have seen the Seckel, Bartlett, and Louise bonne 

 do Jersey pears, in perfection in January, and even later. The 

 maturity of fruit depends on fermentation. The saccharine is 

 followed by the vinous and acetous. To prevent these, and 

 preserve fruit in all its beauty, freshness and flavor, the tempera- 

 ture must be uniform and kept below the degree at which fer- 

 mentation or the ripening process commences. 



