VARIETIES OF PEARS. 209 



A Member. What do you think of the Belle Lucrative ? 



Mr. Clement. The Belle Lucrative is sweet, melting and 

 buttery. I don't think it is that turtle-egg butter that Professor 

 Agassiz spoke of, but butter that is a good deal better — butter 

 that relishes. 



A Member. How is the Flemish Beauty ? 



Mr. Clement. The Flemish Beauty is a nice, clear-growing, 

 hardy tree, (nice as the Bartlett ;) but sometimes the fruit 

 cracks badly and is almost a failure. At other seasons it is 

 remarkably good. In some localities it is capital ; in others, 

 insipid. It rots inside first. You may think you are going to 

 have something nice, but if you happen to pinch it a little hard 

 your thumb will go through. There is a great demand for the 

 tree, and will be for the present. 



A Member. Would you recommend the Beurre d'Amalis ? 



Mr. Clement. I believe I would not, notwithstanding it is 

 liked by some. It is a rampant and very sprawling grower as a 

 nursery tree ; I hardly know how it appears when in the orchard. 

 It is a tree that needs severe cutting to bring it into form. The 

 pear ripens early, and decays rather early, I believe. 



A Member. It rots at the core. 



Mr. Clement. I had that impression, but I did not like to 

 say so emphatically, because I did not know. It is astringent ; 

 or perhaps I ought not to say astringent. It has that flavor 

 which suits some palates — the champagne flavor, so called. I 

 have no fancy for it. 



A Member. What do you think of the Maria Louise ? 



Mr. Clement. The Maria Louise I do not know. I remem- 

 ber, when I first began to raise trees, I came down to Salem and 

 bought a lot of trees from a man, and among them was a Maria 

 Louise ; but I never got a single pear, although I had it twenty 

 years. It died last year. 



A Member. The Belle Lucrative ? 



Mr. Clement. I have spoken of that. It is a capital pear, 

 but in our locality liable to blight in tree ; to die off, branch 

 after branch, until it is gone ; and sometimes a tree will die 

 outright in one season. 



Mr. Dodge. That tree never blights here, and is considered 

 by many cultivators at the head of the list. 



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