222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



trees. Mr. Cabot, of this city, lost whole trees. I lost limbs as 

 large as my arm. The Belle Lucrative was not injured at all, 

 either in bud or wood. That year gave us a good insight into 

 the hardiness of trees. The Bartlett is not so hardy with me as 

 the Belle Lucrative — I mean the tree. We find the Belle Lucra- 

 tive, the Beurre d'Anjou and the Louise Bonne de Jersey to be 

 the hardiest pears, so far as our experience goes. 



With regard to the culture of apples, (to mention that matter 

 again,) I know of but two imported apples that are really desir- 

 able and fit for our culture here. One of those is the Ribston 

 Pippin, and the other the Gravenstein ; but, gentlemen, the 

 apples grown on our soil — those apples that originated in this 

 State or somewhere in New England — are the best apples for 

 you to cultivate. 



Now with regard to pears dying out. It is a remarkable fact 

 that the pear tree has always been considered to be (and I have 

 no question that it is,) a longer lived tree, naturally, than the 

 apple. Why, then, do so many die out ? Let me remind you, 

 that of the million of trees that have been set out in Illinois and 

 the Western country, not one, I think, is now living. But go 

 to Detroit, and you see Frei.ch pear trees that are seventy-eight 

 years old bearing all the time. I think there are two reasons 

 for the loss of so many of our pear trees. One is, the feeble- 

 ness of the pear stocks of Von Mon's — and most of our deli- 

 cious pears come from him. He has described his method of 

 raising pears. He says he took the seeds from his pears before 

 they were ripe, because he wanted to destroy their luxuriance. 

 He admitted that that mode enfeebles the growth of the tree, 

 and that there was no compensating vigor imparted to it. 

 Another thing is, cutting off the tap root. I suppose those 

 large trees were set out and grew where they were planted, 

 without any reference to cutting off the tap root. I do not 

 know why we do that, unless it be that we may take up our 

 trees more easily, or think that they grow faster. That may 

 be, but for durability I do not believe that is a good plan. A 

 few years since I was up in Lynnfield, at Hon. John B. Alley's 

 place, and he took me into his grounds and showed mo eight or 

 ten trees that were suffered to grow up without having the tap 

 root cut off, and they were about the most thrifty trees I ever 

 set eyes on. He said it was not safe to take off the tap root. I 



