AGEICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



FARM CROPS. 

 THE PEAR. 



[From the Report of the Committee of the Essex Society.] 



It is only a few years since the pear began to be regarded 

 with any thing like favor by people in general. In our own 

 Essex County, where the pear is so well known and exten- 

 sively cultivated, there are not pears enough raised to give 

 four quarts to every family within its territory. This ought 

 to be encouraging to persons desiring to cultivate the fruit 

 for pecuniary profit, the more so as the demand for it is so 

 great. Those who consumed but one quart last year will 

 want at least two quarts this year. The taste will increase 

 for it from year to year, till it will find its way to the table 

 of the poor as well as to that of the rich. 



The Committee are of the opinion that all fruit-growers 

 should raise their pear-trees from the seed. They have come 

 to this conclusion for various reasons. First, as animals are 

 improved by breeding from pure and healthy stock, why not 

 apply the same rule to the raising of trees from pure and 

 healthy seed? Second, every one who has had any experi- 

 ence with trees sold by nursery agents can tell the loss sus- 

 tained from that source. We have known some of these trees 

 to struggle for existence two or three years, and then die ; 

 others to live through the first season only ; and some that 

 did not put out at all. This, to say the least, must be 

 aggravating to the purchaser, who wastes his money and 

 labor in setting out worthless plants raised from worthless 



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