318 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



EirEXIXG PEAES. 



Mr. Patrick Barry, of llocbester, N. Y., good American authority on fruit 

 culture generally as well as on the suhject of ripening pears, says: 



The process of ripening on the tree, which is the natural one, seems to act 

 on the fruit for the benefit of tlie seed, as it tends to the formation of woody 

 fibre and farina. AVhen the fruit is removed from the tree at the very com- 

 mencement of ripening, and placed in a still atmosphere, tlie natural process 

 seems to be counteracted, and sugar and juice are elaborated instead of fibre 

 and farina. Thus, pears which become mealy and rot at the core, when left 

 to ripen on the tree, become juicy, melting and delicious when ripened in 

 the house. 



THE TEAR ORCHARD OF COL. WILDER 



is said to bo the finest experimental orchard of the kind in the country. It 

 covers about twelve acres of ground and once contained nearly a thousand vari- 

 eties which are now reduced, from one cause and another, to between eight and 

 nine hundred. Nearly every tree is bearing fruit this year, a great many are 

 loaded down almost to breaking, and the crop is estimated at not less than 

 2,000 bushels. The soil is a heavy sandy loam, and is plowed and kept clean 

 by cultivation, crops of small fruits and vegetables being grown between the 

 trees, which are from ten to fifteen feet apart, too near it is thought. As fast 

 as the fruit is picked, it is carried to the fruit-house and placed in a cool room 

 in the basement to ripen, and when in the proper condition, is sorted, packed 

 in boxes holding a bushel each, and marketed. About thirty bushels of fine- 

 looking (and tasting) Doyenne Boussocks were nearly ready for boxing. The 

 Bartlett is the most popular sort, no other selling well when that is in the mar- 

 ket. On the lawns about the residence are many fine ornamental trees, among 

 them a large and beautiful specimen of Cut-leaved Birch, which Col. Wilder 

 thinks highly of as a lawn tree. I was kindly showed about the place by a 

 son of the proprietor, to whom I am indebted for most of the above informa- 

 tion. — Cor. Ihival New Yorlcer. 



PEACHES. 



THE AMSDEX. 



Mr. Ceorge Ilusmann reports to the Missouri Horticultural Society, the 

 Amsden peach as "one of the few fruits which have not been over-praised." 

 His first specimens ripened June 13 ; a number of this variety measured eight 

 inches in circumference, and his crop averaged over $5 a bushel, *'as they 

 were gone before the drouth set in." Tliat it is a clingstone is the one object- 

 ion to it. He thinks Amsden and Alexander distinct, but so much alike that 

 it would hardly pay to have both, and his choice is Amsden. 



