RAISING SEEDLING PEARS. 



499 



me briefly lo present an outline of the mat- 

 ter, and leave it with you and your " old 

 diggers," to finish the ground work, if the 

 idea should be considered worthy of a se- 

 cond thought. 



Now, sir, " to begin at the beginning," 

 let us devise the best method to produce 

 seeds from which to raise new pears, equal 

 or better than the present best summer, au- 

 tumn and winter varieties. To accomplish 

 this, with a prospect of good success, I 

 would suggest that it can probably be bet- 

 ter done with seed raised from six kinds 

 (two summer, two autumn, and two winter 

 varieties,) than from seed fertilized by a great- 

 er number, although all the kinds should 

 be equally good as the trees selected for 

 the summer, autumn and winter varieties ; 

 for, be it borne in mind, that no country 

 has probably produced so many good varie- 

 ties of the pear, from seed, in proportion to 

 the number of seedlings which have fruited, 

 as the United States ; from the fact, in my 

 opinion, that the impregnation of the seed 

 has to be accomplished by having only two 

 good varieties growing side by side of each 

 other, and, in some instances, from seed of 

 one good kind, without its having been fer- 

 tilized by any other variety, — the tree being 

 cultivated far away from any other pear tree. 



Upon this hypothesis, I will suppose that 

 the following pears, viz: 



The Seckel is the offspring of the Rousselet de 



Rheims; the parent being grown alone, or 



out of the influence of any other variety. 

 The Petre is the offspring, probably, of the White 



Doyenne and the Brown Beurre. 

 The Dix, from the White Doyenne and tho Saint 



Germain. 

 The Heathcote, from the White Doyenne. 

 The Blood good, from Citron des Carmcs and White 



Doyenne. 

 The Pennsylvania, from White Doyenne and Mes- 



sire Jean. 

 The Haddington, from White Doyenne and Black 



Worcester, or Woodall's St. Germain. 

 The Ott, White Doyenne and Seckel. 



If the above suppositions are correct, the 



next inquiry is, how shall seed be obtained 

 from which to raise the best summer, au- 

 tumn and winter varieties of the pear, 

 with the greatest prospect of success ? To 

 state my views still further, I will suggest 

 that the following varieties be made use of, 

 for that purpose, viz: 



Nol. Bloodgood, 

 " 2. William's Bon Chretien, 



No. 3. Seckel, 

 " 4. Louise Bonne de Jersey, 



No. 5. Dix, 

 " 6. Beurre d'Aremberg, 



To be grown side by 

 side, to produce seed 

 for summer varieties. 



To be grown side by 

 side, to prodtn 

 for autumn varieties. 



To be grown side by 

 side, to produce seed 

 for winter varieties. 



The trees to be grown in three different 

 locations, at least one-fourth of a mile apart, 

 and out of the influence of any other pear 

 trees. 



The seeds of all the varieties should be 

 taken from the fruit when fully ripe, kept 

 separately, and labelled as follows, viz: 



No. 1. Bloodgood. fertilized by William's Bon Chretien. 

 " 2. William's Bon Chretien, fertilized by Bloodgood. 

 " 3. Seckel, fertilized by Louise Bonne de Jersey. 

 '• 4. Louise Bonne de Jersey, fert.lized by Seckel. 

 " 5. Dix, fertilized by Beurre d'Aremberg. 

 " 6. Beurre d'Aremberg, fertilized by Dix. 



Seeds thus raised and carefully labelled, 

 I think, would command a good price. I 

 would rather give five dollars for a paper of 

 one hundred pear seeds fertilized as above, 

 to raise seedling pears from, than I would 

 pay one dollar for a bushel of seeds, col- 

 lected indiscriminately. 



What say you, Mr. Editor ; is this sub- 

 ject worthy of reflection, and a trial ? or 

 should we plod along with the slow process 

 of commencing with choke-pears and the 

 sour crabs, on the system of Van Mons ? 

 Yours very truly. Samuel Walker. 



Rorbury, Mass., March 15, 1S50. 



[We have already expressed our dissatis- 

 faction with Van Mons' method, which, as 

 we believe, gives good fruit, but feeble con- 

 stitutions ; so that for all purposes of pro- 

 fitable culture, many of his best varieties 

 are worthless. 



Mr. Walker is undoubtedly correct, that 



