years have wronglit a wonderful change, and the most of those so closely pruned 

 arc now among my handsomest and most valuable trees. For the past two or 

 throe years, we have had but little Grc-blight ; perhaps not over three or four 

 cases in a thousand trees. 



Extensive orchards of the pear have been planted out during the past four 

 years ; and, in many cases, I fear, without much discrimination. The pear seems 

 to be more capricious than any other kind of fruit; and it is a wonder to many, 

 how so many miserably poor varieties ever came to be cultivated. Of the 

 four or five hundred sorts in cultivation, I very much question whether there is 

 one in ten of them equal in value to the old " Orange Bergaraot," which my friend 

 Allen and myself had some sparring over in the Horticulturist, some three or four 

 years since ; and which, in my opinion, is no better than it should be. But it has 

 some redeeming qualities which many others do not possess, viz : It is productive ; 

 does not rot at the core ; and it will sell. Now this may be deemed faint praise. 

 It is so. But, is there one instance of the pears now grown among us, that possess 

 even these good qualities ? 



But the world, of late, has been running mad after new varieties ; and many of 

 ns, in the purchase of these, have caught a Tartar. I will relate a case in point. 

 Three years ago, at the Massachusetts Horticultural Exhibition, the Bonne des 

 Zees, a fine-looking pear, was passed around and tasted by some twenty or thirty 

 of our most celebrated pomologists then assembled in the large tent ; and it was 

 pronounced " very good ;" and even the distinguished gentleman that now occupies 

 the White House at Washington, expressed his admiration of the pear. Soon 

 after returning home, the writer went to the nursery, and engaged all the good 

 trees of this variety. A good friend and neighbor, who was also at the Boston 

 show, soon after made application for some of the trees, and was not a little dis- 

 appointed to find all engaged. But mark the sequel. The standard of this variety 

 has fruited each year since ; and, although it is uncommonly productive, and fine 

 in appearance, yet it has ever proved a mere juicy, wish-a-washy, insipid, quite 

 tasteless, and inferior thing ; every specimen so far falling short of " good." In 

 appearance, it very much resembles the Bartlett. 



In orchard culture, for market purposes, it has been found much more profitable 

 to plant out but few varieties, and those of well-tried sorts. In an orchard of some 

 3,000 peach-trees, the writer has confined himself to four or five sorts; of 1,000 

 apple-trees, mostly to four varieties ; and, of 1,000 or more pears, to some ten 

 or twelve sorts, of which the Bartlett, Seckel, White Doyenne, and Stevens' 

 Genesee, are the most prominent. By the way, I notice that the American Fomo- 

 logical Society class the Stevens' Genesee Pear among those that "promise well." 

 Well, this is truly encouraging for a pear that has been so well known in Western 

 New York for twenty or thirty years. We have some " promising" boys here, 

 of some forty or fifty years of age, who came to the same conclusion a quarter of 

 a century ago. 



The next meeting of the American Pomological Society will be held at Roches- 



