DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



533 



on their own stocks, to plant those inserted on the 

 ash or thorn, in the middle of the squares, making 

 the quincunx form? [This would be a very good 

 mode.] 



In transplanting, how much charcoal, how fine, 

 and how applied to the tree? [Half a peck to each 

 tree, if easily obtained, and it should be thorough- 

 ly mixed with the soil before planting.] 



What is your opinion of leached ashes for such 

 trees, how much, and how applied on a gravelly 

 and clay loam. [It is one of the best manures for 

 all fruit trees. Apply it as a top dressing, at the 

 rate of 200 bushels to the acre, and put a small 

 heap around the trunk every spring, to deter the 

 peach worm.] 



Would the want of a compost for planting trees, 

 as recommended in your work on fruits, make 

 it advisable to defer planting until another year? 

 [Never plant trees unless you are ready to put your 

 soil in proper order for it; for then it is very diffi- 

 cult to put it in equally good order afterwards.] 



An answer to the foregoing queries, will confer 

 a great favour on your distant correspondent. — 

 Very respectfully yours, Elijah Beckwith. Ban- 

 gor, April, 1, 1847. 



The Oswego Beurre Pear. — An article in 

 the February No. of the Genesee Farmer, has just 

 met my eye, in which the editor of the horticul- 

 tural department of that paper, objects to the name 

 given by me to the Oswego Beurre, and calls on 

 you to discountenance it. He says: "We find 

 another instance of this throwing away a popular 

 name, and adopting a new, in the case of the Os- 

 wego Beurre. This pear was originated by Mr. 

 Walter Read, and called there, and known, where 

 known at all, as Read's Seedling, a most appropriate 

 name surely. We repeat, that this changing of 

 names is the very way to perpetuate and multiply 

 the errors and difficulties in which American pomo- 

 logy is so deeply involved. It seems that every 

 man who finds a fruit he does not happen to be 

 acquainted with, wants to give it a name of his 

 own. The Horticulturist should discountenance 

 this." 



Having received several letters from sections of 

 the country where the Genesee Farmer is circula- 

 ted, asking for grafts of Read's Seedling, I am in- 

 duced 10 enter my protest against dropping the 

 name as given in the January No. of the Horticul- 

 turist, Oswego Buerre or Read's Seedling. It 

 should be written Read, that being the family 

 orthography. 



This pear was never grafted into any nursery 

 before last spring, when it was put in mine, and 

 recorded as the Baldwin, the name of the then 

 owner of the only tree of the variety in existence. 

 I told my foreman it was wrong, that we should 

 call it the Oswego Beurre, or Read's Seedling. A 

 definite terminology is desirable on all subjects, 

 and especially so in Pomology. Oswego Beurre is 

 the most definite name that can be chosen, giving 

 the locality of its origin, a point of importance to 

 the public, as it is the only American pear within 

 my knowledge, having all of the retiuisitcs of a 

 first rate fruit, that has originated so far north. It 

 defines also the class to which it belongs, as it 



possesses in the highest degree the Beurre pro- 

 perties in its buttery flesh. Mr. Barry is mista- 

 ken in saying it is known here as Read's Seedling. 

 The names Oswego Beurre and Read's Seedling, 

 are connate, both having been given by me at the 

 the same time. It is a remarkable fact, that this 

 tree which has born fruit for the last sixteen 

 years, should not have drawn the attention of either 

 market or amateur cultivators, and been named 

 and propagated before. 



To show the ignorance that prevails here, in 

 relation to the value of fine pears, and present a 

 reason perhaps, why the Oswego Beurre was not 

 earlier brought before the public, I would state the 

 fact that the IF/iiYe -Do!/e?i«c or Virgalieu, and Brown 

 Beurre varieties that have been most dissemina- 

 ted here, and thrive here equally as well as the most 

 hardy natives, have been sold by our farmers for 

 several years past, to fruit dealers at from 4 to 6 

 shillings per bushel, when in fact they were 

 worth about as many dollars as they received shil- 

 lings. 



Deacon Walter Read, now deceased, who plant- 

 ed the tree, from which the Oswego Beurre was 

 produced, was a man of high moral worth, and 

 on whose narration of the history of the tree, per- 

 sonally given, I place the most implicit reli- 

 ance, was neither a market or amateur cultivator, 

 and had not on his premises a grafted or budded 

 pear tree, but was a substantial farmer, with a 

 large family who used the crop themselves, mostly 

 before ripe, for baking, till within four or five 

 years, since which time it has borne from twelve 

 to sixteen bushels annually; and the family have 

 sold a portion to fruit dealers in this village, by 

 which means I discovered it, and have since pur- 

 chased all of the crop for sale. 



Believing that this pear is the most valuable 

 variety known here at the north, for extensive 

 cultivation, I was desirous, not only that it should 

 retain the name by which it was at first christened, 

 but that some additional facts of its history and 

 qualities should be given. To enable me to give 

 such facts without depending entirely on m)' own 

 memory, or that of Deacon Read's, I went yester- 

 day to the house of his widow, and from her and 

 members of her family, of an age to know the 

 history of the tree, as well as from several of the 

 neighbors on whom I called to make inquiry, I 

 find they do not essentially vary its history from 

 that given me by Walter Read, four or five years 

 since. 



Their concurrent testimony establishes the fol- 

 lowing facts: that twenty-two or twenty-three 

 years ago, Mr. Read had a very rich pear given 

 him by a friend, that had but three seeds, which 

 he saved, and planted between the roots of a stump; 

 two came up, one was destroyed by the cattle, and 

 the other stands now where it was originally plant- 

 ed — that it bore fruit according to the testimony 

 of the widow, several of her cliildren, and one ob- 

 serving neighbour, when it was but sjj: years old; 

 that it has borne a fair crop every year since it came 

 into a bearing stale, and has produced sixteen 

 bushels in one year; that in the year 1S34, when 

 other varieties growing an equal distance from the 

 lake, were nearly or totally destroyed by frost, the 



