NOTES ON PEARS. 



o'clock in the morning. The side-walk was full of people, pas.sing along, and I retreated 

 out of the way, to see the trial of my Bartletts, which stood near the door, the basket 

 in which they were, partially turned up on its side to show them temptingly. "What 

 pears are those?" asks one, who stops to look at them. " Mr. Allen calls them Bartletts, 

 but I never saw any before. He says they &rc first rate." " "Well, I'll try one. What's 

 the price?" " Three cents a piece, and nothing shorter ! So he told me." " Well, that's 

 loud! but I'll try one any way." He tasted it. "That is a pear! I'll take half a 

 dozen. This is the only pear I ever tasted in Buffalo." "What are these?" asked 

 another. " Bartlett pears." "Ah! well, my wife has told me a dozen times how good 

 Bartlett pears were. Lend me a basket and I'll take home a dozen. What's the price?" 

 " Three cents a piece." " Confounded dear! but they'll please my wife and the children." 

 I saw the customers thicken, and left, thinking the experiment would do. Next day I 

 called again. " Have you any more Bartlett pears?" inquired the shop-keeper. "No. Are 

 they all gone?" " Gone! yes: and I could have peddled out twenty bushels, by the half 

 dozen, if I only had them." I was stopped a dozen times that morning, by the dealers, 

 to know if I had any more Bartlett pears; and could have sold five hundred bushels while 

 they were in season, at three to four dollars a bushel, if I only had them. 



I am growing a few trees of "Kirtland's Seedling," by way of experiment, which I 

 grafted in the spring of 1850, from cuttings sent me by Professor Kirtland, of Cleveland. 

 It has not yet fruited; but he claims that it is as good a pear in flavor as the Seckel. If 

 so, it will be a treasure; for it is a much more rapid grower; a beautiful yellow wood; 

 upright, like the Seckel; and every way a handsome top. I hope to fruit it another year. 

 If it prove what Prof. K. says of it, the " Seedling" may supercede the parent Seckel in 

 our locality, which is a slow grower every where, and, not always, a certain fruit, in its 

 flavor. 



The Onondaga Pear. — Although spinning a long yarn, which I fear both yourself and 

 your readers will get tired of — but it is a gusty, snowy, inhospitable day, and my Short 

 Horns, and Devons, and Southdowns, are all snugly in their stables and shelters, with 

 enough to eat; and the fruit trees all safe under the snow, provided the pestilent mice 

 don't nibble them — I may as well make an afternoon of it, and do up my gossip at 

 once. 



Sometime last fall I received a peach basket from the express office, with my address 

 upon it. I opened it; but found no letter within, nor did I receive any message from any 

 other source, informing me who it was from; but on examination, finding that it was 

 stuffed, and packed on the top, with all sorts of newspapers, concluded that the large and 

 beautiful Onondaga Pears, of which it contained nearly half a bushel, could come from 

 none other than my excellent pomological friend, Vivus W.Smith, Editor of the Western 

 State Journal, at Syracuse. If he did send those pears, I here thank him most heartily 

 for them. If Mr. Smith did not send them, this random thank for the most welcome waij, 

 may be appropriated by him, her, or they, who did me the kindness. And if I ever can 

 find out the donor, I will send him one of my choicest Niagara Muscalunge — our best 

 river fish— in return. The pears were large, perfect, remarkably well grown, and in ex- 

 cellent preservation. The Onondaga is said to be a great bearer. I know it to be a strong 

 and rapid grower, as I have it in cultivation. Its fruit is large, fair, and beautiful. Its 

 season, October. For preserving and cooking it has excellent qualities; but as a dessert 

 pear, it lacks richness of flavor, although soft, juicy, and melting. The flesh, too, is 

 coarse — a quality common to all large fruits; and although the Onondaga does not equal 

 best of our standard pears in flavor, yet its other excellent qualities may warrant its 



