vation of the pear, at least wherever it has been undertaken with as much skill and 

 judgment as is required to raise asparagus, celery, nay, potatoes and corn. 



In every latitude, from Maine to Georgia, fine native fruits have originated from 

 chance seedlings; we have the Raymond of Maine, the Dix, and a score of other 

 pears in Massachusetts; the Buffum in Rhode Island, the Lawrence in Long Island, 

 with many valuable varieties in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, which all 

 prove the perfect adaptedness of the pear tree to our soil and climate, many being- 

 superior in standard qualities, such as growth and delicacy of the fruit, to most 

 foreign varieties ; such are the Sheldon, Lawrence, Brandywine, Kingsessing, Seckel, 

 the noble Buffum, the Howell, the Philadelphia, and many others. 



When we see so many peach orchards destroyed by neglect after four or five years 

 of prolific bearing, reduced to nothing by the absence of all care, pruning, or atten- 

 tion to insects and diseases, shall we conclude that "peaches don't succeed !" It 

 may be time, that the peach tree is generally more hardy, at least for a short period 

 of its existence, than the finest varieties of the pear; it can bear weeds and neglect 

 for a time, but no fruit tree can last long under such circumstances. Those who 

 have seen the pear tree in all its splendor, in such experimental grounds as the Hon. 

 Mr. Wilder's, Ellwanger and Barry's, Mr. Cushing's, Mr. Buist's, William Reid's, 

 Hovey's, and many other careful cultivators ; those who have seen these noble pyra- 

 mids yield, year after year, their golden and crimson treasures, "tempting to the 

 view," and luscious beyond all other fruits, must feel convinced, that under good 

 management, the pear is one of the surest crops we can depend upon ; perhaps more 

 sure than the apple and the cherry, and at anyrate more so than the peach, the plum, 

 and the grape, in the Northern and Middle States. 



And if the cultivation of the pear, that "queen of the gardens," required double 

 care and expense, the amateur of good and lasting fruit would not give it up ; but 

 happily for him and for the future supply of the markets, it is not so. The pear 

 tree is less subject to diseases, &c., arising from insects or climatic influences, taken 

 altogether, than the peach, the plum, and even the apple. With a judicious selec- 

 tion of varieties, adapted to your soil and latitude, grafted on the most suitable 

 stock, with such ordinary care as a gardener bestows on the planting of a rose or a 

 cabbage, with the cleaning, weeding, and mulching bestowed on a green-house plant 

 or a favorite flower, success is certain ; and perhaps more certain than with any other 

 fruit, as pear trees will bear, year after year, without giving out, or wasting their 

 vigor. 



If, to all those advantages, we add the great facility of giving any size or form to 

 the bearing tree, its fitness to fill either a small or a large spot, to admit of its 

 shrubby, pyramidal, or wide-spread form, we could scarcely wish for a better pro- 

 duct. The writer has seen in Massachusetts, in Rhode Island, and about Philadel- 

 phia, handsome, vigorous pear trees, not only natives, but such varieties as require 

 the protection of a wall in England, in part of France and Belgium. He could 

 name some grounds, such as Clover-hill, for instance, where the Seckel and the 

 Virgalieu grow, in their full vigor, in the midst of grassplots, places where the hardiest 



