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reason or other it appears to be less liable to blight on my grounds than any other variety 

 I grow. The fruit is very good. It grows to be a good fair size with us, and ripens 

 uniformly — that is, the pears will nearly all ripen about the same time. The Glout 

 Morceau is a pear I would not like to be without ; and yet it is a pear I would not like 

 to recommend other people to grow, because generally it is a failure. The Tyson is one 

 of my favourite pears also ; and I find it produces more fruit to a tree on an average 

 than any other pear I grow. Still, it is not a large pear. It isa very delicious pear ; 

 and it comes in at a season when pears are very acceptable. 



Mr. Holton. — It has always been the impression that the Duchesse grown as a 

 standard was a failure. My experience with it is very different. To me the flavour of 

 it grown on the pear is equal to what it is grown on the quince. I have grown it several 

 years in this neighbourhood on sandy loam, and fruited it ; and it is a fine cropper, the 

 fruit is always fair, and it brings you a good price. There are a couple of summer pears 

 that have done well with me. One is the Beurre de Koning, and the other is the 

 Supreme de Quimper. It has proved a strong tree, and it is doing well. The pear is a 

 little larger than the Seckel, and is a good colour. 



Mr. Saunders. — Another pear that we find very successful about London is Elliot's 

 Early. It produces a good crop of pears large in size ; and they have a blush of red on 

 the cheek sometimes. It is a pear there seems to be money in, coming in, as it does, 

 early — so early in the season that there is nothing else to compete with it but the 

 Windsor Belle, which tastes like a mixture of sawdust and vinegar. The Beurre de 

 Koning with me is too shy a bearer to induce me to plant it to any extent. It does not 

 seem to thrive in our cold climate. With me it is a poor bearer. 



Mr. Arnold. — I would like to ask Mr. Holton if all his Duchesse, grown on 

 standards, have produced equally good pears. If he has a quantity of them that have 

 been grafted promiscuously on pears, it is a pretty good proof that the Duchesse can be 

 successfully produced in some districts on standards. 



Mr. Holton. — I have about half a dozen trees of them. They are now fifteen or 

 twenty feet high perhaps. They are uniformly good. 



Mr. Arnold. — No one would own my Duchesse on a pear stock. 



Mr. Willard. — Probably there is no one variety that is growing in demand so 

 highly in Massachusetts — which is probably the greatest pear-growing State — as the 

 Duchesse as a standard. During the last ten years the demand for that variety, as a 

 standard, has increased, I presume, fifty per cent. 



Mr. Gott. — There is a prejudice against dwarf pears in this country. They will have 

 them standards or nothing at all. 



Mr. Wellington.— -That must be owing to the different part of the country you 

 live in ; because our experience is that you can hardly kaep up with the demand for 

 dwarfs at present. 



Mr. Dempsey. — In a section of country where there is not much snow, it is exceed- 

 ingly risky to graft pears on the quince. 



Mr. Arnold. — We work our dwarf trees right down to the ground. Some years 

 ago a gentleman applied to me for some Dwarf Seckels. I said to myself, " the man does 

 not know what he is talking about ; a Dwarf Seckel is perfectly worthless grown on the 

 quince stock." I ventured to oflTer him some on a pear stock ; and that gave him a 

 tolerable Seckel. 



Mr. Morris. — My experience of the Seckel on the dwarf is that it makes a perfect 

 union. A great )nany of the failures in the dwarf pears come from budding on too small 

 a stock. I have seen them myself budded on a quince not much larger than a lead pencil. 

 The result is that you have a tree with a very large shoulder, and that often breaks off. 



Mr. Saunders. — My best Seckel pear is on the quince stock. 



Mr. Beadle. — I have about as beautiful trees of Seckel on the quince stock as I 

 have ever seen, and I get finer specimens of fruit from it than I can off the pear stock. 



