14 Our Pear Culture all ^lackery. 



uct — besides the labor, which is something, to cUmb a tree twenty or 

 thirty feet in height, as most of our trees are — will be one and a half 

 bushels, which must bring $4.30 per bushel ; a little less than ours sold 

 for after deducting the poor. Again, to get iine specimens, the crop 

 must be farther reduced by gathering another twenty-tive per cent., 

 which will leave one bushel ; this must be sold for $7.40, besides the 

 labor of thinning. We shall still ilnd many inferior specimens in the 

 bushel ; and to come up to the doctor's standard, at least tw^enty-five 

 per cent, more must be picked off, thus leaving the cost of the ka/J' 

 bushel of real specimen pears $7.40 — a price at which they could not 

 be sold only by the dozeiz^ and very few at that. 



Again, and we must bring our article to a close. Dr. Houghton 

 asks a question, and answers it, Yankee-like, himself; undoubtedly to 

 his satisfaction, for he says, — 



'' Now what are the difficulties of pear culture at Boston.'' I answer, 

 the trees are frequently injured or killed by the severity of the winters, 

 and the blossoms are frequently destroyed by late spring frosts." 



We ask. Where did the doctor get this novel information? and shall 

 leave him to answer it. During thirty years we never had a tree in- 

 jured by the winter except in 1S57, when they suffered just as much in 

 Philadelphia, and in the same time we never lost a single pear by late 

 spring or any other frosts. W^e have no blight nor any fungus, except 

 on the St. Michael and one or two other pears ; the crop is uniform and 

 certain, as our table above shows ; and the ^oear is less liable to casual- 

 ties than any other fruit we produce. 



Leaving the doctoi" to pursue his raid on the grass cultivators, who 

 must be green ^ we ought to ask the indulgence of our readers for taking 

 up so much of their time. 



