40 JVoics a fid Gleanings. 



needs some criticising. But I will first give you a brief history of the Hadley 

 pear, and let your readers decide whether it is wise for R. M. to give judgment 

 in a case with so much decision, having heard only one side of the question. The 

 Hadley pear came from seed planted by my father, Jedediah Montague, when a 

 boy. He was born in the year 1766, and probably planted that seed about the 

 year 1780, and it probably bore fruit some years before the commencement of the 

 present century, and has seldom, if ever, failed to bear some every year since, but 

 a full crop only alternate years. The tree is still standing on the spot where it 

 originated, within a few feet of the house in which I was born, and where I spent 

 the first twenty-two years of my life — from 1805 to 1827. 



'' My first recollections of the tree are, that it was a large, fruitful tree. I rec- 

 ollect very distinctly gentlemen coming from Northampton and other places to 

 get scions from that tree to send to their friends at the West. One — 1 think it 

 was Mr. Hunt, from Northampton — wished to send some to a friend in Ohio. 

 This was some years before my father's death, which was in the year 1824. 

 Scions were also sent to many of the other States, and I have been told that it was 

 called the ' Hadley Pear ' almost universally, though in some places it was called 

 the ' Montague Pear.' This tree was measured by one of those gentlemen who 

 came for scions, I think about the year 1820, and it then measured forty feet in 

 height, and the circumference, four feet from the ground, I think was over six 

 feet, but I am not certain. I saw the tree a few weeks ago. It is about the 

 same in height, with, perhaps, a somewhat larger trunk than it had fifty years 

 ago. It shows some marks of old age, but still bears a good crop of good Iruit. 

 A valuable old tree. It has probably produced, during the seventy-five years it 

 has been in bearing, nearly one thousand dollars' worth of fruit. My brother re- 

 ceived thirty dollars for what he sold from one crop, besides having a good 

 supply for his family and friends. The above facts can be corroborated by any one 

 who will visit Hadley, examine the tree, and ask the inhabitants, old or young. 



" With this statement of facts, I will now submit the case to your readers as 

 jurors, and R. M. as judge, to say whether there is not, after all, some ground to 

 doubt ' that the supposed seedling tree in Hadley sprang from grafts of the Kirt- 

 land which Mr. Hunt brought to the adjoining town of Northampton.' Or is it 

 not more reasonable to suppose that the Kirtland pear sprang from scions which 

 Mr. Hunt, of Northampton, sent to Dr. Kirtland, of Ohio, some years before the 

 time when R. M. says the Kirtland pear first began to attract notice, and that 

 Dr. Kirtland, finding they were a valuable pear, propagated them, and sent them 

 out bearing his name ? E. Hlontagiie." 



• 



Horticultural Specialties. — As the science of horticulture widens its 

 domain, it becomes more and more beyond the grasp of any one man ; and such 

 is the tendency of every branch of liuman knowledge and skill in our day, and, 

 however much this is to be regretted, it is unavoidable. There are some per- 

 sons who find their ground unusually suited to certain plants ; others seem to 

 have a kind of intuitive skill or knack in cultivating certain plants : and all such 

 persons will find their interest in making specialties of the plants which succeed 

 best with them, if they do not give their attention wholly to them. Many nur- 

 sery-men now devote themselves wholly to small fruits ; and we should not be 

 surprised to see the nursery business so far subdivided, that some growers should 

 confine themselves to one species of fruit, such as apples alone, or pears alone, 

 or even to a single variety. Let a nursery-man who has a piece of ground favor- 

 able to the growth of the Bartlctt Pear, for instance, cultivate that variety, and 

 nothing else, and he would, undoubtedly, be able to sell better trees of tliat kind 

 at less prices tlian other growers, and with absolute certainty of genuineness. 



