Pear Culture. 8i 



PEAR CULTURE. 



By Dr. J. S. Houghton, Philadelphia, Pa. 



A REASONABLE " rcspcct for the opinions of mankind "' induces me 

 to reply to the comments upon my Essay on Pear Culture contained in 

 the "Notes and Gleanings" of the Journal of Horticulture for Decem- 

 ber last. 



I shall not attempt to go over the whole field of the discussion. I 

 desire only to say, that my essay was not a " dolorous wail over the 

 failure of pear growing," as stated by the writer in the Journal. It 

 was rather a statement of the diffic7iUies of pear culture, the world 

 over, with some suggestions respecting the best methods of overcoming 

 these difficulties. I simply declared that fine dessert pears, or the finest 

 specimens of the fruit, could not be obtained, as some persons supposed, 

 with certainty, from old standard trees, in open orchards and in grass ; 

 but that the best fruit was everywhere, in all counti-ies, produced chiefly 

 in cultivated and protected gardens, generally in cities and large towns, 

 upon young wood and young fruit spurs, on carefully pruned trees, and 

 on young grafts. 



I declared that, in my opinion, more care and skill would be required 

 to produce fine fruit than had generally been applied to the art in Amer- 

 ica, and that, chiefly, some protection would be found necessary against 

 spring frosts, cold winds and rain at the blossoming period, and for two 

 weeks afterwards. 



It has for many years been more difficult to obtain fine pears In Penn- 

 sylvania, generally speaking, than in Western New York and Massa- 

 chusetts ; but our pomologlcal friends in the west and In the east have 

 more ills to contend with than they like to acknowledge. The fact is, 

 as I have stated frequently, Pennsylvania never has been able to make 

 a respectable exhibition of fine pears without the aid of Rochester and 

 Boston. Our Philadelphia patriarch, Baxter, living in the city, has 

 taken nearly all the silver medals offered by our Horticultural Society 

 for fine dessert pears for fifteen or twenty years. 



