82 Pear Culture. 



When I commenced planting pear trees, neai'ly twelve years tigo, I 

 reasoned thus : — 



Pennsylvania lies in the temperate zone, very nearly in the latitude 

 of the best pear regions of Europe. This state has produced some of 

 the best seedling pears the world has ever seen, — the Tyson, King- 

 sessing, the incomparable Seckel, etc. The soil is a strong, fertile, clay 

 loam, in which the pear delights. Winter-killing is very rare. Sum- 

 mer-blight, or fire-blight, is almost unknown. The season is long, the 

 sunlight ample ; the autumn generally dry, and the new wood ripens 

 perfectly. The " oldest inhabitant" speaks of a time when the Virga- 

 lieu, or " Butter pear," was as perfect as polished wax, and delicious as 

 nectar. I said to myself, there are very few pear orchards in the State ; 

 the experiment of extended culture has not been fairly tried. I will 

 plant numerous varieties, and hope to find some suited to the clLmate ; 

 some, perhaps, which Boston has discarded may grow in perfection 

 here ; it cannot be possible that this great belt of the temperate zone is 

 unsuited to the growth of the pear, which flourishes over a larger space 

 of the earth's surface than almost any other fruit. 



I did plant upwards of twenty-five thousand trees in ten years, dwarfs 

 and standards, and hundreds of varieties, the best that Europe and 

 America could furnish. My work was not that of a fanciful amateur, 

 playing nurse to a few garden trees. Indeed, I was not an amateur at 

 all. I planted with a view to the sale of fruit, on a large scale. I en- 

 gaged, at the outset, the best professional assistance ; and for six years 

 past my orchard has been under the care of an educated and practical 

 nurseryman, brought up in the nursery business, in Western New York, 

 almost within sight of Rochester. 



The pecuniary results of my planting have not, thus far, been satis- 

 factory. My crops have not been large, nor have the appearance and 

 quality of the fruit been sufficiently good. Some years the crop has 

 been almost entirely desti'oyed by cold wind, rain, and frost, in tlie 

 spring. But, in the course of this experience, I have arrived at some 

 knowledge of pear culture not set down in books and periodicals. All 

 the results which I have obtained I have not stated, nor do I intend to 

 state them. Extraordinary as it may seem (for my essay is pronounced 



