RIPENING AND MARKETING PEARS. 23 



winter pears, one of his varieties being the Vicar, and, in the 

 accompanying statement, said that they had been kept in his 

 barn covered with hay. 



Mr. Dickinson said that this year he had kept them in boxes ; 

 he had never had another opportunity to keep them in ha}'. 



Mr. Wood spoke of a gentleman in Quinc}' who asked fifteen 

 dollars per barrel for his Vicars [Mr. Wilder said that he had 

 sometimes got twenty dollars for his] , and who meant to set out 

 five hundred trees next year, but partly for stocks, as it is the best 

 of all growers. It will grow like the Baldwin apple. He had had 

 trees on the quince root make good pear roots in four 3-ears. 



Mr. Pierce said that he would leave pears on the tree as long as 

 he could safely. 



Mr. Dickinson remarked that the Vicar should be planted on a 

 warm gravelly loam, in a sunn}' place. It will not produce good 

 fruit on a clay soil. 



Mr. Capen formerly had a neighbor who thought the Vicar not 

 fit to eat, but before he died he acknowledged its excellence. He 

 had, himself, two trees, one of which never produced a good pear, 

 and the difference could not have been caused by the soil. 



Mr. Wilder said that his friend Dr. Burnett, while travelUng in 

 the West the present winter found Vicars selling for a shilling each, 

 and as good as any pear. They were of California growth. 



Fred W. Kelsey thought the whole truth in regard to the Vicar 

 could be summed up in a few words — if well grown they are magnif- 

 icent ; if poorly grown the}' are worthless. The top of the tree 

 should be kept open and thin to admit the sun and air. 



Mr. Manning thought the soil a very important point. He 

 agreed with Mr. Dickinson that good Vicars could not be produced 

 on a cold, damp, or clayey soil ; but on a warm soil, well exposed to 

 the sun, they acquire a red cheek, and will "yellow up" well and 

 be of fair quality. 



John B. Moore said they would not always produce fruit of good 

 quality on warm soils. He had plenty of sand and gravel, and 

 had thinned the fruit and grown it large, and then had to sell them 

 for one dollar per bushel. He preferred a first rate pear ; the Vicar 

 is simply a cooking pear. Mr. Dickinson would not say it is as 

 good as Beurre d'Anjou or Winter Nelis. The speaker had had 

 crops of forty or fifty bushels, and the quicker he sold them the 

 more money he got. He meant to graft his trees with other 

 varieties. * 



