THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



BLOOMING SEASON AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEAR-VARIETIES Concluded 



The latitude of the Smith Astronomical Observatory, a quarter of a 

 mile from the Station orchards, is 42 52' 46.2"; the altitude of the orchards 

 is from five hundred to five hundred and twenty-five feet above the sea 

 level. The soil is a loamy but rather cold clay; the orchards lie about a 

 mile west of Seneca Lake, a body of water forty miles in length and from 

 one to three and one-half miles in width and more than six hundred feet 

 deep. The lake has frozen over but a few times since the region was 

 settled, over a hundred years ago, and has a very beneficial influence on 

 the adjacent country in lessening the cold of winter and the heat of summer 

 and in preventing early blooming. 



