CULTURE OF THE PEAR. 25 



Beurre, Messire Jean, and several others of the best old varieties of pears, 

 have either disappeared, or are so deteriorated, as to be no longer worthy 

 of cultivation. This lamentable decadence, hov^^ever, is not confined to 

 this country, but is experienced in France, the probable birth-place of most 

 of the pears, bearing the highest reputation, formerly known in the gardens 

 and orchards of both England and the United States. 



It was alledged in the remarks Avhich were made in the Annales D'Hor- 

 ticulture, upon the Report of the Commissary General of the Fruit and 

 Vegetable Market of Paris, for 1830, that the Sucre Verte, Sucre Marque, 

 Bezi de la Motte, and Bezi d'Airy, had disappeared, and that very few of 

 the Chaumontel or Rousselet, and none of the Royal d'Hiver, Virgouleuse, 

 or Colmars, were to be seen ; and it is stated in the Nouveau Dictionnaire 

 D'Histoire Naturelle, which was published by an association of the most 

 celebrated naturalists of France, in 1803, that, at the close of the seven- 

 teenth century, there were not more than fifty or sixty pears of superior 

 merit, and about as many more of a medium quality, among the whole 

 number known at that time. 



Fortunately the meritorious and extraordinary efforts of Knight and 

 Van Mons, in Europe, and the simple process of Nature in the United 

 States, have more than replaced those extinct and expiring varieties, which 

 have been cherished for centuries, and thus established an important era in 

 the culture of fruits. 



The science and art of Horticulture had made but httle progress in this 

 country, after the first half century from the landing of our ancestors ; and 

 but few additions were made to the fruits and vegetables which they 

 introduced, until the commencement of the present century ; and even in 

 the oldest nations of Europe had there been much attention bestowed on 

 those subjects, until the establishment of the London and Paris Horticul- 

 tural Societies, and the Botanical and Experimental Gardens of Plants, at 

 ChisAvick, Trianon, and Fromont. Before that period, the nursery of the 

 fathers of the Chartreaux, near the Luxembourg, founded by Louis XIV., 

 long supplied a great portion of Europe with fruit trees. 



Less than forty years since there was not a nursery in New England 

 that was entitled to the name ; and now there are those which contain 

 nearly as great a variety of fruit trees as the most extensive in England 

 and France. 



For the first impulse which was given to produce these decisive and 

 cheering illustrations of the vigorous and rapid advancement in the culture 

 of fruit trees, we are mainly indebted to the Hon. John Lowell, Hon. 

 Christopher Gore, Samuel G. Perkins and Eben Preble, Esquires, and Col. 

 Thomas H. Perkins. They imported vast numbers of trees which were 

 managed with great practical skill, under their own immediate direction, 

 4 



