THE PEAE: 



ITS CULTIVATION AND VARIETIES. 



Read before the Society, February loth, A. D. 1877. 



BY JAMES DRAPER. 



While the question of the over production of fruit, and the over stock- 

 ing of the market is being agitated, some may doubt the expediency of 

 increasing the cultivation of fruit in this section as a matter of profit. 

 Consequently it may not be time wholly misspent to discuss some of the 

 features of fruit growing that will be of practical value to every tiller of 

 the soil. Whether the growing of fruit for the market is as profitable 

 taking all things into account, as the culture of vegetables, or the pro- 

 duction of milk, I shall not attempt to decide. But on one point I am 

 certain, that no farmer or owner of a garden plot can afford to do less 

 than to provide a liberal supply of fruit for his own family of the choicest 

 varieties, so arranged as to cover the entire season of the year. It would 

 certainly seem presumptuous for me to think I could give much new in- 

 formation to a body of old and well tried fruit growers like many we find 

 present to-day, but as you have requested me to open the discussion to- 

 day, by a paper on Pears, I have briefly noted down a few things that 

 come to mind from my observation and experience during the last fifteen 

 years. The matter of the origin of the many varieties may not be of anv 

 special interest, but while we are indebted to the pomologists of other 

 countries for the production of some of our best and highest flavored va- 

 rieties, we are glad to note that our own American cultivators have o-iven 

 as the reward of their labors, some of the hardiest, most productive, and 

 most valuable varieties, the Clapp's Favorite, Seckel, Sheldon Howell 

 Onondaga, and Lawrence, proving to be in many respects equal to any 

 given us from foreign sources. 



Shall we plant standard or dwarf trees? Many will answer emphat- 

 ically, standards. I would not give much for dwarfs, they do not amount 

 to anything. My experience with the pear on a quince stock on my 

 heavy, clayey soil, has been very favorable, and I have now in bearino- 



