NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 75 



the pear, and I know that they can be kept even into 

 May. People have them sometimes for eight months in 

 the year. They can do it if they choose. All there is 

 to it, they do not choose to. They are not in love enough 

 with the pear to grow the varieties that will do well in this 

 climate. 



One of the famous nurserymen of the country at the 

 Chicago Exhibition in 1893, showed a large number of varie- 

 ties that had been kept until very late in the season without 

 artificial storage. Fourteen varieties of pears in good condi- 

 tion simply by having a little fruit preservatory above ground 

 where the fruit was kept cold and packed up in such a way as 

 to prevent decay. Pears can be held on for eight months in 

 the year if they are properly taken care of. For my part, I 

 cannot see why they should not be raised on a much larger 

 scale in New England, and with good profit to the producer. 

 Pears brought ten dollars a barrel the first week in November, 

 at wholesale, in Boston. California sends carloads of delicious 

 pears to the New T York market every year, and we can pro- 

 duce just as good pears in Connecticut as they can in Califor- 

 nia, and a little better in some respects. We have got a good 

 climate for pears, and we have very little of the fire blight that 

 destroys the pear in the south and southwest. That has got- 

 ten into the California orchards, and has made very much 

 trouble there. There is no reason why we should not have 

 pears, except that people do not want them enough to plant 

 them. I hope to plant some pear orchards very soon. I have 

 done some little of it in the past, raised quite a few of them, 

 and I am satisfied that anybody that loves the fruit can get 

 good results if they are well taken care of. I hope the time is 

 not far distant when we will come into our annual meeting and 

 see some long tables covered with a fine exhibition of pears. 

 There is no reason at all why this splendid fruit should be 

 allowed to go into decay in New England. We have got to 

 spray them and protect them from the San Jose scale, which 

 is now destroying the pear trees all through this region. But 

 in spite of that, pears will continue to be grown just as long as 



