TRUIT committee's REPORT. 87 



unreasonable there is abundant evidence, for certainly no pears of higher 

 flavor and more beautiful appearance can be produced than those yearly 

 shown at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. But, 

 with respect to the former, the adaptation of our climate to the tree, some 

 misgivings, or rather, perhaps, some disappointment in many cases begins 

 to be manifested, at the failure of what was felt to be but reasonable antici- 

 pations with respect to this cultivation. Whether this disappointment is 

 the effect of accidental causes, temporary in their character, and such as 

 may be remedied or removed, or whether it arises from such as are inherent 

 to the climate and situation, and thus impossible to be eradicated or con- 

 trolled, is a question that is not yet capable of a definite solution, and can- 

 not be, until the cultivation has been tested under all the conditions that, 

 it may be, are necessary and essential to success. 



If this is a matter that may be deemed in suspense, a difference of opin- 

 ion will probably continue to exist as long as any uncertainty endures, such 

 opinions taking their hue and coloring from the character and disposition of 

 the different individuals. And while the sanguine and confident find a 

 cause for a partial or total failure in some accidental circumstance, or some 

 peculiarity of the year, the less confident and desponding will be apt to 

 consider such peculiarity but the customary concomitant of the season, and 

 find therein a fatal and insurmountable obstacle to success. If any delu- 

 sion upon this subject has existed the sooner it is dissipated the better, for 

 a continuance in error is always to be deprecated. 



The introduction of the pear into this country dates from its earliest set- 

 tlement by Europeans. There is now a pear tree in the town of Danvers 

 that, according to reliable tradition, was planted by one of the earliest 

 governors of the Colony more than two hundred years ago, and, although 

 but the remains of what it once was, it has this year produced fruit. 



Old pear trees, to ascertain whose age accurately, in most cases, no exact 

 data exists, yet, whose planting must, from their size and appearance, cer- 

 tainly date back to a period more than a century ago, may be found scat- 

 tered about, especially in the gardens of the older towns, as Salem, Med- 

 ford, Cambridge, and Roxbury ; those in Boston, where, otherwise, such 

 would be no doubt most numerous, having been destroyed as the land was 

 wanted for building or other uses. These trees are of course of the older, 

 and, as is believed, of the more hardy varieties, as the Bon Chretien d'Et6, 

 whose not very distant removal from the wild pear is indicated by its 

 numerous stony concretions, the Orange, the Autumn Bergamot, and others 

 of similar character. 



Such facts seem to lend confirmation to the opinion of the peculiar adap- 

 tation of the soil and climate of this vicinity to the pear, and tenas to fortify 

 the position of those who maintain it. These may ask, if there are abun- 

 dant instances, as are afforded by these old trees, of the pear continuing to 

 flourish and to produce fruit for more than a century, in what are unreason- 

 able the most glowing anticipations respecting its culture that have ever 

 been indulged ? Has the soil deteriorated ? Has the climate become more 

 rigorous and inclement .' Certainly not ; the soil is as fertile as formerly, 



