FRUIT committee's REPORT. 89 



cient account of a possible action of one agent in bringing about this 

 change, that of hybridization produced by the winds or insects, that in a 

 country like Belgium" it would seem to be impossible to wholly avoid. 

 If this supposition is correct, may it not be that the disease, as the canker 

 or cracking of the bark and fruit, to which some of the new pears are sub- 

 ject, has been inherited from the old diseased varieties, in consequence of 

 this hybridization ? 



But if cultivation has produced such favorable effects upon the fruit, and 

 brought about this great improvement in its quality, its influence upon the 

 tree has been of a much more questionable character, tending rather, as is 

 believed, to the injury of its constitution, and bringing about a precocious- 

 ness in bearing that has been obtained at the expense of its hardiness and 

 its longevity. 



The system of Dr. Van Mons, as practised by him, seems to have for its 

 object the enfeebling of the tree, as, by planting the seed of immature 

 fruit, and in promoting a rapid growth, by enlarging the sap vessels, and 

 forming their whole vegetable tissue of imperfect matter, or, if this en 

 feebling was not the object, such seems to have been the effect. All culti- 

 vation of a tree puts it into an artificial condition, and a change so complete 

 in its habits seems naturally an incident to disease, even when this cultiva- 

 tion is conducted with a view to the duration of the tree. But when, as is 

 usually the case, this cultivation is directed solely to the production of the 

 finest fruit, in the greatest quantity; without much regard to the tree, the 

 supposed tendency to disease must be greatly increased. 



If the views here suggested are correct, then the fact that pear trees of 

 the older varieties, whose cultivation had not been carried to so high a 

 point, have here lived, flourished, and borne fruit for a century, affords no 

 conclusive evidence of the adaptation of our soil and climate to the modern 

 improved varieties, and that such would thrive under similar treatment and 

 in like conditions for anything like the same period ; but, on the contrary, 

 goes to show that instead of the treatment suited to a hardy indigenous 

 tree, the latter will require that adapted to a somewhat tender exotic, in 

 order to insure its existence and the production of its fruit in a perfect 

 state. 



The seaboard of Massachusetts, and perhaps New Hampshire, is proba- 

 bly the northern and eastern limit, beyond which the finest varieties of 

 pears of modern origin cannot be cultivated, unless under peculiarly favora- 

 ble circumstances, with much hopes of success, and indeed here this 

 culture Avill demand the exercise of skill and judgment to overcome the 

 obstacles with which it is attended. These obstacles grow, in a great 

 measure, out of the character of the climate, its great extremes in opposite 

 directions, of heat and cold, and those sudden and violent alternations from 

 one to the other to which it is liable. In Belgium and France, that seems 

 to be the paradise of the pear, the temperature is more equable, without 

 such great extremes of heat or cold, and is, on that account, it is believed, 

 more congenial to this tree. 



In addition to the injurious tendency of the great difference in tempera- 



