CLAPP'S FAVORITE PEAR, INSECTS, ETC. 47 



handsomer shape, and ten days ahead of the Bartlett. It is tardy 

 in coming into bearing as a standard, but as a dwarf bears as early 

 as any other variety. I probably have two hundred dwarfs of this 

 variety, and as yet have not lost one from any cause. Their plant- 

 ings range from three to eight years. They require heading back 

 for four or five years to form a compact head, which is more desira- 

 ble with us than with you. My standards are often taken for 

 apple trees, for they really look to the unpractised eye more like 

 apples than pears. As I gather the fruit ten da^'s before maturity 

 I have never seen one rotten at the core. 



The past season has furnished an increased supplj^ of injurious 

 insects. Crickets have quadrupled their numbers and attack a 

 pear as soon as it touches ground. The brown or house wasp has 

 greatl}' increased and stings the growing pears, causing hard lumps 

 and imperfections. Grasshoppers have increased and have done 

 considerable damage to the kale crop the past fall. The potato bug 

 has not yet put in an appearance. 



Spring frosts have prevented me from placing fruits upon your 

 tables the past three years, but I hope another spring will inaugu- 

 rate a change. I fear the denuding of our forests has an influence in 

 producing these results, the axe of the slayer being in constant 

 motion. 



Thanking you, and your most efficient Treasurer, Mr. Bus well, 

 for copies of your valuable Transactions to myself and the 

 Norfolk Horticultural and Pomological Society, 

 I remain, with highest esteem. 

 Your obedient servant, 



G. F. B. LEIGHTON. 



Adjourned to the first Saturday in March. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



This meeting was organized for the puipose of listening to the 

 Essay on the Improvement and Ornamentation of Suburban and 

 Country Roads, by Dr. Slade, for which a prize was awarded by 

 the Committee. The essayist not having arrived at the close of the 

 business meeting, the subject of pear tree blight, mentioned in Mr. 

 Leighton's letter, was taken up. 



