400 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



adapted, I am confident, to our soil and climate. If vegetables 

 should become here, as they now are in France and England, 

 the principal food of the people, the pear will be more deserv- 

 ing of the notice of the agriculturist than are the short-horns. 

 Not indeed that pear which begins to rot before it is ripe, nor 

 that which waits for the frosts to mature it — which is but a 

 step in advance of its prickly ancestor, and whose bitter astrin- 

 gency tans the delicate linings of the mouth into red morocco — 

 but such as Van Mons, with tireless industry and surprising 

 skill, brought into existence in Germany. Such, too, as are 

 found in the gardens of Kenrick and Perkins, and thence trans- 

 planted into the fields and gardens of Middlesex, Essex and 

 Norfolk ; sorts of every size and flavor, some in liquid sweet- 

 ness like the clingstone, some of the delicate acidity of the 

 strawberry ; and some in juicy richness surpassing the sweet 

 water. No other fruit mingles with its own specific flavor, in 

 such rich variety, the agreeable taste and flavor of the rest. 



That the pear will flourish in this county admits of no doubt. 

 It does not ask for a soil of rich vegetable mould ; moisture is 

 less essential to its growth than to that of the apple tree. In 

 the most common, deep, dry soils, it will succeed. It is found 

 to grow and bear abundantly even on grounds poor and ex- 

 hausted, and to flourish luxuriantly in clefts of rocks. Like 

 most other things of extraordinary excellence, it is of slow 

 growth ; and a man of sixty, who is unwilling to plant for his 

 own and his neighbor's children, — if such a man can be found 

 in Protestant Christendom, — may omit to start and cultivate its 

 seedlings ; he can, however, by engrafting or innoculating upon 

 the quince stock, bring it soon into bearing, without diminish- 

 ing its productiveness or the qualities of its fruit. But he must 

 not expect it to retain its natural longevity, or to be exempt 

 from the diseases and insects to which the quince is exposed ; 

 besides, he must forego some of the choicest kinds, for all will 

 not associate with the dwarfish quince. 



It may be said that the general raising of fruit will glut the 

 market and make it an unprofitable business. Let those afraid, 

 halt, if they please, and the daring go ahead. For crab apples 

 and prickly pears, choke cherries and wild plums, a large market 



