FRUITS. 89 



only fit to be eaten when cooked, and we still have native fruits 

 answering to this description, but most of our cultivated pears 

 are the perfect antipodes of those of the old Roman, and well 

 deserve the epithet of beurr.e or buttery. They fairly melt in 

 the mouth. We never were privileged to taste of ambrosia, but 

 we doubt whether this fabulous food of the gods could bear a 

 comparison with our modern pears. This great improvement 

 is the result of careful propagation from seeds, and to Knight 

 in England and Van Mons in Belgium, we are indebted for 

 bringing this fruit to its present state of perfection. There is a 

 margin for greater improvement, and Mr. Poote of Williams- 

 town, exhibited in his large collection at our fair, some seedlings 

 of the Seckel which certainly equalled the parent in flavor, and 

 in size and buttery quality were superior. If some one will 

 turn his attention to the production of a summer pear of high 

 order, and give us something which will answer in this latitude 

 for August, as well as the Bartlett does for September, he will 

 prove himself a public benefactor. A good early pear is still a 

 desideratum. The Bloodgood, Doyenne d'Ete, and indeed the 

 whole list of our first ripe fruits are small in size and rather 

 insipid in taste. The Dearborn seedling is the first really good 

 pear that we have, and this is not in perfection with us till the 

 first of September, and is too small for a good market fruit. 

 We desire, however, in passing, to bear testimony to the great 

 hardiness and exceeding fruitfulness of the Dearborn, and 

 cannot too highly recommend it as well adapted to our Berk- 

 shire climate. Planted by the side of the Seckel and Plemisli 

 Beauty, it shoots far above them, although bearing early and 

 profusely. 



The pear loves a deep loamy soil and high cultivation. The 

 difference in size and flavor of specimens grown in favorable 

 and unfavorable circumstances is truly remarkable. The pear 

 has a delicate organization, and will not bear neglect as well as 

 its coarser-textured cousin, the apple. Mineral manures add 

 greatly to the quality of pears. The late G. P. R. James, 

 while occupying the Ashburner place in Stockbridge, which is 

 well stocked with this fruit, found the trees inclined to be 

 drooping, and the fruit to crack, and restored health to the 

 trees and fruit by the free use of copperas (sulphate of iron,) 

 so that this is now one of the most productive pear orchards in 



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