FRUITS. 97 



perfection, and that our efforts at cultivation are tending to 

 restore it to its primal state. How wonderful that by the hand 

 of cultivation, that less desirable article is brought into so 

 many and so rich varieties ! 



As the result of very considerable labor it has been ascer- 

 tained that there are on this island at least eighty different 

 varieties of the apple, besides many trees whose names are not 

 known to the owners. Among the former are many of the best 

 known to New England growers. As with other fruits, there 

 may be some shades of difference in opinion as to the relative 

 quality and productiveness of even the best varieties, owing to 

 local causes. But, so far as known, there is a very general 

 agreement. A few of those which" are regarded by our people 

 as among the best, are the Baldwin, the Bunch apple, Hubbard- 

 ston Nonesuch, Porter, Rhode Island Greening, Pippin, Roxbury 

 Russet, the old-fashioned Russet, Pignose, Gilliflower, Summer 

 Sweet, Winter Sweeting, and Tallman Sweeting. These have 

 been named by some of our farmers ; probably there are others 

 in our long list equally as good. 



THE PEAR. 



In speaking of this as of all the other kinds of fruits herein 

 named, the aim of your Committee is to be practical, and 

 thereby to make their report useful to those to whose knowl- 

 edge its contents may come. 



The pear is one of the most luscious of esculents, and the 

 extent to which it is preferred is indicated by the fact that it is 

 cultivated so generally, not only by the larger farmers, and 

 gentlemen of property who have retired with their competence 

 from their wonted avocations to their country-seats, but also by 

 numerous persons in their small garden lots, and by those of 

 limited means. It is said that the pear grows wild in Europe, 

 and that it is now cultivated in all temperate climes. It was 

 known to the Greeks and Romans more than two thousand 

 years ago. Probably no species of cultivated fruit upon the 

 globe is grown in so many varieties. In the year 1851, Mr. 

 Plenry H. Crapo, of New Bedford, who is now governor of a 

 Western State, published in pamphlet, with other matters, a list 

 which probably contained about all in his large nursery, num- 

 bering about one hundred and sixty varieties. His successor 

 13* 



