190 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



lately communicated to me by my friend judge 

 Wallace, of Burlington, to whom I recently paid a 

 visit. He stated to me, on the authority of a cor- 

 respondent in Philadelphia, that the pear was grown 

 in that neighbourhood, sixty years ago, by a person 

 named Jacob Weiss, who obtained the tree, with 

 many others, at a settlement of Swedes, which was 

 early established near Philadelphia, where Mr. 

 Weiss had built a house. The judge suggested 

 the probability of Mr. Weiss and the father or 

 grandfather of Mr. Seckle having been intimate, 

 as both families were German, and of that rank in 

 society, which might be likely to lead to such an 

 acquaintance. The conjecture therefore, is, that 

 under such circumstances, Mr. Seckle's family ob- 

 tained grafts from Mr. Weiss's tree. 



" Mr. Coxe, in his view of the cultivation of fruit 

 trees in America, an interesting volume, which I 

 have forwarded to the society, after assigning the 

 same origin as I have stated in the beginning of 

 this letter, describes the fruit thus : ' The form and 

 appearance vary with aspect, age and cultivation : 

 the size generally is small ; the form regular, round 

 at the blossom end, diminishing with a gentle oval 

 towards the stem, which is rather short and thick : 

 the skin is sometimes yellow, with a bright red 

 cheek, and smooth; at other times, a perfect russet, 

 without any blush : the flesh is melting, spicy, and 

 most exquisitely and delicately flavoured. The 

 time of ripening is from the end of August to the 

 middle of October. The tree is singularly vigorous 

 and beautiful, of great regularity of growth and 

 richness of foliage, very hardy, possessing all the 

 characteristicks of a new variety. Neither Ro- 

 sier or De La Quintinge among the French, nor 

 Miller or Forsyth among the English writers, de- 

 scribe such a pear as the Seckle ; nor have I found 

 one among the intelligent French gentlemen in our 

 country, who has any knowledge of it in his own.' 



