1896.] TRANSACTIONS. 19 



ber may introduce a new Apple or Pear ; but his associates, 

 who observe that it has been awarded a gratuity, are more apt 

 to covet and apply for scions from his slender stock of wood 

 than to send to EUwanger & Barry who first put it in the 

 market and whose affair it is also to maintain it in stock. Now, 

 how much better for the Society to procure, for distribution, a 

 hundred or more scions of each and every variety of fruit that 

 has other merits than novelty ; to provide that they shall be 

 fairly apportioned among members who will agree to engraft 

 them upon suitable stocks and thereafter, as development pro- 

 gresses, to exhibit the mature specimens when they become ripe 

 enough for inspection and test of quality. 



It would be safe enough to repose implicit faith in the judg- 

 ment and bona fides of Mr. William C. Barry, and to get him 

 to supply a stated number of scions of varieties of Apple or 

 Pear, upon whose identity and especial characteristics he would 

 be willing to slake his reputation. It is his business now, as it 

 has been for a lifetime ; and the fame which he has thereby 

 acquired serves him in good stead in each of his forward steps 

 to assume the place of his honored father. So much for the 

 matter in its commercial aspect. 



But in another, and a local point of view, does such a project 

 appeal to us most forcibly. How many of the newer, promis- 

 ing varieties of fruit, that have been shown in our Hall within 

 the last fifteen (15) years, are so widely disseminated as to be 

 safe from extinction? Are there a half-dozen of our Members, 

 who can felicitate themselves upon possession of Earle's Berga- 

 mot in full vigor ! Its very parentage, to which its real excel- 

 lence is due, menaces its permanent existence, Belle Lucrative 

 being notorious for excessive fecundity, and therefore containing 

 within itself the germ of disease and the ultimate assurance of 

 sudden death. If we would be more careful in the selection of 

 a stock whereon to engraft that excellent Pear, — very likely not 

 the best variety with which we are acquainted, but most assuredly 

 the best that was ever originated in Worcester ; and which not 

 only for its peculiar merits, but also because it owes its origin 

 to John Milton Earle, we might hope confidently to spare our- 

 selves a grievous loss. 



