12 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1883. 



nobly did he achieve the labors imposed upon him. Yet, — so 

 long as Antaeus could touch his Mother Earth, he remained 

 invincible. Therefore, know a good thing when you see it! 

 And freeze, or warm, to it, in proportion to your sense, and 

 according to your appreciation, of its merits, — should it turn out 

 bloodless as a Turnip ! 



There is an aphorism, — old as Man, — Go away from home, if 

 you would learn what has happened at your own door ! In an 

 English journal, that lies upon our tables, ma}' be found a whole 

 page of extracts from an American contemporary that are 

 stuffed to repletion with the most extravagant praise of the 

 Kietfer Pear. After contrasting it with the Lawrence, and other 

 approved varieties, to their invariable and immense disadvantage ; 

 the writer mounts his high horse, and careers as follows : — 



"Kieffers also found customers in Massachusetts^ as several bushels 

 grown in Burlington County, N. J., were shipped to Worcester, Mass., 

 and although delayed a week by an accident on the railroad, they sold 

 readily on arrival at S6.00 per bushel, the same as in Philadelphia." 



I think that this will be news to you, and doubt if tlie state- 

 ment could be verified. Have any of you been able to find a 

 ready sale, at Six Dollars per bnshel ! for any Pear, — no matter 

 what the variety ? Can you obtain that price, even now, when 

 fruit is comparatively scarce, for the Comice, or d' Anjou^ Or 

 have you ever known the time when so much was offered for the 

 Bartlett, or Clapp ? Such exaggeration may delude the ignorant, 

 and serve to disperse a worthless novelty among those who 

 receive, for gospel, anything that is in print. But, when it gains 

 currency and sanction, by its republication in a journal of 

 deserved repute, in another country; it is high time that its 

 gross falsehood were detected and denounced. 



The Kieffer Pear has been shown, at our Exhibitions, by our 

 veteran associate from West Boylston. Its external appearance, 

 which is decidedly in its favor, was by far the best part of it. 

 The writer, first quoted, says that " it does not rot until verj^ 

 ripe, and remains firm at the core to the last." Specimens given 

 to your Sec7'etary, for trial, did not ripen until wholly rotten ; 

 when, the flesh being worthless, the condition of the core was of 



