1894.] TRANSACTIONS. 29 



Are we not, insensibly perhaps but nevertheless surely, 

 degrading the standard heretofore established in our schedule? 

 Doubtless the later we live the more opportunity is furnished to 

 learn. But are all the lessons set before us worth learning? In 

 our selection of Pears, for example, as the years have rolled by, 

 we eliminate native and long-tried varieties, or else reduce them 

 to a lower level than that wherein they had long approved them- 

 selves worthy. Marshall P. Wilder died in the faith that the 

 surest prospect for the development of excellence, whether in 

 the Apple or Pear, would be found in the careful cultivation of 

 native kinds. Yet we have no room for the Columbia, barely 

 tolerate the Dix, and regard the Washington as pretty wax- 

 works ! Now the Dix is as good as Louise Bonne, which it suc- 

 ceeds, keeps later, and is well worth waiting for if wait you 

 needs must. People ask for a later-keeping Winter pear and 

 are put off with suggestion of this or that, hard to grow and 

 harder to ripen, while all the while the Columbia is at their ser- 

 vice. Of foreign varieties, Marie Louise, one of the three very 

 best abroad, gets faint recognition by dint of earnest champion- 

 ship. Winter Nelis is rated below those egregious humbugs, 

 Angouleme and Clairgeau, whose girth, or flaming cheeks, 

 should not suffice to maintain them in cultivation. So much do 

 I esteem the Nelis, although I fail to earn its premiums ; and so 

 thoroughly do I believe in each Member of our Society extract- 

 ing from its original package his Thanksgiving champagne ; that 

 I recall your attention to the opinion of Andrew J. Downing 

 who, in his original work, Ed., 1847, says : 



"The Winter Nelis holds in our estimation, nearly the same 

 rank among Winter Pears that the Seckel does among Autumnal 

 varieties. We consider it unsurpassed in rich, delicious flavor, 

 and indispensable to every garden however small. It is a very 

 hardy and thrifty tree, and bears regular crops of Pears, which 

 always ripen well and in succession." 



You may have noted that I mention enjoying it at Thanks- 

 giving, when most of us must, if at all. Yet John C. Ripley 

 and John C. Newton, with suitable fruit-rooms, found no difficul- 

 ty in keeping the Winter Nelis in perfect condition until the 



