18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1895. 



England, and cultivators esteem eavliness as one of the requisite 

 features to ensure annual and well-ripened crops ; and, while the vine- 

 yards are not a leading feature, a large area is devoted to its culture. 



The pear, although found in very limited number early in the cen- 

 tury, made but slow advances. The Seckel pear, according to Down- 

 ing, was known in 1765. It was introduced to cultivation before 

 1817. The original tree, in 1848, was very large for a Seckel, being 

 more than six feet in circumference at one foot from the ground. I 

 saw the tree about the year 1863 ; it then showed evident signs of 

 decay. It was the first native pear that attracted much attention and 

 for many years was regarded as the standard of excellence. 



Probably the first attempt in this country to produce a new fruit by 

 cross-fertilization was by William Prince, who raised Prince's St. 

 Germain, about 1806. Thus it would seem the pear, until within fifty 

 years, received but little attention outside of gardens, and even then 

 but few and inferior sorts. The first impetus given to its cultivation 

 was about 1835, and the better sorts of foreign origin were introduced 

 about this time. There was increasing interest manifest and many 

 good kinds were imported. Horticultural societies, with their exhibi- 

 tions and liberal offers of premiums, with the fondness of Americans 

 for new and rare things, soon brought from abroad hundreds of 

 varieties. 



The sessions of the American Pomological Society brought together 

 large collections at their exhibitions in Boston in 1873. Messrs. 

 Elwanger & Barry contributed three hundred and seventeen finely 

 grown varieties of pears. Marshall P. Wilder, the President of the 

 Society, contributed four hundred and four varieties, comprising all 

 the foreign and native varieties. Hovey & Co., of Boston, con- 

 tributed three hundred and twenty-eight varieties, and F. & L. Clapp 

 had eighty-six varieties of pears grown from seed. There were more 

 than six thousand dishes of fruit, from all parts of the country, in- 

 cluding Canada and Nova Scotia. 



At this exhibition it would ai)pear as if tlie pear cultivation had 

 arrived at its height. Only nurserymen and those of great wealth and 

 enthusiasm could attempt such displays. Soon after it, was discov- 

 ered that fewer kinds, comprising the choicer sorts, were more to.be 

 desired, and the weeding out process was in order. The great mass of 

 poor and ordinary kinds were thrown out and their cultivation dis- 

 continued. 



We have now arrived at a more healthy condition in pear culture. 

 But few varieties are grown, and those that are found especially 



