176 



rated the general dissemination of the most 

 truly valuable kinds of the fruit. 



The pear so difficult to raise here from the 

 seed when once it has become a well-rooted 

 plant of three or four years' growth, and as 

 many feet in height, is a fr.uit tree of easy 

 cultivation, of great hardihood and produc- 

 tiveness ; it is subject to few diseases, and of- 

 ten attains to a great age. 



A pear tree in Illinois, on the authority of 

 Rev. H. W. Beecher, produced in 1834, while 

 yet not over forty years of age, a crop of one 

 hundred and eighty-four bushels of pears ! 

 An English writer mentions a pear tree in 

 Herefordshire, Eng., from which fifteen hogs- 

 heads of perry were made in a single year. 

 This tree covered more than half an acre of 

 ground, the branches bending down and tak- 

 ing root, and, in turn, producing others in the 

 same way. 



M. Bosc, mentions several pear-trees in 

 Europe, which are known to be nearly four 

 hundred years old. (See Downing 's Fruits 

 and Fruit Trees.} 



It is somewhat remarkable that the states 

 of Massachusetts and New York have each a 

 patriarchal pear-tree still standing in memory 

 of their early colonial governors. 



