272 



Are the old Pears extinct? 



Vol. XII. 



produced annually Jive to seven bushels or 

 fruit, which sold for ,<S2.50 to #3 per bushel. 

 He also states that H. Colby, near that city, 

 has a tree upwards of twenty years old, 

 which produces annually (not under the most 

 favorable circumstances,) two to three bar- 

 rels of fruit, which he usually sells for about 

 $8 per barrel. 



Oliver Phelps, of Canandaigua, states that 

 a tree upon his grounds, which was budded 

 twenty years ago, has for the last six or 

 eight years borne from four io seven bushels 

 of uniformly fair and good sized fruit. Chas. 

 Seymour, of the same village, informs that 

 he has four bearing trees, one of them forty 

 years old, the others twenty-five and fifteen 

 years old ; and that, although he is not in the 

 practice of measuring the crop, " they are 

 uniformly heavily loaded with fruit, and sel- 

 dom fail to be large and perfectly fair." 

 Ralph Chapin, also of that village, has a 

 tree, at least twenty-five years old, in good 

 bearing condition, which, for the last eight 

 years, has borne from three to seven bushels 

 annually. A tree, belonging to one of my 

 near neighbors, usually produces several 

 bushels yearly ; the heaviest crop it has 

 borne being eleven bushels. I have given 

 these instances just as they came to hand, 

 without selecting the most remarkable mere- 

 ly ; and I could easily increase the number 

 ten fold. Of some of the finest trees which 

 I noticed the past season, I have had no oppor- 

 tunity of ascertaining the products. In most 

 instances, the trees have grown in soil of 

 medium fertility, and with little or no culti- 

 vation. It is scarcely necessary to add, that 

 the highly respectable individuals who have 

 kindly furnished me statements, are most of 

 them thoroughly conversant with our finest 

 varieties, and that there cannot be any doubt 

 that the trees they possess are the veritable 

 White Doyenne, almost universally known 

 in western New York as the "Virgalieu." 

 Nearly all agree in the opinion, that it is re- 

 markably free from attacks of the blight. 



The lowest price I have heard of, is $1.50 

 per bushel upon the tree. Ten dollars per 

 barrel in New York city, kas been common 

 for some years past. Judge Phelps writes, 

 in addition to the facts already quoted, — "I 

 have been credibly informed by persons deal- 

 ing in them, that they have sold in Albany 

 and New York from $10 to $12 per barrel, 

 of two and a half bushels. I saw them sold 

 in October, 1843, in Fulton market, New 

 York, by the peck, at the rate of $6 per 

 bushel." P. Barry also states, — " The ped- 

 lers of our city collect them from every part 

 of the country within fifty or sixty miles, 

 ripen them gradually in their houses, and 

 sell them during October and November at 



two to six cents each." A. Thorp, of Syra- 

 cuse, informs me that at that place, where 

 this pear flourishes admirably, the usual 

 price is $3 per bushel. 



In answer to an inquiry, David Thomas, 

 of Aurora, Cayuga county, writes, — "My 

 trees of this variety are among the most 

 hardy and productive. Edwin B. Morgan 

 told nie yesterday that his had done finely, 

 while all his other pear trees had been in- 

 jured by blight. Several gentlemen with 

 whom I conversed, laughed scornfully at the 

 idea, that any one should think the Virgalieu 

 was not one of the very best, most produc- 

 tive, and most hardy varieties; it was so 

 very ridiculous! From three trees, at C. C. 

 Young's, (at Aurora,) $39 were obtained 

 from their Iruit in the autumn of 1846. 



J. J. Thomas." 



MacedoD, 2d mo. 12th, 1848. 



We may add to the foregoing evidences 

 of the productiveness and value of this finest 

 of old pears, the following: We know very 

 well a large fruit grower and fruit dealer in 

 western New York, who sent to the New 

 York market in the past two seasons, nearly 

 two thousand dollars worth of this variety of 

 fruit, — so beautiful and fair as to command 

 the very highest price. 



Instances of the great productiveness of 

 the Doyenne are quite common in this state. 

 We received very fine specimens of this 

 pear last autumn, from J. C. Hastings, Esq., 

 of Clinton, N. Y., with the following state- 

 ment: — "This fruit was raised by my father. 

 Dr. Seth Hastings, of this place. I give 

 you the following account of the tree which 

 grew it. He sold five and a half barrels 

 from the tree this season, and had from one 

 and a half bushels to three pecks that fell 

 from the tree, and were bruised, rendering 

 them unfit to pick and send off. The five 

 and a half barrels were sold for $9 per bar- 

 rel at home; and, with what fell from the 

 tree, he estimated the whole produce of the 

 tree at over $50. You can depend on this 

 statement as correct in every particular ; 

 and I think it would be difficult to find many 

 pear trees more productive." 



With this kind of evidence, (and the 

 same is true of the Broion Beurre and other 

 old pears,) that, as Mr. Thomas says truly, 

 may be multiplied in western New York ten 

 fold, we think it can no longer be said, with 

 any show of correctness, that these fruits are 

 " run out;" that they are in their decadence; 

 that they are unworthy of cultivation. 



What, then, is the explanation of the ab- 

 solute failure of such fine old pears as the 

 Doyenne"? — for we grant it is an absolute 

 failure, in many of the long settled parts of 



