78 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



sorts that our French coushis have ever sent us. This valu- 

 able kind is most successfully grown on the quince stock. 

 We have known of the fruit selling for twenty-five dollars per 

 barrel, then to be retailed at a profit. Louise Bonne de Jer- 

 sey, a very handsome, rich vinous and excellent pear, grows 

 well as a dAvarf ; a profitable market sort. The Urbaniste is 

 one of the very best flavored varieties ; the tree of model 

 form, hardy and abundant bearer at maturity, very valuable 

 for the dwarf-pear orchard. For two winter sorts as dwarfs 

 we would select the " Vicar of Winkjield,'' a large, long 

 pyriform, pale yellow, brownish cheek; when well grown, of 

 fair quality, an excellent cooking-pear; the tree hardy, vig- 

 orous, and wonderfully prolific ; is very apt to be overladen, 

 and should be thinned. The other sort, ^^ Josephine de Mal- 

 ines," a comparatively new pear, but is rapidly gaining favor, 

 — a melting, delicately-perfumed pear of first quality, an ex- 

 cellent keeping variety, often until spring ; it is truly one of 

 our very finest winter pears. The above lists are intended 

 for the commercial market rather than a selection of choice am- 

 ateur varieties for the dessert or table. In such a list, as wide 

 a range of flavors as possible should be secured, and a succes- 

 sion of fruit from the earliest to the latest, and to form this 

 list we have nearly or quite one thousand varieties to draw 

 from. 



A friend of ours has a collection of nine hundred varieties, 

 and still is adding/. A noticeable fact is, that the two varieties 

 that are the standard of quality are both of American origin 

 — /Seckel, and Dana's Hovey, which is practically a winter, 

 Seckcl. We might go through a long list, giving their char- 

 acteristics as to quality, &c., but our limited space is already 

 passed, and if the above hints and suggestions are of any 

 service to our pear-growers, we are repaid for giving them. 



