42 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



deomed sufficient reasons. For example, the Flemish Beauty 

 and Duchesse d'Angouleme are not included. The former, 

 although an excellent pear, is liable to crack, and when ripe is* 

 in eating but a short time. The tree also frequently loses its 

 leaves before the fruit matures. For these reasons the Louise 

 Bonne d' Jersey and Urbaniste are preferred to it. The Duchesse 

 d'Angouleme is not a regular bearer, and the fruit is not so 

 good, nor will it keep so long in eating as the Beurre d'Anjou. 

 Hence the latter pear is recommended in preference to it. So 

 of other popular and excellent varieties not included in the 

 above list — they may be in some respects superior to those 

 recommended, but it is believed none combine so many excel- 

 lences for their respective seasons. 



Gathering and Keeping Fruit. 

 Pears are often gathered too early. Most summer and early 

 autumn varieties should remain on the tree until they show 

 signs of maturity by their change of color. The Bartletts, for 

 instance, are finer by being allowed to remain on the tree until 

 they have turned to a yellowish tinge. But they should never 

 be permitted to remain until they become mellow. By picking 

 them from the tree only as they thus mature, they may be kept 

 in eating much longer than they can be if all gathered when the 

 fruit commences to ripen. In most seasons this pear may be 

 kept in good eating to the first of October, if gathered only as 

 it ripens. Pears keep best on the trees. The late autumn and 

 winter pears should remain on the trees as long as the season 

 will permit. When picked, they should be carefully packed in 

 boxes or barrels, and placed under a shed with a northern 

 exposure, if possible, and kept there until required for eating, 

 or until there is danger of their freezing, when they should be 

 removed to a cool cellar. William D. Northend. 



MIDDLESEX NORTH. 



From the Report of the Committee on Apples. 

 It is a mystery to me that farmers should so neglect their 

 orchards. Trees, by scores and by hundreds, standing in grass, 

 and without any sort of dressing, except the ejections of the 

 enormous crop of caterpillars which they are yearly allowed to 

 produce, and which, in many instances, the trees do not produce 



