FRUITS. 149 



was very fine ; but the Flemish Beauty, which cracked so last 

 year that many trees were allowed to drop their fruit ungath- 

 ered, was never finer or grown in greater perfection, fully re- 

 deeming its character. No pear-tree is more vigorous or better 

 adapted to our soil. It is very productive, and was supposed to 

 crack last year on account of the wet weather. 



Clapp's Favorite has been fruited for the last three years in 

 this locality, and it bids fair to take the lead. It began to drop 

 its fruit the last day of August this year, and was in perfection 

 the first week of September. It originated on the farm of Mr. 

 Clapp, of Dorchester, and is said to be a cross between the 

 Bartlett and Flemish Beauty, and is superior to either. The 

 tree makes wood with great rapidity, and comes early into bear- 

 ing. The fruit is large, melting, with a rich flavor, and very 



jwicy. 



The practice of dwarfing the pear by growing it on quince 

 stocks, so extensively practised in France, so much advocated 

 by some in this country, and so successfully carried on in 

 and about Boston and on the seacoast generally, has met with 

 but partial success in this immediate vicinity. And when we 

 take into account the short life of the tree, the uncertainty of a 

 crop, and the few varieties that have ever succeeded, after a 

 thorough trial of more than a quarter of a century, we unhes- 

 itatingly pronounce the practice of growing the pear on any 

 stock except its own a signal failure. We may be told that 

 the Duchesse d'Angouleme, Glout Morceau and Urbaniste are 

 greatly superior when grown on the quince. This may be true 

 where the dwarf tree succeeds best ; but in this locality, after 

 repeated trials for thirty years, not a single specimen of the 

 above named kinds has been produced in perfection. It has 

 been said, too, that the Louise Bonne de Jersey is far less astrin- 

 gent when grown on the quince stock ; but the fact is, that this 

 valuable pear has been grown year by year for more than a 

 quarter of a century, and perfected its fruit as a standard, while 

 all attempts to fruit it as a dwarf have rendered it disagreeably 

 astringent. There is but a single variety that has ever really 

 succeeded as a dwarf, — the Vicar of Winkfield, — and the suc- 

 cess in this case is dependent on setting the quince stock so low 

 in the ground that roots may be sent off from the pear stock ; 

 but the pear is of inferior quality, only fit for cooking. The 



