78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ladies and gentlemen, we shall have the. grape growhig in pro- 

 fusion, and ripening as well as it does there. 



This subject is full of interest, I know. I have seen the pro- 

 found attention which has been given to the orator this evening. 

 There are many gentlemen present eminent in their profession 

 as fruit-culturists, and I hope we shall hear from them on this 

 subject. There is a gentleman present from a sister State who 

 has raised a very fine seedling pear ; and I believe that native 

 fruits are much better adapted to our soils, and more likely to 

 succeed, generally, than foreign fruits. I allude to Mr. Good- 

 ale, the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture of Maine. 

 The new seedling pear bears his own honorable name. I hope 

 we may hear from Mr. Goodale on this subject of fruit-culture. 



S. L. Goodale, of Saco, Me. The Goodale pear was origi- 

 nated by my father from a seed of the McLaughlin, which is 

 also supposed to be a native of Maine, about thirty years ago. 

 The original tree is vigorous, healthy and hardy, having never 

 suffered from any of our severe winters. It has never failed to 

 bear a fair crop in any year since it began to bear. 



The fruit is large and fair, and of very good quality, when 

 not allowed to remain too long on the tree. If left too late, it 

 decays at the centre. The flesh, tender, juicy, and very pleas- 

 antly flavored. Young trees, in the nursery, assume an upright 

 habit, growing with great vigor, and come very early into bear- 

 ing, often in the third year from grafting on the pear-stock. I 

 do not consider it well adapted to the quince-root. The original 

 tree has had only plain, orchard treatment, and from its abun- 

 dant bearing has become as broad as high. It is not so much 

 for any single trait that I value it, as for the combinations of 

 qualities which render it, if it prove elsewhere as it is in the 

 place of its origin, eminently fitted for extensive culture in 

 orchards. It comes, in eating, about three weeks later than 

 the Bartlett, and keeps in good condition until the Beurr^ 

 d'Anjou comes in. 



Tlie Chairman. The Agricultural College has been greatly 

 indebted to a gentleman who has had signal success in the pro- 

 duction of fruit under glass, and who has placed upon the 

 platform these specimens of tropical fruit [two vigorous pine- 

 apples, with ripe fruit.] I wish we could hear from our friend 



