FRUIT AS A FAEM PRODUCT. 417 



fection as a dessert with the Thanksgiving dinner. The later 

 varieties, should the supply exceed the demand, might safely 

 be shipped to foreign markets. The pear, under ordinary 

 conditions, produces an annual crop, and requires higher 

 cultivation than the apple to produce the best quality of 

 fruit. The most successful growers for market do not culti- 

 vate more than six or seven kinds, and of these at least one- 

 half are the Bartlett and Anjou varieties. As four pear trees 

 can be properly grown upon the space usually allotted to 

 one apple tree, both the product and the profit in the earlier 

 years of the orchard will be greater with the pear than the 

 apple ; but later, as the apple trees approach their full 

 growth, the results will be changed, unless the location prove 

 exceptionally favorable for the pear, aided by careful culti- 

 vation and liberal fertilization. None of our fruits are so 

 free from insect pests as the pear ; but many orchards have 

 suffered more or less from pear blight, which made its ap- 

 pearance in this vicinity about ten years ago, after a lapse of 

 some twenty-five years during which the orchards had been 

 free from this disease. In some localities the loss has been 

 quite severe, though as a whole slight compared with its 

 ravages in the orchards in some of the Western States. 



Massachusetts has been considered about the northern 

 limit where the grape could be successfully grown in the 

 open air ; and, notwithstanding many failures in the attempts 

 to grow the hybrid crosses of the foreign with our native 

 varieties, grape culture has increased more within the last 

 ten years, especially among farmers, than any other variety 

 of fruit, and the increase has been largely in the northern 

 portion of the State. In some of the towns on the New 

 Hampshire border the farmers, selecting elevated locations 

 with a light, warm soil and southern aspect, have found the 

 grape crop their most profitable farm product. In the larger 

 vineyards the Concord still continues to be largely grown ; 

 but the Worden and IVIoore's Early, supposed to be seed- 

 lings from the Concord, and fully equalling if not excelling 

 it in quality, and ripening from one to two weeks earlier, 

 are coming every year into more general cultivation. 



The profitable growing of the small fruits by the farmers 

 must depend much upon location. They require more hand 



