Chapter X. 



Thk Pkar 



INTRODUCTION, 



Where ever the two fruits have been grown, the pear 

 has probably, heretofore, been looked upon as a luxury, on 

 account of its very delicate flavor and lusciousness, and 

 its scarcity, and the apple as a necessity, from its 

 unrivalled excellence as an article of fruit-diet, and its 

 abundance. The great increase in the cultivation of the 

 pear is bringing it before the masses of the people much 

 more prominently than formerly as an article of food, and 

 it is now becoming every year a most formidable rival of 

 the apple ; although I dont think it can by any means reach 

 the popularity of that fruit as a general fruit for house- 

 hold use. The pear belongs to the rose family and 

 resembles the apple. In its wild state it is one of the 

 most repulsive mouthfuls that can be conceived of, as 

 any one can verify by eating one of our common choke- 

 pears, and even this is luscious in comparison with the 

 wild pear. So when we afterward revel in all the concen- 



