360 Notes and Gleanings. 



Dr. Houghton on Pear-Growing. — A most extraordinary paper wa.s 

 lately read before the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society by Dr. J. S. Houghton 

 of Philadelphia, giving the results of " ten years' experience in pear-culture." 

 Whatever the merits or faults of this paper, it certainly contains some statements 

 which will be new to many pear-growers, who, like the writer, can claim an expe- 

 rience dating back for thirty years. The substance of Dr. Houghton's communi- 

 cation is a dolorous wail over the failure of pear-growing. Though apparently 

 hardy, the pear, he says, is a most uncertain fruit ; and "on standard trees, even 

 in their best condition, scarcely one-half the crop is marketable at a dollar per 

 bushel." Now, in regard to this most extraordinary statement, we must say, tliat 

 either the doctor has been more successful in producing poor fruit than any 

 other man we ever heard of, or else the market in which he disposes of his fruit 

 is the poorest in the country ; and, if we had labored for ten years at growing 

 pears with this pitiful result, we would never mention pears again. 



But again : " Not over a quarter part of any crop is suited for first-class stores." 

 "The finest pear-orchards in the United States, including the best gardens near 

 Boston, and the specimen-grounds at Rochester, N.Y., cannot produce more than 

 twenty-five dozen specimen-pears of one variety, except Bartlett and Seckel, with- 

 out stripping the crop of all its good fruit, and reducing the balance below first 

 quality. Twelve or fifteen dozen pears of one variety, sent from one garden to a 

 leading fruit-deader in New York, has annually exhausted the most celebrated 

 orchard in America to such an extent, that the proprietor could not show half a 

 peck more of respectable fruit to anybody." Dr. Houghton does not give the 

 name of the proprietor of this orchard ; and we certainly do not wonder that he 

 does not wish to be exposed ; and we are utterly unable to make a guess as to 

 who he is. 



However, it is a comfort, though a poor one, to know that the rest of the world 

 is no better off than we are. We can raise the finest specimens only on walls : 

 and so it is in England and France, and even in Belgium and the Channel Is- 

 lands ; which last two places have heretofore been supposed to be peculiarly 

 favored in their adaptation to the pear. 



Now, what shall we take as the standard of quality in a crop of pears ? It is 

 very plain that we may select the best three hundred or the best one hundred speci- 

 mens of the crop of any given kind; and it is very plain that the remainder 

 will not be as good, that is, not as large and handsome, though they may be 

 equally fine flavored. So we might take the best twelve or the best one ; and 

 the balance would, of course, be inferior to it, as we should know without being 

 told : but to conclude, as Dr. Houghton seems to, that they would be absolutely 

 worthless, and that pear-growing is a failure, appears to us slightly absurd, to say 

 the least. That all pears should be equally good, and as good as the finest 

 grown (as Dr. Houghton seems to expect), is what never happened to any crop 

 of any kind of fruit, or any thing else, — certainly not since Ad.im left Eden, and 

 perhaps not before. 



We know there are fruit-stores, " first-class fruit-stores," which deal only in 

 selected specimens. But if the quantity of such is limited, so also is the num- 

 ber of purchasers who can afford to pay from three to six dollars per dozen for 



