FRUJT committee's REPORT. 37 



cultivating pears, and interested in trying the new varieties, that in many 

 instances sorts, announced as possessing every desirable property, and that 

 at first seemed to warrant by the quality of their fruit the encomiums that 

 had been bestowed upon them, have yet after a few years of trial been found 

 of no value, in a great measure been dropped from cultivation, and are not 

 now to be found, unless it may be in some large collections. This has 

 arisen perhaps either from the circumstance that such, when first introduced, 

 had not become fixed in their qualities, and subsequently deteriorated, or 

 what is more probable, that it was ascertained upon trial, that such were 

 lacking in some essential requisite that could not be otherwise ascertained. 



The pear Elize d'Heyst, when first produced in Belgium, was a delicious 

 fruit, but could never be ripened afterwards, and its propagation was aban- 

 doned, the Madame Elize being introduced in its place. The Beurre 

 d'Aremberg, for many years even, kept its place at the head of the list of 

 winter pears, and was universally recommended, but on a thorough trial it 

 failed, owing apparently to some defect in the constitution of the tree; a 

 liability to canker, a want of vigor that unfits it for general use, is injurious 

 to the quality of the fruit, and that is causing it to rapidly disappear from 

 cultivation. The only safe rule for beginners, or for those engaged in cultivat- 

 ing pears extensively, with a view to profit, is to confine themselves in their 

 selection of varieties to the sorts that have been thoroughly proved, to such 

 as that not only have received the award of merit from individual amateurs, 

 but such as are marked with the stamp of public approbation as evidenced by 

 the sale and demand for them in the market 



It is not very many years now, since what might properly be considered as 

 a species of mania prevailed, among some cultivators of the pear in this 

 vicinity ; indeed the disease cannot now be said to have wholly exhausted 

 itself; its manifestation being the attempt to bring together in one collec- 

 tion all the varieties of this fruit, of which there was any account, leaving 

 out of course, such as were known from the decrepitude of age, or other cause, 

 to be worthless, and that had by common consent been abandoned. No 

 sooner was a new pear announced, with a high sounding name, sometimes 

 with, sometimes without even any representation of its qualities, than every 

 effort was made to procure it, distance or cost creating no impediment. The 

 result of such efforts were sometimes very successful, leading to the intro- 

 duction of new sorts that constitute the most esteemed varieties now in cul- 

 tivation, at others, causing bitter disappointment; often it was found that the 

 meritorious attributes assigned to the novelty were but a lure to the un- 

 wary, sometimes that it was an old possession under a different guise, even 

 to the extent that an old acquaintance proved to have been of no value, 

 transferred from America, and having undergone a new baptism, was re- 

 turned from Europe as a new variety of unsurpassed excellence. So many 

 are the new varieties of pears that have been originated during the past 

 twenty years ; so many die out with the announcement of their birth ; so 



