40 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



list of names borne on the nurseryman's catalogue, he seeks relief from his 

 embarrassment by asking advice of experienced growers in his vicinity. If he 

 wishes to extend his collection so as to embrace more than some half dozen 

 varieties, he will find himself not much less at a loss, so contradictory will be 

 the opinions that he will hear expressed. And this will arise, not from any 

 desire to withhold information, or unwillingness to give advice, but simply 

 from a difference of opinion with regard to the different varieties ; one grower 

 condemning that which another may recommend, and vice versa. Probably 

 all experienced growers of the pear would, with if not perfect at least near 

 unanimity, recommend a few kinds as being every way desirable ; as, for 

 instance, the Bartlett, the Seckel, the Louise Bonne de Jersey, the Urbaniste, 

 the Marie Louise, the Beurre d'Anjou, and perhaps a few others. But the 

 moment an attempt is made to extend the list, a difference of opinion is mani- 

 fested. Now this difference is believed to be mainly owing to two causes, 

 one of which is a natural peculiarity of taste, that leads one man to give the 

 preference to a very sweet pear, and another to a subacid, but that is princi- 

 pally owing to the want of a thorough acquaintance with the peculiar charac- 

 teristics of the different varieties. A pear is tasted and unanimously decided 

 to be a delicious fruit, thought worthy of a general cultivation, and recom- 

 mended accordingly, when, in fact, there may be some inherent defect in the 

 variety that renders it worthless ; and those who did and those who did not 

 know of such defect, would give very contradictory advice with respect to 

 growing it. The Van Mons Leon le Clerc in a perfect state, as occasionally 

 produced, is a fine pear, and yet the tree is so diseased and cankered that the 

 variety has become an outcast, and an opinion formed from seeing the fruit 

 would be very different from that growing out of a thorough acquaintance 

 with the variety. 



Now a work, as above suggested, executed in the manner supposed, and 

 published with the sanction of the Society, would tend to relieve many per- 

 plexities, and its opinions be received as authoritative decisions. Perhaps it 

 may be said, that the same difference of opinion that is supposed to exist 

 with growers, with respect to the different kinds of pears, would be likely to 

 exhibit itself in a committee that might undertake the labor of preparing this 

 supposed work ; but that could hardly be, because, except so far as arising 

 from a difference of taste, a matter of but little account, the cause of such 

 difference of opinion, the want of a perfect acquaintance with the particular 

 subject of it, would not exist. When the same evidence in relation to a par- 

 ticular subject is placed before the unbiassed judgment, it can scarcely fail to 

 produce on all the same effect and secure unanimity of opinion. 



The profit to be derived from the growing of pears, will, under favorable 

 circumstances, and with the most judicious management, afford but a moderate 

 remuneration for the capital employed and labor bestowed, and it is only by 

 judicious management that this moderate return for labor and capital can be 

 expected. It behooves, then, all who are commencing this enterprise, to avail 



