41 



the productiveness and value of their possessions, — their interest in 

 our country and its institutions is sti-engthened, and the effect on 

 them and on other citizens is every way salutary and beneficial. 

 It seems probable that a similar plan of making the operatives in 

 manufactories interested in the land, might be advantageously 

 adopted in many instances. It would give to such establishments 

 a class of laborers that could be relied on, at the same time that 

 it would afford to the laborers themselves a strong stimulus to 

 faithfulness. 



In Dorchester the Committee visited Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, 

 President of the Society. Our visit was on the last day of 

 August, a season of the year which enabled us to examine with 

 advantage the results of his extensive and long-continued labors 

 in the production of fruits. It would have required more time 

 than we had at our disposal to particularly notice all his opera- 

 tions, and we therefore confined our observations to the homestead, 

 comprising thirteen acres, almost exclusively devoted to fruit and 

 ornamental trees and plants. In the fruit department, the collec- 

 tion of pears, and in that of ornamental plants, the camellia particu- 

 larly attracted our attention, as both have a reputation second to 

 no similar collections in the country. It is well known that to 

 these Mr. W. has devoted a long period of study and care, and 

 is still engaged with the same earnestness that has characterized 

 his previous efforts. 



The collection of pears embraces about eight hundred varieties. 

 Of these he has twenty-five hundred trees specially designed to 

 produce fruit for market, and they are grafted with the most 

 approved sorts for that purpose. As an evidence of Mr. W.'s 

 views in regard to such sorts, we may state that he has worked 

 about 400 Beurre d'Anjou, 200 Buffum, 200 Doyenne Boussock, 

 200 Bartlett, and the balance about equally with Urbaniste, Mer- 

 riam, Louise bonne d' Jersey, Belle Lucrative, Flemish Beauty, 

 Beurre Bosc, Vicar of Winkfield, Lawrence, Winter Nelis, &c. 



To this collection of pears, amounting, as before stated, to about 

 eight hundred varieties, now on trial, there are annually numer- 

 ous additions which Mr. W. receives through his correspondence 

 with the various European and American Societies of which he is 

 a member. More than half the pear trees were originally grafted 

 on the quince stock. These are all planted deep enough to cover 

 three or four inches of the pear stock, — a system adopted by 

 Mr. W. more than a quarter of a century ago, and to which he 

 believes he is indebted for the great success which has attended 

 this branch of his cultivation. By this method, the quince stock 

 is protected from the borer, is kept soft, swells and keeps pace 

 with the pear stock in its growth, and the latter frecjuently throws 

 out roots. A large proportion of the pear trees are of the pyra- 

 6 • 



