48 



1 IU ITS. 



claim that this osseous element of society shall grace- 

 fully yield to the demands of an enlightened progress, 

 and suffer itself to be gently moved by the intellectual 

 muscles of thought, and investigation, and discovery, 

 upon these joints — the hinges of improvement — and 

 thus open the doors of the mind to an increasing 

 knowledge and a higher self culture. 



In urging upon the attention of our farmers the 

 claims of the pear as an article of production for the 

 market, we are not obliged to invite them to embark 

 upon a project of uncertain experiment. For through 

 the persevering efforts and skill of those pomologists 

 who have made the development and culture of this 

 noble fruit a speciality of their lives, it has been car- 

 ried successfully through this epoch of its history, and 

 now stands forth tested and proved, a crop as certain 

 and reliable and as profitable, as almost any other 

 product of the soil. So that now, all the farmer has to 

 do, is to appropriate to himself that knowledge that 

 has been obtained through the patient study and expar- 

 ience of others in their life labors for the development 

 of new varieties, and by long years of cultivation and 

 observation in testing their various qualities as to 

 excellence and hardy growth, and adaptedness to var- 

 ious climates and soils \ and in ascertaining the best- 

 rules for their management and care ; which are good 

 and regular bearers, and which the most profitable for 

 a market production. This information is now within 

 the easy reach of all. 



A feeling may prevail in some minds that pear cul- 

 ture is a sort of fancy enterprise, suitable only for 

 fancy men — as one of those activities of life to be 

 ranked as a kind of agricultural gymnastics — and below 



