1'BTJITS. 



49 



the dignity of the genuine farmer who should devote 

 his sole attention to the great staples. The entire dig- 

 nity of farming consists simply in being " the business 

 of feeding mankind?' It all rests upon the one single 

 but broad fact of the human stomach, and whatever 

 administers to its wants, and through it, contributes to 

 the health and pleasure of the human system, and the 

 innocent enjoyment of that table exercise which no 

 person's dignity has ever yet dared to ignore, becomes 

 an element of human happiness, the production of which 

 is dignified and honorable. 



We are quite certain, that the occult forces in veg- 

 etable life, in forming and ripening for us the pear, the 

 peach and the grape, stand as high in the scale of 

 Nature's workmanship, as in the production of the pota- 

 toe, the cabbage and the turnip. And it may be true 

 in more senses than one, that the results of our labors 

 in fruit culture, culminate nearer the skies, than in the 

 production of root crops. 



But as pecuniary profit lends dignity to almost every 

 occupation, let the pear crop be tested in this light also. 

 The following statements are from the address of 

 Marshall P. Wilder, before the American Pomological 

 Society, at its seventh session: 



a A young orchard owned by Mr. Chapin of Western 

 New York, of four hundred trees, eight years from 

 planting, produced fifteen barrels of pears in 1853, 

 selling in New York for $450, — and fifty barrels in 

 1854, yielding him $1000. Wm. Bacon of Roxbury, 

 Mass., has about an acre devoted to pears. From two 

 trees only, he has realized more than $100 a year, and 

 from his whole yearly crop, over $1000. William R. 

 Austin of Dorchester, from an orchard of between five 



