24 Ripening the Pear as an Article of Commerce. 



The capabilities of our country to produce beautiful and 

 high flavored fruits, is acknowledged by almost universal 

 consent. Our apples, pears, and grapes, are perhaps su- 

 perior to any in the world. It may be a question with 

 some, whose opinions are entitled to great respect, whether 

 I have not rather overrated the quality of our grapes ; I 

 would therefore state, that from the best information and 

 from some experience, such as my various opportunities at 

 the exhibitions of fruits in our country have given me, and 

 among those the specimens exhibited in the Horticultural 

 room of the New York American Institute,^ and for sev- 

 eral years at the hall of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, that the specimens of foreign grapes, when raised 

 under glass, in various parts of this country, have proved 

 not only large in the berry, but equal, if not superior in 

 flavor, to any ever produced, as a general crop, by the 

 cultivators in England. 



The size, color, and flavor of our apples, after repeated 

 trials in England, have been acknowledged to be superior 

 to any imported into that country. 



Our jjears have not, as yet, undergone such a trial in the 

 foreign market that would warrant the subscriber to speak 

 with equal confidence as to their respective merits, in the 

 opinion of the cultivators of England ; but he entertains 

 no doubt that they will bear a comparison with the best 

 specimens in Europe. When the cultivators of fruits in 

 our own country shall raise pears for exportation, and 

 shall have made themselves well acquainted with the 

 varieties best adapted for that purpose, and shall have also 

 ascertained their time of ripening, and all other particulars, 

 (including the best mode of packing,) for making the cul- 

 tivation of the pear a staple article of commerce, then, and 

 not until then, will the pear be cultivated in the best man- 

 ner, or the skill and enterprise of our horticulturists be 

 fully developed. From this view of the subject, it appears 

 to the writer necessary that the cultivator should be put 



* These specimens were from the Hon. Thomas H. Perkins, of Brook- 

 line, Mass., consisting- of thirteen varieties of foreign grapes. Mr. Wil- 

 liam Quant has the care and management of Mr. Perkins's fruit estab- 

 lishment, and it is but justice to Mr. Quant to say that the fruit was not 

 only large and fair, but that it was well ripened, rich and high flavored. 



