74 Pomological Gossip. 



always sell well ;" and he grafted three or four hundred trees 

 with it. The grafts grew well, " bloomed bountifully, bore 

 a fine fruit, which loas hard and never ripeiied.^^ After 

 several years' trial they were grafted with the Beurre Capiau- 

 mont ! Now with some inexperienced cultivators, who 

 know but little about growing pears, and much less about 

 ripening them, such a proceeding would be only what might 

 be expected. But that Mr. Rivers should commit such an 

 act, must surprise every intelligent cultivator. The Beurre 

 Capiaumont preferred to the Easter Beurre ! Truly there is 

 no accounting for tastes. 



For four or five successive weeks, specimens of the Easter 

 Beurre have been exhibited before the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, which were ripened by Mr. D. T. Curtis of 

 Boston ; they were taken without regard to size, as picked 

 from the tree, some of them knurly, indifferent specimens, and 

 others large and perfectly grown ; yet they were all ripened; 

 that is, the small ones which ordinarily are thrown away, 

 were in as good condition for eating, — though of course, not 

 as excellent — as the large and fair pears, showing conclu- 

 sively that the general complaint about their hardness, 

 shrivelling up, &LQ,., is no evidence of the poorness of the 

 fruit, but rather the want of a knowledge how to ripen the 

 crop. 



Oar correspondent, Mr. Washburn of Plymouth, informs 

 us that he has just sold the last of his Easter Beurre pears, the 

 produce of one dwarf tree. They brought him the hand- 

 some sum of twenty dollars ; and less than a bushel of fruit. 

 He finds no difficulty whatever in ripening the pears ; his 

 practice is to let the fruit hang on the tree as late as possible, 

 even after two or three frosts, if they are not likely to be 

 very severe. They are then carefully gathered, each pear 

 wrapped up in double papers, and then placed away in a cool 

 joom, kept at an even temperature, where they are allowed to 

 remain until they are wanted for use ; they are then brought 

 into a warmer temperature, where, in the course of a fortnight 

 they begin to change color, and soon after become fit for eat- 

 ing. In this way, they may be ripened off in succession, 

 from the middle of December to the middle of March. 



