so Tlie Western Pomologist and Oardener. 1872 



Notes on Pears. 



Bt Isaac Brandt, Des Moines. Iowa. 



Thinking that a briel statement of my pear crop for the year 1871 from my little 

 ■orchard, miglit be a matter of interest to the readers of the Pomologist akd Gardener, 

 and especially to those who are about to plant, I drop you the following notes. My 

 trees are upon a heavy, clay sub-soil, surface sloping gradually to the east 



Bartlett. Bore finely, fruit larger than usual. One tree damaged slightly by blight. 



Flemish Seauty. Fruited well, and fruit very large, some specimens weighing four- 

 teen, and as high as fifteen ounces. Tree a very rapid grower. 



Biiffum. Very full — so much so that the fruit was below medium size. Tree a slow 

 .grower. 



Napoleon. Fruited moderately well. Fruit quite large. Tree a moderate grower. 



Sheldon. Not very full, but fruit splendid. Tree a fine grower, beautiful shape, and 

 very hardy. 



Seckd. Fruited moderately well, fruit very fine. Tree a slow but sure grower. 



lyson. Fine, vigorous grower, but tardy about bearing. 



All these trees have been planted eight years. Most of them have given me some fruit 

 every year for six years. 



OsboTui's Summer. Tree very similar to the Seckel, but shy bearer. 



Beurre Did. A fine, vigorous grower, but very tardy in coming into bearing. 



Beurre Cairgeau. Tree a good grower and fruits well, but in ,my estimation of very 

 poor quality. 



I have a few trees that have been planted four years, that are doing finely, both in 

 growth and fruiting. I will mention four varieties that I esteem very highly. 



Dearborn!) Seedling. Has borne fruit from the second year from transplanting. Fruit 

 small, but superior to any pear I have ever tasted. Season, middle of August. 



Stevens' Oenessee. Tree very rapid grower, feir bearer. Fruit a little larger than the 

 Bartlett, and of excellent flavor. Season, about the first of October. 



Clapp's Favorite. Tree a flue grower, bears well. Fruit medium size. Flavor similar 

 to Flemish Beauty. 



Madeline is my earliest pear. Tree a poor grower, fruits very early, tries to die every 

 year, yet makes a live of it. Fruit ripens about the fourth of July. 



My Bartlett tree on the White Thorn is still living and doing well ; was affected last 

 year a little with the blight. It is now thirteen years since the graft was set, and it has 

 given me a crop of fruit annually for the last nine years — some years the crop being 

 immense for a tree of its size. 



[Grapes— Seventy-fi-re Pounds of Frnlt on a ITearltng Graft. 



The California Agriculturist says ; " Our friend D. C. Feeley has presented us with a 

 box of the finest grapes that we have ever seen, from his vineyard on the Santa Cruz 

 mountains. They were of the Flaming Tokay, White Muscat of Alexandria and Rose of 

 Peru varieties. The berries of the two former sorts would average three inches in circum- 

 ference. The quality was unsurpassed, as every one testing them agreed. Mr. Feeley 

 exhibited, at the Farmers' Club Fair in Santa Cruz, on a single graft of the Flaming 

 Tokay, grafted in 1870, seventy-five pounds of grapes. This is remarkable. Mr. F. is not 

 qualmish upon the subject of wine making, but he is, nevertheless, grafting all his so-called 

 wine grape vines with the three varieties above mentioned, simply for the profit of the 

 thing. Like many others, he finds the business of wine making a poor one compared with 

 the profits of best table and raisin grapes, for home and Eastern markets. One cent per 

 pound has been the general price for wine grapes in this valley this season, while table 

 and raisin grapes have readily sold for from four to eight cents in the vineyards. Even if 

 the profits were in favor of the wine, to the producer, the difi"erence to the consumer would 

 make the wine grape entirely unworthy of cultivation by any conscientious man that lovea 

 his neighbor as himself 



