No. 199.] 275 



Peaches. 



People in our region have become very much discouraged in re- 

 gard to raising this delicious fruit. The trees have the yellows in 

 many cases, before they begin to bear, and if Ihey'bear at all, it is 

 only for one or two seasons ; seedlings, or some inferior sort, may be 

 an exception. The choice standard varieties, if they bear so much 

 as one season, do not last. One of your committee, ten years ago, 

 raised as fine peaches as could be desired, and in great abundance ; 

 but now, on the same ground, with much pains, is unable to get any 

 worth naming. 



The theory of Dr. Van Mons, " that the improvement of the qual- 

 ity of the fruit is at the expense of the life of the tree," and " that 

 those trees which produce the most delicate fruit are short lived," 

 may afford a hint in regard to the difficulty of raising peaches. 



[The explanation of the great prevalence of the yellows in Con- 

 necticut, lies, we imagine, in the fact of the large introduction of 

 later years, of unhealthy trees, bought indiscriminately in the mar- 

 kets of New-York. A little attention to destroying every tree already 

 affected, and introducing those of healthy constitution from other 

 districts, will very soon result in the production of the finest fruit 

 again, as has been abundantly proved in many parts of the Stc's^ of 

 New- York. Chairman Gen. Fruit Com.\ 



Pears. 



This fruit seems to have been cultivated at New-Haven from a very 

 early period of its settlement, as appears from several trees now 

 standing, which bear fruit from year to year, and are known to be 

 over two hundred years old. 



Fifty or more years ago, there also appears to have been unusual 

 attention given to this fruit, as there are a large number of trees scat- 

 tered throughout the town, of about that age — more, probably, than 

 can be found in any other in the State, but they are mostly of the 

 old, and what are now considered, inferior sorts, such as the Pound 

 Pear, Harvest, Sugar Top, Orange, Jonah, Winter Bell, Virgalieu, 

 Bon Chretien and some others. These trees, however, in many in- 

 stances, are turned to good account by having the new varieties en- 

 grafted upon them, to the number, in some cases, of twenty or more. 

 The new sorts grow vigorously upon the old treeSj producing fruit 

 in from two to four years. 



