Chap. XXIV.] FRUIT CULTURE. 409 



ground, locality, and kinds, we may grow it to perfection. The 

 quantity of Pears the French send to our markets is surprising. 

 Messrs. Draper, the salesmen of Covent Garden, showed me by 

 their books that from one importer alone they sold from 60Z. to 

 1001. worth of French garden-produce (chiefly Pears) each market- 

 day ; and a fruit-merehant has told me of one dealer in Pears 

 who annually collects in France and sells in our markets 10,000L 

 worth of that fruit. 



It is a mistake to suppose that the cliinate does all this for the 

 French — the winter and spring in many parts of Northern and 

 North-central France being quite as difficult for the fruit-grower 

 as they are in England. The Pear loves a moist, genial climate, 

 and in many parts of England and Ireland our advantage in this 

 respect will be found to compensate in some degree for the 

 difference in sunlight. Some Pears are grown better in England 

 than in France, and it is a curious fact that some which ripen 

 and go off quickly in the neighbourhood of London remain in an 

 eatable condition much longer and acquire a more delicious 

 flavour in the cooler climate of Yorkshire. Let it be borne in 

 mind that we are talking of the culture of a fruit which grows in 

 a wild state as far north as Southern Sweden, and then we can 

 estimate at their true worth the objections of those who say that 

 our climate prevents any improvement, and who, perhaps, imme- 

 diately afterwards assert the superior quality of British-grown fruit. 

 Nature is our willing handmaid in this matter, and we have it in 

 our power to place this fine fruit within the reach of all, and render 

 ourselves quite independent of foreign growers. I do not say we 

 could grow such big Belle Angevine Pears as are sold for a guinea 

 apiece ; but that is of no consequence, as these are valueless 

 in point of flavour. 



There are various ways in which we may improve the culture 

 of the Pear, and the first and best is by paying more attention to 

 it as a naturally-developed standard tree— in a word, by an 

 improved system of orcharding. Upon orchards we must chiefly 

 depend for the supply of our large cities and towns. This subject, 

 in its commercial aspect, may be left to the growers of fruit for 

 the market, but the country-gentleman and large farmer — in fact, 

 everybody possessing a hedgerow, field, or shrubbery — cannot be 

 too strongly urged to use the great opportunities they have for 



