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It has afforded me very great pleasure to meet the pomologists of the Dominion 

 of Canada. I have had an opportunity which I never had hitherto of meeting the 

 Canadians face to face. I now have the opportunity of seeing their products on 

 these tables, which not many years ago the whole wealth of the Dominion could not 

 have produced. These have been produced by your intelligent horticulturists and the 

 persistent efforts of your good cultivators. No countrj' need be ashamed of the 

 exhibition of fruit that now lies before you. There is no fruit that God has ever 

 given to man that is equal to the apple, and there is no fruit that has a wider range 

 of cultivation. It seems to thrive well all over this whole continent, if you except 

 the extreme north and extreme south. I have also been very much gratified by the 

 discussions I have heard in this place, not only the discussions of your dairymen, 

 who seem to have the interests of this Dominion at heart, but the discussions of 

 your horticulturists, which seem to embrace every product worthy of encouragement, 

 and I shall return to my old society fully impressed with the dignity and good sense 

 of your people, their devotion to their Government, their devotion to horticulture, 

 and their devotion to everything which seems higher and better. (Applause.) 



The President. — Mr. Hadwen's paper opens up a very large field for inquiry. 

 It is certainly a most important and suggestive paper, and I only wish we had 

 ample time to do it justice in the discussion. Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, 

 I think we must give members an opportunity for making such inquiries regarding 

 it as they may feel disposed to make before calling for the next paper. 



Mr. Dempsey. — I have felt very much interested while listening to the paper 

 from Mr. Hadwen, particularly when he was speaking of so few varieties coming to 

 stay in proportion to the number that we have had on trial. I have fruited, in my 

 time, about 200 varieties of the pear, and the numbers that are worthy of continuing 

 in cultivation are now about a dozen. "We have grown something over 200 varieties 

 — that is, American varieties — so far, and there are a great many that we have not 

 tried. I got so discouraged that I have become a little cautious in investigating 

 further in this way. Of the American varieties we have at the present time 

 in cultivation, I think the Goodale pear stands at the head of the list with us. 

 However, there are a few varieties, like Osband's Summer, that is a good summer 

 pear, but of no particular value for the market. Of the many European varieties that 

 we have in cultivation, I fancy there is nothing better than the Barlett and Beurre 

 Hardy. Those are the two pears that have come to stay, and of the two in our 

 section of the country, I would prefer the Beurre Hardy. So you see that in 

 experimenting with new varieties of fruits it is very discouraging sometimes. With 

 the apple we have not averaged so many as pears, but we have still fruited a great 

 many varieties, and out of that large number of varieties of apples I do not think 

 that we would exceed thirty that we can really say are worthy of cultivation, and 

 several ot those are seedings that I ought to say are confined very closely to our 

 own county. There are varieties that are seedlings in this county, the production 

 of seeds that wei-e brought over by the settlers of New Jersey after the Eebellion in 

 the United States. We find several superior fruits cultivated that were pi'oduced 

 from these seeds, but they have never been disseminaljed, because rnan^yof them are 

 yellow apples. One, called the Pi'union, still remains, in my estimation, without a 

 rival as a dessert apple. It is yellow, and consequently does not meet the demand 

 in our markets. We want a red apple. Another is called the "Elvira." It is a 

 beautiful dessert apple and a good cooking apple — a September apple, that if it was 

 red, would rise the Duchess of Oldenburg out of existence. These are apples that 

 have been produced in our county over jOO years ago, and yet have never left the 

 county to my knowledge. Now, we have in the American production of apples 

 very few dessert varieties that compare with the English production. We have 

 not, that I know of, an apple that will compare in flavour with Cox's Orange Pippin, 

 that I spoke of before. There are very few that will excel the Eibston Pippin or 

 the Wellington apple, or many other English varieties that I am of opinion have 

 come to stay. It is not so with their pears, because we are left of the English pro- 

 ductions of the pear only the Bartlett. I am sorry it was christened the Bartlett. 

 It should have kept its original name of William's Bon Chretien. 



