157 



poor quality we have never thought it worthy of cultivation, making it a rule not 

 to put on the market what we cannot eat ourselves. For this reason we wait till 

 our Concords are ripo, instead of selling them when just coloured, though hy that time 

 they ai'e much reduced in price ; and so, to sum up we find grapes a very unsatisfac- 

 tory commercial crop, subject to many varying contingencies. Last season there 

 was only here and there a bunch of fruit on the vines, though they set well in the 

 spring, and when there is a full crop evefywhere, prices run down to 2 and 3 

 cents a pound, which, with the cost of baskets, freight, netting and labour, leaves 

 but a small surplus for the grower. A grape is a grape to most buyers, and what 

 we most need is a discriminating public to be able to tell superior varieties and well 

 ripened fruit, and willing to pay a little more for it." 



Pear Culture in Southern Ontario : by 'N. J. Clinton, Windsor, Ont. 



Had it been in the month of September, instead of February, when this great 

 gathering of the fruit growers of the Dominion was convening, it would have been 

 easier for us to demonstrate to you the beauties and attractiveness of this occupa- 

 tion than it is today. 



"We could have shown you samples of this fruit that would be both pleasing to 

 the taste as well as the eye, for instance, the Bartlett, Clapp's Favorite, Flemish 

 Beauty, Seckel, &c. Are theie any nicer fruit of any class to eat than these in their 

 season (providing they are developed to their highest perfection). In these we do 

 not come in contact with a fuzzy skin at the first bite, which has somewhat of a 

 repelling nature, as in the peach, nor on investigating further our teeth do not run 

 against a stone or pit (as in the plum or peach). And when the housewife purchases 

 fruit to can or preserve, from half a bushel to a bushel (what they usually put up 

 with us) she gets better value for her money in bulk than she does in either of the 

 last named varieties, as there is less waste in preparing them for the jar. However, 

 these other classes of fruit have redeeming qualities, such as tlavor, &c., that bring 

 them upon an equal with the pear and are equally sought after in the market. 



There is a great difference in the same variety of pear grown in different 

 localities and under different circumstances. This is equally true of other classes of 

 fruit. 



It is not necessary for me to state here that pear trees want cultivation as well 

 as any other crop. It is not enough to plant, take care of them until they commence 

 bearing, and then seed the orchard down into grass, and leave it to shift for itself; 

 if so the j-eoult is the fruit becomes small and inferior in flavour. 



The first pear trees that were gi-own in south-western Ontario were the old French 

 trees (some now standing on the bank of the Detroit Eiver). They were brought 

 over from France by Father Potier, a Jesuit, and planted some time between the 

 years 1760 and 1780. The fruit is considered fairly good for ijreserving and eating, 

 and sells for 50 cents to §1.00 a bushel, when other pears bring $150 to $2 00 

 With a crop of fifteen to twenty bushels they are quite profitable at that price, but 

 since that time the hand and brain of the horticulturist have improved on them by 

 hybridizing with other varieties, and importing, until many new and better varieties 

 Kve been Introduced. Mr. James Dougall started one of the first nurseries, and 

 had at one time over three hundred varieties of pears m his nuiseiy, and shipped 

 J. 1 1 „ii „Trn.. ATnrt}! Ameiloa where pears are grown. 



TCllSseasof ofthe pear i« from th^e middle of July, starting with Elliott's 

 Early Doyenne d'Ete, Magdelin, and winding up about January with such as Winter 

 ^^W?' i:rf^,. of winkfield, Lawrence, ko., but after November the market is limited 

 i\ems, vi^ ,. and the varieties worth eating that keep longer are few. Those 

 to a few ifmiue.^ ^^_^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ addition of the Beurre Clairgeau, 

 mentionea a j^^ ^^j^^^ which keep well into November. It is in the latter part of 

 Duchess an g^ .g^j^gi.' and October, when the larger pear growers have to get a 

 August ana ^l^^^^^j qJ- a couple of months to harvest them, as the apple, we have 

 move on, tor ^^ ^^q]^q after they are picked, and sometimes hardly that. And I 



only a °°^P-^^ jjgre gentlemen, that the markets of all our leading cities, when the 

 might say i e ' 



