39. 



but its beauty of appearance and clear skin had been much admired 

 and was causing a demand for it. Another kind that also was not 

 well known in the London market, but would make great head-^ 

 way in time, is the Jonathan, because of its fine appearance and 

 rich flayour. In regard to the names of varieties most suitable for 

 export, he could with confidence refer all fruit-growers interested 

 in the matter to the handbook just issued by the Department of 

 Agriculture, in which all the difEerent and beat varieties are 

 classified for export, drying, and all other purposes. There is also 

 a synopsis of the varieties of apples that have become most popular 

 throughout the country. They are classified under difEerent heads. 

 It is a very valuable work, and should be in the hands of every 

 fruit-grower throughout the colony. The information in it 

 is thoroughly genuine and reliable, coming, as it does, from 

 the fruit-growers in the colony thoroughly established for many 

 years and from the different fruit-growers' associations. Cox's 

 orange pippin and the Ribston are very good apples. The 

 Bismarck also is a good apple; but he had confined himself to 

 those most popular on the London market, such as he had himself 

 sent and as the Tasmanians were sending. As to pears, he 

 might say that so far as the export of pears was concerned it had 

 not been a success. That arose in a great measure from the 

 difference between the ripening of pears and apples. When 

 pears are packed in a close case premature ripeness is brought 

 on, and they soon get into a very soft and pulpy condition. 

 He had tried all the different kinds — the latest and the mid-season 

 ones ; but he had not recorded a single success in the export of 

 pears. Even the well-known variety the Vicar of Wakefield he 

 had sent early in February when only half-grown, and the advice 

 he had was that there were about 20 pears sound in the case. 

 He had sent off cases of the Winter Nelis to the Colonial Insti- 

 tute. They were packed in paper in the usual way. Gansell's 

 Bergamot he had not sent, and he thought it would not do. 

 Others he had tried were the Josephine de Maline, Duchesse 

 d'Angouleme, Unedale's St. German, and two or three others of 

 which he had not the names at present. He had not tried the 

 Beurre Clairgeau, which is 'an autumn apple ; and he did not 

 think it would arrive in so good a condition as some of the 

 denser pears. 



Mr. Allen said he thought the Beurre Clairgeau one of the 

 best pears we have, and that it and the Vicar of Wakefield are 

 the only two that we could succeed with. The latter should be 

 gathered on the turn of ripening. 



Mr. Lang observed that the pears he had sent realized £2 

 per case, and they were worth that and upwards at this time of 

 the year. 



