CHINESE SAND PEARS. 153 



The Le Conte pear roots with extreme ease, if kept slightly 

 moist while rooting, aud grows off afterwards with great rapidity, 

 frequently attaining a height of thirty feet in seven years, with 

 limbs twenty feet long, bending to the ground under their 

 weight of delicious fruit, until such a tree, fully fruited, resem- 

 bles a weeping willow, so far as its branches are concerned. 

 The general shape of the tree is that of a cone, and is very 

 Jaandsomc. 



It is of unexampled prolificacy, it being no uncommon 

 thing for a tree to bear from four to six bushels of fruit at its 

 first bearing, and at its fourth year, to yield twenty bushels of 

 fine, marketable pears. 



They ripen about the first to the middle of July, more than 

 a month before the earliest of all other pears, and hence always 

 skim the cream " of the markets. Major Varnadoe, a year or 

 tAvo ago, received $10 a bushel for his first shipment ; the usual 

 net price, however, is from 85.00 to S6.00 a bushel. 



It is a peculiar feature of this pear that it perfects not only 

 one crop in one season, but sometimes partially matures a second 

 l)efore the first is all marketed. 



The pears are picked before they are fully ripe, and then 

 they are spread out on one blanket and covered by another. 

 This ripens them evenly, and gives a rich golden color, which 

 makes them as pleasing to the eye as they are to the palate, for 

 the Le Conte, be it known, is a fine flavored, juicy, aromatic 

 fruit. 



The tree has no " off years," but gives continual crops year 

 after year. The original tree, in.Liberty county, Georgia, is the 

 greatest bearing pear tree known ; has never missed a crop, and 

 has yielded at one picking thirty-nine bushels of large, smooth, 

 marketable pears. 



Another thing that extremely enhances the value of this 

 remarkable fruit, in a commercial sense, is its unusual keeping 

 qualities. The Le Conte is one of the best, if not the very 

 best, shipping pear that the world has ever produced, excepting 

 only its own ofi^spring, as we are about to note : 



