Table Fruit. Pear Trees. Seedling Trees. 
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is partly due, does not increase as the Sugar does, in the higher ranges of density. The Alcohol 
is little more than one per cent, for every 10 degrees of density, instead of one per cent, for every 
5 degrees, which is the scale of the English Excise Office. 
It is proposed before the conclusion of this work to give a list of the best varieties of fruit for 
the press, both of Apples and Pears, showing the density of their several juices, when a favourable 
season shall have enabled it to be taken to advantage. 
Table Fruit. —The varieties of fruit suitable for cooking or dessert purposes, “pot fruit,” 
or “table fruit,” should be grown much more freely than is usually the case, for the supply of our 
home consumption. Size and colour are essential for ready sale in the market, and the longer the 
apples will keep the better and more valuable they will be. This fruit will have to compete, and 
should be able successfully to compete, with American and other foreign fruit, and it will therefore 
require to be grown in orchards near the homestead where it can be protected. As much as ten 
pounds an acre for fruit of this character upon the trees, has not unfrequently been given, but its 
market value will depend very much upon the season. As a general rule “ table fruit” is not well 
adapted for making Cider. The French say “petites pommes gros Cidre ,” small apples rich 
Cider, and so too the finest wines are produced by the smallest grapes. Large apples have too 
much Mucilage by themselves, though they may sometimes be added to others with advantage. 
Pear Trees. —On the poorer soil of the farm, pear trees should occupy the orchards. They 
are much more slow of growth. “He who plants pears, plants for his heirs” as the old saying goes, 
but they are much longer lived than apple trees. They are very hardy, the flowers resist well the 
Spring frosts, and the trees bear abundantly. The fruit ripens early and is more sweet and juicy 
than that of the Apple ; and Perry is always saleable to the merchants for a variety of purposes. 
The trees too are more productive than Apple Trees, and as they grow more upright, they interfere 
less with the cultivation of the ground beneath them. A good hit in an orchard of Pears of a 
valuable variety, is sometimes worth the fee simple of the land the trees grow upon. 
Seedling Trees. —The advantages of seedling fruit trees are very great, if the varieties are 
good. They are more robust and hardy, and consequently bear more freely. They should never 
be planted in the orchard until the fruit has been carefully examined by the Saccharometer and its 
juice found to possess the requisite density. Seedling trees for the most part are quite worthless, 
and they must therefore be tested with much care. A special exhibition of seedling fruit trees was 
held at Yvetot in Normandy, when 172 varieties were sent for examination, nine only of these, (which 
had themselves been selected from many others), furnished a rich juice of high density. And again 
M. Legrand out of 65 carefully grown seedlings had only one single variety worth cultivating. Mr. 
Thomas Andrew Knight met with the same result, for amongst the many thousands of seedlings he 
grew, but very few indeed proved to be of any value. 
Seedlings must always be grown nevertheless, for difficult as it may be to get valuable 
varieties, it is the right way to seek for them. The attempt is always interesting, and a philosopher 
