1875. ] 
FRUITS : WHICH SHALL WE GROW-SWEET OR ACID ? 
163 
not understand wliy Leon le Clerc de Laval should be introduced as a dessert 
Pear, as it is purely a culinary variety. I have grown it over twenty years, and 
never found it to show the least sign of ripening. Even then, in what does its 
value consist, when we possess several kinds of superior excellence for that 
purpose, such as Bellisime d'Hiver , Catillac , Uvedale’s St. Germain , and Vicar of 
Winkfield ? We have a dessert Pear named Beurre' Sterckmans , recommended in 
fruit catalogues as a mid-winter fruit, melting and excellent, the very reverse of 
what I find to be the case; it is sugary, dry, and crisp in the flesh, while the 
flavour is by no means agreeable. 
For some years we have grown a dessert Pear under the name of Sabine 
d’Hiver , which in shape and colour to a certain extent resembles Easter Beurre 
but is superior to it in flavour, and ripens about the same time, that is, the beginning 
of February. The Easter Beurre is very uncertain on this point. I have known 
it to be fit for use so early as October, and to come in by driblets throughout the 
winter. There is a valuable pear, ripening towards the end of January, called 
L’Inconnue , which is by no means common ; still it cannot be too highly recom¬ 
mended, being melting, juicy, of a very agreeable flavour, and very productive.— 
Alexander Cramb, Tortworth Court. 
* m * We shall be ready to print any such lists as those Mr. Cramb refers to 
above. The nature of the soil and climate should be briefly indicated. 
FRUITS : WHICH SHALL WE GROW—SWEET OR ACID ! 
HIS is the question I put seriously to housekeepers and horticulturists. 
The matter, as far as puddings, pies, and even preserves go, is very much 
in their own hands. We may either grow or buy our sugar at will. On 
the former plan we have sugar free, on the latter at wholesale or retail 
prices. Habit has established the custom of growing sour fruits—I use the term 
relatively—for culinary purposes ; these fruits have to be sweetened before they are 
eatable ; the more acid the fruit the more sugar is used, the less the less. It 
follows that it might be possible to use fruit for culinary purposes so sweet as 
to enable us wholly to dispense with sugar. Prejudice stands ready to protest 
that by so doing we sacrifice flavour. How so ? unless, indeed, we are pre¬ 
pared to contend that Beet and Cane sugar, which are those mostly employed to 
sweeten our other fruits, are better, sweeter, higher-flavoured, than the sugar 
secreted in Apples, Pears, Plums, or other fruits. But such an argument proves 
too much, and really asserts that our artificial compoundings are better than 
nature’s more perfect mixture. We certainly do not act so in regard to our des¬ 
sert fruit. In them we prefer sugar of nature’s manufacture and storing, else as 
far as mere texture goes, many kitchen apples would, with plentiful additions of 
sugar, be equal to sweeter dessert fruit. But custom and common-sense are in 
accord in reference to our dessert fruits, and seemingly divorced in regard to our 
cooked fruits. Perhaps we may buy sugar to support the grocers, as many prefer 
to have their daily glass for u the good of the house.” 
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