it§§ 
PRICE SIX CENTS 
*2.50 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY, 3 1877. 
[Entered according to Act of CangTCM, lu the year 1877, by the Hural Publishing Company, in the offlco of the Librarian of Oontrrcnn at Washington.] 
proud and gratified at our progress iu this 
direction. 
The Duehesse d'Angouleme is perhaps one of 
tho best known and popular of ail the very large 
varieties, and whon well - grown on trees not 
starved or deprived of tho requisite amount of 
moisture, it is a fruit of excellent quality, al¬ 
though tho flesh la not quite as fine-grained as 
the Bartlett and some other good sorts of lesser 
size. 
Souvenir da Congress is another large va¬ 
riety which promises to bo oven better than tho 
DuohesBe, as the flesh is of a finer texture. Its 
seaBou is a little later than the Bartlett, but does 
not continue quite so long as tho Duehesse. It 
is certainly a noble fruit 
of groat promise, and one 
that is worthy of a place 
in tho most select collec¬ 
tions. 
Tho Bcurro Glairgeau is 
another very large and 
A showy Pear, which, how- 
M ever is rather variable in 
quality ; in aomo soils and 
^j seasons it is excellent, 
A while in others it iu rather 
I coarse and insipid; bat 
its large sizo and fine color 
make thin variety a great 
favorite among amateurs, 
\ pf and to sorno extent among 
\ p mmlM thoso raising fruit for 
j P i y^PW K market. 
The Beurre Darondeau 
i® another remarkably - 
yrmm showy Pear, somewhat 
Bimilar to tho last. It is 
Gm|||||P§r perhaps better known in 
this country under the 
name of “ Do Tongros,” 
hut according to Mr. H. 
Wm? Hyde, a writer in a lato 
number of the London 
Garden, tho first is its 
true name and the latter 
a Bynonym. Ho says of 
its origin that it was sup¬ 
posed to have originated 
in Limbourg; but M. 
Pinaeet has shown that 
it was first brought to no- 
JV. tico at a village called 
Tongro - Notre - Dame, on 
the property belonging to 
' Yvlllt M. Dcbondeau. Henco 
its name. Tho original 
^ \ tree has yet to be discov- 
K ered, as the one examined 
by M. Pin ax', ht was graft- 
YtoSSu ed. For tho accompany- 
fc\• \ing illustration of this fine 
Pear we are also indobted 
mH^IH to the Garden. Downino, 
Ij 1 in hia “Fruits and Fruit 
Trees of America,’’ also 
speaks very highly of this 
variety, and describes it 
as follows:—Fruit largo, 
A obovate, acuto pyriform, 
M slightly irregular. Skin 
jH pale yellow, covored with 
|j a rich cinnamon russet, 
which becomes crimson 
r on tho san-exposed Bide, 
sprinkled with russet and 
brown dots. Stalk long, 
curved, inserted without 
depression, often by a lip. 
Calyx small, open, or part¬ 
ly closed. Segments short, 
erect. Basin shallow, ab¬ 
rupt, uneven. Flesh white, 
fine, molting, juicy, vin¬ 
ous, rich saccharine. Very 
peeially on tho Pear, but it never proceeds to 
such extremes as to make coarse-grained, gritty- 
fleshed sorts like the Cattilac and Pound Pear fit 
for anything except cooking or making perry 
from the juice. 
The introduction of tho Bartlett, about a cen¬ 
tury ago, gave our pomologists a demonstration 
of what it was possible to produce in the way of 
largo pears without.any of that coarso grittiuoss 
of tfio UeHh so common in the older and larger 
sorts. Since the period named many a largo 
sort of fine quality has been produced, and al¬ 
though there is still room for improvement In 
quality to bring them up to the standard of 
some «f the smaller varieties, we may well feel 
portunitios for obtaining knowledge being moro 
or loss according to circumstances, theif writings 
giving evidonco of tho same. A man may de¬ 
clare, in speaking of ft variety of fruit, that “it 
is the host I ever saw.” or honestly believe and 
say that “ it Is the best of the kind known,” and 
still the variety may bo very inferior to some 
known to other persons. 
Thou there is a wide difference in taste. Homo 
persons prefer a sprightly, vinous flavor, as ob¬ 
tained in a well-ripened Louis Bonne de Jersey, 
while others prefer the sweet lusciouaness of a 
Seckel or Bello Lucrative. 
Soils, seasons und localities have also a very 
marked effect upon the quality of fruits, and es- 
LARGE AND SMALL PEARS, 
The “ richest goods are generally done up in 
the smallest packages,” is an old saying, and one 
which for many years held true when applied to 
tho varieties of pears in cultivation. If wo 
glance at tho catalogues of pears given in porno- 
logical works of a century ago, wo tine) the 
Cattilac, known then in Franco as tho Grande 
Monarque, and in Holland as the Oroat Mogul 
(Grootc Mogol), and the Bello Angevine, or what 
wo call Pound Pear in this 
country, were great favor¬ 
ites and highly estoomed, 
although but few persons 
would, at Ibis day, care to 
have more than one tree 
of cither, and this moro as 
a curiosity than for any 
desirable qualities p o s - 
sessed by the fruit. 
There was quite a num¬ 
ber of small varieties a 
century or century and a 
half ago which are Btill 
considered of excellent 
quality, among which wo , 
may name tho Virgalieu; 
bnt unfortunately this 
most excellent sort had 
not been widely dissemi- 
natod at the periods 
named, and thero were 
comparatively few persons Jil 
who hod any knowledge y/MffljBm. 
o[ “• wmk 
Of course, were we to wiM' 
tako as our guide in de- 
tormining quality the de- mjr' 
scriplious given by the old 
pouiologists of tho vari- 
cties cultivated in their / ; g^ .__ 
day, we might suppose - 
that wo were falling be- 
hind Instead of progress- 
ing in Pear culture, but ^^88 
fortunately a large num- 
ber of tho old sorts have 
boon preserve!, and tho 
fruit itself can be tested M 
and compared with tho JMjj, 
recorded opinions of the £mm 
old authors. By placing 
the two side by Bide, the || M | 
progress made in a ceu- illim M M 
tury can he readily deter- j j j 
For instance, if we open (|1| (jiiUwH 
Jean Hf.um.an Knoop’s I ilflSIfl 
great pouiological work, I; 
published iu Amsterdam V V©M| 
in 1771, wo find the de- V 
scriptions and colored V, vftraKu 
figures of apples and pears * 
exceedingly perfect, no \ss|§HgS 
author of the present day 'UnsI 
excelling him in giving N&pj 
the peculiar and easily- 
recognizablo characteris¬ 
tics of tho different vari¬ 
eties; still, for the want 
of those of superior quali¬ 
ties for comparison, ho 
places a much higher 
value upon all than ho 
would, had circumstances 
been different. 
It is somewhat in this 
light that we should judge 
all pouiological authors, 
of whatever ago, the op- 
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