Its melting, buttery, subacid character, and delicious flavor, are such as lead me to say - if it belongs where it has been placed, in the class good pears - it deserves to be at the top of the list. The fruit is large, and uniformly smooth and fair.

Vicar of Winkfield, though coarse-fleshed, of good size; when fully ripened, of good flavor, and of a fine, yellow color. A part of my crop has been somewhat astringent, the result, doubtless, of premature gathering. It is evidently not adapted to a northern climate, as a too short season of growth will give full one-half of the crop immature at the period of gathering. Or, this character of the fruit may be owing to a too great luxuriance of growth for the first few years after it comes into bearing. No variety has given such a vigorous growth of shoots, causing the tree to exhibit almost a fantastic appearance. The fact that the wood and force principles are antagonistic forces - the predominance of one repressing the other, may satisfactorily explain this phenomenon. Observation alone, with the increasing age of our orchards, must, however, settle this question.