After all our discussions, we have seen some instances of successful pear crops the past two seasons that were highly satisfactory. They grew on grafts, on old trees whose fruit was no longer worth picking. Old healthy trees are thus a valuable possession. We see this fact confirmed by a writer in the Country Gentleman thus:

Other old trees are standing about the fences, which were in full bearing at least fifty years ago. The fruit of these latter trees is wild and inferior, and I am now transforming them by engrafting the leading branches with Borne of the finer kinds. Budding the succulent shoots, which are sure to appear where the grafting fails, succeeds, and completes the process. In this way some of our large trees which have been bearing worthless fruit for twenty or thirty years, are now covered with fine specimens of the Seckel, etc. Old, rough and unpromising as these stocks may seem, we have as yet found no instance which has not been attended with a reason, able degree of success. No old pear tree is cut down on my premises; it is considered too valuable to lose. A faithful attention to pruning, engrafting and budding, will, in the course of from three to five yean, give more fruit than can be obtained from a young stock of twenty years' growth. - R. M. Conklin, Cold Spring Harbor, L. L