Calfornia Horticulturists are very anxious to have some of our Eastern fruit-growers send specimens of their fruit to the Pacific Coast, where it can be placed in fair competition with some of California's best, and the vexed question of quality, amicably settled. It seems natural for every section of the country to claim a special pre-eminence for one or more points in fruit culture.

The Californians have always claimed that their fruit was the finest in size, fairness and productiveness, and no one has disputed their claims, - but, as Eastern horticulturists have, from time to time visited that coast, they have felt that the claim for quality could not be as well maintained as the fruit grown on the Atlantie slope.

The characteristics of California fruit, which we gained from careful notice while • we were there last year, were, viz.: a sweet, pleasant flavor, dryish, mealy texture, freedom from acidity, or bat moderate sub-acidity, a lack of juice, spirit, or spicy, aromatic taste. It is very natural for fruit, grown in a dry country, to bo less juicy than those grown in a land of frequent rains, hence more sweet, and less distinctive in flavor. Here, our fruit has a spirit, aroma, and an abundance of juice, which makes the eating of almost any variety perfectly luscious. Nearly every visitor to California will, we believe, confirm these opinions. And if any of our friends could send to California specimens of our Beurre d'Anjou, Seckel, Bartlett, or other pears, to be tested faithfully in comparison with some from California orchards, we doubt not it will be found there is quite a difference in flavor, if not size.