Prior to 1882 the writer—in common with all experienced orchardists—believed that pear growing would never prove profitable on the great prairies west of Lake Michigan.
The varieties from southwest Europe, and their American grown seedlings, had failed with us as completely as had the strawberries, raspberries, and grapes from that source, and our available periodicals and books made no mention of successful pear growing on the great steppes of east Europe and central Asia.
Hence we were utterly surprised to find healthy pear orchards, loaded with fine pears, in the parts of south central Russia where our native Black Locust winter kills as the common peach does with us, and we were still more surprised to find the pear used as a street tree at points on the Upper Volga where the Duchess apple will not endure the winters, and where with scanty snow falls the thermometer often goes down to fifty or more degrees below zero
