Although spinning a long yarn, which I fear both yourself and your readers will get tired of - hot it is a gusty, snowy, inhospitable day, and my Short Horns, and Devens, and Southdowns, are all snugly in their stables and shelters, with enough to eat; and the fruit trees all safe under the snow, provided the pestilent mice don't nibble them - I may as well make an afternoon of it, and do up my gossip at once.

Sometime last fall I received a peach basket from the express office, with my address upon it. I opened it; but found no letter within, nor did I receive any message from any ether source, informing me who it was from; but on examination, finding that it was stuffed, and packed on the top, with all sorts of newspapers, concluded that the large and beautiful Onondaga Pears, of which it contained nearly half a bushel, could come from none other than my excellent pomologies! friend, Vivus W. Smith, Editor of the Western State Journal, at Syracuse. If he did send those pears, I here thank him most heartily for them. If Mr. Smith did not send them, this random thank for the most welcome waif, may be appropriated by him, her, or they, who did me the kindness. And if I ever can And out the donor, I will send him one of my choicest Niagara Muscalunge - our best liver fish - in return. The pears were large, perfect, remarkably well grown, and in excellent preservation. The Onondaga is said to be a great bearer. I know it to be a strong and rapid grower, as I have it in cultivation. Its fruit is large, fair, and beautiful. Its season, October. For preserving and cooking it has excellent qualities; but as a dessert pear, it lucks richness of flavor, although soft, juicy, and melting.

The flesh, too, is coarse - a quality common to all large fruits; and although the Onondaga does not equal the best of our standard pears in flavor, yet its other excellent qualities may warrant its extensive cultivation as a market pear, and as one to make up a variety in a circle of substantial and valuable house-keeping fruits.

There is yet another pear, which, in naming it, I shall probably be laughed at by some of my pomologioal neighbors, who are sometimes wise beyond what is written. It is the Orange Bergemot of Coxe, and described by that author in his Work on Fruits. This pear was early introduced here as the " Orange Pear," either by the late William Hodge, or his brother Benjamin, the proprietor of the " Buffalo Nursery," who now occasionally makes himself merry at its expense; yet I doubt whether he ever did the state better service, than when propagating and disseminating this pear for many years, until he fancied he knew better. There are many trees of this variety scattered in the neighborhood of Buffalo. Its qualities are these: The tree is very thrifty in growth, and hardy as a white oak, with a handsome upright head, bearing large crops every year. I have never known it to be struck with the blight, although it may not escape that scourge. The fruit is of medium size, remarkably .fair and uniform in appearance, and in shape somewhat like the Brown Beurre. Its color, when ripe, is that of a rich lemon. Its flesh is too dry for a choice eating pear, although its flavor is good. Its great excellence is for baking and pre-serving; and for these it is altogether the beet pear I ever have seen.

I have two trees, which I found on my grounds when I purchased them, perhaps now twenty-five years old. It comes into baking early in September, and will last until late in October, being in baking Ave or six weeks. For preserving, I have seen no pear which holds its consistency so well, absorbs sugar so perfectly, imparts a finer flavor of itself, and so delicate in its color and appearance. We have tried other pears, and of the best dessert varieties, for this purpose, by its side, and the Orange has exceeded them all in its preserving qualities. Repeated juries of ladies have settled this question. For preserving and baking, I shall propagate it just as long as I can, satisfied that no other which I can grow will equal it for these purposes. I showed this pear at the Pomological Convention in Buffalo, in 1848. I explained its good qualities, and tried all my small eloquence to get it adopted (or what it was. But after considerable discussion, the Doctors there assembled - Col. Hodge with the rest - thrust my unfortunate pear under the table, and "rejected it without a count." I picked the bantling up from " the rabble rout" of outcasts among which it was consigned, put it carefully in my pocket, and walked out of the convention with feelings akin to those of the tearful damsel in Moose's Lalla Roohk:

"I never nuraed a. dear Gazelle To cheer me with its soft clerk rye, But when it came to know me well, And love me, it wan sure to die!"

I have since grafted several of my orchard trees with the Orange Pear.

Lewis F. Allen.

Black Rock, January 1852.