Dear Sir: Many of your friends and readers here, in what was once the "Far West," are disposed to pick a crow with you for preferring the cram and jam of the Illinois State Fair, in Chicago, last October, to the cosy and quiet chat which yon might have enjoyed with a dozen or two harmless enthusiasts in pomology, had you accepted the pressing invitation which was sent you to mingle with us at the meeting of the Northwestern Fruit Growers' Association, in September last Very certain we are that you would have seen much more comfort and enjoyment here than among the almost terrific multitude which was gathered together in Chicago.

Your predecessor, Mr. Barry, is kindly disposed to praise us somewhat in your November number, and to intimate that some of our trees, and pears in particular, grow luxuriantly and bear rather large fruit. With his large experience, having visited most of the pear-growing regions of Europe, he ought to know, after so favorable an opportunity of inspecting specimens as was afforded at the meeting of the Fruit-Growers' Society, though we were not aware of the fact before, except as informed by Eastern cultivators. I have now before me a shoot taken from a Bloodgood pear-tree dwarfed on quince, that is upwards of an inch in diameter at the base, and more than seven feet in length, being crowned with large branching limbs. It is of this summer's growth, and was a truant, not having been detected among the foliage of the tree till the leaves had dropped. Is such a growth common with this variety?

Many of the trees in the garden from which this was taken, are upwards of eleven inches in circumference at the surface of the ground, and more than fifteen feet in height; well furnished with limbs from base to pinnacle of the pyramid or cone, and are by no means the "bony" specimens you have doubtless seen in many gardens. They are on Anglers quince, were one year from the bud when set out in the spring of 1851, and have borne fruit of unusual size and beauty the two past seasons. A Beurre Diel tree, that bore some fire dozen pears this summer, produced specimens weighing twenty ounces, or 1 1/4 lb. avoirdupois. The total weight of the fruit was sixty-five pounds, or upwards of a pound each, on the average. The soil here abounds in silex or flint, and was known as Sho-ko-kon, or the Flint Hills, by the Indians, and was a place of resort by them to obtain flints for their guns. Can it be this ingredient in the soil which proves so favorable to the growth of fruits? Certain it is that, at this exhibition, the fruit of this locality was finer than almost any other in the country.

Mr. Barry was so much in demand when here, and found so many persons anxious to avail themselves of his superior knowledge and experience, that it is not surprising he should have erred somewhat in some of his observations. It was not the Brandywine pear that he saw flourishing so well on the quince, but a twin brother, I believe, the Pennsylvania, a variety well worthy the name of the noble keystone State. Many of the pears weighed ten ounces, but were past their season at the time of the Fruit Growers' meeting. This variety may be safely set down as sure to succeed well on the quince at the West.

Can we not persuade some of the sagacious fruit-growers of the East to come this way and establish a large pear plantation in some of the many favorable localities to be found hereabouts? The past five years have settled the question beyond a doubt, that pears will be a profitable crop on the quince, and any One who inspects our trees and fruits at the proper season must be satisfied of this. Nowhere will the pear bear more uniformly and abundantly, or look more thrifty and healthy, or produce larger or better flavored fruit - that will command the very highest price in the Atlantic cities. It is true that several years will be required to mature a crop from trees just planted, but while they were growing, the cultivator could do a very profitable business by raising strawberries for the Chicago market. This fruit does remarkably well here, requires but one season to be in market, and the Chicago demand could not be supplied by any one or dozen growers. The strawberry is in its prime here at the end of May, but around Chicago it does not ripen till the middle of July. No other point is so favorable as this for this business; the northern railway connections with Chicago being too far north, and the southern points being too remote.

At this distance, the fruit could be gathered during the day, sent forward by the night train, and be in market the next morning. Last July, strawberries bore the moderate price of twenty-five cents a dish at the fruiterers, or fifty cents per quart in market, in Chicago. As heavy a business could be done in this line, as the Cincinnati growers have been doing for years past.

Burlington, Iowa, Nov. 12,1855.

Gossip From The Northwest #1

"Go ahead," gentlemen. You have it all to yourselves in that quarter. But don't "crow" too lustily over your prodigious growths of limb, and great big fruits. You are hardly "out of the woods" yet. The blight will be after you presently, as it has been after us - and possibly stay with you - in the pear line; and the curculio, and the apple-borer, the peach worms, and the yellows. They are all on their westward travels. Recollect you are only ten years old out there in Iowa. So, don't boast too abundantly. I've suffered a little in that line myself. How is the flavor of those aforesaid large fruits, compared with the compact, medium-sized specimens? Let us have a tasting party at the pomological meeting next fall at Rochester, when I hope we shall all come together.