In 1823, Robert Manning established a pomological garden at Salem, Massachusetts, to collect and test as many varieties of fruits as he could obtain, native and foreign, with the intention of propagating and distributing those which proved most worthy. In furthering this great project he entered into correspondence with the leading pomologists of Europe, and from them secured trees and cions, which, with native sorts, brought his collection up to 2000 varieties of fruits at the time of his death in 1842. More than half of the varieties planted by Manning were pears. This, it will be remembered, was the period in which Belgian, French, and English pomologists were making pears a specialty, and led by Van Mons, the Belgian scientist, had succeeded in putting almost a new pear flora in the hands of fruit-growers. Manning grew in America nearly all of Van Mons' introductions, received direct from the originator, and many acquisitions from other European pomologists as well, notably many varieties from Robert Thompson of the London Horticultural Society. Manning was one of the most careful observers amongst American pomologists, and to him pear-growers are indebted for the first full and accurate descriptions of the fruits grown in his time in this country. These were published in 1838 in his _Book of Fruits_. American pomologies before and many since were compilations. Manning made his descriptions first-hand and described no fruit "not actually identified beyond a reasonable doubt of its genuineness." After Manning, one might well scan the work of several eminent American pomologists who made pears a specialty. Robert Manning, Jr., continued the work of his father with this fruit and the two Downings, Wilder, Barry, and Thomson found the pear the most interesting of the fruits which they grew. To all of these men, pomologists are indebted for the introduction of many new and choice pears; for the identification of varieties; for the correction of the nomenclature of this fruit; for testing hundreds of seedlings and native and foreign varieties; and for the distribution of pears throughout the whole country.