2>2 PYRUS COMMl'NIS. 



Fn)in flic pyramidal, and oft(Mi fastitriatn form of tlio poar, its summit roqnirrs 

 mucli less space tliaii tlio aj)pic or iho cherry, in the niDre ll-rtile soils, tlie dis- 

 taiue at winch the trees may be planted apart, need not exceed twenty feet; and 

 those of a poorer soil may he much less. 'V\\o (furnmii/ffs, or dwarfs, trained in 

 the form of a distatl'. with their branches reachin;^' ni^arly or (piit(^ to the i^ronnd, 

 are fonnd to snccecd even at a distance of fonr or fivi; feel a[)art, and pn^duce 

 abnndant crops. 



The pear-tree is liable to be much injnred if pruned by those who do not 

 understand the nature of its growth. 'The blossoms arc commonly produced 

 from buds at the extremity of the last year's shoots, and as thes(! are often cut 

 off by the unskilful pruncr, it prevents them from producing fruit, and causes 

 the boughs to send out new branches, which overfill the tree with wood. For 

 reasons assigned on the subject of pruning in our articles on the cherry and plum, 

 July and August is the best time to look over tlic pear-trees, and to remove all 

 superlluous and foreright shoots, which would too much shade the fruit. 



The rate of growth of tlie cultivated pear-tree, in Rritain, is considered, on an 

 average, as from two to three feet per annum, for the first six or seven years ; in 

 ten years it will accjuire the height of twenty feet; and in tliirty years, it will 

 attain an elevation of fifty feet, with a trunk from one foot to eighteen inches in 

 diameter. Its development or rate of growth, in America, under favourable cir- 

 cumstances, is equal to that of Europe, and in some instances, even surpasses it. 



Accidents, Diseases, and Insects. " The pear, as a standard tree," says Mr. Lou- 

 don, " is not liable to have us branches broken off or disfigured by the wind ; nor 

 is it nearly so liable to canker as the apple-tree. It is liable to the attacks of insects, 

 but certainly not so much so in fields as in gardens, and perhaps nowhere to the 

 same extent as in the other edible fruit-bearing Rosaceae. On a large scale, there 

 IS, perhaps, no cure worth attempting, for insects, or mildew on the leaves; but 

 shallow planting, surface manuring, and regrafting, are excellent preventives and 

 correctives for these and all other evils to which the pear, and all other Rosaceae, 

 are liable." In Britain, the leaves of the pear-tree are affected by a species of 

 limgus, {JEJcidium cancellatum, Sowerby.) which, in moist seasons, and in close 

 situations, sometimes appears to so great an extent, as to occasion them to fall 

 ])rematurely. There seems to be no remedy, except that of increasing the airi- 

 ness of the situation, which may always be done, to a certain extent, by thinning 

 out the branches of the tree. The trunks of cankered trees, in Europe, are some- 

 times perforated in every direction by the larvae of the lesser stag-beetle {Dorci/s 

 prirallehpipedus, Stephens.) In Europe, also, the larvae of the wood leopard-moth, 

 {^Zeuzera ascidi, liatreille.) also perforate longitudinally the trunk of the pear- 

 tree, as well as that of the apple, the service, the quince, and probably those of 

 all the Rosaceae, as it is known to do in the horse-chesnut, lime, walnut, beech, 

 birch, and oak. 



In America, the pear-tree is subject to a peculiar malady, called the blight, 

 which shows itself during midsummer, by the sudden withering of its leaves and 

 fruit, and the discolouration of the bark of one or more of the limbs, followed by 

 the immediate death of the part affected. From a communication in the fifth 

 volume of the " New England Farmer," by the late Judge Lowell, of Roxbury, 

 in Massachusetts, it appears that this malady is caused by the larvae of an insect, 

 named by Professor Peck, Scolijtns pyri. They eat their way inward through 

 the alburnum, into the hardest part of the wood, beginning at the root of a bud, 

 (behind which. Dr. Harris thinks the eggs are deposited,) following the course 

 of the eyes of the buds towards the pith, around which it passes, and part of 

 which it also consumes : thus forming, after penetrating through the alburnum 

 or sap-wood, circular burrows or passages, " not exceeding the size of a knitting- 

 needle," in the heart-wood, contiguous to the pith which they surround. By 



