346 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



being, that from natural habit of growth, some varieties are more easily kept 

 in the desired form than others. 



As a matter of convenience, apples are generally worked upon this stock by 

 budding during the growing season, although they may, when desirable, be 

 grafted without difficulty. The buds are forced into growth the following 

 spring by cutting back the stock to just above the insertion of the bud, and 

 the shoots, after one year's growth, are the following spring again cut back to 

 the proper hight for the commencement of the top, which should in no case 

 exceed one or one and a half feet. 



Dwarfs on Paradise stocks, when planted out, should always be set with the 

 point of union at or very slightly below the surface, for the reason that, if 

 planted higher than this, they are less sure to hold their position firmly, while 

 they are likely to show an unsightly enlargement at their point of union, with 

 an increased tendency to sprout from the stock above the ground. On the 

 other hand, if planted so low as ultimately to cause roots to push from above 

 the bud, the influence of the dwarf stock is overcome, and the tree assumes the 

 habit and vigor of a standard. A well managed dwarf apple tree on this stock, 

 will generally show fruit the third year from the bud, and if well cared for at 

 suitable times, may be kept in proper shape with very little, if any, use of the 

 knife. Of course, to do this, reference must be had to the normal habit of 

 the variety. When the trees are permitted to assume their natural form, with- 

 out an attempt to put them into a "straight-jacket" and mold them to a 

 single model, the occasional lopping off or thinning out of a superfluous shoot, 

 and the "pinching in" of the excessively vigorous or misplaced ones, will in 

 the main suffice for this purpose, although, now and then, an open or strag- 

 gling grower may require to have its shoots cut back in spring, to bring it into 

 more compact condition, while the most upright or compact growers may need 

 to he spread, either by thinning, or by staking and tying down the shoots, to 

 open them sufficiently to the light. 



It is believed that the dwarfing influence of this stock, while it diminishes 

 the capacity of the tree for the production of fruit, tends rather to increase its 

 size and highteu its color. How far this last may be true, I will not attempt 

 to decide ; but I feel quite safe in saying that, with the increased ability to pro- 

 duce the requisite variety of sorts upon a limited space, and within a compara- 

 tively short period, the use of the French Paradise stock offers to tradesmen, 

 professional men, and city and village residents generally, the best possible 

 means of securing an abundance, as well as a variety of fresh, seasonable fruit, 

 such as no public market can be expected to supply. — T. T. Lyon in Rural 

 JYeiv Yorker. 



PEARS. 



CHINESE SAND PEAR AND ITS SEEDLINGS. 



The origin of the Le Conte pear is somewhat in obscurity; it is said to have 

 been sent from a New York nursery some thirty years since by Major Le Conte, 

 of Philadelphia, to some relative or friend of his in Liberty county, Georgia, 

 labeled "Chinese Sand pear," but it is quite distinct from that variety, and is 

 no doubt a hybrid between it and some garden pear, and has only been known 



