HORTICULTURE. 321 



ripening in October and November; but by raising pears from the seed in America, you will 

 have sorts better adapted to your climate, and of equal, or even perhaps of better quality 

 than the too numerous varieties from Belgium. 



Prof. Kirtland on the Pear. 



The experience and observation of fifty years, directed to a practical subject, can scarcely 

 fail to arrive at conclusions worthy of attentive consideration ; and such we deem those of Prof. 

 J. P. Kirtland, of Cuyahoga county, Ohio, on the cultivation of the pear. 



Pear-trees of great age are found in some parts of the country ; notable instances are those 

 on Detroit River, planted near two hundred years ago, and still productive and healthy, while 

 recent plantations — made within the last thirty years — have disappeared. This suggests, first, 

 the query : Why was the first stock of pear-trees, reared in Connecticut, Ohio, and Michigan, 

 thus thrifty and healthy? Two causes operated mainly in producing such an effect: 1. The 

 trees were raised from the seed ; and 2. The superficial virgin soil was rich in vegetable mat- 

 ters, the accumulations of thousands of years. As to the second cause, after stating that 

 analysis shows a large percentage of phosphate of lime and potash in the pear-tree, Mr. K. 

 adds — 



Vegetables require their food as much as animals. If it be afforded in too restricted quan- 

 tities, they both will be stinted in their growth and predisposed to disease. Each must also 

 have food of appropriate qualities. An absence of any one of the elements shown to exist in 

 the ash of the pear will render the tree unhealthy, and probably soon occasion its death. In 

 almost every virgin soil the necessary food for the pear exists sufficient to insure a rapid and 

 healthy growth of one generation of trees. Cultivation of other crops, as well as the demand 

 of the pear-tree itself, soon takes up most of those elements existing in the superficial soils, 

 especially the phosphate of lime. 



The second query is the opposite and explanation of the first — "Why have more recent 

 attempts at rearing this tree been less successful than the first ?" Two causes are assigned, 

 as follows : — 



1. Suckers have been too commonly substituted for seeds in propagating this species of 

 fruit ; since the earliest generation of trees was produced in those several States, seedlings are 

 generally healthy — suckers never for any length of time. The circumstances of their spring- 



■ ing from the roots is an evidence of pre-existing disease. That disease is sure to be inherited 

 by every sucker. Their growth may be rapid for a time, but is akin to the malignant deve- 

 lopments which sometimes occur in the animal frame, and is sure to end in premature disease 

 and death. 



2. The exhaustion or deficiency of the necessary inorganic elements in the soil has a more 

 extensive influence. In ordinary soils the pear-tree cannot be reared successfully, any more 

 than it can "imbibe a solution of phosphates and potash from a soil made up exclusively of 

 insoluble flint and clay." The professor adds : In localities where those requisite elements 

 are furnished, but in too limited amount, this tree will exert its efforts mainly in producing 

 blossoms or fruit-buds in excess, which of course will prove abortive the season ensuing from 

 a want of food, and very little new wood will be formed. 



On the other hand, if most of those elements abound, but the main one — the phosphate of 

 li me — be absent, or in a restricted amount, the tree will often make a vigorous effort at forming 

 new wood, the leaves will be luxuriantly developed early in the season, and the shoots will 

 rapidly elongate with a spongy texture, till the period arrives for making a draft on the soil 

 to furnish the necessary amount of phosphates, in order to mature the young and tender 

 growths. This draft usually occurs in the hot and sultry weather of June or July, and is not 

 duly honored. The result is, the delicate tissues immediately die, a rapid chemical change 

 occurs in them, and it is said the tree died of the " fire-blight." 



The "fire-blight" is the blight of innutrition, and specifically distinct from the frozen sap-blight. 

 the canker-blight, often occurring in the insect-blight, which also attacks apple, quince, and 

 mountain ash-trees, occasionally. A third query still occurs: "Why, in certain localities, 

 has the pear-tree continued healthy, and endured to such extreme age ?" To this it is replied, 



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