112 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the secretary for reference, that any one may be able to verify 

 any statement herein made. 



The Tinprecedented prices wliich the public are willing to pay 

 for choice pears, calls for the attention of fruit growers, and is 

 receiving it. A gentleman, whom I call Mr. A., this being the 

 first place visited, viz. : July 2, broke up a piece of land in the 

 spring of 1852, which had been a pasture for twenty-two years. 

 Upon a part of it, containing from one to one and a half acres, 

 he planted out in the spring of 1854, from 400 to 450 pear trees, 

 from his own nursery. From seven to eight cords per acre of 

 muscle bed mud had been applied the first year after ploughing, 

 and potatoes were planted. 



Trenches were first dug for the trees with a crowbar spade. 

 Oyster shells were thrown into the trenches, and with the excep- 

 tion of muscle mud applied to the potato crop, no otlier manure 

 was used, except ashes. The trenches were dug fifteen inches 

 wide. Hair-lime from the tanneries, or ashes, have since been 

 dug in round the trees, in spring, and a half bushel of tan is 

 applied to each tree in the- fall to defend them from the mice, 

 being first mulched, however, for the two first seasons. Mr. A. 

 thinks he should have lost one-half of his trees had this been 

 omitted. The previous owner, (father of Mr. A.) purchased 

 his seedlings, some thousands in all, and had them grafted dur- 

 ing the winter season ; they were preserved by keeping them in 

 the cellar, and covering the roots with moist earth or sand. 

 When quite small the whip grafting was, and still is, preferred, 

 but afterwards, cleft grafting. The largest of tbese sell from 

 the nursery at three dollars and fifty cents each. 



The slug is the great enemy of the pear tree, as the canker 

 worm is of the apple tree, and they give it an appearance nearly 

 as bad. 



It was interesting to see the successful experiment made to 

 save a tree, where the bark near the ground had died, or had 

 been taken off by the mice, viz. : seedlings set out around the 

 tree, and inserted into it, to supply the sap. This must always 

 be considered a great triumph of horticultural skill, and which 

 is generally done as proof of skill merely ; but which in the case 

 of pears, at twenty-five to fifty cents apiece, must pay. 



Mr. A.'s method of treating his trees is full of instruction to 

 all of less experience. Many would say the trees are too much 



