SECRETARY'S REPORT. 81 



upon the quince. Some succeed better than upon the pear 

 stock. The quince stock is a gross feeder. Dwarf pears should 

 not, therefore, be planted where gravel, sand or clay prepon- 

 derate. They Should have a deep, luxuriant soil, and be 

 abundantly supplied with nutriment. They should always be 

 set deep enough to cover the place where they were budded, 

 so that the point of junction may be three or four inches below 

 the surface of the soil, and the pear will then frequently form 

 roots independently of the quince, and will combine in the 

 tree, both early fruiting from the quince, strength and longevity 

 from the pear. For several of the first years they should be 

 annually -pruned, and kept in a true, pyramidal form. We have 

 frequently seen trees of the same variety, on both quince and 

 pear, side by side, enjoying the same treatment, while those 

 growing upon the quince stock have attained a larger size and 

 borne for several years abundant crops, before those upon the 

 pear had scarcely yielded their first fruits. For example, an 

 Urbaniste pear tree upon the quince, planted fourteen years ago 

 has borne within that period fruit valued by a low estimate at 

 fifty dollars, while one of the same variety on the pear stock, of 

 the same age, and receiving the same treatment, has not yielded 

 a peck of pears. Why, then, would not an acre of dwarf 

 pear trees, with the same treatment, produce a corresponding 

 result ? 



Dwarf pear trees are specially adapted to gardens and the 

 suburbs of large towns and cities. " The pear upon the 

 quince," says a distinguished cultivator, " is a great boon 

 to those who live in villages, where thousands are now enjoying 

 the fruit of these trees, who otherwise could have none." 

 Hence we see the advantage of dwarf pear trees to people in 

 advanced life, who, were they relying on the standard pear for 

 fruit, would die without the sight thereof. Some of our best 

 cultivators prefer them for orchards. Already these are exten- 

 sively planted in many parts of our country with a special view 

 to the market, and their production is most wonderful. In the 

 last autumn we saw, in the grounds of Messrs. Ellwanger and 

 Barry, of Rochester, N. Y., half an acre of the White Doyenne 

 on the quince. From these they had then gathered forty 

 barrels of fine pears, and for them they were receiving in the 

 Philadelphia market, sixteen dollars per barrel, or six hundred 

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