ORCHARDS. 139 



on pear roots, and the Vicar of Winkfield on quince ; the latter 

 sort I have found extremely productive and profitable. Of this 

 variety I have two hundred bearing trees, and have found no 

 difficulty in selling the fruit annually at four dollars per bushel. 

 The thorough cultivation of the ground about pear trees 

 should not be overlooked ; no half-way treatment will do ; 

 nothing less than a soil and subsoil enriching treatment will 

 suffice. Of all fruit trees, the pear requires the richest soil 

 and the most careful treatment. I have found that one of the 

 best manures for pear trees is a compost formed of well decom- 

 posed swamp-mud or muck, mixed with one-half its bulk of 

 stable manure, (horse manure,) and one-twentieth of leached 

 ashes ; the compost to lay six weeks before using, being in the 

 mean while twice well shovelled over. Bone-dust, guano and 

 ashes are all valuable as fertilizers in pear culture ; two quarts 

 of ashes, with the same of finely ground bone dust, and one of 

 guano mixed together and applied annually in the fall about 

 pear trees, digging it in four to six inches, will be found greatly 

 to increase the growth and fruitfulness of the tree. This for 

 trees of four years old. For smaller or larger ones, measure 

 the quantity accordingly. 



Statement of R. A. Littlefield. 



The pear trees entered by me for the society's premium, 

 payable in September, 1859, are set on a fine, sandy loam, with 

 somewhat of a clayey subsoil. The land has been manured 

 and planted every year since the trees were put upon it. A 

 large portion of those worked on pear stocks were raised in 

 Flushing, L. I., the remainder were raised by myself. 



My method of transplanting trees is to dig a hole, say four 

 feet in diameter, and two or three feet deep, then fill it up with 

 soil so that the tree shall stand its natural depth in the ground, 

 the ends of the broken roots having been cut smooth with a 

 sharp knife. I then spread manure about the top of the ground ; 

 none should be put under the tree unless it is very rotten ; it 

 endangers the tree, as it is almost certain to suffer from want 

 of nourishment. 



Of the thirty-seven different varieties composing the two 

 hundred and twenty trees shown the committee, I regard the 

 six following as the most profitable that I have yet fruited, viz.: 



