226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is followed by various other sorts, particularly the Seckel, the 

 Bartlett aud the Lawrence. Almost any farmer can have a 

 crop, and there is no tree that requires less pains and attention. 

 Good trees are to be got from good growers, and they are very 

 cheap. The great trouble is, they are not planted with any 

 care. Instead of there being a little hole dug with a spade, 

 and the roots put in just as it happens, you want to make a hole 

 large enough to spread the rootlets out in a proper way, and 

 then the earth put in and carefully packed. A tree that is 

 properly planted in that way, the ground having been previously 

 prepared as it should be, is half grown ; there is no difficulty 

 about it. The dwarf trees, of course, require more manure 

 than standard trees ; but, after all, I lose more trees by having 

 my ground too rich than I do from any other cause. 



There is nothing that troubles the pear with us so much as 

 the sap blight. It is a different thing from the insect blight. 

 It comes because of the ground being rich, and the wood grow- 

 ing too heavily, and in the fall the sap is frozen, and the tree 

 killed. I have lost, for several years past, a good tree almost 

 every year in that way. Therefore I am particular not to 

 manure my trees too highly. After giving my standards good 

 cultivation for two or three years, to start them, I do not give 

 them anything more. My dwarf trees, I generally dress every 

 year, in the fall, and mulch them. I generally take pure coal 

 ashes, and spread them about the roots of the tree, and then 

 top-dress with ordinary manure, and spade in the spring. 



Then there is another great difficulty with our trees. As I 

 go through the country, and see how the farmers treat their 

 trees, I don't wonder they do not grow. They set out their 

 trees, and then raise grass and clover in the same field, and it 

 is impossible for them to grow. The land should be ploughed 

 and cultivated regularly for several years. In four or five 

 years, after they get well grown, and the ground thoroughly 

 cultivated, there is no necessity for having any crop upon it. 

 After a few years' time, if you have nourished it enough, the 

 land ought to be put down to grass, and allowed to lie for 

 several years, before it is cultivated again. 



I think the pear has not had so much attention paid to it as 

 it sh'ould have had. It is a fruit every family likes, when they 



