ORCHARDS. 187 



each farmer who intends to grow pears set one or more of each 

 kind of the different varieties, and notice the result, discuss the 

 subject freely in regard to soils, varieties, locations, &c, and re- 

 port the same to the meetings of the club, and also to the county 

 societies. This would, in a few years, enable parties to make 

 better selection of fruit, and much uncertainty that now exists 

 would be avoided ; and in this way, too, it would be ascertained, 

 to some extent, at least, the kinds best adapted to particular 

 soils and localities. 



Ploughing and Cropping. — To succeed in growing pears, deep 

 and thorough ploughing is of vital importance. Two years before 

 transplanting, the field should be ploughed at least an inch deeper 

 than at any former ploughing, and the subsoil plough should fol- 

 low in the same furrow, as deep as circumstances will permit, and 

 the field be supplied with a liberal dressing of barn manure, and 

 cultivated with some hoed crop. The succeeding year the field 

 should again be ploughed as before, that is one inch deeper, and 

 subsoiled as deep as practicable. By this operation, we deepen 

 the soil some two inches ; the field again being dressed with a 

 supply of good yard manure thoroughly incorporated in the soil. 

 The mode of ploughing is expensive, we are aware, but labor is 

 saved in the end, as it supersedes the necessity of digging holes 

 for the trees, at the expense of about 860 per acre. 



From our own personal observation, we are satisfied, that with 

 nothing short of deep ploughing and a thorough pulverization of 

 the soils, will the planter meet with success. The old adage is, 

 " work once well done is twice done," and so, the field properly 

 worked is not prepared only for one or two years, but for a life- 

 time. Now, if the soil can be loosened to the depth of eighteen 

 or twenty inches or more, and we think in the majority of cases 

 it may be, it should by all means be done ; for, a hole dug in the 

 earth, especially where the soil is of close texture, is a cistern ; 

 this being filled with fine loam, or compost, retains the water, 

 and when it becomes stagnant, it has an injurious effect upon 

 the roots. Hence the tree becomes less and less valuable, until 

 it is the cause of absolute injury. If the hole is deeper than 

 the rest of the field is loosened, the lower part of it will retain 

 the water, and cause an unhealthy action upon the roots in it ; 



