MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 419 



Still, in the liglit of a Tvide experience, I am compelled to 

 believe that the nsual way of putting the pear on the quince 

 is not the best manner of attaining this end, even if it is, 

 under any circumstances, desirable or admissible. 



Nor have I found that dwarfs, as a rule, have, to any extent, 

 borne fruit earlier than standards of same kinds. 



Varieties like the Urbaniste and Glout Morceau, often stand 

 ten years as dwarfs — so called — before fruiting, while the Bart- 

 lett and some others will bear as standards in three or four 

 years. 



It has been claimed that dwarfs are more exempt from blight 

 than standards, but in my experience the reverse has been true. 

 The proportion of dwarfs to standards that have died from 

 blight with me have been more than three to one. Of some 

 varieties that have blighted, I have only dwarfs, so I am 

 now unable to say what they would have done as standards. 

 Among these are the L. Bonne, and Duchesse. I have, how- 

 ever, lost only one tree with blight, that was originally a 

 standard. Several have been aifected, but by timely, and 

 thorough cutting back, I have saved them. 



There is, in connection with this subject, one very signifi- 

 cant fact. The hundreds of dwarf pear trees that have been 

 set throughout this region, so far as I can learn, that have 

 escaped accident and blight, are either healthy bearing trees 

 with pear roots superinduced on the quince, or, failing to make 

 such roots, they have died outright, or are prolonging a most 

 precarious existence, for the simple purpose, as it would seem, 

 of rebuke to those horticulturists that, like other and possibly 

 no wiser men, " have sought out many inventions.'' 



In confirmation of the above I will give a brief summary of 

 my experience, and the results of my observations, and that of 

 others, — some of the best fruit-growers in the West. 



I have a pear orchard, planted ten years or more, two hun- 

 dred trees, — thirty-five standards, the cest dwarfs. The soil is 

 a strong loam, with stiff subsoil, — counted the best for pears, 



