1856.] Reflections ly a Resident of the Hill Side, 431 



points in our letter, he soothes our unstable nerves with the followincr 

 very refreshing piece of intelligence: ° 



"Ah! those Pear Trees; do you know that a room will not keep 

 warm unless you live in it? Just so with Dwarf Pears; they are 

 social and you must live with them, talk to them, coax them, and feed 

 them with a spoon; pinch them whenever they run out of bounds 

 give them a drink from a feeding mug, and persuade them, by gen- 

 tleness, to keep in a good humor. Is there not something in this"?" 



Yes, sir-ee! "There is something in this!" A little ""^^^ore of the 

 same sort, and we should have fainted sure. '' Feed them with a 

 spoon!" and a silver one at that, we presume; as it can hardly be pos- 

 sible that any other should answer the purpose so well ! " Coax them 

 give them a drink from a feeding mug!" This was enough! And 

 the only remedy or consolation that we could then devise, was to abide 

 our time until encouragement might come from some other quarter less 

 straining on the nervous system ! 



That the reader may have the benefit of all the liglifs, we here give 

 Dr. J. M. Ward's experience, taken from the August number of^he 

 Horticulturist. The Doctor says : 



"A Pear tree, once established in any soil of moderate tilth, will 

 take care of itself, will ordinarily find nutriment enough to secure 

 vigorous growth, will at least make progress in the world and 

 bear fruit. Not so with the Dwarf The range its rootlets travel for 

 food is circumscribed. Numerous as those rootlets are, they will soon 

 exhaust the soil of the food nature has supplied, and if attention is 

 not given it— and good attention, too— it very soon shows its neglect. 

 And good feeding is not all that is required. If well fed, it will give 

 you towering shoots; these you must repress. But^ with this, your 

 work is not done. Your spring pruning, laboriously completed, is 

 soon followed by a call for June pinching. And, again, your autumn 

 shortening must not be neglected, or y.mr reward for high culture will 

 consist in great luxuriance of growth, which, though pleasino- to the 

 eye, will not satisfy the palate. And furthermore, in orchard "culture 

 m our country of abounding high winds, with occasional thunder- 

 Btorms, the culturist who neglects to shorten-in will sometimes find 

 the reward of his labor unexpectedly given in a prostration of heavy- 

 laden trees, and his hopes together. The separation is so readily made 

 at the usual swelling over— just at the junction of the graft with the 

 stock— that it is not unusual, under these circumstances, for this acci- 

 dent to occur.^' 



There! Gentle reader, you have the whole story in a nut shell. 



