PROPAGATION OF FRUITS. 55 



water with a fall, or even a pump to be used. Pear seeds are 

 difficult to manage, and should be taken from the fruit as soon 

 after it is well ripened as convenient. The seeds of the poorer 

 sorts, \i free-growers, such as the common Choke pears, are 

 most plentiful and best. 



The seeds of the apple, pear, and quince may be planted 

 as soon as washed out, in good, moist, deep and rich soil, 

 where they will vegetate freely with the ensuing spring. Those 

 of the pear are the most difficult of all ; and the young plants 

 are the most tender and precarious. It is of very little use to 

 plant pomace of rotten apples, and none at all to plant rotten 

 pears. Not one in a hundred, if in a thousand, will come. It 

 does not destroy the vitality of the seeds to dry them and 

 keep them over ; though we have found them more difficult to 

 vegetate than those planted in time. They are often kept dry 

 for several years, and then sown with success ; though a por- 

 tion of them will always in such cases fail. 



Pears and apples are ready for the bud the second year, 

 provided they receive a good growth and are well treated. 



Though quinces may be grown from the seed, a better way 

 is to use the cuttings. We have been nearly as successful 

 with them as with those of the currant ; and they may be 

 propagated in this way indefinitely. 



The kernels of the peach, cherry, and plum, after being 

 taken from the ripe fruit, should be immediately planted in 

 the seed bed, where they will make their appearance in the 

 following spring. It is sometimes recommended to put cher- 

 ries in sand and keep them until spring before planting out. 

 This is an unsafe mode, from the fact that they are liable to 

 start before planting ; and, when this is the case, their removal 

 is their destruction. If the kernels of either of these fruits 

 are allowed to become dry before planting, they will not open 

 again, though exposed to the frost and wet of Winter. There 

 will be exceptions, and only such, to this, among the peach 

 kernels, but none, or next to none, with either of the other 

 named fruits. The vital powers of a peach seed are not de- 

 stroyed in many years by being dried, and if the kernels are 

 broken, the dried ones may be grown ; but without this care, 

 not one in a hundred will germinate. 



