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PEARS ON QUINCE AND ASH STOCKS. 



PEARS ON QUINCE AND MOUNTAIN ASH STOCKS. 



BY JOHN M. IVES, SALEM, MASS. 



Having grov/n several varieties of Pears 

 for ten years past upon Qnince root, and 

 more recently upon the Mountain Ash and 

 the English White Thorn, I have thought 

 mv experience might he of some benefit to 

 those who are cultivating this fruit, in this 

 section particularly ; and as your excellent 

 periodical is circulated largely among us, 

 I have ventured to forward the following 

 desultory remarks. 



Your English correspondent, Mr. Rivers, 

 says of that fine pear, the Beurre Bosc, — 

 " it is exceedingly refractory,'' and that he 

 is " not sure that it will live and flourish for 

 any lengthened period, although double- 

 worked on very thrifty stocks." 



I have grow,n this Pear upon the Quince 

 root for many years, and find it to grow lux- 

 uriantly, but it is shy in its bearing; but on 

 the contrary when double-worked, as I now 

 have it, upon the Martin Sec pear to bear 

 equally with the Bartlett. I have counted 

 thirteen fine large specimens upon a single 

 shoot of thirty-six inches long. The Blood- 

 good double-worked does not answer, it being 

 a poor grower, the fruit small, but colored 

 upon one side. This variety, when grown 

 upon its own stock, is decidedly the best 

 early pear in my collection, and I cannot 

 divine why it is not more highly prized by 

 the cultivators around Boston. I have un- 

 derstood that the specimens exhibited at 

 the Rooms of the Horticultural Society, 

 have been below what you would denomi- 

 nate medium ; this will probably account 

 for the dissent your correspondent, Mr. 

 Newhall, of Dorchester, made to your 

 Pomoiogical Gossip, in calling it first-rate or 

 quality. A cultivator from Plymouth, on 

 his return from Boston, was surprised to find 



the specimens of the Bloodgood upon my 

 trees so much larger than those he had just 

 seen at the Horticultural Rooms. The fruit 

 this year averaged smaller than those of the 

 two previous seasons. 



I have the Fonda^ite d' Automne (Belle 

 Lucrative) grown upon the Mountain Ash, 

 budded three years since, near the ground, 

 which is very dwarfish, having as fine spe- 

 cimens in a cluster, of this truly delicious 

 pear, as any upon my standard trees. The 

 Bloodgood, Seckel, Bartlett, and Bezi de la 

 Motte, worked upon the Mountain Ash, do 

 not as yet promise much, the first named 

 sort being the only one that has made any 

 growth this season. The Seckel, which I 

 have tried in various ways, upon the Apple, 

 as recommended by our friend, Mr. Eknst, 

 of Cincinnati, is a failure ;* the grafts prom- 

 ised well for the first season, and then either 

 died out, or came to a dead stand; I have, 

 to be sure, a few small button-looking pears 

 upon a sickly graft, which was placed upon 

 a most thrifty stock of the Sop-saviiie or 

 Sops-of-Wine Apple. I budded several va- 

 rieties of the pear upon the English White 

 Thorn; many of these have a fine two years 

 growth — among them the Bosc and Flem- 

 ish Beauty — the former of which you know 

 has not the reputation of being a good 

 grower upon the Pear or Quince root. 



Among the varieties of Pears fruited this 

 season, I find the Long Green of Coxe, Gol- 

 den Beurre of Bilboa, Fondante d' Automne, 

 Andrews, Louise bonne de Jersey, Washing- 

 ton, Bezi d'Montigny, Buerre d'Amaulis, 

 Winter Nelis, Lewis, Buffum, Flemish Beau- 

 ty, Gushing, Heathcote, and Bon Chretien 



* This is the result of a number of experiments in various 

 parts of the country. — Ed. 



