PEAR SEEDLINGS. 



255 



HOW TO RAISE PEAR SEEDLINGS. 



BV ROBERT NELSON, OF NEWBUUYPOUT, MASS. 



The United States of America will, no 

 doubt, soon take the highest rank among 

 the fruit growing countries. Soil and cli- 

 mate are, in no other part of the world, bet- 

 ter adapted to all different kinds of fruit ; 

 the annually increasing number of horticul- 

 tural societies, which in a praiseworthy 

 manner distribute premiums, and excellent 

 works in all branches of gardening, daily 

 improve the knowledge and taste of the 

 horticultural public. 



Many persons, hitherto unacquainted with 

 the culture of trees, are now going into the 

 orchard and nursery business, attracted by 

 the facility in raising apples and peaches. 

 But there is a general want of and demand 

 for pears. 



Every nurseryman knows the difficulty in 

 keeping the pear seedlings through the first 

 winter, particularly in New-England, where 

 the severe frost commonly throws the feeble 

 seedlings out of the ground, and destroys 

 them. 



In order to prevent this evil, man}- nur- 

 serymen mix pear and apple seeds together, 

 that ihe curled apple roots may twine them- 

 selves around the tap roots of the pears, 

 and thus keep them in their places in the 

 ground ; other persons put the pear seed- 

 lings into a cellar, or protect them some 

 other way, but not with the best success. 



A large part of the labor of many gar- 

 deners and nurserymen is, I think, worse 

 than thrown away, owing to their want of 

 scientific knowledge in botany and garden- 

 ing. Every thing in the vegetable king- 

 dom is governed by fixed laws, and in order 

 to be successful in the cultivation of plants. 

 we must study their laws, instead of pro- 

 ceeding at random. The volume of nature 



is spread open before us, and serves to in- 

 vite us to continual observation and deduc- 

 tion for practical uses. 



Many persons, I am sure, when in win- 

 ter walking through a forest, will have no- 

 ticed, that where dry leaves are occasional- 

 ly placed in a thick layer, the frost has but 

 very little influence on the ground, if any 

 at all. To those nurserymen who have 

 raised their pear seedlings in the common 

 way, and are anxious for keeping them 

 through the winter, I must strongl}^ recom- 

 mend to cover them with dry leaves, say 

 about one foot thick, and to throw some 

 brushwood over, to prevent the same from 

 being blown away. There is not the least 

 doubt, but that this protection will answer 

 for pear seedlings, as I often have seen 

 beds of Gladiolus cardinalis, Fuchsia coc- 

 ci/iea, and other tender roots, by this means 

 sufficiently protected against very severe 

 frost. And even if the frost should reach 

 the roots, the leaves will prevent the des- 

 tructive influence of any sudden change of 

 weather, and keep out the sun, which is of 

 the greatest importance. 



Weary with the difficulties that seem to 

 stand in the way in raising pear seedlings, 

 most American nurserymen import them 

 from England or France. 



After being transplanted, the pear seed- 

 lings will do very well, (if it is performed 

 in spring,) and the next winter will not in- 

 jure them. What is the reason? I need 

 hardly mention as the reason, that they, af- 

 ter having lost their tap-root, are forced to 

 push out lateral roots, and are not afterwards 

 liable to the same injury by frost. And 

 why wait until the second year to perform 

 this operation ? 



