TEAR CULTURE. 



PEAR CULTURE.— No. 2. 



15Y DR. .T. M. AVARD, NEWARK, N. .1. 



Our favorite muleh for tlio pear — both standard and on quince — is the coarsest 

 iinfermentcd manure the stable and yard can furnish, and applied, invariably, in 

 tho fall of the year, that the tender rootlets may be preserved from the injurious 

 influences of the extreme and sudden vicissitudes of temperature through the 

 winter, at the same time that the soluble parts of the manure, dissolved by the 

 winter rains, may be carried to the rootlets that have penetrated deepest in the soil. 



The same manure, applied in the si)ring-, enriches simply the surface rootlets, 

 while the greater portion i.-^ dissipated under the evaporation, which is so actively 

 carried on during the spring and summer months. 



When liberally used, the undecomposed portion remaining in the spring acts 

 the part of a simple mulch, protecting the surface soil around the tree from the 

 action of the summer's sun. So much importance do I attach to this, that these 

 circles are made the receptacles for all the waste vegetable matter that can be 

 collected on the farm. It may possibly be owing to the protection thus given 

 that I have never seen a pear-blight in the orchard. 



A part of my trees received last spring, for the first time, a dressing of leather 

 parings from the leather manufactory, with the operation of which I have been 

 much pleased. The supposed influence of the mulch in securing an increased size 

 of the fruit was first suggested by an experiment with some peach-trees that occu- 

 pied a neglected portion of the orchard, which was suffered to be overgrown with 

 weeds. When pulled, they were deposited around the trees, in their green state, 

 in such masses as to secure rapid decomposition, and thus preserved in a state of 

 moisture the surface of the soil, while all around, the earth was parched with 

 drought. The fruit (Crawford's late) attained to one-third greater size than ever 

 before grown, and they reached their muturity so much later than ordinary, as to 

 give me a supply much longer than usual, and a quantity for the market when 

 there was no other in competition with it. 



The physiological explanation of the fact is found in the preservation of the 

 requisite moisture for the tree to elaborate the sap necessary for the continued 

 vigor of the foliage, and perfect development of the fruit. Having said thus much 

 of the treatment, let us turn to the character of the fruit ; and should my descrip- 

 tion of their qualities seem to some too highly colored, and to others to be con- 

 tradicted by their experience, I beg such to remember that very much must be 

 credited to the character of the soil, it being a gravelly loam, overlaying an 

 absorbing subsoil in which the pear delights, inasmuch as it rarely suffers from 

 drought, or from excessive moisture. 



The uniformly high flavor of all the smaller fruits, particularly the strawberry, 

 which seems indigenous to this soil, has convinced me that some of the qualities of 

 the pear, particularly the _^a?'or and aroma, depend more upon the physical con 

 stitution of the soil than we have been wont to think. 



