PEAR CULTUBE. 



nt the base, and inserted in a sliallow cavity, sometimes without any depression ; 

 eye closed, niedivim, and not decitly sunk. S/ci/i, ruddy, pale ^^reen at the bottom, 

 but dotted and sj)ecklod all over with numerous dots and siiades, ripening, in some 

 localities, with very rich, decided colors, which explain its synonyme of Doyenne 

 ^[arbre (or marked, spotted Doyenne.) F/csI/, white, firm, buttery, juicy, with 

 flavor and sugar euougli to make it a very fine winter fruit ; not so high flavored 

 as its congener, the old Doyenne D'lliver (or Easter IJuerrc), but very pleasant, 

 and destitute of grit, stones, and bitter spots, which so often render that fine fruit 

 worthless. 



Taking into consideration that the Easter Buerrd yields only an average of one- 

 half or one-third of a full crop of " very good" pears, we must look to the D'Alen- 

 yon, if not as a substitute for the old Easter, at least as a valuable addition to our 

 scanty stock of winter pears. 



We ought to designate this pear under one of its synonymcs, but its other 

 name. Doyenne D'Hiver Nouvcau, is altogether too long. " Six-legged" names 

 should be avoided, when possible, in naming fruits. 



PEAR CULTURE, NO. 4 



BY DR. J. M. WARD, NE\YARK, N. J. 



To redeem the promise with which my last article closed, I shall proceed at 

 once to consider the causes of the failures of some varieties of pear that ordinarily 

 do well on the quince, and that, in other positions on my own farm, are among 

 the thriftiest of my trees. These causes constitute some of the most prominent 

 objections to the substitution of the quince for the pear stock, in the cultivation 

 of the pear. 



The quince is a native of Japan. "The climate," Malte-Brun says, "is vari- 

 able, abounding in genial rains ;" that " during the autumnal months, particularly," 

 the season of all others most trying to our fruit-trees, " much rain falls ;" and 

 adds, " it is a country in which thunder is heard almost every night in summer, 

 and where showers and hurricanes abound." In the recognition of the fact that 

 nature has adapted the quince to those of its native islands, may we not divine 

 the reason of the admission by horticulturists, that the quince delights in moist 

 places, and are warranted in saying it still retains, and, in obedience to nature's 

 law, ever will retain, a demand for those conditions of soil its constitutional 

 adaptations require. 



With this stand-point, w^e can respect the authority of our fruit culturists, when 

 they tell us " it will thrive where the cultivation is rich and deep," for the reason 

 that if the substratum of soil is highly retentive of water, there the requisite 

 degree of moisture for thrifty growth may be secured. Without this, failures will 

 occur that will disappoint the expectation of the culturists, and give discrepancy 

 of testimony to their teachings, while each may be in perfect harmony with their 

 experience. 



In one part of my orchard, the dwarfs have proved a decided failure — the part, 

 too, where, the reader will bear in mind, the trees had enjoyed the richest culture, 

 and received the greatest care — while those removed to a distant part of the same 

 field, exhibit great precocity of growth. The cause is to be found unquestion- 

 ably in the fact that the soil of the latter is underlaid by a clay substratum, while 

 of the former is a gravelly loam. 



