IIow, then, is tlie pear on tlic (luince stock ? niul wliiit its probabilities for the 

 future ? Under tlic excitement of the last dozon years, in the United States, 

 millions of trees have been iiropagatcd, and worked, and sold by the nurserymen. 

 They went into it enthnsiastieally, and with high assurance that they were doing 

 good service to the public, and that a new era was to be established in ])ear cul- 

 ture, by which every one possessed of a spare rod of ground could luxuriate on 

 the delicious fruit of his own trees. In pursuance of this idea, every choice 

 variety was propagated, sold, and distributed, over tlic country. ]}ut, in a few 

 years it was ascertained by the nurserymen themselves, that a great majority of 

 these varieties were a dead failure, and, for some time past, the fruit conventions 

 have cut down and jiarticularized only a certain few varieties that would succeed 

 on the quince. Rivers, of England, the greatest pear propagator, perhaps, in 

 the world, names only the Louise ]3onne of Jersey as sure with him, and Dr. 

 Ward, who is, i)crhaps, equally good authority in America, adds but a very few 

 others that he can trust. 



Nor is this general failure in dwarf pears altogether the fault of the climate, the 

 soil, or the cultivation. It goes deeper. The fault is in the incompatibility of 

 tl(e ])ear loood and the quince wood to join their individual stocks harmoniously 

 toyeiher, to mahe a lony-living, luxirriant tree, and jiroduce good frvit, except in 

 chance and casual cases. The quince — and no matter what quince — is a compact, 

 small wood, with inuiierous small pores, of close texture ancl fibrous roots, work- 

 ing, in restricted compass, in a soil peculiar to itself. It flourishes only in limited 

 districts of but a few of our States, and best on the sea-board and in the interior 

 lake regions of New York. The j^ear, on the contrary, has an open wood, of 

 great size, with large pores, spreading roots, a gross feeder, and grows, more or 

 less, all over the country north of latitude 40°, and in almost any kindly soil. 

 Now, here are two antagonistic, distinct kinds of wood, of different habits, the 

 one hardy in almost all climates, the other not hardy in all the same climates which 

 are sought to be connected as chance or design may govern, with an expectation 

 that they will grow, and flourish, and bear fruit successfully I There can be no 

 greater physiological mistake than in any such expectation as a rule. A large 

 wooded, open pored quince, like the Angers, worked with a close-pored, small- 

 gi'owing pear, of whatever kind, may so join their particular woods, as to be occa- 

 sionally successful in growth and bearing. They have done so ; they may continue 

 to do so ; but, as a rule, as pears and quinces run, never. It is a violence to the 

 nature of both. As an evidence of their distaste for each other, the common 

 apple or orange quince of our country is pronounced a dead failure for the pear, 

 by reason of its smaller size and more compact growth, than the Angers. 



The conclusions, then, which we are compelled to draw from all this theory, as 

 well as the experience that we have had, is, that there is no certainty in a planta- 

 tion of the dwarf pears. It may do for high garden culture, with particular 

 manures, nice pruning, and at great cost, but, for orchard culture, or general cul- 

 tivation, it is a failure. See what Dr. Ward says of " pinching," " cutting back," 

 and all that sort of thing. If men, with brains and experience enough to under- 

 stand the thing, could be hired, for fifty cents a day, to do the work as it ought to 

 be done, and the public, with tastes refined enough to appreciate the fruits, and 

 liberality enough to pay for them, could be found after all the failures and invest- 

 ments of the fruit grower, it might pay ; but, under existing circumstances, it 

 cannot Any fruit, in this country, to ])ay for production, must not be dilBcult, 

 either in soil or culture. If so, it must be abandoned — and the divarf t^qhx is one 

 of them. 



It may be said that no fruit promises better than the dwarf pear, as we see it 



