PEARS ON THE QUINCE. 



The seedlings from the Wild Pear of the woods have been patronized ; some 

 authors have recommended the Sucrce Yerte Pear, which succeeds better in a 

 strong soil than those of the Poire d'Amande and Napoleon. In several experi- 

 ments made within the last ten years, we have obtained fine stocks from these three 

 varieties, but have found that the most substantial have been derived from the 

 Sucree Yerte. Nevertheless, we have .observed that vigorous varieties from re- 

 cent regenerations gave a better result. The stocks which were selected and 

 planted, were budded in the summer of the fourth year of their growth, not at 

 six inches above the ground, but at three feet or more, for the following reason : 

 Trees worked too near the ground are liable to sun-stroke, as formerly stated, 

 whilst those budded at the height of three feet are not. Those young trees raised 

 for orchard culture, do not undergo any cut or wound which cannot heal the same 

 season. Their shoots are shortened back at the proper period, in order to form 

 a fine pyramid, either with a half stem or tall stem; and, when older, the trees 

 are subjected to a moderate thinning of the branches. Thus treated, they aflTord 

 the prospect of good crops for many years. It will be understood, that the nearer 

 we confoi-m in practice to the rules of a rational system of cultivation, the farther 

 we put off the period of weakness and decay, and the more we deviate from such 

 system the sooner does that period arrive. Crops too heavy for the richness of 

 the soil, too severe pruning, and inconsiderate lopping or thinning of the branches, 

 and inattention to the destruction of insects, are so many causes which hasten the 

 period of individual decay in the Pear-tree. The time, however, will come when 

 attention to all these points is useless, when the tree loses its vigor, and only pro- 

 duces poor and flavorless fruit, containing no seeds. The terminal shoots are short, 

 slender, their bark cracks, and they no longer perfect their wood, losing their 

 leaves, and becoming dried up. 



When a tree presents these characteristics of old age, it ought to be destroyed, 

 for it uselessly occupies room, has an unsightly appearance, and can only deposit 

 diseased excretions by its roots, which it ought not to be allowed to do. No 

 other tree ought to be planted in the same place till many years have elapsed, 

 unless, indeed, the soil occupied by the decayed tree be removed. — Gardeners^ 

 Chronicle. 



PEARS ON THE QUINCE. 



At the last meeting of the London Pomological Society, Mr. Rivers, of Saw- 

 bridgeworth, exhibited three pyramidal Pear-trees, and with them the following 

 memoranda. He said : " The trees (Louise Bonne of Jersey) arc from seven to 

 eight years old. No. 1, a tree budded on the Quince, has struck root from the 

 collar of the graft ; as soon as this took place, about three or four years ago, all 

 the Quince roots died, for, as will be seen, the stump is quite bare. These (Pear) 

 roots penetrated into the solid, calcareous clay to the dc{)th of nearly five feet, 

 and so hard was the clay that the spade could not penetrate it so as to take them 

 out to their full length. As soon as these roots struck into the clay the tree ceased 

 to bear, and its shoots became full of cankery spots, the leaves more green than 

 those on the Quince roots, and the young shoots more vigorous, although they 

 cankered and died back. Out of a plantation of two thousand pyramids of this 

 variety on the Quince, only the tree now sent and another have struck root from 

 the collar of the graft, and both are in the same state. Last year, every tree 

 ept these two was covered with the very finest fruit ; the tree sent did not 

 one — the other produced two or three, which were cracked, spotted, and 



YoL. YIL— M.4Y, 1857. 16 



