RENOVATING OLD PEAR TREES. 



ON RENOVATING OLD PEAR TREES. 



BY A BOSTON SUBSCRIBER. 



Dear Sir — Many of your readers living in the sea-board states, have in their gardens 

 old pear trees of fine sorts, principally St. Michels, Butter pears, St. Germains, or other 

 well kno«'n vaiieties, that have fallen into disrepute. The reason of this, as most of the 

 writers of the day affirm, is, either that the varieties are worn out, or else the soil is ex- 

 hausted of the food that once enabled these trees to bear such fine crops of beautiful pears, 

 as they were once in the habit of doing, annualI3^ 



I suspect there is some truth in both these conjectures. In other words, I do not be- 

 lieve the fine old pears, such as the St. Michel and St. Germain, can by any process be re- 

 stored to precisely the same state of health and productiveness that belonged to them 

 forty years ago, in this part of the country; but at the same time, I think it can be easily 

 proved that they can be made productive, and that a worn out soil is practically the cause 

 of much of the degeneracy which we see here among the fine old pears. 



Your readers will no doubt remember some brief directions which you gave in one of 

 the early volumes of the Horticulturist, for renovating old pear trees. As several of my 

 acquaintances in this county have tried the experiment, and as I have myself, dabbled a 

 little in the matter, I hope you will allow me to make a few comments, with a view to con- 

 tributing something to the stock of useful knowledge on this subject. 



The principle assumed in the directions given to renovate old pear trees, is, that the soil 

 of our worn out fields and gardens, has become deficient from long cultivation, in the mi- 

 neral substances needful for the perfect growth of the fruit. These substances are espe- 

 cially lime, potash and phosphates. In order to supply these deficiencies, it was recom- 

 mended to apply liberally, lime, ashes and bone dust. This was coupled with directions 

 to add fresh soil, rejecting the old soil, and a considerable quantity of animal manure. 



As many persons like to get at a given object with as little trouble as possible, they 

 have doubtless failed in recovering old pear trees, because they have trusted solely to a 

 liberal top-dressing of the said ashes, lime and bone dust. Such top-dressing will, of 

 course, benefit a young and healthy tree — but they are by no means sufficient to renovate 

 one that has stood 'in the same place for twenty or thirty years — and exhausted the soil 

 as far as the roots extend, of not only the necessary mineral, but also animal or vegetable 

 matters. I will recount the treatment of three trees that have particularly come under 

 my own inspection, to illustrate this position, as well as to show the real value of the mi- 

 neral manures. 



These three pear trees were all of the St. Michel or Doyenne variety. They stood on 

 the north side of an old kitchen garden — were all about twenty-five years old — had borne 

 many good crops of fruit — but had cracked and failed for ten years past. 



To begin, all these trees had trenches dug round them, and the roots were partially laid 

 bare of the old soil. 



The first one, (which I shall call No. 1,) had good soil put back, mixed with half a 

 bushel air-slaked lime, two bushels ashes, leached, and half a peck of bone dust. 



No. 2 had no lime or ashes, but about three cart loads of strong stable manure incorpo- 

 rated with the fresh soil that was filled in the trench and about the roots. 



3 had the same quantity of lime, ashes and bone dust, as No. 1, and the same quan- 

 stable manure as No. 2. 



No, IX. 



