RAISING PEAliS FROM SKEl). 



lift«'(l ami ivplanted twice. This lias checked them so that they arc now in a bearing 

 state. Thi'V are all lahelleJ with their oriifin, and I have ina<^le the fuliowinLC remarks. 

 AmoULf some fifteen or twenty trees labelled "From Nc J^liis J/f «?•/«," all remarkable 

 for their resemblance to their parent, are two of extra vij^or. Among the same num- 

 ber from Bcurri iPArnnberf/, are three thorny, vigorous subjects. And this goes on in 

 the same proportion with Jioyamolte (TEsperen^ Josephine de Malincs, Fondante dc 

 yocl, and other new kinds of I'ears. 



Thns far I have given the most simple method of raising seedlings by sowing in pots 

 and not transplanting till autumn. Another method is, to place the pots in a gentle 

 forcing-house either in January or February. The young j)lants soon make their 

 appearance, and when thoy have made four leaves in addition to the seed-leaves, they 

 should be raised carefully, with all their fibres, and potted into three-inch pots. As 

 soon as these are full of roots, they should be shifted into larger pots, and kept growing 

 under glass till the beginning of June. They may then be planted out in light, rich 

 soil ; and the probability is, they will be three feet high by autumn. 



It remains to be seen whether a seedlinjx Pear can be brought into an earlier fruit- 

 bearing state by being grown under glass, and gently forced, so as to give it a long 

 season of grow'th. I commenced the experiment some years ago, but the cares of an 

 active life prevented me carrying it out fully. 



The most scientific mode of raising new Pears from seed, is to sow the pips of only 

 such fruits as have had their origin from fertilized blossoms. If T. A. Knight had not 

 taken the old Swari's Egg Pear almost constantly into his expenments, so that most of 

 his seedlings have too strong a leaning to it, and had taken such Pears as Gloiit Mor- 

 ceau and Old Colmar, or the Winter Nelis, with some larger late l*ear, and also 

 fomied other crosses, with his peculiar tact, we should most probably have had some 

 of the finest Pears in the world. The late T. N. Williams, of Pitmaston, raised new 

 soi-ts of Pears with great facility by fertilizing. Some of these partake of the qualities 

 of both their parents in a remarkable degree; but he was not careful enough in 

 selecting varieties to a given end, which ought to be, raising of large, hardy, late- 

 keeping sorts. 



We have October and November Pears without end ; their names are legion, and 

 serve to create distaste rather than a wish for a collection of Pears. To raise new and 

 fine late Pears, a word or two as to the selection of proper kinds as parents may not be 

 amiss. That fine, large, late Pear, Leon le Clerc de Laval, reckoned a baking Pear, 

 but which in May and June becomes soft and agreeable, should be crossed with the 

 Winter Nelix, the most delicious of all our winter Pears. The Easter Beurre, which, 

 although in France the finest of late Pears, is in England generally flat and poor in 

 flavor, may be crossed with Beurre d'Aremberg, always vinous and racy ; the Triomjihe 

 de Jodoigne may be crossed with the Josephine de Malines ; and so on. 



There are two methods by which fertilization may be brought about, in one of which 

 chance is to a certain extent trusted to. This is by training the bearing branches of 

 two Pear trees on a wall, so that the blossoms are mingled, or planting two pyramids 

 of the two kinds of Pears selected in a situation far removed from any others. The 

 certain method is to select a blossoming spur, or rather say a bunch of blossoms, and 

 or two before they expand remove all the anthers, cover the blossoms 

 >iece of muslin, and the following day fertilize the flowers with the pollen 



