46 SEEDLING PROPAGATION OF YAKIETIES. 



lence in planting, and neglect or absolute abuse in 

 cultivation, are fatal to thousands ; but the indiffer- 

 ence of the seed collector to the condition of health 

 in the seed, equals all other causes in destructiveness. 

 If the fruit is unripe, the seed must necessarily be 

 imperfect, and the perry pomace is usually formed 

 from fruit, of which but a small portion is perfectly 

 ripe. The variety of pear from which seed is to 

 be taken is never considered, except by amateurs; 

 and as many of our varieties are known to be tender 

 in their wood, tardy in their growth, or badly shaped, 

 and short-lived, the fruit cracking or rotting at the 

 core, the offspring must be more or less corrupted by 

 these defects. If allowed to remain only for a short 

 time in the pomace or rotten fruit, acetous ferment- 

 ation begins ; and the seed commencing to vegetate, 

 the germ is injured by the acid. 



It must have been noticed that few seedlings make 

 their appearance on ground where apples or pears have 

 fallen, or been deposited after rotting in the cellar, 

 while from the dung of animals fed on them, seed- 

 lings start from almost every dropping ; in th^ latter 

 instance, all the fermenting acid matter of the pulp 

 'had been appropriated in the economy of digestion. 



Pear-seeds are injured, not only by being kept 

 moist for a long time, but quite as often in the process 

 of drying, and from being kept too dry. Large masses 

 of moist seeds engender heat, but if the latter are ex- 

 posed to constant atmospherical drying, the germ of 

 many of the seeds would become greatly injured. 

 Pear-seeds, soon after being cleaned from the pulp, 

 should be separated from each other by some desic- 



