THE SEEDLING. 47 



eating material, such as sand, charcoal dust, &c. 

 From experience, we have found, that to obtain 

 healthy seedlings for budding or grafting, the seed 

 must be selected from healthy and vigorous trees. 



In any part of a pear-growing country, there may 

 be found large, vigorous trees, producing from ten to 

 twenty bushels of small, well-shaped, but unmarket- 

 able pears, having large and full developed seed — which 

 fruit can be purchased for a small sum. These should 

 not all be gathered at once, but at three or four periods 

 — obtaining at each time only those that are ripe or 

 nearly so. As fast as they become quite soft, the seeds 

 may be pressed out and sifted from the pomace, 

 and before becoming quite dry, or indeed they may 

 immediately, be mixed with two or three times their 

 bulk of the sand and charcoal dust, &c., and after 

 drying for a few days be preserved until Spring. 

 Much has been said of late about the adaptation of 

 varieties to each other ; that is, that certain varieties 

 of pear should be grafted upon those having the same 

 habits of growth. But upon a large scale this is 

 impracticable. 



Some English nurserymen prefer the seeds of the 

 Yirgalieu, as they are large and full, and Mr. Berck- 

 mans has often told me that he has found all varieties 

 do well on the Yirgalieu stock. Tliere is little doubt 

 that the stocks produced from the seeds of the more 

 advanced and reiined varieties produce fruit, when 

 grafted upon, sooner than in inferior seedlings. But 

 tliere is the serious drawback, that the finer varieties 

 are shorter lived, and more subject to disease, than the 

 Crab Pear, almost in the ratio of their excellence. 



/ 



