50 SEEDLING PROPAGATION OF VAKIETIES. 



a good growth is early secured, the plants are liable 

 to two serious disadvantages : 



First, if they should continue late in growth, and 

 the early frosts overtake them with succulent and un- 

 ripened wood, the frozen sap-blight will often destroy 

 them, unless amply protected by removal and burial 

 in the soil. And, secondly, pear seedlings are fre- 

 quently attacked in the hot mid-snmmer months by 

 a sort of rust, that appears in spots on the leaves, 

 which soon after ripen, and then the growth ceases. 



The only preventives are, to secure a full growth 

 early in the season, or to shade the plants during the 

 continuance of the hot weather. 



In the latter part of July, or early part of August, 

 when the growth has become somewhat checked, and 

 many of the leaves are ripening, the tap-roots may be 

 cut by thrusting a long handled instrument — some- 

 what like a sj)ade, but of half the width, thinner 

 and quite sharp — in an oblique direction, beneath the 

 plants, six to eight inches below the surface. This is 

 practiced in England and France much earlier, say 

 in the middle of June, but is objectionable on account 

 of checking their growth. In the first method, the 

 retiring sap will form new fibrous roots, which will 

 much assist the growth in another season. 



In the fall, pear seedlings must always be removed, 

 and the first grown and best rooted selected for the 

 nursery rows, to be budded the next summer. The 

 second quality also is sometimes planted in the nur- 

 sery for budding the second summer ; but seedlings of 

 the "third quality, and sometimes of the second, are, the 

 next spring, replanted in the bed — not being sufficiently 



