14 INTKODUCTION. 



impetus to the cultivation of the Pear, that the sales 

 from a single nursery in this country reach the enorm- 

 ous number of half a million trees in one year. It is 

 undoubtedly true that the propagation of the Pear on 

 the Quince, by its early production of this noble and 

 beautiful fruit, will be the source of more unalloyed 

 pleasure, and more innocent and healthful gratifica- 

 tion, than any discovery in the arts and sciences for 

 the last twenty years. 



The origin of this method of propagating the Pear 

 must not be looked for in very recent times — as trees 

 more than a hundred years old, originally upon the 

 quince stock, may be found growing in France. The 

 history of its introduction into this country would not 

 be difficult to trace ; but I have been able only to 

 ascertain sufficient to induce me to believe, that Mr. 

 Perkins, of Boston, was among the first to introduce 

 it, nearly forty years since ; soon after, Marshall P. 

 Wilder, of Boston, and Mr. Manning, of Salem ; and 

 later still, Mr. IIovey, of Cambridge, commenced the 

 cultivation of cpince-rooted pear trees, which may be 

 seen in tJiose places more than thirty years of age. 



Mr. Mantel, of Astoria, was for some years in 

 opposition to Mr. A. J. Downing, the earliest advocate 

 of its general cultivation ; but it was not until within 

 the last eight or ten years that the planting of the 

 trees had become very common. Indeed, it is only 

 within a year or two that the theory was broached, 

 which governs the whole constitution of the com- 

 pound tree, viz. : that the office of the Quince is 

 entirely as root, and not as a trunk. 



That we shall arrive at a point of excellence in the 



