CITLTIYATION OF TIIE PEAR OKCIIAJID. 113 



through their broad or luxuriant foliage, while grasses 

 and gi-ains take more largely from the soil. The hatter 

 plants not only permeate the soil more completely 

 witli tlieir roots, hut by their taller and denser growth, 

 prevent that free contact of the lower branches and 

 leaves with the atmosphere necessary for the absorp- 

 tion of nutritions gases, and the deposit of invigorat- 

 ing dews. 



The experience of the best horticulturists confirms 

 the opinion that tlie cultivation of the ground, equal 

 tu that usually bestowed upon corn and potatoes, 

 coui^led with the avoidance of any grain crop, will 

 liasten the maturity and fruiting of the Pear, from six 

 to ten years. If the ground is root-cropped, the cul- 

 tivation for the roots will aftord an excellent tillage 

 for the trees, which, for a few years, will but little 

 interfere with the growth of the former. The plowing 

 must be managed with some skill to avoid wounding 

 the trunk with the whiffletree, or cutting and exposing 

 the roots with the share, and the distance of plow 

 cultivation from the tree should be increased each 

 year, to avoid injury to the growing roots. On this 

 iiccount, the surface near the tree should not be dis- 

 turbed more than two or three inches deep, after the 

 latter has acquired considerable size, and this opera- 

 tion should be performed with a digging-fork. Almost 

 every cultivator of trees has observed striking instances 

 of the diiference in their growth, when cultivated or 

 neglected ; but the narrative of one may not be inap- 

 propriate. A few yeai-s since, a gentleman, having 

 planted a considerable number of pear and other fruit- 

 trees, devoted a portion of the ground occupied by 



