304 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
In any case where a surprise is wanted, whether in a public or 
private garden, such a fernery as this note refers to would be likely 
to answer as well as any. The green glass for this roof cost nine- 
pence per foot. 5. Hi: 
DWARF PEAR-TREES FOR SMALL GARDENS. 
BY E. W. WOOD, ESQ., 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 
{HERE is not, perhaps, in the whole range of horticulture 
j/ any one subject upon which the public entertain 
opinions more diverse than upon the one selected, and 
this difference of opinion undoubtedly grows out of the 
a= fact that, although under a combination of cireum- 
stances that would produce the best possible results with standard 
pear-trees, a corresponding success might be expected from dwarfs, 
yet under other and less favourable circumstances the standard will 
grow and produce fruit where the dwarf will invariably fail. From 
this comes the general complaint, and some, having suffered repeated 
failure and disappointment, go so far as to declare the whole plan of 
raising and selling dwarf pear-trees an imposition upon the public by 
the dealers, who recommend and sell them with the full knowledge 
that they will soon die and have to be replaced with standard trees. 
There is among tradesmen no class that receives more liberal 
censure than seedsmen and nurserymen, and that this censure is 
often in a degree merited in a business so complicated, requiring 
perfect system and great care to insure entire accuracy, an ex- 
perience of some thirty years convinces me is true; but that by 
far the larger portion of the wholesale denunciation which we hear 
belongs to the grower rather than the seller, is equally true. 
The beginner in fruit-growing visits the fall exhibitions, and, 
after carefully examining the long tables of pears, notes in his 
memoraudum book the names of such as please his fancy, and, with- 
out any inquiry or investigation as to the location, variety, or 
preparation of soil, or care of the trees that have produced the fine 
specimens he has seen, he goes next spring to the nursery, and by 
referring to his memoranda he secures the varieties he wants, and 
usually about equally divided between dwarfs and standards. If his 
place is smali and he does not employ regular help, he is obliged 
to entrust the transplanting to such aid as he can get at the busiest 
season of the year, and the chances are that the work is done with 
as little or less care than careful growers give to transplanting the 
most easily grown vegetables in the garden. Having secured his 
trees and had them placed in his grounds, he patiently waits for 
them to produce fruit similar to the specimens he has seen. Now, 
if the soil happens to be shallow, with a subsoil of gravel or sand, 
the probabilities are that at the end of five years his dwarf trees have 
