^^^^:^-^^^^>^:— 



FRUIT CULTURE.— VI. 



THE PEAR. 



'HIS excellent fruit, so g-enerally 

 and deservedly esteemed, should 

 always secure a prominent place in 



^pj the orchard of the commercial 

 grower and in the amateur's g-arden. By a 

 judicious selection of varieties fruit can be 

 enjoyed from August to January. It was 

 one of the few fruits successfully marketed 

 in England in 1898, and a profitable trade 

 in that direction might be built up if the 

 right varieties are grown and the packing 

 carefully done. 



SoiL.^ — The soil conditions favorable for 

 the apple are equally favorable for the pear. 

 On a wet soil it will soon become diseased 

 and sickly. As long as the subsoil is fairly 

 porous and dry the tree will thrive and pro- 

 duce fruit of excellent quality on moderately 

 heavy clay. In short, if the drainage is 

 good and the ground tolerably rich the pear 

 can be successfully cultivated in almost any 

 soil from sand to clay, though a strong clay 

 loam may be regarded as the best type of 

 soil. 



Selection of Trees, Planting and Prun- 

 ing. — There are two types of pear trees com- 



monly grown — standards and dwarfs. With 

 the standard sorts the variety is grafted or 

 budded on pear stock, and trees of .his kind 

 will last a life-time. To render the tree of 

 a dwarf habit the quince stock is used. This 

 allows of a much closer planting, twelve or 

 fourteen feet apart, while the standards 

 should not be nearer than twenty. The 

 quince stock creates an early bearing habit, 

 but the tree is comparatively short-lived. 

 Some varieties succeed better on quince 

 stock, even the flavor improving. The 

 most notable are Duchess d'Angouleme, 

 Beurre Diel. Easier Beurre and Louise Botnie 

 de Jersey. Two-year old trees are decidedly 

 preferable to three for planting ; the root of 

 the pear is not very fibrous at any time, and, 

 as trees are usually dug in the nursery (see 

 Figs. 8, 9, 10), the older the trees the less 

 of the fibrous roots left. Planting has been 

 fully described already. Figs. 36, 37 illus- 

 trates the manner of pruning back the newly 

 set standard tree. As the limbs of the pear 

 have a more upright habit of growth than 

 those of the apple, the head may be started 

 somewhat lower, and the shading of the 



