Successful Pear Culture. 213 



erty grass" and "judgment," and was too poor to produce either grain 

 or grass, and its owner " was as poor as the soil." He has planted for 

 himself from two hundred to five hundred pear trees per year, until his 

 orchard now contains about four thousand trees. 



In the mean time he has planted large orchards for others on every 

 kind of soil known in the Cumberland Valley within a scope of more 

 than fifty miles — on slate shale, on freestone with clay or j|mestone 

 subsoil, on freestone with gravel subsoil, on clay or limestone, and on 

 alluvium deposit. 



For the production of pears of high quality he regards no soil with 

 so great favor as slate shale. Next in preference stands freestone with 

 gravelly subsoil, while alluvial soils, or any naturally retentive of mois- 

 ture, and calculated to cause a luxuriant growth of wood, he looks on as 

 least likely to produce pears of the best quality, or, at least, not unless 

 well under-drained. 



His private orchard lies high and dry on slate shale ; and it has been 

 found by chemical analysis that the soil contains a perceptible quantity 

 of iron. To this fact he attributes much of the high color and flavor 

 of his pears. 



He considers exposure and site as of little consequence, his own 

 grounds sloping from the centre to all sides, and all doing equally well, 

 save a few trees in one corner, where the land forms a " dish," and thus 

 is rather damp. Here the trees are the most thrifty in the orchard, but 

 the fruit is insipid and poor. Virgin soil he regards as best, but by no 

 means necessary for the production of fine fruit. 



May I add a comment and belief of my own, to the eflect that a large 

 share of all the failure attending pear culture in this country is due to 

 the fact that a popular notion prevails that a strong retentive soil is best 

 adapted to the pear. "Wet feet" are not less hurtful to pear trees than 

 to the human being. 



[Eveiy one who saw Mr. Martin's fine collection of pears at the meet- 

 ing of the Pomological Society, and all who are interested in pear cul- 

 ture, will be glad to know how specimens of such remarkable excellence 

 were produced. Being too diffident to come before the public in his own 

 name, Mr. Martin has kindly put Mr. Southwick, of Dansville, in pos- 



