Notes and Gleanings. 229 



Importance of Selecting Good Trees. 



Having the right soil, it is important to get good trees to plant. And among 

 trees, as among animals and among men, I believe there are great differences of 

 constitutional vigor. A large majority of the pear trees I have seen come out 

 of the nursery, are deficient in their native vitality ; this may come from a feeble 

 stock, or from a weak bud or graft. A young pear seedling inherits the 

 qualities of its parent tree, and only the seeds of perfectly grown pears from 

 healthy and vigorous trees should ever be used in propagation. It is my im- 

 pression that we suffer greatly from the neglect or ignorance of propagators in 

 this respect. It is wholly impossible to make healthy and long-lived trees from 

 puny stocks. Perhaps it is not less important to select buds or grafts from 

 healthy trees, and which have been well developed by full exposure to the sun 

 and air. A vigorous graft on a weak stock may be induced to throw out roots 

 from itself, but a weak graft will never amount to much, whatever the stock. 



I will venture the opinion here that the best way to make a pear tree is to sow 

 the seed where the tree is to stand, and put on such tops as you prefer. This 

 cannot be done, however, in all places. But I have no doubt that the oldest, 

 largest, and most regularly productive pear trees in this world have grown from 

 seed where they stand. 



As most of us must buy our trees from the nursery, and take the chances as to 

 their "noble blood," I would buy only those trees which show a vigorous habit, 

 and a good balance between stock and top ; and other things being equal, would 

 take year trees in preference to older. Nature is violated less in the removal of 

 a young than an old tree. 



Season and Distances for Planting. 



As to the time of planting, I unhesitatingly say it should be in the autumn ; 

 and the earlier the better, after the leaves have fallen. I also believe in planting 

 closer than is the common practice. The great need of an orchard in our cli- 

 mate is protection against severe winds, and shade to trees both in summer and 

 winter. All these conditions are more easily secured by close planting than in 

 any other way. In those sections where root-pruning is essential to the health 

 and Hfe of the trees, four hundred or five hundred trees can be set on an acre, 

 and remain permanently. Or one half or three fourths of them may be root- 

 pruned at three or four years of age, and brought into early bearing, while the 

 balance are left to grow to their natural size. In time the root-pruned trees, 

 having amply paid for themselves and the others too, can be removed. If pears 

 are worth growing, as a market crop, in preference to other fruit, in a given local- 

 ity, then I know no other fruit or crop, to grow in the orchard, so profitable or 

 convenient as pears. 



Natural System of Culture. 



Trees, such as I have described, planted in a soil such as I have indicated, 

 should therefore be treated as much on natural and as little on artificial princi- 

 ples as possible. Nature does not cultivate by a constant stirring of the soil, 

 but mulches. Nature plants closely, and gives shade in summer and shelter in 



