The Fruit Garden. 123 



twelve. Give bearing trees a moderate top-dressing of manure 

 every autumn. Pear-trees require comparatively little pruning. 



To dwarf the pear, it is grafted on Anger's quince stocks. 

 The fruit produced by trees thus grafted is usually better than 

 that of those on the pear stock. They also come into bearing 

 sooner, and take up less room in the garden ; but they are not 

 so long-lived as on the pear. Quince-bottomed pear-trees must 

 be very carefully cultivated. They will not bear neglect. 

 They should be headed-in more or less every year. 



Winter pears are all necessarily ripened in the house ; and 

 nearly all summer pears, and a very large proportion of the 

 autumn varieties, are greatly improved by ripening them in the 

 house also. As a general rule, take summer and early autumn 

 pears from the trees, just when some of the earlier full-grown 

 specimens begin to ripen. Gather them carefully by hand in a 

 dry day, spread them on the shelves of your fruit-room^ or 

 upon the floor of a cool, dry chamber. Here they will ripen 

 by degrees, and without further care. 



Late autumn and winter pears should also be gathered very 

 carefully by hand, in dry weather. Put them away very care- 

 fully, so as not to bruise or indent them in the least, in tight, 

 clean wooden boxes, buckets, or barrels, and keep them in a 

 cool, dry, airy room or cellar, of which the temperature shall 

 be from about 38° to 45o Pahr. Examine them occasionally, 

 and if they should be sweating, take them out carefully, and 

 dry them on the floor, removing any that may have begun to 

 decay, and re-packing them as before. About ten days before 

 their usual time of ripening, bring them into a warm room.. 

 The result of this process will surprise, as well as gratify, one 

 who has never tried it. 



3. The Quixce — Cydonia Vulgaris. 

 This tree is a native of Germany. It was cultivated, and its 

 fruit much esteemed by the Greeks and Romans. It was used 

 by them, as by the moderns, for preserving. There are only 

 two varieties deserving of culture. 



