60 THE ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 



stored in hampers, with straw ranged between the 

 layers, and kept in a cellar, but this precludes, or 

 renders very troublesome, the necessary overlooking 

 which economy demands. 



CHAPTEE X. 



THE PEAR TEEE AND ITS PRODUCE. 



PERHAPS there is no fruit more popular in England 

 than the pear, Pyrus communis, and no country in which 

 it is finer than it is in ours ; for although mauy of our 

 splendid sorts are from France and Belgium, where 

 scientific culture brings them to great size and per- 

 fection, none are so fine in flavour as those ripened, 

 tinder favourable circumstances, by our milder sun. 

 Even the pear-famed Channel Islands must yield the 

 palm to England in that one point of flavour in the 

 pears. 



The best soil for pear trees is a sound loam, rather 

 clayey than sandy. In Jersey, where pears do so well, 

 light, sandy soil is very general, but it is where the 

 heavier soil prevails that the pears do really well, and 

 prosper year after year. Light, poor land, and cold, 

 wet clay are equally bad, and a dry subsoil is necessary 

 for success. Pears thrive pretty well in any ordinary 

 soil, so it be in good heart ; and manuring is not neces- 

 sary with such, and must always be bestowed with great 

 caution. In orchards for the cultivation of trees of 

 large size, the soil should be quite two feet deep, but 

 for trees of a more dwarfed habit a foot and a half is 

 sufficient. In sandy loam, or any soil which is too dry 

 for them, the fruit is apt to crack. 



Grafting and budding are the usual modes of propaga- 

 tion. The free stock, or wild seedling, is calculated for 

 growing large trees for orchards, and the quince stock 

 is best for garden culture, it being of a moderate, com- 

 pact habit of growth. The advantage of compactly 

 grown trees, whether as bushes, pyramids, espaliers, or 



