STOCKS AND ADAPTATION OF TREES THEREON. 299 



About one hundred years may be taken as the natural duration of 

 the pear on pear roots,when grown in soil supplied with the elements 

 necessary to sustain it; and about thirty or forty years the natural 

 duration when worked on the quince root, and regularly pruned and 

 cultivated. Instances are of course recorded and known, w^here 

 trees exist for longer periods, while hundreds decay and are gone in 

 one half the time. The demand for pear trees on the quince has 

 been so great for some years past, that too often little regard has 

 been paid to the stock ; and we have now in our grounds rows of 

 bearing trees on quince roots, all of one kind, received from France, 

 from which, although receiving the same care and attention, there 

 may be selected those that ere many years must of necessity decay , 

 the stock and tree are not adapted one to the other. Again, as be 

 fore remarked, there are varieties that, while they grow apparently 

 well for a few years, decay on fruiting the second year. The suc 

 cess of the pear on quince roots trained en-pyramid in the old coun 

 try has been confined to but few varieties, and these kept under a 

 steady yet high state of cultivation. Orcharding with the pear on 

 the quince, in the manner of most orcharding in this country, will 

 never repay the first cost of the trees ; but if trees are selected of 

 varieties known to have been long successful, and a system of cul 

 ture pursued which shall meet the requirements of the fibrous roots 

 of the quince, then may the grower look for profit and pleasure in 

 the result ; but equally gratifying and profitable would be the result, 

 if we except a few varieties of foreign origin, when grown on the 

 pear, and annually root-pruned; added to which, if one half the trees 

 were taken out after twenty years, the balance would form a fine 

 permanent orchard to be managed as our apple orchards. In small 

 gardens, where the quince stock is advised by nearly all writers, (and 

 correctly so, if the right varieties are selected,) success will not be had 

 v;ithout an appreciation by the grower of the extent of roots formed 

 by the quince, and the system of culture required to supply the 

 food of the plant, as well as knowledge in how to prune, and also 

 some little knowledge of the amount of fruit the young tree is ca 

 pable of ripening and continue in health ; the tendency being rather 

 to over-production and exhaustion. 



Transplanting, Selection of Trees, and Distances apart. The roots 

 of the pear have few laterals except grown on shallow rich soil, 

 and in transplanting, it is therefore requisite to secure as much 

 of the large root as possible. If in taking up they are mostly de 

 stroyed, the branches will have to be shortened in and cut out. On 

 the quince root, when well grown, there will need little attention, 

 except to head back to a regular shape, and prune smooth the ends 

 of each root, as often directed in this work ; and in setting, taking 



