CULTIVATION. 171 



CULTIVATION. 



The pear tree is raised from seed or from suckers 

 The seeds should be sown in the same manner as directed 

 for apples ; and as they incline to grow with a tap root, 

 some recommend that they should be transplanted into 

 beds when but two inches in height, to force them to 

 throw out lateral roots : others defer this operation until 

 they are a year old, when they are taken up, deprived of 

 their tap roots, and transplanted into beds, where they are 

 suffered to remain a year or two ; after which they are 

 again transplanted to the nursery rows, and their manage- 

 ment afterwards is not unlike that of apples. 



The pear tree, in the climate of New England, is not so 

 easily nurtured from the seed as the apple ; their long tap 

 roots expose them to be thrown out of the earth by the 

 frosts of winter. But afterwards they resist the most se- 

 vere cold. 



GRAFTING AND INOCULATING. The most durable 

 stocks for grafting and inoculating are the pear. " Du- 

 breuil," says Loudon, " recommends the quince stock for 

 clayey and light soils, and the free stock pear for chalky 

 and siliceous soils." He further informs us that " grafted 

 on the white thorn, (which, like the quince, renders them 

 dwarfish,) pears come very early into bearing, continue 

 prolific, and in respect to soil, will thrive well on a strong 

 clay; which is unsuitable to those on quinces and wildings. 

 But they are supposed to have an unfavorable influence on 

 the fruit, in rendering it small and hard." By grafting or 

 inoculating on the quince, pear trees come much sooner 

 into bearing, their productiveness is increased, the good 

 quality of the fruit is not changed, but the size and lon- 

 gevity of the tree are diminished. Such pear trees are 

 termed dwarfs. This mode is extensively adopted in 

 France; but all kinds of pears will not grow on the quince 

 stock. Those dwarfs trained in the form of a distaff, are 

 called in that country Quenouilles; for the mode of train- 

 ing which, and also for a new mode of dwarfing tht. pear, 

 see the former part of this work. 



The pear tree is of an extreme hardihood, exceeding 

 that of the quince, and is never annoyed by the borer. 



