CHAPTER II. 



THE PEAR. 



THE PEAR, when grown to full perfection, is distinguished for its great 

 delicacy, its melting and juicy texture, and its mild, rich, and deli- 

 cious flavor. Excelling the apple in these particulars, it falls below 

 it in importance in consequence of the less uniformly healthy habit 

 of the tree. 



PROPAGATION. 



The best trees are raised from seedling stocks ; suckers, unless 

 unusually furnished with fibrous roots, are of crooked, one-sided, 

 and stunted growth. 



Raising the Seedlings. The seeds, after separation from the fruit, 

 should be kept as already described for apple-seeds, by mixing with 

 sand or leaf mould. The soil for the seed-bed should be unusually 

 deep and fertile, rather damp than otherwise, and should have a 

 good manuring with lime and ashes, and an abundant supply of 

 peat or muck, if the soil is not already largely furnished by nature 

 with this ingredient. 



The mode of sowing the seeds may be the same as that described 

 for the apple, in drills from one to two feet apart. The more thinly 

 they are sown, the less will be the danger of disaster from the leaf- 

 blight ; and for this reason, drills near together, with the seeds 

 somewhat sparingly scattered in them, will be found best. 



The leaf-blight is the most serious evil met with in the culture of 

 pear-seedlings. It is more formidable in some seasons than in 

 others. Commencing about midsummer, sometimes earlier, but 

 more frequently later, it is first indicated by the leaves in certain 

 parts of the seed-beds turning brown ; in a few days they fall off; 

 other portions of the beds are successively attacked, till all the seed- 

 lings become more or less denuded, those last affected occupying 



