98 THE PEAR. , 



in very rich alluvial soil, or that have been very highly mannred 

 with barnyard manure, seem to be the most subject to these 

 attacks. 



The best manures for the pear tree are wood ashes, lime and 

 ground bones. These may be spread upon the surface of the 

 ground, where they will beeome gradually incorporated with the 

 soil. In our climate, great injury is often done by stimulating 

 the pear trees to excessive growth. A short, well-ripened annual 

 growth is all that should be desired. 



This tree can be propagated both by grafting and budding. 

 When worked upon pear seedlings, the trees naturally grow to a 

 large size, and attain the height usual in pear trees. These are 

 known as standard pear trees. It is difficult to transplant large 

 standard pear trees with success, from the fact that the roots are 

 poorly supplied with fibres, when gi-own in the manner in which 

 they are raised in the nurseries in America. In England, where 

 the importance of having an abundance of fibrous roots is under- 

 stood and appreciated, nurserymen transplant their standard trees 

 frequently, not only of the pear, but of the apple and other 

 fruits, and also of ornamental trees, charging for such transplanted 

 trees according to the number of times they have been trans- 

 planted. By each successive transplanting a larger number of 

 fibrous roots are formed, so that after two or three removals, the 

 roots, instead of looking like a two or three-pronged carrot, are a 

 mass of fibres, resembling a fine, bushy head of hair. When 

 planters in Canada are willing to pay the difference in the cost 

 of growing such fibrous-rooted trees, they will find the nursery- 

 men ready to supply them; but while the present practice pre- 

 vails of buying always where they can be had cheapest, without 

 regard to quality, nurserymen are forced to grow their trees with 

 the least possible labor, and the trees are transplanted as seldom 

 as possible. 



Standard pear trees, as usually grown, do not require much 

 pruning if they are attended to every year, and those branches 

 removed which cross each other, or that are forming a distorted 



