430 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



while its fruit is one of tlie most luscious of our zone. Most 

 varieties of pears assume a distinctly pyramidal form, with an 

 irregular and rather hedge-like ramification of branches and spurs 

 as the trees grow old. Without its leaves it is a rough and rather 

 unpleasing tree. In size it is of the second or third class, fre- 

 quently attaining a height of forty to fifty feet, and a diameter of 

 head of thirty feet. Its flowers are pure white, in clusters, fragrant, 

 and cover the tree profusely in April or May. Unlike the peach 

 tree, the pear tree if not grown too luxuriantly when quite young is 

 a hardy and long-lived tree. If planters would wait till their trees 

 are in full bearing before manuring or otherwise forcing a strong 

 growth of wood, few pear trees would die young. Old trees gene- 

 rally get too few, and young trees too many of such favors. It 

 grows well in any soil which is warm and well drained, but needs 

 to be grown in cultivated ground, otherwise the tree soon assumes 

 a stunted and mossy appearance and the fruit will be quite inferior. 



For garden culture pears have been much grown on quince 

 roots, which make dwarf trees. Some varieties bear more and 

 better fruit when thus dwarfed. These dwarf pear trees are ex- 

 ceedingly interesting in every stage of their growth, and both for 

 their beauty and their quick fruiting, merit some of the popularity 

 they have attained. Still, we w^ould recommend planters not to 

 rely on their dwarf, but rather on their standard trees for a per- 

 manent supply of pears. The former should be regarded more as 

 temporary investments, or perhaps as garden pets, the beauty of 

 whose growth and early productiveness will serve to make us forget 

 to be impatient of the later productiveness of the standards. But 

 the latter are by far the most profitable in the end, and many of 

 the very best varieties bear almost as quickly on their own roots as 

 upon quince roots. 



The Louise Bonne de Jersey, Duchesse d'Angouleme, White Do- 

 yenne or Virgalieu, Vicar of Wakefield, and Pound pear (for baking), 

 are varieties desirable to grow on quince. The following is a good 

 list of ten summer and autumn sorts on their own stocks for perma- 

 nent trees, with the proportional number of each, recommended for 

 a collection of twenty trees, viz. : one Madelaine, one Bloodgood, 

 one Rostiezer, one Dearborn's seedling, four Bartletts, one Flemish 



