12 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1877. 



many dwarf trees that have produced heavy crops for over twenty years, 

 and some trees yielding from two to four bushels of fruit annua;lly. If 

 one has a light or sandy soil I would not recommend dwarfs, except per- 

 haps I should want the Duchesse, Louise Bonne and Vicar, on the quince 

 roots. On our rich, loamy and heavy clayey soils, where the pear seems 

 to thrive best, I should set one-third to one-half of the dwarfs, taking of 

 the varieties that seem to be particularly adapted to the quince stock; of 

 these the Duchess, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Belle Lucrative, Vicar, 

 Doyenne du Comice, Beurre Superiin, and perhaps the Clapp's Favorite. 

 I should plant these trees between the standards, and by so doing we can 

 plant nearly double the number of trees on an acre. Pear trees may be 

 set in rows twenty feet apart, and twenty feet apart in the row. By 

 planting dwarfs between we get the trees ten feet apart in each row, 

 which is a good distance for an orchard. 



How shall a tree be planted? I am aware how hundreds of trees are 

 planted, by digging a small hole, filling it half full of strong manure, 

 stick in the tree, jam the roots down with the boot heel, fill up the hole 

 Avith sods, stone and dirt, and then vent your wrath upon the nurseryman 

 for selling you poor trees, calling him a cheat, a swindler, a scoundrel, and 

 other pet names, because your trees happen to die. In the first 

 place the roots of a tree must have room; so let the hole be dug 

 large enough to admit all the roots without cramping them, and then set 

 the tree into the ground so that the small surface roots will be about two 

 inches lowtjr than where they stood in the nursery rows. Dwarf trees 

 should be set so that the quince stock will be buried three to four inches 

 below the level of the ground; in this way many dwarf trees will strike a 

 pear root above the bud, and so the tree eventually becomes a standard; 

 we then have the advantage of early f ruitf ulness and long life to the tree. 

 Having placed the tree in the hole in proper position, fill in the hole with 

 fine dirt, working it in around the roots with the fingers or a small tamp- 

 ing stick; when the roots are well covered a few shovelsful of compost 

 may be used to advantage, but the use of green, unfermented manures 

 should always be avoided in the transplanting of trees. 



In regard to the after culture of the pear, if the soil is already rich the 

 tree will not require much extra feeding, but on the average of our New 

 England soils, trees need liberal manuring to grow and produce well. The 

 manure should be applied in the fall of the year; three or four good shov- 

 elsful of well decomposed manure piled around the trunk of the tree will 

 answer a double purpose of preventing the ravages of mice, and of fur- 

 nishing nutriment to the tree, at the right time. The spring rains cause 

 the leaching of the manure about the roots, which by being enriched 

 early in the season will make a good growth of wood that becomes well 

 ripened before the autumn frosts. 



