t26 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



said, if three varieties are needed : plant Bellissime d'Hiver, Vicar of Winkfield, and 

 Catillac ; if only one variety, Catillac, the most certain cropping and generally useful 

 of cooking pears. 



PROPAGATION AND CULTURE. 



Propagation. This is effected Ly seeds, cuttings, layers, budding, and grafting. 



Seeds are sown with a view to raising new pears, and to provide stocks whereon 

 to bud or graft approved varieties. Efforts at raising improved pears in this country 

 have not been very successful. Knight and Eivers originated varieties more suit- 

 able for our climate than did Ingram, Huyshe, and others. Kaisers should strive for 

 hardier sorts, having the colour, size, and excellence of the Continental varieties. 

 This can only be effected by proceeding in a systematic manner, as set forth on pages 

 96-99, Vol. I. Seeds should only be saved from carefully fertilised flowers of the finest 

 varieties. The seeds may be sown in pots, say 9-inch, well drained, and filled within 

 an inch of the rim with loamy soil, covering the pots with panes of glass to exclude 

 mice. If sown when taken from the fruits, and the pots are placed in a cool house, or 

 in a sheltered position outside, the seedlings will appear in spring, when the panes of 

 glass should be removed. The young plants may be transferred to the open ground the 

 following autumn, and they may produce fruit in the sixth or seventh year. Seeds 

 sown with the object of raising stocks should be of the hardiest varieties, and the 

 manner does not differ from that adopted for the apple. (See Vol. I., page 114.) 



Cuttings and layering are not desirable modes of propagating the pear. The methods 

 are described on pages 99 and 102, Vol. I. Budding and grafting are much better 

 modes of increasing the trees. See " Budding," Vol. I., page 115; "Grafting," 

 Vol. I., page 120 ; also "Double Grafting," Vol. L, page 128. 



Stocks. Fully treated on pages 112 and 113, Vol. L, it is only necessary to observe : 

 1. That the pear stock is the most natural, the trees upon it attaining the greatest size 

 and age. Its roots are long, comprise few fibres, and they extend considerably in a 

 horizontal direction, as well as penetrating deeply into the soil ; consequently trees on 

 the pear stock do not transplant well after they become large. The deep-rooting habit 

 gives the trees an advantage in hot, gravelly, and chalky soils, as they draw supplies of 

 nourishment from sources that are practically sealed against a surface-rooting stock. In 

 deep, rich, loamy soil, trees on the pear stock often grow too luxuriantly for affording 

 profitable crops of fruit until they have lost the exuberance of youth j hence arose the 



