PEARS MANURES AND MANURING. 141 



on a siliceous or calcareous gravelly soil, where the apple does not thrive without free 

 mulchings of stable or farmyard manure, and flourishes better than any fruit, except the 

 cherry, in comparatively poor soils. Pear trees in gardens are often unfruitful 

 through the soil being made too rich by heavy dressings of stable or farmyard manure, 

 whilst trees in orchards produce heavy crops of small and inferior fruit. This is 

 mentioned so that a due apportionment of the available manure may be supplied to 

 orchard trees instead of surfeiting those in the garden with it. When a tree is in good 

 growth it will not require nitrogenous farmyard manure, and if stimulants to fruiting 

 are desired care should be taken to supply phosphatic and potassic elements, with a due 

 proportion of lime. Instead of coating the ground once a year with stable or farmyard 

 manure, and digging it in about fruit trees that produce little beyond spray, the soil 

 should not be disturbed, and the manure go elsewhere, whilst a dressing of Thomas's 

 phosphate, \ ton per acre, 7 pounds per rod, 4 ounces per yard, should be applied in the 

 autumn or when the buds commence swelling in spring. Where the trees have 

 a tendency to late growth and immaturity of the wood, supply lime, \ bushel per rod, 

 80 bushels per acre, in the autumn or spring, pointing it in lightly. 



Trees in poor soils, or when exhausted by bearing, should have some decomposed 

 manure, 40 cartloads (30 bushels each) per acre, 7^ bushels per rod, 1 peck per yard, 

 spread on the surface and left there, or be merely pointed in early in the spring. Such 

 a dressing is sometimes necessary annually where the trees bear heavy crops of fruit 

 yearly, and make little growth. In good soils about half the quantity of manure 

 suffices, and in many cases is only needed every second or third year, according to the 

 condition of the trees. 



Of chemical manures, the following mixtures are recommended for pear trees: 



1. Kainit and bone meal in equal parts by weight, mixed, 2 ounces per square yard, 

 3f pounds per rod, 5 hundredweights per acre, spread over the ground under the 

 branches and a foot beyond their extension, in the autumn, and lightly pointed in- 



2. Superphosphate of lime, 9 pounds; nitrate of soda, 6 pounds; mix, and supply 

 li ounce per yard, 2J pounds per rod, 3J hundredweights per acre, when growth 

 begins in spring, and if the trees set a heavy crop of fruit another application of the 

 mixture may be given when the pears are about a quarter grown. 3. In light soils, 

 mixture No. 1 may have the kainit increased, say kainit 3 parts, bone meal 2 parts, to be 

 applied in the autumn ; then supply nitrate of soda when growth begins in spring, again 

 when the fruit is set, and a third time before it is half grown, \ ounce per yard, 15 



