SFSTZMS OF CULTURE ORCHARDING PEARS. 279 



ground, 7| feet; just below the graft, 6 feet; round the swelling where it has over- 

 grown the stock, 12 feet. The stock is the wild cherry, the bearing variety, the 

 Black Heart. A hundred flowers have been counted in one bunch. The last crop was 

 7 half-sieves of 24 Ibs., value home, 1 Is. 6d. Since then the tree has been shattered 

 by lightning. A more gigantic old tree in the orchard of Mr. A. J. Thomas, Rod- 

 mcrsham, Kent, cnce gave as its heaviest crop half, a ton of fruit. 



Pears. Standard trees on pear stocks with clean stems 6 feet in height are suitable 

 for planting on grass, and are largely cultivated in East Kent, also in the counties of 

 Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester. They are somewhat extensively grown in Hert- 

 fordshire, and flourishing trees may often be seen in various parts of the country where 

 apple trees are complete wrecks through age or poorness of soil, for the pear is longer- 

 lived and thrives in light soils over gravel, preferring sand to calcareous matter. It 

 does well, however, on calcareous gravel in Hertfordshire where the chalk is several 

 feet from the surface, on oolite where the soil is sandy or gravelly and deep, and on 

 light soils where water does not lodge within several feet of the surface. 



Crawford, Lammas, Caillot Eosat, Jargonelle, Williams' Bon Chretien, Hessle, 

 Beurre d'Amanlis, Eyewood, Beurre de Capiaumont, Fertility, Louise Bonne of Jersey, 

 Bishop's Thumb, Althorp Crasanne, and Swan's Egg, are useful table varieties ; Catillac 

 and Verulam for stewing. (See page 124.) 



The trees being more or less upright or pyramidal in habit may be planted a little 

 closer than apple trees, but the better plan is to place the pear trees 30 to 36 feet 

 apart, and plant plum or damson trees between them, then at twenty to twenty-five 

 years from forming the orchard, the plum or damson trees should be removed, leaving 

 the pears in good profit, with the sun shining on the ground between them, and the 

 grass consequently far better for grazing as in parks. 



Pear trees require similar treatment to apple trees, and are later in coming to 

 remunerative bearing. This is not reached until the fifteenth year, and the period of 

 best production until the twenty -fifth to the thirtieth season from planting. The crops 

 are less certain than those of apples, through pear trees blossoming early and being 

 liable to suffer from spring frosts. Large trees of Lammas, Hessle, Fertility, and other 

 free-bearing varieties sometimes produce enormous crops 10 to 20 bushels per tree, 

 and bring 1 10s. 3 per tree = 72 per acre for 48 trees at 1 10s. per tree Stch 

 crops and prices are exceptional. The gross returns in the best years reach an average 

 of 20 half-sieves per tree = 84 at Is. 9d. per half-sieve the actual gross return from 



