SOIL AND SITUATION. 321 



It also comes rather earlier into bearing. Grafting on the 

 mountain ash is thought to render the pear more hardy, and it 

 retards the blossoming so much as to prevent their being in- 

 jured by spring frosts. The pear is sometimes budded on the 

 apple, but it is then usually very short-lived. 



For rendering the pear dwarf, the QUINCE stock is almost 

 universally used, as the pear unites readily with it, becomes 

 quite dwarf in habit, and bears very early. Some large grow- 

 ing pears as the Duchess of Angouleme extremely liable to 

 be blown off the tree, bear much better on the Quince stock, 

 and others are considerably improved in flavour by it. The 

 dwarf pear, however, it must be confessed, rather belongs to 

 the small garden of the amateur, than to the orchardist, or him 

 who desires to have regular large crops, and long-lived trees. 

 The dwarf tree is usually short-lived, seldom enduring more 

 than a dozen years in bearing but it is a pretty, and eco- 

 nomical way of growing a good many sorts, and getting fruit 

 speedily, in a small garden. 



The pear not being very abundantly supplied with fibrous 

 roots, should never be transplanted, of large size, from the nur- 

 sery. Small, thrifty plants, five or six feet high, are much to 

 be preferred. 



SOIL, SITUATION, AND CULTURE. The best soil for this fruit 

 tree, is a strong loam of moderate depth, on a dry subsoil. The 

 pear will, indeed, adapt itself to as great a variety of soils as 

 any fruit tree, but, in unfavourable soils, it is more liable to 

 suffer from disease, than any other. Soils that are damp during 

 any considerable portion of the year, are entirely unfit for the 

 pear tree ; and soils that are over- rich and deep, like some of the 

 western alluvials, force the tree into such over luxuriant growth, 

 that its wood does not ripen well, and is liable to be killed by 

 winter blight. The remedy, in this case, consists in planting 

 the trees on slightly raised hillocks say eight inches above the 

 level of the surface, and using lime as a manure. Soils that are 

 too light, on the other hand, may be improved by trenching, if 

 the subsoil is heavier, or by top dressing with heavy muck and 

 river mud, if it is not. 



In a climate rather cold for the pear, or on a cold soil, it is 

 advantageous to plant on a southern slope, but in the middle 

 states, in warm soils, we do not consider a decidedly southern 

 exposure so good as other, rather cooler ones. 



The pear succeeds so well as an open standard, and requires 

 so little care or pruning less, indeed, in the latter respect, than 

 any other fruit tree, that training is seldom thought of, except in 

 the gardens of the curious or skilful. The system of quenouille 

 or distaff training, an interesting mode of rendering trees very 

 productive in a small space, we have already fully described 

 in p. 37, as well as root pruning for the same purpose in p. 32. 





