PEAR 



growth, and also to mitigate tlie liability to alternate 

 freezing and thawing in winter, a northerly or north- 

 easterly slope is to be preferred ; which, however, 

 should' be so gradual as not to seriously interfere with 

 the convenience of cultivation. As we approach the 

 northern limit of practicable Pear culture, however, 

 a modification of this rule of selection may be found 

 desirable, since, with the shorter growing season, a 

 warmer exposure may prove necessary as a means of 

 hastening maturity. 



4. Soils. — While the Pear tree will yield more or less 

 satisfactory results in a variety of soils, it is found to 

 succeed most perfectly in a strong loam, of moderate 



PEAK 



1245 



mit such peculiarity to its offspring. Seeds resulting 

 from known or artificial cross-fertilization, and there- 

 fore of known and selected parentage on both sides, 

 offer increased probability of valuable results. Seeds 

 intended for the origination of new varieties should be 

 planted very thinly in strong, rich, deeply prepared 

 soil, in a single row, and covered with not more than an 

 inch of earth, so that the young plants shall have ample 

 space for development. 



Seeds intended for the growing of stocks for nur- 

 sery purposes should be collected from varieties in 

 which the seeds are plump and well developed, as well 

 as from healthy, vigorous trees. American nurserymen 



depth, overlying a porous subsoil. Soils which are lia- 

 ble to be wet during any considerable portion of the 

 growing season are unfit for this purpose, unless deeply 

 and thoroughly underdrained ; while even then they 

 are quite liable not to prove fully satisfactory. A few 

 varieties are found to be moderately successful on 

 sandy soils, but for general planting such soils should 

 be avoided. 



5. Munttres.— The liability of the Pear tree, in this 

 climate, to the attacks of blight is thought to be in- 

 creased by excessive growth. It is, therefore, desirable 

 that the annual growth be completed and ripened at as 

 early a date as practicable; and the more so, since the 

 liability to blight apparently exists only while growth is 

 in actual progress. Stable and other nitrogenous ma- 

 nures should, for this reason, be applied in moderate 

 quantities, in autumn, after the liability to excite re- 

 newed growth shall be past. Potash, lime and phos- 

 phorus, which enter more or less largely into the com- 

 position of both tree and fruit, and which rarely ex- 

 ist in excess in the soil, may be profitably applied in 

 either autumn or spring. Salt may also be profitably 

 applied to the comparatively dry soils recommended for 

 the Pear, but with care not to apply in excess. One or 

 even two quarts may be safely applied to each tree, be- 

 fore the commencement of growth in the spring, if well 

 distributed upon the surface over a space of at least 6 

 or 8 feet in diameter, and left to be carried gradually 

 into the soil by dew and rain. It is believed to possess 

 little, if any, maniirial value; but to act rather as a con- 

 servator of moisture, and probably also as a repellent of 

 insects. Coarse mulch may be placed about the trees, 

 covering the soil as far out as the roots extend, for the 

 purpose of keeping the earth cool, and also to check 

 evaporation from the soil; but this should not be done 

 as a substitute for cultivation; and the soil beneath the 

 mulch should be kept well pulverized. 



6. Propagation. — {a) By seedlings: Seeds, when to 

 be planted for the origination of new varieties, should 

 be selected from well-grown and fully matured fruits, 

 of such varieties as possess in a high degree the quali- 

 ties sought to be reproduced or improved, since a va- 

 riety in which a characteristic is strongly developed 

 and persistently manifested is the more likely to trans- 



obtain Pear seeds mostly from Europe. Seeds intended 

 for nursery stocks are usually planted in broad, shallow 

 drills. In our American climate the foliage and un- 

 ripened wood of seedling Pears is very liable to be at- 

 tacked during midsummer by leaf-blight or mildew, 

 which prematurely arrests their growth. For this reason 

 European stocks are generally preferred by nurserymen. 

 This attack of mildew may often be partially or wholly 

 avoided by planting in virgin soil remote from other 

 cultivated grounds. Pear seedlings form a very long 

 tap-root during their first year, with few, if any, side- 

 roots. For this reason they are taken up preferably in 

 autumn, and the tap-roots shortened to G or 8 inches, 

 when they may be replanted in nursery rows, and 

 earthed up, or otherwise protected from heaving, or 

 other injury during winter; or, preferably, they may 

 be heeled-in, in a frost-proof cellar, and planted in 

 spring, to be budded during the ensuing summer or 

 left to become more fully established for budding a 

 year later. 



Seedlings intended for fruiting are usually trans 

 planted in rows, about 8 feet apart each way, with the 

 expectation that many will be found worthless, and 

 either removed or destroyed. Seedling Pears usually 

 require to be fruited several years before their charac- 

 teristics become fully developed. This generally recog- 

 nized fact may be taken as a warning that the occa- 

 sional effort to hasten the puberty of a seedling by 

 fruiting a cion from it upon a bearing tree of difl'erent 

 variety cannot be trusted to indicate the ultimate char- 

 acter of the fruit of the yet incipient variety, since it 

 is impossible to foresee to what extent such transfer 

 may interfere with the occult formative processes 

 through which its ultimate qualities would have been 

 developed. 



(6) I3y budding: Seedlings of one or two years' 

 growth, intended for standard trees, are usually planted 

 from 6 to 10 inches apart in the nursery row; for the 

 reason that space, as well as cultivation, must be econo- 

 mized to correspond with prices, although it is impos- 

 sible to grow trees of good form and properly branched 

 of the size and age demanded by most planters when 

 thus closely planted. Trees thus closely planted should 

 be removed, or at least thinned, after having made one 



