THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 95 



century, dwarfing the pear by growing it on the quince has been common 

 in America. Dwarfing is recommended to secure several effects. Dwarf 

 trees are more manageable than standard trees when the orchard area is 

 small; dwarfing stocks are shallow rooted, and dwarfs, as a rule, do not 

 need a soil so deep as do standard trees; pears grown on quince stocks are 

 often larger, handsomer, and better in flavor and texture than those grown 

 as standards; the trees come in bearing earlier. Dwarf pears, never very 

 common on this continent, are not planted as much now as they were 

 some years ago. At one time, orchards of these dwarfs were a familiar 

 sight in New York. A dwarf orchard and even a dwarf tree is now seldom 

 seen. The faults that have driven them out of New York are: The stocks 

 used in dwarfing are not uniform, consequently the trees vary in vigor, 

 health, habit of growth, and in time of maturity; nurserymen find that 

 the stocks vary greatly in ease of propagation either from cuttings or layers ; 

 the quince stocks are of several varieties, difficult and expensive to obtain 

 and, therefore, the orchard trees are expensive; dwarf trees require much 

 more care in pruning, training, and cultivation than do standard trees; 

 the cost of producing pears in a dwarf orchard is greater than in a plantation 

 of standard trees, and the fruit does not command a much higher price; 

 dwarf trees are commonly rated as less hardy than standard trees and are 

 much shorter-lived; left to themselves, or if planted too deep, the cions 

 take root and the trees are but half dwarf. Some of the objections to 

 dwarf trees could be done away with by obtaining a variety of the quince 

 which would dwarf the pear satisfactorily, which could be grown easily 

 from cuttings or layers, and upon which most pears could be easily worked. 

 A quince of this description is not in sight. 



There is great difference of opinion among growers as to what varieties 

 may be successfully grown on quince stocks. Probably all will agree that 

 the following, few indeed, are the best dwarfs in America: Beurre d'Anjou, 

 Duchesse d' Angouleme, Howell, Lawrence, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Eliza- 

 beth, and White Doyenne. All other sorts, if to be grown on dwarfs, grow 

 better when double worked. 



Almost all of the pears grown in America, as has been said, are standard 

 trees. The stocks for these standard pears are nearly all imported from 

 Europe under the name French stocks, although on the Pacific slope seedlings 

 of oriental species are being used more and more. The French stocks are 

 seedlings of vigorous forms of the common pear, P. communis. Efforts 

 to grow stocks of this species in America usually fail because leaf-blight is 



