194 PROPAGATION OF 'I HE PEAR. 



a bushel of soil into a compost. J. Washburn, of Plymouth, 

 Mass., also furnishes the following statement : " I have a 

 fine lot of pear seedlings, which were [very copiously] ma- 

 nured with compost in the following proportions : one load 

 of muck, two loads of stable manure, two barrels of iron 

 just, one barrel of bone-dust, and two barrels of wood ashes. 

 The whole was composted early in autumn applied in the 

 fall and the seed sown the first of May. Other seeds plant- 

 ed on the same land without this compost, but with stable 

 manure, have produced plants that rusted badly, and are not 

 one quarter the size of the first lot, which are fine, strong 

 stocks." 



The mode of sowing the seeds may be the same as that 

 described for the apple, in drills one to two feet apart. The 

 more thinly they are sown, the less will be the danger of 

 disaster from the leaf blight ; and for this reason, drills near 

 together, with the seeds somewhat sparingly scattered in 

 them, will be found best. 



The leaf-blight is the most serious evil met with in the cul- 

 tivation of pear seedlings. Its immediate cause has not 

 been satisfactorily explained. It is more formidable in some 

 seasons than in others. Commencing about midsummer, 

 sometimes earlier, but more frequently later, it is first indi- 

 cated by the leaves in certain parts of the seed-beds turning 

 brown ; in a few days they fall off; other portions of the 

 beds are successively attacked, till all the seedlings become 

 more or less denuded, those last affected occupying the most 

 favorable portions of the soil. As a necessary consequence, 

 growth immediately ceases ; and if they are attacked early, 

 and have made but little previous growth, they are nearly 

 ruined, and few will survive the succeeding winter, for they 

 never make a second growth the same year of any value. 

 But if their previous growth has been vigorous, and the 

 blight appears late in summer, much less injury is sustained. 

 The best remedy is the high cultivation, on good new soil. 1 * 



Wintering the young seedlings. The frequent destruc- 

 tion of the trees the first winter, is another serious evil. 

 The danger is least with those that have made the best 

 well ripened growth ; hence it becomes very important 

 to secure healthful vigor by the adoption of the compost and 



* See Appendix, page 453 



