INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XV 



that dwarfs bear fruit in two or three years from the 

 time of planting, is a seductive one to the unwise, 

 and one, that if carried out, is almost certain to result 

 in failure. The first important point to be gained in 

 starting a young pear orchard is, to secure a strong 

 healthy growth of trees, so that when they do begin 

 to bear fruit, they will be vigorous enough to carry 

 the crop through, without injury or checking the 

 growth of wood. It is of vital importance to get 

 vigor of growth and surface, before full and paying 

 crops of pears can be raised. It is a gross and irre- 

 parable error to permit pear trees, which have been 

 planted only two or three years, to bear fruit; practi- 

 cal growers, who have an eye for profit, will not coun- 

 tenance such a suicidal course. When this deceptive 

 doctrine of early bearing is taken away from dwarfs, 

 nothing else can be said in their favor for orchard 

 culture, while there are many good, sound reasons 

 why they should not be planted in the orchard. There 

 is not a single variety of pear that will not do equally 

 as well as a standard, and at the expiration of twelve 

 or fifteen years from the time of planting, one good 

 standard is worth a dozen of dwarfs. The argument, 

 if such it can be termed, that when dwarfs are planted 

 deep enough they will in time become standards, is 

 answered by saying : why not plant standards to begin 

 with, and avoid the risk and uncertainty in getting 

 standards in this roundabout way, when there is a 

 shorter and more simple course to attain the same 

 end ? With twenty years of experience in growing 

 pears for market (and in 1881 my crop amounted to 

 eighteen hundred bushels), I am firmly convinced that 

 if I were about to plant another pear orchard, and 



