THE NURSERY LIST. 



243 



Pea-nut (Arachis hypogcea}. Legunnnosce. 



As a field crop, the seeds should be planted where the 

 plants are to stand For propagation in greenhouses, see 

 Arachis. 



Pear, Alligator or Avocado. See Persea 

 Pear (fyrus comnnims, P sinensis}. Rosacece 



Pear seedlings are grown in the same manner as those of 

 the apple, which see Pear stocks are mostly imported from 

 France, however, as the leaf-blight is so destructive to them 

 here as to render their culture unprofitable. This leaf-blight 

 is a fungus (Entonwsporium macalatum), and recent experi- 

 ment has shown that it can be readily overcome by four or 

 five thorough sprayings with Bordeaux mixture, so that there 

 is reason to hope that the growing of pear stocks may yet 

 become profitable in this country. Heretofore, the only 

 means of mitigating the ravages of this blight was the un- 

 certain one of inducing a strong growth early in the season 

 Even when pear stocks are raised in this country, they are 

 grown from imported French seed. Aside from its cheap- 

 ness, however, this foreign seed probably possesses no super- 

 iority over domestic seed But pear seed is so difficult to 

 obtain in America that it is practically out of the market. 



Pear seedlings should be taken up and removed from the 

 seed-bed the first fall. The foreign stocks are imported when 

 a year old from the seed The seedlings are trimmed or 

 "dressed" (see page 69), and are set into nursery rows the 

 following spring. The next season that is, the season in 

 which the stocks are transplanted shield-budding is per- 

 formed, as upon the apple The budding season usually be- 

 gins late in July or early in August in the north If the 

 stocks are small, of "second size," they may stand overwin- 

 ter and be budded the second year. Pear trees are sold at 

 two and three years from the bud Pears do hot succeed 

 well when root-grafted, except when a long cion is used, for 

 the purpose of securing own-rooted trees (see page 78) Dor- 

 mant buds of the pear may be used upon large stocks in early 

 spring, the same as upon the apple, and buds may be kept 

 upon ice for use in early summer (see page 74) 



Pears are dwarfed by working them upon the quince The 

 Angers quince is the best stock. The ordinary orange quince 

 and its kin make weak and short-lived trees. Quince stocks 

 are obtained from ordinary cuttings or from mound-layering, 

 the latter method giving much the better stocks (see Quince) 

 The layers should stand until late in autumn of the second 

 season, when they will be found to be well rooted, and may 



