CHAPTER II. 



THE PEAR. 



THE PEAR, when grown to full perfection, is eminently dis- 

 tinguished for its great delicacy, its melting and juicy tex- 

 ture, and by its mild, exceedingly rich, and delicious flavor. 

 Greatly excelling the apple in these particulars, it falls be- 

 low it in importance only in consequence of the less uni- 

 formly healthy habit of the tree. 



PROPAGATION. 



The best trees are raised from seedling stocks ; suckers, 

 unless unusually furnished with fibrous roots, are of crooked, 

 one-sided, and stunted growth. Seedling pears are more 

 difficult to raise than those of any other kind of fruit ; and 

 the many disasters to which the young trees are liable, have 

 caused a great and general deficiency, in the midst of an 

 abundant supply of trees of other kinds in the nurseries of 

 this country. 



Raising the Se&dlings. The seeds, after separation from 

 the fruit, should be kept in the way already given for apple- 

 seeds, by mixing with sand or muck. The soil for the seed- 

 bed, should be unusually-deep and fertile, rather damp than 

 otherwise, and should have a good manuring with lime and 

 ashes, and an abundant supply of peat or muck, if the 

 soil is not already largely furnished by nature with this in- 

 gredient. A correspondent of the Horticulturist states that 

 he has been eminently successful by the following practice : 

 First make a deep trench with the plow, and finish to the 

 required depth with the spade two feet not less. The 

 compost used to fill the trench is made of half a peck of iron 

 filings or blacksmith's cinders, with half a peck of slaked 

 lime, and half a peck of wood ashes, and a peck each of 

 swamp muck and barn-yard manure, thoroughly mixed.with 



