178 PEARS, 



the soft soap in substance is more powerful, and that 

 having more strength and virtue than the suds, as 

 commonly made, it may more effectually destroy the 

 worms, bugs, and other insects, which so materially in- 

 jure the trees ; and it is believed to be in consequence 

 of their destruction, that the bark and branches are 

 enabled to derive so much improvement from the ap- 

 plication of this substance." 



Mr. Forsyth's treatise contains his method of man- 

 aging diseased pear trees, and such as were unfruitful 

 from decay, arid has clearly demonstrated, that the 

 quantity of fruit was thereby remarkably increased, 

 and the quality greatly improved. When old trees 

 are affected with canker, or otherwise diseased, by 

 which they are rendered unproductive, his practice is, 

 io head them down in May or June, as near as possi- 

 ble to where they were engrafted. By this method 

 the young shoots soon sprout forth, and grow so rap- 

 idly, that in two or three years they bear fruit most 

 abundantly. Mr. F. illustrates his practical princi- 

 ples by two or three striking examples, and by plates 

 representing the trees and fruit. One of the first 

 four which he headed down, was a Saint Germain, 

 which produced nineteen fine, large, well flavoured 

 pears the next year, and in the third, bore more fruit 

 than it did in its former state, when it was four times 

 the size. Another bore four hundred pears the second 

 year ; and he finally found, that the trees headed down 

 bore upwards of five times the quantity of fruit that 

 the others did ; and it keeps increasing, in proportion 

 to the progrees of the trees. "On the 20th of June," 

 says Mr. F. "I headed several standards that were al- 

 most destroyed by the canker ; some of them were 

 so loaded with fruit the following year, that 1 was o- 

 foliged to prop the branches, to prevent their being 

 broken down by the weight of it. In the fourth year 

 afterwards, one of them bore two thousand eight bun- 



