240 GARDENING. 



cuttings, and suckers are very indifferent ; and as 

 seedlings are slow in giving their fruit, it follows 

 that the pear is principally propagated by scions 

 and buds. These are placed on quince or pear 

 stocks, according as taste or interest may invite to 

 early and small crops of fine quality, or to later 

 and more abundant ones of inferior character. In 

 the former case, the stem of the quince must be 

 employed, and in the latter that of the common 

 pear, and without any material difference in the 

 operation, excepting that " the feebler the stem, the 

 nearer to the earth should be placed the scion or 

 the bud." 



Notwithstanding the hardiness ascribed to the 

 pear-tree, we know not any of the kernel class more 

 readily or sensibly affected by particular conditions 

 of the atmosphere. A moist and cold spring, a wet 

 summer, and a rainy autumn, are alike unpropi- 

 tious to it. In either of these cases, the fruit which 

 does not rot is watery and tasteless, and when all 

 take place, the evil extends to even a second year ; 

 as, according to the observations of Coursette, 

 " long-continued moisture rarely fails to convert 

 fruit-buds into wood-buds." 



The second year after budding or grafting, the 

 plants may be removed to the places where it is in- 

 tended they shall stand ; and as the manner and 

 time of doing this do not differ from those already 

 prescribed for the apple-tree, we may spare our- 

 selves and our readers the trouble of a repetition 

 of our directions on those heads. 



With respect to exposition and soil, though the 

 pear-tree may be made to grow anywhere, still it 

 will succeed badly on the north side of hills or in 

 stiff dry soils, and still worse on those which rest 

 on a wet subsoil. Some of its later and finer vari- 

 eties require and deserve a deep substantial loam, 

 occasionally refreshed with a dressing of well-rot- 

 ted dung, and some of the best aspects the garden 

 can furnish. 



