ESSAY ON PEAR TREES. 105 



me, that several years since, he planted a seed bed, one half with 

 seeds of small, and the other half with seeds of large pears, the soil 

 in each part of the bed being of equal richness, and that the result 

 was, the first year the trees from seeds of large pears were thrifty 

 and grew well, while those from seeds of small pears were puny 

 and stinted, and that a decided difference in the growth of the trees 

 could be distinctly seen during the whole time they were in the nur- 

 sery. 



The seed bed for pears should be in a rich soil, which should be 

 trenched to the depth of fourteen to eighteen inches, and the sub- 

 soil well mixed with rich compost. The seed should be sown in the 

 Autumn, in wide drills from two to three feet apart, to allow the 

 passage of the cultivator between them. The next summer, the 

 young trees should be thinned out, so that they shall not stand near- 

 er than two to three inches to each other. The ensuing autumn, the 

 trees should be covered with coarse stable manure, six inches deep, 

 or with evergreen boughs. This covering should remain till the 

 last of April or first of May. Young trees are not injured, as is 

 sometimes supposed, by severe cold in winter, but by the frequent 

 freezing and thawing of the ground, in an early spring. They are 

 sometimes, when not protected, thrown entirely out of the ground 

 in the spring, even when the tap roots are as long or longer than the 

 tree itself, and whe n thrown out in this manner, the slightest frost 

 is fatal to them. Hon. A. W. Dodge, of Hamilton, reared a nursery 

 of young pear trees with great success, several years since, without 

 protecting them in any manner the first winter. But I am inclined to 

 beUeve that their preservation was to be attributed to the propitious 

 season, rather than to their favorable location. A friend of mine some 

 four years since planted a seed bed in a most favorable situation, and 

 left the trees without any protection the first winter. The result was, 

 that they were all thrown out of the ground and killed by the action 

 of the frost in the spring. The reason that pear trees are thrown 

 out by the frost more easily than any others is, that the first year 

 they have no lateral roots to resist the action of the frost. They 

 have but one straight tap root. The apple and other fruit trees 

 throw out lateral roots the first year, which fasten the trees to the soil 

 so that they cannot be thrown out by the frost. The second year the 

 trees will need no protection, as by that time they throw out lateral 

 roots. The second spring the trees should be transplanted from the 



13 



