84 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



spots. They do not differ so much among themselves as our pears 

 in regard to season, size, shape, colour, or flavour. The early 

 pears, vi-hich ripen in August, are, I think, smaller than those of the 

 general crop, which follow one or two months later, but in other 

 respects they do not differ essentially from them. The flesh is 

 coarse, full of lumps, of a yellow colour, very juicy and tolerably 

 sweet, but lacks the mellowness and aroma of our pears. The 

 taste resembles that of ours when green. In addition to the 

 judgment of De Candolle, cited above, there is another in the 

 Revue Horticole, which deliberately says that Japanese pears are 

 poor fruit. 



The plant is as a rule propagated through shoots, though some- 

 times through seeds and subsequent grafting. Between the middle 

 and the end of March, stout, healthy yearling shoots, 42 to 45 

 cm. long, are whittled to a point, and the ends are then charred 

 over a slow fire. The shoots thus prepared are set out one after 

 another in furrows, in good soil, manured with compost, and then 

 packed around with earth. Transplanting takes place a few years 

 later. 



Pear-trees are most frequently met singly in Japan, as with us, 

 growing high with natural development, and evidently without 

 special attention. In northern Honshiu the mistletoe {Viscum 

 albtmiy L.) often finds lodgment upon them, though more frequently 

 still on Castanea vulgaris Lamk., and also on deciduous oaks. 

 This mistletoe differs from ours in its wine-coloured berries. 



Quite another method of treatment and much greater care is 

 employed with pear-trees here and there in the neighbourhood of 

 large cities, e.g., at Kawasaki, between Tokio and Yokohama. The 

 trees here are planted in rows at equal intervals of twelve Shaku 

 (3"64 metres) in all directions. They are manured twice a year. 

 For this purpose circular rings are dug about the trunks. These are 

 closed again after being filled with manure. Then, too, the ground 

 is kept clear of weeds and loosened from time to time. At a height 

 of five or six Shaku (150 to 180 ^m.), the tree-tops are bent hori- 

 zontally, after the manner of our arbours. Rows of posts, as well as 

 cross-bars of bamboo cane, serve as supports to the branches. 



When I inspected these plantations more closely, about the end 

 ef April, blossoming-time was over, and I found the owners busy 

 cutting away the new shoots, 20 to 25 cm. long, lest they should 

 withdraw nourishment from the abundant young fruit. I learned 

 on this occasion that such an orchard has to be renewed every fifty 

 or sixty years. The pears ripen here at the end of August, becom- 

 ing very large and a beautiful yellow-brown, running into grey- 

 brown. They appear to keep for a very long time, but are just as 

 watery in flavour and deficient in aroma as the others. 



2. Pyrus inalus, L., the apple-tree. This tree and its insignificant 

 fruit, Jap. Ringo, are so infrequent that many a foreigner dwells in 

 the country for years without seeing them. 



