PLANTING AND AFTER MANAGEMENT. 53 



Ions), which must be well stirred before it is used. 

 Each tree should have ten gallons poured gradually 

 into the soil ; by this method the finest fruit may be 

 produced ; and as it is very probable that, ere many 

 years elapse, we shall have exhibitions of pears, this 

 will be the mode to procure fine specimens to show 

 for prizes. Our oldest gardening authors have said, 

 that "pears ingrafted on the quince stock give the 

 fairest fruit ;" and they are correct. It has been as- 

 serted that the fruit is liable to be gritty and deficient 

 in flavor. I can only say, that from my trees, grow- 

 ing on a cold clayey soil, I have tasted fruit of Marie 

 Louise, Louise Bonne of Jersey, and others, all that 

 could be wished for in size and flavor. 



In the course of my experience, and since the above 

 recommendation to plant on mounds was written, I 

 have found it good practice in very dry soils to plant 

 pear trees on the quince stock with the junction of 

 the graft just level with the surface, so as not to re- 

 quire mounds round their stems. The first season they 

 should have some manure on the surface, laid in a circle 

 round the stem ; and the second year a shallow basin, 

 two feet in diameter and four inches deep, should be 

 dug round the stem, and filled with some manure about 

 half rotten. This basin thus filled will keep moist 

 even in the most dry and hot weather, and will become 

 full of fibrous roots. This is also an excellent method 

 of renovating pear trees that have exhausted them- 

 selves by bearing too abundantly, or that appear un- 

 healthy by their leaves turning yellow. In such 

 cases, when the trees are of advanced growth, a basin 

 of the same depth, but three or more feet in diameter, 



