181 



dust, and a very small quantity of pot-ash 

 dissolved in water say two or three Ibs. to 

 a cart load of other manure are fine fertilizers 

 for the pear. 



Pruning. The standard pear requires less 

 pruning than any other fruit tree. Whatever 

 applications of the knife may seem necessary, 

 may be guided by the directions given in the 

 chapter on The Apple. 



Duration of Varieties, $*c. Some theoret- 

 ical writers both in Europe and in this coun- 

 try, have maintained that the older varieties 

 of the pear and also of other fruit-trees 

 are deteriorating; that through the infirmi- 

 ties of age many of them have become, and 

 others are gradually becoming unworthy of 

 cultivation. It is certainly true, that many 

 of the fine old pears have in some localities 

 neither the appearance nor the flavor that 

 they once had. But neglected cultivation, 

 diseased stocks, bad soils, unfavorable cli- 

 mates, etc., have most probably done the mis- 

 chief which has been lamented as the effects 

 of old age. And this is the opinion of Pro- 

 fessor De Candolle, one of the most distin- 

 guished physiologists of the present century. 

 And further, it has been ingeniously main- 



