TRANSPLANTING, ETC. 311 



necessary to sustain it ; and about thirty or forty years the natural 

 duration when worked on the quince root, and regularly pruned and 

 cultivated. Instances are of course recorded and known, where trees 

 exist for longer periods, while hundreds decay and are gone in one 

 half the time. The demand for pear trees on the quince has been so 

 great for some years past that, too often, little regard has been paid 

 to the stock ; and we have now in our grouuds rows of bearing trees 

 on quince roots, all of one kind, received from France, from which, 

 although receiving the same care and attention, there may be selected 

 those that ere many years must of necessity decay, as the stock and 

 tree are not adapted one to the other. Again, as before remarked, 

 there are varieties that, while they grow apparently well for a few 

 years, decay on fruiting the second year. The success of the Pear 

 on quince roots trained en-pyramid in the old country has been con- 

 fined to but few varieties, and these kept under a steady yet high 

 state of cultivation. Orcharding with the pear on the quince, in the 

 manner of most orcharding in this country, will never repay the first 

 cost of the trees ; but if trees are selected of varieties known to have 

 been long successful, and a system of culture pursued which shall 

 meet the requirements of the fibrous roots of the quince, then may 

 the grower look for profit and pleasure in the result; but equally 

 gratifying and profitable would be the result, if we except a few va- 

 rieties of foreign origin, when grown on the pear, and annually root- 

 pruned ; added to which, if one half the trees were taken out after 

 twenty years, the balance would form a fine permanent orchard, to 

 be managed as our apple orchards. In small gardens, where the 

 quince stock is advised by nearly all writers (and correctly so, if the 

 right varieties are selected), success will not be had without an ap- 

 preciation by the grower of the extent of roots formed by the quince, 

 and the system of culture required to supply the food of the plant, 

 as well as knowledge in how to prune, and also some little knowledge 

 of the amount of fruit the young tree is capable of ripening and con- 

 tinue in health ; the tendency being rather to over-production and 

 exhaustion. 



Transplanting, Selection of Trees, and Distances apart. The roots 

 of the Pear have few laterals except grown on shallow, rich soil, and 

 in transplanting, it is therefore requisite to secure as much of the 

 large root as possible. If in taking up they are mostly destroyed, 

 the branches will have to be shortened in and cut out. On the quince 

 root, when well grown, there will need little attention, except to head 

 back to a regular shape, and prune smooth the ends of each root, as 

 often directed in this work ; and in setting, taking care that the earth 

 is even with the junction of the pear on the quince. 



Trees on pear roots for the orchard or garden are best at about 

 three years old, and five to seven feet high, well grown, and shaped 

 as noted in the apple. Dwarf trees or those on quince roots, are 



