90 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Doj'eniu'- Boussock, 200 Bartlett, and the balance about equally 

 wilh Urbaniste, Merriani, Louise bonne de Jersey, Belle Lucra- 

 tive, Flemish Beauty, Beurre Bosc, Yicar of "Winkfield, 

 Lawrence, Winter Nelis, &c. 



To this collection of pears, amounting, as before stated, to 

 about eioht hundred varieties, now on trial, there are-annually 

 numerous additions, which Mr. Wilder receives through his cor- 

 res[)ondence with the various European and American societies 

 of. which he is a member. More than half the pear trees were 

 originally grafted on the quince stock. These are all planted 

 deep enough to cover three or four inches of the pear stock, — 

 a system adopted by Mr. Wilder more than a quarter of a century 

 ago, and to which he believes he is indebted for the great 

 success which has attended this branch of his cultivation. By 

 this method, the quince stock is protected from the borer, 

 is kept soft, swells and keeps pace with the pear stock in its 

 growth, and the latter frequently throws out roots. A large 

 proportion of the pear trees are of the pyramidal form, and 

 furnished with bearing branches to the bottom. As an evidence 

 of his complete success with pears on quince stocks, he showed 

 us trees of the Urbaniste w^hich were but fifteen years old, and 

 which had each borne a barrel of fine pears in a year. They 

 were more than twenty feet high, and had borne fruit for 

 twelve years. Their appearance at the time of our visit, 

 loaded as they were with fruit of the finest character, elicited 

 numerous exclamations of admiration. Trees were pointed 

 out to ns of the same variety on tiie pear stock, growing in the 

 same square, and planted at the same time, which had never 

 yielded a bushel of pears. 



Li relation to the cultivation of the ground for fruits, Mr. 

 Wilder adheres to the opinion he has several times expressed 

 in his addresses, on the necessity of thorough drainage and 

 proper preparation of the soil. He considers these requisites 

 of absolute importance for the production of fine flavored pears. 

 He advocates surface manuring; protests against the use of 

 fresh manure, the digging or ploughing deeply among fruit 

 trees, and abjures reliance on circles dug around trees as a 

 method of culture. The following extract from his last 

 address before the xVracrican Pomological Society, presents his 

 views on this point, which we regard as so important as to 



