Notes and Gleanings, 55 



visit to a certain pear-tree growing in the centre of a forty-acre farm belonging to 

 a neighbor. It is no doubt forty years old, and stands in a pasture-field which is 

 very rarely ploughed. No care has been bestowed upon it, no trimming, no 

 manuring ; but successive owners have left it wholly to itself, except when find- 

 ing it ready to yield up its generous aynual crop of fruit. No one knows any 

 other name for it than that of " preserving-pear." Yet this neglected tree ripens, 

 with unfailing regularity, a crop which rarely sells for less than forty dollars. 

 The fruit is large, and beautifully shaped ; seldom imperfect ; exceedingly hard ; 

 not suitable for eating, at least in autumn, but in high repute for preserving. 

 The great markets would absorb the product of thousands of similar trees with- 

 out being overstocked. My theory is, that we should plant more of this descrip- 

 tion ; standards which, under the most adverse circumstances, and after nearly 

 half a century's trial, have never failed to bear abundantly. I know of other 

 ancient, solitary trees on other farms, which bear with the same profuse regulari- 

 ty. One crop from only seven such would produce more money than the average 

 of the thirty trees referred to ; or an annual gain, per tree, of over three hundred 

 per cent. It is possible that this preserving-pear may be longer coming into 

 bearing than a dwarf; but how superior would be the investment! and how 

 permanent ! What richer legacy could the owner of a hundred acres provide 

 for a family of children than an orchard of these old native standards for each .'' 

 Of what, in such a case, would avail the long waiting for the first fruiting, even 

 if such waiting were actually required ? The children would experience no im- 

 patience ; but the inheritance would come to them in all its rich productiveness. 

 It is we, the fathers, who are unwilling to wait. My theory will doubtless be 

 co^isidered too slow for this fast generation ; but it embodies the three crowning 

 merits of safety, certaint}', and permanency. 



Coming back to modern pear-culture, Mr. Ouinn says, " It is folly to suppose 

 that every person who plants an orchard of pear-trees succeeds. On the con- 

 trary, as far as my personal observation has extended, there has been more 

 money lost than made ; for I could enumerate five persons who have utterly 

 failed to every one who has made pear-culture profitable." He tells us why 

 these failures occur, — the want of preparation of the soil, the planting of varie- 

 ties unsuited to soiland climate, and the prevailing idea that a fruit-tree once 

 set in its place "can take care of itself without any further expense or trouble 

 to its owner." Another cause is the planting of too many varieties. In his 

 own case, he would now be several thousand dollars better oflF had he confined 

 his list to five good varieties instead of cultivating fifty. In another instance, 

 the proprietor of fifteen hundred trees informed him that it would have made a 

 difference of three thousand dollars in ten years. Mr. J. C. Thompson indorses 

 this limitation. His experience has fully satisfied him " that we must come down, 

 and keep down, to a few sorts, and those only of the very best kinds for family 

 use ; for whatever is best for family use is surely best for market." 



So much for one distinguished authority ; and now for another, — Mr. Thomas 

 Meehan, of " The Gardener's Monthly." This gentleman, referring to the fire- 

 blight, avers it to be "the result of a microscopic fungus, and that it is not 

 necessary that the tree should be previously diseased in order that the fungus 



