Notes and Gleanings. 235 



Culture of Pear-Trees in Pots. — It is the economical method of stow- 

 age of pear-trees in pots in orchard-houses, or in common glass-roofed sheds, 

 that gives value to this species of culture. A span-roofed house with boarded 

 sides and ends, and shutters on hinges two feet wide, opening downwards in each 

 side for ventilation, is a cheap structure. Its sides should be six feet high, and 

 its centre from thirteen to fifteen feet in height. A house of this description may 

 be strongly built, with oak posts to support the side plates, and its roof supported 

 inside by two-inch gas-pipes, at a small cost. As far as I can recollect from what 

 has been done here, a house of the above height, a hundred feet long and twen- 

 ty-four feet wide, ought not to cost more than from ;^I30 to £\\o ; for it must be 

 recollected, there is no glass used but for the roof. A house of these dimensions 

 will allow of the stowage of two thousand pear-trees in eleven-inch pots, having 

 a border in the centre, two side borders, and two narrow paths to give facility 

 to attend to the trees. In round numbers, the area of the house being twenty- 

 four hundred feet, two thousand feet will be taken up with two thousand eleven- 

 inch pots, leaving a margin of four hundred feet for the paths. It is true, that 

 smaller houses may be built ; but, from experience in the culture of pyramidal 

 pear-trees in pots, such houses should not be of a less height than thirteen or 

 fourteen feet in the centre, and six feet at the sides. Pear-trees under glass 

 often bloom early in April ; and, unless the house they are in is lofty, one of our 

 extra-severe spring-frosts may come and destroy the blossoms. The injury, it 

 is true, may be prevented by using pans of charcoal, as in orchard-houses : but 

 the end to be attained in pear-culture is security without much care; and this is 

 best attained by having the house large and lofty, so as to contain a large body 

 of heated air after a sunny day in spring, succeeded by a severe frost at night. 



Being much struck the past season by the size and beauty of the pears grown 

 here on trees in pots, it led to a calculation as to the profit that might be derived 

 from it as a commercial speculation. The result of the calculation was extraor- 

 dinary. Pear-trees on quince-stocks, trained as pyramids, five years old, and 

 from five to six feet in height, of such large pears as Glou Morqeau, Doyenn^ 

 du Cornice, Buerre Diel, Duchesse d'Angouleme, and many others of the same 

 size, averaged from twelve to eighteen each ; the fruit remarkable for their bright 

 colors and clear rinds, without spot or blemish. Fine and well-grown large 

 pears during the winter months, at a low average, are worth three shillings a 

 dozen. So that from two thousand trees, always safe from storms and frosts 

 while in bloom, we may estimate an annual crop of twenty-five hundred dozens 

 of pears. This maj', when the trees attain the age of seven or ten years, be 

 put down at thirty-five hundred dozens. When it is considered that a thousand 

 dozens of pears are worth a hundred and fifty pounds, it will be seen that a 

 house of pears may be made a source of profit. So much for growing pears 

 commercially, for which purpose only large and good pears should be cultivated. 

 Small pears, however delicious, are useless for market, and should be grown by 

 amateurs only. 



The labor required by a large number of pear-trees is not hea^T^ ; the routine 

 of culture being as follows, which I give in the form of a calendar : — 



I. The trees should have their surface-soil renewed to a depth of three inches 



