'42 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fruit; while, the trees being low, the fruit is less exposed to the danger of being 

 blown off and injured. There are, it is thought, really but two objections to 

 its adoption, one is that the quince is subject to the attacks of the borer, and 

 this may be in a great part if not wholly obviated by, in planting, setting the 

 tree, that which should always be done, so deep that the junction of the 

 graft and the stock should be, after the earth is levelled, about two inches 

 below the surface. The other objection, that the quince is a much less long 

 lived tree than the pear, is not so capable perhaps as the other of a complete 

 refutation, yet, as experience has proved that it is sufficiently long lived 

 for all practical purposes, it is not considered that this objection if valid is 

 entitled to much of any consideration, or should be allowed to have much 

 weight in deciding the question. Admitting that the pear in its natural con- 

 dition is a much longer lived tree than the quince, yet it will be contended 

 that the pear as cultivated has ceased to be in this natural condition, but 

 that by long cultivation, constant reproduction by seedlings, or some other 

 cause, the character of the tree has become materially changed ; that, instead 

 of a slow, it has become a tree of rapid growth, that its wood is less close 

 and compact in its texture, that it comes earlier into fruit, and its natural life 

 is of much shorter duration. While in its normal condition the pear may be 

 a much longer lived tree than the quince, yet, in its cultivated state, it may 

 be questioned if it has very much the advantage in this particular. At least 

 it is not difficult to find instances of pears upon the quince that have lasted 

 for near half a century, and it is a fact of personal experience that a Louise 

 Bonne de Jersey, upon the quince, has continued for more than twenty-five 

 years to produce fruit, showing now no signs of a want of vigor, or any indica- 

 tions that it may not yet continue, for many years to come, to do so, while pear 

 trees on their own roots contiguous to it, and of not very much greater age, 

 give unmistakable evidence of old age and decay. Instances, it is true, are 

 occasionally stated of a want of success in raising pears upon the quince, 

 and the facts stated are not to be doubted or questioned ; but these instances 

 of failure, as it is believed, arise not from any inherent difficulty or defect in 

 the thing itself, but from some unfortunate fortuitous combination of circum- 

 stances, as an unsuitable soil, bad exposure, or improper treatment ; and, it is 

 thought, that the expediency of this mode of culture for the pear is amply 

 sustained by the weight of evidence in its favor, the results of the experience 

 of those that have adopted it, and may be safely recommended. 



In cultivating pears as dwarfs, the training and pruning the tree is by no 

 means an unimportant part of the matter, it should commence with the young 

 plant at an early age, and be afterwards regulary pursued until the attain- 

 ment of its object. The form usually adopted for the tree, unless trained to 

 a wall, is that known as the Pyramidal, but that might be more properly 

 called the Conical. The training should commence when the plant is but 

 one year old from the bud; the leading shoot should then be shortened to a 

 length of about eighteen inches, in order to force it to throw out side shoots 



