CHAPTER Tl 



THE PEAR. 



The tear, vvhen grown to full perfection, is eminently dis- 

 tinguished for its great delicacy, its melting and juicy tex- 

 ture, and by its mild, exceedingly rich, and delicious flavor. 

 Greatly excelling the apple in these particulars, it falls be- 

 low it in importance only in consequence of the less uni- 

 formly healthy habit of the tree. 



PROPAGATION. 



The best trees are raised from seedling stocks ; suckers, 

 unless unusually furnished with fibrous roots, are of crooked, 

 one-sided, and stunted growth. Seedling pears are more 

 difficult to raise than those of any other kind of fruit ; and 

 the many disasters to which the young trees are liable, have 

 caused a great and general deficiency, in the midst of an 

 abundant supply of trees of other kinds in the nurseries of 

 this country. 



Raising the Seedlings. The seeds, after separation from 

 the fruit, should be kept in the way already given for apple- 

 seeds, by mixing with sand or muck. The soil for the seed- 

 bed, should be unusually deep and fertile, rather damp than 

 otherwise, and should have a good manuring with lime and 

 ashes, and an abundant supply of peat or muck, if the 

 soil is not already largely furnished by nature with this in- 

 gredient. A correspondent of the Horticulturist states that 

 he has been eminently successful by the following practice : 

 First make a deep trench with the plow, and finish to the 

 required depth with the spade — two feet — not less. The 

 compost used to fill the trench is made of half a peck of iron 

 filings or blacksmith's cinders, with half a peck of slaked 

 lime, and half a peck of wood ashes, and a peck each of 

 swamp muck and barn-yard manure, thoroughly mixed with 



