Propagation. 253 



the most favorable portions of the soil. As a necessary conse- 

 quence, growth immediately ceases ; and if they are attacked early, 

 and have made but little previous growth, they are nearly ruined, 

 and few will survive the succeeding winter, for they never make a 

 second growth the same year of any value. But if their previous 

 growth has been vigorous, and the blight appears late in summer, 

 much less injury is sustained. The best remedy is high cultivation, 

 on good new soil, and taking out daily every diseased tree. 



Wintering the Young Seedlings. The frequent destruction of the 

 trees the first winter is another serious evil. The danger is least 

 with those that have made the best well-ripened growth ; hence it 

 becomes very important to secure healthful vigor by the adoption of 

 the cultivation previously mentioned. But in many localities, pear 

 seedlings, which are always remarkably free from fibrous or lateral 

 roots the first year, are drawn out by the freezing of the soil, and 

 either destroyed or greatly injured. Several modes have been pro- 

 posed to prevent this result, and have been tried to a greater or less 

 extent. One is to induce the emission of lateral roots, by taking up 

 the young seedlings from the thickly sown beds early in the season, 

 and, as soon as four leaves have appeared, cut off their tap roots and 

 reset them in the nursery-rows. Robert Nelson, of Newburyport, 

 Mass., pursued this course with great success ; but its general 

 utility may be questioned, except during a rainy period or on favora- 

 ble soils, unless abundant watering is given. A more easy as well 

 as safe mode would perhaps be to cut off the tap roots, at the same 

 age, by means of a sharp spade thrust beneath the soil, and without 

 transplanting. Neither of these modes could be successfully applied 

 except to large, vigorous seedlings, growing in a deep, rich soil. 



But where the growth of lateral roots has not been effected, and 

 the consequent danger is greater of their being drawn upwards by 

 frost, much protection may be given them by covering the whole 

 ground with forest leaves to a depth of several inches ; and if the 

 rows are near each other, and the trees several inches or a foot 

 high, they will prevent the leaves from being swept off by the winds. 

 The incursion of mice may be avoided by placing the seed-beds as 

 near as practicable to the middle of a clean ploughed field, and by 

 encircling the ground with a bank or ridge of fresh earth thrown up 

 for this purpose, about a foot high. Mice will not pass such a 

 boundary under the snow. 



Taking up the seedlings late in autumn, and burying them in a cel- 

 lar, or laying them in by the roots and nearly covering the whole 

 stems, will preserve them safely. 



