100 Notes and Descriptions of several Varieties of 



conclusion in regard to any subject, much less to one so ob- 

 scure and affected by so many circumstances, as that of the 

 best mode to be pursued in the cultivation of any particular 

 species or varieties of plants. Still, the result of the past 

 year, taken in connection with the facts of the great severity 

 of the winter, the constant protection of the ground by snow, 

 the abundance of pears, with the young trees apparently un- 

 injured by the winter, seems to confirm what the past expe- 

 rience of some had taught them, the great importance, in 

 most soils, of protecting the roots of pear trees by a covering 

 of litter or straw. It is not probably the cold, unless more 

 intense than is often experienced, that causes injury, but the 

 alternations of heat and cold ; it is the lifting of the trees by 

 the freezing and thawing of the ground that is mainly to be 

 feared and guarded against ; and for this purpose a slight 

 protection is sufficient. Cultivators of the pear tree are, it is 

 believed, too often apt to overlook the effects of the winter 

 upon the roots of the tree. When a tree in the spring and 

 through the first part of the summer seems vigorous and 

 healthy, but suddenly withers and dies, it is often ascribed to 

 fire blight, or frozen sap blight, or some other such cause ; 

 when perhaps the true source of the disease is an injury to 

 the roots in the preceding winter. 



The great size, in some cases actually monstrous, of many 

 pears at the different exhibitions of the Horticultural Society 

 in the past year, was a matter of astonishment and admi- 

 ration. In the absence of any particular knowledge as to 

 the method pursued in producing such an unusual develop- 

 ment, it may be suggested that it is the result of a severe 

 thinning of the fruit, an abundant supply of nutriment, and 

 frequent and copious waterings by irrigation or other artificial 

 methods. When size of the fruit only is the object sought, 

 water is probably the element most essential to success. 

 Whether this great size of the fruit is consistent with richness 

 and sweetness of flavor, and whether too it is not obtained 

 at the cost of some part of its power in retarding fermenta- 

 tion, perhaps may be questioned. That fruit forced by arti- 

 ficial means to a most unnatural size — that, filled with water, 



