No. 129.] 563 



tliey will have roots to them ; plant them in the nursery or gar- 

 den in spring, at the usual time of planting, the second spring 

 cut them ofif level with the surface of the ground, scrape the 

 €arth away to give room to put on the graft, so that its top "may 

 be even with th« ground. 



When the graft has three out-shoots about three or four inches 

 long, level up the earth or mould around the stock and graft, 

 so that nothing may appear above ground but the new sprouts, 

 in this way the graft will throw out roots, so that the young tree 

 will have the support of its own roots and also of the parent 

 ■stock. The young tree will bear every year and in four years 

 from the time it is grafted. A FARMER, 



To H. Meigs Esq., Secretary of the Farmers^ Club, 



Professor J. J. Mapes — The pear is the favorite fruit of the day. 

 Worthless in its natural state, so that even the choke pear, is an 

 improvement upon the natural and still not edible. The pear 

 was not really developed in perfection until the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, (see Downing, page 317, (Pliny) Van Mons of Belgium, 

 (the Eden of the pear tree) has 80,000 seedlings. The pear is 

 not a native of North America. It grows wild in Europe, West- 

 ern Asia and in China. la its natural state it is hardier and 

 longer lived than the apple. Mr. Rose mentions several pear 

 trees as known to be four hundred yeai-s old. One tree in Home 

 Lacey, Herefordshire, England, has yielded fifteen hogsheads of 

 perry i?i one year. One at Vincennes, in Illinois, is forty years 

 old, and at one foot above the ground, it is in girth ten feet and 

 at nine feet above, it is six feet and an half, and it is enormously 

 productive. 



The Stayvesant pear tree, planted by Governor Stuy vesant, of 

 Irving Memory, on his farm, now part of this city, more than two 

 hundred j^ears ago, is still standing. It is a summer pear, simi- 

 lar to the Bon Chretien. 



The pear is for the dessert, it is cooked ; it is dried in ovens in 

 France and Belgium. 



Perry made from pear is richer than cider ; is made in the 

 same way. The yield of perry per acre is one third more than 

 that of cider. The wood when stained black is an excellent im- 



