412 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



water unlll It is completely saturated, and you must then use It while It is 

 fresh. It may be used at any season, and on any sized trees. It will 

 smooth the rough bole of an old apple tree. 



As to pruning dwarf pears, I aim to keep them in a pyramid shape. 

 The bearing limbs of a tree are the natural upright ones. I choose to 

 have the branches start close to the ground. I would let a dwarf tree bear 

 only one pear the first year, two the second, five the third, and as many as 

 I wish after that. I grow 50 to 200 pears to a tree, 5^ feet high. Upon 

 my trees, the quince and pear roots are both active, and give sustenance 

 to the tree. The pear tree is a great water drinker, and all the motions of 

 its leaves are so many mechanical engines to pump up water. I mulch my 

 trees, but am careful to remove it in the fall, as soon as the leaves begin 

 to full, and afterward put it back, before the ground freezes. As to 

 manuring pear trees, I believe that no putrescent matter should ever come 

 near them. Bones and potnsh on the surface, are the kinds of fertilizers 

 for pears, and the bones should be made soluble. Of course, I manure my 

 trees with super-phosphates alone, and the more I can sub-divide the par- 

 ticles the better. For this purpose I use dry muck, or even common soil 

 as a divisor. 



Wm. S. Carpenter. — One of the secrets of greater success with trees 

 where roots extend from the pear stocks, is that the quince roots will not 

 run off over six feet, while the pear roots will reach twenty feet. I find 

 bone-dust the best manure that I have ever tried. 



Prof. Mapes. — I plant my trees in a hole four feet deep, and four feet 

 wide, filled with surface soil, and in that hole the roots grow as they would 

 in a pot. 



Andrew S. Fuller.— I find in some cases that where ^the pear sends out 

 roots, those from the quince die. In some cases it has been proved, not 

 only with pears but grapes,^ that deep-rooted plants are always the most 

 healthy — and perhaps that is the secret of Prof. Mapes' success. I would 

 not manure the surface, nor use as a mulch anything that will give food to 

 the tree. Most of the old vines in this city that have failed have all their 

 roots on or near the surface. It is as healthy to keep the body of a tree 

 clean, as it is that of a person. 



Prof. Mapes. — We may plant pears too deep upon badly prepared land, 

 but not upon well-prepared soil, thoroughly underdrained. Shallow disin- 

 tegration of the soil will not answer for pear or grape growing, because, 

 as Mr. Fuller has observed, where the roots run so near the surface, as 

 they naturally will upon soil that is not deeply dug and drained, the sun 

 seems to have such an effect upon them that the tree or vine loses its vigor, 

 and has not power to ripen fruit. 



STRAWBERRY WINE. 



A sample of strawberry wine, made by James McCreedy, of Plattsburgh, 

 N. Y., was sent to the Club, and, judging from the gusto of the tasters, 

 we should say it must be pretty good cordial, but no more like wine than 

 any other fruit juice, sweetened with common sugar, and fermented, by 



