154 MY FARM. 



They take the leaf-blight as easily as a child takes 

 the mumps ; they are capricious and uncertain- 

 sometimes repaying you for your care well ; and 

 other times, dropping all their fruit in a green state, 

 iu the most petulant way imaginable. And worst of 

 all, after two or three years of devoted nursing, 

 without special cause, and with all their leaves 

 laughing on them, some group of two or three 

 together suddenly die. 



Early bearing, and brilliant specimens favor the 

 quince ; but hardiness, long life, and full crops favor 

 the pear upon its own roots. If a man plant the 

 latter, he must needs wait for the fruit. Mceris puts 

 it very prettily in the Eclogue : 



" Insere, Daphni, pyros : carpent tua poma nepotes." 



But if a man with only a few perches of garden, 

 and with an aptitude for nursing, desires fruit the sec- 

 ond or third year after planting, let him by all means 

 plant the dwarfs. Yet even then his success is un- 

 certain, particularly if he indulges in the "latest 

 varieties." I am compelled to say that I have known 

 several cautious old gentlemen, who with a garden 

 full of dwarf trees, have been seen in the month of 

 September, to slip into a fruit shop at the edge of 

 evening, with suspicious-looking, limp panniers on 

 their arms. Nay, I have myself met them returning 



