PEAR CULTURE. 133 



PEAR CULTURE. 



BY REV. J. H. CREfGHTON, 



By request of a member of the State Horticultural Society I write a 



few thoughts on the culture of the pear. 



It used to be said that — 



" He that planteth pears 

 Planteth them for his heirs." 



This is not quite true, yet there is no fruit tree that requires so long 

 a time to be tested and fruited. Of all nursery trees it is the most 

 difficult to manage and get up a good stock. Only an experienced 

 nurseryman can successfully grow the stocks from seed, and then with 

 many failures and loss. Most of our pear trees are worked on stocks 

 brought from France. Writers generally condemn the use of suckers 

 or sprouts from our native trees, but we have known some line trees 

 raised in that way. 



No tree perhaps is more capricious as to the stock it is grafted on. 

 French stocks and our American stocks are the best, but sometimes 

 there is an incongruity between a healthy stock and a healthy graft 

 that cannot be understood. This disagreement may be but slight, but 

 sometimes it is so decided that the bud or graft will kill the stock as 

 if poison was injected into it. 



At one time, about forty years ago, it became quite common to work 

 the pear on quince, and it was generally believed that the whole sub- 

 ject of pear culture would be changed. Large orchards were planted 

 and fine fruit was produced. But it was soon found that only a few 

 varieties would grow on the quince, some would grow feebly. Many 

 persons who invested largely found they were left with a multitude 

 of invalids. In some cases the trees were taken up and transplanted 

 so deep that the pear would strike roots above the quince. This would 

 save the life of the tree, and in some cases make a good tree. If this 

 was done the first year we think the result would be good. The 

 claims for dwarfing on the quince was that a much greater number of 

 trees could be planted on an acre, and that the trees would come sooner 



