CHAPTER XXX. 



THE PEAR. 



The Pear, when grown to full perfection, is distinguished 

 for its great delicacy, its melting and juicy texture, and its 

 mild, rich, and delicious flavor. Excelling the apple in these 

 particulars, it falls below it in importance in consequence of 

 the less uniformly healthy habit of the tree. 



Propagation, 



The best trees are raised from seedling stocks; suckers, 

 unless unusually furnished with fibrous roots, are of crooked, 

 one-sided, and stunted growth. 



Raising the Seedlings. — The seeds, after separation from the 

 fruit, should be kept as already described for apple-seeds, by 

 mixing with sand or leaf-mould. The soil for the seed-bed 

 should be unusually deep and fertile, rather damp than other- 

 wise, and should have a good manuring with lime and ashes 

 and an abundant supply of peat or muck, if the soil is not 

 already largely furnished by nature with this ingredient. 



The mode of sowing the seeds may be the same as that de- 

 scribed for the apple, in drills from one to two feet apart. 

 The more thinly they are sown, the less will be the danger of 

 disaster from the leaf-blight; and for this reason, drills near 

 together, with the seeds somewhat sparingly scattered in 

 them, will be found best. 



The leaf -blight is the most serious evil met with in the cul- 

 ture of pear-seedlings. It is more formidable in some seasons 

 than in others. Commencing about midsummer, sometimes 

 earlier, but more frequently later, it is first indicated by the 

 leaves in certain parts of the seed-beds turning brown ; in a 

 few days they fall off; other portions of the beds are succes- 



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