THE PEAR. 453 



may be avoided by placing the seed-beds as near as practi- 

 cable to the middle of a clean ploughed field, and by encircling 

 the ground with a bank or ridge of fresh earth thrown up for 

 this purpose, about a foot high. Mice will not pass such a 

 boundary under the snow. 



Taking up the seedlings late in autumn, and burying them 

 in a cellar, or laying them in by the roots and nearly covering 

 the whole stems, will preserve them safely. 



Budding may be performed the first summer after transplant- 

 ing if the stocks have made a good growth. The manage- 

 ment of the young trees is the same as for apples, by grafting 

 or budding near the surface of the ground, and heading down, 

 trimming, and cultivation. But as pear-stocks are valuable, 

 budding is to be preferred to grafting, because it may be re- 

 peated in case of failure. Pear stocks are usually imported, 

 since it is cheaper to import than to raise them. They come 

 chiefly from France. Root-grafting is not employed. 



Dwarf Pears. 



For orchard culture, and in most parts of the country where 

 the pear flourishes with great vigor and proves highly produc- 

 tive, pear-stocks will doubtless always be found preferable to 

 all others. The advantages of a dwarf growth on dissimilar 

 stocks have been already pointed out under the head of stocks. 

 Such trees are not so long-lived as on pear-roots, and they 

 require more thorough and fertile culture, and care in prun- 

 ■ ing. But they have some important advantages, such as com- 

 ing soon into bearing, occupying a fifth part of the ground, 

 thriving in many soils where pear-stocks will not, and in a 

 few instances improving the quality of the fruit. 



Tne only reliable stock is the French quince. Nearly all 

 the experiments with the mountain ash have sooner or later 

 proved failures. Budded or grafted upon apple seedlings, 

 pears sometimes make a feeble growth for a few years ; but 

 unless the grafts themselves throw out roots, by planting 

 beneath the surface, they sooner or later perish. It some- 

 times happens that grafts of a few varieties inserted at stand- 

 ard height grow and bear for a few years. The thorn has 

 been used in England, and to some extent in this country, with 



