PEARS. 197 



principally upon our standard pear trees; but time will 

 show — " we shall see." One thing may be here observed, 

 viz : that owing to our dry Summers, compared with Eu- 

 rope and the Atlantic States, the fibrous small roots of the 

 quince, which are near the surface of the ground, are 

 more affected by drouth than the pear roots, which seek 

 their sustenance deeper in the earth. This is rather 

 against the dwarf pears for market use. If the pear is 

 permitted to take root, then it will soon cease to be 

 dwarf, and grow away high. With regard to the grafting 

 of pear trees, on their own stock, and on the quince, it 

 must not be forgotten that, in the former case, the union 

 is more perfect than in the latter, where the sap is not in 

 action at the same instant of time, and the quality of their 

 secretions, be they what they may, can not be as perfectly 

 identical, or precisely the same. This will, and does have 

 a great bearing on the success of the culture of dwarf 

 pears, compared with the standards ; and on this account, 

 also, we can not look for the same permanent prosperity 

 of these trees. "We must necessarily incur the loss of time 

 and money in their continual decay and renewal. It is 

 only when varieties of the same species are worked on each 

 other, that a perfectly sound and durable union is effected, 

 and not always, even then, as we see when a fast growing 

 apple-tree is grafted upon a diminutive and slow-growing 

 variety, such as the Paradise. A peach-tree, when bud- 

 ded on the varieties of the plum, were it not that the plum 

 stock is impervious to the peach worm, would not be more 

 durable, in this country, than when budded on its own 

 stock. One very great advantage, which must not be 

 overlooked, in the use of dwarf pears is, that they fill 

 that vacuum in the cultivation of the pear which is so 

 trying to the patience of fruit-growers, and which must 

 necessarily exist, until the standards shall have come 

 into full bearing. 



