HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 245 



endure? That is the point. The knowledge of this simple fact is of no 

 avail unless carried rigidly into practice. I think I know of dwarf pears 

 that have borne fruit some ten or twelve years, in a dry sandy soil, but 

 highly fed and cultivated as sandy soils usually require such care. With 

 only ordinary culture, however, I am satisfied they would generally fail 

 much sooner. For such soils I would never recommend dwarfs, but strong 

 seedling standards. No honest man will attempt the growth of the pear on 

 sprouts, as he will cheat himself prodigiously. Modern horticulture has 

 fully proven the fact, that the most healthy and vigorous fruit stocks are 

 those raised from the seed. 



But to my subject, viz., the duration of the pear worked on the quince. 

 I have already shown them of twelve years' standing on a dry soil, but 

 never very vigorous and thrifty. And I know of them on their favorite 

 soil, viz., moist clay, vigorous, thrifty and prolific ; I am not prepared to say 

 twenty years of life is their allotted limit, but I am prepared to say that if 

 they would surely bear no longer than half that time, it would be a satisfac- 

 tory and profitable investment, since many soils would grow those pears 

 that would be unfit for anything else. Besides, there are well known prin- 

 ciples in horticulture, that place the question beyond a doubt. Quince trees 

 are known to attain the age of fifty, and even a hundred years, and pears 

 double that time ; and the quince stock, usually used for working dwarfs is a 

 very free grower, exhibiting the most satisfactory evidence of its enduring 

 at least a sufficient number of years to pay the cost. In garden culture the 

 dwarf pear is highly prized as an ornament. Long borders of dwarf pear 

 tree3 hanging with fruit, is a rich, tempting and beautiful sight. 



But we now come to the main-spring of the whole affair, the grand secret 

 of success : management and culture proper to secure handsome dwarf pears, 

 the non-observance of which will insure the amateur a complete failure. 

 High culture is essentially necessary for the dwarf pear, and this is so con- 

 cisely expressed by a contributor to the last Patent Office Report, that I 

 make the brief quotation entire : " Dwarf pears worked upon quinces, have 

 been planted in large numbers about us, and as fine specimens of fruit from 

 them have been exhibited at our State Fair, (N. H.,) as have ever been pro- 

 duced anywhere. The dwarfs are preferred to standards for garden cul- 

 ture, because they occupy but little space. Besides, they come into bearing 

 much sooner than the standards, usually in two or three years from trans- 

 planting, and some have borne perfect fruit the same year they were import- 

 ed from France. Pears upon the quince require high cultivation, because 

 the quince root must always remain small, and cannot wander far for nour- 



