Book I. 



PEAR. 



707 



4438. Propagation' The pear may be propagated by layers or suckers, but not easily 

 by cuttings. These modes, however, are productive of very iadifFerent plants, and are 

 justly rejected in favor of raising from seed, and grafting or budding. 



4439. From seed. This mode is adopted either for the purpose of obtaining new varieties, or for pro- 

 ducing pear-stocks. In the former case, the same principles of selection or crossing are to be followed 

 which we have stated in treating of raising seedling apple-trees, between which and the pear-tree, the 

 chief difference is, that tiie latter requires a longer period, nearly double, to come into bearing, and 

 that the proportion of good sorts to bad, so originated, is but very small. Professor Van Mons, proprietor 

 of the Pepiniere de la Fidelite, at Brussels, has upwrds of 800 approved sorts of new pears, raised from 

 seed by himself and M. Duquesne, of Mons, in the course of fifteen or sixteen years, and selected from, 

 probably, 8000 new seedling fruits. Van Mons observed to Neill, that " he seldom failed in procuring 

 valuable apples from the seed ; for those which were not adapted to the garden as dessert fruit, were pro- 

 bably suited for the orchard, and fit for baking or cider-making. With pears the case was different, 

 many proving so bad as to be unfit for any purpose." {Horticul. Tour,8cc. 309.) Whenever a seedling 

 indicates, by the blunt shape, thickness, and woolliness of its leaves, or by the softness of its bark and 

 fulness of its buds, the promise of future good qualities, as a fruit-bearing tree. Van Mons takes a 

 graft from it, and places it on a well established stock : the value of its fruit is thus much sooner ascer- 

 tained. {Horticul. Tour, &c. 310.) At Brussels, seedlings yield fruit in four or five years, in Britain seldom 

 before seven or ten years have elapsed. The fruit of the first year of bearing is always inferior to that of 

 the second and third years. If a pear or an apple possess a white and heavy pulp, with juice of rather 

 pungent acidity, it may be expected in the second, third, and subsequent years, greatly to improve in 

 size and flavor. New varieties of pears, and indeed, of all fruits, are more likely to be obtained from the 

 seeds of new than of old sorts. {Horticul. Tour, &c. 308, 309.) 



4440. In raising pears for stock, the seeds from perry-makers are generally made use of ; but the most 

 proper are those from the wild pear, as likely to produce plants more hardy and durable. There is, how- 

 ever, less difference between free pear-stocks, for those raised from the cultivated fruit, and wild pear- 

 stocks, than there is between free apple and crab-stocks. The seeds being procured, maybe sown, and 

 afterwards treated as directed for seedling crab, or apple-tree stocks. 



■1441. Grafting and budding. The most common stocks for grafting the pear are the common pear and 

 wilding ; but as the apple is dwarfed, and brought more early into a bearing state by grafting on the pa- 

 radise or creeper, so is the pear by grafting on the quince or whitethorn. The pear will also succeed very 

 well on the whitebeam, medlar, service, or apple ; but the wilding and quince are in most general use. 

 Pears on fi-ce stocks grow luxuriantly in good soil on a dry bottom ; those on wildings grow less rapidly, 

 but are deemed more durable, and they will thrive on the poorest soil, if a hardy variety, and not over- 

 pruned. " On the quince," Miller observes, " breaking pears are rendered gritty and stony ; but the melt- 

 ing sorts are much improved : trees on these stocks may be planted in a moist soil with more success than 

 those on wildings or thorns." On the thorn, pears come very early into bearing, continue prolific, and, 

 in respect to soil, will thrive well on a strong clay, which is unsuitable both to those on quinces and wild- 

 ings ; but they are supposed to have an unfavorable influence on the fruit, in rendering it smaller and 

 hard ; and the grafts or buds require to be inserted very low, that the moisture of the earth may tend to 

 favor the swelling or enlargement of the diameter of the stock, which does not increase proportionally to, 

 nor ever attains the same size as the stem of the pear. Dubreuil, a French gardener, recommends the 

 quince-stock for clayey and light soils, and the free stock for chalky and siliceous soils. {Horticul. Trans. 

 iv. 566.) The free and wilding pear-stocks are to be planted in nursery rows, at the same distance as re- 

 commended for free and wilding apples ; and the quince and thorn at the same distance as the paradise 

 and creeper apples ; in other respects, the management is the same as for the apple. 



4442. Choice of sorts. (See Ch. II. and III. on Planting the Orchard and Kitclien-Gar- 

 den.) The following is a list of table-pears for use in succession, from July to July 

 again, as furnished for the table of the Duke of Buccleugh from the Dalkeith gar- 

 den. The letters mark the aspect of the walls against which they are trained. 



{W.) Jargonelle 

 (S.) Longueville 

 is.) Summer bergamot 

 \S.) Orange bergamot 

 (W.) Summer boncretien 



(TT.) Autumn bergamot 

 (W.) Gansel's bergamot 

 (S. and W.) Green sugar 

 \W.) Early primitive 

 (S.) Muirfowl egg 



(S.) Grey achan 

 {W.) Green chisel 

 ( W.) St. Germain 

 ( W.) Cressane 

 ( W.) Brown beurr^ 



(W.) Grey beurr<; 

 ( IV.\ Winter boncretien 

 ( W.) Swan's egg 

 {W.) Chaumontelle 

 W.) Coir 



{Macdonald, in Sir John Sinclah-'s Gm. Hep. ofScotlaiu!, iv. 433.) 



4443. Choice of plants. Abercrombie takes trees at one year from the graft, and thence to the sixth 

 year, or older. Forsyth says, " I would advise those who intend to plant pear-trees, instead of choosing 

 young ones, to look out for the oldest that they can find in the nursery, and with strong stems." 



4444. Soil and site. " A dry, deep loam," Abercrombie observes, " is accounted the best soil for the 

 pear-tree when the stock is of its own species ; on a quince-stock it wants a moist soil, without which it 

 will not prosper. Gravel is a good sub-soil, where the incumbent mould is suitable. Cold clay is a bad 

 sub-soil : to prevent fruit-trees from striking into it, slates may be laid just under the roots. For wall- 

 trees, the soil should be made good to the depth of three feet ; for orchard-trees, eighteen inches may do. 

 Pear-trees, on their own stocks, will thrive on land where apples will not even live ; supposing the plants 

 to be hardy varieties, little removed from wildings, and to have room to grow freely as standards. To the 

 more choice of the early autumn and prime winter pears, assign south, cast, or west walls. Knight and 

 M'Phail recommend a strong, deep, loamy soil, and the latter a high wall for training the better sorts." 



4445. Planting filially \s performed any time, in mild weather, from October to March ; standards are 

 placed from twenty-five to forty feet apart every way ; half standards, from twenty to thirty ; and dwarf 

 standards, in borders from fifteen to twenty feet from stem to stem. Wall and espalier trees are planted 

 from fifteen to thirty feet apart, according as they may have been planted on pear or quince-stocks. 



4446. Mode of bearing, as in the apple-tree. " The pear-tree," M'Phail says, " does not produce blos- 

 soms on the former year's wood, as several other sorts of trees do. Its blossom-buds are formed upon 

 spurs growing out of wood not younger than one year old, and consequently, projecting spurs all over the 

 tree must be left for that purpose." " In some pears," Knight observes, " the fruit grows only on the 

 inside of those branches which are exposed to the sun and air ; in others it occupies every part of the 

 tree. " 



4447. Pruning and training statidards. " Permit these to extend on all sides freely. 

 Several years may elapse before any cross-placed, very irregular, or crowded branches, 

 dead and worn-out bearers, require pruning, which give in winter or spring. Keep the 

 head moderately open in the middle." " Pruning," Knight observes, " is not often 

 wanted in the culture of the pear-tree, which is rarely much encumbered with superfluous 

 branches ; but in some kinds, whose form of growth resembles the apple-tree, it will 

 sometimes be found beneficial." 



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