THE HAEDY FKUIT GARDEN. 



45 



future characteristic of the seedling already exists in 

 embryo, and their character can neither be modified 

 nor improved, but simply developed by the cultivator. 



The Pear has a stronger tendency to reversion, or 

 degeneration, than most of our cultivated fruits. 

 Probably less than one per cent, of seedling Pears 

 will equal their seed-parent, while hardly one in a 

 thousand or two thousand will yield such superb 

 Pears as Glout Morceaux, Maria Louise, Winter 

 Nelis, or Easter Beurre. 



These facts are not quoted to discourage amateurs 

 or others from raising seedling Pears, for some of 

 them have been the most successful, but as a strong 

 argument for taking every possible means to com- 

 mand success. One means is to sow only the finest 

 seeds out of the finest Pears. The attempt must also 

 be made to improve the seed in the making. This 

 is done by crossing two fine varieties, such, for 

 example, as Maria Louise and Easter Beurre, Beurre 

 Diel and Winter Nelis, Glout Morceaux and Louis 

 Bonne of Jersey, Williams' Bonchretien and Passe 

 Colmar. It will be observed that in each of these two 

 Pears one contrasts with the other in season, size, or 

 quality. But such contrasts are not necessary to in- 

 sure success. Pears may be mated for improved seeds 

 on the principle of harmony as well as of contrast, and 

 the chances of success are about equal on either prin- 

 ciple. All that is needful is to remove the stamens 

 early from the seed-parent, and apply foreign pollen 

 to the pistil. In crossing Pears, however, in the 

 open ground, the pistils of the seed-bearing parent 

 must be carefully protected from chance pollen, by 

 the use of muslin bags, or other means, else will 

 the bees, the butterflies, and the breezes make sad 

 havoc of our systematic and scientific attempts at the 

 improvement of our Pear-seeds. Notes should be 

 made of all such essays, and then when the experi- 

 mental Pears are eaten the seeds should be sown at 

 once, and a record kept of the pedigrees of the seeds. 

 All such data would immensely deepen the interest 

 and increase the zest of Pear propagation by seeds in 

 search of new varieties. 



The Sowing of the Seeds.— There is no 

 better method than that of sowing Pear-seeds so soon 

 as the fruit is eaten. Out of the fruit into the earth, 

 is the safest motto for such valuable property as 

 carefully hybridised or saved Pear-seeds. 



The simplest and safest way is to sow all such 

 Pear-seeds in, say, six-inch pots, at the rate of 

 a dozen seeds in a j>ot, leaving as much as an inch 

 and a half unfilled. Place a sheet of glass or a slate 

 over them, and leave them either in a sheltered spot 

 in the open, or a cold pit, free from frost, until the 

 plants come through the soil : this will mostly be 

 the following spring, say March or April, when the 



plants may be placed in the open air, well watered 

 throughout the summer, and turned out in the open, 

 as directed for Apples, in the autumn. 



A Season Saved by Sowing in Heat. — 



Place in a gentle warmth, say 55° — 60°^ until the 

 middle or end of May. Under this fostering treat- 

 ment each seedling should be potted up so soon as it 

 has made three proper leaves, into a three or four 

 inch pot, returned to warmth, and pushed on as 

 rapidly as may be. If kept under the shelter of 

 an orchard or other house, it will be sufficiently 

 strong to have a six or eight inch pot, and will 

 probably have reached to the height of a yard 

 before the autumn. The extra fostering will enable 

 the seedling to do two or more years' w^ork in one. 

 There is also a middle course, which gives great 

 strength and saves much time, with less trouble. This 

 consists in fostering the plantlets as much as pos- 

 sible, and growing each in separate pots till June, 

 then turning them out in the open, in light rich soil, 

 in which they will grow freely, and also mature their 

 growth before the end of the season. The means 

 of forcing early fertility in seedling Pears differ 

 little if at all from those described for Apples at page 

 166, Vol. II. Some, however, assert that by using 

 the middle portion of the shoots for scions the seed- 

 lings can be proved sooner than by using either 

 their tops or bottoms. Doubtless, the mode of grow- 

 ing seedling Pears for the first season under glass, 

 by heightening and hastening their maturity, also 

 greatly hastens their fertility; while the working 

 of them on dwarfing and fertilising foreign stocks, 

 as the Quince, tends to further the same great end, 

 the early proving of the seedling Pears. As a rule, 

 too, fruit-bearing is much hastened by working the 

 seedlings on fertile varieties — such, for instance, as 

 Louis Bonne of Jersey — in full bearing, and also on 

 medium-sized and specially fertile branches of the 

 same ; the principle of like begetting like apparently 

 having a certain degree of potentiality under such 

 conditions. 



Once more, some authorities, with an eye to purity 

 of blood, recommend those in search of improved 

 and superior varieties to select their seeds only from 

 trees worked on Pear-stocks. It is also thought by 

 some — a very old idea among Melon and Cucumber 

 growers — that by subjecting Pear-seed to extra dry- 

 ing, or keeping it out of the soil for six months or so. 

 the fertility of the seedling may be hastened. 



The Saving and Sowing of Pear-seeds 

 for Stocks. — Possibly were more attention devoted 

 to this matter better stocks might be introduced than 

 any that Pear propagators are yet able to rely upon. 

 What is really wanted and ought to be forthcoming, 



