FllUITS. — VARIETIES AND CULTURE. 



397 



ripen on the tree, become dry, insipid, and only second 

 or third rate. They will also ripen more gradually, last 

 longer, and be less liable to loss or injury, if ripened in 

 the house. It is said, however, a few varieties do best to 

 ripen on the tree. When gathered, some few kinds ripen 

 more perfectly by exposing them to the light and air- 

 Most of them do best, however, in kegs or small boxes, or 

 on the shelves of a cool, dark fruit room, each one sepa- 

 rately enveloped in paper or loose cotton. This is not 

 necessary with the summer varieties. Pears, like apples, 

 must be gathered by hand, with the same precaution to 

 prevent bruises, or they will soon decay. Winter pears 

 should hang as long as may be upon the tree. A week or 

 two before their proper time to ripen, bring them from 

 the fruit room into a warm apartment; this will much 

 improve their flavor. 



Propagation and Culture. — Pears are propagated by 

 budding or grafting on seedling pear stocks or on certain 

 varieties of the quince. Pear suckers should never be 

 employed for this purpose, for they seldom have good 

 roots, and the trees are short-lived ; a great deal of prej- 

 udice exists against pear culture from this cause. Seed- 

 lings raised from the thrifty-growing kinds that are found 

 about the country are much more healthy than those 

 raised from the improved varieties. 



Sow the seed thickly in autumn, in drills eighteen inches 

 apart, or, better still, mix the seed with sifted sand in a 

 box, and place it out doors during winter, and sow in 

 the spring, when they begin to sprout, in good, rich 

 earth; the latter mode saves the seed from being 

 destroyed by ground mice. 



Ashes are an excellent application to the seed bed ; the 

 soil should be moist, as much of the value of the stocks 

 depends on vigorous and continued growth the first 

 season. Take up the stocks in November or December, 

 shorten the tap-root, and reset them in rows four feet 



