THE PEAR. 



103 



iment in every part of the world ; they are generally 

 found to be natives or wildings. 



The pear forms a conspicuous item in the dessert, 

 and is admired for its rich juicy qualities more as a 

 table fruit than for domestic cookery, although the 

 autumnal and winter kinds are used for stews, pies 

 and other domestic purposes. 



Soil and location. — The soil best adapted to the 

 pear is a deep rich mellow loam, approaching to 

 that of clay. If the pear tree is planted in a soil 

 where the surface earth is thin and the subsoil of a 

 barren sand or gravelly nature, it rarely grows to 

 any perfection for many years together ; for the 

 roots generally strike deep for their ' support and 

 draw moisture during the summer from the subsoil, 

 and consequently on poor gravelly bottoms the roots 

 cannot extract their wonted nutriment of hot dry 

 summers, and hence the fruit does not come to its 

 maturity, more owing to poverty than anything else. 

 An instance of this may be drawn from the fact that 

 many fine varieties of pears bear good specimens of 

 fruit in the vicinity of Albany, owing to the subsoil 

 being a cool moist clayey bottom, that do not bear 

 well in New York and in the New England States. 



The location should be chosen in a sheltered place, 

 for in a too much exposed situation it is rare that 

 pear trees, the tender kinds in particular, bear good 

 crops of fruit. 



The method of propagation is by raising stocks 

 from seeds in the nursery as directed under the 

 proper head. The pear is sometimes worked on 

 the quince and white thorn when it is desired to 

 have the tree of a dwarf low stature to train against 

 fences or trellis, or indeed for any purpose when re- 



