112 



THE NIJESEKT. 



autumn before planting, it should be ti-enched or subsoil 

 .ploughed to the depth of two feet, for the pear has long 

 tap roots, and liberally enriched with a compost of stahle 

 manure, leaf mould or muck^ and wood ashes^ in about 

 equal parts : fom- inches deep of this spread over the sur- 

 face before ploughing, w^ill be sufficient for any ordinary 

 soil. Lime should also be given liberally, unless the soil 

 be naturally and strongly calcareous. A soil prepared 

 thus in the fall, will require another ploughing or spading 

 in the spring, to mix all the materials properly with the 

 soil, and fit it for the seeds. Where large quantities are 

 grown, the drills may be the same distance apart as that 

 recommended for apples, tliree feet ^ but if only a few, 

 twelve to eighteen inches will be sufficient, as the clean- 

 ing can be done with the hoe. The seeds should be scat- 

 tered thinly, that every plant may have sufficient space 

 without any thinning. From time to time we find re- 

 gular recipes given for raising pear seedlings, with the 

 same precision that pudding recipes are given in the 

 cook books. Boiw dust^ 'blacksmiths' cinders^ muck^ lime^ 

 wood ashes, and half a dozen other things, are recom- 

 mended to be compounded in pecks and half pecks, all 

 with a view to remedy the rust or leaf blight that no 

 man can say originates in any defect of the soil. The 

 cause may be in the atmosphere, or it may be an insect, 

 or it may be something else, for aught anybody yet 

 knows to the contrary. The end to aim at, as before re- 

 marked, is to get good growth, say eighteen to twenty 

 inches in height, and stout in proportion, before the first 

 of August. This can be done in any deeply-trenched, 

 fresh soil, well prepared and manured as described above. 

 During the past season, a lot of very fine seedling pears 

 were raised in fresh, new soil, in Ontario county; their 

 foliage was quite fresh when the fi-osts came, and they 

 had received no special manuring either. Pear seedlings 



