642 



THE PEAR. 



stalk to part from its branch on gently raising the fruit. The fruit 

 should then be gathered — or so much of the crop as appears sufficiently 

 matured — and spread out on shelves in the fruit-room. 



So important is the ripening of pears in the house, that most ama- 

 teurs of this fruit find it to their advantage to have a small room set apart 

 and fitted up with shelves in tiers, to be used solely as a fruit-room. 



In absence of any room specially devoted to the purpose, shallow 

 drawers, say four inches deep, and from one and a half to two feet 

 in diameter, should be procured, and into the bottom of each lay a soft 

 woollen cloth, then a layer of pears, but so that they may not touch each 

 other ; then over them lay another soft woollen cloth, and place the drawers 

 in a cool dry room. In a period varying from three days to as many 

 weeks, according to the variety, the fruit will be found to have ripened 

 to a delicious richness, and to have taken on a high golden color, seldom 

 or never obtained when allowed to ripen on the tree. Some persons use 

 the common husks called " shorts," from the flouring-mills, to cover the 

 pears in place of the woollen cloths, and with perhaps equally good re- 

 sults, but it is not as neat or convenient a practice. 



Many sorts which, ripened in the sun and open air, are rather dry, 

 when ripened within doors are most abundantly melting and juicy. 

 They will also last for a considerably longer period if ripened in this 

 way — maturing gradually, as wanted for use, and being thus beyond 

 the risk of loss or injury by violent storms or high winds. 



Winter dessert pears should be allowed to hang on the tree as long 

 as possible, until the nights become frosty. They should then be wrap- 

 ped separately in paper, packed in kegs, barrels, or small boxes, and 

 placed in a cool, dry room, free from frost. Some varieties, as the 

 D'Aremberg, will ripen finely with no other care than placing them in 

 barrels in the cellar like apples. But most kinds of the finer winter 

 dessert pears should be brought into a warm apartment for a couple of 

 weeks before their usual season of maturity. They should be kept 

 covered, to prevent shrivelling. Many sorts that are comparatively 

 tough, if ripened in a cold apartment, become very melting, buttery, and 

 juicy when allowed to mature in a room kept at the temperature of 60 

 or 70 degrees. 



Propagation. The finer sorts of pears are continued or increased 

 by grafting and budding, and the stocks on which to work are either 

 seedlings or suckers. Sucker stocks have usually such indifferent roots, 

 they are so liable to produce suckers continually themselves, and are so 

 much less healthy than seedlings, that they are now seldom used by good 

 cultivators ; though, if quite young and thrifty, they will often make 

 good stocks. 



Seedlings, however, are by far the best stocks for the pear in all 

 cases ; and seedlings from strong-growing, healthy pears, of common quality 

 ■ — such as grow about most farmers' gardens — are preferable for stocks to 

 those raised from the best varieties, being more hardy and vigorous. 



As it is usually found more difficult to raise a good supply of seedling 

 pear-stocks in this country than of any other fruit-tree, we will here re- 

 mark that it is absolutely necessary, to insure success, that two points be 

 observed. The first is, to clean and sow the seed as soon as may be after 

 the fruit is well matured ; the second, to sow it only in deep rich soil. 

 It should be previously trenched — if not naturally deep — at least twenty 

 inches or two feet "deep, and enriched with 'manure or compost mixed 



