644 



THE PEAR. 



deed, adapt itself to as great a variety of soils as any fruit-tree, but in 

 unfavorable soils it is more liable to suffer from disease than any other. 

 Soils that are wet during any considerable portion of the year, are en- 

 tirely unfit for the pear-tree ; and soils that are over-rich and deep, like 

 some of the Western alluvials, force the tree into such over-luxuriant 

 growth that its wood does not ripen, and is liable to be killed by winter 

 blight. Soils that are too light, on the other hand, may be improved by 

 trenching if the subsoil is heavier, or by top-dressing with heavy muck 

 and river mud if it is not. 



In a climate rather cold for the pear, or on a cold soil, it is advan- 

 tageous to plant on a Southern slope; but in the Middle States, in warm 

 soils, we do not consider a decidedly Southern exposure so good as other 

 rather cooler ones. 



The Pear succeeds so well as an open standard, and requires so little 

 care for pruning — less, indoed, in the latter respect than any other 

 fruit-tree — that training is seldom thought of except for dwarfs, or in the 

 gardens of the curious or skilful. The system of quenouille or distaff 

 training, an interesting mode of rendering trees very productive in a 

 small space, we have already fully described in p. 40, as w T ell as root- 

 pruning for the same purpose in p. 36. 



The manner of growing and training dwarfs in this country, on a 

 large scale, for orchards, is, however, more as bushes or low-headed trees 

 than as pyramids, quenouille, or espalier ; and while the same general 

 principles are maintained, it is necessary to head back the leading shoot 

 more severely ; and unless time can be given in the summer season to 

 checking the growth, and forming a thick, round, open head by means 

 of summer pinching, then, in order to maintain health and vigor in 

 dwarfs, they must be annually shortened back from one-half to two- 

 thirds of the preceding year's growth. The best time for thi s is imme- 

 diately at the close of winter. 



In orchard culture the pear is usually planted about thirty feet 

 distant each way ; in fruit-gardens, where the heads are somewhat kept 

 in by pruning, twenty feet is considered sufficient by many. 



Pear-trees in a bearing state, where the growth is no longer luxu- 

 riant, should have, every autumn, a moderate top-dressing of manure, 

 to keep them in good condition. This, as it promotes steady and 

 regular growth, is far preferable to occasional heavy manuring. 



Diseases. As a drawback to the otherwise easy cultivation of 

 this fine fruit, the pear-tree is, unfortunately, liable to a very serious 

 disease called the pear-tree blight or fire blight, appearing irregularly, 

 and in most parts of the country ; sometimes in succeeding seasons, 

 and again only after a lapse of several years ; attacking sometimes 

 only the extremities of the limbs, and at other times destroying the 

 whole tree ; producing, occasionally, little damage to a few branches, 

 but often also destroying, in a day or two, an entire large tree ; this 

 disease has been, at different times, the terror and despair of pear- 

 growers. Some parts of the country have been nearly free from it, 

 while others have suffered so much as almost to deter persons from 

 extending the culti vation of this fine fruit. For nearly a hundred 

 years its existence has been remarked in this country, and all notions 

 of its character and origin have been so vague as to lead to little prac- 

 tical assistance in removing or remedying the evil. 



Careful observations for several years past, and repeated comparison 



