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XXI. On Fertilizing the Blossoms of Pear Trees. In a 

 Letter to the Secretary, By the Rev. George Swayne, 

 Corresponding Member of the Society. 



Read August 6, 1822. 



Dear Sir, 



A n almost general unproductiveness as to the fruit of the 

 superior varieties of Pear trees, has long been the subject of 

 complaint with horticulturists, both of South and of North 

 Britain. Among the first prizes offered by the Caledonian 

 Horticultural Society, was one, " for the communication of 

 the best means of bringing into a bearing state full grown 

 fruit trees, especially some of the finest sorts of French Pears, 

 which (it is stated), though apparently in a very healthy and 

 luxuriant condition, are yet in a state of almost total barren- 

 ness ;" and the President of the London Horticultural Society, 

 in his Paper on the Cultivation of the Pear-tree,* remarks 

 that " the Pear-tree exercises the patience of the planter du- 

 ring a longer period, before it produces fruit, than any other 

 grafted tree which finds a place in our gardens ; and though 

 it is subsequently very long lived, it, generally, when trained 

 to a wall, becomes, in a very few years, unproductive of fruit." 

 But I have no need, at least for my own conviction, to refer 

 to the testimony of others for proof of the existing griev- 

 ance, possessed as I am myself of a striking instance of this 

 untoward disposition in an individual of the genus Pyrus, 

 which has for a long time baffled all my attempts to alter its 



* Horticultural Transactions, Vol. II. page 78. 



