18 
DWARF PEARS, ETC. 
dressing of 12 or 14 loads of muck and one 
bushel of lime to each load, and has had nothing 
since. Previous to the dressing of muck, the soil 
had been quite exhausted. Another New-Jersey 
farmer, Mr. Ezekiel Coombs, has completely- 
renovated a worn out farm by the use of muck. 
We call attention to these gentlemen, that all who 
have this valuable fertilizer upon their farms, 
may see what has been done by others, and 
what they can also do themselves. 
.»♦. . 
DWARF FEARS. 
Within the last ten years it has been well 
demonstrated that pears cannot be made to grow 
and succeed well, except by garden culture. To 
cultivate in this way for ten or fifteen years be- 
fore reaping an abundant crop, is an expense 
beyond the means of the larger portion of those 
who esteem this delicious fruit. 
To avoid this tedious process has long been 
a desideratum, and nothing has been found to 
answer the purpose but dwarf pears, or pears 
worked upon the Quince stock. They can be 
planted at short distances — 8 or 10 feet apart — 
will grow luxuriantly, and many varieties will 
bear the second and third year after planting. 
A gentleman just informs us that one of his 
neighbors picked the last summer a fine pear 
from a tree planted in the spring. This not 
unusually occurs, but however desirable, should 
not be allowed, as the health of the tree is more 
or less injured thereby. The crop between the 
trees can by good management be made to pay 
the expense of manure and cultivation. We 
have a pear orchard of some four acres, contain- 
ing about 1700 trees, ten feet apart We put 
upon it the last spring $150 worth of manure, 
and the following autumn gathered from it 275 
bushels of potatoes, about 30 tons of sugar beets, 
besides a large quantity of turnips and cabbages , 
and in this instance a large part of the beet seed 
proved poor and did not vegetate. But it should 
be borne in mind that no crop should be placed 
between the trees that does not require constant 
cultivation, without which no pear orchard can 
flourish. Any root crop is good for this purpose, 
but corn, or any grain crop, is inadmissible ; 
we know by experience that it is highly injurious. 
In planting the pear or quince, it is well to 
place the stock entirely below the surface of the 
ground ; in this way it is less liable to be 
attacked by borers, and as the tree grows, it 
will also be found to throw out roots from the 
pear wood which is below the surface. Thus 
the quince root will bring the tree into bearing 
immediately, and by the time such a result is 
desired, the tree will be upon its own root. 
The planter, in his glowing visions of future 
profit, should not, however, calculate with cer- 
tainty that each of his trees will grow without 
accident, and will produce him its dozen, or 
peck, or bushel of fruit. There is, unfortunately, 
such a thing as blight, and pear trees will often 
be cut off in a most unaccountable and mysteri- 
ous manner. The cause of this blight being 
yet unknown, there has been discovered no 
remedy, and the only way is to anticipate the 
loss of one quarter of the trees before they come 
into full bearing, and to put up with this loss 
with equanimity when it does occur. A person 
may escape without the loss of a single tree, but 
it is most safe to anticipate the worst. Yet with 
the loes of even one quarter of the trees, it is the 
best crop which can be raised. It must be a 
poor tree which at ten years of age will not pro- 
duce a peck of fruit, and a peck of fine fruit 
will certainly bring a dollar, when Virgalieu 
pears were sold in the New York market last 
fall at six to eight cents each. With 400 such 
trees on an acre, it can readily be perceived that 
no other crop can compare with it ; and the 
man who plants a five acre lot for each of his 
children at its birth, would be able to furnish 
those children a comfortable living at their 
majority. 
We will now insert the estimate which we 
have made for our own guidance, premising that 
every fourth tree in the orchard is on its own 
root, and that the crop pays for the cultivation, 
which it may or may not do, according to the 
skill and management exercised. The estimate 
is for one acre of land. 
430 trees at 50 cts. each. 
Planting do. 5 " each, . . 
Manure before planting, . . 
107 trees for filling in, in case one 
fourth of them should happen to 
be blighted, .... 
Pruning, &c. for ten years, . 
Interest on $380 for ten years, . 
5215 
00 
21 
50 
40 
00 
53 
50 
50 
00 
26 
60 
$406 60 
Proceeds the tenth year. 
430 pecks of fruit a $1 430 00 
It thus paying the cost the first year, and leaving 
a clear profit for subsequent years. Our 
estimate of the fruit produced, not being made 
from actual experience, may be incorrect ; but 
we think it much below the probable crop. On 
the other hand, it should be borne in mind that 
the trees will be bearing more or less after the 
third or fourth year, and that the eighth or ninth 
year may produce as large a crop as the tenth. 
We have not included this in the estimate ; but 
it can be applied either on the cost of the orchard, 
or to defray that of cultivation in case the crop 
should fall short of our anticipations. Such is 
our opinion of pear culture ; but no one should 
embark in it without being prepared for occa- 
sional disappointments from year to year. 
Animals should be always kept in a thriving 
condition. — Do farmers ever reflect that all food 
and attention consumed by animals, without a 
corresponding improvement, is so much money 
thrown away ? Every day in the life of a brute 
should be a day of progression towards maturity, 
either of working capacity or the shambles. 
Curtail your stock, sell or even give them away, 
till you have reduced the number within your 
abiHty to full-feeding. A prime milking cow, 
amply fed, housed and cleanly kept, will produce 
as much milk through the season (winter and 
summer) as four or half a dozen, miserable 
brutes half fed ; yet the last will consume two or 
three times the amount of food and attention 
appropriated by the other. 
