iOl 
DWARF STANDARD TEAR-TREES. 
own fertilizing properties, but also much of 
the fertility <>t the soil ; and the evaporation of 
moisture from the surface, under conditions 
favourable thereto, would speedily render the 
soil too dry for the purposes of vegetation. It 
will thus be evident that a soil of medium 
texture would secure all the advantages which 
a proper mechanical composition of the soil 
would produce ; it should contain just enough 
silica (or flinty matter in a finely divided state) 
to prevent the stagnation of superfluous mois- 
tme, and just enough alumina (the chief con- 
stituent of clay) to prevent a very powerful 
evaporation. Abercrombie, one of our best 
old authors, recommended a dry, deep loam, 
when the trees are growing on a stock of their 
own species ; but a moister soil, when a Quince 
stock is employed. This soil may be eighteen 
inches in depth. Gravel is a good subsoil, 
where the incumbent earth is suitable ; clay is 
a bad subsoil, generally speaking, though it 
admits of great improvement and amelioration 
by draining and subsoiling. To prevent the 
trees from striking down into a subsoil of this 
nature, stones or slates should be placed 
beneath the plants, though a great deal may 
be gained by a good preparation of the surface 
soil, sufficient elevation in planting, and by 
giving the roots a proper direction in the first 
instance, at the time of planting : if these 
points are attended to, they will not be so 
likely to go wrong. MTntosh agrees with 
Abercrombie in considering moderately shal- 
low soils best suited for the Pear \ on light 
soils, he observes the trees arrive sooner at a 
bearing state, but do not last so long ; whilst 
on damp clay soils they are liable to become 
diseased, and, if too deep and rich, they revel 
in the production of luxuriant and useless 
wood, without bringing a fair proportion of fruit. 
A loamy soil of medium texture, as it is 
called, — that is to say, a crumbly soil, of rather 
an unctuous character, is, therefore, that in 
which the Pear may be most successfully 
grown ; and this should be well drained and 
pulverized, and if resting on an under stratum 
of a gravelly nature, so much the better. But 
though this may be regarded as the best soil 
that could be secured, yet almost any soil, with 
a proper and careful preparation, will support 
the Pear-tree in good health, and enable it to 
produce fair crops of fruit. When the pre- 
paration of the soil is spoken of, such a prepara- 
tion as that afforded to the Peach and Nectarine 
is by no means intended nor required. The 
delicate and exotic Peach-tree requires all the 
art that can be brought into operation in the 
construction of proper borders for its culture ; 
and sometimes, after all has been done, the 
end in view has not been accomplished. The 
Pear-tree, though it may be in some degree 
benefited by a thorough renovation of the soil, 
does not actually require such a preparation ; 
its more hardy nature and constitution is suf- 
ficiently provided for when the main features 
of the natural soil are altered, either by the 
addition or subtraction of whatever may be 
necessary to adapt it to Pear culture. 
Soils of a lighter and more sandy texture 
than those which are to be recommended for 
the cultivation of the Pear, are, as we have 
seen, unsuitable, from their allowing the fer- 
tilizing properties of the rain, and of manure, to 
pass away too readily, and from their favour- 
ing the abstraction of moisture from the soil to 
a too great extent by evaporation ; in a word, 
they starve the plants. Such soils are to be 
improved by the addition of heavy loam, ap- 
proaching to clay, in sufficient quantity, ac- 
cording to the degree of lightness or sandiness 
in the soil, to render it, to a certain extent, 
retentive of moisture. The light and heavy 
soils should be intermixed and blended to- 
gether as perfectly as possible, in order that 
the full advantage may be experienced. Soils 
of this nature seldom require any artificial 
drainage, the natural texture and composition 
of the subsoil being such as to admit suffi- 
ciently freely the percolation of moisture. If 
the situation should happen to be a low, damp 
one, it ought, however, to be drained in the 
ordinary way. 
On the other hand, heavy, close, and ad- 
hesive soils, approaching to clay, which, for 
the most part, rest on a subsoil of clay, 
require not only the melioration of the surface 
by the addition of silica, or sand, but require 
also the greatest care and attention in drain- 
ing and subsoiling, in order to prevent the 
stagnation of moisture beneath the prepared 
surface. On such soils as these the recom- 
mendation, which will be hereafter given, to 
plant high, will be especially applicable ; for 
it is under such circumstances that the roots 
become injured by deep planting, which is far 
less felt on light and porous soils. The addi- 
tion of sand, or any substance containing a 
considerable portion of gritty matter, is for 
the purpose of its becoming intermixed with 
and disintegrating the aluminous particles, by 
which means the whole mass, in process of 
time, becomes friable and easily worked. This 
advantage, for the most part, is simply mecha- 
nical; but it is an advantage of great im- 
portance. Other substances, such as wood- 
ashes, charcoal-dust, or lumps of charcoal, 
brick-dust, or charred rubbish of any kind, or 
even burnt clay, would improve the texture of 
the soil very much ; but as these are scarcely 
so permanent in their effects as the sand or 
grit, when it can be procured, it should be 
used first, and then any of the others may be 
added to complete the process of melioration. 
The processes of draining and subsoiling 
