AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
115 
that scarce fifty of these have proved uniformly 
and successfully good. Many celebrated varieties 
in the land of their origin, have proved altogether 
refractory with us; others have succeeded but 
tolerably ; while a few have been al¬ 
together successful. It is not ex¬ 
pected that we shall enumerate any 
of these, for* we find from the pro¬ 
ceedings and reports of the fruit con¬ 
ventions, and fruit cultivators that a 
difference of opinion prevails in re¬ 
lation to them ; and avoiding disput¬ 
ed points, we shall leave the choice 
to individual judgment and taste. 
From the experience our country has 
had, however, it is safe to say, that 
the majority of the most lauded for¬ 
eign pears have illy sustained their 
European reputation ; and it is bet¬ 
ter to rely only on those which are 
unimpeachable in their growth, and 
bearing—a sufficient number ofwhich 
we have for all our purposes—and 
hold fast to the varieties, which, by a 
long course of cultivation have 
proved successful beyond dispute. 
-o- 
How to Select Trees for 
Planting ? 
Il you want to get trees that will 
never bear fruit, buy of some pro¬ 
fessed nursery agent, who comes 
along without any certificate of 
character. No matter what you or¬ 
der, you will stand the best chance in 
the world to get trees that will die 
the first season, or if they survive, 
they will do so poorly that jou will wish them 
dead every year that they linger with you. We 
have a few of such, six years on hand, and good 
for nothing. Their days are numbered. 
If you want to get half your money’s worth 
send your order to irresponsible nurserymen, or 
those not of known integrity, and take such trees 
as they will send you, the bark covered with 
scale bugs, unthrifty, and the roots badly mutila¬ 
ted. Did it never occur to you, that sharp men 
who plant trees, for the sake of getting shade and 
fruit, attend to the business in person, and that 
it is such trees as they leave, that are taken by 
too many nurserymen to fill the orders of inno¬ 
cent people, who suppose that a nursery is a per¬ 
fect machine, turning off its living products with 
as much uniformity as the loom or the anvil 1 Ap¬ 
ple trees are sold at twenty-five cents each. Some 
of them are worth that money ; others are only 
worth what fuel they will make. There is near¬ 
ly as much difference, in every tree sent out 
from the nurseries. The choice of an intelligent 
purchaser is worth more than one hundred per 
cent on the amount of the purchase. 
If you want trees that are trees, go to the 
nursery and make the selection yourself, and see 
them taken up and packed, unless you have a 
competent agent to attend to it. In making your 
choice take thrifty trees rather than large ones, 
and those with well formed heads. You can judge 
of thrift by the last year’s growth, and by the 
smoothness of the bark. Eschew all trees that 
are troubled with insects, as you would a pesti¬ 
lence. A fine ought to be imposed upon nursery¬ 
men, who will suffer trees covered with insects, 
to go out of their hands. 
The next that demands our attention is the roots. 
If badly mutilated, reject the tree, no matter how 
thr :<> v. If you find numerous small fibrous roots 
well distributed on all the larges ones, it shows 
proper handling in the nursery. The tree has been 
root pruned, and cultivated for the sake of its fu¬ 
ture owner, rather than to sell. Such a tree will 
not disappoint you. Buy it, if you pay double price. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
I perceive by a former number of your paper 
that the Convention of Fruit Growers hold at Roch- 
! ester, N. Y., in discussing the best form for a 
j standard Pear tree, decided in favor of the 'pyra¬ 
mid, allowing the trees to branch near the ground. 
Now I always allow all trees to branch near the 
ground, but I cannot succeed in making them do so 
to my satisfaction. If some practical person would 
favor your readers with the true method of culture 
in order to obtain that form in the best and most 
perfect manner, he will confer a favor on many of 
your subscribers, and oblige yours, W. F. Cox. 
Yergennes, Yt. 
REMARKS. 
Above we give a model Pear Tree, either stand¬ 
ard or dwarf. This form cannot be obtained from 
a tree which has been pruned to a 
| strait trunk of four or five foet in the 
j nursery. "VVe must begin at least the 
| second year from the bud or graft, 
. i | | > j and prune back as in the cut opposite, 
\ \ \ IJl to check the upward tendency of the 
\ \ v? 1 } sa P> an( l throw it into the lateral 
Wl'i v i branches. During the Summer’s 
,M |;W J growth it may be necessary to pinch 
\\lr7 the leading shoots for the same 
Yfy reason. If an open space occurs on 
|| one side of the tree, which it is desi- 
rable to fill, head back the shoots on 
.AvJfU. the adjacent branches to strong buds 
facing the vacant space. These ter¬ 
minal buds will now receive a large portion of sap, 
and soon fill the openings with new limbs. Almost 
any required direction can be given to a shoot by 
pruning or heading back to a bud upon that side of 
the branch where an offset is desired. 
Bearing year of Apple Trees. 
The bearing of Apple Orchards in alternate 
years is so general, in all the older States, that it 
has come to be considered a necessity. With some 
trees, the habit is so inveterate that not a solitary 
apple can be found upon the branches in the un¬ 
fruitful year. The whole energies of the tree, and 
the resources of the soil seem to be exhausted in 
the fruitful years, so that it takes two seasons ol 
hybernation and rest to recuperate. This habit is 
a great draw-back upon the profits of fruit grow¬ 
ing. In the abundant years, apples are cheap, and 
the farmer gets but a fair return for his labor. In 
the scarce year when prices are high, he has no 
fruit to sell. 
Some facts have come under our observation, 
that lead us to suppose that this habit can be over¬ 
come, and that the skillful fruit grower can rely 
upon a crop of apples every year with as much 
certainty, as upon any of the root or grain crops. 
In the front yard of the old homestead, there stood 
an old apple tree in a deep rich loam. It was 
kept in grass and bore a large crop of early apples 
in alternate years, yielding nothing in the interval. 
By way of experiment, the green sward was 
broken up, and the whole yard manured and plant¬ 
ed as a garden. To the great disappointment of 
all the skeptics in the region, the old tree changed 
its habits, and bore very full crops two years in 
succession. The yard was seeded down and it 
relapsed, but continued to bear in the years, which 
would have been barren in the old order. 
When a young orchard is put out upon a piece 
of recently cleared woodland, where there is 
abundance of vegetable matter in the soil, it bears 
with much more uniformity every year, than an 
old orchard under common treatment in the same 
vicinity. Orchards planted in the new settle¬ 
ments are much more productive than those in 
the older States for the same reason. The trees 
find aliment enough in the virgin soil to mature 
good crops every year. 
There has lately been discovered in the Histor¬ 
ical Society library at Hartford, Ct., a curious old 
document, the account book of Henry Wolcott, one 
of the first settlers of that State. It was kept in 
short hand, and contains among other things a 
record of the yield ofhis apple orchard, at Wind¬ 
sor, for a few years after it first commenced 
bearing. In 1651 it bore 496 bushels, in 1652, 452 
bushels, and in the two following years, 1127 and 
1288 bushels, showing no tendency to the alter¬ 
nate bearing, which now marks all the orchards 
in that region. It is interesting to find among the 
names of the apples then cultivated, Summer Pip¬ 
pin, Holland Pippin, Pearmain and Bellybond or 
Belle et bonne, varieties still popular with the fruit 
growers of our own times. 
Nothing pays better for care and attention than 
the apple. A single acre in this fruit, kept in good 
heart, by manuring and cultivation, will yield 
more profit than ten acres, neglected in the ordi¬ 
nary way. The only secret in having apples abun¬ 
dant every year is in keeping the trees clean, and 
in feeding them. He who has plenty of muck or 
peat, lime or ashes, and stable manure, need not 
go off ofhis own premises to find plant food for 
his orchard. The breaking up of the turf in an 
old orchard, and the application of a compost of 
these materials, will work wonders. Nothing but 
root crops should ever be attempted in an orchard 
The fruit and the grain want similar constituents. 
We have seen apple trees put back for years by a 
rye crop. The present month is a good time to 
begin the work of renovating old orchards, and 
reforming their bearing habits.” “ Dig about and 
dung the barren trees,” before you decide to “cut 
them down as cumberers of the ground.” 
Form of a Pear Tree 
