AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
179 
years, has been hard freezing, which combined 
with a heavy wet undersoil, killed part of the 
trees, and materially injured the remainder. Of 
the fifty trees originally set out, there are now 
about a dozen remaining alive, and these, with 
the exception of the one bearing natural fruit, 
which was bought through mistake, give un¬ 
mistakable signs of old age. And yet, in 1860, 
these decrepit trees yielded fruit sufficient to pay 
for all their cost and the land upon which they 
stand. In my experience with these trees and 
about one hundred and fifty others since set 
out, I find invariably, where the trees were set 
on land having little gravel or sand, and where 
the subsoil was heavy and wet, they either died 
or became so withered as to be of little use—ex¬ 
cept as a lesson to those setting out peach trees. 
I find that mulching the trees with straw, leaves, 
etc., is profitable. It helps to keep a sod from 
forming round the roots, and greatly promotes 
the growth of both trees and fruit by preserving 
a proper degree of moisture. I find that trees 
of the same sort produce very different sized 
peaches according to the soil in which the trees 
are planted; but the size materially depends also 
upon the number of peaches on any tree. Often 
trees having only one or two hundred peaches 
on each, will have fruit of double the size of 
those which are loaded down to their utmost 
capacity of bearing. And on the highest limbs 
where comparatively few peaches grow, the 
fruit is of a size much larger than on the lower 
limbs which had many peaches on them. The 
fruit on a few of my trees was of an inferior 
quality, on account of my setting them in lo¬ 
calities where the ground was too rich.” 
Experience with Dwarf Pears. 
Nothing is more various than the experience 
of cultivators with this fruit, and nothing more 
unsettled than the dwarf pear question. Meet 
one fruit grower, a little enthusiastic, and pump 
him on this subject, and he tells you that noth¬ 
ing is easier than growing fine dwarfs. Look 
into his garden, and you see them—splendid pyr¬ 
amids, the bark as clean as the skin of his fa¬ 
vorite colt, the limbs coming out nearly at right 
angles, and loaded with handsome fruit. Look 
at the further end of his garden, and quite like¬ 
ly you find a tub of soap suds, sink water, or 
fountain of liquid manure, which reveals the se¬ 
cret of his success. Meet another gentleman, 
and he tells you dwarf pears are a humbug—a 
wicked device of nurserymen to impose upon 
the public. Look into his fruit yard, and you 
see them dying, dead, bored at the collar by 
■ worms, sap blighted, covered with scale bugs—a 
very good basis for the owner’s opinion. 
What is the truth upon this subject? Both 
these men are right. Dwarf pears are a success 
with the first man, because he takes care of them, 
and a nuisance to the latter, because he pays no 
attention to them. I have been cultivating 
pears since 1850, and have now about 150 trees, 
standards and dwarfs. The first trees planted 
were suckers, contrary to the advice of the 
books, and to the practice of the best pomolo- 
gists. They were respectively budded with the 
Flemish Beauty, Louise Bonne de Jersey, White 
Doyenne, and Winter Nelis, and have never 
thrown up a sucker. The last two bore for the 
first time last year, though they have had good 
cultivation, plenty of manure, and have been 
shortened in every year. The others began to 
bear three or four years earlier. They are all 
well set with fruit buds, this year, and will bear, 
probably, a full crop. It is a work of time to 
make a standard pear tree. The next lot was 
from a traveling agent of an unknown nursery. 
They did poorly, but with careful nursing got 
to growing in about three years, and two only, 
one a dwarf and the other a standard, have 
made good trees. The standard is a Musking¬ 
um, which bore for the first time last year, ten 
years from the planting. It comes about ten 
days earlier than the Bartlett—is nearly as large, 
and to my taste, is better. It is now full of fruit 
buds, and is making wood fast enough. The 
dwarf is of unknown variety, bears well, and is 
growing rapidly. Bight years ago I budded a 
Flemish Beauty and the G-lout Morceau, upon 
the common Orange Quince. They are among 
my most thrifty, handsome, and fruitful trees. 
A White Doyenn6 from the nursery, on quince, 
began to bear the second year, and bore itself to 
death in three years. The fruit was fair, and 
without cracks. It was my ignorance that 
killed it. Another, budded upon a common 
quince, has made but a poor growth, and never 
will amount to any thing. 
About five years ago I bought a lot of dwarf 
Louise Bonnes from an honorable nurseryman. 
They had been in bearing a year or two, and I 
let them continue to bear, until at this time 
they are all dead but one. This was my fault. 
I bought two Glout Morceaus and three 
Vicars, dwarfs, about ten years old, the follow¬ 
ing season. Owing to a second removal two of 
them died. The other three grew vigorously, 
and the Vicar has borne fine crops every other 
year. All are making wood fast enough, and 
are doing as well as I could desire. Two Epine 
Dumas bore well for three years, and were de¬ 
stroyed by grubs. This was also my fault. They 
should have been planted deeper, and have 
been examined more frequently. This is one of 
the new pears, an abundant bearer, of excellent 
quality, ripens in November, and is worthy of a 
further acquaintance. The Andrews and Blood- 
good are hard cases. I could never make them 
flourish, and after many trials, have not a tree 
that I should like to show to my neighbors. 
Have two Dix on quince—one dead and the 
other alive, but not flourishing. The standards 
grow, and possibly my grand-cliildren will eat 
fruit from them, if they occupy the homestead. 
The dwarf Urbaniste trees have grown finely, 
but have borne no fruit, six years after planting. 
The Beurre d’Amalis does well, both as dwarf, 
and standard, but the fruit is not first rate. 
The Buffum makes a tree and fruit that I 
am altogether pleased with. It grows uniform¬ 
ly in the Lombardy poplar shape, occupies lit¬ 
tle room, looks “ genteel,” and is just the tree to 
plant beside garden walks and avenues. The 
St. Ghislain, and the Seckel also look well in 
the same localities. The Buffum looks tempt¬ 
ingly upon the tree, and is good enough upon 
the table. It is one of the best sorts for the sea¬ 
shore, near which it originated. The same may 
be said of the Flemish Beauty. The Bartlett 
does so well, and bears so easily as a standard, 
that it seems a mistake to dwarf it in any case. 
The only way in which I have been able to get 
any wood upon young trees, is by persistently 
cutting off the blossom buds. If this is done 
for the first five or six years after planting, you 
can make a vigorous tree, of good form, that 
will give abundance of good fruit in due season. 
I find as the result of my experience, that I 
am running more and more to standards, though 
I have still faith in the utility of dwarfs for the 
garden. Do not touch them unless you have 
manure in plenty, and mean to take care of 
them. Nothing but cultivation will make 
dwarfs a success. Connecticut. 
Shad-bush or June-berry as a Pear Stock. 
Mr. Charles B. Ott, nurseryman in Bucks Co., 
Pa., says he has used the June-berry, (Amelan- 
chier Canadensis,) for a stock on which to graft 
the pear, and after 18 years’ experience is well 
satisfied with it for some varieties, while others 
fail after 10 or 12 years. The Seckel does re¬ 
markably well on the amelanchier stock, bear¬ 
ing very fine fruit. Mr. Ott worked his trees 
four feet from the ground, but would advise 
budding them close down, as low as on the 
quince stock. He thinks the native June-berry, 
(known in New-England, New-York, and Ohio, 
as shad-bush or shad-blow), has been too much 
overlooked, both as a stock on which to work 
the pear, and as a fruit and ornamental tree of 
itself. The tree, or rather shrub, grows from 
15 to 20 feet high, is of graceful form, covered 
in Spring with handsome flowers of snowy 
whiteness, hanging in racimes; while the round, 
purple fruit, nearly as large as the mazzard cher¬ 
ry, is sweet, and not unpleasant to the taste, and 
very likely susceptible of improvement. As the 
name indicates, the berries are ripe in June, be¬ 
fore other fruit is in eating condition. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Transplanting Evergreens from the Forest. 
“ This,” you say, in the Agriculturist for April, 
(p. 102,) “ is a somewhat uncertain operation.”— 
So it is as usually practised! The method you 
propose, I think, would be almost certain to suc¬ 
ceed, but it involves the delay of a year, and can 
be practised only where the trees to be removed 
stand singly in an open pasture, certainly not 
where they are found in “• the forest.” 
The Hemlock (Abies canadensis ), and the com¬ 
mon White Pine ( Pirns strobus), are probably as 
difficult to manage as any that can be named, 
and may be taken as representatives of their 
class; but a little study of their habits will aid 
us greatly in determining the proper time and 
also the proper mode of transplanting them! 
These trees put forth then’ shoots only once 
in the year, and then only at the ends of the twigs 
where preparation was made the preceding 
Autumn by the formation of buds. These buds 
begin to start in the Spring as soon as the weath¬ 
er becomes warm, but in this latitude they make 
little progress until some time in the month of 
May, and the growth continues until the middle 
or last of July. The remainder of the year is 
required to mature the wood thus formed. This 
rule seems to be absolute for these two speci¬ 
mens ; and you look in vain for the appearance 
of a shoot or twig not in conformity with it! 
And the same rule holds in regard to the roots, 
which put forth their shoots at the same time, 
and probably in the same manner! 
Does not this plainly indicate that the proper 
season for transplanting these trees is at the time 
when the shoots are starting, or during the time 
of their vigorous growth ? Does it not as plainly 
indicate the impropriety of attempting it at any 
other season ? It shows also the absolute neces¬ 
sity of preserving as large a part of the roots 
unbroken as possible, as it is only from the very 
ends of the little rootlets that the new ones will 
make their appearance. 
My own experience and observation in this 
region incline me to believe that the best time 
for transplanting these evergreens is as late as 
the first of June or even later. And done at this 
season, and in a proper manner, they are nearly 
as certain to live as any other trees 1 J. J, 
Middletown. Conn., April 18,- 1862. 
