18 C 8 . ] 
CULTUEE OF PEAE TEEES IN POTS. 
7 
greater 'worth than these ? Each of these demands and secures its special 
plot, making this, in fact, the condition of its presence. And herein, I fear, 
lies the reason of our neglect of the roots. They are out of sight, and, 
unless at planting,, pruning, or digging times, are for this reason mostly 
out of mind, and their condition, their accidents, and their barbarous 
mutilations are alike unseen. They are proverbially long-suffering; they 
retain a firm hold of life; their perseverance, and even their success under 
crushing treatment, is well nigh miraculous. Cast down, tom up, cut 
asunder, they are not destroyed. In the silence, in the darkness, exposed 
to freezing cold, benumbed with chilling water, they work bravely on to 
recover their misfortune, resolved to live, and not to die. But the warfare 
with our cruel culture is unequal. Once a-year, sometimes much oftener, 
we attack them with our spades. Hardly have they had time to gather 
up their energies and heal their wounds, than they are made to bleed 
afresh. And so the unequal contest continues, until at last the energies of 
the roots become paralysed, and their signals of distress are hoisted high 
on to the top of the tree. After this remedial measures are generally too 
late. The roots are debilitated by active disease, and the virus of death 
itself has run through the entire plant. 
Scarcely ever is a diseased plant removed but the state of the roots 
affords a clue to the cause of death. They have • either been thrust into an 
ungenial medium, or badly treated in a good soil, the latter being by far 
the most common cause of disease. It is also readily preventible. The 
chief remedy consists in letting them alone ; and to this end the roots of 
every tree must have that which the humblest blade of grass demands as 
the condition of its growth, and the charter of its birthright—a piece of 
ground wholly to itself. 
Harclwicke House , Bury St. Edmunds. D. T. Fish. 
THE CULTURE OF PEAR TREES IN POTS.—I. 
2TvT is now several years since I first recommended this mode of culture 
for Pears—at first with some little hesitation, because I had found in 
i 
%-f some cases that the fruit of Pears ripened under glass w r as not equal 
to that gathered from trees in the open air; and there was a ten¬ 
dency, not only in myself, but with other cultivators, to allow the 
trees to stand in the orchard house till their fruit was ripe. It was indeed 
an irksome task to remove trees with such fine fruit on them, from calm 
and pleasant quarters, although in the warmer parts of England quite 
necessary to give piquancy of flavour. 
The best kind of compost for the pot culture of Pear trees is two-tliirds 
loam (that called sandy loam is to be preferred), and one-tliird of manure 
thoroughly decomposed. This should be mixed and prepared towards the 
