PEAR, the wild pear-tree (Pyrus community, from which tho nu merous cultivated varieties have originated, has a wide indigenous range extending over a great part of Europe and Asia, within the limits of temperate regions. It is to be met with in certain localities in the southern parts of Britain. The old varieties of pear are however getting rapidly out of cultivation, and giving place to others of recent origin, superior in quality, and much better adapted for this climate than the old kinds appear over to have been. Few of the latter could be successfully cultivated without the aid of walls ; whereas most of the new varieties produce abundance of excellent fruit on standards or dwarfs in the open ground. Even in France the old varieties are now decaying, although the climate is there most congenial to them.
The pear is chiefly propagated by grafting or budding on the wild pear stock, or on stocks raised from the seeds of cultivated pears, called free stocks ; the former are however to be preferred. It is also grafted on the quince, which is most proper for dwarf trees, or for moist soil, and has also the effect of bringing the trees earlier into a bearing state. It may be also grown upon the medlar, and the white thorn (Cratagus Oxyacrntha), but on these the disparity of growth between the respective stems occasions a short duration of the union. The enlargement of the pear-stem in the case of strong growing varieties is indeed generally too much for quince stocks. There are several varieties of the quince, and the sort that has the broadest leaves and which has the nearest correspondence in regard to horizontal growth with that of the pear should be preferred for stocks.
The pear-tree will thrive in any rich loamy soil ; but it is only where the subsoil is naturally congenial, or rendered so artificially, that it will continue to produce good crops of well flavoured fruit. A clay subsoil is bad, and so is in fact any other that will hold water. Good drainage is absolutely necessary, and shallow planting cannot be too mnch recommended. The monks in former times were aware of the advantages arising from having the roots near the surface; for stones and elates have been found below old fruit-trees, which had been planted at monasteries once in their Manure is not so liable to prove injurious to the pear and apple as it is to stone-fruits. On the contrary, unless the trees be growing too strong, manure, judiciously applied, will always prove beneficial.
Pears are deemed worthy of the expense of walls, but this is often an unnecessary expenditure for want of a properly formed border, and thorough draining, where the subsoil renders such necessary. Brick rubbish is a good bottoming ; or a bed of concrete, two or three inches thick, laid sloping from the wall towards a drain in front, is un questionably one of the best modes that could be practised ; and it is the only effectual one to prevent the roots from penetrating beyond a limited depth ; for they will often find their way through a stratum of stones or brick-rubbish. The depth of soil need not exceed 24 feet. The best season for transplanting is in the beginning of winter, or as soon as the leaves have fallen in autumn.
Standard trees may be planted from 20 to 30 feet apart, or where vegetables are intended to be cultivated, the distances may be 40 feet between the rows and 20 feet in the rows. Dwarf trees, or quince stocks, will not require more than 15 feet distance. Wall-trees should be at least 20 feet apart, and for some varieties 30 feet will not be too much.
The modes of training the pear-tree are various. Against walls, the three principal methods are the fan-shape, its reverse the pendulous, and intermediately the horizontal, which is that most generally adopted. In the fan method the central part of the tree, from the upright position of the branches, or their near approach to such, is apt to become too strong. On the contrary, the pendulous training induces debility when the trees begin to bear heavy crops. By annually cutting back a central shoot to about a foot, and training branches horizontally, right and left, the vigour of the tree is equally dis tributed. It often happens that in this mode the branches only produce fruit towards their extremities. When this is the case, a shoot should be encouraged near the origin of the horizontal branch, and trained in the interval, and at some distance, say three feet ; farther along the branches another may be laid in a similar manner, and so on, care being taken that each is stopped when its elongation reaches the place where another has its origin. These shoots will generally become as fruitful, after two or three years, as the portion of wood of the same age near the extremities of the branches themselves.