space. A single row of Norway .firs, Austrian pines, or other equally hardy evergreen trees will give shelter for a considerable distance; thickly planted belts of deciduous trees will also render effective service. How far apart these belts and hedges should be placed, and in what direction they will be most useful, will depend upon the surroundings and local specialities. As the best mode of draining a field will depend upon its surface undulations, so the best mode of shelter ing will be guided by the general aspect and position of the orchard. The pear will exist in a variety of soils, but attains greater perfection in clayey loam. Even on stiff clays the tree will grow and produce very satisfactorily under the ameliorating influences of the preparation and culture which such soils require. Draining first and subsoiling afterwards are the chief requisites forgradual amelioration ; in short, while a water soaked clay soil is the most utterly worthless of all lands for the growth of any crop, a properly drained and aerated clay soil is by far the most valuable, and only requires careful manage ment to render it available for the best produc tions of the orchard, farm, or garden. The prominent precaution in managing a clay soil is never to work on it while wet, but only when it is dry to friability. No expedient or process of culture will compensate for the injury sustained by working clay soils during summer, when they are saturated with water; the injury can not be remedied except by a winters freezing, which will again produce friability under proper treat ment. Soils of a sandy or gravelly character are not well adapted to the pear. In these soils, so variable in their degree of moisture, the trees ripen prematurely and drop their foliage early, if the weather proves dry toward the end of summer; then, in the event of moist weather following a period of drought, a late secondary growth will be produced, which, failing to mature, induces a tendency to blight, and pre disposes to other diseases. Surface dressings of compost, repeated cultivation, or constant mulch ing, will counteract to some extent, the effects of uncongenial soil for the pear roots, but where it is impracticable to select any but a thin gravel or sand for the growth of this fruit, the dwarf tree is preferable, as the roots of the quince can be confined to a small area, which may be prepared and maintained to meet all require ments of growth. Where the soil has been pre pared by deep tillage it will not be necessary to dig holes deeper than required to merely cover the roots of the plant. In heavy soils that have not been prepared in the most thorough manner the boles should be made wide rather than deep. In gravelly subsoils pits may be dug eighteen inches in depth, the surface soil and subsoil being .thrown out at opposite sides, and filled in equally until the proper height is reached for setting the plant. In either case about a bushel of compost made up of leaf mold, rotted manure, and light soil if carefully spread around the roots, will form'an admirable rooting medium; this should be finely pulverized and rather dry than wet when used. Deep planting and shallow planting are the injurious extremes in setting trees. The plain and incontrovertible rule is to set the plant so that the poipt from whence the stem and roots proceed in opposite directions will be about one inch below the level of the surface of the ground. It is infinitely better to plant so that some future surface dressing may be required to. cover the swelling exposed roots, than to have them buried below the ready influence of atmospheric heat and air. i . Th roThe preservation of a proper degree of moisture in the soil surrounding the roots of the tree is the principal object of culture during the first summer after planting. Both the kind and amount of care will depend upon the nature of the soil and the condition of the weather; something will also depend upon the first prepar ation of the ground. Where the soil has been drained, deepened, and pulverized, and the sur face is loose and mellow, nothing further will be required than merely to prevent a growth of weeds. If the surface is tenacious, frequent stir ring, especially after rains, will probably suffice, but where the soil is shallow and largely com posed of sand or gravel, mulching will most effectually accomplish the purpose. Any loose material will answer as a mulch, such as coarse manure, strawy litter of any kind, or short grass as cut from lawns; where a few trees only are to be cared for, tan bark and refuse charcoal dust are frequently employed. Mulch should not be applied before the middle of June, unless the weather proves very dry and warm previous to. that time, and on clean ground it may remain during the following winter, or be renewed if exhausted; but in rough noddy ground, where field mice may lurk, the soil around the trees. should be fine and kept clean and compressed. The best mode of treating the soil in pear orchards is an important question both in regard to the health of the tree, and the production of fruit. Laying aside all special circumstances, it appears evident that the condition of the plants. 'will indicate the treatment required; the object being to maintain health and encourage fruit fulness, and the measure of successful accom plishment of these conditions will greatly depend upon the knowledge of the principles gioverning vegetable growth possessed by the cultivator. When the trees are young the chief object is to encourage judicious growth, by employing expedients known to favor vegetable extension, such as the application of manures, breaking up• and pulverizing the soil, surface stirring, and other similar operations. By judicious growth is meant a luxuriance not incompatible with maturity, and as this will depend upon climate and locality, it . is evident that a knowledge of cause and effect will largely influ ence success. In northern latitudes where season of growth is confined to five months. duration, it will be impossible to mature the same amount of wood that can be produced on trees in a locality having seven months of grow ing season. In the latter case stimulating appli ances may be used with the best effects that would only tend to dissolution in the climate of short summers. The great desideratum in fruit culture is ripened wood; all useful cultivation begins and ends with this single object in view, and is the criterion of good or bad To cultivate, or not to cultivate, is a question to be determined by climate and condition of soil. Where it is deemed advisable to encourage• growth, it will be proper to employ such appli ances of culture as are known to produce that result; and again, when ample luxuriance secured, and the tendency is still in that direc tion, all surface culture should be abandoned, and the orchard be laid down in grass, cultivation.
to be again practiced when the trees indicate its necessity. The pear tree is usually a victim of excessive pruning. It is pruned in winter to make it grow, and pruned and pinched in summer to make it fruit. Why is it that the pear, more than other spur-bearing fruit trees should be sup posed to require so close and continued pruning does not appear of easy explanation. It is evi dent that this immoderate pruning is not fol lowed by satisfactory results, for while apple, plum, and cherry trees fruit with abundant regu larity, with but little attention to pruning, unfruitfulness in the pear is a frequent cause of complaint, especially with those who pay the strictest attention to pruning rules, showing clearly that successful pear culture is not depend ent upon pruning alone. While it is perhaps equally erroneous to assert that pear trees should not be pruned at all—an extreme which no expe rienced cultivator will indorse—it is worthy of inquiry whether unpruned trees do not exhibit a better fruit-bearing record than those which have been subject to the highest pruning codes. How far the proverbial liability of the pear to suffer from blight may be due to the interference and disarrangement of growths caused by sum mer pruning it may not be possible to decide, but the tendency to late fall growths, and the consequent immaturity of wood which is thereby encouraged, is well known to be of much injury, and greatly conducive to disease. Perhaps no advice that has been given is so fruitful a cause of failure and disappointment in fruit culture as that embodied in the brief sentence, Prune in summer for fruit. The physiological principle upon which this advice is based is that which recognizes barrenness in fruit trees as the result of an undue amount of wood growth, and that, in accordance with acknowledged laws, any pro cess that will secure a reduction of growth will induce fruitfulness. The removal of from a tree in active growth will weaken its vitality, by causing a corresponding check to the extension of roots, but the removal 'of the mere points of strong shoots has no palpable effect in checking' root growth, the roots pro ceed to grow, and the sap seeks outlets in other channels, forming new shoots, which in no way increase the fruitfulness of the plant. While it
may be confidently stated that, 'as a practical rule, easily followed, and of general application, summer pruning for fruit can not be recom mended except as an expedient rarely success ful, it is also true that there are certain periods in the growth of a plant when the removal of a portion of the shoots would tend to increase the development of the remaining buds, without causing them to form shoots. For example, if the growing shoots of a pear tree are shortened or pruned by removing one-third of their length, say, toward the end of June, the check will immediately cause the buds on these shoots to push into growth and produce a mass of twigs as far removed as may be from fruit producing branches. Again, if this pruning is delayed until August, and the season subse quently proves to be warm and dry, the proba bilities are that the remaining buds will develop into short spur-like shoots, from which blossom buds may in course of time be formed; but if the season continues wet, and mild and growing weather extends late into the fall, these same shoots will be lengthened into weakly, slender growths, which never mature, and are of no use whatever. There is no certainty as to the proper time to summer prune, because no two seasons are precisely alike, and trees vary in their vigor from year to year; and yet this uncertain, indefi nite, and constantly experimental procedure is the basis upon which the Advice to prune in summer for fruit is founded. The pear tree, in fact, requires very little pruning, and that only so far as may be necessary, to regulate branches in either of two exigencies. In the first place, when the young tree is placed in its per manent position in the orchard, its roots will be greatly disturbed and many of them destroyed; it will therefore be expedient in this exigency to abridge the branches, so as to restore the balance of growth that existed between the roots and branches previous to removal. This pruning at transplanting has its opponents on the theoretical grounds that, as the formation of roots is dependent upon the action of leaves, it must follow that the more branches and leaves left upon a plant the more rapidly will new roots be produced; but there is one important element overlooked in this reasoning,, namely, this loss of sap by evaporation, which speedily exhausts the plant, while it has no active roots to meet the demand. The proper practice is to reduce the branches sd as to give the roots the pre ponderance, and many kinds of trees can only be successfully removed by cutting the stem off close to the ground. If the tree has been pruned close back at planting, the first summer will develop the foundation for a well-balanced, symmetrical' plant, but as this result depends upon a good start, it is well to keep an eye on the young growths during the first season, and if any of the shoots appear to be developing to the detriment of others equally necessary for future branches, the points of such shoots should be pinched off, but in doing so, let there be as small a removal of foliage as possible, the object being not to weaken, but merely to equalize growth. It is claimed, as a general rule, that no advantage will be gained by pruning any portion of the shoots after thafirst season, unless in the case of weakly trees, which will be strengthened by pruning down during winter. The removal of branches during summer weakens growth, but when a portion of the branches are removed after growth is completed, the roots, not having been disturbed, will have the preponderance, and the number of buds being diminished, those that are left will receive increased vigor. It should never be forgotten that there is nothing more certain than that by shortening in or pruning back the ends of shoots, either in summer or winter, the fruit-producing period is retarded, and the fruit producing capabilities of the trees abridged. Fruiting spurs will not form where the growths are constantly interrupted and excited by prun ing; but, after the third or fourth year, young shoots will, in the majority of varieties, become covered with fruiting spurs the second year after their formation, if left to their natural mode and condition of growth. Of course this refers to trees in soils of moderate fertility, grown in a climate favorable to the plant. The only prun ing, then, that is really essential, after the plant has become established, will be confined to thin ning out crowded branches; and this forms the second exigency for pruning. If low-headed trees are preferred, those branches that have become destitute of fruiting spurs near the body .of the tree may be cut out and a young shoot be allowed to take the place of the one removed. There will be no lack of young shoots for this purpose, as they will be produced from the base ef the cut branch, selecting the strongest and best placed to occupy the vacancy, if such occu pancy is desired. This mode of cutting back branches will be more particularly essential in the case of dwarf pears, as the quince roots are unable to support a tall, heavy-headed tree, but in all other respects dwarf pears should be treated the same as standards. In comparing remarks -and observations made by different cultivators with reference to the merits of varieties, their growth, productiveness, size, and quality of fruit, and other characteristics, there is found so great a disparity as to lead to a supposition that dif ferent varieties are being discussed under the same name. No doubt this is occasionally the case, but the difference caused by the influence of the stocks upon which they are worked is fre quently to blame for these discrepancies Every nurseryman is aware of the great irregularity. of growth in plants of the same variety; they may have been grafted at the same time on stocks of equal size—planted on the same day and in the same soil, yet their comparative growths will vary considerably; so much difference exists that the plants will be classed into two or more sizes, and held at different valuations. Although the vigor of growth imparted is thus varied, the habit of the variety is not changed, the upright form of growth will still characterize the Buffum, and the spreading habit of the Rostiezer will remain with each individual of that variety; but in a planta tion of fifty of any sort there will be some weak growers, and an occasional specimen that, after lingering on in a sickly condition for several years, will finally be removed. It is reasonable to expect these diversities in the growth of stocks produced from seed, and the influence they im part to the graft, but it is seldom that allowance is made for the many peculiarities that may undoubtedly be traced to this cause. This is still further confirmed by the more uniform growth .of dwarf pears, the stocks of which are produced from cuttings or layers, and are consequently of more uniform vigor, being an extension of one individuality, instead of the separate individu alities of seedling plants. The greatest drawback to extended pear culture is the disease familiarly known as blight. The Qredisposing cause of this malady has not been specifically determined; the active cause of dissolution is known to be para sitical fungi. This much, however, experience seems to confirm, that trees placed in positions and under circumstances of soil and climate that insure a growth of moderate vigor, which growth shall become perfectly matured and solidified before the advent of winter, are so seldom .attacked by this disease as to be, for all practical purposes, exempt. A safe practice, and one that will probably become general when further and extended experiments prove its value, is to cover the body of the tree and all the principal branches, but not the buds, with a wash, formed by plac ing one peck of lime and two pounds of sulphur in a vessel, and adding sufficient boiling water to slake the lime. If the white color is objection able it can be changed to any other more suit able. The spread of fungi on the bark of trees has been arrested by timely application of this mixture. The opinion is now becoming preva lent that close planting, so that the trees shelter each other, is advantageous. For standard trees, eighteen feet apart is considered a good maximum, and ten feet for dwarfs. These distances pre clude the practicability of using horse-power in the culture of the soil, at all events after a few years' growth; which, all things being considered, may be regarded as a step in the right direction.