212 PEAR Detroit, Mich., planted by the early French set- tlers, must be of nearly two centuries' growth. The tree in cultivation is ordinarily about 20 Pyriform Pear Bartlett. ft. high, but specimens have been known to reach 60 ft. Pears are cultivated as standards (the stocks upon which they are budded or grafted being pear seedlings) or as dwarfs ; when the pear is grafted on the thorn, the mountain ash, or the quince, its tendency to form a large tree is checked, and its forces, in- stead of increasing the amount of wood growth, are diverted to fruit-bearing ; such trees fruit very early, and in many cases the quality of the fruit is greatly improved. The quince is the only dwarfing stock in general use, though more or less successful experiments are made with the thorn and mountain ash ; although the apple is so closely related to the pear, yet when grafted on that the pear is very short- lived and useless. The kind of quince used is the Angers, the stocks being raised from cut- tings or by mound layering (see LAYEEING) ; when, as is the case with several, a variety of pear refuses to unite with the quince, it is double-worked, i. <?., some variety which unites readily with it is budded upon the quince, and the obstinate variety is worked upon this after it has made a sufficient growth. Dwarf pear trees are comparatively short-lived, but if set in the ground so that the point of union be- tween the pear and quince is well below the surface, the pear stem will form roots of its own and the tree ultimately become a standard. Dwarf trees are suitable to gardens, as they occupy but very little space ; and as they are not essentially injured by removal, a tenant can take them to another place with his other effects ; but in culture for profit they are well nigh abandoned except for a very few varieties, notably the Duchesse d'Angouleme, which pro- duce better fruit upon the quince than upon their own roots. The pear needs a good strong soil, and to have its fertility kept up by manu- ring ; mulching around the trees, even to co , ering the whole surface of the ground, is some- times practised; the trees are best when formed with low heads, and they must of course have the needed pruning and other care as set forth in works on fruit culture. Dwarf trees are usually trained in a pyramidal form, with the branches near the ground the longest, and gradually shorter near the top ; in France it would seem that all the refinements of arbori- culture had been expended upon the pear, and the various fanciful forms, such as the vase, cordon oblique and spirale, the palmette, and others, including ornamental hedges, will be found in the works of Du Breuil, Baltet, and others. The pear tree has several enemies. Besides leaf-destroying insects, there are those which attack the bark, especially Harris's bark louse (aspidiotus Harrisii), which may be de- stroyed by a strong alkaline wash. None of the insect troubles are equal in magnitude to the blight, which will without warning sud- denly destroy a large branch or a whole tree; the cause of this is not positively known, but careful observers regard it as due to a minute fungus ; there is nothing to be done but to cut away the diseased portions and burn them. Various attempts have been made to classify pears into families, such as bergamots, beur- res, &c. ; but all such systems have been abandoned by most pomologists, who adopt a simpler classification, founded upon the time of ripening and general form. The three divi- sions of summer, autumn, and winter pears are convenient, if not very definite, as some va- rieties may be regarded as late in one division or early in another ; in form they vary from round, or even depressed at the ends (oblate), to pyriform, which may be distinct, with a body prolonged into a neck, or obscure, as the ovate and obconical forms ; a convenient clas- sification subdivides the three divisions founded upon the season of ripening into three classes, viz., distinct pyriform, obscure pyriform, and roundish. Out of all the thousands of varie- ties the number grown for profit is very small, rarely more than a dozen ; and though the list may vary some- what in different parts of the coun- try, there are a few kinds, espe- cially the Bart- lett, which are successful and popular every- where. Mr. P. T. Quinn, near "XToMtrQi-V AT T Obscure pvriform or obovate Pear JNewark, JN. J., fcoyenn* Boussock. who grows pears largely and is the author of a practical work on their culture, restricts his varieties to Bart-
