Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-04-03
PEAR CULTURE.

With the growth of the country, and the
increased ability of the people to supply them
selves with the comforts and conveniences-
to say nothing of the luxuries-Of life, the de
mand for fruits naturally increases Fruit is
the natural food of man. To all ages and all
conditions of life, it is alike desirable. 1t fur
nishes convenient article of diet, which may
be used in great variety of modes. 1t gives
the highest zest to the appetite, and is almost
indispensable to health. 1t is no wonder, then,
that attention is, so much more than formerly,
directed to its culture. There is demand for
it both in the families of the growers and in
the market. With judicioes culture, it pays
well; with injudicious it often fails to be either
productive or remunerative.
Thepear is growing to be the favorite fruit
of the temperate regions. The strawberry is
delicious in its season, but somewhat uncer-
tain, is expensive, and lasts but short time.
The peach is unrivalled in excellence, when
well grown and gathered at the proper time
but the tree is short lived, very subject to
disease and casualties, such as winter killing
and spring-killing, by the frosts, and the fruit,
The pear, on the other hand if the varieties
are judiciously selected, and put upon soil
adapted to their growth, is comparatively har-
dy, is almost uniformly productive, is hardly
second in quality to any other fruit that is
grown, and may very easily be had in eating
for at least eight months in the year.
While the judicous attempts TO cultivate
this luscious fruit have uniformly been sue
cessful, as hundreds of cases in and about this
city and the neighboring towns will witness
yet there have been failures, also These have
proceeded, chiefly, from four causes:
bad trees. Thousands and tens of
thousands of utterly worthless trees have been
thrown upon our market within the last fifteen
years-most of them from the refuse of nurse
ries in Rhode Island and New York-trees
which have been culled from by purchasers till
what remained were blemish to the nurse.
ries, and an eye-sore to the proprietors, when
they were sent of to be got rid Of Thousands of
these have been bought at low rates by specu-
lators, who travel about the country and sell
them to the unsuspecting and unwary ; often
carrying with them books with coored draw.
ings of magnificent fruits, to show the kinds
that their trees will bear At other times
these worthless trees are sold at auction. and
ofteu bring more than the regular nursery
mans price for good trees.
2-Ignorance and Neglect. Many have
imagined that if they got tree-no matter
what sort of one, and stuck the root into the
rrround-nn offor haro ,yo. Ill .1o,, h. 4
to do, except to wait little while for the fruit.
The soil might be rich or it might be poor ;
it might be so dry and arid that the root would
dry up and perish, or SO wet and heavy that il
would rot in the ground it might be well cul-
tivated, or it might not; II manure was APP
piled, it might, as likely as not, be such as was
injurious rather than beneficial and, finally,
1t might be neglected entirely, and left to be
browsed down by cattle, rooted up by hogs, or
turned over by the share of the careless plow-
man. Failure under such circumstances is a
necessity, of course
S-unsuitable Soil. Pear trees cannot he
expected to thrive in a gravel bonI a. &, =
hght' thln sandy loan, underlaid with gravel.
In deep warm sandy loan, some varieties. as
the Flemish Beauty and Winter Nelis five hos
our readers not to pronounce this word No,iis
as we often hear it. to the sad discomtor, 4
our nerves; but Ne lis, with the long 60,
instance, often succeed remarkably well /;
highly cultivated. Neither will they do wei
on fiat, heavy, clayey, loan, where waite
stands stagnant some three or four feet belo,
the surface good portion Of the year. The
should never be put on such land unless il