id
in a cool room, it will keep longer than any other variety. Tree hardy
and often produces when others fail. Excellent for preserving, and when
quite ripe, is superior as a dessert fruit.

15. _Blood Cling._--A well-known peach, excellent for pickling and
preserving. It sometimes measures twelve inches in circumference. The
old French Blood Cling is smaller. Many of these varieties will be found
under other names. You will have to depend upon your nursery-man to give
you the best he has, and be careful to bud from any choice variety you
may happen to taste. Difficulties and disappointments will always attend
efforts to get desired varieties.

PEAR.

The pear is a native of Europe and Asia, and, in its natural state, is
quite as unfit for the table as the crab-apple. Cultivation has given it
a degree of excellence that places it in the first rank among
dessert-fruits. No other American fruit commands so high a price. New
varieties are obtained by seedlings, and are propagated by grafting and
budding: the latter is generally preferred. Root-grafting of pears is to
be avoided; the trees will be less vigorous and healthy. The difficulty
of raising pear-seedlings has induced an extensive use of suckers, to
the great injury of pear-culture. Fruit-growers are nearly unanimous in
discarding suckers as stocks for grafting. The difficulty in raising
seedling pear-trees is the failure of the seeds to vegetate. A remedy
for this is, never to allow the seeds to become dry, after being taken
from the fruit, until they are planted. Keep them in moist sand until
time to plant them in the spring, or plant as soon as taken from the
fruit. The spring is the best time for planting, as the ground can be
put in better condition, rendering after-culture much more easy. The
pear will succeed well on any good soil, well supplied with suitable
fertilizers. The best manures for the pear are, lime in small
quantities, wood-ashes, bones, potash dissolved, and applied in rotten
wood, leaves, and muck, with a little stable-manure and
iron-filings--iron is very essential in the soil for the pear-tree. In
all soils moderately supplied with these articles, all pear-trees
grafted on seedling-stocks, and those that flourish on the foreign
quince, will do well. A good yellow loam is most natural; light sandy or
gravelly land is unfavorable. It is better to cart two or three loads of
suitable soil for each tree on such land. The practice of budding o