Some remarks which I ventured to make at the Pomological Convention at Rochester, and which received confirmation from Col. Wilder, L. E. Berckmans, and others, not nurserymen, have been uniformly misrepresented and misworded in the several reports.

They were substantially these: That being a lover of truth, and desirous of learning the truth, in order to obey the truth, Dr. Ward's articles on dwarf pears had incited in me the keenest curiosity to know if I had been pursuing a phantom. I had therefore visited his place, and procured the visits of other gentlemen, not nurserymen (which unfortunate class seem to have excited the doctor's suspicion of their exact truthfulness), if happily we might discover the cause of such a sad account of the failure of the pear on quince stock. The queries to be answered were: Was it local disadvantages? accidental causes? originally bad trees? poor cultivation? ignorance of the nature of the hybrid plant? a poor selection of the kinds suited to the quince? were the pears budded on American quince stocks? Or, was the quince stock, as a base for pear cultivation, a failure? The united testimony of these unbiassed gentlemen, who had the pleasure of the doctor's courteous reception and attendance through his grounds, was against his theory and conclusions, and, as two of them have informed me, they found abundant testimony in favor of the quince stock in his own grounds, and that the doctor's treatment of his trees had violated all the laws governing the growth of pear on quince roots.

* See Frontispiece.

First The trees were originally planted with the quince stock from two to four inches above the ground. Second. The conical, low-branched form had been neglected, and ordinary standard trees had been attempted, which would account for the doctor's complaint that they blew down, breaking off at the juncture of the pear and quince.

That, moreover, these gentlemen had ventured the observation (in reply to the doctor's objection to the quince stock) that his best Vicars were on the quince. "Oh," said the doctor, "that is an exception." "But your Duchesse are splendid on quince." "Another exception," replies the doctor. "But your Louise Bonne, your - etc." "Exceptions - all exceptions," was the reply; and so on through the list of nearly all the pears which experienced Pomologists claim as superior on the quince. From this I deduced these two facts: that the doctor failed, where he had failed, from ignorance of the imperative laws governing the growth of pear on quince; and that his success, where he had success, was on the much abused quince stock.

These, Mr. Editor, are the sum and substance of my remarks, in which none of the discourteous terms reported were used.

Now, Mr. Editor, I looked upon Dr. Ward's published essays as just and fair subjects for criticism. If they are true, and experience will establish their soundness, I shall be the doctor's most earnest disciple, as I am seeking for truth, and desire nothing else. Now, will you indulge me in a very brief synopsis of the causes of success and failure of experiments of pear on quince stocks? I have three acres of light, sandy loam, upon which I have carted two feet, in depth, of soil from the adjacent streets of Brooklyn. The thirty inches of soil have been trenched and mixed with a fair dressing of compost, on one-half of the ground, the other half only fairly worked with the plough, and the same manuring for comparative experiments of growth and fruiting. On the first one and a half acres, I have (two, three, and four years planted) two thousand pear-trees, five feet each way for the two and three years planted trees, and (10 feet by 5) ten feet by five for the four years planted. I commenced planting the quince stock seven years since, but, from inexperience, met the same difficulties narrated by the doctor, discovered the cause, and rejected the whole stock of eight hundred and seventy trees, and commenced de novo.

I was not a nurseryman, and rather think the fraternity would not own me now for one, though I have sold a few trees, to help pay the expenses of my hobby until it will pay for itself. And now, sir, with an abundant and most satisfactory success before me, with a growth, healthiness, and productiveness which surpasses my expectations, I feel able safely to pronounce on the necessities for success, and the causes of my failure.

First

My first trees were budded on American quince stocks, and, if the doctor obtained his trees prior to 1850, they were, almost beyond doubt, defective in that important respect.

Second

The pear was budded high on the quince, and, in great submission to the dogma, "Plant your trees no deeper than they grew in the nursery," they were set with the quince two to six inches above ground.

Third

Many kinds unfitted to succeed on the quince, and which experience has rejected, formed the great bulk of the number.

In regard to the first cause of failure, the doctor does not seem to recognize the necessity of caution, and, perhaps, was quite as unconscious of the defect as of the second.

The pear must be budded on a free, rapid-growing variety of quince stock. Such is the Angers Quince, which will expand in growth with the pear, instead of ceasing to grow beyond three or four inches in diameter. Shoots of this variety seven feet in height, and one and a quarter inches in diameter; the growth of two seasons can be seen in my grounds.

Second

The office of the quince is entirely as a root, never as a trunk or stem. Every portion of the bark of the quince will send out roots, with the slightest shade and moisture. It may therefore safely be buried several inches below its natural position, as it readily assimilates its character to its condition. When buried two to three inches below the surface, new roots fill the ground; the tree is steadied at the weakest point (the juncture of the two species), and ultimately after the habit of the tree is formed; and fruit has been enjoyed for several years; the rootlets formed by the portion of pear stock buried, sustain the tree beyond the possibility of fracture. Of (600) six hundred trees, three years planted, and this year removed, one-half had rooted from the small portion of pear stock buried; and (if permitted by the Editor) I may, in a future article, give a few simple instructions, to induce or prevent pears on the quince rooting from their own stock.

Of the third cause of failure, I shall have abundant acknowledgment of truth from the readers of the Horticulturist. No single cause of wholesale denunciation of the quince stock will compare with the injudicious working of all sorts of pears on the quince stock. We have but very few that succeed, and fewer that are superior upon it, and a proper selection of these for localities will insure success. These have been so recommended, that it would be superfluous to repeat them here. Among them, however, we may say, the peerless Duchesse holds her undisputed rank; and Dr. Ward, in justice to her, either ought not to have decried the quince stock, or he ought not to have grown the largest Duchesse upon it ever known; thirty-five ounces, and every ounce an argument against him. As to the doctor's challenge, beside coming rather late in the season, it certainly struck me as well as all with whom I have conversed who have read all his articles, that there was a gross inconsistency in writing down the pear on quince, and then challenging fruiterers to produce equally fine pears with his, grown on the abused quince.

The universal verdict seems to be, regarding the articles in the Horticulturist, that the doctor should have examined other grounds than his own, if, possibly, his cultivation, kinds, or trees, were not properly suited to the wants of the double plant, before he ventured to pronounce bo imperatively against the experience of French cultivators for one hundred years, and English and American Pomologists for twenty and thirty years. That his articles very blindly expressed his belief, containing within themselves self-refuting contradictions, and were altogether quite obscure, at times, whether he did not intend ultimately to pronounce in favor, instead of against the quince stock. That the doctor should either stop growing good pears (of all the kinds claimed for it) on the quince stock, or he should stop writing against it - all of which, I hope, he will take in good part, as I have a hearty respect, and some affection, for any man who loves a tree as well as I understand the doctor does.