If experiments are successful, they give great pleasure; if they fail, the mind rarely likes to dwell upon them. Such have been my experiments with dwarf pears.

In 1848, 1 planted an orchard of somewhat over four acres, containing about four hundred and fifty standard and one thousand four hundred dwarf pears. The ground was highly manured and thoroughly cultivated each year.

For several years, the trees grew most rapidly. The varieties of the dwarf were those which do well upon the Quince, Vicar of Winkfield, Glout Morcean, •

Louise Bonne, and Lawrence. The Vicar of Winkfield, occupying about one-third of the orchard, outstripped all the others. The culmination of this variety was in 1852. Familiar as I have been, from childhood, with vegetation in its most beautiful forms, I think I never saw anything surpassing the beauty of these Vicar of Winkfield Pear-trees at that time. The rows were perfectly straight, the trees were making rapid growth, and the fruit hung all over them almost as thickly as the leaves, bending down each branch to that graceful curve which artists think the true line of beauty. Several pear connoisseurs came from a distance to see them, and thought the sight amply repaid them for a long journey. I shall not soon forget the pleasure my orchard gave me that whole summer, from the first budding-out of the young and delicate leaflet and the overlying mass of snow-white bloom to the well developed fruit, gradually increasing in size, and daily assuming a more brilliant color, till every branch was pendent in ruddy gracefulness. I well recollect that the beauty of this orchard was sufficient to attract me in the hottest noon.

But at no time was it so beautiful as in the early morning, when leaf and fruit were all covered with dew-drops, and the sun rose upon them, making them glisten and sparkle like diamonds mounted on emerald.

All this afforded pleasure, but I knew this was not enough. The vital question was - would they pay? So I waited till October came, and then gathered them. The yield was enormous, equalling all my anticipations. I sold them to a dealer at prices sufficiently high - if I recollect right, some five dollars per bushel. I have not now any memorandum of the whole yield of the orchard, but it was. sufficient to demonstrate to me an important problem - given land, manure, and dwarf pear-trees, the result would be a large income. With this conviction, I wrote an article giving my experience, and highly laudatory of dwarf pears, which article, I now much regret, was extensively copied in magazines and books on fruit.

And I had abundant data to warrant me in arriving at this conclusion. I had tested the matter by actual experiment, had grown the trees and fruit, and received the money. So I bought another farm, and commenced preparing it for pear-trees. This required two years, but, before the two years had elapsed, my opinion of dwarf pears had undergone a material change. I continued to give my pears the same cultivation I had before given them, growing between them all my kitchen vegetables and beets for stock. The year after the great yield mentioned above, I noticed that the dwarfs were less thrifty, while the standards in the same orchard grew as before. The next year, I noticed that they were losing ground still more, and, the third year, they looked and promised so proudly, that, with a few exceptions, I sold the whole orchard to a person who offered a large sum for them. He removed them to Pennsylvania, and I do not doubt that they grew well after being placed in new ground. The standard pears are still growing as satisfactorily as I could wish, and I feel assured that pear culture, with standards, can be made very profitable.

My opinion, therefore, of, dwarf pears, founded upon actual experiment and careful culture, is simply this: that they are very nice toys, and, like a beautiful picture, may give great pleasure. They are admirably fitted for a small garden where they can be nursed, spaded, trowelled, and fed with special manures. No one should be without them, if it were only for the pleasure they give. I have no hope whatever that they will be found profitable in orchards for growing fruit on a large scale for the demands of our large cities.

We may ask why the same treatment that produces certain results in a small garden, could not be applied in a large orchard of a hundred acres? There is no reason why it could not be; but it may be safely assumed that it would not be.

Old Priam was less careful in the training of his children than the father of an only child. The owner of a flock will never care for them as a child cares for its pet lamb. As human nature is constituted, so it will always be; to grow fruit for the supply of such a country and population as ours, we must have stocks and varieties that will do well under ordinary good treatment.

Amateurs will always have others of fine flavor, perhaps, to make up for their more delicate organization; but those who grow for market, will desire trees from which they may, with reasonable care, expect a good crop. These will have much reason to complain, if those who sell and those who know, allow them to invest their capital in that which may not yield them any profit.

It is, .therefore, that having, in former times, in the full flush of successful experiment, and in all good faith, written in praise of dwarf pears, I feel bound, in all fairness, to give also my subsequent experience, that no one may be misled by any, statement of mine. . However my opinions may conflict with those of others, they will not doubt my sincerity when they recollect that this expression of them is opposed to my pecuniary interests.

[It was due to the many readers of Mr. Parson's article in the Horticulturist, some years ago (in which he strongly approved of the dwarf pear as an orchard-tree), that he should tell his subsequent experience, for which many have been looking. We continue to receive communications referring to the very article the above contradicts. The whole question is now left to the only trne argument we can anticipate can be brought to bear on the subject. Let the pears which were promised be seen in the markets, and all will be convinced. We hope still for the good time to come, and whether it be a supply from the millions of dwarfs or standards that have been planted, the "dear public" will care but little, if they only have the fruit. Meantime, let all who have any kind of fruit-trees, hurry the fruit into the Philadelphia market, where not one in a thousand has yet tasted a good pear; they occasionally see a good one, in Newton's window, at from fifty cents to one dollar, but they want a bushel for those prices. - Ed].

Dwarf Pears #1

At the Farmers' Club, N, Y,, in answer to a question whether " Dwarf Pears can be converted into Standards by planting rather deep and hilling earth around the stem?" Mr. A. S. Fuller remarked, that they will nearly all become standards if the junction of the pear stock upon the quince root be put four inches below the surface. It is a good practice to remove the earth and out several gashes at the swell of the graft, then replace the soil, and new roots will come out upon all sides, and the tree is therefore less liable to be upset by heavy winds.

Mr. Quinn remarked, in answer to a question about distances, "that twelve by sixteen feet is, I find, by long experience, the best interval for pear trees. Being thus near together, they protect themselves to a certain extent. I adopt the practice of having the fruit as near the ground as it can be well induced to grow. I prune to a cone or Lombardy poplar shade, so as to get a slim, tapering tree with fruit near the stem and near the ground. The only, objection to this style of pruning is, that you cannot use your pear orchard as a pasture. But that is seldom desirable. If the trees are twelve by sixteen, they will tax the ground heavily enough without requiring it to grow grass. My success has come from four practices - rich manuring, close planting, open top pruning, and mulching".

Dwarf Pears #1

The Germantown Telegraph says "dwarf pears" are all at this day that we ever claimed for them, and we should not dream of possessing a garden without them. Where room is scarce we should grow dwarfs exclusively, and even where room is unlimited we should have some dwarfs. If any doubter could have visited our garden premises last autumn, he would have witnessed a pomological sight as to cause him to raise up his hands and eyes in wonder and apologize for his ignorance on the spot.

We may add, parenthetically, that we prune our dwarfs excessively, from compulsion, not choice.