Gentle reader, whoever thou art, whether of the honorable craft of nurserymen, or a plain amateur, be not ireful. If of the latter class, methinks I hear you say, "A true bill." Doubtless such is the honest confession of many who have been through the mill; and beyond peradventure the question is asked by more, "Is there no such thing as success?" Ah! now we are coming to the point. Is there no such thing as success? In what? Why, in cultivating the pear with remunerative returns for our labor. We answer, Most certainly there is, else how is it that our markets are supplied with fine table pears to the extent they are? (not, we confess, to the extent they ought to be.) Do not, then, suppose that in our previous article we mean to discourage amateurs from all attempts to grow this fine fruit for a market - tout au contraire - we meant in a playful way to hit off the ill-directed and inconsiderate labor of the too enthusiastic amateur. And we are specially drawn to this explanation through a secret misgiving lest the animus of No. I. may not be properly understood. It is much to be lamented that in so many cases the liberal outlay and labor of the amateur results in failure. But for every such case there is most assuredly a very good reason.

The first and main cause of all failure is too much haste. We mean thereby an over anxiety to arrive at results. From this it happens that all the conditions necessary to insure success are overlooked; and these wanting, there can be but one result failure. We say, then, to the amateur, don't be in too great haste to make a pear orchard - -festina lente - remember Rome was not built in a day. In the first place, ascertain whether, all things considered, climate and soil, your locality is favorable to the pear. If this question is answered negatively, then our advice is, touch lightly; have but a few as special pets in your garden, as it were to show how far natural disadvantages may be overcome by art and science. If, on the other hand, you find, by observation and the experience of your neighbors, that the pear will thrive, then lay out your plans as largely as you please, but go to work judgmatically and considerately. Choose first your site; let it be say half an acre; better begin with a small piece than with a large one.

Commence with:

The Preparation Of The Ground

The first thing to be done is a thorough mechanical preparation. Some begin this by cropping the ground, such as putting in a crop of potatoes to clean the ground. This we consider an absurdity, arising from the servile following of the untaught practice of our fathers, instead of profiting by their experience. The potato is essentially a potash plant, and one crop will rob the ground of a vital element for the pear to an extent which will take years to replace in the same form. We rather recommend repeated plowing and leaving fallow. Plow deeply - subsoil. If the ground is inclined to be moist, then attend to a thorough underdraining; let this work be done as if for all time. It need be done but once, and that should be in such a way as never to necessitate a repetition. If the whole ground could be trenched instead of subsoil-ing, the extra amount of labor would be fully compensated for in the long run. We well know the great labor of trenching, and we are therefore careful to insert an if. We would at any rate recommend trenching a portion of the ground in order to test the question.

By way of cleaning the ground, we have found it an excellent practice on the first plowing to give a very liberal seeding of back-wheat, which, when it comes up, should cover every inch of the soil, and be plowed in again when in flower. This will be equivalent to many loads of barn-yard manure without its cost, and with the advantage of leaving the ground free and clean of all weed seeds. The process thus recommended may extend through the summer, and bring us up to the season of planting in the autumn, which, for many reasons, we consider the best.

The Plantation

The ground being thus prepared, we come to the preparation of the borders. The question now is, What do you mean to plant, standards, or dwarfs, or both? If dwarfs alone, you may place them as close as ten feet apart each way, which will give you four hundred and thirty to the acre. If both dwarf and standard, then we would recommend twelve feet by twelve every way; the first row to contain a standard, then a dwarf, next a standard, and so on in alternation; the second row to contain only dwarfs, and the third in alternation the same as the first, and thus until the standards are all planted. This will give twenty-four feet between every standard, which, when they in course of time shall have become good sized trees, and the dwarfs between them, effete by age, are dug up, will leave the standards just ample space, and no more. This distance will give three hundred and twenty-five trees to the acre.

Now let the holes, or, more properly speaking, the borders, be staked out, and this will call into play a little amateur engineering. To do the thing accurately requires no little skill, but every intelligent amateur can by the use of the sighting rods and some care manage to stake the holes in line, every way, lengthwise and breadthwise. We recommend this form of laying out in preference to any other on account of the facility of working between the rows. In digging these borders we would lay more stress upon the diameter than the depth. The ground having been prepared as above directed, it will be sufficient to dig the borders three feet wide by twenty inches in depth, throwing the top soil into one heap and the subsoil into another. All now is ready for the trees, and the next question is, How many and what varieties are you going to buy? Here we would insinuate a caution, to wit: do not fall into the common error of running on too great a variety. If, as this article presupposes, the plantation is the beginning of the amateur's experience, it would be advisable to keep within a few of the best known and most popular varieties.

For a half acre, or one hundred and sixty-two trees, we would suggest as follows:

Standards

Seckel, Bartlett, Fondante d'Automne, Henry IV., Flemish Beauty, Beurre Bosc, Winter Nelis (largely).

Dwarfs

Duchesse d'Angouleme (largely,) Glout Moroeau, Bartlett (very fine as dwarf,) Howell, Bergamot d'Esperin.

We have named but a dozen varieties, and these are all first rate. We have omitted the early summer pears, because we do not consider them worthy of a place in the orchard; and also the late winter varieties, as being impracticable for any but an old and experienced grower, who has advantages for ripening with better success than we have ever enjoyed. We might add a number more very fine varieties, but we have named this list only by way of suggestion.

The usual course is to buy these trees at the nearest nursery. This is a good rule, for, as a general thing, the nearer the nursery the surer the success in transplanting. But a very important question here arises, 1s. your locality one much or at all infested with the borer? If so, either send for your trees to any distance where the borer is unknown, or else go to the nursery yourself and see every tree taken up, scrutinize closely the roots, and condemn every tree the borer has touched; for otherwise you may stock your orchard with this pest to pear growers. We would recommend trees from two to three years old; nothing, however, under two years. As to buying older trees because they have fruit buds, we deem it inadvisable except for a few specimen trees. In getting trees from a distance there is frequently great damage done, which the inexperienced amateur will not discover until a year or two after planting; that is to say, in the handling and packing many buds get rubbed off and trees which have been selected for their symmetrical beauty, and for which perhaps an extra price has been paid, become the most intractable and unsightly in the orchard.

On this point we speak feelingly.

We do not think much of amateurs raising their own trees. We believe in the maxim, "ne tutor ultra crepidam," and think this better left with those to whom it belongs - the nurserymen. But we would recommend the purchasing of trees of one year old from the bud, and planting them in a nursery at double the distance in which they before stood, there to remain as a reserve for future use. This may be done at comparatively small cost, and will afford the highest means for pruning and shaping for any desired mode of training.

And now, as to the setting or planting the trees in their borders as above prepared, we would remark that here, too, haste should be avoided. Let your stock of trees, when received from the nursery, be carefully heeled in by the roots in or near the orchard, and then proceed leisurely and carefully to the planting.

Process Of Planting

The holes being dug as above described, proceed to slope off the edges all around, throwing the soil into the bottom of the hole; this will increase the diameter at the top nearly double, without involving any extra labor. Now mix some of the subsoil with the soil, and throw in, drawing the mass up into a cone, so that when you set the tree in, it will be a little deeper than when in the nursery, observing with the dwarfs to bury entirely the parent stock. Now with great care draw out all the roots and rootlets, so that they will remain as nearly as possible in their natural position; then carefully sift in the fine top soil, and with the hand work it in so as to fill all the spaces between the fibrous roots. To do this well requires two persons, one to hold the tree and adjust the roots, and the other to fill in the soil. Some persons make a practice of drawing up the tree when partially planted, and shaking it, thinking thereby the better to work the soil into the cavities; this practice can not be too severely condemned, as it tends to break off or injure the fibrous roots.

When the roots are all covered, fill in the remaining subsoil, levelling the same on the top of the border.

It will be remarked that we have said not one word about manure, nor do we mean to say more than this: keep it away; do not for the present apply any; it will be time enough a year hence. Now we have told the whole secret and the conditions of success. It seems no great mystery either, but, as we have said before, the great cause of failure is in the neglect of some or all of these conditions. It simply resolves itself into these two elements - thorough preparation of the ground, and careful manipulation. We have known the first carried out so far as to haul extra soil on the ground to deepen the soil of the plantation. Wherever the means of the amateur will justify such an expense of labor, it will, no doubt, pay a handsome interest; this is a point, however, on which we will not enlarge, but close this already too protracted essay with the axiom, which, true in every thing else, is surely so in pear-growing, viz.: that it is far better to do a little well than much badly. We leave the application to the amateur.