My friend, Mr. J. W. Kerr, of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, who owns one of the oldest and most picturesque orchards of dwarf pears I ever saw, says that Angouleme (Duchess) is the only variety that pays for growing in that form.
Thus the experience of many men in many parts of America sums up as we began. The conclusion of the whole matter seems to be about this: Dwarf fruit trees have not yet played any prominent role in American commercial horticulture; but they have been profitable in a few special cases, and the probability seems strong almost to the point of certainty that, with the development, refinement and specialization of our commercial fruit growing, a wider field of usefulness will be opened for dwarf trees. In the realm of amateur fruit growing, on the other hand,--a realm now daily widening,--dwarf fruit trees are of capital importance. The owners and renters of small grounds, the cultivators of little gardens--the great majority of American home-makers, in fact,--will find in them an unfailing source of pleasure, inspiration, and even of profit.
Designs for fruit gardens, 53, 55, 59, 61
In the plain-text version of this ebook italics are indicated by _underscores_.
Obvious typographical errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected without comment. One example of an obvious typographical error is on page 124 where the word "an" was changed to "on" in the phrase "... on the other hand...." Other than obvious typographical errors, the author's original spelling, punctuation, hyphenation and use of accents has been left intact with the following three exceptions:
1. On page 92 a hyphen was added to the term "one-half".
2. In the Index (page 125) an accent mark was added in the term: "San José scale".
3. In the Index (page 125) the entry "J. W. Kerr" was changed to "Kerr, J. W." to correspond with other similar entries.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dwarf Fruit Trees, by F. A. Waugh