Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 3, 1802).djvu/378

356&#93; 356] PEA PEACOCK, the CoMMojj, or Pnvo cristatus, L. a well-known bird, about the size of a common Turkey, and acquiring, about the third year of its age, exquisitclj-- beautiful plumage. This creature is originally a na- tive of India. According to some writers, it attains the age of 25, though others assert that it lives 100 years. The female peacock deposits 5 or 6, and sometimes from 8 to 12 greyish- white eggs, which she conceals at a distance from her usual abode : th.e period of incubation, in general, extends from 27 to 30 days. When the young brood is produced, they should be fed with curd, chopped leeks, barley-meal, &c. well moist- ened ; — grasshoppers and some other insefts, are to these birds ex- ceedingly grateful ; but nettles and elder-flowers are fatal poisons. In about five or six months, they will feed like the old birds, on wheat or barley, or whatever they may col- left in the circuit of their confine- ment. Peacocks chuse the most elevat- ed places for tlieir roost, such as the tops of houses, high trees, &:c. Their cry, previous to a change in the weather, is loud and disagree- able. — ^Though their flesh at a cer- tain age is coar.se and unfit for the table, yet a young pea-fowl affords tender food, and is, by epicures, considered a delicacv. PEAR-TilEE, or Pijrtis com- munis, L. a valuable indigenous tree, growing in woods and hedges, in various parts of Britain ; and flowering in tlie months of April and May. The pear-tree delights in rich soils and gentle declivities } but will not thrive in moist situations. It resists the severest frosts ^ its PEA wood is smooth, light, and coin- patt ; and is used in considerable quantities by turners, for making carpenter's or joiner's tools, and for pifture-frames, M'hich are stained black, in imitation of ebony. The leaves impart a yellow dye, and are sometimes employed to com- municate a green colour to blue cloth : — they are eaten by horses, cows, sheep, and goats. In a wild state, the fruit of the pear-tree has an austere and un- pleasant taste 5 but, when culti- vated, it is highly grateful ; and skilful gardeners have obtained not less than 1500 varieties, by inocu- lating, inarching, engrafting, &c, the common wild stock, w:ith scions of other fruit-bearing trees. — The most valuable of these, whe- ther for the dessert, or for culinary purposes, we have already speci- fied, under the article Orchard (pp. 301 and foil, of the present A'olume), and shall therefore con- fine our account to the best me- thod of rearing them, and to a con- cise view of their properties. All the varieties of this tree are hardy, and will succeed in any common garden-soil, provided it be open and dry. They are pro- pagated by engrafting, and by bud- ding, or inoculating either upon free stocks, that is, such as have been raised from seed, or upon quince -stocks : the latter, how- ever, require a rich and moist soil. Sometimes the scions are engralt- ed on medlars, in order to render them dwarfs ; and nursery-men have also ventured to lud them on white or hawthorns, wlien there has been a scarcity of original or free-stocks. But such praftice ought to be adopted only in cases of real necessity ; as it renders the fruit stony, and otherwise dimi- nishes