408 TRANSACTIONS OF THE RICHLAND 



REPORT ON BLACKBERRIES. 



Mr. Ritter — I have had considerable experience with black- 

 berries. Began with Snyder. It is a good bearer but does not 

 stand drouth well, yet I have found it the most profitable berry 

 with me. 



Peach. T. M. Shields— I have found Heath cling and Heath 

 free to be most hardy with me. The general opinion was that 

 peach growing is profitable, provided the right varieties are 

 planted and proper care is given them. Many small orchards of 

 peach trees have been planted in the past two years, and the 

 crop will be quite large in another year. 



J. P. Wilson — The pear crop the last season was quite good. 

 In fact, not only for the season just past but for several years, 

 pears have done fully as well as the apple or any of our other 

 fruits. The one great cause of discouragement in pear cultiva- 

 tion, the blight, having shown itself but very little as compared 

 to former years. I have made it a point to watch the fruit as it 

 came to market on all occasions when I could do so. The result 

 of my observations has been that we have one drawback to suc- 

 cessful pear culture that is worse than the blight. And that is a 

 lack of knowledge on the part of many who grow them as to the 

 proper care of trees, and I am constrained to think that many 

 of them do not know what a good pear is, for we so often see 

 pears in market that say as plainly as though they could speak, 

 "See what a plight I am in, but it is not my fault." Such fruit is 

 so very unsatisfactory to the consumer that they have become 

 disgusted and quit buying pears of any kind. It is in pear grow- 

 ing as with anything we undertake. We cannot reasonably ex- 

 pect to succeed unless we learn something of the nature of the 

 thing. Many of our intelligent people who are trying to grow 

 pears (at least I suppose they are; they are buying trees and 

 planting them) do not know the difference between a standard 

 pear and a dwarf. Many think that dwarf is some kind of a, 

 small-growing kind that will bear quickly. They do not know 

 that the root of one is pear and the other quince. Now let us 

 look at the roots of the pear; what do we see as to character? 

 we find a few large long roots reaching far down into the earth, 

 so we see that if the tree is to be healthy and live to an old age 



