72 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



two-thirds of the trees originally set out died, but there is one 

 row of nine Fameuse trees that has escaped injury. These nine 

 trees have borne heavy crops of fruit every other year since they 

 came into bearing, and some every year. 



Mr. J. S. Stickney, of Wauwatosa, said it was encouraging to 

 learn of some instances of success in raising pears, and that the 

 varieties doing the best in the pear orchard at Green Bay were 

 those commonly set and regarded as the best adapted to cultiva- 

 tion here. He raised some pears; had picked Flemish Beauty 

 pears that he had no doubt had cost him five dollars a piece, yet he 

 sets out a few trees every year. Pear trees need a soil rich in min- 

 eral elements, but not a rich soil; should not be cultivated but 

 rather be kept back, so as to make a slow and steady growth. With 

 such treatment and in such soil, he had no doubt that in many 

 places pears might be raised successfully. The disposition to blight 

 was a serious drawback, and the tendency to this is as great on the 

 lake shore as in other portions of the state. 



Mr. Kellogg, of Janesville, in reply to an inquiry, said he would 

 not withdraw his statement in relation to the average cost of pear3 

 raised in this state, but might in time have to except the lake shore 

 region. Nearly all the pears on exhibition, year after year, at our 

 fairs, and all the instances of successful culture, are confined to this 

 belt. Ozanne, at Racine, Smith, Parks, Jeffrey, Pilgrim, and this 

 orchard at Green Bay, are all in this region. There was one tree 

 in Rock county that had been a success, and he believed only one. 



Mr. Jeffrey, of Smithville, said he was located in what was called 

 the lake shore belt, and had met with some success in raising pears. 

 Had lost many trees by blight, but still thought it paid. He had 

 set out fifty pear trees this season and should keep on setting. 



Causes Affecting Fruit Crop. — Mr. Stickney introduced this 

 subject by stating that we never started out in a season with a 

 fairer prospect of a bountiful yield of all kinds of fruit than this 

 spring, but heavy frosts in May, at the time the fruit buds 

 were opening, seriously marred the prospect; and those frosts were 

 followed by a long spell of cold, chilly weather, which seemed to 

 check the development of the foliage; there was some time that 

 the growth of leaf and tree seemed to be entirely suspended, and 

 it seemed acpuestion whether the leaves that had formed would start 



