STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. .109 



Report of Committee on Pear Culture: 



PEAR CULTURE. 



Gentlemen of the lUinois State Horticultural Society: 



When the State Board selected me to furnish an essay on " Pears 

 and Pear Culture " they surely did not know how sick I was of the 

 subject. If I wanted to ruin a fruit <j;rower I would advise him to 

 grow pears exclusively, and all the different varieties. But as I 

 would like to see them prosper T will advise them to <j;row only a 

 few varieties, say Bartlett, Seckel, Duchesse, and Howell, and let all 

 the balance alone. Buy one-year-old trees, set them in fairly good 

 soil, cultivate w^ell three or four years, then seed down to grass and 

 keep it mowed close. Do not cut the trees, except to remove suckers, 

 if you can avoid it. Do not plant on a hot southern hillside; a level 

 or a southernly slope is best. I believe it an excellent plan to plant 

 evergreen trees all through your pear orchards. It is not original 

 with me. but T notice my i)ear trees grown in that way are compar- 

 atively free from Ijlight. 



The oldest and best pear orchard of any size within my knowl- 

 edge is that of Alexander Brown, of Villa Ridge, Illinois, a son of 

 your old president. Judge Brown. The orchard is on good soil and 

 nearly a level surface, with a grove of timber on its southwest 

 border. Mr. Brown says the orchard is twenty-two years old. He 

 says he would ])lant on good soil with north aspect; would plant 

 Bloodgood, Howell, and Bartlett, for profit. Ha* one Bloodgood 

 tree that never blighted, and which bears alternate crops, light and 

 heavy; sells very well. Mr. Wm. Minnich's experience is much the 

 same as is Mr. Brown's; his orchard is eighteen years old. and as 

 good as any except Mr. Brown's. Messrs. Bailey and Hand ford, of 

 Makanda, claim that pears can be grown there free from l)light; I 

 wish they would give us their method, for that is just what we all 

 want to learn. One of their modes is to raise wheat in the pear 

 orchard, but others have lost all their trees by just that })lan. I 

 recollect a man from Missouri, some ten or fifteen years ago, talked 

 to me a half day to explain his method of preventing blight; his 

 theory was splendid. l)ut I think his practice and experience will be 

 like that of all the rest of us. 



I have a young orchard of one thousand trees at Villa Ridge, 

 four years old, that looks now very nice, but I have no hope of its 

 remaining good many years; it is contrary to the history of pear 

 growing in the West. Yet let all (jf us fruit growers plant some 

 pear trees, as we cannot aiford to lose so fine a fruit, only don't 

 depend on that for a living, but take your pears thankfully when 

 you can get them, and have some apj)les, grapes, and strawberries to 

 keep the Ijreath of life in your bodies, as })ears will be a very poor 

 reliance. Respectfully yours, 



Alton, Dec. 7, 1883. F. HAYDEN. 



