514 BOARD OF AGHICULTURE, 



ruinod more orchards than he ever benefited with his pruning. Now, I 

 have heard iioople say to plow you must head high, but I do not believe you 

 ought ever to put a plow in a ]>v;\v orchard. I believe a study of that sub- 

 ject would solve to sonic extent the (luestion of blight. The orchards we 

 cultivated in corn are the worst blighted; the ones in grass not so much so. 

 We have one small orchard we sowed in grass at the start— never had a 

 tool in it— and tlmt orchard is the best. I believe if I were to plant another 

 pear orchard I would sow it in bluegrass and let it remain, and never put 

 a plow about a tree, and I think then we should come nearer to coping 

 with the subject of blight. The growth would be slower, the branches not 

 so tender and less susceptible to the ravages of the disease. That is our 

 experience. If we can keep away this monster, pear culture can be made 

 profitable, but if we can not subdue it, in my judgment it is largely a 

 failure in this climate. 



Question: Do you think this blight is not brought about by certain 

 conditions of the air? 



Mr. Thomas: I think it is caused by a bacterial germ. It may be 

 that certain conditions of the atmosphere render it more susceptible 

 to the disease, but I do not know how that is. I suppose it is propa- 

 gated like measles, or smallpox, or other contagious diseases in the human 

 body. At least that is the calculation, I believe, reached by the Experi- 

 mental Station. 



Another thing about the Keiffer: I do not know whether to blame 

 myself most, or the nurseryman— whether to blame myself for not investi- 

 gating and finding out it was sterile by itself and needed other varieties 

 to fertilize it, or whether to blame the nurseryman for not informing me 

 of that fact— but I have found that by itself it is sterile. We have a 

 Keiffer orchard, at one end of which we have a few hundred Garbers, 

 and they have been full of fruit; and the farther you get away from that 

 Garber lot of trees the fewer the pears, until they disappear altogether. 

 That has been the case for three years; they have actually borne them- 

 selves to death, and many have died from overbearing. The blight, how- 

 ever, has killed nearly all of the Garber and quite a number of the Keiffer 

 pears adjacent to the Garber. I am sorry I did not investigate that ques- 

 tion more thoroughly before setting out my orchard, and I am sorry the 

 nurseryman did not tell me, if he knew. I think the Garber is the best 

 variety to plant with the Keiffer, and it would have saved us much money 

 if we had known it in the first place, and much vexation. 



I believe I shall close these few rambling remarks by the inquiry, 

 "What shall we do to get rid of this monster that seems now to put an 

 end to the pear culture?" 



Mr.' Burton: I should like to ask you, Mr. Thomas, how many bushels 

 pf pears have you ever been able to sell to one family for their own use? 



