TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 61 



which proved very unsatisfactory; and I had but one tree show signs of 

 blight this season, while pears within three miles of my place, standing 

 in sod for years, were nearly ruined by blight the past two years. But I 

 should mention that blight was unusually bad all through our part of the 

 state, one year ago, and at that time we had quite numerous attacks of it; 

 but we made a regular business, one day in every week, to go over the 

 whole orchard, cutting out every vestige of blight, and being sure to get 

 below the affected part. These branches were promptly carried out of the 

 orchard and burned. To this vigilance I attribute our almost entire free- 

 dom from the disease the past season. 



The standard pear needs but little pruning, but I would recommend the 

 cutting back of nearly two thirds the young growth of dwarf pears. If 

 this is not done, and they are not planted deep enough to become in soil 

 half-standard, they will become top heavy and tip over. 



COMBATING INSECTS AND DISEASE. 



The time has come when, if we wish nice fruit, we must be vigilant in 

 fighting the various injurious insects. I have been much troubled with 

 the dropping of the leaf on my plums and some varieties of pears, thereby 

 preventing the fruit from properly maturing. The past season I sprayed 

 my pears and plums, with the Bordeaux mixture, hoping to head off this 

 difficulty, spraying the first time before the trees blossomed or leaved out, 

 giving them a thorough coating so the limbs and bodies looked blue when 

 they became dry. After the fruit set I sprayed three and four times more 

 at intervals of a week or two according to the weather. In these later 

 sprayings I put into the mixture Paris green at the rate of one pound to 

 two to three hundred gallons of water to destroy the codlin moth and the 

 curculio. If it was through this treatment that the trees held their leaves 

 so perfectly, notwithstanding the extreme dry season, this one thing, as 

 advocated by our experiment stations, is worth more to the country than 

 they have all cost. 



MATURITY AND MARKETING. 



When the pears are about one fourth grown, I go over the orchard and 

 thin them. Instead of thinning as we do the peaches, to four to six 

 inches apart, we pick off every pear imperfect from any cause, if it takes 

 off all for two feet and then leaves four in a bunch. Experience has 

 taught us that the pear will develop all right in this way if on the whole 

 the tree is not overloaded. 



The pear, differing from other fruits, should never be allowed to ripen 

 on the tree. The quality is much better if, when fully matured, they are 

 picked and allowed to color and ripen in the keg or barrel. One season I 

 had thirty bushels of Bartletts blow off when not much more than half 

 grown. I thought them worthless, but after they had lain there a few 

 days I was induced by a solicitor to pick them up for shipment; and they 

 brought me as good a price as any shipped that season. Some of them 

 remained in the packing room until they ripened, and I was greatly sur- 

 prised, as the quality was equal to that of any of the fully matured fruit. 

 Not all varieties will do this, but the Bartletts may be picked when 

 apparently very green and yet mature in fine shape. 



My practice is to make two grades of my pears, putting the select, per- 



