228 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ful doctor or Jones to become an eminent lawyer on account of the books in 

 their respective professions. 

 The chair announced the topic : 



CULTIVATIXG AND PRUNING PEAR TREES. 



Mr. Joseph Lannin, of Sontli Haven. — I can give you simply my experience 

 to open the discussion. My plan, Avhen a pear orchard is to be planted, is to 

 thoroughly prepare the soil in the fall of the year, for the purpose of destroy- 

 ing weeds, and having the ground well pulverized throughout. I would not 

 dig holes for planting, but plow out bed furrows both ways, dividing the plat 

 into squares of twenty feet on a side, setting the trees at the crossings. I would 

 plant in the spring. Upon culture I put a good deal of stress ; for the first few 

 years I should give very thorough cultivation ; I prefer to use a one-horse plow. 

 This to keep the surface open and moist, allowing the sun and the rain to do 

 better service. At the end of four years, I confess it is a question whether to 

 still continue the culture or to seed the ground down to grass. In pruning, I 

 believe each tree has a treatment of its own, and it is difficult to tell how I do 

 manage. I trim out superfluous limbs and twigs in July or thereafter, and 

 shorten in the new growth somewhat in the spring. If I were to plant out an 

 orchard now for profit I should use but two varieties, the Bartlett and Beurro 

 d'Anjou. 



Question. — Have you the Duchesse? 



Mr. Lannin. — Yes; a large pear, but I would not grow it for market. 



Question. — Do you grow Beurre Clairgeau? 



Mr. Lannin. — Yes; it is a good tree, — a coarse, large fruit. 



Question. — Have you blight? 



Mr. Lannin. — Very little; confined entirely to Flemish Beauty thus far. 



A. G. Gulley. — Most of us buy too old trees. For our country we want to 

 keep pear trees as near the ground as we can. I would buy yearlings and cut 

 them down pretty well to the ground, causing them to branch low. I have a 

 bit of experience with the Duchesse. I had some trees of this variety which 

 blossomed but bore no fruit. One spring, before the buds swelled much, I took 

 off full thrce-foarths of the blossom-buds from one of the trees. It was very 

 full of bloom notwithstanding, and I had on it a good stand of fruit, wliile on 

 the others, as usual, I had nothing. I am satisfied this work must be done 

 before the tree blossoms or this result will not follow. 



Mr. Merriman followed with an essay devoted especially to 



PRUKIXG THE PEAR. 



In the matter of pruning fruit trees, the proper rules of practice are extreme- 

 ly hard to give in detail, the rules laid down by the accepted authorities in hor- 

 ticultural lore being wholly at fault, — literally the ''blind leaders of the blind," 

 — sounding well enough as theories of the authors, but in practice resulting in 

 serious injuries and bitter disappointments. Perhaps the safest course I could 

 suggest to the uninitiated and inexperienced, and most especially to the profes- 

 sional slasher of trees, would be to lock up the pruning saws, knives, shears, and 

 jH'uners of every description, and throw away the key; or, J3etter still, to smash 

 the aforesaid implements of destruction into a thousand pieces and bury the 

 fragments among the deepest of the pear roots, where the moiety of tonic fur- 



