46 State Horticultural Society. 



pies and pears, have them as far apart as possible. There is no ob- 

 ject in having your blighted pear trees keep your apple orchard 

 constantly diseased. I w^ould also suggest that the dwarf and stand- 

 ard pears be blocked separately, as the same cultivation that might 

 be necessary to keep the dwarfs in good growing condition might 

 be inadvisable for the standards. 



Except in its susceptibility to blight and some tenderness to 

 low temperature, the pear can thrive under more adverse condi- 

 tions of soil and management than the apple ; but, on account of its 

 tendency to blight, it is advisable to give it a light, well-drained 

 soil, high or rolling, such as is advised for peaches. 



On account of the probable loss of a good many trees through 

 blight, I advise double planting; for standards, say twelve feet 

 apart, in rows sixteen or eighteen; for dwarfs, eight or ten, in 

 rows, sixteen. I object to rows closer than sixteen feet, even for 

 dwarf trees, as they give no room for the spray wagon. 



Like the peach, the pear can stand much heavier cutting back 

 than the apple, and I advise cutting back closely at time of plant- 

 ing, and the heading back each year for two or three years of half 

 or two-thirds of the preceding season's growth. This does away 

 with the long pole-like limbs, which so frequently break with their 

 load of fruit, and always make picking difficult. Dwarfs do not 

 often need this heading back. 



To the pests that infest and infect the apple tree and fruit the 

 pear is much less subject, but spraying should be done for codling 

 moth, scab, rust and leaf blight. The last may not appear, and, 

 should it do so, will probably do but little damage the first year. 

 It will be advisable, though, to spray with Bordeaux as soon as it 

 appears, and the next year spray with Bordeaux about ten days 

 earlier than the expected date of its appearance. 



An insect which has done me much damage is the tarnished 

 plant-bug, lygiis lineolaris. It confines itself almost exclusively to 

 my Duchess trees, sucking the sap from the blossom-buds and 

 newly started shoots, and poisoning them. The buds and shoots 

 are blasted, and thus the crop ruined and the growth of the tree for 

 the season irreparably weakened. Saunders, in his book, "Insects 

 Injurious to Fruits," suggests as follows : "Remedies — First of 

 all, clean culture, so as to leave no shelter for the bug in which to 

 winter over. When they appear in spring, shake them from the 

 trees very early in the morning, while they are in a torpid state, 

 and destroy them." Spraying with kerosene emulsion at the same 

 time of day has also been recommended. 



