172 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and each produced five bushels, you would have over 500 bushels to the- 

 acre, and these at |1 per bushel, would be |500 per acre, and I think 

 such crops have been harvested here. As I have before indicated, there 

 are mishaps and mistakes, so that your ten acres of pear orchard does' 

 not return |500 nor |200 per acre, every year; but with proper culture, 

 diligence, and intelligence, I see no reason why the culture of pears 

 should not be successful in Berrien county, and why our county should 

 not be noted for its ijear as well as its peach orchards and its vineyards. 

 One or two of the most productive orchards I have known have been 

 orchards where the varieties were mixed, so jjroviding perfect polleniza- 

 tion. I would suggest that persons planting pear trees would do well to 

 plant a few rows of a kind supposed to be sterile, then some that blos- 

 som at the same time but of another variety. The principle is, that if you 

 have at the time of bloom warm weather, so that the bees are at work 

 industriously, they will carry the pollen from one tree to another, quite 

 a distance, but sometimes the pear trees blossom when it is quite cold. 

 In such instances, the bringing nearer together of varieties that will 

 fertilize one another will be of benefit. In many instances, in a block of 

 500 trees, the time and circumstances of blooming would be such that they 

 would be fertilized; but another spring might be unfavorable, and then, 

 if you have the other kinds in proximity', it might be of great benefit. Sa 

 I would suggest mixing varieties. 



SOME POINTS IN PLUM CULTURE. 

 BY MR. J. N. STEARNS OF KALAMAZOO. 



I much dislike to attempt to say anything before such a meeting as- 

 this, upon a subject about which there are many who are much more 

 capable than I to give the desired information. 



In the matter of plum-growing, the past ten years, the question Jias 

 been, mainl.y, how can we grow them and what sorts are most sure to- 

 bear. These two questions hjy^-e been so often answered by the success- 

 of nearly every one who has plum orchards, that I think at this time the- 

 more pertinent question is, what shall we plant that will pay? Here I 

 ma}' drop a word of caution to the i)lum-i)lanter, not to plant too many of 

 the Japan plums, as all I have seen come too early for profit — that is if 

 you have many. There has been a large amount of plums planted in the 

 state in the last two or three years. 



It is being more fully demonstated to me, in the last five or six years, 

 that the later plums pay best. People who put them up for winter use» 

 are not ready for them, and the demand is light until this class call for 

 them. 



I believe the time lias come when it is important, in selecting sorts to 

 plant, that quality and aj)pearance should demand more attention than 

 the selecting of verA^ prolific bearers. I do not mean by this that you 

 shall select such sorts as Washington has proved to be with me. Planted 

 some fourteen years, with bodies ten inches through, they have never 



