84 State Honiciiltiiral Socict 



V. 



The fruit growers of the Union certainly deserve much praise in their 

 efforts to make pear growing practical. Our country is a large one with 

 such diversity of soil and climatic influences much experimenting will 

 be required. 



An orchard of dwarf pears, trained in pyramidal form, is a beauti- 

 ful sight, planted with adapted varieties, it can be made quite profitable 

 in hands of a specialist. The ground for the trees should be thoroughly 

 prepared by plowing and harrowing, checked off ten or twelve feet apart. 

 Varieties known to do best on the Quince are planted, such as Duchess, 

 Bartlett, Anjou, Louise Bonne, and others in smaller lots that may be 

 grow^n for trial. The ground can be planted for several years in low 

 growing crops of any kind ; then left to rest — grass and weeds cut down 

 for hay or left as a mulch. In planting, the trees should be formed, roots 

 trimmed, the soil well firmed upon them, and very little pruning done 

 after, except to bring the straggling branches into shape. The aim 

 is to retard excessive growth, but to induce a larger number of small 

 'imbs and twiggy growth. This, we think, will be largely a safe-guard 

 against blight by diverting the sap into many channels. Trees of the 

 pear orchard should be twenty or twenty-five feet apart, I plant twenty ; 

 this seems to be a good distance, for in few instances will the trees grow 

 large enough to need more space. 



The pear tree is an upright grower, the roots not spreading near the 

 surface. 



We start the heads of trees low, one to two feet from the ground. 

 .\fter the first season no trimming is done except to cut away dead or 

 blighted limbs when these appear. 



Shoots starting from near the ground, unless too many, are left to 

 grow as a new part of the tree. 



In the mode of training the pear we have adopted, which could be 

 termed the renewal system., these new shoots become very serviceable 

 for this reason, quite often a tree blights and only part is lost, tlie 

 root and a part remaining healthy and living on, growing vigorously 

 and bearing fruit the same as when all the tree was there. The per- 

 centage of trees lost by blight has been much reduced when trained in 

 this way. While those trained to a single stem, when blight appears, 

 the whole tree is lost, the trunks all being shaded may in part be a safe- 

 guard, but our theory is, as before stated, inducing a slow, "healthy 

 growth of wood, and plenty of it has as much influence, if not more, for 

 we find that trees having passed the first 3'ears of fruiting, and the older 

 they become, are less subject to the blight. Of course we have not 

 been free from it, but it does not worry us much. When we see a twig 



