INDIANA HOETICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 379 



Question: What about the exhaustion of pollen from an over-produc- 

 tion of fruit buds? 



Mr. Hale: Do you mean to say that every year here in Indiana your 

 apple trees set too many fruit buds? 



A Member: Yes; I think we do have an over-production of fruit buds 

 every year. This is so unless there is an exceptionally late frost. 



Mr. Hale: My experience is that you get too many one year and none 

 the next. 



Mr. Howland: There are too many buds in abundant years, but 

 usually nature thins them out pretty severely, and I would always rather 

 have a surplus than not enough. I think the pollen exhaustion question is 

 a matter of theory. 



Mr. Zion: Mr. Hale said if he had Keiffer pears he would cut them 

 down below the ground and burn them. I understand he is not a grower 

 of pears. I think it would be a national misfortune to lose the Keiffer 

 pear. I think it is a very popular pear for canning. I should like to know 

 what kind of pear you would grow, Mr. Hale. 



Mr. Hale: In the first place, a pear that is so poor that it has to be 

 canned to fool somebody into eating it, is not a good pear. 



Mr. Howland: What would you substitute for the Keiffer pear? 



Mr. Hale: I don't think there is any substitute for it. 



Mr. Little: What would you plant? 



Mr. Hale: With us in New England the Clapp's Favorite, the Bartlett, 

 the Sheldon and the Lawrence carry us through from the first of August 

 until March, and we have fine eating pears all the time. 



Mr. Little: What would you say if your customer refused to buy the 

 summer pears and asked for the Keiffer? You can not down the Keiffer 

 pear. All the speeches made against it are simply booming it. 



Mr. Nysewander: Mr. Hale did not name the Dutchess pear. I live 

 here and do business in the produce market. There were thousands of 

 bushels of Keiffer pears in the East market, and the cars were full of 

 them. It seems to me it would be well now for the growers to turn to 

 something else. It is true that the Keiffer pear in central Indiana is like 

 a vigorous weed. Nature takes care of it. The farmer has nothing to do 

 with it except to try to force it on the consumer. I have heard that if you 

 take a Keiffer slip and put it in a swamp it will do the rest. That may 



