OF GENERAL INTEREST. 



533 



Picking Pears 



SOME interesting information regard- 

 ing his method of picking pears was 

 given The Horticulturist recently by Mr. E. 

 C. Beman, of Newcastle, who has an or- 

 chard of 2,000 pear trees. " I generally 

 start picking Clapp's Favorite," said Mr. 

 Beman, " from the 15th to the 20th of 

 August, and the Bartlett about the end of 

 the month. 



" My practice is to obtain as good pickers 

 as possible, and not too many of them. 

 Picking is started early that they may get 

 through in good time. Fruit keeps better 

 when picked before it is too ripe. Clapp's 

 Favorite must be picked as soon as it is full 

 grown or even a little before, as otherwise 

 they start to rot at the core. Bartlett 

 pears also require to be picked as soon, or 

 a little before, they are full grown, as the 

 quality of the pears is better than if they 

 were allowed to mature on the trees. 



■' Care is taken to see that the early varie- 

 ties of pears are out of the road before the 

 late varieties are ready to pick. It 

 pays to obtam good pickers, as they use 

 greater care in handling the pears, which, 

 owing to tneir tender nature, require care- 

 ful treatment. I find that I can make a lit- 

 tle more on all kinds of fruit by shipping 

 direct to commission men than by selling 

 my fruit from the trees. Small growers, 

 of course, can hardly do this. Many grow- 

 ers apparently do not understand how to 

 pack, as they do not use sufficient care." 



Top Graf ting. ^We have a number of 

 King Baldwins and other trees that have 

 been top-grafted from 15 to 30 years, and 

 we have them on the original stock in the 

 same orchard. I am sure there is double 

 the amount on the top-grafted. I have 

 counted six or seven Kings on a branch no 

 thicker than a pipe stem. They have 

 to be propped up. I think the government 

 should do work of this kind. I consider 

 top-grafting the greatest need in this sec- 

 tion. — (J. I. Graham, Vandeleur, Ont. 



Questions About Apples 



Are Wismer's dessert apple, the Rivers Early 

 and Graham's Royal Jubilee as good as recom- 

 mended in the nursery catalogues? Are they 

 good keepers and shippers? Are they market- 

 able? Are they good dessert apples? Are the 

 trees hardy, and where can I obtain one or two 

 year old trees from nurseries who do not employ 

 agents? — (J. B. Bruce, Kanagan Landing, B. C. 



It is surprising how fond we all are of 

 trying things new and untried, even al- 

 though we know full well that nine-tenths 

 of all new things put out before a gullible 

 public prove worthless and pass out of sight 

 after a few years. Were it not for this fail- 

 ing in us many a business would come to 

 griet. 



These fruits have not yet been introduced 

 long enough for us to know their faults, or 

 to answer your questions. We have eaten 

 the Wismer apple and found it a very agree- 

 able dessert apple, and of fair size. So far 

 these apples have not been tested ; they are 

 comparatively new, and may or may not 

 bear out the laudations of their introducers. 



Self Sterility in Cherries. — I do noi 



know that any systematic investigation has 

 oeen made regarding the sterility of cherry 

 blossoms. Here is room for important in- 

 vestigation which we would like to have fol- 

 lowed up this year had it not been that in 

 most of the varieties the fruit buds were 

 more or less destroyed by winter kill- 

 ing. I have seen it stated somewhere that 

 Belle de Choisy and Reine Hortense are 

 self-sterile varieties, but I cannot say for 

 certain if this is always the case, as varieties 

 self-sterile in some sections often prove self- 

 fertile in others. On general principles, 

 however, it is well to avoid planting large 

 plots of any one variety, as better results 

 are obtained even with self-fertile varieties 

 of cross fertilization. — (R. Cameron, Nia- 

 gfara Falls South. 



I only use barnyard manure in my or- 

 chard. I grow no crops in the orchard, but 

 cultivate and keep down weeds. — (A. Shaw, 

 Walkerton, Ont. 



