400 



The ('anadian Horticultuu.si; 



EFFECTS OF FERTILIZING ON PEARS. 



^O^HERE is no fruit that responds so readily to good fertilizing as 

 pears, and where old varieties seem to be running out a new 

 lease of life is given to them by applying ground bone and 

 potash. Without doubt these are the two essential constitu- 

 ents of the soil that the pear trees exhaust, and when they can 

 no longer draw thetn from their surroundings they refuse to 

 produce salable fruits. After many years of experience, says 

 a recent writer in an exchange, I can safely say that all of the 

 pear trees of an old orchard can be revived almost beyond 

 recognition by the annual application of potash and ground bone. The process 

 I have found the most serviceable is to apply about 400 pounds of muriate of 

 potash with 800 pounds of grpund bone per acre each year. One-half of this 

 mixture is applied in the fall and the other half in the spring at plowing time. 

 Crimson clover seed is sown with the fertilizer in order to give the necessary 

 nitrogen. This repeated years in succession brings the orchard up to a con- 

 dition where excellent crops of pears can be depended upon every season. 



Lately many of our standard pears have been degenerating, and even upon 

 good soil they fail to produce the paymg crops that they should. The fruits 

 are small, tasteless, and apt to be knotty and poor generally. Our fall fruits are 

 unusually poor and insipid, and if better pears could be produced at this time 

 of the year there would be a better general demand. Our fall and winter pears 

 are susceptible of higher and more delicious flavors if we only give them the 

 right cultivation and fertilization. The comparative difference between the 

 fruits of the same variety of pears taken from the same orchards is sufficient to 

 convince one of the truth of this remark. Not a few are so poor, that one can 

 hardly believe that they came from the same stock as other delicious specimens 

 plucked from trees that have been fertilized for several years. Herein lies the 

 difference. 



It is a crying need of the times that orchardists should get out of the old ruts, 

 and educate the public up to a love for better fruits In this way the consump- 

 tion will increase. We can only do this by abandoning the idea that apple, pear 

 and other orchard trees will take care of themselves. They will not, and never 

 did, properly. They need cultivation and fertilization just as truly as do the 

 vegetable, grain or other farm products. Fruit growing requires as much scien- 

 tific study as grain growing or cattle breeding, and the sooner this is generally 

 recognized the better it will be for the industry. 



Gentlemen or Ladies interested in forwarding the interests of Canadian 

 horticulture, by extending our membership, will please send postcard for sample 

 copies, circulars, etc., for free distribution. 



