THE ANJOU PEAR. 



59 



the outside and inside boarding must be filled 

 with tanbark, sawdust or rough chaff of any 

 kind. Upon the walls place a common pitch 

 roof, boarded and battened or shingled. It 

 must be rain tight, but must not be air-tight. 

 There should be an opening at the ends, or a 

 hood or ventilator, to permit a free circulation 

 of air through the upper part of the house. The 

 door should have double walls filled with saw- 

 dust. These, in brief, are the conditions: Perfect 

 drainage, double walls filled with sawdust, no 

 entrance for air below and free ventilation above. 

 The ice should be laid on a foot of sawdust 



or chaff" and a space of 1 2 in. all around between 

 the ice and the wall should be filled with saw- 

 dust, as well as all the cracks between the blocks. 

 When it is all in the house, sawdust is spread 2 

 feet deep on top of the ice. The cost of an ice- 

 house must vary with the price of labor and 

 materials, A house 12 ft. square and 10 ft. 

 high will hold enough ice for one family and 

 certainly will not cost much money to build. 

 An icehouse should always be painted while, 

 and if convenient it should be covered with 

 vines, which will partly neutralize the heat of 

 the sun's rays." 



THE ANJOU PEAR. 



jNE ot the most satisfactory export pears 

 thus far tried is the Anjou. Its large 



B^ size, attractive yellow color when ripe, 

 its fine juicy texture and excellent quality make 

 it a valuable late fall pear in any market, while 

 its shipping qualities make it most valuable for 

 distant markets. As a standard it is not very 

 productive, and the fruit is much smaller than 

 when grown as a dwarf. Whitcomb in " Country 

 Gentleman " gives his experience on this point 

 as follows: 



" Among a number of hundred which we have 

 in bearing, and which were set in the '70s, there 

 are a few which correspond to the views of the 

 leading orchardists at the present time ; and 

 that is, that better results follow if planted on 

 quince stock. We have taken particular notice 

 of the fact, even before and since the ravages of 

 the pear psylla, that these trees have proved 

 more prolific, and as a rule are much more cer- 

 tain of being annual bearers. 



These trees, if planted on quince, must be 

 planted very deep in order that the young 

 stock, after becoming well rooted, will soon be- 

 gin to take on a new set of fibrous roots, from 

 above the union, which will be of the pear stock, 

 and not of the quince. When this is done, the 

 tree is much more self-supporting by the growth 

 of the stronger roots which come from the pear 

 stock, thus preventing it from being tipped over 



by the prevailing winds. Also, this tree will 

 practically be headed without any height of 

 trunk whatever, and at the same time with nearly 

 if not quite as large a top. And in this instance 

 the strongest reason for not growing the x\njou 

 pear is overcome, namely, that of being so easily 

 blown off". The trees are put five or six feet 

 nearer the ground and thus escape the swaying 

 produced by heavy winds. In fact, this has be- 

 come so well established that one of the leading 

 nurserymen of the state has top-worked over an 

 old Duchess orchard in the manner described 

 to an Anjou orchard. 



The advantages in spraying are also such as 

 commend this practice to common use, as the 

 trees are much lower and much more con- 

 veniently covered with spraying materials. A 

 good wind-break is also considered by reliable 

 authorities to be of great use in keeping this 

 kind of fruit on trees until proper time of pick- 

 ing. This fruit well grown is universally a good 

 seller, which makes it attractive from a commer- 

 cial standpoint." 



The Reine Claude is undoubtedly the finest 

 of all plums for pies and preserves. Its flavor 

 is most agreeable and its color an attractive yel- 

 low. In France this plum is grown in immense 

 quantities for the Paris market. 



