PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 207 



September 18, 1866. 

 Mr. Nathau C. Ely in the chair ; Mr. Johu W. Chambers, Sec'y. 



Pears — Cause of their Crackestg. 



The Chairman exhibited some specimens of pears from his farm 

 at Norwalk, Connecticut, remarking at the same time that the 

 skins had cracked very much this season, so as to render the fruit 

 of several trees entirely worthless. He stated the soil to be a 

 rich sandy loam dressed with muck, the pears all set on quince 

 stock. Those which cracked the worst were of the Virgalieu, 

 yet there is one tree of this sort subject apparantly to the same 

 condition of the others, upon which the fruit is nearly or quite all 

 perfect. 



Mr. S. Edward Todd contended that the cause of cracking was 

 a want of clay in the soil, and instanced several cases in Tompkins 

 county. New York, where he dug and carted the top soil around 

 pear trees and replaced it with clay, which he thought was a com- 

 plete remedy, as the fruit which the trees previously bore cracked 

 badly now became perfectly sound. 



Mr. Smith, Westfield, Mass., who is an extensive pear grower 

 at that place, contended that planting pear trees in clay soil or 

 afterward adding clay to the soil would not prevent the trouble 

 of cracking. He has frequently had fruit cracked one year and 

 be sound the next on the same trees. A neiofhbor of his has a 

 pear orchard on a stiff clay soil and his pears cracked badly. The 

 same is common in the vicinity of Hartford, Conn., upon that red 

 stiff clay. They never uniformly crack in any orchard be the soil 

 what it will. One of my own trees which bore a heavy second 

 crop last year, has scarcely a pear on it this year which is not 

 cracked. 



Dr. Langinschwartz said the cracking probably was caused by 

 lice which prevail one year and do not another; they are most 

 common in cold and wet seasons like the present. If you examine 

 the fruit with the microscope you will find a line of very minute 

 holes made by these insects which causes the skin to crack as the 

 fruit increases in size. 



Dr. Crowell said he had one of the most powerful microscopes 

 in use, and had frequently examined without finding these insects. 



Dr. J. C. V. Smith said he was a convert to the insect theory. 



Prof. Tillman thought it was much more likely that the cracks 



