HINTS ON PROFITABLE FRUIT GROWING. 



for the cautious beginner to risk them. On the other 

 hand, really good varieties being decidedly the most 

 luscious of all our hardy fruits, if well grown, will be 

 found very profitable crops, icheii they get into full bearing, 

 more especially in suitable districts in the southern 

 counties, as any quantity of good samples can be readily 

 sold. On the old plan of " standard " trees, it usually 

 required fifteen to five-and-twenty years to get a pear 

 orchard to give profitable returns. With the "dwarf" 

 system on cordons and espaliers, they are, however, 

 sometimes found bearing fair crops the first year after 

 planting. 



Pears can be grown of really good varieties, succes- 

 sively in season, from July till March or April. Where 

 the soil is really suitable, therefore, a careful selection of 

 the best market sorts that are found to suit the district 

 should be made, and if there is space to store until they 

 are nearly ripe, these might include a supply of the best 

 of the larger kinds that are most likely to mature in 

 succession throughout the season. 



It is, however, desirable that, at first, only the most 

 hardy and popular prolific sorts should be tried. 

 Although there are upwards of 2,000 distinct varieties 

 known to the home and foreign nurserymen, there is 

 only one " William" (Bon Chretien). This is the leading 

 favourite here, known in America as " Bartlett," both 

 with growers and with most consumers, because it is one 

 of the most prolific, and because it has such a distinctly 

 sweet, fragrant, musky flavour, and melting luscious 

 texture. Its season, however, is so short, that in good 

 pear years there is at times, whilst it lasts, quite a 

 " glut " in the wholesale markets, partly from foreign 

 supplies, which mature a week or two before our own 

 crop. 



