CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



by Dr. W. L. Howard of the University of California in the use of 

 the variety named "Surprise," whose resistance is demonstrated: 



The Surprise is even more blight resistant than the Japanese pear and 

 makes a beautiful tree, and the plan to follow would be to grow the Sur- 

 prise on the Japanese root until the trees are perhaps four years old, or 

 until all of the main scaffold branches have been formed. These may then 

 be top-worked to Bartlett. In this way, even though blight did get into 

 the trees, it would not be possible to lose more than one of the main 

 branches, and if care were taken this could be again top-worked on the 

 original Surprise stump. 



Distance in Planting. If the pears are to have the whole 

 ground, it is usual to plant from twenty to twenty-four feet apart 

 on the square. As the tree is slower to attain size and full bearing 

 than the stone fruits, and as it is a long-lived tree, the pears are 

 sometimes set twenty-four feet with plums in quincunx. Peaches 

 and apricots are also set between pears sometimes, when the soil 

 chosen for pears suits them also. 



PRUNING 



Usually the pear is grown in the vase form, as described in the 

 general chapter on pruning. With regular, upright growers, head- 

 ing low and cutting to outside buds results in a handsome, gently- 

 spreading top, and effectually curbs the disposition which some 

 varieties, notably the Bartlett, have to run straight up with main 

 branches crowded together. 



The development of the vase-form with a few continuous leaders, 

 in a general way as prescribed for the peach in Chapter XX, is 

 practicable. Such leaders are to be covered with short, fruit- 

 bearing laterals. Thinning and shortening of laterals can be done 

 by summer pruning. 



As with other fruit trees, the pear must be studied and pruning 

 must be done with an understanding of the habit of the variety 

 under treatment. Irregular and wayward growers, which, in windy 

 places, also have their rambling disposition promoted by prevailing 

 winds, often give the grower much perplexity. The general rules 

 of cutting to an outside bud to spread the tree, to an inside bud to 

 raise and concentrate it, and to an outside bud one year and an 

 inside bud the next, if a limb is desired to continue in a certain 

 course, are all helpful to the pruner. But with some pears, of which 

 the Winter Nelis is a conspicuous example, it is exceedingly hard to 

 shape the tree by these general rules, and some growers abandon 

 all rules, merely shortening in where too great extension is seen, or 

 to facilitate cultivation, and trust to shaping the tree when it shall 

 have finished its rampant growing period. 



In the hot interior valleys, with the pear as with the apple, care 

 must be taken to prune so as not to open the tree too much to the 

 sun, but to shorten in and thin out only so far as is consistent with 

 maintaining a good covering of foliage. 



The pruning of bearing pear trees is much like that of the 

 apple, to be determined largely by the habit of the tree, and to 



