Pip Fruits; Pears 97 



attended to and personally trained from year to year, so as to become 

 living witnesses to the master's care; but each year the task grows heavier, 

 until long before the plantation has reached maturity it has become an 

 expensive item of organization. There are some jobs on a market garden 

 that must not be governed by the sole consideration of the cost at the 

 moment; for instance, a special place of punishment ought to be reserved 

 for the gardener who leaves weeds to go to seed, even at path sides and 

 odd corners. The public ought to be protected against having to look at 

 such spectacles of neglect, and the State ought to be saved from the ex- 

 pense which will be involved in the crop of evil habits that will ensue 

 through the subtle medium of suggestion. The pruning of the fruit trees, 

 however, is not such a matter, and must be decided by considerations of 

 how much will pay to do, and unless the grower has strength enough to 

 do it easily, instead of summer pruning and spurring, after the fourth year, 

 all that will be necessary to maintain the trees in bearing will be to shorten 

 shoots of a too vigorous growth, to take out crosspieces, and to remove 

 broken and dead branches. 



Pears are very variable in their habits when on the Pear stock: some 

 are as spreading as any Apple, and require as much room; others are 

 upright and compact, and lend themselves to planting in alternate rows 

 with Plums better even than most Apples. The distance for their planting 

 will be about the same as that already given for Apples. When on the 

 Quince stock it is generally found more convenient to plant Pears alto- 

 gether at about 3 yd. by 4 yd., and to plant Strawberries among them for 

 the first three or four years, than to leave all the ground to them, except, 

 perhaps, for a crop of spring-flowering bulbs. 



When dealt with in this way it is a good plan to give Pears a mulching 

 of stable manure in the autumn of every third year. This has the effect 

 of keeping the soil open and friable, besides feeding the trees and alluring 

 the roots to the surface. The cost of wheeling on and spreading the manure, 

 if the roadways in the plantation are wisely arranged so as not to have the 

 rows too long, will be 80s. per acre. The cost of the manure will vary, 

 according to the distance from town and railway station, from 10 to 16 

 per acre. The cost of pruning, commencing at 3s. per 100 trees, will increase 

 to Is. 6d. per dozen if summer pruning and spurring is continued, but need 

 not get above 9d. per dozen if the trees are left free after the fourth year. 

 Hoeing will cost 2 to 2, 10s. per acre. If no bulbs are grown after the 

 Strawberries, and the land is turned over with the fork in the winters when 

 the mulching is not done, this will cost 2 per acre. 



Pears on the Pear stock vary greatly as to the time they come into 

 bearing after planting. Probably the planter will restrict himself to those 

 varieties that come into bearing at the fifth year, when the produce may 

 reach 7 or 8 per acre, going ultimately up to 50 or 60 an acre for a 

 full crop. On the Quince, by the fifth year the trees can make good show 

 of fruit, and if the soil is quite suitable a gross return of 60 or more an 

 acre can be obtained in a good year, when the trees are ten to twelve 



VOL. Ill 37 



