66 



rows. Yuii could then mulch in between and you Avoukln't 

 liave to cultivate so near the trees. 



I think that if we would grow two or three good varie- 

 ties instead of so many different kinds, we w^ould be much 

 better off. The Bartlett of course is a very good pear, but 

 the trouble is it comes in when the California pears are on. 

 The Western pears come early and stay late, so they don't 

 give us much chance to dispose of our Bartletts. The Bosc 

 comes in after the Bartlett and so finds a hard market. 



There are many good varieties of pears, but I thiuk 

 when you bring too many varieties onto the market you get 

 people mixed up. Years ago, when the Bartlelt season was 

 over the neighbors came around and inquired if we had the 

 long-necked Bartlett, (the Vicker), and I think we have a 

 similar condition today with apples and everything of that 

 kind. People are fooled on them. They get apples that are 

 good for nothing and are claimed to be such and such a va- 

 riety. People don't want them; they say they are not good 

 for anything. People are all afraid that some one else is go- 

 ing to get the best of it. It is like people getting on a car-, 

 they tumble over each other, but you take your time and you 

 will get as good a place as the other fellow, I think it is 

 ,iust as well not to be in too big a hurry sometimes. I think 

 from what I have seen of the pear business it ought to be 

 taken up again. I can remember when we had about six or 

 seven thousand bushels and today I wouldn't average over 

 two thousand bushels on the same ground on account of trees 

 that have been hurt. 



For the last five or six years our pear crop hasn't been 

 a success on account of the condition of the trees. I have 

 had but two pretty fair crops during this time. There was 

 a pretty fair crop last year and a nice crop of Bosc and Bart- 

 lett the year we had the Fruit Growers' meeting. I lay a 

 good deal of the trouble to the blossoms. Last year I no- 

 ticed the Seckles were very full of blossoms and some of our 

 others had very few. "We had a lot of dull, bad weather 

 when the blossoms came out, and I think that had a good 



