C8 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



but with all its faults I should set fully one-half of my orchard with 

 this sort Next comes the Duchess d' Angouleme, which is one of the 

 best if not the best, to cultivate as a dwarf. It is a good annual 

 bearer, the tree remarkably free from disease, the fruit needs but 

 little thinning, is of the largest size, sells well in the market, aod 

 when fully matured and ripened is of first quality. Its worst fault 

 is that in some seasons, and under certain conditions that I cannot 

 explain, it does not mature and ripen all of its fruit fully, and then 

 there is little to choose between one and a turnip. You will notice 

 that I have limited you to three varieties, for my object has been 

 for profit rather than pleasure, and if you have that in view I don't 

 think you will regret it. 



I will now give j'ou a little of my experience with insects and dis- 

 eases. In regard to insects I can tell you but little, for I am no 

 entomologist. I have never taken much interest in their origin and 

 life history. I cannot tell you much about microbes, bacteria, try- 

 petas, etc., for I never went a gunning for such small game, and if 

 you wish to know more concerning them, I will refer you to Prof. 

 Harvey and some of those experts at Orono, who will furnish you 

 with all the scientific and reliable information you desire. I read 

 in the papers not long since, how many thousand microbes there are 

 under a person's finger nails, and mj- daughter thought, if that was 

 so, that mine must be badl}' infested. I have directed my efforts 

 more to find out some remedy to get rid of them, rather than to 

 spend time looking through a compound microscope to stud^' their 

 genealogy and habits. My pear trees have never been troubled 

 much with insects, except the codling moths, and you can easily 

 handle them by spraying judiciously with Paris green. But the 

 disease called the blight, or sun scald (some say that it is an insect)^ 

 has been a serious one, and I have lost quite a number of trees by 

 it. I have tried all the remedies that I could hear of, and made all 

 sorts of applications, all to no effect, and I became thoroughly dis- 

 gusted, and concluded that they amounted to nothing, or I wan't 

 much of a doctor. For a while I tried to console myself with the 

 thought that it is an irrevocable decree of our Creator, that, in His 

 appointed time, all men, animals, vegetation, and even the world 

 itself shall perish, and that I ought not to expect that a dwarf pear 

 tree would be an exception. But I found that something must be 

 done, or I should lose all my trees before their appointed time came. 

 So, on further reflection, I thought I would try once more, on my 



