70 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



all the doctors in the world can apply any remedy that will save it. 

 There is nothing that you can do to your trees that pays so well, 

 and gives so good results, as thinning the fruit, especially those sorts 

 that are inclined to overbear, like the Louise Bonne de Jersey, Bart- 

 lett, and some others. 



Pear.«, like individuals, all need about the same soil and cultiva- 

 tion, but their quality depends almost entirely on the manner they 

 are treated and handled. I think sometimes that a man that is not 

 a good judge of human nature, cannot succeed in cultivating them, 

 so varied are their habits and the modes of handling them. The 

 first specimens of fruit grown on young trees of some sorts, are as 

 good, if not better, than they are after the trees get older. Others, 

 you cannot tell anything about the quality of the fruit by the speci- 

 mens first grown, and the fruit only arrives to perfection as the tree 

 matures. Almost all of the summer and fall pears want to be picked 

 while they are hard and green, and ripened in a warm, dark place 

 in masses. A parrel of pears headed up tight, will ripen up and be 

 of much finer flavor than they will to be turned down loose on the 

 floor and exposed to the air. The winter sorts want to hang on the 

 trees as long as it is safe to let them without freezing ; if the}' are 

 picked before they are fully ripe they shrivel and lack flavor. I 

 took a half bushel of Duchess, Louise Bonne de Jersey and Sheldon, 

 last season to experiment with in ripening. I put part in the cellar, 

 the rest in the attic, except a few that my wife put in the parlor. 

 When we thought they were about right, we began to test them to 

 see which were the best. We both agreed that those in the cellar 

 were inferior ever}' way to those in the attic, and I will say to all, don't 

 put summer and autumn pears in the cellar to ripen. I could not see 

 much difference between those in the parlor and attic, but m}' wife, 

 whose taste is more acute than mioe, insisted that those in the parlor 

 were the better. I knew well that it was no use to argue the case, 

 and I was glad to learn that she had found some practical use for 

 such a needless and expensive luxury. 



Somehow or other, the most of our farmers and pomologists have 

 got the idea that they cannot raise pears here in Maine successfully 

 as they do in Massachusetts, and so they don't try, and when I come 

 to look around and see how few there are engaged in the business, 

 and the way they do it, I don't wonder the}^ think so. I believe there 

 is something in the location and soil but vastly more in the treatment. 

 I can raise pears almost as cheap as I can apples, and so far my 



