ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 515 



mulch, for which purpose it may be 

 mowed and left on the ground. 



Training and Pruning. — These topics 

 should be considered together, since both 

 have the same object — the forming of the 

 head. The tree should be trimmed early 

 in its orchard life, so as to produce the 

 desired shape. It should be branched 

 low, from two to four feet from the 

 ground. The main limbs should be well 

 "balanced and well separated, while the 

 leader must also be preserved, all inter- 

 fering branches should be removed, and 

 those which are too strong must be 

 shortened in during the summer. All 

 this will require some care and watchful- 

 ness, but will need the removal of very 

 little wood, if it be done in time, while 

 the tree is small, and this is the best time 

 to do the work of pruning; midsummer 

 is the best season, a strong, sharp knife 

 and a pruning chisel the best instru- 

 ments. 



Pruning old orchards is quite another 

 affair, and if they have been long neg- 

 lected, the trees may need a very severe 

 pruning to remove crowded, exhausted 

 and decaying branches, in order to re- 

 invigorate the organism by the production 

 of new wood growth. The application 

 of the saw will now be required, and the 

 mild weather of fall, winter or early 

 spring should be selected for doing the 

 work. All large wounds must be pared 

 smoothly with the chisel, and covered 

 with some mastich fo exclude the ele- 

 ments. In such trees it is sometimes 

 better to thin out the branches and 

 shorten them than to remove the larger 

 limbs. 



Pears are delicious fruits, and every 

 farmer should plant at least a few trees. 

 The crops are certain, and any surplus 

 may readily be disposed of. The old 

 saw about planting " for one's heirs " 

 must give way before the advances of 

 pomology, for we now have many varie- 

 ties in cultivation that are early-produc- 

 tive, and modem horticulture has fur- 

 nished us with means of forcing early 

 fruitage upon those varieties that formerly 

 tried the patience of the orchardist by 

 their long-continued wood-growth, before 

 reaching that condition of maturity that 

 is attended by abundant crops. 



The natural season for the maturing of 

 this fruit being mid-autumn, we find as a 



result of cultivation and the production of 

 new varieties, that this period has been 

 considerably extended in both directions, 

 so that the pear season now reaches from 

 July to March or even longer. A very 

 experienced student and propagator of 

 this fruit has suggested that in thus de- 

 parting from the normal season of ripen- 

 ing, we may expect to find, under the law 

 of compensation, that we shall lose some 

 desirable qualities. The truth of this is a 

 matter of common observation : thus, in 

 quality, most early pears are inferior to 

 those of a later period, and the general 

 inferiority of the latest or winter pears is a 

 matter of common remark; there are ex- 

 ceptions in both extremes, but autumn is 

 the season of the best pears. 



Soil. — Any good loamy land, with a 

 predominance of clay, will produce good 

 pear trees, and thorough plowing will be 

 a sufficient preparation after draining, if 

 the subsoil be tenacious and wet. The 

 pear strikes its roots deeply into the soil ; 

 it is thus able to seek its food, and it is a 

 gross feeder, but may thrive even on thin 

 soils, at the same time it will be benefited 

 by suitable manures. Analysis of its pro- 

 ducts shows that it needs lime and phos- 

 phoric acid; therefore, bones may be 

 applied with advantage to lands that are 

 deficient in these elements. Planting and 

 cultivation of the pear may be the same 

 as that advised for the apple. 



Dwarf pears have been very highly 

 recommended, and largely planted; but 

 the majority of planters now prefer to 

 have their trees on tree-stocks. These 

 are often erroneously called standards in 

 contradistinction to those being dwarfed 

 by being worked on quince stocks. The 

 dwarfs are very satisfactory for limited 

 grounds, and should have high culture 

 and good care in trimming and training 

 to produce their best results. The two 

 styles of trees should not be planted to- 

 gether as has been advised ; they require 

 different treatment. 



Training. — Pear trees will bear crowd- 

 ing, as most of them are of an upright 

 habit ; fifteen or twenty feet apart is wide 

 enough for the majority, and many will 

 succeed much closer. The trees should 

 not be grown as standards, with tall, 

 naked stems, but do much better if 

 trained from the first in conical form, 

 when they are generally called pyramids. 



