THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 97 



PEAR ORCHARDS AND THEIR CARE 



Perhaps no tree-fruit is more exacting in care than the pear. Young 

 trees, in particular, must be well cared for and more or less coddled if any 

 factor in environment is adverse. Almost any young orchard of this fruit 

 becomes moribund if the owner settles down to self-satisfied complacency. 

 As the trees come into full bearing, the several items of culture need not 

 be so intensive. A perfect pear-orchard is about the consummation of good 

 fruit-growing. But a perfect orchard of this fruit is seldom to be found, 

 for, sooner or later, blight is certain to take its toll. Because of blight, 

 the culture of no other fruit is attended with more frequent or keener 

 disappointments. Today a man may walk in his orchard with adoration, 

 as an artist walks in a beautiful landscape. Tomorrow, blight may blast 

 the fairest trees. Pear-growing, thus, becomes a good deal of a gamble, 

 and the boundaries within which a fruit-grower's ambitions must be 

 confined as to acreage must be more closely drawn than with other fruits. 

 In most pear regions, the risks are too great to venture all in the culture 

 of this fruit. 



It is an uphill task to grow pears on land not well fitted before planting. 

 A young pear-tree is about the least self-assertive of any of the tree-fruits. 

 For the first year or two young pears seem to have almost no internal 

 push, and are unable to get much of a start out of any but land in the 

 best of tilth. A bare, stony, starved soil is no place for a young pear. 

 The ground should be well tilled almost or quite to the depth the trees are 

 to be planted, otherwise the roots seek the upper layers of earth where 

 there is least resistance and food is most available. If the drainage is 

 faulty, subsequent treatment is well-nigh useless. Sometimes retentive 

 soils in which drainage is good most of the year but slow at planting time 

 may be brought into condition by plowing a back-furrow along the line of 

 each row in the direction of surface drainage to carry away the surface 

 water. Under no circumstances should a tree be planted in a hole in which 

 water is liable to stand about the roots. If possible, the land should be 

 prepared a year in advance by putting in a hoed crop, after which it should 

 be plowed deeply in the fall and pulverized well in the spring, and the 

 trees planted as promptly as possible. 



Land suitable for growing pears does not need to be fertilized for 

 young trees. It is not too much to say that land which will not grow 

 good wheat or corn is hardly fit for pears, although lighter soils fertilized 

 as the trees come in bearing grow some varieties very well; but even on 



