102 SALES OF FRUIT. 



judicious method of summer pruning (described on 

 another page) should be instituted to change the 

 habits of the trees. 



When the trees are ten years old the receipts 

 should not be less than $400 per acre, and there will 

 be a steady increase in the returns, under proper 

 management, until the trees have been planted fifteen 

 or sixteen years, when the receipts will be at least 

 from $600 to $800 per acre, and in many cases much 

 larger. When choice pears command from $10 to 

 $30 per barrel, as they have for the past three or 

 four years, and this with a brisk market, it affords 

 encouragement enough to induce horticulturists to 

 make every effort to produce the best specimens of 

 the varieties that the market demands. 



To give an account of the sales of fruit from our 

 entire orchard would be unsatisfactory, on account 

 of the difference in age of the trees, varying, as they 

 do, from two to seventeen years. 



Ten years ago I selected a single row of thirty 

 Duchesse d'Angouleme trees, planted ten feet apart 

 in the row. Since then I have kept an accurate ac- 

 count of the total sales of pears from these thirty 

 trees. They are now eighteen years old, and they 

 have produced seven crops in nine years. The trees 

 are at present looking very well, and, if we can judge 

 from appearances, they will continue to be produc- 



