88 An American Fruit-Farm 



All diseases to which fruit is subject seem to 

 afflict the pear tree. We are not as yet practically 

 acquainted with the preventive of blight. The 

 usual treatment for scale remedies that evil, but 

 for pear blight we as yet can do no more than to 

 cut out the affected part, a foot or so below the sign 

 of the blight, and bum the cuttings. Leaf blight 

 is hindered if not prevented by spraying with 

 Bordeaux mixture. The best treatment of the 

 pear tree is abundant feeding. Orchardists differ 

 in opinion as to cultivation; many, and successful 

 raisers of pears, insist that the orchard should be 

 left in grass and be freely enriched with plant- 

 food, barnyard manure, and with fruit-food — 

 potash. The dwarf varieties are more susceptible 

 to disease than the large or standard varieties. 



In the old days, land thought to be unfit for 

 anything else, especially if wet, yet plowable, was 

 set to plimis. Yet the tree has its preferences and 

 ever for well-drained, strong, rich soil. Plimis 

 divide into two classes. Domestic and Japanese; 

 the latter newcomers which grow rapidly, fruit 

 early and abundantly, tend to overbear, and are 

 short-lived. This means that they are very sus- 

 ceptible to disease. The Japanese varieties blos- 

 som and set their fruit early and therefore are 

 somewhat uncertain at the North. If raised there 

 they should be planted on late ground that slopes 

 to the north and where May does not come in 

 March, or March in May. The variety of plums 

 is somewhat bewildering, and whatever the or- 



