132 



THE NEW HORTICUL'JURE. 



boxes of pears. The eight and nine-year trees had received 

 less than a third as much fertilizer, and were just as small in 

 proportion, but still fine trees. The total yield was over nine 

 thousand bushels actually shipped, and good judges estimated 

 that fully two thousand bushels were knocked down and 

 bruised in gathering. These facts will be testified to by J. C. 

 Glover, station agent at Hitchcock, who shipped the fruit. 



The summer continued dry, with light showers, until 

 October, when good rains fell, and in November, being in 

 the nursery business at that time, I set twenty men to work, 

 and by the first day of January had largely over one million 

 cuttings in the ground, all from those trees, and had cut out 

 heavily besides, to prevent a repetition of such a crop next 

 year. The fall and winter were very mild, and having rested 

 so completely all through the summer, by the iyth of Janu- 

 ary a few stray blossoms were showing, and shoots every- 

 where were pushing from the cut ends of the canes and limbs, 

 a very unusual thing. On that day the thermometer fell to 

 eighteen degrees, completely checking all growth. About 

 the first of March, instead of leafing out and blooming as 

 usual, the trees were perfectly dormant, and remained so 

 until April. 



In the meantime, having determined to experiment most 

 thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture for prevention of what is 

 known here as " bitter rot," which attacks Kieffer pears, more 

 or less, every year while ripening, I selected three Kieffer 

 and also three Le Conte adjoining, and before a bud opened 

 sprayed them well. This was repeated at short intervals the 

 whole season, and especially after rains, though the spray 

 adhered well even then. In fact, those six trees were literally 

 blue-washed from spring until fall. Though suspecting 

 nothing, having had absolutely no experience with blight, I 

 noticed the peculiarity about the failure of the blossoms to 

 drop promptly, but thought nothing of it, until immediately 

 after a heavy rain in May, followed by calm, hot weather, 

 when in a few days everywhere the fruit spurs began to 

 blacken and the tender tips of the shoots to droop. In a few 

 weeks the whole orchard showed more or less signs of blight, 



