30 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



it with a straw baud, and. I have seen no new cases of 

 blight this year. This I regard as a necessary protec- 

 tion. Thus far the dwarf trees, except the Seckel, show 

 as much health and vigor, as the same varieties on the 

 standard. The varieties on both dwarf and standard are 

 Flemish Beauty, Beurre d'Aremberg, Beurre Diel, Seckel, 

 and Bartlett. 



Feeling a good degree of assurance of success in pear 

 culture, I am now prsparing to set an orchard of 200 

 trees. As I have a gravel formation four feet below the 

 surface, I underdrain each tree. First I dig a hole two 

 feet in depth, and five to six feet in diameter, and from 

 the bottom of this hole I bore with a post auger to the 

 gravel, and fill the latter hole with small cobblestones, 

 and fill the large one with the mixture of the subsoil and 

 surface. This makes a substantial soil, adapted not only 

 to the pear, but also to the apple, plum, and cherry. Un- 

 derdraining with tile or cobblestones three and a half feet 

 deep will be sufficient for any soil, but if the soil is natu- 

 rally wet the ditches should be made not exceeding 24 

 feet apart. Dry soils, where water does not stand near 

 the surface in the spring, and where heavy rains have 

 fallen, do not need underdrawing. Pears are succeeding 

 in this vicinity admirably in gravel soils, particularly the 

 Flemish Beauty, which seems to flourish everywhere re- 

 gardless of soil or climate, and is doubtless one of the 

 most profitable market varieties. With the pear, as with 

 all other fruit trees, no stinted tree is worth planting or 

 worth retaining in the orchard when it becomes stinted. 

 No fruit tree produces fruit younger or more abuudantlv 

 when grown, or lives longer. I know where stands a 

 pear tree of more than 100 years' bearing, which has 

 never beeu known to be without annual crops. It stands 

 on the lands of Ebexezer Scofield, in Poundridge, 

 Westchester county, N. Y. The pear tree described by 

 the Rev. H. W. Bbecher in this State, about ten miles 

 from Vincennes in Indiana, produced in 1840 one hundred 

 and eighty bushels, and in 1844 one hundred and forty 

 Dushels of pears. I have also seen a tree of but two 

 years from the bud, and no larger than a good riding 

 whip, produce and ripen three pears. The tree was sus- 

 tained by a stake. For both profit and luxury every 

 man who has a garden should have several pear trees. 

 Elgin, III. DCS 



OSAGE ORANGE PREMIUM HEDGE. 

 Mr. C. Barton, of Tazewell county, Illinois, who en- 

 tered his Osage Orange Hedge for a premium, presented 

 the following statement in relation to its management :' 



In the year 1858 I purchased hedge plants to the 

 amount ot ten dollars, which I set out, making one hun- 

 dred rods of hedge. The first year, the setting and culti- 

 vating cost me six dollars. The second year, cultivating 

 and trimming cost me two dollars ; the third year, trim" 

 ming, two dollars. 



Preparing IG-round and Setting. —I nlowed a laro-e 

 land on the side of the field on which I se't my hed<n>, so 

 1 had neither the ridge nor the dead furrow for mv hedge 

 row, but level ground ; (hen with a common plow' I made 

 a furrow in which I set mv hedge,' placing the plants 

 about four inches apart, and covered the ground so as to 

 leave the ground perfectly level. 



Cultivating. — 1 took' a double shovel-plow, and as 

 often as the weeds sprang up, or the ground became 

 baked, 1 plowed it up, keeping the ground level. 



Trimming. — I did no trimming the first vear The 

 second year I trimmed once, which I did about the first 



Of April, cutting the hedge about three inches above tl 

 ground. The third year I trimmed twice; first, abo 

 the first of April, cutting the hedge about one foot fro 

 the ground. Second, the first of July, cutting aboi 

 three feet above ground ; after which, my hedge has be'f 

 completely adequate to turn all my stock. 



Of the hedge, the committee say: We do herebv certi; 

 that the above-named hedge has been well cultivated, thi 

 it is a good, substantial fence, and that it is worthy of 

 premium from our County Agricultural Society. 



SPUR PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES. 

 An article on this subject in the London Florist is s 

 well calculated to be useful to all who cultivate fruit tree 

 that we give a part of it, hoping that it will lead to th 

 practice of this much neglected, but much needed kin 

 of pruning. The last season was such a long and dr 

 one that the wood of the trees ripened very thoi 

 oughly, and as the fruit crop in mauy parts of the coud 

 try was very light the past year, there is every reason fo 

 anticipating a heavy crop for the ensuing season. 



Over-bearing is an evil to be guarded against, and spu: 

 pruning and thinning of the fruit are the best means ot 

 preventing this. The former has a decided advantagi 

 over the latter, as it can be done when there is no othei 

 work to occupy the attention of the cultivator. 



It is entirely unnecessary to have trees bent down on* 

 year with the weight of the fruit, and the next year nc 

 fruit at all, or else a very inferior crop. Of course, in 

 extraordinary seasons, like the one we have just passed 

 through, nothing will prove effectual, but in nine years 

 out of ten it is possible to have a good crop of fruit bj 

 carefully attending to the trees. Go where you may, you 

 will find old trees generally full of old long spurs, with 

 ten times more buds than are necessary, and so crowded 

 that scarcely any sun and .air can get to them. Every 

 useless bud which is allowed to expand exhausts the tree 

 and deteriorates the quality of the fruit. When the spurs 

 are crowded, the longest and weakest should be cut clear 

 away, and in those that are left the buds should be well 

 thinned out. All the weak buds and those in the end 

 of the spurs should be cut clean off, leaving the roundest 

 and most plump, and take particular care of those at the 

 base of the spurs. When pruned, the buds should be 

 left at such a distance from each other that the sun and 

 air should have full influence upon them. On old trees 

 that have been neglected, spur-pruning can hardly be too 

 freely carried out. We have ourselves operated largely 

 on old trees of all kinds a few years ago. From one old 

 apple-tree, and not a very large one, either, nearly a cart- 

 load of wood was cut, and with the most encouraging 

 results. The trees have regained fresh vigor, and the 

 fruit has been much finer than ever before; and where 

 the habit of the tree had been to bear malformed, inferior 

 fruit, we have gathered as fine and well-formed specimens 

 as could be desired. 



People generally blame the season, not their own bad 

 management for the miserable state of their own or- 

 chards. They say that " the springs are so precarious 

 that there is no hope of having a good crop of fruit." 

 If they will try spur-pruning and thinning the fruit, 

 never allow over-bearing, and give the trees a moderate 

 amount of attention, they will find that the weather is 

 not altogether in fault. 



