THE GENESEE FAKMER. 



315 



T. G. YEOMANS' PEAR ORCHAED. 



On the first of September, in company with 

 lessrs. Hooker, Littles and Seelte, of this city, 

 e had tlie pleasure of visiting the farm of the 

 [on. T. G, Yeomans, of Walworth, N. Y. 

 Mr. Yeomans is well known as an enthusiastic 

 ultivator of fruit, especially of the dwarf pear, 

 he village of Walworth evidently owes mnch to 

 is arboricultural taste. Shade trees abound. The 

 treets are lined with them — Maple, Elm, Horse- 

 hestimt and Lindens, with here and there, in the 

 ardens and grounds, a line Norway Spruce, Hem- 

 jck, or other evergreen. What a beautiful country 

 his would be in ten years, if we had ojie such man 

 n every town ! 



Mr. Yeomans' farm consists of one hundred and 

 ighty acres. Of this he has one hundred and 

 wenty-five acres in orchard. He has 3000 Bald- 

 oin apple trees in rows 20 feet apart, planted 40 

 't-et apart in rows, in quincunx, with peach trees 

 lanted between the apjjles. 



The peach trees will afford several crops of fruit 

 jefore the apples come into bearing, and, being com- 

 jaratively short-lived, they may be cut down wath- 

 )ut loss, when the apples trees are large enough to 

 jccupy the whole ground. Mr. Yeomans, too, finds 

 them beneficial in breaking the force of the wind. 



The apple and i)ear trees are trained with long 

 stems, (apples 5 to 6 feet, peaches 4 to 5 feet high,) 

 80 as to admit the free use of the plow and culti- 

 vator. Mr. Y. is decidedly opposed to the system 

 of low training. The land under his apple and peach 

 trees is as clear and mellow as a summer-fallow. 



But it is of his Pear orchard we designed partic- 

 olarly to speak. Eight years ago he set out 3000 

 Virgalieu pear trees, 120 Duchesse dC Angouleme^ 

 find one to three trees of about thirty other varie- 

 ties. They were all dwarf trees, that is, they were 

 all worked on the quince stock. They were planted 

 10 feet apart each way. 



The Duchesse d' Angoulemet have succeeded ad- 

 mirably. They occupy a little less than one-third 

 of an acre. In 1857 they produced about eighteen 

 barrels of fine fruit, which were sold at $14 per 



barrel >= $252, or $756 per acre. In 1858 (a poor 

 pear season) they ripened seven barrels ; one barrel 

 of which was sold for $25, and the rest in New 

 York, at $17 per barrel = $127, or $381 per acre. 

 The crop on these trees this year is very fine, and, 

 at a low estimate, will be from 15 to 20 barrels. 



These trees have been pruned thoroughly, but 

 otherwise have received no extra care or cultiva- 

 tion. They are not trained as low as is usually 

 recommended for dwarf pears, and the cultivation 

 is performed almost entirely by the horse-hoe or 

 cultivator. The trees have not been manured, and 

 last year the land was planted with beans, which 

 produced twenty-eight bushels per acre. This year 

 no crop is grown between the trees, and the land 

 is kept free from weeds and in admirable condition 

 by the use of the cultivator. Trees which annu- 

 ally produce from $381 to $756 per acre may surely 

 be allowed to occupy the whole land. 



The 3000 White Doyenne or Virgalieu trees, 

 planted at the same time and in the same field as 

 the above, grew well, but the fruit was attacked 

 with the disease known as "cracking of the pear." 

 This disease (undoubtedly caused by a fungus) has 

 attacked this variety for many years in different 

 sections of the country ; but except in a few cases, 

 and in particular sections, little damage has been 

 done by it in Western New York. In this neigh- 

 borhood, the present season, the Virgalieu is very 

 fine. But with Mr. Yeomans it "cracks" badly, 

 both on the dwarf and standard trees. He con- 

 cluded, therefore, to bud over all his Virgalieu 

 trees principally with Duchesse cV Angouleme, and 

 a few Bartlett''s and Flemish Beauties. This he 

 did in 1855. They have done well, and the trees 

 now look vigorous and healthy, and this year are 

 bearing some fruit, affording good specimens. Of 

 the thirty varieties, one or two of which were 

 planted the first season, none have done so well as 

 the Duchesse d' Angouleme, the Louise Bonne de 

 Jersey being perhaps the next best. 



The whole land occupied with this pear orchard 

 is eight acres. The soil is a ratker heavy sandy 

 loam. The land is high and apparently dry, but, 

 to the surprise of many, who think all high land 

 must be dry, Mr. Y. has thoi'oughly underd rained 

 it. Such an orchard of dwarf pear trees we have 

 never before seen. But for the cracking of the 

 Virgalieu^ it would by this time have been a great 

 success. We trust this beautiful orchard will escape 

 all further mishap, and that the whole eight acres 

 will be as productive and profitable as the one- 

 third acre of Duchesse d^ Angouleme is now and has 

 been for the past two years. We see no reason t 

 doubt it. 



