26| THE CULTIVATION OF THE 



by your examination of each tree, and then apply your 

 rules. If the tree comes on to spring from a late, wet 

 and warm autumn, with a large growth of succulent 

 wood, then you must make some exception to Rule i, 

 tor to mature this wood an extra dose of fertilizer may 

 be needed, or all this boggy, sappy wood may be 

 attacked by blight in the warm weather of the following 

 summer. The fall of 1884 made poor wood and little of 

 it, and the trees, generally, needed fertilizing in the 

 spring of 1885. The fall of 1885 has made much wood, 

 as a rule, on good trees, yet I don't think it sappy and 

 succulent, because the whole tree has prospered, and the 

 wood- outlook and fruit spurs give promise of a good 

 crop in 1886. If a tree has been badly mutilated in 

 cutting off blight, then fertilize that tree well, for it 

 wants extra food to make up for its loss of substance ; 

 it wants new blood and plenty of it. I believe rather in 

 individual fertilizing of pear trees ; keep a record of poor 

 bearers and try and force them. Apply the fertilizer 

 around the tree in the spring as far as the branches 

 extend, and apply what the tree demands by the rules 

 given. Don't put strong potash right at the root of 

 young trees, but after they have borne a crop, all maybe 

 applied right at the roots ; probably some care may be 

 necessary in using pure muriate of potash. 



I am not in favor of using as a fertilizer on pear 

 orchards, either lime as generally used in agriculture, or 



