THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



to five years after planting, and will give fair crops 

 in six to eight years. If you buy your trees headed 

 low they will begin to bear much earlier than if 

 headed high. Pear trees especially should be 

 limbed low; for in this way standards will come 

 into bearing as early and as profusely as dwarfs. 

 You must, however, bear in mind that you may 

 wish to plow among your trees after they have 

 grown, and that will be impossible if they are not 

 headed six or seven feet high. Handle an old pear 

 tree very much as an old apple tree; that is, com- 

 pletely clean it, remove the suckers, scour with 

 kerosene emulsion, and paint over wounds. If 

 there are holes, carefully cover from the weather by 

 tacking over them pieces of tin. I have got from 

 old, broken Onondagas and Seckels, that were 

 nearly dead, by careful treatment, shoots that formed 

 new heads and bore good crops for many years. 

 It is a curious fact that some varieties of apples, 

 like the Porter, are never so good on vital trees as 

 on aged, decaying ones. Therefore, go slow about 

 cutting down an old fruit tree until it is quite un- 

 able to pay for itself. I have four apple trees, set 

 by a missionary to the Indians in 1791, which still 

 yield abundant crops. 



[154] 



