OnCBARD AKt) TiKEYAttD. lil 



not over fonr to six inches long— regulates the growth and welfare of the 

 trees, and has a tendency to induce the mararity of the firait spurs, by which 

 means an earlier and better quality of fruit is obtained, while the tree itseli 

 is kept uniform, well balanced and handsome. If those not experienced in 

 pear culture are to set out trees, they certainly cannot have a better guide 

 than to ascertain from growers in their own localities the varieties beat 

 adapted to their soil, situation, local circumstances, rather than to learn these 

 points by their own, perhaps expensive, experience. A day spent in obtain- 

 ing this information among one's neighbors will be time well used. 



After all, one likes to see varieties. So here is one, made up after much 

 study and inquiry, which it is believed will not vary greatly from the list 

 which a hundred of the best growers in the best pear sections of New Eng- 

 land would recommend. It is true some we have placed high on the list 

 might be put down a peg or two, and others brought to the top which we 

 have placed further down; but a list of the best eight varieties would be very 

 likely to include these sorts, in about these positions: 1. Bartlett, a general 

 favorite, of admirable quaUty and always salable at the highest price. 2. 

 Seckel, high flavor, productive, uniformly bringing a good price in market. 

 3. Sheldon, a fine grower and good bearer, selling for the highest price. 4. 

 Beurre d'Anjou, an excellent, productive and profitable sort. 5. Duchesse 

 d'Angouleme, very popular and of the highest quality. 6. Beurre Bosc, an 

 esteemed late sort, high flavored and much in demand as a market pear. 7. 

 Lawrence, a good bearing sort, one of the best winter pears. 8. Vicar of 

 Wakefield, very productive, and, as it ripens out of season of most others, 

 finds a ready market at good prices. 



Girdling Fruit Trees. — Some years ago, on an Iowa farm, a span of 

 spirited horses, hitched to a wagon, got away from the driver and ran 

 through the orchard, running over and badly barking some dozen trees. 

 This was early in Jime. The next year those trees, and especially the 

 limbs most barked and scarred, were full of fruit, while there was a very 

 limited quantity on the balance of the orchard. 



But what is the philosophy of this girdling trees or vines to make them 

 bear fruit? Trees and vines do not grow merely by the absorption of 

 moisture and material direct from the earth. It is true the roots take up 

 fixnn the earth the water and mineral matter necessary for plant growth, but 

 it does not go directly to the part where it is to stay. But these go up, not 

 between the bark and wood, but in the body of the tree or vine to the leaves, 

 where it is combined with the carbon which is absorbed by the leaves, and 

 goes through Nature's secret laboratory of combining water, mineral and 

 carbon, until they are sufficiently digested to be used as wood growth, when 

 it passes downward and is deposited in the infinitesimal cells beneath the 

 bark. So that the growth is made by the downward flow of this prepared 

 material for wood growth. 



Now, if the tree or vine be girdled on the body or limbs, this prepared 

 sap cannot pass below where the bark is taken off, and consequently that 

 part above tiie girdle receives more than its share of sap, while none is sup- 

 plied to the body below the girdle. Thus the limbs are crowded with growth 

 food, which causes the development of fruit buds — makes the limbs grow 

 faster and the fruit larger. But this process, if the main body of the tree is 

 operated on, will in the end ruin the tree. The body and roots must have 

 nourishment as well as the branches, and this girdling deprives them of this 

 support. K this system is practiced at all, it should be only a part, learing 



