1872 The Western Pomologlsb and Gardener. 81 



fruit is not more than an inch in diameter. A second thinning may be performed when 

 the fruit is half grown, selecting the imperfect specimens only at this last thinning. 



The next thing to be attended to will be the gathering of the fruit. For summer 

 and autumn varieties the rule should be to gather about a week before they are ripe, if 

 this can be known. This can be ascertained generally by knowing the time when it will 

 ripen if left on the tree, in ordinary season.?. For the gathering of winter kinds, the 

 rule should be to leave them on the tree as long as they are safe from frost. At the time 

 of gathering pears, either for summer, fall or winter use, they should be divided into not 

 less than two classes, keeping the first and second classes separated from each other. The 

 second class may be kept for home use if desired, and the first class sent to market. Or, 

 if both lots are sent to market, they should be offered for sale in distinct lots if it is 

 expected to obtain good prices. When they are gathered they should be kept in a cool, 

 dry room, free from currents of air, till they arc ready for market, which can be regulated 

 according to the distance they may have to be sent. 



Winter pears should be put into boxes or half barrels lined with some soft woolen cloth, 

 and covered with the same, to prevent the escape of their moisture, and kept in a cool, 

 dry room or cellar. Kept in this way they will ripen up finely, and if assorted as before 

 directed, they will command the highest prices in the market. 



We cannot close this article without naming the varieties best suited to the region 

 from the Mississippi to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and between the latitudes of 36 

 and 41 north. On the pear root or those generally called standard, we will name as first 

 in every respect, the Bartlett; second, the Flemish Beauty; third, the Belle Lucrative; 

 fourth, Buflum ; fifth, Lawrence ; sixth. Winter Nelis. On quince roots or dwarfs : First, 

 Beurre d'Aujou ; second, Beurre Diel ; third. Duchess de Angouleme ; fourth, Easter 

 Beurre ; fifth, Louise Bon de Jersey ; sixth, Vicar of Winkfield ; seventh. White Doyenne. 



There are many other varieties which may prove to be fine when more fully tested, but 

 the foregoing we know to be reliable. 



Sliall we Kill the BIrdftf 



By Pete.^ M. Gideon, Excelsior, Minn. 

 Shall we kill the birds? was asked not long since by a correspondent of the PoMOLO- 

 GIST, who had lost heavily in grapes by their depredations. Were I in his place, and the 

 amount too small to afford a person to keep guard and .scare them away, I should cover 

 ■with a mosquito bar ; but to ki'l, never — other than crows or blackbirds. Birds are more 

 numerous about our premises than any other farm within my knowledge. The reason is, 

 we don't disturb them ; they will gather fruit from the same tree with us, and often within 

 arm's length So many summers have they spent with us that their lameness is often sur- 

 prising. The blue jays, as all others, are at home with us ; and feed on what they will, we 

 never harm them. Have been an admirer of the bird from a boy, and noted well their 

 habits ; and that they rob and kill other birds, as some have charged, is a mistake. There 

 is a small hawk that very closely resembles the jay in size, color and in cry ; but the jay 

 has a straight bill, and the other a hooked bill, like other hawks, and will kill birds as large 

 as themselves. Jay hawk is a proper name, but man}' apply the term to the blue jay, 

 which is as harmless a bird as any that flies, and few, if any, are of more benefit to the 

 farmer, yet none more relentlessly slaughtered. Even for eating a little corn, many farm- 

 ers shoot them, forgetting that the insects they had destroyed through the season had 

 saved in his various crops more than a hundred times the worth of corn they ate, and, if 

 let alone, would repeat the saving year after year. Even the blackbirds that nest in our 

 vicinity we don't disturb; only those that are migrating, that come in large flocks, and 

 reluctantly shoot amongst them, and as little as possible, to drive them away. Farmers 

 and fruit growers should encourage all species of birds to nest in their vicinity ; the bene- 

 fit therefrom is incalculable. Were the birds all swept from existence at once, it would be 

 no hard matter to conjecture what would be the fate of farm and fruit crops in the course 

 of a few years. Self- interest, if nothing more, should prompt all persons to spare the 

 birds. 



