34 Thk (Canadian Horticulturist. 



The late H. Moody, of Lockport, \. \'., remarked, at the same meeting, that 

 with him the Anjou had suffered considerably from the blight, but that other- 

 wise he considered it a magnificent variety, and worthy of being planted much 

 more extensively than it is at present. Others stated that they had not found it 

 to beanv more subject to blight than other varieties, and with this the experience 

 of the writer agrees. 



" The Anjou is one of the most profitable jjears for the orchard,'' was the 

 testimony of the late A. J. Downing, '' bearing abundantly and evenly, whether 

 grafted upon the pear or upon the quince stock." With regard to the profits of 

 growing this or any other kind of pears, however, times have wonderfully changed 

 during the last twenty years. In the year 1869, Mr. P. T. (Juinn published a 

 book on pear culture, the reading of which filled the writer with dreams never to 

 be realized. He stated in that book that pears would bring an average of some $20 

 or $30 per barrel and that they were, by all odds, the most profitable of all fruits. 



Certainly at such prices they would be, but the cold reality is a little differ- 

 ent nowadays, when we find the average is only about $4 per barrel, for our 

 finest varieties. 



In this connection, it will be of interest to include Charles Downing's descrip- 

 tion of the Anjou pear : Fruit, large, obtuse pyriform ; stem, short, thick and 

 fleshy, in.serted in a cavity, surrounded by russet ; calyx, very small, open, stiff, 

 in an exceedingly small basin, surrounded by russet ; skin, greenish, sprinkled 

 with russet, sometimes shaded with dull crimson, and sprinkled thickly with 

 brown and crimson dots ; flesh, whitish, not very fine, melting, juicy, with a 

 brisk, vinous flavor, pleasantly perfumed; very good to best; October. November. 



Thinnixc. Fruii. a Missouri farmer says that he thinned the fruit on his 

 trees at the rate of twelve trees in ten hours. They were large enough to yield 

 an average of six bushels to a tree. He figures in this way : If he had a thou- 

 sand trees it would cost him $85 to have them thinned, with labor at $1 per 

 day, or $170 at $2 per day. He has l)ut few culls among his apples, and the 

 selected crop will easily bring him ten cents per bushel more than the fruit 

 from trees which was not thinned out. which, at six bushels to the tree, would 

 increase his sales by $600. 



Again, he claims still another great advantage. It i> not the growth of the 

 fruit that exhausts the tree so much as the formation of the seed, and reducing 

 the number of seeds grown by picking off one-half or two-thirds of the fruit that 

 sets, he relieves the tree so that it can form fruit buds in the fall for the next 

 year's cro J). In ten years he has not had a failure of the trees to bear every 

 year, excei)ting when they were overloaded and he neglected the thinning. 

 Then all the strength was used up in growing fruit, or rather seed, and there 

 were no blossom buds formed. -Mnsiacliusctts P/(iiii^/niiiiii. 



