Thinning and Irrigation. 255 
become large, or stiff enough to keep the shape; so they may 
be left, after being thinned out to form three to five limbs, as 
judgment may direct. Some trees will be best with three or 
four, others five. 
The experience of pear pruning just cited has been secured 
in regions more or less subject to coast influences. In the hot 
interior valleys, with the pear as with the apple, care must be 
taken to prune so as not to open the tree too much to the sun, 
but to shorten in and thin out only so far as is consistent with 
maintaining a good covering of foliage. 
The pruning of bearing pear trees is much like that of the 
apple, to be determined largely by the habit of the tree, and to 
secure a fair amount of fruit on branches with strength and stiff- 
ness enough to sustain it. 
Summer pruning will promote fruiting either in a young 
or an old tree and some practise it to secure early bearing of 
young trees, but the common practise is winter pruning to 
secure strong wood and prevent overbearing. 
THINNING PEARS. 
It is quite important to attend to thinning the fruit on 
overloaded trees. Even the popular Bartlett will often give fruit 
too small for profitable sale unless thinned. With pears, as 
other fruits, thinning should not be done until it is seen that the 
fruit is well set. Dropping off from natural causes sometimes 
thins the crop quite enough. 
IRRIGATION OF THE PEAR. 
In some situations the pear needs irrigation, though it will 
endure drouth which would destroy most other fruit trees. 
There is no profit in small, tough fruit. As stated in the chap- 
ter o1j irrigation the wood growth and fruit show whether proper 
moisture needs are met or not. Early pears are advanced in 
development by irrigation in some parts of the State, and this 
is an important factor in their value. 
BLIGHT OF THE PEAR. 
There are blights of the pear occasionally occurring in this 
State which are not yet fully understood, nor has their identity 
with the well-known Eastern blights been fully determined, 
though some growers claim to have recognized characteristic 
Eastern forms. They exhibit their presence by spots and streaks 
of dead bark. They are apparently of different origin; probably 
both bacterial and fungoid. The organisms have not, however, 
been definitely determined as yet. These diseases make their 
