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. 
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