102 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
might well be planted a little deeper, and in heavy soils not quite so deep. 
The soil must be packed firmly about the roots — best done by tramping. 
Watering is necessary only when the land is parched with drought. When 
necessary, water should be used liberally. Puddling the roots by dipping 
them in thin mud before planting serves very well for watering. The 
surface soil should always be left loose. Rank manure about the roots 
of young trees is plant infanticide. During the tender nonage of the young 
pear, cultivation should be intensive; insects and fungi should be kept off; 
and plants that refuse to grow well must be marked for discarding. 
A catch-crop grown between the rows of pears is a profitable adjunct 
to the pear-orchard for the first four or five years. Few indeed are the 
pear-orchards in New York that cannot be made to sustain themselves 
for the first few years by inter-cropping. The crops should be hoed crops, 
such as potatoes, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, and nearly all crops in demand 
at the canneries. Along the Hudson, small-fruits are often planted in 
young pear-orchards, but in Western New York these are not looked upon 
with favor. Grass and grain are deadly in a young pear-orchard, and no 
right-minded man would plant them there. This brings us to cultivation. 
Cultivation should be the rule; sod mulch, the exception, in growing 
pears in New York. After pear-trees come into bearing they may be made 
to produce crops if kept in sod. The grass in sodded orchards should be 
kept closely mown to form a mulch about the trees. Commercial fertilizers 
as well as mulch are needed in sodded orchards, and of the several chemical 
fertilizers nitrogen is most requisite. The man who grows pears in sod 
must not expect as much fruit, as the crop is lessened in both number 
and size of the pears. On the other hand, the pears may be better colored, 
and the trees may be freer from blight. 
Tillage is begun in the spring by plowing the land. This operation is 
followed by cultivation with smoothing-harrow, weeder, or cultivator. 
There are several reliable guides to tell when and how often a pear-orchard 
should be cultivated. When the soil becomes dry it should be tilled. A 
heavy rain should always be followed by the cultivator to prevent the 
formation of a crust on the surface. At this time, he tills twice who tills 
quickly. Cultivate when there are clods to be pulverized. Usually a pear- 
orchard should be cultivated once in two or three weeks until time to sow 
the cover-crop in midsummer. The depth to till is governed by the season 
and the nature of the soil. Heavy soils need deep stirring; light soils, 
shallow stirring. Till moist soils deeply; dry soils, lightly. The time to 
