PEARS 



1605 



down in the Kieffer and a great many 

 other varieties, and above all the danger 

 of pear blight of this form of tree, make 

 it undesirable in actual practice. Even 

 in case of the natural form, where very 

 little pruning is intended to be done, the 

 writer advocates low heading. The trunk 

 of the fruit tree has lost its function. 

 It is an unnecessary and expensive thing 

 for the tree to construct. It renders the 

 tree more liable to disease, and by ele- 

 vating the top from the ground increases 

 the danger of its being blown over and 

 of the fruit being blown off. Every inch 

 of additional height increases the expense 

 of pruning, spraying, and especially of 

 picking. The trunk of a forest tree forms 

 a very conspicuous part of the tree itself. 



situated in the open field grow a very 

 short trunk. Oftentimes enormous oaks, 

 with a spread of perhaps 100 feet, have 

 only a few feet of trunk. Orchard trees, 

 which are not only planted in open 

 ground, but are also given proper spac- 

 ing and cultivation, are entirely removed 

 from the struggle for existence which 

 competition and crowding brings about. 

 The trunk of the pear tree, therefore, 

 may be looked upon as entirely super- 

 fluous. In a fruit tree, the part that does 

 the work is the top. In other words, in 

 pear trees we should seek to develop the 

 top as much as possible. The tree carry- 

 ing the greatest amount of foliage and 

 the greatest number of properly placed 

 fruit-bearing branches is the ideal tree. 



Big Romanite. 



Both are very 



and in the struggle for existence, espe- 

 cially among young trees in the forest, 

 the tall-growing trunk is an absolute ne- 

 cessity to the species. The effort on the 

 part of each individual tree of the forest 

 is to rear its top up to those of its neigh- 

 bors. The struggle for light and air 

 causes the tree to develop its trunk, 

 which becomes very useful to man in 

 many ways. The trunk of a forest tree, 

 therefore, has gained our respect through 

 its usefulness and beauty. On the other 

 hand, even the native forest trees when 



Idaho, 

 large pears, 



Tlniiiiiiig tlie Fruit 



No discussion of pear culture would 

 be complete without including this im- 

 portant operation, and as it belongs on 

 theoretical grounds with pruning, we 

 may consider it here. It is a great mis- 

 take to allow pear trees to overbear. 

 When the fruit is about an inch in di- 

 ameter the trees should be gone over 

 carefully and all the surplus pears, over 

 and above what the tree can mature prop- 

 erly, picked off. Each branch should be 

 examined, and, with the size of the ma- 



