OLD DOMINION PKAM OkOllAK'D. 



21 



trees be ill 1 yeju- old IVoiii (lie hud. Tlie imisery stock was <;r()\vii at 

 (leneva, N. Y., by S. J). Willard. Tlie sfco(5ks used were tlie imported 

 French variety. The trees have never borne a full erop, althougli Avhen 

 from 6 to 12 years okl, they gave fair returns. One season the orchard 

 yiehled 4,000 boxes, of 3 peeks each, the maximum crop, or at the rate 

 of three-fifths of a peck per tree, but standard Bartlett trees 12 years 

 old easily yield four or five times that amount if conditions are favor- 

 able. During- the past six years, when the trees should have been pro- 

 ducing abundantly, they have not given satisfaction. In 1891 tlie 

 crop was only 1,200, and in 1802 less than 100 boxes. 



Pear blight, pear leaf blight, and other fnngous diseases had done a 

 great deal of damage in the orchard, but on looking the trees over, the 

 Avidespread failnre could not be attributed to these. Pear blight had 

 killed a good many trees and deformed and injured still more. An 

 obscure root rot had killed about 1 per cent, so that in all about one- 

 sixth or one-seventh of the original number of trees had been 

 removed. Until recently the custom has been to replant where the 

 old trees were removed, so that a considerable number of younger trees 

 are growing in the orchard. In only a few ])laces were there vacant 

 ])atclies of any considerable area. Most of tlie missing trees occur in 

 patches of from three to six. In many parts of the orchard there were 

 large areas of reasonably healthy and in some cases quite vigorous 

 trees. These were just as sterile as the others, thus plainly indicating 

 that something was wrong. 



In showing me over the place the manager i)ointed out two Olapps 

 Favorite trees, at a considerable distance from each other, that had 

 been planted by mistake among the Bartletts, and remarked that 

 whenever there was any fruit at all in that region the Bartlett trees 

 snrrounding the Olapps Favorite fruited. In further evidence of this, 

 the limbs of about a dozen trees around each Olapps Favorite were 

 found to be drooping and bent downwards, evidently caused by heavy 

 loads of fruit in jjrevious years. Precisely the same thing occurred at 

 another point in the orchard around a Buffum tree. It was further 

 learned that a small variety orchard, planted long before the large 

 orchard, had been very productive; portions of this still remain. On 

 the strength of the success of the Bartletts in this old variety orchard 

 the large orchard was planted. The young Bartletts near the old 

 orchard had generally borne well. In the neighborhood whenever a 

 few pear trees of mixed varieties are planted around the houses and 

 gardens they have always fruited well. Here was a clue that was 

 altogether too ])lain to pass by. The result of the Brockport experi- 

 ments, in which the Bartlett proved sterile when insect visitors were 

 excluded, was recalled. Was it not pollen from another variety which 

 tliese insects must bring to render themselves so useful to the flowers'? 



It vShould be noted tliat the trees in this orchard always bloomed 

 very heavily, in fact too heavily. They are abnndantly covered with 



