If 



265 



will secure annual and good crops of fine dessert pears. 

 I have made pear culture a specialty for nearly ten 

 years, and I have taken much pains to probe the 

 subject to the bottom. At last I have brought the 

 notoriously barren Duchesse into a Lappily prolific 

 condition. The trees show no signs of increasing 

 debility, while carrying their heavy load of fruit. 

 None of them appear to be stunted by the effort — 

 the foliage is strong and green — there is no blight 

 in leaf or limb — and the fruit is unusually free from 

 spots or fungus. The leaders of nearly all the trees 

 are also growing very freely. Many of them, while 

 bearing a heavy crop, have made a growth of three 

 to five feet of strong new wood, showing not weak- 

 ness, but a high state of healthy vitality. 



There are perhaps some reasons for the results 

 here noted, besides those already spoken of. The 

 success in fruiting, and the luxuriant growth of the 

 trees while fruiting, are not alone due to surface 

 culture and the method of pruning. Other causes 

 are at work, viz : a naturally good soil, proper 

 manuring, and liberal manuring : in other words, a 

 good soil highly fertilized. 



On the subject of manuring or fertilizing,it is quite 

 likely that Mr. M. and myself would have another 

 friendly difference of opinion. [No. — Ed. J But here 

 again I believe I am somewhere near right, although 

 the subject is one of the most complex that can 

 possibly be started, and wide differences of opinion 

 exist among the wisest cultivators, as to the proper 

 fertilizers to be employed in any kind of culture. 1 

 do not claim to be wiser than my generation, but 1 

 hold some views on this subject which I think I have 

 proved to be in some degree valuable. 



I propose, at some future time, not perhaps far 

 distant, to publish my experience and my opinions 

 on pear culture, and I do not feel willing to let Mr. 

 Meehan put upon record the declaration that my 

 system of culture is "pernicious," and the result 

 "weakened vitality" in the trees, and unfruitful- 

 ness in all the blossoms, without also putting upon 

 record my declaration that the condition of the 

 orchard at the present time does not warrant these 

 remarks, and the assertion of my firm belief, that 

 my system of culture is the most perfect and suc- 

 cessful one that has ever been practiced within the 

 range of my knowledge. I take friendly and 

 pleasant issue with Mr. Meehan and all other advo- 

 cates of " cultivating pears in grass," and also with 

 the apostles of no pruning, and will say of them, that 

 the test of merit in the various systems of culture 

 should be, as was said of the true apostles of old, 

 " by their fruits ye shall know them." 



[It seemed capital sport to us to pelt the frog as 



we did. We thought we had " finished " him, but 

 this movement of the muscles has an ugly look for 

 us. Fearing "vitality" may be resuscitated, we 

 will hold oiF for a while ; but, in the meantime, to 

 see whether he is really alive or only " shamming," 

 suppose we poke him a little with, " was it really 

 one of the most unfavorable seasons for the pear for 



many years 



-Ed.] 



PEAH BLIGHT, 

 BY MR. SAMUEL FEAST, BALTIMORE. MD. 



Your unbelief in what I stated in my two com- 

 munications in your May number, establish but one 

 of two things, that your experience in planting of 

 trees is very different to mine, or that there is none 

 so blind as he that will not see. You must excuse 

 me, the subject under dispute requires not what is 

 falsely called science, it is a subject that all lovers of 

 a good fruit are interested in. I had read your vari- 

 ous editorials on the subject. My statement that 

 ignorance was bliss ; this you have ratified by saying 

 that you were not prepared to swallow that elec- 

 tricity was the cause. I am now an old man, like 

 unto a mathematician that had been taught forty- 

 nine years back that twice two made four and had 

 been working out all his problems during that time 

 always to his satisfaction, and in every work on 

 mathematics he took up some student would make 

 it appear that two and a fraction with an addition 

 of one and one ninety-nine times of a fraction, &c. 

 than the President of the College in order to in- 

 struct his pupils in a more scientific mode, states 

 that one and three-fourths, with two and one-fourth 

 may make four, but he is not prepared to believe 

 it. I have done with irrelevance. 



Now, Mr. Editor, why keep this subject open ; 

 every part of this country is subject to it excepting 

 yours. J ohn S . Skinner, who first established the 

 American Farmer in Maryland, the first periodical 

 on agriculture in the country sold out to a man 

 by the name of Hitchcock. I was in his of&ce some 

 time after, and taking up his last number, where 

 nearly three pages were filled on the subject of 

 wheat turning into chess, by a Dr. Rives, from the 

 Eastern Shore of Maryland. I remarked to the 

 editor, that he must have a poor opinion of the 

 information of his subscribers or he would not fill 

 the pages with such stuff ; he very gravely answered 

 me by saying that he liked to encourage such com- 

 munications, they caused controversy and filled his 

 columns. I do not say, Mr. Editor, that this is 

 your case. At that time there were but few that 

 took part in such matters; happily, now the reverse. 



Let your readers turn to page 73, and see the 



