10 
Wisdom from tlie Catalogues. 
Treatment op Orchards. — Wm. H. 
Moon. The ground in young orchards 
should be kept cultivated, and the most 
practical mode of doing this is to raise po¬ 
tatoes, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, 
or some other hoed crop, that the trees may 
be well worked until they come into bear¬ 
ing. If corn is raised, do not plant within 
five or six feet of the trees. Many different 
views are expressed as to the mode of treat¬ 
ing orchards after they come into profit. 
A coat of manure, bone dust or wood 
ashes should be applied every two years. 
In applying fertilizers, do not simply pile 
them around as far from the trunk as the 
limbs extend. 
It is a good practice to allow sheep or 
swine to frequent orchards mp to the time 
of ripening, that they may destroy the in¬ 
sects always found in fruit which drops 
prematurely. 
To protect from the ravages of mice or 
rabbits, wrap the trees with roofing felt, 
or smear them with far. Search should be 
made every Autumn or early Spring for 
borer worms, at or beneath the surface of 
the ground, cutting them out and destroy¬ 
ing them wherever found. 
Young trees sometimes grow vigorously 
for several years without coming into 
bearing, which is very discouraging to 
planters. If such should prove to be the 
case, after the fourth or fifth year, fruitful¬ 
ness may be encouraged by pruning and 
cutting the large roots with a spade, about 
three feet from the trunk, in early Autumn. 
Summer pinching of the vigorous shoots 
also induces the formation of fruit buds. 
Bearing trees may be trimmed any time 
after the leaves fall in Autumn and before 
the buds commence to swell in Spring, pro¬ 
vided the trees are not frozen. Remove all 
limbs that point inwards, and those Which 
touch or cross others. Where there are 
two limbs forming an acute angle, it is 
generally preferable to cut off one of them, 
as there is danger of their splitting when 
heavily loaded with fruit, but if it seems 
impracticable to remove either, one of them 
may be trimmed back closely, causing the 
sap to flow into the other, and, in most 
cases, preventing their splitting. Trim so 
as to form erect and open heads, that they 
may have abundance of aii* and sun. 
The Le Conte Pear. — E. Y. Teas. The 
origin of this wonderful pear has been 
shrouded in obscurity until quite recently. 
The original tree, so far as known, was 
sent by Major Le Conte, of Philadelphia, to 
his niece, Mrs. Hardin, of Liberty county 
Georgia, some forty years ago. Charles 
Downing, the venerable and distinguished 
Pomologist, of Newburg, New York, wrote 
me under date of August 20, 1880, that he 
had just been able to trace the particular 
tree sent South by Major Le Conte, to the 
nursery of William R. Prince, of Flushing, 
New York, and that Mr. Prince sold it as 
the Chinese Sand Pear. The tree is evident¬ 
ly a hybrid from either the Sand Pear or 
Snow- Pear, both of which w r ere at the date 
given, growing on Mr. Prince’s grounds. 
The growth and foliage of the Le Conte 
more nearly resembles the Snow Pear than 
the Sand Pear, and is quite distinct from 
any other Sand Pear Hybrid that I have 
seen. The tree grows nearly as upright 
and rapidly as a Lombardy Poplar, with 
large, light green, glossy leaves, and green 
shoots. In the Southern States this pear 
grows rapidly from cuttings, the same as 
grape vines or quince trees, and among the 
thousands of trees in cultivation in the 
South, from Georgia to Florida, and Texas, 
it is stated there never has been any ap¬ 
pearance of blight or any other disease on 
the tree or fruit. 
“The parent tree, now over forty years 
old, is the greatest bearing pear tree known, 
having yielded forty bushels of fine pears 
in a single season. It has no ‘off-years,’ 
but continues to produce the same heavy 
crops every year, and comes into bearing 
about the third year from the graft.” The 
fruit of the Le Conte is large, bell-shaped, 
of a rich, creamy yellow color, with a 
handsome blush on the sunny side. It 
ripens in July and August, and is one of 
the best shipping pears known. The fruit 
brought five to seven dollars per bushel in 
the New York market the past season. 
Look at our premium offers. It will pay. 
