A CELEBRATED DWARF PEAR ORCHARD. 
HOW THE TREES ARE UANDLED. 
The Whole Story Simply Told. 
MIGHTY DWARFS.—The dwarf pear orchard 
owned by C. S. Mills, of Allegan Co., Is celebrated 
throughout Michigan. Last Fall I found Mr. Mills 
right in the midst of gathering the crop, so I saw 
the fruit at its best, and watched all the operations of 
picking, grading and packing. This fruit farm com¬ 
prises 74 acres of rolling land, north from South 
Haven, Michigan, and one-third of a mile back from 
the lake. The soil is partly a clay loam and partly 
a sandy loam. 
“How many pear trees have you, altogether?” I 
asked. 
“Close to 1,200—part of them four years old, and 
part 16 years old. The older trees I set out when the 
farm first came into my possession, and it was one 
of the best strokes of business I ever did.” 
“Are they all dwarfs?” 
“Yes, every one. I have no use for standards my¬ 
self; were I to begin again, I should plant just the 
same way—dwarfs every time. Some people don’t 
believe in them much, but we do.” 
“What varieties have you, and which do you pre¬ 
fer?” 
“Duchess, Louise Bonne, Anjou and Howell. They 
are all good; but I rather prefer the Duchess for a 
market pear—they are so large and attractive. Anjou 
is also a fine variety. Louise Bonne bears well, and 
the pears, although not extra large, are of good qual¬ 
ity and appearance; the tree itself, however, has the 
fault of being more liable to breakage at the joint 
than the other varieties. All dwarfs have iheir weak¬ 
ness, more or less—the union between quince stock 
and pear seems never to be a perfect one; but with 
the Duchess, planted deep, I have had but little loss 
from this source.” 
“How about Bartlett and Seckel?” 
“They are, according to my experience, no good as 
dwarfs; I would not plant such stock if it were given 
me. Come out and see the orchards.” 
NEW YORK, MARCH 17, 1900. 
$1 PER YEAR. 
ered with pears such as we fruit growers dream about, 
but seldom obtain—two, three and four bushels to the 
tree; in some instances, nearer five bushels. How the 
little trees held up such a load seemed something of 
a problem—yet they did not appear to be a bit over¬ 
loaded. 
“But don’t you thin the fruit at all?” 
THINNING AND SPRAYING.—“Yes, indeed—and 
it’s quite a job, too; but a very important one. If you 
had been here at thinning time, you would have con¬ 
cluded—from the quantity of pears taken off—that we 
had ruined the crop. We do this work when the fruit 
is about the size of a walnut, and after the natural 
dropping off is over with. No, we don’t follow any 
particular rule—just take off all we dare—and then 
pull off some more! I have yet to see the man who 
thins too much. When this thinning operation is 
over, the ground will be fairly green with baby pears. 
Every year we do this, and it pays every time. To 
look at the trees now, though, it is indeed difficult 
to believe that they were ever thinned. Yet, if you 
will notice, every pear has room enough properly to 
develop; the trees are in no danger of breaking down; 
the limbs carry their individual burdens easily, and 
each pear is large and salable.” 
“Do you spray?” 
“Yes; every year. We cannot afford not to do so. 
Vol. LIX. No. 2616 . 
FOUR-YEAR-OLD DWARF PEAR TREES. Fig. 61. 
have attained their size. Branch the trees low. 
Prune every year by cutting off three-quarters of the 
new growth; that may seem a good deal to take off, 
but I find that 'it pays, in the long run, to do it. 
Every new shoot must be thus shortened in, all over 
the tree; the aim being to produce a low, bushy, 
stocky tree, with strong, stubby stems and branches. 
More or less thinning out is also necessary; a tree like 
a paint brush won’t do—neither will one with too few 
branches. A happy medium is not exactly easy to 
attain, but it’s the thing to aim at. When pruning 
back, we are always careful to cut to an outside bud— 
never to one pointing inwards; it’s just as easy to 
do it one way as the other when you get used to it, 
though it may seem harder at first. It’s all a ques¬ 
tion of thinking while you work; a workman who 
can’t use his brains and his hands together, has no 
business in a fruit orchard. 
WORK AND FOOD.—“Plow up to the trees in the 
Fall, and away from them in the Spring; thus the 
ground is kept nearly level during the working sea¬ 
son, and when cold weather comes, the ridging up as¬ 
sists drainage, and also helps protect the tree roots. 
For the first three years most any hoed or cultivated 
crop may be grown among the trees; after that, they 
should have all the ground to themselves—with reg¬ 
ular harrowings up to about August 1. At the last 
cultivation, oats, Crimson clover, or some other green 
crop may be sown to hold the ground and plow under 
in the Spring. One word as to plowing: do it either 
before the trees blossom, or after; never work the 
ground When the trees are in blossom. 
“The manure question is one that every pear grower 
has his own notion about. Most growers believe that 
stable manure is bad for pear trees—that it causes 
the blight—that the trees must be kept back rather 
than pushed along. Such Is not my idea. For 10 
successive years these trees had a good warm coat of 
strawy manure applied in the Fall or early Winter. 
For the last six years they have had nothing. Blight 
has bothered us but little, in all this time. But the 
trees grew, and are still growing; what’s more, they 
bore young, and are still bearing.” 
“But,” I interrupted, “is it possible that you have 
had regular crops of fine fruit without fertilizer of any 
kind during this last six years?” 
“That’s it, exactly; I pushed the trees along for 
the first 10 years, and since then they have had nothing 
to eat but air and cultivation. So far there has been 
no sign of insufficient plant food—the fruit is just as 
large as ever, and the growth is just as thrifty. Next 
year, however, I intend to apply a coating of some 
good commercial fertilizer.” 
THE OFF YEAR.—“Don’t you have off years occa¬ 
sionally—with the crop practically a failure?” 
“No. These trees have never missed a crop since 
they came into bearing. They started in when three 
or four years old; at 10 years they averaged a bushel 
..r . 
A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT.—What a revelation those 
sturdy, 16-year-old trees were to me! Never have I 
seen their equal. Great stocky fellows, with trunks 
like a man’s thigh; short, thick branches; green, 
thrifty leaves. Nearly every tree looked just like 
the next one, as far as one could see down the long, 
straight rows; every tree was branched close to the 
ground, all were round, bushy, and of about the same 
height. Silch uniformity is rare in a pear orchard— 
there were no gaps, and but few places where it had 
been necessary to fill in with younger trees. 
As for the fruit! Well, it took me just one minute 
to conclude that I had never seen a real live pear 
orchard before. Many of those trees were fairly cov- 
A 16-YEAR-OLD LOUISE BONNE DWARF. Fig. 59. 
A 16-YEAR-OLD DWARF DUCHESS PEAR TREE. Fig. 60. 
We begin operations before growth starts in the 
Spring, and continue it until late in the Summer. No 
regular rules can be laid down, as every season is 
different; genially four sprayings are sufficient; 
some years when the late brood of slugs is unusually 
bad, a fifth spraying is necessary. We use the regular 
stock formulas as given by the experiment stations. 
As a result of this spraying, you will notice there is 
but little scabby or wormy fruit in the orchard.” 
“Do the slugs bother you much?” 
“In the young orchards, yes; as the trees get older, 
the slugs get less and less troublesome; for some 
unknown reason they seem to prefer the leaves of 
younger trees. Another queer thing I have noticed, 
is the partiality they show for one particular variety 
—the Louise Bonne. I never could account for that.” 
GOOD STOCK AND CARE.—In response to further 
questioning, Mr. Mills outlined his methods of plant¬ 
ing and caring for his orchards: 
“Get good stock and set it deep —the joint should 
be several inches below the usual ground level. This 
point is important. Another equally important point 
is the kind of soil—dwarfs are no good on sand; they 
want a good, well-drained clay, or a clay loam. Set 
the trees 16^x16^ feet apart. I know that authori¬ 
ties claim 12x12 is ample, but my own experience has 
shown me that a rod is none too much after the trees 
