A good deal of the success that attends the culture of the pear depends
on properly setting the young trees and the right care of the young
plants. It is superfluous to discuss these operations in detail, but
a statement as to proper setting and care will serve as reminders. In
this State, pear-trees should always be set in the spring. A young
pear-tree should be set in the soil about as deep as it stood in the
nursery; in light soils the roots might well be planted a little
deeper, and in heavy soils not quite so deep. The soil must be packed
firmly about the roots--best done by tramping. Watering is necessary
only when the land is parched with drought. When necessary, water
should be used liberally. Puddling the roots by dipping them in thin
mud before planting serves very well for watering. The surface soil
should always be left loose. Rank manure about the roots of young trees
is plant infanticide. During the tender nonage of the young pear,
cultivation should be intensive; insects and fungi should be kept off;
and plants that refuse to grow well must be marked for discarding.
A catch-crop grown between the rows of pears is a profitable adjunct
to the pear-orchard for the first four or five years. Few indeed are
the pear-orchards in New York that cannot be made to sustain themselves
for the first few years by inter-cropping. The crops should be hoed
crops, such as potatoes, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, and nearly all
crops in demand at the canneries. Along the Hudson, small-fruits are
often planted in young pear-orchards, but in Western New York these
are not looked upon with favor. Grass and grain are deadly in a young
pear-orchard, and no right-minded man would plant them there. This
brings us to cultivation.
Cultivation should be the rule; sod mulch, the exception, in growing
pears in New York. After pear-trees come into bearing they may be made
to produce crops if kept in sod. The grass in sodded orchards should
be kept closely mown to form a mulch about the trees. Commercial
fertilizers as well as mulch are needed in sodded orchards, and of
the several chemical fertilizers nitrogen is most requisite. The man
who grows pears in sod must not expect as much fruit, as the crop is
lessened in both number and size of the pears. On the other hand, the
pears may be better colored, and the trees may be freer from blight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account