THE PEAR is still essentially a luxury, and all luxuries are profitable to grow when one knows how to handle them. Pear culture, in common with all fruit culture, is increasing, yet the conditions for successful pear growing are so local that there is little danger that the business will ever be overdone.

A high site is essential to successful pear culture. Better drainage is thereby secured, trees ripen their wood earlier in the fall and are therefore hardier than on low soils, trees are usually longer lived, and fungous troubles are commonly less. The ideal soil is a strong clay loam with a gravelly loam sub-soil, but any strong loam is good. Dwarfs usually demand heavier soils than standards.

Heavy fertilizing is imperative. The ideal fertilizing is that which induces a good growth, but which causes the wood to ripen early. Stable manures in large quantities induce a late growth if applied in the spring. It is therefore essential that it be applied in the fall, in order that its soluble ingredients may become incorporated with the soil and be ready for use as soon as the tree starts in the spring. I obtain best results by using both stable and commercial fertilizers. In concentrated manures, I use chiefly unleached wood ashes and prepared bone. Fertilizers rich in potash are necessary. Kainit and muriate of potash are also excellent.

Pear orchards must have good culture if they are to yield well. I give my orchards clean culture throughout their existence. I would never put a pear orchard into grass. I never cultivate after the middle of July or first of August. At the last cultivation it is a good plan to sow rye, which is turned under the next spring. Dwarf pears demand exceedingly light culture.

Young trees - yearlings or two -year- olds - are best for setting. It is a good plan to buy the trees a year before they are to be set into the orchard. These should be set in nursery rows, where they can be cultivated frequently, and when planting time comes the thrifty and symmetrical trees should be selected for the orchard. In this manner uniform orchards can be secured. If the trees are purchased when a year old, it may also be the cheapest plan. When the trees are placed in the orchard, all side branches should be removed or cut back to one or two buds, and all vigorous leaders should be headed back.

I should advise that all standards, except Seckel, should be set 25 feet apart each way. Seckels may be set as close as 20 feet. I think that 20 feet each way is none too much for dwarfs, when they are trained in the pyramidal form.

Pears demand little severe pruning. During the first four or five years the shape of the top should be determined. The general policy is to make the trees spread and to keep the center open, in order to throw the bearing wood well to the outside of the top. Subsequent pruning consists in an annual light thinning out of the top. Dwarfs require special treatment. The upright growth should be cut back about two-thirds each year, and the trees therefore never become tall. The lateral growth should be encouraged. This treatment results in a pyramidal or umbrella-shaped top.

It cannot be stated unreservedly which are the better standards or dwarfs. It is a matter of men and conditions. Upon the right soil, and particularly with the right man to handle them, dwarfs are profitable; but most people will succeed better with standards. Dwarfs should be set deep and the heads should be kept very low. The bead of a standard should start at four or five feet.

I spray my pear orchards with pans green, the same as I do my apples and plums. I should not think of growing pears without spraying. I not only destroy the codlin moth, but the slug and other insects.

The fruit must be thinned, if the best results are sought. I cut the fruits off with shears when they are the size of cherries. I have found that boys do this work better than men, because they are not afraid of removing too many fruits. The work must be thoroughly done. The increased size of the remaining fruit will usually make a larger bulk than the whole of a heavy crop would have made, and it will bring a much better price. The fruit must be handled carefully from the time it is gathered until it reaches the consumer's hands. Pears are ready to pick as soon as the stem parts readily from the spur when the fruit is raised up by the hand. The fruit should always be picked by raising it up in this manner, never by pulling it off. The entire stem should always be left on. If you are growing pears for a fine market, as I am doing, the fruits should be ripened under cover. Pick them when the stem parts, as described above, and pile them in a dry room and cover with woolen blankets. A very high and rich color and the very highest flavors will be secured in this manner. As soon as the color becomes pronounced, place them upon the market. The length of this period of ripening varies with the variety and season.

It runs from ten days to three weeks.

Fine fruit should be marketed in small packages, for it then ships better and is more attractive. I use a bushel box, or choice sorts are sometimes put up in smaller packages. Kegs and baskets are unsatisfactory for the finer pears, as the fruit is apt to become chafed. I have exported pears to a large extent, and I find a good and growing foreign market. Even in France the demand for American pears is considerable. Of the medium-sized or small pears, as Clairgeau and Lawrence, I place four dozen in a box for exportation, and of the larger kinds three dozen. The fruits are wrapped in paper and packed in two layers, separated by excelsior.

I grow the finest flavored pears I can secure, and they pay me far better than the showy but poorer fruits. More care is required in finding a suitable market for these excellent sorts, but the extra effort pays. My choice for standards is as follows: Tyson, Clapp, Bartlett, Seckel, Shelden, Anjou, Bosc, Clairgeau and Lawrence. For dwarfs I have had best success with Bartlett (preferably double-worked), Anjou, and Duchess. For export, I grow Anjou, Bosc, Clairgeau and Lawrence. One or two of these varieties are not of the highest quality, but they are particularly desirable in other respects. The Seckel grows slowly, making short-jointed wood, and it requires special treatment to be made a success. It must have a great abundance of fertilizing, and the culture must be the very best. Upon an acre of Seckels, where the ground was already rich, I last year applied 25 loads of good stable manure, one-half ton of commercial fertilizer and one-half ton of wood ashes. Although a poor season, my crop of Seckels was superb. This extra care and feed is necessary in order to get fruit of good size, and with a fair, clean and tender skin. The Bosc is a poor grower in the nursery, and it is difficult to get a good tree of it.

I remedy this defect by top-working on the Kieffer. The Clairgeau demands a high and dry soil, for on low and moist soils it is likely to lose its leaves prematurely. I do not grow the Kieffer for the reason that its fruit is only fit for canning. There are other pears, as the Bartlett, Anjou and Bosc, which are equally good for canning, and which are also valuable in many other ways.

The profits of pear culture depend almost entirely upon the man. Probably most of the orchards throughout the country do not pay a profit per acre of more than $50 or $75. My own orchards, however, net me from $500 to $600 per acre, one year with another. George T. Powell.