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Show SETTING OUT PEAR ORCHARD Sod Preferred With Holes Running Both Ways and Dug in Fall Klef-fer Klef-fer Is Strong Grower. In setting out a pear orchard I prefer pre-fer a sod with rows runing both ways, 20x20 feet. The holes should be dug in late fall, or at least, two or three months before planting, says the American Agriculturist. They should be 2 feet square by 18 inches deep, so the ground will be well aerated. I always set out two-year-old trees about half inch in diameter. When i : I Kleffer Pear. first dirt is thrown I put in the top soil and shake the tree, so the dirt will fill in well around the roots, and tramp to make solid. When I have finished planting I trim to a switch, being careful to cut branches close, cutting the tree back to 3 feet. When the tree puts out it can be shaped to suit. I start my trees three feet from the ground and sucker lower low-er limbs the first year. The Kieffer pear is a very strong grower, so the second year I head the trees in to about ten or twelve inches from the body. In doing this I am very careful that the outside limbs are cut with a bud the way I want the limb to grow, also to head In an om-brella om-brella shape. I head in every year in February or March until the trees are five or six years old, so as to get strong limbs and to prevent their breaking in a heavy yjeld. After that I head in only every two years, as by so doing the limbs are lower, and the fruit more readily picked and much finer. I have 40 acres in Kieffer trees, from four to fifteen years old. Some ai'e on sandy soil and some on yellow ,clay subsoil, and there is no perceptible percep-tible difference either in the size of the fruit or coloring. The trees should be sprayed with bordeaux twice during dur-ing the season. The first time after the blossom falls, and again three or four weeks later. After the trees are planted I fill by throwing a furrow to them, leaving the clearing-up furrow in the center as shallow as possible. The first two years I plant tomatoes in the orchard, and use 800 to 1,000 pounds of 8 per cent phosphoric acid, 5 per cent potash and 2 per cent ammonia am-monia to the acre. After the trees get to bearing I use 500 pounds acid phosphate, 300 pounds bone and 200 pounds kainit. For a cover crop I use crimson clover and plow the orchard or-chard as early in the spring as the erc und is in condition, and till as. long as possible, or as the limbs and fruit will allow. I have always been successful suc-cessful with the pear crop, and have picked as many as seven baskets from five-year-old trees. My oldest trees have averaged 20 baskets. |