The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1905-11-02
STUDIESlN TREES AND PLANTS
Fruits that may be Profitab!y Raised in
Stone and Taney Counties.
BY TRUMAN S. POWELL.
Paper No. =.

| observe tnal my arucie publlsheL
some four weeks since on the Elberta
peacE was extensively copied in tn,
country press, and also in the
THE" agricultural journals. TIL &
PtR encourages me to write again
Illustrative of what | shall
say send photograph taken the pres.
ent year, | do not expect that half.
tone will be made OF it; simply tack il
up in the Republican Office for time,
that some OF your patrons may see how
the trees mentioned appear when full
OF fruit.
Some twelve years ago, at which time
the price OF pear trees, for sale by the
agents OF the nurseries, was from fifty
to seventy-fve cents each, obtained q
small bill Of trees, including the Bart
lett, LIE Cont and Keifer's Hybrid. As
1t happened l was forced to set the
whole bill in the low ground in the
rather narrow valley of Fall creek.
Pears are easy trees TO make grow
and at the beginning all started off in
good shape. However, when a mao is
conducting experiments on new pli co
which he Is carving right out of the
native woods with an axe, he is liable
to meet with all sorts of mishaps, and
to mako more blunders ethan you can
shake stick at" And so 1t was W tn
me. At the same time | was also ex-
perimenting in the raising of Angora
goats, and soon learned that the two
do not go well together, ] discovered
that goats have hankering for tho
bark of the pear tree, and that pear
trees cannot, like dogs, lose their birk
without serious damage.
In the end, after losing over half of
my pear trees, got rid OF the go; Is.
The trees I had left | found to be in
some OF the poorest ground | had, it be-
ing glady and the soil shallow. Besides
the varieties mentioned ! had also one
Idaho and one Vicar of Wakefield. The
former died in the summer drouth OF the
first year; the latter lived four or five
years, bore few pears, proved n shy
bearer and died.
The lie Cont and Bartlett lived md
grew. Both were much affected es ch
year by the early summer drouth, but
both have done tolerably well.
1t is an undisputed fact that The
Bartlett is the fnesteating pear thsre
Is; but it ripens at bad time, and its
shipping qualities are not good. The
LIE Cont too is rapid grower and Pro-
life bearer, but 1t will die in any peri
cd OF long-continued drouth unless | 4. is
watered, which is not practicable for q
large number OF trees.
| am aware that we are rapidly ap-
preaching the time when the waters OF
all our springs will DO stored and held
in reservoirs and will be used for semi
irrigation when needed here, and when
that takes place any kind of pear will
do and can be made profitable.
But, for present conditions, Keiftr's
Hybrid is the pear OF all pears. | have
on my place two twelve-year-old trees
OF this variety. The soil where they
grew is not more than 1S inches thick,
including clay and gravel, to solid 70 TX.
have by terracing ircreaced the depth
foot more, making q feet of roofing
soil the extreme depth. In spite OF
these disadvantages they have never
failed to bear since the third year from
setting, and In this year of 1905 these
two trees produced twelve measured
bushels OF fruit, Of which many indi-
vidual pears weighed one pound each.
Their shipping quality is fine. have
had, during several seasons past, Kcif-
er pears to eat at Christmas, and tley
may, by taking pains, be kept much
longer.
Mr. w. d. Craig, of Galena, who set
out variety of pear trees on his two
town lots in that place the same year /
set mine, has this year sold about $50
worth Of surplus pears.
Every bushel of pears will readily