The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1908-02-26

uation was not as good as the average
and the care of the trees not excep-
tio1ally good-it was rather, excep.
Honally bad. But if there had been
reasonably have been a yield of
10000 pounds-three and One-half
car loads-which at Roswell prices
would have been $4,000. That is not
a large estimate of price for fine
| pears at the right season, handled
in the right way. And our ~hypotleti-
cal acre should do as well, for every
maximum crop. What would be the
| value of an acre of orchard that
| would yield that amount half of the
| years? Pear trees are very long lived,
if they escape the blight, and an or
| chard should last for much more than
| one generation. The original Seckel
tree is alive in Philadelphia-over a
| century old. l have seen an exhibit
of pears that were picked from a
tree that was $50 years old. There
are pear trees still alive that were
planted by the earliest French set
tiers neal ST. Louis, Vincen1es, and
Detroit. If we shall always escape
blight in this valley, we may hope to
have some of our trees now in bear
ing, be still in bearing in the coming
century.
1 know some facts about the crops
we have gotten here, and in the older
states. And they are large enough
to indicate a very high acreage value
in pear orchards about Roswell, even
at moderate prices. L think the five
tree crop l ave mentioned is the
best one l have known here, but some
other groups of trees have yielded as
well, according to their age. l had
certain Bartlett trees hat yielded ov-
er 200 pounds to the tree two years
ago-the trees being seven years old
past, and there being 400 trees on
an acre of land. | had one acre of
two full car loads of marketable
fruit of several varieties that year
over 10000 pounds. l have al adjoin
ing acre one year younger which bore
lightly that season, but the trees are
better, and they ought this coming
season to surpass the crop of 1906
On this first acre | had five Seckel
trees, which CAV me 600fb, 500 of
which went to Chicago, and sold for
ten cents a pound. The Seckel is a
small tree, and 400 OF them could
grow together on one acre for sew
eral years longer, without crowding
too much. And they should bear sew
eral such crops before needing to be
thinned out. If l had such an acre
of pears, l should be justified in ex-
els per crop, some of the years; and
that they would sell for fully as much
| per pould-by the car oad-at auc.
tion-as this stray lot sold for at the
! Chicago store. Such a crop, so sold.
would yield a net sum at home of
S 5000. This indicates an investment
value of how much per acre of SeckeI
pears? Why did / not plant a whole
acre, or several acres, of Seckels, in
stead of a beggarly five trees? Sim,
ply because | did n 10 know enough.
I had known this old variety for forty
years, as a little brown pea of ex-
ceeding excellence, but too small to
sell well il the markets. But 1 have
learned that Roswell Seekels are from
two to -four times the weight of east
eIn Seckels, and their golden bronze
color and smooth form have surpass
ing beauty; n that We can never
grow enough of them.
1 have before this occasion made
this argument about New Mexico
pear growing: that as we have the
best place in the world to grow pears
in, and as with falling pear orchardS
everywhere else, the price is always
sure to be high-fronf two to four