You need to prune 1/3 of the shoots, every year for the next 3 years.
You will have to leave some shoots grow into main branches to let the
trees rebuild their structure. pear trees go straight up, and every
year I have a lot of pruning to do, and it is all upward shoots. I can
start fires in the stove all winter just with straight pear sticks.

About the skin, let it go. If the flavor is right, better have them
sweet and coarse than sour and smooth. I cook many of my pears for that
reason, and the chicken eat pears for about a month. Cooked, they are
quite good, but I'd rather have them raw. To have bigger pears, in June
go around the trees and thin the fruit to about one pear for 25 leaves.
That will double them in size, and also prevent a biennial habit (the
fact that they might start producing every second year). I also give
them wood ash and wood chips as mulch.

On Dec 15, 10:08 am, "gloria" wrote:
have had 2 pear trees for about 7 years now. first tree was bought big
enough to produce but didn't. then we found out that a second tree
would be required for "proper pollination". we got that one. sure
enough the following season there were pears all over the place -to the
contented deer around it was heavenly!-. these were supposed to be
dwarf trees with red pears, they are neither. they were supposed to
have a very smooth skin, they do not. it is as course as i have ever
seen and felt. oh, and the pears are much smaller than usual although
they are honey sweet. but, as things go, that is what we have. last
year, while absent from the place, some electric company assholes -am
sorry but cannot find a softer definition for their stupidity- decided
to amputate part of the trees "because some branches were on the way
of electrical stuff. well! they thought easier to cut the tops of
these two trees all the way down to include the culprit branches!!!
pear season came and although we had about half of usual pears, they
grew to edible size. the problem now is that both trees have develop
an incredible amount of upshoots that come out of each branch. all
thin and looking to the sky! the strangest look one could imagine.
WHAT CAN WE DO A) TO SAVE THE TWO TREES? B) TO GET THEM BACK INTO
NORMAL PRODUCTION? C) TO IMPROVE THE CONSISTENCY OF THE SKINS? D) HOW
AND WHEN ARE WE TO CUT THESE THIN BRANCHES GROWING UPWARDS? PLEASE
HELP!!! GLORIA