diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
index f580563b261..ecfa9b0b4b0 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HTableDescriptor.java
@@ -350,6 +350,13 @@ ISerializable {
     setValue(Bytes.toBytes(key), Bytes.toBytes(value));
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @param key Key whose key and value we're to remove from HTD parameters.
+   */
+  public void remove(final byte [] key) {
+    values.remove(new ImmutableBytesWritable(key));
+  }
+
   /**
    * @return true if all columns in the table should be read only
    */
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/Migrate.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/Migrate.java
index d5ded12a668..e6e6b72b734 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/Migrate.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/Migrate.java
@@ -427,14 +427,14 @@ public class Migrate extends Configured implements Tool {
       hri.getTableDesc().setMemStoreFlushSize(catalogMemStoreFlushSize);
       result = true;
     }
+    // Remove the old MEMCACHE_FLUSHSIZE if present
+    hri.getTableDesc().remove(Bytes.toBytes("MEMCACHE_FLUSHSIZE"));
     for (HColumnDescriptor hcd: hri.getTableDesc().getFamilies()) {
       // Set block cache on all tables.
       hcd.setBlockCacheEnabled(true);
       // Set compression to none.  Previous was 'none'.  Needs to be upper-case.
       // Any other compression we are turning off.  Have user enable it.
       hcd.setCompressionType(Algorithm.NONE);
-      // Remove the old MEMCACHE_FLUSHSIZE if present
-      hcd.remove(Bytes.toBytes("MEMCACHE_FLUSHSIZE"));
       result = true;
     }
     return result;