POMACES, X. PvRus. 



621 



walls." Knight and M'Phail recommend a strong, deep, loamy 

 soil, and the latter a high wall for training the better sorts, 

 . Final planting is performed any time, in mild weather, from 

 October to March ; standards are placed from 25 to 40 feet 



render the bearers more productive of fruit-buds, and regular 

 in appearance. As each tree is pruned, nail or tie the branches 

 or shoots to the wall or trellis. If afterwards, in consequence 

 of either pruning out improper or decayed wood, or of former 

 apart every way; half standards from 20 to 30 feet; and dwarf insufficient training, there are any material vacuities or irrcgu- 

 standards, in borders, from 15 to 20 feet from stem to stem. larities in the arrangement, unnail the misplaced and contiguous 

 Wall and espalier trees are planted from 15 to 30 feet, according branches and lay them in order." 



as they may have been grafted or budded on pear or quince Mr. Knight's mode of training ilie pear tree is as follows: 



stocks. ^ "A young pear stock, which had two lateral branches upon 



Mode of bearing. — As in the apple tree, " The 2^<^<^^ tree," each side, and was about G feet high, was planted against a wall 

 M*Phail observes, " does not produce blossoms on the former early in the spring of 1810; and it was grafted in each of its 

 year's wood, as several other sorts of trees do. Its blossom- lateral branches, two of which sprang out of the stem, about 4 

 buds are formed upon spurs growing out of wood not younger feet from the ground, and the others at the summit in the fol- 

 titan one year old, and consequently, projecting spurs all over lowing year. The shoots these grafts produced were about a 



the tree must be left for that purpose." — " In some pears,'' Mr. foot long, were trained downwards, the undermost nearly pcr- 

 Knight observes, " the fruit grows only on the inside of those pentlicular, and the uppermost just below the horizontal line, 



placing them at such distances, that the leaves of one shoot did 

 not at all shade those of another. In the next year the same 

 mode of training was continued, and the year following I ob- 



branches which are exposed to the sun and air ; in others it 

 occupies every part of the tree." 



Pruning and training standards. — *' Permit these to extend 

 on all sides freely. Several years may elapse before any cross- 

 placed, very irregular, or crowded branches, dead or worn out 



tained an abundant crop of fruit. 



" An old St. Germain j)ertr tree, of the spurious kind, l)ad 



observes, '* is not often wanted in the culture of the^rar tree, 



which is rarely mucli encumbered with superfluous branches ; 



but in some kinds, whose form of growth resembles the apple 



tree, it will sometimes be found beneficial." 



Wall trees and espaliers wuU require a summer and winter 

 pruning. 



Summer pruning 



bearers, require pruning, which give in winter or spring. Keep been trained in a fan-form against a north-west wall in my gar- 



the head moderately open in the middle." " Pruning," Knight den, and the central branches, as usually happens in old trees 



thus trained, had long reached the top of the wall, and had 

 become wholly unproductive. The other branches afforded hwi 

 very little fruit, and that never acquiring maturity, was conse- 

 quently of no value, so that it was necessary to change the 

 variety as well as to render the tree productive. To attain 

 these purposes, every brancli which did not want at least 20 

 While the spray is young and soft, but degrees of being perpendicular, was taken out at its base, and 



not until the w^ood-shoots can be distinguished from spurs, rub 



on the foreright, the disorderly, spongy, and superfluous shoots 



ot the year, rather than let them grow woody, so as to require 



|ne knife. Retain some of the most promising, well"j)laced, 



iateral, and terminal shoots, always keeping a leader to each 



^^n branch, where the space will permit. 



number on young trees not fully supplied with branches. 



Jn these at their full length all summer, in order to have a 



choice of young wood in the winter pruning. Occasionally, on 



old trees, or others where any considerable vacancy occurs, some 



principal contiguous shoot may be shortened in June to a few 



^yes, for a supply of several new shoots the same season." 

 fVinter pruning " may be performed any time* from the bcgin- 



^*fig of November until the beginning of April. If on young 



jrees or others a further increase of branches is necessary to 



"^* up either the prescribed space or any casual vacuity 



Some principal shoots of last summer, to be trained for that 



purpose. As, however, many young shoots will have arisen on 



ue Wood branches and bearers, of which a great part are abun- 



?^t and disorderly, but which have received some regulation 

 m the 



Leave the greater 



Train 



retain 



*? ^ue summer pruning, we must now cut these out close to 



^^ wiother branches, while w^e are preserving the best in tlie 



^ore open parts. Examine the parent branches, and if any 



^[e very irregular or defective in growth, either cut them out 



the spurs upon every other branch, which I intended to retain, 

 were taken off closely with the saw and chisel. Into these 

 branches, at their subdivisions, grafts were inserted at different 

 distances from the root, and some so near the extremities of the 

 branches, that the tree extended as widely in the autumn after 

 it was grafted, as it did in the preceding year. The grafts were 

 also so disposed, that every part of the space the tree previously 

 covered, was equally well supplied with young wood. As soon 

 in the succeeding summer as the young shoots had attained sufK- 

 cient length, they were trained almost perpendicularly downwards, 

 between the larger branches and the wall to which they were 

 nailed. The most perpendicular remaining branch upon each 

 side was grafted about 4 feet below the top of the wall, which is 

 12 feet high, and the young shoots, which the grafts upon these 

 afforded, were trained inwards, and bent down to occupy the 

 space from which the old central branches had been taken away, 

 and therefore very little vacant space anywhere remained in the 

 end of the first autumn. A few blossoms, but not any fruit, 

 were produced by several of the grafts in the succeeding spring ; 

 but in the following year and subsequently I liave had abundant 

 crops, equally dispersed over every part of the tree." 



ose, or 



. prune them to some eligible lateral to supply the 



P'^ce; or if any branches be over extended, they may be 

 Fitted in to such a lateral, or to a good fruit- bud. Cut out 

 J"e least regular of the too crowded, also any casually declined 



The retained 



be 



) at 



Heading down and pruning old pear trees. — *' The method of 

 Y>runing pear trees," Forsyth observes, " is very different from 

 that practised for apple trees in general. The constant practice 

 has been to have great spurs, as big as a man's arm, standing 

 out from the walls, from a foot to 18 inches or upwards." The 

 constant cutting of these spurs, he says, brings on the canker, 

 and the fruit produced is small, spotted, and kernelly. For- 

 syth's practice with such trees was to cut them down, and renew 

 the soil at their roots, and he refers to a beurre pear, restored 



^'■^rg, with decayed, cankery, and dead wood. 



"Pply of laterals and terminals should be laid in as much «. — .. - . - - . ' .^ . 



'^"^gth as the limits allow, in order to furnish a more abundant from an jnch and a half of bark, which, in 1 / 96, bore 4j0 hne 



large pears, S:c. 



C. Harrison and various other gardeners adopt a mode of 

 keeping only short spurs, by which much larger fruit is pro- 

 duced. According to this plan, each spur bears only once, 



J^antity of fruit-buds. During both courses of pruning, be 

 particularly careful to preserve all the orderly fruit spurs, emit- 



ru ^^A^^ ^'"^^^ ^"^^ ^"^^^ ^^ ^'^^ bearers ; if, however, any largo, 

 Kged, projecting spurs, and woody barren stumps or snags 

 ^"^ cut them clean away close to the branches, which will 



when it is cut out, and succeeded by an embryo bud at its ba 



