236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



managed by those who have uot the skill to prune pyramids, which 

 require a good deal of care to keep them in symmelriccJ shape and 

 at the same time productive and healthy. Great judgment, also, 

 and considerable skill are required to know when to prune, but 

 in Capt. Austin's style, all that is important is to extend the main 

 shoots about seven to ten in number, and no more, and cut off 

 every side shoot (by summer pinching principally) to one or two 

 eyes." 



Trees grown in this style, seem to be, substantially, dwarf stand- 

 ards, skillfully and systematically trained, and the method is com- 

 mended to the attention of cultivators. 



Standard Peaes. 



The principal advantage attending the ufee of the pear stock is, 

 the greater size and longevity which the trees attain. Trees on 

 the pear stock are more suitable to be trained standard high, and 

 planted in orchards, (rather than gardens,) than those worked on 

 the quince root. As many sorts succeed best on their own stock, 

 we must, with such, be content to forego early fruiting and wait 

 patiently for them to attain a bearing age. The trees once planted, 

 the years slip by more rapidly than we think for at the outset. 

 Novices in fruit culture are usually in a great hurry to have their 

 trees bear, but with ten, or twenty, or thirty 3'^ears experience, 

 they become quite willing to plant small trees, and to have them 

 grow to a good size and attain sufficient strength and age before 

 fruiting. Experience gives wisdom which, sometimes, is obtained 

 in no other school. 



Pears on the pear stock do not require so high culture as on the 

 quince, but they require more care and attention than apples. 

 They require a good exposure, with sufficient shelter, either nat- 

 ural or artificial, from high winds and cutting blasts. Next, a good 

 deep strong soil and a porous or thoroughly drained subsoil, rather 

 moist than dry, but never retaining stagnant moisture in the soil. 

 If not so naturally, it may be amended by deepening, draining, en- 

 riching, and good cultivation. Animal manures may be given more 

 freely than to the apple, yet never so as to induce a late, unripened 

 growth of wood, which is one of the most fruitful sources of danger 

 in our winters. 



Other Slocks for the Pear. The use of the common White Thorn 

 of our woods, ( Crateagus coccinea, of botanists, bearing scarlet 



