68 



MANAGEMENT OF PEARS. 



pear, of second rate quality on pear stocks, 

 are found to be first rate on quince stocks ? 

 We have made notes on this subject our- 

 selves, but need additional data from the 

 experience of others.^ — Ed.] 



I feel that it is a duty I owe to your cor- 

 respondents and the gardening world gene- 

 rally, to notice the letter of a " Constant 

 Reader," in No. 21. It will, perhaps, be 

 the better mode to take his questions and 

 remarks serialim : He says, " I have been 

 for years much interested in the proper 

 stock for fruit trees ; my impression is, that 

 the Pear cannot be produced in its highest 

 state of perfection (whatever the mode of 

 treatment or the stock used) on any other 

 stock save the pear stock." To this I can 

 answer most positively, that the very finest 

 Pears I have ever seen or tasted, have been 

 produced on pear trees grafted on the quince. 

 I use no stocks but the pear and the quince j 

 the former for orchard trees, or for those 

 who prefer the pear stock ; the latter solely 

 for garden trees, principally to form prolific 

 pyramidal trees, for which they are unri- 

 valled both in beauty and fertility. I fear 

 "Constant Reader " has also been constant 

 to his home ; has never seen or tasted the 

 magnificent pears in some of the fruit gar- 

 dens near Paris ? has he never seen the pear 

 trees in the Potagerie at Versailles ? or 

 tasted the fruit from them ? (Mind, trees 

 there are nearly all grafted on the quince.) 

 If he has not done this, he has yet some- 

 thing to see and taste. I repeat, that I use 

 only the pear and the quince as stocks, and 

 I find the pear stock submit as kindly to 

 root-pruning (or even more so,) as the 

 quince. I can illustrate the good effects of 

 root-pruning very forcibly in my specimen 

 orchard, and at any time your correspondent 

 may see and believ.e ; however, I must tell 

 my tale, and then p^iDceed. 



About thirty years ago, my father plant- 

 ed some roivs of pear trees in a portion of 

 the nursery, then a recent purchase ; these 

 were all common sorts of pears, standards, 

 grafted as usual on the pear stock. They 

 grew most luxuriantly for some eight or ten 

 years, \vhen their leaves began to change 

 from their usually vivid green to a light 



yellow ; in a year or two, this yellow tint 

 increased till their foliage was really of a 

 bright straw colour ; the trees, soon after, 

 all died, so that at the end of fifteen years 

 not a tree was left in this portion of the 

 nursery, the subsoil of which, I must add, 

 is hard white clay, full of chalk stones ; 

 this peculiar soil occupies a very small space, 

 not more than a quarter of an acre, as the 

 neighboring soil is a tender sandy loam. 



When I came to years of thinking, the 

 untimely fate of these pear trees was often 

 present to my mind, for I remembered so 

 A^vidly, Avith what pleasure I had filled my 

 pockets from them ; I, at that time, also 

 found, that to be able to know any thing 

 about pears, I must have a specimen tree 

 of every kind that I cultivated. No other 

 but this " pestilent spot " of earth happened 

 to be just the place most eligible as a site 

 for my specimen ground. What could I do ? 

 I did not then think of root-pruning, but I 

 thought I should find some way or other to 

 avert the untimely fate of my trees ; I 

 therefore planted them in the usual way, 

 digging the holes about two feet in depth, 

 and mixing some manure and compost with 

 the earth taken from the holes, but leaving 

 the hard clayey subsoil below, to the depth 

 of two feet, untouched^ I watched my trees 

 narrowly after four or five years, as I then 

 expected to see traces of the effects of the clay 

 soil upon them. I think some eight years must 

 have passed and gone before their foliage 

 turned yellow. My first thought said remove 

 them to a different site and soil ; second 

 thought, take them up, and give them some 

 fresh compost ; they will last a few years, 

 and you can then find a good place for them ; 

 third thought, if you can renovate them for 

 a few years, by takipg them up and replant- 

 ing, why not do this periodically, so as to 

 keep your trees healthy ; the site is good, 

 make the soil equally so ; fourth thought, 

 what occasion is there to remove the tree ? 

 cut its principal roots, leave those that are 

 fibrous : arid so I becarne a pruner of roots. 

 Now for effects, and "A Constant Reader " 

 must recollect, that any day the Eastern 

 Counties rail will carry him either to Har- 

 loAV pr Sawbridgeworth, each equally con- 

 venient, for a few shillings, to see with his 

 own eyes all that I state. 



In my specimen ground are several stand- 



