172 PETJNING. 



ties would lose the benefit of the descending and root- 

 forming sap when the leaf is ripening. On the quince 

 stock we have not often found that pear trees need 

 root-pruning, since the great difficulty is to restrain 

 their fruit-bearing tendency. The great cause of 

 failure in cultivating these trees is their enormous 

 overbearing, producing one great crop, and then re- 

 maining unhealthy, exhausted, and stinted for several 

 years. 



But, we rej)eat, in order to give emphasis to the 

 truth, that root-pruning is quite necessary to the per- 

 fection of the pyramid form, unless the tree has had 

 its training commenced with the young shoot from 

 the bud. 



