62 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



root-pruning, an operation I have described on a previous 

 page. If a tree blossoms well the cause of unfertility must 

 be looked for in some other direction, and no good will 

 result from pruning the roots. 



The untrained jobbing gardener is often the cause of 

 failure in fruit crops, as his idea of pruning is to cut and hack 

 the tree all over, including the fruit spurs. Again, sparrows 

 are sometimes to blame, for in gardens near to towns they 

 eat the fruit buds, and even in the country the bullfinches 

 will clear the buds from whole orchards of trees. 



CHAPTER XII 

 PESTS AFFECTING PEARS 



PEAR pests are, in some instances, similar to those of 

 Apples, such, for example, as canker, leaf spot, aphides, 

 and caterpillars, but Pears are not attacked by the American 

 Blight. The remedies for the above pests can be used as 

 advised for Apples. 



Pears have one serious insect pest in the Pear Midge 

 (Diplosis pyrivora). The female midge lays its eggs in the 

 opening flower-buds, and the larvae upon hatching at once 

 enter the ovary to feed. The Pears appear set for fruit, 

 but, instead of making a pyriform growth, they become 

 globular, and drop to the ground ; the larvae then leave the 

 fruits and bury themselves two inches or so in the soil. 

 If an affected fruit is cut transversely the minute, white 

 larvae will be found in possession. Affected fruits must 

 be at once collected for burning, and the surface soil 

 around the trees should be dressed in the winter with 



