PROPAGATION AND CULTURE. 



547 



ness, some reverse the order of the laterals, and train them down from 

 the main shoots instead of up as in fig. 365. 



On walls or espaliers the pear is apt to produce a superfluity of 

 young shoots, but this is chiefly owing to the borders being made too 

 deep and rich, and to their being dug deeply and cropped, by which 

 the roots are forced down to the subsoil, where they are supplied with 



Fig. 365. 



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A method of training shy-bearing pears* 



more moisture than is beneficial for the fruitfulness of the tree, and 

 which consequently expends itself in young shoots. The remedies are 

 root-pruning or disleafing, and mulching the border with litter instead 

 of digging it. The summer shoots, which it is foreseen will not be 

 wanted at the winter's pruning, should be stopped, as recommended 

 for the apple. 



Old standard pears may be cut in, and wall or espalier trees headed 

 down to within a few inches of the graft ; or the horizontal shoots 

 may be cut off within a few inches of the upright stem, and a graft of 

 a superior kind put on each. This has now become a very general 

 mode of renovating old pear-trees that have been trained horizontally 

 on walls or espaliers, and it affords an excellent opportunity of 

 grafting a number of different kinds on one tree. On a wall twelve 

 feet high there will be at least twelve horizontal branches on each side 

 of the main stem, which will allow of grafting twenty-four different 

 sorts on one tree, a matter of the utmost importance in small gardens. 



Thinning the blossoms of pear-trees, and soaking the soil well with 

 water at the same time, has been found to facilitate the setting of the 

 fruit, and the practice is worth adopting not only with pear-trees but 

 with fruit trees in general. The blossoms are sometimes thinned in 

 the autumn or early spring, but it is the safest practice to wait till the 

 fruit is fairly set, and then to thin the crop to the quantity that the 

 tree can fairly finish, remembering that one fine fruit is worth three 

 small ones. 



Gathering and Keeping. Dessert pears of the summer kinds, being 

 softer and more tender than apples, require greater care in handling : 

 they require to be kept but a short time before being used, and should 



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