General Notices. 319 



the trees soon after all died, so that, at the end of fifteen years, not a tree 

 was left on 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, fori remembered so vividly with what pleas- 

 ure 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 ev- 

 ery 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 dol I did not then think of root-pruning, but I thought that 

 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 taking them up 

 and replanting, 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, leaving those 

 that are fibrous ; and so I became 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 Harlow or 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 standard pear trees from eight to ten 

 years old ; these terminate long rows of standards, left to grow as nature 

 dictates, both root and branch, except occasional thinning of their heads. 

 These, it must be recollected, are among my root-pruned specimen trees, a 

 great number of which are from twelve to fifteen years old. They have 

 had their roots pruned three times within these eight years, the last time in 



December, 1844. They are now full of health, and foliage, and fruit, in 



fact, all that I can wish them to be. The standard trees, with roots un- 

 pruned, have their leaves yellow, and are, I fear, hastening to death. 



I now proceed to give a list of such sorts of pears that on my soil are de- 

 cidedly higher in flavor when grafted on the quince, and not, (as your cor- 

 respondent almost ludicrously says) " partaking of the flavor of the quince." 

 Pray, have you or Mr. Thompson ever ate a quince-flavored pear? that is, 

 a pear having such a flavor from being grafted on the quince, (as I well 

 know there are many pears with a very odd flavor.) Does the Ribstone 

 Pippin taste of the Crab because it is grafted upon it ? Does the peach ac- 

 quire the flavor of the Mussel plum because it is budded upon it? Does the 

 Green Gage ever taste sour and austere? and yet it is almost invariably 



