550 



THE PEAR. 



In training the pear on walls or espaliers horizontally, the ordinary dis- 

 tance between the shoots is from 9 inches to 12 inches, the latter distance 

 being adopted for large-leaved pears, such as the jargonelle ; but for shy- 

 bearing pears, which always are most prolific on young spurs, it has been 

 proposed to have the main branches at double the distance, and to lay in 



Fig. 369. A method of training shy-bearing Peart. 



laterals from them at regular intervals, as in fig. 869. These laterals in two 

 or three years will be covered with spurs and blossom- buds, and will be 

 more certain of producing fruit than the spurs on the main branches. They 

 can be renewed at pleasure, by cutting them off, having previously en- 

 couraged young shoots to supply their place. (See an elaborate article 

 on this subject in Gard. Mag. vol. ii. p. 262.) 



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 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 (772), 

 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 (768), as recommended for the apple. 



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

 io within a few inches of the graft ; or the horizontal shoots in ay 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 on walls or espaliers, that have been trained horizontally, and it affords 

 an excellent opportunity of grafting a number of different kinds on one tree. 

 On a wall 12 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, with a much better chance of an equilibrium of vigour 

 being maintained among the kinds, than in grafting different sorts on a tree 

 trained in the fan manner, or on a standard in the open garden, in which 

 one or two robust sorts generally overcome all the rest. 



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 might be worth adopting in a small suburban garden, not only with 

 pear-trees but with fruit trees in general. The blossoms may be cut off with 

 the averruncator or the flower-gatherer (418) ; but the most certain mode of 

 benefiting by the practice of thinning the blossoms of any description of tree, 



