2 1 3 On Root-pruning of Pear trees; 



sufficient. For the form of the tree, the conical* is indubi- 

 tably the most agreeable, and generally convenient; but for 

 facility of protection from spring frosts, or from birds by 

 the cheap netting now so much used, trees trained as spread- 

 ing bushes, the branches kept near the ground by hooked 

 pegs, either of wood or iron, ought to be tried. I feel con- 

 fident the size and flavor of the fruit would be improved from 

 being near such a radiating surface as the earth. 



"To obtain well ripened fruit from cherries, in all wooded 

 districts where birds abound, nets are quite necessary, there- 

 fore the only mode of cultivating these trees should be as 

 dwarf bushes; for this purpose they should be grafted on the 

 perfumed cherry (Prunus Mahuleb,) which seems to bear 

 root-pruning better than the common cherry stock, and also 

 to induce a more humble growth. 



"•Apples grafted on the paradise stock are astonishingly fruit- 

 ful when root-pruned, but in dry and poor soils, I should re- 

 commend the crab as a preferable stock. From the experi- 

 ence of the last season, T can now confidently state, that 

 plums become equally prolific with other fruit trees, when 

 root-pruned; and such esteemed nuts as the Cosford, the 

 frizzled filbert, and the dwarf prolific nut, may be made ob- 

 jects of much garden interest by being root-pruned; the 

 common filbert might also be experimented on. The best 

 form that can be given all the varieties of nuts, is the dwarf 

 standard, with clear stems, two or three feet in height, and 

 close compact heads, yet their shoots not too much crowded. 



"It will not, perhaps, be out of place to enumerate here a 

 few of the advantages of systematic root-pruning. 



"1st. The facility of thinning, and, in some varieties, of set- 

 ting the blossoms of shy bearing sorts, and of thinning and 

 gathering the fruit. 



"2d. It will make the gardener independent of the natural 

 soil of his garden, as a few barrowsfull of rich mould will 

 support a tree for a lengthened period, thus placing bad soils 

 nearly on a level with those the most favorable. 



"3d. The capabihty of removing trees of fifteen or twenty 

 years' growth, wiih as much facility as furniture. To tenants 

 this will indeed be a boon, for perhaps one of the greatest 

 annoyances a tenant is subject to, is that of being obliged 



* Tills will perhaps convey the meaning of the French term "en 

 quenouille," 



