1847.] Management of Pear Trees. 159 



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 neigh- 

 boring 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, for I remembered so 

 vividly with what pleasure I had hlled my pockets from them; I 

 at that time also found that to be able to know anything about 

 pears I must have a specimen tree of every 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 do? 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 com- 

 post with the earth taken fiom the holes, but leaving the hard 

 clayey subsoil below to the depth of two feet untouched. I watch- 

 ed 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 reno- 

 vate 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, leave those 

 that are fibrous; and so I became a pruner of roots. Now^ for ef- 

 fects, and a " Constant Reader" must recollect that any day the 

 Eastern Counties rail will carry him either to Harlow or Saw- 

 bridgew^orth, each equally convenient 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 occa- 

 sional 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 De- 

 cember 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 unpruned, have their leaves yellow, and are, 1 fear, hasten- 

 ing to death. I now^ proceed to give a list of such sorts of pears 

 that on my soil are decidedly higher in flavor when grafted on 

 the quince, and not as your correspondent almost ludicrously says 



