A PEAR TREE HEDGE. 43 



shoots, which must be pinched to one leaf; and so on 

 with all the young shoots during the summer, and the 

 like practice every season. When the leading shoot 

 has grown twelve inches, its top should be pinched 

 off, and as soon as two or three break out at this 

 point, all should be pinched in but one for the leader. 

 A very compact distaff-like tree is thus formed. 



For small gardens, where the cultivator wishes for 

 a large collection of pears in a small place, this (which 

 is, in fact, the cordon system applied to single stem- 

 med trees) is to be recommended. 



A PEAR TREE HEDGE. 



A few days since, when visiting a friend at Fonte- 

 nay aux Roses, near Paris, I was much struck with a 

 hedge formed of pear trees on the quince stock. He 

 smiled when he told me his method of cultivation 

 and pruning, the latter being simply clipping his 

 hedge in July, with the garden shears, 1 and thinning 

 out the spurs in winter, when they become crowded. 

 A few days since (July, 1862), my friend paid me a 

 visit, and I inquired, with some interest, about his 

 pear tree hedge. He assured me that it was perfectly 

 healthy, and generally gave him large crops of fruit. 

 The sorts proper to form a hedge are Louise Bonne of 

 Jersey, Beurre d'Amanlis, Beurre Hardy, Conseiller 

 de la Cour, Beurre d'Aremberg, Beurre Superfin, 

 Delices de Jodoigne, Doyenne du Cornice, Duchesse 

 d' Angouleme, Prince Albert, and Yicar of Winkfield. 

 These are all free growers on the quince stock, and if 



1 An English cultivator would employ pruning scissors to shorten the shoots, 

 and thus make his hedge look as if cared for. 



