56 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 



crops of fruit, I found so many displaced by the wind 

 that supporting them with stakes became expensive 

 and troublesome ; I therefore recommend all those, 

 who wish to make their pear-tree plantations profita- 

 ble as well as pleasurable, to plant bush trees. 1 In 

 sheltered gardens the amateur may without hesitation 

 continue to plant pyramids, for no description of fruit 

 tree can be more interesting ; but when profit is to be 

 attached to cultivation, and fruit trees cultivated by 

 the acre, the bush form must be adhered to. The 

 varieties best adapted to this mode of culture are, first 

 and best, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Fondante d'Au- 

 tomne, Beurre d'Aremberg, Beurre Superfin, Williams's 

 Bon Chretien, Beurre Bachelier, Winter Nelis, and 

 Bergamotte d'Esperen. If more robust growing sorts 

 are planted, such as Beurre Diel, Beurre d'Amanlis, 

 Beurre Hardy, and some others, the plantation should 

 be commenced with rows four feet apart, and the 

 trees four feet apart in the rows. The ground occu- 

 pied by the plantation should be stirred with the 

 Parkes' steel fork every season, in February or March, 

 but not deeper than from four to five inches, and the 

 weeds carefully turned down. In the summer the 

 weeds must be kept under by hoeing, which will keep 

 the surface loose and promote the health of the trees ; 

 without this stirring with the fork in early spring, the 

 soil would become too hard during the summer for 

 hoeing with facility. 



GATHERING THE FEUIT. 



The fruit of pears, more particularly those on 



1 These may be with advantage a sort of hybrid bush tree, partaking a little of 

 the pyramid, and allowed to grow to a height of four or five feet. 



