PRUNING. 313 



smith-shops "is also good, and hence the impression of some, that 

 through it the blight was cured or prevented. The fact being only 

 that a certain element requisite to health was exhausted in the soil. 



Pruning. In connection with what we have recorded under this 

 head on a previous page, we add the following, as directly applicable 

 to the Pear. It is from the experience of Thomas Rivers, Esq., 

 England, one of the most successful pyramidal pear tree growers in 

 the world : 



" If root-pruned pyramidal trees are planted, it will much assist 

 them if about half the blossom buds are thinned out with sharp- 

 pointed scissors, or a penknife, just before they open ; otherwise these 

 root-pruned trees on the 

 quince stock are so full of 

 them, that the tree receives 

 a check if they are all allow- 

 ed to expand. About ten or 

 fifteen fruit may be permit- 

 ted to ripen the first season ; 

 the following season two or 

 three dozen will be as many 

 as the tree ought to be allow- 

 ed to bring to perfection, in- 

 creasing the number as the 

 tree increases in vigor, al- 

 ways remembering that a few 

 full -sized and well -ripened 

 pears are to be preferred to a 

 greater number, inferior in 

 size and quality. 



" Summer pinching in the 

 youth of the tree is the only 

 remedy, if it is not well fur- 

 nished below; and a severe 

 remedy it is, for all the 

 young shoots on the upper 

 tiers, including the leader, 

 must be pinched closely in 

 May and June till the lower 

 ones have made young shoots 

 of a sufficient length to give 

 uniformity to the tree. This requires much attention and trouble ; 

 it is better to be careful not to plant any tree for a pyramid that is 

 not well furnished with buds and branches to its base. A tree of 

 this description may soon be made to assume the shape of the fore- 

 going figure, which is a perfect pyramidal pear tree, such as it ough* 

 to be in July, before its leading side shoots and perpendicular leader* 

 14 



