SPURS ON THE PEAR. ♦ 53 



tliem backwards, and twist them into a knot. This checks 

 further growth, and they can be cut back in the winter. If 

 they are very vigorous shoots, from the tree being of a pow- 

 erfully growing kind, or from the shoots themselves being in 

 a vertical (a most dangerous) position, then the evil is much 

 greater. 



You must partially break them through, about half way, 

 and in addition pinch off the ends of the rampant shoots, and 

 let them hang thus, and shrivel up, till the winter pruning ; 

 and even then, probably, a season will be lost before fruit ap- 



». FORMATION OF FRUITFUL SPURS ON THE PEAR. COMPLETION. 



pears at that spot. In the case of Diagonal Cordon training 

 against walls, all forerights must also be preserved. The 

 leader will soon reach eight or ten feet, and can, in the win- 

 ter pruning, be lowered to 45 degrees, there to remain in fu- 

 ture. As in peaches, a strong lateral shoot having been 

 reserved to form the second leader, which is also, of course, 

 twelve inches distant, it will be shortened-in a little, and so 

 ready to be bent upwards as the second leader next summer. 

 In fact, the principles for forming a Diagonal Cordon, with 

 triple leaders, are similar to those in the peach, with the 

 marked exception of the treatment of the spurs. In the win- 

 ter pruning of these spurs, and the two shoots on each, which 



