CULTIVATION OF THE PEAK. 75 



a thorough cultivation to be again practised when the trees 

 indicate its necessity. A very important part of pear-culture 

 is judicious 



PRUNING. 



The tree is usually a victim to excessive pruning. "It is 

 pruned in winter to make it grow, and pinched in summer 

 to make it fruit. " Severe summer pruning is very conducive 

 to blight and disease, has a tendency to produce a secondary 

 growth, consequently immature wood, and we believe that no 

 cause is so fruitful of failure and disappointment in pear-cult- 

 ure. If there should be unusual rampant growth, it may be 

 checked in the right^ season, late fall, at which time a proper 

 thinning out of surplus branches should be made ; all the 

 pruning that is required, is to keep the proper svmmetry of 

 the tree, and open-headed, so as to let in light and air. 



When a tree is transplanted and has its roots more or less 

 mutilated during the process of removal, common sense points 

 to the propriety, and practice proves the necessity, of a ju- 

 dicious thinning out of the branches ; but when the balance 

 of power between the roots and branches is again fairly re- 

 stored, pruning, unless to rectify abnormal growths, is cer- 

 tainly of questionable utility. When the foundation of the 

 tree is jfiiirly established, any farther pruning should be care- 

 fully and sparingly performed ; great mistakes are constantly 

 made by supposing that a yearly pruning is a necessity. 



Instead of "shortening in" as it is termed, the annual 

 growths at winter pruning, fruiting spurs will be more cer- 

 tainly and much earlier developed by leaving the growths un- 

 touched. This winter shortening of the previous year's 

 growths, results in increasing the number of slender shoots — 

 a good practice for the production of basket-making material 

 when confined to the willow, but a very useless one on the 

 pear where fruit is the main object. Selection of 



VARIETIES. 



With all the proper modes of culture and care in selection of 

 site and soil, with judicious planting and pruning, unless there 

 is a careful selection of varieties, success will be the ex- 

 ception and disappointment the rule. It is a most important 

 point : the selection must in all cases be made with reference 



