230 SOME SPECIFIC ADVICE . 



plicit information on practices. A single typical 

 quotation is here inserted to show the general 

 nature of the advice. 



" Boot -pruning of pyramidal pear trees on quince stocks* 

 Before entering on the subject of root-pruning of pear 

 trees on quince stocks, I must premise that handsome and 

 fertile pyramids, more particularly of some free-bearing 

 varieties, may be reared without this annual or biennial 

 operation. If the annual shoots of the tree are not more 

 than eight or ten inches long, no root -pruning need be 

 done. I have a large plantation of pear trees on the 

 quince stock, which have been made very handsome and 

 fertile pyramids, yet they have not been root-pruned, 

 neither do I intend to root-prune them. But I wish to 

 impress upon my readers that my principal object is to 

 make trees fit for small gardens, and to instruct those 

 who are not blessed with a large garden how to keep the 

 trees perfectly under control : and this can best be done 

 by annual, or at least biennial attention to their roots ; 

 for if a tree be suffered to grow three or more years, and 

 then be root -pruned, it will receive a check if the spring 

 be dry, and the crop of fruit for one season will be jeop- 

 ardized. Therefore, those who are disinclined to the 

 annual operation, and yet wish to confine the growth of 

 their trees within limited bounds by root -pruning, sa;' 

 once in two years, should only operate upon half of their 

 trees one season ; they will thus have the remaining half 

 in an unchecked bearing state ; and those who have ample 

 room and space may pinch their pyramids in summer, and 

 suffer them to grow to a height of fifteen or twenty iV.-t 

 without pruning their roots. I have seen avenues of such 

 trees in Belgium, really quite imposing. In rich soils, 

 where the trees grow so freely as to make shoots eighteen 



"Thomas Rivers, "The Miniature Fruit Garden." 



