360 SOME SPECIFIC MODES OF TRAINING 



where there should be one, a notch, half an inch wide, 

 and nearly the same in depth, should be cut in the stem 

 just above the dormant bud. If this be done in February, 

 a young shoot will break out in the summer.* 



"As the summer pinching of pyramidal pears is the 

 most interesting feature in their culture, and perhaps the 

 most agreeable of all horticultural occupations, I must 

 endeavor to give plain instructions to carry it out. 



"The first season after the planting, about the middle 

 or end of June, the side buds and branches will put forth 

 young shoots ; each will give from one to three or four. 

 Select that which is most horizontal in its growth (it should 

 be on the lower part of the branch, as the tree will then 

 be more inclined to spread) for a leader to that branch, 

 and pinch off all the others to three leaves. If these 

 pinched shoots again push, suffer them to make three 

 leaves, and then pinch them to two leaves; but if the 

 horizontal branch has a good leader, it will take off all the 

 superfluous sap, and prevent the pinched spurs from break- 

 ing; the buds will only swell, and the following season 

 they will be fruit -spurs. The upper shoots of the tree, 

 say to about two feet from its top, should be pinched a 

 week before the lower shoots: this gives strength to those 

 on the lower part of the tree. 



"In spring the perpendicular leader of the preceding 

 year's growth will put forth numerous shoots, which must 

 be pinched in June in the following manner: those nearest 

 the base, leave six inches in length, gradually decreasing 

 upwards, leaving those next the young leading shoot only 

 two inches long. The leader of these ready-formed pyra- 

 mids need not be shortened in summer, as directed for 

 younger trees; it may be suffered to grow till the hori- 



*Bare places in the stems of pyramids, and in the branches of espa- 

 liers or wall trees, may be budded towards the end of August with 

 blossom-buds taken from shoots two years old. This is a very inter- 

 esting mode of furnishing a tree with fruit-bearing buds. Page 345. 



