236 Notes and Gleanings. 



towards the end of October, and the pots stowed thickly in the house by the 

 last week. They should then have a soaking of water, and be covered with 

 leaves, as is before mentioned. 



2. About the middle of March, unless the weather be very severe, they should 

 be uncovered, and, after their abstinence of four months, have a moderate sup- 

 ply of water. While in bloom, if the weather be mild, the side shutters and 

 doors may be open night and day ; if frosty, by day only. Instead of top-dress- 

 ing or renewing the soil in October, it will be a saving of labor to treat pear- 

 trees in pots after the manner recommended for apricots, — i.e., to allow the sur- 

 face of the mould in the pots to remain undisturbed till after the trees have set 

 their fruit : and, on their removal to the summer-quarters, to scrape off a small 

 portion of it, say to the depth of an inch, and give the rich surface-dressing 

 recommended. This intermission of the autumnal renewal of the surface-soil 

 may go on for two, three, or more years, or till the trees seem to require either 

 top-dressing or repotting. 



3. The first week in June, they should all be removed to their summer quar- 

 ters, and the pots plunged. During the summer, every young shoot should be 

 pinched to three leaves, and the fruit tliinned. This is of great consequence. 

 At this season, manure-water will greatly benefit the fruit by increasing its size. 



4. During the winter, if any of the spurs on which the leaves have been 

 pinched have grown so as to make the tree irregular in shape, they should be 

 shortened with a short knife. 



Pyramidal pear-trees on quince-stocks in pots make a very healthy but not 

 a vigorous growth, so that they are easily kept in order by summer pinching; 

 and they soon form the most symmetrical and beautiful of fruit-trees. Owing 

 to the early blossoming of pear-trees under glass, the season of growth in the 

 fruit is much prolonged ; hence its increase in size : but its ripening period is 

 not hastened. This is the case with pears from the warmer parts of France. 

 They have a longer period to grow in than English pears in the open air under 

 ordinary circumstances : but, as a rule, they do not ripen earlier, or, as in the 

 case of the Easter Beurre, not so early ; for this kind of pear is often in fine 

 order in France till the end of April. 



I ought not to omit stating, that the roof of the pear-tree house may be de- 

 voted to the growth of grapes, as the pear-trees will be in their summer-quar- 

 ters before the vines have made mucli progress, so as to shade them injuriously. 

 The pear-tree house may thus be a means of double profit. From what 1 have 

 seen of my Hamburg grapes trained under the roof of my house, a hundred feet 

 by twenty-four feet, in which the pear-trees were till June, I am sure they would 

 pay : indeed, I am quite convinced that a house of this size would give a liberal 

 income to a clever man. — Thomas Rivers, in Florist and Pomo'ogist. 



