312 Notes and Gleajiings. 



lessened the number of trees which they desired to plant, on account of the 

 prospective labor requisite to keep them in good order. 



The care and culture in pruning an acre of dwarf pears we consider little more 

 than that of an acre of standards : and, whoever is deterred from planting by 

 reason of an impression otherwise, we advise to go right on planting ; and, if we 

 cannot write for him from time to time so that he can perform the care of his 

 dwarfs easily, we will visit him, and show it practically. 



Our inquirer does not tell us any thing about the age or present condition of 

 his trees : so we are left to talk, as it were, in the dark ; and therefore begin by 

 saying, that, in the general practice in this country, nearly all dwarf trees are 

 rather to be termed bushes than pyramids, as is most usually the form recom- 

 mended abroad; and the pruning is at first, or say for two or three years, a pretty 

 severe one, requiring some little philosophy, or belief in the tree again renew- 

 ing itself. In growing dwarf trees, all depends upon the first few years of prun- 

 ing, by which they acquire a bushy, broad base at heights varying from six inches 

 to two feet from the ground ; and the grower must not be afraid of his knife, but 

 cut away the strong leaders and branches, each time cutting to a bud, and care- 

 fully examining on which side the bud left for the next shoot is, as the tendency 

 of the shoot from that bud will be at an angle of about forty-five degrees, either 

 inward or outward, and so filling up the centre or opening it as it grows. When 

 we commence cutting our young trees, we do so with a knowledge, that, for every 

 inch we cut away, the following autumn will show from six to twelve inches of 

 growth ; and then, when we cut for the next year, we do so with a remembrance of 

 the previous year's growth ; and so we leave only three to five buds of the sea- 

 son's growth on our leading stems, while our side or lower and more slender shoots 

 we often leave one-half or two-thirds of their growth. We practise this cutting 

 back yearly until about four years ; when, if our tree has a good form, as it should, 

 bushy and round, and the last season has given two to three feet growth of 

 young wood, we leave it for a season ; during which, by reason of non-cutting, it 

 makes only a moderate growth of eight to sixteen inches, and forms fruit-spurs 

 on all the shoots of last year, which, added to the spurs formed one by one on 

 the lower limbs, give a tree vigorous, healthy, and, the following summer, loaded 

 with a crop of fine fruit. This growth of eight to sixteen inches we cut in this 

 season, or the fall before the fruiting one, to from three to five buds ; and thus we 

 get new vigor and wood yearly onward, while we go on reaping our crops of 

 fruit. 



It is not requisite to annually prune a tree, once it has acquired a good form ; 

 but, unless it is done, the annual growth is gradually lost, and the tree disposed 

 to produce more fruit than it can well ripen : and it is here again that strong phi- 

 losophy is wanted to enable the owner to cut away and thin out the surplus fruit, 

 or otherwise, in a few years, find himself minus a tree by reason of its over- 

 exhaustion. The statement of our reader, that some of his neighbors " do not 

 prune at all, and yet obtain good crops," is one of the points to which we call 

 his observation ; and, unless the trees take root upon the pear or graft, our word 

 for it, a few years only will the owner realize crops of fruits, but he will have a 

 chance to plant the ground anew. In many cases, the pear on the quince takes 



