Revieiv of LoudoTi's Gardener's Magazine. 229 



ble, through the mismanagement of which most of tlie barrenness so much 

 complained of in pear trees, in my humble opinion, arises. It needs not 

 any pains on my part, I presume, to prove that the free admission of 

 light to all parts of a trained tree is the cause of more pruning and 

 stopping of shoots than is at all times wholesome to the constitution of 

 the tree. The question here assumes a physiological character ; and, 

 although " fools rush in where angels fear to tread," yet, having got my 

 foot fairly in, I feel I must proceed in s])ite of angry critics. As to the 

 effects of shade on the buds of fruit trees, I am quite aware that it tends 

 to barrenness, as being adverse to the elaboration of the sap, or true 

 blood, of the plant. Let its evils, however, be as great as they may, I am 

 satisfied that they are not greater than injudicious disbudding. As, how- 

 ever, it will happen, through most seasons, especially moist ones, that they 

 will make more breast wood than is compatible with the due admission 

 of light, what must be done ? If it be pruned away, or disbudded nearly 

 as fast as it is made, the embryo flower buds will he forced from their 

 snug retreat into wood. If it be left on the tree all the sunmier, from the 

 almost total exclusion of light, the bdds will be meagre and imperfectly 

 ripened, and a bad development in the ensuing spring, and a shy setting 

 will be the consequences. How, then, are these evils to be avoided? 

 Simply by laying in the leading branches at greater distances than they 

 are commonly done (I should say a foot apart) ; and then we shall be en- 

 abled to procure a moderate crop of foreright shoots, without excluding 

 the light. My maxim is this as to disbudding, as it is termed. Having 

 abimdance of free-growing wood in the centre of the tree, and this all 

 nailed as nearly perpendicular as possible, I proceed (I sjjeak now of 

 pear trees), in the early part of July, or, at the earliest, the end of June, 

 to crop with a knife some of the foreright shoots back to four or five 

 joints, commencing at the bottom of the tree, and doing a few tiers of 

 branches at a time ; in the course of another week, I go over them again, 

 and crop another tier or two, and so on, advancing from the bottom of 

 the wall towards the Idxuriant centre of the tree ; and always, if possible, 

 taking advantage of a dry time for the purpose, or when, in fact, there is 

 the least excitement to wood. Some iew shoots here and there I entire- 

 ly disbud ; for instance, where there are several situated close together, 

 making the tree dark in that part ; and those Heave are primed to within 

 about four or five leaves. As for neatness of appearance, I esteem it as 

 highly as any one ; but when, in kitchen-gardening, neatness is found in 

 opposition to utility, the former, of course, must give way: however, a 

 clever hand at fruit trees will render the two sufficiently compatible for 

 all purposes. It is a fact, and known well to most jiractical gardeners, 

 that those embryo l)uds of pear trees which are to produce blossoms the 

 next spring must develop a good tuft of large and healthy leaves 

 early the spring preceding ; for, if they do so, and do not push into wood, 

 they are sure to be blossoms the ensuing spring. How frequently we 

 see pear and other trees against walls, in which the upper branches can- 

 not bear through luxuriance, and the under ones through weakness ; and 

 this in the selfsame tree ! Now, this is very commonly the case on the 

 capricious light soils aljove alluded to, and it requires no small skill and 

 attention, on such soils, to divert the ascending sap into the lower 

 branches ; and, unless diverted into these inferior parts of the tree, to 

 the production of young wood, ay, and breast wood too, from where is 

 the true sap conducive to fructification to be secreted ? Let any one, for 

 instance, select an apple or pear tree, growing in his garden, as a rough 

 espalier or standard, with a succession of side shoots from the lower part 

 of the bole upwards ; in fact, as nearly resembling a wall tree as possible. 

 Let him, then, I say, continually divest one portion of the tree of all its 

 foreright shoots, as fast as they are produced, and leave the other with 



