HORTICULTURE. 





grow on standards. Mr Knight, however, confidently 

 predicts, that winter pears will, in the course of uno- 

 V^ 1 " generation, be obtained in the utmost abundance 

 Par tree?, from standard trees ; that is, that new varieties, com- 

 bining perhaps the hardiness of the swan-egg with the 

 valuable qualities of the colmart or chaumonte), will 

 be produced. 



118. All the kinds of summer pears ripen, in orcli- 

 nary seasons, on the different sorts oF standards, or on 

 espaliers ; the autumn pears, on dwarf standards or es- 

 paliers. Espaliers, however, are in both cases prefera- 

 ble to dwarf standards, as the tree may in the former 

 way stand on a free stock, and yet have ample space 

 allowed it. The finer French winter pears in general 

 require a wall, with an east, south-east, or south-west 

 aspect ; and in the northern parts of the island a full 

 south aspect. Several of the kinds, however, answer 

 dn espalier-rails ; and as the fruit ripens more slowly 

 and equably when hanging in the open air, than when 

 assisted by the shelter and reflected heat of a wall, it 

 is found to keep longer. While the espalier-trees are 

 in blossom, ami till the fruit be fully set, they require 

 some protection ; such as screens of reed or straw, or 

 woollen nets. 



A pear-tree, especially on a free-stock, cannot do 

 with less than forty feet of wall. In many varieties 

 the fruit-buds are produced chiefly at the extremities of 

 the new shoots : if the dimensions of the tree must be 

 much circumscribed, therefore, it will often happen, 

 in the ordinary .way of training and pruning, that the 

 fruit-buds will be cut'away. One well-trained horizon- 

 tal tree, is, on this account, better than two or three 

 upright or fan trees ; and there is little danger of keep- 

 ing the wall covered, however high it be. Miller men- 

 tions a summer bonchretien which extended fifty feet 

 in width, and filled a wall thirty-six feet high, and was 

 at the same time extremely fruitful. The object of 

 the French gardeners, such as Quintinye, was to keep 

 their pear-trees within narrow bounds : hence their 

 prolix and confused descriptions of the mode of train- 

 ing and pruning, forming a perfect contrast with the 

 concise and perspicuous directions of Hitt and Miller. 



119- For wall pear-trees horizontal training is now 

 very generally preferred to the fan mode ; chiefly be- 

 cause in this latter way, the nearly upright position of 

 the branches encourages the throwing out of numerous 

 strong shoots, in producing which the sap of the tree is 

 exhausted ; these shoots are destined to be cut out in 

 the winter pruning, and the middle part of the tree 

 comes in this way to be barren. In the horizontal mode, 

 provision is made for having fruit-bearing wood near 

 the stem as well as at the extremities of the branches ; 

 and it is estimated that, on an average, wall pear trees 

 so trained afford a third more of good fruit than such 

 as are trained in the fan way, or suffered to ramble on 

 the wall as chance may direct. It is a general rule, 

 therefore, that the branches of pear-trees are not to be 

 shortened unless where wood is wanted to fill up a va- 

 cancy ; the only effect of shortening being, that in place 

 of small fruitful spurs, rambling and unfruitful shoots 

 are produced. During the summer, foreright and su- 

 perfluous shoots are displaced with the finger. In this 

 way, no wood buds are left to form shoots next season ; 

 and if disbudding be carefully performed, there will be 

 little to do at the winter pruning. It is a rule, that the 

 fruit spurs, especially of the finer French pears, should 

 at all times be kept as close as possible to the wall. 



120. But the mode of managing wall pear-trees re- 

 commended by Mr Knight (in the London Horticul- 



tural Transactions, voi. ii.) deserves here particular fruit 

 notice. It will be best understood by describing nearly Garden, 

 in his own words, his mode of reclaiming an old St T "T 

 Germain pear-tree which had been trained in the fan pJa 

 form. The central branches, as usually happens in old 

 trees thus trained, had long reached the top of the wall, 

 and had become wholly unproductive. The other 

 branches afforded very little fruit, and that little never 

 acquired maturity. It was necessary therefore to change 

 the variety, as well as to render the tree productive. 

 To attain these purposes, every branch which did not 

 want at least twenty degrees of being perpendicular, 

 was taken out at its base ; and the spurs upon every 

 other branch intended to be retained, were taken oti' 

 closely with the saw and chisel. Into these branches, 

 at their subdivisions, grafts were inserted at different 

 distances from the roots, and some so near the extre- 

 mities of the branches, that the tree extended as widely 

 in the autumn after it was grafted, as it did in the 

 preceding year. The grafts were also so disposed, 

 that every part of the space which the tree previously 

 covered, was equally well supplied with young wood. 

 As soon, in the succeeding summer, as the young 

 shoots had attained sufficient length, they were trained 

 almost perpendicularly downwards, betiveen the larger 

 branches and the wall, to which they were nailed. The 

 most perpendicular remaining branch, upon each side, 

 was grafted about four feet below the top of the wall ; 

 and the shoots thus procured, were trained inwards, 

 and bent down to occupy the space from which the old 

 central branches had been removed; and therefore 

 very little vacant space any where remained at the end 

 of the first autumn. In the second year, and subse- 

 quently, the tree yielded abundant crops, the fruit 

 being equally dispersed over every part. Grafts of no 

 fewer than eight different kinds of pears had been in- 

 serted, and all afforded fruit, and nearly in equal 

 plenty. 



By this mode of training, Mr Knight remarks, the 

 bearing branches being small and short, may be changed 

 every three or four years, till the tree be a century old, 

 without the loss of a single crop, and the central part, 

 which is almost necessarily unproductive in the fan 

 mode of training, and is apt to become so in the horizon- 

 tal, is rendered in this way the most fruitful. Where 

 it is not meant to change the kind of fruit, nothing 

 more, of course, is necessary, than to take off entirely 

 the spurs and supernumerary large branches, leaving 

 all blossom buds which occur near the extremities of 

 the remaining branches. In some varieties, particular- 

 ly the crassane and colmart, the dependent bearing 

 wood must be longer than in others. 



The training the bearing shoots downwards, has also 

 been found to throw young trees much sooner into a pro- 

 ductive state. Fruit is in this way generally obtained the 

 second year: even the colmart tree, which seldom produces 

 sooner than six or seven years from the time of grafting, 

 yields fruit by this mode in the third season. Mr Knight 

 recommends giving to young trees nearly the form above 

 described in the case of the old St Germain, only not 

 permitting the existence of so great a number of large 

 lateral branches. In both cases, the bearing wood 

 should depend wholly beneath the large branches which 

 feed it ; for, in Mr Knight's opinion, it is the influence 

 of gravitation upon the sap which occasions an early 

 and plentiful produce of fruit. 



121. To destroy old pear-trees, if they be tolerably 

 healthy, is in any case very injudicious, because, by 

 proper management, they may again be brought into 



