366 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING 



terior of the tree during the following season must be 

 thinned at the next pruning. 



Pruning for form will depend upon the pruner's ideal 

 (2). Dwarf trees, however, are generally grown as flat- 

 topped inverted cones or as pyramids. In America the 

 former is the more popular; in Europe, the latter. To 

 secure the pyramidal form a central stem is developed to 

 the desired height. The branches are produced, as in the 

 training of standard pyramids (154b), except that they are 

 closer together. The author does not happen to know of 

 vase-formed or open-centered dwarf trees, but he sees 

 no reason why this form should not be as desirable for 

 dwarf pears as for standards. 



While the trees are young the pyramidal form is easy 

 to get, especially with pears which- normally grow in this 

 way. As the trees grow older, however, particularly if 

 the grower neglects to prune off the cion roots, they are 

 prone to grow very tall, their form in long-neglected trees 

 much resembling that of the Lombardy poplar, though, 

 of course, much smaller than the full-grown trees of this 

 species. This heightening may be easily prevented, first 

 by cion root pruning and second, by extending the frame 

 limbs and broadening the top, thus developing the in- 

 verted cone shape. In the most famous commercial 

 dwarf pear orchard the author has visited the trees were 

 only about 12 feet high, though they were then half a 

 century old. If they ever got any taller it was after the 

 death of Mr. T. G. Yeomans, the owner, who took special 

 pride in keeping them in ideal form and stature. Since 

 the Yeomans's orchard* was trained in the ideal form for 

 American commercial dwarf pear growing, and since it 

 is the one with which the author is most familiar the fol- 

 lowing description and comment are given : 



* This orchard at Walworth, New York, was cut down in 1906 by the then 

 owner of the Yeomans's farm, and Kieffer pears planted on the site, because he 

 thought the trees had passed their profitable age limit and he believed the Kieffer 

 would pay better. The original orchard began to yield paying crops before the war 

 of the States, and continued to do so as long as Mr. Yeomans lived. 



