282 Root-pruning Pear Trees. 



system, and new beginners must not expect to be entirely 

 successful at first : with practice, information will be ac- 

 quired, and eventually all difficulties will be overcome. 



To be enabled to grow fifty, or even twenty, of the best 

 varieties of pears, in a garden, only fifty or a hundred feet 

 square, is a great desideratum. Yet this may be as easily 

 accomplished by root-pruning, as cultivating the common 

 Dutch currant ; a tree, indeed, scarcely needs more room 

 than a bush of good size. To the owners of small gardens, 

 therefore, this system must be invaluable. 



In our volume already referred to, Mr. Rivers has given 

 some directions upon the mode of cutting ofi' the roots by 

 the use of a spade. He still considers that the best instru- 

 ment for this purpose ; and although it may seem to be, as 

 he states, "an ungarden-like operation," yet, to perform 

 the operation with a knife would be altogether too tedious. 

 In defence of spade pruning he " can only say it seems to 

 answer perfectly well with his trees, and experience is gen- 

 erally a tolerable guide."' The operations are below the 

 ground, and the trees are in no way disfigured. 



The following are the remarks of Mr. Rivers on his sys- 

 tem, and the three modes of pruning, which are illustrated 

 by engravings ; the second being that which represents a 

 tree root-pruned, and of which, only, we annex a copy of the 

 drawing. The "en quenouille " system is just the same 

 as the pyramidal, with the exception of tieing down the 

 ends of the branches. The pyramidal form, from the less 

 care which it exacts from the cultivator, is that which will, 

 we expect, be more generally adopted than the en que- 

 nouille : — 



"After several years' experience, I feel more than ever 

 convinced of the utility of root-pruning of fruit trees when 

 cultivated in gardens, and more particularly when applied 

 to pears, which in our moist climate, and in rich and moist 

 soils, are apt to grow so vigorously that no fruit is produced 

 till many years after planting. There are seven eligible 

 modes of cultivating pears in gardens, viz., as espahers 

 trained to stakes : espaliers trained to walls; trees pruned 

 so as to form more or less of a cone : pyramidal trees, for 

 which see figure No. 2 [our fig. 9] ; as quenouilles. in 

 which the ends of the branches should be brought down 

 and fastened to the stem by ligatures of copper wire : dwarf 

 bushes, and as half standards : the two latter should have 



