116 The Cultivation of the Pear. 



Mr. Walker. Some remarks had been made relative to 

 heading in forest trees ; he should confine his to the pear. 

 He had removed many trees ; he had taken them up in April 

 or May and cut them in. — and had taken up others and not 

 headed them in; those not pruned were much the best trees 

 the end of the second year. His opinion was that a good 

 tree should not be pruned the first year. It then had time 

 to recover itself; and properly headed in the second spring. 

 it made vigorous branches and a good top. Imported trees 

 he thought it would be* best to prune when set out. He 

 quite agreed with Mr. Hovey ; his whole experience quite 

 concurred with his. 



Mr. Strong wished to ask if stunted trees were injured 

 by cutting open the bark, — that is, scoring them. He had a 

 lot of about four hundred, part of Avhich he scored, and the 

 others he did not ; those not cut he thought looked much 

 the best now. 



Mr. Hovey wished to ask the reason why trees were 

 scored. It was his rule never to do anything without a 

 reason for it. He had never seen a satisfactory one why 

 trees should be scored. 



Mr. Walker did not think trees Avere benefited by cutting 

 open the bark ; he should just as soon think of scoring the 

 skin of his children to regain their health, if sick, as scoring 

 the bark of trees to invigorate their growth. His practice 

 was, when trees were stunted or bark bound, to head them 

 back, — say in May ; they will then throw out one or more 

 young shoots or suckers, which will often grow, from just 

 above the graft, as high as the old tree in a season : all these 

 he allowed to remain and grow till midsummer of the second 

 year, when he cut off the old stock close to the sucker, 

 which invariably formed a handsome tree. 



The question was asked, why the sucker should grow so 

 much better than the old tree, when the latter had more 

 leaves? Ilis opinion was that the sap vessels Avere small, 

 and did not permit the flow of sap, while the young shoot 

 was full of vigor, — just as the blood in youth was always 

 more vigorous in its flow than in age. 



