Rool-Prunins: the Pear and other Fruit Trees. 



'to 



scarcely yet perceptible. This is partly the result of fre- 

 quent root-pruning and removal, with the view of inducing 

 fruitfulness ; and fruitful they are, for we have had no fewer 

 than a dozen fine peai-s upon a small tree, the first year after 

 planting. But it is a question whether cutting the roots in 

 winter is the safest time for the operation ; for if much rain 

 happens to fall, and the soil becomes sodden, the newly 

 cut parts may, and often do, suffer injury. The practice of 

 cutting the roots yearly while the tree is young, and before 

 it has attained the size desired by the owner, tends, on the 

 one hand, to cripple its energies, and make it old when it is 

 yet young ; while the extremely fruitful habit of the trees, 

 as now sent out, is incompatible with that quick growth 

 which we all like to see in trees intended to be trained to a 

 particular form and size, and kept to that, when it is once 

 attained, by judicious root-pruning. 



The new owners are, of course, delighted on receiving 

 such trees from the nursery, and are soon busy in placing 

 them in their stations in the garden. The trees are planted, 

 tstaked, s.nd mulched, and in dry weather, during the first 

 spring, well watered. All this is perfectly right ; for al- 

 though the young trees are interesting to look at in their 

 -dwarfed state, most people prefer having them of a larger 

 size as soon as possible ; and trained either into a handsome 

 pyramidal form, from 4 to 6 feet high, well furnished with 

 shoots from the base to the top, or it may be into a cylin- 

 drical or an umbrella shape according to fancy. In order to 

 cause them to attain the form and size desired in the short- 

 est possible time, good soil, and careful management as to 

 mulching and watering, with frequent stopping and training 

 for a few years, are indispensable. But during this time the 

 plants in most soils lose that short-jointed and fruitful habit 

 which the skilful nurseryman had been at such pains to give 

 them, and acquire what may be termed a rampant habit of 

 growth, notwithstanding that the depth of soil in which 

 they are planted has been limited to a foot or 18 inches, and 

 rests upon an impervious bottom of rubble and concrete to 

 prevent their roots from going too deep. 



