354 Root-Pruning the Pear and other Fruit Trees. 



result. I have never seen a tree so treated that has not been 

 covered with fruit buds in the autumn, and when a favora- 

 ble spring followed, an abundant crop has been invariably 

 obtained, while, by November pruning, the grossness of the 

 following season only is checked; and in the summer which 

 intervenes between the period of root-pruning and the time 

 when the fruit may be expected, the trees not iinfrequently 

 recover their over-luxuriance, especially in rich soil or moist 

 situations. As a matter of course, this process is unneces- 

 sary with trees in a bearing state ; but those with only a 

 partial crop, and which are growing too freely, may be 

 moderately root-pruned, without danger of the fruit suffer- 

 ing, taking care not to neglect giving a good soaking of 

 water immediately after the operation. 



It is certainly a great triumph in the art of gardening, to 

 be able to bring pear and apple trees into a bearing state 

 while they are young, and only two or three feet in height ; 

 and it also affords satisfaction to purchasers to ascertain, 

 (often in the first year after planting,) if the trees they are 

 to be at some pains with are the kinds they wished for ; but 

 in order to give them a stronger constitution than trees can 

 have which are constantly kept in a dwarfed state, we are 

 of opinion that it will be found better to allow them to 

 grow pretty freely for a few years, after they are planted 

 in their permanent situations, and then summer root-prune 

 them. 



AVe confess that we often envy the position of those who 

 are situated where fruit trees ripen their wood, and bear, 

 with scarcely any assistance in the way of root-pruning. In 

 such situations the grower has only to order his trees already 

 in a bearing state, as supplied by our leading nurserymen, 

 and he will secure plenty of the finest fruit from the season 

 in which they are planted, instead of having as formerly to 

 wait for years. Some trees planted by ourselves in Febru- 

 ary, 1849, have this year made shoots from three to four 

 feet in length ; and some pyramidal trellises five feet high 

 and three feet wide at the base are becoming pretty well 

 covered with wood. These trees we shall root-prune in a 



