CHAPTER XI. 



Pyramidal Training. 



[S the amateur reader may wish to know something more 

 of the details of training, and as the French amateur so 

 far excels in the cultivation of pyramidal pears as to have 

 in his garden numerous specimens of which the best English 

 gardener might be proud, I here give the detailed mode of forming 

 these beautiful trees, according to the leading French professor, Du 

 Breuil, in the hope that many British amateurs may be induced to 

 attempt a culture which, while very profitable in all but the more 

 unfavourable and northern parts of these islands, is, considered from 

 the stand-point of beauty alone, as desirable as any with which 

 amateurs interest themselves. I have seen pyramidal pear trees in 

 the gardens of even very humble French amateurs, which, if they 

 never afforded a fruit, were beautiful objects j and I have met with 

 few " avenues" that afforded me more pleasure than a short one of 

 pyramid pear-trees leading up through a little town garden within 

 the walls of Paris. 



We will begin, then, with the fully formed pyramid, and in ad- 

 dition to its symmetry will be observed the straight "clean" growth 

 of each branch, springing at regular intervals from the main stem, 

 which is so erect and well furnished. 



From the summit to the base, they say, such a tree ought to be 

 garnished with nothing but branches well set with fruit spurs. The 

 greatest breadth of the pyramid should equal about one-third of its 



