420 PEARS. 



be propagated upon the Quince, this stock having a 

 similar effect upon the Pear to that upon the Apple by 

 the Doucin stock, diminishing its vigour and increasing 

 its fertility. 



PRUNING AND TRAINING. 



Open Standards. 



There is not any particular management required for 

 standard Pears that is not applicable to the Apple, as 

 detailed under that head. The principal thing to be 

 attended to at first is to have the tree with a straight 

 healthy stem, and a head composed of four equally 

 strong well-placed shoots. 



All open standards should be staked as soon as 

 planted, to keep their stems straight, perfectly upright, 

 and to secure them against high winds. 



If the branches in the head are equal in strength, and 

 well placed, they will not require to be pruned back, but 

 must be allowed to grow at their full length, unless the 

 sort be one of a pendent growth ; in this case, more 

 than four shoots will be required, as this number gene- 

 rally bends downwards, and must be augmented by others 

 to form the upper part of the head. This is to be 

 effected by heading down the four shoots to six inches 

 at the end of the second year after the tree has been 

 planted, and when it has got a firm hold of the soil ; for 

 the greater its vigour at this time, the more upright wrtl 

 its young shoots be directed ; and, on the contrary, 

 young shoots from weak trees of this description are 

 chiefly pendent. 



As the heads become enlarged from year to year, 

 they must be looked over, to keep them thin of wood, 

 and to remove any branch which is likely, by its further 

 progress, to injure any of the others : the pendent 

 growers will require more attention paid to them in this 



