Transactions of the Horticultural Society. 1 75 



feed upon his garlic and shallots. Like our correspondent 

 Mr. Rose (Gard. Mag., vol. ii. p. 274.), Mr. Hildyard sows in 

 drills eight inches apart, and thins the plants and stirs the 

 ground three or four inches deep twice or thrice during their 

 growth. 



The Rotting of the Jargonelle, Longueville, Windsor, Green 

 Yair, and such like Pears, Sir George Mackenzie finds is re- 

 tarded by gathering them before they are ripe. 



A very full Crop of Pears was obtained by the Rev. John 

 Fisher, of Wavendon in Buckinghamshire, from trees which 

 before had not borne at all, by twisting and breaking down 

 the young shoots (fg. 51.) late in the autumn, when the wood 



had become tough, and after the sap had retreated. Mr. Fisher 

 found this practice succeed with branches on which ringing 

 had been tried without success, and states that the pendent 

 branches continue perfectly healthy, which gives the plan 

 some apparent advantage over ringing. Of course, breaking 

 and twisting shoots or branches with a view to the production 

 of blossom buds, when performed after the sap has retreated, 

 will not be attended with the desired result till the second suc- 

 ceeding spring. A plan which from theory we should prefer 

 is, tying down the young shoots in a completely pendent 

 direction about or soon after midsummer; and this plan has 

 the additional advantage of being applicable to standard trees, 

 which the breaking and twisting mode can hardly be, unless 

 in very sheltered situations. No artificial plan of inducing 

 fruitfulness, however, not even ringing, is worth much, with a 

 view to general adoption ; but it is well to know what may be 

 resorted to in cases of difficulty. 



