Culture of Pear Trees. 53 



Art. XIII. Remarks on the Culture of Pear Trees. By Mr. Ber- 

 nard Saunders, Nurseryman, Island of Jersey. 



Sir, 

 In Vol. V. p. 60. of your useful Magazine, Mr. Robert 

 Hiver has made some excellent remarks on the cultivation of 

 the pear tree. I perfectly coincide with him in many of his 

 remarks, and I am of opinion that the length of time pear 

 trees in general are before they begin to produce, either from 

 bad pruning or the over-manured borders, has prevented 

 many gentlemen and amateurs of this much esteemed fruit 

 from cultivating it more extensively : but I have found from 

 practice that there are many exceptions to the plan laid down 

 by him ; for instance, it is almost impossible to lay down a 

 general rule for the management and pruning of pear trees. 

 The varieties of pears require various modes of pruning. Some 

 sorts seldom or never make large trees, from their great 

 inclination to fruit, which, in spite of the knife, you can 

 scarcely prevent : others, again, will produce abundance of 

 wood for some years, and no fruit, although left entirely to 

 nature : others produce fruit on their last year's wood, like a 

 peach : others have a blossom bud at the extremity of every 

 young shoot ; so that, if shortened, it destroys the fruit, and 

 if not shortened, it tends to stop the growth of the tree, and 

 prevents it from filling the space of wall allotted to it. The 

 object gardeners have generally in view is first to make fine, 

 handsome, well trained trees, either in the fan or horizontal 

 form. To attain this object, the knife must be very judiciously 

 used for a few years, without paying much regard to the 

 quantity of fruit produced. I agree with Mr. Hiver in his 

 comparison of the common thorn with the pear ; and in some 

 degree it is applicable where fine handsome trained trees are 

 not desired. I know from experience that many sorts of pear 

 trees left to nature only two or three years will bloom and 

 fruit ; but such will seldom or never make handsome trees, 

 unless previously formed and trained as I have above stated. 

 It would be a very desirable object, and very gratifying to me, 

 and I have no doubt, Sir, to many of your readers, if Mr. 

 Hiver would condescend, in your next Number, to give us a 

 few more particulars, such as the names of his pears, the age 

 of his trees, and how they were treated in the first stages of 

 their growth ; and I shall feel a pleasure, in return, to send 

 you a few more remarks on the sort of stocks employed for 

 pears, so as to render them productive in deep rich soil, and 

 to obviate the necessity of applying stones, as Mr. Hiver has 

 suggested, 



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