42 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 



tliick layer of concrete at bottom, to prevent the roots 

 striking downward ; or it would be good practice to 

 pliu'c, eighteen inches deep, under each tree, a flat 

 piece of stone, three feet in diameter — this would 

 force the roots to take a horizontal direction, and 

 facilitate the operation of root-pruning. 



For fine specimens of wall pear trees grafted on the 

 quince, I may refer to those on the west wall of the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society's Gardens at Cliiswick. 

 These are now about forty years old, and are pictures 

 of health and fertility, thus at once settling the ques- 

 tion respecting the early decay of pear trees grafted 

 on the quince; for it has been often — very often — 

 urged as an objection to the use of the quince stock, 

 that pears grafted on it arc, aUhough prolific, but very 

 short-lived. I have seen trees in France more than 

 fifty years old, and those above referred to may be 

 adduced to confute this error. 



PEAE TEEE8 TEAINED SmOLE AS VERTICAL COKDCiNS. 



The French gardeners have a C'urious yet interesting 

 mode of training pears on the quince stock, about 

 which a book was published in France a few years 

 since. The system, I have recently learnt from some 

 French cultivators, is now largely practiced in the 

 south of France with the peach apricot. It is culled 

 training "en fuseau," or distaff training ; and is the 

 inosl simple of all modes. A young tree, one year 

 old from the bud, is planted, and every side shoot, as 

 soon as it lias made lour leaves, has its top pinched ofl", 

 leaving three. Tliis is the tirst pinching early in 

 June These pinched shoots all put forth young 



