Chap. XVIII.] 



THE PEAR AS A CORDON. 



297 



wall, by any means, a necessity for the successful culture of cordon 

 Pears in the south and west of England. As to the pruning, my 

 late gardener writes as follows : ' My experience in pinching has 

 never been what I was led to expect ; never, but in one solitary 

 instance, have I found the fruit-bud to be the result of that 

 practice, and even that one being so far from home, so to speak. 



,■•■8 



'^l 



OUique Cordon Pear, v-d year. B is the fosiimi ■which tlie tree will eventmlly occupy. 



would have to be cut off in order to keep the spur short. But that 

 was not all, for I have found that what was once a decided fruit- 

 bud would lengthen and grow into wood before the growing season 

 closed.' I myself certainly think that the pinching cannot be 

 carried out in our climate to the same extent as in France. [Close 

 pinching is a bad English practice— not a French one. In France 

 I never saw fruit-trees pinched in very close.— W. E.] 



The 



