254 Pruning the Pear. 
As with other fruit trees, the pear must be studied and 
pruning must be done with an understanding of the habit of the 
variety under treatment. Irregular and wayward growers, 
which, in windy places, also have their rambling disposition 
promoted by prevailing winds, often give the grower much per- 
plexity. .The general rules of cutting to an outside bud to 
spread the tree, to an inside bud to raise and concentrate it, and 
to an outside bud one year and an inside bud the next, if a limb 
is desired to continue in a certain course, are all helpful to the 
pruner. But with some pears, of which the Winter Nelis is a 
conspicuous example, it is exceedingly hard to shape the tree 
by these general rules, and some growers abandon all rules, 
merely shortening in where too great extension is seen, or to 
facilitate cultivation, and trust to shaping the tree when it shall 
have finished its rampant growing period. It will be interest- 
ing to cite a few methods of California pear growers:— 
“The Winter Nelis pear is an uncouth grower. Let the trees alone 
until they have borne a good, heavy crop, and the limbs come down and 
spread out nicely; this will occur in five or six years after setting. This 
will give you an idea what you want to do with the balance of the top that 
is not borne down with fruit. My plan is to cutstraggling branches, thin out 
so that the branches will not wind around each otner, but don’t cut the top, 
for you will find that the more you cut the more wood you get, and after 
the tree comes into full bearing is plenty time to head back.’’—A4. Cadwell, 
Petaluma. 
“Our orchard is not in a very windy place, but still it is windy enough 
to throw our Nelis trees out of form. To get any regularity of shape, we 
cut off every year all the shoots growing low down on the leeward side, 
shortening in what are left as occasion may require, to an inside bud. On 
the windward side we rarely cut any branch out, but shorten in a little 
to an outside bud, frequently being obliged to cut back a strong shoot to a 
lateral which is growing outward.’’—Leonard Coates, Napa. 
“Itis hard to get a misshapen Winter Nelis tree into shape. Let the 
grower take his shears and go around the tree and examine the difficulty 
until he is conversant with it, and then commence to prune, not too heavily 
though. Cut the limbs that lean too far ‘leewards’ back a little with an in- 
side bud, and train all future limbs toward the weather side of the tree; cut 
the limbs this year so the coming buds will form limbs growing in the 
direction of the weather side of the tree. But use moderation and take your 
time for it, and don’t cut too many big limbs off three-year-old trees—none, 
in fact, ifit can be helped. In bringing limbs to proper place, I have found 
a piece of corn-stalk the required length for the intended place, inserted 
endwise between the limb and the bedy of the tree to be spread, to be a 
very good brace, easily made, and not likely to injure the tree.’— 7. EZ. Owen, 
Santa Cruz. 
These methods will suggest others by which one can bring 
the most irregular grower into shape. If the tree is cut at 
planting so as to form the head low, it may be safely left until 
bearing age for shaping. The tree naturally makes a viny 
growth of young wood, and the object of leaving it alone is 
that one limb holds the other more upright until the main limbs 
