PEAE-TEEE HEDGE 53 



lime, it will be in all respects equal to virgin soil. 

 Care must be taken to make the trellis trench firm and 

 solid, as the roots of trees dislike a loose soil. 



I may here suggest that prisoners could make pro- 

 tecting mats for fruit trees at a cheap rate. These may 

 be light, strong, and durable. The material of which 

 they are made will be thick enough to prevent damage 

 from the severe frosts in April and May, months when 

 the blossoms or the young fruit suffer most. 



PEAE-TEEE HEDGE 



A FEW years since, when visiting a friend at Pontenay- 

 aux-Eoses, near Paris, I was much struck with a hedge 

 formed of pear-trees on the quince stock. He smiled 

 when he told me his method of cultivation and pruning, 

 the latter being simply clipping his hedge in July with 

 the garden shears,' and thinniag out the spurs in 

 winter when they become crowded. When my friend 

 paid me a visit, I inquired, with some interest, about his 

 pear-tree hedge. He assured me that it was perfectly 

 healthy, and generally gave him large crops of fruit. 

 The sorts proper to form a hedge are Louise Bonne of 

 Jersey, BeurrS d'Amanlis, Beurre Hardy, Conseiller de 

 la Oour, Beurre d'Aremberg, Beurre Superfin, and 



» An English cultivator would employ pruning scissors to 

 shorten the shoots, and thus make his hedge look as if cared for. 



