ROOT-PEUNING OF FEUIT TEEES 61 



rotten manure is the best dressing for the roots, and 

 also for the surface. 



PLANTING AND AFTER MANAGEMENT 



Pyramidal pear trees of from three to five years old 

 on the quince stock, root-pruned, and full of blossom- 

 buds, may be purchased. Trees of this description 

 should, if possible, be planted before Christmas ; but if 

 the soil be very tenacious, the holes may be opened in 

 the autumn, and the trees planted in February; the 

 soil will be mellowed and benefited by the frosts of 

 winter.^ 



Pear trees grafted on the quince stock offer a 

 curious anomaly; for if they are removed quite late 

 in spring — say towards the end of March, when their 

 blossom-buds are just on the point of bursting — ^they 

 will bear a fine, and often an abundant, crop of fruit. 

 This is sometimes owing to the blossoms being retarded, 

 and thus escaping the spring frosts ; but it has so often 

 occurred here when no frosts have visited us that I 



' The roots of pear trees on the quince stock, and, indeed, of all 

 root-pruned trees, are very fibrous. In planting, it is good practice 

 to give each tree two shovelfuls of fine earth or mould rather dry — 

 to place it on the roots and shake the tree, so that the mould is 

 mixed with the mass of fibrous roots. Before the soil is all filled in, 

 three or four gallons of water should be poured in, so as to wash the 

 earth into every crevice. The roots should not be crammed into a 

 smaJl hole. A tree with its roots eighteen inches in diameter will 

 require a hole 2J feet in diameter, and so on in proportion. 



