118 GARDENING FoR ALL. 
A few words here upon root-pruning or root-lifting will 
not be out of place, because pear trees usually require the 
operation as much and as often as other fruit trees. The 
advantages of careful root-pruning are five-fold: it induces 
fruitfulness ; improves the flavour of the fruit; is preventive 
of canker and gumming to a great extent; prevents the 
formation of gross and worthless shoots; and reduces the 
labour of branch-pruning. 
In commencing to lift or prune the roots of a fruit tree 
we must proceed in every way as though we were about to 
transplant it to another position, taking the same care of all 
the roots as we would in actually transplanting it. Proceed 
by digging a trench about two feet deep and nearly as far from 
the stem as will be 
equal to the radius or 
length ofthe branches. 
Let the trench be 
eighteen to twenty- 
four inches wide. It 
must be clearly 
understood that the 
larger the tree is, the 
Roots exposed. greater is the necessi- 
: ty for opening a larger 
trench at a proportionately greater distance from the stem ; 
this is for the convenience of having room to move about 
when the operator has to descend into the trench for the 
purpose of working more carefully among the roots, and to 
get at any tap-roots or anchor-roots that descend nearly 
perpendicularly from below the ball of soil and near the stem 
of the tree. 
LEVEE 
Gradually remove, with a fork, the soil from among the 
roots all round the tree, and keep carefully working towards 
the stem until nearly all the roots have been found. In some 
cases further digging and forking is unnecessary, but frequently 
it is advisable to tie the roots carefully into small bundles as 
the work proceeds, and occasionally to tie them upwards to 
the stem or branches, in order that they may be more out of 
harm’s way and leave more freedom for working. 
