PYRUS. 



its ftead ; likewife, where any branch, through age or any 

 other defeft, is bi'come barren, it fliould be retrenched, and 

 feme eligible lower young branch, or Ihoot, be laid in its 

 place. 



Where any of the choicer forts of thefe trees are become 

 worn-out and barren, they (liould be renewed with young 

 bearers, by heading the branches wliolly down near the 

 bottom in winter or fpring, when they break out in the old 

 wood, and in the following fummer furnifli a large fupply of 

 ftrong young (hoots, which (hould b- trained according to 

 the rules already laid dftwn, when they will foon form a 

 fort of new tree, and bear good fruit. After each winter 

 pruning, the trees which are againlt walls and elpaliers re- 

 quire a general nailing, &c. which ftiould always be done 

 with great regularity. See Wall-TVci-j, and Espalier- 

 Trees. 



The mode of training dwarf ftandard-trees of this fort 

 is fhewn in fpeaking of trees of that kind. See DwARF- 

 Trees. 



In refpeft to the culture of the borders where this fort of 

 wall or efpalier-trees are growing, it is commonly digging 

 them once more every year, adduig manure occaiionally in 

 common with the other parts of the garden ; but if fome 

 good rotten dung be applied every other year, and the ground 

 well dug or trenched every winter, it greatly promotes the 

 fize and perfedion of the fruit. In regard to ilandard-trees 

 of this kind, any of the forts bear plentifully in any open 

 fituation, though the fruit may not always be fo large and 

 fine as thofe of wall and efpalier-trees : fummer and autumn 

 pears, however, ripen in great perfeftion on ftandards, as 

 alfo mofl of the common winter pears. In planting them, 

 trees of from two or three to four or five years old, having 

 tolerable heads, are of a proper age andfize for the purpofe, 

 and are preferable to older trees for any general plantation. 

 They Ihould be planted with all their heads entire, except 

 retrenching any very irregular-placed branch, in the ufual 

 manner of tree-planting. See Planting. 



In their future growth they fhould be fuffered to branch 

 naturally, fo as to form large branchy heads, fuffering them 

 all to remain entire. The general culture of this fort of 

 trees, in refpeft to pruning, is very trifling, and only required 

 occaiionally, probably only once in feveral years ; fuch as 

 the retrenching any irregular growing branches, and thinning 

 fuch branches as are very much crowded, cutting out all the 

 decayed wood, and eradicating fuckers from the roots and 

 ftems. See Pruning. 



When llandard-trees are fituated in a garden, in which the 

 ground is neceilarily dug over and trenched annually for the 

 reception of the under crops, and occafioually enriched with 

 dung, they generally produce finer fruit than in orchards, 

 or other places where the ground is not in fimilar culture. 



Mr. Forfyth obferves, that the method of pruning pear- 

 trees is very different from that praftifed for apple-trees in 

 general, in which the conltant praftice has been to leave 

 great fpurs as big as a man's arm, (landing out from the 

 walls, from one foot to eighteen inches and upwards. The 

 conftant pruning inevitably brings on the canker ; and by 

 the fpurs llanding out fo far from the wall, the bloffom and fruit 

 are liable to be much injured by the froft and blighting 

 winds, and thus the fap will not have a free circulation all 

 over the tree. The fap will always find its way firft to the 

 extremities of the (hoots ; and the fpurs will only receive it 

 in a fmall proportion, as it returns from the ends of the 

 branches ; and the fruit (landing at fo great a diilance from 

 the wall is too much expofed to the weather, and, of courfe, 

 is liable to be hard, fpotted, and kernelly. 



The following method he has praftifed where the trees 



were all over cankered, and the fruit fmall, and not fit to 

 be fent to the table. He cut the tops off as Hear as poflible 

 to where they were grafted, always obferving to cut as clofe 

 to a joint or bud as polFible. The buds are hardly percep- 

 tible, but it can always be known where the joints, or forks, 

 arc, by the branches breaking out of the fides. He adds . 

 that finding the pear-trees in Kenfington gardens in a very 

 cankery and unfruitful (late in the years 1784 and 1785, 

 he took out the old mould from the borders againll the walls, 

 and put in frefh loam in its (lead ; at the fame time he 

 pruned and nailed the trees in the common way, and left 

 them in that (late upwards of eighteen months, to fee what 

 effeft the frc(h mould would have on them ; but to his great 

 furprife he found that it had no effeft. After this tn3j he 

 began to confider what (hould be done in order to recover 

 thefe old trees. In this attempt he began with cutting down 

 four old and decayed pear-trees of different kinds, near to the 

 place where they had been grafted : this operation was per- 

 formed on the 15th of May, 1786. Finding that they put 

 forth fine (hoots, he headed down four more on the 20th of 

 June in the fame year (for by this time the former had l)ioots 

 of a foot long), which did equally well, and bore fome 

 fruit in the following year. One of the firft four he headed 

 down was a St. Germain, which produced nineteen fine large 

 well-flavoured pears next year, and in the third bore more 

 fruit than it did in its former (late when it was four times 

 the fize. He left fevcii trees upon an eail wall, treated ac- 

 cording to the common method of pruning, which bore the 

 following number of pears upon each tree. Epine d'hyver 

 produced eighty-fix pears, and the tree fprcad fifteen yards ; 

 a crafane produced one hundred pears, and the tree fpread 

 fourteen yards ; another crafane produced fixteen pears, and 

 the tree fpread ten yards ; a virgouleufe produced one hundred 

 and fifty pears, and the tree fpread nine yards ; a colmar 

 produced one hundred and fifty pears, and the tree fpread 

 nine yards ; another colmar produced feventy-nine pears, 

 and the tree fpread ten yards ; a I'efchallerie produced fixty 

 pears. 



But feven trees headed down and pruned according to his 

 own method, leaving the fore-right fhoots in fummer, bore 

 as follows, in the fourth year after heading : a Louifbonne 

 bore four hundred and fixty-three pears, and the tree fpread 

 nine yards ; another Louifbonne bore three hundred and 

 ninety-one pears, and fpread eight yards ; a colmar bore two 

 hundred and thirteen pears, and fpread fix yards ; a brown 

 beurre bore five hundred and three pears ; another brov.n 

 beurre bore five hundred and fifty pears ; a crafane bore five 

 hundred and twenty pears ; a virgouleufe bore five hundred 

 and eighty pears. And he adds, that the branches of the 

 four laft trees fpread nearly in the fame proportion as the 

 firft three. He alfo ftates that a young beurre, the fecond 

 year after heading, bore two hundred and thirty pears ; and 

 a St. Germain four hundred. All the above trees flood in 

 the fame afpeft and the fame wall, and the fruit was numbered 

 in the fame year. A great many pears which dropped fi-om 

 the trees are not reckoned. The trees that were pruned ac- 

 cording to the old praftice covered at leaft one-third more 

 wall than the other. 



From this ftatement it appears that the trees headed 

 down bore upwards of five times the quantity of fruit that 

 the others did ; and that it keeps increafing in proportion to 

 the progrefs of the trees. This is an important ftatement 

 in the culture and management of old trees of this fort ; 

 and the following fact with refpeA to ftandards is deferving 

 of great attention : On the 20th of June he headed feveral 

 ftandards that were almoft detlroyed by the canker ; fome 

 of them were fo loaded with fruit the following year, that he 



was 



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