HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 11 



i 



which we could experiment. They did not do it, nor could they, because 

 the minds of that day were not turned towards that kind of observations. 

 But why do not wc, whom scientific questions interest to so high a degree, 

 prepare this experiment for our descendants ? This will be an act of fore- 

 sight for which they will thank us, and who knows ? perhaps which will be 

 a means of transmitting our names to the most distant generations. But 

 the age is so selfish, so strongly preoccupied with the enjoyment of the pre- 

 sent, that we scarcely hope to see it seize upon our idea to put it in execution. 



Naudin. 



On Pruning and Winter Dressing of Pear Trees. 



I again intrude upon your pages to call the attention of amateur fruit- 

 growers to the absolute necessity of winter pruning of fruit trees. I do not 

 mean by this to direct them, executioner-like, with saw and axe to amputate 

 and decapitate right and left, without heed or hindrance ; no, sir, I do not 

 call that pruning — I call it murder in the first degree. 



If you wish to renovate old trees and graft or bud them again with finer or 

 newer fruits, begin on the trunk and scrape off the old rough bark, with a 

 scraper, draw knife, or even a piece of an old scythe to which two wooden 

 handles have been adapted — that can readily be done on the spot. Having 

 cleaned the trunk, thin out nearly all the thin spray or small wood and clean 

 the main branches with a large knife. After this dressing the tree will look 

 very much denuded indeed, but the result will compensate for the labor, and 

 in a more rapid degree, if the soil has been stirred up by the plough, spade, 

 or fork, and the whole thoroughly incorporated with three or four inches of 

 good barn-yard manure, or two bushels of leached ashes to each tree. The 

 following season the bark of the tree will be smooth and green, the young 

 shoots from one to four feet long, and the whole tree entirely covered with a 

 luxuriant verdure. During the month of July, the weakest of these shoots 

 must be thinned out, the strongest left for fruiting, budding or grafting upon, 

 to produce finer fruits. To some minds this may appear a tedious process, 

 but to those who have tried it, and now reap the fruits thereof, it is a joyous 

 one. Let the sceptic try one tree only, and you may predict the result. 



Having in a former number directed your attention to the summer pruning 

 of dwarf pear trees, you. will permit me to suggest the equal propriety to 

 their winter management. It is my usual practice to give my dwarf pear 

 trees a good dressing with short manure every winter, and fork it in amongst 

 their roots early in spring ; and where I do not wish to crop amongst the 



