12 THE FLORIST AND 



trees. I allow it to remain on the surface, not afraid of all the ammonia es-r 

 caping to the clouds. In pruning my pear trees, on which I pride myself^ 

 after having heard the opinion of one of the best pomologists as to their be- 

 ing the finest looking pear trees he had ever seen for so short a period, (six 

 years,) many being ten feet high and eight feet diameter in the head, and 

 have produced from half to one-and-a-half bushels per tree. During the win-' 

 ter months I shorten every shoot, leaving only from three to six inches of 

 the previous summer's growth; on some of the young shoots left previous to 

 the June dressing, I find fruit buds; had these shoots not been nipped in 

 June they would not have had fruit buds upon them. Wherever the old 

 spurs or wood has a tendency to crowd the centre of the tree, I cut it out — - 

 always leaving it thin and free for circulation of air and the maturing of fruit. 

 The only implement used is a good pruning knife, the tree is |left with the 

 head either conical or rounded, to suit the fancy of the operator, or the dis- 

 position of the tree ; not one branch, bud or twig touches another, all is free* 

 and open. This practice applies only to pears on the quince stock. The 

 roots of the quince are always near the surface, and require great nourish- 

 ment where they are planted so close as ten or twelve feet. Trees on the 

 pear stock have a great tendency to wood in their first ten years' growth, 

 which has caused the prevalence of the idea that pear trees have to be a cer- 

 tain age before they produce fruit. This arises from the disposition of the* 

 roots in nearly all soils to go downwards, and produce what is technically call- 

 ed tap roots. To cause such trees to become fruitful and regular bearers? 

 dig a hole eighteen inches or two feet deep, and about as far from the bole or 

 stem of the tree; have a good sharp steel spade, and cut through all those 

 perpendicular roots, which has an electrical effect on the fruitfulness of the 

 tree. When the roots are thus cut give the head a thinning out, and shorten 

 all the long straggling shoots, give the ground a good top dressing of com- 

 post, old manure, coal ashes, leached ashes, or any enriching material, to 

 draw the roots to the surface and induce them to fibre. The downward ten- 

 dency of pear roots into the cold soil predisposes the trees to summer blight 

 and exuberance of unfruitful wood. It will not be>many years before the 

 Pear, when grown on its own stock, will have a triennial root-pruning, or in 

 other words, digging a trench round the roots of the tree and filling it up 

 with good rich compost ; this trench extending its circumference every three 

 years. Purchasers will also be convinced that it will be to their interest to 

 select from nurseries trees that have been removed two years previous, even 

 at a much enhanced price. Under the present system of nursery culture? 

 we purchase trees with long, raw sapling shoots and short, carroty roots, re- 

 quiring two years' careful culture before they recover the shock to their sys- 

 tem by strangulation ;^and even if the careful vender search to the extremity 



