PEARS. 



119 



origin. Buds for spurs may have commenced 

 to grow during the summer from the base of 

 the preceding summer's shoot below c; if not, 

 one or two will probably appear in the follow- 

 ing summer. At the same time a bud or buds 

 of this description may also form on the base 

 of the younger shoot, at a point below i; but 

 more likely a shoot will start if the tree is 

 young and vigorous; and if so it must be 

 managed like its predecessor. 



Fig. 918 represents a shoot which has been 

 stopped at a, the terminal eye has produced 

 a shoot, b, which was 

 pinched; this pinching 

 has caused the develop- 

 ment of the spurs e and 

 /, and also the small 

 branch d, which bears a 

 fruit-bud, and the bud c, 

 which should be stopped 

 in August, in order to 

 concentrate the sap on 

 the buds at the lower 

 part of the shoot. Should 

 the upper portion of 

 the shoot prove weak, 

 then it would be ad- 

 visable to cut it back 



If any branch is 

 weaker than the rest 

 the summer shoots upon 

 it, or at least a consider- 

 able portion of them, 

 should be allowed to 

 grow without stopping 

 till September, when a 

 few inches may be cut 

 off from the extremity 

 of each. If the whole 

 tree is weak the shoots 

 on all the branches should be treated in a 

 similar manner. In that case the summer 

 shoots ought to be cut back in winter to about 

 1 inch from their base. From the stubs left, 

 shoots will generally proceed in the following 

 season; part of them may be pinched, as in 

 fig. 917, at regular distances along the stem, 

 others may be allowed to grow till September, 

 when they may be stopped and cut back to 

 about 1 inch from their base as before. There 

 will then be about 1 inch long of the base of 

 the first year's shoot, now two years old, and 

 as much of the second year's shoot, which is 

 only one year old; from this a shoot may 

 be allowed to grow till September, when it 



Fig. 918.— Pinching and Spur- 

 pruning a vigorous Shoot. 



should be stopped; but instead of cutting it 

 back to 1 inch, it should be cut off entirely, 

 together with the former year's wood on which 

 it took its rise. By so doing, there will be 

 left a stub consisting of about 1 inch of wood, 

 now three years old, terminating in a portion 

 only two years old. On such portions fruit- 

 spurs will generally form. 



Espaliers will bear well if not so closely 

 pruned as above indicated, provided means 

 are taken to ensure an equal distribution of 

 the sap in all the branches. If this is neglected, 

 no system of management will ensure fruit in 

 that perfection which would be the case if 

 the above principle were duly carried out. The 

 means of doing so have been already fully ex- 

 plained in treating on pruning. Whether the 

 trees are worked upon the Pear stock or upon 

 the Quince they will generally soon become 

 fruitful, and continue healthy and productive 

 for a long period, if over-luxuriance in one 

 portion be prevented by timely checking, whilst 

 more than an average liberty is allowed the 

 weaker portions till the balance is re-estab- 

 lished. 



Cordon Training. — Trained as a single lateral 

 or bilateral cordon (fig. 919), the Pear does 

 not usually succeed so well as the Apple, but 

 this mode of culture is interesting, and a 

 few trees may be tried. They will not form 

 fruiting spurs so freely as the Apple, so that 

 free-bearing sorts, of which Louise Bonne of 

 Jersey is the type, should be selected; worked 

 on the Quince stock this variety of Pear is 

 adapted for all forms of training, and produces 

 finer fruit than it does on the Pear stock. For 

 all varieties of Pears that succeed on the Quince 

 it is the best stock to employ for trees intended 

 to be trained as cordons. Trees of this descrip- 

 tion are also useful for filling vacant spaces 

 at the base of walls, but they will do no good 

 amongst old trees unless the ground is prepared 

 for them. The old exhausted material should 

 be entirely removed and the roots placed in 

 turfy loam; indeed this is the best medium 

 for the roots of all fresh -planted fruit-trees 

 when the natural soil is unsuitable. 



Training and summer treatment may be 

 summed up in a few words. Always bear in 

 mind that the less pruning necessary in winter 

 the sooner will the trees come into bearing, 

 and the more fruitful will they be. The ex- 

 perienced cultivator studies the habit of his 

 trees, and his future proceedings are regulated 

 by the variety he has in hand. Whatever 

 form of cordon is intended — be it horizontal, 



