PEAR-TREE. 



243 



mer case, the stem of the quince must be employed ; and 

 in the latter, that of the common pear, and without any 

 material difference in the operation, excepting that ' the 

 feebler the stem, the nearer to the earth should be placed 

 the scion or the bud.' 



" Notwithstanding the hardiness ascribed to the pear- 

 tree, we know not any of the kernel class more readily or 

 sensibly affected than it by particular conditions of the at- 

 mosphere. A moist and cold spring, a wet summer, and 

 a rainy autumn, are alike unpropitious to it. In either of 

 these cases, the fruit which does not rot is w^atery and 

 tasteless ; and when all take place, the evil extends to even 

 a second year; as, according to the observations of Cour- 

 sette, ' long continued moisture rarely fails to convert fruit 

 buds into wood buds.' 



" The second year after budding or grafting, the plants 

 may be removed to the places where it is intended they 

 shall stand ; and as the manner and time of doing this do 

 not differ from those prescribed for the apple-tree, we may 

 spare ourselves and our readers the trouble of a repetition 

 of our directions on those heads. 



With respect to exposition and soil, though the pear- 

 tree may be made to grow any where, still it will succeed 

 badly on the north sides of hills, or in stiff, dry soils, and still 

 worse on those which rest on a wet sub-soil. Some of its 

 later and finer varieties require and deserve a deep substan- 

 tial loam, occasionally refreshed with a dressing of well rotted 

 dung, and some of the best aspects the garden can furnish. 



" Cultivated as standards and pyramids, the young trees 

 should be left, in a great degree, to regulate their ov/n 

 shape,^ and if interference become proper at all, it should 

 be conducted — 'to keep the middle of the head pretty 

 open, and the sides well balanced. '| Trees of other forms, 

 and intended for walls and espaliers, require more labour 

 and management, and a degree of both summer and winter 

 pruning : the former of which consists in rubbing off all 

 fore-right, ill placed, superfluous, or spongy shoots, before 

 they become so hard as to render the use of the knife 

 necessary ; while the latter (performed during any tem- 

 perate weather between November and April) is con- 



* Knight remarks, that, in general, very little pruning- is required for pear- 

 standards or p\Tamids ; but that there are sorts which form heads resembling 

 those of apple-trees, and that for these pruning- may be beneficial. 



t To produce a well balanced tree, shorten the wood of the deficient side, 

 and ieave the other to itself. 



