62 



THE ORCHABD AJfD FEIJIT GAEDEN. 



They stould be bow, as left by good pruning of the 

 year before, compact, shorn of all redundant and 

 mischievous growth, and well supplied with fruit-spurs. 

 No cutting back must be resorted to until the fruit is 

 set and swelling. At this stage all that the watchful 

 cultivator can do is to ward off destruction from the 

 blossom and the tender fruit, by giving safe protection, 

 if possible, from frost and storms, and hunting and 

 destroying weevils and chrysalises hidden away in the 

 bark or elsewhere. The earliest process to be resorted 

 to in the way of pruning, is to rub off the buds which 

 are likely to produce superabundant and crowded 

 shoots. With wall trees, all buds that are likely to 

 produce shoots growing outwards are to be rubbed off. 

 This may be done in May. As soon as the buds swell, 

 the leaf-buds and the flower-buds may be distinguished, 

 not only by their situation, but from the leaf-buds being 

 longer made and less plump than the bloom-buds. In 

 June, begin pinching back all the little side-shoots. 

 "When they have made six or eight leaves, pinch them 

 back to four leaves, and if the spurs put out young 

 shoots again, pinch them back to one leaf only, always 

 remembering to leave the leading side and top shoots 

 to grow and draw up the sap until the end of summer, 

 as recommended in the chapter on pruning. Continue 

 this pinching back of small shoots throughout the 

 summer, and cut back the leading shoots, until now left 

 growing, about the end of August. 



Pear trees intended to grow up into tall standards 

 should have a straight, healthy stem, dividing at the 

 top into four well-placed shoots of about equal strength, 

 to form afterwards the leading branches ; and the stem 

 should be kept upright with a good firm stake, that it 

 may grow into a straight trunk. In after years, as the 

 head grows large, the branches must be thinned out, so 

 that no one can interfere with another. 



For wall or espalier training, little trees should have 

 one stem, with side branches on two sides, and the front 

 and back shoots should be cleanly pruned away. One 

 shoot on each side will do : two on each side are better, ^ 



