On the Culture of the Pear Tree. 



79 



consequently of no value ; so that it was necessary to change 

 the variety, as well as to render the tree productive. 



To attain these purposes, every branch which did not 

 want at least twenty degrees of being perpendicular, was 

 taken out at its base ; and the spurs upon every other branch, 

 which I intended to retain, were taken off closely with the 

 saw and chisel. Into these branches, at their subdivisions, 

 grafts were inserted at different distances from the root, and 

 some so near the extremities of the branches, that the tree 

 extended as widely in the autumn, after it was grafted, as it 

 did in the preceding year. The grafts were also so disposed, 

 that every part of the space the tree previously covered, was 

 equally well supplied with young wood. 



As soon, in the succeeding summer, as the young shoots 

 had attained sufficient length, they were trained almost per- 

 pendicularly downwards, between the larger branches, and 

 the wall, to which they were nailed. The most perpendicular 

 remaining branch upon each side, was grafted about four 

 feet below the top of the wall, which is twelve feet high ; 

 and the young shoots, which the grafts upon these afforded, 

 were trained inwards, and bent down to occupy the space 

 from which the old central branches had been taken away ; 

 and therefore very little vacant space any where remained in 

 the end of the first autumn. A few blossoms, but not any 

 fruit, were produced by several of the grafts in the succeeding 

 spring ; but in the following year, and subsequently, I have 

 had abundant crops, equally dispersed over every part of the 

 tree ; and I have scarcely ever seen such an exuberance of 

 blossom as this tree presents in the present spring. Grafts of 

 eight different kinds of Pears had been inserted, and all 



