86 JOURNAL OF THL ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



manner by the aid of the knife and a multiplicity of ligatures, 

 for that system is a mere warfare against nature which can 

 never pay. It is in this case practised in a coaxing kind of way ; 

 the trees know but little of the knife, and the long rods are 

 brought down gently, as I suggested years ago in what I termed 

 11 pulley pruning." Many fruitful trees acquire a half- weeping 

 habit from the mere effect of the weight of the fruit, which brings 

 down the branches. There is no merit in observing this, but 

 there is merit in taking from the fact a lesson in cultivation. 

 The reverse position of the branch checks growth, exposes the 

 wood and the fruit most completely to the sun and the air, and 

 we may say the mere fact of fruitfulness is promotive of fruitful- 

 ness, the half- weeping habit that the law of gravitation enforces 

 on the tree exactly suits its constitution as a fruit-producer. 

 Very much of the prevailing practice in pruning promotes rigidity 

 of growth, and compels the tree to be a mere leaf- producer. 



Now to conclude. Observation and experience have taught me 

 that summer pruning is too promotive of useless secondary growth 

 to be advantageous ; and it tends also to keep the roots in action 

 until late in the year, when they ought to be at rest. The effort of 

 the tree to ripen useless wood is detrimental to its more profitable 

 duties. Prune immediately after the fruit is gathered, first cut- 

 ting out all dead wood, then cutting out cross and ill-placed 

 shoots that would interfere with the free play of light and air, 

 and then conceal the pruning knife lest anyone should venture 

 to cut back the long rods, and so renew the old warfare between 

 useless wood and useful fruit. 



Pyramid trees of many sorts of pears will acquire beauty of 

 contour, and become regularly furnished, and will produce abun- 

 dance of fruit without any pruning whatever, as I have shown 

 by my trees that for fifteen years continuously were never touched 

 with the knife. The lower branches of pyramid trees never bear 

 fruit, probably from proximity to the ground and its exhalations, 

 as well as from the low temperature that often prevails at that 

 level. When left to form themselves, or aided in quite an infini- 

 tesimal degree, they remain open to light and air, and soon 

 become well clothed with spurs that ripen perfectly and do their 

 duty. The dense, leafy pyramids are useless in proportion to 

 their leanness, and very often it maybe said that the free bushes 

 and standards are useful in proportion to their leanness, and it 

 must be owned that many of the lean trees are amongst the most 

 profitable. Long rods pay, short rods are more plague than 

 profit. 



A most instructive contrast between the useless pyramids and 

 the profitable standards has occurred in the garden planted many 

 years since by my friend Mr. J. B. Saunders, then of The 

 Laurels, Taunton, now of Teignmouth. Mr. Saunders was proud 

 of his pinched pyramid trees, and managed them with orthodox 



