474 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



thus forming large oval or roundish patches, 

 several of which often unite together, and thus 

 Fig. 206. 



PEAR-LEAF MINER AND GRUB. 



the greater part of the leaf assumes a blistered 

 appearance. It is in the beginning of autumn 

 that the leaves appear to be most affected by 

 the ravages of these larvae, which are fleshy, 

 yellowish white, hairy, with six pectoral, eight 

 abdominal, and two anal feet depressed. When 

 full grown, the larva pierces the upper cuticle 

 of the leaf, and comes into the open air ; it 

 then spins some longitudinal threads close to- 

 gether on the upper surface of the leaf, and be- 

 neath these forms its cocoon, which Mr Curtis 

 describes as boat-shaped, with the keel upwards, 

 of a very close texture, and with a slit at each 

 end, the cast-off larva skin being thrust through 

 one of these slits, and the moth escaping by the 

 other. Sometimes these insects abound to such 

 an extent as seriously to affect the growth of 

 the trees, and the size and flavour of the fruit." 

 We have more than once remarked that the 

 most radical mode of subduing such insects as 

 deposit their eggs on the leaves, or in the ground 

 under the trees, is in the first case to collect all 

 the leaves when they fall in autumn, and con- 

 sign them to the flames ; and in the second to 

 gather up the soil at the bottom of the walls for 

 a foot in breadth, and the whole surface as far 

 as the branches of standard trees extend, and 

 carry it to the charing-pile, or wheel it away to 

 those spaces in the garden that are not planted 

 with fruit trees. This is a wholesale disposal of 

 the insects while in their chrysalis state ; and 

 one hour thus employed will be equal to days in 

 picking them off the leaves, and pounds of to- 

 bacco and other remedies thrown on the trees, 

 which might nearly be as usefully thrown into 

 the sea. 



§ 2. — PRUNING AND TRAINING THE 



APPLE AND PEAR. 



The apple and pear are grown as orchard or 

 full-sized standard trees, as dwarf-standards in 

 various forms, as espaliers, and, in the case of 

 the more choice kinds, trained against walls, 

 particularly in cold situations, and in various 

 other ways, as noticed below. Trees intended 

 to be grown as full-sized or orchard trees should 

 have a stem not less than 6 feet in height, and 

 that stem encouraged to attain the greatest pos- 

 sible strength. Such trees are often rendered use- 

 less for this purpose by mismanagement in the 

 nursery before they are planted out for good, by 

 the absurd practice of training up the stems as 

 if they were intended for whip handles, by 

 which they become attenuated and slender, and 

 long after require the support of stakes to keep 

 them in a perpendicular position, and even to 

 carry the weight of their own heads. The fol- 

 lowing hints may be the means of remedying 

 this defect. In purchasing the trees, choose 

 those that have their summer-shoots upon their 

 stems ; but to secure this, the selection must be 

 made before the nurseryman has trimmed his 

 trees in the usual manner. Allow these to 

 remain till the time of planting, and then shorten 

 them to the length of about 3 inches, leaving 

 them in form of spurs to produce shoots and 

 leaves in the ensuing summer. Shorten the 

 leading shoot to three buds above the in- 

 tended height of the future trunk or stem. 

 About the beginning of August (sooner in the 

 south) these stem-shoots should have the tips of 

 their points pinched off ; but the shoots above 

 the contemplated height of the stem, and which 

 are to form the branches of the future tree, 

 should be left entire. In autumn, as soon as 

 the young wood is ripe, cut close off to the stem 

 the lower half of the stem-shoots, and top the 

 upper half of them to about the length of 3 

 inches as before, that they may, during the fol- 

 lowing summer, draw strength to the stem. 

 This practice is, we are aware, by no means 

 generally followed, as most people cut off every 

 vestige of shoot from the stem, considering them 

 not only unnecessary, but actually injurious to 

 the tree. They serve, however, an important 

 purpose, as they elaborate sap which is depo- 

 sited in the stem in the formation of layers of 

 wood, strengthening the stem by increasing its 

 size, and acting with the shoots now forming the 

 head in the production of roots. In autumn, or 

 early in winter, the shoots above the stem, which 

 are now to be considered the foundation of the 

 structure of the future tree, should be cut back 

 to about 9 inches in length, and two shoots 

 from each of these should be encouraged during 

 summer. If any of them, however, show a 

 much greater robustness of character than the 

 others, they should have their tops pinched off to- 

 wards the end of July, so that all may be said 

 to have a fair start the ensuing spring. The 

 direction of the shoots forming the head of the 

 new tree should now be attended to, and made 

 to diverge in the directions most proper for 

 forming a uniform and equally-balanced top. 

 From want of attention to this, many trees 



