PYRAMIDAL TRAINING OF THE PEAR TREE. 391 



Fig. 193. 



This system is quite as applicable to wall trees as to 

 pyramids or standards. In numbers 

 of our gardens great good might be 

 effected by regrafting with good va- 

 rieties^ and doing away with the worth- 

 less ones, so very common. 



Fig. 195 represents a mode of train- 

 ing to be seen here and there in 

 France. The woodcut shows a fully 

 formed tree before the winter prun- 

 ing takes place, and, as will be seen 

 at a glance, it is an erect stem 

 densely furnished with short fruiting 

 branches. This form is considered 

 better than the pyramidal one, where 

 saving of space is a consideration, and 

 where we do not wish the trees to 

 much shade the crops between them. 

 They are also well suited for small 

 gardens where space cannot be afforded 

 for a large number of varieties if 

 trained in the usual way. I have 

 thought it worthy of a figui'e, but 

 except on the Quince in suitable soils 

 it is not likely to present many ad- 

 vantages ; for if on the Pear and con- 

 fined thus closely to a fastigiate bun- 

 dle of shoots, it would in all probability 

 run too high to permit of proper 

 annual pruning or of the crop being 

 gathered with convenience. Judging 

 by the strength and thickness dis- 

 played by our old horizontal wall trees 

 grafted on the Pear stock, what should 

 we arrive at if we adopted a contracted 

 form like this with trees worked on 

 the Pear ? Why, in a few years, and 

 especially with the cordons, we should have objects more 

 like rustic gate-posts than trees. 



^11 



Pear Tree trained in the 

 Columnar form. 



