ON PEARS. 



313 



or it may be too wet and clammy and cannot well be worked 

 about the roots ; too dry is hardly possible at any season when 

 planting may be done ; but the point of all others is to avoid 

 planting too deeply. I prefer to err, if at all, on the side of 

 shallow planting, because any check resulting from this is easily 

 remedied by the application of a little soil round the base of the 

 stem, and a thicker mulching of manure ; but, if the stem be 

 buried, say deeper than it has been in the nursery bed, decrepity 

 begins before the end of the first growing season, and the only 

 remedy is to lift and replant ; thus a season is quite lost. The 

 best time to plant is, of course, in autumn. I think, however, 

 that in our zeal to get such extraneous work over, we are some- 

 times in too much of a hurry. The trees, after a prolonged 

 drought such as we have had southwards this year, would 

 assuredly be the better if left undisturbed till the autumnal 

 rains had had their energising effect on the roots, and these — 

 the roots — on the plumping up of the wood and buds. This 

 additional vitality— that imparted by the rains — is an important 

 actor to the kindly and quicker root action in the new soil. 

 The first half of November, if the weather be dry, is, I think, 

 sufficiently early to plant. 



Pruning, root and branch. — I am unable to dissociate the 

 one from the other, for if the trees require root-pruning, it is to 

 regulate the growth, or improve the fruitfulness, of the branches ; 

 and if little or no pruning of the branches be necessary, then the 

 roots should be let alone, at any rate so far as curtailment of 

 them is concerned. And here again comes in the question of 

 Stocks. My experience is that as regards the Quince root-pruning 

 is never required. The trees in a well-prepared border, that from 

 the first day of planting is always kept heavily mulched with 

 manure, root deeply ; and by way of ensuring regular fruitfulness, 

 and more especially of keeping the roots near the surface, that 

 air, sunshine, and manure may have the fullest effect, all 

 trees on the Quince we lift bodily at the end of two years from 

 time of planting, and, after shortening back all thong-like and 

 fibreless roots, they are carefully replanted, and root-pruning as 

 regards these trees is ended for ever. One could wish that such 

 was the case with trees on the natural stock, but it is not. Old 

 orchard trees that get little or no manure, and that are allowed 

 to carry every fruit that the most genial season admits of setting, 



