ON PEARS. 



345 



fulness. If such repression of growth by pinching back the 

 shoots to the second or third leaf of the new growth be done 

 twice, or at most thrice, during the summer, very little winter 

 pruning is ever needed, and fruit buds by this operation are, 

 as it were, manufactured by force. That winter pruning, to a 

 larger extent than is here stated, may sometimes be necessary I 

 do not deny ; to do so I should belie my own practice, inasmuch 

 as it is no uncommon occurrence for me to allow any tree that 

 seems waning in vigour to grow at random the whole of the 

 season, and give extra supplies of manurial waterings the while. 

 Winter pruning is, of course, then a necessity, but it is done with 

 all the mercy possible, the young shoots being in some instances 

 laid in over the old, disregardful of appearances. In this manner 

 not a few trees have been coaxed into renewed vigour and fruit - 

 fulness. 



Manures ; how and when to apply them. — Pears are like 

 most other fruit trees — they are by no means fastidious as to the 

 kind ; still, there is a best they relish most, and that is farmyard 

 manure. I have never been fortunate enough to fill the com- 

 bined post of bailiff and gardener, and consequently not had the 

 opportunity of testing to the full the merits of this kind of 

 manure, but the little that sometimes I have been able to borrow 

 has afforded proof positive that it is deserving of the honour of 

 first place. An excellent substitute is that of ordinary stable 

 manure. This comes to use in the straw state, and all that we 

 need for fruit-tree mulching purposes is stacked for some weeks 

 before it is used ; ashes from brushwood, hedge clippings, and 

 refuse leaf-heap burnings being mixed with it, and when it is 

 about what may be described as half-decayed, it is then ready for 

 application. Artificial manures are excellent in their way, but 

 if their properties are to last for any length of time they must be 

 mixed with soil, and that is not always convenient. The next 

 best way is to scatter them over the soil and immediately cover 

 with a thick layer of long litter, then water to saturation. The 

 two descriptions of animal manures may be safely applied to a 

 depth of from six to nine inches, and as far round the base of 

 the trees as it is thought the roots extend. The time to apply 

 the manures is all the year round, not that the trees do not relish 

 an extra supply at certain seasons. Pears do, and more espe- 

 cially at the time of the first swelling of the fruit, i.e. immediately 



