ON PEARS. 



847 



form the trees are to be trained. Personally, I give preference 

 to the pyramidal form of training-, and the distance apart for 

 trees on the Quince stock should be six feet, and be planted in 

 angular lines, which will allow of easily getting about among the 

 trees, and of the admission of full sunlight to every tree. Should 

 the soil be considered better suited for the growth of trees on 

 the natural stock, plant in the same way, but the distance apart 

 should be increased to ten feet. Low horizontally trained 

 cordons, that one sometimes sees outlining the boundary of 

 kitchen-garden walks, are pretty, but I fear this is their greatest 

 merit. Cordons for profit are such as are shown in this picture, 

 which is a faithful representation of trees trained over a walk in 

 the gardens under my superintendence. 



The cordon mode of training for Pears is worthy of general 

 adoption for a variety of reasons, the one of all others being that 

 it is the b?st way of prolonging the Pear season. I shall best 

 explain my meaning by quoting a circumstance in which I was 

 personally concerned. From a large horizontally trained tree, 

 Williams's Bon Chretien, growing on a west wall, a couple of 

 bushels or more of good fruit was annually gathered, a quantity far 

 in excess of what was required for home consumption, and con- 

 sequently, in the endeavours made to make them last for the 

 longest period, a large percentage was lost. The proposition 

 was made to me to destroy this tree and plant cordons, and, like 

 an obedient servant, I complied. The space that that tree occu- 

 pied is to-day furnished, not with one tree, but with thirty, in 

 nearly as many varieties, from which we obtain more fruit and 

 a season of ripe fruit extending for two months or more, instead 

 of three weeks as formerly. The most profitable form of training 

 on walls is as single cordons two feet apart, and the only other 

 form worthy of adoption is the horizontal, twelve feet apart. Wall 

 space for Pears in parts of the low-lying eastern counties, the 

 midland and northern counties of England, and Scotland, is im- 

 perative if good fruit be desired ; but residents to the south, south- 

 west, and west of England attach far too much importance to 

 that necessity. Take, for example, any of the early varieties that 

 ripen in July, August, and the early part of September, and grow 

 them on walls with a south or west aspect. Grow the same varie- 

 ties on bushes, pyramids, or cordons in the open garden, and 

 compare notes as to quality. The wall fruit will be found to^be 



