ROOT PRUNING. 



13 



ing half in an unchecked bearing state ; and those 

 who have ample room and space may pinch their 

 pyramids in summer, and suffer them to grow to a 

 height of fifteen or twenty feet without pruning their 

 roots. I have seen avenues of such trees in Belgium, 

 really quite imposing. In rich soils, where the trees 

 grow so freely as to make shoots eighteen inches in 

 length in one season, they may be root-pruned an- 

 nually with great advantage. 



The following summary will perhaps convey my- 

 ideas respecting the management of pyramids and 

 bushes when cultivated as garden trees. In small 

 gardens with rich soils, either root-prune or remove 

 all the trees annually early in November. In larger 

 gardens perform the same operation biennially at 

 the same season. For very large gardens with a dry, 

 good sub-soil, in which all kinds of fruit trees grow 

 without any tendency to canker, and when large trees 

 are desired, neither remove nor root-prune, but pinch 

 the shoots in summer, thin them in winter when they 

 become crowded, and thus make your trees symmet- 

 rical and fruitful. 



Pyramidal pear trees on the quince stock, where 

 the fruit garden is small, the soil rich, and when the 

 real gardening artist feels pleasure in keeping them 

 in a healthy and fruitful state by perfect control over 

 the roots, should be annually operated upon as fol- 

 lows : — A trench should be dug round the tree, about 

 eighteen inches from its stem, every autumn, just 



same shape on the opposite side of the tree (so as to complete the circle), and 

 prune all that can he found there. By this simple method the tree is never 

 checked seriously in its growth, yet enough to make it form abundance of blos- 

 som-buds. 



