36 



TREATISE ON THE CULTURE AND 



directed, which will bring them into frefh vigour and fruit- 

 ful nefs. 



The method of pruning Pear-trees is very different from 

 that practifed for Apple-trees in general. The conftant prac- 

 tice has been, to leave great fpurs, asHS^as a man's arm, 

 landing out from the walls, from one foot to eighteen inches 

 and upwards. [See Plate VII. Letter C ] The con 11 ant pru- 

 ning inevitably brings on the canker ; and, by the fpurs 

 (landing out fo far from the wall, the bloffom and fruit are 

 liable to be much injured by the iroft and blighting winds, 

 and thus the fap will not have a free circulation all over the 

 tree. The fap wi\l always find its way hrrt to the extremities 

 of the (hoots ; and .the fpurs will only receive it in a fmall 

 proportion, as it returns from the -ends of the branches. The 

 fruit Handing at fo great a diflance from the wall is too 

 much expoied to the weather, and, of courfe, is liable to be 

 hard, ipotted, and kernelly ; as Letter D. Plate VII. 



I have adopted the following method when the trees were 

 all over cankered, and the fruit fmall, and not fit to be fent 

 to the table. I cut the tops off as near as poffible to where 

 they were grafted ; always o! nerving to cut as clofe to a joint 

 or bud as poffible. The buds are hardly perceptible; but 

 you can always know where the joints, or forks, are, by the 

 branches breaking out of the fides. 



Finding the Pear-trees in Kensington Gardens in a very 

 cankery and unfruitful irate, in the years 1784 and 5, I took 

 out the old mould from the borders a gain ft the walls, and 

 put in frefh loam in its Head .; at the fame time I pruned and 

 nailed the trees in the common way, and left them in that 

 ft ate upwards of eighteen months, to fee what effect the frefh 



mould 



