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shoots, whereby there will be a confusion of branches, and rarely any fruit is produced with this 
management. 
The distance which the branches of Pears should be trained, must be proportioned to the size of 
their fruit; therefore such sorts whose fruit are small, may be allowed five or six inches, but the 
larger sorts must not be less than seven or eight inches asunder. If this be duly observed, and the 
branches carefully trained horizontally as they are produced, there will be no occasion for so much 
cutting as is commonly practised on these trees, which, instead of checking their growth, does, on 
the contrary, cause them to shoot the stronger. 
It is very surprising to read the tedious methods, which most of the writers on fruit-trees have 
directed for pruning these trees; for, by their prolix and perplexed methods, one would imagine they 
had endeavoured to render themselves as unintelligible as possible; and this, I am sure, may be 
affirmed, that it is next to impossible for a learner ever to arrive at any tolerable skill in pruning by 
the tedious and perplexed directions which are published by Monsieur Quintiny, and those who have 
copied from him; for, as these have all set out wrong in the beginning, by allowing their trees less 
than half the distance which they should be planted, they have prescribed rules to keep them within 
that compass, which are the most absurd, and contrary to all reason, therefore should not be practised 
by those persons who are desirous of having plenty of fruit. 
I shall therefore only lay down a few necessary directions for pruning and managing these trees, 
which shall be done in as few words as possible, that a learner may the more easily understand it, 
and which (together with proper observations) will be sufficient to instruct any person in the right 
management of them. 
Pear-trees generally produce their blossom-buds first at the extremity of the last year’s shoots, so 
that if these are shortened, the blossoms are cut off; but this is not all the damage, for (as I before 
. said) this occasions the buds immediately below the cut to put forth two or more shoots, whereby the 
number of branches will be increased, and the tree crowded too much with wood; besides, those 
buds, which by this management produce shoots, would have only produced cursons or spurs, upon 
which the blossom-buds are produced, if the leading branch had not been shortened; therefore these 
should never be stopped, unless to furnish wood to fill a vacancy. 
It is not necessary to provide a new supply of wood in Pear-trees, as must be done for Peaches, 
Nectarines, &c. which only produce their fruit upon young wood; for Pears produce their fruit upon 
cursons or spurs, which are emitted from branches which are three or four years old; which cursons 
continue fruitful many years, so that, where these trees have been skilfully managed, I have seen 
branches which have been trained horizontally upwards of twenty feet from the trunk of the tree, and 
have been fruitful their whole length. And if we do but carefully observe the branches of a healthy 
standard-tree, which has been permitted to grow without pruning, we shall find many that are ten or 
twelve years old, or more, which are very full of these cursons, upon which a good number of fruit 
is annually produced. 
During the summer season these trees should be often looked over to train in the shoots, as they 
are produced, regularly to the wall or espalier, and to displace fore-right and luxuriant branches as 
they shoot out, whereby the fruit will be equally exposed to the air and sun, which will render them 
more beautiful and better tasted than when they are shaded by the branches; and by thus managing 
the trees in summer, they will always appear beautiful, and in winter they will want but little 
pruning. 
Where Pear-trees are thus regularly trained without stopping their shoots, and have full room for 
their branches to extend on each side, there will never be any occasion for disbarking the branches, or 
cutting oft the roots (as hath been directed by several writers on gardening); which methods, however 
