210 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
June 
that the climate of Paris is so much like our own, 
that any lesson in open air culture learned there, is 
worth twice as much as if learned in England. In fact, 
the pear tree grows hut indifferently as an open stand¬ 
ard in many parts of England—while M. Cappe’s trees, 
almost all of them, had made shoots at the ends of the 
branches, on all sides, about two feet in length. They 
had been planted from 10 to 18 years, and were from 
a dozen to eighteen feet high. None of them were on 
quince stocks—though Mr. C. admitted the value of 
the stocks for particular varieties. Neither does he 
practice root-pruning, hut rather smiled at our account 
of the importance attached to it in England by some 
of the best cultivators—saying “ it is all very well for a 
cold, moist country—hut neither you nor us need it.” 
His pear trees are all worked on pear stocks. They are 
planted in a good mellow loam—simply trenched two 
and a half feet deep, and about eight feet wide, and 
when they are loosened in the spring, the whole top of 
the border is formed into a hollow, shaped like a shalloAv 
pan, two or three inches deep. Over the surface of this 
is spread a mulching, an inch deep, of decomposed barn¬ 
yard manure—which not only shades and keeps the soil 
cool, but every time the rain falls and fills the basin con¬ 
taining this dressing or mulching of manure, it carries 
down to the roots their best food. It will he remem¬ 
bered that the soil of Paris is calcareous, and there is, 
probably, no lack of lime for the growth of the pear. 
So much for general culture. Now a word as to prun¬ 
ing , which is the great point in which the French excel 
us—it being in short, the education of the tree. “ Just 
as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.” 
M. Cappe’s method of pruning, which he was good 
enough to explain to us very clearly, is simple, and easily 
understood. Perhaps we should say it is easily explain¬ 
ed with the knife in hand, and the tree before one. But 
as our thousands of readers are not within such conven¬ 
ient reach of the eye, we must do the best we can to 
make it clear by words. 
M. Cappe confines his pruning to three seasons of the 
year. In the month of March, or before the buds start, 
he shortens back with the knife all the leading shoots, 
fig. 2, a. a. —that is, the terminal shoots at the end of 
each side branch. Of course, this forces out not only a 
new leading shoot at the end of the branch, but side 
shoots, b, b, at various places on the lower part of the 
shoot. These side shoots are left to grow till the end of 
May. They have then pushed out to 
about four or five inches in length. 
The ends of all these side shoots are 
then pinched off , leaving only about 
an inch and a half at the bottom of 
the shoot. 
Fig. 3, shows one of the branches, 
with the side shoots, as they are at 
the end of June. The dotted lines, 
b, b, show the point to which these 
shoots should be pinched off. 
The terminal or leading shoot, c, 
is left entire, in order to draw up the 
sap, which would otherwise force all 
the side shoots into new growth. 
Notwithstanding this precaution, in rig. *^. . 
luxuriant seasons the side shoots will frequently push 
out new shoots again, just below where they were pinch¬ 
ed. This being the case, about the last of August M. 
Cappe shortens back these new side shoots to about an 
inch and a half. But this time he does not pinch them 
off. He breaks them, and leaves the broken end for 
several days attached and hanging down, so that the 
flow of sap is not so suddenly checked as when the branch 
is pinched or cut off—and the danger of new shoots 
being forced out a third time is thereby effectually 
guarded against. 
The object of this stopping the side branches, is to 
accumulate the sap, or, more properly, the organizable 
matter in these shortened branches, by which means the 
remaining buds become fruit-buds instead of wood-buds. 
They also become spurs, distributed over the wdiole tree, 
which bear regularly year after year—sending out new 
side side shoots, which are 
manner every summer. 
In order to keep the tre 
finely proportioned, the eye 
of the pruner must be a 
nice one, that he may, with 
a glance, regulate the prun¬ 
ing of the terminal branch¬ 
es or leaders, which as we 
have just said, are shorten¬ 
ed back in March—for then 
is the time to adjust any 
extravagancies of growth 
which the tree may have 
run into, on either side: and 
in the summer the balance 
of growth is adjusted by 
pinching the side shoots 
that start out nearest the 
ends of the branches, quite 
short, say an inch and a half, while those that start 
near the bottom of the branch, (or the center of 
the tree,) where they have less nourishment, are left 
from four to five inches long. 
Understanding this mode of pruning, nothing is easier 
than to form pyramidal pear trees of the most perfect 
symmetry and beauty of form. But in order to have the 
branches regularly produced from the ground to the 
summit, you must plant a tree which is only a couple of 
feet high, so that you can form the first tier of branches 
quite near the ground, by cutting back the leader at the 
very outset—for if the tree is once allowed to form a 
clean body or stem, of course it is impossible afterwards 
to give it the requisite shape and fullness of branches at 
the bottom. 
Our readers will see that we are not giving this account 
for the benefit of our orcliardists. It is a refinement in 
horticulture which belongs to the fruit garden—but 
which well repays the amateur or practical gardener, 
both by the increased fruitfulness and beauty of the 
trees.. From the especially healthy condition of the 
trees in the Jardin des Plantes , as well as from other 
analogous instances, we are led to believe that by the 
fine clothing of foliage which protects the bark of the 
trunk and branches from the violence of the sun, these 
pyramidal trees will be found less liable to many diseases 
that attack the pear tree in climates like France and the 
United States, than when the trunks of the trees are 
fully exposed to the sun. 
New Fruits. 
The last annual report of the Fruit Committee of the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, gives the following 
results of the experiments in the culture of several new 
fruits of celebrity, in that region:— 
Northern Spy. —Specimens raised in Massachusetts 
w r ere exhibited for the first time the past season. They 
appear to have been much inferior in size and quality to 
those raised in 'Western New-York. The results of a 
single season, and for the first year of bearing, are not 
however generally reliable. 
Doyenne Boussock. —This pear, which resembles the 
White Doyenne, but of larger size, has borne for several 
years, is highly commended by the Committee, and 
u appears to be worth}’- of extensive cultivation.” 
Beurre d ? Anjou and Paradise d’ Automne — u fine 
pears, that do not appear to have received that atten¬ 
tion from cultivators, to -which they are justly entitled.” 
Beurre Langelier — u gives promise of maintaining 
in this country its European reputation—a handsome 
fruit, of good size, yellow color, with a fine blush in the 
sun,—melting, juicy, and of an agreeable taste—whose 
season is January and February, though some of the 
specimens this year ripened in November.” 
pinched back in the same 
