220 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[January 24. 
by Mr. River, and some others, will, in a year or 
two, set the quince stock question at rest; for, if 
any real advance be made this way, it must assuredly 
be through the medium of the stock and the platform 
question, perhaps, in combination. 
Pear-pruning. — And now we have been drawn j 
into observations on pears, it will, perhaps, be well 
to finish our paper with hints to pear pruners; for j 
spring is at hand, with its usual pressure of business, i 
Everybody knows that our gardeners of the old j 
time had but one method of pear pruning; they must 
be “ spurred back.” As to asking tlie reason, “ they 
would give no man a reason on compulsion ”—not 
they. Such would seem to involve the loss ol a 
serious amount of liberty, not altogether compatible 
with the British character. However, spurring back 
was adhered to with reverential awe—and no won¬ 
der, the memory of their time-honoured grandsires 
was fairly woven into the question. Nevertheless, 
time, who wears holes in the hardest rocks, drew 
aside the sombre veil of prescription, covered with 
the dust of ages, and folks began to rub their eyes 
anew. It was now discovered that gardeners can¬ 
not manufacture spurs by the pruning knife, al¬ 
though they can excite a vast amount of shoots. 
Hence arose, if not an aversion to, at least a jealousy 
of the kn ife; and those beautiful looking systems of 
winter pruning, which used to adorn the pages ol 
the clever Mr. Loudon, have, we conceive, been used 
by the butterman long since. Our reason for taking 
the liberty of joking on so serious a matter is, that 
we may disabuse the minds of amateur cottage gar¬ 
deners, and others—who have not watched these 
things so closely, or for so many years, as we have 
done — from the fallacy of depending on spruce 
modes of pruning for producing fruitfulness. We 
would rather divert their attention to the three great 
cardinal points in all fruit culture:—namely, root 
control, selection of stocks, and summer pruning. 
And now, as to pear pruning, we have before, in 
the Cottage Gardener, alluded to what we have 
called the “ tying-down system.” By this we mean 
the reserving many of the annual shoots at the 
winter pruning, and tying, or otherwise fastening, 
them down on the old wood. Pears, say they, bear 
best on the two-year-old wood ; be it so, then let us 
take care that some of the annual shoots reach two 
years. We have before repeatedly advised (when 
discussing summer pruning affairs), that all the 
shortest-jointed, and early-ripened, wood should be 
left; and now, when the knife must, of necessity, be 
passed over the trees, in order to correct the omis¬ 
sions of the past summer, let us again advise that 
every short jointed shoot, with plump eyes or buds, 
be tied down to the old wood; not more, however, 
than one, or at most two, at a given point; and thus 
proceeding from the root stock to the extremities, to 
clothe the wood from end to end. Where this plan 
is adopted, all barren-looking spurs may at once be 
cut clean away, unless they give promise of bloom 
buds. The hobby, however, must not be ridden too 
hard: still preserve genuine fruit spurs with the 
utmost care. Under this system, let there be no 
spurring back, as it is called, of young and grass 
shoots, in order to create spurs. Such, we know, 
may sometimes be generated; but it is the exception 
to the rule. By this tying-down mode, when esta¬ 
blished, plenty of natural spurs will be produced; 
and, moreover, the tendency to produce “breast 
wood” will be lessened exceedingly. 
R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Hardy Climbers. —I make a break here, in my 
description of hardy climbers, and the different pur¬ 
poses to which certain kinds of them may be applied, 
to describe, and very earnestly to recommend, a cer¬ 
tain way of establishing strong varieties of them in 
groves, in thickets, or on the margin of woods, so as to 
cover whole trees from the top to the bottom, to fes¬ 
toon between tree and tree, or to form an impenetrable 
barrier, in imitation of the twining plants which en¬ 
tangle the “bush” or “jungle” in warmer latitudes. 
Or, if that is out of the question, let us say to clothe 
some two or three old trees in the corner of the gar¬ 
den, of which naked limbs are anything but beautiful, 
during the winter season; or even that old ash, whose 
surface roots monopolise the whole space within their 
reach. 
Those who have never tried the experiment, can 
form but a little idea of the difficulty of establishing 
climbers, or any plants whatever, in the immediate 
vicinity of, or among, full-grown trees. No sooner is 
a pit opened, filled with good soil, and a thrifty plant 
of any kind inserted, than the roots of the established 
trees take possession of the fresh soil, and literally 
suck all the goodness out of it, before the roots of the 
young plant have time to extend beyond a few inches; 
and, in a season or two, the young climber, instead of 
reaching halfway up the trees, is dying by inches, of 
sheer starvation. Indeed, without some contrivance 
to overcome the dificulty, it would be easier to cover 
all the houses in London with roses and honeysuckles, 
than half the trees on an acre of land in the country. 
Yet, what is more picturesque than to see long fes¬ 
toons of climbers waving down from the boughs of 
some old favourite tree ? How rich the clusters of 
the Glycine sinensis would look hanging over the lofty 
boughs of a holly-tree, or some other evergreen of 
great height! They would appear doubly charming 
when backed by some good screen of leaves; and so 
with most flowers which appear before the leaves like 
those of this Glycine. 
Now, there is no more real difficulty in rearing a 
Glycine, or any other strong climber, against a tree, 
than there would be in establishing the same plant 
against the wall of a cottage; except, indeed, what 
was due to the difference of temperature; and all 
that is necesssary to effect this, is to exclude the roots 
of the tree from all share in the soil newly-laid for 
the young plant, and that, too, for the first half dozen 
years or more. Indeed, the climber should be full- 
grown before the roots of the tree could have access 
to its bed, as I can state, from my own experience, 
that unless that is provided for at first, the experiment 
must fail, for I have seen the plan tried and failed ten 
times over. 
Some of the best things in the world to carry out 
this experiment is a set of old tar-barrels, as they last 
many years when sunk in the ground at the foot of 
the trees against which it is desired to establish the 
climbers; and no one need be afraid that plants will 
not grow in old tar-barrels, or in new barrels, or tubs 
tarred over on purpose to secure them from wet or 
damp. All flower-gardeners use tarred boxes every 
year to grow fancy things in. I have many such in 
use at Shrub!and Park, and 1 never found that the 
tar was injurious to the plants. I have also tar-bar¬ 
rels in use, not for climbers, but for plants much 
more delicate. 
Well, then, each tar-barrel is to be bored in the 
bottom with five holes, one in the middle and four at 
equal distances all round, and the bung-hole must be 
