May 18. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
113 
Quince stock. Although I still have the misfortune to 
hold some doubts, 1 must say that it is a pleasure to 
meet with so agreeable an opponent, if such 1 may call 
him. However, as time presses, I must at once advert 
to spring Pear-dressing, and in doing so, I must point to 
certain peculiarities of habit, &c. 
Everybody knows that Pears in general, on the free 
stock, have a tendency to produce too much breast-wood 
in Juno and July, some, indeed, almost up to Septem¬ 
ber. It is equally'well known that those on the Quince, 
in a number of cases, are so shy at growth, unless placed 
in very favourable circumstances, as to prove somewhat 
unsatisfactory to those who seek for profit. In con¬ 
firmation of the latter point, I would urge the tact that 
the degree of shade produced by them, for it is princi¬ 
pally a question of light. Most of our readers must 
have considered that much of the foliage on a wall-tree, 
in a smothered state, is in a worse condition to receive 
the broken rays of light than that on an ordinary stand¬ 
ard. I have said “ broken,” because it is only a small 
portion of the foliage that can receive the immediate 
aud unbroken rays of the sun. The ordinary standard 
receives a co-operation of rays from north to south; for 
it must not he supposed that the light received from the 
north side of the tree is unimportant, albeit destitute of 
sunshine. But those on the wall receive little light in 
this way; the whole question, indeed, must not be made 
to turn on the mere intensity of the solar rays, it is too 
few of our market-gardeners grow extensively on the narrow a pivot by far; and until this tight view ot 
^ •. n. 7 7.’. . _... ^ ~ .1 /-wl T fnon tlvof enntmov 
Quince. Now there is really no necessity for compelling 
the free stock to produce so much gross wood; this fault J 
is not in the tree but in the planter. I have no doubt j 
that many of our stronger habited Pears would succeed ; 
better in a compost one half of which was stones; per- 
haps burnt clay would he a useful thing, nearly iu the 
state of brick. A slow but continuous root action is the 1 
state to be desired, and I need scarcely add the absence 
of any such rapidly exciting media as manorial matters 
or humus is as desirable. I do think that some of our 
amateurs would do well to try such an experiment. 
The first proceeding with Pears in a trained condi¬ 
tion, according to my practice, is to disbud; this is per¬ 
formed during the end of April. It consists iu going 
over every main branch, and totally removing those 
gross shoots which may he considered as having a ten- 
dency to encourage an over-powerful root action. It , 
may here he understood, that in general, although the 
removal of such a class of shoots has a tendency for 
awhile to throw increased strength into those which 
remain, yet that the same proceeding, also, has a ten¬ 
dency to check rampant growth, or grossness in the 
general system of the tree. If any of the trees at this 
time are very luxuriant, I do not hesitate, if time can 
be spared, to open a trench, and remove a slight portion 
of the extremities of the root-fibres, although this must he 
done with more caution now than late iu the autumn, 
for I consider that the best period to root-prune hearing 
trees. 
As I before observed, these gross shoots are entirely 
rubbed away, and now every attention is given to band¬ 
picking those destructive caterpillars, or grubs, which do 
so much mischief to the foliage, and soon destroy, or 
much reduce, the crop of fruit. This has generally to 
bo performed towards the middle of May, and when car¬ 
ried out the trees will require little attention until the 
Of course, young trees, in the rneau- 
ittle training, and the leading shoots 
of the larger trees will need fastening in position. 
In the very beginning of Juno it will he found that 
the young spray on many of the trees has become too 
crowded to give fair play to either the fruit or the shoots 
necessary to be reserved, and we deem it necessary to 
go over and thin them. Some persons may think that 
such operations necessarily involve much skill or science, 
but the fact is, any tidy labourer can do it; for, indeed, 
gardeners in these times have too much in their head, 
and on their hands, to carry out all the hand operations 
which high fruit-culture demands. The science or skill 
requisite consists in giving explicit directions to the 
operator as to the proportion of shoots to be removed, 
and their character. This well understood by the ope¬ 
rator, the application needs very little more cleverness 
than is requisite to thin out and weed a bed of seedling 
vegetables, too thick, wefcdy, and containing what arc 
called “Rogues,” that is to say, varieties not up to the 
mark, or degenerating. 
It is difficult to say, on paper, what proportion pre¬ 
cisely should bo removed; such, of course, depending on 
beginning of June 
time, will need a 
things is somewhat widened, I much fear that summer 
pruning will not be sufficiently estimated. 
Light, then, aud a tolerably equal diffusion of the 
solar rays, being necessary to the fruiting principle, both 
as to the present crop and prospective ones, the operator 
should remove as much spray as will facilitate its divi¬ 
sion. Any person may judge tolerably well on this 
head by directing his vision amongst the spray of a 
crowded tree during sunshine and shade respectively; 
with a little ordinary penetration he will soon discover 
how things are going on. Any one who has never done 
so, and paid little heed to the principles I am endea¬ 
vouring to expound, will, I venture to say, find himself 
taken by surprise, and wonder that he never before 
took the pains to examine for himself; that is to say, it 
he really feels an interest, and possesses an active and 
discriminating mind. 
But here I- must slightly qualify the foregoing re¬ 
marks by a caution. A tree is a real living body, or, if 
by a little “ hair splitting ” this should he thought 
capable of doubt, we may, at least, say that it vegetates. 
This cannot be said of a chair or a table ; we may want 
to perform an operation on such pieces of furniture, 
such as shortening the legs, and if so, whether six inches 
or a foot, it may be doue in five minutes, without injury 
to the furniture, which has no functions to perform but 
standing where placed ; uuless the table be one ot that 
most modern and injurious class termed “turners. 
Not so with a tree, however. My opinion is, that no 
man can remove, pinch, or mutilate a leaf, or a twig, 
without having done a positive good or harm ; he has 
done something which will as sure concern the lunctions 
of the tree, as that, philosophically speaking, effect must 
follow cause. And what may he expected from a too 
heavy disbudding suddenly performed, but at least a 
temporary derangement of the functions of the tree? 
Let the operator, then, perform this at twice, at least, 
say in the beginning of June and in the end. But in 
doing so, he must select; that is to say, lie must remove 
unfruitful-looking spray, and reserve that of opposite 
character. Long-jointed shoots, pale and watery-loolc- 
iug, aud fast ramblers, are known to be of the former 
class; those of the latter, of course, approach an oppo¬ 
site condition ; and the difficulty is, since they merge 
into each other, to distinguish ; this is what puzzles our 
amateurs so much. Ultimately, this reserve wood is 
chiefly tied down to the main shoots, at least, such is my 
practice. After these things are done, I practice “stop¬ 
ping,” and this is done at twice; say in the early part of 
•July and again in August—but of this more in due 
time. Seasons vary so much, that no one precise period 
i can or ought to be assigned for it. One remark I may 
offer; do it, by all means, in a tolerably dry period ; for 
in periods of much moisture, if the trees are strong they 
absorb much, and it will have vent in foliage. To stop 
injudiciously a gross Bear-tree during a moist and grow 
mg period in July, would bo to force much of * u " 
able natural spurs to lose their position ^ 
barren spray. 
the valu- 
and become 
anixciiox. 
