1880 . ] 
PRUNING PEAR TREES. 
133 
Winter Nelis Pear, Five Years Unpruned. 
“ In consequence of tlie impression made on 
me by Mr. Hibberd’s lecture on fruit-culture at 
the Society of Arts on February 9tli, 1876, I 
planted a collection of young trees in the spring 
of that year ; in fact, immediately after hear¬ 
ing the lecture. I set apart for the purpose 
an open but somewhat sheltered spot, on a good 
loamy soil, in a western suburb of London, and 
planted several young healthy trees of thirty- 
four sorts, comprising pears, plums, and 
cherries. It was not needful for me to plant 
apples, as my spacious lawn is surrounded with 
apple trees, and one old giant renowned for 
fruitfulness stands all alone near the centre of 
it. These trees are now in their fifth year, 
and I send you a photo of one of them, a 
Winter Nelis Pear. They have been abso¬ 
lutely untouched by the knife during the whole 
of the time, and in the first two years they 
caused me some anxiety, in consequence of the 
long rods they threw out, and that threatened 
—so I thought—to monopolise the strength of 
the trees. But I held firm to my purpose, and 
I am well rewarded. From the first I might 
have had supplies of fruit, but in the first year 
I removed all that appeared except on the 
Louise Bonne of Jersey, which I allowed to ripen 
a few. In 1877, there was a fair show of fruit, 
considering the youth of the trees, but most of 
it fell, and we secured but little. In 1878, 
there was again a good show, but the frost in 
May nipped it, and we secured only about a 
third of the whole crop, which, however, was 
greater in bulk than we imagined to be possible. 
