1881 . ] 
PEAR, BEURRE MORTILLET.-FRUIT-TREE LIFTING AND ROOT-PRUNING. 
9 
Tlie bulbs are thus safer to handle than if 
left in the rough until planting-time, by which 
period the work of forming the future leaves 
and bud is far advanced; the bud indeed 
having all its parts, though in curious im¬ 
mature proportion, the anthers as yet being 
larger than the petals. All this work is done 
while the bulb is outwardly at rest (between 
June and September), and so completely, that 
at the side of what will be the flower stem, 
there may even be seen a tiny germ, which is 
to be the bulb of the next year’s harvesting. 
None of all this beautiful process is discernible 
amid the fleshy folds of the newly-ripened root. 
It is the work of very quiet days, and so we see 
that even in the dry, dark cells of the Tulip 
cabinet, the Tulip bulb has led no idle life. 
Suggestively enough, its very shape has 
changed, particularly at the base, where the 
crown, the very centre of its life and sensibility, 
has protruded through the light-brown skin, 
till the points of all the waiting fibres are 
visible, and when any bruises or roughness of 
touch may fatally injure them. There is also 
the yellow beak of the first young leaf, but an 
injury to that short upward shoot is as nothing 
to the effect of any accident to the base of the 
bulb.— Francis D. Horner, Kirlcby Mcilzeard , 
Ripon. 
PEAR BEURRE MORTILLET. 
Beurre Mortillet Pear, observes M. 
rriere, in the Revue Ilorticole (1879, 
5, fig. 81), is one of the best of its 
season, its only fault being that of ripening too 
early ; and this, indeed, is scarcely a fault, since 
the large and good sorts are at that time scarce. 
It is a new Pear, and was raised by M. Fougere, 
of Saint-Priest (Isere), some five or six years 
ago, from a pip of Williams’ Bon Chretien. It 
was first described and figured in 1878, in the 
Sud-Est ,' by M. Mortillet, nurseryman, La 
Tronche, near Grenoble, who describes the fruit 
as very large, pyriform, swollen in the centre, 
and varying in weight from 14 oz. to 15 oz. 
The skin is of a tender green, sometimes 
slightly flushed with flesh-colour on the side 
next the sun, dotted over the surface with rather 
large red dots, and shaded with reddish-rus¬ 
set around the stalk, which is short, fleshy, and 
set in a very small, irregularly-nippled cavity. 
The eye is small, closed, and set in a rather 
deep, somewhat ribbed basin. The flesh is 
white, fine-grained, buttery, and very melting, 
with abundant juice, which is sugary and 
agreeably-scented. It is ripe during the latter 
half of August. 
According to M. Mortillet, the tree, which is 
vigorous in growth, is pyramidal in habit, 
accommodating itself both to the quince and 
to the pear stock. The wood is lenticelled, 
and resembles that of Beurre Clairgeau, but is 
more vigorous ; the leaves are large and thick, 
and the tree is remarkably fertile, the fruits 
commonly growing in clusters, in which case 
the stalks become obliquely inserted. One of 
the fruits of the crop of 1879 weighed about 
li lb., and came from a fully-exposed tree. 
M. Carriere adds that the fruits he examined 
measured 4^ in. in height, and about 4 in. in 
diameter, and by their shape and appearance 
rather recalled those of the Duchesse d’An- 
gouleme, but were superior in quality, on 
account of their finer-grained and more juicy 
flesh. It is a variety which all lovers of fruits 
will be bound to procure.—M. 
FRUIT-TREE LIFTING AND 
ROOT-PRUNING. 
f HIS subject crops up more or less every 
season, and one would think, from 
much which we read, that a deal of 
matter regarding the theory and practice of 
root management has been written in vain. It 
is to be feared that in the hands of some, 
root mutilation and injury to the trees has 
been all which has been achieved ; and no 
wonder, when the indiscriminate chopping 
mode has been practised, whether the trees 
required checking in their growth or not. It 
need hardly be remarked that when a tree 
has reached the size desired, it should not be 
allowed to increase—for the largest sizes are 
not the most profitable, as it is not timber 
one wishes, but little growth and abundance of 
fruit. Were it indeed the growth of oaks, 
ash, beech, <fcc., for wood, instead of apples, 
pears, plums, and cherries for fruit, we 
should adopt an opposite course. We 
should drain thoroughly for all, but for 
the forest trees extra trenching, depth of 
soil to the roots, and facilities given to 
let the roots run and take possession of all 
available space, instead of encouraging the 
production of acorns and other seeds, would 
prevent it as far as possible. 
In the case of fruit-trees, we wish the growth 
to be short and firm, with an absence of pith, 
and showing a disposition to form fruit buds. 
