Propagation.

Pears are propagated by budding and grafting, either upon the common Pear stock or upon the Quince. The Pear stock is intended, and indeed it is the only one, for all such varieties of the Pear as are intended for open standards, or for orchard planting; and it is probably the best, also, generally speaking, for such other sorts as are intended for training against walls, where durability is required.

The Quince stock, for Pears, has long since been made use of by the French gardeners, and for almost every purpose; but in this country it is used only for such sorts as are intended for open dwarfs, and those low standards lately introduced by the French, and trained, as they term it, en quenouille, from its faint resemblance in form to the distaff formerly used in spinning.

These latter occupy but little space in a garden, are productive, and the fruit they produce is far superior to that which is grown upon the common standard.

In raising of Standard Pears for the orchard, it is necessary to have strong stocks, and such as have been quartered out, at least two years, in order that they may throw up the young shoot with vigour. As I have stated before, it is by far the most preferable way to bud them instead of grafting them; by this method, many of the most vigorous will attain a height of six or seven feet the first year of their growth, and make fine standards the second, whilst those sorts possessing less vigour will come in the year following.

For Dwarfs, those which have been grafted are the best, as the plant divides itself into branches the first year, and more regularly so than those which have been obtained from grafts will in the second.

Those for training en quenouille, as just stated, must

be propagated upon the Quince, this stock having a similar effect upon the Pear to that upon the Apple by the Doucin stock, diminishing its vigour and increasing its fertility.

PRUNING AND TRAINING.

Open Standards.

There is not any particular management required for standard Pears that is not applicable to the Apple, as detailed under that head. The principal thing to be attended to at first is to have the tree with a straight healthy stem, and a head composed of four equally strong well-placed shoots.

All open standards should be staked as soon as planted, to keep their stems straight, perfectly upright, and to secure them against high winds.

If the branches in the head are equal in strength, and well placed, they will not require to be pruned back, but must be allowed to grow at their full length, unless the sort be one of a pendent growth; in this case, more than four shoots will be required, as this number generally bends downwards, and must be augmented by others to form the upper part of the head. This is to be effected by heading down the four shoots to six inches at the end of the second year after the tree has been planted, and when it has got a firm hold of the soil; for the greater its vigour at this time, the more upright will its young shoots be directed; and, on the contrary, young shoots from weak trees of this description are chiefly pendent.

As the heads become enlarged from year to year, they must be looked over, to keep them thin of wood, and to remove any branch which is likely, by its further progress, to injure any of the others: the pendent growers will require more attention paid to them in this

respect than the upright, because they are perpetually throwing up vigorous young shoots from the upper side of those branches which are making a curved direction downwards.

Quenouille Training.

As trees for this purpose require but one main stem, those obtained by budding are preferable, being always the most upright and handsome, although a grafted plant, with early attention, will fully answer the purpose.

Quenouille training is a method adopted by the French gardeners, and of which specimens are exhibited in the Horticultural Garden at Chiswick. It consists in training the plant perpendicularly, with a single stem, to the height of about seven feet, and in having branches at regular distances from the bottom to the top; these are generally about eighteen inches long, and pendent, being brought into this direction by bending the young shoot downwards as it grows, and tying it by a string till it has finished its growth in the autumn.

If the plant be strong, and in a state of vigour, it will throw out many more side branches than will be required; these must be thinned out, selecting those which are the strongest and best, and placed so that they may be from nine to twelve inches apart when trained. The luxuriance of these shoots is materially checked by bringing them into this form; they are, in consequence, always well furnished with fruit-bearing spurs, which produce very fine fruit.

Quenouille training possesses this advantage, that a plant under such management requires but little room, a square of four feet each way being amply sufficient; its fruit being within reach may be thinned out to enlarge its size, and it can also be secured against high winds, thus acquiring considerable size; and being near

the ground, the additional warmth it receives adds materially to its ripening in perfection.

Espaliers.

Several very valuable sorts of Pears may be successfully cultivated in Espaliers, which would not succeed on the tall and exposed orchard standard, and such as do not necessarily require a wall. The Quenouille training, which has been explained under the head of Propagation, is admirably adapted for small gardens, and for ripening many of our finest autumnal fruit; but the Espalier possesses some advantages over that, being less exposed to high winds, and affording greater security to heavy fruit.

Pears intended for Espaliers, as well as for Quenouille training, should be propagated upon the Quince stock; and grafted plants, as I have observed before, are preferable to those which have been raised from buds. Horizontal training, as recommended for Apples, is that which is best adapted for the Pear, and the method laid down for forming the tree the same: the horizontal branches may also be trained at nine or ten inches apart, unless it be for those sorts whose fruit are very large; these will be better if they are allowed a foot.

In July, the superfluous young shoots should be shortened to two inches, and the extreme ones continued at their full length. By the beginning or middle of September, most of the spurs, which had been cut back at the former pruning, will have thrown out another shoot from the extreme bud of each; such, therefore, should now be cut back below this shoot, which will then leave the spur one inch instead of two. Should these artificial spurs be nearer to each other than three inches, they should be thinned out, which will finish the pruning for the summer season.

In the winter pruning, these must be looked over

again, and wherever there are any natural spurs, the artificial ones must be cut out close, so as to give them room; and such of the older ones which have produced fruit reduced in length, by cutting off that part which produced the fruit to the next bud: this will keep the spurs close, and render them productive.

Trained Pears, both as espaliers and against walls, through negligence and mismanagement, always abound with long naked spurs, not one in twenty of which produces fruit; and on those which do, it is small, ill-shaped, and worthless. When trees are found in this state, those spurs must be reduced by degrees, cutting some clean out where they have stood too close together, and shortening others. On the neck part of some of these long spurs, there will be frequently one or two good buds to be found; if so, the spurs must be cut back to those buds; and where there are none, they should be shortened to within one or two inches of the main branch. In the course of the following summer there will, in all probability, be buds formed at their base, where the old spurs should at the winter pruning be finally removed.

In the course of two or three years, by following up this method, the trees in most cases may be reduced into a fruit-bearing state; if, however, they have been too long and too much neglected to be reduced in this manner, they must be headed down.

Pears against Walls.

The management of this description of wall trees scarcely differs from that of the espalier: they should be formed in the same manner, by having an upright stem furnishing horizontal branches on each side, and which require both in the winter and summer a similar

treatment.

The spurs on wall trees can only be allowed from the