the great uncertainty of its crop, the supply is very limited.

A Selection of Pears for a small Garden in the Southern and Midland Counties of England.

Northern Counties of England, and Southern of Scotland.

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