Summer pruning rests chiefly on the principle that the trees should always be open more or less while in leaf to the sun, the light, and the air. So cut out at any time branches that crowd the tree or threaten to cross other boughs. Cut from below, so as not to tear bark away. Pears do not bleed from being cut. In July, when the growing time is almost over, cut back to six or seven leaves any strong shoots springing from a main branch, or in cordons, from the stem. If they shoot again, they should again be stopped. In late autumn or winter look over the trees, reduce the shoots to two or three eyes, taking care not to remove bloom buds. Early in the summer, and at any time, remove from the trunk and boughs any shoots threatening to crowd or shade the centre. Keep the tree (especially the centre) open to sun and light. Even large standards are improved by summer pruning. Tree-pruners should be used where the shoots are out of hand-reach. Root pruning is also essential in strong soils where trees are too rank in growth and produce wood rather than fruit. Trees of all kinds may be root pruned with advantage in such soils, and also where the lower soil is bad. Open a trench 20, 30 or 40 inches from the stem (according to size of tree) until the coarse roots are reached. One-third the distance from the stem that the trees are in height is a rule suggested by a recent writer.[8] Cut back such roots with a sharp knife; drive the spade under the stem (if possible) to cut the tap roots, and any others going downwards. Open a trench half round one year, and if necessary attack the other half next year. Be careful not to prune too hard at first, or to injure the fibres. Begin in mid-October. If the ground below is very dry, give warm or rain water. Fruit blooms will probably appear next autumn. If young trees grow very luxuriantly, they may be lifted at the end of October with advantage. Cut the tap root and replant at once. Exposure of the roots is dangerous to vitality. Persons who prune their trees only in winter usually grow wood rather than fruit.
Marketing and Packing
Marketing depends greatly on the neighbourhood. Colour, size and quality ensure a sale everywhere, but only a constant supply of good fruit will attract retail dealers or the London salesmen. Poor stuff will not sell at a good market. The early fruits may be sent in flats (with tops) lent by the salesmen. But these are often lost and involve trouble and expense. Non-returnable boxes to contain half a bushel or a bushel are now in use, but such boxes are too large for the better fruits. Californian pears come to us in good condition in boxes containing each a few dozen fruits, each fruit being separately packed in tissue paper. French pears are also sent in boxes evenly graded and packed in one, two, or three layers. Small boxes bought by the gross are not dear. The following list is taken from Watson, vol. v. p. 369.
| Gross | |||
| Length. | Width. | Depth. | s. d. |
| 11½ in. | 10½ in. | 7½ in. | 32 6 |
| 15 in. | 6 in. | 7½ in. | 31 6 |
| 15 in. | 11 in. | 7 in. | 50 0 |
| 15 in. | 13 in. | 4 in. | 53 6 |
| 16 in. | 8 in. | 4 in. | 28 6 |
| —Blacknell. |
In the larger boxes, strong paper should be put round inside to prevent bruising. All fruit, however sent, should be even in size, of good quality, not diseased or bruised. Pears are more attractive when well packed than apples. Placed with their heads against the two opposite sides in two rows with the stems toward each in a box of suitable size, they may be made to fit closely so as to travel safely. The better and later sorts should be bedded in wood-wool and wrapped in tissue paper, white or coloured, with a sheet of paper between each layer, and the whole firmly packed. Loose fruit are sure to suffer. The contents of each box must be made so firm as not to be moved in the slightest degree. The G.E. and other railway companies provide cheap boxes of a suitable size and allow similar boxes also to be used if nailed. They must not be corded. Wire hinges and a fastening in front have been suggested. Nos. 3, 4 and 5 (G.E.R.), 2s. 6d., 3s., and 4s. per dozen are the best sizes. They will hold 18 to 24 fruits. On G.E.R. 20 lbs. can be sent for 4d. to London; 1d. extra is charged for every additional 5 lbs.; delivery is included. Such boxes could be readily stamped with the grower's name. The companies assist growers by publishing the names of those who have produce to sell.
Pears in an Unheated Orchard House
With skill and care pears may be successfully grown in an unheated orchard house. They may have apples for their companions, but not cherries, peaches, plums or apricots. The most convenient house is a span-roof from 20 to 24 feet wide, 10 to 12 feet high to the ridge of the roof, and 4½ to 6 feet at the sides. Ventilators should run round the sides 18 inches wide, and hinged at bottom; the top ventilators should be 3 feet wide by 15 inches, 7½ feet apart, on alternate sides of the ridge (Mr T. Somers Rivers, in Royal Horticultural Journal, vol. xxv., parts i., ii.). A good length for this breadth is 50 to 60 feet. A half-inch wire protection over the ventilators and an inner wired door may be as necessary (as a protection against birds), as it is for cherries. There should be a path made hard with clay and gravel through the centre. Some advise a concrete floor; others prefer to plunge their pots inside as well as out. A lean-to house from 6 to 9 feet wide against a south wall may be of great service. Cordons can be grown on the wall, or planted outside and trained indoors, like vines, near the glass. Trees in pots can also be placed there. With either house, some ground to which the trees in pots can be removed when all danger from frost is over is required. It should be warm and well sheltered. Maiden plants may be put into 8 or 10-inch pots in September, and cut back later on, but time is saved by purchasing older trees of nurserymen; 15 to 18-inch pots will be needed in a few years. If there is a concrete floor, the pots must be raised on bricks, that surplus water may pass off. If the pots are plunged, care must be taken that the water can run away. In June take them into the open air, plunge them in the ground within three inches of the rim, to keep them warm and moist, and to protect the trees from the wind. After the fruit is gathered, the trees should as a rule be repotted. Prepare a fresh pot with broken flints, etc., at the bottom, place a piece of turf on them, next a handful of soot, and some fine soil on that. Have ready some new soil made chiefly of good turfy loam, to which old mortar rubbish or road scrapings, wood ashes, guano, and bone-dust have previously been added. The whole should be well mixed. Then take the tree out with a ball of earth, remove the soil all round the ball with a pointed stick, shorten the rootlets around, and cut any coarse roots away with sharp pruning scissors. Place the topmost roots an inch and a half below the rim, then shake this compost among the roots, finally ramming the soil hard down into the pot. In two or three days soak the ball with rain or warm water. The trees are better in the house until re-established. Sprinkle the leaves daily with soft water. Close and keep the house moist. The pots can then be taken out and plunged once more. The house will probably be wanted. They must be carefully protected in severe weather; place ashes, earth, or manure around them. Another plan is to lay the pots on the ground and cover them with mats. Take them back to the house before the buds begin to move. Shape the trees in winter, and summer prune as may be necessary. They require syringing as well as rich feeding when carrying a crop. A mixture of poultry droppings or night soil (half a barrowful) added to the same amount of sifted soil and of wood ashes, with a peck of soot and a peck of bone dust, all made into a compost a few days before use, is a strong surface-dressing. A layer half an inch thick when the fruit is swelling should be given two or three times, and be watered down with a fine rose. Messrs Bunyard recommend cow manure mixed with malt combings, and (as an artificial) sulphate of ammonia.
Liquid manure (not strong nor cold) must also be given two or three times a week. The fruit must be thinned, and the trees never over-cropped. Large trees in 16 or 18-inch pots need the annual renewal of the soil rather than repotting. The flowers should be fertilised by the admission of bees, by shaking the trees in fine weather about mid-day, or by passing a light brush gently over the blooms from flower to flower. Change of diet as well as air, and frequent syringing with clear water (say Messrs Bunyard) are very necessary ("Modern Fruit Culture," p. 23). But a dry atmosphere is best when pear and plum trees are in flower. Syringing in the open air is good for all trees in dry weather after the fruit has set. The following is a good wash to be applied when the trees are brought into the house in January or February. Put a peck of fresh soot into a coarse sack, and hang it in a tub containing 30 or 40 gallons of water; leave it there for eight or ten days; then remove it and throw in half a peck of fresh lime. Mix well, then take off the surface scum. A decoction of quassia made by boiling 2 or 3 ozs. of chips to a gallon of water for twenty-five or thirty minutes (or steeped in soft water for twenty-four hours) added to the above is a useful insecticide. Syringe with this before the buds appear, but not again until the fruit is set, then once a week, or oftener, as occasion may require.
N. B.—Never repot until you have learnt that the ball and roots of the tree are thoroughly moist. Soak the ball, if necessary, for twenty minutes. In surface-dressing leave a space near the tree open, that you may see what water is wanted. Never give strong liquid manure. As severe frosts and dull weather sometimes occur in March when the trees are in bloom, some hot-water pipes (two rows of 4-inch) may be added if means allow. A span-roof house should run north and south. Only the choicest sorts should be deemed worthy of a house, such as Bon Chrétien, Souvenir du Congrès, B. Brown, B. Superfin, Louise Bonne, B. Hardy, Maréchal de la Cour, Marie Louise, D. du Comice, Josephine de Malines, Winter Nelis, Passe Crassanne, Bergamotte Esperen, and others.