Grafting And Budding

Mr. Loudon has collected together the following good directions upon these subjects: -

"The most common stocks for grafting the pear, are the common pear and the wilding; but as the apple, is dwarfed and brought more early into a bearing state by grafting on the pawell, on the white beam, medlar, service, or apple; but the wilding and quince are in most general use. Pears, on free stocks, grow luxuriantly in good soil on a dry bottom; those on wildings grow less rapidly, but are deemed more durable, and they will thrive on the poorest soil, if a hardy variety and not over pruned." "On the quince," Miller observes, "breaking pears are rendered gritty and stony; but the melting sorts are much improved; trees on these stocks may be planted in a moist soil with more success than those on wildings or thorns." On the thorn, pears come very early into bearing, continue prolific, and, in respect to soil will thrive well on a strong clay, which is unsuitable both to those on quinces and wildings; and the grafts or buds require to be inserted very low that the moisture of the earth may tend to favour the swelling or enlargement of the diameter of the stock, which does not increase proportionally to, nor ever attains the same size as the stem of the pear.

Du-breuil, a French gardener, recommends the quince stock for clayey and light soils, and the free stock for chalky and siliceous soils. - Enc. Gard.

The suggestion of Mr. D. Montgomery, gardener to the duke of Montrose, is also worthy of adoption, viz., that by grafting the alternate branches of late pear-trees with early sorts, and early trees with late sorts, there are two chances of success, the early sort being very early in blossom; if that fails in consequence of unfavourable weather, the late sort, flowering at another time, may succeed. Farther, the early sort ripens off before much effort is required from the tree to support the late sort; hence, each sort in its season is brought to greater maturity. - Hort. Trans.

Soil

A dry loam, when the pear is grafted upon a pear stock; but moister, if grafted upon the quince, is suitable. Two feet depth of soil is required, and tiles should be placed beneath the young trees to prevent their/rooting deeper. If this be attended to, and the soil be thoroughly underdrained, the subsoil is not of much consequence. A gravelly subsoil is to be preferred.

Pruning Standards is not often required, and when necessary it is only to remove crowded, diseased, and cross-growing branches. This may be done at any season, unless the branch to be removed is large, in which case it had better be amputated early in the spring, before the sap is in motion. Their fruitfulness is increased if the branches are fastened down, so that their points are below the level of their bases.

The shoots of the current year are bent down when fully grown, about the end of July, and fixed in a pendent position by shreds of bass; in the course of the winter, these shreds are removed to admit of pruning, when the shoots are found to have taken a set; in the course of the summer, such as grow vigorously are again tied, the object being to check the vigour of the young shoots, and by impeding the return of the sap, to cause it to expend itself in these young shoots in the formation of blossom buds. - Gard. Mag. See Quenouille.