Dwarf Pear Trees Views
The use of dwarf apple- and pear-trees is becoming more general in nearly all parts of the States. Apple on Paradise roots and pear on quince are now popular for amateur use, and even market, in sections where the roots are not liable to be injured by winter. In the prairie States apple-trees budded on Pyrus Toringo and plum on sand-cherry (71. Some Native Stocks that Should be Used) stocks are coming into use, but as yet we have no dwarfing stock hardy enough for the pear.
The dwarf apple- or pear-tree as received from the nursery is usually given a rounded top secured by nursery pruning. Such trees are formed by heading back the one-year-old shoot about one foot from the ground and forming a rounded head by after-pruning. But if an approach to this form is kept up in orchard, continued attention must be given to pinching and heading back. Even the dwarf pear without the annual shortening of the new growth will soon reach undue proportions for a dwarf, even if it does not root from the scion when planted quite deeply.
As the years go on apple-, pear-, cherry-, and plum-trees, trained as shown in Fig. 59, will become as common in this country as in Europe. It is known as simple cordon-training, and with dwarf apples and pears, and small growing varieties of the plum and Morello cherries, it is about as simple and easy as growing grapes on a wired trellis. At first those unacquainted with the system will say that it is an unnatural plan to adopt with trees. But the same may be said of the grape naturally running to the top of tall trees. With the tops all trained to the south, or indeed in any direction, along a road or walk, with the top of one tree meeting the stem of the next one, they form an unbroken growth, giving a handsome effect when loaded with fruit. In starting, the young trees are planted about ten feet apart and grow vertically at first and at proper height are bent for horizontal training along the wire.
As, at the present time, there are many (some of them extraordinary) accounts relative to dwarf pear trees - their produce and its market value - and as my experience in their cultivation does not accord with much that I read respecting them, I will, with yonr permission, give your readers a four years' history of about seventy of them, premising that they have been well taken care of and received all the kind attentions their most sanguine advocates could desire in the way of annual manuring, spring pruning, summer pinching, mulching; etc., etc.
Dwarf Pear Trees Images
