Horizontal training is perhaps the simplest mode of all, and is the one which we have seen to be in most general use for the Pear about all old places. A considerable number of old Apples may still be seen trained after this fashion, but as a rule it is seldom used for them now. It is, however, still in very general use for the Pear, and, when well done, looks very neat. The first pruning of the maiden tree is exactly the same as for the fan - viz., cut over about one foot from the ground, leaving three nice plump buds, one on either side for the branches, and one right in front for the leader. The second year, if the side-shoots are good and well ripened, I would not recommend them to be cut at winter pruning-time, but simply be laid in at an angle of about 45° to encourage the future growth of the branches; for, if they are cut, whatever portion of the shoots is removed is simply thrown away, as no side branches are required to spring from them as in the case of the fan; and, consequently, the cutting back in the one was to encourage the formation of branches, while the refraining from doing so in the other is intended to have an opposite tendency.

The leader must, however, be cut back to whatever distance is intended to be between the branches - viz., if one foot is the distance, cut the leader back to that, endeavouring, if possible, to have the buds situated as formerly, one on each side and one on the front. Next year, at pruning-time, the same course is pursued with regard to pruning, and so on every year until the wall is filled up. The branches, left at an angle of 45° the first year, are brought down to 25° the second, and to their permanent position the third; and this course is also pursued during the whole time of forming the tree, the reason for which has already been given (see page 61, February number).

As already stated, we do not think this so good a method, for various reasons. It does not look so pretty, nor yet does it produce better or more certain crops than the fan, and, to crown all, it takes much longer time to fill up a given space. Take, for example, a wall 15 feet high, which is a good average height, and thus it will be seen a tree trained after this method takes fifteen years from the graft ere it reaches the top; and supposing each tree was planted 24 feet from its neighbour, 360 square feet of wall will be thus devoted to the use of one tree alone. At the end of fifteen years, however, the tree reaches the top, and if all side branches have grown equally strong, and granting that each shoot increased its length by 1 1/2 feet every year, it will still take eight years more before the whole space intended for the tree is occupied, making it thus twenty-three years old before it fulfils the expectations of the planter. In the case of the fan, however, it is quite different, as will be seen by looking at it in the following way: - By the fifth or at most by the sixth year, all the branches required to fill up the given space will be formed, and if we allow that the furthest from the top is 12 feet, it will thus be seen that in eight years more the wall will be filled up if they grow at the rate of 1 1/2 feet per annum, the same as we have allowed for the horizontal.

By this calculation we have to add six and eight years, which makes fourteen, and subtract it from twenty-three, which leaves nine years in favour of the fan.

There are several other modes of training Pears upon walls, one or two of which may be here noticed - viz., the herring-bone fan, the oblique, and curvilinear; but these, as well as many other forms, are modifications of the two which I have already described, and, with the exception of the curvilinear, which is sometimes very useful where it may be necessary to have recourse to it in the case of a very stronggrowing variety - where it might tend more to balance the tree and induce an equal distribution of sap throughout its branches - we consider them no improvement upon the fan and horizontal. The herring-bone fan is nothing more than a tree pruned as if intended for a horizontal - its lower branches being laid along the bottom of the wall, the next laid at a slight angle, each branch having more of an angle than the one below it, until the branches near the top are running upon a pretty sharp angle, resembling the disposition of the branches in a fan-trained tree, while the upright stem is retained and cut yearly, the same as in the horizontal.

Oblique training is identical with horizontal, so far as pruning is concerned, while the branches are all trained permanently at any angle from 25° to 45°. This method has this fault, that a considerable portion of the wall is left entirely without branches towards the bottom. The curvilinear is certainly worthy of notice in such cases as have already been indicated, and may be done in the following manner: - Cut the maiden tree over about 18 inches from the ground, leaving two good buds at the top, one in front for a leader, and the other to form a branch either to right or left - whatever direction it is most likely to suit. This leader may be laid in straight to the wall for 1 foot, the remaining 6 inches being drawn about 3 inches from the straight in the direction the bud for the upper side-branch indicates. In spring, when the buds have started, rub off all the eyes below the two spoken of to the place where the leader goes off at an angle, where a strong bud ought to be left to form a branch for the opposite side.

In the following year prune and train in the manner already directed for horizontal trees, cutting the leader about 1 foot from the upper branch, and laying the branches in the same way as recommended for the horizontal, by bringing them down year by year till they all run on a level. The leader is to be treated .year by year as it has been for the first until the wall is filled, when it will have a far more imposing appearance than a regular horizontal, as, besides having the twisted stem, the branches will be alternate all the tree over, from bottom to top. The principal object in view by this mode of training is to check the rapid rush of sap to the upper branches of a tree to the detriment and loss of the under ones, and this twisting of the stem has that tendency, as the cellular tissue is to a certain extent broken and wounded.