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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February 2, 1885. 



its leaves are now waving in front of his house, enjoying 

 the great heat of our present weather (August 11). Soon 

 he hoped to see them waving iu a favourable situation in 

 Arran. He might mention that he saw yesterday in the 

 possession of James AVilson, Esq., Kilmarnock, a walking- 

 stick of Grass-tree wood. It had been shown at the 

 Dunediu Industrial Exhibition. 



Miscellaneous Plants, not Australian. — Camellia (blooms 

 freely), Myrtle (blooms abundantly), Budleia globosa (in 

 bloom, very beautiful) ; Desfoutainea spinosa, 7 feet 6 inches 

 high, and covered with flowers ; Photinia serrulata, Elae- 

 agnus reflexa variegata, Euonymus latifolius aureus, 4 feet 

 inches high ; Coccoloba vespertilionis, Platanus orieutalis, 

 3 feet 8 inches iu girth ; Se.hizostylis coccinea, blooms most 

 abundantly every year; Cunniaghamia sinensis (Chinese 

 broad-1 aved Fir), planted in 1858 by the late Mr. Townley. 

 ■ — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



PRUNING FKUIT TREES. 



The papers noted iu the two previous weeks' numbers 

 of the Gardeners' Chronicle have been chiefly expositions 

 of the reasons why such and such operations are performed 

 on our fruit trees, but as yet the novice at his work would 

 not be quite sure as to the methods to be adopted in 

 carrying them out in practice. In view of this dilemma 

 we will speak now of this, the practical part, for although 

 a man may be acquainted with the science of his subject, 

 if he cannot whet his knife well, and know when and 

 where to use it, the filling of his fruit-room, and the furn- 

 ishing the table and the kitchen, will be generally a 

 matter of uncertainty, or he may in the absence of know- 

 ledge elect to let his fruit trees get into the distressing 

 state which a correspondent tells us the Devon orchards 

 are exhibiting. 



Having an object iu pruning our trees, we will say now 

 what that is ; it is to fit the tree to the wall, if it be a 

 tender fruit, and if a hardy one, to the espalier, or to form 

 it into a standard or a pyramid or any modification of 

 these. Then pruning and training must go together, for 

 we can hardly speak of the one and be silent about the 

 other. We will take for illustration a tender subject, the 

 Peach, which refuses iu this country to ripen either its 

 wood or its fruit away from the forcing aid of a sunny 

 wall. The plant arrives from the nursery, we will assume, 

 as a maiden, that is, a little tree one year old; from the 

 bud it is well ripened, and should not be very gross, or 

 else it will be found that the large wounds necessarily 

 made on it heal only after the lapse of two seasons, leav- 

 ing a piece of dead snag under the healthy bark, which 

 often developes into an unhealthy wound. The tree baring 

 been planted in the early autumn should be pruned after 

 the hard frosts of February are past — not earlier, else it 

 will be so long ere the sap rises and cicatrising of the cut 

 begins; and owing to that the shoot may die further back 

 to the loss of the bud; and if pruning be delayed till 

 growth has begun there is so much sap lost, besides, the 

 sap having acquired certain directions at the outset, is 

 diverted with difficulty later. The best form for the Peach 

 being the fan, or some slight modification of it, the young 

 tree will need the foundation of the main branches formed 

 at first, and this is best done by cutting it back to 2 inches 

 iu length, or even less; from this stump, and chiefly from 

 the dormant and almost indistinguishable buds lying buried 

 in the bark, these main shoots will take their rise. After 

 cutting back, the tree should be only lightly attached to 

 the wall, as the newly-moved soil will settle yet more, 

 carrying the roots with it. When growth commences the 

 young growths are most misplaced — that is, those directly 

 iu front and those springing out from the back, none of 

 which could be made to do duty as main branches without 

 forming ugly, and, so far as the flow of sap is concerned, 

 injurious bends. Then the shoots may be left for a week 

 or so longer, when the final choice must be made, those 

 being retained that are best placed, say two on either side 

 or only one. The nursery trade usually adopt the practice 

 of keeping three, em- central and two side shoots, but 

 stronger shoots can do more than this. During growth 

 there may be some regulation of these shoots necessary, 

 the tree may grow weaker on one side than the other. 



In that case it will be as well to unloose the weak side 

 from the wall, or depress the strong side shoots for a 

 lew weeks until balance is restored, at the same time 

 pruning off a few of the leaves on that side. The next 

 winter having arrived, the operator must still prune for 

 wood, i.e., the shoots made the previous summer must be 

 cut to about inches in length, afterwards making selec- 

 tion of the best placed ones as before but leaving three 

 or four on each of the side shoots, and as many as it 

 may be possible to get equally distributed on the middle 

 one, which should have been cut back to 2 or 3 inches as 

 before. This is done for two reasons; in the first place, 

 because the shoots springing from it, being nearer the erect 

 line will benefit more by the flow of sap than those, and 

 being cut into the, dormant buds, will be later in developing 

 shoots, thus giving the side shoots a few weeks' start, 

 which is of great advantage to them, as the sap will have 

 acquired a current in their direction, that will always 

 afterwards be retained. The other reason for cutting the 

 middle shoot so hard back is to do away with an upright 

 stem, always an objectionable feature in stone fruit trees, 

 as when by auy chance the shoots should be lost from this, 

 they are scarcely ever fully replaced by new growths. 



The regulation and pruning off of all unnecessary laterals, 

 and the raising or depressing of shoots, must be attended 

 to as before, the tree now beginning to assume the in- 

 tended form. In the following February the main shoots 

 must be again pruned back, but not so hard, and may be 

 left at 15 inches or more in length, and the centre shoots 

 having become numerous, have no need to be kept so much 

 in check, nor yet be so bard cut back to obtain shoots. It 

 will, nevertheless, be essential to control the almost vertical 

 growths by fastening them first of all to the wall, whilst 

 the young wood of the side branches may be allowed free- 

 dom from all training for two or three weeks, thereby 

 giving strength to these, but checking the two rash growth 

 of those. If this should not be found a sufficient check 

 to the central growths, some of the leaves may be cut off, 

 or only the half of a leaf taken over the greater part of 

 the shoots ; this, with bending the shoots with their points 

 towards the earth, will usually effect the purpose intended 

 — the forcing the sap into the side branches. After equal- 

 isation of growth becomes evident, the hitherto loose shoots 

 may be fastened in. The pruning and restriction will now 

 begin to bear fruits, and flower-buds will form themselves 

 on the twigs, which have now become more numerous. In 

 the third year, if the tree has made good progress, a few 

 fruits may be looked for, and the bloom-bearing shoots 

 cut back into ripe wood. The fruiting of the tree at this 

 date must be ascribed more to the treatment it has re- 

 ceived in having the weak and crowding shoots cut away, 

 and by reason of its wood by those operations getting fuller 

 exposure to the sun. and by the multiplication of impedi- 

 ments to the free passage of the sap, which a large rami- 

 fication of the branches causes. These impediments cause 

 the sap to move sluggishly, which in itself l<sads to the 

 formation of fruit-buds. 



Nature acts in the tree as if under our treatment it 

 were iu imminent danger of being killed, and therefore 

 endeavours to reproduce its kind by seed (fruit) before 

 that event occurs. The successive treatment of our typical 

 tree follows pretty nearly on the lines laid down in the 

 later years of its formation, using the pruning knife spar- 

 ingly in early spring, but cutting away misplaced shoots, 

 and those not required during growth, and endeavouring 

 to so treat the remaining wood by keeping it thinly dis- 

 tributed over the tree that it gets the maximum of heat 

 and light. In making cuts, either in winter or summer, 

 great care should be taken to cut always at an obtuse 

 angle across the shoots, and so close to the bud that no 

 suag remains to die back, and to require for its removal 

 a second cutting-over at a later period. Long slanting 

 cuts, even if they end just above a bud. impoverish the 

 top bud, sometimes cause the portion left to wither up, 

 and are always a long time iu healing over on account of 

 their area. Shoots that are cutaway at their base should 

 never be cut without leaving a trifling stump, which, being 

 small, soon heals; whereas a wound as large as the actual 

 base "I a shoot would be a long time in doing so, and 

 would in all probability in stone fruits terminate in ob- 

 stinate gumming. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



