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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



told. Yet, perhaps something may 

 be said with the object of rendering 

 it easy for the amateur to teach him- 

 self; and it is only in the hope of 

 doing this that I have taken up the 

 subject ; I do not, cannot, and will 

 not attempt to teach on paper that 

 which can be learnt only by actual 

 observation, long continued among 

 the trees themselves, and at the price 

 of many mistakes. 



Let us first note a few funda- 

 mental facts, upon the influence and 

 meaning of which much of our prac- 

 tice depends. Every tree grows more 

 or less in the same manner when 

 young, forming at first a few vigorous 

 shoots, and as these again lengthen 

 in subsequent seasons, the wood 

 originally formed throws out small 

 twigs or spurs, which ultimately 

 produce fruit. Usually the first 

 season of grafting, the graft starts 

 away, and forms a stiff, strong leader, 

 with perhaps two or three side- 

 shoots. If we leave it unpruned, the 

 leader extends itself, the nest season 

 more side-shoots are produced, and 

 the first-formed side-shoots produce 

 laterals and embryo spurs. The 

 tendency of the sap is always -upwards, 

 hence, if we take a leading shoot at 

 the end of the season, and nail it to a 

 wall in a horizontal position, it will 

 the next year extend itself very little. 

 It may produce spurs the whole of 

 its length, or it may produce side- 

 shoots the whole of its length, and it 

 may produce spurs and side-shoots 

 in about equal proportions. If, in 

 the month of March, you were to 

 ask a practical cultivator what sort 

 of growth he should expect from the 

 leading shoot which you had trained 

 horizontally, he would tell you to 

 expect from near its base a strong 

 shoot, and if a strong shoot came at 

 the base, then, probably, as that 

 strong shoot would use the chief part 

 of the sap of the tree, the horizontal 

 shoot would be unable to produce 

 side-shoots, and would produce spurs 

 instead. In all cases there must be 

 a tree first, there must be leaders 

 and side-shoots, and when these are 

 formed we may hope to see fruit 

 spurs, and thereafter fruit. 



The interest that attaches to the ' 



cultivation of miniature trees arises 

 principally from the fact, that they 

 are, by the peculiar treatment they 

 receive, induced to form fruit spurs 

 much earlier than they would do if 

 allowed to grow naturally. The first 

 matter of importance is to graft them 

 upon suitable stocks ; those stocks, 

 cccteris paribus, being the best which 

 afford to the scion but a limited sup- 

 ply of sap, for abundance of sap 

 produces wood, a less supply induces 

 fruitfuluess. We see an exemplifica- 

 tion of this in the lower parts of the 

 ripe shoots of strong trees ; for the 

 lower parts of those shoots have 

 less sap than the topmost parts of the 

 shoots, hence fruit buds are formed, 

 but where the sap is rushing upwards 

 with full vigour, there few and strong 

 shoots are produced. Proper stocks 

 are therefore not only desirable, but 

 necessary, as if the stocks communi- 

 cate an excessive vigour to the grafts, 

 no pruning, and, indeed, no artificial 

 treatment will convert them into 

 handsome and fruitful miniature 

 trees. But supposing the stocks to 

 be right in each case, the next point 

 is to determine what is to be the 

 shape of the future tree. Now, there 

 is one imperious dictator on such 

 matters : let Dame Nature pronounce 

 what in each particular case is to be 

 the shape of the tree. Some kinds 

 of pears, apples, plums, etc., are 

 naturally of slow growtb, and pro- 

 duce short twigs abundantly ; others 

 of strong, vigorous habit, will make 

 long rods. It is best not to violate 

 the natural habit of the variety ; let 

 us take a long rod, and form it to a 

 spindle or distaff, as represented in 

 Floral World, vol. vi., p. 52. In 

 my fruit-garden I have some Jar- 

 gonelle pears grown in this way ; 

 they are as straight as scaffold-poles, 

 and in winter look like scaffold-poles, 

 into which thousands of tenter-hooks 

 have been driven. In each case 

 the graft made a straight shoot 

 which was allowed to grow its full 

 length. The next season the side- 

 buds began to push, and were 

 pinched. The trees resented this in- 

 terference by throwing out side-shoots 

 innumerable after every pinching; but 

 these were again pinched, and so the 



