THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 29 



When we came to the pruning, we cut clean away every dead branch, and 

 made only a moderate thinning where the trees were crowded, for I determined 

 that a too severe use of the knife might prove injurious. All the wounds in 

 the stems were stopped with clay and tarred over, and a week afterwards we 

 went over the stoppings, and repaired any that had cracked, and laid on a fresh 

 coat of tar. Many of the trees that appeared scarcely worth the labour were 

 felled, and a few, for experiment's sake, were grafted, in the following March, 

 on the old stocks ; but as few of them have come to any good, I shall say 

 nothing about it beyond this — that, if a tree decays owing to inefficient root- 

 action, re-grafting the stock is just a waste of time and labour. In dressing 

 the pears — of which we had a hundred Bon Chretien, and about two hundred 

 and fifty other kinds — mostly Standard Beurre Diel, Swan's Egg, and Catillac — 

 we made a regular thinning of the branches, but not to the extent that they 

 required — for I never like to deal rashly with anything, and prefer summer 

 pruning as the safest. But the greatest trouble we had with these was owing 

 to the suckers, which formed a sort of little forest round every tree, and in 

 some cases had started up between the rows at fifteen or twenty feet distance 

 from the stems. But, as the trees were generally healthy, and, to all appear- 

 ance, had done well, we determined to take a little extra trouble with them. 

 We had a stack of turf burning at the time, and we carted up from the river-side 

 an immense quantity of sedge and clay, and burnt this with the turf ; and when 

 we had got a good stock, I had all hands to work at the roots of the pear trees. 

 We took off the top spit, cutting away all the suckers at the same time, but 

 doing as little injury as possible to the surface fibres ; and then, at a distance 

 of five feet from each tree, cut a deep circular trench, and cut in every root to 

 that boundary. We then filled in the trenches with rubble, consisting of brick- 

 bats, old mortar, and other dry rubbish, which we rammed in as hard as pos- 

 sible ; and over the surface of the exposed roots, within the circumference of 

 the trench, we laid down six inches of turf, and over that a layer of the charred 

 rubbish, and then some of the original surface soil, to the same level as it was 

 before. 



As for the bush fruits, we literally slaughtered them. The currants had 

 been originally planted at only three feet distant each way, and had all grown 

 together into " bush ; " but, in spite of that, the long rods, which, the previous 

 season, had not been shortened, were splendidly covered with fruit buds, and 

 the black currant and gooseberries had abundance of young stems, as well as a 

 wilderness of watery spray. The red and white currants we cut to skeletons, 

 taking out from their base every ill-placed shoot, so as to leave the bushes 

 open ; and in shortening in the previous summer growth, respect was paid, as 

 much as possible, to the clusters of buds at the base of each — so characteristic 

 of the fruiting of these useful trees. We at the same time took out every 

 other bush all over each plantation, forked in some half-rotten dung over the 

 whole surface, and burnt about a thousand of those that were removed. 



In February we planted between every thirty-feet row of fruit trees, black 

 currants, which like partial shade and a moist bottom ; on the higher and drier 

 portions we made plantations of gooseberry ; and on the low, flat clay near the 

 river, we planted red Autwerp and Fastolf raspberry. I then made up a 

 nursery — got plenty of Paradise and Quince stocks, and the next spring took 

 scions from all the best sorts of apple and pear, adding scions of other sorts not 

 in the collection ; and now I have such a stock of young stuff, that I shall be 

 able to plant twelve acres with young apples, pears, and cherries, and, having 

 raised a few thousand young red and black currants from the best canes taken 

 at winter prunings, shall soon have a fine collection to replace those that 

 have become old and useless. 



I expected a good result from draining and dressing, and was not dis- 

 appointed. The trees have ever since borne well, and are getting their gaps 

 well filled up with new wood, and are pictures of health. Last season, our 



