32G THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



should devote his energies only to the production of fruits worth 

 extra pains and labour, as, for example, the Stanwick Nectarine, the 

 "Walburton Admirable Peach, the tender Melon and Mother Apples, 

 the Blue Iraperatrice Plum. Glass provides a better climate than a 

 bare wall, and it is a waste of glass to employ it solely for such 

 things as the bare w;ill will produce in perfection. As to the con- 

 struction of orchard-houses, we are no advocates for ugly sheds and 

 hideous makeshiftb\ At page 249 of our fourth volume, we asked 

 " How do these rough shed-like houses serve their intended pur- 

 poses ?" and the answer was at once given, " Very inefficiently. 

 They are as bad for use as they are ugly in appearance." Orchard- 

 houses require to be well built, and the larger they are the better, 

 coDsifetently, of course, with the space and means at command, and 

 the particular purposes to which they are to be devoted. 



Miniature trees have pretty well had their day, and there is a 

 strong, reaction in favour of free stocks in preference to such as 

 have a dwarfing tendency. On some poor thin soils, the quince, the 

 paradise, and thcMahaleb stocks are of the utmost value for the pro- 

 duction of pears, apples, and cherries ; but on all good loams and clays, 

 on all fertile soil?:, trees grafted respectively on the pear, the crab, 

 and the wild cherry are far preferable, for though they do not 

 become fruitful so early, they make far better and more fruitful 

 trees in the end, and as to early fruitfulues^^, that may be promoted 

 with free stocks by judicious annual or biennial lifting and root 

 pruning. This may sound very heretical doctrine, but we are speak- 

 ing from experieiice and observation, and we are satisfied that the 

 dwarfing stocks have had far too much praise bestowed upon them. 

 Suppose that from a bush three feet liigh we obtain a couple of 

 dozen fruits, and from a tree five feet high none at all. The first 

 tree is in a conditic^n beyond which it can scarcely improve ; the 

 second is actually improving, and in two or three years will give as 

 many bushels as the other w^ill of single fruits. We cheerfully and 

 openly admit the service that dwarfing stocks have rendered. Por 

 very small collections, where variety is of more consequence than a 

 bulk of any one sort, and the cultivator desires a maximum of 

 amusement from a minimum of garden ground, these miniature 

 trees are admirable. But we repeat, there has been too much said 

 in praise of them, and we must keep to the free stocks if we want 

 lasting and productive trees. 



This brings us to the subject of pinching. Let us have before 

 us an imaginary apple-tree. It is first of all worked on a dwarfing 

 stock, to check its growth ; it is naxt stuck in a pot, further to 

 check its growth ; it is next pinched periodically all the growing season 

 to check Its growth, and in the end w^here is the apple-tree ? It has 

 become a miserable little shrub, producing nothing but green-fly or 

 red spider ; but yonder is another tree of the same sort, on a free 

 stock, growing in its own way, and producing annually many 

 bushels of fine fruit. Pinching is the companion delusion to pot 

 culture. It won't do! There are occasions when pinching may 

 be practised to advantage ; but in every such case it must be dis- 

 continued early, or the trees will be full of soft shoots w^hen the 



