356 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



eat healthy food,— and that is, it keeps the roots "near home," 

 when one knows where they are and when to apply the food when 

 they need it. The space thus occupied should never be dug for crop- 

 ping purposes, for digging destroys the best roots, and they resist it 

 by going deep down where they will not be disturbed, but where cold 

 unfruitful sap will be sucked up. Where the roots are allowed to 

 wander everywhere, cropping over their roots becomes necessary, for 

 whole roods of ground can seldom be spared in any garden, far less 

 small ones, for the roots of the wall-trees alone. 



Large growing trees should be planted about 18 feet apart in 

 a wall 12 feet high, and closer on walls that are higher, and wider 

 on lower walls. If the soil is at all good, each tree should ultimately 

 cover 240 square feet or thereabout, and something like this should be 

 allowed for their development. For the sake of covering the walls 

 from the first, riders (w^all-trained standards on six feet stems) should 

 be planted alternately with the others, and grubbed out when the 

 others need the space. A. H. H. 



HINTS FOR AMATEURS. 



HARDY FEUITS. 



A GENERAL Overhauling of the whole stock may now be made. Many 

 are the systems adopted with pruning and trimming in the autumn, which 

 come to much the same thing in the end. Some enthusiastic friends go 

 over all their pyramids and bush-fruits, breaking over their outer shoots 

 to stop growth. The broken twigs, dangling and hanging among the 

 healthy leaves, are certainly not pretty. Others go over all and nip off 

 the tops according to length of shoots, and towards leaf-falling cut all 

 to their proper length. A third system, and one we think good, is to 

 go over the trees, cutting moderately in, say, the upper portion ; in two 

 or three weeks cut back the middle portion ; and, lastly, after a week 

 or two, cut in the lower portion, according as the shape of tree and its 

 vigour may dictate. The checking of growth by partly lifting, so that 

 the tree gets ready for next year's work, is a practice we consider safe ; 

 and we hope, before this appears in print, to have served some scores 

 in this manner. We dislike extremes in every form when working 

 on fruit-trees. Wall-trees should now be in good trim : the fruit 

 well exposed, and all wood for next season close in its proper quarters, 

 so that sun and air may reach every part. Notwithstanding what we 

 say about the success of some who leave Nature to take its own course, 

 to slash out or twist a shoot into space, as circumstances may sug- 

 gest, is all that some attempt. These would certainly be none the 

 worse if they used a little skill in training and making their walls (gables 

 of houses, sheds, outhouses, &c., as often are the only walls of amateurs, 

 look more creditable. 



