18 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



We have for a long time been saying in effect to our trees, *' If you 

 don't bear fruit for us, we shall kill you by inches." 



These remarks are written almost within the shadow of an old 

 Marie Louise Pear-tree, a standard 30 feet high, whose branches cer- 

 tainly have not felt the knife for many years. Side by side are 

 equally large and old trees of Brown Beurr6 and Flemish Beauty, and* 

 many more, with boles 1 2 inches in diameter, mossy standards which 

 bear bushels of fruit ; but we must say the size would be larger if the 

 wood and fruit were thinner, and not left just so much in care of 

 themselves. We believe that culture in every instance does not con- 

 sist so much in the use of the knife ; and even the quality of soil is 

 secondary if climate is suitable to the subject — by climate we mean 

 the average heat and moisture in the atmosphere. Much has been 

 said and written on the climate of France, as compared with our own, 

 bearing on the culture of fruit, some insisting that the difference in 

 climate is nil, but that we fail in England in the matter of training, 

 pruning, grafting, and pinching. Covent Garden, however, solves the 

 difficulty, and our orchards improve as they advance southwards 

 from York to Hereford, through Somerset to the Channel Islands, 

 and thence to France. We suspect the French will have out-door 

 fruit in spite of their clever vivisection and training. The chief 

 reason for growing fruit-trees in pots is, that we may be able to afford 

 them a southern climate under glass, with the facility of moving them 

 at certain times when desired. With a climate such as the southern 

 counties of England and France enjoy, all pruning with a view to re- 

 striction is undoubtedly wrong and unprofitable. For the same reason 

 all restriction of fruit-trees under glass is in the end also unprofitable, if 

 the aim be continued crops of fruit. It is climate, also, which compels 

 the cultivator to have recourse to budding and grafting, as w^ell as for 

 the perpetuation of varieties. In America and Australia the Peach 

 has no need of being worked on the Plum ; it does not require a hardy 

 foster-parent to supply it with its daily food. The same must be said 

 of many other varieties of fruit-trees. If this idea was more kept in 

 view — the idea of the importance of climate over cutting and training 

 of trees — how much it would simplify the operations of the gardener, 

 and dry up the fountains of ink which overflow in elaborate diffu- 

 sion on the mysteries of cutting and hewing the tree from its infancy 

 to its death ! The all-important ripening of the wood is the effect of 

 climate. Where such is deficient it is often expedient to root-prune 

 or periodically remove trees. The check to growth simulates the 

 effects of heat for a time. The same benefits would often result from 

 allowing the tree more freedom to expand itself in growth. We have 

 before us evidence on an unfortunately large scale of the injudicious, 



