18T6.J 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



335 



from 2 to 3 inches of air on all night, both at 

 back and front, according to the state of the 

 weather, and give very little fire-heat, except 

 when the vines are in bloom, until the grapes 

 begin to color. The inside border gets a thorough 

 soaking with watei- three times a year — at start- 

 ing with clean water, again after the berries 

 have set, and, finally, just before they begin to 

 color, with guano-water. Under this treatment 

 the leaves grow large and leathery, which, with 

 Avell-ripened wood, I consider to be the secret of 

 getting large bunches of grapes of good quality. 

 — John Curror, of Eskhank, Dalkeith, in Garden. 



Pruning Fruit Trees in Japan. — The Garden 

 reports a conversation with an intelligent Japan 

 gentleman, as follows : " The pruning of fruit 

 trees is considered a matter of very great im- 

 portance, and exact rules are laid down for the 

 pruning of each particular kind of tree. For in- 

 stance, in the case of pears, which are largely 

 cultivated between Yokohama and Yeddo, and 

 Avhich in the commoner kinds sometimes form 

 large trees, the stems are grown to something 

 over the height of a man, at which point the 

 branches are trained in a horizontal position on 

 bamboo trellises, so that a whole orchard will be 

 covered with a flat roof of branches, under which 

 one may walk and gather the fruit with the 

 hand. The fruit is almost spherical in shape, 

 about the size of a child's fist, and is covered 

 with a greenish-yellow skin, spotted like a 

 Reinette apple. It is very juicy, but abounds in 

 stringy threads like an old radish, and is far 

 inferior in flavor to any of our good kinds of 

 pear. The Japanese, however, think they are 

 superior to our pears — a matter of taste. The 

 Kakis require a special mode of culture. The 

 principal object aimed at is to have large trees, 

 and, to this end, they cause them to rest every 

 other year, that is to say, they allow them 

 to bear fruit one year, and hinder them from 

 doing so the following year by twisting the fruit- 

 bearing shoots. Moreover, it is requisite that 

 the trees should produce deep-searching and 

 strong roots. To obtain these, the principal 

 roots are surrounded with a coating of clay 

 mixed with stones, which prevents the formation 

 of small lateral rootlets. The soil also must be 

 of such a nature that the roots will not meet 

 with water until they have descended to a con- 

 siderable depth. In pruning plum trees, the 

 branches are allowed to retain their natural 

 mode of growth, but they are always pruned so 



as to allow the wind to pass through them 

 readily. A free circulation of air through the 

 branches is particularly insisted on. 



QUERIES. 



Fire Blight in the Pear. — J. McP., writes : 

 " I have had quite a good deal to do with the 

 fire blight on the pear this year, and I have to 

 say that Mr. Meehan's friend would require a 

 very powerful instrument to detect fungi on the 

 affected branches. Quite a number of people 

 believe that the trees are struck by lightning; 

 and certainly the so-called blight of this year be- 

 came evident almost immediately after one of 

 those peculiar storms of thunder, lightning and 

 rain, during which the whole atmosphere seemed 

 charged with electricity. Now, the fungus maj' 

 require that condition of the atmosphere to gal- 

 vanize it into growth — who can tell ? But if the 

 the ' blight ' is the effect of the lightning alone, 

 then I Avould certainly suggest to some scientific 

 amateur the use of cheap bar iron lightning 

 rods, set well in the ground and rising above the 

 trees. This idea was patented in England some 

 years ago as a preventive of mildew in French 

 vineyards, and it would, if applied here, very 

 likely clear up a fallacy." 



[We believe microscopists generally have 

 powerful instruments. Certainly electricity may 

 have something to do with the disease, and so 

 may lots of other things. When we come to 

 what may he causes, one man's guess is quite as 

 good as another's. The lightning rod sugges- 

 tion does not amount to much, as every branch 

 of a tree is already a rod, and each leaf as good 

 as a platina point. Already houses and barns 

 with rods are often destroyed by lightning, — 

 some say just as often as those without rods. 

 Tliis being the case with buildings, what would 

 the rod prove in the tree ? Dr. Hunt is too good 

 a microscopist to be deceived in his observa- 

 tions that fungi caused the fire blight; still it is 

 proper to add that Prof. Farlow, who has been 

 studying fire blight this season, does not find 

 any fungus, but cannot imagine any adequate 

 cause for the appearances. On the other hand 

 it may be noted that the Editor of this magazine 

 stood alone once in showing from analogy that 

 the plum knot could not be the work of an in- 

 sect. It has now been demonstrated by Prof. 

 Farlow to be a fungus, as we showed it must be. 



