s 



IRISH GARDENING. 



lAMARV 



'rime will be saved In inakiiij,"- a louj^li plan 

 and one also j^'ets an idea ol uliat the bortki 

 will be like when linished. A small piece ol 

 spare i.'^round is a useful adjiniol to the border, 

 for here plants can be increased when dosirtd. 

 and if they are very small ami weak wluii 

 boui,'ht they can be planted until stronj,'er ; it 

 will be useful also for annuals and biennials 

 Althouij;h bv no iiKans a necessity, yet a Iranu- 

 is a ^-reat aid lor raisinj,'' annuals ; l\v this means 

 i^ood strong; plants will be in readiness to lake 

 the place ol bulbs in the border after their foliai^e 

 has died down. 



Plants like asters, lu'liantluis, iloroniiums, 

 \:c., should be di\ ided every two or three years. 

 Ho not chop around them, and just leave iIk' 

 centre part, because the centre of this kini.! ol 

 plant is the weakest part. The rij^hl ua\ is to 

 lift the whole clump, divide and plant back 

 the outside pieces, which will always be the 

 stronifest. The deep tap-rooting- plants, like 

 eryngium. g-ypsophila, stalice, only require to 

 be left alone, for they dislike disturbing-, and it 

 is only after two or three years from planting 

 that they give the best results. 



When a border is planted in autumn, or even 

 early spring"-, a good effect can be obtained the 

 following summer by filling up gaps with an- 

 nuals, but as a rule it is quite tu o years before 

 a border is seen at its best, wlien all the peren- 

 nials are established. 



irunino;. 



Ky Fkki). W". IIammono. 



Oi-" all the questions which inxolve differ- 

 ences of opinion amongst the g-ardening 

 fraternity, oftentimes causing fierce con- 

 troversy, there is none so productive of dis- 

 cussion as the subject of pruning. I believe very 

 often that the different treatments advocated 

 arise not .so much from radically opposed theories 

 as from the different objects which the pruners 

 have in view. For instance, the object of the 

 pruner of closely-planted bush apple trees is to 

 keep them within bounds, while that of another 

 pruning, orchard trees widely planted, is to 

 cause them to grow to the greatest size possible 

 compatible with fruiting. The absolutely essen- 

 tial things in pruning are to know what one is 

 aiming at, what object one has in view, and also 

 that the particular method we adopt will tend 



b^st to help us touaril that object, or, to sum it 

 up biielh, one should know ex.ictly why oul' 

 does every operation, what it effects and what 

 it leads to. 



Theie is so nuich oi the rule of thumb method 

 a(.lo|-)led with regard to prunir.g that 1 propose 

 in these artiJes not so nuich to lay down rules 

 as to how to prune, Init to show why many ol 

 the operations are carried out, to try and induce 

 the would-be pruner to tiiink his methods out 

 and know why lie takes each cut. Of course 

 the aim of e\ei-y fruit grower is to grow fruit the 

 best possible quality and the utmost quantity he 

 can of it, and his pruning should be directed witli 

 that aim in view — that is, so to prune the trees 

 that llie\- will g-row the maximum amount of the 

 best possible fruit, i:,n just for the time being-, 

 but for all the life ol the tree. Followed fur- 

 ther, tlii^ means that the pruner should always 

 ha\e ill mind the object of so pruning the tree 

 as to luniish it with the largest amount of fruit- 

 bearing wood so placed as to allow that the 

 fruit shall ha\e the best chance of becoming 

 clear, large and well-coloured. 



Let us consider first the apple. For ordinar}- 

 commercial fruit growing there are three forms 

 of tree for apple growing, though one of these 

 need only be used in exceptional circumstances, 

 the bush, half-standard, and standard, the last 

 named being necessar\- only where cattle are 

 to be allowed to graze in the orchard. The 

 bush is an open centred tree with a stem of 

 about nine inches to a foot in length, budded or 

 grafted on one of the surface-rooting stocks, of 

 which the best is the broad-leaved Eng^lish 

 Paradise. The roots of these stocks are very 

 numerous and of a lihrous nature, as opposed 

 to the larger woody roots of the crab and 

 free stocks, and tend towards the produc- 

 tion of fruit more than wood, consequently 

 bushes on Paradise stock can be planted at a 

 fairly close distance, depending^ to some 

 extent on the xariety, but usually about ten 

 feet apart. 



The half-standard has a stem about forty-two 

 to forty-eight inches long-, should be on the free 

 or else the crab stock, the g-reat advantag-e 

 beings that small fruits — gooseberries and cur- 

 rants — can be grown beneath for many years if 

 the trees are a pretty good distance apart — 

 twenty-four feet apart in the alleys and eighteen 

 feet from tree to tree being a good distance, 

 having regard to the future. 



