September 11, 1878. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



201 



dye them, spread on paper to dry in the shade, and then press 

 again. Thus treated, they will last for years. Maidenhair, 

 the most graceful of our Ferns, soon loses its colour: but 

 dyed, it is an addition to every collection of Grasses or Ferns. 



Parsley Fern is very beautiful ; its soft, feathery leaves are 

 always sought after. These, if gathered late in the autumn, 

 win retain their colour much better. The Male Fern, with its 

 stiff stems, if well pressed, looks beautiful. We mingle it with 

 the many-coloured leaves of autumn, or we pin it to the wall 

 paper, around pictures, or over lace or muslin curtains, and its 

 effects are charming. 



The branches of the Sumach, gathered soon after the frost 

 has appeared , or even before, press perfectly, and keep their 

 colours finely. If varnished with map varnish they never fade. 

 Branches of this tree interspersed with the Ferns are very 

 ornamental. We have made exceedingly pretty crosses from 

 its leaves, sewing each one separately over the other on a 

 pasteboard cross. Anchors and stars can also be made of its 

 lance-shaped leaves. Thus suspended over engravings or 

 curtains, they are very ornamental, and are easily dusted — an 

 essential in the eyes of a good housewife. 



Bunches of dyed Mosses are to be purchased of all seedsmen 

 in the cities ; we dwellers in villages cannot avail ourselves of 

 them if we would ; but we can make them even prettier than 

 those exposed for sale. Gather the Mosses, pick out all the 

 debris, cleanse from dirt, and dry in the sun ; then dip into 

 Judson's dye, spread on papers to dry by fire or sunlight 

 We gathered last year a very finely-fibred Moss, dyed it a lovely 

 green, and saved some of the original colour to mingle its 

 brown hues with it. Then we took the " hoops " from an old 

 skirt, tied them together, and on the circlet tied wreaths, 

 vhicli city friends said " surpassed those displayed at the 

 shops." — {Farmer.) 



REPOTTING ORCHARD-HOUSE TREES. 

 I OBSERVE that Mr. Douglas, who is a most successful cul- 

 tivator, says (page 180) that he repots as soon as the fruit is 

 off. I wish he would state how far he disturbs the roots in 

 repotting. Where a larger shift is required, the earlier a plant 

 is shifted the better ; but most of your readers will understand 

 repotting to mean the operation as described in Rivers's book, 

 which, if carried out to the extent recommended by him, would 

 probably injure the plant permanently, if not kill it. Such 

 mntilation of roots and removal of soil seem safe only when 

 the plants are preparing for rest. Of course, much may be 

 done by syringing and shading. — G. S. 



PYRAMID AND BUSH FRUIT TREES. 

 The Apple, Pear, Plum, and Cherry alike, in these forms in 

 the past two seasons as well as the present year, have not 

 come np to the expectations which I, and no doubt others, 

 had formed in consequence of former years' experience. Lately 

 it cannot be said that they have been prolific in anything but 

 wood. Those trees which I have seen have made more wood 

 in the last three sea.sons than I have before noticed in double 

 the time. Even with summer pruning or pinching it has been 

 hard work to keep the strong growths in check. No sooner 

 are the shoots stopped than they start again with redoubled 

 Tigonr. Reports which we have from various parts tell no 

 better tale. Nature, as it seems, in the matter of fruit trees is 

 given np to growth, and when wo look at this state of things 

 how can we expect it to bo otherwise ? Let us go back a 

 little. Were not 1868, 18(J9, and 1870, hot dry seasons, the 

 climax being reached in 1870, when the crop of fruit was re- 

 markable, especially in the case of trees grown in the forms 

 now under notice? The whole tendency of those seasons was 

 to induce fniitfulness; and did we not allow the trees to bear 

 80 fully and so well in 1870, that the effects are not yet effaced 

 from them in 1873 ? I particularly noticed in 1870 that the 

 trees had little beyond fruit-bearing shoots or spurs, and had 

 so few spurs to develope into fruit-buds another year as to give 

 but faint hopes of continued fruitfulness. The spurs, from 

 the heat and drj-ness of former seasons, had become fruit-buds, 

 and the result was their extinction on blossoming. A tree 

 which bears a heavy crop one year gives but a small one or 

 none at all the next. It is considered due to the heavy crop, 

 but I am inclined to think it is rather the consequence of the 

 majority of the spurs in the previous year forming fruit-buds. 

 Were we to thin the fruit we should have it finer, but after wo 

 have allowed the blossom to expand, and the fniit to set, what 



good is the thinning as regards next year's fruiting ? It may 

 at first thought appear to be of but small utility. The tree 

 has no spurs, or but few, to mature as fruit-buds ; but the fact 

 is that in every spur froui which we remove the fruit we set 

 free the means of forming spurs which, if they do not turn into 

 fruit-buds the season in which they are called into existence, 

 they will not if fruit be allowed to be borne thereon, and 

 these in the next or some future season will produce blossom 

 and fruit. By allowing a tree to bear as much as it will we cut 

 off its means of forming spurs not only for the next but also 

 future years' bearing, but by judicious and continued thinning^ 

 of the fruit, never allowing the tree to overbear itself, we pro- 

 vide for a number of spurs being formed in each season, and it 

 is on those we have to depend for the fruitfulness of the tree 

 from year to year. 



The past two springs have not been favourable to the blos- 

 soming and setting of fruit trees, but though this in itself is 

 sufticient to account for the indifferent out-door fruit crops, 

 it is, nevertheless, not so easy to explain that whilst our 

 bush and pyramid trees are unfruitful, the standard trees ar& 

 bearing good crops. This appUes, however, to standards of 

 some age. How is it that the more aged of the standard trees 

 are bearing, whilst those that are young are on a par with the 

 pyramids and bushes, not having borne fruit in the two last 

 seasons ? I conclude, therefore, that these years have been 

 exceptional ; they have been seasons conducive to growth, and 

 when such occur our prospect of fruit is not great, for no 

 matter how often and well we may pinch or stop, the trees 

 seem bent on growth, and summer pruning will not check it, 

 and induce the formation of fnut-buds ; or if they do form, they 

 are not well developed, so that the blossoms do not set. It is 

 known that with strong wood, though the trees may produce 

 blossoms, these do not set, or drop off at an early stage. All 

 kinds of reasons are given for the trees not bearing, but I find 

 that when Nature smiles we have fruit abundantly, when she 

 frowns man's art is useless to stay her ways. 



It has been contended that working on dwarf stocks also 

 dwarfs the graft or scion, and conduces to early fruitfulness. 

 In some instances we have abundant evidence that trees on 

 dwarf stocks are prolific of fruit at an early stage or age ; but 

 whether we use a free or a dwarfing stock, the effect is to give 

 to the trees a prolificacy, which in some kinds soon ceases, 

 whilst in others it is permanent. Every tree placed on a 

 foreign stock is temporarily more prolific, and because wo have 

 fruit at an early age we are apt to attribute the result to tho 

 working on a dwarfing stock. This, however, coupled with the 

 frequent transplanting to which young fruit trees are subjected, 

 though it contributes to early fruiting, is not permanent in 

 some, and, I may safely say, a majority of kinds. They soon 

 overcome the influence of the stock and the early transplant- 

 ings, and are given up to growth or to fruitfulness just as 

 Nature dictates. 



I have made these observations apart from root-pruning or 

 biennial or triennial lifting. I believe the fertility of the trees 

 to be dependent more on that than on any influence of the 

 stock on the graft. Boot-pruning or lifting tends to check 

 growth and to age the tree, and so does grafting or budding, 

 but the effect in either case is, as I have observed, but tem- 

 porary ; yet as we cannot always be grafting, if we mean our 

 trees to continue bearing we must have recourse to root- 

 pruning and lifting if we wish to keep them fruitful and of 

 a reasonable size. After all, then, there is not much dif- 

 ference between trees on a free and those on a dwarf stock, 

 the ultimate result is in what we make the trees by the culture 

 pursued. Root-prune or lift a standard tree every alternato 

 year, and we find it fruits as well and as regularly as the same 

 kinds on a dwarfing stock, as a bush or pyramid. Take Lord 

 Suflic'ld Apple as an example. It bears early and regularly 

 whether it is on the dwarf stock in tlio pyramid or bush form, 

 or on the free stock as a standard. On either it is prolific — 

 a regular bearer. It needs no Ufting nor root-pruning on 

 either stock or in either form. But this is a solitary instance. 

 Cox's Pomona, Hawthornden, and others could bo named in 

 proof of the early and constant fruiting not being due to the 

 influence of the stock. It is the nature of the variety. Another 

 example, but to the contrary, may bo found in tho Blenheim 

 Orange or Pippin. What is the good of tho dwarf stock to if? 

 The tree will not bear on it unless the roots are hacked every 

 second or third autumn, but grow it does, and it refuses to 

 fruit until it has a head quite as large as the standard on the 

 free stock. Summer-pruning does not mend matters. It is 

 the nature of the subject to attain some goodly proportions ere 



