Marei 23, 1377. ] 



JOOKNAL OP HORTICULTUEB AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



207 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



PRUNING AND TRAINING PLUM TREES. 



iKh?\^^'OUR au.ssver to a con-espondent concerning 

 *>t a Plum tree reminds me that we do not 

 often see tliis fruit well managed on walls 

 where there is anything like system iu 

 training ; but, on the other hand, where a 

 .' tree is allowed to grow in a half-wild state 

 ^ by a cottage we may see fruit of medium 

 quality produced year after year in abun- 

 dance. Why is this '? and is there no way 

 •^ of producing fruit except by following the 



cottagers' system ? 



The cottage undoubtedly has some natural advantages ; 

 its walls are warmer. A wall of any building, even if 

 unheated, must always be warmer in winter and spring 

 than a single garden wall, from the fact of its having a 

 body of comparatively dry air behind it. The cottage in 

 addition often has a projecting roof, and this, especially 

 if thatched, is almost a perfect protector. Then, again, 

 bullfinches do not trouble cottage walls seriously, because 

 the buds would not be left undisturbed for any length of 

 time ; while here and in many other places they often 

 take every unprotected fruit bud. This is part of the 

 reason why the half-wild tree against a cottage wall 

 produces the most abundant crops ; but the other and 

 most important part is that the mode of bearing of the 

 Plum is not sufficiently taken into account when pruning 

 and training are being performed, it being in this respect 

 altogether different from the Peach or Cherry, both of which 

 can be kept in perfect order without allowing the growth 

 to project any further from the wall than the fruit does. 

 But if you would have Plums in abundance you must 

 have spurs on the trees to bear them. True, you may 

 have a few fruits on the best-matured parts of the one- 

 year-old wood, though not often what could be called a 

 crop ; but well-grown and matured one-year-old wood, if 

 nailed-in to the wall and treated liberally, will seldom 

 fail to produce abundance of fruit spurs for the following 

 season. Spurs will of course increase iu length every 

 season ; for to keep them fruitful they must generally be 

 pruned to a wood bud, and they become offensive to the 

 eye of the " neat " gardener, who unmercifully slashes 

 them off without making any provision for a succession. 

 He then wonders why his trees do not bear, and finally 

 blames soil, situation, or anything except himself. 



Now, most employers like neatness, but all like fruit, 

 and the taste for the former carried to the extreme will 

 often cause the latter to be a blank. Fortunately there 

 is a happy medium which will please Loth the eye and 

 the palate. Spurs and branches whicli have become 

 unsightly may always with perfect impunity be cut off 

 in August or September when there arc other branches 

 and spurs to replace them, so long as too much is not 

 done in one season ; the wounds will tlien heal before 

 the tree ceases growth — an all-important point in fruit- 

 tree culture when severe amputations have to be made. 



But to begin with young trees as received fi'om the 

 unrsei-y. Whatever question there may be about train- 

 No. 834.-VOI.. XXXII., New Semes. 



ing other kinds of trees there is none, in my mind, about 

 the Plum, no other mode will bear comparison with fan 

 training. Trees as received from the nursery have from 

 six to twelve shoots, which should be trained in equal 

 numbers and at corresponding angles to form main 

 branches on each side of the tree. This is the general 

 practice, and it is a good one ; but another general prac- 

 tice is to shorten these shoots back pretty hard, and this 

 is not so good. If the points are soft and sappy they 

 should be cut back to the ripe wood, and then the whole 

 of them regulated as to length, leaving when possible 

 the lowest branches the longest, as they have a disad- 

 vantage when competing with others more or less verti- 

 cally disposed. 



A little disbudding will be necessary the first season or 

 two. Growths will be produced on the sidu next the 

 wall, which should always be carefully picked off, as well 

 as others which are inconveniently placed ; but an endea- 

 vour should be made to keep the wood covered fairly 

 with foliage, and to attain this end growths may be often 

 pinched back and kept as spurs when there is no room. 

 to treat them otherwise. Young growths must be laid-in 

 every season, and some of the weakest and worst of the 

 older shoots cut out as soon as the wall becomes fairly 

 covered, when spurs and fruit buds wil5 follow as a matter 

 of course. 



Our trees after they are pruned in autumn receive a 

 dressing of limewash, with which is mixed a good quan- 

 tity of soot while it is being slaked. Bullfinches do not 

 mind the lime alone when they are used to it; but they 

 are not partial to soot. — William Taylor. 



SEDUM SPEOTABILE. 



Now that hardy border flowers are receiving more 

 attention than formerly, I am glad to find the above 

 valuable plant is not overlooked. Mr. Record could not 

 have directed attention to a plant more worthy of increase 

 and cultivation, nor have detailed his mode of culture at 

 a more seasonable time. I am not aware that any better 

 mode of propagation can be advanced than that described 

 by Mr. Record on page 198; therefore in these supple- 

 mentary notes I will confine my remarks to the after- 

 cultivation of the plant, and its adaptability to yaiioas 

 modes of decoration. 



If a Chrysanthemum is planted in a border and left 

 undisturbed year after year it will naturally produce a 

 multiplicity of growths and pi'oportionally small flowers ; 

 whereas if the growths are thinned the flowers are fewer 

 and finer ; and better still, if the more robust shoots are 

 struck and grown throughout the season in rich soil mag- 

 nificent exhibition blooms are the result. In that case 

 the power of good cultivation is forcibly exemplified ; but 

 equally striking — even more so — is the improvement 

 resulting from intelligent and generous cultivation when 

 applied to this Sedum. Plants wliich are established in 

 borders are now pushing a largo number of succulei.t 

 pale gi'een shoots : these if suffered to remain will pro- 

 duce puny heads of flowers of 1 to 2 inches in diameter; 



No. 1496.— Vol. LVII., Old SiBIBS. 



