Febrasry ao, 1»60. 



JOOKNAL OP HORTIOOLTURB AND OOTTAGB (lARDENER. 



139 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



FEB. 25 -MARCH 8, 1869. 



Meeting of Roynl and ZooIoRionl Socio- 



tties, M.au I'.M. 



it-iyal Ilorticult-urtilSocioty, Prumcuiidu. 



3 SUNDAV IN Lknt. 



MeutiiiR of Eulumolo«icrtl Society, 7 r.M. 

 Koyal Hortioulturrtl Sociuty, Fruit, Floral, 

 Meet, ol Soc. ol Arts, B l-.M. |i titn. Moot. 



Moon 

 RiMeH. 



Moon 

 Selu. 



HI. )l. III. li. 



20af4 'Hate 



82 

 51 



11 11 

 morn. 



59 

 81) 



8 



26 8 



63 8 



22 9 



Moon*8 

 Age. 



l)uys. 

 14 

 O 

 16 

 17 

 18 

 19 

 20 



Clock 



before 



San. 



18 11 



IS 4 



12 D8 



12 -W 



12 81 



12 18 



12 5 



Say 



ot 

 Year. 



56 

 67 

 68 

 69 

 CO 

 61 



From observations taken near Loniion dtiring the last forty-two years, the average day temperature of the week is 48 1 ; and its night 

 temperature 88.1". The greatont lioat was 67 , on the 8ra, 1862 ; and the lowest cold 14', ou the 8rd, 1862. The greatest (all oS raiu waa 

 0.92 inch. 



HOW SHALL WE PRUNE OUR FRUIT TREES? 



r T iH easy to write, but difficult to oxplain. It is 

 easy to say, " Prune your fruit trees," or even 

 to write an elaborate treatise on tlie general 

 principles of pruning. " It is easier to Avrite 

 a book than to write it so as to bo under- 

 stood " — as an old and intelligent friend re- 

 marked to me one day as we stood sorrowfully 

 looking at some Pear trees ruined through the 

 mistaken kindness of an enlightened book- 

 learned root-pruner. Some such thoughts 

 as these have often coursed tlirough my mind on observing 

 the horrid niudhitions that fruit trees are frequently sub- 

 jected to under the name of pruning. Pi-uning ! what is 

 it? We hear of it often enough, truly; some books are 

 full from end to end about it, and yet the subject is about 

 as little understood as anything in gardening. 



Shall we prune our fruit trees? Undoubtedly a little 

 pruning is in most cases indispensable, but how and when 

 is it to be done ? Those skilled in the art may tell us of 

 their practice and the wonderful results arising from it, 

 yet their practice if followed elsewhere ends sometimes in 

 vexation and disappointment. Are there, then, no fixed 

 rules, no royal road, laid down for the uninitiated to follow, 

 enabling them theieby to achieve as grand results ? Theo- 

 retically there are many, practically none. In practice 

 with our fruit trees, we have so many variations of soil, 

 climate, and even stocks to deal with, which all exert 

 considerable influence as regards the fruit-bearing, that 

 to lay down any fixed rule for the pruning and treatment 

 of the trees is impossible. What may be advantageous for 

 one condition, or one district, may in another be found 

 totally impracticable. Nature herself teaches us that much 

 if we would but watch her. In one locality we find the 

 trees of a dwarf stunted character, in another they are 

 rampant and vigorous. In one place we liave light sandy 

 soil and exposed situations, in another deep alluvial loam 

 and comparative slielter. Shall we, then, expect in our 

 cultivation to alter this natural order of things, and by 

 the same practice produce the same results in each situa- 

 tion alike ? Much may be accomplished by skill in mould- 

 ing the one to a similarity of the other. The light soil 

 may be enriched, and the strong loam impoverished, &c , 

 but that can only be done in a very limited way. Unless, 

 however, something of this sort be done, the growth of the 

 trees in the two instances will be very difl'erent, and in 

 order to induce an equal amount of fruitfulness, their treat- 

 ment in respect to pruning will require to be very different 

 also. 



Climate, also, exerts considerable influence in regard to 

 the growth of the tree, in some respects similar to that of 

 the soil, but a damp climate will counteract the efl'ects of 

 a dry soil, assimilating the results to those afforded by a 

 deep rich soil in a dry climate. In damp climates trees 

 grow much more luxuriantly as a rule than in dry ones, 

 and as luxuriance of growth is unfavourable to fruit-bear- 

 iDg, our treatment of the treeS must be modified to suit the 

 altered conditions. 



No. 113.-Vot. XVI., New Series. 



Again, there is the question of the stocliS on which our 

 fruit trees should bo grafted, which is of immense import- 

 ance, as stocks exert the most wonderful infiuences. Nur- 

 serymen are beginning to study this subject, but gardeners 

 and growers of fruit have as yet paid but very little atten- 

 tion to it, although it concerns them the most. Some 

 stocks are fitted for one purpose, some for another ; some 

 succeed best in dry soils, some in wet ones ; some are 

 calculated to grow the trees to a large size, some for pro- 

 ducing dwarf fruitful plants. All require different treat- 

 ment if successful results are desired, yet how often do we 

 see the treatment that is required for the one applied to 

 the other? Who, for instance, could cultivate Apples 

 satisfactorily in the dwaif bush or pyramidal closely- 

 pruned form, similar to those of Mr. Rivers, in a deep 

 alluvial loam if they were grafted on the Crab stock ? It 

 cannot be done. I have seen it attempted, however, and 

 many sucli practices equally absurd, and yet the wonder 

 was at the unsatisfactory results. 



The judicious pruning or non-pruning of our fruit trees 

 is an all-important study — more important by far than 

 training, with which it must not be in the least confounded. 

 Training is the producing of form, an ornamental part of 

 the business, wbicli is at times rather antagonistic to fruit- 

 producing. Pruning, again, whilst it may assist train- 

 ing, is chiefly performed for the sake of the fruit. To 

 prune a fruit tree is very different from pruning any other 

 sort of tree ; the production of fruit is much more difficult 

 than that of timber or of ornamental form. It is easy to 

 grow a tree to any given form or size, but to make that 

 tree bear fruit in good quantity and of good quality requires 

 the exercise of a little more skill and Itnowledge. Hand- 

 somely-formed trees are decidedly more pleasing in appear- 

 ance than irregular ones ; if, however, the one can only be 

 obtained at the expense of the other, then, as fruit trees 

 are cultivated for their fruits, form or style must in a 

 measure give place to that which is most important. A 

 fruit tree laden with ripening fruit is a far prettier object 

 than a prettily-formed tree witliout it. 



To prune is to cut off a portion of the stem or branches 

 of a tree, and the object is to regulate the vegetation ofthe 

 plant. The immediate effect of pruning, or the cutting- 

 off of any portion of a plant, is the encouragement of a 

 greater flow of sap towards the parts which are left. Thus. 

 if a tree is growing vigorously and making strong unfruit- 

 ful shoots, the effect of pruning it back severely is to in- 

 crease vigour, instead of weakening the tree. All winter 

 pruning, or pruning after active vegetation has ceased, 

 results in producing greater vigour : therefore a vigorous 

 healthy-growing tree requires less pruning than a weakly- 

 growing one ; yet the very opposite is the practice fre- 

 quently adopted. 



In fruit culture excessive vigour is undesirable, as such 

 tiees bear but little fruit: this, then, has to be modified, 

 and the weaker ones encouraged, as it is possible for a 

 tree to be too weak and produce too many small fruit as 

 well as to be too vigorous and unfruitfu'. 



Excessive vigour may in some instances be considerably 

 repressed and fruitfulness induced by judicious summer- 

 No. loss.— Vol. XLI., Old Semes. 



