March 25, 1869. ) 



JOURNAL OF nORTIODLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



203 



THE CULTURE OF HARDY FEUTT TREES. 



HANDSOME fruit tree, of full size, health, 

 and vigour, is at all times ,in agreeable sight, 

 but perhaps it is never more generally appre- 

 ciated than when its branches are laden witli 

 i'lne fruit, whose bright hues give token of its 

 approaching maturity. To have such trees 

 trained in a form which affords the largest 

 quantity of fruit in a given space, while it 

 encroaches as little as possible upon the ad- 

 joining crops, must ever be the aim of the 

 gardener. This is, doubtless, the object of the many ad- 

 vocates of cordons, miniature fruit gardens, and the like. 

 My impression of many of these modem methods of fruit- 

 culture is that they are pretty toys, which offer an endless 

 source of interest and gratification to the owners of small 

 gardens, and may also prove useful in exteading a correct 

 Imowledge of fruit nomenclature ; but I very much doubt 

 if they oH'er any great advantage to the professional gar- 

 dener, whose aim must ever be to combine, as far as may 

 be practicable, great productiveness with beauty of form. 



Perhaps amongst all the varied forms wliicli fruit trees 

 are caused to assume, none is more justly popular as com- 

 bining most of the above desirable qualities than the pyra- 

 mid. Certainly, no finer sight can be witnessed in hardy 

 fruit culture than a good coUection of well-managed pyra- 

 mids ; but for general utility, although somewhat formal in 

 its appearance, commend me to the espalier form, for in a 

 good espalier we have by far the best exemplification of 

 economy of space and abundance of production. Occupying 

 just the same space as the much-vaunted horizontal cor- 

 dons, its fruit is not counted by a few dozens, but by a few 

 bushels — bushels, too, of fine fruit, that on both sides of 

 the espalier lias been fully exposed to the action of light 

 and air, and which, by a judicious thinning, has acquired 

 its fullest development of form and colour. 



One objection advanced lately in the pages of a con- 

 temporary, by an advocate of horizontal cordons, against 

 the espalier on the Crab stock, was that it, "no matter 

 liow big and ugly was the trellis you put it upon, was 

 always with difficulty kept within bounds, always pushing 

 its vigour to the top branch." That the top branches of 

 the espalier, or tree of any other form, are as a rule the 

 most vigorous, it is impossible to deny, but that this 

 vigour is detrimental to the fruiting properties of the lower 

 branches is most decidedly erroneous, provided the requi- 

 site skOl has been bestowed on their formation, and this is 

 by no means a difficult matter. No tree, whether espalier 

 or pyramid, should be allowed to make much upward 

 growth tUl sufficient vigour has been thrown into its base 

 or lower branches. Why, it appears to me to be just as 

 sensible to say that because a Peach tree on a wall pro- 

 duces a few gross shoots from its central or uppermost 

 branches, therefore its lower branches must become weak 

 and barren, as very likely they might, if such gross shoots 

 were not stopped, and so caused to expend their vigour in 

 the production of three or four moderate-sized fruiting 

 shoots. 



No.417.— VoL.xyi., New SEiirES. 



It is, I believe, a well-established fact that, in order to 

 obtain a healthy fruit tree, its growth should receive as 

 little check as possible in its infancy ; for if a young fruit 

 tree once becomes impoverished and stunted by being 

 planted in a poor or shallow soil, it is a difficult matter to 

 reclaim it. and as it advances in age. so surely is it more 

 susceptible of disease than the tree whose unchecked vigour 

 has ever been sustained by a good soil. 



The treatment of espaliers is too well known to require 

 any detailed statement here ; I shall, therefore, confine my 

 cultural remarks to one or two important points. 



In selecting trees for this purpose it is best to choose 

 what are technically called "maidens" — i.e., plants one 

 year from the graft— such plants ought to have one strong 

 shoot, and a fair quantity of fibrous roots. The planting 

 should be done early in November, the shoot shortened to 

 three or four eyes, and some mulching given to each tree 

 as it is planted. The development of healthy vigorous 

 trees in as short a time as possible is to be aimed at, and, 

 therefore, a deep, rich. loamy soil must bo the best for this 

 purpose. In old gardens in which a generation or two of 

 trees have already existed, the old soO. should be replaced 

 by a good sound loam, such as the top spit of an upland 

 pasture. 



I once had to replant the greater part of an old orchard, 

 most of the trees of which had become so antiquated as to 

 be quite useless for producing fruit, although they were 

 very picturesque, with their enormous boles and partly- 

 decayed limbs laden with huge clusters of Mistletoe. I 

 hardly ever looked at these trees without calling to mind 

 the remark of that "canny" mortal Andrew Fairservioe, 

 when he said of his master in a mingled tone of contempt 

 and pity, "He'll glowr at an auld warld b.irkit aiksnag as 

 if it were a queez-maddam in full bearing." Andrew was 

 evidently of far too practical a turn of mind to perceive 

 any beauty in a tree, except from a money-making-point of 

 view. In preparing the soil for the young trees the sites 

 of their predecessors -were avoided as much as possible. A 

 square hole was formed by taking out the soil a yard in 

 depth and width. This square yard of earth from each 

 hole was carted away, and replaced with three-fourths of 

 its quantity of good sound loam from an adjoining pasture, 

 and one-fourth of ricli manure. In this soO, after it was 

 thoroughly mixed, the young trees were planted, mulched, 

 and staked firmly, and the four or five shoots forming the 

 head of each tree were at once shortened to about three 

 eyes. Concerning the propriety of this last operation there 

 exists a diversity of opinion, some persons maintaining that 

 it is better to wait one year after planting before shorten- 

 ing the head of the tree at all, as they consider it too rude 

 an assault upon the vigour of a young free on its removal 

 to divest it of the greater part of its roots and branches at 

 the same time. Now, in the study of veg(;table physiology, 

 I am taught that the crude sap, after having been digested 

 in tlie leaves, descends quite altered through vessels in the 

 bark, and is then described as cambium. The annual 

 increase of bulk in the tree will be in proportion to the 

 supply of cambium or thickened sap. Therefore, if by 

 i pruning the head of the tree at the time of planting I can 



No. 1009.— Vol. XIJ., Old Seeieb. 



