June 5, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



447 



seen the French market gardener at work watering will at once 

 see then- suitability. In the French gardens the water is almost 

 always in open tanks ; and it will be at once seen how easily 

 a man can take two of these cans, dip them in the water and 

 fill them ; and when he arrires at the bed which he wishes to 

 ■water he manages, without ever putting them on the ground, 

 by a dexterous shift of the hand, to put them in the proper 

 position for watering — in fact, he rarely ever stands them on 

 the ground all the time he is using them. — D., Deal. 



PYEAMIDAL FRUIT TREES. 



The following remarks are intended primarily to meet the 

 case of a correspondent, " S. B.," who inquires what he is to 

 do with the young shoots of pyramidal Pear, Plum, and Cherry 

 trees that now vary from 3 to 12 inches in length, how much 

 of such shoots should be cut off, and how to regulate them 

 for the season ? He also asks for some remarks as to the 

 general managament of such trees, so as to obtain the greatest 

 amount of good fruit, consistent with healthy, in opposition to 

 rampant growth. 



Perhaps from my own practice I should have been able to 

 advise better if I knew the size and age of the trees, and the 

 state of growth as respects luxuriance, and what may be termed 

 mere stunted yet healthy growth. Let it be laid down as a 

 general principle that the extreme of luxuriance and the ex- 

 treme of fertility will never unite in the same fruit tree, at 

 least for a continuance. Over-free growth and over-production 

 of frtiit or seed will ever act in opposition to each other. 



There are a few fine "Wych Elm trees that I see daily, with 

 fine heads rai-ely to be equalled, and many have admii-ed them 

 lately, as every twig ig densely clothed with bunches of the 

 bladder-winged seed vessels. So much is this the case that 

 many of these twig branchlets have no growing point at the 

 end of them. To me it is a matter of regret to look on this 

 excessive fertility. It speaks as plainly as any words can do 

 ' that the trees are declining in sti-ength and vigour, and that if 

 means be not taken to increase vigour of growth, this ex- 

 cessive fertility, as an effort of nature to continue the race, 

 ■will at last end in the weakness of growth and the death of 

 the trees. 



We have seen fruit trees not so old that pined away from 

 excessive fertility, merely because the growing principle had 

 been too much crippled to insure excessive fruit-bearing. It 

 is easy thus to carry any mode of treatment to an extreme. 

 In our moist climate the arresting of free growth, so as to get 

 the wood well ripened, will not he so likely to be carried to 

 an extreme as the encouraging of free growth, which is the 

 surest means of preventing early and atandant fruitf iilness. 



One great advantage of the dwarf pyramidal and bush sys- 

 tem of growing fruit trees is, that if properly managed, the 

 fruit-yield is early and continuous ; and a second great advan- 

 tage is, that if the trees are not more than 6 or 7 feet in height 

 the fruit can be easily gathered, and a great many trees can be 

 collected in a small space, thus forming an orchard of small 

 trees easily protected. With planting near the surface and 

 summer-pinching to arrest free growth, instead of planting a 

 Pear tree to yield fruit to sons and grandsons, the shoots of 

 the tree, if moderately ripened, may be made to yield fruit in 

 the second year-, and by such planting and nipping, and root- 

 pruning when there is a tendency to over-luxuriance, a single 

 shoot or stem from a root may, for the space it occupies, be as 

 fruitful in proportion to its size, nay, much more so, than a 

 large orchard tree that only attains in general the extreme of 

 fertility in fruit-bearing when, like the Elm trees referred to, 

 it shows signs of age and decay. 



In the case of young pyramidal trees and bush fruit trees I 

 should incline to let the shoots grow longer without stop- 

 ping, in order that the head might be formed more quickly, 

 though by that practice I should have less fruit for a year or 

 two, even if the luxuriance of growth had to be diminished by 

 lifting and replanting at the end of October, or root-pruning 

 at the same time. Any of these operations, however, will not 

 be required more than once, or never require doing at all if 

 free growth is arrested by shallow planting, early stopping of 

 the shoots, and enough of strength given by surface-mulching 

 to encourage the roots to keep near the surface. If you -wish 

 a Pear tree to be extremely fruitful, let the roots be at no 

 great distance from the surface. If you wish to have a splen- 

 did Oak tree as to size, see that the roots can get do^wn as they 

 like in good soil. 

 The mere pruning, then, of these pyramidal trees of " S. B." 



in summer is only a part of the system that will insure success. 

 It does much to encourage fertility by the curbing of extra 

 luxuriance, and with planting shallow and on raised hillocks, 

 with surface-mulching, nothing more will be required. In all 

 such eases, however, we disapprove of " cutting off " the points 

 of the shoots in summer. It is better in every way merely to 

 nip out the point of the shoot — the growmg axis, as it were, 

 with the thumb and finger or the point of a small Imife. This 

 effectually checks mere elongation of growth, and yet gives no 

 great check to the system of the plant. When the shoots 

 grow so long as to requue to be shortened by the knife, the 

 relative action between roots and branches is for a time ar- 

 rested, but the roots ha^ving obtained vigour from the free 

 growth above, that vigour will spend itself in swelUng and 

 bursting the buds on the shortened shoot into useless spi;ay. 

 If such shoots had the points nipped out early, a few of the 

 buds near the point might push, but the bulk of buds behind 

 would remain stationary, and with plenty of sun and air the 

 lower buds would be formed into fruit buds in autumn. Sup- 

 posing, then, that these trees of " S. E." are fuUy half their 

 allotted size or more, I would allow the leaders to grow 

 18 inches without stopping. If the trees were about their full 

 size, I would stop at 6 inches by nipping out the points. AU 

 the other shoots 12 inches long I would stop at ouce. Those 

 side shoots requii^ed to form the tree I would stop at from 

 12 to 1.5 inches in length. Those now 3 inches long I would 

 stop when they were 6 inches long, merely nipping out the 

 point of the shoot. If stopped shorter, and there is fair- 

 vigour of growth in the tree, the buds on the shoots lower 

 down are apt to burst into useless spray, because such shoots 

 rarely ripen well enough to be useful. The object of stopping 

 is to arrest growth gently and give the lower buds the chance 

 not to start, but to swell and ripen into fruit buds. With 

 shoots thus stopped at from G to 9 inches in length I have 

 often had the lower half densely set with flower buds. 



After such stopping of the shoots, the greater the vigour of 

 the tree and the earlier the stopping is done, the more likely 

 wOl some of the buds near the point of the shoot be to burst 

 and grow. Let them do so ; their growth wiU secure the buds 

 farther back from starting. When these spray shoots are 3 or 

 4 inches long nip out the points again, and do it again if neces- 

 sary. It is, as already stated, better to nip out the points than 

 to cut ; there is thus little stoppage given to root action. 

 Never mind if the points of some of the first stopped shoots 

 should have a head in autumn hke a diminutive httle shi-ub ; 

 all that wiU be removed in the early autumn and ■winter prun- 

 ing, when you can cut back to a growing bud. 



I satisfied myself years ago that wonders could be done with 

 small trees in the way of fruitfuhiess by this early and con- 

 tinuous stopping of young shoots. Last year was not a good 

 Apple year, but on a small bush tree from 3 J to 4 feet in height 

 some people said there were nearly as many Apples as there 

 were leaves, though the leaves >vere large and healthy. If the 

 trees threaten to get higher than you desire you can easily 

 encourage a shoot a foot or 18 inches farther down, and then 

 remove a piece of the old head. 



For profit and pleasure I feel quite sure these dwarf fruitful 

 trees will supersede oiu- old orchard trees. If I were com- 

 mencing fruit-growing I should wish nothing better than a piece 

 of ground of good quality, well trenched, and vrith dwarf pyra- 

 mid or bush trees in lines 15 feet apart, and 10 to 12 feet apart 

 in the rows, and allowed to grow 6 to 7 feet in heijht, so as to 

 be easily netted. I would not depend on early stopping alone, 

 but would also depend on shallow planting on mounds, and 

 keeping up necessary vigour and surface-rooting by annual 

 rieh surface-mulching. This is of more importance than mix- 

 ing manure ■with the soil, which does so much to encourage 

 free vigorous growth. Many would be surprised to know the 

 quantity of manure our commercial fruit-tree growers give to 

 then- quarters of young fruit trees. They must have fine plants 

 to command a sale. When early and free fruiting after plant- 

 ing is concerned, the manure should chiefly be applied at the 

 surface. Of course, when a tree is requu'ed to fill a large space 

 as soon as possible, the treatment must be different. — B. F. 



A CENTURY OF ORCHIDS FOR AMATEUR 

 GROWERS.— No. 10. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM. 



This has been quite a pet genus amongst Orchid-cultivators 

 for some few years past ; the ease with which the species may be 

 grown, together ■with the httle expense necessary to maintam a 



