September 12 , 18650 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



215 



on to 90°. Thus, if you have a base of 12 feet, and a perpen- 

 dicular or back-wall lino of house also 12 feet, the hypotheuuse 

 line will form with the others a riyht-angleil triuiigle, aud the 

 hypothenuse line will give a roof at 15°. \Vheii you want a 

 steeper roof, for early and late forcing, you must either greatly 

 raise the back wall, or lessen the width of the base line, so as 

 to have a slope of 35^ or so. Now, what is called the French 

 mode just reverses all this. It presupposes calculating from 

 the base line of the quadrant, aud heuco tliough 4")^ would be 

 the same in both cases, :!5" iu this instead <if being steep, 

 would be moderately flat, tho same thing, in fact, as 55" with 

 us. By making a quadrant with a piece of pasteboard, or a 

 board, and having a small weight fi\cd to a string iu the corner, 

 and then applying that to the slopes of roofs, you will at once 

 perceive that according to the sides you use, the reading will 

 be. thus quite different. It would be well if iu this serial, the 

 mode of speaking of the angle of a roof should be made uniform. 

 It is very confusing, because the steep roof <if lilt' with us is by 

 the other mode the steep roof of 00', aud our 10° would be 

 identical with 80°. Some years ago an editorial decision on the 

 subject was requested. 



A roof of 45° is good for general purposes, aud especially 

 vphere there is no front glass. In a greenhouse, where there is 

 front glass, the roof may be as flat, acconUug to our reckoning, 

 as G0°, or even 65°, as a steep roof would necessitate such a 

 height of the back wall above the height of the front glass. A 

 house with a roof of from 35° to 40° is chiefly useful for early 

 forcing, and for keeping fruit in winter. Prom 50° to 00° is a 

 good slope for summer work. As the sun gains altitude its 

 rays do not strike a steep roof with the same force as they do 

 a flatter one. These matters have all been discussed at con- 

 siderable length. If still there should be any doubt about 

 tho angles of roofs we wiU give, or rather repeat, illustrations. 



llr. Beard's houses do not let iu rain, and, what is more 

 remarkable, there is scarcely such a thing as drip from the 

 condensed moisture inside. It had rained the whole day before 

 we saw them. We went without any notice, and we saw not a 

 single mark of drip on the floor. The squares fit closely enough 

 together to prevent rain entering. As far as we recollect, the 

 angle would be from 50° to 55° by our mode of reckoning. 

 Another jjerson has made the inquiry whether such a mode 

 of glazing would do for garden frames. We could not be so 

 sure of that if they were as flat as 80°, but as we saw none we 

 would rather let others speak on that point. The absence 

 from drip from condensed moisture iuside we beUeve to be 

 owing to the [ilane surface and uo interruption of laps. The 

 moisture, both inside and outside, seems to trickle down the 

 glass mitil it ends in the neat spout, the front square abutting 

 right over it. It did not strike us that the glass was grooved 

 at the edges. It is wonderful how true and uniform large 

 boxes of glass are cut. We may be wrong, but our impression 

 is that no extra care was taken with the glass, but it was very 

 neatly joined. 



You will find it difScult to get a cheap work so describing 

 greenhouse plants that you can at once find out and name 

 what you have. Until you are more acquainted with the sub- 

 ject you had better have names with the plants you buy. 

 It would require a first-rate botanist and good references to 

 name a lot of ,Uoes, Cactus, &c. One of the best that we kuow 

 as oral instructors would be Mr. Baxter of the Botanic Gardens, 

 Oxford, as he used to have a fine collection of succulents. All 

 works on plants to be particular must be expensive. Perhaps 

 the cheapest work, for its immense mass of information, is 

 " Loudon's Encyclopiedia of Plants."] 



THE MODERN PEACH-PRUNER.— No. 15. 



CLOSE PRUNING FOR THE OPEN MR. 



Under this term we comprehend both the summer stopping 

 of the shoots and their winter regulation. 



Although the work for the winter depends entirely on the 

 condition of the shoots after their summer growth, it is com- 

 mon to see them comparatively neglected during this import- 

 ant period, consequently, the winter pruning is made to assume 

 an undue pre-eminence, which all modern experience tends to 

 show to be an error. By reiterated close pruning of summer 

 wood the trees assume an appearance which has been termed 

 " cordon," from a resemblance to a thick cord or cable. This 

 term applies to trees in any form. Fan-shaped trees may be 

 called lioii:ontiit cordotm. Those planted closely together and 

 trained at an angle of 45°, are styled ohU<iue or diagonal cor- 



dotui. Trees with any number of upright leaders are verticaZ 

 cordons, while those winding gracefully round vrires, or posts, 

 iiretjiiml cordons. All these are formed by the same mode of 

 close siunmer-stopping of tho shoots. For trees under glass no 

 better or more simple plan can be imagined, and our object ia 

 now to show that there exist uo difficulties in tho way of a 

 similar treatment of trees iu the open air. The advantages of 

 this method are great. In the first place, there is a total sup- 

 pression of the sunnner and winter tying-in of the shoots. 

 This alone coustitutes an appreciable gain, especially dviring a 

 period when we have so many claims on our time. Again, the 

 shoots being closer-lying they require less space between the 

 leading branches, and thus there can be more of these. 



Systematic summer-stopping of the shoots affects the two- 

 year-old wood more than any other style, and tends to produce 

 and maintain, in the case of tho Peach, those valuable fruit- 

 bearing spurs which produce the finest fruit, and last several 

 seasons without much change. In this way we greatly multiply 

 our chances of a good crop, for if one class of shoot is unripe, 

 that is no reason why the shorter and closer-lying class should 

 not be in a riper state. Indeed, close pruners of long practice 

 will not hesitate to consider these short spurs as of first im- 

 portance in the open air. 



In the orchard-house, trees, several seasons old and in good 

 bearing, soon become covered with tliese short fruit-bearers 

 (classed 5 aud 7), no matter what form the tree is trained 

 under. It seems evident that if we can succeed in replacing 

 the old long shoot by a group of several short ones, each fuUy 

 as capable (to say the least), of production, that we have ma- 

 terially augmented our chances of a good crop. The objection 

 usually made, that on these short spurs uo well-developed 

 leaves can be secured, is not sustained by practice. The pro- 

 duction of healthy leaves depends far more on the state of 

 the roots, and if these leaves are kept in a clean and healthy 

 condition, there need be no fear of their not elaborating the 

 sap. That the principle of close summer-pruning is sound is 

 evident from the abundant crops produced, not only of Peaches, 

 but also of every other fruit, even including standard Grapes ; 

 Vines trained iu this way may be seen in the public gardens 

 at Chartres. For Pears, especially in the open air, trained as 

 diagonal cordons, it is admirable. Late sorts are also best 

 ripened in this way. It might be supposed that by repeated 

 summer-stopping of the shoots, and their grouping on short 

 spurs in time some inconvenience might be felt by reason 

 of their protruding too far from tlie waU. But ten seasons of 

 trial have clearly sho%vn me that this is not the case. In the 

 instances where, by neglect or some otber cause, these shoois 

 have really lost the advantage of the wall heat, they have been re- 

 moved and their loss reachly supplied from others better placed. 



At the winter season all ill-placed shoots are thinned out, 

 though it is evidently better not to allow them to grow irregu- 

 larly during the summer. Mistakes or omissions are more easily 

 remedied imder close pruning than under long pruning, while, 

 in certain cases, we are not debarred from utilising any appli- 

 cable part of the older system. Close-pruning, in some shape, 

 has been always known, but it is only within the last few years 

 that it has been reduced to a system. It now includes as its 

 advocates many of the first names in horticidture. " I accepted 

 it with enthusiasm," says one eminent man, whose work, in 

 1803, received the French Imperial sanction, " because it is 

 normal, and in harmony with the laws of vegetation, and of 

 fructification." It would be an error to suppose that there is 

 but one system of close-pruning. That originated by M. Grin 

 is by far the most severe in its rules. It is, perhaps, on account 

 of this, that it has not been generally adopted, and possibly 

 some change is necessary to meet the exigencies of our diti'erent 

 climate. This change is all I have ventured to suggest, for our 

 climate is not understood abroad. 



Partly, also, and for similar reasons, no doubt. Professor 

 Gressent in his very recent work, after passing the highest 

 encomium ujjon M. Grin's theory, which he acknowledges as 

 the foimdation of a totally new school of pruning, recommends 

 a modification of this system, which is very interesting. I, 

 therefore, determined to make a trial of its merits during the 

 present season, on trees in the open air. 



The plan adopted may be stated thus : — The eyes (ripe buds.) 

 of a bearing branch are disbudded as soon as they are about to 

 develope. In each group one (the strongest) is left on the 

 lower side of the branch, and another (the weakest of each 

 gi'oup) on the upper side of the branch. All these are allowed 

 to grow freely, and when they have reached to or 8 inches in 

 length, they are stopped at 5 or 6 inches, according to the sorts 



