272 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 3, 1865. 



that I have partaken, with much pleasure and no detriment, of 

 Agaricus procerus, cepajstipes, deliciosus, and uehularis. The 

 last is excellent. The appearance of deliciosus is, no doubt, 

 suspicious. He is a large orange-coloured fellow, turning green 

 ■when bruised. All Fungi should be eaten sparingly, well 

 cooked, and well masticated. I dislike oreades, prunulus, and 

 personatus. The latter is sold at Covent Garden under the 

 name of Blewitts. — G. S. 



THE MODEKX PEACH-PRUNER.— No. l(i. 



CLOSE PEUNIXG FOn THE Ol-EN AIR. 

 I n.iVE now to state the original theory as broached about 

 thirtj- years ago, and carried out up to the present date at 

 Chartres. The system has been applied exclusively to trees 

 in the open air. 



lu the earUer stages of growth it is a recognised principle 

 that the summer stopping of the shoots and their winter 

 regulation should be but small, consisting mainly in merely 

 ]iinching-oft' the point of the growing shoot, and especially in 

 checking the advance of any shoot which has a tendency to 

 become gross. In thi.s w,iy the tree is kept in fair balance. 

 It is thus prepared for the work in hand, to be done only when 

 the tree is about to bear a little. 



M. Grin says that he commences then by untying aU the 

 leathug branches in November. (In our climate good judges 

 prefer October.) A selection of bearing shoots is then made. 

 Those situated at the back of the branch are rigorously sup- 

 pressed by being cut clean out. Forerights, on the other hand, 

 are preserved. These, under this close system, never get too 

 far from the wall's heat, and form au essential part of the bear- 

 ing wood. In England they are too often cut out, which is 

 an erroneous notion altogether. Of the other classes of shoots, 

 those which show the best-formed eyes (ripe buds), and which 

 have the best promise of wood-buds for succession at their 

 base, are carefully chosen to bear the next year's crop. These 

 shoots are then, generally, cut back to two eyes, and if the 

 upper eye be the more developed and the stronger, it is bisected 

 before it attains any length, and is thus arrested for a time. 

 Meanwhile the lower and the more feebly-constituted eye re- 

 ceives all the spring sap, and is prevented from languishing. 

 The wood-shoots which spring from each spur — and here it is 

 important to mark the distinction made on the continent be- 

 tween a spur and a shoot, and also to state that the term " spur " 

 refers mainly to the jiroduct of manipiUation — arc kept as a 

 reserve to be transformed, by close summer pinching to two 

 leaves, into fruit-bearers, as required. On the spurs situated 

 on the upper sides of each leading branch one shoot will 

 suffice to bear the next season's crop, but on the spurs situated 

 on the lower sides of the leading branches it is better to leave 

 two shoots. All these shoots are now cut back to two good 

 eyes. This constitutes the general winter pruning. 



The first summer operations commence in the middle of 

 April, in ordinary seasons ; or, in the beginning of May, in 

 backward years. At this time the number of shoots to be left 

 is finally settled. As they develope themselves their true cha- 

 racter is best seen, and oiu' author has taken care to have au 

 abundant reserve, which is one excellent result of all close 

 pruning — plenty to choose from, but no useless growth. Some 

 of the shoots vary much in character. "Here, for instance," 

 said our author to me, " we have a shoot with only a louquet dc 

 mai (cluster spur. Class 5), .at its base, while all the shoot above 

 this cluster is bare for perhaps 2 inches." We, therefore, 

 prefer to cut down the shoot to this single cluster, and we 

 know how to make it either bear a wood-shoot or friiit. If the 

 f jrmer is decided on, we shall have to bisect all the flower-buds. 

 and then the central wood-bud will extend freely, which it 

 otherwise would not do. (Here we find bisecting recommended 

 instead of the too common plan of disbudding. This is a use- 

 ful hint to orchard-house pruners who desire beauty of arrange- 

 ment.) Should a shoot have two of these clusters at its base, 

 then it may be cut down to them very closely. It then presents 

 an excellent basis for the summer work, for one of these clusters 

 may have its flower-buds bisected to allow the central wood- 

 bud to extend, and the other cluster may be permitted to bear 

 fruit. ' (Besides, it generally occurs, that by this close keeping- 

 iu of these groups the latent-buds at the point of insertion on 

 the parent branch develope during the summer heat, and thus 

 form an excelleutlresei-ve. Let us also remark the dependance 

 placed on shoots of Classes 5 audj 7 for fruit-bearing. This 

 ought, at least, to teach us, that in the orchard-house with our 



climate comparatively at command, these two classes can be 

 safely relied on to bear the general crop. Such, at least, is my 

 own experience, and on my old trees, hardly anything but these 

 classes appear. This is the end and the resiUt of close prun- 

 ing.) If at the base of a spur the buds seem unusually latent, 

 and it is difficidt to develope them after one season, some even 

 asserting it never to happen, then the shoot of the year which 

 springs from that spur is shortened-in to one good gi'oup of 

 triple buds, and at the first May stopping whatever appearance 

 of fruit there may then be is carefully suppressed, and the 

 central wood-bud of this group is allowed to extend. Thus a 

 new shoot is obtained, not so well placed as the others, but 

 still near enough to produce. 



The general run of shoots may be said to be pinched-in to 

 two well-developed leaves. The two or three small leaves 

 which are seen lower down on the shoot, having no buds ia 

 then- axils, do not count. This first piuching-in to two leaves 

 generallj' takes place in May, the time being regulated, however, 

 by the season and the locaUty, and is done as soon as the 

 shoots have made about -1 inches of growth. The second 

 pinching takes place as soon as the second gi'owth, which 

 springs from the axils of the two leaves first operated on, is 

 about 2 inches in length, and is described by writers treating 

 of M. Grin's system, as leaving untouched the first leaf, or 

 even the first pair of leaves when they spring together, of the 

 second growth — that is to say, that the second pinching is to 

 one more leaf. M. Grin, however, repudiates this plan, and 

 expressly states that he has made many trials, and that if even 

 one leaf be left at the second ijinching, the second growth 

 being vertical, and made at the moment of the strongest sum- 

 mer sap, its strength is such that a strong shoot is the result, 

 which prejudices the development and maturity of next year's 

 crop. 



" These severe operations have for object to suspend, for a 

 time at least, the vegetation of the latent eyes, and to hinder 

 their becoming wood-shoots. Thus, dming a certain time, the 

 whole action of tlie sap is directed to the nom-ishment of the 

 eyes at the base of the spur, so as to strengthen them, and to 

 produce cluster spurs in the following season." It is also 

 clear that this very close second pinching leaves little scope 

 for the production of a third growth, also described by the 

 writers in question as requiring a fresh pinching-back to one 

 leaf more. 



Be this as it may, my present object is rather to show how 

 essentially different this, the original theory, was, and has 

 ever continued to be, from the old-established forms of long 

 pruning. It is a little revolution of itself, has attracted much 

 attention, and is gaining groimd daily. Not only in the case 

 of Peach trees, but to other fruits and vegetables is it applic- 

 able. For orchard-houses there can be no system equal to it. 

 Carried out with a due regard to locality and other circum- 

 stances, it must prevail eventually, and supersede all others. 



What has been stated in this article comprehends the latest 

 development of this system, now a generation old, and always 

 advancing without having much to retract. As was said befoi-e, 

 the author desired it to be known at present in this form, and 

 some ten years of personal trial have convinced me that it is 

 sound anil practical. All that I should, therefore, venture to 

 suggest would be a modified form suited to the wants of our 

 climate, which wUl be the subject of my next communication. 

 — T. C. Br.EHAUT, Richmond Bouse, (xucmsctj. 



PEARS WHICH SUCCEED IN THE NORTH OF 

 ENGLAND. 



Ip the experience which I have gained in Pear culture on a 

 very limited scale in the north be of any utility to your corre- 

 spondent it is at his service. My small garden is on the 

 south-west of the town (Darlington), and very dry. I rarely 

 sustain injury from frost, but am exposed to and sufl'er from 

 winds ranging from N.W. to N.E., though I have a wall to the 

 north. My garden is about a mile north of the Tees, and the 

 district, I should say, possesses a good cUmate for its latitude ; 

 indeed, the vale of Tees is both warm and fertile. In 1857 or 

 1858 I saw a bimch of Grapes (Black Hamburgh), weighing 

 2J lbs., cut from a Vine on a flued wall, with no glass or any 

 protection excejit thin canvass. 



I find some Pears, which with me require a wall, do well 

 otherwise at a very short distance from me. For instance : to- 

 day I saw on a wii-e trellis a fine crop of Bemre d'Aremberg, 

 of 'which I never could obtain good fruit from a treUis; it ia 



