.^'^ ¥'}^ ^ 



JOUBNAIi Q?, WeTItSULTWBE AUD: COTTAGE GAKDENEIR.": 



193 





"■Wii"i"Klir CAUENDAB,,,, 



—a-i baa -e; 



s.-t :;rth,PtS;^ 



Mpntli 



■Dky' 



o( 

 Week. 



Tc 

 W 

 Th 

 F 



s 



Sun 

 M 



MAROH 18— 19, 1866. 



Boaaifeacordifolia. 

 CameUlas. 

 " Cftlf eoLtria s. . 

 Carnations. ■:■:• ^-.r':' 

 CaUistemon pli<£xij^i»n; 

 5 Sunday in Lent. Pbs. Lon.iKA 

 Chorozeiiiavariura. [Born, 1S48 



A-verage ■Temperature 

 near London. 



Day. 

 50.9 

 51.4 

 51.1 

 61.5 

 50.0 

 60.5 

 D1.7 



NiRlrt. 

 34.4 

 a5.3 

 84.S 

 34.0! 



se.9 

 sa.3 



S3.5 



Wean. 

 42.6 

 43.3 

 4-3.7 

 43.0 

 41.4 

 41.9 

 42.6 



R.iin in 



' laat 



J9 yeara. 



Days. 

 14 

 18 

 19 

 13 

 li 

 11 

 13 



Sim- 

 lUaes. 



in. h. 

 alafS 

 19 6 



Son 



Seta.' 



I 



Hoop. 



Kiaas 



m. h. [ m. 



68al6 I 17 

 6 I 51 

 2 6 |,22 



Moon 



Sets. 



m. b. 



4 a 



17 S 



Moon^E 

 Age. 



Days. 

 26 

 27 

 28 



■• " 

 1 



Clock 



before 

 Sun. 



m. a. 

 9 40 

 9 23 

 9 6 

 S 49 

 8 82 

 »• 14 

 7 66 



fifty 



Year. 



72 

 73 

 74 



?i 



-77 



73 



From ol>se^ations taTion near London during the last thirty-nine years, the ayerage d.iy temperature of the week is 51.0^; and its night tem- 

 perature gliO'. The (Ti'eatest heat was 67', on the 15tb, 18i8; and the lowest cold 17", on the 17th, 1846. The greatest fall of rain was 

 0.70 inch. N.B. — The Calendar contains the names of plants flowering in the greenhouse. - 



THE ROOTING OF PEAKS ON QUINCE STOCKS 

 —PARADISE STOCKS. 



:..j^ 



ijVHAVE read your remarks 

 on the rooting of Pears 

 on Quince stor.ks from the 

 junction of tlie graft ivith 

 the stock when it is bm-ied, 

 and am able, after many 

 years of observation of such 

 subjects, to assert that you are perfectly con-eet. 



It is now about twenty- four years since I formed a plant- 

 ation of two thousand Louise Bonne Pears budded on the 

 Quince. Tliey grew and bore well ; but as some of them 

 were planted "before the ground was trenched, when that 

 was done the earth was raised above the junction of the 

 buds with their stocks. This did not seem to affect the 

 gro%vth of the trees for some few seasons ; but after a time, 

 from five to seven years, I observed a marked difference 

 in some of the trees. They made shoots of great vigour, 

 and ceased to bep.r such fine fruit as the others. The few 

 fruit produced were green, small, deformed, and much 

 spotted with large black spots. This induced me to have 

 the earth removed from tlie bases of the trees, and I then 

 discovered that the vigorous-growing trees had made large 

 roots from the graft, and that the Quince roots were rotten 

 and perfectly' eSete. The foUowmg season I observed that 

 these vigorous-growing trees were more or less afi'ected 

 with canker, and the shoots dead or dying from thefr 

 tips to half way down their length. My curiosity was 

 excited as to why this should take place, and I had some 

 of these Pear roots followed with the spade. They were 

 found to have run through the staple — a sandy loam 

 20 inches deep, and to have penetrated the clay to a depth 

 of upwards of 6 feet : tliey had numerous ramifications, 

 but were destitute of fibres, seeming as if they had hard 

 work to do — i. e., a long way to go to pick up inditi'erent 

 food. On examining trees of the same kind, standing in 

 the same row, with the junction of the graft with the stock 

 just clear of the surface of the soil, the Quince roots 

 were found close to the sui-face and very fibrous. I should 

 mention that they were bearing fine crops of very hand- 

 some clear-skinned fruit, were in a veiy healthy state, and 

 so dift'erent from the Pear-rooted trees as to appear a 

 different variety ; yet they wore all Louise Bonne Pears. 

 I immediately had the earth carefully removed from the 

 bases of all the trees, taking up and replanting some that 

 were bimed too deeply, and have had no trouble since. 



I must confess that tliis experience of the ill eft'ects of 

 the deep rooting of fruit trees made me a more strenuous 

 root-pruner and remover than ever, and I have never for- 

 gotten the lesson. 

 In closely observing for some years the Pear trees I 



Ko. 259.— Vol. X., New Seeies. 



/ 



-T 



have alluded to. I was much struck with a curious fact. 

 In spite of all my care, my labourers in digging the groimd 

 would, through carelessness, cover the junction of the 

 gi'afts with earth. In looking over the trees in summer, 

 I was soon made aware of this by seeing some of the trees 

 maldug shoots of great vigour, and on examination the 

 Pear roots were found thrusting themselves into the earth 

 vritli gi-eat determination. The curious fact was, I could 

 never find any fringe of fibres on the gi'ai't, or any small 

 roots. There were in all cases but one or two (the fonner 

 the more frequent), large bare roots, tlie commencement of 

 which I never could see. As far as I remember, I found 

 some of these Pear roots not so far advanced as to have 

 killed the Quince roots : I then had them cut off with 

 a saw, tlie tree staked, and it was restored to its fertile , 

 state. .. •:', ,. . ■ ' ■ 



Some large trees of the Vidar tfWinkfield Pear, now 

 twenty-five years old, and in a healthy state, have rooted 

 from the gi'aft. They have not suffered in health as did 

 the Louise Bonne, but they are very large and unmanage- 

 able. 'Xa f'./Tr.'-f^.r.r" 



Ever since the experience gained as I have related, I 

 have been very careful to keep the junction of the Pear 

 graft with the Quince stock just clear of the siu'face of the 

 soU, and have told my fiieuds to do the same. Your cor- 

 respondent Mr. Scott is, I presume, a young cultivator, 

 and has some experience to gain. 



I must not omit to state what so strongly impressed me 

 at the time — the power of what we should call in animal 

 life instinct : let us call it " vegetable in--;tinct" — the term 

 is not inappropriate. The trees while deri\'ing their sup- 

 port from the Quince roots were confined in tliefr growth ; 

 yet they patiently awaited their opportimity, and as soon 

 as " mother earth " by contact tempted them with a more 

 abundant supply of food, they gladly put foi-tli tliefr natui-al 

 feeding powers — -then- own roots, and took advantage of 

 it. The subject was full of interest. Again and again I 

 turned to my half-reasoning trees, and felt more than ever 

 the womfrous incomprehensible power of Nature. There 

 is something trite and not by any means new in what I 

 have written as to the power of the instincts of plants. 

 The observing cultivator may have them under liis eye 

 daily ; but I never remember to have been more forcibly 

 impressed ^vith what to me seemed vegetable reasoning 

 than the rooting of my Pears from the graft ; they " bided 

 thefr time " so cleverly. 



With regard to the Pommier de ParaJis. not " Pomme 

 Paradis," IMr. Pearson is right, and Mr. Scott, well — 

 decidedly i\Tong. Tliere are many trees and slmibs that 

 brave the severity of a continental printer only because 

 they gi-ow under a powerful sim, and have well-ripened 

 tissue. This is the case in France with the Pommier de 

 Paradis, wliich Mi'. Scott should have seen. There is 

 some confusion in the terms used to designate the Apple 

 stocks called Paradise stocks. I have hitherto in all that 

 I have ^vritten called the Pommier de Paradis the " French 

 Paradise, ' and have warned cultivators against employing 

 it except for pot culture. The English Paradise, still 

 grown by the stock-growers in Surrey, is a very distinct 

 No. 811.— Vol. XXXV., Old Sekies. 



