March 27, 1866. 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



237 



in the course ; but this I know, that were I again required 

 to grow pot Vines, I should follow the plan here stated. — 

 J. Wbigui, Gardener to the lion. A. L. Melville. 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT FRUIT TREE 

 STOCKS. 



Mk. Robson, I am quite sure, will allow one who has seen 

 more than most people in fruit-tree culture to notice and 

 correct some of his notions. 



The •• knifeman," I trust, belongs to a past age. In former 

 days he was a man who employed a sharp knife and a blunt 

 intellect. With the former he " cut back " trees year after 

 year till they were pollarded stumps, and " whip-grafted " trees 

 qnicldy and dexterously — an operation not requiring much 

 nous. I well remember the old foreman of my grandfather, 

 who was an active man in my youth. He could neither read 

 nor write, yet he was reckoned a good " knifeman," and always 

 boasted of his haTing grafted a thousand Apple trees per diem 

 for many consecutive days, when a "quarter" — (. c, large 

 piece of crab stocks, was operated upon. He had, he said, a 

 tyer and two puggers — lads who clayed the grafts. This must 

 be " sixty years since." The quarter contained 20,000 stocks, 

 and such stocks as are rarely seen. They threw up shoots 

 li'om the graft the first season from 5 to 7 feet in height. 



The budding of the purple Cytisusonthe common Laburnum 

 has never to my knowledge been followed by any stain in the 

 stock iu England. The Purple Laburnum, as is well known, 

 was originated iu France by the live shield or plate of a bud 

 of the purple Cytisus — the bud having died — staining appa- 

 rently the common Laburnum in which it was inserted, and 

 thus producing that odd variable tree, the so-called Purple 

 Laburnum. What an imposing name ! and what a number 

 of guineas it drew out of the pockets of Englishmen ! In the 

 many, many thousands of Purple Beech annually grafted, I 

 have never seen a shoot below the graft, either aUve or dead, 

 stained ; the same with variegated Hollies and other varie- 

 gated trees. The way to bring about this staining, if at aU 

 possible, is to prevent the graft putting forth leaves. This is 

 easUy done by rubbing off the yoimg tender shoots as soon as 

 they appear, so that the graft has a dormant life. The varie- 

 gated Jasmine has a great tendency to stain the stock it is 

 grafted on ; and I think I have seen staining in some other 

 shrub or shrubs, but it is very rare. 



Roses budded on the llanetti Rose stock are not now planted 

 deeply. Rose-growers who are at all worthy of the name bud 

 them so that the junction of the bud with the stock is within 

 2 inches of its roots : consequently deep planting is not re- 

 quired ; 3 inches deep will do. The growth of Roses thus 

 planted here is remarkable. I liave now in sight from my 

 window Rose pyramids, the last year's shoots of wliich are 

 9 feet iu height. If Mr. Robson ever reads " our Journal," 

 he would know "to whom was due the merit of first trying 

 the Manetti stock for the Rose." 



There is nothing new in employing Peach and Almond 

 stockj for the Peach and Nectarine. It was common in France 

 two hundred years ago ; but even there they were used only in 

 the dry hot provinces. They have never been common or 

 popular in England, our climate being too cool and moist. 

 The Peach stock is very unfit even for warmer climates than 

 ours ; for after a few years the disease called " chlorosis." or 

 as the Americans call it, the " yellows," nearly always attacks 

 the trees. Even trees in pots in orchard-houses in England 

 do not escape this fatal malady. I have never seen it attack 

 trees on Almond stocks, and I have recently told some Ameri- 

 can friends they should leave off budding their trees on Peach 

 seedlings, and use Almond stocks. The yellows destroys an- 

 nually thou?ands upon thousands of trees in the United States. 

 3"et I have not heard of the Almond stock being employed to 

 counteract it. I folly believe that in the south of England, in 

 dxy, gravelly, or chalky soils. Peaches on Almond stocks would 

 succeed, when those on Plum stocks invariably fail. The 

 knowledge of such things as fruit-tree stocks seems to be but 

 little thought of by men otherwise well up in horticulture. 

 One day they will think differently when their inner knowledge 

 comes — t. e., when they practise with their hands and their 

 heads. 



With regard to ilr. Robson's remarks on the Pear on Quince 

 stocks, I can most promptly support what he says as to the 

 cornparatively small quantity of fruit borne by a Pear on the 

 Quince stock^and that " there is no instance in which a Pear 



so worked has produced anything like the quantity of fruit it 

 has done when grown on a stock of its own kind ; and iu no case 

 when I have seen it has it approached the majestic growth 

 of the Pear tree when on a stock better suited to its require- 

 ments. I have in no instance seen a Quince tree [I suppose 

 Mr. Robson means a Pear tree grafted on the Quince , yield 

 more than one-fourth of what the Pear will do, and this' is a 

 wide difference." This is all most true. I have seen in Wor- 

 cestershire some most majestic Peai- trees. I remember one 

 most particularly in the vale of Evesham, which one fine day 

 in September seemed a golden tree, so thickly was it studded 

 with fruit, computed at 100 bushels. The Pears were of a 

 brilliant clear yellow, and most beautiful. Now this was really 

 a " majestic tree." On inquiry I found it was called the 

 Cheat-boy Pear, on account of its often enticing strange boys 

 passing along the roads to pluck the fruit growing on trees, as 

 is usual there, in the hedgerows, and then finding their jaws 

 glued together by its powerfid astringency. I have seen other 

 majestic Pear trees ; but with the exception of the Aston Town 

 and Autiunn Bergamot, of which there is a tree here still alive 

 three huncbed years old, I have never tasted a fine Pear from 

 a majestic tree. I think your readers will agree with me, that 

 one or two pecks of Louise Bonne Pears from a well-trained 

 pyramidal tree on the Quince stock, would be of more value 

 for the dessert than a hundi'ed bushels of " Cheat-boys " from 

 a majestic tree, or even twenty or thirt.t bushels of Swan's 

 Eggs, or " Grey BeurrGs," a sort which used to be grown here, 

 large trees often bearing thirty or forty bushels. 



Mr. Robson, under his peculiarly happy circimistances of 

 not being in the mercantile world of gardening, and of course 

 not knowing much of what is taking place iu it, will excuse 

 me for giving him a few words of enlightenment. Such great 

 advantages have been found iu France from using the Quince 

 as a stock for the Pear in gardens — a custom, I may add, two 

 hundred years old — that in the French nurseries for a hundred 

 Pear trees sold grafted on the Pear, there ai-e five thousand 

 trees grafted on the Quince, the demand annually increasing. 

 In this country the custom of gi-afting Pears on the Quince 

 for garden culture has existed not quite so long, and for many 

 years was confined to those skilled in gardening — not professed 

 gardeners, but amateurs. Well, it has gradually spread, tUl 

 the demand for such trees is very large. Taking my calcu- 

 lations from what passes here, I should say that for fifty thou- 

 sand trees on the Quince stock sold annually, there are only 

 five thousand on the Pear stock, and as the cultirre of the 

 former by double-grafting becomes better known, this pro- 

 portion will soon be exceeded. There is, indeed, nothing more 

 charming than a plantation of Pear trees on the Quince stock, 

 either as bushes, pyramids, or cordons. They never faU to 

 bear if their- blossoms are protected. They are always f lUl of 

 blossoms, filling the heart in spring time with that which 

 ought always to come in spring — hope. When I look at my 

 plantation of Louise Bonne Pear trees, some of them twenty- 

 five years old, all standing not quite o feet apart, I am annually 

 struck with the pleasant facility of their culture. They are all 

 on Qiunce stocks, all pyi'amids some 8 feet high, and are all 

 pinched-in during the summer, so as to keep the trees nicely 

 within boimds. There are about two thousand of these trees, 

 and they stand on a slip of gi'ound less than an acre in extent. 

 Now, the question is. How many "majestic trees " I could grow 

 in this space ? Possibly about forty of some such Pears as I 

 have named, worth but little to eat, and less to sell. The forty 

 majesties would, probably, at the end of fifty years bear twenty 

 bushels per tree. The two thousand pyramids on the Quince, 

 after twelve years' growth, bore half a bushel per tree of fine 

 thinned-out fruit, of more than a quadruple the value of the 

 others. No comment is requii'ed. 



With regard to the culture of Apples — by which I mean their 

 careful cultivation in fruit gardens, not rudely growing large 

 quantities on "majestic trees," we have to thank Mr. Robson 

 for his candour. He says, " I have had little experience with 

 the Paradise stock, and have yet to learn any advantages it 

 possesses over the more common crab.'' He has all to learn ; 

 but, then, placed as he is in a climate and soil the best in Eng- 

 land, with a well appointed large garden, with wall trees, espa- 

 liers, and standards, all doing well, and producing more fruit 

 than can be consumed, he has no stimulus to make liim gain 

 experience, to try experiments, or to learn whether one stock 

 is better than another. The Paradise stock has been known 

 upwards of a centm-y, and has been largely used by our oop5; 

 tinental neighbours, who are infinitely our superiors in fruit- 

 tree culture in the open air. It is only within these last twenty^ 



