June 8, 1675. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



425 



THINNING FLOWERS AND FRUITS. 



T reducing the nnmljer of fruits? borne by a 

 plant to a reasonable limit we thereby gain 

 size and quality ; but although this is be- 

 lieved and acted on to a certain extent by 

 all fruit-growers of any pretensions, it is too 

 often deferred so long as to make it of little 

 or no use. If it is once admitted that thin- 

 ning is beneficial it would certainly be more 

 consistent with reason to thin as early as pos- 

 sible. Rose-growers and Chrysanthemum- 

 growers for exhibition need no spurriag-up to make them 

 thin their flowers betimes ; they know full well that if 

 they want fine specimen flowers they must thin early, so 

 that the good things which Mother Earth supplies for 

 nourishment may not be too much subdivided. If this 

 is the case with flowers, the greater part of which are 

 abortive, how much more must it be so with the flowers 

 of fruits, which must of necessity be fertilised before 

 they can swell. 



Now, I have a very strong impression that this act of 

 fertilisation is the hardest work a fruit tree has to do. 

 It generally takes place before the tree has perfect root 

 and leaf action, and often during the most unfavourable 

 weather. An abundant bloom on fruit trees is an event 

 I have a particular dislike for, it so very often produces 

 barren results. Every flower must have a certain amount 

 of supply from the plant to insure its fertilisation, and 

 the supply w-e know is limited. A large tree might be 

 able to perfect with ease a thousand flowers — an addition 

 of an extra five hundred would be too much of a strain 

 on it. Well, then, supposing instead of a thousand there 

 are many thousands, perhaps millions, there must be a 

 tremendous struggle going on for the mastery — not a 

 civil war, but a sort of all-round fight, and the result is 

 frequently the utter annihilation of all the combatants. 



Thinning the flowers before expansion would have pre- 

 vented this ; it cannot be done with large trees, btit there 

 is no difficulty about small tree?, such as are usually 

 grown in gardens, and it is these small garden trees 

 which fall oftener than the more natural-grown orchard 

 trees do, and for this reason — they are pinched time after 

 time during the summer and induced to make fruit buds 

 where, if left to themselves, wood buds only would be 

 produced, and the consequence is a superabundance of 

 fruit buds. 



I have nothing particular to say against this system of 

 producing miniature fruit trees ; they are very handsome 

 and very interesting, but if carried to the extreme the 

 form of the tree and the beauty of the flower is often all 

 one has for the trouble. To have fruit we must be pre- 

 pared to saciifice a little of the beauty of the flowers 

 either by pulling them off singly before thej- expand, or, 

 what is better, by pruning the fruit spurs in autumn, as 

 soon as growth is finished, to a reasonable number. 



With regard to stone fruits, I have proved over and 

 over again the utter fallacy of deferring the final thin- 

 ning till after stoning, and I am pleased to see that Mr. 



No. 710.— Vol. XXVIII., New Seeies. 



Douglas at every favourable opportunity advances views 

 on this subject in harmony with my own. Thin imme- 

 diately swelling commences, leaving a few extra fruits in 

 case some should be deformed from the flowers having 

 been injured. Do not leave the fruits till they grow to the 

 size of marbles and then say you will try this system, 

 it will be too late then. When practicable thin partially 

 before the flowers expand ; half the number of flowers 

 are so placed that they will be of no use if they set, and 

 it must be folly to leave these at least to the detriment 

 of those which are well placed. 



One of the evils of overcropping is that it prevents leaf 

 growth. Tou may see a Peach tree or a Vine indoors 

 receiving the best of attention in every other respect, but is 

 too heavily cropped, the growth of which at certain times 

 when there is a little extra strain on the plant — say at 

 the time of flowering or stoning — is completely at a stand- 

 still. When this is the case it ought to be taken as a 

 warning that the work the plant has to do is too much 

 for it. Without continual healthy leaf action you cannot 

 have fruit either large or of good quality. Probably the 

 cause of fruit falling at the stoning period is owing to 

 this stagnation of growth of foliage produced by over- 

 cropping. Certain it is that moderately cropped trees, if 

 healthy, do not drop their fruit. 



Thinning ought not to stop at stone fruits. Nothing 

 pays for thinning better thai the Pear; and let those who 

 will sing the praises of late Peaches, they are welcome 

 to sing about them and eat them too, as long as I can 

 lay hold of a Doyenne du Cornice or a Beurre Superfin 

 Pear. — WrLLiAJi Taylok. 



CUT-BACK ROSES. 

 I THINK Mr. Reynolds Hole, one of the greatest autho- 

 rities on all Rose matters, has laid down a dictum in his 

 book on Roses that to grow blooms fit for exhibition they 

 must be grown from the bud on the Briar. In other 

 words, only maiden Briar blooms are fit for exhibition. 

 Now I think this axiom has been over and over again 

 proved to be false, and I should like to ventilate in your 

 columns this question — Is not a cut-back plant either a 

 Manetti or a Briar Rose equal to the maiden blooms of 

 the Briar if cultivated with the same care ? My own 

 opinion is most decidedly yes, and I can produce most 

 excellent evidence that this opinion is by no means a 

 rash one. I will ask any of your readers who saw them 

 to recall to their minds the Roses which Mr. Baker of 

 Heavitree showed at the Crystal Palace, Hereford, and 

 Exeter in the year 1871. At Exeter he showed forty- 

 eight Roses in the open class for a .£10 cup, and beat 

 Mr. Keynes of Salisbury. Now he was here showing 

 entirely from cut-back Manetti Roses, while Mr. Keynes 

 were all maiden blooms. At the Crystal Palace, and at 

 Hereford, he was first in every amateur class, as also in 

 the open class for twelve blooms of the same Rose. He 

 had not that year a maiden plant in his possession. This 

 year he will almost entirely be showing from cut- 

 back Manettis, and I prophesy that he will show such 



No. 1S9;— Vol LIII., OLn Series. 



