AiigUBt 27, 187i. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



181 



attempt, because the result does not warrant our saying more, 

 the fruit being small, and no sooner are the roots again in 

 possession of the soil than they depart from the fibrous 

 character given by the lifting, and strike out long in quest of 

 nourishment, soon becoming thick and fibreless. At the same 

 time as the roots extend considerably the head commences 

 to make long shoots, which no amount of stopping will restrain. 

 True, the head may be kept in reasonable bounds by pinching 

 or stopping, but the trees will not form fruit buds ; on the 

 contrary, they will exhibit the desire to grow by putting out an 

 infinity of spray. It is the nature of the tree, albeit the root, 

 to grow in that way, and who can control Nature ? Is it not 

 better with subjects of this kind to allow the branches to 

 extend, suffering no pruning nor disturbance of the balance 

 between the roots and branches beyond what is necessary for 

 the proper disposition of the branches '.' Should we not secure 

 a greater, finer produce, and earlier than if the trees were sub- 

 jected to frequent manipulation of the shoots in summer and 

 of the roots in winter, allowing them to grow not restraiued of 

 necessity, no pruning whatever being practised but what is 

 absolutely necessary to keep the head open for the due ad- 

 mission of light and air, and to secure the form of tree wished ? 

 " WeU, the trees will become standards that may not be grown 

 at less than 21 feet ap.art, giving but seventy-five trees to the 

 acre !" " Think you not that these seventy-five trees, which 

 may yield their twenty bushels per tree, will not afford as 

 good a return as the same kind of trees at half the distance 

 apart, or 12 feet, 302 trees root-pruned and summer-pinched? 

 Yes, that they will, and double, both in quality and quantity." 

 I have seen both Apples and Pears on the " free " stock, 

 dwarfed with a result characterised only by sterility or insig- 

 nificant fruit. 



There are some kinds of Apple and Pear which on the " free " 

 stock are proUfic at an early age ; they yield as fine or finer 

 fruit, and are as manageable as those on the dwarfing stock. 

 But a majority are so free in growth, their tendency so in 

 unison with that of the stock as to be ill-restrained, the very 

 act of restraining them by pruning causing the head to become 

 thick and stunted, just as if the tree had in the first instance 

 been suffered to become a large tree, and then the branches 

 sawn off to what they are, the spray upon them being the 

 result of the removal of the head. No tree on the free stock 

 makes shoots approaching a yard long, without in the next year 

 from almost every eye starting a short stubby shoot crowned 

 by a tuft of leaves, a spur, and in due course a fruit bud. 

 Shorten such a shoot one or two thirds its length, and it will 

 in the following year put out from a majority of the eyes shoots 

 of considerable strength, scarcely any having the short stubby 

 spur type, and not unfrequently the shoots so monopolise the 

 sap that the eyes below them remain dormant. So convinced 

 am I of the injurious eft'ect of severe pruning upon trees on the 

 free stock, and of root-pruning except under special circum- 

 stances, that I feel justified in thus protesting against the 

 practice. 



Without pruning the trees would grow wild ; this I know. 

 The pruning should be of a kind to prevent this, and no more. 

 Encouragement should be given to the spurs, their formation 

 and maturation, and not to growth for no possible purpose but 

 to be cut away, hoping that spurs may result. Vain hope ! 

 The tree is bent upon growth, refases to be restrained ; the 

 more it is cut at the more it will grow. Root-prune it and ob- 

 tain fertility. Faint ray this of fruitfulness. In a year or 

 two the roots will have recovered ; they will fashion the head 

 again after their kind, the growth in a few years being almost 

 as free as ever. Why, what is it that necessitates pruning ? 

 Culture — man making the tree assume a form upon a wall or 

 trellis contrary to its natural habit, training the shoots hori- 

 zontally when the natural habit is to grow upright or oblique;y. 

 This is one reason certainly, and another may be said to be in 

 removing such shoots as interfere with the spurs and fruit by 

 depriving them of light, air, and nutrition. But are there 

 none other? Yes, there is one more, and may be others, one 

 very often lost sight — limiting them to a space altogether in- 

 adequate to that which their growth demands. Do we not 

 often see trees that, whilst growing and covering the space 

 allotted to them, progressing in growth and fruitfulness each 

 succeeding year after establishment, no longer to do so when 

 the elongation of the branches ceases ? The branches become 

 spray instead of clusters of spurs, two or more crops of the spray 

 requiring to be removed in a season. Think you it would be 

 BO were the branches allowed to extend — that barrenness would 

 ensue, root-pruning be necessary, and not rather that this 



extension would result in fruitfulness? One-half the ills of 

 fruit trees are due to our not giving them what their nature 

 requires. It is all very well to dwarf a tree. It takes up less 

 space, enables us to have greater variety, but wo should dis- 

 criminate with what and upon which subjects we act. Free 

 stocks mean large trees. The Crab is a tree, and so is the 

 Pear, also the Cherry. Stunted and dwarfed they may be by 

 frequent destruction of the roots, by cramping them, and by 

 growing in a starving soil, but they will give poor small fruit. 

 It cannot be said that making them bear brings quality and 

 size. Nothing of the kind talies place. At the best they are 

 bad rooters, and in consequence are not equal to the support 

 of a mass of growth suddenly converted into spurs for blossom 

 or fruit. 



Numerous instances might be quoted as coming under my 

 observation of the utter inutility of a systematic persistence 

 in lifting and root-pruning young fruit trees on tho free stock ; 

 but I will content myself by naming two, the one relating to 

 young trees, and the other to aged trees. In the case of young 

 trees I may state that I had for some walls for Pears, which it 

 was desirable to cover as soon as possible, trained trees of 

 large size having a spread of branches of from 12 to 18 feet. 

 They were well-furnished trees, and in a bearing state, and 

 had from frequent removal — every second year, capital roots, 

 and all took well. They gave a sprinkling of fruit the next 

 three seasons, very small the first, a little better the second, 

 and better the third season after planting. They had recovered 

 the last planting, and made shoots characteristic of the roots. 

 The growth was thought to be too free, and lifting being resorted 

 to, opportunity was afforded of noting the runaway nature of 

 the roots, and the absence of fibres near the stem, very few 

 beuag emitted from the thick roots cut in the late removal, a 

 few only being put out from their extremities, and those had 

 become already comparatively thick and long— wonderfully so 

 in so short a time. Growth the following year was poor, eome 

 trees making very small and few leaves, and the blossoming 

 was weak, no flowers setting, or, if any did, they dropped off 

 prematurely. 



These trees were ten to twelve years from the graft, had 

 been lifted every alternate year up to seven, and then in the 

 third. If lifting causes fruitfulness, why did it not do so in 

 this case ? I admit the want of fruitfulness to be counteracted 

 by the lifting ; and though the removal did cause the forma- 

 tion of fruit buds in the season following the lifting, the roots 

 had made such poor progress as to be unable to afford nutri- 

 ment for and bring to a full size the resulting fruit. It could 

 not be due to any other cause than lifting, for trees on the 

 same stock and of the same age bore plenty of fine fruit. I 

 have noted the like result from Apples and Cherries on the free 

 stock— the year after removal the trees are scarcely able to 

 exist ; and notably I may allude to Cherries and some Pears 

 putting out a few leaves, aud after a short time drying up. 

 Last autumn we lifted about two hundred, some on the free 

 stock and others on the dwarf stock. They were in both in- 

 stances large trees, and were lifted because they had been 

 planted too deeply, a not uncommon error in planting. Pro ■ 

 bably they had been planted eight or nine years— not for a less 

 time than the first. The difference in the rooting of the two 

 stocks was very remarkable. Those on the free stocks it was 

 impossible to move with more than a few thick roots without a 

 particle of soil ; those on the dwarf stocks were in every instance 

 moved with balls of earth, and numbers of feeders beautifully 

 fresh and white emanating from the main root-stem at, or a 

 very little below, the surface of the soil. The difference in 

 the growth it is scarcely necessary to note. Those on the free 

 stock are barely alive ; three Pears out of about fifty trained 

 trees and the same number of pyramids have not put out a 

 single leaf, the delinquents being a Beurn:- Giffard and Marie 

 Louise, a Beurrc de Capiaumout being now in full blossorn, 

 not having put out a leaf until after midsummer. All on this 

 stock (free) are no more than alive : they blossomed, or strove 

 to do so, abundantly, but failed. What a different prospect 

 those on the dwarf stock present ! All have made abundant 

 foliage, short stubbv shoots, and are carrying fruit; not so 

 much, perhaps, as would have been the case had they not been 

 Hfted, but enough to show both in foHage and fruit the ad- 

 vantage of rooting and feeding possessed by the dwarf stock 

 over the free, both in the Apple, Pear, and Cherry. 



The best example of the effects of root-pruning a large free 

 stock is a natural one— the Crab itself— blown over by a high 

 wind, the roots being broken off on one side, and on the other 

 partially. This tree the year following had a hard struggle for 



