520 



JODBI^AIi OF HOBXICOLTUBK AND OOXIAQB QABDENEB. 



t December 10, 1874. 



soil induces fruitfulness by staying the growth, we have to 

 guard against the opposite extreme of grossness — rank unripe 

 growth. The ehoot of a Peach, Nectarine, Apricot, or Plum 

 may grow as thick as the little finger, and six or more feet 

 long in a seaeon, and yet be healthy. A shoot may start away 

 strongly, and before it has grown a foot give evidence of gross- 

 ness and ill-health. Such shoot left to mature will have the 

 appearance shown in fit/. 146. At its base, for a foot distance 

 or more, will be formed wood, triple buds, and single fruit 



Fig. 146. 



buds, as shown from a to 6 ; bat after it has grown that extent 

 it will put out laterals, and, if very gross, at every joint, and 

 at a considerable distance apart — often 3 to 4 inches. These 

 laterals are of two kinds. One has buds at its base c, and these 

 buds are as good, so far as growth is concerned, as the buds 

 from a to J, the shoots being cut off at the bar d; but it the 

 shoot or lateral be left it will form, after it has grown C inches 

 or so without a leaf, have along it single wood or fruit buds, 

 or it may put out sub-laterals as at e, becoming as the head of 

 a tree in miniature, yet not small either. A shoot as e is of 

 no use, as it has no eyes at its base, nor have/; and as we 

 have four of those, which may be 4 inches apart, we have 

 1(> inches of branch without means of originating side shoots 

 (except those existing), and bearing wood at a proper distance 

 apart. 



It would be folly to give rise by richness of soil to wood as 

 above described. It is the surest road to the formation of an 

 ugly tree if such growth be not restrained, and, as it will ap- 

 pear sometimes, the best remedy is at once, when the trees 

 are making growth, to cut back to b (Jig. 146), which will re- 

 sult in either a cessation of growth for the season in that part 

 of the tree, the sap being appropriated by the other and weaker 

 parts, or cause a shoot to arise from the wood below b, and 

 this trained-in in the place of that cut away, any other shoots 

 arising on the same branch being cut-in close. The laterals, 

 as before stated, having eyes at their origin to be cut as c, 

 and there is in such a case no necessity to head-back the shoot 

 either in summer or at the winter pruning ; for it is a murder- 

 ous practice to cut back the shoots of the year half that 

 they have grown, and should be practised only to originate 

 shoots for furnishing the tree duly with branches. The wood 

 above described is common to the Peach and Nectarine in a 

 young state and when very vigorous, but is more frequent in 

 trees on walls in a rich open soil and where the climate is 

 cold, and being produced late in the season the wood does not 

 ripen. Under glass it does not so much matter, as the stroug 

 shoots can be shortened with a prospect of the growths result- 

 ing being ripened ; whereas outdoor growths, such as the one 



described, are not so easily subdued, and are best avoided, as 

 they may for the most part be, by using a moderately firm soil, 

 which causes slow feeding, slow growth, and stont short-jointed 

 wood. 



Though extreme richness in soil is bad, a poor soil is equally 

 disastrous. Qum and canker are a consequence in the former 

 when it is sought to restrain growth by the knife ; weakness 

 with dying-off of the branches the result of the latter, with 

 miserably small fruit. A good rich soil is what I prefer to plant 

 in ; and if the trees grow too strongly, making sappy growths 

 which do not ripen, by resorting to lifting it may at any time 

 be restrained. The object of a rich soil at planting is to get 

 the trees to cover as much space as possible in a short time ; 

 for the fruitfulness of all the subjects on the Plum stock after 

 moving, is one of the most marked results of lifting known. 

 The soil can hardly be too rich if it is firm ; and if the trees 

 grow too vigorously, or they are wanted to fruit, lift. It 

 does not matter if the Peaches and Nectarines produce in a 

 season shoots 4 feet long, Apricots those of 5 feet, Plums of 

 6 feet; the Apricots and Plums by lifting will the following 

 year be studded from end to end with fruit-buds, and the 

 Peaches will give short stiff shoots masses of fertility. I do 

 not, however, advise that Peach trees should have so rich a 

 soil as for Plums and Apricots, but if it is rich it must be 

 made firmer than for the others, so as to lessen the tendency 

 to produce laterals. So long as the trees do not produce laterals 

 it does not signify how long and strong the shoots which are to 

 form the branches are. The bearing shoots which are only of 

 annual duration, growing one year and fruiting the next, then 

 giving place to others, require to be stiff and short-jointed, 

 stopping them at the length during growth to which they are 

 usually shortened at the winter pruning. What we want of 

 Peaches is vigorous main branches, with shoots along them for 

 bearing at about a foot apart, but Apricots and Plums we want 

 studded with spurs throughout. 



For the first three years I do not consider we can calculate 

 upon much of a crop from the trees named, they not being 

 furnished with shoots and branches for bearing, but requiring 

 them. We can hardly have them in less time, but we may 

 obtain trees two or three years trained, and in a bearing state, 

 which are very different to young trees, being, perhaps, equal 

 to trees that have been grown three years, but they will not 

 do so well, though they have fruit buds to begin with, for a 

 year will be required to establish them, and very often another 

 to get them into proper order for carrying a crop. Trees in a 

 bearing state are very good if you have them on the spot, and 

 can move them with a mass of soil as well as roots ; but if they 

 have to come from a distance, the tree with plenty of grow- 

 ing wood is infinitely better than one with many fruit buds. 

 They take about as long to establish as it takes to grow a tree 

 one-year trained into a bearing state, and are fit only for burn- 

 ing when they have not been frequently Ufted. — G. Abbei. 



ELECTION OP FEUIT TREES. 



I WRITE briefly to say how valuable I think the proposal made 

 in a late number of your Journal, that the recent interesting 

 and useful election of Boses should be followed up by having 

 elections of other things in the gardening world. Within the 

 last fifteen years I find I have planted upwards of 350 different 

 kinds of Apple, Pear, and Plum trees selected from various 

 catalogues, &o. Alter trial I am now sensible that I have lost 

 much time and planted many useless trees. I have had to 

 prove all these trees for myself, and have had much trouble iu 

 regrafting the inferior kinds. I believe I could comprise in a 

 Ust of forty or fifty every tree among the lot that is worth 

 growing in this locality. Such an election would save many 

 others from making the mistake I did, and from being at the 

 trouble and expense of proving the trees for themselves. For 

 myself I am tired of experimenting with unknown trees. I 

 seldom now ever buy a tree. I graft for myself only those 

 kinds that I have found to be good. The results of such an 

 election would enable me, however, to discover if there were 

 any good bearing kinds both as to quantity and quality which 

 I did not possess. 



In conducting such an election of fruit trees I should think 

 it would be necessary to divide it into two parts ; or rather 

 have two elections, one for the south and middle of England, 

 and one for the north of England and Scotland. It probably 

 would be necessary also to take votes as to wall trees and stan- 

 dard trees, and as to dessert and kitchen fruits respectively. 



Then such elections might be afterwards carried out as to 



