1 66 



JOUBNAIi OF HORTICDLTUBB AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ Mar<sh 3, 1876. 



G. Alternanthera magnifies. 



7. Lobelia Wliita Perfection. One o£ the best of its class. 



8. Stellaria graminea anrea. 



'J. Cerastinm tomentosnm.— N. Cole, Kensington. 



USEFUL FRUITS. 



DiscDBSiON on useful hardy fruits is always valnable, bnt 

 doubly so, it must ba admitted, when conducted at a season- 

 able period of the year — that is, the period at which the trees 

 may be planted. Yet information on the subject can never 

 come amiss, for it costs nothing in storing, but, on the con- 

 trary, may acquire a greater value by keeping. Information, 

 therefore, whether applicable to the ensuing spring or sub- 

 sequent autumn, cannot fail to meet with general acceptance. 

 At the present moment remarks on this subject are applicable 

 to either season, for fruit trees may be safely and successfully 

 planted now, or the work may be deferred until the autumn. 



Autumn planting is advocated on the ground that the trees 

 will emit fresh roots before winter. It is true they will do so 

 if planted early, say in October or early in November ; but if 

 planted after the middle of November not one tree in a hundred 

 will emit fresh roots until the following March. I have fre- 

 quently taken up and replanted trees when the buds had 

 commenced swelling, and they have flourished quite as well 

 as others which had been planted one to two months earlier. 



In late planting too much importance cannot be attached to 

 keeping the roots moist (they must not be dry for a moment), 

 and then the trees will re-establish themselves quickly. Dry- 

 ing of the roots of fruit trees should at all times be avoided ; 

 but in early-autumn and late-spring planting special care 

 must be taken on this point, even if the syringe must be 

 brought into requisition to counteract the drying effect of the 

 atmosphere. 



I will now refer to the two main questions propounded on 

 page 129 — namely. What form of tree is the most useful ? and 

 what kinds of Apples, Pears, and Plums are the most profit- 

 able ? In approaching this question I not only seek to convey, 

 but hope to elicit, information. I am willing to contribute 

 my mite of experience, but I do so under a profound conviction 

 that I have much to learn. 



When I commenced fruit-growing (on the ordinary scale 

 nsnally practised in gentlemen's gardens) about twenty years 

 ago, I confess to having felt tolerably competent, and I fear I 

 did not entertain the same respect for the opinions of others 

 as I do now. I thought then that I had not much to learn, 

 but I have found since that I have had a great deal to un- 

 learn. Young men, do not hesitate to unlearn if the teachings 

 imparted by others (or your own inborn notions) are unsound. 

 A measure cannot be filled until it has been first emptied. 

 Those of sanguine temperament, holding extreme views, have 

 frequently much to unlearn at some time or other during their 

 lifetime, and I have had twice to unlearn on the matter of 

 fruit trees. 



I was once firm in the conviction that to produce useful 

 fruit in a profitable manner, that Apples and Pears on free 

 stocks and not pruning the trees was the correct mode to 

 adopt, hut the plan exhausted my patience ; and without 

 attempting to adjudge it wrong, I cannot admit that if exclu- 

 sively adopted it is right. It is a plan that should be adopted, 

 but only in conjunction with other modes and with such modi- 

 fications as to pruning which experience has proved to be 

 advisable. 



From that extreme I went to the other, and followed up the 

 "dwarfing" system with all the ardency of a young convert. 

 I would hear of nothing but "Paradise" stocks, "finger and 

 thumb pinching," and " root-pruning." I thus raised trees^ 

 little prodigies — which the natives came to wonder at, admire, 

 and feed my vanity. There they were and there they are — 

 some of them, that have not " gone dead " — pomological dolls, 

 stunted, overworked, crippled, little slaves living (or dying) 

 " fast" lives of forced labour, and not "leaving a good name 

 behind them." 



Labour by the lash cannot be profitable without being cruel, 

 whether applied to trees, beasts, or men ; and as I hate cruelty 

 I have sought for profitable returns of fruit by the rational 

 system of guiding and tending, rather than by the greedy, 

 harsh, practice of whipping and cutting. I have arrived at the 

 conclusion that it is as reasonable to whip and drive a child 

 into manhood — that is, to hasten the growth of bone, and 

 sinew, and intellect by flogging — as it is to attack the sources 

 of hfe of a young tree ; to pinch it above and out it below con- 



tinually, and expect it, to the greatest extent of its nature, 

 becoming profitable. Thus I do not on the one hand believe 

 that a tree should be permitted to grow unprnned and un- 

 tended, or, on the other, that it should bo mutilated by a 

 practice which is falsely termed art. i believe in doing justice 

 to the tree, also to the intelligence of man. His prerogative 

 is to " dreas and to keep," but not to destroy. 



But in consideiing the question of the best form and cha- 

 racter of the tree by way of producing in the fullest manner 

 " useful fruit," we cannot in practice dissociate from the sub- 

 ject the element of " time." Were the matter to be decided 

 regardless of time, then indeed little discussion would be 

 needed ; for it is, and in all probability will be, the well-tended 

 orchard trees which will meet a nation's demand for fruit, or 

 at least those in connection with espaliers, for the latter have 

 in the past proved valuable adjuncts to the former, and espa- 

 liers in the future are unquestionably capable of yielding a 

 maximum supply of fruit under a minimum outlay of ground, 

 space, and labour. 



There is no lack of would-be authorities on fruit culture 

 who dogmatise on the subject as if time were of no moment; 

 but in point of fact and in actual practice it is of the very first 

 importanoff. So important has the element of time been in 

 the past, that it is to its influence more than anything else that 

 useful hardy fruit trees have not been more generally planted. 



It is not often that we flnd the question disputed that fruit 

 trees are profitable, even fully as much or more so than ordi- 

 nary garden and field crops. Most people admit that freely, 

 yet they hesitate to plant on account of the years of waiting 

 which they feel must be endured before their harvest can be 

 reached. It is all very well to remind such of the benefits 

 derived from the works of their ancestors, and to urge as a 

 corollary the duty of the present generation to provide for the 

 wants of posterity. That is all very reasonable ; bnt as a 

 matter of fact those who invest like to do so in a manner of 

 which they can have a reasonable probability of seeing and 

 enjoying the fruits of their enterprise. They have as great 

 right to do this in fruit culture as in any other mode of invest- 

 ment. It is easy to denounce with dogmatic assurance the 

 system of growing fruit by an artificial mode of culture, and 

 employing precocious stocks, but it is only by such stocks and 

 such culture that many, who desire to have fruit in their 

 gardens, can hope to live to see it there produced. 



If I had a garden containing no fruit trees I should (although 

 I am not in the "sere and yellow leaf") most assuredly plant 

 Apples on Paradise and Pears on Quince stocks, not because of 

 the innate superiority of those stocks as being, half a century 

 hence, the most profitable, but simply on the question of time. 

 Time, I urge, is of paramount moment and must be considered 

 in the question of fruit culture. We can no more ignore the 

 advantages of railways or successfully endeavour to prove the 

 superiority of animal locomotion than we can set aside stocks 

 of a quick fruit-producing nature, or successfully adjudge 

 them inferior to the slower-bearing trees. Comparisons indeed 

 between the two modes of locomoiion and two plans of fruit- 

 prodactiou cannot be reasonably instituted by way of proving 

 the superiority of either. They are not antagonistic, but each 

 is allied to the other naturally and profitably. We must adopt 

 both modes ; and if we make the best of them our reward will 

 be greater than by pinning our faith and concentrating our 

 energies on one system alone. 



Both plans of fruit-production are good — dwarf and stan- 

 dard— if they are used and not abused. The dwarfing system 

 has been abused by whipping infantile trees into bearing with 

 as much reason as yoking a two-year-old colt to the plough 

 and flogging him on in the killing work. Orchard trees also 

 have been abused — the abuse of starvation — by sticking them 

 in " under the sod," and leaving them to struggle on with little 

 support and attentive care. Neither of those plans are the 

 most useful or profitable ; but if the trees of both descriptions 

 are rationally treated they will yield such returns as will prove 

 their value, and will silence in the most complete manner 

 those who in the full pride of a pet dogma produce little beyond 

 the usual crop of wild notions. I will, with permission, refer 

 to this subject on a future occasion.- — Amateub Okchardibt. 



KOSES FROM CUTTINGS. 



Notwithstanding Mr. Gamm's undoubted renown as a rosa- 



rian, let me recommend " St. Edmdnd" to try growing Bosea 



from cuttings. I assume he means to force them ; and if so, 



Teas, with which I am best acquainted, will serve him well. 



