86 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
FALLACIES IN FRUIT CULTURE. 
Mares paper read by Mr. Shirley Hibberd at the Society of Arts on 
fA RAG) Wednesday, February 9th, on the “Cultivation of Hardy Fruits,” was 
comprehensive in its scope, but was mainly directed to the reconsidera- 
tion of certain points wherein the cultivator, in Mr. Hibberd’s opinion, 
puts himself into conflict with Nature, very much to his own disad- 
vantage. He began by saying, that during the past twenty-five years he had care- 
fully tried and compared all the best known modes of fruit-tree management, and 
had but slowly, and in some cases at considerable cost, arrived at the conclusions 
he proposed to set before his hearers. It was a constant source of complaint that 
the home produce of fruit was insufficient to meet the wants of the people; but it 
rarely occurred to the so-called “ practical” pomologists that the rules of action 
they prescribed, which were very clearly and definitely set forth in the books, were 
directly opposed to the object in view, so that fruit culture might be described as a 
system of preventing fruit trees bearing fruits. On such a subject so much might 
be said that he must endeavour hastily to direct attention to those matters which he 
considered of greatest importance, and especially those which had become estab- 
lished as subjects for erroneous teaching, tending of course to injurious practice. 
To go to the root of the matter, let us look at the roots of a fruit tree. The 
cultivator who tollows orthodox teaching will give the preference to starving stocks, 
a starving soil, and a starving method of management. His object will be to pro- 
duce the smallest tree possible, and should it, in spite of the starving management, 
exhibit some degree of vigour, he will take it up and chop off the roots to throw it 
back into its former state of starvation. There has for years past been a run on 
what are called “ dwarfing stocks,’ which, being deficient of vigour, starve the 
trees that are gratted on them, and the consequence is that the} trees have become 
toys, and when one of them produces a dozen apples or pears, it is talked of as a 
prodigy of fertility. It is not enough, however, to starve the tree below ground 
by a ridiculous restriction of root action, but it is starved above ground by a simi- 
larly ridiculous restriction of leaf action, for the cultivator is encouraged to pinch 
back the young shoots at least three times during the summer, and if, in spite of 
this tormenting treatment, the tree should make a few good shoots, they are cut 
hard back at the winter pruning. Consider, said Mr. Hibberd, the case of a tree so 
treated. Its whole energies are devoted to the repair of its losses above and below 
ground, Every time it is cut or pinched back it makes a fresh effort to produce 
useful wood, and in this business is arrested by the hand of the cultivator, who pro- 
fesses to desire fruit, but labours might and main to render fruit impossible. It is 
quite true that trees so treated do produce fruit, but it is long in coming, it comes in 
handfuls where it should come in bushels, and it costs in labour, and land, and time 
fifty times its value in the market. It should be remembered that the oak is a fruit 
tree, and its acorns have a money value. But nobody searches after a dwarfing 
stock for the ouk, nobody proposes to root-prune the oak, nobody above the status 
of a lunatic practises pruning and pinching with a view to augment the production 
of acorns, Then why strive and torment apple, pear, and plum trees, the fruits of 
which are so much more valuable, when by leaving them alone they are certain to 
bear sooner and more abundantly, and last the longer, and from first to last present 
the beautiful appearance that every tree has when the soil and climate suit it, and 
it suffers no mutilation at the hands of man ? Every tree, no matter what its kind, 
tends naturally to beauty and productiveness. An Oak tree produces acorns, a 
beech tree beech-nuts, an apple tree apples, and man can do but little to hasten 
or augment production beyond selecting the best sorts and planting in the best soil ; 
and when soil and climate are known to be unfavourable, it will be prudent at the 
outset to consider whether it will pay to plant the tree at all. 
It will be observed that many kinds of fruit trees grow with great vigour when 
young, and throw up clouds of long rods that perplex the amateur. Now it is par- 
ticularly worthy of observation that those long rods have required the sunshine of a 
summer to produce them, but they are now prepared to progress towards fruit 
bearing, and if left alone will become studded with fruit spurs, and ultimately 
clothed with fruit. By cutting away these long rods you waste the sunshine of a 
