362 General Notices. 



June, and every shoot on the horizontal hranches, except the leading shoot 

 on each branch, must be pinched off to within three or four buds of its base, 

 the foreright shoot on each branch musi be left to exhaust the tree of its 

 superabundant sap. In Belgium, I observed all ihese foreright shoots on 

 the trees towards the end of August, and 1 was told that they were left to 

 exhaust the tree of its sap, and were not removed till the winter pruning, 

 when they were shortened to within four or five buds. 1 am inclined, how- 

 ever, to think that it would be an improvement to shorten ihem towards the 

 end of August, as the buds would then swell and prepare themselves to 

 form, in the following season, bloom buds. The leading shoot of the t:ee 

 may also then be shortened ; this gives pyramidal trees a dressed and culti- 

 vated appearance, and exposes the fruit \o the full influence of the sun and 

 air. I must say, however, that I prefer root-pruning to pruning of the 

 shoots, and the trees of Monsier Cappe, in the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, 

 confirmed me in this opinion ; these trees ar3 not, strictly speaking, pyra- 

 midal trees; they are rather conical trees, with very broad bases, requiring 

 much more room than pyramids. No trees can be more beautiful as to the 

 equal distribution of their branches, but they are sadly lacking in a tend- 

 ency to fruitfulness. I think I write the truth when I say, that, in this 

 fruitful season, not more than half the trees had fruit upon them, and this 

 after many years of careful cultivation ; and I was informed by a friend 

 living near the spot, that this was the first year they had borne any quan- 

 tity of fiuit. It is indeed a joke among the French gardeners, probably 

 dictated by a little envy, that the trees of M. Cappe are "exceedingly 

 productive — in leaves and shoots!!" 



On the continent, root-pruning is not known or thought of, and if broached, 

 it would probably be excessively ridiculed ; but the trees of M. (^appe, 

 with their over-luxuriance, 1 have no doubt, would be much benefited by it, 

 in spite of the dry soil and climate of Paris. 1 was informed that all his 

 trees were on the pear stock, which will account for their vigorous growth. 



The quenouille, or tying down system, is now quite out of fashion in 

 France, and, in truth, it does look very barbarous and unnatural ; the trees 

 trained in this manner, in the Potagerie, at Versailles, are mostly on quince 

 stocks ; they are from twenty to forty years old, and are very productive, 

 but very ugly ; all the shoots from the horizontal and depressed branches 

 had been cropped off apparently in July, as Monsieur Puteau, the director, 

 is, I believe, adverse to the pinching system of M. Cappe. 1 did not ob- 

 serve a single queuonille in Belgium, all were pyramids, even in the gar- 

 dens of the cottagers, and, in general, these were very beautiful and pro- 

 ductive trees. In many cases, when on the pear stock, they were too luxu- 

 riant, and required root-pruning, but this I could not make the gardeners 

 comprehend. 



If the article in the Gardcncr''s Chronicle, No. 28, 1847, is read atten- 

 tively, it will be seen that M. Cappe is constantly at war with the heads of 

 his trees ; his pinched shoots will often break again and again, and give 

 him much trouble. 1 closely examined some of his trees, of sorts which I 

 knew to be, under ordinary management, shy bearers, and found them, to 



