374 Notes and Refections during a Tour : — 



stems should be trained in that way for a few years at first, other- 

 wise the stem and roots could not acquire strength in due 

 proportion to the head, the consequences of which were that 

 the trees were frequently blown over or to one side, or be- 

 came crooked. We certainly have seen this effect in some 

 orchards in England, but nurserymen could not afford to lose 

 a year in producing saleable trees, in order to avoid this evil, 

 unless they were paid a liigher price by the purchaser than 

 they are at present. For clay and loamy soils, trees to be 

 trained in the pyramidal form should be grafted on dwarfing 

 stocks ; for sandy and poor soils, on free stocks. M. Fremont 

 does not consider this mode of training fruit trees favourable 

 for producing fruit, except when they are on dwarfing stocks, 

 and for a few years while they are young. We were rather 

 surprised to hear this opinion, having formed a contrary one 

 from the row of trees in the Horticultural Society's garden 

 (Vol. IV. p. 168.) ; but what we saw and heard subsequently, 

 both in France and Germany, has convinced us that, how- 

 ever favourable this mode of training standard pear trees may 

 be for the crop of vegetables grown below or around them, 

 and for producing straight timber, it is a very bad method, if 

 not the very worst, for the production of fruit. Let any one 

 who doubts this observe such trees in the gardens about Paris, 

 and in the Royal Gardens at Stuttgard, Carlsruhe, and at other 

 places in Germany. No mode of training a standard tree is 

 worth any thing, that requires the continual use of the knife. 

 Leaving the tree to take its natural form is the only means of 

 insuring abundance of blossom ; all that art has to do, care 

 being previously taken that the roots cannot get down into 

 bad soil, is to thin out crossing shoots. The fruitfulness of 

 orchards, and indeed of wall trees and garden dwarfs, climate 

 being equal, depends much more on the nature of the soil 

 than on the mode of pruning. In budding here and in other 

 gardens about Rouen, worsted threads are used instead of 

 ribands of bass, and the advantage, we were told, is, that the 

 worsted expands as the bud swells. 



M. Fremont has about the same quantity of ground as 

 M. Prevost, but, being in three separate places, it is not so 

 well laid out, and does not produce the same effect: it was, 

 however, in very good order. He has a promising young son, 

 whose education, we fear, will not be what the present day 

 requires, unless he be sent to Paris or London. 



The Trianon Nursery, Mr. Calvert from London, is limited 

 to the culture of roses, georginas, and green-house plants. It 

 contains about 10 acres, and includes the mansion and part of 

 the grounds of an ancient domain forfeited to tiie state at the 



